John chapter 19, this chapter is concerning the
crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, His death. They had taken
Him and scourged Him, asked Him several
questions, finally delivered Him unto the will of the Jews.
They took Him and put Him on a cross, nailed the inscription
over His cross, this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the
Jews. He hangs there and suffers, and the darkness comes. The Father forsakes Him. And
finally, He says here in verse 30, When Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. And He avows
His head and gave up the ghost. And the Jews therefore, because
it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the
cross on the sabbath day, for that sabbath was not a high sabbath,
besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they
might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and broke
the legs of the first, and of the other which were crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus,
and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs, And
one of the soldiers which had a spear pierced his side, and
forthwith immediately came thereout blood and water. And he that
saw it by record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that
he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were
done that the scripture might be fulfilled, a bone of him shall
not be broken. And again another scripture which
said, They shall look on him whom they have pierced. And after
this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly
for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take the
body away. And Pilate gave him leave, and
he came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came
also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night.
and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred-pound
weight. Then took they the body of Jesus,
and bound it, and wound it in linen clothes, with as 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 was never man laid. There laid they Jesus, Therefore,
because of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulcher was nigh
at hand." We have looked at this before, but this has been on
my mind now for the last several days, and I want to look at the
burial of our Savior and some things here that we have recorded
in this passage. I think sometimes that if you
live As long as some of us have lived and you round enough funerals
and you see them lower enough people down in the dirt, you
start thinking about being buried more. And it's a pleasant thought
to me as I read here in the 19th chapter of this book that our
Lord Jesus not only died, but that He was buried. That's a
big thing. That's a big thing for our bodies
to be put in a tomb, to be placed in the cold ground. And I want
to look at some things here in verses 38 through verse 42 concerning
the burial of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul himself said
in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ died and was buried. So there's
something about the burial of our Master that's very, very
important. So I want us to look at some things this afternoon
with me, and I won't keep you long. We've looked at this before,
but I want to look at at least a portion of it this afternoon
with you. What does the burial of our Savior suggest to us as
we look at it? Well, first of all, it tells
us, it confirms that He really died. He was dead. That's why they let Joseph and
Nicodemus have this body because they come to it to break the
legs and they said he's dead. They examined him and said he's
not breathing. He don't have a pulse. He's dead. And that's why they took him
here and buried him because he died. It's so important that
we believe in the death of Christ. It's a cardinal truth of the
gospel because if Christ didn't die, you and I are still in our
sins. His death is essential to take
place because our sins had to be punished. Our sins had to
be put away. Reconciliation for iniquity had
to be made. And there was only one way that
could happen. And that's by death of some worthy
person. And that is Jesus Christ. And
when we come here and we find that these men took the Lord
Jesus down from the cross, and they took Him and buried Him,
that tells us, that further affirms to us, He died. Jesus Christ
really died. But secondly, you notice here
in verses 41 and verse 42, there's something else that we're told
here about His burial, and that's where He was buried. Now, this
may seem amazing to us, but we're told there in verse 41, the place
where He was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden
there was a tomb, a sepulcher. Now, that's somewhat amazing,
isn't it? That where you would have the crucifixion, there would
be a garden. And where you have this garden,
there would be a sepulcher. And He was buried in this garden. He died in the garden, he suffered
in this garden, and he was buried in this garden. Now, what does
this suggest to our minds when we remember that all of this
took place in a garden? Well, this tells us that Jesus
Christ was truly our representative. What else took place in a garden?
