The Daily Blade: Joby Martin & Kyle Thompson

#139 - Joby Martin // Knowledge vs. Relationship: Meeting Jesus in the Darkness

Season 1 Episode 139

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2:

Howdy, welcome to the Daily Blade. This week we're going to do a deep dive on John, chapter 3. John is obviously written by the Apostle John. He lives longer than any of the other apostles. He, according to himself, is the one that Jesus loves the most. He writes a whole bunch of Bible. Honestly. He's got the Gospel of John 1st, 2nd and 3rd John and the book of Revelation and we get some insights into who Jesus is, the character and nature of God. And we get some insights into who Jesus is, the character and nature of God in the gospel of John that we don't get into in the synoptic gospel. So we're going to do a deep dive on John, chapter three, beginning in verse one. The Bible says this Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and this man came to Jesus by night and said to him Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Speaker 2:

All right, let's talk about Nicodemus a little bit. He comes at night and probably the reason is because he doesn't want anybody to know that he's talking to Jesus. Maybe he's got peer pressure from the other Pharisees. Maybe he's got peer pressure from the other religious leaders, yet he is curious enough to show up at night under the guise of darkness, and one of the beautiful things is that Jesus is going to meet him right where he is Now. Here is a big fat warning that I want to give you about Nicodemus. My fear is is that if you're listening to the Daily Blade then you are probably have questions and curiosity and about Christianity and the Bible and Jesus, just like Nicodemus does.

Speaker 2:

But the problem with the Pharisees in the first century I know they get a bad rap, but the name Pharisee literally means separated ones, and the idea was it was a group of Yahweh followers, god followers, folks that were a part of the old covenant, the Hebrew Bible readers and believers, and they believed that if they could separate themselves from the sin and nastiness of this world, if they could obey God's law with such perfection and maybe even create some guardrails which are not bad things around God's law to make sure that they were not tainted by the sin of this world, then they would be so separated, they would be so holy, they would be so set apart that they would be the first ones to see the Messiah, the coming Messiah, when he showed up on the scene. The problem is, is what we see over and over and over? But we see it best here with Nicodemus in this conversation, that he was way caught up in the activity of following the law that he missed the law giver. He was so caught up in the rules that he misses out on a relationship with Jesus, that he was so caught up in the words of the scripture in the Old Testament that he missed the point of the scripture that he's literally memorized. In order to be a Pharisee, he would have memorized the entire Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, forward and backward, and backward and forward, and he had memorized all of the words of the scripture at that point. And yet he doesn't recognize. The author of scripture is standing right in front of him. He can literally smell the breath of God, but because he has yet to surrender his life to Jesus, he is not filled with the breath of God. Now the good news is we find out by the end of the Gospel of John that eventually, probably at the cross itself, he comes around to finally put his faith in Jesus.

Speaker 2:

But at this point he doesn't know who Jesus is. And here's my big fat warning to you, especially if you go to church all the time, if you grew up in church all the time, if the moment that I said John, chapter three, you knew that Jesus was gonna be talking to Nicodemus. Let me give you a warning Please, please, please, don't miss out on Jesus. Please don't know about church and please don't miss out on Jesus. Please don't know about church and please don't know about Bible stories and please don't just know about Bible verses and please don't know about just good Christian morality and values and those kind of things and miss out on Jesus. You see, he calls Jesus rabbi and that's the only way that he knows him, which, funny enough.

Speaker 2:

When Judas is sitting around the table and Jesus says one of you will betray me, every single one of the 11 disciples other than Judas says is it I Lord? Is it I Lord? Is it I Lord? Is it I Lord? And then Judas says is it I Rabbi? It is not enough to know Jesus Christ as a teacher or a good moral example. It is not enough to know Jesus Christ as a teacher or a good moral example. It is not enough to simply follow the teachings of Jesus. That's a very popular phrase these days, but do you know Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Lamb that came to die in our place for the sacrifice and substitutionary atonement of our sins? Have you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Please don't listen to the Daily Blade every day and miss Jesus. I hope this deep dive into John, chapter 3, helps you know Jesus.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.

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