Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Mark 15:42-16:8

Theme: God is in control, even when we’re having a really bad day.

Date: 11/03/2019 File name: GospelOfMark44.wpd

ID Number:

There are few things more traumatic in life than the death of a loved one, whether it be a family member or a close friend.

The anguish is accentuated when you see that person struggling in their closing days.

My father has been gone almost thirty years.

He died of Leukemia.

My mother has been gone just over twenty years.

She died from Emphysema and its complications.

Both of them really struggled that last weeks of their life, and your heart aches knowing that there is nothing you can do about it.

Just a few years ago my sister-in-law, with whom we were very close, died from Pancreatic Cancer.

Her faith was amazingly strong during her ordeal, and yet it was tough watching her go through it.

If you’ve been there, and most of you have, you can well imagine what the disciples are going through at this time.

Their grief, however, is compounded by the guilt of their abandonment of Jesus in his greatest moment of need.

And yet, in Jesus’ circumstance, all of this is part of divine providence.

The Scriptures repeatedly assert the absolute sovereignty of God over every person and event surrounding death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that none of these things happened by accident.

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.

Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:1–4, NIV84)

Everything we see taking place in these closing days of our Lord’s life is an illustration of divine providence in action.

It emphasizes God’s control and power over the desires and determination of people who hate Jesus, but who also love Jesus.

It’s easy for us with two-thousand years of hindsight and the revelation of the New Testament to help us understand that.

Two-thousand years ago, eleven men and a handful of women knew only that a man they believed to be God’s Anointed One—Israel’s Messiah—had died the cruelest, and most humiliating death ever devised by men.

They are deep in disbelief, confusion, and mourning.

How could things go South so quickly?

On Sunday the crowds are cheering him on, shouting “hosannas.”

Five days later they’re shouting “crucify him.”

As we travel with the disciples through the experiences of each day, we learn a great deal about full scope of human emotions ... from despair to jubilation.

Let's turn to the events of the days surrounding Jesus' death.

As we look at each day's experiences, perhaps we will come to the eventual conclusion that there is hope for a new day.

I. FRIDAY'S AGONY

1. Friday was a really bad day for the disciples

a. it was on that day Jesus was tried and crucified

1) it was a day of agony—certainly for Jesus, but also for those who loved Him

2. the fact that His disciples had fled in terror did not indicate they did not care

a. they certainly feared for their own lives, but they also ached in their hearts for Jesus

3. John, the beloved disciple, had made it to the foot of the Cross, along with Jesus' mother, Mary

a. there were others standing there as well

1) our text indicates that Mary Magdalene was there; also, Mary the mother of James the Lesser (one of the Apostles), and Salome was also there (she is the mother of James and John, and most likely the sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother)

2) while the Scripture do not explicitly say so, perhaps Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were there

b. all of these disciples are agonizing at the crucifixion of Jesus

1) with every blow of hammer upon nail, piercing flesh, they wince

2) as Jesus is raised up, and the crossbeam thuds into place they shudder

3) with every cry Jesus makes, they despair

4) when he gives up his spirit and dies they weep

ILLUS.

More so than any text in the New Testament, the Prophet Isaiah gives us a sense of what is happening on this Friday.

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

(Isaiah 53:3–5, NIV84)

5) do you hear the words?

despised ... rejected ... stricken ... smitten ... afflicted ... pierced ... crushed ... wounds

4. but one did not have to be at the site of the crucifixion to feel the pain

a. those who had walked with Jesus for three years surely felt it keenly

1) even though the disciples are in hiding, they knew what was happening

2) they were all too familiar with execution by crucifixion

b. their hearts ached

c. their souls were wrenched with agony

d. the One they had followed, the One they had loved, the One they believed to be the Messiah, the One they were committed to with all their heart, was being brutally killed

5. they felt helpless and impotent

II.

SATURDAY'S DESPAIR

1. Friday's agony gives way to Saturday's despair

a. on Friday afternoon Jesus dies at approximately 3:00 PM

1) Mark 15:33 tells us that Jesus died at the ninth hour after six hours on the cross

b. after the crucifixion, Mark’s gospel tells us that Joseph of Arimathea approached Pilate and sought permission to take Jesus’ body and bury it

“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.”

(Mark 15:43–47, ESV)

2. Joseph, who had been a secret disciple was now, very much, an open disciple

a. he is never mentioned in Scripture before this, and never mentioned again afterwards

1) we only know four things about him

a) he was wealthy

b) he was a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God

c) he had not consented to the Sanhedrin’s decision and action

d) he provided a tomb for Jesus to be buried in, and purchased a linen shroud to wrap Jesus’ body in

2) it is here that Nicodemus also shows up

“He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.

Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.

This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.”

(John 19:39–40, NIV84)

3. it took a great deal of courage to do what he did for these two men to “out themselves” as disciples of Jesus

a. they literally took their lives in their hands by aiding Jesus’ family in the way they did

b. on top of all this, it was the Day of Preparation ... it is just literally hours before the Sabbath begins at 6:00 PM

1) to touch a dead body would mean Joseph and Nicodemus would become ritually unclean, and unable to participate in the Sabbath events

4. but watching Jesus die had undoubtedly done something to the man

5. Jesus was dead, and now, He was buried

a. that ended Friday's events

b. now Saturday, or the Sabbath, was upon them

c. nothing could be done on that day