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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/
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MATTHEW 27:53b
(Reading: Matthew 17:1-13; 27:45-56)
The Glorified Saints
Miracles at Calvary – No. 6
Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ…
I’m sure a number of you had a certain question on your mind after you heard the previous sermon in this series.
Perhaps you even asked that question of the preacher or someone else afterwards.
Reading through the verses 52 and 53 may have reminded you of that question again.
Or perhaps it’s come to you now for the first time.
And what is that many of you have thought and asked about?
It is something not actually directly related to the text.
And yet you just couldn’t help asking, could you?
“Where did they go?”
Yes, where did those resurrected saints end up after this?
Of course, that’s not the point of what Matthew is telling us about here.
He declares ‘The Miracle of the Open Tombs’ because death has been defeated.
The Advent Church returns to symbolise the fact that because of Christ’s death they are in glory right now!
But it’s a question that you have all the same.
Where did these men and women end up?
And, for that matter, where were they in the three days between the supernatural opening of the tombs and their appearance in the city?
There will be other questions, too.
This is a unique story.
But it is very true.
And here is why…
This is why, in the first place, we note … THE TIME THESE SAINTS REAPPEARED.
This is where our text says, “after his resurrection.”
You see, they haven’t actually been seen yet.
Their witness to Christ’s victory over death has been in the fact that they couldn’t be seen - at least their bodies, that is!
For everyone was able to see just which opened tombs had the bodies missing.
Those opened tombs had contained those who had so much believed and prophesied that the Messiah would come.
But now there’s no doubt they are seen.
All thoughts and talk about their disappearance vanish because they’re right there!
And they’ll appear, congregation, precisely after Christ has risen.
In the same way that the torn curtain, the earthquake, the rocks splitting, the tombs opening and their bodies being raised, occurred when Christ died, so we have a reason for this time now.
We read about something similar in the story of the transfiguration.
There was a definite purpose behind that.
That is a foretaste of the glory of the Messiah.
The three key disciples are pointed clearly as to where it was all going.
And it happens at a particular time in the ministry of Jesus.
In the same way, there’s a clear purpose in these saints appearing now.
They give a foretaste of the glory of believers.
We realise we’re being joined with them in the Church.
The Jewish rabbis had taught that in the messianic era many righteous would arise from the grave.
They had even go so far as to name which patriarchs would appear.
Now those righteous people are here.
The word of prophecy is falling into place.
It is all coming at the right time.
Because these saints only appear after Christ has risen.
They could only be witnesses when the Great Witness Himself had testified.
Klaas Schilder points out that the first Sunday of the Christian church, the first Sabbath of the New Testament, is here acknowledged and kept by the dead before it’s discovered and celebrated by the living.
The words of Romans 14 verse 9 become shown.
For the apostle states there, “Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of the dead and the living.”
Congregation, this makes the ultimate difference.
For - just think - the people of this world go to the cemetery to mourn.
And some of them spend the whole day there doing just that!
But Easter Sunday, for the Christian, turns the cemetery into the greatest reunion in history.
Man’s way leads to a hopeless end - God’s way leads to an endless hope!
You see, dear saints, together with Christ, who is the first-fruit, there comes all this other fruit!
It’s the beginning of the most incredible harvest in the world!
That’s why the text tells us about … THE TIME THESE SAINTS REAPPEARED.
Because it could not be any other time.
This is God’s perfect time - the right time.
And it could not have been in any other place.
This is what we go on in our text to see now…
THE PLACE THESE SAINTS REAPPEARED.
We have come to our second aspect.
“They went into the holy city,” verse 53 says.
And because of what we’ve read before it seems like that they came from the cemetery outside the city.
Not necessarily, though.
It all depends on where they had been during the three days in-between.
For if it is true that they had risen from the dead and come out of the tombs on the Friday afternoon, it would depend on where they had been since then.
This is commonly acknowledged by the commentators to be a mystery.
They say it is part of the unexplained - something we might get to know about in heaven, if we’re really that interested in it then!
Could it be, though, that in their glorified state they had been in heaven itself for that time?
That’s where a number of other equally glorified saints are - like Enoch, and Moses, and Elijah.
Then, when it was time for them to reappear, they did indeed go into the holy city.
The holy ones entered the holy city to testify to the Holy One!
Could they still now call Jerusalem the holy city?
She who had persecuted the prophets of the past.
