Words of Jesus Podcast - What Work Is Finished?

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Jesus came expecting to be received by a loving and loyal priesthood. The ministry and miracles by Jesus gave undeniable proof of His identity. These miracles were categorically rejected on technicalities by the religious leaders. 1) All Jesus could do is provide the opportunity for mankind to believe in His Father by faith;2) Provision for those who do believe to receive guidance, rebirth and regeneration;3) Prayer for believers to be in relationship now and in the world to come; 4) Promise of a place and a return, opportunity for faith.Those who come to the Father must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. When the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth? ***108: Jesus At The Last SupperMatthew 26:14-30; Mark 14:10-26; Luke 22:3-39; John 13:1-17:26Farewell Advice            As Jesus sat with his disciples in the upper room, he said to them:            “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”            Thomas said to Jesus:            “Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?”            Jesus replied:            “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.”            Phillip said:            “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”            Jesus said:            “Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, ‘Show us the Father?’ Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. Or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, ‘He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.’ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.            “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me. Because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris. Hello my friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris your host. Yesterday, quite a lot to talk about. Jesus had a lot to say. He, I believe, that he was in that point in his life when he realized, I don't know if you've been there, maybe in some degree or another, when you realize that you're going to be away from people that, for whom you feel responsible,

for whom perhaps the responsibility of training. And so that responsibility, that intensity of that responsibility starts to grow when you realize, I'm not going to be here. I'm not going to be around. And there's so many things I have to say to you. You know, this happens on railway platforms, you know, in airports and these kinds of things. You've been in these situations to one degree or another. And so perhaps you understand that Jesus, at this particular point,

realizes that he is going to go away. You also should realize that at this point in time, they are so far off of the original plan that Jesus really doesn't know exactly how all this is supposed to happen. He is putting his faith and trust in the Lord God. This is why he's begging and crying out, Father, glorify thy Son. Don't let me die in shame.

We need to make sure this actually does something here. Glorify your Son, that your son may also glorify you. It's not a matter of my preference or my concern about my own hide. It has to do with, you know, this whole mission that I'm on here. Which brings me to the question that I brought up from the reading last time. And that was that Jesus said something that I'm sure people who believe that Jesus knew exactly what he was in for, knew that he was going to go be murdered, he was going to be turned over into the hands of wicked men

and slain. I don't happen to believe that. I believe that he thought he was going to be turned over to a loyal priesthood. I do believe that he came to give his life a ransom for many. Of course I do. However, the way that it happened really turned topsy-turvy there at the very last and what should have been an entrusted priesthood turned out to be his absolute mortal enemy.

Literally mortal enemies that had nothing in mind but the destruction of Jesus Christ. Now, in this situation, a lot of people take exception to that because they want to believe that God's Santa Claus and He knows everything and He can be all these places at once and all the attributes of essentially Santa Claus. It's easier to just describe God by saying He's Santa Claus. It's easier to just describe God by saying He's Santa Claus than it is

to explain all the stuff that we've added to Him. But in reality, Jesus had a mission on this earth and it was not to come and die for the earth and for mankind. Now, that was in the future plan. I mean, it was the projected idea of Christ. I believe he came to be the king of Israel.

I believe that it was so deeply entrenched in the heart of Pilate. He was totally shocked when Jesus came to him. I mean, Pilate, he's thinking, well, replace Herod? This guy that doesn't do anything but cause trouble? You know, I'm sick of Herod. Everybody loves this guy. He could be the king of Israel. I mean, you remember? He was

just incredulous. What do you want me to do with this fellow? Crucify him. You want me to crucify your king? Well, I mean, I'm telling you that I just happen to believe that when Jesus came, he came to be the king of Israel. And he came to establish the Melchizedek priesthood. And that He came to give His life's blood on the altar in the temple for the entire nation. I don't believe there would be any

sanctification, redemption, regeneration afforded to anyone without the death of Christ coming in there and becoming that stopgap measure that was necessary to redeem us. I'm not a theological idiot. I'm just saying that there's many times that Jesus says things and we just have to wonder what in the world is he saying? That doesn't fit with my theology. Well, guess what has to change?

