Okay, this story of our Lord's
burial and the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea,
is recorded in all four Gospels. As we've said so often, whatever
is written in Scriptures is certainly profitable and needful if it's
written one time. But if it's recorded four times,
We need to pay special attention to it. And it's a very short
account of the Lord's burial, but there's so much to be seen
here. And I'm learning, after all these years, I'm finally
learning that we don't need to be in a hurry, that we miss a
lot if we don't stop and consider. Like the centurion, I don't know
about you, I never really stopped and considered that story before.
But now we have. And then that verse 55, where
the women were there beholding afar off, I never really thought
much about that, but I got a blessing out of that. I don't know about
you. And now this story I hope will be a blessing to you. We
have done 16 messages in and around
the Lord's crucifixion. Now we have come to his burial
and then we're going to look at his resurrection. So there
might be 16 more at least on his resurrection because it's
such a glorious event. It all depends on that. And every
aspect of our Lord's death and his burial and his resurrection
was prophesied in Scripture. When Paul wrote, Paul the Greater
wrote to the Corinthians, Paul the Apostle that is, In chapter
15, he said this, he said, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you
the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received
and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved. If you keep
in memory or hold fast what I preached unto you, unless you believed
in vain, unless it's been just with a head. I delivered unto
you, he said, first of all, that which I also received. How? how
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. And,
or that is, how He was buried according to the Scripture. And
after that, how He rose again the third day according to the
Scripture. You see, every aspect of our
Lord's death, burial, and resurrection was prophesied in Scripture.
In the Old Testament, that's how we know who He is. Okay? Now we have looked at and marveled
at and gloried in how and why Christ had to suffer. Our Lord
said, ought not Christ to have suffered according to the Scripture. We've looked at how Christ died
for our sins according to the Scripture. How and why. Now I
want you to look with me at how He was buried and why He was
buried according to the Scripture. Alright? Okay. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ hung
on that cross for six hours. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. He hung there in the
bright, or full, sun. And then we saw how that high
noon, when Christ was lifted up, the sun himself, was lifted
up on that cross. After three hours, darkness covered
the land. The sun was darkened. I believe
the Lord just covered the sun. I mean, it was dark. And then
from 3 p.m., He hung there from 3 p.m. until... I'm sorry. He hung there from 12 to 3 p.m.
And then at 3 p.m., The Lord bowed His beloved head
and gave up the ghost. He left His body. He died. He died. And I thought about
Romans 8 when thinking about He died. Romans 8 says, Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? Christ
died. You see, Barbara, when he was
hanging on the cross, he was nailing all those things against
us to his cross, paying for all crimes committed by us, paying
them in full and stamping them paid with in his own blood, sealant. And then when he bowed his head
and died and gave up the ghost, there's no more condemnation.
The penalty justice has been fulfilled. And then our Lord's
body hung there at least three more hours. At least from three
to six, it says that evening, that may have been six o'clock,
seven o'clock, no one is certain. That time of the year was somewhere
around there. But he hung there at least for three more hours.
Verse 57 says, Now when the evening or even was come, there came
a rich man of Arimathea named Joseph. who also himself was
Jesus's disciple. And he went to Pilate, verse
58, and begged the body, or I think it's Mark's account says he craved,
desired the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body
to be delivered. Turn to Mark 15 with me. Go over
there. It's something I want you to
see. in Mark's account. Now, Joseph, in John's gospel,
Joseph is called a secret disciple. In John's gospel, he said he
was a secret disciple for fear of the Jews, this Joseph of Arimathea. And also, when he came, Nicodemus
came with him. In John's gospel, it's written
that Nicodemus, you remember, who also was fearful, You see,
the Pharisees had given a strict command that whoever was this
man's disciple was cast out of the synagogue. And Nicodemus
and this rich man, Joseph, were high up in religion, and for
a while they were fearful. And they were fearful of being
cast out. Well, now that they've seen Christ crucified, Now that
they beheld the Son of God, like the centurion, you know, this
story here is a lot like the centurion. After seeing Christ
crucified, high and lifted up, and beholding His glory, that's
His chief glory, he now is bold. He now is believing. And he now
comes. In Mark 15, verse 43, it says,
Joseph of Arimathea was an honorable counselor, meaning
he was held in high esteem by many, an honorable counselor. And he also, he was a counselor,
that is, he advised people. And in Luke's gospel, it even
says he's a good man and a just man. A good man. It's what Luke's
gospel says. And a just man. And it also says
that he did not give consent to the council when they all
held the council to put Christ to death. He said, I want no
part of this. He gave no consent to that. So
anyway, it says he was looking for, waiting for the kingdom
of God. Waiting for the kingdom of God.
