Words of Jesus Podcast - Compliments Conceal Hearts and Intentions

Episode Date: July 9, 2021

Today’s slogan ideology is too narrow to cover the revelation Jesus came to convey. We think we know, so we are not listening! Have you read the Scriptures where Jesus tries to describe the Kingdom of Heaven using our language? It was difficult. It is recorded once that Jesus asked, and then answered, “Why do you not understand my sayings? Even because you cannot hear my words.”  We need more than ears to get this message! Good news! If we keep the Commandments, Jesus and the Spirit of God, will help us - from the inside.    ***Chapter 7: (Part 2) JESUS' WORDS TO NICODEMUSOne night a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus and said: "Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Jesus answered: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Perplexed by the answer, Nicodemus asked: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus replied: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God'. That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, 'Ye must be born again.' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.'" Nicodemus asked: "How can these things be?" Jesus answered: "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 'We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.' If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to Heaven, but he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of man which is in Heaven. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello friend and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series brought to you by Think Red Ink Ministries, Pytown, New Mexico. I'm Don Harris, your host, and it's my privilege and my pleasure to bring you the Red Words of Christ. I wonder if you know where the history of the red words comes from. You know, many of you have Bibles that are called red letter edition Bibles. And about

I don't know, 100, 150 years ago, a man named Klopsch, I wish somebody that spoke his language would tell me how to pronounce his name. But he decided that the words of Jesus needed to be designated in the King James Bible. I don't know if you've noticed, but in the King James Bible, they have no quotation marks. And so sometimes it's dubious as to who is speaking. He felt such a need to do so that we understand that Jesus actually said this, that he thought, well, this just needs to be put into a different color. Well, he was a book printer.

And so he didn't see any trouble with putting it into a different color, but he did so. And one afternoon listening to a preacher preach about the blood of Christ and how it redeems us and has paid the ransom for our soul, he said, what better color to put it in than red? So thus the Red Letter Edition Bibles came along and maybe you have one. I've been surprised to find how many people don't

and how many people are not really surprised but it's news to them that the words of Jesus are in red ink in some Bibles. But they are. And so thus the name of our ministry, Think Red Ink. It's so important to me to help you the way that the gospel stories helped me.

And mostly having to do with what Jesus actually had to say. And so we're going to continue today in chapter 7 of our little book, The Words of Jesus, with Jesus' words to Nicodemus. One night a Pharisee named Nicodemus, ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus and said, Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.

Let me say first off that the chronology I'm sorry, the chronology I'm sorry, the chronology of the New Testaments has always been a very difficult thing to establish. And by that I mean what happened first. Because if you notice, this is coming from John 3, the story of Nicodemus.

And essentially, he really hasn't done much until now. mistake to think that the time span that is shown to us in the Gospel of John is the same time span that is shown to us in the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The synoptic Gospels, the three Matthew, Mark, and Luke, start with Jesus' birth and go until His death. I'm convinced that the book of John takes up

way late in His life and carries us through His death. The book of John, as we talked about before eliminates a lot of the stories or doesn't record a lot of the stories. One of the things that John says that's incongruent with the rest of the synoptic gospels is that when Jesus was baptized he went out

straightway, immediately went out and called His disciples. The other Gospels say that Jesus was baptized and then He went to the Mount of Temptation. And then His disciples were called. So there is a difference actually in the way John says it and the way the other people say it. But there's no need to fret over this. There's no need to worry about the chronology here. I laid out at one time a chronology

of the New Testaments and found just how difficult it is to do. And I would suggest that most of us just relax about this. John is writing down what, well I believe what the Holy Spirit dealt with him to write. So here we have a story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus and saying nobody can do these miracles except God

be with him. Well, what miracles? What miracles? Well, this is way late in his life and ministry. So there were many miracles done. Nicodemus was aware of many of them. So I would say that we just shouldn't make this a difficulty. It is an interesting study. I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from studying it, but

it's hardly important to try well, I don't know how much good it does us to take the gospel of John and try to prove or disprove the synoptic gospels with it. Because John, wow, man, the gospel of John just stands alone, I think. It stands way off from the synoptic gospospels in many different ways and many different aspects. So when he says that we know you're a teacher come from God for or because no man can do the miracles that you do except God be with him.

