The Depths of Unbelief

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July 10, 2022 | Steve Cortez on Mark 3:22-35.

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.
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Thank you again, Jason, for reading that. Thank you to the musicians. Well, welcome to Grace Fellowship Church.
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Welcome, everyone. It's good to see everyone again. We're blessed to have everybody here, anybody on Zoom, if you guys have managed to tune in.
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I thought this afternoon, by way of introduction, that I would actually keep it really short and actually not give you much of an introduction.
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It's a little bit of a departure, but I wanted to really just get into the text. We have a lot to get to.
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But if I can give a little introduction to the passage, I would say the
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Gospel of Mark can be summarized by talking about the efficiency of the way that Mark writes.
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Mark is a very efficient writer. There's a lot that's said in as few words as possible. He's got a great economy of words.
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He says a lot without being wordy. In today's passage, we're going to see that Mark talks about two categories of people.
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There's two of them. By doing this, Mark is going to bring us this comparison that we compare these two groups in.
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And by doing so, we get to see what we ought to do and what we ought not to do. So if we're going to take the main thrust of this message, if we're going to look at just the main theme that is going to drive this message, is that Jesus Christ demands a bold proclamation.
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If there's a theme that's going to drive the text, it's this, that Jesus requires a bold proclamation. Because otherwise, if we don't do that, what we'll see is that we fall into another group, the group that we're going to examine today.
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We're going to join ourselves with those who are ignorant, with the scoffers, and the ashamed. But before we get into the text, let's pray.
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Dear Father, Lord, thank you. Thank you for your good word. Lord, thank you,
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Father, that you've preserved it through the ages, Lord, that we would benefit from the misgivings, from the sins of others,
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Lord, that you teach us through these things. That, Father, that we have your word present and alive today, Father, that teaches us and guides us.
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Lord, Father, that as we study it and we read it, Lord, that we would be obedient, Lord, that we would serve you, that we would see what it is you have said to us,
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Lord, and that we would obey. Lord, we ask you for your help, Lord, that you would open up our hearts, that you would open up,
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Lord, our souls, that your Holy Spirit, Father, would implant this word to us, Father. I can only reach the ears of those listening.
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Father, it is the Holy Spirit who implants this message, Father, who causes the salvation of spirits, Lord, of souls to come to repentance and to obey.
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Father, I pray that we would be humble, Lord, that we would come to you with nothing but humility, Lord, and seeking to honour you to the highest.
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Lord, we thank you for this time. We thank you, Lord. We ask that you help us, Lord, from apart from you, Lord, we can do nothing. Lord, that I would preach nothing outside of the
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Bible, Lord, that apart from the Bible, I would have nothing else to say. Lord, I thank you for this time.
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I thank you for those that you've brought. I ask that you bless us, Lord. I also ask that you bless my throat, Lord, and that,
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Father, you give me the strength to preach through this nasal cough that seems to have come upon me today. But, Lord, ultimately, Lord, this is your day.
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This is your victory. So it is in the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
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So, like I said, I wasn't lying. We're going to get right into the text. We do have a lot to get to, but it's really good stuff.
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If you're looking at your bulletins, you should have a handout, and I think I got these to Shane in time. If not, then you're just going to have to pay attention.
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So the first point we're going to look at is this. Jesus is Lord and undivided.
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Jesus is Lord and undivided. So if we're picking up on our narrative, we're starting back in verse 22.
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As my brother Jason read. So as it states in the text, as we're looking at verse 22, the scribes came down from Jerusalem.
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And they were likely visiting Capernaum. It's not clearly stated in the text, but it's likely these scribes had come from Jerusalem and plotted their way all the way to Capernaum to address
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Jesus Christ who is preaching and teaching there. But before we really get into the text, we have to look at verse 22.
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We're just going to pause there for a moment because we really have to examine what it is the scribes are accusing
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Jesus of and the kind of insult they're bringing to him. So let's just read verse 22.
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It says this. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons, he casts out demons.
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I started today by saying, by making the point that the gospel of Mark is a very efficient gospel.
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There's a lot that's said. And he says, of all the gospels, it is the shortest one.
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But we have to be really careful because Mark writes with an efficiency that is absolutely spectacular.
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When you start to study and look at the nuance of the text, it is quite staggering. So what we need to do is unpack what is actually being said here.
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We have to notice what actual insult they're calling Jesus Christ. Right at the very end of that verse, they call them
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Beelzebul. Beelzebul. There's different pronunciations. That term literally means prince of demons, like it says in verse 22.
