We're willing we're going to close out this long and powerful chapter in the gospel of Matthew's one We'll be looking at verses 62 through 66 What a blessing to lift up prayers to our God and we had many this morning Last week we looked at the wonderful witness of Joseph of Arimathea who was a man if you remember who tried to be a secret Christian Because he didn't want to offend the culture. He didn't want to offend the world around him and incur that social cost That would bring to his temporal and worldly stature and prosperity, but praise God Praise God in the death of our Lord Jesus this cowardly Compromising disciple who was trying to serve two masters found his courage And he publicly acknowledged his discipleship to Jesus and he rendered that simple service to honor his Lord doing what he could do
According to the time and opportunities the gifts and talents and abilities that God had given to him and That simple service was used by God as we saw to affirm for generations to come the real Bodily death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross because in requesting for the body to give him an honorable burial There had to be an investigation by pilot who had to ascertain for the centurion that indeed he was dead and Not only that but God used his act to fulfill a 700-year-old prophecy of the sacred scriptures that in his grade He would be buried with a rich man and that's what we saw in Joseph of Arimathea's faithful act and so beloved what an encouraging story no matter how fearful you may have been up till this moment No matter how many times you may have failed or even denied to acknowledge that you follow Jesus. It's not too late It's never too late As long as you're breathing this morning and if you have any faith in Christ any desire to follow him You can still stand up. You can still acknowledge him and the opportunities and circumstances that God gives to you And you can let the world know that yes, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and I guarantee you if you do that you will rejoice all of those things you were afraid of will seem like so much Nothing you'll see how small they were as you step out from the deceitful Slavery of Satan and the fear that he unjustly and and really deceitfully put upon you and Just acknowledge live for him. You don't just save the world You don't just slay all the enemies fix all of the lives just do what God has Allowed you to do in your situation and say yes, I believe in Jesus. I will follow his word That's all we have to do well in today's text. We have the final episode as it were of Jesus humiliation as we'll notice in the bed how Theologians divide his whole ministry into his humiliation and his exaltation This is the final time where Jesus appears to see be simply a dead man in the grave a humiliating thing to be dead and decomposing in the grave, and that's what it appears that Jesus is doing And so what I want us to notice is why and to what purpose and how can we benefit from the fact That he died And was buried why did he have to be buried and how does that benefit us? Let's Pray as we learn learn from and turn to God's word father again We just want to pause for a moment bless the reading the hearing the preaching of your word by your spirit Change us according to your goodness and your grace and your promise in your son We ask in Jesus name name Hear now the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 27 beginning in verse 62 This is God's holy and perfect word On the next day which followed the day of preparation the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate saying sir We remember while he was still alive how that deceiver said After three days I will rise Therefore Command that the tomb be made secure until the third day last his disciples come by night and steal him away and Say to the people he has risen from the dead So that the last deception will be worse than the first And Pilate said to him You have a guard go your way make it as secure as you know how So they went and they made the tomb secure sealing the stone and setting the guard The Lord established this word and in hearts this morning I pray I want you to notice first of all this morning The hatred of his enemies I want you to notice the hatred of his enemies notice verse 62 on the next day Which followed the day of preparation? Well, that's a really funny way of saying the Sabbath day, isn't it on the next day Which followed the day of preparation the day of preparation was the day of preparation for the Sabbath You would prepare for the Sabbath even as our forefathers in the reformed faith the Puritans Tought all Christians ought to prepare for worship, you know the night before by going to bed early by making sure that we've done all the things That we need to do so we can truly worship and rest in the Lord on Sunday and make the most out of the Lord's day Well, so also the Jews would prepare for the Sabbath day But Matthew doesn't say on the Sabbath day, which is what it was on the Sabbath day that she priests in the Pharisees gathered He says on the next day which followed the day of the preparation day Which is the Sabbath? It's interesting and I can't prove it to you, but I thought it was worth sharing That EW, EW Bullinger, who is the standard on the figures of speech in the Bible for more than a hundred years Nothing's been written since him He has speculated at this point and theorized that the reason why Matthew says it this way is because the Sabbath is now taken away from the Jews They no longer have arrests in God because they have rejected Christ fully and finally as a people so there is no Sabbath for them There is no rest remember the Sabbath day was one day