You know, different people like different kinds of vacations.
Some people like sightseeing vacations, and some people like lie on the beach and veg-out vacations, and some people like vacations where they're completely isolated from everyone.
Well, if you're in the final category and you like completely isolated vacations, have I got a place for you? For your next vacation, how about renting a lookout tower? That's right. The Forest Service is beginning to rent these old lookout towers. You know, where the Forest Rangers would sit up and watch for forest fires.
They're renting them out now to vacationers. These towers boast 360-degree views in structures that are 100 feet or more high. Most of them cannot be reached by automobile. You have to either hike in, or ski in, or snowmobile in. They all have wood stoves for heat, but you have to cut the wood and carry it up yourself.
Most have no running water, no electricity, no toilet facilities, no kitchens, no telephones, and no emergency services anywhere nearby. In fact, many of them are so remote that the Forest Service recommends that children under the age of 12 not be brought to any of them.
Now, For us here, how many of you would this kind of vacation really appeal to? Would anybody really find, honestly? Really?
Well, God bless you. It wouldn't appeal to me all that much, but God bless you. Hey, and most of you didn't raise your hand. You know why? The reason is because God did not design us as human beings to live in isolation.
God designed us to live in relationship, and nowhere is that more important than when it comes to our relationship to Almighty God, which is precisely why Jesus died on the cross, namely to repair the isolation between us as sinners and the holy God of the universe. And this is what we want to talk about today. Remember, we're in a series entitled People Jesus Met. And today, Jesus meets a Roman soldier who sat at the foot of his cross as he breathed his last earthly breath. And then that Roman soldier exclaimed, Truly, this was the Son of God.
But today in our message, I don't want us to focus primarily on this Roman soldier, but rather on an event that took place just prior to the soldier's comment. I want us to focus on the very first thing, the very first action that God did after the death of Jesus on the cross, namely tearing the veil of the temple in Jerusalem in two. And so we want to go back 2,000 years and we want to see what happened. And then we want to bring all of that forward and we want to talk about, well, what difference does that make for you and me today? Our passage is Matthew chapter 27, where Jesus is hanging on the cross, and we begin at verse 45.
The Bible says, now from the sixth hour, that is noon, till the ninth hour, that is 3 p.m., darkness came over the land. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachani, which means in Aramaic, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of those who were standing there, when they heard this, said, This man is calling for Elijah. And immediately one of them ran, took a sponge, and filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink.
Now, in Jesus' day, sour wine like this was used as an analgesic, as a painkiller, because of the alcohol in it. The point is that this person was trying to be nice to Jesus. Verse 49. But the rest of them said, leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him.
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he yielded up his heart. His spirit. And at that moment, the veil of the temple, that is in Jerusalem, was torn in two, and rocks were split, and many tombs broke open, and the bodies of many holy people were raised to life. Verse 54.
Now, When the centurion, the Roman officer, and the soldiers who were with him guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and everything else that had happened, they were terrified and they exclaimed, Surely this was the Son of God.
Now, here in Matthew chapter 27, the Bible tells us that God's first official act after Jesus died was that he tore the veil of the Jerusalem temple in two from top to bottom.
Now, for us to understand this veil and for us to understand the significance of God ripping this veil, we've got to go back and understand the floor plan of the temple that was in Jerusalem.
So, let me just explain that to you. The temple there in Jerusalem had a number of courts leading up to the temple building itself. And when a person finally reached the temple building, they found that the building itself was divided into two rooms. Let me show you a schematic. The outer room, the larger room, was called the holy place, where the priests went through a number of their daily functions.
The back room at the back end of the temple building was called, it was smaller, and it was called the Holy of Holies. This was the most sacred place in all Israel because it was here that God's personal presence dwelled, and it was here also where the Ark of the Covenant was located with its lid of solid gold called the mercy seat. The Ark was the most single important item in all Jerusalem. Except, as we all know, the Ark is no longer in Jerusalem, it's in a warehouse in Washington, D.C., as we all know.
