 So here we are, John chapter 19. Let's begin reading together here in John 19 at verse 28. Read verses 28 through 30, and we'll get into our study. John chapter 19, beginning at verse 28, reading to verse 30. John writes after this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there, and they filled a sponge with sour wine, and they put it on his, put it to his mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Now notice how it begins in verse 28, how it says, knowing all things were now accomplished. When it says, knowing all things were now accomplished, these are the things that would, would pertain to Jesus' death on the cross. It would pertain to him yielding up his life for the salvation of, of the world. This is, this, the purpose of God in sending his son is now assured of accomplishment. Here back in John in chapter 3 in verses 14 and 15, how, how we read Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. This is what he's referring to, Jesus on the cross being lifted up, drawing men unto himself. And as he's there on the cross, he's, he's speaking, and notice in verse 28, 28 how it says that the Scripture might be fulfilled said, I thirst, I thirst. And so in saying this, he makes it clear that what is occurring is fulfilling the prophecies of his death. We see him, he's dehydrated, he's thirsty, he has a physical need. And that helps us to realize that, that he went through things that we too have gone through, and he understands as having gone through similar things himself. And so there he is thirsting, revealing his humanity. And as this is taking place, verse 29 says a vessel full of sour wine was, was sitting there, and, and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on his hip and put it to his mouth. So his words, I thirst, well these are fulfilling the prophecies related to his death, even his words and, and it was what he's going through is, is fulfilling Messianic prophetic Scripture. When you look in the Old Testament, there are, there are hundreds of Scriptures that pertain to the coming of Messiah, where he's going to come from, where he's going to be born, things that will take place in his life and, and what happened on the cross and all. And so when you begin to look at the Old Testament, you see many prophetic Scriptures and, and one of them would be Psalm 69, verse 21, where it says they also gave me golf for my food, and for my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. And so that's what they're doing right now there. It says when verse 29 speaks of a, a vessel full of sour wine, it's another way of speaking of vinegar. They gave me vinegar for my thirst. In Psalm 22, another Messianic Psalm, it says in verses 15 through 17, my strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue clings to my jaws. That's another way of, of showing dehydration of thirst. You have brought me to the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look and they stare at me. And so Jesus is speaking concerning those things that were accomplished, his death on the cross. Salvation is being accomplished through him dying on our behalf. And in doing so, he's fulfilling scripture, prophetic scripture related to these events. And so as this is taking place, they fill this sponge with sour wine, they put it on his, put it to his mouth. That moistens his mouth. And it says in verse 30, so when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished and bowing his head. He gave up his spirit. The vinegar was used to moisten his mouth and gave him an ability to speak his last words that he'll be speaking. And he says it is finished. The words it is finished is really a single Greek word to telesteye. And what it literally speaks of is paid in full. We to this day, if you have a bill that you're paying, perhaps you bought something on credit or whatever, when you finish your payments, you may be getting a receipt and they used to stamp it, perhaps they still do. And it would be in a red stamp, interestingly enough, paid in full. And that's what Jesus was saying. It is finished. It is paid in full. Now when he cries out, paid in full, he's referring to redemption. Now that word redemption is a word that we believers use all the time. We speak of the redeemed. We speak of the process of redemption. This nation that we live in uses this biblical term for a variety of things quite often. So when Jesus is speaking of something being paid in full, he's speaking of redemption. That word speaks of a release. He's speaking of a release. And the way it was used during that day was a release from captivity. That's what the word could literally mean. It would be used to speak of pain or ransom for the release of a prisoner, especially the release of a slave. Remember that during New Testament times, Rome had approximately six million slaves. And so if I were a Roman citizen and I had a friend who was in slavery, I could redeem him. I could purchase him. I could pay the price. I could set him free. And that's what Jesus did. He paid the redemption price. And he did that when he died on the cross. When you think of redemption, if you take notes you might want to note this, redemption includes at least three things. Redemption includes the fact that we are redeemed from something. You are redeemed from something. We have been redeemed out of the slave market. We were slaves to sin. We were bought out of that slave market. We're redeemed from something. We were slaves of sin and we've been bought by the blood of Christ. You see the second thing is because we have been redeemed from something, we have been redeemed by something. As mentioned, the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the purchase price. Ephesians 1-7 says, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. It wasn't by gold or silver or anything that has monetary value that we were purchased by. We were purchased by the precious blood of Christ. And so we have been redeemed from something, the marketplace of sin, the bondage of sin. We've been redeemed by something, the blood of Jesus Christ. And we are redeemed to something. We've been redeemed to