They went out, made the grave secure, and along with a guard, set a seal on the stone. Frankly, they'd have been better off to leave the thing open, then there could have been all kinds of explanations. But what they did was. They made it impossible for the body to be stolen. And consequently, when the resurrection occurred, the only explanation was a resurrection.
Yeah. Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's understandable that Jesus' unjust trial and torture would upset you, and that His paying the price of our guilt on the cross would humble you to the core. But what about His burial?
Anything there that should stir your feelings?
Well, today on Grace to You, John MacArthur will show you the supernatural nature of Christ's burial. It's part of a study designed to deepen your understanding of the most important event in history. The title of this study is The Divine Drama of Redemption. And now with the lesson, here's John.
Well, let's open the Word of God then to the 15th chapter of the wonderful Gospel of Mark. We all understand the importance of the cross. The priority of the cross, the wonder of the cross, the miraculous nature of the death of our Lord. And we also are Very well aware of the resurrection, even though we haven't arrived yet at it in Mark's gospel. We understand its massive and eternal implications.
Those are two. Very, very significant. Marx In the life and ministry of Christ. There is one, however, in the middle of them, between the cross and the resurrection that is equally monumental. although it is usually overlooked.
It is the burial of Jesus. Maybe you've never even thought about that. It's a good idea. had human elements. But was no less supernatural than what was happening at the cross or.
The resurrection. There are two ways that God operates supernaturally in the world. Number one is by miracles. A miracle is a means by which God accomplishes His purpose. And does so.
by interrupting or suspending or overruling the natural order of things. That's a miracle. It is an invasion. It is an interruption. It is an overturning of what is normal and what is natural.
There is another way in which God accomplishes his will. Non-miraculous, but nonetheless supernatural. In fact, if you will, even more evidently supernatural. Even more amazing than a miracle. This we call providence.
Providence. Providence is an old theological word that is used to explain the fact. That God accomplishes exactly what He plans, purposes. Promises, prophesies. And he does it.
without interrupting, without suspending. without overturning the natural course of things. He does it. By pulling together and orchestrating all the free behaviors Of all people, All contingencies all events, all actions, and all reactions. The constant astounding wisdom and power of God in Providence operates every millisecond and is seen dramatically in the amazing outcomes that always fit perfectly God's purpose and God's promise.
And that's what you're going to see in the burial of Christ. There are some people doing things. around the burial of Christ. There are the neutral soldiers. There are the loving saints.
and the hateful religious leaders. They're all motivated by their own responsibilities. their own responses. They do what they choose to do because it's in their mind and by their will that they do it. But when it's all said and done It accomplishes precisely The will.
Of God. This is a great illustration of how Providence works all the time. Let's start then with the neutral soldiers. The indifferent soldiers and see how divine providence works with them. And before we get to the passage in Mark, I want you to go to the nineteenth chapter of John's Gospel because we need to add a word from John and then a word from uh Matthew and throw in a few from Luke along the way.
The story of the burial has to begin in the nineteenth chapter of John. In verse 30, we find this statement. He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. At about 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon, In April of AD 30, Jesus gave up his life. He gave up.
His spirit. In John 10, 17 and 18, he said, No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. When Jesus gave up his life, The two thieves, one on each side, were still alive. Verse 32 of John 19, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and the other who was crucified with him.
Why did they break their legs? Because they were still alive and they wanted to hasten their death. But when it came to Jesus, they didn't break his legs because he was already dead. It could have been expected that all three of them may have survived into the second day and the third day. But there was a problem.
The Jews wanted Jesus dead. Look at verse thirty one. It is Friday, the day of preparation for the Sabbath, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath. And particularly on that Sabbath which was a high day. They asked Pilate That their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
What is prompting this is Deuteronomy 21, 22 and 23. It's a text in the Old Testament in which God instructs Israel that if someone's life is taken, and there were, you understand, don't you, capital crimes and death penalties to be executed in the theocratic kingdom, and when that occurred, a life was taken, and a body was then suspended for people to see through the day of the execution as a warning of the dangers of violating the law of God.
However, that text says that the bodies must be removed before sundown. On any day of an execution. Particularly on the day before a Sabbath, they were being fastidious about this.
So the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, want the three dead bodies down before the Passover Sabbath. This isn't just any Sabbath, this is the Passover Sabbath. And they don't want those bodies to defile their Sabbath. They're very selective about their defilements, aren't they? They're killing the Son of God.
