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References: 1 Corinthians 15
At which I also received how that first Christ died for our sins. That was necessary that he died on the cross, according to the scriptures as all the prophets have said. Secondly, that he was buried.
He was put in a grave where dead people are put. And that he thirdly rose again the third day according to the scriptures. If he had just died, if he had just been put in the grave and not risen, then we would not have salvation.
We would not be sitting here today. He says in verse 2 about this gospel by which also you are saved. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, then you came to him because you embraced those three truths and you received him as your Savior. And then he says, if you keep in memory that which I’ve preached unto you, keep in memory means to hold it fast.
Literally it is to cling to the word of the gospel. This is what we try to do every Easter morning. Put in memory these things. Cling to it again. Open God’s word and realize what we have believed. Otherwise he says at the end of verse 2, your belief would be in vain. As he says in verse 13, if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain. You know there have always been those who have denied the resurrection of Christ. Some have even denied his death and burial.
And these skeptics are always with us. There are really only two alternatives to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that is first of all that he did not die on the cross. And there have always been those who have believed that Jesus really did not die.
There have been books written to push this theory that Jesus really did not die. That he swooned on the cross. He was taken into a cool, damp tomb. And there revived maybe by the help of his disciples. And that he lived on longer and did not die. Then of course the other alternative would be that he died and he stayed in that grave. He died as a man would die. And he went to the place of the dead as all it would be.
And he did not come out of that grave. About a year ago we were listening to a debate on this between a man who was an atheist and yet had been a believer, had even gone on this very topic. And it seemed that the atheist who was debating and trying to put forth his position was saying this. That Matthew, Mark, Luke and John give us contradictory views of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And he says if these are contradictory then I can’t believe it because Matthew says it happened this way and Mark says this way and so forth. And I thought to myself how strange because for 2000 years we have heard and read of men taking these four views of the gospel and harmonizing them. You know John said in the last verse of his gospel, if everything could be written that ought to be written about Jesus Christ, the world itself could not contain all that could be written about him. them. So if you take four men and you tell them to write the events of what happened that day within a period, and they did not even talk with each other that we know of, and they wrote in a period of 50 years, and they picked out of all the things that could be written about Christ, these things, and they chose these, and this man chose these, and this man chose these, is that necessarily contradictory?
No. Each is giving what is true and what he includes and what the Holy Spirit wants him to include. These things are reconciled in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. As I’ve said before, if we put a statue in the middle of this room and we put a person in each of the four corners, and we ask the person in this corner to describe the statue, he might describe the back of the head and the right ear, and if we ask that person in that corner to describe what he’s looking at, he would look at the front and the eye, and this person would describe it differently in this, but are they describing different things?
No, they’re describing four different aspects and views of the same thing, and that’s what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do. Now, I want us today to look at the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and remember again on this Easter day what the Gospels say and how they harmonize these facts about what happened. We have to think back a little ways to the preparation for this crucifixion, as Jesus was standing before Pilate and as he was condemned to death. You know, the word crucifixion was invented for this torture.
It came about to describe what the Romans and Carthenians and all those ancient civilizations would do in this very thing. We have an adjective that we use, excruciating, and it comes from the word crucifixion. Excruciating pain is really to describe the crucifixion that happened. Jesus was condemned unjustly, even though Pilate had said three times in official language, I find no fault in him, yet still he was condemned, he was beaten, and sentenced to death.
The beating and the lashings, the 39 lashes were unbearable and unmentionable as his bones and his flesh hung out. The Romans had five kinds of crosses. You can remember these by the letters of the alphabet.
One is like a capital I. It was just a stake, and they would put a man on the stake and nail or tie his hands and his feet to that stake. The second was like a capital T, it’s called the towel, and it had an upright piece, and then the cross piece was put on top and the criminal hung on that. The other is like a small T, the traditional cross, and this no doubt is what Jesus was crucified on with a little room left above his head to put a sign on it.
Then there was the Greek, and Saint Andrew himself was probably crucified on such a cross. Now this was a Roman death, not a Jewish death. The Jews did not put their people to death this way.
They stoned rather, but the Romans were in charge and the Jews asked them to, they did. A centurion was assigned to this task. He was given four soldiers for each criminal.
So in this case a centurion had three groups of four soldiers, and each of these groups of four soldiers would take care of that person. Usually the upright piece of the cross was already put in the ground, and the cross piece was laid upon the ground, and the criminal was stretched out upon that. They took seven to ten inch nails by that time made out of rough iron, and they drove those nails through the hand or wrist, crushing the bones of course, and fastening his arms to those cross pieces. They would take the feet, and they will do the same once he is hung on the cross.
They would offer him a narcotic by the way. When Mark says they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, it was a type of thing truly to deaden the pain, and Jesus refused it. He is going to bear the bitter dregs alone, and then that cross piece was raised up. The hands are excruciating. They hang him on a pre-prepared peg, and as he drops into place the arms come out of joint. They take his feet, they put them together, and they drive that nail through both feet together, crushing the bones, and let him hang there.
The only way he can keep from suffocating is to push himself up against that bottom nail, and of course his feet are crushed, and he’s pushing against the broken bones inside his feet, and that’s the only way he can stay alive. And yet crucifixions often last for a day, two days, and sometimes even into three days a person would hang like this. And yet this is what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Just as the Offerer of a lamb would bring that lamb before the high priest, and he would put his hands upon the head of that lamb, signifying my sins are upon this lamb, and then the priest would kill that lamb, the courtier, but that he was bearing the sins of all of us that day on that cross. If you die without the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are cast into hell, you will spend eternity in torment, and yet you will not be able to pay for your sins, and yet Christ bore them for you on that cross.
If you will accept his return. redemption. Well, first we think of the death. There were, there was a six hours on the cross from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. divided into two parts.
In the first three hours Jesus is hung on the cross. His bones are out of joint but not broken. His, his wrists are numb and his body is bleeding.
His back is so lacerated that when he pushes up against the nail in his ankles he rubs against that old rough cross on his back. And the first words to come out of the Savior’s mouth is, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. No guile was found in his mouth when he was reviled. He reviled not again.
