Luke Jackson: Well, amen.
Luke Jackson: Good morning.
Luke Jackson: Again.
Luke Jackson: It's good to see you, and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends over the last several days.
Luke Jackson: I don't know about you, but I know I ate way too much, and so I know you probably did as well.
Luke Jackson: But this morning, we're going to continue our series on the book of Mark, the series Amazed by Jesus.
Luke Jackson: And so join me in turning your Bibles to Mark chapter 3.
Luke Jackson: Mark chapter 3, and we're going to be starting with verse 20 and going through verse 30 this morning.
Luke Jackson: As you turn there, I have a question I want to present to you this morning.
Luke Jackson: The question is have you ever felt like you've committed a sin that God cannot forgive?
Luke Jackson: Let me ask it again.
Luke Jackson: Have you ever felt like you've committed a sin that God cannot forgive?
Luke Jackson: There was a man growing up in my home church several years ago who didn't go to church for many, many years because of what he had done in his life, including some things that he had done in the Vietnam War.
Luke Jackson: He felt like he was unworthy of God's forgiveness, and so for many years he did attend church and eventually began to come to church, my home church, but even for awhile as he was coming to church, you would go to the altar and he would pray and people would counsel with him, but he would continue just to have a hard time accepting the fact that God could forgive him for what he had done in his past.
Luke Jackson: And one particular Sunday, he finally believed that God was big enough to forgive him, and he came to Christ, and for many, many years, well actually just a few years actually, after he was saved, he lived out the rest of his life on fire for the Lord.
Luke Jackson: And so it's an incredible story of God's forgiveness in his life.
Luke Jackson: But if you would say that you've ever felt that way this morning, then I really believe this message will speak to you today.
Luke Jackson: It has many things to say to all of us, but I think particularly those that have ever felt this way.
Luke Jackson: And if we were honest, all of us in this room have probably felt that way at one point or another in our life.
Luke Jackson: And so let's go ahead and begin.
Luke Jackson: In Mark chapter 3, verse 20.
Luke Jackson: It says,"He came home, and the crowd gathered again to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.
Luke Jackson: When his own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of him, for they were saying,'He has lost his senses.' The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying,'He is possessed by Beelzebub, and he casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.' And he called them to himself and began speaking to them in parables.
Luke Jackson: 'How can Satan cast out Satan?
Luke Jackson: If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
Luke Jackson: If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
Luke Jackson: If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished.
Luke Jackson: "'But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
Luke Jackson: Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven, the sons of men and whatever blasphemies they utter.
Luke Jackson: But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin,' because they were saying he has an unclean spirit." Let's pray together this morning.
Luke Jackson: Dear God, we thank you for your word, Lord, and even though this was a very difficult passage this morning to grasp, Lord, I pray that you would open our hearts to what you have to say, and you can speak clearly to us, Lord.
Luke Jackson: I pray that you would forgive me of my sin, Lord.
Luke Jackson: Lord, I'm a sinner saved only by your grace, and I pray that you would make me a clean vessel to deliver your word this morning.
Luke Jackson: That your Holy Spirit would speak through me, Lord, that it wouldn't be my words, but it would be your words, Lord.
Luke Jackson: And I pray that everyone in this room, Lord, that their hearts would be open to what you have to say through your word, that we will be quick to listen, Lord, and that we would be willing to act on what we hear.
Luke Jackson: And we just ask it all in Jesus' name.
Luke Jackson: Amen.
Luke Jackson: So this morning, we're going to look back at these verses and kind of go through together this passage, and there's some difficult parts that we'll get to in a little bit, but I want to give you a little bit of background this morning on what's going on right before this passage.
Luke Jackson: The book of Matthew also has this passage recorded, this story recorded, and we get a little bit more information in Matthew.
Luke Jackson: And one of the things that we know in Matthew is that Jesus has just healed a man who is-- who cannot speak or hear.
Luke Jackson: And we see that not only has he healed them of that, but he's driven out a demon who is possessing this man.
Luke Jackson: And so we'll see later on in the passage as we get there, we need to know this important background information as we get to where we're going in just a few minutes.
Luke Jackson: Excuse me.
Luke Jackson: But we'll see: the first amazing act in this passage is that we see in Matthew, actually it's not recorded in Mark, but we know it's there for Matthew, right before the first amazing act is Jesus driving out a demon and healing a man.