Well, he waited and he saw it. Christ the king himself, crowned
with glory and honor. And now, after seeing Christ,
beholding His glory, seeing Him, the King, in His dominion, now
comes boldly, look at verse 43, it says, he waited for the kingdom
and went in boldly unto Pilate. He was fearful and timid, but
now he comes boldly and craved the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The body. Well, look over at Luke's gospel
with me. Look at something in Luke's gospel. Luke 18. Stay
with me. I'm building a case here. Luke
18, look over here. And as we said, this is much
like the centurion. This man is a miracle of God's
sovereign mercy and saving grace. He's a vessel of mercy prepared
unto glory, this rich man. He's a rich man. A rich man. A rich man. Now, the rich young
ruler, the Lord had just dealt with him here in Luke 18. The
rich young ruler, whom we think may have been Paul the Apostle. I believe it is. The Lord loved
him, it said. And he just came and spoke to
the Lord, and he left in verse 22. Luke 18, verse 22 says that he
said, You lack one thing. The Lord said, You lack one thing.
Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. And the rich
young ruler, when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he
was very rich. Now listen to this, when Jesus
saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, now the rich young ruler
had left, and he said to his disciples, listen to this, how
hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of God. For
it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The Lord was never given to figures
of speech. He never used figures of speech.
Can a camel go through the eye of a needle? It's impossible
for a camel. And then the disciples said,
when they heard this, it scared them to death. Why? Because they were pretty
well off. Don't think of the disciples
as being poor A struggling, starving fisherman. No, no, no, no. The
Lord never had one single prophet or apostle who was a failure
and a miserable poor fellow. None of them. None of them. Elisha had 24, 12 yoke of oxen. 24 oxen he was plowing with.
Barbara, he must have had quite a spread, didn't he? Today, in today's language, he
would have had a John Deere combine that stressed a quarter mile.
Right? He was no poor man. See, the
Lord, they were the best men. The apostles, James and John,
had a fishing business with their father, and Peter and Andrew.
Matthew was a tax collector, and on and on it goes. Luke was
a physician. They were the best men. The Lord
didn't call failures. Huh? Well, anyway, they were
pretty well off. They had homes. They owned homes. Peter had a house, right? Must
have been a pretty big house because he filled it full of
people all the time. Right? Had families. And they heard this, the Lord
say, how hardly should they that have riches enter the kingdom
of heaven. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And they said, well, Lord, then
who can be saved? They were scared. Now, everybody
in this room, everybody in this room is rich by world standards. Some of us have been to very
poor countries, and you know it's so. John, you traveled through
Europe. You went through some very, very poor country. We're
rich, aren't we? If you have running water and
electricity and air conditioning, you live like a king. Solomon
didn't have air conditioning. We're rich. Well then, verse
27, they were afraid. They were scared. Who then can
be saved? He said the things which are impossible with men.
It's impossible with men. It's impossible, Irene, for a
camel to go through the eye of an eagle. It's impossible. I
don't care how hard you try. I don't care how hard you shove,
you can't get it through. Same with a rich man. Same with
a rich man. But with God, all things are
possible. Now, I want you to consider with
me some things about what it means to be rich in this world.
The rich don't need anything or anyone. You know, you've been various
places, retirement communities down in Florida and all over
the world. This society we live in is the
richest society in the history of the world. There's never been
a society like that. Rome paled in comparison to the
United States of America for its riches. It used to be a millionaire
was quite a wealthy man. Now you've got to have a billion.
It's incredible just how affluent our society is, rich, increased
with goods and have need of nothing. Rich don't need anything, don't
need anyone if you're rich. The rich are consumed with riches.
