The Burial of the Son of God

You have your Bibles with you turn with if you would to Luke chapter 23 looking today at versus 5356 there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea he was a member of the Council a good and righteous man who had not consented to their decision and action and he was looking for the kingdom of God, this man went the pilot last of the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen trail laid him in a tomb cutting stone were no wanted have ever yet been laid.

It was a day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning the women who had come with him from Galilee followed Saul the tomb and how his body was laid then they returned and prepared spices and ointments on the Sabbath day they rested.

According to the commandment that with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly father, we are experiencing an up evil in our world.

Things are changing so quickly adjust Caesar spread over the globe and people all over the world are sick and many of died but there's one thing that is not changed and that is you. You Lord Jesus are still on your throne. Hebrews 13 makes is Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever. You have said in your precious word in John 14. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. We stand on that promise. Lord we have the privilege today to study your death and burial. May we understand its importance. May we be moved to repentance of sin and surrender to your lordship, forgive us for our spiritual apathy are laziness our lack of zeal to repent, forgive us for not being overwhelmed by the cross, your death, your burial, your resurrection, your ascension and your soon return open the word of God to us today. May we be broken and then healed. May Jesus be exalted, for it is the precious and holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, amen. Gerard David was a Dutch artist who live back during the time of the Renaissance. One of his most famous paintings was a painting of the removal of the body of Jesus from the cross.

The sky was angry and dark. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had taken a ladder and leaned it up against the cross.

One of them was plying the spikes from the hands of Jesus.

The other one was standing and holding the lifeless body of Jesus in his arms.

The women were seen in the distance and the women were standing there were tears rolling down their cheeks Mary Magdalena was wiping a tear from her eyes. She was standing on Golgotha and and under her feet. There were human bones, even a broken skull to remind us that this heel was a heel of death. But there was something very odd about this particular painting in the background of the cross. There was a windmill and there are no windmills in Jerusalem and although Gerard David is a man who came from Holland, where there are plethora of windmills.

There were no windmills in Jerusalem and and Gerard had to have understood that. So why did he put a windmill in that pain was someone finally asking and this was his answer. He said it's important to know that the crucifixion of Christ actually happened in the world in which we live. He said that he lived in a world of windmills, but we live in a world of high tech Internet we live in a world of high-rise condominiums.

But the point is the same Jesus really died and he was really buried in our world in space and time.

In other words, don't start the story of the crucifixion with the words. Once upon a time, this is not a fairytale.

This is real pain, real suffering real bloodshed and real death.

This morning we look at the burial of our Lord.

I got four points that I want to share with you this morning .1 is the mechanics of the burial look with me again at versus 5353 there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea he was a member of the Council a good and righteous man could not consented to their decision and action and he was looking for the kingdom of God's man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cutting stone were no one had ever yet been laid. Stephen Mansfield written a great book entitled killing Jesus and he gave the following description of what happened immediately after Jesus died, the chief priest ran very quickly to Pilate and I jumped on pilot, they said, look, you got to get the bodies of Dale from across those three bodies.

I got to be taken down. They gotta be placed in a two out of sight and it needs to be done right now. Now why was there such a rush. Why were they in such a big hurry because it was Passover season and the Sabbath day was only 3 1/2 hours away. Jesus had already died but the other two criminals are are still alive. They had not been scourged and so they could probably live another two days so Stephen Mansfield describes the scene this way.

He said the centurion nods to his men. One of the soldiers walked the short distance away and retrieves a board. It's about an inch by 3 inches wide and about 4 feet long.

It is for administering the breaking of bones and it comes with a steely logic. These prisoners were only allowed because they can still push themselves up to breathe. Keep them from breathing and they die. This means breaking their legs. A soldier moves to one of the living prisoners, broadening his stance slightly. He swings the 4 foot club at full strength into the impaled man's lower leg.

