Good morning. I pray we all are
well. And everyone else who is not
with us this morning, I pray you are all well also. Well,
I sort of got ahead of myself with excitement, wondering if
the resurrection was going to fall specifically on this resurrection
calendar day. And I don't think it will. But
we are going to continue in John's gospel, John chapter 19, starting
in verse 31. Let's read together. Since it
was the day of preparation and so the bodies would not remain
on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day,
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that
they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke
the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he had
already died, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers
pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood
and water. He who saw it has borne witness.
His testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the
truth, that you may also believe. For these things took place that
the scripture might be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be
broken. And again, another scripture says, they will look on him whom
they have pierced. After these things, Joseph of
Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear
of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of
Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his
body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus at night, came
bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus,
bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial
custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was
crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a brand new
tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the
Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they
laid Jesus there. As always, in this narrative,
we see details and small, minute specifics, but there's one thing
that I want us to keep focus on as we move into this text
and then, of course, next week as we see the resurrection of
Jesus and all of its detail. Of course, we can read the synoptics,
we can read about the death of Jesus, the burial of Jesus, the
resurrection of Jesus, but there's something uniquely personal about
John. I'll bring these things to point
so that it will be in our hearts and minds as we hear the word
this morning. But in verse 35 it says, he who
saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true and he
knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe. Now in the middle of this narrative,
this writer, John, always speaking to the third person, writes himself
in again. He writes himself as the disciple
whom Jesus loved, et cetera, or the disciple, but he never
mentions his name. He puts it in third person here,
He who saw it. He saw it. He saw the crucifixion
of Jesus. He saw the death of Jesus. He
saw the piercing of Jesus' side. He saw the blood and the water
from His body flow out. And He is saying that He saw
this and His testimony is true for He is a witness of these
things and He knows that He is telling the truth so that you
may believe in this witness. And we all know what chapter
20 verse 30 and 31 says, now Jesus
did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not
written in this book, but these that are written are written
so that you may believe that Jesus is Messiah is the Christ
who is the son of God. And that by believing you may
have life in his name. What do we do? What do we do
as a church, as a people, as Christians, as people who believe
the one and only true gospel of free grace and sovereign grace? What do we do in times where
we are to reflect upon the death of Jesus? And now in the narrative
of this letter, week 140, we are here in this gospel of John
narrative, and most of us are not able to be together. Much
like the disciples were not together during the crucifixion of Jesus,
much like many times throughout the narrative of the book of
Acts, we see the disciples being imprisoned, specifically Paul
and Barnabas and others. We see often throughout history
where the church is persecuted and suffering for the sake of
Christ because of their faith. Beloved, we are suffering now
not because of our faith, but we are suffering in a way that
will strengthen our faith. We are suffering in a way that
is to identify us with Christ who was God, did not take equality
with God, something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, a slave,
obedient unto death, even on a cross. And therefore God highly
exalted him that by the name of Jesus, every knee on heaven
and earth and under the earth will bow and every tongue in
all of the creation will confess that Jesus is Lord. We need to
understand that the Lordship of Jesus has nothing to do, is
not specifically, excuse me, is not specifically related to
salvation. The Lordship of Jesus is related
to His reign. He is the Lord. That means He
is the highest of all things. He is God. So Jesus is the Lord
of Satan, Jesus is the Lord of the reprobate, Jesus is the Lord
of the elect. Jesus is the Lord of trees, the
Lord of weather, the Lord of the cosmos. He rules them all
at all times forever. We've dealt with this a little
bit in our midweek last week in Hebrews chapter 2. We'll look
at it again even last week on Sunday when we looked at the
crucifixion itself. And we saw Jesus proclaim, it
is finished. He decided in His sovereign will
when He would die. He gave up His spirit at His
own command. And as we'll see next week, He
will raise it. by his own power. Jesus is the
one who raised himself from the dead. He is the one who laid
his life down for the sheep. And that's what I want you to
see today. I want you to see that all of the teaching that
we have already witnessed in John's gospel is just coming
to its fullness. It's coming to the culmination.
