Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 27. Continue our study
of Matthew by looking in Matthew chapter 27 this morning. Before
we begin, let's bow before our Lord in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. Father, we bow before you
in awe and wonder at the majesty of your person, at who you are,
and in your mercy and grace, what you have purposed for your
people. Salvation through the sacrifice
of your son. Father, we're so thankful. Human language can't begin to
express our thanksgiving for what you have done for your people
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're thankful for this opportunity
one more time to gather together here of our Savior, to worship
him. Father, I pray that you give
us a spirit this morning of true worship. We pray that you deliver
us from just going through the motions of religion. But Father,
speak to us by your word and enable us to, from the heart,
truly believe and worship the things of our Savior that we
hear preached. Well, we pray for ourselves in this hour. Father,
we pray especially for our children's classes that you'd bless in those
classes in a very special way. We're so thankful for all these
little ones that you have given to us. Father, I pray you'd make
us faithful to them. Make us faithful to teach them
the scriptures and to point them to Christ. Use this time, Father,
to plant the seeds of faith in their heart, we pray. Father,
for those who are sick and afflicted, going through many various difficulties
and trials of this life. Father, we pray for them. We
know, Father, that you're able to heal, to deliver, to comfort
until such time as you are pleased to deliver. Father, we pray you
comfort their hearts with your presence. Give them grace sufficient. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name which is above every name. the name
of Christ, our savior. Amen. I've titled our lesson this morning,
the burial of Christ. And what I want to look at is
this. What does the burial of Christ mean to God's people? You know, the death of Christ
is vital to our salvation. That's not enough that the savior
only suffer physically and spiritually, everything that he suffered.
Now he had to suffer those things in order to redeem his people.
But in order to redeem his people from their sins, he had to suffer
and die. He had to actually die because
the law demands death for sin. That's the penalty of sin is
death. And if Christ is gonna put the sin of his people away,
he must die. And our text this morning tells
us that after our savior gave up the ghost, They took a dead
body down from the tree and they buried it. And that, that is
important that they buried a dead body because the death of Christ
has very significant effects upon the souls of his people.
And I want to look at some of those effects by the people who
are there at the cross and who are responsible for his burial.
And the first person I want us to look at is the century. He
was in charge of the crucifixion charge of, making sure it happened,
he stayed there to the very end to make sure somebody didn't
take the Lord down from the tree and try to save his life. The
centurion, we learned something very important from him. Let's
begin looking in verse 54 of Matthew 27. Now when the centurion,
they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and
those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying,
truly, this was the son of God. Now it ought to be obvious to
anybody watching with an unbiased eye that the one who died on
the center cross that day is not a mere man. He's the son
of God. You think about what happened
as he was there on the cross, as he suffered, God turned the
sun off for three hours. That wasn't a solar eclipse or
something spectacular. God turned the sun off. When
our Lord died, That veil in the temple that had hung there for
how many thousands of years, it kept people out of the Holy
of Holies, kept people from seeing what was in the Holy of Holies,
kept seeing the mercy seat and the Ark of the Covenant. That
veil was torn in two from top to bottom and nobody was there
touching it. God did it supernaturally. In
the midst of his suffering, in the midst of his agony, The Savior
revealed himself to one of those thieves hanging on either side
of him. He revealed himself to that man as king, because he
said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, would you remember
me? He revealed himself as the Savior
to that dying thief. He told him, today, shalt thou
be with me in paradise. And the promise of that man on
the middle cross, to this, while he was in such agony, his visage
was marred more than any other man, That man who looked so physically
helpless making that promise gave peace to the heart of that
dying thief. Now you tell me who besides God
could do that? You're the Jews and those Roman
soldiers. because of the inherent hatred
of man and our nature, they abused and they tortured the Savior
more than anybody they ever crucified. I mean, I don't know how many
people that Rome crucified during these years, but they tortured
him, they beat him, his body was marred and mangled more than
anyone else crucified. Yet they couldn't kill him. I
mean, it was their goal to get rid of this man, and they could
not get rid of him. He had to give up the ghost.
He had to lay down his life for his people. And when he gave
up the ghost, there was an earthquake so great it tore great rocks
in two. And people that had been dead
arose from the dead and went back to Jerusalem and talked
to folks that they knew when they were alive. I mean, this
can't be anybody but the Son of God who died. And I'm not
trying to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ is the son of God.