and seven to rest in the Lord It looked back to creation But it also looked to the fulfillment where we will fully rest in God forever and that's true for us too That's why we keep the Lord's day because we look back to the fact that God worked six days rested one so do we we need that rest But it's also a type of the ultimate Sabbath where we will fully rest in God We do by faith right now, but we will by sight someday and so it's interesting when Luke writes about this day at the end of His gospel in chapter 23 verse 54 the same event Luke says this that day was the preparation day and The Sabbath through near it's clearly the preparation for the Sabbath now listen and the women remember the faithful women The women disciples of Jesus and the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee who followed after they Observed the tomb and how his body was laid. That is the same event here that we're seeing then they returned and Prepared spices and fragrant fragrant oils listen and they rested on the Sabbath day According to the commandment you see there's still a Sabbath day for the women who believe in Jesus But for the Jews who rejected There's no more Sabbath. There's a preparation day for Nothing because the Bible says there is no rest for the wicked. It's true whether or not That's what Matthew is saying. It's true. There is no Sabbath day for unbelievers You recognize that the women to whom there was a Sabbath day they were Jews too, but they were believers It was the faith that made the difference For these men for these priests for these Pharisees are no Sabbath for them There's no Sabbath for any unbeliever. There's no sign of a future rest and an enjoyment of a temporal rest now They don't have that. They only have God's call repent or you will be destroyed forever in hell The gospel goes to them, but none of the gospel promises are received by them until they first received Jesus Then we get to enjoy the Sabbath then we get to rest in Christ and we rest in Him every day But we rest in Him especially one day and seven as we come and we worship him and so for the priests and the Pharisees there is No more rest because there is no rest For the wicked it's interesting that we read of the Pharisees in this text the chief priests and the Pharisees came You know the last time we saw the Pharisees was back in Matthew 23 in the final woe on the Pharisees They're they're not in any of the four gospels. They're not at the trial of Jesus I mean they might be there, but they're not mentioned whether the trial before Caiapus and they certainly would have been part of the San Edron there, but Pharisees aren't mentioned as a cross. They're not mentioned up until this point and Remember the chief priests and the Pharisees hated each other because the priests were the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Sadducees disagreed on so many things and there was a vine for power and for popularity but once again These enemies come together because they have a greater enemy and that's Jesus and they're actually still afraid of him They're still afraid though. He's dead in the ground that his Messes will continue to go out and they will lose their popularity and standing with the people. That's all this is about They don't want to lose their popularity their position their control their power over the people So these two groups that normally hate each other joined together now and Notice how they go to Pilate and it's interesting. It's the Sabbath day again. Where should they be? They should be at the temple. They should be in worship. They should be teaching God's people God's word They should be presiding over these sacrifices on the Sabbath day They had a tradition that they couldn't go into the Preyatoria more than any Gentile home on a day and what they could be rendered unclean Remember on Friday when they went to Pilate in the morning to get him to do the trial and it was a public going to Pilate They refused to go into the Preyatorium and John tells us so that they would not be defiled But that they might eat the Passover the Passover being an eight-day feast and every day was the Passover feast the feast of Unleavened bread so they wouldn't even go into the Preyatorium that Because that's public and in front of people and they've got to show how careful they are with their laws Which wasn't even a law of tradition, but now it just says they go to Pilate the Greek word is frost They go right before him. They don't make him come out in this great show. We can't be rendered unclean This is a secret meeting They go right in they don't care about the clean list laws They don't care about the ceremonial laws. They don't care about any of it It's all just a means for them to maintain power and prestige and and their positions over the people their worship is hypocrisy They do things for show For a fact so they go right into Pilate now and Notice what they say to him serve verse 63 sir. We remember while he was still alive how that deceiver said You know one of the commentary said I didn't check it would have taken too long They said that the priests and the elders the Sadducees and the Pharisees his enemies They never called him by his name Throughout all of the gospels. I couldn't find an episode where they did one time in mockery they call him rabbi, you know trying to Gracious themselves to him and for him, but they never say Jesus They never say the name of Jesus the beautiful name the name by which we're saying It won't pass their left they had to call him that Deceiver I mean even the word that is an emphasis on a deceiver how they hate him And they call Pilate you don't see it in the English curious Lord Sir Curia Lord the occupying force the pagan Religion of Rome represented in this man All they go to him Lord and their own Messiah and their own Savior that deceiver why what did Jesus do? That they hate him so much by the way Matthew Henry comments on this Idea where they call Pilate Lord, but Jesus the deceiver he says thus the most malicious Slanderers of good men good men godly men Jesus the most malicious slanderers of good men listen to what he says are
Commonly the most sorted flatters of great men You know high men men of who are highly esteemed in this world Notice that those who who want to slander the good the godly are typically those who absolve the popular the high in mighty It reminds me at that time when I Can't forget the pastor who passed away Jerry Paul well. Hello. It's never a great fan of right But I have to tell you when he died and the media just did everything they could to Do besmirch his name and his legacy and everything else it caused me to pause a little bit and say you know what maybe Jerry Paul Was a little bit better than I thought he was because if the media hate him that much there must have been some good in him He must have done something because they have to try to destroy him even after he's dead Well, that's what Matthew Henry says malicious people do they slander the godly and then they flatter You know the earthly great and powerful so that they again can get the most out of somebody else's Position what did Jesus do? That made them hate him so much Well He would not affirm their position their leadership their traditions by which they trumped the word of God if you remember right Jesus actually publicly and directly Corrected their false teaching. He rebuked them for it. He preached the word of God not their tradition He preached the kingdom of God not their idea for Israel And so they wouldn't let that stand they want a Messiah from God But he's got to be the Messiah that they want and if he's got other plans God has other plans they won't accept it. God's just gonna have to change and That's why they hated him John Calvin goes so far as to say this I love this quote from Calvin quote They go so far as to call him an imposter Listen to this whose divine power and glory were lately manifested by so many miracles Calvin goes on this to do this to call an imposter one who manifests with God's power in miracles This is to spit in the face of God so to speak by ridiculing the brightness of the sun And quotes from Calvin. I love that To have been alive and have seen all the miracles that Jesus did which the Pharisees and scribes repeatedly did in the Sadducees and the priests and elders and all the rest and to Question or even not even just question, but to say that he's a deceiver. That's like standing outside and saying it's dark There's no son. That's what Calvin says It's it's to deny the brightness of the sun something that everybody knows is there But what I want you to notice it is that in their hatred, they're actually used by God to confirm several things That's frank that our faith and I want to notice it as we go on to the second point Which is the truth of his word? I want you to notice the truth of his word verse 63 Saying sir, we remember how you was still alive While he was still alive how that deceiver said after three days The three days again. What is it with the three days? You know if you count in the gospels the number of times Jesus himself Predicted his resurrection after three days. It's 12 times 12 times four times in Matthew three times in Mark three times in Luke and twice in John 12 times Jesus in one way or another Teachers that he will rise again on the third day It was the only testimony that three day period if you remember at his at his mock trial before pilot and at the illegal trial before pilot It was the only testimony that they could find this deceiver said in three days I will destroy the temple and then I will build it back up again And of course, that's not what he said they even slandered and lied there, but again. They remembered the three days They remembered the three days the disciples didn't remember the three days The apostles hadn't remembered the three days where are they? Where is their acknowledgement? Oh, he did say in three days. They would write they so don't believe it They so are not thinking about it that when the women come From the tomb the next morning, which is Easter Sunday and tell them he rose again from the day They don't believe They don't believe the women when they're in the upper room later that night and the men from Emmaus came back and say We saw the Lord. They don't believe them when Jesus appears before them in the upper room. You can read about it. Look 24 It says they don't believe For joy They're so joyful. They don't they think he's a ghost at first. You can read it. It's a hilarious account. I think it's it's actually funny That Jesus said to them touch me look. I'm not a ghost See me feel me look at my hands look at my feet and still it says they don't believe give me something to eat I'll eat something in front of you. Jesus has to convince that Then he's there in front of them in the flesh because they so we're not expecting not remembering not at all thinking of a Resurrection to the apostles Christ is dead and gone But that is not the case. I want us to notice it with his enemies his enemies hurt and his enemies remembered and his enemies You're going to act upon that in order to try to stop it and it's interesting. Jesus only speaks it to them At least as Matthew records it in the sign of the prophet Jonah Which is a somewhat enigmatic and in veil way to say it isn't it to say that just as three days and three nights Jonah was in the belly of the great fish So the