In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said something really heart warming to his own apostles, his disciples. It says, "When his hour had come Jesus sat down in his apostles with him and he said to them, 'With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer," to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. It reveals the heart of Jesus in wanting a time of fellowship, intimacy, camaraderie with the man that were with him for three and a half years, a fervent desire was in him to eat the Passover with them. The very meal that spoke prophetically of what he would do a few hours from then on the cross. It was something Jesus longed for. He was anticipating and now the hour had come. "This is it boys. I've longed for this moment to share with you."

I don't know how you view communion but I have those sentiments every month, the morning of the time we're going to take the Lord's supper like this morning I thought, "I can't wait for tonight." It's communion, it's the Lord's Supper. It's the time we celebrate our emancipation, our true freedom as God's people. I've longed all day for it with fervent desire to eat this Passover with you, the Lord's Supper. And it just happens to be there wherein the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 27, it's a long chapter so we're going to finish out that chapter and then we're going to take the elements together. We wouldn't be able to make it through 27 and into 28 and do adjust this so we're going to linger over Chapter 27 and then we'll take the Lord's Supper.

We're going to begin in Verse 50, so let's pray together. Father, we pause in your presence, after having a glorious time of worship, singing loudly and fervently we just turn the volume down. And in silence before you, we ask you to search us and to know us. We know that you know us completely, intimately, deeply but we pray that in this time you would reveal to us those things that are a part of our nature that needs changing, addressing and confronting. Certain attributes of you that we need to consider and how we relate to you and to those attributes, those characteristics. So we approach your word after whatever kind of a day that we have had after whatever kind of encounters, problems, issues that have gone on so far in our week. We've come to meet with you; with each other, yes, but with you in a special way because you gather together with your people collectively in a special and a unique manner.

So as we consider Father, the rest of this chapter and the immense suffering that Jesus underwent for us, we pray that we might glean, we might learn, we might be refreshed, we might become more appreciative, more worshipful as we consider your death and anticipate your resurrection. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Death by crucifixion was perhaps the worst possible means of death in the ancient world. That is because it was designed to exact the greatest amount of pain and delay death as long as possible. As we've told you before, a victim could last for days on a cross, languishing in pain, unable to die, muscle spasms, asphyxiation, loss of blood but that could go on for days and days.

The Romans as we have already noted, did not invent crucifixion but they did adapted as sort of their chief means of executing the very worst kind of criminals. The Romans got it from the Persians before them. The Persians invented death by crucifixion because of their belief in mother earth being holy. And so that a person wouldn't defile mother earth, the executed victim was lifted up off the earth on a stick or on a cross so that they wouldn't die touching the ground. After all, this was a criminal you're putting to death, you're executing the worst of the worst.

The Romans reserved death by crucifixion only for slaves or those they considered slaves. Anyone who wasn't a Roman citizen, a non-person was a slave. And it was the very worse of the non-citizens, the very worse of the slaves: murder, armed robbery, revolutionary activity or insurrection, those were the principal crimes for which crucifixion was utilized by the Roman government.

Jesus was sentenced by Pontius Pilate to death by crucifixion. Now Paul the apostle later on when they bind him and their about to beat him and they want to kill him. Paul's out the Roman citizen card you remember. And he says, "Wait a minute, why are you binding me to flog me, don't you know I'm a Roman citizen." Now Paul knew that would work because they Romans dare not touch a Roman citizen flogging by especially crucifixion. One of the philosophers of their past, one of their statesman and orators a guy name Cicero in his writing said this and I'm quoting, "To bind the Roman as a crime, to flog him an abomination. To kill him an act of murder, but to crucify him, there is no fitting word that could describe so horrible an act." And it was Cicero who thought that that very term "crucifixion" should be stricken form the Roman mind and not even used in a conversation. It was this kind of a death as Jesus was consigned to.

Now we often, when we talk about the cross discuss the human suffering, the grueling pain that's from a human perspective. If you look at the cross from a divine perspective, for after all Jesus was God in flesh. It's incomprehensible that Jesus on the cross at the greatest moment of that pain and anguish from a divine standpoint said, "My God, My God. Why have you forsaken me?" Jesus always walked in fellowship with the father, it was never unbroken. Sure he had Judas forsake him. He had Peter forsake him. And eventually all of the 12 followers forsook him but never ever did he have the father leave his side or the intimate fellowship that he enjoyed with his father in heaven until now.

