Sermon Tone Analysis

As we jump back into this passage, I want us to take a moment to remember where we are in the development of Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus has been establishing himself as one having inherent authority within Himself by virtue of who He is.

He demonstrates His authority by casting out demons, healing the sick, teaching with authority, declaring sins to be forgiven, calling people to be His disciples, and by showing that He is Lord of the Sabbath.

We saw all that from chapters one and two.

We see him calling people to enter into the Kingdom of God and that entrance comes through repentance and faith.

Then we saw some of the reactions of the people.

The pharisees outright rejected Him, the crowds flocked to Him, but it seems they were only interested in what He could do for their physical needs, rather than in who He was, and the demons cowered before Him in terror.

We are going to see two more kinds of reactions to Jesus in our passage this morning and take note of how Jesus responds, because that will inform how we ought to respond as well.

We are going to cover a lot of ground today, and that is because even though there are what seem like there are three different sections in here, I believe they form one literary unit in Mark and are intended to be understood altogether.

Alright?

Let’s dive in.

Here is an example of a chiastic structure

A

B

C

B’

A’

Thoughts are presented in a particular way that reveals what the author thinks is the main point of the passage.

A and A’ correspond to each other, B and B’ correspond to each other, and the main point is C.

Mark 3:20

Set the scene:

We have seen a crowded house once before that in order to get in some men cut a hole in the roof to lower their friend down to get healing.

This time things are a little different.

It seems to be even more crowded.

It was so full that they could not eat anything.

Apparently this bothered some people.

There are two reactions here back-to-back and I find each interesting.

Notice what happens here in verse 21.

You’re translation might say when his friends heard this, or when his own people heard this.

The original language simply says “when those of his heard this” and that could be referring to his family, close friends, or his countrymen.

However we are to understand that, it is clear that these are individuals that are familiar with Jesus and seem to be close to Him.

They seem to be embarrassed by Jesus and want to do something about His seemingly irresponsible behavior.

So they set out to restrain Him because they say “He’s out of His mind”

They think Jesus is insane!

They think he has totally lost his senses, that He’s a madman, needing to be contained.

This is very strong terminology that shows what they think of Jesus.

It’s not come along now, it’s okay, yes, I know you’re God now come along.

No.

They think he’s so far off the rails that they need to restrain, to seize, to take custody, or detain Him.

Jesus, I don’t know who you think you are, but you’re behaving in such a way that we cannot tolerate it, in fact we believe you to be insane.

You’ve lost your mind!

That’s one reaction.

Let’s see the second:

Jesus is a man who claims authority, and not only that, but he claims the authority of God.

The works of Jesus make it clear who he is.

He’s casting out demons, he’s dealing people of their illnesses, he’s forgiving sins!

Who do you think can do all those things?

God of course!

But the scribes refuse to believe that.

Jesus is messing everything up as far as their concerned, so they have come up with an alternate way to understand what Jesus is doing.

They cannot deny the facts, but they can deny the power and attribute that power to another source.

First they say “he’s possessed by Beelzebul” which refers to the devil.

They only way that Jesus could be doing the things that He’s doing is if he was possessed by Satan himself.

Strong claim.

The second thing they say, and this is related tot he first, but they say that He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons”

Once again, it’s clear that they cannot deny that demons are being driven out, but they dare not accept the premise that Jesus is God so the only other solution is that Jesus is doing these things by the power of the devil himself.

What I find interesting about these responses is they reflect two parts of the great trilemma of the ages.

C.S. Lewis popularized a particular argument about Jesus, though he didn’t invent it.

This trilemma has existed for literally hundreds of years, though C.S. Lewis, to my knowledge, was the first have it alliterated, and all good preachers love that, so he gets all the credit.

The argument goes like this: If Jesus is not Lord, He is either a liar or a lunatic.

He’s either lying about being who he claims to be, or is self-deluded, or he is exactly who he claims to be.

If the pages of Scripture accurately preserve the real words of an historical figure, which they do, then those are the only options.

Liar, lunatic, or Lord.

Many over the years have tried to make the claim that Jesus isn’t Lord on the basis of these two things, and we find those two things right here in our text.

Jesus’ own people identify him as the lunatic.

We know who you are, Jesus, we grew up with you, you built our house.

You’re no Messiah, you’re out of your mind, you’re crazy, you’re a lunatic and we have come to restrain you.

Many today would dismiss Jesus on similar grounds.

Christianity doesn’t make sense, it’s foolish to believe in fairy tales.

Faith in Christ is ridiculed and mocked for blind faith.

It’s lunacy.

Then there’s a scribes.

Jesus isn’t who he claims to be, but rather he is from the devil.

He’s lying!

He’s not Lord, he’s a liar!

He doesn’t cast out demons by God’s power but the devil’s.

He’s a liar.

As we stand here today, we all have to decide what we think of this Jesus.

Who will we believe?

What will we say of Christianity?

That Jesus is a lunatic, and those who follow him are foolish and self-deluded for doing so?

That Jesus is a liar, and that those in the church are liars as well who only want your money or allegiance for other reasons?

Or is Jesus who he claims he is and therefore we have the responsibility to submit ourselves to him, hailing Him as Lord.

Well, Jesus is going to respond to these accusations and his response is critical to understanding who He is and how we should respond to Him.

First, Jesus uses good logic to demonstrate that he is not, in fact, crazy.

And in that logic he demonstrates how He could not be under the power of the devil because that would counter-productive.

Mark 3:23

In many ways this just seems like common sense.

If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand, if a house is divided against itself it will not stand.

This is obvious.

Internal struggles do not lead to profitable organizations.

This isn’t rocket science, it’s simple logic.

But He then goes on to apply that logic to the situation.

Jesus has clearly been working against the forces of Satan.

He’s casting out demons, he’s healing the sick, He’s forgiving sins.

If Jesus has been working against Satan, why would it stand to reason that Jesus is doing that by the power of Satan?

Is Satan a dummy that doesn’t know how to direct his forces?

Of course not.

So it makes zero sense for Jesus to cast out demons and be working for Satan.

So by simple logic Jesus shows that He’s not out of His mind as those around him claim, nor is he working for Satan and therefore a liar, as the scribes claim.