When he suffered he threatened not but committed himself unto him that judges righteously. The soldiers at the foot of the cross began to divide his garments. It was their lot. They could take whatever was left over. So whatever he was wearing from his sandals to his belts to his garments to his hat they would take and divide. The inner garment was one piece woven from the top to the bottom. The only way they could divide that was to rip it apart. And so they cast lots and one of those soldiers got to go home with that woven garment that was underneath. Pilate said we’ll have to put something above his head on this traditional type cross.
So he made the plaque. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. And the Jews objected and said don’t say he is the king of the Jews.
Say he said he was the king of the Jews. And Pilate said what I have written I have written. And there he hangs on the cross and the people pass by and the passer buyers say if you really are the son of God show us that you are and come down off the cross right now.
Save yourself what a temptation some would have to show that he has the power to do that. To show that he is really the son of God and yet by coming down off the cross denying salvation for them and for everyone else that would ever live. So he hung on the cross because he was there for you and for me. And so the thief even on the cross the two thieves looked at him and one began to say the same thing. Why don’t you get us and you off of this cross. But the other looking across Jesus to the other thief said don’t you know we are here because we deserve to be here. And if we got what we deserve folks that is where we would be too.
But he said this man had done no wrong he doesn’t deserve to be here. And he turned and looked at Jesus and said remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said tonight you and I will have supper with the king. Tonight you will be with me in paradise. And as he is hanging there he looks down and he sees Mary and John the young disciple has gone and brought Mary and other women to the foot of the cross. And he says woman behold thy son this young man now will be your son.
And he looks at John and says behold your mother you take care of her concerned even to the dying moment for his mother’s welfare. Then darkness begins to come and the second three hours of the cross come upon them. And now God is beginning to turn his back on his very son who is hanging on the cross. And Jesus feeling that that the father is rejecting him and turning from him says Eli Eli Lama Sabatchanai which means my God my God why has thou forsaken me.
They thought that he cried for Eli. They said let’s stand and see if Elijah will come and save him from the cross. But no Jesus was not only suffering physical death he was suffering eternal separation from God in that moment too. As God the Creator and his very Father that has shared fellowship from all eternity turned his back on the second member of the Godhead because he was bearing our sins.
That spiritual separation from God that spiritual death is just as agonizing as the physical death. And then Jesus said to fulfill the scriptures I thirst. And no doubt he did thirst the hype of a limbic shock as I understand it would be due to the loss of all of the fluids in the body and the thirst would be excruciating in itself. And yet he said this to fulfill scriptures and they gave him wine vinegar meaning the bitter dregs that come from the bottom of the vat and they put that against his lip.
And then in an amazing moment he cried out and said to tell a sty it is finished. It is done. It is perfect. It is complete the word says. If a merchant man were shipping a shipment to someone he would seal that shipment and stamp it with a word to tell a sty which means everything that you have ordered everything that is required is in this package.
package. Jesus said to Tel Aviv, it is finished. No longer the one year covering of the Old Testament, no longer another sacrifice to cover it for a little while to postpone God’s wrath for another year. No, it is finished. It is complete and our salvation is done. And then Jesus looking into the Father says, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. And it says He gave up the ghost.
Do you want to know something? Jesus’ life was not taken from Him on the cross. He gave His life for you and for me.
In John 10, He said, Therefore, doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man take it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. Dwight Pentecost said of this, Christ did not die because His life slowly ebbed from His veins. His life was not taken from Him. Christ died because by an act of His own will, He dismissed His soul from His body. Christ was sovereign over His death as He was sovereign over His resurrection. Is there any doubt that He died on that cross? Is there any doubt that that was the end of His life as we talk about it? The human life that He came to this earth to take?
No, He died on that cross. There were some accompanying signs that happened at that same time. The veil of the temple all of a sudden was rent in two from the top to the bottom. Not from the bottom to the top as some human could do it, but from the top of it to the bottom. That veil was 60 feet high and 30 feet wide, and the material was six inches thick.
The hand breath thick. It was made from 72 squares. That was quite a quilting day when they made that piece of garment. The Jews said that it took 300 priests to even handle this piece of cloth. And yet in that moment that Jesus died, a piece of cloth that had been there this long and had been sturdy is ripped from the top to the bottom.
And why is that, folks? Because our real veil, which is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was torn in half for you and me, that we might have access to the holy place before God in heaven. Not only that, there was an earthquake at this time. Here is the creator of the world. Here is the one who sustains the world by the word of His power, and He is dying and the very earth that He made shakes underneath His feet. And at that time some bodies of the saints come back to life like Lazarus came back to life.
And no doubt they died later, but they were raised from the dead because now the one who has the keys of death and hell is descending into that place of the dead. And there is that centurion standing there with his men around him. And Matthew 27 says when the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly saying truly this was the Son of God.
It’s too bad that those of the rest of us can’t understand what that centurion could understand immediately. This was the Son of God. Then not only the death of Christ, but the burial of Christ.
Now it’s beginning to come towards sundown, and if it’s 3 p.m. and now a little bit after 3 p.m. at sundown Sabbath will begin, and the bodies cannot remain on the cross during the Sabbath day. It was against Jewish law. And so the Jewish leaders went to Pilate and said have someone break their legs so that they may die quickly so that we can get these bodies off the cross and cast them into the valley of Hanoi.
And so the soldiers were sent from Pilate to break their legs. And of course it was a mercy killing. Now the Romans may not have been smart about a lot of things, but they knew how to kill.
And they knew how to put a man to death when they needed to. And if they needed to die within a short space, then what they would do is break those legs so that those legs could no longer push against that nail that was through their ankle bones and could no longer relieve themselves to get enough air in their lungs and they would collapse and they would suffocate within minutes if not hours. And so they went to break their legs and when the prisoners is not dead, if one of their prisoners does not die, if he just swans on the cross, if he just fakes his death, then it will be their life for his. And so they take a spear and they run it into his side. And when they run that spear into his side, blood and what appears to be water comes out, a paracariol effusion, I think they call it.