Everybody knows that. Even somebody tries to deny it
really knows that. But this is what the centurion
concluded after he watched everything that happened. This is the son
of God. And what I want us to see is
since the son of God died, there's salvation for God's people. You
know, Mark says the same thing that Matthew said, the centurion
said, this is the son of God. Truly, this was the son of God.
You know when he said that? After he saw the savior give
up the ghost. After he saw him die, that was the evidence to
him, this man is the son of God. And that's so important because
the only way sinners can be saved is if the Lord Jesus is God.
He has to have the power of God to save. He has to have the authority
of God to say he has to be God to say because our sins against
God, if we would be saved from that sin, if we would be forgiven
of that sin, God's the ones got to do it. So this way he is God. He's the one who accomplished
our salvation. If you look at Luke chapter 23,
here's another reason. It's so important that this one
who died, the Lord Jesus is God is only God's righteous. And
we have to have a righteousness. The only one who could put away
the sin of his people is God who is righteous. Look at Luke
23 verse 46. And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, he said, father into thy hands, I commend my
spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now when
the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God saying, certainly
this was a righteous man. A righteous man. Now there's
no contradiction between Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew and Mark
say that the centurion said he's the son of God. Luke says he
said it's a righteous man. Well, there's no contradiction
there. Only the son of God who came in the flesh could be a
righteous man. There's none righteous, no other
righteous man other than this one. No, not one. So the significance
of the death of this righteous man is the salvation of God's
people. The only way the Lord Jesus Christ
could save his people from their sin and make them the righteousness
of God in him is if he is perfectly righteous. If he never did anything,
sin, if he never thought any sin and the Lord Jesus Christ
truly is a righteous man. This centurion drew the correct
conclusion and that's so important because the only way Christ can
make his people righteous is if he has no sin of his own.
If he has sin of his own, he can't take your sin. He can't
take my sin. But if he has no sin of his own,
he can take our sin and his body on the tree. He's the sinless
sacrifice. If he never sinned, then he's
the sinless sacrifice. And only a sinless sacrifice
has pure blood to shed to pay the sin debt of God's people.
And he had to do that. He could only do that when he
died. He died in the place of his people.
Now Mark tells us that we'll get to Joseph of Arimathea in
just a minute, but Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and
begs the body of Jesus so he can bury it. And Pilate could
not believe that the Lord was dead this soon. Normally it takes
days, you know, for somebody to die. So he called the centurion
and centurion verified to him, Jesus had died. The son of God
has died. The righteous man has died. And I'd say the centurion's a
pretty good witness, don't you, of what happened there? He'd
seen all of this go down from its brutal beginning to its brutal
end. He saw it all go down. This centurion
was there earlier when the whole band of soldiers gathered together
to mock and have their fun mocking and beating and whipping the
savior. He was there. This man was in charge of that.
He saw it. Earlier, he had been one of those
ones mocking the Lord Jesus as king. Oh, look at the king. Can
that be a king? With that old red blanket, you
know, around his shoulders and his back that had been beaten
by that cat of nine tails, 39 lashes with that cat of nine
tails, bits of rock and glass in it. As they whipped it, they'd
scrape it across his back and tear the skin off of it. Then
they put that old dirty blanket on top of that, crushed it. crown of thorns down his head.
Gave him a reed as a scepter, mocking him. Look at the king.
