God's Patience & Joseph's Conversion

You know, we've been working our way through the Gospel of Luke and been in the last week of Jesus' life here for the last few weeks, looking at different things. And I've tried to really look at as many of those details as I could so that you could gather some type of a picture or a portrait in your mind of really what was taking place. We've gone through the last seven words on the cross just here recently. And he died. and Satan thinks it's over. He's won, but we know the rest of the story, and what's really interesting is the story we're going to look at today.

There's different facts about Joseph of Arimathea in every gospel, but his story is in every one of the gospels. it must have been a story that the Holy Spirit wanted in Scripture for us to learn and understand something from. And so I entitled this sermon today God's Patience and Joseph's Conversion.

And I hope you'll see this, the long-suffering of God as he wrestles with Joseph of Arimathea's life to where Joseph becomes a bold witness for Christ. By the time we get to the end of the sermon, I hope you're able to see that, that God is very patient with us in discipling us for purpose to get us in a public setting of witnessing. And I hope you'll see that today. So let's look at Luke 23 verses 50 through 56. Let me read that to you. And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man. He had not consented to their plan and action. a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews who was waiting for the kingdom of God. If there's any statement that you need to hang your hat on about Joseph of Arimathea, it's that one right there. He was a man who was waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid him in a tomb cut in the rock where no one had ever lain. A brand new tomb. It was really Joseph's tomb. He'd bought his own tomb and hewned it out. and it was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was about to begin. Now the women who had come with him out of Galilee followed after and saw the tomb and how his body was laid and they rushed and prepared spices and perfumes and on the sabbath they rested according to the commandments let bow together in prayer lord grant us understanding of joseph's encounter with christ and lord how he grew to be a real man of God. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You know, in my notes here, I put God's patience and Joseph's conversion. First, I just wrote Joseph's growth. But as you look at Joseph's life in the four Gospels, you see that his growth was a process of being lost into conversion. My goal today is to show how the patience of God becomes that pathway from moving us from darkness into his marvelous light. Literally, from fear to faith. From timidly withholding salvation's testimony in our souls to boldly proclaiming Jesus.

Let me give you a quote for the day. I'm not the only preacher that's used this quote in sermons. In fact, when I was studying and looking at commentaries, William Barclay's quote was written by many preachers about this lesson.

Barclay is writing in his commentary about Joseph of Arimathea, and he stated, Christianity is something which is meant to be seen.

There can be no such thing as a 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. Now that's a heck of a statement, isn't it? That really takes the whole context of scripture of Jesus being the light and then us being the light and salt in the world, doesn't it?

We see this evidence being worked out and illustrated for us in the life of Joseph of Arimathea. For most of us, Christianity did not just suddenly appear in an instantaneous, somewhat of a vacuum moment. Even though the moment of conversion may very well have been instantaneous, The movement of getting to that moment was probably a process in your life.

You know, I've heard a lot of sermons on the instantaneous conversion of the Apostle Paul.

And I affirm that moment in his life on the Damascus Road as a divine miraculous event in his life. but if you really go and study the apostles life you'll find out that there were layers and layers of prevenient grace that grace that goes before salvation chasing him up to that moment there were layers in his life from the time he was born all the way to that point at Damascus Road And I think that's true with most of us. If you go back and were to write your own salvation history, I bet there would be layers and foundations of testimonies that came towards you that helped you come to that place of deciding for Christ.

Let's look at Joseph, who I call a graveside witness. Let's look at some of the facts about Joseph of Arimathea. And I'm going to mention some of these to you. Now, let me tell you what I did. I read and listed everything about him from the four Gospels. So the things I'm going to share with you, the facts I'm going to share with you, or a composite view of his life, not just from the Gospel of Luke, but from Matthew and Mark and John, because they said things differently than what Luke did. They added things. They didn't have certain things that Luke had. And so I'm going to give you a composite, factual rundown here so that you'll see the context of the provenient grace of God working in his life, bringing him to a point of literally coming out of the closet. That's not a good word to use today, is it? You know how it's been used in our society. But I'm going to tell you, there's a lot of Christians that need to come out of the closet. We need to come forward in the public arena with our faith. And so I want to show that process that takes place in Joseph of Arimathea's life. Here's some facts about him. He was the prominent character in the burial scene of Jesus.

If you look at scripture, basically that's the only place you find Joseph of Arimathea. You don't see him mentioned prior. You don't see him mentioned after. He is mentioned only in the burial scene of Jesus.

