“The following is a message from Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, Virginia. For more information about the ministry of Christ the King, please visit us at ctkroenoke.org. Good morning. Welcome to Christ the King. If you’re a guest or visitor, my name is Penny, and I’m one of the pastors here, and it is great to be with you. We’re glad that you would join us this morning as we continue in the book of Mark. So if you have a Bible, you can turn to Mark chapter 3. And the reason why we gather each and every week, The reason why we come back to sing and to pray and to dine at God’s table, to sit under His Word, is because we believe that Jesus is not just the center of this universe, but he’s actually the center of our lives. That he’s at the center of everything that we say and we do. And we have to come back again week after week to be reminded of this because the truth is, is that Monday through Saturday and Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening, there are all sorts of things that are constantly pulling at our hearts and wanting to be the center of our lives, right? Right. I mean, there are things like economic prosperity, careers, education, family, friends, right? These things that actually in of themselves are not bad. Many of these things are actually quite good. And yet, they are not our lives. And yet they want to be. They’re pulling at our hearts. They want to be the center of our lives. But Jesus is our life. that if you are trusting in Christ, if you claim the name Christian, that Jesus is your life. And so we have to come back and we have to be reminded again and again, week after week, that he is our life. that we live for him. And that’s what we’re seeing throughout the book of Mark, right? That at the center of everything in this world, at the center of the promises of the Old Testament, there is a king. And the king of these promises is Jesus. And he is the king who rules over the heavens and over the earth, and he rules over our lives. And so one of the questions that we should be asking ourselves every week as we come to these different passages in Mark is what do we think of this Jesus and how are we going to relate to him? What we hear, how we think about him, how we appropriate what we’re hearing from his word. Because friends, the truth is, is that how we relate to Jesus has eternal consequences. And that’s what we see in this passage. So let’s go ahead and read Mark chapter 3 beginning in verse 7. We’re going to read through the end of the chapter. Mark writes, Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. And a great crowd followed from Galilee and Judea in Jerusalem and Adumia. And from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyrant Sadan. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him, and he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him. For he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, You are the son of God. And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the 12, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Benerges, Y’all try that later. That is the sons of thunder, Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alpheus and Thaddeus and Simon the Kenyan and Judas Ascariot who betrayed him. Then he 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 Bielzobo, and by the prince of demons, he cast 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 house will not be able to stand. And if 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 unless 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 an eternal sin. For they were saying he has an unclean spirit. Friends, this is the word of the Lord. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. We ask simply that you would be with us now, that you would help us. that you would allow my words to give you honor and glory, that you would allow the attentiveness of our minds to be fixed on you and your word, and that you would teach us what it means to follow you, to love you, and that you are our life. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen. Well, in Flannery O’Connor’s wonderful short story, a good man is hard to find. We come across this family that is stranded on the side of the road. Their car has fallen into the ditch. They can’t get it out. They’re sitting in the middle of nowhere, hoping, waiting for another car to drive by. The setting is early 20th century, so this is long before cell phones. And so all they could do is sit and they could wait and they could hope that eventually a car would drive by and the people would get out and they would help them pull the car out of the ditch and let them go on their way. Well, if you know the story, you know that eventually a family, a car actually not a family, but a car comes by and stops. It’s a car full of men and the men get out and some of the men, they take the younger parts of the family that’s stranded. They take them to another part of the road, another part of this nowhereness. And they leave one man with the grandmother. And this one man, his name is the misfit. The misfit has just broken out of prison and the men that are with him are helping him to escape from the law. And so the misfit is with the grandmother, and the grandmother realizes who this is and that her and her family’s safety are in danger. And so she tries to appeal to what she hopes is his better