Words of Jesus Podcast - Commissioned to Preach Change

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

"Hear ye! Hear ye! The Kingdom of God is at hand."The message of Jesus was not popular with religious leaders; the same message preached by his disciples will not be popular either. Change is difficult. Listen closely to the instructions of Jesus. ***Ch. 35 – JESUS COMMISSIONS, EMPOWERS, AND SENDS FORTH THE TWELVE DISCIPLESJESUS went about among cities, villages, and in the country, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing sicknesses, diseases, and infirmities among the people. When he saw the great multitudes who followed after him, he was moved with compassion; because he saw them faint, and observed that they were scattered, as sheep with no shepherd. To his disciples Jesus said: “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” Jesus gave the power to his twelve disciples to cast out unclean spirits and heal all manner of sickness, disease, and infirmity. As the twelve went forth, Jesus instructed them, saying: “Go not into the way of the Gentiles. And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And as ye go, preach, saying, ’The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give.  Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves; for the workman is worthy of his meat.  And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into a house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.  Verily I say unto you, ‘It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city’.” “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another; for verily I say unto you, ‘Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.’ The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore; for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very

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. I'm Don Harris. Last time we went through chapter 35 of our book of the Words of Jesus and we were talking about Jesus' commission to his disciples and how he commissioned them when he sent them out and empowered them over all the power of the enemy. Very interesting diatribe. And I should, I need to go through each of these points,

at least the higher of these points. Many of these things are covered again in his words in the rest of the series. So, you know, for the sake of not having to reiterate, let me just go through some of these points here and talk about them. I hope you saw the last show where we read this through from one end to the other. And if not, this is available in your Bible. This is actually a compilation of Matthew

9, Mark 6, and Luke 9, where he commissions his disciples. So you can take a look at that. Talk to the ministers last time, because I think that, I I don't know we get caught up in our in our modern ideas and understandings of of the way church ought to be run and the way things ought to be done and and what we should preach what's acceptable and unacceptable and this kind of thing and I think we forget sometimes that we were commissioned to preach the gospel. We were commissioned to preach what changes people's lives. And it starts with the word, you know, you know what the gospel starts with? It starts with the word repent. This is a very uncomfortable thing. Jesus knew that he sent 12 men out with this kind of power, undeniable power, undeniable authority.

And the first word out of their mouth is repent. In other words, you need change. It's going to cause some trouble. And he warned them. This is going to cause trouble. This could cost you your life if you're not careful. And he said, beware of men. We're not, you know, I just can't find where the Lord says you need to be.

You need to beware of the devil. Now we need to beware of men. You know, I don't know that the devil's ever shot anybody or hung anybody or thrown him in prison. But I do know that evil and wicked men do, especially when you tell them that they need to change their ways. Let's get started into this fairly long speech that he made to his disciples. Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I think it's difficult for us Gentiles to accept the fact that Jesus didn't come to save us.

We have been brought into the kingdom of God by default, and you have to understand a very sorrowful default. Our Lord, I think his intention was to save the Gentiles, but we were to be saved as companions of his chosen people. But his chosen people rejected him. He gave parable after parable, story after story, that depict exactly what happened in these times that the householder created a feast and nobody came and so he said go out and get you know the lesser of mankind and bring them in here well hi lesser of mankind that's us i mean we have to admit that it's just us and we're sitting in seats that were you know that's got somebody else's name on them. The little place card at the feast has somebody else's name.

Who's this? Well, it's not you. But he did come to save all of Israel. He did not come to save Gentiles or the Samaritans or anybody else that was outside of his commandments. We have to admit that, but we don't have to necessarily be ashamed of it. There are people that really take offense at this kind of thing. They believe that when Jesus came, he came to save the whole world.

Well, he came to save his whole world, but he didn't come to save the whole world. Not yet. I believe that it was going to be part of the millennial reign of christ as a matter of fact this is all my conjecture i you know i could i could take you through the scriptures and tell you how i came to that conclusion but it's it's almost inconsequential other than the fact that uh when you start talking about replacement theology that the lord replaced israel with what we now call the church, that's just a hodgepodge of convoluted thinking that really gets us nowhere,

other than gives us some reason to be proud of ourselves, like we need that. So when he said, here's what I want you to do. First, this is where I want you to go. Second, this is what I want you to do. First, this is where I want you to go. Second, this is what I want you to do. I want you to preach saying the kingdom of heaven is in hand. Now, friend, this was news to the Jew that the kingdom of heaven was in hand. And he was, I think he was saying that you're going to be preaching an unbelievable gospel. Therefore, I'm going to give you the power over the enemy

in that you're going to have the ability to heal the sick and raise the dead and these kind of things that are going to undeniably settle in the minds of everyone around you that you are indeed my disciple and that you've been commissioned of the Lord God himself. So don't take lightly what I'm telling you. I think that if prophets spent more time, and I say prophets because we're in the vein of thinking this way, but I think that if preachers today understood that they were commissioned by the Almighty God to preach the gospel,

if they were, many of them are not. Many of them go to the book of Acts and pick up, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and say, well, there's my commission. No, that was the disciples' commission, not yours. You need to get yours from the Lord. And when you do, I think that, and if you don't, it's probably because you don't understand the sovereignty of our Lord God. And that there's certain things that you're not going to be able to circumnavigate a lot of these things.

