The Beauty of Christ's Burial | Mark 15:40-47 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Series)

When we think about, teach, or even share the gospel with the lost, Christians tend to emphasize two things, The death of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, I want to bring to your attention a component of Christ's redemption that I believe is often overlooked and yet was present in Paul's explanation of the gospel. And as you turn there, I believe you're going to see it right away. So let's begin in first Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse three. And look with me at what Paul considers to be of first importance.

He writes to the Corinthian church, for I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Did you see it? Sandwiched between the sin atoning death of Jesus Christ and the grave conquering resurrection of Jesus Christ is the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. He highlights it. He underscores it.

He mentions it as a distinct phase of accomplishment for our atonement. But why? Why is it necessary to emphasize the burial of Jesus Christ? Well, I believe there is two simple answers to it. Number one, it stresses that Jesus really died.

So to go through the careful process and the protocol of preparing that body and then placing that body in a tomb would require the belief that such a person has in fact died. Nobody would bury somebody who they believe to be alive. Second, the burial of Jesus Christ legitimizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It refutes any suggestion that Jesus merely lost consciousness on the cross. That burial makes this statement, Jesus didn't faint.

Jesus didn't slip into a coma only to be awakened shortly after, and then escape the tomb only to convince his followers that he was resurrected. His resurrection was a genuine resurrection because his death was a real death and the burial of Jesus Christ serves as a pivotal point that confirms both. And that is why the stage of Jesus's mission to save our souls is found in every single gospel account. His burial. But as you know, there is much more to learn from it than those two brief thoughts.

And that's what we're going to do today as we come to Mark chapter 15 beginning in verse 40. I wanna present to you three thoughts from the letter p that will hopefully direct us as we now go from the cross to the cemetery. The first point will be simply this, the persons at the burial. Following that will be the providence around the burial. And lastly, you and I will consider the prophecy of the burial.

Let's read the first three verses beginning in verse 40 to see the people that are mentioned at this point of the story. There were also women looking on from a distance among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger, and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. The persons at the burial of Jesus Christ.

I consider the names of the people here some of Jesus's greatest followers. They are the unsung heroes of Jesus's disciples. And I believe the mention of these women specifically is more significant than seeing in these records that there were eyewitness accounts of Jesus being transported from the cross into a specific tomb. I am convinced that these women are brought to our attention because God wanted to honor them. Because we're not just told that they were there, we're told that they were also followers of Him and minister to Him from the early stages of Christ's preaching tour.

And I want to, at this point, remind you that you have a group of women who remained staring at the gory brutal death of Jesus Christ, when there was so much hostility in the air of, not just towards Christ, but anybody who was associated with them, you had this group of women right there, while the apostles of Jesus Christ were in hiding. Could you just give me like a few moments to address the sisters here? I want to let you know as I meditate on this, that you should never believe the modern lie that the Bible's designation of distinct gender roles within the church and the home stifles your gifts, or hinders your devotion to Jesus Christ from excelling for the glory of God. Just because men are called to be leaders in certain spheres, in no way means that they have greater opportunities to glorify God than you do. If anything, these verses that you and I just read demonstrate that the faith of these women outshine the faith of the very leaders that Jesus had been training for three years.

So this is not a competition by the way. I'm just praying that what you see here would serve as an encouragement to you, that while the world out there is amplifying deception toward the sisters in the church, the woman of faith, female followers of Jesus Christ, trying to tell you that God's will if you honor it according to how it is spelled out, hinders you, hinders your potential, hinders your opportunity, you would realize that that is not the case. I'm not robbed of any true purpose. As long as I trust in what God calls me to do, I will bring him the greatest honor and I will tap into the greatest delight. And that's what we see with these women here.

They ministered to him. Have you wondered how they ministered to him? You know, the bible tells us in a different gospel account. You have to turn there to see it in Luke chapter eight beginning in verse one. We know exactly how these faithful sisters serve their master.

Luke eight verse one. This is when Jesus was in Galilee. And we read, soon after he went on through the cities and villages proclaiming and bringing good news of the kingdom of God, and And the 12 were with him, and also some woman who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out. And Joanna, the wife of Huza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their means.

There it is. Luke is underscoring by the spirit that the way that these women minister to the Lord and his ministry team was by providing out of their resources. Now that might not impress you, but notice that it was a need that was met, and that the Holy Spirit took note of it. And what moves me about the dedication of these women is that it continued until the very end. The provision didn't end in Galilee.

