Two Journeys

The eyewitness testimonies of Jesus Christ's resurrection and his Great Commission to spread the gospel are crucial for our Christian faith.

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John lovingly urges us to examine our lives using God's spiritual assessment tools to gain assurance of salvation or expose deadly deception.

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Paul instructs Christians to live a supernatural life by the power of the Spirit in light of God's mercy, to love like Jesus loved and live how he lived.

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In Revelation 3:7-13, Jesus commends, exhorts, and encourages the faithful in Philadelphia who rely on God's strength to keep his word and receive his secret name.

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Jesus' earth-shattering resurrection obliterated death's reign and was proved by the women's witness of his empty tomb, his meetings with disciples, and the birth of Christianity. 

For the second time this spring, we here at First Baptist Church get to celebrate Easter. I remember back in February, I think it was one of you asked me, "Oh, in the series in Mark, have you lined it up so that you will celebrate resurrection victory on Easter?” "Well, I missed by about a month." But that's okay. We get to celebrate the resurrection twice, and we as Christians have the opportunity to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ every day of our lives. This is an opportunity as we continue to move through Mark, to focus on the truth of Christ's bodily resurrection from the grave. Look at Mark 16: 1-8. This morning I'm not feeling in any way confined to these verses in Mark. I'm going to feel the freedom to go over to Matthew and then back over to Luke and then something from John and back to Mark again. We're going to do that because I want to celebrate what Christ has done and the greatness of this celebration is in proportion to the greatness of the enemy that Christ triumphed over the enemy of death.

Death is a vicious, cold-hearted tyrant. Paul writes in Romans, "Sin reigned in death, personifying death as a tyrant, a tyrannical emperor that has reigned." Death, has walked with cruel and bloody boots through the pages of human history, and not a single nation is exempt from death's tyranny all over the world. Every culture has lavish laments for the destruction brought about by death. The Bible itself is filled with deep and bitter laments over death. Think of the wailing of a mother over her dead child or of a man over a dead daughter or a friend over a lost friend or a spouse over a dead spouse. I would imagine that almost all of you of age listening to me today have experienced the death of a loved one or many loved ones, and you know how bitter that can feel.

How can we possibly measure the amount of sorrow that death has caused? Romans 5 makes the origin of death plain theologically. We would not know this except that the word of God teaches us. In Romans 5:12, "Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way death came to all because all sinned." Adam violated God's command at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and received the due penalty that God had ordained for his sin. But more than that, that chapter in the Bible teaches that Adam represented us at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He represented the entire human race at that tree. So in that moment, every single human being sinned in Adam, and the verse also says, "We died in Adam." So from the Garden of Eden until now, there's been an indissoluble link between sin and death.

Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death," and only by the payment of a death penalty can we be forgiven and reconciled to a holy God. We also know the Bible instructs us that Satan held the power of death and he has by Christ's death and resurrection been defeated. Adam sinned by yielding to Satan in the form of the serpent, and in this way he gave to the deceiver Satan to power of death. Now, ancient history— look forward to this, the defeat of death, predicted again and again in the Old Testament. There in the Garden of Eden, God promised a death conqueror, a savior who would crush Satan and defeat death and win for us our full salvation. God said to Satan in the form and the guise of the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel."

That's the first prophecy of the coming of Christ and His death on the cross by which He would destroy him who held the power of death, that is the devil [Hebrews chapter 2.] God promised it again and again through the Old Testament prophets that the defeat of death was coming. For example, Isaiah 25:7-8 says, "On this mountain he, God, will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever." I love that verb, “swallow,” swallow up as 1 Corinthians 15 says, "Death is swallowed up in victory." It's not a small, tiny victory that Christ has won over death, but it's an eternal swallowing up of death by His resurrection victory. 

Christ is the one born of woman, the seed of the woman, as God said in Genesis 3:15, the one who came to save us from sin and death. Galatians 4:4-5, "When the time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive the full rights of sons." Just as the prophets looked ahead to that event, so also all of church history, all of Christians from that time on has looked backed to that triumphant event. Since Christ rose from the dead, the centerpiece of the Gospel that the church has faithfully proclaimed now for 20 centuries is “Christ is risen from the dead.” In 1 Corinthians 15: 3-4, Paul says, "For what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures.”  This is our hope, Romans 10: 9-10, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." 

Having set all that up now, let's look at the account that we have in Mark 16: 1-2. It begins with a loving errand which is supernaturally interrupted. Looking at verse 1-2, "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus's body. Very early on the first day of the week just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb." We have these women and this is a loving errand. The Sabbath is over and the women can finish what they started but had been unable to finish because of the Sabbath.  In this errand they wanted to express the deep love and affection that they had for Jesus in the only way that they knew how at that point. 

The love that these women have for Jesus is clear, but we also must see in their actions some measure of unbelief as well, a measure of unbelief. Their love for Jesus was based on their relationship with Him and their faith in Him. They had a genuine faith in Jesus as the son of God. But like all of Jesus's disciples, apostles, the women that followed all of them at that point did not have a clear understanding of the significance of Jesus' death and the promise of His resurrection. They're murky about the details, they don't understand it, and so their behavior shows that strange mingling of faith and love with a measure or a dose of unbelief.

Why do I say that? They are not in any way evidently expecting a resurrection on the third day, not at all. Even more strikingly, they're coming to anoint His corpse with sweet smelling substances to keep it from stinking as it decomposes. All of this, despite the fact that Jesus made it plain that He would rise on the third day in Matthew 12:40, "For as Jonah is three days and three nights and the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Or again in Mark 8:31, "He then began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law and that he must be killed and after three days rise again." He said this again and again, not once or twice but many times.

Their unbelief also is despite the fact that in Psalms 16 it's said that Jesus' body would not suffer decay at all. Psalms 16: 10 says, "You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay." Peter clearly lines us up in the Pentecost sermon saying that it meant that Jesus' body was miraculously protected from decay in that intervening time, so there's no need for sweet smelling spices to anoint a corpse because by the time that they're walking toward the tomb, He's already risen. The key issue is they didn't understand the scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead. That's what John says in John 20: 9. None of them did. I'm not singling out the women. The apostles didn't believe it either. And John says concerning himself and Peter as they visited the empty tomb, they still did not understand from scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead. Or again, Jesus with the two disciples on their own to Emmaus. They were so depressed, they were discouraged and they were bewildered.  They'd already had reports about the empty tomb from the women at this point, and they don't know how to make any sense of it. They're depressed as they're walking with the resurrected Christ. 

Our emotions are messed up dear friends, sometimes they're just messed up. There's a lot of messed up emotions on that first day of the week. Jesus says to them, “‘How foolish you are, how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things. And after that enter into his glory and beginning with Moses and the prophets, all the prophets.’ He explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. Later they said, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened the scriptures to us.’” [Luke 24: 25-27]

Christ does not despise the women's mixture of faith and love with their measure of unbelief. We're told in Matthew 12:20, “A bruised reed, he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” That's talking about people in their weakness and in their fragility. We are not mighty oaks of righteousness, we're like bruised reeds that need to be gently bound up. We're not roaring fires of piety, we're like smoldering wicks, and He has that skill, that tender skill to be able to bind us up and build us up so that we're stronger in our faith. So He deals with them.

