Sermon for 6/4/2006
Curtain Torn in Two
Mark 15:33-41
Introduction:
A. Focus in on verse. 38.
B. So a curtain was torn! Big deal! Let me say that all of the members of the power team could not tear this curtain, or veil.
C. This curtain hangs from the ceiling. IT was 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and several inches thick. It was dense material; the thread count was very high. It also had gold and silver threads braided throughout the curtain. This curtain was so heavy that it took 300 priests to carry it.
D. It is significant to note that it was torn from the top to the bottom. God did this!
E. Also, this curtain separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was separated from all of the altars and other sacrificial instruments by this curtain. The Holy of Holies was only entered once a year by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. The high priest would take blood and sprinkle it on the Ark of the Covenant and the cherubim and this would symbolize God’s forgiveness of sins for the Israelites.
F. The Holy of Holies also symbolized God’s presence. It was believed that the Presence of God dwelt between the cherubim in that room. This room was closed all the year except on that one day for the high priest. This room was so sacred that when the high priest went into that room, he wore a rope. If he were to die in the Holy of Holies, the other priests could drag him out with the rope without entering that sacred room. No one could see God and live!
G. We know that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who recorded this event of the curtain, were not priests. How did they know? It was told to them by the priests that were there. Imagine the scene! It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon on Friday before the Passover. 3 o’clock was the traditional time of the evening sacrifice. With all of the people in Jerusalem for Passover, this would have been a very busy time for the priests. Most of them were in the temple sacrificing animals for this special time. Jesus was outside the city being crucified. At exactly 3 o’clock Jesus breathed his last. At that moment, the curtain was torn in two. The very presence of God was there and to have that curtain torn at that holy moment for all to see was a sign from God.
H. (Acts 6:7 NIV) So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
I. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus opened for us a new and living way. Living referring to his resurrection.
J. This torn curtain, veil in the temple symbolizes many new things for us.
Thesis: This morning let’s talk about 5 new things that this symbolizes for us.
For instances:
1. A New Revelation
A. The curtain that shielded the holiest part of the temple was torn away. This veil of secrecy lifted, and all could see the face of God and the love of God in Jesus’ death.
B. Humans can now know and confess what was already announced from heaven. At the baptism of Jesus: (Mark 1:11 NIV) And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
C. That room, the Holy of Holies, was dark and silent much like God was to the world. The tearing of that curtain let the bright sunlight into that room. This is a symbol of the great fact that in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, we have light thrown onto the subject of who God really is. From the gospel we know that God cannot tolerate sin and the wages of sin is death. But it also tells us of God’s love that is willing to sacrifice, to come down to our conditions, and how God takes upon himself all the miseries that we have, and how God dies because he loves and will save men from death.
D. How do we know this? Not because we think it or feel it or because it was told to us in sweet and kind words but we know it because of the facts. The only way that we can know men is by what they do. We cannot read men’s hearts. The only way that we know God is by what He does. We point to the cross and say because of that fact we know that God loves and that God cares.
E. Our faith is not based on philosophies or theories or wishes or dreams, but it is based on historical facts. The choice for us: are we going to believe or not? We either accept the historical facts or we have no knowledge of God at all. Many would prefer to have the curtain sown back together because then we can see nothing and we know nothing about God. We are not responsible. The curtain has been torn in two so that we can see and know God. WE have no excuses.
F. Toward the end of the movie the Wizard of Oz, the curtain hiding the wizard is torn away to reveal the fraud, an ordinary man desperately pulling levers. His power was nothing but smoke and mirrors. By contrast, when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain torn in two reveals an all-powerful, all loving God. Some do not like that and they wish that the curtain was back up.
2. A New Presence
A. The light came into the Holy of Holies but the Presence of God came out.
B. God’s glory cannot be confined to a building of stone and now floods the world. Just as the heavens ripped open and the Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism, one can imagine that the Holy Spirit breaks forth from the Holy of Holies to fill the whole world. God’s Presence is not limited to a chamber that only a high priest visits once a year.
C. God never wanted to be fit into a box. He never expected us to limit Him to one place on earth. This was a sign that God wanted to be let out, as if anyone could contain Him to a single building anyway. He didn’t want us to think of Him as located in a certain place, unavailable to most of us most of the time. Jesus said in John 4:34 that we can worship Him anytime, anywhere, “in spirit and in truth”. God is on call, available when and where we need Him. Wherever we are, God is – and He is ready and willing to speak to us.