All right, so Jesus is saying, 17th chapter of John, it was contained in our reading of last show, that he says, Father, I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. Now, several shows back when we found Jesus hanging on the cross saying, It is finished. Many people don't know what it is or think they do know what it is, but they don't. Here we find him saying, I have finished the work that you gave me to do. And so what would be the work that the Father gave him to do? What was the mission? What was he supposed to do? He was to come to the earth and glorify the father in himself and in his own life

and that the son might be glorified and that he would be received by people of faith this was what he intended on doing now he can he can't, won't, whatever you want to place in that sentence, he's not going to make people receive him. But what he can do is he can provide something worthy of faith for them to believe in. That's all he can do. And this is why Jesus said in the reading that we read, Worthy of faith for them to believe in. That's all he can do. And this is why Jesus said in the reading that we read. That had I not come to these people. Had I not come.

They would have no sin in this area. But because I did come. And did works in front of them that no man has ever done before, there is no cloak for their sin. There's nothing for them to hide in. There is nothing that can cover their sin. They cannot, essentially what he's saying is, they cannot be atoned for. They can't be because they have seen seen these things. Now many people talk about having relationships with God where miracles are just commonplace in their life and God said this and God said that and he wrote this in the sky or whatever he's

doing. They make out that miracles are just a part of their life. Friend, you better, and they make out like, you know, that miracles are just a part of their life. Friend, you better hope they're not. Because, you know, when he does things for us that never a man ever did, it really puts us into a very precarious and a scary position. Because he says, had I not come to them, they'd have no sin. sin but because i came and because i did these things there's there's no covering for that sin they know fully well exactly who i am they don't know me they don't know the father but they know something's up and they don't even bother to investigate it when they do investigate it they twist it and turn it to their own uh to their own benefit and these guys they're not going into the

kingdom of heaven and they're not even letting other people who are entering in they're not even letting them enter he was under no delusion that you know the that the religious leadership of that day were you know just poor dredges of humanity they just don't know any better or whatever else he was sure that this was outright out and out rebellion. And so when he says, I came and I finished the work you gave me to do, it obviously wasn't to convince Israel that he was the son of God, because he didn't do that. It obviously wasn't for him to die on a cross. It hasn't happened yet. It obviously wasn't for him to forgive the sins of all the world. That hasn't happened yet.

What did happen? What did he finish? You see, when he came, his intention was to bring the Father as close to his people as possible. To inspire faith, to promote faith faith to bring faith out in them um that was i mean why he did what he did but that wasn't any of his business that wasn't the mission the mission wasn't to cause these things to happen the mission was to simply allow them an opportunity to see God for who he really is outside of the religious glasses that don't allow the truth to come through.

And he bypassed those glasses. He bypassed their traditions and their the way they did things by rote and ritual that made the commandments of God of no effect. He bypassed all that. How did he do that? Miracles. Undeniable miracles. He says if you don't believe me, then believe me for the work's sake.

My goodness, how can you stare at something as powerful and as odd, out of the ordinary, as a miracle, and it really not mean anything to you? It doesn't change anything in you? I mean, he's just totally incredulous. However, he did say, if I didn't come to them, if I hadn't done these miracles, if I hadn't done what never a man ever did, they'd have no sin. But, well, I mean, you'd naturally, at that point, you point you'd have to ask well then why did you do it that was the work my father gave me to do that was the work i finished the work that

thou gavest me to do and outside the healing of malchus's ear you won't see another miracle done he's all done. He's all finished. There's nothing else to do. Friend, I want you to know that's pretty much the day and age in which we live today. Pretty much the day and age that we live in. God has absolutely bankrupted himself trying to save his people. He's done everything. He's said everything. He's given everything. He has blessed. He has cursed. He has done it all. There isn't anything else to do. There's not another savior coming there are no more prophets coming i mean with some exception mentioned in the book of revelation and such as that and you know don't look for reasons not to believe what i say i'll give you a good solid reasons not to believe what i say but the the

truth of the matter is is he finished finished his work. What was his work? To provide us an opportunity to believe. That's pretty much all he can do. Now, there's another work to do. And that is to make provision for those who do believe. They need to be saved. They need to be saved. They need to be changed. They need to have a heart transplant.

