About this sermon
Joseph of Arimathea, a rich member of the Sanhedrin and a secret disciple, gathers his courage and asks Pilate for the body of Jesus. Pilate confirms that Jesus is already dead, and Joseph wraps the body in linen and lays it in his own rock-hewn tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watch where he is laid, witnesses of the real death and burial of Christ. When the cause of Christ looked lost, Joseph clung to his faith, and he was not disappointed.
Sermon transcript
Amen. Dear friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue in our study of the Gospel of Mark as we near the end of our time in Mark’s Gospel. My sermon text today is at the end of Mark chapter 15, Mark 15, verses 42 through 47. Mark 15, verses 42 through 47. Let’s hear God’s holy word. Mark chapter 15, beginning at verse 42. When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of 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 for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if he was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether he was already dead.
And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. Joseph bought a linen cloth, took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb, which had been hewn out in the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, were looking on to see where he was laid. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. O Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great and amazing love for us. We thank you that you demonstrated your love for us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Out of love you sent your Son to die for our sins, to be buried, and to rise again from the dead, so that we might be raised to newness of life in Him.
We pray that by your spirit you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word this day. We pray that your spirit would so bless the proclamation of your word that it might find a lodging place in our souls. And once again, Lord, we ask that you would set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word, edifying to your people, glorifying to your name. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. Title of my sermon this morning is, The Rich Man Who Gave Jesus His Tomb. And children, there’s six words you can be listening for in my sermon today. The words burial, tomb, gospel, faith, fear, courage, and disciple. Well, dear friends, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, we have Mark’s account of our Lord Jesus’ burial.
The account tells us about a man who was instrumental in arranging for the proper burial of our Lord Jesus, a man known as Joseph of Arimathea, Arimathea being the place where he was from. Joseph was a rich man who was also a prominent member of the Jewish ruling council, the ruling council known as the Sanhedrin. My friends, Almighty God in His sovereign plan and providence used this man, Joseph of Arimathea, to secure a proper burial for our Lord after he had died by crucifixion. As we will see, Joseph’s actions in obtaining jurisdiction over the body of Jesus from Pontius Pilate, and in burying Jesus in what Matthew’s gospel tells us was Joseph’s very own new family tomb, as attested by Matthew 27, verse 60. All of this was part of God’s sovereign plan of redemption.
It was a very important aspect of God’s plan of redemption, as I hope to show you today. Dear ones, it was part of God’s perfect plan that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would be buried in the tomb of a rich man. And the man whom God ordained to fulfill that plan was Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man who gave his tomb to Jesus. Now, as we embark upon our study of this passage on this Lord’s Day morning, first of all, beloved, and if you’re following along in your sermon outline, this is the first point. Understand, beloved, that the historical truth of our Lord’s burial is an essential part of the gospel message. Let me say that again. The historical truth of our Lord Jesus Christ’s burial after his crucifixion is an absolutely essential part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We, of course, rightly, when we share the gospel and bear witness to the gospel to others, we rightly focus on Christ’s substitutionary atonement on the cross. That is at the heart and center of the gospel that Jesus died for our sins. He was our sin bearer, our substitute. He took the punishment upon himself that we deserve. And we also rightly emphasize his physical bodily resurrection from the dead for the resurrection of Christ, among other things, demonstrates that the father has accepted his son’s sacrifice. But we tend to gloss over or skip over the burial of Christ. Now often the burial of Christ is assumed when we refer to his death and resurrection. We assume the burial of Christ. But the importance of the burial of Christ is underscored by the fact that the events connected with our Lord’s burial are recorded not just in one or two gospel accounts, but in all four gospel accounts.
And also by the fact that the Apostle Paul included the truth of Christ’s burial in his summary of the gospel message recorded in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I know I’ve said this probably numerous times before, but God only has to say something once for it to be important. If something is recorded only once in Scripture, well, it’s God’s Word. The Holy Spirit inspired, breathed it out, and we are to take it to heart. But when the Holy Spirit repeats Himself, not just once or twice, but repeats Himself four times, then we are really meant to pay attention. This is really, really important. Turn with me also, if you would, I refer to Paul’s summary of the Gospel recorded in 1 Corinthians 15. Let me just read some of the verses there at the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 to drive home what I’m saying here.