This story is in all four Gospels, which I've told you, and adding different facts about Joseph. He was a prominent, the Bible said, he was a prominent member of the council. That's the Jewish Sanhedrin that was composed of 70 plus the high priest. It was this group. He was a part of this group that wanted to kill Jesus. He was a ruler in the Jewish faith. He was not a Pharisee, we don't think, but he was a ruling member of that council. the Bible says he was a good righteous and rich man those three things hang on they're good things good righteous but really hang on to that word rich we'll come back to it in a minute because it's an important statement about him he was a disciple of Jesus the Bible says he was a disciple the Greek language says basically when it says he was the disciple if you studied the Greek language there what it's saying is he was being discipled by Jesus you know when we think of a disciple that somebody that already sold out isn it but he wasn at that point yet But he was being discipled by Jesus So the Bible can say he was a disciple of Jesus But in the same breath, it says he was a secret disciple. Boy, how many secret disciples are there in the world today? He was a secret disciple for fear of the Jews. this is when he begins to come out of the closet he gave the dissenting vote not to pursue the murder of Jesus that's pretty astounding here he is with the 70 him included in that 70 and the high priest and they take the vote y'all been in committees where you voted didn't you you ever been the only dissenting vote in a committee that's not a popular position to be in is it he gave the dissenting vote not to pursue the murder of Jesus now he's he's moving in his faith isn't he the Bible says he was authentically expecting the heavenly king to come and set up his kingdom now I think that's what moves him to this dissenting vote he'd studied the Old Testament he understood the prophetic words about the coming of the Messiah.

And I think, you know, one of the things that the rulers did when Jesus was doing his miraculous ministry and preaching and teaching, you can read it, it's all through the Gospels, they went and listened to him. He encountered them. They investigated him. And that's why they had their backroom meetings to talk about him. I'm going to tell you Joseph had been and seen miracles he had heard what Jesus was teaching and had embraced it he was being discipled by Jesus and the reason I think is you can hang your hat on this the man authentically trusted Old Testament prophecy he was waiting patiently expecting the coming of the Messiah. And somehow I think he had great ideas of thinking that Jesus may very well be that man.

Why would he have connected himself to Jesus if he had not?

It says that he mustered up enough courage to ask Pilate if he could have Jesus' body to give him a proper burial.

Now that's a big deal. Typically what happened back then was to speed up death on the cross. The crucifixion could go on and on and on for two or three, four days. And so you've read how they broke their legs so they couldn't push themselves up and they suffocated. and Sabbath was coming the day of preparation was there and so what's amazing Jesus died in 3d

hours. That typically doesn't happen at all. But he must have up enough courage to ask Pilate if he could take Jesus' body and give him a proper burial. Because typically what happened was if they took him off, they drug him off the cross, the Roman soldiers would, they took him to a pit and they just stacked the bodies in this pit so the vultures could eat them. and then because of the foul smell they would burn those pits that's typically what was going to happen to Jesus' body but he mustered up enough courage to ask Pilate if he could have Jesus' body to give him a proper burial he along with another Pharisee you'll find this in the Gospel of John. Do you know who else helped him?

Nicodemus.

Remember Jesus going, Nicodemus going to see Jesus? Did he go in the daytime so he could be seen?

He went at nighttime.

And so I'm going to tell you that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were friends and did a lot of talking about Jesus. And it says that Nicodemus, along with Joseph, took Jesus' body down from the cross.

It was probably a two-man job.

Getting his... You figure he weighed 150, 60 pounds, maybe?

It was probably a two-man job to get him off the cross.

Joseph allows his brother in Christ, Nicodemus, to cover Jesus' beaten and bloody body with an enormous amount of spices and perfumed ointments that Nicodemus had bought and brought with his own money.

Now, I want you to catch this here. It says that there was, in the Jewish language, 100 pounds. Really, in our language, it would be 75 pounds of ointment.

That was a lot of ointment, and it was expensive.

Nicodemus paid out of his own pocket and brought all this ointment and anointed his body before they covered it with linen. so his body wouldn't stink. They didn't embalm, Jews didn't embalm their bodies. They just covered them with spices and ointments. And so here Nicodemus is 75 pounds of ointment.

You know, Kim buys Herbalife all the time. He's got all these ointments. cabinets of ointments. But she doesn't have 75 pounds worth. I can only imagine. 75 pounds. Nicodemus anoints Jesus' body.

The thing I want you to see in this is that amount and that expensive ointments were typically only limited to royalty.

You hear that To a king What did he have what did he have over the cross at the top the king of the jews nicodemus and joseph had an idea this was the king of the jews and then Joseph wraps Jesus' anointed body in linen cloth that he had purchased.

He and Nicodemus then placed Jesus in Joseph and I want you to hear this word, his own tomb. tuned out tomb a tomb for a rich man you know when Nicodemus and Joseph put Jesus' body in that tomb I bet they didn't know he'd just be there three days I bet they had no idea about that I bet they did not connect with that.

All of this was urgently done between 3 and 6 o'clock because Sabbath usually started around 6 o'clock in the evening. It says that Joseph came in the evening. It was around evening. That's what the language would apply around evening time before the Sabbath started. There was an urgency on Joseph and Nicodemus' part to get this done because when Sabbath started, they couldn't work. They had to get all of this done. Now this is what I want you to hear that's so, so interesting to me. In all of these actions, they were a fulfillment of prophecy. In Isaiah 53, 9, I've been telling you, go home and read Isaiah 53. If you haven't, go home and read it. it's the main prophecy about Jesus it says his grave was assigned with wicked men now what have we already talked about the two transgressors on the side of him and him in the middle what it's saying is his grave was assigned with wicked men is that he was a sin to fritters that he was going to die with the wicked His grave was assigned with wicked men. His death was assigned with wicked men. Yet it says he was a rich man in his death. How could that be?

