If you'd like to turn with me in your Bibles this morning to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 3. Gospel of Mark, Chapter 3, and we'll begin our reading at verse 12, and we'll read through to verse 30. Mark, Chapter 3, verse 12 through 30. Congregation, hear the word of the Lord. And he straightway charged them that they should not make him known. And he goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would, and they came unto him. And he ordained 12 that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. And Simon he surnamed Peter, James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James and he surnamed them Bonerges which is the sons of thunder and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alpheus and Thaddeus the and Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot which also betrayed him and they went into and house and And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him, for they said, he is beside himself. And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said that he hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. And he called them unto him and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house. Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation, because they said he hath an unclean spirit thus far. And the Lord will add his blessing to the reading of his own holy and infallible word. If you'd like to turn with me in your Bibles this morning once again to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 3. And with the Lord's help, we're going to be looking at verse 21 Mark chapter 3 at verse 21 that reads when his friends heard of it, they went out and lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself. Congregation, historically, Capernaum was a fishing village that was located along the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was a small fishing town of about 1,500 people or residents. Recent archaeology has found two synagogues and one Christian church in that particular town. Some have said that that Christian church is so ancient that many have said that perhaps this was the Apostle Peter's home church. There's really no way of verifying that, but it certainly is intriguing. Early on in the ministry of Jesus, He determined that he was going to go through this region and he was going to spend time in Capernaum. In fact, he spent so much time in Capernaum that we could almost consider it his home away from home. It was a place he loved to go and perform many mighty miracles and preach the gospel of the kingdom in the synagogues, in the streets, wherever he could find a place where people were gathered. The difficulty of his ministry in Capernaum and in this region was that It caused a great stir among the religious ruling class. So here we're thinking about the leaders of the synagogue, those men, the elders, and so forth, the Pharisees and the scribes who were connected to the church at Jerusalem. And the Lord Jesus in his preaching greatly troubled these teachers. And because the Lord was so successful in preaching the gospel and performing these miracles, everyone started to flock to Capernaum. Think of this little tiny fishing village that suddenly has this massive influx of people from all over the place, from other fishing villages, from farms, and from neighboring towns. People were coming to hear what this rabbi, what this teacher had to say. Some of them were his friends, some of them we find were enemies. Some of them were family members. And so you think in your mind of this deluge of people coming to this very small town and stirring up a cauldron of controversy and excitement. It would have been quite remarkable, I think, for this place on the map that most people had forgotten about. The spotlight of Christ had been intensified by his breaking of the rabbinical Sabbath laws. We find that in the second chapter. You remember that he was picking corn through the field, and the elders felt that that was a violation of the fourth commandment, and he was rebuked by them. He then goes on to do what only the most advanced rabbis do, and he appointed apostles. He appointed disciples, 12 of them, in fact. This means that there was an establishment of the ministry of this rabbi and teacher. And the Pharisees didn't know what to make of it. They had not given him permission. They had not sanctioned his ministry. And so the leaders of the local synagogue in Capernaum apparently somehow communicated with Jerusalem, the head church. letting them know that this troublemaker was in their town, their region. And so the great Jerusalem Sanhedrin decided that they would send a delegate of scribes. We want you to go to Jerusalem. We want you to report back to us exactly what this rabbi is doing, what he's teaching. On the other side of the spectrum, you have his family members also coming to the same town. probably concerned for the safety of Jesus. News traveled very fast in that day. Verbally, probably in the form of. Gossip. house to house, marketplace to marketplace. But news had traveled also to his family that the Sanhedrin was not pleased, that the scribes and elders were not pleased with the ministry of the Lord. And so they're coming there to to rescue him from what could be a very perilous and dangerous outcome. Because we know, don't we, by reading that the scribes and the Pharisees wanted to eliminate him. They wanted to kill him. So they come to Capernaum with everyone else gathering in. And they're trying to lead him away to kind of bring him back home. Keep him safe, perhaps even in the back of their mind, save themselves from some family embarrassment. Remember, the ministry of Christ at this point had not been so fully revealed that his family members said, oh, we know that this is for the greater good. They were still discovering these things themselves, as was everyone else. And so the truth was, both friend and foe alike came to Capernaum to hear him and to see him, but they didn't know what to make of this preaching, this teaching, this miracle-working rabbi. We learned of the secret plan of the scribes and Pharisees. It had