The bun cracks the man screams another swing in the other leg breaks the man sinks down as far as his pinned arms allow the cannot rise again so he cannot breathe. Within minutes he is dead. The soldiers turned to the King of the Jews. He seems to be dead. But when men of this detail and misjudge death before they paid for it. Better to be sure, grabbing his spirit mid shaft.

One of the mercenaries thrusted into the side of the dead man somewhere between the fifth and six ribs. No response. When the soldier pulls the spear out what looks like blood and water or out John, Jesus friend sees this, he had taken Mary to his house earlier as Jesus wished. But now he is returned he will tell often of the blood in the water that flowed from his friend side satisfied the centurion's men turned to the third prisoner and dispatch him with two blows of their wooden club. The work is done.

The prisoners are dead. I'll get back to Joseph of Arimathea, in a moment, but at this point, I will focus in on the. The burial of Christ. They took Jesus body down from the cross and they took it to a tomb. The tomb in which they they brought the body to was the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea it was Joseph tomb he had bought it for him and for his family. But now, time was of the essence. He had no time to run in and out in and buy another tune, so he gave Jesus his own tune, and Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea this fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53 verse nine it says they made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich man in his death.

This tomb was a very expensive time.

It was dugout of the side of a mountain.

It was but it was very expensive because they had to cut through solid stone to to carve out that particular that particular tune. I brought the body of Jesus and they laid him down on a flat stone that resembled a bed and then they took the shroud that covered over his body and then they took long strips of linen and I covered his body around and around and around until he resembled a mummy and and then after doing that they they took Jesus body. They laid it out and prepared it for the for the spices and the women came in and the women came in with 75 pounds of spices and and perfumes, and they covered his body with it when they were finished with that they walked out of the tune and when they they walked out of the tune.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and probably several of the soldiers took a huge massive stone and they pushed it down in the heel into the very entrance of that of that tomb and closed it up and then the soldiers came over and they put a Roman seal on that tune, but the Roman guard was not one isolated soldier the Roman guard was a squad it was 16 top-notch Roman warriors, much like our Green Berets while I was that necessary. It was necessary because they had the responsibility of being sure that nobody stole the body. Oh and by the way, if one of those soldiers happen to go to sleep while he was on duty. It was an offense that was punishable by death that takes us to point to the doctrine in his death. Look at verse 53 through 54. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cutting stone were no one is ever yet been laid, it was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning the death of Jesus is an historical fact that has doctrinal and practical implications. The death of Jesus is necessary for us to understand three major doctrines, the doctrine of the incarnation, the doctrine of the atonement and the doctrine of the resurrection. First, the death of Jesus and his burial was proof of his incarnation, the last 2000 years.

False prophets have denied the existence of the incarnation. They said it didn't happen that Jesus was not fully man as he was fully God.

The Gnostics said that Jesus was just an apparition that he was just an illusion that he didn't really have a body.

It just appeared to be a body but it was not a tree body was more like a well formed ghost box that's an absolute lie that is false doctrine and the death and burial of the Lord Jesus Christ is proof that it is false doctrine. Nothing proclaims the frailty of our humanity like a corpse just we are in the dust. We will return when Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus and held it in his arms. He was holding the body of a man. It had weight to it. This body had recently been alive and in view. There was glaring evidence all over the body of Jesus.

There was blood on his face, dried blood on his hands on his feet on his side.

It is bones were still firm and and his skin was cold.

This was not a ghost. This was not an apparition. This was not an illusion. This was a human body. The human body of the divine son of God. Secondly, the death of Jesus was the payment for our atonement. Jesus didn't just die.

