The Supernatural Burial of Christ

JESUS IS DOING WHAT HE IS DOING FREELY, MOTIVATED BY THE LOVE OF HIS HEART AND THE DESIRE TO COME OUT OF THE SHADOWS.

BUT BEHIND THE SCENES IT'S DETERMINED BY GOD SO THAT JESUS WILL FULFILL ISAIAH 53.9 AND NOT BE THROWN IN A BODY PILE WITH CRIMINALS BUT BE IN A GRAVE WITH THE RIDGE. Jesus cried from the cross and then drew his last breath. A short time later, his body was lying in a tomb, his followers were scattered, and his enemies seemed victorious. But in three days he rose again and everything changed. What happened during those hours between Christ's death and his resurrection? How did Jesus' friends and enemies respond to the risen Lord? And what should your response be today? To shed light on crucial details from the first Easter to help you understand what history's great turning point means for you, stay here on Grace To You as John MacArthur continues his study titled The Empty Tomb.

And now here's John. JOHN MACARTHUR In the burial of Jesus, you have actions by three groups of people. You have actions by neutral soldiers, you have actions by loving saints and you have actions by hateful enemies, spiritual leaders, hateful sinners. The soldiers, the saints and the sinners are all acting.

One group is neutral, the other group is positive, the other group is negative. One really have nothing at stake, some have everything at stake because they love Him and some have everything at stake because they hate Him. But whether you are in the neutral category, or whether you are in the loving category, or whether you are in the hating category, everything that is done fits together to affect the purposes of God. Now let's look at these three categories as we think about the burial of Christ. And to start with, for point one, providence as seen in the action of the neutral soldiers, let's go to John 19 verse 31. The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, that means the day of preparation for the Passover. And so because it was the day of preparation so that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, they asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

Well Pilate who has been utterly intimidated by the Jews, gives them permission. Verse 32, the soldiers therefore came, broke the legs of the first man and of the other man who was crucified with Him because they were still alive as crucified victims normally would be. But coming to Jesus when they saw that He was already dead, they didn't break His legs. Here is the testimony of some indifferent neutral soldiers who just killed people for a living and they know a dead person when they see one, they've got nothing at stake in this issue. He is dead and they know He's dead. And because He's dead, they do not break His legs. As one final act, sealing that He is dead, verse 34, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, ran a spear into His side and immediately there came out blood and water.

This is obviously an indication that He was dead. Why is this important? John says, I was there, I saw it, I bore a witness, I'm telling the truth that you may believe in.

Why did this happen? Verse 36, these things came to pass that the Scripture might be fulfilled, not a bone of Him shall be broken. Psalm 34, 20.

That's not all. Verse 37, John writes, and again another Scripture says, they shall look on Him whom they...what?...pierced. Zechariah 12, 10. So the action of these indifferent soldiers, God providentially uses to fulfill Scripture showing the veracity of Scripture and the authenticity of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of Scripture and also validating the resurrection by affirming that He was, in fact, dead by indifferent witnesses. Now that sets us up to go back to Luke 23 and verse 15. We now come to the actual removal of the body from the cross. Behold, a man named Joseph who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man.

He had not consented to their plan in action. A man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews who was waiting for the Kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Now we see a loving saint. There were these people in the midst of this apostate nation who were good and righteous, devout, obedient people looking for the Kingdom, looking therefore for the King, looking for redemption, looking therefore for the Redeemer. These were the true believers.

These were the remnant. And somehow Joseph of Arimathea was part of that. And he had come to affirm his faith in Christ.

How do you know that? Just because it says he was good and righteous. Because Matthew says he was a disciple of Jesus Christ. Yes, he definitely had committed himself to Christ. He had somehow been able to follow Christ. He had somehow been able to listen to Christ and be convinced by Christ. And then John tells us, most interestingly, a disciple of Jesus but a secret one for fear of the Jews.

