What do I know with Isaac Carroll
What do I know with Isaac Carroll
Mark 3 When It comes to Jesus, he redifines who we are.
What makes someone qualified to serve God? Throughout history, the Lord has consistently chosen the humble, the broken, and the unlikely to accomplish His purposes. In this profound exploration of Mark 3:13-35, we witness Jesus deliberately selecting twelve ordinary men for extraordinary purposes - not because they felt capable, but because their hearts were humble vessels ready to be filled with divine truth.
The passage reveals a striking contrast between the apostles' willingness to follow despite their inadequacies and the rigid resistance of religious leaders. As Peter once proclaimed, "Go away from me, I'm a sinful man!" - yet these imperfect followers became the foundation of Christ's church. Like empty wineskins ready for new wine, their humility allowed them to receive teachings that the full wineskins of scholarly Pharisees could never accommodate.
Perhaps most sobering is Jesus' warning about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - an eternal sin that stems from attributing God's work to demonic forces. This caution remains profoundly relevant today when we encounter unfamiliar spiritual expressions. How easily we might condemn what we don't understand, potentially calling "evil" what God has declared "good." This passage challenges us to approach different expressions of faith with humble discernment rather than knee-jerk judgment.
The narrative concludes with Jesus radically redefining family beyond blood relations: "Whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister, and mother." For those who follow Christ, this means gaining countless spiritual siblings united by shared devotion to God's purposes. Though following Jesus may cost us relationships in this life, we receive an expanded family of faith that transcends all human boundaries.
Have you ever felt unqualified when God called you to something? Take courage from these ordinary fishermen who changed the world not through their capabilities but through their availability to the Master's call. Join us next week as we continue our journey through Mark's gospel, examining how God consistently uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible.
May God bless you and lead you always.
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Isaac Carroll, and this is what Do I Know? All right, in today's Bible study we are going to be back in Mark 3, and we're going to pick up at verse 13. He went up on the mountain and he called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. He appointed the twelve, whom he also named apostles, so they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve, simon, whom he gave the name, peter, james, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Bonerges, that is, the sons of thunder, andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Isocr. James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Issacrat, the one who betrayed him, and he went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. All right, let's stop here at verse 20.
Speaker 1:I can't even imagine what it would have felt like to be called up to Jesus. I mean, you think there was had to be thousands, because everywhere Jesus went there was a flock of people. They flocked to Jesus wherever. I mean you think there was had to be thousands, because everywhere Jesus went there was a flock of people. They flocked to Jesus wherever he went. I mean, why wouldn't you? I mean, this man was performing miracles and teaching these amazing things and why wouldn't you want to be around Jesus and then to be called up on the mountain to talk to him face to face, to talk to him one-on-one and to be chosen by him to be an apostle to be sent out? Now, judging by Peter's reaction in the boat when he threw himself at Jesus' feet, he says go away from me, I'm a sinful man.
Speaker 1:These men didn't automatically feel qualified to be called. And these men didn't automatically feel qualified to be called. It makes me think about the parable Jesus talked about with the new wine and old wineskin. You know, he didn't call any apostles from the Pharisees, or any of the Pharisees, or any of the scribes, any of these learned men, because they were already so full of what they believed to be true they could have never accepted Jesus' teaching. I mean, they confronted Jesus many times about his teaching because they couldn't accept it. So the wineskin, the apostles, had to be empty. They had to have a humbleness of heart, a need of repentance. Jesus knew their heart. He also knew the fate of each of these men at the end of their life. He knew the fate of following him, what it would cost them. And even Judas Isachar suffered a horrible death because of his relationship with Jesus. If he had never known Jesus, he would have never betrayed him and he would never have hung himself.
Speaker 1:Following Jesus comes at a cost. It will cost you this life, but that life is so much more meaningful and it comes with a greater gift, a greater life. Afterward. Jesus says I come that you may have life, that you may have it more abundantly. He wasn't talking about this life here on earth. He was talking about the life ever after one with him.
Speaker 1:All right, let's continue at verse 21. It says when his family heard of it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying he has lost his mind and the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying he is possessed by Beelzebub and by the prince of demons. He cast out demons and he called to them and he said to them in parables how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, the kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless first he binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven, the children of men and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin. For, they were saying, he has an unclean spirit and his mother and his brothers came standing outside and they sent to him and they called to him and a crowd was sitting around him and they said to him your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you. And he answered them who are my mother and who are my brothers? Looking around about those who sat around him, he said here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, my sister and my mother. All right, that comes to the conclusion of Mark 3.
