Jesus in trouble?

Preached: 6 June 2021 at Christ Church, Billericay

Reading: Mark 3:20-35 

 

 

Celebrity

Jesus is already a celebrity. Here he is having healed a man who was mute, if you read the similar passage in Luke. News of these events travels fast, and people are curious. More than that, in a time when medical science doesn’t exist and doctors can offer no cure for such ailments, miracles, are the only hope. It’s not

surprising then that Jesus has become well known really quickly.

 

Celebrity Pressures

Everyone wants something from him, so crowds gather in no time at all, and He can hardly move around to perform his ministry. There’s also the expectations to consider. “Is this the messiah?” they will be asking. After all, he’s doing and saying the things that the messiah would do and say. Normally, if you entered a house, the host would provide food and drink, but here there are so many people normal hospitality is impossible.

 

Family and Authorities

His family soon get wind of what is going on, as do the authorities.

 

Family

From the family’s point of view, this is not how it is supposed to go. Sons, particularly the eldest sons, are supposed to grow up and join the

family business. That’s how you honour your family, and become a good Jew. They are not supposed to abandon their home and start an itinerant preaching ministry.

 

Mary

Mary’s reaction is particularly interesting, after all she knows that Jesus’s birth was miraculous, and she knows where his interests lie. Remember, when he was twelve, the family had to stop its journey home and return to Jerusalem because Jesus was missing. They found him debating with the scholars in the temple, and He was surprised that they didn’t know where he was. Perhaps difficult teenagers are not such a recent invention, and she had just assumed that it was all a passing fad.

 

Genuine Concerns

What ever her beliefs about her son were, the news she hears convinces the family that Jesus is really in trouble and needs their care. They believe He is having some sort of mental breakdown, so they decide to go and get him

and take him home.

 

Walk of Witness

Sudden religious activity can have that effect on families. I remember when I told my mum I was going on a walk of witness on Good Friday, sometime back in the early 1980s, I was met with a very suspicious response – something along the lines of “Are you sure you haven’t joined a cult?” This is from someone who was considering becoming a missionary in her youth.

A walk of witness is nothing compared to what Jesus is doing.

 

Authorities

The authorities are also concerned about what Jesus is doing. Here is an unknown man going around, apparently healing people and picking up a large following. What is he teaching about God? Is what He is doing true to the faith? He certainly hasn’t been trained by them, that much they do know. How would we react if something like that were to occur now? Miraculous healings occur, and a large gathering of people going to hear someone teaching about Jesus. We’d want to

be sure that they were really from God, and really had the Holy Spirit, wouldn’t we. No doubt, the Archbishop would send some of his experts to review what is going on and report back. That is what the authorities in the temple in Jerusalem did, they dispatched some teachers of the law to go and take a look.

 

Authorities threatened

What they see is the chaos around Jesus and an unauthorised preacher. He’s not one of us, so he must belong to Beelzebub. So, “He is possessed by Beelzebub. By the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” Hopefully that will make the crowd disperse. Now he’s identified as the enemy, they can do whatever is needed to shut him down.

 

Response

Their statement, like so many political statements throughout the ages, defies logic. Jesus is quick to pick up on this. He knows why He has come, He’s well aware of His mission. A kingdom or a family divided against itself cannot stand. Civil war is not the way to advance a cause. So Jesus concludes that

Satan’s end has come. It’s a clever response. Jesus is saying that, even by their own flawed logic, He is still achieving His mission. Satan’s end is coming.

 

Strong Man

Jesus’s next words give a hint of His mission. The strong man has arrived and is reclaiming his possessions, robbed from Him by Satan. The healings and the exorcisms that people are seeing is a sign that the Kingdom of God has

arrived and Satan’s reign is coming to an end.

 

V28-30

When Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.” He is addressing the surrounding crowd, teaching them what the Kingdom of God is like. The condemnation that follows “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” is

addressed to those who see the good He is doing – healing and releasing the possessed, and instantly attribute it to Satan, as the teachers of the law have. With their attitude and their outlook on life, they are never going to be able to see Jesus for who He is and ask for forgiveness anyway. Mark makes sure we understand this with the comment in v30, ‘He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”’

 

Family Arrives

After the ‘discussion’ with the teachers of the law, Jesus’s family arrive. The house is now so full they are not able to all go in, so someone is sent. “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” they tell Jesus. He is not impressed, instead He uses their visit as an opportunity to teach the crowd that is now sat in front of Him.

 

Spiritual Family

Part of Jesus’s mission is to build a spiritual family, that will look after each other as well as or better than a biological family. His spiritual family will be made up of those who do God’s will.

 

Breaking Traditions

This is groundbreaking stuff. Family in the first century was everything. Breaking free from family was dis-honourable and very much frowned upon. Yet here He is putting people together to make up a new type of family – those who do God’s will.

