Welcome to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church in Donaldson, Arkansas. This is Elder Dan Sammons preaching in our regular Sunday morning service. We're continuing our journey through the Gospel of Mark. We're trying to build a high-resolution image of Jesus Christ and we're trying to get that strictly from the Scriptures. So we have committed to sort of reading through Mark together and taking it line by line and trying to commit ourselves to the idea that whatever we believe about Jesus Christ needs to be something we got directly out of the scriptures. You might be surprised to learn, if you have not ever done that, that many things promoted about Jesus in the world today are not terribly accurate. Some of them are horribly inaccurate, and if you're going to have a good, accurate, biblical picture of Jesus Christ, we ought to get it from the scriptures. We're in Mark chapter 15 today, which is dealing with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And really, this sermon is about crucifixion. And we're going to see many of the events leading up to Christ's crucifixion. And we've hit this subject a lot over the course of the years that I've been here. The crucifixion of Christ is a central truth. upon which your salvation rests, so it's very important that we understand it. But today's sermon, I'm going to try to look at it from the standpoint of some of the players who were involved in this event. You know, you've got several people we're going to look at, and I'm going to try to look at it from that perspective. I'm going to start by trying to put us in the right mindset about this. I'm actually going to start in John chapter 15, just to put some context around this. Start in John 15 and verse 12, and this is something that the Lord said, and it's going to help you understand something about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. You see, this was not some mere punishment of a man who was guilty of a crime and the government came in and said, well, you broke this law and so now we're going to punish you for it. It was a totally unjust situation. where he was falsely accused and put to death for telling the truth. And to understand how that could come to pass, maybe we can see a little bit of it in John chapter 15 and verse 12. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. But one of the most comforting things you could ever encounter in the Bible is the notion that Jesus Christ loves you. You ever felt unloved? You ever felt alone and lonely and like nobody's looking out for you and nobody cares about you? Well, here's a comforting thought. Jesus Christ loves you. That's the way His attitude is toward His sheep. And you cannot be separated from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. So you have a hope of glory and eternity as a result of that love. But he commands us to love one another. So we are to not only receive God's love and be appreciative of it, we are to extend love to others in this world. And that's something we should encourage one another to do. I'm thankful to be part of a very loving assembly. I love you all, and I appreciate the love that you show towards me, and it is a reflection of the love of God that is in us, the fruit of the Spirit. He says, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Well, that's true in temporal affairs. If we were in a situation where one of you was in danger and another brother or sister jumped in and interceded in such a way that their life was taken and the other person's life was spared, that would be a very great show of love among humanity down here below. You'd say, that is a tremendous thing. When we think about people fighting in wars and things like that, we talk about them giving the ultimate sacrifice. They gave up their life for a cause or for a friend or a brother or something like that. That's a tremendous show of love on the horizontal plane and yet it's also in the greatest example is given in Christ giving his life for his sheep. Verse 14, ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. He's talking to his disciples here, he's saying, you're my friends. I love you and you're my friends. That's a tremendous blessing. Then he goes on to say something that stirs up the minds of men and the carnal hearts. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. He's asserting, I'm God. I choose who I want to have as friends and who I want to love, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, that you love one another. But look what he says here. If the world hate you, By the way, if you're living as Christ has told you to live, you're gonna encounter instances of the world hating you. This is an important thing for God's people to recognize. If you think, I got saved and now everything was delightful and I never encountered any trouble from the world, that may be when your trouble started. You start living for Jesus Christ as a disciple, that may be the moment you start finding some trouble. You may find trouble among your friends, trouble among your family, trouble at work, Why aren't you doing all the stuff you used to do? Well, I'm trying to live like a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you may find that this will result in them expressing hatred for you. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. That's not a pleasant truth, but it is a very clearly expressed truth in the Bible, one that we do well to know. And I think we see in Mark chapter 15 a clear example of just how the world hated Jesus Christ. Starting in Mark chapter 15, we're gonna encounter the character Pilate. Let's see how he handled the Lord Jesus Christ. And straightway in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council and bound Jesus and carried him away and delivered him to Pilate. Now what you have there is a list of all of the enfranchised religious people in that day, the top officiators. They all got together and said, let's get the government involved in this so that we can take Jesus Christ and ultimately put him to death. I mentioned before that Jesus Christ dies as a result of a conspiracy, and you can't completely write off the notion of conspiracies. If we accept that the world is evil, and men are, by and large, thinking and planning creatures, that means that a lot of the thinking and planning of things that go on in your world is being done conspiratorially, men getting together and thinking about what we're going to do in this evil respect, planning it out and then doing it. So you can get caught up in wild, crazy conspiracy theories, but you cannot completely write off the idea that evil men are conspiring against God's people, and we see it in play here. And Pilate asked him, art thou the king of the Jews? And he answering, saith unto him, thou sayest it. You said it. Now, we know that he was the king of the Jews in the sense of the Old Testament prophesied Messiah, And his answer to Pilate is to say, thou sayest this. And the chief priest accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. Now, there are many things that Jesus could have said in his defense. I'm sure there were many ways that he could have said, well, that what he said wasn't true because I wasn't there when they accused me of that, or they said I said this and I said no such thing. He could have chosen to refute many of those false things, I'm sure, but he answered nothing. I'm sure that would have been a somewhat frustrating situation if you were someone looking on who had knowledge of who the Lord Jesus Christ was, and knowledge that there was false testimony being given of him. You'd probably want to say, why didn't Jesus try to correct this situation? I understand the natural inclination of someone who might have witnessed that, and you might think, why didn't somebody say something? Well, consider this, Jesus Christ knew what he came to do. And he intended to go to the cross for your sins. There's any number of ways that Jesus Christ might have prevented that event from coming to pass. He could have called down legions of angels and put a stop to the whole thing. However, he was under a covenantal arrangement. You see, before time began, he agreed basically to not do that. You see that? Because he came to fulfill the covenant. He came to be about his father's will. And so in the sense of God's power and the fact that Jesus Christ was God, he could have called down angels. That's true. However, he was under a covenantal arrangement to give his life for the sheep. So when you think, man, that's really frustrating that he didn't say anything, he could have defended himself. Remember, he knows what he's doing here. And he's doing it because he knows I'm going to the cross. I'm not going to raise some major legal defense here. I'm not going to try to hire a dream team of lawyers because I've been so wronged by the law here. I'm just going to make sure that I get off on this. No, he came here for this purpose. And so he answered nothing. And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? Even Pilate was kind of amazed. Really? Behold how many things they witnessed against thee. But Jesus yet answered nothing. So that Pilate marveled. There's an interesting text in Isaiah chapter 53. It says, He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. But there's no esteem being given to Jesus Christ in this moment. being falsely accused. It seems as though Pilate recognizes that, you know, these charges are kind of outrageous here. It seems as though Pilate's attitude in this is like, these Jewish people are kind of crazy about their religion. I don't really understand their religious beef with Jesus. He seems like a guy who hasn't done anything wrong as far as I'm concerned. But they're raising all these things, and I think he's kind of expecting Jesus to pretty easily give a testimony that would shut down all these accusations. And he seems somewhat astonished that Jesus is not willing to step into this. You know, there were some things written about Pilate, referred to as the Pilate cycle. It's a series of letters. There's a thing called the Acts of Pilate and the Epistle of Pilate to Herod. These are things that were written centuries after the Bible was written. They're not part of the Bible. They're really works of fiction. but they step into this curious character of Pilate and tell stories about how Pilate was. Now that's not part of the Bible, but you can see why Pilate's kind of this enigmatic character here that seems somewhat sympathetic to Jesus. He doesn't really understand, I don't understand why there's such a beef with him, but he's also a political operator. That's the thing you find here. Now, most of these pieces of literature that are part of the Pilate cycle try to cast Pilate in a much more positive light. They kind of take the little indications that he was sympathetic to Jesus and build upon that theme a little more. And I'm not supporting the idea of what's taught in those writings, but I'm pointing out that Pilate is such an enigmatic character in the Bible that you could see why a fiction writer would want to take this up and kind of play with the idea. And then the interest grows a little bit more as we introduce the character of