Jesus died to pay RCN debt. He was our substitutionary atonement. Only one thing could pay off RCN debt that was righteous, sinless blood. Jesus never sinned and he was the only one that was qualified to be our substitute. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. First Corinthians chapter 5 of the apostle Paul referred to Jesus as our Passover lamb by that he met our substitute. 1200 years before Jesus was born, God sent the 10th plague upon Egypt. It was the, the plague of the death of the firstborn of all of Egypt, and God told the Israelites his chosen people to take spotless lamb without blemish to kill the spotless lamb to take his blood and put it on the doorpost in the lintels of each home and that night when the death Angel came through the death Angel passed over every home where the blood had been had been applied but I want you to know at that Passover lamb was a substitute for those people in those homes. Jesus Christ is our Passover lamb because he is our substitute. If I preach this once I preach this a thousand times and it never gets old and it never loses its power.

The death of Jesus Christ was the great exchange. It was the vicarious substitutionary atonement. Jesus Christ took RCN and he gave us his righteousness. He took our hail and he gave us his heaven, and he took our sorrow and he gave us his joy.

Hail, he did it through his death. Then he was buried, and he was buried in the tomb of another, the death and burial of Jesus Christ was an absolute necessary prerequisite for the resurrection.

This is only logical in order for someone to be raising the dead. He first of all to begin with. As to be dead. There could be no Easter without good Friday, there could be no resurrection without the crucifixion there could be no empty tomb without his death and burial, the crucifixion was just half of the gospel. The other half of the gospel of the was the resurrection.

Jesus died to pay RCN debt pretty rose the dead in order to break the power of death is very was done in preparation for the greatest event that the world has ever seen or will ever see the resurrection of Christ puts the resurrection of Jesus Christ was God's stamp of approval on everything that Jesus Christ ever said or did at Texas to .3 .3 is the courage of godly men look at verses 5353 again. Another was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea he was a member of the Council of good and righteous man who had not consented to their decision and action and he was looking for the kingdom of God, this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cutting stone were no one had ever yet been laid to go back to the gospel of John for second I get a little further information. John chapter 19 verse 38 through 40. After these things.

Joseph of Arimathea who is a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also who earlier had come to Jesus by night came bring in a mixture of murder in aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were called by the apostle John secret disciples.

They had not gone public with their profession of faith and they are not showing forth their love for Christ.

I respected him and they looked up to him and they probably thought guest might be the Messiah, but they had not may end up and said Jesus Christ is Lord, and we want the whole world to know what now what was the hold up.

Why was there. This hesitation and this tentativeness on their part.

They were both members of the Sanhedrin, the 7070 membered Jewish Supreme Court, and to be a part of that counsel was a great privilege there were many perks that came along with it. People show them respect. It paid extremely well.

They were constantly being asked to speak in and to teach and they were looked up to as the as the spiritually elite their status as members of the Sanhedrin met wealth and power and prestige and in position so for months what they felt in their hearts was not coming out of their males. They admire Jesus, but they admired him from a distance, they believed him to be theologically correct, doctrinally sound supernaturally powerful, prophetically accurate, humanly compassionate and divinely led, but to publicly confess him as Messiah that was going be tough, they would be shunned by their fellow councilmembers that would mean they'd never get another promotion again and it would hit them hard in their pocketbook so they just kept silent.

I tried to straddle the fence, they try just to be neutral. They weren't saying anything ugly about Jesus I want, like Ananias Annas and Caiaphas who were putting Jesus day on it trying to condemning or doing that, but neither that were they making a confession of Christ like Peter did when Peter said Jesus you are the Christ, the son of the living God. They were silent believers, silent believers, is that okay is that okay were living in a day and age in the society and culture. Chris becoming extremely difficult to take a stand for Christ. If people know that you are serious about Jesus being the only hope of our salvation that the shed blood of Christ is the only way that we can be saved and you will be hated by a lot of people in America. If you believe that sincere Jews and sincere Moslems and sincere Buddhist and sincere Hindus are gonna die and go to hail unless I come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior then you're going to be hated to be targeted in your to be punished. If you take a stance against pornography, abortion or same-sex marriage than you'll be persecuted. The persecution may be minor right now things are rapidly changing. Was it wrong for us just to keep quiet. Is it wrong for us to just say forget it.

The great commission.

