Title: Death, Burial and Resurrection
Text: 1 Cor 15: 3-4
Date: March 29, 2018
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
My subject tonight is the “Death, Burial and Resurrection
of Christ.”
This weekend most will preach on this
subject. But I will not be stealing anyone’s subject tonight because I will by
no means exhaust the subject. The gospel ought to preached every time we stand
in the pulpit
Proposition: The
death, burial and resurrection of Christ is of utmost importance because this
is the gospel of our salvation.
But I wonder how many will preach this
subject this weekend as the apostle Paul did and as all Christ’s faithful
ministers do?
I wonder how many will preach the gospel—1 Corinthians 15: 1: Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
There is only one gospel—the gospel. The definite article declares there is only one gospel. Everywhere the word “gospel” is used in
scripture it is preceded by the definite article—the gospel. The only exceptions are in cases like this—
Galatians 1: 6:
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel: 7:
Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the
gospel of Christ.
And just as there is only one gospel, there
is only one means by which God chose to deliver it—1 Corinthians 15: 1: Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you…
The means God chose to save his people, from
first hour to last hour, is through preaching.
Also, the Spirit of God makes all his people
do something when they hear the gospel—1
Corinthians 15: 1…which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2: By
which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless
ye have believed in vain.
The Spirit of God makes all his people receive
the gospel, stand in the gospel, be saved by the gospel and persevere in the
gospel.
Furthermore, the gospel is the salvation of all who Christ redeemed—1 Corinthians 15: 3: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received,
Christ’s preacher is saved by the same gospel
as all Christ’s people. His preacher is saved by the same message he is sent to
preach. Paul said, “I delivered unto you
first of all the very same gospel by which I was saved.”
Now here is the gospel—first, 1 Corinthians 15: 3…how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures; secondly 1 Corinthians 15: 4: And
that he was buried, [according to the scriptures]; thirdly, 1 Corinthians 15: 4 and that he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures:
I am certain this Easter weekend everyone
will preach on the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. But how many will
preach—according to the scriptures? The scriptures he is speaking of are the old
testament scriptures—the new testament was not completed yet. Throughout the gospels as
we read about our Lord’s crucifixion we continually read that the things done
to him by the hands of wicked men were done “that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”
So for our divisions we will look first at “Christ’s
death according to the scriptures”; secondly, “Christ’s burial according to the
scritpures;” and thirdly, “Christ’s resurrection according to the scriptures.”
CHRIST’S DEATH ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES
1 Corinthians 15: 3:…how
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
Who Died?
The statement begins, “Christ died.” This tells us his office. “Christ” means
“anointed.” Who died? God’s anointed.
God’s anointed is God’s choice servant.
Isaiah 42: 1: Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine
elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles….3:…he shall bring forth judgment unto
truth. 4: He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in
the earth: and the [Gent]isles shall wait for his law.
In Genesis, the scriptures declare he who
died is the GodMan who conquered the devil by allowing the devil to wound him.
God said to the devil,
Genesis 3: 15: And I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel.
In Isaiah, scriptures declare that the “seed
of woman” means he is the GodMan and much, much more.
Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a
sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Immanuel means God with us. The “seed of woman” means he is the
GodMan. His body was formed in the womb
of the virgin by the Holy Spirit without the aid of a man. The Son of God took flesh and dwelt among us
in flesh just like ours but he was sinless.
Isaiah 9: 6:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:…
He is a Man child born and he is God the Son
given.
Isaiah 9: 6:…and the government shall be upon his
shoulder:…
This one who died is responsible for the government
of heaven and earth, the government of God’s house and the government of his own
kingdom.
Isaiah 9: 6:…and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father…
That one who hung on the cross is the great
mystery of godliness, the whole counsel of God, God in human flesh. He is the
never ending Father of all those born of him; that declares he is the last
Adam, the Head of his house.
Isaiah 9: 6:…The Prince of Peace. 7: Of the increase of his government and peace there shall
be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and
to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.
He is the true King of the true Israel of
which David was a type.
Isaiah 9: 7:…The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform
this.
The one who died is the LORD of hosts in
human flesh. All of this is so important
because as Man, Christ could shed his blood and die; as Man he could suffer being tempted so that he is able to succor his brethren who are tempted. And
as God, everything he accomplished by his death is eternal.
What Kind of Death Was It?
A vicarious death. Christ’s death was a vicarious death or substitionary
death or penal death meaning Christ Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, was made sin
for someone in particular and died for them that they might live—“Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.” All have sinned and sin must be punished
because God is just. So God sent his Son
to bear the sin and the penalty owed to God’s justice for those he saves, upholding
his law while justifying them from their sins.
Isaiah 53: 4: Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried
our sorrows:…5: he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement
of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6: All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all.
Scriptures declares Christ’s substitionary
death in all the lambs that bled and died from the beginning. According to scripture
in the garden, God slew a lamb instead of Adam and Eve and made coats of skins
to cover their nakedness. According to scripture
Abel came to God with the blood of a lamb which was slain in Abel’s place. According to scripture the Passover lamb died
for the firstborn in Israel—judgment was poured out on the lamb instead of the
firstborn sons. Therefore when God came to judge and saw the blood of the lamb
on the doorpost, he passed over the firstborn sons in Israel. According to scripture, the lamb on the day
of atonement died for the children of Israel so by the blood of the lamb, ceremonially,
atonement was made for another year for the children of Israel.
Leviticus 17: 11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it
to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Hebrews 9: 22: And almost all things are by the law purged
with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
So all those lambs typified Christ’s
vicarious death. Therefore, when Christ came, John pointed to him and declared,
“Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world.”(Jn 1: 29)
A purposed death. In scriptures
God says the death of Christ was determined from eternity.
Isaiah 46: 9…I am God, and there is none like me, 10:
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
In the
death of Christ we see that God always works what he purposed from the
beginning. A few days before he was crucified, the chief priests and elders met
in the palace of the high priest and counseled to take his life. So they
fulfilled what God determined before in Psalm 2:2, “the rulers take counsel together.”
Then Judas entered covenant with them to betray Christ for 30 pieces of
silver fulfilling what God determined before to be done. Scripture says: “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I
trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” (Ps 41:9) “…they weighed for my
price thirty pieces of silver.”
(Zec 11:12) So we see Christ’s death
was a purposed death. There are no accidents with God! God does everything on
purpose, especially the salvation of his people.
A voluntary death. According to the
scriptures, Christ declared his willingness to lay down his life to fulfill God
his Father’s will:
Psalm 40: 6:
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7: Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8: I delight to do thy will, O my God:
yea, thy law is within my heart.
John 10: 18: No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down
of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my Father.
When did
the Father give Christ that commandment? He gave him that commandment when he “opened
his ear” telling him all his purpose and they entered into the covenant of
redemption in eternity before the world was made.
A spiritual, eternal and physical death. I have
declared this often. But John Gill does a great job of showing this so I will
borrow from him. Christ endured a spiritual and eternal
death in his soul—not death of his soul—death in his soul. Adam died a spiritual, eternal and physical death
because of his transgression. That is what justice pays when it scripture says
“the wages of sin is death.” Adam
died all three, so the last Adam, in order to deliver those for whom he died had
to suffer all three.
Spiritual
death (moral death) is a loss of the image of God when God withdraws his
presence due to a person being made sin. For a man it results in the loss of
righteousness, being impotent to that which is good, an inclination, bias, and
servitude of the mind to that which is evil. But Christ is God the Son—the GodMan. We see how faithful Christ is to God the
Father as his servant because when God separated himself from Christ due to him
being made sin, Christ resisted striving against sin so that he remained holy
and faithful to God in his soul. In
Hebrews 12, we are exhorted to consider Christ when we grow weary because “ye have not resisted unto blood, striving
against sin.” (Heb 12: 4) In the
garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, Christ sweat great drops of blood
because he was resisting and striving against sin. So as John Gill points out, he endured
everything about spiritual death, short of being polluted: he endured a
darkness of soul, distress of soul, total lack of spiritual joy and comfort,
agony, his soul being sorrowful even unto death, the weight of his people’s sins,
the weight of God’s wrath. All of this was expressed when he said “my heart is like wax; it is melted in the
midst of my bowels.” (Ps 22:14)
Eternal
death is everything Christ endured while he was alive on the cross which was equal
to the sufferings of the wicked in hell for eternity. Gill says “Eternal death consists in these
two things, punishment of loss, and punishment of sense: [punishment of loss]
is eternal separation from God…“Depart
from me, ye cursed”; [punishment of sense] is an everlasting sense of the
wrath of God, expressed by “everlasting
fire”. He endured the punishment of
loss while he suffered the loss of his Father’s gracious presence, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!
And he endured the punishment of sense, when…[God’s] wrath was poured out like
fire upon him;…and “the sorrows of hell”
compassed him about, (Psalm 89:38 22:14 18:5)…And Christ being an infinite
Person, was able to bear the whole of [eternal punishment] at once; and the
infinity of his Person, abundantly compensates for the eternity of the
punishment.”
Oh, bless
God, brethren, spiritual, eternal and physical death is the death Christ died
so that now the justice of God demands all for whom he died be delivered from spiritual
death in regeneration, from physical death in resurrection and from eternal
death in judgment. That brings us to the
last kind of death it was.
A victorious death. Christ did not make salvation possible—he accomplished
it.
Isaiah 53:10: Yet it pleased [satisfied] the LORD to
bruise him; he hath put him to
grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of
the LORD shall prosper [succeed] in his hand. 11: He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
[satisfied] by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Daniel 9:24: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people
and upon thy holy city, to finish
the transgression, and to make
an end of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and
prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
When Christ
is preached according to the scriptures he is the only Christ who is victorious
who accomplished redemption for those for whom he died all by himself on the
cross. All other Christ’s that men preach only make redemption possible depending
upon the sinner’s cooperation. The true Christ of scripture accomplished
redemption for his people.
For Whom Did He Die?
Our text
says “Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures.” The “our”
includes Paul. Whoever he is writing to is who Christ died for. He says in 1
Corinthians 1: 2 that he is writing to “the
church of God.” The church of God
is made up only of those God chose in Christ, not based on any good or evil in
us. God’s elect are from among Jew and Gentile.
Noah
was a Gentile. The nation Israel did not exist. According to scripture, Noah
was saved because God chose him freely in Christ by his grace. That is what
scripture means when it says:
Genesis 6:8: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Abraham
was God’s elect. He was a spiritually dead idolater. But God had chosen Abraham and Christ was his
Surety. Therefore, the Lord preached the gospel to Abraham and called him out
of that land of idolatry while passing by his natural family.
Genesis 12: 1:
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy
kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2: And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a
blessing: 3: And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed.
Those God
families God promised to bless are God’s elect among Jew and Gentile scattered
among all families of the earth. Let’s see that in the apostle Paul’s message
on that passage:
Galatians 3: 6
:…Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Abraham
believed God and righteousness was imputed to him for or because Christ made
him righteous as his Surety.
Galatians 3: 7:
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. 8: And the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel
unto Abraham, saying, In thee
shall all nations be blessed. 9:
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
That
means they are chosen by God the Father, redeemed by Christ the Son,
regenerated, given faith and called out by the Holy Spirit like Abraham. So we
see God’s church are his elect whom God chose freely by his sovereign grace in
Christ in eternity according to his good pleasure. They are those for whom Christ died. So God says to all that he sends preaching the gospel:
Isaiah 40: 1:
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2: Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received
of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.
CHRIST’S BURIAL ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES
1 Corinthians 15: 4: And that he was buried…according to the scriptures
Much
could be said about our Savior’s lifeless body buried in the tomb. But I want to show you one thing that blessed
my heart and I trust will bless yours. Christ’s
burial in the tomb was one more declaration among many that Christ is the only
one who ever fulfilled the law of God.
Turn to Numbers 19. Here is the law of the red heifer which typified
Christ.
Numbers 19:1: And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto
Aaron, saying, 2: This is the ordinance of the law
which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that
they bring thee a red heifer
without spot, wherein is no
blemish, and upon
which never came yoke: 3: And
ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp,
and one shall slay her before his face: 4: And Eleazar the priest shall
take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the
congregation seven times: 5: And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin,
and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn: 6: And the priest shall take
cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. 7: Then the priest shall wash
his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come
into the camp, and the priest
shall be unclean until the even. 8:
And he that burneth her
shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be
unclean until the even. 9: And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer,
and lay them up without the camp in a
clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children
of Israel for a water of separation: it is a
purification for sin. 10: And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer
shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be
unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them,
for a statute for ever.
“A
man that is clean shall gather” what was left of the sacrifice after
it had been burned in the fire. This was
a man who WAS clean by keeping the ceremonial law of Moses. He was not clean before God by his
law-keeping. But he was clean ceremonially in that he kept the ceremonial law
as the law of Moses commanded.
He was to
“lay
them up without the camp in
a clean place.” The remains
of the sacrifice had to be buried without the camp in clean place. A clean
place was anywhere that had not been touched by a dead body. If a dead body had touched it, it was unclean;
if no dead body had touched it then it was a clean place.
