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Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His Word within our own hearts. As we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse, through the Bible. Jesus is crucified as our study of John continues in chapter 19, verse 26. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: So, there stood at the cross, by the cross of Jesus, his mother, his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore, when Jesus saw his mother. In other words, he's now looking, he's, he's now looking at them. They're up looking at him, or looking up at him. And he saw the disciple standing by. We learn later on, that disciple is John. The beloved disciple. John likes to say, the disciple that Jesus loved. Do you ever do that? It sounds silly, but we ought to, because I'm one of the disciples Jesus loved. How about you? You are. Guy or girl, we're, we're, He loves us. Well, look, He's, when Jesus saw his mother, and you know what she's doing? You could guess, couldn't you? She's weeping. She's brokenhearted. You know, she was told the prophecy of God that a spear is going to pierce her soul, her heart. Remember, the pain of this suffering. Now she understands what that meant, and she's brokenhearted. So he sees his mother, and the disciple standing there, along with the other ladies with him, whom he loved, and he said to his mother, "Woman, behold thy son."

Then Jesus said to the disciple, this is John, verse 27. "Behold thy mother." And in John writes some commentary. I like the commentary. He says, "And from that hour, that disciple took her into his own home." He took care of her like he was his own mother till the day Mary died. Yes, she died. And so, what do we have? They're standing there near the cross. You know, they're weeping, you know, they're very upset. Mary's sister is named Salome. We've, we've met her in the other gospels. Salome is Mary, Jesus' mother's sister. There's another Mary, excuse me, she's the wife of Cleophas, and then there's another Mary, Mary Magdalene, and there's John, the disciple, one of the sons of thunder.

They're weeping, they're brokenhearted, while the soldiers are, get this, because we may be guilty of this sometimes, too. They're playing games at the foot of the cross. We, we don't want to do that. Guys and girls, we don't want to do that. We don't want to be playing games. We really need to give our hearts to the Lord, all the way. And it's easy to, to pull back and, and want to do this and that, but be careful. So, we don't want to do that. So, they're playing games at the foot of the cross. These women and John are standing there. Jesus looks at his mother and her heart is breaking. Now, look at this, his heart is breaking for her, and he's in so much pain, he can hardly deal with it. Yet, here's what he does in spite of the pain and the suffering, he takes the time to take care of his mother.

Remember, the upper room? He was so, it was hard for him. You know, one of you is going to betray me. That breaks his heart. But he sees they're so concerned and they're worried that he stops and calms them down, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me." He's, he, he ministers. He never quits being our Lord. And look, in spite of the pain, the suffering, the ugliness there, he sees his mother, and her heart is breaking. So he takes care of his mother, and he says, "Woman, your son. There's your son. I'm leaving. I told you, you know where I'm going. I'm going back to my Father." "So there's your son. He'll take care of you." He's telling her, "You, now, ma'am, Mary, mom, you let him take care of you. Don't be stubborn, don't be silly." Yes, she, yes, she has four other boys. Five boys and at least two girls the Bible says, maybe more, it says, "Sisters," plural. But four boys, and Jesus, so five. Well, why, why wouldn't you leave him with one of her boys? Because none of them believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God yet. They will when he rises from the dead. But until then, he's taking care of his mother now, right? And what he's telling her is this, "You let John serve you. You let him do this."

And then he looks to John. He looks to his disciple, and he just basically says, "Your mother." "John, I need you to do something for me." "You're my Lord, what do you want me to do?" "Take care of your mother. She's your mother now. She's your responsibility." In other words, take her in as your own mother. And John adds a little commentary. I like the commentary. He says, "And I just want to tell you what I did. From that moment on, I took her home and she was one of our family all the day, rest of the days of her life. From that moment on, Mary came home." John says, "To stay with me in my home." So, verse 28. "After this, Jesus knew that all things were now accomplished." He knew. He was finished. Think about this, he is suffering, and he is suffering and in pain, and he has, he has the ability to end his life any time he's ready. But he's not going to do it until all sin is paid for. He knew you and I were coming. So, he had to stay there that long, right? Six hours. "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, 'I thirst.'"

"Now, there was set a vessel full of vinegar," and it was basically kind of a vinegar wine sort of thing. "And they filled the sponge with vinegar, put it on hyssop and put it to his lips, to his mouth." "When Jesus therefore received the vinegar, he says, 'It is finished.'" And he bowed his head, and he didn't just die from exhaustion. He gave up his spirit. I can't do that, neither can you. We don't have that power or authority. We go when we got to go, and we can't stay here three extra minutes or three extra seconds. And people say, "You have to leave the room now because she won't really let go until you all clear out of the room." And I'm thinking, "No, uh, they'll all let go when God says go." But Jesus had to pay the price for sin. By choice, and he's, once it's done, he will give up his spirit. He has the authority to give it. Whereas we don't. God's going to come and collect us up.

