#16 Who Is Jesus?—2 Opinions, 1 Truth
Series: Mark
May 3, 2020
Chuck Sligh
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 3:20.
NOTE: PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives
TEXT: Mark 3:20-35 - And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. 21 And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. 23 And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. 27 No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. 28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: 29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: 30 Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
31 There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him. 32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. 33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? 34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – A few months ago some guy about my age walked up to me in the PX and said, “Hey, man! It’s been a long time. How are you?”
I’m thinking, Who in the world is this guy? I usually remember faces, but I drew a blank on him. But I meet so many people at church and on my job that I can forget a few. He knew me, so I figured, Well, I must know him.
So I updated him on Susan and me and the church, and right there he stopped me.
He said, “Wait, you’re a pastor of a church?”
I said “Yes.”
He said, “Is your name Dave?”
I said, “No, it’s Chuck Sligh.”
Suddenly he broke out laughing and said, “Sorry, I thought you were my old drinking buddy Dave Davenport. I thought your voice sounded different.”
Then I broke out laughing and we went our separate ways.
It was a case of mistaken identity. In our text, two groups of people knew Jesus’ name, but they did not know His identity. A proper identification of Jesus is necessary because who you think He is has eternal consequences.
Let’s look at our story of these two cases of false identification of Jesus and how Jesus handled it:
I. THE OPINION OF JESUS’ FAMILY WAS THAT HE WAS INSANE – Verses 20-21 – “And the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his own people heard of it, they went out to seize him: for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’”
When Jesus returned home to Galilee, probably to Peter’s home, the crowds gathered as usual and Jesus and His disciples were so busy, they couldn’t even find time to eat.
Verse 2 says that when “his own people” heard of it, they went out to seize him. The word translated “his own people” was a Greek idiom for kinsmen or family. The term “seize” is regularly used by Mark in the sense of attempting to bind someone and deprive him of freedom, which is the sense here. The reason they went to do this was because they said, “He is out of his mind.”
How could His own flesh and blood think Jesus was crazy and be willing to humiliate Him by forcibly seizing Him and dragging Him bound back to Nazareth?
• For one thing, they thought His religious fervor would ruin His health and future.
The text itself says that Jesus was so busy ministering to peoples’ needs that He couldn’t even find time to eat. In a culture where food was scarce, this was considered insane!
The danger of the press of the crowds might have been a factor too. Earlier in chapter 3, the crowds were so large and unruly that Jesus told His disciples to have a boat handy in case they needed to make a hasty escape. Maybe His family feared for His physical safety.
Also, it must have seemed crazy for Jesus to give up a thriving carpenter’s business, which met His needs, to set Himself against the powers that be and gather a motley group of disciples around Him. His family was probably motivated by love: they thought—correctly—that the path He had taken would get him killed!
• I think also they probably thought His religious zeal was just too extreme.
It’s okay to be devoted to God and carry out your religious duties. But to take such a radical path was not, to them, the actions of a sane person.
Furthermore, they did not understand the mission of Jesus’ life. We’re told in John 7:5 that despite seeing Jesus’ works in Gallilee, Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in Him. It wasn’t until after his death that some of Jesus’ brothers believed, and two, James and Jude, went on to write New Testament books. But in our text today, they had not yet believed, and they must have thought Jesus had become some kind of self-destructive megalomaniac.
So out of love, they sought to save Him from Himself before the religious leaders or the Roman authorities had Him killed.
Jesus’ family is not the only ones who believe Jesus was some kind of deluded lunatic. Many people today see Jesus as a good man, but somewhat mentally imbalanced.
Illus. – Philosopher Albert Schweitzer in the early Twentieth Century was the first to articulate the idea that Jesus had a messianic delusion of Himself. Schweitzer’s thesis was that Jesus thought He could change the world, only to have the world destroy Him. He was, according to Schweitzer, a good man, a noble man, but ultimately a deluded fool.
That has been what many nonbelievers have thought of many of those who have followed Christ down through the centuries. When Paul preached to Festus, Festus cried out with a loud voice “Paul, you are beside yourself; your great learning is driving you mad.”
People who follow Jesus with zeal and self-sacrifice are viewed that way even today.
Illus. – Jim Elliott was a genius at business and had prospects for great business opportunities when he graduated from university. But he chose instead to give up everything to become a missionary to a heretofore unreached tribe of Indians, the Aucas, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People thought he and his four missionary companions and their families with them were crazy to give up all the modern conveniences in the early 1950s to go to a remote part of the Amazon jungle where the Aucas lived.
