Jesus' burial

[0:00] A very warm welcome to the evening service for Calvary Evangelical Church Brighton and a special welcome to you if you are visiting for the first time.

[0:10] My name is Aaron and I'm a member at Calvary and with God's help I'll be leading us through our service tonight. Tonight's teaching is from Matthew 27 and the burial of Jesus.

[0:23] We'll also be praying to God through our Saviour Jesus Christ and we'll be singing songs of praise to him. Let's start by singing Crown Him with many crowns.

[0:40] Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne.

[0:56] While hymns eternal anthem droughts all music at its home. Awake my soul and sing of Him who died to be your Saviour and your majestine King through all eternity.

[1:21] Crown Him, the Son of God, before the worlds began. Let all who tread where he has trod, crown Him the Son of Man.

[1:39] Who every Greek has known by which we are oppressed. And takes and bears them for his own that all in Him may rest.

[1:57] Crown Him, the Lord of life, triumphant from the grave. Who rose victorious from the strife for those He claimed to save.

[2:14] His glory is now we sing. Who died like rose on high. Who died eternal life to bring.

[2:27] And lives and death may die. Crown Him, the Lord of life, behold His hands and side.

[2:40] Those worlds yet visible above, in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky, can fully bear that sight.

[2:58] But down the fence is burning high, that mystery's so bright. Crown Him, the Lord of peace, let grace fill every land.

[3:14] From whole to whole, let whole fair seas, His kingdom is at hand. Forever He shall reign, and earthly princess fall.

[3:32] Before His throne, the Lamb one slain, the Sovereign Lord of all. Crown Him, the Lord of years, the potent date of time.

[3:49] Creator of the rolling spheres, in majesty sublime. All hail, redeemer, hail.

[4:03] For you have died for me. Your praise shall never, never fade. Through all eternity.

[4:20] Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we give thanks to you for another day. We thank you for your living word.

[4:33] We thank you for the gift of music with which we give praise to you. We thank you for the many blessings you've given us this last week, including our measure of health, Lord.

[4:47] We thank you for the many blessings that we recognize and many that we take for granted. And we take this opportunity, Lord, to say sorry for the many things that we have done in the mind and in the flesh that may displease you, Lord.

[5:06] And we pray that you would forgive our sins as we approach you tonight. We ask you would bless this time as we gather to hear your word, albeit digitally.

[5:20] And we ask that you would speak to all listening. That we might have ears to hear what you are saying to us, mighty God.

[5:31] We pray for those who might be finding things difficult lately, Lord. And we pray sincerely that you will bring peace and rest to the weary.

[5:43] We ask for today, Lord, that there will be much joy as we worship you. And we ask in the name of our King and our Saviour, Lord Jesus Christ.

[5:55] Amen. Let's sing another song. We'll sing There is a Redeemer by Keith Green. This is one of my personal favorites.

[6:06] And the opening verse is There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God's own son. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One. Let's sing.

[6:17] Let's sing. There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God's own son.

[6:37] Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son.

[7:02] And leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done.

[7:15] Jesus, my Redeemer, Jesus, my Redeemer, name above all names.

[7:27] Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, O forseeing and slain.

[7:40] Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son.

[7:52] And leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done.

[8:05] When I stand in glory, I will see His face.

[8:17] And then I'll serve my King forever in that holy place.

[8:28] Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son.

[8:41] And leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done.

[8:53] Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son.

[9:06] And leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done.

[9:20] Amen. Let's read God's word together. Tonight's reading is from the book of Matthew, chapter 27.

[9:31] And we'll be reading from verses 57 to 61. As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.

[9:46] Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.

[10:05] He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb, and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

[10:17] Let's sing another song together. This one is How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds. How Sweet the Name of Jesus The Name of Jesus Sounds Inner Believers' Hear It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, and drives away our fear.

[11:17] It makes the wounded spirit whole, and calms each heart oppressed.

[11:34] Its manner to the hungry soul, and to the weary rest, and to the weary rest.

[11:56] Dear name the rock on which I build, my shield and hiding place.

[12:11] My never failing treasury filled with boundless stores of grace.

[12:26] By you my prayers acceptance gained, although with sin defiled.

[12:42] Satan accuses me in vain, since I am God's own child.

[13:03] Jesus my shepherd, brother, friend, my prophet, priest and king.

[13:19] My Lord, my life, my way, my end, accept the praise I bring.

[13:33] Weak is the effort of my heart and cold my warmest thought.

[13:49] But when I see you as you are, I'll praise you as I ought.

[14:03] I'll praise you as I ought. Till then I would your love proclaim with every fleeting breath.

