Mark Chapter 3 Verses 7 - 8

• When they heard how many things He was doing? Like what? Well, He was preaching the gospel! We know that from Chapter 1 verse 14. He was going all syfy in the temple casting out demons as they screamed at Him! We know that from Chapter 1 verse 25. He was healing the sick. We know that from Chapter 1 verse 31. Those three things weren’t all that unbelievable if you think about it…folks would say, “Is it possible to preach the gospel?” Yea. Folks would say, “Is it possible to cast out unclean spirits?” Well yea, it’s a stretch…we don’t see that too often but in 1 Samuel 16 we see an evil spirit upon Saul and David’s playing of the harp for him caused the spirit to depart…so yea, possible..
• By the way, notice what soothed Saul’s pain? David’s harping…HA! Harping in today’s understanding has a negative connotation to it doesn’t it? But look, soothe folks with your harping! “Man I wish my wife would stop telling me EVERY day that she’s proud of me…” SAID NO HUSBAND EVER!
• “Oh, if only my husband would stop telling me how fine I am all the time!” SAID NO WIFE EVER! Right!?
• Even friends! Man if my buddy Scott would just once in a while stop telling me how much he appreciates me…then I’d get some peace! I don’t think so! David soothed Saul by harping on him man…what is your harping doing?
• Back to the scene…”Is it possible to heal folks,” the people would say and their contemplative answer? Yea…of course it is…we have doctors and such…but what else was Jesus up to? What caused such a stir? Chapter 1 verse 42…Jesus cleansed a man of leprosy…impossible. “Something is different here,” they began to think…
• Chapter 2 verse 5, Jesus forgives the sins of the paralytic man…WHOA! What dat do dat? This is nuts!? “Then what happened, the boy would ask his father at the dinner table.” Then, the paralytic…stood to his feet! WOOOOOOW!
• Then Chapter 3 verse 5, Jesus said to the man with the withered hand…”stretch it out!” Dad, come on…that’s cruel…the hand is withered…he can’t stretch it out…that’s impossible! But son, the father would say from across the dinner table, that’s precisely what he did!
• You see Jesus was performing the impossible! This man, the scene we saw last week, “stretch out your hand….” Impossible! You see he had brought the man to a decision point in front of all the people…Jesus was making a clear statement to the crowds…1) don’t listen to Me, make excuses, sit in unbelief or 2) simply obey Me. The people watched. What would he do, the man with the withered hand…would he lose all hope at the impossible command of Jesus…or would he obey…hope against hope man trusting that Jesus is able to heal him?
• You know how it ended. But do you see the strategic statement that Jesus was making? Who was He making that statement to? YOU! Me! Us…as we read His wonderful Word together last week! He was showing us that the very moment that we simply trust in Him, place our hope and faith in Him…not in the withered state of our situation or our marriage or our career or our lives…the minute we simply do what He has told us to do…obey Him even in the details, even against humanistic logic…He will heal us…
• Dad, did all this happen? Yes son, saw it with my own two. Can we go see Him? Yes, we’ll go right after dinner. And Mark tells us they came from all over…Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Tyre and Sidon…why? Because of these wondrous, unexplainable, impossible, magnificent miracles which look He still does today!!! Ask your Dad….   J

Mark Chapter 3 Verses 9 – 12

• Wow, what a scene! How much more should we who are saved fall down before Him in worship? These are demons for crying out loud and God is so magnificent, so glorious, that He comes by, a demon catches a glimpse and is compelled to worship!
• Why the stern warning? Could be that he was already having enough trouble simply going from point A to point B because of the great multitudes…but also could be the fact that unclean spirits are also lying spirits (1 Kings 22:22, 2 Chronicles 18:21)…and what good is the word of a liar? Typically the opposite of good…

Mark Chapter 3 Verses 13 – 14

• I wonder how many He called. Mark doesn’t tell us specifically that He called only the 12. Could it be that He called 13, 15, 20, 50? And yet these 12 came…would I be one that would come when He calls…would you?

