Burial of Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Good morning
What do you call a pig that does karate?
Pork Chop
I am looking forward to our lunch!
We are going to be taking the Lord’s Supper right after service before lunch.
We are not having Wednesday night services this week due to it being Christmas Eve.
We are going to Eastside for their Christmas Eve service. Anyone that would like to go with us are welcome. Let me or Beth know if you want to go with us and we can see if the Association van is available.
Today we are going to be in Mark 15:42-47.
The end of chapter 15.
Last week we saw God at the cross. He was there as Judge. He made the sinless to be sin and judged Him so that we can have eternal life. He poured out His wrath on His Son, for us.
We saw that God took the sun away. The sun was darkened for 3 hours, I believe as a symbol of the 3 days that Jesus would be in the grave.
The bystanders heard Jesus calling out to the Father and misunderstood Him. They thought He was calling for Elijah. Elijah had already come. John the Baptist was Elijah and they killed him just like they are killing Jesus.
Jesus gave His spirit into His Father’s hands and died. He did not die from the events of the cross, He gave His life up as the sacrificial lamb. Jesus told us that no one takes His life, He lays it down on His own.
When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. God removed the division between Him and man! From that moment on, we no longer needed an earthly high priest. Jesus is now the high priest for all those who repent and believe. We can now have a direct relationship with God. Through death, life was given!
Jesus came for the Jews first and then the Gentiles. He came for whom so ever would call on His name!
We can see this in the death of Jesus. The thief, a Jew, repented and believed in Jesus while he was on the cross. Then when Jesus died, the centurion, a Gentile, became a believer. A Jew first and then a Gentile believed in Jesus!
Finally, we saw that the women were at the cross also. The only male disciple that was there was John. All the rest had ran and were hiding.
The women were there, waiting to see what happened to Jesus and how they could continue to minister to Him even in His death! They will soon get their reward for this faith and dedication to Jesus!
Today we are going to look at the burial of Jesus.
We often talk about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The burial is the least talked about I believe. It is the least miraculous of the three, but it is just as important as the other two. The burial of Jesus gives validity to His death. You do not bury a person who is alive. It also makes the resurrection possible. To raise from the grave one has to first be in the grave! We can see God in the burial of Jesus also. We can see His providence. He uses people and circumstances to have His will done. We can see that in our verses today. Let’s take a look!
Please stand as we prepare to hear God’s Word.
42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
Pray
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You To receive the food of Your holy Word Take Your truth, plant it deep in us.
That the light of Christ might be seen today In our acts of love and our deeds of faith Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us All Your purposes for Your glory
Mark tells us that it was evening, not sundown, but evening. It was getting close to the Sabbath. It starts in a few hours at sundown. Jesus died at 3pm. Sundown in around 6pm, they had 3 hours until nothing could be done until sundown Saturday night. This was also not just a sabbath day, it was the Passover Sabbath. This would have been one of the most important Sabbaths of the year! Everyone would be at the Temple that day! Everyone who was clean.
Joseph of Arimathea comes to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus. Who is this guy? We do not know for sure where Arimathea is, but some believe it to be the town of Ramah in the Old Testament. If this is it, it was 15-20 miles NW of Jerusalem. The only things we know about him are that he is a rich man and a respected member of the Sanhedrin. He was apposed to Jesus’ death. We can see this in Luke 23:51
51 (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God—
Joseph was an undercover follower of Jesus. But on this day, He makes it know! When he goes to talk to Pilate, he makes himself unclean by entering a Gentiles house. Now a high ranking member of the Sanhedrin could not go to the Temple until he had been made clean. He was going to miss the Passover Sabbath! There was no way the rest of the scribes and pharisees would miss this! He just made it know that he was a disciple of Jesus. He believed in Jesus and who He said He was!
This was not easy for him, we are told that he took courage and went to Pilate. This was going to cost him his place on the sanhedrin. It was going to cost him his friends and probably some of his family. This seemingly small act, had a huge price.
