Mark's Gospel, chapter 15, and
verse 42 down to verse 47. And now when the even was come,
because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited
for the kingdom of God, came and went boldly unto Pilate,
and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were
already dead, and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him
whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of
the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine
linen and took him down. and wrapped him in the linen,
and laid him in a sepulchre, which was hewn out of a rock,
and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene,
and Mary the mother of Joseph, beheld where he was laid. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I want to, as well today, draw
your attention to a few opening verses in 1 Corinthians chapter
15. You don't have to turn to them.
I'll just mention them here in the introduction to what we have
to say. But this is a very interesting
little passage. It has to do with the resurrection,
but the Apostle Paul here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 briefly
recaps to his readers, the believers at Corinth, what the gospel comprises
of. Now listen carefully to what
he says here. He says, I declare unto you the
gospel. that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, verse three and four. Now in this little sentence,
the apostle says so much with respect to the gospel and what
it contains, what it comprises of. And of course, there are
many, many sermons could be preached from this passage in itself. That's not our purpose today.
For the purposes of today's message, I want us to note simply two
things. The first one is this. The burial
of the Lord Jesus Christ is as much a part of the gospel as
the dying of the Lord for our sins and the rising of the Lord
for our justification. And that should not be overlooked. And today it won't be because
we are going to be thinking about the burial of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's our purpose today especially
to think about the burial of Christ. The Saviour died and
rose again, but between these two great, amazing and wonderful
events, the Lord Jesus Christ spent three days in the grave. and the burial of the Lord Jesus
is more than just a prelude to his resurrection. I believe Christ's
burial in and of itself is as great, amazing and wonderful
as his death and resurrection. But before we spend time on thinking
why that might be, let me point out the second thing that I want
us to note from Paul's comments here in 1 Corinthians 15. And
it's this, the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord
is according to the Scriptures. according to the scriptures.
I declare unto you the gospel, said Paul, that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried according
to the scriptures, and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. Now that might seem very simple. Yes, it is simple. But let me
say it another way. If the death, burial and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not taught and preached in accordance
with the scriptures, then it's not the gospel. This is also so very important. Lots of people tell us that they
preach the gospel. But the gospel is not that Jesus
died. The gospel is not that Jesus
was buried. And the gospel is not that he
rose again. Everybody dies. And many, many
people are buried. And likely more people have been
raised from the dead than we realise. But the significance of the Lord's
death and his burial and his resurrection, the significance
of that for the gospel is that it was all according to the scripture. Again, if it isn't the scriptural
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, then it isn't the gospel. Many
people tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ died for everyone,
They say he died. But that's not the Gospel according
to the Scripture. That's not Christ's death according
to the Scripture. It isn't the Scriptural burial
of Christ or the Scriptural resurrection of Christ if we make it all-inclusive
for everyone. The scriptural burial of the
Lord Jesus Christ is altogether an integral and essential part
of the Gospel of Christ, just as much as his death and his
resurrection. So what we're going to do today
is in the context of the Apostle Paul's statement concerning both
the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're
going to divide our thoughts with respect to the burial of
Christ, which is recorded here for us in Mark, and of course
is in all of the gospel accounts, into three headings. We're going
to think about the fact of the Lord's Burial, we're going to
think about the significance of the Lord's Burial, and we're
going to think about the power and comfort for the Lord's people
that we discover in the Lord's Burial, both its fact and its
significance. So the first point is this, we're
going to think about the fact of the Lord's Burial. Now all
the four Gospels, as I've mentioned, bring the burial of the Lord
Jesus Christ to our attention. And, of course, all of the apostolic
witnesses as well in the epistles and in the preaching of the apostles. They testify of the Lord's death
and resurrection and they testify of the fact that the Lord was
buried. And in this context of the Lord's
burial, we meet this man called Joseph of Arimathea. And I think
it's very interesting that it's Joseph of Arimathea and this
man called Nicodemus who we first met in the early chapters of
John's Gospel. He's the man who came to Jesus
by night. It is these two and not Peter
and James and John and Philip or Bartholomew or Judas or any
of the other disciples. but it is Joseph and it is Nicodemus
that come to the fore in the context of the burial of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We'll come to that a little bit
later. But we learn here of Joseph of
Arimathea and Joseph, on the evening of the crucifixion, we're
told, went in boldly to Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. When he knew that Jesus had died,
he went in and asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, to which Pilate
consented. We learn of Nicodemus. We learn
of Nicodemus that he bought and brought a large quantity of perfume
to the anointing of Jesus before his burial. This man, Joseph
and Nicodemus, his friend, these perhaps with the help of their
servants, wrapped the Lord's body in fine linen and laid it
in a new tomb that was hewn in a rock in a garden belonging
to Joseph close to the place of the crucifixion. And we learn
that the whole process was observed by the women who had accompanied
the Lord from Galilee and who earlier had bravely stood near
