WEBVTT
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hey Allison.
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Hey Adam.
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How's it going?
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Oh, it's going good.
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Look, I've never been one to, to even just pretend.
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Can we just be honest, this is the second time we're recording this podcast, this very episode.
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and it's not your fault.
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Its technology's fault,
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yeah, it's easy to blame the technology.
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I'm sure it has a lot more to do with me than the technology, but that's
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No, you're just lucky that I can speak right now because we took a lunch break and decided to try again, and Lance brought me yesterday, he works in Houston sometimes, and he brought me these tacos, these street tacos.
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I love street
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Oh yeah.
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Oh
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he had this like creamy green sauce, this little packet of it in there, and I just felt like creamy, like that can't be like too spicy, right?
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If it's like creamy looking.
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Oh, no.
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I just poured it on the taco and took a big bite and for a long time.
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Could, I did not have use of my tongue.
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It was so hot.
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no,
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So,
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be recording like, hello, welcome to the podcast.
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So I'm just glad we can, we can, retape and I can, speak.
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we can, we can, speak And well, let's start the way we did before, which our listeners and now our viewers hopefully will, will recognize and not, or not know because they didn't hear the first one.
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But how has your week been?
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My week has been good.
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We're, I think I've spoken to this before, but we're kind of in a busy season of our life.
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We have a senior in high school and a sixth grader, and they, they're in every outdoor sport, which I feel like is a sin in this Texas heat.
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I'm like, kids, there's not another outdoor sport for y'all to choose to participate in, so thanks for that.
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They're gonna start creating them just for that.
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It, It, is a busy season.
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My, my two little ones went back to school this week, which I was very excited about.
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They've been out for way too long and because of a delay in the construction of that said school it, they were pushed back another two weeks and it, it's a sad day'cause it's actually Sadie's first year in big girl school.
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So she started kindergarten just yesterday.
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And Kinsley, my middle child, she woke up Early was ready to go, could not wait to get to school.
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Whereas Sadie, after the first day, she was like, yeah, it was fun, but mommy Kinsley had mentioned something about homeschool and we were immediately like, no, no, no.
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It's too early for you to be begging for homeschool times, but it is busy.
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We started back our softball season and This year I actually am not coaching.
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Which that'll be good for our family.
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I was hoping they'd be able to sit back and kind of enjoy, you know, my daughter playing and stuff a little bit more.
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But it, it has come with some tasks.
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yeah.
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It has come with some drama, unfortunately.
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And, you know, it's just, it's one of those things that And like I take very personally because, you know, I mean I love the girls and I wanna be a part of that organization for the girls.
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But there's certain elements of darkness that take place within the organization itself that I don't really agree with.
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mm-hmm.
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because of that, it's just caused so much drama, you know, and it just makes you wanna Makes you just wanna be like, come on, like, we're just picking teams and playing, playing games.
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Like let's just, let's put this in perspective.
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This is not a big deal.
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This is a, this is a really small, silly deal, you know, but it just, it causes too much, way too much drama and I really think that happens whenever actually, somebody told me this last night, they were like, I think a lot of the darkness that takes place in this organization pushes, tries to push the light out because we come in, we wanna represent Christ, and, and because of that, so much of it is, so much of that drama is really just pushed towards us, you know?
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And it's really difficult to sit there and try to do the right thing, you know?
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But I, I think drama can be a, a big a big theme that we are, we're dealing with here in the book of Mark as well.
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The darkness and light.
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and Darkness and light.
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that specifically in this chapter.
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Yeah.
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which I can apply to youth sports as well, because I hear that it's not for the faint part to To coach a youth sport.
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So
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If it were only the youth, that wouldn't be a big deal.
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I, I get that.
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some reason, all the non youth people are the ones who cause all the, all the
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Well, and you know, it's the unsuspecting people in Mark chapter three that also cause Jesus strife here in this chapter and throughout his earthly ministry.
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So before we get in, we're gonna kind of plant ourselves in chapter three today, but we did go over chapter one.
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Pretty good detail in our first episode of the season, but we kind of skip, you know, we're skipping over a little bit, chapter two, so I wanna take a step back and give some review on what we talked about with the Book of Mark and maybe recap Mark chapter two a little bit.
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So why don't you kind of bring it, just remind us of the context into which this was written.
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Yeah, so Mark is probably believed to be one of the earliest Gospels written.
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There's a lot of things that set Mark apart from the other gospels.
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And some of that is the context with wi with Which it was written.
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And Marcus believed to be written during the the Roman empire and specifically under c or Niro, I mean, not Caesar Niro, who was known for his, you know hatred of Christians, blaming them for Massive fire.
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He wants to get a lot of political advancements in this and uses the Christians as martyrs and, and often feeds them feasts and really just wicked, awful things here.
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And so the authority of Rome has really made itself known during the time of Mark and which is also why I think brilliantly Mark has, we.
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Woven wen weaved, woven this theme of authority all throughout his specific gospel.
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And so it'll be a gospel of action, mostly less about Jesus' teachings and more about the acts of Jesus himself.
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And and you're gonna discover through these acts like who, who, the authority, where the authority is and, and how Jesus.
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Has authority over in chapter one, we talked about physical ailments and, and over the spiritual side of things, being able to cast out demons.
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And, and there's, so there's several themes when you're reading throughout Mark.
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If you're listening through those lens, through that lens kind of brings to life a little bit more nuance messages that Mark has
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Yeah, so Mark, chapter one gets right to the point and.
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John the Baptist baptizes Jesus as a sign that he is the Messiah, right?
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And then he take, gets taken straight into the wilderness and is tempted and is victorious over Satan in that temptation.
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And then he gets some disciples and begins teaching and doing miracles, and people are flocking to him from all over the world.
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Mark points out and, but mostly they're coming to him for healing.
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People aren't really sure yet who Jesus is.
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The religious leaders, in fact are getting off offended.
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This is rising popularity and atypical way of doing ministry.
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And and his family we're gonna see today isn't, isn't sure about him either, but there is one group who's very sure about Jesus, who Jesus is, and that's the demon.
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yes.
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demons know exactly who Jesus is.
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And so that kind of you did a great job reminding us the context of the Book of Mark.
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And so that kind of brings us up to speed on what's going on when Mark chapter three opens.
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And so let's go ahead and start.
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If it's okay with you, we'll just jump right into Mark chapter three with verse seven.
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And I'm gonna read verses seven through 12.
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So I'm reading from the N A S B.
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You can follow along in any version of the Bible, but this is Mark chapter three, verse seven through 12.
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And Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples and a great multitude from Galilee followed, and also from Judea and from Jerusalem, and from.
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Mia and beyond the Jordan and the vicinity of Ty and Sadan, a great multitude of all that he was doing and came to him and he told his disciples that a boat should stand ready for him, that in order that the people might not crowd him for, he had healed many with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed about him in order to touch him.
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And when the unclaimed spirits beheld him, they would fall down before him and cry out saying, you are the son of God.
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And he earnestly warned them not to make him known.
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Yeah, this is, this is awesome.
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This is he oftentimes, if you If, unless you're a big map nerd, you, you may have just heard a bunch of places that were just listed that that mean absolute nothing to you.
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But because Mark is such a literary genius, he, he, he uses hyperbole a lot.
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Just like we discovered in chapter one where it's kind of talking about like all the regions of the earth basically are coming to him.
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He's, he's gonna do this again.
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And if you were to follow out a lot of the names that were listed out as far as these cities goes, what is What he's simply saying is like every, everywhere, north, south, east, and west, people were coming just to touch, just to touch Jesus for a healing for, for this healing power.
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This guy who has this authority over the physical ailments that keep taking place here in this.
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On, on this earth.
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And one thing that I think is really interesting since we're talking about authority being such a major theme within the book of Mark, is if you were to juxtapose place this story with the other patterned story that talks a about Jesus healing, I.
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Someone and then doing what seems different in Mark, where it comes where, where Mark will often say, Jesus said, now go and tell nobody, you know.
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He did this previously in chapter one with the lepers, but we find the, the man, the men go and or the man goes and tells people it says immediately, but here, that's mysteriously absent when it says that he cast out the demons and told them to tell no one.
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Well, there is not that little tag online that says, Hey He went and immediately did this.
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And I think that Mark is, is in a nuanced way trying to get us to understand how powerful that authority is.
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That while man will go and kind of do what they've always been known to do, like do things the way that they think they should the demons, they're not told that they did this at all.
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They have no authority, no power over the word of God, the son of God who, who has all authority to cast them out out of the physical realm here.
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And they must obey.
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their mouth, their mouth are shut.
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There's no
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Which was such a cool, powerful thing to see once you, you know, begin to put those patterns up together
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I've never realized that.
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You know about how sometimes people do go on and say, when Jesus tells them not to, but the demons do not.
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Yeah.
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In fact, isn't the first time in the Book of Mark that Jesus tells a demon to be quiet and not to proclaim who he is?
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Because Jesus was in control of the narrative.
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It was God's story and God was gonna define the message and the timing of the message.
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And as God's people that means he gets to define us.
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And our story, the devil doesn't get to do that either, and I love that.
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But You know, I've told you before that my kiddos we encourage them to have a quiet time and Mackenzie, or that's what we call a Bible Reading time, for 1990s.
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You just shut'em up in a room and say, be quiet.
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Stay quiet.
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So you grew up in the 1990s in youth group.
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You called it a quiet time.
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So I'm just kind of stuck in my ways of calling it that.
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But yeah, a bible, a personal Bible study time.
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And so I, McKenzie very much does that.
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She kinda goes in her room and she has this like window seat and she gets inside her window seat with her journal that I think you gave her and she reads and and we don't talk about it a whole lot, although I know you know that she's doing that.
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But Andrew, on the other hand, my younger son, he he wants to read to me,
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Yeah.
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And so I love that.
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And so he decided he was going to go through the book of Mark and Lance and I typically try to do our Bible studies in the same book.
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'cause we can discuss it.
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So Andrew decides he's gonna come along.
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And so he's been reading to me in the book of Mark on our way to soccer practice, and he wants to be a preacher.
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So not only do I get his Bible reading, but I get his commentary,
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Oh yeah, absolutely.
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Like any good preacher would do,
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so we're on the way to soccer as we were reading chapter three, and you have taught him to recognize patterns in the story.
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And so he recognized from chapter one twice when Jesus tells a demon to be quiet.
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He sees it again in chapter three, and he's like, mom, that's a pattern, which I was super proud of.
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Then he said, you know, The devil is smart, but he is old fashioned please tell me what you mean by that.
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I was intrigued.
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And so he said, you know, the devil, just every time that Jesus does a miracle, he tries to put the people's attention on what Jesus does instead of who Jesus is and, and I love that.
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I think he's so right.
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And that's exactly, you know, Jesus wasn't going to, these crowds were flocking to him, kind of like.
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You know, Jesus being a genie in a bottle, you know, rub the lamp and get what they want.
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And, and Jesus wants to heal us, but he so much more wants to spiritually heal us, and he was going to make sure those demons weren't allowed to detain that message.
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You know, and, and in fact, Andrew looked at me and he said, after he could tell I was impressed, he said, mama, do you think that'll preach?
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Yeah,
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I
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preach.
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It is preaching right now.
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It is preaching on this podcast, Andrew.
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So keep preaching, brother.
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That's amazing.
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That's awesome.
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Well, we're gonna move into another scene that that a lot of times we often, as Christians will kind of overlook.
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I think, honestly, personally speaking, you know, just like overlooking, like all of these unknown places that they're gonna talk about.
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Now we're gonna go into this this a particular scene where Jesus is gonna continue to pick out his like Big 12, his top 12, you know, his 12 disciples or, or what will be called apostles.
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So would you like to read?
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how about I read verses 13 through 19, chapter three, and he went up to the mountain and summoned those who he himself wanted and they came to him and he appointed 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons.
