EmmDev 2025-04-04 [Moments with Mark] Powerful Seed...

Powerful Seed...

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around Him was so large that He got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in His teaching said: "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times." (Mark4:1-8)

Although we know this parable so well, the thing that people don't always notice is how powerful the seed is.

When it lands in good soil, it produces a harvest: thirty, sixty, even a hundred times what was sown. Imagine for a moment that the farmer sows equally, perhaps even generously on all types of soil. (He's probably wise enough to aim more at the good soil, but let's keep it simple.) Say one seed falls on each kind of soil: three get eaten by birds, scorched by the sun, or choked by thorns. But the one that lands in good soil produces at least thirty, possibly up to a hundredfold. So for every four seeds sown, you still get a yield of thirty to a hundred. Those are good odds!

So the good news is that the gospel is powerful and transformative.
We need to believe that it can change lives and maybe we need to be more generous about spreading it.
In this parable the farmer is generous - throwing the seed widely. Who knows, we could be surprised where it does grow!

We have a beautiful and amazing message: We are created and loved by a God who sent His Son who conquered sin, death and Satan for us. He sends His Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we can be transformed from the inside out and be part of God's life-changing and life-giving kingdom.

Maybe we need to take more risks: sharing our faith gently, easily, widely and naturally like the farmer does. He doesn't stress about what people might say about his technique and his knowledge about farming. He just trusts the seed.

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EmmDev 2025-04-03 [Moments with Mark] Unforgivable Sin

Unforgivable Sin

"But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit." (Mark3:29-30)

Many people are worried that they have committed the unforgivable sin.

To understand what this is all about, we need to remember that one of the main activities of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to the place where we can recognise Christ as Lord. The Spirit is always drawing us closer to Jesus. He wants us to recognise Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

Jesus talks about "blasphemy against the Spirit" in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In each case He is confronting the hard-hearted Pharisees and Saducees who persistently refuse to recognise who Jesus is:
- In Matthew they argue that Jesus does His miracles by demonic power
- In Mark they say that Jesus has an evil spirit
- In Luke the context is God's provision on the one hand and disowning Christ on the other and Luke puts it into the context of the final judgment.

So "blasphemy against the Spirit" is to reject His "core business" which is to help us recognise Jesus for who He is.

Theologians agree that this is a process and not an event. We don't commit blasphemy against the Spirit by accident or as a once-off. This is something that is a stubborn hard-heartedness and we don't care about it. To "blaspheme against the Spirit" is to stubbornly resist the "seed-planting" work of the Holy Spirit to the end of our lives or to the point that our hearts are so hard that we will never change.

The point: If we are resisting the working of the Spirit, then we won't care whether this is forgivable or not. And so I say to folk: "If you're worried that you have committed unforgivable blasphemy against the Spirit, then you haven't!"

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EmmDev 2025-04-02 [Moments with Mark] When the Religious Leaders can't see...

When the Religious Leaders can't see...

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons." So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit." (Mark3:22-30)

Between the verses about Jesus' family departing and then arriving to "take charge of Him" come our verses for today...

They have also travelled, coming 160km from Jerusalem to confront Jesus.
It is a bitter pill.
They should have recognised that He was the fulfillment of prophecy.
They should have been struck by the wisdom of His teachings.
They should have realised the significance of His healings and exorcisms
They should have been amazed at His miracles.

Instead they come with the childish tactic of attributing His power to demons.
Today people still "demonise" those they are threatened by or don't agree with.
"They're evil - I just know it!"

Jesus calmly and with almost childlike simplicity explains the foolishness of their argument.

• Why and how would Satan drive out Satan?
• Why come all the way from Jerusalem if your enemy is busy fighting himself?
  Why not just stand back and watch the divided house fall?
  Because, if Jesus is indeed Satan's lackey, then the lackey by healing and driving out demons is destroying Satan's work!
• And when it comes to demon possession, only someone stronger than the demonic forces can do that!

And so Jesus clearly shows up the foolishness of their argument.
But this is foolish to the point that it is downright insulting.
It is blasphemous because it does not recognise the true power at work - the Power of the Holy Spirit.

This is dangerous behaviour, dangerous enough for Jesus to warn about an unforgivable sin - and we'll dig into this tomorrow...

For today, let's consider the heartache of rejection Jesus experienced, both from his family and the religious people who should have been the first to recognise Him.

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EmmDev 2025-04-01 [Moments with Mark] When family don't understand

When family don't understand

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." ... 31 Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you." 33 "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark3:20-34)

In the closing of the section about choosing disciples, Mark writes "and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him."

This seems to trigger a line of thought about betrayal that Mark continues to the end of ch.3.

The first of the betrayals is difficult. Jesus is followed by the crowds to the point that it is even difficult for them to eat. Jesus' family in Nazareth hear of this and they set off to "come and take charge of Him" because, according to them, "He is out of His mind."
They will travel 30km from Nazareth to Capernaum - probably a two day journey on foot.

Then, for effect, while they are ostensibly traveling, Mark then segues to the resistance Jesus experiences from the teachers of the law. This "fills the gap" while the family are traveling. In verse 31 Jesus' mother and brothers arrive. They're figuratively holding the "restraining jacket" with a place booked at the local mental institution. They're here to "take charge" because things have gotten out of hand.

This is one of the reasons I love the Bible. It doesn't sanitise its characters. We're told the truth about each character, the good, the bad and the ugly. Mary, revered and elevated by some traditions, gets it wrong here. She does not understand her Son's mission and she thinks He's "out of his mind."

For Jesus, this is a tough moment. The teachers of the Law (who should recognise Him) have rejected Him. His family of origin who know about Bethlehem, shepherds, wise man and all the wonder of His birth, have succumbed to the sharp tongue of gossip and scandal and don't recognise Him either.

This still happens to people today and Jesus warns about it in Mark 13. Families can get divided over faith in Christ.

But there is another family - the family of faith.
This family of faith will accompany Jesus in His journey, but even they will abandon Him in Gethsemane.

Jesus ultimately walks this road alone, but brings them all back to Himself.
After His resurrection He appears to His disciples and to His brother James.
He rebuilds the bridges that were broken.
I think we can hope for the same.

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