Well, let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 27. I'm going to begin reading in verse 50, but we'll be covering verses 57 through 66 this morning. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. That's how the gospel writers described his death. Separation of his spirit from his body, as physical death will be for all of us. And we saw these things last week. Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after the resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now the centurion and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, And the things that were happening, they became very frightened and said, truly, this was the son of God. Many women were there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. Her name was Salome. Verse 57, When it was evening, there came a rich man from Haramathiah 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. 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 priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate and said, Sir, or Lord, we remember that when he was still 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 him you have a guard go make it as secure as you know how They went and made the grave secure and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone O Lord, we ask for understanding, as it impacts our minds and our hearts by this, Your Word. All of the gospel writers contribute some information to the burial of Jesus. Remember, this was Friday, and Mark, Luke, and John, as well as Matthew, all refer to it as the day of preparation for the Sabbath. Saturday would be the Sabbath. The Sabbath would begin at sundown, Friday night. So evening here in the Jewish use of the word is clearly referring to late afternoon. Now, sundown is important because there was a law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and we find it in Deuteronomy 21, 22. And that law said this, if a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, His corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day." Now, same day means before sundown. For he who is hanged is accursed of God. Now why is it this was so important? So that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance. So if they leave Jesus' body on the cross overnight, it's going to defile the land which God gave them. Now, remember, Jesus had been accused by the Jews of committing a sin worthy of death, and he had been put to death. He'd been hung on a tree, just as the statute in Deuteronomy tells us. And the Jews who had persuaded Pilate to execute Jesus now sought to have him taken off the cross and thrown into the burial dump. with the other two crucified men. Now, why would they do this? Well, they did this because they were religious men. They were devout men. They were very attentive to the law of their religion. We learn a lot, don't we, here about what that gets anybody, being attentive to or devoutly religious. That's what these men were. And their law said, his corpse could not hang all night on a tree. They didn't want the land that God had graciously given to them to be defiled by Jesus Christ hanging on a tree, by his body hanging on a tree after sundown. So John tells us in his gospel that the Jews, meaning the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin, went to Pilate and asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Now they break the legs because that will quicken death. They will lose their ability to in any way support themselves because their legs are broken and they will asphyxiate fairly quickly. Well, Pilate was agreeable to their request. He granted it. So, John tells us, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him. Now, one, of course, was that repentant thief. But coming to Jesus, they saw he was already dead. So they did not break his legs. But, for some reason, one of the soldiers took a spear and pierced his side, and out of his side immediately blood and water came out. Now John writes something very interesting right after he says this. Here's what he wrote in 1935 of his gospel. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he's telling the truth, so that you may also believe. Just like Matthew, John viewed his gospel as his testimony. This is his sworn statement. and he called it his testimony. He was writing down what he witnessed that day. Why? So that his readers would believe, would believe in Jesus. In chapter 20, near the end of his gospel, John wrote this, chapter 20, verse 30, Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which aren't written in this book, but these have been written, why? So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, the Son of God. And that believing, what do you have? Life in His name. This is a book from which we receive eternal life. So John tells us that when the Roman soldiers came back to break Jesus' legs and thereby to quicken his death, they saw he was already dead. So they didn't break his legs. And then they pierced his side, one of them with this spear. Now theologians look for the significance of the piercing of Jesus' side. But really there is no mystery here. John tells us exactly why these two things happened. 