Realizing the Promise
Extended Easter Series: Matthew 27:32-28:20 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Matthew 27:51 ESV
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
In the science of theology, there are certain things that are said to be typical and there are also certain things that are said to be anti-typical.
In the sphere of theology, when something is said to be typical or is said to be a “type” it means that that certain thing is a foreshadowing of a greater reality. That greater reality is anti-typical, or the “anti-type”.
Usually in Scripture, we see “types” found in the Old Testament and we see “anti-types” found in the New Testament. The “type” is fulfilled in the “anti-type” and the “type” is always symbolic of the “anti-type”.
But we don’t even need to read Scripture to see examples of the “type” and the “anti-type”. In every society and culture, we see examples of both.
For example, a wedding ring symbolizes a greater reality. It symbolizes the fact that someone is married. The band is circular to show that the marriage is never ending, it is made of precious metal to show that marriage is priceless and most valuable.
But though that is the case, though it has such beautiful symbolism attached to it, my wedding ring is not my marriage. It only symbolizes my marriage. Thus, the wedding ring is the “type” but the actual marriage itself is the “anti-type”.
And what we will see this morning as we continue throughout this series of messages is a lot of typology. We will see things happening in our reading for today that will serve as the “anti-type” for things that serve as “types” in the Old Testament.
And the beautiful thing about discovering these things, about discovering certain things that are spoken of in the Old Testament being fulfilled in the New Testament is the amazement and awe that it causes to come over us as we are convinced more and more of the faithfulness of God and the efficacy of His decrees.
By the time that we reach our reading for this morning, Jesus, the Lamb of God, had been slain. His life had not been taken from Him, nor forced away from Him, it had been voluntarily and obediently laid down and yielded up by Him.
As Paul the Apostle tells us, “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
When it came to being obedient to the Father, there was nothing off-limits as far as Jesus was concerned. Even when that obedience meant His death on the cross.
It was because of that obedience on His part that anyone is saved. Indeed, the affects that the death of Christ has produced and are continuing to produce are exceedingly manifold. And in our reading for today we see just a few of these amazing affects that it produced, affects that can only be produced by God Himself.
We see first of all, in the first half of this verse, one of the most famous affects that the death of Christ produced when we read:
Matthew 27:51a ESV
51a And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
I’m sure that most of us are familiar with this; immediately after Jesus died, the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
But what a lot of people aren’t aware of is that there were actually two curtains in the temple, and I believe that both of these curtains were torn.
The first, and less significant of these curtains was the curtain that separated the court of the Jews from the court of the Gentiles. The court of the Gentiles was the outermost courtyard and the only area at the temple structure where non-Jews were allowed.
God had, in that dispensation of time chosen to reveal Himself in a saving way to Jews alone. It was to the Jewish people who God had entrusted His oracles, His scriptures to.
The sign of the covenant, the mark of circumcision was given to the Jew alone, and just as it is today, so it was then that the only ones who could commune with God were those who had been given the sign of the covenant.
In those days that sign was circumcision, today it is baptism. And because that was the case, no Gentile or uncircumcised ethnic Jew was allowed to leave the court of the Gentiles and enter the actual temple structure, what is called the inner temple.
To ensure that those who were not in covenant with God did not enter the temple and thus attempt to commune with God in an unworthy manner, there was a curtain that separated the inner temple and the court of the Gentiles.
In addition to this, in the days of Jesus there were signs posted at the entrance of the temple in the court of the Gentiles that were written in Latin and Greek, warning foreigners and uncircumcised people that crossing over and into the inner temple was punishable by death.
Thus, as this curtain separated at the death of Jesus what it symbolized and revealed, what it was a “type” of was the manifestation that God was now making a people for Himself not made up of just circumcised Jews, but also of Gentiles from the four corners of the earth.
Furthermore, it revealed that the sign of the covenant was no longer circumcision, for it had fulfilled and replaced by the greater sign of baptism.
Thus, the tearing of this curtain revealed the very real reality that God was now drawing for Himself a people from all over the world, of every language, every tribe, and every race.
Thus, the tearing of this curtain shows that all of God’s elect people can approach and commune with God as the death of Jesus makes them righteous and able to do so.
But as I said, there were two curtains. The other curtain was indeed the more important curtain of the two as this curtain was the one that separated the Most Holy Place from the other parts of the temple.
Now, the temple itself was considered holy, set apart by God. And those who were permitted to enter the temple were considered to be holy, set apart by God. But this place is called the Most Holy Place, the most set apart place. Indeed, at that time, it was the holiest, the most set apart place on earth.
Now, the reason why this place was so holy and set apart was because God was in that place. Now, an attribute of God is that He is omnipresent, which means that He is everywhere and at all times. But saying that God was in the Most Holy Place is different than the general omnipresence of God.
