The death and resurrection of Christ

What I'd like to do in this session is actually return to the cross, but in a very much more devotional way, by reading John 19 with some comments. And then we're going to move to John 20, and we'll talk about the resurrection and the post-resurrection appearances for a little bit. And then we may read a little bit in Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 13.

So we'll see how far we get in this session. We'll try to keep to the 15 minutes. Looks like we're going to finish ahead of schedule, which is to everyone's great delight, I'm sure.

John chapter 19, and what I want to do is just do a kind of reflective reading, thinking about the composition of this wonderful account of the Lord's death, and bringing some of the Old Testament imagery that I think John is alluding to, even mentioning explicitly, which I think will enrich our understanding of what is happening. So we'll begin at verse 17. And he, bearing his cross, went out to a place called the place of a skull, or literally a skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified him, and two other with him on either side, one, and Jesus in the center.

And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. It was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.

Therefore, the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the King of the Jews, but he said, I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. And when we begin this first section, I want you to think about this idea of bearing his cross.

What does that make you think of in the Old Testament? Isaac carrying the wood to the place of sacrifice. I think this is an allusion to Genesis chapter 22. And there you have the devotion of this young man, Isaac, and his implicit faith in his father.

And his father, as I said earlier in the day, feeling God's own thoughts and feelings as he himself had to give his son at the cross. But while an angel, the angel of the Lord, called out and stopped Abraham from offering his son Isaac, there was no voice here. And so they came to the place, and the narrative continues, and they crucified him.

How much is contained in that little expression, they crucified him? How much dignity, in one sense? There's a lot of sordid details about crucifixion that you might have thought the scriptures would provide, and they don't. The only such detail you get prophetically, the plowers plowed upon my back. They made their furrows long.

I gave my back to the smiters and my cheek to those who plucked off the hair. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. You get those wonderful Old Testament pictures of what's happening, but when we actually come to the gospel writers, they dismiss it in one sentence.

As if to say, on the one hand, as vital as it is that he was put to death in this way and hung upon a tree, it isn't ultimately what the soldiers did to him in affixing him on the cross that mattered, but what follows in the narrative. As he bears our sin in his own body on the tree, and is ultimately abandoned as the scapegoat was abandoned. We'll come to that in a moment.

But at the very beginning of the narrative, we've already seen that Christ is very much in charge of the situation. He bearing his cross went forth. It's as if no one had been with him, he would have gone down the way himself with that cross.

No one was driving him. It was his decision to take it, and so he bore that cross. And just as Isaac, the son of Abraham's love, is only begotten.

After Abraham clave, split the wood, and put it on his son Isaac, you see him carrying that burden to the place called Moriah. And here, in a very similar or perhaps the very same position, we have the true Isaac now offering himself as our substitute. This is a truly universal gospel, and you see that with the sign, the placard on the top, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

One of the wonderful things that Paul teaches us is there was an invisible placard, that was the visible one. The invisible one was the one that contained all of our sins. The handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us.

He took out of the way by nailing to his cross. Now normally, what happened at a cross is you had, this obviously was a public spectacle that was made to make people think. And to intimidate them, so that they wouldn't try to rise against Rome, but also to not be guilty of committing the crimes that they read that these people had committed, lest they also end up on a cross.

So normally, the placard above would list the crime for which this person was committed, was crucified. And instead of that, Pilate, to spite the Jews, I'm sure, put the King of the Jews, or this is the Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. The different gospel writers give different pieces of that, but put it together.

And this was obviously, I think, to incense the Jews. But of course, at the same time, it was a perfectly true statement, and it wasn't a crime. They said, look, don't put anything up there, or if you have to put that, say this was his claim, make it a crime, make it a blasphemous claim.

Pilate says, no, what I've written, I've written. And so God oversaw the fact that there was no crime written above that cross. But in God's mind, there was.

It was your crimes and mine. So the one who's dying on the cross is responsible for the sins listed above his head. And those were your sins and mine, and they're paid in full.

What a wonderful thing. Thank God for the placard you can't see, as well as the one that they did see. So we have Genesis 22.

Now, I want you to read the next section with me. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to each soldier apart, and also the tunic. Now, the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece.