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And he appointed the 12th Simon to who?
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He gave the name Peter and James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James.
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To them, he gave the name.
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Bre, which means Sons of Thunder and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas and James, the son of Aus and Thaddeus and Simon, the zealot, and Judas Iscar who betrayed him.
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Hmm.
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So I figure you have something to say about those 12 guys that you are just dying to share.
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Yeah, you, you know, it embarrassingly.
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So it took me a long time to really actually figure out some of the significance behind Y 12, you know?
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And I'm sure most of our listeners are probably like, like, yeah, I already knew that.
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But maybe for those who are more like me, didn't realize this 12 is obviously a big number.
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It's, it's a really important number.
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And as you kind of peruse your way through the Old Testament you'll notice that 12 is often associated with the 12 sons of Jacob who was re.
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Renamed Israel and we'll become the 12 tribes of Israel.
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And, and, and 12 will become this representation of, of the The family through which God will ultimately bring the Messiah, bring himself as it as it will be revealed throughout, throughout scripture.
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And so by Jesus doing this, he's not just picking 12 random guys to follow him.
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It's almost as if he's calling forth this restored remnant of a people who've been scattered abroad everywhere.
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And, and this remnant is gonna be kind of on a micro scale, a picture of this restoration that will take place with The chosen people of God, of Israel, and one of the things that I think is really interesting is that while 12 is such a big number,
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Jesus.
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does not include himself in the 12.
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He's the 13th one.
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Right.
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And it's not until maybe you again juxtapose or place these two narratives or thought processes up next to each other that you realize that Jesus is placing himself in the position of the 13th one in, in the Old Testament.
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Such as like when being led out of Egypt, the, the 12 tribes of Israel will, will kind of follow the angel of the Lord and the angel of the Lord will go before them and become this personal presence that will that will guide and direct these, these 12.
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Tribes, these descendants of the 12 tribes type thing.
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And so it's almost as if Jesus is placing himself within that position of the angel of the Lord that would go before he's the 13th one who's here to guide to, to, to protect, to restore and to ultimately bring forth this restored remnant of a scattered people.
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Yeah.
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So, and what's interesting about this family because like you said, it's like a family that God is using to share his glory through and just like he intended for the 12 tribes of Israel to be, but it's a peculiar family.
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a little bit.
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Yeah.
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So we have our uneducated disciples because disciples means learner, and so Really Jesus, up to this point.
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He had, and even after this, he had a lot of disciples.
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You and I are a disciple, but he took these special 12 and appointed them some call them apostles to carry forth his ministry and bring forth the church and, and things like that.
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And so it, it is a peculiar group of 12, but I wanna point out in particular, two of them.
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That I think really highlight this peculiarity.
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So the first one is Matthew.
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And, and a lot of people probably already know this, but Matthew was a tax
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Yeah.
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And a tax collector worked for the Roman government.
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So Matthew was a Jew.
00:16:10.950 --> 00:16:13.149
All of the disciples were Jews, but he was.
00:16:13.769 --> 00:16:20.450
A Jew who had turned against his own people, and we talked about last week everything that the Roman government was doing.
00:16:21.129 --> 00:16:28.090
Grotesque things, horrible things, using their bodies as lanterns along the road, putting them at coliseums against wild beasts.
00:16:28.470 --> 00:16:30.889
And this is who Matthew worked for.
00:16:30.950 --> 00:16:35.409
And not only did he work for the enemy and collect taxes, but he unfairly in most.
00:16:35.870 --> 00:16:46.720
Most likely and unfairly collected them and that he took from the people what they owed to Rome and then charged extra and kept it for himself because that we know was the practice of most tax collectors.
00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:51.970
And so we have Matthew on that end who is sometimes called Levi, and I think
00:16:52.195 --> 00:16:54.754
an interesting note about that before you tell us about the second person.
00:16:55.134 --> 00:16:57.825
Levi, it's, it's believed because there's a little questions.
00:16:57.825 --> 00:17:01.105
This is really the only gospel that, that considers Matthew to be called Levi.
00:17:01.605 --> 00:17:14.250
But I, I actually think, I, I, I'm on the side of the scholars who, who believed that, that this was an intentional representation because if you're counting the 12 that are, that are sort of that remnant Levi would Would represent like the Levites.
00:17:14.250 --> 00:17:14.450
Right.
00:17:15.029 --> 00:17:20.569
And, and these Levites had a specific role in the Old Testament, and, and do you remember, recall what that role was?
00:17:20.875 --> 00:17:21.095
the.
00:17:21.529 --> 00:17:21.880
Right.
00:17:21.900 --> 00:17:30.160
And so the priests weren't necessarily there to get land and, and to be given land, but they are to, to be the keepers of like the, the temple and the tabernacle and this kind of thing.
00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:35.640
They're kind of a, a, a people group that are dependent upon the people of Israel and the Yahweh of Israel.
00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:44.400
So if that's the case, this sort of represents like the moral shift that has taken place over the many, many years of especially the 400 years of silence.
00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:46.250
From the Old Testament to the New Testament.
00:17:46.630 --> 00:17:55.400
So now this Levite, you know, in a way is working for like the, the, the powers of darkness fully.
00:17:55.670 --> 00:18:02.880
He's, he's here you know, gaining wealth and money and honestly representing, and again, a micro, many of the issues that that.
00:18:03.339 --> 00:18:18.640
The, the prophets in the Old Testament speak out against, with regards to the prophets or with regards to the priests of the temple and, and why Jesus would walk in and turn over the, the change tables saying that they turned his house into a house of, of den and a den of thieves and a brought of vipers and these kind of things.
00:18:19.019 --> 00:18:29.160
And so in a miniature way, it's almost like a, a quick snip snapshot of this, this Levi who's just given himself over to, to, to the love of money and the service of money.
00:18:29.900 --> 00:18:32.549
Yeah, I love that because that is a pattern that we can definitely see.
00:18:32.589 --> 00:18:36.190
I had not heard that before, so, so Matthew was not a standup guy.
00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:54.394
much like the priests of the time had been kind of disqualified, you know in the way that they had the love for money and he had an affection for the Roman government But we also have this man named Simon, the zealot, and we can pass over, you know, Simon being an ordinary guy.
00:18:54.394 --> 00:18:58.075
But that descriptor, the zealot says a whole lot about Simon.
00:18:58.494 --> 00:19:01.394
So the zealots were actually an organized group.
00:19:01.615 --> 00:19:02.795
It was a political force.
00:19:03.085 --> 00:19:09.345
And they were a violent force and their whole goal was to bring down the Roman government.
00:19:09.765 --> 00:19:21.954
In fact, Josephus, who is a historian that bible scholars, you know, get some extra biblical information from about the history, the time period of Bible Times, and new Testament times Josephus tells us that.
00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:27.240
Bar who was crucified or not crucified, but up for crucifixion.
00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:35.960
When Jesus, if you remember, Pilate told the people, he said, I will, I will give you someone as was their custom to get someone get a prisoner released Passover.
00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:38.440
And the people, he's like, how about I give you Jesus?
00:19:38.660 --> 00:19:41.119
And they're like, no, give us Baras.
00:19:41.460 --> 00:19:49.519
And we know was a really bad guy, well, was a really bad guy because he was a zealot and he had a, a long list of Romans.
00:19:49.855 --> 00:19:55.785
Whom he had murdered and Simon was along was his, his like colleague in the zealot force.
00:19:55.924 --> 00:19:59.305
I'm not saying I don't know how many people Simon murdered or, or how that works.
00:19:59.535 --> 00:20:10.565
What I know is that Simon was a violent defender of Israel to the point that he attacked Romans at any opportunity he had.
00:20:10.944 --> 00:20:12.285
So now you have Matthew.
00:20:13.315 --> 00:20:20.055
He is working for the Romans and Simon, who is actively fighting against the Romans, and you put them in a family together.
00:20:20.375 --> 00:20:21.305
Yeah, that makes sense.
00:20:22.214 --> 00:20:26.105
Like it makes you wonder, I think Jesus, you probably could have picked some, some better people, probably
00:20:26.714 --> 00:20:27.654
You know what that tells me?
00:20:27.674 --> 00:20:33.174
If those men were so unlikely to be used by God, then that means he can use someone like Me too.
00:20:33.244 --> 00:20:33.325
Hmm.
00:20:34.154 --> 00:20:38.525
There's this really cool thing that we're gonna be introduced to here in the gospel, mark at this point.
00:20:38.545 --> 00:20:39.525
And it's this idea.
00:20:39.634 --> 00:20:41.765
It's, it's this fancy word called inter collation.
00:20:41.785 --> 00:20:47.765
And what it is, is it's a way that that mark specifically will sandwich together two narratives.
00:20:47.865 --> 00:20:52.744
And so here we get the picking out of the 12 disciples or apostles, but then.
00:20:53.315 --> 00:20:56.234
You get this small passage starting in verse 20, which I'll just read.
00:20:56.815 --> 00:21:02.085
It says that Jesus then went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat.
00:21:02.585 --> 00:21:07.724
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him for they were saying he's out of his mind.
00:21:08.184 --> 00:21:13.924
And then in verse 22, it says, in the scribes who came down from Jerusalem, were saying he's possessed by Baals, a bull.
00:21:14.464 --> 00:21:16.605
And if you just stop there for a second, you.
00:21:17.414 --> 00:21:24.595
You just got this quick little snippet about his family And what's the general, what's the general idea or her opinions of his family here expressed?
00:21:24.734 --> 00:21:25.494
they think he's crazy.
00:21:25.684 --> 00:21:29.255
Yeah, so I mean, it's like a quick snippet, but it's like a pretty big bomb to drop.
00:21:29.315 --> 00:21:31.575
Really like his family.
00:21:31.660 --> 00:21:33.900
like, wait a minute, I've got some questions here.
00:21:33.900 --> 00:21:34.940
What's, what's happening?
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:41.299
You know, he's called these 12 disciples, but his own family is, is, seems to not be behind the Jesus train at this point.
00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:47.539
And then we've moved on to a bunch of scribes who are claiming that he's he's possessed or that he is using this power of ible.
00:21:48.049 --> 00:21:52.339
Well, what Mark's gonna do is he's sandwiching these narratives together.
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:54.779
So you have the 12 dec, the 12 disciples.
00:21:55.095 --> 00:21:56.825
With his family, not believing him.
00:21:57.045 --> 00:22:00.625
And then you're gonna get a little parable that Jesus is gonna teach on that.
00:22:00.684 --> 00:22:02.944
And then we'll come back to his family again.
00:22:03.325 --> 00:22:10.954
And, and through this little, little sandwiching effect, you'll, you'll begin to to learn a little bit more about what Jesus is kind of doing here, which is, which is just brilliant.
00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:22.089
Yeah, so we can see already in the couple of verses that you read that his family thinks he has no authority and the religious leaders would like to reassign his authority to the devil.
00:22:22.500 --> 00:22:24.480
And Jesus is going to respond to that.
00:22:24.980 --> 00:22:27.480
And he's gonna respond, like you said, in the form of a parable.
00:22:27.730 --> 00:22:32.809
And so I'll go ahead and read Jesus's response in verses 23 through 30.
00:22:33.684 --> 00:22:36.785
And he called to them himself and began speaking to them in parables.
00:22:37.125 --> 00:22:39.105
How can Satan cast out Satan?
00:22:39.404 --> 00:22:43.265
And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
00:22:44.019 --> 00:22:47.880
And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
00:22:48.140 --> 00:22:53.319
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished.
00:22:54.140 --> 00:22:59.599
But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man.
00:22:59.779 --> 00:23:01.640
And then he can plunder his house.
00:23:02.265 --> 00:23:05.174
Truly, I say to you, all sin shall be forgiven.
