Words of Jesus Podcast - Willing Sacrifice

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Often we hear it said that "God is in control" and "God can do anything" This is often taken to mean everything that happens is the responsibility and will of God. This is not so.  Remember in the beginning, God put the earth and everything in it under the control of his man Adam. In short order Adam gave this authority and control to the enemy of God thereby creating a separation between God and man. In response to Adam's treason (a perfect, loving, true, Creator Father) God made a promise to redeem man. More perfectly God made a way for man to be redeemed. Man must participate in this redemption by exercising his free will to obey God - a willing sacrifice. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? Matthew 21***109: Jesus’ Prayer In GethsemaneMatthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46Jesus’ Prayer In GethsemaneWhen Jesus and his disciples arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said tothem:            “Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.”            Jesus took with him Peter; also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and went a little farther. Then he said to them:            “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here, and watch with me.”            Jesus went on a little farther, fell on his face on the ground, and prayed – saying:            “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me; nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”            Then he returned to the three disciples and, finding them asleep, said to Peter:            “Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”            Jesus went away a second time and prayed, saying:            “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”            Then he returned and found the three asleep again. Jesus left them a third time and prayed with the same intent and in the same words as before.            When he returned to the three sleeping disciples, he said:            “Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough, the hour is come. Behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go. Lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.”

Music Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Music Hello my friend, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. We've been talking about Jesus and His prayer to His Father, His advice to His disciples, the discussions that He had at that Passover. And I was trying to draw a line of distinction between him completing, as he said in John 17,

that I have finished the work that thou has given me to do. But we all know that he didn't. Why did he say such a thing? Well, there is a distinction that should be made, simply by his words. If he said he finished what the Lord sent him to do, then He finished what the Lord sent Him to do. And so let's look at what He did and we can find what the Lord sent Him to do. What did He send Him to do? Be a witness to me and to my people on the earth, an irrefutable, inarguable witness. He did just that and

he did it perfectly. Now those of you who believe that Jesus Christ actually came to the earth to be crucified, I understand why you're saying that. I understand why people say that. There are some good reasons for that and there's some pretty poor reasons for that. Let's look at the good ones first, shall we? The good

ones are that it was His intention to save us and what it took to save us it was His intention to accomplish that. I understand that logic. I know what you're saying. But there is also that train of thought that they want to believe that God's a magic God. That He can do anything and He knows everything from the end and from the beginning. And they just can't believe that He would put together a plan that was His absolute will and it did not happen because it pretty much destroys the tenets of their

faith and I mean the foundation stones of their faith. Let me tell you something, you pray to a God differently if you believe that He's living with you every day. Then you do if you pray to a God that you believe is sitting at the end of time, drumming his fingers on the throne, just waiting for everything to turn out like he always knew it would. What a pitiful picture of our wonderful miraculous and sovereign God. He knows everything is going to happen. And so there is a little bit of Calvinism in this, predestination for ordination, and all these kinds of doctrines get mixed around in this hodgepodge that's all based on God having known everything.

But boy, when you realize that although He has access, and He has the, if you want to call it brain power, He has what it takes to figure out what's going to happen in many of the times that He prophesies. it's one of the reasons why the prophecy is so vague. Because he knows what's going to happen and he tells the prophet what's going to happen. But when the prophet says it, wow, it could actually happen in a lot of different ways but the outcome is what God said is going to happen.