They said, therefore, among themselves, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots. Therefore, the soldiers did these things. This is not only an allusion to, but it is a quotation from Psalm 22.

So at this point, John wants us to go back to Psalm 22, and he wants us to think about the implications of that psalm, and what they say about what's happening here at the cross. One of the things that was prophesied, one of the wonderful explicit prophecies of the Old Testament, that is one of these wonderful proofs of the veracity of scripture, is this one. These soldiers didn't know anything about Psalm 22.

They decided to gamble because they wanted to have this apparently somewhat valuable, seamless robe. So the best way to get it is to cast lots for it. Little did they know that in making their own free decision, they were also fulfilling God's promise that this is exactly what would happen at the foot of the cross.

This sort of trivial game going on with something very, very somber and serious was happening above their heads. Now, Psalm 22 gets us in the mindset to anticipate the cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, which John doesn't record. But at the same time, that allusion makes us remember that that, in fact, was what happened on the cross.

John's going to emphasize something else. He's going to emphasize the finished work. He's going to emphasize the fact that the payment was made in full.

Now, after we get to Psalm 22, I'm going to do something that many of you may find a little bit strange, but it's my view. And all I can do is offer it to you, because it's not the traditional view, and you may think it's not the logical view. But I think it is the logical view, actually.

It's the next section. Now, there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother. And his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

And when Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. Now, because of what follows, and because his purpose here was to see that his mother was taken care of, most people think that when he said, woman, behold your son, he was referring to John. I personally believe he was referring to himself.

You may disagree with me, but just listen. What does that do? That brings Genesis 3.15 into this passage. The seed of the woman.

I think this is an answer, the sword shall pierce through your own heart also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. That was the promise that was given by Simeon to Mary. And I think here, he is not asking for her sympathy as much as, in a sense, thanking her for raising him and for being his earthly mother that was the means by which he came into the world.

Now, I'm not elevating Mary here. You can believe it's John if you want, because we're all agreed on the next verse. The next verse says, he turned to his disciple.

See, if he said, behold your son, she would think he was referring to himself. Would you not say so? There's nothing here to indicate that he had pointed to John. But anyway, I won't press the point.

The next point is very precious. He says to John, behold your mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her onto his own home.

Now, that was a great way for us to understand that even in this plight of being crucified, and despite all he had gone through, his thoughts, because he is who he is, the son of God, were always turned on others, especially his own mother. Be that as it may, we might get a reference to Genesis 3.15. Now we come to the next section. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst.

Now, do you think this is referring only to physical thirst? I hardly think so, because what had just transpired were the three hours of darkness. John doesn't mention them. They're mentioned, of course, in Matthew, excuse me, with synoptic gospels.

But we know time-wise, this is what had just happened. I suggest this is an allusion to Leviticus 16. The scapegoat going into a desert place of abandonment and dying, an unseen death.

It is a place where thirst would be, obviously, one of the most serious problems that an animal or a person would face. No water anywhere. The goat bearing the sin of the people upon its head, taken out into the wilderness and released.

And people have tried to describe what this was. This animal was not put to death in a kosher way. It was not mercifully killed.

It was the only sacrifice that suffered before it died. Burying our sin into a land of forgetfulness and oblivion, and doing so in an environment marked by thirst. I think the Lord Jesus thirsted for what he had not experienced for those three hours of darkness.

And that is to be the sin bearer and to be abandoned in judgment by God. I think we need to understand here the importance of what we have been saying today about who Christ is. I said earlier, only a human composite being made of more than one element, superior soul and body, can actually die in a biblical definition of death.

But the one who died is God. And the one who died, not that God died, but the one who died is God, you have to just say it the right way, before he died, finished a transaction. Now, let me just say that some people say, he bare our sin in his own body on the tree, 1 Peter 2.24. Therefore, he's on the cross for six hours.

And he bore our sin all six of those hours. But most of us would agree that he did not bear our sin before in this sense, and certainly did not bear it after because it had been dealt with fully once he cried it is finished. Others will take the strong scriptural hint that there is something different about the last three hours than the first three.

