Jesus: Liar, Lunatic, or Lord
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of Mark chapter 3.
We will begin reading in verse 20 and we will read all the way down to verse 35.
20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.
21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
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.”
Lets Pray
Last week we saw the increasing popularity of Jesus resulting in large crowds pressing in on Jesus so much so that Jesus had his disciples prepare a get away boat lest the crowd crush him.
The crowds were hungry for his miracle working power, though they did not grasp who he was and what he really came to accomplish.
Then the scene transitioned to Jesus’ escape into the mountains where he called the 12 disciples to be his apostles… his sent ones into the world with his message and authority.
There was a very clear distinction between what the crowds were like, and what the called ones of Jesus were to be like.
Now in verse 20, Jesus returns to city and the verse seems to depict that the crowd almost immediately begins to form again.
Mark 3:20 (ESV)
Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.
This is truly celebrity like status now.
Jesus cannot even stop to eat with his followers without being overwhelmed by the crowds.
The crowds in this particular scenario again, are not being depicted as people who really get who Jesus is and why he is there…,
but the sad thing about this passage is not the behavior of the crowds…, its what comes next in verse 21.
Not only do the crowds not understand, but some of Jesus’ own family do not get it.
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
In the first century, there was a social power structure.
The Jewish religious leaders exerted some power over the people, the Roman empire had quite a bit of power and authority over the people.
The religious leaders were interested in keeping control over the people.
And Rome certainly was highly interested in keeping control over the people.
Rome especially would have been suspicious of any large crowds gathering. That is the stuff that riots are made of and rebellions are made of.
And here is Jesus rocking the boat of society with crowds in great numbers flocking to him from all over the region.
There is a buzz in the air about this Jesus the miracle worker… and for some of Jesus’ relatives, they fear where all this attention is headed.
They are beginning to think that Jesus is acting foolishly.
We are not told exactly who these family members are, but, according to Mark, they are people that have some close relationship with Jesus but they are saying that Jesus is out of his mind.
Either they really believe that Jesus is a crazy person, or they are trying to spread a rumor that Jesus is a crazy person so that people will dismiss him and the commotion will die down.
Whatever the case may be, their position on Jesus represents one of three options that every person has when it comes to where they stand with Jesus.
Truth #1 Some Think Jesus was a Lunatic
Truth #1 Some Think Jesus was a Lunatic
You cannot deny with any credibility that Jesus of Nazareth was a historical person. He is the most historically documented person in the history of the world.
He existed… and he made big waves in his day that have rippled into every nation and every generation for 2,000 years.
They gathered by the thousands to hear his teaching, witness his miracles, and be blessed by his healing.
But, what you do with that historical information is another story.
You can accuse Jesus of being crazy and self-deceived.
Perhaps Jesus was just a self-deceived lunatic who thought that he was God in the flesh.
Maybe he just thought he had the authority to forgive sins
But if you go that route, you have to explain away a lot of stuff.
Not only did Jesus have to be crazy, but the thousands of people who believed him had to be crazy.
His closest followers to gave their lives to proclaiming his death and resurrection had to be crazy to the point of death.
If Jesus was insane, he must have been brilliantly insane, because he convinced on more than one occasion crowds of more than 5,000 that he could feed them with bread from heaven.
If Jesus was insane, he somehow got thousands of blind, deaf, diseased, and disabled people to be pretend to be healed every where he went. People born blind must have insanely pretended to see for the rest of their lives.
Somehow someway… Jesus was able to stage his own death on a Roman cross and then appear to well over 500 people in his resurrection body and his grave would forever remain empty, and his apostles would go on to work similar miracles and start the biggest most well-documented religious movement in the history of the world.
That is a lot for a crazy person who thought he was the divine Son of God.
Truth #1 Some Think Jesus was a Lunatic
Truth #1 Some Think Jesus was a Lunatic
but that just doesn’t fit.
The accusation of the family here in verse 21 certainly doesn’t fit with what we have seen thus far in the story.
