The Tomb of Jesus

In this lecture, I'll be talking about how to use the Christmas Calendar. I hope you'll enjoy it. Thank you.

♪ Jesus in Pharaoh, Jesus in Peorah, who makes the whole world come to sing. Faceless sunshine, ever-silver moonlight, and all the twinkling starry home. Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer, than all the angels can.

And the Saviour, Lord of all my nation, we have no fear. Do sit down, let's bow our heads in prayer. And let's use the prayer, men and women and boys and girls, that our Lord Jesus taught us.

Use the old-fashioned version, which still has thee and thou, but we can all understand it. Our Father who art in heaven, let's say it together, shall we? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Lord, let me go. I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths it flow, my richer, fuller be.

O light that follows all my ways, I yield my flickering torch to thee. My heart restores its former grey, that in thy sunshine's blaze this day may brighter fairer be. O joy that seeketh me through pain, I cannot pass my heart to thee.

I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain, that more shall tears be. That lifteth up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee. I lay in dust life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be.

And that hymn was written by a man who went through a great deal of pain, who in his early years discovered not that he had Alzheimer's disease, but rather that he was going blind. And when he confided this information to his sweetheart, she couldn't go through with it. She could not tolerate the idea of having the companionship of a blind man throughout the whole of her married life.

So the engagement was broken, and he went back to his own home in a heartbroken condition, and he wrote that hymn. O love that wilt not let me go. It's a great delight to have with me this morning in the pulpit Mr. Delamer, to whom I've made reference.

Peter's been a good friend of mine for many years, and has helped quite a number of people in our church. So though it's new for him to come to our service, he's not new to quite a number of you. We're so glad not only to have him with us, but Noreen and Sheila, his companions who help in this work of alleviating the problems of folks with Alzheimer's disease in this local area.

Peter, I'd like to give you a cheque from the tab. This is from the monies that we make from our shops. Please use it for the work that you represent, and be aware of our appreciation for you and for your colleagues and what you're trying to do in the town.

And read scripture to us as well, please. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews, and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you.

Listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning.

No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God said, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy your young men and see visions.

Your old men will dream dreams, even on my servants, both men and women. I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth below.

Blood and fire, and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Men of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited to God by you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him. As you yourselves know, this man was handed over to you by God's set purpose, and for knowledge.

And you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him, I saw the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see me today. You have made known to me the powers of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence.

Brothers, I can tell you confidentially that the Patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But this was a prophet, and I knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on the throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that it was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.

God has raised this Jesus to life, we are all witnesses of that fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into heaven, and he has said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until you make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Therefore let all Israel be assured of this, God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promises for you and your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord and God will call.

Thank you very much Peter, thank you indeed. Let's keep our Bibles open there, it was Acts chapter 2, and let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, we thank you for that reading from your Holy Word.

We're amazed when we consider just what you have done for us through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask, O Lord, that right now as we look for an explanation of that which we have read, that it may be so clearly given that all shall go away, marveling at what God, through the Lord Jesus, has done for men and women. Amen.

So that passage that was just brought to us by way of our public reading of Scripture, highlights a very interesting and a very important thing. And that is, what is the emblem of the Christian faith? You'll discover why I'm asking that question in a moment when I back reference to the verses that Peter read to us. Let me start off with a contentious statement.

I don't like crucifixes. Crosses, yes, I have no objection to, but crucifixes I have some difficulty. Therefore, even if you searched in the hiding places in our church, you will not find a crucifix.

Crucifixes are often of a figure that I don't really relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some bedraggled, rather pain-filled individual who seems as though he's thrown in the towel. That's not exactly according to the record of Scripture.

In other words, you can't draw that particular conclusion. As for the cross, yes, that's an emblem of Christianity. Indeed, I referred you last week when we were looking in the Scriptures, not just to the cross of Christ, but the fact that the apostle Peter, when he refers to the death of Jesus, sometimes uses the metaphor tree, and he says he was crucified and placed on the tree.

And the reason for that, I argued, is this, that the Old Testament Hebrews, when they were looking through their Scriptures, knew that it was said by Moses that a person who's hung, a person who has paid the penalty of the law because he has transgressed in some area, a person who is killed in the fashion of being hung on a tree is accursed. And Peter, whose theology grows, as your understanding grows, when you were a student, you hadn't acquired all information. When you were a child of two or three, you didn't know everything.

Your information grows, your appreciation grows. That's true in the Christian faith. Here is Peter, he's preaching.

