About this sermon
1. Consider the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as first-order gospel truths (vv. 3-4a).
2. The Old Testament Scriptures anticipated the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (vv. 3-4).
3. The central importance of our Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection (vv. 3-4).
Sermon transcript
of God’s Word. Today my sermon text is 1 Corinthians 15, verses three and four. I’m gonna read the first 11 chapters, not the 11 chapters, the first 11. Boy, we’d be here a long time. The first 11 verses to put this passage in its larger context. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1-11. Hear God’s holy word. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12.
Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.
Please join me in your hearts in prayer. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we do pray that by your spirit you would once again open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. Make us eager to learn that which the spirit is speaking to us in this portion of your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible word. And we pray that you would once again set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful in your sight and edifying to your people. We pray all these things, Heavenly Father, through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. As we continue the Foundations of Faith series, we consider today the statement in the second credo, the second, I believe, statement of the Apostles’ Creed, that Christ our Savior was crucified, dead, and buried.
And the key words to be listening for in my sermon today, I’d encourage the children to listen for these words, the words faith, creed, scripture, doctrine, death, burial, and gospel. Well, my dear friends in Christ, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is important for us to have a basic idea of what we believe and of why we believe it. And towards that goal, it is helpful for us periodically to review the foundations of our faith. And that is what we’ve been seeking to do in this Foundations of Faith sermon series, a series which is, of course, being guided by that classic summary of Christian belief known as the Apostles’ Creed. Friends, as we continue our study of these foundational beliefs, this Lord’s Day morning we consider the biblical truths that are summarized, as I said, in the second credo, the second, I believe, statement of the Creed, namely that Christ, God’s only begotten Son, was crucified, dead, and buried, that is the focus of our consideration this morning.
And as a biblical foundation in support of this creedal affirmation, we turn this morning to Saint Paul the Apostle’s summary of the gospel that he preached, as we find that summary recorded for us in this very significant and central passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And we will focus, as I said, especially on verses three and four of this chapter. Now, let me put this chapter and, indeed, briefly put the entire letter of 1 Corinthians in its context. If you study, if you’ve read 1 Corinthians, if you’ve read it carefully and not just skimmed over the surface, well, even in a certain sense, even if you have skimmed over the surface, one of the things that you will notice is that, wow, these Corinthian Christians, they had a lot of problems. They had a lot of issues.
The first century church in Corinth was indeed a deeply troubled congregation. I believe the modern terminology would be that they were a deeply dysfunctional church community. And so there were many pastoral problems and issues in that congregation that needed to be addressed. In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul addresses these problems and issues head on, and he also answers some of the questions that the Corinthian believers had addressed to him in a letter that they had apparently sent to him. Back in 1 Corinthians 7, verse one, Paul seems to refer to this letter. He says in that verse, now concerning the matters about which you wrote, and then he proceeds to answer the questions that they had written to him and were asking him for guidance on. Well, one of the major issues, and there were many issues in the church.
I mean, they were having problems with divisiveness and factionalism and schism. Some of the members of the Corinthian church were continuing to attend idol feasts, and there was immorality in the church. People were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper. There were all kinds of practical pastoral issues that needed to be addressed, but there was also a very significant doctrinal issue. that needed to be addressed in the Corinthian congregation. One of the major doctrinal issues in the Corinthian congregation was that apparently some of the members of the church were either questioning or were outright denying the doctrine of the future general resurrection of the dead at the end of this age. In chapter 15, the Apostle Paul now turns his attention to addressing this particular doctrinal issue. And in laying the groundwork for his defense of the future general resurrection of the body, Paul begins his argument for the future resurrection of the dead by defending the physical bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead.
After all, Christ’s bodily resurrection was and is the divine pledge and guarantee of our bodily resurrection from the dead at the end of this present age when Jesus returns in glory and ushers in the new heavens and the new earth. In the course of defending Christ’s resurrection, Paul reviews the basics of the gospel message which he had preached to them. And here he introduces this discussion in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 15. where he is shifting attention, he has been speaking about the spiritual gifts in the church in chapters 12 through 14, but now he indicates that he’s gonna change subjects and deal with this matter of the resurrection of the dead. He says in chapter 15, verses one and two, now I would remind you, brothers, there might be a little bit of subtle sarcasm here, I’m reminding you of what you should already know.
I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, I mean, you should understand this gospel, you’ve already received it and confessed it, in which you stand, this gospel in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Well, friends, this brings us to our passage for this morning. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, this is the first main point that I want us to consider from verses three and the first part of verse four. Beloved, first of all, let us consider the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as first order gospel truths. Let me repeat that. Let us consider the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as first order gospel truths.
Paul writes again in verses 3 and 4, for I delivered to you as of what? As of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried and so forth. Of first importance. This is what I’m getting at when I use this terminology of first order. And actually, Dr. Albert Mohler, who I believe was, if I think he might still be, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, we have some differences with him as a since he’s a Baptist and we’re not, but he, I believe, leans Calvinistic or Reformed in his understanding of the Gospel, and so we share many of his beliefs. A number of years ago, he wrote an article in which he distinguishes First Order, Second Order, and third order doctrines.
What he means by first order doctrines, first order doctrines are doctrines which are so central and so fundamental to Christianity that the denial of them represents the immediate or at least the eventual denial of Christianity itself. First-order doctrines are doctrines that you cannot deny or cannot be unclear about without putting yourself outside of the Christian fold. Second-order doctrines are doctrines about which Bible-believing Christians may disagree, but they create significant boundaries between believers, whether as distinct congregations or as denominations. and there’s many examples of those second-order types of doctrines. Third-order doctrines are doctrines upon which Christians may disagree and yet still remain in close fellowship even within local congregations. By the way, as a quick aside, an example of a third-order doctrine within the Orthodox Presbyterian Church would be the issue of are you two office or three office in your view of church office.
In other words, does the New Testament reveal only two offices, the offices of elder and deacon, and within the eldership there are teaching elders and ruling elders, that’s the two office view. And then there’s the correct view, which is the three office view. the view that there are actually three offices, the office of minister of the word, the pastoral office, as well as the office of church governor or ruling elder and then the office of deacon. Now within the OPC, we have folks in the OPC including ministers and elders who hold to the two office view and those who hold to the correct view, the three office view. But nevertheless, we still fellowship together and we work together as brothers in the Lord. In any case. in this scheme of different orders of doctrine, based on the kind of definition of the various levels of orders of doctrine that Dr.
Moeller describes. It is clear, my friends, from Paul’s language here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that he viewed belief in our Lord’s death by crucifixion, our Lord’s burial, and of course our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. Paul viewed these doctrines to be first order doctrines. To disbelieve in or deny our Lord’s death by crucifixion, his burial or his resurrection from the dead is to disbelieve in and to deny the Christian faith at least in any meaningful biblical or historic sense of that term. And thus to place oneself outside of the Christian fold. And this, by the way, was one of the reasons why Dr. J. Gresham Machen was correct in his famous book, Christianity and Liberalism. He made the case in that book that theological liberalism, or modernism as it’s been called, theological liberalism, which tends to view doctrines like the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, Christ’s bodily resurrection as optional, if not mythological and metaphorical, Machen made the case that liberalism, though it uses Christian terminology, is actually an altogether different religion.
It’s not Christianity at all. And he is correct, according to the standard, at least, of the Apostle Paul, the standard of God’s word. So let’s dive into our text. In verse three, Paul begins by saying this, for I delivered to you. He’s reminding them of the gospel, the good news about Jesus that he had preached to them, and he had delivered this gospel to them. I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. In other words, he’s saying to them, brothers, sisters, this gospel message that I preached to you, which includes the message of Jesus’s death for our sins, his burial, and his resurrection from the dead, this message, I didn’t make it up. It doesn’t originate from me. I received it. Ultimately, he received it from the resurrected Lord Jesus himself, as well as receiving it from the other apostles.
It had been passed on to him and he was passing it on to them. Through this language, by this language, Paul handed on to them, as by tradition, a body of doctrine which they had received from him. One Bible commentator in commenting on this received and delivered language found in the first four verses of chapter 15 writes this, The commentator says, Paul is using commonly recognized language for handing on intact a body of information that one has received from others. And by the way, this is one of the reasons why we in the OPC and at Grace Church stress the importance of scripture and catechism memory work. Not because that’s a magical practice, but because these are some of the vehicles that are well tested and tried for passing on the faith from one generation to another generation.
These are time-tested vehicles for passing the faith along to the next generation. And so Paul had received the faith once for all delivered to the saints. He received it from the Lord Jesus and from the other apostles, and he was passing it on to them. And in doing so, he reminds them of the doctrines that he especially stressed in his preaching of the gospel to them. And he uses this terminology. He says, for I deliver to you as of what? As of first importance. Here he is laying before us first order doctrines. He says, what did he deliver to them? That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. We’re gonna consider the significance of that phrase, in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture.
Now in the English Standard Version, as well as the New American Standard Version, this phrase, the Greek term, the Greek words are en protois, en protois, as of first importance, or some translations like the New King James Version translate it as first of all. Dr. W. Harold Mayer says of this phrase, some have understood the words translated of first importance in the temporal sense of at the first. But that seems redundant because at all times Paul’s preaching identified the death and resurrection of Christ with the gospel. The stress is on the centrality of these doctrines to the gospel message. In other words, friends, the context of this passage by describing doctrinal truths such as Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as being of first importance. Through that language, the context of this passage indicates that Paul is stressing these doctrines as first order doctrines.
Truths that are absolutely non-negotiable. Truths that are absolutely, undeniably, irrefutably, unquestionably, and unavoidably essential to the very gospel message itself. And so to deny these truths is to deny the good news, the gospel, and to put yourself outside of the Christian fold. Now, I wanna make a couple points of application. Some of you may feel uncomfortable with this language of first-order doctrines versus second-order and third-order doctrines. And you might be saying, well, wait a minute, Pastor. All of the Bible is God’s word. Aren’t all of the truths of the Bible important? Isn’t this whole book of first order truth? Well friends, let me just say and make it clear, it is indeed true that all Bible truths are important. All Bible truths are important because God has revealed them and he has caused them to be incorporated, inscripturated in his written word, the Bible.
You and I are not at liberty to take a sort of a cafeteria pick and choose approach to the Scriptures. If the Bible clearly teaches something, you and I as followers of Christ are obligated to believe the Word of God because it is the final authority. It is the Word of the true and living God. But at the same time, While all Bible truths are important, some Bible truths are of first importance with respect to the gospel message. Some are first order doctrines that are essential to the gospel message itself and therefore essential to our salvation. As our confession of faith states in chapter one, section seven, which is the chapter on the scriptures, the holy scriptures, in that section, and you can follow along if you’d like, it’s on page 920 in your Psalter hymnal, Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter one, section seven, seems to assume this kind of hierarchy of doctrinal truths when it writes, when the Westminster divines say the following. they write in that section of the Confession.
In other words, there are some passages of the Bible that are easier to understand than others. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet, those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other. that not only the learned but the unlearned in a due use of the ordinary means may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. When it comes to saving truth, The saving truth of the Bible is clear for those who are willing to put the time and effort into reading the scriptures and understanding them. And another comforting aspect of that section of our confessional standards is it’s basically saying you don’t have to be a Bible scholar or a theologian to understand the gospel.
Through a due use of the ordinary means, even the unlearned, may attain to a sufficient understanding of the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But again, to clarify, this does not mean that Christians are free to take a pick-and-choose, cafeteria-style approach to the Bible, accepting those things which we like, but rejecting those things which we dislike or find untasteful. Instead, it is a recognition, beloved, that some parts of the Bible are easier to understand than others. And also that sincere Bible-believing Christians, Christians who love the Lord, who are devoted to His Word, and who desire to believe and live in accordance with the Word of God, even such sincere Bible-believing Christians at times come to different conclusions about how to understand and interpret certain passages of the Bible. And I mentioned as a third order debate within sort of an in-house debate within the OPC, the two office, three office debate, but there are other debates.
For example, think about the different interpretations of Revelation chapter 20 that are out there. That’s the chapter which speaks about the thousand year millennial reign of Christ. Is that to be understood in a literalistic sense? Is Christ at his return going to set up an earthly throne in Jerusalem and reign from Jerusalem as many of our brothers and sisters of a dispensational bent believe? Or is that symbolic of the church age? Which is the correct view, again. But again, There are Bible-believing Christians who come to different conclusions about the millennium and how to interpret it. That’s not to endorse theological relativism or to say that they’re both true in their own way, no. But it is to say that some things are easier in the scriptures to understand than other things. And so let’s keep that in mind.
All Bible truths are important, because they are part of God’s word, but some Bible truths are of first importance. In particular, the truths that are central to the gospel message. Another point of application I want to make, beloved, let us, beloved, seek to avoid theological hobby horses. And instead, let us always seek to keep Christ and the gospel central to our church’s life and doctrine. And again, don’t misunderstand. This is not to say that there’s no place for our church’s distinctives or to stressing our Presbyterian and Reformed distinctives. But all of these things are in service to the gospel. We need to keep Christ and his gospel always front and center and not be known as, well, that’s that church over there that has this hobby horse or that hobby horse. A number of years ago, I think in the late 90s and early 2000s, there was a movement known as the Family Integrated Church Movement.
And a lot of churches identified themselves and advertised themselves as, we’re a family-integrated churches. And what did they mean by that? Well, these were churches that were committed to rejecting the practice of having age-segregated Christian education classes. So they didn’t have age-segregated worship. They didn’t have a children’s church, for example, which I think I actually agree that we shouldn’t do that. Children should be welcomed. in the worship service from as early as possible. But then they also said, you know, we don’t think it’s right to segregate the children of the church away from the adults. And so family integrated church. Now here, brothers and sisters, I’m not here to say that that’s necessarily wrong. Some churches use that model in their Christian education program. We at Grace Church, we have an age segregated practice in our Christian education program.
But that’s not how we advertise ourselves. We don’t advertise ourselves as, well, we’re not a family-integrated church. We’re an age-segregated church. No, that’s not what we’re about. We’re about Jesus. We’re about the gospel. We have certain practices when it comes to Christian education, but we need to be careful that we don’t get onto hobby horses and emphasize those at the expense of emphasizing the gospel. Again, Paul says, I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. And that brings me to my next point, and that is, beloved, The Old Testament scriptures anticipated the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The Old Testament scriptures anticipated the death by crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. And this is the thrust of Paul’s language here where he talks about these things being in accordance with the scriptures.
What scriptures is he talking about? At the time of his writing of 1 Corinthians, the New Testament scriptures were still in the process of being written. When he writes in accordance with the scriptures, he has in mind in particular the Old Testament scriptures. And so he says in verse three, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins. He died for our sins, what? In accordance with The scriptures, the Greek is katatas grafas. What do we learn from this language and Paul’s expression here? We learn, beloved, that Christ is at the heart and center of all of the Bible, including the Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament Scriptures anticipate, they point forward to, and they even predict the person and saving work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And many examples could be given. But this is not what Paul means here. He’s not simply saying that, well, there are certain messianic prophecies which predict isolated predictions of Jesus’ sufferings, death, burial, resurrection, and so forth. No, the whole tenor of this Old Testament Scriptures points forward to and anticipates the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving work. For example, consider the sin and guilt offerings of the sacrificial and ceremonial law. You know those quote boring sections of and kind of gory sections of the book of Leviticus? You read through the book of Leviticus, and it’s kind of tedious to read, and it’s got all this stuff about the various kinds of sacrifices that the Israelites were to offer before God on the altar, and instructions for the priests, well, make sure to cut out the entrails, and wash the entrails, and offer the fatty lobe, and all of that stuff.
And you read that, and you’re like, what is this getting at? It’s pointing to Jesus. It is instructing the people of God that, hey, sin is so serious that it needs death to atone for it. You need a substitute. You need the shedding of blood. And all of this points forward to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. There are also passages in the Old Testament that directly predict the sufferings of Christ. One of those prominent passages, of course, is Psalm 22. And let me just read a couple verses from Psalm 22 to illustrate this. In Psalm 22, verse one, here are some familiar words. The psalmist who is David here says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Where have you heard those words before? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Jesus spoke those words on the cross. This anticipates the sufferings of Christ, where he was abandoned by the Father on the cross as he bore our sins. And then skip down to verses six through eight, David writes under the Spirit’s inspiration, he says, but I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me and they make mouths at me, they wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. You read the gospel accounts and Jesus endured this type of mockery while he hung on the cross. And then skip down to verses 12. through 18, many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. That’s what crucifixion does. It yanks your bones out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircle me. And they have what? Pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They state, They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Read the gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion. These things happened. These are direct predictions of our Lord’s suffering and death by crucifixion. And then, of course, there is the famous suffering servant passage of Isaiah chapter 53.
And I could go on. Well, dear ones, As we approach the Bible, we need to realize that as God’s word, it points us to Jesus. Christ is at the heart and center of scripture. Dear ones, we read the Bible, we approach and read the Bible wrongly when we read it, for example, as a book of moral stories and lessons, sort of like a divinely inspired Aesop’s fable. Or when we read it like a collection of inspirational tales for self-improvement, sort of like a divinely inspired chicken soup for the soul. Or when we read it like a blueprint or a manual for improving society or for creating a Christianized nation and culture. or if we read it as a psychological drama, a psychological drama which reveals social and psychological archetypes that help us to understand the human psyche and human society.
Or even, and this may speak more directly to our reformed situation, even when we read it like a systematic theology textbook. The Bible’s full of theology, but it is not a systematic theology textbook. Beloved, the Bible is none of these things that I’ve mentioned. Instead, the Bible is the true story. It is God’s story, the story of God’s great plan to redeem and save a lost and dying world through sending His Son to be a crucified, risen Savior for sinners. While the Bible certainly does contain moral and ethical guidance through the law of God and certainly reveals a system of theological truth, it is fundamentally a book about redemption. It is a book about God’s mighty acts of redemption which culminate and climax in the person and saving work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, especially the good news of Christ’s death by crucifixion, his burial, and his resurrection for us and for our salvation.
In other words, friends, the whole Bible, including the Old Testament, leads to and centers upon Jesus Christ and his saving work for us sinners. The good news of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is in accordance with the scriptures. And as we close off our consideration of this passage today, I would have us briefly consider the central importance of our Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. The central importance of our Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Again, Paul writes, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died Paul doesn’t say directly that he died by crucifixion, but that’s implied. Paul mentions the cross elsewhere in his writings. Christ died by crucifixion for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and so forth. Again, why is it that Paul lists as of first importance our Lord’s death and burial as being first order essential gospel truths?
Why couldn’t the Savior have died by strangulation or by dying? Why couldn’t our Savior have been put to death in any number of other ways? Why did it have to be by crucifixion? The reason it had to be by crucifixion, my friends, is the Old Testament law indicates that anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed. Turn to Deuteronomy 21, and let me read Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23. Deuteronomy 21, verse 22 and 23. Moses writes there, and if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Why is that so significant? Death by crucifixion is a cursed death. This is significant, my friends, for by dying and a cursed death on the cross, Christ took the curse of our sins upon himself in order that we might receive the blessings of eternal salvation. This is what Paul emphasizes elsewhere in his letter to the Galatians. In Galatians chapter 3 verses 12 and 14 Paul writes, but the law is not of faith rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the what? From the curse of the law. How? By becoming a curse for us for it is written Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
Beloved, Jesus had to die on the cross. a cursed death on the cross that the curse we deserve for our sins might be laid upon him so that we through him might receive the blessings of God. And it was necessary that Christ die for our sin. We’re told in verse three of our passage that Christ died for our sins. In other words, he died a penal substitutionary atoning death. He took our penalty upon himself. He died in our place, in our stead. Now friends, think about it. To the Jewish mind in the first century and to the Jewish mind of today, the idea of a Messiah who would die and accursed death by crucifixion was an offense. It was a stumbling block. After all, The Jews were expecting a messianic king who would wield political power and who would defeat their political oppressors, in that case, the hated Romans at that time, and would set up an earthly political kingdom, gaining political independence for Israel and bringing in an age of earthly and material prosperity and blessing.
The Jews of the first century were expecting sort of a health and wealth political Jesus. They were expecting a political messiah. And yet, sadly, they had grossly misinterpreted their own scriptures. For the Old Testament taught not only that the messiah would conquer the nations by his grace and rule the nations, but that he would also be a suffering servant who would die for the sins of his people in accordance with the scriptures. Christ’s death proves that the Father’s wrath against our sins has been exhausted, that the curse has been overcome in our Lord’s penal substitutionary atonement. But what about the burial of Christ as a first-order doctrine? Not only does Paul say, as of first importance, the truth that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, but that He was buried How is the burial of Christ a first order doctrine?
How is it that the burial of Christ is according to the scriptures? Well, the truth of our Lord’s burial proves that our Lord was indeed dead. The Old Testament lays stress on the importance of a proper burial. Christ was properly buried in the tomb of a rich man. and his burial proves that he was actually dead, and not that he had merely swooned or merely appeared to be dead. There’s a ridiculous skeptical theory out there called the swoon theory, the idea that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, he only seemed to be dead, and the Roman soldiers didn’t recognize that he was actually dead. as if these Roman soldiers who knew how to distinguish a live person from a dead person would mistake that. But anyways, they say Jesus still had a little life in him.
He just kind of swooned. He was sort of in a comatose state. They took him down from the cross and they laid him in the tomb and the cool airs of the tomb revived him. Nonsense or hogwash. I could use stronger language, but I won’t. That’s nonsense, my friends. Jesus was practically mummified. He’s wrapped up and he’s put in this tomb with a heavy stone rolled in front of it. And he’s going to get up and somehow move that stone up here to his disciples and say, hey, I’m the risen Lord. And they’re going to believe that. No, he would be in great need of medical attention. The burial of Christ proves that he was actually dead, and the death of Christ proves that he has fully, perfectly atoned for human sin. The Son of God incarnate actually died on the cross, his burial proving it, and in doing so, all our sins, brothers and sisters, were buried with him.
Have your sins been nailed to the cross of Christ and buried in his tomb? You can know that they have been, as by grace you repent and turn to Christ, trusting him and him alone as your very own Lord and Savior. Believe and repent today and you shall be saved. Again, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, Paul says. that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Let us believe and embrace these truths of the gospel. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for the finished work of Christ and for your presence with us this day. We pray that these truths would find a lodging place in our souls and that by your spirit you would cause these truths to bear much spiritual fruit in our lives.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s rise and we’ll sing as our closing hymn, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, hymn 351, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.
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