If you found your way there in Matthew 27 this morning, we're going to be looking at verses 57 through 66. Matthew 27, 57 through 66. And if you found your way there, if you'll stand with me for the reading of God's Word. When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. And he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. And Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the grave. Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate and said, Sir, we remember that when he was alive, that deceiver said, After three days I am to rise again. Therefore give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise his disciples may come and steal him away and say to the people, he has risen from the dead, and the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, you have a guard, go make it as secure as you know how. And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. You may be seated. The title of the message this morning is The Blessing of Being There for It. The Blessing of Being There for It. We go through a lot of moments in our lives. There's a couple of different words for time. in the scriptures. One of them is chronos, where we get our word chronology. That's minutes, seconds, hours, days, months, weeks, and years. And there's kairos, which is a moment in time. We know the difference, don't we? There's wonderful moments in your life. If you've ever been there when a baby's been born, it's a wonderful moment. It's an incredible moment to see that baby that has been there all along in the womb that you haven't seen, but to see it revealed that there's something miraculous there when that happens. The same thing happens when someone dies. Even though that's hard, if you've been there when you've seen somebody take their last breath and you've seen the person that was there was no longer there anymore, there's a moment there where there's a body there, but there's not a person there anymore. You think about marriage, some of the weddings that I've been able to witness where you see two people who love the Lord more than they even love each other come together in that covenant bond of marriage as a public witness of Christ and His bride, the church, coming together. The grand marriage that's over everything else that we've seen in history. There's these life moments. And I think about generational moments. For some of you, you can remember very specifically where you were at when you heard about the JFK assassination. That was a generational moment for you that stands out in your mind. For some of you, it could have been something like Pearl Harbor. When you got the news of Pearl Harbor and you realized, I never thought that this could happen here. I thought it could happen overseas, but never here at home, and how shocking that was. I'm an old millennial, I'm almost 35, and for my generation it was 9-11. I could go to my high school right now and show you where I was standing at when I first heard that there was an explosion at a tower in New York. that is seared into the mind of my generation. Every generation has those things. For my children, it will probably be COVID-19 will probably be their generational moment that is going to make an impact on that entire generation. What we're looking at here in the text today is a moment that didn't just affect the generation, it affects all generations. It's the moment in history. And I want to talk about the blessing of being there for it. Because Matthew's point here is there were some people that were there for this moment and it was unlikely people. It wasn't the disciples. It was these other figures and so. I want us to look at these other figures in the text here today. That were there for it and ask ourself what is the blessing of being there for it? The first one that I want you to see is that Joseph was there for it. Look again at verses 57 through 60. When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. And he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. Joseph was there for it. This moment in history. Jesus has only been buried once. It will never happen again, by the way. And Joseph was there for it. So what do we know about Joseph? We don't see a lot about him in the Bible. He seems to have just come out of nowhere. Joseph was a leader. We know this because the four Gospels give us different clues and different details because the writers are concerned with different audiences about this man Joseph. But the one thing that you need to remember about Joseph is that he was providentially positioned. He was providentially positioned. He was in the right place at the right time with the right ability and the right authority to do what he did here so that he could be there for it. Joseph of Arimathea was one of the Sanhedrin. This group of Sanhedrin that this whole time has been conspiring against Jesus and dealing with trying to kill Jesus and doing these kind of things, Joseph was actually a part of these conversations. Joseph was in this group that did more against the ministry of Jesus than anyone else. And because of this, Joseph had political access to Pilate, because he was one of the Sanhedrin. So when he comes and asks for the body of Jesus, Pilate may very well assume that it was the Sanhedrin who were asking for the body of Jesus, which is why he was able to get there. If Joseph would have been anyone else at any other time in any other position, he would never have been able to come into Pilate's court and ask for the body of Jesus. But he was providentially positioned to be the one to come in and do it. In fact, Joseph wasn't just a leader, but he was also a follower. The scripture says that Joseph actually voted against what they were doing for Jesus, even in the Sanhedrin that he stood against him. And he wasn't the only one. It says that he was a secret disciple of Jesus. But do you remember another member of the Sanhedrin? His name was Nicodemus. One of the other gospel writers says that Nicodemus was with Joseph when he came to get Jesus' body. And remember, when Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said, teacher, we know that you are from God. Who's he talking about? There were at least these two men, if not more, within the Sanhedrin, at the very top of Jewish leadership, who were persuaded, who were convinced, who had been born again and believed that Jesus was the Messiah, that he was the salvation for Israel. Sometimes we tend to mark these groups, we think of Pharisees or others, and we think everybody in that group is awful. We don't do that today, right? We don't ever just label a group and assume that everybody's awful. But we think about that with the Pharisees, and the reality