Words of Jesus Podcast - What Did Jesus Know and When Did He Know It

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

Jesus had compassion on the people. Throughout the ministry of Christ, he continued to meet the needs of people. When John the Baptist was murdered, Jesus reacted not with thoughts of revenge or retribution, but the Scriptures record Jesus was 'moved with compassion.' Jesus recognized his original plan of 'saving Israel' was not working. ***Chapter 21:  Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son (Part 1)SOON afterwards Jesus set out to visit the city of Nain. His disciples and many people went with him.             When they came near to the gate of the city, they saw a funeral.  The deceased was a young man, the only son of a widow. Many of the people of the city were with her.            When Jesus saw the mother weeping, he was filled with compassion; and he said to her:            “Weep not.”            Then he touched the coffin; they who carried it stood still; and Jesus spoke, saying:            “Young man, I say unto thee, ‘Arise.’”            Thereupon, he who had been dead sat up and began to speak; and Jesus delivered the young man to his mother.             Solemn wonder swept through the crowd.  Some said: “A great prophet is risen up among us. God hath visited his people.”            And throughout all the region this story was spread.***Scriptures:  Luke 7:11-17

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris with Think Red Ink Ministries in Pytown, New Mexico. What am I trying to do? I'm trying to reinforce Christianity with the wisdom and the words of Jesus that have long since been extracted and watered down and changed. These words, they're recorded in the red ink in many Bibles, perhaps in yours.

And I find myself asking people from time to time, Do you know what Jesus said? Do you know what Jesus did? Do you know what Jesus said to do? Do you know, those are pretty simple questions for people that call themselves Christian. And why don't they know these things? This series, as well as your Bible, is based on Jesus and his life, and his friends, his ministry, and his relationship with his Father,

as recorded in the four gospels. We're going to delve into the mysteries that have been hidden from the foundation of the world. But get this, they've not been hidden from us. They've been hidden for us. The words of Jesus. I hope you enjoy it. We are in the 22nd chapter now, and I'm sorry, 21st. 21st chapter. And this is when Jesus raises the widow's son. Now we've done some pretty heavy theology

up until now. And I think we're going to get a break and just and can just enjoy the presence of Christ in our lives as our loving Savior as He is. He's got some wonderful characteristics about Him. And I think you'll see that in this story. Soon afterwards Jesus set out to visit the city of Nain. His disciples and many people went with him. When they came near to the gate of the city, they saw a funeral. The deceased

was a young man, the son of a widow. Many of the people of that city were with her. When Jesus saw the mother weeping, he was filled with compassion. And he said to her, weep not. When he touched the coffin, they who carried it stood still. And Jesus spoke, saying, young man, I say unto thee, arise. Thereupon he who had been dead sat up and began to speak. And Jesus delivered the young man to his mother.

Solemn wonder swept through the crowd. Some said, a great prophet has risen up among us. God has visited His people. And throughout all the region, this story was spread. This is a peculiar story of Christ healing someone. Did you notice the peculiarities in this? Number one, he was walking into a strange city. He knew

no one there. Number two, nobody asked him to do anything. Nobody prayed. Nobody asked. They didn't even know nobody prayed, nobody asked they didn't even know who he was. He went to this funeral where this body was being carried out and

oh, the third thing that is interesting is he never touched his child. Never touched him. Now, I don't know what their way is. We, in our country, and perhaps in other European countries, when a coffin, or as the King James uses the word beer, when this box is being carried with a body in it it's usually suspended or at least perched upon the shoulders of

six men, the pallbearers, or it's carried at their sides with their hands and a handle that is on the side of the box. But I think that, you know, from what I understand, it very well could have been elevated. And this is why Jesus was inclined to touch the box and not the boy. But again when we start adding our little

formulaic ideas about healing we're thinking why didn't he touch the boy or perhaps he did touch the boy and the Bible didn't record it or we just spend a whole lot of time talking about it. But the truth is that him touching this coffin was, in the mind of this gospel writer, let's see, this is combined from, oh no, it's not a combination of scriptures. It's strictly in Luke 7. And here you have this particular

procedure of a funeral that has taken place and I believe that Jesus touched the coffin because that's what he could reach. And it's not magic about, as I was telling you before, about the preacher that insists that you should always heal with your right hand or you should always touch people with your right hand because the Bible says he lifted him up by the right hand. And we start putting together these little formulas and these ideas.

