Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): There's good news and a bad news world. Next on Sound Doctrine.

The end is near. And that's why we need to get out the message: God so loved the world. The preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. People need to hear the good news that there is a way out, that you don't have to go in your sin, be under bondage to alcohol, drugs, pornography, and all that stuff. You can be pulled out of that. That's the chains of addiction, and he does it so well. Talk about cleaning you up. His blood makes you squeaky clean.

Welcome to a very special edition of Sound Doctrine. It's a wonderful time of year, and today we're looking back to what Jesus accomplished for us at the cross. And as we'll see in a moment, it was the most painful death imaginable. As Pastor Jeff Johnson draws our attention to the piercing and preparation of the body of Christ, let's allow it to lead our hearts toward grateful praise and adoration. It was the single most loving act ever performed for the benefit of mankind, and the significance cannot be overstated. Let's join Pastor Jeff now in John chapter 19.

Jeff Johnson: We're going to be in John chapter 19. So the Gospel of John, turn there. Chapter 19. We're going to be looking at a graveside service. And I think one of the worst things and the hardest things to do as a minister is to do a graveside service for someone who didn't know the Lord. Sometimes it's a little overwhelming. For the believer, at least there's the hope that they're with the Lord. But still, the sting of death is really with those left behind.

And we feel that sting. I mean, it hurts to lose a loved one. And you don't really lose them if they know the Lord. They're found because to be absent from the body is present with the Lord. And what a hope we have. So this morning, we're at this graveside service to see the one we love who died for us. Yet he rose again the third day. And it takes the sting away. As he rose again, it gives us that hope. Because he lives, we live.

In this passage, there are three things to consider concerning his death that I want to look at. Number one is the piercing of his body. Number two is the preparation of his body. And then number three is the placing of his body. Okay? So we're going to look at all three of these. The first one is the piercing of his body. Let's look at it in John 19 in verse 33.

John 19:33: "And when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." They didn't break his legs. This is important. This is a prophecy. It's talked about in Exodus, it's talked about in Numbers, because to have a sacrifice you bring to the temple of God to be sacrificed to God, it had to be without blemish, without spot.

No broken bones, no weird parasites on them, no rash. Nothing. Perfect. It had to be a perfect sacrifice. What's interesting, over there in Psalm 34 verse 20, he makes it very clear that this is a prophecy. He says in Psalm 34:20, "He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken." And so he would be the spotless Lamb of God. So it was prophesied that when he was crucified, this would not happen.

The custom to break the legs was to speed up the death. You say, "What do you mean?" Well, crucifixion was a very slow, agonizing death. It would go sometimes for days, for as long as three days. It was perfected by the Romans. They wanted it to be excruciating pain continually for as long as they could make it last. And so it's a slow dying, and it's a painful dying. It's the worst torture man has ever devised. It's horrible.

The Sabbath was close. It says that this high holy day was coming. It was very near, and there were these guys hanging on the cross. And to break their legs—both the thieves had their legs broken—to break their legs would cause them to immediately not be able to do any more artificial respiration. They would suffocate very quickly and die, just in a few minutes. Because you see, the problem was when you're hanging on the cross and your feet have been nailed to a little piece of wood right there at the bottom so the person could keep lifting up, getting a breath, and then going down.

They would do that continually for sometimes three days. But if you're going to stay alive, you're going to fight for your breath. You're going to fight to breathe. You break the legs, and they can't do it anymore. So both the thieves' legs were broken, but his weren't. Incredible. Jesus was already dead. We know that Jesus, when he cried out, "It is finished," he gave up the ghost. He dismissed his own spirit. He said, "You can go now." And only he can do that. Nobody else can do that.

But he did it, and he said, "It is finished." It's paid for. The work he came to do is now done. What work was that? Well, God sent his only begotten son to die on a cross so we could be set free from the bondage of sin, from the chains of addiction. You name it. He wanted that thing to be cut off, and it's called sin. And whosoever believes in him will not perish but experience in this life eternal life. Remember, he's the Lamb of God. He's without spot, without blemish.

He is the perfect incarnation of the living God. He's incarnate. That means God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. God was doing the work through his son. I heard a story about a shepherd back in the day who had a very obstinate, stubborn lamb. And just this lamb would always get out somehow, find a way. It was always searching, always trying to dig out, trying to get underneath and take off. And he just couldn't believe this.

It would happen over and over again. So what he did was he broke the legs of the lamb. You go, "Oh, whoa." Yeah, he broke the legs of the lamb, then he reset them right away after he broke them. Then he placed the lamb over his shoulder and he just walked around until that lamb was healed. Amazing thing that took place there. But some look at it in this way: it was a time of bonding. That sheep would bond to his shepherd and he would never leave again.

