For our sermon today, we are in Mark, chapter 15, verses 40 through 47. Mark 15, 40 through 47. If you wanna turn there, the large print of two Bibles in front of you, it's on page 1014, page 1014. I'm gonna read the passage and pray, then jump right into the sermon. Hear now the word of God. There were also women who were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger, and of Joseph, and Solomon. And he was in Galilee. They followed him and ministered to him. And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and weighed him in a tomb, that he had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was inerrant Word. May this truth be ever written on our hearts. Let us pray. Dear Lord God, You are a God that speaks. Speak to us now through Your Word. Guide our hearts and minds to see Jesus more fully and love Him more completely. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be ever pleasing and acceptable in Your sight. And with that, we have been slowly working our way through the gospel of Mark together. For those of us who have been following along, this is just the next passage in Mark. We'll take next week off because of the 140th, and Lord willing, in two weeks we'll be back in chapter 16, and we'll finish up Mark next month. But I thought this passage was worth keeping on for All Saints Day, because it seems very fitting to talk about burial. I hope even if you haven't been following along with us at heart, that this story is relatively familiar to you. Because this passage lies at the very heart of Christianity. The Apostles' Creed teaches us that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. Anyone know the next line after that in the Apostles' Creed? On the third day, he rose again. So we need to see this story in that larger perspective. Before Mark ever wrote this gospel, the Apostle Paul summarized the core claims of the Christian faith in 1 Corinthians 15, three and four, where he wrote this, for I delivered to you as of first importance that which I have also received, that Christ died for our sins is on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Three times so far in Mark's gospel, in chapter eight, chapter nine, and chapter 10, Jesus told his followers that it was going to be necessary for him to suffer and die in order to rise again. You see, the death of Jesus lies at the very heart of the Christian message. J. Gresham Machen, a pastor and professor in the 20th century, writes, quote, that Christianity does in fact depend upon something that happened. Our religion must be abandoned altogether unless at a definite point in history, Jesus died for the sins of man." Which is to say, the death of the God of man, the death of Jesus Christ for sins, is a real historic event take place, then we have no reason to have this Christian faith. Without Christ's death, there is no forgiveness of sins. There is no atoning sacrifice. You see, the Bible teaches us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, which is just a way of saying we've all messed up. God calls us to. And Scripture teaches us that the wages of sin is death. The reason why death happens is because sin occurs. It's because of the fall, because of Adam and Eve, our first parents, who took that forbidden fruit that God told them not to eat. And since then, death has reigned in our world. But Jesus died. make us right. And He didn't just die, He rose again, conquering the powers of death, showing us that sin and death no longer have the final word. Without Christ's death, there would be no resurrection. If Jesus didn't really die, there would If Jesus' body, his bones, still lie hidden somewhere in the sands of the Middle East, then there is no ultimate power or ultimate victory over death. Paul says it this way, if Christ has not been raised from the dead, then our faith is in vain, and of all people, we are most to be hated. But Christ has, in fact, been raised from the dead, the first fruits of new creation. die in order to rise again. As humans, we often hate death, and I think we should. Death should not exist. It is a sad reality of living in a fallen, broken world in rebellion against God. But it's easy to think that God doesn't care. That God's not in the picture. It's easy to feel alone and isolated, but we need to remember that God understands. Just like you've lost your mom or your dad or your grandpa or grandma. Here in Mark 15, 40 through 47, we see the events between the cross and the resurrection summarized in the Apostles' Creed when it says that Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. And this is written in a way to kind of prove the legitimacy of Jesus' death and burial to us. That's the first thing I want us to see here today, that burial proves someone is dead. burial proves to us that someone is dead. Namely, in the case of our passage, the burial of Jesus proves to us that Jesus actually died. In verse 40 and 41, it tells us about these women who watched as Jesus died on the cross. The same women who watched Jesus buried in verse 47, the same women There's a whole sermon to be had at another time about the faithfulness of these women, and how when the apostles couldn't even stay at Jesus' side, the women remained faithful. But that's a sermon for a separate time. The thing to see here is that these women are eyewitnesses. Along with these women, three women are named Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of Joseph, and Solomon, the same women who we see at the empty tomb, Joseph of Arimathea, who saw to it that Jesus was buried. Now, Joseph of Arimathea doesn't appear anywhere else in Mark's Gospel. In fact, in all four Gospel accounts, he only appears as the person who saw to it Jesus was buried. But remember that Mark wrote his Gospel about 