Recognizing Life

Recognizing Life
Mark 3:7-35

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

The Twelve Apostles

13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.
28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Mk 3:7-35


Who is Jesus?
Have you ever seen the real Jesus?
Maybe we don’t know him, that is what we said last week- we have so many saviors, things we cling to for peace and joy and they don’t do it for us. And we think we have tried him, and he was not enough- and I said I don’t think you have ever met him if you have not found in Him a life changing, enrapturing, transforming vision of beauty and glory and holiness.
I played a song for you last week to get you think about this- to consider that maybe we don’t know him.
Song- what do I know of holy.

And that really is my question to you today – what do you know of Holy? What do you know of this one who claims to be Holy, this Jesus? Do you know Him?
This text deals with that very question, because in this text we see people making decisions about who Jesus is- that is exactly what this text is showing us. So we should look at it, and see what they are deciding, and see how that effects us, shouldn’t we?


Do we really want to Know Him?
But I have to first stop and ask this- do you really want to know Him?
Two reasons I want to ask that- first, if you don’t want to know, this message, and in fact all of impact, will end up being very boring.
And second- to come to know means change. And I wonder if you are really wanting it. Listen, this is why some of you don’t want to know, and why it gets boring, because you shut down and don’t listen- this is what we said last week- we don’t want to be confronted with Jesus, He claims to be the real savior, and if we have all these false saviors we are trusting in, we are in trouble- either we have to dispose of Jesus, or we have to dispose of the false saviors.
So, I ask again- are you sure you want to meet this Jesus? The old wineskins might burst if you do. I can tell you now that if you meet Him you won’t care if the old wineskins burst, but you might not believe that, that might seem impossible. But it’s true- you won’t care one bit. But are you ready to see who He really is?

Understand that He will be bigger, and more, than you want him to be- he will be almost scary, in a sense, because he, when we see Him, when he comes near, threatens to be more than we can handle, threatens to be unable to be hidden, threatens all that we know, all that we have thought- He will take apart our false saviors, he will disrupt all that our life is about.
So I have to warn you- the real Jesus is dangerous- yet, you need Him. Draw near to Him, tonight, this very night, though you fear- fear the consequences of not drawing near more.

(lewis story from Narnia, about the girl who drinks from the stream with Aslan by her)

He is scary, and dangerous- and because of that many run away, and many will not allow themselves to know him. Is that you? Have you allowed yourself? Because, listen- I tell you each week who He is. You can learn of Him, if you want to. Do you?




In what way have you known Him?
Do you know the real Jesus?
In this text today we come across a number of people who do not know the real Jesus. What is really cool about these stories that are coming up next in Mark is that there are four times that we see someone confessing something about Jesus- saying “you are” or “he is”. Are they right? Do they know Him? Do they have Him all figured out?
And, most importantly, is the way that you know Him the same way as they know Him?

1- you call Him the son of God, but…
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.


Do you know Jesus in the same way that the demons know Him?
Now this reaction to Jesus doesn’t seem all that bad! He is the Son of God! That’s true, isn’t it? Why is this all that bad?
It actually sounds a lot like professions about Jesus in the gospels that are good-

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jn 6:66-69

This is exactly what the demons are saying-

24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” Mk 1:24

He is the Holy One of God- this is right- so what’s the problem? The problem is that the demons go to hell, and so whatever they are saying here about Jesus is not complete. But isn’t this just like what many say about Him?
Perhaps you are like this- you are willing to admit that He is the son of God, you are willing to say that He is the holy one- but not much more. What more is there? What is missing? There must be something, right? We wouldn’t say that having the faith of demons will save us, would we?
Is this how you know Him? You know some truths about Him, but you do not know him truly?



2- The “embarrassing” real Jesus.

13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

The second group who react to Jesus and confess something about Him is His very family. Apparently word came to them that their brother and son was drawing big crowds. They were flocking to him so much so that he could not even stay near them without being crushed by them. And now he is calling to himself disciples- organizing some movement of some sort. It is time for the family to go and take care of things before it gets out of hand. It is one thing to go around and pray for people and tell them a bit about God, and maybe be a nice healer or something of that nature- but to be this radical, to separate yourself from the rest of the world, to start changing everything- this is crazy, isn’t it? To call a bunch of followers to yourself and tell them they have authority to preach a message, and to cast out demons- this is insane.
Many people think Jesus is out of His mind- this Jesus. They are, as we have seen, ok with the Jesus who heals and brings us to heaven and makes us good people. We can love that Jesus, but when you start to really shake things up, when the real Jesus appears, the Jesus that tells us that to live is Christ and to die is gain, the Jesus that tells us to rebel against the world system, this Jesus is rejected. He is crazy.

