Well, good morning. Please turn in your copies of God's Word to the Gospel of Luke. Luke 23. Luke 23, beginning in verse 50, and we'll read to the end of the chapter. Hear the word of the Lord. Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock where no one had ever lain before. That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. And the women who had come with him from Galilee followed after. And they observed the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. So ends the reading of God's Word. May He bless it as well as the preaching to our hearts today. I mentioned last time that there have been a variety of alternative suggestions as to what really happened on the cross. Did Jesus truly and really die? And what Luke is doing, as he's been seeking to do all throughout his account, is to demonstrate that the testimony from the disciples of Christ that he had, in fact, died by crucifixion that that testimony was true. And one of the things that Luke does is he, and he's done this all throughout, and he'll continue to do this, especially as we approach the end, is Luke is very quick to identify particular witnesses. Witnesses that his hearer, or the man for whom he is writing, Theophilus, could go and could examine and hear for himself from those eyewitnesses and verify if what Luke was saying was actually true, if it was accurate. And I want you to notice that as we get to this particular portion, Luke draws for us He paints a picture of witnesses, of ritual, and both of these are intended to serve as a sort of evidence that Christ actually died on Calvary's cross. And then we'll wrap up with a reflection on the reason for Christ's death. But first, I want you to notice the witnesses that Luke identifies. Now in our particular text, well, we're actually going to start a few verses before. You'll notice at the end of v. 46, that Jesus cries out, saying, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And then Luke notes that after Jesus said this, he breathed his last. And in the next verse, we find that first witness that Jesus actually died. And that is the centurion who was there, who was part of the crucifixion team. sent to go and carry out that order. And we saw in Mark's account that this centurion, or at least one of the centurions who was present, would then be summoned by Pilate to give testimony regarding Jesus' death. Because it was quite surprising to him that Jesus had died so quickly. I would remind you that crucifixion and death by crucifixion had been developed into an art, you might say. A kind of gross art, but an art nonetheless. And so when the Romans and these centurions were given this task, They were not some amateurs who had just come up with this new idea, this new way of killing someone, and they weren't actually sure if it was going to work. They had been crucifying people for many, many years. So the word of this centurion becomes one witness. Luke noted also, prior to our text, that there was an entire crowd of people, some of them hostile to Jesus, who witnessed these events and saw that he actually died. There was a group, an unlikely group, of women. Now, unlikely in the sense that the testimony of women was not highly regarded as reliable testimony in these days. But Luke is not afraid of this criteria for embarrassment. He's not afraid to go and use as witness testimony those that the world around him would say they're not credible witnesses. We also find in the person of Joseph of Arimathea both an unlikely disciple as well as a surprising witness. He's an unlikely disciple because as Luke notes, he was a council member. He was part of that same Jewish council that had been seeking the death of Christ because they understood the claims that Christ was making. They understood by his actions and teachings that he was claiming to be none other than the Son of God himself, that he was claiming to be equal with God and thus claiming to be the Lord God of hosts. And yet what we find is that while he was a council member, that he kind of stood out from the rest. He was a good man, Luke says. He was a just man. And if we've seen anything over our journey through this book, it is that these councilmen, these religious leaders, could hardly be classified and categorized as good and just. I mean, we just saw not too long ago that they seized upon false witnesses to go and say, he's a rebel against Caesar. That they coax a confession out of Jesus, which was true, that Jesus is the Messiah. But they used that and they twisted it as a way of saying, see, because of what the Messiah would be, King of the Jews, therefore, he's a rebel against Rome. They were not, on the whole, good. And they were not just. And yet, Joseph stands out And Joseph is highlighted by Luke as one, while he was a council member, he wasn't like his other council members. Some of the other gospel writers note that he's a disciple. Luke doesn't quite say that. He hints at it. But he doesn't come out and say it like John would or like Mark does. But the idea is still there. That He was one. He was a Jew. A council member. Who actually read the Old Testament Scriptures. Who