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Before we look in the word, I want to share a verse from Psalm 87:7, the last part of the last verse, “All my springs of joy are in You.” I wanted to begin with that to remind my heart and yours that all of the springs of our joy are in the Lord. There are many occasions of joy. Family is an occasion of joy, but it’s not the source of joy. Christian friends are a great joy but that’s the occasion of joy. Holidays, we celebrate graduations and marriages and even funerals for those that know the Lord; those are occasions of joy and we thank the Lord. But there’s only one source of joy, once again Psalm 87:7, “All my springs of you are in You.” He is our source of joy.
Heavenly Father, we thank You again that You haven’t left us on our own as we come to look in Your word, but You have given us Your life, the indwelling Holy Spirit whose ministry is ever to take the inspired word of God and focus our hearts on the Lord Jesus. We thank You for that ministry You have, and now we ask You, Lord, to perform that ministry. Watch over Your word and perform it. We thank You for Your word, and that it is indeed unstoppable, and You accomplish everything that You send it to do. So, now we give this session to You, and we trust Your Holy Spirit to show us the Lord Jesus in a fresh and living way. We ask it in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In our meditations we’re coming to the end of our study in the gospel of John. I pointed out last time that we’ve been at it for two years, so maybe it’s about time we come to the end of it. I don’t want you to miss the focus, the emphasis that we have had in every gathering as we looked in that precious book. We come to see the Lord Jesus as he reveals Him in the scripture. We haven’t come to learn the Bible. I hope we learn a lot more about the Bible than we knew but that’s not our goal, to learn the Bible. Our goal is to know the Lord Jesus in a more intimate way. You can be an expert on the Bible and the contents of the Bible and yet miss the Lord.
The Pharisees were Bible scholars and they missed Him. John 5:39&49, “You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify of about Me. You are unwilling to come to Me, so that you might have life.” They searched the scriptures meticulously. I don’t know if you’ve ever read about some of the meticulous methods that the scribes had when they studied the scripture and tried to preserve it. They not only copied the scripture by hand, they wanted to make sure they didn’t make any mistakes, so they counted not only the words but they counted every letter in every word, all the way from the top of the page to the bottom. Then they figured out what was the middle letter, and they circled the middle letter, and then they counted backwards to make sure it was actually in the middle. They took great care, and I’m not faulting them because of their thoroughness in preserving the scripture. In fact, I praise God for that.
Jesus said about His word in Matthew 5:18, “I say to you that until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Most people are more familiar with the KJV and it says, “Verily I say to you, until heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law until all be fulfilled.” The jot is the tiniest mark connected with a letter; it’s sort of like an apostrophe in our language. Sometimes we use it for a contraction; we write can’t and then put the apostrophe when we shouldn’t and we put an apostrophe. Sometimes we do it in the front of a word when we shorten a word like ‘tis, and we just put that little mark and that’s a jot. What’s a tittle? A tittle is a tiny stroke connected to the letter. That would be like our dot over the i. Sometimes you’ll see people write the number 7, and it just looks like an upside down L, but some people put a little thing on the corner of that L, and that’s a tittle. Our Lord Jesus said that His word is so certain that every jot and every tittle is going to be fulfilled. So, we have a great foundation when we trust the word of God.
Before I leave this, and it’s not really connected to John, two of the greatest doctrines in all the word of God are connected to that jot and tittle, that He is so concerned that everything is fulfilled. One of the great doctrines of the Bible is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and you know how important that is in our theology and in our lives. Jesus proved the doctrine of the resurrection with a tense of a verb. Matthew 22:31&32, “As touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ God is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Why is that verse important? It’s important because Abraham had been dead for maybe a hundred years when that was quoted. He said, “I am the God of Abraham.” He didn’t say, “I was.” And even though he was dead all those years, he is still alive, and by a tense, by using the present tense, He proved that wonderful doctrine.