That the first three were visible to all and included the taunts of men and included the humiliation in the public spectacle of the crucifixion. And clearly, at least in the emphasis, are showing what humans thought of this man and what they were willing to do to him. But there's something very sacred about the darkness.

You remember the ninth plague was a plague of darkness. What did it precede? Preceded the death of the Passover lamb. So, not that that proves anything, but I mean, I think we're meant to understand that this darkness is meant to exclude us because there is something going on in that time period, you can say all six hours if you want.

You know, we're talking about infinite persons doing an infinite transaction. It could have happened in no time. I mean, I shouldn't say no time.

It didn't require three hours. It's like two hours and 59 minutes wouldn't have been enough. I think these pictures, we're not given the details here, but we're intended to understand there is something humans did and there is something God did.

And what God did was he laid upon him the iniquity of assault. That is what is being alluded to or Christ is referring to when he says it is finished, that price has been paid. As you all know, that is a verb that is often used for paid in full in the papyri and some of the business transactions that we have that use Koine Greek.

So once we understand that, we understand that this is just as if a receipt had been said, paid in full. And what was paid in full was the awful cost of your sin and mine. So that is the wonderful image of the rejection of Christ for us and the thirst that he experienced under the wrath of God in those hours of darkness, which John does not mention explicitly, he does it by way of this image.

Then, if we've seen a number of Old Testament passages, we're coming to the big one now. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That was John's initial point in chapter one, John the Baptist.

Now we're going to see the Passover. Watch this, verse 31. Therefore, because it was the preparation day that the body should not remain on a cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, Passover, okay? So this isn't even veiled here, it's very explicit.

The Jews asked that Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.

For these things were done that the scriptures should be fulfilled, not one of his bones shall be broken. Now, I want you to think about the Passover lamb and its preparation. They were to offer the animal, and they were to inspect it, and to make sure it was flawless.

And the three elements of inspection are mentioned, the head, and the legs, and the King James Version's pertinence, inward parts, or viscera. It's very interesting, you have all three here. Look at verse number 30.

After that great cry, it is finished, he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. This is Passover language. He bowed his head.

Notice the order. Normally, people die in slump. No man taketh my life from me.

I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received from my father.

This is totally my doing. He was never a dying lamb, as we often say. He had allowed himself to become gravely afflicted by what men did to him.

But ultimately, the release of his spirit was his decision. He was in control of everything. So he does it the way that no one else has ever done it.

He gently rests his head, because it's finished. It's time for rest. It's time for sleep for three days.

Three days and three nights, meaning a piece of that. And he releases his spirit as one having full authority over it. The head.

Then, we read about the legs. They had to break the legs of the other, but when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead already. They didn't break his legs, because this is Passover language.

Not a bone of him shall be broken. Finally, we have the soldier come with the spear and thrust it into his inward parts. We have the third element of the Passover sacrifice.

And what we have here is another illustration of the flawlessness of Christ. You've heard all this before, but it's always worth repeating. He knew no sin.

That's what Paul tells us, the head. He did no sin. Neither was guile found in his mouth.

That's what Peter tells us about his legs. John says, in him is no sin, the inward parts. So you have all the parts of the Passover sacrifice alluded to here.

Finally, beginning with the preparation day and the high day, allusion to Passover, and then that quotation from Exodus 12. Not one of his bones shall be broken. Then Christ is buried, and we read about that in the next section.

I don't think I will, for the sake of time, although it's very precious, talk about that because I want to move on now to the scene in John chapter 20. The two scenes here, one to Mary Magdalene and one to the disciples in the upper room. Now John 20 says this, now the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciples whom Jesus loved, other disciples whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter and John go to investigate and Peter, we might as well just read what the scripture says, it's not a long section. Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb.

So they both ran together. The other disciple, John alluding to himself, outran Peter. Maybe he was younger, but when they get to the tomb, it's Peter who is the impetuous one who barges right in.

John is a little bit more reluctant to do that. So Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Now, I think we need to understand what's going on here.

Christ left that tomb, I suggest, before that stone was ever rolled away. That's clear. You say, how is it that he was in the tomb three days and three nights? The math doesn't work out.

And people get so distressed about this that they try to make the crucifixion Wednesday or Thursday. You don't need to do that. We talked about idiom early today.