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And during New Testament time, it was used synonymously with Satan. So they are calling
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Jesus Christ Satan. But remember, Mark is writing this with the intent to really get in between the verses.
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He really wants us to know that this is weighty. To call Jesus Christ Beelzebul means a lot more than we might first think about.
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And actually, this has its roots in the Old Testament. For those of you taking notes and keeping up,
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I would say, turn your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 1. 2
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Kings chapter 1, verse 2, starts this way. And I'm just going to read it. It says, Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria and lay sick.
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So the king Ahaziah falls and he's sick as a result of his injury. He goes on and says,
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So he sent messengers telling them, go and inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.
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So I'm going to pause right there. But if you're paying attention, you're going to notice that this verse references the god of Ekron, who is called
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Baal. It's not Beelzebub or Beelzebul, but Baal. In the
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Old Testament, if you guys remember, if you guys have read thus far or can remember, the nation of Canaan worshiped the god
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Baal. This was their god. And actually, this god was known for having perverse forms of sacrifice and worship.
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They would offer human blood sacrifices along with other forms of perverted worship. And this was their god.
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This is the one that they sought power of. And as a side note, Ahaziah is beseeching this god.
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Instead of going to Yahweh or the god of Israel, he's going to this puny god. So I want you to keep that in mind.
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So as you look in the Old Testament, what you're going to notice is that the
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Baal isn't viewed highly. The authors of the Old Testament have made the point that Baal is not to be regarded highly.
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You will see that in the Old Testament that they worship Baal and that Israel turns away from following God and will worship these
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Old Testament gods that leads them down a path of idolatry and destruction. But they don't look highly upon these gods.
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And you've got to make that really clear here. So when
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Ahaziah calls upon Baalzebub, he's calling upon the god
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Baal. And actually, this term Baalzebub means in the
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Old Testament, Lord of the flies, or in some historians also say, dung god.
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So the god of poop, if you guys can think about it like that. So the flies that fly from this god, this is what they called him.
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Now, it's possible because of the way that disease and sickness work that this name was given to the god
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Baal because the diseases and sickness that would come from poor hygiene and pestilence and all these terrible things from not washing your hands and just general sickness, this name was given to him,
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Baalzebub. That's one reason why they might call him this. However, historians will look at this name and they would say that another reason is somewhat of a sarcastic.
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It's a sarcastic reason, somewhat of a pejorative or it's a negative way of referring to a god
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Baal. Remember, the Israelites didn't look highly upon this god because they worship Yahweh, the lord of hosts.
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They worship the god almighty. They don't worship Baal. So this term could likely be a term of an insult to the
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Canaanites and to the god of Ekron. So when they call him lord of flies, they literally mean, well, this is the god of poop.
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This is the god of disease. He's not a very high god. This is actually a really weak god. So now we have to trace that back from the
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Old Testament and we got to run this vine all the way to the New Testament. So if we're following this train of thought, these scribes are lawyers.
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They've read up on the Old Testament scripture. They know what this term means. It's a heavy laden term.
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If we're running that vine and we follow all the way back to the New Testament in our text today, you have to recognize that what they're calling him is a very low insult.
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They've completely misunderstood Jesus Christ. Completely. By calling him
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Beelzebul, they're equating Jesus Christ to Baal, the lord of the flies, and not just that.
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Beelzebub or Beelzebul, the New Testament version, also calls him a prince of demons. He's not even the king of demons.
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It's a weighty term. They've completely misunderstood Jesus Christ. He's misrepresented all over the place.
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So this is a really weighty insult. And Jesus Christ knows this. He's the lord of the scriptures, after all.
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Picking up in our text, this is what Jesus does. He understands exactly what his scribes have called him.
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He understands that they have not given him a very, even in regards to demons, he's not a very high demon.
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This is a very low view of Jesus Christ. These scribes really are digging the dagger deep into him.
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But this is what he responds with in verses 23 to 26. Let's read. It says, And he called to them, this is
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Jesus, and he said to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
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And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand.
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But it's coming to an end. So we're going to look at these verses.
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We're going to examine these. We're going to pause here. But if you'll notice, this is the first parable that we see in Mark. Jesus uses this parable to confront the argument of the scribes.
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And for those who don't know, a parable is a story or an analogy used to convey a point.
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We see these all over the place in the Old Testament. Most of them are known from the New Testament, but we see them all over in Scripture.
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Some Bible dictionaries define parables as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
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They're heavy, latent figures of speech, and Jesus Christ is using that to disarm the scribes in this instance.
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Also, as an aside, it's important to note that Mark has very few parables, especially in comparison to Matthew and Luke.