Another doctrine is the divinity of Christ, that Jesus is God, and He proved that doctrine with one word. He went into the scripture and found one word, and He proved that amazing doctrine. It’s Matthew 23:42, “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, ‘What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He?’ He said unto Him, ‘The son of David.’ And he sayeth unto them, ‘How then does David in spirit call Him Lord saying, ‘The Lord said to My Lord, “Sit down at My right hand until I make thy enemies My footstool.”’” Then in verse 45, “Jesus said, ‘If David calls him “Lord”, how is he his son?’ No man was able to answer Him a word, and neither is there any man from that day forth asking Him any more questions.” He proved the deity of Christ with one word; He proved the resurrection with one tense of one verb. It’s just illustrating that you can trust the Bible, every word of the Bible, and so can I. They were studying the Bible, but they weren’t looking to the theme, the One the Bible speaks of. John 5:40, “You are unwilling to come to Me, that you might have life.”
Now, as you gather here and I’m privileged to address you and to share what light I have, I think you know I’m just a lover of Jesus like you are. I don’t know Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic, but I can point you to the Lord Jesus, and I thank God for that privilege. When we study the gospel of John it wasn’t to know theology, and it wasn’t to have a better creed and more accurate creed, or to find proof texts so we can prove our little doctrines. That’s not why we’re studying. We came to see Jesus, from the beginning until now as we draw near to the end. That is to introduce, and let’s pick up where we left off last time.
We’re in chapters 18 & 19, and there are only 21 chapters. We’re about to finish this morning our look at chapters 18 & 19. We spent quite a bit of time on those chapters. We looked at several things. We looked with these eyes and we saw the facts, and then we looked behind the facts and we saw Satan. Then we looked behind that and we saw God the Father, “The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink?” And then we looked at people; we looked at Judas, we looked at Pilate, we looked at Peter in a special way, we looked at Caiphas and we were trying to illustrate that God determines our boundaries and our times in order to bring people to Christ. We also looked at Barabbas, and we looked at what it means to be identified with a rejected Savior, and so on. We spent a lot of time in these two chapters.
As we come to the end, I asked this question, “Is there anything that the Holy Spirit has inspired in these chapters that I missed, that we didn’t discuss?” We’re never going to learn everything in any passage of scripture. I’m not that deceived; I know that there is no bottom to any verse in the Bible. We’ll come back to John in a future time, and it will be brand new because the Lord will reveal Himself in new and fresh ways. But the things in this chapter, even though it’s only been a surface look, I stood back and I found several things that God gave attention to that we didn’t. So, even though a couple of them are technical, I think I’d like just set that before you and then tell you basically that I have no more left from these chapters; that’s all I know. Let me just give these several things.
There are four things. I’ll mention them and then we’ll look at them. I’m not going to give a lot of time on any of them. The first is a couple of words in the text that are transliterations. In other words, they’re not English words. I’d like to call attention to those. The second thing is that in these two chapters in a way you won’t find in any other two chapters as far as I know and is a fulfillment of prophecy. God mentions it over and over again, and I want to call attention to that. Then I want to say a word about the inscription that was put over the head of our Lord Jesus when He was hanging on the cross. Finally, I want to look at the burial of our Lord Jesus with Joseph of Arimathea and with Nicodemus.
Let’s begin with the word in our English text that are not English words. I think it’s not only interesting, but it actually sheds light on a couple of principles. The first is from John 19:13, “Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat Him down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, in Hebrew Tabatha.” That’s the first word, Tabatha. In the New American Standard, it says the Hebrew word. Some translations say Aramaic. Their alphabets are almost identical. There are a few differences in the syntax, especially when you come to verbs, but Tabatha in Hebrew or Aramaic, the meaning is pavement, but strictly it means a raised pavement. Tabatha was the Judgment Seat, and it was the final Judgment Seat. When Pilate judged Jesus and finally sentenced Him to crucifixion, it says that he sat on the Tabatha; he sat on the judgment seat. When a judge made a judgment from the judgment seat, like the Supreme Court, it wasn’t negotiable; it was irreversible. Once you spoke it, it’s over; it’s done. There’s a word like Tabatha in the Greek, and maybe you recognize it; it’s called bema. The bema seat is the Tabatha; it’s the judgment seat. 2 Corinthians 5:10, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one of us would be recompense for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” That’s Tabatha; that’s the Judgment Seat and the raised seat.
