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In the last few months I’ve noticed a tremendous spike on social media of more athletes and celebrities claiming their faith in Christ. Or cameras are televising players praying before and after the game. Sometimes in groups, sometimes solo. Most recently I saw UFC fighter Connor McGregor says is “saved”, “healed”, and “living by God’s Word.”
That’s cool. That’s great. Forgive me, but I get a little skeptical from time to time. Maybe not doubting, but definitely hoping it sticks! hoping it’s not just a “good luck charm” but hoping there is sincere life change and that the actions follow the claims they make.
It begs the question: Are they truly saved? Are they really now in God’s family?
Maybe you wonder that about your favorite celebrities and pro athletes… or more personally; your kids…parents…friends…yourself!
This morning we’re going to examine a passage that will show us in no uncertain terms what a true follower of Jesus really is.
{Bio} Turn with me in your bibles to the Gospel of Mark. Pastor Bill has been leading us through the book of Mark for the last several weeks, so we will continue there, but in chapter 3
Whenever I preach in big church I like to take a few moments to put into context the passage we’ll be in. I find it so important to know what’s going on in the Gospel up to this point and where on the timeline of Jesus’ ministry we are, in addition to what the overall theme and purpose of the book really is.
Mark, one of the four gospels, or books that record the life and ministry of Jesus, is believed to be the first one written out of the four gospels. The others being Matthew, Luke and John.
All of them *basically* say the same thing, and yet, they are all uniquely different.
Matthew sets out to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, the eternal king that they have been waiting for. The evidence Matthew uses to prove this, is Old Testament prophesy that he links to Jesus over 90 times.
Luke writes a very detailed record of Jesus’ life and ministry. The way he writes and the words he uses show that he was educated-and we know that he was a doctor, writing the most comprehensive gospel to present an accurate account of the life of Christ and to present Christ as the perfect human and Savior.
The fourth and final gospel is John. John is the oddball. He doesn’t record any parables that Jesus uses to teach, instead the focus is on the divine identity of Jesus. The book doesn’t start out with any genealogy as the focus is on Jesus being the Son of God and that all who believe in him will have eternal life.
However, we will be in the gospel of Mark today. The shortest of the four gospels. Although it’s the shortest, it actually contains the most miracles out of the four gospels. Mark’s purpose in writing is to present the person, work and teachings of Jesus, to prove beyond a doubt that Jeus is the Messiah as he very quickly and very vividly moves through the happenings of Jesus’ life. What he says is concise and straightforward; not staying on any one story too long before moving on to the next.
Mark is like the Marshawn Lynch of gospel writers. He’s all about dat action.
As we read the book of Mark, I want you to notice he places an emphasis on the reaction of people as they encounter Jesus. His followers, the crowd, the pharisees, whoever it may be, all respond to Jesus in various ways.
{Recap} Because Mark’s audience was primarily Roman Christians, he began his book with John the Baptist, whose mission it was to announce the coming of Jesus.
In this day important Roman officials were always preceded by an announcer or herald. Which is why Mark introduces John the Baptist as the herald, or the announcer of Jesus, saying:
“After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (1:7-8)
Mark briefly talks about the baptism of Jesus, and his temptation in the wilderness and jumps right into his ministry!
He’s walking along the beach and sees Peter and his brother, Andrew fishing and he says “Come follow me.” And they do! At once they leave their nets and follow him (1:18) and again in v20 he sees James and John fishing and he also calls them to follow him, and they do.
The next scene is Jesus teaching in the synagogue. And as he does Mark makes it a point to record the people’s reaction and response to Jesus and his teachings. In v.22 the people at the synagogue that day were amazed at his teaching. Really “Wowed” by the authority in which he taught with, something they weren’t accustomed to based on the teachers of the law. As he is teaching, he casts out an impure spirit from a man, and again, in v.27 the people are amazed! And they see the authority in which he teaches! And because of all that has just happened the people tell their friends and neighbors. “News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.” (v.28)
Jesus moves on, heals Peter’s mother-in-law. Followed by the whole town showing up to get healed and freed from demons! (v.33)
News about Jesus continues to spread to the point where Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, it says in verse 45. he stayed outside in lonely places and even still….. people came to him from everywhere.