But in one of his journal entries Elliott wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” On January 8, 1956, Elliott and all four of his missionary companions were murdered by the Auca Indians.
This kind of devotion to Christ is mystifying to nonbelievers. They view it as foolhardy at best, insane at worst.
But the reality is, as R. Kent Hughes puts it, “If Christ is who he says he is, then the sanest thing in the world is to follow him. If Christ calls us to total commitment, anything else is crazing. Christianity needs more of Christ’s madness!”
II. THE SECOND CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY OF JESUS CAME FROM THE SCRIBES WHO THOUGHT HE WAS A DOUBLE AGENT IN LEAGUE WITH THE DEVIL. – Verse 22 _ “The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed Beelzebub,’ and ‘by the prince of the demons he casts out demons.’”
The scribes were the highly trained religious legal experts of their day. Part of their job was to examine people who claimed to be miracle workers and determine if they were mere charlatans, or sorcerers following the black arts or genuine prophets of God.
The scribes’ minds were apparently already made up. None of the Gospels mention any interviews with Jesus or His disciples. They came with closed hearts and minds.
They basically made two charges:
First, they claimed that He was possessed by Beelzebub.
Beelzebub was a Philistine god who was variously known as “the lord of the flies” or “the god of filth.” As hard as it is to believe for us today, they actually worshipped a god of the flies that swarm around filthy, decaying things. By New Testament times Beelzebub also came to be thought of as the prince over a large division of Satan’s demons.
The scribes could not have conceived of a greater insult to Jesus. It was a foul and wicked thing to say and was something that came from very foul and wicked hearts.
Second, they charged that Jesus cast out demons by the power of this evil prince.
This would have reduced Jesus to a demon-possessed sorcerer who dabbled in the black arts! The scribes could not deny that Jesus performed bone fide exorcisms. Yet they would not accept His power as being from God. Therefore, Jesus HAD to be an agent of Satan masquerading as a man of God. This made Jesus out to be extraordinarily wicked—a corrupt tool of Satan.
As insulting as these charges were, Jesus never lost His cool. He answered His enemies with maddening calmness and impeccable logic. We read in verse 23 – “And he called them to him, and said to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan?
Then he went on to point out the craziness of their allegations:
• In verse 24 He gave an illustration from the SECULAR world. – “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”
No worse disaster can befall to a country than for it to be rent by civil war. Even when the war ends, old resentments smolder for years, even centuries. All the while, the nation’s weakened condition invites interference by foreign powers.
• In verse 25, Jesus gave an illustration from the SOCIAL world. – “And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
Think of the harm done to children in homes torn by strife! What hope do parents have of support in their old age from hateful kids? What kind of family support and solidarity can you have if siblings are divided against one another?
Such families descend into chaos. The Bible gives several illustrations of this fact. For example, the situations in Jacob’s family and in David’s family show what happens when families are divided. By contrast, the pagan world soon learned that an attack on Lot was also an attack on Abraham because ties were strong in Abraham’s family.
• Verse 26 was Jesus’ conclusion of the scribes’ accusations – “And if Satan has risen up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.”
He was pointing out that if His work was diametrically opposed to Satan, how could He be empowered by Satan? It didn’t many any sense! If what the scribes were saying were true, then Satan was clearly working at cross purposes with Himself, which would only lead to his fall. This is impossibly illogical.
• In verse 27, Jesus told a one-verse parable that revealed His true identity – “No one can enter a strong man’s house, and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man; and then he can plunder his house.”
To understand what Jesus is saying, let’s dig into this short parable. Satan is the “strong man” in the parable. His “house” is the kingdom which he rules here on earth. His “possessions” are the lost without Christ under the power and influence of Satan and His demonic forces.
Ephesians 2:1-2 describe people without Christ this way: “And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the children of disobedience.”
Paul is saying that Satan is at work in the lives of people who don’t know Christ. Now if you told an unbeliever they were under the control of Satan, they would laugh at you. They’d probably say, “Are you crazy? I don’t even believe in Satan!”
But Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 – “Whose minds the god of this world has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
Even for people who don’t believe God or the devil exist, Satan is actively keeping their minds blinded to the truth about Jesus. They’re slaves to Satan without even knowing it.
Illus. – There’s a species of ant in the Amazon area of South America called the Slave-making Ant. Hundreds of these ants periodically swarm out of their nest and attack colonies of weaker ants. After destroying the living ants, they carry back the larvae of unhatched ants. When these young ants are hatched, they’re forced to be slave ants. These worker ants are born thinking they belong to the colony, never realizing they were forced to be slaves from the time they are born.
