SECRET DISCIPLES OF JESUS
Below is the Message Audio followed by Typed Notes.
This message is focused on the two Secret Disciples that came to faith in Jesus Christ, were present at His Trial and Crucifixion, and in the preparation of His body for burial in the Empty Tomb one of them provided.
Jesus had 12 Disciples, also referred to as Apostles, that He called to join His ministry. Mark 3:13-19:
“And he goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. And he ordained twelve that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: Simon he surnamed Peter; and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, the sons of thunder: and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the Son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went up into an house.”
The Secret Disciples were those that would became interested in Jesus’s ministry. This was in secret to avoid persecution by the Jewish religeous leaders that despised Jesus and His ministry. The Jewish religeous leader’s hatred of Jesus would lead them to deliver Jesus to the Roman Ruler Pilate for trial. “And straightway…bound Jesus…and delivered him to Pilate.” (Mark15:1). At Jesus’s trial they “cried saying crucify him, crucify him.”(Luke 23:21) which led to Jesus’s crucifixion.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Nicodemus had secretly visited Jesus at night: John 3:1-7 “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one cannot enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
Nicodemus’s visit with Jesus concluded with Jesus’s famous statement in John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Joseph of Arimathea came from the Judean town of Arimathea. Joseph was a wealthy man. He was actually a part of the Council of Sanhedrin-the group of Jewish religious leaders who called for Jesus’s crucifixion. However Joseph was opposed to the Council’s decision because he was a secret follower of Jesus. In addition, the Bible refers to Joseph as a counsellor; and a good and just man. Luke 23:50 “And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and just”
After Jesus was crucified and gave up the ghost, Joseph of Arimathaea sought the body of Jesus. Mark 15:43 “Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.”
Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus in order to place the body in the tomb that he provided. John 19:38-42 “Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
This fullfilled the Prophecy of Jesus’s death and burial in Isaiah 53:8-9 “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave … with the rich in his death.”
“And he made his grave … with the rich in his death” refers to the fact that Jesus was buried in an empty tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man, a secret Disciple of Jesus who provided his own sepulcher for Jesus’s burial.