Wow! Now the Bible doesn't particularly exalt secret disciples. In fact, you have an illustration of secret disciples in John 12 verses 42 and 43 who were not really true believers. They were secret only in the sense that they were drawn and attracted to Jesus but they weren't the real thing, this was the real thing. He just...he just hadn't quite yet overcome the intimidation of being a member of the Sanhedrin who were involved in bringing about the death of Christ and he hadn't gotten to the place where he had enough courage to rise up and say that he was a lover and a believer in Jesus Christ.

He's cowardly for the moment. But at least, according to verse 51, he hadn't consented to their plan and action. He may not have shown up when the vote was taken, or he wandered off into a corner, but his love for Christ was in his descent, if not in his open confession.

He was horrified by what they were doing, what they were discussing. He was devastated by what they did to Jesus. It was horrific for him, a man who had been given righteousness by God for his true faith. He was a truly righteous man and it showed up in his obedience under the title of his goodness. He was looking for the Kingdom of God. He was into the redemption of God, looking for the Messiah who would bring the Kingdom.

He can't have a Kingdom without a King. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, probably in Judea, we don't know where, some associated with Ramathaim Zophim which was the home of Samuel, some with a town near Lidda, but we have no idea where it was. They knew where it was and he may be identified as Joseph of Arimathea because he became a believer and this is for the church later on to be able to identify who he was. He was waiting for the Kingdom of God.

So was Zacharias and Elizabeth, so were Simeon and Anna, so was John the Baptist. He was a Jew who was a true Jew who was a believing Jew and he would have been heartbroken. Why did he ask for the body of Jesus? Why did he want to expose himself? What is motivating this man? Well you say, it's his love for Christ, he wants to spare him the final indignity.

That's true. It's his desire to rise above a guilty conscience because he's been a secret disciple and it's eating away at him and he finally wants to declare his faith in an open way. He understands Deuteronomy 21, 22 and 23 that people need an appropriate burial even if they are people who have been punished, certainly an innocent man. He doesn't want Jesus thrown in the body dump with the rest of the riff-raff. He had some history knowing that there are occasions written in Roman history in which Romans would give to a family the corpse of an executed criminal.

On some rare occasions they would do that. So maybe he thought that could happen. Maybe he thought Pilate would do it because Jesus had been declared innocent so many times. Maybe if he had a conscience that was plaguing him because of a secrecy, Pilate even had a worse conscience plaguing him because he had executed an innocent man.

Maybe he could give Pilate at least one final opportunity to do with this man something that was kind. Maybe all of that is true. But that's not what moved him. Now there's another little piece of the story you need to know about him. He was rich. Matthew 27, 57 says he was a rich man. Matthew 27, 60 says he owned a tomb and the tomb was his own tomb where he was going to place his family members and himself would be placed there as well. So he had his own tomb and he was a very rich man. The tomb had never yet been occupied, so he must have been a relatively young person and everybody in his family was alive. So here's a rich man with his own tomb in which no one has ever been placed. He's the perfect person to come and say, let me have the body, I have a tomb.

And it would have been the most appropriate tomb for King Jesus, a tomb in which no one else had ever been laying. What was really behind this was the purpose of God. Turn to Isaiah 53...Isaiah 53 which talks about how Jesus was crucified for us, smitten by God and afflicted, verse 4, pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, etc. God caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him, verse 6. Verse 7, He was like a lamb led to slaughter like a sheep, silent before its shears didn't open His mouth.

It goes on to talk about that. Then verse 9, His grave was assigned with wicked men. Sure, He is supposed to be thrown in the dump with the rest of the criminals in the pit, yet He was with a rich man in His death.

How remarkable is that? His grave was planned to be with the wicked but He was buried with the rich. Joseph is doing what he is doing freely, motivated by the love of his heart and the desire to come out of the shadows. He is hurrying, not because he fears violating the Sabbath. He's already deviled himself by going to Pilate.