That’s a picture of humanity. Without realizing it, we’re born in slavery to sin and Satan.
We need someone stronger than Satan to come and rescue and reclaim us from the strong man.
This is what Jesus did—He entered Satan’s house, bound him, and loosed captive souls. Jesus was identifying HIMSELF as the Stronger Man who was already defeating Satan in His earthly ministry and would deliver His final blow at the cross and at the tomb three days later. The final doom of Satan and His demons will come when God casts them into the lake of fire forever.
• Jesus’ appeal to logic in answer to the scribes’ accusations must have left them speechless. But Jesus was not speechless: He followed this parable with a frightening warning to the scribes in verses 28-30 – “‘Truly I say to you, All sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter: 29 But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.’ 30 because they said, He has an unclean spirit.”
Very few scriptures are more consistently misunderstood and misapplied than this passage. Nearly everyone has heard of the unforgivable sin, and I even had someone tell me he had committed it.
What is the unforgivable sin?
First, let’s consider what it is NOT.
It is not cursing the Holy Spirit.
It is not taking the Lord’s name in vain, though that is a wicked sin.
It is not adultery or sexual perversion or murder or even genocide.
And let me calm your mind by telling you that if you are worried you have committed the unforgivable sin—you haven’t—for someone who has would not fear it or care about it.
If these are not the unforgivable sin, then what is it? Taking the context into consideration, most Bible teachers agree with R. Kent Hughes’ definition of the unforgiveable sin: “Very simply it is the ongoing, continual rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit to the Divinity and Saviorhood of Christ. It is the perversion in the heart which chooses to call light darkness and darkness light. It is continuing rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit, whether that witness be a quiet witness in the conscience, the rational witness of the Word, or even miracles and wonders.”
The scribes here were at the very brink of committing this sin, because they were saying that the Holy Spirit’s witness to Christ through His exorcisms and miracles and holy preaching and unparalleled teachings were really the work of Satan. Not only that, they were PERSISTING in their blasphemy, for the tense of verse 22 indicates they kept repeatedly saying it. If their attitude had become permanent, they would have crossed the line and committed the unforgivable sin.
CONCLUSION
Mark has showcased two illogical opinions regarding Christ in today’s text.
• The first, and most charitable, was that He was “out of His mind;” that He was insane. This was the view of people who appreciated and loved Him, who knew of His miracles and His impeccable life—yet they did not believe He was God. Many people believe this idea that Jesus was a good man, a great teacher, but He was only that—a man—and thus they are deceived.
• The second and least charitable opinion was that Jesus was a double agent of Satan, possessed by Beelzebub who cast out demons by the prince of demons. They attributed the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ as satanic in origin. If they continued in this hostility, they would have committed the unforgivable sin.
These two opinions of Jesus present us with what is often referred to as the Great Trilemma: either Jesus was a lunatic, or a demonic liar, or he was God. Regarding his being a liar, Philip Schaff, the eminent church historian, wrote:
“The hypothesis of imposture is so revolting to moral as well as common sense, that its mere statement is its condemnation. How in the name of logic, common sense, and experience, could an imposter—that is a deceitful, selfish, depraved man—have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality? How could he have conceived and successfully carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude, and sublimity, and sacrificed his own life for it, in the face of the strongest prejudices of his people and ages?”
As to Jesus’ sanity, we must realize that the difficulty of explaining His life, if He was a madman, has never been overcome. The incongruity of the immense sanity of his moral teaching and the massive megalomania with which he is charged cannot be satisfactorily reconciled. Thus, there is only one logical opinion: that Jesus was God!
As C. S. Lewis’ said in his oft-quoted words:
“I’m trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really silly thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That’s the one thing we mustn’t say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he’s a poached egg—or else he’d be the Devil of Hell. You must make your 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. But don’t let us come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He hasn’t left that open to us. He didn’t intend to.”
Brethren, there is no logical choice but to accept that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords! It is the most sane thing in the world to trust in Him and commit your life to Him. In light of His extraordinary claims, His matchless teachings, His impeccable life, His work on Calvary to die for your sins, His incredible resurrection, and His many wonderful promises, any other life than one committed to Jesus Christ is insanity!
No wonder Paul says in Romans 12:1 – “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
The supremely sane life is one that is totally committed to Jesus. I invite you to give your life to Christ today.
Believer, don’t believe the lies that Satan whispers in your ear that living for Christ is a crazy idea. No, it’s the most sane and sensible thing in the world to do.