 

WWJD

This is one of the circumstances where asking "What Would Jesus Do?" Will not get us the best, or even the correct answer. Jesus is NOT trying to break up earthly families. Remember His birth was miraculous, so He’s really only a

half brother to His brothers. Jesus is here on a mission, by claiming to be the strong man, He is already giving clues to who He is. That question “Is this the Messiah?” will get louder and more urgent for the crowd that follows Him

around, and specially, His disciples.

 

A calling on our life

When we experience God’s call on our lives as a young person with few  attachments we can simply go – however great or small, that call is. As I did, despite my mum’s reservations, to attend the walk of witness. In this small thing

I obeyed the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Later in life, with a wife and children to support, any call – which must still be obeyed, cannot be seen as just for me and I cannot go without first understanding how that call affects those I owe responsibilities to. God will make provision for that. We just need to be sure that our lifestyle and our callings are within God's will, and that we continue to obey Him.

Then we will be members of that spiritual Family.

 

Eight things the Holy Spirit does

 Preached: 23 May 2021 at St. Mary the Virgin, Little Burstead

Purpose:To understand how the Holy Spirit influences our lives.

Reading: Acts 1:1-11; John 15v26-27 & 16v4B-15

 

Pentecost

Today is Pentecost, the day when we celebrate the birth of the church.

Pentecost means 50th day, this is the seventh Sunday after Easter

Sunday, and the 50th day of Easter.

We didn’t hear that story today, so it’s worth a quick re-cap.

 

Re-Cap of Pentecost

The Apostles were all together in the upper room, scared to make any

sort of move at all for fear of the authorities, but knowing that

something very special had happened. Then the Holy Spirit arrived. “a

sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the

whole house” and “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that

separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with

the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled

them.”

It caused a commotion, as all the foreigners present heard there own

language and wondered what was happening. So Peter got up and told

them. As a result the church was born.

That day about 3000 were added to the church, and each of them was

baptised. All of them were Jews, so at this point, a new Jewish sect is

formed. As all those travellers returned home they took the Holy Spirit

with them and the good news – the gospel- of Jesus, His death and

resurrection were spread into Jewish communities across the Empire.

 

Readings

That’s what we are remembering today, but our readings are from an

earlier time, when the Holy Spirit is just a distant promise. So I thought

it would be a good idea to look at just what is promised with the coming

of the Holy Spirit.

 

Lost Jesus

In the reading we had from John, the disciples must have known that

something was afoot, because of the way Jesus was speaking to them.

In the Acts reading his death and resurrection have already occurred and

the disciples are in shock and barely understanding what is going on.

In both reading we get the sense of impending loss, but the promise of

better times ahead.

 

8 Things

So I have taken 8 things that are promised in these two passages, so

that we can get a feel for what living in the world with the Holy Spirit is

like.

 

1 Provides Instruction

The first is that the Holy Spirit provides instruction. We read in Acts

verse 1 that even Jesus gets his instructions from the Holy Spirit. Luke

says

“I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he

was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit

to the apostles he had chosen.”

Instructions can come in many forms. Another example of this is in Acts

8 where Philip is told to approach the chariot of the Ethiopian Eunuch.

The instructions are simple and clear “Go to that chariot and stay near”.

The Holy Spirit knew what was happening in the chariot, and when Philip

obeys he finds that it is easy to engage the Ethiopian in conversation,

which then results in his baptism.

Have you ever had a sudden sense that you should go and talk to

someone, or phone someone – that’s probably the Holy Spirit, and you

might have a profitable conversation – or you might just help set the

scene for someone else’s conversation later. If we are to play our part

it’s important to take notice of these promptings and not push them

aside.

2 Baptism (in the Spirit)

The second thing that is promised is baptism in or with the Holy Spirit.

This can be a controversial topic, with people claiming different

meanings but if you listen carefully to them you will find their views are

not really that far apart.

One episode of Baptism in the Holy Spirit is undoubtedly seen at

Pentecost itself, when the wind and the tongues of fire brought the

disciple out of their fear and made them bold enough to speak out in

languages they had no knowledge of. There are plenty of instances in

both the Old and New Testaments when the Spirit comes on someone

and they do or say something truly remarkable. It always leads people

towards God, not always 3000 at a time though.

The Spirit can do this any time that someone is open to allowing it to

happen. He will never descend on someone who is unwilling, or who has

decided they do not want that sort of experience.

When Paul speaks of Baptism in the spirit, in 1 Corinthians 12 as he is

talking about the Body of Christ he says:

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body … and we were all

given the one Spirit to drink.”

He is talking about the Spirit bringing us together in unity, so that we

can do and say things consistently.

Maybe you’ve heard it said that if you ask three people their opinion on

some topic, you’ll get four different views. That’s what Paul is saying the

Spirit can overcome. He has already said in the previous chapter:

“No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you

have God's approval.”

