Jesus Binds The Strong Man

Sermon Series: The King Who Came To Die

Mark 3:7-35

Transcript

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed from Galilee
and Judea and Jerusalem and Edomia and from beyond the Jordan and from around
Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd had heard all that he was doing, they came
to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the
crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many so that all who had diseases
pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they
fell down before him and cried out, you are the son of God. And he strictly
ordered them not to make him known. And he went up on the mountain and called to
him those whom he desired. And they came to him. And he appointed 12, whom he
also named apostles, so that they might be with him and he might send them out
to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the 12. Simon, to
whom he gave the name Peter, James, the son of Zebedee and John, the brother of
James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, 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 Iscariot, who betrayed him. Then he
went home. And the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. When
his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, he's out
of his mind. The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, he's
possessed by Beelzebul. And by the prince of demons, he casts out demons. And he
called them to him and said to them in parables, how can Satan cast out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that 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 strongman's house and plunder his goods unless
he first binds a strongman. Then indeed, he may plunder his house. Truly, I say
to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man. And whatever blasphemies
they utter, but whoever blasphemes 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 brothers came. And standing outside, they sent to him and
called him. And a crowd was sitting around him. And they said to him, your
mother and your brothers are inside seeking you. And he answered them, who are
my mother and brothers? And looking about at those who sat around him, he said,
here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my
brother and sister and mother. Amen. Let's take a moment and pray. Lord God, we
are grateful to be gathered in your presence. And we ask for the work of your
Holy Spirit. Thank you for giving us your word. I pray that you would help us in
this time to be good hearers of your word, that we would come under its
authority and power. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. OK, the title of the sermon
is Jesus Binds the Strongman. And as we continue our sermon series through the
Gospel of Mark, let's just think for a moment about what's been happening so
far. In these first couple chapters, Jesus has been performing wonderful
miracles. The oppressed are being set free from demons. Sick people are being
healed. There are poor and despairing people who are finding hope. People with
leprosy, people who have been paralyzed, people who have been chronically ill.
In just the last passage that we covered in chapter 2, there was a paralyzed man
healed. There was a tax collector who was converted and started following Jesus.
There's a man with a withered hand who was healed. And we read this, and it's
clear that Jesus is doing amazing things. And he has this special love for
people that are poor, who are outcasts, who are suffering. And as these amazing
things happen, Jesus' following is growing. He has this tremendous following.
And we would read this and think, what's not to like? Well, not everyone is
happy, because as Jesus' reputation and fame grows, we also see the opposition
of the religious leaders is growing very intense. Where we left off in chapter
3, verse 6, Mark says that the Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel
with the Herodians against him, how to destroy them. So two separate religious
groups, Pharisees and Herodians, are creating this unlikely alliance, because
they're brought together in their hatred and opposition of Jesus. But there's no
question, wherever you stand, that something tremendously unusual is going on.
And in chapter 3, we start to see people expressing their ideas or their
theories about what is actually going on. And if you think about it, that's
normal human behavior. When we observe something way outside the norm, we start
to hypothesize and theorize about why this is happening. We start to observe the
data, and then we start proposing different theories. You know how in our
culture, every once in a while, there will be some strange reported sighting out
in the desert, like in New Mexico or Utah, and someone will have some weird
video, or they'll report that they saw something shooting across the sky, and
then the theories start up. Maybe it's UFOs. Or maybe there's some weird
extraterrestrial alien activity going on. And then there will be other people,
like, oh, there's all sorts of government testing. You don't know anything about
that. The military is doing something out in the desert. And then people will be
like, oh, it's privately operated drones. You don't understand this technology.
And then other people will just be like, no, it's just a couple guys on
psychedelics. Like, nothing's really, like, we don't know. But people start to
theorize about what they think is going on. Whenever there's unusual data, we
try to make sense of it and come up with an explanation that makes sense to us.
And that's kind of what we're seeing this morning. There are these different
groups of people with their theories or with their explanations for what is
going on. And we'll see Mark not only record these, but he's moving us as
readers to make our own decision about who Jesus is and what's going on. Because
there's really no question, something very unusual is happening. The physical
healings and the exorcisms, those are happening in public. They're undeniable.