Luke Jackson: And so in verse 20, it starts out and says that he came home and the crowd gathered again to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.
Luke Jackson: And so I think the point here is that if you think about times in your life where you haven't had time to eat, usually it means you're pretty busy, right?
Luke Jackson: I don't know about you, but if I don't have time to eat, as much as I like to eat, then I must be pretty busy.
Luke Jackson: But not only are you pretty busy, but you also must be doing something pretty important to skip a meal.
Luke Jackson: And we can see that I'm sure the same thing is true here with Jesus, is that Jesus was willing to sacrifice his most basic needs to put others first.
Luke Jackson: These people were important to him.
Luke Jackson: It was an important thing.
Luke Jackson: He was willing to skip a meal to minister to these people and to love these people, and really that's the second amazing act that we see.
Luke Jackson: So the first one is he heals this man.
Luke Jackson: We know about that from the book of Matthew chapter 12:22 through 24, but then we also see the second amazing act that he performs, and that's just putting people above himself.
Luke Jackson: This was a radical thing in that day that he would do such a thing.
Luke Jackson: And a lot of times when people live radical lives for God, what happens?
Luke Jackson: They begin to get accused.
Luke Jackson: And we see the critics of Jesus in this passage come out, and we see the accusations begin in verses 21 and 22, and unfortunately the first critics we see are those of his own family.
Luke Jackson: Look at what it says in verse 21.
Luke Jackson: It says,"When his own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of him, for they were saying,'He has lost his senses.'" We know"his own people" is translated"people from the side of him", which literally means his family.
Luke Jackson: His own family was criticizing him.
Luke Jackson: They were saying that he had lost his senses, that he was out of his mind, that he was crazy, that he had gone mad.
Luke Jackson: So I don't know about you, but one of the thoughts that comes to my mind when I read this was,"Why in the world did his family think this?" I think there are two probable reasons why his family thought this.
Luke Jackson: The first one would be that they were concerned about his physical and mental health.
Luke Jackson: Think about it: based on all they had heard, what Jesus was doing, that he was healing people, that he was driving out demons.
Luke Jackson: If you heard that one of your family members was doing that, would you be a little bit concerned, maybe?
Luke Jackson: If you think about it, if you think about somebody you know, that you care about, that maybe has become unhinged?
Luke Jackson: Maybe they seem like they've gone off the rails, and they're doing some very odd things, and they have some very abnormal behavior.
Luke Jackson: Maybe you, too, would be caring enough about this person to try to go to them to protect them from the people that were pressing in on him, that were keeping him from eating.
Luke Jackson: For the religious leaders who they had heard were accusing him.
Luke Jackson: From neglecting his basic needs of eating to make sure that he got the care and attention that he needed to become normal again.
Luke Jackson: I think all of us would probably do that for a family member or someone we loved, so that's probably one of the reasons that they thought he had lost his mind.
Luke Jackson: But I think the other thing is very clear to us in scripture is that they did not believe he was really the Messiah, and you might think,"Well, surely his own family believed that he was the Messiah," but we know in John chapter 7, verse 5, we know it says very clearly that even his own brothers did not believe in him as the Messiah while he was still on this earth, before he had died on the cross and rose from the dead.
Luke Jackson: And so they might've been afraid.
Luke Jackson: And how his radical life would affect them and how that would affect them with the powers that be, with the religious leaders, with the political leaders.
Luke Jackson: I'm sure they were thinking, if they didn't really believe he was the messiah,"Well man, what he's doing, his radical lifestyle...how's that going to affect me?
Luke Jackson: Am I going to be persecuted by these religious leaders as well?" So what can we learn from Jesus in this beginning part of the passage?
Luke Jackson: Well, I think one of the first things we see is that those closest to us may not understand our passion for Christ, but we must always put obedience to God first.
Luke Jackson: What did Jesus do?
Luke Jackson: He continued to minister to the people.
Luke Jackson: He didn't let it phase him.
Luke Jackson: He continued to put God first and what God had called him to do as his first priority.
Luke Jackson: So many times in life, the more radical that we are for Jesus Christ, the more others, even our own family, even sometimes other Christians, will often criticize us because they see us as abnormal, as someone who has lost our mind, who is too radical.
Luke Jackson: You know, when you think about this Thanksgiving break that we just had, many of you were around family members, I'm sure, that maybe do not believe in Jesus Christ, and maybe they see you as a radical person.
Luke Jackson: "Well, he or she is one of those radical Christians.
