Choosing Sides:

Communion:

Family you and I have been brought into the family of God.

The price of that Adoption

The sacrifice of our Savior

Isaiah 53:2–6 NKJV

2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

His body:

Scourged with a whip and then beaten.

Horrifically had His face pummeled and beard ripped from His face.

Crown of thorns beaten into His scalp.

Nailed to the cross, hands and feet.

His blood:

Jesus poured it all out, a little over a gallon.

1 Corinthians 11:23–29 NKJV

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

Introduction:

Like last week, our passage this morning has us being confronted with who Jesus is. Is He: liar, lunatic, or Lord?

Who was Jesus Christ? Was He really God, or was He of the devil? That is, was He evil, an imposter, a deceiver who set out to mislead the world into thinking that He was the Son of God? Is belief in Him really the only way to God? Are His teachings the only way to live and experience deliverance now and eternally?

[choosing sides analogy]

The religionists of Jesus’ day believed He was truly evil. In fact, they believed He was an embodiment of Satan. Jesus’ own flesh and blood were also disbelieving and were included in:

Mark 3:20–21 NKJV

20 Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. 21 But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”

Our passage discusses the charges brought against Jesus and His answer. And it challenges us to accept the truth about Jesus.

v. 22) Refusal of validation:

There is something to note about the description given, “the scribes who came down from Jerusalem.” If your Bible has a map in it you will notice that Galilee was north of Jerusalem. What is being described here isn’t what we are used to, when it come to geography. Because Jerusalem sit on top of a mountain to go to Jerusalem you had to go up, and leaving Jerusalem you have to go down.

These scribes were probably an official delegation of experts from Jerusalem coming to Galilee to observe and assess Jesus’ ministry. And in all likelihood, these scribes carried a lot of weight with many people.

They were tasked with finding out if Jesus was seducing the city of Capernaum and if Jesus was an apostate preacher.

Their charge was terrible: He has Beelzebub; that is, He was possessed, indwelt, controlled, under the power of Beelzebub, the supernatural power of evil.

Beelzebub—meaning “Lord of flies,” the name of an ancient Canaanite deity (2 King 1:2).

Note: They were not saying that Jesus was in alliance with the devil. Their charge went much further than an alliance. They were saying that Jesus was an incarnation of evil, of the devil himself.

This wasn’t the only time Jesus was insulted like this. These religionists and others were truly bitter, stinging, rough, cutting in their accusations against Jesus.

John 10:20 NKJV

20 And many of them said, “He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?”

John 8:48 NKJV

48 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

John 8:41 NKJV

41 You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”

Luke 7:34 NKJV

34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

There are two things to note:

These scribes could not deny the power of Jesus: lives were being dramatically and radically changed; evil spirits were being cast out of people.

Exorcism was not new things for the scribes, but what Jesus was doing was new. others were not always successful in casting out evil spirits. They failed, lacked permanent and perfect power to overcome the world of evil—but not Jesus. His power was and is universal and perfect, alway effective.

These scribes were deliberately trying to disprove Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God. The Jewish experts from the Jewish capital attempted to hinder the Jewish Messiah.

They couldn’t deny Jesus’ ability so they tried to invalidate His ministry by demonizing His power.

If they could prove or convince others that Jesus was a fraud, deceiver, or just an evil man the people would cease to follow Him.

Lets look at three reasons why these scribes and religious elite bitterly opposed Jesus:

Jesus threatened their sense of security. Their security was in their rules and regulations under the guise of following God. That is why Jesus would call them “white washed tombs.”

Jesus threatened their opposition toward change. As we saw last week, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. In their minds; however, they are the way, the truth, and the life. There is no reason to change so long as one’s needs are being met.

Because of their prestige, power, and influence the scribes and Pharisees were filled with pride, and an ungodly sense of importance.

vv. 23-27) Refusal of Recognition:

[23-26] Jesus’ first rebuttal was that internal strife always divides and destroy. “How can Satan cast out Satan?”

A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Civil war, internal strife, and divisiveness will cause a kingdom to fall. It cannot last, not if its subject fight among themselves.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. Constant bickering and arguing will cause the house to crumble. A house cannot last, not if its subjects strive fuss quarrel and fight all the time. the house will break up.

Satan cannot be rising up against himself. He would be casting out his own evil spirits and destroying his own kingdom of evil subjects. Breaking his own rule over their lives.

There really is no conceivable way Jesus is from anywhere other than from God. He had nothing whatsoever to do with evil or evil spirit, except to cast them out of men’s lives. He had come to free men, bring them salvation so that they might live righteously and godly in this present life.

Jesus is God’s representative among men, not the devil’s. He is exactly who He claims to be, the Son of God.

John 3:18 NKJV

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 10:36–38 NKJV

36 do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

So what exactly is going on here:

A hardened heart often leads to an irrational logic

Satan lures us to interpret what is good as evil and what is evil as good.