And that is the fluid that is gathered around the heart during this time of torture now flows out with the blood from the heart. Did these Roman soldiers know when a man was dead, they knew he was dead. And so rather than to have his body thrown like the other criminals into the valley of Hanom where it would be piled on the trash heap and burnt there south of Jerusalem, two rich men, Joseph and Nicodemus, rich men who have been secretly believers. They’ve not told anyone yet that they are believers. They’re part of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews.
And they didn’t want anyone to know to this point that they were believers, but now they have to act quickly. Will his body be thrown in the trash heap or will they give it a decent burial? And so Joseph goes to Pilate and says, I have a tomb close by to the cross and if you will let me, I’ll take the body and I’ll bury it. And Pilate says, and you take it. And so out of the shadows and out of the hidden places come the two richest men in Jerusalem, Joseph and Nicodemus declaring themselves openly to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they come to the cross and they let the body down and they catch it. The Bible says in a linen cloth, he bought fine linen and took him down and wrapped him in the linen.
I want you to listen carefully. This word for linen here is Sindonai. It means like a blanket, a sheet, a large piece of material. And they let the body down off the cross and put him into this large sheet. Then they carried him from there to the tomb.
But once they’re in the tomb, they’re not going to bury him like that. But rather, the Bible is very specific that they are going to either take that piece of material or another piece and they’re going to rip it into strips and they’re going to begin to wrap each leg and each arm and his torso. John says, and he that was dead came forth, excuse me, they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen cloths, not Sindonai, but Athianos.
Athianos means strips. And so they do not bury him in the shroud that they took him off the cross with. They bury him by wrapping the arms and wrapping the legs and wrapping the torsos. What we might say is like a mummy. As a matter of fact, John goes on and says, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
And it was the manner of the Jews. This is how Lazarus was buried. In John 11 it says, when Lazarus was called out of the grave, he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave cloths, that is with these Athianos. And his face was bound with a napkin, exactly how they buried Jesus. And Jesus said unto him, unwrap him, loose him and let him go. And so if you hear that perhaps you can see the outline of Jesus on a shroud because he was this blanket was put over him in the bodily fluid soaked into this blanket and now they keep it in Turin, Italy.
And that you can see Jesus on that. Remember that John says he was wrapped in strips limb by limb and around his torso. And that’s the way he was buried. And so quickly they do that as quickly as they can, not able to do, put all the anointment on the body. And they have to push the stone, which is a large disc like stone over the grave.
It’s been prepared when the grave was prepared. The Jews would white wash these stones. And they called them white enceplocers. And they would white wash these stones so that if someone passing by happened to bump against the stone, they would not be defiled and they could still go on to to be in around the temple. And so they white washed them. Jesus said, yes, and you are like white washed sepulchers white on the outside, but inside you’re full of dead men’s bones.
And that’s the way we are without the cleansing of the Lord Jesus Christ in our heart. They rolled that stone in front of the tomb. And then the soldiers would come and they would put another stone vertical against it, lean it against that large stone. And then that is what they would seal.
And in order to roll the big stone, of course, the seal or the sealing stone would be pushed out of the way. And so the grave was sealed and it was shut. And that was that. And the disciples went home. You know, there’s a traditional story that says that that night the centurion was talking with Pilate’s wife. And as they were talking about what had happened that day, Pilate’s wife said, Do you think he’s dead? And the centurion looked at her and says, No man, I don’t. And she said, Well, then where is he? And he answered, He has let loose in the world where no Roman or Jew can ever stop him.
And that’s exactly what would happen. The death of Christ, the burial of Christ. But of course, Easter morning we think of the resurrection of Christ. We think of what happened on that Sunday morning. And here are a lot of chronologies about people coming to the tomb. This is where I heard the man say, Surely I can’t believe these stories because one says it this way, another says it this way. It didn’t take me long to check in books that have been written over the last several hundred years to find that the chronology of this had been made plain years ago.
Let me give it to you briefly. First of all, at this time, a group of women came first to the tomb. Mark 16, one when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome had brought sweet spices and that they might anoint him very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came under the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.
At that time, Mary Magdalene, who is younger, more nimble, runs ahead of this group of women and gets to the tomb first. So John 20 records the first day of the week, cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was very dark under the sepulcher and seeeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. And she returned with and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that’s John and he’s writing this, sayeth unto them, they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher and we do not know where they’ve laid him. Thirdly, the rest of the women arrived then after Mary is there and gone. And Mark 16 says, they said among themselves, who shall roll the stone away from the door for us? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was already rolled away for it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side clothed in a long white garment and they were afraid.
And then the other group, another group of women came right after them and it came to pass. Luke 24 says that they were very much perplexed. They’re about behold, two men stood by them in shining garments and they were afraid and bowed their faces to the ground and they said unto them, why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen.
Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. And then immediately after the women were there, Peter and John being told by Mary Magdalene that the grave was empty, come to the tomb. And John 20 has a long discussion about this and he says, Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulcher. So they ran both together and that other disciple did outrun Peter.
John sees it necessary to say he could run faster than Peter and came first to the sepulcher. And he’s stooping down looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, but he went not in. Then come a Simon Peter, following him and went right in to the sepulcher and seeeth the linen clothes lie. And the napkin that was about his head not lying with the linen cloths, I should say cloths because that would be proper to say, but rather wrapped together in a place by itself.
I want you to remember what they saw. They saw these linen strips that were wrapped around each limb and wrapped around his torso and they saw them lying here where he had been lying. And yet there is nobody in them and the strips have collapsed onto the stone in the outline of a man. And when it says that the linen clothes were lying, that word lie means to outline something. If a foundation is laid, the foundation creates an outline for the building.
And here was the outline of the body of Christ where these strips had been around all of the parts of his body and now they are flat on the stone. Why? Because that body has gone and been resurrected. Somebody says, I don’t know how God’s going to take all the people out of the graves one day. I don’t see how all the sods going to move or the gravestones are going to go out of the way.
They don’t have two folks. Those bodies can come out of those graves as easily as Jesus’ body came out of those graves. grave clothes.
And so they see that and go their way. Then number six, Mary Magdalene comes back to the grave. And of course this is where she sees Jesus but thinks she sees a gardener. And she sees the angel and the two angels sitting in white, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus was laying.
