Wednesday Night Service 7PM -

At your throne, I called and served, and you came to my rescue, and I... Sure good to see everybody. I'm glad you're here. Glad you could make it out tonight. I invite you to stand with me. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Lord, we come before you this evening and we thank you for another day. We thank you for allowing us to be here, Lord, and just ask your blessing upon this time. Lord, be with Pastor Allen as he brings the word tonight, Lord. Just give him the words to speak. Give us an ear to hear and a heart to receive it. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. You guys can be seated if you like.

Lord God, we just want to be where you are at this evening. We want to be in your presence tonight, Lord. Lord, as Pastor Allen comes, I just pray that you would speak mightily through him. Lord God, give us an ear to hear and a heart to receive the word this evening. Move mightily by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

...tool today after I center things. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Today, we're going to... That's not going to work.

Noisy mic. Anyway, we're going to be looking into Mark chapter 3. I started that back in November, and it's kind of taken a while because I don't come up here and do this very often. But that's okay. We have some awesome teachers, and I love... I love to listen to them. So, when it's my turn, then it's my turn. So, this evening, we're going to be, as I said, looking at Mark chapter 3.

And that... The book of Mark is a book about Jesus being a servant. And... And you can see as we read through this, that he has the power to over everything. I mean, he can handle anything, which is very encouraging as a believer, because I don't have to worry about things like that. He takes care of things. He wants us to be used of him. But, you know, I think about when the Israelites went into the...

When they went into the Promised Land. They had a job to do. But their job was really to do whatever God told them to do. And just go in and take care of business as he directed. It's always good to follow what he suggests. So, anyway. You know, I was looking at this going, what is the focus of this? What is the focus of this study today? And I see, as you read through this section,

and we will read through it, that Jesus deals with religious leadership that are against his ministry. They aren't into what he's teaching. And I guess that's because he's teaching the Word. You know, one of the other things that'll happen here is he begins to separate out and call on God. call out the disciples so that they could preach and have authority to cast out demons, really to

help him. And one of the last parts is that Jesus is dealing with the scribes as they blaspheme Jesus and the Holy Spirit, most probably regurgitating what the teachings of the Pharisees were, because the scribes just knew the word, and they knew the word inside out, but they didn't apply the rest of what God wants us to apply, which is love and love for God and love for people. So, anyway, let's open in prayer and then we're going to jump into this wonderful chapter. Lord Jesus, we just come before you and we just ask that you would speak to each one of us that's listening tonight, whether it be here in the service or at home, online or at some other time online. We just

ask that your Holy Spirit would lead and guide and just touch hearts as only you can touch hearts. You're the one who changes us. You change hearts, and we need a changed heart. All the time. And so we just ask for your leading and guiding. We just ask that you would be glorified in all that you do, in all that we read. Speak to us and through us, Lord, we ask. We ask this in your holy and precious

name, Jesus. Amen. Okay. Well, let's jump into chapter 3 and see the specifics of Jesus' ministry. So what I'm going to do is read chapter 3, verses 1 through 6 first, and then we'll break it down.

Chapter 3. Mine has a heading over deformity. And he entered again into a synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand, and they were watching him to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath in order that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, Arise, and come forward. And he said to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm,

to save the life or to kill? But they kept silent. And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart, he said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees went out, and he immediately began taking counsel with the Herodians against him as to how they might destroy him.

So right off the bat, Jesus is being watched, kind of interestingly. You know, you look at the setting of verse 1, and it's in a synagogue, and you got to know that Jesus liked teaching out of the synagogue because that's where the people were. And, and it's just interesting that a man with a withered hand was there. Jesus' focus in a synagogue was normally to teach the Word, but interestingly, one of the people in the building had a withered hand. We're not told much about the particular

synagogue. From reading the other Gospels, it may be implied that it's probably in Capernaum. Now, when you go to church, why are you going to church? I pray to hear from the Lord through his Holy Spirit and whoever is teaching. Well, verse 2 brings up a very interesting point about a group of the attendees of the synagogue. It says that they were watching Jesus to see

what he would do concerning the man with the withered hand. I hope we aren't looking at things like that. I mean, these folks really were off base. They were the if you will, the religious leaders. They weren't there really to hear God's word. They weren't there to grow closer to the Lord. They were there to basically give Jesus grief.

It's like they were using this man to bait Jesus. Will he heal? Will he heal or not? We're not told whether this man is a plant or a regular attendee of this synagogue, but either way the man's livelihood is affected due to his condition. According to John Corson's topical study, The Withered Hand, the historian Jerome tells us there is a strong traditional evidence that the man with the paralyzed hand was a

stonemason, and in this case, the well-being of his entire family would definitely, be adversely affected. You know, I think it's sad that you had the Sanhedrin, who was overly concerned about Jesus and his ministry. You would think if someone were sharing, sharing the gospel, sharing the good news, and not just sharing, but clearly showing that he's the Messiah, that they would be a little bit more open towards what he's doing, but no, they were, they were against him. You know, I guess when you think about it, sometimes when folks come and do a better job than maybe we're doing, we get a little bit frustrated about it.

Well, clearly Jesus was doing a better job, but Jesus' focus wasn't about doing a better job other than to get the truth out, and to show his love, show God's love for the folks, for all the people. But anyway, the thing that stood out to me was that, you know, they, they were the folks who read the Word, they knew the Word, and so they would have seen the prophecies that Jesus, about Jesus, about the Messiah, throughout the Word. But for some reason, they didn't know the Word. For some reason, they didn't see it.

And if we just reference the prophecies dealing with what Jesus has done in chapter 1 through 3, let's look at them. One was in Mark 1, 30 through 31, Jesus healed Simon Peter's mother-in-law from an illness. In Mark 1, 40 through 42, he healed leprosy. And in Mark 2, 5 and 2, 6, he healed leprosy. And in Mark 2, 5 and 2, 6, he healed leprosy. And in Mark 2, 9 through 11, he healed the paralytic, the guy who got blessed with being

dropped through a roof, right in front of Jesus. But if you look at the Psalms and the different verses that address this, you'd go, why wouldn't they see this? I was going to move to Psalm 103, 2, and if you want to go there, go ahead, take me a second. So Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that's within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of his benefits, who pardons all your iniquities,

who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. So that's just one of the verses, one of the sections of verses that address the healing. If you go to Isaiah, there's four verses, four sections in Isaiah. We're going to look at those.

First one is Isaiah 29, 18. Isaiah 29, 18. 12. And on that day the deaf shall hear words of a book. 13. And out of their gloom shall mean also the fitness of the naught of the world. and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.

35.5 Just a few pages over.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy, for waters will break forth in the wilderness. Then I'm going to bounce over to 53.4. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten

of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourgings we are healed.

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. And then the last one was Isaiah 61. One. It says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because of the Lord he has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim

liberty to the captives, and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion. And so, you know, there's these verses that they should have known, they should have seen that Jesus was the Messiah. Because no one has ever performed these kinds of healings. So why were they, why did they have such a difficult time with Jesus?

Well, it mentioned that because they were hard-hearted, and sadly they needed to be so, that Jesus' would be able to die on the cross for our sins. If they weren't so hard-hearted, they would not have punished or pushed for Jesus to die. Praise the Lord, his plan was not thwarted. He knows our hearts, and he knows how desperately wicked we are. We'll continue in verse 3. Jesus tells the man to rise and come forward,

and he does. Obeying Jesus is a very productive thing. I just wonder what was going through his mind. Is Jesus going to heal me like he has healed so many others today? But verse 4 is a pause to speak to the religious leaders, giving them a chance to get things right. But this was too close to home as a group. They couldn't allow love and concern for fellow man to sway

there from their interpretation of God's law. So in verse 5, Jesus shows frustration. Frustration with the hardness of heart. But despite that, Jesus says to the man, stretch out your hand. Now, I have not thought about the difficulty in doing this. Maybe there was no physical reason he couldn't do that, but maybe there was. Either way, the man obeyed Jesus' command and his hand was restored.

