Called To and Called Out: Jesus, the Twelve, and the opposition.

Have you ever heeded a call? A request for volunteers, a step out in faith, to take some action you know would be extremely difficult, but you know you are supposed to do?

Mark 3:13–35 ESV

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Our Cast of Characters:

Jesus

His Followers

(Those He Called and Desired)

The Twelve

The Crowd

Jesus’s Family

(The Bread of the sandwich)

The Scribes:

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament Scribes

Scribes. Throughout the Roman Empire, local executors of legal documents. In Jewish Palestine these would be the people who also taught children how to read the Scriptures; many of them were experts in the legal issues contained in the law of Moses (i.e., they were predecessors of the rabbis); some of them were Pharisees.

Beelzebul/Satan

The New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition Baal-Zebub, Beelzebul

BAAL-ZEBUB, BEELZEBUL. 1. In OT Heb. ba‘al zebûḇ (‘lord of flies’), probably a mocking alteration of ba‘al zeḇûl (‘Prince *BAAL’), appears as the name of the god of Ekron, whom Ahaziah, king of Israel, tried to consult in his last illness (2 Ki. 1:1–6, 16).

2. In NT Gk. beelzeboul, beezeboul (Beelzebub in TR and AV) is the prince of the demons (Mt. 12:24, 27; Mk. 3:22; Lk. 11:15, 18f.), identified with Satan (Mt. 12:26; Mk. 3:23, 26; Lk. 11:18). In contemporary Semitic speech it may have been understood as ‘the master of the house’; if so, this phrase could be used in a double sense in Mt. 10:25b.

Beelzebul Means “lord of the Manor.” Hence, the strongman analogy.

1 Enoch claimed that when God allowed Israel to lose political control over it’s land, he allowed fallen angels to gain control ( Authority) over the land