014 Followers of Jesus – part 2

Mark 3:13-35 (20-30)

January 25, 2026

Since the ice kept us from gathering last week,

I realize it has been a while since we were in Mark’s gospel.

We began studying a new segment in Mark’s gospel the last time we met,

· Which was the Sunday night before last,

· I want to remind you again of the reality we spoke of.

Colossians 1:13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,”

We are those who were formerly captives of sin and Satan,

BUT WERE LIBERATED BY CHRIST

And transferred from Satan’s kingdom to Christ’s kingdom.

That is what we call salvation.

And, as we spoke last time we met,

We know there is NO DUAL CITIZENSHIP to be had there.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.”

· There are in fact two distinct kingdoms.

· And those two kingdoms are not compatible.

· You cannot be in both kingdoms.

· You are in one or the other.

CHRIST’S CONQUEST has been to call men out of the kingdom of darkness and to call them into the kingdom of light.

AND He has been clear on how that happens.

Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

There Jesus revealed that two things are required to transfer kingdoms.

1. Repent

2. Believe in the gospel

There is certainly a change in thought that must occur.

There is certainly a change in desire that must occur.

YOU HAVE TO LEAVE

· The ideology of that old kingdom and totally embrace the new one.

· Total assimilation is required.

YOU MUST BELIEVE

· The good news that Jesus is proclaiming,

· Namely that “the kingdom of God is at hand”.

· That Jesus is God’s Messiah and He is ushering in God’s kingdom.

This reality is further revealed by JESUS 3RD COMMAND

To enter His kingdom, WHICH IS “FOLLOW ME”.

· That was the command to Peter and Andrew as they sat by the seashore.

· That was the command to James and John as they sat in the boat with their

father.

· That was the command to Matthew as he sat in his tax booth.

· That was the command to Matthew’s friends who were invited to his house.

To leave the kingdom of darkness and enter the kingdom of light

One must repent, believe, and follow Christ.

And in case you were HESITANT to do that,

Mark has spent the first 2 ½ chapters of his gospel account

Seeking to change your mind.

We have called that segment “The Conquest of Jesus”

We witnessed Him invading Satan’s domain

And absolutely dismantling the enemy.

We even saw the “victory lap” passage Mark used in conclusion last Sunday morning.

Mark 3:7-12 “Jesus withdrew to the sea with 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 number of people heard of 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 crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!” And He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was.”

Jesus did everything He said He would do.

· He is captivating the region.

· He is liberating the captives.

· He is dominating the evil one.

There is NO REASON you should not follow Him.

And yet there are many who still refuse.

So this NEXT SEGMENT of Mark focuses on “Who Is Following Jesus”.

We already saw the first 3 indicators last time we met.

WHO FOLLOWS JESUS?

#1 THOSE HE CHOOSES

Mark 3:13a

“And he went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted…”

There is no way around it.

Salvation is, and will always be a sovereignty issue.

David made it clear in Psalms 14 and Paul reiterated it in Romans 3:

Romans 3:10-12 “as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”

We call it Total Depravity.

Man is dead in sin,

Has neither the desire, nor the capacity to seek for God.

If man is to be saved it will be because of God’s sovereign call.

We see that here.

Jesus “summoned those whom He Himself wanted”.

It wasn’t up to man, it was up to Christ.

John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”

And it is important for you to know that

So that you will realize that you come to Christ on His timing, not yours.

But that is our first indicator regarding a follower of Jesus.

· They have been spiritually regenerated.

· They have been made alive.

· And they have been chosen by Christ.

The flip side is also true.

Who follows Jesus? (Those He Chooses)

#2 THOSE WHO COME

Mark 3:13b-14a

“and they came to Him. And He appointed twelves, so that they would be with Him…”

We certainly understand the reality

Of the necessity of God’s regenerating work

In order for someone who is dead in sin to be able to respond to Christ.

But also revealed throughout the Scripture

Is that when called, the sinner must repent and come.