is, is Jesus died for Pharisees too. Jesus died for the Sanhedrin too. Whoever that group is in your mind that you've just written off, these people or whatever label it is that you want, Jesus died for them too. So he voted against it. He was a secret disciple, and he was a friend of Nicodemus. And so this whole story is playing out. Think about all the interactions that Jesus had all this time. We're coming to the end of Matthew after three years here, so you guys that have been with us know. You know this story. We've walked through it of where we've been and all these encounters that he's had. How many of these encounters that he's had where he has rebuked, where he has corrected, where he has taught, where he has performed miracles? Countless number of these Joseph probably personally witnessed he was probably there and while he was silent this whole time He was believing God that God had given him faith. He was he was trusting in Jesus for his salvation and at the right moment Joseph had the blessing of being there of being there for it so even though he had been in the shadows even though he had been in the background of He was there for it when it mattered, when it counted. And He had been around for the miracles. He had been around for the teaching. He had been around for the conversations leading up to the crucifixion. He had been around the day of the crucifixion. He had been around and seen all these things. But when the time came for Jesus to come down for the cross, when they were gonna take His body and throw it in a garbage dump with everybody else, He was there at the right moment. He was there for it. That was his role, and that's his role in Scripture. As I said, we don't see a whole lot about him. There's a lot of people that God uses that we don't see a whole lot about, but they're providentially positioned. They're in the right place at the right time for the right task, and there's probably countless others throughout Scripture that we don't know their names, we don't know who they are, but they were in the right place at the right time because of the providence of God. Just think about this. Wesley did a really good job last week of painting this picture of trying to put ourselves mentally at the cross. Having to look at Jesus. The thing he said to me last week that stood out to me was the fact that the cross was not that high off the ground. That you could look Jesus in the eye while they're doing this. And he brought us to that place of seeing that. And they take his body down, which almost isn't even a body anymore. It's so destroyed, you couldn't even recognize it was a human being. And he takes this body down off of the cross, and he's wrapping it, right? He's getting this clean linen, and he's wrapping the body of Jesus, a man that he had heard teach now for years, that he had kind of watched from a distance, the Savior. This man knew the law. He knew the Old Testament. He knew the prophecies that were being fulfilled. And now he's looking at God's Messiah, at the chosen one that God has sent, the one who was supposed to crush the head of the serpent, that all of Israel has been waiting for. And he's holding this man's body and looking. And the thing that hit me is, in this moment, he saw the same thing that Simeon saw. You remember Simeon was in the temple and the Holy Spirit told Simeon, before you die, you will get to see the salvation of Israel. You will get to see the Lord's anointing one. And Mary and Joseph brought this little baby into the temple and Simeon holds him and says, I can die in peace now because my eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord. and he saw a baby, a new baby that didn't have any scars, that looked like a human being, that had facial features, and was breathing, and was alive. He held this baby, and Joseph held this man, and they both saw the same thing in that moment. That somehow, he had the faith of Abraham, Because Hebrews says that Abraham wasn't playing around when he was going to kill his son. Abraham believed, God promised me that I'm going to have a posterity from this son, and even if I kill him, God will raise him from the dead to keep his promise, because God's that good for his word. And somehow Joseph and Nicodemus are now looking at this man and thinking, this doesn't make sense. This is not how the Messiah is supposed to be. It's supposed to be the emperor like this. It's not supposed to be Jesus like this. And yet somehow we have the faith to believe that God's going to do something. Somehow his promise is still true while we're holding this body. And he saw what Simeon saw in the same man. He was there for it. The disciples missed this moment. Think about the great ministry that Peter had, and yet Peter missed it. He missed this moment because he wasn't there. Even John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was the only one that was at the cross with his mother, and he missed it. We don't know where he's at, it doesn't say. But in this moment, as Joseph and Nicodemus, these two men that everyone would have assumed would have been Jesus' greatest enemies, are now wrapping his body carefully, putting it into a brand new hewn tomb. Not a cave that somebody can sneak around in and steal, but a very expensive hewn tomb that they're putting him into. So let me ask you this morning, How are you providentially positioned in this season of your life? Nicodemus is not the only one. He was in the right place at the right time with the right influence to be able to do something for God. And every single one of you is in that same place. In fact, contrary to what you might believe, if you're not even a Christian, you're still in that place. Because Pilate wasn't where he was by accident either. No one is. So where are you at in your life right now with the influence that you have? Mom, you have influence over your kids. There is a moment in time that you have right now to do something with your children that once it's gone, it will be gone. And if God's going to do something in your family, you want to be there for it. You want to be there for that moment. That coworker that you know needs to hear the gospel. And we're just really busy, we don't have time. When they die in a car accident this weekend, you're gonna be sad that you missed the moment. You have to be there for the moment to receive the blessing. Joseph was there when it counted, and he used what he had for the Lord in that moment. Nobody else could have done what Joseph did. God had that specific plan for him in the plan of Jesus' ministry in his burial, and he has a plan for you. You are not where you are with what you are, being who you are by accident. So