John 19:31–42

0:00 So raise your hand if you have lived in Louisville for, say, more than three years. Okay, that's a lot of you. All right, raise your hand again if you've lived in Louisville for more than three years. So it's that subset of people. Not yet. There's another condition on that. If you've lived in Louisville for more than three years and you have ever driven into town from indiana on interstate 64 and noticed the mosaic on the face of the muhammad ali center in downtown louisville okay that's most of the hands but it's not it's not all of them if you're driving into louisville from indiana on interstate 64 you go over the uh the sermon minton bridge right which is all messed up with construction right now you make your way into the city you head down you know underneath the gold house and all the rest but as you're approaching that you see this this building which is the Muhammad Ali Center it's very obvious what it is because it's got you know his name on it right there on the building it's kind of a squat looking little building and it's got these tiles on it of various kind of pastel colors you've probably noticed that

1:04 before and at first glance as you look at the Muhammad Ali Center all you kind of see are these mismatched tiles it looks like somebody you know just like went to the dollar store and bought up a pallet of unused tiles and just stuck them up on the on the building but the more you look at it especially if you're sort of further away from it, what you realize is that the tiles aren't mismatched at all. What they're doing is creating a mosaic of Muhammad Ali's face on the side of the building. And if you've never seen that before, if you've never noticed it, it can be a kind of surprising thing.

1:35 I mean, you know, I remember seeing it for the first time when it was built several years ago. You're kind of driving down through downtown and you think, that's not that attractive a building. And then you realize, oh my goodness, that's incredible. You see something in what you thought was not very attractive at the beginning that turns out to be something beautiful and something wonderful. I think that's what we're doing, at least in part, today. Because it may seem like a very strange thing that, you know, two weeks before Christmas, which is supposed to be a wonderfully happy time, it's full of garlands and lights and red and green and celebrations and gifts and all the rest, we're about to spend a few minutes this morning looking in some detail at the dead body of Jesus Christ.

2:19 And you may be thinking, well, that's really morbid. It's especially morbid in a time like this, which is supposed to be given over to fun and celebration and happiness and joy and all the rest, right? Joy to the world. That's morbid. What I hope you'll see today, by the end of looking at this passage, though, is that there is more to this passage than immediately meets the eye. And something that initially may seem morbid and macabre and gross and just kind of gray and not worth staring at actually becomes something wonderful and beautiful. So let me invite you to take a Bible and turn to page 906. That's where we're going to be this morning in the book of John. 906 is if you're using one of these Bibles.

3:01 If you have your own, I don't know what page it's on. John chapter 19. But we're going to be looking at verses 31 all the way down through 42, so finishing up chapter 19. Not only, though, are we finishing up chapter 19, but we are also finishing up our study of the book of John, at least for this fall. We're not finishing up the whole book, obviously. There's chapter 20 left, and there's chapter 21 left, but we're going to come back, God willing, to those in the fall and finish up the entire book next year. This fall, though, what we've been doing is studying in some detail chapters 18 and 19, which tell the story of Jesus' arrest, his trial before the Jews, his second trial before Pilate, and finally his crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. And what we've seen throughout this study is that almost above everything else, like John's got a lot of things that he's doing in these chapters, but almost above everything else, John is trying to convince you that even though it may be Jesus's hands who are bound, even though it may be Jesus

4:06 who gets flogged, even though it may be Jesus who gets laid down and nails put through his wrists and then nails through his feet, none of this, John wants you to know, is an accident. And none of it is just happening to Jesus outside his control. The whole idea that Jesus was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, saying the wrong things, and that he just got rolled over by the wheel of history is just wrong and John wants you to see that. He wants you to see that from the moment Jesus knocks the soldiers down in the garden with the power of his voice to the moment when he turns the tables on Pilate and puts Pilate on trial really more than Jesus is on trial to the moment he cries out on the cross it is finished and gives up his spirit. John wants you see that nobody is taking the life of Jesus. Jesus is laying his life down as the king who has to die in the place of his people if they are to be saved. Well today we're picking up the story at verse 31

5:08 and for the first time it looks like it's just unavoidable that finally some things are just going to happen to Jesus that he's not in control of. And why is that? Well, it's because he's dead. He can't possibly be in control now, right? And yet, even here, John wants us to know that what the soldiers finally do to his body and what they don't do in not breaking his legs is control, 100%, circumscribed by prophecy.

