I invite you to turn tonight, if you have your Bibles with you, to the Gospel of John. And we are concluding the study here in this section of the death and the burial of Jesus. And then on Sunday, we come to John chapter 20, and we'll consider the first 18 verses. But for tonight, John gives us a peculiar little section here after the death of Jesus. having to do with his pierced side and then also his burial. So that's what we're considering tonight for this Good Friday service. So let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. John chapter 19, beginning at verse 31. Since it was the day of preparation 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 so that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true, and he knows that he's telling the truth. 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. 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 had earlier 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. So because of the Jewish day of preparation, Since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. And there we'll end of the reading of God's word. Well, this is quite a unique section tonight to end and to come back this Sunday and consider the resurrection. What a day to gather together on what we call Good Friday and to consider a text like this. I suppose it's helpful to remember after our long study in the gospel of John, the purpose for this book that is coming in chapter 20, where John is going to say all these things. Along the way, I've been reminding us of this. All these things were written so that you would believe. So that you would believe. And you'll notice that key emphasis here in verse 35. He who saw it is born witness. His testimony is true, and he knows he's telling the truth, that you also may believe. So there's the heart of this tonight. Whatever John is about to tell us in the death and the burial of Jesus, there's something really climaxed here about belief, particularly having to do with all that John has taught us in connection with the Old Testament and Israel and the wilderness and the fulfillments as we've been looking at. Tonight we're going to consider this briefly, that a few things that John is emphasizing in the death and burial. I usually give an outline ahead of time. I'm going to emphasize it as we go because I think it's helpful to stop and say, that's what it is, and let you see it unfold this way of two major things that John is showing us tonight in the death and the burial of Jesus. So you can be looking for those two things. and if I didn't make it by the time we're done and you still haven't figured out, then I failed tonight. But I'll try to say it really clearly so you understand it. We left off last time, last Sunday with the crucifixion, you'll remember. He had been nailed to the wooden cross. We got a little glimpse of the suffering and the great pains that Jesus suffered, and we looked at the meanings of that. Some of these things that John has been emphasizing as Jesus cried out, I thirst. That has significance for the death and burial. I thirst, said Jesus. The wrath and the judgment that we should have have fallen on us, Jesus is bearing and Jesus is taking on the cross so that we never will have to face it. I mean, this is really the best news that could be be announced to us. All of us live with guilt. All of us live intuitively in our hearts. We know we have guilt and shame, and we struggle with that. And when we come to the message of Christianity and the cross, Jesus' words ring out at the end, it is finished. It's finished for you. I did it for you. I completed it for you. I bore the penalty for you. I became the cursory. I wore the crown for you. I've done everything necessary. There's nothing more that you need to do to fulfill the righteousness of God. We have to always tell ourselves that and understand that in what's being announced to us. Well, John, at this point, moves into great detail about the body of Jesus and the burial of Jesus. In fact, no other gospel really does this. It's unique to John. So we have this unique moment in the gospel of John of the death and the burial of Jesus. And why is that so significant? Well, we could say with the Heidelberg, it testifies that he really died. That's important. That's important. John shows us a little more deeply the significance of the death. Look at verse 31, if you have your Bibles. It says this, 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. Well, that's a peculiar little inclusion, isn't it? We stand back from that and say, what in the world does this have to do with anything? Why do we need these sort of details? We've heard of this preparation day, and essentially what we have here in this particular section is everything climaxing after a week long of celebratory activities, remember? They're celebrating the Passover, and now what has climaxed here when you have the Passover, this great annual feast, you have the sort of super Sabbath. It really is the super Sabbath. The phrase reads, that Sabbath day was a great one. It's a great Sabbath. It was a high day. It was the Sabbath of all Sabbaths. So that's a really unique inclusion that's given here. It would be like if we had the Lord's Supper once a year. Can you imagine what would happen? Everyone would pack out the place. It would be interesting how this day would be treated. and what would happen, and what would happen. This is the day we take the supper. This