I don't know exactly which miracle he's talking about or which set of miracles or what actually he's talking about here. that was to Jesus, where Jesus didn't feel any obligation to return his compliment or to even acknowledge his compliment, but got straight into the situation of being born again. Jesus answered and said, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Perplexed by the answer, Nicodemus asked, how can a man be born when he's old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus replied, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. There are flaws with modern Christian thinking and many of them have to do with the words and phrases that are used in the scriptures

being misunderstood or not understood where we have a tendency to throw, as I say, all the words into one bucket. And we have this great big bucket called salvation. And into it we throw sanctification and redemption and justification, being born again, entering the kingdom of God, entering the

kingdom of heaven. Everything that even remotely sounds like being saved, and it all goes into the bucket that has salvation marked on it. Well, you know, that's a huge mistake when a person is trying to develop a scriptural doctrine and trying to develop a scriptural doctrine and trying to bring about a scriptural

doctrinal stand because entering the kingdom of heaven is one thing. Being regenerated is another thing. Being sanctified is yet another thing. Being forgiven is another thing. Experiencing the grace of God is another thing. We can't just throw all these things

together into one big hunk of understanding of going to heaven when you die. Unfortunately, that's exactly what many of us have done and therefore our doctrines are really shallow and hollow and very much lacking in the area of substance and the ability to enhance our life or to edify us. We need to take words very seriously.

And I would say that the first rule of taking words seriously is to know their definition. Now here we see that Nicodemus is saying or Jesus is actually saying that except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Is he saying that a person has to be born of water,

and we understood from last time we talked about this, this is talking about being born like all of us have been born, born of the flesh. He's saying that being born of the flesh and of the Spirit are two different things. Here's Jesus again defining things. He's telling Nicodemus, you're taking the word born and insisting that it only means one thing. And it doesn't. There was a time

that I think is worth mentioning here when Jesus says, why is it that you do not understand my speech? He answers his own question by saying, even because you cannot hear my word. Now, isn't my word and my speech the same thing? Well, no, it's not.

Jesus found himself in the flesh talking to flesh, us, about spiritual things that only He had experience in. Do you understand? Only He has seen the Father. Only He knew the plan from the beginning. Only He had these understandings and so he comes to the earth and finds himself

immersed in a society and a language and a vocabulary and a general understanding of religion. He finds himself immersed in and growing up in this and is forced to explain to flesh about the spirit. And he finds it very difficult to do all the time. As a matter of fact

he says right here that except a man be born again, he has to use the word born. He's chosen this word for a particular reason. Now it's misunderstood by Nicodemus and says how can a man be born twice? You can't do that. Now Jesus is in this frustrated position of having to explain to him, you got to understand, Nick, I'm coming from a different world. You don't know anything about the world I come from.

I'm doing the best I can. I'm using your language to try to explain to you what exactly is going on here. Another good example of this is when they sent to Jesus and they said, your friend Lazarus is sick. And so I guess three days, four days passed, and he tells his disciples, let's go see about Lazarus. And they said, yeah, okay, we'll go check on him,

see if he's okay. No, no, we're not going to check on him, see if he's okay. Lazarus is asleep. Here you have Jesus trying to explain to the disciples the state of a man after he dies and before he is resurrected. Jesus chose out of whatever language, whatever dictionary, whatever

terms, whatever vernacular that he had at his disposal he chose the best word he could and said that Lazarus was asleep. Well, one of the disciples said, oh, well if he's asleep then he does well. That's good for a man to get some sleep if he's sick. Jesus had to say, no, no, no. Lazarus is dead. Oh.

Now we find Jesus having used the word sleep and death as they're not synonymous by any means, but one describes the other better than the basic or the average or the common understanding of death. Many people feel like death is simply the absence of life. Some people think that death is the initiation or the beginning of their eternal life. There's people who believe that as soon as you die that you're instantly with Jesus. So it's

real hard to understand why that would be considered sleep but many people feel that way. Jesus didn't choose the word death when He spoke of Lazarus. He said He was asleep. This is the stage between when a man is living, having died, and now awaiting the resurrection. That point in between is Jesus thought that the best word for that was sleep.

Disciples misunderstood it. Jesus talks about the kingdom of God. You have to be born again or you won't see the kingdom of God. You'll find over in Matthew, I believe it's Matthew, where Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God and he says, let me see if I can describe the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is like unto, you remember this? And he would give an example. And then

he would say the kingdom of God is like unto and then he would give another example. Or a word or an adjective or a, or a phrase. The kingdom of God is like unto... Now, the kingdom of God is like unto... And he kept doing this until all of a sudden we've got a list of words or phrases to try to describe something to humans of a particular language, what the kingdom of God really is

like. He was having extreme difficulty explaining this. The Pharisees one time, no, no, Sadducees came to Jesus one time because they don't believe in resurrection. They don't believe in those things. And Jesus is talking about a promise of resurrection. And they said, okay. Now, remember we talked about that, absurdium arguments? They said, all right, so here's Joe Blow.

He marries, you knowries a girl and he dies. Now, she takes another husband and then he dies. And then takes another husband and then he dies. And so forth and so on until she has totaled, I think, seven husbands. So in order to kind of put down what Jesus is teaching, they said, so in this resurrection thing that you're talking about, I could just hear these snide attitudes and these snarl little upturned lips, you know, at the idea of Jesus teaching something that they don't teach,

believing things that they don't believe, and wanting to disprove them. He says, so in this resurrection, whose wife will she be? Huh? And Jesus is saying, listen to this. Listen to this. You are making a mistake. You are erroring in your belief. You err in your doctrine.

You don't understand because this is a hard one for us to swallow for a lot of different reasons. I don't know that we want to talk about them all. But he says, you do err knowing not the Scriptures nor the power of God. What is he saying? Well, I'll tell you what he's saying. He's saying that if we were

familiar with God's way and understood what he had to say to us, if we understood the spirit behind what the prophets had to say, we understood the spirit of God, the power of God, the grace of God, God's power used on our behalf, God's power in the universe, who He is, what He is, what He stands for. If you understood what I understood, you would realize that's a stupid question.

Okay. Are you adding words to the Bible? I'm not adding them to the Bible, but I'm adding them to my story if it's all the same to you. I'm trying to put pants on the scriptures for you. I want you to see just exactly the way these arguments were taking place. And why they were taking place. Jesus was trying to describe something that was indescribable. He was trying to take a language that didn't have enough words in it.

It didn't have, it was lacking in so many ways. He couldn't explain these things. He says, if you knew what I knew, you'd understand that in the resurrection we're like the angels. We don't marry or give in marriage. We don't have a male and female thing. We don't have that problem. Well what do you have? Do you see that confused feeling in your head? You feel that? what do you have? Do you see that confused feeling in your head?

You feel that? When he says there's no male and female business going on. There's no marriage. There's none of that stuff. We don't deal in that stuff. That confused feeling you think well what do they do? What are we then? What is a male? What is a female? Do you see that feeling you have? That's similar to what Jesus feels when he knows the way things are and he can't explain it to us. We're pitiful, pitiful creatures.

We ought to thank God that he even takes the time to try to explain some of these things to us. But I guess what I want you to see here most of all is that when we take our wonderful God, this all-powerful Jehovah God and his son, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of all mankind, the planners of this entire redemptive process, the ones who always were and always will be. When we take these hugely wonderful beings and try to condense

them into a language spoken by, you know, a little segment of the world. Okay, let's say it's a hundred times that. It's still a language that is lacking in so many. I remember when I was learning different languages, I was shocked that they, you don't have a word for that? Really? Or somebody asked me, what does such and such mean? And I'd say, well, it means this.

And they say, hmm, we don't have a word for that. What? I met, when I was working with the Lakota Indians up in South Dakota, I found out that the Lakota Indians don't have any cuss words. I'm thinking, how do you get along without cuss words? But languages, nonetheless, this idea of funneling this huge being

I mean we're talking about a God whose throne is heaven and the earth is his footstool. We're going to take all of that and we're going to funnel it into a particular language. We're going to tighten that down. In computer language, you know what this is? This is bandwidth. In audio, we have bandwidth in audio. That's why a phone sounds like a telephone. It sounds terrible.

You can hear what they say, but it sounds terrible. You don't listen to music through a telephone. It sounds terrible. Why? The bandwidth is smaller. Everything has to be translated. Words have to have five, six different meanings. We suffer with that in English today.

Some of the largest and most fluent and most floral and beautiful languages in the world have words missing. They have words that we can't describe. They have words that we cannot spell. We have alphabets of 20, perhaps 25, perhaps 26, perhaps 30 characters. But it's just not enough. So some characters have to stand for two or three different sounds. We put little dots over them, or we put little lines over them, or we put little curlicues on them. Why are we doing this? Because the language is too small.

It's just too small. Describe for me the kingdom of God you know and essentially Jesus would have to after so many attempts have to say you know what I don't think I can so you have Nicodemus talking about being born again and he's hung up

on the word born Jesus' attitude is hey Nick you ain't seen nothing yet this is a very difficult thing to do. So this is why, if it wasn't so sad, if it wasn't so dangerous to our Christian walk, it's almost laughable when people think that everything God is, everything that he ever has to say to mankind is contained in the Bible. It's the most foolish thing anybody can say.

That takes their God and puts him on the level of just an uneducated nobody. Do you understand what I mean? You can't do that. We have to have communion with him. We have to speak to him every day and let him speak to us. It's time for us to go already. Join us next time for the Words of Jesus series. I want to hear from you. So write to me, will you? You can just send an email to Don at thinkrightinc.com or you can go to thinkrightinc.com and find what you need. We'll be glad to send it to you, get it to you any way that we can.

You can write to us, Think Right Inc. Ministries, at P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you