It resumed with diligence even up to the burial of Jesus Christ. You're saying, what do you mean? Well, let me quote this to you. We're gonna look at this next week. Let me quote this to you.

Mark sixteen one. Pay attention to this. When the Sabbath has passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices. So that they might go and anoint him. So their contribution to the Lord Jesus Christ didn't end when his preaching ministry ended.

Even when he was wrapped in linen cloth and was brought into the tomb, they still had a heart that said, oh, how can we contribute to him now? What can we do with this opportunity now to show him honor and our love? Now, looking at this, we can interpret this in a positive way and in a negative way. You heard the positive way. The negative is that they shouldn't have brought any spices to the tomb.

Why? Because Jesus said over and over, and he particularly said in Mark eight thirty one, that he was going to be betrayed, that he was going to die, that he was going to be buried, but on the third day, he was going to rise. So why do you have to go buy spices? You could have saved some money. So what this shows is by bringing the spices to anoint him, they didn't really believe that he was gonna resurrect.

So that's the negative, but the positive is that they still wanted to honor him. And that meant something to God. And not only will he reward them in the life to come, he rewarded them with one of the greatest honors in all of human history. These very women, because they stuck with Jesus, not just in Galilee, but at the cross, not just at the cross, but at the tomb, they would be the first ones to witness the resurrected Christ. And they would become the first ones to testify about him.

Remember that truth if you ever encounter somebody who tries to claim that the God of our faith, the God of this book, demeans woman or belittles woman. He entrusted the first resurrection appearance and testimony to a band of sisters. So ladies, understand this. Yes. The Bible does give us clear distinct roles as men and women, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't want to use you, and it doesn't mean that God doesn't want to reveal things to you.

You have to look closely at your Bible to see it. I was even thinking about Samaria. There was there was great tension between the Samaritans and the Jews, and yet so many Samaritans came to Christ. And if you ask somebody, when was the first time that these Samaritans were exposed to the message of Jesus? Most people would say, Philip the evangelist.

He was the one that brought revival. Oh, he did bring revival, but he wasn't the first one. Who was the first one? The woman at the well. Jesus revealed to her that he was the Messiah and she couldn't keep it and she went back to town and she says, let me tell you about somebody who told me everything about me.

And so she prepared Samaria and Philip came to finish the job. And although the encouragement of these women is obviously clear here, they are standing out for their loyalty. That didn't mean that there were no men present at the burial of Christ. Let's come back to our text here, and realize that there was a man who took it upon himself to give the Lord Jesus an honorable burial. We know his name in verse 43, Joseph.

And all we know about Joseph here is that he was from Arimathea, a Jewish town, and that he was what? A respected member of the council. What council? The same council that gathered together to have Jesus crucified. The religious Jewish council.

Listen to this, the Sanhedrin. The spiritual supreme court of Israel. And so you had a man who was a part of that group who now wants to come and ask for Jesus's body? And with that kind of background, you might be a little nervous. What is somebody from that group want to do with Jesus's body?

And we are quickly put at ease when we consider what other gospel writers say about Joseph. And so one thing that we learn about him from Luke 23, you don't have to turn there, is that he was a good and righteous man in verse 51. He was a good and righteous man, and not just that, who had not consented to their decision and action. So not only was he an honorable man, a man of dignity, a man of honesty, when it came to the voting of what to do with Jesus, he did not cast his vote to have him crucified. We're not told how he did that.

Did he distance himself? Did he not show up to that meeting? Did he voice it sheepishly? We're not told but we know that he did not agree for what happened to Jesus. But John completes a picture of who Joseph is.

He's not just a good and righteous man, John tells us and this is where I will tell you to turn in John 19, that he was a disciple of Jesus. John 19 verse 38. It says here, after these things, Joseph of Joseph of Arimathea who was a disciple of Jesus Pause there. Isn't that fascinating? You had a respected member of the Sanhedrin who was a follower of Jesus.

So now it makes sense. We know what he's ready to do. He's loyal to Christ And so surely, he's gonna do something good with that lifeless body. But before we get too excited, we learn he was a disciple of Jesus but a certain kind of disciple. But secretly for fear of the Jews.

So he was not just a disciple, he was an undercover disciple. He was discreet. He concealed. He tried to classify his Christianity, so to speak. And we should never strive or settle to be secret disciples of Christ for many reasons.