And they've also managed to Enter Pilate's Praetorium. They've gone to Pilate. And asked him to do this. And you remember earlier they wouldn't go in. They stayed outside so they wouldn't defile themselves at the trial of Jesus.
Now they've gone in. They want those bodies down. They are pernicious hypocrites. Murdering the Son of God. But then removing the bodies so as to scrupulously avoid any traditional ceremonial defilement.
Now if somebody didn't die, how would you hasten their death? Uh they had a means. That means was called cruce fragium. This is how it worked. A person hanging on a cross, one foot across the other.
One nail through. would survive as long as that person could push up. With his legs, so that he could receive oxygen into his lungs, or pull up with the wounds on his hands so that he could breathe. When the person could no longer do that, the person would be asphyxiated.
So the means of very rapid death was to take a massive iron mallet. and crush the femurs of both legs. The body would then hang limp and be unable to breathe. And the victim would die. Combination of partly shock and partly blood loss, but mostly asphyxiation, a gruesome.
horrible death. The Jewish leaders Say we want that done. And we want that done to all three of them. Verse 32 then says, The soldiers came. and broke the legs of the first man.
End of the other. who was crucified with him, two thieves. But coming to Jesus When they saw that he was already dead, They didn't break his legs. Why was he dead? He was dead because he gave up his own life.
He willed himself dead. How did it actually happen? What was the pathology of his death? Verse 34 might give us a hint. One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear.
This is just to be absolutely certain. and immediately blood and water came out. Under certain stressful circumstances, the heart can actually burst. causing blood to spill into the pericardium mixed with lymphatic fluid. Apparently that's what happened.
Jesus literally willed his own heart. To burst. Psalm 69, 20 says, Reproach has broken my heart. ruptured my heart.
So what's the importance of this? The importance of it is given to us by John in verses 35 to 37. And he who has seen has testified. This is John referring to himself, and his testimony is true. He was there, right?
I am telling you the truth. I saw with my own eyes he was dead. They did not break his legs, and they did pierce his side. That is eyewitness testimony, and that is important. Verse 36 and 37: for these things came to pass to fulfill the scripture.
The first scripture was Psalm 34, 20, which said, Not a bone of him shall be broken. Wow. Why? Because Exodus 12, 46 and Numbers 9, 12. Say the Passover lamb cannot have a broken limb.
You couldn't offer to God a lamb with a broken limb. And nor would Jesus, the true Passover Lamb, have a broken bone. This happened. to fulfill that Prophecy. And verse 37, again, another scripture says, and this is Zachariah 12:10, they looked on him whom they pierced.
Which is to say that the Messiah would also be pierced. The actions of the soldiers, the witless, indifferent, neutral soldiers on the body of Christ were actions that they did by virtue of their own will and their own motives and the impulses of their own minds, and yet were under divine control to authenticate scripture related to the Messiah to the very letter. and establish the veracity of Scripture. The deity of Christ The reality of his messiahship.
Now let's go back to Mark. And we go from the indifferent soldiers to the loving saints. This is a magnificent portion of Scripture. for its pathos and compassion. Verse 42, when evening had already come, Jesus had just died.
About three in the afternoon, back in verse thirty-nine, he breathed his last. Verse 42 says, the evening has come. It's late in the afternoon. It's the preparation day. It's still Friday.
The day before the Sabbath. Sabbath doesn't start until the sun goes down around six or so. The three are dead. Thieves have had their femurs smashed. And Jesus was already dead and blood and water s seeping, perhaps his side.
Verse 43 says, A man came named Joseph of Arimathea. Here's the interesting thing about him, he's a prominent member of the council. Whoa. He is a prominent member of the council. He's a member of the Sanhedrin.
It's so notable. That Matthew mentions him, and Luke mentions him, and John mentions him as well as Mark. And this is his only appearance anywhere in Scripture. The story is brief, but the story is full and it's wonderful. It's a story of salvation.
An unexpected testimony of faith in Christ. by a member of the Sanhedrin. Set against the rejection of that Supreme Court of Israel and the whole nation. He was a good and righteous man. Same word used in referring to Jesus as a righteous man.
Jesus was righteous by his own righteousness. Joseph was righteous because the righteousness of God had been credited to him. One was righteous by nature. The other was righteous by grace. He was a true believer.
