348: Joshua Kempster - Exhortation: The Stone is Rolled Back

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:03

   Welcome to good. Christophian talks. I’m Levi. I’m Chris. I’m Jason and I’m Brian. Thank you for joining us this week on this podcast. We select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News. Feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Welcome to the good Chris Adelphian Talks podcast. This is brother Brian.

2. 0:48

   This week’s talk is an exhortation that was sent in by a recent recommendation from the Tea Tree Gully SA Ecclesia. Brother Joshua Kempster gave the exhort called The Stone is Rolled Back and it is definitely one of the most memorable exhortations that I’ve ever heard. It is long for an exhort in my opinion, but I found it to be so captivating that I was right in there with him the whole time.

3. 1:24

   It starts strong and it just never lets up. Brother Joshua is basically telling us a story, almost like a narration, about the perspective of what should have happened to Jesus body and his reputation if he was treated like the rest of the victims of crucifixion and just discarded in the trash heap that was burning at Gehenna.

4. 1:58

   But how things changed when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus involve themselves personally in the care of his body, and then the ensuing scenes at the empty tomb Brother Joshua litters in. Great practical application gems and reminders for us to focus on what the work of God’s grace has accomplished for us and warns us to stop trying to return to the tombs for bits and pieces of our old lives.

5. 2:39

   You know these grave clothes that we should leave behind as well as the core comforting lesson that where God has rolled the stone back for us, we are not going to undo His work by our daily shortcomings. Truly one of the most memorable talks I’ve ever listened to, and one that I hope is a great comfort and reflection to you as well.

6. 3:08

   So, as always, we hope that this strengthens your faith and brightens your day. Brother Joshua Kempster, The stone is rolled back. Good morning brothers and sisters in our Lord. Jesus Christ, it’s delightful to be back. Here in the first ecclesia I ever attended, not as a member, but as a nought to. 3 year old child so. It’s nice to be back.

7. 3:31

   And share fellowship with you all. I bring love, loving greetings from the Woodville Ecclesia and the brothers and sisters there, grace and peace from God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything had gone to plan.

8. 3:51

   The peasant preacher from despised Nazareth, hung lifeless from a cross, condemned as a criminal and shamed before the entire nation. He was nothing. There was not a thought, not a stir of consciousness in his mind. Death is a horrible process. It’s a degradation of what? Used to be a vital. Moving living being into nothing in Matthew 27 verse 50, Jesus when he had. Cried with a loud voice, yielded up the spirit. When it came to the physical.

9. 4:31

   Process of death he was. No different to any. Other before or after. Him When a person dies, the cells begin to die, some like brain cells, within minutes. Others over the course. Of an hour or longer the longest living cells, the. White blood cells. May last up to 70 hours. But after three days have.

10. 4:54

    Passed. All cells have entirely collapsed and there is no life in them. Our Lord. Was no exception in verse. 57 to 60. We won’t read it, but you can pick out in verse. 58 The body. In verse 59. The body. And referred to as it in verse 60 and laid it in his own new tomb.

11. 5:18

    It’s an object. It’s no longer Jesus it’s no longer that most lovely man it’s just organic matter that used to be him. Jesus is gone from his birth until now there were only. 3. Days when he wasn’t very aware of his surroundings. And those three days occur here. What once was living is now dead, it seems.

12. 5:44

    Irreversible. Everything had gone to plan. The body was due to be. Thrown onto the rubbish heap into Gehenna with the criminals, it would have been tossed unceremoniously and uncaringly into a burning fire that sends the worst stench into the nostrils of those unfortunate enough to walk by the renegade preacher. That three and a. Half year headache dealt with.

13. 6:11

    Everything had gone to plan. But oh, what a tragedy. What a shameful thing for that to. Happen to the? Body of the Son of. God, the body of. Jesus may have just been, strictly scientifically speaking, organic matter. But it was too precious to leave. Who would take action? Who? Would prevent this criminal treatment of this.

14. 6:33

    Precious body, those who you expect to care for the body. They were gone, the disciples. Surely the disciples who had followed Jesus. For three, some for. Over three years, who had professed that they would die for? Him. Would surely be there to care. For their friend who had cared for them gone. All his friends had forsaken him. But Joseph of Arimathea.