5:43 Every bit of this is part of God's plan. It's all been in place since the very beginning of time. And it's all meant to communicate yet again who Jesus is and what Jesus has just done by dying on the cross. So let's read the passage and then we'll talk about what John is saying to us through it. He writes there, beginning in verse 31. Since it was the day of preparation, 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.

6:14 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 is born witness. His testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. 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.

6:47 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. 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 75 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.

7:22 So because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. So, you've got two major parts to this text. First, you've got in verses 31 to 37, that whole paragraph there, the actions of the soldiers while Jesus is still on the cross. So you've got them breaking the legs of the two men who were crucified with him. But when they get to Jesus, they find out that he's already dead. And so they don't break his legs. But instead, one of the soldiers takes a spear and thrusts it up into Jesus's body.

7:55 And blood and water come out. And John says there at the end of that paragraph that both of those things are not just bare events. They are fulfillments of prophecy. We're going to talk about how that works, what that means as we go along. Second part of it in 38 to 42, you've got the story of Joseph of Arimathea. and Nicodemus preparing first Jesus' body for burial and then placing it in this tomb that's nearby in a garden that's not far at all from the place of the skull, the place of the crucifixion. Now, at first glance, I realize that this is one of those passages in the Bible that it is very easy to just skip over without giving it too much thought, right?

8:31 I mean, it seems like what you've got here is just the detailing of some of the events that happened after Jesus died, and it's basically just a bridge to get you from Jesus on the cross to Jesus in the tomb so that we can get on to the resurrection in chapter 20. That's what it seems like. But I think if you look a little closer and you start to look at the details, you start to look at some of the ways that Scripture is used, even from the Old Testament in this passage, I think you see that even in these moments where Jesus' dead body is still hanging on the cross, John sees immense significance.

9:07 In fact, I hope what you'll see by the end of this sermon is that in some ways, this period right here serves as kind of the climax of the entire book. Now, I know the resurrection is coming, and that's kind of the theological climax of it, but in the way John has been telling his story, in the way he's been leading up to the moment of Jesus' great glorification, this moment right here has a good case for being the climax of the whole book. Why? Why?

9:39 Because John has been telling us from the very beginning of this book that this moment, ironically, this moment when Jesus is dead is the moment of his greatest glory. It's when he's exalted. It's when he's been lifted up. It's when, as Jesus has said over and over again, the hour of his glorification has now come. And he's now drawing people to himself, as we'll see in just a minute. So the main idea of the text, I think, is this.

10:10 Look to the crucified king and be transformed. That's what happens over and over again in this text. Look to the crucified king and be transformed. It happens here. It has happened in many of your hearts already. And I imagine that there's some here today for whom that needs to happen over the next few minutes. You need to look to the king and you need to be changed. I want to look at this passage today in two points. They just correspond to those two big paragraphs there, 31 to 37, and then 38 to 42. Here are the titles of the points, the piercing of the lamb, and second, the honoring of the king.

10:44 And what you're going to see as a theme throughout both of those sections is that people are looking to the king, and they're being transformed. So point number one, the piercing of the lamb. Last time we were in the book of John, two weeks ago, we ended with Jesus crying out in a loud voice just above our text today in verse 30, it is finished, which we said in the Greek is just one word. It's tetelestai, right? It's one word, and it means in a passive voice, it is finished. And after Jesus cries that out, tetelestai, he bows his head and dies. Or as John puts it there in 30, in an even kind of more active way to show that Jesus is in control of this thing, he gives up his spirit. Now, if you remember from two weeks ago, tetelestai, contrary to what a lot of people have thought through the years as they've read this, it's not just a kind of whispered admission of defeat. It's not, I am finished, right? And then he dies. That's not it at all. It's a cry of victory. It's a cry in which Jesus, having completed everything that his father wanted him to complete, cries out, it's done. It's all done. Everything that I set

11:47 out to do, everything that I intended to do to win my people's salvation is finished now. That's what it means. Tetelestai, it's done. In fact, you've probably noticed, or maybe you did even two weeks ago, that that cry from the cross, tetelestai, is probably a quotation of the very last verse of Psalm 22, which we know was on Jesus's mind because he quotes it and kind of alludes to it over and over again as he's going through the various trials that he has in the early morning of Friday. But there at the very end of Psalm 22, David, who wrote the thing, the great king of Israel, is basically, he spends the entire psalm sort of celebrating the death and resurrection of the Messiah. And in the very last verse, after the Messiah has died and risen again, he ends the psalm by saying this. He says, posterity shall serve him. That is, now that the Messiah has died and been resurrected many generations into the future posterity are going to serve that Messiah it

