The Stronger Man

All right. Well, again, good morning and welcome to Lowertown. We are in week 10, believe it or not, in the Gospel of Mark. And we're just gonna keep inching our way through this. And so, as always, just as a good refresher, this is Mark telling us the good news about Jesus. It's not Mark's gospel. It's not Luke's gospel, it's not John's gospel, it's not Matthew's gospel. It's Jesus gospel. And they are writing it to us and to the readers, to the early church, that this is the Messiah. This is the anointed one. This is the one whom the world has been waiting for, the son of God, and his name is Jesus. There's this. I was. Okay. Stranger Things Season 5 is coming out. I've been a big fan of the series. I've enjoyed it. And it's been. This is like 11 years now. I think I just saw an image where you could kind of slide through these kids when they. You know, it's weird because we've watched these kids grow up. You know, they were so little, and now they're adults and married and have babies and stuff. And. And they're. But they're still acting like teenagers, you know, I mean, they're. They're now in their 30s, but they're portraying high school students and middle school students, and it's wild. And. Anyways, I love this series and I. My. My mom, it's, you know, scary. It's kind of horror esque. I guess it is now. Maybe not esque. It is. And my mom, though, doesn't like that kind of stuff. She doesn't like scary stuff, which I get. And I told her, I was like, mom, listen, it's okay to watch it and just know if Hopper. And if you've never seen this, that's okay. If you've never seen it. But if Hopper is in the scene, everything's gonna be okay. All right? If he's in the scene, you just feel safe with Hopper, right? He's just a warm character. He's a police officer. He just. He just. The kids feel safe. Everyone's safe with Hopper. He's. He's the. He's the hero of the story, at least in my mind. Now it's season five. This is the season ender. So who knows what will happen this season? Have no idea. But in my mind, Hopper is. Is the strong man. He's kind of the hero. And today we're going to see. He's kind of this Jesus esque. Figure. And today we're going to see another, well, Jesus esque figure whose name is Jesus. So I guess he's not esque, but the title of the sermon is the Stronger man looking at Mark 3:20 through 35. So Rebecca, just read through this. And so we'll just kind of walk, walk through it here. So the first point that I have is seize him. We're actually going to see this and you can kind of see it in my outline that 1, 2 and 3, that there's an ABA format here that Mark uses of that they try to seize Jesus and that's not a good thing. Actually, the language that we go back, we already talked about this when Peter was first called. And then Jesus starts casting out demons and then it says Peter went and followed him and pursued him. And that's not a good pursuit. He's trying to control Jesus. He's trying to monetize a situation. And so that's what's happening here, that they're trying to control him. Hey, let's contain Jesus. And he cannot be contained. And then he's gonna be the one doing the containing and the seizing and, and the binding. And then he's also. Then it's ended with the A, where again, people close to him are gonna try to contain him and put him in a box. And we're gonna see that Jesus doesn't work that way. So let's look at this. Sees him in Mark, chapter three, verse 20 through 21. I accidentally, last week used these verses and. But it, but it's fine. It all works out. So verse 20 says, Then he went home and the crowd gathered again so they could not even eat. So what's he do? He. He just calls the tax collectors and the sinners. He just, he's healing people, he's cleansing them of leprosy, saying he's forgiving sins. And everyone's like, what's he gonna do next? And he goes and he eats with tax collectors, these traitors, these sinners. And so when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, like Jesus, what are you doing? You can't be doing this. For they were saying he is out of his mind. The word family, there's. It's very vague in the language that it could be blood relatives. Literally it is the ones of him. And Mark seems to do that on purpose, that this could be close family or friends. But it is a reminder that those closest to Jesus might still oppose him, even family and close friends, even those whom he calls. Because going back to Last week we look at Judas Iscariot, who, it says, the one who betrays him. So people that were closest to Jesus still are not going to believe really in him, that even being called by him is no substitution for faithfulness to Jesus in being a fully devoted follower of him. So let's look and just spend a minute looking at this divided kingdom says this, the scribes who came down from Jerusalem, scribes are exactly what you might think. It's someone who's writing down, transcribing something that if you had a legal document that you needed proof of, you would go to a scribe. Very, very oral culture that 90% of anything that was taught or passed down was done so orally. So it didn't make any sense to write something down in that culture. And so that's why there was. It was the later development that people started writing things down. And so they're the scribes, though they're very important, they're very educated. And they came from Jerusalem, which means that they would have been more this high class Sadducee level of a priestly line potentially. But religious leaders, they come down from Jerusalem, they're saying he is possessed by Beelzebul and by the Prince of Demons. He casts out demons. What's interesting here is that they don't deny that he's doing miracles. This is actually one of these kind of proof texts within the historical circles that they look at this and say, well, Jesus clearly was doing something. He convinced people. Now, was he actually doing miracles? Probably not. But everyone around him believed it. Even his opponents believed it, right? Even people who didn't like Jesus, I don't know, he's doing something. He's doing these marvelous wonders. That's the direct, maybe language and interpretation of a miracle, that he's casting out demons and exercising demons. But he's not doing it by the power of God. He's doing it by the power of the devil. Beelzebul, this word here, or Beelzebub maybe you've heard before, it's not anywhere, anywhere else in any Jewish literature, but it is a name for baal, a God. If you do any kind of research on who BAAL was in the Old Testament, that unanimously some kind of demonic, powerful being that God Yahweh clearly denounces. And there's some demonic activity going on. And so I recently saw a video of someone using this as like a gotcha phrase. He would go to Christians and be like, hey, what? Who is Beelzebub? People like, oh, that's Satan? No, no. Where? Nowhere does it say that you can't believe your Bible. What are you talking about? So this is baal, a demonic God, and is saying that the prince of demons, he casts out demons. And we know that Satan here obviously is the prince of the demons, based on what Jesus is saying here. And what's interesting here, and I've got a couple quotes here from James Edwards and says the malicious judgment of the scribes is evidence that faith and unbelief are not a result of proofs. Right. How many times have we done that? We've talked less in the past. I just need to see this God. I just need you to show up in this way. If you just would do this thing, then I would believe wholeheartedly. Jesus is doing those things in front of people and they still don't believe it's. Jesus is the son of God. So just because you get some kind of proof doesn't mean all of a sudden, yep, I've got that. And this should also then be a thing for those of us who think, oh, if I just say the right thing to my friends, maybe to flip it on that social media guy asking the question about Beelzebubble. And if I just had like this gotcha statement, oh, no, no. Well, then your world comes crashing down. I have yet to have a bonfire or a fireside conversation with someone, and we're having maybe a little bit of a debate or about what I believe versus what they believe. And they go, oh, man, I've never heard that before. I need to repent right now. That's not necessarily what it is. I've just got this proof. I've got this phrase that I'm gonna use. It's not up to us. It's about the spirit of God. I just, on the way, driving in this morning, I was listening to a podcast and about CS Lewis, who's this apologist, he defends the faith and he even has this language of, like. It's not about just getting the, like, getting them, like, hey, see you. You have this belief system. I'm going to destroy it. Right? You can just see the tagline, like, you know, C.S. lewis destroys atheists with, you know, it's like, that's not what this is. This is a way of life. This is a way of viewing Jesus as savior. Get people to see Jesus. Now in First Peter, chapter three, we're told to always be ready, get to give an answer. But it says to everyone, everyone's different. And so a canned response isn't always Gonna work. And most likely it's not. But we need to treat them as people and let get them to Jesus. Show them Jesus. All right, as we continue in, Mark says this, and he called them to him and said to them in parables. We're gonna come back to that for you. Cause he's not speaking in parables yet, but he's gonna. He's going to in just a second. How can Satan cast out Satan? He just uses logic here. If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. History has proven this. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand what is coming to an end. This is just a logical argument that he's making that you can't say, I'm doing. I'm casting out demons in the name of a demon. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't make any sense. So then he's going to use this language now of binding him. In verse 27, he says, but no one can enter a strong man's house. So now here he's going to tell this parable. He's going to share this story. This is what the kingdom of God is like. 