unclean spirit returns with seven more evil spirits, the last condition worse than the first
24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’
25 When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.
26 Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
Pharisees attributed the healing to Beelzebub and Jesus refutes with the divided kingdom argument
24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”
25 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
27 If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
every sin and blasphemy forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.
32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come.
Jesus tells disciples in the upper room that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment
1 “I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble.
2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.
3 They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
4 But I have told you these things, so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment;
9 about sin, because they don’t believe in me;
10 about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more;
11 about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
12 “I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.
13 However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.
14 He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.
15 All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you.
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added
1 “Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
3 But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does,
4 so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
5 “When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.
6 But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
7 In praying, don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.
8 Therefore don’t be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him.
9 Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
10 Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16 “Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face;
18 so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
19 “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal;
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.
23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.
25 Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?
27 “Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?
28 Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin,
29 yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?
31 “Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message came from Pastor Carl's ongoing series walking through a harmony of the gospels. He looked at the moment when Jesus responded to religious leaders who accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan, and he connected that ancient accusation to the broader question of whether we trust God's goodness when circumstances are hard.
What was said
Before getting into the text, Pastor Carl shared a testimony from the first service. Melissa Ripley Thompson spoke about the sudden death of her husband Kurt on January 1, 2020, from an aortic dissection, and how even at his funeral she was already able to raise her hands to God. Pastor Carl held that up as a picture of what it looks like to praise God during a storm rather than looking away from Him.
Mark's account opens with a detail the other gospels skip. Jesus had come home to Capernaum, a crowd pressed in so thick He couldn't even eat, and His own people came to pull Him away because they thought He had lost His senses. Pastor Carl sat with that line for a moment, asking whether we ever look at the way God does things and quietly think the same.
The scribes from Jerusalem went further. They said Jesus was casting out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. Jesus answered them with plain logic: a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, so Satan would not be sending one of his own to undo his own work. The real explanation, Jesus said, is that someone stronger has entered the strong man's house, tied him up, and is plundering it. Pastor Carl kept returning to that image, saying Jesus' miracles were never meant to be spectacles in themselves but were authenticating His message and showing that He holds power over the one who already has people captive.
That set up the warning about the unpardonable sin. Jesus said every sin and every blasphemy can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot. Pastor Carl worked through the word carefully, drawing on Thayer's lexicon: blasphemy means being slow to call what is good good, and slow to call what is evil evil, switching them. The scribes had done exactly that, calling the Holy Spirit's work the work of Beelzebub. When the Holy Spirit is convicting someone of sin and pointing them toward Christ, to call that voice bad and reject it is the one thing Jesus names as having no forgiveness.
Luke's version adds that after Jesus refutes the accusation, He warns about the unclean spirit who leaves a person, wanders, and returns with seven spirits worse than itself to a house swept clean but empty. Pastor Carl read that as a direct word to the Pharisees: behavior modification without the Holy Spirit filling the space left behind ends in a worse condition than before, multiplying pride and other sins where the one had been.
Pastor Carl then read from John 16, Jesus speaking to His disciples in the upper room about what the Holy Spirit would do after He left. The Spirit would convict the world of sin, convince it of righteousness, and make clear that the ruler of this world has already been judged. Pastor Carl connected that back to the strong man passage: the enemy is a defeated foe who knows it, and the Spirit's ongoing work in the world is urging everyone toward trust in Christ.
He closed by describing the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, walking home bewildered after the crucifixion, not recognizing the one walking beside them until He broke bread with them in their house. Pastor Carl used that as a picture of what it looks like to invite Christ into difficult circumstances we cannot make sense of, letting Him work through the bewilderment even when we cannot yet see what He is doing. A question from the congregation led into a brief discussion of why those disciples, and the Marys at the tomb, did not at first recognize the risen Jesus, with several people contributing thoughts about how the crucifixion had left them certain it was over.
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in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Mark described Jesus' own people saying 'he has lost his senses' when they saw how he was giving himself to the crowds without even stopping to eat. Have you ever looked at the way Jesus calls his followers to live and thought, that seems a little crazy? What was going on in your thinking at that moment?
Pastor Mark defined blasphemy as being slow to call what is good actually good, and slow to call what is bad actually bad, and said we see it every single day. Where do you notice that pattern showing up, and how do you hold your footing when a lie gets repeated long enough that it starts to sound reasonable?
Come on in. How are you? Good. Did your alarm scare you this morning? Did it happen an hour earlier than you were expecting it?
Because that's what happened to me this morning. How are you? I am glad to be here though and excited to be leading. Would you stand with me and we'll sing? We've a story to tell to the nations.
This is an older song that we sing sometimes here but this is what we sang as we marched in for graduation at seminary. We've a story to tell to the nations instead of pomp and circumstance. It was we've got a story. Let's be telling it. Alright.
We've a story to tell to the nations that shall turn their hearts to the right. A story of truth and mercy, a story of peace and light, a story of peace and light, For the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright. And Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth, the kingdom of love and light. Weave a song to be sung to the nations that shall lift their hearts to the Lord. A song that shall conquer evil and shatter the spear and sword, and shatter the spear and sword, for the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright.
And Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth, the kingdom of love and light. We've a message to give to the nations that the Lord who reigneth above hath sent us his son to save us and show us that God is love, and show us that God is love, For the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright. And Christ's great kingdom shall come on the kingdom of love and light. And the last, we've a savior to show to the nations who the path of sorrow hath tried, that all of the world's great peoples might come to the truth of God, might come to the truth of God, For the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright. And Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth, the kingdom of love and light.
Amen. Amen. How about great is thy faithfulness? We'll sing all three, verses.
Great is thy faithfulness, oh God, my father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changes not thy compassions, they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever forever will be. As Great is thy faithfulness.
Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest.
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above. Join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Me pardon for sin and a peace that endureth thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside. Great is thy faithfulness.
Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see.
Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few more few announcements this morning and starting off with Monday nights at First B. That's happening.
Tomorrow night, 06:00, meal, music, and a message. If you have been looking for a good time to start, tomorrow night would be a good time. Carl is starting the book of James. We've been in the book of John for, the last little while, several months, and we're up to the first nine or 10 verses of the book of James. If you wanna come join the gospel conversation, that'd be good.
Meal, music, and a message. The meal, it's homemade lasagna tomorrow night. Alright? The music is gonna be the 09:00 band, also the Monday night band. We're the same band.
And then, the meal music and the message is gonna be James one. I think it's one through nine. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously and graciously. Count it all joy. It's so many so many good things in the book of James.
That's a good time to start. Awana because kids matter to God. Awana is a kids club that meets in here starting off in this room to begin with at 06:00 and then goes until 07:30. It's a good time to to pour scripture into the hearts of kids and treat them well. Right?
It's a fun time. We have great volunteers that love kids and they matter to God so they matter to us. Wanna. If you wanna sign up for a weekly Email, just go to firstbjackson.org and you can sign up for em right there yourself or you can call the church office and we'll sign you up. The next one is a different Email.
First b in the Bible And this one, I'm still trying to train my system not to send this one to my spam folder. But if you would like to be reading the Bible together with the rest of first b, we are doing that right now. We're in the book of Luke. Actually, I've got one coming due pretty soon. I'm supposed to be, doing Luke nine, I think.
Seven. Seven. Better not do nine. Yeah. Is it nine or seven?
You're eight. That's right. I'm seven. So I gotta I gotta get this turned in pretty quick. It's fun though because we get a little blurb about the person writing the, the deal, the application and the explication.
It's so good. I love that. That's one of my first thing best things going on right now and enjoying the most. That is if you are watching the service on YouTube and you want for it to notify you the next time we're live, you just hit that little bell right there and it will. Holy, holy.
Not to be confused with holy, holy, holy. Okay? That's the next song we're going to sing. Would you stand with me? And just two holies, alright?
We're singing holy, holy, not holy, holy, holy.
Holy, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. And we lift our hearts before you as a token of our love. Holy, holy, holy, holy. Gracious father, gracious father, we're so blessed to be your children, gracious father. And we lift our heads before you as a token of our love.
Gracious father, gracious father, precious Jesus, precious Jesus. We're so glad that you've redeemed us, Jesus.
Amen. How about he is lord? Great set this morning. Is Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna invite the ushers to come on forward.
It's a worship through giving or the offering time this morning. Would you pray with me? God, we're thankful for having awakened this morning with breath in our lungs. I have been talking to people all week long with prayer requests, Lord. And you say that we should cast our cares upon you because you care for us.
And so, Lord, I am doing that for the people who've said, will you pray for? They're already praying for these people. I'm now doing it too. I'm spreading it to the rest of the church, Lord, for Lowell and Sherry Glick. Lowell and Sherry Glick, Mexican missionaries, missionaries to Mexico who've been serving twenty five plus years down there.
Lord God Almighty, Lowell's body is riddled with cancer right now, and their retirement years are upon them. And they're working through the process of praising you during this storm. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray that you'd bless them with all of the means and the resources that they need, to continue, what they're doing in your name. Lord God Almighty, for Hayden Isler, the seven month old son of a a wife that I married to her husband just a couple years back, Lord. Their seven month old has cancer, leukemia.
Lord God almighty, the circumstances of life are sometimes so overwhelming and difficult for us that we are tempted to look away. Look away from the circumstance or look away from you rather than praising you through the storm. In Jesus' name, would you adjust our understanding, Lord, to match the truth, the capital t truth, the reality that is above the reality we see. For Claudia Stevenson in Columbus, Georgia, my mother in law's best friend, Lord God Almighty, she's been so ecstatic and enthusiastic for you for so long, and she's struggling right now. Would you help her?
In Jesus' name, would you help all of these? And would you help us as we come to grips with an understanding that we only see a finite amount of what's going on, that you understand the infinite and you are in charge. You say cast your cares upon you because you care for us. And Lord, that you'll perfect and confirm and strengthen and establish us in the midst of all the difficulty. May we say that we praise you during the storm.
In Jesus' name, amen. Soul is Jesus. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. What a beautiful song. So we have been going through a harmony of the gospels, and I've we turn a corner here and there.
