Words of Jesus Podcast - Jesus Reconnaissance Mission To The Earth

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Jesus came as a man without the understanding of the condition of mankind. The separation between Adam and Eve and God went further than they knew. Consider how often Jesus asked questions to discern the thoughts of the leadership and the people of Israel. Don't allow your doctrines to create separations. Work things out with one another. ***97: Jesus Asks: “What Think Ye Of Christ?”Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44Jesus Asks: “What Think Ye Of Christ?”At a time when many Pharisees were gathered around him, Jesus asked them:            “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?”            The Pharisees replied:            “The son of David.”            Then Jesus replied:            “How say they that Christ is David’s son? And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said unto my Lord, “Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.”’ David therefore calleth him Lord. How is he then his son?”            The people heard Jesus gladly, but no one was able to answer the question.

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friends, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris, your host of Think Riddick Ministries, Pytown, New Mexico. We are in chapter 97 of our book, and this is where Jesus actually asks us a question. Are you intrigued with the questions of Jesus? I became intrigued with them many years ago now and wrote the book called The Questions of Jesus. Am I pointing at it?

Yes, it's right there on the mantle. If you'd like to have a copy of The Questions of Jesus, we offer the audio through the ministry, and of course there's no charge for that. But this book is uh published and sent through um amazon books a million all those the publishers and such as that if you want a paper copy you can go there and get yourself one um of course if uh if money is a concern like i say our ministry doesn't charge anything uh for the book. We'll be glad to send that to you.

Also, let me just say, while I'm talking about the book, we just passed a 15-year anniversary on this book, and I wanted to do something nice because a lot of people who get this book, their comments are just, it's it's very heartening for me to hear people say that you know i i just hear things in this in this book things that i've known my whole life and somebody's finally saying these things and they they appreciate i said well you know it's it's the words of christ you know i just want them to know that uh you know this book is pure plagiarism i mean i just i just only thing i know is what the lord tells me and so um you know

i i thank you for the compliment and i appreciate that oh i i just can't live without this book and you know they're just very complimentary toward it um as a matter of fact uh the the the second book called the red letter questions came about because the publisher or the the ceo of a christian uh publishing company um i gave him this book and he says, I say, you know, what do you think of the book? He says, he says, you know, we need to publish this book. And I said, well, you know, it's already published. And he says, this book, among all the books that he deals with as a professional, that book is on his nightstand at home.

I was just so tickled to hear that. And anyway, people have been very complimentary about the book, and it's become very precious to them. People have, you know, written and said, you know, I'd like to have another copy. Mine's all dog-eared and messed up, or, you know, I gave it to somebody, loaned it to somebody, and I didn't get it back. And so I thought, wouldn't it be nice for the 15-year anniversary to make this book hardcover, you know, and just an excellent quality book that will last you the rest of your life? And so I decided to do that.

And I thought, you know what else I've always wanted to do in that book that I didn't because of just the sheer expense of it was I want to put the words of Christ in red. And so we did that as well. So the anniversary book, it's available on Amazon as well. And of course, it's more expensive than the paperback, but it's a treasure, and I think that you'll love to have it. One of the beautiful things about this book, although it's 500 pages,

or at least somewhere thereabouts, it takes in 151 questions that Jesus asked while he was here on the earth and um the nice thing about it is is because it's broken up into those 151 parts um each question is only you know you know 5 10 12 minutes reading and um and the audio book uh serves a lot of people in their car audio systems as a devotional on their way to work or whatever else. So I think that you'll really like it and appreciate it. And if there's any way that I can help you with it,

info at thinkradink.com. Or like I say, you can go to Amazon and order either the paperback or the hardback, whatever you'd like. And anyway, the questions of Jesus, they really intrigued me so many years ago that I collected them and I gave them contemplation. It's, you know, years of early morning meditations, my own personal devotions in this book.

And so I remember becoming fascinated with the questions of Jesus because, well, first of all, I guess in those earlier days, it was a new concept to me that Jesus didn't already know the answer. And, you know, that's when I started realizing that, you know, he came to this earth not only as our Savior and as the proposed kingdom for a king for Israel or the proposed high priest for the temple and all the other things he had in mind.

