Who the Heck is Jesus?

Mark 3:20-35

1. when our high school students attended the Young Life camp at Wildhorse Canyon 2 weeks ago I was invited to tag along as an adult guest. Wildhorse Canyon was the former home of the Baghwan & his followers, the Rajneeshees from 1981-85.

2. one evening as we – adult guests – gathered to pray for the students I heard the story of how the night before, during cabin time, a 15 year old girl asked her counselor, who the heck is Jesus? She didn’t know anything about Jesus.

3. who the heck is Jesus? This is not a new question. It’s been asked for two thousand years. And we find some people grappling with this question in our text today – the crowd, Jesus’ own family & the teachers of the law.

the crowd (3:20) – someone to meet my needs
1. Jesus is at the peak of his popularity. People are streaming to him. He & his disciples could not even find a time or place to eat.

2. the crowds want something from Jesus. Today we would call them consumers. Jesus had a product that they were interested in – healing (3:10) & deliverance (3:11). Their motives in coming to Jesus were purely selfish – what can Jesus do for me?

3. some of the crowd eventually became followers of Christ. His person & authority began to transcend their needs.

4. and some eventually became kingdom-builders. They made Jesus the center of their lives. They set out to follow, love, serve, obey, worship & sacrifice their lives for his.

5. are you one of the crowd this morning? Seeking Jesus purely for what he will do for you? We have to start somewhere, needy people that we are.

6. some of you are moving on to becoming his followers. You’re being drawn & attracted to the beauty of his person, the power of his teaching & the challenge of his mission.

7. and some of you are in the kingdom-builder lane. You’ve laid it all down for him. He’s your all in all.

8. who the heck is Jesus to you this morning?

family (21) – someone who won’t embarrass us
1. this one must have hurt. I wonder how Jesus must have felt. He’d pulled together a group of followers. Healed people. Set people free from darkness. Taught massive groups of people.

2. and his own flesh & blood thinks he’s crazy. He is out of his mind, says his mother Mary & his brothers (3:31). Ouch!

3. his family totally misunderstood his zeal, mission & passion. His teaching, healing, deliverance, calling of followers, praying, befriending outsiders & forgiving sins went over like a lead balloon to those he grew up with.

4. I can hear them now – please Jesus, ratchet it down, don’t go overboard, don’t embarrass us, why do you have to call attention to yourself?, can’t you just come back home & resume building tables & cabinets?

5. J.C. Ryle, who lived 150 years ago, writes few things show the corruption of human nature more clearly than people’s inability to understand zeal in religion. Zeal about money, science, war or business is intelligible to the world. But zeal about religion is too often reckoned foolishness, fanaticism & the sign of a weak mind.

6. if the crowds understood Jesus as someone who could meet their needs his family wanted him to be someone who wouldn’t embarrass them.

7. let’s place ourselves in the story & stand in Jesus’ sandals. Here’s the question – if my family says I’m nuts, will I still follow Jesus? Are you willing to become an embarrassment to your family for the sake of Jesus?

8. to our junior & senior high students. Some of you went to Wildhorse Canyon. Others of you went to Youth Quake. Fresh commitments were made. And now the beginning of another school year lies just around the corner. If your classmates & friends tell you that you are crazy for following Jesus, make fun of you, put you down, are you still going to follow him?

9. I hope & pray that you will. That’s why you need each other. That’s why you need to commit yourselves to our youth ministry. That’s why you need to worship, share, study Scripture & pray together. That’s why you need to have crazy fun together. It’s not easy being standing up for your faith BUT its worth it!

teachers of the law (3:22-30) – someone who is evil
1. this must have hurt too. The religious scholars of Jesus’ day said he was in league with the prince of demons, that he had an evil spirit.

2. this was a hit below the belt. They didn’t know what to do with Jesus. And so they blamed his life on demons.

3. Jesus shuts them up in 30 seconds – read 3:23-27.

4. here’s the irony in the story. The religious scholars claim that Jesus has an unclean spirit. And the unclean spirits themselves have already made 2 public confessions about Jesus so far in Mark’s gospel:
§ 1:24 = Jesus is man & God: what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!
§ 3:11 = Jesus is Divine: You are the Son of God

5. Jesus is not someone who has an evil spirit. He is God in the flesh, a human body. He is the Son of God! Up to this point in Mark’s story the evil spirits are the only ones who know who the heck Jesus is!

6. there are people in our world who appear to have an unclean spirit. Some of them are religious leaders. Like the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Encyclopedia Britannica):

7. he was an Indian spiritual leader who preached an eclectic doctrine of Eastern mysticism, individual devotion, and sexual freedom while amassing vast personal wealth. He acquired the nickname Rajneesh and took the honorific Bhagwan (Hindi: “god”). In 1981 Rajneesh's cult purchased a dilapidated ranch in Oregon, which became the site of Rajneeshpuram, a community of several thousand orange-robed disciples. Rajneesh was widely criticized by outsiders for his private security force and his flamboyant display of wealth. By 1985 many of his most trusted aides had abandoned the movement, which was under investigation for multiple felonies including arson, attempted murder, drug smuggling, and vote fraud in the nearby town of Antelope. In 1985 Rajneesh pleaded guilty to immigration fraud and was deported from the United States. He was refused entry by 21 countries before returning to India, where his ashram soon grew to 15,000 members. In later years he took the Buddhist title Osho and altered his teaching on unrestricted sexual activity because of his growing concern over AIDS.

8. Rajneeshpuram is now Wildhorse Canyon, a Christian camp for high school students owned & operated by Young Life. A multi-millionaire by the name of Dennis Washington brought the property for $2.6 million & then turned it over to Young Life.

9. Washington gave another $2.5 million to convert an 88,000 square ft building the Rajneeshees used to gather for prayer & meditation into a sports center – climbing wall, 4 basketball courts, volleyball, fitness room, rock climbing wall & skate park.

10. recently he gave another $1.5 million to finish construction on the Club House, a state-of-the-art indoor amphitheatre where the students gather for talks, music & drama.

11. get this, Washington is not a follower of Jesus Christ. But through him & the Bhagwan God has given Young Life one of the most amazing youth camps in the world.

12. the building where the Rajneeshees used to interview new followers, issue their signature orange robes & ask people to sign over their money & assets to the Bhagwan is now a snack shop & gift store for the kids! The hotel they built for visitors is now a student dorm for high school kids. The building that housed Ma Anand Sheela, who ran the commune for the Bhagwan, and her aids is where guests stay, like me.

13. Wildhorse Canyon is one of the most amazing stories I’ve ever heard – how God has turned evil around for good, for the gospel!

last thoughts
1. all the sins & blasphemies of men will be forgiven them (3:29). This is the heart of Christ’s life & teaching – free pardon & full forgiveness in Christ.

2. blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven (3:29). Blasphemy is defiant hostility toward God. A conscious & deliberate rejection of the saving power & grace of God that is released upon us through Jesus. If you say “no” to God, God is going to say “no” to you. He will not force anyone into belief.

3. whoever does God’s will is my brother & sister & mother (3:35). Jesus turns talk about his physical family into talk about his spiritual family. Obedience transcends blood. God’s family outdistances our earthly families once we make a commitment to Christ.

4. who the heck is Jesus?
§ He’s eternal God manifested in a human being called Jesus of Nazareth
§ the Son of God
§ the teacher, healer, deliverer, pray-er, call-er, the personification of God’s present & coming kingdom

5. he’s more than just Someone to meet your needs
he’s not out of his mind
he doesn’t have an evil spirit
he calls people to obey the will of God