where are you providentially positioned in this season of your life? And then the following question is, how are you going to use that to serve Jesus? Maybe you have influence with certain people. Maybe you have a skill that allows you to do things that other people can't do. Whatever it is, whatever opportunity you have that other people don't have, what are you going to do for Jesus? In this season of my life, I don't have to be here. I have brother pastors that oversee this church, that faithfully preach the word, that can care for you. I don't have to be here. And that's why we're going. Because the church we're going to doesn't have a pastor. They don't have anybody to be there for them. They're like sheep without a shepherd. We are providentially positioned to be sent out of this church to bless another church. Pastor Chris is not providentially positioned to do that, or Wesley. They are not at a season in their life with the situation that they're in to be free to go and do that, and I am, and that's part of how I know that we're doing what God wanted us to do because we can. That's part of how you know. So how are you probably in a position, and how are you going to use that to serve Jesus? There's another group here that I want you to see, and that's the women. The women were there for it. Look at verse 61. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary sitting opposite the grave. Now that's one verse that you see them there, and it's easy to just read on by, but they were there for it. This moment. the greatest moment in history, these women were there for it. In fact, if you read the Bible, contrary to the feminist nonsense that you hear in the culture against Christianity, the Bible speaks very favorably about women. And Jesus treated women very well, especially compared to the standard of his day. And God the Father, in his sovereign plan, has always used women to accomplish his purposes, even right here. If you look throughout the history of the church and the early church, even in this text, if you just go back and read over Matthew chapter 27 and look at how many times it talks about women, what you don't see, except for a verse here or there, is almost every story that happens, there's women in the story. They might not be the main characters in there, but everything that's going on behind the scenes, how do you think Jesus and his disciples ate every day? They didn't have a kitchen. They didn't live anywhere. Somehow, somebody was paying for all this. We know from the book of Acts that it was Lydia that basically bankrolled the apostles, almost single-handedly in some cities and said, I got a place for you to stay, I got servants, I got food, I got this business, you come in here and preach the gospel, I'll take care of everything. That was a woman that did that, a businesswoman. The Bible speaks very favorably about the role of women in God's plan. Now, they weren't the apostles, But how were the apostles able to do the ministry that they did? Because they weren't having to do everything else. Because there were teams of women behind them saying, we've got it under control here, you go out and do the ministry. I thank God that I have a wife that does that. Every pastor needs a good wife. I would dare say you would find a successful pastor that does not have a godly wife supporting him. It would be a very rare thing to have. I would not fare very well at all on my own. It is not good for man to be alone, that's what God said. The women were there for it. Even in this situation. Now who are these women? Mary Magdalene. Again, we don't know a lot about her. There's theories and things like that. But what we do know for sure is the other gospel writers say that Mary Magdalene at one point was possessed by seven demons. And Jesus cast seven demons out of her. And then she began to follow him. Now one of the things that my family has experienced in recent weeks is some pretty intense spiritual warfare. I don't know if you guys know this, but when you're providentially positioned and you're trying to go serve the Lord, God has a plan and he will accomplish his purpose, but you will have resistance. And boy, we've had some resistance. And I felt that. And I haven't been demon possessed. I can't be demon possessed, praise God. But this woman had seven demons, not one demon, seven demons. I can't even imagine what it was like in this woman's mind to live in this way of constantly... By the way, demons are not your friends. They don't want what's good for you. Their desire is to torment you. And to have seven supernatural powerful beings working around the clock to torment you would be a horrible life. I don't even know how to describe it more than that, but I just can't imagine how horrible this woman's life was and what she was being led into and what she was having to experience, not only spiritually, but probably physically. And when Jesus came in and cast those demons out, that woman, if that doesn't symbolize being born again, I don't know what was. That was a totally different woman. You don't talk about being set free. You want to talk about being given new life, a forgiveness of cleansing. Imagine the cleansing feeling of being tormented for who knows how long by seven demons. And then it's just quiet. It's just gone. And all you see in front of you is the son of God. If that doesn't make you want to follow him, I don't know what will. And that's what Mary Magdalene saw. And that's why she's always in the background, because she already knew what Peter confessed. Lord, where will we go? You're the one that has the words of life. Who else are we going to go to? She knew firsthand, I know who Jesus is. I know what his power is. I don't need to go into anybody else. Why would I waste my time doing anything else in my life other than following Jesus? Because she recognized he's only here for a moment, and she wanted the blessing of being there for it, of all of it. Even the death part, even the crucifixion part, not just the miracle part like some people, or the food like some people. They want to be there for those moments, but they don't want to be there when God's really doing something. Sometimes, especially in our American culture, we look for a sensational miracle. What you just saw was representative of the actual miracle. Not the water. Not any of that, but a person saying, I was dead and now I'm alive. I have received in my spirit now the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead. Or as Paul said, I am crucified with Christ and yet I live, but it is not I that live, it is Christ that lives in me. You just witnessed somebody testifying that. So why are we looking for God to make