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Seatbelts, airbags & crash helmets have gone along way towards protecting lives in collisions:
• But there is no safety device that will protect us,
• In one of life’s most common collisions – misunderstandings.
• They of course can happen anywhere and at anytime:
• Someone misjudges our motives or misreads our actions,
•
• And it can take days, months, even years to repair the damage,
• Sadly some are left un-repaired!
The most misunderstood individual who ever lived was Jesus Christ:
• Critics joked about his birth,
• Sarcasm comments regarding illegitimacy,
• They disputed his heavenly origin,
• With anger and passion they claimed that he belonged to the devil.
• They scorned his purpose and condemned his teachings.
• And in the end, those same people crucified him as a criminal.
Quote: John the apostle wrote (John chapter 1 verse 5):
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it”.
• Christ collided with this darkness again and again and again,
• Mark chapter 3 gives us an insight of what it must have been like.
(1). Misunderstood by the Pharisees (vs 1-6).
For Jesus to enter a Synagogue was a brave thing:
• He had just clashed with the Pharisees (Mark chapter 2 verse 24),
• And now he is about to clash with them again.
In the Synagogue you could not miss them:
• They had the front seats, the seats of honour.
• It was the duty of the religious leaders to deal with anyone,
• Who broke their rules or who seemed likely to mislead the people,
• So they were there to make sure things were always done their way.
The Pharisees were the rule makers:
• They loved handing out photocopies of all their exiting do’s and don’ts.
• They added, big time, to the law of Moses.
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Important rules such as women were not allowed to look in a mirror on the Sabbath.
• Because if she discovered a gray hair,
• She might commit the grievous sin of plucking it out!
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Important rules like not wearing a broach because that would be carrying something.
They had another rule (over 700 for the Sabbath):
• This rule prohibited healing on the Sabbath,
• Unless the situation was life threatening.
For the third time in Mark’s gospel, Jesus deliberately violated the Pharisees Sabbath traditions:
• By healing this man with the withered hand, on the Sabbath.
• He could have avoided the Synagogue or the man, but he didn’t.
In fact verse 3 tells us:
• Jesus told the man to “Stand up in front of everybody”.
• Jesus was deliberately ‘in their face’.
On seven occasions recorded for us in the Gospels, Jesus heals somebody on the Sabbath.
• Not one of those occasions would the Pharisees have said,
• That there was an immediate danger of death.
• In other words why not wait 24 hours before healing those people,
• It would not really have made that much difference.
Quote: Luke chapter 13 verses 1-14:
“Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
But for Jesus this was a test case:
• He wanted to do more than merely heal the man or woman,
• He wanted to teach the Pharisees an important lesson.
• He wanted to inform them that God wanted His people to enjoy freedom,
• Not suffer in religious bondage.
VERSE 4: Jesus ASKS AN unanswerable Question:
Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent”.
Jesus put them in a dilemma,
• They were bound to admit that is was lawful to do good.
• And it was of course a good thing that Jesus was about to do.
• They would obviously deny it was lawful to do evil, yet
• It was an evil thing to leave a man a in a crippled condition, when he could be healed.
• This for the Pharisees is an unanswerable question,
• To give the true answer is to condemn themselves publicly!
VERSE 5:
“He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts”.
Jesus is both angry and sad:
• Angry at the insensitivity and callousness of the religious leaders,.
• Sad that they could not see beyond their rigid legal framework.
VERSE 5:
“He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand. “He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored”.
• With a word of power, Jesus heals the man.
• But notice; no-one comments or even praises God.
In fact the opposite (VERSE 6):
• The Pharisees stalk off in protest and begin to make plans with a group,
• Whom they would normally had nothing to do with, the Herodians.
• The Herodians were the court entourage of Herod,
• They were continually coming into contact with Romans.
• The Pharisees would have called them unholy and avoided them at all costs,
• Yet here they enter into an unholy alliance with them to try to get rid of Jesus.
The rift between Jesus and the religious leaders is greater than ever.
• Jesus had cut right to the heart of the law:
• Something the Pharisees had never been able to do, despite their many rules!
• And for the first time in years,
• The true light of God’s Sabbath shone in that synagogue,
• But only one man with the withered hand felt it.
• And only those with an open heart saw it.
But the Pharisees blinded by the darkness of their man made traditions:
• Did not see or feel the light.
