Can we move this? I'm small. I don't see how Rick would have
seen over it. Mark chapter 15. We've got one
of those two down at our place when they show up. These tall
fellas show up. We got one for them. But I love your preacher. I love
your preacher. I love your preacher's wife. Start reading here in verse 37. Read to the end of the chapter.
Mark chapter 15. And Jesus cried with a loud voice
and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was
rent entwined from the top to the bottom. And when the centurions,
which stood over against him or stood close to him, saw and
gave up the ghost, when he saw that he so cried and gave up
the ghost, he said, truly, this man was the son of God. There
were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of James the less, and the mother of Joseph,
and Salome, who was the mother of James and John, the sons of
thunder, who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and
ministered unto him, many other women which came up with him
unto Jerusalem. And now, when the evening was
come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath.
Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited
for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate
and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marveled if he were
already dead. And calling unto him the centurion,
he asked him whether he had been dead any while. And when he knew
it of the centurion, he gave the body to him and he bought
fine linen and took him down and wrapped him in fine linen
and laid him in a sepulcher, which was hewn out of stone and
rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulcher. And Mary Magdalene
and Mary the mother of Joseph beheld where he was laid. I won't get my subject if I can
this evening, And that verse 39, after our Lord made a loud
voice and cried and died, died when he willed to die, that centurion
that was standing up close to him, real close to him, and when he so cried that he
gave up the ghost, he said, truly, truly, this man was the Son of
God. But this centurion was like all
the rest of the soldiers that mistreated our Lord Jesus Christ. These were hardened soldiers,
men of combat, men that had no feelings for others. And yet
this centurion, when he saw Christ, when he cried out, he made a
bold confession, a bold confession of Christ as the Son of God.
And you notice there's three centurions mentioned in the scriptures. This is one of them. The first
one we find was when our Lord Jesus Christ, a centurion, sent
to the Lord and said, Lord, my master, my servant is sick at
home and about to die. And they come to the Lord and
they told him, they said, this man is so worthy of everything
that you could possibly do for him. He's so worthy. All the
things that he's done for our nation. Well, our Lord started
toward his house. And when he got about some way
down the road, that centurion sent word to him, said, tell
him, the master, he don't need to come. I'm not worthy. They
said he is worthy, but he said, I'm not worthy that you come
under my roof. I'm not worthy. And he said,
all you got to do is send your word and my servants shall be
healed. That's all you got to do. Just
send the word, just say it's done. And sure enough, he got
home and his servant was well. And then the second one is over
in Acts chapter 10 when Cornelius, the centurion, was the first
one to have Gentiles to have the gospel preached to him when
Simon Peter went over and preached the gospel to him, and he became
a believer. But here's a centurion that was
in charge of all these soldiers there, and these soldiers so
mistreated our Lord They buffeted him, they spat in his face, planted
a crown of thorns and put it upon his head. And then he said
this, he made what a confession, truly this man that's dead now,
this man on this tree, this man on this cross is the son of God. Was he a believer? I don't know,
I don't know. But I believe that he observed
the way our Lord Jesus Christ, the way when he was treated so
cruelly by men from the time they, you know, he was praying
in the Garden of Gethsemane when they come and laid hands on him.
And they came to get our Lord Jesus Christ and this soldier,
this centurion watched him as he was so mistreated, as he was
found guilty by the Sanhedrin. while he was taken to Pilate.