We talked about the fact that sonship, only begotten, begetting have specific Bible meanings for the Godhead. And that the replicas on Earth are imperfect copies and there are features about human sonship that don't apply to the perfect son-father relationship such as generation. The Bible is full of idioms that need to be understood.

And three days and three nights in the Bible definition is fully satisfied as long as there is a portion of each. So if you don't like that math, and if that's not how you would say it, it's not your call, okay? That is the way they understood it. So Friday, all of Saturday, and a piece of Sunday morning is sufficient for three days and three nights.

There's no reason to move the crucifixion off Friday. That's when it happened, April 3rd, 33 AD, if you want to know the date. According to Harold Hohner, which I think is the best source for that.

Now, that's a real space time event. That's a real historical thing. You could actually figure out how many days ago that was if you had the right app to jump over all the strange goings on through the years with the Gregorian calendar and all the rest.

But there's a specific number of days ago that that occurred. Now, when the tomb, the stone was rolled away, and Mark tells us that it was tossed up the hill, by the way, it was moved way away from, it was quite a spectacular thing, that was not to let the Lord out. It was to let the disciples in, okay? And when they came in, they saw the linen cloths lying.

He, I suggest, moved through them in his new body, which we're going to talk about the features of in a moment. And there was no haste, there was no grave robbers involved, there was no rush. But the separate shroud that was around his head was folded up and placed in a very appropriate, neat setting, and then he departed.

When they came in, of course, they believed. That's a wonderful sign. The other disciple who came into the tomb first went in also, and he saw and believed.

For yet, they did not know the scripture that he must rise from the dead, even though he had told them, as we know these disciples, did not yet have the Holy Spirit residing within them. And remained somewhat obtuse until the fire, or the Holy Spirit came to them at Pentecost, fire in a figurative sense. They were indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Then the disciples went away to their own homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped and looked down, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet. And these had not been visible to Peter and John, but they are to her.

And she says, woman, why are you weeping? They say to her, because, and she repeats this, they have taken away my Lord. I don't know where they have laid him. And when she said that she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And this is a very heroic sentence. I mean, this is a full grown man, and as far as she knows, he may still be encased in these 75 pounds of spices, but she doesn't care. She says, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him and I will take him away.

Physically impossible, but that's where her devotion led her. That's how strong it was. And Jesus, this is a feature of his resurrection body, his spiritual body.

He looks, he is able to be perceived by people or not perceived. He's able to veil who he is, as in the road to Emmaus, and then suddenly reveal it. And when he says the word Mary, she turns and says, Rabboni, that is my teacher.

What happens next is she, I think, grabs him by the legs and refuses to let go, by the feet. She's at his feet. I've lost you once, I'm not going to lose you again, okay? And he says, Mary, stop clinging to me.

I need to ascend to my father and your father, to my God and your God. That's a very important sentence, by the way, because it shows us that while God is our father and he is our God, there is a unique sense in which Christ can say he is my father and my God. My father and your father, my God and your God.

And so he's not brushing her off, but he's saying, this is now time for me to leave. I've explained in the upper room why I must leave. I must leave in order for the spirit of God to come.

I must leave in order for the church to begin. And so we have this wonderful devotion of Mary Magdalene. Then without reading the whole section, because of time, we have the Lord appearing in the upper room to his disciples.

The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, this is 19, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus simply comes and stands in the midst and said to them, peace, that's the first words he says, peace be with you. And he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples are glad when they saw the Lord.

Now this is so strongly provocative to our minds of the Lord's supper, isn't it? Even though I'm not saying John is teaching that per se, there is certainly precedent here that is carried out on the first day of the week by us. The disciples are gathered together, or two or three are gathered together, unto my name, there am I in the midst of them, in an upper room, similar to where the Passover was, on the ground level is the earth. Heaven is there, the upper room is somewhere in between.

It's an elevated position, suggesting to the spiritual perception that this is a place where people are elevated above the mundane things of the earth and are occupied with what is spiritual and eternal. And what is their focus? What are they focusing on? Well, whatever they were focusing on, the minute Christ appears to them, they look at him, they see his hands and his side, and they're glad when they saw the Lord. And most of us can relate to Sunday mornings when we went away from the breaking of bread and we said, we're glad because we saw the Lord today.