a state or a condition of spiritual freedom. Because even as we've already seen in the gospel of John, we at one time were called slaves to sin. Remember in John chapter 8 verses 34 through 36, how Jesus said, most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave doesn't abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever, therefore if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Slaves to sin in the marketplace of sin set free by the blood of Jesus Christ. And this all comes through Jesus, not by works of righteousness which we've done, but according to his mercy, he saved us and he washed us. And that's how he did it, through the blood of Christ. And when Jesus is there on the cross as we see this taking place here, he's accomplishing his father's will. He's performing that which he had been sent to do. Remember how he had said in John 10 verses 17 and 18, therefore my father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This command I've received from my father. So Jesus accomplishes the will of the father performing what he's been sent to do to give up his life for the ransom of many. And so Jesus says, it is finished, it is finished. On the cross he was victorious. On the cross he paid the debt. One commentator by the name of Henry Morris said, Jesus died with the cry of the victor on his lips. This is not the moan of the defeated, nor the sigh of patient resignation. It is the triumphant recognition that he has now fully accomplished the work that he came to do. And so Jesus cries out, it is finished. There's nothing else that can be added to our salvation. Jesus paid the price himself. The wages of sin is death. So Jesus took it upon himself in order that we would be set free, because we have been slaves to sin. And so when he's on the cross and he cries out, I thirst, he's revealing his humanity, how he identifies with us. He's revealing that he has a need that can be met, but he requires something. They give to him something to moisten his mouth so that he can say it is finished. And as he does that, in verse 30 it says, when Jesus received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, notice he gave up his spirit. He gave up. Now the word bowing, when it says bowing his head, bowing his head is really an expression that is used when someone is going to bed. In Matthew chapter 8, verse 20, Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay, to bow, to recline his head. It's a picture of actually putting your head down on a pillow, if you will, and going to sleep. And so when he says that, and I want to show you something, when he says bowing his head, using the picture of going to sleep, we look at Luke 23, if you take notes, Luke 23, verse 46, because Luke gives us more insight. And in Luke 23, 46 it says, when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. When it says, into your hands I commit my spirit, these words are taken from Psalm 31, verse 5. These words were part of the evening prayers for centuries, and they may have been part of Jesus' evening prayer when he would go to sleep, even as a child, that he would say, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And it says that he had bowed his head, a picture of him laying his head on a pillow. And it says he gave up his spirit, which shows us that it was a willing death, not a martyrdom, but what is especially touching to me, and since I first discovered this in my studies and all, it's always moved me how that Jesus prayed this prayer as he was laying his head using the cross as his pillow. As he was accustomed to pray every night, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. He prayed that same prayer for one last time. And somebody pointed out that Jesus died with a Psalm on his lips as he gently and he peacefully and he willingly died. Can you imagine what Mary must have thought? How Mary must have even felt as she was watching her son and what they had done to him and as she was there at the cross along with John and a few other ladies. Can you imagine how Mary must have felt when she heard him as he was crying out and the other things that he's saying and then to hear him pray and to hear him say Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Can you imagine that she perhaps had heard him at night when he would go to bed from the time he was a little guy until he had left to go in ministry? How that would have rung in her ears and it would have moved in her heart to hear her son praying, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And as you picture Jesus there on the cross and as he's about to dismiss his spirit, you see him gently lay his head to the side, if you will, and the cross becomes his pillow and as he used to lay his head on a pillow at night when he went to sleep with those words on his lips, even so now he's doing the same thing but this time on a rough wooden cross. And he lays his head down. Now Mark tells us something in Mark chapter 15 verses 38 and 39. It says the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion who stood opposite him saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said truly this man was the Son of God. The veil, Mark says, was torn. It was torn in two from the top to the bottom. When you think of a veil, think of something that's much bigger than you can imagine. The veil separating the holy place from the holy of holies was 60 feet long. It was 30 feet broad and it was as thick as a palm breath. That's how big and how thick it was. And what happened is the temple veil was torn and it was torn from the top to the bottom, which is a picture of the Lord tearing that veil and opening up access to him through Christ. You see the veil in the temple reminded man of his separation from God. Hebrews chapter nine verses six and seven said the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry but only the high priest entered the inner room, the holy of holies, and that only once a year and never without blood which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. So that veil is torn, God himself tearing it at the death of his son Jesus Christ as he's crying