Sunday School | Unforgivable Sin

Introduction

So we are my name is Tim. You're at my class. I don't know. We should name it, I guess. And we're doing a series called Red Letters, Stuff Jesus Said. And so several weeks ago, we put up this thing where you could submit questions about something that Jesus said. We're looking at the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which is pretty much where the red letters all occur. And I'm working through your list. I'm going to shortly begin adding some of my own things to the list, but we're kind of starting with all of the most popular questions that you asked.

And this morning's, at least the first one, is from Luke chapter 12. So if you've got a Bible, you want to go to Luke chapter 12? We'll start there. And in Luke 12, we'll pick it up in verse eight. I think you'll recognize the question behind this in a second.

The Passage and Its Context

Luke 12:8-12
"I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man, will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. Then here's the climactic thing, verse 10, And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And then verses 11-12, When you're brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, don't worry about how you'll defend yourselves or what you'll say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

Okay. So this is known as the unforgivable sin. So Jesus says there's this thing which if you do it, is unforgivable. And what's that thing that he says is unforgivable? Blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

And so this is, like, arrested lots and lots of people through the ages. You're like, when I was, like, 12 years old and sitting with my friends behind, like, the place smoking cigarettes, did I? Could I have, like, blasphemed the Holy Spirit, and if so, is it like I'm on the no fly list for all? What does that mean?

And so any time that Jesus talks about something being unforgivable, it has a tendency to seize the mind. All right? So we're gonna try to unpack what's going on here.

What's interesting here is he says this, or something quite like it, in Matthew, in Mark, and in Luke. And the person who asked the question directed us to the Luke passage, and the Luke passage that we just read here is somewhat context free. It's just He says it, and then right after He said, He goes on to talk about how the Spirit is going to teach you what to say.

That's in Luke. In Matthew and Mark, he says something very similar to it, but it sounds very different. And this, by the way, is one of the features of Gospels. You'll see Jesus says something in Matthew, and he says something in Mark that's quite similar. And when you find those, there's basically two possibilities, and I think both could be true at different times.

It could be that because Jesus is an itinerant preacher, he says the same things or similar things in multiple times, right, in a different context. And so sometimes you'll see, well, Matthew's version is this and Mark's version is that. Well, might be that the inconsistencies between the two are because he's said it in two different times.

And I can tell you, as in I speak and travel all over the place, and I say the same thing or similar things all the time. I'm constantly recombining messages and gluing them together and using this phrase in this setting. So that could be what's going on. That's part some of what's happening.

The other thing that could be happening — well, what else? What what explains the fact that you'll get similar but nonexactly equivalent versions of things in the Gospels besides the fact that Jesus probably says the same thing multiple times? You a witness?

Okay. And so who said this? Oh, Bill. Okay. But wouldn't shouldn't the witnesses say the same thing? Yeah. They rarely do. Right? But is it accurate? So if if we're if we're gonna account for the fact that witnesses might get the details wrong, is their record reliable? How do we do that?

Yes. Why is it? Because it's inspired by God. Okay. Ultimately. What's going to happen. That's right.

And so here's how I would glue this on. There are different ideas of — Basically the question is, is what we have recorded in the Scriptures the exact wording that was used when it was said, is it memorex? Is this an audio tape of a conversation that happened? Or is it the exact meaning that God wanted preserved? And the answer is the second.

Okay? And there's lots of times in the Bible where you will where it will reveal it'll kind of peel back the curtain a little bit and you'll realize, oh, oh, oh, I thought this was just like this didactic transcript, but it's really not. One of one of the easiest ways you can see that is when Joseph — this is not Jesus' dad, but like Joseph of the, you know, patriarchs. Joseph is having a conversation with his brothers when he's still like dressed up in this like pharaoh suit, you know, that whole thing. And the text, it just seems like they're having a conversation. He said this, and they said this, and he said this, and they said this. And then later on, they reveal the fact that this entire conversation was happening through a translator. But they didn't tell you that the first pass. Right? They give that additional detail. And what that necessarily means is you're getting, you are getting a paraphrase. And very, very often we get a paraphrase, and that's perfectly acceptable. It may be that at some point you have quoted me ish, right? You could say, Oh, today in Sunday school, Tim said duh duh duh duh duh duh duh. And maybe you got it sort of right. As long as you capture the essence of it, then I'm not going to track you down because, like, did you get the right thing?