The way you make money is you've got to be consumed with it, don't
you, Gabe? If you really want to make a lot of money, you've
got to be consumed with it. You've got to eat, drink and
sleep it. The rich are generally very proud,
because you get rich, well, the Lord makes rich. And don't think of that as blessings,
it's often, most of the time, it's the Lord leaving someone
alone. The rich generally are proud
because of their attainments, because of their net worth. Look what I've accumulated. Like
old Nebuchadnezzar, look at what all I've done. Not giving God
the glory. The rich generally hold high
positions, don't they? People, you can't be elected
to town council if you don't have a little money. You know
that? You can't. Unless you're held
in high honor, that is. You can't be elected to a high
office without money. Especially a governor or president
of the United States. The rich know everything. The
rich know everything. You can't tell them anything. And so, our Lord said, it's impossible
to make a rich man see his unworthiness. Now here's
what we've got to see. That we're worthless. That everything
we are and have, we've received from the hands of the Lord. And
that's impossible to make a rich man see that. It's impossible
to make a rich man see the vanity of riches. The vanity of riches. Back in the Depression, back
during the Depression, all these people that lost everything,
in the cities, these wealthy people were jumping out of windows
and committing suicide, weren't they? They lost all their stocks
and bonds and all that, and they were killing themselves. Well,
not the old fellow down on the farm with nine kids to feed. He didn't have much to begin
with. He lost what little he had, but he just pulled his belt
a little tighter, you know, and did what he had to do. He didn't
lose anything. He had nothing to lose. It was the vanity of riches. If
you lose it all, what have you lost? Nothing. It's impossible to make a rich
man see his need to forsake all, like the rich young ruler, to
forsake all and follow Christ. That Christ is unsearchable riches. It's impossible to make a rich
man see that in order to receive, you have to give. It's impossible to make a rich
man see that to be poor in spirit is to be rich toward God. Or
as the proverb said, there are those who have great riches yet
have nothing. And there are those who have
nothing yet have great riches. Now we look around this room
and how many very wealthy people are in this room. Very wealthy,
rich people. because this is the poor man's
gospel. This is a blue-collar gospel. This is for the worthless. And
not many. Do you remember that Queen of
England I told you about? She said she thanked one of the
preachers. I don't know who it was. It may
have been John Knox or someone. One of the Queens of England
said to him, said, I am thankful for the letter M. Brother, I'm
so thankful for the letter M." He said, why might that be, Your
Majesty? She said, because the Scripture
does not say, not any wise men, not any wise, not any noble are
called. It says, not many. She said,
I am so thankful for the letter M. Well, not many, but God has,
and generally He has made men, some people, well off before
He saved them. We've got a dear friend, your
friend's husband. Brother Thacker was a well-off
man. The Lord blessed him greatly.
Paul Thacker was his name. And a lot of people owe a lot
to his graciousness. The church all over has been
a recipient of that man's graciousness. The Lord made him do well in
the construction industry. I told you about the church at
Pikeville. how it was built. Do you remember that story? Some of you might not, but Brother
Thacker heard the gospel through my pastor and loved it, believed
it, and wanted a church there in Pikeville, Kentucky, where
he lived, where he worked, for his family to hear and so forth.
To make a long story short, The Lord sent horrible, terrible
rains and floods through that mountainous coal mine area, and
wiped out, Barbara wiped out about 10 or 12 bridges. Just
wiped them all out. The Lord sent that. Well, lo
and behold, Brother Thacker got the contract to build all those
bridges. And with the money he got for
those bridges, he built the church house at Pikeville, where Brother
Tom Harding is now the pastor. Built the finest building, it's
much nicer than this one, and built the finest building that
money could buy, and he spared no expense. Called my dad one
day and said, I want you to come preach. He said, okay, do you
have a place? He said, sure do. Ready to, got a church house
here now, come preach. And Dad said he expected to go
there and see, you know, an aluminum siding building put up. It was
brick structure, just the finest you can imagine. Well, Brother
Tom is now the pastor there, and they held a meeting not long
ago, and it's full of people, just full. So, the Lord doesn't
say not any rich man, but not many. And it's harder. It's impossible. Well, this man,
Joseph, he was a rich counselor. And here's another thing wonderful
to consider. He was a rich, honorable counselor
held up in high position. The Lord put him up in this position
that he would have an audience with and boldness to come in,
free access to go into Pilate. The Lord gave him favor with
Pilate. When he came in boldly, that
means not only that he came in with courage, but also he had
free access to come in to Pilate. God puts His people in various
places for the good of His people. One time He said, I gave Ethiopia
and Egypt for thee, and all things fulfill His purpose. God's people
don't have to bow and scrape to the world, but he gives them
favor in the sight of the Egyptians sometimes. And what the Lord
opens, no man can shut. So Joseph came in to Pilate,
came boldly and begged, verse 58 in our text says, begged the
body of Jesus. Now keep reading with me. Then
Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph
had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. The body. He keeps referring
to the body. Not the Lord. But the body. The body. He begged the body. Craved the
body. He commanded the body to be given.