out, it is finished. And now this holy place, the place to meet with God, it's open to all. In Hebrews 10, 19 and 20, therefore brethren having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh. And so this is a picture of us having access to God. You see Jesus was lifted up and as he did so and that veil is being torn, he's also drawing a centurion's attention to himself. And that's when the centurion says truly this man was a son of God. Remember in John 1232 how Jesus said, I if I'm lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself. This centurion wasn't a Jew, this centurion was a Gentile. But as this Gentile standing there seeing Christ die, he makes a statement, a testimony of what he's seeing take place. This one, this man is the son of God and all of this is taking place as Jesus is there on the cross and he's bowing his head dismissing his spirit and therefore verse 1, verse 31, because it was the preparation day that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath for that Sabbath was a high day the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Preparation day is a technical term. It's a term for the day before the Sabbath. That would speak of Friday which is the day before the Jewish Sabbath. But the Sabbath is called a high day. It's called a high day because it preceded one of the three important feast days. When you read the Old Testament you'll see that there are three feast days in Deuteronomy 16 verse 16 that are what would be the most important feast days. It says three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose. At the feast of unleavened bread the feast of weeks and the feast of tabernacles. No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed. This Sabbath is called a high day. It's a holy day amongst the days. Now John makes it clear that bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath. You see the Romans had a habit of leaving bodies on the cross until that person died and the body could actually decay. They did it as a warning because if you were walking and they normally would have crucifixions by busy roads, if you were walking into the city or walking out of the city it would be aligned with corpses. The corpses would be rotting there as a reminder to the people that they are not to in any way rebel against Roman rule. And so the Roman practice was to leave bodies on the cross and to allow them to decay and that could take several days but that isn't acceptable to Jews especially in this season they didn't want their Sabbath to be profaned by taking them down on a Shabbat and so they're asking their desire that these people might die and so notice it says because you had a thief on the right and the left of Christ the Jews asked Pilate the governor that these people's legs might be broken in order that they might die quickly. Now when it speaks of that we need to remember these prisoners who had been crucified next to Jesus are still alive so to hasten their death the soldiers broke their shin bones with an iron mallet. I don't know have you ever hurt your shin bone? You know it's one of the one of the places that hurts the most is your shin. When I was I was just sharing this with with my grandson Josiah just the other day I was saying you know when I was 17 I was I'll tell you it doesn't matter I said you know son I said when I was 17 I said I had a couple friends of mine and we we were in gym together gym class so we made a decision we're not going to wash our gym clothes for the year for the year nine months wearing the same socks and t-shirt and gym shorts and you get the picture and so we would we would go out and play you know on the grass we had to play soccer whatever not soccer football whatever we didn't play soccer at that time that came later and you know how your socks get soaking wet because I had first period gym so the grass is always wet your socks get soaked then we would take our socks off put them in the locker over the weekend and when we came on Monday I was telling Josiah we had to take our socks and bang them on the concrete so that they would break up so we could put them back on and we did that for nine months can you imagine the joyful smell in between you know Easter break and Christmas break when we came back after two weeks of them just being in that locker or a week in that locker so I was sharing this with my my grandson Josiah giving him ideas about how to be really cool at the end of the year I still remember they were so putrid they were so bad they were so gross as a matter of fact I'm wearing those socks right now so as I was talking to him about that it reminded me of something I said you know I had a friend of mine and uh he and I were hanging around you football players or people familiar with with uh with the seven-man sled the blocking sled I said to him I said we had a seven-man sled and I said do you know what that is I said it's that thing with the padding and and and the people learned to block by hitting it padded padded section of this it's metal I said and it had two it had a bunch of bolts that came out of it facing you and then they put the nuts on that to tighten on to keep the seven-man sled you know so you could use the the blockings and all and I said so I decided I was going to jump over it and so my friend and I his name was less my friend less than I are standing there and I see the sled and it's really not that high and there's no reason why I can't jump over this thing and there's no reason why I should but I decided I was going to and I ran to jump over the sled but when I I got close to it I realized I'm at the wrong angle this isn't going to work so I tried to stop and when I tried to stop I planted my left foot and my right foot came up so that I was doing the karate kid crane and I slammed into the sled when I hit the sled the two bolts that held it together in one section went into my shin penetrated my shin and I now know what what the inside of bone marrow actually looks like because it dripped out of my shin bone and and and onto onto my onto my shin so what when I think of what took place here where they would