Can I tell you one of them? It will indeed deprive you of being used by the Lord. Among many things, to try to hide your faith because you are fearful of man is a great disservice to your sanctification among other things. And so for most of Jesus's public ministry, Joseph was hiding from him. But now he's about to go public, which I find interesting because the disciples who for all of Jesus' public ministry were open, but when it came to his death, they became private.

And so Joseph now is going to change. He has a shift in his heart and he's about to make his allegiance to Christ known. How? By going up to Pilate and saying, I'm asking for that body because I wanna honor it. That can't be discreet.

That can't be something that's done behind the scenes. This very act would expose Joseph, and he knew it very well. How do you know that? Because when you come back to our main text, we read here in Mark 15 verse 43, that he took courage and went to Pilate. He had to find the boldness.

He had to whatever he had to do to muster the strength to go up before Pilate and say, I want that body. This is more than just sympathy. This is more than just a guilt trip trying to do something knowing that he should have been more public about his faith. This is him counting the cost and willing to pay the price. I'm going to show that I do in fact love this Jesus.

And the price is beyond what we just even see here. Do you realize that according to Jewish law, that if you came into contact with a corpse, you had to be isolated for seven days. You were deemed unclean. So this man was willing to even risk his dismissal from the feast at the time, the Sabbath, and for the religious leaders to be like, Joseph, why why are you not participating? I'm unclean.

Why are you unclean? Because I I asked for Jesus' body. And what did you do with Jesus' body? I bestowed it with glory and honor. There's a change of heart here with this man.

And notice what happens. And and he's not the only one from the Sanhedrin who's gonna do it. He called up his friend Nicodemus. You remember Nicodemus? He joins him to help with this as well.

But here's what I wanna bring to your attention. The moment that Joseph goes public with his faith, what happens? God uses him. How does he use him? Joseph unknowingly fulfills prophecy as we're going to discover.

So let this be a reminder to you that if you make the choice to never be ashamed of Christ, no matter what or who it cost you, you will make yourself a candidate to be mightily used by the Lord. Always. And I'm stirred by the grace of God even in this thought. Why? Because again, for most of Jesus' ministry, Joseph was more afraid of men than he was of God.

But the moment that he turned around and went public, God chose Joseph to be used to fulfill prophecy. God granted him an honorable thing so quickly after he changed. Always remember not just the grace of God, but the speed of the grace of God. That when we change, when we repent, when we change our minds, when we when we look back and say, I've been wrong even for all these years, the moment you acknowledge that or willing to make the necessary steps, God will look at you and he will prepare and unfold before you wonderful things for your life. So I'm moved by God's grace in this.

Who was worthy to be able to bury Jesus Christ? Somebody that hid their faith for three years? Surely not. And yet, it happened. Look at God's heart here, please, and consider with me the persons at the burial.

But it's not just the persons, we have to consider the providence. The providence of God around the burial. Let's read from verse 44 down to verse 45. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead.

And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. So now you have another witness about the death of Christ. And this dispels the swoon theory. Right? He didn't faint.

He didn't lose consciousness only to regain it again. You had a professional centurion who can recognize from a mile away when somebody really died. And he goes, he's dead. Pilate confirms that and you have an unbeliever who had nothing to gain about Jesus that's saying he's in fact dead. But here's my question.

Why was Pilate surprised that Jesus died? He was crucified. Did he expect him to live? He expected him to live a little longer. Because it was common that a person who was a victim according to the crucifixion, that they would survive for at least two or three days.

Jesus dies within six hours. This is why he was shocked. How did it happen so quickly? But you have to also understand that the shock of Pilate is meant to be a statement of the sovereignty of Christ. Why?

Because Jesus already told us that no man takes his life, he lays it down. And according to the foreknowledge of God, he had to have laid it down at the six hour mark, and nobody can change that. Now you're wondering, why didn't he have to die at the six hour mark? And John will tell us, and it requires us to just flip there to see it. So go back again to John 19, and you'll see why Jesus had to die right there and then.

John 19, look at verse 31. Isn't the bible glorious? John nineteen thirty one, since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Hypocrisy is so hideous, man. It's so ugly.

So again, there is a law in Deuteronomy 21 verse 23 that if anybody committed a crime that was worthy of a death by hanging, part of that instruction was that they could not keep such a body exposed overnight, lest the land be defiled. And so the Jews at the time understanding that and understanding that this was in preparation for the Sabbath that was coming in a few hours, they asked Pilate, look, this is a part of our law. We have to remove these bodies. They can't stay here overnight. Okay.

So kill an innocent man, no problem. Break this law, God forbid. That's what religious hypocrisy looks like. And so they asked for their legs to be broken. Why their legs to be broken?

