SSL:
Crucified and Risen
GE:
Mark, <crucified> and <<risen>> --- not Crucified and Raised.
SSL:
Read for This Week’s Study:Matt. 27:11-26; John 3:19; Isa. 59:2; Matt. 27:45, 46, 49-54; Heb. 8:1-6; Matt. 28:1-20.
Our Crucified Substitute
“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matt. 27:45, 46, NKJV). What is the meaning of this cry? How do we understand its implications in terms of the plan of salvation?
GE:
Mark, not our Resurrected Substitute
SSL:
Torn Veil and Rent Rocks
Each Gospel writer told the story of Jesus from various perspectives, but all focused on His death. Matthew alone, though, records the opening of the graves after the temple veil was torn.
ReadMatthew 27:49-54. What is the meaning of these events? What hope do they point to for us?
Jesus died right after the mob, in ignorance of Jesus’ real words, mocked Him about having Elijah come to save Him. Their mockery was another powerful but sad example of how Jesus has been misunderstood by many of His own people.
Matthew then records that the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The symbolism is unmistakable: a new era in salvation history had begun. The sacrificial services, for so long pointing to Jesus, were no longer necessary.The old earthly type was now replaced by something so much better.
Read Hebrews 8:1-6. What do these texts say that help us to understand what happened to the earthly sanctuary system and what has replaced it?
Matthew records not only the tearing of the veil but the rocks splitting, the graves opening, and some of the dead being raised—events that could happen only because of what Jesus had accomplished by dyingas our Substitute for sin. So here in Matthew, we can see things happening that the old system itself could never have caused. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Heb. 10:4, NKJV). Of course, only Jesus could take away sins, and for us the great result, the great promise, of Jesus’ taking away our sins is the resurrection from death. Without that promise, we have nothing (see 1 Cor. 15:13, 14, 19). In these early resurrections (we don’t know how many), we can see the hope and promise of our resurrection at the end of this age.
The Risen Christ
GE:
Mark, not the Raised Christ.
SLL:
The Christian faith centers not only on the cross but on the empty tomb.
GE:
Note, not with Jesus in the tomb.
SLL:
The truth is, the majority of people in the world, including non-Christians, believe that a man named Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross. Not long after Jesus lived we find historical references such as this one from Tacitus, a Roman historian: “Nero … inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians … by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.”—Tacitus, A.D. 57-117 (www.causeofjesusdeath.com/jesus-in-secular-history).
There’s little debate, then or now, about whether a historical figure named Jesus was condemned and crucified.
Crucified and Risen
GE:
Mark, <crucified> and <<risen>> --- not Crucified and Raised.
SSL:
Read for This Week’s Study:Matt. 27:11-26; John 3:19; Isa. 59:2; Matt. 27:45, 46, 49-54; Heb. 8:1-6; Matt. 28:1-20.
Our Crucified Substitute
“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matt. 27:45, 46, NKJV). What is the meaning of this cry? How do we understand its implications in terms of the plan of salvation?
GE:
Mark, not our Resurrected Substitute
SSL:
Torn Veil and Rent Rocks
Each Gospel writer told the story of Jesus from various perspectives, but all focused on His death. Matthew alone, though, records the opening of the graves after the temple veil was torn.
ReadMatthew 27:49-54. What is the meaning of these events? What hope do they point to for us?
Jesus died right after the mob, in ignorance of Jesus’ real words, mocked Him about having Elijah come to save Him. Their mockery was another powerful but sad example of how Jesus has been misunderstood by many of His own people.
Matthew then records that the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The symbolism is unmistakable: a new era in salvation history had begun. The sacrificial services, for so long pointing to Jesus, were no longer necessary.The old earthly type was now replaced by something so much better.
Read Hebrews 8:1-6. What do these texts say that help us to understand what happened to the earthly sanctuary system and what has replaced it?
Matthew records not only the tearing of the veil but the rocks splitting, the graves opening, and some of the dead being raised—events that could happen only because of what Jesus had accomplished by dyingas our Substitute for sin. So here in Matthew, we can see things happening that the old system itself could never have caused. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Heb. 10:4, NKJV). Of course, only Jesus could take away sins, and for us the great result, the great promise, of Jesus’ taking away our sins is the resurrection from death. Without that promise, we have nothing (see 1 Cor. 15:13, 14, 19). In these early resurrections (we don’t know how many), we can see the hope and promise of our resurrection at the end of this age.
The Risen Christ
GE:
Mark, not the Raised Christ.
SLL:
The Christian faith centers not only on the cross but on the empty tomb.
GE:
Note, not with Jesus in the tomb.
SLL:
The truth is, the majority of people in the world, including non-Christians, believe that a man named Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross. Not long after Jesus lived we find historical references such as this one from Tacitus, a Roman historian: “Nero … inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians … by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.”—Tacitus, A.D. 57-117 (www.causeofjesusdeath.com/jesus-in-secular-history).
There’s little debate, then or now, about whether a historical figure named Jesus was condemned and crucified.