Now, no one was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies except the high priest of Israel once a year. Once a year on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, as explained in Leviticus chapter 16, the high priest alone would enter into the Holy of Holies, taking a bowl full of blood from a blemishless lamb that he had just sacrificed. He would sprinkle the blood on top of the ark, on the mercy seat, as a sin offering to God on behalf of the nation. And in response, God promised to forgive, to overlook the sin of the nation for that past year. The writings of the rabbis tell us that when the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the other priests would first tie a rope around one of his ankles just in case he dropped dead while he was inside the Holy of Holies, just in case.
God struck him down while he was in the Holy of Holies. The purpose of the rope is so they could pull his dead body out of the holy of holies. Otherwise, his body would have to stay in there and rot until the new high priest could go in there and retrieve it on the next Yom Kippur. The point is, no Jew would even consider going into the Holy of Holies, not even to retrieve the body of the dead high priest. This is how inviolable, this is how off-limits the Holy of Holies was.
And what separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was a thick, opaque veil, a huge curtain that hung from ceiling to floor. What do we know about this veil?
Well, the rabbis tell us that this veil was a solid piece of cloth that was 60 feet high, 20 feet high. Feet wide, and the thickness of a man's hand from the end of his thumb to the end of his middle finger are therefore about six to nine inches in thickness. The rabbis also tell us that this cloth weighed so much that it took 300 priests at once to hoist it up and maneuver it into place. You say, wow, Lon, this was one hunkin' big piece of cloth. You're right, it was.
And the reason it was so big and the reason it was so imposing is because this veil was intended to deliver a big and imposing message to people, which was, Lon, you don't belong behind this veil. Lon, you don't belong in the Holy of Holies. Lon, God is holy and you're not. Therefore, as a sinner, you have no grounds whatsoever. To come in here and stand in God's personal, holy presence.
Now, I would call that a pretty big and imposing message, wouldn't you? Yeah. And friends, this veil was the symbol of that alienation and that isolation and that fractured relationship that exists between sinners and a holy God. But it was this veil that God ripped in two from top to bottom at the exact moment that Jesus died on the cross.
Now, in light of the density and the thickness and the massiveness of this veil, I think we'd all have to agree that ripping it in two right down the middle had to be a supernatural act. It had to be an act of God, which raises the critical question: why? Why did God do this? What was so important about ripping this veil in half that God chose to make it the very first act He took after the death of Christ?
Well, that's the question we want to answer, but we want to ask that question just a little bit differently now. Do you know how we want to ask it? Have you figured it out? You're smart people. You know how we want to ask this question.
So all of you at Loudoun and Prince William and Bethesda and in the Edge and on the Internet and at Tyson's, are we ready to ask that question just a little bit differently? All right, here we go now, all together. One, two, three. Yeah, so what? You say, Law and so what?
Big curtain rips down the middle, bla de blah blah blah blah blah. What difference does any of that make to me?
Well, we're going to talk about it because it makes a big difference. You know, a few years ago, I was out in California, and I had my three elementary-aged boys with me. And we decided we were going to go to some baseball parks in southern and central California. And so we kind of made a little trek around some baseball parks. But the one I really wanted to go to the most was Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
And so we got there. There's a schematic of Dodger Stadium on the screen. And I bought some tickets kind of right behind home plate. And we were very excited about going. And so, what we do whenever we go to the game is we always go early and try to snag batting practice balls.
We've got a whole huge box at home of batting practice balls from various stadiums.
So we got there three hours early and we went in to our section there. But we realized where our seats were, you're not going to get any batting practice balls there. You're going to get them out in the bleachers, out in the orange part that you see in the outfield bleachers.
So I thought, okay, kids, come on. We're just going to kind of walk. Around and walk to the bleachers.
Well, I didn't know this because Dodger Stadium is just incredibly dysfunctional. But did you know in Dodger Stadium you can't walk from the main section into the bleachers? You can't do it. If you look very carefully between the main section of the seating and the bleachers, there's like a chasm, there's like a canyon you can't walk straight over.