You know, I mean, it's it's the path that Jesus tried, no doubt. But when there's a renewed emphasis sometimes, like, the renewed emphasis lately has been about repentance. Jesus is saying, you know, this lady who anointed my feet is doing what she's doing out of thanks thankfulness because her sins have been forgiven and there's a pharisee in the room who just is not acknowledging Jesus. In fact, what he does acknowledge of him is he's not can't be a prophet. No way.
Right? So he's not repenting of his previous way of thinking. So repentance is the newer, is what we're concentrating a lot on, especially as John the Baptist ministry has waned with him in prison and Jesus has has accelerated with all of his miracles to authenticate his message. But Jesus is gonna respond today to accusations and attack on his ministry. Actually, on his goodness is what it comes down to.
So in our world, in the today, and throughout most of our lifetimes, we have seen a lot of people that take in all that they see and all the circumstances that they see and come up in a completely different place than Christ would have us be. Do you agree with that? I mean, Nietzsche in the eighteen eighties, I think, said, you know, God is dead. Certainly, if he's all powerful, he could do something about this mess that we're in, but he must not even exist. That that's that's not good.
It's not true. It's not helpful, and has led a lot of people astray. And so to look at God and proclaim him to be good even in the midst of difficult circumstances as a part of it. In the first service, and she's not here for this service. They are packing, but she got up.
It was Melissa Ripley Thompson. I got up and did about a ten minute testimony at the end about the goodness of God. Now y'all most of y'all in here, a lot of y'all knew Kurt Ripley, who on the first day of January of twenty twenty, before COVID. So before that, Kurt was outside, getting ready to shovel snow. He wasn't exerting himself in any greater way than he did every single day all the time, and he had an aortic dissection from his heart all the way down to his kidneys.
His aorta just burst. And he they worked on him at the hospital in Driggs, but he died. And they had been married for twenty eight years, is that what she was? Twenty nine years? Twenty nine years.
Moved up here when Melissa was 19. Also, told everybody she's one day older than me. Moved up here. She looks a whole lot better than I do for our age. Moved up here when she was 19.
They had an 8x10 storage unit where they started the vacuum cleaner store. And then it's grown to be 3,100 feet. She has recently sold the business. They're moving to Texas. After Kurt's passing, during his funeral, she was already able to raise her hands to God.
That's hard. That's incredibly hard. It was hard for all of us going through it who knew Kurt, but she was already able, and God's given her the grace to be able to praise him during the storm. That he does turn graves into gardens, and he does give beauty for ashes. And that's not to say that that those of us who are grieving longer than that or grieving in a different way than that are wrong, but the testimony that she gave this morning was one of God's faithfulness.
Great is your faithfulness. Summer and winter, springtime and harvest. It's always true. Right? Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.
Thine own dear presence, the Holy Spirit, to cheer and to guide. It's good. We're gonna I I kinda did the testimony front loaded today, but the sermon is gonna be about Jesus responding to accusations and attack on his ministry. Now in the harmony way that we're studying this of the gospels, there's Matthew 12, Mark three, and Luke 11. I think they tell all the same story.
I usually use a book by Thomas and Gundry that is the harmony of the gospels and they separate Luke out and they say that happened later. Why they do that? There are a lot of different reasons But I think that they're pretty obviously all telling the same story. So I'm going to share from each. We'll start with, so Matthew has an extra bit added to the end.
It's still the same story. It's a more ample version of it. I probably won't cover all of that this week because I didn't cover it in the first service. So, I don't want to get, I don't want you all to be ahead of them. Mark three is the shortest version of this and I'll explain through Mark.
I'll go quickly through Luke and then I'll come back to Matthew at the end. Mark three starts off like this And this is actually this part right here I wrestled with these two verses more than any other this week. I think I hey, I mean, we kinda know the story, you know? But this one caught me off guard. Mark's the only one who mentions this little blurb that says, and he comes home.
When you see an asterisk up there on the screen in the New American Standard, it means it's the historical present. It means it's it happened in the past, but it's told in the present just to get you into the story. And he comes home, and the crowd gathers again like they do to such an extent that they cannot even eat a meal. They couldn't even eat a meal. They were thrown by a whole bunch of people to the point that they couldn't do anything.
He comes home, crowd gathers to such an extent that they couldn't even eat a meal. And this was probably in Capernaum. That was home base for Jesus. And the next sentence here says, and when his own people heard about this, his own people. That's what it says is his own people, but people have it depends on your translation.
Might have said his friends or it might have said his relatives. It might say his family. But if I'm reading it and I say, and when his own people, are you one of Jesus' people? Okay. If you're one of Jesus' people, I think you could say, okay, I'm I'm in that group right there.
And when his own people heard about this, okay, he's surrounded by people who are getting him where he can't even eat. He's they're asking for stuff. They're asking for miracles, I'm sure, and they just want to see or hear from him. You think about Zacchaeus climbing up in the tree. All of these people are trying to get to him.
