Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1115 Undeniable Evidence - 2024/07/22
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lawbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. Our faith centers around the truth that Jesus Christ died and rose again on the third day. If your faith isn't centered around that, if the basis of your so great salvation doesn't center around that fact, then I would seriously question your eternal life, your position in Christ. It's overwhelming evidence in the gospel messages, overwhelming evidences that Jesus did do just that. This narrative that we see that Jesus goes through, these proofs, these are overwhelming evidences for you and I. The unbelievable asked, well, what kind of proof do you have? We have all the proof in the world, the authority of scriptures. This is the second day of the week in God's created order, the 22nd day of the seventh month, the 24th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Let's turn to an emperor. Father in Heaven, thank you for this opportunity this morning to fellowship in your work. And we pray Heavenly Father, to open our hearts and open our eyes and give us the wisdom within our hearts, first of all, to secure the very reality that Jesus did do exactly that went to the cross. God was buried in Rosichen. And may that truth change our lives as we come to stand upon it, our rock. Open our hearts and study us more as we continue to grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen. Matthew 27, 57 through 66. When it was evening, there was a rich man from Aramathia, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, and Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had honed out in a rock. And he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. What do we know about Joseph? Joseph Aramathia, first of all, he was an honorable counselor. That is a member of the Sanhedrin. That's the body of the 70, and we find that in Mark 1543. He was a good and just man, Luke 2350. He waited for the kingdom of God in Mark 1543. He was rich. Matthew 57 or 2757. He did not vote for Jesus' death when the Sanhedrin voted Luke 2351. He wasn't a disciple, but he wasn't a disciple of a secret disciple. He only feared his fellow Jews, and it's John 1938. And this character, Joseph Aramathia, fought, he was, let's just take the secret disciple at first. Because of application and this. He was a judge, in a sense. He weighed evidences as the Sanhedrin should have. You see, on a traditional body, which the Sanhedrin was, as to weigh the evidences of one who was set before them, between guilt and light, between guilt and innocence and power to acquit and all that when they're residing over the Jews. Joseph of Aramathia was one of them, and he weighed the evidences. He was a secret disciple, and at one point he feared the, he feared scrutiny. He feared his fellow Jews, the other leaders, the Sanhedrin. He probably feared his position. He feared, he may have feared many things, and as a young believer, if we do fear many things. As young believers in new disciples, and maybe for a while, we get into a crowd and we begin, and we're afraid of the scrutiny that we're going to get by other people, if we should mention the name Jesus. Pending on where we are, and what part of society we are, and maybe in what part of the world we might be feared, a loss of job, a loss of property, a loss of security, even a bad family named everything. And we just don't know if we could face such things. Even now, as I say to myself, how can I face even death? And it all comes down to, what does the evidence say? Who is this Jesus? Because it really boils down in your own heart. Who is Jesus? What does he mean to you? Is he who he says he is? Because over a period of time, Joseph must have changed his life. Now, I'll give you another thing about this. Here's Passover. This is preparation day for the Passover. Remember that during this time, the Pharisees would not even go into before Pilate, because they did not want to make themselves unclean, because it was Passover. So the Jews would be very careful that day so that they could participate in the Passover. And I never thought about this before. And Joseph takes a great stand at this point. Joseph, we spoke a little bit yesterday about being believers in cognitos, being disciples in cognitos. You're just not sure. You're not sure about this, Jesus. You believed him. You trusted him for eternal life, but you're quiet about your faith in certain crowds and what have you. And this was Joseph. And it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. Joseph Arimathea, he was rich, but yet all of a sudden, here he comes out. Not only does he, in broad daylight, go to Pilate and ask for the body, but he also desecrates himself, makes himself unclean, that he cannot now participate in the Passover. He himself cannot participate in the Passover, because he, of touching the body. So he goes out before any body. At this point, he doesn't care about world opinion, about opinion of friends, about printing of sociates. He goes to the Pilate and he requests the body. He touches the body. And he's going to touch the body and