He's not been to college, so he's been at the feet of Jesus. He's not been trained in public speaking, but he makes reference to the death of Jesus. Death on the cross? Aye.

But why did he die? And the cross is taken, obviously, literally from a tree. In the Old Testament it says, cursed is every man who dies on a tree. Look, you know this hymn, surely? There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.

He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. What was he doing on the cross? He's paying the price for your sin. Jesus, the spotless man, becomes accursed for you.

The cross reminds us of this. This is why it's one of the twin focal points of Christianity. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But not just the cross. The cross which is worn by tens of thousands of womenfolk around their neck in the world. And worn by many men too.

There is an emblem that is equal. A token that I would argue is even superior. But you can't reduce it to some little ornament to put on your sideboard or to wear in your lapel.

More esteemed than the cross of Jesus Christ. Because this emblem gives it significance and tells you what happened afterwards. Is the empty tomb.

The empty tomb. You see, here is Peter. It's the day of Pentecost and he's preaching his first address.

He's never spoken as far as we know to such a large number of people. And he's explaining some of the things that he himself is groping towards a full comprehension of. And he talks about Jesus.

He tells them what's happened. He gives witnesses as though he's in a court of law. And he's saying about the Lord Jesus Christ, this man, he's been done to death.

This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. And you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead.

Freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep hold on him. And then Peter does something that's very instructive. He brings for witness to what he has to say, David.

Now David was a great king. You've heard of King David. The greatest king that Israel ever had.

And David actually spoke quite a bit about his death. He's not the only man in the Old Testament who referred to death. We moderns, we like to talk about football, or we did a week or so ago.

But death, no. In the Old Testament, David speaks about death. Job speaks about death.

Job perhaps the oldest man whose record is contained within the Old Testament. Because I put the book of Job on a par chronologically with the book of Genesis. Now Job, let's talk about him for a moment.

Let's run a parallel between Job and Jesus. Job is relatively innocent. Jesus is absolutely innocent.

Job has his accusers as Jesus had his accusers. Job knows that he's going to die. Not from Alzheimer's, but from a raging plague of boils.

His body is so obnoxious it stinks. His breath smells. His wife doesn't want to own him.

And Job nonetheless has this to say. The worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Isn't that interesting? That the end of his life is not like the end of a candle flame.

It lights and it's gone. But the end of life is the cessation of one part of your experience and the beginning of another. And Job says, in the end, in my flesh I will see God.

Now I just want a parallel between Job and Jesus for a second. And then we'll go to David, because David is more obvious from the context of this passage. You see the Lord Jesus, he faces death.

And he never refers to his death on the cross, which didn't catch him out by surprise, without also referring to his resurrection. He conjoins the two. And what's more, he has an experience of his father to the extent that whenever he lifts his eyes towards heaven, in a sort of physical posture, a physical indication of intercourse, communion with his father, he picks up the impulse that his father is in control of the situation.

Never leaves him, never forsakes him. So here is Job and here is Jesus. And both, when they look into the jaws of death, they have the concept that beyond the grave there is something else.

Now let's look at David. Because David, well he wrote many a psalm, didn't he? Psalm 23, well known to everyone, habit of virtually every funeral service. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He leads me by still waters in pastures green, he restores my soul. I'm giving you a summary of its content. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

David speaking of himself. The psalms are actually the Old Testament hymn book, like we have mission praise, even though we didn't get reference to Heinz Beenz in mission praise. The psalms, which equally don't have reference to Beenz.

They contain the Old Testament way of singing. Very often the psalms were written by David, and David so many, many times involves his own experience in his compositions. So if you're feeling despondent and that you're at the end of your tether, and that death is more favorable to you than life, then read David, because he has something to say about people who are depressed.

Incidentally, depression is not a sin. It's something that you should strive against, but it is not a sin. And the Bible does speak to people who have depression.

But David sometimes in his psalms not only speaks about himself, there are certain things that he has to say in which he must have in mind somebody else, somebody greater than himself. I'll pause for a moment. Here's a question.

Go back to your school days. Who is a descendant of Jesus Christ? Sorry, who is a descendant of David? And I've already given the answer by fumbling it. Jesus Christ.

He was born of the tribe of David. David was his ancestor. Savior, if of Zion's city, I through grace a member am.