Okay? So sometimes, Jesus said it two different times in two different ways and He had different purposes, sometimes they're not capturing they don't mean to capture the exact words but the exact meaning. And that's perfectly acceptable, and we do this all the time. Right? So those things could be happening.

Here's the reason I say all that is that the Matthew and the Mark version of this is in a completely different context. So go to the Matthew version, which is Matthew 12. So it was Luke 12. And you might wanna keep your finger there if you wanna compare and contrast. But if you go to the Matthew 12, here's how it goes. Here's how Jesus say says it and what is happening there.

Matthew 12:22-32
Then they brought Jesus, a demon possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see. And all the people were astonished and said, could this be the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, it's only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons. Jesus knew their thoughts and he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he's divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob the house his house. He is not with me, is against me, he does not gather with me scatters. And I tell you, here it is, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Okay. There's your saying, but the context is different. What is the in Matthew's telling of it, what is the context in which Jesus makes that statement? And you might just flip back. What's different from Luke 12 to Matthew 12? How is it different?

Say it louder, Bill. Casting out a demon. Right? John? That's right. Okay. So the context is, and John's exactly right, that in what's going on in Matthew, Luke doesn't give us any insight into this, which either means he just didn't choose to include it, or Jesus said this also at a different time. And I don't know which one it is, but it's not particularly important. But in Matthew, and also in Mark, I'll show you that, the context is that Jesus has been casting out demons, and the Pharisees say, well, I know how you can do that. You need to do that because you're empowered by the devil himself. It's by Beelzebub, which is basically a name for Satan. But it's by Beelzebub that you're doing this. At which point, Jesus says, time out. And essentially what he says is, you wanna talk trash about me, that's fine, but don't talk about the spirit that way.

Right? It would be a little bit like, you know, like if somebody's insulting you and you just drink it, and then they insult your wife, and you're like, let's go. Okay? That's that's the vibe to this whole thing. He says, you can say whatever you want about me, but don't you dare insult the spirit of God. Okay? If you think that my power source is Satan, but my power source is the Holy Spirit, then you are calling the Holy Spirit Satan, and we're not gonna stand for that. That's essentially what's going on there. Make sense? Okay? And then, just a little bit more detail, go to Mark three. It's the same event as Matthew, but you get one more editorial comment that makes what John is saying that really, I think, raises our confidence in this.

So in Mark 3:20-30, Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. And when his family heard about this, they said, we went, they went to take charge of him, for they said, he's out of his mind. Okay, so now we're getting a little more detail about it's not just the Pharisees, but it's his own family. 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. This should all feel very — this is Matthew 12. Right? It's the same, very reminiscent. And then he says in verse 28, here it is again, 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's guilty of an eternal sin. And then Mark helpsfully connects the bridge here. He says in verse 30, he said this because they were saying he has an evil spirit. Okay, that connection is only in Mark's Gospel.

So Mark is basically validating what not the Apostle John, but that John said, that the context of him saying this, the act like, if you were sitting around when you were 12 years old smoking cigarettes and talking smack about the Holy Spirit, I don't think you are doing this. What this is is specifically the attribution of the works of Jesus to the works of the devil. That's the thing that he's like, Woah, don't do that. Does that make sense?

Now, that's lovely and all, we can move on, except it still relieves the question, well, does Jesus say that you can basically say we'll go back to the Matthew version: Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit won't be forgiven. And then He specifically says, Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Why does Jesus say that we can talk trash about Jesus, but not about the Spirit? What do you guys think? I'd And love to hear if you guys have a couple of theories. I'll tell you what I think is going on there, but let's work on that for a minute together. Why, in some sense, is an attribution against the spirit worse than one against the sun?

Stuart? I think it's because the people that would do that have no reason at that time. The image in The Great Divorce where they basically see heaven and choose to go back. I don't wanna spoil it again, but it's a great book. But you know what? They come face to face, just like Satan did. Came face to face with God and chose his own pride to fall. They don't want it.