12:49 shall be told to the coming generation and they shall come and proclaim his righteousness the Messiah's righteousness to a people yet unborn and what are they going to proclaim that he has finished it and now Jesus from the cross cries out that he's made his way all the way through the psalm and it is now finished that's what he means so by the time you get to verse 31 jesus has finished his work he's he's done it the work is done and he is dead which is surprising to everybody that's involved because it's only been about three hours that jesus has been on the cross i mean they only got him up there about noon and then one of the other Gospels tells us that there were three hours of darkness, and as soon as the darkness lifts, Jesus cries out in a loud voice, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then he cries out again, Tetelestai, and then he dies. He's only been up there for about three hours, and that's

13:50 usually, historically speaking, just not enough time for somebody to die by crucifixion. I mean, that usually took hours or even days. You would hang on the cross forever until you suffocated to death. So why did Jesus die so quickly? Well, some people have thought about it. They've tried to give some medical reason for it. Some people have said, well, maybe it was because Jesus was flogged two times. Remember, he got two floggings. He got a sort of less severe flogging at the beginning of his trial, and then they gave him a more severe flogging at the fustagatio, as it was said in Latin, right before he was forced to carry his cross out. And some people said, well, maybe because he got two floggings he died faster than normal but that doesn't exactly work because Pilate would have known that Jesus had two floggings in fact he would have executed two floggings against many people in the past before they were executed and Mark another one of the gospelers tells us that Pilate was surprised that Jesus had died so early so he'd seen guys endure

14:52 that he'd seen them live for longer than three hours and he was surprised even had one of his soldiers go and confirm that Jesus was in fact actually dead. So I think the more likely explanation for why Jesus died so quickly is probably just verse 30. Jesus had simply finished his work and so he gave up his spirit. He committed his spirit into the hands of the Father. It was all done. Well, whatever you think about that though, basically the Jews wanted to make sure to get this business of crucifixion over with quickly. I mean, you can see there, if you look at verse 31, this was the day of preparation, which was the day before the Sabbath. So we're talking about a Friday here.

15:34 If you've been wondering about that whole debate about whether Jesus died on Thursday or Friday, it's verse 31 that sort of nails that case down. We're talking about the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath. So Jesus is dying on a Friday. And by now on that Friday, we know just from the chronology of how things work out that it's getting on toward 3 p.m. So if you say that the sun sets at 6.30 or 7 o'clock at this time of year in that part of the world, then you're only talking about it three more hours or so until sundown when the Sabbath would begin. And everything needed to be finished by that, by then.

16:07 Because you can't do work on the Sabbath. And also, according to Jewish tradition, you also couldn't have people still hanging on crosses, dead or alive on the Sabbath. especially this kind of high Sabbath of the Passover week. Remember when one of the highest, holiest weeks of the entire Jewish calendar and the Sabbath that fell inside that week was considered one of the highest Sabbaths of the entire year. So we don't want dying or dead people on the cross. So what do you do? Well, if you're the Jews, you go ask Pilate to do a little something to hasten the process by breaking the legs of the crucified men.

16:47 Now, that's not an unusual action. The Romans did it all the time. If you look through the historical sources, you find that it even had a name that sounds kind of like what's being done here. It's called the Cruyffragium. The Cruyffragium, where the Roman soldiers would, when they decided they were tired of this whole business and wanted the people on the cross to die, they would take a giant heavy mallet and they would swing it into the leg bones of the people who were hanging on the cross and shatter those bones. Well, what did that do exactly?

17:18 Well, you remember how you die on a cross, right? You don't die from blood loss. You don't normally die from shock. You don't die from exposure. That's not the point. The way you die on a cross is ultimately by asphyxiation. You suffer to death because as your arms are fastened to the cross and the weight of your body sags down, your lungs are just not able to function the way they are. So you have to use your legs and sometimes your own hands and the nails to pull yourself up so that your lungs can fill up. You take a breath, and then the whole thing collapses again.

17:49 And then you have to do it again, and again, and again. And if your legs are broken, you can't push up anymore. And so you asphyxiate that much more quickly. So that's what they do. Apparently, the Romans had it down to a science. It was apparently a quick and efficient process because the way they did it was that they started on the outside of the line of crosses, right? The Roman soldiers got their mallets. They went to the people on the outside of a line of crosses. They break their legs. They move in, break the next ones, break the next ones, break the next ones until they reach the center.

