Mark 15, verse 37. Let's hear the reading of God's sacred Word. And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, When the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly, this man was the Son of God. They were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome, who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him. and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. And now, when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. Pilate marveled if he were already dead. And calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre, which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. and Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joses, beheld where he was laid." And the Lord will add his blessing to that reading from his word for his name's sake. Could we bow our heads in a word of prayer? Let's seek the Lord together. Our gracious God and our loving Father in heaven, we are now about to handle the Holy Scriptures. We do it, Lord, with holy fear in our hearts. We realize that this book is infallible. It is inspired. We realize, Lord, that we at best are mere vessels of clay. And who is sufficient for these things? We confess, Lord, that our sufficiency is of God. We are depending upon thee to help us. preach the word this day in the power of the Holy Spirit. Hide thy servant behind Christ and his cross. Give, Lord, gracious power to wield the sword of the Spirit. May the arrows that thou hast made find their targets, do the work that they've been designed to do, that we might be able to rejoice and say, The Lord was among us this day. The Lord spoke to me. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Few things in life speak so clearly, so convictingly, speak to the converting and condemning power of Christ crucified as in what took place in the lives of the people who saw the Prince of Glory nailed to that Roman cross. Convicts, converts, condemns. That is why we've taken up the subject before actually looking at Christ on the cross, the people at Calvary for the last several Lord's Days. The fact of the matter, the irrefutable truth of the Word of God is that whenever and wherever the doctrine of the cross of Christ is made known, it will have one effect or another on those who are faced with it. Such is the power of the preaching of the cross. Paul states in 1st Corinthians 1.18 that the preaching of the cross, literal rendering of the Greek, that the word or the doctrine of the cross, it's not the Greek word keruso for preaching, it's the word logos, that the doctrine of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. The doctrine of the cross is simply the doctrine of salvation through the crucifixion of the Son of God as the sacrifice for the sins of men. That, in a nutshell, is the doctrine of the cross. I'll say it again. It's the doctrine of salvation through the crucifixion of the Son of God as the sacrifice for the sins of men. Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 1 clearly indicates that there are only two classes of people when it comes to this matter of being presented with the doctrine of the cross. Those who perish in their sin look upon the doctrine of Christ crucified as foolishness. We get our word moron from the Greek root of this word translated foolishness. The cross of Christ to them is something very stupid, very moronic, very foolish. But then there are those who are saved through the power of God, which he exercises in their lives when they are confronted with the doctrine of the cross. The point to note, especially as we think upon those people at Calvary viewing the crucifixion of God's Son, is that the message of the cross the message of the cross always produces one effect or another in those who hear it. The apostle Paul put this same truth in another way in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 6, when he wrote, Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us. He's referring to those who preach the gospel. which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of the odour, the smell, of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour, a sweet smell of Christ. And them that are saved and in them that perish. Unto God we are a sweet smell, in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of life unto death, and to the other the savor, the smell of life unto life. One perishes, They smell they're presented with the doctrine of the cross. It's foolishness. It's moronic. That doctrine you've been teaching, Paul, it's idiotic. You've no time for that. And they perish in their sin. But those, they smell that savor. They believe it, and they're saved. But it's always one effect or the other. Paul preached Christ crucified everywhere he went. That was, you might say, his Johnny One Note when it came to evangelizing the lost. When he came to Corinth, he said, I was determined to know nothing among you save Christ crucified. His preaching of the doctrine of the cross is likened to the giving off of a sweet smell. To one class of people who heard the doctrine of the cross, it was a smell of life unto life. It resulted in their salvation. To others, the sweet smell of the gospel was something repugnant to them. And because it was repugnant to them, they perished. And that's exactly what was taking place that day on Golgotha's hill regarding the people who were there at the cross. To the Pharisees, the chief priests, the scribes, and all those other Jews who mocked Christ that day, the crucifixion of God's Son was a savor of death unto death. It condemned them. In fact, it only deepened their condemnation. They stood in a very unique position. They stood in the direct light