And before long, there are massive crowds. So while the Pharisees and Herodians
are plotting to kill Jesus, the number of people pressing around him is only
growing. Back in chapter 1, when Jesus was teaching at the Seaside Village in
Capernaum, Mark 1 33 says, the whole city was gathered at his door. So the crowd
was building. But Capernaum is just one town. As Jesus's fame grows, now the
number of people flocking to him is more like what we'd call regional. Look at
how Mark describes this in verses 7 through 12 and notice his repetition of this
idea of the crowds. Jesus withdrew from his disciples to the sea, and a great
crowd followed from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Edomia and from beyond
the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that
he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready
for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him. For he had healed many so
that all who had diseases pressed around him, to touch him. And whenever the
unclean spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, you are the Son
of God. And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. So people are coming
to Jesus from all over the region, most likely for what he was doing rather than
what he was teaching. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they
came to him. And the geographic area, as I was saying, it's getting much wider
now. It's not just people in Galilee. It's not just people in Capernaum. Now we
have people coming from the south. We have these people from Tyre and Sidon
coming from non-Jewish areas. And people would have heard about these wonderful
miracles and wanted to observe it for themselves or perhaps benefit for
themselves. Maybe they needed a miracle. And the crowd is so intense that Jesus'
disciples are told to prepare a getaway boat. They have to function the same way
like a security detail would today to protect a celebrity, lest he get crushed.
So think for a moment about the incredible pressure that Jesus is under. He has
these Pharisees and Herodians who are questioning him constantly, plotting how
they might destroy him. He has this ever-increasing crowd pressing around him
with their demands and their expectations. And if that's not enough, he has his
own family. Look at what Mark says later on in verses 20 and 21. Then he went
home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when his
family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, he's out of
his mind. Sometimes in your day you might feel like you wake up in the morning
and feel like that tightness in your chest and that sense of pressure and
responsibility. You might feel like your whole day is booked from the second
your feet hit the floor till the end of the day. And you could be under or feel
an immense weight of pressure. Jobs, families, people you're concerned about,
people to provide for, bills to pay, school work, expectations that others have
on you. And I just bring that up because Jesus knew exactly what that was like.
In his earthly ministry, Jesus was under intense pressure coming from all
angles. That was part of his human experience. So it's very instructive what he
does next. If you remember back in Mark 1, when Jesus' public ministry was
beginning, we noted the whole city was gathered at his door. But the next
morning, people were very surprised and kind of dismayed that he rose early
while it was still dark to get away to pray. Now in Mark 3, the crowds are
greater. And once again, Jesus withdraws. Verse 13 says, and he went up on the
mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And
Luke's gospel has a parallel account of what Jesus did right before he called
the 12 disciples. Luke 6 12 says, in these days he went out to the mountain to
pray, and all night he prayed, he continued in prayer to God. So Jesus' response
to these overwhelming demands and pressure was not to try to please everyone,
and not to try to ramp up the activity. Instead it was to get alone and to pray.
Martin Luther, the great reformer, used to say when people asked him about his
plans for the day, he used to say, I have so much to do today that I shall spend
the first three hours in prayer. And we might not all have Luther's schedule,
but isn't Jesus' example a lesson to us? Jesus gets away, and he prays, and then
in the strength and in the power of that time of communion, alone with his
father, he calls others to join him in the work. He went up on the mountain and
called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed 12
whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send
them out to preach, and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the 12.
Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee, and John the
brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is 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 Iscariot who betrayed him.
It's a microcosm of the new family of God. It's this unlikely gathering of
people from different backgrounds, with different personalities that Jesus is
bringing around to him. And he gathers these 12 to him, and these 12 turn out to
be his strategy for birthing the church. And they'll be formed by relationship
with him, and they'll be sent out to preach. They're given authority to cast out
demons, to authenticate the message that they're preaching. So we see some
people are attracted to Jesus because of the works that he's performing. Others
are starting to actually follow him and do his work. Then there's Jesus' earthly
family and his siblings. They have their own theory. They say he's out of his
mind. He's out of his mind. That shows us the depth of Jesus' humanity. Isn't
that amazing? Some people think Jesus spent his childhood walking around
performing magic tricks. His divinity was so hidden from the people who lived
alongside him, they could not conceive that this would be the son of God. For 30
years Jesus humbled himself to live alongside his family in such a way that they
could not recognize his divinity. And we know some of Jesus' siblings eventually
followed him. But at this moment they think he has become a fanatic and they
need to intervene. The text says they went out to seize him. It's almost like
they went out to arrest him. It's the idea of a forceful intervention. Some of
you may have been involved in something like this with someone you love. The
family wants to take charge of the situation. It's a very strong language.
