The sermon 'The Burial of the Lord Jesus' by Jason Dohm focuses on the burial of Jesus Christ as a pivotal event in Christian worship, highlighting the cost of reconciliation between God and sinners. The account from John 19 emphasizes the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, confirming Jesus' identity as the Messiah. It underscores the significance of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, often overlooked, as essential for believers' spiritual life. The sermon describes the actions of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who risked public and religious standing to care for Jesus' body, signifying their devotion. It also highlights the importance of eyewitness testimony in Scripture, inviting believers to trust in the truths of the Gospel. By comparing the meticulous adherence to laws by the Jews with their spiritual blindness, the sermon reminds believers to focus on the heart's condition. It challenges listeners to confront the fear of man within themselves while showing grace to others, as demonstrated by Joseph and Nicodemus' eventual public declaration of faith.

My prayer for everyone here is that what you're going to see and hear preached would fall upon your soul today. That the holiness of God would descend on this place and if you've never repented, you would hear these words, that they would be like dew settling on your soul. May God be with us as we take in these words and as we hear His amazing Word preached. Listen carefully. John 19, verse 28.

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there. They filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to his mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished. And bowing His head, He gave up His Spirit.

Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the body should 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. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, And immediately blood and water came out. And He who has seen has testified.

And His testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled. Not one of his bones shall be broken. And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being 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 that he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus who at first came to Jesus by night also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

So there they laid Jesus because of the Jews preparation day for the tomb was nearby. For the tomb was nearby. The title of the sermon this morning is The Burial of the Lord Jesus. This is a text about what it costs for us to worship today. You realize without the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, there would be no acceptable worship.

There would be no worship offered that could be received by this holy God. And so, our text is about the cost. What does that cost for a God to reconcile Himself to sinners? Our text is about that. It's the death of Jesus Christ which reconciles sinners to God.

That's what we just saw at the end of our last text when Jesus uttered these last words, it is finished, the work needed to complete, bringing together the all holy God with mankind defiled in every way was complete with Jesus' death on the cross. We think a lot about the crucifixion, that's right. Think a lot about the resurrection, That's right. This is in between. We don't think as much about the burial of Jesus, but it's important for a number of reasons that I hope to lay out.

And there are a number of very interesting things in the text as well. So, as we come to the text, let's ask for the Lord's help. Lord Jesus, your death is life to us. About your death, we are spiritually dead with no hope for a change in state. A resurrection of our spirits.

Thank you so much for dying. Holy Trinity, we thank you that this was the plan from eternity past. That the Father would send a willing son, and the Spirit would come and convince sinners that there is hope in the death of this son, that we can be saved by that. Oh, make these truths precious to us. To whatever extent we've been careless about gathering on a Sunday as if there was no cost to it, I pray that This text would come back to our minds.

The lifeless body of Jesus being put in a tomb would make these days and minutes and hours precious to us, knowing all that they cost you. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Well we'll be subdividing two large chunks this week. And the first will be verses 31 through 37. I'll reread them.

Hopefully your finger is still in John 19. Verses 31 through 37. Follow along as I read. Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the bodies should 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. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him.

When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. One of the soldiers pierced his side with the spear and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified. His testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth so that you may believe. For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled.

Not one of his bones shall be broken. And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced. In these verses we have the verification of the death of Jesus, a mighty confirmation Jesus really did yield up his life, willingly die on the cross. The Jews ask Pilate for the legs of the crucified to be broken. Why did they do that?

Because they want the crucified dead and their bodies dealt with before the beginning of the Sabbath, which begins at sundown. Jews reckoned their days from sundown to sundown. So the Sabbath day is going to begin at sundown. They want the crucified to die and their bodies to be dealt with prior to the beginning of the Sabbath day. It is the preparation day, which is the Jewish term for the day before the Sabbath.

It's the day that they prepare for the Sabbath, the preparation day. As a side note, anyone who has tried to take seriously making the Lord's Day a day of rest and worship, know that you can ruin it by being thoughtless and careless the day before. Definitely learned that in the dome home to the extent that the domes, Papa Dome being first, are thoughtless and careless on Saturday. It makes it very difficult to actually rest and actually worship on Sunday. So there's preparation for this day.

