Words of Jesus Podcast - Change is Coming

Episode Date: August 26, 2022

...old things shall pass away. Sounds like heaven, right? Trouble is we are not in sync with our God. We like the 'old things', i.e. the temple (church), the priesthood (pastors), our traditions (holidays), and our status (birthright or contract salvation). Repentance requires us to change; to follow God's heart (not our own selfish desires).  It’s the only way to enter the Kingdom of God. It's "what we know" that gets in the way of communication. In theory, everyone wants change for the better. The trouble is we are quite comfortable with the way things are.  Assume what you know is incorrect. Chances are it is. Make a clean slate for the Spirit of God to teach.  ***Ch. 23: JESUS SPEAKS OF JOHN THE BAPTISTWHEN THE messages of John the Baptist had left, Jesus said to the multitude concerning the Baptizer:            “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts. But what went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, ‘And much more than a prophet.’ This is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee.’ For I say unto you, ‘Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.’”            The publicans and people who had been baptized by John glorified God because of Jesus’ words of tribute to John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected his words against themselves, being not baptized by John.             Jesus continued speaking:            “Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, ‘We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept’.  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, ‘He hath a devil’. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, ‘Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children.”***Scriptures:Matthew 11:7-19; Luke 7:24-35

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Hope you're enjoying yourself. I hope this is doing you some good. And I hope it's enriching your relationship to God. We have a wonderful God that has given us so much. And I don't even think

he could balance anywhere close the gifts that the Lord has given us because we deserve it, as opposed to the ones he's given us that we don't. He's been very, very good to us. And it has been everything that he can do to redeem us. I say all the time on my radio show,

don't look for more. Just stop looking for more and more and more. Do you realize that your father has absolutely bankrupted himself to redeem us. There's nothing else he can do. He doesn't have another son to send. He doesn't have another redeemer. He doesn't have somebody else that is going to lay down their life for you. He's done everything he has to do. He said everything that there is to say. Don't look for gold words in the sky. You haven't read the ones in ink and paper yet. Don't look for, you know, huge miracles of life and such to prove God

to you. He's not going to prove himself to you. This is by faith now. Why? He's absolutely bankrupt. He's got nothing left. There's nothing left to do. If what Jesus, you know, we talked about him pulling this out of the frying pan last time on this show. I believe it was because he just bloody well knew that if this doesn't work, there's nothing else to do. So he did indeed do that and allowed the blood of Christ to cover for our sins and allow us to have atonement and allow us in the future to have salvation and forgiveness and be a part of the kingdom of God.

And so, I so, what a wonderful God he is. Every time you look around you find him doing stuff that he just doesn't have to do. But he does it. There's a reason. He loves us. Now, hopefully with that introduction you'll understand just how bad this is as we read where Jesus speaks about John. Alright, he says that when the messengers of John the Baptist

had left, remember when he told them to go back and tell them that miracles are being done, I'm doing everything I can. And Jesus looked at the multitude and he was talking concerning John the Baptist and said, what went ye out in the wilderness to see? Now this was a general statement made to the general public because the general public came to see John. They heard about this crazy man out in the middle of the wilderness

out at the Jordan River. You know that had strange diet and strange clothing and all these kind of things. And they all went out there to see him. Jesus is asking them a question. So would you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaking in the wind? Is that what you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaking in the wind? Is that what you did? You went out to observe nature? No, you didn't do that.

But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? You see, isn't that what we see? I mean, when we go and look at our preachers and look at the people that we respect, we're a little disappointed if they're not clothed and not rich and not driving nice cars or whatever else. Is that what you're looking for? You're not going to find this in John the Baptist.

He says, but what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled and live delicately, they're in king's courts. But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,

Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee. For I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. But he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. So what's he saying here? All right, piece at a time he says um this is he of whom it was said whom it was written behold i send my messenger before thy face you there's a prophecy in the old testament that teaches that elijah will come before. Well, we happen to know that they're chronologically six months apart

as far as their births are concerned. We also know that the Jews, somewhere along the line, I have never figured out how they knew this outside of perhaps documents that we don't have today or oral tradition or whatever, but they knew that John the Baptist would be born on Passover. They knew that it would be Passover that he would come to the earth. This is why they set a plate for him at their Passover table.

They're expecting Elijah to show up again. John the Baptist was indeed the Elijah that they were looking for and I guess this is when to talk about it because I don't know that it's going to come up again it's interesting because the Pharisees came to John the Baptist and asked him, are you that prophet?

He said, no. Are you Elijah? He said, no. Are you the Messiah? He said, no. So here we have John the Baptist fulfilling the prophecy of the second, that we know of, the second coming of Elijah, or the fulfillment of the prophecy

that I am going to send Elijah, and he doesn't even know it. And if it were not for the words of Christ, where he says, there was a time when the Pharisees were trying to convince the disciples to turn away from Christ and they said you know he can't be the Messiah. They said well why? And they said well the Messiah can't come until Elijah comes. John the Baptist says he's not Elijah. We've not seen Elijah. Elijah hasn't come. So how could that be the Messiah? Well, it's a good argument.

If you don't understand some things, if you want to eliminate what Jesus said, they came back to Jesus and said, what's that all about? They said, Elijah must first come. I've heard that all my life, but all of a sudden they're using it as a proof that you're not the Messiah. He said, Elijah came. John the Baptist was Elijah. If you'll receive it. This was Elijah the prophet. This was the fulfillment of this prophecy. And these guys that have been studying this all this time, they missed him.

You know how they treated this prophet, this Elijah, the greatest prophet that ever lived? They did to him whatever they wanted. And now his head's gone. So Jesus is well aware of what's going on here. The disciples weren't necessarily that aware. The only thing they were concerned about was, what about this prophecy of Elijah? Because we haven't seen Elijah. He said, yeah, you have.

It was John the Baptist. Now, he goes on to say that he's going to prepare thy way before thee. This is a promise to Christ as the Son of God that this Elijah character, namely John the Baptist, was going to prepare the way for him. And in other words, he was going to go ahead of him, not only in birth, but in ministry. For I say unto you, among those that are born of woman,

there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Okay, what does that mean? John the Baptist had a message. And that message was if he had to put it into a sentence or a paragraph it would probably be easier than putting it into one word. Or perhaps not easier than to put it into one word. And I think we should just do that.

His whole message was what? Repent. Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand. Now because of us all growing up in the church, you know when we hear repent we understand that to be feel sorry for your sins, wish that you had never gotten caught or wish that you had never gotten caught, or wish that you had done differently, or whatever. It's an emotional thing. Whereas when the Scriptures use the word repent, there's not an emotion involved in it, except

secondarily, or subsequently. It goes alongside it, perhaps, but it's not primarily within the idea of repentance. Repentance is changing, folks. That's all that is. If I repent of going north, then I don't just stop on the highway. I have to go south in order to truly repent. Do you see that? That's really all there is to it. John the Baptist was telling the Jews, we're not going to do this like we've done it before.

Everything that you've done up until this point, you know, congratulations, good for you. But the truth is that everything is going to change. This temple is going to change. What you're going to be considering to be God's voice to you no longer going to be the prophets represented by Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. No longer going to be the law represented by Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.

But these two characters disappear. And when they disappear,esus only is standing there and the voice from heaven is this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased this is where you're going to get your instruction from these are the kind of things that john the baptist knew fully well and so his message was one of the greatest messages to ever come on the earth jesus wasn't saying yeah john the baptist you know he's a great guy he's salt of the greatest messages to ever come on the earth. Jesus wasn't saying, yeah, John the Baptist, you know, he's a great guy. He's salt of the earth. I like that guy. He's neat. He's the best guy I know. That is not what Jesus was saying.

He was saying that John the Baptist is the greatest prophet ever born of woman. Didn't say he was the greatest man, the greatest fisherman, the greatest plumber. He didn't say that. He said the greatest prophet. So I don't think that from that we can derive any other thought other than the fact that the message that John the Baptist had to bring to the earth, the one that he spoke to the people of God, the one he heard from God to his people,

was the greatest message that has ever touched the face of the earth. And what was it? Jesus Christ is coming and everything's going to change. The confusing part is when Jesus says, but I say unto you that he is, that his least in the kingdom of God is greater than he oh what does that mean oh what does that mean you know John the Baptist as great as he was was a minister under the old testament as was Jesus by the way but he was a minister under the old. He had a great message, yeah, that makes him great. But you know, everything that he had, he had as a prophet and speaking by the unction of the Holy Spirit and pretty much

well, I mean, not pretty much, he better do it properly. But the idea was for him to speak what the Lord told him to speak. And he had to deal with and minister under the Old Testament, respecting it and such as that. And there were changes that he had to go through and I think that Jesus here is saying that

you know, no matter how great you happen to be under the Old Testament under the Old Covenant, you have to understand that when we institute this new covenant what is considered to be great now is nowhere close to the way things are going to be. And I think that's pretty much all he was saying. You know, John the Baptist as I've tried to make clear I think he was fully aware of Jesus' intention to come to the earth and be king and prophet

and high priest. As a matter of fact, I think it shows up when Jesus does finally appear at the Jordan to be baptized. He comes in there and he says, I'm here to be baptized. What is John's reaction? What? Well, this is a shock. What do you mean you're here to be baptized?

I would have thought that when you came, you would baptize me. You see that? So Jesus says, no, I need you to baptize me for thus it becometh us it's good for us it's the right thing to do it is righteousness it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness to fulfill right living this is the way that it needs to be so I think that if you look at John the Baptist's ministry in any other light other than the fact that he knew fully well that there was a plan, that they were undergoing a particular plan for redemption and it was being thwarted every time they turned around until

it worried him so much that in the last portion of his life that's when he sent to Jesus and said, have we got a problem? Are things a mess? This looks like this is a mess. And he was trying to encourage him, no, come on, let's go on. We've got other things to do. Let's go, let's go. And tried to get John essentially back on track. Now, as this discourse about John continued,

well, it takes up here. It says, The publicans and the people who'd been baptized by John glorified God because of Jesus' words of tribute to John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected his words against themselves being not baptized by John. Now, when we talk about baptism, as you know, I've got some different ideas on baptism. As we talk about it, though,

it's amazing to me that people put so much stock in it that it even affects their eternal life. Many people who do that, but they're usually Bible worshipers that take Acts 2.38 and they plaster it all over everything and they want to make sure that people are baptized and the preacher says Jesus when they go under the water and all this ritual and legalism and such that they would accuse somebody who keeps the Sabbath and legalism and such that, you know, they would accuse somebody who keeps a Sabbath of legalism.

But the fact is, is that this is all legalism and dogma and these kind of things. It is interesting to note that the scriptures teach us that Jesus did not baptize. It's also interesting to know that, i mean the only person that was commissioned to baptize was john the baptist uh it was even said of him in one situation he says you know you baptized why do you baptize if you're not um elijah you're not the Messiah or whatever else. It was his, essentially a trademark. But friend, you're going to get mad at me. But that was the last water baptism. That was the last one.

Now look, I believe in a mikvah. I believe, I mean, I baptize not once. Like, I mean, if you've only been baptized once, you're likely a Catholic. I don't care if you think you're a Protestant, but the idea of baptism, of visiting the mikvah is something that you do multiple times in your life, not once and done. Who told you it was a one and done? Well, there's only one denomination I know of that talks like that. And I mean there are offshoots of

the Catholic Church and that if you believe that one baptism is enough you believe something that the Scriptures don't teach. John the Baptist was involved in a mikvah. It's something that the Jews visited the mikvah very, very often. The priest as a matter of course did this. The people who were richer than the average guy actually had mikvahs built and installed in their

homes there. It was a part of their life every day. It needs to be a part of your life every day. It's a part of my life every day. That, I mean, there's, you make decisions in your life, you repent over a particular sin, you're answering a good conscience toward God, time to go to the mikvah.

You know, people who get married I think mikvah should be a part of of a marriage vow I think it should be you got a new baby coming I think mikvah ought to be part of that a new baby being delivered into the home mikvah you know you get a new job mikvah it's time to start over it's time to answer that good conscience toward god and and get going on your way but if we're talking about baptism as far as the new testament is concerned um you know there's many people who were baptized of water that paul thought was not good enough as a matter of fact, Paul was the one that said, God didn't call me to baptize.

Did you know he said that? Baptism just wasn't a big deal in those days. And the mikvah was. That was a part of their lifestyle. And so there were baptisms going on, but it had little to do with a man's relationship to God, or at least the state of his salvation. There's only one baptism that's important, that is effective to your and for your salvation, and that is your baptism in the Spirit of God, your baptism into Christ.

And that's not done by water. It's just not done by water. It's done by the Spirit of God, your baptism into Christ. And that's not done by water. It's just not done by water. It's done by the spirit of God. If one has replaced the other in your life, you're a poor creature indeed. And, you know, to put stock in the fact that you've been wet is kind of ridiculous. And the ones who, you know, bless their hearts,

some of the people actually teach this that that and and they perform baptism they say you know this doesn't save you well good for you this doesn't do anything but get you wet well good for you you know i i'm with you i'm with you that's i love hearing you say that and and they teach everything that i'm teaching but so then so you say well then should i be baptized oh yes absolutely did you just negate everything you said well don't you think i need to be baptized? Well, Jesus was baptized. So? So what? He was circumcised as well. He was crucified.

I mean, where does this end? Do you see what I mean? We just put, you know, we're dogma-ing people to death over these things. We need to stop this. You want to be baptized? Go get baptized. It's fine with me.

It's fine with everybody involved. But you want to tell somebody that they're not saved? They're not born again? They're not in the kingdom of God because they're not baptized? And it gets even worse. Not baptized correctly?

Go do something else. Leave people alone. Man, oh man. You're driving people nuts. You know, this guy, he just wants to quit beating his wife. You think that's going to fix that? The man needs to be regenerated. He doesn't need to be wet.

Okay. Unless you think it's magic. And I guess there's those who do. Now, Jesus was talking about, now look, all this stuff about John the Baptist and all this stuff that we're talking about and how God is intervening in the earth and he's kind of the interloper here.

He's the one that's changing stuff. This is going to be difficult for you. Jesus is about to portray in this little portion of scripture. This is going to be tough for you, but you need to get your head screwed on straight here. Jesus is saying here, where unto then shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? Are you ready to hear this? It's not very complimentary.

They are like unto children, sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying, We've piped unto you, and you have not danced. We have mourned unto you, and you have not danced. We have mourned unto you, and you have not wept. What's going on here? Jesus is saying that many of us as children of God, as Christians, so to speak, many of us just have the attitude that this is a game. That, you know, the most

important thing is to join in the game. There's also an element here where God is crying out to his people saying, you know, I've piped unto you and you have not danced i've mourned unto you and you have not lamented and here you have children that have we us it's us who he's talking about and the lord lamenting the fact that you don't care about anything i care about if it's important to me it may or may not be important to you. I've mourned unto you. I've told you about things that break my heart and you couldn't care less. I don't get this. I'm telling you, he's totally baffled when it comes to selfishness. He knows nothing about it. I don't even know if he knows how to be selfish but he's saying that there's so

many things that are important to me that you don't care about we've piped onto you and you have not danced mourned on you and you have not lamented i've given you blessings you're not even thankful for them i have you've seen tragedy in your. You don't turn to me. It's just like me and you are living two different lives. And perhaps it's time that you go your way and I go mine. You think God feels that way? Absolutely I do. Absolutely I do. As a matter of fact he says you know what you can either get cold or you can get hot or I'm going to spit you out.

Well, not my God. That doesn't sound like my Jesus. Well, you know what? Your Jesus isn't the son of God. Your Jesus isn't the one who's going to save the world from their sins. I don't know who he is, but he ain't this guy. Alright, so he says, we've done all these things and we don't see anything from you. We don't see a thing in the world. I'm not getting any response from you. What's the deal?

Well, I'll tell you what the deal is. The deal is, we're never satisfied. He says, you know, I sent John the Baptist to you, and he did all these wonderful things, and you said he had a devil. Because he didn't eat and drink with you. Jesus comes eating and drinking, and you say, oh, a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber.

Are you never going to be satisfied? All right, it's time for us to go. We'll see you next time. Thanks so much for being a part of the broadcast. Tune in next time. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you