Luke Jackson: I don't want to hear what they have to say.
Luke Jackson: They're crazy.
Luke Jackson: They've lost their mind.
Luke Jackson: They've gone mad." And maybe you've experienced that in your own family.
Luke Jackson: But there's hope, because God will often use our faithfulness-- and actually, I should say it this way: God will always use our faithfulness to produce fruit, because the Bible says that God's word never returns void, and that includes our witness for Jesus Christ.
Luke Jackson: Even in our family.
Luke Jackson: We know from Acts chapter 1, verse 14, that later on, after the ascension, Mary, and guess who else?
Luke Jackson: Jesus's brothers were among the believers who were left.
Luke Jackson: And not only that, but we know that his brother James went on to be one of the major leaders of the early Jerusalem Church, and most historians believe that his brother James wrote the book of James, that we know of in the New Testament, and others believe that his brother Judas wrote the book of Jude in the New Testament, and so not only did his family come to Christ because of his obedience and putting God first and continuing to fulfill God's plan that Jesus had for his life, but we see that not only do they become believers, but they became incredible, passionate leaders for the cause of Christ later on.
Luke Jackson: So God will use our faithfulness to produce fruit, even in our family.
Luke Jackson: So we see critics.
Luke Jackson: The critics come out, and we see criticism from his family, but we also see criticism from his foes, don't we?
Luke Jackson: In verse 22, it says,"The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying,'He is possessed by Beelzebub, and he casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.'" So the second accusation that we see is from his foes, and we see that they're accusing him of being possessed by Satan himself.
Luke Jackson: We know these scribes came from Jerusalem.
Luke Jackson: A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the man with the withered hand, and the man with the withered hand had been healed by Jesus.
Luke Jackson: And these religious leaders were furious.
Luke Jackson: And now we see them call in the big guns from Jerusalem.
Luke Jackson: Not only is it the scribes out in the countryside, but the big-time guys from Jerusalem, the guys that were the most influential, come down to Galilee to see what Jesus is saying, to confront Jesus and what he is doing.
Luke Jackson: And we see that these scribes from Jerusalem, these religious leaders from Jerusalem, they were, like I said, the most influential of all the scribes, the highest-up of all.
Luke Jackson: And I think that tells us this morning, there must've been something incredibly amazing about the authority of Christ.
Luke Jackson: And scripture speaks of this, that they would be willing to come all the way from Jerusalem to try to stop what Jesus was doing and saying, because Jesus was an incredible threat, because of his authority, to the power that they had, to their own power.
Luke Jackson: So we see that these scribes came from Jerusalem, but we also see that they did not even deny that he cast out demons.
Luke Jackson: You know, you would think that that would be where they would start: they'd just try to pretend like it didn't happen, but they didn't do that.
Luke Jackson: It's because there was no question about it.
Luke Jackson: It was a fact that he had driven out demons, and we see that in last week's message, in Mark chapter 3, verse 11, we see that when he would drive out demons, they would even call him the son of God as they were being driven out of these people.
Luke Jackson: So because they couldn't deny that he cast out demons, what do they do?
Luke Jackson: They chose to go further than his family.
Luke Jackson: They chose to go further than calling him crazy, and they claimed that he was possessed by Satan.
Luke Jackson: What was holy and good, they called evil.
Luke Jackson: Does that sound familiar today to you?
Luke Jackson: In our world today, we see that everywhere, don't we?
Luke Jackson: We see people all over the news, all over the TV, whether that's in their actions or their words, we see people calling what is good evil and what is evil good in our world today, and that is a very, very dangerous thing to be doing.
Luke Jackson: We must be very careful about calling what is good evil.
Luke Jackson: So in verses 23 through 30, the rest of the passage, we see Jesus respond.
Luke Jackson: We see that his answer is truly amazing.
Luke Jackson: Look at verse 23:"And he called them to himself and began speaking to them in parables.
Luke Jackson: 'How can Satan cast out Satan?'" So we see that Jesus uses three parables in the next few verses to show that Satan absolutely would not cast out himself.
Luke Jackson: So before we get to the answer, I want to look at this word"parable".
Luke Jackson: A parable is a short saying or figure placed alongside a teaching to help us understand its meaning.
Luke Jackson: Let me say that one more time.
Luke Jackson: A parable is a short saying or figure placed alongside a teaching to help us understand its meaning.
Luke Jackson: So we see the parables were used to reveal and hide truth.
