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The Resurrection According To Luke
Luke 24:1-12
March 14, 2021

We actually are afforded here with a really wonderful opportunity.

• We are seeing a nearly 4 years study in the book of Luke come to an end and we are now arriving at the resurrection.
• At the same time in only 3 weeks we will celebrate Easter Sunday.

So instead of 1 week of resurrection, we’re going to get about a month.

That’s great for us because there’s not a more hope filled message in the world than the message that Jesus conquered death.

So this morning we start our journey in Luke’s gospel
Looking at his account of the resurrection of Jesus.

We obviously start with the ever relevant reminder that
The message of the resurrection is of extreme importance.

It is NOT an over-exaggeration to say that
If you remove the resurrection Christianity is destroyed and
If you do not preach the resurrection you are not preaching the gospel.

Perhaps no passage states that better than:
Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

• In order to be saved Paul says that a person must believe that God raised
Jesus from the dead.

The resurrection is the UNIQUE message
Which the CHURCH ALONE POSSESSES.

And this is the message that the apostles preached to the world.

Certainly Peter’s preaching was focused on this truth.
Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know — this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

Acts 3:14-15 “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.”

Acts 4:10 “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this man stands here before you in good health.”

Acts 5:30 “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross.”

And when the book of Acts shifts to the ministry of Paul,
We find that this message is central to his preaching as well.

Acts 13:29-30 “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. “But God raised Him from the dead;”

When preaching in Athens, Paul said:
Acts 17:31 “[God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

It was Paul who actually summed up his entire ministry when he said:
Acts 24:21b “’For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today.'”

Of when Paul is on trial and Agrippa shows up and Festus is trying to explain to him who this prisoner Paul is. Festus says:
Acts 25:18-19 “When the accusers stood up, they began bringing charges against him not of such crimes as I was expecting, but they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive.”

YOU SEE THE MESSAGE.
They preached that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

Now it was only a few weeks ago that we very adamantly said that
THE CROSS WAS THE CENTRAL POINT OF CHRISTIANITY.

And I will stand by that statement forever.
The cross is the central moment.

However, without the resurrection the cross is useless message.
• It is the resurrection that validates the cross.
• It is the resurrection that assures us of the righteousness of Christ.
• It is the resurrection that guarantees that the atoning work of Christ was indeed successful.

We hold that on the cross that righteous man
Experienced the wrath of God for sin that was not His own.
That He was in fact the propitiation for sinners.

That whole message falls apart if Jesus remains dead.

1 Corinthians 15:14 “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.”

1 Corinthians 15:17 “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”

• Every other hero’s story may contain his glorious entrance…
• Every other hero’s story may include his mighty deeds…
• Every other hero’s story may culminate in his dramatic death…

But only Christ’s story continues with a resurrection from the dead.
The Christian message is unique.

Jesus rose from the dead in a physical body
And He promises a bodily resurrection to all who believe in Him.

The resurrection is HUGE!

And this morning we study that from Luke’s gospel.

• Now, you are well-aware that each of the gospel writers include and omit
certain facts about the story.
• They are inspired by the Holy Spirit to tell you the account from their
perspective.
• They all know more than they write.
• It ISN’T just unabridged history.
• There is a theological point.

If you want to see the entire story and the entire day weaved together, then I highly recommend you listen to John MacArthur’s two sermons on Luke 24:1-12
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-291/an-empty-tomb-with-an-angelic-explanation
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-292/witnessing-women-and-doubting-disciples

But you know that no writer gave us the whole story
Because they weren’t trying to give us the whole story.
They were giving us selected parts of the story to make a point.

Now, there are some facts that all 4 writers include.
• The Empty Tomb
• The Angelic Witness
• The Women Give The Report
• The Disciples Don’t Initially Believe

All 4 gospel writers include those 4 realities.
One might consider those the essential truths about the account.

However, there is ONE GLARING ABSENCE to each of their accounts.
There is one thing that none them show you.

NONE OF THEM SHOW YOU THE RESURRECTION.
None of them give that information, because none of them saw it.

They knew Jesus died (John saw it)
They knew Jesus was buried
They saw Jesus alive

But none of them saw the moment it happened,
That part of the story is not in Scripture.

That means that each of the gospel writers
Is left to prove the resurrection by a different means
Than an eye-witness account of it.

• These are men who would tell the world that Jesus rose from the dead.
• These are men who would die a martyr’s death for proclaiming that message.

And each of them give you their proof that Jesus rose from the dead
Even though they didn’t actually see the resurrection take place.

Now, for curiosity sake:

Matthew’s main focus is on THE GUARDS
• That they were stationed to guard the tomb
• That they abandoned their post
• That they returned to the city
• That they were bribed to lie about what they saw
• That they agreed to a lie that would have gotten them in trouble

Matthew 28:11-15 “Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ “And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.” And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.”

In Matthew’s gospel that becomes the lie that proved the resurrection.

Mark’s main focus is on THE EYE WITNESSES WHO SAW JESUS ALIVE
• Namely here Mark points out that the women saw Jesus.
• In fact Mark includes that later Jesus rebukes the disciples for their refusal to
believe the women.

Mark 16:14 “Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.”

If this was a “made up” story
No fiction writer would have used women as his main witnesses.

These women were the only ones to see the entire story unfold.
• They saw Jesus die (John was the only disciple)
• They saw Jesus buried
• They saw Jesus alive

They were credible witnesses and to Mark that is a great proof.

John’s focus seems to be on THE EMPTY TOMB
• Specifically the fact that the stone was gone and the grave clothes were left.
• No grave-robbers are going to strip a dead body naked before they steal it.

John 20:6-8 “And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.”

That empty tomb and the presence of those grave clothes was John’s great evidence that Jesus was now alive.

BUT LUKE USES NONE OF THOSE.

Luke mentions nothing about the guards,
Nothing about them being stationed, about them being frightened, or about them being bribed.

Luke doesn’t include that Jesus appeared to the women.
No account of Jesus’ talking with Mary, nothing there.

Luke does mention the empty tomb & that Peter saw the linen wrappings,
But Luke does not say that this fact convinced Peter.
Luke only includes that Peter “went away to his home, marveling…”

None of those proofs are Luke’s main proof.

WHAT IS LUKE’S MAIN PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION?
THE WORD OF GOD

Luke’s account is the longest, spanning some 35 verses.
• It starts with the women at the tomb
• It ends with the men on the road to Emmaus.

And all of them get rebuked in their unbelief for the same thing.
They did not believe the word of God.

(6-8) “He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” And they remembered His words,”

Or even later with those men on the road to Emmaus:
Luke 24:25-27 “And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”

And even later when Jesus appears to the disciples.
Luke 24:44-46 “Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,”

This is Luke’s crowning proof.
• The prophets said Jesus would rise from the dead…
• Jesus said He would rise from the dead…
• And now the gospels say He did rise from the dead…

It is, in my opinion, the greatest proof we have
That Jesus died, was buried, and that He rose from the dead;
THE BIBLE SAID HE WOULD & THE BIBLE SAYS HE DID.

• We didn’t see Jesus actually die
• We didn’t see Jesus actually buried
• We didn’t see Jesus actually rise
• NEITHER DID THE GOSPEL WRITERS (with the exception of John and His death)

We believe because Scripture says it happened.
That is clearly why Luke believed
And that is the emphasis of the story that he shares with us.

And that is the truth we want to examine over the next few weeks.

Well, let’s look at our text this morning.
There are 4 things to be seen here.
#1 A MISSING BODY
Luke 24:1-4a

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.”

If you’ll remember the Sabbath had crept up on them on Friday evening.
• The Sabbath began at sundown on Friday and Jesus hadn’t died until 3pm.
• Then Joseph had to get Pilate’s permission to get Jesus’ body.
• Joseph then had to take Him down, wrap Him, and transport Him to the tomb.
• By the time this was all finished, it was too late to adorn the body of Jesus with spices.
• They had to wait.

Well the Sabbath ended at twilight on Saturday night,
And so in the middle of the night the woman took back up their mission
To adorn the body of Jesus.

• They traveled outside of the city,
• They were carrying their supplies.
• Mark’s gospel says they were actually worried about how they were going to move the stone.

But, when they got there:
(2) “they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,”

To them it appeared that someone had already been there.

In fact, John’s gospel seems to relate that simply upon seeing the stone moved that Mary Magdalene immediately turned around and made a bee-line to tell Peter that the body of Jesus had been stolen.

John 20:1-2 “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

That was her assumption. “Someone has taken His body”

That was likely the assumption of all the women.

For (3) “when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”

And here is what is INTERESTING.
(4a) “While they were perplexed about this…”

“perplexed” is APOREO

It is the negative form of the Greek word that POREUO
Which means “to carry on” or “to go one’s way”.

APOREO then means “people who don’t know where to go”,
Or “people who are trapped or fenced in”.

In a mental sense it is people who are “stumped” or “at a loss”

They don’t know what to think or what to do with this.
• They are totally dumbfounded.
• They are without a direction.

Why do I tell you that?

• Because don’t you think it’s just a little strange that upon seeing that Jesus’ body was gone, NONE OF THEM EVEN REMOTELY CONSIDERED THE POSSIBILITY THAT HE MIGHT BE ALIVE?

That wasn’t even considered as an outside possibility…
That thought didn’t even enter their mind as what might have occurred…
They had no expectation of a resurrection at all.

To them a missing body could only mean someone stole it.
And if that’s not what happened
Then they were totally perplexed as to what it could have been.

It was the greatest of mysteries.

A Missing Body
#2 AN ANGELIC REBUKE
Luke 24:4b-8

What a great confrontation here!

(4-5) “While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?”

• The women are at a total loss as to what has happened
• And instantly they are confronted by two glowing angels.
• And immediately they were terrified.

“terrified” is EMPHOBOS which is an intensified form of PHOBOS (phobia)
• They were scared out of their wits.
• These same angels had caused the guards to fall into a coma earlier in the morning.
• These women are “terrified”

And it is then that “the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?”

It’s a really great question.

How many times have you ever found yourself looking for someone?
• Maybe you get separated from your spouse at Wal-Mart…
• Or you’re looking for the UPS man around Spur…
• Or you simply need to find a person to visit with them…
• You know what it is to search for someone.

How many times in that search have you said, “You know, I think I’ll go look at the cemetery, I bet that’s where they are”?

