And this is something we see
many places in scripture. There are comparisons, there
are contrasts, there are differences revealed, differences made and
differences seen. In verses 48 and 49 of Luke 23,
there's a contrast drawn. in these verses, the same contrast
that we see elsewhere in the Word of God. When the Lord said,
for example, whom do men say that I am, talking to his disciples,
and they answered him, and various things were being said, and then
he said to them, who do you say that I am? The Lord was deliberately
drawing a contrast. He knew what they were gonna
say before they said it. He gave them the grace to say.
what they said and told him that he did, told Simon that he did. And he was deliberately highlighting
that difference, a difference made according to the Lord by
revelation from God. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you, but God did. The reason for the difference
is God. It says also in John 7 in verse 40, many of the people,
therefore, when they heard this saying, when they heard what
the Lord said, they said this, of a truth, this is the prophet.
Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come
out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said that
Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the town of
Bethlehem where David was? So there was a division among
the people because of him. There was a difference made,
just like the division between what people were saying and what
the disciples were saying, he caused. Division. He caused separation
on this earth, and he still does. He said in Matthew 10, 34, think
not that I'm come to send peace on earth. I came not to send
peace, but a sword. For I'm come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. Many of us
have experienced that. true peace and true division
hinge upon him. Other differences don't much
matter. And here in our text, we see a difference. There are
two groups of people here. All that came together to that
site. In other words, just everybody that showed up that day. And
then all his acquaintance. And that acquaintance, the word
for acquaintance there is nostos, it means known. Those that knew
him and were known by him. All of his known, they stood
afar off. In both cases, it says they beheld
those things. Now I understand The first group,
you're already thinking the differences. Some of them went home. In other
ones, it says they just stood there watching him. Well, everybody
went home eventually. I understand that, right? They
didn't stand there for the rest of their lives. The Lord wasn't
there that long. So they had to go home too. I
understand that. But the language of the text
reveals spiritual truth. Those that just showed up, they
were present there for whatever reason. They were affected by
what they saw. They were affected. They smoked
their breath. They got emotional about it. But then it says they
returned. That word means they turned back. It's the same thing that Paul
said in 2 Timothy 4.2. And again, now this is spiritual.
This is the Lord giving account of what happened there. We're seeing the way. It's worded.
We're seeing the spiritual truth now of the difference that Christ
makes clearly Second Timothy 4.2, here's the same word returned
in our text. Preach the word, Paul's teaching
Timothy, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all long-suffering in doctrine, with teaching, teaching
the scriptures, for the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap
to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall
turn away. That's the same word. They shall
turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into
fables. You see, there were those that
are seen and revealed in the language to have physically turned
away. There were also those there that spiritually turned away.
They turned away their eyes and ears and hearts from the truth. The truth is what happened that
day. There's a lot of true things,
but the truth is the gospel. And Christ crucified is the gospel.
Now those that knew him though, those that were of his acquaintance,
they knew him. They just stood beholding. They didn't turn away, they just
stood there. And again, the physical significance of that is what
it is, but the spiritual picture here is pretty amazing. That word beholding means to
see, but there's another definition. If you look that word up, and this is important because
the way the scriptures are worded, we don't do a lot of word studies
and look at the Greek a lot, but sometimes it's real important
to see it. And this is one of those times
that word means to become acquainted with by experience. They stood beholding him. They
were his acquaintances. They knew him, but they stood
there coming to know him by experience. And here's the spiritual lesson
here. A lot of people show up. and they're affected by what
they see. A lot of people get real emotional about the Bible
and the things that the Bible says and about who they call
Jesus, who they understand to be Jesus. They may well show
a lot of emotion about those things and even dedication for
a time. But then there are those who
stay, they stand. The scripture says, having done
all, stand. Staying, staying fast in the
liberty where with Christ has set you free. That's the picture
here. There are those who stay. And
they go home eventually too. It's not about that. It's not
about that. But while these ones who were there went home, we
see the language. Why would it say that? Well,
because the Bible's a spiritual book, full of spiritual truth. As some were turning away, others
were standing there, becoming acquainted with Christ by experience.
Coming to know him by experience. And I need to clarify this, I
need to talk about that for a little while because salvation is not
an experience only, it's a person. Salvation is Christ and what
he did for us. He saved us and he is, how did
he save us? He saved us, what did he save
us with? Him. He's salvation, that's just the
simple way to say it. And we can't trust an experience
all the time. If that's all we have is an experience,
they experienced something, the ones that turned away. They beat
on their chest, they got emotional about it. They might've felt
some guilt about it. You know, we talk bad about him
and look at that now that he's, you know, in this situation,
we feel sorry for him. Those are all human things that
don't mean anything without the love of God. Many go through some kind of
what they think is a spiritual experience, but it's really just
human emotion, and it'll show itself to be that eventually.