So when I got to the very end, going towards the right field bleachers, there was a guard right there, right at ground level, and I said to sir. We want to try to go over here and get some batting practice balls. I said, Is it okay? I'll just go, you know, go out into the parking lot, go around, and come into bleacher section. He said, Oh, you can't do that.
I said, why not? He said, well, your tickets are for this section. I said, I know. I said, but but but but the bleachers are cheaper. I mean, I ought to be able to go down if I want.
I'm not trying to go up. He said, no, I'm sorry, you can't do that. He said, and, sir, if you go out of this section once you've come in, you can't even come back in this section. I said, oh. I said, well, I said, look, there's only like about six or eight feet of the field between the end of this section and the beginning of the bleachers.
Let us climb over and walk across the field and we'll climb in the bleachers there. He said, no, sir, you can't do that. I said, well, um, I said, I promise we'll come back when the game starts. I promise we'll come back. We want to get.
And he said, sir, I'm sorry, I can't do that.
So I said, well, now look. I said, we came all the way from Virginia. These three boys and me. I mean, I'm shameless, I'll tell you. I pointed to the three boys and I said, I brought these three boys all the way from Virginia, sir, just so we could go over there and get batting practice balls.
Can't you just kind of like turn the other way or have to go use the restroom or something? And when you come back, I promise you, we'll be gone. I promise. He's like, No, sir. He said, I can't.
You know what? We never got to the bleachers. Never did. And to this day, this is a source of deep grieving in my heart. That I don't have a batting practice ball from Dodger Stadium because I couldn't get into the stupid bleachers.
I had the wrong kind of ticket.
Now, you say, does this have anything to do with anything? It does. Because, friends, that veil in the temple was just like that guard in Dodger Stadium. He was there, and that veil was there to deliver a message to people. The message of that veil was: you got the wrong kind of ticket as a sinner to get in here.
You're alienated from God, you're isolated from God, you're separated from God, you're prohibited from direct access to God, and in your own human effort, there is no way in the world you can fix this. Ah, but look, my friends, the moment Jesus died on the cross for our sin, what was the very first thing God did?
Well, we just saw it. God ripped this veil in the temple in two, right down the middle. And suddenly, there was the Holy of Holies, the place where God's personal presence dwelled. There it was, open and exposed for everybody to see. Open and exposed for everybody to enter.
Can you imagine the scandal that this must have caused? I mean, think in over a thousand years, less than 50 beating hearts had ever seen what was now open for everybody to see. In over a thousand years, less than 50 people had ever been inside where now everybody was free to go inside. I'll bet those priests were running around with buckets of super glue trying to put that curtain back together. But friends, what God declares open, no man can close.
Amen. Amen. And all of this brings us back to our original question, which is why did God do this? What was so important about ripping this veil in half that God chose to make it his very first act after Jesus died on the cross? Here's the answer: the answer is: by ripping this veil in two, God was now trying to send a new message to the human race that because of Jesus' death on the cross, everything has now changed between us as followers of Christ and God.
As followers of Christ, God was sending the message that now the way into his personal presence is open to us.
Now we have been granted direct access into his very holy personal presence. And friend, not just once a year, like the Jewish high priest, but we have been granted access every moment of Every day, of every month, of every year, forever. Praise the Lord.
Now You say lawn. Are you sure you're not reading? Way too much. Into a torn curtain. I mean, you've built a whole theological treatise on this torn curtain.
Are you sure you're not like overdoing this? Oh, I'm positive. Listen to Hebrews chapter 9 teaches the very same thing. Here we go. Hebrews 9, verse 3.
It says, Behind the veil there was a room called the Holy of Holies, and into this room the high priest alone would enter once a year, never without blood, which he offered for his sins and the sins of all the people.
Now, we know this. We already know this. We just talked about this, right?
Okay, watch, verse 8. By this, you say, by what?