been hatched to kill him. And that news probably traveled in a not so secret way throughout the region. And so we come to this very interesting point in verse 21. The family members are very concerned. And in light of the controversy and the scribes and the elders coming, trying to find a way that they can remove him. The excuse that they give in light of his ministry is. He's beside himself, that was his family that said that. He's beside himself, he's not quite right. In the head. That's what the text is saying. They wanted to blunt the point that the scribes were making. What was the point the scribes were making? We're going to see some of that this afternoon. And that was this. He casts out devils by the prince of devils. This rabbi is actually working for Satan. The family comes by and says, no, no, nothing of the sort. He he's he's beside himself. He's he's a little touched in the head. That's the public excuse that they give. By telling everyone he's a little off. He's crazy. And you say, well, I don't see the word crazy in the text says beside himself, crazy is too strong a word. Well, the Greek actually says this insane. He is insane. According to his family, he's not right in his mind. And so the family comes to his rescue. Not much of a rescue. If you ask, ask me. But we can only assume that the word spoken here in his defense were spoken out of half pity. half embarrassment and completely wrong. And if we're going to think about it, we can probably gather some lessons this morning, not only about Christ, but about being a follower of Christ. And so our theme this morning will be the eccentric Christ and will have three brief thoughts. First, we're going to see that Christ was eccentric. Secondly, that believers are eccentric. And then lastly, by way of application, the sanity of the insane. Our theme, the eccentric Christ. Christ was eccentric. The believers are eccentric. And then lastly, the sanity of the insane. So the first point I want to make this morning is this. Christ was eccentric. And I'm going to define what that word means. But first, I want to set the stage a little bit. If we could try to place ourselves in the moment, let's say we know nothing about what the Old Testament has to say about the Lord Jesus prophetically. And let's also say that we know nothing about what the gospel says about the Lord in the epistles or even the book of Acts, all the way to the book of Revelation. For a moment, let's try to compartmentalize ourselves just to this moment. And by doing that, we actually place ourselves in the position of the family. If we would do this, I think we wouldn't be so hard on the family for saying he's beside himself. Remember that charges are just like this either out of jealousy or pity, have been leveled against the most gifted people in history. From Aristotle to Galileo to Isaac Newton to Vincent van Gogh to William Shakespeare to Albert Einstein, everyone who has ever broken a new path everyone who has fought outside of the box instead of in the box, everyone who has kind of shown a spark of brilliance that seems to be going in a different way, marking their own path, those who went against all of their teachers, who separated from tradition and ingrained formulas, Those who've been touched with a pure genius of any sort have been met with this criticism. I think he's a little off. He's a little crazy. And this is the short and easy way, congregation, we excuse ourselves in the presence of brilliance. in the presence of greatness. He's beside himself. He's not quite right in the head. And think for a moment, what is the proof that he is beside himself? The proof that he is beside himself is this. He doesn't act the way everyone else acts. He doesn't fit the mold that we think normal people ought to fit in. There's nothing that common men dislike more than fresh, original ideas. And there's nothing that men of very basic ability, normal ability, are completely unable to understand is this, the creative spark of someone else. I don't get it. I don't have a clue what he's talking about. It must be a little off. And whenever they can't avoid that light, they gather around that light like bats in a cave. that see a flashlight or a torch and they flap their wings and they screech trying to put out that light. History tells this story with different people a thousand times over. It's not right in the head. But no more than No more so than John's words of Christ. If you remember them at the beginning of his gospel in him, that is, Christ was life and the and the life was the light of men and that light shone in the darkness and the darkness. Comprehended it not. They didn't understand it. They didn't get it. One old author said that the mark of genius is that all simple men are against him. And scripturally speaking, I think we could say that the mark of a child of God is this, that the world is going to say he's beside himself. She's beside herself. They're not quite right in the head. And so the most brilliant light that ever shone in this world was marked by this slur. He's crazy. The purest, most perfect, beautiful, towering, selfless life that ever lived was said on the one hand in this chapter by his family. He's beside himself. And on the other hand, they said he has a devil. No one understood him. Why was this? because Christ was eccentric. What does it mean to be eccentric? We think of an old man, a fictitious person, who all his life long butters his bread before he puts it in the toaster. Or he gets up in the morning and when he puts his socks on, he puts them on inside out because he hates that line at the end of the sock. He can feel it. And so I'm just going to turn it inside out. Every pair of socks he owns, he turns inside out. That's eccentric. A very eccentric person in history was Oscar Wilde, who would walk through Wall Street in New York with a lobster on a leash. Everywhere he went, he had a lobster on a leash. It was his pet. It's eccentric. We look at that and we say, what? That makes no sense at all. Well, we say these people are eccentric. It's like they have a whole different way of thinking than normal people. We use the word when we want to describe someone who's a little weird, right? That's what eccentric is, just a little weird. But that's not what we mean here when we speak of an eccentric Christ. I want you to think of the word in its meaning, eccentric. It's made up of two words, ec, which means away, and centros, which means center. He's away from the center. Children, think of our planets. Think of our solar system. We have the sun in the center of our solar system. And then what revolves around the sun? All of the planets revolve around the sun. We say in science, you older students, we call that heliocentric, sun-centered. The center of our solar system that everything revolves around is the sun. And so this is what eccentric means, away from the center. Or instead of the word away, use the word another, another center. Christ had another center. He revolved around something or someone else. And that's why people didn't get him. That's why they couldn't understand him. Christ's orbit. If we can say it like this, Christ's orbit was the father. Christ came to do the will of the Father. Christ came to preach the gospel of the Kingdom. And He says, My Kingdom is not of this world. Christ was otherworldly, motivated by the infinite depths of the Triune Council of Peace. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. And so in Christ lay the hidden point for which he came. to reconcile sinners to the father. To seek and to save that which was lost, pure, holy, undefiled, motivated by a triune love for lost sinners. That was his center. And because that was his center, that was his orbit, to us, he's eccentric. And so these two responses that we find in the text, he's crazy or he has a devil, and we're going to look at the second part this afternoon, both testify that his life inexplicably could not be reconciled to ordinary minds. They couldn't understand him. And they bear witness to his complete bypassing of ordinary things and his complete distraction to a higher purpose. Both friend and foe, it seemed to be unbelievable delusion that could never be true what he teaches and who he says he is. So they witnessed it, but they didn't understand it. They witnessed his heart's desire, but they couldn't believe it. To tell a world lost in sin that I am sent from God to do his will to bring peace to a great war. And that great war is between fallen sons and daughters of Adam and my father. That salvation has come. That no person is too lost, no sin is so great that I cannot redeem them from it. And it was because of these very things that his family and friends say, he's beside himself. In essence, what did they do? Both sides, those who said he had a demon and those who said that he's beside himself, they judged Christ through their own lenses. There are as many different definitions of great men as there are people to admire them. This diversity of greatness, it fills history books, it fills halls of fame, it fills museums, galleries, But the eye sees what the eye sees and no more. And so to discern the greatness of a great man or the brilliance of a brilliant man, one has to possess in a smaller form the same quality. Children, where does the moon's light come from? The moon doesn't have its own light. Where does the moon's light come from? It comes from the sun and then it's reflected back on earth. And if you were on earth, if you were on the moon, it would be the light of the sun upon the earth that would reflect back to the moon. It's borrowed light. And in the same way here, when we get down to it, To properly discern what is in Christ, I have to see if there's anything of him in myself. To see that he's not beside himself. He's not crazy. There's something real, that there's something beautiful. And so, congregation, the greatest question in all of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, the greatest question in the Bible is this. What think ye of Christ? What do you think of Christ? You tell me the answer to that question and you will reveal your own heart. That question, in a way, was asked to old Simeon when he took the infant Christ in his arms and he looked into his face. Do you remember what old Simeon said? He said, this child is set for the rising and falling of many in Israel, that the thoughts of the heart may be revealed. He saw Christ through the refracted light of himself because the Spirit of God was dwelling in old Simeon. He had that gift of faith, that gift of the Holy Spirit. And so your answer to this question betrays your whole spiritual condition. So to judge Christ is really to judge yourself. Jesus asked Peter, whom do men say that I am? Well, that's an easy question to answer. But the very difficult and all-important question is the next question He asked Peter, and whom do you Say that I am. You say with Nathaniel, another beloved disciple of Christ, Rabbi. Thou art the son of God. Thou art the king of Israel. That was refracted, reflected light. It's identifying with him because something saving has happened in the heart. And so this makes the true believer. What also eccentric. Which brings us to our second thought this morning. So first Christ is eccentric. The second thing is the believer is eccentric. The one thing, or at least the principal thing, which the Christian church needs in this generation is not conformity to this world, but it's a little more eccentricity. It would be a great deal better for us, for those of us who call ourselves believers, if we would earn the world's sneers They're beside themselves, that church in Mitchell. They're a little off. They're not quite right in the head. But our modern church, like a tightrope walker across the Niagara, tries to to balance between the world and the church. Well, we don't want to become too fanatical. We don't want to become too eccentric or or we're going to be looked at by the world as as. Crazy. So we need to temper and tamp down the reality of what Christ actually preached. And that is this, that we're all sinners by nature. We're all in need of a saving work in our hearts. We all need to come to Christ as sinners and be converted as