Text: Mark 3:22-30
Title: And the Winner is…Jesus!
The Teachers of the Law walk 100 miles to take on Jesus.
Their attack will be two-fold. First they accuse Jesus of being demon-possessed and secondly they accuse him of driving out demons by the power of demons.
V23 “So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables”
1. What you accuse me of is illogical.(24-26)
“How can Satan drive out Satan “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself, and is divided he cannot stand; his end has come.”
Satan does not drive out anything
“He wants to possess, not deliver, to inhabit not vacate; to bind, not set free.”
You don’t drive out evil with evil
2. What you accuse me of is a tactic of Satan
Notice that Jesus used the word Satan instead of the word Devil.The word Satan means “Accuser”
The Devil is using the Teachers of the Law to accuse Jesus of being demon possessed.
The Bible tells us that the Devil is our Accuser.
1. He accuses us before God
He tells God our sins.
Rev 12:10 “for the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before God day and night has been hurled down.”
2. He accuses God before us
He tells us that God is not good
He accused God of not being good to Eve
Gen 3:4-5 “you will not surely die, “ the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Whenever bad things happen he accuses God. It’s God’s fault!
3. Thirdly the Devil accuses us before ourselves
We will look more at how the devil does this a little later.
So how is our accuser Satan defeated?
(v27) In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.”
What is described here in verse 27 is a parable. Jesus is not a burglar. He is not for breaking into homes.
He is using an analogy.
A. The strong man is Satan.
Even though the Scriptures tell us little about Satan’s origin, they do inform us that he is a fallen angel of considerable power. The New Testament describes him as a “great enemy” who “prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Jesus Himself said that Satan is such a force to be reckoned with that He is the only one strong enough to conquer him. He also portrayed him as the head of a great, highly organized “army” of evil spirit beings.He is a cunning liar, capable of seducing Adam and Eve by disguising himself as an “angel of light.”The book of Revelation says that his powers of deception are so potent that he is able to lead the whole world astray.
B. The Strong Man’s house is this world
Jesus would go on to refer to Satan as the “ruler of this world.” Paul called him the “god of this age.”
C. Satan’s possessions = All the people of the world.
Ephesians 2:1-2
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
So our only hope is for a stronger man than Satan to enter this world; tie up (bind up) Satan and carry us off so that we would no longer be the possessions of Satan.
The only man stronger than Satan is Jesus himself!
Jesus has overcome an assassination attempt; the temptation in the desert and he has cast out demons, healed the sick and forgiven people of their sins.
Now notice Jesus said he cannot carry or rob Satan of his possessions until he first binds him.
Has Jesus bound Satan and if so when?
Hebrews 2:14
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death- that is the devil.
Colossians 2:15
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross.
So clearly Jesus bound Satan by his death on the Cross.
We don’t need to bind Satan because Jesus bound Satan already.
He bound Satan but he did not silence Satan!
Satan is no longer our master but he is still our accuser
He can’t make us do the wrong thing but he can still ask us to do the wrong thing
Satan is all talk and he can talk us into doing what he wants us to do.
We ask God to do for us what we can’t do.
Satan asks us to do for him what he can’t do
But the reality is because of the cross we can say no to Satan and he can’t do anything about it.
Then Jesus finishes the parable by saying,
V28-30
“I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemes of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.
He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”
Now here we can see how Satan has found another way to accuses us and this time before ourselves.
Yes the truth is that Jesus has forgiven you of all your sins but sometime in your life you must have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit.
And according to Jesus whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He or she is guilty of an eternal sin.
You are bound for eternity.
What is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and why is it unforgivable?
Every accusation of Satan needs to be destroyed with an answer from Jesus.
The text tells us what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is.
The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to say that Jesus has an evil spirit instead of the Holy Spirit
And the reason it’s an unforgiveable sin is because anyone who believes Jesus has an evil spirit isn’t going to ask Jesus for forgiveness.
And if you don’t ask Jesus for forgiveness you can’t have forgiveness.
And just to set your mind at rest. If you even think you have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit that’s proof in itself you haven’t.
Those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit are not convicted that they did anything wrong.
The Holy Spirit is not able to convict them.
Application
Every one of us here has experienced the accusations of Satan
Matthew 10:25 “If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub how much more the members of his household.
The only answer to the accusations of Satan is…the actions of Christ
Martin Luther
Dear devil, I have heard the record. But I have committed far more sins which do not even stand in your record. Put them down too. . . . .
Is Satan accusing you before God? Remember Jesus who died for your sins is interceding for you before God.
I tell you the truth all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.
Is Satan accusing God before you?
Has Satan brought up something against God?.
Remember this: It is always Satan who is against you and not God
