Welcome to episode 47 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Mark, covering chapter 3:20-35.  The series is called “Get in, buckle up, and hold on!”  Today, we discuss: 

• Opinions of Jesus – He's crazy (vv. 20-21) 
• Opinions of Jesus – He's demon possessed (vv. 22-27) 
• The unforgivable sin (vv. 28-30) 
• We are family (vv. 31-35) 

Key takeaways: 

• Anyone considering becoming a follower of Jesus should think about the cost in terms of family relationships.  Even Jesus’ family thought he was crazy and sought to take him back home by force to save him from his zealous and outlandish lifestyle. 
• The two groups of people who should have supported Jesus the most – the religious leaders and his family – both opposed his ministry and tried to stop him. 
• Jesus used parables both to hide the truth and to reveal it.  The sincere listener, with a desire to know God’s truth, would ponder the parable, confess his ignorance, submit to the Lord, and then begin to understand the spiritual lesson Jesus wanted to teach. 
• Through exorcisms, Jesus is demonstrating that he is the strongman, overcoming Satan (the ruler of this world) and taking back those held captive by him.  Satan’s kingdom is now under attack. 
• The unforgivable sin is: 
• The ongoing, continual rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit to the Divinity and Saviorhood of Christ.  
• The unforgivable sin is the stubborn refusal to acknowledge that God is working/ has worked in the man Jesus.  
• The perversion in the heart which chooses to call light darkness and darkness light.  
• Continuing rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit 
• Despite all their failures, Jesus acknowledged the disciples as those who did God’s will and therefore his true family. 
• Jesus established a new society in which family is defined not by ethnic or national identity but by common allegiance to the kingdom of God and His purpose in the world. 
• Jesus’ true family consists of those who respond positively to him rather than those who are physically related to him. 

Quotable: 

Obedience does not originate relationship with God (faith does that), but obedience is a sign of it.  Obedience is the key to experiencing “family” with God. 

Application: 

• True spiritual relationships do not come through ancestry or ethnic identity, but through a willingness to follow God’s purpose in the world. 
• God will forgive all sins, except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. 
• Jesus did not come to bring a kind of spirituality that was celebrated only on Sunday mornings inside the walls of a building where it could never affect anything else. 

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