Paul writes in that passage, now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel, the good news, in other words. Gospel means good news. I make known to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which you are being saved. This gospel message that Paul is giving a summary of, the elements of that message are necessary for our salvation. He says, by which you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. And then he goes on giving sort of a creedal, a creedal summary of this gospel message. Verse three, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, number one. That, what comes next? and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
He goes on to talk about our Lord’s multiple resurrection appearances after he rose from the dead and so forth. But I want you to notice that in that creed-like summary of the bare bones of the gospel message, one of the items that is mentioned is the burial of Christ. Yes, Christ died for our sins. Christ rose from the dead in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, focuses mostly on the doctrine of the resurrection, but notice he explicitly mentions the burial of Christ. Okay, pastor, I mean, yeah, so what? Of course, we know after Jesus died, he was buried. What’s the big deal? Well, I hope to show you it is indeed a very big deal and vital to our eternal salvation. Let’s go into our text, let’s dive in. It says in verse 42, when evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came and he asked for the body of Jesus.
Now let’s focus on verse 42. It says when evening had already come, Now about when did Jesus expire on the cross? When did he actually die? Given the information that we have in the gospel accounts, it appears clear that Jesus died around three in the afternoon. And so we need to understand by this wording, Mark is reflecting on a Jewish reckoning of the day. In Jewish reckoning, of course, a full day was counted from evening to evening, from sunset to sunset. But in terms of the daylight hours, the daylight hours of the day were counted from basically 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jesus died around 3 p.m. in the afternoon. And so the Jews, it’s important to understand, the Jews counted the late afternoon hours from about three to six in the late afternoon as first evening.
And so that’s what Mark is reflecting when he says, when evening had already come, it doesn’t mean it was pitch black, pitch dark outside. It’s like, no, this is first evening. This is somewhere in those hours, between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. at night. Because it was the preparation day, what does he mean by preparation day? Well, the preparation day, this is language for the day before the Sabbath. This was the day when you were supposed to get ready to worship the Lord and rest from your labors on the Sabbath day. Now, Deuteronomy 21 verses 22 to 23, which I read earlier in the service, required that the bodies of executed criminals not be left hanging on a tree overnight. So, if Jesus was going to get a proper burial, Joseph was going to have to act swiftly to make sure that our Lord’s body was not kept overnight.
And it’s interesting, go back to Deuteronomy 21, I know I read that earlier in the service, but Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23, it says this. If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree. Jesus was hung on a tree, that’s what crucifixion was. His corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, But you shall surely bury him on the same day, for he who is hanged is accursed of God.” And that’s very, by the way, that’s a very vital gospel truth as well. Christ took the curse of the law upon himself on the cross that we might receive the blessing of forgiveness and grace and salvation. But the reason that the corpse is not to be left overnight within the promised land is because it says at the end of verse 23, so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
Under the old covenant, the land of Israel was a holy land. It was consecrated and it was set apart unto God. So there was also a ritual concern that these bodies not be kept overnight and thus defile the promised land, the holiness of the promised land. But again, friends, why was it so important that Jesus be given a proper burial? And why is Joseph of Arimathea, who we read is a follower of Jesus, a believer in the Lord Jesus, why is he so motivated to secure the body of Jesus to give it a proper burial? Well, friends, if our Lord’s body had not been given a proper burial, do you know what would have happened to it? Well, it would have been defiled by being cast, either cast into a shallow common grave for criminals, which was very common for crucifixion victims.
They were taken down, they were thrown into a common grave with criminals, or it would have been left to be destroyed by scavengers. oftentimes victims of crucifixion. Once they died, the Romans would sometimes just leave their bodies up there and the vultures and the wild dogs would consume the corpse. So if Jesus had not received this burial, If that had happened, then no empty tomb would have been pointed at to confirm the truthfulness of our Lord’s resurrection. Also, as we will see, if our Lord’s body had been destroyed by vultures and wild dogs, then the prophecy of Isaiah 53 verse 9 would not have been fulfilled. And we’ll look at that in a moment. But furthermore, the messianic prophecy of Psalm 16, verse 10 says this. It says, For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or the grave, nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay.