This was also a reconnaissance mission. It really was. There were some things that God doesn't understand. Don't let that shake you. Because what I found out that God is just totally confused about is our wickedness. He doesn't understand wickedness. The man doesn't understand the sinful nature.

He doesn't understand, you know, why don't you just do the right thing? There was a time when people were taking their babies and laying them in the red-hot cast-iron arms of a god and burning them in sacrifice. And you know what he said about that? It never entered into my mind that you would do so wickedly.

And I thought, wow, there's a real gap between us and our God. And Jesus, when he came to this earth, he found out something. I can just hear him, you know, praying to his father saying, wow, you can't believe what these people have to think with down here. You can't believe what it's like to live in this flesh. And it constantly badgering them and telling them to do the wrong thing. We've got our work cut out for us here. And this is what, you know, the Bible says that the law cannot justify a man. It's a very interesting concept that's kind of been hidden under really bad preaching for many, many years

because people took that word justify and said the law can't save you. Well, that's not what Jesus said. You want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments. But we took where the scriptures say that no man is justified by the law and because we don't understand justification, salvation, redemption, all those words that we just don't bother to figure out what they mean, throwing them all into the bucket marked salvation, we say that the law can't save you.

And there's nothing further from the truth. The law is absolutely necessary for every Christian, Jew, Gentile, Muslim, Catholic, all of them. We all have to keep the law. And it's the minimal, it's the first step. And it is possible to keep them. It's possible to live a long time and never violate them. I know that's contrary to what you've heard,

but it's nevertheless the truth. So we have this law that is here on the earth that is trying to keep us in line, but one thing that it can never do is what Jesus Christ did for us. Let me give you an example of justification, can I? You know, somebody breaks in your home. I hate to talk like this because, you know,

who needs to have these kind of images in their head? But somebody breaks in your home with the intention on doing damage and somehow or another you kill him. Well, what you did was you just committed manslaughter. You just killed a man. There's no way that you can deny that. Well, I guess you could, but it's pretty obvious that you committed manslaughter. Well, let's see.

What's the book say about manslaughter? 25 years in the penitentiary. Now, wait a minute, judge. There's some extenuating circumstances here. And so they tell the story. And, you know, this man, you know, he forced himself into your home at night and he was going to steal, rape, rob or pillage or, and he was going to steal rape robber pillage

or whatever else he was going to do. He was where he didn't belong. You have that, you know, that castle ordinance, the right to protect your home. Goes through all the story. The lawyers banter about the laws. And you know what they say? Okay, it's homicide, but it's, you know the word,

justifiable homicide. What has happened there? Well, the man was justified in what he'd done. There was a reason for what he had done. I know it's bad. I know, I mean, the man's just as dead uh and you know this might be a distasteful way of talking about this but i mean you're talking about killing a man you're talking about homicide but it was justifiable homicide what happened to the guy was he exonerated from

killing a man no it's a fact that that's what he did. That's what the law does. The law says, thou shalt not, and you did. But you see, Jesus came to search out on his reconnaissance mission the justifications for what we've done. And when he got here, he realized that, wow, man, these people are under a huge handicap. Really, they're just, you know, anybody that's keeping,

you know, the law of God is doing so under great strain and stress. It's a very strenuous exercise on their part. This is why Jesus said, strive to enter into that straight gate. But he also realized these people need to be changed from the inside. And so he provided for us, not only justifying us, which only Christ can do. The law can't do that. The law can't justify you, which only Christ can do. The law can't do that.

The law can't justify you, but Jesus Christ can. He knows why we do what we do. Because of that, he can hang on the cross and say, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. How do you know they don't know what they're doing?

I'm one of them. I know the brain they think with i know the body they live in this is a wonderful gift from god people you just got to know that what jesus did is so much more than just coming down here and being slaughtered like a lamb on the altar and his blood running out and him running back to heaven and saying, everybody's saved now. This was huge. Not only that, but he realized that these people need to be changed on the inside. I'll tell you what, if you'll keep these commandments, my Father will love you, I will love you, we'll take up our abode in you,

and we'll lead you and guide you from the inside. We'll manifest ourself to you. You see, he's giving us help now isn't he he's making us different he's providing what that rich young ruler wanted i don't i don't kill my brother i don't kill my brother but sometimes i want to i don't want to well what about this hatred in me that's what i can change for you. That's what I can do. The law can't do that, but I can do that. And he does it, if you'll let him.