15. 7:01

    What a brave man. Never mentioned before, never mentioned after. He appears only to perform this most necessary of actions. The heart fills with emotion considering the. Father. Looking down on this happening, he had engineered circumstances such. That there was. One on earth who would stand in for him, who could stand in as the Father with gentle, strong hands.

16. 7:36

    Respectfully. And carefully taking the body down and treating it the way any father would want their son to be treated. It was the same at the birth. Of Jesus. God required a man to stand in on earth. As his father. The Heavenly Father would always be present, opening his ear morning by morning, but God required a human father presence in the household to complete the family unit to teach his sons the practical skills. Of life to lift.

17. 8:10

    Him to reach the high. Shelf to pick. Him up when he. Fell as a child to do the heavy work. That his mother couldn’t do to carry him sleeping and place him gently into bed. This man was also named Joseph Both. Described as a just. Man. There as. Bookends to his mortal life.

18. 8:32

    Was Joseph a stand? In for the father working the work. That the father. Desperately needed doing, this was. Yahweh’s boy and. No one seemed to. Care. This was Yahweh’s boy, that Hosea. 11 says he took by the hands and he taught him how to walk. He did that through a Joseph. And now, through a Joseph, he lays him to rest.

19. 9:00

    We know it’s only for three days, but three days on that burning. Rubbish heap of. Gehenna would have left an altogether different sensation on the death and resurrection of the Lord. Where in that burning is the image of rest, of sleeping, of incorruption, of serene composure and total control?

20. 9:22

    So there is Joseph. Of all the people mentioned at. The death of the Lord. He alone is mentioned in all. 4 Gospels. A record of the ministry of our Lord is incomplete without mention of this man. Bravely, Joseph went to the governor and begged the body. Of Jesus, what might Joseph have said?

21. 9:44

    Perhaps he appealed to. Pilot’s evident guilt. Perhaps there was money involved. He was a rich man and Pilot was clearly a man of dubious morals. Likely it was just. Persistence like that parable of the unjust judge humbling himself from his. High Estate. As a member of the Sanhedrin and a rich man and grovelling and scraping.

22. 10:07

    He was a. Rich man had status used to being a top in society but. He put all of that aside for the body of our Lord. Whatever it was that he did, Joseph left. With permission to take the body down and treat it with dignity and love, consider for a moment the lesson of Joseph of Arimathea, a man who had everything in this life. He was, he had power, he had riches. But he risked that all for the.

23. 10:40

    Lord, now he didn’t just. Risk it. He gave it up. Little more needs to be said than that, but reflect on that for. Yourself. Where is the risk? In our lives? Or have we hedged our investments for our insurance, build up our savings, and live in a comfortable bubble waiting for someone else to associate themselves with the body of? Christ.

24. 11:06

    And what does he do? With the body, he carefully wraps it. And lays it in a new tomb, a tomb which, as Luke and John say, was a new tomb in which never man had laid. Of course, no one had laid there. Before. No one had ever passed. The way Jesus was. Going to pass. No one had ever laid in a tomb like this, one that would soon eject it’s occupant unable.

25. 11:29

    To hold it so filled with the power and spirit of God as he was, but before that. We still observe the scene. The body laid. The last glance, the straining against the stone, the dull resonant boom as the. Great weight of the. Stone falls into place, sealing the entrance, the silent tears streaming from the eyes.

26. 11:55

    Of the watchers. Those watchers? Wondering who are these strangers burying the. Body of our Lord. I can’t imagine a word was said in that. Garden. What words would suffice? It was only confusion and. Grief. The sort of grief that had. Shaken the earth and veiled the sun.

27. 12:19

    We aren’t the only ones to observe this scene. Joseph wasn’t the only one present. There were certainly others at present there. But Matthew records only two others, both by the name of Mary. Verse 61. There was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of Joseph and James.

28. 12:45

    Magdalene is an epithet to Mary which means a watchtower, and this is what this Mary becomes known for, always being present, watching. She’s a reliable presence, a strong watchtower rising early in the morning. Before it’s dark. Alerting the other disciples when something seems amiss. Mary the Watchtower So in this tragic scene, Matthew presents just two names at the death.