Dear friends, Psalm 16, verse 10 predicts that the body of the Messiah would not experience corruption. It would not rot in the grave. But how could this messianic prophecy be fulfilled if our Lord’s body had been exposed to be torn to shreds by wild animals, by vultures and wild dogs? And again, how could the prophecy of Isaiah 53 verse nine be fulfilled? Let’s take a look at that prophecy very briefly. Isaiah chapter 53, this wonderful messianic prophecy predicting the sufferings of our Lord Jesus. It says this. in Isaiah 53 verse 9. His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death. because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. So one of the reasons why a proper burial was so important was so that God’s plan as predicted, as prophesied in scripture for the Messiah’s burial would be fulfilled.
And so dear ones, I hope it is clear why it was vitally important in God’s sovereign plan of salvation that our Lord be given a proper burial. Now let’s move on, getting back to our passage for today, to verse 43. Here in this verse we are introduced to Joseph of Arimathea. And again it says this, Joseph of Arimathea came. And what is he like? What kind of a man is he? It says that he was a prominent member of the council who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. In other words, he was looking for the messianic kingdom. He was a man who was steeped in the scriptures, longing for the spiritual kingdom that Christ had come to bring. And so it says, he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, Pontius Pilate being the secular authority that had condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion, and he asked for the body of Jesus.
There is a lot here, so bear with me, my friends. But as we compare scripture with scripture, John 19 verse 38 tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews. And Luke chapter 23 verses 50 to 51 tells us that Joseph was a member of the council of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious ruling council, a good and righteous man. And we are also told that he did not consent to the council’s decision to condemn Jesus, as Luke 23, 51 makes clear. The rest of the council, except for Joseph and also apparently Nicodemus, the rest of the council had condemned Jesus to death, but Joseph of Arimathea had not consented to that decision. Now, again, friends, it appears that in his heart, Joseph believed in the Lord Jesus and therefore he is described as a disciple of Jesus.
However, for a time, Joseph was a secret disciple due to fear of the Jews. What does that mean? Well, in other words, it appears that he had been afraid of losing his esteemed reputation among the unbelieving Jewish leaders and of being excommunicated from the synagogue. Now you, it’s very easy for us as armchair Bible scholars and theologians, it’s very easy for us to look at Joseph and be critical of him and to think, oh, you know, this guy, he finally got up the courage. What a wimp. What a coward. What a spineless dude. He finally gets up the courage, but you need to understand, beloved, what Joseph was facing. I’m not excusing Joseph’s fear of man or his lack of courage up to this point, but nevertheless, you need to understand the ramifications that Joseph faced if he aligned himself or identified himself with Jesus.
You see, if Joseph had identified himself with Jesus, if he had been open about his belief in Jesus, what would that have cost him? Not only would that have likely cost him his position on the Jewish ruling council, but he would likely have faced excommunication from the synagogue. Now, in our day and age, I mean, let us say, hypothetically, that you’re a member of a Bible-believing church, but let’s say that your church unjustly excommunicates you. What do you do? What are your options? Well, in our situation, you can go down to another Bible-believing church down the road and join that church, in many cases. But back then, it wasn’t like that. If you were cast out of the synagogue, you were cut off from your community. You were cut off from the religious community. You were an outcast.
And very likely, Joseph may have lost his family, his community. He would have been a total outcast, like a leper. He would have been an outsider. So no doubt that weighed heavily upon him. And furthermore, by coming forward to Pilate as someone who was not one of Jesus’ immediate family members or good friends, coming before Pilate as a member of the ruling council and thus identifying with Jesus, What would that have looked like to the Roman authority? What was the civil charge brought against Jesus? Jesus, in the civil charge, was charged with basically trying to overthrow Rome. Basically, Jesus was charged, unjustly of course, falsely of course, but he was charged with being a political insurrectionist, seeking to overthrow Rome. Now, just imagine if Pilate actually believed the charge against Jesus. Imagine Joseph coming before Pilate asking for the body of Jesus.