son of man will have to be in the earth in fact the way Jesus says it is in Matthew 12 the scribes in the Pharisees are there this time The other times he said it is just to the disciple so when the scribes and Pharisees are there they ask him for a sign Jesus said an evil in the adulterous generation seeks to sign no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah and then he explains at The sign of the prophet Jonah Matthew 12 verse 44 as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish So will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth Now that's that's a figure that's a little bit difficult to understand he says it again in chapter 16 the same way When the Sadducees are present that's the only time the Gospels tell us that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were present to hear Jesus talk about the three days and yet they heard that and how do they interpret it verse 63 he said after three days I will rise they got it May understood from that image of Jonah what that means after three days He's gonna die and then he's gonna rise die and then three days. He's gonna rise That's pretty amazing to me And it was I want you to notice It was three days There was three days sometimes new believers get stuck on this Sometimes people will try to criticize the Gospels and say well He dies on Friday Saturday Sunday. That's just two days and there's this great theory about you know Jesus actually died on a Thursday and there's some people that have written to that effect Please don't put that article on my box. I get that every couple of years We look at stuff like that as seminary you can read that and it seems plausible go out and read the huge Arguments against it That prove that it couldn't have happened that way my apologies to the late Jim boys who actually believed that But the vast majority of church teachers believe he died on a Friday And you can show how those arguments that sound so plausible when you don't read the Reputations of them are actually refuted by the Gospels themselves But I just say all this to say that it was three days First of all they didn't understand the concept of zero It wasn't in any kind of normal accounting for anything do a little study on the concept of zero the mathematical Phenomenon of zero there's possibilities that the Babylonians and maybe even the persons had some idea of it in the BC times But then we don't see anything really until the Arabic culture about 500 AD just the rudimentary may be understanding a zero And then some of the European countries around a thousand AD But it's really not until the Enlightenment period that zero comes in to where it's an ordinary starting point for people just in in regular a society In other words, you didn't start okay zero is today one day is tomorrow You started today is one day today the first is one Friday is one Saturday is two Sunday is three. That was the only way you would have counted if they would have counted it as three days Starting with Thursday we'd have to say that it's not true because nobody would have written that in One arrow in the first century AD nobody counted that way you counted inclusively you can see that for the King's reigns and everything else They always counted inclusively. That's actually a proof that scripture was written when it was It was three days and some say well it wasn't exactly 72 hours No, it wasn't if three days have to be exactly 72 hours then 71 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds is not three days It's just isn't You know I'm a historian a little bit. I like some of the history especially like war history And I was a big civil war buff when I was a kid. I'd rate every Every book I could on the civil war and of course the famous battle of civil wars getting's bird and getting bird is a three-day battle Right, you know that July 1st July 2nd July 3rd on July 4th Vicksburg falls and those two victories really turned the tide for the South But you know what? Good Eastburg was not exactly 72 hours It wasn't all those historians are lying They're all lying. They say it was a three-day battle three days is 72 hours. I mean come on Do you assist on that for anything else in history? The three days has to be exactly so many two hours Do we do that for anything else? And if that's the case then I I submit to you nothing in your life has ever happened. That's three days No, but in history has ever been three days or five days or seven days or whatever you want to make because nothing is timed out that way And if you did something over the course of three days that maybe was 70 hours or 60 hours or every even 50 hours You would count on this three days. How many in this room if you work for a company That said if you work part of a day, it's a work day and you get paid for it How many of you if you worked all Friday night and All day Saturday and all Sunday morning until the sun came up would put down on your time sheet. I only worked two days I'll bet you nobody would Because Friday night is one work day Saturday is the second work day and Sunday is the third work day. Now, why is it so hard? Why don't we let unbelievers rattle us? Well, it's just three days and three nights That was the way the Jews would have spoken because every day had its nights All the three days and three nights means is that an event had to occur after the third day began because you wouldn't say Two and a half days and nights you would say three days and three nights if it started on the third day you can see that in many things Inscription the third three days and three nights means it started On the third day. By the way, that's true for Jonah too. It's an oval of Jonas. It says three days It's the