Words of Jesus Podcast - Something New Under The Sun

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

The long-awaited Messiah, Jesus, came to earth. Something new. It is one thing to anticipate the answer and correction of all things. It is quite another for the authority to arrive. As a man, Jesus lived in obedience to God the Father, demonstrating the way we are to operate in the Kingdom of God. Promise of Jesus when I go away, the Spirit of God will come and lead you from the inside. Previous efforts to reconcile God and man through the law and the prophets failed. God says, "I am not a book. Go to Jesus for answers."***Ch 48: Jesus’ TransfigurationMatthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36ABOUT A week later Jesus went with three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, into a high mountain to pray.            As he prayed he was transfigured before them. His face shone as the sun and his garments became white and glistening, as bright as light. Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus about coming events at Jerusalem.            Peter said:            “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”            While Peter was speaking a bright cloud came over them and out of it came a voice, which said:            “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. HERE YE HIM.”            When the disciples heard the voice, they were afraid and fell on their faces.            Jesus came and touched them, saying:            “Arise and be not afraid.”            And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus.        The three disciples guarded word of this event as a secret, telling no one what they had seen.

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris. Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris. We are in chapter 48 of our book, The Words of Jesus, and this is about Jesus' transfiguration. Now, the transfiguration has been preached in many different ways and for many different reasons. Let's see if we can find out exactly what happened that day and what it actually means to us. I told you before that one of the manifestations of Jehovah on the earth and of course and subsequently Jesus as well, was that Jesus Christ being called the Word of God, or in perhaps a different vernacular, but along the same line, the voice of God,

this is God's voice in the earth. This is what he has to tell mankind, and he's doing it through the life of jesus christ this is um one of the the changes that john the baptist was preaching uh to the jewish nation that things are about to change they're going to change and they're going to change drastically and um when they do it's going to be very uncomfortable for you and uh but we need to change we need to repent we need to turn around the way we've been doing things and do them the way that the lord expects us to do them now here you have a situation of what's called the transfiguration um and uh what exactly happened that day and uh and and what it means

to us as 21st century christians um in order to understand this i think that it would be important for us to understand the mindset of the jews of that day if you remember um you'll find the jews talking about certain things in prophetic tones or or as it affects prophecy or as prophecy affects life and they will use the term uh so says the law and the prophets jesus would say um on these two, hang all the law and the prophets. And the words law and prophets were synonymous with, essentially, the Old Testament. The doctrines, the covenants, the ideas, the commandments, everything about the Old Covenant. Upon which Israel fancied itself as having been built. And I say that because although they did a wonderful job,

as well as could be expected, there were a lot of gaps in their understanding, thus the appearance of Jesus Christ to fill in those gaps. However, how Jesus was going to do that was that he was going to have to occupy in the mind of the of the average jew out there this place of authority he was going to have to occupy in at least in their minds he that when he spoke he spoke not as uh as a prophet or as a wise man as some people love to say you know i believe jesus was was you know he was a prophet he was a wise man he was a good guy and like like he needs our approval um but that he was speaking as the son of god and uh and in a peculiar position as being the son of man as well as the son of God.

But the authority issue was a big issue. Just who is this guy, and how can he be what he claims to be? And if he is indeed who he says he is, then where does that place us as God's chosen people? This was a big stumbling stone for the Jews. The Jews did develop their laws and their ideas and what knowledge that they had gained over the centuries as God's people and their experiences, their family, their social order, everything was

essentially based on, as I say, the law and the prophets. I want you to keep that in mind because as we read here, you're going to see the law and the prophets symbolized and exactly where Jesus fits into this kind of thing uh or this this kind of thought of these people and us as well because we've we have gathered to ourselves an inordinate affection for a book instead of a living god and if you are one who worships your bible and i'd really rather not hear your testimony on it because i've never met anybody who actually admits to worshiping their Bible, but I meet many, many people who do. And I guess we came by it rightly, if you want to say.