This man is one of them. Mocking him as king. And now,
after he's seen the savior die, he confessed. This is the king. This is the son of God. And scripture
says he feared. He feared. Now from what I can
gather of this word and things that we read, it doesn't sound
like this centurion feared. in saving faith. Matthew says
he feared greatly. Those that were with him feared
greatly. Sounds like they were afraid of judgment because they
just realized we tortured and killed the Son of God. We tortured
and killed a righteous, innocent man. They were afraid of judgment. It's not that they feared the
Lord in faith. But I tell you, I sure hope that changed later
on. I sure hope it did. Because this
man could tell us This is a righteous man who died. This is the son
of God who died. I hope later on he learned what
that meant. That if the son of God has died
in my place, I've been made the righteousness of God in him. If this righteous man died in
my place, paying my sin debt, my sin debt's forgiven and I'm
eternally saved. I hope the Lord gave him faith
to see that later. Do you think he just went on
the rest of his life thinking we killed this, this righteous
man, the son of God, never thought any more about it. I hope he
thought about it and found something out about this man and, and Lord,
I hope so. Cause he could, he, he knew a
very important fact here. This is the son of God. All right. The second group I want us to
look at are the women who were there. Look back in our text,
Matthew 27 verse 55. And many women were there beholding
afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto
him, among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James
and Josie, and the mother of Zebedee's children. Now these
women were there at the cross. Now let me say a word about men
and women. The Lord has made men the head of the home, and
men is not We're not made the head of the home to boss the
wife around and get some free servants to serve us. The Lord
has made the husband the head of the home to protect the wife,
to love her and provide for her and cherish her, to give up of
himself for her, as Christ did the church. But now men are to
be the heads of the home. That's the responsibility that
God's given us, and the Lord's given men. the responsibility
to lead the church, to preach and to teach, to read the word
publicly, to pray publicly, to lead the church. Women are not
to do that. The Lord's given that responsibility
to men. But now let none of us, men or
women, ever think that that means women are not an important backbone
of this congregation. I'm talking to us now, our men,
our women. Don't ever think, men, that our
ladies here are not an important backbone. of our church. These
ladies that the scripture mentions here, they've been with the Lord
from the beginning. They've been with him for three
and a half years. When he started going out from Galilee to preach
and teach, they went with him. Three and a half years they've
been ministering to the Lord. I guess that means cooking and
mending clothes and doing those other things that women are so
good at doing. And almost certainly they ministered
those needs to the disciples too. Now they weren't preachers,
were they? Not at all. But they knew the
Lord. They trusted the Lord. And their
service was very important. Very important. And if you don't
think that so, you just think what this place would be like
if it wasn't for our faithful women here. And these women who
are there at the cross, and where is it? Verse 61. And there is
Mary Magdalene and that other Mary sitting over against the
sepulcher. They weren't there with Joseph of Arimathea and
Nicodemus wrapping the Lord's body and burying it. But they
watched those two men do that and they followed them because
they wanted to know where the Lord's body was. They wanted
to know where it was so they could come back after the Sabbath
day. These were faithful women. And I want to ask you a question. Remember those 11 Disciples who,
with Peter, they all said the same thing. Lord, I'll never
forsake you. These might forsake you, but
I won't. I'll die with you. Where are
they now? They're not to be seen, are they?
But these faithful women are there. They stayed there near
our Lord when it put their lives at the greatest risk. They didn't
leave him. Two of these women, they're mothers
of the disciples, and they're devoted to the Lord. Mary Magdalene
was particularly devoted to the Lord. You know why she was so
devoted to the Savior? Because she was so thankful. She was so thankful. When did
our Lord first meet Mary Magdalene? She was possessed of seven demons,
and the Lord cast them out. And she was so thankful. She
was devoted to the Lord. He set her free. And apparently,
she was a woman of some means, and she used those means in the
service of the Lord. He could come to her house any
time. He could stay at her house any time. You know, the Lord
said, the birds have nests, the foxes have holes and dens. The
son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And Mary Magdalene
said, you can sleep at my house. You can have something to eat
at my house. You can stay with me. She used those means that
she had. She couldn't preach. She couldn't
teach, could she? She could tell folks about Christ,
but she's not going to be a preacher or teacher like the apostles
were, but she used whatever means she had at her disposal to serve
the Lord. She did that all her days. Now
the Lord saved these women just like he saved Peter, James, and
John, just like he saved us by grace, by grace. Now these are
faithful women, but the Lord didn't save them because they're
faithful. He saved them by grace. Just like the apostles, the Lord
didn't save them because they were going to be preachers. The
Lord saved them by His grace, by His grace. Our Lord died so
that His people could live. That's grace. He died in our
place so we would not die, but we would live. And that's men
and women alike. Those who are strong in faith
and those who are weak in faith alike. And that ought to make
us, like these women, to consider that the Lord suffered and died
on purpose for me. That ought to make me faithful,
shouldn't it? Faithful to him. All right, here's
the third person I want to look at. Joseph of Arimathea, verse
57. And when evening was come, there
came a rich man of Arimathea named Joseph, who also himself
was Jesus' disciple, And he went to Pilate and begged the body
of Jesus. And Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And
when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen
cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out
of the rock. And he rolled a great stone to
the door of the sepulcher and departed. I look over at John
chapter 19. Joseph of Arimathea was a Pharisee. He was a member of the Sanhedrin.
He was a member of that ruling religious body that sentenced
our Lord to death. And Luke tells us when they did
that, Joseph did not give consent to that. He did not agree with
this thing of putting the Lord Jesus to death. Now look at John
19 verse 38. And after this, Joseph of Arimathea,
being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews,
but saw pilot that he might take the body, take away the body
of Jesus and pilot gave him leave. He came therefore and took the
body of Jesus and there came also Nicodemus, which at the
first came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh
and aloes about an a hundred pound weight and then took the
body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices
as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now, In the place where
he was crucified, there was a garden and in the garden, a new sepulcher
wherein was never man yet laid. There lay they Jesus, therefore,
because the Jews preparation day for the sepulcher was nigh
at hand. Now, Joseph, John tells us, believed
on Christ. He was a disciple of Christ.
Before the crucifixion, before this happened, he believed on
Christ, but he kept it secret. He was afraid of the Jews, what
the Jews might do to him, how they might excommunicate him
and kick him out, you know. And this man's a Pharisee. He's
part of the Sanhedrin. And this is a lot for him to
lose in his society. So he kept it secret. And it
appears that the same thing is true of Nicodemus. Remember,
he first came to the Lord by night. Now he's coming to him
in broad daylight for everybody to see. Now, suddenly, these
two secret disciples are very bold. They boldly identify with
the Lord. They boldly take him down from
the cross and care for his body and bury him properly, and they
did it at great expense to themselves. I mean, linen wasn't cheap. A
hundred pound weight of these spices, I'm sure that wasn't
cheap. They did this at great expense, monetarily to themselves,
and also at great expense to themselves now They couldn't
more publicly identify with Jesus than what they're doing right
now. What made them not be a secret
disciple anymore? They were a secret disciple and
now they're not. What changed? What gave them
the faith and the grace to boldly identify with Christ, whereas
before they didn't for fear of the Jews. He was seeing Christ
crucified and him give up the ghost and die. that gave them
the faith in him to commit to him. And you know, when, when
that happened, the scripture was fulfilled. Remember our Lord
is talking to the Pharisees. Maybe, maybe Joseph was there
that day. I don't know. But remember the
Lord said, if I'd be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all
unto me. If you look that up and read
it, your Bible will say all men, but you notice that word men
is in italics. Lord didn't say I'll draw men
unto me. He said, I'll draw all. unto me. Who's the all? All that the Father has given
me. All of mine elect. All who I love. All my sheep. I'll draw all unto me. Now how
are we going to be drawn to Christ? When we see Him lifted up, crucified,
suffering and dying in our place. That scripture is fulfilled.
Every time we preach Christ crucified and one of God's sheep is given
faith in Him and they come to We preach Christ crucified and
you who believe for many, many, many years are drawn to Christ
again. Peter said, to whom coming? And
you find yourself coming to Christ again, believing on Christ again,
repenting and turning away from yourself, trusting in yourself
to trust Christ again. Every time we preach Christ crucified
and God's people are blessed, that scripture's fulfilled. If
I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all unto me. That's
the way God gives us Faith in Christ. Now we don't see him
physically lifted up and crucified, do we? I know Joseph did, Nicodemus
did, but many other people did too. That's not salvation, not
physically seeing him, it's seeing him with the eyes of faith. And
I'm just real sure that's what happened to these two men. They're
God's sheep. And Joseph was a rich man. He
had his own tomb. They buried people in caves and
things. Joseph is wealthy enough. He
said, I'm going to make me my own cave. You're all burying
100 people in that cave. That's not for me. I'm just going
to take this great big old solid piece of rock and carve my own
tomb out of it. And that's where I'm going to
be buried. This is a rich man. And that tomb was prepared for
Joseph. He's still here. He's not been buried yet. Nobody's
been buried in that tomb. And that's where they took the
Lord and buried him. Now, why is that significant?