somebody's one leg longer than the other one like you do on TV or You know, we want people to cure, we want people to be able to cure cancer, okay? I don't know anybody that likes cancer. Cancer's horrible. And if you've been through it, if you've had something that's been through it, it's awful. But do you know what requires more power than curing cancer? Raising someone from the dead requires more power. And guess what, church? We see that all the time. Because we're there for it. We're there for that moment when we see it, and Mary wanted to be there for it. Now who's this other Mary? Now if you thought Mary Magdalene was a nobody, then the other Mary, I mean, how would you like being named Mary here? It's like, you're not the mother of Jesus, you're not the demon-possessed lady, you're just some lady. You don't get some kind of cool role in the story or anything like that. You're just the other Mary. That's not a very glorious position to be in. But what we do know from Scripture is that she had a son, and her son was James the Less, who was one of Jesus' apostles. So who is this other Mary? We don't know a lot about her other than her boy was one of the followers of Jesus, was one of the twelve apostles. And the fact that she's here in this moment, and she's ready to serve Jesus, even in his death, indicates that she was also a follower of Jesus. It wasn't just her son. In fact, who knows, it may have been her son that actually led her to the Lord. Nobody knows. But she has a role here. And so, these women were there for it because they were prepared to follow. They were ready to follow Jesus as far as it went, all the way to the tomb. It says they're sitting on the other side of the tomb. Imagine again, for a minute, being out in this garden and sitting across from this tomb. And you're watching this happen. You're watching Jesus' body get wrapped. You're watching these men put him in there. You're watching them roll the stone. You're seeing the guards come. You can't do anything about it. You're just sitting there. But think about it for a second. It's not like the movies. There's no background music. No cars driving by, road noise, light pollution like we have here. It's not like going to the graveyard up the road. It's quiet. Totally quiet. There's nobody else out there. Why? Nobody cares. Nobody cares that the son of God is getting put into a tomb. except these two guys that you see carrying him in there. And you're sitting there as this woman and you're saying, how could he deliver me from seven demons? And now he's here and I'm out here. I'm supposed to be the one that's in the grave. And imagine the terror of saying this was our only hope. We have no one else to hope in. We know for sure that he was the Messiah and he's dead. What are we going to do now? What's going to happen to us? Can we even be forgiven of our sins? He promised us that if we trusted in Him, we could be forgiven of our sins. What is He gonna do now? How can He forgive sins like this? The desperation and the grief of these women, and they still follow them. They still follow them. But they weren't just prepared to follow, they were prepared to serve. Well, how do we know that? Because Luke in his gospel says that they brought with them spices and perfumes for the anointing of Jesus' body. And so they would put these spices and perfumes with some sap that was sticky. They would put it on the fabric and then wrap it, and it would stick, and it would just help things not smell as bad. Now, mind you, if these people all believe that Jesus is gonna be raised from the dead in a couple days, why are they bothering to wrap his body? It's not gonna decay and smell bad, because he's gonna be risen from the dead. They thought he was dead. They thought he was going to stay dead. This is the reason why they did it. So they didn't just follow him, but they were prepared to serve him even in his death. And imagine again, if you've been there, if you've been to a funeral or you've been at that hospital bed when somebody's gone, and you're thinking, how many times did I sit at the table and eat with this person? How many times were they there for me in the moments of my life? All these memories are flooding back in of everything that you've been through with this person, and then they're there, and there's nothing that you can do for them. They're gone. That's what these women are feeling here. But they were still there for it. The disciples weren't there. Peter wasn't there. But these women were there. How far are you willing to go to follow Jesus? For all we know, these women thought in their minds that they would go to hell when they died. Because there might not be any real forgiveness of sins because he's dead. Because the Messiah, the deliverer of Israel, is dead. And they still followed him anyways. One of the things that my son just said was, I don't want to just follow Jesus to get out of hell. I want to be with Him. And it was enough for them to be with Him, even in His death, with no promise of resurrection, with being uncertain about the future. How many times did we not follow God Because we want more information on the other side. If you'll just make it a little clearer for me, God, then I'll take that step. If you could just explain to me what it is that you're working on and doing, then I'll step out and do that. I will follow you to the ability that I'm comfortable or that I'm able to comprehend what's going on. You're never going to see God do anything in your life that way. Because you're not going to get the blessing of being there for it. You're gonna, the only blessing you're gonna receive is what you have right now. You think about the besetting sins in your life, like I just can't get victory over this sin, or I'm just in this life situation that's just really hard and I don't know how to get out of it, or I'm really wrestling over some big decision that I have to make and I don't know what to do. Well, you're just gonna sit there and wrestle as long as you're not willing to have faith to step out and follow God. But if you are willing to be there for it and say, God, I know that you're going to do something there. I don't know what it is. I don't know how you're going to do it, but I see you working and I'm going to be a part of it. There's a blessing for you. This is the explanation of why my family is going to New York. You know how many family members I have in New York? Zero. Do you know how many times I've been to New York? Three weeks ago when we went and visited was the first time I've been in the state of New York. We don't know anybody. I don't know what God's going to do. Y'all, this church has eight members on the roll. They