The Easter sermon on Matthew 27:51–54 contains much that is doctrinally strong. It is not a vague reflection on hope or a sentimental meditation on mortality. It is a serious, Christ-centred sermon that treats the signs surrounding Jesus’ death as a revelation of who he is and what his death accomplishes. 

Its structure is clear: Jesus reconciles, Jesus shakes, and Jesus resurrects. The preacher explicitly identifies Jesus as “the Son of God, the Lord of life” and places the torn curtain, the earthquake, and the opened tombs at the centre of the proclamation.

Those strengths should be acknowledged before any criticism is made.

First, the sermon rightly treats Christ’s death as divine revelation. The centurion’s confession, “Surely he was the Son of God,” is not treated as an incidental detail, but as a response to the manner of Christ’s death and the signs that accompany it. Matthew is not merely recording unusual phenomena; he is showing that the crucified Jesus is the Son of God.

Second, the sermon gives proper attention to sin and judgment. The darkness at the cross is interpreted in relation to Passover and Exodus judgment. Sin is traced back to Adam and Eve’s distrust of God’s word, their disobedience, and their desire to determine good and evil for themselves. The preacher states plainly that “the result is death,” and that for Adam and Eve this meant being cut off from God and removed from his presence. That is a significant strength even when considering that “removed” is too soft. Genesis gives us not a gentle relocation but an act of divine expulsion. Adam and Eve are cast out from the presence of God, and that casting out is the immediate form death takes before their bodies return to dust..

Third, the sermon gives a strong account of substitutionary sacrifice and reconciliation. The torn temple curtain is explained in terms of access to God through blood sacrifice. The preacher states that the way into the Most Holy Place required blood to be shed and an innocent sacrifice to take the place of the sinner. He then connects the torn curtain to Christ’s once-for-all work: Jesus has taken our guilt, brought forgiveness, and obtained eternal redemption for all who believe. This is doctrinally rich and pastorally useful. It guards against moralism by locating access to God wholly in Christ’s death.

Fourth, the sermon avoids universalism. It asks whether the torn curtain means everyone is forgiven, then turns to the earthquake as a sign of judgment. The preacher warns that the earthquake is bad news for those outside Christ’s kingdom and says that an unforgiven sinner cannot stand before the Lord Jesus when he comes in judgment. Easter is not reduced to general optimism; it is preached in the light of final judgment.

Fifth, the sermon contains a clear evangelistic appeal. The preacher addresses those without resurrection hope and urges them not to wait, but to call out to Jesus, the Son of God. That appeal is stronger than much contemporary Easter preaching because it presses the hearer toward personal response rather than leaving the congregation with abstract theological information.

The Doctrine of the New Birth Uncovers Weaknesses

There are however, significant weaknesses in the sermon. These are best highlighted by drawing attention to the repeated refrain that Jesus has “authority to undo death.” The preacher says early on that Jesus’ death proves he has “the authority to undo it,” meaning death. He then repeats that Jesus is “the one with authority to undo death,” indeed “the Lord of life, who has authority to undo death itself.” Near the conclusion he says, “When Christ died at the cross… death died that day. He has the authority to undo it.”

That language is not wholly false, but it is imprecise. More importantly, it risks flattening the biblical doctrine of death.

In Scripture, death is not merely the biological event at the end of earthly life. Death has a twofold character. In Adam, death first appears as spiritual death: alienation from God, covenantal rupture, corruption of the soul, bondage to sin, and exclusion from the life of God. Physical death follows as the bodily outworking of that curse. Adam did not physically die the moment he sinned, but he did die spiritually instantly. He was cut off from God, expelled from Eden, and placed under the sentence of a curse that would eventually return his body to dust.

Salvation in Christ likewise unfolds in more than one stage. Those united to Christ are first made alive spiritually through Justification. They are regenerated, converted, granted repentance and faith, and brought into communion with God. Later, at the resurrection, their bodies will be raised in glory. In Adam, death is first spiritual and later physical; in Christ, life is first spiritual and later bodily.

That distinction matters for Matthew 27:52–53. The sermon rightly observes that “many holy people who had died are brought to life again” and identifies them as Old Testament believers whom Jesus honours. That observation is crucial. Matthew does not say that spiritually dead unbelievers were regenerated when the tombs were opened. He says that saints who had fallen asleep were raised. They already belonged to God before they physically died. Their resurrection was therefore not an instance of the new birth, but a bodily resurrection-sign given to those who were already saints.

