Rsbc
March 21st 2004
Sunday Morning
Subject: “ The Rent Veil”
Text: Matt 27:50-54
Intro: Without a doubt this is the great moment in which, the old covenant and the new meet with at the cross roads of time and one bows out and the other takes over.
It is like what we seen in Hebrews when it says: Hebrews 8:13 In that he saith, A new [covenant], he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old [is] ready to vanish away.
This great pivitable point is the greatest thing that ever happened with regard to how God intends to deal with fallen sinners from that day forward. This happened at the time of the evening sacrifice being offered in the Temple by the duties of the High Priest and the other priest doing there jobs.
Christ had suffered at the hands of many, he had preached his gospel, he had started his church, he had instructed his disciples. He had healed the sick and raise the dead, he gave hope to the hopeless, now all that he had come to do to secure salvation for his people was now on the line.
My sermon this morning will have four main thoughts taking from the verse themselves. (1.) That Christ alone releases his spirit. (2.) The significance of the veil being rent. (3.) The mysterious events following his death. (4.) The acknowlegement of the centurion.
I... “ THAT CHRIST ALONE RELEASES HIS SPIRIT”..VS 50
This was no little cry, this was a projection of his entire ability to sound these utterances. Christ had in his ministry told the disciples the following things...
John 10:17‑18 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. Pilate thought that it was in his hands to crucify him, the Jews thought they could kill him.. But it was in the power of the Father given to the Son to release his own spirit.
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John 19:10‑11 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? 11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power [at all] against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
1st. He releases his spirit because the work as far as the cross was done.
John 19:29‑30 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put [it] upon hyssop, and put [it] to his mouth. 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
2nd. He releases his spirit because that which was written of him was now fulfilled.
On the Emmaus Road Jesus after his resurrection reminded his disciples of these truths.
Luke 24:44 And he said unto them, These [are] the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and [in] the prophets, and [in] the psalms, concerning me.
II... “ THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RENTING OF THE VEIL”..VS 51
This is one of miracles and mysteries of the Bible, and yet it reveals the old going out and the new coming in. MH says and I quote: It signified the revealing of the mysteries of the Old Testament.
You should know that the Veil separated the people and all the priest except the High and he only could go once a year. I read somewhere that it was as thick as a man’s hand spread, that it took 300 priest to wash it, two were made each year. It was woven with thread over and over again.
This veil separated man from God really. Now Christ moved this obstacle to him.
1st. It signified the opening up the way to the Father:
This is what Jesus meant when he said these wonderful words while he was preaching...
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John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
He shows several things:
a. The inability.. “no man can come”
b. The exception.. “ sinners are drawn”
c. The grace ... “given by the Father”
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
2nd. It signified and declared the approval of his Father with the work he had just done for us.
Hebrews 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
All the old covenant with it’s elaborate ceremonies, with it’s blooded sacrifices that could never take away sin, never cover sins, never remove sins, now was abolished forever and signified through the renting of the veil.
Two things the writer of Hebrews says about this way:
(1.) That it was new..
New in that all that God had planned and purposed through all the years of the old testament sacrifices and ceremonies was replaced by his Son our saviour, redeemer, captain of our salvation, Lord of Glory, head of his church, administrator of his kingdom...
(2.) Living way...
No dead Christ, No dead God, he is alive, but before he could be alive for us he died for us.
Revelation 1:17‑18 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
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18 I [am] he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
(KJV)
3rd. It signified and declared the bring in of his people was now opened.
Ephesians 2:15‑17 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
1st. How Christ made this new and living way: “ abolished the enmity”
2nd. He made us a new person:
3rd. He made peace.
Do you know how far we were off? We were totally separated from the Father and the Son in his death brought us nigh by his precious blood. He did what no other could do, he hath brought us nigh.
III... “ THE MYSTERIOUS EVENTS FOLLOWING HIS DEATH”..VS 52-53
Did this really happen? Was it a figure of their imagination? Let me emphatically say, it really happened. As to the understanding it fully we may never, but it did happen.
1st. The graves were opened as the result of the earth quaking when he died.
2nd. Actual bodies were resurrected...vs 53
Brink said: “The resurrection of these believers is a fulfilment of and a prelude to the resurrection of the righteous (= holy people) during the Last Days, of which the OT prophesies. Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame [and] everlasting contempt. It is a proof that the power of death has been conquered by Jesus’ death on the cross”
Calvin said: Thus, in the opening of the graves at the moment of the Redeemer’s expiring, there was a glorious symbolical proclamation that the death which had just taken place had "swallowed up death in victory";
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and whereas the saints that slept in them were awakened only by their risen Lord, to accompany Him out of the tomb, it was fitting that "the Prince of Life...should be the First that should rise from the dead"
Who were they? That remains a mystery, and the Bible does not reveal it to us, but be assured these were the saints of God that accompanied Christ from the dead, he leading the way.
IV... “ THE ACKNOWLEGEMENT OF THE CENTURION”...VS 54
This man did not speculate, he did not hesitate, he was not afraid to proclaim it those who stood by, “ Truly this was the son of God” A Roman solider under orders to crucify Christ now believes that he is the Son of God.
The other gospel writers said:
Mark said : Mark 15:39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
Luke said Luke 23:47 Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.
Luke said what none other said: “ He glorified God” Now I do not know if this man was saved or not but I do know he knew something about Chirst that others did not know.
The Term the Son of God is found 47 times in the Bible, one in the Old Testament when the King who put the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace and acknowledged he saw four, and the fourth like the form of the Son of God.
Satan question his deity: “ If thou be the Son of God” Matt 4Demons Acknowledge it: “What have we to do with thee Jesus the son of God” Matt 8:29 The disciples who saw Christ walking on the water: “ Truly thou art the son of God and worshipped him Matt 14: 33 John said: “ I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God: John 1:34 Nathaniel John 1:48‑49 Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. 49 Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.
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Romans 1:4 “ Declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness and the resurrection from the dead. Those who truly from their heart taht Jesus Christ is the son of God, it is because dwells in them:
1 John 4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.