had high attendance when we were there. They had 35 people there. How is God going to do anything with any of that? I don't know, but I want to be there for it. I want to be there when it happens. Maybe it's just one that's going to be saved and I'm going to be there. And that has to be good enough for me. And it has to be good enough for you to be there for it. Are you gonna be ready to serve him when he calls? I'm not talking about being a missionary. I'm not talking about being a church planter. I'm not talking about being anything. I'm talking about where you are right now. What are you willing to do for him? What are you willing to sacrifice for him? When I say that, you think to yourself, it's easy to say, well, here's all these other things. Now think about the thing that didn't come to your mind. That's what you need to let go of. What is it that you're holding on to? I will follow him this far, but I'm not gonna follow him any further than that. That's called idolatry. These women were gonna follow him even if they got nothing out of it. Even if they ended up dying in their sins, they were still gonna follow him anyways. What if you get nothing out of coming to church? That message didn't really speak to me or that music, you know, that's not really my cup of tea. I hear people say that all the time. What if you get nothing? Is he still worth it? What if you come to this church for 50 years and never see anybody get saved? Is it worth it? We don't follow him because of what we get out of it. You've already got everything. You have an inheritance. You are a joint heir with Christ. You didn't just receive an inheritance, you received the inheritance of the firstborn. In other words, everything. The scripture says we have all of the riches in glory. And we want a better service or a better program or a better whatever. What could we possibly get in this life that is better than what we have already been given? I'm glad that Jesus didn't get arrested in the garden and say, what's in it for me? What are you people gonna do for me? Well, that's not good enough, so I'm gonna go back to Nazareth. Or when he was scourged, which killed most people, and endured that, and we're gonna nail you to a cross now. No, I think I'm gonna go see the doctor. What's in it for me? What am I gonna get from this? These people, half these people ran away. They won't even stay with me now. What are they gonna do for me later? What's in it for me? I'm glad that he went all the way to the tomb. I'm glad that he did more for me than I can do for him. Because if we're looking at even scales here, there's no salvation for us. If all he was trying to do is mitigate justice, he never needed to step out of heaven. He could have just judged all of us in our sins. It would have been mercy for him not to punish us, but that wasn't good enough for God. Think about how good God is, y'all. Mercy wasn't enough. It's grace. It's not enough to wipe the slate clean. It's inheritance, adoption, all these words that we say all the time of being brought into the family of God. He has given you everything. The angels look into our salvation. They're curious. We think of angels as being these powerful beings. The scripture says the angel looks at you at your life. With desire, what would it be like to be a creature that had? Fellowship in relationship with God. What would that be like? What would it be like to be redeemed? An angel just has to wonder about that. They don't know. You know. We've been given so much. The third group that I want you to see in our text here is the guards. The guards were there for it. These pagan guards didn't believe in Jesus, but they got the blessing of being there for it, whether they wanted it or not. Look at verse 62. and say to the people, he has risen from the dead, and the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, you have a guard, go, make it as secure as you know how. And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard, they set a seal on the stone. So the first thing that we see in the text here is there's permission that's requested. There's permission requested. Now there's something that I want you to notice. It says, that they had come the next day after the day of preparation. What's the day of preparation? That's the day of preparation for the Sabbath. In other words, the day after preparation is the Sabbath. So these guys that wanted to roast Jesus because his disciples picked some grain and ate some grain out of the field they were walking through on the Sabbath, or wanted to give Jesus a hard time because he healed a man's hand on the Sabbath. That's not okay, but it's okay for us to go into the pagan courtroom and ask Pilate if he will do something to keep Jesus in the grave on the Sabbath. Now, why are they asking that? Because they don't want to be seen doing it. They want the Romans to do it, just like they wanted the Romans to crucify him. Pilate told them, this isn't my problem, this is a Jewish problem, you deal with it. And they said, if you don't crucify this man, you're no friend of Caesar. And they leveraged him, and that's the only reason why the Romans had anything to do with it to begin with. Otherwise, it would have been a Jewish sentence carried out by Jewish law, and Pilate gave them permission to do that, and that wasn't good enough. They wanted to hang it on the Romans, and they're doing the same thing here. Pilate, will you go and make sure that he doesn't come out of the tomb, because that's going to cause a lot of problems if his body gets stolen and people are claiming he's resurrected from the dead. Like, if you thought you were dealing with an uprising a couple days ago, if people find out he rose from the dead, you're really going to have a mess on your hands. These people are going to be crazy. That's what they're saying to Pilate here. On the Sabbath, why? Because they didn't want to work? No, they had no problem going into the pagan court, because they don't want to be seen outside doing business on the Sabbath. Because somebody's going to look at them and say, aren't you guys breaking the rules here? Not realizing they were breaking the rules all the time. In fact, that's one of the main reasons why they hated Jesus, is because he kept pointing out to everybody, they're breaking the rules all the time. The burdens that they lay on your back, they don't even follow themselves. And if you think that's bad, you should see their hearts that God sees, because they break even more laws in their hearts than they do on the outside. That's a good way to make someone angry, by the way, is to use God's law against them. So they requested this permission on the Sabbath