The second word is in John 19:17, “They took Jesus, therefore, and he went out bearing His own cross to the place called the place of the skull which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. That’s the second word, Golgotha, the place of a skull. Once again Hebrew/Aramaic, it’s a sematic language. If you were to visit the Holy Land today, I’ve seen pictures and slides. There’s a religious monument I’m told supposedly marking the place where Jesus died, and it’s called the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and that’s in Jerusalem, but that monument is inside the walls of Jerusalem; it’s not on the outside. When Jesus died, He didn’t die inside the walls; he died outside the walls of Jerusalem; that’s Golgotha, outside the walls. In that connection, Hebrews 13:12, “Therefore Jesus, also, that He might sanctify people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate, so let us go out to Him outside the camp bearing His approach. Here we do not have a lasting city; we’re seeking one to come. I’m told those are the couple of words that are used, Tabetha/the Judgment Seat and Golgotha/the Place of the Skull.
In that connection since we’re talking about words, I want to mention another word that’s not in your Bible unless you are using the King James Bible or unless you are reading the Vulgate which is Jerome’s Latin translation; it’s the word Calvary. If I say Calvary, you all know what I’m talking about. Hundreds of gospel songs are written using that word. There’s even a song called “At Calvary”. Usually connected with that is a mountain or a hill, or Calvary’s Mountain, “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross.,” and so on. There’s no evidence in your Bible or mine that Jesus ever died on a hill. There’s no evidence that He died on a mountain. There are indications and there are assumptions but there’s no real, clear verse that says that. I rest in the fact, it doesn’t matter to me if He died on a hill or in a valley, that He died for me. He took my sins, whether it was Wednesday or Thursday or Friday; some people make a deal of that. I personally believe it was on Friday because of Mark 15:42, “The next day was the Sabbath,” and I know when the Sabbath was; that was a Saturday. But whether it was a hill or a plain or a valley, I’m not going to argue about those things; the Lord Jesus died for you and for me. Lillian’s favorite hymn is written by a man named Edmond, and it’s called, “My Faith Has Found a Resting Place.” “My faith has found a resting place, not in device or creed; I trust the ever living One, His wounds for me shall plea.” And in the chorus it says, “It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.” That’s my position. I’m not going to argue with those who want to say that He died on Wednesday or He died on Thursday or He died on Friday. There are arguments for all of that, and I’ve read it but the point is that it is enough that He died, and that He died for me, and there I’m going to rest.
The word Calvary is only used in Luke 23:33 in the King James Bible. It says, “When they came to a place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him.” The New American just says, “the place of a skull”. How did the word Calvary come into our vocabulary and become so famous? We call it a transliteration which is when you take a foreign word, and you put it into your language; you know what it means but you use the foreign word. In our family, if anyone sneezes, we say, “Gesundheit” which is German. It is God Bless you or God’s health to you. We say that our children are in kindergarten. Kindergarten is not an English word; that’s a German word. Kinder is children and garten is the place where they meet. We are using foreign words all the time. We say Hallelujah; that’s Hebrew. We use the word Kosher; that’s a Hebrew word. We use the word sabbath; that’s a Hebrew word. If I said to you, “He’s studying philosophy,” you know what I’m talking about, but philosophy is a Greek word; that’s not an English word. It means love of wisdom; that’s what the word means. If I said that there was a great tsunami, does anybody know what that is? Of course you do. You know Japanese; that’s a Japanese word. At the table I’m almost always using Chinese. I say, “Please pass the ketchup.” Ketchup is a Chinese word, but it’s come into our language, and we all know what it means. The other day somebody on the news said, “He was incognito”. That’s not an English word, but we know what it means. Outside I have a patio. That’s not an English. So, you get the idea. On the table out there are some cookies. That’s not an English word. That’s Dutch.
That’s how Calvary came into our language. 1700 years ago, a man name Jerome, the Lord guided him to translate the Bible from Greek into Latin, the New Testament into Latin, and as he was doing that, he came to the place where it said, “The place of a skull.” The Latin word for “the place of a skull” is Calvaria; that’s the Latin word for “the place of a skull”. Instead of writing, “They took Him to the place of a skull,” he wrote, “They took Him to Calvaria, and that’s how that word got into our language, because it just means a place of a skull. So, that much for words—Tabatha, Golgotha, Calvary and so on.
