Beyond The Point of No Return-Mark 3:22-30

As we get started this morning, go ahead and turn in your copies of God’s Word to Mark 3:22-30, we will read these verses a little bit later.

Last Sunday morning in our journey through the Gospel according to Mark in the message entitled Liar Lunatic Or Lord, we looked at an encounter Jesus had with His family that took place in verses 20-21 and 31-35. The passage we are looking at this morning is sandwiched between those verses. We looked at how Jesus faced Conflicts From Every Direction, including from His own family. We looked at The Great Trilemma, popularized by C. S. Lewis, which sought to counter claims that Jesus was simply a good teacher but not divine. Simply put, Lewis stated that Jesus couldn’t be just a good teacher. Either He was who He claimed to be, God in the flesh, of He was a liar, or even worse, a lunatic on the level with someone who would claim to be a poached egg. Many Biblical scholars believe that C. S. Lewis came up with the Great Trilemma from a study of the passages we looked at last week and what we are looking at this week. In looking at Jesus encounter with His family last week, we addressed His brothers feelings at the time that Jesus must have been mad. After all, He was going without sleep, going without food, constantly battling with powerful religious and political leaders who had the power to have Him put to death. We looked at the fact that after His resurrection, all of His siblings came to the point of trusting in Him, their brother, as their Lord and Savior, they came to the point of full surrender to Him and the transformation that comes along with that surrender. But they had not done that at the encounter in Mark 3.

I mentioned a moment ago that this morning passage is sandwiched between the encounter Jesus had with His family where they accused Him of being crazy. Mark wrote in this way for a reason, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he wrote, sort of a story within a story to drive home an important point. This is one of Mark’s signature literary techniques, the sandwiching of one story in the middle of another story. In so doing, Mark not only signifies a relationship between the two stories, but by their combination succeeds in making an entirely new point. We will call last week’s encounters with His family the bread on the outside of the sandwich with this weeks encounter being the inside ingredients of the sandwich. In last weeks bread, we see His family seeking to take control of Him, to seize Him, to bind Him. Where-as in this weeks passage we see Jesus give an indication that He had the power to bind Satan, which we will address in more detail later in this morning passage. When you combine the bread from last week with the middle ingredients of the sandwich from this week, you get the overarching theme that Jesus was not crazy, as His family supposed, and is not a liar controlled by Satan as this weeks encounter supposes. He was, in fact, the Lord of all.

With this as an introduction, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word?

Where are we this morning in the Bible? Mark

Next Slide

Mark 3:22–30 ESV

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. 28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

May the Lord as His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.

At face value, you would tend to think that Jesus brothers thinking Him to be a mad man would be far worse than the scribes accusing Him of being a liar, however that was simply not the case. One of the reasons for this is the limited understanding His brothers truly had on what Jesus was capable of accomplishing. There is little doubt that His brothers knew there was something special, something unique about their brother, but Scripture seems to indicate that His brothers were never present in Judea or Galilee or any other area where Jesus performed His miracles. We also learn from Scripture that because of the lack of belief in Him in the town of Nazareth, combined with the fact that after just one teaching opportunity in the synagogue, likely the very synagogue He was raised going to growing up, the townspeople literally tried to throw Him off of a cliff, and becuase of these things, Jesus performed no miracles in His home town. There is also nothing in verifiable history that gives evidence that He ever performed anything out of the ordinary growing up. So His siblings had likely never witnessed a miracle, and had only heard Him teach in the synagogue on one occasion. All of the stories they had heard about the incredible things Jesus had done were just that, stories! They had witnessed none of them. In other words: Next Slide

His Brothers Were Operating With A Limited Understanding.

As far as we know, did Jesus brothers see any of His miracles or listen to Him preach?

I was trying to think of a good way to explain, chances are Gene Myers, Jeff Chastain, Dudley Templeman or others from the congregation that have a vast knowledge of farming may correct me on this, but with my limited understanding of farming and being a pastor in a farming community, I have wondered why farmers tend to rotate between corn and soybeans? As I understand it, while it is slightly more expensive to plant and grow corn, the average acre of farm land produces way more than 3 times the bushels of shelled corn compared to the bushels of soybeans. If that is the case, why not just grow corn in your fields every year. In my time hear my limited understanding has increased, it is still vastly limited, but I have gained some knowledge. I found out that corn crops do better a year following a soybean crop, one of the reasons is that soybeans naturally release nitrogens into the soil, nitrogens are key nutrients to corn growth. Visa-Versa, soybeans also do better a year following a corn crop, and even better after 2 years of corn. Based on an increased understanding, or in other words a growth in my limited understanding, what didn’t make sense to me before, makes more sense to me now.

