1 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:08,160 Scripture reading us from Matthew chapter 27 and verses 45 2 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:13,840 through 61 as we continue this series on seeing Jesus through 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:18,520 the eyes of those who assembled round the cross on near to it. 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,120 And we come this afternoon to think a little of Joseph of 5 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:27,960 Arimathea. This is God's word. 6 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:32,680 Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land until 7 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:37,200 the 9th hour. And about the 9th hour Jesus 8 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:44,840 cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama 9 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:52,080 Sabachthani, that is my God. My God, why have you forsaken 10 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:55,480 me? And some of the bystanders 11 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,160 hearing it, said, This man is calling Elijah. 12 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,720 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with 13 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:06,880 sour wine and put it on a Reed and gave it to him to drink. 14 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:11,640 But the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to 15 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:15,600 save him. And Jesus cried out again with a 16 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:19,080 loud voice, and yielded up his Spirit. 17 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:24,160 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top 18 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:29,120 to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 19 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,520 The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the Saints who 20 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:37,400 had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs. 21 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:42,240 After His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared 22 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:46,560 to many, and when the centurion and those who were with him, 23 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:50,400 keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took 24 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:57,960 place, they were filled with awe and said truly this was the Son 25 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:01,920 of God. There were also many women 26 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:07,120 there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus 27 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,720 from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary 28 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:15,920 Magdalene, and that Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and 29 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:17,680 the mother of the sons of Zebedee. 30 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:25,840 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named 31 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,840 Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 32 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:36,960 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 33 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,600 Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him, And Joseph took 34 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:48,200 the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it 35 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:53,560 in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. 36 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:58,880 And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and 37 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,360 went away. Mary Magdalene and the other 38 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:06,680 Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. 39 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:11,480 This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. 40 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:18,800 Privilege to think with you for a few minutes about this 41 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,040 passage. And when I was reflecting on it 42 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:26,400 this morning, that crossed my mind that because there are 43 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:31,480 actually many scholars who believe that Jesus was born 44 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:34,400 before the traditional dating of his birth. 45 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:40,640 It is just possible since the sun has now gone down in 46 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:48,920 Jerusalem, that this day is the 200th, 2 thousandth anniversary 47 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:55,120 of this event that's described here about this otherwise 48 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,880 unknown man, Joseph of Arimathea. 49 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:05,400 And my suspicion is, if you've been at all the meditations in 50 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:09,520 this series, but one of the things that may strike you about 51 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:14,840 the way in which the gospel writers tell this story is that 52 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:18,839 on the one hand they tell the facts of the matter, but on the 53 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:22,480 other hand, they characteristically tell the 54 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:27,760 story with clues embedded into the way they tell the story. 55 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:33,000 They help us not only to understand what happened, but to 56 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:38,640 understand why it happened. In many ways, this section of 57 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:44,840 the Gospel is like those puzzles that children enjoy, where they 58 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:48,520 are to spot the clues in the picture. 59 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:55,840 And this particular picture is set in the midst of two very 60 00:04:55,840 --> 00:05:01,120 significant earlier passages of Scripture that shed very 61 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:05,480 considerable light on it. The first I want to mention for 62 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:09,120 the moment and hope thinking of what the second might be will 63 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:13,080 not actually distract you from what I say in between. 64 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:20,840 The first passage that gives us an insight into this passage is 65 00:05:20,840 --> 00:05:25,520 the one other passage in the Gospels in which a rich man 66 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:30,760 meets with the Lord Jesus, the man with whom we are familiar, 67 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:35,120 who also like Joseph of Arimathea, was a ruler. 