You can bet on it. So does he really know the end from the beginning? You know there are people who play with some of the stupidity of Bible codes and equidistant letter sequences and we found Hitler's name in the Bible. Gee whiz, while God was up there trying to figure out how to put Adolf Hitler's name in the Bible He allowed the whole Holocaust to happen. I Mean so he did he didn't help those poor people because he was busy putting together equidistant letter sequences or

What have the else other codes that people have come up with that I've got a lot to tell you, I have a lot of things to tell you. Like Jesus said in this prayer, I've got so many things to tell you, but the Spirit of God is coming and He's gonna tell you all things. I can't tell you everything, but He can and will

because He's gonna speak to you what the Father tells you to say. What a wonderful promise that is. But no, what we believe is, now I have a lot of things to tell you, but you're going to have to wait about 2,000 years for them to develop a computer that can decipher equidistant letter sequences, or that can see codes in the Bible, or so that it can, you know, the computer will figure it out for you. Oh gee, you're not gonna live 2,000 years. I'm sorry about your luck, but your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great

grandchildren will benefit from it when they buy the book in the library. You know, these ideas are so insane, I don't know why, why do you, I go to churches and I see people carrying these books in their hand? I'm thinking I can't believe that you're reading that Left behind I want to be left behind All right, so here we and there's people out there right now saying, don't worry brother, you will be. They don't know what they're talking about,

but you know the truth is, that's exactly what we want. Now, here we have this fairy tale attached to Jesus Christ that does not allow for What we read in the scriptures as to what was actually said and done here we have We're in chapter 109 by the way in our book And it says when Jesus and his disciples arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane You remember when the Passover was over, well actually the Passover rehearsal, when that was over, he said, well, you know, the Son of Man has been betrayed into the

hands of men, everything is set up, let's go. And so they went to the garden. Now when he got to the garden, he told disciples sit you here and I go and pray yonder Yeah Wow, so when he says to go into your closet and pray he actually practices what he preaches I Don't know why they all just didn't get around I don't know why they all just didn't get around, you know, in a big circle, all 12 of them, and pray, because we all know that the more people that are praying, the better it is, right?

Don't we believe that? Why do we do that? I'm sure they all held hands like a seance, because we all know God's impressed with that. That's why we do it, right? That's why we hold hands when we pray? Is that some sign of unity? Will that make our prayers stronger? Why do we do silly things that have no foundation and no basis? Why do we do that? Why do we do it? Jesus says, you stay here, I go there. Jesus took with him Peter,

James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, and they went a little farther. Then he said to them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful. Well, that's kind of a switch from you're over there in the upper room popping off a while ago about how good things are going to be. What's going on? What we're seeing here is the dividing line between one of the jobs that the Father gave

Jesus to do that He said, I finished and I did it well and the people you gave me to accomplish this I didn't lose any of them except one and that couldn't be helped. And Jesus always knew, you remember when the 5,000 turned away from him and he looked at his disciples and said will you also go away? And they said well to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And then he says, haven't I chosen you twelve? Saying in that, that you know, I know I did the right thing. I know who you people are. I know what your intentions are toward me.

Will you also go away? No, you're not going anywhere. intentions are toward me. Will you also go away? No, you're not going anywhere. I chose you twelve. And he added to that, even way back then, he added, and one of you is a devil. That's odd, isn't it? He knew this all along. He kept the devil nice and close where he could keep his eye on him. Might be good advice for us all. But all of a sudden you know he's over there in the upper room telling him everything's going to be cool. I'm going to fix everything. You know you're going to have what you need. You're going to have power on the earth. And then all of a sudden he gets to the garden and he's real sorrowful. Why? What happened? Well he might have finished the job that the Lord gave him to do.

But now, something's changed. Something's changed. This is not the Jesus Christ that we saw at the beginning of the Gospels when he says, my life is mine. No man takes it from me. I lay it down of myself. What happened? Because in a few minutes that is exactly what's going to happen. They're going to come and take you and they will take your life. This absolutely ruins the innocent sacrifice, that innocent willing sacrifice, absolutely ruins it. This isn't a sacrifice, it's a murder. And Jesus can see that there defeat in the offing. Here you have him going in Gethsemane and crying, sweating as it were, great drops of blood. This was a horrible, horrible time for him. Why?

Because he was worried about, he says, Father, let this cup pass from me. You know, I mean, really? What do you mean, let this cup pass from you? You knew this before you left. You see, they're under no idea that that's a fact. Not at all. Things have changed. Something has happened here. There's a problem here.