to get Pilate and the Romans to do all the work, again, for appearances. They didn't have faith. They didn't really believe it was just all religion on the outside. And they were concerned over the resurrection. Now, isn't it interesting that, you know, when Jesus said, I will destroy this temple and rebuild it in three days, they wanted to use that and play dumb like they didn't know he was talking about the resurrection. But now all of a sudden it makes sense to them. He said he was going to rise from the dead in three days. Well, you guys didn't know that a few days ago, and now all of a sudden it makes sense. Now they're still not believing that God's going to raise him from the dead, but they're believing that there's going to be this conspiracy. And what's the problem? Oh, well, if he really is a false messiah and he's resurrected, then that's going to rob God of his glory. And we're concerned about God's glory, not their concern. Don't care. They don't care. Their concern is, well, if this movement rises up, then all these Jewish people are going to actually follow him as Messiah, and we won't be in charge anymore. Our political power is gone. We don't get to come to pilot and pressure him to do whatever we want him to do anymore and push him around. It had nothing to do with God, because they didn't believe him. They had the appearance of religion, but no power. Luther said, interestingly, he said, when Jesus died, his enemies became more fearful and his followers became more bold. Isn't that interesting? You would think it would be the other way around. The leader gets killed. Now the enemies are like, yeah, we got him. Now these guys are scared. We better do something in case something happens. And his friends And his followers, like Joseph, become more bold, because guess what? Do you think the rest of the Sanhedrin are gonna be happy when they come and ask about Jesus' body and they say, oh, Joseph and Nicodemus told us that you guys wanted it, so they took it and put it in a tomb? I don't think they were very happy about that. There's a good chance that they lost their positions. They might have lost everything for stepping up at that providential moment to get the body of Jesus. But they got more bold in Jesus' death than they even were in his life. If we really understood really in our spirits that Jesus Christ is alive today in a physical body on an actual throne somewhere ruling the entire world, boldness is not a problem. Boldness becomes a problem if we think that he's still in a grave somewhere or that he's like a spirit floating around somewhere. If we could see Him, if He walked in the back door right now, you would do anything for Him. If you're a Christian, you'd lay your life down right now. If you saw the King come in and He was there, you would bow on your face and you would swear your life to Him. And He is. He is that real. He is not just a spirit. He is in a physical body. This is what we believe as Christians. He was raised bodily. He has ascended bodily. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, wherever that is. and he is going to return bodily. So he may not come through the back door right now, but one day you will see him in a physical body come back and it doesn't matter whether you believe in him or not. It says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, not confess I was wrong, not confess whatever, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The most hardened, God-hating atheist that doesn't want to believe God and talks about sky fairies and flying spaghetti monsters and whatever else they want to do to try to mock God is going to declare with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. whether they want to or not. They won't be able to help it when they see him. If we could see him now like that, the way that John sees him in Revelation, why were these men able to do what they did? Because they really believed that he was raised. First John says that we have fellowship with them, with those eyewitnesses, because even though we haven't physically seen him, we have the same spirit that raised him from the dead, the same spirit that was in the apostles, the same spirit that was in these women, and that was in Joseph and Nicodemus here in this text. So they didn't just request permission, but then the permission's given. So John Chrysostom points out that by having the tomb sealed, they assured that Jesus' disappearance could only be accomplished by God. Isn't that funny how God uses people's works against them? So they're thinking, we're gonna seal this tomb, and we're gonna seal it so good and put guards around it that there's nobody that can do anything about it, and God's like, perfect. Perfect, you do that. You seal that thing up as good as you can seal it, and that way, when it happens, when you're there for it, You're gonna receive a blessing because you're gonna say, this is God, this is not man. Man can't do this. How do we know? Because we made it impossible for man. God loves doing impossible things, like saving you. While you were dead in your trespasses and sins, he's made you alive through Christ Jesus. this stone that's rolled in front of it it's actually accurate but you know most of the time when you see bible story pictures and kids bibles and it's usually not accurate it's usually some cartoon version or you know uh... what like you know people think that you know goliath got killed by getting hit by a rock it's like well no getting your head chopped off kills you pretty good but you usually don't see that in sunday school so you know they kind of they kind of soften it a little bit but when you see the picture of the tomb with this giant rock rolled in front of it that's actually accurate they got that one right So there's like a trench, like a slot in the ground in front of it. So not only is it enough to roll it, I mean you're talking about like a huge, like a millstone if you can imagine it. It would take several men to roll this heavy stone. But if that wasn't enough, it's falling down into a slot. So it's not like you can just roll it out. You would have to actually lift this stone up to get it out of the slot to move it, which means once that thing's in there, unless you've got a small army worth of people, that stone's not moving. It's not going anywhere. It's not designed to go anywhere. You're putting rotten dead people in there. You don't want to get them out. Not only that, but you had these grave robbers that would try to come in and steal jewelry or whatever else these people would get buried with, and you gotta keep those guys out. And so if you got a couple robbers that are out there, and they wanna come in and