Grace Chapel Bible Ministries

Worship Call 1114 out of the Darkness - 2024/07/19

Nicodemus is seen in three different lights. When he came at night with questionable motives at night. then his defending the matter of justice in dealing with Jesus before the Sanhedrin, and then in daylight when he helped to take the body down off the cross.

Duration:: 36m
Broadcast on:: 19 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to Worship Call with Bible Teacher Buzz Lawback. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's Word and discipleship programs aimed to strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. My friend, Richard McDowell, he heard from him. I heard a message he had one time speaking of the three lights of Nicodemus. Now I should have named this lesson this morning the three lights of Nicodemus. The first time we saw Nicodemus and John as he came to Jesus at night and we could come up with all kinds of, why did he come at night? Was he was he interested in what Jesus had to say or but and was didn't want to bring himself in the scrutiny and what have you. And then you'd have the and the light later on so that was darkness he came at night. Then the next time we see him we see him probably in the chambers of the Sanhedrin with the company of their and there he was addressing the justice and how to deal with Jesus fairly. And then and then finally we see him in the light of day where he's taking down the Jesus's body off the cross and what Richard talked what Richard brought to the light was each one you see him in a more more clear light as coming to in his relationship with this person of Yeshua. This is the, what is this? This is the sixth day of the week in God's created order. The 19th day of the seventh month, 2024th year of our Lord and this is another fine day in the Lord Father in Heaven, thank you for this opportunity of fellowshiping in your words this morning. Open our hearts to what we are about to study this morning that may we pray that it continues to be a source of blessing and as the word goes into our hearts to foundation of what we lock our hearts and our minds upon. We pray these things in Christ name, Amen. And good morning to you and I'm happy Friday. I've got, I've got my dear friend coming in from Florida. We pray for his traveling mercies, but this is truly another fine day in the Lord. Hebrews, we're talking about Hebrews when we are on the Lord's Day, Lord, Lord, will be talking more about it, keeping your eyes upon Jesus, keeping it fixed, the author and the perfecter of our faith. And here is the study and the study of the cross right here. And it's funny how these two lessons tie together, don't they? And let's go to John 10 14 this morning, John 14 and I'll read to 18. We're talking about the Jesus giving up his spirit. I am the, I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me even as the father knows me, I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay down my, listen, here is the, in this context, I'm laying down my life and he didn't give his life to man to take it. He gave his life to God to take it. He gave his life to God, not to man. Man did not take his life. Read on. I have, I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. Who's he talking about? He's talking about the church here. Those that are the spiritual seed of Abraham. I must bring them also and they will hear my voice and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it again. Look at this. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down, I voluntarily laid down my life so that I may take it up again. It's going to be the resurrection. What is the very, what is the very essence of our faith? What is the central being of our faith? Listen, church, what do you believe? Church is not just the, the optimist club where we all come together and we raise hands and we sing music and what makes you a Christian? What is it about you? What is the core of your belief? That core of your belief must be the resurrection of Christ. That he died. That he was buried. That he rose again three days. That is the central part of your salvation, of my salvation. And that while he was, and not only that, while he was on the cross. That he paid the penalty that he took upon his own body. Our, our sins upon his own body that we might be set free. And now because of the resurrection, our faith continues to looking forward for his return and he's coming back. Coming back to our passage. Where is it here? Let's see. Verse 18, no one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. So those anti-Semitic among us, if I'm talking to an anti-Semitic and you're using that the Jews are, that the Jews are worthless people. That they are disregarded people because they killed the Messiah. You just set that excuse aside. Because the Jews did not kill Jesus. The Romans did not kill Jesus. Jesus laid down in his life and we're going to see that. I have the authority laid down and I have the authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my father. So in Luke 23, 46, and Jesus crying out with the loud voice said, Father, and to your hands I commit my spirit. So, okay, crying out. Let's look at this. Crying out. We define crying out as phonetto. And phonetto is to speak with a considerable volume or loudness. To cry out, to shout, to call out, to speak. All of this is testimony. Everything that's going on is as onlookers and the witnesses are watching Jesus upon this cross, upon his cross. It's for their benefit. All this is, these are witnesses. These are the martyr at oaths. These are the martyr a taste, I guess you call them. The witnesses, they are observing. They