same way of counting and it's the same thing Probably Jonah left the harbor in that boat sometime in the morning the storm arose in the afternoon They throw them in the sea after fighting the storm for hours and praying and all that other stuff We read which would have taken time. They throw them in the sea in the evening one day He's in the fish all the next day and maybe it was a Friday maybe Sunday morning He's spit up on the beach and it's exactly the same But all it requires is that After the third day began then the fish spits him up and then they would have said for three days and for three nights Because that's the way they talked and that's the way They accounted but what I want us to know this is something more important is why three days Why would it be that? Why would it be three days? What's so significant about three days? Well, I think first of all it was needed to prove that he was really dead All that Jesus has to do is die and he fulfills the curse We understand that theologically so he could have wrote written again, you know in the next hour or whatever next minute But if he would have done something like that people would have said only he didn't die, right? I mean we've seen people we read about people who've been dead for a minute two minutes five minutes Maybe even an hour or so and they come back Nobody thinks that somehow they were dead and they rose again from the dead. They didn't fully die in some way shape or form But when Jesus is dead Friday night and he's dead all day Saturday and he's dead until the sun is up Sunday morning That's a miracle That's a resurrection He has to stay dead for a certain amount of time Likewise, he needed to fulfill scripture Jonah says three days and three nights Hosea chapter six two says after two days he will revive us on the third day He will raise us up and I know it's poor, but us all of Israel is is in Jesus. Jesus is the true Israel He is the true son. He is the seed of Abraham. Yes. They're all Abraham seed, but they're all in Jesus And so that prophesied see and Hosea clearly refers to the third day God will raise up his people And so it had to fulfill scripture. Jesus had to fulfill his own predictions 12 times he said three days therefore it had to be three days and God does many things On the third day and I wonder if this is it partly because God is trying You know, it was on the third day that Abraham opened his eyes and he saw the place where he was to sacrifice his son It's on the third day that that happened. It was after three days of darkness That God took the first born of Egypt and delivered his people It was three days before Mount Sinai before the Lord came down in that mountain on the mountain when it quaked in the violence of the lightning and the fire and the thunder It was on the third day that he appears in Israel over and over again. We see the significance of God working on The third day to do some great thing And so the Lord said it would be that that was his plan And so that was what he did Third day, I want you to notice the comfort of his death. I want you to notice the comfort of his death We say in the creed he died and was buried He died and was buried. I know a lot of you everybody in this room who's of a certain age knows what it's like to lose the loved one And many of us have lost loved ones recently We were talking about at the session how many people that we've had The Lord call home. We've we've gotten five new widowers in this church in the past six months or so Five new widowers. That's very unusual usually It's the women who died before or the men who died before the women just statistically But five men have lost their wives in this church in the past six months. That's Striking and it's hard for men or women especially when you lose a spouse for many years and you're separated from that person that is one flesh with you And to consider that they're dead and that they're buried in the ground and I've met with people and talk with people We really struggle with the idea of my loved one is in that cold ground and they're decaying and you know Are the worms getting to them and I mean they think about these things and it really bothers them And the fact of the matter is Jesus died on the cross to fulfill the curse But he had to go through the whole gamut of human humiliation and part of our humiliation is that we decay And we go back to the dust and that's why when Abraham buries his Once to bury his wife he says he buys that cave so that he can put his Dead out of his sight Because it would be humiliating it would be a disgrace to see our dead loved ones just lying on the driveway every morning or something more and more decayed and Animals eating them and birds and maybe that's horrible right that blows our minds away So that's why we bury that's why we return the ground of the body to the ground in a respectful way Ashes to ashes dust to dust We saw it. I included the scripture reading last week of the cremation that was done the the burning of the bones by the Valiant men of Solomon So I think that that too is a way in which we treat the body with respect and we just more Speedily as it were returning to the ground. What you do that in an act of faith first of all That we will rise again That that you do it in an act of submission to God that but even the body of our loved one belongs to God So we return it to the ground because out of the ground it was taken But what I want you to see is that Jesus went into the grave He didn't just die He went in the tomb his body was going through that same decaying process even as death is the beginning of it And the cells start to break down and everything breaks down and it would have happened to Jesus And