children. Unless he becomes a little child, Jesus says, he shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. So the question is, do we walk in Christ's footsteps? Do we follow the path of Christ? If you do, the same missiles that were thrown at Christ from friend and foe alike will be thrown at you, congregation. If a church or individual has earned the praise of the world because the religion that they live is cool or modern If that's what the world thinks of the church, then the church has become geocentric. And the science students in this room will remember what geocentric is, earth-centered. If the world loves you, you have become earth-centered, not Christ-centered. And isn't that the struggle of the church today? Isn't that our biggest problem? We're trying to walk a tightrope between not being looked at as uncool and maintaining the truths of the old paths. Because somehow we have adopted in our modern day, even in the reformed churches, we've adopted the idea that we don't want to be looked at as uncool. We don't want to be looked at as otherworldly. So what do we do? We pair off the sharp edges of the gospel. We make it a little more easy to believe, a little more palatable to the world. Because we think that the world has defined. What truth is and what's acceptable, not the word of God. And so comfortable, moderate Christianity is not true Christianity. Jesus says in John 15, if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. That doesn't mean we go out looking for fights. It doesn't mean we go out looking to be strange and to be marked as, as, as bizarre, but to live a life that is in conformity to Christ is going to bring that charge. And so what they say about Christ, they will in one way, shape or form also say about you as an individual, if you are Christ and as a church, they're a little off. I don't get them. They're pretty strange. You see, the life of a true disciple is a life of devotion and conformity to Christ's pattern. a self-sacrificing surrender without minding one bit what this perishing world thinks of us. In congregation, I don't think professing Christians are in half as much danger of dropping the truth of the gospel, the central element of the gospel, the standards of the Christian faith by persecution from ISIS, global terror, even persecution from within our nation, as much as by worldliness. that enters the church by its members because we don't want to be looked at as strange. That will be the death of us. That is what will change us. And so don't take your ideas of what is a reasonable Christian life from the world around you, no matter how they may even profess to be followers of Christ. That we must keep near to the master and that we would be able to say with Paul, listen to these words. But with me, he says, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or man's judgment. It's a very small thing, he says, what the world actually thinks of me. Never mind if they say, oh, she's a fanatic. Or he's a little off. Better that than to be patted on the back by a world that likes nothing more than a church whose teeth have been filed and whose claws have been removed. With no potency. No being against the world. And by against the world we mean by living a life that knows that the greatest need in our day is the same as the need that has always been since Adam in the garden. That fallen man need a savior from sin. That man in all of his professed wisdom and brilliance cannot save himself. Whether it be by environmentalism or government or warfare or philosophy or ethics, that it must be found in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the one who is touched by the eccentric Christ becomes eccentric themselves. It just happens. And the problem is, in our day, the church at large in North America are egocentric, self-centered. Life revolves around self. This is true even in spiritual matters. They spend far more time looking at self than looking at Christ, for instance. Paul says to Corinth, for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but by the spirit of God. And so we can say this, Christ's thinking, Christ's ways, Christ's things are eccentric in their understanding. They are of a different orbit than this world. And congregation, if we were beside ourselves, we would see these things. So the child of God is also eccentric. His or her life is hid with Christ in God. Or as our form for the Lord's Supper says, they seek their life outside of themselves in Christ. So congregation, let's move to our final thought this morning by way of application. I want to talk about the sanity of the insane. The sanity of the insane. In other words, those who are true followers of Christ. whom the world says are crazy. I want to talk about their actual sanity. And so, to this point, congregation, we've seen that Christ was eccentric, that He had another orbit, that was the Father and the Father's will. We see how the true disciple will also be eccentric. Not dancing to the tune of this dying world, but to another. and suffering for it. Again, not that they're going out looking to suffer, but they just will because of their lives. And so I want to give you in closing three short examples and ask you what you think of these examples. They said Christ was insane. He was beside himself. And tell me, after hearing about these three people, and they're made-up people, obviously, congregation, I don't know you. From what I hear, a very easy-to-love congregation, and so I don't say this with any prejudice, preach this in my own pulpit, but I think these people live in every congregation. three made-up people that might be found in the pews this morning without searching too far. First, think of a young man or woman who, like most of us, believes that there is a God and believes that he or she has something to do with him, that they are going to come to the end of their years. They are going to breathe their last breath, and they are going to leave this world, and in some way they have a connection with this idea that they're going to stand before their Maker. They have this idea when they are really pressed, when