are providing a testimony. They are, they are witnesses of what's going on. So the things that Jesus said are important are vitally important. Vitally important for them to hear. Vitally important so that John would be writing this in this. And vitally important that Mary would be talking to Luke and telling Luke what she had witnessed. And the other Mary's had witnessed. Vitally important. When we look at the spirit, it's going to be important that others were witnessed, that the blood and serum came up. And they were able to testify to this fact that he died upon the cross without the breaking of the legs. So, crying out may be not in the anguish, not for the purpose that he was in such pain, but it may be just in a loud voice as they could hear. Of course, he could do it quietly. God would hear his words, but then he had to hear his words. Crying out and allowed and this loud is great, is the word Magos. And Magos could be, again, Magos could be loud, the upper range of s-s of Lunata, upper range of a scale of extent with the possible implications of importance, or in relevance of context. Sometimes we raise our voice in order to be heard, in order to emphasize a point, I'm a teacher. And there's times when I have a rise in reflection voices. I'm a little different teacher than Arnold Flukenbaum. Well, much, much different, almost like 180 degrees. And some teachers, like Arnold, Arnold would have this, if you ever heard Arnold, Arnold is, and the content is great. But Arnold would put you asleep if you heard of it. His dialogue is just like this. I'm more of a dynamic. I used a dynamic range. This is what I've been taught. I will use the rise and reflection of the voice and lowering the voice of. And those things that I want to emphasize, I'll raise my voice in order to emphasize certain points. It's like the word "behold." So when I raise my voice, I'm bringing it to attention. So in this loud voice, in this commanding voice, Jesus says, "Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit." And it wasn't for the father's benefit, because he could have done it silently or murmuring it, but he says it in a loud voice that all can hear it. It drives home the point that is very important, that to validate the words of Jesus, it says, "I have the authority to lay down my life, and I have the authority to pick it up again." And it is worth repeating that Jesus was in complete command each step of the way. And all who were on the stage, all who were on the stage was a willing accomplices, or witnesses, or whatever you want to say. They were players on the stage. Jesus is the central part. No one had command over what was going over on that day. No one had the command of the stage. It was Jesus all the way, commanding and this, the execution of that day. So those who want to excuse, those that want to, we'll just go on. John, 1931. Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross, on the Sabbath. So the Sabbath was a high day at Pilate, that his legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and then the other, who was crucified with them, but coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Back in 1968, the only archeological find of a crucifixion, they found some skeletal remains, which revealed that the lower legs had been shattered by a single blow. And this illustrates this passage, and I don't know how, I don't know how they, I think I saw one time where they took a big hammer or something that, a single, a single blow. And it had to be horrific, and which added to the full intensity of the last moments of a person on the cross. And Deuteronomy 21-22 says, "If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall be hung, his short corpse shall not hang all night on the tree. But you shall surely bury him on the same day, for he who is hanged is cursed of God, so that you do not, so that you do not defile your land, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance." So a body was not to remain exposed on the tree of the cross overnight, and certainly not the Sabbath, because this was the high holy day, the Passover is high holy day, and a person so executed was under God's curse, and his body is left exposed, that would defile the land. And Galatians 3.13 said, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, the person is anyone that hangs upon the tree." So smashing the lower, look, the smashing of the bone, of the lower legs, I'm going to try to call this, it's a Latin word, "kura furgrum," I probably messed that all up, but this caused death to occur really quick. So first of all, out of shock, a loss of blood, the inability to breathe, because at that point, you see how a person survived, a person could actually survive days of crucifixion. And as a crucifixion, it was a matter of suffocation. It was not bleeding to death, it was suffocation. And as one hung upon the cross, his bones as the shoulders become dislocated, and the body begins to sink down the internal organs would press down upon the lungs and the ability to breathe, and they would have to push up, their feet would be nailed to a parapet, and they would have to push up in order to get breasts. So with the broken legs, they would no longer be able to breathe, and at that point, they would quickly suffocate. John 1932. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other who was crucified with them. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. The important here, remember that Jesus is the Passover lamb. Remember the instructions, going back to Exodus 1246, concerning the Passover lamb. It was to be eaten in a single house. You are not to break forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any of it. All congregations of Israel are to celebrate this. Numbers 9, 12, they shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it, according to all the statutes of the Passover, they shall observe in Psalm 3420. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them was broken. And we also read in Psalm 22 that all my bones can be counted. Jesus is the Passover lamb. And you can take, and typology is a perfect, when John said that behold the lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, everything was in parallel with what was going on with the Passover. On the 14th on the 10th day of Nisan was when Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on that donkey. It was the fall. It was the day when it was that 10th day of Nisan, the day when the lamb should be brought into the homes. And the lamb would remain in the home for four days. And then on the 14th day of Nisan at twilight, the lamb would be taken outside. And they would be slaughtered. And at a first Passover, blood would be passed upon the doorpost and on the lentil so that the Passover lamb would fly over. And at this time, the Jews, for Passover, there would be four cups during the Seder meal. And that one cup was a bitter herbs. That was the, that everyone would partake of. And in light of what Jesus was praying in the garden, "Father, let this cup pass from me. I don't want to take this cup." So everything was in parallel here. On the 14th day, the lamb should be taken out. Here's Jesus. He was taken out of the house of Israel and he would be taken outside of the gates of the city where to the place of the skull where he would be crucified. And here is the fulfillment of the scripture, prophetical scripture, that none of his bones would be broken. And because what did he do? He gave up his spirit. So now there comes the testimony for all. To know that the lamb of God was indeed slain and that the bones were in perfect order or not broken. So here comes another testimony, like I said, that Jesus is in view. He's up there. He's hanging between heaven and earth. But he's also on the stage that all can see and all can witness of what is going on. So that testimony can continue on all the way up to our day. Here comes John 1934. But the one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified. Here's the witness there. And his testimony is true and his lego is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth so that you also may believe. So the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out. See, all of this, all of this was for our benefit. All of this was to bear witness. Remember what I said, the central belief for us is the resurrection. And before resurrection can happen, we have to absolutely believe. Not only do we believe in the resurrection, but we can't believe the resurrection unless we believe that he was absolutely dead. And the spear coming up into the chest cavity, into the heart, into the heart of Jesus. And it came out, blood and serum. And you read depictions, you see depictions on movies and stuff like that. And people try to give a mystical or magical thing that you have that song, what was that song, what's that hymn that our pastor didn't like so much. The power and the power and the blood, the power and the blood. Listen folks, it's doctrinally, you know, it's the lyric or the music is lifted up and the power and the blood there's power, power and the blood under working power. No, it's bad theology, bad doctrine. That blood that came out, the blood and serum was a testimony, was a testimony. And that blood was so that we can, so that the witnesses can say that he was truly dead. And it says it right here, it's a testimony. And so that they can tell, you see in a body, in a dead body, a corpse, the water and the serum separates. And they separate, so they come into, they start separating into their components. So you have water and you have serum and when that water and serum came out, it was a testimony that there wasn't a breathing body up on that cross, but a dead body. And that piercing was for our benefit, so that we might see, so that we might know, so that when the resurrection did happen, there is no argument. And all this was in view of the Greek, especially with the grieving women. John was the only disciple there. All the other disciples were gone, they had fled. John was the only one there. And John is the youngest as well, I might want to bring that up, maybe somewhere in the future, but he's going to be around the longest of all the disciples, and he was there as a young man to witness that which was going on. And again, these women, you can imagine how torn up Mary must have been. But yet, from the very beginning, when she saw Simeon, when Simeon prophesied within the temple, telling her that a spear is going to enter into her heart, it did when it entered into her own son's heart. And she could see it, I'm not saying that she, you know what I mean, if you're a mother, or even a father, but somebody you so love, you can feel their pain. You can feel, and of course Jesus was dead, he wasn't feeling no pain at that point. Now let's go to John 1938, I'm running out of time here, one of the other things I wanted to bring out. After these things, Joseph, the Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for the fear of the Jews as Pilate, that he might take the body of Jesus and Pilate granted permission, so he came and took the body away. Now here comes Nicodemus, Nicodemus who had first come to him by night, also came bringing a mixture of mer and alloys about a hundred pounds of weight. Nicodemus, remember we saw Nicodemus back in 