And he took the body. Our Lord's body. Alright, now
let's look at this a few minutes. The body. The Lord Jesus Christ
was not in that body. That body was just a tent, was
just a tabernacle, a vessel, and it was empty right now. That
body, as we saw, that God had prepared for him, made of a woman,
made under the law, made a little lower than the angels. God gave
him a body which was just a little lower than the angels. That's
what that means. That he was confined to a flesh and blood
body, and that was for the purpose of death. He was given a flesh
and blood body for the purpose of dying. Well, that body was
his work clothes. Wasn't it? A body has to have prepared man.
He made him a suit of flesh, if you will, a robe of flesh.
And that was his work clothes, and having finished the work,
he came out of that body. He laid that body aside for three
days anyway. And it's the same with us people.
We dwell in a body. We have a dwelling place. We
have a tabernacle, a tent, this tent that we live in. It's just
a temporary structure. And when our days are fulfilled
and our work, we have whatever our work is, according to God's
purpose, we too shall leave, or not leave, we'll be taken
from it. Our Lord left, walked out. We'll
be taken from this body. And somebody is going to take
this body, my body, your body, somebody is going to take it
and give orders concerning it and prepare it and bury it. Bury
it. Alright, there may be some confusion
among some here and those who might listen to this on CD or
whatever later on about how a believer is to be, what is to be done
with this body after death is to be buried. Not cremated. Burial. Every saint throughout
the scriptures was buried. Every single believer was buried. Cremation is a pagan, heathen
practice that we got from the Greeks 6,000 years ago, 5,000
years ago. The Romans began to practice
it too. Our Lord's body by order of God Himself, was buried. That's enough in it. Buried. Baptism is a type, a picture,
a symbol of the Lord's being crucified and buried with the
Lord. Buried. And so burial is what
we are told to do with these bodies. Now, what about somebody
that's been cremated? What about it? I mean, everybody's
been buried anyway. Their body's going to turn to
dust. The Lord is going to bring it
back together. He is. That's no problem. Sailors that
died at sea, you know, they dumped their bodies. That's the only
way they could bury them. They gave them a burial at sea,
didn't they? Well, those bodies, man, they
were eaten by sharks just immediately, weren't they? And the sharks
were eaten by something, died, and so their bodies were dispersed
all over the ocean. The Lord's going to get it all
back together. But the fact is, the body is not to be desecrated
in that way. The Lord's going to cremate all
unbelievers. All unbelievers will be incinerated.
But believers are to be buried. These bodies are not to be abused
while alive, nor desecrated while empty. The Lord's wasn't. God
himself would not allow his son's body to be desecrated, but he
gave order. Joseph craved the body. Now that's
the body, and it's to be buried. Now look at this spiritual picture.
Joseph, it says, craved the body of Christ. Nicodemus also. Joseph
was once secretive, and now he craves this body. He desired
to be identified with Christ. He was not afraid now. He was
not cowardly, but he desired to be. He didn't mind who knew.
He didn't care who knew that he was desiring the body of the
Lord. Now he's a disciple of Christ.
