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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) There is a Bible Study series based on the six sermons in this series. This may be found at: https://rcnz.org.nz/bible-study-material/ |
MATTHEW 27:51a
(Reading: Exodus 26:1-2, 30-35; Hebrews 6:13-20)
The Torn Curtain
Miracles at Calvary – No. 3
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
This text is found in the New Testament.
Of course, you say, it’s in Matthew’s Gospel.
In fact, it’s just about at the end of his Gospel.
So it’s definitely in the New Testament.
But when does the New Testament actually start?
Has that got you thinking?
Did you always think it was when you get to that break in the Bible - the blank page just before Matthew’s Gospel?
There is a quote you might know, “The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, while the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.”
The difference between the two testaments is described by saying that one conceals and the other reveals.
So, when does that change actually happen?
At which point does the whole mystery of the coming of Jesus Christ become open to all believers?
Considering the Jewish audience he was writing to isn’t it precisely here - in this text - that Matthew comes to this!
Here the Old is no longer concealed!
The glory was no longer hidden.
The veil which Moses had to put over his face when he came away from meeting the Lord has gone.
How much more of a symbolism could there be than this supernatural opening up of the place where no ordinary believer could ever go?
The place, in fact, where only one man could go - and that once a year, and that through great ceremony and a cloud of smoke!
Congregation, when Jesus died, this had to happen!
The sacrifices were all finished, because the ultimate sacrifice had been offered.
And with such a moment this was the sign to prove it was so.
Remember what the miracles in scripture were for!
They had to point to what God would do or had done in our Lord.
They are, if you like, sacraments - pointing and confirming where and what Jesus Christ is.
Charles Spurgeon even goes so far as to say that the torn curtain shows us the opening of the gates of paradise.
That’s what the loud voice from the cross did.
Our bleeding Lord has the key of heaven.
So, in the words of a first consideration to this text … THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE TEAR.
It had to be!
Nothing else could have made the point.
And this was always meant to be what would happen.
To understand this more we need to go back to when the Lord first told the Israelites why there had to be a tabernacle and what it was to be made of.
It was the tabernacle which became the temple in Jerusalem.
The tent then was no longer moving.
It was permanently housed.
What was in that temple, then, was still the same as God’s people had first been told.
The place where He would be among them was to be as special as ever.
And what it was made of showed it to be so.
That’s what we read in Exodus chapter 26.
There that incredible detail and skill hit you!
There the quality of the materials was undeniable!
It was the best!
Whether 1200 years B.C. or now in 30 A.D.
Congregation, this was made to last.
The length and the width certainly showed that.
For where have you met curtain this long and this thick?
Now, the thickness we have to especially note.
It is ten centimetres thick.
And our curtains might at best be, what, a couple of millimetres thick – perhaps half a centimetre at the most?
Someone might say, though, that the material was different.
But that still cannot account for this kind of width.
Because by what they normally made then this was far superior.
THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE TEAR!
Simply because that tear couldn’t ever possibly be there!
You see, this curtain doesn’t come with the best five or ten or even lifetime guarantee.
It was made to last for centuries.
Just in case you’re doing some maths in your head, and working out the time between Exodus 26 and the time of our Lord, you’ll need to remember this is the third temple.
While the way it was built is the same, even grander is some respects, all the furnishings were new within the last fifty years.
So there could be no tear from wear here!
And even if that were possible, there would have been rips all over it, and the tearing would most likely have come from the bottom up, or across - as we know is usually the case!
Nor should we think this has happened because of the earthquake.
Matthew would have mentioned the earthquake first if that were the case.
It was torn, congregation, because it was in the way.
Its purpose for being the most important room divider in the world was fulfilled.
That’s why it was done away with in the most miraculous way!
You see, it had been through this curtain that the High Priest would have passed from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place.
As also there was another identical curtain which separated the Holy Place from the Priest’s Court and the altar.
Some commentators think that curtain may be referred to here.
They say that because what is really being done away with here is the Levitical Priesthood.
And that was a closed society.
No one could simply join it.
Their privileges were not obtainable.
And so those glorious furnishings - while a beautiful sight to see - simply were not seen.
That access to the temple, which had been restricted to the men of this particular tribe of Israel, is now opened to all.
And so they say it’s the curtain which keeps them out of what the priests do which is here torn apart.
Everyone gets to look in!
Considering what the Holy of Holies had become, this is a good point.
Because the Holy of Holies had had certain powerful ornaments and objects.
Hebrews 9, the verses 3 till 5, describes them.
There was the golden altar of incense, and the gold-covered Ark of the Covenant.
It was in that ark that there was the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s rod that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
And above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the place of atonement.
Now, though, in this third temple none of that was there.
It was an empty room, the Holy of Holies.
And empty, too, because the Shekinah, the glory of the Lord, wasn’t there then.
The Rabbis acknowledge this in their historical writings.
They state that these five key elements were missing in the last Temple - the ark, the holy fire, the Shekinah, the spirit of prophecy, and the Urim and Thummim.
But, regardless, the Holy of Holies was where the LORD God had made His presence.
And if His people had returned to Him in reformation He would have been there again.
Yet no more!
THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE TEAR.
Because it was only physical it could be replaced, as in fact it was.
Temple worship still went on for some years after this.
That, however, was now definitely only going through the motions.
There could not ever be in this place the presence and blessing of the Lord of old.
The New Testament has come!
THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE TEAR … BUT IT WILL NEVER NEED REPAIR!
Forget it!
Christ’s body is the temple now that’s in each believer’s heart by His Spirit.
Klaas Schilder wrote about this, “This is a sign designed not to accompany the prophecy of Christ, but to seal it, and also to prepare for the prophesying of the Christ which will take place in the future by the Spirit of Pentecost…
“Moreover, God is not only prophesying … He is also beginning the new dispensation.
“The exclusive caste of the priesthood is deprived of all its privileges.
“After this all those who believe and through their faith approach God, will be called priests.
“That which Pentecost will realise to the full has its beginning here.
How can we know this?
I mean, could also this come out of this one tear - as devastating as it was?
Let’s note two things in connection with this.
The first is the time the curtain was torn.
“And behold” our text began.
Or “At that moment” it’s also translated.
It’s a specific point in time.
But which moment?
The moment Jesus died.
The exact split second He became the slaughtered Lamb was the precise moment the Temple went out of business!
You see, it was at that very point in time that a man had the right to enter heaven because of His perfect obedience to the Law.
That’s what Jesus had meant when He spoke of equivocating His body with the temple.
As our Lord answered the Jews demanding a sign of Him, in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
Then John goes on: “But the temple he spoke of was his body.
“After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.
“Then they believed the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken.”
This was the time that happened.
Now all that limited human devices could do in ministering for the LORD God is subsumed by the unlimited and divine One Himself!
The second thing we note is the effect of Christ’s work.
Because the way into heaven is opened!
And opened symbolically in a way which takes true faith into a whole wider way.
The incident in John 4, where Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman, brings this out.
You might remember how to get away from herself personally, because Jesus was getting a bit too close personally with His words, she raised the perpetual debate between the Samaritans and the Jews about where you are meant to worship the LORD.
But Jesus didn’t let her go then, either.
He took it right up to her.
While pointing out that the Samaritans had been quite wrong to worship on Mount Gerazim, He said, in verse 24, that the time was coming when the true worshippers will not worship the Father in Jerusalem either.
Because then they would worship in spirit and in truth.
This is that time now!
And Jesus, by talking to a woman of that despised, mixed-blood, nation, showed how many besides Jews would come into that Kingdom.
The tearing of the curtain ripped away not only the Old Testament ceremonial law, it also took away the barrier that had stood between Jew and Gentile.
Everyone now had access to the throne of grace, through the one great atonement and mediator, Jesus Christ!
Hebrews 10, the verses 19 till 21, rings this out.
It says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
The way directly to heaven has been opened up - and what a line that is!
No interference ever on this line!
Nothing and no one else can get in the way.
For we go through Him who is the Way, the Life, and the Truth.
In the words of the early Church Father, Chrysostom, “The veil was rent.
“Thus our Lord showed His power and wrath, and at the same time His love.
“He intimated that what was before inaccessible, was now made easy of access, and that Heaven would be opened, and that He our Great High Priest would now enter the Holy of Holies.
“They had said, ‘If he be King of Israel, let Him come down from the cross;’ but He proves Himself the King of the World.
“They had derided Him, saying, ‘You that destroys the temple,’ He showed that it - the temple - would be desolate, by rending the Veil.”
Congregation, we at the end of this sermon come back to the beginning of this sermon.
The change is devastating.
This is a whole new dispensation.
It makes the most amazing difference for our personal lives.
But it was always on the cards.
Or, I should say, it was always in His Word.
Jesus, the One who every time He was in the temple while alive cleansed it in one way or another, has now cleaned it up for ever!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
Lord God, how can we thank You enough for the fulfilment You worked in Your Son, our Saviour?
To realise again the effect of what He did is to be struck again by the amazing power of Your love.
And to think, Your temple is now upon our hearts, by Your Holy Spirit.
We can come to You directly, in Jesus Name.
And that’s exactly what we do!
Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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