The Burial of Jesus, #2 (Mat. 27:62-66)

Introduction and Review of Mark 15:42-45

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 17, 1990, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:17 Now let us turn together in the word of God to two portions this morning. First of all, Mark chapter 15, and we shall read again the portion which was read in your hearing last Lord's Day morning, Mark 15, beginning with verse 42, and reading to the end of the chapter, Mark chapter 15, and beginning with verse 42.

0:50 And when even was now come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, there came Joseph of Arimathea, a counselor. A counselor of honorable estate, who also himself was looking for the kingdom of God, and he boldly went in unto Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. And Pilate marveled if he were already dead, and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while or already dead. And when he learned it of the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

1:34 And he bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of a rock. And he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. And Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joseph, beheld where he was laid. And now back to Matthew 27, if you will, please, for an account of a sequel.

2:04 To the burial recorded only by Matthew, and obviously recorded to give the background for an incident which Matthew records in the resurrection account of his gospel, chapter 28, verses 11 to 15, that this is the background to that segment in chapter 28. Matthew 27, 62. Now on the morrow, which is the day after the preparation. The chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, after three days I rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest happily his disciples come and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead, and the last error will be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Take a guard, make it as sure as you can.

3:17 So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them.

3:29 Now according to the words of 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 4, the fact is that the sepulcher was made sure, and the last error will be worse than the first. The fact of the burial of Jesus is an indispensable element in the apostolic gospel, the only gospel of our salvation. For you remember the apostle Paul said that he had delivered unto the Corinthians that which also he had received, that gospel by which men were saved if they held it fast, and included in that gospel. That gospel are these words, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. As surely as the death of Christ for sin is an indispensable element in the apostolic gospel of our salvation, so also. is the burial of our Lord Jesus. Now, considering that Mark's central concern is stated in the opening words of his gospel,

4:49 the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, it should not surprise us that Mark gives us a rather detailed account of the burial of Jesus because he understood that the fact of that burial was indeed an integral element in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In our initial study of the burial of our Lord last Lord's Day, we concentrated upon verses 42 through 45 in which there is set before us, first of all, the time of our Lord's burial. When even was now come because it was the preparation, the day before the Sabbath. Friday evening, somewhere between 4 and 6 p.m.,

5:52 our Lord was buried. We are then introduced, secondly, to the central figure in the burial of our Lord. Verse 43a, There came Joseph of Arimathea, this hitherto secret disciple who was a wealthy but honorable member of the Sanhedrin, looking for the kingdom of God, described by Luke as a good and a righteous man. This man did not consent to the decision to crucify Christ.

6:28 The word of God tells us he was non-consenting to their counsel and to their deeds. Having then looked at the time of the burial of our Lord, the central figure in the burial of our Lord, we concluded our study last Lord's Day by considering, thirdly, the events immediately preceding the burial of our Lord, 43b through 45. And those events center on two things. What Joseph did, he went in and asked Pilate, for the body of Jesus, and why he did it.

7:10 It is because he waxed courageous. It is because he dared to do such a deed. He dared to make himself ceremonially unclean. He dared to face an already irate and peaked Pilate.

The Details of Jesus' Burial (Mark 15:46)

7:31 He dared openly to associate with Jesus as a member of the Sanhedrin, and thereby risk excommunication from the very commonwealth of Israel. And we saw then in these three things the time of the burial, the central figure who breaks in upon the scene, and in the events immediately preceding, an amazing display of the sovereignty of God in the affairs of men, and an amazing display of the grace of God in the conversion of men. Now today we will complete our studies of the burial of our Lord, and once more under three headings. First of all, the details of the burial of our Lord. Secondly, the witnesses of the burial of our Lord. And thirdly, the sequel to the burial of our Lord. First of all then, for our study this morning, the details of the burial of our Lord.

8:37 Verse 46, And he, that is Joseph of Arimathea, bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb, which had been hewn out of a rock, and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Now the details of the burial of our Lord as given to us by Mark under the guidance of the Holy Spirit come to us in basically three categories. We have the preparatory actions, the central action, and the subsequent action. So in the actual details of the burial of our Lord, we have the preparatory actions. And he bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him, in the linen cloth. The preparatory actions are to be found in the removal of our Lord from the cross, subsequent to the purchase of this fine cloth, and then the actual use of that cloth in winding the body of our Lord Jesus. First of all then note that it is said that Joseph purchased a linen cloth.

10:04 After receiving an official grant of the body from Pilate, he most likely as a wealthy man sent out one of his servants to purchase this new, this fine cloth, cloth that probably had its origins in India. The very nature of the word would indicate the same. And he desired to have this cloth so that according to Jewish custom, the body of the Lord Jesus might be wound after the Jewish custom which was to wind each of the limbs, the torso, the individual legs, so that when you have the account of Lazarus emerging from the tomb, he was able to walk even though he was still in his grave cloths, indicating that he was not like a mummy in which the legs, the torso and the arms are all wound together. The Jews did not disembowel. They did not remove the brain. They simply wound the major appendages in cloth mingled with spices in the folds and then they placed a napkin over the face and that's exactly the picture given of Lazarus in John 11 and verse 44.

11:31 So if Joseph is to give to Jesus a decent, honorable Jewish burial, he must first of all purchase the linen wrappings with which to effect such a burial. Then we are told that Joseph removed our Lord from the cross. Now this does not mean that he single-handedly lifted our Lord down from the cross again. Being a wealthy man, there is every reason to believe that he secured the aid of his servants.

12:09 And one can only imagine and let the imagination only out for a little bit what it must have meant for this man who had been a secret disciple of Jesus, whose faith and love has now broken into open identification with Jesus to place his hands upon that blood-soaked, bruised and torn and battered, spittle-dripping-faced body and tenderly to remove it from the cross, taking it to some place of convenient preparation prior to the entombment. And according to John 19, 38 to 40, at this point he secured the assistance of another wealthy man, another well-known man, a man who is called the Teacher of Israel, even the Nicodemus of John chapter 3. For in John 19 we read in verse 38, And after these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.

13:33 Verse 39, There came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pounds. So they, that is Nicodemus and Joseph, took the body of Jesus and bound it in the linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. And so with what would be in our weights and measurements seventy plus pounds of expensive spices extracted from trees that were currently grown in that day and from which they received these spices, the preparatory action was the purchasing of the linen cloth, the removal of the body, and then with the help of Nicodemus and possibly servants from both households to wind each major appendage of our Lord, placing spices in the folds of the clean, newly bought expensive cloth with which the body of our Lord was tenderly prepared for decent traditional Jewish burial.

15:01 So then, with the body removed from the cross, in all likelihood washed, but not anointed, for according to Mark 14, 8, Mary had anointed him beforehand to the burial, the time pressure, remember, was such that he must be prepared and buried before six p.m. in the beginning of the Sabbath. And there seems again to be a marvelous stroke of providence.

15:32 Our Lord anticipating that he would be buried in a hurried state said that Mary's anointing him with oil prior to his death was an anointing with oil beforehand for his burial. These then are the details of the burial of our Lord as they relate to the preparatory actions. Now then we move to the central action and it has two parts. Look again at the text.

16:05 Having done these other things, we are told in the middle of verse 46, he laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of a rock. The central action has two points. What was done by Joseph and where he did it. We are told that Joseph laid the body of our Lord in a tomb.

16:34 His lifeless, now washed and bound and spiced dead body was carried lovingly and tenderly placed in a tomb. Now precisely where was this tomb? Well according to John 19 and verse 41 the approximate place is described in these words. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb wherein was never man yet laid.

17:17 So in a tomb hewn out of a rock our Lord was buried. It was a tomb according to the scriptures that Joseph himself owned. Matthew 27, 60 calls it a new tomb and a tomb that belonged to Joseph himself and it was an unused tomb. No man had ever been laid in that tomb.

17:55 Now such tombs have been found dating back to the first century AD. And I don't know that I've ever done this in all my years of preaching but I was so frustrated in trying to think how I'd describe it that I hastily made a little object lesson to help you understand it. If you can picture this sort of the rocky shelf such as you would see in an abandoned quarry. Where in a very massive rocky area the rock has been sheared off and picture this as a door approximately three by three or two by three not quite a square meter.

18:38 If you were to go into the inside it would all be hollowed out and many of them that had been found would have a vestibule area and then deeper behind that the area in which there would be slabs, which would be prepared with the rough shape of a body in which the bodies would be laid. And we are told that such a tomb had never yet been used. And it was in such a tomb that our Lord was carried into this very low and narrow opening and his body placed. Now why do I take the time to tell you this?

19:19 Well there are details in the resurrection account that make no sense without this knowledge. For we will read that they stooped down to look in. Why did they need to stoop down? Because the opening was normally no higher than three feet.

19:35 And often in these tombs there would be a place hollowed out for a body as well as elevated places. And so when we read of the angels sitting by the body of Jesus these things begin to make sense. So the central action was the placing of our Lord's body in this garden tomb hewn out of a rock. But then notice the subsequent action.

20:06 In the details we looked at the preparatory activities. Secondly the central action placing his body in this new garden tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea. But then the subsequent action is described in these words and he, Joseph, rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Now I must confess that prior to my preparation in the past couple of weeks I always envisioned Joseph as being a rather strong man and having some strong servants and finding a boulder big enough to be shoved into that hole. But the problem is archaeology reveals that the openings were relatively rectangular in shape. And you would not be able to fill such a rectangular shape with a round boulder in order to keep out predators. Small animals of prey like that crazy raccoon no matter what we do if he smells a chicken bone in our garbage can we've done everything but put a padlock on the top.

21:22 If you were to go to the back of our house you would laugh because you'd see each of our garbage cans trussed up with rope and with a stretch piece of rubber and a hook to hold down all the tops. And in spite of all of that that raccoon manages to make his way in and break through the plastic bags and have a feast and make a mess at our expense. Well the purpose you see of placing a stone at the entrance of the tomb was to seal it off from predators and if there were any marauders who thought they might find valuable goods on the person of the dead body men were as crassly indifferent to the sanctity of people's loved ones in their graves then as some are even in our own day. So what most likely was the situation and several graves dating back to the first century of this kind have been found. And I take out my little crudely made model again you will notice that there's a little trough here. Alright?

22:34 And graves have been found in which this kind of a trough was cut out of the stone and then a large stone that would be like a millstone four or five feet in diameter six to eight inches in thickness like a large disc this is a two and a half pound weight from my free weights down in my little basement gymnasium would be placed and there would be a block at this angle. Then when the body was placed in the tomb the block that was there keeping it in place would be removed and with the aid of gravity one man could easily roll the stone across the face of the opening of that tomb thereby effectively sealing it from the entrance of predatory animals and any unwanted person. Then as we'll see in the resurrection accounts there's an indication that they expected great difficulty in rolling the stone away. Why? Because it would have to be rolled upward again against gravity and then whatever was being used to block it in place I'm simply using a little nail the rolling door would be kept away from the front of the tomb.

The Witnesses of Jesus' Burial (Mark 15:47)

23:59 Now that was a lot simpler than trying to do it all up here with my hands and with straining your imagination. So the subsequent action was the rolling of the stone against the door of the tomb. So much then for the details of the burial. Now notice secondly the witnesses of the burial of our Lord.

24:24 Verse 47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid. Mark informs us that the two Marys of verse 40 who were part of that contingency of the devout women who came down from Galilee and gazed from afar upon the Lord Jesus after he had died and was hanging upon the cross and the cloud had dissipated made its way back into Jerusalem these two Marys Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses these two Marys are found there in that area of the garden tomb and the text says they beheld where he was laid. And it's very interesting that the language of the text in terms of the Greek tenses and forms indicates that they did not simply give a passing glance but they were looking with comprehension over a period of time.

25:53 And this is verified by the two other synoptic witnesses Matthew 27, 61 Matthew tells us and Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre. And again the tenses of the verb indicates or the verb indicates that this was their continuous posture for a period of time. The same emphasis is given to us in Luke 23 and verse 55. Luke 23 and verse 55 and the women who had come with him out of Galilee followed after. The indication is they followed as Joseph and his servants and possibly Nicodemus removed the body and they beheld the tomb and how his body was laid. So they took careful note of the tomb and even how his body was placed within it. And then only after a time is it said they returned and prepared spices and ointments.

27:18 Now this seemingly insignificant detail of the witnesses of the burial of our Lord has tremendous implications when we come to the account of the resurrection. You see it was the very women who lingered at the cross long after our Lord was dead lingered when the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two other thieves lingered while the soldier took the point of his spear and jabbed it up in the direction of our Lord's heart and out came blood and water lingered until they saw his lifeless dead body removed gently and lovingly washed wrapped with linen and spices carried to a tomb placed within a tomb. Now in the resurrection account then we read that these very women came to that tomb and found no body in the tomb. This is not a bunch of silly women who under the oppression of tremendous emotional upheaval coupled with great devotion to Jesus imagined these things. They had beheld concrete realities

28:43 with their eyeballs. In one set of circumstances after another if they knew anything for sure this they knew for sure Jesus of Nazareth is dead. And when these very women begin to say he is not dead he is not there we have seen the Lord there is absolute truth there is absolutely no rational reason to bring into the slightest question their testimony. And one of the things that gives it tremendous validity is that they are the very witnesses not only of his death and of his lingering period of time upon the cross until his removal but they see the tomb they see his body carried they see his body taken in they see the stone rolled they see the men who placed him there come away. They are absolutely confident of the validity of these facts. Well we have looked at the details of the burial secondly the witnesses of the burial of our Lord now very quickly and briefly in the third place

The Sequel to Jesus' Burial: The Guarding of the Tomb (Matthew 27:62-66)

30:11 the sequel to the burial of our Lord in Matthew 27 and I am not going to attempt a detailed exposition I just want you to catch the highlights of this sequel to the burial of our Lord because it too has great significance in preparation for the account of his resurrection. In this sequel to the burial of our Lord in Matthew 27, 62 to 66 we have first of all the concern of the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders are concerned that based upon things they heard while Jesus was living that the disciples in order to prove the validity of his statement that he would rise from the dead might steal away his body and then claim he was raised from the dead so they say we have got to do something about this. That was their concern. Secondly they then made a request to Pilate. They went in unto Pilate ignoring all their ceremonial rules on the Jewish Sabbath they go right to the praetorium Pilate's dwelling place and they demand of Pilate they really got cheeky here verse 64 command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure unto the third day lest happily his disciples come and steal him away

31:38 and then say he is risen from the dead and the last error will be worse than the first. So you have their concern and then their request and may I say if ever Psalm 2 is true it's true right here because Pilate said unto them you have a guard make it as sure as you can he that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh. So Pilate's response is alright I'll give you a guard you see the temple guard could only function in the precincts of the temple otherwise they would have taken the temple guard there. So Pilate assigns a special military guard in order to go with them and the text says they went made the sepulcher sure sealing the stone. Now that doesn't mean that somebody quick mixed up some sacrete and got a trowel and then put a bead of mortar around the stone where it joined the opening but most likely as best I've been able to find out in my reading what they probably did was to take something like a rope and stretch it from this side to this side and taking the wax that was used for official seals they would have attached the rope on both sides and sealed it with the official seal thereby securing

33:05 that as long as that seal remained unbroken that no one had entered the tomb and then they place a contingency of soldiers and again my investigation has not turned up any authority who could say whether it was four or eight or twelve or sixteen soldiers but all we know is it was a group of soldiers because later on we are told that some of them went back into the city some of them told the things they had seen while others propagated the lie that the body had been stolen. So the guard was placed some form of an official seal was placed across the entrance to the tomb so that no one could enter without that entrance being known by the breaking of the seal. Well then, those are the facts of the burial of our Lord Jesus. Last week we looked at the time the central figure the events immediately preceding this morning in the course of some half an hour I've laid before you the details of the burial the witnesses of the burial and the sequel to the burial now what are we to learn from these things? Well first of all I want to set before you

Historical Application: Salvation Embedded in Facts

34:34 a historical application and I want you to listen very carefully as I set before you what I'm calling first of all an historical application our salvation is embedded in the granite walls of historical facts facts planned by God executed in the sovereignty and providence of God facts which have a peculiar intention in the purpose of God and facts which have an infallible interpretation in the word of God now our salvation is embedded in the granite of those kinds of facts our salvation does not float by on a cloud of nice ideas our salvation does not float by on a misty fog of warm feelings our salvation is embedded in the granite of facts of history predicted by God

36:00 facts brought to pass by God facts that have a purpose in the mind of God and facts which are infallibly interpreted for us in the word of God that's the stuff of which our salvation is comprised and no little element in that salvation is the fact that Jesus truly died and that Jesus truly rose from the dead now we're not talking yet about God's intention in those facts and God's interpretation of those facts why have an intention infallibly revealed and an interpretation infallibly stated if there's no facts on which those things rest and that's why we're prepared to die that's why Paul could say if Christ be not risen ye are yet in your sin your faith is vain we have nothing thinking of the word of God

37:28 now look how marvelously God to establish a spectrum of witness that Jesus was really dead there's the centurion and his group of soldiers who watch him die there's something unusual about his death for the scripture says when the centurion saw that or in this manner that he so expunged him truly this was the Son of God there is a Roman soldier who saw him die his associates saw him die and then there was the contingency of soldiers sent to break his legs but they saw that he was already dead and so they did not break his legs one of them drives the spear in his side and out comes blood and water he is dead dead and then John who was back at the scene saw the spear thrust and he said he that saw these things speaks the truth I saw it with my own eyeballs and then there were the unnamed number of devout women who beheld from afar there were his devout male companions according to Luke 23 they beheld from afar and then there was Joseph and Nicodemus previously secret disciples

38:57 influential men members of the Sanhedrin of all things and they actually handled the dead body they lifted down in all of its dead weight from the cross they lovingly prepare it for burial certain women at least the two Marys follow they see the body washed and wound the tomb in which it is to be laid and in the midst of that Pilate affirms he is really dead his trusted centurion has come back and told him and then there are these members of the Sanhedrin who are even admitting he is dead and they go to Pilate and say put a gun to him lest they steal him away they are dead they go from these hateful apostate angry frustrated Sanhedrists to the coarse leg breaking thigh smashing Roman soldiers loving associates to Joseph what is God doing? God is piling up a plethora of witnesses who would be prepared under oath to say I saw him dead now my friends you say big deal I tell you it is a big deal to me if my

40:25 is not something slipped in by someone's cleverness I want to know it's a well attested fact that when I read Christ died for what purpose? for sins I can rest the state of my soul upon my immolated crucified dead because that is well young people who may sit in a freshman course with some smart aleck young PhD who in his pride and cynicism will try to bully you into embarrassment because you believe the facts of the scriptural witness stand your ground sophistry and smart aleckism there are no facts of ancient history more well established than the facts of the biblical history and blessed be God for this detailed account of the burial of our Lord Jesus Christ

Christological Application: Christ's Identification with Us in Death

41:47 that we may know that when the bible says he rose from the dead he wasn't resuscitated he didn't come out of a swoon one whose death could be attested to by the broadest of witnesses friend and this one was truly dead but now is alive again but then secondly it has a Christological application not only a historical application but a Christological now why do I use that big word well not only because it matches with historical but you ought to know what it means Christological is anything to do with the person and work of Christ anything that has to do with explaining his person and his word is that which is Christological and this has a marvelous Christological application and it is this think how completely our savior has identified with us in our sinful state because that which is inevitable to all of us barring those who will remain until the coming of Christ is that from the moment we breathe our first it is certain we will breathe our last and go to our grave once we've emerged from our mother only one thing is sure

43:16 concerning where we will ultimately rest and that is in our own tomb womb and tomb the only two certainties about this life it is appointed unto men once to die that's why people have named death the king of terrors whatever other tis the terror of entering into that abnormal severance of spirit and body the material and the immaterial that actual experience of having soul and body severed for a time which is called the intermediate state until the day of resurrection when soul and body will be rejoined for the just and the unjust the saved and the unsaved and in the integrity of a soul body existence the righteous will go to heaven and the wicked be sent to hell what a marvelous application is to be found in this passage we think of that horrible rending of soul and body and we fear the experience of dying if there's anyone here who says he has no fear of the experience of dying I question your

44:41 either your honesty or the realism with which you face that it is true that we can say we do not fear death and what death can do to us I don't fear death death can do nothing but land me in the presence of death it can land me in the presence of Jesus death can only chase me up to heaven but if I'm conscious in the experience of dying experience it's an unknown but what is our comfort our blessed Lord went through that experience he experienced the severing of the material and the non-material he said father I could say to the dying thief today you shall be with me in paradise Tarkus was also on a cross but his spirit was in paradise with the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus dead lifeless corpse hung upon the cross it was duly prepared for burial it lay cold and motionless on a slab of rock waiting what

