"When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. Joseph
bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and
laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a
stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid."
Good Morning my beloved,
We
welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are so
grateful that you could be here with us today.
As we look at all the madness, the absolute insanity that is occurring in the world today, by people who desperately need feel significant, it's not difficult to imagine that the world spiraling out of control. And, you can certainly see that even in the ministry, where there’s pastor after pastor, who can't seem to resist temptation when it rears its ugly head, being exposed for some kind of corruption, some kind of sexual misconduct or inappropriate statement that creates a tremendous division in the church when the congregation is forced to deal with it. Then, there's are all the denominational problems that are going on in the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, as well as the Southern Baptist Convention to name a few, it's hard to imagine that the Church can even survive in that type of environment. And, on top of all of that, Christian persecution is dramatically on the rise not just in certain parts of the world, like the Middle East, but all around the world, including America. It's too staggering to even comprehend. This is a great illustration of God's sovereignty, His divine providence, orchestrating all the events, to accomplish exactly what He intends, to bring this fallen world to its ultimate end. Every detail of the end is recorded in Scripture, and there's nothing or nobody that's going to change it or stop it, because God has ordained the end. He is superintending everything that is happening is within His purpose, to ensure that His chosen end is ultimately fulfilled, down to even the most minute detail. For the Christ-honoring believer, we can be encouraged by God's divine providence, even in the most difficult circumstances, no matter what it is, because it means that nothing can go wrong. We can just remain calm, putting ourselves in God’s hands, living life in a godly way and watch God do His work His way, on a day-to-day basis, as His divine plan unfolds.
It's as Paul writes in Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." If you don't trust God, if you don't know where things are headed, then it's going to be very difficult for you to see how all of this could possibly work out for good, and you're going to struggle. God is not the author of confusion, but He is in complete control over the one who is, Satan. He’s in complete control of evil and the sin problems we're seeing in the world. In fact, He intended for all of this to happen, He decreed it for His glory. If sin and evil didn't exist, there would be no opportunity for Him to display His mercy, His grace, His compassion, and His forgiveness.
In the crucifixion of Christ, we see God’s goodness, God's love on display, while simultaneously demonstrating wickedness, through the acts of evil men, the Jewish leaders, Pilate, the Romans soldiers, all acting together in free will for their own reasons, to fulfill His divine purposes, so that by His grace and mercy He might redeem sinners. It's important to recognize that God was orchestrating all of that, every detail was under His divine control, that's pretty remarkable.
And, I believe we're going to see God's providence at work in the removal of the body from the cross and its placement in the tomb, as we look at the burial of Christ.
Let us pray,
Heavenly Father,
Amen
Today's Message: Joseph of Arimathea, A Man on a Mission
Open your Bibles with me, if you would, and turn to the
fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, verses 42 through 47. This is a thrilling portion of Scripture in which we see the sovereignty of God, the affirmation of His providence at work, divinely orchestrating the events surrounding the burial of Jesus Christ, through the behaviors of people to fulfill prophecy and I believe that it will elevate your confidence for those who doubt in the deity of Christ. I hope that you to follow along with me as I read the text to set in our minds, and listen for the voice of our Lord with open ears and a hearing heart.
"When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph
of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was
waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in
before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. Joseph
bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and
laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a
stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid."
Let's look at verse 42, "When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath." It was imperative that Jesus would be dead by 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon, so that He could be buried and be in the grave a portion of Friday, all day Saturday, and a portion of Sunday, just as it was prophesied that He would. "When it was evening," is significant, because it leaves us with no doubt that it was indeed, still Friday, which was the day of preparation for the Sabbath, which runs from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. This isn’t just any Sabbath, this is the Passover Sabbath. The Jewish leaders needed to have the bodies taken down to avoid defilement on the Passover Sabbath. So, they entered into Pilate's praetorium and asked him to break the legs of the bodies, with a large mallet to speed up the death process, referred to as the death stroke, they wanted make sure they were dead, so the bodies could be removed.
Why did it matter whether or not they were still hanging there on the Sabbath? Those of you who are familiar with the Old Testament, may recall this comes from Deuteronomy 21:21-23, which says "And if a man has committed a sin, the judgment of which is death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (because cursed of God is he who is hanged), so that you do not make unclean your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance." John 19:32-37 tells us "So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "Not a bone of Him shall be broken." Why is that important? Because Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12 say the Passover lamb cannot have a broken bone. By the way, John was there, and he saw that Jesus was dead; that also means that the Roman soldiers, who were executioners by trade found Him dead, that's why they didn’t break His legs. Then in verse 37, "And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced." Zechariah 12:10 says that the Messiah would also be pierced "so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced." In case you've missed it, this is clear evidence that God is controlling every detail was being handled in regard to Christ's body. This is amazing, they don't even know that they were fulfilling prophecy!