1936. These things came to pass to fulfill the scripture. These things came to pass to fulfill what God had said hundreds of years before. God gave it to his prophets, they wrote it down, and then it came to pass long, long after. And the scripture had said, not a bone of him shall be broken. And another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced. From Zachariah. Why are we preaching on the burial of Jesus? Well, because it's here in the Word of God. But here's the thing that God wants us to know. He wants us to know that He ordained every single thing that happened that day. And He gave advance notice of every one of these events through His prophets hundreds of years before. His prophets had written these things down for anyone who looked to see. On Pentecost, What did Peter preach? Acts 2.23. He preached that Jesus was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. By God's plan. Now, this was wicked men, and they sinned greatly in murdering Him. But they did it according to God's plan. So this morning we look into the scriptural account of the burial of Jesus, and according to the Gospels, four people were there in addition to these Roman soldiers. And the central figure in the burial of Jesus was a rich man from Haramathiah. His name was Joseph. And look at this, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. Now, this town, Haramathiah, most believe was the ancient town of Ramathaim, which was a little over 20 miles northwest of Jerusalem. And a prophet by the name of Samuel was born there. Now, Mark tells us that Joseph was a prominent member of the council, the Sanhedrin. This is a member of the Sanhedrin who's coming to do this. And Mark also tells us he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. John tells us that Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one. A secret one. Why? Because he was afraid of the Jews. Joseph had kept his belief in Jesus secret. Anybody ever do that? We don't want to do that. Why? Because he feared expulsion from the Sanhedrin, or maybe even expulsion from the synagogue, or maybe even death. And Luke tells us something else about Joseph. He had not consented to their plan and action. So, he's gonna go to Pilate. Now, it was normal practice for the Romans to allow the relatives, friends of men who had been executed to come and bury their bodies. And now, something's changed in Joseph, and perhaps as a fruit of Christ's atoning death, Joseph has suddenly become not fearful, but very bold and courageous. Mark tells us that Joseph gathered up courage and went in before Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Joseph's newfound boldness is seen in the fact that he did this even though he knew that others of the Sanhedrin were going to hear about it. And the fact that he was able to get in to see Pilate gives us some indication of his prominence. So we see that while the crucifixion had sent most of Jesus' disciples into hiding, it had the opposite effect on Joseph. It brought him out into the open. Joseph comes and asks Pilate to turn Jesus' corpse over to him. Well, Pilate wants to be sure Jesus is dead, so he checks with who? With the centurion, who we saw last week. who had said what? Truly, this was the Son of God. He checks with the centurion, and when he's been assured that Jesus was dead, Pilate granted Joseph's request. He came and took away his body, John tells us. Now remember, by entering a Gentile home or building, Joseph made himself ceremonially unclean for that day. That same morning, when they had brought Jesus to Pilate, the chief priests had remained outside the Praetorium, remember? And the reason was they wanted to remain ceremonially clean so they could eat what was called the Chaggidah that afternoon, part of the Passover. Joseph wasn't concerned about eating the sacrificial meal at this point. He had received a call to bury Jesus. And as we will see, a prophet of God had written of him hundreds of years before. Well, the second man involved in the burial of Jesus was a man that readers of John's gospel have encountered twice before, chapter 3 and chapter 7 of John. John chapter 3, which I did put in your scripture sheet, beginning in verse 1, we read that a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Jesus had been in Jerusalem. And it was to Nicodemus that Jesus said some of the most memorable words, and the words that we repeat and recite in Christianity more than any other, that if a man is to enter or even see the kingdom of heaven, he must be what? He must be born again. There isn't some other way to enter the kingdom of heaven. Because we're born spiritually dead, spiritually separated from God by our sin. In John chapter 7, we see Nicodemus briefly cautioning the other Pharisees. He's a Pharisee. Cautioning the other Pharisees not to judge Jesus until they'd heard him and learned about what he was doing. Now he appears to assist Joseph in the preparation of Jesus' body for its burial. Only John mentions Nicodemus. And he says, verse 39 of John 19, Nicodemus, who had first come to him by night, also came. And what's his role? He was bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds of them. That's about 72 pounds by our way of measuring. But that's a lot. So they took the body of Jesus and they bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, according to the custom of the Jewish burial. Now remember, Jesus' burial had to be finished before sundown, because at sundown, that marks the beginning of the Sabbath, and no labor is permitted on the Sabbath, and certainly no touching of corpses is permitted on the Sabbath. It was late afternoon, and sundown was approaching, so they had to work pretty quickly here. Now, why is it that two members of the Sanhedrin are the ones who are attending to the removal of Jesus' body from the cross and to his burial. Well, for one thing, all of Jesus' friends were gone. But not only that, his friends and the women and John, the apostle, were all completely unprepared for this task. They weren't ready that morning when they got up to come and bury Jesus. And if Joseph and Nicodemus had not arrived, It seems as though the body of Jesus would have been taken away by the soldiers and thrown into a pit