They need guidance of the Holy Spirit. They need relationship with the Father. They need relationship with me. They need to be one, he says, as you and I, speaking to the Father, as you and I are one. We need to be united. So, here's mission number two. Now this is a problem.

Because somewhere along the line, the process of sacrifice, the innocent for the guilty, the one for the many, blood to cover sin, life to pay ransom. All these things set into motion somewhere along the way, necessitated that these things be done. Jesus knows that in order to be innocent, you have to be willing the bible said talks talking about you know the lamb he's and he comes before the shearer dumb he doesn't say a word he yields to the knife he yields to the sacrifice it has to be willing in order to be fully innocent. And if his murder is not a matter of his choice, he's got a serious problem.

And it's about to present itself. And he can see at this particular point that his plan of redemption that takes place after he has finished the work that the Lord gave him to do, now he has to provide some way to fulfill his promises that if I go to the Father, here's what I'm going to work on while I'm there. I'm going to work on a place for you to live. Because my prayer to the Father is

that he would give you to me. That you would be with me forever. Where I am, there you may be also. You know, I've wondered why people who believe in the rapture theory have never read this verse that they could see very clearly that, well, you know what?

It's not just the rapture people. It's the people who believe that when you die, you're immediately with Jesus, which you're not going to find that in Scripture. We've talked about this before. And this idea that when we die, we go to be with Him. When in reality, the Scriptures teach that when we die, we go into the grave.

And there we await, asleep, until the resurrection. Here you find Jesus saying, let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. Believe what I'm telling you. In my Father's house are many booths, many tabernacles. This uses the word mansion. On my father's place they have many places for you to stay.

Now if that weren't true, I wouldn't have told you that. I go to prepare a place for you. When you look into the book of Revelation and you find the angel speaking to John says, come, let me show you the Lamb's wife. Now, what is he about to show him? Show him the bride of Christ. That's what is he about to show him show him the bride of christ that's what he's going to show him does he show him a church full of people

does he show him a multitude of people where did we get the idea that we're the bride of christ just bad foolish hasty preaching I guess. In reality when he told him he says come let me show you the Lamb's wife. The Bible actually says that he took him on a high mountain and showed him the city of God, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. Here's the word prepared. When he says I go to prepare a place for you he might be preparing it in heaven where the father is but it doesn't stay there and if we're going to that city

friend you're going to be you're going to be able to go to that city on foot it's going to be right here on the earth. Nobody's going up. Nobody's going anywhere. Your feet are not going to leave the ground. You're going to go in the ground for a while, but when you come out, your feet are going to stand on this earth.

And you're going to see the bride of Christ is a city. Now, granted, to see the bride of Christ is a city. Now granted that city being prepared for us is indeed a hollow city. There is no life in that city. Not yet. And we will be the life in that city.

We will bring that bride to life. That's true. But being the bride of Christ is an unnecessary convolution that makes the metaphors hard to understand. It makes the words of Paul hard to understand, it doesn't really serve anybody to believe that particular bit of dogma. It doesn't do anything to help at all.

Are we the body of Christ or not? If we're the body of Christ, I just have a hard time believing that Jesus is going to marry himself. But as the body of Christ goes in unto, as the scriptures speak of, when the body, the life of Christ goes in unto that city, it brings about life in that city. It really brings life to the city. Literally brings life to the city. And so I'm saying all that so that you'll know that he says,

I'm preparing a place for you, but that does not mean that when you die, you're going to go there. We have the idea that when we die, that by attrition, it was one by one, or however many people die a day. I don't know how many people die in a day, but as these people die,

they go up one at a time, at a time, at a time, at a time. And eventually it's going to fill, repopulate heaven. I don't know what you think, but the scriptures just don't allow this. Jesus didn't allow that. He says, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go prepare a place for you, and that's exactly what I just told you that I'm going to do,

and I preface this entire paragraph by saying, believe me. If these things weren't so, I wouldn't tell you these things if they weren't so. I'm going to go prepare a place for you. He says, I will come again and receive you to myself. This is not, okay, I'm going to go prepare a place for you, and as y'all die, I guess you can come up here and live with me.