I've been asked more than a few times, "Why did Jesus die before the two thieves died on the cross?" I believe we can find the answer to that question in John 10:18, where Jesus says "No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself, I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." In other words, He was in complete control of the precise moment of His death. Remember John 19:30, when He said, "It is finished!," He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
Verse 43, "Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus." It was customary for the Romans to give the body to the family if they asked for it, but no one in the family did. I imagine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was distraught, before He died, Jesus put into the care of John, who was probably caring for her and trying to console her, along with His brothers and sisters. The other disciples are hiding in fear for their own lives. Keep in mind that it was the preparation day, the day before the Passover Sabbath, which was a high day. If no one would have come to claim His body, they would have thrown Him in Gehenna, the city dump, with the wicked. Here we see God's divine providence supernaturally moving through a man named Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Council.
Luke tells us he had not consented to their plan and action with regard to sentencing Jesus to death for blasphemy. In fact, he may well have been the only one who didn’t consent to it, because both Matthew and Luke tell us that they all agreed to His death. By the way, this is the only time that Joseph of Arimathea's name is mentioned anywhere in the New Testament, and it's an unexpected testimony of his faith in Christ. John says, he was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one, for fear of the Jews, but this is not a time for fear. He's compelled by faith to get Jesus' body, so he gathered up the courage to ask Pilate for His body, by Jewish tradition, he's defiling himself by entering into Pilate's praetorium, all for the sake of the church in the future, so that the body of his Messiah wouldn’t be desecrated. Why would he do this? Because he was waiting for the kingdom of God. I believe that he's holding on to the hope of the resurrection, that if Jesus is buried, He would rise from the dead, just as He said He would. Why else would he be willing to risk declaring himself as a follower of Jesus, he could have earned the same fate. The Sanhedrin had just gone out, from talking to Pilate about breaking their legs, it's interesting that these religious hypocrites weren't unconcerned about defiling themselves like they were before, being ceremonially unclean; now they wanted to make sure He's dead!
Verse 45, "Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead." It is implied that he begged Pilate, because amazingly he granted Joseph's request even though he had no right to the body not being a member of the family and Pilate ordered it that he may take possession of Jesus’ body and give Him a dignified burial, even before Pilate even knew that Jesus was dead. Completely unaware he’s being driven by God to give Him his own tomb, fulfilling God’s will. Remember Isaiah 53:9? "So 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."
Verse 46, "Joseph
bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and
laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a
stone against the entrance of the tomb." Joseph took Him down off the cross, removing the nails from hands and feet, Joseph didn’t fear defiling himself by going to see Pilate, he wasn't worried about violating Leviticus 21:1-3, which says "No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people, except for his blood relatives who are nearest to him, his mother and his father and his son and his daughter and his brother, also for his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may defile himself." All he's concerned about getting Him off the cross, and into the grave on Friday before sundown! It must have been an emotionally excruciating experience for Joseph as he pulled the
5-inch spikes out of the wrists and feet of Jesus and removed the
crown of thorns from his head.
John 19 gives us more details, "So he came and took away His body. Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews." Joseph bought the shroud and Nicodemus bought the spices designed to offset the stench of decomposition and would have been placed between the strips of linen used to wrap His body, with a separate cloth laid over his head.
That brings us to verse 47, "Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid." This addresses the claim that some skeptics have made that the women must have been confused and gone to the wrong tomb on Sunday. The Bible is clear, there’s no way that could have happened, they loved Him so they followed Joseph of Arimathea after he took Jesus' body off the cross and to the nearby grave where He was laid, they wanted to know what was happening with Jesus' body. Remember, Mark said they’d been looking on from a distance at the cross. Jesus is now buried and the tomb is sealed with a stone. Matthew tells us it was a large stone that would have been rolled down an incline in front of the entrance. Archaeologists estimate that this could have weighed a several tons, which would have required the strength of several men to roll that large stone back up again.
It's so encouraging to have the confidence that the clear biblical evidence verifies Jesus was dead on the cross, His legs are not broken, His side is pierced, and He was buried, the women weren't confused about the tomb, and the disciples couldn't have stolen His body, and that the cross of Christ has the power to transform cowards into men of bold faith and courage. All proof of God's divine providence and the evidence of the the empty tomb and the resurrection as Jesus raises from death to life!
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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