Sunday, December 4, 2022 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:07

How it is always true How it is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword

00:13

How it gets right to the heart of the matters in our lives we thank you for making us in your image and nourishing and feeding and Sanctifying and Helping us through your word.

00:31

We pray that you would do that tonight in Jesus name. Amen All right beginning in verse 50, this is just after Jesus's death upon the cross

00:46

Now behold, there was a man named Joseph a council member a good and just man

00:55

He had not consented to their decision indeed He was from Arimathea a city of the

01:04

Jews who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus Then he took it down Wrapped it in linen and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock where no one had ever lain before that day was the preparation and The Sabbath drew near and The women who had come with him from Galilee Followed after and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid

01:45

Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils and they arrested on the

01:52

Sabbath according to the commandments So let's talk about Joseph of Arimathea when we read the

02:05

Gospels the story of Christ, especially pertaining to the opposition to Jesus by the religious rulers

02:16

We come across the name Joseph of Arimathea he like Nicodemus Were members of the

02:25

Sanhedrin members of the council The ruling council of the

02:30

Jews was made up primarily of Sadducees who were in control of the temple from the

02:38

Sadducees were appointed the chief priests and the rulers of the temple the majority of the

02:47

Sanhedrin were Sadducees though they had a couple of Pharisees on their council such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea we read did not consent to their decision to Arrest Jesus and condemn him to death and turn him over to Pilate.

03:11

He did not consent whether he simply abstained from the vote if he wasn't present

03:23

Or he actually had something to say about it later. He did not consent It's important that we understand that It's important we understand that because we've read earlier and we've seen in other contexts

03:37

How the Sanhedrin had plotted against Christ? Now we read about Joseph of Arimathea in other

03:47

Contexts and it says that as we see here. He was waiting for the kingdom of God kind of like Simeon looking forward to the constellation of Israel Certainly he had heard of Christ and he was consenting to the things that Jesus had been teaching about the kingdom of God all of The parables he had been teaching the way in which

04:10

Christ had been expounding upon that theme and he himself Believed but we read in other contexts that he didn't say anything openly

04:21

Because he feared the council he feared what the others would say and do once they found out you may remember the man who was lame who was healed by Christ and began to proclaim far and wide about the

04:38

The healing and how impressed he was or was it the man who was blind was healed

04:44

They didn't take kindly the Jewish religious leaders did not take kindly To people speaking positively about Christ didn't fit with their narrative and so Joseph essentially did not want to get canceled and so he did not speak up at first But we read that he

05:07

Was well received by everyone. He was understood as a good and just man

05:14

They would have considered him very Devout and He was one who believed in Jesus though he was somewhat of a secret disciple

05:26

But now let's consider what Joseph did What Joseph did not only did he refuse to agree with the

05:33

Sanhedrin he did not consent with what they decided about Christ but after Jesus died

05:41

Something of a quandary must have impressed upon Joseph to a great degree. What would happen to the body of Jesus?

05:49

he was somebody who believed Christ He indeed had a great respect and a love for Christ He could not bear the thought of the body of Jesus being taken down from the cross with the other criminals

06:05

And being cast into some common grave He knew that's what was going to happen next unless he did something about it and so he took courage and He went to Pilate He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus now two things happen here

06:24

Remember he's a member of the Sanhedrin part of the council whereas the other Religious Jews the religious leaders had

06:32

Navigated the situation in such a way that they would remain Ceremonially clean for the upcoming festivities what

06:39

Joseph of Arimathea does here is going to Make him unclean in two ways

06:47

One the time frame is such that he's going to go be with a Gentile way too close to the holy ceremonies and He's asking to handle a dead body

07:00

But apparently this is more important Apparently this takes precedence and so he asks

07:10

For the body of Jesus now we read in other contexts that Pilate was glad To do this of course he had a troubled conscience about how the whole thing had occurred

07:20

He knew this man was innocent, and he was in some sense I suspect relieved that at least this man who was innocent would have a decent burial

07:32

And so Joseph of Arimathea takes courage everyone's going to find out now Where Joseph's loyalties lie

07:42

Everyone's going to find out what happened to the body of Jesus because Joseph not only asked for the body, but He puts it in his own

07:52

Tomb we read that it was a tomb hewn out of the rock a tomb where no one had been laid and we hear in Other contexts it was his own