What's interesting is they're not denying the good things that he's doing. He's
their family. They care about him. But he doesn't even have time to eat. Imagine
Mary, a good mother. Her son does not even have time to eat. So the situation is
getting totally out of hand in their opinion. So they need to intervene. But
before we hear about Jesus' response to his family's concerns, we hear about
another group who has their own theory about what's going on. The scribes have
heard a report about what's happening in Galilee and they have traveled up from
Jerusalem to weigh in on the situation. And the scribes, this is verse 22, And
the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, He is possessed by
Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons he casts out the demons. And he called
them to him and said to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? If a
kingdom is divided against itself, that 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 he
first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. Truly I say to
you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man in whatever blasphemies they
utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but
is guilty of an eternal sin. For they were saying, He has an unclean spirit. So
the concern of Jesus' family is very different than what we're hearing from the
scribes. They're not concerned about Jesus' health or the pressure he's under or
his mental state. They're traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee on this little
pilgrimage to give their official opinion. But this is not like an unbiased
inquiry into the truth. These scribes are on the warpath coming for battle. And
after observing, they have two kind of separate interpretations of what's going
on. The exorcisms, meaning people having demons cast out, are not deniable. So
they have to come up with some way to account for them. And the first thing they
say is, he's possessed by Beelzebul. Beelzebul is the Lord of the evil spirits.
That's synonymous with Satan. And secondly, they say, Jesus is casting out
demons by the power of the Lord of the evil spirits. And Jesus responds to this
criticism with a parable. It's the first time in Mark we hear about Jesus
teaching in parables. In chapter 4 there's an extended sequence of parables. But
a parable is a story with an intent. It's an illustration with a purpose. For
those who are following Jesus, it provides truth and illumination. But for those
that are opposed to Jesus, the parable is a source of judgment. So Jesus gives
them a parable. And when we read it, we need to see Jesus is making a radical
claim about himself. Because most people when they read Mark 3, I think they can
get lost because they start reading about the unforgivable sin. And we wonder,
have I committed it? What is that? But look at this parable. In this parable,
the strong man is Satan. When Jesus said, I'll read this again. No one can enter
a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man.
Then indeed he may plunder his house. In the parable the strong man is the evil
one, Satan. His house is his kingdom here on earth. In other words, the realm in
which he holds power. And his goods refer to his victims. In other words, people
who are entrapped in sin, people in bondage, people who need freedom. And we
think, how can anyone bind the strong man and free his prisoners? Well first,
let's see, Jesus is making an amazing claim about himself. He's saying that he
is the one who has the power to bind the strong man and free his prisoners. He's
saying that he is the one who can transfer people from the realm of darkness
into light. It's a massive claim to make. And the Old Testament prophesies of a
mighty warrior who will come to defeat the evil tyrant. We know this idea of
people in sin and bondage goes all the way back to the beginning of the Bible in
Genesis 3. But Isaiah 49 says this. Isaiah 49, 24-25 says, Can the prey be taken
from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? For thus says the Lord,
even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be
rescued. For I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save
your children. So Isaiah 49, 24-25 prophesies of this mighty warrior to come.
And it would be, if you think about the audience, it would be an immensely
appealing message. A man and a warrior who's coming, who's strong enough to
defeat the strong man. In the oppressed political climate of this day, these
oppressed Jewish people would have loved this image. But think about the strong
man, the defeat of the strong man in the larger framework of Mark. How was the
strong man bound? It was not through obvious displays of power, it was through
weakness. In his earthly ministry we see Jesus fighting against evil, giving
people freedom, loosing them from spiritual bondage and physical bondage. But in
the end, Jesus ultimately binds the strong man by allowing himself to be
captured. Look at how Mark describes this. In the garden before his crucifixion
was Jesus who was captured. Mark 14, 46 says they laid hands on him and they
seized him. And in that moment in the dark of night, Jesus could have incited a
rebellion. That would have been consistent with Jewish revolutionaries who had
rioted against political power and oppression in the past. That was actually the
exact response of Peter who's by his side. Mark 14, 47 says, one of those who
stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off
his ear. But that's not the type of rebellion that Jesus is leading. He quiets
Peter, he allows himself to be bound and handed over to Roman authorities. The
one who came to free you and I allowed himself to be captured and bound. He took
the punishment for us, the prisoners, the ones in bondage to sin itself. And
Jesus came to bind the strong man. He does it by willingly laying down his life.