Then he was taken to Herod and they watched him be slapped and
they watched him be spit on. They watched the crown of thorns
put on his head. And then they watched and they
said, he is so calm. This man is so calm. He is so
quiet. He has not uttered a word. He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter and opened not his mouth. He
never said a word. And he watched his calmness,
he watched his quietness, and he watched how he was mistreated,
and all the things they said to him on the tree. Never said
a word. And he said, truly, truly, this
was the Son of God. And there's many times in the
scriptures which he called the Son of God. You all remember
very, very well in Matthew 13 Our Lord Jesus asked men, he
said, who do men say that I am? You know, people's going around
town and they're talking about me. What are they saying about
me? What are they saying? They said, well, some think you're
Elijah, one of the prophets. Others think you may be Jeremiah
because you weep so much and you're so sorrowful. He said,
but who do you say that I am? And he said, thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And he said, blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona, flesh and blood did not reveal that unto you,
but my Father which is in heaven. And oh, our Lord Jesus Christ,
when it was prophesied hundreds of years before he ever came
into this world, it says, a woman, a virgin shall conceive and bear
a son. and thou shalt call his name
Immanuel. What does that mean? God's come
to be with us. God's come to be with us. That
when our Lord was tempted of the devil on the mountain, the
first thing Satan said to him, if thou be the Son of God, you're
hungry, I know you have, you ain't eaten, drunk in 40 days,
command these stones to be made bread if you be the Son of God.
And I tell you, look over here in Mark chapter one. And look
what it says here in Mark chapter one about the Son of God. If
thou be the Son of God. What a confession. Thou art the
Son of God. He had truly this man. And over
in Matthew it says all of the soldiers agreed with him and
said this is the Son of God. But look what verse one said
here. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Son of God. You know what
Paul's first message was? Look with me in Acts chapter
nine. Look with me in Acts chapter nine. Look what Paul's first
message was after he was apprehended on the Damascus road. And he
was up and he was in Damascus and Ananias went and
gave him his sight and he started preaching, automatically started
preaching. The day before he hated Christ
was apprehended on the Damascus road. Christ put him down. And the next day, after three
days, and he had been there blind, and after he got his sight, this
is what he said. In verse 20, and straightway
he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. I want you to understand that
he's the Son of God. Look over in Acts chapter eight.
Y'all know very well the story here of the Ethiopian eunuch
and Philip going down to preach to him. And it says here in verse
37, he said, well, verse 36, he said, as they went on their
way, they come to a certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said,
if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered,
said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The Son of
God. You know, let me give you four
reasons why Christ must be the Son of God. He has to be the
Son of God. And we talk about the Son of
God. We're sons of God by birth. God gave us a new nature, a new
heart. We become, but God only had one son. one son, and the
reason he had to be the son of God by the way he was born. God
come upon a virgin, and God himself and the Holy Ghost came upon
that young woman, that virgin, Mary, and he planted the seed
of God Almighty in the womb of that virgin. And that child that
was in her womb was born of God, the son of the highest. Now the
reason he had to come that way is called the seed of the woman
was because he could not have any of Adam's blood in him. If
he was identified with Adam in any way, then salvation could
not be possible. He had to be separate from sinners. He had to be holy. He had to
be harmless. He had to be undefiled. So that's
one reason why he's the son of God. The second reason why he
was the Son of God, I believe we call him the Son of God, because
he alone had the power of God. Nobody on earth had the power
that our Lord Jesus Christ did. Our Lord Jesus Christ had the
power. When I tell you what, he had
the power over nature. When those fellows was in a storm,
our Lord Jesus just went walking on the water. You don't walk
on water. unless you're the son of God.
And he walked on that water. And then they got scared. They
said, oh, what is this? He said, be a good cheer. It's all right. And oh, he had the power of God.
