The Gospel According to Mathhew - The Cross and the Kingdom [July 5, 2026]

So let's welcome Lindsay Johnson. She comes up

to speak with us today Thank you Jenn and yes,

I can corroborate Gregg was not exaggerating Israel

is very very very hot Among other things it's

wonderful. It is really good to be with you guys

I've known Greg since I started grad school and

I have to tell you one thing as an outsider He

loves this church very, very much. That is something

that I have known about him since the moment

I met him. He loves this city and he loves this

church and so I can vouch for that as someone

who is an outsider and it is a gift for me to

be here to be able to bless him so he can get

a little bit of a break and be with you and it

actually worked out really well for me because

my husband is from Geneseo and we actually came

in yesterday and spent time at a family farm

and we were some of the enthusiasts but we would

do not live in a town area, so it was spread

out and not over people's homes. But it was really

nice to come in yesterday and be just around

family and get to know this community a little

bit better. So thank you for having me. But on

a pivot, I don't know if you noticed this, but

I noticed this a lot. Our world exists in a lot

of opposites. There's the basic ones that we

see. There's day and night, push and pull, there's

work and rest. Those are all kind of things that

we just know exist. Even things, a lot of things

that function in the tension between the two.

So an airplane, for example, needs both gravity

and lift to fly. Without gravity, the plane is

just going to yeet people into outer space. And

without lift, it is just a very expensive, very

uncomfortable car ride to wherever you're going.

Your heart needs to both expand and contract

in order to pump blood. If it's only doing one

of - of those things, things are not going well

for you. Get to the hospital. One of the favorites

of mine that makes me giggle is riding in a car.

Because you are both inside and outside. You

are both sitting still and moving very fast.

I just think that that's ironic. And we have

a cat. We call her meowsers. And if you know

any house cats, they need a hand that pets them

and a nemesis that haunts them. They exist in

opposites. And the Bible really isn't any different.

The Bible is full of these tensions and these

opposites, justice. and mercy. This morning we

prayed for rest, yet James talks about work.

There's goodness and there's evil. There's judgment.

and forgiveness, and those things all seem to

work in partnership with each other, but as we

walk through Matthew today, we're actually gonna

see how Jesus highlighted some of those oppositions

and used it to flip our expectations of what

the kingdom of heaven is really like, flip our

expectations of the kingdom of God completely

upside down, and he does it on purpose. So you've

been walking through Matthew as a church for

the past several months, and I love that. And

today we're actually gonna see how Matthew continues

to use his unique perspective to talk about Jesus'

pre -resurrection life. We're gonna talk about

the recounting details that point us to Jesus

as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.

Hopefully you've seen that as you've walked through

that. Jesus as the... new Moses, Jesus as God

with us, Jesus as a king from the line of David,

but something else Matthew also does, all throughout

this gospel and especially here, is uses Jesus'

words, Jesus' life to show how he opposed power

in the world, how far Jesus went to subvert expectations,

and truly show us that the kingdom of God actually

looks like and what God is doing in the midst

of it all. So we're gonna actually capture that

in one moment today and see how this flip of

expectations is really intentional in the life

of Jesus. So who's in? Okay, awesome. Thank you,

Cindy. One percent, great. Y 'all are coming

along anyway, whether you're here for it or not.

All right, let's... Let's pray first. All right,

God, we are grateful that we have these stories.

We are grateful that we have the life of Jesus

to point us to you, to point us to what is really

happening in the world and what you are really

doing in the world. And so I pray that these

words would be from you and not from my own thoughts.