Just get a piece of him. Some people are trying to touch his garment and when his own people, family, friends, relatives, you, me, when his own people heard about this, they came to him to take him into protective custody. They were gonna take hold of him and get him away from the crowd so that he could, you know, eat, calm down, rest. They know that he often withdraws into the wilderness to pray, but he wasn't able to do that because so many people around so much of the time. But this is the next verse that says this.
When his own people heard about this, they came out to take custody of him for they were saying, themselves, his own people, they were saying, he's lost his senses. Oh, do we ever say that? Do we ever ask Christ's own people go, I think he's just crazy. I think he's lost it. He's a little bit insane.
He's reaching out to those people? Really? He's he's listening to everybody who comes along till the last customer is served, and he's not taking care of his own physical needs. He's taking care of them instead. He's crazy.
That's his own people saying that. Okay? So that puts me right here. The reason this is on one screen is because I want for us to think about that. Do we ever say, yeah, God's a little crazy.
The way he does stuff is not the way I do it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Thank God that God is God and he doesn't depend on us making up the decisions for how we would do things. In fact, he asks us to do it his way.
His own people were saying, he's lost his senses and I I've think covered the question a little bit. Even if I can't say exactly who it means, family, friends, relatives, people from Nazareth, could have been his home folks from Nazareth. His own people though were saying he had lost his senses. The next line says this, the scribes, the scribes who came down from Jerusalem, okay, these are heavy duty holy people. Right?
They were saying he's he's possessed by Beelzebub. Now Beelzebub is another name for Satan. Beelzebub is probably from the Old Testament. It's sort of a transliteration, but it's pronounced differently in Baal or Baal in the Old Testament. Y'all know Baal was the Lord of the flies.
Baal Zebub is lord of the flies. Remember William Golding's novel? How bad that was? How bad it is when people are left to themselves? Lord of the flies.
But Beelzebub, it's interesting just that little
bit of
a pronunciation change means lord of the dung. Ain't that awful? It's kind of a term of derision almost for Satan that while he's in charge of is the flies and the dung but it also they're giving him more credit than he's probably do right here, aren't they? Jesus is casting out demons and the scribes who came down for Jerusalem are saying, he's possessed by Beelzebub. He is doing what he's doing which is a mighty work.
Nobody can doubt that. He cast out demons by the ruler of demons. And so, he, Jesus, called them to himself and he began speaking to them in parables. This is the shortest version of the story, but this is what he says. How can Satan because he's calling Beelzebub what he is, the adversary, the enemy.
How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. Alright. Do you agree with that? If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand.
Okay. If this were taken out of context, would that not be a great message for The US Of A? Okay. If a house is divided against this stuff, that house will not be able to stand. You can't keep on going as divided as this.
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he's finished. He actually has an end. Well, truthfully, Satan does have an end. We already know what it is. We've covered it.
Right? He is not almighty. God is almighty, and the devil is a lesser created being. Okay? He's not infinite in his power.
Although he is powerful, Jesus is more powerful. He'll go into that in a minute. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he has an end or is finished. Listen to this, but no one so he refutes first. He refutes and says, that's not the case.
Beelzebub, no. That's not the way this thing works. And then he explains, no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. And then he will plunder his house. I've said over and over that Jesus' miracles authenticate his message.
And when he cast out demons and heals the sick, he is showing that he is more powerful than the God of this world than Beelzebub, Satan, the adversary. He is showing that he has the power to tie him up, and he will plunder his house. The devil's already got people. Right? He's already got them.
Christ is, was, and is crashing the gates of hell, and the gates of hell will not withstand the blow. No one can enter a strong man's house. In this example, Satan is the strong man and plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man and then he will plunder his house and truly I say to you, Jesus says, truly I say to all of y'all, all sins will be forgiven. All of the fallen short that y'all do will be forgiven to the sons and daughters of men, all sins, and whatever blasphemies they may commit. Whatever blasphemies they commit.
Now we don't use blasphemy, the word, very often. We don't use it in a religious context very often anymore. If you hear it these days, blasphemy or blasphemies, usually, we use it colloquially. Do we do you agree with that? Colloquially being like you hear somebody that says, I don't know, LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan, and somebody says, blasphemy.
You know? Or this, like, I'm a I'm a car guy. Okay? So this is the name of this car is blasphemy. Blasphemy.
Hemi. Because it's a '55 Chevy. The most classic Dave's not here this morning, but the most classic of all Chevys is a '55 Chevy Bel Air, two door post hardtop. Right? I mean, two door post, not hardtop.
So but it's got a 04/26 Hemi, which is a Dodge motor. Oh my goodness. Somebody put a Dodge motor in it in the classic Chevy. Right? That's blasphemy.
Oh, it's the name of it. Mike Finnegan's car, blasphemy. This is the definition of blasphemy. Okay? I took this straight from Thayer's lexicon, not my words.
It is abusive or scurrilous language. What's funny about that is now I've got to describe what scurrilous is. So scurrilous is making or spreading scandalous claims about someone with the intention of damaging their reputation. Do we hear blasphemy often these days? Oh my goodness.