That's nothing but voodoo. That is nothing but witchcraft. That's just us talking without any authority, without any scriptural backing or anything. It's just our goofy opinions. You'll find that people who think that way and do those kind of things, they're no more or less successful than anybody else who you know, well essentially in a lot of cases you know, pray to goats or

gods or whatever they do to do whatever it is they do. It's not like this is some magic formula. So that being said, Jesus is obviously not under any kind of impression that he has to do things in a certain way. What he has to do is he has to will those kind of things to be done. Now the Bible says that as he walked into this town and he saw this happening, that he was moved with compassion.

Something in him showed that this woman had sorrow upon sorrow and that he wanted to help. Now he obviously asked people, you know, what's going on? Or his disciples did, and they related to him. There's a funeral going on, and this lady has lost her boy. And it seems to me like it said that he was her only son, but I didn't see that. And that she was a widow. Now here we have a woman with

the child of her husband, and we don't know how old he was, but friend, you know what was in that box? Every bit of this woman's hope of a decent life. Every, any chance of her having a decent life was in that box, and it was gone. It's, I don't know, have you ever heard a story about somebody who there's just nothing left for them? You can hardly get

lower than they have gotten. It's just heartbreaking. It just wrenches our hearts to the point that we can hardly stand it. We can hardly hear the sorrows that they're going through. I don't think Jesus was any different. I think He understood what it was like for a woman in the first century Jerusalem and living in the Middle East there and the situation

and the social orders and all the kind of things involved. I think He understood that a woman without a man, whether it be her son or her uncle or her husband or her dad or whoever else, had very little hope of making it through life. Like, well I mean with any kind of enjoyment or this kind of thing or if you want to call it free time, it's really true. Because they had to do everything. And they got very little precious little help from those around them.

One of the reasons why Paul says the church shouldn't be silent in these kind of things. The church ought to find these widows that are helpless in every sense of the word and make sure that we do help. The father was always concerned about how little help we give the fatherless, the orphans, and the widows. And we oppress these people. Why do we

oppress them? Well, they're cheap labor. Well, they're inconsequential in politics. They're inconsequential in social order. And I need somebody to sweep up or carry my bedpan out or whatever else. And we put them in demeaning task and we consider ourselves to be over them. Look, that won't fly. Our Father God has a value placed upon people that has nothing to do with the social order that you might be thinking about.

But Jesus, understanding all this, he sees this woman's life is absolutely devastated. This woman didn't run to him, oh, it's Jesus. Let's go ask him to do something. Nope. Nobody asked him to do a thing. But he walked over to that funeral and looked at her and told this woman, don't weep. Now that is a really odd thing to say to a woman in that particular condition. I don't know that he

said something as curt as don't weep weep not or tell them stop crying or whatever, however you can translate this. I think that in these words of weep not, he was telling her there's not a reason to weep anymore. I'm going to do something wonderful. I'm going to do something great for you.

So let's, no more weeping. Let's get on with life. And he reached and he touched that casket and upset that boy. The Bible says that he started speaking. You're wondering what he said. He probably woke up, sat up, looked around and said hey hey hey what's going on he realized he was like you know

five feet off of the ground on the shoulders of all these people in a casket full of flowers or whatever else I don't think they prepared bodies at the funeral I think they prepared bodies at the funeral. I think that was done in the tomb. So I don't think he was covered with spices and minerals and such to accelerate his decay. But he was probably wondering what was going on,

and the little guy was shocked. Now, I say little guy, don't know. Might have been a 30-year-old man. Don't know. But nevertheless, Jesus brought this person back to life for one reason and one reason only. And that was his compassion. I gotta ask you, do you think Jesus is any different today than he was 2,000 years ago? Do you think that he doesn't know about your troubles?