Right. Don't want that reconciliation with God at all. Okay. This so Stuart's saying he's drawing an illustration from The Great Divorce, is a fantastic book that I recommend you read. You can read in, like, ninety minutes. It's a short little thing, it's brilliant. There's basically, in The Great Divorce, there's something people want more than heaven itself. Right? More than God himself. And so Jesus is here among them, and they just don't want him. Right? Is that essentially?

But why if that's true, it'd be tidier if Jesus had said, You can't blaspheme the Holy Spirit, but he hadn't said, But you can't blaspheme me. Why is he saying that you can do something about the Son of Man that's acceptable and not against the Spirit? It makes a pretty thorny passage even worse. Same thing, I mean, if you're a Trinitarian. Right, that's the problem. They are, I mean, they're not exactly they're not the same thing, but they're equivalent, right? They're equal value, equal honor, equal worthiness of worship. So why? Jesus is man here teaching. Right? Mhmm. He's here. I think at that point in time, they could go, oh, you're right. They could repent right then. Yeah. Here, they hadn't heard this before. Oh, someone might have had a oh, that was a mistake. You're right, Jesus. Yes. And he's still fully God, then you're it's over with. Right? If you've heard the message and you inject it, you're done.

Okay. So Stuart is saying these guys, they're there, they see him, and Jesus says, hey, you can't stop. You don't want to do that. They have the opportunity there to repent and be like, alright, alright, you're right, sorry, my bad. But of course they don't. What about the rest of us?

Marty? I think it comes when you have the context of the Pharisees accusing Jesus of using the power of the devil. I think there was, like, a willful I know that's probably the truth, but we're gonna willfully just claim something that is absolutely false, and we're gonna attribute it that. Yes. Kind of why it's in a different situation when you're blaspheming the spirit.

Yes. Okay. So they are what they're when they're blaspheming the spirit, of course, they're meaning to blaspheme Jesus. They're saying it's by the prince of demons that he does this. He is demon possessed. And and he says, if you attribute my power to the spirit, then it's bad, bad, bad. Right? This is all true. Yep. You wanna add in? Do you think it could be like and again, I I don't know this for sure, but thinking back to that point in time, the Jews had the Torah. So, like, personal testament. I don't remember there being a whole lot about the spirit in there. So could it have been Jesus elevating the spirit to a point to get his disciples and his father ready to understand that, like, the holy spirit is is part of our part of the trinity is is something that needs to be elevated. The Holy Spirit needs to be elevated on equal ground with God.

Yes. Okay. So this is interesting. So, the Old Testament how do explain this? So, the Trinity, the concept of God existing as three persons is an entirely New Testament phenomena. We understand that in Christ. No Jew is gonna Jews not only don't believe in a Trinity, but they also don't believe in the Spirit either. They're not gonna be like, There's the Father and the Spirit, and, you know, da da da. They don't do that. But the Old Testament, the Torah, frequently speaks about the Spirit, but not in a way it's not until the new covenant that we realize, oh, oh, oh, oh. There's like a the spirit is not just another way to describe the father, but is a distinct person. And so there's something to this claim, I think, that you're making that Jesus is elevating the Spirit. He does it all throughout John's Gospel. This event, by the way, doesn't happen in John's Gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke have the blasphemy of the Spirit that doesn't show up in John. But in John, you get this extended discourse. You get more information about the Spirit of God in John's Gospel. And Jesus is absolutely elevating the Spirit. So you're right about that. So it's a little bit like the Father looks at the Son and says, Behold my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Right? And the Son says, I never say anything that the Father doesn't tell me to say. Right? He's like endlessly pointing back, says, I only do what He tells me to do. Whatever you like about me, it is merely Him. And the Spirit, right, exists to glorify the Son. And the Son, when he has the occasion, just says, Behold the Spirit. Don't mess with him. Right? So what you're seeing within the Trinity is this deferential, other centered love that, by the way, Jesus says, ought to be the defining characteristic of your life. Right? That every person in this community of persons who know and love each other seems to preference the others above themself. And so there's something here of Jesus not necessarily making I think there's a theological implication we'll get to in a second, but I think the first thing you want to capture is that sense of, it's okay if you injure me, but don't mess with him. Right? That they each of the three treasure and delight the other and honor them above themselves, and in so doing are giving us the pattern for our life ought to be.