Because again, it was common knowledge that those who were hanging on a cross would use whatever strength they had left to push their bodies up, so that they can expand their upper frame and get more breath in. You break their legs, they lose their support, and you expedite the execution. So we need their legs to be broken. We need to hurry this thing up so that we can honor God. Pilate says okay.

And so let's read what happens next. John nineteen thirty two. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Why did they not break his legs?

Because he consciously and with authority already surrendered his spirit. Why did he surrender his spirit? So that he can avoid his legs, specifically his bones, from being touched. Why? So that he can dodge some pain?

No. So that he can fulfill prophecy. What do you mean? Look at verse 36 of John 19. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken.

Psalm 34 verse 20. That's where that prophecy is found. And more than just his bones not being broken, verse 37 tells us that he had to have been pierced, which fulfills Zechariah twelve ten. That they would look on him whom they have pierced. So here's the lesson.

No matter what the Jews demanded or what Pilate permitted, God's providential plan would be perfectly intact. Not one minutia, not one detail would be thwarted. And the encouragement that we draw from this is not just how God was in control every second of Christ suffering, he even is sovereign over the duration of each of our lives in this place. Do you remember how Jesus responded when the thief on the cross in humility and in faith asked, please remember me when you come in your kingdom? We we focus a few weeks ago on two words.

Today, you will be with me in paradise. But I wanna focus now on one word, today. Again, on average, it took about two or three days for someone who was crucified to finally give their final breath. But here's Jesus who looks over to this thief and he tells them when he's going to enter with him into paradise. I'm bringing you home today.

And doesn't matter what statistics say, doesn't matter what the common experience or the average lifespan of somebody who is crucified is. When I say today, you're coming with me today. And what was the means for him to enter into paradise with Christ? His legs being broken. Sometimes, and this is what we talked about last Friday, two days ago, when God works in our favor providentially, it involves pain.

We talked about this if you were here a couple days ago. That in second Kings five, there was a little girl who was part of a household of faith, who was abducted and taken from her family and brought into a foreign land to serve her captor. And we wrestle with that. You have a little girl who was a part of the remnant of Israel when there was so much rampant idolatry and God allowed for her to be kidnapped, And we concluded that she was positioned there, not accidentally, providentially. Why?

Because it would be her little witness that would lead her captor and the commander of the Syrian army to be introduced to the God that she loved and believed in. And what I said then, I'll tell you tonight. This promises us that there is not one ounce of pain that is void of God's good purpose. Whether that pain is a broken heart, like in second Kings five with this girl and her family, or broken bones like we see here. In like manner, we have the Lord Jesus now wanting to take this thief on the cross and place him in a called a place called paradise.

And what would be required for him to get there? A moment of pain. Could the Lord have done in a different way? Could he have offered a a less severe method? Sure, he could have.

But you have to remember something too, and this is where the Bible is realistic and where we have to be realistic too. This man who gave his heart to Jesus Christ, on his death bed, would win eternal life. Right? But for his whole life, he was a professional criminal. And here's what I wanna bring to your attention.

Even though he put his faith in Jesus Christ, he still had his legs broken. Say, what do you mean by that? Here's what I'm telling you. There are certain ways in which people live, that even though they experience and drink of the grace of God, the consequences of their sin will still carry over. Can I be realistic with you?

That there are certain things that you've invested in, things that you've done to your body, things that you've done against the law of the land, that though your eyes have been opened to the grace in Jesus and have won eternal life, may still have to endure consequences, sometimes lingering, sometimes permanent. So this crucified thief puts his faith in Christ, he wins eternal life, but guess what? The law of the land still had to be brought to him, and his legs were crushed. Let's be realistic with our faith. That shouldn't cause any of us to fear because what's most important is that, no matter what we have to endure here, we do have eternal life.

And then no matter what consequences we do again have to endure, we have a personal intimate walk with the risen savior. Providence. Providence is everywhere. Providence is always in motion even here at the cross, and not just with the son of God, but with those who would be made sons of God. And so we look at this and we are marveling, I hope.

But now we come to the last thought and what which is the prophecy of the burial. We looked at the persons at the burial. We looked at the providence around the burial, but now we come to the prophecy of the burial. Let's read verse forty six and forty seven, and we'll conclude together. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock.

And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid. I think it's appropriate sometimes to use your sanctified imagination as you read the Bible. Looking at this again, and we read that Joseph received permission, and then he went to the body of Jesus, and it says that he took him down. What kind of experience was that?

