1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 Lord God, we come before You, 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,000 and we know that in many ways 3 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:10,000 there are things that day after day, 4 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:11,000 week after week, 5 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,000 we know we still struggle with Lord. 6 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Lord God, as we hear Your Word, 7 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,000 may we be convicted but also consoled. 8 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,000 May we be drawn to repent 9 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:26,000 and then drawn into grace. 10 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Lord God, help us to see 11 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,000 our need for Your mercy 12 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,000 and to believe it is truly ours. 13 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,000 Lord God, we thank You for who You are, 14 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,000 a God of grace and a God of peace. 15 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:45,000 In Jesus Christ. Amen. 16 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000 Howdy. 17 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,000 Well, I want to tell you all 18 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,000 a little something today. 19 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,000 And this is something that I have to explain 20 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000 a little bit based off of a trick-or-treating incident 21 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000 from about two years ago. 22 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,000 You see, I've been trying to work on 23 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000 different outfits and costumes 24 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:08,000 that I have for different occasions, 25 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,000 but this one Halloween, 26 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,000 I just did not have anything worthwhile. 27 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,000 So, in my creativity, 28 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,000 I put on a polo shirt, 29 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:19,000 a pair of khakis, 30 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,000 and sat down with a textbook in front of me. 31 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:23,000 And the children, as they came up for candy, 32 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,000 they said, 33 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,000 what in the world are you dressed up as? 34 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,000 And I said, I am dressed up 35 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:31,000 as the scariest creature you will come across. 36 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:35,000 I am dressed up as a math teacher. 37 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:41,000 The best part was that the kids 38 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,000 decided that they were going to test me 39 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,000 and started throwing out math problems. 40 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,000 Except they're little kids. 41 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,000 They don't have complicated math problems to send out. 42 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:53,000 And so I could answer the ones that they gave me 43 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,000 in my head, 44 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,000 and the boy types out it on this calculator, 45 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,000 on his phone, looks at me and says, 46 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:03,000 Evil! And runs away! 47 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,000 And in many ways, 48 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,000 that is the life of the math teacher. 49 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000 I did get to teach math for six years, 50 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000 but one of the things that always stood out to me 51 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:18,000 was this whole conflict of the horrors of new math. 52 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,000 And one of the things that would come up 53 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,000 is I saw Incredibles 2, 54 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:27,000 and that part where Mr. Incredible is sitting with his son, 55 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,000 and he's pouring over the book, 56 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,000 and all he's saying is, how could they change math? 57 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,000 Why did they change math? 58 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,000 Over and over and over again. 59 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,000 And to realize that in many ways, 60 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000 this was a fight and a battle 61 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,000 that I had to face as a teacher. 62 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:46,000 You see, in reality, 63 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:49,000 as much as there is the mockery of new math, 64 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,000 is that as a math teacher, 65 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,000 I actually understood what the point was. 66 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,000 See, the way that we would do math in previous times 67 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:02,000 was making sure that we were employable. 68 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:07,000 We had the skills needed to have jobs in the U.S. 69 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000 And we made sure that we could get things done 70 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:13,000 in order to have employment. 71 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,000 But the idea was realizing that the youth of the U.S. 72 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:22,000 were struggling with areas of abstract reasoning, 73 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,000 critical thinking, and problem solving. 74 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:29,000 And so the idea was how to make sense of problems 75 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,000 and how to help young people persevere 76 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,000 when they're trying to solve them. 77 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,000 And so with all of this, though, 78 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,000 and I would try to explain it, 79 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,000 but what's the easiest response to that? 80 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,000 Find ways to make fun of it 81 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,000 because we just don't understand it. 82 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:54,000 And in reality, I have now committed the unforgivable sin 83 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:00,000 in that I have now discussed math during a sermon. 