The Bible Breakdown: Daily Bible Reading

Mark 03: An Unforgivable Sin

Brandon Cannon Episode 865
Speaker 1:

Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, mark, chapter 3, and today's title is the Unforgivable Sin. The Unforgivable Sin, can I tell you as a pastor. There are a few different verses that I have heard so much. And I get it, I absolutely get it. So there's no shame here, there's no frustration here. It's just I've heard them so much that I just have made blog posts about them and, trying to be as respectful as possible, I'll say hey, listen, why don't you just go to my blog, type this up, because it'll help you, because I don't remember right now, but I want to be helpful. And one of them is a verse we're going to cover today, and that is what is the unforgivable sin, and here's always the thing it's have I committed it? Am I going to hell? And I don't know Right, and if you've never thought that, then please, throughout this chapter, just polish your halo and give the rest of us a break. But for the most of the rest of us, if you've been around the things of God for very long, you've come across this verse and be like, oh snap, am I going to hell now? We're going to cover that in just a few moments. But before we do that, as always, make sure you take a moment like share, subscribe to YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five star on the podcast. It really does help, and I want to tell you, make sure you go to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook, and you can get all of that at thebiblebreakdowncom.

Speaker 1:

I want to tell you though I have been someone's told me this, I did not realize this, but I need your help with something, and that is this If you listen on Apple podcast, then definitely make sure you leave us a five-star review. Make sure you leave us a review. But here's the thing Some of you have told me that you don't listen to Apple podcast. You listen on Spotify. You listen on some I mean just just many different kinds. We have it on Amazon Music now it is on all these different places or you have an app and you can rate it on the app. Whatever you have, if you don't mind, make sure you rate us a five-star review. If you don't want to rate a five-star review, don't rate us. But if you don't mind, because some of these different apps, what happens is when you rate us like that, then it brings it up in their search engines a little bit better and that helps.

Speaker 1:

We're not the only Bible breakdown podcast like title out there. And matter of fact okay, quick story before we get into this very, very quick story that one of the reasons why we call ourself the Bible breakdown podcast is because once upon a time, long time ago, I was listening to a podcast and they were not they called themselves that, but they were not interpreting the Bible correctly, according to a proper biblical interpretation. They were doing great harm to the text and it made me so angry that I was like, okay, well, yeah, I'm going to do what I can to be part of fixing this. And so one of the reasons is because, uh, why we tell you to to make sure to leave us a five-star review is it helps us to get recognized so that we can help people understand the bible more. Okay, all right, we've been with us past couple days.

Speaker 1:

We are going through the gospel of mark, one chapter at a time, and what we have said is the gospel of mark, basically, is the gospel in motion. It's four gospels. The gospel of Mark really shows Jesus in action Forty different times. It uses the word immediately, then it also uses instantly and quickly and it just shows Jesus with the people constantly in motion. And in chapter 1, we just dove into the story, just got going, and what we were telling you beforehand is Mark got all of this from Peter. He was a translator for Peter when Peter was preaching in Rome and you can see this is exactly what Peter would do. He's probably a very high motivated, just this live wire preacher going and then this happened and then this happened and so we call it gospel emotion, because Jesus is always in motion and we're going to see that today in chapter three and he's going to cover one of the most you know, asked about verses in the entire Bible. So let's get there. Let's start with chapter three, verse one, and let's see what God's word says. Here we go.

Speaker 1:

Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, jesus, enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man's hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand come and stand in front of everyone. Then he turned to the critics and said does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath or is it the day of doing evil? Is it the day to save life or to destroy it? But they wouldn't answer him. He looked around at them angrily and he was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man Hold out your hand. So the man held out his hand and it was restored At once.

Speaker 1:

The Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus. Jesus went out to the lake with his disciples and a large crowd followed him. They then called excuse me. They then wait a minute, let me try this again. They came from all over Galilee, judea, jerusalem, edomia and from the east of the Jordan River, even from as far north as Tyre and Sidon. The news about his miracles had spread far and wide and vast numbers of people came to see him. Jesus instructed his disciples to have a boat ready so the crowd would not crush him.