the Lord's cross when all of his other disciples had fled. So there's the fact of the Lord's
burial. And the burial of the Lord proves
to us that he was truly dead. Now the centurion declared that
the Lord Jesus Christ was dead. Pilate confirmed that the Lord
was dead. Joseph and Nicodemus acted upon
the fact that the Lord was dead. And these women bore witness
to the fact of the Lord's death. Even the high priests indirectly
established the fact of the Lord's death by sealing and securing
the tomb against Christ's rising. And because our eternal life
is so closely bound up with the Lord's death, Christ's burial
reassures our faith. and strengthens our confidence
in the success of his atoning work. It is in seeing that the
Lord was buried that we have confidence that the Lord Jesus
Christ has died for our sins. Christ's grave shows that God
was satisfied with the sacrifice and it justifies our faith in
the complete work of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the actual burial
of the Lord fulfils the Old Testament types and pictures of his burial. Jonah, spent three days and three
nights in a whale's belly. And the Lord Jesus tells us that
that amazing incident, what he calls the sign of the prophet
Jonas, was a type of his own burial. In Matthew chapter 12,
verse 40, the Lord said, for as Jonas was three days and three
nights in a whale's belly, So shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So the Lord
Jesus Christ, as well as looking forward to his death and his
resurrection, looked forward also to his burial. And Isaiah,
in the prophets, had foretold that Jesus would have his grave
with the rich in his death. and now this was perfectly fulfilled. Against all expectations, this
Jesus of Nazareth, who in life had nowhere to lay his head,
is buried in a rich man's tomb, by the best of the best of Israel's
elite, adorned with the finest linen, attended with a great
weight of spices, and even Pilate himself, the Roman governor,
showed his respect to the body of Christ by committing it into
Joseph's hands. The redemption of God's elect
being complete, the body of the Son of God that had suffered
so much on the cross would now be honoured. This body of Jesus
was destined for glory and Christ's precious body would not be cast
aside as any common criminal. So let us not casually pass by
the fact of Christ's burial. It was divinely ordained It was
providentially planned and it was carefully carried out. But beyond the mere fact of the
Lord's burial, there's more for us to learn about its scriptural
significance. And this is our second point
today. I want us to think about the
scriptural significance of the Lord's burial. Now maybe you're
saying, what is this buried according to the scripture? What is he
making that point for? What is he talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ being buried according to the scripture? Is
it just that the burial of Jesus was done, as John tells us, as
the manner of the Jews is to bury? No, that's not the point
that I'm making. The Lord Jesus Christ was buried
in the finest way in accordance with the rules that pertained
at the time. But there is a scriptural significance
to this burial that it is important for us to understand. The Lord
Jesus Christ's burial was according to scripture and the Bible teaches
us in his burial about what the gospel is. It teaches us about
our salvation, our saviour and the uniqueness of his work. For example, why did Joseph of
Arimathea finally pluck up courage to go and ask for Jesus' body? He had been a disciple of the
Lord secretly for fear of the Jews. Now the Lord was dead. Why should he have courage now
to go and ask for the book? Why should he declare himself
now to Pilate and the high priests and the scribes and the Pharisees
and the Herodians and the Sanhedrin? He was probably a member of the
Sanhedrin, the high council of the Jews. Why now? Did Joseph
of Arimathea boldly go before Pilate and ask for the body of
Christ? Well, the answer is simple. He
believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Like Nicodemus, Joseph had been
born again by the Spirit of God. He understood the significance
of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He understood that it
was a sacrificial death. He understood its propitiatory
nature. He understood. that it led to
reconciliation and atonement between God and men. He saw that
the Lord Jesus Christ's death was as the lamb of God for the
sins of the world. He saw that God's anger was taken
away because he was satisfied by the shed blood of Jesus Christ
as that lamb. The sacrificial lamb. and he
understood that the Lord Jesus Christ had achieved peace between
an offended God and a disobedient people because of his sacrifice
in their place. Joseph knew that the Lord Jesus
Christ had not died for his own sins. He knew that he had died
for the sins of others and he believed that he was amongst
those for whom Christ had died. He was a believer. We know this from Isaiah chapter
53 verse 7 and 8. And I see no reason to doubt
that Joseph of Arimathea knew that he was personally fulfilling
Isaiah's prophecy by giving up his own tomb and honouring his
saviour by burying him with the rich in his death. Joseph knew his Bible. He knew
the Scriptures intimately. He certainly knew the prophecy
of Isaiah and he knew chapter 53 and as a believer in Jesus
Christ he understood that the person that Isaiah was speaking
about in that chapter was none other than the one who hung up
on the cross. And like Esther before him, Joseph of Arimathea
realized he had come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And though he was a meek man,
though he was a fearful man, like Esther, his courage did
not fail. And he went boldly into Pilate
and asked for the body of Christ. Let us not despise the weak and
the meek in the kingdom of God. Who knows, but for one particular
moment, one particular event, they are brought into the kingdom
to act out, as Joseph of Arimathea did, that which was needful for
the body of Jesus Christ. Did you notice that this was
a new tomb that the Lord was laid in? John says, it is a tomb
wherein never man before was laid. I think there's some significance
to this as well. The first man, Adam, had a tomb. And every man and woman, with
few exceptions, have a tomb. It is appointed unto men once
to die. Adam's fall and the curse ensured
that all who sinned in Adam's sin fell in Adam and are buried
with Adam. All of us have sinned Adam's
sin. All of us have fallen in Adam's
fall and all are buried in Adam's grave. A wise man once said, dust we
are and to dust we shall return. But not the Lord Jesus Christ.
