A Story, A Sandwich

Announcements

We will not have regular Youth Group on next Sunday. We will be meeting at the Worden’s Home in Pasco (where we’ve done some Youth Events) for a Church Harvest Festival.

Also, on Saturday Oct. 22nd @ 4:00 we will be at the Madsen’s home to have a Youth Harvest Festival and outreach to the neighborhood. It’s an opportunity to have some games, do some outreach, food, etc. We’ll have more info about this as it comes.

Road Trip to Walla Walla with a meal and campfire at the Filbrun’s afterwards on the 29th. Keep you posted!

Pray

Review

Last week we read the five conflict stories Jesus had with the Pharisees.

Close your bibles.

Reliance Shirt for the first person to name all five stories and the conflict in the stories without looking at their bibles.

Jesus heals a paralytic (forgiving sins)

Calling Matthew (eating with sinners)

Fasting (wedding feast)

Jesus Lord of Sabbath (eating grain)

Man with Withered Hand (Healing on Sabbath)

Ok you can open your bibles again. For those of you who read Mark 3 this week, what are some things that stood out to you? What were some questions for you that came up?

Give a minute for people to think and respond.

Lesson – A Lord

We’re going to pickup in Mark 3:7 this week and look at a few stories. We’ve now left the five conflict stories that Mark shows us in the previous chapter. We’re now looking at Jesus’ later ministry in Galilee.

A Crowd follows Jesus

It starts with Jesus withdrawing with his disciples to the sea. It’s most likely that Jesus is trying to get away from the pharisees since it’s not yet time for His persecution and crucifixion.

Mark 3:7–12 ESV

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

Jesus withdraws in this story and yet, the crowd is right behind him. The big question is why? It seems like they “heard all he was doing” and were interested in his healings or miracles more than his preaching. Of interesting note are the “unclean spirits” that come out of him, and fall down before Him. Jesus orders them to not make him known and they seem to oblige.

The Twelve Apostles

Jesus knew exactly who he wanted to be his apostles and called them by name. It’s amazing how much we do and don’t know about these apostles. The main takeaway here thought is that He knew who would be his apostles, including Judas Iscariot who betrayed Him! These are the men, from a variety of backgrounds, socioeconomic status’s, beliefs (a zealot!), strengths, and failings.

The Chosen

I know many of you have watched The Chosen, but I want to assure you of this: while it’s a human portrayal of these guys, they were probably much more mundane than the show gives credit for. A great portrayal, but please, for the love, don’t make your interpretation of scripture based on that show.

A Story, A Sandwich

Family Matters – A Lunatic

The next set of stories is interesting to me. After Jesus calls the apostles, Mark writes this:

Mark 3:20–21 ESV

20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

Jesus goes to Simon and Andrew’s Home again. Their mom and dad are just fixing the roof and answer the door for dinner guests (Jesus, Andrew, Simon) and it’s party time. They were so crowded and inundated with people that they couldn’t even eat. I’m imagining this as a sitcom kind of scenario. The mom just can’t get a break because of the shenanigans. There’s probably a laugh track involved.

Jesus’ family hears about this event though, of all things (the roof thing or getting in trouble with the Pharisees wasn’t enough) and decide to head out to arrest him. “He is out of His mind” means he’s crazy. He’s lost it. We’ve got to deal with this since no one else is.

Blasphemy – A Liar

The Pharisees are also coming now. They came from Jerusalem, probably with the crowd. They accuse Jesus of being Satan and Jesus rebukes them. He uses some powerful language and talks about this grieving the Holy Spirit.

The Pharisees were saying that Jesus’s work of the Holy Spirit was really the work of Satan.

What is this unforgivable sin? Few things are as misunderstood as this so let me say what it isn’t and the reaffirm what it is:

It’s not:

Cursing the Spirit

Taking the Lord’s name in vain

Not Adultery or Sexual Perversion

Murder

Multiple Murders

Genocide

What it is:

The Perversion in the heart that chooses to call light darkness and darkness light.

It is continuing rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit, whether that witness would be a quiet witness in the conscience, the rational witness of the Word, or even miracles and Wonders.

The Pharisees are dangerously close to committing this sin if they haven’t already because they are calling Jesus’ miracles through the Holy Spirit the Work of Satan. They are calling light darkness and darkness light.

We’ll spend some more time talking about this in our groups in a bit.

Family Time Again

And great. Jesus’ mom is here now. His brothers are here too. They’re calling to him to arrest him. Jesus hears about it and affirms how those who follow Him by doing the will of God are his brother, sister or mother.

Hoagies

The sandwich is a title given to how Mark writes. He uses a story, with a story in the middle, to add depth to the stories of Jesus. In this case, the first of the sandwiches, Mark splits the story of Jesus’ family coming to arrest him with the blaspheming of the Spirit. This was because the family needed time to travel to get Jesus to arrest him. Mark is giving a sense of time in this way.

What kinds of questions do you guys have?