29. 13:15

    Of our Lord Jesus Christ, Joseph. And Mary witnesses to his birth, witnesses to his death. Here Joseph takes the body. Wraps it in a clean linen cloth and lays it tenderly in a new tomb while Mary watches on. Well, let’s visit Luke chapter 2. Let’s. Look through the window 33 1/2. Years earlier to see the. Beginning of this life that has ended so horribly come to Luke chapter 2 from verse. 4 Luke 2, verse 4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea under the city. Of David, which is called.

30. 14:06

    Bethlehem. Because he was of the. House and lineage of David. To be. Taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child and so it. Was that while they were there the the days were? Accomplished that she should be delivered, and she brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a Manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

31. 14:33

    And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

32. 14:47

    So there Joseph laid the body. In a clean linen cloth in a in a new tomb here, Mary wraps the first born son in swaddling clothes and gently lays him in a Manger while Joseph looks on. It was Mary who brought this son into the world and and laid him in a Manger, likely where no man had ever laid before.

33. 15:11

    And it’s Joseph who lays him to rest at the end of his. Life this. Son was born at night and buried at evening. At his birth, there would. Have been all the usual sounds of a newborn, the crying, the rejoicing at his burial, only tears and silence you can see there’s a similarity but a contrast and the.

34. 15:35

    Burial of this body was a blow to the Jews. Plans, this body now had been treated with dignity and respect, with care and love, but it was only a minor one. They approached the governor and sealed and secured the tomb. Picture the futility of this. Scene The Lord is dead. He has ceased to exist, the one who was always there to.

35. 16:02

    Calm the storm to answer the challenging questions to comfort the mourner to. Heal the. Broken hearted, he’s no longer there. In their most confused and difficult state, they don’t have the one that. Is there usually to solve their problems? And obviously, the death. Of the Lord is the. Biggest thing in this chapter, but consider the other things in Matthew chapter 27 that are.

36. 16:29

    Added to show the. Helplessness of the situation, well, he’s condemned as a criminal so that public association with him will lead to death. John 19 verse 40 says that he’s been wound in linen and this word wound. Is. The same as binding. Like the man who was bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness.

37. 16:50

    Here he is bound in darkness, unable to be freed, unable to free himself, bound hand and foot. And then there’s the stone, the great stone, The Monolithos. Historians tell us it could have taken 20 Roman soldiers to move a stone like that out of its place, and we might ask why, how Joseph and Nicodemus could move it into place.

38. 17:16

    Well, typically there was a small depression in front of the grave, and moving it into place was significantly easier than moving it out of. Place at least. For a man, but this word monolithos, it’s a monolith. Is a the sort? Of thing that we typically look at today and think. How did that get there?

39. 17:36

    Things like Stonehenge. Or the Easter Island heads. They look immovable and that’s what this stone is meant to look like, immovable. And just to emphasize this in Mark chapter 16, verse 3, when the women are coming to the tomb on the first day of. The week they say, Who shall roll away? Who shall roll us away?

40. 18:02

    The. Stone from the door. Of the sepulchre. This was their major concern. How can we? Possibly use these sweet spices. We’ve prepared on our Lord when this great stone is blocking access. And then there’s the seal on the tomb. Matthew 27 verse. 66 says so they. Went and made the sepulchre shore, sealing the stone and setting a watch.

41. 18:31

    This seal is illegal to break. It’s against the law of sin and death in a sense. To break the. Seal to this tomb and then. There’s the watch the Guard. Preventing anyone from approaching the tomb. It’s a futile. Scene from the inside out. The Lord is dead. He’s. Bound, unable to move. There’s this great immovable stone. There’s a seal on the.

42. 18:56

    Tube there are soldiers. It’s an impossible situation. How do we even get to the Lord? It’s impossible the way to. The Tree of life is barred. Everything had gone to plan it. Seems but. As we know, while this. Burial was the. End of a life it can also be seen and it. Was also the.

43. 19:19

    Beginning of a new one. This is the amazing. Beauty of scriptures. That it can present a contrast that seems to be. A reversal of Jesus birth to his death. Yet there are. Seeds here, seeds being planted in the ground that are setting up a new birth. The situation looked impossible. But with God all. Things are possible.

44. 19:42

    It’s exactly the point. It had to look impossible. It is impossible because man cannot do it in. Death there is a hopeless. Finality when we don’t consider God the Great Stone is impossible. Come to Isaiah chapter 59, Isaiah chapter 59 verse one, and verse 2. Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. The great stone that separates us. From God, from life and pleasures for evermore is our iniquities.

