Buried Alive? (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Opening Thoughts and Conference Update

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I have my iPad mini open now, probably for the last two years. I don�t know, maybe just 18 months I�ve been preaching from the iPad mini.

Sometimes I do the radio shows, but if I go to a conference or something like that, I do use the iPad mini. I don�t know when this show will air, but April 24th, 25th, 26th, something like that, Worldview Weekend Annual Conference in Branson, Missouri, and I�ll be there speaking with Brannon, and with Jesse Johnson, Justin Peters, Mike Gendron, and some other folks.

And I�ll have to look at the list again. And if you�re in Branson, Missouri, we�d love to see you at the Oak Ridge Boys Theater. Spoke there last year, and I�ll tell you what. The night before, two nights before, Brannon got Kim and I, my wife and I, some free tickets to the Oak Ridge Boys concert.

Got kind of set in the VIP things. We had access to go back to the green room, but I think we needed to go out to eat or something like that. So anyway, that was fun. And I think that�s the largest venue that I�ve preached at.

Is that okay? You can end sentences with prepositions, if you�d like. Of course, it�s my radio show. I do what I want. And anyway, it was a wonderful opportunity. Got to meet a lot of folks behind the scenes there.

You kind of have like a little booth, and then you stand around after your messages and others� messages. And you kind of mingle, and you converse, and you fellowship. Anyway, I�m going back this year with my wife, and so if you�re going to be there, make sure you come up and say, listen to your No Compromise Radio.

As you know, our show, No Compromise Radio, is played via the Worldview Weekend radio network as well. And you can pick that up online too with an app. I�m thinking about doing an app for NoCo Radio. We are.

And this is not a plug to send me money. I don�t mean that. We�re smaller, and there�s not a big budget. And so I am thinking about going off of WVNE 760. And they�ve been very wonderful to us at No Compromise Radio.

When no one else would play us, they would. But just put the money into the app and stuff like that. So I don�t know how that will all work out. I don�t know. But we just plow ahead. If you can write us, or if you�d like to write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Or if you want to just bypass the screeners, Mike at info, Mike at nocompromiseradio .com. I�m tired today. I don�t know what it is. I have been on the bicycle here a little bit. It snowed in the night.

This is real-time April 9th. So I did the little Golds Gym kind of bicycle, stationary bicycle thing. So that made me a little tired. I didn�t sleep well last night, and that probably made me a little tired.

I�m starving myself, so that probably makes it a little tiring as well, a person. A little tiring. I read a book last night, pretty much from start to finish. So maybe that made me tired. You know, a lot of things.

Probably being almost 55 years old, that makes me tired. I mean, 55. We need the demographic of the 25-year-old kids. How do you do that? And you say, well, I�m 25, but I�m no kid. I know, I know, I know.

Why the Burial of Jesus Matters

So last time we were looking at the burial of Jesus. Remember that? The burial of Jesus. Seemed like it was about a week ago, but it was really probably more like 10 minutes ago. I tried to tape, you know, record two or three at a time.

Sit down, fire them out, and off we go. The burial of Jesus. And as we learned last time, it�s almost like a no-brainer. Was Jesus buried? Yeah. So then my next question is this. Then why does the text emphasize the burial of Jesus?

Now, if you look at all of Scripture, the whole body of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, you�re going to see a lot about burials. And let me just give you one illustration outside of Christ�s burial.

That is the burial of Sarah. And you just see how the Jews take care of a dead body. Jews, they believe, like we Christians would believe, that people are image bearers. And even after death, we respect the body and don�t treat it poorly or anything like that.

And so Genesis 23, Sarah dies. And the whole chapter is pretty much about the death and burial of Sarah. And so to a greater extent, you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John all talk about the burial of Jesus.

And Paul, in his wonderful statement on the gospel, what is the gospel that he gospeled? Remember, that�s the language of 1 Corinthians 15, 1 and 2. He gospeled the gospel by proclamation and by content.

