Mark 3:20-27

Mark 3: 20 – 27 And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. 21When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses."
22The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."
23And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25"If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26"If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!
27"But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

Jesus “came home” to Capernaum, where He spent most of His ministry days. As always, massive crowds came to surround Him. His people, His family, had traveled from Nazareth to take Him back because they thought He had lost His mind! At that time, except for Mary, His family didn’t believe in Him. They didn’t understand His mission. Jesus was focused on magnifying God and sharing His love with others. Loving, blessing and teaching the truth. He didn’t take time for personal rest or even meals sometimes. He spent His time on the task of redemption.

In verse 22, the scribes, who were the law experts and often Pharisees, had traveled down from Jerusalem. (No matter what direction you were going, you always came “down” from Jerusalem because it’s on a mountain.) They said he was inspired by Beelzebul, which was a pagan name for the devil.

The scribes could not stand His authority! They refused to submit to Him and had to come up with a reason to dispel His authority. There are many people on earth today who feel the same!

The two groups of people in this passage either felt like Jesus was deranged or of the devil! When WE see what He’s doing we need to ask ourselves, “Am I interested in being like Jesus Christ? Glorifying God with our obedience and by sharing the gospel with a single minded focus?” If we have a genuine love for Jesus Christ, shouldn’t we have a genuine passion for His ministry?

John 5:17 says that God is working even now to accomplish His redemption. We need to be doing that too. That is OUR work. Every single Christian is called to a life of active ministry. Jesus set the example and we follow Him.

In the next verses Christ asks the question, how can Satan cast out Satan? In verse 27 He uses the image of a strong man. In the story Satan is the strong man and Christ is the one who comes into the house, binds him and makes him powerless. The property in Christ’s story of the strong man are the souls of men.
All unbelievers are under the power of the devil and their own sinful impulses. But Jesus controls the devil every time! If you notice in the Bible demons obeyed Him everytime!

Hebrews 2:14 – 15 14Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.