It's every day. Every day if you're paying attention. It's a scurrilous attack on his integrity. It might use it in a sentence or in our particular context, a scurrilous attack on his identity, God's identity. And blasphemy being an abusive or scurrilous use of language, literally, it's two different words.
Blast is one, which means slow or sluggish. And then theme is the reputation of something, how something is. So literally, it is slow or sluggish to call something that is good good. To call something good that really is good. And it's also being slow to identify what is truly bad as that which is really evil.
Do you see that in our world today? Yeah. Actually, if I go further in the definition, blasphemy switches wrong for right and right for wrong. It calls what God disapproves of as right. And in so doing, Romans one twenty five would say it exchanges the truth of God for a lie, and it can be a very appealing lie.
And if you keep hearing a strong lie long enough, you start to believe it, right? So, blasphemy. Jesus says, all of the sins can be forgiven of sons and daughters of men and whatever blasphemies they commit. What? No matter what, you say or do, it can be forgiven you, but he goes on to say, whoever though blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness.
Oh my goodness. When it says never has forgiveness, this is the famed unpardonable sin. But that person is guilty of an eternal sin. So whenever I say up here that let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Whatever it is that we are saying or breathing out, whatever whatever we're saying matters.
And if the Holy Spirit is saying, trust Jesus, because that's his job, is to convict us of our own sin, convince us of God's righteousness, illumine scripture, we'll see it a little later on in the service. But when the Holy Spirit says, trust Jesus, your way that seems so right to you is actually the way that leads to destruction. Trust Jesus. That's what the Holy Spirit's job is. And whoever blasphemes, denies, rejects, calls that good voice bad is in danger of an eternal sin.
We don't know when our last breath will be. I mentioned Kurt a minute ago. At 53 years old, that was not what he was expecting to be his last breath when he woke up that morning. Whoever blasphemes against Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin and Jesus was saying this because they, scribes and pharisees, were saying, he has an unclean spirit. So, Jesus says, I can take it.
You've said all kinds of bad stuff about me but when you start talking about the Holy Spirit, you are messing with something that is bigger and stronger than you know, okay? You have just called and this is absolute blasphemy. They just called the Holy Spirit Beelzebub. Okay. We're finished with Mark.
Luke tells the same story. He gives us a little bit more detail. Here, it starts off with the diagnosis and he, Jesus, was casting out a mute demon. A mute demon kept this host person mute. And when the demon had gone out, the man who was previously unable to speak talked.
I love it when scripture says, you know, and the previously lame man walked, and the previously blind man saw, and the previously unable to speak talked. And the crowds were amazed. Well, I imagine they were. They have seen this guy trying his best to get across with symbols what he was trying to get across to him. And I'm sure they felt sorry for him for a long, long time, and now he's speaking articulately to them.
And the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, some of them, it doesn't say here what Mark said was the scribes. Some of them said, well, he cast out the demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. Aren't we guilty of giving the devil more than he's due a lot of the time? I think that if we see something we can't explain, lot of times we say, what kind of dark force did this?
Instead of saying, wow, look at what God has done. He was casting out a mute demon when the demon had gone out. Man was previously unable to speak talk. The crowds were amazed. Some of them though said he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.
Others, in order to test him, were demanding of him a sign from heaven. Now think about that. Here we are. He just cast out a demon, and the reaction was, well, he does that by the ruler of demons and then other people say, show us a sign from heaven. He just cast out a mute demon.
He just set a man free. What else do you wanna see? In Matthew, he goes on to tell more about that. We probably won't get to it today but I don't wanna get you ahead of him. He knew their thoughts and he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste.
House divided against itself falls. And if Satan also has been divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you claim that I cast out the demons by Beelzebub. Yet, if by Beelzebub, I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Think about that.
Now, the Pharisees did believe in an afterlife, they did believe in a spiritual reality that was above our own ability to see, but we could sense and feel it and made a difference in the world and so Pharisees would have people who would cast out demons. So Jesus is saying, you're saying that when I do it, it's of the devil but what about when you do it? Do you pray that God would set people free from hard stuff? I prayed for people this morning to be set free from hard stuff. I do every single day.
If God chooses to set those people free from that hard stuff, do you give glory to God or do you give more than his due to the devil? Jesus is saying, if I do it and it's Beelzebub, then who is it when your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. Those people whom God has ordained to be able to set free people who are tormented. It's okay for them to do that, and it's okay when I do it.
They're gonna be your judges because they really are trusting God. Were there people who will be in the kingdom who were before Jesus? Yeah. Of course, there were. All the way back to Abraham, and these people say, we Abraham is our father.
And he says, nope. Satan's your father. Are are you with me? Am I jumping around too much? Are you with me?
I'll get back to the text in just a second. Think about that, that Jesus is saying, you already know this is true. It's right here in front of your face. You pray for it every day and it's happening right now. In fact, the next sentence says, if I cast out the demons by the finger of God, finger of God, the finger of God is what wrote the law.
Right? The 10 commandments written by the finger of God, and they trusted in the law. The scribes, they studied every single day. They trust in it. If I cast out the demons by the very finger of God, the one who wrote the law so you would know who he is, how he is.