Let’s go to the next thing which is fulfilled prophecy. We read in Luke 18:31, “He took the twelve aside and said, ‘Behold, we’re going to Jerusalem. All things written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.’” Then He listed a few; He’ll be handed over to the gentiles, He’ll be mocked and mistreated and spit upon and after they scourge Him they’ll kill Him, and on the third day He’ll rise again. Our Lord was well aware of every detail that He was about to suffer. He said that all the things written about Me in the prophets will be accomplished. In these two chapters 18 & 19 of John, many of those prophecies are actually mentioned, and some are just referred to. For example, the betrayal is referred to, the false accusation is referred to, the mistreatment of Christ is referred to, the denial by Peter is referred to, the crowing of the rooster is referred to. Those were prophesied beforehand. The gambling for the clothes was also a prophecy. But in addition to that we have expressions like John 18:9, “That the word might be fulfilled,” John 18:32, “That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled,” John 19:24, I’m not giving the prophecy, just the expression, “That the scripture might be fulfilled,” John 19:28, “That the scripture might be fulfilled,” John 19:36, “That the scripture might be fulfilled,” John 19:37 again, another scripture. Do you see my point? John emphasizes over and over and over that what is taking place has been prophesied and is now being fulfilled.
I think it’s helpful to know how the Old Testament scriptures were divided by the Hebrew. They had it in three sections: the Law, the prophets, and the writings. The Law they called the Torah. The prophets they called Nevi’im. The whole point is that there were three parts and I call attention to that because John 18 & 19 quotes all three parts of the Old Testament. Exodus is quoted, Isaiah is quoted, Zachariah is quoted, the Psalms are quoted. That’s the Law, the Prophets, the Writing—the whole Bible. It was a powerful way to proclaim that everything that was written about the Lord Jesus was being fulfilled, and John underscores that.
I told you that I wanted to meditate on a few things: the words, the prophecy and also the inscription on the cross. John 19:19, “Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, ‘Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews’. Therefore, many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. It was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So, the chief priests and the Jews were saying to Pilate, ‘Do not write “King of the Jews”, but that He said, “I am the King of the Jews”.’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written, “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”.’” All the gospels mention it; it’s in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but they all give a different version. Matthew says, “This is Jesus, King of the Jews”. Mark just says, “King of the Jews”. Luke says, “This is the King of the Jews”. And John is the only one that pulls it altogether and adds, “Jesus, the Nazarene.” It’s the same; there is no contradiction.
There is some historical evidence that it was a Roman custom over the head of the accused to write their crime. Have you heard or read about that, that they would nail whatever the crime was, “This is the crime of murder,” or insurrection or whatever it was. They say that was to show the authority and also to act as a deterrent to any would-be sinner who were going to commit murder or insurrection, and just a warning to them. Some say that those words over the cross of Christ, “Jesus, King of the Jews”, that was His crime, and they put that over the head of Christ. There’s some historical evidence that that’s possible. I don’t know necessarily if it’s true. I don’t like to use that because it’s not in the Bible and I don’t like taking things outside the Bible to interpret. To illustrate, it’s fine, take things from the Bible and illustrate Bible truth, but don’t try to interpret anything in the Bible from something outside the Bible. As far as I see, there is nothing in the Bible that there was such a custom. It’s possible.
It’s true that Jesus was charged with insurrection. This idea of His kingship, that comes up over and over and over. Listen to Matthew 27:11, “Jesus stood before the governor. The governor questions Him saying, ‘Are You the king of the Jews?’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you say.’” John 18:33, “Pilate entered again into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus, and said to Him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’” And in verse 36 He answers, “’My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, My Kingdom is not of this realm.’ Therefore, Pilate said to Him, ‘So, you are a king.’ Jesus answered, ‘You say correctly that I am a King. For this I’ve been born, and for this I’ve come into the world to testify to the truth; everyone who wants the truth hears My voice.’”