That is the sort of sarcasm that is behind this question.
“Why do you seek the living One among the dead?”

Well the obvious answer is
Because they didn’t think He was “the living One”.
They thought He was dead.

• They saw Him die
• They saw Him buried
• They figured He was like every other buried person they had ever known,
• They figured He was still here.

And it is at this point that the angel gives them
THE GREATEST NEWS THEY HAD EVER HEARD.

(6) “He is not here, but He has risen.”

It is a huge statement!
As we said at the beginning.

The resurrection of Jesus is the VALIDATION that Jesus was sinless.
Acts 2:25-32 “For David says of Him, ‘I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN. ‘THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE; BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. ‘YOU HAVE MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH YOUR PRESENCE.’ “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. “And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.”

We have no doubt that Jesus was innocent because God gave vindication of His life.

It is also VERIFICATION that His atoning death was successful.
Romans 4:25 “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”

Just as He died because we are sinners,
So also He was raised because we have been justified.

The fact that He is alive proves His saving death was effective.

It also gives us great confidence that DEATH (the consequence of sin) has been DEFEATED.
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

This is great news that these angels just announced to these women.
JESUS IS NO LONGER DEAD, HE IS ALIVE!

BUT THEY DON’T STOP THERE.
• ONLY LUKE includes what they say next.
• It is a simple and soft rebuke.

“Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”

You know how that works.
And you know the insinuation.

It’s when you do something wrong and your boss or parent or spouse says, “Remember I told you not to do that”.

It’s not just an insinuation that you are wrong,
But that you are wrong because you didn’t listen.

That is the rebuke you see here.
• Ladies, the reason you are at a loss is because you did not listen to Jesus.
• You did not listen to the word of God.

Remember right after Peter made that famous confession of Jesus:
Luke 9:21-22 “But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”

JESUS HAD ANNOUNCED IT.

Matthew’s gospel includes this reminder:
Matthew 12:38-40 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, ” An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Jesus HAD told them.
• They had failed to listen to Him or believe Him.
• They had not listened and that is why they were “perplexed”

But now the angels straighten them out.
(8) “And they remembered His words”
• The light bulb came on.
• Jesus had said He would be raised, and now He was!

A Missing Body, An Angelic Rebuke
#3 AN IGNORED REPORT
Luke 24:9-11

So now the ladies have been sufficiently rebuked
For their failure to believe the words of Jesus.

And they are off to tell “the eleven” their new-found news.

Interestingly enough all the other gospel accounts include that
JESUS THEN APPEARED TO THEM, but LUKE DOES NOT.

It almost seems strange that Luke would omit
Such an amazing and seemingly important piece of information.

You’d think that these women seeing Jesus alive
Would have been something Luke would have wanted to include.

But he doesn’t because
Luke’s authority is not bound up in what is seen with the eyes,
But in what is heard in God’s word.

Let me remind you of another story that only Luke includes.

Remember the rich man in hades?
Luke 16:27-31 “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house for I have five brothers — in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ “But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'”

There Abraham helps us RANK our verifying proofs.
• And according to Abraham (in the story Jesus tells) the written word has more authority than even a visual sighting of a resurrected man.

THIS IS GREAT NEWS FOR US
Because we have never seen the resurrected Jesus.

We certainly don’t go to lost people and say, “Wait right here and let me go get Jesus to appear to you.”

No, we offer them only the word of God.
And I’ll tell you this; not only is it enough, it is the greatest proof!

It is such a great proof
That Luke doesn’t even include
The in person visit Jesus had with these women.

They had Jesus’ words, and according to Luke that is all they needed.

And these women take those words now to the eleven.

(8-11) “And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.”

So they take this message to the eleven and unfortunately:
“these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.”

What words?
• Well the context of Luke’s gospel indicates to us that “these words” are the same words the angel just reminded the women of.
• We read in verse 8 “And they remembered His words”

But it is “these words” that now appeared as “nonsense”.

Do you see why the disciples are terrified?
Do you see why the disciples are depressed?

It is because they have not believed the words of Jesus
And even when confronted with them again they still will not believe them.

That’s why there are more rebukes on the way.

To the eleven the promise of a bodily resurrection was nonsense.
• Today we’d call it “A Crazy Conspiracy Theory”

If you’ll remember Martha had similar logic.
• Lord you can’t move the stone, he’s been dead 4 days and he’ll stink.

If you’ll remember the Corinthians tried to apply the same logic.
• 1 Corinthians 15:35 “But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?”

The Corinthians wouldn’t believe in bodily resurrection
Because they couldn’t understand it.
The disciples are right there.

• The women wouldn’t believe what they couldn’t imagine…
• The disciples won’t believe what they can’t understand…
Both revealed a failure to believe the word of God.

A Missing Body, An Angelic Rebuke, An Ignored Report
#4 A CONFUSED DISCIPLE
Luke 24:12

When you put all the gospel accounts together you find that
• Peter had left at the report of Mary Magdalene that Jesus’ body had been stolen.
• He and John had actually run to the tomb and John outran Peter,
• But where John stopped outside the tomb, Peter went on in.
• Peter was curious.

BUT WHAT WAS HE DOING HERE REALLY?

Peter was seeking to verify what he had heard.
• These women believed the angel’s words before they saw Jesus alive
• That wasn’t enough for Peter, he wanted visual proof.

In some ways he was a fulfillment of what Abraham had said
Because he hadn’t believed the prophets or Jesus either.

He had to see for himself.

All Peter saw was an empty tomb.

And the Bible says “he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.”

“marveling” is THAUMAZO
It means “to wonder at”

Often times it is translated “amazed” as in the crowds were amazed at Jesus.
It is used of Jesus when He saw the great faith of the centurion

IT SPEAKS OF WHAT OCCURS
WHEN SOMEONE SEES SOMETHING THAT IS UNEXPECTED.
And that sums up Peter.

He, like the rest, did not expect the resurrection.
This was all unexplainable to him.

Namely because he had not believed the words of Christ.

Now there is much more here,
• Especially as we get to those men on the road to Emmaus,
But let me simply remind you that
Our greatest proof that Jesus rose from the dead
Is that the Bible says He did!

I had a conversation with a Camp Leader several years ago who told me, “If the Bible was proved untrue, it wouldn’t affect my faith in the least.”

I asked him what his faith stood on then.
• He said, “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
• My response was, “I doubt you’d even know of the crucifixion of Jesus were it
not for the Scriptures.”
• He then assured me that Jesus would appear to you, as Jesus had appeared
to him.

But even if I believed Jesus actually appeared to him (I’m skeptical),
• Certainly that is not the norm for everyone.

Beyond that, according to the story we read earlier,
• That is not enough to make people believe.

THE WORD OF GOD MATTERS

• Why do you believe Jesus is the Son of God?
• Why do you believe Jesus was born of a virgin?
• Why do you believe Jesus worked miracles?
• Why do you believe Jesus died on the cross?
• Why do you believe Jesus rose from the dead?

Did you see any of those things?
Did you talk to anyone who saw those things?
• No – you simply believe them because the Bible says they happened.

And that is more than enough!

We believe because God in His word says that it happened.
THE FOCUS HERE is that Jesus Himself said it would happen.

You’ll see next time that it is way more than just Jesus who said it would happen.

Often times at Easter we sing “He Lives! He Lives!” And we sing “You ask me how I know He lives…
…it’s because the prophets said He would, and Jesus said He would, and the apostles who were inspired by the Holy Spirit said He does!”

It’s more than experiential, it’s contained in the inerrant word of God!
We believe Jesus rose because the Bible says so.

There’s much more to talk about here in the coming weeks.

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Entering His Courts
Psalms 100
March 7, 2021

In the late 1990’s a church called “Soul Survivor” in Watford, England had appeared to grow stale in their song services.

• In response the pastor temporarily suspended the use of all instruments and sound equipment.
• He simply asked the congregation, “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as an offering to God?”

• One of the members noted the embarrassing silence to that question. This same member wrote a song seeking to express what he learned from that period. https://www.crosswalk.com/church/worship/song-story-matt-redmans-the-heart-of-worship-1253122.html

The song is called: “The Heart of Worship”
And in it Matt Redman writes:

When the music fades; All is stripped away, And I simply come;
Longing just to bring Something that’s of worth, That will bless Your heart

I’ll bring You more than a song, For a song in itself Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart

I’m coming back to the heart of worship, And it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it ,When it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus

Redman’s song expresses a personal awakening
That is often needed among the people of God.

Even in the Old Testament we run up against this reality time after time;
• Namely that the people of God had forgotten God
• And their worship had become routine, apathetic, and even sinful.

The greatest error in all of that
Was not just that worship may have lost its excitement,
But that it became clear that God was actually offended by it.

Isaiah 1:11-15 “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies — I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.”

TURN TO: Malachi 1:6-14
God saw their worship as a burden, not a blessing.
• God was frustrated by the lack of honor He received
• In fact He had grown to hate worship just as much as they did.

Other times in Scripture we see a tremendous apathy break out
When the call to worship God actually
Became seen as UNWELCOMED INTERRUPTION into life.

For example:
Amos 8:4-6 “Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”

These people saw the Sabbath requirements
As a real interruption into their daily objectives.

One of the passages I find most interesting in this is found in Jeremiah.
TURN TO: JEREMIAH 17:19-27

• If you’re familiar with the book of Jeremiah you know that judgment is eminent.
• God has outlined all kinds of sin against His people, not the least of which was
idolatry, child-sacrifice, licentiousness, and blatant worldliness.

What is interesting is that in Jeremiah 17 God actually gives the people of Jerusalem a sort of opportunity at redemption.

Read (19-27)
Here it is all about the Sabbath, which of course was the day set aside for worship of the LORD.

Now breaking the Sabbath was hardly their only sin.
• However, God promised that if they would get that one right He would
relinquish on His threats of destroying the city.

In short, God was looking for people
Who understood the goal and purpose of worship.
He would even overlook their many moral flaws
If they would simply return in a genuine heart of worship.

Of course they did not, and they were destroyed.

That is NOT to say that God did not care about all those other sins;
• He most certainly did.
• But it is to point out that perhaps at the root of all those sins was a lack of love
for God and desire for worship.

Perhaps if they would have gotten their worship corrected
The other issues might have fallen into line as well.

WORSHIP MATTERS
It matters to God and so it certainly matters to us.

AND IN OUR WORSHIP
We must continually return to the question of our motive in all of this.

We must continually consider purpose of our appearing

Imagine a bereaved family who has just lost a loved one.
• You know the drill. People will cook food and take it to the family as an expression of compassion and love.
• Suppose you make a lasagna and take it by the house.
• Only when you get there you find they are already eating a lasagna that someone else made.
• So you say, “Well if you’re going to eat that lasagna and not mine, I’m just taking mine home. Here I went to all this trouble and y’all don’t even appreciate it.”

We might call that missing the point of why you visited in the first place.

Imagine a baby shower or a wedding shower
• And you go and buy a gift that is on the registry and attend the shower.
• And then after the mother or the bride opens the gift you give her a receipt and ask her to reimburse you for the gift you brought.

We might also call that missing the point of attending a shower.

Now imagine a worship service
• Scheduled for the purpose of glorifying God and giving thanks to Him for all that He has done.
• But you show up in a bad mood and are upset the songs aren’t the songs you wanted to sing and it takes entirely too long and the thermostat is set too high or low, and so you grumble and complain at how miserable it was to have to be there today.

We might also call that missing the point of attending a worship service.

We are talking about the purpose of appearing.
WHY DID YOU GO?

Isaiah 58:3 “Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers.”

It is the needed reminder that worship is not about us, but is all about Him.
• We don’t come here for our glory or fame or even enjoyment.
• We come here for His glory and fame and enjoyment.

We enter this place to delight the heart of God.
We enter this place to tell God how great He is.
We enter this place to tell God how grateful we are.
We enter this place to focus on Him and give Him all our attention.

WE COME HERE TO WORSHIP.

Psalms 100 is a simple and yet profound Psalm that remarkably captures both the expression of worship and the depth of why it occurs.

It is a wonderful reminder and BLUEPRINT
For what every worship service ought to be.

We’re going to break it down into 3 points tonight.
#1 APPROACHING GOD
Psalms 100:1-2

Here we are talking about when we “Come before Him”

• Now certainly we know that God is omniscient and so in one sense we are always before Him.
• But the idea here is when we come to that point that we are setting aside our other distractions and duties that we might intentionally present ourselves before God for the purpose of worship.

There are some words that jump out at us in these first two verses.

We see the PARTICULARS.
“Shout” – “Serve” – “Singing”

And we see the ATTITUDE behind each of these actions.
“Joyfully” – “with gladness” – “joyful”

There are proper actions which occur
And there are proper attitudes when they occur.
To miss either is to fail to approach God correctly.

If you refuse to shout, serve, or sing
Or if you do it without joy or gladness then you are missing the point.

The Psalmist says:
“Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.”

This is a famous line in the Psalms.
If you read the KJV it says, “Make a joyful noise”

Derek Kidner commented on that:
“The joyful noise is not the special contribution of the tone-deaf, still less of the convivial, but the equivalent in worship to the homage-shout or fanfare to a king.”
(Kidner, Derek [Kidner Classic Commentaries; Psalms 73-150; IVP Academic; Downers Grove, IL; 2008] pg. 388)

As Kidner point out, often times this verse is quoted as the cop-out
For the person who can’t sing on tune.

“Well you know the Bible says to make a joyful noise to the Lord,
So y’all bear with me while I sing.”

This verse isn’t a copout for justifying a minimal effort.
Rather the idea here is enthusiasm and joy and cheering!

We’ve all been in sports stadiums where fans cheer with excitement not just at a good play, but even when a favorite athlete is announced.

The political world has seen the massive Trump Rallies that have taken place with massive crowds that will impromptu start yelling “We Love You!”

If an athlete can receive it… If a politician can receive it…
Then certainly the God of the universe is worthy of it.
He deserves a joyful shout!

The Psalmist continues:
“Serve the LORD with gladness;”

We never forget that service is an integral part of worship.
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

And it is a service with “gladness” even eagerness.

We read about JACOB and his pursuit of Rachel.
Genesis 29:20 “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.”

Should we not be able to say the same in our service for the Lord?

Or would we be more like those priests in Malachi who disdainfully sniff at the sacrifice and say “my how tiresome it is”?

We all love it as a parent
• When we ask one of our kids to clean their room or fold their clothes or do the
dishes
• And we get back that shrug and sigh as though we just asked them to rewire
the attic.

God deserves service and He deserves that it gladly done.

And the Psalmist adds:
“Come before Him with joyful singing.”

WHY?
• Because apparently God likes “joyful singing”.
• And no other reason is really needed.
• God even an inspired a song book with 150 entries so that His people would have something to sing.

It is simply what God desires.

When you put all these three together,
It essentially boils down to the attitude.

What is your attitude when you come before Him?
• Do you want to be here?
• Are you happy about it?
• Are you glad to be able to be in a worship service?

Because throughout the Scripture we find that
When the people aren’t glad to be there,
God doesn’t want to be there either.

Things like bitterness and grumbling and complaining
Are NOT things that we see God smiling upon in Scripture.

1 Corinthians 10:6-10 “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”

Do you notice that Paul put grumbling on the same level as idolatry, sexually immorality, and testing God?

Attitude matters to God.

When you approach God in worship, do so with a good attitude.
• Shout joyfully
• Serve gladly
• Sing joyfully

Approaching God
#2 APPREHENDING GOD
Psalms 100:3

This is such a powerful verse
And one that could be pondered and chewed on for hours.

But it carries the idea that in worship
You take a moment and contemplate who you are approaching.

• You are not standing before some athlete…
• You are not standing before some politician…
• You are approaching the God of the universe.

• The One that filled Moses with fear and trembling at Mt. Sinai…
• The One that caused Isaiah to cry “Woe is me!”
• The One that sent fire from the altar to consume Aaron’s sons…
• The One that struck Uzza dead for irreverence…

• Also the One who said “Let there be light”
• The One who delivered Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand
• The One who met their every need in the wilderness
• The One whose glory drove the priests out of the tabernacle

• For us the One who sent His Son to die for our sins

It carries with it the perspective we gained last week
When we read “Holy is He.”

Who are you approaching?

Well the Psalmist here gives you a truth to chew on.

“Know that the LORD Himself is God;”

When we come to worship, we are approaching God.

Isaiah 44:6-8 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. ‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take place. ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.'”

Isaiah 45:5-6 “I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other,”

Isaiah 45:21 “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.”

And as Isaiah also said,
• He is the God who poured out the oceans in the hollow of His hand.
• He is the God who measured the heavens by the span.

He is the God who reminded Job that
• He alone knows the storehouses of the snow and hail.
• He is the God who contains the sea.
• He is the God who holds all things in place.

One of the things we love about attending church is the fellowship.
When we come in fellowship we come as ABSOLUTE EQUALS.

Paul told us that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.”

We are equals and we approach each other as equals.

But when we come to worship
We are approaching One who is not our equal.

WE ARE APPROACHING GOD.
Certainly there is an idea here of humility and submission.

BUT EVEN MORE SPECIFICALLY
The Psalmist points out something else we should know.

“It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”

One of the commentaries I read pointed out the difficulty in this translation.

He points out that the word for “not” and the word “His”
Have a very similar sound in their pronunciation.

More likely the translation is “It is He who has made us and we are His; His people and the sheep of His pasture.”

Really either way, the focus is on this.
• God made us
• We did not make God
• We belong to God
• We are His possession

As our maker He holds total autonomy over
Our design, or ability, our duty, and our use.

We have often said it that He is the potter, we are the clay.

Romans 9:20 “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?”

I shared with a person last week a passage I like to share with youth; understanding the struggles and frustrations that many youth feel.

(When you are a youth it’s tempting to think that the only thing that matters is athletics and so if you’re not an athlete you feel like an outcast)

So I like to remind youth that they were not created
To play sports or even make good grades. (Those things are fine)

They were created for the glory of God
And to accomplish the specific thing He created them for.

Psalms 139:13-16 “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”

Every human would do well to camp in that passage for a while.

Do you see that your creation was not accidental?

Words like “formed” and “wove”.
• There was a definite method to your creation.

He says “fearfully and wonderfully made”
• Which speaks of an intentional and meticulous design.

• Are you tall?
• Are you short?
• Are you skinny?
• Are you big boned?

It’s not a mistake, you were designed.

I remember at one youth camp seeing a young man with a massive blue birthmark that covered half of his face.

• Some might even call that a “birth defect”,
• As though God just haphazardly threw a bunch of parts together without care.

Let me remind you for a moment about Moses.
• When God wanted to send Moses back to Pharaoh to save His people you
remember that Moses felt totally incompetent and argued with God.
• Most remember that one of Moses’ complaints was that he had a stutter.

Exodus 4:10-11 “Then Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”

Are we to believe that Moses stuttering was a “birth defect”
Or was it by design?

God knew all about Moses problem.
God created him that way.

WHY?
I don’t know.

• Perhaps it was a way in which God humbled Moses.
• God certainly humbled Jacob by putting his hip out of socket.
• Perhaps it was to demonstrated God’s great power through stuttering lips like when God gave Paul a thorn in the flesh.
• Perhaps Pharaoh knew about Moses stuttering and was amazed that he would speak?
• Maybe someone else in Israel stuttered and that made them more willing to listen to Moses.

I don’t know.
But God did, and it wasn’t an accident.

Remember this guy?
John 9:1-3 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Not an accident.
Created fearfully and wonderfully for the glory of God.

Now, the sooner you grasp that the more fulfillment your life will be.

• I don’t care if you can throw a 125 mph fastball,
• YOU WERE NOT CREATED TO BE A BASEBALL PLAYER.
• I don’t care if you can run an 8 second 100 meter,
• YOU WERE NOT CREATED TO RUN TRACK
• I don’t care if you can sing like a bird,
• YOU WERE NOT CREATED TO BE A SINGER

YOU WERE CREATED FOR THE GLORY OF GOD
• Now you might play baseball for the glory of God (Jim Abbott did)
• Or you might run for the glory of God (Eric Liddell did)
• You might sing for the glory of God (Many do)

Paul said:
Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

But you were created for God.

YOU WERE CREATED BY HIM AND FOR HIM.

1 Corinthians 8:6 “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”

So that means when you come to worship,
You are approaching the One who created you for Himself.

You are coming home to your Creator.
You are appearing before Him to do what you were most designed to do.
WORSHIP

“It is He who created us, and not we are ourselves;”

“We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
By Him and for Him

Remember what God told the children of Israel?
Exodus 19:5 “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;”

God saved them to be His; to be “My own possession”

The church shares that distinction:
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION,A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”

We are His people a people for His possession.

Do you understand why God was so angry then when His people would go worship other gods?
• Those were His people!
• What were they doing acting like they were Baal’s people?
• That is why it is so often referred to as adultery.
• That was His wife, what is she doing with another lover?

WE ARE HIS
Created by Him
Created for Him

It is important to understand that.
• It is not about us here.
• It is about Him.

It is NOT about Him shouting over us, or singing over us, or serving us.
It is NOT about our pleasure or our purposes.

We come here before our Creator
To render the worship we were designed to give.
We are pots coming before the Potter
We are here for His enjoyment, use, and glory.

Approaching God, Apprehending God
#3 APPRECIATING GOD
Psalms 100:4-5

Here the Psalmist had an INVITATION of sorts.

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.”

And instantly we remember that not just anyone was allowed to enter those gates or those courts.
• There were places that Gentiles couldn’t go.
• There were places that women couldn’t go.
• There were places that laymen couldn’t go.
• There were places that no man could go.

And so when you were privileged to enter,
You should enter with “thanksgiving” and “praise”.

And especially us now because by the blood of Jesus we can draw near all the way into the most holy place.

Hebrews 10:19-22 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

What a blessing that now we can come near.

There are those who can’t.
Revelation 21:27 “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

• Do we not often read about those who will be shut outside where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?

And even the corporate worship that now occurs on earth.
Might I remind you what a privilege it is?

• Might I remind you of the protective bubble that exists over the congregation of
God’s people?
• In fact, when a brother sins, what is the most severe punishment that the
church inflicts upon that brother who will not repent?
• He is removed from the blessing of the fellowship.

1 Corinthians 5:5 “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Worship is a privilege.
(IF COVID TAUGHT US NOTHING ELSE, IT TAUGHT US THIS)

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.”

• You are God’s people because He chose you to be God’s people…
• You are here because He granted you the privilege of being here…
• This is not a burden, this is a blessing!

And the Psalmist reminds again of WHY God deserves such thanksgiving.
(5) “For the LORD is good;”

He is; we aren’t; and yet He still bids us come.
• He is good
• He is loyal
• He is faithful

We are none of those things
And yet He still welcomes us into His presence.

Psalms 103:8-14 “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

He is good to us.

The Psalmist says:
“His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.”

It never ends.
He never stops.

That also answers the question then of when our worship should end.

Revelation 4:8 “And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”

Worship is the official duty of heaven.
Shouting, Serving, Singing

• In heaven there will be NO EVANGELISM for all will be saved.
• In heaven there will be NO PREACHING for all will know fully.
• In heaven there will be NO MARRIAGE for we are like angels.
• In heaven there will be NO LABOR for we rest from our labors.
• In heaven there will be NO BENEVOLENCE for there will be no poor.

But one thing remains: WORSHIP

That means that you never have a truer taste of heaven on earth
Than when you worship God.

It is that important.
And it must be done right.

So I would remind you again of why you are here.
• We approach God joyfully,
• Contemplating who He is,
• And gratefully participating in the worship He deserves.

And this is true every time we assemble together.

Download Here:

The Burial of Jesus
Luke 23:50-56
March 7, 2021

This morning we’re going to take a little DIFFERENT APPROACH
Than perhaps we typically do in our study through God’s word.

We’re going to do a little more of a thematic type study as we read our current text and then discuss for a little while the issue of the burial of Jesus.

In some ways I think it seem like the burial of Jesus
Is sort of treated like an afterthought.

It just sort of feels like JUST A FORMALITY.
It doesn’t feel really all that significant.

Burial is just sort of what you do when people die,
And so it doesn’t seem like the sort of thing
That we would really make any big deal about or spend time discussing.

Perhaps we might say that “It hardly seems worth discussing”.

AND YET

All 4 gospel accounts include, not just the fact that Christ was buried, but the details surrounding His burial.
• They show us how Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus and took Him down and buried Him.
• John’s gospel tells us that Nicodemus was also involved and helped him.
• We learn from Matthew’s gospel that Joseph buried Jesus in his own new tomb.
• And each of the gospel accounts remind us that a small group of women followed to see exactly where Jesus was buried.

All the accounts mention details regarding the burial of Jesus.
It was important to the gospel writers.

Indeed it was important to the Old Testament writers too.

We’re going to talk about it more in a minute, but you remember:
Isaiah 53:9 “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.”

David also referenced it:
Psalms 16:9-10 “Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”

So the burial was certainly on the minds
Even of the Old Testament writers.

Beyond that, Jesus spoke of His coming burial and its significance.

Matthew 12:38-41 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

• From Jesus’ perspective, the burial was an important part of the entire resurrection narrative.
• Jesus even taught us that Jonah being swallowed by that fish was in some way a prophetic type of the burial of Jesus.

There is clearly significance there.

When you get beyond the gospels into the rest of the New Testament, the burial is not omitted, but is INCLUDED AS AN ESSENTIAL REALITY of the gospel.

Remember what Paul had to say about the gospel?
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

• Paul doesn’t just say that Jesus died and rose again, but that He died, was buried, and that He was raised.
• The burial is not omitted, but is included as an important aspect of what occurred during these days.

Even beyond the cannon of Scripture, THE EARLY CHURCH latched on this as well.

The Apostle’s Creed states:
“I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;”

So clearly it wasn’t just the death and resurrection of Jesus,
But there has always been a focus even on the fact that Jesus was buried.

There is also, in the New Testament, A CORRELATION for us between the burial of Christ and Christian baptism.

Paul writes:
Romans 6:3-4 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

And again:
Colossians 2:11-12 “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

And I just point all of that out to you
To sort of get your brain moving in the direction
Of pondering the importance of the burial of Jesus.

Clearly the burial of Jesus was more than an afterthought…
Clearly it was more than an insignificant formality…
• It was prophesied by prophets…
• It was pictured by Jonah…
• It was related by Jesus…
• It was fulfilled by Joseph…
• It was recorded in the gospels…
• It was proclaimed by the apostles…
• It is typified by baptism…

And so before we rush on to the glorious news of the resurrection,
I think it is fitting for us also to stop for one week
And consider the fact that after Jesus died, He was also buried.

And we’re going to look at our text this morning, along with some others
As we contemplate a little bit about the burial of Jesus.

Now, of all the themes that emerge regarding the burial of Jesus,
There is one that I think does rise above the rest.

There is a main point to be learned regarding the burial and it is this:

#1 THE PROOF IT OFFERS
Luke 23:50-56

When I speak of the proof it offers, we understand that the burial,
More than anything else, proves that CHRIST DID IN FACT DIE.

I don’t care to litter a sermon with heretical beliefs,
But it is enough to point out that even a quick google search will show you that there are plenty of skeptics who still hold that on the cross Jesus DID NOT actually die.

• Some think He merely fainted and was resuscitated.
• Muslims hold that He did not die there.

And of course if Jesus did not die, then we have major problems.

However Jesus did die, and the burial is the proof.
Burial is the proof that all 4 gospel writers give.

Now, as we stated last time, John gives even more proof of Jesus’ death.
John 19:31-34 “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.”

So there are other proofs that Jesus’ died,
But still the one proof all the gospel writers agreed on
Is that He was buried.

Certainly that is true from Luke’s perspective.
• There is nothing sneaky, nothing secretive, going on here.
• There is no conspiracy brewing…

Remember, there was even a fear among the Jews that the disciples
Might try and steal Jesus’ body and claim He was alive.

Matthew 27:62-66 “Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, 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 them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.”

But when you read the narrative, there is no plan being hatched here.

Joseph simply wants to bury Jesus.
(50-53) “And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.”

• There is no secret plot.
• There is no plan to carry of Jesus’ body.
• This man is just honoring Jesus with burial.

Beyond that, even the WOMEN, they aren’t behaving any different
Than if Jesus has died and is being buried.

(54-56) “It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”

• There is no plan to steal the body…
• There is no attempt to resuscitate Jesus…

These women just want to know where the grave is
So they’ll know where to come to adorn His body with spices.

Everything about the scene screams the same logical point.
JESUS IS DEAD

There is finality here. There is closure here.

We’ve all been to enough gravesides in our lives to know the scene.
• It is certainly not something you do to someone who is living.

The courage of Joseph…
The curiosity of the woman…
It all confirms the main point.

JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS.

Jesus didn’t just suffer and pass out on the cross, Jesus died there.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”

And since the burial is the definitive proof of that,
Let us consider for a brief moment this morning,
THE NECESSITY OF HIS DEATH.

TURN TO: HEBREWS 9:15-17

That passage can be a confusing one to many who read it today
Because we are not always accustomed to “covenant” language.

The Greek word for “covenant” is DIATHEKE (di-a-thay-kay)

It is defined like this:
“the last disposition which one makes of his earthly possessions after his death, a testament or will”

Now perhaps that helps you understand a little better.
When you see the word “covenant” here just think “will”

So if you read: verse 16 “For where a will is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.”
• That makes sense.
• No one cashes in on a relatives will before that person dies.

And we understand verse 17, “For a will is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.”

So when the writer of Hebrews
Starts talking about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant
You understand that he is talking about the old will and the new will.

It is the disposition which Christ makes to us after His death.

Now you know why Christ made the statement at the Last Supper, “this cup is the new covenant in My blood”

His death was ushering in the execution of His will.

And certainly He had to die to make that valid.
• All of His promises of forgiveness…
• All of those truths about the inheritance…
• None of those are valid unless He dies.

But that’s not all that is in play.

See, there is first the Old Covenant or will that also has to be dealt with.

This is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about in verse 15.
(15) “For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

• There was also an old covenant promise of life and blessing, etc.
• But those promises could not be claimed
• Because the named recipients had transgressed the covenant.

That is to say, they had failed to uphold their requirements
And were thus rendered ineligible to receive the inheritance.

Did you know that even to this day in Israel there are laws that make an heir disqualified to receive their inheritance?

