By Remembering the Death and Burial of Jesus

In the sermon preview I encouraged us to read John 18-19 slowly but continuously. If you know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, then let this portion of the text soak into your heart and mind.

• Jesus has been with his disciples for approximately 3 years. On the night before his death Jesus prayed (John 17) out loud for his disciples to hear him. He prayed for himself, he prayed for his 11 remaining disciples, and he prayed for people like us.

• As Jesus was pouring out his heart, Judas was betraying him. A group of guards and soldiers congregated to arrest Jesus. Upon leaving the upper room Jesus leads his disciples to the garden for a special time of prayer.

• Despite Jesus’ anguish, his followers cannot stay awake until the noise of the arrest.

• Jesus is tried and convicted because Jesus is heading to the cross. It is hard to imagine the intensity of those hours.

Then Jesus is brought to Pilate. Pilate and Herod along with their soldiers brutalize our savior.

• Some scholars believe that Jesus was flogged twice. Once at the beginning, to hopefully appease the people, and the second time when he was condemned to die.

• Regardless if there was one or two, Jesus is too weak to carry the cross beam through the via dolorosa (the way of suffering) that criminals walked in preparation for their execution.

Jesus was stripped, nailed to a cross, and lifted to spend the remaining hours struggling for every breath.

• His words from the cross explain God’s wrath being poured out upon him (My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?), his physical suffering (I thirst), his concern for his mother (Behold, your son), and his willingness to give up his life (It is finished, Into your hands I commit my spirit).

• Crucifixion was often death by exhaustion; when the body had no more energy to give, but as we will see today, Jesus gives his life when he is ready to give it.

Jesus died while we were sinners because we needed a savior, a father, a redeemer, new life, and living water. Jesus did that in complete obedience to the father. This passage is the heart of the gospel and good news.

We know that we have 4 gospels. While each gospel writer has a slightly different audience, purpose, and material, all the gospels spent about 25% of their books explaining the final week of Jesus’ life. This is the heart of the good news.

Twenty or so years later Paul would summarize the gospel message in 3 simple and yet very important verses.

1 Corinthians 15:3-5 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

The gospel is simple.

• That is why we believe a person when, on church family night (it was nice to see such a huge crowd. What a blessing to be there on that beautiful evening.), they say that they came to Christ at 4 and yet it is so complex that we spend a lifetime probing it. I will show one element of that complexity today.

There are 4 elements of this gospel presentation according to 1 Cor 15. First, Jesus died. Second, that Jesus was buried. Third, that Jesus rose from the dead and fourth, that Jesus appeared to living people who could testify that they saw the risen Christ.

Our passage today gives us very specific information about the first two aspects of the gospel – his death and burial.

Our annual theme is Enjoying Life in His Name. We are working through the gospel of John and have reached John 19:31-42. I encourage us to see we can enjoy life in Jesus’ name by remembering the death and burial of Jesus. Please turn in your Bibles to John 19:31. That is on page ____ of the back section of the Bible in the chair in front of you. Please follow along as I read. This is the Word of the Lord.

Read the text. I would like us to consider three truths about the death and burial of Jesus.

I. Jesus’ death was a real death (vv. 31-35)

There have been a few ways to discredit the gospel in human history.

• Some say that Jesus died was buried and rotted in his grave (no resurrection version).

• Others say that the Bible is fictional literature (no Christianity version).

• Still others suggest that the reason Jesus “rose” from the dead is that he never died. He was passed out and the cool tomb woke him up (Jesus is a magician version).

We can understand why Paul said what he did. The gospel is a unit.

• If you have no death of Jesus, then you do not have a resurrection of Jesus and Christianity falls like a house of cards.

• Bart Ehrman teaches NT at the University of North Carolina. He grew up in a church like ours, attended Moody Bible College, graduated from Wheaton, and went off to Princeton for his Ph.D.

• He gave up his faith and wrote why he did so. He wrote his testimony. He said that Christianity is a confessional religion. There are certain truths that we form the foundation of our faith. Without those truths, Christianity falls. I agree with him.

• But then he goes on to say that the gospel, the death, burial, resurrection, and appearances of Christ did not happen. It is a sham.

John’s gospel does not agree. Our text addresses the first two parts of that gospel message. John wants to prove that Jesus died a real death.

The Jews asked that all the criminals be killed quickly (v. 31)

John 19:31 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.

The Jewish leaders were preparing for Sabbath.

• This is one reason why we believe Jesus was crucified on a Friday (Sabbath day starts Friday evening at sundown and ends Saturday evening at the same time).