When they mocked Him, they mocked Him as a king. John 19:2, “And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head and put a purple robe on Him, and they began to come up to Him and say, ‘Hail, king of the Jews,’ and give Him slaps in the face.” It came to a head in John 19:12, “As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.’” Seven different times we read, “Pilate attempted to release Jesus.” Pilate knew He was innocent. John 19:4, “Pilate came out again saying to them, ‘Behold, I’m bringing Him out to you, so that you may know I find no guilt in Him.’” Pilate not only knew Jesus was innocent, but he knew what hypocrites the Pharisees were and the Judaizers that were accusing the Lord Jesus. Mark 15:9&10, “Pilate answered them saying, ‘Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews, for he was aware the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.’” Isn’t that interesting? Pilate knew their reason; they delivered Christ because they were envious. Pilate was getting pretty annoyed with these religious hypocrites. I can’t prove this, but I think he put that sign over the cross more as an “in your face” kind of attitude, that he was saying, “They were constantly rejecting Christ as king,” and I think when he said, “Jesus, King of the Jews,” especially when he said in verse 22, “What I’ve written, I’ve written, and I’m not changing it,” I think he was just getting back at the Jews.
To add further insult in verse 20, “Many of the Jews read the inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek.” He not only wrote it, he not only said what I’ve written I’ve written, but he wrote it in all the popular languages of the time, so everybody would know. On the level of earth, I think that’s why that inscription was there, but God always has a redemptive purpose. It doesn’t matter His reason, what matters is how the Lord turns things around; He always rules and overrules. That’s how the Lord does it at all times.
It’s true that Jesus was a king; that wasn’t His crime, but He was a king. The fact that it was written in Latin and Hebrew and Greek, the universal languages of the day, I think at least one person got saved because of that sign over the head of Jesus. Listen to Luke 23:39, “One of the criminals who were hanging there, was hurling abuse at Him saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save Yourself and us.’ But the other answered and rebuked him and said, ‘Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly; we’re receiving what we deserve for our deeds. This man has done nothing wrong.’ And then he looked at the Lord Jesus and he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.’” Where did he get that idea, “when you come into Your Kingdom”? I think he read it over the head of our Lord Jesus, and Jesus responded, “Truly, I say to you today you’ll be with Me in Paradise.” Precious, precious!
Before I leave this inscription, there’s one hint of that Roman custom, that the charge was put on the cross. When Jesus died, who was the guilty one? Was it Him? It was you. It was me. He’s dying for the sins of the world. It’s very interesting that the Apostle Paul in Colossians 2:13, “When you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,” now note this, “having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us. He had taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” There was something, and maybe these eyes didn’t see it, but there was something nailed to the cross; every law and every sin you’ve ever done was nailed to the cross, and the Apostle Paul picks that up, and he said, “He took out of the way that which was against you and condemning you, having nailed it to the cross.” Again, I think that’s redemptive.
One more thing of interest, sometimes when you see a cross, you’ll see the letters “inri” over the top of the cross. Let me tell you what that stands for. That’s an acronym, and the “I” in Latin is the word Jesus, and “n” in Latin is Nazareth, and the “r” is regal or king, and once again the “I” is the Jews. The inri is just Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, and that’s what that stands for but it’s that acronym in Latin.
So, let’s leave that and look for a moment as we get ready to wrap it up at the burial of our Lord Jesus. John 19:38, “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate granted him permission, so he came and took away the body.” It looks like he granted permission and then it happened, but there’s a period time in there that it wasn’t immediate. John jumps over a detail and that detail is in Mark 15:44, “Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time. He summoned the centurion and questioned him as to whether he was already dead.” So, Joseph comes to Pilate and Pilate says, “I’m not sure He’s dead,” and he sends out a centurion to go and find out. John 19:31, “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him, but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” The soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves that had not yet died, and probably to hasten their death, but since Jesus was already dead, fulfilling a prophecy, “a bone of Him shall not be broken,” they didn’t know they were fulfilling prophecy when they did that; they had no idea that verse was in the book of Psalms and in the book of Numbers. John 19:36, “These things came to pass to fulfill the scriptures; not a bone of Him would be broken.”
Now, at this time verse 34, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear. That wasn’t a Roman custom. There’s no order from Pilate saying, “Go see if He’s already dead, and if you’re not sure, take a spear and put it into His side.” Pilate never gave that command. Why the soldier decided to do it I don’t know, from the level of earth, but I know from God’s point of view, it was to fulfill scripture. Almost 600 years before in the book of Zachariah it was predicted by the foreknowledge of God, and I don’t think he’s saying, “I better fulfill prophecy and do this. From that moment on, and this is what I love about him recording that, and I’m so glad he recorded that thrust into the side. I have a personal reason for being thankful for that. That was the last indignity that sinful hands ever did to our Lord Jesus. After that, only loving hands touched our Lord, and that’s precious to me because it was the end of sinful man in any way injuring or hurting our Lord Jesus. That’s very precious. So, I’m glad it’s recorded as the last indignity sinful man ever did to our lovely Lord Jesus. Mark 15:46, when he finally got permission, “Joseph bought a linen cloth and took Him down and wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock, and he rolled the stone against the entrance of the tomb.