30 years after the events of the cross. The reason why he names Mary and Salome and Joseph is because for his original audience 2,000 years ago, he's saying, if you want more information, go talk to these people. If you want to know more about what happened, go talk to Mary, go talk to Joseph. You see, he's attesting to these eyewitness accounts, showing us that people can actually collaborate in stories. Then, in verse 43 through 45, this Jewish religious leader, Joseph of Arimathea, went to Pilate to ask if he could take Jesus' body to them. If you've ever lost someone close to you, your mother, your father, your son, daughter, husband, wife, you likely had to meet with a funeral director or someone and fill out a bunch of papers. They had the same documentation about the death to the government Well, that's the same thing happening here. Pilate is the governor of Judea, and Joseph is going to Pilate, appealing to Pilate to be approved to bury the body of Jesus. But Pilate is surprised by this, because normally, crucifixion takes many, many hours, if not days or weeks, sometimes even months, to kill someone. But here, Jesus died very quickly. So Pilate calls the centurion and asks if Jesus had already died. The centurion was the Roman guard charged with the execution of Jesus. He was a heavily trained soldier, a trained killer. He was a master at the art of killing people. And according to Roman law, a prisoner had actually let Jesus down in the cross, if he let Jesus escape, he would be liable to death himself. So, the centurion had a lot of training to make sure Jesus actually died and he had a lot riding on the death. This centurion had everything to lose and nothing to gain by Jesus still being alive. And so, when the centurion body to Joseph. This is here so that you and I as readers would have certainty that Jesus actually died. It wasn't a hoax. It wasn't like all the pain of the cross caused him to go into some sort of coma for three days and then he just woke up. They know that he's dead. The centurion pronounced him dead. In John's Gospel it says that sure that Jesus was actually there. This professional killer tasked with execution of Jesus work together so that you have certainty that Jesus actually died. And that's what burial is supposed to do. In today's day and age, a funeral director has to go all through these lengthy preps to prepare the body for burial, and every step of the process affirms that they're dead. You see, burial is meant to So there's this big emphasis on Jesus' death. But then in verse 46 and 47, they bury Jesus. Not much is said about this particular burial. It says that they wrap him in a linen cloth, they lay him in a tomb, they put a rock over the wall. And these two Marys that are mentioned in verse 40 seem to be watching while this whole thing happens. The same Marys who find the tomb empty at the very beginning of chapter two. You see, these few factors all make an appearance in the resurrection stories throughout the Gospel. They find the tomb empty, the stone rolled away, the linen cloth still sitting there. We don't see the linen cloth in Mark's version, but we see it elsewhere. And the same women show up in resurrection stories. You see, the point of this story isn't just to tell us that Jesus actually died, but it's prepares us for resurrection. The fact that these same women appeared 47 and in 1601 means that they knew where the tomb was. Mark is making it clear that the people in the day knew exactly where the tomb was. It was the tomb that Jonah You need to know that so that when you read the next part of the story, when they come running to the tomb and find it empty, you're not thinking, it's early Sunday morning, maybe they got the wrong tomb. Maybe they got the wrong location. Like, he is trying to make it abundantly clear that they knew exactly where they were going. And again, remember that this is written just about 30 years after this happened. And people in the first century did not want Christianity to exist. The ancient Jews in Jerusalem did not like that people were turning to faith in this resurrected Savior. But here's the thing. This story, this telling that Mark gives, was circulating around Jerusalem 30, 40 years after this happened. If they really wanted to disprove this, why did no one ever just point to the tomb and say, that's where Jesus' body is? If they really wanted to disprove Christianity, they could have just brought out Jesus' body and paraded it around and showed everyone that Jesus was actually dead. If they could have disproved Christianity like that, it would have been done. But that never happened. Why? Because maybe... the tomb was actually empty. Maybe when these women who saw Jesus buried on Friday night came to the tomb on Sunday morning, they actually found the tomb empty. You see, part of the reason permission. The centurion confirms to us that Jesus died at expense of his own life. And the reason Mark wants you to be certain that Jesus died is so that in the next passage, when Jesus rises again, you can have no doubt that it is a real historic If Jesus did not die, if those women got the wrong tune, if Joseph of Arimathea did not go to Pilate and get Jesus' body, the centurion did not confirm he was dead, you would have outs. You could come up with excuses why all this is maybe made up. This is just some story the disciples told. But all of these pieces work together to confirm the resurrection. That's the reason for burial altogether. It is to prepare us for resurrection. Not the body itself. This isn't about Jesus' body resurrecting. I believe that. But when I say burial is about preparing us for resurrection, it's about preparing the people watching. That body is going to resurrect no matter what. Let me say this, if