We learn, putting the four gospels together, he stayed on that cross for six hours from around 9:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon. Last three hours were in huge darkness, night-like darkness. Jesus cried out, "I thirst." They gave him vinegar to drink. A prophecy fulfilled. Jesus didn't do it to fulfill the prophecy, he was thirsty and he's dying. He's ready to go. And so, Psalm 69, verses 20 and 21. "Reproach have broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, and I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat, and my thirst, in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." How did he know what the Romans would have there 1,500 years from now, before it was, way before crucifixion was even invented? How did he know what they were going to do? He is God, everybody. He didn't beat them up and make them do that. It was their regular practice. It's a prophecy to remind you that everything else that the Bible says is going to be is going to be. Jesus is coming back. Give your heart to him. He is coming back soon. I don't know the day or the hour, but this is real. And as you read the Bible and look around and see that things, he told us exactly what this world would be like, and it is. And, and when we were young, we didn't, we could not figure how the whole world would watch the two witnesses live around the planet, because there was no such thing as around the world every 30 minutes. There was no such cable. It wasn't there. Satellite TV didn't even work. You might get still pictures and they weren't clear. But the whole world is going to watch those two people. And we go, "Well, duh, I do it on my phone. That's easy. I got the app." Yeah, but it was written 2,000 years ago.

So, God wants you to know that everything he says is true. Everything he's talking about is real. And he says, "Don't take me at my word. Read it and watch. But you can't deny it unless you deny it because you refuse to believe it." And that's what most of the non-believers are doing right now, they're refusing. Then he cried out, after he had that, that vinegar, that drink, and he cried out loud and he yelled it out. And that means anybody walking by heard it. The soldiers certainly heard it, one of them's going to talk about it if you read the other gospels. He'll say, "Surely this was the son of God." That centurion will say that. He believed right there, right there at the foot of Jesus Christ. And he's one of the ones that crucified him. And he listened to him talk to those guys, to the, to the, the two thieves, right? And he listened to what he said to his mother. And that, that guy, "Listen, this is every, this is really happened, this is all going on here." He cried for all to hear, everyone to hear. He cried out at whatever, uh, however loud his voice could be at that stage, but he cried it out, and it was heard, "Tetelestai, it is finished." Now, Tetelestai has been found in all kinds of documents, uh, Roman documents, uh, different Syrian, just different documents, and the word Tetelestai is used, it is a bookkeeping term. Uh, and, and if it would read Tetelestai over your house payments. Tetelestai means finished, paid in full. That's the literal language, paid in full. You can't add anything to it, you cannot take anything away from it. That's it. And it was a bookkeeping term, and Jesus cried out, "Tetelestai." Paid in full, it is finished. It's done. And so when people ask you, "What do I need to do to be saved?" You know, because people say, "Well, do this and do that and do that." And God doesn't say, "Do, do, do." What does he say? "Done. It's done." You have to receive Jesus by grace through faith. We have to humble ourselves and admit we're sinners and we cannot do this by ourselves. And then we surrender to Jesus Christ. And what does he, what did he cry out? Paid in full. Finished. I can't add anything to that. I'm saved by grace. I can't be good enough to hang on to it. I can't be good enough to finally say, "I don't need you anymore, I've got this." We can't take anything from it. It was paid in full. We can't say to others, "Okay, well, but this and this and this, and if you go and do that and that." No, we can't say that. It is by grace through faith. It is paid in full. If you will humbly surrender your heart to Jesus.

The debt for all sin, past, present, future, paid in full. Nothing more is owed. It is finished, completed, paid in full. There is no more you can add, and there is nothing you can take away from it. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Remember the hymn? Once he cried out, "Tetelestai," it's finished, he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. John 10. John chapter 10, verses 17 and 18. These are Jesus' words, listen closely here. "Therefore does my Father love me, because I laid down my life that I might take it back up again. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I received of my Father." He told us way back then in John 10, "I will give up my life and I will take it up again." And he has the authority to do that. I can't do that. I don't have the authority to let my life go, and I have the authority to go get it back. Only Jesus Christ, and only in and through him alone. He gave up his spirit. And he said, "I can do that because my Father has given me that authority." So, let's finish, verse 31.

"The Jews therefore, because it was preparation, that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for the Sabbath day was a high holy day. They besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." "Then the soldiers came, and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead already, so they did not break his legs. But when the soldiers pierced his side, and forthwith blood came out and water." "And he that saw it bear record," the soldier said, and and and John says, "I saw it, and the record is true, and he knows that he is, sayeth truth, that he might, that you might believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken." "And again, another Scripture that sayeth, 'They shall look upon him whom they have pierced.'" Because of the law, a body was not to remain exposed, a dead body remain hanging on a tree overnight, and certainly not for a high holy day or the Sabbath. Deuteronomy 21, check it out. The breaking or crushing of the legs. When, when Rome broke your legs, they didn't just, you know, hit you with a bat and break it. They would take this large instrument and crush the bones, shatter them completely, so nothing holds it up. So, the, it's the rib cage that's basically taking all the pressure now, and it usually starts to crack and break it. They die very quickly that way. Otherwise, you know, some people lasted up to 72 hours on a cross. But they, uh, holy days coming, they, the Jewish people got to get their things done, so they just shatter, they crush the, the legs. And what that would cause, I don't want to get graphic, uh, just basically this. Crushing the lower legs caused death to occur quickly by shock, number one, loss of blood, and and of course, the most obvious, the inability to breathe. Your legs, you have to push up on them to get breath, and then drop them down to get, force the breath back out. And you could live that way a long time in sheer agony and it's terrible. And that's what Jesus did. But they didn't break his legs. Jesus had given up his spirit, so there was no need to break his legs. So instead, to be, you know, the, the Romans know when you're dead. They're good at it, you know, you, you can't take this from them. They're good. But, you know, he says, "I, I don't mind being on the safe side." So he shoves a spear up through his side and into his heart. Pierces his heart. So, the result was a flow of blood and water. That means the heart, the sack of the heart is ruptured completely.

The Passover lamb in Exodus chapter 12. That's the first Passover. God says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you, over that house. If I see the blood, I will pass over, and you'll live," the oldest will live. Exodus 12, verse 46. Listen to the explanation of how you do your Passover. "In one house shall that lamb be eaten. You shall not carry forth out any of the flesh outside the house, neither shall you break a bone thereof." Why? Because Jesus' bones will not be broken. It's a type or a picture of the crucifixion. The whole Passover is a type of the crucifixion. So you shall not break any bones. Also, Zechariah 12. This is one, many of you probably recognize this also. Zechariah 12:10. "And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness of a firstborn. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced." Zechariah. Zechariah lived right about 700 years before Jesus was born. That was written to prove to you that the word of God means what it says, and you can take God's word for it. Okay, let's finish. "And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly," he was a, he was a secret believer, "for fear of the Jews, he besought Pilate that he might take the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. He, he came therefore and took the body." "And there also came with him Nicodemus." Remember Nic at night, John chapter 3, Nicodemus. Nicodemus, uh, really, one of the most educated and one of the greatest teachers in Israel. He's a secret believer. They came, "Which at first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, and about a hundred pound weight." "And they took the body of Jesus, and they wound it in linen cloths, cloths with with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is," or the way the Jews normally bury, "Now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden close, and in the garden a new sepulchre, which never man yet laid." "There, they laid Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulchre was near at hand." It was close. They had to get him into a tomb before the sun goes down, before, before the official feast starts. Or they would be unclean.

The dead bodies are taken down, they're normally, everyone, as you know the way the Romans did it, if you were crucified, uh, your, your family couldn't have you. You know, your mother may be standing there, and his disciple, and all kinds of people may want you. But they can't have you. What they would do as part of the punishment, when they'd take those dead bodies down, they would throw them down into the valley, just to the valley below, just kind of throw them over the edge of the hill and let them roll down. And usually the wild animals and the big birds, uh, picked the bones dry. So, that was rest of the part of the punishment. So, that's designed not to hurt you, that's just designed, designed to hurt everybody that loves you. You see, that's the Romans, they were cruel that way. Now, Joseph of Arimathea, a very rich man, and a member, uh, as we learn, uh, as we've learned, if you're reading your Scripture, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council. No wonder he was a secret disciple. Had he said anything, they would probably have crucified him too. In other words, just 'cause he was rich, doesn't mean he was brave. He said, "Yeah, take it." They use 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes. Spices were, usually they rub it all over the body, it's almost like a powdery, uh, cakey kind of substance. And then they would fold linen strips as they go and put some, you got 100 pounds worth to get on this guy. It would take a little while. And they buried him and I know who the rich man's, uh, we, we learn, I think it's in Matthew, it was Joseph's own tomb. Joseph of Arimathea, he was a rich guy, it was his own tomb. He put him there. Isaiah 53:9. Isaiah 53:9. "And he made his grave with the wicked," in other words, he died between the wicked there, "and with the rich in his death." He was buried in the rich man's tomb. Why? "Because he had done no violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth." We are told 750 years before Jesus was born that Messiah will be buried in a rich man's tomb, but he would die in the middle among sinners, not being a sinner himself. Aren't you impressed with the word of God yet? We can do this all night, but I got to get going. Got to get to work for tomorrow.

Now, because I've read the other gospels, read them, uh, together, one at a time, together. You get the full picture of everything because John doesn't cover some things, Matthew doesn't cover, uh, Mark doesn't cover, and Luke covers this and that and the other. And remember, four different perspectives. They're not leaving anything out, but you put it together and you get a, a, a full picture puzzle. It makes more sense because you get in details. And that's, that's how God chose to do that. All this stuff is true. I believe it. I don't doubt it. This is God's word. And I believe we take him at his word. Jesus Christ died on the cross, and when he had paid the price in full for all sin, that means yours and mine, he paid it all.

Announcer: Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 p.m. and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 p.m. You can download today's message in its entirety at NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. That's NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho, 83854. Or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again, 1-800-572-8851. Our mobile app is available for iPhone and Android. Download it to listen to full-length studies, watch the live stream of our services, or to find out more about church events. If you have been blessed by the teaching or have prayer requests that you would like to share with us, write, email, or call us as well. Please join with us every Monday through Friday as we study together verse by verse on Apply Within, sponsored by North Country Chapel. God bless you.