and whatever is my own thoughts would fall away,

and you would just lay on the hearts of this

whole community the truth that you want them

to experience today. In Jesus' name, amen. All

right, so I'm gonna quickly recap for those that

I'm sure none of you have missed any Sundays

in the book of Matthew, so good job, excellent,

but just in case, just in case, I'm gonna catch

us up where we are in the book, because we're

at kind of an important moment. So Matthew's

strategy, like I said, throughout this book is

to just show Jesus as the fulfillment of the

Old Testament promises. So he's a new Moses,

he's a king from the line of David, he is God

with us. And he uses different stories to point

out what the kingdom, that the kingdom of God

is actually not what people expected it. He's

actually a suffering servant king, and he shared

a message of love and forgiveness to those on

the margins. And so those on the margins, so

Jesus has been accepted by some of the people

in Israel. Mostly it's those people on the margins,

the people he healed, the people he blessed,

those people that found freedom and hope in his

message. But Jesus also clashed with just about

anyone in power. If you've been paying attention

to this book so far, he flipped tables, condemned

religious leaders, he paraded into Jerusalem

as a king, he healed those even death had seemingly

defeated, contended with nature in waves and

storms. The peacemaking Jesus really knew how

to ruffle. feathers. He was not afraid of conflict.

But most recently, he's been betrayed. He's been

arrested. He was brought before the religious

leaders and brought before the government ones.

He's been condemned to be crucified as both a

false prophet and a political rebel. And that

is how we got here to the end of chapter 27.

And so today's verses, we're gonna be in Matthew

Matthew 27:27–54

chapter 27, verses 27 to 54. And so what are

we gonna see? this section I talked about points

of opposition things that exist in opposites

and so we're gonna see opposition contending

with each other and it's gonna highlight what

really actually matters in the kingdom of God

when I taught when Greg sent me this topic he

said it's cross versus kingdom and I said what

do you mean he's like what do you mean and so

I got to just play with this idea. And what I

really saw was it is the cross versus the kingdom.

It is the cross of Jesus versus the kingdoms

of this world, the cross of the empire versus

the kingdom of heaven. We have reached a cosmic

showdown. Insert showcase showdown music, WWE

voiceovers for all of those millennials that

watch too many reruns in their grandma's basement.

This is for you. All right, so the upside down

gospel of Jesus is actually gonna be on full

display here. Jesus is gonna make a final stand

against anything and all things that are worshiped

and hold power in the name of redemption and

restoration of all things. So we're gonna see

power versus Jesus' hope and restoration. So

let's dive in. I'll give you a second to grab

your Bibles. If you brought one, feel free to

open up. We're at Matthew chapter 27, verse 27.

Matthew 27:27

Or you can follow along on your Bible app, on

your phone, and I promise I will assume that

you're in your Bible and not waiting for Taylor

and Travis's photos to get dropped. Or you can

just listen along, because I'll read it for you,

too. All right, so verse 27. Then the governor's

soldiers took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered

the whole company of soldiers around him. They

stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and

then twisted together a crown of thorns and set

it on his head. They put a staff in his right

hand. This is King symbolism. Then they knelt

in front of him and mocked him. Hail Jesus, King

of the Jews, they said. They spit on him, and

they took the staff and struck him on the head

again and again. After they had mocked him, they

took off the robe and put his own clothes on

him. Then they led him away to crucify him. Verse

32, as they were going out, they met a man from

Cyrene named Simon, and they forced him to carry

the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha,

which means the place of the skull. There they

offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall,

but after tasting it, he refused to drink it.

When they had crucified him, they divided up

his clothes by casting lots, and sitting down,

they kept watch over him there. Verse 37, above

his head, they placed the written charge against

him. This is Jesus, King of the Jews. So the

first contention we are confronted with, that

first seemingly opposite thing, is king versus

kingdom. So Jesus has just been brought before

the powers of his day the governor of Judea Pontius

Pilate and Pilate was actually given the authority

to represent Rome in the occupied province of

Judea and Pilate's job was to serve as the chief

judge and carry out all Roman legal authority

Now Jesus is an ethnic Jew, and so he lives in

this occupied territory. He does not have the

rights of a Roman citizen, nor the protections

that come with it, but he is actually subject

to Rome under Pilate. So to Jesus the man, Pilate

is the kingdom. might as well be the kingdom.