We know he's in our midst, but we appreciated him in a new way. It's interesting, he does this on the first day of the week, and he won't appear again in John's Gospel until the first day of the week again, one week later. Now, of course, Thomas isn't there the first time, but he is there the second time, and it's very interesting what happens.

Thomas is making this claim, I need to be able to put my finger in the wounds in his hand. And do you think he actually carried out that miserable experiment when he saw Christ? No, he's like everyone else ought to do, falls at his feet and says, my Lord and my God. Now again, there's an interesting issue here in the Greek.

Normally, if you're saying my Lord, you use something called the vocative voice. It's the voice of direct address. The only issue with that is that that could well just be understood to mean sir.

It could just be a title of polite address. So the Holy Spirit doesn't do that. He doesn't, John doesn't write courier, he writes courios.

What he's doing is giving the nominative form so that this is to say, you are God. He says it, my God too, but you are Lord, you are Jehovah, I get it. I don't need to put my hands in your side.

And Thomas is rebuked slightly, but this next sentence is very important for John, because John is moving away now from the need for the physicality of Christ. And the truth of Christ grasped by the gospel as it's presented to people and their faith in the word of God is now where John is going to direct us. So he says, Christ says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Now, it turns out that the resurrection body of Christ is described as a spiritual body. You say, where is it described as a spiritual body? Well, the resurrection body that we shall receive, which is like his own body of glory, which we will be fashioned, our own bodies of humiliation will be fashioned like that according to Philippians 3, is described in 1 Corinthians 15 as a body, a spiritual body. You say, that sounds like an oxymoron, like flaming snowflakes or something.

How can you have a spiritual body? Well, the answer is, it's not a body composed of spirit. That would be a contradiction. It's a body that expresses spirit.

What is the other type of body described in 1 Corinthians chapter 15? A soulish body. And without dwelling on this, it's a very interesting topic, but because of time, I'll just mention this quickly. You and I are living in soulish bodies right now.

We have a regenerated spirit within us, sensitive to God, communicating with God. The spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And so that is very much alive and important to us.

But we have a great deal of difficulty expressing what is spiritual because our bodies are much more involved with the physical world, with sense perception, and with what we might call the soulish element, a lower element in man, that which is self-aware but not God-aware. And so one of the problems we have is our sin. One of the problems we have is disease and mortality.

Another problem we have is our bodies are really made to express soul. But the body of the resurrection expresses spirit. What all that means, I'm not sure.

But it will be much easier for us, I think, to appreciate the spirit world, which is very much obscure to us right now. We have no way to perceive it. We just believe it.

We believe angels are here. We believe Christ is gathered with his people. We accept these propositions because the Bible teaches them, but we can't perceive them.

But the spiritual body will be different. The spiritual body does not require Earth's atmosphere or oxygen. The spiritual body can translocate, obviously, from one place to another.

The spiritual body of Christ lifted off from the Mount of Olives and was carried by a cloud of glory, his own Shekinah cloud, into heaven. We wouldn't be able to do that, but the spiritual body's different. But it's very important to recognize that it's a real body.

He was able to eat. He had to eat, I don't know, but he was able to eat. And he explicitly says, touch me, handle me.

A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you can tell, that I have. So this is a wonderful, interesting subject, the body of glory. Now, while Christ is seen, for example, in Revelation 1, in this beautiful array of bright, dazzling glory.

And we see his head, his hair as white as snow. We see this glory. I think there's something very unique about him in that setting.

I think some of that is his deity being almost displayed in glory, as well as his humanity in Revelation chapter 1. But at the same time, I don't think there's any reason to think that the features of Christ's resurrection body will be any different from ours, will be exactly like him, so that's something to look forward to. It'll be a great experience to be able to live in that kind of a body. Now, we're going to take a, I forget where I am time-wise, but we're out of kilter because I'm letting you out early.

Let's do a hymn, and then we'll have one more session, if you'll allow it. You can walk with, you can vote with your feet, I guess, if you want. But we'll have one more session, and we're going to talk about the work of Christ at the right hand of God and his coming again.