There’s not a lot written on how Joseph took Him down. We don’t know; the Bible doesn’t tell us. Did he have a ladder? Did he remove the nails? Did he have some tool? When they put Him on the cross, the cross was laying on the ground, and then they nailed Him and then raised the cross. Maybe they lowered the cross. We don’t know; God hasn’t told us that, and so I don’t think it’s important. Only we know that the lover of Jesus now is taking the body of Christ.
John 19:38, “After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews…” We call attention to that in a previous study, that he was a secret disciple. Both he and Nicodemus were secret disciples. You can see my life and I can see yours, and I can say that you’re a disciple of Christ, and you can say I am, but you can’t see my heart, and I can’t see your heart. I’m so glad that God mentions the fact that there is such a thing as a secret disciple, and that the Lord knows those who are His. We can’t judge one another, and I think we ought to be very careful not to. I think it’s interesting that a lot of the public disciples we read scattered. Well, here are two secret disciples and they’re finally coming out into the public and making their hearts known. We always need to remember the warning in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, less he fall.” We like to think, “I’m a solid Christian and I’ll never fall.” Take heed, brothers and sisters, less you fall. If my eyes are not on Christ, any sin that is possible for anyone who doesn’t know Jesus is possible for me as a Christian. Any sin that’s possible for anyone that doesn’t know Jesus, it’s possible for you to commit, if you have your eyes off the Lord, at any moment. So, we’ve got to continue to trust the Lord.
On the level of earth, these two unlikely lovers of Jesus both were members and prominent Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin. Jesus gave a parable, the parable of the sower, and there’s one little expression in there, and that absolutely changed my attitude. I used to get all excited after I did a message or a series, if someone came up. If anyone said, “That was a great word; I love that word,” I used to get all excited until the Lord arrested me one day when I was studying that parable. Listen to Matthew 13:20&21, “The one on whom the seed was sown on the rocky places, that’s the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no firm root in himself. It’s only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.” Here’s an interesting thing. Once he heard the word and immediately, he received it with joy. That’s why I don’t put too much stock anymore in when people, “Oh, that was such a wonderful word.” The years tell the story; let’s see how it’s going ten years from now, fifteen years from now. So, I don’t put any stock any more… People are kind and they are generous and they aren’t going to say, “I hated that. That was the worst thing I ever heard.” They aren’t going to say that, but the years tell the story.
Anyway, these prominent Pharisees step up, and I want to look a little closer at them. First at Joseph. John 12:42, “Nevertheless, many of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him for fear they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.” Is this why Joseph was a secret disciple? Listen to John 19:38, “After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he might take away the body of Jesus.” It was because he was afraid of the Jews that he was a secret disciple. They would not only throw him out of the synagogue, but he had a seat as a judge on the Sanhedrin. We know that these men were members of the council. In Mark 15:48, “Joseph bought a linen cloth and took Him down and wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and he rolled the stone against the entrance.” We know that Joseph was wealthy because this was his family tomb and he had it hewn out of a rock. We know Nicodemus was wealthy not only because he was a politician and he was on the Sanhedrin, but John 19:39, “He first came to Him by night bringing a mixture of myrrh, aloes, and about a one hundred pound weight,” a hundred pounds of ointment. Some people say that our pound is 16 ounces and theirs is twelve ounces, and so that was really only seventy-five pounds. Don’t worry about that kind of stuff.
Why was He anointed? It wasn’t to prevent corruption as some of the commentators say. Jesus wasn’t going to see corruption. There are plenty of Bible verses on that. Psalm 16:10, for example. Both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are wealthy, and it was prophesied, Isaiah 53:9, “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was a rich man in His death.” The Hebrew actually says, “in a rich man’s grave in His death.” When those secret disciples became public, they not only became public, but they made a clean break. Joseph, I think, must have been present at the cross because He knew when Jesus died, and then he went to Pilate.