Mark Chapter 3 Verses 15 – 19

• What a team! Not one that I would have chosen…but I look at this group, and it occurs to me…Jesus wasn’t picking a group of men to manage…He was choosing a group to love and to lead and to serve and to ultimately flow the Father’s will through. This group shows us the very character of God even in that he choose them! How He takes the chaos and brings about order…how He takes the broken and heals them and recasts them into the role of leader, the role of powerful presence and purpose…
• I mean look at this crew! Simon, who He gave the name Peter. Would you choose someone so weak and so unloving that they would deny they even know you? James and John, the sons of thunder who in Luke 9:54 asked Jesus if they could call down fire to destroy an entire city filled with the children of God? In Mark 9:38 they wanted to slap the guys that weren’t in their crew just for preaching in Jesus’ name? Would you have chosen a couple of guys who wanted to blow people away and burn people up if your message was peace, grace and love?
• How about Matthew? The most hated. The most controversial. And Thomas, the one who would doubt everything you say…would you have chosen him to be your bestie? James the son of Alphaeus, also called James the Less…not very impressive…Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite…Simon is also called Simon the Zealot in Acts 1:13…
• The zealots were those who wanted to overthrow the Roman Government by any means necessary…if your message was of a kingdom not of this world, would you chose a political radical to run with? And of course Judas! Jesus would call him “friend” in Matthew 26:50…but that’s just it isn’t it? This team was wrought with weakness and filled with problematic imperfect inconsistent immature sketch balls…why choose them?
• Two reasons…first, because Jesus desired to serve them…not use them the way the enemy seeks to use you…but to use them to do that which they most desire…that which they were created for…to honor the Father…and so look, Jesus isn’t going to micro-manage them to perfection…He’s going to set them free…that is what a Godly leader is called to do…a Godly boss at work, a Godly husband at home…a Godly mother…not to nit and to harp and to discourage but to lead out…calling attention to the risks and loving with the goal being not their accomplishment or their recognition of your awesomeness…but the goal being the cross…that’s why the very love of God shines through Him choosing this group…
• But second…because they came man…simply because they came…a mess, a coward, a betrayer, a tax collector, a couple hot heads, a weakling, a political fanatic, a doubter…they simply came man…responded to Jesus…and so He chose them. And what happened? With the exception of Judas, they turned the world upside down…they ignited a movement so powerful that it spread throughout the entire world and eternity and continues even today…they came alive man…why? Because of God’s great love for them personally, and because of their response individually…

Mark Chapter 3 Verses 20 – 22

• Here come the haters. The crowds are growing larger and larger and no doubt one whisper, one comment, maybe even one single person that simply doesn’t understand says something and then that person says something and then that person says something and then before you know it, His own people talking about “He’s out of His mind.” In fact, this isn’t the work of God…it’s the work of the devil…
• What utter blasphemy. This is the very Son of God. God wrapped in skin. God Himself…and look at where gossip has gotten them…that’s why it stops with us folks. It has to! Someone comes to you and expresses their disapproval of someone else, how that someone else isn’t cool, isn’t this or isn’t that…seek out the truth in love…but rebuke, correct and exhort the tale bearer also! We must! See what a fire a little spark will start James wrote!
• Jesus is teaching. He is healing. He is serving. He is loving. He is love! And the crowd turns on Him? I am confident that two or ten didn’t yell the same thing at the same time and then turn to eachother and said, “jinx!” I am confident this started with one person, having a bad day, a bad afternoon, a bad life man…just not controlling their own tongue…it’s time for the real Christians to stand up…and to take a stand in defense of folks that aren’t around to defend themselves…to correct in love and to ask folks to not speak poorly of others. To instruct folks in the ways of Matthew 18 rather than listening and feeding into their blasphemy…
• Jesus handles this masterfully….

Mark Chapter 3 Verses 23 – 27

• Who is saying these things? Back in verse 22, the scribes! What most likely happens between verses 19 and 20 of Mark’s Gospel? Matthew Chapter 5! And what do we find there? The Sermon on the Mount. And what one statement would have really tweaked these folks, these scribes, during the best sermon ever preached? Matthew chapter 5 verse 20! “I say to you, unless your righteousness EXCEEDS the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven!”
• You see right then…right there…decision point. Bankruptcy or pride! Obviously some chose to harden their hearts…now they are simply haters and hate spawns irrationality and that is what we see here! But why? Because they have set in their hearts to not believe in Him, which includes a rejection of self-bankruptcy! But notice how Jesus handles it…
• He reasons with them…He reaches out to them…and then He tries once again…to free them…to bring them back to the decision point to choose Him. Who is the strong man? THEM! Yet they are bound and so they are plundered…so is the state of all those who deny the truth.

Mark Chapter 3 Verses 28 – 30

• What sin is that? The one we just saw. Where one sets their heart against God and against believing in Jesus Christ. That is the sin that retains all others…

Mark Chapter 3 Verses 31 – 35

• Such emphasis placed on the mother of Jesus by many…Jesus’ own words…”who is My mother?” Pretty daunting…
• But the point, the emphasis, the revelation…the family of God...the inheritance of everlasting life, the receiver of the adoption into His everlasting home…those that believe? Those that are good people? Those that are religious? Those that understand truth? Jesus sets it straight here…if one is a believer, if one does understand…if one is in His family…they will do the will of the God…amazing…
• The heart births the belief, the mouth speaks from the heart. The hands and feet…the actions are the slaves to the belief and the actions give rise to habit and to lifestyle…we can survey our lives…what we say, what we do…is it the will of God…is it in direct line with His Word? We can survey our lives and get a great understanding of the situation of our heart…and ultimately the situation of our standing with the eternal God…in His family…or out…
• He will meet you right where you’re at…over and over again…bringing you to the decision point…today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart through the deceitfulness of sin but come home and take hold of the beginning of confidence steadfast to the end (Hebrews 3)…He’s such a good God…such a friend, such a comforter…come home…today.