I know Mark moves quick, but that’s just chapter 1!
In chapter 2, the crowds continue to grow. The number of people in attendance starts to be problematic. Granted, when there are “too many people” trying to see and hear Jesus, we refer to that as a “good problem to have”. The crowd is to the point where there is no room, not even outside the door as it says in chapter 2 verse 2.
So much so, the friends of the paralyzed man realized they weren’t going to make it through the crowd carrying their buddy on a mat. They take dramatic detour up and over the crowd to dig a hole in the roof and lower their friend down just for him to be seen by Jesus. Jesus sees their faith and forgives the man of his sins.
And for the first time, in verse 6, we have some opposition to Jesus being introduced; Teachers of the law (remember the “boring” ones from the previous chapter?) They’re in the crowd sitting, thinking to themselves, “who’s this guy talking like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Jesus knew what they were thinking and he responds by letting them know he doeshave the authority on earth to forgive sins.
In addition to healing the paralyzed man spiritually-forgiving his sin, Jesus exercises his authority and heals the man physically. He says to him “Get up, take you mat and go home.”
Again, we see the sheer amazement of the crowd at what they’ve just witnessed, and as a result, they begin to praise God. (2v11-12).
The crowd is FASCINATED by Jesus.
For the rest of chapter 2 into chapter 3, it’s more of the same. Jesus teaching. Pharisees questioning. Crowds growing. Jesus healing.
Until 3:6, the opposition grows: the Pharisees along with the Herodians begin to plot to kill Jesus.
But Jesus doesn’t stop, and neither do the crowds- they continue to grow to the point where they were pushing and shoving to get to Jesus. (3:9-10)
After that, Jesus finds solitude on a mountainside and he calls his disciples. Chapter 3:14-15 “He appointed them that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” (3v.14-15)
Which brings us to Mark 3:20, where he uses a sandwich technique, starting with one story, switching to another, then ending by going back to what he started with.
“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about his, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.””
The crowd has only grown since Jesus first spoke in the synagogue in chapter 1. They’ve grown in number, they’ve grown in curiosity, they’ve grown in Fascination, they’ve grown in selfish desire to push and shove just to get closer to Jesus. Although, I described it as a “good problem to have” it’s still a problem no less. We also need to point out that “The Crowd” as mentioned in the gospels, don’t equate to being followers of Jesus, instead they are Neutral, undecided, or uncommitted. More on that in chapter 4.
The more that Jesus teaches and heals the more word about him spreads to the point now where Jesus and his disciples are unable to eat the bible tells us. (v.20)
It’s at this time his family steps onto the scene. Although no mention of Joseph, his earthly dad, it’s his mother, Mary, and his brothers. They of course know about Jesus. They’re plenty familiar with Jesus.
In chapter 1 of Luke the Angel Gabriel visits Mary and says “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
We know that Mary was a follower of Jesus. Luke 1:38 ““I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”
However, his brothers were not followers. They did not believe that he was the Messiah, the one to save them from their sins. Spiritually, they were against him. Later in the gospels it says they ridiculed him. (John 7:5)
But at this time in Mark 3, Mary is a follower, the brothers are not. Personally, I’m torn on the interpretation of their claim. Are they stating “He is out of his mind” because they truly believe that he is? Are they fearful that his teaching and miracles are getting out of hand and the size of the crowd has gotten out of control? Are they fearful on behalf of Jesus?
Or is their claim on behalf of themselves? Are they embarrassed of what this has all become? Are they embarrassed at how Jesus is making them look?
Regardless, they have come to take charge of him! Some translations say “to seize him”, it’s the same verb used later when he’s arrested. His family has come to take him away claiming he’s out of his mind!
The biological family of Jesus, who are the most familiar with Jesus, still misunderstand who he is and what he’s doing.