That's where we got into this mess, wasn't it? Back there in
the garden of Eden. That was where sin entered this
human race. Death came to us in a garden. So here we have the Lord Jesus,
and He's in a garden, and what does He do? He dies. He dies
in a garden. Adam was in a garden when he
disobeyed and ate, and it was in the garden that he died, and
we all died in Him. Turch mentioned the other day,
they went through the book of Genesis, D. May mentioned to
me again, the last verse of the book of Genesis. And what a fitting
way to end the book of Genesis. That Joseph died, and he was
put in a coffin, and they buried him down in Egypt. And you know something? That's
what happens to us, isn't it? We died in Adam in the garden. and they put us in a coffin and
they bury us and you know that would be the end of us if another
had not come as our representative and died in a garden and was
buried in a garden. And there's where he rose in
this garden. The Lord Jesus was such a fitting
representative in his life because he was tempted in all points
like as you and I was. He was a man of sorrows, like
you and I are. He's acquainted with grief, like
you and I are. He lived by faith, just like
you and I live by. He lived by hope, just like you
and I live by. And in his death and in his burial,
it took place in a garden where you and I died and were buried. Someone said it's fitting that
death entered in a garden, and it's fitting that death was turned
out in a garden. Death took the throne in a garden,
and death was dethroned in a garden. Isn't that wonderful? Death got
the victory in the garden, and in the garden, death was defeated. O death, I will be your plagues,
O grave, I will be your destruction. By man came death, and they put
him in a coffin. And by man, who was put in a
coffin in the garden, came life to you and to me." What a fitting
representative. We see the death of Christ and
the burial of Christ was of God in His providence. Isn't it amazing
that where He died was in a garden? And where he was buried, there
was a garden? How amazing that only the providence
of God could have brought all that to pass. What a fitting
representative. He was buried in a garden. His burial here suggests something
else to us here also in verse 39 and verse 40. It suggests
something that is very pleasant to us. We're told here that Nicodemus
bought a hundred pound weight of these precious odors, this
incense, and wrapped his body up in all of this sweet incense. We're told here that this was
the manner of the Jews to bury. And we've got a record of King
Asa. of how they buried this man.
And it's found in 2 Chronicles 16, 14. And listen to what the
Holy Spirit said. They buried King Asa in his own
sepulcher in the city of Babon and laid him in a bed which was
filled with sweet odors and diverse kinds of spices. This was the way the Jews buried
their dead. Can you imagine what a hundred
pound weight of sweet incense and aroma would do if it was
shut up in a little tomb for three days? And suddenly you
open the clothes, you remove the clothes. Can you imagine
the aroma that would fill that little tomb? And what does this
suggest to you and I? this sweet-smelling tomb, doesn't
it suggest to us that the bitterness of death is past? That death is not a bitter place. The grave is not a place to be
dreaded. It's not a repulsive place. Because
Jesus Christ went there. And can you imagine when the
angels asked those women Come down here and see the place where
He lay. Can you imagine what they smelled? There was no smell
of death. He never had began to decay.
There was just this sweet aroma that had filled this little tomb. The sting of death, the bitterness
of death, and even the dread of death is gone. This is why the Apostle Paul
said, to die and to be with Christ. But Paul, what about your body? What about putting your body
in the dust and it decaying? He wasn't afraid of that, was
he? The sting of death was gone. It was a resting place. It's
a sleep. Blessed are those who die in
the Lord that they may rest from their labor." The next time you're
at a funeral of a believer and you go there to the gravesite
and you watch him lured down into that grave, don't fear for
him. Don't be concerned about him.
He's resting. He's resting. And there's nothing
in that grave to harm him, to hurt him at all. Richard Baxter said, the fear of death is natural
for us because death is an unnatural event. And he made this statement. He said, if you secured a man
in chains at the eighth floor of a building and hung him out
the window, would he fear? Would he fear? Why, yes, he said. It's not natural to be hung out
the window of an eight-story building. But he's secure with
chain. Will he fall? No. But he's afraid
because it's unnatural. Death and burial is unnatural,
ain't it? But you know something? The burial
of our Savior has taken away all bitterness of it. The child of God. It doesn't
have to be. This suggests something else
to us also. Christ's burial here in the garden. What does that suggest to us?
Don't that suggest fruit? He was buried in a garden. When we think of a garden, what
do we think of? We think of fruit, don't we? little garden, but
it's a beautiful garden. I planted a few beans, and now
I've got, man, there's just all kinds of vines and blooming.
Planted a few mustard and turnip greens, the seed, and man, it's
just thick. That's what a garden does, isn't
it? It produces fruit. Look over here in the twelfth
chapter of John. Look at the twelfth chapter.
What the Master says about bringing forth fruit. Look in verse 24. He says here in verse 23 of chapter
12, "...the hour is come that the Son of Man may be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit." You put one little grain of wheat in the
ground. And it springs up and it's got
that big head of wheat on it. Brings forth much fruit. And
the Lord Jesus is likening this to His death. For He said here
in verse 32, He said, If I be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto Me. This He said signifying what
death He should die. If Jesus Christ never dies, and
He's never buried, He's never planted in the grave, He abides
alone. He can't take us to heaven to
be with Him. He's there by Himself. But if He falls into the ground
and He dies, He brings forth much fruit. And by His resurrection,
He is the firstfruits of the resurrection. The very fact that
He raised from the dead tells us that there's going to be a
whole host of people that raised from the dead. He's not going
to go to heaven by Himself, is He? His resurrection proved that.
