Mark 3:20-35
– Mark 3:20-21
– 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.”
• Jesus’ own family doesn’t understand what He is all about
• In fact, they think that He has lost His mind
• Matthew 10:36 makes even more sense when we realize this (“a man’s enemies will be the members of his household)…Jesus lived this out Himself
• What led His family to think this?
– Jesus had left home and the carpenter’s business at Nazareth
– Jesus was obviously on the way to a head-on collision with the religious leaders of the day
– Jesus had started a little society of His own—and a very strange society it was
• Most organized their lives around three things…and Jesus had shown that these really meant nothing
– He had thrown away security
– He had thrown away safety
– He didn’t care what society thought of Him
• H.G. Wells “the voice of their neighbors is louder than the voice of God”
– What appalled Jesus’ friends was the risks that He was taking, risks which, as they thought, no one with any sense would take.
– Mark 3:22-27
– 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.
• A House divided against itself will fall
– The religious leaders of the day never questioned Jesus’ ability to cast out demons…they questioned by what power He did these things
• Jesus’ argument is straightforward…if Satan casts out other demons, then a civil war has begun, and he will fall.
• You don’t rob a strong man without first tying up the strong man
• The defeat of the demons did not show that Jesus was in alliance with Satan; it showed that Satan’s defenses had been breached. A stronger name had arrived; the conquest of Satan had begun
• Two things emerge here
– Jesus accepts life as a struggle between the power of evil and the power of God
• Didn’t argue about where evil came from…just dealt with it in the most effective way…You don’t argue about the origin of fire while your house is burning
– Jesus regarded the defeat of disease as part of the conquest of Satan
– Mark 3:28-30
– 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.”
• The unforgivable sin
• This was said by Jesus when the scribes and Pharisees had declared that the cures He performed were performed not by the power of God, but by the power of the devil. These men had been able to look at the incarnated love of God and to think it the incarnate power of Satan
• The Holy Spirit revealed God’s truth; second, He enabled that truth to be recognized
– The Holy Spirit enabled men and women to recognize God’s truth when it entered their lives
• But if people refuse to exercise any God-given faculty they will in the end lose it.
• If people refuse the guidance of God’s Spirit often enough they will become in the end incapable of recognizing that truth when they see it
• Evil becomes good and good evil
– Why should such a sin have no forgiveness?
• H. B. Sweet says, “To identify the source of good with the embodiment of all evil implies a moral wreck for which the Incarnation itself provides no remedy”
• 1920’s Bishop of Darby A. J. Rawlinson calls it “essential wickedness”
– Consider the effect of Jesus on people
• The very first effect is to make them see their own utter unworthiness in comparison with the beauty and the loveliness of the life of Jesus
• If people have got themselves into such a state, by repeated refusals to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, they they cannot see anything lovely in Jesus at all, then the sight of Jesus will not give them any sense of sin; because they have no sense of sin they cannot be repentant, and because they are not repentant they cannot be forgiven
• So, it’s not that they cannot be forgiven. It’s that they have gotten to a point that they see no need in being forgiven, therefore, they will not be forgiven. Hebrews 6:4-6 comes to mind
– Mark 3:31-35
– 31 His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent word to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him and told him, “Look, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside asking for you.” 33 He replied to them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 Looking at those sitting in a circle around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
• True family
• Being family is more than just being related by blood (we talked about that in the life of Joseph)
• Common experience
– It has been said that two people really become friends when they are able to say to each other, “Do you remember?” And then go on and talk about the things they have come through together
• Common interest
– Christians have that common interest because they are all people who desire to know more about Jesus Christ
• Common obedience
– “Band of Brothers”
– Tax collector (Matthew) and fanatical nationalist (Simon the Zealot) should have and probably did hate each other at some point
• They were bound together, however, because both had accepted Jesus Christ as Master and Lord
• Common goal
– We are all trying to introduce others to Jesus
Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak 