Sitting on the platform, I was reminded again how unlike me, God is.
He never slumbers nor sleeps. He does not forget anyone or any need, and yet I did this morning. So please remember Toni Brown, who's in ICU in the hospital. She needs our prayers, her and Toni both, or her and Bill both.
And for Paul Ellis, who's recovering from shoulder surgery and enduring quite a bit of pain. All right, back to our text this morning, Mark chapter 6. I want to hinge off of three words that I find in three different verses, and let me point them out to you and then we'll develop this. The first is in verse 2, and it is the response of those who heard Jesus, His words, His wisdom, and His works.
What was it? And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing Him were astonished. The word astonished, we're going to key off of that. The next is how they responded to Him.
And where is that? Notice at the end of verse 3. Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, and are not His sisters here with us? So they were offended at Him. The offense of the cross, the stumbling block that Jesus is to many.
So two words so far. Number one, they were astonished. Number two, they were offended. Notice with me verse 5 and 6. Now He could do no mighty work there except that He laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, and He marveled because of their unbelief. That word marveled. Or it could even be He was astonished by. Look at the irony. They were astonished by Jesus and His teaching, and here He is, astonished and amazed by their unbelief.
So that's where we're going. Notice verse 4, the words of Jesus in my Bible, red letter. A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house. Jesus would make this statement more than once. It's recorded in Luke 4, verse 24. It's recorded in John 4, verse 44.
And applied to you and me, it may be the occasion for a moment of sadness and disappointment. However, applied to Jesus, it is an event of tragic and eternal consequences that even causes our Savior to marvel at such unbelief. There is some controversy about whether this is Jesus' first time to Nazareth, His hometown, or His second. And I won't get into all the reasons why I'm convinced that this is the second time that Jesus came to His hometown.
The first, I think, is recorded in Luke chapter 4, and I want you to turn there because of the significance of it, and it helps me explain why I think what we're seeing in Mark 6 is a second visit, not his first visit. Luke 4, notice verse 16, so He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So all bore witness to Him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth, and they said, Is this not Joseph's son? He said to them, You will surely say this proverb to me, Physician, heal yourself.
Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country. Then He said, As surely I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land. But to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.
And many leopards were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city, and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went away.
He went His way. Now here's the reasons why I think that this account here in Mark is the second occasion. This was the first, because if what we're reading in Luke is Luke's account of what we're reading in Mark, there's some things that don't make a lot of sense. Number one, Mark says nothing other than the unbelief of those who heard Jesus in Mark chapter 6 and verse 6. Nothing about them wanting to kill Jesus. If this is the same account, I think Mark would have said something about that.
Don't you think he would have not passed that by? Number two, what we're reading here in Luke is very early on in the earthly ministry of Jesus. Jesus has just come out of the wilderness from the temptation of 40 days and 40 nights. He's beginning His ministry. He hasn't chosen His disciples yet. Mark says that He went back to Nazareth with His disciples. So you see what I'm saying? Mark 6 tells us Jesus went back to His home country with His disciples.
He hasn't even chosen them yet here in Luke chapter 4. So I'm convinced that this isn't the first time, but this is the second time. You say, wow.
I said, wow, and I discovered that. If your reception to the truth that you proclaimed that was the message of salvation for sinners was so rejected that they wanted to kill you, would you be inclined to go back a second time? Jesus went back a second time. Folks, you and I have rejected the gospel more than once. And aren't you glad God didn't say, I'm done with you?
Shake the dust off of my feet. Other people will listen, but if you won't, no more opportunity for you. God, He's gracious to sinners. For Him to go back to the hometown where He had been rejected and they tried to kill Him in the synagogue, He went back to the same synagogue, I think. So in spite of the treatment, Jesus returns, this time with His 12 disciples. And as we consider how Jesus was treated by His own hometown, His own family and friends, I think this morning it might be good for us to reflect upon how we see Jesus, how we treat the Lord Jesus, how we respond to the one who was rejected by those who were certain that they knew Him best.
Here's what's critical this morning. It is critically important that we see Jesus as He truly is, as He is revealed in the Scriptures, not as we hope He was, wish He was, or want Him to be. So I have three questions that I want to set before you for our careful examination this morning. Number one, when you consider Jesus, are you only amazed? Are you only just amazed? Number two, when you consider Jesus, are you offended? Are you offended at the claims that He makes and the demands that He places upon you? And number three, when you consider Jesus, are you guilty of unbelief? Those three questions that grow out of our text.
Think with me. Back here in Mark 6, Jesus has left the area around the Sea of Galilee. Most likely He had been in Capernaum and He heads approximately 20 miles southwest to His hometown of Nazareth. Nazareth, a small village, estimated population maybe 150, maybe 200 people. So insignificant that this small town is never mentioned once in the Old Testament, receives scant attention in the New Testament. And little wonder that Nathaniel in John 1.46 asks this question, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Well, that's a good question. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Yes, an amazing man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who grew up in that village, educated there, reared there, Nazareth. And once again, on a Sabbath, notice again, then He went out from there and came to His own country and His disciples followed Him. And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue.
The people were astonished, they were amazed, they were overwhelmed, they were struck by what they were hearing. From the Son of Mary, they say, in verse 3. Luke says, From the Son of Joseph.
I won't get into the differences there. Their amazement quickly turns to skepticism and ridicule. And in rapid fire succession, Mark records five questions that they began to banter among themselves. Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him?
How are such mighty works done by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the Son of Mary? And they mention His four brothers. And are not His sisters here with us? What's the point of these questions?
They are meant as slights, despairing questions. They did not deny that He was saying and doing these things, which makes their rejection all the more amazing, and them all the more culpable and responsible. It has the echoes of Mark chapter 3, verse 22, when the religious leaders accused Jesus of performing miracles by the power of Beelzebub. If He didn't get these things from God, if this wisdom does not come from God, if these mighty works He performs are not done by God, then who and how? Now they were astonished and amazed by His words, by His wisdom, and by His miracles. His words. When Jesus preached, there was an authority attached to it.
He didn't quote other rabbis. He spoke with authority. He left no doubt in the minds of His hearers that His words must either be received or rejected. The Pharisees sent people to go listen to Jesus, and when they came back, this is what they said, Never a man spake like this man.
That's recorded in John 7, verse 46. When the people of Nazareth heard Jesus speak, they were amazed. His wisdom. When Jesus spoke, His words were filled with truth. The people heard Him declare old truths in new ways. He listened as He taught spiritual truths by using common, everyday things around them. And while His illustrations may have been called common, the truth He preached was anything but common. Wisdom, like they'd never heard or seen.
His works. His works refer to His miracles. The people of Nazareth could not believe what they were hearing and who they were hearing it from.
They couldn't believe it. I've titled this message, Blind Unbelief in the Presence of Irrefutable Evidence. I mean, we're early on here in the book of Mark.
Mark is rapid fire succession. We've looked at miracles, at least ten of them. It begins there in chapter 1, where Peter, his mother-in-law, is healed from a fever that she had.
She rises up and prepares a meal. Many hear about that, come to Capernaum and receive healing. Demons delivered from chapter 1, verse 32 and 34. The cleansing of the leper, chapter 1, verse 40 through 45. The paralytic that was healed, chapter 2, 1 to 12. The man with the deformed hand, chapter 3, 1 through 6. He calmed the storm and the sea, chapter 4, 35 to 41. Delivered the demoniac of Gadara, chapter 5. Healed the woman who had the issue of blood.
Raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. His hometown does not deny all these things. They simply cannot reconcile what he has done with who they think he must be. Deny his miracles? No. Receive him as Messiah?
No. This is the Christ? This one we've known all our lives as the Son of God? Are you kidding?
Are you serious? We may not be able to explain his miracles, but we know who he is. He's one of us. He's from this no-place town of Nazareth. He's not the Messiah. He can't be the Messiah. He can't be the Son of God.
And what's the application here? Well, the application is apart from the eyes of faith. No one will see Jesus for who he truly is. His miracles point to him. His teaching points to him.
They are divinely ordained signs, billboards, and large letters. This one is the Christ, the Son of God. Believe him. Trust him. Follow him. You remember when Jesus was preparing his disciples for his departure in John chapter 14 in the upper room?
And they were dismayed, downtrodden over that news. Jesus told his disciples in verse 11 of chapter 14 of John, Believe me for the sake of the works themselves. His background. Is not this the carpenter? The carpenter. Yes, Jesus was a carpenter. He was a blue collar worker. He made furniture.