of Calvary, the direct light of the death of God's Son. You see, greater light means greater responsibility, greater exposure to the truth of God means greater responsibility. And as is oftentimes the case with the preaching of the cross, the doctrine being revealed, the sinner reveals his deep hatred for that gospel, his deep hatred for the cross, his deep hatred for God's way of salvation, and the view of Christ crucified brought out the deep hatred these religious Jewish leaders had for Jesus Christ. But as we have been seeing lately, the sight of Christ crucified also had a very deep and blessed effect on many who were there that day. Yes, the sight of Christ crucified was to one of those two thieves a saver of death unto death. I grant you that. But to the other thief, that sight resulted in his conversion. When it comes among men to cross, it always produces results. Always. And yes, while most of the soldiers Calvary ended up being condemned by their knowledge of Christ crucified that day, the Roman Satorian was brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. Luke says, Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. And Mark adds that he confessed, Truly this man was the Son of God. He glorified—he had been mocking Christ, but he changes. He's now glorifying God and said, This man was a righteous man. He wasn't a sinner. And truly, this man, this man, humanity, was the Son of God, deity. Now, there's a confession for you. There still remains a few people that we need to consider who were there at Calvary that day. Just two little groups. Well, one large, one small. I want you to look this morning in the first place at the women at Calvary. The women at Calvary. Mark specifies that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and Joseph—she was also known as Mary the wife of Cleophas—and Salome—she was the mother of James and John—were there that day at Calvary. It is John alone who also informs us that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was at the cross that day. But there were far more than four women gathered together around Christ's cross. Matthew states in chapter 27, verse 55, that many women were there. Luke says, chapter 23, verse 27, in his gospel account, that among the large crowd that followed Christ to Calvary that day, there was, I quote now, a great company—mega—of women. A great company of women. Why? Why did the Holy Spirit ensure that among the people at Calvary who would be recorded, it would be put down forever in the Word of God that many women were there? Why is that bit of information given? And some of them are actually mentioned by name. Why'd he do that? Number one, to show how God delights to use weak things to do great things. How God delights to use weak things to do great things. These were women, after all. I realize that there are many in this generation that would detest what I'm about to say, but the women at Calvary that day were, in comparison to men, the weaker vessels. I'm just using the wording of Scripture, so if you're offended by me describing them as the weaker vessels, take your offense to the Holy Spirit who inspired Peter to write that husbands are to dwell with their wives, to live with their wives, I quote now, according to knowledge. Know who you're living with. Realize who and what your spouse is according to knowledge. Giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. There she's called the weaker vessel, which means he's the stronger vessel. The weakness is not intended to mean that a woman is necessarily weaker than a man in mental ability. Reality shows that that's not true. or inferior in talents and gifts, or weaker in usefulness or capacity. And while it is true that a woman is on the norm—weaker on the norm, I say—weaker physically than a man, that's not the main thrust of the text. Peter is saying that the woman is the weaker vessel in that she is more tender and delicate than the man is. She is more fragile. She is more sensitive, more emotional, and as one commentator put it well, I think, less adapted to the rough and stormy scenes of life. The man is more adapted for the storms, the troubles, the upheavals, the turmoils, because he just isn't so sensitive. Normally—I know there's exceptions to that—but normally, he is tougher. He was designed to be that way by God. But it was many female followers of Christ, and not the male followers of Christ who were there that day at Calvary. The only apostle who was at the cross that day mentioned in the Gospels was John. Neither Matthew, Mark, or Luke mention that John was there. only John who tells us that John was there at the cross. Bold and courageous Peter, who said to Christ just hours before, I'll die with you, he wasn't there. There's no mention of John's brother James being there, but his mother Salome was there. His mother was there. The other James of the apostles—there were two of them, he's called James the Less—he wasn't there, but his mother Mary was there. If we learn nothing else from the fact that the largest group the largest group of witnesses to the crucifixion of Christ, as far as believers were concerned, was made up of women. Let's learn that God is one who loves to take the weak things to confound the mighty. He's shown throughout the Bible that he accomplishes some of his greatest works through people who were weak and would be voted the least likely to succeed or to be used by God. It's Rahab he uses in the defeat of Jericho. It's Deborah who heads up the armies of Israel to go to war against the king of Canaan. It is Jail who puts the spike through the temple of Sisera, the head of those armies. Jail. It was Abigail who restrained