84 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,000 Yeah, that's the original Greek, right? 85 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:06,000 Thou shalt not discuss math during the sermon, I'm sure. 86 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,000 But you see, when someone does not understand what you're doing, 87 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:16,000 or they may know that they can't do the same thing themselves, 88 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:24,000 it's easier to label them as insane, stupid, or even evil. 89 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,000 And you see, that's the thing about this, 90 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,000 is that we see in our Scripture today, 91 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:34,000 Jesus' family coming to Him and being dismissive, 92 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:38,000 like just kind of belittling what it is that He's doing. 93 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,000 Or even more than that, the fact that they were wondering 94 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,000 if maybe Jesus might have gone insane. 95 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:51,000 And the scribes, the ones who were like the lawyers of the day, 96 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:56,000 these were the ones who were over there saying that He was evil. 97 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,000 But what was Jesus even doing? 98 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:03,000 What was Jesus actually doing? 99 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,000 Earlier in the chapter, we hear that Jesus is healing the sick, 100 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:13,000 casting out demons, proclaiming forgiveness to those with faith, 101 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:19,000 and showing a new way of following God with hope and life. 102 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,000 See, the issue here is not actually with Jesus. 103 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:28,000 The issue is that His work went beyond what His family was comfortable 104 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,000 with a member of their community doing, 105 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:35,000 and beyond what the religious leaders were comfortable with 106 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,000 in their context and communities. 107 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,000 Imagine in our Lutheran context, 108 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:48,000 if something miraculous were to happen here that we couldn't explain. 109 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:53,000 Or imagine that we end up with too many emotions. 110 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:57,000 What if I were to break down in the middle of worship service? 111 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:02,000 What if you were to truly feel a conviction? 112 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:06,000 How difficult would that be for you 113 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:13,000 if you were to see something that you're not used to and not comfortable with? 114 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:19,000 You see, this is a situation we find with Jesus and the scribes. 115 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:23,000 See, the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, 116 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,000 Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the Prince of Demons, 117 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:31,000 He casts out the demons. 118 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:34,000 And Jesus called them to Him and said to them in parables, 119 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:38,000 how can Satan cast out Satan? 120 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:39,000 Here's another one. 121 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:43,000 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 122 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:44,000 He's going to reiterate it. 123 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000 If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 124 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,000 And just to be clear, if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, 125 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,000 he cannot stand but is coming to an end. 126 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:04,000 No one can enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman. 127 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,000 Then indeed, he may plunder his house. 128 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:12,000 Can Satan fight himself? 129 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:17,000 And that was what we were really actually dealing with at this moment. 130 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:22,000 Is that they were saying, oh, these things where you are destroying Satan's kingdom, 131 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:29,000 oh, clearly you are doing it by the power of Satan, makes absolutely no sense. 132 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:36,000 You can't hope to win when you spend the whole time undermining yourself. 133 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:42,000 And the thing is that if Satan were casting out evil or doing God's works, 134 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:44,000 then it would make no sense. 135 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:48,000 Or it could even be a good thing if it were even true. 136 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:55,000 If Satan really were messing up that badly, wouldn't that be great? 137 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:58,000 You see, you must bind Satan. 138 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:03,000 You have to overcome Satan to have dominion over him. 139 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,000 Not serving him. 140 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:11,000 But in reality, don't we do this a lot? 141 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:15,000 Whenever something doesn't fit the mold of what we're hoping for, 142 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:23,000 isn't it evil to dismiss it, to ridicule it, to call it evil or wrong? 143 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:28,000 Because somehow we don't get it or we don't understand. 144 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:33,000 But even more than this is that then we get to something that is deeper. 145 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:38,000 The unforgivable sin. 146 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:42,000 I actually hadn't even heard this term until I went off to college. 