Deo Gloria
Sermon for June 10+13, 2021
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Mark 3:20-35
Theme: Followers of Jesus are Recognized as the True Family Members of Jesus!
It’s that time of year—time for graduation parties and wedding celebrations, special occasions for families and friends to get together and celebrate. And what a blessing it is this year that families can actually get together and do that again! Just last week I was talking to someone here at church who had just gotten back from visiting relatives they hadn’t seen for over a year. As I said, what a blessing to be able to get together with family and relatives again!
So I have a question for you: When it comes to family, are you part of Jesus’ family? It’s an important question because if you’re not part of his family now, you won’t be part of his family in heaven either. So I ask you again: Are you part of Jesus’ family? And what makes someone part of Jesus’ family? We’ll find answers to those questions this morning as we look at these verses from Mark ch. 3 and at the three different groups of people mentioned in these verses.
The first group we’re going to look at are the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem. These were the religious leaders of the day, the experts, the scholars, the ones who studied the Scriptures and made copies of the Scriptures. If anyone should be close to God and should be considered members of Jesus’ family, they should be, right? Yet, look at what they were saying about Jesus. Picking up on the comment made by Jesus’ family, that Jesus was “out of his mind”(v. 21), they took it one step further. He’s not only out of his mind, he’s “possessed by Beelzebub,” which was another name for the devil. “He’s possessed by the devil.” And in an effort to discredit what Jesus was doing in casting out demons, they accused him of doing so by the power and authority of the devil: “By the prince of demons he is driving out demons”(v. 22). Really? Jesus is actually in league with the devil and is using the devil’s power to drive out demons. Really?
First Jesus shows how ridiculous their thinking was:
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.(vv. 23-26)
And then Jesus issues one of the strongest warnings in all of Scripture: “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin”(vv. 28+29). The sin or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unbelief. It’s the rejection of Jesus, which is exactly what they were doing. And it will never be forgiven because Jesus is the source of forgiveness. In love Jesus gave his life on the cross to pay the penalty for all our sins so that we might have forgiveness. And as Jesus states in v. 28, because of his perfect sacrifice, there is forgiveness for every sin and any sin. But if a person rejects Jesus, they reject the very one who can give them forgiveness, so their sin is not forgiven. What a stern and serious warning! What a sobering wake up call! These teachers of the law, these religious leaders, probably thought of themselves as especially godly people, people who were especially close to God and enjoyed special standing in God’s family. And that wasn’t the case at all. They were not members of Jesus’ family and were actually on the road to hell.
Here’s a stern and sobering warning for religious leaders today, for pastors and teachers and Bible scholars and seminary leaders. Because of their position they may envision themselves as being especially godly and deserving of God’s favor and a special place in God’s family. But here’s the sad reality: There are many Bible “scholars” now days and seminary professors and pastors and teachers who teach that Jesus is not the Son of God, that he was not born of a virgin and that he didn’t actually rise from the dead. In other words Jesus was nothing special, his birth was nothing special and he’s still dead. What is that except outright rejection of Jesus? A Jesus like that cannot give you forgiveness for your sins. A Jesus like that cannot save you or anyone else. They may think they are members of God’s family, but just like the teachers of the law they are actually on the road to hell.
The second group mentioned in these verses are the members of Jesus’ own family. Here again one would think that if anyone was part of Jesus’ family, certainly his mother and brothers would be. Yet take another look at the first two verses:
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 this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”(vv. 20-21)
Jesus was a popular preacher. Crowds gathered wherever he went. The last time he was in a house, the people were packed right to the door so no one else could even in. So you may remember that the friends of a man who was paralyzed went up on the roof, dug a hole in the roof and lowered their paralyzed friend down on a mat in front of Jesus. Here it happened again. Jesus entered a house, a crowd gathered and the place was packed. Jesus was so busy teaching God’s Word and the place was so crowded that he and his disciples couldn’t even grab a bite to eat. When his family heard about it, Mark tells us that they “went to take charge of him.” Those are some strong words. The original word means “to take into one’s possession or custody.” It was sometimes used for arresting someone. In their minds Jesus had lost his. He was out of control and the situation was out of control. Jesus was saying crazy things and doing crazy things. And they needed to go and physically take charge of him and maybe take him back home and then try to talk some sense into him.
