Epaggelia

Rebuked their leadership in the Temple, Jn. 2:13-22

Broke their traditional interpretation of the Sabbath laws & hand-washing, Mk. 2:23-28.

Called for repentance & baptism, Jn. 4:1-3, Lk. 7:28-35.

Could Jesus really be diabolical? Mk. 3:22. This is a false accusation and very illogical, Mt. 12:26-29. In the context of their own culture it backfired upon the accusers, Mt. 12:27. A Christian should think twice before taking legal action against someone who slanders us, because of how Jesus handled it and Solomon’s wisdom, Prv.10:18, usually fools are speedily judged by God. The Pharisees died off, but Christianity grew! Today many Jews hold Jesus in high regard, there is even a “Messianic Jews for Jesus Movement” in Israel. Back then and now, people of his own fleshly family still have their doubts about the sanity of Jesus, Mk.3:21,32.

His actions proved the nearness of His Kingdom, and were overpowering Satan the strongman, Mt. 12:28-29.  The Finger of God is a powerful phrase, Lk. 11:20. Remember the title, SON of DAVID is full of victorious hope. Even as early as Ezekiel, David became the ruler who was to govern the restored people of Israel (Eze 34:23-24; 37:24). If there were to be a ruling house, it must be the Davidic dynasty; it did not occur to the Jews to think of any other solution (Am 9:11; Hos 3:5; Jer 30:9; Zec 12:8). That Jesus was descended from David (Mt 9:27, etc.) is proved by the fact that his enemies did not deny that this was true (22:41 ff).  Jesus referred to David’s actions (unless otherwise stated) as worthy of imitation (Mt 12:3); but yet were not identical with the Messiah (Ac 2:29 ff; 13:36) who has power over the life to come (Rv 3:7) and who is “the Root of David” (5:5; 22:16).

Mk. 3:29, Slandering essentially is blaspheming, and Jesus wants us to know that God understands our confusion and ignorance in slandering Him in anger or pain, but to blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to denigrate the very nature of God, and assigning Him a place as low as Satan. God delivers our forgiveness, Satan delivers our deception. Basically, He means that He won’t forgive someone who doesn’t want to be forgiven. Thankfully, the good news is that the act of blaspheming or slander is something that can be stopped and corrected. Past tense sins can be halted. However, present tense, ongoing sins cannot be corrected, nor can we make restitution for them, such as murder. Once we have killed someone, they are forever gone and no amount of money or apologizing can make restitution, we are only left to pay our debt to society and rely on God’s gracious forgiveness based upon our confession and obedience. However, committing blasphemy can be stopped, corrected and we can try to make restitution for the damage done, but while we are slandering the Holy Spirit, forgiveness is impossible. Reference, Hebrews 6:3-8. The present ongoing tense of ‘crucifying once again” the Son of God to our own harm, is today, the same as blaspheming the Holy Spirit. How many people today are convinced they are unworthy of being forgiven and beyond hope? Jesus wants everyone to believe that when we slander, we really only set ourselves up for our own eventual demise.