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Guest (Female): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, we're passionate about helping you understand God's word and apply it to your everyday life through clear, practical Bible teaching. That's why we invite you to sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical encouragement, ministry updates, and exclusive ministry content, all delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free. Visit connectwithskip.com today. That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: There's a lot of things you could say about Joseph of Arimathea. In fact, in Mark's account, the Gospel of Mark calls him a prominent council member. A prominent council member. That is, Joseph was one of the 70 ruling elders in a group known as the Sanhedrin. There were 71, including the high priest. The high priest plus 70 others, Joseph of Arimathea was one of them, a prominent council member.

In Luke's account, he calls Joseph of Arimathea a good and a just man. And though he is good, and though he is just, and though he is a prominent council member, it's also important that you know that he was a rich man because of Isaiah chapter 53 verse 9. So what we're going to do in the brief time we have together is notice three notable features of this rich man who gave his tomb for Jesus' body. Of course, Jesus only needed it for the weekend because of the resurrection, but let me give you three notable features.

First of all, he was a genuine disciple. We're told that in verse 57. When evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. First, a few words about Joseph of Arimathea. He is mentioned in all four Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all have the account and he is only mentioned in the burial account of Jesus. Second, Arimathea, where's that from? We don't exactly know where Arimathea is.

Most scholars believe it's a town called Rama. You would only know about that if you know that Samuel the prophet came from Rama. It's a few miles outside of Jerusalem. I'm guessing Joseph was born there and then moved to Jerusalem, where he would be working as a council member for the Sanhedrin. Though he is a council member, though he is one of the upper echelon Jewish leaders, Luke's account says that he did not consent to their decision and their deed. He did not agree with how they were treating Jesus.

You know they came up with false charges, right, to bring to Pontius Pilate to say that he said this and did that, all that was false. Joseph didn't agree with it. So he did not consent to their decision and their deed. But what's noteworthy here in verse 57 is that it calls him a disciple of Jesus. Now, in the original language in Greek, it's in the verb form and would literally read "he was discipled by Jesus Christ." So he was a real learner. That's what disciple means, mathetes, a learner, somebody who learned from Jesus, who followed Jesus, who believed in him. He was a disciple.

Okay, not only was he a disciple, but Luke's account, and I'm not turning to all these because we're just here rooted in Matthew, so I'm just giving you the parallel accounts, but in Luke chapter 23, it says of him that he was waiting for the kingdom of God. He was waiting for the kingdom of God. He was Messianically predisposed. He was waiting for the Messiah to come, not much different than Anna, who was waiting for the consolation of Jerusalem. So he was waiting for the kingdom of God. He's anticipating the Messiah to come.

So here you have a prominent Jewish council member who's a disciple. But though he is a disciple, according to John chapter 19 verse 38, it says he was a disciple of Jesus but secretly. Secretly. Why? He was a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews. What was he afraid of? Well, he was afraid of losing everything, first of all. You may recall that the Sanhedrin had officially threatened to expel from the synagogue anybody who confessed Jesus Christ.

If he's a ruling council member, if they find out, that's going to end his career. He's going to be ostracized, his family's going to be ostracized, he'll lose all connection from Judaism. So he's a believer in Jesus, but he's keeping it secret, he's keeping it silent. Now, Joseph of Arimathea has been ridiculed for this. You'd be surprised when you read certain commentaries. They say, "Can you believe it? He didn't even speak up for Jesus." Okay, before you criticize him, I got a question.

Peter, where are you? John, where'd you go? James, how come you're not here? You know where they were? Locked in an upper room for fear of the Jews. At least whatever fear Joseph of Arimathea had, he's now going public. He's now stepping forward. He's growing in his faith. And I think this is an important designation. Discipleship is not a light switch. When you follow Jesus Christ, you are not instantly mature, but you grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Second Peter 3:18.

So whatever fears he once had, he now musters up enough courage, and it was courage, to go to Pontius Pilate and ask for a proper burial. In fact, in Mark's account, Mark 15 says, "coming and taking courage, he went in to Pontius Pilate." So I'm going to say this guy's making progress because he comes to the Praetorium where Pontius Pilate is. I read one time the definition of a friend as somebody who comes in when the rest of the world has gone out. Nobody shows up, but he shows up. He's a genuine disciple.

