Words of Jesus Podcast - Jesus Struggles To Communicate The Kingdom of God

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

The barrier in communication is not linguistic, Jesus spoke the languages of His day. The barrier is our ability to understand. We are handicapped by our sins, the sins of society, and the corruption in modern Christianity. The good news is the way is still open, understanding still obtainable, communication still possible. ***Ch. 30 - Jesus Teaches the Kingdom in ParablesA MUSTARD SEED (Matt. 13:31, 32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18, 19)            Then Jesus, speaking another parable, likened the kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows from a small grain into a large plant:            “Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it growth up, and becometh greater than all hers, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.” LEAVEN (Matt. 13:33; Luke 13:20, 21)            Then Jesus compared the kingdom of Heaven with leaven, saying:             “The kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”THE HIDDEN TREASURE (Matt. 13:44)            Jesus spoke another parable, likening the kingdom of Heaven to a hidden treasure.  He said:             “Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field-which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”THE COSTLY PEARL (Matt. 13:45, 46)            Jesus told another parable to teach his listeners what the kingdom of Heaven is. He said:            “Again, he kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls—who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, as bought it.”A NET (Matt 13:47-53)            Jesus likened the kingdom of Heaven to a net, saying:             “Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind—which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.  There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”            Then Jesus said:            “Have ye understood all these things?”            The people answered:            “Yes, Lord.”            Jesus said to them:            “Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

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 Don Harris. We're going to be finishing up chapter 30 today in our little book. I hope you've enjoyed things so far. I hope you've learned some things. And you may even find evidences in your life already of thinking red ink,

which is our goal, right? All right, we have Jesus having taken on the handicap of the vocabulary and the mentality of the persons on the earth by becoming one of us and finding already that he's having very much difficulty getting human beings to understand what the kingdom of God is all about. There were times when trying to explain the kingdom of God to people that Jesus would make a comment about what the scriptures say and to no avail you will search the scriptures

to try to find what he's talking about and you may find that it may be a scripture, whatever it is he's referring to, is not available to us anymore. Perhaps it's been retranslated or translated over until it's gotten to where it doesn't say what it's supposed to say. I really don't know what the problem is there. But if you remember the Pharisees who asked or I guess it was the Sadducees that asked Jesus whose wife will she be? Remember the woman that had married more than

one husband? Whose wife will she be? And he says you do err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. And I can't find in Scriptures anywhere where that's delineated so clearly that Jesus would accuse them of not knowing the Scriptures. So we find that we have several handicaps in our 21st century. One of them is that we're so incredibly sinful. We are so far from a holy and righteous life.

There were times when even, not atheists, but perhaps the theists of the day who acknowledged there was a God, but they certainly weren't evangelicals and I don't know how much God really influenced their life other than the fact that they knew that they would likely stand before this God one day and give an account of themselves. It was kind of a casual understanding that certainly there's a God and I'm doing the best I can. But it certainly wasn't that evangelical mindset of the

more vociferous and the more active and the more evangelical of the Christianity that we know today. And I think that over time as the church got more aggressive and started demanding their way with wanting certain things cleaned up in town and wanting liquor to be illegal

and these kind of things. When they started getting a little louder, I think it started to divide back in those days. And it divided the nation into a wicked sort and a righteous sort. Well, I guess what I'm saying is that that righteous sort in that day was so far above the standard of what anybody today would call holiness that it hardly compares. And even the evil of that day, the wicked of that day, the sinful of that day, actually

have more character than many of modern Christians. It's like we're getting worse. And I happen to believe that we are. And so one handicap that we're living under is the society in which we live. Because you will find that good common sense Christianity doesn't fit in the evangelical camp and it certainly doesn't fit in the sinner's camp. And so you're going to find that as you start to develop a Christian character and even

Christianity and start to become Christian you're going to find that you're going to be kind of by yourself. Especially if you become a Christian based upon the red letters in the scriptures. So the handicap of our society is one huge handicap for us to understand what we need to understand for life to work.