147 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:46,000 I think my old church just never wanted to preach on this. 148 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:52,000 What in the world could possibly be meant by an unforgivable sin? 149 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:58,000 It's like, did you forget to put the cards back in the pew when you were done? 150 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:01,000 Did you not clean up after yourself at home? 151 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:03,000 Did you say the wrong thing to your mom? 152 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,000 What in the world is the unforgivable sin? 153 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:10,000 Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven, the children of man. 154 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,000 And whatever blasphemies they utter. 155 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:19,000 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness. 156 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,000 But is guilty of an eternal sin. 157 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:26,000 For they were saying he has an unclean spirit. 158 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:30,000 So what does this mean? 159 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,000 Wouldn't it have been a whole lot easier if Jesus would have just said, 160 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:39,000 no one is forgiven for blaspheming God? 161 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:43,000 That's a nice straightforward thing to say. 162 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,000 And we know you shouldn't blaspheme God. 163 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:52,000 You shouldn't be doing or saying anything against God. 164 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:59,000 But Jesus is speaking as someone doing work by God's Spirit. 165 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:04,000 And He's being told that that Spirit is unclean. 166 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:09,000 And what He's trying to do is respond to the context. 167 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:13,000 Because Jesus is pointing out in this context, 168 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:22,000 do not reject what He is doing when the scribes were missing the point of what He was doing. 169 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,000 Let me try to put it a little bit differently. 170 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:30,000 When we tell people not to blaspheme God, 171 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,000 like don't go against God and what He wants and everything else, 172 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:39,000 we can come up with any number of issues that are blasphemy against God. 173 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:43,000 It is not hard to come up with things that God finds offensive. 174 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:48,000 Worshipping other gods, probably a good idea not to do that. 175 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:50,000 Murder? 176 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,000 I mean, Monday mornings it gets a little touch and go sometimes. 177 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:57,000 But, assuming you can get your initial cup of coffee, 178 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:01,000 probably not something God is pleased with. 179 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:03,000 Assaulting one another? 180 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,000 Sexual immorality? 181 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:06,000 It's all around us. 182 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:08,000 Many different ways. 183 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,000 Laziness itself? 184 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:15,000 There are many things that we can point at and say those are blasphemies against God. 185 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:22,000 But at the same time, we know that God is loving and merciful, 186 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:29,000 slow to anger, and abounding instead fast love. 187 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:36,000 So, these things are sins, but they're not necessarily unforgivable. 188 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:40,000 So, there's got to be something deeper here. 189 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:49,000 What about though, pride, condemnation, lack of self-awareness? 190 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:52,000 What about making excuses for our choices? 191 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:57,000 What if we look at all the things that we learned from Jesus, 192 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:01,000 where Jesus wants us to see our sinfulness. 193 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,000 Jesus wants us to lose the pride. 194 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:09,000 Jesus wants us to stop condemning one another and bring us to God 195 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,000 and to stop making excuses for our choices. 196 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:18,000 Blasphemy against Jesus, who He is, the example that He let. 197 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:23,000 It's sometimes less obvious than don't murder people and don't worship idols. 198 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,000 But it's just as deadly to our spiritual lives. 199 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:30,000 Is that really what the point is? 200 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:34,000 But you see, it goes just a little bit deeper. 201 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:44,000 Is that the biggest thing that would happen is that these scribes would deny who Jesus is 202 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:48,000 and His purpose on this earth. 203 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:54,000 See, those scribes denied that Jesus is the Son of God. 204 00:12:54,000 --> 00:13:01,000 That Spirit that was empowering Jesus and speaking through, 205 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:04,000 they were rejecting that Spirit. 206 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:08,000 And they were going to reject not only that He's the Son of God, 207 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:13,000 but also that He took upon Himself the sins of the world. 208 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:18,000 This is what Jesus was condemning as unforgivable. 209 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:23,000 Denying the Spirit that affirmed Jesus. 210 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:29,000 Denying the Spirit that affirmed that Jesus is here to bring people to repentance. 211 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:37,000 Followed by bringing salvation through His life, death, and resurrection. 212 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:42,000 This was what we were looking at. 213 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:49,000 But is this really all that we're meant to consider today? 