The Burial of Christ

 Temple Baptist Church - 11-20-2024

John 19:31-42

 

Introduction:

 

A.  Over the past few weeks, we have covered the death of Christ Jesus on the cross at Golgotha, the place of the skull.  I want to look at several things that are found in our text that are important to our understanding of what and why the importance of the entire gospel.

 

1 Corinthians 15:1-4  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;  (2)  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  (3)  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  (4)  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

 

B.  The vast majority of preaching involves only the death and resurrection of Christ, leaving the burial to be “self-explanatory,” which it is not.  Thus, many major denominations follow the unbiblical teachings that evolve through ignorance, either natural or willful in nature.

 

C.  I want to look at the death and burial of Christ for a few minutes tonight.

 

1.  The death of Christ was a vicarious death.  “Vicarious” is a Latin word that expresses the fullness of what Christ accomplished on the cross.  The word “vicarious” is not found in the Bible but the principle is plainly found there. 

 

2.  The history of “vicarious.” The word “originally described something having the function of a substitute—that is, something that serves instead of another thing. 

 

3.  “Vicarious” comes from the Latin noun “vicis,” which means “change” or “stead.” “Vicis” is also the source of the English prefix vice- (as in “vice president”), meaning “one that takes the place of.”

 

4.  One of the synonyms for the word “vicarious” is “proxy.”  We looked at Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judaea 26 A.D.–36 A.D.  “Procurator” means proxy as Pontius Pilate stood in Tiberius Caesar’s place of judgment in Judaea.

 

5.  Thus, the death of Christ was a substitutionary death as He took the place of the sinner on the cross.  Christ died in the place of everyone from Adam to the end of time as we know it.  He took their place, He took my place, He took your place.

 

1 Timothy 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

 

1 John 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

 

D.  Now, the importance of the burial of Christ.

 

1.  It was done in the right condition. 

 

a.  Not a bone was broken.  They normally brake the leg bones of the crucified so that they would die of suffocation.

            

1.  The Prophecy.

 

Psalms 22:20  Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

 

Psalms 34:20  He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

 

2.  The Performance.

 

John 19:31-33  The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  (32)  Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.  (33)  But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

 

John 19:33  But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

 

  b.  His side was pierced. 

 

Zechariah 12:10  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

 

John 19:37  And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

 

2.  It was done at the right place.  In the “new sepulcher” of Joseph of Arimathea.

 

a.  The Prophecy.

 

Isaiah 53:9  And he made his grave with the wicked (sinful man), and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

 

b.  The Performance.

 

John 19:38  And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

 

John 19:41  Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.

 

  3.  It was done in the right manner.  He was buried. 

 

a.  The right Men.  Two secret disciples became bold ones while Christ’s bold disciples became “secret” ones.  As Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Christ until the cross, provided the sepulcher, Nicodemus, also a secret disciple of Christ provided the spices.  These two together were responsible for the manner of the Jews burial.

 

b.  The right Method.  Throughout the Bible, God’s people held the body of the deceased in high respect. 

 

John 19:39-40  And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.  (40)  Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

 

1)  Burial without embalming. 

 

Genesis 23:1-6  And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.  (2)  And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.  (3)  And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,  (4)  I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.  (5)  And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,  (6)  Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.

 

2)  Burial with embalming. 

 

Genesis 50:2  And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

 

Genesis 50:26  So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

 

3)  A note on cremation.  The Bible only mentions cremation in one verse and called it a “transgression.”  Though there were four transgressions that Moab was punished for, only one is specifically mention, cremation.

 

Amos 2:1  Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:

 

4.  It was done at the right time. 

 

a.  The Good Friday heresy.  The teaching of many in our day was that Christ was crucified around 6 PM on Friday, the preparation day for the weekly or normal Sabbath.  This time-frame is not according to the Scriptures.

 

From Friday evening at 6:00 PM until the resurrection, which took place prior to the light of day on the first day of the week, our Sunday, could have only been one day and one night or app, 36 hours.  This would make Jesus wrong in Matthew 12:40!

 

b.  Our Lord’s Prophecy was Right.  Our Lord said in Matthew 12:40, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”  Three days and three nights requires a minimum of 72 hours.

 

c.  Our Lord’s Performance was Right.  Christ’s death on Wednesday evening at app. 6:00 PM is the right time.

 

1)  There were many Sabbaths given to the Jews as Feast Days were also called Sabbaths.  Jesus Christ did everything at the right time.  He died on the beginning of the Passover.  Now, you get the full 72 hours that Christ’s body lay in the grave.

 

John 19:31  The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 

 

2)  This particular Sabbath was “an high day” or Feast Day, the Passover. 

 

Exodus 12:13-14  And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.  (14)  And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

 

3)  The Bible is clear that they crucified Christ on the “preparation day” or the day before the Sabbath.  They crucified Christ on the day before the Sabbath but He died at the beginning of the Sabbath, or Passover.  The Jewish day began at 6:00 in the Evening, not early in the morning.

 

Genesis 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

 

4)  Our Lord was crucified on the preparation day (Wednesday) of the Passover (Thursday).  Friday was the preparation day for the normal or weekly Sabbath (Saturday) and Christ resurrected very early in the morning of the First Day of the Week, or our Sunday.

 

Mark 16:1-2  And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.  (2)  And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

 

Conclusion:  Everything that Christ Jesus performed was Right!  And the Bible is in perfect agreement with what He did.