Pilate or any other Roman authority in Pilate’s position who believed that Jesus was in fact a traitor against Rome. Pilate, if he really believed the charge, would have said, oh, why do you want the body of this traitor? Are you in line? Were you sympathetic to what this traitor did? Are you trying to overthrow Rome and so forth? So Joseph could have gotten into deep trouble with the Roman authorities as well, at least hypothetically speaking. So let’s cut Joseph a little slack here. He faced severe consequences for identifying with the Lord Jesus. And so again, it does appear that Joseph struggled with the sins of the fear of man and with cowardice. But praise God, in the end, his God-given faith overcame his sinful fear. And he gets up the courage to go before Pilate and to ask for the body of Jesus.
A request, as I mentioned, that had the potential to destroy his reputation and position among the Jews and even potentially put him in danger before the Roman authorities. Well, Joseph comes before Pilate with this request. He gets up courage, he comes before Pilate. Look at verse 44. Pilate wondered if he, if Jesus, was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether he was already dead. Now, remember, Jesus had been crucified about 9 a.m. that morning, good Friday morning, and he expired around about six hours later, three in the afternoon. That seems like a very long time to suffer such horrible torture. And yet, my friends, the records show that victims of crucifixion did not usually die so quickly. In fact, from what I understand, sometimes victims of crucifixion could linger for two or even three days before finally expiring.
It was a horrific way to die, a horrific form of torture. And if you were a crucifixion victim, the moment you were crucified, from that moment to the moment you died, there was no rest, there was no nourishment, you died from slow exhaustion and asphyxiation. But Jesus was dead in six hours, and pilots like this doesn’t usually happen. And so Pilate wondered and he asks, he summons the centurion and it says in verse 45, after ascertaining this from the centurion, ascertaining that Jesus in fact was dead, he granted the body to Jesus. After checking with the centurion to make sure Jesus was dead, Pilate granted the corpse to Joseph. And by the way, the centurion that is mentioned in our passage for today is probably the same one mentioned in verse 39. The same centurion who had confessed Jesus to be the Son of God, to be a righteous man.
As he witnessed how Jesus died, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and gave up the ghost, something that crucifixion victims never did because they were too exhausted to do that. And so, now again, usually the bodies of executed criminals were only granted to their family or close friends. The fact that Pilate consented to this very unusual request from a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin probably is an indication that Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent of the charge of high treason. I mean, Pilate’s skepticism is clear from the gospel accounts. He knew that the Jews brought these accusations because of jealousy. And so therefore, by granting the body of Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate is essentially declaring Jesus to be an innocent man. And not only that, he is also by his actions essentially giving evidence that he had consented to crucify Jesus merely out of political expediency, out of self-interest.
In other words, by granting the body of Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate was essentially admitting, yes, I am a spineless scumbag politician. That’s essentially what he was saying. Joseph is granted the body of Jesus. What happens next? Look at verse 46. Joseph bought a linen cloth, took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock. You’ve perhaps seen pictures of such tombs hewn out into the side of the rock at the side of a hill and so forth. It’s my understanding that such tombs were only available to those of some means and they tended to be family tombs. You had to be a wealthy person to be able to afford such a tomb. Joseph had little time to spare before the beginning of the Sabbath.
So he has Jesus taken down and prepared for burial. Now you may wonder, well, how did Joseph do this all by himself? You know, it’s after three o’clock. It’s probably around four, maybe 4.30. It’s starting to get towards dark. How is Joseph gonna get Jesus prepared for burial before the end of the day? Well, John 19, verses 39 to 40 tells us that Joseph had help from a man named Nicodemus. You remember Nicodemus? He’s the man who came to Jesus that one time saying, you know, where Jesus said to him, you must be born again, John chapter three. This man Nicodemus apparently had also been a secret follower of the Lord Jesus. So Nicodemus and Joseph are working on this together. We’re told that they prepared the body of Jesus for burial according to the burial customs of the Jews.