3. A New Affection
A. In Bible times, how did people show their grief, their disappointment, their heartbreak? Many times they would rip their clothes.
B. at Jesus’ death, God responded as any Jewish father would at the death of His Son. When Jesus bowed His head and committed His spirit into His Father’s hands, God tore the curtain from top to bottom, as a sign of deepest sorrow, flowing from His love for Jesus. By this gesture, God showed that He had been close by through that horrible ordeal. Let me tell you, God is not distant from our sufferings. God mourned when His Son suffered for us. And God orchestrated the whole thing – God allowed Himself to suffer deeply – because of His love for us.
C. So let me encourage us to trust God with our hurts. Trust Him with our pains and sorrows and losses and frustrations. Trust Him with the thoughts we never tell anyone else. Trust Him that His ways for us are best– His love wants you to have the very best.
D. God is not cold. God is not far off. He is not untouched by the suffering we feel. He is not distant to our needs and desires. He knows what it’s like to live on this earth, and He understands what we go through. So no matter what we tell Him, He’s not surprised. He’s not unemotional about it. He loves us, he likes us, and He cares for us.
E. Jesus wept at Lazarus’s death and at other times, and with the curtain torn we can see even God the Father was grieved at the death of His Son.
4. A New Closeness
A. The tearing of the curtain signifies that the barriers between God and humanity have been torn away. It reveals the at-one-ment (atonement) now available between God and humanity. Priests can no longer rope God off from us.
B. (Heb 10:19 NIV) Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,(Heb 10:20 NIV) by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,(Heb 10:21 NIV) and since we have a great priest over the house of God,(Heb 10:22 NIV) 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.
C. We enter the Holy of Holies through Jesus Christ. The Book of Acts calls us the Way. We have a direct line to God. We are buddies with God through Christ. Even Gentiles, formerly banned from the Temple, may now enter into the Holy of Holies. The confession by a Gentile centurion signals that Gentiles will also be included in the salvation offered by Jesus’ death.
D. We see that not only are we accepted but we are close to God. We see that after the fall in Genesis 3, that there was a great distance between God and us. God wanted to be close to us so through the events of Moses; he was in the camp with the people of Israel. He was there but even there he was somewhat removed from people. He wanted to get closer so he sent Jesus Christ.
E. (1 John 4:13 NIV) We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
F. (Gal 4:6 NIV) Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."
5. A New Covenant
A. We have a new agreement with God. The torn curtain marks the end of the old order, the old Covenant or Testament.
B. It is finished. Jesus knew that the Old Covenant was over. The Law was satisfied through his sacrifice.
C. The veil is not opened but ripped in two, indicating its destruction.
D. The temple and it sacrificial systems are now redundant and unnecessary.
E. (1 Cor 11:25) In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
E. (Heb 8:13 NIV) By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
F. This is foreshadowing that God will forsake the temple. Sacrifices continued for 40 years after the death of Jesus, but if we go to Jerusalem today we will not find a temple nor will we find animal sacrifices. In AD 70 the Romans came and destroyed the temple. God let them do it.
G. The ripping of the curtain provides confirmation for Jesus’ words against the temple. (John 2:19 NIV) Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."(John 2:20 NIV) The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?"(John 2:21 NIV) But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
H. This is a big difference between the old and the new covenants. In the Old Testament, the temple was a building. In the New Testament, the temple is our bodies. (1 Cor 6:19 NIV) Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own ;(1 Cor 6:20 NIV) you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
I. Jesus was raised; the temple will be destroyed, its service judged and abolished. There is nothing holy about that grand building. There is nothing holy about this building. No matter where we are, we can worship God because we are the temple.
J. No more distinction between holy people and unholy people, no such thing as clergy and laity, we are all temples of the Holy Spirit. (Gal 3:28 NIV) There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
So what?
A. (Rev 21:5) He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"
B. When this curtain is torn, when this world is no more, for those in Christ there will be new revelations, we will be fully in the presence of God, God will wipe every tear from our eyes, we will be closer to each other and God, the covenant will be fulfilled.
C. (Rev 22:20 NIV) He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. (Rev 22:21 NIV) The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
