A House Divided and the Family of God

Tonight we will be sort of finishing up the third chapter in the Gospel of Mark. We’ll be starting in verse 20 and then we will go to the end of the chapter. There is a lot going on in these verses that we need to unpack so I’m hoping that we have plenty of time to get through it all. But I don’t think we are going to be able to completely finish the chapter so we will read and finish the last few verses next week. Let me start by asking this, have you ever had your work, your life, or something good that you were doing questioned by those that were closest to you? If that has happened to you, how has it made you feel? It probably stings right? Have you ever worked on a group project and you did the majority of the work only for someone else to get most of the credit for it? That’s never a good feeling right? Have you ever wanted to do something good for someone only for the people around you to think that you’re crazy for trying to that good thing? If you have, you are in good company because the same thing happened to Jesus. What we are going to see tonight, and this is something that if you have been to YC long enough that you will probably already know cause I tell you all the time, but it is totally possible to see Jesus, to know about Jesus, and to experience Jesus but have no idea who Jesus really is. It is possible to hear about all the richness and majesty of Jesus but be totally off on who He really is. C.S. Lewis is a name that you hear me bring up often. He was the author of The Chronicles of Narnia and he is well known for his books Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and The Screwtape Letters just to name a few. Even though Lewis wasn’t a pastor, one of the greatest sermons that I have ever read is his sermon, The Weight of Glory and if you have not read that, you are missing out so go home tonight and read The Weight of Glory, that’s your homework. Lewis is known in the Christian world as having popularized what is now known as Lewis’s trilemma. We’ve talked about this before but what Lewis said was that when you look at Jesus, there are only 3 things that He can be. He is either a liar, he’s a lunatic, or if He is neither of the first two, He must be the Lord. Lewis said, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man, was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God…It seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.” We’re going to see this played out in Mark 3:20-35 so let’s open up in prayer and then we will dive in.

Mark 3:20–35 NASB95

And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Christ the Lunatic

The first element that we come up to of Lewis’s trilemma in these verses is the idea that Jesus was a lunatic. People thought that He was crazy. In verses 20-21 we see Jesus return to Capernaum and a huge crowd has come to Him and it is said that there are so many people that He and His disciples could not even eat. He was just so busy and they had crowded in that it was impossible for them to eat together. Seeing that Jesus is home, His friends and His family, His own people as Mark refers to them, hear what is going on and they are convinced that Jesus has lost His mind. In fact, they are so worried about Him that they have pretty much come to arrest him, that’s the Greek word being used, and bring him back home so that they could take care of Him and basically knock some sense into Him. Verse 31 directly connects to what is happening in verses 20-21 and even Christ’s own mother Mary comes because she’s worried about Him. Now obviously we know that Mary knew that Jesus was the Messiah. Gabriel told her this before Jesus was born, we know that Mary witnessed His first miracle in John 2, we know that Mary may not have questioned His sanity but she definitely is questioning the approach of His ministry. She’s worried about her child like any good mother would. But what a discouraging thing it can be to have your own family question you. What a discouraging thing it can be to have those that are closest to you assume the worst. If you ever feel like you are out of place with your family, don’t lose heart because Jesus in a sense was out of place. Now on the surface it makes a little bit of sense for some of these people to question Jesus because Jesus had lived practically His entire life with these people. They had seen Him grow up, they had seen Him work as a carpenter, they knew His family. They knew the man because they had lived with Him! I saw a joke online not that long ago that I thought was sort of funny and someone said, imagine what it would be like for the guy that saw Jesus crucified but only knew about Him for His carpentry work and the guy goes, “Crucified? How bad of a carpenter could He have been?” People here absolutely knew Jesus! In John 6:42 we read, “They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”” They had seen Him grow up, they knew His earthly parents, they knew His siblings, so for Jesus to say the things that He did and do the things that He did, of course they would be confused! If Jesus were only human, of course it would be insane if He made the claims that He did but did nothing to back the claims up. It is one thing to not be believed by people that you like, it is another thing to not be believed by people that hate you, it is a whole new ball game to not be believed by your family. I think one of the clearest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus is that James, the half-brother of Jesus, became a Christian. We see James leading the early church in Jerusalem and it is this James that is the author of the book of James. Yet while Jesus was alive, James didn’t believe that He was the Christ. Now imagine that for a second. Imagine you are James the half-brother of Jesus and you have heard Mary tell you about the miraculous birth of your brother but you still don’t believe in Him? John 7:2–5 says, “Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” The brothers of Jesus said, “Look if this is who you claim to be, go out and do these things publicly and take what is yours” but even they didn’t know who Jesus was. Yet not long after this, we see James believing that His brother is the Son of God. Quickly, how do we know that Jesus is not a lunatic? Because even His enemies recognized that no one ever spoke like Jesus. In John 7:46 we see people that were sent to arrest Jesus say, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” Remember what we read back in Mark 1:27 where Mark says of those that heard Jesus “They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”” At the end of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 7:28–29 we read, “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” No one could say that Jesus’ teachings were the ramblings of a mad man. His words had authority and they should because they were the words of God. John Stott said, “What struck the first hearers of the preaching of Christ was the preacher’s extraordinary authority. He did not hum and haw, or hesitate. He was neither tentative nor apologetic. Nor again, on the other hand, was He ever bombastic or flamboyant. Instead, with quiet and unassuming assurance He laid down the law for the citizens of God’s kingdom. and the crowds were astonished, even dumbfounded.” Clearly Jesus was not a lunatic, clearly He was not out of His mind. I’ve heard some pretty bad teaching in my day and I have heard some people make some claims where I’m convinced that they’re crazy. You can probably think of some times in your life where you have heard someone say something and you are left thinking, “What’s wrong with this dude?” Jesus never gave the appearance of some mad teacher but He spoke with authority.