On the cross, there is three hours of this relational spiritual separation as all of the sin of mankind, mine and yours was placed upon Jesus and he felt that separation. What's most sovereign about the whole event that we have considered in Matthew and consider again tonight in Matthew 27, the most sovereign thing is that Jesus did it for me. You can talk all about his death. You can talk all about his suffering. You can get graphic and get medical and understand what the human body does during that time or try to enter into the divine mind from God's perspective but all of that to say that he did it for me and you personally.

And this is the night that we personalize it. You're going to be taking the elements personalizing it in a few moments. It's what Paul did in Galatians Chapter 2 Verse 20. When he said, "I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me.  And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." I hope you enter into it personally, relationally tonight. I'll never forget when I was a young Christian and I read that little quip, you may have seen it, written by somebody unknown who said, "I ask Jesus how much he loved me and he said, "This is much." And he stretched out his arms and died. I will never forget the impression that made of me. "I love you this much enough to stretch out my arms and die for you."

Now this brings up an important point and I know we haven't even entered into the first verse of our study tonight, but what's new? We've done this before. The question is often raised whenever we talk about the crucifixion, people want to know, "Well who is responsible for crucifying Jesus Christ?" You could point to Judas and say, "Well he is responsible. He sold Jesus to the religious authorities and then the Roman government for 30 pieces of silver and certainly Judas bares an enormous amount of guilt." He is called in the scripture the son of perdition. He is always named last in the disciples and always as the betrayer, and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed Jesus. That's how he is always listed.

Peter in the Book of Acts will say that Judas went to his own place. When he died, he went to his own place as if to intimate that he is suffering eternity for his betrayal of Jesus Christ. And forever in hell he will bare that responsibility. So we could point to Judas. Some will point to Pontius Pilate and say, "Well, it was Pilate who gave the order. He confronted Christ and asked him if he was a King and asked him his credentials and said he didn't want to know the truth and he was the one who gave the order so the fault could lie squarely on the shoulders of Pontius Pilate the Roman procurator."

But then what about the Roman soldiers who actually flogged Jesus? Who drove the nails into his hands and feed in the sword or the spear into his side. They bared some of the guilt. Oh, there is historically who have pointed to the chief priest of the Jews the Sanhedrin and even the Jewish nation that rejected him. For after all, in the Book of Acts, Peter will say, "You have taken him by ruthless hands and crucify and put him to death. You killed the Prince of Life."

But as we're pointing the finger at different people, we finally get a run to ourselves and we point the finger at us. And we have to say, "I'm responsible for putting Jesus on the cross. He died for my sins." Jesus said he came to give his life a ransom for many, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

So you and I because Jesus died for this sin of the world, said John the Baptist, "I added to the sin of the world, did you? I did my fair share of sinning in my time and still do today so I crucified him." But as you're going around saying, "Who crucified Jesus?" Because we have to deal with another issue, the sovereignty of God, we have to say, "God the Father did." It was his plan from the beginning. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't like God in heaven who said, "Oh my goodness, look what they're doing to my son," it was his plan. Isaiah 53 predicted the event and said, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him and to make his soul an offering for sin."

And that's what Peter understood when in the Book of Acts he approaches the Jews at Jerusalem and said concerning Christ, "Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God you have taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain. Yeah you did it, but it was the will of the Father.

So he gave his son, it was part of the plan of salvation, the plan of God to present his son to the world so that he might die the death of every man and woman so that in that separation and anguish, you and I could have life. He took my sin. How did he take my sin? By taking my place.  I don't have to suffer punishment for my sin.  I don't want to go to purgatory and burn off my sins. I don't have to enter into eternity and have a measure of suffering because Jesus' work on the cross wasn't enough. It was enough.  He took my sin because he took my place. I owed a debt I could not pay, he paid a debt he did not owe.

I don't know if you've ever had somebody to pay off one of your debts. It's awfully a wonderful feeling. I don't know if you've ever been in a place where like you ordered a meal and you forgot your wallet, I mean you really did, and somebody was there to pick up the tab for you?

Years ago, when we first were married, Lenny and I had a little backward one year on our income tax. Trying to figure out, "What do we do? We got to pay this off." And somebody stepped in and helped us out in giving us a chunk to pay off for end of the year income tax. Because I am deathly afraid of offending the IRS, it was a wonderful gesture. So Jesus' death on the cross, we call it a vicarious atonement. That is a substitutionary atonement. He took your spot. He took your place. You should have died. You didn't do it because he did it. He took your sin because he took your place.

