Hardness of Hearts
It is hard to accept that we are constantly being watched. In this day and age, the number of watchers is even higher than it was when I was a kid. People are using credit cards for everything. Everything we buy or sell is tracked. Everything we look at on the Internet is analyzed to the greatest extent possible. Increasingly, our locations are tracked by where our cell phones go, what license plate readers record, what public and private cameras record. Telephone point to point tracking and more has been a thing for a long time. Certain companies are really pushing for all your mail and files to be uploaded to their clouds so they can see everything you are doing for advertising. If you try to protect yourself with encryption, governments are trying to force companies to back door the encryption so they can see everything anyway.
If the recording of our lives wasn't bad enough, if you're a Christian, there will always be those waiting for you to fail and hoping you will. If people aren't, then Satan is. For what it's worth, even the most invasive tracking by corporation and government entities today doesn't come close to what God has been routinely doing since the fall of man. He even correctly understands our thought life.
I'd like to say that Christians never fail, make wrong decisions, do the wrong thing, sin, hurt feelings, or act like hypocrites. But that would be a lie. Christians are human, and we do all those things and more. We should be on a path to righteousness that God would approve of, and not self righteousness. But some days in some circumstances, that "Be ye perfect" verse can seem so far away (Matthew 5:48). But it was important enough to Christ to include it in the Sermon on the Mount which is one of his greatest uninterrupted sermons of Jesus that the Holy Spirit helped preserve.
We need to make that our goal every day and ask for God's help, get a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, and do the best we can to live right. And if we fail, ask God for forgiveness, and also ask any people we've failed for forgiveness. Giving us their forgiveness is up to them. We can't force it. But if they are Christian, God does strongly suggest forgiveness be given. And God would probably go farther to say we should forget and cast the mistake as far away as the East is from the West. That's what He does when we ask Him to forgive us.
But if it's any comfort, know that Christ was watched for mistakes probably more thoroughly than we are. Maybe if you're some great evangelist you might be under close scrutiny. But most of us won't experience the intense life examination that Christ had. In this case, described in Mark 3:1-6, Christ had entered into the synagogue and encountered a man with a withered hand on the sabbath day. The watchers were waiting, wanting to accuse Him of breaking the law by working on the sabbath. Now we understand that God was doing the work through Him. So, I'm not sure if they really had a clue that they were really accusing God of working on the sabbath. But that's what they were, in fact, doing. God still does a lot of work on the sabbath. Praise God for that.
Christ ordered the man to stand up and come forward where everyone could see. He then confronted all those religious folks who were waiting and watching Him to accuse Him of sin and asked them directly if it lawful to do good on the sabbath? To do good or evil? to save life or to kill? And it got very quiet.
This is one example of Christ getting really angry. What was He angry at? Was He angry that they were trying to trap Him? The scripture says He was grieved because they had hard hearts. He simply asked the man to stretch forth his hand and it became whole like his other hand. The Pharisees left and met up with the Herodians in trying to find a way to destroy them. They realized that they were not like Moses and had no power from God like Jesus was displaying. They knew the people would be attracted to Jesus and not them. And they were used to being the bigwigs in the country.
Darkness hates the light. Evil hates the good. It has always been so. And you can be sure that Christ knew He was going to cause offense by doing what He did. He knew their hearts. The Holy Spirit may not have let Him know the extent their hatred would take at that instant. But I truly believe that Jesus knew there would be a price to be paid if He healed the man. But He did it anyway, because that was what the Father wanted to do.
It might seem like a few of the things I comment on on the sites I run are out of line or unnecessarily written to stir up controversy and anger on the part of someone. I do occasionally make waves, say things I know some Christians aren't going to want to hear, say things I know some people of some particular political persuasions aren't going to like, speak out against what I believe to be false religions, and more. And, someday, I'll find out what God has thought of the time I've spent on Earth, what I've said, done, and written.
The thing about these pages is that they attract few visitors. I don't advertise. I haven't done any real linking since I started years and years ago. I'm not selling anything, so most search engines aren't interested. And that's okay. I don't do any search engine posturing. I rely on God to send people my way that He feels need to read something I've written. If nobody but a bot records the page, that's fine. If only one or two people read it, that's fine. If it is a herd, well, that is a bit more nerve wracking, but I assume God will work it out. It's my job to write and the Holy Spirit's job to direct and challenge hearts by what people read.
There are also times on social media sites when I am led to post something that I know is going to make lots of people in the discussion thread mad. It's going to go against the norm of non-Christians, and they're going to rebel and cut me down in comments. There's a reason I don't have comments turned on on any of these sites. But when God lays something on your heart to speak, you need to speak it. When He lays something on your heart to do, you need to do it.
