Look with you at Mark chapter three. And if you had your Bible that is on page 838 on the Pew Bible 838 Mark chapter three Verses 20 to 35 Mark three 20 to 35
Let's read together Then Jesus went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat and when his family heard it They went out to seize him For they were saying he is out of his mind and the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying he is possessed by the Elzable and by the Prince of demons he casts out the demons and He called them to him and said to them in parables. How can Satan cast out Satan if a kingdom is divided against itself That kingdom cannot stand and if a house is divided against itself that a house will not be able to stand and as Satan has risen up against himself and is divided he cannot stand but is coming to an end but No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods and Lest he first binds the strong man Then indeed he may plunder his house Truly, I say to you all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness But is guilty of any turnal sin For they were saying he has an unclean spirit and His mother and his brothers came and standing outside. They sent to him and called him and a crowd was sitting around him And they said to him your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you and he answered them who are my mother and my brothers And looking about a thos who sat around him he said here are my mother and my brothers For whoever does the will of God he is my brother and sister and mother Let's pray together Father, we give you thanks for being our fortress. We give you thanks for giving us your word It is so difficult so many times for us to understand and we pray today that you ascend your spirit to enlighten our minds That we can understand the work of your son more clearly We pray this in Christ's name. Amen last week John talked about John Mark at the end of Colossians and now he gets a second chance One thing I don't believe that John said last week was that John Mark is Mark who wrote the gospel of Mark that we are reading from today. He got a second chance and And what we want to look at today is a a Key text in Mark that shows us What Jesus has come to do, but it's not always an easy text to understand in fact the work of Jesus is odd sometimes The language that the actions the the statements of Jesus can be hard to understand and And in fact, that's exactly how this passage opens if you look in verse 21 And you may want to leave your text open if you have them as we walk through it this morning if you look in verse 21 Jesus's own household Doesn't understand what he is doing they see the crowds at his door They see all the people lining up to learn about Jesus his popularity is swelling and yet his household his family tries to season They're staging an intervention of sorts. They want to Help him come to his senses to understand Help him understand that they think he is out of his mind. What was he doing? What did he think he was who did he think he was? His own family didn't understand it can be hard for them to understand it is in Jesus's days on family didn't understand It can be difficult in our own world to understand what Jesus was doing and even for those of us in the church it can be difficult to understand what Jesus was doing Thankfully, we have plenty of indications from Jesus himself such as what we see this morning in Mark 3 where he gives us some Spirit-inspired divine insights into what Jesus himself was doing He wasn't a huxer. He wasn't a side show. He wasn't some sort of a charlatan or a magic show or even just a great teacher He was doing more than that. He was doing something supremely more Significant than many people understand Jesus is telling us that his supernatural works all of those things that Mark has already told us up into this point His supernatural works his supernatural message was demonstrating and establishing His supernatural authority and Hit this unrivaled supernatural authority Enables him to offer unparalleled unrivaled benefits His unrivaled supernatural authority Enables him to offer unrivaled salvation and forgiveness That's what we see in this text and I want to walk through it with you in three steps this morning as Jesus Works logically through what he is doing and what our response must be First Jesus tells us and we're going to start really here in verse 22 Jesus tells us about a house divided a house divided There has been a lot of action In Mark's gospel to this point Jesus has been healing the sick He has been healing the hand of a withered man a withered hand from a man who had a withered hand He is casting out demons in the synagogue. He is healing paralysis. He is forgetting sins He is healing leprosy. All of these things that he is doing are remarkable and yet They also bring division It wasn't self-evident what this means people had different opinions on this in fact You would think that people would be lining up to shake his hand to get his autograph and yet already in chapter 3 If you look back at verse 6 the leaders of the religious establishment are all ready plotting His death Chapter 3 You would think that Jesus would bring unity and excitement and everyone would be on board But what he says here what mark tells us is that Jesus's works bring division a house divided What did it all