No one will enter heaven apart from having come to Jesus.

Genuine followers are those who have seen their sin,

Repented of their sin, and run to Jesus for salvation and cleansing.

But, as we said, it’s EVEN MORE than that.

They don’t just run to Jesus for a quicky salvation

And then return to their former way of life.

TRUE FOLLOWERS STAY WITH JESUS.

They come to Him “so that they would be with Him…”

· The true treasure of the field is Christ.

· The pearl of great value is Christ.

· Paul said, “I lost all things, but gained Christ!”

· True followers come to and stick with Christ.

Jesus said:

John 15:5-6 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”

· That word “abide” can also be translated “remain”.

· True followers remain with Jesus.

Who follows Jesus? (Those He Chooses; Those Who Come)

#3 THOSE HE COMMISSIONS

Mark 3:14b-19

We read “that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons.”

True followers are recognizable because

They share the same mission as Jesus.

FOLLOWERS FOLLOW.

For someone to have

· No interest in fellowship with Christ or His people,

· No participation in His ministry of taking the gospel to the world;

It would be very difficult for them to prove they are following Jesus.

Those are the points WE SAW LAST TIME we met,

And I wanted to bring them back to your mind.

THIS MORNING I want us to look at the fourth reality.

Who follows Jesus? (Those He Chooses; Those Who Come; Those He Commissions)

#4 THOSE WHO CONCEDE

Mark 3:20-30

You will recognize that this list is not necessarily in chronological order.

In fact, we might say that this point should have been second.

One must concede who Jesus is, before they will come to Him.

The order of these realities is not really important to me,

But the evidence and presence of them in the life of a follower is.

TRUE FOLLOWERS CONCEDE TO THE TRUTH OF WHO JESUS IS.

In short, they recognize Him as being sent from God.

· They see Him as empowered by the Holy Spirit.

· They see Him as God’s Son and absolute deity.

· They see Him as the only Savior from sin.

· They see Him as the One who can baptize with the Holy Spirit.

· They see Him as God’s Christ; the Messiah.

And they yield or concede to those truths.

To put it another way, THEY CONFESS HIM AS LORD.

Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

Those who refuse to yield to Christ…

Those who refuse to submit to His authority…

Those who refuse to believe His deity…

Those who refuse to concede to His sovereign right over their lives…

THAT IS NOT A TRUE FOLLOWER.

And in these 11 verses we see A NEGATIVE EXAMPLE of that.

These are people who witnessed the power & preaching of Jesus,

But who refused to concede to the truth of who He was.

I want to break this segment down a little further since it is a little longer.

So let’s first talk about this:

1) THE DIAGNOSIS (20-22)

The scene begins with what was by now a pretty common occurrence.

“He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.”

THAT’S NOT HARD TO IMAGINE.

· Mark has already made it a priority to show us how everywhere Jesus goes there is a crowd that gathers.

· (1:32) We saw them all show up at the door of Peter’s house in Capernaum to be healed.

· (1:45) We saw how the leper spread the word of his healing so that Jesus could no longer enter a city, but had to stay out in unpopulated areas.

· (2:4) We saw them again fill a room to such an extent that a paralytic had to be lowered through the roof.

· (3:9) We saw how He had to have a boat ready at the shoreline so that He could get in the boat to preach and not be crowded.

Mark has established that there was always a crowd around Jesus.

And here we see them again.

· He has come back home to Capernaum

· The crowd showed up again and would not leave Him alone.

“they could not even eat a meal.”

There was just no relief for Him from people with needs and requests.

“I’m sorry to bother you Jesus, I know You’re trying to eat,

But if I could just touch Your garment real quick, I’ll get out of Your hair.”

That is commonplace at this point in Jesus’ ministry.

But then something happens.

(21) “When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

“His own people” is literally translated

“the who were from beside Him; either by origin or by birth”

This is His biological family.

Verse 31 reveals that it is “His mother and His brothers”.