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. So in this parable, in this story, who is the strong man? Well, the strong man is Satan. He is the. The God of this world. But who is the stronger man? Jesus. And what or where is the strong man's home or house or space? It's the world. It's the earth again. 2 Corinthians 4. 4 says that Satan is the God of this world and he has immense power. Don't toy with the devil or the demonic world. They have power and influence, and you don't see it. They're cunning and they're wise. But Hopper is on the scene. Hopper's in the scene. Jesus is here. Jesus is the stronger one. He is more powerful. I mentioned this in week four, so six weeks ago. Let me just recap this. The demons refer to Jesus of Nazareth as the Holy One of God. The title Holy One of God not only recalls the divine sonship of Jesus baptism in 1:11, but apparently likened Jesus to Samson the Mighty, vanquisher of the Philistines, who in only other. The only other person in the Bible is called the Holy One of God. So Samson, strong man of. Of. Of God, who. Who Vanquishes the. The enemies of God or destroys the. The. The. The Philistines to set the people of God, of Israel free. We see that now. We see that there's going to be another strongman, another vindicator of the prophesied people. And we're going to see this in Isaiah. In Isaiah, chapter 49, we see, can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? If you were there in that culture, you'd say, no, right? The strong man, the strong kingdom. You can't triple stamp a double stamp. Ooh, that's a line that maybe some of you might get, maybe not. Some of you are like, I have no idea. That's okay. For thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken. The prey of the tyrant be rescued. For I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. Who is stronger than the strongman? Who is stronger than the tyrant and the mighty? It's God. And it's the Messiah. It's Jesus. We see this beautiful analogy, this example of Samson in his death moment and Jesus in his death moment, Samson in his death, that when he tears down the pillars and the Philistines temple or the building that they're in comes crashing down, he does more to vanquish and to free the Israelites in his death than he ever did when he was alive. And likewise, Jesus gives up himself and in his death actually sets people free. Far more so than Samson. Samson was a strong man. Jesus is the stronger man. We don't bind the strong man. Jesus does. We don't earn freedom. Jesus freely gives it. We can't take credit for a transformed life. Those of us who have gone from darkness to life, and we look at who we used to be, and then we see the gospel. We see Jesus in our lives are completely transformed. Jesus is the only explanation for new life. The strong man freely gives his life so that we might be truly free on Monday morning. I know I've talked to this a few times. We have our Monday morning meeting and a lot of staff. We get together downtown on Mondays and we go through the text. And I had the perfect analogy. I mean, the perfect example that I could give to illustrate this. But I said, I can't do it because it's from the Chronicles of Narnia. And I talk about it way too much, but it was just too good. So I added it back into my notes just this morning, just for you guys. Cause it's just so good. I. Okay. What Happens in the crowd. Goes in Narnia. All right, this is from the lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Henry and I just finished reading all of these. All right, this is from the lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe. And if you remember, the white witch, who represents Satan, she kills Aslan, the Christ figure, and says, the king's dead. And they party. They just throw this party. But it doesn't. So the witch, Satan, thinks, I've won. I've won this. What happens? The stone table cracks. Aslan comes back to life. And nobody. Not the closest followers of Aslan, Not. Not. Not the. The. The witch herself. No one saw resurrection coming. No one saw that company. Aslan rises from the dead. And what is the. What does the strong man do as soon as he breaks the bonds of death? What's the first thing Aslan does? He says, lucy, Susan, get on my back. And he goes right into the witch's house. He goes right past the witch's gates into her own territory. And he breathes life on those who were dead as stone. And the captives are made alive, and they're set free. Why does CS Lewis do this? Why does cs where does he get this idea from of Aslan dying, seeming like the devil or the witch has won, comes back to life, and the first thing he does is he sets the captives free in the devil, in the witch's territory. Well, Matthew 16:18. Jesus says this. Jesus is asking the disciples, who do people say that I am? They say, oh, you're Elijah. Oh, you're John the Baptist, raised from the dead. And he says, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you are the Messiah. You are the Christ. You are the one. You're the stronger man. You are the one who's going to set us free. And Jesus says, I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There's something about the death of Christ and his resurrection that is far more powerful than even the