Do you think that he, well essentially doesn't care? He has, do you think that he doesn't have the power to bring these things to pass? There's a lot of things we may not know about him, but what we do constantly find within him is compassion. The Bible says that when John the Baptist was beheaded, that has yet to happen in our book here, but

when John the Baptist was beheaded, they brought the news to Jesus. The Bible says he was moved with compassion and healed the sick folk. We find that we don't know the background. We don't know how this boy died. There's a lot we don't know about this. But what we do know is it triggered within him compassion. John the Baptist when he died, it triggered within him compassion. That was his cousin.

John the Baptist was. They probably grew up together. They probably discussed the ministry together. John the Baptist had a working knowledge of exactly what Jesus was going to do when he was on the earth. Matter of fact, he sent to him one day and said to him, hey, when are you going to get started? And Jesus had to send back to him and say, I've already started.

Things are already on their way. We're on, everything's going according to schedule. Well I wish he had said that, but as you'll find out that, well, things might be going on schedule as far as me healing the sick and raising the dead and that kind of thing, but we're not making any headway with the church here. We're not making any headway in politics. But I am doing what the Father sent me to do. It was his compassion for

the death of John the Baptist that he seemed to have a mental switch over or a vision of or a understanding of when it's happened to John the Baptist and even when it happened to this child this has no place in the world that I created. The only reason that child is dead,

the only reason that John the Baptist is dead is because this world belongs to an outlaw spirit that I'm going to have to put under my feet. This has to stop. Now, at this particular point in his life he was under the impression that he was going to save Israel. He was going to come, be their king, be their high priest and give his life a ransom for many.

And had he had his way, I believe, had he had his way that we would now be in our 2000th year of living on this earth with him as king and high priest. But you see, that plan was thwarted early on, and he comes home to his disciples after having heard from his father saying, this isn't going to work, guys. I'm not going to be king. I'm not going to be high priest. They're going to murder me. We're going to talk about this. Perhaps I ought to

advertise or something or tell you when this is going to happen because you should not miss this revelation is going to happen because you should not miss this revelation about Christ coming to the earth and what He came to do. I know our Sunday school literature and our songs and such teach that Jesus had no other purpose but to come to the earth and die on a cross. But I don't believe that. I believe his intention was to come and give

his life as a ransom for many. I believe that he was to be slain, but I believe it was to be on an altar in the temple of God. I don't think that it was God's purpose at all for him to suffer miserably, a murderous death tied to a crucifixion stake outside of Jerusalem and hang there and bleed until he died. I don't believe that it was God's, he didn't send him down here to be murdered. I don't believe that. And I'll

show you that there's a switch over in Christ's life and timeline where he realized that this plan's not working. Are these things hard for you to hear? They shouldn't be because all of a sudden you're starting to get a little insight into my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And you're starting to get a little insight into him in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating, as it were, great drops of blood

saying, let this cup pass from me. You know, those who believe that all along his intention, God's intention, was to send him down there to be murdered would have to wonder, what are you crying about? Is this the first time you've heard about this? What's the deal here? You knew they were going to kill you. You knew they were going to hang you on the cross. You knew they were going to pull your beard out and spit on you. What's the

deal? What are you crying about? I mean, don't you wonder that when you wonder about these things? I do. And come to find out that that was not the plan. There was a plan B involved. I mean they had to work fast to make all this stuff work. This is a wonderful story. I can't wait to share it with you, but we don't have time today. But it's just a wonderful story about the redemption of mankind and it all hinges upon, it all turns upon, its axis is what?