00:23:05.194 --> 00:23:17.375
The sons of men and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin because they were saying he has an unclean spirit.
00:23:18.355 --> 00:23:18.575
Wow.
00:23:18.625 --> 00:23:18.845
Wow.
00:23:19.105 --> 00:23:19.325
Wow.
00:23:19.474 --> 00:23:21.305
This is there's a lot to unpack there.
00:23:21.654 --> 00:23:22.825
What in the world is going on?
00:23:22.944 --> 00:23:25.634
Well, so he begins by telling a parable basically.
00:23:25.634 --> 00:23:31.005
And the parable is in response to Their accusation that he's working for the devil.
00:23:31.154 --> 00:23:31.444
Yeah.
00:23:31.585 --> 00:23:36.805
And so he basically just kind of gives like a rational, logical you know, explanation.
00:23:36.805 --> 00:23:40.484
He says, guys, if I was working for the devil, then that would be a civil war.
00:23:40.555 --> 00:23:40.845
Yeah.
00:23:41.265 --> 00:23:43.164
And civil wars don't end well.
00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:43.900
His own people.
00:23:43.984 --> 00:23:44.204
Yes.
00:23:44.625 --> 00:23:52.045
And, and you know, the Jews should know that civil wars don't end well because they themselves were a divided nation at one point.
00:23:52.384 --> 00:23:56.424
And so you know, it's just a pretty logical argument there that There.
00:23:56.605 --> 00:23:58.424
Why would he be working for the devil yet?
00:23:59.464 --> 00:24:01.904
Binding the devil's demons makes no sense.
00:24:02.335 --> 00:24:02.625
Yeah,
00:24:02.759 --> 00:24:06.460
And so he's gonna continue on and just talk about this, this idea of a house divided.
00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:13.740
And, and if you read this snippet again, just right here in this little part without looking at, at the whole you know, you'll get some pretty cool stuff out of it.
00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:16.619
You know, like, like the logical argument that Jesus is making.
00:24:16.839 --> 00:24:24.789
But he's also talking about number one, this idea that if a house is going to be divided, it's not gonna be able to stand and.
00:24:25.269 --> 00:24:26.869
I like what it said here, verse 26.
00:24:26.890 --> 00:24:32.589
And if Satan had risen up against himself and and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end.
00:24:32.690 --> 00:24:41.269
But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, then he indeed he may plunder his house.
00:24:41.650 --> 00:24:45.910
So what, what do you think is happening here with regards to this strong man conversation?
00:24:46.369 --> 00:24:48.920
You know, Jesus is coming to bind Satan up.
00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:49.559
Is this kind of what
00:24:49.880 --> 00:24:50.119
Absolutely.
00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:51.440
So the strong man is Satan.
00:24:51.890 --> 00:24:53.710
And Jesus says, Comey to plunder.
00:24:53.799 --> 00:24:56.670
Satan, bind him up and plunder him one life at a time.
00:24:57.250 --> 00:25:00.609
And and you know, I really got stuck on that word plunder this week.
00:25:00.660 --> 00:25:13.720
It just kind of kept mulling over in my mind until finally this morning I did a word study and I really love What the Lord revealed to me when I did because the word plunder is the same word that we see in John 10 28.
00:25:14.009 --> 00:25:17.849
In, in John 10 28, he's actually, Jesus is in a similar situation.
00:25:17.880 --> 00:25:27.049
He's actually at the temple, but he has been confronted again by the religious leaders and asked by what authority, you know, that he does the things he's doing, and this is his response.
00:25:27.549 --> 00:25:30.009
And he's talking about the people for whom he came to save.
00:25:30.009 --> 00:25:33.009
And he said, I will give them eternal life and they will never.
00:25:33.650 --> 00:25:34.069
Perish.
00:25:34.730 --> 00:25:36.750
No one will snatch them out of my hand.
00:25:37.250 --> 00:25:40.630
And that word snatch out or pluck out some versions used.
00:25:41.180 --> 00:25:42.509
It's the same word as plunder.
00:25:42.930 --> 00:25:55.630
And I love that because what that tells me is Jesus can come in and bind up Satan and plunder lives and save them, but Satan can never take them away once.
00:25:55.809 --> 00:25:59.069
He can never plunder from Jesus what Jesus has saved.
00:25:59.450 --> 00:25:59.789
And so,
00:25:59.815 --> 00:26:00.275
Oh wow.
00:26:00.545 --> 00:26:07.125
Me a reassurance of my salvation, but it also reminds me that Jesus and Satan are not opposites.
00:26:07.315 --> 00:26:11.924
Because in order to be an opposite, you have to inherently be equal first.
00:26:11.984 --> 00:26:14.125
In other words, you have to be on the same playing field.
00:26:14.464 --> 00:26:20.515
Opposites are two equal things that are opposed to one another, but Satan and Jesus aren't on the same playing field.
00:26:20.515 --> 00:26:28.884
They aren't opposites because what Satan what Jesus comes in and ERs from Satan when he takes one life at a time away from Satan.
00:26:28.934 --> 00:26:32.484
Satan can never, ever take away what Jesus has saved.
00:26:32.859 --> 00:26:37.390
What'll be funny too is that it, you know, Satan will then try to replicate this himself.
00:26:37.730 --> 00:26:45.470
So he'll in an act to try to pluck his own version of, of, of people back away, he will bind the strong man.
00:26:45.980 --> 00:26:46.559
On this earth.
00:26:46.700 --> 00:26:50.079
You know, he will attempt to bind Jesus in in his death.
00:26:50.579 --> 00:26:55.839
And and what's funny is that it works in the absolute opposite direction'cause they're not even playing the same game.
00:26:56.220 --> 00:27:09.970
You know, what, what, Satan thinks he can do by binding a strong man is actually what will protect those who, who Jesus has plucked and that that will, you know, keep us unpluck, you know, in, in the hands of, of Christ.
00:27:10.069 --> 00:27:11.269
So, It's brilliant.
00:27:11.299 --> 00:27:12.269
It's absolutely brilliant.
00:27:12.944 --> 00:27:17.224
And so Jesus ends this his statements with a part of the verse.
00:27:17.674 --> 00:27:21.535
Versus that a lot of ink has been spilled over this unpardonable sin.
00:27:22.075 --> 00:27:35.055
And and you know, a lot of people over the years have kind of gotten that wrong and they've tried to name an arm, an unpardonable sin, like suicide or murder or adultery, or maybe abortion.
00:27:35.515 --> 00:27:40.144
And, and I've heard a lot, you know, That people say, especially like suicide is the unpardonable sin.
00:27:40.174 --> 00:27:42.664
Suicide is not the unpardonable sin.
00:27:42.944 --> 00:27:45.984
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin.
00:27:46.005 --> 00:27:47.265
So what, what is that?
00:27:47.724 --> 00:27:53.015
Well, we have to look at who the Holy Spirit is to understand what it means to blasphemy him.
00:27:53.859 --> 00:27:56.859
Because blasphemy means to not believe who he is.
00:27:57.160 --> 00:27:57.940
So who is he?
00:27:58.359 --> 00:28:04.609
And so John 16, eight tells us and John 16, eight is when Jesus was giving his priestly prayer to his disciples.
00:28:04.990 --> 00:28:07.809
He was at the last supper and he was about to go to the cross.
00:28:08.230 --> 00:28:11.769
And so he, it was like his last words, like, if you knew you were.
00:28:12.109 --> 00:28:12.700
Going away.
00:28:12.759 --> 00:28:19.339
You know, those, like my mother-in-law was passing away for cancer, you know, and she called us into her bedroom and she had some things she wanted to say to us.
00:28:19.339 --> 00:28:22.779
They were the most important things, you know, that I think she wanted to say.
00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:27.019
And, and that's kind of the setting for this priestly prayer, that Jesus, everything he said was important.
00:28:27.019 --> 00:28:30.380
But these were some of his final words, final instructions to disciples.
00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:32.859
And he wanted them to hear them and understand them.
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:43.694
And at that, at that time, he told them in John 16, eight, he said, That when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict this, the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
00:28:44.154 --> 00:28:49.214
And so the unpardonable sin is not a sin that is too big for God to forgive.
00:28:49.214 --> 00:28:50.295
There is no such thing.
00:28:50.295 --> 00:28:52.174
There is no sin that is too big for God to forgive.
00:28:52.355 --> 00:28:55.335
The unpardonable sin is refusing God's forgiveness.
00:28:56.115 --> 00:29:00.974
And so that if, and a lot of times people say, well, I worry if I've committed the unpardonable sin.
00:29:00.994 --> 00:29:02.615
If you're worried, then you have it.
00:29:02.805 --> 00:29:03.365
you, then you
00:29:03.535 --> 00:29:05.494
I couldn't still feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit,
00:29:05.944 --> 00:29:19.615
So, so what you're telling me is ultimately Jesus is kind of portraying this idea of like you, you're back in, in your high school or middle school gym and there's two people on either side and they're sort of picking teams for dodgeball or something to see
00:29:19.634 --> 00:29:20.785
hated that I know
00:29:20.815 --> 00:29:21.295
I know, right?
00:29:21.984 --> 00:29:22.464
every time
00:29:22.625 --> 00:29:27.095
Every time Well that's'cause you're a Bible nerd and that's what Bible nerds do.
00:29:27.674 --> 00:29:29.795
No, we and so Jesus is portraying here.
00:29:29.795 --> 00:29:51.224
He's, he's going in these plucking out, these team teammates and there's many from all over the world who are coming in and wanting to join this team, but his own family themselves are not connected necessarily or are, are not automatically, you know, maybe Picking that team, but this unpardonable sin would be ultimately just denying the, the the option to even be on this team, like denying that.
00:29:52.255 --> 00:29:55.115
You have no reason to want to be on this team that Jesus is picking.
00:29:55.505 --> 00:30:07.474
It's this, it's denying the salvation, the forgiveness that Jesus is offering and, and it's under this theme and under the one whose authority that Jesus is kind of setting up this contrast of which team will you be on?
00:30:07.474 --> 00:30:08.714
Which team are you gonna pick?
00:30:08.785 --> 00:30:09.275
Because.
00:30:10.325 --> 00:30:10.615
Just
00:30:10.730 --> 00:30:17.730
because you were a fisherman or, or you work for the Roman government or you were a zealot against the Roman government, you can still all be on this team.
00:30:18.140 --> 00:30:22.150
Just'cause you're a religious one does not make you automatically a part of this team.
00:30:22.150 --> 00:30:28.119
And just'cause you are a flesh in blood too, you know to Jesus himself doesn't mean you are automatically on this team.
00:30:28.119 --> 00:30:34.960
There has to be some sort of a, a, you know, an option or a, a self cho choosing to, to wanna be on this team.
00:30:35.259 --> 00:30:35.599
And so.
00:30:36.515 --> 00:30:42.015
By the time he talks about this unpardonable sin, we're gonna flip back to this, to the last part of the sandwich, right?
00:30:42.515 --> 00:30:52.954
And now he's just talked about a house divided, you know, but we've also been introduced to both the micro-cosmic picture of the of the Israelites, the chosen people of God.
00:30:53.085 --> 00:30:58.075
We've, we've looked at a picture of his own family, you know, thinking he's crazy.
00:30:58.494 --> 00:31:04.509
And so it's under this lens that, that you can read this last Particular section, I'll, I'll read it for us.
00:31:04.710 --> 00:31:12.910
Starting in verse 31, it says, and his mother and his brothers came and standing outside, they sent him and called, called him.
00:31:13.369 --> 00:31:18.910
And the crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.
00:31:19.654 --> 00:31:19.875
and
00:31:19.950 --> 00:31:22.849
He answered, who are my mother and brothers?
00:31:22.849 --> 00:31:30.930
Brothers, and looking out about, at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and brothers for whoever does the will of God.