To go to Pontius Pilate would expose him to danger. Pontius Pilate hated the Sanhedrin, especially if a Sanhedrin member is asking for the body of a rival king, somebody that Rome could consider a threat. Also, to go into the Praetorium of this Gentile ruler would make him unclean and defiled right before the Sabbath. So he is willing to risk reputation and status. Though he was a secret disciple, here's the thing about being a secret disciple. You really can't stay a secret disciple very long.

I'm going to put up the words of William Barclay, who said, "Christianity is something which is meant to be seen. There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship or the discipleship destroys the secrecy. A man's Christianity should be perfectly visible to all men." That's what's happening here. The discipleship is destroying the secrecy. He's going public.

Now, if you are like Joseph, if you are a secret disciple, and some of you just, you're that kind of a person. People around you where you work, they really don't know that you're a follower of Christ. You have not been that overt. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I've prayed for you this week. I've thought specifically of you and I have committed some time to pray for you that something would happen. Not bad, but that something would ignite in you to make you a little more overt and vocal, to be more public.

Especially, I think, in today's culture, when our culture is encouraging people to be proud of who they are, no matter who they are, so every person with the most aberrant lifestyle is told to come out of the closet and be proud of who you are. I think there are closeted Christians who need to come out of the closet and be vocal about their faith in Jesus Christ. So he was a genuine disciple and he's showing that.

Second thing I'd like you to make a note of, he's a gentle disciple. Just notice what he does here in verse 58. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus once to give him a decent burial and Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. Notice the tenderness, the respect. Now just a quick note. The Jews did not embalm their dead. That was an Egyptian practice.

They did not embalm, they did not cremate. Jews saw that as a pagan practice. That's what the Romans did. They believed in taking the body whole, anointing it with spices to mitigate against the putrefaction of the flesh, just loaded up with aromatic spices, wrap it up and plant it whole in the ground like a seed as a statement of faith, belief in a future resurrection. So they come and or he comes and asks for the body. He takes the body down.

Now, a dead body is not easy to manage by yourself, so I'm guessing he had help. In fact, I'm not guessing, I know he had help. And anybody here know the name of the person who helped Joseph of Arimathea? Nicodemus. In John's account, John chapter 19, it says Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus went. So it would have taken two people to manage a 150-pound body, take it off the cross and anoint it for burial. So he is a genuine disciple, but I see here with this clean linen cloth and handling the body so tenderly, so gently, he was a gentle disciple. And that is also a hallmark of Christianity: gentleness.

Guest (Female): You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Everyday friends like you help connect people around the world to the life-changing truth of God's word through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching. Our world constantly tells us we need something more. But the book of Colossians reminds us that everything we truly need is found in Jesus Christ. That's the heart of Pastor Skip's resource, Expound Colossians.

As he walks verse-by-verse through this powerful New Testament book, you'll discover why Christ is supreme over all things, how to recognize truth in a world full of competing voices, and what it means to live each day firmly rooted in Him. We'll send Expound Colossians as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let's return to today's teaching.

Skip Heitzig: Now I just made a case for being bold. Now I'm making the case for being gentle. You know, you can be both. You can have gentle boldness. You can have bold gentleness. You can have a placid, calm bravery. Two sides of the same coin. In fact, Jesus said he was. He said in Matthew 11, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Then Paul wrote to the Philippians and said, "Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." So be bold, but be nice. Be gentle. When Paul wrote that list of the fruit of the Spirit, you remember he gave a list of attributes of it? He said the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, here it is, gentleness. Some translations say meekness. Meekness and gentleness are the same thing.

In fact, the word that is used for both of those in the Greek is this, I'm going to put it up on the screen. There it is. It says praos, praos. We're going to leave that up for a minute. Meek, gentle is the word praos. The word means strength under control, power under control, power under authority. It's the choice to be restrained. That's praos, that's being gentle. I found out there was a guy written about 400 BC, a guy who was a soldier and a philosopher named Xenophon, spelled with an X.

Xenophon wrote a book called The Art of Horsemanship. Not that you're going to try to go download it on your Kindle, but in his book The Art of Horsemanship, Xenophon describes the selection by the Greek army for their war horses. He said the Greek army would go out to the mountains and find the wildest horse they could find, take these horses and bring them down and spend months training them and breaking them, breaking them in. And after months of training, they would put them into one of four categories.

Category number one, they were discarded or let go. Category number two, they were used for simply bearing burdens. Category number three, they were used for ordinary duty. Category number four, reserved for a few choice horses, they were war horses. And if the horse passed all the necessary requirements to become a war horse, it was given the name praos. That is, it's wild, it's powerful, it has strength, but it has learned to bring its nature under the control of its rider.