This was not just any Sabbath – it was connected to the Passover -- the most important Jewish feast of the year. The time they celebrated Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

They are apparently concerned about Deuteronomy 21:22-23.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 “If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

John MacArthur in typical MacArthur style called this “blatant, nauseating hypocrisy.” I often find MacArthur struggles to tell us what he really thinks 😊. No kidding, right? They killed the one who authored the law and fulfilled the law so they could attempt to keep one small portion of the law.

• They did not want Jesus or the criminals hanging on the cross and defiling the land.

Their blindness is even more apparent when one thinks about Jesus as the Passover himself. According to the Bible (1 Cor 5:7 For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed) Jesus is Passover for all who trust him as Lord and Savior.

• The Jewish leaders were not thinking that of course.

• This text shows how blind they were.

They were celebrating the wrong Passover.

• When I read this passage as a Christian my mind goes to the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made as the Passover lamb whose death was so effective that it separated my past, present, and future sin from me as far as the east is from the west.

• I just want to scream at the religious leaders, “You are celebrating the wrong Passover.”

To put this in historical context, the Romans were content to wait for days for criminals to die. After they died, they left them there to be eaten by birds and other animals. It was a grotesque and smelly scene.

• The Jews request that the feast not be dominated by the suffering men and the rotting corpses.

They wanted Pilate to take another action – ensure all three were dead and get them down so the Passover celebration can move forward.

But make no mistake, this is no act of good will on their part. They accomplished their goals (kill Jesus), now it is time to move forward with the religious ceremony celebrating God’s deliverance.

• The irony is hard to miss isn’t it. If only they would look to Jesus, then they could receive ultimate deliverance for their sin.

b. The soldiers broke the legs of the criminals to expedite their death (vv. 32-33)

John 19:32-33 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; 33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

Sometimes the Bible uses very simple language to describe horrific events.

• John 19:18 says they crucified him (just 2 words in Greek). But these words pack a punch. The act of crucifixion was so awful Romans were exempt in all but the most serious cases.

• A similar situation is here. The soldiers would take an iron mallet and beat the criminal’s legs until they could not function.

• An archeologist discovered a skeleton with one leg fractured and the other smashed in pieces.

Without the use of their legs, these criminals would have only their arms to support their weight. It would not be long before they gave out and the victim would be unable to breathe. It would be 10-15 minutes of sheer agony.

Those criminals were not coming off that cross until they were dead. Jesus, however, was already dead. They had no need to go through the trouble of breaking his legs.

Why tell us this? Because John understands the gospel. Without the death of Jesus there is no gospel. You cannot remove any of the essential elements of the gospel and still have the gospel. Jesus really died.

The soldiers pierced Jesus instead (v. 34)

John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

Just because they did not break Jesus’ legs, does not mean they chose to do nothing. A soldier wanted to ensure that Jesus was not resting or passed out. He did something that would surely rouse him. He took his spear and pierced his side.

• There are many articles written about the medical side of this verse. You can read them if you are curious.

• I think John’s point is simple. Jesus is truly dead. All theories surrounding some comatose state that was reversed in the tomb must be wholeheartedly rejected.

John’s testimony about this event is true (v. 35)

John 19:35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.

John makes it clear that this happened because he was there. He saw it.

We emphasize the death of Jesus because Jesus really died. It is a fundamental part of the gospel. I want to broaden our thinking about Jesus’ death further than the facts. Let’s consider some of the ...

Benefits of Christ’s death

I believe it is good and right to reflect on Christ’s sufferings – to feel the weight of these hours, to be sober over a moment like this, but that is not where things end.

My all-time favorite hymn of the faith is And Can it Be.

• And Can it Be (how crazy is that) that I should gain an interest in my savior’s blood (he uses interest in the sense that we have a stake in it… like we have stock in our savior’s blood),

• died he for me who caused his pain (he really gave his life for mine), for me, who him to death pursued (he pursued this death so that I could be rescued).

• Amazing love, how can it be?

Friends, this passage is part of the core truth of the gospel. Jesus pursued death. I teach the gospel of Mark in our seminary and Mark shows this pursuit a little differently than John.

• During the trials, the chief priests cannot find two people to agree so Jesus speaks giving them the evidence they need to convict him of blasphemy.

• Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent. He is looking for a way out of this mess. Jesus refuses to speak. All Jesus would have to do is provide a reasonable defense for the bloodthirsty behavior of the Jews.

• Jesus speaks when they need evidence, and he remains silence when evidence would set him free. It is an amazing picture of Jesus pursuing, not avoiding the cross.

Let’s take a quick side trail and talk about the death of Jesus for a couple minutes. What benefits does the death of Jesus provide?