Luke Jackson: Let me explain that.
Luke Jackson: This is important for us to know this morning, as we listen ourselves to the parables.
Luke Jackson: Parables were used, like I said, to reveal or hide truth, but we see that a careful listener-- or, I'm sorry, a careless listener would not understand, and consequently, that careless listener would be judged.
Luke Jackson: But a careful listener would be enlightened by God's truth and benefit.
Luke Jackson: So for us today, we must be careful listeners so that we can benefit for what is being said in this passage.
Luke Jackson: As we study the parable, it becomes a mirror of how we see ourselves in light of the parable; but not only that, and this is very heavy right here.
Luke Jackson: The next thing is that the crowd did not judge the parable, but the parable judged the crowd.
Luke Jackson: Think about that.
Luke Jackson: These people were looking at Jesus, trying to find something to accuse him of, trying to find something to convict him of, but all along, the parable, all along, we see the crowd did not judge the parable, but the parable actually judged the crowd.
Luke Jackson: So we look at these parables.
Luke Jackson: The first two: the parable of the divided kingdom and the divided house.
Luke Jackson: Look at verses 24 through 26 again:"If a Kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
Luke Jackson: If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
Luke Jackson: If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished." We see Jesus's words of wisdom in these parables, and the first thing that he does is he begins with logic and common sense to refute their accusations.
Luke Jackson: He used some common examples of a kingdom and a house.
Luke Jackson: We all know that these people, they can all relate to what it was like to be a part of a kingdom.
Luke Jackson: They were all part of a kingdom.
Luke Jackson: We know that they can relate to what it was like to be a part of a house or part of a family.
Luke Jackson: They were all part of a family and part of a house.
Luke Jackson: So Jesus uses some common things that they can relate to to speak logically to them: that of course, a divided kingdom, a divided house will not stand.
Luke Jackson: We all know that.
Luke Jackson: That's common sense.
Luke Jackson: But we also see that because Satan would never work against himself, there must be a stronger power at work, and he goes further to show us what that power is in verse 27, with the parable of a strong man.
Luke Jackson: Look what he says in 27:"But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house." We see more words of wisdom from Jesus in verse 27, and we kind of have to unpack this a little bit to understand it.
Luke Jackson: We see that first, the strong man was Satan himself, or Beelzebub, which literally means"master of the house".
Luke Jackson: It was another name for Satan, but its actual, specific interpretation is"master of the house".
Luke Jackson: And so Jesus uses the very name that they're calling him, referring to Satan, to speak to them with a parable of the master of the house.
Luke Jackson: So we see the strong man, but then we see the stronger man in this parable is Jesus himself.
Luke Jackson: The house in the parable is the demonic man who was healed that we talked about earlier.
Luke Jackson: That was from Matthew chapter 12, 22 through 24, but it's also a general, broader representation of Satan's kingdom.
Luke Jackson: The house is Satan's kingdom, in a broader sense.
Luke Jackson: So we see that Jesus is stronger than Satan, and therefore, he has the power to bind Satan and any of his demons.
Luke Jackson: Aren't you glad for that this morning?
Luke Jackson: Jesus is victorious in plundering Satan's house by setting free those who Satan controls and possesses.
Luke Jackson: As I mentioned, in the book of Matthew, we see that right before this happened.
Luke Jackson: Jesus points out that Satan would not-- of course, he would not destroy his own house; but yet Satan's house and kingdom was being destroyed by a greater power that we see in this parable.
Luke Jackson: And so we see Jesus's words of wisdom, and we see that he explains that the scribes were wrong, and he uses logic, and he even goes a little deeper by this parable of the strong man, but he also addresses the seriousness of their accusation in verses 28 through 30.
Luke Jackson: He gives some words of love, but he also gives some words of great warning.
Luke Jackson: Look at what it says in verse 28.
Luke Jackson: It says,"Truly I say to you--" by the way, when he says that in scripture, it's like saying,"You better pay attention.
Luke Jackson: You better listen.
Luke Jackson: This is a big deal, what I'm about to say." The original Hebrew language didn't have the same words that we have, so when you see this phrase, that's what that means.
Luke Jackson: That's the way they explained that you better pay attention about what's going to be said next.
Luke Jackson: He goes on, and he says,"'All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin,' because they were saying he has an unclean spirit." Now this is where it gets tough.
Luke Jackson: This is the difficult part.
