Dear Christian friends:

Children in a family are united with one another because they have the same father and mother. A husband and wife are united with each other by mutual love and respect. Friends are united together because of having the same interests. My wife, Ferol, has many friends who are artists. The handicapped are bound together because of their mutual handicap. The deaf have deaf friends and the blind have blind friends. In every relationship there are "ropes" which tie people together. That is true also of our relationship with Christ Jesus.


Our text shows that it is faith in Christ who defeated Satan which ties us to Him.

Jesus has shown His power over Satan. During His ministry on earth Jesus cast out many devils from those people whom Satan controlled. Later on Jesus' disciples also cast out devils. Even today pastors and other Christians are able to cast out evil spirits in the name of Jesus Christ.

Jesus also showed His power over Satan when He died on the Cross and then arose from death on Easter morning. God had prophesied about that wonderful event a long time before it happened. God said these words to Satan after Satan had deceived Adam and Eve, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15) On the Cross Satan hurt Jesus, "bruised His heel," but Jesus defeated him, "bruised his head," when He arose from death on Easter morning. By His death and resurrection Jesus has opened the way for all people today to join with Him through faith, and disjoin from Satan. While are born under Satan's control. But through Jesus we can have forgiveness.

However, Satan tries to keep people tied to himself. Satan often leads people to think like Jesus' relatives here in our text. (verses 20-21) Jesus relatives thought that He was crazy or a fanatic because He worked so hard to help the people that He and His disciples did not have time to eat. So today Satan tries to lead us to think that Jesus' commands and demands are unreasonable or fanatical. True, Jesus demands a lot from us. He says, "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matthew 10:38) I know that I have sometimes thought that Jesus demands too much of me. If you are honest, you will confess the same. Think about tithing! Think about suffering for Jesus' sake! Satan tempts you to think and perhaps say, "Church is too strict! Pastor demands too much! He's crazy! Quit the church; you will have more freedom and fun in life!"

Worse! Satan tempts us to sin against the Holy Spirit! Satan led the scribes to do that terrible sin! They said that Jesus cast out evil spirits with the help of Satan, the Prince of devils. (verse 22) They knew better than that! Anyone could see that Jesus used the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, to cast out these evil spirits. These scribes believed Satan's lie and called the Holy Spirit the Evil Spirit! That is the sin against the Holy Spirit. Jesus warns us that he who sins against the Holy Spirit cannot receive forgiveness and he will go to hell. (verses 28-30) Be careful! Satan is very clever and he has great power. He can lead you to believe a lie and mock the Holy Spirit!

Believe Jesus! He tells you the truth. He does not tell lies like Satan and his false preachers do! Faith in Jesus is the rope that ties us to Jesus and frees us from Satan's control. On the Cross Jesus defeated Satan because He won forgiveness of sins for us there. Now Satan can no more successfully accuse us and blame us with our sins. When he lies and tells us that we are no good and that God does not want us in heaven, we need only show him the Cross, and he must flee away. If we hold the Cross, Satan cannot make us despair and stay with him. Faith in the Cross frees us from Satan's evil rule and ties us to Jesus' good and gracious rule.

And this faith which unites us with Jesus is given to us by the Holy Spirit.

By the power of the Holy Spirit we daily do God's will (wish). In our text when Jesus' brothers and sisters and mother outside and sent for Him to come home with them Jesus asked the crowd, "Who is My mother and My brothers and sisters?" Then He looked at those who were sitting around Him and eagerly hearing His preaching, and He said, "These are My mother, and brothers and sisters! Because whoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother and My sister and My mother." (verses 31-35)

The will (wish) of God is that we believe in Jesus as our Brother and the Son of God from heaven who defeated Satan. The Bible says, "God will (wishes) have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4) God wants all sinners to honestly and humbly confess their sins and then look to His Son on the Cross, Who suffered the punishment of all the world's sin. God wants all men to believe that He forgives sin for Jesus' sake! This is the good and gracious will (wish) of God.

And we "do" this good and gracious will of God when we let the Holy Spirit teach us and increase our faith. The Holy Spirit does this when we attend to the Gospel preaching, when we remember our baptism and when we come to the Lord's Supper! Also, when we come to Bible Class on Sunday morning we are doing God's will. That is more important than figuring the church money books, or preparing the cups for the Lord's Supper. We should not let our other church duties interfere with our attending to God's Word.

Also we must be careful and not sin against the Holy Spirit, as these Scribes did here in our text.

That sin against the Holy Spirit happens when anyone knows the truth in the Bible and then refuses to believe it. He is insulting the witness of the Holy Spirit. Such a person refuses to believe the Holy Spirit's truths and then accepts to believe Satan's lies.

A person who sins against the Holy Spirit cannot receive forgiveness of sins. Why? If a person insults the Holy Spirit, who else can touch his heart and lead him to repentance? None other! It is only the Holy Spirit who can lead anyone to repent and to believe. So be careful!

By the Holy Spirit who gives us faith and daily increases our faith we have been united with Jesus, our Brother, and with God, our Father. What joy, what honor to see Jesus look to us and say: "My brothers, My sisters, My mothers!

Amen.