This implies that our Lord’s body was properly washed and spices were put on it. It was wrapped up in the linen and placed in the tomb. Now it’s important to understand they were able to do this relatively quickly because it’s very likely that Joseph and Nicodemus both had servants to assist them in these tasks. But then verse 47 is especially powerful and we really need to take note of this. It says, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph were looking on to see where he was laid. You say, so what? There’s a couple of these women who had followed Jesus noticing the place where Jesus was buried. So what? Ah, friends, the ever-faithful women are mentioned again. This verse is so important because it undermines the theory of the mistaken tomb. See there is this skeptical theory out there which claims that the reason the disciples came to believe that Jesus rose from the dead is because they accidentally went to the wrong tomb and therefore they came to the mistaken conclusion that Jesus had risen from the dead.
But here Mark lists two eyewitnesses to the burial and according to the law of God every fact is established by what? two or three witnesses. And so these women serve as witnesses to the burial of the Lord Jesus. Here Mark lists these eyewitnesses to the burial of Christ’s body and the location of the correct tomb. Now, one of the things that’s interesting about this, I think I’ve shared with you before that, at least in the first century Jewish context, the testimony of women in the court was not admissible. If you were a woman, you were not trusted as a valid witness. And yet Mark tells us that two women were witnesses to the burial of the Lord Jesus. And so some might say, well, look, if the burial of Jesus really happened, and thus the resurrection which followed the burial, then why weren’t there some male witnesses to this?
Well, again, it’s interesting. The presence of these women What it does is it actually enhances the evidentiary value of Mark’s account. Think about it this way. If Mark was making all of this up, he would most certainly have as witnesses to Jesus’ burial a couple of Jesus’ male disciples. The reason he mentions the women is because they were actually there. And so we see God’s almost ironic sense of humor. Remember, God’s ways are not our ways. And by God’s standard, the testimony of two women is sufficient to confirm these facts. So again, in conclusion of this first point, I’ve got a couple brief closing points to make. Why is the burial of Jesus an essential part of the gospel message? For a number of reasons. First of all, Christ’s burial in a rich man’s tomb was a fulfillment of Old Testament Bible prophecy as Isaiah 53 verse 9 predicted that the Messiah would be with the rich in his death.
Secondly, Christ’s burial shows that he identifies with his people not only in his life, but even in his death. We, according to Romans chapter 6, we are united to Christ in his death. We are buried with him in baptism, raised with him in newness of life. Our baptism is a sign and seal of our union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Christ identifies with his people in all of these stages of his life. Christ’s burial also demonstrated the fact that he was actually dead and therefore that his work of atoning for our sins was complete. The burial of Christ enhances and bears testimony to the truth that Jesus cried out on the cross before he expired, the truth that it is finished. Some might say, well, you know, maybe the centurion and the soldiers got it wrong.
Maybe they thought he was dead, but he wasn’t really dead. No, that didn’t happen, friends. These Roman soldiers, these executioners, they knew when a crucifixion victim had finally expired. They knew how to tell the signs of that. Christ was absolutely dead, dead as a doorknob. The centurions knew it, the burial of Christ demonstrates it, proves it. And Christ’s burial, of course, anticipates his resurrection and it underscores the supernatural, miraculous nature of his resurrection from the dead. Dear friends, Jesus Christ did not merely revive from a near-death state or from a comatose state. He actually rose from the dead. He was not merely revived. He was supernaturally resurrected. The burial of Christ underscores this truth. Dear ones, as we seek to confess and bear witness to the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, let us not neglect to emphasize his actual burial in a rich man’s tomb, even as we also rightly stress his atoning death and his glorious resurrection.
Now, what are some of the applications that we can glean from all of this by way of conclusion? Well, notice, and this is the second point in your sermon outline, it’s a brief point, but notice that faith overcomes fear, leading to faithful action. Faith overcomes fear, leading to faithful action. Dear ones, it is easy to do the right thing when the right thing is popular and admired and will earn you virtue points in the eyes of the public. But when doing the right thing might expose you to costly consequences, consequences such as damage to your good name and personal reputation, or popularity, or exposure to ridicule or even persecution, damage to your career, job loss, rejection by family or close friends, or even possibly loss of life. If doing the right thing might expose you to those kinds of consequences, as was the case with Joseph of Arimathea, as he thought of these possible consequences, then doing the right thing requires courage.