mean? What did he think he was doing? Well, there were a lot of opinions on this But thankfully Jesus tells us the right answer. Let's start with the wrong answer Verse 22 the wrong answer is given by the scribes the religious leaders from Jerusalem Tell Jesus back to the north to galley. They're following him. They're watching him from afar They are trying to poke holes in his authority They have seen what he has done There's really no denying it his supernatural works were evident even for his opponents to see you would think that One way they could be little him would be simply to deny his works That's not what they do his works are apparent to all people are lining up and Contestify about the powerful works that he has done They have seen what Jesus had done But they come up with the wrong explanation They say in verse 22 that his power comes from Belzable Now that may not hit us today in the way that it should because we don't use this term as much as they would have used it But keep reading by the Prince of demons. He cast out demons
This should be a draw Job being staggering statement for us to hear in fact, it is They are saying you see they are saying that Jesus's power Comes from the Prince of demons Jesus's power comes from Satan This is the unbelievably harsh charge that they are leveling at Jesus for his supernatural works They did not deny his actions They denied the source of his actions His actions were clear, but they denied the source of his actions They had the gall to say that Jesus's power came from the devil be eligible. That's what it means These are the religious leaders They are saying Jesus is supremacy over the demonic realm to cast out these demons that will comes from Satan himself Maybe you've heard of the the Faustian folklore where someone sells his soul to the devil And that there's a number of examples you may know the blues legend Robert Johnson They said he was the best guitar player in the world because he made a pact with the devil sold his soul to the devil If you've seen the movie, oh brother, where art thou this is mirrored in that movie That's basically what they're saying. They're saying that Jesus Sold his soul to the devil. That's our term. That's the way we might say it He sold his soul to the devil to get this power Or you read about this in Acts 8 Simon Magus the magician who saw the wonders that Peter and the apostles were doing and says Let me give you some money that I can have that power as well They are saying that Jesus sold his soul to the devil To be able to have this power But this is the wrong answer. This is verse 22. This is the wrong answer Jesus. Of course I hope you know did not sell out to the Prince of demons his power was a different power The religious leaders may have had a lot of book learning. They may have been there in the center of the religious establishment That didn't make them right Just because somebody has a lot of book knowledge just because somebody has a lot of degrees Just because somebody says something with authority doesn't mean they had Jesus figured out The religious leaders were speaking with authority, but they were wrong They were dead wrong about the authority of Jesus Jesus is saying that his opposition to Satan the fact that he is casting demons out of Satan That is that is not synergy. That is not Jesus working in collusion with Satan That is Jesus opposing Satan those are two different powers Those are these are two polar opposites that are conflicting whenever you see Jesus casting out demons That's what he's saying. This is not synergy. This is opposition Jesus is saying that if you see this opposition that means Satan's house is divided That means he is he is telling us that the opposition that he brings is Indication of a house divided it is this is this is the division that Jesus brings if Satan was if his house Really was divided in this sense that he would just be done for that Jesus says because you see the opposition that means there's a conflict going on So when we hear this term a house divided most students of history will think of Abraham Lincoln one of his most famous speeches probably second in Noterite only to the Gettysburg address. He said a house divided against itself cannot stand He was picking up on the words of Jesus, but he was really talking there about slavery part of the US had slavery part of it Didn't and he said it's going to be all one thing or the other he's using this language of Jesus But he's using it Abraham Lincoln was in a little bit of a different way The way Jesus is is using it here is to show the division that he brings and the opposition between his kingdom and Satan's kingdom Jesus is saying that a house divided cannot stand and The division that he brings comes because of his opposition to Satan So he speaks of a house divided to speak of the victory that he brings over Satan Let's look at that second point more. So not only a house divided, but secondly, Jesus speaks about a house conquered He speaks about a house Conquered and this is really in verse 27 So if you have verse 27 open. Let's try to figure out and unravel what this means Jesus makes it clear. He is not in league with Satan Instead, he is attacking Satan's house Satan's kingdom And overcoming it. So verse 27 is where Jesus gives us a parable about what he is doing There's a strong man That's