When Joseph asked Pilate for the body, Pilate was surprised that He was dead already. Normally, people would last days before they died on the cross. Jesus was only on the cross for 6 hours. ONLY!! Another clue that He did not die, He gave His life. Pilate was so surprised that he called for the centurion and asked about Jesus to see if He truly was dead. When he learned that Jesus was in fact dead, he gave the body to Joseph.
Normally, those who die of crucifixion, their bodies were thrown into Gehenna. The burning trash pit. Their bodies were burned. We can see God’s providence at work in Joseph. He causes him to become a disciple of Jesus and then uses his influence to get the body so it is not burned. It is hard to raise from the grave when you are burned! Not impossible for God, but not His plan!
We are told that Joseph goes and buys a linen shroud on the way to the cross to get the body. He gets there and takes the body down! He is definitely unclean now!! He has touched a dead body. He has gone from being afraid of anyone knowing he followed Jesus, to putting it out in the open in a major way! He has made himself unclean for Jesus! This would have been a huge deal for a member of the Sanhedrin! They coveted their cleanness. They thought they were better than everyone else. Joseph didn’t care anymore! He was going to minister to Jesus no matter what it cost him. At it cost him a lot.
We are told in John 19:39
39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
Another high ranking member of the religious group coming to give Jesus a proper burial. Another man who didn’t care the cost to minister to the body of Jesus. Another man who paid a high price for his actions. This would cost him his place in the religious group. We can see in John 3:9-10
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
Jesus called him the teacher of Israel! That is high praise. That shows just how high a standing he had and just what it cost him to do what he did. He brought about 75 pounds of spices to put in the tomb of Jesus. You are not going to sneak that through town. He also made himself unclean by helping with the body of Jesus. He too would not be at the Temple for the Sabbath!
These two missing would be like the pastor not showing up for Sunday morning service! People are going to notice!!
They laid Jesus in Joseph’s new tomb that had been cut out of rock. This is very important that Jesus be laid in Joseph’s tomb. It fulfills prophecy. In Isaiah 53:9
9 And His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
Jesus being crucified, was to be thrown into the fiery grave with all the other wicked men who had been crucified! But, Joseph, a rich man came and got His body and put it in his tomb! God is in the burial of Jesus! His will is done!
We are told that they rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mark doesn’t give us all the details on this, we know that the sanhedrin went to Pilate and got Roman soldiers to guard the tomb and they also sealed the tomb with a mark. What the sanhedrin didn’t realize is that they are making it hard on themselves to prove that Jesus didn’t raise from the grave with all this that they had done to the entrance of the tomb!
Finally Marks tells us again that some women were watching to see where Jesus was laid. They wanted to make sure that Jesus was laid to rest properly. They were always ministering to Him! They loved Him so much.
We are going to see their reward next week.
We can see two men who paid a high price to make sure that Jesus was buried properly. They gave up their places in the community and their jobs to do this.
They were both highly regarded men in the community. They were both looked up to. Now they were shunned just like the rest of the followers of Jesus.
We can see God use these two men for His will to be done.
God has a use for you in His will also! For that to happen, we have to be obedient to what His word says.
God was glorified in the actions of these two men. They did something to honor His Son at a great cost to themselves. They didn’t care the cost, they wanted to honor Jesus and give Him a proper burial.
What has following Jesus cost you? Their is a price to pay.
Beth and I have been mocked and made fun of for not giving gifts to our kids on Christmas and for not letting the kids trick or treat on Halloween. We don’t see how God is glorified in either of those so we don’t do it. Even our own family has given us a hard time for our decisions. That is just one of the prices that we have had to pay to honor God and His Son.
I had to quit a job because they wanted me to do something that wasn’t right. There is always a price to pay to follow and honor Jesus and God.
What is it costing you?
If it hasn’t cost you anything, are you being obedient? Are you truly following Jesus?
We are called to be different, that comes with a cost.
How are you being different that the World? Not just coming to church, there are many who come to church on Sunday and are not saved. How are you truly being different than the world?
We can not reach the lost if we look lost also! We have to be willing to pay the cost, no matter what it is!
Let’s go and be different and pay the price that God has for us!