That God didn't want to lose some poker game. God didn't want to lose some bet he had with the devil. God didn't want to lose some bet he had with the devil. God didn't want to just lose in general. He wants to win. He's a winner. I've heard people say that. You know, God's a winner. And if you're on his side, you're a winner. Okay, fine. Was that his motivation? Is that what it was? He just wanted to win? Now, all this that we're talking about here,

whether it be the crucifixion of Christ, the plan of redemption, switching into plan B, this widow at Nain whose son was raised from the dead, the centurion who had faith enough for his servant to be healed, the compassion that Jesus felt when John the Baptist, it doesn't matter what you're talking about. What you're always going to find at the center of it, and you need to be able to find at the center of your, what you

call salvation, which should be more like regeneration, the forgiveness of sin, the life that we live, the Christianity that we have entered into. What you should find in the center of that is what you're going to find at the center of everything that Jesus does. It's His compassion for us. He really loves us. He really cares about us. And I am convinced that there's many things we ask

Him to do that He can't do. He just can't. It's not His nature. It's not in His law. It's not in His plan. There's things that He can't do. Is that right with you? You have trouble with that thought? Now if I sit here and told you that God can't lie, you'd say amen. But there are things that He simply can't do. There are things, friend, that He won't do. And He won't do them for your good because at the center of everything He does

is compassion for you. Many times we think that what we do for our children is done because we love them. Investigate it. You know what? You'll find out that's not always the case. We can't even love our neighbor as ourself. Now, if you tell me that everything that you do is centers around you, I'm with you. I believe you. I believe you. I see examples of that every day. But for somebody else to be at the center of what you do, what you think, where you go, what you say to one another, how you treat each other,

if you want to say that that is all centered in compassion on your part for another person, I'm going to investigate that. Because that's not a natural thing to do. It can be a natural thing to do once we've been regenerated, once the seed of Christ that was planted in us when we put faith in Him, once that seed germinates and takes root, so to speak, and starts to grow, and starts to grow

and as Paul says, till Christ be formed in us. Until that particular point, you're not even capable of doing things by compassion. I want you to see compassion at its best. Compassion at its best is embodied in none other than Jesus Christ. Everything he does, he does because he loves us. He doesn't loose people from demons because he hates the devil. He doesn't heal people because he hates the kingdom of Satan on the earth. He's not mad at the devil. He's not

stomping his foot and carrying on with him like he's mad at him. No, no. He doesn't do things from anger. He does things because whatever that devil's doing is affecting the people that he loves. Can I convince you that Jesus Christ loves you? I mean with something other than a silly bumper sticker that just says so? Do you know we should seek revelation from God that tells us in no uncertain terms that He loves

us? I give the example of to show the difference between the word of God and the scriptures as a person saying to his girlfriend that he loves her and she bats her eyes and enjoys that and says oh that's wonderful or I love you too or whatever else and then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a 3x5 card and a sharpie and writes I love you you too or whatever else and then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a three by five card and a sharpie and writes i love you on this card and says you like hearing this so much here take

this and uh anytime you want to hear it just pull that out of your pocket and read it this is what we do when we take the something as precious as the living word of God, the word of God in our ear, figuratively speaking, but when this word of God speaks to our heart and we try to replace that relationship kind of conversation with a book, you should feel cheated, Just like that girl, the gift for three by five card is going to feel extremely cheated.

Listen, you don't have to feel that way. Yeah, Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. Hasn't he ever told you this? Friend, can I encourage you to spend time before the Lord? There are a lot of people that of all the revelation they have ever received or claim to have received, all the knowledge that they have gained from their time spent with God or all the knowledge that they claim that they have received with their time spent with God, or all the knowledge that they claim that they have received with their time spent from God,

they have never had a relationship with God in that He says to them, I love you. I love you. Nothing attached to it. There's no just as I am business. There's no I love you in the middle of all your sins I love you because you do this or I don't quit loving you because you do that no, you know what He just loves us

and it's not because of anything we've done and it's not in lieu of because we're not going to do certain things he loves us and you know the bible teaches us that of all the things that can happen in our life depth height that our that our soul can reach of all the things that we could do in life that you would think would preempt that love never be able to separate us from the love of god in christ jesus so let him love you let him tell you so time for us to go now we'll see you next time thanks for being a part of the show we'll

see you then. 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