Year 2 day 79

Year 2 Day 79

Pray (ACts)

Read - Mark 3:22-27

Message - Alan Burke 

“He’s out of his mind”, that’s what the family of Jesus thought about him, the Pharisees accused him of “being possessed by Beelzebub” that he was in league with Satan. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture of what Jesus faced, when those who were closest to him and those who in a sense should know better after all the Pharisees were ‘religious’ were saying these thing. They show a lack of understanding in the person and work of Jesus Christ. 

Here the accusation of the Pharisees shows how little they understood, they didn’t deny he had the power to cast out demons, they did not deny he had the power to heal the sick, but they attribute his power, not from the living God but to Beelzebub. They are attributing the authority that Jesus had to do these things to the prince of demons Satan. 

Now we’ve all heard the idiom, seeing is believing, well these men, the Pharisees, they had seen, they like the crowds had seen Jesus miracles, in the synagogue they watched Jesus heal a man with a withered hand and they saw many other things, but they didn’t believe that he was from God. Believing is not a sight problem, a hearing problem, it is a spiritual problem, these Pharisees could not see unless God worked by his grace. No matter how much evidence we are given for the work of God and the identity of Christ, people will not believe unless they are granted new hearts to submit to the Lord’s revelation (see Ezek. 36:26–27; John 3:1–8).

And as Jesus responds to their accusations, he logically explains how their accusation cannot be true. How can Satan drive out Satan. If this was Satan then he would be working against himself and not bringing healing but bringing harm. Then if a kingdom is divided against itself and a house is divided against itself, they cannot stand. If Jesus were an agent of Satan he would be destroying himself. Rather Jesus is routing Satan, and Satan’s kingdom is crumbling, there is nothing that he can do to thwart the plans and purposes of God. 

What is happening is not the result of a civil war within Satan’s ranks but a direct onslaught from outside. Jesus has come, he is more powerful than Satan, he has bound him, plundering his house (27). Notice there is no caricature of Satan here Jesus instead speaks of a kingdom, a house of those places ruled by Satan and a strong man bound. Satan is bound, but he is still the at work in this world, this is his dominion yet he is bound and the end of his reign comes closer with each passing day. Know this, in your battle with indwelling sin, Satan is a defeated foe, know this as this world that is under his power (1 Jn 5:19), his power is limited and he is a defeated foe and he will be thrown into the lake of fire (Rev 20:10). 

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q84 What doth every sin deserve?
Every sin deserveth God’ s wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come. (Eph. 5:6, Gal. 3:10, Lam. 3:39, Matt. 25:41)