He does not get another chance in front of the

emperor like a citizen would. This is it. To

Jesus the man, Pilate is the kingdom. But if

you remember, it was Israel that was supposed

to be set apart as a kingdom. They were first

a kingdom of priests, and then when they failed

and they asked for a real king, God gave them

David, a man mostly after God's own heart. And

David established a hilltop city, brought the

Ark of the Covenant into the city so the presence

of God would be with the people in their kingdom,

blessed by God. And God promised a king that

would be in the line, reign forever from the

light of David. And yet somehow, despite God's

promises and God's presence, David failed. Israel

failed, and then in exile and afterwards, they

lost the entire narrative, they lost the vision

that God had given them as a kingdom. And so

instead, they grappled for power and influence

within the ruling empire. They lost their way

as a covenant kingdom of God that was supposed

to bless the nations. And in the mind of the

religious leaders of Jesus' day, the king from

the line of David was going to come and overthrow

the ruling power and dominate through might and

strength and give them the power and privilege

that they believed was their birthright. All

of that, despite the fact that Isaiah called

the promised king a suffering servant and the

prince of peace. They lost. their vision along

the way. And then the soldiers actually give

us the most incredible example of dramatic irony

as they attempt to humiliate and mock Jesus.

They are attempting to mock Jesus. They dress

him up with a crown and a sash and even a sign

that calls him a king, all while missing the

reality that the king of the universe was kneeling

in submission before them. The king is standing

up to the kingdom and they genuinely have no

idea. They completely missed it. And yet Jesus

is showing the world what it truly means to be

a king, to give away power instead of hoard it,

to sacrifice for the sake of others, to choose

humility over domination. Jesus as king is over

defiance to the powers and the ways of Israel

and Rome So king versus kingdom Jesus is confronting

that but we've got more than that Jesus is also

gonna face off a bunch more things Let's find

out what's next and keep going. We are jumping

back in in verse 38 Verse 38 two rebels were

crucified with him one on his right and one on

his left Those who passed by hurled insults at

him, shaking their heads and saying, you who

are going to destroy the temple and build it

in three days, save yourself. Come down from

the cross if you are the son of God. In the same

way, the chief priests, the teachers of the law,

and the elders mocked him. Verse 42, he saved

others, they said, but he can't save himself.

He's the king of Israel. Let him come down now

from the cross and we will believe in him. He

trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants

him, for he said, I am the son of God. In the

same way, the rebels who were crucified with

him also heaped insults on him. From noon until

three in the afternoon, darkness came over the

land. About three in the afternoon, Jesus cried

out in a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lemme sebektani,

which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken

me? When some of those standing there heard this,

they said, he's calling Elijah. Immediately,

one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it

with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered

it to Jesus to drink. Verse 49, the rest said,

now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes

to save him. All right, so I will admit, in this

whole section of scripture, there is a lot here,

but for today's purposes, the primary image I

want you to see is that we get that of the prophet

and the contention of the prophet versus power.

Alright, so to give you a little context the

prophets of the Old Testament used poetry and

imagery and storytelling to rebuke sin to call

people to repentance and point people towards

the justice of God They are called to remind

Israel of their covenant with God And they used

everyday analogies and items to talk about things

that had cosmic implications. And their job was

to serve as the mouthpiece of God to the people.

They were the confronters of power gone awry

in their time. Prophets like Nathan rebuked King

David for his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah.

Isaiah rebuked a sinful nation. Jeremiah rebuked

Jerusalem for idolatry. Even John the Baptist

rebuked the religious leaders of his day. Ezekiel

and Micaiah put on spoken parables. Jeremiah

put on performance art to point to the truths

of God's kingdom, all calling towards and pointing

towards the mercy and justice of God. Moses freed

a captive people. Elijah and Elisha performed

miracles mostly to care for those on the margins.