· Nazareth was about 30 miles away from Capernaum,

· No doubt word about what Jesus was doing had made it to them.

· We saw last time how the word about Jesus had spread from Tyre down to

Idumea and from Jerusalem beyond the Jordan.

We also know that Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him at this time.

John 7:5 “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.”

And they have all shown up in Capernaum

“they went out to take custody of Him;”

It is the same word that will be used to describe the arrest of John the Baptist.

It is the same word that will be used to describe the arrest of Jesus.

They weren’t coming to talk sense into Him.

They weren’t coming to see if the reports were true.

THEY WERE COMING TO SEIZE HIM AND BRING HIM HOME.

WHY?

(21) “for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

We’re going to talk more about them tonight, but just a simple understanding is:

THEY THINK HE’S CRAZY.

C.S. Lewis said (regarding Jesus being a “good moral teacher”)

“That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

https://www.lewisquotes.com/quotations/jesus/jesus-lord-liar-or-lunatic.html

Well, His brothers opted for lunatic.

(We’ll come back to them tonight)

But Jesus’ family is

NOT THE ONLY GROUP who has shown up to see what is going on.

(22) “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.”

· Capernaum is in the north, but Jerusalem is higher in elevation, which is why you always say “came down from Jerusalem”

These scribes arrived and they have their own idea about Jesus.

They don’t accuse Him of being a lunatic,

They diagnose Him as being demon possessed.

“He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

Jesus’ brothers

· Had likely not seen any of Jesus’ miracles.

· His public ministry did not begin until He was 30.

· All they knew of Jesus was the exceptionally obedient older brother.

When they hear all these stories about Jesus, they haven’t seen them with their own eyes, and they assume it isn’t true, but rather that He is crazy.

The scribes in Jerusalem however HAVE SEEN His miraculous power.

Even though Mark has not included it,

Jesus has already been to Jerusalem at this point.

He’s already healed the cripple at the Bethesda pool

The power of Jesus had already been clearly documented.

The diagnosis of lunatic is not an option for them.

He’s not crazy, He really can do what He claims.

The question for them is not the presence of His power,

But rather the source of it.

It’s not “Can He do it?”, but “How does He do it?”

AND THERE ARE ONLY TWO OPTIONS.

His power either has to come from God, or it has to come from Satan.

They look at Jesus and choose Satan.

Now that alone is interesting.

We might wonder WHY they chose Satan instead of God as the source of His power?

And there is only one reason.

THEY DID NOT LIKE HIS MESSAGE.

Even our own current political climate should teach you that if someone doesn’t like your message they will attribute any manner of evil to you.

These scribes did not like the message of Jesus.

WHAT WAS HIS MESSAGE?

Mark has been very clear about that.

Mark 1:15 “and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Mark 1:17 “And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Jesus message began with a call to repent of your sin and to believe in Him as the Messiah and follow Him.

BUT IT DIDN’T STOP THERE.

When they lowered that paralytic in front of Him we learned something else:

Mark 2:10-11 “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.”

When He had dinner at Matthew’s house He said:

Mark 2:17 “And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

When the legalists wanted Him to abide by the Old Covenant He said:

Mark 2:21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.”

When the Pharisees wanted Him to honor their Sabbath rituals He said:

Mark 2:28 “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

When the religious wanted Him to conform to their standards of priority He said:

Mark 3:4 “And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent.”

The message of Jesus certainly comes into focus doesn’t it?

· He came to a world of sinners.

· He called them to repent and believe.

· He promised forgiveness to them.

· He promised to save sinners.

· He claimed a New Covenant of salvation by grace not works.

· He rejected manmade ritual in favor of compassion for the lost.

· He came to do good and save lives, not to save rituals and traditions.

We wonder why anyone would have a problem with that.

YOU WOULDN’T, UNLESS:

· You didn’t want to admit you were a sinner who needed a Savior.

· You were convinced you could save yourself through your own religious works.

· You were convinced you were pleasing to God because of all your rituals.