How many of you remember The Lion King? Remember Simba, the little lion who is going to be the king one day and his father Mufasa was going to move him into that position and yet he had an uncle, uncle Scar. And Scar was upset that he was sort of bumped from the lineage and he should be the next in line for the authority in that lion kingdom. And so Scar hatched a plot against the lion cub, Simba to get him killed by in sighting a bunch of hyenas to cause a bunch of wildebeest to stampede hopefully in the process killing that lion cub, Simba. Mufasa his father, hearing about the plot and seeing what was coming at the last moment in the nick of time, pod scooped young Simba to safety only to be killed by the stampede himself. He died that his son might live and reign. In this instance, God the Father had his son died that we might live.

This takes us to Verse 50. "And Jesus cried out again with the loud voice and yielded up his spirit." Now Matthew just says he yelled something. He doesn't tell us what he cried out. John, in his Gospel on the other hand tells us exactly what Jesus cried out. I'll just read that account without you turning to it. Now if that's all full of sour wine was sitting there and they filled it with a sponge, put it on his sip and put it to his mouth. So when Jesus had received this sour wine he said, "It is finished."  That was what he cried out.

One word in Greek, "tetelestai," it is finished. The debt is paid in full. The word was sometimes used for merchants that way who paid off a debt. The picture is now complete. Artists would use the word to tetelestai when the artwork was now fully completed. Paid in full. The picture is now complete. "The task has been finished," a servant would say to his master, "tetelestai", "It's finished" when he had done all that the master commanded him to do. That's what Jesus cried out with a loud voice on the cross. "It is finished!"

Now don't misunderstand what he is saying.  This is not a cry of defeat; it's a cry of victory. Jesus isn't a victim, he is a victor. He is not saying, "I am finished." He said, "It is finished."

"The task is finished." "The Old Testament is completed." "Satan, my enemy, is defeated." "It is finished." "The task is now complete." And so as he gave up his spirit, Matthew says, "He yielded up his spirit." He yielded up his spirit. In other words, he dismissed his spirit. He's on the cross and He said to His own spirit, "It's time now. You can go."

You see, Jesus' death is different than any other human beings' death because He was totally in control. He couldn't die and tell He was ready and yielded up His spirit. That's what Jesus said in John 10, do you remember when He said, "No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down and to take it up again." So it was time, the transaction was complete. Jesus cried out with a loud voice. Matthew tells us. John said that He said, "It is finished." Verse 51, "Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split." There was an earthquake and it was a hefty earthquake so that the very rock started shaking and splitting and cracked. It was a rock concert like none other.

The veil of the temple was torn and that was unheard of because of the thickness of the veil itself. Let me explain it to you. The temple was modeled after something else in the Old Testament, what was it? Tabernacle. Tabernacle was made out of cloth that was a temporary flimsy structure, and between that little tent called the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, there was a veil, a very thin veil and the high priest would go through or on the other side of that veil once a year on the day of atonement where the Ark of the Covenant stood.

The temple was like the tabernacle but it was permanent. This was a huge building that had courts. Men could go to one court. Women could occupy another court but not go over into the court of the men. The priest had their own court and men or women couldn't go under the court of the priest. It was very divided. It was very segregated. It was very restricted. In other words one other court, the outer court, the furthest away from where the action was happening, that was the court of the Gentiles, I could go to that court if there were temple, but I couldn't go any further.

Because if I, as a gentile, let's say it's like Passover and I think, "Man, I've heard about this. I've read about this. I want to check out the temple," so I start running toward the center court. I would be confronted not only by guards but I would be confronted by a wall that had a sign on it, a posted sign that said, "Death to any Gentile who crosses this wall or goes beyond this point." I would be killed. That is if the Roman government allowed the Jews to kill me for doing that because they had the right of capital punishment. But it was very divided. It was very segregated.

Now, by the time a temple stood, the veil was very different. It was in a flimsy cloth. It was about four to five inches thick. According to Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish scholar, he said, "In the temple, the veil of the temple, that huge curtain was about 60 feet tall." The peak of this building is around 30 feet so double that. That's how tall it was. 60 feet tall, 30 feet wide and as wide or the width of the veil was a hand width, so several inches thick. The thickness of a man's hand.