Barabbas. Now at that feast, he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. So that was kind of a custom. And there was one named Barabbas, which lay about with them, that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. So he's a convicted murderer character here. a notorious criminal, let's put it that way, known among the people as this notorious criminal, a murderer and an insurrectionist. And the multitude, crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? So Pilate is stepping into this, seems as though he's trying to create an avenue for Jesus to be let go. And maybe from his perspective, he's thinking, well, surely between this murderer and Jesus, they're gonna let Jesus go. I don't know what's going on exactly in Pilate's head, but you might imagine this type of scenario, given some of the other things that are said about him. He's gonna give him the choice of releasing Jesus. He knows he's got this tradition here that they have where they let somebody go every year. And so he's given him the option of choosing Jesus or Barabbas. By the way, the name Barabbas means son of the father. So you've got this interesting juxtaposition going on here between Jesus Christ, who is the son of God, he is the literal son of the father, the only begotten son, and a criminal imposter whose name is Son of the Father. It's almost like you've got the real Jesus and you've got a fake Jesus, an imposter Jesus. You've got the real Son of God and someone whose name is just the Son of God. See that? And these people are gonna be given a choice. Which one do they want? Which Jesus do you want? Do you want the Jesus who just bears the name of the Son of the Father or do you want the real one? Pilate answered them saying, will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? Do you want me to release Jesus to you? And they cried out again, crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, why, what evil hath he done? This is where we get this indication that Pilate is kind of going, I don't really get what's going on with you people. I mean, I've looked at him, I've talked to him, he didn't seem to have done anything wrong. In previous accounts, we see that there's conflicting testimony given. There's all this false testimony given. And I think Pilate's looking at it like, this is some kind of crazy religious matter. I don't really know what's going on. He doesn't seem to have done anything wrong. And he says, what evil hath he done? And they cried out, the more exceedingly crucify him. So you've got a choice between the literal son of God and someone who merely has the name of the son of God. You see why it's important to have a high resolution of Jesus Christ? Know who Jesus actually is. Rather than someone who's just bearing a name, it is actually not the Jesus Christ, the Son of God at all. And yet, we find in the hearts and minds of these people, they're not interested in the real Jesus. We look in verse 10 again, I make this point. For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. That's what Pilate knew about these people. They delivered up Jesus, not because he's guilty, but because they're envious of him. They were covetous of his position as a legitimate religious leader. And they saw how his ministry completely undermined everything that they were. They wished they had that kind of authority. When Jesus taught, it said, he taught as one who had authority. People took note of that. It's not like he's just up here reading a rule book to us. This man seems to actually know what he's talking about. He's got authority when he speaks these things. And people of the religious establishment were envious of that. They're like, man, I wish I had that kind of authority. You realize how much we could rule over these people if we had that kind of authority? Well, Jesus' ministry had undermined that, but the chief priest moved the people that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. This is literally the religious establishment of the day, encouraging people to be against Jesus Christ. That is a sobering reality, but it's exactly what took place. And I kind of skipped around there a little bit. I apologize for that. It probably made it a little unclear. Let me keep reading. Verse 12, And Pilate answered, saith unto them, What will ye then that I should do unto him whom ye call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him! Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him! They wanted to crucify Jesus. They received some measure of correction from Pilate. He hadn't done anything wrong. That's a correcting statement. Many of those people out there are just completely lying about Jesus. They know they're lying about Jesus and they don't even care. And then when they're corrected and called on it, they double down on crucifying him. That is the motion of the old man. That is the carnal aspect of humanity. It rejects Jesus Christ, irrespective of the evidence to the contrary, and it will not be corrected on the matter. They were dead set against it. Then Pilate said unto them, why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, crucify him. And so Pilate, willing to content the people, that's why I say Pilate was a political operator. He knew this man is innocent. They haven't got anything against this guy. But after this interaction where they're crying out, crucify him, and they've been given a choice to release Jesus Christ, Pilate says, you know what? It's not gonna be popular to be standing with Jesus. I wanna be with the crowd. Political operators want to be where all the political energy is. They want to have the majority on their side. And that's where Pilate landed on this thing. You might say, well, I see that Pilate saw that Jesus was innocent. Well, he didn't want to stand on that. He didn't stand up in this moment and say, I'm telling you right now, with the authority of the Roman government, there's nothing wrong with this man and we have nothing against him. I don't care what you people say. By the way, if any of you were falsely accused, you would want me to take the same position for all of you as well, right? He didn't say any of that, because the moment he saw which way the political winds were blowing, he said, I don't want any more to do with Jesus Christ. I want to be with the majority. I suspect had he taken the minority position, he would have learned something of what Jesus taught in John 15 about the world hates me, they're going to hate you too. Pilate would have been the immediate object of great hatred from that crowd had he taken a position defending Jesus Christ in the matter. So you can know what's right in one sense and at the same time say, yeah, I know it's right, but it's not popular. And that's a big problem with Christianity today. Christianity's facing innumerable issues where we know what is right and people are backing away from it because they say, yeah, but it's not popular. Be careful about throwing stones at Pilate if you're not willing to take a stand on a few things in your own life where you might be counted with Jesus and find your portion of the hatred that was heaped upon him heaped upon you. So he was willing to content the people. Be cautious of the notion of how willing are you to content people? How willing are you to compromise who Jesus Christ is just to keep everybody cool on the matter? I don't want any hate thrown at me. Well, something to be mindful of as we interact in a hostile world. And the soldiers led him away into the hall called the Praetorium. And they called together the whole band, and they clothed him with purple and plaited a crown of thorns and put it about his head." Now you've got the Roman government and people basically saying, okay, he's essentially convicted at this point. We've got him. We'll do with him as we see fit. Now we're unrestrained in our expressions of hatred toward him. and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews." Well, that's a mocking statement is what they're making. And yet at the same time, they're speaking the truth. What a frightening thought. They're doing something in mocking Jesus Christ and yet they're actually speaking the truth and they don't even realize it. And they smote him on the head with a reed and did spit upon him and bowing their knees, worshiped him. That's not what we would consider legitimate worship, right? This is mocking Jesus. And when they had mocked Him, they took off the purple from Him and put His own clothes on Him and led Him out to crucify Him. And they compel one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross, and they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of a skull. So they lead him out after a time of scourging and mocking him, and they take him to the place where he's going to be crucified, the place of a skull. It's a dreadful place where executions were held outside the walls of Jerusalem. They gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take." Now, Jesus Christ was not someone who had fancy clothes on. Jesus had basically nothing. Jesus was someone who lived a life of poverty. And pretty much all he has here is the garments that he had on. And you can imagine in this scenario, that garment is probably, from our perspective, we would say totally ruined. Throw that thing in the garbage. It's bloody and disgusting. And yet, like scavengers, men come in and scavenge upon just the simple little garments that Jesus Christ had. casting lots for them and taking what little Jesus Christ had. It says something about our depravity there. And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him. And the superscription of the accusation was written over, the King of the Jews. See how many times what people say that are intended to mock Jesus are actually affirming a truth about Jesus Christ. And with him they crucified two thieves, one on his right hand and the other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, and he was numbered with the transgressors. We looked at that in Isaiah chapter 53. Now I'll give you a challenge related to Isaiah 53. If you're looking for something to study in your Bible this week, you can go to Isaiah chapter 53 and then look at 1 Corinthians 15, three and four. Now we quote that scripture a lot, and it has reference to these events, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And we shouldn't take that notion of, well, according to the scriptures, lightly. It's literally saying, as codified in the Old Testament. That's really what it's saying. The scriptures were the Old Testament at that time. Well, here's a little exercise. Here's some things in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4 that you can find in Isaiah 53. So you can write these things down. It's talking about Christ as an indication of the person, that he died, that it was for our sins, that he was buried and that he rose again. Now those are core gospel principles. If you don't have all those in play, you don't understand the gospel yet. But that's five items that are listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 according to the scriptures. Well, they're spoken in many places in the Old Testament, but a nice place to go where you can kind of see a lot of