The teachers of the law, the Pharisees, are present in the crowd and they decide to one-up the family with an outlandish claim of their own and they make it personal.
They say in verse 22 “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
Out of his mind? Nah. They take it further. Remember that the Crowd is “Neutral”; so before these people fully commit to believing that Jesus is the Messiah, they try to poison them into believing he’s actually possessed by satan, the prince of demons!
They hated Him because He openly denounced their hypocritical system of man-made tradition and works-based faith. So when Jesus is teaching and doing miracles revealing himself as the Messiah, the Son of God, they take advantage of the opportunity to create a smear campaign against him saying he is only able to do these things through the power of Satan at work within him.
I can’t help but notice it’s always the ones who aren’t even followers who have something to say. I would know because I’m a Taylor Swift fan and she released an album this month.
I can’t help but notice it’s always the ones who aren’t even followers who have something negative to say. Jesus’ bothers…the pharisees… Hence the phrase “everybody’s a critic.”
Claiming Jesus to be out of his mind. Claiming that he is possessed by satan himself. Claiming that he has an impure spirit.
The Pharisees used a complete fallacy against Jesus.
Jesus calls them over to himself and responds to their claim in parables, as he often did. This time around they were pretty direct. They didn’t require much thinking and deciphering as some of his other parables do.
v.23-25 “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; his end has come.”
-You could say the same truth about a team. If they’re not working together in unison, then there will be no victory.
-The same goes for a marriage. If both spouses are not working together, unified as one, then they are divided. If a marriage is divided it cannot stand. It’s a matter of time before it falls apart. If both parts look only to serve themselves and are not looking to serve their spouse, it will fail.
-Abraham Lincoln famously paraphrases this scripture in his speech titled “House Divided” arguing that the United States could not permanently endure half slave and half free, and that the nation’s division over slavery was a crisis that needs to be resolved. He said it’ll all become one thing, or it will all become the other. 3 years later, we split and went to war. With ourselves.
Jesus is saying for anything to work, and to last it must be united. If Jesus was truly possessed by Satan it wouldn’t actually make sense for him to be casting out the same evil spirits that the Prince of Demons has placed in the world, now would it?
Although the kingdom of darkness is inherently chaotic and disorderly, the devil does not have his spirits out in the world to fight one another. That would be ineffective. Jesus exposes their lie.
Up to this point in Mark, Jesus has been recorded casting out impure spirits on 2 separate occasions. The first in the synagogue in chapter one, leaving the people amazed. The second time is in chapter 1:32-34 where Jesus “…heals many who were sick and drove out many demons…” No exact number is given, but it’s plural.
The work of Jesus was in direct opposition to the work of the devil. He came to overthrow the devil. He has the power and authority to do just that. Which is exactly what he refers to in the next portion of his parable.
27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.
It may seem like an odd parable, but Beelzebul translates to “lord of the high place” or “lord of the house”. Jesus uses the same line of thinking in the accusation against him to correct this fallacy. In this parable the strong man of the house, or “lord of the house”, “Beelzebul” is a direct reference to Satan, and Jesus, in a demonstration of his authority, is the one overthrowing him and plundering the house–casting out the impure spirits.
Jesus demonstrated his authority when he cast out the evil spirits in chapter 1. He demonstrated his authority when he forgave the sins of the paralyzed man in chapter 2.
He also demonstrates his authority when he speaks the truth. As he has these teachers, these pharisees gathered around him in the presence of the crowd and of his disciples, he speaks another truth to them.
(3:28-29) “Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.””
Jesus says there is forgiveness for any and every sin that anyone could ever commit, with the exception of one, and that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit had been at work in every aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry. His birth, his baptism, his temptation in the wilderness, his miracles, and of course his death and resurrection. He lived a perfect and sinless life for the glory of the Father under the Holy Spirit’s control.
They had witnessed him heal all kinds of disease and deformities, cast out demons, and preach the forgiveness of sins, and still Jesus’ enemies proceed to accuse Him of being possessed by Satan—completely blaspheming the work of the Holy Spirit.