Josefa said it was an ornate mostly blue veil with 24 sections, 24 squares of cloth and they just kept sewing it and adding it to it year by year so you couldn't tear this thing. It says it was torn from top to bottom. So somebody had to get way up there 60 feet tall and tear something four inches thick and start being able to tear it and even those guys who tear phone books couldn't do that. You get the point? It wasn't torn from bottom to top; it was torn from top to bottom. God tore it.

God was disturbing their worship service. Can you imagine it's three in the afternoon, people are packed in the temple and there's this huge earthquake and the veil of the temple makes a tremendous noise. God was disturbing their worship service with a message. What was the message? Well, all of those courts and that wall and that system had one message, "Keep out. Keep out. Keep out. God lives here. Keep out." God was saying, "Come in. Come in. Come in." Their message, "Keep out." God's message, "Come in." There's no border anymore. There's no boundary. There's no separation. I am removing all of the previous borders that kept you from the closest intimacy with God. Only one high priest one day a year could enjoy it. You can enjoy it all year long. "Come in," He was saying. The torn veil.

According to one account in history, the Jewish nations sewed the veil back up. Tragic, isn't it? They sewed it back up and they continued their sacrificial system of animals until 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed their temple. How typical. God simplifies something. We complicate it. He tears the veil, we sew it back up. He removes the border, we put more borders. What an insult to God! Any religious system that complicates what God has simplified is an insult to God. Any religious systems that put men in between men and God, or men and women and God that you have to go through this person, this mediator, is an insult to God. For the scripture says, "There is one God and there is one mediator between God and man; the man, Christ, Jesus.

The temple said, "Keep out." God was saying at the crucifixion, "Come in." Have you taken advantage of the torn veil? How often do you take advantage of the torn veil? How often do you enter in and communicate with the father? You see, in those days, the idea of a personal relationship with God wasn't -- they didn't even think in those terms. It wasn't such a thing.

There's this corporate sacerdotal, sacrificial, institutional relationship but not personal-private relationship with God. How often do you take advantage and press in as it says in Hebrews 10? We don't have time to chase that down. Good, we've covered two verses. But look at the next one, "And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the Holy City and appeared to many. Okay. This is getting bizarre. From an earthquake to a veil being torn, to now night of the living dead or dead men walking.

Now notice, it doesn't say all of those, but many of those who had died were raised. As if to say, God selectively raised up Old Testament saints, Old Testament believers, those who believed in Him and had died and they were awaiting resurrection. God raised them up out of order, pre-resurrection date. That is, as I take this to read and it was a one time occurrence. The spirits of those people who had died, the spirits that were in the abode of the dead, Abraham's bosom, it says in another place, where a person went in the Old Testament when they died in faith and they were kept waiting for when Christ would come. That from the abode of the spirits, the dead spirits, the spirit and the resurrected body joined again together and they walked around Jerusalem.

Now, I just wonder who showed up. Imagine what it would have been like if King David would have come back to life.

Or, what if John the Baptist would have come back and maybe like holding his head, "Hi guys." We're not told whom but we're just told many. And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the Holy City and they appeared to many.

Why did this happen? What was this all about? Matthew records it but this is significant. Why did it happen? What was God saying? He was demonstrating that He has conquered death, not just Jesus' death but we would call this a biblical trailer to put it in movie terms. And I know I talked about this in the scripture. There are a lot of trailers that show up in the Bible. When you see a movie, before you see a movie, they put out the trailer and believe me, typically, trailers are the highlights of the movie. The best parts are in the trailer. You see the trailer, you see in the movie except for the plot.

This isn't a biblical trailer. God was showing a preview of coming attractions that just as God raised up Jesus from the dead, He's raising up other people selectively to show, "This is what is going to happen to you one day. There is going to be a resurrection." You see, when you die, your body and your spirit separate. Right now, they are together. Your body is housing your spirit. The real you is spirit. Your body is a temporary house to convey the real you to the world, through your voice, through your hands, your body language, your ability to communicate, who you are, your spirit through your body. When you die, your spirit leaves your body. Your body, your flesh, your muscles, your skin, your ears, they're corrupt. They decay. They go into the ground and you are with the Lord in spirit awaiting resurrection.

1 Thessalonians 4, "The dead in Christ will rise." On resurrection day which for us is the rupture, our spirit will join with the resurrected, newly constructed, made for eternity body. The new model.

Now, I'm saying that because when you read about dead people getting up on their graves you're saying, "Man, don't they look icky and yucky?" No, we're not talking zombies here. Think of Lazarus who was raised from the dead but he was fixed when he came out of that tomb.  And people saw him and could relate to him in a normal fashion. So when the centurion and those with Him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that happened, they feared greatly saying, "Truly, this was the Son of God."

Now, just a word about earthquakes, if I may. This was a notable earthquake, shook up the town and I bring it up because the Bible predicts, "In the end times there will be earthquakes in different places." And in the book of Revelation it mentions earthquakes five different times and in Revelation 11, a great earthquake that happens in Jerusalem, same town as we're reading about here, but it devastates one-tenth of the city and 7,000 people get killed instantly by that one earthquake.

Now, why do I bring it out? Because I read an article in the Jerusalem Post recently about seismic activity in the Middle East and they said, "We're in to what we call a seismic gap. We're awaiting the big one," they said in Israel. And what the article went on to say is that there are several falls but one major fall called the Dead Sea fall that's the biggest one in the region, where two tectonic plates meet under the area of the Dead Sea. And they say, "We have been able to register seismic activity from the time of Josefa's and we've seen major, major earthquakes in Israel in the Middle East about once every 400 years. However, there's nothing on record for over a millennium so far. So he said, "We're waiting for the big one and the seismic gap is over 600 years old." We should have had a couple and we've only had one a thousand years ago. We should have had a few.

There is going to be a pretty big one according to the book of Revelation and another really big one when Jesus comes from heaven and touches his foot on the Mount of Olives and it splits in two. That will cause some pretty incredible seismic damage, and this is here in the gospel.

So there was this centurion, a guy who was a ruler over a hundred Roman soldiers and those with him, those with the soldiers underneath him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that happened and they feared greatly saying, "Truly, this was the Son of God." I can't read that verse without the impression I had as a young boy seeing a movie on television. I think it was called The Greatest Story Ever Told where the centurion in the story was played by none other than John Wayne. And of course, John Wayne was John Wayne. He didn't like put on an accent or anything. He just said, "Truly, this is the Son of God."

And I just remember like, "Wow! John Wayne man, that guy is awesome!" So everytime I read this, I think John Wayne is saying, "Truly, this is the Son of God." What I love about this story, however, is that it seems that the Roman centurion is the first convert after the death of Christ. Because in Luke's account, it says, "The centurion who was there at the cross seeing these things, glorified God. He glorified God." Here, Matthew records one of the things he said. Luke says he glorified God. It could be that it was this centurion, this battle-hardened soldier. He'd seen it all. He'd done it all. He'd seen men die before in front of him and seeing Jesus die in the earthquake and all that happened gave glory to God and believed. I will not be surprised to see him in heaven. What an awesome thought!

Is there somebody that you think of, that you know who has hardened, they are hard and you think, "Oh, they're impossible," they'll never get saved. I remember thinking that about people. There was one guy. I went to my high school reunion. There was one guy in high school and this guy was like, you just don't mess with John Booth. He was the guy everyone looked up to. He was the star athlete. He comes up to me at my high school reunion, which even that was a long time ago. He came up to me and said, "Skip, praise God! I want to tell you about Jesus Christ. He didn't know that I was saved." So I just kind of let him go on. I was enjoying the witness. And I thought, "John Booth, saved. Who would have ever imagined?" Or, the hardened atheist that I spoke to years ago when I worked on an Israeli kibbutz, Cambridge graduate, advanced in the sciences, an evolutionist, hardened against Christ, hardened against the gospel calls me up one day at my home when I was living at Huntington Beach and said, "Skip, this is Tony. I know Jesus Christ."

Who would have ever thought? Those people that you think are beyond reach, beyond hope, impossible, too hard, too tough, how could you think that? Some of you have heard of the renowned atheist, Anthony Flew, who at age 15 denounced God disavowing any idea of a God. But it was through studying an argument called the teleological argument or the argument from design that he came to believe that there is a God, a designer. And he was like the spokesperson, the poster child for all of the atheists.  Anthony Flew, the great atheist. Now Anthony Flew, the theist. Impossible? Like this centurion? God reached out and touched him.

"Many women who follow Jesus," Verse 55, "From Galilee, ministering to Him," notice that, "Women ministering the word "Diakoneo" is the Greek word. We get our term deacon or diaconos(ph) for Matt. They ministered to him. They were looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, that woman of whom seven demons were cast out. Mary, the mother of James and Joses. James, not the brother of John, the son of Zebedee but James called the James the Less, an Apostle James the Less. He's called James the Less because much less is said about him than the other James. I know it's not a great name to have.