And so there's the beauty of salvation, the beauty of what Jesus did when he came. He has justified us, something that the law could not do so jesus comes down here and he's asking questions he's intrigued with with you human beings how is it you don't understand don't you remember when i did this or remember when i did that and didn't i tell you that how is it you don't understand and so during this mission he was constantly asking questions of his disciples one question he asked them is the one we're dealing

with now in chapter 97 at a time when many pharisees were gathered around him jesus asked them what think ye of the messiah here it says christ and it does in in many translations same word same idea but he really wasn't asking them what do you think about me because they didn't believe he was the messiah they were saying okay so this messiah that you're waiting on tell me what you think about that guy and what he will be how he's going to come i'd like to know what are you expecting well the pharisees replied when jesus asked what do you think of christ he added to the end of it, whose son is he? The Pharisees replied, the son of David. Jesus replied, how say ye that Christ is David's son?

And David himself saith in the book of Psalms the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore

calleth him Lord. How is he then his son? Well, no one was able to answer the question. By the way, when Jesus asked this particular question in the King James

in one of the Gospels when this happens they weren't able to answer him and the Bible says from that day on no man durst ask him any more questions. I think that's funny because he just absolutely shut them up. And you know what he was doing there? Well, pretty much what I end up doing in a lot of cases,

and that is, hey, let's look at your theology just a minute. Or you're looking for something. All right, let's find out. What are you looking for? All right, well, this is what we're looking for. Have you ever thought that that doesn't make any sense have you ever thought that what you're looking for is an impossibility you ever considered that you might be wrong and and so when he lays these things out in front of

them and they look at it you can just hear the gears crunching sand grinding and the hubcaps falling off and you know they're just thinking they're thinking well there's no way a father would look at a son and call him lord so how did we get the idea that he was david's son so they're thinking all this within themselves i can see them looking at each other like yeah you answer him tell him tell him go on tell him i can't tell him you tell him but they couldn't answer they couldn't answer for a reason that doesn't seem to even slow down Slow down, Christians, today. The answer would make no logical, scriptural, biblical sense at all. Not even logical. Not even in the area of semantics, of grammar,

of the very words on the page, the words in the sentence. Nothing is making any sense about what we believe. Now, in Christian circles today, we've been taught about our Santa Claus God that can do anything and he knows everything and the kind of God that we have invented in our own minds. Why? He's perfectly capable of making sense of all this stuff. The Jews used to have a saying when anyone ever asked them a question that they couldn't answer

or they argued about it constantly or it was just a source of argument no conclusions were ever made. They would always end it by saying well one day when Messiah comes he's going to explain all this. And so everybody could agree and go home and have dinner. Well, in Christian circles, we say this really stupid phrase. Well, let's just agree to disagree. No, thank you.

No, no, no, no. I'm not going to agree to disagree. because that means that one of us is wrong. And if you don't care if I'm wrong and I don't care if you're wrong, we're not doing each other service. And we're certainly not loving each other like we ought to love each other. Agree to disagree? Now, I don't think you understand. If get this wrong this is a huge detriment in your life this is a this can be a serious problem i'm not going to agree to disagree with you you know i i just think that perhaps we ought to take all these things a little more seriously. Jesus is saying,

you think that Messiah is going to be the son of David. Well, how is it that David calls him Lord? Perhaps you're wrong about this. Well, let's just agree to disagree. Agree to disagree? You're disagreeing on the identification of Messiah. And he's standing right here in front of you and you don't recognize him because of your silly, stupid, inane, illogical doctrines.

And we're just going to agree to disagree. You know what? You agree to disagree? it's because neither one of you have any convictions whatsoever let's work it out let's fix this problem perhaps i'm wrong perhaps you're wrong let's figure this out can we figure this out and be civil about it well in most cases no no you know i got a golf game i got i got stuff i gotta do i got an appointment we can't discuss spiritual things i'm always amazed how unimportant these things are. Friend, these things are not unimportant. They're not unimportant at all. This is why we have, you know, just raised up among us a whole crop of atheists.