If I cast out the demons by the very finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. It's right here in front of your face. What you say about Jesus matters. What you say, Luke would say, out of the overflow of your heart, the mouth speaks. Right?
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house. Okay. We're getting the same story again. His possessions are secure. There is a strong man.
In this case, it's Satan. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, that man takes away his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. Satan has a way of attacking as Mike, our youth director, is fond of saying. There's no new news. There are no new tactics.
There's just old news happening to new people. The devil has the same tricks. And Jesus is overcoming those tricks. The one who's not with me is against me. The very finger of God is how I'm doing this, and you trust that the Old Testament but your religiosity has got you so dead set against me that you're not recognizing that God is moving right here in your midst today and you're not with me and the one who is not with me is against me And the one who does not gather with me, welcome them into the family of God.
The one who's not gathering with me is scattering. You're making things worse, people. That's what he's saying to them. Okay. When the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest.
I think that this is a picture of what the Pharisees might try to do with people. And Jesus says in another place that you work and work and work and work and work and work work to get somebody to be one convert. And when you get that convert, you work and work on them till they're twice the son of Satan you are. When unclean spirit comes out of a person, let's say pull yourself up by your own bootstraps kind of thinking, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and not finding any, it then says, I'm just gonna go back to the house where I came from, to that host. And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order, and then it goes and it brings along with it seven other spirits, more evil than itself.
And they come in and they live there, and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first. That's a sad state of affairs right there. That's a really, really hard word from Jesus. But if you think about it, if all you're doing is behavior modification and you're trying to cast out on your own and you don't have that spirit replaced with the Holy Spirit, the actual spirit of God, then all of your human efforts are likely to end in pride and six other demons, right, that take over. And the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first.
I think he's speaking specifically to Pharisees right there because of their great religious pride. So we covered that. We're not gonna cover all of this today, but I do wanna hit this. Then a demon possessed man. This is Matthew.
So we're going to Matthew. We've already heard it in Mark. We've already heard it in Luke. Matthew gives a longer description and we might not get to the very end of the description today. But then a demon possessed man who was both blind and unable to speak.
We get a little bit more in each story. He was unable to speak and mute but imagine being mute and trying to get your point across and then imagine being mute and blind and getting your point across. And he and Jesus, he was brought to Jesus. He couldn't have found him on his own. He was brought to Jesus and Jesus healed the man so that the man who was unable to speak, talked, and he could see.
What a miracle. Amazing. And all the crowds were amazed and they were saying, this man cannot be the son of David, can he? Think about that. The Messiah is present and the people are seeing this and going, wait a second.
Wasn't there something in Isaiah? Wasn't there something in these books that were all pointing and said, the lame will walk and the mute will speak and the blind will see. And this guy was mute and blind and he's doing both right now. Wow. This man, can he be the son of David?
Is that possible? And then it says, but when the Pharisees heard this, they said, this man cast out demons only by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Don't trust this guy. Don't trust this guy. Don't trust this guy.
There are a lot of religious people that are still saying, don't trust this guy. Okay. Pharisees heard this. They said, this man cast out demons only by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons, and knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. I've covered this already twice.
No city or house divided against its stealth will stand. And if Satan is casting out Satan, he's become divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if it is by Beelzebub that I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Y'all pray for this stuff every day.
You're seeing it happen right in front of you. Those who have already trusted in God, those who are your own people who pray for this and see God doing it, they're gonna be your judges. But if I cast out the demons by the spirit of God, Matthew says, spirit. Luke says, finger, he might have said. Both, I'm not sure.
But either way, the spirit of God is what's motivating the finger of God. Is it not? If I cast out the demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Right here in your midst, you're seeing it happen. Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house to carry off his property unless he first ties up the strong man?
What I'm doing right here is showing you that I have the power over the strong man who's got a captive already right here. And if you're asking in humility for a miracle, he's likely. In fact, I don't see any place in the New Testament where anybody reaches out in faith asking for a miracle that Jesus does not do one. Now, they asked for a sign, and he said, nope. In fact, if you go further, they seeking to test him, they said, we want a sign.
They had already seen a sign. No amount of signs is gonna be enough until you humble yourself and have faith. Every single day, all the time, I hear people that are decrying what the Bible says is true and making fun of it and mocking it, but that is blasphemy. It is. And what you say about Jesus matters, makes a difference.
What you say to the Holy Spirit and about the Holy Spirit when he urges you, when he's moving as Billy Graham used to say all the time, this may be as close as you ever are. And if you reject and deny him, that's bad. It's bad forever. Oh, or how can anyone enter the strongman's house and care of his property unless he first ties up the strongman and then he'll plunder his house? I'd say the cross, he plundered the devil's house.
Did he not? The one who is not with me is against me. Context is king. Context matters. Right here, he's speaking to Pharisees and he says, listen, if you're not on my side, you're against me.
If you're not with me, you're against me. Now, you might be thinking of a different place in scripture where you're speaking to disciples and he said, I don't worry about them. Whoever's not against me is with me. But context matters. Who you're talking to makes a difference.
