John 19:38-42
John 20:1-10
Topic: Leaving your graveyard clothes in the graveyard
In these passage of scriptures, we read about Mary Magdalene, and the other women going to the sepulcher to anoint the body of Jesus Christ. About 3 days earlier, Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross on Calvary’s hill, and he was laid to rest and buried in a sepulcher that is known as Joseph’s “borrowed tomb.” But when Mary Magdalene and the other women arrived at the sepulcher, they noticed that the stone was rolled away from the entrance of the sepulcher, for God had sent an angel to roll the stone away. And the scriptures says that Peter, John, Mary, and the other women had went into the sepulcher and saw that the body of Jesus Christ was not there, for Jesus Christ had risen from the dead just as he said he would.
Now, the stone was not rolled away from the entrance of the sepulcher by the angel for Jesus’ sake, for Jesus could have thought the stone away, and the stone would have moved. Jesus could have spoken to the stone, and the stone would have moved. Jesus could have just touch the stone, and the stone would have moved. Better yet, Jesus could have walked right through the stone out of the sepulcher because Jesus Christ has all power to do anything. But the stone was not moved for Jesus Christ sake, but it was moved for Mary, the other women, Peter and John’s sake The stone was moved for their sake so they could go into the sepulcher and see that Jesus Christ was no longer dead, but that He has risen from the dead, and that He is alive forever more. And because Jesus is alive today, salvation is available. Because Jesus is alive today, eternal life is available. Because Jesus is alive today, deliverance is available. Because Jesus is alive today, forgiveness of sin is available. There is a song that says, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fears are gone. Because I know who holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives!”
Yes, the stone was rolled away from the sepulcher so that Mary and the other women, Peter and John could go in and see that the body of Jesus Christ is no longer in the tomb, but they may see that Jesus Christ has indeed risen from the dead by the Almighty God.
But guess what? Even though this incident took place over 2000 years ago, God is still rolling back stones. God is still able to roll some stones out of our lives. In order for us to be able to move forward in our lives, there are some stones that need to be rolled away in our lives.
For example, in order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessings that God has for you, the stone of unforgiveness must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives and to receive the blessing that God has for us, the stone of bitterness must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessing that God has for us, the stone of confusion must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessing that God has for you, the stone of depression must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessing that God has for us, the stones of hate, racism, bigotry, prejudices must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessings that God has for us, the stones of jealousy, envy, and disobedience must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives and to receive the blessings that God has for us, the stones of falsehood, deceit, malicious gossip, and slander must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessings that God has for us, there are some stones of uncontrolled anger, lust, and negative attitudes that must to be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessing that God has for us, there are some stones of foolishness must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessing that God has for us, there are stones of drug addiction and alcohol addiction that must be rolled away.
In order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessing that God has for us, there are some stones of pride, fear, unbelief and doubts that must be rolled away.
To make it plain and simple, in order for us to move forward in our lives, and to receive the blessing that God has for us, there are some stones of sin, evil, transgression, and iniquity that must be rolled away.
Now notice about another thing as Peter and John went into the tomb to investigate the empty tomb of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In St. John 20:5-7, it tells us that when Peter and John went into the tomb, they saw “the linen clothes(his graveyard clothes) lying in the tomb, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.”
Now in the biblical days and times, whenever someone would die, the people would take their time to wrap the dead body with one linen cloth, and annoint the dead body with spices. And this was a very time consuming task, for it usually took hours to wrap a dead body with linen cloth with spices with the purpose to perserve the dead body from rotten and decaying too quick.
Now, if you look at Matthew 27:57-60, it says, “When the even was come(after Jesus Christ had died upon the cross for our sins), there was a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he 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 great stone to the door of the sepulchre and departed.”
In Mark 15:42-47 it says, “And when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counsellor, which waited for the kingdom of God, came and went bodly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marveled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion,he askd 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 the 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.”
Luke 23:50-53, it says, “And behold, there was a man named Jospeh, counsellor: and he was a good man, and a just. (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews; who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man want unto Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before laid.
In John 19:38-42 it says “And after this(Jesus Christ had died upon the cross), Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden: and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never a man laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.”