As the women are walking toward the tomb in the darkness of that first day of the week, there is a practical problem that's dominating their minds. I don't know if they hadn't thought about it up to that moment or if it just hit them as they neared the tomb.  Who's going to move the stone? Look what it says. Verse 2-4, "Very early on the first day of the week just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, 'Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?' But when they looked up, they saw that the stone which was very large had been rolled away." This is a significant problem. This is a massive boulder, the purpose of which is to prevent people stealing graves or being grave robbers. It's a huge boulder and it's a problem. They don't really know what they can do, so the question comes, who moved the stone? When they come, they see the stone had been rolled away or lifted up and moved. Who moved the stone? Profound mystery, but we’re told very clearly in Matthew's Gospel who did it. It was an angel from heaven.

By the way, an English skeptic in 1930, a journalist with the pen name of Frank Morrison, decided to try to debunk the resurrection accounts. I love stories like this. He thought he would disprove Christianity by reading the Gospels. We hear this again and again. Frank Morris is his pen name, and he's going to debunk the resurrection. He makes a careful study of all four Gospels. The simple truth flowing from the harmony of Matthew, Mark Luke and John. As he makes a study, he ends up being converted and becomes a genuine Christian. He wrote his apologetic defense of Christianity in a book, a classic 1930 called Who Moved the Stone. He focuses in on the moving of the stone. 

Matthew's account, as I said, tells us the answer to the question, it was an angel from heaven. Matthew 28: 2-3 says, "There was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow." John's Gospel makes it clear that the stone had been entirely moved away from the entrance to the tomb. It wasn't just rolled back up alongside, but it was lifted up and moved away. John 20: 1 says, "Now, in the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb." The Greek word translated “taken away" usually is translated, “lifted up.” It's for the same word that Joseph Arimathea used on Jesus's corpse in John 19:38.

We should picture the angel descending, coming down, going over to where this massive stone was and rolling it back from the entrance of the tomb, and then lifting it up entirely and dropping it somewhere away from the tomb. God didn't want that stone in the way in front of the physical evidence for the greatest event in human history. He wanted that stone up out of the way. To some degree, the moving of the stone is like the parting of a curtain for the greatest drama in history, the greatest event in history. How appropriate was that there was a massive earthquake, just as this thing is happening. The earthquake kind of sets it out as dramatic. We'll talk more about that in a moment. 

What is the significance of the moving of the stone? Let's clear away one misconception. The stone was not moved to let Jesus out. Poor Jesus, the resurrected Jesus inside the tomb waiting for the angel to come get him. It's not that way at all. Jesus is the resurrected son of God, fully glorified, awesome in power, ancient of days. There's nothing He cannot do. He could have moved the stone Himself if He had wanted to, but an even more significant and amazing fact is staring us in the face. He didn't need to. He didn't need the stone moved. Why is that? Because His resurrection body is made of a different kind of “stuff” than anything that has ever been seen in this present age.

It is the “first matter,” again, if we could use that word, in this present universe that will also be in the new heaven and new earth. Every other physical thing is temporary, will be transformed, made ready for the new heaven and new earth. Jesus's resurrection body in its present form will last for all eternity. He is called the first fruit from the dead. Nothing else in the history of the universe is like His resurrection body. Some indication of the strangeness of this matter, this body, this material is found in the description of our resurrection bodies after His pattern. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 says, "The body that is sown is perishable, it's raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there will also be a spiritual body." Now pause for a moment. Let me ask you, what is that?

What is a spiritual body? A perfect combination of flesh and spirit, of body and spirit, in a way that I think we can't really fully comprehend. You can touch it as Thomas, so-called doubting Thomas did, when he could have, I don't think he actually did it, but could have put his finger in the nail marks and his hand and the wound in the side, it's touchable. It can consume fish as Jesus did when He took a small piece of broil fish and ate it. At that moment, He invited His apostles in Luke, 24:39 and 40, “'Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself.  Touch me and see, a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.’ And when He said this, He showed them his hands and feet.”

Interestingly, Jesus says, "I'm not a spirit,” like “I'm not a ghost,” but Paul does call Him a life-giving spirit, so there's just infinite mystery here. Paul emphasizes essentially other worldly spiritual nature when he calls it a spiritual body. It is imperishable, it is glorious, it's powerful and it is a spiritual body. He is the second Adam, the heavenly man. As Adam gave us his earthly nature, Christ will give us His heavenly nature in the resurrection body. 

What does all this point to? It is a higher level of physical existence than anything we've ever known before. It should not surprise us that we can't work out all of the details. Jesus' resurrection body was strange in some respects. It was able to do strange things. For example, He appears like a totally normal stranger walking down the dusty road with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Mark says He appeared in a different form. That's what it's talking about there. Jesus didn't look like His normal self because people who knew Him very well before His crucifixion didn't recognize Him. Or actually, the text said they were kept from recognizing him. It was like there was something inside us that you're not going to see the resurrection until it's worked in you to see it, so there's something different. As I said, He could eat bread and fish, but He also suddenly disappeared after He broke the bread with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, gone, invisible.

I believe because of the evidence of the grave. He passes up through the grave clothes which were wrapped around His body with a sticky resinous substance. Have you ever had something sticky like pine sap on you? It's hard to get it off. These strips were wrapped with 75 pounds of this stuff. They're all there. There's no way to get out of that without passing up through it, and leaving them as it says, "Wholly undisturbed in their original position." They were set, they were there in a body shape, and then the implication based on that, is that He then passed through the walls of the tomb. He didn't need the stone move for His sake, He was able to just move through. 

In the upper room on the first day of the week, the disciples except Thomas were there assembled and though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He did it again a week later when Thomas was there. The same thing, the doors were locked and He came and stood among them. The bottom line, Jesus's resurrection body could pass through the walls. That's how He got out the tomb. The stone wasn't moved to let Jesus out, He's already gone. But rather, the moving of the stone enabled us to come in.

It also shows the limits to human governmental authority. Remember in Matthew 28 how the chief priests and the Pharisees on the intervening day Saturday went to Pilate and had asked for a guard to be posted at the tomb because they remember that while “that deceiver” was alive, He said, "On the third day, I'll rise again." They asked that a guard be posted to keep his disciples from coming and stealing the body and then claiming that He had been raised from the dead. Pilate said, "Take a guard and make the tomb as secure as you know how." So they posted the guard and put a seal on the stone.

The angel comes down and is no way hindered by the seal, he’s under higher orders. When he moves the stone, what do you think happened to the Roman seal? It was broken. There's no power on earth that's going to stop the resurrection including the limits of that governmental power. God rules over all human laws, and the moving of the stone points to the importance of the physical evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus for the start of Christianity, for the establishment of the truth of the resurrection. The physical evidence is important though temporary. God wanted the apostles, especially eyewitnesses to the resurrection to see the evidence for themselves and then write about it and tell us about it because I think probably later that day it was already gone. Or certainly within that week Jesus' enemies would've gotten rid of all the evidence, they were of a mind to do that.