The sacrifice is not going to work in this manner. And so why was he crying? Why was he sweating? Why was he crying out to God? Because he was worried that he was going to hurt? That he was going to feel pain? That he was going to be crucified to a cross? That he was going to have nails through his hands?

Was that what his concern was? His concern was you, my friend. The sacrifice that was necessary to save you was no longer possible. This was a huge defeat. I came and was a witness for my father. I did what he told me to do. They didn't believe me. Not only didn't they believe me, they not only didn't believe that God was who He was,

they didn't believe that I was who I said I was I showed them miracles I did all these things that I gave them opportunity more and more and more Opportunity to believe and they didn't do it. They're not doing it. They're not doing it now as a matter of fact They're doing the very opposite They're going to kill me opposite. They're going to kill me." This was revealed to him along as his life continued. This is why the parable started popping up. That God sent, that the master of the vineyard sent people to the vineyard to see how it was going

and they killed him. And he says, I know what I'll do. I'll send my son. They'll reverence my son. He was wrong. We didn't reverence his son. And we don't reverence him now. I know you might think you do, but not if you're not obedient to him and his commandments. Now, so what is going on in Jesus' mind? This is all for nothing. I'm going to lose them all. Something has to happen here.

Something does. He says my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Terry you hear and watch with me. He wants them to Terry to watch to wait He's setting them aside and Jesus went on a little farther He fell on his face on the ground and prayed saying, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt."

When he returned to the three disciples, and finding them asleep, he said to Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest thou not watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit truly is ready, the flesh is so weak. Jesus went away a second time and prayed, oh my father if this cup may not pass from me except I drink it, they will be done. Then he returned found the three asleep again. Jesus left them

a third time and prayed with the same intent and with the same words as before. When He returned to the three sleeping disciples, He said, sleep on now, take thy rest. It's enough, the hours come. Behold the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go. Lo, he that betrays me, he's in hand. It's all fixing to happen now. All of a sudden we have this, the Jesus who

was so concerned, so broken hearted, so sorrowful, weeping, sweating as it were great drops of sweating as it were great drops of blood. When he comes back, he says to his disciples, it's okay, everything's going to be fine. But the world happened. His father spoke to him. His father fixed this. When he came back to him, the father said, Hey, I heard you other two prayers and I've been working on it.

Got an idea. Well, what is that? Well, what do we need? We need an innocent and a willing sacrifice. The innocence, your sinlessness, above reproach. Everything's fine. But this willingness thing, that's a problem. Because you don't give your life, they're going to take it from you. You can resist if you want to, but they're going to take it from you. How are we going to fix this? Jesus is saying, well come on, tell me what you're thinking.

And he says, I'll tell you what, here's the deal, the very second that it crosses your mind that you don't want to continue this, you are more valuable to me than every person on the face of the planet added together from the beginning of time with Adam until the last baby that was born in Jerusalem tonight. You're more important to me. You're my son. I will give anything it takes to save your life. And if this world is not going to accept you, Hey Jesus, I've done it before. I will destroy this earth. I'll destroy every man, woman and child. I'll bring every building down level with the ground.

There won't be a live tree or a live blade of grass on this earth when I'm done with it. Are you gonna do that? Hey, if you say so, I will. And so what does that do for me? I'm adding these words because this is the way we think. I think Jesus was fully on board from the minute the Lord parted His lips and was telling Him this. But where does all this come from? Why, you're just making that up. The Bible doesn't say that. No, it doesn't. But I'll tell you what it does say. If Jesus looked at His disciples when the priests and the Malchus, which was the assistant to the high priest, well folks, let's just face facts.