We aren't told whether there was a showing of joy or elation by this healed man. But verse 6 shows that the Pharisees were very frustrated, and they went out immediately to figure out how they could destroy him.

You know, our men's study on Monday ran into a similar situation in Mark 14. It seems wild that the religious leader had no problems with this type of sin, plotting and planning the killing of the Messiah. Basically, kill God. Oh, well, at this point, Jesus felt it was good to leave and withdraw to the sea. He had some more to get accomplished. So, we'll read verse 7 through 12.

And Jesus withdrew to the sea, and his disciples, and a great multitude from Galilee followed, and also from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude heard all that he was doing and came to him. And he told his disciples that a boat should stand ready for him because of the multitude in order that they may not crowd him. For he had been healing many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed about him in order to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits beheld him, they would fall down before him and cry out, saying, You are the Son of God.

And he earnestly warned them not to make him known.

Jesus' ministry was growing like crazy. You know, to think that there were so many people coming around wherever he was, so that, and pressing in upon him, so that he could, so they could just touch him and be healed.

But the thing that stands out to me in this section is that the unclean spirits, knew who he was and would even say to him, You are the Son of God.

Jesus warned them not to make him known. That's always been an interesting point to me, one that we will pass over at this time, except to say that the more that people knew who Jesus was, the more difficult it was to accomplish a huge part of his ministry, which was teaching. Physical healing without salvation is a very short-sighted healing. With salvation, it's eternal.

So on to verse 13, we'll read through 21. And he went up to the mountain and summoned those whom he himself wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve that they might be with him, that he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out the demons. And he appointed the twelve, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, and James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James.

To them he gave the name, I can't even pronounce that, which means sons of thunder, and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. And he came home, and the multitude gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When his own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of him, for they were saying, He has lost his senses. So, as we just shared, Jesus needed others to teach the good news.

He knew that just as Moses' dad or father-in-law knew that it was too much work for him, Jesus needed others to be a part of this ministry. And in fact, he knew what was going to happen to him, so he needed to have them ready to go once he was taken off the earth. But he got the twelve disciples ready, called out, separated out, so that they could teach, and heal folks, as he was, within reason.

After calling the twelve, Jesus and the disciples went back home, and the multitude gathered again. And verse 20 says, to such an extent they couldn't even eat a meal. And that caused the family to say that he had lost his senses, and to go take custody of him. We'll hear more about this at the very end of the chapter. But, let's continue on with verse 22 through 30.

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, He is possessed by Beelzebul, and he casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons. And he called them to himself and began speaking to them in parables. How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 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, but he has finished. But no one can enter the strong man's house, and plunder his property, unless he first binds a strong man, and then he'll plunder his house. Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemes they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.

Because they were saying, he has an unclean spirit. The religious leaders are at it again. They decide to start a rumor of how he casts out demons. But I think it's neat that verse 23 says that, Jesus called these folks to himself, and began speaking to them in parables.

And concerning the parable of the strong man, I really appreciated John Corson's look at it. So let me read what he shared. He said, in this one verse parable, Jesus likened Satan to a strong man, who if allowed, seeks to control our families, friends, neighbors, joy, health, and blessings. What must we do before we can wrest goods from Satan's control, free people from his grasp, release resources from his restriction?

We must first bind the strong man. The binding of a strong man is done in prayer. Too often we rush in to rescue or reclaim without first binding Satan through prayer. We can do more than pray. But we can't do anything until we pray. To think you don't have time to pray is as foolish as thinking that because you have places to go, things to do, people to see,

you don't have time to stop for gas for your car, even though the needle on the gauge is to the left of empty. If you're witnessing or serving without praying, you're fighting a battle you're sure to lose. The strong man must be bound. Prayer must be given priority. So, a big takeaway there is we need to be in prayer all the time because Satan is out to take us down.

Now in this particular section, what you had was the scribes were saying Jesus isn't casting out demons by by being the Messiah. He's casting out demons by being possessed by Beelzebul.