But the evidence was essential to the apostle John's belief that Christ had been raised from the dead. John never mentions himself in his own Gospel, but we know that's who the disciple whom Jesus loved was. He and Peter run to the tomb, and arriving first, he enters the tomb. [John 20]. He saw and believed. There’s the grave clothes, the head cloth folded up off by itself, all of the physical evidence, the stone, all of that was enough clear evidence of bodily resurrection. John says he saw and believed because of his seeing. The same was offered to Thomas, "Because you have seen me," Jesus said, "You have believed." That is valid for the apostles. They were eyewitnesses of his resurrection.

That physical evidence was essential because it would become the basis of the Gospel that they would preach, and that they would write about. We don't get to see the evidence. I know you can get on a plane and go to Jerusalem. You can go to one of the two or three tombs that they say is Jesus's empty tomb. And guess what? They're all empty. Will your faith be helped by that? Maybe. If you've got that kind of a pilgrim mentality, go do that. I don't know how you're going to know it's true. I mean it's been 2,000 years. We get our faith from Scripture, including the physical evidence of the bodily resurrection from the Gospel accounts. They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Only on that basis will you believe in the resurrection, only on the basis of what you read in the Bible, and hear it proclaimed from the Scripture, or you won't believe at all.

But fundamental to that is the physical evidence of Jesus' incarnate life, including His resurrection from the dead. John 1:14, "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we, the eyewitnesses, have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John writes in his epistle, 1 John 1:1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at in our hands of touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life." They're the first link in the chain of faith. Their experience at the empty tomb is vital to the establishment of the Gospel. The moving of the stone also points to the importance of history to Christianity. 

It really, really, really does matter whether Christ actually rose from the dead or not.  It really does. There is no religion in the world for which history is so important as Christianity. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:14, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” You all wasted your time coming to church here today, but you didn't because Christ has been raised, the first fruit from the dead. It really does matter whether it happened.

Let's go now to the angels. The angel descends, Matthew 28: 2-3, "And behold there was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were as white as snow.” So there's an earthquake." The text says, "Behold," it gives a sense of the suddenness and shock of the earthquake. The Greek intensifies. "It was a great earthquake." This is in Matthew 28:2. It was not a mere tremor. The ground beneath their feet shook. It's a symbol of the way the entire world was about to change because of this event. This was an earth shaking experience, so to speak, literally and also metaphorically. By the way, it is the second earthquake connected with all these events because an earthquake happened the moment Jesus died as well. The angel comes down and his appearance, I believe caused the earthquake because there's a link—there was a powerful earthquake before an angel came down. So the angel comes down and shakes the ground. They can do that by the way.  The angel comes down and his appearance is like lightning and his clothes were as white as snow. He descends from heaven, he's serving the king, he's an angel of the Lord. He touches down somewhere there near the tomb and goes over, and he moves the stone effortlessly. Effortlessly. I mean it's no problem for him. My favorite part of Matthew's account with the angel and the stone is how he just sits on the stone after moving it.  He's got Roman soldiers there, and he’s completely unconcerned about them. They're no problem. They're actually part of the plan. He sits there and his appearance is blinding light, brilliant white, like, lightning clothes, white as snow, some heavenly glory surrounding this angel. Mark's account is much simpler. By the way, this is why I'm doing Matthew and Luke with Mark. Mark doesn't give us much at all. It's a very, simple account. Look at verse 5, "As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side and they were alarmed." John tells us there are actually two young men dressed in white. That's not contradictory, it's just, Mark doesn't tell us that there were two, but that there was one. 

There is terror and also assurance.  Remember that there's a detachment of Roman soldiers there who are supposed to guard the tomb preventing this very thing from happening. There's no way they can prevent any of this from happening, but they're there. Matthew tells us the effect that the angel had on the soldiers. Matthew 28:4, "The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men." These are some of the toughest soldiers in the world. They conquered the world and built an empire for Caesar, but they're utterly terrified of the sight of this angel and the earthquake he caused. They are shaking like the earth was shaking. They're trembling and they end up catatonic, unconscious, paralyzed from fear. 

But the angel wants to reassure the women so he speaks to them. Look at verse 6, "Don't be alarmed." He said, "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him.”  In Luke's account, there seems to be somewhat of a gentle rebuke in Luke 24:5-8. It says, "In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground. But the men [the angels] said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He's not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you." Now they're not quoting Isaiah, they're not going to the prophet. They're quoting Jesus. “Remember how He told you when He was still with you in Galilee, ‘The Son of man must be delivered in the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again,’then they remembered his words.” In other words, they should have known, they should have believed, they should have trusted.

Now the same thing for the angels in John's Gospel toward Mary Magdalene. Remember she's weeping in front of the empty tomb. She's standing there weeping and, “They asked her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘And I don't know where they have put him.’”  As if to say, “Tell me, I'll go get him and bring him back, like put him back in the tomb." She's clearly not believing a resurrection at that point, she just wants to finish the anointing. She doesn't want any of this happening. 

The angels are intervening with these women in their misery and sorrow, which is based on unbelief and saying, "It's time to get up out of that. Why are you weeping? Stop weeping. This is celebration day." Two disciples on the road to Emmaus, "Why are you downcast? Why are you discouraged? This is a day of celebration." So rejoice by faith. The basis of their joy would be the evidence of the tomb.

The angel says in Mark 16:6, "He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him." That's the importance of the physical evidence. Look at it. Look at the place. The empty tomb is the lasting physical evidence for the resurrection in Mark's Gospel. The Jews have never denied that the tomb was indeed empty. How could it be denied? The proclamation of Jesus's resurrection on the day of Pentecost could have been instantly and easily debunked by producing the corpse, because it continued and they claimed and preach that Christ had been raised from the dead. That proves historically that the tomb was empty.

What explanation could there be? Think about the Roman guards [Matthew 28: 11-15. This is really quite remarkable. Isn't it amazing how Satan, the chief priests, teachers of law all made plans. Enemies made plans to prevent the resurrection, and they end up playing right into God's hands. In Matthew 28:11, "The guards that have been posted there went into the city, into Jerusalem and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened." What do you think that sounded like? “There we were minding our business, we were not asleep, we were doing our job, we're Roman soldiers, when suddenly there was a heavenly being or some creature came down from the sky, overwhelmingly bright, and went over to the stone, picked it up, dropped it somewhere, and sat on it. We don't remember anything else after that. But then when we came to, He was gone, the tomb was empty. That's the story.”

At that moment, I cannot fathom what's going on in the minds of the chief priests. What should they have done at that moment? I'll tell you what, believe in the resurrection. There's only at that point two real possibilities. The disciples came and stole Jesus's body away while the guards fell asleep, or Christ has risen from the dead. But they know that that story is not true because they didn't prosecute the Roman soldiers for dereliction of duty. They believed their account. I wonder, what was their explanation for what happened to the body?