There's a making ready for the Sabbath day and the Jews actually had a term that just acknowledges that the preparation day. All these things in our text are happening on this day. There are two Old Testament laws being worked around. The law for a dead body not to remain hung on a tree overnight, lest the land be defiled. You find that in Deuteronomy 21 verse 23.

Deuteronomy 21 verse 23 is talking about what to do in the cases of capital punishment. And if the body is hung on a tree, it is not to be left overnight. If you leave it overnight, the land is defiled by that. So The Jews are very conscious that the crucified not die before nightfall and then their bodies be left overnight. They're also working around the law not to work on the Sabbath.

So if they were to die overnight or the next day, there would be no working on the Sabbath and so dealing with the bodies on that day would be a violation of that law. This is actually working contrary to Roman custom where the crucified were normally left to rot. If the Roman custom for these things were to play out, the body wouldn't be removed at death. Actually, the body would remain for a long time, long enough for the body to rot, for the vultures to come down and pick the flesh off the body. Why did they do that?

Capital punishment has always been a deterrent to others. This is why Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, so that people would understand the crimes of the person being put to death as a warning to everyone else not to commit those crimes. So normally the Romans would leave the crucified there and the bodies would begin to decompose and the vultures would smell this and come down and pick the flesh off of the dead as a deterrent. People would see what happens to these criminals. But Pilate has already shown that he is willing to make accommodations for Jewish religious practices.

We've already seen this. We remember Pilate coming out of the Praetorium, coming out of his headquarters, because the Jews couldn't come in. So all throughout the trial before Pilate, Pilate was going back in to see Jesus and then he would come out and meet the Jewish leaders. That is Pilate making accommodations for Jewish religious sensibilities in order to have some level of favor with those that he is ruling over. This appears to be just like that in the sense that the normal Roman practice is being set aside to accommodate these Jewish religious sensibilities.

Now, people who are crucified do bleed, but they don't bleed to death. Their wounds are at the extremities where there's not a lot of bleeding, not enough bleeding to kill you. People who are crucified asphyxiate, they suffocate, they die from lack of oxygen, from lack of breath. Your arms are hanging out to the side. Your weight is hanging from your arms and from your feet.

And as you are overcome by the agony of hanging from your hands, you put your weight on your feet until you overcome by the agony of the weight on your feet, and back and forth, and back and forth. This process can take days until you lose the strength to even hold yourself up and you just hang by your arms. As you're hanging by your arms, your chest is compressed. You cannot get enough air to sustain life. Earlier in the process, that makes you crave air, and so you'll put weight on your legs again but after a long period of time, sometimes days, plural, sometimes days it takes days until you just, even your craving for air won't cause you to rise up in your legs anymore and you'll suffocate, you'll die from lack of oxygen.

This is crucifixion. So to speed up death, if you desire to speed up death, you break the legs. Break is not a bad translation, but it literally means to shatter into pieces. There's an instrument associated with this practice of breaking the legs of the crucified. And there is a Latin term for the large iron mallet used to shatter the legs in pieces.

So below the knee you shatter that, the crucified loses the ability to hold himself or herself up by the legs and so then then you suffocate you die from lack of oxygen Rapidly, so it speeds it up, but you can imagine how brutal this is you're having your the legs below the knee Shattered to pieces with an iron a large iron mallet The soldiers received those orders They break the legs of the two who are alive, but they find Jesus already dead so they don't break his legs. One of the soldiers, undoubtedly to verify, to confirm that Jesus is really dead, pierces his side with a spear. Just think about our memory text, John chapter 20 verse 27, Jesus says to Thomas, reach your hand here and put it in my side. This is speaking of the wound that is created when the soldier here pierces his side with his spear. The text says that immediately blood and water come out.

Now I'm going to focus almost exclusively on the physical aspects of this. Even while I say that, I am aware that in the Old Testament, it is blood that atones for sin and it is water that is used ceremonially for cleansing. So there is probably much more here than just the physical, but John the Gospel writer doesn't connect the dots, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time connecting the dots. We could certainly go to Old Testament passages where it is the blood of the sacrifice that atones, and it is water used to cleanse. In fact, when they dedicate the temple, they sprinkle with blood and water.

So there's probably something deeper here, but I'm going to spend my time on the physical aspects. What is the physical significance? First, this is a human. Jesus didn't look human, look like he had a human body. Jesus took on flesh.

