We're back discovering
and exploring the marvelous
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love of Jesus on the
cross for you and for me.
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Let's continue on
with Matthew Chapter 27.
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Jesus comes to the
place of the cross.
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It's early morning, it says here
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in verse 45, the sixth hour.
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What time would that be, Ranko?
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Sixth hour would
be noon. Because Jews,
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they count the time
from 6 in the morning.
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But some things that
happened earlier in the morning,
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let's go back and notice.
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He arrives there at the cross
and he is nailed to the cross
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and it's interesting to
notice how the people respond.
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And in verse 39 of Mathew 27,
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"And those who
passed by deride him,
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wagging their heads saying,
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He who would destroy the temple
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and build in three
days, save yourself
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If you are the Son of
God, come down from the cross."
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What they are
saying is really true.
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He couldn't be the Savior
and come down from the cross.
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Actually the more
serious statement is,
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the one who helped
others, he cannot help himself.
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That was actually
what Jesus mission was,
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to come to save us,
but he could not use
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His divine
prerogative to help himself.
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And a few technical
things which has to mention is,
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we go to Jerusalem, we
can be very much certain
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about the place
where Jesus was crucified.
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It's called here Golgotha
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or Calvary, which is one Latin,
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another one is
Aramaic, is the same place.
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It's probably the
place that is marked today
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by the church of the
Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
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It's most likely--
their own evidences were that,
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that place was
outside of the city wall.
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Second thing is
Jesus was on the cross
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for about six
hours He was crucified
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at the 3rd hour,
which was 9 in the morning.
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So the trial was
very early in the morning.
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And He died at 9 hour,
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which was actually
3 in the afternoon.
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So, he was--actually,
it's very interesting is,
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when we read the gospels,
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the gospels did not
put too much emphasis
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on the physical
suffering of Jesus.
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For instance,
Gibson's movie, it's there.
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Jesus was much shorter time
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on the cross
than other criminals.
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Usually criminals would be there
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on the cross for several days.
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In fact, that's
why the Roman soldiers
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came to break the
legs. To break the legs.
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So they couldn't flee
away overnight or something.
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But they were surprised
actually that Jesus was there
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when they
approached after six hours.
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It was very
unusual, what is telling us
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that the emphasis on the gospel
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is not on the
physical suffering of Jesus.
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It was on his
mental and emotional.
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When Jesus died, it was not just
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because of the
physical suffering.
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That famous phrase that
Jesus died of broken heart,
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it was the weight of
the sins of the humanity
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that was placed
on Him and He died
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because of the
broken heart, you know,
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to save people from their sins.
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Ranko, you mentioned
that we have very little
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evidence of exactly
how crucifixion was.
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But there has been a
discovery that can give us
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some light on this
very important subject.
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Tell us about
it. Yes, praise God.
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We have at least one
finding from the first century
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that give us little bit
of glimpse into how terrible
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and agonizing the
experience of crucified
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people on the cross was.
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Actually, in 1968, a discovery
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in Jerusalem was found of the --
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containing bones of a young man.
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You know even his name,
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by name of John
the son of Eleazar.
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He was crucified
in the first century.
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We mentioned
already that crucified
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people were not
allowed to be buried.
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But most likely the
family of this young man,
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his parents, were very rich.
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So they were able to
bribe the Roman authorities
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and to purchase
the body of their son
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and to bury him
properly. By the way,
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when I was in
Jerusalem, if you go
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to the Rockefeller Museum there,
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we see the remnants of
the bones of that young man
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and we learn something.
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Says that he was fastened
to the cross with three nails.
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Okay? Two of them
were on the forearm.
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So it was not here.
It was here, right here.
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Because here if
you put the nail,
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there is not too much, I mean,
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there is a pain
but not too much.
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When you put here,
it's agonizing pain.
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But I still
cannot erase from my mind
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what I saw about the third nail.
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And please I'd like to
demonstrate a little bit--
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So you're talking
about nails in the feet.
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Feet. Usually, people
think that the nail went here,
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but actually he was fastened
on the cross and put away.
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His body was completely twisted
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and very huge nail was put here,
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through this bone
here, through this joint here
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and come here
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and that's how He
was nailed on the cross.
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So can you imagine, I mean,
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when he was hanging
on that cross there.
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When you go to the museum,
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there is an astonishing
scenery that you can see.