He's already further going to devile himself by handling a dead body. He is being driven on in this enterprise, by his own free motivations and choices, but behind the scenes it's determined by God so that Jesus will fulfill Isaiah 53.9 and not be thrown in a body pile with criminals, but be in a grave with the rich. He moved at divine speed in a divine direction, not just giving Christ a proper honorable burial, but by fulfilling Isaiah 53.9.

There's something else here. Go back to Matthew 12.40 and here's another prophecy concerning the burial of Jesus, given by Jesus Himself. So you have an Old Testament prophecy, Isaiah 53.9, and a New Testament prophecy, Matthew 12.40. Jesus says, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. A day and a night simply stood for a day, any part of a day.

You can show that from many texts in the Old Testament. Jesus says, I will be three days in the grave, a portion of three days in the grave. He had to be in the grave Friday, had to be in the grave Saturday, had to be in the grave Sunday. A part of Friday, a part of Sunday and all of Saturday would qualify, which meant that Jesus needed to be buried before sundown so that He would be there a portion of Friday. So again, turning back to Luke's gospel, Joseph being moved by God in the direction of getting the body of Jesus off the cross, nobody else volunteered. It wasn't any kind of argument about who was going to get the body of Christ. If it wasn't Joseph, it wouldn't have been anybody. He would have been thrown in a criminal dump and Isaiah 53 would have been wrong. And they might not have done it on the Sabbath.

They might not have been the kind of action that was taken to make sure that He was there on Friday as well as Saturday and Sunday. God knows all of that. And so here comes this one man out of nowhere. He's given permission. Pilate sends the centurion...they send the centurion back. He tells Pilate, yes, he's dead. And so he says to Joseph, who's waiting for this information, you can have the body. He consented to give him the body. And verse 53 then picks it up.

He took it down. Mark 15, 46 says He did it Himself...did it Himself with His own hands. The cross would be laid on the ground. He would be pulling the hands over the heads of the nails and pulling the feet gently over the heads of the nails, the nail that went through both feet. He would be pulling the thorns out of the dead brow. And then He would wash the body from top to bottom. All the sweat and the dirt and the dust that accumulated in the blood would all be washed and there He was by Himself washing the body of His King.

It must have been heartsick moments, unbelievable moments for Him. Then it says, by Himself He wrapped it in a linen cloth. He had bought that linen cloth previously and He wrapped Jesus in it Himself, according to Mark 15, 46. Jews did not embalm, like the Egyptians did, for example. They simply wrapped the body in strips of cloth and sprinkled powdered fragrance in there to sort of overpower the stench of decaying flesh. That's why in the grave of Lazarus, you remember, his sister said his body stinks in just a few days. He didn't have any spices. None of the writers say he had any spices.

He just had cloth. But somebody else showed up. Turn to chapter 19 of John...John 19, somebody else showed up. Verse 38, and after these things, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate granted permission, he came therefore took away his body. Verse 39, and Nicodemus...remember him?...Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night in the third chapter and got the great gospel presentation about being born again. Nicodemus came. Nicodemus who didn't believe on that occasion and who was warned that he'd be condemned if he didn't believe.

That was one of the harshest conversations Jesus ever had with a spiritual leader, has now made up his mind and also become a follower of Jesus. He had first come to Him by night. He brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, a hundred-pound weight.

That's a calculation I can do, it's about 65 pounds. That would be fit for a king. So this man's got some means as well. He shows up. And the first question I asked was, Where's Peter? Where's Andrew? Where are the disciples? These are absolute strangers.

This is one guy who had made no previous commitment to Christ, at least recorded on the page of the Scripture, and somebody who comes out of nowhere, suddenly Joseph. But they're the real deal. Myrrh is a fragrant gummy rosin that's made in a powdered form, very, very strong fragrance. And aloes you're more familiar with, it comes from the leaves of the sandalwood tree and also is an aromatic powder and they mix all of that so that they would literally overpower the stench with other fragrance and they would just dump it in great quantities in between the strips as they wrap the body and then put a cloth over them. By the way, the shroud of Turin is a fraud, just a footnote, and there's a lot of evidence to indicate that.

