Words of Jesus Podcast - Jesus Shops His Disciples

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

Preach the message of repentance. Evangelism should not be asking questions in an attempt to educate or proselytize. Rather be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies in you. The gospel message is simple, but not easy. Jesus said, "Many are called, few are chosen." ***Ch. 35 – JESUS COMMISSIONS, EMPOWERS, AND SENDS FORTH THE TWELVE DISCIPLESJESUS went about among cities, villages, and in the country, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing sicknesses, diseases, and infirmities among the people. When he saw the great multitudes who followed after him, he was moved with compassion; because he saw them faint, and observed that they were scattered, as sheep with no shepherd. To his disciples Jesus said: “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” Jesus gave the power to his twelve disciples to cast out unclean spirits and heal all manner of sickness, disease, and infirmity. As the twelve went forth, Jesus instructed them, saying: “Go not into the way of the Gentiles. And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And as ye go, preach, saying, ’The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give.  Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves; for the workman is worthy of his meat.  And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into a house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.  Verily I say unto you, ‘It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city’.” “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another; for verily I say unto you, ‘Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.’ The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore; for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friend and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm your host, Don Harris, and I've enjoyed going through the commission of Jesus when he commissioned his disciples to go and preach the gospel. Got a surprise ending for you. I've been talking to ministers, it seems, for the last few programs, and to people who put a lot of confidence in perhaps what a certain man or a certain doctrine, denomination, church, whatever, teaches.

And I've tried to warn you that, as the Lord did, that you need to beware of men, and you need to know that your best friend is your best friend, because you remind them of themselves, and many times people choose friends that don't challenge them. Well, gosh, is it every time? Look, I love a challenge, but I also want a friend that we can sit on the porch and just talk about stuff and not have to be guarded about this or that or the other thing. It's always fun to have somebody like that in your life. And so you don't really go out looking for friends that challenge you. But you have to understand that as a minister of the gospel, and I've tried to make it very clear that I'm not talking about just particularly men that stand up and preach or evangelists

or people who hold meetings around the country or television, radio. That's usually our idea of preachers. But, you know, I've met cashiers thataker and and our the founder of Quakerism George Fox had many wonderful thoughts and saying one of them was let your lives preach and I think that in a lot of cases it's the strongest sermon you can preach. What was it? Just recently, I heard a quote by somebody that says, you know, go out and preach the gospel. And if necessary, use words. And I think those ideas, as they occur to us, we realize, oh my goodness, it might have been my words that's been the problem all along. chances are that's true the tongue is a fire it's a world of iniquity and it is set on fire of hell behold what a great a matter a little fire

kendall it just takes a little tiny bit lighter to set a whole building on file on fire all it takes is time fuel heat oxygen and away she goes, we need to be very careful with that little fire behind our lips and let our lives preach. I've seen cashiers. I've seen waitresses. I've seen wonderful people in life, plumbers, air conditioning people, that their lives just preach that things are just fine in their life. And it's becoming more and more rare. But to meet a man on the job, that is, you know, it's quitting time. It's getting to be quitting time.

And it's not that he hates his job so much that he wants to quit, but he actually wants to go home. He wants to be home. He enjoys being home. Ladies, you don't know how many men do not want to live in your house. You really need to understand that. You know, when Paul says, let them be keepers at home, not because he's a male chauvinist pig. It was because this is a part of a man's life that needs to be so set and so treasured and so appreciated that you can see their lives preach what?

Their marriage? The love they have for their family? The love they have for their children? The love they have for home, country, these kind of things. Where did all these wonderful things come from? The satisfaction of a man's soul. How does a man have satisfaction in his soul?