nature. But when that fails, she then appeals to religion and asks the misfit, does he pray, and invokes the name of Jesus. And upon hearing the name of Jesus, the misfit says to her, Jesus thrown everything off balance. Jesus was the only one who ever raised from the dead. He thrown everything off balance. If he did what he said, then it’s nothing for you to do, but throw away everything and follow him. And if he didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do, but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can. All right, you hear what the misfits saying about Jesus? Yes. He’s saying that if Jesus is who he said he is, and he came to do what he did, then how you relate to him will change your lives. If Jesus did what the Bible says, we should throw off everything that hinders us and follow him. But if he didn’t, then we should simply eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. You see, our entire lives hinge on who Jesus is and how we relate to him. So how would you answer that question? Who is Jesus? How are you to relate to him? Yeah. In the passage that we just read, we have a variety of people who are interacting with Jesus and relating to him, right? We have four main different groups. We have the crowd that comes to him. We have his family. We have the religious leaders. And then we have his disciples. And each one of these groups is relating to Jesus in a different way. And so this morning, what I want us to do is look at each of these groups and hopefully by the end we’ll see how we ought to relate to Jesus. So let’s start with the crowd. The crowd, and the crowd relates to Jesus as merely a healer. Right? We know very little about the crowd. There’s no dialogue. They don’t come to Jesus and they’re not saying heal us. They’re not saying Jesus forgive us, right? We don’t have any of that in the text. But it’s clear that they’ve heard about Jesus and what he’s done and the rumors of his miracles. And so they come to him. In fact, so many come to him that Jesus and his disciples are concerned that he’s going to be crushed. And so they have to retreat away on a boat. They come to him as a healer. And in one sense, I don’t blame the crowd for this, right? I mean, if you’re sick, if your body is overcome with disease, and you hear of this man that could heal, wouldn’t you come? Right? If it were us, wouldn’t we do exactly what the crowd did, right? If we’re sick, if we’re in chronic pain and we heard that there was this man who could heal us by just a single word or by simply touching us, wouldn’t we crowd around him? Wouldn’t we hope that he would touch us, that he would look upon us and say, you are healed? Of course we would. And so I don’t blame the crowd for what they’re doing. However, they are reducing Jesus to simply being a healer or a miracle worker. We actually hear that he’s far more than that, but it’s not from the crowds. Did you see it? It’s from the words of the demon. Right? In verse 11, it’s the unclean spirit who looks upon Jesus and cries out, you are the son of God. Not the crowds. No, the crowds have reduced him to merely a healer. But Jesus is far more than that. And it’s here where we need to be careful. Like this can actually function as a little bit of a warning to us because it’s very easy for us to fixate on a single quality of Jesus. Maybe the quality that we like the best, the quality fascinate the most with. And we fixate on that quality and we make Jesus all about that one thing, right? He’s a forgiver. He’s a healer. He’s one who loves. He’s gracious. He’s full of joy. He comes to satisfy our hearts’ longings, and all of those things are true. But sometimes we fixate on one of those qualities at the expense of all the others. Like that he’s also a judge. And he’s not just about grace, but he’s also about justice. You see, that’s what the crowd is doing. They’re reducing him to a single quality. So they see him as a healer. But let’s look at his family now because his family doesn’t seem as a healer. No, his family sees him instead as a madman. Right? Do you see it in verses 20 and 21? Then he went out, 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. Now, we don’t know which family members these are, right? Maybe it’s his brother James, right? His little brother James. Maybe it’s an aunt or an uncle or cousins, like, you know, other extended family that we’ve never met, that we’ve never heard of. Maybe it’s his mother Mary, right? I doubt it’s his mother, Mary. I doubt she’s the one who thinks he’s crazy. After all, Mary heard directly from the angels, and she experienced the miracle of Jesus’ birth, right? So she’s, you know… People thought she was crazy, right? So she’s probably not thinking, but we don’t know exactly who these members of his family are. But we see how they could go where they go in their minds, right? Because they see the crowds pushing in on him. They’ve heard Jesus’ words. They’ve heard about his actions. And I can imagine them thinking, wait a minute. Jesus? Like, I remember him in the carpentry shop learning to build tables with his dad, Joseph. And I remember sitting around that same table with him eating a meal and watching him clear all the dishes after the meal was over and doing what his mom asked him to. He’s the Messiah. Sure, he never spoke back to his elders. He never hit his sibling. He was always the model child, right? Why can’t