And she said, and she asks where you have taken them. And then she sees Jesus and thinks he’s the gardener and said he turns and says to her, Mary and she turned herself and said, Rabboni, which is to say master, she knew that this resurrected body in all of its shining glory, not with all of the blood but with the scars in his hand and his side still. But now in that resurrected body, she knew this was the Lord Jesus Christ. And then lastly Jesus appears to the women as they are going from the tomb. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, all hail. They came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. And Jesus is risen.
The death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is it hard to believe? Why is it that people have doubted that these things have happened? You know when Luke then writes the book of Acts, his second book, he says to Theophilus, I have written unto you and given you many infallible proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This doctor, this historian writing about the death of Christ.
Let me give you a few of those. The scriptures give many prophecies of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Psalm 16 says it will not be possible for Messiah’s body to corrupt in the grave. He did not sin and though he will bear our sin, his body will not be able to decay in the grave.
And Peter uses this of course in his great sermon, but Psalm 16, David writes, Therefore my heart is glad, my glory rejoiceth, my flesh shall rest in hope, thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine holy one, even to see corruption. So Jesus was fulfilling that prophecy. Jesus prayed to God the Father that he would resurrect him in the garden the night before. These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father the hour has come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
You think God would not answer that prayer? And Jesus of course himself predicted his resurrection. He said to the Jews, if you destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it up. And we’re told plainly he wasn’t talking about the brick and mortars of that second temple, but rather of his own body. And then there’s the empty tomb. Where did the body of Jesus go? The soldiers knew what happened.
These disciples knew what happened. Why did they never find a body? Why was that grave empty?
And it was empty. He is not here. He is risen.
Come and see the place where the Lord lay, the angel said. Not only that, these linen strips. How do you recreate that? How do you recreate linen strips lying on the stone and the body is gone? How can that happen unless this body has been resurrected, translated back to the presence of God where it will forever be?
Those linen strips lying in that outline form. And what about these 500 witnesses? And when Luke was writing this in Luke chapter one, and then later, when Paul writes in 51 AD to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 15, he says he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, and most of them are alive right now.
If you want to go ask them, ask them what happened. 500 witnesses, I think that would prove the case at any point. And then there are these 12 disciples, these 12 men who saw it all, who were there at the cross, who were there at the tomb, and these 12 men, I’m counting the apostle Paul also, these men, all of them died excruciating deaths themselves. Many of them by crucifixion, and others by other means of torture. And so you’re telling me that these men who knew it was a hoax, who knew they were pretending that Jesus rose from the dead, would be willing every last one of them to die a martyr’s death for what they knew to be a lie? No, they knew it.
it was the truth. And they knew that they would follow their Lord and be where he is. Horrible deaths, and yet they did. And add to that thousands, millions of others over 2,000 years have also gone to their death.
And if that isn’t enough, consider this. Then in 1,500 years of hard Jewish tradition, you don’t take a Jewish person born and bred in that type of tradition and just change his way of life overnight. But here we have thousands of people in Acts chapter one, not 50 days after, that used to go to the temple regularly and do all of the temple things. Now are no longer going to the temple, but are going down to the local church and sitting there listening to the speaker speak.
Who used to keep the Sabbath and never break the Sabbath law. Now are not doing that, but rather are meeting on Sunday morning and talking about the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Who used to keep the Passover every year and every detail of the Passover, no longer are doing that, but are keeping a simple thing called communion, the Lord’s Supper with some Christians at the church. Who used to keep all the dietary laws and make sure that they didn’t eat anything that was unclean. Now said, I am fully convinced of God that everything is permitted for us to eat. Who used to segregate themselves from the Gentiles.
Now joint hands with Gentiles and call them brothers and sisters in Christ. Maybe that’s the greatest miracle of it all. To realize that Jesus Christ really did come out of that grave.
And he came out for you and for me. I think the story’s true of a father in a car and he had his young son in the car. And his young son happened to be terribly allergic to bee stings and if he ever got stung by a bean, it would be fatal if he didn’t take care of it immediately. And a bee got into the car and was flying around and the son was hysterical.
Realized the danger that he was in and screaming and crying. And father pulled over and stopped the car and found the bee and put his hand over it and grabbed the bee in his hand. And held the bee and soon the son kind of calmed down and was quiet again. And then after a little bit he rolled the window down and he let the bee go. And the bee started flying around inside the car again and the son immediately began to get anxious again until the bee went out and the father said, son you don’t have to be. You see right here in my hand is the stinger of that bee. I took the sting for you so that he can’t harm you anymore.
You remember that the scripture says, don’t you? Oh death where is thy sting? Oh grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He took all of this for you and me. He took this that we might not have to suffer the sting of death if our sins are covered by his blood. If we have come to him by saving faith and ask him to be our savior. And that is a big if because God says that’s our responsibility.
He did his part, you must do yours. You must reach out and say yes I will receive this salvation myself. And I trust that you know the Lord Jesus Christ and if you don’t that you would not let a time like this and an opportunity to receive him go by and not leave this place without knowing that you have eternal life from the Lord Jesus Christ also. I want you to stand with me now if you will. And as we stand let’s bow our heads before we open our song book and sing a few verses of a song.
Let’s bow our heads before him. Father in heaven thank you for your word. Thank you for the reliability of this book. Thank you that it is still here and we are still reading it and trusting it. And Father I thank you for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for the burial to assure that he was dead but for the resurrection of Christ that brings us hope of eternal life. Thank you Father that we can come to you in faith and simply trust the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins and to become our savior. And so Father I pray now you would assure our hearts those of us who have placed our faith and trust in you and you would Father make us glad and rejoicing in our spirit for such salvation that we have. And then Father for those who don’t know Christ to savior maybe there’s one or two or some here today. And I pray Father that they and humble spirit would bow their heart and say oh God I’m a sinner and I need Jesus Christ to save me from my sin. And I pray Father they would not leave here lost. And maybe they would come even as we sing this song and they would have someone show them these verses from the scripture of how to receive Christ to savior. May they do that for their eternal soul’s sake. Now Father bless in this time that we sing in Jesus name.