00:31:31.230 --> 00:31:34.049
He is my brother and my sisters and my mother.
00:31:34.904 --> 00:31:39.924
And so Jesus is gonna now lay out the qualifications for anybody who'd like to be a part of this team.
00:31:40.015 --> 00:31:42.605
Who's gonna pick the Jesus team, you know?
00:31:42.744 --> 00:31:48.095
And it has nothing to do with Bloodlines has nothing to do with genealogies.
00:31:48.315 --> 00:31:52.934
It has nothing to do with being the one who's in the closest proximity.
00:31:53.595 --> 00:31:55.494
It has nothing to do with your past.
00:31:56.075 --> 00:31:59.214
It is those who come and seek and follow.
00:31:59.805 --> 00:32:02.305
And who are, who, you know, who are inside here.
00:32:02.525 --> 00:32:05.944
And I think it's interesting, the, the place setting where, where was his family?
00:32:06.605 --> 00:32:07.305
On the outside.
00:32:07.494 --> 00:32:07.785
Yeah.
00:32:07.825 --> 00:32:08.115
Yeah.
00:32:08.805 --> 00:32:09.154
Right.
00:32:09.265 --> 00:32:11.315
They're physically representing this, right?
00:32:11.710 --> 00:32:11.950
Absolutely.
00:32:12.170 --> 00:32:18.789
And you know, that was true obviously in Bible times, like you're pointing out, but, and I'm sure we can draw the connection, but that's true today too.
00:32:19.289 --> 00:32:24.670
You know, just because your mom was a Sunday school teacher doesn't mean that you're connected to Jesus.
00:32:25.180 --> 00:32:30.509
Just because your bottom is in a pew every Sunday doesn't mean that you're connected to Jesus.
00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:33.200
Following Jesus is a choice.
00:32:33.740 --> 00:32:39.559
And so, but you know what, that's, that's a good thing that you don't have to come with any qualifications.
00:32:39.859 --> 00:32:41.640
You don't have to come with any laurels.
00:32:41.900 --> 00:32:44.519
You don't have to come with any check boxes checked off.
00:32:44.819 --> 00:32:51.170
You can come to Jesus just as you are with all your mess whether you know, you're like Matthew or seven, the zealot.
00:32:52.095 --> 00:32:53.035
He wants to come.
00:32:53.055 --> 00:32:57.494
And, and I know we've kind of talked about Jesus choosing a team, but really he's choosing a family.
00:32:57.605 --> 00:32:57.894
yeah.
00:32:58.255 --> 00:33:04.224
A place where you belong and you know, I teach a women's Bible study and I, I love the women.
00:33:04.305 --> 00:33:12.625
I teach kids on Sunday morning and women on Wednesday night, and our Bible study is starting back this week, and I've had the privilege of watching.
00:33:12.724 --> 00:33:16.025
One of the cool things about being a Bible study teacher is getting to watch.
00:33:16.420 --> 00:33:22.500
People grow in their faith, and I know you, that's one of the most precious things to you about your ministry as well.
00:33:23.204 --> 00:33:31.265
And this one sweet lady comes to mind and she just you know, didn't really know how to work well in her bible, like how to find the books and things like that.
00:33:31.365 --> 00:33:35.664
And it's like a no judgment zone, you know, in our work Bible study.
00:33:35.765 --> 00:33:39.025
In fact, we we're like, it's Los Las Vegas, you know, whatever happens in here, stays in here.
00:33:39.605 --> 00:33:43.025
Not like things happen in las, but you get the point, you know, together.
00:33:43.805 --> 00:33:44.545
And she was.
00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:55.740
You know, really hesitant to speak and, and unsure about what she knew, but you could just tell that she wanted to be there for all the right reasons because she loved Jesus and she wanted to know him more.
00:33:56.079 --> 00:34:00.140
And I've watched that just be a blessing.
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:05.500
And we now like just last spring when we ended and I'm so excited that we're kicking off again today.
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:06.940
So that's why this is on my mind.
00:34:07.180 --> 00:34:11.699
'cause our fall Bible study's kicking off today, but she volunteered to lead the closing prayer.
00:34:12.630 --> 00:34:18.539
At one of our last Bible studies in the spring, and Adam was the most beautiful prayer I've ever heard.
00:34:18.824 --> 00:34:19.684
Oh, that's awesome.
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:22.579
She started with, I've never prayed out loud before,
00:34:23.414 --> 00:34:23.494
Hmm.
00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:25.739
and she just gave the most heartfelt prayer.
00:34:25.800 --> 00:34:26.980
And you know what she is.
00:34:27.905 --> 00:34:29.795
Part of the family of God.
00:34:30.135 --> 00:34:37.594
Her past may not speak to a Christian upbringing or a moral background, but she is part of the family of God.
00:34:38.135 --> 00:34:41.875
And and so we don't need to hang our hats on our laurels.
00:34:41.894 --> 00:34:43.514
God isn't concerned about our laurels.
00:34:43.514 --> 00:34:45.875
He proved that in the 12 that he chose.
00:34:46.554 --> 00:34:51.994
But he wants us just like we are, and he wants us fully committed to his mission.
00:34:52.355 --> 00:34:52.875
Whatever the cost.
00:34:53.364 --> 00:34:53.445
Hmm.
00:34:53.784 --> 00:34:59.605
And he, he's open and available to any who, who would choose to, to follow to, to become part of that family of God.
00:35:00.155 --> 00:35:04.644
well I think we haven't covered everything, but we've covered quite a bit of of Mark chapter three.
00:35:04.704 --> 00:35:08.945
And, We hope that if you're listening to this podcast, we hope that you've been blessed by this.
00:35:08.945 --> 00:35:11.425
Hopefully you'll see the video this week as well.
00:35:11.554 --> 00:35:14.045
This is, if you're liking that we'd, we'd like to know.
00:35:14.284 --> 00:35:16.364
'cause it is, it's more work to do this part, but,
00:35:16.829 --> 00:35:17.250
On you
00:35:17.795 --> 00:35:18.085
Yeah.
00:35:18.344 --> 00:35:21.085
So if you, if you like, if you prefer the video thing, just let us know.
00:35:21.304 --> 00:35:25.184
Drop a like or comment we'd ask, we ask that you share this as well.
00:35:25.244 --> 00:35:31.344
And if you are on some sort of podcast or whatever, if you have the ability to rate it or subscribe to it and that kind of thing, please do that.
00:35:31.594 --> 00:35:34.094
We would love for God to bless this ministry to.
00:35:34.434 --> 00:35:41.744
To push it far and wide and to help others just come to know a love and a passion similar to what we have for the word of God.
00:35:41.844 --> 00:35:46.715
And we're excited that you've joined us as we continue to just walk right through Mark here.
00:35:47.255 --> 00:35:47.795
So what do you think?
00:35:47.795 --> 00:35:48.914
Do you think you can close some prayer?
00:35:49.349 --> 00:35:50.150
Absolutely, I can do that.
00:35:50.980 --> 00:35:55.070
Dear Jesus, thank you so much for meeting us right where we are today, God.
00:35:55.090 --> 00:35:56.829
But you meet us with all authority.
00:35:57.260 --> 00:35:57.829
Dear Jesus.
00:35:58.130 --> 00:36:08.019
You meet us with Love and compassion, and I just thank you that you have invited us to play a part in what is your story and you define the narrative.
00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:13.019
You shut the mouths of demons, you plunder us from Satan.
00:36:13.210 --> 00:36:15.219
Dear Jesus you save us.
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:29.309
And dear Jesus, I just pray that You would just help this word to just be planted in our heart that it might grow and that we would remember the things that you would like for us to hear and to know today particularly about who we are and who we aren't.
00:36:29.309 --> 00:36:37.320
Dear Jesus, we are not on a race to checks and boxes or have laurels based on what we know or who we know.
00:36:37.320 --> 00:36:39.679
Dear Jesus, you want us to come to you?
00:36:40.045 --> 00:36:40.894
Just as we are.
00:36:41.315 --> 00:36:50.844
And so dear Jesus, I just thank you for receiving us today, and I just pray that this Bible study would glorify you and edify our brothers and sisters In Jesus' name, amen.
00:36:51.364 --> 00:36:52.065
Aim eight.
00:00:00.547 --> 00:00:01.088
hey Allison.
00:00:01.312 --> 00:00:01.731
Hey Adam.
00:00:01.782 --> 00:00:02.291
How's it going?
00:00:02.547 --> 00:00:03.327
Oh, it's going good.
00:00:03.358 --> 00:00:06.046
Look, I've never been one to, to even just pretend.
00:00:06.227 --> 00:00:11.048
Can we just be honest, this is the second time we're recording this podcast, this very episode.
00:00:11.432 --> 00:00:12.332
and it's not your fault.
00:00:13.071 --> 00:00:14.571
Its technology's fault,
00:00:15.237 --> 00:00:17.207
yeah, it's easy to blame the technology.
00:00:17.347 --> 00:00:20.167
I'm sure it has a lot more to do with me than the technology, but that's
00:00:20.233 --> 00:00:30.373
No, you're just lucky that I can speak right now because we took a lunch break and decided to try again, and Lance brought me yesterday, he works in Houston sometimes, and he brought me these tacos, these street tacos.
00:00:30.492 --> 00:00:30.972
I love street
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Oh yeah.
00:00:31.687 --> 00:00:31.908
Oh
00:00:31.952 --> 00:00:39.213
he had this like creamy green sauce, this little packet of it in there, and I just felt like creamy, like that can't be like too spicy, right?
00:00:39.213 --> 00:00:40.173
If it's like creamy looking.
00:00:40.226 --> 00:00:40.807
Oh, no.
00:00:40.813 --> 00:00:45.052
I just poured it on the taco and took a big bite and for a long time.
00:00:45.381 --> 00:00:47.021
Could, I did not have use of my tongue.
00:00:47.122 --> 00:00:47.942
It was so hot.
00:00:48.103 --> 00:00:48.323
no,
00:00:49.042 --> 00:00:49.262
So,
00:00:49.323 --> 00:00:51.323
be recording like, hello, welcome to the podcast.
00:00:51.512 --> 00:00:54.692
So I'm just glad we can, we can, retape and I can, speak.
00:00:55.222 --> 00:01:05.643
we can, we can, speak And well, let's start the way we did before, which our listeners and now our viewers hopefully will, will recognize and not, or not know because they didn't hear the first one.
00:01:05.983 --> 00:01:07.283
But how has your week been?
00:01:07.527 --> 00:01:08.546
My week has been good.
00:01:08.757 --> 00:01:12.706
We're, I think I've spoken to this before, but we're kind of in a busy season of our life.
00:01:12.727 --> 00:01:21.436
We have a senior in high school and a sixth grader, and they, they're in every outdoor sport, which I feel like is a sin in this Texas heat.
00:01:21.697 --> 00:01:26.037
I'm like, kids, there's not another outdoor sport for y'all to choose to participate in, so thanks for that.
00:01:26.201 --> 00:01:27.932
They're gonna start creating them just for that.
00:01:28.512 --> 00:01:29.652
It, It, is a busy season.
00:01:29.712 --> 00:01:33.171
My, my two little ones went back to school this week, which I was very excited about.
00:01:33.171 --> 00:01:45.292
They've been out for way too long and because of a delay in the construction of that said school it, they were pushed back another two weeks and it, it's a sad day'cause it's actually Sadie's first year in big girl school.
00:01:45.352 --> 00:01:47.402
So she started kindergarten just yesterday.
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And Kinsley, my middle child, she woke up Early was ready to go, could not wait to get to school.
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Whereas Sadie, after the first day, she was like, yeah, it was fun, but mommy Kinsley had mentioned something about homeschool and we were immediately like, no, no, no.