68 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,000 Perhaps like Joseph of Arimathea, actually a member of 69 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:44,720 the 70 rulers who governed Israel, member of the Sanhedrin 70 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:49,320 who came to Jesus looking for the Kingdom of God. 71 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:54,600 And when Jesus preached the Kingdom of God to him, he went 72 00:05:54,600 --> 00:06:00,840 away with a sad heart because he was so very rich and the Super 73 00:06:00,840 --> 00:06:07,120 glue of his riches made it impossible for him to embrace 74 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:11,800 the Lord Jesus. It would be wonderful, wouldn't 75 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,120 it, if this actually was the same man. 76 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:20,400 But there's no way that we can prove whether that is true or 77 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:24,720 not. But here comes another rich man 78 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:29,840 to Jesus, and all of the gospel writers, with the different 79 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:34,040 reflections they have as they put together the story of this 80 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:39,520 man, Joseph of Arimathea, give us a profound sense of what God 81 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:43,200 was actually doing if this man's life. 82 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:49,640 He was not the only rich ruler in the Gospels, but he is a rich 83 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:53,960 ruler who clearly by the end of this passage has come to a 84 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:59,480 living faith in the Lord Jesus. And I want to reflect with you 85 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:03,160 just for a moment or two this afternoon on three really 86 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:08,640 significant clues as to the way God is working in his life. 87 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:13,320 The 1st is this. But the Gospel writers tell us 88 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:20,400 he was a disciple, but they make it very clear that he was not a 89 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:24,880 confessor. He was a disciple of Jesus in 90 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:28,280 the sense that in the Gospels there are many disciples of 91 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:33,840 Jesus, that is, people who are willing to learn from Jesus but 92 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:38,080 have not yet come to the point of confessing Jesus as their 93 00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:43,160 saviour and their Lord. It wouldn't at all surprise me, 94 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:47,000 even assuming that Joseph is a very different man from the rich 95 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:51,000 young ruler earlier on in the Gospels, that because that man 96 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:57,360 was a ruler, word spread among the rulers that Jesus, after 97 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:03,920 meeting him, had said how hard it is for a rich man to enter 98 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:08,360 the Kingdom of God. And the Gospel writers tell us 99 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,480 that this in fact was Joseph's position. 100 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:16,200 He was a disciple of Jesus who had learned from Jesus and was 101 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:22,200 even waiting for the Kingdom. But it seems, at least until 102 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:29,320 this point, he was not yet himself in the Kingdom, in the 103 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,520 very position that many people find themselves in. 104 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:38,679 Isn't it disciples of Jesus in many respects, but not yet 105 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,880 confessors of Jesus? I think one of my favorite 106 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:47,800 memories from pastoral ministry in the United States was a day a 107 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:52,120 very small lady came and snuggled up beside me. 108 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,120 I think she was well into her 70s, looked up, straining her 109 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:59,880 neck to look up into my face, and said in a very 110 00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:04,680 conspiratorial fashion, You know, everyone around here 111 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:09,960 thinks I've been a Christian almost all my life, but I only 112 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:13,240 really became a Christian two years ago. 113 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:17,640 I think I could have picked her up, hugged her, put her in my 114 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:22,600 pocket and taken her home because she had discovered what 115 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:27,240 Joseph of Arimathea had obviously been longing to 116 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:30,760 discover, the Kingdom of God breaking in in his life. 117 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:36,120 And yet, for whatever reason, he had apparently not quite taken 118 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:38,480 the step of entering the Kingdom. 119 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:44,720 He was near the Kingdom like other people in the Gospels, but 120 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:49,200 not yet in it. And God was graciously bringing 121 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:57,400 him that day 2000 years ago from outside the Kingdom into it. 122 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:01,200 So he was a disciple, but not yet a confessor. 123 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:06,000 The second clue that's so interesting, and especially we 124 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:10,520 get it in John's account of this story, is that Joseph of 125 00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:16,440 Arimathea was a very close friend to someone who had spoken 126 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:21,480 to Jesus about the Kingdom. Remember how in John's Gospel 127 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:25,800 we're told that Joseph of Arimathea did not do this on his 128 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:27,880 own? That's such a lovely touch when 129 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:31,440 we put the Gospels together. You are not alone if you enter 130 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:36,200 the Kingdom of God. And he did all this through the 131 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:41,600 friendship and company of Nicodemus, so famous in John's 132 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:43,440 Gospel. He appears on three different 133 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:48,160 occasions, and on the 1st occasion he is engaged in 134 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:52,480 conversation with Jesus about how you enter the Kingdom of 135 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:56,920 God. So here is Joseph looking for 136 00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:01,440 the Kingdom of God, as the Gospel writers tell us, friends 137 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:05,080 of Nicodemus. And one cannot but imagine that 138 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,160 there were many conversations between them. 139 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:11,240 Exactly what did Jesus say to you about entering the Kingdom 140 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:15,960 of God, Nicodemus? Well, they were on a long slow 141 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:18,560 pilgrimage together. And Nicodemus no doubt said to 142 00:11:18,560 --> 00:11:21,560 him, he said something very strange, I didn't really 143 00:11:21,560 --> 00:11:24,840 understand it. He said, Nicodemus, you don't 144 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:28,840 actually have the capacity in yourself to enter the Kingdom of 145 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:35,640 God because unless God himself works upon your life, you can 146 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:41,920 neither see, you will be blind and you certainly cannot enter 147 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,680 the Kingdom of God. It's such a lovely illustration 148 00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:50,400 to us that it can take a long time for the truth of God's Word 149 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:56,440 to penetrate into our hearts. I met a young man once who told 150 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:59,720 me he had been converted. Listening to it must have been a 151 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:02,600 long time ago, a cassette tape of Assam and I'd preached 152 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,720 immediately afterwards. I met his father and his father 153 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,000 said, did he tell you his story? I said you must be so thrilled 154 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,320 that he's come to faith. But he said, did he tell you the 155 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,640 whole story? Lowe's story was that the boy 156 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:18,000 was spiritually nowhere, Came into the utility room late one 157 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,920 night where the parents had stacked various cassette tapes 158 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:25,120 of salmons they'd listened to, casually picked her up. 159 00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:29,400 And his father said, you know, he listened to that salmon of 160 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:33,520 yours every single night for a whole month. 