214 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:53,000 It is really the only thing that we needed to get out of this passage. 215 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:59,000 It's the only thing that mattered just to say believe in Jesus 216 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:03,000 because His Spirit is convicting you. 217 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:05,000 Believe in what Jesus has done. 218 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:08,000 Is that really the only point of this? 219 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:15,000 But you see, the math teacher has to challenge you just a little bit more. 220 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:21,000 You see, whenever I taught math, it was always tempting just to give the students 221 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:25,000 problems in the book that I knew they could do. 222 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,000 That was always the temptation. Here's the easy ones. 223 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,000 And then that way they'd have good scores and I'd feel good about myself 224 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,000 and they could go to the next grade and the teacher would be, 225 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:37,000 oh, they can do all the problems. That's really, really awesome. 226 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:42,000 But the problem was that I taught sixth grade math 227 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:45,000 and I taught twelfth grade math. 228 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:51,000 And having taught them calculus, what I knew was that they had had a teacher 229 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:54,000 who would just give them assignments and say, 230 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:59,000 solve the problems and then move on. 231 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:04,000 There was not the chance of saying, let me challenge how you think. 232 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:08,000 Let me ask you to solve something beyond what you're ready for. 233 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:12,000 Let me actually help you to process this. 234 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:17,000 And then I would see those students that I had either taught physics or calculus 235 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:25,000 or both to try to go to college to be engineers or architects and quit 236 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:30,000 because they couldn't problem solve or think critically. 237 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:35,000 And as much as I knew that those students, those sixth graders, 238 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:38,000 were going to fail some of these problems I would give them. 239 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:42,000 Don't worry, I didn't ruin their grades because of it. 240 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:45,000 But I would give them the challenge. 241 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:49,000 What was more surprising than the fact that they would struggle 242 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:53,000 was also the fact that they grew. 243 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:58,000 And the most surprising was when these kids who had no idea what they were doing 244 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:04,000 and a few of them would start to get it and then help the rest of them 245 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:09,000 and then more and more of those students that I've seen graduate over the years 246 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:14,000 are in math and science classes later on. 247 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:19,000 So here's the challenge to you. 248 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:24,000 Is that repeatedly rejecting what the Holy Spirit is saying, 249 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:30,000 whenever the Spirit is convicting us when we know something is wrong, 250 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,000 is not something to ignore. 251 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:39,000 Because as God is speaking to you by His Spirit, we're meant to listen. 252 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:46,000 And if all we do is continually silence what God is saying, 253 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:49,000 if we just keep shutting ourselves off to it, 254 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:53,000 not only are we rejecting that we are sinners, 255 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:57,000 not only are we rejecting our need for forgiveness, 256 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:02,000 but we're rejecting the God who wants us to grow. 257 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:08,000 In a future sermon, we are going to have to discuss the teaching of once saved, always saved. 258 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:16,000 But for today, what I need you to understand is that this is not just for the un-Christians in the world. 259 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:19,000 This is for you. 260 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:23,000 Even when we know that things are difficult, 261 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:28,000 we are still meant to listen to what the Spirit is saying to us. 262 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:36,000 So is there something that is unable to be forgiven by God? 263 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:41,000 Not the way that you're concerned about. 264 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:46,000 You are sinful, and so am I. 265 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,000 We need forgiveness. 266 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:54,000 And if we believe that Jesus has brought us the salvation that we need, 267 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:59,000 including all of us, then nothing separates us from that forgiveness. 268 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:03,000 That is what the Holy Spirit has said. 269 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:07,000 And that is what we are meant to embrace. 270 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:12,000 And now, knowing that we are forgiven, 271 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:18,000 we are called by God to listen to His Spirit and to follow His Son. 272 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:22,000 So repent and listen. 273 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:28,000 Even when you fail, because there is no sin that's unforgivable 274 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:32,000 when we believe we need forgiveness, 275 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:36,000 and that Jesus is the one who gives it to us freely. 276 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:40,000 Repent and believe. 277 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:44,000 This is the Gospel. 278 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,000 Thanks be to God.