One of them is repentance. You can't do that. And you can't throw away the law. I mean, Paul made it clear that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us into Christ. Well, how are you bringing them to Christ, preacher? Are you not bringing them through the law? Because is this your deal or his? All right. So we have to be, I think we as ministers have to be more careful about exactly what we preach. It's not up to you. It's not up to the little book of sermons that you bought at the Christian bookstore. It's not up to, you know, your book of

new preaching outlines or, you know, what you just read in Christianity Today last week or any of the rest of this stuff. We're supposed to be preaching the gospel. Well, if I preach the gospel every week, how am I going to grow a church that way? It's not up to you to grow a church. If you preach the gospel, then you get in touch with the Lord Jesus, and he adds to the church daily, such as should be saved. You know, your job would be a lot easier, preacher. It's no wonder preachers are killing themselves right and left. I mean, I don't mean to, it's not a comical thought,

but, wow, when you think about it, you've taken on a commission that's not yours to do a job that's not yours, that your so-called Lord has clearly said, this is my job, and you're doing it, and you're complaining that you're not equipped. And you get depressed because you can't seem to make a dent in things, and you can't seem to control your own thoughts and your own body and your own problems. And you're thinking, how can I help others? Well, you can't. You can't seem to control your own thoughts and your own body and your own problems.

And you're thinking, how can I help others? Well, you can't. You can't. There's no sense in getting depressed over it. Just join us. Join us, us nobodies. You know, we have one teacher, the Lord Jesus, and all of you are brethren.

And the quicker you realize that, the better minister you're going to be. Jesus said that freely have received and freely give. This is a concept that I think should be brought into every portion of our lives because I think that the Lord makes it very clear that his intention is for us to have the kingdom of God. It's the father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom of God. He gives us revelation. He gives us, you know, even physical sustenance. And this is why we should, our fast shouldn't be for,

you know, a reason or an opportunity for us to to afflict our souls it should be a chance for us to take our food and deal it to the to the poor why freely you've received freely give if people got a hold of this concept welfare it'd be out of business it'd be dealing with lost people it would be it certainly wouldn't be dealing with church people, but we just simply don't do that. Jesus told them, he says, when you enter into a town, inquire who in it is worthy. I wonder if you're capable of doing that. Do you think you could do that?

Do you think that you know even the right questions? Inquire. It says to inquire. You need to ask people who in it is worthy. Not ask their opinion, but you need to inquire. You need to ask, do you even know how to find a righteous man or a person who is in a particular town or congregation that indeed is worthy? Worthy of what? Worthy of you staying there. Because when you find that, this person, when you find this person is worthy, he says there's where you need to abide.

And I don't want you to go from house to house and begging and crying and bawling and squalling about your condition. What I want you to do is go into that house and I want you to bless that house, and let your peace come upon that house. Now, you may find later on that other people's opinion about this particular fellow, this particular house, this particular whatever you have decided is going to be your lodging,

is not worthy. Well, that's very, very possible. And if it is, let your peace return to you i just wonder how much that average christians out there that you know they just pretty much do their thing and go to church and to sunday school and do they even understand what the lord is saying about let your peace come on something or let it return to yourself. I don't think a lot of people even understand that because, well, frankly, a lot of people

don't have peace within themselves. They don't know how to speak peace to a situation. They just simply don't know how. They've been so busy, you know, studying the attributes of God and whether or not, you know, studying through the findings of God and whether or not, you know, studying through the findings of the Nicene Council, you know, or whatever they're doing, you know, in seminaries, but

they never really spend any time looking within themselves to find what peace is there, what peace is not, how to speak peace to a situation, and how to let it return to yourself um many and we're going to cover a lot of these things so i'm kind of skipping through if you'll allow me but um i'm trying to create curiosity of perhaps even an appetite in you to find out my goodness there's a lot of what jesus said that doesn't apply to me simply because I don't understand what he's saying. But as you begin to think red ink, these kind of things will come to you. He's saying, he says, if you find out that this house is unworthy, I want you to shake the dust off of your feet.

Now, is this something that he wants us to do physically? Well, frankly, I have done it, physically. But I don't know that that is the primary reason for what he's saying. He's saying that you need to walk away from this situation and let nothing that could even be considered theirs stick to you, not even the dust and this is a decision that we make within ourselves it's not to go off and tell ugly stories about people that treated you wrong but you just need to stand back and and clean yourself of whatever they tried to attach to you. And do you need incentive for this? Do you need incentive to not talk about these people?

And, you know, be ugly about them and tell all your friends what ridiculous ideas they have or whatever, and not gossip about them? Do you need incentive? Jesus is giving it to you. You need to realize those people are in trouble, serious trouble. You see, it'll be more tolerable for those in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for those people. Is that incentive enough for you to keep your mouth shut? I think it should be. Jesus says, I send you forth

as sheep in the midst of wolves. He was not ignorant about what kind of trouble he was sending his disciples into. Never met a man in the military that was of any leadership position that didn't have the opinion that it is an awesome and even horrible responsibility to take men, to lead men into war, and knowing that not all of them are coming back. I think Jesus was well aware of this situation. I'm sending you the sheep among wolves. I'm sending you out with an answer to supply the need of your enemy, that your enemy needs help. Who was their enemy, by the way? Who were these wolves that were going to eat them alive? Well, it's clear it wasn't the Gentiles. It's clear it wasn't the Samaritans. Who was it? It was God's people.

You need to be careful of these people. And he says, beware of men. Because, look, they're going to send you to prison. They're going to treat you badly. And they're going to do it all in the name of Jesus. Well, of course, they didn't. But you have to understand understand just because somebody's motivations or their spoken actually their spoken motivations are um semantically in line with god's

motivations or what they think is uh it doesn't it doesn't mean that what they're doing is right you need to be confident within yourself. I can't get that across to people as much as I really want to. You are totally competent to lead your spiritual life. You need to quit thinking that you need somebody else to lead you by the hand. You don't. All you need is time before the Father. This is why I tell you, keep the commandments. Never disobey your conscience. Take time every day to hear the voice of god This is so incredibly important for everybody and especially you You need to understand that you you should have this confidence if you don't have this confidence

You're going to listen to other men. You're going to care what they think about you You're not going to want to shake the dust off your feet You're going to you're going to want to be a part of them feet you're gonna you're gonna want to be a part of them because you're not confident and you're needy and you ought not be needy you don't need anything but me jesus says and he says i'm going to send you a sheep amidst amidst the wolves and he says now look you need to know these people may be your enemy but uh look i want you to understand that you need to be as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove not wise as doves and harmless as serpents which seems to be the case in many times because you know a dove you know why it's just it just

coos and it just loves everybody that gets near it it sings its little song it mates for life it's a wonderful little bird well let me tell you it might be a wonderful little bird but if it gets near that serpent it's going to be food now so when it comes to your interaction with other people it should be that you're harmless as doves. But you need to be as wise as a serpent. It's probably worth your study to take a look at snakes. I know nobody likes to do that. I certainly don't.

Have I ever told you about my snake identification procedure? You just cut its head off and look at it and see if it's poison or not. I don't know what's poison or what's not. I'm afraid of all of them. I'm sorry. It just puts cold chills up my back. I don't even like to think about it. But as far as them, you think about,

can you imagine being hungry and not having any legs or arms these guys get along just fine they seem to just you know find something to eat down there on the ground on their on their belly rolling in the dust sliding you ever see a snake on concrete how do they do that well and we all we all have our our little bits of wisdom we need to survive and he's saying that don't be a serpent as far as the way you treat other people. You know, nothing wrong with using their wisdom. Nothing wrong with being sharp, being tactful, but

harmless is a dove. People ought not be afraid of you. And I say that to myself all the time because a lot of people seem to be all right um he says um when they do deliver you up he says i don't want you to think about what you're going to say to defend yourself now i have found in my own experience that I essentially never have to do this, so I don't do it. People, you know, will want to accuse you of this or that or whatever. I don't even defend myself. I don't. You know, okay, you know, I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm sorry, you know, I think the facts speak differently. I'm telling you it's a different

situation, but I know you're going to pretty much believe whatever you want to believe. And if you want me to defend myself, you're out of luck. I'm not going to do it. What I'm going to do is I'm going to live a life before the Lord that is above reproach, if that is possible to do that, and that's what I'm going to do and hopefully that'll be enough for you it's not in some cases but i don't think that we're here to defend ourselves and he says that if you do find yourself in a situation the spirit of god will tell you in that hour what to speak and they will neither doesn't say it here but in the other gospel it says that what i tell you to speak you're going to say that in public and here's what

you're going to notice they're not going to be able to gainsay nor resist man i have experienced that that is a wonderful wonderful thing to walk in a situation and turn around and walk out because of what you said that was outside of your capability of wisdom, outside your capability of knowledge in a lot of cases. But, you know, he's just great about delivering us. And in a lot of cases, he will do that with your own mouth if you listen to what he has to say now um oh by the way and if you premeditate the other one of the other gospel says when you get

in this situation don't premeditate what you're going to say don't think well if they say this i'm going to say this if they accuse me of this i'm going to defend myself this way you know what you're doing you're filling up your little cub cubbyhole. You're putting bullets into the cylinder of your pistol, and there's just no room for the Word of God to come to you to tell you what to do. You got to be empty. You got to suffer wrongfully. You got to put up with it, and you can do that if you know the plan ahead of time. Here's the plan ahead of time. I've often said that, you know, the book of Job would be a totally different book if it started out any other way other than there came a time when the sons of men came to present themselves before the Lord. And here's the conversation that ensued. And this is how all this began. And this is how it started.

We start out reading about the sorrows and troubles of Job knowing exactly what's going on. Remember, Job didn't. This was unexplained to him. You know, we come in reading the book at a huge advantage. Well, this is your warning, your forearming right here. This is what he's done to help us arm ourselves. This is the way it's going to be. And he told me, he says, remember, in some cases, that I told you before.

Remember, I told you before. Remember, I told you before. It's a wonderful tool that I think is underused because, well, frankly, we don't think red ink. All right, then he says, when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. This goes and flies in the face of many ideas about witnessing, that every person you meet, it's just critical that they get saved or that it's critical that they understand exactly what you're trying to say and it's critical that

they you know that it turn out this way or that way and you know you plead with them and you cry with them and you beg them and you do whatever you got to do to get them saved that's not what jesus says you know look they reject you here go to the other city there's people there that's not what jesus says you know look they reject you here go to the other city there's people there that's that's his attitude i don't see him you know crying over somebody who you know wants to call him beelzebub he doesn't explain to them anything he just he might tell them what a hypocrite they are and walk away but but he walks away. Many times we just make the situation worse by staying there and thinking, oh, if they could just see reason. Oh, if they could just hear the scriptures. Oh, if they could just hear my preacher, they would repent. Look, friend, you

repented because you were called of God. They may not be. That's just a fact of scripture that some people aren't called they're just not called and you got to be careful when you're throwing those pearls out out there he doesn't say don't throw your pearls before swine because they're going to trample them in the ground and you're going to lose it you're going to you're going to be poorer than when you walked in no he says don't throw pearls before swine because they're going to be poorer than when you walked in. No. He says don't throw pearls before swine because they're going to stomp them in the earth

because they're going to realize this is not what I want. This is not the food that I require. And as soon as they realize this, as soon as it comes to them that what you've thrown out there has no value to them at all. Jesus says they will turn again and they'll tear you. That's what it means when it says they'll rend you. They're going to attack you.

This is a very dangerous situation. It's not a take it or leave it smorgasbord. They're going to be mad that you're not giving them what they want. The disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his lord it's enough for the disciple to be as his master and the servant as his lord if they called the master of the house bells above how much more should they call them of his household i hope you don't think that because you're going to go out there in the name of Jesus in a three-piece suit

and you're going to preach the gospel and you're going to be all smiley-faced and happy that everybody's going to love you. It's not true. Not if you're telling them the truth. It's not lovely. Not if you're giving them the very word from God to their soul.

You need to understand that. When I do that, they're trying to kill me. When I do that, they're calling me the dung God. You have to understand they're persecuting me every time I turn around. You think they're going to call me Beelzebub and they're going to call you Reverend Jim or Reverend whoever?

Really? You think that? You are wrong about that. And if they do speak well of you, you need to go home and check the gospel that you're preaching. Because these men in the world, they don't speak nicely about anybody except their own. They only speak nicely of the false prophets. He says that, now look, this might come to death. This might come to the point where you're going to have to die.

You remember I told you, deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me. Take up your cross, what do you think that means? This means that you need to be dedicated to this and willing to die for what you teach die for what you believe you're going to have to die for this this is extremely important that you understand that this could cost you your life now look here's the thing you need to know if they kill you out in the middle of the desert and nobody knows you're there except the the birds you need to know that birds are very important to our father and none of them fall to the ground that he's not there when they do and he'll be there when you do too he continues but we but we can't. Time is up.

We'll take a look at this next time. You be sure to be a part of that broadcast. Can I hear from you? Write to me at don at thinkredink.com or write to Think Red Ink Ministries, PO Box 718, Pai Town, New Mexico. All right, till then, my friend, Think Red Ink. Bye-bye. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series.