• We have been sanctified through Christ’s Sacrifice

Hebrews 10:10-12 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God

Jesus offered himself once for all. Praise God no more sacrifices which never take away sin. We can be in a right standing with God because Jesus’ death made that possible.

• Remember how the people mock Jesus on the cross. “If you are the son of God, save yourself.” Oh, what a statement. If Jesus saved himself, then he could not have saved us.

• Jesus’ death satisfied God’s Wrath

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The Bible says that God wrath is on the wicked every day. How could one ever be in a position for God’s wrath to be appeased?

• The overwhelming testimony of the Bible is Jesus’ death was the one and only thing that could satisfy God’s wrath against sin.

• Jesus took our place

2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

I find the cross to be wonderful and scary. I am glad that I do not have to face the penalty of my own sin. I am glad that I do not have attain righteousness, but that righteousness is given to me.

• All because Jesus took our place.

• Jesus reconciled us to God

Colossians 2:13-14 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Jesus’ death canceled the certificate of debt that was hostile to us. Notice the end, having nailed it to the cross. We were made alive when we were dead in our sins and we were brought into a right relationship with God.

Friends, during the brutality there is powerful rescue. Jesus’ death makes our sanctification possible, he satisfied God’s wrath, took our place, and reconciled us to God.

• That is why the gospel is good news.

• In fact, it is great news, ecstatic news, awesome news.

If you are a Christian, then I hope your heart is about ready to explode in thanksgiving and love for your savior. I hope that you can sing Can it be? Can it really be? That I have stock in the blood of Christ?

• What more reason do we need to grow in our love for him?

• What could he give us now that would be better than the gift he already gave?

• What could motivate us to forsake sin, to put it to death, than our savior pursuing death, taking our place, satisfying God’s wrath, and making us right with God?

• What could motivate us to serve Christ more than his death?

For those who do not know Christ …

• What are you waiting for? I am thrilled to be able to tell all of you that Pastor Johnny had the privilege of leading two people to Christ in the last 7 days. Praise God for that! They realized their need for Jesus.

• What are you waiting for?

• Friends, God appeals to you to believe the gospel. But he also commands you to believe the gospel. The good news is not just truth to believed, it is a command to be obeyed.

• Last Church family night Pastor Johnny talked to someone right after the service. We are available today, right after the service. There is nothing more important.

Jesus’ death was a real death. That was point number 1. Here is the next one.

II. Jesus’ death fulfilled the OT promises (vv. 36-37)

Two weeks ago, we learned that Pilate said to Jesus, “Do you not know that I have authority to release you or to crucify you?” But Mr. big britches thinks way too small.

• He thinks he is control of this show. Hello. Pilate, you only have the amount of authority that God gives you.

That is true for everyone in the gospel story. Jesus is still in control.

• He has a mission to fulfill and Pilate, Herod, the soldiers, and the crowds are free to act within the constraints of that control.

• Jesus dies because he gives his own life.

John 10:17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

I love how God sovereignly orchestrates the entire event. Jesus fulfills the OT text. We have a couple of OT passages that need to find their fulfillment in Jesus’ death. So, everyone acts to ensure that these things take place.

Not one of his bones will be broken

The Bible is so rich. As soon as you see this you start wondering, “where does this come from?” There are two very distinct and wonderful connections to OT Scripture.

1. The Passover Lamb

The OT gave specific instructions for the Passover lamb. Part of those instructions were:

Exodus 12:46 “It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.

Numbers 9:12 They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it; according to all the statute of the Passover they shall observe it.

When reading Exodus or Numbers you might not be thinking of Jesus. You are talking about Passover lambs. But here is where the Bible is so rich.

• As you trace the theme of the Passover lamb in the Bible, you discover it finds its conclusion/fulfillment in the death of Jesus.

• If Jesus is going to be the Passover lamb, then there must be some continuity between Jesus and the lamb.

Here it is. Jesus our Passover lamb (1 Cor 5:7) could not have any of his bones broken.

• When the Jews go to Pilate and say please break their legs so we can end this, we are about to have a problem.

• But God is sovereignly in control of the whole thing. Jesus gives his life before the soldiers get the command.

John presents the story as the soldiers starting on the ends. They get to Jesus.

• If they were going to test to be sure he was death, why not whack his legs too? If I am a soldier in that situation what does it matter.

• If he is dead, a broken leg will not make him more dead than he was before.

• Why does a soldier need to pierce his side instead? Hold that thought.

1. God’s care for the righteous

Psalm 34:19-20 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken.

Psalm 34 is about God’s care for the righteous. In this context, John would be saying that even in Jesus’ suffering, God is still sovereignly caring for his righteous one.