with the bodies of the two criminals. They weren't going to leave it on that cross. But as had been the case with every event surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus, God was sovereign over this. God took care of his son's dead body. Nicodemus didn't just all of a sudden decide he was courageous. All of a sudden, Nicodemus didn't just show up with all of this spices and myrrh and aloe. Remember, Jesus' body was now a bloody pulp. His joints were very likely displaced as he was now a corpse. The spikes were still remaining in his wrists and ankles. They're going to remove him from this cross that he's hanging on. We don't know whether Joseph and Nicodemus had help or not, but they had to get Jesus' body down from the cross and lay it on the ground. And so it appears they must have had some discussion beforehand, maybe not long beforehand, but as to what each was going to do. And we can see it in the fact that they show up fully prepared for this. They've got everything necessary to handle this burial of Jesus. Joseph furnished the linen bandages. He furnished a new tomb that was his own, that happened to be nearby enough so this could be done before sundown, which was coming soon. Nicodemus happens to show up with spices and aromatics. A mixture of myrrh and aloes were told. Seventy-two of our pounds worth. And so they lay Jesus' body on the ground. They wrapped these linen bandages around His body, limb by limb. And they mixed in this myrrh and aloes as they're doing this. That was how the Jews prepared their dead for burial. They didn't embalm like we do or like the Egyptians did. Now there's one other thing. They weren't able to anoint His body for burial. But that really wasn't a problem, was it? No, because you see, Jesus' body had already been anointed for burial. If you look back to Matthew chapter 26, Matthew 26, verse 6, when Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, this was just a few days before, a woman came to him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume and she poured it on his head as he reclined at the table. But the disciples were indignant when they saw this and said, why this waste? For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor. Remember, Judas was the ringleader in that. But Jesus, aware of this, said, Why do you bother the woman? For she's done a good deed to me. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. For when she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. There is no possibility Jesus was taken by surprise by anything. He offered himself willingly and voluntarily. And it's again John who tells us, 1941, in the place where he was crucified, there happened to be a garden. And in the garden, a new tomb, owned by Joseph, in which no one had yet been laid. Now, there are many who are convinced they've identified the location of Calvary, where Jesus was murdered on the cross. and that they've identified the location of the tomb. But, in truth, we do not know for certain where the precise location is where Jesus was executed or where he was buried. And I think we can understand by now why that would be. God does not want us over there holding little demonstrations and vigils. He wants us to serve others and to serve him. That's what he wants from us. So Matthew tells us this is a new tomb, and Joseph took the body and laid it in his own new tomb. In other words, there had been no decay in this place. No decomposition had taken place. This is a big rock, and he's cut this tomb out of it. Hewn out of a rock, the Gospels tell us. And because sundown was fast approaching, they had to do this quickly, as I said. So they laid Jesus in the tomb, and Joseph rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. Went away. But, it shouldn't surprise us, there were two other people there. Verse 61 of Matthew 27. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave. These women were amazing. The other Mary, of course, is Mary the mother of James and Joseph, also known as Mary the mother of Clopas. And they were there and they saw the body of Jesus taken into this new tomb. They saw the big stone had been rolled in front of the entrance of the tomb. And so this verse explains how they would know where to go after the Sabbath ended and on Sunday morning with spices to seek to try to anoint his body. Now they had that stone to deal with, but we'll get to that later. But having seen all these things, they departed. Meanwhile, the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, Though they've succeeded in having Pilate execute Jesus, the chief priests and the Pharisees were still not satisfied. He was dead on the cross. He's being taken down from the cross, and they are still not satisfied. They were still haunted by their suspicions concerning Jesus, even though he was dead now. I mean, there's no change in their mindset at all here. So the next day, on the Sabbath, these are the guys who wouldn't go into the Praetorium on Friday morning. Now it's the Sabbath. They head into the Praetorium to see Pilate. Only Matthew records this. The next day, he says, day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate and said, Sir, or Lord, we remember that when he was still alive, that deceiver said, notice they address Pilate as Lord, curiae, the Greek word, and Jesus as that deceiver. They're still blaspheming even after he's dead. But they remembered when he was still alive, he said, after three days I am to rise again. The disciples don't seem to have heard it, no matter how many times Jesus said it, but these guys did. And now they're worried about that. Therefore, they say to Pilate, 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's risen