Words of Jesus Podcast - Our Lives Should Provoke Inquiry

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

Can you imagine Jesus with short hair, no beard and blue jeans? Or must he wear a robe and carry a lamb? We have filters that preclude revelation and understanding from God. Our wrong expectations create disappointment and hinder our understanding.  Are you angry with God for a false pulpit promise? Jesus delineated a life of persecution and difficulty for His followers – not popularity and prosperity.  He spoke of suffering and life beyond this life, not unending healing for the elderly.  When you experience the gospel through a daily walk with Jesus you will encounter things that are contrary to modern ideas of evangelism, marketing and Christianity. A striking example in this chapter is when Jesus understands that “all men seek after him”; he responds by saying “let’s go to another town;” (not get a bigger stadium).  His work was complete.  Jesus is not an ATM machine to serve us. It is our job to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, in so doing we will show the world the hope that is in us. The book referenced in this episode is“The Art of Clear Thinking” by Rudolf Flesch.  ***Chapter 10: Jesus Heals an Insane Man (Part 2)ON A SABBATH Jesus went into the synagogue at Capernaum and taught the congregation. His listeners were surprised because he taught as one with authority of others.One of the men present had an unclean spirit. He cried out saying:"Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come todestroy us? I know these who thou art, 'the Holy One of God.'"Jesus rebuked the devil in the man, saying:"Hold thy peace, and come out of him."The unclean spirit thereupon cried out with a loud voice. It tormented the man, causing himto writhe greatly; but it came out of him. All who were present were astonishedand said among themselves:"What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he eventhe unclean spirits, and they do obey him."And the fame of Jesus spread abroad, all about the region of Galilee.Later Jesus went to a solitary place to pray. Great numbers came seeking him. When hisdisciples found him, they said:"All men seek for thee."Jesus replied: "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, for therefore came Iforth."And Jesus preached in the synagogues throughout Galilee and cast out devils. ***

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris, your host, and I would like to let you know that I really appreciate you coming to this particular point in time and this particular channel to hear more about the words of Jesus. I hope you're getting hooked. I know that I just became addicted to finding out what Jesus had to say about things and was never disappointed, except in one case. We'll talk about that as we get there. But never disappointed, essentially, but I was always surprised. One of the things that surprised me most of all was how unchristian he was.

Let me explain what I mean. When you define Christianity the way we do in our modern day and our modern understanding of Christianity, it's pretty obvious Jesus wasn't a Methodist. It's pretty obvious he wasn't a Baptist. It's pretty obvious that he would hardly fit in any conventional Christian setting that I know of. And because of that, because of the 2,000 year time span

that separates us, because we don't understand a whole lot about his life and who he was and the way Israel was in those days, the mindset of the people in those days, There's just so much we don't understand. I'm afraid we have a tendency to put Jesus in some kind of a category. If he was sitting right here with me at the table, which would really be cool for just to have

a tangible person to talk to. That would really be interesting for me and perhaps for you. It would really help the ratings of this station. But I think that as you imagine what I'm saying to you now of him sitting right here, what do you see? What do you see when you see him sitting there? A long-haired, sheep-toting Jesus with a big curly-Q staff in his hand, wearing robes and sandals. A lot of people see him just that way and really can't see him

any way else. You can't see him wearing a pair of dockers or a pair of Levi's or a t-shirt or having a haircut. You can't even see Him without a beard. All those things are absolutely possible, but we can't see it that way. We've got an idea of Jesus. And the reason I put it into the physical is to make this concept very simple for you. You need to know that, you know, as sincere as we want to be

and as much as we want to know him and love him and we want him to know and love us and all these things considered, even though our motivations are good, we still have filters in our brains that when we, and it's the reason that I'm saying that I'm using a physical manifestation of him to explain this. We have filters in our brains that put him in certain clothes. Most people think that Jesus speaks with a slightly British accent because that's all

they've heard all their life. They've seen him in movies. You know, he doesn't speak with an Italian accent. He doesn't speak with a Spanish accent. He speaks with an English accent. And so that's what we expect him to say. We don't expect him to say you. We expect him to say thee and thou. These are filters that we put into our heads and somehow when we see them we're disappointed. You know we can really become disappointed

in our fairy tale gods that we make up in our heads. You know it's really not that we should pray or ask the Lord to reveal himself to us. Because really what you're saying to do is reveal yourself to me the way I see you. I want to recognize you when I see you. And when I see you, I expect that many people think that the Father God looks like Santa Claus. Even to the point of being roly-poly and sitting on a big old throne. I mean, like Santa Claus