And now, if that doesn't sound like Jesus' ministry,

I'm not sure what does. Jesus rebuked religious

leaders for false and empty worship. He healed

the sick and the hurting. He forgave and restored

those society had cast aside and used story after

story to show people what the kingdom of heaven

was really like. As God here on earth, he served

as a mouthpiece, closely tethered and connected

to the Father to return Israel to its rightful

place, as a light on a hill to point the world

back to God. He contended with earthly power

to remind them of the covenant promise. And if

you remember from Matthew 5, you were there a

while ago, Jesus said he didn't just come to

remind them of the covenant, he came to fulfill

it. And again, we see attempts of shame and humiliation

thrown at Jesus, mocking, again, what they were

too blind to see. They throw his words back at

him about rebuilding the temple in three days.

If they would have just shut their mouths and

hung on a minute, maybe they would have gotten

what he was talking about. They challenge him

to perform miracles on himself as if he had something

to prove, and they even claim he's calling on

a more powerful prophet, the prophet Elijah,

for help. The religious leaders wanted the firstborn

killing rebel prophet that Moses had been before

Pharaoh, rather than the suffering servant truth

teller that nearly every prophet these religious

leaders had studied actually was. But instead

of raging and doing what he truly had the power

to do, he acted as the shepherd prophet promised

in Deuteronomy that knew Moses and put his flock

before himself. He even quotes his shepherd king

ancestor David when he says, my God, why have

you forsaken me? That is a direct quote from

Psalm 22. Lamentation is a very prophet -like

thing to do. And in this moment Jesus is showing

what it truly means to be a prophet. A prophet

that is encountering power. To be so connected

to God that you would do whatever it takes to

save the people you are called to shepherd. That

the truth of God is both merciful and just and

the ultimate goal of the kingdom is that the

world will be restored. It's not about power

and privilege because you have access to God's

voice. It's about trusting that the call of that

voice is greater and more powerful than any one

moment in time. And so we've seen king versus

kingdom. We've seen prophet versus power. But

wait, there's more. We're gonna keep going. All

right, so let's keep going, verse 50. Just a

couple of verses here verse 50 and when Jesus

had cried out again in a loud voice He gave up

his spirit verse 51 at that moment the curtain

of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom

We have reached the climax of our story This

is the moment when Jesus crucifixion is complete

He cried out and he gave up his spirit the king

of the Jews has been killed And what happens

next continues to confront the powers of the

world face -to -face. Because in the moment where

he surrendered his spirit, the curtain in the

temple is torn from top to bottom. That does

not sound like a very big deal, but I promise

you it really, really is. The forever priest

prophesied by both David and Zechariah is now

giving us the priest versus the priesthood. Again,

a little context, the priesthood in Israel is

an established role. It is actually a role that

we have a lot of information about from the Old

Testament, and it's designed to be an intercessor

between the people and God. The role of the priest

in the temple was to come before God on behalf

of the people. So the prophet was the mouthpiece

of God to the people. The priest is the intercessor

for the people before God. And so their job is

to make sacrifices and atonements on behalf of

the people and allow the people to come into

God's presence. Their job is to help the people

who, because of their sin, have been separated

from God come near the presence once again. Petitioning

God for forgiveness is the role of the priest.

But the priesthood of Jesus' day has become a

vacuum of power and control. It's a list of rules

to follow, a list of reasons to be cast aside,

a ruling class of very judgy leaders obsessed

with clinging to their influence and status.

They were a select few set apart for privilege

instead of a pathway to the inclusive and radical

love of God. The priesthood of Jesus' day had

succumbed to the captivating allure of political

and social power. And Jesus has actually also

just been in front of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was

there. He's the one who sent Jesus to go in front

of Pilate. Jesus has just been in front of Caiaphas,

who's the high priest of Israel. Caiaphas' high

priest would have been the only one with true

access to the presence of God in the temple and

the Holy of Holies. One day a year, the job of

the high priest was to make atonement for Israel

and he would access the space behind that temple

curtain, behind the Holy of Holies, the place

where the presence of God dwelled in between

the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. Caiaphas'