46:06 the reuniting of his spirit and his body at his resurrection assured a short time thereafter and may I say it lovingly the only difference between my experience and his at this point is I'll probably have a little more time between death and the reunion but I have a savior who went the shade the abnormality deliverance of spirit and body we have a savior who has forever ended the grave by sanctifying it with his own presence for a period a segment of three days the grave is the place where our Lord once lay and therefore as I anticipate going to my grave though the circumstances of my burial will be different from his nonetheless the baseline is this I am not going to a place where he has not gone before

47:29 they beheld where he they see and as I envision my entombment or interment in the earth I see my savior who's gone before me and led the way child of God take comfort from this fact you who are not Christians tremble at this fact for if Christ is not yours and you are not his face the king of terrors with no comfort listen to Matthew Henry who caught this very marvelous truth and expressed it as only Matthew Henry could when Moses the mediator and lawgiver of the Jewish economy was buried care was taken that no man should know of his sepulcher Deuteronomy 34 6 because the respects of the people toward his person were to die with him that's why he said God didn't let them know where he buried him the respects of his people to his person were to die with him but when our great mediator and lawgiver was buried special notice was taken of his sepulcher because he was to rise again

48:58 and the care taken of his body bespeaks the care with which he himself will take concerning his body the church even when it seems to be a dead body and as a valley full of dry bones it shall be preserved in order to a resurrection as shall also the dead bodies of the saints whose dust with whose dust there is a covenant in force which shall not be forgotten now catch this pastoral encouragement our meditations on Christ's burial should lead us to think of our own and should help us to make the grave familiar to us and so render that bed easy which we must shortly make in the darkness frequent thoughts of it would not only take off the dread and terror of it but quicken us since the graves are always ready for us we should be quickened in our meditations to get ready for the graves the grave Matthew Henry says tinker the coffin of your lord and as you pick out your burial's plot

50:26 and purchase it in your headstone and properly prepare for death you can take as it were with your mind's eye the scene we've seen this morning and overlay it upon the place of your burial and say my savior has gone before me in burial and he has gone before me in resurrection the first of his fruits of them that sleep and so you see there is a marvelous Christological application he is one with us in the experience of death but then thirdly there is a devotional application in this passage we just can't seem to get rid of those women we saw them at the end of the picture of his crucifixion it's not brave macho men milling around the cross male acquaintances according to Luke but then in all and who gaze upon their Lord and out of that number at least two of them Luke hints maybe some more but we definitely know at least two of them they follow Joseph and Nicodemus as they take down

Devotional Application: Devotion Does What It Can

51:54 the body of our Lord they follow as they take it to the place of preparation they follow as they take it to the tomb they gaze at the tomb they watch him being placed in that tomb and in the whole passage pertaining to the burial of our Lord there's a marvelous principle of the devotional life of the believer and this is the principle devotion and love to Jesus does what it can within the bounds of providence and presentability devotion to Jesus does what it can within the bounds of providence and presentability think of Joseph of Arimathea our secret disciple until this time yet a man of honorable estate a member of the Sanhedrin a wealthy man and now by the work of the Spirit whatever caused the reticence until now is overcome and he's now prepared to be an open disciple of Christ how can he show his devotion to Christ only in a manner consistent with the dictates of providence and his presentability because of divine providence he has some clout he's a well known he'll go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus he's a wealthy man so he sends a servant

53:23 out to buy some linen wealthy men so he sends a servant to find Nicodemus his wealthy influential fellow Sanhedrin who said you buy the spices while my servant gets the linen what's he doing as if I may say it reverently with enterprising devoting channels of expressing his faith and love to Jesus he uses what providence and presentability put in his hand to express his love to Christ Nicodemus uses what he has at hand his wealth and his standing what do the women do they can only follow they can only gaze they can only mark the place and then they can go back to Jerusalem and prepare additional spices to even show additional honor to the Lord and that's what they are found doing on the first day of the week when they come to the tomb what is all of this telling us surely it's telling us something this was a time when the wisdom of martyrdom but all this to show love and devotion the bounds of providence and presentability