The blindness of unbelief with evidence staring people right in the face, they'd rather go that direction. What do they do? They bribe the guards to say His disciples came during the night and stole them away while they were sleeping. They promised that if the report reached Pilot, they would satisfy Pilot and keep them out of trouble. This story has been widely circulated to this very day. The Jewish population might've believed it, but there was absolutely no way those Roman soldiers or the chief priests who conspired to tell that lie believed it. So what did they think happened to the body? Wouldn't it be wonderful to think that some of those Roman soldiers, maybe even some of those chief priests came to their senses and believed in the resurrection and became Christians?  It is what one preacher called “the lie that proves the resurrection.” If you met one of those Roman soldiers and he said, "He came during the night while we were asleep." "Well then why am I talking to you? Why weren't you killed?" It just doesn't make any sense. It doesn't add up. Fundamentally, you will never believe in the resurrection unless the Holy Spirit works it in you. I could show you all the apologetic evidence there is, but if the Spirit doesn't work repentance and faith in you, you'll never believe. The greatest evidence for it was staring these chief priests and the Roman soldiers right in the face.  Mark doesn't go into any of that, he just says in verse 6, "The angel says, 'Don't be alarmed. You're looking for Jesus the Nazarene. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him.'" 

Then the joyful mission begins. Verse 7, “The angel says, ‘But go tell his disciples and Peter, He's going ahead of you into Galilee. There you'll see him just as he told you.'" This is the beginning of the spread of the Gospel that has conquered the world. Over 2000 years ago, Christ has risen.

The fact that it was entrusted to these women who had come on this loving errand here is really wonderful and remarkable. Their loyalty to Jesus, their love for him is rewarded with the privilege of going to spread the news to the disciples, which means the apostles and let them know what they have experienced, and that Christ has risen and He'll be going ahead of them in the Galilee. Notice how the angel also singles out Peter.  Remember that the last we've heard of Peter, he's denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed twice. He's going to need some special treatment in order to be re-established in his role as the one who preached the Pentecost sermon, and he will get what he needs. Jesus would especially appear to him, but he's singled out here in Mark's account. 

Also notice concerning and trusting this message to women, how it shows truly that God's ways are not our ways.  In that era, the testimony of women was not sought in the court of law. As a matter of fact, the disciples respond with incredulity about the women's reports in Luke 24:9-11, "When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James and the others with them who told this to the Apostles." Luke 24:11, "But they did not believe the women because their words seem to them like nonsense." Again, some of that evidence reveals the truthfulness of the Bible, similar to how the Bible reveals the sins of its great people, like David. If they were concocting this, they wouldn't have come up with this. This doesn't make any sense. There's no way that they would've entrusted this important message to women at all. But God made it plain that He wanted women, along with men, testifying to the truth of the Gospel to the ends of time and to the ends of the earth.

However, the women's reaction is not what it should have been. Look at verse 8, "Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid." In the New Testament, faith always drives out fear. They were entrusted with this report to the disciples, but instead, they are so paralyzed by the events they don't say anything to anyone. In Mark 16:8, we know that's not the final word because at some point they do. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus appears Himself to them to strengthen them so that they can do this work.  Matthew 28:8-10,  "So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid, yet filled with joy and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said." It's basically like, "Hello." This is the resurrected Lord in a resurrection body. "Hello, good morning." Oh wow, that's great. "They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. There they'll see me.'"

By the way, the clasping of the feet is similar to what I think Mary Magdalene did in John's account where Jesus has to say, "Stop holding onto me," 'because she doesn't want Him to get out of her sight ever again. He's saying, “I have to ascend. So don't hold on, but go and tell the brothers.” By the way, I believe this is one of the most remarkable omissions to the possibility of a short ending to Mark's Gospel. Many hold that with this sermon that by Mark 16:8, I should be done preaching Mark. We'll talk about that next week. But one of the most remarkable omissions, there's a couple of markable omissions, but one of them is there's no actual physical personal encounter with the resurrected Christ in the short ending. They just have the physical evidence and the angel saying, "He has risen." We also don't have a great commission. We don't have a command to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. But those personal face-to-face encounters with the resurrected Christ are a vital part of the evidence of the truth of the resurrection. They're essential to the case that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15, that Scripture is greater, but the eyewitness accounts is second only to the Scripture's testimony. It says in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, "He appeared to Peter then to the twelve, after that He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles. And last of all, He appeared to me also as to one abnormally born."

The eyewitness, He appeared in his resurrection body to eyewitnesses, are essential to the proof of the resurrection. But you don't have that if Mark 16:8 ends the Gospel of Mark, but we'll talk about all that next week. He gives us evidence. To the doubting Thomas, He says, "Look and see, touch me and see." This is essential to the proclamation of the gospel. Again, God willing, we will talk more about that next week.

What does the resurrection of Jesus Christ prove? What does it prove? First, the word of God is perfectly true and reliable. You can build your life on it. It's an unshakable rock that will never move. Since the centerpiece of Scripture is the defeat of sin and death by the death and resurrection of Jesus, absolutely certain the word of God.

Secondly, the resurrection of Christ proves that Jesus of Nazareth truly is the son of God and the savior of the world. No other religious leader made this kind of claim to be able to lay down his life and take it up and defeat death, He's the only one. He's utterly unique. 

Thirdly, it proves that salvation, our salvation from sin is complete. When Jesus said it is finished, it was finished and we needed corroboration from Almighty God, that God said it's finished. That He accepted the atoning blood offered by Jesus on the cross is proven by His resurrection from the dead.  Our sins are atoned for our salvation is made complete. 

Fourthly, it proves that Jesus Christ has conquered all of our enemies, sin, Satan, death and hell and because He lives, all who believe in Him can live forever without fear. It proves that the church of Jesus Christ is established. The gates of the grave cannot prevail against it, been rendered powerless compared to it. It proves that eternal life is guaranteed to all who repent and believe in Him. For Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." So what? So come to Christ, trust in Him. Repent of your sins and believe in Him. If you've done that years ago, then just be happy today because it's still true.  Aren't God's mercies new every morning? Can't the resurrection hit you new every day? Don't you need to be renewed in your faith? For us, it is good news, beautiful, good news. So know if you're a Christian, the certainty of what you believe, be encouraged even in the face of death. Do not grieve at the funerals of Christian loved ones like those who have no hope. And when your time comes, it's time for you to die, then die well, filled with faith. Put a display of your faith on for your grandkids and your kids and your spouse and the nurses and the doctors. Die well, because of the truths that we've seen here. And for us between now and that day, while we still have time, while we still have energy, let's risk more for Jesus. Death's been defeated.

Jesus said to the 72, "I've given you power to triumph over all the enemies of the evil one." What are we afraid of? Let's proclaim the truth of the Gospel. Let's use apologetics. Let's ask people, what do you think happened to the corpse of Jesus? How do you explain the empty tomb? Begin a conversation that way. See what happens. That'll be an interesting conversation. It's amazing how many apologetics experts sought to debunk based on the resurrection and ended up writing books like Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel and Frank Morrison and others. We can use apologetics. The basic ideas are the tomb was empty. Jesus's disciples had real experiences they claimed with the resurrected Christ, so that they were personally fearless of death. They proclaimed the bodily resurrection of Jesus even at the cost of their own lives. Those are very strong evidences for the resurrection of Jesus. 

Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the joyful good news of the gospel that Christ has risen, that our sins have been paid for, that we will live forever through faith in Christ. Lord, give us strength and courage and power to proclaim these facts to a region we're surrounded with that is increasingly dark through ignorance of the truth of the word of God, and especially ignorance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Help us to be witnesses in His name by the power of the Spirit. In your name we pray. Amen.

Jesus' resurrection obliterated death's reign and is proved by the women's witness, meetings with disciples, and the birth of Christianity.

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Paul lays bare his heart of love for Philemon and Onesimus, earnestly pleading for their mutual forgiveness and reconciliation in light of the gospel of Christ.

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Paul urges the Romans to respond to God’s mercy by using their gifts to serve and bless others.

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In Revelation 3:1-6, Jesus scorns Sardis' superficial lip service to God and utters a dire warning to repent before impending judgment. Abiding in God's word is essential.

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God orchestrated all the divine details of Jesus' death and burial, including the timing, the Marys, Joseph's new tomb and boldness, and the Roman guards.

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 15. We're looking at the end of the chapter of Mark 15 at the burial of Jesus and what detail could be just skipped as unimportant. The Gospel writers actually go into careful detail about one of the most comforting doctrines to me as a Christian — the doctrine of providence, how God sovereignly orchestrates the details of everyday life, even tiny details, but also massive like the rise and fall of empires. From the tiniest to the greatest, God providentially rules over the doctrine of providence. The word “providence” comes from a Latin root, which means “provideo”, “to see ahead of time.” But we know that the doctrine isn't just that God knew ahead of time what was going to happen. It's more like this, we use this language of seeing to something, see to it, somebody in authority would say to a person reporting to them. “See to it” means, "go make sure it happens.”

The doctrine of providence is that ahead of time, God sees what needs to happen and sees to it that it will happen. That's a very comforting doctrine, isn't it? We're told that it extends to tiny things like sparrows falling to the ground. A sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the will of God. It extends to insignificant things like the numbers of hairs on your head, even they are all numbered. Those things pertaining directly to our persons and those things external to us, God is providentially ruling over all of those things. We're going to see that doctrine at work when it comes to the burial of Jesus Christ. How God's sovereignly orchestrated details to make certain that Jesus would be buried in exactly the way He had ordained. That He would be buried, even ordained before the foundation of the world.

God orchestrated, for example, the timing of Jesus' death, the exact timing of His death so that He would be buried and in the grave, three days and three nights. God orchestrated the quiet witnessing of the burial by some women to make absolutely certain they knew the location of the tomb. God orchestrated the courage of Joseph of Arimathea, who up to that point had been a secret follower of Jesus, but suddenly finding courage, took his life in his hands along with another secret disciple, Nicodemus. Two wealthy, influential, powerful men, who at the point when Jesus's kingdom looked finished to an unbelieving eye, when Jesus was dead, they suddenly found the courage to come out and declare themselves followers of Christ. God providentially orchestrated that.

God even orchestrated Jesus's enemies to do exactly the opposite of what they intended, not in our account, but in Matthew 27. We'll get to it later in the sermon. How God orchestrated the posting of a guard to make certain that no one came to steal the body of Jesus and then spread the lie that He had risen from the dead. The whole thing backfiring on them, giving one of the greatest evidences of the truth and the reality of the resurrection, how God orchestrated that. It says in Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

None of these people who are involved in the burial of Jesus were exactly seeking to fulfill God's eternal plan, not the women whose hearts were filled with love and affection and loyalty to Jesus. They didn't have any desire to identify the tomb so they could testify to the resurrection. They weren't thinking that at all. They just noted where the tomb was. Joseph's heart and also that of Nicodemus filled with love and loyalty to Jesus, perhaps a little a shame at not having flown their colors before that, wanted to perhaps do something for Jesus here at the end. Not in any way I think did they believe they were setting up evidence for the resurrection. Certainly the chief priests and the Pharisees and all of Jesus' enemies were not seeking to be a strong part of God's plan for proving the resurrection of Jesus.  They thought the whole thing was a fraud and a lie. Pilate and the Romans were not seeking to make the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ any easier.

But God is the eternal God, the providential ruler of all details, and He sits on a throne far above the circle of the earth and ordains even the tiniest details according to His eternal plan. Our God is in heaven, He does whatever pleases Him. We're going to see that today when it comes to the burial of Jesus. 

Let's talk about the burial and let's see it in the proclamation of the Gospel and also in prophecy. First, the burial of Jesus Christ is essential to the proclamation and the understanding of the Gospel. We don't in any way say that the burial of Jesus, what happened to His corpse after He was dead is as important as Jesus' death on the cross or His bodily resurrection from the dead. We're not making that claim. It just is important. That's all.

Paul mentions it in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that He was buried and that He was raised from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures." It's listed as an important fact of the fundamentals of the Gospel. Also, theologically Paul uses Christ’s burial as a picture of our own spiritual resurrection and new life. He says in Romans 6:4, "We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life." He does the same thing in Colossians 2:12, "Having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith and the power of God who raised Him from the dead." But more important than that, the burial of Jesus, the detail of it was predicted in prophecy.

In  Isaiah 53, we've heard it many times, how Christ died. The Suffering Servant died as a substitute for our sins very, very plainly. But that's not all that Isaiah 53 says. It says in verse 9, "They made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death." The prophecy in Isaiah 53 extends to His burial, the exact circumstances of His burial, seven centuries before Jesus was born. One noun and two adjectives in this prophecy, the noun is the word “grave.” “Grave", the Hebrew word translated means a sepulcher where dead bodies are laid. A very specific topic in Isaiah 53 in which the Suffering Servant dies and is buried, since verse 9 mentions grave, the Suffering Servant died.  But then the verse gets very specific, Isaiah 53:9 with two adjectives, two descriptive words for types of people. They made a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Putting it together, it seems the verse indicated the Suffering Servant would die and be assigned a grave with the wicked, but that he would end up in a rich man's tomb. The burial with the wicked was undoubtedly, I think, the Roman plan. They would've liked nothing better than to use Jesus's body as a warning to anyone that would rebel against Roman power. This was their normal pattern, and so they might've exposed it to birds or animals or to defilement and then thrown it in a common grave along with anybody else.  That's what they would love to do, but it didn't go that way, because of God's providence. For Jesus to have been buried in a common grave would've removed all the physical evidence for the resurrection that Joseph's tomb afforded. 

The wealth aspects of Jesus burial are clear in the narrative as well. In our passage in Mark 15:43, it mentions that Joseph of Arimathea was a prominent member of the council. I can pretty much guarantee there were no prominent members of the Jewish ruling council that were poor men. They were all men of stature, they're all established, they were leaders, et cetera. But we don't have to wonder, because Matthew openly tells us, Matthew 27:57, "As evening approached there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who had himself become a disciple of Jesus." There's no doubt about that, Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy.