those gathered up is in Isaiah chapter 53. And if you'll look through the verses of Isaiah chapter 53 and flip back and forth between 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4 and Isaiah 53, you'll say things like, oh Christ, that's in Isaiah 53, verses 2 and 3. And you'll go down that list and you will affirm in your mind that these things were according to the scriptures. And that's just one chapter you can do it in. There's lots of places where these things are told in the Old Testament, but that's an easy way to check off some of them. Let me just ask you this. It says it was done according to the scriptures. Have any of you ever taken up the exercise of saying, is that true? You know, the Bereans, when they heard the gospel preached, they went and looked through the Old Testament and started finding those things. Yeah, you know what? That's right. It is according to the Scriptures. It is in the Old Testament. So I'm not upbraiding you if you have never done that, but I'm telling you, you'd be blessed by it if you'll sit down and do that exercise. People looking for something to study, that's a good 15-20 minute exercise one morning. Sipping your coffee. flipping back between 1 Corinthians 15 and Isaiah 53, and you will confirm in your mind, you'll leave that Bible study saying, yep, it is according to the Scriptures, because I put my eyes on it, and I know it's true. So that's a good thing to do, to affirm some of the things we're looking at here. But let's keep going. And the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Well, that came out of Isaiah 53, so that's a touch point there. And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads and saying, ah, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross. Well, you claim to be a savior. Don't look like you're saving much of anybody right now. And yet, in that moment, he's literally saving every one of his sheep. You see how foolish men are? They see this savior on a cross and they'll say, see what happens? He's a nobody. He's a criminal. He'll be gone here shortly. Let's mock him a little bit. He ain't saving anybody. He can't even save himself. He's literally dying for the sins of his people. He's literally saving. He's doing the saving work in the moment that the world is mocking him over the matter of salvation. Save thyself and come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribe, he saved others. Himself he cannot say They feel like they're having the last word in this matter and if this were the end of Jesus Christ's story They certainly would have had the last word, but we serve a risen Savior. That's one of those affirmations You're gonna find two Sundays from now You'll find it in first Corinthians 15 and in Isaiah 53 as well if you go down that road and Let Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him. He's getting it from all sides here, from establishment religion all the way down to the criminals hanging next to him. There's not anybody on Jesus' side in this matter. They're all reviling him. You're seeing some of that hostility of the world. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well, why had he been forsaken? He had taken on the sins of his people. And those things were being punished by God the Father. And this is said for your benefit, so that you know that. It's not as though Jesus didn't know. He signed the covenant. You follow me? He knew exactly what He was doing. And many times in the Scriptures, Jesus Christ asks questions, not because He doesn't know the answer, but because He wants the answer to be clearly demonstrated. And we see it here. We see Him crying out in this way, LOI, LOI. And some of them that stood by when they heard it said, behold, he calleth Elias. You can see why someone might misunderstand that pronunciation and think he's saying Elijah or something like that. There were Old Testament prophecies that spoke of Elijah coming. Jesus had already taught, by the way, that Elijah, who was spoken of in the Old Testament, had already come. And it was not a literal fulfillment as though the literal Old Testament prophet Elijah reappeared on earth. but it was fulfilled in the spirit and power of Elijah, which is John the Baptist. Now look, there's people here who are coming to this conclusion, and had they paid attention to the high-resolution teaching of Jesus Christ and been involved in His ministry and been involved in discipleship, they would already know the answer to this matter, and they wouldn't be asking, is He calling out for Elijah? They would say, no, He's not calling for Elijah. He told us John the Baptist was the Elijah that was to come, and He came in the spirit and power of Elijah. That prophecy in the Old Testament was not fulfilled in the most literal sense of the matter. There was some figurative, there was a figurative nature of that, right? And that was a common error in that day. And I will point out, I suspect that many in our time who are looking at end-time prophecies are taking hyper-literal interpretations of those things and projecting them out in the future, making lots of assertions about it. And they may be making precisely the same error. You know, Christian history is littered with people who have said all kinds of things about great world leaders and great wars that are going on. Oh, this is the end times. They were saying it during Hitler's time. They were saying it during Pol Pot. There's any number of people going back through history that people would point to and think that this must be the end times. And so be careful about that. Had these people in particular been involved in the ministry of Jesus Christ and were they paying attention, they would know better than to ask this question. So I'll leave it at that. And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed. and gave him to drink, saying, Let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost." Even in the midst of Christ's death for His people, you're surrounded by people who don't really understand what is going on. And in fact, many of them think, He's defeated. We finally got Jesus. That's not what's going on at all. You see, we have a very flawed perception of things. unless we have a spiritual understanding of what's going on. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. That's a miracle. I know God did it. I'm not going to try to explain it away with a mighty wind or some natural occurrence. No? We know that it's true because it's declared in the scriptures. And when the centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said, truly, this man was the Son of God. You've got some people there who had some sense that something very special just took place in this event. I don't know to what degree he understood all this, but that is a very orthodox statement of who Jesus Christ is, and it seems to be issued in sincerity. By the way, there was no gospel sermon or invitation issued for him to bring that declaration forth. He's just seeing the events, and I believe this is resonating with the Spirit of God that is within him, causing him to bring forth this affirmation. John says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So you got somebody here that's born of God and making a declaration of it. in the very moment. There were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, the less, and of Joseph, and of Salome, who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him, and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. Well, here you've got a particular mention of women who were looking on, and these are women who ministered unto him. The Bible teaches very specific things with respect to the roles of men and women in the Lord's church. And some people take that to mean, well, you think that women aren't supposed to serve in the church. And that is not what it means at all. It means that we are complementarians. We believe that men and women have different roles. But there are repeatedly examples in the Bible where women are ministering unto Jesus and unto the body of Christ. It is an incredibly important matter. And I'm thankful for those of you women who serve in this church. It does not go unnoticed. I recognize it and I am thankful to God for every bit of it. And finally we get to this last character here, Joseph of Arimathea. And we'll close on this. And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. Now Joseph of Arimathea is described in many ways in the scriptures. We find here that he is said to be honorable, which is, you know, he's a respected person in the community, and he's a religious officiator. He's a council member. Some say he might have been a member of the Sanhedrin. although that term is not specifically used, but he's part of, you might say, he's part of establishment religion. He's in with those folks, right? If you ask the scribes and the Pharisees and those folks, you know who Joseph of Arimathea is? Very likely you're going to find, oh, we know who Joseph of Arimathea is. He's one of us. He's part of the council. So it's an interesting thing. A lot of times you'll find in preaching that people come down on the Pharisees. All the Pharisees were terrible. They did this and that. And that's by and large the sort of character that they have in the Bible. But you also find some people among the ranks of establishment religion who are kind of going, oh, wait a minute here. I'm not so sure that we're doing the right thing. Elder Phelan will confirm, and I can certainly say over the course of my conversations with many ministers, I've talked with people, for example, who talk about a particular doctrinal issue. And in privacy, they will say, well, you actually are teaching the truth. And I believe that, but I won't teach it at my church because it won't go well for me. That's acting like Pontius Pilate, honestly, right? It's not popular. It's not popular for me to follow that road. But here we've got Joseph of Arimathea who's in the mix and it says he went boldly. He went boldly unto Pilate. That means he's going into a situation where he realizes, I'm kind of showing support for Jesus here in the midst of what was just a hostile crowd that put him to death and an establishment religion that's totally against him. And I'm gonna be exposing my position somewhat to go in here and ask for the body of Jesus. Now, here's a guy who's got a lot of skin in the game. He's a disciple of Jesus Christ. He's rich. We find that in Matthew 27 and 57. He's both a disciple and a rich person. Well, rich people got a lot of skin in the game. He might be thinking, well, if I do this, This may not go well. How many business arrangements did he have with the other enfranchised wealthy people that were involved in establishment religion? And if I go in here and make it clear that I'm a disciple of Jesus, this might eliminate some of my business contracts. It may put my wealth at risk. In Luke chapter 23, we find that he didn't consent. to what was decided about Jesus. So while there's this big movement going on in this, it seems like everybody's against Jesus. There were some people involved there, at least Joseph of Arimathea, who's kind of looking around going, can you believe this? This is not right. Now he didn't