you be like Jesus? But the Messiah? Nah, I grew up with him. I saw him. I know he’s not the Messiah. He’s just Joseph and Mary’s boy. You can see how they could maybe go there in their minds, right? They try to make sense of him. So the only thing that they can make sense of is to say he’s crazy. He’s lost his mind. He is a madman. And y’all, if Jesus isn’t who he says he is, then he is a madman. C.S. Lewis in his wonderful book, Mere Christianity, He once said this. He said a man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would be a lunatic on a level of the man who says he is a poached egg. See, y’all, we don’t have the option of rejecting Jesus’ claim and thinking he’s a good man. It’s going to be one or the other. He is either who he says he is, God, or he is a lunatic. He is either the Savior, the Messiah, or he is a madman. Those are the only options we’ve got. In Mark, Jesus claims to be God, the one who can forgive sins. So which is it? If he is God, then the only response for us is to bow before him and worship him. To call him Lord and fall at his feet and beg for forgiveness. It is to make him our lives. Okay, those are the first two ways that we could relate to Jesus. We could reduce him to a healer. We could treat him like a madman. But now we come to a third group. This is the scribes. And the scribes don’t think Jesus is crazy. They think he’s demonic. Right? Look at verse 22. The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, He is possessed by Bielzabal and by the prince of demons. He casts out demons. Right? So it’s not just the crowds. It’s not just kind of like Joe, a churchgoer that’s hearing about what Jesus is doing. The religious leaders, the religious establishment is hearing about him. And not just any religious leaders. Did you notice where these scribes came from? They came from Jerusalem. Jerusalem. The Holy City of David. So these are probably like the top dog scribes, right? Okay. These are the guys who are like spending all their day pouring over God’s word, who are seeking to interpret it. They’re the expert in God’s law. And they get wind. And so they travel to come see who this Jesus is. And when they see him, what do they do? They seek to discredit him by claiming he’s an agent of Satan. And y’all, if there was someone opposing God’s works and his word, that claim would be warranted. But notice how Jesus responds. In verses 23 in following, 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 house will not be able to stand. And if 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 unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder the house. So you see what Jesus is doing? He’s pointing out how illogical it is that they’re claiming that he’s demonic. Right? How can someone work for Satan while trying to take Satan down? How can one cast out demons by the power of demons? It is ridiculous and absurd. It is simply the religious leader seeking to invoke the worst possible and most fear-inducing explanation in order to discredit Jesus. And y’all, that is the easiest way to win people to your belief. You want to win someone to what you believe? Or at least win them away from an opposing belief? Just convince them that they need to be afraid of that opposing belief. Convince them that your worst nightmares will come about if you follow this person or follow this idea, right? I mean, just y’all listen to the words that we hear in our world. This is what people do. They invoke it all the time. Politicians do it to win them. Our culture does it. Religious leaders do it. Be afraid and follow me. And that’s what they were doing. Don’t follow Jesus. Be afraid. He’s demonic. They’re trying to lead people away from him. But Jesus is showing that it’s not just irrational their way of thinking, but that he’s actually the antithesis to what they’re thinking. Because he’s not an agent of Satan. He actually opposes Satan. Look at verse 28. 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 an eternal sin. You see, Jesus does the opposite of Satan. Jesus forgives. He’s doing the very opposite of what Satan does. Satan condemns, but Jesus forgives. That’s who he is. Now, before moving on, let me comment on this language of blaspheming the Holy Spirit and what this is, because I just acknowledge, I recognize that probably many of you, as soon as we read this passage, that’s all you’ve been thinking about, so you have no idea what I’ve said for the last 15 minutes, right? I don’t want to see a show of hands that would just be discouraging. I’m just kidding. Just kidding, but briefly. But we do wonder this, right? Like, what is he talking about? This unforgivable sin, this blaspheming of the Holy Spirit, right? And so the way that some people have thought about it is like some people have said, well, suicide. That’s the unforgivable sin, right? I’m sure maybe some of you have heard that. Let me just say that is not the unforgivable sin. Okay, that’s not what Jesus is talking about. Now, what Jesus is talking about in short, and I do have to be quick because of time, but what I think he’s getting at is that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is ultimately the rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit regarding who Jesus is. It’s an ultimate rejecting of the witness of the Spirit to who Jesus is. Stay with me for a minute. Think about why the Spirit came. Jesus