Luke Jackson: This is the part that a lot of people don't know how to interpret or understand, and so let's start with the definition of"blaspheme".
Luke Jackson: What's the general definition of blasphemy?
Luke Jackson: Well, if you looked at any dictionary, the world would say, the definition the world would give you would be"to speak or act in a way that shows irreverence for God or anything sacred".
Luke Jackson: Key word there being"anything sacred", meaning that people from all over the world, all religions, all faith, all gods, would try to say that if you were to speak against their god, that you would be a blasphemer.
Luke Jackson: But we believe different.
Luke Jackson: We believe there's only one true God, and so we believe that blasphemy truly is only against the one God, the true God, and we see that the religious leaders in this story, their definition of blasphemy would be an act of insulting, reviling, or defaming God or the crime of assuming oneself, the right or qualities of God.
Luke Jackson: And obviously when I say God, according to the religious leaders and according to us today, we're talking about the one true God, the Hebrew God, Yahweh, the God Yahweh.
Luke Jackson: And so we see kind of what blasphemy is, but what about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
Luke Jackson: What specifically in this passage, what does"blasphemy of the Holy Spirit" actually mean?
Luke Jackson: We see that this is maliciously and willfully misrepresenting God, refusal to accept obvious truth, or to intentionally claim that God's spirit was evil instead of holy.
Luke Jackson: And we see that going on in this passage with these religious leaders who are calling the Holy Spirit evil.
Luke Jackson: So I think now, the question becomes,"What did this mean for the religious leaders?" What Jesus says in these verses, what did it mean for the religious leaders?
Luke Jackson: Well, it's important for us to remember this morning that this all happens-- this story takes place before the cross, before the resurrection, before the ascension and the giving of the Holy Spirit to the believers at the day of Pentecost.
Luke Jackson: That's the context in which we are reading this passage, and so we must not ignore that.
Luke Jackson: But we see the first thing that Jesus shows us is words of love, and when he says that, he makes it clear that all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven.
Luke Jackson: Even in the midst of them calling him evil, Jesus says that they could be forgiven for that if they would repent.
Luke Jackson: And not only that, but later on he goes on.
Luke Jackson: When he's on the cross, what does he say?
Luke Jackson: When he's dying in agony on the cross, when he's suffering on the cross, dying for the sins of the world, what does he say?
Luke Jackson: He says,"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Even in the middle of Jesus Christ dying for the sins of the people that killed him, the people that were insulting him, even in the middle of it, he was willing to forgive and ask the Lord to forgive them if they would repent later on.
Luke Jackson: I mean, this is the third amazing act.
Luke Jackson: What an amazing act.
Luke Jackson: We see him drive out demons, the first amazing act.
Luke Jackson: We see him put others before himself, a radical thing for him to do, and not even eat so he could take care of these people.
Luke Jackson: Then the third amazing act is his forgiveness, the depth of his forgiveness, that while he was being called evil, while he was dying on the cross later on, he was willing to ask these people to be forgiven and to forgive these people.
Luke Jackson: You know what's interesting about this is, if you think about it, we know in Mark chapter 2, verse 7, they call him a blasphemer.
Luke Jackson: They accuse him a blasphemy first, and then after this passage, later on, what is the crime that he is convicted or accused of, supposedly, to die on the cross?
Luke Jackson: It was the crime of blasphemy that they accused him of.
Luke Jackson: And even though they were accusing him of this very thing, he was willing to ask them to be forgiven for it.
Luke Jackson: Forgiving for these things.
Luke Jackson: What amazing forgiveness.
Luke Jackson: We see in Matthew chapter 12, verse 32, in the passage I mentioned earlier, that Jesus even says then that even the sins against the Son of Man could be forgiven, but what about the next verse?
Luke Jackson: What about verse 29?
Luke Jackson: How do we reconcile that?
Luke Jackson: Let's read it again.
Luke Jackson: It says,"'For whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin,' because they were saying he has an unclean spirit." I think it's clear this morning.
Luke Jackson: I'll get to why in just a second, but the point is that it is not that God is unwilling to forgive, but that the person concerned is unwilling to receive his forgiveness.
Luke Jackson: We see that in verse 22 and 30.
Luke Jackson: The verb in those verses is in the imperfect tense, which would be translated that they kept on saying, they kept on saying that he was evil instead of good.
Luke Jackson: They kept on accusing him of having an unclean spirit, and what that tells us is that although they literally rejected Jesus in the flesh, even this could be forgiven.
Luke Jackson: It was the continual attitude and desire to reject the Holy Spirit that would eventually be the unpardonable sin if they did not repent.
Luke Jackson: It's an attitude.
Luke Jackson: It's a state of being, of continually rejecting Jesus Christ, continually calling the spirit of God, which is good, evil, and being hardened and hostile toward the truth and toward the Gospel.
Luke Jackson: Such a willful and deliberate twisting of the truth and rejection of the Holy Spirit makes repentance and salvation impossible.
Luke Jackson: For it has shut the one gate to salvation that God has opened.
Luke Jackson: God does not shut that gate; we do when we are resistant to the Holy Spirit.
Luke Jackson: We know that God sent John the Baptist, and then he sent Jesus, and then he sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to call people to repentance.
Luke Jackson: How did the Jewish religious leaders respond to all of those things?
Luke Jackson: They responded by killing all of them, including many of the apostles, after the power of God was clearly seen at Pentecost and the Holy Spirit fell on the people.
Luke Jackson: That's how they responded.
Luke Jackson: So this morning, I want to read you a quote that I think puts this into perspective for us very well from Warren Wiersbe, the Bible exposition commentary.
Luke Jackson: This is what it says: it says,"These leaders had sinned against the Father and Son, but God had forgiven them.
Luke Jackson: When they sinned against the Holy Spirit, they had reached the end of the line, and there could be no more forgiveness.
Luke Jackson: People today cannot commit the unpardonable sin in the same way the religious leaders did while Jesus was on Earth.
Luke Jackson: The only sin that God cannot forgive is rejection of his son.
Luke Jackson: Even when someone rejects the Holy Spirit and word of God, this does not forfeit future opportunities to be saved.
Luke Jackson: There is still hope as long as there is life.
Luke Jackson: Only God knows when the deadline has been crossed.
Luke Jackson: Therefore, we must never give up on any sinner who has yet to follow Christ." So what does this mean for us today?
Luke Jackson: Post-ascension?
Luke Jackson: Now, after the Holy Spirit has come and the Son is ascended into heaven and is no longer here, physically in the flesh?
Luke Jackson: What does it mean for us today?
Luke Jackson: Well I want to reiterate that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not an isolated act.
Luke Jackson: It's not a one-time thing, but it's a continual state of defiant hostility toward God that rejects his saving power toward man, through the person and the work of Jesus.
Luke Jackson: It is one's preference for darkness, even though he has been exposed to great light.
Luke Jackson: So to reject the Holy Spirit means that we are automatically rejecting the Son, because the Holy Spirit is the one who draws us to the Son.
Luke Jackson: The Son is not physically here for us to receive or reject like he was in the Bible, but the Holy Spirit has been sent in his place to reveal truth of salvation and lead us to the Son.
Luke Jackson: So to reject the Holy Spirit means that we are automatically rejecting the Son.
Luke Jackson: So if we die having rejected the Holy Spirit's called to receive the Son, that sin is what is the eternal sin: to die without Jesus Christ and to reject him as our Lord and Savior.
Luke Jackson: The sad truth is that we will die and spend an eternity in Hell if we were to do this, and this is the horrible thing to think about.
Luke Jackson: It's a horrible thing to think about anybody dying and going to Hell, but it's the truth of the scripture.
Luke Jackson: In fact, the Bible mentions Hell more than it does Heaven.
Luke Jackson: So for us to believe in Heaven, we must also believe in the reality of Hell.
Luke Jackson: So for those of you that are here this morning that would say,"You know, I've never received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior." I want to talk to you just for a couple of minutes this morning.
Luke Jackson: You know, his family called him crazy.
Luke Jackson: The religious leaders called Jesus possessed by Satan.
Luke Jackson: After hearing his response today, what about you?
Luke Jackson: The Bible says there is no middle ground with Jesus Christ.
Luke Jackson: We are either for him and we follow him and we receive him and we know him as Lord and Savior, or we reject him just like the religious leaders did.
Luke Jackson: There is no middle ground with Jesus Christ.
Luke Jackson: Do you believe he is the savior of the world?
Luke Jackson: Do you believe that he is God in the flesh?
Luke Jackson: Someday, we will all stand before him, and we will all give an account of what we did with Jesus Christ while on this earth.
Luke Jackson: We will all have to answer what we did with Jesus.