That is just going to have to be faced with bravery. That's just going to have to be faced with determined, you know, setting your jaw and setting your face to do whatever it is that you know is the right thing to do and just let the chips fall where they may. That's going to be a part of your endurance. Now, other handicaps that we have in our day again, you have the bifurcation, the division, the separation between

even among Christians as to what they believe is their nominal guide, their natural guide, their, well where they get their marching orders from. Some people trust men way too much, and some men are very concerned about trusting men and or denominations and such. Some people turn the Bible

into a magic book. Some of them, even to the point of witchcraft and incantation, reading scriptures and trying to make things happen by saying things over and over again. Or they feel like if they find some similar situation in the Bible, that the advice that was given to someone 1,500, 2,000, 3,500 years ago because it is the Word of God, that it suffices for us today. So you have that kind of mentality.

Then you have the kind of mentality that unfortunately, I mean, I'm ashamed to say that my beloved Quakers were the beloved denomination of Quakers that I speak of so fondly, I'm afraid that they were instrumental in the idea that we don't need scriptures. We just don't need them. I think we should all just do according to the dictates of our heart. Well, you want trouble, boy.

That's the way to get it. And you might find or decide, listening to me, that I necessarily believe that, and I don't. Because I believe that a person should consult the Lord and do as he's told, and so that he is actually living a life according to the dictates of the voice of God in his life, not the dictates of his own heart. There is a difference here.

And so I encourage people to develop that kind of relationship. Well, without that kind of relationship, all these handicaps that are on us in these last days, with the ability of communication, we can surmount almost any of these problems easily. Some of them a little more difficult than others. But I guess what I want to do is encourage you that I'll give you an example. When I was learning to fly

I remember my instructor, I was going to do my first night flight. That sounds frightening and it sounded frightening to me. Until my instructor, he told me, he says, now you realize that the laws of aerodynamics do not change because it's dark outside. And I thought, that's true. So flying an airplane at night is going to be exactly like

flying it in the daytime. You know, it's just like, I don't know, it's something when you lose that little, the visual acuity, when you lose the ability to see, you realize how much you depended upon the ability to see out the window of an aircraft. Well, I guess what I'm telling you is that it's difficult enough to be Christian, but when you add something to it, like the handicaps that I'm talking about, where there's no place to go, there's nobody to counsel with, there's nobody that seems to understand. I can't even find people that I'm truly convinced really love me and care about me and care about my welfare enough to try to help. When you have a society like that among Christendom

and you have a wicked society on the outside that is seemingly waiting to kill us at any moment when you start adding these handicaps, it can become a little frightful. But you need to know that this plane flies under laws of aerodynamics that are not affected by light. Do you understand what I'm saying?

That Christianity, it works under certain laws and principles that have absolutely nothing to do with our environment out there. So we can't get too focused on those things and the things that beset us. You know, Paul, of course when he used the term of us being beset in this race he was talking about our own sins. But I think that in the day that we live in today,

I think that a Christian can focus too much on the problems of life, the way things are, so to speak, and that might have been fine for them, but for us it's a little different. Listen, you're making a big mistake if you do that because the laws upon which Christianity are based, the principles

the founding principles of what Christianity is all about, they have nothing to do with the condition of the earth, with the condition of the world, with the condition of society and these kind of things. They still work like they always do. So what do we have to do? We need to obey the commandments. It has nothing to do with what the world has to say to us.

It's a personal thing. It's a family thing. It's within ourselves. And of course we need to never disobey our conscience. You know our conscience has the ability of taking in the social orders of life and all these little problems that I've enumerated here and adding themselves to the formula.

So that your conscience can guide you in a proper way. And I'm always cautious there. I'm always wanting to back up a little. And say now listen. If you're not keeping the commandments of God. You cannot trust your conscience. You cannot trust that the guidance that you are receiving. Is indeed from our Father.

And in that closed frequency, or that secret frequency that can't be interfered by the enemy. It's our only assurance that we can actually hear the voice of God in its purity. So don't try it. It won't work. So I guess I'm telling you about these principles of the kingdom of God because friend, we're living in it. If you are a Christian, you are living in the kingdom of God. I love to tell the story of Gehazi who could not who was worried about things in the world.