08:00

It was his own. He may have been from Arimathea, but he had obviously moved to Jerusalem That was his new address, and he had

08:08

Had for himself and purchased for himself a tomb Where no dead body had ever been laying before now if that sounds weird you have to understand something about Jewish burial practices

08:21

It was common to lay the body of your loved one in a tomb above ground

08:29

In this limestone ridden area of the ancient Near East where after a time

08:36

The tomb would be opened again and the decayed bones and remains of the dead one would be

08:45

Transported from there to some place else and that tomb would be reused again for somebody else in Fact this was a very solemn procedure, and it would be

08:56

Like a funeral all over again And they would take the bones and the remains from the above -ground tomb and go bury them somewhere

09:05

Appropriately out of the city and so on and it would be another funeral procession They may even hire mourners all over again and have another funeral procession with it

09:15

So it is a note here of importance that this was a tomb where it had never been used before No one dead had ever been laid in this tomb before this was

09:24

Joseph's tomb It was it was new we see that Joseph was was also very wealthy and we

09:34

Read about that in Isaiah 53 that in his death

09:40

Christ was laid with the wealthy why because he was Innocent he was pure.

09:46

He was righteous And he is given this honorable burial And so we see that Joseph is very generous through all of this well, what does this all mean?

10:03

Joseph of Arimathea believed in the message of Christ His loyalty was indeed with Christ though for a while.

10:11

He kept quiet about it Didn't tell anybody he was afraid of men Remember what

10:16

Jesus said though whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this

10:22

Wicked and perverse generation the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory with his angels so It was not a situation that could

10:35

Continue Joseph couldn't keep quiet About his loyalty to Christ eventually he had to say something and indeed now he says something very profound

10:46

He confesses his allegiance to Christ by going to Pilate and asking for the body

10:52

After Jesus has been rejected by the Jews and mocked and scorned and scourged and declared an outlaw and Crucified upon a cross which

11:01

Hank cursed is everyone who is hung from a tree He's absolutely untouchable by every facet of society

11:08

But Joseph of Arimathea confesses his allegiance even to his his dead Lord By going and asking for the body of Christ and we read

11:21

That he took the body of Jesus down verse 53 What does that mean was that look like it looks like Joseph of Arimathea himself doing the manual labor the difficult labor the messy

11:41

Difficult labor of taking a dead body down from the cross we see

11:47

Joseph of Arimathea Putting the body of Christ upon his own shoulder

11:54

Removing the body of Christ from the cross and bearing the body of Christ over his own in this

12:06

What what do we see We see that Joseph of Arimathea is a completely identifying with the death of Christ Everybody's going to know who went and got the dead body of Jesus down from that cross it's gonna be clear and Then He takes the dead body of Jesus and lays it in his own tomb

12:30

Buries the dead body of Jesus goes with the body of Christ lays the body of Christ He's getting some help from the women who prepared some who saw how the body was laid there was some

12:41

Preparation done for the body, but they were running out of time Remember that Christ died at three o 'clock in the afternoon and when the

12:49

Sun goes down. That's the start of the Sabbath So they so they don't have a lot of time

12:54

Joseph has to go get permission from Pilate He has to go back and get the body they have to transport the body to the tomb

12:59

They have to lay it They don't have time to do the full preparation of the dead body before the Sabbath commences, and they can do no more work

13:07

Which is why the women have to satisfy themselves with simply planning to come back

13:13

After the Sabbath has been concluded on Sunday morning To finish those preparation rites

13:22

But Joseph Confesses allegiance to Christ He has the dead body of Christ over his own shoulder.

13:30

He's the one who took the body down from the cross He takes the body of Christ into the tomb and here's a question.

13:37

That's not answered immediately But it is relevant to our passage When Jesus is raised from the dead the third day

13:47

And the stone is rolled away from the entrance of the tomb and it's empty for all to see

13:55

Whose tomb is empty oh yes, it's the tomb of Christ, but it's also the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea It was his and he put

14:04

Christ's body there in Joseph's tomb is is empty what why is why is

14:13

Joseph of Arimathea's tomb empty because Christ raised from the dead In this sense and I know that many other baptisms have been done already in this sense

14:23

It's almost like it's the first baptism right When Jesus in the gospel of Luke said many chapters ago

14:32

I have a baptism yet to undergo and how I am eager to go through with it

14:38

He's not referring to going back down to the Jordan and having his cousin dunk him again

14:45

He's talking about his coming death burial and resurrection which are the the meaning the symbols behind the reality behind the symbols of baptism

14:57

Now Joseph of Arimathea is Covered by the dead body and the the bloody body of Christ Joseph of Arimathea takes the dead body of Christ and buries him in the tomb and it's

15:11

Joseph of Arimathea's Tomb that is empty on Resurrection Day And in this sense

15:17

Joseph of Arimathea Goes through a kind of baptism, doesn't he? he's connected to the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus in a an

15:27

Incredibly public way as he professes his allegiance to Christ In a sense, it's kind of the first baptism

15:35

And also there is a Just as we've already stated

15:41

Just an incredible scene of hope Jesus is of course is called the firstfruits of the resurrection the firstborn of the resurrection

15:51

The fact that he rose from the dead is the guarantee that all who are in Christ will be raised from the dead one day

16:00

Your grave and my grave will be empty Why? Because Jesus rose from the dead

16:07

Joseph's tomb is empty because Jesus rose from the dead our graves are going to be empty one day because why

16:13

Jesus rose from the dead We also will have an empty grave. We also have an empty tomb to our name so First baptism we see in this text

16:28

We also see the last Sabbath the last Sabbath also in a sense

16:37

We read that Verse 54 that day was the preparation and the

16:44

Sabbath drew near People had to get ready for the Sabbath. There are so many rules about what you couldn't do on the

16:50

Sabbath And you had to get everything ready. I was actually reading a little bit about blue laws in the history of the

16:58

United States and that varied from state to state and city to city and The Dominion of Canada had a very strong Sabbath laws

17:07

But there are all kinds of suggestions from pastors and actually laws in the books About how what you were not supposed to do on a

17:14

Sunday And it involved all kinds of things that you weren't supposed to do

17:22

You know and some of them are still traditional today But one of the things on those lists as comprehensive as they were for our own culture among those lists

17:31

Do you know what was not listed? picking up sticks Picking up sticks never made it to one of the blue laws here in the

17:40

US or in Canada or in any kind of tradition religious tradition But you know what the first violation of the

17:48

Sabbath was that brought the test penalty was picking up sticks So anyway how we understand the

17:55

Sabbath is important here in this passage The women know the

18:00

Sabbath is drawing near and so they follow they find they know where the tomb is they're going to come back

18:06

They see how he was laid they see the needs though. They have an eye to the needs They see how he was laid in the tomb, and they see all manner of things lacking.

18:15

Oh, we can't leave it like that Hey, we can't leave it like that We we need to come back and do it right and they make plans to do that But they can't do that right away because the

18:25

Sabbath is upon them the Sun is setting and in the Jewish day The day begins at nightfall

18:33

When the Sun goes down, it's a new day Evening and morning evening and morning evening and morning and so They are going to come back

18:46

So verse 56 they say we see that they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils

18:51

And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment and that of course is the commandment in the

18:59

Ten Commandments Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and So they follow the law and they do not work on the

19:11

Sabbath Because it was Sabbath they couldn't go back on that Saturday on that seventh day and then move they couldn't go move a stone

19:21

They would not have been able to convince anybody to get to go get pry bars And what else ever they needed to move a heavy stone that would be definitely breaking

19:31

The Sabbath they were not allowed by clear Rabbinical legislation they were not allowed to take care of dead bodies on the

19:41

Sabbath that was disallowed That would be considered work and you're not allowed to do that. So they just couldn't do anything that day

19:46

They just had to wait and they had to wait and they came back on Sunday morning and they found the tomb empty stone rolled away

19:57

Jesus risen from the dead Hallelujah the

20:09

Righteous obedience of Christ upon our behalf his suffering in our place and for our sake his active and passive Obedience before the father so that the father would smile upon the son and all who are in him by faith

20:24

That great work which Christ accomplished he accomplished and indeed he rested on the

20:31

Sabbath His body laid in the tomb and there was a day of rest and we are to Contemplate that Christ His rest in the tomb on that Sabbath is a rest

20:50

That was accomplished for us for those he came to save his rest for us in the tomb means our rest with him forever as He brings about true

21:02

Sabbath in himself both now and forever As the writer of Hebrews says that a

21:09

Sabbath rest remains For all who are in Christ there is truth to those old hymns about crossing over the

21:16

Jordan to a promised land of rest in Christ forever Now this rest we recognize

21:28

Comes after Jesus wraps everything up It is finished and then he rests

21:37

This rest caps off the old creation and ushers in the new when Christ Is raised from the dead he's raised from the dead on what day of the week?

