What Does the Bible Say About Who Is This Jesus #4?

Arnie and Fred continue to discuss some of other people who through various circumstances had close contact or unusual experiences with Jesus, who recognized the special attributes that were unique to Him. They became witnesses which were led to distinctly different conclusions regarding His identity.  In this episode we pick up the record John wrote of the Levitical police officers that were sent to arrest Jesus. We note their impression of Jesus which they related to the religious leaders after they refused to arrest Him.  We next look at John's record of the blind man Jesus healed, his conclusions about Jesus and the reaction of the Scribes and Pharisees when they encountered him. John also recorded the time that Jesus resurrected His friend Lazarus. Jesus spoke with Martha, Lazarus' sister at this time and John records that discussion. We key in on what she had to say. There were a number of Jerusalem Jews there also who witnessed what Jesus did. We talk about what John recorded of their reaction. John records the discussion that the Chief Priests and Pharisees at Jerusalem had about Jesus and the miracles He had performed, and we look at that. We close out this episode at the Passover, looking at the reaction of the multitude that was there for that feast when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and at the Last Supper Jesus had with His apostles at that time. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript provided of this Buzzsprout episode for your convenience.

Transcript

Fred Gosnell: 0:00

This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday, and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.

Arnie: 0:33

Good afternoon, this is Arnie Granke and Fred Gosnell with the church of Christ at Woodland in Sumter, South Carolina. And this is what does the Bible say? And if you happen to be in the Sumter area, we would certainly invite you to visit with us for worship or Bible class on the Lord's day and then Bible classes on Wednesday, evening as as well. And meanwhile, we're glad to have you listening to us on what does the Bible say. In the last couple of lessons that we've had, Fred and I had been talking about some of the Jesus' adversaries in the New Testament, the priests, the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and others who comprised the Jewish establishment in those days, hated Him, and, and saw Jesus as a threat to their power. But in fact, it was the common man, and the common woman who who witnessed His miracles, they observed His righteous behavior, and listened to his teaching. And they recognized Him as having been sent by God, recognized Him as a righteous man. Many of them thought of Him as, as being a prophet, perhaps, even though the long awaited Messiah. So we've been we've been looking at at a number of cases, there, I guess, about so far about 10 of them, of various individuals that John writes about. As John writes his his gospel account, isn't really biographical as much as Matthew, Mark and Luke are. John focuses pretty much on the miracles and some of the teachings of Jesus. And so we're looking at the how people responded to those. Who do we need to look at next, Fred?

Fred Gosnell: 2:50

Well, let's look at the police officers that the Levitical priests had. OK. They had police officers that when somebody violated the law there that they would, that they would go arrest them, they had authority, the Romans allowed them to do that. So the situation here was that, course Jesus was, what Jesus was saying that a lot of people were listening to Him and the Levitical priests were, they were afraid that they were going to lose their authority to Jesus. So so they started in this case, they wanted to arrest him and bring him to the Sanhedrin and, and have a discussion with him. And in John 7, 44 through 53, is the account that John has where these police officers were sent. And we begin in verse 44, says that, Some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and the Pharisees. And they said unto them, Why have you not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. Then answered them, the Pharisees, Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith to them, he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them, Doth our law judge any man before it, hear him and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee?Search and look for out of Galilee arises no prophet. And every man went unto his own house. So so these police officers, these Levitical officers were sent to arrest Jesus, but then they heard what he had to say and they, they refused to do so because they didn't see why would they would be arresting this man that has not doing anything wrong. So they went back to the Pharisees and the Pharisees were upset with them, and then accused them of believing him. And then of course, Nicodemus was one of the one of the Pharisees he's the one that went to Jesus by night,

Arnie: 5:02

John three.

Fred Gosnell: 5:03

John three. And of course, then he asked them said, Are you going to condemn somebody without hearing from them? And of course, everybody then left and Jesus was not arrested, because the officers couldn't see why they would do that.

Arnie: 5:21

You know, the the interesting thing about this is when when they respond and say, Art thou also of Galilee search and look for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet, they weren't paying attention. You and I had done together I guess well, I guess separately, we had done some different studies. And and between the two of us we concluded that of course, Nazareth was in was in Galilee. And the Hebrew name that Nazareth is derived from, had had to do with with with things that related to Christ. And he was called the Branch in in Isaiah, Jeremiah and one of the other one of the Minor Prophets and doesn't come to me right away, which one that was, No, and so, Nazareth meaning the Branch and the prophecies having to do with the Branch, it seems to be what what persuaded some of Jesus, Philip and Nathaniel's becoming, becoming disciples of Christ and apostles of Christ. They understood what these prophecies were, and the religious hierarchy, they were too busy with their own politics, to be bothered with the Old Testament very much. And, and that seems to be still a problem with Jewish people and many others as well, even to this, even to this day. But let's skip down to to John chapter nine. And there was, of course, a blind man that Jesus had healed. That's spoken of in in John chapter, chapter nine, verse one, we'll start there, this was, this was an a man who was healed at Siloam. And there was a mikvah for there. It was a, a pool, not meant to be a swimming pool, particularly, meant to be where people could, could go and, and bathe and and be pure, for the purpose of attending, worship or other spiritual activities in the, in the temple. So, beginning of verse one, As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked Him, saying, Master who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken he spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go wash in the Pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, Sent. He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. The neighbors therefore, and they that they, which before had seen him that was blind said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he, others said, He is like him, but he said, I am he. Therefore they said, therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes and said unto me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went and washed, and I received sight. Then said they unto him, where is he? He said, I know not. They brought him to the Pharisees brought to the Pharisees him that after, that afore time was blind. And it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, he put clay upon my eyes, and I washed and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. A lot of work involved in spitting in the in the dirt isn'tit? Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was division among them. They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet. And that should have been clear as a bell to them, if they hadn't already made up their minds to be averse to anything that Jesus said and