Now Jesus' body is a passive participant in this gospel exposition. Yet it's still preaching grace. It's still preaching grace. So
after Jesus died, because it was the day of preparation,
the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious leaders of the
Jews, they wanted Pilate to make sure everyone was dead. This
is another aspect of the crucifixion that we often don't know and
we don't look at, and quite honestly, last week was sufficient enough
for horrifying everyone, but we need to add just a few more
details about crucifixion. Crucifixion in the first century,
you didn't just die and then they take you down and bury you.
The Romans left your body there to decompose and be consumed
by birds. It was a sign that you don't
cross Rome, that Caesar is Lord. Caesar is king and all who cross
him, especially those who are resurgents, as you see their
bodies just destroyed by the elements and by nature, and you
see the horrific way in which they die, it's a deterrent. It's a deterrent. For Rome, they would typically
leave a body there until it became nothing. For the Jews, because
it was the Sabbath, they did not want those bodies to stay
there. They also did not want the bodies to decompose in their
area because the scripture says whoever is hanged on a tree is
cursed by God. And so they would feel that even
the blood of these people, if it decomposed in the ground,
it would curse the ground in which it fell. So when a body
was basically cursed and crucified for the Jews, they would have
them taken down and they would take them outside the city and
they would bury them in a mass grave far away, unmarked. And because it also was the Sabbath,
they did not want there to be crucifixion per se in and of
itself after the sundown because they did not want to violate
their holiness. They didn't want to come to the
place where they were dishonoring God by executing justice during
their holy day. And so they asked Pilate. to
break the legs of the accused, of the condemned, so that they
might go ahead and die so that their bodies could be disposed
of. So, what does it mean for the soldiers to have broken their
legs? Well, I looked it up and I looked it up many years ago
and I reiterated and I have the Latin terms in my head and all
of the graphic expressions, but let me just say this. Remember
how you survive on the cross for days is that you pull up
with your arms and you push up with your ankles against the
rawness of your back, of which Jesus had been beaten, then scourged,
two beatings, so that you can breathe, so that you do not asphyxiate. With a large mallet, the Romans
would break the shins and crush the shins of their victims. typically would cause so much
loss of blood they would die just within a few minutes but
if that did not kill them they would no longer have the ability
except for upper body strength but that would not last long
to breathe and they would die. This is what the Jews wanted
because these usurpers namely the king of the Jews had to be
taken down. so that they would not defile
their righteous lifestyle. So the soldiers came and they
broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was
already dead, so they did not break his legs. Remember, Jesus
died. Why? Because it was finished.
It was finished. He died when he wanted to, and
it was finished, so he gave up his spirit. He passed from life
into death. The wage of sin has now been
placed upon the Savior, has now been placed upon the God who
created us, has now been placed upon the very judge of the universe,
the righteousness of God. And he is passed into death.
But to make sure, verse 34, that he was dead, one of the soldiers
pierced his side with a spear. And out of the cavity of the
body of Jesus came a mixture of blood and water. Now let me
go ahead and speak to this for a moment. John's gospel, if I
tear it out of this Bible and I staple it together and I walk
around the world and I'm able to translate in any language
in the world, but I'm able to take this gospel of John and
walk around, I don't need anything else whatsoever, period, to expressly
teach what's written in it but the Gospel of John. I don't need
anything else. I want you to understand that.
I don't need the Old Testament. I don't need the synoptics. I
don't need the epistles in order to teach John's gospel. I only
need it's writing. I only need it by itself. It
can stand and that's true for almost everything else written
in scripture, specifically the New Testament. You do not have
to have the others, but the others bear witness as the divine word
of God so that we do have collaboration and corroboration. and consistency
and synergy. But I could take this gospel and I could teach it and what
I'm saying in this context here in verse 34 is that I don't have
to have any allusions to water and blood or anything else in
the Old Testament. I don't have to have any type
of spiritual mojo mumbo-jumbo stuff about Revelation. I don't have to have any type
of Eucharistic or Lord's Table or sacrament. Matter of fact,
there is no sacrament that just contains blood. That's ridiculous,
the picture of blood. I don't have to go and deal with
any type of historical theology whatsoever. When we do that,
we twist Scripture. When we stand here and go, well,
you know, the blood was seen like this and the water was seen
like this. And we got to get this stuff
together mystically so we can come up theologically. And we
get it all out there hogwash. That's the harshest thing I could
say as a Southern redneck. It's garbage. No. What is John's purpose? What does happen when a body
dies? And you have edema, and you have
asphyxiation, and you have all sorts of things, and it's bleeding
internally. You have blood inside the body
cavity, and you have water inside the body cavity. And quite honestly,
in the first century, that's the only thing they thought was
in the body at all, blood and water. They didn't even understand
cardiovascular ideas. So to spear Jesus and seeing
water flow out and seeing blood flow out proves he was human. That's the point. That's the
only reason. Oh, Jesus was human and Jesus
was dead. That's the reason he did it.
