FBC Daily Devotional – November 23, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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good weekend and getting this week off to a good start. Maybe it's a short work week for you and you got

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Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, then off for the holiday on Thursday, maybe Friday too, depending on where you work.

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Maybe you're working the holiday. I know some people who are because of the nature of their job, but however it goes,

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I trust you're looking forward to the time off if you have it this week and the time of Thanksgiving especially.

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So today's Monday, a new day, came across and a new week. I came across recently a reading in a devotional book that I use pretty much every day.

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It's a collection of writings by J .C. Ryle and he was commenting on a passage in John 19, 38 -42, and it's the account of Joseph of Arimathea.

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You remember him, right? The only place in the Bible where he shows up. Here's what

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John writes regarding Joseph of Arimathea. He says, after these things, Joseph of Arimathea, after these things, after Jesus died on the cross and the confirmation that he was actually dead, after these things,

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Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the

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Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate gave him permission.

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So he came and took away his body and along came Nicodemus too. You remember

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Nicodemus from John chapter 3. He came and helped Joseph to prepare the body of Jesus for burial and place it in Joseph's own sepulcher that had never been used.

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So who is this guy? Where did he come from? What do we know about him?

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Nothing. Where did he come from? Who knows? All we know is what this little passage tells us about this man.

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He was a follower of Jesus. He was a disciple. He was a learner of Jesus, but a clandestine one.

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A disciple that because of his circumstances or whatever, he was afraid to make a public declaration of his loyalty to Christ until this critical moment.

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Now commenting on this, J .C. Ryle writes this. He says, there are some Christians, true

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Christians in the world, of whom very little is known. The case of Joseph of Arimathea teaches this very plainly.

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Here's a man named among the friends of Christ whose very name we never find elsewhere in the

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New Testament and whose history both before and after this crisis is completely withheld from the church.

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He comes forward to do honor to Christ when the apostles had forsaken him and fled. He cares for him and delights to do him service, even when dead, not because of any miracle which he saw him do, but out of free and gratuitous love.

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He doesn't hesitate to confess himself one of Christ's friends at a time when

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Jews and Romans alike had condemned him as a malefactor and put him to death. Surely the man who could do such things must have had strong faith.

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Can we wonder that wherever the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, this pious action of Joseph is told as a memorial for him?

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Do you know who Charlie and Violet Young are? How about George and Dorothy Long or Renny Renwick?

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Do you know who these individuals are? No, of course not.

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They're followers of Christ, loved Christ, lived for Christ, but in obscurity.

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Nobody knew their names. Nobody outside their own community knew who they were.

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They weren't famous. They weren't famous preachers. They weren't flash -in -the -pans.

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They were just consistent, faithful followers of Jesus throughout the course of their

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Christian life, and they entered into glory. There are no statues to them, and again, like I said, nobody knows their name.

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Nobody knows who they are other than their very close immediate friends and family and church family.

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Well, in that regard, Ryle goes on to say this. He says, Let us hope and believe that there are many

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Christians in every age who, like Joseph, are the Lord's hidden servants, unknown to the church and the world at large, but well known to God.

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Perhaps at this very day there are saints in the back streets of some of our great towns or in the lanes of some of our country parishes who make no noise in the world, and yet love

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Christ and are loved by him. Ill health or poverty or the daily cares of some laborious calling rendered impossible for them to come forward in public, and so they live and die in comparatively unknown.

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Yet the last day may show an astonished world that some of these very people, like Joseph, honored

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Christ as much as any on earth, and that their names were written in heaven. It is not those who make the greatest show in the church who are always found the fastest friend of Christ.

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So I don't know what your situation is and your walk with Christ. I don't know how publicly and in front of everybody your service for Christ is.

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Perhaps you find yourself loving Christ and serving Christ in complete obscurity.

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Nobody outside your family or your immediate circumstances knows who you are, would praise you and lift you up as some great paragon of service for Christ, but here you are laboring day after day in your workplace, in your home, with your children, doing a work for the

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Lord, honoring him in what and how you do it. Ah, you might be like a

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Joseph of Arimathea, and God will bless you richly for it. So our

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Father and our God, I pray that those followers of Christ, those who love

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Christ and are living for him, endeavoring to serve him in very obscure ways,

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I pray that they would not be discouraged and not feel any sense inferior, but I pray that they would be encouraged by even this account of Joseph of Arimathea and by the truth that you know and you see and you are pleased.

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Bless them in their labor, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, well,

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I trust you'll have a good rest of your Monday and this week will go well for you too.

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If you're planning to get together with family and loved ones for the Thanksgiving holiday,

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I trust you'll be well and all will stay healthy and you'll greatly enjoy your meal and your fellowship together giving thanks to the