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John has a couple, but they're not formally called parables. But Mark has very few. So that means that when we stumble upon one, when we come upon one in Scripture, especially in the
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Book of Mark, where he has very little, our ears need to perk up. We need to understand what exactly
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Jesus Christ is saying. So looking at the argument, Jesus Christ addresses the logical trap that the scribes have walked into.
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They've stepped into something here. And the question is, how can a kingdom stand divided?
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You need to think about that for a moment. Jesus Christ is asking a very rhetorical question. How can a kingdom stand divided?
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By declaring Jesus Christ as a prince of demons, the scribes have insinuated that Satan has gone to war with himself, with his own kingdom, which is completely foolish.
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If you read those verses again, read them again and note the emphasis. And he called
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Jesus, he called to them and said to them in parables, how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
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If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
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And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but it's coming to an end.
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Notice the repetition. Notice the action being emphasized here. He cannot stand. There are three forms of this that he says.
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He cannot stand. He cannot stand. He cannot stand. And by the end of verse 26, if this is the case, if Satan has declared war on himself and you see all these demons being cast out, these miraculous works, verse 26, he is coming to an end.
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It's really helpful to maybe illustrate this, this point, how foolish it really is when, when the scribes have accused
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Jesus Christ of this and they've essentially walked into this by looking at somewhat like an analogy or practical example.
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And maybe I'll ask some of the kids here. Do you guys enjoy playing board games? Yes. We have some board game players.
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Okay. Do you guys play Risk? I know some of the older adults or older kids play
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Risk. And I've heard a story here and there. Risk is fun. Lord knows how much time
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I've spent playing Risk in group homes and with different kids. And if I've got to be honest, I'm not very good at it. I'd probably lose if I played against some of the best guys here.
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But, but there's something about Risk that is very enjoyable. I like military history, but one of the things about military history that is fascinating is looking at all the ways that history reveals strategy and the way to win things.
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So if you're looking at Risk, one of the reasons that Risk is so enjoyable is something called the Fog of War. Are you guys familiar with that?
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Yeah, the Fog of War. This is something that if you're used to playing card games or games that, where your friend is your foe until your foe is your friend.
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This is kind of the idea. Risk is enjoyable for this reason. There's a military type named
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Lonsdale Augustus Hale. He described the Fog of War as the state of governance in which commanders frequently find themselves as regards to the real strength and position, but note this, not only of their foes, but also of their friends.
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So what brings the thrill of this game, Risk and any other games, there's so many that exist like this, the thrill of the game is knowing that who's a friend now might be a foe later.
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If we're looking back into our Bibles, if we look at a biblical example of what this looks like,
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I'll have you guys turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. In 2
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Chronicles chapter 20, I don't have the time to go through the whole of this chapter, which is unfortunate, but the major thrust of this text is that Jehoshaphat, the king of Israel at the time, of Judah, I believe, and the nation of Israel are surrounded and overwhelmed by the warring nations around them.
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They're being besieged. They're about to go into the heavy battle and they're about to lose. So, like I said, for the sake of time,
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I can't really get into all the specifics, but they're surrounded. They're fighting a losing battle.
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Because of this, as a result of what's going to take place, if the Lord does not intervene, they will not survive.
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Jehoshaphat calls for a nationwide fast and prayer, and the whole nation besieges the
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Lord. They go to the Lord in prayer and fasting and they seek him. And, as a result, the Lord answers their prayers.
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In verses 22 to 23, again, if you're keeping notes, note this. This is really important. We see the outcome of that answered prayer.
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So, picking up at 22, it says, And when they began to sing and praise, this is the nation praising and singing, the
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Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah so that they were routed.
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They were utterly defeated. For the men, in verse 23, For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction.
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And when they had made an effort or made an end to the inhabitants of Seir, once that one army was defeated, they all helped destroy one another.
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And they go to war against one another, completely annihilating every single opponent, from friends to foes.
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If we look at this practical example of what it says in the Old Testament Scriptures, we have to understand that what the scribes are saying is utterly foolish.
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It's totally crazy that they would assume that Satan was driving out his own demons for the sake of the Lord's kingdom.
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Satan is not for the Lord in any sense. He's not going to do something that benefits the
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Lord. And Jesus Christ knows this, but this is where we're going to find our own application. What these scribes fail to understand in many ways is that they fail to understand the
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Jesus of Scripture. We need to understand the Jesus of Scripture. That is how we're going to apply this text, these first few verses.
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We need to understand Jesus Christ as he is revealed in his Scriptures.
