He’s Alive
Matthew 27:27-54
The Soldiers Mock Jesus
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. 28 And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. 29 When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head.
31 And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.
The King on a Cross
32 Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross. 33 And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, 34 they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink.
35 Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:
“They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.”
36 Sitting down, they kept watch over Him there. 37 And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him:
THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
38 Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left.
39 And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”
41 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, 42 “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’
44 Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.
Jesus Dies on the Cross
45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 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?”
47 Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!”
48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
49 The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
The shift in the underworld, at Calvary, this was not just the death of a man, this was the death of death’s authority.
Matthew doesn’t describe a quiet passing; he describes a cosmic reaction. The veil tore, the earth shook, rocks split, and graves opened.
Creation itself responded to the weight of what was happening. “This was not a funeral this was an overthrow.”
When Jesus died, something broke loose in every realm: heaven, earth, and under the earth.
The veil in the temple separated man from God. When it tore, it was not man reaching God it was God removing the barrier. Sin no longer blocks access, the Presence is no longer restricted.
Relationship replaces religion. You don’t have to fight your way as the way has already been opened, “What man could not tear in thousands of years, God tore in a moment.”
The earth shook and Authority was released; The earthquake was not random it was a divine announcement. The kingdom of darkness felt the impact of the cross.
Hell realized something had shifted. The powers of darkness were being dethroned; creation responded to its Creator.
When Jesus died, hell did not celebrate, it trembled. “The ground shook because the foundation of darkness was cracking.”
Rocks splitting symbolizes things that seemed immovable being shattered. Hardened hearts can be broken; strongholds can be shattered.
What looked permanent can be undone. If rocks can break, nothing in your life is too hard for God. “If the rocks couldn’t resist Him, neither can what’s been coming against you.”
Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down. Graves opened at His death. Saints came out after His resurrection.
Death was disrupted before it was publicly defeated. These were not sinners these were saints who slept, people who died in faith. The cross reached into the grave and said, “You cannot keep what belongs to Me.” When Jesus died, death started giving up its dead.
The order of the resurrection cannot be missed here. Jesus was the first fruits. They didn’t come out until after He rose. Why? No one precedes Him, Resurrection life flows through Him.
John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
This shows divine order:
The cross opened it and the resurrection released it “The graves opened at the cross, but they walked out when Life stood up.”
Do you see what I see? The saints that were resurrected went into Jerusalem and appeared to many. “God didn’t give us their names, because the message was never about who came out it was about Who brought them out.
“What happened at the resurrection this was not private it was public. God put a witness in the streets. What had been buried became a testimony. God will take what was hidden and make it a witness. “What God raises up cannot stay hidden.”
There are people sitting in church with:
Buried dreams
Buried callings
Buried fire
Buried hope
But the same power that opened those graves is still working.
The cross could open literal graves; it can open anything in your life.
“What in your life has been buried?”
“What have you declared dead that God has not?”
Before resurrection morning ever came, the cross had already started emptying tombs. The moment Jesus died, death lost its confidence.
The graves didn’t open because time had passed, they opened because power had arrived.
Jesus said in John 14:6, Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
The Rapture of the church is the future event in which Christ will descend from heaven to gather His bride, the church, to Himself.
Paul describes it as a mystery previously unrevealed but now made known, declaring, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Cor 15:51-52).
The term rapture comes from the Latin rapio, a translation of the Greek harpazō, meaning to seize or snatch away, as found in Paul’s statement that believers will be “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Th 4:17).