45. 20:39

    It’s our iniquities. It’s our sins that have hidden God’s face from us. Notice that God never hid His face from us. It’s our. Sins that have hidden God. ‘S face. From us. It’s the object. Performing the action is our sins. Your sins have hid his face from you. The margin tries to make sense of this by saying our sins have made him hide his face from us. But notice that that is not the original. The Him is not in the original.

46. 21:10

    He didn’t do this. We did. We hid his. Face from us, but. He will resolve it. The verses that continue on here describe terrible sins, but sins that were very fresh in the eyes of God at the death of his sons. They. Describe the Jews to AT verse. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity.

47. 21:35

    Your lips have spoken lies, your tongues have, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any. Pleadeth for truth. This is exactly what has just. Happened in the last day in Matthew 27. They trust in vanity and speak. Lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spider. ‘S web he the eateth of their eggs. Dieth and that which is.

48. 22:03

    Crushed. Breaketh out into a Viper. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves. With their works, their works are works of. Iniquity and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil. And they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their. Paths, the way of peace.

49. 22:25

    They know not, and there is no judgement in their goings. They have made them crooked. Paths whosoever goeth. Therein shall not know. Peace. That’s the Jews, the Jewish leaders, but. They shall not know peace, and verse 9 and 10 describes the situation that we that we painted a picture of. At the death of our Lord. It says that we stumble at noonday as in the night. We we wait for light, but behold us obscurity. There’s there’s just.

50. 22:57

    Darkness when it seemed like the light was coming to the nation. Now we are locked in that dark tomb, unable to see out, unable to get out. Because of that, great. Stone that resonating boom was the stone being shot on sin sealed in place in the. That grave. Lay the old man, never to exit, never to escape.

51. 23:21

    But it wasn’t shot on the Lord Jesus. Christ, the stone was rolled back. It was. Rolled back apicoolio to roll back. And with that stone, everything it represents was. Rolled back. Sin, mortality, death, the curse. Rolled. Back reversed. Undone in Genesis 3, the. Way to the tree of. Life had been sealed and guarded by angels, but here was an open door in a garden, with an Angel not guarding the way, but sitting on the door on the stone, inviting Annie to pass.

52. 24:02

    Through. But not the way that the women and disciples were passing into death. Rather the opposite. The invitation from this sitting Angel was to come out. Come out. Of the grave, the tree of life. Was in the garden the only thing left in the tomb? Were the discarded clothes. Of mortality, the fig leaf covering that could never have.

53. 24:25

    Saved. That’s what the disciples saw. When they entered the tomb. The clothes. Mortality discarded, but now? The way, the truth. And the life had emerged. It had been a new tomb wherein never man had laid, but now that one man. Had broken the seal. The floodgates were open. It took just. One man to lay in that tomb and pave. The way for all to follow.

54. 24:50

    He was the first fruits. Romans 5 verse 18 says therefore. As by the. Offence of 1. Judgement came upon all men to condemnation, Even so by the righteousness of 1. The free gift? Came upon all men unto the justification of life, and that is Isaiah 59 verse 16 and. He that is God saw. That there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.

55. 25:22

    Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it it sustained him. God’s arm, the only arm that could have moved the stone. Brought. Salvation and Jesus exited the tomb, reclosed, not bound with mortality. He was loosed from that and left. Those grave clothes. Neatly in the tomb. No one need to be tangled up with the wrappings as they left the tomb they were placed. To the side, they’re off to the side. As a reminder.

56. 25:53

    That they had. Been conquered and the old man in his garments remain in the tomb instead. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Is reclothed and that’s verse 17 for he put on righteousness as a breath breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was. Clad with zeal as a cloak, he’s put off those old. Garments and he’s reclothed

57. 26:22

    Joseph, the man, despite standing in to work the loving work of an ABBA to a dead son, was still a man he had been the 1:00 to. Prosculio to roll the stone to the door of the. Tomb, as had every man from Adam onwards. They had rolled their. Sins and sealed themselves into death, but the heavenly.

58. 26:50

    Father by the. Action of One man apiculioed the stone, rolled it. Back to pass this way. Is beyond the realm of. Possibility without God, the other past path. Into the tomb is well. Trodden. It’s the Broadway, both David and Joshua said at. The end of their lives. I go the way of all the earth. Job said When a few years are come, I shall. Go the way.

