He deleted what he set out to do, which was not merely to make salvation hypothetically possible for whoever might, of their own volition, choose to believe. He didn't put it out there just as kind of an option, but rather he died effectively to purchase the salvation of his own. Think of Isaiah 53, 8. about the suffering servant who is Jesus Christ. These vivid prophecies about the suffering servant all the way back in the Old Testament in Isaiah 53, verse 8 says that he is stricken for the transgression of my people. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him who have, all of us, we've gone astray, and yet our sins were put on Jesus. We see from this that Jesus died for his people. He died specifically, intentionally, and effectively for his people. And therefore, his people will be saved. His death is effective. He accomplished what he came to do. We see this truth so vividly Jesus' words in John 10, where again, we are referred to as sheep. But in this case, it's metaphorical. And Jesus is a good shepherd. He's our shepherd. He's the good shepherd. He says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. And so the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for you. He made our salvation by purchasing even our regeneration Even our new birth. He gives to his sheep new hearts that then respond to him in faith. This is how Jesus' death is effective. He accomplished his mission by purchasing everything for our salvation. So when we read this word from the cross, when Jesus declares it is finished, It is finished. It's such a cause for joy and gratitude. Jesus paid it all, as we were just singing. He paid it all. Everything needed to bring us into a right relationship with Him, to overcome our rebellion and draw us to Himself and save us. The next thing I want to talk about is the fact that Jesus gave His life. This is a voluntary thing on Jesus' part. He voluntarily gave up his life for us. This is the last statement in verse 30, that Jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit. So all the way through to the very last breath, Jesus is in control of the situation. He chooses, he knows when he is going to relinquish his life. Jesus died voluntarily. And we see this earlier on in the narrative, too. He didn't plead his innocence, did he? He didn't resist. We see this in his trials. Before Caiaphas, Jesus was silent. Before Pilate, he did not defend himself. Before Herod, he made no answer. Jesus could have defended himself. He could have demonstrated very clearly. He did this for us. He voluntarily gave up his life for us and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. in heaven we will stand before the lamb who was slain just think of it christian think of that celebration in heaven that we will stand before the lamb who is slain our lord and king and we will behold His glory, we will be thanking Him for His mercy and His grace to us, praising Him for who He is for endless ages. That's what we will experience. We will magnify His grace by reflecting on His sacrifice for sinners, His sacrifice for me. Just think of that very personally for yourself. We'll be praising Him that He saved me, that He went to that cross and bore my shame. And collectively, too, we will corporately worship Him, that He bore our shame, He stood in our place and died to redeem us as a people to be with Him forever. We'll eternally marvel at this reality, that He accomplished His mission. This mission that He and the Father had agreed to in eternity past, He accomplished it for us. And we'll worship Him for eternity, for ages upon ages. And we'll marvel at the fact that he did this voluntarily. He gave his life. He submitted to the father's plan, cooperating with the father in this glorious We might wonder why John gave us the names of the women who were witnessing this. In our passage that we were studying last week, verse 25, four women are named. still at the time when these documents were beginning to circulate. Another evidence that Jesus really died is in the actions of the soldiers who would have broken the legs of Jesus if he had still been alive. The Jews, as we look through these verses, we can see that the Jews, they wanted the bodies down from the crosses before the Sabbath began. Saturday. And this was not just any Sabbath. This was a high day. This was the Passover. So this was a very special time. in their calendar, in the year. This was a very special Sabbath that they were observing. And so they wanted the bodies off of the crosses before the Sabbath began. And maybe the Jewish leaders were also thinking that this would be an additional way to humiliate and discredit Jesus. So they made this appeal to Pilate. The Jews made this appeal to Pilate. And then the soldiers came. They broke the legs of the one criminal. broke the legs of the other criminal. Jesus is already dead. He appeared to be human. He wasn't really completely human. It's kind of like he came to this world with his six inches off the ground. He didn't appear as a fully human. But God wants to push against that. So the error of that. references to Jesus' burial. It's interesting to note that outside of the Gospel accounts, outside of the Gospels, the Apostle Paul is the only one who refers to, who specifically mentions the burial of Jesus Christ, and he does this in four places. Four times we find him referring to Jesus' burial. St. Cliff Hall wants to stress the finality of Jesus' death. He was really dead. I'm talking about here. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices as is the burial custom of the Jews. The Jews did not embalm like the Egyptians did. What they did do, they used myrrh and aloes, these spices that would serve to stifle the stench of a decaying body. So they would wrap these claws with the myrrh and the aloes and wrap it around the dead body. What's not typical here, what's a bit unusual here that we see is the amount of spices used in this burial. Verse 39 tells us that Nicodemus provided about 75 pounds. That's a lot, a lot of spices used in Jesus' burial. What this points to is that this was a royal kind of burial given to Jesus. It was overseen by a couple of wealthy men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. These were wealthy men. There are other examples in ancient literature of royal funerals using very large amounts of spices. Listen to what Leon Morris writes about this detail in our passage. He says, we have seen how throughout the narrative that tells of Jesus' arrest and trial and execution, John has stressed the kingship motif. It seems that he is keeping it up right to the end and bringing out the thought in the burial arrangements. Jesus may have been crucified in the manner of a criminal. Listen to this. Jesus may have been crucified in the manner of a criminal, but he was buried in the manner of a king. Despite what the chief priests and Romans might think, in his death, Jesus is sovereign. God does not let the reader forget this. the location of a guarded tomb, which anticipates the appearance of the next chapter. If you count the first section, there were named individuals who witnessed the death and the burial, the location of the tomb, and who then witnessed that same tomb emptied on Sunday morning. The other gospel says, follow me, that means women, follow me. Well, now let's consider further this individual, Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph, we know from the other gospels, was a respected member of the council. What does that mean? Well, he was part of the Sanhedrin. He was part of the ruling council of the Jews, the Jewish leaders. And this is really surprising because of what we know about the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is this group of Jewish leaders who had condemned Jesus to death, that they were against Jesus. They were his enemies, his opponents. They were the ones who orchestrated these things to bring Jesus to the cross. They brought false testimony against Jesus. They charged him with blasphemy. They then convinced Pilate to crucify him. Joseph was part of that group. He was one of those guys. And he wasn't just on the bottom rung of that exclusive club. He was highly esteemed among them. I mean, he was one of the leaders among the leaders. He was the elite among the elite of the religious power structure. He had a very high position and therefore he had a lot to lose if he went against the system, if he went against his peers, if he went against the unanimous decision of the rest of the group. But that's exactly what he ended up doing. He was willing to give up his esteemed position He was willing even to risk his life because of his devotion to Jesus. In Luke's description of Joseph, it says that he had not consented to the Sanhedrin's decision and action. That would have been a pretty significant stand to take against the rest of the council. And then he even goes so far as to approach Pilate and request Jesus' body, to take Jesus' body and bury it. And that could have cost Joseph his life. I mean, that was a risky, risky move for him to openly identify himself and offer to help a man who had been condemned to execution. Mark's Gospel tells us that Joseph took courage. He took courage. This wasn't easy for him. He had to really step out and embolden himself to do this. It was a great risk. So we see Joseph as a man of faith and of courage. He was also a man who was fearful, though, and we see that here, too. The account here in John's Gospel highlights this in verse 38. You see that? Did you catch that little description, that detail? That he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews. So we see Joseph as a man of faith and courage, but also who was fearful in ways. He was a disciple of Jesus who was filled with trust and courage on the one hand, but also filled with fear on the other hand. And I don't know about you, but I'm so glad to see details like this in the Bible. I'm so glad that the Bible gives us these things, shares these things with us. The Bible shows us men and women who had the same kind of tension in their lives that we too experience. There's faith, yes, but there's also fear. I mean, can you identify with that? There's the desire to be courageous and to take risks for Jesus, but there's also anxiety and worry and fear of what might happen to us if we do step out and take those risks. Nicodemus was similar, who is also mentioned here. Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus, remember when he came to Jesus? In the dark of night, kind of secretly came to Jesus to learn more about Him. That was in John 3. Well, Nicodemus too, as we understand, was part of the Sanhedrin. He was a ruler of the Jews, and he was secretive about his interest in learning from Jesus. But now, Like Joseph, now we see him coming out of the dark, openly assisting in the burial of Jesus. This seems to me to be pretty good evidence that Nicodemus had experienced the miracle of being born again. That crucial reality that Jesus had taught him about back in John 3. So as we think about Joseph of Arimathea, as we think about Nicodemus, Men who had been secretive, who had been fearful, but who finally emerged with boldness and courage. We should be encouraged by what we see here. By examples of individuals who struggled and succeeded by the grace of God in these ways. These guys had been fearful. I imagine they continued to have some bouts with fear as they continued on. But God gave them the grace to be bold and risk-taking and to have the joy of serving Jesus in this way. That should embolden us. That should spur us on to take great risks. for the cause of Christ. Even if we're scared, even if there's a lot to lose, even if our reputation is at stake, or even our very life, Jesus is worth it to identify with Him, to follow Him. I challenge you this week to put yourself in the shoes of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and think about what that might look like in your life. What are you scared of? What are the pressures in your life that make you want to be a secret follower of Jesus? I'll just keep this to myself. I'll just keep this under the radar. And then pray to God to give you the faith and the courage like He gave to Joseph and to Nicodemus when they broke free from the bondage to that fear and went against the rest of the Sanhedrin. What might that kind of boldness look like in your life, even this week, as you interact with others in your family or in your neighborhood? What might that look like in the break room tomorrow at work or with your peers at school? Another thing to point out here is yet another prophecy fulfilled. Isaiah 53, 9 says, And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. This is an Old Testament prophecy written centuries before Jesus came to earth and we have the details there already of the suffering servant who would die with the wicked. We've seen that. There were criminals who died on either side of him. And also that he would be buried in a rich man's tomb. So this is all a fulfillment of the prophecy from Isaiah 53. And it's yet another indication of Jesus' innocence as well, because it is written in the New Testament that he's not a violent, that he's not deceitful. Now, Joseph recognized that. And that's why he wanted to grant Joseph permission to do this, to take down Jesus' body and bury it. I want to close just by talking for a minute here about the power of the gospel because we see it as Jesus, even as Jesus dies on the cross. I also talked about the soldiers who were there at the crucifixion. We know from Matthew's gospel that some of the soldiers believed the centurion had been with them. What an amazing thing to add Joseph and Nicodemus to this list of people who were being drawn to Jesus even as he died on the cross. And it makes us think about how God is powerful and gracious to save all kinds of sinners. He saves Jews and Gentiles. He saves the Pharisee, and the centurion, and the criminal. He saves all these different kinds of people. He saves legalists and libertines. He saves religious folks and pagan fools. He saves those who foolishly think they can save themselves by keeping their laws. And he saves those who hate the rules and go out of their way to break them. I pray that you will look away from yourself and recognize your need for Jesus. Trust in him. Follow him. Go against the tide of peer pressure. Your religious friends especially might not like it, but be bold to tell them about the wonderful power of the gospel. Well, there's so much for us to think about and learn from in the details of Jesus' death and burial as we've studied here at the end of John 19. We look forward to next Sunday when we'll move into Chapter 20. God, we thank you again for your word. And I thank you for this church, for this hunger to learn from your word, study your word. Thank you that we can spend this time together each Lord's Day looking deeply into your word and digging for treasures that are going to impact our lives. And I pray that we will continue to reflect on these throughout the week, each and every day. living in light of the realities of Jesus' death and his resurrection and all that that means for us. Amen.