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Evidently, they could
not pull out the nail,
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you know, to bury him.
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So they cut the
piece of the cross.
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And it was in
such condition that
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this young man was
buried. And of course,
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one of the terrible things about
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crucifixion was actually,
a person couldn't breathe
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and they would have
to push themselves up.
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Imagine with that
spike through your ankles.
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Actually,
really, when the person
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was on the cross, the
person could easily die
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because the
pressure was so much,
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he could not breathe.
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So what they put
there, on that vertical
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beam on the cross,
they would put here
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support to keep the person
alive as long as possible.
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So that person would suffer
and die in the agonizing pain.
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But so many times when we watch
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the picture of
crucified Jesus on the cross,
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it looks so nice that
almost you like to be there.
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But we have to
understand that actually,
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the person was stripped
of the clothes, of the robes.
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We read it clearly
in the Gospel of Matthew
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and other gospels. The
person was on the cross
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completely naked.
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The humiliation was
total. Actually, Glenn,
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this is what explains
what happened at noon,
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actually, in the
sixth hour. What do--
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If I may read Mathew
27 verse 45 and following.
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"Now from the sixth
hour there was darkness
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over all the land
until the ninth hour."
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So let's remember, He's been
on the cross for three hours,
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now moves to the next stage
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and darkness
surrounds the cross.
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So there was
mocking, there was, you know,
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laughing,
torture, spitting on Jesus,
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accusations, all kind.
But now happened something,
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what was that--Now we
even see nature responding.
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"About the ninth hour,
Jesus cried with a loud voice,
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'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?'
That is, 'My God, My God,
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why have you forsaken me?'
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And some of the
bystanders, hearing it, said,
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This man is calling
Elijah.' And one of them
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at once ran and took a sponge,
and filled it with vinegar.
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Put it on a reed
and gave Him to drink.
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But the others said, 'Wait,
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let us see whether
Elijah will come and save him.
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'" What an attitude.
So what happened at noon?
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Darkness, why
darkness? We have to understand
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that the Father was
still close to His son there.
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So we have here the
heaven's intervention,
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even the sun
darkened. Why? To cover Jesus,
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to hide Him from
the eyes of the people
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being humiliated
there on the cross.
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So for three hours,
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people could
hardly even see Jesus.
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The darkness was so dense there.
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And, you know, we should
pause right here to notice,
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sometimes in our experience,
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God may seem far away just like
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He seemed so far from Jesus.
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But He was right there beside.
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The sin blotted
His presence out.
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But the Father was with the Son.
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He never abandoned Jesus,
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even though the
experience was so difficult.
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And we should
remember that in our own lives,
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sometimes we just can't see God.
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It doesn't mean He's not there.
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It means that there's
a darkness that comes.
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My Father, my Father,
why have you forsaken me?
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The Father did not
forsake-- But He felt forsaken.
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He couldn't see
beyond the cross.
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Only faith hung on. And, Glenn,
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I would like to go
to the final point.
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And finally Jesus died.
Verse 50, what was going on?
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"And Jesus cried
again with a loud voice,
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and yielded up His spirit.
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And behold, the curtain of
the temple was torn in two,
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from top to bottom.
And the earth shook,
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and the rocks were
split. The tombs were opened.
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And many bodies of the saints
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who had fallen
asleep were raised."
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We should notice
at the ninth hour,
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at 3 o'clock, was the time
of what, the Passover lamb?
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Passover lamb. The
slaying of the Lamb.
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Has been fulfilled with Jesus--
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You know, for
centuries, the Jewish people
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were offering that
sacrificial lamb on the altar
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and with every Passover,
they would eat that lamb
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and take the blood and
put there on the doorpost.
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And now at the moment,
you see that the Lamb of God,
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the real Lamb finally died,
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was offered on the altar
00:10:06.53\00:10:09.24
for the sins of all
people who lived before.
00:10:09.27\00:10:12.07
You remember? Yes.
00:10:12.11\00:10:13.48
The beginning of
the gospel of Matthew,
00:10:13.51\00:10:14.88
Jesus came to save His
people from their sins.
00:10:14.91\00:10:17.41
Now that salvation is
there provided, and now,
00:10:17.45\00:10:20.62
all the function of the temple,
00:10:20.65\00:10:22.22
all the lessons
that the temple--
00:10:23.85\00:10:25.69
that the rituals in the
temple were teaching people
00:10:25.72\00:10:29.19
actually came to the end.
