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JESUS THE MESSIAH |
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His Life and Times |
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No. 41 Jesus and Nicodemus Part 1
There were actually some people that heard the words of Jesus and did understand them in some measure. The disciples were with him constantly, and they must have been silently wondering about so many things that He said to them over the many months. They were with Jesus enough, though, to know that He was very different from them. Even though they didn't understand very well before He was crucified, they understood much better after he was crucified, had risen again, and after the Holy Spirit had come into them to live permanently. Then they began to remember many of the things that Jesus had told them much earlier, except now they could understand them much better. His teachings were so dramatically different from anything that they had known, that any person would have had a hard time fully understanding everything He had to tell them. The main thing was that their hearts were open to start receiving the truth. Jesus did much of his work among the people by using 'signs' to reveal Himself to them. He would not give a 'sign' to the Pharisees when they asked for one, though, because he knew their innermost hearts and character. They didn't really want to receive the truth from Him. They were just trying to trap him in some way. On the morning of 'His Work', though, He spoke by 'signs.' The Feast of the Passover started on the 15th of Nisan, with the Paschal Lamb being slain on the afternoon of the 14th. The evening of the 13th was marked with the head of each household lighting a candle in solemn silence. Then they would search for all the leaven in their house and gather it up. This search was done with solemn thanksgiving and appeal to God, and it ended with a solemn declaration that he had gathered all the leaven as far as he knew. This kept him from being responsible for any that had been hidden in any way. As the worshippers went to the Temple, they would see two desecrated cakes of some thank offering which indicated that it was still OK to eat leaven. By 10 or at the latest 11 o'clock, one of the cakes was removed. This was the signal that it was no longer lawful to eat leaven for the designated time during the feast. By 12 o'clock, the second cake was removed. This was the signal for solemnly burning all the leaven that had been gathered.
The Paschal Week To those who came to Jerusalem, it was such a week as had never been seen before. It was a week where Jesus performed many signs and wonders among the people, and many of them believed on Him as the Messiah. Jesus always spoke to people in the best way that they could understand. He knew these people would not believe as readily as his disciples had, so he started teaching them with signs and wonders. He used whatever worked to get through to them. The grand effect of these miracles was to give the more spiritually minded people proof that Jesus had indeed come from God. We tend to think of all the miracles that are written about in the Bible from our present circumstances. Today we would not expect to be convinced of the truth of religion, or even converted to it by just outward miracles. It would take more than that because of all the supernatural things that we see or hear about on a regular basis that we know do not come from God. God always adapts His teaching to our learning, though. The people of the Bible approached the moral and spiritual through the miraculous. They expected God to work in miraculous ways because it was what they had always known since their nation had been founded. Because of that, no teaching of the new faith would have been real without the evidence of miracles. The people of the Bible regarded everything that was above their own view-point of nature as supernatural. Even though others claimed to do miracles, there was a huge difference between their miracles and the miracles that Jesus did during his earthly ministry.
Nicodemus He was a Pharisee and a member of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. Nicodemus was a very cautious person by nature, timid of character, and had a very thoughtful mind about everything that he saw Jesus doing. There must have been a mighty power of conviction that came over Nicodemus to break down the prejudices that had formed in his heart. After all, he was very high up in the Jewish religion, and there is much about it that he would have had to disregard in order to even start believing all the things that Jesus was teaching. After all, he would be acknowledging a Galilean that was untrained in any of the best schools of the time. This man Jesus was saying that He was 'a Teacher come from God.' He had no formal training as far as the Pharisees were concerned. Nicodemus was no doubt taking a great risk in acknowledging Jesus. That's why at the very beginning he wanted to keep his views a secret. He needed to know for sure if this Jesus was teaching something that was real. What Nicodemus did was almost like treason as far as the Pharisees were concerned. Jesus had already purged the Temple, so he was on the black list of the Pharisees, and they were already trying to find a way to destroy him so they could save the Jewish religion. Even with everything that had happened, Nicodemus wanted to see this Jesus personally. It seems like that meant more to him than saving face with the Jewish Sanhedrin. It must have been something that he just had to do, regardless of what the outcome might have been. The next text will go into further detail about what Jesus and Nicodemus did when they had a meeting together. For more information from this book, go to the Archives Page at my site www.cathydeaton.com There are other articles of interest there also. This text has been taken from the book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah written by Alfred Edersheim. Permission has been given to use this book.
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