Jesus Died and Was Buried

Introduction

-{John 19}

-J. Warner Wallace is a former cold-case homicide detective that has become a well-renowned Christian apologist, using the same investigative skills as a detective to offer proofs and evidences for the truthfulness of the Christian faith. When people ask me an apologist to read, he is definitely toward the top of the list.

~He is an author and speaker and has a podcast. After one of his podcasts, a listener reached out to him to ask a question and offer an objection about Jesus’ death. He said:

Couldn’t the disciples have been wrong about the death of Jesus? After all, when Paul was stoned by the Jews from Antioch and Iconium (in Acts 14) they drug him out of the city and left him for dead. “While the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city” (verse 20). If the disciples were wrong about Paul, couldn’t they also have been wrong about Jesus?

-There have been a lot of objections to Jesus’ death—most of them trying to offer an alternative explanation to the resurrection. But it is a legitimate question and consideration—did Jesus really die? How do we know? And what is the importance of this fact? How does that fact affect our lives?

-As Christians in America, we take a lot of things for granted—and Christ’s death is one of them. It is just a natural assumption, and so we don’t give it a whole lot of thought.

~We think that the gospel message itself is so basic and primary that we don’t need to rehash it anymore. And yet, if it were not for the truthfulness of the gospel message, then none of the other stuff in the Bible would be of much use. It is the gospel that legitimizes the rest.

-And even Paul himself said that he would know nothing else and would preach nothing else, but Christ crucified.

~So, for example, in writing to the Corinthians, in chapter 15, Paul wants to remind them of the gospel, saying that this is of first importance (not second or third—this is of first importance to your life). So that means that we better listen up.

~He goes on to describe this gospel, and he says that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SCRIPTURES and THAT HE WAS BURIED.

-Why did He include that Jesus was buried? That’s not something we normally share when sharing the gospel. We know Christ died for us. We know that He rose from the dead. What is the importance to include that He was buried?

-It’s mentioned as fact so as to further testify that Jesus really, actually did die—so the resurrection is a real, proper resurrection. Not a resuscitation or revival—He did die, He really was raised.

-John, in his gospel, also wants to emphasize this fact. And what I want us to take away from this study is that the historical fact of Jesus’ death empowers belief and an unashamed life of public Christian witness.

READ John 19:31-42

John 19:31–42 ESV

Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was 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 bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

-I want to consider two lessons that we can take away from the historical fact of Jesus’ death:

1) We have confidence to believe Scripture’s testimony

-John writes his gospel with the purpose of proclaiming and proving Jesus’ identity. The fact that Jesus actually died is a very important part of that identity, and John wants to make clear that Scripture’s testimony about Jesus’ death is genuine, so its testimony about Jesus’ identity is also true and genuine.

-This is important because, first, if Jesus actually died, then that means that Jesus was fully human. By the time that John writes his gospel, there were many false teachings that surrounded the person of Jesus that would deny who He truly was.

~For example, the heresy of Docetism claimed that Jesus wasn’t really a man, but He only appeared to be a man, so He only appeared to die, but really didn’t.

~In a society that relied heavily on honor and shame such as the Jews had, the idea that anyone would serve a God that suffered and died was incomprehensible. Therefore, in order to reconcile a belief in an honorable God, they suggested that the Jesus on the cross was a mere phantom or something to that effect.

~However, the fact that Jesus was fully human and that he actually died is foundational to the faith, and I’ll speak more of its importance in a bit.

-But Jesus’ death is also important in that if He did not die, then He would not be the risen King. Again, His death is central to His identity.

-So, in our passage, John wants to give proofs and evidences that Jesus actually did die.

-First, John appeals to the eyewitnesses to Jesus’ death.

-For example, he brings forward Roman soldiers as eyewitnesses to His death.

~Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and the next day was a High Sabbath because a Passover feast fell on a Sabbath day as well. Per Deuteronomy 21 the Jews were not to defile the land by having someone hang on a tree overnight, so the Jews requested that the Romans hurry up the deaths. When they came to Jesus, they didn’t bother breaking His legs because He was already dead. These Roman soldiers, who were trained killers and executioners, were around death all the time. They knew when someone was dead, and they testified that Jesus was dead.

-But then John also presents Himself as an eyewitness. In v. 35 John is saying I WAS THERE. I SAW IT WITH MY OWN TWO EYES, AND I BEAR WITNESS THAT JESUS ACTUALLY DIED. And John records these truths for the purpose that people may believe that Jesus actually died and that all that he records about Jesus is actually true.

-And then John gives Joseph and Nicodemus as eyewitnesses. They saw the body. Had there been any life in Jesus, they would have noticed it before they prepared and buried His body.

-But there was more evidence than just eyewitnesses. John records that the soldiers thrust a spear into Jesus’ side—most likely thrusting up through the abdomen into the chest cavity. The spear thrust itself would have killed Jesus had he not already been dead. But John records that blood and water came out. Although experts offer various reasons for that, John records this detail to show medically that Jesus had already died.

-Another piece of evidence is the burial wrappings. Jesus’ body was tightly woven with cloth with spices and aloes wrapped with it. There were 65 or so pounds of wrapping that covered Jesus. Had he somehow survived, He would have suffocated under all of that. Yet again, the servants who wrapped Jesus would have noticed life in Him had He still been alive.

-Another piece of evidence is that depiction of the tomb. John gives a detailed description of where Jesus’ body was buried. He was sealed in tomb that anybody could have easily found. Unlike what the listener to Wallace’s podcast gives as an objection, Jesus’ body was not just laid out somewhere only for Him to wake up and walk away. People could find the tomb where Jesus was buried. It was sealed. It was guarded. Jesus truly was dead.