59. 27:18

    Whence I shall not return. No one goes the. Other way? Until now, everything had actually gone to plan to God’s plan. Now 1. Aside, a word of caution. We’ve seen the sins of. The Pharisees, but. Perhaps their greatest sin was. To seal the. Stone and everything that represented in Matthew 23 and throughout the ministry of our. Lord, he describes the Pharisees as. Shutting up the Kingdom of heaven against men, and they literally.

60. 27:59

    Tried to do this by. Sealing the stone. Just as the caribbeat guard to the way of the tree of life was. Stepping back, the Jews stepped in and said no, we want no one going that way. The dangers of setting a seal on the tomb of Christ on the way to salvation. Do we do that? Do we seal our lips and hide our light behind a great rock which is immovable?

61. 28:30

    Do we hide our faith in? Public, or at least. Put a lid on it to not be as. Awkward. Do we put? Stumbling blocks in the way of our brothers and sisters by our words and actions and seal up the Kingdom of heaven. Do we hoard and our time and resources for ourselves and bury our talent in the earth, hidden away, trusting that it will be acceptable with our Lord’s return? Let’s not seal the stone.

62. 28:59

    Let’s be able to echo the words of. Paul in first the Corinthians 11 verse 1 be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ, leading others out of the tomb, following him that way. This whole story, as we’ve alluded to, is a story. Of new birth, of new creation. As was his usual. Custom throughout his mortal life. Jesus rose.

63. 29:25

    Early in the morning to perform His greatest work, a work of creation, new creation. He was the Sun of righteousness dawning on a new world, and we follow the same process. Second, in Corinthians 5 verse 17 says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away.

64. 29:49

    All things have become new. Come to 1st Corinthians 15 where we read about. Ourselves. Following the example of Christ in First Corinthians 15 verse 20, now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept Christ. Is the first. Fruits and come across to verse 30. Five How’s this going to? Happen, some men will say.

65. 30:28

    How are the dead raised? Up and with what body do they come thou? Fool that which thou sowest, that which thou sowest. Is not quickened except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that. Body that shall be. But bare grain it may chance of wheat or of some other grain, but God.

66. 30:47

    Giveth it a body as it hath. Pleased him. And to every seed, his own body. It matters not that every cell has died and become dead. Inorganic matter. In fact, it’s necessary for new life. That the old life dies. Resurrection is not as simple as reanimating a body. Every cell is rebuilt. It’s an entirely new man physically and in baptism we imitated. That process here we all are.

67. 31:19

    New men and new women, entirely rebuilt and reanimated in Christ. Or are we? Do we? Allow influences from our. Previous way of life. To cling to us.

68. 31:35

    Do we? Allow some cells from. The previous body to still. Live inside us in John chapter 20 Mary the Magdalene the. Watchtower was the 1st to see Jesus Christ after his. Resurrection. And she thought. He was the gardener. That was her first thought. In a way. This is appropriate the 1st. Man of the new creation was going to be the one that would tenderly look after these new sprouting plants, these ones that have been buried in the ground as a seed and now sprout up to new life.

69. 32:14

    Just like the first. Man, Adam. Was told to dress. And keep the Garden of Eden. So she recognized his new role that completely missed the personal connection until he called her name and his sheep know his voice. Instantly she jumped to him to hold him, to touch him, but he wouldn’t allow it.

70. 32:38

    Why? Well, Mary had been heartbroken. Why did he not? Allow her, she, she. Missed her beloved desperately. She couldn’t understand what had happened. Yet in that moment when she realized and wanted to seize and to hold her bridegroom, she couldn’t. Why would he not allow that?

71. 32:59

    Well, we find ourselves in the same state. We are rebirthed. We are new creatures in baptism. We have imitated the process of death in the ground and resurrection of the sprout body, but we have not yet ascended. To our Father, because that’s what Christ replied. He says in the ESV, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, and to your Father, to my God and to your God we have not yet ascended.

72. 33:36

    To our Father we have rebirthed. We have. Exited the tomb in baptism, but we have not yet ascended to the Father, and a day is coming when we will be like Him, but in the meantime we cannot. Let the old way of. Life cling to us, those old cells cling to us in fact, we can’t let the. Old way of life touch us at all?