Well, by the fact that only the high priest could go in, and he could only go in by himself once a year. By this, the Holy Spirit was showing us that the way into the Holy of Holies had not yet been granted to everyone. But, wow, what a great word here. But, the Bible says, when Jesus Appeared, he entered into the Holy of Holies once for all, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood to thereby obtain eternal redemption for us. Hebrews 10:19.
Therefore, brethren, now, friends, when you see a therefore in the Bible, you find out what it's there for. Do you understand what I'm saying? Therefore, therefore, what? Therefore, since Jesus has gone into the Holy of Holies with his own blood, therefore, since Jesus has purchased eternal redemption for us, therefore, since God has ripped the veil in the temple in two, therefore, brethren, watch, by the blood of Jesus, we now have confidence to enter the Holy of Holies by means of this new and living way which He, Jesus, inaugurated for us through the veil. Verse 22: As a result, let us as believers draw near to God.
Let us now come into God's holy presence. As believers, we have permission to do this now. As believers, we have the right to do this now. As believers, God appeals to us and invites us in now. Let us draw near to God in full assurance of faith.
Our knees don't need to be knocking together and we don't need to be scared to death to go in there. But because we're covered by the blood of Christ, we have full assurance to go in to the very presence of God. Friends, do we see what the Bible is telling us here? That Jesus shed his blood on the cross and purchased our redemption on the cross so he could destroy the barrier between us as sinners and God. The barrier that that veil in the temple represented.
Is telling us that when a person becomes a true follower of Christ, God invites this person into His personal holy presence. More than that, God welcomes that person into His presence. There is no more veil. It's gone. It's been torn in two.
It is ripped. And we are free to enter the Holy of Holies and commune with Almighty God in the deepest and most intimate way, anytime we want, anywhere we want, without any limitations. This is the message of the torn veil. Amen. What a great message it is.
And you know, Romans chapter 5 says the same thing. Romans chapter 5, verse 1. Therefore, since we have been justified, declared not guilty in God's judicial sight by faith in Jesus Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Watch, through whom, that is, through whom the Lord Jesus Christ, we have gained, what's the next word? Say it out loud.
access. We have gained access. Into this gracious position with God in which we now stand. You know how some countries are granted by the United States, we grant them favored nation status. You know how we do that?
And then all of a sudden, that nation is given all kinds of special privileges that other nations aren't given?
Well, friends, what the Bible is telling us here in Romans chapter 5 is that when we place our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross, God grants us favored person status, justified person status, which gives us, Romans 5, verse 2, a gracious new position with God that we never had before, which, according to John 1:12, makes us the children of God. And because of this new position that we have with God, we now have Romans 5:2 access to God in a way that the rest of mankind does not have. Why? Because now we're favored. Family.
We're family. And family gets access. Right? Hey, you know, 1987 I was out in California at a place called Hume Lake Christian Camp, and I had my boys with me. And I need to tell you that I've lived here in Washington for 40 years.
And you know, in those 40 years, I've done just about everything in Washington I've ever wanted to do. But there's one thing here in Washington I've always wanted to do, and I've never been able to do it. And you know what it is? It's to go up and see the living quarters in the White House. Wouldn't you like to do that?
I think that would be so cool, you know? And I've never even been invited. And so we were out there in nineteen eighty seven, and it turns out my son Jamie was with us. He was ten at the time, and it turns out he ends up rooming with a young gentleman named Cameron. It just so happens his last name was Reagan.
Cameron Reagan. 1987. You got it?
Okay. Yes, he was the grandson of the president Ronald Reagan.
So Jamie's in the room, they're rooming together. And during the camp, I saw Jamie one day and I said, hey, and he told me what was going on. He said, Dad, there's all these people in golf shirts standing around outside, but that's okay. And he said, and you know, we had a talk, and I asked Cameron, I said, have you ever been in the White House? He said, oh, yeah, I've been in the White House lots of times.
I've even been upstairs and spent the night in the White House.