they're like, we got a big stick, it's okay, try your best. If you've got four or five guys, good luck, you're probably not gonna get that stone out of the way. And yet somehow the scripture tells us that when the women come, spoiler alert, that there's one man sitting on top of the stone, They're outside, which we know is an angel. Apparently it's not too heavy for God to move. Can God make a rock too big for him to move? The answer is no. So this stone was enormous and they're putting it there. So who are these guards? Contrary to what you might think, these are not Roman guards. These are actually not Roman guards. They're actually temple guards. They're Jewish guards, so the Jewish temple had its own security detail for there, which is why Pilate says to them, you have a guard. In other words, I don't need to give you my soldiers, you already have your own soldiers. What is this interaction about? Basically, he probably gave them a seal, a wax seal. So even though it's the Jewish temple guards that are guarding the tomb, the seal on it is a Roman seal. So Pilate is saying, I'm not gonna send you any soldiers to do this. He probably thinks it's funny that they're trying to do it. Honestly, because he's just like you guys are so worked up about this. The guy's dead. We kill people all the time around here Nobody's coming out. It's not a big deal and probably thinks it's funny because Also, we know throughout history. There were other men that claimed to be Messiah besides Jesus and none of them Ever resurrected from the dead so he probably thought it was kind of silly for them to come and ask to go through all this this mass just to try to protect a dead guy and So he's like, I'm not sending you any soldiers, but here, take this. That way, if somebody decides they want to break into it, they'll see the Roman seal, and they'll realize this is under the protection of the Roman government. So they might see the temple guards and say, I don't really care about the Jewish guards. I'm not a Jew. It doesn't apply to me. They can't do anything to me. But when they see the Roman seal, they're going to say, OK, if I open this, then Pilate is saying he's going to do something about it. And I might end up on a cross somewhere if I make Pilate angry. The Jews and the Gentiles both participate in trying to keep Jesus in the tomb, just like today, right? There are people that claim to be Christians, there are people that don't, that want to still try to keep Jesus somewhere contained in a little box where he fits neatly into everything that they want. They were demonstrating that this was under the protection of Israel and it was under the protection of Rome. The two most powerful governments in the area have said, have declared, This man is dead. He's going to stay dead. Nothing is going to happen to him. What about you? Are you trying to keep Jesus in the tomb? Maybe you're hearing this and you're a skeptical person and you say, this just sounds like mythology. It sounds like, you know, Greek mythology or Egyptian mythology and this stuff isn't real. And you make excuses. Well, you know, what about this? You know, I always love that you talk to somebody and they'll pull out like some numbers in the Bible and they'll be like, well, in this book it says that there was this much gold in the temple and in this book it says that there was a different amount of gold in the temple. Therefore, nothing in the Bible is true and God's not real and Jesus didn't actually raise from the dead. And I'm like, okay, that's a pretty big jump. And I'm like, first of all, I don't think you're an expert in Hebrew weight measurements. But people throw out excuses, don't they? You know this if you've shared the gospel with people. Here's 10 horrible, easily defeated reasons why I can't be a Christian. And of course the real reason is, is because they want Jesus to stay in the tomb. Because here's the problem that we have as human beings. If this worked, if this plan worked, do whatever you want. Live the life that you want. There is no God, there is no wall, there's no judgment. You're just gonna die and you're gonna go in the grave and you might as well have a good time while you're here, if this plan worked. The problem is, is while the Roman government and the Jewish government had a plan for Jesus, God, who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and the emperor of all the universe, had a different plan than they did. And God pulled rank on them. and said, it doesn't matter what you want. I decided he's not dead anymore. Deal with it. Because God does what he wants. Psalm two, right? He sits in the heavens and he laughs. The heaviest stone that they can find in this wax seal with the authority of the whole Roman empire behind it and these guards and everything and God's sitting in heaven, like that's cute guys. Like just bring the whole army, bring every soldier you got, put every rock that you want on it. And then not only that, but if you think the rock was heavy, imagine the weight of our sins that he bore on the cross for moments. Pilate was surprised that he was dead when they came and asked for his body because most of them lasted on the cross longer than Jesus did, and not only Did Jesus do everything that He did? He paid for the sins of His people 100% in full, declared it is finished, and died faster. He even died better than other people died. He does everything better. Most people spend days on a cross for their own sins. Jesus spent hours for a countless number of people. and fully satisfied. Now, how holy do you have to be to take on that much wrath, that much punishment, that much sin, and in a couple hours, it's done? Now, that's not to minimize his suffering, but it's a testament to his holiness. This is how holy he is, that he is able to take on the wrath of God and to drink that cup and drink it more quickly than a person could even drink for themselves, for his people. So if you're making excuses today, stop. Don't make excuses from not believing this. Not only is it a historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead, it is a historical fact if you do any research, it's clearly that. But the reality is you don't even need history to prove it to you. Romans 1 says you already know that it's true in your heart. Your problem with God is not that you haven't been given enough information, it's that you don't want him to exist. You don't want him to tell you what to do with your life. You don't want him to tell you what's right and wrong or what decisions you have to make. And so the decision, the place that we all have to come to is recognizing His power and His authority. And the power that raised Him from