Satan. There is a stronger man who enters his house and binds him ties him up That's Jesus and there's plunder that he is able to capture and set free As we will see that has a lot to do with people But what Jesus did is saying if I can If I can just paraphrase it he's saying there is a stronger one which is himself Jesus is the stronger one. There's a stronger one who infiltrates the kingdom of Satan The Satan's powerful, but he's not as powerful as Jesus Jesus infiltrates the strong man's kingdom and overcomes him ties him up as it were spiritually and because of this Jesus has ultimate authority as a stronger one. Jesus has authority over Satan. He's explaining the purpose of his actions What do the powerful casting out of demons and healings that Jesus has been doing? What do they mean? He tells us right here in verse 27 It means that Jesus as the stronger man is infiltrating the kingdom of Satan He is conquering Satan, conquering his kingdom and capturing and setting free the spoil the plunder of Satan That's what it means. Now, how do we know that's what it means? We know that's what it means because there's all sorts of connections within Mark's gospel that Revealed to us the different players and the different aspects of this verse Mark's gospel starts with the ministry of John the Baptist Of course John is the baptizer, but John also prophesies about the work of Jesus He says Jesus is the stronger one who is coming. He says keep your eyes open There's a stronger one coming who sandals who shoelaces. I am not even worthy to get down on my knees and untie John is a great prophet that he knows he is nowhere near as worthy as he should be to approach Jesus He said there's a stronger one coming and the stronger one that we see here is clearly Jesus John also Then baptize the Jesus and after that moment verses 12 to 13 of chapter 1 after John baptizes Jesus something of cosmic significance takes place The temptation Jesus has tempted by the devil He's tempted But he obeys he's tempted, but he doesn't give in and if you notice Jesus is there in the wilderness In verses 12 and 13 of chapter 1 with the wild animals It's a peaceful coexistence With Jesus in the wild animals Jesus is beginning to restore Peace between God's created world and us Jesus is bringing The hope for age when there would be a great day of peace that was lost When Adam sin Adam was created Peacefully co-existent with the animals. He had authority over them. They did not harm him With the entrance of sin into the world comes disruption comes disorder comes opposition Comes dangerous animals and yet Jesus is with the wild animals in the desert They do not harm him because he is bringing about the new era of new creation the day of perfect peace Jesus is a stronger one whose obedience you see he is tempted by the devil for 40 days But his obedience begins to overcome the devil
When Jesus starts his ministry he has already overcome the devil He continues to show his authority over the devil by casting out demons healing people And at every turn there is no question who has the higher authority When Jesus starts his ministry He gives he gives a decisive blow to the work of the devil Maybe you've heard the song devil went down to Georgia You know where the devil is looking for a soul to steal He meets him this local guy named Johnny who can play the fiddle like no one else And they make a deal make him a wager If Johnny can be the devil in a fiddle playing contest He gets a golden fiddle but if the devil wins he gets his soul Well if you know the story Johnny beats the devil and gets the golden fiddle Now I um you know chicken to the chicken to the have to go uh Chicken to the bread pen picking out do I don't think that's in the hymnal But maybe maybe we can play it later on the fiddle of the viola Now it's not a true story You're probably not a true story There there's nothing we can do to overcome the devil He is the strong man We can't outplay him out fox him out perform him out working I don't care how good you are It's only one man that can do that One man who was perfect Who can overcome the direct temptations of the devil because he had no sin in his heart at all And that is Jesus Christ he is the stronger man His obedience overcomes the devil so what does that mean for us That means if we want to overcome the devil we don't do it ourselves We trust in the stronger man we trust in the one who has already Overcome the devil the one who's catching out demons and mark the one who's healing people and mark The one who is preaching in a authoritative message and mark Jesus He is the one who overcomes the devil he is the stronger man the devil will hurl fiery arrows at us He will accuse us that's what Satan means he will accuse us of sin We are not good enough To overcome the accusations of the devil unless We run to the safety of Christ He is the stronger one his obedience is perfect He is the one who has overcome the devil He is the stronger man by taking up the shield of faith We can extinguish the fiery arrows of the devil that he hurls at us because of our sin What we are seeing in mark 327 is the need to trust in Christ as the one who is obedient on our behalf The one who grants us forgiveness Jesus blood alone nothing but the blood of Jesus He is our mighty fortress That is what we see with verse 27 Jesus is the most