Christmas Eve Service

We have to admit, you did get kind of upset whenever we didn't get that done the way you wanted it. Yeah, I know. We can't sing it two days early. That makes her older. Makes her two days older than she really is. No, no woman wants that. Come on, sing to me. Sing to you? Okay. Well, this is going to be on the CD, you know. I don't care, I'm not singing. John, do you want to start us off? Sure. Okay. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Sharon, happy birthday to you. How old are you? She and Moses were on the first date. Join me, if you would, in a moment of prayer together as we open the scriptures. Father, no more powerful event takes place in the Bible than the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. No more painful thing can we see than to see Jesus die and to be ridiculed and humiliated. We ask as we open the scriptures you would teach us something about all this that took place that we might learn about your being your followers. Open our eyes and hearts to you. In Christ's name we ask it, amen. In the story of Jesus' crucifixion and death, chapter 27 of the book of Matthew, the paragraph about Jesus' death starts in verse 45, well really the section that I want to kind of reference starts back at verse 32 where the crucifixion is told, and in this story Jesus is now facing, he's facing in that early section the ridicule of the people who see him come to be killed, and beginning the section we're at, at verse 51, the crucifixion is already over, he's already died, and we're learning here about the consequence of his death. Before he died he went through a series of events where not only was he crucified but also he was mocked. In the preceding verses, when Jesus was being led to be crucified, the robbers who were crucified with him on his right side and left, in verse 32, 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 priest and the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him, that's the second time, 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 robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him, three separate occasions in which Jesus receives the insults of people, all of them quite confident that he's not really who he says he is, that he's just an ordinary criminal, a person who has made himself to appear something that he wasn't. Now the act of Jesus' death takes place, I want to pick up with verse 51, at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom, the earth shook and rocks split. The Bible here gives us a reaction from God, we've heard what the people said in criticism to what Jesus, who Jesus was, but now God reacts to this event that's taken place. Jesus had predicted that the temple would be destroyed, he'd said this to people and they didn't believe it at all because the temple was a powerful thing, a big, big thing and there was not anywhere in their world that they could see that the temple would be destroyed, but here maybe begins this first element of this destructive force that God said was going to come to pass on them. Now sometimes, and I've often thought this myself or said it, I've heard it a lot growing up I guess, that the curtain that was there, that was torn, was torn from between the holy of holies and the outside. The Bible doesn't say specifically which curtain it was that was torn, so we should be careful about guessing what it is, but at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. As you think about what God was trying to do here, it would determine what curtain you'd think it would be. The curtain of the holy of holies separates the place where people could go from the place where only the priests could go, and to tear down that, rip that curtain from that point on would indicate the revealing of God's presence to people that had previously been hidden from them. The high priest could go in there, no one else could. The priest could go inside of the section outside of the holy of holies, so there it would open it up really to the priest, not only the high priest, but to the priest who would minister in that part of the temple. There was another curtain that was visible from the temple, which is on the hill. Nancy knows more about the location of this than I would do, but at that time where the temple is located on the hill, there was another curtain on the outside that you could see from the outside. It was a curtain that separated the place where Gentiles could go from the courtyard where the Jews could go, the courtyard of the Gentiles from the courtyard of the Jews. If that curtain were ripped from the top to the bottom, it would symbolize the fact that no longer was access to worship of God limited only to Jewish people. So we're not sure exactly what the meaning of this was, or if it even was any particular meaning to it, but what it does symbolize is that God in some way acts to be able to do something to the temple that only God could do. The Bible doesn't explain it clearly to us, so any time you start talking about speculation as if you're certain that you know what you're talking about, you're sort of off in a dangerous area. Yes? Maybe they just left off the S and the twirl. Could be. Both were twirls. Could be. And what kind of Bible do you have? It's kind of free with its translation and things like that, too. Mine says the curtain separated the holy place from the most holy place. And yours is what translation? NIV. The NIV says that? Mine's an NIV, and it says, at that moment, the curtain was removed. At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to the bottom. Mine's in the commentary. Oh, that's not the Bible. That's just the commentary. You scared me for a moment. You scared me. I thought maybe the inspired word was printed wrong in mine, you know. Well, it did have a donkey talk, but you never know. Well, and that is one of the interpretations as to what it is. And what the reflection is, is what was God trying to say? And he doesn't tell us what he's trying to say about the temple curtain and its purpose. But what the Bible does tell us is that there is some evidence from what happened that it was God himself who was tearing up the temple. Now, the Jewish people who were standing there