Lo In The Grave He Lay Series

Lo In the Grave He Lay

Text: John 19:31-42

Every time I preach I have a couple of goals. First I want to faithfully, and correctly exposit the Word of God. It’s the Word, rightly proclaimed and taught that makes all the difference… Secondly, I always hope and pray that through the preaching of the Word, I put you awe of our great and awesome God, and I think our text will do that.

Before we turn to John though, I want you to look at 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. This was the Apostle Paul, telling the Corinthians what is of first importance… let me read it to you quickly, “For I delivered to you as of FIRST importance, what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

Now how many of you have ever looked at that and said, “Ok… the death of Christ is of great importance, that’s where atonement was made. That’s where He shed His blood, and paid for all my sin. And the resurrection – that’s very important. It is the stamp of God the Father’s approval on all that Jesus did, and said, and taught. It shows that His death on the cross was sufficient and complete. But the burial?... Paul adds that in the list of things of FIRST IMPORTANCE… Christ died for our sins, HE WAS BURIED, and He was raised on the third day.”

Why is the burial included in these things of FIRST IMPORTANCE?

Well, let’s turn to John 19:30-42 and hopefully we’ll see the answer to that question (READ TEXT).

Now the first thing I want you to notice here is right there in verse 30… we talked about Jesus saying “It is finished.” But look what He does after He says that… He bowed His head and GAVE UP His spirit. No one took Jesus’ life – He gave it Himself… willingly.

And it had to happen this way. Let me explain that if I can. You see, Jesus gave up His spirit right around 3:00 in the afternoon. The Sabbath began at around 6:00 – Ya’ll understand Jewish days are not like ours right? Their new day begins in the evening… and Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says, “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”

Ok? So according to the Old Testament, a crucified person wasn’t supposed to hang on the tree or cross, into the evening… The Romans typically would let crucified people stay on the cross for as long as it took, sometimes even days… but in Israel, they made an exception because of the Deuteronomy 21… in Israel, the Romans would come along and break the legs of those on the cross, so that they would die before the evening. But that posed a problem, because there was a prophecy in Psalm 34… Psalm 34:20 which says that the Messiah, who dies for the people, “keeps all His bones, not one is broken.” And Zechariah 12:10 says that “they will look upon Him whom they have pierced.”

If Jesus had been alive, when the Roman soldiers came to break legs, His legs would’ve been broken, His side would not have been pierced and the prophecies concerning the Messiah would’ve failed. But that’s the thing right!!!! God’s Word never fails!!!! God will so orchestrate human events to accomplish His Word.

So at 3:00 PM Jesus gives Himself over to death. He gives up His spirit, knowing that He must do it at that time, so that His bones are not broken, so that His side is pierced, and so that God’s Word is fulfilled.

ISN’T GOD AMAZING! But it doesn’t stop there… our text is primarily talking about the burial… and Paul included that in the things of FIRST IMPORTANCE… So let’s go on…

Verse 38 tells us that Joseph of Arimathea – who was a secret disciple of Jesus, comes to Pilate and asks permission to take the body of Jesus and burry it. And it’s he, along with Nicodemus who take the body of Jesus off the cross, and take it to the tomb.

So what do we know about these two guys?

Well… Joseph of Arimathea, according to Matthew 23 was a rich man. He was wealthy. Some even say he might have been that Rich Young Ruler Jesus rebuked. I don’t know that we can conclusively say that, but it’s possible. We know Joseph was rich… we know he was a “ruler” of sorts… Mark tells us he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council in Jerusalem… But we don’t know if Joseph was young… or if he was that guy at all. He was wealthy, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, and he was a secret disciple of Jesus… That means that he had come to believe in what Jesus was saying, but he was unwilling to step out and make that publicly known. At least until now.