Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2009 : June 21, 2009
Theme: Jesus Is Stronger than the Strong Man
Text: Mark 3:20-35
Church year occasion: Pentecost 3
Who is the strongest man on earth? If you're from Japan, you might think of the strongest men in that country -- sumo wrestlers. If you lived a few decades ago and knew the Ringling brothers or P.T. Barnum, you might think that the strongest man in the world lived at the circus because all the posters said he could pick up an elephant with his teeth. If you follow the Mr. Universe competition, you might think that the youngest man every to hold that title at age 20 is still the strongest man in the world -- and now he's trying to hold together the economy of California -- Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Who is the strongest man on earth? You might think of Olympian power lifters or Guinness Book of World Record holders or, on Father's Day, you might think of your own father as the strongest man on earth. But as strong as all those men are, Jesus tells us there is someone stronger, and why you need to know who it is, in Mark 3:20-35:
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."
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."
So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: "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. 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. I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies 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."
Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."
"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
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."
Jesus is attracting crowds at this time in his ministry that would have amazed even P.T. Barnum. Many were curious about the miracles he had been performing, some wanted to be cured from diseases. Many wanted to hear what he had to say. After a long preaching tour, he came to Capernaum, his home town during his ministry, hoping to find some rest. But he found none. When he entered a house, people were coming to him and demanding his attention so that he couldn't even eat. When his mother Mary and his brothers, probably children born later to Mary and Joseph, heard about it, they said it had to stop. Verse 21 says, "They went to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind.' " They weren't thinking Jesus was insane, which is what we normally think of when we say someone is "out of his mind." They were thinking that Jesus couldn't keep this up forever -- he'd die of sheer exhaustion. But they didn't understand Jesus' work yet. His brothers didn't even see him as their Savior yet, so they didn't realize that Jesus needed to keep preaching because he had to tell the world who he was and what he had come to do -- save the world from their sins.
But there was another reason they wanted to get Jesus out of the limelight -- he was attracting the attention of the religious leaders of the Jews by what he was preaching. This account happened just after Jesus cast a demon out of a man, and many people in the crowd were saying that Jesus spoke a new message (it was the gospel) with more authority than their own teachers of the law. And that, of course, didn't please the teachers of the law. Some of them traveled all the way from the Jerusalem to check out what Jesus was doing, because by now everyone was talking about the prophet from Galilee. They couldn't refute the fact that he had healed people because they could see them healed. But already they marked Jesus as their enemy, so in their hatred they figured that if his powers were real, and they didn't want to accept that he did these miracles by God's power, then he must be doing it by the power of Satan. They said in verse 22, "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons."
Instead of saying Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and healing people to help them and show himself to be the long-promised Savior -- which was the truth -- they said Jesus was possessed by Beelzebub. Beelzebul had been an idol of the Philistines in the Old Testament whose name meant "lord of the house." But over the years, the Jewish people had mockingly changed his name to "Beelzebub," which means, "lord of the flies." In other words, lord of the place where flies hang out. In English, it would probably translate best to "lord of the outhouse." That's how much contempt they had for idols. But that's also how much contempt they had for the Son of God come in the flesh. By Jesus' day, Beelzebul or Beelzebub both were other names for Satan himself, so they were saying that he was a messenger of Satan, not God.
Jesus can't let that go unchallenged. First, he starts to logically dismantle their horrible accusation: "So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: '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.' " It would make no sense for Satan to send a messenger among the Jews who casts out Satan's own demons who were possessing people. He would be fighting against himself and hampering his own work. Just like a country involved in a civil war -- each side just keeps beating up the other side, the whole time weakening the country as a whole.
That's just not how Satan, the prince of this world, works. He doesn't normally use his Satanic power in the open so that it has "shock and awe" results. Why would he when human selfishness has fit perfectly into his plan since the day sin entered this world?
And what is Satan's plan? Make no mistake about it. He wants you in hell. It's just that simple. He doesn't care if you come to faith in Jesus sometime in your life -- as long as he can get you to doubt what the Bible says later in life, as long as he can get you to focus on this world instead of on the world to come, as long as he convinces you that having a stronger relationship with your Savior is something you'll work on some other time -- maybe next year when your life settles down a bit or when the kids come (because they need religion) or when you're older. He loves all of that kind of thinking because it's causing you to slip a little bit farther and farther away from Jesus -- the only one who can save you.
And that's why the next part of what Jesus says is so important. He says in verse 27, "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." Now we've come to the section about the strong man. Who is the strongest man in this world? Remember the context: Jesus had just cast a demon out of a man. The man had been possessed by a demon. So he was a possession of the devil himself. But Jesus came along and by his own almighty power, told the demon that this man was no longer under Satan's control. "Demon, you have to leave." And the demon left -- often with a shriek because he knew he couldn't stand up to the Son of God, Jesus.
With that context in mind, who is the strong man in Jesus' parable? Satan himself. Satan's possessions are all people who are under his power. And who does that include? Anyone who doesn't have faith in Jesus as their Savior. That included you and me once. We were possessions of Satan even if we weren't possessed by a demon. We had hearts that could only think of doing evil all the time, just like the unbelievers at the time of the flood. We had hearts that only wanted the best for ourselves not others. We had hearts that didn't want to know about God because we were just fine living for ourselves. And how would we get to heaven when we died? Live a good life.
But living for ourselves and trying to earn heaven by "good works" can only lead to one place -- eternal death. And Satan would like nothing better. And living for ourselves is such a strong force in our lives. Satan and his temptations are so strong. He is, after all, the strongest man, the strongest being, in the world.
That is, until God entered his own world. He came for one reason -- to destroy the devil's works, which are the lies and deceptions he uses on us and the despair and pain he inflicts on us and death he is leading us to. And Jesus did destroy Satan's works when he gave himself as a ransom price to pay for every selfish thought, word and action you and I and the world have ever committed. When he was on the cross, it didn't look like a "shock and awe" battle. Outwardly Jesus looked liked a weak failure. But spiritually, he was in a battle to the death with Satan for your soul. And Jesus died. But by his death, Jesus defeated Satan, and by the waters of baptism or by the testimony of the Word he made you his own possession. You now belong to Jesus. He entered the domain of the prince of this world and tied him up with the powerful message of the gospel -- full and free forgiveness is won for all through Jesus. Believe it and live forever!
The religious leaders didn't want any of that. Instead, they said Jesus worked for Satan. They said that the Holy Spirit who filled Jesus was actually Satan himself. So Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." If these men hadn't already blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, they were dangerously close to doing so. That meant that they hardened their hearts against God and his gospel message. And eventually, if done enough, God would then harden their hearts himself, so that they would never believe the message.
But that isn't the case with us Christians. What a different life we live now as possessions of Jesus! We live for him. We live for others because of him. We want to be near him and his gospel message. We need to be reminded time and again when we fail in our lives of following Jesus, that Jesus' forgiveness is still ours.
So who is the strong man in Jesus' parable? The devil. But who is stronger than the Strong Man? Jesus. Jesus, who looks at you and says, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." Because you are a possession of the Holy Spirit, you are part of Jesus' family, and you have the power of the Spirit living in you that enables you to now live no longer for yourself, but for him who died for you and was raised from death for you. Think how you can put that into action this week. Amen.