This is how John the Gospel writer said it at the very beginning as he is setting his framework for the whole Gospel in John chapter 1, John chapter 1 verse 14. The Word became flesh. Not looking like he had a human body, but having a human body. He bleeds like a human body. He has liquid water inside him as a son of Adam.

So he is the son of David and he is the son of God. He is both. Secondly, this is a dead human. A live human has a circulatory system. Home schoolers should love this part.

A live human has a circulatory system. Homeschoolers should love this part. A live human has a circulatory system. Veins and arteries and under pressure. What do we call it?

Blood pressure. Your blood is not sitting in your veins. It is under pressure in your veins and it has a pump. What's the pump? Your heart is the pump of the circulatory system.

So when you puncture a live person, especially near the vital organs in the chest cavity, you're puncturing a system that is under pressure and that has a pump. That's what you see. Blood is literally pumped out of the body. What do you see when you puncture a live person? Bleeding, the pressure is released by the puncture, and Your heart is pumping blood out of the body.

That's why any sort of wound to the head or to the chest near the pump, near the heart, what you see is not blood and water. What you see is blood and an outpouring of blood because it's being actively pumped out of the body. Of course we're fearfully and wonderfully made so God made it so that blood will actually clot to stop the pump from just you bleeding out any time you get any puncture to your body. God made us so that we have a way to heal from that. When a person dies, the circulatory system is not under pressure anymore, and the pump stops pumping.

Your heart stops beating. So that when you puncture a dead body, the only thing that would cause anything that's inside to come outside is gravity. There's no pump anymore. And so when a person dies, there begins to be a separation from blood and other liquids and you only have what gravity brings out of the body. That's what we're seeing physically happening in our text.

The point is, Jesus is dead. Jesus doesn't have blood pressure. Jesus doesn't have a pump that would pump blood out of His body. It's just a release of what is there that has begun to separate out, which is what happens when a person dies. Jesus is dead.

Now our Gospel writer gives us two assurances. One, he is giving us eye witness testimony. Two, These are two more marks of the Messiah. Friends, I'm holding in my hands, you're holding on your lap probably, The Gospel of John, which is the testimony of an eyewitness. John is not passing along about the death and burial of the Lord Jesus Christ, something that he has heard from another, he is passing along things that he saw with his own eyes.

He was personally present to witness it. Look at verse 35, And he who has seen has testified and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth so that you may believe. These are words that are almost identical to what we are going to find in John chapter 21 verse 24, almost identical words. And assuming you accept that John is the disciple who Jesus loved.

He's already placed himself there at the cross. He's already placed himself there and Jesus puts his own mother into the household of the disciple who Jesus loved, who has almost universally been understood to be John the Gospel writer from the first days when this Gospel was circulated among the Lord's people. John, though he never calls himself John in his gospel, John is saying, I saw it with my own eyes. If you've ever heard of Vodi Bakum preach a sermon on why we should trust Scripture, you're going to recognize this quote. During that talk he says this about 15 times to drive it into your brain.

The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in the fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed that their writings are divine rather than human in origin." See, if you've heard him say that, that's been drilled into your brain. Historical accounts by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses events that were prophesied I'm plucking out now from his quote a lot of that we have in our text that is what the Bible is but that's specifically what John is saying his Gospel is, and especially this portion of Jesus' death and burial. He is identifying himself as one who is not passing along what he heard. He was present, he witnessed it, he knows it is true, and so he is telling you so that you can have confidence in believing him about it.

Turn to 1 John chapter 1. We've been studying the Gospel of John, but he's also a letter writer. 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. 1 John chapter 1 he starts this letter this way. Be reading 1 John chapter 1 verses 1 through 4.

Follow along. 1 John chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. Life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and which was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us.

Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. These things we write to you that your joy may be full." Over and over, in a short space, this is a short span, this is just four verses. Seen, seen, seen. Heard, heard, heard. Touched.

We, me and my fellow disciples, we saw with our eyes. Me and my fellow disciples, we handled with our hands. We touched them. Thomas put his finger on the side. Me and my fellow disciples, we heard with our ears.