You know, in a couple months, we're gonna reflect on Mary who held baby Jesus in her hands. The son of God becoming a child, so dependent, so vulnerable, so helpless, and our hearts get warm. And now at the end of Jesus' life, he was also carried, not by a family member, not by one of his closest disciples, somebody who just realized, I didn't serve him the way I should've, but I'm gonna do it now. How did he take him off the cross? Maybe the Romans helped him.

How did he carry him? Did he scoop him in his arms? Did he throw him over his shoulder? And where did he go? And wherever he went, what was it like to remove the dirt off his face and to clean the dry spit on his beard and to wash the blood?

I wonder if he stared at his wounds for a while. I wonder what overcame him as at some point Nicodemus brought the spices. There's Jesus. He preached like no one could preach, yet here he is silent. There's Jesus with his hands that healed and his feet that walk on water, and now they are punctured.

There's Jesus whose heart was so filled with love that it melted the hardest of sinners. And now there's a pierced side. I wonder how holy that moment was. I wonder how sacred it was. How did Joseph of Arimathea pull this off?

You know what they did with bodies that were crucified? They threw them around like garbage, especially if the Romans got a hold of them. They would just throw them as a pile of trash. Well, we learned that he was a respected council member of the council, and I think there was something else that could have helped. It's from Matthew's detail.

We haven't touched Matthew yet, so why don't we do it now? Look at Matthew twenty seven fifty seven. When it was evening, there came a not a respect demand. What's that word? A rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who was also a disciple of Jesus.

Now here's what's so interesting about Joseph, you already heard this over and over again, he doesn't appear until this point. We don't know of him. People even struggle to identify where Arimathea is, what town that was. This is all we have of Joseph of Arimathea, but I wanna tell you something. He's actually found somewhere else in the Bible.

He's found in arguably the most detailed descriptive prophecy of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. He's not even found in the New Testament. He's found in the Old Testament. Yes. Joseph of Arimathea is found in the Hebrew scriptures.

You're saying where? You know it. Isaiah 53. Wait, you're telling me that Joseph of Arimathea is found in the prophecy of the suffering servant? Yes.

Look at verse nine of Isaiah 53. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. How surgically precise prophecy is in the Bible. I believe that's one of the greatest defenses of how this book is supernatural.

Prophecy. That's why we need to study prophecy. God calls names from hundreds of years before that person even exist, and God provides details like this, that when Messiah would die, he would not just be buried, he'd be buried by a rich man. I meditate on this and I thought why is that even important? I believe one, because the dignified and noble burial reflects his moral majesty.

He was not a criminal. He was treated like a criminal but he was not a law breaker. But I believe it's even more practical than that. Because this rich man would be able to afford something about this burial that was important to the sanctity of it. Security for the burial.

In Mark's account, we're told that after he went into this tomb that was hewn into a wall, there was a stone that was rolled before it. But Matthew says, it was a great stone. And what was the purpose of that? One, to provide a barrier so that no animals would come in and not just animals, but grave robbers. Those would have the audacity to even meddle with the perfect holy body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if Christ claimed that he was going to raise from the grave, and that his body, the same body that was crucified was going to be glorified, then there could be nothing that would interfere with that promise. And so God, in eternity past, hires a rich man to use his resources to provide an extra secure burial. So that in that period of silence, that body would be untouched, and that he would have the resurrection that he claimed that he would have. Are you amazed at the wisdom of God and every intricate detail of his son's finished work? You know, Jesus can identify with each of us because he has lived our experience though without sin.

And that's what takes, our hearts to a place of fear and worry and loneliness even to comfort and joy and companionship. We can come to the Lord with everything and we can talk to him about anything and trust that he will understand and supply the grace that we are asking for. And that includes temptation, that includes betrayal, anything, even this, the grave. Job says that death is the king of terrors. There's something very wrong if somebody wants to die.

There's something very very seriously wrong. It's part of human nature to want to live and to preserve your life. Your body even has natural defense mechanisms to protect you. So even the thought of death, if I were to just leave you there for the next five minute and think about your mortality, Becomes heavy, becomes daunting. And here's Jesus who entered the grave, and he would come out of it.

And because we are in him and part of him, we can look at this story and realize that I have the same fate as him. That, oh, yes, I am destined to die, but I will come out like he came out. And even if I do face the fear of death, I have a shepherd who experienced it. Who went through the whole process of it, including the burial. Let me remind you that you have a burial coming, as do I.