Let the chips fall where they may. Just like Jesus did that day. This man's life was made drastically better. Having two functioning hands is obviously better in any time in history, but especially the further back in time you look. And Jesus had compassion on the man and stood up in the face of adversity and did what God via the Holy Spirit told Him to do. Being confrontational all the time just to stir up trouble isn't good. But if God tells you to be confrontational, do so.
The time may well be short before the rapture happens. We all need to be full of the Holy Spirit and learn to hear His direction for our lives. Once the rapture happens and the world moves into the tribulation period, many persons who were playing with Christianity and realize what they've missed will turn fully to God and seek forgiveness. For them, every second of their lives will be confrontational. Every time they witness for Christ will be fraught with peril.
The anti-Christ will be in charge of some or all of the world and will be actively trying to kill them and get everyone to follow him. Everyone who stands for Christ will be in the same shoes Christ was in in this story. There are some places in the world where this is true even today. The number of martyrs for the sake of Christianity is huge and growing.
Because of Jesus following the direction of His Father, great things happened. Mark 3:7-11 talks about some more of what the people who followed Jesus were seeing. He and His disciples left by sea, and a great multitude followed Him, because that's what happens when God shows up. It gets people's attention. These pages might help someone, someday, and I hope that something I say will matter to someone and they will be saved or live lives closer to the life God wants them to live because of something they have read here. But none of these words will mean much if people don't understand that God really exists. And we need to be people God can use, baptized in the Holy Spirit, with power to witness and do miraculous things in His name and for His glory to get people's attention.
People came from all over the surrounding area to see what was happening when they heard of God's works through Jesus. He had to get an escape route by boat arranged because He was besieged by the people. He healed many and there were many more who were trying to just touch Him to be healed. Unclean spirits fell down and declared who He was, even though Jesus charged them to not make Him known.
I can't imagine what it would be like if Christ had just arrived to start His ministry in this day and age instead of a couple of millennia ago. If you think paparazzi are bad with celebrities now, can you imagine what it would be like today? People would be traveling from all corners of Israel to reach Christ to get their needs met. And with modern transportation, they could do it quickly. They wouldn't have to walk. But more than that, people would be coming from around the world. There would be no peace on earth for Him if He had showed up today, operating essentially alone.
That's the basic reason that the Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts 2 on the church. God's plan was for it to continue to fill His church throughout all time. He wanted all Christians, I think, but at least many who were trustworthy in each church to be filled with the Spirit so that they could continue the works that Jesus did. He needed people everywhere to carry out His work, because God knew that in the ages to come it would be impossible for just a handful of people to survive the crush of needs that would be present.
So if you're in a denomination that believes that the Holy Spirit baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit were just for the early church, catch up! You've been missing out on the most important tool God gave His church to witness. Seek the close walk that only the Holy Spirit can give. And if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, start witnessing in earnest. It's why the Holy Spirit was given. It's great to be able to pray to God in a prayer language that only God understands. You're sure you're praying in God's will if you give your tongue over to Him to direct. But don't neglect the work that God has for you to do, either. Seek to become the next Peter, and stay humble if God puts you in that position. Make a difference in your world.
The Ordination of the Twelve
There are only a few comments about Mark 3:13-19 where Jesus picks His 12 disciples. First, the Holy Spirit guided the choice. Jesus picked twelve who had demonstrated dedication and service, who would be given the commission to preach, heal sickness in those they met, and to cast out devils. Implicit in this is the ability through the Holy Spirit to know when someone was demon possessed and not just an awful person by their own nature. There is a difference.
Mark provides the list, and it includes Judas Iscariot. Why would the Holy Spirit allow Christ to pick Him? It's a question for which I've often wished to know the answer. I do believe that regardless of the decisions that Judas made, Christ was still going to end up on the cross by the hands of the Jews and the Romans. There was no way around that based on prophecy in the Old Testament. The Passover, the scapegoat and whole sacrificial system of the Jewish religion, the bronze serpent, and of course prophecies in Isaiah point to that. It was destined.
I think the answer boils down to this. God gave us free will. It's the whole reason that Adam and Eve sinned in the first place. But it was their free will to do so. Judas had that same free will. It was His choice to take offense at whatever things it was in Jesus Christ's life and works that caused Him to turn to some form of sin. Envy? Lust for riches or power? Jealousy? Thinking Judas knew what was best? I don't know which of the many possibilities pushed Judas over the edge. But I do know that it was his free will that caused him to betray Christ. He wasn't forced to do so.
