The lesson manual took up the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ.
This is the gospel.
It's the good news of which Paul speaks
in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, and
I think that would be a way to
start the lesson this morning.
Whereover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye
have received, and wherein ye stand.
By which also ye are saved, if ye
keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you, first of all,
that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he
rose the third day according to the scriptures.
And the gospel would not be complete if
all three of these were not involved.
It takes the death, the burial, and the
resurrection of Christ to save a soul.
He died for our sins, his burial was
proof that he died, and his resurrection is
proof of his superiority over death.
We read in the scripture, the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God has the funniest thing.
He is holy, he can't look the other
way.
We as parents, or I did it one
time in my life at least, looked the
other direction.
I would give orders to my children and
they'd forget, you know.
I didn't want to punish them, so I
looked the other way.
At the Christian Home for Children, I had
about 55 children on my hands.
We would lay down the laws.
You have to have some guidelines in a
family of 55.
We'd lay these laws down and we'd be
pretty secure that we could.
But I would see infraction, and I would
look the other way.
I'm confessing that now.
I wouldn't tell them that, that I was
looking the other way, but I did not
want to punish them.
They had forgotten, and I put that into
account, that God cannot look the other way.
He's holy.
He has the funniest thing.
But the wonder of it all was that
he did not want to punish you and
me.
He wanted this in his heaven, so he
gave his own dear son, and I wouldn't
believe this if it weren't in the Bible.
He gave his own dear son to assume
the responsibility for my sins and to die
in my place.
And if I couldn't tell you that he
did that for you, I wouldn't have any
don'ts.
That's the good news.
That's the glad tiding.
Christ died for the ungodly.
Now that is ours.
How does it affect us?
I think that sometimes we think of the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as historical,
and indeed it is.
And I think sometimes that we just think
of it as being another phase of history.
Everything points to the cross.
Everything depends on the cross.
All of God's plans, all of God's purposes
are rooted, perhaps is a better word, through
the cross.
It's the answer to it all.
Without the cross of Christ, we would have
absolutely nothing.
I want to talk about his death this
morning as being voluntary, substitutionary, and necessary.
I want to talk about his burial as
being honorable, but temporary.
I want to talk about his resurrection as
involving the Trinity, and that is the theme
of the gospel as it was preached by
the apostles.
I'm going to the 10th chapter of John.
I'm going to forsake the chapter that we
just read and go to the 10th chapter
of John for some of these verses.
John chapter 10.
The Lord Jesus Christ, in this wonderful chapter,
speaks about his death.
He speaks about it in no uncertain terms.
He says in verse 17, Therefore doth my
Father love me, because I lay down my
life, that I may take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I
lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and
I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father.
His death was absolutely voluntary.
He did not have to be persuaded to
die.
He could say, Here am I, send me.
He offered himself without thought to God.
He offered himself without it even being suggested.
He loved you, and he loved me.
And his death was absolutely voluntary.
I love this thought, that he did not
have to be persuaded to go to the
cross.
He went to the cross because he loved
me.
He went to the cross because he loved
you.
I wonder if that love had moved him.
I wonder how much it moved him.
The Son of God loved me and gave
himself to me.
The Apostle Paul speaks of that love.
He speaks of his great indebtedness to Christ.
And while he might feel that indebtedness because
Christ bore him in so patiently, the Apostle
Paul, when he was Paul of Tarsus, persecuted
the Church even to the point of killing
some of the Christians, or voting for their
death.
Voting the cults of Moses, Stone, and Stephen.
And he indeed realized, after the Lord saved
him, what a debt of love he owed
him.
And probably that was the impelling force in
the Apostle's life.
I think that we would have to say
that the Apostle Paul is the world's greatest
Christian.
Certainly the world's greatest missionary.
I would not take that, I would not
guess that that evaluation of the Apostle Paul,
that it should be changed.
Not at all, I've heard that as an
indication.
But the impelling force of his life was
to just pay the Lord back, so to
speak, for all his grace and his mercy.
And I think that's the impelling force of
our lives.
I think that that's really what makes Christians
really go on all out for the Lord,
to realize what he did for you and
for me.
And I know there are differences in our
reactions.
I know there are differences in our response
to the Lord and to his work and
to his desires for us.
There are differences in response.
Even the Lord, as he told the parable,
talks about 30-fold Christians or a 30
-fold harvest, a 60-fold harvest and a
100-fold harvest.
He even made the difference.
And the harvest there are the people of
the Lord, they're the seed that is sown.
Even the Lord took that into account.
But why is it that some Christians take
these things so much more seriously than others,
are so much more devoted to the Lord
than others?
I think that the reason is, is that
they just realize in a little fuller sense
how much they owe to the Lord who
loves them and shines on them.
I don't think any of us will ever
know how much we owe to the Lord
Jesus.