Ben? Well, I was also wondering if it isn't Christ's humility. Because he says, you know, Philippians it says Yes. God was not something he would structure. Yes. And that and this what what you're labeling as the humility of Christ is this orientation that exists among the Godhead. Right? The endless treasuring of the other above yourself. Okay? We definitely get that. There's another piece, but DFP first. If we accept the notion, and I do, that the Holy Spirit is responsible for drawing us, leading us, converting us, teaching us, empowering us, and we ascribe all of that to the work of the enemy, we are unsavable. Yes. The power cannot work within us if we completely deny that it is from God. And so to me, it's it's a bigger thing than just mouthing off about the spirit, but it's an attitude of, got this. You know? I see the truth. I don't need to. Yes. And not only do I have this, but you have nothing for me because you're just possessed by a demon, right? And as long as you so this is the thing, sometimes the question of is, you know, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, is he describing a moment in time from which you can never it wouldn't be impossible to repent even if you wanted to it wouldn't be possible to repent even if you wanted to, or is he describing a state of being, which is as long as you think that Jesus is demon powered, you've cut yourself off from the only hope that you can possibly have. Right? And I think it is the latter, not the former. That so long as you believe, you go, oh, I figured out Jesus. I know how he does his tricks. It's because he's a puppet for the devil. Well, you've necessarily placed yourself outside of the reach of his grace. Right? That's definitely a thing for sure.

Lily? I really liked your point about don't mess with my wife earlier because I think often the Holy Spirit has has this, feel of being a feminine expression of God's nature in some ways. But also I like the point about the humility. Because I feel like the Holy Spirit is the most hidden person of God. And so perhaps that in and of itself makes the protectiveness of the son and the Father that much greater because, I don't know, I I feel like there's something about protecting that one that is most hidden, most in service. I mean, can even grieve the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit even lives in us. And so, I wonder if there's something to you.

Yeah. So, okay, so first, regarding the femininity of the spirit, what's interesting about this is the Holy Spirit is only ever described with male pronouns, is treated as male, but there's a very strong temptation because if three males and we feel some sense of the imbalance of that, right? So that kind of observation is made. There are places where you do get an implication of femininity. Maybe the clearest is in Proverbs 8, Wisdom is personified in feminine terms. Right? In fact, throughout the whole book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified in feminine terms. And wisdom is also described in Proverbs 8 in such a palpable way that it's like it's a person. Right? And so some have thought that it's describing Jesus the Son is the wisdom of God, and there's a case for that. First Corinthians makes that case. Others who see the spirit of God, who is hovering over the water, present in creation. So all of those things. And the way that I would encourage you to resolve that is that both masculinity and femininity descend from God. God is more male than you are male. He is supra male. Right? He's transcendently masculine. And femininity is a reflection of his image. Right? We both, male and female, are made in his image, so we see both. We don't want to get into, like, people get into these Sofia cult, right, where wisdom is named Sofia, which is a feminine name, and we kind of agree. We don't want to go in those ways, but we absolutely acknowledge with a full heart that all that is good and all that is beautiful in women is descends from the very nature of God, manifest not only in the spirit, but also in the son, says he longs to gather his chicks like a hen gathers people like a hen gathers her chicks. Right? That's feminine language. And so we see both the male and the female are present there, but and Lily's not affirming that the spirit is female. But merely that Jesus is seeking to honor and to defend the spirit. And something to that.

Bunch of hands. Okay. Kat? I just just have a thought that like, it also makes a lot of sense that Jesus would be like, you can mess with me, like, that part of it because like, he knew that his purpose was like to come and to die and to be scorned and to like And he just embraces you can throw at him anything. Like, it's like an opportunity for the ones the ones who are surprised. Like, even they can be saved, like, if they're not possible to come to us here.