Luke Jackson: So will you put your trust in him this morning, or will you continue to reject him in light of obvious truth that is presented to you today, just like the religious leaders did?
Luke Jackson: What will you do with Jesus, if you're here today and don't know Jesus Christ, what will you do with him today?
Luke Jackson: There's a couple of things I would encourage you with this morning.
Luke Jackson: The first is that his forgiveness is amazing.
Luke Jackson: Even while he was dying in the middle of his suffering, he was willing to forgive.
Luke Jackson: Even while they were calling him evil, he was willing to forgive, and there's nothing that you have ever done in your life that God cannot forgive.
Luke Jackson: There is nothing from your past, no matter what you've done, that God is not big enough to forgive.
Luke Jackson: And so if you're here this morning, the good news is that God's forgiveness is amazing.
Luke Jackson: But not only that: the other good news is that there is still time left to receive his forgiveness.
Luke Jackson: Your deadline has not been crossed yet.
Luke Jackson: Where there is life, there is always hope.
Luke Jackson: Will you receive him today while you still have time?
Luke Jackson: We're going to have an invitation in just a minute.
Luke Jackson: There's going to be some people at the front.
Luke Jackson: There's going to be some people at the back, some of our leaders that would love to pray with you this morning and help you understand and know and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior this morning.
Luke Jackson: What better time to do it than today, to receive him today?
Luke Jackson: Many of us in this room, probably the majority, over the majority, are believers.
Luke Jackson: We've already made that commitment to follow Christ, and isn't it wonderful to know that there is no sin that's unforgivable, the grace that we have in Jesus Christ?
Luke Jackson: But we must also see the forgiveness of Jesus, and so what is he saying in this passage to us today?
Luke Jackson: Well, he's saying that we must forgive as Jesus forgave us.
Luke Jackson: In the midst of all the things that I've mentioned, Jesus was willing to forgive, and if he's willing to forgive us in that way, if his forgiveness is that amazing, then we must, too, if we're going to follow him and be followers of Jesus Christ, to be like Jesus Christ, we must also forgive the way that Jesus forgave us.
Luke Jackson: There is no sin that anyone could ever commit against us, that we should not be willing to forgive, because Jesus did the same for us.
Luke Jackson: The other thing that I want you to see as believers this morning is that we must not give up on those who have yet to receive.
Luke Jackson: As long as there is hope, there is life.
Luke Jackson: As long as there's life, there's hope.
Luke Jackson: We know that, right, from from this passage?
Luke Jackson: We know that: that until someone's deadline has been crossed, and they pass to another life, the next life, there is always hope.
Luke Jackson: And so we might share the Gospel of truth with as many people as we can, while we still have time.
Luke Jackson: As a believer, are you doing that?
Luke Jackson: Are you willing to put yourself out there, to sacrifice your own wants and needs and desires, as Jesus did, to tell other people about the hope that they have in Jesus?
Luke Jackson: Eternity is at stake for each of those people that God has put in our life.
Luke Jackson: Are we willing to truly put them first and share with them what God has for them in salvation?
Luke Jackson: Let's pray together this morning.
Luke Jackson: Dear God, we thank you so much for today.
Luke Jackson: We thank you for your word.
Speaker 2: We thank you that your word speaks to all of us, God, those that have received you and those that haven't.
Speaker 2: Lord, those this morning that would say that they don't know you, they've never received you, Lord?
Speaker 2: Oh Lord, I pray that today would be their day, God.
Speaker 2: Lord, I pray that today would be the day that they follow you, they turn to you, God, and that you would bring a peace and a joy in their life that they've never experienced because of your what your Son gives us when we receive him, God.
Speaker 2: I pray for that, anyone here today, Lord, they would not leave while they still have time, that they would receive you.
Speaker 2: God, we also pray for believers in this room, that all of us would be willing to forgive as Jesus forgave, Lord, that all of us would not give up on those around us.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's people that we've seen recently over Thanksgiving break.
Speaker 2: They're the closest to us, our closest family and friends that don't know you, God.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a coworker.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's somebody else in our life, God.
Speaker 2: Whoever it is, God, that we would not give up on them, Lord, but that you would use us to reach them for your kingdom.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 2: That they'll be able to experience that joy and the love that you've given us.
Speaker 2: Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would move and do what only it can do at this time, Lord, that you would help us be obedient to you and follow you, and we just ask it all in Jesus's name.
Speaker 2: Amen.