Stumbling Stone

Good Morning Church

Jump right in this morning

Bibles out…Mark 3:20-35.

READ V 20-35

NOW LAST WEEK…

The Lord calls men to do His work (called the 12 into action)

The Lord equips men to do His work (equipped them to be able to preach, heal, and cast out demons

And we left last week (I hope) with our hearts on fire…ready to go and do the Lords work

To proclaim the gospel of Christ…

When we do this however…we need to be prepared for how the world will respond.

Jesus has been moving through the region…preaching truth, casting out unclean spirits, and healing…

Last week we saw the traction He is gaining…a great multitude is flocking to Him to be healed…

BUT with that come others who question and are against the truth that is being preached and the miracles that are being done…

Lets look at the text we just read and see just that…

-v 20 -the multitude came together again...and they are relentless…

Again these are desperate people that need to be healed…

There are so many that Jesus and His disciples couldn’t even have a moment to eat…

-v21 - “friends” these are His family and people close to Him…

They came to “lay hold” of Him—to capture Him and take Him away

They thought He was crazy…That He is working himself to death…that He is risking His life…the things He is saying could get Him killed…They are confused by His actions…they perceive them as odd

THEY ARE PUZZLED…

-v22- Next the scribes come down (these are the “holy men”)

The enemy of the ministry of Christ…

They come and make the greatest accusation…they say Jesus is inhabited by Satan (Beelzebub)

That He has an evil spirit and thats how He is able to cast out devils…by evil spirits…

-v23-30 Jesus respond to the accusation…

How can satan cast out satan?

how can a divided kingdom stand?

how can a divided house stand?

Then he says a parable about a strong man being bound and his possessions being plundered (we will get deeper into this one in a minute)

Jesus says these people who are saying that I have an unclean spirit are in danger of eternal damnation (there is a punishment for this accusation)

-v 31-35- Jesus’s mother and brothers (family) show up (to come and lay hold of him)

He says “who is my mother and my brothers?”

Whosoever shall do the will of God is my family…

So what does all this mean??

Why is this in the text???

The Lord has commanded us work in His service

To go and proclaim Him…

Whats going to happen when we do that???

How will the world respond to that???

The Lord is going to show us today 3 ways the gospel affects the world…

The Gospel puzzles the world

Jesus’s family and friends were puzzled…

When we take a hard stance on the Gospel…

When we start leaving our houses to preach the gospel…

leaving our hometowns…

Setting our lives up for mission not for personal gain…

IT LOOKS WEIRD TO THE WORLD!!!!

To our friends and family…It might look odd…

When we leave financial and personal comfortability and security to GO and DO GODS WILL…(missions, church planting, ect)

When we boldly proclaim the gospel at work or school…though it might cost us our popularity…

In HS as an unsaved guy…I thought Christian kids were weird man…

They spoke about things I didn’t know, couldn’t understand…

You may lose “friends” when you take this gospel stance…

In the gospel itself…when we preach it to the world…it will seem odd at first to some…

1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

We need to be prepared for the response we get…

WHEN WE GO TO WORK FOR JESUS…IT WILL PUZZLE THE WORLD AROUND US

AND NOT ONLY PUZZLE THEM…BUT…

The Gospel stumbles the world

The gospel makes some fall…

The scribes came in the text and after hearing the preaching of truth…and seeing the miracles…they fall over what they see and hear…

Let the word of God here prepare you…

As you go and proclaim the gospel…it will not always be received…

But instead cause those who hear it to fall…

MANY WILL REJECT IT…

No one like to trip…when you stumble over something you get agitated right?

When the gospel is preached and it causes some to trip over it…they often will get angry…

Paul traveled from Jerusalem to Rome and everywhere in between sharing the gospel…

And as he did…many rejected it…and because of that he was beaten, stoned, and imprisoned multiple times…and ultimately beheaded…

1 Corinthians 1:21-23 “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness;”

Be prepared for this…

The more you do the will of God…the more obedient you are…the more alienated you will be from those around you…

The less worldly you are the more odd you will look to others…

Thats because…

The Gospel separates us from the world

Jesus’s family shows up at the end of the text…remember they are here because they think He has gone mad…they have come to take him away from the ministry…

The Lords response to their arrival is “Who are they?”

Family is important…BUT hear this…and it might offend you…

There is no relationship in your life like the ones you have with your brothers and sisters in Christ…

Men before she was your wife…she was a sister in Christ…She belonged to Jesus first…

Same to you wives…

As parents we should be raising our children to not just be our children in 20 years…BUT to be our brothers and sisters in Christ…

Now it should be your prayer that all of your physical family are also apart of Gods family…

We want everyone to be apart of the body of Christ…

But thats not always the case…

The Gospel will separate us from those who are in the world…

Even those who are related to us…

Let this scripture prepare you for that…

But know that you are not alone!!!

As you are pulled away from the world…you are pulled into a family of God…

A people who are focused on doing the will of God…

And as you think about that…

That the Lord has grafted you into His family…

And it is a family of children dedicated to honoring and glorifying their father…

A family that serves one another…and multiplies!!!

THATS INCREDIBLE ISN’T IT??? (I mean some of you have lost family, maybe mom or dad or husband or wife, or child has passed on…and for many that makes them alone) (If you are apart of God’s family…you are never alone…your brothers and sisters cover the earth…there are many!)

AND REMEMBER THIS WAS ALL MADE POSSIBLE…BECAUSE OF THE GOSPEL!!!!

The thing that puzzles and stumbles the world…that separates us from the world…

GAVE US WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (we are no longer puzzled)…LIFTS US UP INTO HIS GLORY (we can not stumble)…UNITES US AS THE BODY (an eternal family in Christ)…

ALL GIVEN TO US THROUGH FAITH IN THE GOSPEL!!!

Before we placed our faith in it…we were confused and fallen…

We belonged to another…

In our sinful…unsaved state…we belonged to Satan…

1 John 3:8 “He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

The Gospel tells us that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil!!!!

I TAKE YOU BACK TO VERSE 27 (READ)

This is a prophetic parable (Jesus is telling you whats about to happen in the future)

The Strong man (SATAN)

His house (the world)

His possessions (the unsaved ((that was me and you at one time)))

The THIEF (JESUS): (Now hold on don’t run me out on a rail…Im not saying Jesus was a sinful thief…He is sinless) But the parable here shows exactly what would happen when sinful man places his faith in the blood of Christ!!!

That’s why He was hung on the cross with 2 thieves!

He came and bound (tied up satan) (Revelation 20)

And took that which belonged to him (the children)

AND MADE THEM HIS!!!

Revelation 3:3 “…I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come upon you.”

Revelation 16:15 “Behold, I come as a thief…”

He came down from heaven…

Died your death…and rescued you from a life belonging to evil…

Rescued you from judgment…

AND MADE YOU ONE OF HIS OWN!!!!

WE MUST REMEMBER THAT EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!

WE ARE GOING TO TAKE TIME TODAY IN COMMUNION TO REMEMBER THAT…

Communion is for the Christ follower…(If your not a follower of Christ do not partake)

Come take the bread and cup …go back and remember then we will take the bread and cup together…

COMMUNION

QUIET PRAYER!! 3-5 MIN

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11,

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for[f] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[g]

TAKE THE BREAD AND EAT

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

TAKE THE CUP AND DRINK

PRAY!!!