all that. So it was custom. See, otherwise, what would have happened to the body if Joseph didn't do what he did along with Nicodemus? What would have happened to the body? The Romans would have taken the body down. The body would have either been thrown into a common grave along with a bunch of other bodies, very unidentifiable, or into Gahina. Joseph asked for the body. And along with Nicodemus, let's not forget Nicodemus. Matthew doesn't mention about Nicodemus, but certainly John does. John 1939, Nicodemus, who had first come to him by night, also came, bringing, look what he's doing. This is purposeful. He knows what he's doing. Also Nicodemus is going to be touching that body. And he brings with him to bring an honorable burial for this Jesus, bringing a mixture of murk and alloys, about a hundred pound weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen whappings and which spices as a burial custom of Jews. Now the place he was crucified there was a garden and that garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid, therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation since the tomb was nearby and laid Jesus there. This says this was taking place in the evening. In fact, the evening is anything past three o'clock. So late afternoon begins the evening. As Becker pointed out Friday with the honing out of the tomb now, I think the tomb was already there. It was already a family tomb, but her point is that this took time. What they did took time. It wasn't something that they're going to, these men, what they did was methodical, procedural, they took their time and they did not care who saw them. They were out in the open with their faith in this Jesus and at least to honor him and honor who he was and remarkable. So they properly and they lovingly cared for the body of Jesus to bury someone in the family tomb would be active reverence and affection. So a family tomb, he realized this era Joseph treated Jesus as a family member. He treated as a family. He honored the death of Jesus bringing him into and laying him into the tomb. And when we do that, when we treat the honor and we look upon that death of Jesus upon the cross and we stop to think about that and we honor that death to honor the resurrection. Jesus brings us into his family. Joseph is brought in to the family of Jesus. The rock was large. These are the way I see it was a wheel, kind of a wheel, a rock, a carved rock, a big wheel that could be rolled. And it wouldn't be a bolt. It would be just a large wheel that would be rolled in front of a tomb. So we know that Joseph's there. We know that Nicodemus is there. Maybe they both had the strength enough to roll this rock in front of that. Joseph being a well-off man probably had some servants or what have you. They may have been others around groundskeepers or whatever. I could see that they may have, there may have been some help to roll this heavy stone in front of the grave. Matthew 2761 and Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was the one that Jesus had. Mary is a center point of this because her love for Jesus was immense. Mother Mary, of course, that was her son. There was love there. But Mary had been, Mary had been relieved of the demons that Jesus cured for her and chased out and she had a overwhelming gratitude to who and what Jesus was, despite everybody else looked down upon her for who she was. It was Jesus who not only lifted her up but healed her. And the other Mary sitting opposite of the grave, so they were spectators of this. Mark 15, you know, Mark 1542, when evening had come, I'd already come because it was preparation day. That is the day before the Sabbath, before the High Holy Day. The next day, the next day after this, the crucifixion took place all Passover. Passover itself is not a High Holy Day, but the day after it was beginning, I need to check my fact, but the next day would be the High Holy Day. And so Derek, and which would be a Sabbath. When it comes down to the resurrection, Matthew says after the Sabbath, which is a plural, so there would be more than one Sabbath. We know that the seventh day is a Sabbath, but this would be a High Holy Day. Joseph Arimathea came, a prominent member of the council who himself was waiting for the Kingdom of God, and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate and asked the body, asked for the body of Jesus. And look at this, and he gathered courage and Pilate asked for the body, Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate, wonder, this was astonishment, he was curious at this point. Apparently this was even while the other, even while the others, all of them were suffering on the cross. This apparently took place, or they're getting ready to die already. Look at the timing on this, but Pilate wondered if he was dead by this time. And there's a curious to him, and some in the centurion he questioned him as to whether he was already dead, and ascertaining this from the centurion he granted the body. So I'll step that back a little bit, he was already dead, but this wasn't much time between the time. As it broke, the linen cloth took him down and wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that