And it thrills my soul that his death
was voluntary for me.
Now, it was substitutionary, and we won't have
to go out of this chapter to see
that.
Chapter 10 of John and verse 11, I
am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep.
He gave his life for the sheep.
That's substitutionary.
That's substitution.
He gave himself for me.
It boggles the mind that Christ would give
himself to die for me.
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
There's something else that boggles my mind.
God gave his son for me.
I have two sons.
Would you expect me to let one of
those sons die as a substitute for a
criminal?
Could you do it?
Would you give one of your children to
die in the place of a criminal?
You wouldn't, would you?
No, you wouldn't.
But God did it.
He did it for you and for me.
His death is substitutionary.
I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep.
David on one occasion flew a lamb and
flew a bear that attacked his sheep when
he was keeping his father's flock.
Now, he didn't give his life.
He risked his life, but he didn't give
his life.
Christ not only risked his life, he gave
his life for you and for me.
Now, his death was absolutely necessary, and we're
still going to see it in the book
of John.
John chapter 3.
There are three months in this chapter, at
least three, and the Lord Jesus Christ in
this chapter is talking to Nicodemus, that righteous,
upright man, that Pharisee, the ruler among the
Jews.
And he comes to the Lord and he
acknowledges him as a teacher come from God.
And so the Lord says, all right, you
accept me as a teacher.
I'm going to give you a lesson.
Except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God.
Then he says down later, marvel not that
I said in the V, ye must be
born again.
That's the first must.
It is an absolute necessity that we be
born again.
As we were born into men's family, so
we must be born into God's family.
It's a separate, separate experience.
I did not have anything to do with
my being born into my parents' family.
They didn't ask me.
I was born, whether I wanted to be
or not.
I'm glad I was, but they didn't ask
me.
I had nothing to do with it.
I'm glad I was born.
But I have everything to do with my
second birth.
I can choose to be born again, or
I can choose not to be born again.
That is important.
Except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God.
Ye must be born again.
There was a man that preached this so
much that his audience got a little bit
tired of it.
And they asked him, why is it that
you are always preaching on the new birth?
And he says, because ye must be born
again.
That was his answer.
Now there is another must here.
Nicodemus, incidentally I may say, had in his
mind another natural birth.
And the Lord said, this is a spiritual
birth.
Born of water, which is the word of
God, and of the Spirit.
It's a spiritual birth.
It's a birth that takes place the moment
that we put our faith and trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then God gives the life, even as
he does to a human baby.
Gives them their soul and their spirit the
moment that we trust.
But to make this clear to Nicodemus, he
says down in verse 14, Nicodemus is at
sea.
He doesn't know the answer.
He says in verse 14, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of Man be lifted up.
And whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
Here is the must.
He must be lifted up.
Now you remember, Nicodemus certainly remembered, the time
when Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness.
The children of Israel had complained against the
Lord and as punishment the Lord sent fiery
serpents among them.
I think that means that the bite felt
like fire.
And they came, they acknowledged their sin and
they came to Moses and they said, Pray
to the Lord that the Lord will take
away these serpents.
Moses went to the Lord and the Lord
did not take away the serpents, but rather
he told Moses, Now make a serpent of
grass and put it on a pole and
it shall come to pass that if anybody
is bitten by one of those serpents, when
he looks at the serpent of grass, he'll
be healed.
And it worked.
When they looked, they were healed.
And I fancy that I can hear some
of those people saying, Who ever heard of
a stupid thing like that?
Looking to a serpent, a brazen serpent, a
serpent made out of metal on a pole
and getting well.
Well, the important thing is it worked.
And those that tried the remedies of the
day, they lost their lives.
And when they simply did what God told
them to do, they lived.
Now, the Lord knows that Nicodemus knows this
Lord.
And he says, As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up.
Now, that's an absolute necessity.
He has to be lifted up to give
us somewhere to look when we realize that
we have got the poison of sin within
us.
We have got the poison of sin within
us and it's fatal.
And when we look and see what God
did about our sins on the cross, we're
healed.
The third must is not written here per
se.
It's not in the text.
But we must believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, that whosoever believes in him should not
perish and have everlasting life.
And may I suggest, this is just simply
not an academic belief.
This is not an academic exercise.
This is rough.
This is reliant.
This is depending on the Lord Jesus, putting
everything I've got on what he has done.
We must believe in order to be saved.
Now, as to his burial.
His burial, and I'm now going back to
Luke chapter 24.
And in verse 15 there we read, And
behold, there was a man named Joseph, a
counselor, and he was a good man and
a just, the same had not consented to
the counsel and deed of him.
He was of Arimathea, the city of the
Jews, who also himself waited for the kingdom
of God.