watching this, they could see this from top to bottom. Suddenly, God was at war with his own temple. You can imagine the devastating thing that this would be. We look back on this, and we can have the interpretations as you're saying, because both of those things are indeed true. We have access to the very holiness of God. No longer is he sealed off from us, but he's present within us because of his spirit. That's true. Also, it's true that no longer it's just people of Jewish birth who have access to the worship of God. That's available now to all races and all genders. God has made that opening clear. But here, what the scripture is talking about, I think, that's important in this location, is that all the things that the people have said negatively about Jesus, God speaks. I want you to know that I am here with power. The temple that was on the, the curtain that was on the inside was a double-thick curtain, very heavy. And it was not easy to tear. But if it's that temple, if that curtain, then torn from the top would have been an act of tremendous power. Even the one between the Gentiles would have taken a lot of power. What they had said to Jesus was, if you can come down off that, if you have the power of God, you can come down off the cross. God now, at the death of his son, reacts. He doesn't react in a negative way to try to kill everybody who did this, but just to demonstrate his power to the people there at the death of his son. He puts a mark on this event. God is disturbed. And he's disturbed, and he's showing his power. If you have the power to come down, then you would do it. God didn't demonstrate his power from bringing him down off the cross. He demonstrated his power by doing something that no one else could do. And then, again, the earth shook. The Bible describes the earthquakes as a sign of God's activity. Not necessarily activity in the sense of an evil or wicked way, but just no one in the world can make the earth quake. It is above and beyond anything anyone can do. But now, not only does God tear the curtain, but now he causes the earth to tremble and shake. The Bible often uses this as a way to show the power that God has. We know in earthquakes that oftentimes it does cause solid rock to crack and break. And that occurs too. The force of an earthquake is an amazingly powerful thing. It can just crush anything in the world. So at the death of Jesus, God reacts with a powerful demonstration of the power that he has. The next thing that occurs, tombs broke open, and the bodies of holy people that died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. Now, here, another action that God takes, the tombs of the dead, oftentimes in an earthquake, they'll be arranged differently because of the earth shaking. They did the burials in a tomb that they would have. If it was a cave, they would put a rock in front of it. And now, what happens is the earth is quake and the tombs are opened. Now, this text is a little bit different, maybe, than what it reads in our English translations. The way it reads, the tomb broke open, and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection, they went to the holy city and appeared to many people. The way this translation reads, it appears that the tombs were opened, people were raised from the dead, and when they were raised from the dead, then they went out and appeared to people. After Jesus was resurrected himself, then the people went into the holy city and appeared to many different people. In the Greek language, in verse 52, the tombs broke open, and the bodies of many holy people who died were raised to life. In the Greek language, the and between broke open and the bodies of many others is not there. I don't know of any Greek text that has the word and there, as if it were an additional thing. So, it reads like this, maybe, the tombs broke open, the bodies of many holy people who died were raised to life. The and makes it seem sequential. The statement is just a statement without time, if you take the and out. The difficulty comes here, do you remember what Paul said about the resurrection? That Jesus was what? The first fruit of the resurrection. In this passage, it would appear that people were raised from the dead, translated the way it is in our Bibles, they came out of the tombs and they were raised to life before the resurrection of Jesus. If he was the first fruit of the resurrection, that would mean he was first. So, it appears to be a conflict between the writing here of Matthew and the teachings of Paul. So, when you try to look at this to say, what actually happened here? And was there, in some way, a conflict between those two events that took place? If you take the and out here, it simply says the tombs broke open, the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. It didn't tell you when that took place, but the tombs were broken open and that occurred. Then it says in verse 53, they came out of the tombs and after Jesus' resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. So, the timeline then might change a little bit so that the appearance of these people as resurrected individuals would occur after the resurrection of Jesus. That would help us to see that maybe there wouldn't be a conflict between what Paul saw as Jesus being the first fruits of the resurrection and here people being resurrected ahead of Jesus. But, all that aside, something here is done that is very powerful. The dead people in their tombs, the tombs were open and they were set free. Probably the most powerful description of what God does. He does here in the temple, He tears the curtain. In the world, He just takes the world and shakes it like someone who's mad and angry. And then He does something miraculous. The holy people, the people who are His followers, are set out of their tomb. The Bible leaves a lot of things unspoken to us about this. I bet you have some questions in your own mind about what all this meant. Did He go back in the tombs after it was over? Boy, that would be a downer, wouldn't it? Did He get translated to heaven like some of the people in the Old Testament? We don't know anything about that. Yes? Did you say after His resurrection? Right. They came out of the tombs