54:52 and dear child of God has not scripture said that not even the cup of cold water given in his name shall fail of its reward the problem with some of you my dear brothers and sisters you're always waiting for something to develop tomorrow where you can do a great act of heroism for Jesus and as a result you do little or nothing today ask yourself what is in terms of circumstances and presentability which can be written up in the church history books that record the church history of the late 20th century no so what if it's even a cup of cold water in his name he notes it and marks it and will reward it do you think really that Joseph ever thought someday some preacher in Montville would preach and name him again and again and again and again and again do you think those women would be marked

56:16 as being the cause of his death that wasn't in their mind subsequent notoriety they were simply doing what devotion to Christ compelled them to do within the bounds of providence and presentability that's it and that's what you're called upon to do the works and the practices and principles of the Word of God and your station and calling in life and that we sing again and again beautiful space if only God can be glorified the other day when I was praying for several of our families I found myself more faithful and in the case of these two families I don't know that they've ever done anything that would even remotely through thick and thin. Their love, their loyalty, their faithful attendance,

57:41 their erotic words of reassurance. They've been like ballast in the hull of my emotional life.

57:51 And I wrote them a letter and I thanked them. For what? They didn't give me a thousand bucks and say go to Tahiti with your wife, take a nice vacation. They didn't even send me a gift check for a hundred dollars and say go to the manor.

58:05 No, they're just there within the bow of women and churchmen.

58:24 And oh, what an anchor. You see, that's what I'm talking about. Don't be looking. Tomorrow's some great opportunity.

58:32 Get off of me right now. Where you are with what you have. In love to Christ, pour it out at his feet and into his service. But then in the fourth place, and I must hurry, there is not only in this passage a historical application, a Christological application, a devotional application, but a very practical application.

Practical Application: Dignified Care for the Deceased

58:57 A very practical application. I wondered when and where in my regular preaching I get a chance to address this issue and like a bolt out of the blue it hit me last night. Well, here it is, son. Take it.

59:10 I'm often asked a question like this. Pastor, what does the Bible say about burials? Is cremation a viable option? For Christians?

59:23 Should we waste the money on a funeral? Embalming? All of those questions. Now, I don't mean to be coarse and I certainly don't want to open wounds among those of you who've had to lay your dear loved ones in the earth.

59:38 God knows that's the last thing from my mind. But I'm often asked this question. Another question I'm asked. Is there something wrong with the fact I want to go by the graveside of my loved one and stand there?

59:51 And relive scenes from our life together knowing that their earthly remains are there in the earth? Is there something sick and maudlin? And is there something wrong with that? Those are very real and practical questions.

60:05 I've been asked them many times as a pastor.

60:09 There's a marvelous practical application in this passage that addresses those things. Look at the two things. Number one, dignified care and burial of a dead body. The body is manifested with respect to our Lord Jesus Christ.

60:29 His sacred body was washed, wound, spiced, and placed in a brand new rich man's tomb.

60:41 And there is significance in that. Yes, peculiar significance because it had to be evident that he did not come in touch with corruption. I know that. That prophecy would have declared that he was with the Lord.

60:59 With the wicked in his death and with the poor in his entombment. But no, with the rich in the complex of death and entombment.

61:12 And in the pattern of our Lord's,

61:18 I believe we have the decent, dignified care of the body and decent, dignified burial of the body.

61:32 And there is no indication that God in any way looked down on us. And upon all of this tender care for the earthly remains of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I am satisfied not only that the Bible holds a comprehensive doctrine which I hope to preach someday and demonstrate that to be left unburied or to be burned is in most circumstances a sign of the judgment of God. And that can be clearly established from scripture.

62:09 But I do not have time to open up the whole doctrine. I simply point in its direction in the pattern of our Lord's burial and preparation for the same. That when we are concerned to provide dignified care and preparation for and involvement in decent burial and interment of the dead, we are doing that upon which God smiles. But then secondly, what about this desire to be close to the place where the remains of our departed loved ones are placed?

62:48 Is there something sick? Something wrong with that? No. It is set forth as an expression of intense devotion that these two Marys sat down the sepulcher and they watched.

63:07 And I wonder what they spoke about and what they relived of their own experience of being with their master. It is not sick. It is not sinful. Now for someone to linger by the grave at the expense of doing present duty, that would be evil.

