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1151  /   Mark 3:32 
his dis­ci­ples to have a ­small boat ­ready for
him, to keep the peo­ple from crowd­ing
him. 10  For he had ­healed many, so that
those with dis­eas­es were push­ing for­ward
to ­touch him. 11  When­e v­er the im­pure
spir­its saw him, they fell down be­fore him
and ­cried out, “You are the Son of God.”
12  But he gave them ­strict or­ders not to tell
oth­ers ­about him.
Jesus Appoints the Twelve
13  Jesus went up on a moun­tain­side and
c ­ alled to him ­those he want­ed, and they
came to him. 14  He ap­point­ed ­t welve  a that
they ­might be with him and that he ­might
send them out to ­preach 15  and to have au­
thor­i­t y to ­d rive out de­mons. 16  These are
the ­t welve he ap­point­ed: Si­mon (to whom
he gave the name Pe­ter), 17  James son of
Zeb­e­dee and his broth­er John (to them he
gave the name Bo­a­ner­ges, ­which ­means
“sons of thun­der”), 18  An­drew, Phil­ip, Bar­
thol­o­mew, Mat­thew, Thom­as, ­James son
of Al­phae­us, Thad­dae­us, Si­mon the Zeal­
ot 19  and Ju­das Is­car­i­ot, who be­trayed him.
Jesus Accused by His Family and
by Teachers of the Law
20  Then ­Jesus
’S
HAT TH
a  14  Some manuscripts twelve — ​designating them
apostles — ​     b  21  Or his associates   
Mark 3
“This sounds like a job  for Superman!” You’d
read that in comic books. Then Superman would come
in to save the day. ­Jesus was like Superman, but the men
called to work with him were not. They were just regular
guys like you. They came from different types of families and
did normal jobs such as fishing. They didn’t stand out as heroes
or leaders, yet along with Jesus they changed their world. The disciples’ only
qualification was that they said, “Yes!” when ­Jesus called them. Then he gave
them the power to work for him.
It’s as though a sign in God’s window reads, “Wanted — ​any man. No
ability, background, or previous experience necessary.” The posting doesn’t
ask for any qualifications. Sounds like a job anyone can take.
g
en­tered a ­house, and ­again
a ­crowd gath­ered, so that he and his dis­
ci­ples were not even able to eat. 21  When
his fam­i­ly  b ­heard ­about this, they went to
take ­charge of him, for they said, “He is
out of his mind.”
22  And the teach­e rs of the law who
came down from Je­r u­sa­lem said, “He is
pos­sessed by Be­el­z e­bul! By the ­prince of
de­mons he is driv­ing out de­mons.”
23  So ­Jesus ­called them over to him and
be­gan to ­speak to them in par­a­bles: “How
can Sa­tan ­d rive out Sa­tan? 24  If a king­
dom is di­v id­ed ­against it­self, that king­
dom can­not ­stand. 25  If a ­house is di­v id­ed
a gainst it­self, that ­house can­not ­stand.
26  And if Sa­tan op­pos­es him­self and is di­
vid­ed, he can­not ­stand; his end has come.
27  In fact, no one can en­ter a ­strong ­man’s
house with­out ­f irst ty­ing him up. Then
he can plun­der the ­strong ­man’s ­house.
28  Tru­ly I tell you, peo­ple can be for­g iv­en
all ­t heir sins and ­every slan­der they ut­
ter, 29  but who­ev­er blas­phemes ­against the
Holy Spir­it will nev­er be for­g iv­en; they
are ­g uilty of an eter­nal sin.”
30  He said this be­c ause they were say­
ing, “He has an im­pure spir­it.”
31  Then ­Jesus’ moth­er and broth­ers ar­
rived. Stand­ing out­side, they sent some­
one in to call him. 32  A ­crowd was sit­ting
a round him, and they told him, “Your
de