Will the REAL Jesus Please Stand Up?
Series: Markers Along the Narrow Way
November 18, 2012
*** Darren Pullins READ Mark 3:7-35
The question we’re going to tackle this morning (and in our Life Groups this week) is this… Who is Jesus? That may sound like a pretty simple question to some of you because you feel like you know Jesus pretty well. But I find that depending on your upbringing, background, teaching or own personal agenda …different people have different ideas about who Jesus is that may be right or wrong. For example…
• When I was a little kid going to Sunday School, I kind of thought of Jesus as a nice, patient, Mr. Rogers kind of guy, but I couldn’t imagine him ever getting mad at anybody. And there are aspects of Jesus that match that, but that’s not ALL of who he is. Some of you may still see him like that.
• When I grew up, went to college and started studying him in a little more detail, I confess that I started seeing Jesus as more like “Spock” from Star Trek…remaining cool, calm and collected…walking around like a robot, while the excitable human beings tried to outwit and kill him. Maybe that’s the way you see him too!
At youth camp this year, one of our speakers said that he had hobby of collecting pictures of Jesus. I thought that was kind of a neat idea, so I collected a few pictures of my own that I’m going to show you. Of course we all know that camera’s didn’t exist back then…so there aren’t any real photo’s of Jesus …but that hasn’t stopped us from trying to imagine what he looked like. Now, as you look at these pictures, you realize that behind each one is somebodies “idea” of what Jesus is like…
1. “Good Shepherd” Jesus: my earliest recollection
2. “Frito Bandito” Jesus: a pretty tough cookie!
3. “Black Jesus”: Actually may be closer to his natural skin color
4. “Ghoulish” Jesus: stress the serious side
5. “Laughing” Jesus:
6. “Buddy” Jesus: for those who don’t want to feel
judged.
7. “Cromagnon” Jesus : UGG!
8. “Feminine” Jesus
9. “Rocker Jesus”: for those who come out of the
10. WWF Jesus…
So which one is it? Who is the real Jesus? Well, what does the bible say? Mark actually seeks to answer that question in the passage of scripture we’re going to look at today. Because he shows us what other peoples initial impressions and thoughts of who Jesus was are. But then he goes further and reveals who the REAL Jesus is, if we’ll just take the time to look a little more closely.
Like some of those pics we just saw, some of their ideas of who Jesus really was…are way out there!
The 1st of what I would call the “mischaracterizations of Jesus” comes from a very surprising source…HIS OWN FAMILY! READ vs.21-22. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
So here are Jesus’ own family members saying, “He’s out of His mind!” They were mischaracterizing him as…
1. CRAZY Jesus
Have you ever been misunderstood by family members? Well then you can sympathize with Jesus then! How many of you know that the people who are supposed to understand you the most, sometimes end up mis-understanding you the most! In this case they really had it wrong. Now why in the world would his own brothers and sisters…even his mother (Mary) say something like that? Well, look at it from their point of view…
1. Jesus left a carpenter’s business in Nazareth where he was at least eeeking out a living to become a wandering preacher with nowhere to live and no way to earn an income. If your husband or wife would do that…what would you think?
2. On top of that, a good Jewish young man, raised in a respectable home…now he was now hanging out with some real rif-raff! I’m not just talking about the taxcollectors and prostitutes…but his so-called disciples! No sensible man would pick a group of friends like this.
3. And probably most concerning of all…Jesus was obviously on a head-on collision course with the most powerful men of his day…the religious leaders, not to mention the whole Roman Empire!
The 2 things that most of us spend our entire lives to protect…our security and our safety…Jesus was haphazardly throwing away! Yeah…you’d think He’s acting a little odd yourself! No wonder vs. 21 tells us that they went to “take charge” of him (lit. grk. means to forcibly seize him). If they couldn’t reason with Him, then they felt it was their responsibility to save him from Himself! You would have tried to do the same thing if he was your son or daughter, brother or sister. BUT…as convinced as they were about their point of view…they were DEAD wrong! They didn’t understand that Jesus didn’t come to live a safe and secure life…Jesus came to die for you and for me! He came to change the world, and not even His own family would stand in the way!