He made plows. He was not an esteemed rabbi. He was uneducated, unschooled. He had no PhD. He had no MDiv. They could not explain him. And yet, they rejected him. Are not his four brothers and sisters here with us?
What's the point of that? We've seen this man grow up among us. He played with our kids. He's as common as anybody. If anyone should know who he is, we should. He's nothing special. He's just one of us. Familiarity breeds contempt. Familiarity breeds contempt. He was just too ordinary, too commonplace for them.
But before we move on, let's just stop and think about that. What is God saying about the fact that 90% of Jesus' earthly life was given just to common, ordinary things? He was a blue collar worker. He built furniture.
These people in Nazareth probably had furniture in their homes that he built. Sometimes we create this hierarchy where there's the clergy and then there's the layman. And somehow the clergy are up here and the layman, well, they're down there. They're just kind of shuffling through life, you know. Nothing real important that I'm doing. Nothing significant.
No. I think God is saying something about just the common, ordinary movements through life. They're significant. Don't diminish them.
Don't despair about them. Again, three years out of 33 years were given to Christ's earthly ministry, we would say. I'm of the opinion that all of life is ministry. So they were amazed. When the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue and many hearing Him were astonished. They were amazed.
They reacted to His words, His wisdom, and His works with contempt, with ridicule. They could not and would not receive what they could not explain. And I want to say to you this morning, that is a terrible posture to assume. I'm only going to accept what I can understand. Oh, really? How was this world created?
Ex nelio. God spoke it and there it was. Can you explain that? Well, no, I can't explain that. So your faith is predicated on you being able to explain that? You see how the Bible blows that up from right at the beginning, Genesis 1-1?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. No explanation. No plausible explanation. You either have to believe that or disavow it. But there are too many people in this world. If I can't understand it, I won't believe it.
Really? You're elevating yourself as a creature to the place of the Creator. Foolish. Absolutely foolish. In spite of overwhelming evidence, they would not believe that He was the Christ. The whole thing was scandalous to them. A crucified Jew, a little no-name town, from that town, you're telling me the savior of the world grew up? Impossible.
No way. I am offended. They knew Him, but they could not explain Him, and so they rejected Him. Who did?
His hometown, his relatives, even his own household, up until right now anyway. Here's a lesson. Sometimes we can get so close to something, we no longer see it. We spend so much time with someone, we no longer appreciate them. And for those of us raised in a Christian environment, this is certainly an ever-present danger that we must guard against.
Familiarity breeds contempt. This person will remain anonymous, but I heard this secondhand about someone who's among us, who has not had opportunity like we have had to sit under the word of God Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. This person's new to us. This person said reportedly to me, I can't believe this. I can't believe this. I get to come to church three times a week? And that just struck me. When was the last time I got excited about the simple fact that I can gather with the saints three times a week?
Just kind of take it for granted. We've been doing this for 30 years. No, this person's like, whoa, this is amazing. I didn't know there was such a thing. And then this person asked one of our elders, is there a Bible study going on somewhere that I could attend?
On top of being in corporate worship with the saints three times a week? That person hasn't been captured by the familiarity. They're excited about what seems new to them.
Well, there's a lesson here. We should never get completely comfortable with Jesus. His goal is never to make you comfortable. And that rubs us because we like life to be comfortable, don't we? We like life to be predictable. We like a sense of, hey, the wheels aren't coming off the wagon. We're doing okay. Anybody here go, man, I had a horrible week. I mean, not one will come off the wagon. Two or three wheels came off the wagon.
Anybody go, but it's been a great week. No, we don't think that way. There are times Jesus wants your wagon in a ditch on purpose so that your confidence isn't in yourself, that you're looking to Him.
And probably looking to Him in a way of desperation that you may not have looked to Him recently. Now, His goal is to bring us to repentance and faith, to humble us, that we might live our lives before this watching world and make a declaration by our life that He's Lord, He's worthy to live our life for. He's not our buddy. He's not that genie in the bottle that's obligated to grant all of our wishes. Now, many religious people in our day don't understand who Jesus is either, just like these people. They didn't know who He was.
They were blind to it. His hometown got it wrong. His relatives, at least for a while, got it wrong. The religious leaders of the day got it wrong.
Rome got it wrong. And still today, people get Him wrong. So this morning, do you see Him as He truly is? He's Lord. He's Master. He's sovereign. That's who He is. He's the eternal Son of God. He's the Savior of the world.
That's who He is. We need to be amazed. Michael Horton wrote a book years ago, putting amazing back in grace. We sing amazing grace, but somehow we're so accustomed to grace and live in the presence of grace and assume that grace is a constant companion that we're not as amazed with grace as we should be.
We need to be. We need to ask God to rekindle that, help us to view it, see it, live in the reality of it as if it's the first time we've ever experienced it. I trust that you're not offended by Jesus this morning. To be offended by Jesus is to see Him as a stumbling block. You can't reconcile a man, the God-man coming to this earth and dying on a cross. It seems to you like failure, defeat.
Don't tell me that that's victory. People are offended by the cross. They don't see God's redemptive purposes fulfilled in it. Number three this morning, when you consider Jesus, are you guilty of unbelief?
Rejection sometimes comes when and where and from whom we least expect it. The end of verse 6 tells us that Jesus left His hometown of Nazareth and He moved on to teach in other villages. Notice verse 6, He marveled because of their unbelief, then He went about the villages in a circuit teaching. No more reference of Him ever returning to His hometown. In fact, no more reference in Mark's gospel of Him going back to a synagogue.
There's a transition that takes place here. He begins to meet in homes and He begins to concentrate His time with His small group to mentor them, to prepare them, to train them. Their rejection of Jesus made it clear He was not welcome.
He was not welcome even in His hometown. Now notice something that seems a little bit troubling to us. Verse 5 says, Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and helped them, and He marveled because of their unbelief. Just looking at those two verses would cause you to draw a conclusion that man's unbelief hinders the purposes of Almighty God.
How could the omnipotent Son of God be bound, limited by the unbelief of Nazareth or anyone for that matter? Well, Matthew records this same occasion and let me read how Matthew renders that verse that we just read where it says He could do no mighty work there. Mark says He could do no mighty work there. Listen to what Matthew says, Matthew 13 and verse 58. Matthew says, Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
See the difference? Mark says He could not. Mark says He would not. He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Not that He could not, He simply would not. He visited His hometown on two occasions.
There were other places He didn't visit at all, and yet He was rejected. And we're told not to cast our pearls before a swine. Jesus is going to instruct His disciples. He's going to send them out two by two, and these are the instructions He says to them. Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. So the question is, is that what Jesus did?
He shook off the dust of His feet. I'm done. This is it. I've come back the second time, and I'm rejected again. Unbelief present. I'm done.
And there's no record that He ever went back to His hometown. Some people falsely are of the opinion that because we live in an age of grace, an age of opportunity, that the opportunities to believe on Jesus are endless. I can reject it now. I can ignore it now. I can set it aside now. I'll get serious about this at another time.
Well, that's a very dangerous posture to assume, because listen to what the prophet says to that kind of thinking. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Multiplied opportunities when rejected compound and aggravate culpability.
Multiplied opportunities when rejected compound and aggravate culpability. Don't believe the devil's lie. If the Lord is dealing with you this morning, do not reject Him. Do not reject Him.
I can't tell you that this will be your last opportunity, but we see in the Scriptures where this was the last opportunity for the village of Nazareth, Jesus wasn't going back there. Jesus is said to have marveled only twice in the Scriptures. Both times His amazement was over faith. He marveled at the great faith of a centurion. Luke 7, 1-10. And here Jesus marvels at the lack of faith among His own people. He was amazed that these people had heard the truth, seen the truth, and still turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the truth. And therefore, as a consequence, He left Nazareth and there's no record that He ever returned there. Their rejection of Jesus was total and He abandoned them to their choice.
And when people reject the truth, they're playing a dangerous game because this is life and death. Contempt shown by the citizens of Nazareth said nothing about Jesus, but it said everything about them, didn't it? They were offended because of Him.
They stumbled because of Him. I'm convinced this morning that the issue for those who are still in rebellion and are rejecting the truth and say, I don't believe, doesn't make sense to me, I'm convinced the issue is not an intellectual issue. It's not an intellectual issue. It's not you have questions that can't be answered.