He had come to believe that Jesus was the one promised. In fact, I love this. In verse 43, it says, He was waiting for the kingdom of God. He was waiting for the kingdom of God. That's a true Jew.
who understood the Old Testament promise of salvation and a kingdom in the correct way, and was waiting for the kingdom to come, and had come to the conviction that the kingdom had come because the king had arrived. and the king was no other than Jesus. But he understands the price if he... Acknowledges this publicly, so at first he's keeping it quiet.
However, in Luke 23, 51, it says he had not consented to their plan of action. He has to be heartbroken. Because he thought Jesus would be the one to usher in all the Old Testament promises. But he loves Jesus. And out of the love of his heart, sympathy, and compassion, He's willing to acknowledge That he has been a disciple of Jesus, they knew.
And he knew they would know. He gathered up courage. Courage to be exposed to the Sanhedrin, and also courage to be exposed to Pilate, who was going to execute this man. And he went in before Pilate. By the way, that verb to gather up courage means exactly that: to dare.
And he asked for the body of Jesus. Verse forty-four Pilate wondered if he was dead by this time. I mean he he assumes that He's not going to be dead. And he summoned the centurion. and questioned him as to whether he was already Dead.
And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. What is Joseph going to do? What did he do? Did he go to the crucifixion site? Surely he did.
And did they lay the cross on the ground? And was it Joseph who pulled his feet through the nail and pulled his wrists through the nails? Was it Joseph who pulled the crown of thorns off his Head. Why is he doing this? Why is he exposing himself for a dead person?
who can't fulfill everything he hoped. What motivated him?
Well, you might say, humanly speaking, that he was motivated by his love for Jesus. Certainly, he was motivated. to give honor to Jesus.
So, from a human perspective, there were things working on him that made him do this. But But that's not really what's going on here. He is in his own freedom and his own independent motive and action doing what he. wants to do But in the end, he's Fulfilling God's Well Isaiah 53, 9 says, That the one who was bruised for our iniquities. The one who was led as a sheep to the slaughter, the Lord Jesus Christ, that great 53rd chapter of Isaiah.
It says his grave was planned to be with the wicked. That's what Isaiah prophesied. His grave was planned to be with the wicked. He would be thrown. Like the rest of the refuse, like the rest of the criminals on the fires in the dump.
But Isaiah 53, 9 says, his grave turned out to be. with the rich. How could I say I know that? That it would be planned to be with the wicked, and he would die. Rather and be buried.
with the rich. What's he doing? He's being moved along by divine power. He's moving at divine speed. It's not just about an honorable burial for Christ.
It's about getting him Off the cross, in the grave, on Friday, so that he's there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, because he promised that he would be three days in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12, verse 40, Son of Man will be three days, three nights. And a day and a night is simply a Jewish way to refer to. any part of a 24-hour period. He will be there for three days.
days. That meant that Jesus had to be buried before the Sabbath began. At sundown. And after taking him down, cleaning off the blood and the sweat and the dirt and He would have wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb. which had been hewn out.
In the rock. It must have been an absolutely wrenching experience for him. We keep reading about him by himself here, but. There's another unlikely lover of Jesus who shows up. Go back to John 19.
Verse 38: After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate granted permission, so he came and took away his body. That's true. He took it down, he took it away. But.
Verse 39, Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you remember him? Yeah, the one who came to Jesus. By night, and had the discussion about Being born again. Nicodemus.
who had first come to him by night, also came. Bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. That volume would be fit for a king.
Well, we've had a thief saved. We've had a Some Roman soldiers saved and And we've had a Sanhedrin member, and now we've got, according to John 3, the teacher in Israel. Nicodemus, another follower of Christ, who's somewhere between John 3 and John 19. was born again. And they laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock.
And Matthew 27:60 says it was Joseph's own tomb. And Matthew says. In that same passage, verse 57, that he was a rich man. He was a rich man. I can't even comprehend what they were thinking.
the sadness of those moments, And the price they would pay for or public disclosure of their love for Christ. After they had placed him there, at the end of verse 46, he rolled a stone against the entrance. of the tomb. Verse 47 ends this passage with a comment that's so important. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, who are mentioned, by the way, back in verse 40 as being there at the cross.
Remember, they started out near the cross and eventually they move far away, looking on from a distance. Verse 40 says, Well, they're still there when Joseph shows up to take the body. They're still there, mourning in sadness, paralyzed by the disappointment. They're still there. And when they see Joseph, this man they don't know, take the body, they don't know what's going on.