understood what the Messiah would be. Who He would be and what He would do. And He anticipated and waited for the Kingdom of God. Luke is doing everything that he can to basically call him a disciple without coming out and saying he's a disciple. But he's describing him as a disciple. And we're told that Joseph goes, having witnessed this execution, and he requests the body of Jesus. And his intentions are quite clear. Being a faithful, good, and just man, being a faithful Jew, one who looked forward to the Kingdom of God and was waiting for it, he sought to walk in obedience to God's commands, like the commands found in Deuteronomy 23, that should a man be executed, and hung on a tree, his body should not be left on the tree on the Sabbath. " And so Joseph comes to Pilate. He requests the body of Jesus. And he requests it so he can give Jesus a burial. But I also want you to note the kind of burial that he gives Jesus. Now, we saw in Mark's account, and we also see it in John's account, that in doing this, he partners with another man, a man that Luke doesn't name, Nicodemus. And if you recall Nicodemus from John chapter 3, a Pharisee who went to Jesus under the cover of darkness, and he had this theological debate or discussion with Jesus. And we see then the fruit that would come from that. The Nicodemus believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and joined hands with Joseph of Arimathea to give the Savior a proper respectful burial. Now let me ask this. Now we know from different cruel individuals from history that there have been occasions throughout the history of the world when someone is buried that probably shouldn't be buried. Namely, they're still alive. Why do you think Luke is noting that Jesus is buried by disciples, by men who loved Jesus? Why do you think he's noting that the location of his burial was known by the women who followed him from Galilee? Why do you think he is noting that? Well, for one, I think it's because burial, especially when you're talking about disciples, when you're talking about friends, a respectful burial is something that is done to dead people. And it should be rather obvious. Yes, I realize that. But when we have these ideas floating around, such as, for example, this swoon theory that says Jesus never really died. He just kind of passed out from loss of blood. And when you've got those sorts of theories, and then you also have someone like Luke and Mark and John saying, well, Jesus was killed by Roman centurions through a method of execution that they were very well familiar with. And when you've got in the face of those kind of ridiculous theories that Jesus simply passed out instead of he died. You've got testimony from unlikely individuals like women and Joseph of Arimathea, a council member who was also a disciple seeking to give Jesus a respectful burial. they're not going to go and go through the process of buying linens, buying spices, and preparing Jesus' body for burial if He's not actually dead. You see, these suggestions that Jesus merely appeared dead, they really fly in the face of reasonable expectations and logic. We don't expect soldiers who were serving in a capacity known for military conquest, we don't expect soldiers given a task to crucify someone And crucifixion not being a new form of execution, we don't expect them to go about that job knowing that if they fail, what happens? They don't get assigned to desk duty or relocated somewhere else. And we see examples of this. I mean, we'll see examples with the soldiers that were tasked with guarding the tomb. We see examples when Peter gets imprisoned in the book of Acts, and the angel lets him out. What happens to those soldiers? The moment it's discovered that Peter is free, and the assumption is the soldiers didn't do their job, what happens to the soldiers? They're killed. You see, there's more at stake than merely they didn't do their job well. This isn't something where it's like they can expect if one of the people on any of those crosses comes down and they're still alive, that they'll just get a slap on the wrist and told, do better next time. They have a task and a command to see those people killed. There's an expectation that when those bodies come off the cross, they are to be dead bodies. So you take that and you couple that with The idea that a disciple would go and take Jesus' body while He's simply passed out, and then would prep His body for burial, wrap Him in linen, including the various spices that Nicodemus provided, and then seal Him in a tomb with a giant stone, Luke is seeking to demonstrate in his own way that it is utterly impossible and unreasonable to say that Jesus didn't die on the cross. And it's unreasonable to say that the man that Joseph took from the cross, the body that he took, was still alive and he went forward with a burial anyway. Luke is seeking to show that the evil intentions of the religious leaders saw their desire upon Jesus brought to fruition And they saw his dead body on the cross. And it was the love from a disciple, an unlikely disciple, too, if we take the other writers' accounts with regard to Nicodemus. But