What does
this law have to do with Christ’s burial?
After Christ suffered without the camp, after he endured the fire of
God’s wrath until it was put out toward his people, after he commended his
spirit into the hands of his Father, after the soldier pierced his heart and
water and blood flowed out of his side assuring them he was dead, we read:
Luke 23: 50:
And, behold, there was a man
named Joseph,
He was a
rich man. Isaiah prophesied that Christ “made his grave with the wicked and with the
rich in his death.” (Is 53: 9)
Luke 23: 50:…a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just:
Mark says
he was an “honourable counsellor.” Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin. But unlike the rest, the
Holy Spirit says that Joseph was an honourable counsellor. The Holy Spirit says that he was “just” meaning he was “righteous, right,
innocent, and faultless” in his dealings with men. He observed
the ceremonies of the law. Like Saul of Tarsus “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blamless.” (Php 3:
5) Therefore, as far as the ceremonial
law went, he was a clean man.
Luke 23: 51:
(The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the
Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.
Up until
this time, he was “a disciple of Jesus,
but secretly for fear of the Jews” (Jn 19:38) But though he kept it a
secret, he did not consent to the counsel and deed of the others to crucify
Christ. But as he beheld Christ and him
crucified, the Holy Spirit gave him boldness to confess Christ publicly.
Luke 23: 52: This man
went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. 53: And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a
sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein
never man before was laid.
This
clean man took the lifeless body of Christ after he suffered the fiery wrath of
God without the camp and laid it in a clean place. So the law of the red heifer was fulfilled
exactly like Christ fulfilled all the law and the prophets and redeemed his
people. Oh, how we thank God that we can
rest in Christ from all our works of the law by which we once tried to gain God’s
favor and acceptance.
CHRIST’S RESURRECTION ACCORDING TO THE
SCRIPTURE
1 Corinthians 15: 4:…and that he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures.
Why is the
resurrection of Christ so important?” Verse 14 and 17 says “If Christ be not risen then is our preaching
vain, and your faith is also vain;…ye are yet in your sins.” (1 Cor 15:14,
17) What all is declared by the resurrection of Christ from the dead?
The divinity
of Christ. Everything
which Christ declared about himself, including that he is one with God his Father,
finds its surest proof in his resurrection. The apostle Paul said that Christ
was:
Romans 1: 4: …declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”
Christ’s sovereignty. Christ’s
sovereignty as the glorified GodMan as Head of his church is also declared by his resurrection—
Romans 4: 9: To this end Christ both died, and rose, and
revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Ephesians 1: 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in
Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21: Far above all principality, and power, and might, and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in
that which is to come: 22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that
filleth all in all.
Justification. Justification
for his people is declared by Christ’s resurrection.
Romans 4: 25: He was delivered for our offenses, and was
raised again for our justification.
Be sure
to understand that by dying Christ made satisfaction for the sins of his people.
He rose again as our head and representative and was legally discharged,
acquitted, and justified, and we in him. But Christ's resurrection did not
procure the justification of his people. That was done by his obedience and
death. His resurrection testifies to every believer that it is done. His resurrection declares to us that he fully
atoned for our sin and brought in everlasting righteousness for us by his
death. And his resurrection is for our
justification in that he is given the glory to apply his blood and see his
righteousness imputed to those he made righteous.
Regeneration. The new birth of all his people from death to
life is the result of Christ’s resurrection. Peter
says
1 Peter 1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Repentance and forgiveness of sins. These two great blessings are ours by Christ’s
resurrection.
Acts 5: 31: Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to
give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
Our resurrection. Our final resurrection depends upon Christ’s resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15: 20:
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and
become the firstfruits of them that slept.
They
offered the firstfruits that came out of the ground to the LORD in expectation
of God’s promised blessing whereby he gave them fruit in abundance. Christ is the Firstfruits. He arose out of
the grave to the right hand of God the Father. By him all his people shall be
raised.
1 Corinthians 15: 21: For since by man came
death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. 22: For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23: But every man in his own order:
Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 24: Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority
and power. 25: For he must
reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26: The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. 27: For he hath put all things under
his feet….51: Behold, I shew you
a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52: In a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality. 54: So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory. 55: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56: The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57: But thanks be
to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, brethren, that is the death, burial and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the scriptures. May God be
pleased to bless
it.
Amen!