they are really told to think about it, and they have to agree that, yes, there is a God, and one day I'm going to stand before Him. And yet from Monday morning to Saturday night, he ignores all of these facts. And never allows them to influence him or her. It never really has an impact on their life, their lives. Can I speak directly to you this morning? If this describes you, this, this made up person. It would be exactly the same for you if you said, I don't believe any of this that you've just said in the first two points. I don't believe any of it. It would be the exact same thing if you said that. Why? Because the fact that there is a God doesn't make a bit of difference to what you do or how you think or how you live your life. The fact that there is an eternity makes just as little a difference. Let's say it's the summertime. Let's say it's vacation time. You're going far away on a family vacation and you've spent the weeks previous plotting out your course, making sure you have your maps or GPS in order, all the clothes you need, all the money you'll need, your passports. You make plans for this trip. What if you never made plans? You're going to Florida. You never made any plans whatsoever. Would you say that that person is smart? But you are going on a trip, dear soul, very soon. You ask those elderly. this morning in our congregation who are celebrating birthdays in their old age and young person to sit down with them and to say, how quickly does life really pass? And they'll say, Oh, so quickly. So fast. It seems just yesterday I was your age. And here I am now in my advanced years. But you, dear soul, you're going on a trip very soon, and that trip is to eternity. And you confess all of these things. You're an intelligent man. You're an intelligent woman. You are very likely, in many ways, a very nice and pleasant person. You do many things that are good and admirable, even. You're moral. You've cultivated virtue. You walk carefully, you you abhor many sins of this world, but you never really think about God and his Christ. For your own soul. And you have, if you were to be honest with yourself, absolutely no preparation whatsoever for stepping into the place which you know. That you will spend eternity. And so you may be very wise, you may be very educated and cultivated and all the rest. But I want to know whether taking into account everything that you are and and your unavoidable appointment with God and your certain death and certain entrance into a state of eternity. I want to know whether we should call your remaining unconverted this morning. Sane or insane. Which one? Here's a second example. Here's someone who believes and really believes that the articles of our Christian faith. And in some measure has received them into his heart and life. He believes that Jesus Christ, the son of God, died for sinners upon the cross, and yet And yet he, his heart has, has just the, the, the feeblest beating pulse for him. He knows, for instance, that prayer will help in all circumstances. He knows that here, but he hardly ever prays. He knows that self-denial is the law of the Christian life, and yet he lives completely for himself. And he knows in theory that here upon this earth he is a pilgrim and a stranger, and yet his heart clings to this world like a man who is being swept down the Niagara River over the falls. He's grabbing onto whatever he can possibly grab onto on the shore. trying to stave off and eliminate the eventual falling over the falls. They treat the world like the shore, grabbing everything that they can. He knows that the Christian is to live differently, and yet from out of his self-absorbed life, there is hardly ever one spark of light that comes from it for others to see Christ in him. And that is the picture, not exaggerated, of the enormous majority of professing so-called Christians in this so-called Christian land. And I want to know, should we call that sanity or insanity? And the last of these fictional persons, I want you to think of a man or a woman that keeps close touch with Christ. Because by true repentance and faith, he or she has been born again. They have come to see the one purpose that Christ came to this world for, and that is to seek and to save the lost. And they have said, I am. The lost. And I have seen the depths of my own heart. And I have seen the beauty. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. To save someone as ugly and wretched as myself. Like Christ, he desires to say, Lo, I come. I delight to do thy will, O Lord. Thy law is written in my heart. He desires to to yield to the strong motives and the strong principles that flow from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And drawn by the mercies of God, he gives himself a living sacrifice to be used in whatever way the Lord would see fit. And this person, he, he aims so high, but he hits so low and it grieves him, which brings him again. Afresh. To that wondrous cross. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's where his trembling hope relies. There's this reoccurring thought, this reoccurring realization of the unseen future. There is this this vivid picture. that He is going to enter eternity, that one day He will stand before His Maker, but this time not with a sense of judgment, but with the inauguration of that wondrous day when I will no longer have to battle against sin, that that victory is coming when the warfare will be over and the fullness of Christ will finally be realized. And oh, how he or she longs for that day and lives, though stumbling so often, lives with eternity in their hearts. Let me ask you a question, is that life and that conduct sane or insane? Dear one, listen to me this morning, eternity rests on this. Are you beside yourself? It's Christ, your orbit. His cross. His law, his gospel, his righteousness, self-denying, self-sacrificing, self-giving. Because dear one, Christ is beside himself. For lost sinners. Such as we are. He came to seek and to save that which is. Lost. Lost in self. Lost in sin. And oh, it is my prayer that you. Would become beside yourself. and found in Christ. Amen.