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CAN SATAN CAST OUT SATAN? (Matt 12:22 37; Mark 3:20 30;
Luke 11:14 23; GTh 35,43,44,70,98) Galilee
Then Jesus entered into a certain house, and once again so many people gathered within
it that he and his followers could not even eat bread there. As soon as his family caught
wind of it, they went over to get him, for they were all saying, "He has gone completely
insane!" Then they brought this blind, deaf and demon-possessed man up to him, and Jesus
healed him, driving out the demon of muteness, restoring both his speech and sight. And after
the demon was gone, the hitherto speechless man began to speak, and the crowd was astonished,
and they all began to wonder aloud, "Could this man be the Son of David?"
But when the Pharisees and lawyers come down from Jerusalem heard such talk, all of them
began to say, "This man is possessed by Beelzebub! He is only driving out demons with the help
of that Prince of Demons!" Others put him to the test by demanding some kind of heavenly
sign. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, called them
over to himself and started speaking to them in parables. "How can Satan cast out Satan?
Every nation divided against itself comes to ruin. No kingdom with an internal rift
has any lasting dominion, and no house that is self-opposed can go on for very long, for
every city or house that acts against itself has no prospects for survival. If Satan battles
against (and) casts out Satan, he is torn apart (and) cannot abide. He is caught in
a civil war, so how is his kingdom supposed to endure? His end has come! This I say because
you claim that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if it is by Beelzebub that I am ousting
demons, then by whom do your people cast them out? These will therefore be your judges.
If, however, I cast out demons by God’s own Spirit--the finger of God--then God’s
kingdom has risen upon you. "The Father’s kingdom is like someone who
sought to kill a powerful man. Even before he left his home, he took his sword and thrust
it into the wall to see if his hand would pass through. Then he slew the mighty one.
When a stout man in full armor guards his own home, his possessions remain secure. But
when someone stronger assaults and vanquishes him, he seizes the armor on which the man
relied and distributes the plunder. To put it yet another way, how is it possible for
anyone to enter into a strong man’s home and make away with what he owns unless he
first binds up the brute? Clearly, no one can go into his house and take of his things
unless he ties him up ahead of time; only then will he be able to plunder the abode.
Whoever is not for me is against me, and the one who does not gather with me only scatters.
And truly this is why I say that every sin and blasphemy of mankind will be forgiven
them; anyone who speaks a contemptuous word against the Father has forgiveness, and anyone
who rails against the Son of Man has forgiveness, but no one who blasphemes the Holy Spirit
has forgiveness; neither on the earth in this age, nor in heaven during the age to come,
but is guilty of eternal sin." (This he said because they claimed that he had an unclean
spirit.) "How can you children of vipers speak anything
reliably, seeing how thoroughly evil you are? For the mouth speaks what is from the heart.
If you bring out what is in yourself, then what you have within you will deliver you.
If you do not have it in yourself, then what you lack will do you in. The virtuous man
brings choice things up from the good that he has stockpiled within, and the evil man
brings vile things up from the sinfulness within himself. But I am here to tell you
that on the Day of Judgment, men will be forced to answer for every word that they have spoken.
For either by your words will you be acquitted, or else by your words you will be condemned."
His followers asked him, "Who are you to speak this way to us?" "You do not recognize who
I am through the words that I speak, but have instead become like the Jews, for they either
love the tree and hate the fruit, or they love the fruit and hate the tree. Either make
a good tree that gives only good fruit, or make a bad tree that gives only poor fruit,
for a tree is known by the fruit it bears." THE LEADERS ASK FOR A SIGN
(Matt 12:38 45; Luke 11:29 32) Galilee
Then, as the gathering pushed forward, some Pharisees and lawyers bid him, "Teacher, we
would like to see you perform some kind of miraculous sign." "Only an evil, unfaithful
kind of people would need a sign," Jesus explained. "This is indeed a wicked nation! It always
calls for signs and wonders, but the only sign that it will be given will be that of
the prophet Jonah. For in the same way that Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also
will the Son of Man be a sign to this people. You see, for three days and three nights,
Jonah was in the belly of a giant fish. And just like him, for three days and three nights,
the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. The people of Nineveh will stand up
at the judgment with this generation and pass sentence against it because they changed their
ways at the preaching of Jonah, yet here and now stands someone who is greater than Jonah.
The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment alongside this generation of men
and condemn them, because she came from the farthest reaches of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon, and here and now stands a greater than Solomon."
FUTILE REPENTANCE AND THE LIGHT OF THE SPIRIT
(Matt 12:43 45; Luke 11:24 28, 33 36; GTh 50,74,75,79)
Galilee "When an evil spirit leaves a man, it wanders
about through arid places seeking repose, but finds it not, so it says, ‘I will go
back to my old home.’ But when it gets there, it finds the house in good order and swept
clean, but also vacant. It then goes and finds seven spirits even more disgusting than itself
and they go in and make themselves at home, and that man winds up worse off than he started
out. That is exactly how this generation of degenerates is going to end up!"
And as Jesus was saying these things, a woman shouted from the crowd, "How blessed is the
womb that bore you and the *** that nursed you!" But Jesus said, "No! How blessed are
those who hear God’s word and hold to it, for the days are coming when you will say,
‘How blessed is the womb that never conceived and the *** that never nursed.’
"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hidden place, (or) underneath a basket. He puts it
on a stand instead, so that those who go in might see by its light. The lamp of your body
is your eye. When you’ve got good eyes, your entire body shines. But when they are
bad, your whole body remains dim. You had better make sure that the light within you
isn’t really darkness instead. For this reason, if your whole body beams with light
and there is no darkness in it, it will then be fully lit, just as though it were filled
with lamplight. If they should ask you, ‘Where are you from?’ for their sake, explain to
them, ‘We came from the place of light, from where the light came into being all by
itself and organized into images.’ If they should ask you, ‘Are you that light?’
reveal to them, ‘We are the ones whom the light brought forth, and we are the chosen
of the Living Father.’ If they ask you, ‘What evidence is there that the Father
is within you?’ simply answer, ‘It is movement and it is stillness.’ Many are
gathered around the drinking trough," he said, "but there is nothing in the well; many stand
outside the door, but it is the solitary who enter into the bridal chamber."
JESUS’ TRUE FAMILY (Matt 12:46 50; Mark 3:31 35;
Luke 8:19 21, GTh 99) Galilee
Jesus’ mother and his brothers came to pay him a visit, but when they arrived at the
place they could not get anywhere near him on account of the crowd. They wished to speak
with him, so they sent someone in to call him out as they stood outside and waited for
him. Even as Jesus was addressing the crowd seated around him, one of them informed him,
"Your mother and your brothers are standing outside looking for you. They would like to
see you and have a word with you." "Who is my mother," he asked them, "and who are my
brothers?" Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him, and pointing to his
disciples he said, "My mother and my brothers are here with me. You see, whoever hears the
word of God and acts on it, carries out the will of God, Who is in heaven, who is my Father--they
are my brother, sister, and mother; and these are the ones who will make it into my Father’s
kingdom."