One of my favorite preachers, Clarence Forsberg, tells a story about a man who realized his life-long ambition by going on a safari in Africa.

“He took along his wife, even though she was not the outdoors type. They set up camp in a jungle cleaning, and as he prepared to go out the first day he presented his wife with a little silver bell. He explained, ‘There is really nothing to worry about. I’m not going to be very far away. If you have any trouble at all, just ring this bell, and I’ll come right back.’ He kissed her goodbye and disappeared into the jungle.

“Five minutes later he heard the bell ring. He dashed back to camp and found his wife seated quite comfortably with a tall cool drink in her hand. He asked what had happened, and she said that she had begun to worry whether he would really be able to hear the bell. She just wanted to try it out. He was patient and explained again that he would be able to hear it. She was not to ring it unless there was a genuine emergency.

“With that he went back to hunting, but five minutes later he heard the bell. When he got back the second time, his wife explained that she had begun to worry whether she’d really be able to reach the bell. She was simply moving it closer, and in the process dropped it. Now he was really annoyed. He explained how much the safari was costing, how he had looked forward to bagging a trophy, and how he really didn’t appreciate running back and forth to camp. He didn’t want to hear that bell again unless she was in real trouble.

“With that he left for a third time, but five minutes later the bell rang. When he got back to camp, everything was in a shambles. Camp stools were overturned, the tent was torn down, and in the midst of all the debris, he saw his wife’s body; half a dozen poison arrows protruding from it, and the little silver bell clutched tightly in her hand. He surveyed the scene and then said, ‘Now that’s more like it!’” (Barry Boulware, “The Best of All”)

Something like that happened with the friends of Jesus. They were confused. The bell was ringing, the signals were coming. It was obvious Jesus had power. Listen to an earlier word in this third chapter of Mark:

“And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they should crush him; for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.

And whenever the unclean spirits beheld him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.”

The power was there, but the big question was, what was the source of that power? We will come back to that question head on in a moment because our primary focus today is the unforgivable sin.” The puzzling question, what is the unforgivable sin, is connected to an understanding of the nature and source of Jesus’ power.

But I want to take a side path before we move further on this main road of our thinking.

I

The side path is suggested by an early world in our lesson – the word about Jesus by his friends. Let’s read it there, verse 21:

“And when his friends heard it, they went out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is beside himself.”

What a suggestion - and how our minds begin to stir when we come to that word, “He was beside himself.”

Rehearse the scene now. “Jesus is in a house in his hometown. Mark says people were crowded so tightly that they could not eat, which I suppose means that there was no elbow room. He’s in there preaching, “With authority”. That’s the way Mark describes Jesus’ preaching, not only in this text, but throughout the gospel. Whenever Jesus preached, he got action. His words produced a change in the lives of those who heard it. He spoke with authority, ‘not like the scribes and he Pharisees.”

Jesus’ family is there, though not inside. They are outside. Some people come to them and said, “He’s back, he’s home. You better come. He is beside himself.” Jesus had left that tow a few years before, got mixed up with John the Baptist and ever since then he’s been different. He’s pot the way he was when he grew up, they said, “He is beside himself.” They think He is crazy. His family is embarrassed and they came to take him home to talk some sense into Him.

The Scribes are there, too. They’ve come down from Jerusalem. The Scribes were the authorities in scripture. They knew scripture forward and backwards. Anything you wanted to know about scripture, they could tell you. They’re there, too, and they’re outside. They’re saying he’s possessed by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. It’s not quite like saying that he’s crazy, something like it, but not quite. It’s more like saying he’s duped. He may not realize what he’s doing, but he’s doing the devil’s work.

So the scene is set and Mark wants us to make up our mind. Where would you be in this scene? Would 9 be inside with those who listened with open minds and eager hearts? Or would we be outside with those who say, “He is beside himself.” Where would you be?

Those questions suggest this side path that we want to take back on the main road we’ve chosen for today.

First, note that Jesus’ family was involved. When some of the townspeople began to say, he was “beside himself” those who knew Jesus most intimately decided it would be best to isolate him away from the crowd.