That's who Jesus is. So when we think about the unforgivable sin, we wonder
about this. What is the definition of a sin that can't be forgiven? We tend to
think, we tend to think is it, we think about things we've done first. And then
we think is it some horrible secret thing, some blasphemy or disrespect, some
terrible perversion. Is there something that I said that maybe can never be
unsaid? The unforgivable sin, as Jesus describes it here, is rejecting the
witness of the Holy Spirit persistently. Let's also understand who this is
directed at. These are educated religious professionals who have the testimony
of the scripture right in front of them. And they reject it consistently. They
refuse to see these scriptures point to Jesus. So when we read about the
unforgivable sin, the question is not have I committed a sin so bad that God
does not have the power to forgive me. Right there in the text it says, all sins
will be forgiven. All sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever
blasphemies they utter. Jesus came to save sinners, to give his life as a ransom
for many. He paid the price for even the worst of sins. The question when we
read this is whether we will listen to the testimony of the Holy Spirit about
who Jesus is. Because everyone who listens and believes can be forgiven. So the
scribes, they travel to get there and give their professional religious opinion.
They are the ones who will be left without forgiveness if they persist in their
hard hardness. So we look at this passage and we see some people see Jesus as
out of his mind. Others think he is in league with the devil. And others follow
him as Lord. That's what's known, that's what Christians call later on as the
trilemma. Or what C.S. Lewis called the Lord lunatic or liar question. What C.S.
Lewis pointed out in his famous book Mere Christianity is that one thing that
becomes apparent to us if we read the Gospels honestly is that any theory that
likes to portray Jesus as simply a good man or inspiring teacher or a teacher of
love and peace is not doing justice to the Gospel account. Because Jesus called
himself the son of God and claimed that he had the power to set people free from
the dominion of Satan. So you can call him a liar and blaspheme her like the
scribes did. Or you can say that he was out of his mind like his family did. Or
you can bow down to him as Lord. But nobody thought Jesus was just a good
teacher. The question as we read Mark 3 which builds really throughout the
narrative for the reader is who do you say that I am? Well Mark concludes his
account by bouncing back to Jesus' family. And their attempts at his
intervention. At intervention. And his mother and his brothers came, this is 31,
his mother and brothers came and standing outside they said to him and called
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 my brothers? And looking about at those who sat around him he said, here are
my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother
and sister and mother. That would be a shocking thing to say in a very tight
knit family oriented society. We can read and think it sounds very
disrespectful. It's not disrespectful. We know that as he hung on the cross
Jesus made provision for his mother by entrusting her to the care of John. Later
on in Mark when Jesus criticizes the Pharisees it's because they neglect their
own parents in favor of their traditions. So Jesus is not uprooting the nuclear
family or disrespecting his earthly family. He's saying that his spiritual
family transcends his earthly family. And everyone wants that sense of family.
Some of us we can look and some of us we look like culturally and we have maybe
experienced personally or we just observe the disintegration of the nuclear
family and we know chaos ensues when family bonds fall apart. We think I don't
want my family to be like that. And what can happen in response, I think
especially among pro-family Christians is the response to that chaos that tends
towards control where everything can now become about the safety and comfort of
the family. And although that impulse is good, that can become idolatrous. And
what Jesus is saying is that the truest family comes from being adopted through
the work of Christ. He's the one who sets us free from the bonds of sin and
draws us into his family. His family are the people who have been freed from sin
to serve him and to live with obedience. And if we love and obey anything more
than Christ, even good things like earthly family, it does become idolatry. And
in that sense, Jesus is free now to disappoint the expectations of his family
even as he loves them. And what Jesus is saying is whoever does the will of God,
these are my people. Jesus is the only one who can free us from the domain of
darkness and the only one who can give you that family that goes even beyond
blood and earthly ties. And he was made weak so that we could be transferred
into that out of darkness into light. Made weak so that we could be set free and
brought into his family. So let's take this time and we'll respond to God by
praying and then singing together. Father, as we look at your word, I pray that
we would respond in obedience to Christ. Loving him, serving him as Lord,
obeying him. As we are pressed with this question of who do you say that I am, I
pray for each one here that we would respond in faith and then obedience to that
question, acknowledging you as Lord and serving you. I pray in Jesus' name,
Amen.