Well once Jesus brothers gained a fuller understanding of Who exactly their brother was, they realized He was anything but a mad man and they moved to the point of full surrender to Him as their Lord and Savior, which resulted in their transformed lives. Again I want to reiterate a life fully surrendered to Jesus will always result in a transformation.

Compare Jesus brothers with the Scribes and Pharisees; Next Slide

The Scribes & Pharisees Had A Complete Understanding. Mt. 12:22 & 24

Or at least a more complete understanding.

The Gospel of Matthew gives us a few more details of all that is taking place than we see in Mark. In Matthew 12 we find out that directly before the Scribes and Pharisees accused Jesus of operating under the influence of Satan, Jesus had healed a man who was blind and mute and was being oppressed by a demon. The interesting thing about this encounter is that Jesus performed multiple miracles in multiple different arena’s at one time. In the past He had healed countless individual, and in some cases of multiple physical ailments, but in this case he did that while at the same time cleansing the man of his demon possession. In other words in one single instant, He showed those present that He had miraculous power over both the physical realm, through the physical healing, and at the same time the spiritual realm, in the casting out of the demon. Moment by moment Jesus was giving these leaders a clearer and clearer picture of just Who He was, they were choosing to turn a blind eye the the undeniable realities that were taking place directly in front of their eyes.

Looking back in Mark 3, we read in verse 22 that the scribes said; Next Slide

“He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons He casts out demons.”

What did Beelzebul mean?

Perhaps you may be wondering; Why they just didn’t follow the lead of His brothers and accuse Him of being mad? The reason they weren’t able to call Him a mad man was that His miraculous powers were undeniable. Keep in mind that during the entirety of His public ministry, a time He performed too many miracles to count, never once did anyone deny His ability to do the miraculous. Since He was able to do the miraculous, they had no grounds to accuse Him of being mad, a mad man couldn’t do the miraculous. As a result they had to come up with an explanation for His miracles. They could’t very well admit that God was working through Him to accomplish the miraculous, had they done that they would have had to believe in Him, so they had to come up with an alternative reason. They decided to accuse Him of being empowered by Satan. Even here, they chose their words carefully. The term “Beelzebul” had a strong and wicked undertone to it. Next Slide

Beelzebul meant “Lord of the flies” but more than just “Lord of the flies” it meant “Lord of the flies on the dung heap”.

These men wanted to make very clear their utter disdain for Jesus in the words they chose to use.

The picture Mark is painting for us here, is men that had been given all that they needed to know and accept Who Jesus was, and still they refused. When Jesus claimed to be God, they accused Him of being a liar, when His claims were backed by supernatural power, the only explanation they could come up with and still refuse to believe in Him was to say he was operating under the influence of Satan, himself. The reality was that they were the ones who were operating under the influence of Satan.

After this, we get the impression that Jesus quieted the crowd and then delivered a warning, through the use of 2 parables, not only to the scribes and Pharisees, but also to the rest of the crowd there that day.

In looking at the 2 parables Jesus told, some may be a little confused. Generally when we see the mention of a parable, we think story, for instance a story being told to illustrate a point. Like next Sunday we will likely be looking at the Parable of the Sower, or better put, the Parable of the Soils. In this instance we don’t really see Jesus telling a story. But a parable is actually means “to lay something alongside”. If you don’t understand something, your teacher may lay something else alongside of it to assist you in your understanding.

The point of the 2 parables Jesus uses here is to point out the obvious absurdity of the claims being made by the scribes and Pharisees. He uses a negative illustration and a positive illustration. Next Slide

Logical Absurdity.

He starts with a logical absurdity, and then goes to a logical reality. Here’s the absurdity: He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in these kinds of parables. Number one, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” Good teachers ask questions, don’t they? Ask questions the students have to answer. Even better, ask questions that put students on the horns of a dilemma. Even better, ask questions that make students’ comments absurd.

“How can Satan cast out Satan?” How can he do that? I mean that is an absurdity. While there might be inconsistency in His kingdom, and there certainly is, because he’s not omnipresent, and he’s not omnipotent, therefore he can’t run everything all the time everywhere among all the demons. And while there’s a certain amount of freedom in the chaos of evil to express itself in different ways, he is certainly not, by design, going around tearing up his own kingdom. He’s not going around exposing people with demons who were sitting comfortably in synagogues, doing His damning work. He wants them clandestine and unknown, not exposed. John MacArthur sermon “Unforgivable Sin”(Mark 3:20-35-Nov. 1, 2009)

To accuse Jesus of operating under the power of Satan when He is, in fact attacking the very powers of Satan is an absolute absurdity! So, that is the negative illustration. Then He moves to the positive illustration. Next Slide

Logical Reality. Mark 3:27

In the positive illustration, Jesus states the opposite, rather than being empowered by Satan, He has power over Satan. We see this beginning in verse 27: Next Slide