“We’re not even sure what motivated them to take Jesus away. We would like to think that was their love and concern for Him.

But here is a challenging line of thought. We feel threatened or vulnerably exposed because someone close to home is in trouble.

Isn’t that the reason families of alcoholics and drug addicts often become enablers of the sick person? Is that the reason folks close themselves off from the loving support they need when a loved one or family member is going through psychiatric treatment or maybe is in trouble with the law, or is on the verge of bankruptcy. We’re embarrassed. We don’t want our friends to know. We’re afraid of what think. We’re actually protecting our own selves, and at great cost.

“There is reason to think that alongside whatever deep concern they felt for Jesus, the brothers of Jesus and perhaps even Mary – chaffed under great personal embarrassment’.’ (Carl F.Henry, Ibid). And that’s a challenge to us in our relation to needy family members where is our main concern?

The second challenging thought to consider while we’re on this side path. Isn’t there a tendency on our part to try to discredit the experience of others when we are intimidated by their experience?

Think about it for a moment. Haven’t you felt threatened by a close friend, or even a family member who moved to a new level of Christian commitment, and began to take his or her Christian discipleship more seriously.

Maybe she began to talk more - to witness. You’ve not heard this sort of language before, not from a person like her, President of the Junior League or the Garden Club. She talks about “being born again” or about prayers being answered in such an explicit manner...and we are threatened.

Or, he on some new involvement he goes to serve in the Salvation Army’s Soup Kitchen or to help build a home for a poor family. So out of the character with this button-down collar executive. He even talks about meeting Jesus in the poor whom he serves.

Both of them join a weekly prayer or Bible study group and they love to talk about what they see in Jesus doing in the lives of people, and that’s a bit much.

You see, our religious neutrality, our middle of the road faith, is threatened “whenever someone we know well takes spiritual commitments seriously and refuses any longer to play hide-and—seek and touch-and-go with the living God.” (Carl F. H. Henry, Ibid, p. 149)

So we try to discredit it all. “He’s beside himself”.

One other thought now on our side path. To an unregenerate a world even to persons in the church, who are not spiritually sensitive, not only to Jesus but His ardent followers will seem “beside themselves” – out of step with reality.

The early Christians weren’t much surprised therefore when the worldly-wise despised them as fools and called their preaching foolishness. “We are fools,” writes the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 4:1) - absurd an idiodic embarked on a wrong course, and doing mad things, “we are fools for Christ’s sake.” (Carl F. H. Henry, Ibid., p. 150)

Now a clinching question on our side path: Do you reckon anyone has ever said of you, because of your Christian commitment, “he’s beside himself?” It would be a compliment if they did.

II

Now let’s get back on to the main path of our sermon today: the unforgiveable sin.

I said earlier that the puzzling question, “What is the unforgiveable sin”, is connected to an understanding of the nature and source of Jesus’ power. There are three truths we need to keep clear.

One, the power of Jesus’ ministry was the Holy Spirit The scribes had resisted the Holy Spirit and had gone so far as to declare that Jesus was possessed by the prince of demons. They had rejected God Himself. So, underscore that. The power of Jesus’ ministry was the Holy Spirit.

Two, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to enable us to say that Jesus is Lord. Now I don’t mean that that’s the total ministry of the Holy Spirit, but that is a big part of the Spirit’s work in our life. Paul put it clearly in I Corinthians 12:

“Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, ‘Jesus be cursed’, and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

Do you see what that means? Within our own self, our own strength, our own wisdom, our own gifts – within our own self – we cannot make Jesus Lord - self is too strong. The power of sin is too pervasive in our lives. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to make Jesus Lord of our life.

Three, and now we come to the crux of our question resistance to the Holy Spirit s the unforgiveable sin. The problem with the scribes was that they did not accept Jesus as Messiah and Lord. But that’s our sin against the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is active, seeking to bring us to this point of yielding our life to Jesus as Lord. If we refuse the influence of the Holy Spirit, then we close the door on our chance for eternal life. Remember, sin is separation. So, to sin against the Holy Spirit is to say “no” to Jesus gracious appeal and pleading to be Savior and Lord of our lives.