I mean, you know why? Well, I can tell you why. So that when the Lord arose from
the grave, nobody could say that's somebody else. That's not John
Smith. We buried him, you know, three
or four years ago. John Smith rose from, no. Jesus at Nazareth
is the only one buried in that tomb and he came out of it. It has to be the Lord who arose
because he's the only one buried there. If you look over Isaiah
chapter 53, you know, if the Lord will just give
us eyes to see it and show us the scriptures in here, it is
just utterly astounding how exactly everything the Savior did, everything
fulfilled the scriptures. Even his burial fulfilled the
scriptures. Isaiah 53 verse nine. And he
made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. He made his grave with
the rich. Joseph of Arimathea, the rich
man, took our Lord's body and buried him in his own tomb. Even the death of his body, where
it was buried, fulfilled the scriptures. And I'll tell you
why that ought to give the hearts of God's people such comfort,
such assurance, and ought to thrill us so much. Everything the Lord did fulfilled
the scriptures. Well, the promise of scripture
is this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe on him, and thou shalt be saved. Believe on him. That
scripture's fulfilled. There's not a word in this book
that is not true. The Lord fulfilled the scriptures
to show us how sure the scriptures are. And those same scriptures
tell us, now this one who died and was buried and rose again,
you trust your soul to him. Don't try to establish your own
righteousness. Just rest in him. Just trust
him. That'll fulfill the scriptures. That's a promise of scripture
that cannot be a lie. All right, here's the fourth
thing I want us to look at. I want us to look at the self-righteous
unbelievers who were there. Back in our text, Matthew 27,
verse 62. Now the next day, the follow
the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came
together under Pilate saying, sir, we remember that the deceiver
said while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise
again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until
the third day. lest his disciples come by night
and steal him away and say unto the people, he's risen from the
dead so that the last error should be worse than the first. Pilate
said unto them, you have your watch, go your way, make it as
sure as you can. So they went and made the sepulcher
sure sealing the stone and setting a watch. Now the Pharisees remembered
our Lord's promise to rise again the third day. Seems like they
remembered it better than the disciples did, didn't they? When
Thomas heard that the Lord rose again, he said, no, no, I won't
believe it. Even though the other 10 said, Thomas, we saw him. Thomas said, I won't believe
it. The other 10, when the women came and told him the Lord's
arisen, they, they couldn't believe it for astonishment. They just,
it's like they forgot the Lord's promise. After three days, I'm
going to rise again. And these unbelievers remembered
it. Isn't that shameful? Isn't that
shameful? But here's comfort for you. Remember
this. Salvation is not knowledge. Salvation is not knowledge. It's
faith in Christ that receives salvation. It's not knowledge.
It's not knowing everything there is to know. It's believing Christ. It's resting in Him. It's trusting
Him. And I could just see Pilate. Oh, that day of the Lord's mock
trial and his execution. I mean, Pilate tried everything
in this world he could think of to set this man free. Pilate,
I thought you're sovereign here. I mean, I thought you can do
anything you want. No, sir. God's sovereign here. I mean,
he had to be so frustrated. And his wife said, Mark, don't
you have anything to do with this just man? I had a lot of bad
dreams about him. How can I get out of this? I'll try washing
my hands in front of the people, saying, I'm out of this. Now
he thinks, well, at least it's over. And these fellas show up
again and said, you know, the deceiver said he's going to rise
again the third day. And I know Pilot thought, he's going to.
I mean, I know he thought that. He said, boys, you can have your
watch. You can have your guards. But I'm telling you, you're fighting
a losing battle. I mean, Pilot, I just really
think he's I mean, we've just fought a losing battle here.
You have your watch if you want, but he's rising again. But the sad thing is, at least
as far as scripture records, even though these men had an
idea they're fighting a losing battle, never one time does scripture
say they went and begged God for mercy. Not one time. Even when the Lord arose, what
did the Pharisees do? They bribe the guards to say,
well, we fell asleep. Somebody stole his body. They
never, they had to know he rose again from the dead, but they didn't know what it
meant. When the Lord rose again, here's what it meant. That's
the evidence, his suffering, his death, his blood justified
his people. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again. for our justification, and they
never knew what that meant. They just kept trying to deny
God's word. You'd be very cautious about
somebody who ever tells you God's word does not mean what it says.
God means what he says, says what he means. Only God, the
Holy Spirit can make us see, can make us believe on Christ.
And shameful as we are, he'll do that for all of his people.
He's going to reveal to them, Christ died for you, so you can
never perish. And He's going to give them faith
in Christ. Well, how's that going to happen? The Holy Spirit will
see to it. Just preach Christ. Just keep
coming here and Christ preach. The Holy Spirit will see to it
to give all of God's people faith in Christ and comfort their hearts
with it. Christ died for me, so I can
never die. I hope the Lord bless that too.