powerful one the stronger one who saves us through his own obedience Jesus' work brings division the house divided But he now speaks in verse 27 of a house conquered Jesus conquers the kingdom of Satan A house divided and a house conquered but now let's look thirdly At the benefits a house forgiven A house forgiven versus 28 to 30 There is quite a bit of build up in this text up to verse 28 We've seen a lot of logic a lot of explanation from Jesus But when you really want to see the main point of this text If you really want to see the payoff for what this all means look at verse 28 Notice how he starts Truly I say to you Truly All notices all sins Will be forgiven the children of men and whatever blasphemies all sins and all blasphemies will be forgiven the children of men Truly now when Jesus says truly he says listen up Everything Jesus says is true All right, Amen Everything he says is true, but when he says truly He really wants you to know it and it may be because what he's about to tell you may be counterintuitive and maybe hard to believe He says truly Truly every sin all sins and whatever blasphemies will be forgiven He is promising here unparalleled forgiveness now. I want you to think with me for just a second What is the relationship between the house conquered and the house forgiven what is the relationship between verse 27 and 28 What does Jesus is binding of the strong men Have to do logically with the forgiveness that he is promising in verse 28 How do those relate well the relationship is one of cause and effect The logic of the passage is this because Jesus is the stronger one who binds the strong man Therefore the effect is he can offer full and undefeated forgiveness for any sin that we commit Let me say that again because Jesus is the stronger one Who binds the strong man therefore The effect is he can offer full and undefeated forgiveness for any sin that we commit His authority over Satan yields the benefit of his authority to forgive any sin that we commit that's the relationship between those two ideas This is why he says truly truly listen up. This is real This is a promise. This is a hard promise to understand. Well, maybe a better a hard promise to believe It's hard to believe this. That's why Jesus says truly Truly listen up truly believe me I have this authority he says I can forgive any sin and any blasphemy And what he does when he forgives those is he releases the plunder the spoil of the strong man That's the plunder we saw in verse 27 What is that plunder what is that spoil of the strong man it is forgiveness that is offered to people Who are in bondage to the devil He frees people he frees us From the power of the strong man Jesus comes not to win a golden fiddle he comes to win freedom forgiveness For us who are not fully obedient He wins us through his own life through his own perfect life his own sacrificial death and resurrection He frees us authoritatively because he is the authority to do it as the stronger one and this is the good news of the gospel This is good news. This is hard to believe sometimes But this is the freedom that Christ offers through forgiveness We confess it every week I believe in the forgiveness of sins That forgiveness is based and granted on The authoritative work of Christ All sins whatever blasphemies will be forgiven. No sin is so great that we cannot receive forgiveness through Christ No sin is so great that it extends beyond The authority of Christ There is no greater authority than the authority of Christ This is good news in verse 28 But you may have already seen the warning as well Verse 29 there is a warning Not only good news, but a warning Jesus is mission as we have seen brings division And opposition The scribes are opposing him They are saying he is sold out to the devil To those that call the work of Christ evil To those that oppose him to deny That his power comes from God to those that say such things They have blasphemed the Holy Spirit and there is no forgiveness for those who blasphemed the Holy Spirit Now this can be a burdensome passage verse 29 So let's stop here just a moment and consider a little bit more about what it means What is it really To blaspheme The Holy Spirit Is it something we say Something we do something from our past some something that is just so bad that that it crosses aligned We'll remember verse 28 first of all All sins and whatever blaspheme it blaspheme is part of what Jesus forgives
The second there is a warning here for those like described who would stand afar and critique And judge Jesus If we want to know what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is it's shown us in this text twice Verse 22 and verse 30 show us what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is It is to do what the scribes are doing it is to look upon the work of Jesus and to say that is not from God That is from the devil it is to Stand in opposition to Christ it is to call what is Good evil It is to say that Jesus is not who he says he is it is to say that the power of Jesus casting out demons comes from the devil It is not to understand that the power of Jesus is the Holy Spirit You see the Holy Spirit is the one who empowers Jesus for his exorcisms for his healings for his preaching for his obedience throughout his ministry To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to blaspheme the work of Christ through the power of the Spirit To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to reject the work and the claims of Jesus There is no forgiveness for that because forgiveness comes through Jesus if you are attacking Jesus if you are critiquing Jesus and turning your back on Jesus There is no forgiveness in Jesus because you are not running to him for forgiveness That is what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit Only Christ you see has the authority to grant forgiveness If you ridicule him if you oppose him if you blaspheme him and say he is not who he says he is There is no forgiveness elsewhere Forgiveness comes in Christ