Yes. That's right. And he is Jesus never shrinks back from from taking scorn. This this was really the point that you're making there, Kat, was drawn to my attention very vividly a while ago, maybe like fifteen years ago when I forget the particulars, but was it Salman Rushdie? There was something going on in the Muslim world and something had happened where Allah had been or no, not Allah, but Mohammed had been treated with what was perceived as disrespect. I forget all the details are flooding Was it the satanic verses? Is that what it was? And, like, it was all in the news that, like, somebody said something about Muhammad, and so it's like, we're going to start cutting people's heads off because you can't talk trash about Mohammed. Right? Do you remember this happening? And what's so fascinating about that is their the religious leader of the Muslims is very, very particular and very demanding that he receive honor. And our king has a crown of thorns. Right? What is so extraordinary about Jesus is that he is supremely worthy to receive all good, and he is infinitely patient in suffering evil. Not only is he infinitely patient in suffering evil, and scorn, and rebuke, and derision, and mockery, and crucifixion, and death, but then he says, Gary, be like me. You do it too. That we are invited to be an incredibly non prickly people. We are invited to be people who nothing really offends us. We're like, yeah, that's fine. You can do what you want, but I don't I don't take offense. I expect to be mocked and ridiculed. We will not revile when we are reviled. And this is all flowing out of Jesus. So Jesus is like, yeah, sure. You can say whatever you wanna say about me. That's fine. And I think that's better. He is more worthy of honor than Mohammed ever dreamed of being. And yet he is more willing to suffer the scorns and the insult, the mockery and the derision of those who hate him, so that he might win them by his long suffering patience. He's incredible. He is incredible by being willing to be thought a fool and a weakling and an imbecile. Right? This is what we have.

So there's I do think there's some aspect of that, of this of Jesus just being like, nail me to a cross and I will continue to forgive you. Right? It's just bonkers. Just so crazy.

Clarifications and Theological Implications

There was another couple of hands. Okay. Evan? So I I was kind of thinking about this point where at one point before Jesus came, the Ark of the Covenant was the place where God came down to Earth. And it was so important for this thing to not be touched or dropped. Like, even if it was dropping, you reach out to catch it. You would just die. You did not treat this thing with any kind of disrespect. You follow the rules. But then you have what became the new ark of covenant, which was Jesus coming down to Earth. It it's it's very different because it's it's not the same, I guess, in a sense. Yeah. Further further in what Cap was saying, I agree. But it's like, he came here to be the the place to wrestle with God in a sense, to to ask him questions. Because I I think when this language exists, it it's not just for nonbelievers who are allowed to question Jesus. I think that he is at that time there for believers especially to wrestle with and question him. But that doesn't mean that you can question. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, this is great. So Evan's point is, you can juxtapose Jesus is so willing to be bodily mistreated and disrespected and dishonored and injured, and yet in the Old Testament you see these pictures of like, if you touch the ark wrong, we're gonna kill you. And in fact, that's not even theoretical, this happens. And so, I think what we have here, Jesus is the absolute ultimate both-and. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is all justice, He is all mercy, He is all exaltation. He is all lowly condescension. It's always in this crazy stretch and spread. And so you do see the pattern of the worthiness of God and the holiness of God and the dangerousness of God. Right? He's not a tame lion kind of language. Right? And that's so all of that is true. Even as as He comes and He manifests and walks Himself among us, He's different than we would have expected because He's born in a manger. You know? I mean, so He is giving us this ridiculous stretch between his supreme worthiness and his absolute patience. And he he does remain dangerous. He is dangerous. But not because he's bad, but because we're bad. Right? Do you understand? It's like, he's dangerous like a cop is dangerous when you're speeding. It's not that the cops are corrupt, it's that you're breaking the law. Right? And we don't fear him because he's bad, we fear him because we are bad. And then we come to find out that even in our badness, he extends outlandish mercy. Even though we're guilty, we're actually guilty. And he still shows grace and compassion in our very culpability. He's a wild man.

Okay, Katherine. Did I get this straight that those people that were blaspheming the Holy Spirit, that they didn't really know about the Holy Spirit? Because, obviously, we didn't learn about that. Did I get that right?

Yeah. So when he said you're blaspheming the Holy Spirit, they probably didn't really understand. This is a great question. So Catherine is saying, am I getting this right, that the audience that Jesus is talking to when he says don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit, that means something to you. When you hear, Don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you think, Don't blaspheme the third person of the Holy Trinity, who is a person and who is God and who has intellect, emotion, will, thus therefore having the characteristics of good personhood and who comes to dwell in believers. Yes, I would say, they didn't know that. They didn't have that developed sense that we have.

But what they did have and you could think about it, well, let's do this. What would be true if all you have is like, you know, Genesis to Malachi? What do you know about the Holy Spirit? Because it's not nothing. It's not nothing by a long shot. What did they have?

Humor and holm. Okay. So it can or he can come upon people. Who are you thinking of? Samson, right? So we could run through a handful of people. Samson, who else? Saul, who else? Okay, so there are these particular manifestations where the spirit of God, I. E, the non-material, right, the spiritual personal presence of God, probably not in their minds in any way distinct from the Father. Right? You have a sense that the Spirit and the Father are one and distinct. Right? Our Trinitarianism is not merely that we invented the spirit, but we realize, oh, oh, oh, the spirit is a person distinct from just like, you could talk about Tim Henderson, and you could say that Tim Henderson has a really fill in the blank, sarcastic spirit. Right? And you wouldn't mean that I had, like, a separate thing. You would talk about my spirit as a way to talk about me, but not as, like, a distinct person from whatever this is. Right? So they they would have almost certainly had a sense of the spirit as a way to talk about God, not with a sense of his distinction. Right? They would have had absolutely this expectation or this picture of Saul and David being indwelt by the Spirit in a peculiar way. They would have had an anticipation of Ezekiel 36, where God says, I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees, to obey my laws. I'll take out your heart of stone, replace it with a heart of flesh, Jeremiah's language. So they had that kind of anticipation, but it wasn't as developed as ours is, for sure.

Marty, and then John. But they also had miracles being performed right before their very eyes. This. Right? Okay, and this is really important. There's a quote I want to read to you from a commentary in just a second, so I'll let John go first. But this is what Marty's saying here, and I'll do it right now because this is really important. So what Marty's saying is they had right before their very eyes this thing being done, and I think that what Jesus is essentially doing is like, listen, excuse me, you may not have figured out who I am and all that I'm doing, and there's a mystery about who I am, what my purposes are, and all these kinds of things. But, you guys, I just cast out a demon. You should be able to figure out that my power source is good and not bad. And if you are so thick headed, if you are so unwilling to believe that what I am doing is powered by goodness and not by the very embodiment of evil, then what the heck? What am I going to offer you?

Right? Because of all the weird things happening, of all the imponderable mysteries, for you to say that I'm doing this by the power of Satan is so ridiculous, so completely incongruent with the evidence that you have, what hope is there for you?

Okay. Here's a quote. I'm gonna read this to you now in in more academic language. But if the son of man is Jesus, who is also the son of God, why is it less serious to speak against Him? Perhaps such a question ventures too far into later Trinitarian orthodoxy and too far beyond the historical circumstances of Jesus' mission in Galilee. The very mysteriousness of the title the Son of Man indicates an element of enigma of the truth about Jesus not being yet openly revealed. And in that situation, it will be possible to speak against Him without being aware that he that you are opposing the saving purposes of God. Note, for instance, the excuse of ignorance in Acts 3:17. And even Peter, in the heat of the moment, would speak against the Son of Man and still be forgiven. Okay? So, like, people were trying to figure out Jesus, he's like, if you don't get me yet, that's cool. But here's the here's the punch line. But the significance of Jesus' exorcisms was plain for all to see, and there could be no excuse for misinterpreting this work of the Holy Spirit and attributing it to Beelzebub. Which is to say, Jesus', even at this moment, Jesus' identity is still somewhat hidden. It's still the revelation is still in process. But this demon thing was obvious. And if you don't get this, if you don't understand that I'm not doing this by a demonic power, then your heart is so hard, there's no chance to penetrate. I think that that is ultimately what's going on there.

Application

Make sense? Okay. I'll show my hands. Okay. I'm still gonna come to you, John, but I'll let Ann. Got a question. Well, Jesus himself said, if you don't believe in me, believe in the works that I do. I wish I had thought of that, Ann, yes. He's like, the works that I'm doing, they testify for me, and if you won't accept those works, I. E. Those spirit empowered behaviors, then what do you want? How can I possibly get through to you?

It's an excellent, excellent observation. Alright, John? Yep. Says, Don't take your Holy Spirit away from me. That's right. And so when David says, Don't take your spirit away from me, he is perhaps remembering that Saul did have the spirit taken away from him and doesn't want that to happen. That's not going to happen to you. This is a different thing. We're in a different era. Since Pentecost, the spirit of God dwells in all believers, and you have him.

