And we miss you and hope you can join with us soon.
Okay, Matthew 27, verses 57 to 66.
It's great that you've brought your Bibles.
! It's taken a pandemic, hasn't it, for you to bring your Bibles.
It's a good thing.
General elections.
You know, the day after a general election,
the stickers of the party that have lost the election
begin to be taken off, don't they?
The posters in people's windows begin to be taken down.
Because in a political election,
the loser just kind of slides away, don't they?
Nobody celebrates the losing party in an election.
And I think we're tempted to feel a little bit like that
when we come to this part of Matthew 27.
All the hopes that were in Jesus,
all the plans that the Jews had,
they thought that he would be the great Messiah,
but on Good Friday he's put to death.
And it feels like it's all over.
And yet we know, don't we, from the Gospel,
that actually it isn't all over.
And death, wonderfully, is not the end of the story.
But I want us to go to that evening, Good Friday evening,
and I want us to see, first of all,
unwavering devotion to Jesus.
Can you see it with me?
Verses 55 and 56.
Unwavering devotion to Jesus.
Listen to what Matthew writes.
I'm in the right passage.
Do you see what it says?
Verse 55,
There were also many women there,
looking on from a distance,
who'd followed Jesus from Galilee.
Ministerington,
among whom were Mary Magdalene,
and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph,
and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
So these followers of the crucified
are an example of devotion to Jesus.
Even when the cause of Jesus appears to be defeated.
Even when the cause of Jesus is clearly unpopular
in the eyes of the world.
Now these women,
they are comparatively minor characters,
aren't they, in the Gospels?
Minor characters.
And yet here,
in the midst of the Passion narrative,
Matthew wants you to know
that these women stuck by Jesus.
Even when the main characters,
the superstars,
the disciples,
the apostles have fallen away.
The shepherd was struck.
Do you remember that?
And the sheep have been scattered.
But not all the sheep have been scattered.
There are these remarkable sheep
that didn't run away.
And who were these women?
Well, first of all,
as we look carefully at the verse,
it wasn't that there was just a few of them.
It wasn't that there was just a handful.
Look what Matthew says.
He says,
there were many women.
But there are three in particular
that he names.
Doubtless,
they were known to Matthew
and the church of his day.
There's Mary Magdalene.
There's Mary,
the mother of James and Joseph.
And there's the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
You remember that last lady?
She is the lady that pestered Jesus
back in chapter 20
and said,
when you come into your kingdom,
let one of my sons sit on the right hand
and the other on the left hand.
And these women show their devotion to Jesus.
Look what it says about them.
It says,
in the end of verse 55,
they followed Jesus.
That is a basic statement
of what a Christian is,
of what a disciple is.
What is a Christian?
It is somebody who follows Jesus,
who follows the crucified.
The same verb is used in the 12 disciples.
Do you remember,
they left all
and they followed him.
And so there's neither male nor female
when it comes to the benefits
of redemption
or discipleship.
It says they followed him from Galilee.
That is,
they left home.
And for these past several months,
they've followed him.
It's a considerable sacrifice
for these women to make.
It's a sacrifice of time
and resources.
They followed Jesus
and they ministered to him.
Luke 8 verse 2 says
that these women actually
were quite wealthy
and they gave and supported
Jesus and the disciples financially.
They gave resources
to supply Jesus and the disciples.
And so in other ways,
they showed their following Jesus
in practical ways.
They show their love for Jesus,
don't they,
in this verse,
by looking on from afar.
It's probably as close as they can get
to the cross.
But there is this unwavering devotion.
Unwavering devotion,
which is shown by the women,
but not by Jesus' closest disciples.
Where are they?
Where are they to be found?
We don't know.
In Calvary,
in John 1925,
he tells us that
John was there near the cross.
But all the rest of them
have run.
Matthew mentions,
doesn't he,
only these women.
These women,
they stand forever
as an unwavering
and an enduring devotion
to Jesus.
When all the others
have abandoned him,
they remain standing
to the end.
When everyone else
has left the tomb
a little bit later on,
the guards are positioned,
but in verse 66,
there's this lovely vigil
of these women.