take a mallet and you have to picture these who are on the cross they were able to breathe because they would lift themselves up using their legs and pressing themselves up by pulling themselves up and that's how they were able to breathe they were that's how they were able to inflate their their lungs with oxygen it was because they were able to use their legs to do that so to hasten their death they brought a metal club and can you imagine how it must have felt for them to take the club and to hit the shin shattering the shin bones broke both of them on both of their legs so that they no longer can lift themselves up to breathe because they can't use the legs anymore and so they did that in order to hasten their death no longer could they lift themselves up to breathe and so their lungs would collapse rather the rib cage would collapse over their lungs they wouldn't be able to take a breath and they slowly suffocated that's how it took place so they went into instant shock but it also helped them to die quickly because they suffocated and that's why they broke their legs in that way and so it says in verse 32 the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him but verse 33 when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead they did not break his legs but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear immediately blood and water came out and so there are various things I want to touch on in these two verses something that it's important for you to know as we study this passage again it says in verse 34 the soldier pierced his side with a spear immediately blood and water came out again if you take notes you might want to note this because this is important to understand what's going on one of the things that you might want to know is that very shortly after Jesus Christ died buried was resurrected ascended sent the Holy Spirit to begin the church on on Pentecost very shortly after that in the historical birth of the church heresies errors began to infiltrate into the body of Christ bad doctrine bad teachings about Christ and salvation began to seep in were brought in by false teachers we've been seeing that in 2nd Corinthians false teachers were creeping in and polluting the body of Christ when you read 1st John the epistle one of the things you might want to note as well as knowing that John's gospel does the same thing is that the epistles of John 1st, 2nd and 3rd John as well as the gospel of John included teachings related to dealing with a heresy that had entered into the church called Gnosticism and so there were different varieties of this Gnosticism and so part of what is being mentioned here and the reason is being mentioned is to deal with this false teaching because it speaks concerning the soldier verse 34 piercing his side with the spear and blood and water coming out well that heresy of Gnosticism there was a version of it that is called and I'm just giving you these things for those of you who are interested but it is something to be aware of there was a version of Gnosticism called Gnosticism and this is what they taught and you'll see why John is speaking about blood and water and all in Gnosticism the material body this physical body was thought to be sinful so the Gnostics taught that God could not dwell in a human body so that means they could not believe in the incarnation some believe that Christ only appeared to possess a physical body they were called Dositists Dissetic Gnosticism because the word Dissetic comes from the Greek word Dokane which means to seem he only seemed to have a human body I could tell you a lot of stuff about this but that's not the purpose of this particular study other than to point out that part of the reason that John wrote this is to let us know that the body of Christ on the cross was not appearing to be human but was a physical body because the Dositists were saying the Gnostics were saying he didn't have a physical body a second thing you see is in the in the water and blood and there are those in the early church you said by looking at the water and blood that is a picture of two things the water and blood could be a picture of baptism being represented by water and blood representing communion so it would be speaking of the two sacraments of Jesus Christ because those sacraments speak of redemption and regeneration and so there are commentators that say don't miss that when you see the water and the blood the others there are others who speak concerning a different kind of picture others see in this how Jesus died he died they say of a broken heart Psalm 69 verse 20 reproaches broken my heart I'm full of heaviness I looked for someone to take pity there was none for comforters but I found none and so there are those who say this water and blood it shows a ruptured heart and they say Jesus died of a literally died of a broken heart and a fourth way is John would be reminding us that spiritual life comes through the death of Christ blood and water again speaking of regeneration and speaking of the spirit filled life and so he points this out that he was pierced he pierced his side with the spear and immediately blood and water came out now in verse 35 he has seen has testified and his testimony is true he knows that he's telling the truth now why are you telling us the truth so that you may believe so that you may believe this is John's declaration of the truth of Jesus's death this is John saying I was there I am an eyewitness in 2nd Peter the apostle Peter said it like this in 2nd Peter 1 16 we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we're eyewitnesses of his majesty so John is saying this is true I saw this I'm testifying I know what I know you see we can speak of what someone has told us and repeat that to somebody else and and God can use that but God wants us to speak of what we have not only been told but what we have also come to know in a personal way you can speak of the gospel of Jesus Christ and share it with people by saying well you know I heard from this person here and I'm just repeating what he told me and I'm telling you this but God doesn't want me to