does. They have ideas in their heads about what God looks like. Jesus said forget what God looks like. He's invisible. He's a spirit. He doesn't have a form. You know you're going to hear him say that and we're going to talk about those very things as time goes by but we have a tendency to want God to reveal himself to us but it's not really him we want him to reveal himself to us the way

we have always seen him to be and in reality I really wouldn't suggest this because it could be dangerous, physically dangerous, to ask the Lord to reveal Himself to us the way He really is. Now in the spiritual realm we have filters as well and for him to reveal himself to us

spiritually or as he told his disciples to manifest himself to us to manifest himself to us is a different thing than simply appearing. You understand that? If I walk in a door, I've just appeared to the interior of this room. I've just appeared. But to manifest myself, I mean to the people in the room,

but to manifest myself to the people in the room is for every person in that room to know all there is to know about me. Who I am and what I am and what I'm all about. What I like and what I don't like. I mean it's a huge task. And I would say that it's a huge accomplishment on the part of God to manifest Himself to us. It was Jesus' promise though, if you'll keep

my commandments, me and my Father will move into you and we will manifest ourselves to you. Alright, what does manifestation do to our silly little filters? Well I'll tell you what it does to it. Let's go back to the physical example of him sitting right here. If outside of the normal doubts and stuff that people would have if I introduced somebody sitting here with a butch cut and a clean-shaven face

and wearing a button-down collared shirt and Levi's and said, this is Jesus Christ. Outside of our own physical and normal doubts that we would have about such a thing, let's just say that you believe that what I'm telling you is true and you had no reason to doubt it and you accepted this person as Jesus Christ yourself. What would that do to your prior understanding of the way he's supposed to look? It would banish it, wouldn't it? Because you've come to the point where you see things like they are. You see things actually in a state of

manifestation you've never witnessed before. Another example, that's probably a bad example because, you know, Jesus sitting here at the table with me and all this kind of thing. It's so far out people are perhaps having a hard time putting this idea together. But have you ever been on your way to a place that you've never been? It's a protracted amount of time between now and when you're going. And you have a tendency to

kind of visualize where it is you're going. You're going to stay in somebody's home and you've never been there before. And, oh yeah, well we've got a place where we've got a bed. We've got a bedroom with a bathroom in it. And while they're talking, you're kind of building this room in your head. And you're taking information in and you're kind of building this idea in your head. And then when you get there, it is

nothing like what you thought. Absolutely nothing like what you thought. Well, by the end of the day, you have almost forgotten completely what your idea was. Do you play games like this in your mind? I think about this stuff all the time. Because I'm just intrigued with the way our mind works. Where did I get that idea? Where did I get that vision? Where did I get that picture of this in my head? How come it is that I would believe quicker that a man in sandals and a robe

was Jesus than I would a guy with dockers and a button-down collar shirt. Plaid at that. Paisley. Oh my goodness. I mean, why is one easier to believe than the other? Where did I get the idea? Look, you know the 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years we live on this earth, we teach our minds how to imagine things. And we actually change memories.

Look into this. As a matter of fact, I would suggest a book. My goodness sakes, I can't think of his name. But it's an older book called The Art of Critical Thinking. I can't remember his name, the author of the book, but what a book that is! It actually takes you through some of the processes of our minds to where you can have perhaps five witnesses to a car accident

and everybody actually is solely convinced, totally convinced that what they saw is what happened. And all five stories be different. How in the world can that be? How in the world can that be? It's the process of our minds. It's the way we work. And here's, you know, I say all that, you know, half the show gone. I say all that to tell you that we owe it to ourselves to add

the facts of what Jesus said to our thinking to dispel the information that we have put into those gaps in our own thinking. We manufactured them, or we let somebody say something that we accepted as true, and we just kind of wrote it in between where the facts are missing. But if you will take the red ink to heart and listen to what he actually has to say, you'll find that, you know, why would he say such a thing? And all of a sudden, you're looking at the whole situation.

And all of a sudden, you're thinking, oh, well, this makes sense and that makes sense, but this dispels this thought that I've had all my life. It dispels this doctrine that I've had all my life. It dispels this doctrine that I've had all my life. It takes this theology and just totally erases it. These things can't be because this is. Now, it's when we're willing to do that, and look, I realize we're in a very disadvantaged situation

here as human beings trying to understand an unknowable God. I understand that. But if you want your life to work, you want your Christianity to work, do you want to be able to offer your poor family some idea of a logical, conscious, open-eyed Christianity, not just some silly fable that you just have to believe. Well, you know, sometimes you just got to have faith.

