CHAPTER 3

(A.D. 31)

JESUS HEALS ON THE SABBATH

¹And He entered again into the Synagogue (on the Sabbath Day, and probably in Capernaum); and there was a man there which had a withered hand (a symbol of withered, undone humanity, as a result of the Fall).

²And they watched Him, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath Day; that they might accuse Him (religion really doesnt care for people, only its rules and regulations).

³And He said unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth (whatever He did, was done openly; in other words, He threw this challenge to the Pharisees and into their teeth).

⁴And He said unto them (speaks pointedly to the Pharisees, and in front of everyone present), Is it lawful to do good on the Sab bath Days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? (He was telling them that living for God was not a question of keeping rules and regulations, but a question of doing good or evil! To have the power to set this man free and not do so was evil.) But they held their peace (Wuest says, theirs was a painful, embarrassing silence).

⁵And when He had looked round about on them with anger (proves that anger is not necessarily a manifestation of sin and Satan; only its wrong use falls into that category), being grieved for the hardness of their hearts (there is no hardness of the heart like religious hardness; He knew that this would lead the Pharisees and Israel to destruction), He said unto the man, Stretch forth your hand (once again, being done in full view of all). And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other (pictures what Christ can do with the human heart).

⁶And the Pharisees went forth (they were angry; they had no concern for the man who had been miraculously healed), and straightway (immediately) took counsel with the Herodians (a group who believed that Herod was the Messiah, and whom the Pharisees normally hated) against Him, how they might destroy Him (this was the condition of the religions leaders of Israel).

MANY HEALED

⁷But Jesus withdrew Himself with His Disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judaea,

⁸And from Jerusalem (the religious leadership of Israel resided in this city), and from Idumaea (this was south of the Dead Sea, and about one hundred miles from the Sea of Galilee, a long way in those days), and from beyond Jordan (east of the Jordan River, which would have included Paneas and the Decapolis); and they about Tyre and Sidon (about fifty miles north of the Sea of Galilee, mostly inhabited by Gentiles), a great multitude, when they had heard what great things He did, came unto Him (this will be repeated in the coming Kingdom Age, but on a far grander scale).

⁹And He spoke to His Disciples, that a small ship should wait on Him because of the multitude, lest they should throng Him (this would have been a small boat, pushed out a little distance from the shore, with Him teaching the people from this particular platform).

¹⁰For He had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon Him for to touch Him, as many as had plagues (all were healed and He never turned one away).

¹¹And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him, and cried, saying, You are the Son of God (they kept falling down before Him, and kept constantly crying; they knew He was the Son of God, even though the religious leaders of Israel didnt).

¹²And He straitly charged them (a military command) that they should not make Him known (He wanted no advertisement from this sort).

THE TWELVE CHOSEN AND ORDAINED

¹³And He goeth up into a mountain, and called unto Him whom He would: and they came unto Him (there could have been as many as forty or fifty people personally selected, and maybe even near a hundred).

¹⁴And He ordained (appointed) Twelve (the Biblical number for Government), that they should be with Him (the secret of all power), and that He might send them forth to preach,

¹⁵And to have power (delegated authority, all from Christ) to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils (demons):

¹⁶And Simon He surnamed Peter (a stone);

¹⁷And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and He surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder (the names suggested their impetuosity and zeal, which characterized both the brothers):

¹⁸And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite (Simon the Zealot),

¹⁹And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed Him (the only one of the Disciples who was of the Tribe of Judah; Christ was from that Tribe as well!): and they went into an house (probably referred to Peters house in Capernaum).

²⁰And the multitude came together again (when they heard He was present), so that they could not so much as eat bread.

²¹And when His friends heard of it(His immediate relatives, as Verse 31 proclaims), they went out to lay hold on Him (means they intended to stop Him, even by using force and against His Will, if necessary!): for they said, He is beside Himself (means, they actually believed He was insane; His open opposition to the Pharisees and the religious leaders of Israel, would have occasioned this, with them knowing that it was ultimately going to bring severe trouble; however, His brothers, at that time, did not actually believe that He was the Son of God [Jn. 7:5]).

THE PHARISEES BLASPHEME THE HOLY SPIRIT

²²And the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem said (evidently sent by the Sanhedrin in order to find something in which they could undermine His influence), He has Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth He out devils (they blasphemed the Holy Spirit when they accused Christ of casting out devils by the power of Satan).

²³And He called them unto Him(the Scribes), and said unto them in Parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? (Why would Satan undo what he had done?)

²⁴And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

²⁵And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand (internal fighting respecting a family will ultimately lead to the destruction of that family).

²⁶And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but has an end (would wreck his kingdom of darkness).

²⁷No man can enter into a strong mans house (in this case the house of Satan), and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man (Jesus overthrew Satan); and then he will spoil his house (Christ defeated Satan at the Cross, by atoning for all sin [Col. 2:14-15]).

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

²⁸Verily I say unto you (speaking to all, but more directly to the Scribes), All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme (providing forgiveness is asked of the Lord; this is a wonderful promise, and has been upheld in the hearts and lives of untold millions):

²⁹But he who shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness (only a Believer who has ceased to believe, in other words, ceases to evidence Faith in Christ, and a professor of religion, such as these Pharisees, etc., can blaspheme the Holy Spirit; an unsaved person, who has made no profession of faith, cannot blaspheme the Spirit; and when one does blaspheme the Holy Spirit, there will not be any desire to serve Christ, as there was no desire by the Pharisees, etc., to serve Christ), but is in danger of eternal damnation (refers to those who would attribute the Power of God to Satan, as the Pharisees had done; to label anything which is actually of God, as being of Satan is a serious offense indeed!):

³⁰Because they said, He has an unclean spirit (most serious).

JESUS TRUE KIN

³¹There came then His brethren (He had four brothers [Mat. 13:55], and several sisters) and his mother, and, standing without (outside of the house), sent unto Him, calling Him (they sent Him word by way of the crowd that they desired to see Him).

³²And the multitude sat about Him, and they said unto Him, Behold, Your mother and Your brethren without seek for You.

³³And He answered them, saying, Who is My mother, or My brethren? (He meant to place this relationship in its proper setting.)

³⁴And He looked round about on them which sat about Him (presents a look that is serious, but yet not critical), and said, Behold My mother and My brethren! (He gestures toward those who hungrily desired to hear His Words, and answered His Own question.)

³⁵For whosoever shall do the Will of God (proclaims the qualifications for the high and lofty position of being in His family), the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother (places all Born-Again Believers in a status even greater than flesh-and-blood relationships, while never for a moment demeaning those relationships).