Now, from these passage of scriptures, we learn that after Jesus Christ had died upon the cross, Joseph and Nicodemus had took the body of Jesus down from the cross, wrapped his body up in clean linen clothes with spices, myrrh, and aloes.
But when Peter and John went to the tomb to investigate Mary Magdalene claim that that the body of Jesus was not in the tomb, because she thought that Jesus’ body had been stolen, the scriptures says that Peter and John went into the tomb and saw the linen clothes undisturbed, still wrapped up in its place where Jesus was laid in the tomb. Now this testimony right here does away with the notion that Jesus’ body was stolen from the tomb because if Jesus body was stolen from the tomb, then the thieves would first of all had to get past the Roman’s soldiers who were guarding the tomb where Jesus was buried, and they would have taken Jesus’ body still wrapped up in the linen clothes, or they would have to taken the time and task to unwrapped Jesus out of his grave clothes, and left the linen cloth in pile of heap.
But when Peter and John went into the tomb, they saw the linen cloth undisturbed, still wrapped up perfectly in its place where Jesus was laid, which gave them evidence that his body was not stolen. But instead, the wrapped linen cloth testified that when Jesus rose up out of the grave, not only did he rose up out of the grave, but He also rose up out of and through the wrapped linen cloth that had him wrapped up in the grave for three days because when he rose, he rose up with a glorified physical body, that was flesh and bones, which could not be subject or restricted to any earthly, or physical boundries. And that is a blessing to know that there is nothing that can keep Jesus Christ wrapped up or tangled up. No matter what this world try to do or say to try discredit Jesus Christ, No matter what the world try to do to do away with the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you can’t keep him down because when He rose out of the grave, and out of the graveyard clothes, He rose up with all power in his hands.
And notice something; notice where Jesus left his wrapped linen clothes, his graveyard clothes. He left it behind in the graveyard.
You see, just as Jesus rose up out of the grave and left his wrapped linen cloth, his wrapped graveyard clothes in the tomb, there are some spiritual graveyard clothes that we need to leave behind in our personal graveyards. Some of us are wearing the graveyard clothes of hate that needs to be left in the graveyard. Some of us are wearing the graveyard of unforgiveness, the graveyard clothes of bitterness, graveyard clothes of envy and jealousy, graveyard clothes of uncontrollable anger, graveyard clothes of lust, graveyard clothes of fear, graveyard clothes of despair, and leave them in the graveyard of our past. In other words we need to take off some our old clothes of sin, and put on the new clothes of righteousness in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:26-27 says, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
And if we have put on Christ as our new clothes of righteousness, Ephesians 4:31-32 says to, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
Colossians 3:8-9 says, “But ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.”
Colossians 3:12-14 says, Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfect-ness.
Yes, when Jesus Christ rose up out of the grave, he also raised up out of and through his graveyard clothes. But yet there is another story in St. John 11:1-44 about a man named Lazarus whom Jesus had raised up from the dead. When Jesus had raised Lazarus out of the grave, he came out walking out of the grave yard still wrapped up from head to toe in his grave yard clothes. But Jesus said, “Loose that man and let him go.” In other words he needed to be unwrapped, he need to be loosed and set free so he can walk freely and go further away from the graveyard, and leave his graveyard clothes behind. And likewise, we too need to let Jesus Christ our Lord to unwrap us, to untangle us, to loose us so we can be set free to worship Him, to be set free to serve Him, to be set free to live for Him, to be set free to witness for Him, and to be set free to praise Him
So the question is…what has gotten you all wrapped up? What has gotten you all wrapped and all entangle up that you can’t follow Jesus like you should? You don’t need to let anything or anybody get you all wrapped up and all entangle up to the point you cant follow the Lord. You need to let the Lord unwrap and untangle you from sin you so you can live for Jesus Christ. In other words you need to come to Jesus to get saved. You need to come to Jesus to get delivered. You need to come to Jesus to be set free from power and penalty of sin.
You see, I can’t unwrap or untangle you from the web of sin, but Jesus can. Only Jesus can unwrap or untangle you from the web of sin. All you have to do is do what Romans 10:9 says, “If thou confess with thou mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