73. 33:58

    And at times I feel like I’m dragging a. Whole world’s worth. Of things with me out of the tomb that are attached to me. And maybe you feel the same. What are the things of the past? Way of death that you’re. Trying to fit past that stone and bring with you remember that John It says he had to stoop down to see into the tomb the stole the stone may be rolled back, but it isn’t a.

74. 34:24

    Wide, easy door to pass through. You can’t bring your camel with you. You come out of this tomb, out of the womb of the earth, a new birth with nothing, just like any birth the Son of Man had. Nowhere to lay his head. He didn’t accumulate material possessions. Even the place he laid his head in death belonged to another, to a rich man, Joseph. And Joseph too understood this.

75. 34:55

    He left behind all his worldly concerns. About worldly wealth to. Follow his Lord. Material possessions aren’t the only things that we may try to drag. With us. Maybe it’s entertainment, fulfilment, career, comfort. Sometimes we try try to drag the stone itself. Our sins of pride, laziness, hatred, lust, gossiping, lying, and much more that stone was. Rolled back by God.

76. 35:26

    But remember, it took just one man to roll it into place in our lives. We could be so busy. Dipping back into the tomb to get one more thing from the old. Way of life. That we bump the great stone, our sins roll down into the small depression in front of the door, and we block ourselves in the door being shut.

77. 35:45

    To us at Christ’s. Return in the words of the Angel. Why do you seek the? Living among the. Dead God has. Opened the way the tomb is void, you’ll find nothing but uncreation there. The. Opposite of Christ’s birth. But even before our Lord’s return, we may find ourselves back in the tomb, in the grave, in darkness, unsure of where to turn in that movement.

78. 36:18

    When you can’t see anything, you have other senses take. A breath. Take a deep. Breath through your nose and even with. The lack of light. You’ll detect something. Come to John chapter 19, verse 39. 1st from verse 38 first and after. This Joseph of Arimathea. Being a disciple. Of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews besought. Pilate that he might take.

79. 37:02

    Away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. He came, therefore, and took. The body of Jesus. There was another. There as well. And there came also Nicodemus. Which at the 1st. Came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 LB weight and then they. Took the body of Jesus. And wound it in linen.

80. 37:23

    Clothes with those spices. As the manner of. The juiciest to bury, So there’s a very. Strong smell in this tomb. What an unspoken contrast rather than the horrible stench of Gehenna. That Jesus body would have. Been thrown onto. Would have been added to if it weren’t for these two noble men. They prepare. The body in a way.

81. 37:46

    That gives off a powerful. Aroma befitting the Son of God. Whose life? Rose as a sweet smelling. Savour to his father. Smells have a powerful association that can trigger memories from long ago. God is not forget, but at least for us, this smell of sweet spices triggers. The memory of the first time a sweet smelling saver ever rose in the nostrils.

82. 38:10

    Of our God. It was in Genesis 8 verse 21. Now we don’t have time to deal with it in any detail. But the flood? Again, is another picture of this exact event. It uses language of creation of new creation. First reversal by. Covering everything with water and then a new creation as the waters receded. And Genesis 8 verse 21 says that Yahweh smelled a sweet savour when Noah offered an offering.

83. 38:43

    And Yahweh said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man’s. Sake for the. Imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite anymore every living thing as I have done. So like the Great Stone, this these waters receded. And God rolled it back, and he rolled. Back part of the curse here as well, he said. He will no more curse the ground for man’s sake. And over and over and over again throughout Scripture, we get this principle of God rolling back the. Curse.

84. 39:16

    Rolling everything back. Rolling back. Sins. Just a quick survey. In Genesis 29, the first time a great stone is mentioned in the Bible. Jacob rolls it back to provide water for the sheep, just as Christ. At Jacob’s well in Samaria said that he could give to drink of living water which you’d never thirst again.

85. 39:38

    Christ was that rock. In the wilderness out of which came living water in. Joshua, the waters were rolled. Back and Gilgal, meaning to roll like a stone, was named. So because God had rolled away the reproaches of Egypt from off. Them those sins that they were leaving behind in Egypt, God had even said to Jesus.

86. 40:00

    At the start that. You have not. Passed this way heretofore he said that before they crossed the River Jordan. Well, no one had. It was a new tomb in which never man had laid. No one had come out of here before. And also in Joshua, the great stones were stacked on the mouth of The Cave containing the five kings, and those stones remain until this day because of the five king, because the five kings were still. There they are.