00:02:03.042 --> 00:02:06.441
It's too early for you to be begging for homeschool times, but it is busy.
00:02:06.542 --> 00:02:10.852
We started back our softball season and This year I actually am not coaching.
00:02:11.247 --> 00:02:12.836
Which that'll be good for our family.
00:02:12.997 --> 00:02:16.836
I was hoping they'd be able to sit back and kind of enjoy, you know, my daughter playing and stuff a little bit more.
00:02:16.856 --> 00:02:18.516
But it, it has come with some tasks.
00:02:18.717 --> 00:02:19.007
yeah.
00:02:19.176 --> 00:02:20.997
It has come with some drama, unfortunately.
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And, you know, it's just, it's one of those things that And like I take very personally because, you know, I mean I love the girls and I wanna be a part of that organization for the girls.
00:02:31.822 --> 00:02:37.692
But there's certain elements of darkness that take place within the organization itself that I don't really agree with.
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mm-hmm.
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because of that, it's just caused so much drama, you know, and it just makes you wanna Makes you just wanna be like, come on, like, we're just picking teams and playing, playing games.
00:02:47.907 --> 00:02:49.866
Like let's just, let's put this in perspective.
00:02:49.896 --> 00:02:50.986
This is not a big deal.
00:02:50.986 --> 00:03:14.146
This is a, this is a really small, silly deal, you know, but it just, it causes too much, way too much drama and I really think that happens whenever actually, somebody told me this last night, they were like, I think a lot of the darkness that takes place in this organization pushes, tries to push the light out because we come in, we wanna represent Christ, and, and because of that, so much of it is, so much of that drama is really just pushed towards us, you know?
00:03:14.146 --> 00:03:17.866
And it's really difficult to sit there and try to do the right thing, you know?
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But I, I think drama can be a, a big a big theme that we are, we're dealing with here in the book of Mark as well.
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The darkness and light.
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and Darkness and light.
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that specifically in this chapter.
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Yeah.
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which I can apply to youth sports as well, because I hear that it's not for the faint part to To coach a youth sport.
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So
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If it were only the youth, that wouldn't be a big deal.
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I, I get that.
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some reason, all the non youth people are the ones who cause all the, all the
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Well, and you know, it's the unsuspecting people in Mark chapter three that also cause Jesus strife here in this chapter and throughout his earthly ministry.
00:03:52.167 --> 00:03:57.437
So before we get in, we're gonna kind of plant ourselves in chapter three today, but we did go over chapter one.
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Pretty good detail in our first episode of the season, but we kind of skip, you know, we're skipping over a little bit, chapter two, so I wanna take a step back and give some review on what we talked about with the Book of Mark and maybe recap Mark chapter two a little bit.
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So why don't you kind of bring it, just remind us of the context into which this was written.
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Yeah, so Mark is probably believed to be one of the earliest Gospels written.
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There's a lot of things that set Mark apart from the other gospels.
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And some of that is the context with wi with Which it was written.
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And Marcus believed to be written during the the Roman empire and specifically under c or Niro, I mean, not Caesar Niro, who was known for his, you know hatred of Christians, blaming them for Massive fire.
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He wants to get a lot of political advancements in this and uses the Christians as martyrs and, and often feeds them feasts and really just wicked, awful things here.
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And so the authority of Rome has really made itself known during the time of Mark and which is also why I think brilliantly Mark has, we.
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Woven wen weaved, woven this theme of authority all throughout his specific gospel.
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And so it'll be a gospel of action, mostly less about Jesus' teachings and more about the acts of Jesus himself.
00:05:12.232 --> 00:05:18.041
And and you're gonna discover through these acts like who, who, the authority, where the authority is and, and how Jesus.
00:05:18.182 --> 00:05:25.591
Has authority over in chapter one, we talked about physical ailments and, and over the spiritual side of things, being able to cast out demons.
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And, and there's, so there's several themes when you're reading throughout Mark.
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If you're listening through those lens, through that lens kind of brings to life a little bit more nuance messages that Mark has
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Yeah, so Mark, chapter one gets right to the point and.
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John the Baptist baptizes Jesus as a sign that he is the Messiah, right?
00:05:43.622 --> 00:05:49.771
And then he take, gets taken straight into the wilderness and is tempted and is victorious over Satan in that temptation.
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And then he gets some disciples and begins teaching and doing miracles, and people are flocking to him from all over the world.
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Mark points out and, but mostly they're coming to him for healing.
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People aren't really sure yet who Jesus is.
00:06:04.956 --> 00:06:07.976
The religious leaders, in fact are getting off offended.
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This is rising popularity and atypical way of doing ministry.
00:06:12.906 --> 00:06:21.007
And and his family we're gonna see today isn't, isn't sure about him either, but there is one group who's very sure about Jesus, who Jesus is, and that's the demon.
00:06:21.846 --> 00:06:22.067
yes.
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demons know exactly who Jesus is.
00:06:24.526 --> 00:06:29.117
And so that kind of you did a great job reminding us the context of the Book of Mark.
00:06:29.137 --> 00:06:35.617
And so that kind of brings us up to speed on what's going on when Mark chapter three opens.
00:06:35.677 --> 00:06:36.896
And so let's go ahead and start.
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If it's okay with you, we'll just jump right into Mark chapter three with verse seven.
00:06:41.541 --> 00:06:43.641
And I'm gonna read verses seven through 12.
00:06:44.502 --> 00:06:46.242
So I'm reading from the N A S B.
00:06:46.302 --> 00:06:51.002
You can follow along in any version of the Bible, but this is Mark chapter three, verse seven through 12.
00:06:51.461 --> 00:06:59.002
And Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples and a great multitude from Galilee followed, and also from Judea and from Jerusalem, and from.
00:07:00.226 --> 00:07:19.547
Mia and beyond the Jordan and the vicinity of Ty and Sadan, a great multitude of all that he was doing and came to him and he told his disciples that a boat should stand ready for him, that in order that the people might not crowd him for, he had healed many with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed about him in order to touch him.
00:07:20.367 --> 00:07:26.867
And when the unclaimed spirits beheld him, they would fall down before him and cry out saying, you are the son of God.
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And he earnestly warned them not to make him known.
00:07:32.831 --> 00:07:34.081
Yeah, this is, this is awesome.
00:07:34.232 --> 00:07:42.791
This is he oftentimes, if you If, unless you're a big map nerd, you, you may have just heard a bunch of places that were just listed that that mean absolute nothing to you.
00:07:42.812 --> 00:07:47.581
But because Mark is such a literary genius, he, he, he uses hyperbole a lot.
00:07:47.732 --> 00:07:52.382
Just like we discovered in chapter one where it's kind of talking about like all the regions of the earth basically are coming to him.
00:07:52.382 --> 00:07:53.781
He's, he's gonna do this again.
00:07:53.802 --> 00:08:08.752
And if you were to follow out a lot of the names that were listed out as far as these cities goes, what is What he's simply saying is like every, everywhere, north, south, east, and west, people were coming just to touch, just to touch Jesus for a healing for, for this healing power.
00:08:09.021 --> 00:08:13.271
This guy who has this authority over the physical ailments that keep taking place here in this.
00:08:13.916 --> 00:08:14.737
On, on this earth.
00:08:15.317 --> 00:08:28.697
And one thing that I think is really interesting since we're talking about authority being such a major theme within the book of Mark, is if you were to juxtapose place this story with the other patterned story that talks a about Jesus healing, I.
00:08:28.697 --> 00:08:36.496
Someone and then doing what seems different in Mark, where it comes where, where Mark will often say, Jesus said, now go and tell nobody, you know.
00:08:36.836 --> 00:08:50.897
He did this previously in chapter one with the lepers, but we find the, the man, the men go and or the man goes and tells people it says immediately, but here, that's mysteriously absent when it says that he cast out the demons and told them to tell no one.
00:08:51.126 --> 00:08:55.576
Well, there is not that little tag online that says, Hey He went and immediately did this.
00:08:55.876 --> 00:09:02.897
And I think that Mark is, is in a nuanced way trying to get us to understand how powerful that authority is.
00:09:02.897 --> 00:09:11.486
That while man will go and kind of do what they've always been known to do, like do things the way that they think they should the demons, they're not told that they did this at all.
00:09:11.486 --> 00:09:20.246
They have no authority, no power over the word of God, the son of God who, who has all authority to cast them out out of the physical realm here.
00:09:20.386 --> 00:09:21.447
And they must obey.
00:09:21.732 --> 00:09:23.251
their mouth, their mouth are shut.
00:09:23.802 --> 00:09:24.451
There's no
00:09:24.841 --> 00:09:29.951
Which was such a cool, powerful thing to see once you, you know, begin to put those patterns up together
00:09:30.197 --> 00:09:31.246
I've never realized that.
00:09:31.346 --> 00:09:36.287
You know about how sometimes people do go on and say, when Jesus tells them not to, but the demons do not.
00:09:36.317 --> 00:09:36.606
Yeah.
00:09:36.626 --> 00:09:43.797
In fact, isn't the first time in the Book of Mark that Jesus tells a demon to be quiet and not to proclaim who he is?
00:09:43.797 --> 00:09:46.876
Because Jesus was in control of the narrative.
00:09:46.897 --> 00:09:50.956
It was God's story and God was gonna define the message and the timing of the message.
00:09:51.498 --> 00:09:54.517
And as God's people that means he gets to define us.
00:09:54.981 --> 00:09:58.001
And our story, the devil doesn't get to do that either, and I love that.
00:09:58.341 --> 00:10:06.743
But You know, I've told you before that my kiddos we encourage them to have a quiet time and Mackenzie, or that's what we call a Bible Reading time, for 1990s.
00:10:06.860 --> 00:10:08.679
You just shut'em up in a room and say, be quiet.
00:10:09.070 --> 00:10:09.559
Stay quiet.
00:10:09.865 --> 00:10:13.245
So you grew up in the 1990s in youth group.
00:10:13.245 --> 00:10:14.205
You called it a quiet time.
00:10:14.225 --> 00:10:16.524
So I'm just kind of stuck in my ways of calling it that.
00:10:16.524 --> 00:10:18.565
But yeah, a bible, a personal Bible study time.
00:10:18.784 --> 00:10:20.325
And so I, McKenzie very much does that.
00:10:20.325 --> 00:10:30.764
She kinda goes in her room and she has this like window seat and she gets inside her window seat with her journal that I think you gave her and she reads and and we don't talk about it a whole lot, although I know you know that she's doing that.
00:10:31.105 --> 00:10:34.575
But Andrew, on the other hand, my younger son, he he wants to read to me,
00:10:35.019 --> 00:10:35.309
Yeah.
00:10:36.215 --> 00:10:37.195
And so I love that.
00:10:37.195 --> 00:10:44.235
And so he decided he was going to go through the book of Mark and Lance and I typically try to do our Bible studies in the same book.
00:10:44.335 --> 00:10:45.054
'cause we can discuss it.
00:10:45.054 --> 00:10:46.934
So Andrew decides he's gonna come along.
00:10:47.274 --> 00:10:52.884
And so he's been reading to me in the book of Mark on our way to soccer practice, and he wants to be a preacher.
00:10:53.024 --> 00:10:56.044
So not only do I get his Bible reading, but I get his commentary,
00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:57.179
Oh yeah, absolutely.
00:10:57.370 --> 00:10:58.580
Like any good preacher would do,
00:11:00.019 --> 00:11:06.750
so we're on the way to soccer as we were reading chapter three, and you have taught him to recognize patterns in the story.
00:11:06.889 --> 00:11:12.070
And so he recognized from chapter one twice when Jesus tells a demon to be quiet.
00:11:12.250 --> 00:11:16.909
He sees it again in chapter three, and he's like, mom, that's a pattern, which I was super proud of.