We are first person eye witnesses of Jesus and the things that He said and the things that he did and his death. All the things that we are testifying to related to eternal life we are personal eye witnesses to. And I desire to bring you into our fellowship. Because of what we saw and heard and because of Jesus Christ who we handled, we have been brought into fellowship with Father and Son and we are inviting you as eye witnesses into our fellowship. That's what he is saying here at the beginning of 1 John.

He's inviting us into fellowship with himself, the other disciples, the Father, and the Son. Why? So you'll be happy for your joy. There in verse 4, And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. Believe and be happy.

Believe these eyewitnesses and be happy. Be filled with joy that you are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ because you believe. Friends, God promised and promised and promised and promised across the Old Testament to send a Savior for sinners. And He told us how to recognize the Savior when He came. He didn't leave it to chance whether we would or wouldn't recognize Him.

He embedded in the prophecies of the prophets the signs of the Messiah. Things that would be true of the Messiah. Certain things that He would say. Certain things that the Savior would do. Certain things that would be true about the circumstances surrounding his life, certain things that would be done to him.

We've been calling them marks of the Messiah. Many of these things would be totally out of the control of a normal person who picked their birthplace. One of the marks of the Messiah, or signs of the Messiah, would be that he would be born in Bethlehem. A normal person doesn't choose their birthplace. But Jesus is not a normal person.

He's the Messiah. He's the Savior that God promised to send to save sinners. What would happen to your dead body is not within the control of a normal person. You might leave instructions about your dead body, but a person who is put to death by others, the things that happen to the dead body of a normal person that is completely without their control. Many of these things down to the minutest, tiniest details, not just that the Savior would come and die a substitutionary death, but that he would die in a certain way.

Psalm 22 describes crucifixion, that not one of his bones would be broken in the process, and that he would be pierced. The minutest details so we would know that all has gone according to God's plan to keep His promises. In the minutest details being fulfilled, how He would die. That his legs would not be broken, that he would be pierced, that we would know and have confidence that God has kept his promises. God wants us to know that in Jesus Christ he has kept his promises.

All those promises made to send a savior across the Old Testament are yes and amen in Jesus. He has kept them. So there is hope for sinners. We should look at the minute details and how they fulfill prophecy in the Old Testament in a bunch of different places across a bunch of different kinds of Old Testament scriptures and rejoice. There's hope for sinners.

All those promises have been kept. There is a Savior and you can have confidence. You don't have to wonder. There were marks for the Messiah. So we have an eyewitness, someone who's not passing along hearsay, but someone who was there, saw with his own eyes, heard with his own ears, handled with his own hands.

And we have all the marks of the Messiah littered across, embedded, sprinkled across the Old Testament and all fulfilled to give us confidence that the promises made by God have been fulfilled in Jesus. Scripture was fulfilled that none of his bones was broken. This is in reference to the Passover lamb. In Exodus 12, 46, In Numbers 9, 12, it is said that the Passover lamb must have none of his bones broken. You slay the Passover lamb, He bleeds and dies, but none of his bones are to be broken.

This is John the Gospel writer saying Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He's saying exactly what John the Baptist said in John chapter 1. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is the Passover Lamb. The Old Testament law regulated that you handle the Passover Lamb in a certain way that he would bleed and die but not one of his bones would be broken.

Jesus is the fulfillment of that picture. He is the fulfillment of that type. John, the Gospel writer here, is declaring that Jesus is the Passover lamb, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Scripture was fulfilled when Jesus was pierced by the soldier's spear. This is Zechariah 12 verse 10.

Turn to Zechariah. Zechariah is at the end of the Old Testament. There's only one book after Zechariah, and it's Malachi. That's where you'll find it. What is quoted, what is fulfilled, is in chapter 12, but I want to point to something in chapter 11, just to orient you.

Most of Zechariah, I confess, I have no idea what it's talking about. But there are definite things in Zechariah. I've never worked through it systematically and studied it. I've read it many times and there are some things that are clear as a bell and there are some things that read very prophetically. And it would take a lot of careful study to get through all these chapters of Zechariah.

But there are a couple of things that are obvious here. Zechariah 11 verse 13, look at that, Zechariah 11 verse 13. And the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. This is Judas and what he was paid, the price for Jesus Christ.

Thirty pieces of silver that Judas in his change of mind, in his regret and remorse after betraying Jesus came and tried to give the money back and they wouldn't take it back so he threw it into the temple. This is the fulfillment of that. So all that to say, this is prophecy about the Messiah territory. It's all over Zechariah, but it's right here near verse 12. Of course, the chapter breaks are not inspired.