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Jesus Christ is sovereign and he is undivided. The scribes and his family, as we're going to see in the next few verses, fail to understand that the sovereign
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God that Jesus Christ is. Look at verse 27. Look at what Jesus Christ says in his parable.
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He says, But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man.
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Then indeed he may plunder his house. Jesus Christ is the one who binds up the enemy.
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He's the one who binds the enemy. It is by his grace and his strength that he rescues his people, that he plunders the house of Satan and he rescues, he ransoms his people.
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What the scribes fail to understand in their hate for Jesus Christ, they completely mischaracterize him and they miss this.
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It is by Jesus Christ alone, by his strength alone, by grace alone, by his blood alone that he ransoms and he rescues those that are plundered from Satan's crypts.
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Brothers and sisters, we have a very strong foe. We have to recognize this too. We have a very strong enemy.
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Ephesians 6 .12 says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces in the heavenly places.
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We're dealing with a real enemy. I think most of us understand that. This is a very real enemy, a real threat.
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And it's not one that we take lightly. We are dealing with a real enemy. And this enemy is also undivided.
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He seeks to undo everything that God does. He truly hates God's people and the Lord himself.
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But we serve a God who is much, much greater. We need to understand him. We can't be like the scribes that fail completely in this manner or in any sense.
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We have to know him for who he is. We have to know the totality of Jesus Christ. We need to understand him from his scriptures, that he is sovereign
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Lord and the one who has bound up his enemy, the enemy of the church and how he rescues his people.
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We need to understand this God. So looking at our notes again, like I said, we have a lot to get to, so we're just going to keep going here.
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We'll get to more of this in a minute, but the second point, again, if you're keeping notes in your bulletins, the second point is this.
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Blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you blaspheme Jesus Christ. If you blaspheme the
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Holy Spirit, you blaspheme Jesus Christ. So if we're looking at this narrative and how it's playing out,
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Jesus Christ has been judged by the scribes. They have come their way from Jerusalem and we can imagine this. This is likely a far walk.
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This is a plan that was concocted all the way from the pits of Jerusalem all the way to Capernaum and they have devised this plan and they have rendered this thinking they have
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Jesus Christ and they haven't figured out. When they arrive, they deliver their verdict unto
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Jesus Christ and look at what Jesus does in return. Verses 28 to 30. Jesus replying to them, he says,
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Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter.
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But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin for they were saying he has an unclean spirit.
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On my drive here, I was speaking with Daryl. Daryl asked me, what are you preaching on today?
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And I told him the text and he read it in the car and then he said to me, Oh, so an eternal sin.
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So this is what you're preaching on today. And I said, yeah, I am. This is a technical text.
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And to be fair, there's more that I'm preaching on but this is the part that people hone in on and this is not by accident.
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Like Daryl or myself even, some of you, I'm going to say, had the misfortune of knowing me as an unbeliever.
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The Lord redeemed me but some of you in this room knew me before that. Some of you knew me in my unbelief and in the way that I hated the
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Lord. So, when I read this text as a believer, this eternal sin, this condemnation to me, was this something that applied to me?
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You can understand and rightfully so when the word of God comes to bear on a human heart, this is a weighty warning.
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There's a lot here. I can understand that this is a crippling fear that people have when they read this passage because I was crippled by this.
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But the question we need to ask ourselves is this, what is the text saying? We need to understand it. Does this blasphemy truly constitute or is it truly an unforgivable sin and there's no grace for it?
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What does Jesus Christ mean by this? And the answer is that there's two answers.
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Well, two interpretations. So this is where it gets a little bit technical and as I intend to do,
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I'm going to give you both. I'm going to give you both interpretations and after the fact, you guys can come and tell me which one you think you hold to a little bit more and you guys can feel free to roast me if you'd like.
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But there are two big interpretations to this unforgivable sin. The first interpretation is a historical view on the passage.
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So this looks deeply at the historical context of the passage that's taking place.
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So that's the first view. The second view is one that refers to the context of the greater whole of Scripture.
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If you're looking at the New Testament, you're looking at different ways that warnings like this are used in the Bible and it's going to the whole of Scripture.
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This is the second view. I have to admit, both views have their merits.
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They're both strong views. In certain cases, really, having at least an understanding of both views does give us a better perspective on this passage.
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So regardless of the view that you might come to after having some study or having reference to your own notes or looking at this text again,
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Lord willing, there is application for everyone. Even today, we're going to walk away with some application because this text cannot be ignored.
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We have to understand what this says. So right now, let's try to get into the text.
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So the historical interpretation, the first view, is the interpretation that takes a lot more of a literal reading of verse 29.