00:11:16.909 --> 00:11:26.075
Then he said, you know, The devil is smart, but he is old fashioned please tell me what you mean by that.
00:11:26.195 --> 00:11:26.914
I was intrigued.
00:11:27.414 --> 00:11:38.514
And so he said, you know, the devil, just every time that Jesus does a miracle, he tries to put the people's attention on what Jesus does instead of who Jesus is and, and I love that.
00:11:39.034 --> 00:11:40.235
I think he's so right.
00:11:40.654 --> 00:11:45.914
And that's exactly, you know, Jesus wasn't going to, these crowds were flocking to him, kind of like.
00:11:46.424 --> 00:11:50.044
You know, Jesus being a genie in a bottle, you know, rub the lamp and get what they want.
00:11:50.065 --> 00:11:59.644
And, and Jesus wants to heal us, but he so much more wants to spiritually heal us, and he was going to make sure those demons weren't allowed to detain that message.
00:12:00.225 --> 00:12:05.565
You know, and, and in fact, Andrew looked at me and he said, after he could tell I was impressed, he said, mama, do you think that'll preach?
00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:06.149
Yeah,
00:12:06.965 --> 00:12:07.085
I
00:12:07.110 --> 00:12:07.350
preach.
00:12:08.889 --> 00:12:10.110
It is preaching right now.
00:12:10.110 --> 00:12:12.070
It is preaching on this podcast, Andrew.
00:12:12.169 --> 00:12:13.509
So keep preaching, brother.
00:12:14.049 --> 00:12:14.750
That's amazing.
00:12:15.210 --> 00:12:15.789
That's awesome.
00:12:16.340 --> 00:12:22.519
Well, we're gonna move into another scene that that a lot of times we often, as Christians will kind of overlook.
00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:28.440
I think, honestly, personally speaking, you know, just like overlooking, like all of these unknown places that they're gonna talk about.
00:12:28.779 --> 00:12:39.445
Now we're gonna go into this this a particular scene where Jesus is gonna continue to pick out his like Big 12, his top 12, you know, his 12 disciples or, or what will be called apostles.
00:12:39.445 --> 00:12:40.774
So would you like to read?
00:12:41.014 --> 00:12:55.914
how about I read verses 13 through 19, chapter three, and he went up to the mountain and summoned those who he himself wanted and they came to him and he appointed 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons.
00:12:56.134 --> 00:12:58.075
And he appointed the 12th Simon to who?
00:12:58.215 --> 00:13:01.995
He gave the name Peter and James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James.
00:13:02.054 --> 00:13:03.075
To them, he gave the name.
00:13:04.009 --> 00:13:15.070
Bre, which means Sons of Thunder and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas and James, the son of Aus and Thaddeus and Simon, the zealot, and Judas Iscar who betrayed him.
00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:15.840
Hmm.
00:13:17.529 --> 00:13:22.230
So I figure you have something to say about those 12 guys that you are just dying to share.
00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:25.009
Yeah, you, you know, it embarrassingly.
00:13:25.009 --> 00:13:30.360
So it took me a long time to really actually figure out some of the significance behind Y 12, you know?
00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:33.720
And I'm sure most of our listeners are probably like, like, yeah, I already knew that.
00:13:33.820 --> 00:13:38.519
But maybe for those who are more like me, didn't realize this 12 is obviously a big number.
00:13:38.549 --> 00:13:39.919
It's, it's a really important number.
00:13:40.179 --> 00:13:47.529
And as you kind of peruse your way through the Old Testament you'll notice that 12 is often associated with the 12 sons of Jacob who was re.
00:13:47.909 --> 00:13:50.990
Renamed Israel and we'll become the 12 tribes of Israel.
00:13:51.090 --> 00:14:01.669
And, and, and 12 will become this representation of, of the The family through which God will ultimately bring the Messiah, bring himself as it as it will be revealed throughout, throughout scripture.
00:14:02.090 --> 00:14:06.190
And so by Jesus doing this, he's not just picking 12 random guys to follow him.
00:14:06.259 --> 00:14:13.149
It's almost as if he's calling forth this restored remnant of a people who've been scattered abroad everywhere.
00:14:13.289 --> 00:14:26.539
And, and this remnant is gonna be kind of on a micro scale, a picture of this restoration that will take place with The chosen people of God, of Israel, and one of the things that I think is really interesting is that while 12 is such a big number,
00:14:27.539 --> 00:14:27.889
Jesus.
00:14:28.044 --> 00:14:29.774
does not include himself in the 12.
00:14:30.004 --> 00:14:31.375
He's the 13th one.
00:14:31.424 --> 00:14:31.774
Right.
00:14:32.195 --> 00:14:44.735
And it's not until maybe you again juxtapose or place these two narratives or thought processes up next to each other that you realize that Jesus is placing himself in the position of the 13th one in, in the Old Testament.
00:14:45.335 --> 00:14:58.995
Such as like when being led out of Egypt, the, the 12 tribes of Israel will, will kind of follow the angel of the Lord and the angel of the Lord will go before them and become this personal presence that will that will guide and direct these, these 12.
00:14:59.455 --> 00:15:02.424
Tribes, these descendants of the 12 tribes type thing.
00:15:02.424 --> 00:15:18.325
And so it's almost as if Jesus is placing himself within that position of the angel of the Lord that would go before he's the 13th one who's here to guide to, to, to protect, to restore and to ultimately bring forth this restored remnant of a scattered people.
00:15:18.715 --> 00:15:19.004
Yeah.
00:15:19.105 --> 00:15:30.934
So, and what's interesting about this family because like you said, it's like a family that God is using to share his glory through and just like he intended for the 12 tribes of Israel to be, but it's a peculiar family.
00:15:31.375 --> 00:15:31.774
a little bit.
00:15:31.774 --> 00:15:32.054
Yeah.
00:15:32.235 --> 00:15:39.215
So we have our uneducated disciples because disciples means learner, and so Really Jesus, up to this point.
00:15:39.235 --> 00:15:41.855
He had, and even after this, he had a lot of disciples.
00:15:42.024 --> 00:15:52.485
You and I are a disciple, but he took these special 12 and appointed them some call them apostles to carry forth his ministry and bring forth the church and, and things like that.
00:15:52.504 --> 00:15:57.284
And so it, it is a peculiar group of 12, but I wanna point out in particular, two of them.
00:15:57.879 --> 00:16:00.649
That I think really highlight this peculiarity.
00:16:00.990 --> 00:16:02.559
So the first one is Matthew.
00:16:02.659 --> 00:16:05.159
And, and a lot of people probably already know this, but Matthew was a tax
00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:05.909
Yeah.
00:16:06.379 --> 00:16:09.779
And a tax collector worked for the Roman government.
00:16:09.990 --> 00:16:10.950
So Matthew was a Jew.
00:16:10.950 --> 00:16:13.149
All of the disciples were Jews, but he was.
00:16:13.769 --> 00:16:20.450
A Jew who had turned against his own people, and we talked about last week everything that the Roman government was doing.
00:16:21.129 --> 00:16:28.090
Grotesque things, horrible things, using their bodies as lanterns along the road, putting them at coliseums against wild beasts.
00:16:28.470 --> 00:16:30.889
And this is who Matthew worked for.
00:16:30.950 --> 00:16:35.409
And not only did he work for the enemy and collect taxes, but he unfairly in most.
00:16:35.870 --> 00:16:46.720
Most likely and unfairly collected them and that he took from the people what they owed to Rome and then charged extra and kept it for himself because that we know was the practice of most tax collectors.
00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:51.970
And so we have Matthew on that end who is sometimes called Levi, and I think
00:16:52.195 --> 00:16:54.754
an interesting note about that before you tell us about the second person.
00:16:55.134 --> 00:16:57.825
Levi, it's, it's believed because there's a little questions.
00:16:57.825 --> 00:17:01.105
This is really the only gospel that, that considers Matthew to be called Levi.
00:17:01.605 --> 00:17:14.250
But I, I actually think, I, I, I'm on the side of the scholars who, who believed that, that this was an intentional representation because if you're counting the 12 that are, that are sort of that remnant Levi would Would represent like the Levites.
00:17:14.250 --> 00:17:14.450
Right.
00:17:15.029 --> 00:17:20.569
And, and these Levites had a specific role in the Old Testament, and, and do you remember, recall what that role was?
00:17:20.875 --> 00:17:21.095
the.
00:17:21.529 --> 00:17:21.880
Right.
00:17:21.900 --> 00:17:30.160
And so the priests weren't necessarily there to get land and, and to be given land, but they are to, to be the keepers of like the, the temple and the tabernacle and this kind of thing.
00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:35.640
They're kind of a, a, a people group that are dependent upon the people of Israel and the Yahweh of Israel.
00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:44.400
So if that's the case, this sort of represents like the moral shift that has taken place over the many, many years of especially the 400 years of silence.
00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:46.250
From the Old Testament to the New Testament.
00:17:46.630 --> 00:17:55.400
So now this Levite, you know, in a way is working for like the, the, the powers of darkness fully.
00:17:55.670 --> 00:18:02.880
He's, he's here you know, gaining wealth and money and honestly representing, and again, a micro, many of the issues that that.
00:18:03.339 --> 00:18:18.640
The, the prophets in the Old Testament speak out against, with regards to the prophets or with regards to the priests of the temple and, and why Jesus would walk in and turn over the, the change tables saying that they turned his house into a house of, of den and a den of thieves and a brought of vipers and these kind of things.
00:18:19.019 --> 00:18:29.160
And so in a miniature way, it's almost like a, a quick snip snapshot of this, this Levi who's just given himself over to, to, to the love of money and the service of money.
00:18:29.900 --> 00:18:32.549
Yeah, I love that because that is a pattern that we can definitely see.
00:18:32.589 --> 00:18:36.190
I had not heard that before, so, so Matthew was not a standup guy.
00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:54.394
much like the priests of the time had been kind of disqualified, you know in the way that they had the love for money and he had an affection for the Roman government But we also have this man named Simon, the zealot, and we can pass over, you know, Simon being an ordinary guy.
00:18:54.394 --> 00:18:58.075
But that descriptor, the zealot says a whole lot about Simon.
00:18:58.494 --> 00:19:01.394
So the zealots were actually an organized group.
00:19:01.615 --> 00:19:02.795
It was a political force.
00:19:03.085 --> 00:19:09.345
And they were a violent force and their whole goal was to bring down the Roman government.
00:19:09.765 --> 00:19:21.954
In fact, Josephus, who is a historian that bible scholars, you know, get some extra biblical information from about the history, the time period of Bible Times, and new Testament times Josephus tells us that.
00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:27.240
Bar who was crucified or not crucified, but up for crucifixion.
00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:35.960
When Jesus, if you remember, Pilate told the people, he said, I will, I will give you someone as was their custom to get someone get a prisoner released Passover.
00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:38.440
And the people, he's like, how about I give you Jesus?
00:19:38.660 --> 00:19:41.119
And they're like, no, give us Baras.
00:19:41.460 --> 00:19:49.519
And we know was a really bad guy, well, was a really bad guy because he was a zealot and he had a, a long list of Romans.
00:19:49.855 --> 00:19:55.785
Whom he had murdered and Simon was along was his, his like colleague in the zealot force.
00:19:55.924 --> 00:19:59.305
I'm not saying I don't know how many people Simon murdered or, or how that works.
00:19:59.535 --> 00:20:10.565
What I know is that Simon was a violent defender of Israel to the point that he attacked Romans at any opportunity he had.
00:20:10.944 --> 00:20:12.285
So now you have Matthew.
00:20:13.315 --> 00:20:20.055
He is working for the Romans and Simon, who is actively fighting against the Romans, and you put them in a family together.
00:20:20.375 --> 00:20:21.305
Yeah, that makes sense.
