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Dec 26, 2021

Don’t Domesticate Him, Either

Don’t Domesticate Him, Either

Passage: Mark 3:20

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Follow: Learning from Mark about Jesus’ Most Misunderstood Command

Keywords: sin, family, forgiveness, spirit, obedience, house, bind

His family thought he’d flipped. What he was saying and doing, notwithstanding his public following increasing by the day, left those who’d known him the longest bewildered–if not embarrassed for him and maybe also by him. They wanted to rein him in. We may feel a similar urge, living in a world of competing notions of truth and goodness. There are parts of him we’re glad to discuss–other parts we might prefer to conceal. In that urge to display only his more popular aspects we end up trying to domesticate him–tame him for public display. But he won’t let us. And we shouldn’t try.

 


Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Isaiah 49:24-26
LEADER: Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?

ALL: For thus says the LORD: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

CENTRAL TEXT: Mark 3:20-35
Mark 3:20   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.”

Mark 3:22   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.

Mark 3:28   “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 were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Mark 3:31   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 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

CONFESSION OF SIN: 1 John 3:7-8a, (John 8:44b). 1 Jn 3:8b-10
Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. (He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.) The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 1 John 2:1-2
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

BENEDICTION: 1 John 4:4
LEADER: He who is in you
ALL: is greater than he who is in the world. Hallelujah.

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

 

 

 

  • Psalm 22:22 / Hebrews 2:11-12
  • Luke 10:17-20
  • John 12:31
  • Romans 8:31
  • 1 Corinthians 2:12
  • 2 Corinthians 5:11-15
  • 1 John 4:4

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Who in your extended family, when you gather for a holiday, is the most…eccentric? (for all you know it’s you!) What quirks or idiosyncrasies are you likely to encounter from them? How do other family members react to or handle that person?
  2. Read back a bit. What’s Jesus been saying and doing that leads his family to think He needs to be reined in and quieted down?
  3. If you had to guess, how many of your friends or acquaintances believe in evil–not just misfortune, but evil? How many might also believe in evil personified? Why might they believe what they do, one way or another?
  4. What’s the unforgivable sin? How would you put it in your own words? Have the Pharisees committed it irredeemably? Why issue the warning if the die had already been cast? 
  5. The Pharisees are liable to reject Jesus as a worker of evil. For what reasons do people tend to reject him today? Think of several and then, for extra credit, tease out why those reasons hold some water, and then also why they might come up short. 
  6. Now ask yourself: how are we prone, perhaps not to assign evil intent to Him, but instead, to reduce Him to something less? 
  7. What all might we infer from Jesus referring to his true family as those who have a shared obedience with God? How we think of one another? How we deal with one another? How we depend on one another? How would you presently gauge your sense of interdependence among this company of beloved sinners?

QUOTES:

  • I know someone will ask me, ‘Do you really mean, at this time of day, to re-introduce our old friend the devil—hoofs and horns and all?’ Well, what the time of day has to do with it I do not know. And I am not particular about the hoofs and horns. But in other respects my answer is ‘Yes, I do.’ I do not claim to know anything about his personal appearance. If anybody really wants to know him better I would say to that person, ‘Don’t worry. If you really want to, you will. Whether you’ll like it when you do is another question.’ - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
  • There is a gap between the probable and the proved. How was I to cross it? If I were to stake my whole life on the risen Christ, I wanted proof – I wanted certainty. I wanted to see him eat a bit of fish. I wanted letters of fire across the sky. I got none of these. And I continued to hang about on the edge of the gap … it was a question of whether I was going to accept him or reject him. My God, there was a gap behind me as well. Perhaps the leap to acceptance was a horrifying gamble, but what of the leap to rejection! There might be no absolute certainty that Christ was God, but there was no certainty that he was not. This was not to be borne. I could not reject Jesus. There was only one thing to do once I had seen the gap behind me. I turned away from it, and flung myself over the gap towards Jesus. - Sheldon VanAuken
  • Buddha is the Moon; Christ is the Sun. I love and admire Buddha, but I worship Christ.- Kanzo Uchimura
  • If the Son of God was really born in a manger, then we have lost the right to be in charge of our lives. - Tim Keller
  • But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
    You’re gonna have to serve somebody
    Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
    But you’re gonna have to serve somebody. . .
    - Bob Dylan, “Gotta Serve Somebody”

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