Christ the Liar and the Unpardonable Sin

Let’s look at the idea that Jesus was nothing more than a liar. In verse 22 we see that there are scribes that come down from Jerusalem and they say of Jesus: “He is possessed by Beelzebul and He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” Beelzebul is referred to as the prince of demons and by the time of the pharisees, the general thought that Beelzebul was a name or a title for none other than Satan Himself. We see the religious elite boldly claiming that Jesus is nothing more than a being possessed by Satan Himself and it is only through the power of Satan that Jesus is able to do what He does. So, not only are they claiming that Jesus is in league with the devil despite all the clear evidence that He is the Messiah, they are saying that Jesus is intentionally leading people away from God and orthodox religion. Do you understand the depth of what these scribes were saying? This is no small accusation. This is to say that the Creator of the World is nothing more than a liar ran by the destroyer. This is to say that the mediator between God and man is nothing more than a conspirator with the accuser. This is to say all that is holy, righteous, and good cannot be attributed to Jesus but only that which is attributed to Satan. They are saying that the King of the universe who possesses all authority is under the authority of the King of Hell. This is a horrible, blasphemous accusation that is made against the Lord. Jesus calls these men to Him and He addresses the claim in a parable and He asks, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” These words were actually echoed close to 1800 years later when soon to be president Abraham Lincoln gave a speech about how the United States would not be able to stand if it fought against itself over the issue of slavery. What Jesus is saying here is that it does more of a disservice to Satan and his kingdom to cast out demons because he would then be destroying his own kingdom. If all Satan does is tear down, how will that help him? Look now at what Jesus says in Mark 3:26–27 “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.” What do you think Jesus means when He says this? Who is the strong man that He’s talking about? He’s referring to Satan and He is pointing to the life and soul saving mission that He was on. The parable itself is pretty straightforward. Basically if you are trying to rob a really strong person’s house, you don’t just go in the middle of the day while he’s home unless you have the ability to incapacitate him. If I was going to break into someone’s house like Conner McGregror or Dwayne Johnson, who could literally kill me, I would need some sort of way to incapacitate him. Maybe like what Jesus is saying in this parable I tie him up and then take what I want. Maybe I have a friend that holds him at gun point, either way I need something to make sure that he was powerless against what I wanted to do. Now, how does this connect to what Jesus does with the Gospel? What Jesus is saying is that when it comes to His work, He has come to take back that which Satan, the strong man, has stolen. He has come to not just bring lost souls home, He has come to destroy the work of the devil. This is what John says in 1 John 3:8 “the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” The binding of Satan is accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Death is defeated and Satan is bound through what Christ accomplished on that first Easter weekend. The kingdom of darkness is defeated on Easter morning and it will be utterly destroyed when Christ returns. Satan is bound now but the time will come when every element of his work and being will be destroyed. One thing that I want to quickly address is what is known as the unpardonable sin. In Mark 3:28–29 Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”. What is this unforgivable or unpardonable sin that Jesus talks about? I wish we had more time to look at this a little bit more closely but basically what Jesus is saying is that when