Amen. Familiar song on page 332 just as I am. We’ll sing just three or four verses of this song. You may come and pray here
He was put in a grave where dead people are put. And that he thirdly rose again the third day according to the scriptures. If he had just died, if he had just been put in the grave and not risen, then we would not have salvation.
We would not be sitting here today. He says in verse 2 about this gospel by which also you are saved. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, then you came to him because you embraced those three truths and you received him as your Savior. And then he says, if you keep in memory that which I’ve preached unto you, keep in memory means to hold it fast.
Literally it is to cling to the word of the gospel. This is what we try to do every Easter morning. Put in memory these things. Cling to it again. Open God’s word and realize what we have believed. Otherwise he says at the end of verse 2, your belief would be in vain. As he says in verse 13, if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain. You know there have always been those who have denied the resurrection of Christ. Some have even denied his death and burial.
And these skeptics are always with us. There are really only two alternatives to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that is first of all that he did not die on the cross. And there have always been those who have believed that Jesus really did not die.
There have been books written to push this theory that Jesus really did not die. That he swooned on the cross. He was taken into a cool, damp tomb. And there revived maybe by the help of his disciples. And that he lived on longer and did not die. Then of course the other alternative would be that he died and he stayed in that grave. He died as a man would die. And he went to the place of the dead as all it would be.
And he did not come out of that grave. About a year ago we were listening to a debate on this between a man who was an atheist and yet had been a believer, had even gone on this very topic. And it seemed that the atheist who was debating and trying to put forth his position was saying this. That Matthew, Mark, Luke and John give us contradictory views of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And he says if these are contradictory then I can’t believe it because Matthew says it happened this way and Mark says this way and so forth. And I thought to myself how strange because for 2000 years we have heard and read of men taking these four views of the gospel and harmonizing them. You know John said in the last verse of his gospel, if everything could be written that ought to be written about Jesus Christ, the world itself could not contain all that could be written about him. them. So if you take four men and you tell them to write the events of what happened that day within a period, and they did not even talk with each other that we know of, and they wrote in a period of 50 years, and they picked out of all the things that could be written about Christ, these things, and they chose these, and this man chose these, and this man chose these, is that necessarily contradictory?
No. Each is giving what is true and what he includes and what the Holy Spirit wants him to include. These things are reconciled in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. As I’ve said before, if we put a statue in the middle of this room and we put a person in each of the four corners, and we ask the person in this corner to describe the statue, he might describe the back of the head and the right ear, and if we ask that person in that corner to describe what he’s looking at, he would look at the front and the eye, and this person would describe it differently in this, but are they describing different things?
No, they’re describing four different aspects and views of the same thing, and that’s what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do. Now, I want us today to look at the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and remember again on this Easter day what the Gospels say and how they harmonize these facts about what happened. We have to think back a little ways to the preparation for this crucifixion, as Jesus was standing before Pilate and as he was condemned to death. You know, the word crucifixion was invented for this torture.
It came about to describe what the Romans and Carthenians and all those ancient civilizations would do in this very thing. We have an adjective that we use, excruciating, and it comes from the word crucifixion. Excruciating pain is really to describe the crucifixion that happened. Jesus was condemned unjustly, even though Pilate had said three times in official language, I find no fault in him, yet still he was condemned, he was beaten, and sentenced to death.
The beating and the lashings, the 39 lashes were unbearable and unmentionable as his bones and his flesh hung out. The Romans had five kinds of crosses. You can remember these by the letters of the alphabet.
One is like a capital I. It was just a stake, and they would put a man on the stake and nail or tie his hands and his feet to that stake. The second was like a capital T, it’s called the towel, and it had an upright piece, and then the cross piece was put on top and the criminal hung on that. The other is like a small T, the traditional cross, and this no doubt is what Jesus was crucified on with a little room left above his head to put a sign on it.
Then there was the Greek, and Saint Andrew himself was probably crucified on such a cross. Now this was a Roman death, not a Jewish death. The Jews did not put their people to death this way.
They stoned rather, but the Romans were in charge and the Jews asked them to, they did. A centurion was assigned to this task. He was given four soldiers for each criminal.
So in this case a centurion had three groups of four soldiers, and each of these groups of four soldiers would take care of that person. Usually the upright piece of the cross was already put in the ground, and the cross piece was laid upon the ground, and the criminal was stretched out upon that. They took seven to ten inch nails by that time made out of rough iron, and they drove those nails through the hand or wrist, crushing the bones of course, and fastening his arms to those cross pieces. They would take the feet, and they will do the same once he is hung on the cross.
They would offer him a narcotic by the way. When Mark says they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, it was a type of thing truly to deaden the pain, and Jesus refused it. He is going to bear the bitter dregs alone, and then that cross piece was raised up. The hands are excruciating. They hang him on a pre-prepared peg, and as he drops into place the arms come out of joint. They take his feet, they put them together, and they drive that nail through both feet together, crushing the bones, and let him hang there.
The only way he can keep from suffocating is to push himself up against that bottom nail, and of course his feet are crushed, and he’s pushing against the broken bones inside his feet, and that’s the only way he can stay alive. And yet crucifixions often last for a day, two days, and sometimes even into three days a person would hang like this. And yet this is what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Just as the Offerer of a lamb would bring that lamb before the high priest, and he would put his hands upon the head of that lamb, signifying my sins are upon this lamb, and then the priest would kill that lamb, the courtier, but that he was bearing the sins of all of us that day on that cross. If you die without the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are cast into hell, you will spend eternity in torment, and yet you will not be able to pay for your sins, and yet Christ bore them for you on that cross.
If you will accept his return. redemption. Well, first we think of the death. There were, there was a six hours on the cross from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. divided into two parts.
In the first three hours Jesus is hung on the cross. His bones are out of joint but not broken. His, his wrists are numb and his body is bleeding.
His back is so lacerated that when he pushes up against the nail in his ankles he rubs against that old rough cross on his back. And the first words to come out of the Savior’s mouth is, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. No guile was found in his mouth when he was reviled. He reviled not again.