the fact it had begun. I'm convinced it had begun because he was really dead And so he too goes into the grave that humiliation that that separation that death that real death And by doing so and I want to assure you this he takes away the sting of it for us When you worry about your loved one being in the ground Jesus was in the ground And any curse that's belonging to that status any shame that's blocked Jesus took Now when we go into the grave we're following our Lord We're following the Lord of glory who also was in the grave and he was in the grave only to try up in his new body And so will we if we believe the sting the shame the humiliation of the grave is gone Because Jesus went there in his glory He's the son of God and he was in the grave In a sense, it's our privilege to follow him Don't fear for your loved one if they believed in Jesus they are with him now And that that body in the grave it was just like Jesus body And though rise to just like Jesus did This is the comfort that we get from the fact That Jesus died. Yes, he had to really die. He had to he had to accomplish the And fulfill the entire curse of sin which was unto death in the day you eat of it you will die And then the grave shows again that final state of shame And being in the grave and being dead
We again are built up in our faith Because he did really die the grave shows that forward The fact that he was buried notice even his enemies. I mentioned it to it earlier verse 63 sir We remember while he was still alive That means the Pharisees and the chief priests are convinced that he's dead Do you think that they would have put a seal on a tomb if the body wasn't in there? Do you think they would have put a body in there that wasn't dead They will not rest until Jesus is dead. They're making sure he can't come back in some way And so when they say while he was dead we have his own enemies his most Inventorate enemies Declaring his death and why do I emphasize that because we have that that lie that comes up every so often a criticism of our faith The swoon theory of the cross You know there's several theories of what happened to try to explain away the miracle of the resurrection Because unbelievers recognize if he really rose from the dead then Christianity's true And they have to believe so they have to get rid of the resurrection So they come up with these alternative theories and one of the most popular ones has been the swoon theory That he didn't really die he passed out entered into a comatose state or something and then he revived in the damp tomb Well the testimony of the priests and the Pharisees Militates against that While he was alive he said And now give us a guard to guard the tomb and I guarantee you if he wasn't dead when they went in that tomb to see his body They would have stabbed him to death. They would have killed him right there They made certain he was dead and then they go outside and they post those soldiers and they put that room and seal on the tomb Anybody that breaks that seal their light is forfeits pilot ordered it his execution He was executed pilot investigated to make sure he was dead before he gave him the body now there there at the tomb There has never been so much proof that a person was really dead Outside of Christ And that's the important and the comfort of his death because if he died Then our sins are taken away If he died there is no death for you who believe in Jesus John Calvin says quote the resurrection of Christ would undoubtedly have been less manifest Or at least they would have had more plausible grounds for denying it if they had not taken pains To station witnesses at the supple term You know that one of the things the swoon theory can't answer is okay. Let's say he was alive How's he get out of the tomb? How's he get rid of the Roman soldiers There's no way five women going to the tomb Sunday morning are worried that they're not going to be able to move the stone How's it emancipated or emaciated man who was practically killed on the cross With the spikes through his wrists and feet for hours and the whipping of the scourging and everything else the exposure The first the everything else that he would have gone through the blood loss. Oh, he's gonna move that's the stone That five women couldn't move and then he's gonna fight off 30 or 40 or maybe a hundred Roman soldiers If you want to believe that I've got some land to sell you If you see me after the church, I'll secure my retirement. I'll tell you that
This is the first act the burial of Christ It's really the first act of his exultation It really is I mean the census is humiliation too, but he's buried with the rich man He's given an honorable honorable burial and again we do that We return the body to the ground whether the body and the casket or the ashes We return the body to the ground To show that their lives matter to show that the resurrection is coming and we know that because Jesus died and Jesus was buried But so these enemies of his by going to pilot by getting the guard by sealing the tomb They bear witness to us That our salvation is complete and secure and so I went to them and it's fourthly and finally the witness of his enemies The witness of his enemies I guarantee you that Pharisees and the chief priests were not too pleased when they found out the Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus two of their own Went to pilot to get the body to bury him in an honorable way Oh, they're seething at that. I guarantee you that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus paid some kind of price for that But you know what they also see an opportunity well We've got his body behind this stone by the way They always put stones on the case