The 2nd mischaracterization of Jesus comes right on the heels of the 1st…vs.22 READ. This false view of Jesus is what I’d call the…
2. DEMON POSSESSED Jesus
The teacher’s of the law seized on the comments of Jesus’ own family, to pile on with their own accusations. They contended that Jesus was possessed by Beelzebub…(who was the Canaanite fertility god and in their minds the chief of all the demons). They were saying, “No, he’s not crazy…don’t let him off that easy…He’s demon possessed. That’s why he’s acting crazy! And by the way, in case you wonder about his power to cast out demons…it’s because He’s using the devils power!”
Well, to have his family call him crazy is one thing…but to have the religious leaders label him as demon-possessed…that had to be dealt with. So he uses their own rational against them. He says in effect, “I’ll tell you who’s not making any sense…it’s you! I mean think about it…if Satan is actually making war with his own demons…by casting them out…then he’s destroying himself! How can that be? So let me give you a more likely alternative…if you’re going to try and bust into a strongman’s house (who’s armed to the teeth) and take all his belongings…you better be a lot stronger than he is! In otherwords…if he has assault rifle…you better have a tank! Satan is strong…but I’ve got a tank! I’m a lot stronger than he is, and so that’s why you see me taking him out! As you listen to Jesus speak here…do these sound like the irrational ravings of a mad man? I don’t think so!
It’s not a civil war that Satan is dealing with, He’s being attacked by a stronger force… and Jesus is leading the charge! Jesus is serious about dealing with evil wherever He finds it! Let me ask you…in your struggle against evil in your life and in this world, would you rather have a BB gun, or a battleship? Jesus is a battleship! Listen, there’s no sin, no temptation, no discouragement, no disease, no power that can come anywhere near to defeating him. So ask yourself…whose side am I on? If you’re not living for and giving your life for Jesus…you’re going to end up on the loser’s side. Cause there are only two sides in this battle. Good or evil, and you’re either on one side or the other. And if you say, “Well, I don’t really know which side I’m on”…whether you know it or not, you’re being used by the enemy.
That’s why Jesus talks about the “unforgivable sin” here in vs.28-29. He tells the “teachers of the law”… (READ) 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”
Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit so serious that it can’t be forgiven? Because of the nature of the H.S.’s work. See, the job of the H.S. according to Jesus in John 16:8 &13 is to convict the world of their guilt, in regard to sin, righteousness and judgment…and then to guide people into truth. So, if you’re resisting the work of the H.S. in your life and even try to stop him from working in other’s lives…(like the teachers of the law were)…you’re keeping yourself and them from the very forgiveness you both need. It’s like someone said, “The really unforgivable sin is the denial of sin. By it’s very nature, there’s nothing to be forgiven!” Bottom line, there is no forgiveness if it’s not asked for…which makes it “unforgivable”.
Now, if Jesus’ family and the Pharisees would have just stopped long enough to watch what he was doing, they would have seen who He was. It’s just like a little baby…if you watch them close enough, they’ll tell you things about who they are. (I should have know that my 2nd son Jared would be a drummer by the way he beat on things as a kid. Aiden- mechanical)
Well, in the same way, if you watch Jesus very closely…He’ll reveal Himself to you. (By the way, he still works that way). So let me show you (very quickly) 3 things that are revealed about who Jesus REALLY is in this passage…
1st, I want you to see the
1. “MISSIONAL” Jesus:
Jesus wasn’t crazy and he wasn’t demon possessed …Jesus was a man on a mission! (and there’s a difference.) Jesus had the most important message that has ever been spoken to tell the world. It was the message that God was with them, and that He had come to set them free from sin so they could fulfill God’s original plan for them and take back the world from the clutches of the devil. If you discovered the cure for cancer…would you keep it to yourself? I hope not! NO! You’d shout it from the housetops! Jesus had something greater than a cure for cancer and he was trying to get the message out. Huge crowds were showing up from upwards to 100 miles away But here’s the problem…how would he make his message permanent, and how would he get the message around the world without the use of cell phones and TV’s? Answer: He had to choose certain men that he could write his message on their hearts and then THEY would carry that message long after he was gone to heaven.