When he was laying asleep one night, he was a man, he was a
man. He got tired, he got hungry,
and he was laying asleep. And a big storm come up, and
this ship was just about to go over. Water was going in, and
the wind was blowing. And oh my, they went down and
woke up the Lord Jesus Christ, and he walked out. Now this,
we're talking about the power that only God has. And he said
to that wind, be still. He said to the water, be calm. And I mean, it stopped. It stopped. Oh, our Lord Jesus. He's the
only one that's got power to give a man life. Lazarus was
laying in a tomb, dead, stinking, four days, corrupt. And our Lord Jesus Christ stood
outside that grave. Lazarus, you reckon he heard him? Lazarus,
come forth. And I love what the next two
words said. He that was dead came forth. Now who are you gonna
get that kind of power? Only God can do that. And you
know, when they, they took, there's four men, got a left, got a fellow
that was paralyzed one time. He was paralyzed. And they took
this man and they couldn't get into the house because of all
the people. Well, they got up on the roof,
climbed up the steps, whatever, I don't know how they got up
there, but they got on the roof, and they went tearing the roof
off. How would you like somebody to get on your roof and start
tearing off your roof? Tearing off all that tile and
everything. And they had to tear enough off to let a man down.
They had to tear enough off, big enough, that they would let
a man down through there. So they let all that tore all
this roof and they let that man down right in the presence of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And there he was in the presence
of Christ. And you know what the first thing
the Lord said to him? Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins are forgiven thee. He could have stayed up paralyzed
the rest of his life, but the greatest thing that God ever
done for a man is to forgive him of his sins. to put away
sins, to cleanse him from his sins. But those Pharisees, they
started thinking, said, who can forgive sins but God only? And our Lord Jesus said, let
me ask you a question. Is it easier to say thy sins
be forgiven thee or to take up thy bed and walk? But that you
may know that I've got the power. I'm the one with authority. I'm
the one that can forgive sins. I got the power to do that. Get
up and take your bed and go home. Get up and go to bed. Get up
and go. And I'll tell you another reason why he's called the son
of God and why he had to be the son of God. God is invisible. Nobody's ever seen God at any
time. Nobody's ever seen God. Moses
never seen God. He had to see the under parts
of it. No, God is invisible. God is
a spirit. Moses endured as he seen him
who is invisible. And God is not visible. He cannot be seen. He dwells
in a light that no man can approach unto. So how in the world are
we going to know God? How are we going to see God?
How are we going to have a relationship with God? How are we going to
hear from God? How are we going to be able to
handle the Word of God? How are we going to do that?
God became visible in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
he became visible in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can have fellowship
with him now, we can talk to him now, and he can talk to us,
and we can see him in his word. And you know, he became, Philip
said, show us the Father, and now we'll be satisfied. We'll
be satisfied. We'll be satisfied. And our Lord
said, Philip, have I been such with you such a long time that
you've not seen me? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. And when we get to glory, and
I know Todd's preached this to you many times and these other
men that come in, when we get to glory, an only person we're
ever gonna see is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only God we'll
ever see. That's the only God we'll ever see. And there's the
fourth reason why he has to be the Son of God. We call him the
Son of God. Because only the Son of God could
make us acceptable to God. make us acceptable, reconcile
us to God. Make God to be able to come to
us and us to come to God. The only way that can be done
is through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God. And God
has made us Him to be the only one that we, Scott Richardson
used to say, God will not speak to nor be spoken to by anybody
except through His Son. Except through His Son. And all
right, let me show you this. Go back in our text again. Let
me go down in the next verse. There came also women, looking
far off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of
James, the less, and Joseph, and Solomon. And listen to this
now. Who also, when he was in Galilee,
followed him, and ministered unto him, and many other women
which came up with him unto Jerusalem. And this says here, the women
followed him. They followed him up to Jerusalem.
And they ministered, said they ministered unto him. You know,
when you go through the scriptures, you find the women, the things
that they did for our Lord Jesus Christ. After Lazarus was raised
from the dead, Mary and Martha made him a supper. Made him a
supper. Now they suppered in a lot of
people's houses over the years. But you imagine making a supper
for our son, for the Son of God, making a supper for the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, we're gonna have supper
tonight and then we're making it just for you. And you imagine
him coming and sitting down at the table. I don't have a clue
what they made, but I guarantee you it was good and the Lord
ate every bit of it. The Lord loved what they put
on the table. And then there's the woman, oh,
this woman, that washed our Lord's feet with the tears from his
face. Got down with her face and tears so profusely, washed
his feet with her tears, dried them with the hairs of her head.