His body did not see corruption. He did not go into Adam's grave. He went into a new tomb. He went into a tomb in which
never man had lain. He hallowed the ground in which
he lay. This was a new tomb for the last
Adam. A new tomb for new men and women. a new tomb in which there was
no sting, and which possessed no victory over the incumbent. God cursed the earth for Adam's
sake, and he blesses the earth for Christ's sake. So that no
matter where we are buried, we all who are sanctified in life
and death by the Lord Jesus Christ shall be buried in a new tomb,
a tomb fit for new men and women. Again, Christ was laid in another
man's tomb, a tomb standing empty, waiting for its occupant. By strict justice, as we've been
thinking with the young people with regards to the law of God,
by strict justice, Joseph should be lying in this grave. He should
still be there, lying in that grave, near to Golgotha, in a
garden. that he had owned, he should
still be there by strict justice. He, not Christ, had offended
God. He, not Christ, was under judgment
and condemnation. Hell waited for Joseph of Arimathea,
its mouth open. But the Lord Jesus Christ spoiled
the kingdom of Satan. He defeated death and he set
Joseph free. The Lord Jesus Christ took Joseph's
sin and he took Joseph's grave. And the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the grave to prove that he had conquered death. He was buried,
as we've seen, because he had died. but he was not subject
to death. He said of his life, I have power
to lay it down and I have power to take it again. We have seen
that he voluntarily committed his spirit into the hands of
God so that Christ died to rise again and demonstrate the death
of death and his dominion over the grave. Christ died and was buried to
destroy him that had power of death, that is the devil, and
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. Otherwise, the burial of the
Lord Jesus Christ was completely unnecessary. Why are people buried? Why are people buried? They're buried because their
bodies begin to corrupt and decompose. But that didn't happen to the
Lord's body. Prophecy had stated, neither
wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. David knew
that in the Old Testament. Peter and Stephen both quoted
that passage in Acts chapter 2 and in Acts chapter 13. Christ's grave was not a place
of corruption, but a place of rest. Christ's body did not decay
in the grave. It simply waited there until
the spirit, which he had dismissed into his father's hands, returned
to energise and animate his body. He took it again. He laid it
down and he took it again. Now our bodies will decay and
decompose because ours is sinful flesh, which Christ's was not.
But it will only decay and decompose until it is required again. When even our dust will be reconstituted,
as was the body of Lazarus. as were the bodies of the saints
who arose with Christ and entered Jerusalem, the holy city. Matthew 27 verse 52 tells us,
and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which
slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection
and went into the holy city and appeared unto many. Can you credit
that? Is that not a miracle of the
highest order? That when the Lord Jesus Christ
arose to show that there was no dominion of Satan or death
or the grave over those that were the elect of God, those
for whom Christ had died, the bodies of the saints which slept
many of them came out of their graves, their bodies were reconstituted
and they went into the holy city and appeared unto many. They
were recognisable. People knew who they were. Here's
another thing about the significance of the Lord's death. The Lord
died on Friday afternoon, probably around about three o'clock, our
time shortly afterwards perhaps. and he was hurriedly buried before
the sun set and the Sabbath began. That was the whole point. The
Jews wanted these bodies off the cross as quickly as possible. Now the Jews, they reckoned night
and day to be one single unit. And because the Lord was buried
before sunset, which would be the start of the next period. He was buried before the sun
went down. Because he was buried then, that
meant that it was still Friday and that counted as one night
day period. The Saturday, or the Sabbath,
was the next night-day period. And the first day of the week,
the Sunday, was the third night-day period. So while by our reckoning
the Lord was only in the grave for around 36 hours, the Jews
credited this as three days and three nights in the grave. And
the point is this, that however the Lord is credited as these three days
and three nights, He lay in that tomb for the whole of the Sabbath
day rest. The atoning work of the Lord
was complete. He rested on the Sabbath day. He rested on the seventh day. We pointed out yesterday that
that was just as he had done at the creation of the world.
It was the same Christ, the same Lord who had created the world
in six days and rested on the Sabbath. We read about that in
the commandments earlier. And just as he had rested on
the seventh day then, so now he gives the fullest meaning
to Sabbath day rest by resting from his labours following his
atoning work. And we rest in Christ. We rest by faith in Christ. Trusting in the complete redemption
of our souls. Trusting in the complete propitiation
of God's anger against us. Resting in the fact that we are
reconciled to God by the blood and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The linen in which the Lord Jesus
Christ was bound in his tomb speaks of the perfect righteousness
of Christ. Fine linen. And that righteousness
is imputed to all for whom he died as substitute and surety. Such is our union with Christ
and his representation for us that Paul says, we died with
him, we are buried with him, and we are raised together with
him in perfect righteousness. The grave once spoke of man's
sin and man's fall, and now even the grave testifies of our righteousness
in Christ. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
rose from the dead, he left behind him the fine linen shroud, folded
neatly in his grave, to show that what was his is now ours. In life and in death, we have
the righteousness of God. We have the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what about the perfume that
was bound up, the ointment and the aloes, the myrrh and the
aloes that were bound up with the Lord Jesus Christ in these
linen shrouds? The perfumed tomb banishes all
dread of the grave for a believer. What was once to be feared as
cold and dark and stinking and festering and corrupt, may now
be embraced as a pleasant and welcoming rest, because the Lord
Jesus Christ has perfumed our grave with his presence. These are some of the aspects
of the significance of why the Lord Jesus Christ died and was
buried. And that brings us to the power
and the comfort of the Lord's burial. I wonder if you remember
the account of Elisha's tomb in the Old Testament. little bit obscure perhaps to
be talking about Elisha's tomb. It's in 2nd Kings chapter 13.
We're told of an account there. Elisha had been dead for some
time and a man was being buried and his friends were taking him
to bury him in in the cemetery and they were surprised by a
group of men who were coming to do them harm. And they hurriedly
threw the dead man's body into the tomb that Elisha was buried
in. And an amazing thing happened.
When this dead man touched Elisha's bones, he came back to life. Now, by that account, if nothing
else, The resurrection from the dead was shown and revealed and
described to Old Testament saints. They knew about that and they
had something to build into their understanding of the work of
the Messiah. But there is a parallel here
for us in the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall not touch
Christ's bones, but we shall experience his resurrection. Because we are buried with him,
we shall also rise with him. In fact, we shall be given the
place of honour in the resurrection, because the dead in Christ shall
rise first, as if to say to them, you've waited long enough, and
you'll wait no longer than is absolutely necessary. Remember the woman that touched
the hem of the Lord's garment? By faith we touch the Lord Jesus
Christ and in that touch there is newness of life to those who
have faith in Jesus Christ. I preached a sermon, if anyone
wants to think a little bit more on some of these things, I preached
a sermon a few weeks ago called Welcome to Your Grave. It's on
the church website, you can find it on sermon audio if you wanted
to listen to it again. But in that sermon I made this
point and this is just in conclusion really. Believers have no reason
to dread dying or any reason to have fear of death. The Lord
Jesus Christ went to the grave to lighten its darkness for us
and to prove beyond question it is only a resting place until
our bodies are required in heaven. He is our example, he is our
forerunner, he is our inspiration as we face our own mortality. He said, because I live ye shall
live also and these bodies which we lie in the grave shall rise
again, these very bodies, because his body rose from his grave. Brothers and sisters, in conclusion,
do not dread what awaits you at the end of your life, or indeed
what awaits those that you love who trust in the Lord. The Saviour
has gone this way before us. He has graced the grave with
His presence. By entering the grave, by taking
His rest in the grave, by savouring its peace as He did, by that
Sabbath day rest, and then rising from it, He has provided us with
a pattern for our own deaths. He's dispelled the darkness with
which Satan previously shrouded our mortality. And Christ holds
the key to our grave. When we die, our souls go at
once into the presence of our Lord and Saviour, and our bodies
return to the dust whence they came. But our dust shall not
be lost, it shall be preserved for it shall be required on the
resurrection morning when the trumpet of God shall sound. 1
Corinthians chapter 15 verse 52 says, In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trump shall sound
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be
changed. Our grave is a waiting room for
our bodies of flesh until our resurrection and ascension. By honouring the experience of
burial with his own body, our saviour has softened and sweetened
and scented our stay in our own grave. He was buried and he rose
again according to the scriptures and we shall be like him. Amen. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to our hearts.