Words of Jesus Podcast - "For this cause came I unto the world…"

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

When you get the red-letters right, it all makes sense! This was my destiny. Aramaic Peshitta a gospel recorded in Aramaic. Translated into English by George Lamsa. ***116: The Death Of JesusMatthew 27:45-56; Mark 15:33-41; Luke 23:44-49; John 19:28-37From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, while Jesus was on the cross, there was darkness over all the land.            About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, saying:            “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”            Some of those who heard Jesus said:            “Behold, he calleth Elijah.”            One ran, took up a sponge, filled it with vinegar, placed it on a reed, and pushed it up to give Jesus a drink.            Some said:            “Let alone. Let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”            Then Jesus cried out in a loud voice:            “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”            Having said this, he died and the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth quaked; and rocks broke one upon the other. Graves opened and the bodies of many sleeping saints arose.            The officer of the soldiers, and others that were with him, when they saw these things occurring at the death of Jesus, said:            “Truly this was the Son of God.”

Music Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Music Hello my friends, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris, your host. I'm glad to be here and I'm glad this story of the execution of Jesus Christ is coming to an end.

It's been very uncomfortable. But I hope you have received from it insights and that your understanding of these things is opening and growing. Because this was a critical moment in time and in the history of the world. I think it's amazing as much as we would like to discount God's influence in the world, and certainly Jesus Christ's influence in the world. There's just some things that are irrefutable.

I ask people, so where did the seven-day week come from? And why didn't we change that? Ever. Why do we have seven days in a week? Why not ten? Why not put it on the metric system? Why have we maintained this all this time? I happen to think it's supernatural. I happen to think that God is protected that seventh day week because His law is eternal, that we'll keep the seventh day. And because His law is eternal, those things are

just seemingly untouchable. There are many things about our life that I don't think we take, I think we take them for granted and I don't think that we apply them, their power, their influence, their immutability as supernatural, but I happen to think that they are. There's a common thing today when we talk about BC and AD. We know that BC means before Christ, and Anno Domini is the year of our Lord. Somehow along the way we quit counting the years, counting them, essentially counting them down. I don't think we ever counted them down, but as we look at our system today,

we see that the BC years count down to the life and death of Jesus Christ. And we see that the Anno Domini, the AD years count up from the birth, the life, the death of Jesus Christ. This was a huge event. This was a worldwide idea of what year it is. And how do we determine what year it is? We begin at the birth and death of Jesus Christ. These kind of things have proven to be, at least up until now, immutable.

I think that somewhere along the way, someone who is disgusted about Jesus having such an influence has come up with the idea of BCE. Have you heard that? Teachers are teaching this to children now, people are saying it now. I even hear Christians say it. Shame on you! What are you saying BCE for? BCE means before the common era and it

does have nothing to do with Christ. As a matter of fact, I think it was just invented for that very purpose so that these kind of things are are not paid attention to. Okay, poor sentence structure, but the idea is the same. I think that those things have a purpose, and that one is just sinister, as far as I'm concerned. So we have the idea of BCE. It's not before Christ, it's before the Common Era.

Well, I gotta ask you a question. What denotes the common era? You know, I've always said that if you had to make a big black mark on a timeline somewhere, wow, why not the Industrial Revolution? The whole world changed at that point. Why aren't we starting from there with year one? Because things pretty much have continued the way they've been up until like 200 years ago.

200 years ago, that would have been a good time. Maybe 1776. I don't know. Anything could have been a better, more logical, more worldly time start than you know just believing in Jesus. So none of this stuff makes sense and none of it you know follows any logical pattern other than Jesus Christ was a real man. He really did walk on this earth. He really was the Son of God. He really did exist. Can you imagine? I mean to give that kind of an honor that

our years begin the day Muhammad was born. Can you imagine that? Wouldn't it just kind of force us to look at that? And I think that's the reason why it's so despised. But here it is anyway, seven day week, because God said so, and we count our years because we count them from Jesus. That's all there is to this. And I think it's just, I think it's just the Lord I don't know kind of rubbing our face in it you can ignore him if you want to but you live as though it's true you might you know not believe in me but you live as though it's true it's it's it's almost like a plan somehow. I happen to think it is.

Now, we have this situation of the death of Jesus. We're gonna be talking about it today in chapter 116 of our book. Let me read what we have here. From the sixth hour to the ninth hour while Jesus was on the cross, there was darkness over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice saying, Now I promised you, was that the last show or the show before?

I told you, you need to hold on to this thought because you're going to need it again, remember? Yes. And what was that thought? Well, it was we were dealing with the proposed or at least the potential of a temptation of Jesus on the cross being offered that should you come down from that cross, we'll install you as the king of Israel. Should you come down from that cross, we'll believe you're the son of God. He said, if he's the son of God, let him come down, that we may believe him.

Well, Jesus is an idiot, and he certainly, I would say he's probably sharper than Abraham. Abraham says they're not going to be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Jesus proved that three days later and so he's thinking no wait a minute, wait a minute, this isn't a temptation. This can't be done, it's too late for these things. It was pretty much what he said to Peter that said suffer you thus far.

It's too late. It's too late. There's nothing we can do at this point. We just need to get on the train and ride it. Why is that Jesus? Well because we're talking about the Passover. What are we going to do? Do this again next year? Is that what we're going to do? The blood is already flowing. It's a done deal. It's a fait accompli. There's nothing we can do here. And as he realized that he was in the middle of that he was in the middle of redeeming, paying the ransom for his people. This temptation started to fade away and I told you he said something and you'll be surprised what it is. Well we've reached it now and ironically, strangely, this might, and surprisingly, you might not be able to make

this fit. He says, My God, my God, Lama sabachthani. What was he saying? Well, you know, it's kind of strange, well not so strange I guess, it's a clue that when he said this, the people who were in attendance of his execution did not know what he said.

Here he says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of those who heard Jesus said, behold, he calleth for Elijah. Well, that really doesn't come out in the English, does it? Where is Elijah? Where is a word that even looks like, sounds like Elijah in that? Well, it's because what he spoke was Aramaic. Eloi, Eloi. Or in one Gospel he he says Eli, Eli.

You see, he was calling upon God, but from a distance, or at least from the ground, and perhaps because his face was swollen, perhaps because he'd been beaten, perhaps because he was out of breath, his lungs full of blood or fluid or whatever else, he was in the midst of and in the throes of his horrible, horrible death, perhaps it wasn't as clear as it should be. Perhaps they just didn't hear. Perhaps they couldn't hear. And as Jesus spoke to his father in Aramaic, he called upon him either the

word Eli or Eloi, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This has been a mystery for a long, long time. People want to know why in the world did he say that? Well, first of all, he didn't say that. Let's continue to read here. Some of those who heard Jesus said, Behold, he called for Elijah. One ran and took a sponge, filled it with with vinegar and placed it on a reed and pushed it up to give Jesus a drink some said let alone let's see whether Elijah will come and take him down that was absolute sarcasm then Jesus cried with a loud voice, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Having said this, he died, and the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks broke one upon another.

Graves opened and the body of many sleeping saints arose." Now, back to, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well, you've heard me mention before the Aramaic Paschida. I happen to really appreciate this Bible. This was, it's purported to have been delivered to the Eastern Church by the disciples themselves written in Aramaic. Now you might think yeah yeah okay so well you understand how how huge that is. You can understand why the the Bible scholars of that day and even to this day

despise the Aramaic Prashita. The reason that they despise it is it cuts out the middleman. It cuts him out completely. Why is that? Because if Aramaic was indeed the language Jesus spoke and many people believe it's true that that's what he spoke, being a Galilean. If he spoke in the Aramaic language, not Arabic by the way, but Aramaic, if he spoke that language, likely his disciples spoke that language. If they spoke that language, they likely wrote in that language. If they spoke that language they likely wrote in that language. I know I understand Luke was you know he was a Greek educated man

and likely the book of Luke was written in Greek. However it's understood that Matthew was written in Hebrew. I told you before Matthew had a huge affinity for the Jews and for prophecy and constantly took everything Jesus did and tied it to some prophecy somewhere. But chances are that this crucifixion story written in Aramaic was misunderstood by us through the translation of Aramaic to Hebrew or to the complications of the Septuagint, the 70 writers who translated the Bible, then subsequently translated into others, into Latin, into the Greek, and into the, some of them went back into Hebrew and some, there's just a, there's a whole line of translations that if these documents were delivered indeed to that Eastern Church in Aramaic, in the original language, and you have a man like George Lamza

who grew up in that society, he made the comment one time that the society in which he grew up, the town in which he grew up, he said if Abraham were to be raised from the dead and stand in his city that he was raised in, he would think nothing, absolutely nothing has changed in this world. So this man was uniquely qualified. Why? Some fellow appreciated George's quick wit and his knowledge, his love for books, his love for the Lord, and educated him in the English language. And he became fluent in the English language, able to read and write in that language. And when he heard about

the Aramaic Prashita, he decided to that perhaps I should translate this into English. Well what did he just do? All the middlemen are cut out? Well, what's the Greek say? Well, does it really matter? Here's what Jesus said in Aramaic and this is the direct translation Into English what difference does it make what the Greek says? Well, you're gonna really tick off a whole lot of Greek Philosophers Greek professors Greek teachers, Greek proponents, Greek students, you know, colleges that teach Greek.

You're going to really tick them off. Well, what does the Hebrew say? Does it really matter? Here you have this written in Aramaic, the language that the people spoke, and I'm translating it directly into English. Now before you get so leery of this saying, ooh, I don't know, that's another translation. It's not King James. Should we read it?

You know what George Lambs' comment was, he was amazed at how accurate the King James was. He kept finding, like, how did they get that from this? Well, you see, what he was experiencing was that supernatural translation. You know, the Bible is miraculously preserved. The thoughts in it are miraculously preserved. He, as a man uniquely qualified to say so, says that the King James is just really, really good. As a matter of fact, he used the King James parlance in a lot of these things because it couldn't be improved upon. That's quite a testimony. So before you think that he's just some kind of heretic and that we shouldn't pay attention to this Bible, take another look at the Aramaic Peshitta. Now, what does he say, what does George Lamsa say

about the comment, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well, he's saying that if you take the words that Jesus actually said, Eloi, Eloi, la masa bakhtani, in Aramaic, if it's understood that this word actually has this meaning, this word actually has this meaning, and coupled all together, do you know what Jesus said? He said what he thought, as he was considering what he heard all the people

below him saying, well, if he's Elijah, let him come get him. If he's the king of Jews, let him come down. We'll worship him. If he is indeed the son of God, let him come down. We'll believe him. So, why didn let him come down. We'll believe him. So why didn't Jesus come down? It's an interesting question. Well, you know, the time was what

it was that this was happening on Passover, which is almost a miracle in itself. I'm shocked that the Jews bypassed everything they believed and decided to crucify a man unpassed over. I'm surprised that the Roman government says okay we'll crucify him but on your feast day? Can you do that? You allow me to release one on the feast day, but you want me to hold a whole crucifixion on this day? Really? Is that what you want me to do? It's amazing

that it actually happened on this day. But it all was coming together. It was the plan of God. He saw everything happen just as it's supposed to happen and said, my God, my God, as it's supposed to happen and said, my God, my God, for this reason I was born. This was my destiny. He understood that and that's what he said in Aramaic. This is the way things are to be, thus eliminating any temptations in those areas, allowing him to complete what the Lord God had commissioned him to do. My God, my God, this was my destiny. Then it says, he looks up, cried out in a loud voice, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Why did he do that by the way?

We have a lot of really bad ideas about what happens to us after we die. One of the groups of people that you can thank for that is the American Bible Society. They decided that you don't need certain books in your Bible. I know they were there when the King James was translated. The King James actually contained them, but we've decided you don't need to see these. Does that just aggravate and irritate you like it does me? Boy, that just is so bad.

You might wonder why my Bible is so thick. Well, I went and got those books, and I want to see what they have to say. What's really unfortunate is the question that seems to be on most people's minds. It doesn't really matter who you talk to. You want to start a conversation with them? So tell me, what do you think happens to us after we die? Well, a lot of people have an opinion on that. Some people just dismiss it by saying, well, we just go to the ground and we rot.

But if you talk to people inside of religious circles, they start talking about eternity. They start talking about going to heaven and being with God. Some of them quote this scripture and that scripture and they all have these ideas about what happens to us when we die. What's so unfortunate is Book of Second Esdras, seven Esdras. Remember I told you about the Greek names having S's on the end? What is that name without an S on the end? It's Ezra.

It's the prophet Ezra. We're all familiar with him. Well, the book of 2nd Esdras that's been removed from your Bible, 7 actually explains to us what happens after we die. Even in the Bible that you carry around, even if you don't have an Apocrypha in your Bible, you find in the book of Ecclesiastes that who knoweth, the Bible says, who knoweth the spirit of the beast,

the animal, that goes downward when a man dies and the spirit of a man that goes upward. Well because we don't understand the difference between a soul and spirit, only the Word of God, Jesus Christ, can show us that difference, dividing even us under the soul and spirit. It was one of the characteristics of the Word of God, which is Jesus Christ. Without that understanding, you're lost. You're not going to figure this out. But when we die, the spirit

that is in us, that gives us life as human beings, belongs to our God. That's not you, that's the spirit of life within our flesh. And as it leaves, it goes, the book of Ecclesiastes says it goes back to the God who gave it and that's pretty much all there is to that and the flesh now with no life in it is buried and in disposed somehow and hopefully until the resurrection will awake him and I'm talking about the resurrection of the

righteous because there's actually two. Everybody's gonna get resurrection some people are not gonna be happy about it at the end of a thousand years we find that those people who really didn't appreciate the things of God, by the way all that's in the book of Esdras too, you can see what happens to people as they die. They start to realize all the things that I'm telling you now that there are peaceful and there are tormentous habitations for the dead. Now when Jesus was about to die

he's fully aware of these things. He knows all about these things. So what did he commend to the Lord? His body? No. His blood? No. What did he commend to the Lord? His spirit. His spirit was about to leave his body. And there was a time when the physical body of Jesus breathed its last. And when he did, that spirit of God that actually filled that fleshly body of Jesus Christ went back to be with God. And when Jesus came out of the grave, that Spirit was revived in Him. That Spirit was put back in Him. Now I know there's speculation about what did Jesus do in those three days.

Some people say that he went and preached and he went to hell, some people say. Some people say he went to heaven. Some people say he went to paradise where Abraham was in the story of the rich man in Lazarus. Everybody has a lot of speculation. But the scriptures pretty much say that Jesus went into the grave and there he awaited his resurrection.

And he raised himself. His father raised him from the grave. And at that point, the Spirit of God was placed back in him and he became a living soul, but much more so than he ever was before. He had powers that he did not have before. He was different. You know what he was? The Bible says there's only one in the world that has ever received this immortality. Something that we all want, right?

All right, it's fun talking about these things. We're gonna get Jesus out of that grave So you be sure you be a part of the next time we get together here on the words of Jesus series Till then, think red ink You've been listening to Don C. Harris of ThinkRedInk Ministries. Email don at thinkredinc.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus and Red Letter Edition features. Tune new podcasts from Thank Red Ink Ministries with host Don C. Harris.