simply speak concerning what somebody's told me alone he wants me to be able to speak from what I know through personal experience because as you get to know him and as you live for him and he begins to reveal himself in deeper ways to you through your fellowship with him your credibility as a witness grows and you can say I know that I know because God has worked through his word by his Holy Spirit revealed himself to me and I want to share with you what I know what I know about God it's not just theory it's not something I read it's not something I listen to on a tape it isn't any of that it's what I have prepared and what I've grown to know and it's what I've put into practice and so John is simply saying I know what I know I saw this I'm testifying I was there and that's what he's saying he who has seen has testified his testimony is true he knows that he's telling the truth so that you may believe I'm not just letting you know what I believe I'm telling you this so that you will I already believe it's not enough that I believe I want you to believe too I want you to know the Lord I want you to know how good God is I want you to know how he provides through all things I want you to know how he he walks with you and he talks with you through his word how his spirit will be your comfort I want you to know you can have hope in the midst of darkness I want you to have relationship with God in a way that that that you can cast your cares on him that you can know he doesn't forsake you that you can have a relationship with him and I want you to know this in a personal level not talking about how he's been faithful to men like Billy Graham and Chuck Smith and others but how he's been faithful to you how he's worked in your life how he's done what he has said he would do that's a powerful testimony when you're able to say that when you're able to say you know I was young and now I am old and my God has never let me down that's a powerful testimony my God has been faithful all through my life and so he wants us to to know and that's what he's saying this is why I wrote this so that you might know you see he told the truth he told the truth he's saying so that you may believe which was by the way the purpose of writing the gospel and this ability to believe is is a combination of of hearing the testimony movement by the Holy Spirit and the declaration of the Word of God later on when John wrote his his letter first first John in first John chapter 5 verse 13 this is what he said he said these things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know it's not a matter of wondering or wishing that you may know I wrote you this so that you would have certain knowledge that you have life through Jesus Christ that's why I wrote these things and so that coincides with what he's saying here in verse 35 that you may believe verse 36 for these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled not one of his bones shall be broken and again another Scripture says they shall look on him whom they pierced he said these things were done that Scripture should be fulfilled one was that not one of his bones shall be broken now remember Jesus was called by John the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world Jesus was a perfect fulfillment of what was called the Passover lamb and when the Jews had Passover given to them by God the Passover lamb was not to have any bones broken according to Exodus chapter 12 verse 46 so Jesus as a fulfillment of that type Jesus as the Passover lamb who takes away the sin of the world was not to have any of his bones broken but a second thing is when he says in verse 37 they shall look on him whom they pierced now when it says whom they pierced it's speaking obviously of his crucifixion and again I had read this earlier Psalm 22 verse 16 says dogs have surrounded me the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet so they shall look on him whom they have pierced meaning he fulfilled that in his crucifixion but it's interesting and I'll give you an aside very briefly one of the prophets a man by the name of Zechariah prophesied how Israel would react as a nation when they realized that they had pierced Jesus and that it's going to occur at the return of Christ in the book of Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10 it says I will pour on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication then they will look on me whom they pierced yes they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn they will look on me whom they have pierced there was a Jewish prime minister by the name of gold of my ear and gold of my ear was speaking to to a Christian an evangelical bible-believing Christian and the Christian asked uh gold of my ear because Jews I don't know if you know this or not but part of their educational system is that they uh they are taught the Old Testament in school and so and that's been going on for a long time and gold of my ear was familiar with Scripture and so this Christian was speaking to her and he said to her in the book of Zechariah in chapter 12 verse 10 who who is speaking when it says they will look on me whom they have pierced and uh gold of my ear said well they're speaking of God and he said may I ask you a second question and she said what and he said to her when did you pierce your God because Jesus Christ God in the flesh was pierced on the cross and he caused he he says his testimony is is that it took gold a mirror of gold a mirror back for a moment and she began to think about that because she knew who was being spoken of in the Scripture but had never attributed that to Messiah Jesus who had been pierced while on the cross which fulfilled the Scripture when it speaks concerning that they shall look upon him whom they have pierced John saw that in Zechariah 13 verse 6 one will say to him what are these wounds between your arms and then he will answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends now in verse 38 after this Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus Pilate gave him permission so he came and took the body of Jesus now Joseph is