It's the excitement of the flesh and things. Also, though, if
all we do is know the truth in our head, in our mind, if we
just know some facts, if we're just aware of some intellectual
truths, that's not saving knowledge. That's not saving, no. We've
got to experience salvation. There has to be experience, doesn't
it? You're going to have to become acquainted with Christ by experience. Not just knowing some truth about
him. You're going to have to meet him. You're going to have
to behold him. You're going to have to see him. You're going to have to embrace
him. You're going to have to believe on him. You got to bow
to him. You've got to experience him. That's what that word is,
to know. They knew Him, but they're standing
there knowing Him by experience. We've got to actually meet God's
Son by faith and actually believe in Him and actually fall in love
with Him. It's one thing to understand
that salvation is by grace through faith. And we do, everybody that
knows him understands that. But it's another thing to believe
on him. It's not the same thing. Just like I can stand up here
and preach to you what it is to preach Christ without actually
preaching Christ. I can preach a message of what
it is to preach Christ. I've heard people do it. Here's
what it means to preach Christ. And they didn't preach Christ. God forbid. We've got to be acted upon by
the grace of God. Grace is something that God does
for you. A favorite preacher of mine used
to say, you only really know what you've experienced. And
that's the truth. If you haven't experienced it, you got no business telling about
it. What are you talking about? You don't even know what you're
talking about. It's those who know Christ in
reality, not just in theory, that stay. You see, what they were doing
was experiencing him. They were knowing him by experience. That's why they stayed. Just
knowing him in your head is not gonna keep you standing there. You're gonna turn away. Every time. And I'll tell you
this, those who stay experience the grace of God in Christ. They
do. They already have, and they're
going to, and I'd be hard-pressed to tell you which comes first.
I know this too, I know this, all of it, all of it is of the
Lord, all of it. Whether you know Him, whether
you've experienced His grace, whether you actually love Him,
and you can understand the doctrine now, That's the distinction that
we make often. You can understand that, you
know, I love him because he first loved me. Do you though? Do you
really love him or do you just know that that's how it is? Well, I know this. If I do, it's
by his grace. I like what John Newton wrote.
If I haven't loved you before, Lord, help me to begin today. All of it's of the Lord. It's
what happens when God, not flesh and blood, but God reveals his
son to you. That's what it is. In verse 50, let's look at verse
50. And behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor, and
he was a good man and a just. The same had not consented to
the counsel and deed of them. He was of Arimathea, a city of
the Jews, who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. He was a good, just man that
waited on the kingdom of God. We know who makes that difference.
This man went unto Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Think about our lesson this morning.
And he took it down and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a
sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was
laid." And Matthew's account mentions that Joseph was a rich
man. Only a rich man would have probably even been able to approach
the right authorities to have this happen, unless he was a
renowned man of some stature in society, they wouldn't have
even considered anything he said. And so that fit into the Lord's
purposes, didn't he? The fact that he was rich and
how that happened and all that led up to that resulted in this
and all the other things that the Lord worked out But we see in that a prophecy
fulfilled. Listen to Isaiah 53, nine. He
made his grave, the Lord Jesus made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death. I actually need you to turn over
there, please, in Isaiah 53, because I want to show you something
that you'll kind of need to look at the text, I think, to see in this verse. Isaiah 53 9 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 yet. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him He has put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. He shall see his seed He shall
prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand so clearly the first part of that is what applies
to our text all of it does but But what we're mentioning right
now about him being, he made his grave with the wicked and
in his death was with the rich. Now think about this, there's
a sort of paradox here. That though he died with the
wicked, his grave was with the rich. Not that rich people are
righteous and poor people are wicked, that's not what it's
talking about, but it signifies that he was given an honorable
burial. rather than what would have happened. If Joseph had
not begged his body, what was typical, what do you think they
would have done with criminals that died on crosses that nobody
cared anything about? They would just throw them in
a pit somewhere, maybe together, maybe not even in separate graves,
but not the Lord. He wasn't buried unceremoniously
as a criminal. So this is saying that though
he was counted among the wicked in his death, yet he wasn't buried like a criminal. And we're given two reasons in
the same passage there, why one and the other. Look at the end of verse nine,
he was sinless. Verse nine, I didn't even turn
over there. Let me get it back in my notes
here. He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his
mouth, and he was buried like that. But in his death, his grave was
with the rich, but in his death, he was associated with those
who wouldn't have been buried like that. punished by God the Father as
the sin bearer of his people. And yet, there was no guile in
his mouth, no deceit, no sin. And so he was buried this way. And look, listen to this too.