All of us have questions that can't be answered. Let's just be straight up and honest with what the issue is. It's not an intellectual issue. It's a moral issue. There's too much evidence in your face for you to deny that Jesus is who He claims to be. He is the Savior of sinners.
He is Lord. So it's not an intellectual issue. It's a moral issue.
And this is what the moral issue is. I will not have this man ruled over me. I will not repent of my sins. I will not deny myself. You're telling me it's not I can have Jesus and my sin too?
No, that's not it. You don't come to Jesus on your terms. You come to Jesus on His terms.
So it's a moral issue. And we see something about the depravity of sin, the depravity of the human heart. When we read about Esau, I mean, how many of us have been hungry for a day? I've been hungry for a day. What did Esau do for being hungry? He threw away his birthright. He forfeited for a bowl of soup. He could not deny himself. He did not have self-control. He couldn't say no to his appetite.
He threw away something that was incredibly valuable to him. And there are people who will go to hell because they love their sin too much. I want to be who I want to be. I'm going to live my life the way I want to live my life.
Nobody's going to tell me what to do and how to live. Have it your way. Have it your way.
You're on the broad way to destruction. You love sin that much? There is pleasure in sin. For what?
A season. So you're going to indulge yourself in sin for this season, and you're going to gamble away your never-dying soul for the enjoyment of your sin, because you know to say yes to Jesus means saying no to your sin. And you love sin too much, and you're going to continue in your path. And I'm just telling you this morning, the scriptures are clear.
You can't have it both ways. You will die. You will go to hell.
And God will be just in sending you there. There are people who want to hide behind the intellectual questions. Well, I just don't understand this or that.
Yeah, phooey on that. No, it's a moral issue. It's your autonomy. You will not have Jesus rule over you. You will not bow the knee to King Jesus.
You will not live for him because you want to live for yourself. Jesus says, okay, we've looked at unbelief in the face of irrefutable evidence. The evidence was, it's irrefutable.
Nazareth was 20 miles from Capernaum. The news of what Jesus was saying, what he was doing, the miracles, the raising people from the dead, healing lepers, paralyzed men, all that. You can't fabricate that. You can't deny that.
His hometown knew about all this. And they were just amazed by it. That's it.
Where does that leave us? We sang about free grace. I can't see it, but we sang about free grace this morning. Let not conscience make you linger. 385, okay.
385. Jehovah said Kenu. When free grace awoke me in light from on high, then legal fear shook me. I trembled to die.
No refuge, no safety. In self could I see Jehovah said Kenu. My Savior must be. I have no way of motivating your will to say no to sin and yes to Jesus, okay. I wish I did.
I wish I was that clever. I wish God had given me that power and that prerogative, but I don't. So if you're here this morning and you're chained to your sin and you love your sin and you can't let go of your sin and you're going to reject Jesus and go to hell with your sin, is there no hope for you? There's hope in the gospel because God delights to come to sinners like that and set them free from the guilt and the power and the enslavement and the bondage of sin because there's some of us here know exactly what we're talking about.
When free grace awoke me. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We are amazed. We stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love us, sinners condemned unclean. And yet he has and yet he does and we pray that he would yet do that again. For someone who's here this morning, bound with no hope, enslaved to sin, knowing what's at stake, knowing the consequences of their choice, and yet continuing to hold on to that which has only pleasure for a season. Lord, would you cause them to have the mind of Moses who saw the delights of Egypt and chose to say no to that in light of the promises of future glory. Our Father, we thank you for your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of sinners, who came into this world to seek and to save those who are lost.
And we pray, our Father, that you would come to any who are here this morning lost and undone. Would you come to any who are disillusioned, have misunderstood, who thought their issue was an intellectual issue? I've got to know this.
I've got to understand that. Help them to see that their issue is a moral one. And would you cause their will to be surrendered to you by your supernatural power?
Lord, they're dead in trespasses and sins, and apart from the miracle of the new birth, every man will continue making choices consistent with his nature. Lord, we need a new nature. We need divine help.
We need help outside of ourselves. And Lord, would you do that for someone this morning? And cause all who have received that to rejoice afresh in what we have received in our Savior. Hear us for Jesus' sake. Cause your word to bear fruit. For your glory we ask in Christ's name, amen.