It's our free will that allows wars to go on in our minds with our conscience or the Holy Spirit's prompting to do the right thing. Every human ever created or born has faced that same decision. Do we accept obedience to God or do we give in to ourselves and our own lusts. Hopefully, as Christians live out their lives and draw closer to God, doing the right thing becomes easier and becomes second nature to us. But the story of Judas is a warning that we must fight the battle all the way to the end. We can never give up the battle. We can never become lax in the fight.
If Judas, who was with Christ in His ministry, could fail, then we certainly can as well. Judas saw the works that Jesus did, heard His teaching, watched how He interacted with everyone, and still fell away from God. The Bible doesn't record how much time the disciples spent apart when they were out preaching, so Judas may not have experienced all of the recorded events himself, but he would have seen and certainly heard about the majority of them. If that wasn't enough to see Jesus as the Messiah and know that he was selling the Messiah's identification to the Jewish leaders with a kiss for money, literally going up against God, then all of us need to be cautious in our walk and be as full of the Holy Spirit as we can be.
There's only one chance when the rapture happens. Even if it doesn't happen in all of our lifetimes who are reading this, we could die from unexpected medical reasons, accidents, or violence at any time. You have to live every minute like it could be your last minute on earth. That doesn't mean you're condemned to a dark, gloomy life. Think of how great it would have been to live the life of one of the disciples. Most of their ends weren't so great, so there's that. And some had some beatings and prison times to deal with. So there's that also.
But the disciples got to witness Christ working on Earth, and that outweighed all the bad. Even Paul who joined up later didn't have any regrets when it came time for him to die, save possibly that he couldn't have done more in the time he had. We need more of that attitude today in all Christians. And we all face that. There's lots of distractions that come along to keep me from writing the next chapter of commentary or editing the chapters I've written. Choosing God and His work is tough for everyone.
Spiritual Battles
After the twelve were picked, they came back to a house and were again swamped with visitors (Mark 3:19-30). His friends heard what was going on. These might well have been people who knew Jesus before the start of His ministry. The scribes who came down from Jerusalem had evidently been spreading the word that Jesus was demon possessed. That was their only idea about how Jesus could be doing these things. When his friends came and saw what was going on, they thought Jesus was insane or possibly demon possessed hearing what the religious leaders were saying.
This was an issue that Christ had to address, so he called the scribes forward and made it clear that if Satan was the one who was ending suffering and casting out his own demons from individuals, then Satan would be working at cross purposes and his kingdom would be destroyed.
Don't discount the argument the scribes were raising. You'll hear the same argument presented today in one form or another discounting the reality of healing or miracles. There are many social forums you can visit where if the subject comes up and you say you have seen it for yourself, you will be beaten back with all sorts of arguments. That doesn't mean that we should stop presenting the truth that we know to people. If even one who reads what we post starts wondering in their heart that maybe Christianity is real, that's a win for the kingdom of God. I know that in most forums the odds are against it, and you need to be careful in your posts to not be confrontational. Just say what happened to you or what you witnessed. They will attack what you saw or witnessed, but in the end, it is your history to tell.
This section ends with a warning to not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who draws you to God in the first place. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If you cut off that thread from your life by speaking against Holy Spirit, there isn't any other way for you to come back to God. It isn't impossible to fix the breach, but it will take much more work to ever return to God once you have rejected or cursed the Holy Spirit. And you may never get back to whatever level you were at when you backslid.
Hindrances
Finally, in Mark 3:31-35 the chapter ends with Jesus family coming to see Him. His half brothers and mother show up and the people point them out. Christ makes the declaration that the people He had chosen to be His disciples, along with others there who had chosen Him were his near relatives - brothers and mother, as opposed to Jesus actual relation.
Choosing to follow God can have a price. It is wonderful to have two Christian parents. Most, today, are not so lucky. Maybe if you go back in the past genealogy you'll find a pair who were Christian. But it is a fight for each generation, and Christian parents are losing the battle around the world where their kids are concerned. Likewise, even Christian kids are making their lives and their children's lives harder eternally by not choosing a Christian husband or wife. It is not for nothing that Paul warned to not be unequally yoked (2 Corinthians 6:14).
When a person from a non-believing family is saved, then frequently they are set apart from the family. This goes both ways. They may not want to be involved in the sort of activities that the family enjoyed anymore. The family might not want them around because they aren't fun to be around anymore. But regardless, in many cases choosing Christ means what you had before is strained or broken.
We need to lift each other up as new brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes, we may be all that person has to keep them going as all the old familial relationships and friends have abandoned them. Regardless, let us be dedicated in caring for one another just as tightly as a family should. We're all brothers and sisters in Christ.