Gospel of Mark wk 11
Notes
Transcript
Family of God
Family of God
As we continue our walk through the Gospel of Mark, we will be in chapter 3 this morning.
We are looking at the Family of God.
In our text this morning we will see four things.
First, an irreverent accusation; second, a reasoned defense; third, an irreparable transgression; fourth, a relational request.
Jesus has been falsely accused more than once, but this time is different, and His defense is different.
Jesus has chosen the twelve men that He will be pouring into and making disciples of, for the next three years.
The Jewish officials are continuously watching Him to try to find something that they can charge Him with but so far have been unsuccessful.
When we stand for the things of God, that is the complete and inherent Word of God, we too will face false accusations from time to time.
Jesus has told us that we will face opposition.
As we see the opposition that Jesus faces in our text, we must remember that as we follow Jesus we too will face opposition.
Jesus talks about this in John 15:18-20
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
Pray
Pray
I. An Irreverent Accusation
I. An Irreverent Accusation
20 And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.
21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”
22 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.”
The religious officials in Jerusalem had already sent a delegation to Galilee to keep tabs on Jesus.
This Jerusalem delegation was made up of scribes.
These were the intellectuals of the day.
They have been watching Jesus for some time now.
They had heard of this man who taught with authority and not like the scribes.
They had heard of His ministry of healing and casting out demons.
They had been present when the paralytic was healed.
And now they have a problem.
They cannot deny the miraculous power that has been at work.
They have one of two options:
1. They can accept Him as Messiah, believing His message and repenting of their sins and trusting in Him alone for salvation.
2. Or they can reject Him, looking for an alternate explanation.
Why do they choose the latter?
It is because they have a vested interest in unbelief.
That is always the reason that people choose to reject Christ.
Let's face it, Jesus has a way of changing a person's life.
And if you choose not to have your life changed by Him, then you have to reject Him.
To do that takes effort.
It takes effort because there is something compellingly attractive about Jesus.
And so, you begin to look for rationalizations of why you should not follow Him.
What we need to see here is that as Jesus has a way of impacting people which brings change, we as a church must understand that change is needed.
Change has to take place for us to be used by Jesus to impact the community that He has place us in to reach for His glory and honor.
The Scribes could not deny that there was real spiritual power in their midst.
And so, they came up with an alternate explanation.
They attributed the power of Jesus to Satan.
They said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul!”
The name “Beelzebub” refers to an old Canaanite deity.
“Baal” is the Canaanite word for “lord.”
“Zebub” was a reference to “flies.”
He was known as Baal-zebub, the “Lord of the Flies” in 2 Kings 1:2-6.
He was the god of diseases.
The Jews had taken this name and changed it to Baal-zebel which meant “Lord of the Dung.”
It was a term of derision.
And they eventually came to use it as a title for Satan.
Do you see what they are doing?
They are pointing to Jesus and they are saying, “He is Satan in the flesh!
He is only able to cure diseases because he is the demon of diseases!”
They have seen the power of God’s Holy Spirit at work and they deliberately and knowingly reject that Spirit.
Have you ever been unjustly accused of something?
Take heart, because you are in good company.
II. A Reasoned Defense
II. A Reasoned Defense
23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?
24 “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25 “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
26 “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!
27 “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.
Jesus now makes His defense.
The defense of Jesus is given in three parts.
1. The Devil is Defeated (3:23).
1. The Devil is Defeated (3:23).
The scribes have already conceded this point.
They could not deny the obvious outward miraculous power that Jesus manifested.
Satan has plainly been cast out.
2. Division is Destructive (3:23-26).
2. Division is Destructive (3:23-26).
When there is civil war in a nation, that nation does not prosper.
When a husband and wife set themselves against one another, it is not long before their marriage begins to collapse.
By the way, the same is true of the church.
The quickest way to destroy the church is to allow division to exist in our midst.
Now we come to the application.
Jesus has been casting out demons.
He has been in a war against Satan.
If he is fighting Satan, then He is obviously not on Satan's side and not receiving His power from Satan.
3. Delegation is Limited (3:27).
3. Delegation is Limited (3:27).
You cannot delegate more than you already have.
Satan cannot delegate more power than he already has.
If the power that is being used against Satan is greater than what Satan has himself, then he cannot be the source of that power.
This is illustrated by a strong man who is about to be robbed.
If you want to rob a strong man, you do not go into his house and ask him to help you.
He will throw you out.
You must first tie him up.
Here is what Jesus is saying.
He has been tying up Satan.
We all once were the property of Satan.
We used to belong to his kingdom.
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
When we came to Christ, we were taken from Satan's domain.
We have now become a prized possession of Jesus.
Jesus is still in the business of tying up Satan.
Every time that you see a man or a woman turn from their sin and come to Christ, you are seeing an example of Satan being bound.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:18
18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
As the body of Christ it is our job to reach the lost so that they may be bound for heaven.
III. An Irreparable Transgression
III. An Irreparable Transgression
28 “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter;
29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
30 because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Now Jesus turns from His own defense to speak about those who have just accused Him.
They have just accused Him of performing miracles by the power of Satan.
They have witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit and they said, “That is Satan!”
They pointed to the Holy Spirit and said, “Unholy and unclean!”
Jesus calls this blasphemy.