Like, there was no other destiny for us. Because we came from Bible worshipers, Torah worshipers, scroll worshipers, people who worshiped letters on pages, letters on scrolls. They did. They just absolutely did just that. And those things were coming to an end.

Let's read here where it talks about jesus's transfiguration about a week later jesus went with three of his disciples peter james john and to a high mountain to pray as he was trans as he prayed he was transfigured before them. His face shone as the sun, and his garments became white and glistening, as bright as light. Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus about coming events at Jerusalem. Peter said, Master, it's good for us to be here.

Let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While Peter was speaking, a bright cloud came over them, and out of it came a voice which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom i am well pleased hear ye him when the disciples heard the voice they were afraid and fell on their faces jesus came and touched them saying arise be not afraid and when they had lifted up their eyes they saw no one but jesus three the three disciples guarded word of this event as a secret telling no one what they had seen this transfiguration scene i believe is is speaking to us or at least it can speak to us if we will open our minds for just a moment the the status quo the way that we've always done things and and you know is pretty

much the way the jews always did things and that was that they would go to their scrolls to their torah to the tanakh and they would find within those pages words of god and they would base whatever decisions they had to make whatever judgments they had to make whatever um uh societal decisions that had to make decisions within their own family and um and they would use the scriptures the law and the prophets as a bolstering device or as an empowerment for the way they lived does that sound at all familiar to you well it's exactly the way the christian lives today they use the Bible as a talisman. They use the Bible as a book of incantations. They find scriptures in there and believe what they read there

or they put their faith on it. They're standing on the promises. It's the word of faith movement. It's at the heart of the word of faith movement. They believe that the Bible is the word of faith movement um you know it's at the heart of the word of faith movement they believe that the bible is the word of god if it says that i believe it that settles it all the little cute little sayings that we say but i want you to know that what you're doing is in direct opposition of the plan of god for jesus christ to be our teacher and not words on a page i believe the scriptures i cherish the scriptures i love them and i live by every word that is in there i mean it's it's you just you

can't believe how important it is to me to have a relationship with the scriptures in that i know them i read them they are implanted in my heart you cannot accuse me of of not regarding the bible and putting it in its proper place but one thing that i will not do is i will not give it the title that belongs to none other than jesus christ you will not find the bible ever referring to a to a writing or a doctrine or a codex or a or a scroll or of of any kind you will never find the bible referring to those things as the Word of God. Did you know that the Bible never refers to itself as the Word of God? So what does the Bible refer to itself as? It refers to itself as the Scriptures.

Jesus Christ is the Word of God. Please don't give me the argument, well it's the written word of god and jesus is the living word of god where do you get these ideas from is that something that's in the scriptures do the scriptures refer to themselves as the written word of god and jesus is the living word of god or is that just some little ditty that you made up in order to continue to believe whatever it is you believe? The scriptures are absolutely invaluable to us, especially those of us in our grotesque and modern condition in which we live today,

where we have very little understanding. We are frothed with sin and with selfishness and uh the world in which we live in is wicked and evil and it's i mean it's a problem every day we live and frankly i don't know how we would ever understand the things of god without the scriptures i don't know how would we even know who jesus was how would we even know who his father was or the history of of christianity in in general without the scriptures i don't know how we would do that so please don't accuse me of not believing the bible is true because a lot of times when you say the bible is not the word of god people hear that as

you don't believe the bible not true you're the one that doesn't believe the bible because the bible refers to jesus christ as the word of god and you insist that it is there's only two definitions in the scriptures by example or even by literal definition what the word of god is the word of god is his voice in your ear today right now if he speaks to you right now it is the word of god if you remember what he said to you yesterday you're remembering the words of god the word of god is alive and it's powerful it's sharper than any two-edged sword capable even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit which is a very difficult thing to do theologically by the way it can divide between the soul and spirit and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there anything that is not

manifest in what's the next word here in its sight or is it in his sight all the time that i was quoting that scripture millions of people were attributing what i said what i was saying to this book to the bible the word of god is quick and powerful friend this, this book is not powerful. It is not alive. I can understand how you could attribute power to the scriptures. I get that. And I could even see how you could stretch the word alive to say that it's somehow living. I don't know how that works with your,

the foolish ideas of the living word of God and the written word of God, because if the Bible is the written word of God, and the written word of God says that the Bible is alive, that makes it the living word of God. But I thought it was, Jesus was the living word of God. And the Bible is the written word of God. And if the written word of God says that it's living, I don't know.