It�s good news that Jesus died for our sins, technically speaking. Christ died for our sins, according to Scriptures, and that he was buried. And the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.

Death, burial, resurrection. And what we said last time was, to refresh your memory, or maybe you didn�t listen last week, shame on you. You know what we should have? I think I�m going to try to work on this.

I�ve never been one to beg for money. I don�t like to do that. People should realize it costs money to be on the radio. It costs money for the equipment. It costs money for, you know, a variety of different things, headphones and all that.

But we�ve never asked for money, until today. I�m just kidding. But I did acquiesce to the �donate� button on the website. The website right now is just a our old website got hacked. And then Josh quick put up just kind of a white, minimalistic, just says, at least stuff is up.

But the new one�s coming. So, anyway, what was I going to say about money, though? That�s the thing. Something about, you know, something about begging for money. We need your money. The show would be better if you sent money in.

Was I going to say that? Not true. Not true. So, Jesus was buried. Now, that points back to the fact that he actually died. Right? You have to have death for sinners, because that�s God�s holy justice.

That�s his righteous law. The wages of sin is death. So, thankfully, because of the grace of God, and his loving mercy and kindness, and his �hesed�, his covenant-keeping love, he has devised, and he has a secure redemption for his people.

Right? He sends the Son, Jesus, to die on behalf of sinners who were raised from the dead. So, Jesus actually had to die. So, when you look at the Old Testament, the Passover lamb had to die. Day of Atonement, he had the one animal that had to die.

And so, Jesus, the Lamb of God, he has to die. And so, the burial confirms that he was dead. No swoon theory, no sleeping, no resuscitation possibility. He was dead. And what�s the Wizard of Oz? You know, they�re talking about the witch or something.

I�m not equating the witch to Jesus. Don�t, you know. You can send me emails on that if you�re mad. That�s I-F-N-O, if no. I had no compromise right here. If no. That�s the new thing. Henno. So, we�re getting some traction on henno, by the way.

I mean, from Jill sending me the cup, to I got the stickers. Somebody sent me stickers, too. Maybe she did. I get Tuesday guy shirts coming in. See, we don�t have to ask for money. We just ask for stuff.

We just ask, you know, for Pete�s coffee. What else do we ask for? We don�t ask for a lot. But when we do, boy, our P .O. box is flooded with stuff. I remember one time I did something nice for someone.

That sounds funny. I remember once when I did something nice. Probably spurred on by my wife. Honey, you should be nice to that person. Anyway, I did something nice in ministry for a particular place, pastor, church, over at the long haul.

And this particular pastor sent me overnight. I mean, think about this for a gift. Top this. Sent me some oysters that he had. What do you say when you get them out of the ocean yourself? That he had cultivated, that he had garnered, gathered, accumulated.

Not only do you cut them out of the bottom of the ocean. No, I think you just, I don�t know you. You accumulate. If the donations were larger, I would have better vocabulary. Rosetta Stone for theologians.

That�s what we need, right? So anyway, sent to my house, like dry ice. I love, you know, that kind of thing. Somebody gave me some quahogs the other day. Eric did. And so, ready. The thing is, they were sent overnighted, all the stuff with the tools to shuck the oysters, I mean, from the ocean.

And I was out of town. So was my family. Three days later. I think the King James says, they stinketh. All right, back to the burial. The burial of Jesus points back to the fact that he died. Jesus had to die.

And it points forward to the fact that this was a wonderful, a supernatural resurrection. I mean, if you're passed out, I mean, maybe they put that stuff in your nose, the nose smelling stuff. The, see, donations, you got to start coming in.

The nose revival, you know, the stuff they give fighters, you know, kind of wake them up a little bit. But he actually was dead. I know this all came from the Wizard of Oz thing. Mostly he was supremely dead or most sincerely dead, or she was talking about the witch.

