Words of Jesus Podcast - The Way To The Kingdom of God Is Hard

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

The Jews refused or were unable to reconcile their preconceived ideas to the reality of Messiah. They did not expect Jesus to minister the way He did, in spite of many miraculous signs.  The leaders were unwilling to give up their religious protocols or animal sacrifices. They could not hear, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice." Jesus came to be King and High Priest of Israel and to remove the temple. To this day Jesus is rejected by the Jews because of unfulfilled prophecies; again, unable to see how their rejection of Jesus led to His crucifixion and the interruption of Jesus' work on the earth. To avoid similar misunderstandings we must hear from the Spirit of God.  How? 1) Keep the Commandments (the big ten).2) Take time every day to hear from God (meditate).3) Never disobey your conscience. ***70: Jesus Reveals That The Way Into The Kingdom Is DifficultLuke 13:22-30Jesus went through cities and villages, teaching. As he journeyed toward Jerusalem, one who went with him said:            “Lord, are there few that be saved?”            Jesus replied:            “Strive to enter in at the straight gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying,‘Lord, Lord, open unto us;’ and he shall answer and say unto you, ‘I know you not whence ye are’ – then shall ye begin to say, ‘We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.’ But he shall say, I tell you, ‘I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friend, welcome once again. You're in tune to The Words of Jesus Series. I'm Don Harris, your host, and we are continuing in chapter 71. This is where Jesus is warned of Herod. There were people that knew that what Jesus was teaching was causing some waves, and as long as it was causing waves in the synagogue and among the religious leadership,

well, you know, they weren't so worried. They knew that they hated him. But when they got to Herod, they thought this could be a real problem. So they came to Jesus and they said that Herod, if he finds you, he's going to kill you. And I think, on my radio show, whenever I give my opinion, I always ring a bell. Trying to get people to understand that this is not Scripture, this is my opinion.

So I'm telling you, this is not Scripture, this is my opinion. So I'm telling you, this is not Scripture, this is my opinion. But there was a change that took place in Jesus' life where the plan that He had from the beginning when He came to the earth, His intention was to be King of Israel and High Priest of the Temple. I mean that was His purpose. His purpose was to close of the temple. I mean, that was his purpose. His purpose was to close down the temple. His purpose was to move,

to bring people to a state of regeneration to the point that God could actually move inside them. Like what happened on the day of Pentecost? He had intended for that to happen while he was alive. You realize, I'm ringing a bell here. But as time progressed, it found out that the church was, they hated him. But just like, you know, I think the Catholics have some rule from hundreds of years ago that the church is not allowed to shed blood.

Yeah, right. Yeah, they did a good job keeping that rule. Well, nevertheless, the Jews had the same kind of a rule. And doubly so, or it was even most more prohibited if these kind of things happened on a holy day. Well that's why they had so much trouble with killing Christ because of Passover. Because they couldn't even get near him because they would be unclean to celebrate Passover.

So their rules were really kind of giving them kind of taking their hands off of this. So they employed the Romans to crucify Christ. Many people teach that the Romans crucified Christ, but the truth is the Jews did it. And I mean I know that the Romans were guilty of hammering the nails, but that Roman soldier that was hammering the nails was as much a tool of the Jews as the hammer was

to drive the nail. You can't blame nails for crucifying Jesus. You can't blame the wood that he was hung on. You can't blame that soldier that was driving that nail. You can't do it. Where did all this originate? Where did all this hatred come from? Well, it came from the Jews, the enemies of Christ. And you want to say that's an anti-Semitic remark? Well, you're, you know, I'm sorry. I was just going to say you're an idiot, but that's not really nice. Let's see, how can I say that?

There's a whole lot you don't understand. And you can love somebody and criticize them. You believe that? Absolutely. If they're wrong, they're wrong. I don't care whether I love them or not. And you shouldn't judge whether or not somebody loves somebody because they criticize them or because they tell the truth about them. But it's the truth. There's no way to escape that. The Jews crucified Jesus Christ. The Jewish leadership did. The people stood by. They cried out

to Pilate, his blood be on us and on our children. Come on. Okay. We'll put the blood on you and on your children like you asked us to do. How is that an anti-Semitic remark? So, you know, can we dispense with that silly idea? There's nothing anti-Semitic about me. I don't hate or love people because of their nationality or because of their race, if you want to call it race.