Faced with sufficient evidence, their final conclusion of Jesus was that he had an impure spirit possessing him to do all the miraculous works he had. They hardened their hearts towards the very one who came to save them from their sins, in turn, cutting themselves off from God’s saving grace making them guilty of an eternal sin.
Rest assured, if you’re worried, about committing this unforgiveable sin, by default that most likely means you have not. To get to the point they were at is to harden your heart against God and the works of the Holy Spirit time after time. To completely reject the grace of God. If you have concern about committing that, then it shows your heart is not hardened.
About 40 years later the author of Hebrews writes a similar warning to those who knew the truth about Jesus and yet deliberately chose to reject it.
Hebrews 2:1-4 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. 2 For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. 3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? 4 And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.
I love the way that first verse is worded “We must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.
Mark concludes chapter 3 writing again about the crowd and Jesus’ family who just got there. They can’t get inside the house due to the crowd being so big so they send someone in to tell them they made it and they’re here to take charge of him, to take him away.
That message gets delivered to Jesus. v.32 “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
I picture a person in the crowd trying to be helpful to Jesus who they may view him as a total celebrity. Just amazed by his healings. Fascinated at his teachings and how he corrects the pharisees and speaks in parables. This is person is trying to be helpful and deliver a message to Jesus about his family who has come to see him, so they stand up and kinda interrupt Jesus to say your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.
To which Jesus responds, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” v.33
Uhhh… how does one respond to that?
“Is that a rhetorical question or do you want me to answer it?”
“Is that not actually his mom and brothers outside?”
“Don’t get mad at me, I’m just trying to help.”
And in v.34 He looks at the ones sitting at my feet. “Here are my mother and brothers!”
Does that make it more confusing or less for our crowds-person?
Matthew adds a little more detail in his record of this passage. Jesus points directly at this disciples. The ones he very personally and very directly called and anointed to be his apostles just days prior.
Jesus redefines FAMILY.
v.35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.
Although biological, Jesus’ brothers were not in the family He is now referring to, because they didn’t follow Jesus. They grew up with him. They knew him and his purpose on earth. They knew the truth from a young age that Jesus came to save them from their sins. I’m sure it was the story their parents Mary and Joseph told every year leading up to Jesus’ birthday- how they were visited by an angel… You could say they even grew up in a Christian home.
He’s not disowning his biological family in saying this. But he makes it clear to everyone that to be in the family is to be an obedient follower. And his brothers were not.
Just being Familiar with Jesus doesn’t make us family.
Time and time again the crowd is FASCINATED by Jesus. For obvious reason. They follow him from town to town and push and shove to get closer to him. They grow in number and enthusiasm, with an eagerness and curiosity to hear from him and see his displays of power and authority. But they’re not committed followers. They’re just spectators, hoping for a show. They let the open invitation to follow Jesus pass by.
Being in close proximity doesn’t make us family.
The pharisees in this passage, it goes without saying, are not in the family either. There is no forgiveness for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Regardless, FALLACIES against you will be said because of God. Jesus reminds us that we will face troubles because of Him. We can expect this kind of opposition.
Ultimately, Jesus has come to form a family.
He says that those who do the will of God are his brothers and sisters and mother. His brothers were not followers until much later. They didn’t convert until after the resurrection when Jesus appeared to them directly. That was the evidence that did it for them! Some time after that his brother James wrote the book of James, arguably the most practical book in the Bible and in 1:22-25
“22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”
Belonging to the family of God means surrendering your own will and obeying the will of God. Carefully listening to the truth—and doing what it says—so you don’t drift away.
We opened up talking about those who claim Christ publicly.
-its easy to be like the crowd when you’re in with the crowd. When you have others around you doing the same thing. But what happens when you’re the only one?
-it’s easy to get caught up in emotions and chase the “feelings” of being close to God. But feelings change. When the feelings fade the dedication will too.
-It’s easy to say you are a follower and not live it out daily.
A true follower truly obeys.