Fred Gosnell: 11:11

Yeah, they had evidence and they had a witness, did. and the witness told them what happened. And but they still refused to believe what he had to say Of course, they didn't quit. They kept at this poor guy.

Arnie: 11:27

And it continues, the story continues.

Fred Gosnell: 11:30

So in verse 28 so Then they reviled him and said, Thou art his disciple. But we are Moses' disciples. We know that God's spake unto Moses. As for this fellow we know not from whence he is. The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvelous thing that you knew not from whence he is? And yet he hath opened my eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will him he heareth. Since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind? If this man were not of God, he could do nothing? They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on Him? Then Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe and he worshipped Him. So the individual that had his eyes opened by Jesus, he knew what was done. And he he knew that this is not something that has ever been done, that he has any

Arnie: 12:49

No one has ever done.

Fred Gosnell: 12:51

No one's no one's done this. And of course, that's what he told the, the Pharisees. Course the Pharisees were, you know, religious leaders, and they were over impressed with themselves. They said, Well, you know, we are Moses' disciple. We know what Moses said,

Arnie: 13:08

But they were also pret, politically motivated.

Fred Gosnell: 13:11

Yeah, right. And so, so they weren't in the position to even listen to what had to had been done. Even though the evidence was there. The, they knew this guy had been lying all his life. And the testimony was there. They couldn't, they couldn't deny that he could now see. So and the individual told them who did it. And then of course, they still would not accept that. And then they again said, Well, you were born in sin. Of course,

Arnie: 13:44

They were not.

Fred Gosnell: 13:45

They were not. So so. So Jesus, you know, Jesus had had already told everybody, Well, he didn't sin, neither did his family sin. So even though the evidence was there, the miracle was performed, and these people, these religious leaders that that were more interested in protecting their position, rather than listening to the truth, they just simply rejected all of the evidence and rejected everything that had been said, and to their ultimate grief.

Arnie: 14:17

And that was also by the way, one of the one of the things that was involved in how they decided that they needed to crucify Jesus there later on in in the book of John as as well as the other Gospel accounts too. And of course, even Pontius Pilate power, rec, Pilate recognized that. He knew what was going on. Well, let's skip ahead a couple chapters to to John chapter 11. John focuses on these events that we've just described in a little further detail there in the next chapter or two. And then in John chapter 11, we go Bethany. Bethany was the home of Lazarus, and Mary and Martha. And beginning in, in verse 20, we just we just mentioned here that, that Lazarus, had taken sick and had died. And so here is the family in in grief and, and Jesus had waited several days before going out to, to Bethany. And in verse 20, Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went, and met him. But Mary sat still in the house, then said, Martha, unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now whatsoever thou would ask of God, God will give it thee. And I just comment here, that's remarkable that she understood that There were a lot of people, I think, that seemed to understand that with regard to Jesus and and that was because they hadn't already made up their mind, to be contrary to the things that Jesus was, was teaching, Verse 22. But I know that even now whatsoever thou ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brunch, brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life, He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the, into the world. So hereshe acknowledges that that's exactly who Jesus is. Well, they work their way back over to the, to the to the tomb, I'll let you pick up there if you'd like. At that point,

Fred Gosnell: 17:25

Okay. Yeah. So we go to verse 35. And, of course, Fred. this is the shortest verse in the Bible, and it says, Jesus wept. So he's, he's there by the tomb, And then said, the Jews Behold how he loved him. And some of them said, Could not just man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died. So so they knew what had been done with the blind man. And they recognize the power that Jesus had to do that. So then we go to verse 39. So Jesus said, Take ye away the stone, Martha, the sister of him that was dead saith to him, Lord, by this time, he stinketh. He'd been four days, For he has been dead for days. Jesus saith unto her, Said, I, not to thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone, from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou has heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always. But because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou has sent me. And when He had thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And his face was bound about with a napkin, Jesus saith unto them, loose him and let him go. And many of the Jews which came to, with Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. Of course, Jesus, he identified Lazarus, specifically, Lazarus come forth. Of course, had he not done that there would have been a bunch of people with a problem raised from the dead. And notice that he was still he was wrapped up in the grave clothes. And Jesus, Lazarus couldn't walk, but yet he came out of the tomb. And I'm sure that would have been something to see. So So once he was out. Then Jesus said to to loose him now. And the Jews that saw this, and they said, well, they believed on him. And of course, the evidence was there. But then there are always those who don't and there were those that wanted to keep favor with the Pharisees. So they went to the Pharisees, and then they told them what Jesus had done. And of course, again, this is another miracle that was performed. And people saw it. And then they, they believed that Jesus was, as Martha had said, the Christ, the