If you are burdened by this statement of verse 29 If you come to Christ Trust him believe him Ask for forgiveness whatever sin Whatever blasphemy you may have done There is forgiveness But you see if you hear this passage And maybe you're in church but but even if you were here maybe you were hearing this and you you don't believe what Jesus says The scribes were religious leaders they were always at church They were they knew the Bible forward and backward they knew everything about it But they did not believe in the message of Jesus you may be here this morning and not believe in the message of Jesus The warning of verse 29 is to believe in the words of Jesus trust in his Teaching trust what he says is true trust that in him is forgiveness If you come to him you trusted him you ask him for forgiveness That is not blasting in the Holy Spirit it is to do and said what the scribes are doing is what it needs to blasting the Holy Spirit do not be A ridicule or a reviler of the sun kiss the sun embrace the sun Come to him for refuge. He is the one who offers forgiveness That is the good news crisis is a stronger one who grants forgiveness For anything the warning is do not despise this free offer It's easy in our popular culture to think of Christ as as a gentle humble meek teacher writing on a donkey Do not breathe too hard. He might topple over
Well, Jesus never sent And Jesus was the perfectly humble one. He was no pushover Especially in his estate of glorification as he rules now oh at the right hand of God over the universe We dare not mock him. We dare not think too lightly of Jesus. He is the one with all authority. There's a lot of uncertain things in our world We have no idea who for example the next president will be 17 Republican nominees right no one even has any idea who's going to win the nomination a lot of uncertainty in our world Some things are certain and chief among those things that are certain is the universal supremacy of Christ is his authority It's the fact that he is getting ready at any moment that he wants to To return You won't see it on the news But that's what that's the way the world really works This is The freedom that Christ offers Just a few nights ago Sheryl and I saw a show on TV about Scientology In this document they had tons of people lining up to talk about the bondage that they experience about the blackmail About the way you get trapped and you can't get out and it's a vicious cycle That's not what Christ brings he brings forgiveness and freedom and the leadership of the church It's a ministerial authority that your pastors have It's ministerial it's not to create bondage or blackmail it is to serve in the name of Christ who gave his own life even to the point of death self-sacrificially His life is the way that we Provise the pattern for the church. That is what we are here We are a community of forgiven people who have experienced freedom and are encouraging one another on the path of faith To remember that Christ is the one who grants free full forgiveness Christ is the one who has perfectly obeyed he went willingly to his own death And because he was perfectly obedient as son of god there is no chance that as he died death could bind him He had authority over death. He was sinless. Death is a penalty for sin where there is no sin There is no death Christ overcame death who else can offer that not L. Ron Hubbard. No one can offer that only Christ offers Full Authoritative forgiveness only Christ has defeated sin through his resurrection That is why This is good news A house divided a house Conquered and a house forgiven that can be our house a house forgiven We started by looking at how Jesus his own household Thought he was crazy. We talked last week about second chances There's some second chances here in this text as well Among Jesus family were two brothers named James and Jude They didn't believe in Jesus during his ministry But they were eventually convinced They wrote the books of James and Jude They became two leaders in the early church to read Acts 15 Peter and Paul They are deferring to James The brother of Jesus there's a second chance for them as well There's a second chance for us Because the authority of Christ to grant forgiveness is an authority that extends beyond anything we've ever done There's a second chance whoever you are this morning wherever you've been whatever you've done the message for all of us is the same Come to Christ today
He has the authority to grant forgiveness to you and your house
Our father we thank you for the authority of Christ grant us the grace to trust him Amen Our closing hymn today is 296 296 all hail the power of Jesus name