And Jesus didn't say, "Hey, James the lesser dude." But he was known by the name James but he is called James the Lesser just because nothing really is known of him except he was a follower. And the mother of Zebedee's son that's Salome; Zebadee's wife, the mother of James the Greater and John the Apostle. So these women were there with Jesus ministering to Jesus. How were they ministering to Jesus? Luke Chapter 8 says, "They provided out of their substance," that is they gave financial support as Jesus was ministering in Galilee, Judea, they probably followed along with the apostles the disciples cooking, cleaning, helping, ministering from their finances in order to help Jesus in his ministry.

Now just a note about that last gal that was mentioned and the mother of Zebadee's sons, do you remember the request that this woman had of Jesus before the crucifixion? "Jesus, I have one small request. That my two boys, Jimmy and Johnny, would sit at your right hand and your left hand in the kingdom." And Jesus said, "Woman you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am going to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with?" And they said, "Sir, yeah we're able to do that." He was speaking of the suffering and death of the cross. Maybe those words are coming back to her just about now. That foolish request of Jimmy and Johnny sitting at your right and left hand knowing, "Oh this is what he meant by that."

Now an evening had come. Now, Matthew transitions to speak about the burial of Jesus Christ because he is going to prepare us for the resurrection narrative that we're going to look at next time in Matthew 28. He wants to show us how the Jews were preparing for burial, Joseph of Arimathea in particular preparing for the burial of Jesus, the elaborative preparations that were made as well as the precautions that were taken by the Jewish people. It's going to be a setup for the resurrection. Now an evening had come. There came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who himself had become a disciple of Jesus.

Arimathea is a town about we believed 20 miles north of Jerusalem. It was the town if I remember correctly, in 1 Samuel Chapter 1. Samuel was from there, Ramathaim-Zophim, that is the Old Testament name. In the New Testament, Arimathea. So it's the birthplace of Samuel, the young Samuel the prophet; Joseph, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin. It says, "Who himself had become a disciple of Jesus." This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean, linen cloth and he laid it in his new tomb which he had ewen out of rock. And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and he departed.

Because this was a Roman execution, permission by the Roman government needed to be obtained to get access to the body. So Joseph of Arimathea steps in. He owned a tomb right there in Jerusalem. Typically, when somebody died, it was the responsibility of the family or close friends who had all forsaken Jesus to take the body and to bury it. And the way burials were done is you didn't have like a little six-foot deep hole in the ground that measured the width of your body and the length of your body. You were buried above ground in a rock cave, a tomb, a limestone tomb. And if you didn't have your own tomb; you would occupy that grave place with your entire family for generations. You'd say, "For generations, aren't the bodies going to stack up?" Well, your grandparents get buried in there, wrapped up but after a while their flesh will decay and their bones will be left and so the bones would be collected and placed in a little tiny box called an ashwary(ph). And then you chug the ashwary to the back and you'd have room for new bodies.

So generation of bodies could be stored there but this was a brand new tomb that Joseph owned. He owned the property. It was going to be for him probably for his family but he gave it to Jesus. Fulfilling the prediction in the prophet Isaiah Chapter 53 who said, that Jesus would be numbered with the transgressions with the transgressors when he died, but buried with the rich upon his death. It was predicted. So Jesus was crucified between two insurrectionists, two criminals. He was taken off the cross and placed in the rich man's tomb, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

You should know that all four gospels mentioned Joseph and they all mentioned him in the narrative of the post-crucifixion time. He is given space but only dealing with Jesus' burial before his resurrection. Herod says he had become a disciple of Jesus. Luke says he was waiting for the Kingdom of God. John says he was a secret disciple, a secret disciple. He believed in Jesus. He was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was a secret disciple. He was fearful. Now you can relate to that. I'm saying, I'm trying to help you personalize that because how many sermons have been preached against Joseph of Arimathea, the secret disciple who wouldn't have enough strength to stand up for Jesus. I beg your pardon. This secret disciple put everything on the line including his neck possibly certainly his status when he approaches Pilate and asked for the body that it might be placed in the tomb.

Word could get out to all of his Sanhedrin buddies, "Why is Joseph doing that thing, that kindness for Jesus?" Yeah, Joseph of Arimathea a secret disciple for now, but where were the other more prominent disciples? Peter talked a lot. Peter made a great confession, "If you are the Christ, the son of the living God, I will never forsake you." And so did all of the other prominent disciples. They didn't show up.

Sometimes those secret disciples do more than the disciples who walk on the water and give the speeches. They show their strength in times like this, so does Joseph or Arimathea. And Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb. On the next day, which followed the day of preparation, the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered together to Pilate. Now this final paragraph of Matthew 27 is information given only by Matthew. Matthew turns from what the friends of Jesus have done for him, the women, Joseph of Arimathea, the secret disciple to what the enemies of Jesus are talking about and conspiring and thinking about.

Again Matthew is setting you up for the resurrection narrative in Chapter 28. So it says, "On the next day which follow the day of preparation," the next day would be Saturday. The day of preparation was the day when you would prepare for the Sabbath and that was Friday. You prepare for the Sabbath on Friday, you get ready for it. Friday evening at sunset, the Sabbath begins so on the Saturday, following Friday the day of preparation the day Jesus died.

The chief priest and the Pharisees gathered together to Pilate saying, "Sir, we remember that while he was still alive, how that deceiver said, "After three days I will rise. Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day unless his disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people he has risen from the dead and so the last deception will be worse than the first." Boy is this interesting. Jesus' own enemies remembered that Jesus predicted his own resurrection. And yet Jesus' friends had forgotten that he predicted his own resurrection. Don't you find that interesting?

Everytime Jesus spoke about his impending arrest and death and resurrection, they didn't get it. They didn't remember it. That's why they were so desponded when he died and said, "Ah, that's it. Let's go home." You don't have one of the disciples going, "Hot deity dog." Few more days, he is rising from the dead. He said he would. Jesus' enemies remembered, Jesus' friends had forgotten. The skeptics believed, the believers were skeptical. I sometimes find non-believers have a great more deal of faith than even believers. Believers argue and squabble over petty stupid ridiculous stuff. "Oh, I don't know, you know. I really have to have that outlined and proven and shown to me." And you get some non-believer they just get touched by God, "I believe."

They said, "That deceiver said," that's what they're calling Jesus, "After three days, I will rise." Therefore command the tomb be made secure until the third day unless the disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people, "He has risen form the dead," so the last deception will be worse than the first. The first deception in their view was his claim to be their messiah. The last deception in their thinking would be that somebody would say he rose from the dead. So Pilate said to them, "You have a guard, go your way and make it secure as you know how." I wonder what that means. I think it means, it could mean a couple of things but I think it means, "Okay, here take a guard. I'm granting you a Roman guard between 10 and 16 well armed men. Go ahead, here take a guard. Make it as secure as you can. Good luck." Make it as secure as you know how because if he is a deceiver, why guard it? If he is real, your guard, my guard isn't going to stop it. Make it as secure as you know how.

The stone that Jesus had rolled or that the soldiers rolled in front of the tomb that Jesus laid in was about two tons. Now I have seen these stones and if you've been with us to Israel, we've pointed out several tombs from the fist century of this era and you can see the size. They're round. They're rolled into a channel. The channel is on an inclined so that the stone is rolled down into the channel and the only way to move a two-ton stone is you got to move it up hill so it's pretty secure. It can be moved, it's usually with the help of the leverage of wooden implements to move it up and lots of people. So there is between 10 and 16 Roman soldiers trained, well-armed men, there is a stone and there is a seal.

Now a Roman seal, you'd have a clay pack on one side of the stone and a clay pack on the other side of the stone usually a signet ring or some kind of a stamp impression was pushed into the clay that bore the seal of the Roman government. A rope was placed between the two seals and if anybody broke the seal it was death, unless you had permission by the Roman government. You come and break the seal so they're making it secure. It's armed, there are soldiers, there's a stone, there's the Roman seal and we're safe.

Now, what they did is a great favor for us because they simply underlined and underscored the fact of the resurrection. They removed the ability for there to be a rumor that the disciples stole his body. Because if somebody said, "The disciples stole the body," I say, "Well, let's see." There were ten to 16 well-armed Roman soldiers, there was a two-ton stone rolled down hill into a channel, there were clay packs with the Roman seal death to any man who breaks them, "I don't think so". "Yeah, but he's gone." What explanation do we have? Well you can't use that one because you mitigate it against that by going to Pilate. Thank you very much for doing that by the way. You remove that doubt completely. Interesting side note and I'm moving quickly because I don't want to linger. We have one verse to go so hold on.