Arnie: 20:17

Thinking about the way that he was buried. Typically Messiah. here, in the, in our society, at this point, we put someone in a casket and, and the casket is, is lowered down into a vault, usually out of concrete or something, and a lid is put on that, that vault, vault, and it'd be pretty difficult to get somebody out of that. Jesus obviously, could have made that happen. But they didn't bury that way in, in Jesus day. And they would take a large sheet of cloth. And it would be cut or torn into sections that were somewhere between 12 and 16 inches in, in width, and then wrapped around an individual all the way from from his neck down to his feet. And then a separate piece of cloth was used around the the head. And to deter the smell that would result from the, from the body decomposing, there were all kinds of spices and whatnot that were included in that. So here is is Lazarus so boundup, he can't move, he can't move a finger probably there. And yet, his body somehow gets to the, the entrance to the tomb. And and he's raised up and Jesus tells them to unwrap him there, So many that that saw Lazarus believed on him. That let's talk about the chief priests and the and the Pharisees, again a little bit a little bit more down in further in in chapter 11, down to verse 46. Some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had had done. And then gathered the chief priests and Pharisees a council. Now listen to what they said, because this shows that they're not interested in what the Bible had to say what the Old Testament said, they're more interested in their their political power. They said, What what do we for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on Him. And the Roman shalll come and take away our place and, and nation. One of them named Caiaphas being a high priest that same year said unto them, You know nothing at all, nor consider that it's expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. So you can see that he's already introduced the the idea of killing Jesus that's basically saying, Let's kill him, we'll get rid of him and we won't have, we won't have this, this problem. So thus, he Thus Spake not of himself, but being the high priest, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation and, and not for that nation only. But that also he should gather together in one, the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth, they took counsel together, for to put him to death. So the idea of killing him, certainly comes to the fore now, and not only that, but that but they're willing as well, to murder others that that Jesus had performed miracle with. They're willing to kill Lazarus. So that word doesn't get out that God Jesus had raised Him from the dead.

Fred Gosnell: 24:47

Yes. And of course, what had been done. That word was passed around. A lot of people heard about that. So it was it was Passover. And there were a lot of People visiting for Jerusalem for Passover. And they also went to Bethany to, specifically to see Lazarus, and Jesus. So in John 12, 9 through 18, we have that John wrote about it. He said, Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there, Jesus. And they came not for Jesus sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death. They're gonna put him to death again. Because that by reason of him, many of the Jews went, went away and believed on Jesus. On the next day, most people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches and palm tree, of palm trees and went forth to meet Him, and cried Hosanna, Blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus when He had found a young ass sat there on. And it is written Fear not daughter of Sion, Behold, thy king cometh sitting on an ass"s cold, these things understood not His disciples at the first. But when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, that they had done these things unto him, the people, therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave, and raised Him from the dead bear record for this cause the people also met him for that they heard that he had done this miracle course the what you just read, the Pharisees knew he was doing these miracles, that they mentioned that fact. And of course, the people who had saw what was done, they knew they knew the blind man that had been, his eyes had been opened. They knew Lazarus, they knew what Jesus had done, raised Him from the dead. So all of these miracles, and all of these people who saw them that testified to it. They believed that Jesus was exactly as they said, the the king of, of Israel. And of course, what what they talked about there, those things were there was a place in the Old Testament that talked about Jesus coming on the colt of a donkey.

Arnie: 27:19

So so here he is, and that kind of brings us to the brings us to the, to the Last Supper. John discusses that in John 13. We'll start at verse, verse three, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and beginning in verse, verse three, I think I said, 13, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come unto God and went to God, he riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments, took a towel, and girded Himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter. Peter saith unto him, Lord, Dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know, hereafter. And I've kind of lost my, lost my place here, let me find my, here we go. Peter says, Peter, Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and you are clean, but not all, for he knew who should betray him. Therefore, he said, Ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and taken his garments and was set down again, he saith to them, Know, ye not what I have done to you. You call me Lord, and Master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master, have given you an example that you should do as I have done unto you. Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not to say it,needeth not save to wash his feet, but is every whit clean, and ye are clean but not all. For he knew who should betray him. Therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye not what I've done to you? You call me Master and Lord, you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master, have given you, have washed your feet, Ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you should do as I have done unto you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the master, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that his sent greater than He that sent him. If you know these things, happy, are ye if you do, Fred, I think we're about out of time here. Why don't we pause on this and, and pick it up again next Lord's day. We hope that you folks will be with us to hear a few concluding examples of of things that persuaded people that Jesus was indeed the Christ. We hope you're persuaded as well, and that you will obey Him and serve Him. Have a good week. We'll look forward to being with you next Lord's Day.