If that is what you believed then you hated the message of Jesus.

He said paralytics and tax collectors were being saved.

He offered mercy to people who were afflicted by God.

But He denounced the very ceremonies and rituals of the religious elite.

There was no way for them to concede that Jesus was from God

Unless they were willing to turn away from their pride,

Their false religion, and their prejudice.

AND THEY WERE NOT WILLING TO DO THAT.

So they settled on the fact that Jesus power must have come from Satan.

That was the diagnosis.

· His family said He was a lunatic.

· The scribes said He was demon-possessed.

2) THE DEFENSE (23-27)

Jesus makes two main responses

To the ridiculous diagnosis of the scribes.

YOUR ARGUMENT LACKS REASON

That is a nice way of saying that “Your assumption is stupid”.

· It makes no sense.

· It lacks logic and reason.

If what you said were true then Satan is stupid.

He asks, “How can Satan cast out Satan?”

It’s not a question of ability but of motive?

WHY WOULD HE?

FURTHERMORE,

How would his kingdom survive if he went around shooting his own soldiers?

We have read the first 3 chapters and witnessed Jesus on conquest.

He has been at absolute war with Satan and his kingdom.

· He is invading enemy territory

· He is engaging the enemy

· He is overthrowing the enemy

· He is releasing the enemy’s prisoners

· He is driving the enemy completely out of the region

And you think it is Satan who is empowering Him?

THAT’S TOTALLY RIDICULOUS!

· Satan isn’t driving out Satan.

· Satan is getting his tale kicked by Jesus.

(24) “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”

(25) “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”

(26) “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!”

Do you understand the stupidity of their claim?

The only way to win a war is to kill the enemy.

If you start killing your own troops it is impossible to win.

Their argument lacks reason.

But their argument also OVERLOOKS REALITY.

(27) “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.”

Jesus first addresses the stupidity of their diagnosis

And now the blindness of it.

They have clearly failed to observe

That Jesus has been totally dominating the enemy at every turn.

Think about what we read last time:

Mark 3:11 “Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!”

HE WAS TOTALLY DOMINATING THEM.

NOW, I SUPPOSE YOU COULD ARGUE

That this was some sort of ploy on the part of Satan

To convince men that Jesus was God when He wasn’t.

· That the demons were pretending to submit

· And then calling Him the Son of God.

Maybe in that way He could deceive people

Into thinking He was someone He wasn’t.

But I’ll tell you why we know that isn’t the case.

Mark 3:12 “And He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was.”

He wouldn’t let the demons talk.

Jesus was NOT working with demons He was defeating them.

And He was defeating them OVERWHELMINGLY.

Jesus explained it like this:

“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.”

Incidentally, Mark likes that word “plunder”.

He uses it twice, whereas the other gospel writers only use it once.

It is the Greek word: (dee-are-POD-zo)

· It is an intensified form of the word (har-POD-zo)

· The (dia) in the front intensifies it.

(har-POD-zo) means “to carry off by force” or even “to tear in pieces”

Mark uses the intensified form to say that

Jesus was totally destroying the work of Satan.

· He was totally plundering His house.

· He was taking it all.

· He was ravishing Satan’s kingdom.

How can you even begin to think that they are on the same team?

They just aren’t paying attention to reality.

Your diagnosis lacks reason and it overlooks reality.

And that leads us to the third point here by Mark.

(The Diagnosis; The Defense)

3) THE DECLARATION (28-30)

Not only does their diagnosis lack reason and overlook reality.

Their diagnosis also LOSES REDEMPTION

It is a terrifying reality that Jesus shares here.

Men who call the Holy Spirit “an unclean spirit”.

· Men who attribute the power of Jesus to a demon.

Those men are “guilty of an eternal sin”.

WELL, LET’S ASK THE FIRST OBVIOUS QUESTION.

ARE THERE NON-ETERNAL SINS?

· Yes, every other sin is a non-eternal sin.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY THAT?

· We mean that it can be forgiven.