The one who does not gather with me scatters. All of your religious good intentions may actually be working against what Jesus is doing. That was the case for those pharisees. Therefore, I say to you, here we are back to blasphemy again. Therefore, I say to you, every sin, every fallen short, every miss in the mark, and every bit of abusive and scurrilous language.
Slow to call something good that's good. Slow to identify what's bad as bad. Switching what God disapproves for and exchange the truth of God for a lie. Therefore, I say to you, every sin and every blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven. I have that question a lot.
So what is the unpardonable sin? Is it suicide? Is it divorce? Is it this, that, or the other thing? And there's only one that's listed as being unforgivable, and it is when the Holy Spirit is speaking to deny, to call what is good bad, and what is bad good.
The Holy Spirit of God is convicting us of our sin, pointing us towards Christ as savior. And to reject that is to reject the plan of almighty God. Whoever speaks a word against the son of man, it shall be forgiven. They were constantly speaking against Jesus. Right?
So are plenty of people still today, and it can be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him. God is doing everything he can do to convince the world of his goodness and his righteousness. And what some people see as evil and wrong and there's no excuse for this. And how can God be all powerful if evil exists?
God knows what he's doing. His ways are above our ways. We don't completely understand them. Either in this age or the age to come, this is an ongoing thing. I'm gonna I'm gonna share just a little bit from the upper room discourse from John 16.
It's verses one through 15. I'll try to just read them and not preach the whole passage. But I want you to hear, this is Jesus talking to his disciples about the Holy Spirit before the day of Pentecost, before the crucifixion. He's talking to him about what is to come. Okay?
So it's in the upper room right before the last supper. These things I've spoken to you so that you will not be led into sin. They will ban you from the synagogue. Yet an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering a service to God. They were already opposed to Jesus.
Certainly, they were gonna be opposed to his followers. These things they will do because they have not known the father nor me, but these things I have spoken to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. However, I didn't say these things to you at the beginning because I was with you. If you had a question, you could ask me, and I'd tell you the answer. But now I'm going to him who sent me.
I'm back to the father. And none of you asked me where are you going, but because I've said these things to you, grief has already filled your heart. They could not imagine what it would be like to be without Jesus after having followed him for three years. Right? Grief has filled your heart just at the possibility that I would draw back from you.
But he says, I tell you the truth. It's to your advantage that I'm leaving. For if I don't leave, the helper will not come to you, and the helper is the Holy Spirit. If I go, I'll send him to you. And he, when he comes, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world regarding sin.
Wait a second. Who's he gonna convict? The world. God's spirit is at work worldwide. He is convicting people of the truth before they ever hear his message.
He's already actively working. God goes before us. He's told us to go, and we should be going. But he's already at work. When he comes, he will convict the world regarding sin, and regarding righteousness, and regarding judgment.
So convict of sin, convinced of righteousness, and that there is a day coming when we will breathe our last and we'll stand before God. Regarding sin because they do not believe in me. You gotta know the bad news before the good news can make any difference. And regarding righteousness, that's the good news that God has made a way. Because I'm going to the father, And you no longer are gonna see me in regard judgment because the ruler of this world has already been judged.
That strong man has been tied up. He has been conquered. He is a defeated foe, and he's trying to take down as many as he can with him, but it's over for him. Right? Trusting in Christ is what the Holy Spirit is urging upon everyone at all times to do.
But then again, you may never be closer than you are right now here in this message. I have many more things to say to you. I love this. This is a great preacher's line right here. Jesus, after the suffering, he goes, I have many more things that I'd like to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time.
It's just so much. But when the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He won't speak on his own, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me. He will lift me up.
If you hear anything that's tearing Jesus down, it's not of God. It's not of the Holy Spirit. He will glorify me and he will take from mine and he will disclose it to you. He'll show you the way that you should go and all things that the father has are mine. By Jesus, all things hold together.
In him, we live, move, have our being. Right? All things that the father has are are mine, and this is why I said that he takes from mine and he'll disclose it to you. He will share it with you. Is that it?
I think this is where we get into the next. Yeah. I'm gonna stop right there. Even though we have seven minutes left, is there a testimony in this service? Sincerely, is there a testimony that you'd like to share?
There are some things that are so hard and so difficult that we go through and to have the perspective. I think of those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Right? Those guys saw the crucifixion, knew that that happened, knew about the trials, knew of the travesty of justice that had happened, that an innocent man was crucified. And as they're walking home from this horrendous Passover weekend in Jerusalem, they're walking home, and I'm sure they're going over, we've been following this guy.
And all of a sudden, he's gone. What do we do? And I I don't think either one of those guys was in the room at the time that Jesus had said, listen. He's gonna guide you into all truth. I don't think they were.
It might have been Cleopas and the other guy. So as they're walking on that road to Emmaus, and it says, somebody came up to them. They didn't recognize him, and it was Jesus, but they didn't recognize him. And Jesus says to them, what is this conversation that you're having together with one another? And it says, and they stood still.
They've been walking together. They stood still looking sad. Twenty four seventeen. Luke twenty four seventeen. We're going ahead a little bit.