And then that Mary that come and took that box of ointment
and broke it open and poured it over his head and let it run
down his body. And she said, he said, she's
prepared my body for the burial. Said, and every time the gospel's
preached, she's gonna be mentioned. And then Mary, Mary sat at his
feet. These women ministered unto him,
ministered unto our Lord Jesus Christ. And now let's go down
here. I'm gonna talk about our Lord
Jesus Christ now and what it was when he was buried. And now when the evening was
come, because it was the preparation before the Sabbath, Joseph of
Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom
of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body
of Jesus. And Pilate marveled if he were
already dead, called unto the centurion and asked him if he
had been dead, a while dead. And he said, yeah, he said he
is. And he gave the body to Joseph. Joseph is the first time he's
ever mentioned And the last time he's ever mentioned, he's called
a counselor. He was part of the Sanhedrin.
He is an honorable man. And over in Luke, he called him
a good man, a just man, unspotted, had a unspotted reputation, an
upright man. And let me tell you something.
He didn't say that about himself. His family didn't say that about
him. God said that about him. God said that's what kind of
man he was. He was like Simeon, a just and
a devout man. And when God says you're just
and devout, the only way you can be just and the only way
you can be devout is what God in Christ done for you. So God
done something for these men. And he had not consented unto
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had not consented. Look over
in Luke 23 with me. Luke 23. Look what it says about Joseph
in verse 50. There's a man named Joseph, a
counselor, and he was a good man and a just. That's what God
said about it. Joseph and Nicodemus said I'm
not going to agree with that. I'm not going to go into that
I'm not going to I'm not going to get on you fellas side. I
think you're doing wrong I believe you're wrong about your decision.
I believe this man is innocent. I believe this man is just And
I'll tell you what and he was a Jew city of the Jews and also
waited for the kingdom of God and it said he begged begged
the body of Jesus he begged And it turned over in John chapter
19, it says there he was a secret disciple, a secret disciple. Well, he wasn't a secret disciple
anymore. And oh my, and I want you to
look here in Mark chapter 15 in verse 46. What it says, the guy, he gave
him the body. And he bought fine linen. And
look what it says here. He took him down. He took him
down. Our Lord Jesus Christ on a cross. Hanging there. Crown of thorns on his head.
This is a bloody, bloody, bloody, bloody man. His face, they plucked
the beard off of it, they slapped him till it was red. That blood
was coming off of that crown of thorns down on his face and
on his neck and all around him. And those soldiers, they had
these, when they chastised him and beat him, there was one on
each side. And one would beat this side
and one would beat that side until his ribs were showing. He was a bloody, bloody mess.
Bloody mess. And he had that rib, that spear,
cut open the thing in his side. But it said he took him down. How did he take him down? How
did he get him off that cross? What did it take to get him off
that cross? His nail there, did somebody
pull the nails? Did they take and pull his hands
through the nails? How did they get him down off
that cross? What did they do to get him down? He couldn't have got it down
himself. He had to have some help. But they got him down. Somebody had to get them nails
out of there. Somebody had to get him down, and here he is. He's covered in blood. He's dead,
but he's bloody, bloody, bloody, bloody. I mean, he's blood in
his hands, in his feet, his face. Blood running down his side where
they pierced his side. Blood, blood, everywhere's blood.
And he rushed and got there. I believe the Lord Jesus was
small enough and weak enough at that time, but he was so small
and so emaciated that I believe that once they got him off the
cross, I believe Joseph was able to carry him by himself. And
when he picked him up and got him, he got blood all over him.
His clothes was marred from the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He got blood on his hands when he took him off that cross. We're
not, this vision of Jesus with a little loincloth over him and
a little crown of thorns and just a little bit of blood, that's
not him. The scripture said his visions.