[14:27] And may the music of your name refresh my soul in death.

[14:41] Refresh my soul in death. Let's read that last verse of that hymn.

[15:00] Till then I would your love proclaim with every fleeting breath. And may the music of your name refresh my soul in death.

[15:11] That brings us to the teaching part of our evening. And as we come to that, let's just pray for God's help. Dear Heavenly Father, we pray for the preaching of your word tonight.

[15:26] That it may go out with power. That any human things of my ability will dissipate. And leave only the glory of your magnificent word.

[15:37] In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. We continue now our journey through the Gospel of Matthew. And this week we're looking at verses 57 to 61.

[15:53] Let's remind ourselves where we are in the text. Last week we heard from our brother Mark of the last hours and death of Jesus as he hung on the cross.

[16:05] We learn that this was no ordinary death. Here's some points that were established during his talk.

[16:19] Jesus gave up his life for us. Taking the full punishment for the sins of mankind. As it's written, he was pierced for our transgressions.

[16:31] Secondly, Jesus' death gives us access to the presence of God. He was the final and proper offering for sin.

[16:46] And Jesus himself is the great high priest. Who connects God with anyone willing to come to him. Thirdly, Jesus' death brings new life for people.

[17:02] We heard of God's superior power over his creation. Which stretches far beyond any scientific understanding we have of the natural world. And that Christ's death brings with it a very real, resurrected, eternal life.

[17:20] For those who believe in him. And that brings us to our text tonight. As we look at the burial of Jesus from Matthew 27.

[17:37] The funeral or burial of someone is often a sensitive subject. And rightly so. A funeral marks the last stage of a person's time here with us.

[17:55] It's a ceremony. And one that looks vastly different depending on where you go in the world. Some cultures do this with solemn mourning.

[18:07] Other cultures do this with vast, loud and colourful celebrations. But regardless of culture or ceremony.

[18:21] One common motive remains. That it's a time given to say farewell. And the process is one that often leaves us feeling like death is just random.

[18:41] Because we don't get to choose when it happens. It seems to close the door on people's lives. And there's nothing we can do about it. It also seems so without purpose.

[18:58] Because how can there be a reason for all the pain that follows when a loved one dies? And it's a process that forces us to say a final goodbye.

[19:14] Or so it seems. And it leaves a huge gap in our lives. Well tonight we're going to be looking at God's answer to these things that we experience.

[19:27] We'll look at it in the most remarkable burial in the history of mankind. Which is that of Jesus Christ. It's a burial that speaks of hope to all those who follow him.

[19:46] Here's some points that we're going to be drawing out from today's text with God's help. We'll establish that Jesus' burial was not random. We'll also establish that it was not without purpose.

[20:07] And the third point will be that it's not the final goodbye. Here's how we're going to achieve that.

[20:21] We're going to walk through the text focusing on three parts. The first part will be who was this Joseph of Arimathea.

[20:33] The second part will be the deposition of the body of Jesus. The process of removing the body from the cross.

[20:45] We'll also look at the preparation of the body for the tomb. And thirdly we'll look at the placing of the body in the tomb.

[21:00] Let's walk through the text. This account of Jesus being taken down from the cross and buried is featured across all four Gospels.

[21:13] Mark, Matthew, Luke and John all give account of this event. Each account serves to build a picture of what was happening at that time and who was present.

[21:25] So our foundation for our talk tonight is going to be from Matthew 27. But we'll be drawing from all four Gospels to piece together the bigger picture of what's occurring.

[21:38] The verses begin by placing us in a time frame. The text says the evening is approaching.

[21:52] This would be late afternoon before sunset. And it was a Friday, the day before the Sabbath. All four Gospels comment in some way that this was a day of preparation.

[22:11] So people would have been preparing for the following day, which is to be both the beginning of the festival of unleavened bread and the Sabbath day.

[22:23] So there have been lots of preparation of food and various things so that people weren't working on the Sabbath. John's Gospel points out that because these two events coincided, that next day would be called a special Sabbath, or in some translations it's said to be a high day, and the word high meaning large or great.

[22:52] It certainly was a day for preparation, particularly for this man named Joseph. Who suddenly turns up almost out of nowhere.

[23:07] Little is known about the history of Joseph, or the city of Arimathea where he was from. Joseph's first appearance in the Bible is here, in our text, and it's also his last appearance.

[23:23] Despite this, however, I think we can draw a fairly large picture, and good picture of who he was as a person, when we draw on all four Gospels.

[23:38] Joseph's first appearance in the Bible is here, So who was Joseph of Arimathea? Matthew tells us he was a rich man, and he was a disciple of Jesus.