It responds to the slightest touch of the rider. It can stand in the face of cannon fire and not get spooked. It stops at a whisper. Strong but under control. Gentleness is a superpower. When you can be a strong individual and be restrained in your words and your actions, that's a superpower, especially in a world that is so filled with anger, where you read posts on social media and everybody feels it's their God-given duty to spout every single nasty opinion. We could stand for a dose of gentleness.

He was a genuine disciple, he was a gentle disciple. Third and finally, he was a generous disciple. Verse 60, after taking the body down, he laid it in his new tomb. He owned it, it was for him, which he had hewn out of the rock. And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed. And Mary Magdalene was there, the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb. That's the account. Now let me give you the account in the Gospel of John, because I mentioned Joseph of Arimathea had a buddy with him named Nicodemus.

Listen to it. "After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. And so he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds." Now, that's 100 Roman pounds, that would be equal to about 75 pounds, 72 to 75 pounds in our estimation.

"Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury." Myrrh is a liquid, aloes is a powder, they would mix these together, sort of like a gel, and they would anoint the body. But this much? That's generous. The only time somebody got given that amount of spice was either if you're really rich or you're royalty. So the generosity of Joseph to say you can have my tomb, my property hewn out for myself, and Nicodemus to give that much, what they're saying to Jesus is the world may not give you respect, but we will.

We will treat you like the king you are. And they generously gave. And again, this goes back to what we started with, Isaiah 53 verse 9. "They assigned his grave with the wicked, yet with the rich at his death." Treated lavishly. One of the things they brought is myrrh, and I can't help but go there, but that was one of the gifts that the Magi brought him. And I've always seen that as a prediction. The Magi, by giving the baby Jesus myrrh as a gift, would be telling of the purpose of his birth, which was his death.

It portended his death. So Nicodemus provides the spice, Joseph of Arimathea provides the grave. They gave generously of their resources to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. So Joseph was a genuine disciple, a gentle disciple, he was a generous disciple. He gives his time, his talent, his treasure. He's willing to sacrifice his reputation, his status, because going to Pilate is going to be known by all the Sanhedrin that he is honoring Christ.

But he is growing. He's a disciple who is growing in his faith. And I have discovered that when a person grows as a follower of Jesus Christ, all three of these notable characteristics are true. They become more genuine, they become gentle, they become generous. They get a lighter touch with the things of this world. One of my favorite Martin Luther quotes is he said this. He said for a disciple, there are three conversions that are necessary: the conversion of the heart, the conversion of the mind, and the conversion of the wallet.

And he said the third is the hardest. Now there's nothing wrong with owning anything or having a big, healthy bank account, but the big question is, who owns you? And it was pretty evident by the generosity of this man of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus that God owned them. Now I want to close with a question, because this is Reload Love weekend and we've taken up a special offering which is rare for us. Why should Christians fund ministry? Why should Christians financially, monetarily fund ministry?

And there's an easy answer to that. Because evil is being funded all around us. Darkness is being funded all around us. Sin is being funded all around us. In fact, I would even say most of the money in our culture is going to evil purposes, including many of our tax dollars. I am not so excited how the state has decided to spend my money and so the reason I want to support godly causes is I want to put my money where my mouth is.

Unless truth and righteousness are funded by God's people, there will only be evil and darkness funded by a fallen society. So to counteract that, that's why we should fund ministry. Somebody paid for the Bible that you read to be translated into English. Somebody paid for the television program or YouTube channel or radio broadcast so people could hear the gospel and meet Christ. Somebody paid for your kid's mission trip besides you, mom and dad, others did too.

Somebody paid for Freedom Fest, etc. So generosity turns people into partners. Partners with God, partners with each other for the glory of God. So I'll close with a quote by John Wesley, because I think he said it best. He said, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." And because we can, we do. And we do it joyfully, because Jesus said it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

Guest (Female): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Now, here's how to pre-order an exciting resource from Pastor Skip that's coming next month. Have you ever wanted to understand the Bible better but felt overwhelmed by where to begin? In Soaring Above It All, Pastor Skip Heitzig guides you through the big picture of scripture in short daily devotionals designed to help you better understand God's word.

Pre-order your copy of Soaring Above It All today wherever books are sold. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching. And this month, when you give $50 or more, we'll send you Expound Colossians as our thanks.

In this five-message study, Pastor Skip explores one of the Bible's clearest pictures of the supremacy of Jesus Christ and shows how being rooted in Him changes the way you live every day. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.