When he suffered he threatened not but committed himself unto him that judges righteously. The soldiers at the foot of the cross began to divide his garments. It was their lot. They could take whatever was left over. So whatever he was wearing from his sandals to his belts to his garments to his hat they would take and divide. The inner garment was one piece woven from the top to the bottom. The only way they could divide that was to rip it apart. And so they cast lots and one of those soldiers got to go home with that woven garment that was underneath. Pilate said we’ll have to put something above his head on this traditional type cross.
So he made the plaque. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. And the Jews objected and said don’t say he is the king of the Jews.
Say he said he was the king of the Jews. And Pilate said what I have written I have written. And there he hangs on the cross and the people pass by and the passer buyers say if you really are the son of God show us that you are and come down off the cross right now.
Save yourself what a temptation some would have to show that he has the power to do that. To show that he is really the son of God and yet by coming down off the cross denying salvation for them and for everyone else that would ever live. So he hung on the cross because he was there for you and for me. And so the thief even on the cross the two thieves looked at him and one began to say the same thing. Why don’t you get us and you off of this cross. But the other looking across Jesus to the other thief said don’t you know we are here because we deserve to be here. And if we got what we deserve folks that is where we would be too.
But he said this man had done no wrong he doesn’t deserve to be here. And he turned and looked at Jesus and said remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said tonight you and I will have supper with the king. Tonight you will be with me in paradise. And as he is hanging there he looks down and he sees Mary and John the young disciple has gone and brought Mary and other women to the foot of the cross. And he says woman behold thy son this young man now will be your son.
And he looks at John and says behold your mother you take care of her concerned even to the dying moment for his mother’s welfare. Then darkness begins to come and the second three hours of the cross come upon them. And now God is beginning to turn his back on his very son who is hanging on the cross. And Jesus feeling that that the father is rejecting him and turning from him says Eli Eli Lama Sabatchanai which means my God my God why has thou forsaken me.
They thought that he cried for Eli. They said let’s stand and see if Elijah will come and save him from the cross. But no Jesus was not only suffering physical death he was suffering eternal separation from God in that moment too. As God the Creator and his very Father that has shared fellowship from all eternity turned his back on the second member of the Godhead because he was bearing our sins.
That spiritual separation from God that spiritual death is just as agonizing as the physical death. And then Jesus said to fulfill the scriptures I thirst. And no doubt he did thirst the hype of a limbic shock as I understand it would be due to the loss of all of the fluids in the body and the thirst would be excruciating in itself. And yet he said this to fulfill scriptures and they gave him wine vinegar meaning the bitter dregs that come from the bottom of the vat and they put that against his lip.
And then in an amazing moment he cried out and said to tell a sty it is finished. It is done. It is perfect. It is complete the word says. If a merchant man were shipping a shipment to someone he would seal that shipment and stamp it with a word to tell a sty which means everything that you have ordered everything that is required is in this package.
package. Jesus said to Tel Aviv, it is finished. No longer the one year covering of the Old Testament, no longer another sacrifice to cover it for a little while to postpone God’s wrath for another year. No, it is finished. It is complete and our salvation is done. And then Jesus looking into the Father says, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. And it says He gave up the ghost.
Do you want to know something? Jesus’ life was not taken from Him on the cross. He gave His life for you and for me.
In John 10, He said, Therefore, doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man take it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. Dwight Pentecost said of this, Christ did not die because His life slowly ebbed from His veins. His life was not taken from Him. Christ died because by an act of His own will, He dismissed His soul from His body. Christ was sovereign over His death as He was sovereign over His resurrection. Is there any doubt that He died on that cross? Is there any doubt that that was the end of His life as we talk about it? The human life that He came to this earth to take?
No, He died on that cross. There were some accompanying signs that happened at that same time. The veil of the temple all of a sudden was rent in two from the top to the bottom. Not from the bottom to the top as some human could do it, but from the top of it to the bottom. That veil was 60 feet high and 30 feet wide, and the material was six inches thick.
The hand breath thick. It was made from 72 squares. That was quite a quilting day when they made that piece of garment. The Jews said that it took 300 priests to even handle this piece of cloth. And yet in that moment that Jesus died, a piece of cloth that had been there this long and had been sturdy is ripped from the top to the bottom.
And why is that, folks? Because our real veil, which is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was torn in half for you and me, that we might have access to the holy place before God in heaven. Not only that, there was an earthquake at this time. Here is the creator of the world. Here is the one who sustains the world by the word of His power, and He is dying and the very earth that He made shakes underneath His feet. And at that time some bodies of the saints come back to life like Lazarus came back to life.
And no doubt they died later, but they were raised from the dead because now the one who has the keys of death and hell is descending into that place of the dead. And there is that centurion standing there with his men around him. And Matthew 27 says when the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly saying truly this was the Son of God.
It’s too bad that those of the rest of us can’t understand what that centurion could understand immediately. This was the Son of God. Then not only the death of Christ, but the burial of Christ.
Now it’s beginning to come towards sundown, and if it’s 3 p.m. and now a little bit after 3 p.m. at sundown Sabbath will begin, and the bodies cannot remain on the cross during the Sabbath day. It was against Jewish law. And so the Jewish leaders went to Pilate and said have someone break their legs so that they may die quickly so that we can get these bodies off the cross and cast them into the valley of Hanoi.
And so the soldiers were sent from Pilate to break their legs. And of course it was a mercy killing. Now the Romans may not have been smart about a lot of things, but they knew how to kill.
And they knew how to put a man to death when they needed to. And if they needed to die within a short space, then what they would do is break those legs so that those legs could no longer push against that nail that was through their ankle bones and could no longer relieve themselves to get enough air in their lungs and they would collapse and they would suffocate within minutes if not hours. And so they went to break their legs and when the prisoners is not dead, if one of their prisoners does not die, if he just swans on the cross, if he just fakes his death, then it will be their life for his. And so they take a spear and they run it into his side. And when they run that spear into his side, blood and what appears to be water comes out, a paracariol effusion, I think they call it.
And that is the fluid that is gathered around the heart during this time of torture now flows out with the blood from the heart. Did these Roman soldiers know when a man was dead, they knew he was dead. And so rather than to have his body thrown like the other criminals into the valley of Hanom where it would be piled on the trash heap and burnt there south of Jerusalem, two rich men, Joseph and Nicodemus, rich men who have been secretly believers. They’ve not told anyone yet that they are believers. They’re part of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews.