The chapter break wasn't written by Zechariah. So now, I'd like to read chapter 12 verse 10 through chapter 13 verse 1. So I'm going to encroach on chapter 13 by a verse acknowledging again that Zechariah didn't put that number there. Beginning in Zechariah 12 verse 10. And I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication.

Then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn." In that day there should be a great morning in Jerusalem, like the morning in Hadad-Rimman in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn every family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves, all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves. Chapter 13 verse 1, in that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. There is a prophecy here that one will be given who is pierced by the people.

And when the people are brought to repentance, and I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication, they will be brought to repentance and they will look on the one they have pierced and they will mourn. Families individually and even subsets of families, wives will mourn. Others will mourn. And then in verse 1, in that day a fountain shall be opened. I don't know how to piece all this together eloquently.

All I know is that his side was pierced and out comes the blood and the water and we sing a hymn. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins and it is for sin and uncleanness. Sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. John is also the writer of Revelation. He writes the Gospel of John, he writes 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and he's the author of the Revelation, these unbelievable visions of the end times.

And he begins in Revelation chapter 1 verse 7 saying this, this is John, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, Jesus is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him, even so, amen. At the beginning of Revelation John picks up on Zechariah and this language of the Messiah being one who is pierced and the world when they recognize what has really happened, mourning. The piercing of Jesus aside is a fulfillment of Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10. Now back to our text. I'm going to read again this second section, John 19, 38-42, follow along.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and bounded in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury." Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had been laid.

So there they laid Jesus because of the Jews preparation day for the tomb was nearby. In this second section we have the devotion of two unlikely men. So if you're taking notes on the handout filling in blanks. Unlikely fills in the blank. The devotion of two unlikely men.

We're meeting one man, Joseph of Arimathea, for the first and only time. He appears in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, and here in John, never before the burial, never after the burial, but in each of the four gospels at the burial. That's unusual. We see lots of things in John that aren't in the other gospels. We see lots of things that aren't in the other gospels that aren't in John.

This is one of those things which is in across all four gospels. We're meant to have it. We're meeting the other Nicodemus for the third time in the Gospel of John. Here's a compilation of what we get from Matthew, Mark, Luke on Joseph of Arimathea. In Matthew 27 verse 57, the text says that he is a rich man from Arimathea.

Matthew 27 tells us he is a rich man. Just a couple of verses later, Matthew 27 verse 60 says that Joseph laid the body in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock. So we also learn in Matthew 27 that this is Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. It's his tomb which he had hewn out of the rock. In Mark 15, verse 43, we read that he is a prominent council member who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage went into Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

So in Mark 15 43 we learn that he's a prominent council member, he's a member of the Sanhedrin, that he took courage and went to Pilate. Mark actually identifies him going to Pilate to ask for the body as an act of courage. He did it boldly. King James says boldly, went boldly. In Luke 23 we read this in verse 50 and 51, now behold there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man, he had not consented to their decision indeed." So Luke actually says he's a council member, but he didn't consent, he didn't agree with the verdict against Jesus.

He was a dissenting, a disagreeing council member to the decision of the Sanhedrin. There are 70 on the Sanhedrin and Joseph was one who was a dissenting vote. Our text in John says that Joseph was a secret disciple. The word literally means concealed or hidden. He was a concealed disciple, a hidden disciple because of the fear of the Jews.

But now we see him doing something very public to identify with Jesus. His secret discipleship is over as of our text. It is impossible to go to Pilate secretly, claim the body secretly, prepare the body and bury it secretly. He is taking very public action to identify with Jesus. He's pulling Jesus' dead body back from the brink of a dishonorable burial, a crucified victim would normally be put into a common grave for the executed.

The timeline makes it almost certain that Joseph was at the cross when Jesus died. In other words, this is all happening on the same day. The evidence looking at the gospels says that Jesus probably died around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And so you have the time between 3 o'clock in the afternoon and sundown to go to Pilate, ask for the body, claim the body, prepare the body, and get it into the tomb. To have that happen with Joseph not being at the cross to witness Jesus' death makes that almost impossible.

