Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc.: Welcome to Hear the Word of God, the online and broadcast teaching ministry of the Reverend Eric Alexander. Now, last Sunday evening, we spent all our time considering the account that John gives us in chapter 19 of the death of Jesus, his crucifixion, and all that that implies.

Reverend Eric Alexander: This evening, I want us to look at this very short passage which comes immediately after the crucifixion of Jesus. It is infinitely less well known and often ignored when we are studying John's gospel. I confess to you that my thought was that we would go straight on into the account of the resurrection at the beginning of chapter 20.

But it seems to me an immensely important thing for us to pause for these moments this evening and try to think together about the significance of this particular passage. Because it tells us about a man who could, I think, be a highly significant figure for many of us, if not all of us, here in church tonight. He is Joseph of Arimathea, a man about whom we know scarcely anything except what John tells us here. And that is that he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly.

And I want us to think about him and about his colleague on the occasion of our Lord's burial, Nicodemus, whom we have already met in John chapter 3, of course, and who is a somewhat better-known figure. Because together, they have something of great significance to say to us. You will remember the background of the incident, of course.

The Jews had been pleading with Pilate that he would not offend them and their people and their law by allowing the three bodies which were on crosses at Calvary to hang there until the Sabbath. In Deuteronomy chapter 23, there was a law which forbade those who had been hanged upon a tree to be left until the Sabbath day. And the extraordinary way in which they managed to strain at gnats and swallow camels is illustrated in the fact that, having trumped up charges against Jesus and having been the means of his being handed over for crucifixion, they now don't want to break the law by having him and the others left there until the Sabbath.

And so, Pilate accedes to their request and sends the soldiers to make sure that the three victims have died by breaking the legs of those who had not died. These were the other two on Jesus' either side. Of course, the point about that is that it made it impossible for the victim to exercise any pressure and to enable him to remain alive for some time longer.

So, Pilate agreed and probably the two thieves were taken down, as we read in verse 31, from the cross and buried in a public place called Tophet in the Valley of Hinnom, a place that we find mentioned by Jeremiah in the Old Testament, a place which was the place where bodies were abandoned and people were left scarcely dead in a place of shame.

And thereafter, these two distinguished figures came to Pilate and begged for the body of Jesus. They were both rulers of the people, members of the Sanhedrin, and important men in society, undoubtedly. But the thing that most deeply united them was that they both appeared to be disciples of Jesus, but secretly.

And it is of this which John regards as sufficiently important to underline for us because there is a considerable emphasis upon it. It is upon this condition that I want to speak to you for these few moments this evening, just because I don't think it's an ancient condition. I think it's a very modern condition. Disciples of Jesus, but secretly.

And there are four things that I want to look at with you extremely simply this evening about this condition. I'm really quite eager and anxious that nothing should obscure the danger of this condition that John describes for us, and so I hope to be as simple about it as possible. I want to say something about the condition itself, first of all, then about the cause of it, and thirdly, something about the cost of it. And finally, I want to say a word about the cure for it.

The condition itself is something that we actually meet in John's gospel before this chapter 19. I don't know if you remember, but in John chapter 12, if you look back, we discover in verses 42 and 43 that John has identified people in the very same sphere to which Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea belonged.

In verse 42 of chapter 12 of John: "Yet at the same time, many even among the leaders believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue, because they loved praise from men more than praise from God."

So, here are a group of leaders who had listened to Jesus and secretly in their hearts a conviction began to be born that he was indeed the Christ. Not only that he had been born to save them, but in some sense, they had been born to receive him. And they believed in him. And in some sense also, they had known the tug of the eternal world at their hearts, drawing them to Jesus.

But somehow or other, they held back because they were afraid of the implications of what this would mean and because they were more concerned, as John says, about what men thought than what God thought. Now, you will immediately recognize that that's not an ancient condition. There are multitudes of people today—there could be many of us here in this church tonight—of whom that's a pretty accurate description. Disciples, but secretly.

Somehow or other, there is something that is holding them back from a full commitment to Jesus. Now, you think of comparing them with some of the other people that we read about in John's gospel who heard the voice of Jesus. That man who was blind, for instance, and Jesus gave him sight. And he went after Jesus, heart and soul and mind and strength.

He stood up before the leaders of the people, and no matter how they tried to embarrass him, he said, "One thing I know: whereas I was blind, now I see." You can almost hear him saying, "Blessed be God." And Joseph and Nicodemus found that they were driving with the brake on, spiritually. Do you know what it is to drive with the brake on, spiritually? And to say, "Well, thus far and no further"?

We don't know very much about Joseph of Arimathea. Mark calls him in his gospel an honorable counselor. Luke adds that he is a good and righteous man and goes on to tell us that when Jesus was condemned by the rulers of the Jews, Joseph of Arimathea had refused to give his consent. Now, that's the technical term for abstaining in a vote. Do you know the kind of thing?

I do it all the time at the presbytery. They're asking you to come down on one side or the other and I'm sometimes not very sure which side I really belong in or whether I've understood everything that they've been saying. So, they say, "Those for?" and they all raise their hands. "Those against?" and "Those abstaining?" And abstaining means that I don't want really to come down on either side; I'm remaining on the fence.

I don't think it's a terribly good thing to do, but that's what Joseph of Arimathea was doing. He didn't want to be branded as one thing or the other, you see, and so he abstained in the vote. I can still remember at school up there in Allan Glen's School in Cathedral Street when I was a boy.

We once had somebody who came to the school—vague recollection I have—I don't know whether he was from Scripture Union or where he was from, but he made something of a mistake, I think, by asking all us boys, "Now, boys," he said (there were no girls in my school, sorry to say, but they—), he said, "Now, boys," he said, "all those of you who are on God's side, raise your hand." And there were a few who raised their hand.

And then he said, "And those of you who are not on God's side, raise your hand." And quite a few bold souls raised their hands. And somebody in the front said to him, "Sir, you haven't counted the abstainers." "All right," he said, "who are the abstainers?" And a whole forest of hands shot up. The sort of thing you'd expect at a school.

But you know, there are many of us who have gone on living that way in the fellowship of the uncommitted. We don't want to be branded. We don't want to be known. And we have remained on the fence. Secretly, if we were asked, we would say—and it would be true—"I really do know that Christ is the Savior I need, and secretly I have named him as my Lord and Savior. But publicly, that's a different story."

Both Joseph and Nicodemus were spiritual shellfish. Whenever you wanted to draw them out into the open, they rushed back into their shell again. Disciples, but secretly. Now, that's one of the great evidences of this condition: a lack of openness about Jesus and the danger of sitting in a prolonged way on that fence. Not only that it becomes extremely uncomfortable, which it does—it leads to a very uncomfortable existence—but you're liable to fall off on the side that you never really intended to fall off on.

I have an idea, for example, that Judas hovered like that for a long time on the fence, you know, ultimately deciding that it was going to cost him more than he was willing to yield to be a disciple of Jesus, and he came down on the wrong side of the fence. The significant thing about this condition is, of course, that it is intolerable to God.

He will not allow it to continue indefinitely. And he constantly in the Bible sends his servants to summon people out into the open. "How long will you halt between two opinions?" Elijah cried. He sent Joshua to say to the people, "Choose this day whom you will serve: if the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."

And Jesus warned about the seriousness of it when he put his finger right on the thing that Joseph was suffering from and said, "Whoever will be ashamed of me before men, of him will I be ashamed before my Father who is in heaven." Can I read that to you again? "Whoever is ashamed of me before men," says Jesus, "of him will I be ashamed before my Father."

So, the condition is in so many ways a common one, but it is also an extremely dangerous one. A disciple, but secretly. What's the cause of it then? Well, John gives it to us here in chapter 19, verse 38: "Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews."

Now, again, the same thing is repeated in chapter 12, when we read that the Pharisees would not confess their faith—the leaders of the people would not confess their faith because of the Pharisees. They feared that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. And the cause of the condition is fear.

Now, that fear is an entirely understandable thing because you will know how easy it is for people to suffer great and costly things as they publicly confess Christ. They wanted the praise of men roundabout them; they wanted popularity. And which of us wants unpopularity by nature? It is a strange distortion of human personality that craves unpopularity and wants to be somehow made a scapegoat by other people.

But you see, there comes a time sometimes when you have to decide whether you fear men more than you fear God. That is what Jesus was challenging people like Joseph with. Now, very obviously, the secrecy with which Joseph and Nicodemus too believed was not a secrecy that Jesus would have rebuked because they were not going around publicly declaiming their faith in Christ and making a great noise about it and so on.

The secrecy is really significant because it is caused by shame at the name of Jesus. And it is an extraordinary thing that we should ever find ourselves ashamed of Christ. When you think of the kind of things that we were reading last Sunday evening in John chapter 19, of the amazing love of God in Jesus Christ for us. When you read of what he has done and accomplished for us, it is an extraordinary thing that we should be ashamed to be known as his disciples.

Now, I am bound to add at this point that that must not be mistaken for the kind of reputation that some Christians manage to gain in the society in which they live for being difficult, angular, awkward people who make other people's lives intolerable by their interference and so on, by their discourtesy, and who do not back up their witness for Christ with consistency and high standards in their daily work, who make it easy for people to dismiss the gospel for which they stand and the Christ with whom they claim friendship and allegiance.

But what I am saying is that the mark of this secret discipleship is that a man or woman is ashamed to live consistently with quiet godliness for Jesus, to face the challenge of a godless world in belonging to him, not to hide their light under a bushel but to let it shine for him. And Joseph was clearly one of these men.

I don't think this has got anything to do with speaking a great deal about the Lord as people would say. I think it's got everything to do with a condition of heart which is ready to be 100 percent for Jesus. And that is the issue. The real issue for people like Joseph and Nicodemus was the issue of a divided heart and a divided allegiance. And that's the issue for us, isn't it?