This man went unto Pilate, and begged the
body of Jesus, and took it down, and
wrapped it in linen, and laid it in
a sepulchre with a smoon in his soul,
for he had never manned before the grave.
And that day was the preparation, and the
Sabbath drew long.
And the women also which came with him
from Galilee followed after, and beheld the sepulchre,
and how his body was laid.
And they returned, and prepared Christ's anointment, and
rested the Sabbath day according to this amendment.
Now, the burial of Christ was an emergency.
There was a Sabbath that was coming up.
Remember, he was crucified, our brother Bill was
mentioning this morning.
The date of our birth, the birth of
our Lord, rather, is not known.
We don't know.
We celebrate it at Christmastime.
But it's very evident that it was not
at Christmastime, because the angels came at the
birth of Christ, and the shepherds were in
the field keeping their flocks.
They don't keep their flocks at Christmastime, in
the field, at winter.
So it had to be in the spring
of the summer, when the Lord was born.
It certainly wasn't at Christmastime.
They were in the field, watching over their
flocks.
And the shepherds came as well.
We don't know his date.
We celebrate it on December 25th, I'm glad
we do.
But that doesn't signify much.
We don't know it.
But we know the exact date when he
died.
It was on the 14th day of April,
on the day of the Passover.
The 14th day of the month.
I was thinking in that connection of a
verse in the book of Ecclesiastes, the 7th
chapter and the 1st verse.
But I'm going to have to read it,
because I can't get it started.
A good name is better than fresh appointments,
and the day of death than the day
of one's birth.
Did you hear that?
The day of your death is better than
the day of your birth.
Did you ever think of that?
The day that you die is going to
be a better day than the day that
you were born.
If you know the Lord, that means your
entrance into heaven.
Not into this world, into heaven.
The day of your death is better than
the day of your birth.
It was true of the Lord, but in
a different sense.
He died, and that death accomplished more.
Whenever you see a little baby born into
the world, you think of the potential of
that baby.
I preached a sermon for a 95-year
-old man last Sunday.
He was a Christian, thank God.
But you know, I didn't talk about possibility.
I was able to talk about what had
taken place in that man's life.
He was a godly man.
He was a saint.
Now, in the connection with the burial of
our Lord Jesus Christ, He was predicted, and
that death was honorable.
It was a wonderful death.
Everything depends upon it.
The death was, in the book of Isaiah,
the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, it was predicted
that he would be with the rich in
his death.
Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man.
We're not told that in Luke's Gospel.
We aren't told it in Matthew's Gospel.
He was a rich man.
The Lord is very, very careful, and this
amazes me, and I love this thought.
Before the cross, and while the Lord was
on the cross, God the Father permitted all
the indignities that men could heap upon the
Lord Jesus.
He permitted it.
He stood by and let it happen.
But the moment that our Lord Jesus Christ
says, The moment that he committed his spirits
into the hands of the Father, man was
done with the Lord Jesus.
And God, after that, says he gets preferential
treatment now.
He died for our sins.
Men had done their part.
Now, I'm going to see that he is
honored.
His burial was an honorable burial.
His death was not, but his burial was.
He has died for our sins.
And God says, My son now is going
to be honored.
And he put it into the heart of
Joseph of Arimathea.
And begged for the body of Jesus.
They took him down with tender hands.
It's not now the soldiers that are striking
him over the head with a reed.
It's not the soldiers now that are slapping
him around, applying the lash.
No, that's not it.
Tender hands that the Lord Jesus downed in
his heart.
They wrapped him and he was laid in
a new tomb.
It was a stopgap maze, actually.
The Sabbath was coming on.
He was crucified, or that is rather he
died at three o'clock in the afternoon.
At the time of the evening sacrifice.
At the ninth hour, he died.
And they had just a few hours to
get him into the tomb.
To get the permission from Pilate to take
away his body.
To wrap him up and get him in
the tomb before the Sabbath started at sundown.
And so, they had to work fast.
It was a temporary measure, but it was
a measure that God honored.
Joseph of Arimathea was there for that occasion
as a special instrument, as a special servant
of God.
He was a secret disciple.
I think that they thought that they would
not hinder his honoring the burial of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And Nicodemus was there, incidentally.
It was a hundred pound weight of spices,
myrrh, aloes.
Nicodemus was an honorable man.
He was the man of which we were
reading there in the first chapter of John.
This day, he came to know the Lord.
He looked to the Lord on the cross,
as did Moses look.
As did the children of Israel who looked
to the great and fertile on the cross.
He knew that the Lord had died for
him.
Now, I think he knew that the Lord
was going to die for him, because in
the very same book of John, the John
Gospel, we have clear indications that Nicodemus was
a secret believer in our Lord Jesus Christ.
He had trusted the Lord.