18:19 And that's what they do here. They start on the outside, break the legs of the two men who are being crucified on either side of Jesus. But when they get to the center, they notice, to their surprise, that Jesus is already dead. So in verse 34, instead of the career of phragium being performed on Jesus, One of the soldiers reaches up and thrusts a spear into his side, which John says caused a stream of blood and water to flow out. Okay, so why does John record those details for us?

18:52 Why does he tell us that blood and water flowed out of Jesus' side when he was pierced by the spear? Well, I think there are a few reasons. I mean, obviously one reason that he records it is just because he saw it. Like, this is what happened. I'm an eyewitness to all of this, like he says in verse 35 there. I'm an eyewitness to this incredibly historically significant event. And so he's recording a detail that everyone would have recognized as, this is the second reason, not just eyewitness, everyone would have recognized this detail of blood and water as proof positive that Jesus was really dead.

19:30 He had not just swooned. He was not just in a coma. He was not just some heavenly being that looked dead. He was not switched out for somebody else on the cross by an angel. He wasn't just mostly dead. He was dead, dead, all the way dead. And even the fluids that had filled up his chest cavity were starting to separate, right? The heavier blood on the bottom with all of its various parts, the red blood cells, white blood cells, all of that, Settled in the bottom of his chest cavity and you had this lighter water on the top.

20:06 And so when the spear pierced that cavity, all of it ran out. First the blood and then the water. Jesus was really, really dead. That's part of what John wants you to see there. He wants you to have no doubt that Jesus really was dead. But if you look at 36 and 37, you can see that John sees even more significance in all of this. If all he wanted you to understand was that Jesus was dead, he wouldn't have written verses 36 and 37. He wants you to see the significance, scripturally speaking, in all of this that's happened.

20:43 Because to him, finally, these aren't just details. They're details that continue to speak about who Jesus is and what he's accomplished now by dying on the cross. So let's look at it. Look at verse 36 first. He says, these things took place so that the scripture might be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken. What's that talking about? It's talking about the fact that they didn't perform the chryphragium on Jesus, right? They didn't break his legs like they did the other two. And John says that's a fulfillment of scripture, that not one of his bones shall be broken.

21:17 Okay, so where does that come from in the Old Testament? Well, there's no particular place in the Old Testament that uses those exact words. But that's not a problem. I mean, just like, you know, you have certain scriptures memorized and you can sort of nail the meaning of them without getting exactly the wording right of the Septuagint or the Masoretic text, right? Nobody says that that's not in the scripture because you didn't say it exactly right. Same thing happens for John. He quotes Old Testament passages not in the exact wording of the Masoretic text or the Septuagint, but he gets it.

21:51 And what he's thinking about there is certainly Exodus 12, where the Israelites are told what they ought to do with the lamb that they've slaughtered on the Passover. The lamb whose, remember, whose blood they smear on the doorposts of their houses. Here's what's written in Exodus chapter 12 of this lamb. God says to his people, it shall be eaten, that lamb shall be eaten in one house. You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.

22:26 And then it goes on and tells you other things. Now, that's a small detail. I get it. And it's tucked in with a whole bunch of other details that you're not supposed to break the bones of the Passover lamb. It's a small detail. But to John, to John, seeing Jesus' bones surprisingly not being broken causes all the meaning and significance of everything he's seen in the life of Jesus, everything he's heard Jesus say about the significance of his own death. It causes all of that significance of the Passover lamb to flash in John's mind.

23:02 And he realizes who Jesus really is. But what exactly did he realize? Well, you've got to understand just how deeply ingrained the symbolism of the Passover was in every Jewish mind, including John's. I mean, the Passover, the killing of the Passover lamb, it was not just a ritual. It was a deeply visceral and meaningful ritual. I mean, if you think back to Exodus 12 when it actually happened, I mean, think about what the Passover meant and what the killing of that lamb meant.

23:35 And God had told his people that unless you do this, the angel of death is going to come through your land and he's going to kill the firstborn of every single one of your families. But if you'll take a lamb and if you'll slaughter that lamb and put the blood on the doorposts, the angel of death will pass over your house and not kill your firstborn. Now, we talk about that a lot, but think about what that experience would have been like for an Israelite family. And they say you've got a dad and a mom and maybe some little brothers and sisters.

24:06 And then let's say you've got, you know, the 12-year-old oldest son here, Joshua, something like that, right? A good Jewish name, little Joshua. And dad and mom hear the instructions from the Lord that on this particular night, the angel of death is going to pass over all of our houses. And they realize that little Joshua right here, our 12-year-old son, is going to die. But then they hear the other instructions. Go out and find a lamb. So the father takes little Joshua, maybe, and takes him out into the field.