Yeah, there's times when you just got to have faith, but not when it's written down in front of you in a book that has given you no reason whatsoever to doubt what it says. You know, yeah, you've got to have faith in some situations, but not in all situations. You're not allowed to just make up your faith. The Bible says to work out your faith. Work it out with respect,

with fear, with trembling with concern, with an understanding of the grave and dire situation in which you find yourself this is not a play toy, this is not a hobby this is not just a matter of what you believe, well you can believe what you believe and I'll just believe what I believe, and you're welcome to your opinion. I have my opinion, and you have your, and all this apologetic back and forth stuff, trying to

get along. Look, can we agree on something like the character and the personality of Jesus Christ that exudes from the Scriptures, that comes out of the red ink. Can we agree that this is describing an actual man that walked on the earth 2,000 years ago? You owe it to yourself. You know, I realize you're an adult, your realize, you know, you're an adult.

Your life is, oh, maybe you're on the downhill side. Maybe your life is over. I know what it's like to see that I'm probably, I have probably lived a lot longer than I'm going to live. And I understand that. But you've got a responsibility of people who love you and care about you. A responsibility to your parents, to your children, and perhaps to grandchildren. Perhaps even great-grandchildren. You have a responsibility to them to be conscious, to be awake. Not just see. Not just be not

asleep, but to be awake and aware. You have a responsibility to them that your Christianity didn't come to you by osmosis. Oh, we've always been Christians in my family. Well, okay, don't be surprised if your son doesn't come home from college a Muslim. Because he's found his answers there. Is that okay with you? You know, I mean, let's take this seriously. Let's look in here and find out

who Jesus really is. Let's see if he wore Levi's and buttoned down collars. Let's look and see and allow our ideas, our manufactured ideas to dispel and to go into vapor and to fog and blow away and leave us with nothing but a solid Christian faith in God. Wouldn't that be nice? I just told you my whole motivation.

This was my whole motivation in walking away from Christianity altogether, deciding that it wasn't even true. Found myself right back here. Found out, oh my goodness, it is true. It's just been distorted. Everything that I've learned is not true, but this is a true thing. This is a real thing. Jesus Christ really did walk on this earth. He really did

come to redeem us. I owe it to myself and everybody that I love and care about to give this my best effort. Not become a radical, not become some kind of rock-throwing guerrilla Christian, not out there trying to find false doctrine and root out bad theology. Look, get it rooted out of yourself first. And then, you know when you're going to know that you're ready to approach the world about their false doctrine? When you do that

because you love them and it's done in love. If it turns into an argument something's wrong somewhere. Back away. Back away. Make it real within yourself first. And then allow and let and just kind of sit back and you know offer answers not questions another thing that we do as christians is we feel that our uh somehow we're compelled to go out and to ask people questions you know if you died tonight that you're going to heaven? Are you sure for heaven as if you were already there?

Do you know that you're not going to hell? Okay, what are we going to do? Go through these 20 questions here? Is that what we're going to do? You're going to ask me all these questions and I'm going to answer them? Is that what's going on? You call that evangelism? It's not evangelism. The Bible says that we are to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us. But nobody's asking. That's because there's no hope in you.

There's no difference in you and everybody else. What you need to try to cultivate is the difference. And when you cultivate the difference, you don't have time to answer all the questions. But you see, then you've got somebody asking, don't you? Which is a different thing altogether in a lot of people's cases. That's evangelism. You want to know about the hope that's in me? Let me tell you about the hope that's in me. Now you've got a premise to even talk about.

Alright. These things are simple, but unfortunately we'd just rather do it the hard way. Let's continue with our reading. I'll start over. It's short. In the fame of Jesus spread abroad all about the region of Galilee and later Jesus went to a solitary place to pray. Great numbers came seeking him. When his disciples found him they said, Master all men seek

for thee. There's a crowd out there. Jesus replied, let's go into the next town that I may preach there. For therefore I came forth. I have to preach there. I can't focus all of my time in one particular location. These people are asking for me? Well, they're right where they need to be. They're right where they need to be. This is what I'm here for. They're asking for me?

