Where a hard heart begins and end

Mark 3:6 ESV

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Val gave us a brief over view of Chap 2 last time. We breezed through a lot of familiar stories and val left us back with how are we doing in our personal discipleship with Christ.

This was actually very fitting considering Mark through his whole book has an underlying theme of discipleship being less about understanding christ and more about proximity to him. The disciples are often confused though their faith is in Christ, they follow him around, they talk to him, they listen to him, and they obey him.

The other major theme throughout marks gospel is the progressing rejection of Christ. This theme is solidified in chap 3 as seen.

What lead to such rejection for Christ?

Blaspheming in a house

Mark 2:2 ESV

And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.

Christ first and foremost was bringing faith from hearing (). This was the whole reason he came .

What is he teaching?

Marks Gospel (often the word used for a victorious king-good news from the battle)

Mark see’s Christ as the conquering King, the one who is here to solve our biggest problem

to bring repentence

to forgive sins and reconcile the world back to God

The Pharisees see this as Blaspheming or mocking God. They hate the graciousness of God. Your slandering God by claiming his authority. All these people have not adhered like us to this law given to us.

Deny’s the Authority of the Pharisees

Jesus sat with the self recognized sinners not the self righteous

Mark 2:15–16 ESV

And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

why would this make them upset?

If he claims to be God and teach on behalf of God, that would then imply that the self recognized righteous pharisees are then outside of God’s reconciliation and have no authority. Their authority is solely found in their ability to claim the way to God and teach wisdom.

Mark 2:24 ESV

And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

Removes the Public

Diminishes the Pharisee’s personal goals

Everything they built their life around was no longer valuable.

Mark 2:21–22 ESV

No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

In an instant, they are told they their earthly pursuits and the entire way they make a living and provide for themselves is now worth nothing. Their careers are coming to an end. The industry has crashed.

The Final Straw

Mark 3:1–6 ESV

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

They set up shop and watched…At this point they must have brought everyone together, went back and chatted with one another. Maybe even reviewed scripture together and came to the conclusion that if this man continues he is undermining God because they are following God and built their lives off of this way of life. Their security was found in this way of life. There is no way they could have been wrong.

Here we actually see Jesus showing anger! He was angry at the pharisees. What brought him anger? Their hardness of heart. They were so sure in their own minds they Jesus was acting against God and they could not see that he was God.

When he acted against them again, they immediately ran out thinking they have caught him in the act and he must be stopped.

How can we become hardened like the pharisees, reject Christ, and act against Christ.

Do we have faith in our way of life or Christ?

in other words are we confident we are good with Christ now because we have developed a Christian lifestyle and habits?

Do we think that we are the distributors of grace, because we are familiar with scripture then are we to take God’s place as judge?

Are we distributors of grace able to give/withhold or are we fellow recipients of grace with others. We have not yet been made perfect, only declared perfect.

Do we have faith in our wordly pursuits such as our careers? What if they were wiped away in a moment?

What if we had no power, no position of respect amongst our peers?

If our worth is in Christ, we often would be pursuing places without power or respect.

Just because we have been Christians for some time now, how if our faith different now?

Think back to being new believers in fuse, would those believers be excited to see your faith today or has your faith been drowned out in the hope of this world and daily routine knowing its going to be a while before we actually see Christ?

Is your heart hardened, would Christ be angry right now if he were to step in front of us and ask for our obedience and faith.

Pray for a fresh faith, reality of eternity and how it affects right now in the midst of wordly careers, kids, homes, new vehicles, and changing friends.