There were armies that were going to invade Israel and his, of course he was the helper, the assistant to Elisha. And Elisha had a particular look on his face or a particular wave that he was moving and acting and talking and maybe taking a nap here and there. And he just wasn't as worried as Gehazi thought he should be.

And he was trying to tell Gehazi, everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be all right. Nothing's changed here. What do you mean nothing's changed? We're encompassed with armies. And he says, we're encompassed, but their armies aren't the only ones that are here. Elisha could see the kingdom of God. And this little Haziah, because he was so worried about

things, actually he was probably worried about things because he couldn't. There was nothing that Elisha could say to him that would calm him down without poor little Gehazi having to put confidence in Elisha's words that may or may not have merited confidence and given him comfort. So Elisha just simply asked the Lord to, hey, open his eyes so he can see what's going on around here. And when he did, he saw

all the armies of Israel encamped around the precipice of each mountain around them and there were chariots and there were horses and there were armed angels and everything's going to be okay. Then he could calm down. Now what happened there was that all of a sudden Gehazi was able to see the kingdom of God. Now Jesus told Nicodemus that

unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now I know later he told him he needed to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. But entering the kingdom of God. But entering the kingdom of God is not something that we're going to do this week. We're not going to do that. It's not going to happen this week. The kingdom of God is not going to happen anytime soon.

And so what good does that do me? It's always my complaint many times when you go to church and you hear a sermon and you, yeah it's interesting, yeah it's factual, yeah it's good but how does that help me today? Well that's the beauty of the kingdom of God within you we studied of it growing from near nothing into something very substantial. There is a way if we follow these instructions of our Lord, or at least have the understandings that He's giving us through these scriptures,

that we can actually see that kingdom of God within us, beginning to take form, beginning to prove itself every day, and our confidence level goes up, our dedication level goes up, and consequently our joy and enjoying the kingdom of God and being happy in it right now, it all becomes a possibility. So I guess with all this talk about the kingdom of God being like a mustard seed, like a seed, like leaven, like the net,

I mean, all the ways that Jesus described it, I'm just afraid sometimes that people will take that and push that idea off into the future when the kingdom of God finally comes to the earth. And that's not necessarily so. Of course it is so, but it's not necessarily the only message that he has for us. The kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God is within you. You know, I appreciate you looking forward to come. I appreciate you praying. Thy kingdom come. I mean, that's part of what I teach you to pray, the Lord is saying.

But there is also a kingdom of God within us that these principles apply there as well. And all these principles have very little to do with the environment around us. Like my flight instructor says. That's right. Nothing's going to change because it gets dark. Nothing's going to change. This plane's going to fly just like it always has. You've got to obey all the rules that you had to do when the sun was up. And it was good advice.

And I've been able to apply that in many situations. Yes, but it's so dark. The world we live in is so dark, and there's just such little hope. It doesn't matter. The kingdom of God still runs on, works on the same principles that it always has. Jesus is finishing up his dissertation on what the kingdom of God is like. And he talks about it being, or equates it to a hidden treasure. Again the kingdom of heaven is likened to treasure hid in a field which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy

thereof he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field. The idea of hiding this gold mine, this silver vein, this part of the earth that he obviously shows, that shows him, that it's going to yield treasure and value for many, many years, he deems that field worthy of everything that he owns. And if I can instill in anyone that is Christian that, you know, although our Bible is absolutely invaluable, I mean, absolutely, I really don't know how we could do what we do without it. I really don't. Because to live in such a way as

to hear for yourself the truth that is easily accessible in your Bible, I don't know, you'd have to live to be 800 years old just to get close to what has been revealed in the Scriptures. Absolutely inestimable value in the Scriptures. However, we have a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto you do do well you take heed for as a flashlight that shines in the dark place this is going to be like a day star dawning you know what the day star is it's the sun nobody uses a flashlight when the sun is up.