Mary Magdalene was there.
And the other Mary,
sitting opposite the tomb,
unwavering devotion.
Now what does this mean
to you and I?
You will know if you've read
kind of modern
historical and theological circles,
they make an awful lot
of these women.
And they want to assign
to these women
and say,
well,
here they are given
an apostolic authority.
Here they are,
they are appointed
preachers of the gospel.
And you'll find
that an awful lot
is made of Mary Magdalene.
It's amazing to me
the amount of biography
that people are able
to dredge up
about Mary Magdalene.
Amazing tales.
In the Bible,
we're told,
first of all,
that she drove out
seven demons.
In Mark 16,
verse 9.
And the second thing
we learn is that
she came from Magdala.
That's all we know about her.
That's it.
That hasn't stopped,
does it?
Sensational mythology
building up around her.
And so if you've seen
the Da Vinci Code,
it's coming,
isn't it,
to the West End.
You'll know that somehow
she ends up in France,
she marries Jesus
and they have children.
I've just ruined the book
and the play for you.
But that is what
the Da Vinci Code is about.
And all this kind of mythology
but what matters to us
is what does the Bible
actually say?
It's not very glamorous
to the world,
is it?
But it is glorious
in God's eyes.
And it implies
that they followed Jesus.
And that's the glorious thing
about Mary Magdalene.
She was a follower
of Jesus
to the very end.
And these women,
they work behind the scenes
of Jesus' journey
to Jerusalem.
They use their gifts
to support Jesus' ministry.
And they show their
unwavering devotion
to the Lord.
And it is glorious
because it is so ordinary.
It is so ordinary.
They follow Jesus,
they serve Jesus
to the end,
and that is what God noticed.
And that is what
set them apart
in God's sight.
And that earns them
a mention
in the passages,
in the passion narratives
of Scripture.
What is it
that pleases God?
What is it
that prompts God
to make mention
of you
before the angels?
It's not
the great exploits
that you perform.
It's not
your popularity.
It's not
the famous names
that you might be able
to drop
in your conversation.
But it's that
you know
and follow
and serve
his son.
Listen to what God
says through Jeremiah.
He says this,
Let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom.
Let not the mighty man
glory in his might.
Let not the rich man
glory in his riches.
But let him
who glories
glory in this,
that he understands
and knows
that I am the Lord.
And so when God
engages in name dropping,
he loves to mention
nobodies.
Nobodies like Mary,
the mother of James and John.
Who was she?
She was a mum
and she followed Jesus.
That's it.
And it is glorious
and it is wonderful.
And God drops her name
and that is because
in God's economy
the last are first
and the first are last.
And so think,
how many great
ancient emperors
aren't even mentioned
in the Bible?
Giants of world civilization
that aren't even
given a footnote
but devoted servants
of Jesus
are remembered by name.
Here is the glory
of the ordinary.
The ordinary Christian life.
The twelve disciples,
they've got a glamorous ministry.
They are up front.
They're up front and centre.
They are the highest profile.
They are celebrities
of the early church.
But don't forget,
it would not even
have been possible
without the faithful
and unsung
and often unnoticed
ministry of these women
travelling along with them,
supplying their needs,
financially providing for them.
But God notices.
And God notices
and he puts it forever on record
at this critical moment
in the gospel.
The record of the death
and the burial of Jesus.
And they're not only given
an honourable mention
in passing,
they are the unique
hand-picked,
God's hand-picked
star witnesses
to the resurrection
of his son.
How about that?
God honours those
who honour him.
And so we face the battle,
don't we,
Christian man or woman
or boy or girl,
that you don't value
your usefulness
as a disciple
by how prominent
you may be in the kingdom.
Because in the kingdom
we are all servants,
we use our different gifts
to follow the same king.
And not one of us,
not one of God's children
will miss his or her award.
He will make sure of it.
God takes pleasure
in his faithful
and wavering
Christian devotion
to his divine son.
And so you toil away
in the home
or the office.
You quietly encourage
the saints behind the scenes.
You persevere
in the fight
against stubborn sins.
You serve families.
You change nappies.
And all of that
is known to God.