because the tombs were caged in the side of the hill So you put a stone in front of it to keep the predators out I mean nobody wants wolves and jackals going in and feasting on their dead loved ones You know also you kept implements there that were costly not only for the Embalming but the spices which were costly you would keep some of those in those caves and some other items And so to keep criminals out you put these great stones in front that would take a lot of work a lot of effort to get it out of the way And they seal the stone again with the seal And this is because they don't want anybody to break it no one to go in now do they really believe that the site disciples Can possibly find the curves to get his body and get it out of there and then proclaim a fake resurrection I mean it seems absurd doesn't it, but you've got to remember who the Pharisees and the chief priests are That's what they're doing They're living and they're propagating what they know as a lie They saw Christ miracles they know they were like Calvin said in the brightness of the sun They know he's the Messiah, but they're continuing to ferment a now false Judaism So that they can maintain their position and power and I think they think the disciples are just like them Well the disciples have an opportunity to do that too. They can kidnap the body and proclaim a false resurrection And then they might be able to get the position and power see that's all they see They think everybody's like them liars and and power hungry and just living for pleasures in this world So they're thinking in terms of what they would get Well, they would steal the body and say it in your house And so they go to potto to try to stop Again, what they're projecting now onto the disciples in their own wickedness of living a lie They think the disciples would be willing to do that. You know if you really believe in Jesus you would never do that You know why? Because he said I am the truth and everyone who is of the truth here is my voice For you to go and take his body and say that he rose and and proclaim a lie about him Would be to oppose him in the worst possible way You would be dishonoring him you would be showing that you hated him showing that you didn't believe in him No one who believed in Jesus could ever do that Because he's the truth. He is the way in the truth Everyone who is of the truth here is my voice the one thing he always taught as disciples is that you always tell the truth How much more important is it when it's about who God is and the way of salvation and whether or not there was an actual resurrection Until I want you to notice beloved that this burial of Christ The way it was done it actually confirms again one of the most important articles of our faith that Jesus really died therefore Jesus really rose. I think it's Just in the providence of God We're going to leave Matthew now as I go on vacation with Christ in the tomb when I get back Lord Welling we'll get to proclaim the resurrection won't be Easter. I promise you that but The fact of the matter is All that Christ's enemies did only only Only build up our faith today if they would have just left the tomb alone if they would have never done anything Why you might be able to plausibly say that when we don't know what happened to him after he was buried But now we know and then the official might of Rome is behind it John Calvin says this quote it was his if God as it God hired them God hired the soldiers In order to render the glory of Christ more illustrious listen to this is still Calvin for no plausible ground is left For denying the resurrection when his body was in a tomb Surrounded by Roman soldiers and they are Roman soldiers. They're not the temple guard as we'll see in the next chapter They're accountable to the governor They are the soldiers And so in this text we have I hope a great strengthening of our faith that our Lord is in the tomb. They were strange days, weren't they? He's one but nobody knows What was happening in the spiritual room? How did his people receive that we see how his enemies? It was this weird time where it looks to all intents and purposes is that Jesus is defeated yet We know that he's already won and I can't help but liken it to today Some of the things that we're seeing in the church in our culture. I know many Christians are fearful and worried It looks like the world is completely one, right? Christ has seated on the throne He's at the right hand of power. He's laughing right now at his enemies He will manifest that when he's ready We just need to trust in him and be faithful until that day. Let's pray father in heaven. We do thank you But your power right now rules over all and we struggle to believe that father We admit that because we often fall into times of fear and times of cowardice even denying you. We all done it Lord God And yet we confess and we believe by your grace that you are alive or Jesus You have all power and might right now you're ruling and raining right now and for your purposes you are allowing your enemies To do certain things that you hate But you're keeping a record You will hold them fully accountable for everything and you will restore fully All the harm they've done. That's our hope. We know when you come back That's what you will do and we have a sign of that Lord God in the fact that while your enemies were exalting You were preparing to rise again from the dead so father God Encourage us encourage any who might be Fearful who might be who might be hurting because of the death of a loved one let them be reminded That the burial of Christ the death of Christ is before the resurrection so also for everyone Who believes in him and we ask you this in Jesus name?