Mark 3:27 ESV

27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

Do you see the picture Jesus is painting here? The picture is of one man attempting to break into a strong man’s house. In this instance the strong man who is the home owner would be Satan. Satan is most definitely powerful, in fact likely the most powerful created being in all of existence. And Jesus in this picture is the one attempting to break into this powerful beings house. The only way to accomplish this task is to over-power the owner of the home, in this instance Satan. Well you and I, or quite frankly probably even the most powerful angel still serving God, would not be able to over power Satan to plunder his goods. But Jesus is more powerful than Satan and as a result He can “bind the strong man” homeowner and plunder his goods, which in this case is having the ability to cast out demons.

In this Logical Reality, Jesus over-powers Satan and casts out demons, by the power of God Almighty. Next Slide

The Unforgivable Sin. Mark 3:28-29

From here Jesus goes on to address the Unforgivable Sin in verses 28-29.

For the Pharisees and scribes to attribute the power of Jesus to Satan rather than the Holy Spirit was the highest form of blasphemy and placed them in eternal jeopardy. Jesus’ warning was solemn and severe: Next Slide

Mark 3:28–29 ESV

28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—

The fact that Jesus is addressing the scribes and Pharisees in this instance is not stating they had already committed this sin, it is more of a warning that they were getting dangerously close. He is alerting them that there is a “point of no return” for people. That point at which you have gone to far and there is no turning back. Very similar to what Jesus did with Judas on the night of the betrayal, He is giving them a chance, an opportunity to change course, to repent and turn away from their course of action. We know that at some point several Pharisees turned to Christ, both Nicodemus and Saul of Tarsus, who became known as the Apostle Paul turned to Christ. We also know that Joseph of Arimathea, who was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin also turned to Christ. Perhaps these men took to heart the warning of Jesus this day.

So, what is the unforgivable sin? This is a huge question because many people before Christ do and say some horrible things, some curse practically everything, including God. Does that mean they have committed the unforgivable sin? The answer is “No”. Simply put, based on what I seek in Scripture, the unforgivable sin is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to insult and reject His very work. Why has the Holy Spirit come? To a large degree, He has come to convince us of our sin. To reject the mission of the Spirit it is to say “No” to the Spirit. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit represents the conscience denouncing and rejection of God. It is a defiant irreverence. The sin of intentionally and openly speaking evil against God. Next Slide

To commit this sin does not merely represent unbelief, but a determined unbelief.

In the end most of the Pharisees and scribes had intentionally hardened their hearts against God and at some point in time reached a point of no return. Next Slide

Yes there is a Point of No Return!

During World War II, a United States battleship aircraft carrier and some smaller boats were patrolling the waters of the northern Atlantic, in search of German U-boats. One evening several pilots took off from the carrier and were told they had be back by a certain hour. But the leader of a squadron of four planes, purposefully stayed out longer, feeling with just a little more time he could score an impressive hit on the enemy. But as the sun was setting of German Armada entered the area and the American fleet was now in trouble for, they were outgunned and outmanned and outnumbered. So they had to order radio silence so they would not be discovered by the German Armada. Meanwhile, those four planes that were out of their mission, were coming back, they were very low on fuel and needed to land so they called in asking the battleship to turn on the landing lights. But because radio silence had been ordered, they would not turn the landing lights on and disclose their position to the Nazis. And so, as the story is recorded, the men in the aircraft carrier stood by in horror and a watch the four American planes crashing to the icy waters of the Atlantic.

God say’s today is the day of salvation, the Light is shining, people hear the Word of God. But there is going to come a day when the Lord, the Commander and Chief will order radio silence. The lights will be dim and people will not be able to find their way home.

You know you may say, “Well I’ll just do it later. I don’t want to be a Christian now. I want to mess around. I want to have some fun. I’ll be a Christian when I’m really old. Like 40…Or I’ll make a commitment to Christ when I’m on my death bed.”

Here’s my concern, maybe before you reach that point you have designated in your mind you will have followed the lead of the Pharisees and the scribes and your heart will be so hard you won’t care any more. You’ll have past that point of no return.

One closing word from Jesus in Matthew 12:30. Next Slide

Matthew 12:30

Matthew 12:30 ESV

30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

A more modern translation makes that clearer; “Anyone who is not helping Me opposes Me, and anyone who isn’t working with Me is actually working against Me.”

Yes, you have to make a decision about Jesus. And if you have joined us today, whether live here in the service or online, and you haven’t made a decision yet on surrendering to Jesus Christ, do it, Now! Say Yes to Jesus and be forgiven of your sins.

Don’t say “I’ll do it later” because every day your heart gets a little harder.

Let’s close our time in prayer.