The word blasphemy is a compound word made from the Greek words “to speak” (phemi) and “to hurt” (blapto).
It describes the act of speaking of someone in a hurtful way.
Blasphemy is the opposite of praise and worship.
Praise is to speak good of someone.
Worship is to assign worth to someone.
Blasphemy is to speak evil and to attempt to take worth away from one that is deserving of such.
Blasphemy is speaking evil against God.
This is a serious sin.
In the Old Testament, it called for the death of the offender.
16 ‘Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
Blasphemy was a serious crime.
It was a capital offense.
And yet, even blasphemy can be forgiven.
The Apostle Paul confessed to having been a blasphemer in 1 Timothy 1:13
13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief;
We have a God who forgives.
Forgiveness is the crucified Messiah praying to His Father that those who had pounded the nails into His flesh would not be held accountable.
This is why Jesus came.
He came to die and by His death purchase forgiveness for every man.
He is able to forgive every manner of evil - except one.
29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
It is the Spirit that draws you to Christ.
It is the Spirit that regenerates you - that brings new life to you.
It is the Spirit that opens your eyes so that you can see Jesus.
Blasphemy against the Spirit is to speak against the work of the Spirit and to resist Him in such a way that you can no longer hear His voice calling you to repentance.
Every once in a while, I meet someone who is worried that they have committed the unpardonable sin.
I have news for you.
If you are worried about it and wish that you could repent of it, then you haven't committed it.
If you had committed the unpardonable sin, then you would not be concerned with rejecting the Spirit.
The scribes had been given all of the evidence.
They had seen the miracles.
They had heard the teachings.
And they still rejected Christ.
They rejected the very One in whom it is necessary to believe in order to receive forgiveness.
As a result, there remained no possibility of forgiveness.
The same is true today.
When a person is exposed to the truth of the gospel, and offered eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, but their final conclusion about the truth is to reject it, then they are un-redeemable.
If you have not rejected the truth of the Word of God, then you have not committed the only unforgivable sin.
IV. A Relational Request
IV. A Relational Request
31 Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.
32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”
33 Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”
34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!
35 “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
As we come to this paragraph, it seems at first glance to have no bearing on the previous verses.
Jesus has just accused the Jerusalem Delegation of committing an unpardonable sin.
They have rejected Him and they in turn have been rejected by Him.
Now the family of Jesus arrives on the scene.
They haven't come to hear Him preach or to see the miracles.
They have come to talk to Him.
They have heard of His sudden rise to popularity and they have concluded that He has lost contact with reality and they have come to take Him into custody.
This is seen back in verse 21.
21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”
Do you see that phrase “His own people”?
It is literally, “those from His side.”
This was a common figure of speech in the Septuagint to refer to someone's family.
“His own people” in verse 21 were very likely “His mother and His brothers” of verse 31.
You see, the brothers of Jesus didn't believe in Him.
5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him.
They had grown up with Him and had lived with Him for many years and they did not believe that He was the Messiah of Israel.
That is amazing.
I can understand the scribes from Jerusalem hearing and not understanding, but his own brothers?
There is a lesson here.
Sometimes there is a correlation between proximity and distortion.
People who grow up in a religious home often have a harder time coming to know the Lord because they are too close to the subject.
They never really come face to face with their need.
Jesus is going to remove Himself from His family.
They are seeking to approach Him on the basis of their physical relationship.
He will not allow it.
He is establishing a new relationship - one based on faith and obedience to Him.
You may have been watching the scribes commit the unpardonable sin and thinking to yourself, "I was raised as a Christian and I would never do a thing like that."
But having Christian parents and being raised in a Christian family is no guarantee of forgiveness.
It doesn't matter that you were brought up in Sunday School or that your name is on a church role or that you sing Christian songs.
You must enter into a family relationship with the Heavenly Father.
It is an eternal family.
It is bound together with a bond that makes earthly families distant by comparison.
And there is room in that family for you.
Jesus told a story once of a teenage boy who decided that life at home was too slow and monotonous.
He wanted to live life in the fast lane.
So with his pockets full of inheritance money, he set out to find the big time.
What he found instead were hangovers, fair-weather friends, and ultimately an unemployment line.
In the end he had nothing.
A homeless bum.
Finally swallowing his pride, he began the long walk back home; all the while rehearsing the speech that he would give to his father.
He never used it.
Just as he rounded the corner, his father, who had been waiting at the gate, saw him and ran to meet him.
The boy's apologies were muffled by the father's words of forgiveness.
The boy fell into his father's open arms.
Those arms were never opened so wide as when they were nailed to a Roman cross.
One arm reached back through history to all those who had gone before.
The other arm reached forward, even to where you sit today.
His arms are still open.
They are open for you.
We must open our arms just like Jesus, to accept those in our community that are in need.
They are in need of family, love, and people that care about them.
Just as Jesus has changed our lives from darkness to light, we must be willing to change so that others can come out of darkness and into the light.
We do not change the Word of God, but sometimes we have to adjust the way we present and apply the Word of God.
We do not jeopardize the Truth of the Gospel, but we change how we reach out so that others can be changed by the Gospel.
God has planted us in this community so that the lost may come to salvation.
He has called us to follow His lead, to go forth and bring those in darkness into the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