you are a Christian, let me encourage you to be daring. Don't just have your ashes shipped off into outer space or put on an urn on someone's bookshelf for the next 50 years. There is something beautiful and powerful when Christians are physically buried, when their body is physically put into the ground and surrounded by family and friends. It's a picture of the gospel. Burial proves that someone is dead. To put it in psychological terms, burial brings closure. Burial is an important part of the grieving process for many people. I knew a guy whose wife passed away quite a while before, and he kept her ashes on an urn, in an urn, in his house. And he would talk about how he would often talk to his wife And for a month or two, that can be really healthy. That can help you process more. But if that goes on for years, that's really dangerous. That's living in the past. And I think for that man, putting the urn in the ground actually brought him some much needed closure. There's a considerable amount of research about the cycle bury who you love, like when they die, watching them be buried. According to the CDC, people over the age of 12, statistics are a little different from under 12, but people over 12 who watched a loved one get buried after their death have considerably lower psychological stress in relation to the death of that person. They're less likely to be depressed by 18 months later. They're less likely to have horrible dreams. brings closure. Not just like, we're going to come together and have a little party, but actually watching the body enter its grave. The women in Jesus' day were grieving the loss of their rabbi and friend. But if you read all the Easter accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all the resurrection accounts, they seem to be doing an awful lot better than the disciples who weren't there. But almost all religions practice burial of some sort, and even most non-religious people get buried when they die. If all it was was proving Jocelyn is dead, that would be kind of pointless. But one of my go-to funeral messages comes from 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 and 14, which says that we as Christians do not grieve as others who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. Which is just a long-winded way of saying, because Jesus actually rose again, we have hope that when someone is buried, that they too will rise again in Jesus Christ. There is something powerful It says that this is not the end, but there is something more coming. There is a reason why when I do graveside services, I quote from the Book of Common Prayer, which English-speaking Christians have used for hundreds of years, as it says, with faith in Jesus Christ, we receive this body for burial. and give them eternal life with the saints. Let me say this, as a pastor, even before I was a pastor, I get to go to a lot of funerals, even ones I'm not doing. And the number of so-called Christian funerals I go to where an actual pastor is leading and they barely mention Jesus, you can count the times they mention Jesus on one hand, it's crazy. The number of times I go to a funeral is absolutely insane. There's no hope in that. The way a funeral is supposed to work is to give us confidence that this person died, and hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we all receive through faith in him. So as a Christian, I encourage you to actually be buried. Like, this has nothing to do with cremation or no cremation, that's a separate conversation. I'm just simply saying, Let your friends and family see your body reach the ground as a pastor reminds them of the resurrection to come. But our passage is not primarily about us, it's about Jesus. It is about the one who loved us and gave himself up for us. Mark wants us to be certain that Jesus died so that we can be certain that Jesus actually rose again. If Jesus didn't die, there is no forgiveness of sins. There is no atoning sacrifice that makes us right with God. If Jesus did not die, we are all on our own. We have to be good enough. We have to be strong enough. We have to be brave enough. We have to be perfect in order to be a God. I don't know about you, but I know I'm not. Without Jesus's death, I can never do all the things necessary to get a way for us to be right with God. And if Jesus did not die, there would be no hope of resurrection. If it wasn't a real death, there would be no resurrection of Jesus, where He conquered death and changed the grave and made it to where this is not the end of the story. We have to know for certain that Jesus died so that we can know that He rose again. Brothers and sisters, we need to understand that death is not the end of the story. It is the intermission at the end of the first act where the actors go offstage and are changed and made anew before they come back for the eternal act to come. The question is not, will you rise again? Scripture actually teaches that everyone will rise again. The question faith in Jesus Christ, will you rise into eternity with God, or will you rise to eternal damnation and be cast out? You see, Jesus actually gives us a way to rise to eternal life with God. Not because of anything we do, but because of what he did through the cross, death, and resurrection. It is in that that we too will rise to eternal life. Jesus rised never to die again, die again. That is the Christian hope in eternal resurrection through Jesus Christ. And so here we see that Jesus was buried and died so that we can know for certain that on the third day he rose again. Amen? Let's pray. Dearly God, help us to have certainty in what you have done for us. Machen says that and faith in the truth of who Jesus is and what he has done for us, and may that move us to love you more all our days.