mentioned here but as you notice there's not a lot of information concerning him at all you have to go to the other gospels to get information of Joseph of this place called Arimathea he was a council member in the Jewish Sanhedrin but he's also referred to as a secret follower of Jesus Christ in Luke if you take notes Luke 23 verses 50 through 52 it says behold there was a man named Joseph a council member he was a good and a just man he had not consented to their decision indeed he was from Arimathea a city of the Jews who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God well this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus he had been a secret disciple but Jesus' death affected him deeply remember how Jesus had told his disciples you will forsake me this night and you will flee well his apostles had forsaken him but Joseph actually became courageous and in this you see that he no longer is what would be called a closet disciple he was willing to be openly identified with Jesus Christ you know I believe today that there are quite a number of silent Christians a lot of secret disciples so quite a number who will not admit that they have a relationship with Christ they're secret closet believers quite a number of them you know I think that's been true probably for a very long time I know it was true when I was going to school as a young man many years ago it was true then I'm sure it's even more true if there's such a thing today where you you have a belief in Christ you just don't admit it you just don't speak about it you're not open about it you keep it to yourself you're willing to speak about it when you're with people who are of like mind like opinion but because there is such a canceled culture today because people not only dislike what you're saying but sometimes can be angry and sometimes can be violent and physical there are quite a number of people who who are silent about what they believe they're silent about the things of Christ they don't tell their friends they don't tell anybody because they don't want to be canceled they don't want somebody to to invalidate their existence and to to minimize them as a person and so they don't say anything they'll come to church and they'll go to a bible study but the idea of actually opening your mouth and sharing it's a frightening thing to do one of the things that i really believe we need to do is take courage in the Lord because if if i don't speak who's going to if i don't open my my mouth and share what the Lord has given to me then who is going to there are a lot of times when i would be in a class a lot of times even to this day there can be opportunities that i'm given that i have to be aware of and have to pray about and ask the Lord give me wisdom should i open my mouth should i say something am i the person who should say something right now i still do that to this day i've been doing it since i was a young believer Lord do you have do you want me to speak you know there's some people in the body of Christ to the body being a body you know there are some people who have ears they're they're the hearer what do i mean by that well there are some people who have a compassion at heart they have ears and somebody has a problem and and that person will come up to this person and will speak and share and they've got ears they're like their ears in the body of Christ and you know i feel this and and they're hardest touching all that but there are other people like me who are mouths and you open up and you talk and you're and you'll share and and that that and it isn't because because you want to by the way it's because you have to it's because there's something inside of you that will not allow you to remain silent there are things in times and have been over the years where where i have where i've sat and somebody's saying something and it's just wrong and and i'm thinking well you know somebody really ought to say something and nobody's saying anything and i'll just kind of sit there until finally i realize oh i'm the somebody who's supposed to say something and i don't and i frankly i don't like it you know you know i don't want to get too personal but if you knew me on a personal level you would realize that i'm really a quiet person not just i'm not a i'm not somebody who speaks a lot surprise but i'm not i'm a real quiet person i can sit there in meetings i've sat in meetings with people for a long time that i'm not leading i'll sit there i've sat for two days you know who else can be quiet like that is raw raw race we kind of sit there and look at each other and that's about it in the meeting other people like to talk i don't i only talk when i have to that's the way i am but there are times when i have to there are times when nobody's saying anything something has to be said and so what i do and maybe i'm speaking to somebody in this room we may be of the same nature what i had to do is i had to realize that if somebody doesn't speak up then this person isn't going to have an opportunity opportunity to know what will set them free so i had to start really believing and i did that the truth sets you free i had to also realize that god had planted me on this planet to bring glory to him i had to realize that and so maybe i'm supposed to speak but in order to be able to speak i better know what i'm talking about because there's there's not very many things that turn people off uh more than somebody who doesn't know what they're talking about but speaking it loudly so i asked the lord help me to get to know what i'm talking about and then finally i had us the lord help me to know when to speak and when not to speak help me to learn when to speak how to speak and when when to stop speaking and all of that is something that you actually pursue is your mom saved and you say no have you told her anything about jesus and you say are you kidding me no she'll take off her shoe and hit me with it she'll get mad at me really is your aunt saved is your brother saved is your momma's your your father saved or cousin friends are they saved well see that's the thing that drove me and i'm not going to