And they didn’t want anyone to know to this point that they were believers, but now they have to act quickly. Will his body be thrown in the trash heap or will they give it a decent burial? And so Joseph goes to Pilate and says, I have a tomb close by to the cross and if you will let me, I’ll take the body and I’ll bury it. And Pilate says, and you take it. And so out of the shadows and out of the hidden places come the two richest men in Jerusalem, Joseph and Nicodemus declaring themselves openly to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they come to the cross and they let the body down and they catch it. The Bible says in a linen cloth, he bought fine linen and took him down and wrapped him in the linen.
I want you to listen carefully. This word for linen here is Sindonai. It means like a blanket, a sheet, a large piece of material. And they let the body down off the cross and put him into this large sheet. Then they carried him from there to the tomb.
But once they’re in the tomb, they’re not going to bury him like that. But rather, the Bible is very specific that they are going to either take that piece of material or another piece and they’re going to rip it into strips and they’re going to begin to wrap each leg and each arm and his torso. John says, and he that was dead came forth, excuse me, they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen cloths, not Sindonai, but Athianos.
Athianos means strips. And so they do not bury him in the shroud that they took him off the cross with. They bury him by wrapping the arms and wrapping the legs and wrapping the torsos. What we might say is like a mummy. As a matter of fact, John goes on and says, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
And it was the manner of the Jews. This is how Lazarus was buried. In John 11 it says, when Lazarus was called out of the grave, he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave cloths, that is with these Athianos. And his face was bound with a napkin, exactly how they buried Jesus. And Jesus said unto him, unwrap him, loose him and let him go. And so if you hear that perhaps you can see the outline of Jesus on a shroud because he was this blanket was put over him in the bodily fluid soaked into this blanket and now they keep it in Turin, Italy.
And that you can see Jesus on that. Remember that John says he was wrapped in strips limb by limb and around his torso. And that’s the way he was buried. And so quickly they do that as quickly as they can, not able to do, put all the anointment on the body. And they have to push the stone, which is a large disc like stone over the grave.
It’s been prepared when the grave was prepared. The Jews would white wash these stones. And they called them white enceplocers. And they would white wash these stones so that if someone passing by happened to bump against the stone, they would not be defiled and they could still go on to to be in around the temple. And so they white washed them. Jesus said, yes, and you are like white washed sepulchers white on the outside, but inside you’re full of dead men’s bones.
And that’s the way we are without the cleansing of the Lord Jesus Christ in our heart. They rolled that stone in front of the tomb. And then the soldiers would come and they would put another stone vertical against it, lean it against that large stone. And then that is what they would seal.
And in order to roll the big stone, of course, the seal or the sealing stone would be pushed out of the way. And so the grave was sealed and it was shut. And that was that. And the disciples went home. You know, there’s a traditional story that says that that night the centurion was talking with Pilate’s wife. And as they were talking about what had happened that day, Pilate’s wife said, Do you think he’s dead? And the centurion looked at her and says, No man, I don’t. And she said, Well, then where is he? And he answered, He has let loose in the world where no Roman or Jew can ever stop him.
And that’s exactly what would happen. The death of Christ, the burial of Christ. But of course, Easter morning we think of the resurrection of Christ. We think of what happened on that Sunday morning. And here are a lot of chronologies about people coming to the tomb. This is where I heard the man say, Surely I can’t believe these stories because one says it this way, another says it this way. It didn’t take me long to check in books that have been written over the last several hundred years to find that the chronology of this had been made plain years ago.
Let me give it to you briefly. First of all, at this time, a group of women came first to the tomb. Mark 16, one when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome had brought sweet spices and that they might anoint him very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came under the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.
At that time, Mary Magdalene, who is younger, more nimble, runs ahead of this group of women and gets to the tomb first. So John 20 records the first day of the week, cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was very dark under the sepulcher and seeeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. And she returned with and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that’s John and he’s writing this, sayeth unto them, they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher and we do not know where they’ve laid him. Thirdly, the rest of the women arrived then after Mary is there and gone. And Mark 16 says, they said among themselves, who shall roll the stone away from the door for us? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was already rolled away for it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side clothed in a long white garment and they were afraid.
And then the other group, another group of women came right after them and it came to pass. Luke 24 says that they were very much perplexed. They’re about behold, two men stood by them in shining garments and they were afraid and bowed their faces to the ground and they said unto them, why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen.
Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. And then immediately after the women were there, Peter and John being told by Mary Magdalene that the grave was empty, come to the tomb. And John 20 has a long discussion about this and he says, Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulcher. So they ran both together and that other disciple did outrun Peter.
John sees it necessary to say he could run faster than Peter and came first to the sepulcher. And he’s stooping down looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, but he went not in. Then come a Simon Peter, following him and went right in to the sepulcher and seeeth the linen clothes lie. And the napkin that was about his head not lying with the linen cloths, I should say cloths because that would be proper to say, but rather wrapped together in a place by itself.
I want you to remember what they saw. They saw these linen strips that were wrapped around each limb and wrapped around his torso and they saw them lying here where he had been lying. And yet there is nobody in them and the strips have collapsed onto the stone in the outline of a man. And when it says that the linen clothes were lying, that word lie means to outline something. If a foundation is laid, the foundation creates an outline for the building.
And here was the outline of the body of Christ where these strips had been around all of the parts of his body and now they are flat on the stone. Why? Because that body has gone and been resurrected. Somebody says, I don’t know how God’s going to take all the people out of the graves one day. I don’t see how all the sods going to move or the gravestones are going to go out of the way.
They don’t have two folks. Those bodies can come out of those graves as easily as Jesus’ body came out of those graves. grave clothes.
And so they see that and go their way. Then number six, Mary Magdalene comes back to the grave. And of course this is where she sees Jesus but thinks she sees a gardener. And she sees the angel and the two angels sitting in white, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus was laying.