00:10:29.22\00:10:30.59
You don't need
anymore animal sacrifices.
00:10:30.63\00:10:33.03
You don't need the
animal blood because
00:10:33.06\00:10:35.10
now the live
sacrifice, the live sacrifice of
00:10:35.13\00:10:38.53
Jesus Christhas been offer.
00:10:38.57\00:10:39.93
But there is
also the second point.
00:10:39.97\00:10:41.70
When Jesus died,
there was an earthquake.
00:10:41.74\00:10:43.97
What happened,
Glenn, with the earthquake?
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This is a detail
that's often neglected.
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The earth shook, and
verse 51 "The tombs were opened.
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And many bodies of the saints
00:10:51.61\00:10:52.98
who had fallen
asleep were raised.
00:10:53.01\00:10:54.85
Coming out of the
tombs after His resurrection,
00:10:54.88\00:10:57.39
they went into the holy
city and appeared to many."
00:10:57.42\00:11:00.56
It's very hard to
deal here with this text
00:11:00.59\00:11:02.79
because it's not clear
00:11:02.82\00:11:04.26
if those people were resurrected
00:11:04.29\00:11:07.60
at the moment Jesus died
00:11:07.60\00:11:08.96
or at the time
of His resurrection.
00:11:09.00\00:11:11.37
When I look
Greek text carefully,
00:11:11.40\00:11:14.20
it indicates the
moment Jesus died,
00:11:14.24\00:11:16.74
the tombs were
opened and they resurrected
00:11:16.77\00:11:20.94
most likely at the
resurrection of Jesus,
00:11:20.98\00:11:24.01
which was on Sunday.
00:11:24.05\00:11:25.41
They went there to
Jerusalem to show themselves
00:11:25.45\00:11:28.55
there to the people
and actually this group--
00:11:28.58\00:11:32.72
people were very
much curious about.
00:11:32.75\00:11:35.12
Who were those
people? And the few things
00:11:35.16\00:11:39.23
that the rest of
the Bible indicates was,
00:11:39.26\00:11:42.90
most likely we are dealing here
00:11:42.93\00:11:44.70
with the prominent
00:11:44.73\00:11:47.57
personalities of
the Old Testament.
00:11:47.60\00:11:50.61
Who knows? Maybe
David, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
00:11:50.64\00:11:54.31
prominent personalities
of the Old Testament.
00:11:54.34\00:11:56.78
They were
resurrected. What did they do?
00:11:56.81\00:11:59.58
They went there to
Jerusalem, telling people,
00:11:59.61\00:12:02.72
you crucified the promised one.
00:12:02.75\00:12:04.69
You see we are talking
about the day of Pentecost,
00:12:04.72\00:12:08.12
how 3,000 people responded,
5,000 people responded.
00:12:08.16\00:12:12.79
There was not any emotional
outbreak at Peter's preaching
00:12:12.83\00:12:17.00
Actually, those people repented
00:12:17.03\00:12:18.80
and the ground was
prepare with powerful
00:12:18.83\00:12:22.67
testimony of this
resurrected saints.
00:12:22.70\00:12:25.14
Just to the
viewers, most likely,
00:12:25.17\00:12:27.71
these resurrected
saints, they ascended with Jesus
00:12:27.74\00:12:31.98
to the heavenly
places, according to Ephesians
00:12:32.01\00:12:34.92
Chapter 4 and they were the ones
00:12:34.95\00:12:37.19
presented in the Book
of Revelation as 24 elders
00:12:37.22\00:12:40.49
there before the
throne of God. You go.
00:12:40.52\00:12:43.29
So we see this
incredible experience.
00:12:43.32\00:12:46.63
Jesus had said I
have the keys of heaven
00:12:46.66\00:12:50.20
and of death and when
He dies the graves open.
00:12:50.23\00:12:53.77
Actually, these resurrected
saints were the first
00:12:53.80\00:12:57.14
fruit of Jesus'
resurrection, telling us that
00:12:57.17\00:13:01.68
one day we accept today
Jesus Christ as our Savior.
00:13:01.71\00:13:04.91
We will one day resurrect,
00:13:04.95\00:13:06.98
and be with Jesus
there in the heavenly
00:13:07.02\00:13:09.28
places through
all eternity. Amen.
00:13:09.32\00:13:11.05