Verse 43 tells us, he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. It did indeed require God-given, faith-filled courage for Joseph to do this, to identify himself with a savior who had been crucified. A man who, at least according to the civil charge, was a traitor against Rome. That required courage. True courage is not merely conformity to popular trends or going along to get along. We often see today examples of people who are brought to the public eye because they are going along with the crowds and their popular figures, and people will say, oh, what a hero this person is, or how courageous this person is, and that’s just a bunch of bunk. True courage means standing up for what is right and true even if it isn’t popular and even when it might cost you that which you hold most dear.
Remember that Joseph of Arimathea had been a respected member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He had an honored reputation in the community and apparently he had great wealth to his name as well. He had a lot personally invested in his public reputation as a member of the Sanhedrin. He had a lot of skin in the game when it came to having incentives to just play along with the popular opinions of the other Jewish leaders. It would have cost him nothing to just go along with the council’s decision to condemn Jesus. At least it would have cost him nothing this side of the eschaton. But he became convinced in his heart of the truth that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah. And by the grace of God, his heart finally moved him to do the right thing in seeking to provide our Lord with a proper burial in spite of the consequences.
He finally identified, openly identified and confessed his affiliation with the Lord Jesus Christ. By way of application, what does this teach us? Well, friends, true faith leads to faithful action and faithful living. Now our faithful actions and our faithful living don’t save us. The works that are the result of true faith do not add to or contribute to our salvation, but they are the necessary fruits and evidences of that saving faith. Dear listener, does your professed faith in Christ overcome your fears and lead you to faithful living? We also learn in the scriptures that true disciples of Jesus do not remain secret disciples. Again, Joseph for a time was a secret disciple. He was a true believer, he believed in the Lord Jesus, but he kept it under wraps for a time. But true disciples, sooner or later, will openly identify with the Lord Jesus.
I’m thinking of passages such as Matthew 10, verses 32 to 33. Matthew 10, verses 32 to 33, the Lord Jesus says this, therefore everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. And then it says in Romans 10 verse 9, that if you confess with your lips the Lord Jesus, or Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Heart, belief, and mouth confession go together. We are justified by faith alone apart from works, including the work of confessing Christ, but that confession of Christ is an inevitable fruit and evidence and an inevitable partner with that true and living faith that embraces Christ and Christ alone for salvation.
And all of this leads me to my final point. Observe, beloved, that true discipleship involves honoring Jesus even when his cause appears to be a lost one. True discipleship involves honoring Jesus even when his cause appears to be a lost one. A crucified Messiah? That was inconceivable to the Jews of our Lord’s day. Even his own open disciples didn’t really seem to get it during his earthly ministry. Remember when Jesus said the Son of Man is gonna go to Jerusalem and he’s gonna be crucified and then raised from the dead on the third day? He told this to them before it happened and it just went over their heads. It didn’t register with them. They didn’t seem to get it when Jesus had predicted that he would be crucified and raised from the dead. But here was Jesus hanging on the cross, dead from having been brutally crucified.
To all human appearances, the devil and the wicked men who had plotted our Lord’s death were the victors. The Son of God had been slain, the Messiah had been murdered, and God had not intervened to prevent it. To all appearances, it looked like Jesus was a loser. It looked like Jesus had been proven to be a failure and a fraud and just another cursed messianic pretender. And there were plenty of those among the first century Jews. There were plenty of would-be messiahs and Jewish zealots seeking to overthrow the rule of Rome. That’s what it looked like in the eyes of the world. To all appearances, his cause was a defeated and lost cause. His disciples were fools, and he was a cursed and condemned man. But in spite of how bleak and hopeless the situation seemed, in spite of all appearances, Joseph of Arimathea clung to his faith in Jesus Christ.
And in the end, he was not disappointed, for Jesus our Lord rose from the dead. And I’ll be talking more about that on the next Lord’s Day. Dear ones, let us continue to walk by faith, not by sight. Let us seek to do so even when the gospel seems to be a lost cause. And doesn’t it seem today like the gospel is a lost cause? But let us remember, God is sovereign, Jesus is Lord, and we are on the winning side. Remember, brothers and sisters, we are on the winning side. And in the end, our resurrection victory in Christ will be displayed for all of creation to see. Amen. Let us pray.
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