He makes peace with God. How do you make peace with God? You repent. Oh, there's some uncomfortableness. But isn't that what they, that's what these men did. They went out and preached. Repent. The kingdom out and preached, repent.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's going to be uncomfortable for some, but it's going to be like cool water to a man crawling out of the Sahara desert when you find the right guy. So find the right guy. As he says, they don't receive you, go to another town. We got plenty. So, well, there's many things i want to talk about in that area but i'm

we will cover it as we go so just stay with me um he teaches us that he that taketh not his cross and followeth not after me is not worthy of me we ended the last show talking about that death very well may be a part of your testimony to the world. Does that surprise you, shock you, scare you, frighten you? What? How do you feel about that? Or do you just not believe what I'm saying? Well, I just don't have that problem. Everybody loves me.

Uh-oh. Either you're not preaching the gospel or you're just hanging around your friends that think you're wonderful. I don't know what you're doing, but I've never found the gospel universally received by the world as a wonderful thing. It just

doesn't happen. As a matter of fact, if you had to divide the world into God's people and people that aren't God's people, it's the ones that aren't God's people that are the most receiving of what the scriptures say and what the Lord has to say to them. But religious people, man, they got it made. I've been there. I did that.

I'm a member of the church. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it just as I am. Blah, blah, blah. And I'm thinking, wow, man, is this your Christian existence? This is terrible. Or they want to take apart everything you say, label you as a heretic so they don't have to listen to what you say.

And I don't know, we're just playing religious games. We need to stop that. All right, so he says, if you're not willing to take up your cross, if you're not willing to die for what you believe, go do something else. Because this is serious business. I've told you before that

I want you to consider the difference in a man who wants to be a soldier. The difference in these two men, this man is willing to die for his country. this man is willing to die for his country. This man is willing to kill for his country. They're not the same thing.

You know, if you're willing to kill for the gospel, go find something else to do. If you're willing to die for the gospel, you may be the man that the Lord's looking for. He says, you need to understand that as you go out there and preach this gospel, there's going to be people who are going to receive you.

If they receive you, they receive me. Why? Because I sent you. That's why. He goes on to say, and to flesh out what I just said, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. You see, as you

receive the prophet in the name of the prophet, as he is a prophet, and what he's saying is indeed the word of God, if you accept it in that manner, you know what you're ending up doing? Receiving Jesus Christ. Why?

Because Jesus Christ sent him to you for that reason. And so, as you receive him, you receive Jesus. And if you receive Jesus, you receive Jesus. And if you receive Jesus, you receive who? Since him, you're receiving the Lord God,

our Father. It all just seems to work out so nicely, but not everybody's going to receive you. And he that receiveth you, receiveth me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. And he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet

shall receive a prophet's reward. He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give a cup of cold water only to one of these who? The prophet, the righteous man. No, that's not what he said. But gives it in the name of one of these little ones.

He calls his troopers, he calls his servants little ones. And if you receive someone and give as little as something like a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, he will in no wise lose his reward. You see, this is a promise that I can make to you.

This is something that Jesus says, if you are one of my ministers, if you are one of my prophets, you need to know that anybody who helps you is not going to do without anything. I'm going to see to it. He watches over his men. He watches over his preachers, over his teachers, over the ministers who are down here fighting

the battle, like a general who perhaps sits in a lot cooler office than the backside of a desert somewhere, whose only tools in his hand are not a machine gun or a tank or a cannon, but a pencil and a piece of paper and whatever else, and he's going to go home to his wife tonight, and he's going to see his children tomorrow afternoon. And you see, his life is a little cushier. But if he's a good general and he does understand what he's doing, he realizes he's sending men in fear of, if they have any sense, in fear of their lives. And he just says, look, your father's a good general. Nobody's going to take care of you that's going to go past his notice. This is a promise.

This is a promise that I can give. That, you know, anybody who helps a prophet in the name of a prophet, as if he's a prophet, in the nature of a prophet, he's never going to lose his reward. And he's going to receive the same. He's going to share in the reward of that prophet for doing the right thing you want to know something else that's not here

so if that prophet if you help this prophet and he goes off and finds himself in sin and decides to turn his back on God and become a pagan that you're going to receive his reward,

which is hell. No. No. That's not part of the equation. He's saying you do the right thing for the right reason to the right man under the right circumstances. I'm going to see to it that you receive that reward.