That's the reason he did it. And that's why John emphasizes
his absolute true witness here in verse 35. I, if he were not
so humble, he would not have said he who saw it born witness. I saw it. I bore witness. I was there. Now, the beauty,
although we don't have to have 1 John in order to understand
John, we do have to have almost John's gospel to understand 1,
2, 3 John in Revelation. But this gospel stands on its
own, especially in this context. And so when we see these things,
we need to understand that John, excuse me, Timothy, Paul, John,
Barnabas, whoever, John is showing the humanity of Jesus against
many people who would say two things about Jesus in the first
century. He was not human. He was ethereal, had no form. And that heresy has traveled
throughout the millennia. And others would say, he did
not die. He did not die. He simply swooned. He simply fainted. Well, if that
were the case and he was a good possum faker, when the spear
came in and out of his body came his blood and came the edema,
He was dead, but He was dead. He died. He who was God truly
and He who was man fully died. He's gone from this earth, but
His body remains. Here in the body of Jesus is
death. Jesus no longer lives. He's gone in his physical sense.
But of course we know that the life, the person, our spirit
lives on. Jesus, as God did not die in
his spirit, Jesus lives on. And only a few days later will
we see him rose again in his glorified state. Jesus died. And he died as a man because
without him being a human, how could he be the substitute? Now
I want to say this because the more I get exposed to people,
and the more people who ask me questions on a daily basis, the
more crazy I realize that we all are as human beings. And
there are a lot of times where people love to argue many minute
details concerning the faith. And they love to be right about
so many things. But when it comes down to what
the death of Jesus actually did, they don't care. They don't care. Oh, He died. Yeah, He died for
me. Well, police officers die for people, parents die for people,
children die for people, soldiers die for people, doctors and nurses
die for people. Many people have given up their
faith. And like I said last week, Jesus is not a hero. This is
not an act of heroism, though many times it would be. If someone
came into this building for the limited number that are here
this morning and there was an altercation and your lives were
in danger and I set myself in between you and danger and died,
I would be dying for you to help keep you alive. That isn't what
Jesus did. Jesus died in place of us. Jesus
substituted Himself for us. Jesus, in a judicial way, in
His body, He was crushed by the Father in order to pay for our
sin. And so when Jesus said, It is
finished, and gave up His Spirit, God the Father's charges of sin
were wiped away. You see in the news how certain
states and certain mayors and governors have crossed the line
constitutionally and eradicated civil liberties. Fining people
for being in their cars, stopping people for doing certain things,
arresting and citing people for being in a church parking lot
listening to an FM transmitter and all sorts of heinous stuff.
But we also see other things taking place in our country. We see looting in certain areas,
burglaries have gone up in a great way, domestic violence has increased
by the mere fact that people are together, and so on and so
forth. So when all this social distancing
is over, the courts are going to be inundated with lawsuits
and charges in criminal court and civil court and all sorts
of things. And it's going to put a burden
on judges and courts and officers and everybody else where they're
not even going to be able to have their present duties because
of the backlog of things that are taking place. It's almost
insane, honestly. But could you imagine, have you
ever been under the gun and been under the pressure of having
that type of thing? Maybe you've been in a court
trial, or maybe you've been a witness, or you've served as an advocate
in some way in court, and I have many, many times. And when it's
all over and the charges are satisfied, there's a great relief.