You see, though God is present everywhere, He graciously withholds a measure of His holiness so that we will not be immediately swallowed up in wrath through inappropriately being in His midst.
The Most Holy Place was indeed the most holy place on earth. It was there that God revealed Himself in an unusually unique way. A way in which if any dared go there who was not authorized to be there or had not been properly cleansed before going there, would die in the most powerful manifestation of God that has ever been made known to us.
It was only the High Priest who was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place. And he was not permitted to go whenever he pleased either, but rather, he was to enter into that Most Holy Place once per year to make atonement for Israel, who were at that time, God’s elect people.
And just like the curtain that separated the inner temple from the court of the Gentiles, so was there a curtain that separated what was called the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
But even that curtain, our reading tells us, was torn in two.
As was said, the Most Holy Place was accessibly only by the High Priest once per year who would enter therein and make sacrifice for the people of God.
But now Jesus has entered into the heavenly reality that the Most Holy Place typifies and has offered Himself, His own blood to God the Father as a sacrifice for all of His elect people, Jew and Gentile, from all times, past, present, and future.
And unlike the High Priest who was obligated to enter into the Most Holy Place once per year to offer sacrifices because they ae never enough to appease the wrath of God for sin, Jesus, our eternal High Priest, offers Himself one time. One time is all that is needed.
The blood of Christ is sufficient to atone for an infinite number of sins committed by an infinite number of people. It is that sufficient, but it is efficient, or, it is effectual and offered on behalf of only those whom God has chosen to salvation, His elect people.
You see, God ordained it to be so that the blood of the sacrifice that the High Priest would make on the Day of Atonement would be effective and efficient for the elect Jews. There was no Jew who was among the elect that God did not make this sacrifice efficient for.
And in the same way, every person who Jesus died for, every last one of His elect people will be saved, because God has ordained it to be that the greater Sacrifice be efficient for all those whom the sacrifice was made for, of both Jew and Gentile.
That is what the rending of this curtain signifies. It signifies that there is no need for any kind of a human priest to make sacrifices on behalf of the people. Not only would that sacrifice be unnecessary, but it would also be ineffective.
If Christ has made that sacrifice for His elect people, then claiming to be one of His elect people and then looking to someone or something other than Christ to absolve you of your sins is worse than ineffective and unnecessary, it’s borderline blasphemous.
To say that we trust in the blood of Jesus but then depend on someone or something else to absolve us of our sins, or to think that we are our mediators in saying that the sacrifice of Jesus is good and efficient for us so long as we are doing our best to serve God is ridiculous.
We are imperfect, sinful human beings. Do you know what that means? That means that it is extremely likely that not only will we not alwaysserve God with a desire for Him to be glorified, but it is also highly unlikely that we will even do it more times than we won’t do it.
But the sacrifice of Jesus cleanses us for all time. This means that though we are constantly finding ourselves disobeying God and sinning against Him, Jesus does not have to come and die for us again. That sacrifice is good for all time, and at this moment, Jesus is mediating for us, His blood testifying on behalf of His elect people.
But there are two other things about our reading today that I want to point out. And both of these things show that God approved of the sacrifice that Jesus offered, and that He now extends the salvation that comes from this sacrifice to His elect people from all over the world.
First of all, when we look again at this first part of our verse, it says that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
Now, that is a very important detail that I’m glad Matthew added to his gospel. This curtain was sixty feet high and extremely thick and heavy. Now, couple that with the fact that this curtain was torn from the top of the curtain down to the bottom and it is apparent that no one but God could have done this.
And because God done this, it shows that He approved of it. He approved of the one-time sacrifice and the inclusion of Gentiles into His covenant people.
We also additionally see at the end of our text:
Matthew 27:51b ESV
51b And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
And as the Law came with an earthquake, so does the full manifestation of grace come with an earthquake. We read back in the 19thchapter of the book of Exodus that right before God gave the people, Israel the Law, He had manifested Himself with thunderings and lightnings, with a thick cloud and the loud blast of a trumpet, accompanied by an earthquake as it is written that Mount Sinai trembled greatly.
Concerning this awesome event, A.W. Pink tells us in his commentary on Exodus, “This manifested the dignity, the holiness, the greatness of the One with Whom they were making the covenant.”
Now, when you take that great event, the establishing of the covenant with the people, Israel, and you couple it with what is written in our reading, that the earth shook, the rocks split, it becomes obviously apparent that God was making Himself manifest in the same way.
He was approving of the one-time sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, and here, He establishes a new covenant. A covenant that fulfills the covenant made with Israel.
Using the language that we began this message with, Israel was the type. Beloved, we, the elect people of God from the four corners of the earth, are the fulfillment of Israel, the fulfillment of the type. Because of Jesus, we are the anti-type.
Praise God for His great salvation!
Amen?