And in those moments where you think about your family, and you think about your loved ones, and you think about your desires to do this and that, and the timing of your death, you can come before the one who tasted it. And he is willing to comfort you, and you can be reminded that I'm fellowshipping with one who who can sympathize with me. Even as I realize that I have to face death one day and at the very thought of it might cripple you. Oh, don't let it overwhelm you. Take it to him, to the one who endured it.

Do you know Jesus Christ today? I hope you do. I wanna let you know that this is just not us reflecting on some historical story. This is us reflecting on the Jesus that we believe is alive and well. Because as we're gonna discover can you believe it?

We're we're finished with Mark chapter 15. We're coming to the final chapter of our gospel study. But in Mark 16, we're gonna learn that he raised, and we're gonna know and reaffirm that he's alive today. Have you put your faith and trust in him? Are you absolutely certain that every record of wrong that you possess has been dealt with by his forgiveness?

Are you absolutely convinced that you stand right before God because of your faith in Jesus Christ? I want to give you an invitation today to ensure that your sins have been covered by his blood. And it doesn't matter what kind of sin you committed. He's willing to forgive it. And I also wanna speak to potential secret disciples in here today.

Even the fact that you come to church, you would rather die than people that you care about so much to figure out that you follow Jesus and actually believe the entirety of this Bible that I preach. Repent of your secrecy. Repent of it today. He is worthy for you to trumpet your allegiance to him. Yes.

To be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, but for you to be unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you embarrassed about Jesus Christ? Are you embarrassed about him at work? Do you put on a different cloak when you enter in and punch in your hours, and then put on a different cloak on the weekend? You're no different than Joseph of Arimathea, and I'm telling you that you're robbing yourself of great testimonies, and you're robbing him of the glory that is due.

Are you different with certain groups of people, certain friends, certain colleagues, and then suddenly become spiritual and suddenly become passionate about Jesus Christ? You're no different than Joseph of Arimathea. That's not God's will for you. And the disciples aren't the best example either. They were passionate and open about him for a few years, but when it became costly, they concealed.

What's the lesson at all is? Just never be a secret disciple. Live out in the open for him. He hung publicly for you. Should you not live publicly for him?

We should. So I'm coming strong because I want you to realize that there is a greater purpose for your life than you being an undercover Christian. I want you to know that the moment you take courage responding to this message and say, Lord, if I've been a coward my whole Christian life, if I've cared more about my promotion, or my standing in this or in that, forgive me. And here's what we learn from Joseph, the moment you do, his perfect plan will unfold before your life. And though he has every right to be ashamed of us, he chooses to link with us even though we might have been ashamed of him.

Who is this God? Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And I want you to live for him wholeheartedly. And I want you to daily ask for the Holy Spirit to empower you that no matter who stands before you, you would never shrink from shame. You'd be confident and strong.

You would proclaim Jesus's name without stuttering. And though we all prone to fear, including the preacher, he's given us the Holy Spirit to overcome it all. So the reason why I say this is because now everybody has to respond to this message. For those who don't believe, I charge you to repent and believe. For those who are secret disciples, repent of your secrecy today and let the spirit overshadow you so that you would shine bright.

And for those who are living wholeheartedly for Christ, that the Lord would keep us faithful and that we wouldn't slip into the fault of the disciples who lived for him for many years, but when the circumstances were right, they hid their devotion. Lord, we ask you this place today, as we have beheld and basked in the glory of the burial of your son. Yes, we are grateful that this is a historical document that confirms the legitimacy of what we believe in, but we see the practical charges and the applications. We ask, Lord, today, that no matter how this message resonated with us, that you would give us the grace to be in your perfect will. Lord, your word went out.

For the unbeliever, let them believe. For the one who believes but is embarrassed about their belief, Lord, burn it up. Consume it, Lord. Lord, help us not fear man ever to fear you alone. And for those, Lord, who are loving you, who are serving you, Lord, keep us faithful until the end.

Until the end, Lord. Lastly, we pray for the sisters of this church. And we ask that, Lord, they would be encouraged to know the great honor that you bestowed upon the woman of this story, and how you use them to even testify witness of the gospel. Lord, we pray for both men and women that we would be where you want us to be, that we would be who you called us to be, and that whatever we might see as a parameter that we would trust in your wisdom, we would trust in your wisdom. Lord, we give you glory and thanks that even the burial of Jesus Christ is clothed with such beauty and splendor.

In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen and amen. Let's worship him. Let's adore him. Let's crown him with our praise.