What if Paul and said hey the Greeks are happy with their false gods there happy with their sex calls watch is not simply about telling them that Jesus said except you repent, you shall all likewise perish wash a lot. Tell these happy-go-lucky Greeks that if they don't come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior that they will spend forever in his eternal hail. If people are partying themselves into eternal hail.

Is it wrong for me to tell them the danger is it wrong took to pull a blind man away from a speeding car.

Is it wrong to pull a lame man out of a burning house.

Is it right to sit on God's revealed truth and be a secret disciple. Joseph of Arimathea Nicodemus watched Jesus as he was courage with the cat of nine tails will gather nine tails quilt was a whip that branched out into nine pieces of leather intertwined in those pieces of whether broken pieces of pottery and broken pieces of metal and when the boat when the when the soldier would take his whip and he would he would bring it down across the back of the prisoner. It would dig into is the person's skin and flesh and then when he would flick his wrist back. It would literally wrist rip the flesh from the back of the prisoner. The judge very Messiah and Nicodemus saw that happen to Jesus.

They watch the flesh literally being ripped off his back.

Thanks always paying whole, but even more than that. They saw them on the cross and they saw Jesus hanging from that cross suffering are hail for us.

They saw Jesus hanging on that cross, crying out, and said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me. So what did they say they said we can't stay silent any longer. We can't do it no matter what the cost, no matter what we lose no matter what people may think if Jesus could do this for us.

If Jesus could die for us. Can we not stand for him and were going to and if we perish, we perish.

The Scripture says they went immediately to Pilate and they demanded from Pilate that he give them the bodies they could give Jesus an honorable burial to go to Mark's gospel. You'll find that in the gospel of Mark. It says that that he that Joseph of Arimathea went totally to Pilate and demanded the body is straddling the fence days have ended is making a statement of faith that he made is gonna cost him and it's going to cost him dearly via Nicodemus or doing something that you would've thought the disciples would have done that, the disciples of the ones who had walked with Jesus for three years they had been under his teaching they had in watched his example. They have been empowered by Jesus to cast out demons to heal the sick to want to do miracles they had done all that, but then they refused to give them an honorable burial. They ran like scared scattered sheep. Joseph of Arimathea Nicodemus did not do that, they went they to the cross and removed the body of Jesus from the cross.

They took it to Joseph of Arimathea's own tomb. They placed his body in the tomb and then they took great spices 75 pounds of them with the women and took them and anointed his body for burial books they were making a statement and that statement was this Jesus.

We stand with you. We stand with you and come hell or high water. That will not change Philip Reich and made the following comments listen carefully. Barbarian Jesus Joseph of Arimathea became an example for every believer to follow. You taken your stand with Jesus at the cross. Are you willing to be identified with the Savior who died for you no matter what the cost.

Do you have the courage of your convictions or is your Christianity more or less a secret, it is one thing to praise God in church, but another thing to proclaim him out in the community do not base so concerned about your reputation that you failed to tell your friends what you really believe do not be so ambitious to advance your career that you compromise your commitment to Christ your art, your schoolwork or your business.

Do not be so jealous to protect everything you have gained in life that you will not give up what you need to give up for the glory of God stop me in a secret disciple and stand with Jesus at the cross.

Indeed, it is always at the cross with Christian stand with Christ shared in the fields of his crucifixion and serving him by proclaiming the message of the cross to a world lost in sin. My .4 is the compassion of general women verse 55 to 56. The women would come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid then they returned and prepared spices and ointments go back again to verse 49 it says, and all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stated a distance, watching these things. Joseph of Arimathea Nicodemus were members of the Sanhedrin. They had clout and when I went to Pilate and they demanded the body of Jesus so they could give him honorable burial.

Pilate immediately granted them their request. They had clout. These women did not have clout, they had no sway with Pilate. Nobody listened to them they could only pray and hope that somebody would take that body off the cross so they could honor Jesus by putting the perfumes in the in the spices upon his body. The disciples were no help to them.