is the Sabbath, they would think. So, it was the Sabbath of the Passover that had lasted, this feast, seven days. It's Friday. You'll remember that early this morning, 1 to 3 a.m., they tried Jesus, and they went off to the civil trial. And at about the sixth hour, probably about 9 a.m., some might dispute the exact time of this, he's been sent to the cross. He has been nailed to the cross for hours now. But now it's getting to be late in the afternoon. It's getting to be late in the afternoon. And the Jews start thinking to themselves, we have a real problem here. We have a real problem here. We've got to get ready for the Super Sabbath. and our law is very explicit about something that we are going to be very scrupulous and fastidious about. We're going to keep this particular law. It's this in Deuteronomy. If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, remember, Jesus never did, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall bury him that day so that you do not defile the land. Well, we certainly can't defile the land with this sinner's body on the Sabbath. It's got to come down. It's got to come down. We have got to be in our Saturday best. And we can't be dealing with this person. This guy's caused us enough problems. So what they do is they go to Pilate. And they asked Pilate if they can break the legs of those who have just been crucified. In these crucifixions, it's possible that you could hang there for hours and even days, depending on your physical state and what kind of condition that you're in. And that's interesting because we see that Jesus has already died. He died because it was finished. He died because the purpose had been accomplished. These other two haven't died yet. So the way to speed up this whole thing, they would take a large mallet and they would take this big iron mallet, they would walk up to the victims and they would see if they're still breathing. And if they're still breathing, they would take a hammer to the legs, the mallet to the legs, until they heard the bones shatter. You can imagine how awful this is. And once the bones shattered, it was such a shock to the body It was quick death after that, after all this suffering. What a horrid torture, isn't it? Pilate says, you have permission. So they walk up to the first man. Verse 32 says, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him, which means they were both still living. What an amazing thought. You know, it's not in John. And it's just helpful to say, we know the story of these men, don't we? One man repented the last moment of his life. Imagine when the mallet hit him, and then he died and entered glory. The other man didn't believe. The mallet hit him, and he went into eternal suffering. It's a thought, isn't it? Today, the Lord said to the one man, you'll be with me in paradise, with me. Jesus has already died. They turned to Jesus, verse 33. When they came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead already. So they did not break his legs. You know, what really moves me about this is, first to say the awful hypocrisy of the whole thing. They were giving themselves to the scrupulous details of the law. We can't have this man's body up on the Sabbath. You know, we've got to keep the Sabbath. We've got to do the preparation that's necessary for the Sabbath. And never mind that on their hands is the blood of the Son of God. It's remarkable. But to stay with the real point here. The soldiers see that the Lord was already dead. So they think to themselves, we're not going to break his legs. There's no reason to break their legs. And then John tells us at the end of the two events, which is interesting, he wanted us to see these two events in correlation before he gave us the application and what he's doing with them. But for our purposes, we'll jump a little bit ahead. He tells us that the reason they did not break his legs, verse 36, for these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, Not one of his bones was broken. Now that's a big moment. Where have we studied in any of this long study in the gospel of John that anything has happened simply by the will of men and none of it was in the control of God? The whole thing has been to fulfill the scriptures. But it dawned on me, I started thinking, and I think you have to, this is where you come to the text and you have to say, there's something more to this. It's not just to tell us that the scriptures are fulfilled. What was fulfilled? What was fulfilled? And that's the first real question tonight of this text. What was fulfilled? And you start to say, well, where did it ever say in the Bible, boys and girls, that not one of the bones would be broken? Well, John's been working through Exodus the whole time, hasn't he? Here it is. It's a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat it, But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, they may eat it. A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. In one house it shall be eaten. You shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. There it is. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. You understand the massive significance of that throughout history? all these years, they kept the Passover. They never broke a bone of one of their lambs. They would take these lambs into their house. They would keep the lambs for these days from the 10th to the 14th, and they would care for this beautiful lamb. The children would feed the lamb. The children would love the little lamb. They would have a sense of a bond with this lamb that was in their house. The parents would teach their children about the lamb. The parents would teach them about the importance of the lamb. This is our Passover lamb, children. This is our Passover lamb. And then the father would bring the lamb out and take the lamb and hold it back by its neck and at twilight or at dusk, as it's becoming dark, they would split the throat and blood would pour out all over the white fur of this beautiful lamb. And the children would ask mom and dad, Mom, Dad, why are you doing that to our lamb? Why would you do that to our favorite little lamb? And they would say, Well, children, on the day of our deliverance, the Lord instructed us to do this. He wanted us to take this blood of a pure lamb and put it on the doorposts of our houses. And do you know what the Lord did for us? Do you know what the Lord did for us? When the angel of death came through Egypt and he struck down all the firstborn, when he saw that blood of that little lamb on our door of our house, he passed over and there was no judgment on us. Do you know, we weren't supposed to break the bones, though. We can't break the bones. Don't break the bones. God told us not to break the bones. The blood, children, is our propitiation. It turned away God's anger. It turned away God's anger. But don't break the bones. I want you to picture the scene. Several hundred thousand lambs have been passing through the road into Jerusalem, right? Josephus says that, it's hard to imagine this, but Josephus said there's 256,000 lambs coming in at the Passover season. reason. They've all been shedding blood. The Passover has come. Jesus is the Passover lamb. They're teaching the children, and John is yelling at us right now in the text. John is screaming at us. They can't break his bones. They can't touch his bones because he's the Passover lamb. He's it. Here we are outside the gate. I have no idea. Isn't it something they're celebrating? And look what's just happened. All the scriptures have been fulfilled. You know, wrap your minds about that. The only perfect paschal lamb that is able to save a sinner from death and pass over your lives so that you don't face the judgment of God. He just shed his blood on a post. And God just passed over you. You see, all the scriptures had to be fulfilled. All the perfect plan of God had to be fulfilled. You say, I believe in Jesus Christ and him crucified. You know what you say, right? You're saying he's my Passover. This is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians. Christ is our Passover. I believe Christ was crucified for me so that when Israel experienced the sparing of their lives by putting the blood on the doorposts of their house, that all spoke of Jesus. And when I believed in him, the truth of it is finished is God passed me over forever. There's no more judgment. He set me free. This is what we're celebrating. This is why we're here tonight. Everything that all the scriptures, all these years of celebrating the Passover. And tonight he's giving you the supper, which is a celebration of what? The crucified body and the shed blood of Christ. that his blood has forgiven you, that he loves you. What a moment John's saying in the Gospel of John, Christ is your Passover. You've been passed over. The world right now hasn't. Angel of death striking, and he will strike. You've been passed over. This is the night of solemn observance to the Lord. this is the night. And all throughout history, it's the night. That's why we're here tonight. Here we are. That's pretty exciting. That's the first point. John further emphasizes something else here. As the soldiers saw that he was dead, instead of breaking his bones, one of the soldiers takes his spear and thrusts it into Jesus's side. And you read in verse 34, you'll notice there that he pierced his side. At once there came out blood and water. Now, I could spend a long time getting into all the discussions on this. It's just overwhelming. I could say it was a physical reality that's happened here. It's interesting that John is simply saying, some have said, that Jesus is just, it's just being proven that Jesus physically died. That this was just a ruptured heart is what happened. Psalm 69 says something kind of interesting. Reproach has broken my heart, and I'm full of heaviness. I look for someone to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. They gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Their reproaches have ruptured my heart. John, I think, has theological significance to this. John has a meaning of this. John follows right up and says, I want you all to know that the one who saw this testifies to you that I saw this and that this is true. I saw this happen. I saw this sword go in, and I saw flow from that side blood and water, and it was clear. It was water. It wasn't just blood. It was blood and water. Now, what in the world is John saying to us? Well, the scripture that he quotes here, the scripture that's on his mind when he says the scripture is fulfilled that they shall look on him in whom they've pierced is this from Zechariah 12 I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and please for mercy so that when they look on me on him whom they have pierced. I'm pouring out something. I'm pouring out mercy. It's the covenant steadfast love of the Lord. I'm pouring it out of my side. You say, well, what is all this declaring to us? I think where it gets mixed up and what people miss is refusing to connect it with what follows. Then you have the meaning. Look at verse 38 if you have your Bibles. After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being 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 that he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds, and they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with spices as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Who shows up? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Who just showed up? Nicodemus. Who first came by night? John wants you to say, wait a minute, something has happened here. Something remarkable has happened here. You can't read this and not be deeply moved that whatever Jesus said in John chapter 3 to Nicodemus through the pouring out of water and blood out of the side has happened. What did Jesus say to Nicodemus? You need to be born from above. What is the whole point of the gospel of John? Some have said that really the whole theme of the gospel of John is it's the book of life. It's the gospel of life. Unless you're born again, unless you're born from above, unless you have a new existence and a new life, you will never enter the kingdom of God, Nicodemus. The Spirit gives life, and out of that flows rivers of living water. Nicodemus says, well, how is that possible? Jesus said, well, what did Moses do in the wilderness? Lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, and everyone who looked to that serpent was healed. So too, the Son of Man must be lifted up to die, and whoever believes in him shall not perish, for here it is, will have life, eternal life. Well, Jesus has just thirsted, and from him has come rivers of water in his death. John says, I saw this. It's true. You've got to believe me. First John, he would even come back and say, this is he who came by water and blood. Jesus Christ, not only by water, but by water and blood. And he would go on to say, it's the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. The Spirit bears witness, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life. And that life is in his Son. When Moses struck the rock, it's like the law striking Christ. Water gushed out of that rock, and they all had water. John's taking all of that, and he has one big message for you tonight. Christ is your Passover. The angel of death has passed over you in his death. He's done everything necessary. He's forgiven you and he's washed you and he's done something else for you. He's given you life. He's given you eternal life. That's the whole message of the Gospel of John. I saw it. And proof, look at this man. Nicodemus, the Pharisee. has life. He's here. This soul has been saved. This person has been given life. He believes. I think that's the great message to us tonight as we come together on Good Friday. You know, you could put the ending statement here, you know, buried in a garden where the first Adam should have been buried. From dust you were taken to dust you shall return. God now just buried his son, though he saw no corruption, in a new tomb. And what is coming out of now is the anticipation of what we're going to celebrate on Sunday in the resurrection. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, if it dies, it produces a harvest of souls. Nicodemus believed. And look what happened. In Christ's death came life. And that's what's given to you tonight. That's what we're here tonight to celebrate. Two great things in the death and burial of Jesus. Your sins have been forgiven and death has passed you over. Remember what Jesus said in John 5? Whoever believes in me right now has already passed from death to life. And believing in Jesus, you have life, eternal life given to you. That's the gift. That's the free gift. This is a beautiful, beautiful section of Scripture, and it asks tonight us to, challenges us to ask the great question, you know. John says, I saw it, but all of this is given so that you would believe. You believe this? You believe these things? It's the best message in the world. what is the world solving right now absolutely nothing what hope does the world have right now absolutely none what has just been said to you you have peace and reconciliation with god through faith in jesus christ he went to the cross for you to be your passover he died for you so that your life is hidden in him. He was buried for you so that as his body's getting out of the grave, your body's getting out of the grave. You're going to see this Sunday. This is the best news. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live. It's Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's what Good Friday is all about. Let's thank him tonight in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this indescribable gift. Thank you for your steadfast love and mercy. Mercy that you've poured out to the ends of the earth in giving life, forgiveness, love. We bless the name of the Lord tonight. And thank you, O Lord, for such a gift that we get to celebrate. Bless us now as we come to the table. Give us believing hearts, trusting hearts, and may we know that all has been accomplished so that the angel of death has passed over us. There is, therefore, no condemnation. And now we have life. Bless us, O Lord, tonight. And thank you for your love. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.