What you look at when you saw it was more marred than any man
before or since And it's not just, it was who
it was that they were doing that to. He took it down. He took it down. Look over in
John chapter 19 with me. John chapter 19. Oh my. Look down here in verse 38. They
took it down. What would it take to get Christ
off that cross? It says they took him, a person,
they took him down. They took him down. And it said after this, Joseph
of Arimathea, verse 38, being a secret disciple. Don't seem
like he's a secret disciple anymore for fear of the Jews. Asked Pilate
if he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate said, go get
him. He came therefore and took, took
the body of our Lord Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus,
which at the first came to Jesus by night. Look what it said here. Brought a mixture of myrrh and
alloys, about a hundred pound weight. A hundred pounds. He couldn't carry that by himself.
He had to have help getting out of that there. And then they
took the body. Listen to this. Then they took
the body and wound it in linen clothes with the spices. They laid our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now here's the first thing they've got to do with our Lord. They've
got to wash his body. They're not gonna bury him the
way he looked. They've got to take and wash
his body off. You know, the first time you
find about his blood being shed was when he was praying in the
Garden of Gethsemane, his blood became as great drops of blood,
his sweat became. Well, they had that bloody sweat
on him. Well, how are they gonna get
that off of him? And they began to wash his body. They took that crown of thorns
off of him. They began to wash him. I believe they washed him
so softly and so tenderly and so graciously and so kindly.
They began to wash his arms, they washed his hands, washed
all the blood off of him. Started up on here, washed his
body all over, still washing that blood off of him. washing
that sweat off of it, and they went over our Lord's body, and
they began to wash it, and wash it, and wash it, and wash it,
and they got it clean. They got it clean. I've been
places where somebody died home, and they come in, and one of
the first things they do is wash the body. Somebody goes and washes
the body, and puts some clothes on him. Well, everybody's got
to have something to be buried in, Well, our Lord's gonna be
buried in linen clothes. And what they did, and look what
it says here now, they took the body of Jesus and wound it in
linen cloths. What they did, they laid him
on that linen, and they put a bunch of that, they had a hundred pound
of that stuff, and they started putting that ointment, spiked,
and all that stuff all over his body, started spreading it about
his body. Then they wrapped him up, And then they put some more
in that, took some more. It took 100 pounds, it's gonna
be put on this man's body. They put some more, they wrapped
him some more, and they put some more, and they wrapped him some
more. And they wrapped our Lord Jesus Christ up in his arms,
his leg. They wrapped him up. And then
the last thing, they took that ointment and finished the last
few pounds that they had left and put it on the body of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And oh my, these saints could
attest that Jesus of Nazareth was dead. He was dead. And they laid him, look what
it says. Now in the place, verse 41, now in the place where he
was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new sepulcher,
where it never was a man laid. And they laid Jesus, therefore,
in that grave, they laid him in that grave. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, they laid him in a grave, a grave of stone. And the death
of Christ was a reality to these people. But you noticed it says
that he was waiting for the kingdom of God. What did he see in Christ
in that dead body that he's waiting for the kingdom of God? He was
like that man beside him, He said, Lord, when you come into
your kingdom, remember me. But they see that Christ is dead.
They know that Christ is dead. And without his death, there's
no gospel. There's no payment for sin. Without
his sinless, glorious, blessed life, without the message that
he preached, without the parables that he spoke, without the miracles
that he did. And his sinless obedience to
the law availed nothing if he had not died. And he had not
died. And blessed be our Lord Jesus
Christ. Blessed be God that our Redeemer's
death is a fact. Multitudes deny it. And the Jews
came to Pilate and said, listen, that deceiver said that he's
gonna rise again the third day. Gonna rise again the third day. So set a watch on it, because
his disciple will come and steal him away and say he rose from
the dead. He said, you see to that, you see to that. And they
laid him in a grave where never man laid before. Never man had
ever been put in that grave before. And there was no doubt that there
was one man in that grave, and I believe anybody else was ever
put in that too. And then it says there was a
stone placed back over in our text, over in Mark. There was
a stone placed at that graveside. There's a stone placed at it. And whose grave is that? Jesus
of Nazareth. And oh, they put that stone there
so that he couldn't possibly get out of that place. He couldn't
possibly get out. But look what it says in verse
16, chapter 16, verse 1. And when the Sabbath was passed,
Mary Magdalene, the mother of James and Solome, had bought
sweet spices. Why are they bringing spices?