• They only felt anger and a murderous hatred towards Jesus.
(2). Misunderstood by His Family (20-21, 31-35):
“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they
said, “He is out of his mind.”
• Mark now tells us about Jesus’ family.
• An incident that is only recorded in his gospel.
Tradition not the Bible tells us:
• Joseph the step-father of Jesus had died when he was a teenager (so he is never mentioned).
• Verse 31 tells us Mary had other children,
• But unlike Jesus they were the result of her relationship with Joseph.
• Jesus was conceived uniquely i.e. “through the Holy Spirit”.
Now we are going to skip a few verses:
• The narrative is interrupted in verse 22-30 by the accusation of the teachers of the Law,
• Then in verse 31-35 it returns again to the concerns of Jesus’ family.
The setting is probably Simon Peter’s home in Capernaum:
• And we sense the kind of pressure Jesus often lived under,
• Verse 20: No time even for a meal.
Members of his family arrive from Nazareth some twenty miles away.
• They had no doubt heard worrying reports that people were saying that Jesus was mad.
• Whether they shared this impression is unclear.
THE THEY Of VERSE 21:
• Could mean the ‘people were saying
• ‘Or ‘they’, would seem to mean his family were saying ……
If that is the case we can imagine how painful this must have been for Jesus:
• To be misrepresented by his opponents was one thing,
• But to be misunderstood by those close to him would have been much harder to bear.
VERSE 21: THE FAMILY Had COME TO TAKE CHARGE of HIM.
• The word Mark uses can mean ‘to arrest’ someone.
• They are worried for his safety and sanity,
• So they are desperate to bring him home and get him out of the spotlight.
• It was a well-meaning but mistaken action.
QUESTION: Why should anyone think that Jesus was insane?
• To us the words of Jesus were full of authority, leaving people amazed,
• His actions breathed love and compassion.
• So why would they have this misguided and completely wrong attitude?
ANSWER:
• Remember you have hindsight to help you make your decision,
• You have read the New testament, you know the beginning and the end.
• His family hadn’t,
• To his family, Jesus had done at least 3 questionable things.
(a). He left home and abandoned the family business:
• It didn’t make sense to leave a flourishing business with a regular income,
• To become a wandering itinerant preacher.
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Full time service today.
(b). He was on a head on clash with the Authorities.
• Jesus was taking, was walking down a path,
• That would inevitably lead to confrontation with the religious authorities.
• This was not a good idea.
• There was a name for anyone who took on the religious establishment, ‘Victim’.
(c). He was hanging out with the wrong company.
• Any ambitious man, would not have chosen the twelve disciples that Jesus chose.
• No sensible man would pick a crowd of friends like that.
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Read about who they were in verses 13-19
First he chose ordinary people:
• Not a priest or a scribe or Pharisee among them.
• They had no social position or wealth or academic achievements.
Second: They were a mixed bag.
• Impetuous Peter.
• Ambitious James & John.
• The shy Andrew.
• The unemotional Philip.
• The conservative Bartholomew.
• The outcast (i.e. former tax collector) Mathew.
• The melancholy Thomas.
• The hidden James, Son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus.
• The radical Simon the zealot (Zealots were fiery, violent nationalist)
• And the traitor Judas Iscariot.
• Given the chance most of these guys would have done anything,
• Just to avoid each others company.
• Yet in spite of their differences in temperament, in background and personality,
• These were the ones that Jesus wanted.
Thirdly: And if that wasn’t bad enough:
• Jesus also chose to mix with tax collectors and sinners,
• And he attracted to him the poor, disadvantaged, prostitutes and outcasts.
Jesus had done at least three questionable things:
• (a). He left home and abandoned the family business:
• (b). He was on a head on clash with the Authorities.
• (c). He was hanging out with the wrong company.
And in doing these things:
• Jesus shows us that;
• The three rules by which most people live by meant nothing to him:
a). He had thrown away Security.
• Most people want a good job and a position which are secure.
• With as few materiel and financial risks as possible.
b). He had thrown away Safety.
• Most people want to play safe,
• Most people avoid a course of actions which in turn might cause them great risk.
c). He had thrown away his reputation.
• He did not care what men said and what society thought about him,
• His prime concern was his heavenly Father’s approval.
That’s why we read in:
VERSE 21: THE FAMILY Had COME TO TAKE CHARGE of HIM.
• His family couldn’t understand the risks he was taking,
• Risks which, no sensible man would take!
VERSE 31.
31Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
• Is the only mention of Mary in the Gospel of Mark (Jesus is pictured as a servant).
• After all, who cares about the mother of a servant!
IN VERSES 33-35: Jesus WAS NOT BEING Rude TO HIS family:
33“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
34Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus was not being rude to his family:
• He uses this opportunity to explain what it means to belong to the family of God.
• True kinship is not just about flesh and blood.
real kinship i.e. To do Gods will requires 3 things:
a). Common experience.
• Allegiance to the Lord Jesus.
• Christians have the common experience of being forgiven sinners.
• Elsewhere (John 6:29) Jesus said:
• “The will (work) of God is to believe in the one he has sent”.
b). Common interest.
• Desire for the things of Christ.
• Christians have the same goal i.e. Jesus central to their lives.
Elsewhere (Matthew 7:7-12) Jesus said:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will
be opened”.
c). Common obedience.
• Determination to follow and live for the master.
• Christians have a common objective i.e. obedience.
Elsewhere (John 15:9) Jesus said:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love
VERSE 35:
• Is teaching that those who do “God’s will”,
• Can be even closer to Jesus than even His own earthly family,
(3). Misunderstood by the Scribes (3:22-30)
These are tricky verses:
• We have just recently received a tape answering this question (one & half hours),
• And I’ve got a few minutes.
VERSE 22:
• A delegation of expert lawyers, called scribes,
• Were dispatched from Jerusalem to investigate Jesus.
Here’s what they concluded:
“And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
Unwilling to submit to our Lord’s authority:
• The religious leaders, had to explain His miracles in some way;
• So they said He was empowered by the devil.
VERSES 23-27 Jesus refutes their claim by telling a parable:
• Jesus pointed out the folly of that argument;
• For if He were casting out demons by Satan’s power,
• Then Satan would be fighting against himself
• Satan’s kingdom and house divided!
Note: Satan does have a kingdom, for he is the “prince of this world”. See John 12:31, Eph 6:10-20 and Col 1:13).
VERSE 27 is the punch line:
• No-one can enter a strong persons house and steal his goods,
• Unless that man is stronger than the house owner and puts him under subjection.
The fact that Jesus can cast out demons is proof:
• That He is stronger than “the strong man”
• That he is able to breach Satan’s defenses.
The Question that causes problems for people is:
• What is the “Unpardonable sin”? That is mentioned in verses 28-30
• What is “Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”?
In answering, please note:
• It is much more than a sin using words,
• It is much more than a sin of speech.
• We know that:
• Then why can blaspheme against Jesus be forgiven.
Quote: Matthew chapter 12 verse 32:
“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come”.
• But not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
• Is the Holy greater than the Son of God? The answer is NO!
Jesus made it clear that God can and will forgive all sins (vs 28).
“I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them
• The only “unpardonable sin”
• Is refusal to trust in Jesus Christ (John 3:16-18, 36).
The (religious leaders):
• Willfully rejected the truth as Jesus stood before them:
• The unforgivable sin is a deliberate and knowing rejection of Christ.
• It is not an isolated act but a willful attitude.
• It is not a sin that can be committed accidentally or unknowingly.
• Indeed, a concern over sin is the very opposite to the attitude in question here.
• It is rather an indifference to sin, a cynical rejection of the grace of God.
• It is not a sin that a Christian can commit.
The unpardonable sin, therefore, is to have a clear knowledge of the way of forgiveness,
• But to deliberately reject it.
• Such a sin cannot by definition be forgiven.
Look at the passage:
• We can trace a hardening in the attitude of the religious leaders to Jesus,
• In these early chapters of Mark’s Gospel.
• In chapter 2 verse 7 they accuse Jesus of blasphemy;
• In chapter 3 verse 6 they plan to kill him;
• And now in chapter 3 verse 22 they attribute his work to the devil.
• They have ‘written off’, rejected Jesus Christ,
• And, therefore, denied themselves the possibility of forgiveness.
Notice:
• Jesus is warning them against it.
• Not saying they have committed it.
By the grace of God:
• You and I are on the other side of the fence.
• We have seen, caught a glimpse of who Jesus is.
• And we come to praise him, to worship him and to adore him.
Quote: John chapter 1 verses 10-13:
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