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When you're looking at what is taking place here, you're looking at it much more literally. Within this passage of Scripture, we have the fact that Jesus used parables.
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If you guys haven't heard this, there's much to be said about this. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get into this, but Jesus Christ uses parables, which serve as an indicator that Jesus Christ is hardening the souls of those around him.
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That might sound kind of ironic, but Jesus Christ is, through his instruction, is hardening the souls of those around.
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That is one use of the parables. So like I said, I can't totally get into it, but if you look a little bit further into the book of Mark, chapter 4,
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Mark chapter 4, verse 10 and 12, it says this. It says, And when he was alone, Jesus Christ, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
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And he said, Jesus Christ said this to them, To you has been given the secret of kingdom of God.
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But for those outside, everything is in parables. Verse 12, That they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.
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Verse 12 is crucial because one of the uses of parables is that Jesus Christ used them to harden those around him as he was preaching and teaching.
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In particular, when it says that they may indeed see, but not perceive, may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.
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This is a strong argument for this view, that Jesus Christ is hardening those around him. Another thing that would point to this view of the validity of this historical view, as I've called it, is that this is a really unique time in redemptive history.
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We need to take a step back for a moment. If I could almost put you guys in sandals and take you back 2 ,000 years, what we would see, again, if we step back, is that this is a really unique time in redemptive history.
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Absolutely amazing time. If we think about it in context, Jesus Christ is performing wonderful signs, wondrous things, miracles, and he's preaching the
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Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus Christ is the master expositor. There is no one better a preacher than Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ authored the Word. Jesus Christ fulfilled the Word. Jesus Christ is the
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Word, John 1 .1. So, in his foreknowledge and total understanding of the human heart,
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Jesus Christ knew who would come to him. Like I said, take a step back with me for a moment and just consider the context.
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Jesus Christ's ministry took place for approximately three years. Jesus Christ began his ministry after being baptized in the
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River Jordan all the way to his crucifixion, his resurrection, and ascension. Jesus Christ's ministry on earth took place for about three years.
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And think about in this time what was taking place. This is, like I said, a special time where you're witnessing amazing works, miracles, just amazing things.
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If you think about it, if we really stop to consider what is taking place and look what their response is, look at their response.
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They blaspheme him. Imagine witnessing everything that took place and your response is that you blaspheme the
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Lord Jesus Christ. All the good that he's doing is attributed to evil. Just think about that for a moment.
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So, it stands to reason from this view that these men would never come to repentance.
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If you could not see the good that Jesus Christ is doing, if you could not behold him as God, if you could not be convinced, witnessing all the miraculous things that are taking place, you will not come to repentance.
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And justifiably, Jesus Christ renders his judgment for their sin of unbelief.
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So that's the historical view. So that's the first view. Like I said, I'm doing just a quick flyby of this interpretation.
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There's much more, like I said, we'll talk about this after, no doubt, but there's a lot to look at here.
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So now we're going to look at the other view. We're going to look at the second view that says that this warning passage and the uses of these warning passages have to be taken in context with all of the
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New Scripture or the New Testament. So we're looking at this passage. We look at many other similar passages like this in the
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New Testament and what we do with those. So, this view holds that blaspheming the
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Holy Spirit is a lifelong denial of the open invitation of grace. So those who would hold this view, they would defend it by saying that they have to look at the work of the
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Holy Spirit. They look at, for example, the ministry of the Holy Spirit and what it is the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit applies salvation to the sinner's heart.
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If you're looking for notes, speak to me after if you've missed any of these. There's a lot I'm going to go through in a little bit here, but try to keep up with me as we go through this.
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John 16, verses 8 to 11, it says this. Just got to find myself here.
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It says, and when he comes, this is the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
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Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the
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Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
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So the first thing the Holy Spirit does is convict. It's convict sinners of sin and draw to the cross of Christ.
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If we're looking at Ephesians, just flip with me to Ephesians chapter one real quick.
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And you look at verses, let's read from 16 to 17 and 18, just for context. It says this. Sorry, Ephesians 1, 16, it says,
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I do not cease to give thanks for you. Remembering you in my prayers that the
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God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.
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Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to what she has called you.
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What are the riches of the glorious inheritance of the saints? I wish I could read that more, but I have to stop here for the sake of time.
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But this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and compels people to repentance.
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So in other words, as they continue to reject Jesus Christ, so people who would hold this view say, as you continue to reject the
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Holy Spirit, you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you in turn reject Jesus Christ because the
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Holy Spirit bears witness to the work of Jesus Christ, applies that salvation to the hearts of sinners.