They just don't. Somebody out in their yard looking for something with a flashlight at noontime, you'd think they were nuts. But I'm afraid that sometimes we move from the Scriptures, and because we're reluctant to go directly to the Spirit of God, because we don't have a relationship with Him, or because it is new, or because it's not understood, or because it's not conventional, or because you have people warning you to stay away from that kind of thing. You know, we should get all of our instruction through the Bible, which eventually means through them.

You know, for whatever reason that you neglect it. We do have a tendency to make our Bible, we make it carry weight that it was never intended to carry. We demand of it things that it never promised us. The promise to the Christian was this, that if you'll keep my commandments, I'll teach you from the inside. Now, I don't know why that promise is not called upon more,

but it is the only way to receive directly from the Lord what we need on a daily basis. Your daily bread is not in this book. It's interesting to read every day. I don't know that there's a day goes by I don't read it or at least contemplate what it says. But when we read these things, this is not the voice of God speaking to us. You can hear the voice of God as you read this, but this in itself is not the word of God. The biggest danger here is to take an item, if you will, a process, to take an asset that is given to Christianity, namely the Word of God, and then superimpose that over a much more benign thought and word like the Scriptures or the Bible, well, not only have you elevated the Bible out of the place that it teaches us,

the place that it's supposed to have in our lives, but you have downplayed a most wonderful gift, the most wonderful asset of Christianity, which is direct communication with our Lord God. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Has anybody experienced that? Do you really think that when you go to the Bible, that this is Jesus coming to you? I imagine there's people that feel that way. But if it ever happens the other way around, that'll never suffice for you ever again I've told people you know if you feel like God loves you and your attitude is

pretty much like the old song Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so okay is that good enough I'll tell you what i i don't think so as you husbands need to take a little three by five card and write i love you on and hand it to your wife and say anytime you want

to hear that out of me just pull that card out of your purse and read it and see how far that goes but essentially isn't that what we do with the Word of God? He wants to speak to us. And has He really? Has He really closed His mouth? Has He really decided not to speak to us and say, if you want to know what I have to say, you can read it in a book. You know, none of this makes sense.

None of it is the characteristic of our God. So why do we pursue it so? Well, there are reasons for that, but they're not very complementary to the conventional Christian or its leadership. Jesus wants us to know that the kingdom of God is that hidden treasure. When you find this treasure in a field, when you indeed find this, you will sell everything you have to get it.

When you find a doctrine, a teaching, a theology, a principle, a characteristic of God, when you find that in the communication that you can have with God, not just you talking to Him, but indeed Him talking to you, I assure you, you will deem that as the most valuable thing in your life. And you can believe God loves you because the Bible says so, if that's what you want to do. But if you ever heard him say it,

you'll never wonder about it again. You'll never wonder. People sit and wring their hands and wonder if they're going to be saved and wonder if they're going to be, you know, if they're going to heaven when they die and all that kind of talk. Listen, you want all that to go away? Get a communicative relationship between you and the Lord God. The Bible says that there's three ways that we can know that we are children of God.

Only gives us three. The other ways that are given to us by our preachers and by our teachers and by our doctrines and theologies are essentially man-made deductions from the Bible. In other words, if the Bible's not true, then you have no relationship with God. If the Bible can be discounted some way it destroys a relationship because your whole faith in god your assurance of your salvation is based in a book

mine's not mine's not at all now the book told me about these three ways granted you see the value of the book all of a sudden the book has value, but I'm not worshiping it. The book tells me that I can know that I'm a child of God because I keep his commandments. Did you know that that's what the scriptures say? If you say you are a child of God, you don't keep his commandments, considers you to be a liar. The other way is, is that we love our brethren. That's how we know we've passed from death unto life. And the other way is that we love our brethren. That's how we know we've passed from death unto life. And the other way is that third step that I give you over and over and over to take time every day to hear the voice of God. Why? Because one of those ways we can know that we've been

born again, that we're on the right track, is how the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God. Once you have that, you're not going to worry about this, not for another second. Our time is gone. Sorry about that. Sure goes by fast. And that's all we have for today. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time.

Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you