87. 40:29

    They. Represent sin and death remaining in the grave. It’s only the living that emerge everything in the scriptures. Is about is. Leading up to this point of rolling. Back the curse. Even the reversal of the sun in the. Days of Hezekiah. It returned, undoing the 10 steps that had gone down in the dial of Ahaz, reversing the damage of the previous king and granting new life to the terminally ill Hezekiah.

88. 40:57

    Again and again we get this image of rolling back reversing, but it was merely a. Shadow of. What was to come? Perhaps there was a? Sliver of light. Each time as the as the stone is moved, but then it would fall back into its place early in the morning though on the. First day of the week, The 8th day. The day.

89. 41:23

    Of new creation. The stone was rolled back. For good. So if you’re there. In the tomb, seeking the living among the dead, Smell the spices and remember that Jesus. Christ was there first. Remember that the stone was rolled back. Remember that. For 6000. Years God has been working. To roll back the curse.

90. 41:43

    And it’s there through every. Page of Scripture to reverse the fool. To make the new, to make a new creation. He does not desire to smite every living thing again. Rather to save them so. Don’t stay in the tomb. Trust that God. Wants to save and turn around and. Follow Jesus Christ out of it. The only time in the New Testament that another monolithos a great stone is mentioned is in Revelation 18 verse 21, when a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying so will. Babylon the great city be.

91. 42:26

    Thrown down with violence and be found no more. It takes faith. To believe that God. Can move the stone that God can castaway our sins into the depths. Of the sea, but that’s exactly what he. Does it is unfaithful to think that our sins have still separated us from God? It’s lack of faith. In the sacrifice of.

92. 42:49

    Christ to let our failures. Prevent us from approaching him daily. It’s lack of faith to actually see what the picture. I painted earlier to think that the stone ever can roll back toward the tomb again. To think that Christ’s death and resurrection cannot save you or forgive your sins. What’s so? Special about you, that God. ‘S plan.

93. 43:10

    Couldn’t work for you or. For anyone, even faith as a grain of mustard seed can do it. And there are certain sins in our life, certain ailments of the flesh, that are the kind that only comes out by prayer and fasting, as as Jesus said when. The disciples failed to heal. This violent demoniac by. Prayer to God and.

94. 43:38

    Reading the word fasting from natural food and eating of the bread of heaven, but in that same context. Jesus says if you have faith. As a grain of mustard. Seed. You can say to this mountain not just a great stone, to this mountain remove hence to Yonder place, and it shall remove. Sins may feel like mountains.

95. 44:02

    But trust that God. Can and that he has. Paved the way to life. Despite our mortality and weaknesses, it looked impossible that anyone could enter or exit that tomb but God. Did it? He can reanimate a dead. Body. He can certainly cleanse your sins and reanimate your spiritual body, and this isn’t something we.

96. 44:27

    Should reserve. Simply for a Sunday morning. Nor should we ask again for sins that are already forgiven. Trust that God has. Forgiven if you’ve. Asked that throughout the week, but it’s especially powerful. To remember that here here on the. First day of the week. Nearly 2000. Years after the great. Stone was rolled back.

97. 44:50

    Here we are remembering the body of our. Lord, that was laid. Gently in the tomb and the wine, the wine that our Lord will drink with us in the Kingdom. Approach the Father with prayer. And fasting allow him to roll the sins away and cast them into the. Depths of the sea as far as east.

98. 45:11

    From West as far as the sun rising on the Day of resurrection in the east. From the sun setting on the day of crucifixion in the West, it’s midday on the. First day of the week. And we’re here because very early in the morning on another. First day of the week. Before the sun had risen, the greatest of miracles occurred.

99. 45:38

    The reversal of the curse the. Resurrection of Jesus Christ. That event changed the world. It was the hinge around. Which the world pivots. It was everything that the previous 4000 years had been building up to and the start of a new era, a new creation that has been underway. Ever since before was death, after was life.

100. 46:01

     And we live in life. Everything has gone to plan. God’s plan is irreversible. The way to death has. Been rolled back. So discard your clothes. Of mortality in the tomb, and go seek the living among the living. Thank you for listening to the good Christadelphian Talks podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes.

101. 46:47

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102. 47:30

     God bless and talk to you next week.