and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city. So, they came out of the tombs and after Jesus' resurrection went into the holy city. So, I think... Yeah. And if you take this out, this and out, it lends itself to that more clear definition of the timeline. But if you put the and in there, it looks like it's a little ahead of the timeline that Paul would say was true. What is here given to us is God's reaction to the death of His Son, a demonstration of power only God could have. This did not have to happen. God allowed it to take place. He is now demonstrating to the people who are here like someone... Have you ever had... Maybe you've had a computer do this. You just want to take and shake it. You know, you get so mad because it doesn't work like you want it to. It's sort of like God takes the world here and just says... to it. The affirmation of God following these three particular insults from different people who have been there show that the death of Jesus demonstrates God's concern and His evidence to say to the whole world something here happened that is not right. And then Matthew begins to tell three different responses to the death of Jesus sort of matching what took place before. If you start in verse 54, When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, Surely He is the Son of God. Now, if you have an NIV Bible, you'll see a small note there that points you to the bottom of the page and it says... It removes the THE from it just to say He was a Son of God. Some of the Greek texts don't have that word THE in there. And so it's unclear to us exactly what He had meant by that. Was it a profession of His faith in Jesus that He was the Son of God? Was He recognizing here that after all these things had taken place that this was someone who was not ordinary like them? The Romans believed in many different gods and they believed that human beings could be children of the gods. But they were not ordinary people. They were extraordinary people. But from this Roman soldier in his paganism, he looks at what's happening around him and he sees something going on that causes him to say this was no ordinary man. You've been making fun of him like he was just an ordinary man. You've been talking to him but look at what's happened to us here. This is not an ordinary man. Whether he said he's like a son of God which would be an extraordinary powerful person in Roman culture or whether he's making a profession or commitment of his faith to say this is the Son of God, it's not really clear to us what that was. But he was saying he's not an ordinary man. There is something different about his life. This affirmation was not for the purpose of Jesus. It was for our purpose. It was for the purpose of those other people who were gathered around the cross. They could see what God had done to identify the uniqueness of what was taking place. The second thing that happened in verse 55 many women were there watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. In this passage we see a little bit of a picture into Jesus' life and ministry. There were apparently a number of women who had devoted themselves to caring for Jesus and his disciples. We don't see them often mentioned in the scripture but apparently at different times they show up. Here, where are the disciples? They've run away. They've hidden. But here by the cross are the women who had taken it upon themselves to take care of the needs of Jesus and his disciples. The Bible tells us in different places that the women had money. Some of them were wealthy women and they provided the resources and income for Jesus and his disciples sometimes. They probably took care of the normal things that they would need like cooking for them, taking care of their clothes, that sort of thing But in the time of Jesus being alone there with him were not his disciples, those courageous men who had followed him so closely and knew him so well but the women who were ready to do whatever it took even to the end. While his disciples... excuse me Well, you're right. It does cause you to stop and wonder how you would handle those circumstances and we don't know when they're going to be there to answer that question. We just have to see how we handle the ones around us. Do we live through those difficult times for us? Do we allow God to speak to us and guide us in ways so we're faithful to respond to it? But this is a picture sort of of maybe many other people besides the twelve were very devoted to Christ and these ladies took care of the needs that they had. The women were there watching from a distance. It doesn't mean that they were a long way away. It doesn't mean the word that's used here but it's just that they were there looking on from outside or from away. They had followed Jesus from Galilee. This was a long journey. They had been away from their families or homes walking with Jesus following him and they were taking care of his needs. What a powerful picture of faithfulness. We think of Jesus and his disciples as a gang of guys that walk around courageously and Jesus doing all the ministry and things he needed to do but behind Jesus were some very loyal and faithful people who took care of the normal everyday needs that people would have and these ladies did that with Jesus and in this time they didn't fail him. Among them were Mary Magdalene. Now one of the things when you hear Mary's name she's often identified as a lady who was a prostitute or harlot. There's nowhere in the Bible where Mary Magdalene is identified in that way. Some people identify her with a lady that came and poured ointment on Jesus' feet where she was in a home where people she was in a home I think it's in Luke 7 where he was in the home of a wealthy man and she came in and the woman came in who was a woman of ill repute or a prostitute or whore and gave him washed his feet with her hair but there's no name given to that lady and the speculation that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute really came even after the close of the Bible. So we need to be careful about talking about things that the Bible really doesn't say. Mary seemed to be a faithful follower of Christ. Luke tells us that she was healed by Jesus