Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRO

ILL Pre-Marriage counseling

(A) Past sins need to come out before, because if you hide it and it comes out later it can destroy the marriage.

(B) Progressives—so open about their sin, they bring it into the relationship.

(A) Christians who attend church fearfully, with doubt that God will really forgive their past.

INTRO

Need comforted

(B) Those who profess Christ, but entirely too comfortable with their sin.

Should be fearful that they are even in Christ

Many who profess Christ suffer from the same problem: attending church in hopes that God won’t reject them.

They cannot fathom forgiveness no matter what promises are made.

They are frightened to tell the truth and need to be comforted and encouraged.

Many who profess Christ suffer from the same problem: attending church in hopes that God won’t reject them.

They cannot fathom forgiveness no matter what promises are made.

They are frightened to tell the truth and need to be comforted and encouraged.

This is an analogy for the way we see today’s passage.

This is an analogy for the way we see today’s passage.

The purpose of today’s passage is to comfort the frightened and to frighten the comfortable.

The purpose of the passage is to comfort the frightened and to frighten the comfortable.

To comfort those who are fearful they have no salvation.

And to frighten those who claim salvation, but live as the world.

EPIPHANY: There is a sin that is not forgiven.

Many Christians live in doubt or fear that they will one day stand before God and find out that they did’t make the cut, that God’s grace was not sufficient for their circumstances.

Certainly if there is am unforgivable sin, then I have committed it.

And other professing Christians are so comfortable in their sin, blindly confident in God’s grace that they don’t even realize they have completely missed the point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, as we go through this passage and look at the unforgivable sin, I hope to comfort the frightened and at the same time to frighten the comfortable.

BODY

BODY

Our passage centers on an episode where the religious elite of Jesus’s day accused Jesus of casting out demons according to the power of Beelzebub rather than the power of the Holy Spirit.

We’re going to work through a series of questions.

The first is...

A HOUSE DIVIDED

20 Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat.

21 When his family heard this, they set out to restrain him, because they said, “He’s out of his mind.”

22 The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

23 So he summoned them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is finished.

27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man.

Then he can plunder his house.

28 “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for all sins 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.”

What work was the Holy Spirit doing?

Jesus was casting out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit (something we accept with little to no context)

Who/what are demons?

— 2 usages in the NT (with some crossover)

(A) Lesser gods

Context:

(B) Shades or ‘departed spirits’ of the Giants (Gospels)

Explain the verse: thieves, demons, sheol.

departed spirits: rephaim, giants

In life, the giants were violent people who fed on the flesh of humans

In life, the giants were violent people who fed on the flesh of humans

In death, they seek the spiritual destruction of humans

ANSWER: Jesus was freeing people from bondage to oppressive spirits or demons who were seeking their destruction, physically and spiritually for eternity.

- elaborate

What was the accusation?

The scribes accused Jesus of casting out these spirits by the power of the devil or Beelzebub, rather than according to the Holy Spirit’s power.

Beelzebub (original)

Lord of Flies: that’s a good thing in Caananite thinking; symbolizes death on the battlefield.

Jews play on words: Beelzebul, Lord of Dung

believed to live outside the city in the wilderness

cf.

The devil in the wilderness

Scribes: Ruler of the demons.

Lots of names for the Satan: cf.

(serpent, devil, Satan)

cf.

Azazel (The demon in the wilderness from Leviticus)

cf.

In Jewish thinking, Satan is in the wilderness ()

Jewish folk lore has Azazel as the leader of the rebellion in heaven who led a third of the angels to rebel against God.

Came to earth and had daughters with human women ()

Their offspring were the Nephilim or Giants

Their disembodied spirits are the demons.

Therefore Satan or the Devil or the Serpent, or the dragon, or Beelzebub, or Beelzebul, or Azazel—whatever you want to call this elusive creature—he is seen by the Jews as the ruler of the demons; the top authority over all evil and demonic things of this world.

You can see how silly the scribes accusation is: Satan is casting out his own minions.

What is Jesus’s defense?

(A) Satan’s house would be divided.

NOTE: He summoned them—they weren’t accusing him directly, but spreading rumors.

This is obvious.

(unless there is a power struggle among the demons, which is referenced no where)

ILL: You can’t win a war by killing your own people.

(B) You need a greater authority (to command demons you need an authority higher than Satan).

Explain

(cf.

Great Commission)

Authority on earth had been trusted to Satan and his angels.

Now, all authority belongs to Jesus.

Phil 2

Casting out demons is an expression of Jesus’s authority even over Satan.

The heart of Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (cf.

other Gospel accounts) was to place Jesus under Satan’s authority.

Jesus isn’t just more powerful than Satan, but he has bound him so that the Great Commission can go forward into this world.

Binding of Satan (What does it mean?)

— two views

Authority (partial binding)

In the Abyss (full binding)

Either way, Satan and his demons have no authority over you.

SIDE NOTE: Jesus expressed his authority over the demons when previously they had power from the prince of this world (the Devil).