• So, yes, there is a forsaking where the Father turns away from the Son. But the time of forsaking is short lived. After the death of Jesus, that forsaking is over.

• The Lord still cares for his son.

They shall look on him who they pierced

We learned that the soldier with the iron mallets used to smash the legs of the criminals did not choose to hit Jesus.

• Another soldier, still holding his spear, pierced him instead.

• If you were there watching this event unfold you might have missed it. The intensity of the moment may not have allowed for deep and reflective thinking.

But here we are stilling on the ground at Calvary. We are watching the scene unfold. We heard the bones break and the men scream.

• We watch them struggle for every breathe pinned to the cross and we see the soldier walk to our savior.

• His body limp, head slumped over, and the soldier with the hammer does nothing while the one with the spear thrusts it in his side.

Our minds race of the Passover lamb, it recalls Psalm 34, and suddenly begins to explore the details of

Zechariah 12:10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

This passage has tremendous implications for the return of Jesus when the repentant remnant in Israel will mourn over their father’s sinful choice to execute Jesus, but John uses the text for the death of Jesus.

• Somehow God had to be pierced for Zechariah 12:10 to mean anything at the return of Christ.

This connection not only shows me the sovereignty of God orchestrating even the soldier’s actions toward a dead man and at the same time the wonderful connections found in the story line of the Bible.

• God was pierced through his son Jesus and when Jesus returns his own people will mourn that they were ever involved.

Are you catching the depth of this argument?

• On the one hand, the gospel is so simple that we can say it in a single sentence. A 4-year-old can believe it and explain it.

• Yet, it is amazingly complex. If I asked you to explain the gospel would you have gone to Exodus 12:46 to talk about the Passover lamb followed by John 19 to give me the details of Jesus’ death, and then take me to Zechariah 12:10 to show that if Jesus had not been pierced, then we could not have a second coming? I would not have done that!

• I know my heart rejoiced over the beauty of both the simplicity and the complexity of the gospel message.

Jesus died a real death that fulfilled the OT Scripture. Here is our final point.

III. Jesus’ burial provides the basis for his later resurrection (vv. 38-42)

We all know that Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and appearances form the basis of the gospel message. Each component is crucial to the overall story. We could talk about God’s grace in Joseph of Arimathea’s life as well as Nicodemus. Both men spent some time in the shadows out of fear, but both emerge with the courage in sharp contrast to Pilate.

• Pilate was unwilling to take a stand for Christ. He authorized his beating(s) and execution even though he exercised his own personal doubts.

• Joseph and Nicodemus muster up the courage to request Jesus’ body. Pilate was a wild card. He could live in the fear of man as he did with the trials of Jesus, but he also rose to power by killing people. There is certainly a lesson there about courage and God’s grace.

But I want to focus on the straight story line of the gospel message. Just as the death is important so is the burial. It is one of the 4 statements of 1 Corinthians 15.

God sovereignly ensured that Pilate granted the request for the body

God’s sovereignty is clearly operational here as well. The Romans would not normally allow a person in Jesus’ position to be buried. After rotting and being eaten by birds the Romans would typically throw away what remained. Even the Jews would not allow a criminal to be buried in the family tomb.

• Instead, a common grave outside the city would be the location for their physical remains.

God ensures that neither option occurs. Instead we find…

John 19:40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.

Joseph and Nicodemus along with their servants gave Jesus a proper burial.

God sovereignly provided a proper burial location nearby

John 19:41-42 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

John concludes chapter 19 preparing us for the resurrection.

• For a real resurrection to happen, you must have a burial. Rather than being placed in a mass grave where it would be virtually impossible to confirm a resurrection (Jesus’ appearances would be open to the charge of being a ghost), he was placed in a grave used by no one else.

• The tomb was known, the tomb was guarded (according to Matthew), and the tomb only had one person in it. Come Sunday, when no one is there, we know that Jesus bodily rose from the dead.

If I could just summarize for one minute …

1. I wanted us to see the beauty of the both the simplicity and the complexity of the gospel. Our text gave us two of the basic pieces of the gospel, but in the OT quotations also gave us God’s plan of salvation history from the Passover lamb to the cross to the return of Jesus.
2. I wanted us to be clear about the gospel like the Bible is clear about the gospel. Jesus died (for real), was buried (for real), rose the third day (for real), and appeared to many (for real).
3. Lastly, I wanted us to think for a few moments about what Jesus’ death accomplished for us. He took our place, satisfied God’s wrath, reconciled us to God, and sanctified us giving us his righteousness

This simple, yet beautifully complex, gospel motivates us to live for Jesus.