Things like:
• If you caused the death of the deceased
• Of if you at any time tried to kill the deceased
• If you are a murderer or suspected of murder
• If you tried to hide, forge, or destroy the will

Well you then also understand the problem
Of all those under that first covenant.

They had broken the covenant and where therefore disqualified
And were ALSO under the penalty of death by reason of their sin.

Look down at verses 19-22
(19-22) “For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU.” And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

What was Moses doing there?
• He was laying out the stipulations for the covenant.
• He sprinkled everything with blood signifying the penalty of transgressing the covenant.

You’ve seen that before too.
Remember when God made a covenant with Abraham?

• He promised Abraham to give him the land of Canaan and then God chose to
strike a covenant so as to prove it.

Genesis 15:8-10 “He said, “O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.”

So God told Abraham to take those animals
And Abraham cut them in two which was a form of judgment.

And then remember what God did:
Genesis 15:17 “It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.”

What was God saying there?
He was saying, “May such happen to Me if I do not keep My word”

The death of those animals was the symbol of the penalty.

MOSES WAS DOING THAT SAME THING.
• He read the covenant and then he sprinkled everything with blood.
• “May your lifeblood be shed if you do not keep this word”

Death was the penalty for breaking the covenant.

So what did Christ do?
HE DIED (15) “for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, [so that] those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

Christ paid off their debt!
• Their debt was death, and He paid it.
• He satisfied the requirements of the Old Covenant
• And He ushered in the benefits of the New Covenant.

And for any of this to happen, He had to die.

So you understand the significance of death and the necessity of death.
• If Christ doesn’t die those under the Old Covenant receive no inheritance.
• If Christ doesn’t die His New Covenant is never put into effect.

DEATH IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL.

And how do we know Christ was dead?
THEY BURIED HIM

The burial is significant because of the proof it offers.

But there is more, and I want to make sure you see that as well.
#2 THE PROVIDENCE IT DEMONSTRATES
Isaiah 53:9

You don’t have to turn there, we’ve already read it several times.
Isaiah 53:9 “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.”

As I told you last time, Isaiah spoke of this vindicating act for the Lord.
• He died as a sinner, but He would not be buried as one.
• Christ’s humiliation ended at the moment when He said, “It is finished!”

Christ signified at that moment that
He completely satisfied the righteous requirement of God.
He had completely propitiated God’s wrath on the elect.

At that moment
• He ceased to be the whipping boy.
• Condemnation was over.
• He returned to being treated as the sinless and glorified Son of God,

And the first time we see that is in His burial.
(He had an honorable burial)

Incidentally it is also seen in the fact that His body did not undergo decay the whole time it was there, just as Psalms 16 indicated.

Psalms 16:9-10 “Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”

After Jesus bore God’s wrath,
He was finished being treated as a sinner.
He received nothing but total glory after that.

He was buried in a glorious tomb and His body didn’t decay.

And this is where PROVIDENCE comes in.

I tend to agree with John MacArthur who says that in many ways the providence of God is a greater miracle than all the famous miracles we read about in the Bible.

Do you understand providence?
Providence speaks to the unfathomable wisdom of God.

God allows men to basically do whatever they want.
Even sinful men are free to commit sinful acts.

• Men have thoughts…
• Men examine the circumstances…
• Men ponder a response…
• Men then choose how they will respond…
• Men act on their choice…

In addition to that, other men are constantly throwing variables
Into the situation that may change the status quo.

I can decide I’m going to walk out the door,
• And have every intention of doing so,
• But someone else may holler at me from across the room,
• And change what was my plan.

There are constant variables like this going on all the time.
There are constant decisions and changes.

And yet, with all these men, and with all their decisions,
And with all the contingencies that can arise from those decisions,
How is it that God still manages to fulfill His perfect plan?

PROVIDENCE
It really is remarkable.

God had declared that Jesus would be buried in a rich man’s tomb.

Now, you should know the BASIC PROTOCOLS that would have PROHIBITED this.

For one,
• It was quite common for men who died on a cross to have their bodies stay on the cross for days or even weeks after their death.
• Those men were meant to be an example, and a decaying body, being eaten by birds was a pretty emphatic statement.

But that wasn’t the case for Jesus because the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and them taken down off the cross for the Passover.

Another issue is that there were two options for the body of Jesus.
1. Is a Roman burial which included Jesus and the other two criminals being thrown into a ditch sort of like a mass grave.

2. Is a Jewish burial where Jesus is carried way beyond the city and buried in a field reserved for other criminals.

But Jesus gets neither.

According to the Providence of God
Joseph just happens to be a rich man with a new grave
And he determines to bury Jesus in his own new tomb.

• What caused the Jews to want the criminals off the cross that early?
• What caused Pilate to acquiesce to their request?
• What caused Joseph to find courage?
• What caused Joseph to already have a tomb ready?

All of these men made all of these decisions by their own free will
And yet it was exactly as God had promised.

It is the providence of God on full display at the burial of Jesus.

The burial shows us all of that.

The Proof It Offers, The Providence It Demonstrates
#3 THE PROCLAMATION IT ALLOWS
1 Peter 3:18-22

This is one other point I think is worth making regarding Christ’s burial.

Many have asked,
Where did Christ go for the time in which He was dead?

TURN TO: 1 PETER 3:18-20

The context of the passage is suffering like Jesus suffered.

Peter actually started the thought back in chapter 2 when he wrote:
1 Peter 2:20-21 “For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,”

• From there we learn how even when a wife is married to an ungodly husband she should imitate the suffering of Christ.
• We learn how even when a man is married to a difficult wife, he should imitate the suffering of Christ.

In fact Peter says:
1 Peter 3:8-9 “To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.”

So you understand Peter’s point.
Face suffering, face injustice, face discrimination like Christ did.

We actually read in verse 17 “For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”

And Peter caps these two chapters off with a reminder that
If you follow Christ you will have your chance at vindication,
Just as Christ did.

And that vindication is seen during His burial.

(18-20) “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”

Peter speaks of the atoning death of Christ and reminds that
While Christ was “put to death in the flesh”
He was always “made alive in the spirit”

That is to say He DID NOT spiritually die on the cross, only physically.

And in His death, He was on a mission of sort.
“in which He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison”

• Who are these “spirits”?
• What is this “prison”?

Well the spirits are those “who once were disobedient…in the days of Noah”

Peter speaks of them again in 2 Peter
2 Peter 2:4 “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;”

And Jude speaks of them as well:
Jude 6 “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,”

The specific story is this:
Genesis 6:1-2 “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”

“sons of God” is a term for angelic beings.
“daughters of men” is a term for human women.

• What we find is that in those days there were some angelic beings (demons) who were seeking to cohabitate with human women.
• That is why Jude says they “abandoned their proper abode”.
• Jude even likened them to the homosexuality of Sodom and Gomorrah saying they went after strange flesh.
• It was detestable in the sight of God and He put a stop to it.
• Not only did God eventually kill all of those women and their offspring through the flood, but He also bound those angels in prison.

Peter calls the prison “hell” and “pits of darkness”

Incidentally you might recall the conversation that occurred between Jesus and the legion of demons that was in the Gadarene demoniac.

Luke 8:30-31 “And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They were imploring Him not to command them to go away into the abyss.”

Matthew’s gospel adds:
Matthew 8:29 “And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

So you have an idea about this prison and who was there.

Well Peter said when Christ died “He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.”

• “proclamation” there is NOT EUANGELIZO which is where we get our word for evangelism.
• Rather the word there is KERUSSO which means to proclaim or herald.

Christ dropped into that prison and declared Himself Lord
And King of the living and the dead!

Revelation 1:17-18 “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”

Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

• Christ took on death.
• Christ took death’s best shot.
• Christ then put death in submission, and declared Himself Lord even of the dead.

Remember Paul’s famous statement:
Philippians 2:9-11 “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

• This was a victory lap for Jesus.
• This was vindication for the Lord.
• Jesus put hell on its knees.

Jesus died, descended into hell, and came out the other side.
His death provided that opportunity.

And there is even a POINT to be made THERE FOR US.

If you keep reading in 1 Peter…
(3:21-22) “Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you — not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”

• “Corresponding to that” (Just like That!)
• “baptism now saves you”

And to make sure you don’t get your wires crossed
• And think he’s talking about water baptism,
• Peter adds: “not the remove of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God
for a good conscience”

We are not talking about a bath.
We are talking about your identification with Christ.

When you identify with His death, His burial, and His resurrection.
YOU ARE SAVED.

What does Peter mean?
• That just as Christ descended into hell and all hell was made subject to Him and then He came out the other side…
• So also, we in Him, do the same.

In fact Peter compares Jesus to Noah’s Ark.
• Jesus is our ark that carries us into death, through judgment, and back to life again.

Just as He died, was buried, and then rose.
So also we, if we are in Him, will do the same.

JESUS IS OUR HOPE.
• His burial proved His death
• His burial demonstrated God’s providence
• His burial gave opportunity for Him to proclaim victory over the grave

In Jesus WE WIN!

John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Download here:

Holy Is The Lord
Psalms 99
February 28, 2021

Last Sunday night we rejoiced in our study of Psalms 98.
We called it “What A Day That Will Be!”

• We saw the Psalmist rejoicing because the Lord had come.
• We saw the Psalmist rejoicing because the Lord is here.
• We saw the Psalmist rejoicing because the Lord will judge.

We said that it was the song to be sung at His inauguration or coronation.

As He has come and destroyed His enemies,
And is now taking His seated upon the throne,
The people rejoice in His victory
And look with eager anticipation towards His reign.

IT WILL BE EXCITING!

Psalms 99 continues in that theme as you see in the opening statement.
“The LORD reigns”

The purpose of Psalms 99
Is to help you understand the coming reign of the LORD.

One might ask, “What will His reign be like?”
Psalms 99 answers the question.

Now, in one sense, we already took a brief look at this reign last week.

Isaiah 11:3-5 “And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.”

We saw that He will be a righteous King.
• He will not be swayed by public opinion.
• No lobbyist will be able to bribe Him.
• No wicked man will be able to intimidate Him.
• “righteousness will be the belt about His loins”

And that passage prepares us for the passage we read tonight
Which further explains to us the reign of the LORD.

And simply by reading Psalms 99 to begin this evening I should think
The CHIEF CHARACTERISTIC of His reign should now be OBVIOUS.

(3) “Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He.”