You're not going to receive the punishment for that man's disobedience, but you certainly can receive of the good that he does. Now that's good to know. That's a win deal. That's just a win deal. I think that everybody should find somebody in their life that has the ability to speak the word of the Lord to them.

Because I talked a couple of shows back, talked about David and his problem of getting out of touch with God. Thank God for Nathan that was there. We all need a Nathan in our lives. We all need a guy who can look at us in the name of a prophet, in the nature of a prophet and say, Lord's got a problem with the way you're living. Man, if you've got somebody like that in your life, and you know, they're not a nut. That office seems to attract a lot of nuts. But you know, if you do have somebody who really cares about you and who does know the scriptures and understands what it's like to hear the voice of God within their own self, a commandment keeping, self-denying guy who takes up his cross and follows Jesus Christ. You got a guy like that in your life? You got something valuable.

You got something extremely valuable. He says that if you give a drink to one of these little ones, cup of cold water only. In the name of a disciple. Verily I say unto you. He shall in no wise lose his reward. We should take care of one another folks. Not tear each other down. Or point fingers.

And all the rest of the silliness that goes along with these clubs called churches. But we need to. Our church needs to be our life. It needs to be our life. It needs to be, you know, the church isn't a replacement for Israel. The church is Israel. You silly thing. That's what Israel means. A man who prevailed with God.

A man who prevailed with God. And you know what prevailed? Well, actually, the word today means more conquering. But it's not a man who conquers God. It's a man who's willing to strive with Him. He's willing to fight with Him. That's who. You know, Job, his three friends were trembling at some of the things Job said.

Can't believe you said that. You know, and Job would say, look, I don't have these problems in my life. I'm not a sinful man. I do what's right. I obey the Lord. I can't believe you're saying that. And you know, they're running around with their hair on fire, all upset because Job would say such a blasphemous thing. You know what Job said? Something that every one of us need to have the intestinal fortitude to say. Look, I'm going to maintain my own ways before him.

I'm going to prevail with God. I'm going to prevail with him. I'm going to struggle with him. And I'm going to fight with him a little bit. I need some answers in my life. I need some things worked out here. I'm willing to change. I'm willing to listen. Just tell me what you want me to know. That's what Job was doing. And he says, I will

maintain my own ways before him. I'm going to speak my mind and let come on me what will. Well, his hypocrite friends were running for the house at that particular point. But you see, there it is again. It's that confidence. How does a man get that kind of confidence? By obeying his conscience. By keeping the commandments. By taking every day to hear the voice of God. That's how you become that confident.

Look, I don't recommend that anybody talk to our Lord God that way. I can't recommend it because I don't know how you're living. But I'll tell you one thing. You keeping his commandment? You're not disobeying your conscience every day? Well, first of all, if all these things are true, and you take time every day to hear the voice of God, you're going to hear it.

He's going to guide you. He's going to lead you. You want to insist that you're going to hear it. He's going to guide you. He's going to lead you. You want to insist that you're a Christian because you believe in Jesus? I got no guarantees for you at all. There's nothing I can do for you. Just go on about whatever business you call that. If you call it

Christianity, fine, I guess. But look, there's just a whole lot of people who believe in God. As a matter of fact, according to that scripture, all the devils in hell are all saved because they all believe. And they do something that you don't even do, which is tremble before a sovereign and almighty God.

What are we going to do with that? What are we going to do with that? Look, your belief in Jesus, Jesus is not worth a toot. It's not worth anything unless there's works behind it. Unless you're willing to die for what you believe. Unless you do give the cup

of cold water to one of the little ones. Unless you do receive the prophet in the name of a prophet. Unless you do this and this and this and this and this. Wow, this and wow that's that's a work story and it's salvation yep it is but it's all over the scripture you want to believe something else believe something else if you want but i can't you're not going to have me there saying yeah go at it boy you just believe in Jesus. Everything's going to be just fine.