The Crucifixion Confirms His Death

So we looked last time at Matthew's gospel, excuse me, Mark's gospel about Jesus on his way to get buried. And so he was crucified. Just prior to that, they were treating like some faux King with mocking with horrible treatment of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He gets crucified at a place called Golgotha in Mark chapter 15, a place that's called Skull Calvary in Latin. And it was a sign. Certainly don't mess with Caesar or the Romans. Now they try to give Jesus some wine mixed with myrrh.

You don't want to have them wiggle around so much. It deadens the pain, maybe extend suffering more. They crucified him. They divide his garments. They cast lots to see what each should take. And in that passage, I find it fascinating along with the Edmund Hebert quote, all the gospels state the historical fact, but none has a single word of description of the physical agonies involved.

They throw a veil over his physical sufferings. Nor do any of them give an explicit interpretation of the cross as an atonement for sin. And so what do you get instead? You get the three hours of darkness right at noon to three.

God, the father is judging the son. And remember, theologically speaking, we talk about God as simple, not simplistic, but when you think about the parts of God, does God have parts or how do you split up attributes to use Sinclair Ferguson's terminology?

God is simultaneously exercising all of his attributes at all times. And so while we see the wrath of God against sin poured out on Jesus, I think it would be wrong to say God was mad at Jesus at the cross.

How could the father be mad at the son? I don't think there's levels of love. So I don't want to go in that theological direction. But just speaking generally, could the father have loved him any more at that particular moment?

Here the son is sent on the rescue mission, right, determined in eternity past in this great council of peace and sent to die on behalf of all those that the father would give him, the elect, the bride of Christ.

And he's doing it. Death to the point of death, even death on the cross. Could the father have loved the son more at Calvary? And I don't think the answer is, I don't think he could have loved him more.

Now, I don't think the love goes up and down because I think God's love for his son is immutable. But speaking just, I mean, he was judging his son. He was loving his son. God is simultaneously exercising all of his attributes.

And you've got these people right there. They're saying, Jesus, you saved others, but you can't save yourself, right? Come down from the cross. Save yourself, like we'll believe in you if you save yourself.

He saved others. He can't save himself. Now, think about that statement in Mark 15, verse 30. Now, is that true or false? He saved others. He can't save himself. Well, it's true that he can't come down.

Why? Because he's been sent on a mission of salvation to rescue. It's a messianic, it had to be done for the Messiah to go rescue his people. So it's true. He's not going to come down because the love of God constrains him.

He's loving the father. He's loving people, right? He's loving God with his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He's loving his neighbors himself. But it's false in the sense that, oh, he doesn't have the power.

Could Jesus, let's put it this way. Did he have the power to come down from the cross? Could he have, if we think of strictly power or ability? Of course. I mean, the ruler of the universe, think of Hebrews chapter one.

He creates the world. He upholds the universe, right? He's sovereignly bringing it to conclusion. You know, a couple of pieces of metal stakes aren't going to hold him up. But there's the true sense that he comes to fulfill the father's will.

So he's not going to come down. So it gets dark out. And Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And Jesus is dying on behalf of sinners as a substitute. And they take him down. Why? Because he uttered a loud cry, verse 37, and breathed his last.

The temple curtain is torn and lots of things happen. And I do find it interesting that every time you see a centurion in the gospel accounts, he speaks well of Jesus. The centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way, he breathed his last.

He said, truly, this man was the son of God. In this way. Well, how do we think through that? Many times when people would be crucified, they would spew forth epithets of derision. And they would say horrible things about the Roman soldiers and anybody else that walked by.

Couldn't do anything physically, but they could yell. So regularly, the Roman soldiers would have to cut out the tongue. I don't know what's it called when you cut a tongue out. Glossolectomy. Is that something you do for charismatics?

You cut the tongue out and hear Jesus. I mean, Mark doesn't record it, but other gospels do. He's making sure his mother's taken care of, and a variety of other things. Outwardly focused, focused on other people.