(5) “Exalt the LORD our God And worship at His footstool; Holy is He.”

(9) “Exalt the LORD our God And worship at His holy hill, For holy is the LORD our God.”

“Holy…Holy…Holy”

One of the most famous and repeated sermons RC Sproul preaches is a sermon on the Holiness of God from the text of Isaiah 6.

If you’ve not ever listened to him preach that text then go search it out on the internet and listen to it. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/essential_truths_of_the_christian_faith/holiness-of-god/

But Sproul talks about the reality of how Jewish literature
Had various ways of emphasizing their text;
And their CHIEF WAY WAS THROUGH REPETITION.

If you really want someone to notice what you said, you repeat it.
• And this was certainly the method of the angels of heaven who cried out to the
Lord, “Holy, Holy, Holy”

Sproul would also point out to you that
This is the only attribute of God that receives this type of emphasis.

God is NEVER referred to as “Love, Love, Love” or “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”
Or “Judgment, Judgment, Judgment”

He is only referred to as Holy in the triplicate.

And that is precisely the way the Psalmist
Answers the curiosity of the congregation.

• How might we describe the LORD who has come to reign? HOLY
• How might we describe the way in which He reigns? HOLY
• What might we expect in all His judgments? HOLY
• What sort of things might the LORD want from us? HOLY

And tonight we take a brief look at this HOLY LORD.

AND I MIGHT ADD
That this is so needed in our culture, perhaps even in our churches.

The word “holy” is a very important word.
It is QADOWSH (ka-doshe) in the Hebrews.

It is often defined as “sacred, or holy, or set apart”

What it reveals really more than any other thing
Is the GREAT DISTANCE between God and man.

God is NOT like us.
And we are NOT like God.

• Made in His image? Yes
• Called to imitate Him? Yes
• Adopted into a relationship with Him? Yes

But we are not like Him, and He is not like us.

Psalms 50:17-21 “For you hate discipline, And you cast My words behind you. “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, And you associate with adulterers. “You let your mouth loose in evil And your tongue frames deceit. “You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.”

Isaiah said:
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

When Paul outlines THE SINFULNESS OF HUMANITY,
He does so by explaining how man sought to liken God to themselves.

Romans 1:22-23 “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

And this has been the chief sin of our culture.

There has grown over the centuries
What I consider to be a sinful familiarity with God.

By that I mean that man, even in the church,
Has often times committed the sin of
Seeking to make God too relatable and too explainable to the world.

I spoke to my mom this past week
• She was talking about a woman who comes to her store that she has been witnessing to.
• Mom was a little grieved because this woman has gotten washed up in some heretical charismatic doctrine.
• It started with the realization of God as “Father”, which is certainly not wrong, but in seeking to understand what it means that God is our Father the woman made a terrible mistake.

• She began to compare God to herself and sought to understand Him according to her own ideals and principles.

For example, she recently told my mom that she doesn’t believe God will send anyone to hell. Why? Because He is a Father. She reckons that as a mother she would never send any of her children to hell, so there’s no way that God would ever send any of His there.

You understand the blasphemy.
It is to dumb God down and to seek to recreate Him in our own image.

This is the chief of sins.
It is to blaspheme the very name of God.
(His name is the summation of who He is)

To relate God down to our level is commit the most heinous of sins.

Think about the 10 commandments for a moment.
• They actually begin with three commands that protect the name of God.

Exodus 20:1-7 “Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

The first 3 commands were all about protecting the name of God.
• No one is equal to Him and no one should be treated as such.
• Do not seek to explain Him by dumbing Him down in idolatry.
• Do not blaspheme His name.

Consider what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer”.
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, the first command was:
Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”

Jesus said that the first prayer request of any believer
Is that God’s name be hallowed.

That is the prayer request of the church.
That God’s name be exalted.

When we bring God down to our level, we miss the entire point.

Isaiah 40:18-25 “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.”

Isaiah 46:5-9 “To whom would you liken Me And make Me equal and compare Me, That we would be alike? “Those who lavish gold from the purse And weigh silver on the scale Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; They bow down, indeed they worship it. “They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; They set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; It cannot deliver him from his distress. “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,”

What we are talking about then is a failure to know who God is.

It was another great statement by R.C. Sproul.

“Our world knows that God is…”
(creation and conscience teach us that in Romans 1)

“Our world knows THAT God is,
But our world does not know WHO God is.”

And the despicable attempts of men
To explain God by dumbing Him down
And likening Him to sinful humanity
May in fact be the greatest sin of the ages.

It is to blaspheme the name of God.

God is not like us – GOD IS HOLY, HOLY, HOLY

And this is the cry of the Psalmist in Psalms 99.

Do you want to know what the reign of the LORD will be like?
• Well it won’t be like any other human ruler you have ever known.

His reign will not be like a human king.
“Holy is He”

• He is set apart
• There is a great distance between Him and us
• He is transcendent
• He is perfect
• He is eternal

What we are looking forward to is the coming reign of a Holy King.

And that is the subject of Psalms 99.

I want to break it down into 2 main points tonight.
#1 GOD’S REIGN ANNOUNCED
Psalms 99:1-5

Again, you see clearly the announcement that “The LORD reigns”

You also see other announcements:
• “He is enthroned”
• “The LORD is great”
• “He is exalted”

We are talking about His great reign.

Now you also notice that there seems to be TWO DISTINCT THOUGHTS
In these first 5 verses, each one ending with the statement “Holy is He”

There are two distinct thoughts here regarding His holiness.

The first has to do with HIS PREEMINENT POSITION (1-3)

• We see in verse 1 that “He is enthroned above the cherubim”
• We see in verse 2 that “He is exalted above all the peoples”

It speaks of superiority
It speaks of transcendence
It speaks of preeminence

He is better than us
He is higher than us
We are not equals
HE IS ABOVE US

He is even above the angels.

But the miracle of these first 3 verses is that
This transcendent King has come to reign among us.

(2) “The LORD is great in Zion,”

This is the King of whom Solomon said:
2 Chronicles 2:6 “But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?”

And the miracles is that the God of the highest heavens
Would be willing now to come and dwell among His creation.

Moses marveled at this:
Deuteronomy 10:14-15 “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. “Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.”

It’s really unfathomable.

This transcendent God.
This God who is higher than the angels.
This God who is greater than all peoples.
Has now come to reign in Zion.

That explains the various responses called for by the Psalmist.
• “let the peoples tremble;”
• “let the earth shake!”
• “Let them praise Your great and awesome name;”

Remember Isaiah 6 when Isaiah saw the LORD?
Isaiah 6:1-5 “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Remember when the apostle John saw this same king?
Revelation 1:17a “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man…”

Isaiah saw one who was not like him.
John saw one who was not like him.
They saw one infinitely greater, infinitely higher, infinitely better.

And the only fitting way to describe Him is “Holy is He.”
There is a great distance.
He is absolutely incomparable.

He is no ordinary king.

This was the reality that Job ran square into regarding his understanding of God.

Job began to question the holiness of God.
Not just the justice of God, but Job began to speak to God as an equal.

And do you remember how God answered Job?

TURN TO: JOB 38 – 40:5

That passage is all about the holiness of God.
It is all about God’s Preeminent Position

• Job was reminded that day of the great distance between him and God.
• God is holy, Job is not.
• God is great and awesome and beyond Job in every way.

Who in their right man would belittle God so as to make Him like us?

Romans 9:20 “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?”

That is one way in which His holiness is explained, but it’s not the only way.

We also see HIS PREEMINENT NATURE (4-5)

It’s not just the intrinsic greatness that sets this King apart,
BUT ALSO HIS MORAL CHARACTER.

“The strength of the King loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.”

This King is also morally superior in every possible way.
• None of us measures up to His righteous standard.
• He is the very epitome of perfection and justice.

He is not only greater than us, but He is better than us.
• We do not compare.
• We do not measure up.

It is such a blasphemy to assume the behavior of God
Would in any way be like the behavior of man.

To say “I wouldn’t do this, so God wouldn’t do this”
IS THE PINNACLE OF STUPIDITY.

God is not like you.
And while you are called to imitate God, you are not like Him.

• We are evil, He is righteous
• We are fickle, He is faithful
• We are rebellious, He is loyal
• We are corrupt, He is just

There is no comparison.

And so THE REQUIREMENT and THE COMMAND is obvious.
(5) “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His footstool;”

There is no need to approach Him to give Him advice.
• He doesn’t need your counsel.
• When you draw near it will not be to render advice.

Romans 11:33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

God doesn’t need your instruction.
When you show up, it will be FOR WORSHIP.

God will be exalted by you for “Holy is He”

Not only intrinsically better, but morally better in every way.

Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.”

Job ran into this too:
Job 40:6-14 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm and said, “Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you instruct Me. “Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? “Or do you have an arm like God, And can you thunder with a voice like His? “Adorn yourself with eminence and dignity, And clothe yourself with honor and majesty. “Pour out the overflowings of your anger, And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low. “Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him, And tread down the wicked where they stand. “Hide them in the dust together; Bind them in the hidden place. “Then I will also confess to you, That your own right hand can save you.”

And of course Job learned his lesson again:
Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”

Job learned of the holiness of God.
Quit comparing God to yourself!

He is not like you and you are not like Him!
He is preeminent in position and He is preeminent in His very nature.

“Holy is He”

And so when you want to know
What sort of King is about to reign upon the earth?
We can confidently say: A HOLY KING

That is God’s Reign Announced
#2 GOD’S REIGN EXPLAINED
Psalms 99:6-9

For those who still need some explanation regarding this great King
The Psalmist takes you on a history lesson
Where he seeks to help you understand this God.

• He carries us back into the days of Moses and the days of Samuel
• He uses them as an example of what it will be like when this great King reigns on the earth.

And in looking at these men
There are some themes or similarities that emerge.

1) These were men who prayed to God and men whom God answered.

(6) “Moses and Aaron were among His priests, And Samuel was among those who called on His name; they called upon the LORD and he answered them.”

Now the reason Moses and Aaron and Samuel are mentioned
IS NOT just because these were men of prayer;
Indeed many Old Testament saints might fall into this category.

These men are chosen because
They emerge as great intercessors in Scripture.

In fact, you might remember when Jeremiah was pronouncing certain judgment on Jerusalem he actually said:
Jeremiah 15:1 “Then the LORD said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go!”