I hate the word. Darwin gave us that, by the way. And, you know, we're all of one blood, and I've never seen it any other way. I almost traveled in that direction when I hung around, you know, the rednecks that believe it. But, you know, I saw, you know, this is not that believe it but uh you know i i saw you know this is not christian at all all right jesus is saying here uh that uh and he answers this concern because they come to him and

they said uh these were pharisees by the way um which was i thought was very very odd but the pharisees at this particular point were warning jesus about herod jesus came to be the king of israel and to be the high priest to install the priesthood of the order of Melchizedek. He came to die for all of Israel as a sacrifice in the temple but he did not come to be murdered on a cross by a bunch of people who hate him. Nobody hates a sacrifice. I mean who in the world hates the sacrifice that they offer to the Lord? Who doesn't feel a twinge of remorse within themselves when they twist the head off of a dove?

Who doesn't feel, who feels nothing when they take a razor and cut the throat of an innocent lamb? You see, there's affection toward those kind of things, and there's supposed to be. But Jesus didn't come to be murdered by people who hate him he came to give his life a ransom for many but just not in the way that it actually turned out well there was a time a transitional time uh i do a teaching on this um and show you the timelines of the gospel and i can i can pretty much show you about when it started to occur to Jesus, these Jews are going to kill me. They're going to take my life.

You remember when he first got here, his attitude was, you know, no man takes my life. I lay it down with myself. Well, that didn't come to pass. Or did it? You'll have to see the teaching. But there was a time when he decided that he was going to be murdered, and he had a plan in mind.

And obviously at this particular point, these particular Pharisees, whoever they were, were concerned about him and came to him and said jesus they said herod is going to kill you if he sees you well jesus answered them saying go and tell that fox behold i cast out devils and i do cures today and tomorrow and the third day i shall be perfected now i always wondered what was it what was herod so upset about? Well Herod was a very insecure man. He was an Idumean, he was not a Jew. He was an Idumean, he wasn't a Roman. But he was subjected himself to the Roman kingdom

and made, because of his nationality or because of his personality, I don't know why, but he was made the king of Israel and essentially ruled all Israel. And I can only suppose that through all of his encounters with people, the Jews and the Romans alike, that he had some concerns and and was very um uh doubtful of himself didn't have much confidence in himself and here a man is rising up among the people and becoming much more famous than he is and um and perhaps herod was clued in. Perhaps he knew. Perhaps he discussed it with Pilate. I believe that Pilate was ready to make Jesus Christ the king of Israel

and put him in Herod's place. It could very well be that Herod was privy to that conversation and hated him for that reason. You know, just get rid of the competition. And the reason that I feel that way and that I'm putting these words in Herod's mouth, so to speak, is because Jesus answered him and said, Oh, gee whiz, I'm sorry that you, I'm sorry you feel that way.

Maybe we can talk and work things out no he didn't say that at all he knew exactly what herod wanted him to do he wanted him to put his head down at the level of everybody else and stop being so bloody famous and stop you know you know all this miracle working and all this kind of thing. That's why Jesus says, you go and tell that fox, I do miracles today, and I'm going to do them tomorrow. And on the third day, I'll be perfected. I'm going to be made complete on the third day. Keep your mind on the third day.

Third day. Third day. It's all through prophecy it's all it's all through you know it's in the prophet's mouth three and a half uh uh years and the three days and the being perfected and everything coming to completion on the i'm telling you you know he he just he threw these little codes out there for people to understand who he was. He said, go tell that fox I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow and the third day I'll be completed. Nevertheless, I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following,

for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. This was a sad statement on his part. Prophets aren't murdered outside of Jerusalem. If a prophet of God is going to be murdered, it'll be his people that does it. They've always done it john asked him which of the prophets haven't you persecuted any of them he said jesus says it just can't be you know herod's not going to kill me he could kill me in any place in this entire country but