Speaker 1:A couple of things I'd like to note. One of the most important ones is blasphemy. What is it and how can we avoid it? I pray every day that I have not done this in my past. Now, the only thing I can equate this to in modern times is say you find yourself in a church that's the Pentecostal church, and people start speaking in tongues and they start dancing around and acting in a way that is very uncomfortable to you. And you say these people are, they're possessed by demons, and it's not. Say it's not, and they are actually filled with the holy spirit. You have just blasphemed the holy spirit by calling what was good evil. I mean, the very word blasphemy comes from the greek word blasphema, which means to call what is good evil.
Speaker 1:And when you say something of this sort, because because of a feeling that you have, because it's something, something that you're not comfortable with, you're not something you've never seen before you might say, well, I've never seen this in my church and I know my church has God in it. And you say, well, how do you know that? And you say, well, I see the movement of God, I see people getting saved, we're preaching the word of God from the word of God, people are being baptized, people going out on mission, there's activities that are in line with God's word. I don't understand these things that these people are doing. Well, you may not understand them, but ask yourself this have you ever prayed, or anybody in your church ever prayed, to be filled with spirit in such a way? Probably not. Why would you? You've never seen it, but these people have seen it all their life and yet they pray for it.
Speaker 1:Now to say that someone who truly sought God, who was a true follower of Jesus Christ, and they prayed to be filled with the spirit, and you have to be there and whatever manifests, manifest the spirit manifested, and when you see it, it makes you feel uncomfortable. And you manifests, manifests the Spirit manifests it, and when you see it, it makes you feel uncomfortable. And you say that person's not filled with the Holy Spirit, that person's got a demon in them. You have just blasphemed, and it's probably the second most scariest verse in the Bible for me, the first being I never knew you To be guilty of an eternal sin, because we don't understand what we're seeing and we treat things that we don't understand with contempt or as alien or as something that's not a part of us. And I so desperately want you to realize this and don't be so quick to judge something just because you don't understand it. I'm not saying that everyone who does this is filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying that I'm not going to be the judge whether they are or not, because now that I've come to understand that saying such a thing might lead me to blasphemy the Holy Spirit, I'm going to keep my mouth shut, I'm going to keep my eyes open, I'm going to keep my heart open and I'm going to pray for discernment.
Speaker 1:All right, the last thing I'd like to talk about is when Jesus' mother, when his family comes to get him, they said he's out of his mind or he's lost his senses. Now, as the Greek translates, it simply says that they couldn't understand why Jesus was acting the way he was. It was out of character. Now I can only imagine how Jesus was as a child. I mean, you think he was perfect. He never sinned, so he had to be completely obedient. He had to be completely loving. He had to be completely loving. I mean, he had to have a passion for God and his word. These things would equate in my mind as a perfect child, someone who never got in trouble, someone who never was mean to anybody, someone who never threw stones. Do you understand? Perfect, and they understood him to be perfect.
Speaker 1:And now you have these so-called priests saying that he was filled with bells above, that he was a demon possessed. I'm sure people were saying a lot of things to his family and they came to take control of him. They came to take a hold of him and to find out what's going on with him. And they're outside and they're seeking to see Jesus. And those inside because there was a crowd there's're seeking to see Jesus, and those inside because there was a crowd. There's always a crowd around Jesus. And the crowd was saying your mother and your brother are outside.
Speaker 1:And he answers something that completely changes everything. He looks at the men sitting around him. He says you see, these men, these are my mother and my brothers, for the one who does the will of God is my mother, my brother and my sisters. Why? Because we all have one father. That means everyone who comes to Jesus, who gets filled with the Holy Spirit, has now gained a new family, and everyone in that family is now relatives.
Speaker 1:We're now brothers and sisters. I mean immediate family, not distant cousins. We're now relatives. We're now brothers and sisters. I mean immediate family, not distant cousins. We're immediate family. We're brothers, sisters and mothers. Jesus says that whenever you lose something for my name, you will gain abundantly more. If you lose a mother or a brother or a sister because of your faith, you're gaining millions more, and it just gives me great joy knowing that the men and women that I know that I'm going to know one day because of Jesus are now my family. I love you guys. In the next Bible study we're going to be in chapter four. Until then, god bless you. Goodbye.