said the Spirit would come so that in his coming, he would remind us of all that Jesus taught and he will point us to Christ, right? And so if that’s why the Spirit came to reject his witness and his testimony of who Jesus is and why Jesus came and what he came to do is to make the Spirit a liar and thus blaspheme him. And the irony here is that the scribes, just a few chapters before, actually said that Jesus was a blasphemer. Right? When he said that he can forgive sins, they said that he blasphemed. But in rejecting Jesus and claiming that he is an agent of Satan, they themselves blaspheme. You see, by rejecting Jesus and claiming that he’s demonic, they are putting their souls in jeopardy. But y’all, that’s not the end. It’s only three groups. There’s four. There’s one more way to approach Jesus and relate to him, and it’s not simply as a healer, and it’s not as a madman, and it’s not as one possessed by a demon, but instead it’s as a brother. The passage ends with Jesus’ mom and his brother is coming to him, right? Jesus is in the house and he gets wind that his family is outside and they’re wanting him to come out, right? They’re outside waiting. Jesus, come, come see your mom, come see your brothers, right? They’re outside. And what is Jesus saying in verse 33? Who are my mother and my brothers? Right? And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my mother, he is my brother and sister and mother. Now in saying this, Jesus isn’t diminishing the value of his immediate family. What he is doing is expanding and transforming what family means in the kingdom of God. That’s what he’s doing. He’s saying that all who trust in him and have had their sins forgiven, they are now brothers and sisters to the king. So I imagine maybe some of you have uttered the phrase, maybe you’ve thought it, maybe you’ve kind of embraced it like blood is thicker than water, right? Or that there’s family and then everyone else’s strangers, right? Maybe you’ve never said that aloud, but maybe your lives look like that, right? This is how we operate. And the very center of our lives becomes our immediate family. Now, don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying the immediate family is important, right? Moms and dads, brothers and sisters, right? Sons and daughters, these are very important relationships. But what Jesus is telling us is that there is something thicker than blood. It’s the family of faith. Because in the kingdom of God… the family of God, Jesus’ brothers and sisters, the father’s sons and daughters, are united not by blood, but by Christ. That there is actually a family that endures even longer than our immediate family. And that’s the family of faith. And what Jesus is saying is that if your sins have been forgiven, if your sins have been forgiven… and you are trusting in him, then you are part of this family. I mean, think about that, y’all. The king of the universe, the savior of the world, he calls you his brother or sister. Right? This isn’t just true of the disciples of the 12 apostles that he spoke of in verses 13 through 19. This is true of us all. That if you are trusting in Christ, that the creator of the universe is your heavenly father and his son is your brother or sister, you are his brother or sister. Y’all, that is amazing to think about. That is uncomprehensible that men and women, boys and girls, young and old, rich and poor, we are all now part of the people of God and not just the people of God, the family of God. Right? You see, he’s giving us a family name, brother and sister. And he’s also giving us family work, right? In this passage, he says, whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. Right. He’s not saying that we earn our place in God’s family. Forgiveness comes first. What he’s saying is that if we’re part of the family, if we’ve had our sins forgiven, then we will do the work of God. That is the family business. That’s the family business to obey the father and live as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of Christ. And so the question we have to ask ourselves, and we cannot delay in answering it, is how are you relating to Jesus? Y’all do not delay because in delaying, you are answering it. How will we relate to Jesus as a healer or a madman, as one possessed by a demon, or as a brother? C.S. Lewis, in that wonderful passage, he went on and he said, you must make a choice. Either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. Amen. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you that you have revealed to us who Jesus is and what he came to do. And so we pray that as we have witnessed and heard of what he has done through your word, that we would embrace him as our Lord, that we would fall at his feet, that we would call out to him. and follow him our elder brother. So I pray that you would help us to turn away from this world, that you would help us not to see him as simply a healer, as a madman, as one possessed by a demon, but instead that you would open our eyes, unplug our ears, and soften our hearts to the truth, and that Christ is the Lord, and that we are part of his family. So let us live as those members of his family. We ask that you would do this for the great name of Jesus and for the good of your people. And we pray this in Christ’s name, and God’s people said together, amen.”
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