Can't do that. Sorry. Okay, you want the surprise ending? You know, if you own a department store or you own a chain of stores around the country, you have many, many employees. And we all know, we've all met that guy who couldn't care less about his job as a

salesperson at a particular store or whatever else. We all met that guy. We all met that girl that would rather be someplace. I've looked at him and say, honey, you'd rather be someplace else, wouldn't you? And, you know, sometimes when they're honest they say yes um because they don't enjoy their job and you know there's no telling what they tell you yeah you know hey i'm looking for the yeah it's over there it's over there somewhere or you know you've been in the stores where they say come on i'll take you i kind of admire that but you know what if? If I own that store, I want that guy. I don't want that girl. I want that guy.

I want the waitress that you wouldn't dare not tip because she treated you so nicely and went out of her way to do the right thing. You know, by the way, my experience is waitresses like that, they don't even worry about tips. They don't complain about them. They don't have to. That's the one I want in my employ.

Well, in order to find that out as the owner of a big company with stores everywhere, they do what's called shopping. I always believed that that's exactly what Jesus was doing on the road to Emmaus. You remember that? He shows up. He's a stranger. Nobody knows him. He sees these guys, and they're walking along,

and they're kind of kicking rocks and kicking cans as long as they go down the road, you know, and they're kind of mopey. And he says, what's going on? What's the matter with you guys? What are you so sad about? You remember that? And they said, well, are you new in Israel?

You don't get the paper. You don't have the internet. You don't know what's going on. Oh, man. And they tell him the story of Jesus, you know, mighty in word and deed. And they killed him. And he promised to be back the third day. And this is the third day. Do you see him anywhere? And he says, oh, my goodness, guys, come on. You should know that the scriptures foretold all this. It foretold this whole thing. He came here to die for us. That's what he came to do. Well, perhaps he wasn't. Perhaps he didn't have it all his way. Perhaps he didn't do it, you know, in a voluntary and public way like he intended. Maybe somehow these things all work out to save us.

Come on, guys. Cheer up. Remember that? But what caught me about that story was that when they said, what, you don't know what's going on? You don't know the things that have happened here in Israel? He looked at them and said, what, you don't know what's going on? You don't know the things that have happened here in Israel? He looked at them and said, what thing? Uh-oh, here comes their witnessing opportunity. I wonder how they'll do. You see, what's happening is the boss is shopping them. He's seeing how his employees are acting and how they treat customers. They don't know

him from anybody else. He wants to know, how are you going to treat people who ask you about these things that happened in Israel? You see? He was shopping them. Well, I happen to believe. That's my opinion.

And I talk about these things a lot because a lot of times the lord blesses me in meditation about a certain scripture shows me just another way of looking at it and i enjoy it so much i want to share it with you if you're the kind that says johnny chapter and verse on that well go someplace else can't help you because there is no chapter and verse it's called understanding it's called hearing the voice of God. I don't know what to tell you, but sometimes the Lord opens things to me

and I just want to share them with you. I'm going to share this with you. It says that after he was telling them, you have nothing to lose here. Nobody's going to lose their reward. Not you. Not the people who help you. Look, if the Lord is staring at a dead sparrow out there at the ground right now,

you need to know that if you die, he'll be there with you too. There's nothing to lose here, nothing of any importance that you're going to lose. Everything's going to be fine. And he got to telling them that nobody's going to lose a reward here. It says, the disciples went forth and preached. See, after he commissioned them, they said, okay, let's get on with this. And they took off.