it was the love of these disciples that resulted in the Messiah being given a proper respectful burial. Luke notes, and not just Luke, but the other gospel writers note as well, that the day that he was buried was the preparation, or the day of preparation. For our non-jewish ears that is the day of preparation is the day before the Sabbath Which would be Saturday for Old Testament observance So the day of preparation is Friday His body is taken off the cross prepped for burial and put in a tomb on Friday so that come Saturday, come the Jewish Sabbath, His body would not still be on a cross in clear and blatant violation of God's law. And these women were not told exactly what their level of knowledge was, particularly with regard to nicodemus providing spices that would be used in the burial preparations. It seems that they didn't realize that, since both Luke and Mark indicate that it was their intention to anoint Jesus and anoint Him for burial. So they follow Joseph. They identify where he's being laid, where the tomb is. And then they go and they observe the Sabbath with full intentions that on the first day of the week, Sunday, They will take the spices that they've gathered and that they've prepared, and they will go and will anoint His body for burial. But, understanding the command to rest on the Sabbath, they rested. out of love for Christ, out of love for God, they rested according to the commandment. Now, Luke is highlighting this because he wants us to know that Jesus truly died. He wants Theophilus to know that there are particular eyewitnesses that he can seek out, he can talk to, and he can double-check Luke's account. Luke wants Theophilus, he wants him to examine these eyewitness testimonies and see if what he's saying is true. He does so with full assurance that it is true. that he's recorded an accurate account. And while we haven't quite got to what happens next, which we all know, the resurrection of Christ, I think it's important for us to reflect upon why this burial is important. We've hinted at it already. It's important, simply put, because it means that Jesus died. Straight into the point. It means that He died. And if we understand that Christ is the Savior Or as John the Baptist put it during his ministry, that Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Then we understand that Christ had to die. His entire ministry was pointing to that reality. That He had come for a particular purpose. And that is to die. And we saw that reflected a little bit in the reading from Isaiah 59 where the Lord says that He would Himself be the salvation of His people. What does the law of God teach us about ourselves? It teaches us that we're sinners. And the sacrifices under the Old Testament taught Israel and teaches us that the punishment for sin against a holy God is death. So in order for Jesus, in order for God, to be our salvation from our sin and His wrath, He had to do a couple things. As God, and children, what do we know about God from our catechism? What is God? God is a Spirit and does not have a body like man. So if God doesn't have a body, Can he die? No. So in order to be our salvation. The son of God took to himself a human nature so that in his human nature. He can die. And pay that penalty that we owe for our sins. Paul highlighted this in his letter to the Romans, where in chapter 3, he reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And he reminds us a few chapters later what we earn with our sin. The wages of sin is death. The only way that Jesus, the Lamb of God, could take away the sin of the world is through His own death. And Luke is highlighting here, in this text, that Jesus really and truly died. That it wasn't some game the disciples were playing, It wasn't some massive conspiracy that the Romans were in on where they simply made it appear that Jesus died. It wasn't some holographic image of sorts where Jesus is projected as on a cross, but not really physically on a cross. He is physically nailed to a cross. He physically dies as far as his humanity goes. And he is buried by disciples, by friends, because he is dead. Without, as Paul says in another place, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. And the shedding of blood that is in mine is the death of another. You see, it wasn't enough under the Old Testament that a lamb or a bull or a goat was simply cut a little bit so that they bled some on the altar. Those animals that were sacrificed gave their life, or rather had their life taken. in order to demonstrate to us the seriousness of our sin. And in order to impress upon us that the only way our sin can be dealt with is through the death of another. And in Luke, Luke's writing his account for Theophilus, He is seeking to demonstrate that these other accounts that Theophilus no doubt has heard are true. That Jesus really is the Son of God incarnate through the womb of the Virgin Mary. That Jesus really did live a perfect life That he really was declared to be innocent and free of all charges. And that he died not for sins that he committed. But for the sins of his people. In order to rescue his people. Both from their