And he sees that.
And he is pleased.
And all of it
is done with an eye
of unwavering devotion
to Jesus.
Now unwavering devotion
to Jesus,
let's see secondly
the utmost respect
for Jesus.
So back in Deuteronomy 21,
in the Jewish law
it said that anyone
who was crucified
on a cross,
who was hung up
on a tree,
needed to be taken down,
their body taken down,
by sundown.
But the Romans,
they weren't bothered
by that.
They would leave people
on the cross for days
to rot on the tree
or they would
bury them
in a mass grave
at the site
of the execution.
It's a shameful end
for the saviour.
But there's one man
in Jerusalem,
one man who's got
the utmost respect
for Jesus
and one man
who's got sufficient
influence to prevent
this indignity
from happening.
And once again,
he's a minor character,
isn't he,
in the story?
But he is God's man
of the hour
and Joseph Barimathea.
He is an example
to you and I
of honouring the saviour.
Honouring the saviour
at great personal cost
and liability.
What do we know
about Joseph Barimathea?
Well, not very much
to be honest.
Verse 57
tells us
he was a rich man
and he was
from Barimathea
and he was called Joseph
and he was a disciple
of Jesus.
And we could learn
that he was wealthy
from verse 60.
You're not able
to kind of get
a new tomb
in Jerusalem.
They don't come cheap.
Luke in his account
tells us
that he was a council member.
He was part of the
Jewish ruling
Sanhedrin.
And that he was a good
and he was a just man
and he had not consented
to their decision
and to what they had done
to Jesus.
This man is a member
of the elite.
He's a member
of the Sanhedrin
and yet he was a disciple
a follower of Jesus.
And that was a very
dangerous thing to be
and it was especially
a dangerous thing to be
if you were a member
of that Jewish ruling council.
But here is a man
that doesn't lack backbone
and doesn't lack courage.
Look at verse 58.
He goes to Pilate
and he asks
for the body of Jesus.
He's got sufficient influence
that Pilate commands
the body to be given to him.
And so here is a man
who acts in absolute defiance
of the clear consensus
of the council.
He stands alone.
and he makes a startling request
of Pilate
and it is motivated
by the utmost respect
for Jesus' dignity.
It's a costly decision.
It would have made
his former associates,
his bitterest enemies.
And it's a great reminder
to you and I
that to publicly identify
with the disgraced
and humiliated king
of the Jews
may destroy your reputation.
And in this case
it may well have been
political suicide.
To make a public stand
on matters pertaining
to the truth of God's word.
To stand for God's truth
and the cause of Christ
and his righteousness
maybe in work
or in your family
or in school.
And you know
it would be so costly.
And we are called upon
by God
to step out publicly
and to identify with Christ.
To be loyal to him.
You can imagine, can't you,
what the columnists
and the media
would call Joseph.
The comments on Twitter
and Insta.
How unpatriotic.
How undignified.
How backward.
How dishonorable.
You see,
if you're going to show
the utmost respect
for Jesus
you are going to invite
the utmost disrespect
from the world.
And that is the way
it was
and that is the way it is.
It's the way it always will be.
But isn't Jesus worth it?
Jesus,
the apparently failed
candidate for king
in the eyes of the world.
An object of utmost ridicule,
dying in disgrace,
the laughter of the world
in his years.
But for Joseph,
even in his death,
Jesus is worthy
of utmost respect.
He's honored by God.
He becomes Jesus'
personal funeral director.
And what did that involve?
It says fairly carefully,
literally,
that when Joseph
had taken the body,
it's really careful language
how he treated
and respected
the body of Jesus.
and loved it.
He wrapped it in
a clean linen cloth.
He laid the body
in his tomb
which he'd hewn
out of the rock.
And he rolled
a large stone
against the door
of the tomb
and departed.
It was unpleasant work.
It was difficult work.
It was despised work.
But in showing
the utmost respect
for his Lord,
Joseph becomes
the key man,
doesn't he?
In this final aspect
of our Lord's humiliation
is burial.
There's simply no way
is there that Peter
or James
or John
could have waltzed
into Pilate's office
and said,
could we have the body?