Moses and Samuel were regarded as the GREAT INTERCESSORS of old.

So what we’re talking about here is that
This holy King will certainly be a merciful king.

We know that because that’s who He has always been.
(Moses and Samuel proved that over and over)

And we can’t look at them all, but consider the great intercessions of these men.

• We know of Moses on Sinai in Exodus 32 when God said He was going to
wipe out Israel, Moses interceded and God’s anger relented.
• We remember Numbers 12 when Miriam grumbled against Moses and was
turned into a leper, but Moses interceded and she was forgiven.
• We remember Numbers 14 when the children of Israel failed to enter the
Promised Land and God threatened again to wipe them out but Moses
interceded.

• Regarding Samuel we remember how the children of Israel had offended
God by asking for a King and how God was ready to destroy them but Samuel interceded on their behalf and God turned away from His fierce anger.

What we learned about God through these men is that
When people mess up, if they repent, that God is merciful.

When Moses prayed for forgiveness God answered.
When Samuel prayed for forgiveness God answered.

And you can certainly expect this type of reign from your king.

He is Holy, but He will also be merciful.

So that’s one thing we learn about God through these men.

2) These were men who heard from God and who understood the importance of obedience.

(7) “He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; They kept His testimonies And the statute that He gave them.”

Something else you learned about God through these men
Is that OBEDIENCE TO GOD IS VERY IMPORTANT.

• Moses after all gave us the very Law of God.
• Moses outlined for us all that God said to do and not to do.
• It was Moses who laid out the penalties for violating God’s Law.

Samuel as well.
• We remember when Saul made the sacrifice how Samuel rebuked him saying:

1 Samuel 15:22 “Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”

SO THEY WERE ALSO MEN
Who desperately understood the importance of obedience.

They were men then who taught us that God is to be obeyed,
And also that God is merciful.

These are the types of things we can expect from this king.

And so you get sort of the culmination or explanation about God’s reign.

(8) “O LORD our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds.”

There was a balance.
This King is very merciful, but do not assume that He is a pushover.

Spurgeon wrote:
“Many profess to admire the milder beams of the sun of righteousness, but burn with rebellion against its more flaming radiance; so it ought not to be; we are bound to praise a terrible God and worship him who casts the wicked down to hell. Did not Israel praise him “who overthrew Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, for his mercy endureth forevever.” The terrible Avenger is to be praised, as well as the loving Redeemer. Against this the sympathy of man’s evil heart with rebels; it cries out for an effeminate God in whom pity has strangled justice. The well-instructed servants of Jehovah praise him in all the aspects of his character, whether terrible or tender.”
(Spurgeon, C.H. [The Treasury of David; Vol 2; Psalms 58-110; Hendrickson Publishers; Peabody, MA] Pg. 223)

He’s correct.
• There are so many today who wish to swing their pendulum too far.
• They recognize the God of mercy and grace, but forget that He is a Holy God.

Through Moses and Samuel we learned repeatedly that He is both.

Remember when Miriam offended God and Moses prayed?
Numbers 12:11-15 “Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. “Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!” Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “O God, heal her, I pray!” But the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again.” So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.”

Mercy, but still discipline.

Remember when the children of Israel wouldn’t enter the Promised Land?
Numbers 14:17-23 “But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’ “Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” So the LORD said, “I have pardoned them according to your word; but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. “Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.”

Mercy, but still discipline.

Remember when the Israelites wanted an earthly king?

TURN TO: 1 Samuel 12:12-25

What do we learn?
That this King is merciful, but He is also lawful.

Remember how God defined Himself?
Exodus 34:5-7 “The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Do you want to know what His reign will be like?
HOLY-HOLY-HOLY

He is certainly merciful to who seek mercy when they fail,
But do not assume that He has no righteous standard.

His kingdom will be a righteous kingdom.
His reign will be a just reign.

And so the Psalmist again bids us:
(9) “Exalt the LORD our God And worship at His holy hill, For holy is the LORD our God.”

This is the reality about His reign.

And I would remind His church that
Though He does not yet reign on the earth, He still reigns in our hearts.

He is still our King; He is still our Lord.

And that means the truths we learn here
Are exactly how we are called to live even today.

• He is a merciful King
• He does forgive our sins.
• But are we to assume that our Lord does not care about our holy and righteous living?

Of course not!

• He disciplines us still so that we may share in His holiness.
• He sanctifies us still.
• This remains our calling.

This Psalm reminds us of who our God is.
He is a merciful God and yet also an Avenger of our evil deeds.

It’s not enough that you know THAT God is,
You should also know WHO God is.

Psalms 99 reminds us: HOLY IS HE.

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Responding To The Crucifixion
Luke 23:47-53
February 28, 2021

Sometime around 1707 a young man in church complained to his father, who was also the pastor that most of the hymns which were sung in church were not “inspirational enough”.
• Most of the hymns of that day were metrical hymns and left this young man wanting for a more moving form of expression.
• His father encouraged him to start writing hymns of his own.
• In preparation for the upcoming Lord’s Supper the young man had read Galatians 6:14

Galatians 6:14 “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

• He was moved by the verse and thus inspired to write a hymn which encompassed the emotion he felt from the passage.
• The hymn he penned was highly controversial since it was the first of it’s time to contain a personal pronoun. He sung about “me” and “I” in a very personal tone.
• The hymn caught on and has since been called “The greatest hymn in the English language.” Another said of it, “There may be a few others equally great, but there is none greater.”

The young man who wrote the Psalm was Isaac Watts
The title of the Psalm was: “Crucifixion To The World By The Cross Of Christ”

Though that’s not the title you know it by.
You know it as “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross”

It was Isaac Watts profound and emotional response
To the scene of the crucifixion.

He wrote:
“When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
http://dianaleaghmatthews.com/survey-wondrous-cross/

What Isaac Watts expressed to his father was that the cross of Jesus invokes a personal and real and even emotional response.

A person cannot gaze upon it and remain unmoved.

That DOESN’T MEAN that all men respond correctly to it,
But all men certainly respond.

Paul taught us:
1 Corinthians 1:18, 22-24 “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

• Some certainly looked at the cross of Jesus as a foolish display…
• Some have looked at it as a ridiculous notion…
• Those who are saved are utterly moved with awe and wonder at the love, wisdom, and power of God…

• Still others, as we see today, are horrified or terrified.
• Some see it and find their courage and conviction.

But the cross leaves no man unaffected.
It is the greatest event in all of human history and man must respond to it.

When Isaac Watts surveyed the cross
• He was crushed into humility,
• He saw that nothing of this earth holds a candle in value to the redemption of
Jesus on the cross.
• He also recognized that such a sacrifice demanded full devotion of his life.

When he surveyed the cross, that was his response.

Well we have just spent the better part of a month
Surveying the wondrous cross of Jesus.

• We have seen the SCENE
• We have heard the SCORN
• We have beheld the SALVATION
• We have learned the SIGNIFICANCE

This morning we come to see THE EFFECT
That the crucifixion had on those who were there.

And as we study perhaps you can consider
How you will respond to the wondrous cross of Jesus.

We’re going to fix our gaze on 4 different responses this morning.
#1 THE CONVINCED
Luke 23:47

Here we have “the centurion”

• The name itself indicates that he was a leader in charge of 100 men.
• This was no bottom dwelling soldier.
• This was an experienced, qualified, military man.

This particular man must have been at least in partial command of
The cohort that first mocked and then crucified Jesus.

It would have been his men (maybe even him)
Who gambled over His garments

Certainly this man had been a part of this ordeal from the beginning.
• He was a part of Jesus’ beating
• He was a part of Jesus’ mocking
• He was a part of Jesus’ crucifixion

And now, he has settled in for the long haul
To watch Jesus suffer until He dies.

This man would have to be a cold man by nature.
• Rome fought no shortage of wars
• Rome spilled no shortage of blood

Furthermore Rome was no stranger to crucifixions.
• Pilate himself had crucified over 300 insurrectionists
• And lined the road with their crosses.

The point is, this man was hardened.
• He’d seen his share of blood
• He’d seen his share of gore
• He’d seen his share of crucifixions

Watching Jesus beaten, bleeding, and dying on the cross
Was not a new thing to him.

And yet here we have A STRANGE EVENT.
“Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent.”

• I don’t have to tell you that this is a remarkable about face.
• This centurion would have been a pagan idol worshiper.
• But on this day, after this event we find him “praising God”

The subject of his praise was that “Certainly this man was innocent.”

If you’ll recall, the innocence of Jesus
Has been really the main point of Luke over the last couple of chapters.

• He reported to us how both Pilate and Herod had found Jesus to be innocent.
• We saw the second thief on the cross declaring that “this Man has done
nothing wrong”
• And now Luke adds that the centurion also pronounces Jesus to be
“innocent”

That is Luke’s way of showing you that
This man recognized in Jesus a man who was DYING UNJUSTLY.

He did not deserve the death He endured.
He was most certainly dying on behalf of someone else.

Matthew’s gospel gives us even more detail here.
Matthew 27:54 “Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Matthew says that he was “very frightened” (PHOBEO)
• He no doubt recognized the darkness…
• He saw and felt the earthquake…
• And he was consumed with fear.

And his confession, aside from Luke’s note that Jesus was innocent,
Was also that “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Mark adds that he was also amazed at THE WAY JESUS DIED.
Mark 15:39 “When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

The whole scene captivated him.
• The meekness…
• The mercy…
• The salvation of the sinner…
• The darkness…
• The earthquake…
• The statements and confidence in the way He died…

The centurion was blown away and afraid
For he recognized that hanging on this cross
Was in fact the sinless Son of God.

You and I know that God must have shown him that,
Or else he could not have known it.

Matthew 16:16-17 “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

1 Corinthians 12:3 “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.”

God had clearly shown this centurion that Jesus was no routine criminal.
It had been revealed to him that Jesus was the sinless Son of God.

Now, let me help you see what has occurred.
• Starting early Friday Jesus was arrested, beaten, mocked, and condemned.
• At 9am He was crucified.
• And for three hours men like the centurion heaped upon Him the worst that they had.
• The reviled, they mocked, they scorned, they shamed
• Then at noon darkness fell on the land and for three hours God dealt with sin.
• During that time Jesus cried out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” & “It is Finished!” & “Into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

At the ninth hour (3pm) Jesus died,
And at the ninth hour LIGHT CAME BACK on the cross.