Yeah, they're tired of arguing about it too with a bunch of hard-headed people that won't change their mind. You know, your best argument for a lot of your doctrines, you ever notice this? Your best argument for a lot of doctrines is, well, you're just a boat rocker. I say that's number two. Here's the number one retort to someone who is challenging what you believe.

Brother, you got a bad spirit. A bad spirit. Because the God of the entire universe that has the ability to time the planets and the stars that is probably a fairly decent mathematician cannot add one, one, and one and get one. Or he can't count the three.

He doesn't understand or appreciate logic. He expects us to believe things that are absolutely illogical. I heard one preacher preaching on faith one time. And he says, he says, you start demanding logic of God, and you're going to end up lost. Really?

You're telling me that God doesn't deal in logic? Really? I'm having real difficulty with that. And it's the same guy that'll look at you and say, you know, I think we ought to keep Passover instead of Easter. And they say, well, when is Passover? Well, I haven't calculated it yet. I don't know. We need to, you know, find the, you know, the Aviv barley

and we need to have the crescent moon. You know, we see the crescent moon. We see the crescent moon, and we know that that's the evening, and the day starts in the evening. Oh, that's just confusing. I know it's a little confusing, but once you get the hang of it, you can figure out when these dates are. But we don't know when Passover is. We don't know.

We don't know yet. We will, but we don't know when Passover is. We don't know. We don't know yet. We will, but we don't know now. Well, that's confusing. What's your problem with confusion? And the guy says, well, God's not the author of confusion. And so we're going to reject his calendar because you don't understand it?

That doesn't make much sense. Well, you know, if it's confusing, why, it's of the devil. And I said, oh, yeah? When's Easter this year? Well, I may not know the date, but it's on the calendar. And I said, do you know that Easter is determined by Passover? You talk about confusion. We've got to figure out what Passover is so we know when Easter is.

You know, and I'm just thinking, how is it that sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander? You know why? We've dispensed with logic. We don't need logic. We just need to know that God can do anything. So how is it that, you you believe abc when the bible says you know you're supposed to believe cba how is it that god's the author of that well god can do anything these are the most ridiculous arguments for for doctrine and understanding of the scriptures and you know what's so sad about it none of them are necessary none of those ideas are necessary we don't have to sit around with our kids in sunday school and and show them an egg and say that and you know we got a shell and we got a yolk and we got a white and this is like the trinity we don't have to do that why Why are we doing that? Friend, when you see people that are walking away from logic,

walking away from things that don't necessarily make sense on the surface, they're protecting a doctrine. I'll bet you my bottom dollar they're protecting a doctrine, a denomination, a thought that their grandpa had or their grandma had or their favorite preacher has or the group that they worship with have. They're protecting something. This is why the Pharisees didn't, couldn't,

but didn't answer. You know, when he says, so, you know, what do you think? And he says, none know what do you think and it says none of them could answer this Messiah you're looking for you think you got it all figured out do you yeah we know exactly who he's gonna be where he's gonna be born what time he's gonna be born all the time they're talking there their breath is hitting the messiah right in the face and they don't recognize him friend that is really scary they knew when john was going to be born they knew he was going to be the power and spirit of elijah they knew what his mission was going to be they knew where he

was going to be that he was going to baptize that's another thing that i can't figure out where they got that from they knew that he was going to be born on easter that he was going to arrive on the earth on easter oh did i just say easter wow see i would not do those things passover he was supposed to be born on pas. They knew all about him, but they missed him They didn't attribute his ministry to a commission of God. They didn't listen to him. They didn't obey him Messiah he says they they miss John and they're gonna miss me for the same reason wait why why? Because nobody cares about logic. Nobody cares about things just making good common sense.

And so, oh, and the other thing is, we're not wrong. Another huge mistake. We are wrong. We just got to figure out where. Time for us to go. We'll see you next time. Until then, think redink.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. I love you.