24:37 And they find the lamb, the spotless lamb, one without blemish, one without any trouble whatsoever. Not a lame little lamb, but one that's healthy, one that's good, one that's without any trouble at all. And they bring the little lamb back to the door of the house. And then with little Joshua standing there and all the children standing around, the father kneels down and puts his arm around the neck of the lamb and he slices his throat. And the blood goes everywhere. and it doesn't happen quickly and the lamb once the father lets it go stumbles around in its own blood for a few seconds until it finally falls over dead and all the children with their wide eyes are looking at it and mom and dad are looking at this dead little lamb and then they take the blood and they put it on the door of their house and then they look at the dead lamb and then they look at their son Joshua and they look at the lamb and they look at Joshua and they realize that this lamb has died so that Joshua will not and then they go into their house and they hide under the blood of the lamb

25:39 and they hear the screams throughout Egypt echoing through the walls of the house but little Joshua is safe because he's under the blood of the lamb that's what it meant that's what it meant and now and now John looks up at the cross and he sees the truth of it that John the Baptist had said all the way back in chapter 2 this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and John thinks I am saved by the blood of the Lamb and then there's the spear there's the spear and the blood and the water John sees significance in that too people have often tried to find significance in the blood and the water that probably isn't there to be honest So, for example, a whole lot of Christians have tried to see a reference there to baptism and to the Lord's Supper, right?

26:33 You've got water and blood, blood and water. Water symbolizes baptism, some people have said, and blood symbolizes the Lord's Supper. But probably not. There are a lot of problems with that. I mean, for one thing, there's nothing in this passage that leads us to think about baptism and the Lord's Supper. You need some kind of clue in the passage. Or at least you need some kind of clue elsewhere in the book of John to make you think that water is talking about baptism and the blood is talking about the Lord's Supper. And you just really don't have anything clean like that. And then the symbolism doesn't really work either because here you've got the blood coming first and then the water.

27:08 But we know that water comes before the Lord's Supper, right? Baptism before the Lord's Supper. So the whole thing just doesn't quite work. So it's probably not that. What John certainly sees here, though, is a fulfillment of Zechariah 12.10. Look at it, verse 37. And again, he says, another scripture says, they will look on him whom they have pierced. So he's saying that when the spear goes into Jesus' side, when Jesus is pierced, that's a fulfillment of Zechariah 12.10, that they will look on him whom they have pierced.

27:43 So what's going on there in Zechariah 12.10? Well, Zechariah 12, really it kind of runs from 9, Zechariah 9 through 13. But that whole passage is a passage that's talking about the king of Israel, the Messiah, being killed by his own people. And the way they kill him is by piercing him. So John looks at that story in Zechariah 9 through 13, and he says that's Jesus. He sees that layer of meaning there. The king, the rightful Messiah, has now been pierced and killed by his own people, just as Zechariah prophesied.

28:15 That's one layer that he sees. But there's another layer to it, too. See, what's fascinating about Zechariah 12.10 in particular is that the pronoun, the subject of the sentence, keeps switching between me and him. You understand what I'm saying there? The subject of the sentence, as it goes along, keeps switching between me and him. Now, John shortens it, so you can't really see it here in the book of John. But let me read you the sentence from the Old Testament.

28:46 God says, in this sentence, he says, they will look on me, on him whom they have pierced. Do you hear that? They will look on me, God, on him, the king, whom they have pierced. So who gets pierced? Is it him, the king, or is it, you know, as God puts it, me, God? Who gets pierced? Well, both. Because it turns out that the pierced king is God.

29:19 And once you see that, there's even another layer of meaning underneath it. Especially in the water that pours out when Jesus is struck. I mean, think about it for a second. Do you remember another place in the Old Testament where water comes out when God is struck? Where's that? Water comes out where God is struck. Exodus 17. Exodus 17, when Israel's wandering around in the wilderness and they're about to die of thirst, and they come to this place called Meribah, right?

29:52 And God says to them, says to Moses, Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock, and you will strike the rock, the point being with me on it, and water will come out of it. That's why so many times in the Old Testament, God says to his people, I am your rock. And there is no other. It's because there in the wilderness, the rock was struck instead of Israelites. You may remember that story. The rock was struck, God was struck instead of the Israelites, rock capital R, and life came forth.