63:31 And that's why the text is so beautiful in its balance. It says that after Joseph has done all these things, he departed apparently as a wealthy, responsible man. He had other tasks to attend to. But at that point, the women had no other responsibilities.

63:47 So they sat and they lingered. One departed to his duty, having shown his love and respect. But others remained and are in no way condemned for their action. And I trust that we will never have a harsh and a calloused attitude to those who lose children and husband and wife and loved ones in other relations because they regularly visit the gravesite.

64:18 And they stand and they reflect. People say, well, that's just the shell, my friend. No, no. That's not just the shell.

64:28 That's a part of the whole person that you knew and loved and that you will be with forever in heaven.

64:36 If it's just the shell,

64:39 you don't go put back the walnut shells when you get to the meat because the only thing significant about the shell is it protects the development of the meat. And once you've got the meat fully on the shell, the body's not going to be not just a shell, my friends. The Bible nowhere calls it a shell.

64:56 That's a pagan concept, not a biblical concept. It's the whole me that was formed in my mother's womb. It's the whole me that was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. It's the whole me that was purchased on the cross.

65:11 You were bought with a price. Glorify God, therefore, in your body. It's the whole me that's going to be joined at the resurrection. And the whole me that's going to serve my Lord in the new heavens and the new earth.

65:29 Glorify God, disembodied spirit with just some kind of a ghost-like appearance. I will have resurrection substance.

65:43 If I punch a cantaloupe in heaven, it'll split it open. My hand won't go through it.

65:52 And when I eat it, it's going to taste good. And it won't have any worms in it. You see the point? And in this passage, I believe there is a practical, biblical application to us that we have a wholesome, biblical view.

66:08 And some of you say, well, this seems to be so irrelevant. Yes, because we're a relatively young congregation. But if the Lord tarries, it won't be long before many of you have loved ones lying in the earth. And because many of you show such an earnest concern to please Christ in every detail of your life, you're going to want to know, how do I please Christ in my relationship to the remains of my loved ones?

Evangelical Application: Death of Christ for Sinners

66:34 And I want you to remember what we heard this morning so you'll have some biblical principles to guide you in your judgment. And then my final application is an evangelical application. Remember the whole purpose of this treatise of Mark is this, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And my friend, the evangelical application is this.

67:01 Not only does the Bible record the certainty of the death of Jesus, the details and the certainty of the burial of Jesus, but the Bible tells us the purpose of those facts. Christ died for our justification. And my sinner friend, hear me. If Jesus Christ died and was buried and went into the experience of coming under the grip of the king of terrors, it was to the end that he might save us from the due punishment of our sins, that we might face the reality of death and judgment and the world without fear, knowing that having entrusted ourselves to Jesus Christ, the virtue of his perfect life, the virtue of his death on our behalf, and the power of his resurrection is all and in union with him, risen, spirit, holy, from the death of sin, and we shall rise physically in the virtue of his resurrection in the last day. Oh, my sinner friend, death is a certainty for you.

68:30 I don't need to prove that to you. You know it.

68:35 But it's in the death of Christ that the death of your death is to be found. And death will always be the king of terrors until the one who vanquished him, the Lord Jesus, is your Savior and your Lord. If you do not know him in the bonds of faith and love, producing a life of obedience to him, I urge you this morning, do not despise the Savior whom we've seen this morning was dead and buried for sinners, but run to him who is the living Christ and promise his grace to all. Who trust in him. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you again this morning for your holy and infallible word. We thank you for the riches of your truth.

69:34 We thank you for the fact of the burial of our Lord Jesus. We thank you for the wonder of his resurrection and his present place at your right hand as a living Savior and you are able to save all who come unto you by him. Oh God, bring boys and girls and men and women into union with your Son this morning. Comfort those who feel the pain and the grief of the loss of their loved ones.

70:06 Deliver them from false guilt. Deliver them from any pagan notions concerning the bodies of departed loved ones that would merely despise them as some kind of sin. Deliver them from any kind of sin. Deliver them from any kind of sin.

70:19 Deliver them from any kind of sin. Deliver them from any kind of sin. of an unimportant shell. Oh Lord, while we do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul, we do thank you that body and soul have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus and shall forever in the glorified state serve and honor him.

70:41 Seal then your word to our hearts and to your name we praise and honor through Jesus Christ Christ our Lord. Amen.