And again, we see that everything about his death was significant.
It all signified spiritual gospel. All of it. Matthew's account
also tells us that Joseph buried the Savior in his own tomb. It
doesn't mention that in Luke that it was his tomb, but why
else would he be, he wouldn't have buried it in somebody else's
tomb, one that belonged to somebody else. But it wasn't even apparently
a family member or just a tomb that he happened to own. Listen
to Matthew 27, 59. 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 in the
rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher
and departed. The Lord Jesus Christ, he was born with my nature. He
lived as my righteousness. He died on my cross in the sense
that I'm Barabbas, right? And he was buried in my tomb.
and he didn't stay in my tomb. You see what this is all about?
This is substitution in every aspect of who he was and what
he did. He was buried in my tomb because
I have to come out of my tomb. How am I gonna do that? How am
I gonna ever live? The wages of my sin is death.
Well, he went into my tomb. He died my death. He was given
my nature that he might suffer death. and rise again for me
in my place, in my tomb, from my tomb. God doesn't die, we
do. And so in that sense, he was
in our tomb, wasn't he? The wages of our sin is that
he knew no sin, but he had to die my death and also rise from
my grave, signifying that just as his death was for me, It was
for me. This is my body, which is broken
for you. So his resurrection was for me too, in my place. Read Romans 6, 4 through 11 about
that if you want to later. That would take us a little time
to look at this morning, but that's worth looking at. Joseph,
it says, was a counselor. And this, of course, it means
either one of the counselors of the high priest, or a member
of the Sanhedrin itself, which is a very prestigious legal group among the Jewish
community. And not very many of those cared
anything about the Lord. There were two that we know of.
There was one other, turn with me to John 19, 38. John 19.38, after this, Joseph
of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear
of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body
of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. He
came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came
also Nicodemus. And we know he was a Pharisee.
He was also a big shot in the Jewish echelon. which at the first came to Jesus
by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred
pound weight. Can you imagine that? A hundred
pounds of valuable spices and herbs and things. And that was
all done out of affection for the one who died, out of respect
for the dead and love for them. Then took they 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
never was man yet laid. There laid they Jesus, therefore
because of the Jews' preparation day, remember that word preparation
is in our text too, we'll talk about that in a minute, for the
sepulcher was nigh at hand. Many have said that Joseph nor
Nicodemus, either one, could ever really have been true disciples
of the Lord. I've heard that from pulpits,
at least one. They couldn't have been true
followers of Christ because you won't keep that secret. You wouldn't
do that. There are no secret disciples.
Have you ever heard that before? I've heard that many times in
religion. In John 7, Nicodemus is seen
to be still among the Pharisees making decisions sometime after
he met the Lord, and so he's seen as a secret disciple also,
and scorned for that by much of religion. Let me just say
this about that. Be very, very, very, very careful
about saying that somebody who does this or that could not be
a true believer. In fact, just don't go there
at all. Don't be careful about it. Just don't do it. How about
that? Rather than be careful about it, just don't do it. Just
don't ever do that. Each will stand or fall to their
own master, Romans 14, four. And there isn't any one of us
worth shooting. That's two pretty good reasons just to not go there.
The word preparation we saw there in John 19 is also in our text
in verse 54. And that day was the preparation
and the Sabbath drew on. Again, the wording is very special
and has spiritual meaning. The preparation was the preparation
for the Sabbath. There were things that happened
before the Sabbath in preparation. And it says here that the Sabbath
drew on. And that's an interesting word
there. I think it was John Gill that pointed this out. Sometimes
I'll be reading the scripture and I'll think, I wonder what
that word is in the original. I'll look it up. And other times,
it's one of the commentators that calls my attention to it.