[23:56] Mark's account says that he was a prominent member of the council, meaning he was a prominent Jewish leader, one of 71 men. These 71 men would have been the same men that pushed for the execution of Jesus.

[24:15] These are the members of the Sanhedrin. Mark's account also says that he was, that Joseph was waiting for the kingdom of God, in a way like the other Jewish leaders may have been.

[24:32] He would have been awaiting the promised Messiah king. Only the difference here is that Joseph recognized who Jesus was. Luke adds to these descriptions of Joseph, in saying that he was a good and upright man, that he did not consent with the other Jewish leaders to have Jesus executed.

[25:04] He may have been the one lone voice that was saying, no, we shouldn't be executing this man. John fills in an extra gap and tells us that Joseph was a secret disciple, because he feared the other Jewish leaders.

[25:25] Let's put ourselves in the shoes of Joseph to understand that very quickly. This rich man with influence and power had followed Jesus' teachings, and recognized Jesus as the Messiah, but had long kept it a secret.

[25:42] For fear of the other Jewish leaders. Until now. Just a few hours after the death of Jesus, this is verse 58.

[25:54] Joseph goes to Pilate, the governor responsible for the execution of Jesus, and asks for Jesus' body. Now it's important that we recognize the significance of this.

[26:11] This was Joseph doing away with that secret. This was his public statement of his love for Jesus.

[26:23] Pilate agreed to this. For why else would you request the body of a man executed, other than to give them a proper burial?

[26:37] This would have been at the risk of Joseph's own reputation, and probably his own life. Pilate agreed to this.

[26:50] But as Mark's gospel tells us, it was not before he confirmed with the centurion that Jesus was definitely dead.

[27:02] Pilate seemed somewhat confused that it had happened so quickly. Deposition of Jesus' body. When we read this part of the text, it's very easy to think of the process in a very sanitized way.

[27:24] As we're reading through, the sentence passes almost in the blink of an eye. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. As Mark was saying last week, in the West, most people see very little of the physical reality of death.

[27:46] For the most part, everything is just handled by professionals experienced in the care of the deceased. But not so with Joseph, as he tends to the body of his saviour.

[28:02] This probably would have been watched at a distance by soldiers while Joseph did the work. But Joseph was not alone.

[28:14] According to the book of John, he had been joined by Nicodemus. Nicodemus was another Jewish scholar and leader who once came to Jesus by night.

[28:26] If we were to read on to the end of the chapter, we'd see that Jesus' body was definitely monitored by the other Jewish leaders.

[28:40] So they were well aware of the location of Jesus' body. This was a very public event. The process of bringing Jesus' body down from the cross, the deposition, you can guarantee wouldn't have been as romanticised as some of the works of art depict the scene.

[29:06] They would have likely used a ladder, sure, but Jesus' body would have probably been covered in blood and hard to grasp.

[29:18] They would have had to, in some way, navigate Jesus' hands and feet away from the nails that were driven through them and the crown of thorns that was pushed on his head.

[29:34] I read an article that suggested the weight of Jesus' body would have stretched out the holes through his wrists and feet making them fairly easy to remove from the nails.

[29:50] I would dispute this. There's this practice called body suspension in which the practitioner hangs him or herself on a series of hooks put through the skin on their back.

[30:06] That's just the skin. The body is made extremely tough. The crucifixion would have included nails driven through the thickest part of the hand or the wrist.

[30:22] It's most likely that the removal of the hand from the nail or the feet was not an easy task. But it's a task that's achieved and they bring the body down from the cross.

[30:38] once Jesus' body was down they would have had to wash it before proceeding onto the next stage.

[30:50] So they wash the body and then they begin to wrap the body in linen as it says in the text. John tells us that Nicodemus bought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about 75 pounds which according to Bible Hub works out to be about 34 kilograms.

[31:15] This tells us something very important about Nicodemus. Firstly, Nicodemus must have also been a man of wealth and means.

[31:28] Secondly, Nicodemus much like Joseph was also no longer worried about the public view of his support and belief of Jesus as Messiah.

[31:43] Transporting 34 kilograms of aloe and myrrh would not have been an easy task.

[31:55] And so we read on verse 60 follows on as the third part to the burial of Jesus. Joseph and Nicodemus took the body and they placed it in a tomb.

[32:13] This tomb would have been a small cavern cut into the face of a rock. There have been many different types of tomb found from this era and there are variations in the internal layout.

[32:33] But it seems likely as we read on through the Gospels from the description of the empty tomb that Jesus' body would have been laid fairly openly on what would look like a table, a concrete table, a stone table, or a recessed area.