But they would put some kind of a garment, usually a linen cloth over the strips that they wrapped. They then, back to verse 53, they laid Him in a tomb, it would be Joseph's own tomb, cut into the rock where no one had ever lain, fit for a king. Now He has been assigned to die and be thrown with the wicked, yet He is with the rich in His death. And the prophecy of Isaiah 53 is fulfilled and Jesus' own prophecy of Matthew 1240 is fulfilled because it's still Friday and He's now wrapped, powdered and in the grave. And John 19 41 says, this grave happened to be in a garden.

Here are these two men. I don't know if they knew each other. I don't know how Nicodemus found out what Joseph was doing. Maybe Nicodemus was also on the council, I don't know.

Maybe he was close to Joseph or they knew a mutual friend. But they come in order that what is prophesied might take place and in order that he might be three days in the heart of the earth. It was common to put shelves in these kinds of graves and you'd put a lot of people in there and once the flesh completely deteriorated and all you had were the bones collected on the shelf, you put them in a little box called an ossuary.

Of course, Jesus never saw that because His flesh didn't see corruption. What a funeral, no hymn sung, no prayer prayed, no sermon preached, yet no one was ever buried more lovingly, more generously. Even Asa whose body was laid in a bed in 2 Chronicles 16, even Asa didn't have as rich a burial as Jesus did at the hands of two men.

And all these actions of these two men were superintended by God. This is so important, verse 54, it was the preparation day, it was still Friday. Sabbath was about to begin.

He's in the ground on Friday. Then we meet some other loving people, now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, the two Marys, we've met them, they were there at the cross standing at a distance, according to verse 49, they followed Him out of Galilee and served Him in every way they could. They come following Joseph. They saw the tomb and how His body was laid. You say, well what's the point of telling us that? They're still stunned, they don't know what to make out of it, they don't help these two men, they just watch, they go in and they see it.

Why is that important? Because one of the second great accusations against the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that the women in the morning went to the wrong tomb. The reason they thought Jesus was raised was they went to a tomb that was the wrong tomb, there was nobody there because there never had been anybody there and this precludes that possibility. They knew exactly where Jesus was buried. They went there when they buried Him there and they saw how He was buried. So the idea that they went to the wrong tomb is ludicrous. So the free actions of these women independent of any knowledge of anything helps to thwart a horrible lie about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Well they're so moved, they saw what these two men did, they felt bad. So in verse 56, they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. They couldn't let those two men be the only ones who anointed the body of Jesus. So they went back on that Friday and whatever time was left, maybe an hour or so, and they got the spices and they mixed their own set of spices. They were not going to be outdone by strangers. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. They were dutiful, God-fearing, Scripture-loving, obedient Jewish ladies and they kept the Sabbath because Exodus 20, 10 told them to keep the Sabbath holy and not do any work on the Sabbath. So they prepared all the spices on Friday night before the Sabbath, rested on the Sabbath and then verse 1 of 24, on the first day of the week at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared.

Boy did they get a shock. They knew exactly where to go, didn't they? Because they had been there on Friday whether you are a neutral soldier or a loving saint, God's in control of everything for His own purposes. Finally, what about hateful spiritual leaders?

Does God use what they do? Absolutely. Turn to Matthew 27 and we'll wrap it up there, Matthew 27, 62. I'll just read this to you if you come in. On the next day, which is the one after the preparation, this would be...what?...Saturday now.

Okay? Saturday Jesus is in the grave. Chief priests and the Pharisees gather together with Pilate.

They really don't mind defiling themselves, according to their own standards. So they go to meet with Pilate on Saturday, Sabbath, Passover. They say, Sir, we remember that when He was still alive, that deceiver said, After three days I'm going to rise again. Notice how they describe Him as a...what?...deceiver. Therefore give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, lest the disciples come and steal Him away.

Say to the people, He's risen from the dead and the last deception will be worse than the first. They're afraid that the disciples are going to come and steal His body. What they don't know is the disciples wouldn't do that.