And Jesus is trying to explain to them that there is no way that Satan would have any strength if he did what Jesus was doing. So, we need to remember that we need to pray when we're going up against Satan, which is every day. Every day, he's out to get us. He wants us to become unable to accomplish God's work. And that should be the first thing that we do.

Every day, we should be thinking about Lord. What do you want me to do today for your kingdom? Sometimes it's just small things. You aren't supposed to despise small things either. That was another thing from another verse the other day. But we need to be taking everything about our lives to Jesus every morning all day long to combat against Satan and his henchmen.

Well, in verse 31 through 35, we're going to get back to Jesus's family.

And his mother and his brothers arrived. And standing outside, they sent word to him and called him. And a multitude was sitting around him. And they said to him, Behold, your mother and your brother are outside looking for you. And answering them, he said, Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about on those who were sitting around him, he said, Behold,

my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. And you know, there's something to be said there. Jesus had a earthly family and they were concerned for him. And Jesus wasn't putting down his earthly family. He was just reminding the folks that those who are right there with him listening, desiring to serve God,

the church, if you will, for us today,

we are all brothers and sisters and mothers, depending.

And that spiritual family is oh so critical. Because these are the folks that you're going to spend eternity with. Not to say that you won't be with your physical family, but in some cases you may not be. And so we need to be praying for them and asking the Lord, to help,

help change their hearts so that they might come to know the truth, come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus.

So Jesus is trying to accomplish the point or get across the point that our spiritual family is very, very important. And so, so to sum up this chapter, I had like five points. Jesus had a servant's heart and wanted to share God's love and good news to all, both in word and deed. And he did that. You know, he took care of those who had physical ailments. But at the same time he was,

he was there to share the truth, to share the good news that if they would just trust in him and repent from their sin, they could have eternal life with, with he and the Father. I think the next one was the unclean spirits knew who Jesus was. I thought that that was pretty cool.

Jesus at this point is trying to keep them quiet because they do know. But the sad part there is that you had the religious leaders who claim to know, know God and and know God and to represent God. But they couldn't see Jesus. How sad.

Jesus glorified the Father and the Holy Spirit in all he did. We need to do the same. You know, when they started coming down against Jesus about saying you're, you're, you're casting out demons by Beelzebul, that that was not a good thing to do. Because you're really coming against the Holy Spirit at that point. And that's one of those sins that's unforgivable.

Because I think it's really the only sin that's unforgivable. You do not, you do not cast dispersions on, on the Holy Spirit. Call him an unholy spirit.

And another thing is we must bind the strong man, Satan, through prayer so that he can't hamper the work of God. Because God has a lot of things for us to do. And he just wants us to ask every day. We need to pray, ask for his leading and guiding. And then we can be about God's work and God's business. And the last thing that I saw was our spiritual family is very important

and deserves a lot of our attention. You know, sometimes we, we come in to church. We listen to the teacher. And then we leave. And we come back two or three times during the week. But we don't get too close to our family. And it's so important that we get close to our family. And I know some folks do it really well. Some people are introverts. That's always hard.

But realize that this is, this is a big part of your family right here. And they love you and they care about you. You know, it's so interesting to go to prayer meetings and things like that and to hear folks asking. So how is so-and-so doing? How is so-and-so doing? I heard they had surgery.

They aren't wanting to know so they can diss on somebody. They're wanting to know because they care.

So with that, let's close in prayer and pray that the Lord will guide, guide us all week for his work. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for your word. Sometimes it seems kind of just like we're going to read through it and we're done with it. But Lord, you have something in there. You have meat in there in every section for us to take away and to chew on and to digest

and to apply to our lives. I pray that we can take this section and just see what you, what you had to share with us tonight. Holy Spirit, speak to our hearts. Work in us. Grow us to be the people you want us to be. Help us to glorify you in everything we do, everything we say. Watch over and keep each one and be glorified, Lord. We ask this all in your precious and holy name, Lord Jesus.

Amen. Have a good week.