Words of Jesus Podcast - Intensifying Miracles Made Jesus Identity Undeniable

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

What got Jesus killed? It was the undeniable acts of proof of his identity as the son of God; Messiah. …healing moved from internal medicine; to irrefutable healings; opening blind eyes, raised Lazarus from death after 4 days; Pharisees planed to kill Jesus (and Lazarus); all men will follow him; Lazarus - whom you love; waits two days; 12 hours in the day; Jesus was brave!; have to work for the night comes; Jesus asked questions - He didn't know everything; Jesus listened to the Father; he was as one of us; die, sleep; Spirit goes to God; creation of Adam - man became a living soul; body and breath; Word of God - JESUS; alive and powerful; Dead = sleep; Didymus (twin to Jesus); live and believe in me? - NEVER DIE; Lord, increase our faith. ***77: Jesus Raises Lazarus From The DeadJohn 11:1-53Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, whose home was in Bethany, was sick. The sisters sent a message to Jesus, saying:            “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.”            When the word concerning Lazarus reached Jesus, he said:            “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”            Jesus remained where he was for two days, and at the end of that time said to his disciples:            “Let us go into Judea again.”            His disciples replied:            “Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee. And goest thou thither again?”            Jesus answered his disciples, saying:            “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of the world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”            Then Jesus told his disciples why he wanted to go into Judea, saying:            “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.”            The disciples, not knowing that Jesus meant that Lazarus was dead, thought only that he was resting in sleep. They said to Jesus:            “Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.”            Then Jesus spoke plainly, saying to them:            “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.”            Thomas, the disciple who was called Didymus, said:            “Let us go, that we may die with him.”            When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he found that Lazarus was dead and had been in his grave four days.            Because Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs away, many Jews from that city had come to comfort Martha and Mary. When Martha heard that Jesus was approaching, she went out to meet him while Mary remained at home. She...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friend, welcome to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris, your host of Think Ready Ministries. Well, we're going to talk today about what got Jesus killed. I have often wondered about exactly what it was that just kind of threw the tables over, so to speak. And I say that because that was one of the things that happened in the last days of his life, that he overturned those

money changers in the temple over through those tables. But there was another incident that happened just prior to that, and that's what we're going to read about today, Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This was so distasteful to the church that be and the powers that be, the religious leadership. This was such a hurdle for them because hey you know you can you can you heal internal diseases which is what what our faith teachers specialize in today you know they heal kidneys and livers and things like that but j Jesus jumped out of internal medicine and started doing orthopedic surgery when he would find somebody with a withered hand and it restores right in front of

people's face. So when he moved into that area it started getting, oh boy, what are we going to do with this? This person says their kidneys were healed but there's no way to prove it or whatever. That's always what guilty people say on Perry Mason, right? Well, you can't prove it, which isn't that an admission of guilt? I don't know. Nevertheless, when Jesus was doing what he was doing, it was okay for a while. You know, you want to heal people's souls. You want to make people, you want to put a smile on people's face. That's okay. You know, give them a little hope. And okay, you're opening the eyes of the blind. Yeah,

maybe there's something in this guy's spit. Maybe there's something in the dirt. I wondered if anybody else ever spit in the dirt and put it on their eyes trying to be healed. But, you know, these kind of things we can doubt. These kind of things we can, you know, set aside. Was this guy really born blind? Go get his parents and let's talk to them. That kind of an idea. But with her arms starting to be restored

and now you know this is the piece de resistance this is the you're not going to get any bigger than this and that is that jesus walks up to a dead man and makes him walk makes him brings his life back into his bones and he steps out of his own tomb this is huge this is this is big you know that little boy he healed you know you know the widow of dane uh you know that they was carrying well he just revived you know he was he was in his casket which usually happened the day they died in those days. And so, you know, they're carrying him to the grave, and he just woke up. Okay.

Yeah, that wasn't a miracle. But here you got a guy dead for four days. Dead for four days. And he gets up and walks out. This is undeniable. This is a serious problem Also, the Pharisees get together and they're in immutable way and they think about it with the giant brains hmm, what can we do and

Suggestions run around the table until finally somebody comes up with it. I know what we can do Let's kill Lazarus. I Don't know how that's gonna help what what well there was nobody at the table that had sense enough to say what the heck so they decided yeah let's kill lazarus you know the scriptures say this i'm not making that up i do have a tendency to embellish the scripture a bit but i'm telling you the scriptures say they decided to put lazarus to death what a stupid idea well they were panicking you see and so you know him over there defying you know the religious leadership defying the sacrifice you know when he those money tables

and we're going to talk about them there's a lot to all that that doesn't necessarily meet the eye and a lot of really bad theology comes out of it. But nevertheless, that was an insult to the religious leadership and they're able to deal with that so much. But when he raises a man from the dead, I'm telling you, that was front page news. I don't know if their newspapers had red ink, but that would have been a red letter day. That headline would have been in red ink. That was huge. And it was so huge and undeniable that the Pharisees panicked and said,

we're going to have to do something. So I don't know. Perhaps this was it. Perhaps it was turning over the tables. I don't know. But something flipped the trigger. Something, poor choice of words, something switched them over. There was a tipping point.

I kind of believe it was raising Lazarus from the dead. We're going to read that today. Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, whose home was in Bethany, was sick. Remember Mary and Martha? There was a story we talked about where he was in their home, and Martha knew Jesus, and Mary didn't. And you remember that it was Martha, because she, as they say, familiarity breeds contempt. Martha was already friends with Jesus, and she felt loose in the house to deal with all the, you know, the cups and the saucers and the bowls and the tea and the crumpets on the table. And Mary was going to have none of it. She just wanted to learn from Jesus. Remember that? What a beautiful

story that was. And here Mary and Martha have obviously become friends and companions of Jesus. And so we have them being his friends and Lazarus was their brother. And here it's introducing Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, whose home was in Bethany and he was sick. The sisters sent a message to Jesus saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

Isn't that something there was I don't want to read any wickedness into this but can you see there's a little bit of arm twisting here did you see they didn't say Lazarus was sick Lazarus would have known it was their brother he would have known it was their brother.

He would have known, I'm sorry, Jesus would have known that the name Lazarus referred to their brother. And he would have known fully who it was. But they wanted to add a little adjective description for Jesus saying, he whom thou loveth is sick it's almost it's almost a little bit of arm twisting there when word concerning lazarus reached jesus he said obviously to his disciples this sickness is not unto death but for the the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

He's trying to set his disciples at ease, because his disciples, you know, when they hear the news, you know, they're packing their tents. They know Jesus knows who Lazarus is. They know exactly what's going to happen here. He's going to go heal him. He heals everybody else. He's certainly going to heal he he's going to go heal him he heals everybody else he's certainly going to heal he whom thou lovest right and so jesus is saying now wait a minute guys this you

know don't don't pack up too quickly we're going to wait on this jesus remained remained where he was for two days and at the end of that time said to his disciples let us go into judea again now notice it says here he was there for two days and when we when he gets there it says he's been dead four days already so it it's it's kind of obvious well i don't know how obvious things are i i'm trying not to say obvious because you know so many people don't they don't put these things together but it's obvious from the text that lazarus died very close to the time that word was sent to Jesus. And so we have a day of traveling to Jesus. Jesus waits two days, and then it's going to be a day traveling back.

If that's the case, and it is indeed true that these travel times all added together, they do come to four days. So there's some assumption in this, but it's an interesting thought that Jesus waited two days. He says, after the two days, he says, let's go into Judea again. His disciples replied, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again? Jesus answered his disciples, saying, Are there not twelve hours in the day?

If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him now some people have said that when they read that that jesus was saying oh that's okay if the pharisees are after me we'll make sure that we steal in after dark. Jesus was saying to his disciples, not Jesus was I mean he was just

excellently brave. There was nothing in him that made him shrink in fear from somebody threatening his existence in any way. There was nothing cowardly about him. So what was he telling them? Friends, let me tell you, the end is coming.

He made the statement one time to his disciples, the things concerning the Son of Man hath an end. Oh, that had to break their hearts. I mean, I don't know. Did they even understand it? We keep finding that they didn't understand what Jesus was saying. But he was saying, you realize that there's 12 hours in a day. And that's when we need to work while it is day.

And he says in another place for night cometh when no man can work and he's saying that we don't have a choice here boys well we're going to sit around and wait for the pharisees to start to like us is that what we're going to do before we go and do what we know we have to do? Look, there's not that much time left. The things concerning the Son of Man have an end. That end is coming. It's on its way. We've got to go.

Well, the disciples had nothing to say at that particular point. Jesus told his disciples why he wanted to go into Judea, saying, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. The disciples, not knowing Jesus had meant that Lazarus was dead, thought only that he was resting in sleep. They said to Jesus, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll do well. Then Jesus spoke plainly to them. Now, why were they saying, this was not just an aside or a complimentary phrase.

This wasn't, you know, while they're over there packing their stuff saying, oh, good, he's asleep. That's good. His sleep will do him well. This was them pushing this just a little bit further saying, perhaps we shouldn't go. Perhaps it's not necessary for you to go so he's asleep this is good for him that he's asleep he'll he'll be okay they were looking for another reason pushing that just a little bit more to see if jesus would say okay okay we'll give it a couple of days never really occurring to them that jesus hadn't received

any news in the last two days how does he know lazarus is asleep well they must have thought that the father had spoken to him which he did a lot by the way and you know jesus went through this this whole world doing what he did saying you think I'm doing all this stuff? I just see the Father do stuff. And so I do it. He tells me what to do, and I do it. You know, the idea that Jesus was omniscient, he knew everything, he could read minds. There's no reason to believe that.

He asked too many questions. As a matter of fact, you'll find when he gets to Bethany, he asks Martha, where have you laid him him there's things he didn't know and somehow i get a little comfort when i think about the fact that when he asked a question it's not for rhetorical reasons it's not to add effect it's not to make people think i've heard all these excuses it is because he really wanted to know. And the reason he didn't know, oh, thank you, Father. The reason he didn't know is because he was one of us. Jesus told his disciples why he wanted to go. Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I have to go that I can wake him out of sleep. The disciples, not knowing that Jesus meant that Lazarus is asleep, and I have to go that I can wake him out of sleep.

The disciples, not knowing that Jesus meant that Lazarus was dead, thought only that he was resting in sleep. Do you know Jesus actually, he didn't introduce the idea that death is sleep, because we find Old Testament references where it says, and so and so and so slept with their fathers and we need to realize that when we die we don't go to be with jesus that's that's not even that's not so that's paganism as a matter of fact what we do do when we die is we as jesus explains here and you know, all through the Old Testament and all through the New Testament, we are placed in a grave and we sleep awaiting the resurrection. Our spirit goes to be with God, but

that spirit's not you. That's the spirit of God in you that makes you who you are. That's His spirit, not yours. And it's not you who you are that's his spirit not yours uh and it's not you uh you are a compilation of two things the spirit of god inside your flesh that's what makes you a living soul you remember he held up that pile of mud that day and said and spoke to that pile of mud, and his breath went into that body, into the nostrils of that man, and man became a living soul. His body wasn't his soul.

The spirit of God wasn't his soul. But the joining of the two made him into a soul. I don't want to belabor that subject, but does that interest you? It really should, because that's how we become souls. You know, when I was flying, we used to have to file flight plans. And I was intrigued with when you file a flight plan, it doesn't ask you how many lives are on board.

It asks you how many souls are on board. I don't care how many pussycats you got flying with you, or dogs, or parakeets, or a fish in an aquarium. It doesn't ask you how many lives there are on board. It says how many souls on board. You know, our legal system makes a distinction between a soul and a life, and our silly preachers can't seem to do that.

Well, if you want to really understand the difference between a soul and a life, do you know what the Bible says is the way to make that division? The Word of God. Who is Jesus again? Isn't Jesus the Word of God? The Bible's not going to do it for you. There's 30,000 denominations to prove that this Bible can say a whole lot of different things to a whole lot of different people. But the Spirit of God, Jesus Himself, the Bible says that

He is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit. Those two things are so closely related, it takes a revelation from God to see the difference between those two. That's a beautiful thought. And people who understand that, it's been revealed to them by the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Not revealed by the Bible. Well, I guess it can be. But if it's not the Spirit of God speaking to us, if it's not the Word of God, you may be dealing

with just a good notion or a deduction or, you know, just intelligent thinking. But what we want is to, for these things to be revealed. Jesus had no problem at all calling death sleep. I don't know why we do, but that's it. That's all there is. When he says, I'm going to go wake him out of sleep, he was under no delusion that this man was asleep and he was going to come over and rustle him under the covers and make him wake up. Now, what I want you to see is that Jesus used the word sleep and his disciples did not know that he was talking about death. Why is that? Because the words were absolutely the same. The thought is absolutely the same. In a sentence, there was not an idea of soul sleep. There was not an idea of physical death and spiritual death

and all the crazy little words that we come up with. Sleep, that's why it was confused that's why they thought what they thought because the words were exactly alike the disciples uh knowing that jesus meant that lazarus was dead thought only that he was resting in sleep they said to jesus lord if, if he sleeps, he does well. Jesus spoke plainly, saying to them, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there.

To the intent that ye may believe, nevertheless let us go to him. Thomas, the disciple who was called Didymus, do you know what Didymus means? It means twin. You want another aside? Time's getting short here. But it's interesting. Thomas was called Didymus. It's believed that Thomas looked a lot like Jesus and could have been his twin. And so therefore called Didymus. Now

there's hardly a reason to believe that because we don't have any scriptural proof of it. We see the word Didymus, but what exactly did it mean? There was a day when I was studying about when the leadership of the church came into the garden to arrest Jesus. And remember he told Judas, he says, we want you to kiss Jesus so that we know who he is. Man, what do you mean you know who he is? You've hated this guy for years. You don't know who he is. But do you see, it very well could have been that Thomas was his stand-in in some situations,

or maybe an involuntary stand-in. You know, don't get the wrong guy. And so Judas could obviously tell them apart because he lived among them. So perhaps he did look like Jesus, don't know. But Thomas, the disciple who was called Didymus, said, Let us also go that we may die with him. Now, this was not a bad confession. This was not him giving up on his faith.

He was saying, if Lazarus is going to die, let's go be his friend. That's all that was. When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he found that Lazarus was saying, if Lazarus is going to die, let's go be his friend. That's all that was. When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he found that Lazarus was dead and had been in his grave four days. Because Bethany was near Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs away, many Jews from that city had come to comfort Mary and Martha. And Martha heard that Jesus was approaching. She went out to meet him while Mary remained in the home. Now, it's interesting that she went out to meet him.

I don't know if she was just excited that he was coming and wanted to meet him before he got to the house, or she was protecting him. Because was well known the jews sought to kill him so perhaps it was a matter of protection on her part don't know she gets to him and says lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died but i know that even now whatsoever thou will ask god god will give it thee jesus told Martha, my brother shall rise again. Martha said, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection

and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Now, Martha is saying, now look, the resurrection at the end of life, I get that. But that's not what I'm talking about. And so Jesus is telling her, I know what you're talking about now i want you to know that i have

this power do you believe this now martha automatically switches into i don't think she was a methodist but she kind of switched into responsive reading mode and she says yay lord i believe that thou art the christ the son of of God, which is coming to the world. Then Martha returned to her house and told her sister Mary secretly, The Master is come, and he calleth for thee. As soon as Mary had heard that, she arose quickly and met Jesus at the same place where Martha had left him. She fell at his feet and said tearfully, Lord, if thou hadst

been here, my brother had not died. And Jesus said, yeah, that's what your sister just told me. Do I need to go through this again? Then the Jews who were in the house comforting Mary saw her rise hastily and leave, and they followed her, saying, she goeth to the grave to weep there. Okay, so now we see that the Jews that were in her house weren't there for, you know, bad reasons. Then when Jesus saw Mary weeping and the Jews also in tears, he was sad and troubled, and he asked, where have you laid him? He asked her where he was because he didn't know.

They answered Jesus, Come and see. Jesus wept, and the friends saw this. They said, Behold how he loved him. Some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused this man that he should not have died jesus and the others came to a cave with a stone upon it it was the grave jesus said take ye away the stone martha replied lord by this time he's been dead four days jesus said to her said i not unto thee if thou wouldest believe thou should see the glory of god

okay tune in next week we'll find out what happens i love a good cliffhanger i i want you to i i i read the story to you this way because i want you to get a feel for what's going on here you have jesus coming here to do a particular thing. And we find that even among those that he loves, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, the people that know him and know what he's all about, he realizes these people do not know who I am. I heard your little responsive reading, Martha. Yeah yeah good for you you know that's that's good I'm the son of God I'm the anointed one but you see what you're telling me is that you don't really believe people sit and wring

their hands over gee I wonder what it why Jesus wept I know why he wept I get it Her time is gone right to me done at think red ink calm And I'll be glad to answer any questions or comments that you have let me know who you are and where you're from I'd love to get your email done at think reading calm okay until next time think reading my friend © transcript Emily Beynon you've been listening to don c harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you