debunking the death myth – more than a man series · and muslims do not believe that jesus died...

DEBUNKING THE DEATH MYTH – MORE THAN A MAN SERIES

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Did Jesus really die? Or was it just a myth? Did Jesus actually die on the cross?

Did His flesh actually die? Or was all of this just a bunch of fairy tales and fantasy? I

shared with you last week how Jesus had two natures. He has a divine nature and a

human nature. That is to say that Jesus existed before He existed. He existed as God

eternally before He became a man. And Jesus as God didn’t die on the cross, because if

God dies we die. The second law of thermodynamics is expedited immediately. Jesus is

the sustainer of the universe. He is the one that holds us up.

And so God didn’t die, because God exists. He is self-existent. God can’t die,

but Jesus took on flesh, and the question is did His flesh really die? Did the humanity of

Jesus die or not? I mean, do you believe it did? If you are getting uncomfortable at this

point with my questioning, you should be, because He did die on the cross. But there are

many people throughout church history, as you go through the ages, who would contest

the fact that Jesus literally died.

So what I want to do this morning is I want to debunk the death myth. I want to

debunk the death myth because it is important for you to understand that Jesus did indeed

die on the cross. Now some of you might think this is outlandish that I would even bring

it up. It is not! In fact if we go back to about AD 120 to 160, Marcion was alive. And

Marcions rejected the fact that Jesus had flesh. So Marcion said that Jesus didn’t really

have flesh at all. And when you think about that we need to realize that that was a

heresy.

And Basilides, that was alive in AD 120 to 140, also had a rampant heresy.

Basilides said this: “Jesus didn’t die on the cross, Simon the Cyrene is the one who died.”

And Basilides said that when Simon the Cyrene came to help Jesus bear the cross, in that

moment on the Via Dolorosa on the way to the cross, what happened was their forms

changed. And so Jesus took on the form of Simon the Cyrene and Simon the Cyrene

took on the form of Jesus. And he said that Jesus sat there laughing as the soldiers took

Simon off to the cross thinking it was Him.

Sometimes it is just easier to believe the truth, folks. Then there was another

heresy that said Jesus didn’t die, and it was known as Docetism and maybe you have

heard about that. Remember that because we are going to come back to that in a little bit.

Gnosticism was another belief that was rampant, and John the Apostle was dealing with

Gnosticism in the books of I John and II John. We also see a little bit of it in John’s

gospel.

And Gnosticism was this belief that the material world was evil and the

immaterial world was good. And so they made this false dichotomy with Jesus and

basically denied the fact that He would have had real flesh and they would focus on

maybe the spirit of the Christ. And the way that someone gets saved is through Gnosis


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which is a secret knowledge that you have to be saved. And so this was another heretical

teaching.

But then Islam began to build out, and we heard that Muhammad experienced a

revelation from God in a cave. At first he thought it was the fact that he was being

demon possessed. So Muhammad would go out of that cave and his wife would tell him

that he was not demon possessed. She told him he needed to go back into that cave and

realize that God was giving him revelation.

And usually guys, it is a good idea to listen to our wives, but in this case it would

have been wise to not listen to the wife’s advice. Because in this particular scenario I

believe Muhammad was demon possessed. And Muslims do not believe that Jesus died

on the cross. They don’t believe that Allah would subject one of the prophets to that type

of death. And so what Muslims believe is that Allah had someone that looked like Jesus

die in His place.

I can even show you that from the Koran that I brought up here that I read a few

years ago. Surah 4, and we need to understand that a Surah is the Muslims way of saying

chapter. So in Surah 4, 157 this is what the Koran says: “That they said in boast we

killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the apostle of God, but they killed him not nor

crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them. And those who differ therein are full

of doubts with no certain knowledge, but only conjecture to follow. For of a surety they

killed him not.”

This was from the Koran, so the Koran rejects the fact that Jesus died on the

cross. And not only that we have the ‘swoon theory’ that came into play in the 18th and

19th centuries. And the swoon theory says that Jesus on the cross didn’t die; He merely

passed out and became unconscious. And then once He was put into the tomb He revived

to consciousness and then moved the stone away and went away. And that is their story.

There are these different theories, so what am I talking about today? I want to

debunk the death myth. I want to debunk the myth that says Jesus didn’t die. And I want

to show you archeologically, I want to show you Biblically that Jesus Christ died on a

cross for our sins.

So let’s go to John’s gospel again. Now we have been traveling through this

series for almost two years called ‘More Than a Man.’ And as we come to John Chapter

19 you will remember that last week in the passage Jesus died on a cross. He died on a

cross for the sins of the world. Jesus went through a horrific death on the cross. He cried

out ‘tetelestai’ which in Aramaic means ‘it is finished.’

Now we are placed in context with Jesus having died and hearts are torn up that

loved Him. Others are throwing a party celebrating. Storms and earthquakes have


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broken out and are raging. And now Jesus Christ will no longer be walking down the

dusty roads of Palestine. He is gone. He is dead. And His body is there. So what do

they do with the body of Jesus? John is going to help us in this passage to really

understand that Jesus really did die.

Let’s look in John Chapter 19 and verse 31. “Since it was the day of

Preparation, and the Preparation day is the day before the Sabbath. “And so that the

bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high

day); the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken

away.” Now it is important for us to understand that Jesus indeed died. Without the

crucifixion, we would be without Christianity. Without a cross we have no Christianity.

Without the cross you have no hope. You are still in your sins. You still have guilt.

Without the cross we are deceived. We have bought into a myth. Without the cross we

have no hope beyond the grave that we are going to go to heaven.

Do you believe in the cross this morning? Is the cross sacred to you or is it a

gimmick? Sometimes when I am standing in line at a grocery store I see someone that

is wearing a cross, or if I am at Subway getting a sandwich I may see that someone has a

cross on, so I will ask them - ‘what does that cross mean to you?’ I want to hear from

them. And sometimes they have no idea how to answer what the cross means to them.

And it is a travesty to wear the cross as a gimmick, as a marketing scheme. The cross

symbolizes the Christ who died in our stead. It would be likened today to walking

around with an electric chair on a rope around your neck. It would just be a form of

death.

Jesus died on a cross for our sins. And it says as we read in verse 31, since it was

a day of preparation so that the bodies wouldn’t remain on the cross on the Sabbath, the

Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, so that they might be taken away. Now

it was normal for a victim being crucified to take several days for that person to die. Yet

Jesus was crucified at 9a and basically was dead at about 3p. So it took six hours for

Jesus Christ to die. And some who were skeptical about Jesus dying on a cross said it

was not true, that it was a myth because there was no way He would have died in six

hours when it usually took several days.

But what they are discounting is the horrific pre-torture that Jesus went through

before He made His way to the cross. You will remember that He was sweating great

drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. You will remember that they beat Him

with a cat of nine tails. And I shared with you how there was a Jewish whipping and a

Roman whipping. The Jews would not beat someone with a cat of nine tails more than

40 times. In fact they would stop at 39 times, because if they went over 40 they would

incur the same punishment.


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But the Romans had no boundary. And that is why if you have ever seen ‘The

Passion of the Christ,’ Jesus is whipped more than 40 times because He took a Roman

beating. And that whip had leather strings with bones, glass and metal attached to the

ends of the strips. And as they would whip Jesus it would attach to His flesh and when

they yanked it His flesh would go flying in all sorts of directions.

I know this is graphic, but as I said a few weeks ago, I cannot give you a cleaned

up version of the gospel. The gospel is messy. The gospel is disastrous with what took

place there. The gospel has glory and the gospel has horror. Jesus was beaten, spit upon,

mocked, they put a crown of thorns on His head and then they took Him to a cross and it

took Him six hours to die.

So the Jews came and they wanted to take the bodies down. Why? It was

because it was the preparation day for the Sabbath and they did not want anything

unclean, like a dead body on the cross. In fact if they touched a dead body they were

considered unclean for seven days according to Old Testament law. So they needed to

bring these bodies down. Basically Pilate acquiesced to their suggestion, and he placates

them because he knows this is Passover season and there were a lot of Jews from the

surrounding nations that have come together to celebrate the Passover.

So it is a little bit different though because the Romans when it came to

crucifixion, they would let the victims stay up there as long as need be. Why? It was

because the Romans wanted people to understand a powerful point. The Romans wanted

those passer byers to fear Caesar. The Romans wanted the passer byers to want to uphold

the law. And so basically the crucifixions served as a deterrent to further evil. So that is

what was going on.