There's a great relief. There's a great relief, even
if we have a credit card that we little overextended maybe
in college. And when we pay that thing off,
it's like, It's satisfied, it's paid. Or if you have a speeding
ticket and you get it paid off and you get some help or you
plead no low contender and it's a reduced thing or maybe you
have traffic court and when you get through with your court and
you get that certification that you finished paying for your
crime, there's just a sense of wow, it's amazing. Well, if that's true in a judicial
sense in the human experience, how much truer is it in the context
of the judicial righteousness of God? How wicked would it be
for a judge to have hearing, after hearing, after hearing,
and say, okay, next, okay, you plead guilty, all right, here's
your fine, and you're gonna do 20 hours of community service,
and when you get through paying your fine, and when you get through
paying your community service, he goes, I just don't like your
attitude, you go into prison. No, he can't do that. He'd be
a wicked judge. The same will be true if God
the Father said to His elect, you didn't do the right thing.
The blood of Jesus didn't pay for your sins. I'm sorry. But He will say that to some.
He will say that, depart from me, I never knew you. That means
depart from me, I do not love you. Depart from me, I have never
loved you. For my love for you is eternal.
It doesn't begin when you receive the truth. You receive the truth
because I love you. Christ loves His elect and in
the love that He has for them, for the glory of the name of
the Father as the fullness of who He is, He gave His life as
a ransom for His people. It paid the debt that we owed. which is eternal death. This is what Easter is all about. The atonement is not hypothetical. It's not theoretical. The atonement
where Jesus actually paid for something. If I pay for something
and then the people that don't give me what I paid for, they're
a thief. God is not a thief. God is not
a liar. Jesus finished it. That is why
the gospel of most of culture is false and evil because it
has had to be massaged to fit the psychological profile of
a God that makes men savable rather than a God who saves men. And when we make it the first,
we mock the body of Christ as it lays here. The very fact that Jesus' body
died is proof we're saved. It's proof. I watched a video
reel. Someone sent me and said, what
do you think? As a matter of fact, I might have sent it to some of you. I think I
sent it to you, Cash. I watched a video reel where
the question is, how can I be assured I am one of the elect? And really quickly, one of the
men on the stage goes, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
everybody sort of looked at him, the audience didn't do anything,
and then they gave that little golf clap. And then another fellow
there spent 15 minutes devouring the truth. Talking about how you feel, and
the testimony of your heart, and your mind, and your emotions,
and your love, and your work, and your satisfaction of glorious
things, and blah, blah, blah, garbage, garbage. Garbage. It was not garbage. The body
of Christ was not garbage. It was effectual ransom. It was
an effectual sacrifice. It was an effectual payment.
It was a payment from the greatest coffer of riches that ever has
or will exist. And that is the riches of the
grace of God's glory. And that's the language of Paul. So he pierced his side to prove
he was dead. And John says he died, now you
can believe. You see that? If you believe that Jesus' death
did what it said it did, that's because you were part of it.
It's because you were baptized into it. It's because you were
there with him in a judicial and a spiritual sense. And he
died for you. And in verse 36, we see the ultimate
end of it all. Why these little details are
so important. Because it says, for these things took place that
the scripture might be fulfilled. Quote, not one of his bones will
be broken. And also another scripture says,
they will look on him whom they have pierced. Psalm 34, Zechariah
chapter 12, I think verse 10. So here, just like Jesus, in
order to fulfill scripture, asked for something to drink. Now,
he died before they would break his legs so that scripture would
be fulfilled, none of his bones would be broken. And as John,
the only disciple whom Jesus loved, right there, the one Jesus
loved, not the only one he loved, but the one he was referred to
as Jesus loving, looked upon him. The Scripture says that they
will look upon Him whom they have pierced. We see in the synoptics
the one who spears Jesus says, surely this man was the
Son of God. I find that interesting. I find
that amazing. I find that important. But it's
not here. It's not necessary to continue
with John's purposes. You see what I mean? I don't
have to have the synoptics in order to fulfill John's purposes
in writing. But they've peered upon him.
They've looked at him. John is looking at him. In his
epistle he says, that which was from the beginning, on which
we have seen. which we have touched with our
hands, which we've heard with our ears. The word of life was
manifest to us. I saw him with my eyes. I saw
the blood come out. I saw the water leave his body. He died. Now we manifest it to
you. And our fellowship is with Him
and surely your fellowship is with us. That's the occasion
and the point of 1 John, by the way, if you've never known that.
It's not a test of salvation, it's a proclamation of intimacy,
a test of intimacy. And more than that, it's an exhortation
to intimacy. So here is Jesus, the accused,
whose legs were not broken. He was already dead. Imagine
the relief on the Jews' hearts. For as the world's elect have
been now satisfied before the Father, their judgment has been
paid. Oh, the debt of worry and frustration
that have labored on the hearts of the Jews for almost four years,
they think, oh, it sure is finished. Get Him out of here. and the relish in their heart,
the fact that they relish in their heart, the fact that his
body's about to be thrown in a ditch with these two usurpers,
all the while Barnabas is roaming the street doing his work still.
I mean Barabbas. I'm just messing names up lately.
Barabbas. And here's Joseph of Arimathea,
who was part of the Jews. came to Pilate and said, Can
I have his body? Can I have his body? Jesus' body was accursed. Jesus, according to the Jewish
law, as it was being interpreted, was accursed. Jesus was a condemned
and cursed man, and he was not to be dealt with honorably. And so I believe two reasons
that Pilate agreed and gave him permission are these. I believe Pilate gave
permission because here is one of the men who represents the
man who condemned him saying, I want to take care of his body.
And in some way, the fear of Pilate, maybe he had some sense
of peace to think, you know, I know I killed an innocent man,
at least I can give him an honorable burial. But the other reason is he so
hated the Jews. And all they wanted was Jesus
to be discarded somewhere, never to be seen again. All they wanted
was for Him to vanish from their lives, and for them, by the power
of Rome and the sword, to collectively, over the next few years, clean
up this mess. It will soon be behind us and
we'll be back to the holy, righteous, awesome people that we are. But Pilate, I'm gonna let this
man bury him. Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel,
as we see in John three, also part of this collaborative effort.
It wasn't just one man. And though we see John, what
does he do in chapter 12 when he says those who believe, but
secretly would not, but they believe secretly. What did he
say? They love the glory that comes from men. Joseph of Arimathea
was one of those men. And now all of a sudden we see
the tastiness of what's happening in his life. He no longer cares.
If there was ever a time to not be public about your belief that
Jesus was the Christ, it was now. The condemnation of Jesus,
the death of Jesus was certainly one of these times where you
would be smart to keep your mouth shut like Peter. Nope, don't
know him. Peter was smart. I didn't say it was right, it
was smart. Joseph of Arimathea was not telling
people he believed and followed after Christ. Yet John would
condemn that type of mindset over in chapter 12. But here
we see something differently. Now he's not willing to be quiet. Now he's not willing to not be
exposed. Now he's going to stand up and
be counted for the Lord Jesus. And how does he do it? He honors
him. He honors him. If a condemned person was buried
in soil that was sacred, that soil became cursed. If a condemned
person's body rotted on a particular piece
of land, that land was a curse. It couldn't be cultivated, it
couldn't be built upon, it couldn't be lived on. The same thing is
true if a condemned person's body was laid in a tomb. Then
everybody in that family's tomb was accursed. This is the superstition. So surely nobody in their right
mind who was wealthy, who had the money to have a tomb, would
put the body of a condemned man like this in it. Not only did
Joseph of Arimathea do it, Jesus was the first one there. Because we know he's not going
to stay there. And we know that though Jesus was condemned and
was accursed, he substituted for us. It's not because he himself
was worthy of cursing. That's why the atonement is the
centerpiece of the gospel. The death of Jesus is the centerpiece
of the gospel, not the resurrection. The resurrection proves what
I'm teaching you today about the death. For if the death of
Jesus was not substitutionary, he'd still be there. If Jesus was guilty, if Jesus
was a sinful human being born of an earthly father, he'd still
be there. His body and bones would still
be in that tomb. And Joseph of Arimathea would
probably be out in the wilderness along with Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes, and we know
he came to Jesus in John 3, and he's like, we know that you are
from God, you are the one come from God, for no one can do what
you do except God be with him, and Jesus says to him, armen,
armen, no one can see the kingdom except they're born from the
Spirit. Born from above, born again. Nicodemus was confused,
you know the story. Unless you're born of water and
the Spirit, and if you're born a human, and of God, you cannot
enter into the kingdom. Not only can you not see me,
Nicodemus, with right eyes, you can't enter into me. How? What
does it mean to enter into Christ? That His death was yours. That's
what it means to be baptized, that His death was yours. You
are in His death. You are in His body. You are
in Him. This is a divine judicial reality. Nicodemus comes, brings 75 pounds of oils and aloes. Now, I'm telling
you now, I've bought some myrrh before. Many festival seasons