Well How come they never asked me to do that? They never asked me to come upstairs and spend the night in the White House. I didn't like this. How come he gets to go up there and I don't get to go up there? You say, Lon, what are you stupid?
The answer is obvious. Why he gets to go up there and you don't get to go up there. He gets to go up there because he's what? Ah, he's family. And family gets access.
Family gets access. Family gets what? Say it? Access, that's exactly right.
Well, friends, this is why the Bible says, Hebrews 4:16, let us therefore draw near with confidence, there it is again, to God's throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in the time of need. You say, But, Lon, even as a believer, my life is not everything it should be. I mean, to walk into God's presence like that, I'm not worthy to do that, friend. Neither am I. But the great news of the Bible is covered by the blood of Jesus.
God grants us that right. We have favored person status. We are family. And even though my children's behavior may not be everything it ought to be, they still have total and complete access to me anyway. Why?
Because they're family. And even though our behavior may not be everything that God would love it to be, it doesn't matter. We are family and we still get access to God. Yeah. Amen.
So let's summarize. And say this. That the great news of the Bible is Is that once we were enemies of God judicially? Once we were alienated from God, separated from God, isolated from God, but now as believers in Jesus, we are family with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto. I love that.
Got it off my college degree with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto. Doesn't that sound cool to say? It is. And one of those rights, one of those privileges, is that we have direct access to the living God of the universe any time we want it. Wow.
You know, let me say in concluding that I have a little confession to make, and my confession is that sometimes in the Um Circumstances of life, I get overwhelmed for a moment or two and I forget about the access that I have to God. I mean, instead of accessing His peace, I fret. And instead of accessing his strength, I exhaust myself. And instead of accessing his wisdom, I make a lot of dumb decisions. And instead of accessing his hope, I get discouraged.
And instead of accessing his grace, I try to slug it out myself. And the Holy Spirit's got to tap me on the shoulder and go, Hey, Lon, hey, Lon. Wait a minute. As God's child, you've been given direct access to God. He wants you to use that access to come in and get the supernatural help you need for your life.
Use it. And you know, friends, the same is true for you.
So as we close, I want to urge you, and I urge myself. As followers of Christ, folks, we mustn't neglect one of the greatest privileges that the living Christ has given us: the privilege to go into God's presence every day and talk to Him about every need that we have. Tests at school, proposals at work, health issues, parking spaces when we drive into D.C., lost keys. Say, what? Hey, doesn't God know where they are?
Doesn't God know where they are? I lose my keys. I say, all right, Lord Jesus. It's just this simple. I don't know where they are, but you do.
So you need to help me find them, because you know where they are. You said he finds your keys all the time. Why would you not ask God for that if you don't know where they are? He does. Friends, we rob ourselves of so much blessing the Lord wants to give us because we don't take full advantage of the torn curtain and the access we've been given.
Don't do that. Remember, as a follower of Christ, you have a gracious position with God that the rest of mankind doesn't have. You have an access to God that the rest of humanity doesn't have. The veil is torn for you. The Holy of Holies is open for you.
And I urge you to Believe God when He tells you that, and to accept His invitation to come in humbly, absolutely, but to come in with confidence and say, Lord Jesus. We need to talk. May God help us do that. Let's pray. Father, thank you for reminding us today of where we stand with you if we're a true follower of Christ.
that we stand in a new Gracious position with you. That the rest of the world doesn't have a new gracious position that we didn't have before we came to Christ. We're family. And family gets access. And so, Lord Jesus, I pray that you would.
Convict us. of our Tremendous privilege, and help us use that privilege each and every day that you've granted us to get the help that we need with our struggles and our issues. Lord Jesus, help us not neglect this great privilege you've given us. The Holy of Holies is open to us. The curtain, the veil is torn for us.
Lord Jesus, thank you for that. and help us to appropriate that. every day of our life. Thanks for talking to us today. Change our lives and the way we live every day because we were here.
And we sat under the teaching of the Word of God. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said. Amen. Hey, have a great weekend.
God bless you.