Then you can add the testimony from John's Gospel about Nicodemus. Nicodemus in John 19:39-40, it says he was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about 75 pounds in weight. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it with spices and strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. Seventy-five pounds of myrrh would be worth something like a quarter of a million dollars today. This was a burial fit for a king, and so it's very clear that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were both wealthy men, and He was with the rich in His death.

So also the timing of Jesus' burial was important based on Jesus's own identification with the prophecy of Jonah, as He said numbers of times that He would be raised to life on the third day. When they came and asked Him to prove His validity by giving a sign, He said, "No sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah is three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Jesus had to be in the tomb before sundown on Friday so that the three-day span by Jewish reckoning— we'll talk more about that in a few moments— would be achieved. 

The burial also is essential to the proclamation of the Gospel and the proving of the resurrection.  The physical evidence of the empty tomb was vital to the origins of Christianity. It was vital to the saving faith of the apostle John, and then the proclamation of the Gospel there on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. John's Gospel, John 20:1-9, makes the tomb the physical layout of the circumstances of the resurrection, the beginning of the proclamation, the gospel, the physical evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

John 20:1-9 says, "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter, and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put Him.' So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb, both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who is behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed."

“He saw and believed,” and then the concession statement, “they still did not understand from scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead.” It was given to the apostles alone in all of redemptive history to see and believe, to touch and believe, to feel and to sense and believe, and then proclaim that eyewitness account for the rest of us who will not get to see and believe. But that was their role. John himself, the disciple whom Jesus loved, we know that's who it is. The physical evidence there of the empty tomb was foundational to his personal faith. Later scripture would be better, because it's timeless and the prophecies are there. So the key elements, the physical elements, the stone removed from the entrance to the tomb, the tomb empty, the Lord gone. The strips of linen in which Jesus had been wrapped lying in a certain formation, the head covering off by itself folded up. All of this physical evidence was ground for John's initial faith in the resurrection. Scripture would be the better and final ground.

Now that physical evidence was part of the proclamation of the Gospel of which the resurrection was foundational from that point forward, as it says in 1 John 1:1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life." The empty tomb was essential to that. It's also essential to Peter's proclamation of the Gospel on the day of Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit had been poured out. He uses the empty tomb as proof of the resurrection and also a validation of the prophecy from Psalm 16. This is what Peter preached in Acts 2. It says, "Jesus of Nazareth was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge." I love that expression.  All of this had been worked out in detail in the mind of God before the foundation of the world.   "Now Jesus," Peter says, "was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you with the help of wicked men put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him." David said about him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence.’" That's Psalm 16.

Then Peter preaches, "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried and his tomb is here to this day, but he was a prophet and he knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ that He was not abandoned to the grave, nor did His body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of the fact.” 

Do you see how central the empty tomb is in that Gospel proclamation? Implied in the proclamation is this: David's tomb is here and so is his corpse, and you can visit that tomb. Jesus's tomb is here and it is empty and you can all visit that. iIt's very strong historical evidence for the bodily resurrection.  The tomb is empty. The tomb is empty. That empty tomb is essential to the beginning of Christianity and to the foundation of our faith as the only that defeats death and gives hope in the face of the grave. The empty tomb is foundational to that.

Now let's look at the details coming from our text, Mark 15. First, let's talk about the precise timing of Jesus's burial. Look at verse 42, “It was preparation day. That is the day before the Sabbath. So as evening approached,” let's stop there.  This careful choreography concerning the timing of Jesus's death, “evening” refers to the period from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. It's the last part of the Jewish day. So evening is approaching. When Jesus spoke His last words from the cross and yielded up His spirit, Matthew 27:46-50, the text tells us it was about the ninth hour. That is about 3:00 p.m., the beginning of the phase of day known as the evening.

For three reasons it was essential that Jesus die several hours before the complete end of the day. First, the Sabbath began at 6:00 pm that day. That's when that next day, the Sabbath, started. Jesus had to be taken down from the cross, prepared for burial, and actually buried before the Sabbath came in order not to profane the Sabbath. Secondly, in order to avoid having His legs broken, which was forbidden concerning the type or prophecy of the Passover lamb, He had to die precisely when He did. I would think it was down to minutes between when He died and when they came and started shattering the leg bones. Then thirdly, in order to fulfill the prophecy, I've already mentioned concerning Jonah, three days and three nights.

Let's walk through those. First on the profaning of the Sabbath. Jewish law required that the bodies be removed and dealt with before the Sabbath began. No work could be done on the Sabbath and they didn't want the bodies there on the cross throughout the whole Sabbath. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says, “If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because," listen to this, "anyone who has hung on a tree is under God's curse." We know from Galatians this is openly true. Jesus was made a curse for us by being hung on a tree, but the Deuteronomy commandment is you have to take him down before the sun sets so he's not there overnight. "You must not," it says, "desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance."

Therefore, the apostle John tells us in his account that the Jews went to Pilate and demanded the legs be broken to accelerate the death process [John 19:31]. It was the day of preparation and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down, so Jesus had to die before they came around with the hammer to smash His leg bones. It says in John 19:36, "These things happen so that the scripture will be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be broken." That's stated in a Psalm, but it's specifically linked to the Passover lamb as it says in Exodus 12:46, "None of the Passover lamb's bones will be broken."

Also, another scripture had to be set up, which John tells us about in his account concerning Jesus's piercing. What happened was a soldier came, and when he saw that Jesus was already dead, he did not break his bones, but instead took a lance and drove it up into his side, piercing his side, causing a flow of blood and water to flow out, testifying plainly, biologically that he was dead. This John links to a prophecy which is Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son." That's a powerful prophecy of what I believe it teaches in Romans 11, a later turning of the Jewish nation to faith in Christ as He pours out on them a spirit of grace and supplication.  The historical fact is Jesus was pierced and He was pierced specifically, John has in mind, by the lansing of His side by the Roman soldier. 

Then we have the prophecy concerning time. The prophecy of Jonah, according to Jesus, was as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a large fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. We need to understand that timing. If you're going to do like 24 hours and multiply the number of minutes, you're going to come up with the wrong answer. It wasn't three full days and three full nights, not at all, but it didn't need to be. In Jewish reckoning any part of a day or night was considered a day and a night. We're used to this, aren't we? When you pay for parking and you go one minute over. What happens when you go one minute over? You pay for the full hour.  "Well, I didn't use a full hour." It doesn't matter. Or when you rent something for three days, they don't care that it's a minute into the third day. It's a third day. So we're used to this kind of thing, et cetera. Or if you take a trip and you arrive somewhere on Monday morning and then leave on Wednesday, it was a three-day trip. We're not precise in saying you weren't there for the full three times 24, so we need to understand it that way, any part of the day or night. So you've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, three days and three nights, that's the way the understanding is.