the rage of David when he came to slay her husband for how he had treated his own men. Nabal would have been a dead man if it hadn't been for Abigail. It was Hannah. It was Ruth. It was Esther. It was, the scripture says, a little maid that God used in the healing of Naaman the Syrian. A little maid who was a captive at that. A little girl. Why does he do that? To glorify these weak vessels? No, but it is that his power might be magnified. His power might be depended on and clinged to, to show, to teach, That it's not us, it's Him. So that men will see His greatness, His strength, and glorify Him. That is the one thing above everything else that God is interested in. It is His own glory. That's why He made us. You're here for His glory. That's your chief purpose. God says, it is all about me. I am to be magnified. And that's the best thing that could ever happen in this universe, is that God be glorified. That's why He delights to take the weak things to do some of His greatest things. As Paul puts it at the end of 1 Corinthians 1, God takes the weak things and the foolish things and the base things and the things which are not—read there, the nobodies—that no flesh should glory in his presence, that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's why he does it. Imagine, imagine how those other ten apostles must have felt when they learned that all of these women were courageous enough to be at Calvary that day, but they weren't. These were the apostles. My mom was there. James had to say—as a matter of fact, both Jameses had to say—my mom was there. but I wasn't." Surely it would have been a great rebuke to them. Surely it would have been. But would also this not have been a means where eventually God would use it as a great encouragement to them when they would, because of the onslaught of hell, as they sought to establish the church and spread the gospel, that they would see, I am so weak and so powerless. But remember that day, God empowered these women to stand there boldly, unashamedly, for Jesus Christ. Surely if that God can empower them, he can empower us, no matter how weak and powerless we are. we will carry on with the work of building the church. That's what God was after. That's what we keep forgetting. It will always be the aim of Satan when it comes to the people of God to put their eyes upon their inabilities, upon their weaknesses, upon their lack, because he wants to convince them that they are nothing and they can do nothing. They are useless. You get a child of God at that point in time, he's not a bright light on the hill. He's not doing much for the Lord. But you let him get a sight of the fact that God does some of his greatest works to very weak vessels. Well, that means God can use me in all my weakness. I think there's a truth that's been lost sight of in this day, this generation of, you know, you've got to be picture perfect. Furthermore, these women were at Calvary that day because they deeply loved Jesus Christ. They deeply loved him. They're very attached to him, very devoted, very, very loyal to their master. And that love and attachment showed itself in several ways. Luke says that as Christ was being led to Calvary, these women bewailed and lamented him. There was a whole lot of weeping going on in the streets of Jerusalem as they followed Jesus to Calvary. There were many who were laughing and mocking at Him, but not these women. They saw Him suffering. They saw Him in His weakness. They saw what had been done to Him. And because they loved Him, they wept. They had compassion. You know, when you don't care about somebody, it's just a face, an individual. You read about it all the time in the news. Somebody's been killed. Somebody's been slaughtered. But when it's someone you love, when it's someone you're very attached to, then you will weep. Matthew says in chapter 27, verse 55, that many of these women had followed Christ all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem, roughly 90 miles, as He went to the Feast of the Passover. Ninety miles by foot, often rugged roads, ninety miles, they traveled with Jesus and his disciples. He also adds the comment that they were ministering to him in that journey. They loved him, and so they ministered to him. That little comment about ministering to him in that journey actually takes us back to a passage in Luke chapter 8. The Lord is in Galilee. And Luke says that Christ went through every city and village to preach the kingdom of God. As he did that, not only did the twelve apostles travel with him, but Luke says also certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna, the wife of Cuzza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance." Calvin says of these women that, I quote, their eagerness for instruction led them to withdraw from their country and constantly to learn from the lips of Christ, and that they spared neither toil nor money, provided that they might enjoy his saving doctrine. They were from Galilee, and they traveled throughout all the cities and the villages. And it wasn't just the twelve apostles, it was these many women. traveling with him so they could hear his doctrine, sit under his ministry. And they spared nothing. They gave of their substance whatever it was. These many women from Galilee were the same ones who now make that long trek for Passover week from Galilee to Jerusalem. These women went with him and continued to minister to him. When their trip to Jerusalem ended up, something they had never expected, When it ended up being a trip to Calvary, they went with him every step of the way. Every step. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that they were there on Calvary's hill that day, watching Christ the whole time. whole time. Yes, they were beholding a far-off, they all make that point, but as to the reason they were a far-off, the Scriptures do not tell us. I would be the last one to bring an accusation against them in some negative way as far as a reason for them being a far-off. These women don't strike me to be of that kind of a nature. Well, we just want to keep our distance. But the fact that they would not leave that place until the Lord was placed in the tomb shows how much they loved him, how much they wanted to be with him. They had no ability now to minister to Christ of their substance. There was no ability for them to rescue him. After all, his apostles had fled in fear from him. What could they do? But they could and did prove to the Lord that they still loved him and that Jesus was still all the world to them by staying with Christ right to the end, even in the midst of their confusion about what was going on and their feelings of despair. Remember, this was not in their thinking at all. This was not supposed to happen. They would have stood there that day completely perplexed and confused about why the Messiah was hanging on a cross and dying. And I have no doubt that feelings of despair washed over them. What are we going to do now? But they stayed. They endured to the end because they loved Him. This is why the Holy Spirit has written into His Word the account of these women at Calvary. They honored the Lord Jesus Christ with their love, and the Lord said, them that honoreth me I will honor. With the exception of John, it appears to me that their love for and loyalty to Jesus Christ was stronger than that of the ten disciples—with the exception of John. But that is something that's often been found, you know, in the life of the church of Christ. I've talked with miniatures about this numerous times over the twenty-five years plus I've been in the ministry. Many times you'll find it is the wife who has a closer and deeper walk with God than the husband. Many times. It's often been the women of the church who are far more ready to display, to show, to prove their love for Jesus Christ than the men of the church. They have often been the ones who are the more spiritual. Perhaps, perhaps, that God-given tenderness and sensitivity is not the great weakness that it appears to be at first glance. Just perhaps. There's nothing like love for Christ that produces this kind of staying power of loyalty, of devotion to Jesus, when so many who were supposed to be the stalwarts had left. What I do know is that What the church of Christ needs just now are Christians, man or woman, who will follow in the footsteps of these women at Calvary, who will be loyal to Christ, who will stand with him, who will endure, even when so many have forsaken him. I turn in the final place to the wealthy men at Calvary. From the women to the wealthy men at Calvary. Christ has died. He's given up the ghost. Evening has come. Now It's necessary that Christ be taken down from the cross and buried. But how and who? The women weren't able. All appearances, John has taken Mary, the mother of Jesus, and gone taken her to his home. but it's got to happen. Mark says that there was a man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea. It's very encouraging to know that when you think there's no man, there's no answer for the hour, the need that the church is facing, God always a man. He always has someone. Been in the sidelines for a long time, but he has someone who will fill the gap. What do we know about this man who was at Calvary? Mark says he was an honorable counselor. That he was a counselor means that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the council who had condemned Christ to death. We know that especially from a verse in Luke 23 which says that, I quote, Joseph had not consented to the counsel and deed of them. He voted no. when it came to condemning Christ to death in that council. It is Matthew who tells us, Matthew alone, that he was rich. Nothing wrong with that, being rich I mean, as long as it is found together with what else Luke says about Joseph. He was a good man and a just. who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. That's Joseph of Arimathea. While Matthew adds that Joseph was Jesus' disciple, it's John who reveals that he was one secretly for fear of the Jews. So Joseph, he was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, He was a good man. And when the Holy Spirit says he was a righteous man, it means he was a justified man. He was a disciple, a believer in and a follower of Christ, and who looked forward to the coming of his kingdom and understand that they all were confused about what the coming of his kingdom meant, even the apostles themselves. You know, this little earthly raising up of the messianic kingdom right then and there, but still the point is he believed it and he was looking for it. But he had not made his discipleship public for fear of the Jews. John is the one who tells us of another wealthy man who came to Calvary that day to help Joseph with the body of Jesus. He also was a member of the Sanhedrin. His name was Nicodemus. He's the man that you read about in John 3 that came to Jesus, no surprise here, he came to Jesus by night. He had these questions about the Messiah and about the Lord Jesus that were troubling him. Everything seemed to point to him, from what he could see, that this Jesus must be the Messiah. And, of course, Christ points out his big problem. Nicodemus, you haven't been born again. You're a teacher in Israel. You know the law of God. You know what the Scriptures teach. But your