Is this what you think? That a bit of the good Jesus is fine, but the Jesus that wants you to give Him your whole life, and to trust Him in all things, and to live a different life, this is too much?
Understand that the real Jesus calls for radical, life changing, submission to Him. Life with Jesus is not going to be “normal” by the standards of the world. This is scary to us.
Listen, there are those who have, because of changes in their lives that they have made, been called cult members. There are those who are not allowed here because the changes in their lives were so great that they were thought of as strange. The Jesus that doesn’t change us, he is fine- but the Jesus who wants you to be different- that’s too much.
So maybe the Jesus you have heard about is the Crazy Jesus, who talks about you doing all these crazy things and following all these rules, but it all seems to be a bit much to you.

3- Dismissing Jesus
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.
28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

The third group we see does something incredible. They basically dismiss Jesus completely. This is what is so sad to me- we are so unable to recognize him, and here are the experts in who God is to the Jews, and He stands before them, and they say “oh this? this is satan. This is evil. “ They are that blind. And Jesus is explaining to them that you can be so blind that there is no hope to ever see. If you call light darkness, how can you see? If you thought the cops were the bad guys, who could you call for help? No one. And that is where the scribes are- they see the only one who can help them as the one they need help to get away from. It’s like being scared of the dentist when your tooth hurts, being so scared that you think he is as bad or worse than the pain in your tooth. There is no hope for you.
Can it be we are so blind that we get it that wrong? That we miss who Jesus is so badly that we actually think that the one who is life and love and goodness and Holy, that he is evil and death and pain?
Do you run from Him, the one who offers good gifts, because you think that the gifts are something bad? What does he offer you tonight? And will you take it? Or will you, like these men who were condemned and so hard hearted they could not see him, will you walk away turning your nose up at his gift, thinking it is worse than the death that awaits you without him? Those who end up in hell end up there because they think being with Jesus is worse than hell.


Who is Jesus?
We can make so many bad judgments about who He really is. But how is He really?
He does tell us who He is, without any confusion, he simply tells us. Now, you know a lot of what he says about Himself. He claims to be the Son of God- He claims to be one with God Himself- He claims to be God. But we can know that and not really see Him. The demons know this, as we will see in this passage. What is it about Him that he wants us to see?
In another gospel, the gospel of John, Jesus over and over again tells the people who he is- he says things like “I am…” And then follows it up with what He is. So what is He?

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Do you notice anything similar about these passages?
Jesus claims to be life- bread of life, light of life, life itself. Jesus is life- the life that we all want and need and are searching for- because you all are searching for life- that is what you want your saviors to give you. You long to really live- and Jesus claims to be that life- and the way to get to it-

9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. Jn 10:9

The life comes to the earth, a place where there is death- and what happens is a great struggle between life and death ensues.

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.


You see this battle?
He and death and all that goes with it- sickness and pain and sorrow, they just don’t mix. Sickness is fleeing from before him, and pain is fleeing- and demons, ministers of death, are fleeing from before him. He rights the wrongs of death! He is binding evil and death and all that leads to pain and death, and casting it out. He and death cannot be near each other. They cannot stand each other. Death flees from before Him. Do you see this?
Stop and think about how refreshing that is. Nothing associated with death and pain and sorrow can stay near Him.


Who we are
And now do you see why you have such a hard time seeing who He is?
It is because you are dead.
eph 2:1- you were dead
and we find offerings of life to us- how do you offer life to someone who is alive? No- in a real sense, we are dead, and we know it- and we want to live.

The problem is worse-
We seek the living among the dead- we seek life from dead things.
Luke 24:1-6
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen…

There it is- that one sentence haunts me. Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why Anthony? Why do you seek life from things that have no life in themselves?
Do you see guys- we seek life, we try and get life from the world around us.
The problem-
1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
And then Jesus comes and offers us life- he claims to be Life itself.
But we don’t want life, we want to hold on to the death that is all around us.
Do you doubt that you struggle to hold on to death?
Let me help you see it. Here is Jesus, the one who calls himself life itself- he comes to you and he wants to give you life and take away death- and all that leads to death. He wants to this second take from you all the fake, all the lies, all the false saviors that you have and all the sin- he stands with his hand open saying to you “give me your life, and let me do what I want. Let go of those sins.” And you feel yourself repel from that, don’t you? You want to hold death- do you see how sick and twisted we are? We are so confused, we so have missed life, that when life approaches we would rather hold on to death, because we think death is safe.
We are used to death. We are so used to it that we don’t even know it. We think it is normal.
We are so used to death we don’t know what to do with life. This causes a problem when we come across Jesus- we don’t know what to do with Him. He is life, and we do not know life. We know death- and get this- we are comfortable with death. It feels safe to us- it feels right to us- do you hear me- this should shock you- we are good with it, we like death, it is a cozy blanket for us, an old comfortable pair of shoes, our favorite clothing. We embrace and love it, and we fear anything else. Aren’t we safe with death?