Let’s be very specific now. Keep the focus clear. Resistance to the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin. What form might that take in our lives? Let me list three very obvious ones.

One, to live in our own power, refusing the power of the Indwelling Christ, is to resist the Holy Spirit and to sin against Him.

Two, to accept Jesus as Savior, but to reject his Lord ship in our relationships is to sin against the Holy Spirit.

Three, to accredit to Satan power which Satan does deserve, and to give in to that power rather than to trust Christ for deliverance, is sinning against the Holy Spirit.

In how many ways do we do sin against the Holy Spirit? Fired by our own self-will and self-determination, we convince ourselves that we can control our lives without the help of the Spirit. Giving ourselves to arrogance and pride, we think that we can shape relationships the way we wish them to be and handle our problems on our own terms, refusing to receive the energizing power that the Holy Spirit offers for us to live the Christian life. We even become more distorted in our thinking when we confront some misfortune, some tragedy in our life, we say that it comes from the devil, and we give up in hopeless despair. We forget that Satan cannot cast out Satan; only Christ can do that. But to give up is to give in to Satan and to credit Satan with a victory that he doesn’t deserve.

Now, let me press the issue – a closing point that is crucial. Jesus’ statement about the unforgivable sin says much more about us than it does about God. There is absolutely no sin which God is not willing to forgive.

Last Sunday I preached about casting out demons. I started to use a story then that has so much to do with ministry of Jesus in our life, t decided to hold it until today because it has so much to do, also, with this whole business of sinning again t the Holy Spirit.

It comes from a disturbing news story that was carried last summer by the Associated Press (Summer 1986). It read as follows:

Parishoners of an historic Episcopal church are still in shock over the resignation of their priest, who took off his vestments and left by a side door after announcing in a Sunday morning sermon that a witch had cursed his life.

“It was like a family breaking up,” said one church leader of the abrupt resignation of Henry L. Scott from the 326- year-old St. Philip’s Church in Charleston, South Carolina. For tw and one-half years Scott served as rector of St. Philip’s, the oldest church in South Carolina, which dominates picturesque Church Street in this port city. Scott had studied at Yale and Harvard and received his divinity degree from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge. During his tenure in Charleston, the congregation grew and he became a respected leader in the city.

Then on May 18, the 41-year-old rector made his unprecedented announcement. In his sermon he told how in 1967 he dated a woman from Vassar who told him she was a witch and put a curse upon his life. And the priest said, “Now I was a sophisticated New Yorker who had an Ivy League education, and I believed witches were for Halloween and sort of ridiculous…I thought it was a joke, but for 19 years, ensuing from that relationship, a pattern of bondage developed in my life. I cried out to God for freedom and nothing I did released me. So to keep from dragging God’s name in the mud, I am giving up.”

What a spiritual tragedy! It is one thing to feel cursed and possessed; it is another to give up on God, whose love in Jesus Christ was dragged through the mud and crucified, but is forever alive with resurrection power to set Henry Scott and all us free from demons, curses, guilt and sin, to bring light for our darkness and to give us new life.” (sermon by Don Shelby, “Never Say ‘Never”, November 9, 1986, First United Methodist Church, Santa Monica, CA 90403).

I hope you can see how that story brings the question to where my focus has been today – not upon an ultimate sin against the Holy Spirit which forever condemns us to hell – but the fact that day in and day out, many of us are sinning against the Holy Spirit. If that continues ultimately, it well be sin against the Holy Spirit which will close the door to our eternal life with God. So we need to ask ourselves, Am I resisting the Holy Spirit – is there any area in my life where I’m refusing to accept Jesus as Lord? Am I not willing for the Holy Spirit to break my bondage to self-will? Am I becoming insensitive – the need of the Lord’s forgiving grace in my life? There is the possibility that we may drift so far from the influence of God’s Spirit, that we would no longer see any need to be forgiven – if we got to that point we would be closed off from God’s grace, and that would be the unforgivable sin for us.