Next time we’re sitting in some church committee meeting, those of us

who do, we should remember that and ask for the Holy Spirit to speak to

us. - I’ll come back to this in point 7.

 

3 Provides Power

The third thing on my list is that the Holy Spirit provides power. This

doesn’t make us some sort of super hero – physically breaking through

walls to get where we want to go. It means that we have determination  

and are not easily put off our mission. It means that we can overcome

difficulties, and go on fighting for what we believe longer than would

normally be possible. We will know what to do and to say and when to

do it and say it. Just as Peter and John were not put off by the beating

they received for talking about Jesus in Acts 4.

Without this power we will not be effective, as the disciples were warned

in Luke 24:49 “stay in the city until you have been clothed with power

from on high”.

 

Example of the power

This is where miracles come from. I have personally witnessed a

miracle. Not a healing, although I have met at least 2 people who have

been healed, so let me tell you the story.

We were at New Wine – the summer conference and teaching week in

Somerset. Normally, because we were late to the evening meetings we

would be sitting at the far edge of the giant tent. On this night , though,

we were somewhere near the middle. A youth worker was invited on to

the stage to tell us about his project. He was a good speaker and told us

about the people and what they were trying to do for the young people.

He talked, very briefly, about some building work they wanted to do, and

moved back to talking about the people.

I spotted movement in the audience, one or two people were walking

towards the stage. Last time I’d seen this it was a medical emergency,

but I couldn’t see anything, so continues listening. Then more people

moved toward the stage and then back to their seats, and then more

people, and then a queue formed on both sides of the stage.

Finally the penny dropped, they were putting money on the stage – not

pennies – notes.

The Holy Spirit, using the words of the speaker, had opened the wallets

of hundreds of people, because the Holy Spirit wanted that building to be

done – it served God’s purposes.

Eventually the leaders on the stage realised what was happening and

quickly organised buckets to collect up all the money. We heard the

following day that the total raised was a few hundred pounds more that

the cost that had been stated. The Holy Spirit also knows how building

projects go.

 

 

4 Witnesses

The Holy Spirit makes us witnesses. This is my fourth point. A witness

is someone who provides an accurate report of what they have seen and

heard, or what they have been involved in. The power we get will make

us good witnesses to all the things we have experienced in our lives with

Jesus. We just have to be prepared to give account of ourselves. As

Peter says in in his first letter:

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give

the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and

respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak

maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of

their slander”

I am a witness to what happened in that tent. I was not prompted to

give money that night, but I have told this story before, and I’m sure I

will tell it again. So, no apologies for me if you’ve already heard it.

 

5 Counsellor

As we move to looking at the promises in John, now, my fifth thing that

the Holy Spirit does is to be a Counsellor.

The modern definition of a counsellor is “a person who has been trained

to do the job of listening to people who have problems or who want to

achieve something, and giving them advice”

Which is fair enough, the Holy Spirit knows each of us inside out, and

can and does whisper advise to us in difficult situations.

The Greek word had the meanings: “counsellor, intercessor, helper, one

who encourages and comforts”. So we should expect more than just

advice, we should expect encouragement to get on with the job and

perhaps even a little gentle prodding to be active.

I wonder how carefully that young man had though about saying exactly

how much he money he needed – and whether the Holy Spirit

encouraged him to put the numbers in his talk?

 

6 “Convict of Guilt”

In John 16:8 we have my sixth thing – “He will convict the world of

guilt”. There is no place to hide when the Holy Spirit is around. The

world’s guilt will be exposed for everyone to see. Those who do not

believe will not be able to hide the fact, and those who do the work of

the evil one will know that the prince of this world is condemned.

Openness should be a watchword for us, because anything we try to

hide, will be something that is classified as sin.

 

7 Truth

The other side of the coin is truth, that is my seventh point – the Holy

Spirit will guide us into truth – yes even the apostles needed guiding into

truth, it’s not just us.

If you can remember as far back as point 2 – where I was talking about

the Spirit bringing unity of purpose and asking for the Holy Spirit to

speak to us in church meetings – this is why. If we can listen carefully to

the Holy Spirit He will guide us into the truth of whatever we are

discussing, then maybe, just maybe, we will have the courage and the

power to drop our personal opinion, and take on His opinion.

 

8 Brings Glory to God

The Holy Spirit, in all that He does, brings Glory to God. This sums up

all the activity – all of it points to Jesus and His power of redemption.

That’s why Peter got up and spoke to the crowd at Pentecost, that’s why

Philip went over to the Ethiopians Chariot, that’s why Peter and John

continued to speak despite a beating, that’s why I was in the tent, in a

good place to see what was happening that night at new wine.

So that we can point people to Jesus. So that anyone who listens will be

convinced, or more convinced that as John says “God so loved the world

that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall

not perish but have eternal life.”

Amen