Holy Week Devotional - Saturday (The Hope of The World as Demons Tremble)

Hello, welcome back to our last and final day of our Holy Week podcast.

I hope everyone's getting excited to celebrate Resurrection Sunday and Easter together tomorrow.

I'm excited to be with Trinity Bible and to do that with you.

As we enter this day, it seems as though this is the saddest day that you could

possibly imagine, specifically for Jesus' disciples.

I mean, they've poured years of their life into this man, and even though he's

told them numerous times that this was going to be his fate,

that he would rise again after three days, they had never seen that before.

No one had ever seen that before.

They'd seen the living Jesus raise dead people from the grave,

but they didn't know that Jesus was going to be raised from the grave himself,

and become a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

And so as he lays there, as Corinthians tells us, he was buried.

It's incredibly important to remind ourselves that he was buried.

1 Corinthians 15, 4, he was buried. He was buried.

Of course, we know he was raised on the third day, but you can imagine the grief

that comes over people as they realize that this man who they had put so much hope in is now gone.

And the disciples are huddled up in an upper room trying to figure out what

the next steps for their life is.

They're inextricably conjoined to Jesus. Everyone knows them as Jesus' disciples.

Judas has gone on and he's collected his money for doing what he did.

He feels incredibly guilty, but no repentance in sight.

And you got to imagine for a lot of the people, they're moving on already.

Crucifixion was not a rare occurrence in Roman culture.

And so for them, it was, man, this guy seemed really important,

but the Romans got their way again.

And the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees and the Jews that have been plotting to

kill him, you know, they're nervous because of what he said he was going to do.

But at the same time, you've got to think that they're feeling pretty good about where they're at.

But it's even interesting to note that the Romans didn't really care what you did with a body.

I mean, they would leave a body on the cross for days and then take it down

and burn it or dispose of it however they saw fit. But the Jews had actually

been commanded to bury the body the same day.

In Deuteronomy 21, it says, If a man has committed a crime punishable by death

and he is put to death, you hang him on a tree. His body shall not remain all

night on a tree, but you shall bury him the same day.

It's just an interesting tidbit here because what we see is this rich man that

shows up in all four Gospels.

There's not a lot of names that show up in every single Gospel, but this rich man is.

And this is also a fulfillment of prophecy. Isaiah 53.9, they made his grave

with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.

The wicked is plural, but the rich man is singular.

Right? This is a fulfillment of prophecy.

Matthew introduces him as a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph,

who was a disciple of Jesus.

I love what John chapter 19 includes about him.

John 19 · chapter mention

It says, after these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus,

but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.

This is a disciple of Jesus, but a secret disciple. He hasn't jumped all in with Jesus.

He reveres Jesus. He loves Jesus, but not publicly yet.

It's almost as if the resurrection is a motivation for him to step out and say,

I love this man and I want his body and I'm going to bury him in some tombs

that I have access to because of my wealth.

It's such an interesting thing. Luke tells us that he was a member of the council,

a good and righteous man who had not consented to their decision and action

to crucify Jesus, and he was looking for the kingdom of God.

Isn't that interesting?

That this rich man was looking for the kingdom of God. Little did he know he

was seeing it on display on the cross.

All of a sudden he has the courage to do what many did not, to ask Pilate for Jesus' body.

Another member that shows up here from the Jewish council is Nicodemus,

who we know famously visited Jesus, and we have that recorded in John 3,

when he's trying to figure out what it means to be saved and to be saved.

Granted entrance into God's kingdom. And Jesus says, you must be born again.

And Nicodemus, trying to figure this out, is saying, what do you mean I must be born again?

Should I go back in my mother's womb? And Jesus calmly answers that the spirit blows where it wills.

God does what he wants to do. This is God's plan all along to save sinners.

And Nicodemus comes in and he's also going to help out in this burial.

It's interesting in the life of Jesus, he tells people that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

Now in death, a man arises to honor him and bury him in a dignified tomb where

even rich men could rest.

In a way, Joseph substitutes his

own place of burial for one he soon would discover had died to redeem him.

And this is a picture of the Christian life. Jesus says anyone who wants to

save their life will lose it.

And that's what's going on here, that you give your life away to Christ.

You do everything you can to serve Him and to love Him and to do what He asks you to do.

And it will seem as though, especially to the world, that you are giving your

life away because so much of your money and time and effort and the way you

live your life and the things you will have to give up and the injustices you

will have to endure because you follow Christ,

people will look at you and go, how could you do that?

And Jesus goes, if you don't give your life away, you will lose it.

If you invest in yourself and all you do is think about what you can gain and

what you can muster from people, you'll lose your life.

And this is just a little picture where Joseph of Arimathea steps in and says,

I'll give up one of the places where I am to be buried for the one that died for me.

So again, after the horrors of Good Friday, some hope appears for those with eyes to see.

There was a faint whisper here of hope that they did not break his legs,

as the prophet foretold.

Of course, he's going to be buried, and they're going to put a stone in front of his tomb.

They're going to put armed guards there to make sure that for them, no one steals the body.

That's what they're assuming is going to happen, is somebody's going to try

and steal this body so that they can make it look like Jesus has risen from the dead.

Of course, that won't be what happens. Jesus will rise from the dead.

And this is our ultimate hope and comfort, that we too will rise from the dead,

that we too will not experience death, that to be absent from the body is to

be present with the Lord, not because of something we've earned,

because of the Lord passing through death on our behalf,

drinking the cup of wrath from God, our sins and sorrows on his head.

This may seem like a small comfort at times if you've lost a loved one recently

or if you yourself are going through a difficult health situation where you

don't know if tomorrow is guaranteed for you.

Not that any of us do, but it's certainly more poignant at times in our life.

We can look at Jesus as he is buried, truly dead and buried,

to know we will rise like Jesus rises if we trust in Him, if we give our lives away to Him.

And we will not lose our lives. In fact, we will gain true life with the Father forever.

Thank you guys for joining me again. Again, excited about Easter.

I hope you have a church to worship with tomorrow. If you don't,

we would love to have you at Trinity Bible Church.

It's such a joy to be with the saints and to worship Christ Jesus every Sunday.

But and a special reminder on Easter.

So pray that you get up, get to church, find somewhere to worship,

glorify Jesus in all you do.

Remember Christ is Lord, Christ is King. Thank you guys.