When the church showed up, when the church governors showed up in the Garden of Eden, they came to arrest Jesus. It wasn't cops, it wasn't Roman soldiers as you've seen on the flannel graphs in Sunday School. The Roman soldiers weren't even there. Well, you know, remember when they threatened and Peter pulled out a sword and cut off Malchus's ear? And I assure you, he wasn't aiming for his ear. The guy just ducked when Peter took a swing at him and it took his ear off. And Peter had intention on cutting the man's head off.

He was going to fight What was Jesus's attitude about that? Well, he healed the man's ear and told Peter don't you know? That all I have to do is open my mouth and my father will sin Ten legions 12 legions. I'm trying to think of how many 12 legions is. It's a bunch. 12 legions of angels will be sent to deliver me from this situation. Now friend, I'm going to tell you, it doesn't take 12 legions of

angels to remove rusty spikes out of somebody's hands and out of a cross and bring him down to the ground. It doesn't take 12 legions. What are the 12 legions of angels for? Buddy, you better be glad you never found out. Because all Jesus had to do was say, No, I'm not willing. No, I'm not gonna do this. And had he done it, I believe with all my heart this earth would just be a smoking mud ball flying through space. I think it was over. It was essentially over. And it all relied upon Jesus' willingness and His love that He has for us. It says, okay, now I've got a choice.

Now I can be a willing sacrifice. Now my blood will count. I'm in. And He saved us anyway. He didn't have to do it. He didn't have to do it. It could have all been over. He could have been sitting on the throne with his father for the last 2,000 years and everything just... I don't know, maybe he would have started over. I don't know. That's what his idea was with several men in history. Let me

destroy all these people. We'll start over with you. So his intention was to start over. Maybe he would have started over by now, but he didn't. You see, greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his rent. And you know, the Bible says that, you know, maybe for a good man some might die. You know, for a good man some may even dare to die. But Christ, and while we were yet sinners, died for us. It makes Him, oh man, it just makes Him so much better than us. We can't even understand that kind of love that He had for us.

You ever wonder about the love of God? I hear atheists talk about what love? Send his son down here to be murdered. What kind of a God is that? He didn't send him here to be murdered you moron We murdered him no more than the parents who sent their kids to school and some Psychopath goes in there with a rifle and kills them. You're going to say their parents sent them to their death? Why would you say that of something like that about God? See, He fixes things. He doesn't break things. He fixes them.

And He can fix us. And if He can fix that situation, He can fix just about anything. But what I want you to see is and he can fix that situation he can fix just about anything but I'm what I want you to see is what Jesus did and he didn't have to do that he didn't have to something compelled him I like to think that

he loved me that much. Not that presumptuous. But He did love the world. More so than He did in John chapter 3 when it says that He so loved the world, that God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son. He didn't give His Son to be murdered.

He gave His Son to be a witness to him and to himself, to his people Israel. And they rejected it. He could have just said, okay. He could have walked away. Jesus could have walked away. Jesus says, I don't wanna do this. Here's what I wanna do. I wanna do your will. If it's your will that I do this,

just say the word and I'll do it. But I'll tell you now, I don't wanna drink this cup. This is really, really bad. God said, you don't have to. I'm going to remove the mandatory nature of your murder. All you got to do is say so. I'll wipe this thing up like a man wipes a dish, turning it and wiping it again. Jesus said, don't do that, I can make this work. It's crowning statement was when he was on the cross

and he was dying and he was able to look at it and he was dying, and he was able to look at it and look up and say, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. In that statement, he justifies all of us that God have mercy on me. I'm such a sinner. I don't wanna be, but I'm such a sinner. I don't want to be

But I am such a sinner and I am so selfish in my ways I don't consider anything that you want me to do a Lot of things I don't know But it's only because I didn't care I care right if I'm saying what's in your heart, it's time for you to make some peace with God. It's time for you to hear the voice of God for yourself. Repent.

Be saved. Why not? Because our God, everything he has. Think Red Ink, myries. Email don at thinkredinc.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus and Red Letter Edition features. Tune new podcasts from Thank Red Ink Ministries with host Don C. Harris.