William Wallace says: "Every man dies, but not every man truly lives." So the obvious question from this is "what does it mean to truly live?"
I think we all know, even if we can’t define it. We want to live, even if we don’t know what it is- we do know this- we aren’t doing it. We are born with a feeling that we are not truly alive.

Jesus is the life you need- He is the real Savior- and He saves you from death! You need This savior, because you are dead, you are heading to hell forever, to experience all that death is, forever, perfectly. Think about that. All the things that you love now, all the fake and false gods, they do have hints of pleasure and goodness in them, but they also have hints of evil in them, hints of death- and you will one day taste the full fruit of death if you do not trust the one who is life before that.

And actually, your situation is worse- you have loved death and hated life, and the penalty for that is that you will have to experience death forever, and never get to taste the goodness of real life. That is the penalty. You have earned it, and your false gods are leading you to it.


A Call to separate from the dead – Live!
Are you sick of death? Are you ready to live, to live for real?
Do you know what it would be like for one like you, who is so used to death- to see life for the first time?

Let me show you a movie clip that so well shows this. In this clip, you are the dead king sitting in the chair, with an evil voice in your ear, telling you not to care, not to listen.
But one comes into your presence bearing life- one who has been through death, and defeated it- and he comes to you and calls you- at first, you laugh at his call- but when he shows His true self, when His bright glory shines, It will cast all death out of you. And you will be born again.
(movie clip- Lord of the Rings, Theoden is set free!)

This is what it would be like! A renewing! New life! Only if His brightness would shine into your life today!
Now hear me, listen to this- you who have not trusted him, you who are dying, you who are afraid to let go of your false gods. Listen to me, you who are His children, but are again running toward death, and still struggling to let go of the evil around you- understand what I say next.
There is only one door out of death into life, and it is Jesus Christ, and there is only one way for you to eat this bread of life.
Do you know what the bread of life is? It is His flesh. He can give you life, by giving you Himself. How can he do that?


11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jn 10:11

Oh, what a great God we have! Do you see what had to happen?
The one who is the opposite of all death, the one from whom all death flees, the one who comes and chases away all that is evil and sick and painful, the one who is Life Himself, he must embrace death for you. He must give up His life, so that you can have it forever. Do you not see this beauty? He is willing to embrace what is the opposite of all He is, and Life Himself is willing to die for you, to take your place, so that you can live forever!
And get this- He did not remain dead! Death could not hold Him! Do you see the beauty of the empty grave?! Death cannot win- it is defeated, it is finished!

And will we still doubt Him? Will we call him crazy? Will we call his offer of life death? Will we look upon the good he gives and turn our noses up, and say his blessings are death?
Yet, though we do this, he still comes, and He calls us to Himself. He will have to call you to bring you to life- Just like Lazarus. Is He calling you tonight?
And when He calls, you are changed, you are separated from this world and live a completely new life.
You have stored up death for yourself, and He comes to you and takes it away by bearing it Himself on the Cross. God’s anger burns at you for hating His gift of life- and so He dies in your place, and offers you an eternal life! What mercy and grace! And if you hear this call, you will be changed into someone new!
The gap is so big, the separation so final and so rebellious, it severs all ties, it creates new people.
At the end of these stories, we see Jesus with his followers-


31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Mk 3:7-35

And he says to them “you don’t get it. The dead, they are not my family. The living are.” He brings radical change- he brings life to those who are among the dead. It creates new people. The living among the dead. Which are you?

Stop trying to live by finding life among the dead. What things have you been seeking life in?
I am so sick of the foolishness I find in myself, of seeking the living among the dead. I will not do it- though I may stumble, and fall- I will not believe that the dead will give me life. I am so sick of seeing others make that decision- the decision that life is found anywhere but in the author of Life- in Jesus Christ.

The grave could not keep Him-
1 Corinthians 15:20-22
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:51-57
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“ Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “ O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Life is offered to you- What is life?
In the end, life, eternal, unchanging, life, the life you thirst for right now- this is it-

John 17:1-3
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Do you want it? Oh, I want your dead hearts to yearn for it, to long for more, to desire more and more of life- I want you to want to live.
He must call to you, cry out to Him to call you to life- seek him, never stop.
Listen, you have two choices- give up, go home, and continue in death until you die and go to hell- or go home, and cry out to Him, and continue to cry out to Him until He breathes life into you.

He claims to be the life- the life we all need- the One who will save us from the death that awaits us. Do you want to live? Do you trust Him?