The disciples all run away, but not these women. The Scripture tells us that these women stay. They are the cross to the very end when Joseph and Nicodemus arrived there and at the cross bring in a lateral hammer and shroud the women were absolutely ecstatic their prayers and then answered. Now they could anoint the body of Jesus with the spices and with these perfumes and they wanted to do that the body was placed in the tomb like begin to anoint the body. They work very quickly and very swiftly because they knew that time was the essence. What was the big hurry the Sabbath day was quickly approaching and so they wanted to get that body prepared and ready before the Sabbath day began. Why was that so important these women were dead serious about Abbe in the fourth commandment, they would not take it lightly, God said, honor the Sabbath day and they said yes Lord, we will want to witness that should be to the modern day church. Our society has little use for one day out of the week, being separated unto God and how how horribly serious this is an over these last few weeks as we been doing online streaming. The people have not been here in my heart is broken over that. That's a very difficult thing, but it makes me hungry for that day. We can meet again on God's day on our Sabbath day on the resurrection day and we can praise him together again if this thing is done anything is made in the hunger for the for the public worship of our Lord and Savior. Nancy Gibbs wrote the road. The following a few years ago it was in time magazine. She said overtime Sunday has gone from a day that we could do only a very few things to the only day only day that we can do just about anything we want.

The US is to diverse our lives are too busy our economy to global and our appetites to vast to lose a whole day that could be spent working or playing or power shopping. The placing of spices and perfumes on the of the dead body of Jesus Christ did not add to the power of the atonement. It did not increase the strength of the propitiation of Christ, and it did not aid the reality of the resurrection, but it was a statement of love these women by taking the spices in the morning. The body of Jesus were showing their love to him.

It was a compassionate worship years ago was preaching a funeral service for a a a gentleman who died in our churches. An elderly gentleman who was just a very, very godly man service was about to get started in the funeral directors had come to the casket and they were getting ready to close the top of the lid of the casket and locket and about that time.

He is the man who died his eight-year-old granddaughter jumped up and she said wait and she ran down the center aisle of the church and she took three items in her hands and very gingerly, she placed it on the chest of her grandfather. Her mom and dad had no idea that she was gonna do such a thing in the end they were just shocked and they ran up together and they grabbed her hand and I apologize to the funeral directors and then they led her back all the way back to receipt when I got ready to speak. I look down at the little girl I said Susan what did you put on the chest of your granddad and she said I put three things she said. One was a little New Testament that he read to me from all the time and then I took a picture of me and then a love letter that I sent my granddad and she said to put it on his chest and she burst into tears. I said Susan, 10 years from now nobody in this church today. Nobody in the church that's here today will probably remember anything I said but nobody will forget what you did you showed us how much you loved your granddad people. That's exactly what these women were doing what these women that stayed there at the cross were doing. They were showing every body us today even how much they love Jesus. They were showing us the worshipful agape love that deal their hearts, we taste something brothers and sisters that matters that matters. Maybe you're thinking today will I'm not a pastor and I'm not a evangelist I'm not a missionary I'm not a theological theology professor. So what can I do you can do exactly what these women did and what is that they were loving the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. Let me tell you what else you can do you can sing to your risen Savior. Jesus paid it all. All the him sinners left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Don't neglect the cross. Don't neglect the resurrection, and please don't take lightly the burial of Jesus Christ is pray. Heavenly father as I studied this passage today focused on the burial of Jesus. I experienced a humbling a breaking of pride and I know that one of the most blessed ways that you can sanctify us is the God ordained obliteration of pride, father of her 250 years ago John Newton prayed a prayer. May his prayer be mine, and may his prayer be the prayer of Grace Church Newton cried out to you and said, Lord, give me a humbling sense of my sins give me a humbling view of your glory. Give me a humbling view of your love for Shirley.

Nothing humbles like these all my pride springs from ignorance may be nothing in my own eyes may be willing and desirous to be the servant of all.

For it is in the precious and holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen