Words of Jesus Podcast - Jesus Always Obeyed His Father

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Jesus operated in the Spirit, not under the law. Jesus expected conflict with the law of Moses. "He who is without sin- let him come." ***Ch. 54: Jesus At The Feast Of TabernaclesJohn 7:1-8:59Jesus Rejects The Advice of His Brothers To Go To JerusalemWhen the Feast of the Tabernacles was at hand, Jesus’ brothers said to him:            “Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, if he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world.”            Even his brothers did not believe in him.            Jesus replied to his advisers:            “My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet fullcome.”            And Jesus continued yet a while in Galilee. But, after his brothers had left for Jerusalem, he also went to the feast, not openly but secretly.Jesus Defeats An Attempt To Arrest Him            The authorities, suspecting that Jesus was in the city, asked:            “Where is he?”            The people murmured about him. Some said:            “He is a good man.”             Others said:            “Nay, but he deceiveth the people.”            However, all were afraid to speak openly of Jesus, for fear of the authorities.  About the middle of the feast Jesus went into the temple and taught. Many people, surprised at his words, said:            “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?”            Jesus answered them saying:            “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why ye go about to kill me?”            The people answered:            “Thou hast a devil. Who goeth about to kill thee?”            Jesus replied:            “I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus program. This series is brought to you by Think Red Ink Ministries. I'm your host, Don Harris. Listen, I would love to hear from you if you're enjoying this series, and I'd like to know who you are, where you live, who you're listening to, or what station you're hearing this broadcast on, whether it's TV, whether it's radio, whether it's the Internet. I need to know those things.

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and I can get your email. I'd love to hear who you are. If you have questions or comments about the broadcast or even questions in general, I'd be glad to help you. Let's get back to our reading. We're reading from chapter 54 in our book called The Words of Jesus. And Jesus is having a discussion. This is all from the book of John, by the way, my favorite gospel.

And he's having difficulty getting some of his points across to people and he's just totally baffled sometimes that they don't get it. How is it you don't get this? You can hear him saying, you heard what I said. What's your problem? Well he found out because he lived here as a man. He knows what it's like to live on 11% of your brain power. He knows what it's like to live in a fleshly body that gets stinky after a few days of not washing it

and the troubles of eating and digestion and dealing with problems with, with interactive problems with friends and relationships. And he probably would see a woman and have thoughts that he thought, wow, do you guys think like this all the time? Yeah. Well, we need to do something about this.

And so he was learning what it was like to get along in our physical bodies. And I think after a while he understood, oh, I get it. I see why you don't understand anything I say. You can't hear my word. Now, this is much different than can't hear my speech. As a matter of fact, in his question, he says, do you know why you can't hear my speech as a matter of fact in his in his question

he says do you know why you can't hear what i say why you can't hear my speech even because you cannot hear my word you're gonna it is foundational for you to understand the scriptures that the scriptures are the scriptures and the word of God is the word of God. All right. Enough of that. All right. He says, you both know me and know whence I am. As we left the program last time, Jesus was saying, or the people were saying, could this be the Christ?

Because we know this guy. His parents, and we know his brothers and his sisters, and he was at my house fixing a door one time. He's a carpenter, isn't he? At least his dad was a carpenter. I know this guy. And when Christ comes, no man knows whence he is. Jesus is frustrated, thinking, where did you learn that?

Who told you that? Why do you believe that? Well, he finds out that there are verbal instructions, so-called instructions of God, that the Jews taught people, and they had no trouble at all adding troublesome fences and limitations around commandments, just inventing laws, inventing rules. Man, they were doing it all the time, and Jesus actually chided them for it one time and says,

well, you guys are good at making rules you don't obey them but you make rules man that are grievous to be born by my people they're having real difficulty living by your rules oh i noticed that you don't but they try to because they think you have authority well i, I'm here to bust all that. All right, so he says, I don't know what you're talking about, about not knowing Christ when he comes. Sure, you're going to know me. You know me, and you know whence I am.

You know where I came from, he says. And I'm not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know him, for I am from him and he that sent me, and he hath sent me. Some suggested arresting him at once, but no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet arrived here we again we have this um this term we talked about it a few programs back we were talking about him being invited to tabernacles and he says my time has not yet come uh some people felt like uh and he said that to his mother about making

wine you remember that a woman what have i to do with thee my hour has not yet come uh and you're thinking well sure it has bubba what do you mean you're out here doing the doing your thing raising the dead and doing all these miracles what is there is there another hour coming well i'm convinced that this term that my hour has not yet come it's saying the time to do what it is you're saying that i should do has not come and and i really think that um he knows that it hasn't come because he knows it's the instruction of the Lord. If it's not the instruction of the Lord, it doesn't have a time appointed to it.

So he wouldn't answer that way unless there was a time appointed to whatever it is they were telling him to do. Here he knew that he would be arrested and that he would be hauled before Pilate. And he was saying that that's not going to happen because I know when that's going to happen. Huh? Isn't that cool?

He's not the least bit worried. Do you know you can live like this? You can, you know, people can threaten that this is going to happen and that's going to happen. And you know within yourself, no, it ain't. It's not going to happen. There's things that have to happen before that. I know. I know.

You can live that way. The Pharisees heard that the people were saying such things about Jesus. They sent chief priests and officers to arrest them. Jesus said to them, yet a little while I'm with you, and then I go to him that sent me. You shall seek me, and shall not find me. And where I am, thither you cannot come. Where I'm going, you're not going to find find me because you can't even get there then those who had come for him talked among themselves saying

oh you know i've heard people uh be puzzled over jesus telling his disciples uh that because um they they ask oh as we will read here, what does he mean when he says he's going to go someplace that we can't find him? I guess I should just continue reading and quit preaching. All right. He says, Then those who had come for him talked among themselves, saying, Whither will he go that we shall not find him?

Will he go into the dispersed among the Gentiles? Because they ain't going there. And teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me and shall not find me. Where I am, thither ye cannot come. On the last and great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,

If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. I don't want to change the subject before I exhaust this one beforehand where he says i'm going to go where you can't find me uh where i'm going you can't even come there are people who

have been confused about that and saying why would he have said that to his disciples he wasn't saying that to his disciples he was saying that to the sycophants of the temple who were out there trying to see that he was going to get arrested, causing trouble. They were the lackeys that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the church leadership had hired to go and try to ruin Jesus' life. And he was saying, look, guys, you need to understand who you're messing with here if if you if you take me by the arms and carry me off it's because I am allowing it I'm allowing it because my father allows it look if you are not allowed to do that it won't happen i mean this is exactly what he's saying now it says that on the last great day of the feast jesus stood and cried out i am the water of life i wish i understood about this, but I've heard so many contradictory stories.

I just, I can't really put together exactly what is going on, what went on, what was common, and what was ritual. But the last great day of the feast, I understand there was a type of water sacrifice that was, that the priest would make a line, actually a bucket brigade. I don't think that they passed the bucket. I think they walked them. But they would bring water to the temple, and this water would get poured on the altar.

And Jesus is likely standing off to the side, watching this going on. And he's thinking, hmm, where did they learn to do that? You know, I don't understand these people. Is this some kind of religious ritual? What's going on? Hey, guys, let me tell you something. I am the water of life.

You see, I don't know what you're trying to quench up there in the temple, but I can quench the thirst in your soul this is jesus almost taunting them like elijah on mount carmel when he was watching them uh uh you know crying out to their god hey there was some water carrying going on there too he would'd be carrying water and soaking down the sacrifice. Making it very difficult for it to light. We don't want this to spontaneously combust. We don't want anybody to think that there was a 12 year old boy in here with a magnifying glass or a pack of matches. So, I mean, he soaks it down and makes it

as difficult as he can for it to ignite well here you have him here you have jesus watching another water service going on and he's saying that i am the water of life he goes on to explain jesus spoke of the Spirit, which those who believed on him should receive. And many of the hearers said, of a truth, this man is a prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? See, they said they knew where he came from, but the truth is that they didn't know that he

was from nazareth because he spent a lot of time in galilee hath not the scripture said that christ cometh of the seed of david he didn't know that he that his mother they didn't know that his mother was indeed of the seed of David. And out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was, and they're thinking, yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. That's exactly what happened. But see, that's not what they understood.

It's kind of like, you know, people that they think John Denver is from Denver, Colorado, or that he's always lived on a, you know, in a Rocky Mountain high place. And they're surprised to find out where he actually was born. It is named Dievendorfer. And this can happen with famous people. They can get such a reputation that people think he's from Galilee, but he wasn't. So here's an example of them getting a prophecy right and getting the facts wrong. A while ago we were talking about getting the prophecy wrong

and the facts right. It's almost comical if it wasn't for the fact that there are people who are doing without Christ today because we can't seem to work these things out. So he says there was a division of the opinion among the people about Jesus. Some wanted to arrest him, yet no one laid hands on him. The officers who had been sent to take him went to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who said to them,

Why have you not brought him? The officers answered, Never a man speak like this man. The Pharisees replied, Are you also deceived? Have any of the other rulers of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus, the ruler who had come to Jesus in the night, said,

Doth our law judge any man before it hears him, and knows what he does? The others ask him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, and for out of Galilee arises no prophet. All right, so now they're arguing the position that the Messiah can't come out of Galilee

when there was no position to be made that the Messiah would come out of Galilee. And Jesus didn't come out of Galilee. This is like people that are arguing the three days and three nights thing this is they're arguing arguments that ought not be argued that don't need to be argued this is this is like the church does with almost every doctrine they play with they do this they make false arguments and argue against them they make false accusations and argue against them you know even the the poor atheist and agnostic out there hates a god that doesn't even

exist i mean when they say god doesn't exist they're right the one that they have been taught about, he really doesn't exist. They're mad at a God that never existed. They hate him because of everything they've been told about him. We do this all the time. We don't know what the argument is. We don't know what it isn't. We don't know how to argue against it. We don't know how to argue for it.

We are unbelievably ignorant in these areas. And here you've got this ignorance 2 000 years ago and doesn't look much different than it does today now we're going to talk about jesus as he tries to protect a woman accused of adultery and we read the story early in the morning, Jesus went again into the temple and taught the many people who came to him. The scribes and Pharisees brought before Jesus a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They say to him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

Now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayeth thou? Before we get into the story, a few things I want to point out. One, the man and the woman that were accused of adultery were to be stoned. But, well, the guy, you know, we didn't catch him. him wait a minute you just said you caught this woman in the very act and there was no guy there now come on which is it guys truth is that it was probably one of their friends it likely could have been one of the Sanhedrin. Who knows? I mean, these guys do stick together, as we've all learned, haven't we?

But they decided, okay, we'll haul the woman in. The man, he just, he got away. Yeah, that's it. So they drag this woman in and drop her in the street. And they say that, he says, now you need to know something, Jesus. This woman, this is not an accusation that's been put out. This is not somebody making an accusation. This is not even, you know, an innuendo that we're making. This is a very fact. We caught this going on

in the very act of it going on. We saw this. So there's no way to, you know, to go in any kind of a defense here against the act itself. Now all we're dealing with is the punishment. Moses made the punishment very, very clear. Well, what's odd

about this is, is that, you know, if it had been old Don instead of Jesus, ooh, that's a horrible thought. But if it had been me, I'd have said, hmm, really? Well, then what are you doing here why aren't you doing what moses said if moses made it that clear and it's clearly a violation then why aren't you doing what he told you to do what are you doing Well, it really wasn't time for him to ask this question because the Bible says that when they said, now Moses told us exactly what to do, but what sayeth thou?

Jesus' reputation had already, well, at least started to become established. That it didn't necessarily, it wasn't necessarily so important what was written who said it or or anything else it was like uh you remember well there was another case where uh the feast was going on and the the disciple uh the pharisees looked at one another and said what think he will he come to the feast now see that is just i know you're not getting the the impact of this but nobody but nobody missed the feast you don't just come walking through jerusalem on feast day and say yeah i'm not going to keep the feast this year you're not going to do that what think ye will he keep the feast will he come to the feast they ask why would they even ask such a question here they say moses says exactly what to do but what sayeth thou he was getting a reputation that there was not a religious bone in his body.

There was not a book-worshipping, Bible-worshipping, Torah-worshipping bone in this guy's body. He was constantly going against what was seemingly very important to everybody around him, seemingly important to the Jewish leadership. Very, very important to everybody around him, seemingly important to the Jewish leadership. Very, very important. Okay? Why isn't it important to him? I've said before, and many people who appreciate the law

misunderstand and get upset with me when I say this if they'll give it 15 minutes thought and just step out of their religion and their and their teaching for a little while and um i i think that they'll come to the same conclusion i do but they usually just just get mad and run. And it is this. Jesus never obeyed the law. Jesus never obeyed Moses. Jesus obeyed his father. Now, if you can understand this, what I'm saying to you,

then you can understand what the Apostle Paul means when he says, he that is under the Spirit is no longer under the law. Now, when you obey the Father, you naturally obey the law. Here, they were starting to get that this guy is living on a different plane than we are. He's out there in the ether somewhere somehow what he does makes sense to him may not make sense to us but it makes sense

to him so much so that they felt no compunction in saying moses said you will do A, B, C. What do you say? There's also the idea, I think that's neat. I can't help but grin. There's also the aspect of them saying, you know what, this guy's a bleeding heart liberal. And, you know, he's all, you know, flowers. And he's just a hippie. He's a bleeding heart liberal and you know he's all you know flowers and he's just a hippie he's a he's a Berkeley graduate and and you know he just loves everybody and you see Moses doesn't allow that all we have to do is is bring

a judgment to him that is clearly judged in the old testament and and you'll see right away he's not obeying the law of moses you see that so what did jesus do well let's read he says um the woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? They hoped to tempt Jesus so they might find something to accuse him of. Jesus acted as though he heard them not. Which, by the way, is really good advice for some of us.

And he stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground when the scribes and pharisees continued to press him with their questions he straightened up and spoke to them saying he that is without sin among you let him cast a stone at her and he stooped down and began writing on the ground when the scribes and He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her. And he stooped down and began writing on the ground. When the scribes and Pharisees heard what Jesus said, their own consciences convicted them, and they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest.

Finally, only Jesus and the woman remained. When he saw that they were alone, he said to her, Woman, where's all those folks out there that were accusing you? Has no man condemned you? She answered, No man, Lord. Thereupon, Jesus said to her, Neither i condemn me go and sin no more it's interesting that the pharisees they said to him and this is what moses said to do what do you say to do you know what his well I say the same thing stoner it's obvious stoner step right up anybody without sin anybody who doesn't deserve a stone against the back of their own

head come over here stand right here there she is take a whack at her they had stones in their hands when he said this. The Bible says you could hear them dropping when they were leaving. Now that's an amazing thing. And here we are with Jesus obeying the law for them, showing them that if you obey the law, you're going to have to do it in the right way. And that is righteous judgment. And there's not a person here that can do it. I can, but I choose not to. All right, it's time for us to go.

Thanks for thinking red ink for the last 28 minutes and 30 seconds. We'll see you next time. Until then, bye-bye my friend. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you