The Lord messaged to him about, he must
be born again, was not, and then Nicodemus
was inaugurated at the burial.
With these expensive spices, a hundred pound weight,
they were doing honor to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
But his internment was temporary.
I don't know whether they thought that it
was going to be permanent or not.
I'm not going to argue the question there.
I knew they had to act quickly.
And you remember the stuff occurred with nine
hands.
They didn't have power to carry the Lord
Jesus, thank God.
And all of that was taken care of
before the Sabbath began.
And then they went on.
And the ladies even, if you will read
Mark's Gospel carefully, they even went out and
got their spices to take them out.
So that they would indeed honor the Sabbath,
as every good Israelitish person should do.
But that was a temporary burial.
No man, no dead man had ever laid
in that tomb before.
The sense of death was not there.
And when the Lord Jesus Christ arose, that
tomb was just as peaceful.
As he found it, as he thought he
found it.
There was no sense of death.
In the case of Lazarus' death, his sister
objected when the Lord said, where is he
laid?
He had been dead for four days.
And the Lord said, take me to him.
You don't want to see him.
By this time he's tinkered.
She's talking about her own brother and not
the Lord.
There was no connection.
All the honor that was done to the
Lord Jesus in his burial, everything was ordered
to throw.
If you think that is grand, think of
the resurrection.
When he was raised from the dead.
As a matter of fact, all three members
of the Trinity were involved in the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I know that we read there in
John's Gospel, I have power to lay down
my life and I have power to take
it again.
But God the Father was also involved in
the resurrection.
We read in Ephesians chapter 1, if you
please.
The first chapter of Ephesians.
Beginning at verse 15, Now
we're talking about the Father.
In the 17th verse, his prayer is to
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory.
And here the ultimate of power is resurrection
power, which he wrought in Christ when he
raised him from the dead.
So the Father had a part in the
resurrection of Christ.
Christ had a part in his own resurrection.
The Spirit had a part in his own
resurrection.
Romans chapter 8, if you please.
The 8th chapter of Romans.
Verse 10, And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but
the spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the spirit of him that raised
up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
he that raised up Christ also from the
dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
his spirit, as well as in you.
Now you see here, the first part of
the verse, if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead refers to
the Father.
But it's the Father that directs the spirit.
Now notice that little word also.
He that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his
spirit, as well as in you.
God is going to instruct the same spirit
to give us resurrection in our bodies.
He was raised by the power of the
Spirit of God.
That's wonderful.
You and I are going to have the
same resurrection.
The same power working in us.
The spirit is in dwelling in me.
The power is there.
That spirit is going to change my body.
Also.
As he did the body of the Lord
Jesus.
The power is right there.
I'm engulfed by the spirit of God.
And all that spirit of God, the spirit
of God dwelling in me is waiting for
is a certain someone.
It's the trump.
It's the voice of the Lord.
It's the shout of the Lord.
The voice of the archangel.
And the last trump.
And when that trump sounds, that spirit goes
to work and instantly I'm going to be
conformed to the body of Christ.
That is, my body can be like this
one.
The power is there.
I used to work in the mines when
I was going to school, making money to
go to school.
And they would tell you, you better get
out of here, we're fired.
Well, what they meant was that they hadn't
been dismissed.
The mining force, they had licked Jesus.
Well, when they tell you that, you better
get on your way.
Now, the power is in here right now
and it's in you.
Right now.
The power is inside of you.
But it is a sonic spirit.
It's not one that you light with a
match.
It's a sonic spirit.
And when the spirit of God hears that
last shout, it's like that.
I didn't want to tell you that.
I'm not going to have time to do
it.
When it's done, I'll tell you that.
And it's going to change me into this
body.
That's our record.
The power is there.
Just wait.
We are going to be with Christ.
And the Lord Jesus Christ says, because I
live, you shall live also as the girls
were saying.
Isn't that a statement?
Oh, how lovely.
Oh, the resurrection.
The glory of it.
The hope of it.
The wonder of it.
Everything depends upon the fact that Christ arose.
Now, just briefly, and I won't take about
30 seconds to do this.
The resurrection of Christ proved that my sins
were gone.
Isaiah tells us that he laid our iniquities
on Christ.
Now, he took them off from us and
laid them on Christ.
Did Christ carry them back into heaven?
No.
His resurrection is proof that my sins are
gone.
He bore my sins and he's in heaven.
Oh, I don't think we really appreciate the
truth of the resurrection.
And we are going to experience it.
In our bodies.
By the power of the Spirit of God.
We thank you, Father, in the name of
the Lord Jesus, for these wonderful truths.
We do pray that none in this audience
or other audiences this morning will neglect the
salvation that has been provided at this hour
of the call.
And that they might have this blessable being
of the Lord who loved them in Christ.
We ask that you give thanks to our
Savior.