They could never have
saundered in there,
the disciples,
and requested
such a favor.
But it took a prominent
member of the Jewish council
who could do it
and had the guts
to do it.
And again,
all of this
is in the plan of God.
So do you remember
Isaiah 53?
In verse 10,
his grave was assigned
with the wicked.
He was crucified,
wasn't he,
with the wicked.
And yet,
he was with a rich man
in his death
because he'd done
no violence
nor was there
any deceit
in his mouth.
And so Jesus'
body by right
should have been
flung onto
the mass grave
with the other corpses
of crucified criminals,
left in a heap
with other wicked men
and yet the prophet
says God will
sovereignly intervene
by means of a rich man.
Joseph Arimathea,
and this intervention
by God
is making a theological point
that Jesus is innocent.
There's no deceit
found in his mouth.
Jesus of Nazareth
is worthy
of the utmost respect,
not the indignity
of a mass grave.
But it also helps us
with a practical point,
isn't it?
How would
Jesus,
how else could it
be verified
that Jesus of Nazareth
rose bodily
from the dead
if he'd not been buried
in a specific
identifiable
new tomb?
Owned by
a specific
well-known
figure in the community
with several witnesses.
And so it is,
we are ready
for the resurrection.
Joseph's tomb
becomes the staging
post
for the most
miraculous miracle
in all of history.
Christ bodily
raising from the dead.
And Joseph
gives Jesus
his very own tomb
for a very
dignified burial.
Jesus didn't need it
for long.
It was only on loan.
And Jesus'
grieve is temporary
and so is ours
if we are in Christ.
As I want you to think
as we finish
that Jesus
lay in
Joseph's tomb.
Jesus lay
in Joseph's place.
Jesus lay
in a grieve
of Joseph's
own making.
A grave
that Joseph
had hewn
out of the stone.
Joseph
had prepared
his own grave.
It had his own
name on it.
He was going
there someday
but Jesus
lay in his
grave
instead.
dead.
And so even
in this final
step of
humiliation
of our Lord
as our
substitute
just as he
was in his
sufferings
and in his
death
in his burial
!
Jesus is
taking your
place.
It's not
that the
mortal remains
of Joseph
and Arimathea
are still
kind of
lying somewhere
out there
in Palestine
but in a
metaphorical
sense
you have
prepared a
grave for
yourself.
Your sins
have hewn it
out
and written
the epitaph
but if
Jesus has
laid in
your grave
if Jesus
has tasted
death's
sting
on your
behalf
in your
place
you don't
need to be
afraid of
dying anymore.
And that
is such good
news isn't it
because for the
last three to
four months
what have we
seen in our
culture?
We've seen a
culture terrified
of dying.
And yet
because of
Christ's
sufferings
and death
and his
burial
you who are
in Christ
we must not
be terrified
of dying.
He's
tasted
death's
sting.
The German
reformer
Usainus
writes this
Jesus
would be
buried
so that
we might
not be
terrified
in view
of the
grave
but that
we might
know that
he has
sanctified
our graves
by his
own burial
so that
they are no
longer graves
to us
but bed
chambers
and resting
places
in which
we may
peacefully
and quietly
repose
until we
are again
raised to
life.
and so
there's
unwavering
devotion
to
Jesus
and
there's
utmost
respect
for
Jesus
and I
noticed
as I was
preparing
do you
notice the
cast
around the
cross
you've
got a
cohort
of
Roman
soldiers
you've
got a
group
of
relatively
unknown
Galilean
women
and you've
got a
wealthy
member
of the
Jewish
aristocracy
and I
think it's
hard to
think of
a more
diverse
cross
section
of
society
at that
time
and all
of them
together
were united
as followers
of the
crucified
and even
though
his cause
seemed
finished
and defeated
and it
seemed
final
as we'll
see he is
not in the
grave anymore
and he
is risen
and so
Christ
says
to all
and to
every
one of
us
take
up
your
cross
and
follow
me
and we
may not
consider
the cost
of doing
that
too high
but may
we be
willing to
bear his
shame
and to
be followers
of the
crucified
let's pray
together