They followed, verse 47, they were looking on to see where he was laid. They followed. Joseph As he took the body to the nearby grave very near Golgotha. Luke, by the way, adds that Joanna was there and others were there, and we have the name of Salome back in verse 40. This is the group of women, you remember, I told you who followed him from Galilee and had been.
Loving disciples of Jesus. There's one other Group. And it just A brief comment will suffice. Matthew 27. The uh hated leaders.
They made a serious miscalculation. Serious. Miscalculation. They were worried. That um The disciples are going to come and steal his body to make it look like he rose from the dead.
So they wanted to make sure they couldn't do that. Verse 62, on the next day. The day after the preparation, That's on the Sabbath. The chief priests, the Passover Sabbath, and the Pharisees gather together with Pilate. Wow.
They're defiled again. And they said, Sir, we remember that when he was still alive, that deceiver said, After three days, I am to rise again. Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise his disciples may come and steal him away, and say to the people, he has risen from the dead, and the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, You have a guard. Game.
Soldiers. Go make it as secure as you know how. They went out. made the grave secure. and along with the guard set a seal on the stone.
Frankly, they'd have been better off to leave the thing open. Then there could have been all kinds of explanations. Oh, they stole his His body, they could have discredited the resurrection. But what they did was They made it impossible for the body to be stolen. And consequently, when the resurrection occurred, The only explanation Was a resurrection?
These hypocrites Who don't want a dead body to defile their Sabbath? Meet on the Sabbath with an unclean Gentile. And they want to stop this deceiver from a worse deception, a fake resurrection, so they seal up the tomb so no one can possibly have access to it, and it's under Roman guard. And therefore, they set up the only possible explanation. When he isn't there.
He rose from the dead. All these features of his burial. Show the providential power. Of God. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
John's lesson today is part of his series called The Divine Drama of Redemption.
Now, something we're reminded of when hearing a lesson like today's, which looked at ancient Jewish traditions and customs, is that we are far removed from the culture in which scripture was written. And because of that, it's easy to miss important details that really bring the story to life. We asked John about that issue. Here's what he said.
Well, absolutely, because we're trying to close a 2,000-year gap at the least, and more if we're in the Old Testament.
So, in order to understand what those words meant when they were written, we have to go back and reconstruct the historical realities of the time. That really, for me, is the joy of Bible study. It's going back to the original text, the original time, the original language, and identifying all those elements that led to a proper understanding of that passage at that time, because whatever it meant then, it means now.
So, in order not to just rip it out of history and pull it into modern era and make it mean something God didn't intend, you've got to restructure all that history. That is the wonderful adventure. That's the sort of biblical explorer role that I love so much. We've always wanted to give everyone tools to be able to do that. And the most useful tool, because it's all wrapped up in one volume would be a copy of the MacArthur Study Bible.
The MacArthur Study Bible has 25,000 notes or so that give you these kinds of historical explanations and background. The notes will tap into culture, geography, language, social structure, social customs. That you would miss in a very casual reading.
So you read the text and you go to the bottom of the page, and there's a whole lot of information to help you reconstruct the setting. And that's what leads to an accurate understanding of the meaning of the Word of God. Filling in those gaps is really, very, very important. Certainly for hard-to-understand passages, but really for any passage in the Bible. That's right, friend, and with 25,000 footnotes, the MacArthur Study Bible is designed to help you understand every passage of Scripture.
It also features introductions for every book, maps, and other study helps. To order this library in one volume, the MacArthur Study Bible, contact us today. Call us here at 800-55 GRACE. You can also order the MacArthur Study Bible at our website, gty.org. The MacArthur Study Bible comes in hardcover, leather, premium goat skin.
Again, to order your MacArthur Study Bible, call 855 GRACE. or you can view all of the choices at our website, gty.org. And at our website, take advantage of all the free resources that are there for you, like the Sermon Archive. If you have a question about how to honor God or how to honor your spouse in your marriage, or if you're wrestling with a difficult biblical doctrine, or maybe you're struggling through a time of trials, or maybe you're wondering how to best minister to a friend who is suffering. For all of those issues and countless others, you are sure to find answers in the Sermon Archive.
It has 3,600 full-length messages available to download free of charge right now. Our web address one more time, gty. The Now for the entire Grace DU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Join us here for our Good Friday message that looks ahead to the amazement at the empty tomb.
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