own sin and from their justly deserved the justly deserved wrath of God. When we hear that people say, well, Jesus simply only appeared to die, bled so much that He just passed out, and so they thought He was dead, but He didn't really die. We need to understand that our Bibles contain eyewitness testimony demonstrating that He did die. And we need to understand as well, if He didn't die, Our sin debt remains. This isn't something that really only matters because of theological heads somewhere else. There's a very personal issue at stake. If we are trusting upon the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation and for the clearing away of our sin debt, if he didn't die. We still owe. That sin debt. If Jesus didn't die. The wages for my sins, the wages for your sins haven't been paid. If Jesus didn't die, the only thing that we have to look forward to at the end of our life is suffering the wrath of God for our sin committed against Him. This isn't merely a matter of appeasing some theological talking points or some academic scholastics. What's at stake is the destination of our own souls. And so it's a pastoral concern that Luke is recording as He demonstrates to us through these various eyewitness accounts that Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that Jesus died not for sins that He committed. That Jesus actually died, and in dying, rescues us from our sins. We spend a lot of time, or we ought to spend a lot of time, thanking God for the various ways in which he blesses us each and every day. And at this time of year, particularly, that's things that we're thankful for tends to be on our minds. And I've noted in the past, and we'll reiterate that point now, that it's not so much about like, are we thankful in some generic sort of sense, but to whom are we thankful and for what? Beloved, we have both of those answered for us. We are to be thankful to God. We ought to be thankful that it was the Father's love for the world that resulted in sending His Son to be the salvation that we need from our own sin and God's wrath. It's a call not merely to acknowledge that some historical individual named Jesus died, but to understand that his death was motivated by God's love for, humanly speaking, an unlovable people. And it ought to drive us to thankfulness when we reflect upon the reality of Christ's death, that is, he didn't wait for us to fix our lives up. He didn't wait for us to start living our best lives now as if we could possibly do that without him. But God demonstrated his own love towards us. In that while we were yet sinners. Christ died. For us, do you see the irony? Like in this entire account. That Christ, the sinless. Spotless. Lamb of God. Accused by the world. Of being a rebel against Rome dies. So that rebels against God. May receive forgiveness. for their sins committed against Him. The one accused of sedition and rebellion is the one who dies to save the rebels. We're told in another place, that it was for the joy set before Christ that He endured the crawls. Think about that. It was for the joy of saving a people who cannot save themselves that He suffered a brutal beating at the hands of the Romans and at the demand of the Jewish religious leaders. It was for the joy set before him that after he suffered that beating, he went to the cross and willingly, while he is being mocked, while he is being ridiculed and blasphemed, willingly gives his life for an unthankful, for an ungrateful, and for a rebellious people, for the joy set before him. A joy that would result in some of them repenting. after he ascends to heaven. That some of them will repent on the day of Pentecost when Peter gets up and preaches and accuses the Jewish people of crucifying their Messiah for the joy set before Christ. He endured the brutality of the cross and gave his life so that we might be united to God and freed from our bondage to sin and never have to face God's wrath for our rebellion against him. And it's Luke's aim, yet again, to highlight that this wasn't some fairy tale dreamt up by wishful thinking disciples. But this was at the heart, not only of Christ, of Jesus of Nazareth, But it was at the heart of all that God revealed through the prophets of old that it was always His plan to provide this salvation for the same rebellious people that would see His Son, His Savior. killed. The same people that would scorn his expression, the Father's expression of love, that John tells us it was the love of God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him would not perish. but have everlasting life. Luke calls us, but more importantly, Christ calls us to believe that Christ did what He intended to do. He calls upon us today to believe that he died for our sins, not for the sins of some other people in some other place in time, but that he died for your sins and for mine. Christ calls us to believe upon him and to have and experience everlasting life as a result. Believe upon the Lord. Believe that He died, He really died, so that you don't have to face an impossible task of paying your own sin debt. Believe upon the Lord and inherit eternal life. Let us pray.