We've done our job. The gospel has worked its magic. I hate the word magic. The gospel has worked its power in this city. Look at all those people out there. They're all asking for me. That's exactly what the gospel is supposed to do. This is exactly what it's supposed to do. You know what, guys? We're done here. We've got to go to the next town. I've got work to do. Yeah, but

they're asking for you. What am I supposed to do? Go out there and just answer their questions and wait for the next barrage of questions? Look, these people are, they're totally immersed in the gospel right now as we speak. The gospel has changed their hearts. It's turned them toward me. It's turned them toward my Father. They'll find their answers. They're going to be just fine.

Let's go to the next town. You know, that just doesn't sound like a guy that's trying to build a church, does it? I know that the common understanding is that Jesus came to build His church. And I think that because we don't understand what church is, number one, and we have the conventional idea of church, we have a tendency to believe that Jesus came to gather large groups of people that'll put His name on a sign out front

that is willing to be the pastor and the treasurer and the secretary and the janitor and whatever else, the pew padding committees and all the things that we associate with church, we're kind of thinking that that's what he did. But no, no, that's not what he's doing at all. He's saying that there's such a thing as the church of God, which is Israel. No, which is Israel. No, no, no. We're not talking about real estate here.

We're talking about what Paul called spiritual Israel. These are the people who have prevailed with God. You remember where the name came from? He gave it to Jacob, didn't he? After Jacob and the angel wrestled all night long, right? And he finally came out of that fight and said, I want you to bless me. Well, okay. I'll bless you. You might not like it. You might not understand it, but here's your blessing. You're no longer going to be called

Jacob. You're going to be called Israel because you prevailed with God. See, so the name Israel is not attached to a hunk of dirt over there in the Middle East, no disrespect, but it's not connected to a piece of real estate. It's connected to the people who have striven with God, who have worked out their salvation. It's people who have prevailed with God. They've prevailed. They won! They made it! And the people who

make it are called out. Thus the word ecclesia. Thus the word church. This is my church, he says. Now, my church is a little different than the other church. The one that we've all known in the Old Testament. I realize it's one and the same as far as people may be concerned. But he says that now I'm going to build my church a little differently. I'm going to build my church on revelation. That was built on education.

That was built on education. That was built on reputation. That was built on familial ties, on who belongs to who, what name you have, where you happen to live, the fact that you keep His commandments as important today as they ever were. But this was one of the criteria that built that church. Now who belonged to that church? Well, I understand the first members were Adam and Eve. I understand they had two other members join, but one of them fell away.

Do I need to go through this list? I'm telling you, this goes all the way back to the beginning. There's always been a church of God. It's one of the asinine ideas about what's called replacement theology. Are you familiar with this? Replacement theology is the idea that Jesus came to replace the house of Israel, the families of Israel, the idea of Israel has now been replaced with the church. It's silly. It's a silly premise because it's built on a bunch of men's ideas having to be true in order for this to be true.

But the truth is there's no replacement going on. It's the same thing. It's absolutely the same thing. The only thing Jesus changed is, from now on, it's going to be built on revelation. This is something that essentially you, and I say you collectively, and I would say the majority of Christians today are taught to stay away from revelation. Don't get your own private interpretation, you know, because, you know, that's not kosher. That's not good. It's going to lead you off into error. What's going to lead me off into the error?

The Spirit of God? The Spirit of God is going to lead me to error. Well, you just may not know if it is the Spirit of God. It might be the Spirit of the devil. Well, if it's the Spirit of the devil, I'm going to hell anyway. So what's the difference? These arguments are absolutely hollow. We need to have a relationship with our God that we can hear his voice within ourselves and let him lead us and guide us into all truth. Yeah, boy. It's such a perfect gospel. Why don't people preach this?

Why don't they teach this? Why do they teach people to be afraid of revelation, to be afraid to hear the voice of God for themselves? I don't know. Time's gone again. We want you to join us next time to hear more from the words of Jesus. I'm enjoying doing this series. I hope you are too. And if you are, would you write to me? Don at ThinkRedInc.com I'll tell you something else I'd like you to do is let your station know

that you're enjoying this program and that you appreciate them airing it. Because, you know, well, I don't know, stations don't hear from you as much as they should. As much as they could, absolutely. But I want to hear from you, and I would love to know that you tell the station how much you appreciate this program. So do that, will you? If you'd like to write to me, think Red Ink Ministries, P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. So time is out for today, but we'll see you next time. Until then, Don Harris, Think Red Ink. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com.

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