from the dead. And the last deception will be worse than the first. This is the depraved mind. They're so far removed from reality. So here we are on the Sabbath. The chief priests and Pharisees, these devotees of the law, are walking right into a Gentile building. So here they are, though, these conformists of the law, meeting with a Gentile ruler, doing business in a Gentile building on the Sabbath. So they're breaking just about all of their laws now. And that very morning, of course, they'd pretended that they dare not enter the Gentile praetorium. Well, what did they do? Well, in talking to Pilate, they acknowledged what? That Jesus had prophesied he was going to be raised in three days. They're witnesses against themselves here. Now we've got the prophecy admitted by the hostile witnesses. And they saw this idea of Jesus being raised as a potential problem. Now, did they believe he might actually be raised from the dead? Well, I don't think so. I don't know. That's not what they said. They said they suspected his disciples may try to steal his body and then tell everybody he'd raised. It's remarkable that while the disciples failed to understand Jesus' repeated prophecies of His resurrection, the Pharisees and chief priests did understand them. They remembered them, even though they'd been couched in kind of veiled terms. Remember how Jesus said it to them, just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. But what they've got are suspicious minds, and because of their suspicions, they make a request to Pilate. Give orders for the grave to be made secure, not forever, not overnight, until the third day. They're giving us the whole prophecy. Otherwise, they may come and try to steal them. So we see here how evil minds work, don't we? This is how we think. This is probably how they think. Priests and Pharisees, who were the real deceivers and liars, imagined that other people were like they were. They assumed that Jesus' disciples would also remember Jesus' prophecy that He would rise. They apparently also assumed that the disciples did not believe Jesus, and they suspected the disciples might try to steal the body out of the tomb and dispose of it secretly, and then claim that He'd been raised from the dead. None of these things were true. But from all that we've seen of Jesus' disciples in the hours leading up to and during His crucifixion, stealing His body must have been the last thing on their minds. Any reason to think the disciples were thinking about stealing His body? They'd abandoned Him, and what's more, they hadn't really understood or even believed Him when He said He was going to be killed and then raised on the third day. and the actions of the chief priests. Let's think about this. Or even more pointless, because they could and should have known that if what Jesus had prophesied was true, did they really think they could do anything about it? There was nothing in heaven or on earth that could have stopped God from doing what he was going to do. And so if they'd actually known and understood what was in the minds of the disciples, they'd have seen how foolish their fears were, how bizarre this whole escapade was. And it really is bizarre. But by their actions, what did they do? They unintentionally helped to prove the resurrection. We'll see that next week. So Pilate assigned a guard for them, apparently under their direction, by the way, as to its placement. He says, you have a guard. He gives them a guard, says, go make it as secure as you know how. And they went and they made the grave secure, and along with the guard, they set a seal on the stone. In addition to the guard, this would have normally been a squad of four, most likely. They set this seal, and a seal would have been something that would have connected the stone to the wall of the rock in which the tomb was cut, so that if anybody moved it, you'd be able to tell. Jesus' body was now confined in a tomb, blocked by this extremely heavy stone that could only be rolled and sealed and under guard by a squad of Roman soldiers. no one was going to be able to steal Jesus' body. They accomplished that. They disprove any theory by the atheists that Jesus' body was stolen. So, it's late Friday afternoon. Twenty-seven chapters into this gospel, the lifeless body of our Savior was laid in a tomb. And it would lay there for all of Friday evening, all of Saturday, until the early hours of Sunday morning. At this point, His saving work had been finished. He had suffered and died for our sins. He'd been buried now by two men who, until that afternoon, had been believers but had kept their belief in Him a secret. So what does the Holy Spirit want us to learn from this passage? What is it He wants to impress on our minds and hearts? Well, first, let's consider Joseph of Haramathiah. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the very court that had handed down the death sentence against Jesus. He believed Jesus was the Messiah, but was afraid to let anyone know that. But now, what he had believed in his head, God had now impressed on his heart. It now affected how he lived. That's what we call saving faith. Faith that affects how we live, changes how we live. The Spirit of God gave him something. He gave him courage and boldness, and he was called to act in fulfillment of a prophecy written 700 years earlier, to provide for our Lord an honorable burial. In so doing, he certainly exposed himself to the reproach and hatred of the Sanhedrin, probably the whole Jewish nation. He exposed himself to great danger in doing this. That's what faith that's acted upon does How did he suddenly acquire this boldness and courage well I think we've seen that in the midst of