There was a closeness that took place because of the hurt, because of the broken bone, but the healing came. And sometimes God uses things to break us of our stubbornness. It could be anything, but he allows it to take place to get our attention that what we're talking about this morning is life or death. You have to choose what you're going to do. It's going to be life or death. And so sometimes we have to have our world rocked.

There's different ways. God has a means and ways committee. And he does what he means and he says what he means. He just loves us so much that he would break something so that we could have a bonding with him, that we could have a relationship with the living God. It is amazing. So painful, yes, but needful for that one and for us. But Jesus never sinned, so God would never have to chasten him. He'd never have to do anything with his son. His son was the perfect Lamb of God.

But with us, yes, we need to be chastened at times and brought into the room where you get a spanking from God. As Christians, we know God loves us because he spanks us. I used to almost adopt a little boy. We had all girls in my family. Even the dogs were girls. Everybody was girls. So we wanted to adopt a little boy. And one little boy came up to be adopted, but he was ornery, oh my gosh. I think he was six or seven.

I said, "You've got to take a bath. You can't just go on day after day with no bath." "I am not taking a bath." I said, "Yeah, you're going to take a bath." "No, I'm not." And so I said, "Okay, I'm going to spank you." And so what he would do is he'd grab his throat and say, "I'm just going to kill myself." Troubled kid. He had trouble in his life. But for the two weeks that we had this boy, I remember going out and buying T-shirts for him and everything because he was my son, and we were going to keep him.

But no, it didn't work out. He had to go back to Grandma. And it was kind of a heartbreak. But he told his grandma, she asked him, "How was it over there?" And he goes, "You know what? They loved me. They spanked me." I'm serious. You know you're loved when the Lord chastens you and loves you and hunts you down when you're messing around and you're getting away. He won't leave you alone because he loves you so much. And so that conviction comes in.

He just wants to restore the relationship that you once had. We're all sinners. There's not one righteous in here, not one. We're just a bunch of people that are just trying to make it in this world. But man, without Jesus, I don't know how you do it. Where's your hope? What have you got? And when you fall, who catches you? He's not only my crutch, he's my stretcher. So when I really go down, he's there and he picks me up. And there's that living relationship that goes on.

So Jesus, the perfect one, couldn't have a broken bone, without blemish. But his heart was broken. And here's the main thing: that spear into the side, that blood and water came out. No bone broken, but his heart was literally broken in that medically, this blood and water coming out of the heart shows that it burst because it ruptured, actually. And with Jesus, it was a death of a broken heart because of what sin had done to the whole human race.

But he was happy to do it. In fact, God says in Isaiah 53 verse 10, "It pleased the Lord to bruise his son." He loved his son. He didn't want his son to go through all of that, but he knew it had to be done. Because who else was going to do it? Who was going to die for the sins of the world? How does that happen? Only the pure blood of God was bleeding there on the cross. That's why precious is the blood of the Lamb.

And we have songs we sing about it. And it's not because we're a bloody religion or anything like that. No, it's the power of God that's in the blood because it was God's blood. God came, sent his son, he was God incarnate to die on the cross for our sins. What more does he need to do to show us that he loves us than what he's already done? He did it all. It's a perfect sacrifice. And he took care of all of the world in that sacrifice.

I love what Isaiah again says in Isaiah 53 verse 4: "Surely he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows; and yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of my peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." He took it all. They pierced him in every area. They beat his face until it was swollen, pulled his beard out.

He had 39 lashes with a cat-of-nine-tails with pieces of glass and metal where it would literally rip your back off and your sides and everything. They just beat him all over. And he was a bloody mess. You couldn't even recognize him as a man. They put a crown of thorns and jammed it on his head. And then his hands and his feet were pierced. Amazing. He was pierced in every area of his body. Why? Because God's son was slain for the world's sin.

It was slain for Hitler. If Hitler would have got right at the last minute, God would have saved him. What about Mussolini? Same thing. The Manson family. Same thing. Jeffrey Dahmer. O.J. Simpson. Would have taken them out of the world and just blessed his life. Because we're all, look at what man has done. His inhumanity to man. Look at what we're capable of doing. Each one of us. And that's why I like to say I'm a sinner saved by grace.

He did it all. And what he accomplished on that cross, it accomplished everything that needed to be done. I'm sick at what I see on television. I'm sick about all this stuff that's going on. I get upset at the news of rape and murder and little kids being abused and molested and just the stuff going on. It's so bad. But it answers this question: if it's so bad, then God would have been so angry and so full of wrath. And I believe he was.

In fact, he proved it when he allowed Noah to land high and dry, and there were only eight people saved. You go up to the mountain today and go digging in the ground, you'll find seashells. How did these get here? Well, the world was flooded. The whole world. It's real. It's a fact. So that's pretty heavy. That's a heavy wrath. And he says, "I'm going to start all over." The world is a do-over. And he did it over. Now look at the mess we're in now.

Now there's a struggle for who's going to choose wisely. Who's going to see the son of God in his proper place and what God did when he sent his son. That when he sent his son, Jesus's death appeased a holy God, or we would have been toast. We would have been out of here. We'd have never made it. But that blood again was God in his son making this sacrifice. And now those that are in Christ are appointed to salvation, are appointed for transformation to be conformed into Christ's image by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's amazing, but it's true, or we wouldn't be here right now doing what we're doing. This is not some kind of cult or some kind of group that we're just having here and we're going to be gone tomorrow. Hey, we're getting stronger as we go, guys. The end is near. And that's why we need to get out the message: God so loved the world. The preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. People need to hear the good news that there is a way out.

That you don't have to go in your sin, be under bondage to alcohol, drugs, pornography, and all that stuff. You can be pulled out of that. That's the chains of addiction, and he does it so well. Talk about cleaning you up. His blood makes you squeaky clean. It really does a work. Sometimes we hide a little something away from him, though. And he's got that Holy Spirit spray. He's spraying your body and you're going, "Don't open that door! No, I am not going there." Open the door.

And if we open up and give it to him, we move on. So his death absorbed the world's sin. He took it on himself, and his heart exploded all because of the harshness and hardness of sin. As he hung there, they mocked him. "He saved others, let him save himself." They cursed him as he loved them and died for them. It broke his heart. Have you received what he did for you? See, this is what happens at Easter. This is what happens throughout the year.

We always go back and look back at what happened 2,000 years ago by the man-God, Jesus, and what he did for the world. And then you've got to ask yourself, "Have I received this for me?" This tugging on your heart, this coming and seeing and coming even to a church like this, and maybe it's the first time you've been in church for a long time because Easter is the one you try to make. And God bless you for being here. He's going to, if you have ears to hear. But to receive what he did, to have your heart transformed, he's waiting for you to respond. So, the piercing of his body. Wow. Something to look at.

Guest (Male): And in just a moment, we'll consider the preparation of his body. Stay close by. This is Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. We're in the middle of a special Easter message based in John 19. And if you'd like to hear this study again, go to sounddoctrinereadio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app. You can also hear Sound Doctrine on oneplace.com or wherever you enjoy your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. By the way, you can donate to this radio outreach right there at sounddoctrinereadio.org. Thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do. Okay, let's get back to the message now. Again, we're in John chapter 19.

Now, let's move on: the preparing of his body. Look at verse 38 now. Verse 38 talks about Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly. He was a secret saint. Can you do that? Oh, some of you are doing it at work, at your school. "I don't want anybody to know. They'll pick on me. They'll call me a Jesus freak or something." But he was secret, Joseph of Arimathea. He's a man renowned and everybody knows him as a good Jewish teacher.

But for fear of the Jews, he besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. He said, "Go ahead, take his body. I don't want it." He came therefore and he took the body of Jesus. What happened to Joseph of Arimathea? He came out of the closet. What did that? He watched Jesus die. And if you really get this, you'll also come out of the closet and you'll be a disciple of Christ, strong, sharing the news, having it affect you in your character, in your life, and then passing it on to those that are in need.

And that's all this is: we pass it on. And it's really not us, it's God in us giving out the good news to others and it's having its effect in their lives. Of course it will. But I thought that's interesting. He really woke up. He stood up. Lord, move us to stand. What are we going to do, continue to sit there and not take it in? Oh God, give us the fear of the Lord. Let us understand this is serious. This is the end times.

We've got to get aboard, and the more so the better for the family, for your own heart, for your own struggles. He wants to make the way for you. So the preparing of his body. Interesting Joseph of Arimathea was one and what happened was it drew him, it empowered him, and he finally heard and he saw, and he became bold in his witness, right? Okay, let's look at verse 39. "And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night." Remember, he snuck away.

I mean, this is a great teacher, a scholar, a man that knows everything about the scripture, but he knows so much that he was watching Jesus. And he said, "Jesus, you do things that only a man that knows God can do. Do you have anything to say to me? I'm just asking. I know I'm coming at night, and I'm kind of embarrassed to be here. Hopefully no one sees me with you." And that's why he came at night. He was ashamed.

And he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight. He came to do what? He came to prepare the body. Both of these guys: one gave his tomb up and the other one wants to prepare him. The cross just did the same thing to Nicodemus: it broke him. And remember what Jesus said to him when he came at night? Don't marvel at what I'm about ready to tell you, Nicodemus, but here's the key: you must be born again.

"What? You mean I've got to go back into my mother's womb and be born again? What is this, crazy, man? What are you talking about?" No, no, no. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. You had an earthly father. That which is born of the spirit is of your heavenly father. You need a relationship spiritually in your life. The reason you're dying and suffering and so confused is you need to get right with God.

Guest (Male): May God richly bless you and your family this Easter. Remember, Jesus is alive and because he lives, you can too through faith in him and his work at the cross. Sound Doctrine is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Downey.