So they don't know everything about what happened, and they are bewildered, and it's before the day of Pentecost. They don't have the Holy Spirit that's guiding them but Jesus is right there with them and as they walk on, they had compassion on Jesus and said, just stay with us. Hang out with us. Have a meal with us. Hang right here with us.
Come on into the house. They invited Jesus into the house. And it says, when he went in, he was telling them from the Old Testament all of the things that pertain to Messiah and how they related difficulty that they had just seen. And the resurrection had happened and they were unaware of that. They're finite beings.
They don't understand the plan of God. And it says, and when he broke the bread, we were reminded. And didn't our hearts burn within us the way that he was speaking, and then we recognized that it was the Lord. Invite Christ into your difficult circumstances. Allow him allow him to unwind all the bewilderment.
There are things that we might not ever know the depths of or the end of because a an infinite God has put us in the midst of our finite circumstances. If we can praise God during the storm, if we can praise God through it, if we can resist the temptation to call what God is doing bad instead of good, because God is a good God, but he's got a long plan. God, would you would you help us to see that when we can't see, you still can, that you will guide us by your loving hand, that you'll bring us through because great is your faithfulness, That all of the difficulty that we face, that all of the bewilderment that we go through, Lord, that we can't quite get our heads around. You can, and you have a plan in the midst of it all. May we continue to praise you in the storm.
May we continue to walk with you and listen to you. Pay attention to what you have to say. In Jesus' name, amen. Yep. Yes.
You do. You're saying it out loud right now. Yes.
To explain a little why I can see maybe these two men didn't recognize him as Jesus. Maybe they weren't close to him. But how about the Marys didn't recognize him when he? What is your explanation?
My explanation for why they didn't recognize Jesus. Well, we talk about glorification bodies. Right? We talk about that. We look forward to that.
All of us who have physical maladies and physical issues, we're all looking forward to a glorified body. I had a bald headed preacher when I was little, and he said, I'm gonna have long flowing hair. That's what he had imagined about his glorified body. We know that Jesus still had the scars of this life because he offered those to Thomas. Don't go on unbelieving but believe.
Both of them, I think that if you saw somebody die and then three days later, you saw someone that kinda look like him alive. Our minds would probably get us to a place of going. I don't know. Maybe he shaved. I shaved this week.
I had a couple of people say, something's different about you. I don't know. I I don't really know. I I do know that those guys that are walking along talking about the bewildering events, It says they recognized him when he broke the bread, when they had invited him in. Those things metaphorically to me are really helpful is to go, you know what?
We don't understand, and we don't always recognize who you are or what you're doing. Actually, in the place in Mark, it says the next thing we get to in Mark is gonna say that his brothers and his mother. His brothers didn't even believe in him at this point. His mother knew, but still he's lost his senses. I don't know what's going on.
I don't know why he's acting the way that he's acting. Sometimes we're just bewildered by the way God is and acts. And so I think that that could keep us from recognizing him as an analogy, maybe. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
But it says it, so I believe it, right? I'm not quite sure, but they thinking that he was the gardener, right? Thinking that he was the gardener at the tomb or them not really recognizing him on their way home. I'm not sure.
I don't know.
Oh, I've got an opinion coming from the back. Yep. Yep. So Florina is saying in the back back there that although Christ had said many times, I'll rise again. I'll rise again.
Three days in the grave. The next thing he says in Matthew is the only sign you're gonna get is the sign of Jonah for three days. Yep. When they saw Jesus dying on the cross Yep.
And they didn't find it. It's over.
Yep. So in their minds, after seeing the crucifixion, Florine says, after seeing that, in their minds, they just thought this is over. What I had thought was true must not be true.
So they went to the the they went to the tomb trying to see a dead body. Right? But then when Jesus was alive, they didn't expect that. No. No.
He's dead. Right. And then that's that's when the truth really, became alive in their mind. Right. This is our savior.
What he said, it happened. Yep.
That's good.
It's just an opinion. So
Okay. This is a gospel conversation. This is what Monday night is like, by the way.
And also I believe every I do believe everything what was saying about him, a prophecy, and it happened. Yep. Exactly every single step, like the birth, the the ministry he did it, and preached the gospel, and then about his death. But also the the holes in the hands is proof to us
to believe.
Yep. And it's amazing how he walks between the walls and tells directly to Tom to not be a believer Yeah. To be believer. But because you believe and you saw me, and Jesus says, is more happiness for the those people who didn't seek me, but they believed.
Amen. That's true. Thank you. Judy, would you come up and we're gonna sing, oh, master, let me walk with thee. How about that?
We just do that. Thank you very much, Gene, for the question. Thank you. I appreciate it. Oh master, let me walk with the hymn number six sixty five.
Would you stand with
clear winning word of love. Teach me the wayward feet to stay and guide them in
Amen. I think back to a few weeks ago where it says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. That's our task. To be seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Lord, as a as a subject of your sovereignty, as a subject of you, the king, Lord, I I want your righteousness.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and you have promised us, lord, that you will add all of these things to us. Everything that we need, we will have if we will seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