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And if you follow this, this daily occurrence, this hour to minute to minute occurrence of denying the
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Holy Spirit, rejecting the conviction of sin, rejecting the call of grace, the open invitation.
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If you're looking at this, eventually this individual will continue to reject the
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Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit by extension and they will die. Once you die, you are dead.
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You can't repent. So what was once a sin that the Lord Jesus Christ extends his open hand with full grace to forgive you of, the moment you are dead, you cannot repent of sin.
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You're no different than the greedy merchant in Luke 12. In the parable of the greedy merchant,
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Luke 12, sorry, Luke chapter 12, verse 20, it says, but God said to him, this is
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God speaking to the greedy merchant. He says, fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
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You take someone who is so in love with the world that rejects, that they reject Jesus Christ. They reject the calling of the
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Holy Spirit. Eventually they will be called to account like this greedy merchant. So like I said, by extension, if you hold this view, this is the logical conclusion.
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This is the unforgivable sin. You get to the end of your life and you have not repented of sin. You've rejected the
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Holy Spirit. Then you've committed an unforgivable sin. There is no other salvation other than the repentance of Christ or repent and turn to Christ.
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So that's what people would say of this view. Okay, so anyways, after looking at that, regardless of the view you hold, so regardless of you fall on this side or that side, there is application here for everyone.
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This is where we have to understand that these warnings have application for us even today. If you're going to ask me from my perspective, which view
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I would hold, they're both really convincing and actually they're both really compelling. There's a good amount of evidence for both on each side.
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If you caught me on a different day or if you were to convince me, I might go one way or the other. Right now, just based on just the reading of the text,
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I would say that I would hold that the second view that these warning passages need to be interpreted in light of the whole of Scripture.
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But like I said, this is something that if you guys have an opinion the other way, I look forward to talking about this after the fact.
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But if we're going to talk about application really quickly, we're going to have to apply this in some way and it's this.
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We need to guard our minds and our hearts on how we view Christ. We need to guard our hearts and our minds when we think about Christ.
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If you believe, if you would hold that this judgment that Jesus Christ is rendering here is only for a specific time of redemptive history, you don't get a pass from this passage.
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You don't get one. Because the application here is are you honoring
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Christ in all that you do and think? Let's apply this text inwardly now. Let's look at us.
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Do I honor Christ in what I do and what I think? Matthew chapter 13 verse 34 says,
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You brood of vipers, this is Jesus Christ talking again to the Pharisees. He says, You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil?
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For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So let's apply this.
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Let's use this to come to bear on us. Do our hearts swell with praises for the
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Lord? Think about that on a daily occurrence. Do you rise with hearts swelling for the
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Lord? Or have we grown cold? Are we filling our cup with living waters?
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Are we seeking him in his word? Are we worshiping not just on Sunday afternoons when we meet together or on Bible studies, but do we worship
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God? Is our heart guarded towards the Lord? Is it seeking him? Is it guarded from the temptations of this world?
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Or are we too quick to let things enter in? As we'll look at the passage, as we get to the end of the passage today, we don't need to go very far as blaspheming the
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Holy Spirit or blaspheming God to sin against him. Having a cold heart towards the
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Lord is sinful enough. If you hold to the interpretation that this warning still applies to us today, then how much more are we supposed to guard our hearts and our minds?
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Think about that for a moment. Matthew 12, verse 36 and 37 says,
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I, Jesus Christ, tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.
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For by your words you are justified, or you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
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Brothers and sisters, we need to guard our hearts and our minds as we look to Christ. At this point, we need to probably have this memorized, but Robert McShane, he says, for every one look at self, take 10 looks at Christ.
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I know we probably beat that quote to death here, but it's so practical and it needs to be ingrained in us. We can't look to ourselves.
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Do we guard our minds and our hearts? Are we looking at Christ? For every sinful look, we take a look at ourselves.
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Are we looking to Christ? And this is an attitude. We need to have this attitude, brothers and sisters. We can't just let this warning pass us by.
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We need to take care of it. We need to heed this. Okay, so anyways,
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I'm gonna give us a mental break here for a moment because that's a lot of information, and no doubt I'm praying that you guys will look back at the text and come with an interpretation.
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If you guys disagree with me, I'd love to hear it. But maybe I'll address the kids and maybe I'll address the adults in a minute here.
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Kids, I have a question for you guys. Do you guys love report cards?
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No, obviously not. Sorry, this isn't board games, but report cards, okay.
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Do you guys ever read them? Do you guys read your own report cards? Okay, good. Okay, I see less hands go up as the questions go up.
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Don't answer this one. This is rhetorical. When you read your report cards, are they always dazzling or are there things you can improve on?