ago, when my oldest child was an infant, we bought some frankincense
and some myrrh so that we could give it as gifts like little
stocking stuffers to people. And I thought we were going to
go in debt buying that little stuff. So then we got myrrh aroma instead of the oil. We
just made it smell like myrrh. That was a lot of money then. Much like the nard that is poured
over the head and the feet of Jesus in the house of Lazarus. It's about a year to two years
wage. Can you imagine taking a year's
savings, pouring it over the head of Jesus, burning it at the altar, throwing
it away, not even using it for anything, I mean just literally
throwing it away. But when we see ourselves found
in Jesus, we do throw away all that priceless stuff. Because
we realize it's worthless stuff. It's worthless stuff. And then
we fight that battle until the very end of age, don't we? That's
why John in his epistle says, don't love the world or the things
of the world for the things of the world are passing away. They're
dead. Jesus passed away and returned. He's alive. Everything else is
just rot. Everything else is to be broken
by the legs, let it die, put it outside the camp and bury
it. So here, Nicodemus and Joseph
of Arimathea, in spite of great persecution, in spite of great
cost, financially and socially and spiritually, well, socially,
spiritually speaking, they took care of the body of Jesus. They
took it down. They honored Him. They bound
it in linen cloths. They wiped the cloths down. I don't know how they did it,
but they dipped the cloths in spices and things of the burial customs. And in this garden was a tomb
where no one had laid. And they placed his prepared
body there. So because of the Jewish day
of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid
him in there. So they just put him in there, and Joseph is like,
he's right here, let's go ahead and get this done. Because in
an honoring way, let us honor the Lord of the Sabbath. Just
think about that. Let us honor the Sabbath by honoring
Jesus. Let us glory in the Sabbath by
taking care of the Savior. Versus the Sanhedrin and the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, look at what they did. Let's honor
the Sabbath by killing Messiah. Let's honor our righteousness
by destroying the righteousness of God. John never ceases to stay on
task in his writing. As we see, he speaks of this
coming in the flesh in verse 14 of chapter 1, and the word
who is God, who was with God from the beginning through all
through whom all things were made, even life. Became flesh. It became he the word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and in the flesh we have seen. Everything that God is. Glory. Glory as of the only son
from the father. And here is our assembly's namesake,
full of grace and truth. John the Baptist bore witness
of him. And then John the evangelist,
the disciple, the apostle bore witness of him. And as John writes in chapter
1, he says, for from His fullness we have all received. And this
is something we've received. I want you to think about this
for a second. If you receive something, it
means something was given to you, right? Something was given
to you. Alright, some things can be given
to you and you can receive them or deny them or reject them.
Some things can be given to you that you have no control over,
like coronavirus. or a cold, or the flu, or a bacterial
infection, or aged diseases, or old age
in itself. You've been given old age. Why
did you not reject it? You can't reject the grace of
God. For from His fullness, we have all received grace upon
grace. Okay? Let's put this into perspective
with the death of Jesus. All that God is in every way
that can ever be seen or understood is perfectly seen in Jesus Christ. That's why He came, to give glory
to the Father, to reveal the Father in all the fullness therein. His death did it. Jesus' dead
body produces the fullness of God in grace. Grace. It's given to us because Jesus
did it for us, and because He did it for us, it cannot not
be given to us. You see that? This is the only real true gospel. Because His body is laid to rest,
the grace of God is ours. Because the work of salvation
is finished and there is nothing else to see more glorious than
that. There is no miracle, there is no sign, there is no wonder,
there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from this
glorious fullness, which is the love of God for His people eternally
in Jesus Christ. See how simple that is? It's
too simple for our smart brains. It's too simple for our creative
juices. It's too simple for all these
incredible ideas on how we think we can stand righteous before
God. You and I stand righteous before God, beloved, because
Jesus is dead in this narrative. But we know He's not dead now. But when this story took place,
He was dead. Jesus died sealing Perfecting
for all time those who are set apart in Him, as Paul would write
in Hebrews. And this atoning, perfect, finished
work. is something of a mixed bag of
emotions. It is a bitter, sweet truth. It is bitter in that, look at
it. It's bitter. There's nothing awesome or joyful
or happy about this. But it is sweet because in this
painful suffering, life comes. As Paul would cry out in Romans
7, what shall save me from this body of death? Here's the answer. The dead body of the living one. The dead body of the life giver.