And that's the way it is with all God's people, isn't it? There
was a time when I would have been ashamed to be seen in the
church house. As a young, very young man, I
would have been ashamed for my cronies to see me walking in
the church house. Where are you going? I remember
them telling me that when I first started going back, you know,
I tried to hem-haw around, you know, and would not let them
know where I was going. Finally, they figured it out. You're going
to church? You're kidding. Now, I'm not ashamed to be identified
with the body of Christ. Are you? I crave it. Don't you,
Kelly? Don't you crave it? This is the
body of Christ. God's people crave it, desire
it. Well, look at verse 59. 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 he left. Now, Pilate commanded
the body to be given to this rich man. Who commanded it? It says Pilate
commanded it. Who did? God did. Now, maybe Mary wanted it. Maybe
somebody else wanted it, huh? But this rich man came. Joseph of Arimathea. He just
appears. And Pilate commanded, give it to him. Nobody else. Don't let anybody have it. Give
it to this rich man to bury. Why? Because it reads, according
to Scripture, Isaiah 53, verse 9, and he made his grave. Who made it? God made it. God gave the orders with the
wicked and with the rich in his death. See, he died and was buried
according to the Scripture with the rich. God ordered his son's
burial. God ordered his son's burial,
ordered his body to be delivered to this rich man. Why? Why a
rich man? Several reasons, and I'll hurry
and I'm closing. Many reasons, some of them unknown
to us, but number one, to fulfill the Scriptures. God said He would
make His grave with the rich. Secondly, we talked about respect
to this body. See, we're going to come back
in this body. It's not to be desecrated. He
tells us it's a temple now, not to be abused. At any rate, in
great respect and for the dignity of His Son, And it says back
there in Isaiah 53, because he had done no violence, because
he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth,
the Father accorded him the highest honors in his burial. He's going
to have a special place. You know, Barbara, rich kings
of old, like King Tut and all those dudes, think about their
tombs. They were afforded great tombs,
weren't they? My uncle was in the army. He was a lifer. Died of a heart attack at 48
years old. But he was a full bird colonel
and already his papers were coming to be general. He died of a massive
heart attack. He served two different wars. He went to West Point. He went
to Annapolis. The Naval Academy, he was just a celebrated, decorated
soldier. And so he was buried at Arlington
National Cemetery in Washington and afforded the same burial
that they gave John F. Kennedy. With a horse-drawn carriage
and a riderless horse and a boot turned around backwards. A burial
fit for a hero. And our Lord ordered, are you
with me? Our Lord ordered the burial of his son, nothing but
the best. He's been abused far too long.
Now, we're going to... This is a burial fit for a king. And dignity to his son, because
he had done not a common grave. You know the thieves? You know
what they did with the thieves' bodies? Threw them in a ditch. That's
right. The common thieves, they threw
it in an open burial and just buried them all together. No,
no, no, no. Not going to do that with this
body. Besides, he's going to come back
in it. It's not going to be desecrated.
This body is not going to be laid with other rotting corpses.
And this body was placed in a rich man's tomb, a new tomb, it says,
in verse 60, a new tomb which he had hewn out in the rock.
Not going to be thrown in a ditch. Irene, he's got to be in the
cleft of a rock. That's where he's got to be buried.
This man has got to be in a rock, a cleft of a rock, because a
man, Scripture says, is a hiding place. The cleft of the rock
is our hiding place, our refuge. That's where God puts us to see
his back parts, isn't it? Christ is that rock of ages cleft
for me. And he was just borrowing this
tomb. The Lord borrowed a woman's womb,
and now he borrowed a rich man's tomb. Both were temporary for
his purpose. And this tomb, Joseph, listen
to this very carefully. This was Joseph's tomb. It was
for him. Okay? would soon be buried in
this grave, in this tomb. But Christ went first. Now this
is one of Christ's disciples. And this man's going to be buried
in that very grave. But no, Christ went first. And
Jeanette, Christ came out. And so Joseph thought, there's
nothing to fear. I'm going to go in there. So
Joseph went in. also buried with Christ. Bless your heart, Nancy. Joseph
came out, just like his Lord did. He's risen. He's not here. He's risen, as
he said. And it says, a great stone was
rolled to the door of the sepulchre. Joseph couldn't do this by himself.
Either he and Nicodemus and several servants had to do it. But it
was a great stone to the door. So the door of the sepulcher
was also a great stone. The cliff to the rock, the stone
to the door. It had to be this way, depicting
our Lord Jesus Christ. And he departed, he left. And
look, now look who was sitting watching all this. There were
two women, two certain women. I didn't read it on purpose,
because sitting over to the side watching all this was Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary, just beholding, watching, waiting, just watching
all this. And they're going to keep coming
back. You see, wherever Christ is, that's where you find these
women. Alive, married, risen. If you look for them now, that's
where they are, sitting at His feet. Okay, stand with me. Our Father, thank You for Your
blessed Word. It is truly Your Word. It speaks
of Christ, the Word incarnate. It tells of His glory, His glorious
work, crucified, buried, And soon we'll see risen again and
seated. Lord, bless this Word for Your
honor and glory and for our good. Show us You have nothing to fear
that He removed the sting of death. I have nothing to fear. He removed it. He went into that
grave first and came out. Thank You, Lord, for all the
blessed pictures, types, symbols, stories, things that tell us
that He is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
we believe and are sure and not by flesh and blood, but by Spirit. Forgive us of our sins, we pray
in Christ's name. Amen.