00:20:22.214 --> 00:20:26.105
Like it makes you wonder, I think Jesus, you probably could have picked some, some better people, probably
00:20:26.714 --> 00:20:27.654
You know what that tells me?
00:20:27.674 --> 00:20:33.174
If those men were so unlikely to be used by God, then that means he can use someone like Me too.
00:20:33.244 --> 00:20:33.325
Hmm.
00:20:34.154 --> 00:20:38.525
There's this really cool thing that we're gonna be introduced to here in the gospel, mark at this point.
00:20:38.545 --> 00:20:39.525
And it's this idea.
00:20:39.634 --> 00:20:41.765
It's, it's this fancy word called inter collation.
00:20:41.785 --> 00:20:47.765
And what it is, is it's a way that that mark specifically will sandwich together two narratives.
00:20:47.865 --> 00:20:52.744
And so here we get the picking out of the 12 disciples or apostles, but then.
00:20:53.315 --> 00:20:56.234
You get this small passage starting in verse 20, which I'll just read.
00:20:56.815 --> 00:21:02.085
It says that Jesus then went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat.
00:21:02.585 --> 00:21:07.724
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him for they were saying he's out of his mind.
00:21:08.184 --> 00:21:13.924
And then in verse 22, it says, in the scribes who came down from Jerusalem, were saying he's possessed by Baals, a bull.
00:21:14.464 --> 00:21:16.605
And if you just stop there for a second, you.
00:21:17.414 --> 00:21:24.595
You just got this quick little snippet about his family And what's the general, what's the general idea or her opinions of his family here expressed?
00:21:24.734 --> 00:21:25.494
they think he's crazy.
00:21:25.684 --> 00:21:29.255
Yeah, so I mean, it's like a quick snippet, but it's like a pretty big bomb to drop.
00:21:29.315 --> 00:21:31.575
Really like his family.
00:21:31.660 --> 00:21:33.900
like, wait a minute, I've got some questions here.
00:21:33.900 --> 00:21:34.940
What's, what's happening?
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:41.299
You know, he's called these 12 disciples, but his own family is, is, seems to not be behind the Jesus train at this point.
00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:47.539
And then we've moved on to a bunch of scribes who are claiming that he's he's possessed or that he is using this power of ible.
00:21:48.049 --> 00:21:52.339
Well, what Mark's gonna do is he's sandwiching these narratives together.
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:54.779
So you have the 12 dec, the 12 disciples.
00:21:55.095 --> 00:21:56.825
With his family, not believing him.
00:21:57.045 --> 00:22:00.625
And then you're gonna get a little parable that Jesus is gonna teach on that.
00:22:00.684 --> 00:22:02.944
And then we'll come back to his family again.
00:22:03.325 --> 00:22:10.954
And, and through this little, little sandwiching effect, you'll, you'll begin to to learn a little bit more about what Jesus is kind of doing here, which is, which is just brilliant.
00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:22.089
Yeah, so we can see already in the couple of verses that you read that his family thinks he has no authority and the religious leaders would like to reassign his authority to the devil.
00:22:22.500 --> 00:22:24.480
And Jesus is going to respond to that.
00:22:24.980 --> 00:22:27.480
And he's gonna respond, like you said, in the form of a parable.
00:22:27.730 --> 00:22:32.809
And so I'll go ahead and read Jesus's response in verses 23 through 30.
00:22:33.684 --> 00:22:36.785
And he called to them himself and began speaking to them in parables.
00:22:37.125 --> 00:22:39.105
How can Satan cast out Satan?
00:22:39.404 --> 00:22:43.265
And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
00:22:44.019 --> 00:22:47.880
And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
00:22:48.140 --> 00:22:53.319
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished.
00:22:54.140 --> 00:22:59.599
But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man.
00:22:59.779 --> 00:23:01.640
And then he can plunder his house.
00:23:02.265 --> 00:23:05.174
Truly, I say to you, all sin shall be forgiven.
00:23:05.194 --> 00:23:17.375
The sons of men and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin because they were saying he has an unclean spirit.
00:23:18.355 --> 00:23:18.575
Wow.
00:23:18.625 --> 00:23:18.845
Wow.
00:23:19.105 --> 00:23:19.325
Wow.
00:23:19.474 --> 00:23:21.305
This is there's a lot to unpack there.
00:23:21.654 --> 00:23:22.825
What in the world is going on?
00:23:22.944 --> 00:23:25.634
Well, so he begins by telling a parable basically.
00:23:25.634 --> 00:23:31.005
And the parable is in response to Their accusation that he's working for the devil.
00:23:31.154 --> 00:23:31.444
Yeah.
00:23:31.585 --> 00:23:36.805
And so he basically just kind of gives like a rational, logical you know, explanation.
00:23:36.805 --> 00:23:40.484
He says, guys, if I was working for the devil, then that would be a civil war.
00:23:40.555 --> 00:23:40.845
Yeah.
00:23:41.265 --> 00:23:43.164
And civil wars don't end well.
00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:43.900
His own people.
00:23:43.984 --> 00:23:44.204
Yes.
00:23:44.625 --> 00:23:52.045
And, and you know, the Jews should know that civil wars don't end well because they themselves were a divided nation at one point.
00:23:52.384 --> 00:23:56.424
And so you know, it's just a pretty logical argument there that There.
00:23:56.605 --> 00:23:58.424
Why would he be working for the devil yet?
00:23:59.464 --> 00:24:01.904
Binding the devil's demons makes no sense.
00:24:02.335 --> 00:24:02.625
Yeah,
00:24:02.759 --> 00:24:06.460
And so he's gonna continue on and just talk about this, this idea of a house divided.
00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:13.740
And, and if you read this snippet again, just right here in this little part without looking at, at the whole you know, you'll get some pretty cool stuff out of it.
00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:16.619
You know, like, like the logical argument that Jesus is making.
00:24:16.839 --> 00:24:24.789
But he's also talking about number one, this idea that if a house is going to be divided, it's not gonna be able to stand and.
00:24:25.269 --> 00:24:26.869
I like what it said here, verse 26.
00:24:26.890 --> 00:24:32.589
And if Satan had risen up against himself and and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end.
00:24:32.690 --> 00:24:41.269
But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, then he indeed he may plunder his house.
00:24:41.650 --> 00:24:45.910
So what, what do you think is happening here with regards to this strong man conversation?
00:24:46.369 --> 00:24:48.920
You know, Jesus is coming to bind Satan up.
00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:49.559
Is this kind of what
00:24:49.880 --> 00:24:50.119
Absolutely.
00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:51.440
So the strong man is Satan.
00:24:51.890 --> 00:24:53.710
And Jesus says, Comey to plunder.
00:24:53.799 --> 00:24:56.670
Satan, bind him up and plunder him one life at a time.
00:24:57.250 --> 00:25:00.609
And and you know, I really got stuck on that word plunder this week.
00:25:00.660 --> 00:25:13.720
It just kind of kept mulling over in my mind until finally this morning I did a word study and I really love What the Lord revealed to me when I did because the word plunder is the same word that we see in John 10 28.
00:25:14.009 --> 00:25:17.849
In, in John 10 28, he's actually, Jesus is in a similar situation.
00:25:17.880 --> 00:25:27.049
He's actually at the temple, but he has been confronted again by the religious leaders and asked by what authority, you know, that he does the things he's doing, and this is his response.
00:25:27.549 --> 00:25:30.009
And he's talking about the people for whom he came to save.
00:25:30.009 --> 00:25:33.009
And he said, I will give them eternal life and they will never.
00:25:33.650 --> 00:25:34.069
Perish.
00:25:34.730 --> 00:25:36.750
No one will snatch them out of my hand.
00:25:37.250 --> 00:25:40.630
And that word snatch out or pluck out some versions used.
00:25:41.180 --> 00:25:42.509
It's the same word as plunder.
00:25:42.930 --> 00:25:55.630
And I love that because what that tells me is Jesus can come in and bind up Satan and plunder lives and save them, but Satan can never take them away once.
00:25:55.809 --> 00:25:59.069
He can never plunder from Jesus what Jesus has saved.
00:25:59.450 --> 00:25:59.789
And so,
00:25:59.815 --> 00:26:00.275
Oh wow.
00:26:00.545 --> 00:26:07.125
Me a reassurance of my salvation, but it also reminds me that Jesus and Satan are not opposites.
00:26:07.315 --> 00:26:11.924
Because in order to be an opposite, you have to inherently be equal first.
00:26:11.984 --> 00:26:14.125
In other words, you have to be on the same playing field.
00:26:14.464 --> 00:26:20.515
Opposites are two equal things that are opposed to one another, but Satan and Jesus aren't on the same playing field.
00:26:20.515 --> 00:26:28.884
They aren't opposites because what Satan what Jesus comes in and ERs from Satan when he takes one life at a time away from Satan.
00:26:28.934 --> 00:26:32.484
Satan can never, ever take away what Jesus has saved.
00:26:32.859 --> 00:26:37.390
What'll be funny too is that it, you know, Satan will then try to replicate this himself.
00:26:37.730 --> 00:26:45.470
So he'll in an act to try to pluck his own version of, of, of people back away, he will bind the strong man.
00:26:45.980 --> 00:26:46.559
On this earth.
00:26:46.700 --> 00:26:50.079
You know, he will attempt to bind Jesus in in his death.
00:26:50.579 --> 00:26:55.839
And and what's funny is that it works in the absolute opposite direction'cause they're not even playing the same game.
00:26:56.220 --> 00:27:09.970
You know, what, what, Satan thinks he can do by binding a strong man is actually what will protect those who, who Jesus has plucked and that that will, you know, keep us unpluck, you know, in, in the hands of, of Christ.
00:27:10.069 --> 00:27:11.269
So, It's brilliant.
00:27:11.299 --> 00:27:12.269
It's absolutely brilliant.
00:27:12.944 --> 00:27:17.224
And so Jesus ends this his statements with a part of the verse.
00:27:17.674 --> 00:27:21.535
Versus that a lot of ink has been spilled over this unpardonable sin.
00:27:22.075 --> 00:27:35.055
And and you know, a lot of people over the years have kind of gotten that wrong and they've tried to name an arm, an unpardonable sin, like suicide or murder or adultery, or maybe abortion.
00:27:35.515 --> 00:27:40.144
And, and I've heard a lot, you know, That people say, especially like suicide is the unpardonable sin.
00:27:40.174 --> 00:27:42.664
Suicide is not the unpardonable sin.
00:27:42.944 --> 00:27:45.984
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin.
00:27:46.005 --> 00:27:47.265
So what, what is that?
00:27:47.724 --> 00:27:53.015
Well, we have to look at who the Holy Spirit is to understand what it means to blasphemy him.
00:27:53.859 --> 00:27:56.859
Because blasphemy means to not believe who he is.
00:27:57.160 --> 00:27:57.940
So who is he?
00:27:58.359 --> 00:28:04.609
And so John 16, eight tells us and John 16, eight is when Jesus was giving his priestly prayer to his disciples.
00:28:04.990 --> 00:28:07.809
He was at the last supper and he was about to go to the cross.
00:28:08.230 --> 00:28:11.769
And so he, it was like his last words, like, if you knew you were.
00:28:12.109 --> 00:28:12.700
Going away.
00:28:12.759 --> 00:28:19.339
You know, those, like my mother-in-law was passing away for cancer, you know, and she called us into her bedroom and she had some things she wanted to say to us.
00:28:19.339 --> 00:28:22.779
They were the most important things, you know, that I think she wanted to say.
00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:27.019
And, and that's kind of the setting for this priestly prayer, that Jesus, everything he said was important.
00:28:27.019 --> 00:28:30.380
But these were some of his final words, final instructions to disciples.
00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:32.859
And he wanted them to hear them and understand them.
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And at that, at that time, he told them in John 16, eight, he said, That when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict this, the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
00:28:44.154 --> 00:28:49.214
And so the unpardonable sin is not a sin that is too big for God to forgive.