The question of whatever impact your life is going to make on the society roundabout you, in your business or home or family or whatever, that you can happily leave with God. The vital thing is that there is nothing of which you are conscious that you have held back from Jesus Christ. And Joseph and Nicodemus had. That's the significant thing.

And one symptom of it is that I am more interested in what people think than in what God thinks. Now, that's a real test, isn't it? And the cause of this was fear. Spurgeon asks in one of his sermons, "Is this not the most extraordinary fear in the world? Does a sick man fear the change that health brings, or a hungry man bread, or a thirsty man water? How extraordinary to fear wholehearted obedience to Jesus."

That's the cause of it; it was fear. I reckon that there is a subsidiary form of fear, and that fear was that somehow or other to come right out for Christ and burn their boats behind them would somehow or other involve them in great loss. It's a fear that many people still retain: that the way to impoverishment in various spheres of life is to go right out and be everything you could ever be for Jesus.

And that, of course, is the devil's ultimate lie, for true freedom and true joy and true riches are found only in Christ. What's the cost of it then? That's the condition and its cause. What about the cost? The cost of living in this condition. Because there is no question, as Joseph of Arimathea now looked back over these last three years, he must have thought what he had lost by his hesitant, half-hearted, secret discipleship.

There is no doubt that he lost the joy of fellowship with Jesus and the blessing of a wholehearted commitment to him. There is no question that he lost the blessing of being able to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all his being. And he lost a personal experience of the treasures that there are in Christ for those who are wholly his.

There is no loss that is in so many ways so sad as the loss experienced by the man or woman who goes halfway with Christ and then drives with the brakes on. And both Joseph and I reckon Nicodemus knew that loss. The trouble is, you see, that when you want the best of both worlds, you get the best of neither. Christ spoils you for the world around us, and you spoil that other world by holding back from him. There is a cost to pay in half-hearted discipleship that remains secret because of fear.

What about the cure for it? Because there is a cure, and for Joseph of Arimathea particularly, it seems that the cure came on this day. You will notice the remarkable ways in which he honored Christ. He honored him when his other apostles and disciples had forsaken him and fled. He honored him when it was dangerous to do so. There is no question that Joseph and Nicodemus incurred considerable personal danger by associating themselves in this way with the disposing of the body of Jesus.

But perhaps most significantly, Joseph and Nicodemus honored Christ when there was no possibility of their being rewarded. Have you thought about that? There was not the faintest possibility that Jesus, so far as they were aware, was going to be able to do anything in response for them. There are few examples of such unalloyed love as theirs in the New Testament.

And they served him in this moment after his crucifixion without any thought of any kind of reward. What was it then that was the cure for this cold, distant, half-heartedness? I have no doubt at all that it was the cross of Jesus where they had been standing. It is entirely certain that they were around the cross of Jesus with the company of other people. They had watched, no doubt, as he hung there with a concern for others: the thieves who were crucified beside him, those who mocked him, "Father, forgive them," he said. His mother and John and the relationship between them.

And above all, they began to recognize something of what that love meant, and it reached into their hearts. And they found themselves with every barrier broken down and every reservation taken away. And they came to Pilate and said, "We are Christ's men."

I wonder how you find yourself described in passages like that. "Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because of fear." Now, the point is it is secret. None of us knows really the heart of the person sitting next to us or around us this evening. I don't know you, you don't really know me. We don't really know each other in these deep areas of our lives.

But deep down in the secret places of your heart this evening, how is it with you and Christ? Is there this divided spirit? Is there this vote to abstain? Are you driving with your foot on the brake, spiritually, and your eye elsewhere? These really are some of the most important questions in life for many of us.

And it is such an important thing for us to be able to come into the presence of the Lord this evening and to say, "By your grace, I will be your man, your woman, to do your will for the rest of my days." And then to go out into the world tomorrow and say, "By God's grace, I will be a disciple, but not secretly."

And that won't mean that you will begin talking everywhere and to everybody so that you become objectionable. What it will mean is that they will begin to see Jesus in you, and they will start to ask questions: "What does this mean?" And you will be able to say, "I am Christ's man and Christ's woman," and it will really be true. Let's pray together.

Father, you know that there are so many of us in so many areas of so many of our lives where we've been spiritually uncomfortable sitting on the fence. And we pray that you would take us from the company of the uncommitted and the detached to the fellowship of those who are utterly yielded to the whole will of God for the whole of life.

And we therefore take our stand beneath the cross of Jesus and before his dying love in all its amazing grace. We pray that you would melt all our resistance down and take all our half-heartedness away and make us yours utterly and only and forever. Amen.

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc.: You're listening to Hear the Word of God with the Reverend Eric Alexander, a minister in the Church of Scotland for over 50 years. To access more Bible teaching from Reverend Alexander, visit HearTheWordOfGod.org where your generous contribution will help us sustain and grow this ministry. That's HearTheWordOfGod.org. You could choose instead to mail a check to this address: 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. Or call 1-800-488-1888. This program is a presentation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. I'm Mark Daniels. Thank you for listening. Please join us again next time for Eric Alexander and Hear the Word of God.