Kenneth Copeland - How Jesus Responded To Betrayal
Isn't Jesus wonderful? Glory to God.
— Praise God, praise the Lord.
— I'll tell you, all last week talking about his birth and his mother and family and all that. It just never ceases to thrill me beyond measure, just to talk about him and read the book.
— Think about it, we're in the family.
— Yes. That's right.
— This is part of the family here.
— We've been made to sit with him in heavenly places. Praise God. Been raised up with him.
— We were born into the family.
— Thank You, Lord Jesus. Father, we thank You today. Again today. It's such a blessing and honor.
— Thank You, Lord.
— And privilege of preaching and teaching about Your life and from your book. Glory to God. And we thank You for being who You are and for doing what You've done and what You are still doing today.
— Yes. Amen.
— Because we read, as the power of God lifted You up into the heavenlies and then immediately those two angels said, "This same Jesus will come in like manner". And we know that it is very close and at hand, Your coming. In the name of Jesus, Father we pray and thank You. And we give all of the glory to that matchless name. Amen. Glory to God. I want to get into something here in just a moment. But today, we've come all the way up. We've come from his birth. We come from the things that happened right before his birth, come all the way up. Now he's turned 30 years old, which is the age of maturity, the age to enter into the calling of God. This is scripture in both covenants. Of course, we look at this in the New Testament, but actually it isn't. This is still being written at the time, but now we've come through the ministry, resurrection and yesterday, the temptation of Jesus. What if he had compromised that? Oh Lord God. It's impossible for God to lie. It was not impossible for Jesus to lie.
— We would still be old creatures.
— Oh, I don't know, if he had compromised, I think it would've just destroyed everything. But, there's no way that was going to happen. But he had the opportunity. He had to pass the test that the first Adam failed. The first thing he had to pass was the food test. Then, he had to pass the pride test. Then, he had to pass the greed test. Could have had all the power of all the kingdoms of the world. No. Turned it down and stood on the Word of God all the way through that. He stood on the Word, the written Word of God. He stood on the scriptures. Well, of course he did. Do you dare say that Jesus could have quoted the whole of the old scriptures to him? Sure. But he quoted Isaiah more than any other. Let's go on now in this fourth chapter of Luke and let's look at it. Look at the 13th verse. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. Now, he came in the power of the Spirit. He went out into that desert place.
— The Amplified says then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the Holy Spirit, into Galilee.
— Praise God.
— And the fame of him spread throughout the whole region roundabout. Don't you know it did? Think about it.
— And he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all.
— Praise God.
— And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. There was delivered onto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. He turned what you and I know as the 61st chapter of the book of Isaiah. So, he took a specific text to preach this sermon and he preached this everywhere he went. And I don't have the time in today and tomorrow to cover that. Because, the Spirit of the Lord has instructed me to go someplace else. Now, notice what he said. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, not just in me. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach. Glory to God. And most Christian people don't see Jesus as a preacher. Like I said earlier, Gloria and I didn't know anything about the Bible in the beginning. And it just thrilled me to see that he's a preacher.
— Amen.
— That's what I am. Glory to God. Well, no. I'm a preacher because he is. He's a preacher. Amen.
— But he did more teaching than anything else. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted and to preach deliverance to the captives and to preach recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord or the great Jubilee. Now at the time of the great Jubilee, we know that people went back, their property was returned. It was supernatural debt cancellation. Glory to God.
But Jesus is saying, "Hey, I am the Jubilee. So, blind man, you don't have to be blind anymore. Poor man, you don't have to be poor anymore. Sick man, you don't have to be sick anymore. I'm here. I'm your Jubilee". But they missed it. And he closed the book, gave it again to the minister and sat down. The eyes of all them in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to say unto them, "This day," and that's what made them so mad. This day, "This day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears," and all bore him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son"? We know this boy he's raised here. Who's he think he is? We know his family. "Is not this Joseph's son"? And he said unto them, "You will surely saying unto me this proverb, 'Physician healed thyself'. Whatsoever we've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country". And he said, "Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was shut up, three years and six months. And when great famine was throughout all the land. But, to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, the city of Sidon unto a woman that was a widow".
Well, we know that was Elijah. Many lepers were in Israel at the time of Elisha, or Elisha the prophet and none of them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose up to thrust him out of the city, led him into the brow of a hill whereupon their city was built that they might cast him down headlong. They got mad enough to kill him. Now, we know what spirit that is. The devil's still trying to kill him. He's still trying to kill him, but he just disappeared and walked away. Now, there's something interesting here. And this is just something after 50 plus years of studying this, I am convinced that Judas actually believed that he's the one that's going to set up the kingdom here in a few days. And I can put the money back that I've been stealing. And he'll just walk out from among them and they can't touch him.
— Was he surprised?
— But then, when he realized what he had done, and Jesus gave him every opportunity to repent. But, he made the terrible, horrible mistake of hanging himself. And he obviously hung himself on an old, dry rotten limb and it broke and he fell head long down and burst open in the middle. But, it had already been prophesied that, that would happen. So again, this Christmas Judas is in hell, still thinking about it, still thinking about it. But, glory to God. Now, in the sixth chapter of Mark, let's turn over there just a moment. Mark chapter six, and let's read in the second verse. "When the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing him were astonished saying, 'From, hence has this man, these things? And what wisdom is this, which is given under him that even mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James?'" Now we know the brother of James wrote the book of James, which is the oldest book in the New Testament and the oldest letter in the New Testament and "Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us. And they were offended at him". Jesus said under them, "A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work".