And the centurion says, truly, this man was the son of God. And then there's an extended section on the burial. So again, today, we're talking about the burial of Jesus. Crucified, dead and buried, Apostles Creed, Heidelberg Catechism.

There's the discussion of the burial of Jesus. And so this last Resurrection Sunday, I talked about the burial of Jesus, because you need a real burial. If somebody really died, and then it needs to be a spectacular, supernatural miracle for a dead person to come alive again.

And so the text says in Mark 15, 42,. And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath. So we're talking about Friday, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, the dead body.

And so we have a body that's dead. If you are under Roman law, they might just let the body decay on the cross. They would let vultures and other predatory kind of birds eat the body. And then you take the body and toss it into a common grave.

Well, for the Jews, though, they needed a proper burial. They wanted to make sure they took care of the body. And whether it was an executed criminal, whether it was their family member, they wanted to do the right thing.

It says in Deuteronomy,. So Pilate was surprised to hear that he had already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead and whether he learned from the centurion. When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph, Mark 15, 44 and 45.

Jesus actually died. And so you go backwards and go,. Hmm. Yes. He said in Mark 8, 9 and 10, he was going to die. And if you're dead, then they do what? They actually bury you. And then it makes the resurrection.

Impressive. Verse 46. And Joseph bought a linen shroud and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid. Jesus actually was buried because he actually was dead. And think about it. Jesus never sinned, but he dies a sinner's death. He dies in behalf of sinners in their place.

How do we know he died? Because he was buried. Matthew Henry. He was buried to make his death the more certain and his resurrection, the more illustrious. Let me repeat that. He was buried to make his death, the more certain and his resurrection, the more illustrious.

Every gospel talks about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Mark goes on to say, and of course, here on No Compromise Radio, we only think the first eight verses of Mark 16 are canonical.

And you can read on your own of why that's true. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, and Mary, the mother of James and Salome bought spices so that they might and go anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had already risen, they went to the tomb and they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?

And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back. It was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. By the way, when you see the large tombstones, and I don't mean a tombstone like you see here in New England or someplace else, but you see the stone that's in front of the tomb, that you roll downhill a little bit to keep grave robbers out and predators and other things.

It's heavy and it's manipulated from being outside the tomb. And so if you were inside the tomb and that thing rolled away and nobody knew you were in there, rolled down into its little slat there, you couldn't get out because you'd be pushing.

There's nothing to push. You can't get on the side of it. You'd be on the far side. You'd just be pushing from the middle of the stone trying to move it. It would be impossible. And so here it's been moved.

Who rolled the stone away? It's heavy. These ladies know. Who's going to roll this away? Looking up, they saw the stone had been rolled back. It was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.

And he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.

There you will see him just as he told you. And they went out and fled from the tomb. For trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. That's how the gospel of Mark ends.

Why does it end like that? Well, here's the answer to that question. Every time in Mark that something supernatural happens, there's the response of fear and awe and trembling. Because it's supernatural.

So when you see, I think four or five times earlier in Mark, there's been a supernatural occurrence, and you see the response is fear and trembling. So what's happening? Jesus dies on behalf of sinners.

He's buried. It means he's really dead. And then he's raised. It's a supernatural effect. Awe, fear, reverence, shock. That is amazing. And they are astonished. They tremble. They didn't say anything because they were afraid.

Well, my name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You can write us at, ifno, info at No Compromise Radio. We're thankful that you listen. Hope you tell your friends. You know, instead of me telling you, well, send money, why don't you just do this?

Why don't you tell your friends that you've been blessed by the ministry and have them listen. Maybe they'll send the money. Seriously, tell your friends. That's all we ask. That's all you need to do.

And you can pick us up too on Worldview Weekend and you can pick us up elsewhere. No Compromise TV is also on that network before it goes up to that Minnesota TV station and other things. So Mike Ebendroth here.

The burial of Jesus points backward and forward.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.