No, this is one event. I am going to come unto you and receive you to myself. This is speaking of his return and the resurrection of the just. It's one event. It's not multiple events over thousands and thousands of years. We populate that city at once. Now we do find out later in the book of Revelation that this city comes down from God out of heaven and sits on the earth and that's where Jesus is that where I am there you may be also the promise to going to heaven I'm afraid you're going to have real difficulty finding that

it's you know I've been asking on on radio show for 15, 17 years now, would somebody please send me the scripture that says you're going to heaven when you die? And no takers. Anyway, I don't know that we want to get into false doctrine or anything like that. And I don't think these things harm us. I just think it harms your theology. You know, if you're not thinking right, if you have some convoluted thought, illogical thought, some non-sequitur flying around in your head

that you just can't seem to attach to another thought, I don't know how that does you any good. I don't know that it does you harm other than the fact that you can't think right. We've got trouble enough with our brains not working without trying to convince them that things that are true aren't true and things that aren't true are true. So I can't see how, here I just find Jesus saying this in no uncertain terms. He says exactly how this is going to happen.

Whether I go, you know, and the way, you know. Thomas says, what? We don't know where you're going. Jesus says, sure you do. You know where I came from. I came from the Father. That's where I'm going. Well, how can we know the way? He says, you know me, don't you? I am the way. Don't fret over this. You know what's wrong with you? Sorrow has filled your heart. That's what's wrong with you. The reason sorrow has filled your heart is because you don't necessarily believe everything I'm telling you. If you believe what I'm telling you, your joy is going to be full. I understand. Yeah, sure. You can't help but be somewhat sorry, but we don't need to turn this into a big emote fest because look, these things need to happen.

They need to happen. It's expedient for you that i do this it's better for you how in the world oh father god oh lord jesus how could it be better for us and i have you here sitting beside me and you're saying if you go away it's going to be better? How in the world can it be better? Good question. You have Jesus. You're a part of his group. You're walking around Israel.

You got a question. You ask him. He tells you. How can anything be better than that? I'll tell you how it can be better than that you know what i'm with you and the holy spirit if you encounter the holy spirit he's simply with you you know the holy spirit he's been with you right this is what he said he's been with you he shall be in you well you think I get all this stuff in my head

because I'm so cotton-picking smart? You think that I'm superior to you in intellect or spirituality or whatever else? I don't say anything to you that the Father doesn't say to me. That's how you're going to live that is in your future that's how you can live i'm not telling you to go to the seminary i went to jesus said i'm not telling you to to enroll in the yeshiva that i graduated from i'm not telling you to, you know, to read my books or to attend my lectures or to become as

smart as I am. I'm telling you that I run my life by hearing the voice of the Father within me, and I'm going to fix it so you can do the same thing. Better or not? Yes or no? Well, you know, you just got left with, yeah, I guess that would be better. Of course, you know, with modern religion and the establishment of churches and the hierarchy and all that stuff,

they've pretty much robbed us of all this. They tell us, you know, we need to be careful. You don't want to be led by the Spirit. You want to be led by the Bible. In other words, you need to be led by me. I'll read this to you. I'll explain what it means. I'm sorry.

I can hardly find anything in that other than a sinister or a selfish motive. All right, time for us to go. Thank you so much for being a part of the show. You've been watching the Words of Jesus series and I'm Don Harris. And if you would like to write to me, write to Don at ThinkRedInc.com. Simple as that. Till I see you again, Think Red Inc. Bye-bye. 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. I love you.