Let's talk about the friendly witnesses to the burial. God's orchestrating different ones, and He's got these women and they are friendly witnesses also, Joseph and Nicodemus. Let's start with the women, the women who are witnesses. Look at verse 40 and 41,  “Some women were there watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, the younger, and Joseph of Joseph and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed Him and cared for His needs. Many other women who had come up with Him to Jerusalem were also there.”  These women deeply loved Jesus, dearly loved Him, cared for Him. They're mentioned in terms of caring for Him physically and financially in Luke 8, and Mark mentions it here as well. Also, John's Gospel adds that Jesus's mother, Mary, was there as well. It's the only Gospel that mentions her being there. We've got these two other women, they're also named Mary as well. It's kind of interesting. Mary Magdalene was there, a woman from whom seven demons had gone out, and then Mary, the mother of James the Lesser and son of Alphaeus, one of the twelve was there. Also listed was the mother of Zebedee's sons, James and John.  It is interesting that three different women named Mary are there watching Him, and it reminds me of the book of Ruth where she says, "Don't call me Naomi, which means ‘pleasant’, but call me Mara, which means ‘bitter.’” The word “Mary” is related to that Hebrew word for bitterness. All three focus on the bitterness and remember that Mary, the mother of Jesus, it was predicted when Jesus was circumcised that Simeon said, "A sword will pierce your own soul too." She's going to be in agony watching her son die. There's that bitterness and the three women have that same name. There are probably many other women there as well, not just these that are named, but it says many women were there watching from a distance. 

The great preacher, G. Campbell Morgan describes beautifully the mental state of these women with great feeling.  This is what he writes, "These women were hopeless, disappointed, bereaved, heartbroken, but the love He had created in those hearts for Himself could not be quenched even by His dying. Could not be overcome even though they were disappointed. Could not be extinguished even though the light of hope had gone out. And over the sea of their sorrow there was no sighing wind that told of the dawn." Tremendous love, loyalty, not faith in the resurrection at that point, but they were there because they loved, and they're going to play an important physical role. They're witnesses to where He was physically buried. They didn't get the spot wrong. They knew where He was buried.

Conspicuously absent, of course, are the male apostles of Jesus. They're not there, except John is there briefly and then takes Mary, Jesus' mother, home. We've also got the wealthy men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. It is amazing how God worked on Joseph's heart and also Nicodemus’ heart at this particular moment. Up to this moment, like Nicodemus, Joseph had been afraid to fly his colors as a disciple of Jesus. John 19:38, “Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders.” He had a faithless fear, he was afraid of losing his place and his position and his reputation. He did not want to fly his colors.  He had not given consent to the death. If they had followed procedure, the usual procedure in the Jewish Council, each member of the council would've had to voice a vote for death, but instead there was like a mob assent to His death and everybody said He's worthy of death. Joseph certainly was quiet at that moment, was able to fly below the radar screen, but he had not agreed with what they had done. Isn't it amazing the timing of Joseph's courage? How in the world can we explain this at the human level? He was too afraid to declare himself a follower of Jesus when He was alive, and it seemed very much like we're heading toward a mighty messianic kingdom. He wasn't quite ready to join with that. But now that Jesus is dead, and everybody believes that whole thing's over, that's when he suddenly gets courageous and goes and boldly asks Pilate for the body. The only explanation I can come up with is that the spirit of God came upon him in order to fulfill this prophecy.

It says in the John 19:38 verse that Joseph had been discipled by Jesus. It was a verbal form. They had had, it seems, numbers of conversations. Jesus was working on Joseph and getting him ready among other things to play this role. Then he goes, it says in Mark 15:43, to Pilate, “Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council who is himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly or took courage and went to Pilate to ask for Jesus' body.” Joseph is in a tremendous hurry, actually whether he knows it or not, he's got to move. There can't be a long negotiation here. He's got to get the body, he's got to get it prepared, get it buried, get the stone move there in a very short amount of time. He counts the cost, he flies his flag, he goes there and makes this bold demand of Pilate and amazingly Pilate granted the request.

Look at Mark 15:44-45, “Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead, summoning the centurion, the very one by the way who had said, ‘Truly this man was the son of God,’ summoning that one. He asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.

Pilate's surprise underscores the cruelty of crucifixion. It was expected to go on for a day probably, hours and hours. It was not supposed to be this short amount of time. It was an incredibly cruel way to die. It is also surprising that Pilate gave Joseph Jesus' body. Like I said, the Romans would've loved to expose the body or do what they wanted as a warning to rebels who think they can set up a Jewish kingdom against the Caesar, something like that. It would be well-imagined that the body would be disfigured or defiled and then thrown in a common grave. That would've been a reasonable Roman plan. But why did he give it to Joseph?

You think about when Abraham sent his servant to go get a wife for Isaac. At one point Isaac puts him under oath to bring a woman back. The servant says to Abraham, "What if the woman's not willing to go with me?" And Abraham says, "God will give you grace, but if she doesn't want to go, then you're free from this oath." Imagine in the Triune Council, what if Pilate doesn't give up the body? But he will give up the body. How do you know he'll give up the body? Proverbs 21:1, "The King's heart is like a water course in the hands of the Lord. He directs it whatever way he places." The whole thing hangs on God's sovereignty over Pontius Pilate's mind and heart. Also at the human level, Joseph was a member of the council and he probably thought at this point he's doing a favor to the Jews.

Look at the physical aspects of the burial, verse 46, “So Joseph brought or bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.” He's wrapping Jesus in this linen cloth. We've got this mixture of myrrh and aloes that we already talked about in John's Gospel, about 75 pounds weight. Myrrh is a costly aromatic resin cut from a small bushy tree grown in the Arabian Peninsula. It was collected and stored for about three months and then it was hardened to fragrant globules. They were sticky and they would hold the strips of linen together in a shape. That's the first direct miracle tied to the resurrection. 

Jesus moves up out of those linens, leaving them in that shape.  This is what's mentioned in John 20. John saw the strips of linen, the Greek is “kami,” set there, so it implies there was a shape. With the stickiness and all that, it would take a miracle to get a body up without them being completely disheveled. There's no way a grave robber could have done it or any human. But Jesus passes up through the linen and then through the walls of the tomb to get out. There it is. 

It's fascinating, the myrrh appears three times in Jesus's life, once at His birth and twice at His death. At His birth we know it was one of the gifts offered by the Magi. It was a very costly aromatic gift, but then it was mixed with wine as a sedative but He refused to drink it, and now it's part of His burial. Also, aloes are an aromatic spice.  The purpose of these aromatic ingredients was to cover the stench of corruption, the stench of decay. Remember with Martha and Lazarus, “by now there's going to be a bad odor, because he's been there for four days.” They're expecting a bad odor. However, we know very well that that's not going to happen. God would providentially protect the corpse of Jesus from any decay as it says in Psalm 16:10, "You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay." This is how they prepared the body like a king, 75 pounds, a quarter of a million dollars worth prepared, and He was with a rich man in His death. 

Then He was laid in a new tomb. Matthew 27:60 tells us the tomb was Joseph’s own new tomb that he had carved out of the rock. Only a wealthy man would be able to do this kind of thing.  It had never been used, it was like a small cave. I'm guessing, though the scripture doesn't say, it was never used again either. It's a very significant tomb that Joseph had prepared. Then we got a large stone rolled in front of the entrance of the tomb. It was a boulder probably shaped in the shape of a disk, like a big coin or something like that. It was propped up and then rolled down into a trough where it would settle and be there and no one person or even a couple people could move it. It would take a massive effort to get it up out of there. This was to prevent grave robbers from coming or wild animals from attacking the body. 

The women are there again as witnesses, verse 47, "Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid.”  Again, this is vital, because it shows multiple people knew exactly where Jesus was buried. Just like we talked about a case of mistaken identity, you could have a case of a mistaken location. They went to the wrong place. No, no, no, it's not possible. There were multiple witnesses to where the tomb was. The women would come on the first day of the week with additional spices to finish the burial of the corpse. Again, great love, not faith at that point. We'll talk about that in due time.

Let's talk about the unfriendly witnesses to the burial. Mark doesn't record this, but turn to Matthew 27:62-66, and I just want to note this, because I think it's so remarkable. In Matthew 27:62, it says, "The next day, the one after preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate." These two groups, the chief priests and the Pharisees were relentless in their efforts to try to destroy Jesus and His movement. It's amazing they got together, because the chief priests were almost always Sadducees, and the Sadducees and Pharisees hated each other and never got together on anything except this one thing, hating and opposing Jesus. So they're coming together. It's amazing. It's also amazing, because on that day, it was a high holy day. It was a special or a sacred Passover.

The Greek words used for this meeting indicate they actually went into Pilate's council chambers in the praetorium, which they would not do during Jesus' trial, because they didn't want to be defiled. But they have got to have this meeting with Pilate, so they're willing to defile themselves. If they're willing to kill the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus, they're willing to break some Sabbath rules too. As you can see, their conscience and their ethics are disgusting and perverse. Look what they say to Pilate, verse 63, 64 in Matthew 27, “‘Sir,' they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive, that deceiver said, “After three days I'll rise again.” So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’"

Isn't it remarkable that all of Jesus's followers, men and women alike, seem to forget that Jesus had predicted that He would rise on the third day, but His enemies didn't? I find that remarkable. And even if some of Jesus's disciples remembered, I don't think they believed it. They weren't acting like they believed in a resurrection on the third day, as we'll see in Mark 16. Note that the priest and the Pharisees called Jesus, "that deceiver." They have total disdain for Jesus, which is amazing, because He's the only truly perfectly honest man that ever lived. They're the deceivers, and yet that's what they call Jesus, “that deceiver.” What is the threat they perceive? That Jesus's disciples will come and steal the body and then proclaim the resurrection from the dead, which makes no sense at all, because what reward would they get for such proclamation? Death.  It's one thing to die for a lie, but it's another thing to die for something you know is a lie. Who's going to do that? But they thought that it was a threat, so they make the request of Pilate, "Give us some guards and let us post those guards. Or if you would appoint a guard, post a guard until the third day. And why if the disciples do come and steal the body, the last deception claiming that He had risen from the dead will be worse than the first deception claiming that He's the Messiah." 

So Pilate makes a statement verse 65, "Take a guard, go make the tomb as secure as you know how." Some people think he's saying, "Look, you guys already have a guard. You don't need that from me." But I don't think that's the sense. I think he actually delegates or dispatches some Roman soldiers to go and guard the tomb. The reason I think this is in Matthew 28, when the resurrection does happen, the guards are very afraid of what Pilates going to say or do to them, and I think that's mostly because they're Roman soldiers. I do think it's amazing they're trying to stop the resurrection and listen, no power on heaven or earth or under the earth is going to stop that resurrection. So what ends up happening to those guards, they end up unwitting witnesses to the resurrection. We'll talk about that in due time. But all of this had been orchestrated by the providential plan of God.

Let's talk about one final detail, which I noted a number of years ago and I want to share with you. It has to do with the seal. They went and set the guard and they put a seal on the stone. So what does the seal represent? The seal represents Roman authority. It represents the Roman government. Someone comes and breaks that seal, Roman authority will come down on them. “You break that seal, we'll break you”. No one is allowed to move this stone. By the way, did the angel from heaven worry about the seal? Apparently not. We'll, again, get to all that.

But they put this seal. Why is it interesting?  Because there are two types or two patterns of prophecy in the Bible concerning Jesus. There's verbally predictive prophecy and there's typically predictive prophecy. The types or things acted out that give us little details that connect with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and I find that in Daniel 6, you remember the story about Daniel and how Darius the Mede was maneuvered by some unscrupulous enemies of Daniel to make a law that nobody could pray to any God except to him for 30 days.  Daniel, they knew, his enemies knew, that Daniel would break that. He gets caught praying to the true God and they end up throwing him in the lion's den. It turns out that as they put him in the lion's den, they put a stone over the den and they put a seal on that stone,  so that I find fascinating. That is the seal of the Persian government, that if you break that seal, that the Persian government will consider you guilty. I find that seal beautiful, because when the time came, the order was given by Darius, the seal was broken, this stone moved and Daniel comes up out of that cave effectively as a picture of the resurrection.

What lessons can we take from this? All of this providential orchestrated truth focuses on the central truth, and that is that Jesus Christ is the son of God.  He died on the cross for our sins. He rose from the dead on the third day. This whole salvation plan had been worked out in the mind of God before the foundation of the world down to details, written in prophecy so that we could know the truth of it. Therefore, for you, make certain you believe that you've repented and trusted in that. There's no point in learning all these interesting facts and then dying and going to hell. Focus on the Gospel and realize all of this was done to save souls, to save sinners like you and me. This is not just some hastily thrown together salvation plan, but this was ordained before the foundation of the world for the salvation of sinners like you and me.

Secondly, if you're already a believer in Christ, stand in awe at the doctrine of providence, the meticulous preparations that God went through at something so comparatively minor as the actual burial of Jesus. But in God's way of thinking, there are no minor things. Every little thing matters, and that same providence is overruling your life as well. Jesus spoke to you as a disciple saying, "A sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the will of God." Things outside of you, even tiny, seemingly insignificant things, God's orchestrating that. Even the very hairs of your own head are numbered. So things pertaining directly to you, God's sovereignly watching over them. So be at peace. Do not be anxious about anything in your life, but realize providence is ruling over everything.

 Also look at the courage that suddenly came on Joseph of Arimathea. We are left with the work to do when Jesus ascended to heaven. He wants us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation, to make disciples of all nations. And again and again, we bump into our own fear.  Again and again we bump into our own weakness. We're too afraid of what it'll do in that relationship or to our job or to our situation with our roommate or neighbors or our unsaved relative, and we become afraid. Isn't it beautiful how the sovereign power of God can come on a coward like Nicodemus and a coward like Joseph of Arimathea, and at the key moment move them out to bold action for the sake of the kingdom? It says in Acts 1:8, "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." 

Close with me in prayer.  Father, we thank you for the things that we've learned today. We thank you for the details connected with the burial of Jesus. We thank you for how you providentially ruled over all of those things. You saw to it that they happened in a certain way and we praise you for that. Lord, as we stand in awe of the details, stand in awe of the truth. Help us to realize all of this is for the salvation of sinners and for us to be able to do the work you've ordained for us to do, to take this gospel to people who have as yet not believed and been saved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.