That is what Jesus says in verse 28, “all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter…”

Those are non-eternal sins.

That is to say, they can be forgiven.

THAT IS GOOD NEWS FOR YOU,

Because I promise you that you have sin that you are not even aware of.

That was the premise behind the whole Day of Atonement,

It was for the sins you committed that you weren’t aware of.

And some day, for those of you who are in Christ Jesus,

When you die, there are sins that you have committed

That will not go with you into eternity.

They will have been forgiven through the atonement of Christ

Even though you may not have fully been aware of them

Or may not have fully conquered them.

“all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter;”

Every other thing a man may do or say can be forgiven,

BUT NOT THIS ONE.

“but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”

And then Mark explains what Jesus meant by saying, “because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Well Jesus, (although truly and fully God), was also truly and fully man.

And He was a man empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.

Acts 10:38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

The miracles that Jesus worked on earth, as a man,

Where done in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

· Every healing…

· Every demon cast out…

· Every miraculous work of nature…

Was all done by the power of the Holy Spirit in Him.

Here these scribes said that the power Jesus used was in fact Satan’s

So they, in essence, called the Holy Spirit “an unclean spirit”.

NOW, WHY IS THAT UNFORGIVABLE?

Is the Holy Spirit just touchy and unwilling to put up with it?

· No, that’s not it.

It is all bound up in recognizing

Who Jesus and what He came to do.

Jesus came from God, in the power of God.

· He came to overthrow Satan’s kingdom and usher in God’s kingdom.

· He called for repentance and offered forgiveness to those who did.

· He called for followers and gave freedom to those who did.

· He came to save sinners.

· He came to deliver captives.

If you will concede to that and believe in Christ then you will be saved.

If you will recognize that He is God’s ordained Savior,

Filled with God’s own Holy Spirit.

But, if you will NOT CONCEDE to that.

· If you instead choose to believe that Jesus is not of God, but rather of the devil.

· If you will not recognize that His power is from God.

· If you will not recognize that He has come to save.

· If you will not yield to Him, trust Him, or follow Him.

WELL THAT IS A SIN THAT CANNOT BE FORGIVEN?

WHY?

Because Jesus is the means of forgiveness

And you are rejecting Him.

If I tell you that the way to open a door is to push on it,

But you refuse to concede to that and instead insist on pulling,

Then you will never open the door.

If you won’t believe that Jesus is from God;

That He is empowered by God’s Spirit to save

And baptize you in that same Holy Spirit then there is no salvation.

Let me give you a couple of other passages that speak to this.

Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

That passage is NOT talking about a person losing their salvation.

None of the words used there are used anywhere else in Scripture to speak of salvation.

That passage refers to is a person has received the call of salvation.

· He has been enlightened.

· He has been convicted.

· Jesus has revealed Himself.

· The Holy Spirit has approached and called him.

If that person, after all that enlightenment, refuses to concede

And believe in Christ, then they cannot be saved.

Hebrews 10:26-31 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

There again is a person who has been enlightened.

They received “the knowledge of the truth”, but they rejected it.

· Instead they trampled under foot Jesus.

· Instead they considered His shed blood as unclean.

· Instead they insulted the Spirit of grace.

And again you can’t be forgiven if you reject the only means of salvation.

THAT IS WHAT THESE SCRIBES HAD DONE.

They had seen the clear revelation of who Jesus is.

· He is God’s Son

· Filled with the Holy Spirit

· Here to set the captives free.

And they refused to concede.

· They refused to believe.

· They refused to repent.

· They refused to follow.

AND THAT IS THE POINT.

Followers of Jesus concede who Jesus is.

We will discuss this more next time because we’re out of time,

BUT THIS MORNING LET ME SIMPLY ASK:

Are you willing to concede that Jesus is in fact the Son of God,

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, here to save?

AND IF SO,

· Will you repent and leave Satan’s Kingdom?

· Will you place your faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Savior and King?

· Will you follow Jesus?