I just can't understand it. You know what you do? You get up, you go make a sandwich. And you don't think about it anymore. But these things need to be thought about. They need to be considered. And when you say the word of God out of your mouth it should be among especially among christians that they understand that you're talking about the living words that

come from the mouth of of god to your ears to your understanding to lead you and guide you into all truth do you believe that he can speak to you or do you not if you don't believe he can speak to you then go ahead take your bible and do whatever it is you need to do and go look up scriptures to make you feel better or to you know to claim in the name of jesus or whatever else you want to do but if you believe that he's capable of speaking to you why aren't you taking time in your life to hear his voice? From the beginning, God manifested himself to the earth as a voice. He manifests Jesus as the word of God, the voice of God.

His intention from the very beginning has been to have communication with his people. Up until now, and we're talking about the day of of transfiguration and i'm not saying that that's the the particular date or time but i'm saying that transfiguration is depicting this principle that i'm trying to show you now the bible says god hebrews 1 god who at sundry times different times and different manners spoke unto us by the prophets he spoke unto us by the prophets he hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son listen how many times do i have to have you memorized this scripture is that the problem so when i start saying it your mind goes into that little sing-song cadence thing it's kind of like you're reciting a limerick will you

listen to what it's actually saying in In times past, in times past, he's spoken unto us by the prophets. He has in these last days, he has in these last days, what is he about to tell us? Something's changed. It doesn't say that he spoke to us in times past by the prophets, and that's the way he speaks to

us today it doesn't say that what does it say in times past he spoke to us by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken unto us by his son this is the promise of jesus christ if i go away i'm not going to send you a book he says if i go away i'm going to send the spirit this spirit is it was with you it's going to be in you this is going to be a wonderful thing it's going to be better than anything you can imagine it's going to be better for you that I move inside you and lead and guide you from the inside than it ever was for me to lead and guide you from the outside. How could it be expedient for us

that He goes away, no longer living with us, no longer a part of our everyday life how could it be better for us expedient for us that he goes away how could it be i mean literally physically think about this for a moment i have the ability to have jesus christ sitting next to me eating dinner with me and talking with me about my day and there for me to answer questions for me to lead me and guide me this is my buddy he's with me he's never he's never away from me and he says that it's better for you that I go away.

How in the world could it be better for you that you go away? He says because, here's the idea, if I go not away, the comforter will not come. It cannot come. If I go away, the comforter will come. He didn't say if I go away, a book will come. He didn't say if i go away a book will come he didn't say if i go away i'm going to send preachers i'm going to send prophets and we're all going to go back to the old testament just like we always did so that in times past they spoke unto us by the prophets

hath in these last days spoken unto us in the very same way oh it's better for you because they only had an old testament you have a new testament i've heard preachers say that oh i don't know how can you miss this he's saying the holy spirit was with you it shall be in you you know what that's better it's better for us it's more expedient for us to be taught of the lord than it is to be taught by any man on earth anything that any man has to teach The idea that anything could replace the scriptures is anathema to the Jews. It is anathema to the 21st century Christian, the Bible-believing, Bible-thumping, King James 1611 people out there

that just worship their Bibles, don't even want another book to sit on top of it, those kind of people it this is this idea is absolutely anathema however it's his plan his plan is to replace your dead book your pile of paper with ink on it His idea is to replace that with the living Spirit of God to lead you and guide you and to hear that voice. You don't have to go through the Scriptures

and find the best one to fit your situation. Oh, there's a good one. There's a good one. Which one will I choose? Hey, friend, here's an idea. Change the choice for the voice. Just exchange the choice for the voice. Have a relationship with God so that He can speak to you on a daily basis.

You won't exchange it for anything you've ever experienced in your life. I assure you, you will not exchange it. I assure you, you will know exactly what jesus meant when he says it's expedient for you it's good for you if i go away i know that i wrestle with that for years how in the world could it be better i've heard preachers say well you know he can only be with one person at a time back then, and now he can be with the whole world. So how is that expedient for me? It might be expedient for the whole world, but it's not necessarily expedient for me.

I'd rather you be sitting right here. I'd rather you be at my table. I'd rather you live in my house. But there is something that's even better than all that this is a stumbling block especially to the jews who worship the torah or worship the tanakh who march it around the room and kiss the torah or touch their bibles to the to the box or whatever they do or you who puts the big decorative bible you know Bible at the front of the church, and you talk about it as if it's some kind of a god, I don't know,

who goes in there and finds the little incantations and prays according to the word of God. We do this according to the word of God. We do that according to the word of God. That doesn't mean that they're doing it according to the will of our father god in heaven who can speak they're doing it according to a book which requires by necessity a man to read it a man to understand it a man to interpret it oh i don't let men tell me what to do. I get my instruction straight from the Bible. Well, guess what, dumbbell? You're the man.

You're the one. You're still leading your life. You're still guiding your life. You are interpreting. You're reading and interpreting the scriptures. You're a man. So don't tell me you're not getting your instructions from a man. Just tell me you're not getting your instructions from a man. Just tell me you're not getting instructions from anybody but yourself.

Now we're being honest. So what's the answer to all this? A relationship with God. A communicative relationship with God. So that he can speak to us. So that we can hear him. What happened on the mount of transfiguration jesus was transfigured before them he was changed visibly changed on the mount of transfiguration

and there appeared unto him appeared beside him i assume it was on either side moses and the prophets how did we start the show out today didn't i tell you about the law and the prophets isn't it the law and the prophets these two men exemplified personified the law and the prophets man when they say uh you know moses says they weren't just saying mode this is moses's opinion they were saying moses said this therefore this is law they were living according to the law and the prophets who exemplifies the prophets more so than elijah elijah exemplifies and personifies the prophets the amount of transfiguration was about one thing and one thing only not just an exaltation or a big firework display saying that you know god's all happy with jesus and he wants to show

him to the whole world no he didn't want to show him to the whole world he only showed him to four people jesus was there and three of the disciples. So what was he doing? What was going on? Friend, it is all encompassed. It's all encapsulated into this one statement. Moses, Elijah, Jesus Christ, and the voice from heaven that says, this is my beloved son. Hear him.

It didn't say add him to your religion. It didn't say add him to your heart. It didn't say this is my beloved son. Please accept him. He said this is my beloved son. Hear him. No longer are you going to receive your instructions from a book, from words on a page, from ink on a page. God is screaming from heaven. I am not a book. This is my beloved son. You want guidance is where you come you want salvation this is where

you come you want answers to life this is where you go to get those answers this is my beloved son in whom by the way i am well pleased hear him hear him so are we supposed to hear what Moses had to say? Well, you can certainly read it. But that's not where we get our instruction from. Are we supposed to listen to what the prophets say? Well, you can certainly read it. It's all going to do you good. But when it comes to being taught of the Lord,

this is my beloved son. You will hear him. When Jesus Christ was prophesied as coming, he told Moses, I'm going to raise up a prophet like unto you. I'm going to raise up a prophet like unto me. And when he speaks, the people will listen to what he says. And if they don't listen to what he says, I will require it of him. How many thousands, how many millions of Christians have never considered the voice of God? They've never heard it. They don't know what it's like to be taught of the Lord. Only thing they know is Sunday school. The only thing they know is memorizing scripture. The only thing they know is the Bible and songs and what's said in church. That's all they know. They have never looked

toward the center of those three and heard the Lord say, this is where you get your information, right here, my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. Time's gone. Gotta go. Till the next time. Think Red Ink, my friend. 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