But the literal definition of that word here, druon, it means
to dawn, D-A-W-N, or to shine forth. The Sabbath shone forth. It's the same word in Matthew 28 1 listen to this
In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn Toward the first
day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary To see the
sepulcher to dawn It means it drew. I just it's saying it dawned
the Sabbath dawned and It means to shine forth or give light. The Sabbath shined forth, dawned,
gave light because Christ is our Sabbath. Because he died
and was buried and rose again, we can rest from all of our labors
and weary burdens and rest in him and only in him. rest from the cruel labor of
sin and trying to please God by having that yoke of the law
on us we can find rest unto our souls and what our text is why
the Lord Jesus Christ died and was buried and the Sabbath shined He is the whole point of the
Sabbath days in the Old Testament. The reason God established a
Sabbath is because he rested. There was a day of rest. God
rested on the seventh day. He's God. He doesn't need to
rest. But he rested because Christ is the rest. for his people,
the Sabbath and all of that that it means, everything that it
signifies, which is Christ and the fact that he is our rest.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give
you Sabbath. All of that dawns, it shines
forth, it gives light as we look to the Lord Jesus Christ and
what he accomplished by his death. In verse 55, look at this. The women also, which came with
him from Galilee, followed after and beheld the sepulcher and
how his body was laid. And they returned and prepared spices and ointments
and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandments. Now think about this. They did
two things here, really. They honored the Lord in his
death. They came and looked at the way his body was laying,
and they returned and prepared spices and ointments. And again,
that was out of respect and love for the person who had died. And that's all, you could all
include that in just honoring him in his death. When that woman
broke the alabaster box of ointment and anointed his feet, he said,
she's preparing my body for the burial. And that's what they did here.
And then they rested. So they honored the Lord Jesus
Christ. They loved him. They believed on him. They knew
who he was. Because he had loved them, they loved him, and they
rested. So the picture here, the spiritual
truth is clear here. They honored God by honoring
his son. Now, you can't honor God without honoring Christ.
He that honoreth not the son, honoreth not the father. And
then we have the picture of what it is to honor God's son in the
Sabbath. Think about what the Sabbath
is, it not only draws our mind away to rest in the sense that
we need rest, we need to rest, we need to stop trying to please
God, we need to get out from under the yoke of the law, which
is pictured by the Jews' bondage in Egypt for 400 years, make
bricks, we don't have anything to make bricks with, make bricks.
The law, it demands what you can't produce, and you're gonna
give everything you have, you're gonna expend every ounce of energy
of your body, soul, and spirit, and you're still not gonna make
enough. You're still not gonna come up with what's necessary.
That's what happened in Egypt for 400 years. And then there's
the Sabbath, to rest, to rest. There's deliverance from that
bondage where the Lord stood them at the edge of the Red Sea
and said, you just stand there and watch me save you. That's
how they were delivered, not by anything they did, but what
they didn't do, what they just watched God do. That's the idea
of resting. And listen, we're required to
rest. We think of rest as, oh boy,
that's a blessing, I get to rest. But also, it's mandatory. You
got to, you've got to rest. If you do something, if you're
circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. If you keep the
first thing in the law, if you do anything in order to please
God, whosoever of you are justified by the law, Christ shall profit
you nothing. So rest is, By His grace, that's
what we wanna do. But it's what we gotta do, too.
It's required. You could not do anything on
the Sabbath day, not anything. And that goes both ways, doesn't
it? You might think, If you worked hard back then,
you had to work hard if you were gonna eat, didn't you? But on
the Sabbath day, boy, I don't have to plow the field a day,
I don't have to gather anything, I don't have to work the animals,
I don't have to do, but at the same time, there were things
they wanted to do that they had to stop themselves from doing.
It was not only a good thing, it was a requirement. Don't you
dare, don't you dare do anything. Why? Because when it comes to
the saving of your soul, you're required to do nothing. Not only
can you do nothing, but you better not even try. You better not
try. And of course, those who know
him, that's what we want. We want rest. Rest in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, you've
probably noticed it throughout the scripture, he did a lot of
his miracles on the Sabbath day. And he always infuriated the
Pharisees. You think he did it to infuriate
the Pharisees? I'm pretty sure he did, but also
to show his people that he is the Sabbath. Us resting, us ceasing
from our own labors and just watching Christ save us is salvation. It's us being healed, raised
from the dead. It's us lame and being made able
to walk. That's what it is. You're not
gonna be able to walk before God unless it's by the miracle
power of Christ. You can't do anything for God. You're dead in trespasses and
sins. But now in Christ, we're dead
to sin and alive unto God. The Sabbath, he did his miracles
on the Sabbath. And it destroyed the Jews' worshiping
of the day itself. They thought the day, you know,
keeping that day was part of their righteousness before God.