3-1, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus at night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are from God as a teacher, for no one can do these things, do these signs that you do unless you're from God." And we can suspect that he may have been up to no good at that point, we have other place too. We have another place, let me see if I'll find out, John 3-19, coming up we see him again in John 7-40. So the first time he came at dark, and I mentioned my friend Richard, and he mentioned this, that in that darkness he has his intention, what was his intention? But John, who is the writer, he talks about what evil does, and that evil does their dealings in the darkness. Before we get there, let's go to John 19-21. John 19-21, this is a judgment that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come into light for the fear of the deeds which will be exposed. But he approaches the truth comes into light, so that his deeds may be manifested, as Avon wrought by light. Well the next time, so we might assume that Nicodemus' intentions were to trap Jesus, that his motives were not to find information, but to trip Jesus up, to get something he could acquit Jesus on. Well then we got John 7-40, now we see Nicodemus in another light, and here are some people, therefore when they heard these words saying, this certainly is a prophet. Others were saying, this is the Christ, still others saying, surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is he? Has not the scripture said that Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, and the village of David was? So the division occurred in the crowd because of him, some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, why did you not bring him? And the officers answered, never has a man spoken in a way that this man speaks, and the Pharisees then answered them. You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers of Pharisees has believed in him, has he? But this crowd which does not know the law is a cursed. Nicodemus, who came to him before being one of them, said to them, our law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him, and knows what he is doing, does it? And they understood, and Pharisees understood what, you know, his attention. They asked him, you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee. So here he is now making a defense for to be, that Jesus will be justly treated. So he comes a little bit more into the light, before it was in the dark. Now it's in the light, in the dim light of the chambers of the, where the Sanhedrin's was meeting. And in finally we see him here, where he's taking the body down off the cross in full daylight. And Arnold Frockenbaum, he teaches, he said in his footsteps, he has a chaper, he has, you can get it online, and going to themebible.org and look up classes. And Arnold has, I think it's called Footstep of Messiah, or the Jews, the Jews, Jesus or something. But nonetheless, he says in that today, even in rabbatical schools, they talk about Nicodemus. You see, one of the things about being a Pharisee, you had to, you had to be, you had, you were, they were not poor, they were rich. You had other income coming in, Nicodemus had other income coming in, whatever it was. He said what Nicodemus did, I don't remember what it was, but he was well off. He was a prominent person in the community and the country, he was a leader and all that. But in his defense of Jesus and taking the body down, he lost everything, and he died in poverty. This is what Arnold, Dr. Frückenbaum, you know, had said, so that's, I won't say it's gospel, but Arnold is a messianic Jew. He studied these things, he's a scholar, by all means. So you can do your research on that. And so here it is that Arimathea, or Joseph Arimathea, takes the body down, buries it into a family tomb. Normally a body would be taken down, a body of a criminal would be casting Nicodemus, a garbage dump, a waste dump, or whatever, or, there was also a common grave that all the bodies would be tossed into unidentified bodies. But this body was taken down, carefully cared for by both Joseph Arimathea and Nicodemus, and placed into a tomb, and it also fulfills the prophecy. He wouldn't be, his body would not be cast out, but be put into him, and again this is for testimony reason. They know where the body is, they can identify where the body is, that tomb is going to be sealed, there's going to be every evidence that Jesus died, remained in the tomb for three days, three nights, just like he said he would be, and he would rise again on the third day. Let's close it out. Father and Heaven thank you for this time together, and we pray Heaven and Father. As we continue in our lives, this is the greatest of all truths, and that we hold these truths within our hearts, regardless of everything else, regardless of where we go as a nation, and where our lives go, or anything else. That this great truth is that Jesus Christ died, he certainly did die, was buried, and he certainly did rise again. Upon that cross he took our sins, he paid for it, he ransomed it, we were redeemed because of not by the gold silver precious stone, but by his life, by his life that he poured out for us. So by believing and trusting him, we have eternal life, and thank you for that life, Father. And may we live a life worthy of that calling, in Jesus name we pray, amen. All right, let's find day in the Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, will, and spirit guide, wrap your pen, we're going to be back here on Sunday at 11 o'clock as we continue on in the book of Hebrews chapter 12, and we'll see you then. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]