It is almost certain that Joseph was at the cross and saw Jesus die. Then there is Nicodemus. We are introduced to him in John chapter 3. Turn back to John chapter 3. I just want to look at the two previous occurrences where we meet Nicodemus in the Gospel of John.

John chapter 3. I'll read verses 1 through 3. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He's a Pharisee, he's a ruler. Verse 2.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We learn a lot about Nicodemus here. He was a Pharisee, he was a strict law keeper, he was a ruler of the Jews, possibly on the Sanhedrin alongside Joseph. That's not certain, but it's certainly possible.

And that, at least in John chapter 3, he has a positive view of Jesus. He is aware of the things that Jesus has been doing and what they have to mean. You come from God if you do these things. So he actually has a confession of nice things about Jesus but Jesus says unless you are born again, Jesus says you must be born again. The implication is Nicodemus, You might be a Pharisee, you might be a ruler of the Lord's people, you might have nice things to say about me, you must be born again.

None of those things are enough. It is not enough to have the right family, have advanced in religion, be a strict law keeper, say nice things about me, think nice things about me, you must be born again. You have to be born from above. I want to zero in on this. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night. In John chapter 3, this could just be a description of the circumstances. He happened to come at night. But now I go to John chapter 7. This is his second appearance.

John chapter 7. Follow along as I read John chapter 7 verses 45 through 52. The Jewish leaders had sent soldiers to get Jesus, but they came back without getting Him. That's where we pick up in verse 45. John 7, beginning in 45.

Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not brought him? The officers answered, No man ever spoke like this man. Then the Pharisees answered them, Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.

Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them, said to them, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? They answered and said to him, are you also from Galilee? Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. Nicodemus sort of offers a tentative defense in the form of a question, does our law allow us to condemn a man before it hears from him and knows what he's doing? And he gets slapped down.

But he's identified here again in his second appearance as the one who came to Jesus by night. So in three it could have just been relating the circumstances, but in seven as John the Gospel writer introduces him again, it goes right to that point again, remaking the point that he was the one who came to Jesus under cover of darkness. And now, we have his third and final appearance here in John chapter 20 and he's identified again as the one who came to Jesus by night. We've seen that the Jewish leaders put out the word. If you declare him Messiah, you'll be out of the synagogue.

We'll take strong and immediate action against you if we hear you uttering that this man is the Messiah. So in John 12, 42, this is what we read, John 12, 42, nevertheless, even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. So many in Israel had a sense He has all the marks of the Messiah. And John 12 42 says that even among the rulers many believed in him but the Pharisees were exerting such pressure. We'll put you out of the synagogue if you declare it.

They believed in him secretly. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had been like this. Now we see Nicodemus come out of the shadows. By definition they claim Jesus's body in daylight. They take him to bury him in daylight.

The text says he brings about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. These are very aromatic substances, meaning they have a strong good smell to them. And this is how you prepare bodies. Jews don't embalm. They pack in spices, in good smelling things, so that as the body decays, the stench from the decay is counteracted by the smell of the myrrh and the aloe.

These are also sticky substances. They would grind them into powder and then the powder would be used with the strips of linen. You would bind the body, you would wind the body and the sticky Aromatic good smelling substances would cause the linen to actually adhere to the body The NASB and the ESV say about 75 pounds there's a dispute about this it has to do with conversions that They're not using pounds. So this is a unit of measure that would be meaningless to us, so it's been brought forward and converted into pounds. Carson says it's actually 65.45 pounds.

So there you have it. 65.45 pounds. When you get an accurate conversion from the unit of measure they would be using into pounds. It doesn't change it much. That's a lot of myrrh and aloes.

You would use a lot to pack around the body to counteract the smell of decomposition. Look at verse 40. We're back in our, back in John 19, verse 40. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices as the custom of the Jews is to bury. So they were handling the dead body of Jesus and preparing him for burial by wrapping his body in linen with this abundance of spices.

It would probably have packed some around the body once they laid him in place. And dead bodies are unmistakable. Dead bodies are cold. Because again, your circulatory system has stopped. Warm blood is no longer circulating.

They're cold and they're stiff. It's unthinkable and impossible that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea did all that was necessary to prepare this body for burial and it wasn't a cold, stiff body. They were actually working with a dead body is evident from the text. Now look at these final three verses, 40 through 42. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices as the custom of the Jews is to bury 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden And in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid So there they laid Jesus because of the Jews preparation day for the tomb was nearby.