if i'm when i'm when i'm destroyed it'll be my people that destroy me this is when it started to occur to him this thing's going wrong it's going bad and um so then jesus dropped into a soliloquy at this particular point looked over and said jerusalem jerusalem thou which killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how many times would I have gathered thy children together as a hen

doth gather her brood under her wings and you would not behold your house is left unto you desolate and verily I say unto you you shall not see me until the time come

when you shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord this is when Jesus it was occurring to him he's not going to be king of Israel he's not going to be king of israel he's not going to be the high priest and institute the order of melchizedek he's not going to be able to offer his blood in a voluntary

way he's not going to be able to offer the innocent blood that would redeem all of israel and all and then and eventually the entire world He's not going to get to save his people. His people would not. They would not. When he says, and ye would not, he's saying, this is what I came to do, and you won't let me do it. And why is that?

Because I go against? Because I speak against what you've always understood to be tradition? It really is religion doing this to me? Is this the problem here? None of you can think for yourself. None of you want a relationship with my father. None of you want to be brought in. You're bent on the

destruction of every person that is sent to you. He tells the story of the husbandman that wants to send word back to the vineyard and say, I'd like to know how we're doing. And he sends a man and they beat him. And he sends another one and they kill him. He sends another and they beat him and throw his body in the streets

for the birds to pick the flesh off their bones. What are we dealing with here? My people don't respect the people that I put in charge? My people don't respect my prophet? I know what I'll do. I'll send them my son. They'll reverence my son. sir no sir they're not going to reverence your son they're going to murder him that was the thing that no one could believe how could he be the

son of god and hang there on the cross how could that that be? If he's the Son of God, let him come down. Then we'll believe him. No, you won't. Abraham told that man when they were speaking across the gulf of hell there. They won't be persuaded. Though one rose from the dead, they won't be persuaded. Though one rose from the dead, they won't be persuaded. Friend, that was prophetic. That was prophetic because one did rise from the dead

and they still didn't believe it. God gave them and their system, their religion, the Sanhedrin, the temple, their rules, he gave them 40 years to repent. 40 years after the resurrection of Christ. They never did. They never did. It got worse and worse and worse.

Oh, they were somewhat comfortable with the Christians. They considered them to be companions. They considered them to be God-fearers. And they tolerated them. But man, after a while, the Jews said, anybody who professes Christ, out of the synagogue. And they tossed them out. But Jesus, and Jesus warned his disciples.

He said, you know, they treated me this way, they're going to treat you this way. Don't be surprised if they don't treat you worse than they treated me. And so they tossed him out. God, seeing this, even after 40 years, said, this is it. I'm not doing this anymore. You're going to keep on playing temple? Is that what you're going to do?

You're going to keep on playing Jewish religion? You're going to ignore the fact that my son died 40 years ago? He came into this town and there are people yet alive today that could tell you that they saw these miracles. And still, no repentance? Really? Say goodbye to your temple. And just like it is god's way

he called people that were not his people i got a job for you to do i need you to go down to jerusalem and just raise that pile of rocks to the ground that's exactly what they did so the temple's gone oh those those horrible Romans Romans were doing what they were told somehow it's got some equality some kind of balance to it like you want to use the Romans as tools I'll show you using the Romans' tools. And that's exactly what they did. And they destroyed the temple right out from under the Jews. Josephus tells a story that the Jews,

when they would offer the scapegoat offering and they would take, if you know in the Old Testament how that procedure was done, he was led off into the wilderness and there was one that was killed and one that was led away. Beautiful stories that could,

you know, really wonderful symbology and all this kind of thing we won't get into it now but josephus tells the story i don't know how true this is can't tell you but when they would when they would leave the temple when the religious leadership walked out of the temple in order to carry away the scapegoat, they would tie a red ribbon to the doors of the temple. Not necessarily so they couldn't be opened, but sort of sealing them. And when they would go and do their sacrifice,

when they would return, Josephus said, I wasn't there, but Josephus said that that little red ribbon had changed to white. It was like God had accepted their sacrifices. And though he allowed sacrifices to continue 40 years after even though he allowed that his will had never changed jesus says you know i know you're really big into sacrifices, but here's something you need to go and learn. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Now go learn what that means, he tells the Pharisees. Go learn what that means.