In verse 22, the scene changes and there is yet another accusation that is hurled at Jesus.
Verse 22 summarizes the exact kind of thing bad press that I think Jesus’ family was hoping to avoid.
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.”
These scribes are not the same group that have been questioning Jesus thus far.
This is a newly arrived delegation from the capital city, not to simply do some research, but to go on the offensive.
Until this point local leadership has only questioned Jesus and tried to put Jesus on the defensive in public
But now, these scribes from Jerusalem come out swinging at Jesus with as big of an accusation as they can come up with.
Mark 3:22 (ESV)
“...He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
The scribes and the pharisees of the day could not deny that Jesus was doing absolutely incredible acts of miraculous power.
They could not dispute the paralytic man now walking around in town.
They could not argue with the leprous man now freely moving about totally cleansed.
They could not debunk the fact that demons had manifested themselves in public spaces crying out in fear that Jesus was the Holy One of God.
But despite all the evidence… they don’t want to believe what Jesus claims about himself.... so how do you account for the signs and wonders?
You accuse Jesus of performing those signs and wonders by the power of Satan himself.
Truth #2 Some Think Jesus was a Liar
Truth #2 Some Think Jesus was a Liar
Beelzebul was an alternative name for Satan, the leader of all demonic forces.
The accusation is that Jesus is simply commanding the demons because he is in association with the chief demon.
The accusation is that Jesus is ultimately a deceiver.
He is not leading people toward the one true God, rather he is leading them away from the one true God.
This accusation is that Jesus was evil, seeking the destruction of his followers, not the salvation.
Now, I want to pause here to understand what Mark is doing by smashing verse 21 and 22 together like this.
Mark 3:21–22 (ESV)
21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
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.”
Two very different groups - Jesus’ family and the Scribes from Jerusalem
Two very different accusations - Jesus is Crazy Lunatic or Jesus is an Evil Liar
Listen to what Sinclaire Ferguson says about the significance of this parallel.
“The parallel between these two events is significant for Mark. They present us with the only possible interpretations of Jesus which are open to us: He is either mad (the family’s view) or bad (the Pharisaic theologian’s view) or he is what he claims to be, divine (Mark’s view).” - Sinclaire Ferguson
In this parallel betwen two very different groups of people rejecting the true identity of Jesus according to their own logic… we are confronted with the question that all of us should answer… Who is this Jesus?
Was he a religious lunatic?
Was he a wicked liar and deceiver?
Or was he something more than that?
Is he the Lord that he claims to be?
Those are our options. Perhaps you are familiar with this language because of the writing of C.S. Lewis.
C.S. Lewis was an agnostic professor of Cambridge University who became one of the most profound Christian writers of the 20th century.
Listen to what Lewis writes so eloquently…,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m read to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. he would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.... You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” - C.S. Lewis
These relatives are calling him crazy.
These religious elite are calling him evil.
But what does Jesus call himself.
Look back with me now at Jesus’ response to the accusation of being demonic.
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.
First Jesus responds with just simple logic.
Come on guys...., “I am casting out demons by demonic power?”
How can Satan cast out Satan?
Jesus points to his own ministry.
He has consistently proven to be against the powers of darkness.
He is turning back the results of the fall of mankind with his ministry.
He is cleansing the unclean and healing the diseased.
He is fixing what is broken.... He is undoing all the things that evil does.
Simple logic says that the demon accusation doesn’t work.
a house divided cannot stand.
Jesus is not a representative of the kingdom of darkness waging war against the forces of darkness.
He is representative of the kingdom of light.
And that’s what Jesus goes on to communicate with a parable.
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.
Some think Jesus is a Lunatic
Some think Jesus is a Liar
But in this analogy Jesus claims to be Lord of All
Truth #3 Jesus is Lord of All
Truth #3 Jesus is Lord of All
In Jesus’ analogy there are two characters and a dominion or a house.
The Strong man in the parable is Satan
The house is this world under the corruption and the power of evil.