Joseph of Arimathea owned a tomb nearby the place of the crucifixion. This is where they put the body. Consider Isaiah 53. You can turn there if you want. For the last number of weeks, we keep seeing the prophecy about the Messiah, the suffering servant in Isaiah 53, and how it matches up item by item with the crucifixion and even now including the burial.

Listen to Isaiah 53 verses 7 through 9. He is the suffering 9, he is the suffering servant. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment.

And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people he was stricken and they made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth. Verse 9 says that he received a rich man's burial. And That's exactly what we see in our text. Joseph of Arimathea owned a new grave in which no one had ever been laid near where Jesus was crucified.

It was a rich man's grave. It was an expensive grave. As it's described, it would have been an expensive grave. It was owned by a rich man. And Jesus was buried there.

Here's what J.C. Ryle says. Here's what J.C. Ryle says. He's going to say, there's a better translation to be had of Isaiah 53-9, and he's going to give what it is, I'll read that to you.

And then what I won't read to you is he says, these are the Hebrew scholars who say so. And I don't know any of their names, but I'm sure modern Hebrew scholars recognize those Hebrew scholars. J.C. Ryle says this, The more correct translation of the Hebrew words would be, his grave was appointed to be with the wicked, but with the rich man was his tomb. The NASB is actually the only good English translation that translates it close to what J.C.

Ryle is saying. I don't want to make too big of a deal out of it. Either translation has the same fundamental point. As the New King James translates it, and most of the translations translate it, all are defiled, all are wicked, everyone goes to the grave on their own merits as a wicked person. And the suffering servant was buried in a rich man's tomb.

In the alternate translation that J.C. Ryle is saying is a better translation and that the NASB essentially adopts, his grave was appointed to be with the wicked. It was meant to be the common grave of a criminal. That's what the Jews had in mind. That's what the Romans would have done.

But with the rich at his death. But with the rich man was his tomb, because he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth. In other words, man planned one thing and God brought about another thing. The Jews would have had his death in a common grave with criminals and the Romans would have done it, but God had appointed something else because he was sinless. There was no deceit in his mouth.

He had done no violence. Two final comments. All that to say, it's another mark of the Messiah. He was buried in a rich man's tomb, as the suffering servant would be. Two final comments.

One. The resurrection is not understood. Meaning, his disciples were surprised. They shouldn't have been surprised based on what he had said. They didn't understand what he said.

It's clear that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus didn't understand what he said. If they had understood, they wouldn't have done this. If they thought there was any chance that Jesus would be raised from the dead on the third day, they wouldn't have wrapped him in linen cloths with sixty-five pounds of myrrh and aloe. Joseph and Nicodemus did this publicly with the body of Jesus when they thought he could do nothing for them. They didn't do this to the miracle worker, the one who fed the multitudes out of nothing.

They did this to a dead body, they had no expectation, could ever do anything for them, ever. Just think about that. Think about What is being done in our text? This act of beautiful disinterested, meaning they were not doing it in any way for repayment, devotion to Jesus Christ. They thought they had nothing to gain.

They did have much to lose, and many who would take it from them. If you did this, you would have to wonder, am I next? Is my body the next to be cold and stiff. Two. They're making themselves ceremonially unclean.

This is Passover week. This is another cost of what Joseph and Nicodemus are paying to show this act of devotion to the Lord Jesus. The Jews have been going out of their way to keep themselves ceremonially clean so that they can participate in the worship that God has prescribed for the week. And touching a dead body, I think of all the touching of this dead body they're doing to use the 65 pounds of myrrh and aloes and wrap his body in linen. It Just goes to the heart of these two men as they handle the body of the Lord Jesus.

Our next text, of course, is the text on the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. I have four applications. Number one, notice again how precise The attention can be to the externals while there is no actual spiritual life. Let me say it again. Notice again how precise and careful the attention can be to the external things while there is no actual spiritual life.

Break their legs, we can't have these bodies on a tree overnight, that would defile the land. You killed the Son of God! You're worried about defiling the land by the corpse being on the tree overnight when you killed your Messiah. I want to make sure nobody lifts a finger on the Sabbath. This would be like murdering someone and then on your way home being careful not to cross between the lights, not to jaywalk.