He's never desired sacrifices. He's never desired the blood of innocent animals to be offered for us. It's never desired the blood of innocent animals to be offered for us. It's never been his desire. It was a stopgap measure until Christ could come and do it for all eternity. However, they say, and I hate they say stories,

but Josephus records that after the death of this carpenter's boy that when the pharisees would return after this sacrifice the little ribbon didn't change anymore you know i have a tendency to want to believe that story because it was just about that time that the temple was absolutely destroyed. You know, Jesus came to take that temple down because the temple was where God resided and his intention from the beginning

and even all through Christ's ministry, his intention was to live inside us. And the place that he wanted to reside was within us. Not in a temple made with hands. See, you're not made with hands. You ever think about that? That's the temple he wants to reside in. See, you're not made with hands. You ever think about that? That's the temple he wants to reside in.

And so the temple would have no purpose if Christ accomplished what he wanted to accomplish. And he did. But the mercy of God allowed it to stand another 40 years. You take the fact that Christ was crucified in 30 A.D. or somewhere thereabouts, and you add 40 years to it what do you got where are you sitting 70 AD Antiochus Epiphanes

the infiltration of the Romans and the destruction of the temple of God in Jerusalem and there it is next time we get together we're going to be talking from chapter 72 and this is going to be jesus sitting at the table of simon the pharisee and these are the things that he taught while he was sitting at the table

you'll find some of them to be reiterations of things we've already talked about, but they need to be talked about. So we're going to be kind of re-inking our red ink, and he talks about wonderful things, instructing the Pharisee, and the parable of the wedding guest. And, you know, Jesus decided to teach us by parables. And the key to parables is to know what means what. Isn't that right? When his disciples would get him off after he would tell a parable, he'd say, declare on us the parable. Right? And what would he do? after he would tell a parable. He'd say, declare unto us the parable, right?

And what would he do? He didn't tell the story again. So it wasn't declare unto us the parable means tell us that story again. What did declare the parable unto us mean? It meant explain it to us. What does this symbolize? What does this mean? And he would do just that. I'm always interested

when I read a parable about the foundational teaching the foundational idea, the requirement to understand all parables. And what is that? Something I want you to think about before we get into the next show, and that is that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. If you don't have that basic understanding, if you still believe that a book is the Word of God, if you still believe that letters on a page are the words of God, I realize they can be recordings of His Word,

but His Word is quick, which means alive, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. If you don't understand that the Word of God is Jesus Christ, you might find that you're having trouble understanding the parables. Well, so says me, and so says Jesus. If you don't understand this parable, you don't understand all parables. Well, so says me, and so says Jesus. If you don't understand this parable, you don't understand all parables. And how does that parable begin? The sower sows the word. If you don't know what the word is, you don't know who the sower is. How are you going to

understand this? So as he is going to be teaching these parables something you need to keep in mind you might wonder you know you talk about a lot of stuff that i ain't never heard before or that's confusing to me or i always i always get a kick out of somebody saying, that's confusing. And we know the confusions of the devil. Well, not always. Sometimes we're confused because our minds are so full of ridiculous illogical stuff that we don't have any place to put logic. We don't have any place to put the truth. So we probably need to empty ourselves.

I say all that I've said so far so that you'll understand why I'm telling you constantly. Keep the commandments of God. Never disobey your conscience. Take time every day to hear the voice of God. Do you know how much this is going to change your life? You don't want to keep the commandments, all of them. You don't want to keep the ten commandments. Well, there's no promise for you. I dare you to find a promise in the Bible of regeneration, communication with God, you know, being born

again, being saved, that doesn't show that a person that is a Christian keeps the commandments of God. It's just a fact. If you want to do this, and you want to do it properly, and you want to live a life of joy and you know without equivocation without reservation without worry never disobey your conscience ever and i say this and may explain it one day you need to obey your conscience even if it's wrong and take time every day to hear the voice of God our time has gone again but we'll

catch you right back here next time on the words of Jesus series I'd like to hear from you if you'd like to write to me simplest way is to write me an email email is simply Don at ThinkRedInc until we see you next time

ThinkRedInc. Until we see you next time, ThinkRedInc, my friend. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you