Gospels (84) - Matthew 27:51

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Gospels

Rusty's Notes

MATTHEW 27:50-51
50 But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

• Jesus died physically. Previously, Jesus had died spiritually.
• Jesus gave up His life freely. No one took His life from Him.

51 Suddenly, the curtain (veil) of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom,

• From the Talmud: About the curtain we have learnt: Gamaliel said in the name of Rabbai Simeon the Deputy [High Priest]: The curtain was a handbreadth thick and was woven on seventy-two strands, and each strand consisted of twenty-four threads; “its length was forty cubits and its breadth twenty cubits, and was made up out of eighty-two myriads [of threads]. They used to make two every year; and three hundred priests were required to immerse it. (Chullin 90b)

• It was a heavy curtain
• God split from top to bottom
• Hebrews 10:19-20 - 19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus--20 he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)[1]
• The curtain was symbolization of Jesus’ fleshly body.
• Jesus’s body veiled the Glory of God.
• The Glory of God penetrated through the body at the Mount of Transfiguration.
• Jesus’ body served as the veil.
• King Herod’s Temple:
• Exodus 25-40 – God gave Moses instructions for the Tabernacle.
• The Glory of God lived above the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle.
• The Glory would move and lead Israel wherever God wanted the Israelites to move.
• Then judges and then the Kings
• 2 Chronicles 5
• King Solomon built the 1st Temple.
• 586 BC – Temple was destroyed by Babylonians
• Ezekiel 9-11 – The Glory of God went back to heaven.
• Israelites in captivity for 70 years.
• Persians defeated Babylonians and King Cyrus allowed some Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. (Ezra)
• The Temple was completed in 516 BC. (Ezra 6)
• The Glory of God never re-entered the Temple.
• God sends two prophets – Haggai & Zechariah
• Haggai 2:9 - “The final glory of this house will be greater than the first,” says the Lord of Armies. “I will provide peace in this place”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. [2]
• King Herod refurbishes the Temple from 19 BC – 64 AD. (83 years total)
• Luke 2 – The Glory of God shone around them.
• Jesus walks into the Temple and fulfills the prophecy of Haggai 2:9.
• The veil pointed to Christ’s Body
• Revelation 1:6 - To him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.[3]
• 2 Corinthians 3:18 - We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.[4]
• Colossians 1:27 - God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.[5]
• 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 - 6 For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. [6]
• Acts 6:7 - So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith. [7]
• It was because of Jesus’ death
• From the Talmud: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple... the doors of the Hekal would open by themselves, until Rabbai Johanan Ben Zakkai rebuked them, saying: Hekal, Hekal, why wilt thou be the alarmer thyself? I know about thee that thou wilt be destroyed, for Zechariah ben Ido has already prophesied concerning thee: Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. (Yoma 39b)
• The doors of the Temple mysteriously opened by themselves in 30 AD.
• From Josephus: Morevover, the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it; who then came up thither, and not without great difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage of the enemies. So these publicly declared that the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon them. (Wars VI:5;3)

 
Menorah – Golden Lampstand – Golden Candlestick

• South side of the Holy Place
• 7 branches with middle branch called the Ner Elohim (the Lamp of God, western lamp, or the Shamash – Servant Lamp)
• Table of Showbread & Alter of Incense
• This lampstand provided light for the priests.
• From the Talmud: (unredeemed Jews) - [The seven lamps] shall give light in front of the candlestick; this teaches that they were made to face the western lamp and the western lamp faced the Shechinah; and Rabbai Johanan said: This shows that the middle one is specially prized.
• From the Jewish Encyclopedia: The... “Ner Elohim” (1 Sam. Iii.3), was left burning all day and was refilled in the evening. It served to light all the lamps. The Ner Elohim contained no more oil than the other lamps, a half-log measure (1 log contains the liquid of six eggs), sufficient to last during the longest winter night (Men. 89a); yet by a miracle that lamp regularly burned till the following evening (ib. 86b). This miracle, however, ceased after the death of Simeon the Righteous, who was high priest forty years before the destruction of the Temple. (Yoma 39b)
• From the Talmud: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the westernmost light shine. (Yoma 39b)

 

• John 8:12 – Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”[8]
• John 9:5 - As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”[9]
• Revelation 1:9-16 - I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
• 12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man, dressed in a robe and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest. 14 The hair of his head was white as wool—white as snow—and his eyes like a fiery flame. 15 His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of cascading waters. 16 He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from his mouth, and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.[10]
• He saw a Menorah with the Western Lamp as Jesus.
• Revelation 21:23 -  23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb.[11]
• Matthew 27:45-46 - 45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over the whole land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”[12]
• The light went out in the Temple in 30 AD.

But now the light shines through us.

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Heb 10:19–20). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Hag 2:9). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Re 1:5–6). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (2 Co 3:18). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Col 1:27). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (2 Co 4:6). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 6:7). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 8:12). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 9:5). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[10] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Re 1:9–16). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[11] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Re 21:22–23). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[12] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Mt 27:45–46). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.