Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We're in John chapter 19. We'll begin today reading at verse number 28. Have your Bible ready. Well, reading in verse number 28, it says, And after this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. It says in verse 28, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, he said, I thirst. Jesus, knowing all things. And he said, I thirst so that the scriptures would be fulfilled. The prophecies in the Old Testament that said that he would say that. Here we have evidence, the fact that he claimed to be God. He is God. He was God. He knew everything that was happening. But we also have evidence of the fact that he was human. We read in Luke 2 and 52, he increased in wisdom. John 4, 6, he was weary. Matthew 4, 2, he was hungry. Mark 8, 34, he slept. Mark 6 and 6, he marveled. John 11, 35, he wept. John 10, 21, he rejoiced. John 11, 33, he groaned. Here in John 19 and 28, he thirsted and he died. Jesus was completely God and he was completely human. Our minds will never figure that out, don't even try to figure it out. But that's what the Bible says concerning Christ. It is important to understand, as we have a reference here in verse number 29 about the vinegar. In Matthew 27 and 34 it says he refused the vinegar. Here in our scripture in John 19 and 29 and 30 it says that he took the vinegar. Let's read it again. It says, Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge. with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth. And when Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and he gave up the ghost." Now, the account in Matthew, it says that they had vinegar, and it was mixed with a deadener, a painkiller. It was common that they would give that to criminals who were being crucified. Jesus refused that. But you'll notice very carefully here, in Matthew 19 at the end, there's nothing said about there being any mixture here, and it's totally and completely a different situation. It says in verse 30, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up the ghost. First, it says he bowed his head, and second, he gave up the ghost. Now, if that was us, it would be opposite to that. We would give up the ghost and then bow the head. But Jesus did everything. He was in total, complete control. He said in John 17 and 17, no man taketh my life. I lay it down of myself." Well, it was a normal thing for them to leave these criminals on the cross for two or three days, even after they were dead. But the Jews, it says here in verse number 31, referring to the leadership, of course, the Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was an high day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." Now, the reason that they would break the legs of a criminal is so they would finish him off. They would hang on the cross and they would drop down in pain and in weakness and it would cut off their breathing. They wouldn't be able to breathe because their bodies would arch out. And so they would take their feet and they would push themselves back up. so that they could breathe. And, of course, once they came and broke their legs, then they would simply suffocate and they would die. In verse 32 we read, Then came the soldiers and broke the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. Once again, this was a fulfillment of prophecy back in Psalms chapter 34, in verse number 20, it says that not a bone of his body would be broken. Verse 34, we read, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. Interesting here, a couple of things. Number one, the Bible says that they would look on him whom they pierced, and so once again, prophecy is being fulfilled through the detail here. But the fact that there came out blood and water together, this was an indication he actually was dead. And it's interesting that the Bible talks about the blood of Jesus Christ and the water, referring to the washing of water by the Word, how the blood of Christ and the Word of God go together in the whole plan of salvation. There's some very interesting types. We could probably spend three months looking at them. Verse 35 says, And he that saw it, bear record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." Now, he's referring to himself. John saw it. He said, he that saw it. Saw what? Saw the soldiers pierce his side, and the blood and the water come out. I saw it. I bear record of it. My record is true. He said, and I know that he saith true, or that I say true, that you might believe. That's the whole theme of John's book. These things have I written that ye might believe." Well again, in verse number 36, it says, for these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken. And again, verse 37, another scripture saith, they shall look on him whom they have pierced. Well, after this, it says, after this, verse 38, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. He came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus. Now, Joseph of Arimathea was a very rich man. We saw in some of our previous broadcasts that he was a man of wealth and that he was well-known. It was probably Joseph of Arimathea that brought in Peter, you remember, when he went to the door and had the maid let Peter in. And in any event, He had been a disciple for fear of the Jews. Now he boldly goes into Pilate and he says, can I have the body? And he goes out there in public and takes the body of Christ and buries him in his own tomb. Well, the Bible also prophesied that Christ would be buried in a rich man's tomb. Well, in verse 39, Nicodemus shows up to give him a hand. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night. and brought a mixture of myrrh and alloy about a hundred pound weight. And they then took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen cloth with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now, once again, it records in the Old Testament, it prophesied that Jesus would be buried with spices. Now, it says here in verse number 40 that the body of Jesus was wound in linen cloth with the spices, as was the manner of the Jews, to bury. And they would wrap the arms individually, they would wrap the legs individually, and then the body. They weren't wrapped like the Egyptians wrapped people when they wrapped their mummies. Verse 41 says, Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulcher wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus, therefore, because of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulcher was nigh at hand. Now I'm going to read the first few verses of John chapter 20. We'll not have time to expand on it in this broadcast, but it says the first day of the week, come with Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark under the sepulchre and see if the stone taken away from the sepulchre." Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that's of course John, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, of course that's John, and came to the sepulcher, and they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulcher. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie. And the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and believed." It is interesting, the reference here to the garden, there was a garden, it says back in verse 41, well, Adam and Eve started out everything in the garden, and you remember in Genesis 3.15, the battle of the ages began. And Christ said that he would destroy Satan, and he was pointing to the cross, and here Christ said it is finished, and what he was talking about, well, a lot of things, but basically the battle of the ages was finished here. Well, we read here that on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene comes. To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much, the Bible says in Luke 7 and 41. And Mary Magdalene was one of those kinds of people. And she saw that the stone was taken away. And in verse number two, she quickly runs to tell Peter and John. They, you know, she says they took him. They, whoever they are, we don't know who they are, but nobody did take him. But, you know, we do that all the time. Only they did this, they did that. Well, they took him and we know not where they have laid him. Well, she was really high in love, but she was a little bit low in the faith. But let's not be too quick judging her because I think we're guilty of the same thing in many areas of the scriptures. Well, she came to Peter and John, interesting that they were together. Why? Well, John, the beloved disciple, you remember Peter had cursed and swore and said he never knew Jesus, and then he went out and he wept bitterly, and there's John helping Peter through this time of trial in his life. Well, we read they ran together to the sepulchre, but John outran Peter, and he got there, and the Bible says he's looking in, but he doesn't go in. Peter finally catches up, probably huffing and puffing, and he runs right past John, right into the sepulchre. That's the kind of person that Peter was. You remember when they were in the boat? and Jesus was walking on the water, and he wanted to be out there. He would rather be out there walking on the water with Jesus than in the safety of the boat without him. Then in John 21, when they were fishing all night when they shouldn't have been, and they saw Jesus standing on the shore, and the Bible says that Peter jumped in the water and swam immediately to where Jesus was. That's just the kind of person that Peter was. Maybe John was a little bit nervous about going in that tomb. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that they knew that the law demanded two witnesses, and so rather than John just running ahead on in the tomb, and then Peter finally catching up, well, he could have taken the body. He waited. He waited until Peter got there and they saw this together. Maybe that's what it's all about. The Bible really doesn't tell us for sure. In any event, when you see the word that John saw us, there's a different word that was used here when Peter saw. What it refers to when John saw was he glanced at it, but when Peter saw it, that word means he stopped and he examined things very carefully. And what we examined here in verse number seven is extremely important. It says, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself, not lying with the linen clothes. And so there on the tomb, and we've had the privilege, my wife and I, to be in that tomb. They think it's the one. It certainly fits all the scriptural things that would indicate that that is the one. And there's a slab there where a body would lay, and there was one on the other side where no body had ever laid, and that's why it said never a body was laying in there. It was Joseph's tomb. And so Jesus was laid on that one side. The Bible says in one of the places that the angel sat on the right. That would be like the slab on the other side, like a bench. Everything just sort of fits into how things were. But when they came in that tomb, They would have seen that slab there with these linen clothes lying exactly as they would have been when Jesus rose from the dead, except, it says, that the napkin was neatly wrapped together. It was folded in a place by itself, and that in itself is very significant. We won't have time in this broadcast now, but maybe another broadcast we can look at the significance of that napkin being folded. Well, in verse 8 it says, Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and believed. And that word, believed, means to have perception. It means to perceive with understanding. Well, our time's all gone again. Tune in again tomorrow. We'll carry this on from here. We'll try to make it plain, and we will try to make it simple. you