Remember that great hymn supposed to be the favorite one of Prince Charles? That hymn goes on to speak about great David's greatest son. And Jesus Christ coming, so to speak, historically from the loins of David, fulfills literally what David can hardly even fulfill symbolically. Now here's Peter, and he's still preaching, but he's referring to David.

And remember, Peter's in Jerusalem. So if you move just a few hundred yards, probably from where Peter is, and look over the balustrade, so to speak, of the ancient city of Jerusalem, which Peter's out to a precipice, look over the wall on top of the precipice, and in front of you there is the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is a cemetery.

It's near Shiloh. And in the cemetery there's a grave. Amongst the kings are buried the remnants of the family of David.

Now, brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died. That's what Peter says as he's speaking to this crowd who've come to listen to him on this day of Pentecost. I can tell you that the patriarch David died.

He was buried, verse 29 of chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles, because he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. David died. And yet, quoting from one of the Psalms of David, verse 25, David said, You will not abandon me to the grave.

You will not let your Holy One see decay. Now, of whom was David, to whom was David referring? Couldn't have been referring to himself, could he? Because he's dead. No, says Peter, he wasn't referring to himself.

He was referring to his greater son. You see, the Psalms, they speak of David, but there is a deeper fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus was done to death on a cross.

But that wasn't the end of the matter. The Greeks were not very happy about the body. And some of them tried to distance themselves from the body.

It was a crazy philosophy. It taught that anything to do with the body was evil. That was one extreme.

So Anita Roderick of the body shop wouldn't have done too well in Sparta. On the other hand, they had the cult of the body. They went to the other extreme.

And today we're probably there. The cult of the body. Put on your deodorants.

Engage in your exercise. Extend your life. You know what they say about growing? First 30 years is development.

The next 50 are maintenance. And of the two, the latter is more difficult, believe me. I've gone to the other side some years ago.

What happens to a body eventually? What happens to your body? Well, it dies. And the death process is a horrible one in many ways. I mean, the body after death has occurred.

There is decay. There is dissolution. Now, Job was referring to this when he said, These worms destroy my body.

And yet David is saying that when I die, my body will not see corruption. You will not abandon me to the grave. But he's dead.

There's his tomb. Then to whom is he referring? He's referring to Jesus Christ. So what happened to the body of Jesus? How do you understand the death of Jesus on the cross? Let me be technical, but necessarily so.

You see, in one sense, it's not true to say that Jesus died as a result of crucifixion. See, crucifixion would give you the idea that Jesus is a sort of pawn. He's in a sea of events, and he's no control at all.

He's in a tempest, and the wind is blowing, and the waves are high. And this is poor Jesus bobbing up and down on a sea of chance and circumstance. But that's not how Peter sees it.

He even says that the death of Jesus actually was within the overarching purposes of God the Father. Now listen. When Jesus died, what happened? Well, there was darkness.

Twelve o'clock at noon right through to three in the afternoon. An eerie darkness. And from that darkness came a cry which was blacker than the deepest of darknesses.

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? During those hours, what was happening? Jesus was becoming sin. Suffering the penalty of your sin and my sin. Becoming a curse on the tree.

Have you got the point? You understand the atonement of Jesus in those hours. But when the pallor of darkness lifts, and the people around the cross see the form of Jesus Christ, you see him as a man who's fully in control of his circumstances, don't you? He says that he thirsts. He's given vinegar to drink.

And then he says, with a voice that has no temerity, that could never have left the lungs of some of the people, the depictions that I've seen on crosses, he says, finished! The work that you gave me to do is complete. This is no one throwing in the towel. This is a man who is achieving his life's purposes.

This is a man who has done the reason why he came into the world. He has achieved the objective. He has died for the sins of humanity.

And at the end, as though he is, and this is the case, completely in control, he says, into your hands, Father, I commit my spirit. So the atonement, the payment for the sacrifice of sins, was in those hours. Then what happened? Well, Peter should know.

Jesus' body was disentangled from the cross. Privatization is an in word today. Public bodies go private, made for sale, put on the stock market.

There was a sense in which the inversion of that occurred at the cross. Jesus had twelve disciples? No, I argue Jesus had at least fourteen disciples. Twelve were public.

At the cross they went private. It wasn't the appropriate time to identify with Jesus. And when he looked down for somebody to have compassion on him, his disciples, with the possible exception of one who did go away, were not present.

But there were two private disciples. One called Joseph, and the other called Nicodemus. Influential Jews.

It's amazing, sometimes looking back pastorally over twenty-eight years, here at the tab, to review what happens in the crisis. Sometimes when you really need, people who never seem to be playing much of a part come to the forefront. The private become public.

At the cross, the public disciples went private. The private disciples come public. They've got some theological clout as well as some political influence.

Let's have this pilot, let's have this body. So Joseph and his companion, Nicodemus, they disentangle the body of our Lord from the cross. They wash it and they place it in a tomb.

A tomb that had been purchased by Joseph, hewn out of a rock. Interesting that Jesus was born of a virgin's womb. And interred in a virgin tomb.

The swaddling clothes that encased him as an infant become the winding sheet that encases him as an adult having gone through the throes of crucifixion. Why do you die? A question I pose not clinically, not biologically, but theologically. Why do you die? Put up another question and come back to that one.

How do you perceive Jesus? I don't like pictures of Jesus or portraits simply because I don't question the sincerity of the artist. But they never get him as he really is. I believe that Jesus was a man's man.

And understand this classically, a woman's man. Sensitivity. A sympathetic personality.

But put these things to one side physically. What do you think of him? The perfect man, Luther's the proper man. He hungers and he thirsts, but you never read of Jesus that he's sick.

No mosquitoes ever infect him with malaria. Lord Jesus Christ is not vulnerable to the diseases that you and I know. Because if you trace the cause of disease back to its origin, it has sin.

Not directly today as its cause, but certainly the consequence of your frailty and my frailty and the imperfections within the human genetic structure is as a result of our sin. No sin ever affected his body. Apart from those three hours when he voluntarily took upon himself the curse that belongs to you and to me.

So there in the tomb is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. What happens to that body? The only logical thing that could happen. The body without sin responds to the overture of God's Holy Spirit and he's raised.

Raised again. His body moving through the material winding sheet. His body released as he goes through an open grave into the resurrection morning.

And he leaves behind him a tomb that has no stench of death. When Mary and Martha receive the Lord Jesus who's late at the funeral of their brother Lazarus, they say, we don't want to bring you to the tomb. It's four days, Master, and he stinketh.

But there is no smell of death around that tomb. The body of Jesus Christ is not like Muhammad's body. It does not lay emulging in the grave in Mecca.

You cannot find the origins of the body of Christ as you can find the remnants of the body of Buddha. Jesus was raised. Raised in the power of an endless life.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope. Why? Jesus speaking, because you, the Father, will not abandon me to the grave nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

You have made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with your joy in your presence. Tell me, what's the emblem of the Christian faith? The crucifix? No.

That's a mistake. It puts the emphasis where it doesn't belong. The emblem of the Christian faith is the empty cross of Christ.

An even superior emblem is the empty tomb. Death could not keep his prey. Jesus, my Savior, he tore the bars away.

Jesus, my Lord, is the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection understood by you? Have you taken steps to ensure that your sins are forgiven? You see, the death that Jesus died and the absolution that it brings is not automatically applied. It needs a personal response. Have you made it? Are you a Christian? Have you reacted to the knowledge of the path of life and sins forgiven which Jesus Christ makes plain in his teaching, in his life, in his death? Jesus, the perfect man, dies for you and as a result of your response to what he has done.

Even though physically you will die, your spirit will go on to be with God. The day of resurrection will come when you, like Job, shall enter into the experience of being able to assert the worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God. There aren't many hymns on the empty tomb so I wrote one during the last 48 hours.

I'd like you to listen to it as our friends take the sick person out and as we prepare to come around this table. When I survey the empty tomb Where in the Prince of Glory lay My eyes grow constant to the gloom And see that God has had his way The bleeding body of his Son So lovingly embalmed And was quickened by the Spirit's love And raised in triumph from the ground No worm could mark that sacred flesh No time allowed for its decay My Lord, my love, who conquered sin Stepped from the vault on that third day No wrath could finish him No winding sheet his bones restrain No evil force could keep him down Jesus from Nazareth lives again I would like Mary, honor him I would like John, my Lord, my life The risen one, God's only Son Who speaks my name Blest wooden cross, on which Christ hung Blest mother tomb, wherein he lay Blest emblems of her living faith Survey them now and every day We bless you by a miracle of grace we can become Partakers of his nature as his Spirit indwells us By feeding on his word and coming around this table And tapping into the ministries of the Church We can get to be more like him So may his blessing And the additional blessing of the Triune God Father, Son and Holy Spirit Rest and remain with each one of us Now and always And all God's committed people say Amen © BF-WATCH TV 2021 © BF-WATCH TV 2021