161 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:38,600 And on the last night of the month, he came to faith. 162 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:45,000 Now I tend to respond to these things as modestly as I can and 163 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:48,040 said I didn't realise it was such a difficult sermon to 164 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:52,440 understand. But that's how God works, isn't 165 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:56,680 it? And on this day, it's clear from 166 00:12:56,920 --> 00:13:02,560 the significant step that Joseph of Arimathea takes with his 167 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:08,520 friend Nicodemus that he is actually entering now into the 168 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:13,280 Kingdom of God. I wonder if what they standing 169 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:15,480 on the outskirts watching what had happened. 170 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:17,360 Did somebody relay the message to him? 171 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:20,840 Jesus has died. He goes to Pontius Pilate to ask 172 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:26,480 for the body of Jesus. Did he perhaps remember that 173 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:30,960 Jesus had said it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of 174 00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:37,600 God, but it's not impossible for God to bring that rich man into 175 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:42,560 his Kingdom? And so if it's true that Joseph 176 00:13:42,560 --> 00:13:48,280 of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, but apparently not yet a 177 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:54,120 confessor of Jesus, and in God's kindness he had a friend who had 178 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:58,240 had this intimate conversation with Jesus about how to get into 179 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:02,480 the Kingdom. The gospel writers tell us in 180 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:06,080 well chosen words, actually, in Mark's gospel, because Mark's 181 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:10,640 Gospel is almost certainly Peter's recollection of the 182 00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:18,960 gospel, that Joseph of Arimathea took courage and went to confess 183 00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:23,120 Jesus to Pontius Pilate and the world. 184 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:28,000 It's a juxtaposition, isn't it? Because that was the very thing 185 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,440 that Peter in retrospect knew he lacked. 186 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:36,000 And he's writing in a sense out of admiration for the grace of 187 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,640 God in this man's life that Joseph of Arimathea took 188 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:43,200 courage. And now in asking for the body 189 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:51,280 of Jesus from conscious pilot, siding openly with Jesus, siding 190 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:56,680 with Jesus over against the Sanhedrin, siding with Jesus, 191 00:14:56,680 --> 00:15:03,400 whatever it would cost him, siding with Jesus, he binds 192 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:09,400 himself to his crucified master. And the Gospel writers tell us 193 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:12,360 that he and Nicodemus did this in a very remarkable way. 194 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:15,680 And I think it's significant for us to notice. 195 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:22,840 We're told that they purchased 75 lbs of Mir and Alois. 196 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:30,280 That's not 75 British pounds, but 75 lbs of weight, and people 197 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:35,360 who rummage about to try and put that into modern terms say that 198 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:44,040 that was probably somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 of 199 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:50,040 ointment and perfume for the burial of Jesus, and say that is 200 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:54,840 a conservative estimate. What is this saying? 201 00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:59,040 It's well, one thing it's saying is the riches are not stuck to 202 00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:03,320 him any longer with super glue. But the really important thing 203 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:11,840 it's saying is they wanted to give Jesus a burial fit for the 204 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:16,640 king. They had both thought about 205 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:21,400 entering the Kingdom. They both had a longing to see 206 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:26,280 the Kingdom, and now what they were doing was recognizing that 207 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:31,760 the crucified Jesus was actually that king, that he reigned from 208 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:37,400 the cross, that he was as much a king to them as he was to the 209 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:40,840 thief whose words they may well also have heard. 210 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:45,760 Remember Me, Jesus, when you come into your Kingdom. 211 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:51,440 And in the process, they sacrificed their reputations, as 212 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:56,280 well as certainly some degree of their riches in order to embrace 213 00:16:56,280 --> 00:17:01,960 the Lord Jesus Christ. And if at the back of this whole 214 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:06,920 picture is the memory of the young ruler who went away 215 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:12,079 sorrowful rather than entering the Kingdom, there's an even 216 00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:16,480 older passage in the Scriptures that we find fulfilled here. 217 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:20,839 Isn't there at the end of the great prophecy of Isaiah about 218 00:17:20,839 --> 00:17:26,319 the coming suffering servant, When Isaiah understands that 219 00:17:26,319 --> 00:17:31,680 when he pours out his soul to death, he will be numbered with 220 00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:37,760 the transgressors for the sake of our forgiveness, and he will 221 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:46,720 make his grave with a rich man in his death because he bore the 222 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:52,720 sins of both? So what a wonderful picture this 223 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:56,760 is for us on this Good Friday, and perhaps for some of us 224 00:17:57,120 --> 00:18:02,320 particularly relevant, We see the Kingdom of God. 225 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:08,040 We are disciples of the Lord Jesus in some sense, but we have 226 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:12,360 never confessed him. And we know it takes courage, 227 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:18,440 and we learn here that the Lord will give us that courage to 228 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:25,080 embrace him and to tell others by deed and by word that this 229 00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:32,720 one is our Saviour too. And when that happens, we've not 230 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:37,320 only seen the Kingdom and entered the Kingdom, but we've 231 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:44,000 seen Jesus through the eyes of Joseph of Arimathea. 232 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:51,480 And so let's this afternoon take a moment prayerfully to see 233 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:54,120 Jesus together. Amen.