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Don't answer that. So when you read your report cards and you read your feedback, is it always amazing or are there things that you'd be working on to do better?
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Think about that for a moment because turning to the adults now, many of you know this or at this point probably all of you know this, but at one point
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Shane was my supervisor and he did something called performance appraisals.
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These are like adult report cards and they happen, you know, semi -regularly and if we're going to look at report cards and these adult report cards and report or performance appraisals, they do something really interesting or they should anyways.
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Whenever you receive any kind of critique or what you're going to do is you're going to sandwich them.
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You're going to sandwich them with maybe some positive things that you're doing and then some negative things or things that you can improve on, some challenges, and then they're going to end with some encouragement and if you can just imagine for a moment,
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I imagine Shane probably took a little longer on mine as he was trying to think of things to sandwich my critiques in the middle, but you can understand that there's a form to this.
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There's somewhat of an art to giving performance appraisals, writing report cards or giving feedback and we do this kind of all over the place.
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Do you guys like poetry? Anyone here? If you like the Psalms, everybody's hand should go up because that's poetry and if you like poetry, if you study poetry, you know that the way that things are written, composition drives meaning.
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The way that things are structured, the way that lines are written and they're moved around and the way that the rhyming scheme works, all of this drives meaning.
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Poetry is a really efficient way of writing because you're saying a whole lot by not saying much at all and one of the ways you do that is by structuring your poem.
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Look at the Psalms for example. There's a lot there. So if we're going to think about this composition, we're going to think about what that means in our passage today.
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Mark is doing something similar. He's doing the very same thing and if you're not paying attention, you're going to miss it and we can't.
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So keeping that in mind, keeping this kind of poetry idea or this composition idea in mind, we're going to get to our third and final point.
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So like I said, for those taking notes, the third point is, is Jesus Christ Lord to me?
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So is Jesus your Lord? This is an inward looking question because we need to consider the warning that Mark is really driving home in this last few verses.
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This is what ties the whole scripture together or this whole passage together. By God's providence,
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Shane wasn't able to get to verses 20 to 21 last week. He preached, but by God's grace, he left these two verses because if we look at this whole passage, the passage as a whole, we look at 22 to 35, it actually includes verses 20 to 21 because what
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Mark is doing, he's going to sandwich the unforgivable sin, the dialogue between the scribes and Jesus between two particular stories.
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A, B, A. This is like a poem. If you're paying attention, this is called, this is something, a feature that is unique to the
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Mark of Gospel. It's called a Markian sandwich, Markian sandwich. And it's a type of storytelling that is only found in the
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Gospel of Mark and we need to pay attention because he's driving meaning here. If we're looking at verses 20 to 21, we're just going to read it and we're going to look at what's happening.
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Verse 20, it says, then he went home and the crowd followed him so that they could not even eat.
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And when his family, look at the emphasis here, his family heard it, they went out to seize him for they were saying, he is out of his mind.
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His family thinks he's crazy. Think about that for just a moment. We're going to go back to that.
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And in verse 31, we're going to hop down. It says, and his mother and brother, we pick it up again, his mother and his brothers came and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.
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And a crowd was sitting around him, Jesus, and they said to him, your mother and your brothers are waiting outside, are outside seeking you.
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And he said, Jesus Christ, he answered them. He said, who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.
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For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.
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Notice the emphasis again. Verse 31, they're calling to him. And this isn't just that they're calling him over.
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This is a silencing method. They're looking to draw him away from the crowds and get him out of there.
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They're trying to silence Jesus Christ. This is his family we're talking about. Even they don't get it. It's important to note that there are reasons why they might have done this.
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So we have to just examine what's the motivation behind the family or what, why? At the end of verse 30, the scribes had accused
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Jesus of having an unclean spirit. Now that's, again, a really heavy term. I'm not going to go into everything.
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Shane preached on this a couple weeks ago. But just as a short summary, to be called unclean would have been, is the same thing as being called ceremoniously unclean by Jewish law.
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To be ceremoniously unclean, you would have been ostracized. You would have been put out from society.
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Jewish culture would have nothing to do with you. You're an outcast. You're nothing. Now looking back at his family, it's possible.
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We're looking at motivations. We're trying to understand what compelled them to do this. It's possible their motivation for trying to silence
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Jesus was to preserve their family's reputation before a Jewish community. It meant a lot back then.