He's going to bring many sons into glory. Many sons. Christ suffered for
our sins. And He died and He was buried
to bring us, to bring us to God. This suggests some wonderful
things, doesn't it? The burial of Christ. Another one is found
here in John chapter 20. Look at this. The burial of Christ. When we remember what He left
in the grave. when we remember what He left
in the grave. The Word of God amazes us when
we remember that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Because He
wrote things in here that you and I would have never thought
about writing. We would have never thought about putting in
here what He put here in the 20th chapter concerning what
Jesus our Lord left in the grave. Look here in verse 5. of John
chapter 20. Here is where Peter and John came
to the sepulchre, verse 4. They ran together. The other
disciple outran Peter and came first to the sepulchre, to the
tomb. It was empty. And he stooping down and looking
in, he saw the linen clothes lying. Yet when he not in, Then
came Simon Peter, following him, and went unto the sepulchre,
and he saw the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was
about his head, not lined with the linen clothes, but wrapped
together and placed by itself. Then went also that other disciple,
which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed." Now
what does this suggest to us? These linen clothes that they
wrapped the Lord Jesus in, the napkin around His head, it was
all left in the tomb. Gil said, this tells us again,
that He wasn't stolen. If anybody is going to steal
His body, they're not going to take time to unwrap it, are they?
But His clothes, His linen clothes, and this napkin was later in
the tomb. And what does this suggest to
us? Well, let's look at it this way. When Lazarus came out of
his tomb, do you remember what he was wrapped in? He was still
wrapped in the grave clothes, wasn't he? The Bible says that
he was wrapped around his feet and he had the napkin around
his head. What did that do to that man?
Well, I don't know how he got out of that tomb. He may have
floated. I don't know. But he couldn't run to the Lord
Jesus, could he? He was bound. His hands were
bound. His face was wrapped with a napkin.
And the Lord Jesus said, take the grave clothes off and let
him go. And let him go. And isn't this
a wonderful thought, brothers and sisters, when the Lord Jesus
came out of His tomb, that He left everything in there that
bound Lazarus and that binds you and I? And isn't it a wonderful
thought that at the resurrection, when we come from our tomb, are
we changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye? All of these
grave clothes now that we wear will leave? We'll drop this bondage
and we'll be free? Free to come to Christ? Free
to flee to Him? Can you come to Him? Can you
run to Him now as you want to? Aren't you hindered from coming
to Him? Well, you can't even hardly pray, can you, for these
grave clothes? Oh, you would hug him, you would
embrace him, but you can't. You've got these grave clothes.
Bondage. You would kiss him with the kisses
of his mouth, but you've got this napkin around your face.
We've got these grave clothes. Isn't it then a wonderful thought
that this suggests to us that we'll be as free at the
resurrection as he was and his resurrection. Paul said that
his time of release had come. I'm now ready to be offered.
The time of my release has come. Why does he look upon death as
a time of release? Because the bondage, this bondage
of corruption, that hinders us, that blinds our eyes, that ties
our feet and our hands, that's gone. And He rises and He's free. I tell you, that day, that glorious
day, we'll see Him as we've never seen Him in this life. Because
now we're having to look through this napkin, aren't we? We will walk with him in white
as we came here because of this bondage. O God, bring the day when we
will be delivered from the bondage of corruption and to the glorious
liberty of the children of God. and an unsinning heart, we shall
see Him. All that's left in the grave
will be everything that hinders us in this life. He was buried. He was buried. And someday we
will be, won't we? It won't be long, brothers and
sisters. I tell you, it won't be long. Death is such a mystery. We're around dying people all
the time. We bury people all the time.
And we can't get a hold of this fact that we're going to die.
But pretty soon, just a few days, and we're going to let one another
down in the grave. And isn't it a good thought,
a wonderful, comforting thought to know that our Lord and our
God, our Savior, has went before us. to the grave. Lord bless this word. Let's pray.