Now I've put great emphasis on Jesus being dead. You don't prepare
a spirit with linens. You don't wrap and put on a spirit
with oils. You prepare a body that would
decompose with those things. Death is supposed to be a reality
in our hearts concerning the good news. So then we might say,
then what is the resurrection all about? Because the women, as you'll
see in chapter 20, go to continue the preparation the next day,
or actually on Sunday, and the body of Jesus is gone. Because He's alive. Now why is the resurrection,
and we'll talk about this more next week, why is the resurrection
so vital? Because everything that I've
taught to you today, And the finished work of Jesus Christ
in its efficacy, what it accomplished, is proven in the resurrection.
I said that he was God and he laid down his life. He proved
that by bringing it back, by raising himself up again. I said
that he was sinless, yet he died guilty as an innocent man. He actually died not guilty as
an innocent man. But He took on the guilt of His
people, thus paying the penalty of sin, proving that He was God,
that He was man, proving that He was sinless because He raised
from the dead. The promise of eternal life coming
from someone whose corpse is rotting is not a very good promise.
So the promises of Christ are proven in the fact that He is
raised from the dead. But the resurrection is not what
we should celebrate myopically. It's his dead body that we should
celebrate, which is what we do when we take the Lord's table
every Lord's Day. Remember my body, which was broken
for you. Remember my blood, which was
shed for your sins, you see. Jesus doesn't say remember His
resurrection. He's alive. We're worshiping Him now. We're
hearing of Him now. He in us now. We in Him now. For all is ours. He is ours. We are each other's. All is in Christ. Christ is in
all. That's not universally. That's
in the body of Christ. Jesus died. And death is defeated. And he raises from the dead. And next week, we will look at
the implications of that and the narrative there. and the
wonder and the awe, because although Joseph and Nicodemus, they honored
the Lord, they were not contemplating the idea that he would come out
of that tomb, because they were preparing him to be there forever. The beauty of that is that there
is no condition by which our focus and our hope and our faith
and our zeal and our passion and our service matters in the
promises of God. Because His promises are yes,
His promises are it is true, so be it. His promises are done
despite us. His promises are done for us
in spite of us. and nothing can separate us from
Him. Beloved, you want to share the gospel with your neighbor,
share the death of Jesus. share what it did. That's why
John's gospel in one sitting is a powerful, supernaturally
driven, purposeful, and divinely orchestrated gift to see the
fullness of Christ, who is the fullness of God, who took away
the sins of His people from all over the world. From all of the
world. And so be encouraged in that,
beloved. Be encouraged that we will never have to taste the
trueness of death, which is the wrath of God. And that even though
death is on our doorstep, even though it knocks, even though
it comes and it looks and taps us on the shoulder and has got
a list, as the old spiritual says, is walking around and taking
names, it has been defeated. It has been defeated and we will
face it no more. So for us, death is life. In the body of death, of Jesus,
is life. Grace upon grace upon grace. Now is the resurrection glorious?
Absolutely. But what is the fullness of God's
glory in the person of Jesus Christ? His death. His death
seemed effectual for us. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for this time we've had together. Lord, for the blessing of life
and the promise of life in Christ that we might take and heed at
every moment of our lives. Lord, we are so overcome. with
this world and so overcome with our flesh and our minds and so
overcome with circumstances and relationships and finances and
politics and everything else. Lord, your kingdom come and come
quickly, but your will be done because the kingdom is alive. Your son is the king. And as many celebrate the resurrection
of your Son, the Savior, today. Father, I pray that throughout
the world that a holiday may bring the Gospel truth to the
ears of some. That your elect would hear and
believe. That we who are in Christ would rejoice in the truth. and that we would focus on this
everlasting covenant that you made with yourself, that you
satisfied through yourself, and that you purposed and sealed
by the death of your son and through your Holy Spirit. And
by Jesus' name, we pray all of these things, for in Him all
life is. Amen.