gates of hell. That when Aslan rises from the dead, what's the first thing he does? He. He goes on the offensive. And that's what the gospel now has freedom to do. And Jesus even says, peter. And to the church, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on this earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. We now the church because of the authority of Jesus that's been given to us because of the victory of Jesus. We get to go into Satan's house unafraid. We get to go into his territory beyond his gates and share the good news that Jesus sets the captive free. Or as we say at hope, we get to go into the kingdom of darkness and trash the joint. This is why, because of what Jesus has already done. To maybe further illustrate this. And we go all the way to the book of revelation. Chapter 20 says, Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he threw him into the pit and shut him and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. Jesus delivers a mortal wound to the strong man when he, as the stronger man, dies and it rises again. Let's make this a little bit practical here. Where is the kingdom of darkness creeping into our lives? Where do you see? You are bound. You are chained, Jesus, I know you've died. I know that you rose from the dead. I know you've given me life. And yet I just still feel so chained by this sin. Let me just. There's a. There's a lot that we could say, but let me give at least three. How about skepticism? It's interesting because culturally skepticism can be viewed as a good thing. And it can be at times, right? I'm on TikTok and I see some doctor gives a new diet. It's like, I don't know about that, right? Or AI, right? Oh, what should I use? Should I use it? And even just any video you see now, I don't even know if that's real. And so that's a. That can be a good thing. But when we're skeptical, skeptical about what God is doing in our lives or other people's life. And again, as we've seen, it's not about the proof, right? Or I know you're saying that that could be God doing this thing and working that out in your life. You know, use. You love using that phrase. It's a God thing. Is it though, right? Am I bound by just my skepticism and just not giving God glory? How about our feelings, our emotions? We are bound, and maybe not all the time, but maybe in a moment we are just controlled and bound by our emotions. Wanting a specific one or not wanting a one that we have. And I'm not talking about depression or some kind of mood disorder. I'm talking about being controlled by a specific emotion. Maybe loneliness or a lack of companionship. Even when we aren't alone a lot, maybe we're consumed by some other feeling. Maybe it's even happiness that we think about a moment that we once had. That's. Yeah. If I could just get back to that. Right? Christmas season's coming around. Just. You just remember, man, I just remember Christmas Eve in the back of the car. Snow is melting on the doors and the windows and Christmas music. Karen Carpenter's playing. We're driving home from grandma's house and I got my. He just feels. Man, I wish I could just do that again. We chase it and then when we don't get it or it didn't live up to our expectation, when we think we get there, we're bound and therefore controlled by it. We have been told to be free. You have been set free, so be free for freedom's sake. There's so many emotions and feelings that we could maybe go through, but you could fill in the blank. If I had blank. What is that that's binding you? If I just felt blank. Last one that I'm at least going to mention here. Tolerance. This is a big one. I need to be tolerant of everyone and loving and accepting of everyone and affirming of everyone. And when then that individual, that person that I see, they aren't acting the way that they should or a popular phrase at least several years ago, they are, they are on the wrong side of history or to maybe even quote the closest friends of Jesus himself, that person is out of their minds. For them to arrive at a position like that, wow. Sometimes we might look like we are out of our minds when we are fully devoted followers of Jesus. I know a lot of us have felt that. A lot of us have felt that from family and friends. There's a thing on social media now that I'll see and someone will just post something, man, Jesus did this thing. I just. Isn't God good. And then, and then the kind of. The phrase that people have started using now is, what's your highest level of education? Oh, that. That irks me. That irks me. But because they're a follower of Jesus now, they're, they're just, they're ignorant and dumb and foolish and I. And in those moments I am controlled by my anger, need to be set free. Let's look at the unpardonable sin. Time is. Is going very fast here this morning. Mark, chapter three says this. Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven. And the children of the Children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness and is guilty of an eternal sin. But they were saying he has an unclean spirit. So what is the unpardonable sin? And depending on which circle you grew up in, maybe it's the first time you've ever heard this. Well, you're saying there's a sin that I could commit that will never be forgiven. That's terrifying. Well, there's a connection here between the unclean spiritness that they're saying about Jesus and the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Right. But this has been taught, and these are just positions that I've been taught in my lifetime that we gotta be careful not to do this. Right. One is that it's just taking God's name in vain. Right? You're walking on the porch and you stub your toe, you step on a nail, and you take God's name in vain. Well, that's good. Life while you had it, because there's no hope. Now, I don't know if you guys were taught that I was. Another one that I was taught in Life of Christ class in college was that you can't commit this because it was only real if Jesus was right in front of you. If Jesus was right in front of you physically as a man and you said, you are the devil, then you would commit blasphemy. And we can't do that anymore because Jesus isn't in front of us. You don't have to worry about it. Or we could maybe look at it as the way Sean Connery says it. And this was the whole point of my question from Indiana Jones, Last Crusade, which you have, Indiana, who takes God's name in vain? And his father, Dr. Jones, what's he doing? Smacks Indiana across the face. And he just goes, that's for blash for me. Right? Just this beautiful Sean Connery voice. He's one of the few people that can say, like, two words and you know exactly who's talking. Right? You've got Louis Armstrong and then you got Sean Connery. Right. There's not too many other people like that. Am I just. Did I just make a joke about blasphemy? Yes, because that's not what we're talking about. This. There's a lot of different viewpoints on this. But again, I'm quoting James Edwards here, because I think he summarizes this very clear. From his baptism onward, Jesus as God's son has been authorized By God's spirit, Whoever, like the scribes, can look at him and say, this is the devil. Or conversely, whoever can look at the devil and call him God's son, as does Milton, Satan, who felt how awful goodness is and said, evil be thou my good. That person is hopelessly lost. This is an eternal sin, since anyone who willingly or not, cannot distinguish evil from good and good from evil, darkness from light, and light from darkness is beyond the pale of repentance. It's just popping in my mind in the last battle of C.S. lewis, just going there again, why not? There are these dwarves and they are in darkness. And Aslan, and they're saying, hey, Aslan, set them free like you did us. And he says, I can try, but they're just not willing to see it. And he gives them good food and they eat the food. They go, oh, this is disgusting. And they go back to eating their dirt and their grass. There's just people who just don't even see it. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. Isaiah 5:20. So my word to you would be, if you have ever wondered or you are wondering, have I ever committed the unpardonable sin of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? The fact that you're concerned about it is proof enough to me that you have not committed death. The one who has committed that blasphemy in their heart says, God, you are evil and wicked, and I can't even stand the sight of you. And actually, the things that are evil, those things are good. That's the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It's a complete and utter rejection of God. So maybe takeaway from that is don't be overly skeptical to see God at work in your life. My grandma saw God in everything. Get a flat tire on the side of the road. Oh, God just sent an angel today to change my tire for me. And it's like, really? Was that an angel? Was it really Grandma? Right? Don't be like me in that sense. Don't be overly skeptical to see God at work in your life. But then on the flip side, don't be overly accepting of everything that is good in your life as a gift from God. Don't attribute what God has done or is doing to Satan. Don't attribute what Satan has done to God in the sense of maybe. An example is, oh, I fell out of love with my wife, and wouldn't she know? God just brought the perfect person, my soulmate, into My life. This is who I've always been looking for. That's. You're fool. You're fool. I've been so lonely. And this guy, he just can't stand religion and Jesus. But I know that God has brought him on life to. To. To just help me from not being alone for the rest of my life. It's foolishness. How do we see this? How do we know if we're being overly one way or the other? This is where community and discernment is so powerful and so helpful. Finally, we're set free. In the family of God. We are set free. And Mark, chapter three says this. And his mother and his brothers came and standing outside, they went to him and called him, and a crowd was st. Sitting around and they said to him, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you. So here it is. There's that language, that B language, you know, the ABA language. I mean, they're