I mentioned before that at least one person got saved because of the message, “Jesus, King of the Jews”. There’s another possibility. Again, I don’t know, but I read in Mark 15;13 about Joseph, “Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the council who himself was waiting for the Kingdom of God.” Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the Kingdom of God, and now all this about Jesus. I’m not sure how much influence that had, but all things are redemptive, and I think that inscription might have also affected Joseph of Arimathea.
I say they made a clean break because they are not only possibly going to be thrown out of the Sanhedrin, and maybe even out of the synagogue, but the whole letter of the Law seemed to be cast aside. Remember when the Jews went to Pilate, those hypocrites, and how careful they were, John 18:28, “They led Jesus from Caiphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves did not enter the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.” They are about to crucify Christ and they say, “Oh, Pilate’s house, that’s dirty. We can’t go in there; we’ve got to wait at the door.” So, they had Pilate come out to them. Joseph went right into Pilate. He didn’t care about any Law of purification. “After these things he asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.” Don’t forget that Jewish Law also forbid anyone to touch a dead body; that was forbidden, and here are Joseph and Nicodemus handling in love the body of our Lord Jesus. They became a public testimony.
I think there is little doubt that what Joseph did and Nicodemus did, that he paid for the clothes and he paid for the grave and anointed Him with ointment, I know that was their ministry; they were ministering. In fact, that’s the last ministry before the resurrection ever given to Jesus. They were ministering to our Lord Jesus out of love. I have no doubt Jesus accepted that ministry, but the way the record is written, it’s a ministry He didn’t need. He didn’t need those garments; He left them in the grave. He didn’t need the ointment, but out of love He used it. Let me just say, He doesn’t need my ministry, and He doesn’t need yours anymore than He needed theirs. But He uses it. John 20:6, “Simon Peter also came following him, and entered the tomb and saw the linen wrappings lying there, and a facecloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. So, the other disciple who had first come to the tomb, then entered; he saw and believed.” It was those linen wrappings that convinced John. He didn’t need that ministry, but He used that ministry. He doesn’t need your ministry or my ministry, but He’ll use it, and He used it John’s life.
I just received an invitation yesterday to attend and minister at a funeral of a dear friend of mine in Pennsylvania, and on March 7 I’ll be going to do that. But having that, and knowing I was going to present the burial of Jesus, and thinking in recent days of my own mortality, I just made some observations about the grave of our Lord Jesus, and applied it to mine, and you can apply it to yours. These facts are so interesting to me. I won’t develop it. Joseph surrendered his own grave to the Lord Jesus. I’ve already done that. He can have my grave. I’ve given my grave to Him. That’s probably the most famous grave in the history of the world, that grave. It became such a testimony, and I hope my grave becomes a testimony. But the Bible also calls attention to this, it was a garden. You usually don’t think of a cemetery as a garden. But God is going to turn death around, and His grave was a garden. When I drive by a cemetery, they’re spooky, and you don’t want to go through if it’s spooky. To me, those are resurrection fields. When I look out there, those who will resurrect, they’re all going to come back again. It’s very, very precious to me.
When you read the last part of the record, the ointments that Nicodemus gave, they were fragrant. They weren’t foul; it was pleasant. I’ve given Him my grave already, and it’s a garden; it’s precious, and it has a sweet fragrance. It’s lovely and beautiful. The last thing, and we’ll pick it up next time and begin there, He only needed it for a weekend. It was borrowed; it’s empty. That’s going to be my grave and your grave. So, give Him your grave and God will turn it into a fragrant garden, and it won’t be forever; it’s temporary.
The more I look into the grave where His dear form was laid,
The more I think about my own, less I am afraid.
Since Jesus rose, the thoughts of death no longer terrify.
Discarded garments, nothing more will be there when I die.
Death is, in fact, the stingless foe
That tries in vain to bring us low.
By grace through faith we comprehend;
Death has become the Christian’s friend.
Father, we thank You for Your precious word, and we thank You, Lord, as we come to the end of chapter 19 and we come to look at the glorious chapter 20 and Your resurrection. Prepare our hearts as we get ready to enter into that. Thank You, Lord, for what you have revealed so far of Yourself, and continue to minister to us, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.