Jesus had no house. He had no wealth.

Jesus was not a rich man.

but he died the death of a rich man. Do you hear what I'm saying there?

He is going to die like a rich man in a rich man's grave.

The practice in that day was to throw the dead crucified bodies in a pit. I told you that. So vultures could eat them. But that's not what happened. he was placed in a rich man's tomb a tomb for royalty a tomb for a king boy we could just stop right there couldn't we enough said but let me talk about the graveside conversion let go back to William Barclay statement There can be no such thing as a secret discipleship for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship or the discipleship destroys the secrecy. Now let's analyze that statement for just a minute. Barclay is allowing for a process of God's patience to bring winning faith over fear in Joseph's life. He was a secret disciple for why? For fear of the Jews.

Becoming a full-blown disciple did not happen overnight for Joseph. Jesus had been discipling him. He'd been following Jesus.

Now I don't know about you, but I think that's good news for me.

I didn't just become a light bulb overnight.

Jesus had been discipling him, moving him from religion to relationship. A lot of us lived in religion for a long time before we came to know Jesus.

From fear to faith, he was scared to death. But all of a sudden, he musters up enough courage to go see Pilate and say, would you let me have his body so I can bury him?

From invisible to visible. That's what I want you to hear. Joseph was just invisible when he was a secret and all of a sudden that secret is out in public he gave the dissenting vote he was making his steps to sell out for Jesus if any man would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And everyone who's left houses and brothers and sisters or father or mother or children or farms for my namesake shall receive many times as much and shall receive eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last shall be first. now these kind of sayings must have cut to the quick of Joseph's life when he was a secret disciple imagine what he felt when Jesus said if any man would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and come follow me just let me let me protect my faith in you and hide it for just a little bit there's a little bit talking about hiding that light under a bushel, isn't it? And what did Jesus say? Take that bushel off of there. Let your light shine.

These kinds of sayings must have cut to the quick in Joseph's life. I'm telling you.

But listen to me.

He got it. he is a perfect illustration of conversion initial conversion and conversions process do you see the process here I thought of physical birth conception womb time I put hyphen discipling, womb time, birthing, development.

I crawled before I walked, and I walked before I ran. You see that?

You don't just grow up to maturity overnight in Christ. It's a process.

I think this discipling that was going on in Joseph's life was that process of conversion.

I got to thinking about that, and I wrote down his conversion, was not just like cutting on a switch. In every church that I pastored, built in the pulpits up front, there was light switch controls. In the church at Sudan, there was all these lights. I could cut on every light in the sanctuary behind the pulpit. In fact, when we were pastoring there one day and I was doing the children's sermon, all of a sudden the lights went out. And I looked around and Kurt peeped his head around the pulpit and there he was. He'd cut all the lights out. I said, cut them back home. But back behind there, they had a switch that was like a slide.

Like a slide.

And man, if I really wanted it, making an intimate service I'd slide down those lights. Remember how we used to do that? Well, it was the same way in Gruver. We could control our lights. You know, we had light shows back then in church.

You know, dimmer switches, that's what we called them.

Let me make this statement.

Joseph of Arimathea was like a spiritual dimmer switch. all of a sudden his light was all the way on.

You see that? You see that image?

William Barclay, in concluding, prophetic word, there is a warning and there is a promise. The warning is that secrecy can destroy discipleship.

The promise is that discipleship can destroy secrecy. in Romans chapter 2 verse 4 the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome about their lazy attitude towards the judgment of God and this is what he said do you think so lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance.

You know, Jesus could have looked at Joseph of Arimathea and just said,

I give up on him.

He's going to stay in that secret closet from now on.

But Jesus kept discipling him until all of a sudden he's in front of Pilate asking for the body because he had already bought a tomb, his own tomb, and decided he's going to die a rich man's death.

What got Joseph to that point? The forbearing patience of God.

God doesn't ever give up on us.

You know, I was thinking about this and I thought, here's my prayer and I'm going to conclude with telling this, but this week I thought, God,

there's a lot of folks who've been a part of the church forever.

Even at Prodigal Church.

But I'm going to pray, God, help them take that faith that's so entrenched in their heart and make it public to their families and to their friends and to those they work with

Now that's biblical. I didn't make that up.

That's the purpose of our salvation.

That we come out of the closet. The right way. that we come out publicly sharing the gospel with our families and friends, those we work with. We let our light shine. That doesn't mean you're perfect.

God forbid. I'd be a failure over and over and over.

But it does mean you have a Savior that saved you. You hear what I'm saying? Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you so much for this day and for your grace. And Lord, I thank you for your forbearing grace, for how you are patient with us, for the purpose of drawing us forward so that we can make a stand for you. Lord, help every one of us move from fear to faith.

Move from being invisible to being visible.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.