casting out seven demons I think from her some number I forgot the number so we know that she was one of those people that Jesus had healed from spiritual grip of Satan but here she was faithful in being there with him. Mary the mother of James and Joseph was there with him and Mary the mother of Zebedee's sons. You'll notice there are several others in other places in the Bible that talk about who was there too but Matthew appears to have simply mentioned the names of the ladies that he knew and not listing all of them that were there. He indicates that there are many more of them who are faithful in being of service to Christ. Well there's some speculation about that he doesn't identify her in that way here but Mary the mother Mary the mother of James and Joseph I think it is Mark that says Mary the mother of James and little little has a a he calls whoever it is the second name a little person, a small person so it doesn't identify here specifically whether that was Jesus' mother or not so we don't know if Matthew is referring to that or it appears to be a large number of ladies that were involved because we see in each of the other gospels names of other ladies the younger and of Joseph and Salome so there was a significant place that she must have played in the following the people that were following Jesus but what we have here are two places in which God has brought out people who make an affirmation of value and worth to Jesus God does this in the beginning with this demonstration of power then he has then he has this centurion this pagan soldier pagan soldiers in the Roman army were tough and hard men but what he saw caused him to say this man is extraordinary he's not a normal man or an ordinary man and then there are the women who are there standing by in support and encouragement of Jesus what the Bible lets us know is there are many ways in which God affirms and supports us in our faithfulness to him you may go through times if you look at this story and you read what happened you may go through times like what happened to Jesus when he was walking to the cross or hanging on the cross when people ridiculed him insulted him said all kinds of bad things about him you may feel like when you're going through those times that everything is downhill but what God shows is if we're faithful to do what he's asked us to do he does take care of his children Jesus did his job he came and gave his life for us but the father made everyone there understand that this was not someone who could be mocked he was not someone who was a liar he indeed had a standing above everyone there he shook the world he tore the curtain in the temple and he busted open the tombs of the dead and raised them to life no more powerful demonstration can come what happens to us when we're in difficult places and go through hard times is we want to solve our problems we try to solve our problems what God asks us to do is to be faithful to do what he tells us and let him take care of the opponents that we face he has the power to do this when we try to interfere in that process that's why he tells us to turn the other cheek in the middle of that's why he tells us to forgive people and pray for good things to come for them we are trusting and depending on God to take care of us and in this moment Jesus is already dead but we see here the people who stand by him so that all of us who look at this can look back and see that Jesus was valued and honored even pagans saw who he was even they recognized that there was something great about him and he was not alone in those last moments as he hung on the cross he could look out there and see those ladies who were faithful to him I don't know what it would be like to know that Jesus was gazing on you in his last moments and he could see that you were standing there with him everybody else ran away but the women who cared for him were there when he needed them most his disciples you know had trouble spending the night praying with him and whenever they came to take him and crucify him they ran off and when all these things were going on they were afraid for their life maybe the ladies had an advantage that they didn't think they would amount to very much so they weren't concerned about running them off but whatever reason the Romans had for not doing anything to them there Jesus was on the tree and there were the ladies who loved him and cared for him in his last moments on earth he was not alone not his disciples were there but anonymous ladies who had taken care of his needs God has ways of bringing people into our lives to help us and encourage us and support us and when we trust him and we live in obedience to him he will do for us exactly what he did for Christ it doesn't mean that he makes everything right but he takes care of us what did Jesus need in these moments someone who loved him and cared for him and there they were God cares for his faithful people and he uses people who are sometimes even nameless to do wonderful and powerful things we don't see the twelve here we don't even know all their names and we've even proven tonight we're not even sure that the names that they gave us who they were but Jesus knew and he knew that they were there at risk of their life so that he would not be alone would that God would make us that faithful let's pray we're overwhelmed we're overwhelmed at the idea that Jesus gave his life for us we're encouraged by the fact that even though he was killed his death was noticed by you none of your faithful servants can be hurt or killed that you don't know it and that you don't take it into account so whenever people say things about us or hurt our feelings or even if they would try to kill us for faithfulness to you remind us that we are in your hands not our own and Father help us to be supportive of each other so that in times of difficulty and trial none of us would feel alone that there would be people around us who love us and care for us help us not to be critical of each other but supportive, encouraging and caring and help us to trust that no matter what happens to us you will surround us with people who are that way for each other in the name of Christ we give thanks for that assurance Amen Amen