Now in all fairness to Mary this was probably his brothers talking. You see, at this point Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him. Mary did, but not his brothers. They did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God and Savior of the world. Sure he was really, really smart. And he knew his Bible backwards and forwards. And he took all this religious stuff really, really seriously; but he was not the Son of God and Savior of the world. He was their brother. Imagine what you would think if your older brother claimed he was the Son of God and Savior of the world. You might have trouble believing that too. Jesus’ brothers had trouble believing that Jesus was the Messiah. In fact, they didn’t believe it till after his resurrection. So here you have another group of people, Jesus’ own brothers, people who would seem like obvious choices to be members of Jesus’ family, but in reality they were not. Yes, they were related by blood, but they rejected him in their hearts.
So how about you? That wouldn’t be true of you, would it? Here’s another sobering reminder. Family ties or family connections don’t make you a member of Jesus’ family. Your grandfather may have helped build this church. Your grandmother may have sung in the choir and served on the altar guild for 40 years. Your dad might serve on the Church Council. Your mom might be a Sunday School teacher. Your son might be a pastor in one of our churches or your daughter a teacher in one of our schools, but none of that makes you a member of Jesus’ family. Blood may be thicker than water but families ties and family connections do not make you a member of Jesus’ family and will not help you get into heaven. When it comes to the Church and being a member of Jesus’ family, the only blood that matters is Jesus’ blood. And the only connection that matters is your connection to Jesus by faith, which is what we see in the last group of people.
The third group are the people in the crowd, those who had packed the house and were sitting all around Jesus. Why were they there that day? I’m sure there were plenty of other things they could have been doing. They could have been back at their carpenter shop, making furniture. They could have been back at their clothing store, selling clothes. They could have been out in their fields, pulling weeds or tending to their flocks. They could have been out on the lake fishing. There were lots of other things they could have been doing that day, but they chose to be there. Why?
Well apparently they had heard about Jesus. They had heard that he was no ordinary teacher, that he had the power to heal the sick, to restore sight to the blind, to enable the crippled to walk. They had heard that he had power over evil spirits, that demons from hell had to obey his commands and come out. And they had heard that he taught God’s Word like nobody else, that he taught God’s Word with power and authority. Could this be the one they had been waiting for: the Chosen One, the Messiah, the Savior promised by God? Yes. Yes, they had come to the conviction that Jesus was the promised Savior and they wanted to listen to him. They wanted to hear Jesus teach about God and the kingdom of God and the will of God and the grace of God and the forgiveness of God. That’s why they were there that day. They wanted to listen to Jesus.
And notice what Jesus said about them. When told that his mother and brothers were looking for him, Jesus responded, “Who are my mother and brothers?”
Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”(vv. 33-35)
God’s will, first of all and foremost, is that we believe in Jesus. You see, God knows the truth about us. He knows that we are sinners who have often broken his commands and don’t deserve to be part of his family, people who deserve to be kicked out of his family for the rest of forever. But God doesn’t want to see that happen. He loves us too much. He wants our relationship with him to be restored so we can enjoy life with him now and forever in heaven. That’s why he sent his Son Jesus into the world: to pay the penalty for our sins and restore our broken relationship with him so we can have forgiveness for our sins and live forever with him in heaven. So God’s will is that we believe in Jesus as our Savior. As Jesus said in John chapter 6, “My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day”(v. 40).
God’s will also is that we do what these people were doing, that we listen to Jesus. Again Jesus said it so clearly in the gospel of John: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand”(10:27+28). Have you been taking time to listen to voice of your Shepherd, Jesus?
And thirdly it’s God’s will that we obey his commands. Do children of God want to sin? Do we want to do what’s wrong and evil in God’s sight? Of course not. We want to do what’s good and right, what is pleasing to God. We want to obey his commands to thank him for all that he has done for us. Do children of God still sin, though? Oh yes, because we have a sinful nature, we sin every day, more than we care to admit. But that’s why we treasure our Savior Jesus. We know he went to the cross to pay the penalty for all our sins. And we know that because of what he did, we have forgiveness for every sin and every blasphemy—every wrong we’ve ever done. Through Jesus we have forgiveness and peace and eternal life in heaven.
And that’s what makes us members of Jesus’ family. It’s not our position in the church or our scholarly wisdom or our family connections. It’s the fact that we believe in Jesus and trust in him as our Savior and have set our hearts on following him the rest of our lives. So Jesus would say of you and me today the same thing he said to the people sitting around him back then: “Here, here is my family. Here are my mother and my brothers and my sisters.” Amen.