Conclusion

Lots of folks have mentioned that the Old Testament doesn't specifically single out the Holy Spirit as a separate Person? Yeah. But they did only have one spirit that they talked about. It was the spirit of God. So to say that Jesus is doing these works through an evil spirit, of which they have evidence daily of many options for that, is saying the spirit of God. That's right. If they don't know it as a separate, yes. And so Jesus knows that the spirit is a person, right, clearly. But he also knows that he is one with the spirit and the father.

Jesus is gonna have that, you know, obviously that fuller picture, but whatever it is they understand, they're saying Jesus does this by a demon. He's like, I do not. Mm-mm, I don't. And if you think that, then where are we gonna go with this? So I think that's what it is. But let me say this. But let me underscore, there may have been a time in your life where you thought that, where you're like, Jesus is the worst, this is all a scam, and who knows whatever else is that. I do not believe that if you once thought that, that you are forever beyond his redemption. Right? But that as we soften and as we repent and we come to a better understanding, as we do even what Peter did, Peter knew better, and he blew it, and he was still received again. Right? That God's grace is available to you. Right?

Kim? Yeah. So you started the Luke passage by reading where Jesus said, whoever disowns me before men, I will also disown him or her before my father in heaven. Yeah. Well, I'm thinking that disown must be different from deny because Peter denied it. Yeah. And he was clearly forgiven. And my question is, so I'm reading a book about the persecuted church right now, written by the CEO of World Relief. And he goes to different countries and meets the and talks to the persecuted Christians. The stories are just horrendous, but when you talked about in North Korea, people will—they they are so evil to the the Christians there that they will even torture their children in front of them to get them to deny Christ. And they don't, but I'm thinking, I don't know that I could do that. Oh, yeah. My question is, is that forgivable? I mean, if they said, okay, no, no, no. You know, we don't we don't believe in Jesus. Stop torturing our child. I mean, is that but in their hearts, they do believe in Jesus. Yes. It's saying that to get them to be. Yeah. So that's something that troubles me a little bit. I was wondering if you could expound on it.

Yeah. So in the next thirty in the thirty seconds that we have remaining, yeah, we we actually talked about this couple of weeks ago in the main sanctuary. I quoted this thing from Thomas Cranmer. You have you guys remember this? Cranmer, the guy that the founder of Anglicanism, right? He denied Christ. He recanted his faith. And then subsequently recanted his recantation. He recanted his faith when he watched his two best friends terribly burned to death in a horrible, horrible judgment from the church. And he's like, I can't do it. I can't do it. And bailed. And then he recanted his recantation, was burned alive, placed his hand into the flames, the hand with which he had signed his recantation.

And, yes, I I so I don't know what I would do either, Kim. Like, I hope that I would be faithful under any duress, but I hope even more that we'll never need to know. Right? At the same time that all this was happening, the guy that translated the Bible and this is all from a sermon a couple weeks ago, but remember I said how Jesus recycled his material? It's happening live for you right now. But the guy that translated the Bible into English also wrote a book called The Obedience of the Christian Man, in which he addresses this exact issue. And he basically says that when you under duress deny Christ, he says, don't take it as a sign that he has abandoned you, but rather as a sign that he wanted you to understand that apart from his grace and apart from his strength, you'll never have the strength to do it. So that you would abandon that, cling to him, find his strength, so that the next time around, you will be faithful in his power, not in your own.

And that's what I think is the case. That we that God in his mercy gives us grace when we abandon our own unrighteousness and our own self righteousness to enable us to do what the task requires. And throughout the ages, some have had very cushy lives, like me, for instance. Right? And some have suffered terribly. In the world to come, I think there will be an accounting, and those that have suffered faithfully will receive a reward. I don't know what it's gonna look like, but there will be a recompense for those that that, under extreme duress were faithful to him. But I think he is gracious to those of us who love him. Not only to rescue us in the world to come, to give us a resurrection, but also to grant us what we need when we abandon our own strength.

Okay. We gotta stop. We're done. We'll no. Wait. Okay. So there's no class. Next week is Christmas or New Year's. So none of the next two, but in three weeks and, like, whatever that is, January 7 or something, we'll be back to normal. Cool? All right. See you.