"A Father's Day Gift…"
Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #21)
Pastor Jerry Ingalls
June 19, 2011 ~ Happy Father's Day!
I dedicate this message to my daddy whom I love and respect so very much. Dad, my prayer is that you would open your heart to the Gospel before it is too late! I love you and commit myself to pray for your salvation daily until the day I no longer need to. Happy Father's Day!
The Word of God from Mark 3:28-30 (NAU), "'Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies 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 context to Jesus' words is found in Mark 3:20-27 which reads, "And He came home, and the crowd 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.' [Jesus' family is questioning His mental capacities—'He's a lunatic!'] 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.' [The religious leaders are saying He's a liar in league with the devil!] And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables [now we see Jesus' response to an attack on both His person and His works; first He address His works:], 'How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.'"
Now, in verse 28, Jesus responds to their attack to His person starting with the Hebrew word Amen. This is an expression of absolute trust and reliability and for Jesus to start this thought with Amen is to say with great direction and intensity that you better pay attention to what I am about to say because it is very important and trustworthy! Jesus declares, "'Truly [Amen] I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies 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.'"
Verse 30 bookends this passage so we know that verses 28-29 fit as part of the local situation. We must properly interpret and apply such a dramatic universal declaration as Mark 3:28-29. Such Scriptures must be handled with the greatest of humility and care! I believe Jesus is saying directly to both his family and the Scribes, "I am not a lunatic and I am not a liar; I am the Lord and there are serious implications on who you say I am so be very careful with the current course you are walking down—the consequences are eternal!"
I want to say to my dad and to so many other good people in our world today: be very careful on your current course of what you say about Jesus because the consequences are eternal! Mark 3:28 is one of the greatest declarative statements of forgiveness in the Scriptures, "'Truly [Amen] I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter…'" Let me summarize to make this clear: "All sin (evil deeds) and blasphemies uttered shall be forgiven all humanity…" All means all…
THE HEART OF GOD IS FORGIVENESS! From Old Testament to New Testament, we experience God's heart of forgiveness. Psalm 86:5 proclaims, "For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You."
The Prophet Micah 7:18-19 makes it very clear, "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
This is a powerful image: God casts all the sins you have ever committed into the deepest ocean. Psalm 103:12 declares, "As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us." To what depths and to what extent will our God go to offer forgiveness for His creation!?!
Jesus captures the heart of God in Mark 3:28 and He then declares the plan of God in Mark 3:29. Mark 3:28-29 declares, "'Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin'"
With the heart of God in mind, knowing that forgiveness and reconciliation are always in His heart, how did Jesus respond to his family calling Him a lunatic and the religious leaders calling Him a demon-possessed liar?
Jesus declares the heart of God to them with a stern and very clear warning attached—that every act and every blasphemy shall be forgiven, except one! Jesus is taking this opportunity to warn the Scribes that they are in a very dangerous situation and if they do not confess and repent they will find themselves having committed the eternal (unpardonable or unforgivable sin!). This is the most loving and compassionate thing Jesus could possibly do—telling the truth always is even if that truth isn't easily accepted by the person you need to tell it to! And on this Father's Day will love prevail and the truth be told to those we love the most?
This promise of forgiveness is proclaimed by Jesus Christ with the Cross before Him still, yet it is with the Cross—the center of God's redemptive activity on earth—that we hear and interpret these declarative words from Jesus. This is the heart of God and the divine purpose for His leaving Heaven and condescending to become a man—to live a sinless perfect life yet to die a criminal's death so that He may defeat death to secure for humanity the resurrection from the dead through the forgiveness of sin. Jesus, the Son of God, did all of this to fulfill the plan of God which answers every promise of God Yes in Jesus Christ.
THE PLAN OF GOD IS FORGIVENESS EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST! Forgiveness exclusively through Jesus Christ is the full revelation of God's redemptive activity on earth and to reject this plan for your life is to be guilty of an eternal sin—how can you ever expect to be forgiven if you reject the only means of forgiveness established by God for all humanity?
Listen to 1 John 5:10-13, "The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."
In Mark 3, Jesus is dealing with His family members and the Scribes who are (in a unique time and space in history) looking at and experiencing the full revelation of God—Jesus, the Son of God in flesh, filled with the Holy Spirit, teaching with authority, casting out demons, healing lepers and the lame—and they are claiming that He is not of God, but of the devil. This rejection of the full revelation of God is the specific blasphemy of the Holy Spirit Jesus speaks to. He warns them that to continue on this path of hard heartedness and spiritual blindness will lead to their inability to receive the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ, and without forgiveness exclusively through Jesus Christ they will be eternally separated from God!
Can we find ourselves in the same state of hard heartedness and spiritual today? Absolutely! With the full revelation of God available today through God's Word and with the Holy Spirit having been sent to humanity with the mission to convict of sin in order to draw all people to the risen Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation, it is very possible to reject this full revelation of God and blasphemy the Holy Spirit by saying that which is of God is either a lie or lunacy. As the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
There is no half way—there is either rejection or acceptance. Having the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior is entirely dependent on you turning toward God and asking for the forgiveness made available through the Cross. The Bible says in Romans 10:13, "for 'WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.'"
The Bible promises in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
This is the promise of God: if we confess our sins He will forgive us! Truly, the eternal sin is not the words of blasphemy or committing heinous crimes against God and humanity—the Cross is big enough for all sins and blasphemies spoken. The eternal sin is the state of one's heart that refuses to come to God and confess one's sins.
The Bible teaches in Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."
The bottom line: a person with a heart that has not been broken and is unrepentant cannot inherit the Kingdom of God! Dad, all evidence points me to believe that you have this kind of heart and that if you were to die today that you would be guilty of this unforgiveable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, but I am not your judge and I do not know the true state of your heart. But as a Father's Day gift I plead you to examine your own heart and get right with God. God is the Judge and it is to Him that you must stand before and receive final eternal judgment! Whether you believe that is the case or not does not change the reality that Judgment comes for all.
I feel that Jesus is saying to you today what He said 2000 years ago "I am not a lunatic and I am not a liar; I am the Lord and there are serious implications on who you say I am so be very careful with the current course you are walking down—the consequences are eternal!"
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