And the centurion was in no way ready for what he would see.
• He had seen men beaten
• He had seen men crucified
• He had seen men die in agony on the cross

But he had never seen anything like this

You are familiar with Isaiah 53, we read it a lot.
There are many however who contend that the last 3 verses of Isaiah 52 also belong in that chapter.

Isaiah 52:13-15 “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.”

• Isaiah said that Jesus was “marred more than any man”.
• No crucifixion victim had ever suffered like that.
• And the scene would be so remarkable that even kings would shut their
mouths and the unconverted would be blown away at what they saw.

THIS WAS CERTAINLY THE CENTURION.

When light shined back on the cross he knew something was wrong.

It was obvious that this was more than just a normal execution.

He saw the scene and he was convinced that Jesus was the Savior.

That is certainly a fitting response to surveying the cross.
• When you see the meekness and mercy of Christ…
• When you hear Him interceding and praying for forgiveness…
• When you hear Him cry “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”
• When you see Him declaring a sinner saved…
• When you hear Him entrusting His soul to God…
• When you see the wrath that He bore…
• When you see the temple veil torn?

Are you convinced that He is the sinless Son of God?

This centurion was and he confessed Christ publicly right then and there.

The Convinced
#2 THE CONDEMNED
Luke 23:48

Now we come to “the crowds who came together for this spectacle,”

You know what they are like.
Luke’s gospel didn’t include their reproach, but other gospel accounts did.

Matthew 27:39-40 “And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

We certainly remember
Their participation in securing a conviction for Jesus.

Matthew 27:21-26 “But the governor said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Crucify Him!” And he said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they kept shouting all the more, saying, “Crucify Him!” When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.” And all the people said, His blood shall be on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.”

This was the crowd.
• They had worked to get Jesus crucified,
• And they mocked as He hang dying on the cross.

But now, like the centurion they have taken in the whole scene.
“And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts.”

They saw it all too.
• They heard the statements…
• They experienced the darkness…
• They felt the earthquake…

And after Jesus entrusted Himself to God and died,
Their spectacle turned into something extremely terrifying.

They began to realize what they had done.
They had just participated in the murder
Of the sinless Son of God and they were horrified.

That is what is meant by “beating their breasts.”

You’ve seen that statement before.
Luke 18:13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’”

• Beating the breast was a symbolic act of self-attack.
• It was to announce one as deserving judgment.

That is what this crowd did.
It is this very reality that Peter would build on in just over a month
When he would preach at Pentecost.

Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Or a few days later in Jerusalem
Acts 3:13-15 “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.”

Or the day after that
Acts 4:10 “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this man stands here before you in good health.”

The horror those men felt as Peter preached in Jerusalem
Was actually a horror that began at the cross.

Even there they were coming to realize what they had done.
And this is a terrifying thing.

The writer of Hebrews asked:
Hebrews 10:28-29 “Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

• What kind of wrath does a person deserve if they were to humiliate the Son of
God by crucifying Him?

This crowd was beginning to realize what they had done.
• They felt their own condemnation.
• They felt their own guilt.

Certainly that is a fitting response to the cross.
• On one hand, like the CENTURION, you should recognize who Jesus is and
that His death was no ordinary death.
• And on the other hand, like the CROWD, you should recognize your part in
Him dying there.

He didn’t die for His sin, He died for your sin.
He bore your wrath.
He would not have been there if it were not for you.

Condemnation is a fitting response.

The Convinced, The Condemned
#3 THE CONFOUNDED
Luke 23:49

Here we run into “His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee”

These were His followers.
The only disciple that we know to have been
Even remotely near the cross was John.

John 19:25b-27 “But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.”

These were His followers.

But the unique thing we notice is that they were
“standing at a distance, seeing these things.”

Why at a distance?

Had not Jesus just revealed in the upper room…
Luke 22:35-37 “And He said to them, “When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?” They said, “No, nothing.” And He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one. “For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, ‘AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH TRANSGRESSORS’; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment.”

We talked about this.
If you ride with an outlaw, you die with an outlaw.

The cross was no place for the followers of Jesus to stand out in the open.
• They were afraid.
• They were timid and concerned.
• They were confounded that their Messiah was dead
• They were confused regarding the plan of God.

We’ll see this out of them for the next few days.

Even on the coming Sunday we read:
John 20:19 “So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

Even on Sunday we find the disciples back up in that same upper room, and they’ve got the door locked because they are afraid.

The cross was a horrific thing.
• Jesus had been brutally killed.
• And they didn’t know what to do with it.

Remember the man on the road to Emmaus (we’ll see in a few weeks)
TURN TO: LUKE 24:13-27

You can hear the disillusionment and confusion in their conversation.
They don’t know what to do.

And their fear and sorrow would continue
UNTIL the saw the resurrected Christ.

The resurrection would turn their sorrow into joy,
The Holy Spirit who was about to come would turn their fear to courage.

But none the less we see again THE HORROR OF THE CROSS.

• How terrible is the wrath of God that He would do this to His own Son?
• How genuine is the hatred of men for God that they would crucify Jesus?

And indeed many today have turned back from following Christ
Because of their fear of the world’s hatred.

There are many who when faced with the call
To “deny” themselves, “take up” the cross and “follow” Jesus
Have said, “No”.

Paul wrote about them to the Galatians:
Galatians 6:12 “Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.”

Paul even said that the root motive behind their legalism
Was so that they could escape the persecution of the cross.

As we read earlier, the cross is foolishness to the world.
And there have been many who have sought to dodge the scorn.

This is what made men like Paul so remarkable.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

We are called to embrace and proclaim the cross.

But there are those who are terrified of it and seek to keep it a distance.
• This was even true of the acquaintances of Jesus
• Until after the resurrection and ultimately Pentecost.
• Then, they became proclaimers of the cross!
• And that is certainly a proper response

The Convinced, The Condemned, The Confounded
#4 THE CONVICTED
Luke 23:50-53

This one is actually my favorite.

Here in Luke’s gospel we simply read about “a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God;”

Luke, as is commonly the case,
Seeks to show those he includes in only a positive light.

And he calls Joseph “a good and righteous man”
• Namely because he would not join the Sanhedrin in their hypocritical trial to condemn Jesus.

But the reality is that the cross
Must have made a profound impact on Joseph.

Listen to John’s gospel:
John 19:38 “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body.”

John said that Joseph was “a secret” disciple because he was afraid.

Now just to make sure that we are clear.
• Jesus has been adamant that while there may be secret disciples, there are no saved secret disciples.

Matthew 10:32-39 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

Joseph may have been a secret disciple,
But it would have been a stretch to have called him a saved one.

And we may even know why.
We are told in Matthew’s gospel that Joseph was a rich man.

Matthew 19:21-24 “And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

That may explain Joseph’s desire to remain secret.
He may have wanted to keep his wealth.

We also learn in Luke’s gospel that he was a member of “the Council”, that is the Sanhedrin.

And certainly he must have feared that
He would lose his position if he confessed Christ.

THAT HAD BEEN JOSEPH’S LIFE.
• He knew who Jesus was…
• He was convinced that Jesus was the Savior…
• He was secretly a learner…

But fear had kept him from confessing Christ publicly
As is required for all believers.

HOWEVER, on this day we find him doing something remarkable.

(52-53) “this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut in the rock, where no one had ever lain.”

THERE IS MORE TO THIS THAN WHAT YOU SEE HERE.

On one hand there is the issue of defilement.

Remember earlier at the trial of Jesus how the Sanhedrin wouldn’t even accompany Pilate into the Praetorium?

John 18:28 “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.”

Well, being in the presence of a dead body
Was most certainly an act of defilement.

Consider way back to the days of Moses.
Numbers 9:5-6 “They observed the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did. But there were some men who were unclean because of the dead person, so that they could not observe Passover on that day; so they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.”

If Joseph goes near the dead body of Jesus,
He can kiss the Passover good-bye.

And that’s not all.
He also has to get permission from Pilate for the body of Jesus.
And that is a terrifying thing.

Mark 15:43 “Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.”

Joseph had to gather up courage to go to Pilate and ask.

Beyond that, if Joseph actually goes to Pilate
And then defiles himself so that he might take the body of Jesus,
There will be no more “secret disciple” status for him.

His secret will be out.

But on this day, after the cross,
Joseph left his cowardice and found his courage.

He took down the body of Jesus off the cross.

And this is actually huge!
• Ordinarily the Romans would have just taken them down and thrown them in a
pit or a ditch.

But there was a prophecy about Jesus.
• Part of His vindication was that even though He would die as a sinner, He
would receive burial as a saint.

Isaiah 53:9 “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.”

Jesus would receive a sinner’s death,
But God had ordained that He would not receive a sinner’s burial.

He would receive an honorable burial.

Joseph of Arimathea fulfilled that prophesy.
He faced Pilate,
He outed himself as a disciple,
He defiled himself that he might take the body of Jesus down off the cross.
• Joseph pulled the nails…
• Joseph handled His bloodied body…
• Joseph wrapped Him up…
• Joseph carried Him to his own tomb…
• Joseph buried Him…

WHY?
There is something important to understand about Joseph.
Luke says in verse 51 that he “was waiting for the kingdom of God”

Joseph was looking for the king.
What he witnessed on the cross
Convinced him that Jesus was that King!

And he found his courage and he displayed his conviction
And he let the world know his allegiance to this crucified king.

When he surveyed the wondrous cross it moved him to conviction.

SO YOU SEE THE RESPONSES.

• When the centurion surveyed the wondrous cross he was convinced that Jesus was the sinless Son of God.
• When the crowd surveyed the wondrous cross they were condemned for they knew they had played a part in executing the Savior of the world.
• When His acquaintances surveyed the wondrous cross they were hit with the reality of the hatred this world has for Jesus, and they proclaimed it anyway.
• When Joseph surveyed the wondrous cross he was filled with conviction and courage to confess Christ.

What about you?
When you survey the wondrous cross, what does it spark in you?

Isaac Watts said:
My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

I wonder this morning how you might respond to the cross of Jesus?

I would hope that you too
Would be so convicted that Jesus is the Christ
That you might also publicly confess Him before the world
And let it be known what He did on that cross, He died for you.

Galatians 6:14 “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”