belabor this i just made a decision i don't want to be the quiet believer see when i first got saved somebody asked the question it was actually common amongst us as jesus freaks this this they said if you were arrested for the crime of being a christian would there be enough evidence of you being a christian to convict you in a court of law would there be enough evidence would there be people who would be called up as witnesses who would say this person's a christian well how do you know because they talk about jesus all the time because they go to church because they they they don't swear anymore they're they're not stealing anymore they're not i'll get unloaded anymore they live a good moral life i'd have to say i believe this person is a christian see that's how i want to live in such a way that if i were taken before a judge the judge will say guilty of being a believer i don't want to be a quiet christian there are so many people who came out of different closets in our day christians have to start coming out of the closet also we need to be open about our faith in jesus christ we really do because if you don't say something who's going to who is going to i've said this before i'll say this and then move on how did i learn that the lord was was wanting me to speak or to share well obviously because this word says to but also my body would actually begin to literally vibrate my body would shake and because i was fighting the urge to say something and my mom noticed it we were in a bible study she invited me to go to she was going to a study in monabello in a small church and she said dave will you come with me to church and i'd just gotten out of the military and i said sure mom she says i'm going to a midweek study and i said fine i'll go with you so my mom and i drove to monabello i grew up in norwalk it was only a 10 15 minute drive and off we went to monabello i still remember this i'm sitting in the bible study seated next to my mom and as i'm seated next to my mom the teacher is saying stuff that's not true now i'm only three and a half years old in the lord what do i know well i knew more than that and mama noticed this because my body started shaking literally physically shaking as i was sitting there and she goes what's wrong with you what's wrong with you i said something's got to be said so something was i didn't ever go back to that bible study so then i was standing at the door at my parents house right around the same time somebody knocked on the door and i opened it up and it was a jojoba's witness and again i'm a new believer and as i'm speaking to them actually i'm just hello how can i help you and they say we're with jojoba's kingdom and this and that and they started sharing my mom was standing there because mom was on the side watching and my body starts to shake again and i began to realize that uh kind of like what you read in jeremiah where you said i had chosen to keep my mouth shut but i couldn't your word is like a fire and it had to come out and so i i i prayed a long time ago guys that i prayed that thing here am i lord use me here am i like i say i said when god said who will go for us here am i lord send me have you ever prayed that have you ever oh i encourage you to here i am lord use me here i am lord you know let me be a vehicle of of bringing peace to people's lives there's there's no way that they're going to have peace without christ when you know jesus you have peace but we don't have him there's no peace and and and so i didn't want to be a quiet believer i came out of an era when christianity had become quiet and again some of you are too young to know that but in the fifties and sixties christianity had taken a back seat to so many things it's very quiet if you were christian we would say that's your personal conviction don't tell me about it don't say anything to me about it that's i don't have a problem with you being a christian just don't tell me and so what had happened is the church became quiet about our faith in christ and when it became quiet the society began to to boil over with the violence and the and so many things that took place in what used to be called the the the sixties and so the jesus movement was simply an awakening to the fact that we are to proclaim the message of the gospel as we live and we're to give it out through scripture we're supposed to tell people about jesus and that's why they called us jesus freaks now there are young people today who are saying oh we are jesus freaks now i hope that they are i really do but some things are being counterfeited right now and there are movements that are taking place where people are saying there's a new revival and there are new jesus freaks and and i've seen some of the things that are being said and done and i would have to say that no a jesus freak was not somebody who felt goose bumps when certain songs were played a jesus freak wasn't somebody who jumped real high because the holy spirit was all over him a jesus freak was somebody who loved the word of god lived it and shared it with other people and became a living testimony of what god does in a person's life that's what a jesus freak was and remains and that's how my father got saved my dad got saved not because i sat there with him and said to him you're a good man you're the best man i'll ever know but you'll be the best man in hell if you don't give your heart to jesus christ that's not how he got saved he told me later on he says i just wanted to hit you when you said that he says but i realized that something had happened in your life to change you you were different he said and i knew and i attributed that to the gospel that changes lives and he says i knew you needed god but when you brought your sister madeline to faith in christ he says i knew you needed god but madeline what did she need because he said i knew i was better than you but i was not better than your sister now when i say my sister madeline i should say quickly my sister madeline was the girl who went through high school and never had a date never went out with guys and it wasn't because she was ugly well that's part