problem is, you've not been born again. Obviously, that message worked its way into his heart, and he did come to confess Christ as his Savior. He was born again. Now he's found at Calvary, helping Nicodemus. He brought a hundred-pound weight, the Scripture says, of myrrh and aloes. That was a vast amount of spices that would cost a vast amount of money to purchase. But until this point in time, Nicodemus was just like Joseph, a secret disciple for fear of the Jews. In other words, when you analyze it, break it down to its bottom line thought, these two men were afraid. They were afraid of what they might lose if They publicly made known that they were believers and disciples of Jesus Christ. Perhaps they were afraid of losing their position on the council. When you're on the Sanhedrin, when you're on the Sanhedrin, 70 men in all Israel, This is the Supreme Court. You are a judge on the Supreme Court. Perhaps they were afraid to lose that position. They were obviously both wealthy men. Perhaps they're afraid they're going to lose their wealth. If they make it known they're his disciples. Perhaps they were afraid of losing their respect, because they would be ridiculed. Ridiculed! Remember? Remember Nicodemus? When he pulls them up in this council about Christ, you're condemning him? Anything good come out of Galilee, you idiot? I'd just shut him up. Ridicule! Can't bear the ridicule. Perhaps they were even afraid of losing their lives. They knew that this Sanhedrin, well within their ability to put them to death, But whatever it was, at the end of the day, what I want you to see—and this plays into real life for Christians—they were afraid. Whatever it was, they were afraid of losing. They were placing more value upon that than they were on Jesus Christ. That's why they kept it secret. They wouldn't stand up and be counted and say, I'm one of his disciples. I confess him as my Lord and Savior. No, there were other things that were, at least until this point in time, there were other things that were more important to them, more valuable to them than Jesus Christ himself. And that's always how it's been. Think of all that they lost in those three years of living as secret disciples of Jesus. If they'd been out and open about it, they could have gone around wherever he went and sat at his teaching at his feet and been so blessed by his ministry. They lost the joy of holding close fellowship with Christ. It had to be kept a secret. having fellowship with his disciples. Wouldn't that have been wonderful? They lost so much of what had made them so strong spiritually. But for fear of the Jews, they would not publicly confess Christ. They would not let go of would had to be let go of in order to confess him. And they suffered for it. They both serve as a warning to Christ's people. Any fear of man, the fear of losing anything that holds you back from letting the world know that you're a Christian, that'll keep you back from being an open, loyal disciple of Jesus Christ is a fear that you need to fear like the plague. You better be afraid of it. If you're afraid of the ridicule, the mocking, the scorn that you'll receive from people, because you're going to be loyal to Christ, you had better be afraid of that fear. The fear of man bringeth a snare. It entraps, it enslaves the believer who could enjoy so much more of Christ if they would but forsake the fear of man. But so often the questions rise up If I make my discipleship, my testimony known, unashamedly known, if I let people know I am standing with Christ, I am for him, what will they think of me? What will they say about me? They will laugh at me. I'll lose my job. I'll be rejected. You see, the truth I gleaned from Joseph and Nicodemus, you fear the Lord and you'll have nothing to fear of man. What was the cure for their fear? It was the site of Christ crucified. That broke it. Nicodemus must have been in the crowd that day. Joseph was in the crowd that day, both members of the Sanhedrin. And when they saw Jesus crucified. They said, this is enough. I will be silent no more. I will lose whatever I have to lose. But I'm done with the secrecy. I'm done with guarding my words. out of the fear of men. It filled their hearts with courage, the sight of Christ crucified. Mark says he went boldly in the Pilate and craved the body of Jesus, boldly. Remember, he was a disciple secretly. That's cowardice. But now he's changed, and boldly he goes. I want his body." It kindled a love for Christ in them that compelled them to action, to display that love. There was love doing that—love for him that did that. It led them to gladly surrender their wealth, their possessions for Christ. Joseph gives up his tomb. They didn't come cheap. Nicodemus, outlaid a vast sum of money to buy the spices. Isaac Watts wrote that old hymn we all know at the cross. He says at the end, but drops of grief, and I have no doubt that Joseph and Nicodemus were weeping. Drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself to Thee. It is all that I can do." And that's exactly what they did. The work of God needs men and women like those found at Calvary. Will you be one of them? Will you be one of them? May the Lord write His Word on our hearts for His namesake. Let's bow in prayer. Dear Father in Heaven, we ask Thy Spirit will speak on in our souls. Thy people face all throughout life those challenges, those trials of their love for Christ. Will I make myself and my convictions known, or will I keep silence? We pray, Lord, keep us near the cross, we pray. For certainly that is the cure to the fear of man and the source of deeper love and loyalty to Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.