seeking you. This is not a good seeking. This is Jesus. What are you doing? Calm down. You're making a big thing out of this, out of nothing. Calm down. You look like a fool. You're out of your mind. You're going berserk is the exact language. And he answered them. And he's not being disrespectful here, but he says, who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers for whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. I look around this room and you are my brothers and sisters. No one in here is old enough to be my mother, so we can't go there. And it's no offense to my actual brother and sister and mother, but you're here. You are in the trenches of this war called life. And we get to battle together, united with Christ. There are relationships that we all have or had that we've been robbed of, that we couldn't have found anywhere else other than the church. And we're not perfect, we're sinful, we're. We're full of flaws. And yet I can look back at my life and see how I didn't have a relationship that I wanted. And somehow, in some divine way, God has orchestrated it so that people who love Jesus were there for me when I needed them most. And I think a lot of you could echo that. Senta. We need to let each other in. We need to let people in. We need to see others and be seen. We need to be set free from a potential or idealized relationship. We need to be set free from emotions and ask our brothers and sisters, how have you worked through this same thing? How have you worked through this struggle and this journey? And can you join me in my struggle? Can you join me in praying for me as a brother and sister? So in Gospel application, got three of them this morning. I rarely do that. Have you been set free by the stronger man? That's a simple yes or no. That's a simple yes or no of like, no. I'm still captive by the devil. Jesus. Jesus has set you free. And we in the freedom, what we do a lot of times is we go back and we choose to go back and worship and submit under our formal former master, but we've been set free from that. So let's just be free. So do you have the freedom to be free in Christ? Or if you say no, man, I'm. I'm. Then today's the day of repentance. Today's the day of repentance. What. Secondly here, what still holds you in bondage this morning? I mentioned this last week again, a lot of churches, and I've said it, come as you are. When you walk into this building, man, come as you are. Do not leave as you were. What is. What is it that comes into your mind that's holding you bondage is this thing, this, this sin, this feeling, this emotion, it's controlling me. This. This next step in my life that I just got to achieve. I gotta get the promotion, I gotta get this job, I gotta get this house. Is that holding you in bondage? Do we need to repent of that this morning? And finally, who are you wishing was in your life who might in some way be in this room? How can we be the family of God? How can we be brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers to each other in our times of need? And maybe we just need to open up with each other and we need to help each other discern and be a community that points one another to Jesus. Let's get each other to Jesus. He's the best thing we got going for us. Let me pray. We're have a time of communion, as you all know. We've got the body, the cracker here that represents the broken body of Christ for us. We've got the juice that represents his blood that was shed for us. And we get to take these elements and we get to remember the finished work of Jesus. He does this. He. He sets this up on the night he's betrayed, the night that, the night, the next. And within 24 hours, he's gonna be nailed to a cross. He's gonna die. Satan's gonna think he's won. But in so doing, the nailing of the cross is gonna be the death nail in the coffin of Satan because he is going to win the ultimate victory. And we get to take these elements and we get to remember the finished work of Jesus, that He has set us free. So let's be free. Let's be free in him. Let's look to Him. Let me pray. And again, the worship team's gonna come up. You don't need to be a member of this church or any church, but if you're a follower of Jesus, love to you have these elements. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for our time. There's a lot here and there might be some, some depth and maybe just some theological questions that people are bouncing around. But I pray that we wouldn't miss what it is that, that we can see in this text that Jesus has bound the strong man because he is Jesus is the stronger man, that in his death he sets all the captives free. And anyone who is willing to just look upon Jesus as the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world. So would you just help us to depend on Christ, to depend on him, to depend on one another even in some aspects, to not be controlled and bound by our own sin and temptations, but to be set free in Christ, we love you and pray that you would just be honored and glorified. Now, as we take these elements and it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.