00:28:49.214 --> 00:28:50.295
There is no such thing.
00:28:50.295 --> 00:28:52.174
There is no sin that is too big for God to forgive.
00:28:52.355 --> 00:28:55.335
The unpardonable sin is refusing God's forgiveness.
00:28:56.115 --> 00:29:00.974
And so that if, and a lot of times people say, well, I worry if I've committed the unpardonable sin.
00:29:00.994 --> 00:29:02.615
If you're worried, then you have it.
00:29:02.805 --> 00:29:03.365
you, then you
00:29:03.535 --> 00:29:05.494
I couldn't still feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit,
00:29:05.944 --> 00:29:19.615
So, so what you're telling me is ultimately Jesus is kind of portraying this idea of like you, you're back in, in your high school or middle school gym and there's two people on either side and they're sort of picking teams for dodgeball or something to see
00:29:19.634 --> 00:29:20.785
hated that I know
00:29:20.815 --> 00:29:21.295
I know, right?
00:29:21.984 --> 00:29:22.464
every time
00:29:22.625 --> 00:29:27.095
Every time Well that's'cause you're a Bible nerd and that's what Bible nerds do.
00:29:27.674 --> 00:29:29.795
No, we and so Jesus is portraying here.
00:29:29.795 --> 00:29:51.224
He's, he's going in these plucking out, these team teammates and there's many from all over the world who are coming in and wanting to join this team, but his own family themselves are not connected necessarily or are, are not automatically, you know, maybe Picking that team, but this unpardonable sin would be ultimately just denying the, the the option to even be on this team, like denying that.
00:29:52.255 --> 00:29:55.115
You have no reason to want to be on this team that Jesus is picking.
00:29:55.505 --> 00:30:07.474
It's this, it's denying the salvation, the forgiveness that Jesus is offering and, and it's under this theme and under the one whose authority that Jesus is kind of setting up this contrast of which team will you be on?
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Which team are you gonna pick?
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Because.
00:30:10.325 --> 00:30:10.615
Just
00:30:10.730 --> 00:30:17.730
because you were a fisherman or, or you work for the Roman government or you were a zealot against the Roman government, you can still all be on this team.
00:30:18.140 --> 00:30:22.150
Just'cause you're a religious one does not make you automatically a part of this team.
00:30:22.150 --> 00:30:28.119
And just'cause you are a flesh in blood too, you know to Jesus himself doesn't mean you are automatically on this team.
00:30:28.119 --> 00:30:34.960
There has to be some sort of a, a, you know, an option or a, a self cho choosing to, to wanna be on this team.
00:30:35.259 --> 00:30:35.599
And so.
00:30:36.515 --> 00:30:42.015
By the time he talks about this unpardonable sin, we're gonna flip back to this, to the last part of the sandwich, right?
00:30:42.515 --> 00:30:52.954
And now he's just talked about a house divided, you know, but we've also been introduced to both the micro-cosmic picture of the of the Israelites, the chosen people of God.
00:30:53.085 --> 00:30:58.075
We've, we've looked at a picture of his own family, you know, thinking he's crazy.
00:30:58.494 --> 00:31:04.509
And so it's under this lens that, that you can read this last Particular section, I'll, I'll read it for us.
00:31:04.710 --> 00:31:12.910
Starting in verse 31, it says, and his mother and his brothers came and standing outside, they sent him and called, called him.
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And the crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.
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and
00:31:19.950 --> 00:31:22.849
He answered, who are my mother and brothers?
00:31:22.849 --> 00:31:30.930
Brothers, and looking out about, at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and brothers for whoever does the will of God.
00:31:31.230 --> 00:31:34.049
He is my brother and my sisters and my mother.
00:31:34.904 --> 00:31:39.924
And so Jesus is gonna now lay out the qualifications for anybody who'd like to be a part of this team.
00:31:40.015 --> 00:31:42.605
Who's gonna pick the Jesus team, you know?
00:31:42.744 --> 00:31:48.095
And it has nothing to do with Bloodlines has nothing to do with genealogies.
00:31:48.315 --> 00:31:52.934
It has nothing to do with being the one who's in the closest proximity.
00:31:53.595 --> 00:31:55.494
It has nothing to do with your past.
00:31:56.075 --> 00:31:59.214
It is those who come and seek and follow.
00:31:59.805 --> 00:32:02.305
And who are, who, you know, who are inside here.
00:32:02.525 --> 00:32:05.944
And I think it's interesting, the, the place setting where, where was his family?
00:32:06.605 --> 00:32:07.305
On the outside.
00:32:07.494 --> 00:32:07.785
Yeah.
00:32:07.825 --> 00:32:08.115
Yeah.
00:32:08.805 --> 00:32:09.154
Right.
00:32:09.265 --> 00:32:11.315
They're physically representing this, right?
00:32:11.710 --> 00:32:11.950
Absolutely.
00:32:12.170 --> 00:32:18.789
And you know, that was true obviously in Bible times, like you're pointing out, but, and I'm sure we can draw the connection, but that's true today too.
00:32:19.289 --> 00:32:24.670
You know, just because your mom was a Sunday school teacher doesn't mean that you're connected to Jesus.
00:32:25.180 --> 00:32:30.509
Just because your bottom is in a pew every Sunday doesn't mean that you're connected to Jesus.
00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:33.200
Following Jesus is a choice.
00:32:33.740 --> 00:32:39.559
And so, but you know what, that's, that's a good thing that you don't have to come with any qualifications.
00:32:39.859 --> 00:32:41.640
You don't have to come with any laurels.
00:32:41.900 --> 00:32:44.519
You don't have to come with any check boxes checked off.
00:32:44.819 --> 00:32:51.170
You can come to Jesus just as you are with all your mess whether you know, you're like Matthew or seven, the zealot.
00:32:52.095 --> 00:32:53.035
He wants to come.
00:32:53.055 --> 00:32:57.494
And, and I know we've kind of talked about Jesus choosing a team, but really he's choosing a family.
00:32:57.605 --> 00:32:57.894
yeah.
00:32:58.255 --> 00:33:04.224
A place where you belong and you know, I teach a women's Bible study and I, I love the women.
00:33:04.305 --> 00:33:12.625
I teach kids on Sunday morning and women on Wednesday night, and our Bible study is starting back this week, and I've had the privilege of watching.
00:33:12.724 --> 00:33:16.025
One of the cool things about being a Bible study teacher is getting to watch.
00:33:16.420 --> 00:33:22.500
People grow in their faith, and I know you, that's one of the most precious things to you about your ministry as well.
00:33:23.204 --> 00:33:31.265
And this one sweet lady comes to mind and she just you know, didn't really know how to work well in her bible, like how to find the books and things like that.
00:33:31.365 --> 00:33:35.664
And it's like a no judgment zone, you know, in our work Bible study.
00:33:35.765 --> 00:33:39.025
In fact, we we're like, it's Los Las Vegas, you know, whatever happens in here, stays in here.
00:33:39.605 --> 00:33:43.025
Not like things happen in las, but you get the point, you know, together.
00:33:43.805 --> 00:33:44.545
And she was.
00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:55.740
You know, really hesitant to speak and, and unsure about what she knew, but you could just tell that she wanted to be there for all the right reasons because she loved Jesus and she wanted to know him more.
00:33:56.079 --> 00:34:00.140
And I've watched that just be a blessing.
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:05.500
And we now like just last spring when we ended and I'm so excited that we're kicking off again today.
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:06.940
So that's why this is on my mind.
00:34:07.180 --> 00:34:11.699
'cause our fall Bible study's kicking off today, but she volunteered to lead the closing prayer.
00:34:12.630 --> 00:34:18.539
At one of our last Bible studies in the spring, and Adam was the most beautiful prayer I've ever heard.
00:34:18.824 --> 00:34:19.684
Oh, that's awesome.
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:22.579
She started with, I've never prayed out loud before,
00:34:23.414 --> 00:34:23.494
Hmm.
00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:25.739
and she just gave the most heartfelt prayer.
00:34:25.800 --> 00:34:26.980
And you know what she is.
00:34:27.905 --> 00:34:29.795
Part of the family of God.
00:34:30.135 --> 00:34:37.594
Her past may not speak to a Christian upbringing or a moral background, but she is part of the family of God.
00:34:38.135 --> 00:34:41.875
And and so we don't need to hang our hats on our laurels.
00:34:41.894 --> 00:34:43.514
God isn't concerned about our laurels.
00:34:43.514 --> 00:34:45.875
He proved that in the 12 that he chose.
00:34:46.554 --> 00:34:51.994
But he wants us just like we are, and he wants us fully committed to his mission.
00:34:52.355 --> 00:34:52.875
Whatever the cost.
00:34:53.364 --> 00:34:53.445
Hmm.
00:34:53.784 --> 00:34:59.605
And he, he's open and available to any who, who would choose to, to follow to, to become part of that family of God.
00:35:00.155 --> 00:35:04.644
well I think we haven't covered everything, but we've covered quite a bit of of Mark chapter three.
00:35:04.704 --> 00:35:08.945
And, We hope that if you're listening to this podcast, we hope that you've been blessed by this.
00:35:08.945 --> 00:35:11.425
Hopefully you'll see the video this week as well.
00:35:11.554 --> 00:35:14.045
This is, if you're liking that we'd, we'd like to know.
00:35:14.284 --> 00:35:16.364
'cause it is, it's more work to do this part, but,
00:35:16.829 --> 00:35:17.250
On you
00:35:17.795 --> 00:35:18.085
Yeah.
00:35:18.344 --> 00:35:21.085
So if you, if you like, if you prefer the video thing, just let us know.
00:35:21.304 --> 00:35:25.184
Drop a like or comment we'd ask, we ask that you share this as well.
00:35:25.244 --> 00:35:31.344
And if you are on some sort of podcast or whatever, if you have the ability to rate it or subscribe to it and that kind of thing, please do that.
00:35:31.594 --> 00:35:34.094
We would love for God to bless this ministry to.
00:35:34.434 --> 00:35:41.744
To push it far and wide and to help others just come to know a love and a passion similar to what we have for the word of God.
00:35:41.844 --> 00:35:46.715
And we're excited that you've joined us as we continue to just walk right through Mark here.
00:35:47.255 --> 00:35:47.795
So what do you think?
00:35:47.795 --> 00:35:48.914
Do you think you can close some prayer?
00:35:49.349 --> 00:35:50.150
Absolutely, I can do that.
00:35:50.980 --> 00:35:55.070
Dear Jesus, thank you so much for meeting us right where we are today, God.
00:35:55.090 --> 00:35:56.829
But you meet us with all authority.
00:35:57.260 --> 00:35:57.829
Dear Jesus.
00:35:58.130 --> 00:36:08.019
You meet us with Love and compassion, and I just thank you that you have invited us to play a part in what is your story and you define the narrative.
00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:13.019
You shut the mouths of demons, you plunder us from Satan.
00:36:13.210 --> 00:36:15.219
Dear Jesus you save us.
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:29.309
And dear Jesus, I just pray that You would just help this word to just be planted in our heart that it might grow and that we would remember the things that you would like for us to hear and to know today particularly about who we are and who we aren't.
00:36:29.309 --> 00:36:37.320
Dear Jesus, we are not on a race to checks and boxes or have laurels based on what we know or who we know.
00:36:37.320 --> 00:36:39.679
Dear Jesus, you want us to come to you?
00:36:40.045 --> 00:36:40.894
Just as we are.
00:36:41.315 --> 00:36:50.844
And so dear Jesus, I just thank you for receiving us today, and I just pray that this Bible study would glorify you and edify our brothers and sisters In Jesus' name, amen.
00:36:51.364 --> 00:36:52.065
Aim eight.