So that’s exactly what we see him doing in vs.14,15… He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons”. …He appoints 12 men, makes them ‘apostles’ or “church planters” and calls them for 2 purposes…1. He called them to be “with him”, and then he called them in order to “send them out”. Notice the order there… we’re to be WITH Jesus, before He can send us out. In otherwords, unless we spend quality time with him and really begin to take on His nature…we can’t be sent out. We have to be his true representatives, otherwise our lives are communicating a false message! See…BEING always proceeds DOING. But notice when he gets ready to send them out to preach…not only does He give them a message to proclaim…but it says in vs.15 that He gave them “AUTHORITY to drive out demons”. In otherwords, he gave them power to enforce his victory over Satan. That’s our job…to confront and destroy evil wherever we find it…
Whether it’s in our workplace, our society, or in our own heart…the strongman Jesus has come to defeat evil and relieve suffering. And WE are his representatives…so we ought to be doing the same thing!
The 2nd thing we need to know about the REAL Jesus that he reveals to us is that (and this is important as we go in His name)… Jesus valued community. In otherwords…we’re not talking about the “LoneRanger Jesus”…we’re talking about the…
2. “RELATIONAL” Jesus
I think it’s significant to notice that Christianity began as a group! The Christian life is something that’s meant to be lived out with others! Jesus didn’t just choose these 12 men to be his representatives…he choose them to be “with him”, i.e. to be his companions. Remember the Pharisees from last week? Did you know that the word “Pharisee” lit. means…”the separated ones”? That’s because they thought life was meant to be lived alone. To them, the best way to become holy was to separate yourself from other people. Jesus is showing us they had it all wrong! No! You become more holy, (more like Him), NOT by separating yourself from people like some kind of a monk…but you become more like Christ by learning how to live out his principles in close fellowship with others. That way we can help and learn from each other. How can you say you really love one another…if you’ve never gotten close enough to be hurt? You can’t! It’s through the hurt that you truly learn how to love! I guarantee you that this group of 12 very diverse men weren’t easy to love! Jesus poured his life into them, and in the end…it showed!
When you think about Jesus…realize that He wasn’t some distant, aloof Holy Man…he was deeply relational. A true lover of people. In fact, when his family members finally got to the house where he was teaching, (again) the crowds were so great, that they sent a messenger in to tell him that his mothers and brothers were outside looking for him. He responded, vs.33… 33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
It almost sounds like Jesus is “dissing” his Mom here…(In fact, I’ve never heard a this passage used on “Mothers Day”), but I don’t think that’s the case. I think He’s telling the people sitting around him that He loves them as much or MORE than his own family. And that the real definition of family has to do with obeying God.
You know, we all have responsibilities to our families. We all have traditions and expectations…but Jesus is saying that our commitment to follow and obey God is even greater than our commitment to our family. If doing what your bio family wants causes you to deny or walk away from Jesus, you have to choose Him. Now…God would never ask you to do anything that would hurt your family relationship…but families WILL ask you to do things that will hurt your God relationship. Jesus’ own family was trying to get him to stop pursuing God’s calling on his life. If you have to make a choice between God or family…you have to choose Christ. (Never forget man led to Christ. Family or Jesus…he chose family!)
The last thing we need to know about the true Jesus surprisingly wasn’t revealed to us by humans, but by demons! In vs.11 we read that…” Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.”
The only ones who got it right were the demons and He told them to “shut up”! (ha!) And so the last way that the true Jesus is revealed is as the…
3. “ALL POWERFUL” Jesus
Now in ancient Israel, to call someone your 1st born “son” was tantamount to calling them you. They had your authority, your influence, your property, your identity. So when Jesus is called the “Son of God”, that doesn’t mean He’s “God Jr.” It means He IS God!
Jesus isn’t just some prophet that you can take or leave. He’s not some kind of moral or religious teacher…He’s God, the same God that created the universe…come to planet earth. When He told the demons to shut up, it wasn’t because they were wrong about who He was…it was because they were right! But He wasn’t about to let a demon introduce Him! Like someone once said, “The voices of demons are always off key”. Eventually He wants you and me to come to that realization for ourselves!
As God in flesh, we can’t treat His words as if we can take them or leave them. They are life or death!
According to Jesus’ own words, what I think about him and how I respond to him will determine my destiny for all eternity. That’s serious stuff! Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the identity of who Jesus is. Get to know who He reveals Himself to be…and then follow Him with everything you are and everything you have.
Making a confession of who He is isn’t enough. The demons did that, but it didn’t mean they were his true disciples. True followers…follow through with their actions and their lives.