And now she who had murdered God’s own Son - the greatest prophet of them all!
Congregation, she is the holy city.
By God’s sovereign grace she was the place where He had been among His people.
It was certainly not by virtue of the people themselves.
We could never look to them.
As indeed we could never depend now on the leaders and members of the Church universal.
But because she is Christ’s Church she is holy!
While we might despise what people in the church may do, let’s never disparage the church.
She is our mother.
God is our Father.
In Christ He is the husband who, like Hosea, has been the faithful husband, constantly saving her.
And, in the end, He paid His own life for her.
She still has His purpose for her to fulfil!
In Acts 1:8 the Lord Jesus, as He was about to ascend back to heaven, tells his disciples, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
You see, in this city it starts.
It is the capital city of the King.
From here the Gospel goes throughout the whole world.
Matthew’s readers would have been so overwhelmed!
Heaven had come down to earth - the soldiers of the King tell us D-day has come.
The battle has been won!
They come in the Name of the Son!
What may have been before the place the Lord had His presence was now only the first place of all the places His presence would be.
And it will be in Jerusalem that everything for us will end.
The new Jerusalem!
As the apostle John pictures it in his vision in Revelation 21, the verses 2 and 3, “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.
‘They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’”
The Jews have an expression which has passed down through the generations.
They say it to their fellow Jews when they take their leave.
For when they say goodbye, they say, “Next year Jerusalem!”
Christians, let’s look to enter the holy city, too.
Because we’re going to the One up above - the One where we’ll stay forever!
The time and the place these saints reappeared is vital.
It points to what Christ has done and the difference that will make - all over this world and for all eternity!
But these two things themselves could only occur because of … THE WAY THESE SAINTS REAPPEARED.
This is our third aspect to this text.
Here we consider the last phrase in verse 53.
“After his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”
Over the years we can meet all kinds of people.
Many of them we won’t remember at all in time to come!
So what would be the kind of thing that makes us remember them?
Because meeting these saints would have been an unforgettable thing!
Why do we remember certain people and not others?
Wouldn’t it be something that stands out about them?
Perhaps the way they look, the way they talk - maybe it’s that unusual name they have!
So what could it be about these men and women that not only would make them unforgettable, but would right then and there make them quite recognisable?
Even if they had died hundreds of years before!
The account of the Transfiguration helps us here.
For there it’s quite clear who Moses and Elijah are.
Jesus becomes glorified before Peter, James, and John, in the presence of two old covenant saints who are already there!
They whose brightness is so awesome!
It is that obvious Peter wants to put up shelters – tents - for them.
But that’s when the voice from the cloud speaks.
Then they know what the purpose of Moses and Elijah being there is for.
This is why those two were gone when the three disciples looked up after humbling themselves before the voice.
Those old covenant saints had performed their witness to their Lord.
And it’s the same in our text.
As soon as they had testified to the Lord they went up.
Let’s not think otherwise.
They could not have lived their lives ever again amongst us.
Just think of the confusion and disruption that would be for those who had died only a few years before.
Would their spouses have to take them back, even if they’d remarried in the meantime?
Besides Hebrews 9 verse 27 is very clear, “man is destined to die once.”
That’s God’s order for us.
Not even the hint of reincarnation here!
These saints didn’t live human lives again.
Nor either did they stay until Pentecost, as some have suggested.
Then we would be sure to find other references to them in scripture.
And, anyway, what could that add to their purpose for being here?
Because, congregation, these holy ones are here to connect Christ’s death to his resurrection.
They proclaim that He is the One - the Messiah all the ages of the Church have looked hopefully for.
What was sown in weakness, to use the words of Paul in 1st Corinthians 15 verse 43, is now raised in power!
We’ve got something out of this world to look forward to!
And it’s all due to the One they witness to.
To take our eyes off Jesus for a moment is to miss who this is all about.
He is Christ the King!
He rules everything because he has conquered death’s sting!
He didn’t sin.
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O Christ, Son of the living God,
We adore You who rose in the greatest triumph from the grave - You who bear in Your hands and on Your side the keys of hell and death.
We rejoice, O Lord our God, in Your mighty power and glory.
Raise us up with You, O blessed Saviour, to rule with You over all this world’s desires.
Fill us with Your Spirit that we may keep looking up to You, and living in You by Your Word.
And keep us looking to the Holy City, the country which is above, through Your love.
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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