30:28 And then throughout the rest of the Old Testament, that image of flowing water shows up all over the thing as a symbol of all the blessings of salvation. the Holy Spirit, eternal life, forgiveness, cleansing. All of those things are said to flow from God. The rock was cleft and we were saved. Blessings flowed out. That's why we sing that song, Rock of Ages. Cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin, the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.

31:04 You see the point of all that? Do you see all of this that John seems to be seeing, even in the dead body of Jesus as it continues to hang on the cross? As he looks at Jesus' dead corpse on the cross, John's mind fills up with all these images from the Old Testament. All of which ultimately end up pointing to salvation and to the death of the king being necessary for that salvation. He sees it. He sees it in living color. Jesus is the unbroken Passover lamb. He's the pierced king. He's the stricken rock.

31:35 he's the one who wins salvation for his people. Look at verse 35. It's fascinating. Look what John says right in the middle of the story. He like breaks in and says this. He who saw it has borne witness. That's him. That's John. He who saw it. That's John. Has borne witness. His testimony is true and he knows that he's telling the truth that you also may believe. Now why does verse 35 show up right there at that point while John is staring at the dead body of Jesus. Why does he put it there? I mean, John is an eyewitness to a whole bunch of things, right? So he could have put a verse like 35 in many, many different places throughout this story, and yet he puts the verse where he says, I have seen this, I have borne witness. He puts it right here. Why does he do that? Why not back in the trial? Why not at the point of the it is finished? Why is it here that he puts verse 35. Well, I think there are a couple of reasons. One reason that I'm really sure about, like I think this is the reason that it is here, and one reason that I'm going

32:37 to tell you that I'm not so sure about, but I wonder if it might be true. So the one I'm sure about is because the last time John used this form of words of him being an eyewitness, him seeing Jesus, the last time he used that form of words was way back in chapter, anybody know? One. It's chapter one. When he said, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.

33:13 Do you see what John is doing there? Do you see what he's flagging for you in using that same form of words again? What he's flagging is what we've been learning throughout this entire book. What is Jesus' glory? We have seen his glory. What does it turn out that that glory is? His death. That's when he's exalted. That's when he's lifted up. That's when he draws all men to himself. That's the hour of his glorification that has now come. So John calls back to that time when he said, we've seen his glory.

33:45 And he says, it's right here. We saw his glory right here, right now, in his death. That's when I'm seeing his glory. That's when I saw him for who he really is. That's when I understood. Now that brings up the second reason, maybe, why John puts verse 35 right here. I want to be straight up with you. This is harder to say. I don't know that this is the case. But I wonder, I really wonder, if this was the moment right there at the foot of the cross. Remember, he's there. He's right there at the foot of the cross because Jesus has talked to him about his mother.

34:18 He's right there. And I wonder if this was the moment right there at the foot of the cross watching all those events happen and having all these Old Testament themes flood his mind. I wonder if it was right there that John actually became a Christian. I wonder if that was the moment of his conversion. Now, why do I say that? Well, because again, with that call back to chapter 1, John just seems to be saying here, This is when I beheld his glory. This is when I saw him for who he really is.

34:50 But look also at the reason John gives for why he says this at the end of verse 35. He says there, so you also may believe. That also is so interesting, isn't it? It is so interesting because at the end of the book when he says a similar thing, So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. There's no also. But here at the foot of the cross, when John is staring at the dead body of Jesus, when he understands who Jesus is, he says, I'm saying these things so that you also may believe just like me.

35:29 It's personal for him. He's staring at the crucified king. And it changes him. Friends, some of you need to do that today. You need, like John, to stare at the crucified king, and you need to let him transform you. You need to see him for who he really is. You need to think deeply about what he's done. You need to see him as the Passover lamb who dies so that you don't have to die. You need to see him as the pierced, stricken king whose death brings salvation and joy and life and eternity.

36:04 I mean, when you look at Jesus, when you're sitting here this morning, staring, metaphorically I understand, but staring at the dead body of Jesus hanging on the cross, what do you see? I mean, the problem is that different people see different things. I mean, you notice, don't you, that John was not the only one who saw Jesus hanging on that cross. The soldiers did too. But you know the difference? Look at verse 33. All they saw when they looked at Jesus was that he was dead.