Now only that, once the body died that carcass would remain on the cross and the

vultures of the air would come along and pick away at the flesh and it would be a horrific

X-rated scene to walk by and see this gore on the cross. So this is the scenario and the

Jews asked that the legs of the victims might be broken which begs the question - why?

The reason is, and I shared this with you last week, when a victim was being crucified

they were basically laid down on a horizontal post and they took their hands and put long

nails right through the wrists. And then they would lift the victim up and put them on a

vertical post and put nails through basically their ankle area.

And what would happen in that scenario then, as they were on the cross, in order

to breathe they would have to push down with their arms and push up with their legs

because if they didn’t do that, they would suffocate. And so in order to get air into the

cavity of their chest they would have to do these motions to inhale oxygen. And if they

didn’t do it they would soon suffocate. So that is what Jesus was going through. As I

said before this was very excruciating, and in fact the word excruciating is a Latin phrase


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that means ‘from the cross.’ So when you say you are in excruciating pain, you are

identifying with a cross like type of pain.

So here Jesus was on the cross being crucified and they Jews wanted to break the

bones of these victims so that they could die and be taken off the cross before tomorrow.

The Jews were very ritualistic and Pilate knew he needed to placate them in this

particular situation, because he knew it would cause a riot if he didn’t. So the Roman

soldiers would go over to the victims and they would shatter the knees of those on the

cross. They would use an iron mallet and they would shatter the knees. And once the

knees were broken they couldn’t use their legs to push up and get oxygen so they

wouldn’t be able to breathe. They could still push down with their arms but they would

not be able to push up with their legs after their knees were shattered.

Archeological discoveries are just fascinating. I have shared with you how Jesus

stood before Caiaphas, and how archeologists have discovered Caiaphas’ family tomb

and his bone box. Think about that. We have the bones of Caiaphas, the Jewish high

priest that Jesus stood before. And we talked about how archeologists found an

inscription written to Pilate that was also discovered. They have excavated Nazareth.

Not only that, but north of Jerusalem they found bones of a crucified victim and

interestingly enough the crucified victim’s kneecap bones had all been shattered. Why?

It was because the Romans would take an iron mallet to break the kneecaps to expedite

the crucified victim’s death.

And by the way the breaking of the bones was a Latin term, crurifragium, and it

means the breaking of the bones of crucified felons. And the Jews wanted these victims

dead and taken down before the Sabbath. They would then take the bodies down and

take them to Gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom. And the Valley of Hinnom is the place

in the Old Testament where people who were idol worshippers, or worshippers of Molech

and worshippers of Baal, would be taken. These worshippers would take children and

sacrifice them in fire to the god of Molech or to their Baal god.

So sometimes when I hear people say they think Jesus must be coming soon

because we have grown so wicked here in America, I always think that is true, but I don’t

hear a lot about people sacrificing their children in America. And we can’t miss the fact

that sin is sin and sin was evil even then. And it will get more evil during the

eschatology, the end times, as the Holy Spirit restrains Himself from working gracefully

to protect people from sin.

And Gehenna was also a garbage dump located right outside of Jerusalem where

people would take their trash. Gehenna is the word that translates into English as ‘hell.’

It is the Greek word that translates in English as ‘hell.’ And it is the word that Jesus

talked about. It was a garbage dump where the flames never stopped burning away the


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garbage. And these criminals would be taken off the cross and taken to the garbage

dump.

Now let’s pick up and read again beginning in verse 32. “So the soldiers came

and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been 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 at once there came out

blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness - his testimony is true, and he

knows that he is telling the truth - that you also may believe.”

How is John debunking the death myth right here? He is debunking it a couple of

ways. First, the Roman soldiers came up and it says they did not break the bones of

Jesus because they said that He was already dead. Secondly, they didn’t have to break

His bones. Third, they pierced His side. And so John is giving some evidence. He is

saying that he is telling them this because he wants them to believe. And it is plausible

that he is dealing with those who are the Docetists.

Docetism comes from the Greek word doketai and it means ‘to seem’ or ‘to

appear.’ So put your thinking cap on a second. Doketai, to seem or to appear creates this

belief Docetism, and Docetism is the belief that Jesus only seemed or appeared to be

fleshly, but He was really just all God. And so the Docetists believed that Jesus really

wasn’t a human; He just appeared human but He was fully divine.

Contrary to that you had this other group of people known as the Ebionites, and

they believed that Jesus was all human, but they rejected His divinity. And you know we

end up with those kinds of camps today. People who so focus on the divinity of Christ

that they lose sight of the fact that He became a human. John Chapter 1 and verse 14

says, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Then we have those who focus so

much on His humanity that they don’t revere Him; they just sort of treat Him like a

buddy and forget that He is holy and transcendent and powerful and glorious.

And so John is telling them that he wants them to believe this. And so those who

would have been Docetists, rejecting the fact that Jesus died and only believing that He

only appeared to die, John is saying yes, He really did die. Blood and water flowed from

Him when they pierced Him.

The Roman soldiers would carry like a little small blade, a little dagger, but they

also carried like a 3 ½ foot long lance at the end of the spear. And one of the guards

would just simply poke them and pierce them through. And it says that water and blood

came out of Jesus’ body. And this is interesting because it shows that this is not mythic.

This is medical stuff that doctors would tell you today how blood and water could flow in

this type of scenario. Remember when I shared that Jesus was sweating great drops of


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blood and I said that it has been medically proven that your capillaries can burst under

great stress.

So what actually caused the water and the blood to flow out of Jesus? Well, D. A.

Carson in his fine commentary says this: “Medical experts disagree on what was

pierced. The two most common theories are these. The spear pierced Jesus’ heart and

the blood from the heart mingled with the fluid from the pericardial sac to produce the

flow of blood and water. So that is option A. When they pierced Jesus, did they pierce

His heart? Some would say that He died of a broken heart.

Option B by contrast it has been argued that fluid from the pericardial sac could

not so readily escape from the body by such a wound. It would fill up the chest cavity,

filling the space around the lung and then oozing into the lung itself through the wound

the spear made.

In tests performed on cadavers it has been shown that where a chest has been

severely injured but without penetration, hemorrhagic fluid up to two liters of it gathers

between the plural lining, the rib cage, and the lining of the lung. This separates the

clear serum at the top, the deep red layer at the bottom. If the chest cavity were then

pierced at the bottom, both layers would flow out. However the medical experts work

this out, there can be little doubt that the evangelist is emphasizing Jesus’ death, His

death as a man, and His death beyond any shadow of doubt.” So John is stressing to

them that Jesus Christ indeed died.

Let’s read verse 36. “For these things took place that the Scripture might be

fulfilled, “Not one of His bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says,

“They will look on Him whom they have pierced.” Here again more Scripture is being

fulfilled. “They will look on Him whom they have pierced.” And interestingly enough

this is a prophecy fulfillment of Zachariah Chapter 12 and verse 10, “They will look on

me whom they’ve pierced.”

And then “Not one of His bones will be broken,” is a prophecy fulfillment of

Psalm Chapter 34 and verse 20 as well as Exodus Chapter 12 and verse 46. And all along

the Bible has been pointing to the fact that Jesus Christ would die. And if you know your

Scriptures, you know that in Genesis Chapter 3 the fall happened, and basically sin

entered into the world. But in Genesis Chapter 3 and verse 16 the protoevangelium is

given, which is the first good news. It is prophesying of a Messiah who will come where

it says, “He will crush the serpent’s head with His heel.”

And the Bible as it unfolds before our very eyes just totally shows us a bunch of

prophecy unveiling. The Bible prophesied in Micah Chapter 5 and verse 2 that Jesus

would be born in Bethlehem. The Bible prophesied in Zachariah Chapter 12 and verse 10

that He would be pierced. We know that Isaiah Chapter 53 says that He was pierced for


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our transgressions. The Bible prophesied in Isaiah Chapter 53 the resurrection, that we

would see the light of His day. The Bible prophesied that He would be dead for three

days and three nights. Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will rise it up

again. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights so too

will the Son of man be in the belly of the earth.”

Jesus prophesied His death. He told His disciples that He would be put to death

and that they should look on Him as they did on the brazen serpent in the wilderness.

And over and over the Bible fulfilled prophesies that said that Jesus would be betrayed

for 30 pieces of silver. The Bible said that Jesus would be crucified between two thieves.

The Bible lets us know these things. The Bible tells us that He would feel forsaken in

Psalm Chapter 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

And we see the Scriptures showing us that Jesus would be born of a virgin in

Isaiah Chapter 7 and verse 14. That He would be God in the flesh in Isaiah Chapter 9

and verse 6. And over and over in the Bible it abundantly displays that a Savior is

coming and that Jesus is more than a man. The Bible prophesied Jesus would be born of

the tribe of Judah. It told us that He would be born in Bethlehem. It told us that He

would die in about AD 33 in Daniel Chapter 9 and verse 27. And the Bible over and over

affirms itself.

So if you are skeptical about Scripture, step back and be in awe that the Bible

foretold what was coming. This moment was coming and John is not going to let the

sceptics off. He is going to tell them that prophesy has been fulfilled. Jesus was a

prophet over and over again Himself. He told Peter he was going to deny Him three

times. He told Judas he was going to betray Him. Jesus knew what was coming.

And this is what is most beautiful to me. Please understand that Jesus is the

Passover Lamb. I want you to follow me here because I want to give you some rich

history as we move toward application. Passover first took place you will remember in

Egypt. The children of Israel were in Egyptian bondage for 400 years. And God raised

up Moses and told him he was to go and deliver His people out of Egypt. Moses was to

bring them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.

And what happened was Pharaoh was being stiff necked and so there had to be

ten plagues for Egypt. You will remember that the final plague was the death of the

firstborn son. And God told Moses to tell the people to offer up a firstborn lamb, a male

without blemish, and then to take the blood and apply it to the door posts. And when the

death angel passed over he would pass over the houses with the blood applied because

they were trusting in God. And we know that is what happened and God spared His

people because they were obedient in that moment.


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Then they went into the wilderness, and every year they would have Passover as a

celebration. And when Jesus comes on the scene He fulfills Passover. He literally dies

during Passover. So let me help you understand how this was fulfilled. Number one we

know that the Passover lamb had to be a male and we know that Jesus Christ was a male.

We know that the Passover lamb was to be without blemish and we know that Jesus was

without blemish. We know that the Passover lamb was to die at about three in the

afternoon and we know that Jesus Christ died at about three in the afternoon.

We know that the Passover lamb was to have no bones broken and we know that

Jesus had no bones broken. We know that the sins of the congregation were offered up

through the Passover lamb and we know that Christ is our Passover Lamb and His sins

were offered up for the world. We know that when the High Priest cut the throat of the

Passover lamb he would say, ‘It is finished,’ and we know that Jesus Christ before He

died on the cross said, ‘Tetelestai, it is finished.’ We know that each year the Passover

ceremony was repeated, but we know that Jesus Christ was the Passover Lamb, the

sacrifice once and for all.

You are looking at me like you aren’t stunned by this. This is amazing, amazing!

Did you get what I just told you? The last service went nuts when I told them this. They

came out of their seats because this is huge, folks. Jesus Christ fulfilled Scripture. He is

the Passover Lamb. It puts this in a whole new perspective when we go back to John

Chapter 1. And we remember John referring to John the Baptist when we were about to

be introduced to Jesus when John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes

away the sins of the world.” And that was Jesus. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes

away the sins of the world.” He fulfilled Passover, dying in our place. What a Savior!

Let’s read verse 38. “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a

disciple of Jesus,” we know that the other gospel accounts help us to understand that

Joseph was rich and that he was part of the Sanhedrin. “But secretly for fear of the

Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him

permission. So he came and took away His body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had

come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five

pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the

spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified

there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they

laid Jesus there.”

Notice in verse 38 it says Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple, but secretly for fear

of the Jews, he asked Pilate to take His body. And Nicodemus had come to Jesus by

night which we remember took place in John Chapter 3. And so we think about this idea

of these undercover disciples. I think this is how we get these undercover Christians,


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secret Christians. They don’t want anyone to really know that they are saved. They live

undercover. They are undercover agents for God. No one around them really knows that

they are Christians.

And can I say something? If you work in a place around people all the time and

they see your good moral deeds, and they see you as a good decent person, and you don’t

tell them it is because of Christ, they are going to look at you and they are going to think

your righteousness is self-attained. And that is atrocious. We do not want people that

we work with to think that we are good people because of our deeds. We want people to

realize that our life is changed because of Christ. And the Bible does not give us a 9 to 5

window where we can check out of the gospel.

When they arrested the disciples they told them to choose for themselves whom

they were to obey. The disciples then asked God to consider their threats and to give

them great boldness to preach the gospel as they ought. You do not have a license 9 to 5

to just be an undercover Nicodemus. Are you a Nicodemus? Are you a Joseph of

Arimathea, secretly going about your faith, trying to just keep it undercover? Or are you

like the Apostle Paul who could say in Romans Chapter 1 and verse 16: “For I am not

ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe.”

Don’t be ashamed of Christ. Don’t be an undercover Christian. Don’t be a secret

agent for God. Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 10 and verses 32 and 33: “If you confess

me before men, I will confess you before my Father who is in heaven. If you deny me

before men, I will deny you before my Father who is in heaven.”

Nothing is more satisfying than knowing you are living for Jesus and you are

living out loud. And people around you know that you are not being undercover agents

for God. It is tragedy to make those who work with you think that you are just a good

moral person because of your own self-attainment. We must give glory to God. We

must give glory where glory is due.

So Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were going to provide for Jesus’ burial.

And it says they, “by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-

five pounds in weight.” Now we know Mary gave a wonderful offering to Jesus when

she poured out that perfume all over Him. And I shared that in today’s language it would

have cost thousands of dollars. The disciples couldn’t understand what she was doing

because of the extravagance of it. And this is extravagant here too. This burial mixture

of myrrh and aloes was very costly. They were giving Jesus the burial of a king. They

may not have honored Him in His life, but they are honoring Him in His death.

They are wrapping Him up and they are putting myrrh and aloes on Him. Now all

that would do is it would help take away the stench of death as it would provide basically

a better aroma. The Jews were different than the Egyptians in burial practices. The


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Egyptians literally would embalm their bodies. The Jews would not embalm; they would

not cremate; they would just wrap the body in spices. But what these two men did for

Jesus was extravagant.

So they took the body, they wrapped it in spices and cloths and then they put it in

a tomb. So let’s turn in our Bibles now to Matthew Chapter 27 and verse 62. “The next

day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered

before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember how that imposter said, while He was still

alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until

the third day, lest His disciples go and steal Him away and tell the people, ‘He has

risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them,

‘You have a guard of soldiers, Go make it as secure as you can.’ So they went and

made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.”

Now I have a couple of thoughts that I want to share with you. There are some

that will say it was a hoax about the resurrection of Jesus. That Jesus didn’t raise from

the dead, but His disciples went and stole His body. Think about that. Would they really

steal His body and then be willing to go and die a martyr’s death? All but one of the

disciples died a martyr’s death. So that would be ludicrous. The disciples were living

with conviction. They saw something. Something had changed. They could hardly be

committed to Jesus during His earthly ministry, but after He rose from the grave they

were following hard after Him.

So there was a swoon theory, and let’s come back to that. This is the theory that I

said was discovered in the 18th to 19th century that said that Jesus didn’t die on the cross.

That all He did was pass out, and then after He was restored to consciousness He moved

the stone away and left. Let me just kind of help paint this picture. Sometimes it is

easier to believe the truth, folks, then it is to come up with all these myths.

Number one, Jesus is going to come back to consciousness? He has been beaten

with a cat of nine tails, He has been scourged, He has had a crown of thorns placed on

His head, He has been crucified and He had a spear piercing His side. They took Him off

the cross and wrapped Him up like a mummy in cloth with 75 pounds of spices. He was

placed in a tomb that was sealed with a stone that may have weighed a couple of

thousand pounds. So then He is going to restore Himself to consciousness, unwrap

Himself from this burial cloth. He is going to have enough strength after all that He has

gone through to move about two thousand pounds of granite and He is going to walk out

and say, ‘I have risen.’ Not to mention there was a guard that was out there making sure

that He wouldn’t come out.

This is what we know. I am trying to give you an apologetic for the death of

Christ so when you hear this stuff you will not buy into it in any way. We have talked


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about the death of Christ historically, archeologically and Biblically and about how He

died. Josephus was a Jewish historian and he talked about the fact that Christ died. We

know also as I mentioned last week that a Roman historian talked about it as well. And

so this should prove it to us.

This begs the question then - where did Jesus go when He died? If you have ever

read I Peter Chapter 3 and verse 18 and 19 it talks about how He went and He preached

to the spirits in prison. And this kind of brings up some questions that I am wrestling

through this puzzle myself if I can be honest. I am kind of at the place now where I

believe that Jesus’ body did die on the cross, but His Spirit would have gone to be with

the Father because He said, “Into your hands I commit my Spirit.” And Jesus also said

to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Now I know if you are a heavy duty student you might say, ‘But wait a second,

Bobby, that all depends where the comma is. Because Jesus could have said, ‘I tell you

the truth today,(comma) you will be with me in Paradise. So it is going to happen in the

future.’ Or did He say, ‘I tell you the truth, (comma) today you will be with me in

Paradise?’ And I think that nicely fits better with, “Into your hands I commit my

Spirit.” So if His Spirit went into the presence of God then you go back to I Peter and

read in Chapter 3 where He died and His Spirit was ascended. So it seems as though

resurrection happened afterwards, so it is plausible then in the sense that resurrection

happens and then He goes and speaks to the spirits who were in prison.

Now some of your minds are probably twisted a little bit right here in this

moment. But understand that the word that they used in the Old Testament to describe

the place the dead went was Sheol and it meant the underworld. The New Testament

equivalent was Hades. Now it was believed in Luke Chapter 16 about Lazarus that there

were these two compartments. You had the unbelievers who would be extracted out and

put in the lake of fire in the end times. And you also had those who were believers and

who would have been the spirits that Jesus went to speak to after the resurrection, to the

Old Testament saints who were waiting for Him to know that the atonement had been

finished so they could be released out of basically that sector into His presence. That is

one plausible thought.

I am wrestling with this because John Chapter 20 is going to come and you are

going to hear Jesus say to Mary, “Touch me not; for I have not yet ascended to my

Father.” So then you are going to think I may be contradicting myself there and I might

find out that I am. I might have to do some more studies, because it is possible that what

He is saying was not to touch His body but His Spirit had ascended already. I don’t

know for sure as I am having to think thorough this. I know that Thomas did touch the

body of Jesus, so now we have a pickle we are in. And you can pray for me as I try to

put this all together. Don’t you hate it when I just throw out some mystery at you?


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That is just a speculation and I bring it up because people do wonder where Jesus

was between His death and His resurrection. But at the end of the day - why did Jesus

die? Let’s get to the heart of the matter - why did Jesus die? Simon the Cyrene becomes

the substitutionary atonement for Jesus according to the Basilides, but when it comes to

what really happens Simon the Cyrene didn’t die in Jesus’ place. Jesus died in our place

on behalf of our sins. He was the Passover Lamb who said, “It is finished.” And the

entire sacrificial system was brought to the end of itself when Jesus Christ died.

And it is glorious! It is beautiful! And you can partake of this. The question is -

do you know Jesus this morning? Do you have a personal relationship with Him? Do

you believe that He died in your place? Because we are imperfect and an imperfect

person can’t go to a perfect place or we will mess it up. So Jesus died for all of our

imperfections. And as John MacArthur nicely said, “God treated Jesus as if He lived

your life so that He could treat you as if you lived His life.” Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for your word. I just pray that if there is anyone here today who

doesn’t know you that they will call on your name. I want people to believe in you, Lord.

I thank you for all the Jewish history that we got to draw out today and the details and

seeing how significant your death was. Thank you for the gospels. It has been the richest

Bible study I have ever done in my entire life. I can’t believe we are going to be

wrapping the gospel of John up in about four more weeks. I just pray, God, you will lead

us in prayerfully considering what to study next. I just pray, Father, that if there is

anyone in this room right now that is not saved, that doesn’t have a personal relationship

with you, if they are carrying around guilt, and if they know they would like to have their

sins forgiven and know their creator that they just need to believe in their heart and in the

quietness of their hearts ask you to forgive them and to save them. In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the

actual words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew

and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases.

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