A House Divided Series

• Pastors hate division. You would think that Christians would too.

• John Calvin said if Christians hated division as much as they hated those who disagreed with them, we would have won the world.

• Ill. It is said that when the British and French were fighting in Canada in the 1750s, Admiral Phipps, commander of the British fleet, was told to anchor outside Quebec. He was given orders to wait for the British land forces to arrive, then support them when they attacked the city. Phipps' navy arrived early. As the admiral waited, he became annoyed by the statues of the saints that adorned the towers of a nearby cathedral, so he commanded his men to shoot at them with the ships' cannons. No one knows how many rounds were fired or how many statues were knocked out, but when the land forces arrived and the signal was given to attack, the admiral was of no help. He had used up all his ammunition shooting at the "saints."

• The only battle some Christians ever get into concerning their faith is shooting at the other saints.

• Christianity today is definitely a house divided.

• That was never Jesus’ intent, especially when He prayed we would be one, as He and the Father were one.

Mar 3:22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "by the prince of demons he casts out the demons."

• Scribes in Jesus’ day were men with the official position of knowing the text and context of the Old Testament scriptures. They were known for a technical and accurate knowledge.

• There were undoubtedly sent to find a “technical” error or theological mistake in Jesus’ teachings.

• This is obviously due to the fact that the Pharisees could not trap or corner Jesus.

• They needed experts of the written Word, they thought, to prove Jesus was a phoney.

• These experts were not what they were cracked up to be.

• They say that Jesus was possessed by the “Lord of the Flies” and referred to him as the prince of demons.

• They said Jesus was casting out demons by the power of this demonic power.

• The reference comes from 2 Kings 1, when King Ahaziah fell through the lattice work of his roof, hurt his leg, and sent to ask Baalzebub (the god of high places), god of the Philistine City of Ekron, whether he would live or die from his injury.

• It was so vulgarized by the Jews, the apparently changed the name to “Lord of the Flies”, denoting filth, and proclaimed this to be the name of the prince of demons.

• Some have even claimed that Beelzebul is Satan’s other name.

• This became tradition. Jesus did not refute this, but by no means does he in any account confirm this to be a demon’s name.

• Jesus, in Matthew 10:25, only confirms that the Scribes were saying that.

• So much for the technical accuracy of the scribes.

I. Let’s learn a lesson here. We sometimes don’t know what we think we know.

• Man’s knowledge is incomplete and will be until Jesus perfects us in glory.

• Just as we smirk at some of the science of the previous generation, the next generation will smirk at our science.

• The same is probably true of our theology or at least our biblical knowledge.

• How many of each animal was in the ark?

• Moses did not go floating by Pharaoh’s daughter in a reed boat.

• The wise men did not go to the manger.

• These are things that we may hear, or see in a biblical movie, but they are not supported by scripture.

Mar 3:23-26 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end.

• They were not accusing Jesus to His face.

• They were apparently spreading this among the crowd.

• Jesus responds by calling them to Himself.

• This accusation warrants a confrontation.

• Jesus makes His first point.

II. A house divided cannot stand.

• Jesus’ first point was, why in the world would Satan be divided against himself?

• This points out the absurdity of the claims of the scribes.

A. Why would Satan cast out Satan?

• Satan cannot heal. Satan cannot give life.

• Satan would not if he could. He comes to steal, kill and destroy.