He'd already been anointed. I think they was bringing spices
that they might come and anoint him. They didn't want our Lord
stinking. That's the thought behind it.
And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they
came under the sepulcher, the rising of the sun. They said,
who's going to roll away the stone from the door? And look
what happens. And when they looked, they saw
that the stone was already rolled away. It was great. It's gone. They said, who's gonna
roll it away? That first thing they thought,
how are we gonna get that stone away from there? We're just women,
we can't move it. They got there and it's already gone. It's already
gone. What happened? What happened? Oh, go back over to John chapter
20 with me. We can't leave the Lord in the
grave. You know, I'm so thankful, so thankful for what Christ did
for me. I'm thankful that everything
that he went through was for me. When he was on that cross,
he was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised when they beat
his face for my iniquities. And when they
laid those stripes on his back, Your stripes were for my healing,
for my healing. And oh my, what happens now?
They came to the tomb, Mary and them, they came, the stone was
gone, they went back and told the disciples. And Peter and John, they came
running. And one of them, look what it says in verse five. And
he's stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet he went not in. Then cometh
Simon Peter, following him, and Simon, just the way he is, he
went into the sepulcher, and see the linen clothes lying.
They're exactly where Christ was in them, laying exactly where
Christ was. And watch this, the next verse
says, and the napkin that was bowed his head, not lying with
the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by himself. Our Lord Jesus left the evidence
of his death in the grave. He left his grave clothes in
the grave. And he got up and you know, they
put a napkin over your face and they took that napkin off his
face. I believe he folded up and laid it right over there.
And he walked out of there. And he was, he said, now go tell his disciples,
I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming. And I tell you what, I'm telling
you, he said, he's going before you. He's always went before
us, huh? You know, he's always went before
us. And I'm so grateful, I am so grateful that our Lord Jesus
Christ Not only did he suffer, but this man was the son of God
who did this. And why could not, and they returned
to prepare his body, but his body was gone. It was gone. And when we get to glory and
bless his name, one of these days he gonna come after me. There was a man this morning,
tell me about his granddaughter. She's nine months
old and they take care of her. Said, you know, said she depends
on us for everything. She depends on us to feed her,
to clothe her, to change her, and to love her. She depends
on us, utterly depends on us. I'm exactly the same way by the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'm utterly and absolutely dependent
on him. I'm dependent on him for everything
that I have. If I get forgiveness, I depend
on him. If by strength, I don't have
any, I depend on him. When I fall and stumble, If somebody
got to pick the baby up, Christ, trust Him to get me up. I look
to Him for my righteousness. I look to Him for my strength.
I look to Him for everything I need in this world. Everything. I'm like that baby. Those fellas,
they was talking about which one of them is going to be the
greatest. And they was walking along bragging about, oh, I'm
going to be the best. I'm going to be the closest. I'm going
to be. And our Lord Jesus Christ was not there, but when they
come up there, he understood, he knowed what they were saying.
And you know what he did? He got a baby, got a baby, and
said, that baby said, see this child? See this child here, this
baby? He said, you fellas, unless you
become like him, you ain't getting in the kingdom of God. And I want to be that baby. I
never want to be nothing but dependent on Christ. And as Chris Cunningham said
this morning, by my last breath, let it be my last breath dependent
on Christ to take it and then take me where he is so I can
be with him where he is. Amen. Amen. The Lord bless you.