36:39 That's it. When they looked at Jesus, they saw a corpse. Not John. Not John. His mind and his heart came alive, and he saw his salvation. What do you see when you look at the crucified lamb? Here's point number two. The honoring of the king. the honoring of the king. So moving into that second paragraph there, verses 38, 42, they come sometime later after all of those events in the first paragraph. We don't know exactly how much later they came, but it couldn't have been that long, right? And Jesus died sometime around 3 p.m., and there'd been enough time that had passed even since then for the blood and water in his chest cavity to separate. And sundown was coming pretty quickly, so at most between, you know, say 37 and 38, you've only got an hour or two at the most that's passed. So we're talking about something like 4 p.m., 5 p.m., something like that. I mean, when you first read it, the story seems

37:41 pretty straightforward there. You just kind of let your mind, let your eye roll over it. This guy, Joseph of Arimathea, used to be a fearful disciple of Jesus, now does this very brave thing, goes to Pilate, asks for the body of Jesus. Nicodemus also, who we met back in chapter 3, They came bringing this mixture of myrrh and aloes, 75 pounds of it. They embalmed the body of Jesus, anointed the body of Jesus, and then lay his body in this new tomb, which happens to be nearby in a garden. I mean, again, it just seems like it's filling in the details of how Jesus' body basically got from the cross to the tomb.

38:16 But as always in the book of John, that ain't it. This book has not been around for 2,000 years in the subject of fascination just because it tells us uninteresting and unrelated details. Now, if you read it more carefully, you see a whole lot more going on here than meets the eye at first. So, for one thing, look at these two men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who do this work of embalming Jesus and then placing him in the tomb. What do they have in common?

38:48 What do these two guys have in common? Well, one thing that John doesn't tell us here, though we know it from other places, is that both of these guys were Pharisees. They were members of the Sanhedrin. So to come out as public disciples of Jesus was an incredibly dangerous thing. It was dangerous from a Jewish perspective. It was also dangerous from the perspective of the Romans because Jesus has just been executed for sedition. And normally anybody who's a friend of his gets tracked down too and also executed for sedition. So they're doing a brave thing here.

39:20 What else do they have in common? Well, we know that until now, until this moment when they go to Pilate and get the body of Jesus, we know that both of them had been afraid to let themselves be known as followers of Jesus. If you look at verse 38, John says it straight up about Joseph. He was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews. And then look at that phrase in 39 about Nicodemus. Nicodemus also, who earlier, or at first is what it reads literally, who at first had come to Jesus by night.

39:57 Now, why is that significant? Well, it's because we know that John, over and over again, uses night, physical darkness, as a symbol of spiritual darkness. So when Judas is going out to betray Jesus, it says, and Judas departed, and it was night. He's talking about spiritual darkness. Well, now he says that in chapter 3, Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, In spiritual darkness. But look what he says to him here. It's all in the past tense. Earlier at first he came to him by night.

40:32 But now the night seems to be broken. Do you see what's happening here? Now that Jesus has died. Now that Jesus is dead. These secret followers of his are coming out of the darkness. They're doing this incredibly brave thing of letting themselves be known as his disciples. Now put it all together. Think about John, think about Nicodemus, think about Joseph of Arimathea. What's going on here? Over and over again, now that Jesus is dead, all these people are coming into the light.

41:06 They're becoming disciples of Jesus. You've got three of them right here. You've got Nicodemus, you've got Joseph of Arimathea, both coming out of the darkness, out of the fear. And then I think you've also got John at the same time, sort of dawning on him, and him becoming a Christian and coming into the light. And in another gospel, you've got the centurion, also after Jesus' death, saying, surely this man was the son of God. It's fascinating, isn't it? Now that he's dead, people are coming to him. But that's exactly what Jesus said would happen.

41:38 Remember, when I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. Look, wouldn't it be incredible? I mean, wouldn't it just be absolutely incredible if this is the day when the same thing happens to you? That on this particular day, when you're in a room that's decorated for Christmas and should be all about joy, you're staring at the dead body of Jesus and this is the day the Lord decides to give you spiritual life. When he is lifted up, you're drawn to him. It would be an incredible thing for you to say with all these people, as you're looking at the dead body of Christ, I also believe.

42:18 I want you to notice something else, too. Normally, when John says something like, he was a disciple secretly because of fear of the Jews, right? Or when he says something like, he came by night. Throughout this gospel, it's a thundering verdict against that person. Like every single time. But not here. Not here. Here, it's a description of who these men were in the past. Why? Why? Why? Because they've made a decision to come out of the darkness, and everything changes.

42:55 So when are you going to do that? When are you going to come out of the darkness and into the light of knowing Jesus? I mean, some people say, but I've been in this darkness for so long, I can't come out. Yeah, you can. You can, even if it's going to be embarrassing. Even if it's going to be costly to you right now, you can say, I believe in Jesus. I'm a Christian. Enough of this secret stuff. I'm a Christian, and I want the world to know it now. Could that be costly for you?