21:46

The first day of the week first day of the week the old creation God made the world in six days.

21:53

I love that someone I forget who it was who was getting after It wasn't

22:02

Ken Ham it was the other guy who built the ark not Noah, but you know No the one up anyway anyway the ark

22:12

Somebody you know get gets after them, and they like you know Like you're one of those people that believes that God created the world in seven days.

22:18

He's like. I do not he made it in six Yeah He made it into six and he rested on the seventh

22:26

And so that caps off the old creation that God made and he rested and and and rejoiced in all that he had made

22:36

But We read that Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection he is the he is the firstborn of the new creation

22:48

Which of course begins when else on the first day of the week? The old creation begins on the first day of the week the new creation begins in the first day of the week and The Lord rested and was raised from the dead on the first day the women come to I want you to notice

23:08

The women come to do work and what day of the week do they come to do work?

23:15

To honor Jesus On the first day of the week and the kind of work they come to do in honoring

23:22

Jesus is a good thing Christ does not rebuke them for doing so What they do is honorable and a good thing

23:32

Because the rest is in Christ All right when Jesus began to talk about the

23:37

Sabbath He said come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest I will give you rest and he redefines the

23:46

Sabbath as abiding with him and Saying that he is Lord of the Sabbath so In a sense this is the last

23:55

Sabbath that we read about this is the last time on This on this

24:02

Sabbath this Saturday when Jesus's body laid on the tomb and the women rested and Waited and before they came back

24:10

In a sense this is the very last Old Covenant Seventh day

24:16

Sabbath that was ever rightly observed by any Jew the very last one

24:22

Because the very next day Jesus rose from the dead And from that point on if anyone wants to keep the

24:28

Sabbath they have to abide with Jesus And that's the way it goes now because we're in the New Covenant So this passage we see a first and a last we see the first baptism

24:39

Joseph of Arimathea No longer a private believer, but a public believer identifying with Christ's death and burial and resurrection

24:49

Allegiance to Jesus and we see the last Sabbath as Christ rests in the tomb fulfills

24:57

God's Law in our place and for our sake so we may rest with him forever Any questions or thoughts as we close our time here in Luke 23?

25:17

Yeah, I don't know it'd be interesting to kind of look into some it would be church traditions

25:22

But kind of look and see what people have to say about him might be interesting Anybody know anything about Joseph of Arimathea from tradition?

25:35

So we're not quite sure but sometimes a different characters in the New Testament connected with the story of Christ Church traditions have like some

25:43

Sometimes kind of have the feel of fan fiction about them and you know they would make very good comic books sometimes

25:55

So we're not quite sure it's a real difference when you read the scriptures and then go read church tradition like That's a different quality

26:07

So yes Yes Yeah, they the reason why they would move the remains of a loved one was of a financial reason

26:43

And so in order to save money on burial costs they would use a space to bury the body which created that which needed a lot of space and Then later on they could gather up the bones and bury them in a smaller space later on there is a

27:01

Point where Jesus is calling people to follow him and there is a man who says well,

27:10

I need to bury my father first and It it might be that what he's saying is

27:16

I have responsibilities To bury the bones of my father Before I can come follow you because he has family responsibilities for that Moving the moving the remains from one place to another it could be that he's referring to that And then

27:32

Jesus said what he said about birds having nests and foxes having holes

27:38

Son of man having no place to lay and let the dead bury his own dead bury their own dead

27:49

Yeah, so they knew that the the graves of the Kings Jesus or when

27:57

Peter was preaching in Acts 2 about the tomb of David That David is dead and his tomb is with us, you know

28:06

And he didn't raise from the dead. So the prophecies in the Old Testament weren't about him He's making that point and It was a good point to make since the tomb of David had been raided not so long ago

28:20

Looking for treasures So everybody knew that David was still dead Because they got inside and saw that he was still dead

28:28

So his bones didn't get moved All right, well