Speaker 1:

Now pause Now. Why do you think he would do that? Throw them down to the ground in front of him, shrieking you're the son of God. But Jesus sternly commanded the spirits not to reveal who he was. Now pause Now. Why do you think he would do that? Remember, he's already told a guy hey, don't yell out to everybody what I'm doing right now. They'll find out soon enough on their own. But instead, when that person did yell out, he had to leave town because there just wasn't enough room. And so what do you think the evil spirits are doing? They're trying to reveal who he was so that they don't know why he's there exactly, but they're trying to out him as quick as possible, and so they think they are actually doing more harm by that. And so Jesus is quietening them because he will share his glory with nobody. So here we go, verse 13.

Speaker 1:

Afterward, jesus went up on a mountain and called out the ones he wanted to go with him, and they came to him. Then he appointed 12 men with them and called them his apostles. They were to accompany him and he would send them out to preach, giving them authority to cast out demons. These are the 12. He chose James and John, sons of Zebedee, but Jesus nicknamed them the sons of thunder. We'll cover why later Andrew, philip, bartholomew, matthew, thomas, james, son of Alphaeus, thaddeus, simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who would later betray him.

Speaker 1:

One time Jesus entered a house and the crowds began to gather again Soon. He and his disciples couldn't even find time to eat. When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away, saying he is out of his mind. But the teachers of religious law who had arrived in Jerusalem said no, he's possessed by Satan, the prince of demons. That's where he gets the power to cast out demons. So Jesus called them over and responded with an illustration. How can Satan cast out Satan, he asked. A kingdom divided by civil war will collapse. Similarly, a family splintered by feuding will fall apart. And if Satan is divided and fights against himself, how can he stand? He would never survive.

Speaker 1:

Let me illustrate it further. Who is powerful enough to enter into a house of a strong man and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger, someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house. I tell you the truth all sin and blasphemy will be forgiven. Here it is verse 29. But anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences. He told them this because they were saying he is possessed of an evil spirit. Verse 31,.

Speaker 1:

When Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, they stood outside and sent word for him to come out and to talk with them. There were crowds sitting around Jesus and someone said your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you. But Jesus replied who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Notice? Just a bunch of stuff happening right here.

Speaker 1:

So, first of all, we have where he is preaching and as he is preaching and as he is doing good, more and more people are getting angry and getting upset because he's not doing it their way. And they're getting worried Because, remember, it was understood from the prophecies of the bible that when the messiah comes, he was going to have spiritual power, power over evil spirits. So it's one thing to do a bunch of healing. It is quite another to start casting out evil spirits, because that is waving a massive flag as to who he is, and so they don't like that at all. And so what the pharisees have to do is they have to try to excuse this, because that's the big flag that says OK, this really is the disciples.

Speaker 1:

But you know how sad it is, for Jesus is on one end, he's got the religious leaders, and nobody knows the Old Testament like they do. So if anybody should recognize who Jesus is, it should be them, and they hate him because he didn't. He's not doing it their way On the other side. You got his family and they don't know what's going on either, but they're saying, hey, he's out of his mind, I don't know what's going on. They didn't recognize who he was either. And so you've got all these people coming against him and Jesus is still doing what he does. I mean, you've got to love Jesus. So if you've ever been absolutely just forsaken by those you love, jesus knows how you feel and you know what he did. He kept moving forward, doing the will of his father. I love that so much.