most important job is to come into the presence

of God. That is Caiaphas' job on behalf of the

people. And he even asks during Jesus' trial,

he says, are you the anointed one? Basically,

he's asking like, is this your job? Because I'm

pretty sure it's mine. There's a reason that

the Pharisees got really mad when Jesus would

forgive people of their sins when he healed them,

because that was their job. It was their job

to ask God for forgiveness. Who did this guy

think he was? Except if Caiaphas had been paying

attention, I wonder if he would have recognized

the presence of God that stood before him. How

could he have had unique access to God's presence

in the past and missed it when it stood before

him in the body of a man? He missed it. And now

they knew the Messiah would serve as eternal

high priest. They knew this was coming. David

called him a priest forever in Psalm 12. Zechariah

called him a priest on his throne. Isaiah describes

a royal priest offering his own body as a sacrifice.

Jesus is fulfilling every one of these prophecies

that these leaders would have studied and he's

fulfilling them in this moment in front of them

and he's claiming the eternal priesthood as his

own. And what happens when it is finished? The

curtain in the temple tears into, it splits from

top to bottom. It opens up and makes a way for

everyone, not just the high priest, but for all

people to access the very presence of God. The

holy of holies is opened up, offered to us through

the sacrifice, the presence, and the anointing

of the high priest, Jesus. The curtain has torn

in two. The holy of holies is open to everyone.

Amen. All right, we've got one last power to

contend with. I told you there's a lot here.

I did my best to make it so we weren't here until

dinner. All right, so we've got one last power

to contend with. So, you guys still with me?

All right, awesome. Thank you. Whoever's over

here that's very excited, I appreciate that.

All right, so verse 51, where we left off. The

earth shook, the rocks split, and the tombs broke

open. The bodies of many holy people who had

died were raised to life. They came out of the

tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into

the holy city and appeared to many people. All

right, so the earth shakes. People come out of

their graves. Jesus is taking on the final thing

to show us the holistic nature of his rule. It

is creator versus creation. Jesus is taking on

creation itself. Earlier in the reading, I kind

of skimmed over this, but earlier in the reading

it got dark in the middle of the day. Now the

earth is shaking and even death holds no power

over Jesus in the face of Jesus. even the earth

and death have no power. John 1 tells us that

Jesus was there in the beginning when the dark

chaotic nothingness was given order and beauty,

when humanity was created in the image of God

to bless and to rule and live in the presence

of God. And yet when that was broken, the earth

and everything in it began to feel the weight

of the grief of the fall. And so when Jesus comes

and makes atonement for all things, even creation

submits to the power of Jesus. Creation feels

the weight of the death of Jesus uniquely. Death

surrenders to the might and the power of God.

The people of God came out of their tombs. Even

creation bows before this prophet, priest, king.

And so many missed what was happening. I'm so

glad we have the hindsight to get to look at

this story. These people let their blindness,

their grappling for power, their fear of losing

control, their need to rule get in the way of

seeing what was happening in their very midst.

But I love it in scripture when every once in

a while there's one person who's able to see

what's really going on. Usually there's just

one and that's okay because sometimes we just

need one So let's meet let's meet this one. All

right verse 54 the last verse We're gonna be

in today verse 54 when the centurion and those

with him were guarding Jesus Saw the earthquake

and all that had happened. They were terrified

and exclaimed Surely he was the son of God Surely

he was the son of God So we've got a centurion,

a Roman soldier who had no insight to the prophecies

that came before, had no investment in these

people that call themselves the people of God.

He didn't even worship the God of Israel, and

yet when he sees all that's happening, the confrontation

and the submission, the power and authority on

display, the humility and surrender of Jesus,

the trembling submission of the earth itself,

the holistic embodied supernatural experience

of the crucifixion, his response is, surely this

was the son of God. Amen. At least someone got

it, because I'm going a little crazy here looking

at all these people that should have known better.

But that's all of us, right? So we've unpacked.

all the opposition and contention and symbolism.

