Sermon Tone Analysis
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Imagine with me you are driving down the road and as you come into a populated area the speed limit drops.
You drive on oblivious to the change in conditions and “program”.
Just a bit up the road is a roadside speed trap.
You zip right on through at the pace you were going before coming into that town.
The letter comes to you box, and you say, “Oh, but I did not see the sign!”
Does that excuse you and make you innocent?
No.
As gentile believers, we know that the signs are for the Jews and we work off the wisdom of God.
However, if we fail to see the signs, we will find ourselves guilty all the same.
Today we want to see the signs around the cross so we better know what God was doing, thus being better prepared to see what God is doing today!
Sign #1 - Darkness
They drove the nails at about 9:00 AM.
At noon everything goes dark.
Psalm 22.2 suggests a period of light and a period of darkness.
Throughout the time Jesus spent on the cross, we see things and even quotes from the Old Testament.
These are not accidental or coincidence.
These are signs to show the Jews, and us, the Saviour.
Don’t rush past them; even the small things.
It was during this time that God was showing His disapproval of sin, because Jesus is bearing the weight of all our sin.
The sign was also more obvious to those who knew their Jewish history.
Just as there were 3 days of darkness in Egypt before Passover (Ex 10.21-23) so too there were three hours of darkness as the Lamb of God dies of our sins and so allows God’s wrath to pass over us.
see: 2 Cor 5.21, Gal 3.13
Sign #2 - Jesus cried out with a loud voice.
Jesus has now been hanging there for six hours.
By this time a person being crucified is short of breath.
The pain worsens by the inability of the body to get a good supply of oxygen to the muscles.
I am sure if you or I just tried to hold our hands up for 6 hours we would be in great pain.
Note He used “a loud voice”
When you can’t breath, it is hard to be loud.
Yet as part of this sign it is noted for all time that it is a loud voice.
Everyone heard His cry!
Jesus quotes Psalm 22.1 as part of this sign.
Jesus shouts these words in Hebrew.
It does get a reaction!
Some people thought He was crying out to Elijah!
Why?
There were no such prophecies saying Elijah would help in such a situation, but there is for God (El) is the common name for God
Adding the “i” to the end of God (Eli) adds the personal pronoun “My” in English.
Why wouldn’t a person be calling out to God at this point?
Add to this that all His life He had lived to show people the Father.
Then, because of his loud cry, one person seeks to take action.
We do not know who this was, but we do know that he was condemned for his kindness by other people.
Finally, the life Jesus had lived as a perfect example, came to an end!
Again a loud voice heard by everyone.
Again a statement to prove who He is.
John 10:15–17 (ESV)
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.
I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.
So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
Sign #3 - The Temple veil
We are stronger Christians for understanding the things that happened and why they happened.
The rending of the veil symbolized the wonderful truth that the way was now open to God (Heb.
10:14–26).
There was no more need of temples, priests, altars, or sacrifices.
Jesus had finished the work of salvation on the cross.
Proof that the work was sufficient would take another 3 days to see - His resurrection!
For now, we need to see that it could not have been a man who tore it.
Not only was it a series of materials that ended up being about the thickness of the width of your hand according the the Old Testament records.
But it is also top to bottom.
No, it was not the earthquake that follows that tore it as sometimes displayed in movies.
That would go against the science of Physics.
To not contradict physics would require the walls to also fall down.
God is at work opening the way between Himself and the people He created!
Access to God is now open!
This too shows us sin was paid for when Jesus made that last shout - and not at the point of resurrection.
Sign #4 - Earthquake that splits rocks
This is a sign in its own right.
It reminds us of what happened at Mount Sinai when God handed down the LAW.
Ex 19.16ff
We should also remember that earthquakes symbolized God’s mighty acts over 10 times in Scripture.
The earthquake at Calvary signified that the demands of the Law had been met and the curse of the Law forever abolished (Heb.
12:18–24).
Hebrews 12:24 (ESV)
24 Jesus, the mediator of a New Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood ...
The LAW is now fulfilled!
There is one other reference for this sign.
In Luke we read about what would happen if the religious leaders were able to stop people from worshiping.
Were these stones splitting at the death of Christ Jesus actually calling out?
I think so!
Sign#5 - Resurrected saints
This is so odd that it can’t be anything but a sign!
It was widely known that Jesus had raised people from the dead.
Now, at His death, many saints come out of their graves.
We do not know much about this.
However, there are a few details we can identify.
Tombs - plural, How many people are involved we do not know.
opened - remember, they were not buried 6 feet under like people today.
Many bodies - this is quite a few!
The words used make it clear that it was more than a small crowd.
And these are not ghosts - they have bodies!
Saints - these are people who had looked for God’s salvation.
They are called by God “holy ones”.
That could have been a great comfort to living relatives, yet also possibly hard to say goodbye again.
It is not likely that many Jews would be in the cemetery on Passover, since they might be defiled by the dead.
These resurrections could have taken place with nobody finding out at that time.
A simple reading of the text leads us to believe that these saints stayed in the cemetery till Sunday morning.
This too could have been to lower the level of fear about dead bodies around such a high and holy passover.
The opening of the tombs and people coming back to life revealed that by Jesus’ death, the power of death was broken
By entering the city of Jerusalem on Sunday the saints are able to be part of that inauguration of the new age of Grace.
This would have also been a slap in the face of the Sadducees!
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