of it but not the whole reason it wasn't because she was ugly it's because she had no desire and she was the one who would sit with little curlers those little curl things she would sit between my mom and my dad eating popcorn watching tv that was my sister and she married her first boyfriend and so my dad said i knew i was better than you but i wasn't better than her he said so if she needed jesus i needed him too so the openness of your faith the openness of your life the transformation takes you out of the closet and begins to make you provoke you to be that person who speaks and when you wake up in the morning and you say god today i'll have opportunities how me to remain faithful to you so that i don't deny you through my silence but at the same time help me not to be obnoxious and arrogant and come off in a way that that is uh is going to put people off so god help me to be balanced and we have those things then you stop being a secret disciple and this is what's taking place here with joseph it says in verse 38 that he was a disciple of jesus but secretly but now he is no longer secretly a disciple he is willing to come out and willing to identify with christ which which was a very brave thing for him to do well it says in verse 39 and nicodemus you remember nicodemus who at first came to jesus by night also came bring in a mixture of murrin aloes about a hundred pounds and they took the body of jesus bounded in strips of linen with the spices as the custom of the jews is to bury in that place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid nicodemus had come to faith in jesus after his famous conversation in john three unless a man is born again he will not see nor enter into the kingdom of heaven and he had opened his heart up to christ again people don't always respond quickly don't think that when you're sharing that immediately they have to say yes i want jesus because sometimes seeds are planted and it takes a while nicodemus had come to faith in jesus christ so he works with joseph of eramethia and it says that they brought a mixture of murrin aloes and it says about a hundred pounds now jesus uh rather jews didn't embalm but they perfumed in order to mask the odor of decay it speaks of murr murr is a fragrant gummy resin aloes is sandalwood so these are very aromatic some have said that this mixture was sufficient to bury 200 people so large quantities of spices were used because they wanted to show great respect when it speaks in verses 41 and 42 concerning this garden and this tomb the tomb is nearby and because it would soon be the Sabbath they took his body there matthew 27 59 and 60 says when joseph had taken the body he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and he departed and once again a prophecy is fulfilled as they are 53 9 they made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death so there they do they put him in this tomb and as far as these disciples were concerned and we'll close with this last thought as far as these disciples were concerned and you need to get think about this for a minute as far as they were concerned he was over he was over he was dead and with him with him can you imagine standing there this tomb sheen out of a rock with the wheel like door that would be rolled down an incline and it would roll into a carved out section then they would put a seal over that can you imagine what you would have been thinking they took jesus off of the cross they carried him to a garden that was close by there was a borrowed tomb they placed him in they watched that wheel roll down that incline and settle with that that thud i wonder how long they may have stood there and with the closing of that tomb with it came the ending of their dreams he's he's dead some of us some of us have been there when someone we love very much has died some of us many of us have been in the hospital room or been in the bedroom when they die we've been there i've been there some of you have and depending on your relationship with that person the emotions can can be very raw you might groan you might cry more than likely you cry you shake your head you go into denial can't be this can't be there was can you imagine please try this man walks on water this man feeds thousands with fish and bread this man casts out demons this man causes winds and waves to cease by simply saying shut up because the literal when he said muzzle yourself is another way of saying he said to the wind in the wave when it was storming and he was there be muzzled shut up we've seen that we've seen it when the men of the gatorine scam rushing out of the tombs we've we've seen it our hearts froze within us as they approached and yet Jesus was able to not only calm them but he delivered them there's nothing this man can't do he walks on water calms the storm he he raises the dead i've never seen him lose an argument with any of the intellectuals in israel every time every time they tried to catch him at his words he made them look like fools and then you see that wheel roll and and it hits and it lodges and the sound of a heavy wheel hitting that stone settling in you shake your head and you say no this can't be he's dead and you walk away thinking that's the last time you'll ever see him but you forget he said in three days i will rise again from the dead that's just too good to be true isn't it and i like the way it's been said that was friday the sunday was coming resurrection had jesus remained in that tomb we of all people would be most miserable but because jesus christ rose again from the dead and because he lives we live with him our joy comes not simply because he died on the cross for us but that he was raised for our justification because now we too have the life you see the spirit of of god resides within us and the spirit who gave life to the dead body of christ paul told us resides in us we are the temple of the spirit of god and the spirit of god dwells in us he lives and we live with him now that's something that they didn't remember or know at that time but they're going to find it out come sunday because jesus rose from the dead amen amen