have, apparently didn't have the power to stop it. I don't know to what degree he opposed it, but at least in his mind and in his conscience, he was thinking, this is not right. The Bible doesn't tell us whether he tried to oppose it in that moment, but he at least had the courage after the fact to come and get the body of Jesus. It also says that he was a good and just man. So this person is a disciple of Jesus Christ, and he's saying, you know what? I see what just happened here. I'm gonna go get the body of Jesus. You might say, well, what's the point? I mean, Jesus is dead now. What does it even matter? You lost. I don't know exactly what Joseph of Arimathea thought, but he thought enough to think, I'm gonna go get the body of Jesus and I'm gonna stand up for this position in the face of what could go very poorly for me. I'm sure he didn't know how it was gonna turn out. Earlier in the Gospel of Mark, we find a statement, it's very difficult for rich people to enter the kingdom of God. And the Bible talks about there's not many rich who are called and those sorts of things. And it may give you the impression that, well, rich people are just out. They're not going to be saved. It's just too hard for them. Well, Jesus goes on to affirm that it's too hard for men, but not for God. And in Joseph of Arimathea, we see an example of, here's a rich man, he's got a lot of skin in the game, he's got a lot to lose by standing up for Jesus, and yet he decided, I'm gonna go get the body of Jesus Christ. Joseph of Arimathea was in the kingdom of God. And even when it was not politically expedient for him to reveal that matter, He did eventually reveal that matter and do what he thought was right. So while it's impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, it is not impossible for God to put a man in the kingdom of God even if he's rich. By the way, I've often heard that, you know, not many rich are chosen and those sorts of statements in the Bible. And I think you can take that to a place where you almost start to think, well, God doesn't look favorably upon the rich and he prefers the poor. Well, he certainly prefers the poor in spirit. How about that? But I'll say this, don't make too much of that statement about not many rich are chosen. There's not many rich anyway. Right? There's not many rich to choose from, first of all. So don't think that there's like some percentage of rich people that's less. No, there's just not that many very rich people, but some of them are in the kingdom of God. And Joseph of Arimathea is a perfect example of that. And he's a perfect example of the grace of God that overcomes the opposition of men that might incline them to follow after money rather than following after the kingdom of God. At least that's a good example here. And Pilate marveled if he were already dead, and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulcher, which is hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulcher. Jesus was wrapped in fine linen. You know, there's an indication here of Joseph of Arimathea that while this is the dead body of a man that I've acquired here, this body requires special treatment. You know, when you think of burying a body and the finality of human death, you might think, well, it doesn't matter. It's gonna be in the grave. You know, just wrap him up in a sheet. Just any old sheet will do. We're gonna put him in a grave. What difference does it make? But Joseph of Arimathea saw something of value in Jesus Christ, and so he bought fine linen and wrapped him in it, put him in a tomb. And then finally in verse 47, and Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph beheld where he was laid. Never lose sight of the fact of how women have great service in the kingdom of God. Don't feel slighted, women, if you say, well, I just don't understand why the church says we can't be elders. Well, it's clearly spoken of in the scriptures. It's spoken of with such clarity that you'd have to go out of your way to misunderstand what is stated there. But it doesn't mean that there's not a place for your service and ministry within the church. It is a tremendous blessing, and I've been blessed greatly by those of you who serve in the church, and it does not go unnoticed. I appreciate it greatly. Well, that's the account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that we find in the Gospel of Mark, and if there were only 15 chapters in Mark, this would be A very sad story. We wouldn't be able to say this is a good news account. But the next time I stand before you, Lord willing, we're gonna look at Mark chapter 16, and we're gonna find something else that is affirmed in the scriptures, and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, we've covered 15 chapters in Mark, and literally, if chapter 16 is not true, then none of that 15 that we previously looked at is of any importance whatsoever. If Jesus Christ is not a risen Savior, all of that is just a fairy tale. And your high-resolution image of Jesus is not going to do you much good in this world. But we're going to find out in chapter 16 that we serve a risen Savior, and that's the reason we can have a Good News Report. Thank you for listening to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. This has been Elder Dan Sammons preaching in one of our regular meetings. Come and join us as we worship God in the simplicity of Christ every Sunday morning at 416 North Hall Street in Donaldson, Arkansas. At Harmony, we don't have many things you'll find in the popular churches of our day, but we do have a successful Savior. We invite you to come and see.