Speaker 1:

But the other one I want to get to is this question okay, have I committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Now, I wish we were all together in one room, because I would love to say, if you have ever wondered this I want you to raise your hand because would want you to feel better, because most likely, 90 to 95% of us would raise our hand and go yeah, me too. I'll never forget this. Okay, I don't know, it was years ago now, but my sister and I were adults at this point, and one day it just came up in a conversation and both of us just said hey, have you ever thought that maybe you committed that sin and we're going to go to hell. And we were both like, yes, you thought that too. Oh, my goodness. Okay, it wasn't just me, I wasn't just crazy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because here's the thing when we read this, he said if anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, this sin has eternal consequences. And it said, he told them that because they were saying he's possessed of an evil spirit, they were talking negatively about the Holy Spirit. And so therefore, then the thought process comes if you say anything about the Holy Spirit, god's not going to forgive you. That's not what he's trying to say. What he's trying to say is he's trying to say it's not that he is now going to hold a grudge. It is saying if you turn your back on the Holy Spirit, there's nothing else coming. Because what was happening is it's the Holy Spirit that draws us to salvation. He is the one who convicts our heart and pulls us. And so if you resist, resist, resist the Holy Spirit, there's nothing else coming to draw you to God. And so blasphemy is not as much about you making God mad, but it's more of you turning away from God and nothing else is coming. And so I tell people, the people who have truly blasphemed the Holy Spirit are not asking that question. The very fact that you are asking and you are worried and you're concerned about it means that you care about the Holy Spirit and you want the Holy Spirit to draw you close to himself, which means you're not blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1:

Those who are blaspheming are people who are actively turning away, and here's another reason why I know we never want to put theology based on experience. But here's one thing I have listened to testimonies of people who said I was in dark evil Wiccan or satanic worship and all this kind of stuff and we did everything we could to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, almost like to completely make it so that we could never go and be with God, which is stupid to me. But it's what they would do. But then they would say but then later I would begin to feel the tug of the Holy Spirit, but instead of turning away from the Holy Spirit, I would turn toward him. And so it is.

Speaker 1:

Once again, it is less about you making a statement and now God writes you off. That's not who God is but it's rather about you so turning your heart away from God, that you have turned away from the Holy Spirit and there is no salvation for someone who's like that, because there's nothing else coming. The Holy Spirit is the one who draws and so if you turn away from the Holy Spirit and you're looking in another direction, nothing else is going to draw you. So I want to say that to you as we end our time together, to say the unforgivable sin is only committed by those who are trying to actively push away the Holy Spirit. So be like this If you are worried that you have committed the unpardonable sin and that God will not forgive you, then I can assure you, by the very fact that you're worried about it, you haven't done it. And even then, if you know someone because here's the other one if you know someone who you think they probably have turned away from God like that, can I tell you what I have heard of testimonies is no matter how much they turn away from God and how much they say they don't want him, then as long as they are turned away, yes, that's all that's coming is the Holy Spirit. But as soon as they lessen up, the Holy Spirit is never going to stop.

Speaker 1:

The Holy Spirit does not write you off. Can I say that? What can you do? You can grieve the Holy Spirit, but what can you do to make him where? He will stop loving you, where he will stop? Think about Jesus. Left eternity, stepped into time, was born in a humbling way for God, the king of the universe, born into this life, took on flesh the way we did, lived 33 years experiencing all the same temptations, yet falling to none of them, was brutally beaten, died on the cross, rose up from the dead on three days. He did that. You think he's worried about a couple of words you said a long time ago when you were angry. You think he can't forgive you of that? Think about it. What would the king not do to reach you? I promise you you're closer to the kingdom of heaven than you realize. Let's pray together right now.

Speaker 1:

God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that the enemy wants to lie to us. He wants to sell us a bill of goods. He wants to tell us that you can't love us. But you have proven a thousand times over that you cannot be defeated. I love you so much, I'm so thankful for you, and my prayer is Holy Spirit, that you will open our eyes to see just a glimpse of your glory, just a glimpse of your goodness, because I think of just a glimpse, and we will never stop sharing your word with others, knowing you and making you known. In Jesus' name. We pray amen. Amen, god's word says in Mark 8, verse 34,. It says if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. I love you, I'll see you tomorrow. From Mark, chapter four.

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