the dead is the same power that will judge us. And that we need to be submissive to Him and not be afraid of what He will require of you. Maybe you're in here this morning and you are a believer. I hope that you all are. and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, the question is similar for you. Are you afraid of what he's gonna require of you? Are you okay with following him to a certain point, and as long as he doesn't go beyond that, you're willing to confess Jesus? A lot of people aren't. That's what we're seeing right now. Life gets hard, there's temptations, there's the success of the world, there's something else that you want, and you're like, well, I'm willing to go this far to follow Jesus, but I'm not willing to give that up. I'm going to go that way. Don't be that person. You have to be willing to do what they did. If you can't follow him into the tomb, you're not going to follow him out. You've got to be able to do both. So in conclusion, the point here, the point of this text is, if you want the blessing of being there for it, you have to be there for it. I don't want to come to church every Sunday because I'm a pastor and I get paid to be here. I want to be here because God's going to do something and I want to be there for it when it happens. I want to be there when somebody gets baptized. I want to be there when communion happens and I get to come around the table with my family. I want to be there for it. I want to be there when the chains of someone's sin is broken. I sat in my office and wept over this this week because I thought about the last six years that I've been able to serve here, and I thought about how I've seen some of you sitting in my office, and I've seen the light come on during counseling when the Holy Spirit ministered to your heart, and I was there for it. Some of you, I got to stand right here when you made your covenant vows with your spouse and preached the gospel with your marriage to witnesses. And I saw your families transformed because of that gospel witness. I got to be there for that. I think about a moment sitting in Chris's living room not long ago and looking at three women sitting together. One of them had just lost a baby. Another one of them almost lost a baby and received a miraculous healing for their baby. Another one had a baby that had not received a miraculous healing and might have health problems. And they all sat together and prayed for each other. I got to be there for that. That's gospel work. The Holy Spirit makes those things happen. when they can sit together and all three of them, in the good, in the bad, in the ugly, can say, praise God. I'm here, I'm gonna pray for that person. That person is enduring blessing when I'm enduring suffering and I'm still praying for them. I got to be there for that. I've been in this church when there were people that wanted to destroy this church because they weren't saved. And the church made the decision, you can't be here anymore. I'm glad that I was here for that. I've seen hard things, I've seen joyous things, I've seen so many things, but I've had the blessing of being there for it. And so we don't have to trick you into how many Sundays do you need to attend to be in good fellowship, or should you be in a growth group or not, or should you be in a Sunday school or not. It's not about any of that. Do you want to be there for it or do you not? That's the conclusion. God is not waiting on you to work. He has a timeline. He is going to work. He's going to save. He's going to disciple people. He's going to pour out his spirit on this church, in this community, in our growth groups, in our Sunday school classes, in the counseling office, from the pulpit. He's going to pour his spirit out whether you're here or not, whether you want to be a part of it or not. He's not waiting on you. So it's your decision. Do you want the blessing of being there for it or do you not? These women wanted the blessing, because what you're going to hear in the next couple of weeks is, they got to be there for it. They were the ones that got to go tell the apostles, you won't believe what God just did. Don't you want to have that story? Don't you want to? You know what's an easy way to share with unbelievers? When you got something exciting to tell them. Hey, you guys won't believe what God did in my church last week. And it wasn't because the music was rocking, right? It was a work of God. You won't believe how different I am now from who I used to be a few years ago because of God. When you have the blessing of being there for it, it makes it so easy to share the gospel. Let me just tell you about what I have seen. It's the same blessing that the apostles had is available to you today. So as we contemplate and get ready to come to the table, this is another invitation for you. Do you want the blessing of being there for it? We never know what God's going to do, but I want to be there when he does it. Father, I pray that you would pour out your spirit on this church. That Lord, everything that is done here is for you, for your glory. Lord, we don't want to be like the proud Sanhedrin that want to bring glory to our names or are concerned about our reputation or concerned about what other people think about us or what we do in here, how we do things. We don't want to be concerned about any of that. We want to be approved by you. And so, Lord, if there's one here today, That's your enemy. I pray that we would be there for the moment that we see them become your friend, because you can turn your enemies into your friends. That is how your kingdom conquers. Or if there's one here today that's wrestling in their sin, that just feels like they're drowning under the weight of their sin and their rebellion, Lord, I pray that we can be there when they're set free, when your Holy Spirit moves. For the bitterness that we've held on to others, that when that's lifted and there can be unity and fellowship, that we get to be there for it. Lord, I pray that you would put a burden on each of our hearts, that we wouldn't want to miss anything that you're doing, whether that's in these walls, whether that's outside of these walls. Lord, if we know that you're working somewhere, we want to be there for it. We want to see it. And so, Lord, show us your power. We want you to glorify and magnify your name and just show off in front of us. And whatever way you see fit and we receive all of it, the good and the bad and the ugly Lord, we want to be there for all of it. There's nothing more in our life that will bring us more joy than to say that we have seen the Lord work. And so Father, we want the blessing of being there when you work. In Jesus name.