you take the works of the Holy Spirit and you know, you absolutely know, that this work is the work of the Lord but you attribute it to Satan, you are standing at a point where forgiveness is not an option. Daniel Akin said, “The unpardonable sin is to knowingly, willingly, and persistently attribute to Satan the works of God done by and in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, who testifies to these truths in your heart.” These scribes knew exactly what the Bible taught, they had seen the miracles, they had heard the Gospel, they knew the works of God and yet they were so enraptured in their own sin that they would rather attribute the moving of the Spirit to the works of Satan. Now is it possible for you to commit a sin that cannot be forgiven? If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit will see to it that this does not happen. I remember being an intern at my church back in Lynchburg and I had one student, a middle school boy who had autism, who pretty much every week would come to me and he was so afraid that he had committed this unforgivable sin. He was so afraid that he had done something that Christ would reject him forever and I remember having to tell him that he had not done this. I could say that with a relatively high degree of certainty because the person that has committed the unforgivable sin does not worry about it. They love sin and they do not care for the work of God so why would they think about it at all. What I want to challenge you on right now is what is your view of sin? Is it a little oopsie daisy here and there or is it something that Christ came to save you from. How much evil and wickedness can be in just one sin that it caused all of creation to fall? How much more evil and wickedness is in you when you sin multiple times every day? You see it is when you recognize the magnitude of sin. When you realize just how damning and paralyzing sin is that you really begin to understand the cost and magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice. Tim Keller said, “The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.” I am so wicked, sinful, and flawed that my only hope was that Jesus had to die for me but the greatest encouragement and joy that I can have in life is that for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross and was glad to die for me. Who am I that the King of Kings would die for me?

Christ is Lord

Now as we start to wrap this up, we have hopefully come to the conclusion that Jesus was not a lunatic because a lunatic couldn’t speak the way that He did and even if He was a lunatic, that doesn’t explain the miracles that He did. We have also hopefully come to the conclusion that Jesus wasn’t a liar because Satan cannot stand if he is destroying his own kingdom and we saw that even though his own brothers and family did not believe Him at first, something so significant happened that they had no choice but to believe that Jesus was who He said He was. What option then are we left with? As Lewis said, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. Jesus was and is and will ever more be God. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We see in His authority over the kingdom of darkness and Satan, we see it in the authority of His words, we see it in His sinless life, all through these first three chapters that Jesus Christ is no ordinary man. He is no disillusioned leader with high hopes of grandeur. He is not some psychopath that just so happened to impress the people that came to see Him. No here in the presence of Jesus of Nazareth is someone that is very much like us but at the same time nothing like us. Who is He? He is the Lord. Now the last thing that I want to challenge you with is this: How can you use Lewis’ trilemma to share the Gospel with people? What are some of the concerns and questions that it may be able to address? Have you yourself come to an understanding of who Jesus really is? If you haven’t, you are not guaranteed the next minute so you need to know now who Jesus Christ is. Let’s pray.