[32:55] Matthew tells us that the tomb belonged to Joseph and that the tomb was new and therefore had never been used. the common practice for burial in the Jewish community would be that the bodies were placed in this tomb as a temporary burial place.

[33:17] And then once the body was fully decomposed, they would gather up the bones and put them in a box or a chamber called an ossuary. And then the tomb could be used again and again.

[33:35] This tomb that they laid Jesus in was situated in a garden which would have been owned exclusively by Joseph.

[33:49] And as Joseph and Nicodemus together roll the stone in front of the tomb's entrance to seal it, we can remember Isaiah 53, 9, which says he was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death.

[34:13] This 700 year old prophecy is now fulfilled, which brings us to our first point.

[34:27] Jesus' burial and death death. It's not random. God's plan was always for Jesus to be assigned a grave with the two criminals that were executed either side of him as we see in verse 38.

[34:48] death. It was also God's plan that Jesus be with the rich in his death, which is here happened by way of Joseph and Nicodemus.

[35:01] This was not a funeral that was organised at the last minute. The book of John hinted that the location of the tomb was chosen because it was nearby and the Sabbath was quickly approaching.

[35:18] But this doesn't mean that the events were haphazard. These men may have had to move fairly quickly, but this was God's timing.

[35:32] And this timing was thousands of years in the making. And everything went according to plan. This brings us to our second point.

[35:49] This was not without purpose. If God had a plan, then it stands very much to reason that he had a purpose.

[36:03] And this text, these texts are laden with strategy. the tomb was brand new. This tomb was only for Jesus.

[36:19] Making certain there could be no confusion as to who was inside. There would be no evidence of any decaying body with which someone could use to claim that Jesus did not rise from the dead.

[36:36] Outside the tomb, in verse 61, sat Mary Magdalene and another Mary, watching the unfolding of the events as Jesus was put inside the tomb.

[36:51] The book of Luke tells us that they followed Joseph to the tomb and that they were planning to prepare spices and perfumes for Jesus' body.

[37:05] They would be mentally marking where Jesus was laying so that there could not be any confusion as to which tomb they were to return to after the Sabbath had taken place.

[37:20] And no one can argue as to the whereabouts of Jesus' body at this point. Everything was carefully arranged to point to one undeniable and tremendous event.

[37:39] This was Jesus rising from the tomb. And that brings us to our third point. This was not a final goodbye.

[37:56] I think one of the most striking features of this text is not the Jewish leader who suddenly went public with his faith in Jesus.

[38:10] Nor is it the deposition of Jesus' body in all its grim reality. I believe that the most striking feature of this text is the sudden apparent absence of Jesus.

[38:36] There's a good reason why in Luke 24 the disciples were downcast. Why they doubted the words of Jesus.

[38:49] Why John says that Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. The reason is the grief felt at the apparent permanent loss of the one that they so loved their king.

[39:11] Their feelings were legitimate but the truth of the situation was somewhat different. Though Jesus' body lay in the tomb!

[39:27] Jesus was not absent. There's all kinds of ideas as to the activities of Jesus between his death and his resurrection.

[39:42] For me the answer is clear. You see as Jesus went to the cross and was hung on the cross one of the criminals beside him recognised Jesus as king and asked that he be remembered by Jesus.

[40:06] Jesus' response was truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise. In actual fact this would be simply in a matter of hours as the Jewish day run from sunset to sunset.

[40:30] The word used for paradise here is from an ancient Persian word meaning garden. Jesus uses the same word in the book of Revelation chapter 2 verse 7 to describe the area in which dwells the presence of God.

[40:50] This verse also tells us that in this paradise was the tree of life. This is the same tree that we see in the garden of Eden in Genesis.

[41:04] I believe there can be no doubt that though Jesus died he certainly wasn't absent. the king was in his kingdom in all his kingly authority exercising his omnipresence and carefully conducting the events of his own burial with the Holy Spirit and waiting until the time was right and perfect for him to take up his body once again as per John 10 18 which says this is Jesus speaking I lay down my life in order to take it up again no one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again this charge I have received from my father the final goodbye was muted and the sting was taken out of death here's a conclusion it's written the most famous verse in the

[42:26] Bible John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life we look upon these events and we see the reality of a burial we see the reality of grief but we also see the reality of the king of all creation and his victory over the grave death cannot close the door on the king death is subservient to Jesus and death cannot close the door on any person that chooses to follow Jesus through it for the redeemed the grave is the grave is merely a doorway to an eternal paradise with

[43:37] Jesus Amen ending The End The End

[44:40] The End The End The End

[45:42] The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End Thank you.