And they preached. What did they preach, by the way? They preached the gospel. Isn't that what he told them to do? Yeah. So, what did they preach? They preached that men should repent. Ah! There it is again repent we haven't even heard that word lately the matter of fact when we do here we don't understand what it means because you know the the sissified preacher group out there has changed repent of mean feel sorry for your sin. Look, I felt sorry for my sins

while I was doing them. That doesn't do anything. So what does repent mean? They were out there telling people, stop, turn around, you're going the wrong way. Some of them are going to lose their lives for it. Some of them are going to lose the skin off their back for it. Some of them are going to lose their lives for it. Some are going to lose the skin off their back for it. Some of them are going to starve for it.

Some of them are going to encounter incredible hardships for it. But they preached it anyway. They were empowered by his commission. They were empowered by his words. They took off and they preached repent. They cast out devils. They anointed many with oil who were sick. And healed them.

All right, here's your surprise ending. When the Lord commissions us, I got a feeling that when we take that commission, we take it seriously, and we do what he says to do, and we're trying to do it the right way, Jesus also went out preaching and teaching.

Well, why would he do that? Why would he do that? He just sent out 12 people to duplicate what he's been doing. 12 times duplication is not enough for you? Look, he wasn't out there necessarily to be preaching and teaching. He was following those guys around. I believe he was in the crowd with the hood over his head. And he was listening to what they said.

I believe he was right there with them. And friend, I've had times when I didn't know that that guy sitting on, you know, three rows back in the congregation listening to me preach. I don't know who he is. The Bible says that we've had strangers in our life, and we were unaware that they were actually angels. Listen, if he can appear on the road to Emmaus and hide his presence from us, you know what?

I don't have any trouble believing at all that he's down here shopping his disciples, shopping his prophets, and just listening to what's being said. All right, you want to believe he's sitting up at the right hand of God and he can hear everything and he's everywhere at once. You want to do that?

Okay, go ahead. But to me, he might have been in the audience tonight. He might have been that guy I met on the road the other day. He might have been the guy with the flat. He might have been the guy that smelled really bad that I gave a ride to. I don't know. I don't know. But man, I got a feeling. I got a feeling that he's shopping us from time to time. He wants to see. And frankly, if the stranger walked up to you and wanted to know about the hope that lies within you, which, by the way, is actual biblical witnessing,

is to give an answer. Not a question. You don't ask people, if you die tonight, you know you're going to be in heaven? You sure for heaven as if you were already there? Do you know Jesus? No, it doesn't say to give people questions. It says to give them an answer.

Answer for the hope that is within you. The hope that's within you. Well, how did they see that? Well, if you had it, it would show. And when it does show, you can bet your bottom dollar that somebody's going to ask you, how in the world can you remain so hopeful in your situation? It'll happen.

It'll happen just as sure as I'm sitting here. But you know when it does happen? Take a look at the guy. Maybe you're being shopped. Maybe, just maybe. Who want to know how you answer that question? What is the hope that's in you? Prozac? What is the hope that's in you? AA meeting? Nothing against AA. Love what you're doing, guys. Keep it up. What is your hope your daily bible reading what is your hope you found a new preacher this week you found a new channel on the internet what is your hope that is within you better be

careful how you answer you better be careful how you answer because if you're being shopped your job might be in jeopardy because i I don't want that smart aleck. I don't want that guy that doesn't know what he's talking about. But oh, this guy that speaks from sincerity, speaks from the heart, and he speaks with love. Yeah, there you go. That's the one I'm looking for. I just happen to believe he shops stuff. So, I encourage you, get into the ministry. Get

into his ministry. Let's make this work. Let's make this work so that we actually see a result. That the Spirit of God can have an effectiveness to us, for us, around us, through us. Yeah, it can be a wonderful thing. But first, get the hope in you. And then you can answer when somebody asks about the hope. All right, I want you to tell me who you are. Would you mind writing to me?

I would love to know where you're from, how you're listening to the program. If you've got questions or comments, I'd love to hear those too. And I have to stop and say, I appreciate the comments and the questions that we've already received. And many of you are being blessed by

what's being said. I'm just so glad about that because I want to share my Christian experience with you. Until next time, Don Harris. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you