This is true of the unregenerate, but you are not done with that. You are not done with that when you are born again. That still remains in your heart. A bent towards carefulness, towards things that are external, while there's no life, There's no warmth in the heart. What the Bible would teach us is to be careful about the external things, but to be more careful about the condition of the heart.

The message isn't, well stop caring about external things, external things don't matter. You can't go anywhere to find that taught in the Bible. But that the heart always matters more is taught from Genesis to Revelation. Number two, the wages of sin is death. Somebody's going to die for your sins.

Are you listening to me? The wages of sin is death, or the Bible is not true. Somebody is going to die for your sins. I come to this text, and I see a dead Jesus Christ and I say someone has died for my sins. Someone has died for my sins.

I'm not a lot of things that I should be. And I'm a lot of things that I shouldn't be. That I trust one thing for my standing before God. It is that dead body. Who's going to die for your sins?

Will you die for your own sins? Will you die eternally, spiritually, separated from God, enduring torment for your own sins when a Savior has offered Himself freely to make good the promises of God, to make a way that sinners can be reconciled. You're a fool if you do. Number three, realize how unique Scripture is. Realize how unique the New Testament is.

Eyewitness account, but not one, multiple eyewitness accounts. Marvelously unified about what they saw and they heard and they touched. Peter says the first thing by the way, in 1 Peter, I'm an eyewitness. And fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment after fulfillment of the marks of the Messiah. What more do you need?

What more could you ask for? Some of these alternative religions, when you gaze upon what they're asked to believe and what the basis of that is you say to a fool who believes that. It's not so of the Bible, it's not so of the New Testament. You have eye witnesses, you have the specific fulfillment of prophecies that were given hundreds of years earlier and historical extra biblical even accounts that corroborate it. So here's my question.

Are you harboring something that you think is a good excuse for not believing? You harboring something like that? You think? This is a good reason not to believe. Here's what I say to you.

God disagrees. God disagrees. God thinks He's given you reliable testimony from eyewitnesses, multiple eyewitnesses that agree with one another. A book that's so strikingly consistent across writers over centuries, the thing that you're harboring that you think is a good excuse for not believing, I don't even think you'll offer that excuse when you face him. I think your mouth will be stopped.

It will be so obvious when you're before him that your excuse that you Harvard was no excuse at all. Number four. Finally, despise the fear of man in your own heart, But be very careful when you see it in others. What do I mean by that? I mean that when I see myself being governed in certain actions, things I do say, things I don't say, based on the fear of man in my own heart, I despise that and that's right.

Don't you hate it when you see that in yourself? You're being governed by the fear of man. I hate that when I see it in myself. That's right. We should root it out.

We should hope that the fear of God will expel that as it grows. But, be very careful when you see it in someone else. Why? Be careful of not confusing one still shot with the whole movie. Still shot.

A photo. We don't have those anymore. We just have pictures on our phones. It will never change. You printed it out and it just is what it is into all eternity.

It's a still shot. People aren't like that. You can put people into a sort of jail with a still shot. They were that then and they'll never be anything but that. They were governed by the fear of man at that one time and so They're in that jail in your mind.

You be careful with that. You could have put Nicodemus in that jail. You could have put Joseph of Arimathea in that jail. And at the time, they deserved it. They were governed by the fear of man.

There's no defending it. That wasn't the end of the story with them. In the end, when the disciples had fled, are nowhere to be found, the body of Jesus left to whatever, Joseph goes and asks Pilate, claims that body. Nicodemus joins him and prepares his body for burial. It wasn't the end of the movie.

It was just a still shot. People can change. God works in people's lives. So absolutely, when you see the fear of man in your own heart, despise it. Root it out.

Give it no mercy. You see it in somebody else's heart you better know that's just a snapshot. Better be careful not to put them in prison. With Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who are in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, in John. Joseph is anyway.

Nicodemus is only John. Let's pray. God these are tender things to think about. God I pray that those of us who can identify with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and not identifying with you when we should have, would also have times where we could identify with them when they came under the light of day to the Roman governor, asked for his body, went, claimed it from the cross, took it, and buried it. When they thought that nothing would be done for them.

They had so much to lose. Thank you for the death of the Lord Jesus that makes us right in your sight. All who abandon every other hope to trust in Christ. May it be so of us in Jesus' name, amen.