-Having considered the truthfulness of Jesus’ death, I want to consider the message and theological importance of the fact of Jesus’ death.

~In a Desiring God article, Joseph Scheumann gives some truths about the death of Jesus that we are left with, knowing that it is a historical fact.

I want us to consider:

1. The death of Jesus was for his enemies

~Jesus actually, physically died for the unlovable, the ungodly—sinners who are the enemies of God. This goes against our natural thoughts and inclinations, such that Paul writes:

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7–8 ESV)

2. The death of Jesus is on our behalf.

~Jesus’s death was substitutionary. That is, he died in our place. He died the death that we deserved. He bore the punishment that was justly ours. For everyone who believes in him, Christ took the wrath of God on their behalf.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24 ESV)

3. The death of Jesus defines love.

His substitutionary death is the ultimate example of what love means, and Jesus calls those who follow him to walk in the same kind of life-laying-down love.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:16 ESV)

4. The death of Jesus reconciles us to God.

~Jesus’s death enables us to have a joy-filled relationship with God.

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him (Colossians 1:21–22 ESV)

-These wonderful truths are only true if Jesus actually died.

-But, in our last remaining minutes, I want to quickly consider from the passage a practical aspect of the historical fact of Jesus’ death:

2) We have confidence to live as bold disciples

-Joseph, who was from a city of the Jews called Arimathea, claimed Jesus’ body to give it a proper burial. Joseph was a wealthy member of the Jewish ruling council. Because of his wealth and standing in the community, he was able to gain an audience with Pilate and make the request to bury Jesus in His own tomb that He had purchased—a tomb that hadn’t ever been used yet.

-But John gives us an interesting fact—Joseph was a disciple of Jesus. But John says that he was a secret disciple. Joseph at first didn’t want to openly follow Jesus because of what the other Jews on the Sanhedrin might think. Luke tells us in his gospel that Joseph was a good and righteous man who did not consent to any actions the council took against Jesus. It says that Joseph was looking for the Kingdom of God, and we could say that Joseph found that Kingdom in Jesus.

~But Joseph didn’t want them to know that He believed in Jesus or followed Jesus. But now, after Jesus’ death, Joseph comes out of the shadows.

-And not only Joseph, but Nicodemus too. You remember Nicodemus from earlier in John’s gospel. He came to Jesus by night (again, not wanting to be seen in public with Jesus) and Jesus told Him of the need to be born again. He was also a wealthy member of the council. He provided the cloths and spices for Jesus’ burial—which was a very expensive endeavor.

~If Joseph and Nicodemus had not done what they did, Jesus would have just been thrown in some sort of mass grave for criminals.

-And yet, here are these two secret disciples, that the apostles themselves probably didn’t know followed Jesus, and they make such a public outing. Before, they didn’t want the shame of being seen with Jesus, and now they do this?

-I have yet to figure out what changed in them. The Bible doesn’t tell us why all of a sudden they made public their discipleship. All it does is state the fact that they did this.

~There was something about the fact of Jesus’ death that strangely emboldened them. Maybe because they heard Jesus predict that He would be killed, and then it happened. Maybe because they were angry at what the Sanhedrin did in bringing about Jesus’ death and they no longer wanted to be associated with that. I don’t know.

-But I do know this—Jesus’ death gave them the courage to act on their discipleship. They were secret disciples no more. Maybe beforehand they did not want pay the cost of publicly following Jesus. But now, they were ready. They counted the cost and found that following Jesus is better than going with the flow of the world.

-That’s the thing—being a disciple comes at a cost. Yes, Jesus’ death paid the cost for our forgiveness and entrance into relationship—but following Jesus as a true disciple on earth is costly.

~We’ve said to people to walk and aisle and join a church and you’re a Christian—but the Bible says something different about being a disciple.

-Tony Evans once said:

If becoming a Christian is without a cost, becoming a disciple demands a cost.

-Jesus said:

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13–14 ESV)

~The way of discipleship is narrow and hard. That word for hard means that it is full of trouble, oppression, and affliction. Oh sure, you can say you are a Christian, but are you living out your Christianity. Are you living and standing for truth in love in spite of the hardship that it might bring?

-As the culture tries to marginalize us, are you still living for and following Jesus—or are you compromising with the world, allowing it to keep you a secret disciple.

~Do people even know that you are a disciple—or would it come as a shock to some?

-By coming out as followers of Jesus, Joseph and Nicodemus very well could have lost their reputation, their religion, and their riches. Beforehand, they so wanted to hold onto those things that they were fine being a secret disciple. But now, they were willing to give it all up to be connected to Him.

~So many Christians say they are willing to die for Jesus, but we know that’s a lie because they’re not even willing to live for Jesus.

Conclusion

-An unknown author wrote these words about Joseph and Nicodemus:

It should be remembered they buried a dead Christ. They did not know the Lord would rise again. As far as they knew they had lost their opportunity of falling at His feet to confess their love to Him. Ashamed of former failures, they now broadcast to the nation that they cared enough to do for Jesus something which even the disciples had not thought of doing. They would see to His funeral…they would bury Him like a king.

-No matter your age; no matter your education; no matter your IQ; no matter your gender; no matter your race; no matter your job; no matter your socio-economic status; no matter your political affiliation; no matter what category you have been pigeonholed into, you have a chance to be a public disciple of Jesus Christ and give a public testimony of His death for sins.

-His death means your life; He paid that price; what price are you willing to pay to follow Him?

-Christian, His death gives courage to be a public witness, not a secret disciple. Will you come to the altar and pray for that boldness?

-But John said he recorded these things so that you might believe. If you haven’t yet believed…