And the Lord just destroyed that. He absolutely, and he shouted
the fact. that he is the Sabbath, and it's
by a miracle of his grace and love and power that sinners are
saved, are able to rest and look to him. The Sabbath pictured
rest, and Christ is rest. Colossians 2.13, listen to this,
and you, let's look at it together, Colossians
2.13 in closing. Well, we'll look at one other
scripture, But look at Colossians 2.13. And you, being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. Think about the audacity of being
a dead man, okay? You're dead, you're a corpse,
you're a stinking four days dead rotting corpse and Christ gives
you life and you start doing things for him and trusting in
the things that you're doing for him. Wait a minute, when
he saved you, you was dead. And now you're gonna brag about
what you're doing for him, really? instead of giving him all honor
and glory? You wouldn't be doing anything
if he hadn't raised you from the dead. So that's the picture
here. In verse 15, even having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it. Let no man therefore, since he
did that, since he is salvation, since his cross is our hope. Don't let anybody judge you in
meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or a new moon or
a Sabbath day. Don't let anybody put a yoke
of bondage on you to keep things and do things and accomplish
things and work for your salvation. Don't let anybody do that. Salvation
was him raising you from the dead. If you do anything for
him, it's because he raised you from the dead. You see that? Don't let anybody do that. Look,
which are a shadow of things to come. Those things are a shadow,
but the body, the substance, and you look that word up, the
body, that word body means that which casts a shadow as distinguished
from the shadow itself. That's word for word from Strong's
Concordance. Those things are shadows. The
substance, the one casting the shadows is Christ. Now that we
have him, we don't need a shadow. The shadow causes us to look
and see what's casting the shadow, but now we have the substance.
We have the person and he is our salvation. He is our righteousness
before God. He's our rest. And it reads that verse, word
17 there, I looked that up, all that whole verse in the original
now, that last phrase, but the body is of Christ. You know what that really said?
The body, Christ. Those things are a shadow, but
the body, Christ. It's not just of Christ, it is
Christ. Oh, the substance which casts a shadow. The Old Testament
Sabbath day was a shadow cast by the person of Christ. It caused
people to look to the Sabbath, but it wasn't the true Sabbath.
He is the substance of the Sabbath. We rest in him because of him. So these women honored God by
bringing the spices and the ointments and anointing the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They also honored him by observing
the Sabbath. They didn't understand yet that
they weren't to do that, but true observance of the Old Testament
Sabbath is by faith in the person. The Pharisees never did keep
the Sabbath. Those like them in the Old Testament
who were just law keepers, they never did keep the Sabbath. Only
those who looked, rested on that day because God said to, but
as they were doing that, By faith, they looked to Christ. They kept
the Sabbath. The Sabbath has always been Christ.
It's always been Christ. We don't keep a physical Sabbath
now in the sense that we observe a day, but we keep God's Sabbath,
just like those who knew him did in the Old Testament. By
grace, through faith in him who is. Resting in Christ means ceasing
from our own labors. It means to no more do what Paul
said the Jews, generally speaking, were doing, the religious Jews,
they're going about to establish their own righteousness. That's
the opposite of Sabbath. We're to find in Christ alone
our sin offering and our righteousness before God. Matthew 11, 28, how
can we not think of this verse? Come unto me. All you that labor. Coming to me. All you that labor and are heavy
laden, that I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Wait a
minute, a yoke is for labor, isn't it? A yoke is for a task
to be performed. Yeah, but this is his yoke. This
is his yoke. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. Matthew 12, one, at that time,
Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn. You remember
when we looked at that a long time ago, Been in Matthew in
years, but I remember that story, don't you? The Lord Jesus Christ
was traveling along with his disciples. There was a field
of corn there, and by law, you could take a few ears of corn
out of somebody's field. You couldn't take, there was
a certain amount. You're not gonna steal somebody else's corn,
and that'd be okay with God, but it was fine for somebody
to just take a few, just something that you needed if you were really
hungry. And him and his disciples, they
were, his disciples were hungry, it says. They were and hungered
and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. And what our Lord taught there
is what we see in our text this morning. The Pharisees saw that
and they said, they're violating the Sabbath. It's almost like
they were stalking them. You think they were doing that? I suspect
they were. Where did they come from? The Lord and his disciples
are walking along, eating some corn and the Pharisees showed
up. You can't do that, that's a violation of the Sabbath day.
And you remember what the Lord said to him? He said, haven't
you read the Bible? Haven't you read the scriptures? Here's my prayer this morning.
May God give us grace to understand the scriptures. And when we do,
when and if we do by his grace, we'll rest only in Christ. May He make it so. Let's pray.