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If you can imagine even today how much religion matters to some people, how much ordinances, or you look at the
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Catholic Church, for example, not to stray too far, how important it is that you follow in ordinances, that you follow religion, but you don't know the author of this religion or you don't seek the
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God of Scripture. You don't seek Jesus Christ. You seek religion. Or even to give them even further benefit of the doubt, just to even really rationalize with them, they may have been attempting to rescue
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Jesus Christ and rescue his dignity because as described in the Pharisees and all those who look upon him, they're going to do away with him.
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They could have even been trying to rescue him. So let's just give them the benefit of the doubt. But this is what we need to know.
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Notice what Mark is saying. Notice what he's doing here. Whether you're embarrassed or fearful of what it might look like for your reputation, or even if we're going to be naive, trying to preserve the dignity of Jesus Christ by silencing his words, silencing those around him, before the eyes of Christ, before the
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God of Scripture, you have denied him. You don't have to be a scribe.
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You don't have to be a scribe. You don't have to blaspheme him. Simply being embarrassed of Jesus is a sin before the eyes of our
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Lord. Think about that. Brothers and sisters, we can't have this attitude.
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We can't miss this. We need to be bold. And this is where we apply the text.
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We need to be bold with the gospel. We need to be bold. Look back at our text.
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Look at 34 and 35. It says, as Jesus looked about those who sat around him, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers.
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For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. This demands that we be bold.
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We have to be bold. People have to know we follow a mighty God. We need to examine this text, and we need to apply it to our hearts.
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We need to know what this says to us. Now, this text isn't saying that we all get up, and we all become street evangelists, and we all go street preach.
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The Lord has given us different giftings. We're all built differently, for sure.
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I mean, I think of Lowell. I think of some of the better evangelists even in this church, in this congregation.
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I pale in comparison to them, but even then, that's application. We need to be bold.
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People need to know who we serve. We're not to be silent with the gospel. The world needs to know that we follow a mighty
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God at work. I'm thinking about those at work. You need to work as someone onto the
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Lord, not just your boss. When the question comes up, why you labor so diligently, why you work so hard, the answer has to be
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Christ. People need to know we follow a mighty God. We must do
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His will. I'm going to say this again. You don't have to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
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You don't have to blaspheme Him to sin against Him. All you have to do is be embarrassed. So as we think about ways to encourage one another, another point of application is pray for the brethren.
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Pray for boldness. We need to pray for that. Paul, if you could imagine, Paul said this in Ephesians 6,
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Ephesians 6, 18 to 20. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplications for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which
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I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
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Brothers and sisters, we need to be bold. People need to know we follow a mighty God. We need to know what
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Mark is saying in this scripture, in this passage. We can't let this fly by us. We can't just ignore this warning.
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This can't be us. So let's lift each other up in prayer that we would all live boldly for the gospel, that people would know
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Jesus Christ lives in us, that he is our Lord. If we're looking at this passage,
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I wanna leave you guys with encouragement. I don't wanna feel like I've beaten you guys down. If it feels like a very severe message, this is a warning, and I'm not here to downplay the,
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I'm not gonna dull the edge of this blade. This is a warning passage, one we need to heed, but I wanna leave you with encouragement.
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I wanna encourage you guys to take this text and examine your hearts. Examine the areas where the
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Lord has gifted you, has placed you amongst people that you know. Do they know that you follow Christ? Do they know that? This text demands it.
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The Lord demands that we do this. Remember what we began with. This text makes claim to two groups of people, two categories, remember this.
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In one group, you have those of 34 and 35, those who do the will of the
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Father. They love the Lord, they proclaim Him as mothers, as husbands, as fathers, as laborers, as evangelists.
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They honor the Lord, and people know that. That's the first group. And in the second group, you join yourself with ignorance, blasphemers, or those who are ashamed of Jesus Christ.
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I want you to know that if you find yourself, in the moments when you start to examine this, when you take this home tonight, and you pray through this, or you pray through Scripture, and you pray about the attitude with which you behold
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Christ, I want to encourage you, and I want you to know that there is hope. If you find yourself in this group, in an area of your life, there is hope.
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There is grace for you. If Peter, having denied Jesus Christ three times, found grace, there is hope for you.
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If Paul, having persecuted the church, killing believers and imprisoning them, I know people have done a lot of wrong, but I don't know many people who have persecuted the church.
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There is grace for you. There is grace for you. If Paul found grace, if Peter found grace, if I found grace, there is hope for you.
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I'm going to end with Matthew 10, verse 33. And I just want to end here as we depart.
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It says, picking up in verse 30, it says, But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
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We have a mighty God who knows even the number of hairs on your head. Fear not.
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Therefore you are more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men,
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I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. Think about the advocate we have in Christ, everyone.
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But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my
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Father in heaven. Everyone, let's not deny Him. Run to the cross.