And she said, and she asks where you have taken them. And then she sees Jesus and thinks he’s the gardener and said he turns and says to her, Mary and she turned herself and said, Rabboni, which is to say master, she knew that this resurrected body in all of its shining glory, not with all of the blood but with the scars in his hand and his side still. But now in that resurrected body, she knew this was the Lord Jesus Christ. And then lastly Jesus appears to the women as they are going from the tomb. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, all hail. They came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. And Jesus is risen.
The death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is it hard to believe? Why is it that people have doubted that these things have happened? You know when Luke then writes the book of Acts, his second book, he says to Theophilus, I have written unto you and given you many infallible proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This doctor, this historian writing about the death of Christ.
Let me give you a few of those. The scriptures give many prophecies of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Psalm 16 says it will not be possible for Messiah’s body to corrupt in the grave. He did not sin and though he will bear our sin, his body will not be able to decay in the grave.
And Peter uses this of course in his great sermon, but Psalm 16, David writes, Therefore my heart is glad, my glory rejoiceth, my flesh shall rest in hope, thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine holy one, even to see corruption. So Jesus was fulfilling that prophecy. Jesus prayed to God the Father that he would resurrect him in the garden the night before. These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father the hour has come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
You think God would not answer that prayer? And Jesus of course himself predicted his resurrection. He said to the Jews, if you destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it up. And we’re told plainly he wasn’t talking about the brick and mortars of that second temple, but rather of his own body. And then there’s the empty tomb. Where did the body of Jesus go? The soldiers knew what happened.
These disciples knew what happened. Why did they never find a body? Why was that grave empty?
And it was empty. He is not here. He is risen.
Come and see the place where the Lord lay, the angel said. Not only that, these linen strips. How do you recreate that? How do you recreate linen strips lying on the stone and the body is gone? How can that happen unless this body has been resurrected, translated back to the presence of God where it will forever be?
Those linen strips lying in that outline form. And what about these 500 witnesses? And when Luke was writing this in Luke chapter one, and then later, when Paul writes in 51 AD to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 15, he says he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, and most of them are alive right now.
If you want to go ask them, ask them what happened. 500 witnesses, I think that would prove the case at any point. And then there are these 12 disciples, these 12 men who saw it all, who were there at the cross, who were there at the tomb, and these 12 men, I’m counting the apostle Paul also, these men, all of them died excruciating deaths themselves. Many of them by crucifixion, and others by other means of torture. And so you’re telling me that these men who knew it was a hoax, who knew they were pretending that Jesus rose from the dead, would be willing every last one of them to die a martyr’s death for what they knew to be a lie? No, they knew it.
it was the truth. And they knew that they would follow their Lord and be where he is. Horrible deaths, and yet they did. And add to that thousands, millions of others over 2,000 years have also gone to their death.
And if that isn’t enough, consider this. Then in 1,500 years of hard Jewish tradition, you don’t take a Jewish person born and bred in that type of tradition and just change his way of life overnight. But here we have thousands of people in Acts chapter one, not 50 days after, that used to go to the temple regularly and do all of the temple things. Now are no longer going to the temple, but are going down to the local church and sitting there listening to the speaker speak.
Who used to keep the Sabbath and never break the Sabbath law. Now are not doing that, but rather are meeting on Sunday morning and talking about the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Who used to keep the Passover every year and every detail of the Passover, no longer are doing that, but are keeping a simple thing called communion, the Lord’s Supper with some Christians at the church. Who used to keep all the dietary laws and make sure that they didn’t eat anything that was unclean. Now said, I am fully convinced of God that everything is permitted for us to eat. Who used to segregate themselves from the Gentiles.
Now joint hands with Gentiles and call them brothers and sisters in Christ. Maybe that’s the greatest miracle of it all. To realize that Jesus Christ really did come out of that grave.
And he came out for you and for me. I think the story’s true of a father in a car and he had his young son in the car. And his young son happened to be terribly allergic to bee stings and if he ever got stung by a bean, it would be fatal if he didn’t take care of it immediately. And a bee got into the car and was flying around and the son was hysterical.
Realized the danger that he was in and screaming and crying. And father pulled over and stopped the car and found the bee and put his hand over it and grabbed the bee in his hand. And held the bee and soon the son kind of calmed down and was quiet again. And then after a little bit he rolled the window down and he let the bee go. And the bee started flying around inside the car again and the son immediately began to get anxious again until the bee went out and the father said, son you don’t have to be. You see right here in my hand is the stinger of that bee. I took the sting for you so that he can’t harm you anymore.
You remember that the scripture says, don’t you? Oh death where is thy sting? Oh grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He took all of this for you and me. He took this that we might not have to suffer the sting of death if our sins are covered by his blood. If we have come to him by saving faith and ask him to be our savior. And that is a big if because God says that’s our responsibility.
He did his part, you must do yours. You must reach out and say yes I will receive this salvation myself. And I trust that you know the Lord Jesus Christ and if you don’t that you would not let a time like this and an opportunity to receive him go by and not leave this place without knowing that you have eternal life from the Lord Jesus Christ also. I want you to stand with me now if you will. And as we stand let’s bow our heads before we open our song book and sing a few verses of a song.
Let’s bow our heads before him. Father in heaven thank you for your word. Thank you for the reliability of this book. Thank you that it is still here and we are still reading it and trusting it. And Father I thank you for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for the burial to assure that he was dead but for the resurrection of Christ that brings us hope of eternal life. Thank you Father that we can come to you in faith and simply trust the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins and to become our savior. And so Father I pray now you would assure our hearts those of us who have placed our faith and trust in you and you would Father make us glad and rejoicing in our spirit for such salvation that we have. And then Father for those who don’t know Christ to savior maybe there’s one or two or some here today. And I pray Father that they and humble spirit would bow their heart and say oh God I’m a sinner and I need Jesus Christ to save me from my sin. And I pray Father they would not leave here lost. And maybe they would come even as we sing this song and they would have someone show them these verses from the scripture of how to receive Christ to savior. May they do that for their eternal soul’s sake. Now Father bless in this time that we sing in Jesus name.
Amen. Familiar song on page 332 just as I am. We’ll sing just three or four verses of this song. You may come and pray here
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