was honed in a rock and rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. The location of the body is very important, as well as the other evidence. Again, all this is a building up of the evidences. All of this is for your benefit, my benefit. It builds the case, and that's what I like the least trouble. You see all these case four. That least trouble wrote, I think the first one was Case for Christ. And least trouble was an unbeliever. He was a journalist, he was an unbeliever, he married a woman, she, who was also an unbeliever, and everything was going all right. In a marriage, I think they had a child, yes, they had a child, a little girl, I believe. And everything was going all right with the family, he was getting promoted at the paper and everything, until his wife becomes a believer. And so she comes to the Lord, and that's when the conflict started. And least trouble said, okay, I'm going to, he probably gets fed up with the whole thing. And he said, okay, as a journalist, I'm going to start exploring, I'm going to start, I'm going to investigate the claims that Jesus was actually who he says. If it was dead, buried, I am going to, and I'm going to shut your mouth on this. I'm going to lay it out, and it was offered a benefit of his wife to prove to his wife that all this was a simple hoax. Along the way, least trouble became a believer, because the evidences were just too strong. God has made it hard for skeptics to come up with a lot big enough and convincing enough for anyone who honestly looks at the evidence to say that this didn't happen, that Christ has not rose again. One can say that Christ did not rise from the dead, but the rejection is a rejection of the truth. It's more than just a belief. You can turn around, for those who say, I just don't believe that. And it's not a matter of belief. It's a matter of rejection of the truth, because the evidences are laid out for anyone that has the courage enough and the tenacity enough to look at the evidence. There are overwhelming truths of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and one may ask to prove it. One may look at you and they may say, well, prove it. Prove it that Jesus, and you may have had that happen. Prove it that Jesus died and rose again. Listen, believe it. We don't have to prove anything. The Bible's already proven it. Turn it around for the unbeliever. Ask Mr. Skeptic. Okay, Mr. Unbeliever. No, I'm not going to prove it to you. It's already been proved in Bible. You prove me that it didn't. You prove to me that the Bible was wrong. Put the ball back in their court. Let them. And by the way, start asking them some questions. Start asking just 2,000 years ago, Jesus died on a cross, and to this very day, there are people from every culture, every language, every nation that believes upon his holy name. He's a central character, unlike any other faith. All the other faiths are going around with the ideology. You know Christianity is not an ideology. It's a person. The central person is Christ. What about the apostles? Tell me about the apostles. Here he is disciples. Here you had 11 men who scattered when Jesus was arrested to be nailed to the cross. They were scared a little sheep. What convinced them in short period of time to become heroes of the faith, to stand for the name of Jesus? What made Joseph Arimathea a prominent Jew in the Sanhedrin to risk his career and everything else along with Nicodemus to take that body down off the cross? What made at the notorious Saul Tarsus, who was the infamous persecutor of the Jews, to turn and give his life for this Jesus? What would in the Roman days, what would cause not only parents of children to give their lives to be placed into arena because they named them the name of Jesus? But also to be there to watch their own children devoured by lions and wild animals. What would cause a person to do that? Would a lie do that? I don't think so. Maybe these are the questions we should be asking. Hebrews, we've been through this recently, haven't we? Hebrews 12 and 1. There we go. Hebrews 12, 1 through 3. Therefore, since we have a great, so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us that has also lay aside every encumberance of sin which is so easily entangled with us and let us run with the endurance, the race that was set before us, fits their eyes on Jesus, author and the perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured to cross the spies in shame and was set down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him who endured such hostilities by sinners against themselves so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. And Joseph, people like Joseph and Nicodemus, they gained a heart by looking upon these facts. So no, Mr. Believer, you should, I don't need to prove anything to you because it's already been proven by Scripture. Matthew 62, Matthew 27, 62. Now, on the next day to day, after the preparation, the preparation, the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered together with the Pilate and said, "Sir, remember that when we were still alive, when he was still alive, the deceiver said, after three days, I am to rise again. Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise as disciples may come and steal him away and say that to the people he has risen from the dead. And lastly, Seth, you'll be worse than the first." You know what's curious? You know what's curious here? Who remembers the words of Jesus here? Who's remembering the words of Jesus? The Pharisees? The Pharisees, I say, remember? You know, they recall the mind. This is what Jesus said. How about the disciples? Were they remembering? It's funny if the disciples seemed not to remember. They ran off. But they were not acting on what Jesus had told them. But the Pharisees were. They were remembering what Jesus said. I just find that a little bit peculiar. If Jesus was dead, it would be the end of the story. If Jesus was dead and thrown away into Gahanna or in a common grave, but he was not. Not even the Pharisees who still feared every circumstance. The Pharisees will be scared and worried. They would be under what you call damage control all the way up until 80, 70. Probably all of them died at that point. But they would be constantly trying to change. They were the Judaizers of Paul's Day. They would go in behind Paul. And Paul would be establishing churches. And the Pharisees would have to make it their business now to come in to those churches to tell them, you know, that all this is a lie. So they want to cover their tracks. They want to make sure they believe in the resurrection. But they want to make sure that because if it was so that the disciples would take the body and hide the body. And it's funny, these guys can come keystone cops at this point. They've always been keystone cops. They've always been like a dog chasing its tail. That's exactly what these Pharisees are doing right now. So they're trying to keep their deceivers. And you know, once again, they're deceivers and they're worried about the section. These guys were scoundrels and they were worried about being deceived themselves and having the world deceived. So they wanted a guard placed upon this on the tomb. And so, here it is, that pilot says, "Okay." Because the pilot said to them, "You have a guard? Go. Make it as secure as you know how." And they went and they made the grave secure. Along with the guard, they set a seal on the stone. And this is probably a cord and a seal that was wrapped around that. And so they're looking at preventing a hoax to be a hoax. And they're worried, listen, they're worried that this body is going to disappear. And the disciples can start to start a story around and say, "This is what happened. The body was resurrected." And that's what they were worried about, the disappearance of the body. But it's going to be worse than that. It's going to be worse than anything they can imagine. Because not only will there will no body in the tomb. This will be actual body walking around and being witnessed by many. And to this day that Jesus Christ lives. I'll give you this one more as we close it out today. Great frustration. It must have been, it must have infuriated the Sanhedrin. Their heads must have exploded. Because they wouldn't have to worry about this. If it wasn't for Joseph of Arimathea. If it wasn't for one of their own going for the body. Because if the body was just thrown into a common grave. If the body was just thrown out into Gehenna. Game over. The body could never be identified. There wouldn't be no tomb. You could go in there and say he's missing. See he was the only one that was a fresh family tomb. There was no other body laying in that tomb. It was only he that Jesus that would be in there. He is an identifiable body. There was witnesses that that body went into. The women were the witnesses and testified that that body went into the grave. And all of this lays out the evidences that Jesus Christ died upon that cross. The spear into his chest cavity. The very fact that no one ever survives a crucifixion. The beatings that he took. Often left people disembowned and died before they got to the cross. There was no way that he could have survived that cross. And then to be put in the tomb. Absolutely dead. That and with two other witnesses. Witnesses at one point was hostile to them. Joseph Aaron Messia and Nicodemus. The women witnessing that the body had gone into the grave in the seal. The pilot seal up and put a guard on that grave for three days. No one goes in. No one comes out. And if that seal was broken it was death penalty for the guards. All of this evidence that Jesus Christ went into that grave absolutely dead and came out absolutely alive. Father in Heaven thank you for this opportunity this morning fellowship in your word. Thank you for this day. Thank you for this new week of work. We pray heavenly Father that our eyes and our hearts will be fixed upon the author and the perfect of our faith who did the greatest thing by dying for us on the cross. By being buried and by walking out of that tomb. What a wonderful story this is. We pray these things in Christ name. Amen. All right. Another fine day. Now Lord keep your armor on a good fight of faith. And Lord, will and spirit guide. We'll be back here in the a.m. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]