Jesus Does not Undo Death

Matthew 27, then, does not show Jesus “undoing death” in a general or undifferentiated sense. It shows that Christ’s death and resurrection ultimately also secures the bodily resurrection of his people to new life. The opened tombs are not a picture of regeneration itself. They are a sign that the crucified and risen Christ has power over the graves of those who already belong to him.

This actually sharpens the evangelistic question. If only saints are raised in Matthew 27, the pressing question is not merely, “Will Jesus undo my physical death?” It is, “Am I a saint now before I too physically die? Have I been made alive before I enter the grave? Do I belong to Christ now?”

This is where the sermon’s refrain may unintentionally blunt the doctrine of regeneration. By repeatedly saying “Jesus undoes death,” the sermon can make death sound chiefly like a future physical problem that Jesus reverses at the end. But the unbeliever’s deepest problem is not merely that he will die physically. It is that he is already spiritually dead. He does not merely need resuscitation after death; he needs regeneration before death.

The new birth is not resuscitation. Resuscitation restores biological life to a body that has died. Regeneration gives spiritual life to a soul dead in sin. Lazarus was physically raised and later died again. The new birth, by contrast, is entrance into the life of the kingdom. It is the Spirit’s work of making the sinner alive in union with Christ.

Matthew’s Gospel itself gives the sermon a way to make this point. Though Matthew does not use John’s phrase “You must be born again,” Matthew 18:3 teaches the same entrance-necessity in different terms: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The key verb is στραφῆτε, an aorist passive subjunctive from στρέφω, used in the conditional phrase ἐὰν μὴ στραφῆτε: “unless you are turned,” or “unless you turn.” The aorist points to a decisive turning; the passive form is at least theologically suggestive, even if it may function idiomatically. Jesus is not describing a minor adjustment of attitude. He is declaring an entrance requirement. Unless this decisive turning takes place, one will certainly not enter the kingdom.

This is Matthew’s own way of pressing the necessity of inward transformation. The proud must be humbled. The self-sufficient must become dependent. The natural person must be turned. The childlike posture required for entrance into the kingdom is not sentimentality about innocence; it is the fruit of a radical inward change.

That is what the sermon needed to say. Matthew 27 shows that the saints will be raised. Matthew 18:3 forces the hearer to ask whether he is among those saints. The opened graves are therefore not only comfort concerning physical death; they are also a warning concerning spiritual death. Only those who belong to Christ will rise with him to life. Therefore, one must be turned. One must receive resurrection life now. One must be born again.

A more precise formulation would be:

Jesus does not merely undo death. He bears the curse of death for his people, conquers death by his resurrection, gives spiritual life now to those given to him, and will raise their bodies at the last day.

Or, stated homiletically:

The saints raised in Matthew 27 had already belonged to God before they died. Their opened graves do not remove the need for the new birth; they reveal it. Unless you are turned and become like a child, you will not enter the kingdom. You do not merely need Jesus to raise your body after death. You need him to make you alive before death.

This is the central critique of this article. The sermon contains much good doctrine: sin, guilt, sacrifice, substitution, reconciliation, judgment, resurrection, faith, and final hope. But its repeated claim that “Jesus undoes death” compresses too much into one phrase. It does not sufficiently distinguish spiritual death from physical death, regeneration from resurrection, or new birth from resuscitation.

Christ does not simply reverse death as an event. He saves his people from death in its full biblical depth: he bears their curse, satisfies divine justice, grants them spiritual life by the Spirit, preserves them through physical death, and raises them bodily in glory. Matthew 27 does not lessen the necessity of the new birth. Properly understood, it intensifies it. The tombs were opened for saints. Therefore, before we physically die, we must be made spiritually alive.

Not everything can be included in a single sermon. It appears from the Benalla Church’s website that this sermon is situated within a broader series, and that context should be acknowledged. Yet precisely because a single sermon cannot say everything, what it does say must not unintentionally blunt what the text itself requires. In this sermon, the repeated phrase “Jesus undoes death” risks weakening the necessity of the new birth. The preacher had already established the doctrinal framework for a fuller Easter proclamation: sin brings immediate alienation from God before it brings physical death; therefore, sinners do not merely need death reversed at the end, but spiritual life given now. Matthew 27:51-54 does not show the resuscitation of the spiritually dead, but the bodily resurrection of previously regenerated saints. The passage warning is therefore as urgent as its comfort: before we physically die, we must be spiritually made alive in Christ.

A full copy of the sermon is available at The Reformed Pastor's YouTube channel

More articles in "The New Birth in Exile" series