Jesus is the one who came into the world to bind up the evil one and plunder his house.
The scribes accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan…
But Jesus says no....
I came into this domain of darkness to bind up Satan and plunder his possessions.
In other words, Jesus is saying the incarnation, my coming into this world is a coming to plunder enemy territory.
I came to set people free from their bondage
I came to heal people from their disease
I came to forgive people their sin
I came to deliver people from demons
I came to absorb death and overcome it once and for all.
I came to overcome and reverse the works of the devil
In other words, I came to fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah
There is this moment in Luke 4 rare Jesus claims just this.
17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus is Lord and his ministry is a devil plundering ministry.
Satan has proven too strong for us, but Jesus came to prove that he is too strong for the devil.
1 John 3:8 (ESV)
...The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
Your very salvation is the product of this plundering.
Without Christ you were enslaved to your sin, a follower of Satan, and a child of wrath..
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Jesus is Lord of All, and his ministry is a plundering of the evil one’s possessions.
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.
In verse 21, the family tries to seize Jesus and bind him up as a crazy person.
In verse 22, the scribes try to destroy him and his reputation by way of accusation.
But in verse 27 we learn, that it is Jesus who does the binding, and Jesus who does the destroying.
He is Lord.
And having established this with his parable…, now Jesus turns to the heart of the problem with the Scribes, and it is a troubling response for many.
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.”
There are several things worth noting here so lets break it down and then try to discern the big point.
Firstly, notice what this plundering involves. I think this sentence is in connection with the analogy.
“Truly, I say to you, ALL sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter.”
I need you to sit on that statement for a moment.
ALL sins will be forgiven...
All sins in the Greek language means all sins.
Do you hear the scandalous grace that Jesus is bringing to the table of his ministry...
criminals, murderers, adulterers, prostitutes, drugatics, drunkards, sex abusers, terrorists, egomaniacs, are eligible for forgiveness because of the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
There is no amount of sin nor degree of sin that is more powerful then the saving grace of Jesus… Jesus binds the strong man of sin, guilt, shame, death, and the devil.... and he sets free every person who will trust him as Lord.
Jesus goes on to say,
“Whatever blasphemies they utter...”
If remember in our discussion a few weeks ago, the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of blasphemy because Jesus was claiming to be God.
Blasphemy is the sin of intentionally defying and making a mockery of God. It was a sin punishable by death in ancient Isreal.
Yet here Jesus, says whatever blasphemies you are guilty of will be forgiven..
all sins are forgiven except for one.
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.”
Truth #4 Jesus Forgives All Sins but One
Truth #4 Jesus Forgives All Sins but One
Jesus says there is one thing you can never have forgiveness for and he names this type of sin as “blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.”
It is called an eternal sin, meaning there will be consequences into eternity.
Now this sentence has caused a great deal of distress in the minds and hearts of many who begin to wonder whether they themselves have somehow intentionally or unintentionally committed this particular sin of “blaspheme of the Holy Spirit.”
But according to this passage and the context of this passage, is this eternal sin an individual sin or moment of sinning that any of us are in danger of committing...
Well lets think through the context.
First of all, what is it?
What does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit of God?
We have been told already in Mark that Jesus is the one with the power to immerse people in the very Spirit of God.
This was the testimony of John the Baptist.
8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
We know from the full Biblical witness, when a Christian puts faith in Jesus as Lord, the Holy Spirit of God immerses us into the blessings of Christ. We are made new by the Spirit. We are born again by the Spirit. We are empowered by the Spirit. We are indwelt by the Spirit.
In Acts 2, it was Jesus who poured out the Holy Spirit on his people.
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Only those who have faith in Jesus receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
But what does blasphemy of the Holy Spirit mean?
Well Mark actually gives us a very brief connection in verse 30.
Mark 3:29–30 (ESV)
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.”
So according to Mark, the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the sin that the Scribes were committing in their accusation.
They were accusing Jesus of performing his works by the power of Satan.
They were rejecting Jesus as Lord.
The sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the sin of rejecting Jesus as Lord.
And that is the sin that God will not forgive.
Faith in Jesus as Jesus has revealed himself is required for the grace of forgiveness Jesus promises, and the gift of the Spirit Jesus promises.
Now should you worry about whether you accidently committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in your life so that it cannot be undone… Absolutely not.
This is not some kind of one and done act your in danger of, that puts you into a position where you can never repent and trust Jesus as Lord.
The whole Biblical witness rejects the kind of interpretation of this verse that would put Christians in some sort of panic over whether they have some how missed their chance on salvation.
Listen carefully to Paul’s words in 1 Timothy.
1 Timothy 1:12–17 (ESV)
12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,
13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Paul was a blasphemer.
He rejected Jesus with such passion, and with such intensity, that he made it his goal to extinguish Christianity altogether....
then the grace of Christ won in his life. Jesus overcame him and saved him.
And Paul says, Jesus did this, so that people in the coming ages would know that Jesus can save anyone.
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not some kind of one and done act like a hole we can accidentally fall in and then never get out.
It is the sin of the Scribes in this passage.
It is the sin of hardening one’s heart against Jesus, rejecting Jesus for who he says he is, and therefore, rejecting the saving work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus offers.
One author puts it this way about the Scribes:
It’s not that they may be genuinely repentant but given the stiff arm, but that they will “never have forgiveness” because they will never meet the simple, invaluable, softhearted condition for it: repentance....For Christians today, we need not fear a specific moment of sin, but a kind of hardness of heart that would see Jesus as true and yet walk away — with a kind of hardness of heart incapable of repenting. Again, it’s not that forgiveness isn’t granted, but that it’s not sought. The heart has become so recalcitrant, and at such odds with God’s Spirit, that it’s become incapable of true repentance. - David Mathis
If you are scared you have or are committing this sin, then repent and believe, and you will be forgiven, and you will prove you have not actually been guilty of this eternal sin.
I read his short and simple sentence in one of the commentaries this week and it just struck me.
Listen very carefully to this.
“There is no record in Scripture of anyone asking forgiveness of God and being denied it.”
The unforgivable sin, is the sin of not asking Jesus and and not receiving from Jesus the forgiveness h e promises.
Recap:
#1 Some think Jesus was a Lunatic
#2 Some think Jesus was a Liar
#3 Jesus is Lord of All
#4 Jesus Forgives All Sins But One
If this is true…, and if people’s eternity depends on whether they trust Jesus as Lord of all then what does this mean for you?
Le me leave you with a few takeaways:
#1 Trust Jesus as Lord
#1 Trust Jesus as Lord
Where do you stand with Jesus?
Was he a Lunatic?
Was he a Liar?
or is He Lord of all who bore the penalty for your sins on the cross and rose from the dead three days later?
Those are your choices, to label him as just some guy who taught some good things and did some cool stuff simply won’t work.
humble yourself before the Lord this morning and trust him with your life.
#2 Rest in Jesus as Savior
#2 Rest in Jesus as Savior
This passage testifies to the all encompassing grace of Christ Jesus to forgive every single sin for those who believe upon him.
Christian, all your sins, whatever blasphemies you have uttered, all of your uncleanness, have been washed away by the power of the blood sacrifice of King Jesus.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
#3 Join Jesus in the Plundering
#3 Join Jesus in the Plundering
Jesus came to bind the enemy and plunder his house, and the plundering is still going on.
With every soul that is saved, with every sin that is repented of, with every word of praise that is exalted to King Jesus we are plundering the kingdom of darkness and expanding the kingdom of light.
There are literally thousands of people who live and work and play all around you every day who do not know Jesus as Lord and will not know salvation unless they hear and believe the good news of Jesus.
Join in the plundering, by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and watch Jesus do his work in the hearts and lives of the lost.
In a world that says all roads lead to God.... we must be a people who of boldness who declare, there is only one way to God.
In Christ alone my hope is found
Lets pray