43:26 Of course it could be costly. But it was costly for Nicodemus and Joseph, too. When Judas walked out of the room to betray Jesus, John put it bluntly, he went out, and it was night. That's it. The door was shut on Judas. Here for Nicodemus, it's different. At first he came to Jesus at night in fear, but he's not there anymore. Now, friend, please, from the bottom of my heart, do not let the door on your casket close and somebody say, and it was night, and let that be it.

44:09 Come into the light. Come to Jesus. And let the words that echo over your light be, Yes, he was in darkness, but he came to the Savior, and he was redeemed. Last thing, I want you to notice here in this paragraph all these details that are given about the way particularly that Jesus was buried. So look at verse 39. It tells us that Nicodemus brought some embalming spices, including myrrh, of course.

44:42 was interesting because it's a callback to the gifts that the magi brought him at his birth, right? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. You know the significance of those, right? We may talk about it on Christmas Day. Gold because he's a king, incense because he's a priest, myrrh because he's going to be the suffering servant. You embalm people, you embalm dead people with myrrh. Three gifts, and here it shows up again because Jesus has died. But look how much of it there is. 75 pounds, which if you look at the footnote down below, it's a very round number. It's 100 Roman pounds. As the Romans weighed things, it was known to be 100 pounds of this stuff. Now, you didn't really need that much spice to embalm a body unless you were burying a king. We know from other sources that that's the normal amount for a king, a round number, a super abundance of spices, a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to bury a king. And look in 41 where his tomb was. It was in a garden. Why is that

45:51 significant? I mean, John mentions it two times right there, and he's going to mention it later in chapter 20 when Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener, right? Why is John so fascinated with it being a garden? Well, there's probably a couple of reasons. I mean, it was in a garden, right, that God breathed life into the lungs of the first Adam, and it's here in a garden that he will do the same for the last Adam, the new humanity, the first fruits of the resurrection. Also, though, there's something else. If you read the Old Testament over and over again, what you find is that kings were buried in gardens.

46:33 And then I want you to just notice here how all of this falls into place so quickly. I mean, I don't know if you've ever been involved in putting together a funeral, but it is not something that happens quickly. It's not something that happens over just a couple of hours. And yet all of this happens over a couple of hours. Like, where do you get 100 pounds of spices so quickly? Where do you find a garden with a brand new tomb so quickly that's really close to the site of the execution? And how do you get all of that? Where do you find linen strips on the evening before the high Sabbath of the Passover?

47:06 Where do you have all of this stuff? Why is it all just waiting there? And it seems as if God has prepared it right from the very beginning. I don't know if you've watched any of the ceremonies surrounding the burial of Queen Elizabeth II a few weeks ago. You know where she was buried, right? In a chapel at Windsor Castle. It's called the Chapel of George VI. She and all of her family, her mom and her dad, and Philip, her husband, they're all buried in the Chapel of George VI.

47:38 Do you know how long it's been known that Elizabeth II was going to be buried in the Chapel of George VI? Since the place was dedicated in 1969. Because that's what you do with rulers. That's what you do with sovereigns. Everything is ready. And here, here in this paragraph, it feels like that. After the it is finished, after the tetelestai, God no longer treats his son as a condemned sinner.

48:17 He treats him with royal honor, befitting of his station. How do you treat him? How do you treat Jesus? You treat him with the royal honor, befitting of his station, because, you know, Queen Elizabeth is dead. She's in the tomb. She's going to stay there until the last day. Jesus stayed in his for three days. That's it. And then he got up on the third day. And he now sits enthroned in heaven.

48:48 How do you treat him? Do you still treat him like a condemned criminal? Do you still treat him like somebody to be cast aside, to be backhanded, to be ignored, to be run from? Or do you treat him with the honor that befits his station? Dear friend, Jesus is a merciful king. He sits right now on the throne with his arm outstretched, his hand extended to you. to show you mercy.

49:20 Go to him and find salvation from the crucified lamb. Let's pray. Our Lord Jesus, we honor you today with songs and with praises that are befitting of your station as king of kings and lord of lords. Lord Jesus, you are not just King Jesus the Great. You are King Jesus the Crucified and Resurrected. You are King Jesus the Redeemer. You are King Jesus the Savior. You're the one who gave yourself for us so that we might live in your presence forever.

50:01 And we pray that you would help us to remember these things every day of our lives and to live in the light of them. We ask all of this in your name and always to your honor and glory. Amen.