all this great wickedness around him now his fear is gone He has no hesitation to suddenly and dramatically declare for all to know the very thing he'd been hiding and Remember the first time you started telling unbelievers you were a Christian? This was that day for Joseph of Arimathea. Let's have no doubt, folks. He was moved by the Spirit of God, as every true believer has been. So that while the Son of God was buried by His hand, it was, in a very real sense, the work of God. And in the faith and courage of Joseph, we recognize the work of God. You want to know if you're a Christian? Think about Him, and think, am I living like this? After the crucifixion, not before. Now last week, we saw that God's miraculous tearing of the temple veil meant that by the death of Jesus, the way into the presence of God had been opened. These are big deal things. They all happened that day. And the overriding lesson for us this morning, and one that I believe, brothers and sisters, we in the church are often way too quick to lose sight of, is this. It's of the sovereignty, the omniscience, and the power of God. We know from Scripture that God has ordained and that all He has spoken will come to pass. There's nothing He has said that will not happen. And God had long before declared to His prophets everything that came to pass that day. Remember, Jesus Himself had told His disciples what? that he would suffer and be killed when he came to Jerusalem. I put them in your scripture sheet. Matthew 16, 21, from that time Jesus began to show his disciples he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. I'll read the rest of it next week. Matthew 20, 17, as He was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve aside and said, Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him. Jesus told them all these things. Matthew was there, he heard them, and he wrote them down. Then, after they arrived at Jerusalem, Matthew 26, when Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples, You know that after two days the Passover is coming. And the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion, all three times, prophesying of His crucifixion and the details. And then Isaiah, around 700 B.C., Isaiah 53-7, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Remember how He stood there at His trials and didn't say a word. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, like a sheep that is silent before its shears, He did not open His mouth. Isaiah 53, 10, that the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief, if he would render himself as a guilt offering. He rendered himself. No one takes his life from him, he said. I lay it down voluntarily. And then Jesus' words as he hung on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Written down 1,000 years earlier and recorded by David in a song. In his gospel, we saw it earlier this morning, John wrote in 1936, for these things came to pass to fulfill the scripture. Not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced. You see all of these things God ordained to be done by the hands of godless men. Yes. John there cited both the Passover instructions of Exodus 12 regarding the Passover lamb, not a bone of him shall be broken, and the prophecy of Psalm 3420, he keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. John cited Zechariah 1210, they will look on me whom they have pierced. That one was written maybe only five, six hundred years before the fact. And as to his burial, the subject of our sermon this morning, Isaiah wrote this, 53 now. His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence. nor was there any deceit in his mouth. He was with a rich man in his death, Isaiah, 700 years before. And that rich man, Joseph of Haramathiah, responded to the call of God. But of the greatest significance to us of all of those prophecies that were fulfilled that day, Look at Isaiah 53, 4. Surely our griefs, our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. He was pierced through for our transgression. All of that happened to him because of our sin. But the great news, by his scourging, we are healed. We're restored to God. We're reconciled to God by the beating he took. Folks, think about this. The salvation of sinners was accomplished that day. Talk about a big deal. Sinners were reconciled to God that day. And God had already announced all of it over hundreds and hundreds of years. And that salvation that He made possible that day is available. It's there for all who believe and repent of their sins and turn to Him. You don't have to stay out of a Gentile building. You don't have to worry about laws regarding before sundown, after sundown, before Sabbath, after Sabbath. No. Believe and trust in that sacrifice he offered that day. Believe that God gave us those prophecies long before to help us believe. Believe the testimony of the apostles, John and Matthew, and then act on that belief like Joseph did. He says my servant will justify the many Isaiah 53 11 Believe And if you're not believing cry out to God ask him to give you faith It's going to change you Well, there was one other prophecy that Jesus would yet fulfill. And we're going to celebrate the fulfillment of that prophecy next week. But for now, as we depart, let us just join together in saying, may all glory be to our God. But the song says, you paid a debt we could not pay. And we, while we sorrow at your suffering, we rejoice that by your scourging, you've made it possible for us to live for all eternity with you. And so we praise your name. We honor you by this gathering. Ask, Lord, that you would convict our hearts make us effective witnesses of this, your truth. In Christ's name, amen. Amen.