First of all, they're not that stupid. You don't steal a dead body and then pretend it's alive and go give your life as a martyr for the cause of a lie. Furthermore, they didn't expect Him to rise, sad to say. But they were afraid that the disciples would come and steal His body. And so they said, Look, Pilate, we've got to have a Roman guard on that grave, Pilate said in verse 65, You have a guard, go make it as secure as you know how. They were licking their chops.

Boy, we have put an end to that possibility. They went and made the grave secure, along with a guard they set a seal on the stone. They couldn't break the seal, the Roman seal. They were protecting the disciples from stealing the body. Witlessly they had just dispelled another lie about the resurrection, that the disciples came and stole the body, which historically has been another lie about the resurrection, which is also ludicrous and impossible.

And they saw to it in their own hateful way. So in an effort to prevent a lie, they discredited a far greater lie that Jesus did not rise. God reigns, friends, and He works in every situation to accomplish His purpose. And to see it in the case of the burial of Jesus Christ, His purposes are fulfilled and all of this is written, John says, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing might have life in His name. That's Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for tuning in today. John is Chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary. He's titled our current study, The Empty Tomb. Now John, as Resurrection Sunday approaches, churches around the world are preparing for larger crowds. And here in America, a large part of the population will attend church this weekend.

And of course, a lot of those visitors are not believers. And that certainly will be the case at your church in Southern California. Knowing that, I'm wondering, what if anything will you and your congregation do differently this Sunday? No, we'll come together and we'll worship as we always do. We gather to worship and be edified and we scatter to evangelize. So unbelievers coming to Grace Church will step into a worship service. They will see true believers worshiping Christ. And I think that's a biblical thing to do. I think Paul makes that clear that when an unbeliever comes in, he should respond by saying, God is in this place.

This is something alien to anything that I'm familiar with. So we want the people who come who are visitors and nonbelievers, we want them to experience the true worship of the church. We want them to have the taste of that love and adoration that we give to our Lord.

At the same time, however, that is not where we would stop. On an Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, I will always preach a gospel message. Realizing that we're worshiping the Lord and celebrating his Resurrection, it's the perfect opportunity to preach the gospel of the cross and the Resurrection. We want them to see a worshiping community of people worshiping their Lord from the bottom of their hearts. At the same time, we want them to hear the gospel and that's the right subject for our celebration of the Resurrection. Yeah, in fact, 1 Corinthians 15 is where Paul lays out the gospel in point-by-point fashion. He says these are the truths that are of first importance. Yeah, and he also says that they are from the Scripture. So, yes, that's exactly what—and of course for believers, they don't mind hearing about the cross and the Resurrection again.

We never get enough of that. The glories of the cross are endless. The glories of the Resurrection are endless. So they will come eager with open hearts and ready to hear another approach to the glory of the Resurrection.

Thanks, Jon. And, friend, we want to make sure you understand and love this pivotal doctrine. So let me remind you about Grace2U's two apps for mobile devices. They connect you to thousands of free resources that will aid your personal devotions and take your understanding of key truths like the Resurrection to new heights. To download the apps, contact us today. You can learn more about our apps at our website, gty.org. The Grace2U sermon app gives you access to nearly 3500 of Jon's messages, and the Study Bible app gives you the text of Scripture along with access to all of our online resources. And for a modest price, you can add the notes from the MacArthur Study Bible to the Study Bible app.

Again, to download these apps, visit gty.org. And before we sign off, I wanted to share an encouraging letter we recently received from Andre in Zambia. He told us that he has listened to Jon for years, and he's able to play our Portuguese translations of Jon's sermons over the intercom at the hospital where he works. Friend, when you support us financially, you help us reach God's people in Zambia and beyond with verse-by-verse Bible teaching in their own language. To partner with us, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. Now for Jon MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson inviting you to be here when Jon continues his study on the resurrection of Christ with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Tomorrow's Grace to You.