[27] Verse 27 is Jesus’ second rebuttal: In this parable Satan is the strong man who guards what belongs to him. Jesus’ ministry was defeating this strong man. Jesus looked at every life delivered from Satan’s domination and said, “I’m plundering the kingdom of Satan one life at a time.” There is nothing in our life that must stay under Satan’s domination.

God had broken into Satan’s house and kingdom by using the power of Christ to free those enslaved by Satan. Just as an invader enters an strong man’s house, binds him, and then spoils his goods, so Jesus has now invaded Satan’s kingdom of evil.

[born under the evil regime, born to Satan’s family]

Jesus came to bind up the person and work of Satan

vv. 28-30) Refusal of Salvation:

[28] This third rebuttal by Jesus was that God’s love is universal. God forgives all sin—even blasphemy—that insults, curses, and reviles God. People need to know this wonderful truth. There is no sin that God does not forgive. A man can be forgiven anything, no matter how terrible or vile.

That is to say, the consequence of one’s actions will still apply. But you are truly forgiven. True forgiveness can only be found in Christ; turning to Him, confessing your sin, and repentance.

Blasphemy is defiant irreverence and yet even that can be forgiven.

Look at the cross of Christ. That act of finality of Christ suffering on the cross for our sins shows just how deep God’s love for you truly is. The savage treatment and the terrible insults upon Jesus were horrible. Such treatment shows the depravity and iniquitous nature of men; and yet Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them.”

God loves His creation and provided a way of escape from His righteous and holy wrath, through the second Person of the Trinity Jesus Christ. He is after all:

John 14:6 NKJV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

1 Timothy 2:3–6 NKJV

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,

Ephesians 1:7 NKJV

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

[29] So if there is forgiveness for all sins even blasphemies, what is going on here in verse 29?

This blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is serious, the person guilty of this is subject to eternal condemnation. In other Gospels, such as Luke, this sin is described as “unforgivable.”

The only time one could actually blasphemy the Holy Spirit would be during the time of Christ’s earthly ministry. This means that the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit cannot be repeated today. Jesus Christ is no longer here on earth, but seated at the right hand of the Father. No one can personally witness Jesus performing a miracle and then attribute that to Satan instead of the Spirit.

the unforgivable sin today is the sate of continued unbelief.

John 16:7–10 NKJV

7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;

The Helper here is speaking of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The Spirit currently convicts the unsaved world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. To resist that conviction and willfully remain unrepentant is to “blaspheme” the Spirit. There is no pardon, either in this age or in the age to come, for a person who rejects the Spirit’s prompting to trust in Jesus and then dies in unbelief.

Family the love of God is evident:

John 3:16 NKJV

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And the choice is clear:

John 3:36 NKJV

36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 8:24 NKJV

24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

vv. 31-35) Relationships Defined

I’m sure that the word was out that the religious elite thought Jesus was working for the devil. And this is probably what lead to Jesus’ earthly family to come see Him. Probably to convince Him to stop what He was doing. very similar to

Mark 3:21 NKJV

21 But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”

We might have expected that Jesus’ family would have special privileges before Him. It probably surprises us that they don’t. Yet the brothers of Jesus never seemed to be supportive of His minsitry before His death and resurrection:

John 7:5 NKJV

5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him.

What Jesus mean regarding family:

Jesus’ family increased their opposition of His ministry while His disciples increased their support.

Jesus never taught His followers to disassociate, disregard, or dishonor their families.

Jesus prioritized the relationship of those “inside” over those “outside.”

[Youth Group Clique] Our church clique, but you are invited to be apart of it!

Jesus reminded His followers that a spiritual family will oftentimes be closer than a physical family.

What this means for your family:

Your family may be resistant and even hostile toward you and your walk with God.

You are not truly loving a family member if you prioritize them over Jesus.

You must lean how to love your family while being yoked to Christ

What this means for your church:

If the church doesn’t feel like family, something is out of balance.

The people closest to you should be people who are closest to the will of God.

Obedience isn’t a prerequisite of being in of the family of God, but it is a product of being in of the family of God.

At the end of the day Jesus’ family was alarmed and feared for his life and probably their own as well to some degree. I believe they, as a family, were embarrassed, ashamed, filled with fear, and simply wanted Jesus to stop.

This morning you have to answer some very penetrating questions:

Are you embarrassed by Jesus?

Are you ashamed to stand up for Jesus and His claims?

Are you fearful of what your neighbors, friends, family, or others will say if you make a stand for Jesus?

Are you wanting to follow Jesus only if He stays locked up in your house where His claims will never bother anyone else?

Challenge:

Mark 3 ends with a huge contrast. There are religious leaders in danger of damnation:

Not validating who Jesus is.

Ignoring or straight up refusal to recognize who Jesus is.

Refusing the saving work that Jesus was accomplishing.

Now compare that with this invitation to be part of Jesus’ family.

How are you helping your church family obey the will of God?

Benediction:

Numbers 6:24–26 NKJV

24 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; 26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’