Justin Martyr the historian of the early church said that around 200 A.D., this rumor surfaced again. That -- well, there really wasn't a resurrection. There is an explanation for the supposed resurrection; the disciples stole the body yet the document say what happened. And I'm glad Matthew recorded what the Jewish leaders wanted.

But that rumor surfaced again, but it's easy to dispute. Verse 66, the last verse of the chapter before we take the Lord's Supper. "So they went and they made the tomb secure setting the stone, sealing the stone and setting the guard." So they walked away with a smile on their face, job's done, I feel satisfied, we can go home. Yeah, but just wait until Chapter 28 Verse 1, boys. It's a whole new chapter. Or like the old sermon preached, "It's Friday but Sunday is a common when everything is about to change."

You want to know something curious because Pilate goes up to pages of history? What happened to Pontius Pilate? According to history about a year after this, Pilate resigned. Some say he was forcibly resigned because of an insurrection that happened up in Samaria. I'm not going to bore you with those details we don't have the time. But nonetheless, he left his post, he resigned and he went to Gaal. The ancient Gaal is modern day Austria. And at the enclave of Vienna, Austria he committed suicide. The man who is face-to-face with Jesus, the man who said, "What is truth" and then he left the room without waiting for a reply, the man who could have known the truth and perhaps the man who have this incident of the crucifixion weighing on him and the resurrection weighing on him. Haunted by it, his wife warned him, "Leave him alone. I've had a dream about this just man." But he wouldn't listen to his wife. It's a lesson man, listen to your wives. And perhaps it haunted him and he took his own life.

He goes off the pages of history. We hear about him no more. Question to you as we close, have you tried to set a guard over your life, over your heart against Christ? Have you tried to seal up your mind and your thoughts everytime somebody brings you to church or you get closer to the truth? You have such a good way of marginalizing and fighting that up and pushing him away and setting a guard and sealing the stone and yet, the more you do that, he keeps coming back. And he taps on your heart and he says, "I'm still here. I love you. I want you. I will forgive you." Someday you'll walk off the pages of history. Will you end like Pilate or you end up in heaven with Christ because you know him?

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the death, the suffering; thank you for the pain, thank you for the separation that Jesus Christ your son and Lord.

It sounds odd that we would say such a thing but it's because he paid that debt that he did not owe, that our debt is taken away and we know you. It's because Jesus took our place that he took our sin. As Paul later articulated, so clearly God made him who knew no sin to be a sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in him. So thank you, that Jesus took it so that we could have life.

And now I pray for those who are here and for any who has not received Christ personally. I pray rather than walling up their heart rather than putting a stone against you and a guard against you that they would open up and let you occupy their lives. As your head is bowed, as your eyes are closed and we're closing this service and about to take the Lord's Supper, is there anyone here who hasn't made peace with God yet?

You haven't given him your life personally. Oh, you may have had some kind of a belief, you may go to church even but you don't have a relationship where you said, "Lord, take over my life. I'm turning from my sin and I'm turning to you as my personal savior." You've never had that kind of a transaction. But you're sick and tired because your past and all of your pursuits have not given you satisfaction. And you're ready tonight to do business with God. If that is the truth, if that is the case, I want you to raise you hand up right now as we're about to close in prayer. Raise it up so I can see your hand. And you're saying in effect, "Skip, here's my hand, pray for me. I'm going to give my life to Christ. I'm going to surrender to him tonight." Raise your hand up so I can see it.

God bless you. Toward the back, thank you for waiving it a bit. Also in the back, a couple of you. Anyone else? Yes sir, right on the aisle. And again in the back on the aisle, right over here to my right, Father we pray for these who have raised their hands. We pray for the lives, the hearts, and the experiences that are uniquely theirs. We pray that you will fill every corner bring peace and satisfaction as you bring forgiveness into these lives. If you raise your hand right where you are sitting, would you say these words? I'll say them, you say them after me. You can say them out loud. You can say them in your heart. You say, Lord I know I'm a sinner, please forgive me. I believe that Jesus died on the cross and that he rose from the dead. I turn from my sin, I turn to you as my savior, and I want to live for you as Lord. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to live a life pleasing to you in Jesus name. Amen.

Yes, thank you Lord.