— Listen what the Amplified said. "And they took offense at him and were hurt. That is they disapproved of him and hindered them from acknowledging his authority".
— It hindered them.
— They suffered for it. It hindered them. Yeah. And they were caused to stumble and fall.
— The authority is what they stumbled at.
— Yeah.
— Where does he get this? We know him. He's our kinfolks. Years ago, a member of our family said, "Do you think Kenneth is a prophet"? Another member of the family said, "Oh yeah, we're sure he is". "Well, he's our kinfolk". Everybody that ever lived on this planet was somebody's kinfolk. You get into that hometown family thing. How could he? Why? What? Well, I didn't call myself. Praise God. The Lord called me. The Lord called Gloria, called me. And I had an inkling of it back, sometime before that. But you have to remember, this goes back into the 1960s and Gloria and I were married in 1962. And then, we both came to the Lord that year. And there were people that thought, there are no prophets left. There're just pastors and teachers. And in 1974, at camp meeting one year, right at the end of the service. In fact, Brother Hagin was already given the invitation. I had been a speaker that year. And so, we were sitting up on the platform at the Convention Center there in Tulsa. And I heard it in my spirit, "Get on your knees". He was giving the invitation. And I said, "What I don't want to cause attention to myself". He said, "Get on your knees now".
And so, I just slid down on my knees. Just as my knees touched the floor, Brother Hagin said, "Yeah. Oh yeah. I understand that. Yeah. I'll tell him". Ken Copeland. Oh. And he said a number of things. You're going to have to move over into that healing ministry, little sooner than you thought you would. You're not getting out ahead of God. You're keeping step with God. And then he said, "And whether you want to, or not". Now I had said to him, "Lord, I am not going to announce to anybody that you're calling me into the office of the prophet. Now, you're going to have to do that some way or another. I'm not, I'm not doing that". And then he said, "Whether you want to, or not, you're going to operate in the office of the prophet, the seer, standing right in the pulpit. It'll roll off in front of you. You'll see it right before your eyes like you saw it on a television screen and you'll be able to minister to the people". There were 9,000 people there that night. And then, later the Lord said, "Well, how's that"? He said, "Nine thousand people saw it and heard it. Is that all right with you"? I said, "Yes, sir. That's fine with me". Glory to God. Thank You, Jesus.
He marveled because of their unbelief and he went about teaching. He went about teaching. Now I take from that, the Holy Spirit saw fit to put this in the written Word. So, I take from that, since he went about teaching in all of their villages and faith comes. I take from that, many of these over the years came and they began to realize, and they heard him teach and he taught that same message. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me. And then, all of those marvelous miracles. And you know, good and well that there's a lot of those people that said, "Well, yeah, I was stupid not to see that. Look at what's happening here". My cousin's uncle got saved and healed over under him. Well, this is good stuff. Because, he taught in their villages roundabout. Amen. And you stay right in this same chapter. Come on over to the... I want you to see some. This sixth chapter of mark is a long chapter. I want you to see...
"They went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. King Herod heard of him for his name was spread abroad. And he said that John the Baptist was risen from the dead. And therefore, mighty works did show forth themselves in him. Others said, 'No, he's Elijah.' And others said that he is a prophet or is one of the prophets. But Herod heard thereof. And he said, 'It is John whom I beheaded. He's risen from the dead.' For Herod himself that sent forth and laid hold upon John and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her. For John had said unto Herod, it is not lawful for thee to have her, thy brother's wife. And therefore, Herodias had a quarrel against him and would've killed him, but she could not. For, Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and a holy man and observed him. And when he had heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. And when a convenient day was done that Herod on his birthday, he made a supper and got drunk. And, when the daughter of Herodias came in and danced and pleased him and sat with him, the king said to her, 'Ask me whatsoever you will, and I'll give it to you.' He swore unto her, 'Whatever you ask of me, I will give thee, unto half of my kingdom'. She went forth and said to her mother, 'What shall I ask?' She said, 'The head of John the Baptist.'"
They came in straight away and for the king and so forth. And the king was sorry, but he did it. And immediately, the king sent an executioner and commanded the head to be brought and went and beheaded to him in prison and brought his head in a charger, a big plate and gave it to the damsel and damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came, took up the corpse, laid it in a tomb. The apostles gathered themselves together under Jesus and told him all the things, what had been done and they had taught. Well, that's rough. And he said unto them, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile". He pulled aside, he'd been murdered. Terrible. They departed into a desert place by ship privately. The people saw them departing and many knew him and ran afoot there out of the cities and outwent them and came together unto him. And Jesus when he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep, not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
So, instead of getting mad and retaliating against Herod, he retaliated against the kingdom of darkness and he began to teach them many things, many things. And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came... This is a desert place. He got out of there. He wanted to be alone, but he couldn't. So, he just performed this great and mighty miracle and fed people. Glory to God. A man of compassion, a man of love. It's very important that we learn that. You don't just get mad and fly off the handle and do something you wish you hadn't done later. No. You let love rise up in your heart and you put, enforce the fruit of the Spirit and the love of God and the peace of God, long-suffering and temperance, self control. You put a stop to that and let compassion takeover. Praise God. Glory to God. You don't compromise these things. And we're out of time again, today. Let's give the Lord a great praise. Great praise. Great offering of praise. Glory to God.