And I had to Bible geek out with you for a little

while. And we looked at this part of Matthew.

And now we ask the question that I hope all of

you are asking when you study the Bible. So what?

So what? Why, what do these opposing forces teach

us about God and Jesus and the kingdom of heaven?

I mentioned at the beginning, and we unpacked

this upside -down kingdom of Jesus that Matthew

wants us to see, but to what ends? As you're

studying the Bible in your own time and together,

be brave enough to ask those questions. So what?

What does this mean? Why is the story told this

way? Why is this the turn of events that occurred

in the last moments of Jesus' pre -resurrection

life? And the simplest thing to say is that Jesus

is simply showing us what God has been doing

the whole time. In the beginning, God created

a garden on a hill where humans lived in shalom

with each other, and they shared God's authority

to rule and to bless, and they were designed

to rest and delight in communion with God forever.

That was God's plan the whole time. That's why

there is no there was evening and there was morning

on day seven that resting delightful presence

was never supposed to end that was God's plan

the whole time and so when it was broken and

Humanity was cast out in the garden and power

over each other and over creation fell out of

balance God began to move God has always been

in the process of restoring what always should

have been. Do you feel the weight of what that

means? The grief we feel over the loss of a loved

one? The pain of broken relationships? The fear

of a provision and an economy that doesn't seem

to have our best interests in mind? A government

that is more focused on who's right than what's

good. In my own life, I'm walking next to my

sister whose husband is in the hospital and he

is fighting to get well. There is grief in all

of our stories. Sickness, illness, addiction,

grief, loneliness, heartache, however you came

in here today, it's not as it should be. And

your heart knows it. And your God, I can promise

you this, your God has always been working to

redeem it. That is what we see in this story.

And so my home church, I am a pastor at Willow

Creek in the Chicagoland area, and we are spending

the summer reading through and studying the book

of Revelation. So happy summer, here's a little

tribulation. And it's funny, because Revelation

gets really bad. PR, people think it's scary

and doomsday -ish, and they tend to avoid it.

People love the feel -good parts of scripture.

I knew you before you were born, and this is

the day. And they don't love, like, bulls and

dragons. I don't know. They steer clear of possibly

confusing, apocalyptic, prophetic, cosmic literature.

Understandable. But Revelation is actually full

of hope. If you haven't read it, give it a whirl

again, because it is full of hope. Just like

this story in Matthew, we just read a story that

the climax of it is that God has been killed

by the human powers. And yet, there is hope in

the story because of what it actually means.

In the end of Revelation, again, if you haven't

read the book of Revelation, Go for it, but especially

chapters 21 and 22 are the best parts of the

whole Bible. It's the culmination of what Jesus

is doing at this moment in our story in Matthew.

It's the overthrowing of broken power, the return

of the king of the universe to his rightful throne

as the people of God live in perfect communion

with each other, with creation, and with God.

Jesus is showing us a priest that forgives us

and invites us into the presence of God. Jesus

is showing us a king that rules with love and

hope and sacrifice. Jesus is showing us a prophet

that speaks true and glorious blessings over

the people he loves. It is a creation united

in worship of the one who created it all. Jesus

is ushering in the kingdom before us. Jesus spent

his ministry telling the people about the kingdom

of God, and in this moment, he is showing it

to us. And that is the good news of the gospel.

All right, let's pray. God, thank you for your

sacrifice, for your goodness, for the hope that

comes even in the bleakest of seasons. We stand

before you in awe of all you are doing, the lengths

you will go to return us to your presence. We're

grateful for the accounts we have that we can

begin to see all that you are doing in the simplest

moments. and the most magnificent ones god and

I pray that you would bless this community with

the hope of that forever king that is coming

that uh Jesus that has made a way for us to come

into the holy of holies right now and so I pray

this whole community into the holy of holies

god that we would see you in new ways that we

would experience your voice in new ways that

we would come before you humbled and free and

truly loved Amen. All right. Thank you, friends.