The Rejection (Part B)

I hope that's not me. I hope I'm not treating someone with contempt that I should be honoring.

I hope I'm not that person that, you know, bites the hand that feeds them. Here's someone trying to help you along, make you stronger, give you an opportunity, and then you turn on them because you don't know what loyalty is. Every Christian should know what loyalty is because we have to fight to keep it.

It's not loyalty if you can just, you know, dismiss it at a whim. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with part two of his message called The Rejection in Mark chapter six. First Corinthians chapter 15. We read this from Paul. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God to the Father when he puts an end to all rule and authority and power. That is human rule and authority and power because he will be the authority and power.

And so there are the two comings. They're woven into the prophets, as I said, but they should have picked up on it because his signs and wonder was so remarkably extraordinary. His preaching was so in line with the prophets. They had no reason to doubt him. And for this he says, Sodom and Gomorrah will come out better than you because they didn't see this and you did.

And you tossed it to the wind. Verse three. Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Josie's, Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters with us? So they were offended at him. They knew his family well. They knew all the boys because the boys came to the synagogue. In fact, the boys were siding with Judaism against their brother against the Christ.

Of course, their stepbrother or half-brother, according to the flesh. Mark is the only gospel where Jesus himself is called carpenter. Matthew says, son of a carpenter. They saw him as a mere blue-collar worker. That was his rank and he was to be stuck there. He was not to come out of that rank and be some teacher of the word to them.

It was fine if he went to the synagogue and he just read scripture to them. But to apply it to himself, to apply it to them, they were astonished at this. Many still consider him a mere carpenter. Boy, are they going to be surprised when they breathe their last breath and find out he is more than a carpenter.

He is more than anything anyone could ever fully know. So they were not impressed by his sermon because they were not impressed by his status, his social status. The caste system, it worked for them and their little heads and their little minds. It was small thinking and people still do it in Christianity today. What seminary did you go to? The seminary of give you a knuckle sandwich.

That's the seminary I went to. I mean, they do. It's shameful because the scripture speaks on this thing.

It does not pass by. They perceive that these were not educated men but they had been with Jesus. That's what they said about Peter and the apostles. That's what we want them to say about us no matter what our background, no matter how well-educated or not so well-educated we may be. That is not the issue. The issue is what do we say about Jesus Christ from his word. That's what matters. Imagine, imagine if you as a parent had to, you know, there's, you know, well, what level parent are you?

You know, how high up the ladder have you gone as a parent? You know, some try to sneak that in anyway but we're not going to go into that. So they weren't impressed because some want more than truth. They're not satisfied with just Bible teaching. They're not satisfied with just the truth of the word.

They want something else even if they don't know what it is and their wants should not be met under those terms. They say here that he was the son of Mary. This is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus is referred to as the son of Mary. Now Joseph and Mary were of royal heritage. They were of the line of David but it no longer mattered to the rest of the people in Nazareth at this time.

It did really nothing for them in that society and the brother of James, Josie, Judas and Simon and are not his sisters here with us. These are Mary's other children to which she gave birth after her firstborn. You do not call someone a firstborn if there are no moreborns. You would say her only child. We see that in Scripture when someone's child was sick or dying, it was their only child.

That distinction is important. We just can't see Joseph taking Mary with the baby Jesus into Egypt with six other kids and then back out. These things are not realistic because they didn't happen that way and I know there are those that want to say Mary had no other children. That's not what the Bible says. James is the author of the epistle of James.

Josie's, it's a form of Joseph so they named him after their father. Judas, of course this is not Judas Iscariot, this is Jude who is the author of Jude's epistle. It says here in verse three, so they were offended at him. Last time they were really offended trying to kill him but they were arrogant, they were critical, they were self-impressed, they were so thrilled with themselves and the system that they had that nothing else could get in, not even from God.

The system was closed. Isaiah 53, over 700 years earlier, Isaiah called it. He said, for he shall grow up before them as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. Pause there.

A root out of dry ground owes nothing to the things around it because they're not contributing anything to it. He has no form or comeliness and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He personified, Isaiah does, the people here in Nazareth and other parts of Israel but right now here in Nazareth. He's not attractive to them. There's nothing they see in him that is appealing. No matter what he's preaching, no matter what he's doing, we have to, and we see this today, do we not? You can win a political office if you just look like they like you.

That's all you need. It doesn't matter what you say, what you do, just do you appeal to us? And he did not appeal to them. There is no beauty that we should desire him.

Quite profound. Men so out of touch with God that they were incapable of appreciating the beauty of God when face-to-face with it. May it never happen to us.

May we never be so spiritually dense that the light of God cannot get in. He owed them nothing. They contributed nothing to his being and that bothered them. They wanted to be the ones that stamped approval, okay he's one of us, okay he's, you know, if they wanted to say well if he was a rabbi's son they would have been more receptive but a carpenter's son. John 7 15 and the Jews marveled saying how does this man know letters having never studied? We didn't teach him so how could he know anything?

Again still practiced to this day. Are these not the dumbest reasons for rejecting truth? Well your family's here with us, we know them, so we reject you. Well maybe you got a bad family like that but of course his family was, they sided with these people.

How far they sided with them we're not sure. Mary I don't believe was really into it but remember they thought he had lost his mind and they all went to collect him that day and of course he would not be collected by them or anyone else. And so here these in Nazareth they made up a criteria for preaching truth and doing signs and wonders from God and a carpenter's son was not allowed to be a part of it, his rank was too low.

Today they set other silly rules oftentimes which have nothing to do with doctrine or truth and there's really not a lot anybody can do to stop it except on the individual level. So they called him the carpenter. What right had they to stunt his growth?

What right had they to say that's as far as you can go? Listen if you want to build things, if you want to you know do some woodworking for us we'd love to hear what you have to say about your craft. But truth about God we're not interested in it coming from you.

And so he was deemed out of his class. Verse 4 we could just go on and on about his pedigree and his background which was divine from eternity past and they missed it but we are getting it and we are entrusted with trying to communicate this to those who don't get it. May we never lose sight of our role, our mission. What is my role here on earth? What is my mission?

To reach the lost, to be able to reach the lost. What goes into that able, that ability, the knowledge of the word, love and grace? Oh no some just want a Pharasitical view. I know the Bible better than you.

I am more righteous than you. One reason why we don't encourage children to be baptized because they haven't been on the battlefield yet and they will be. As they get older they'll be face to face with challenges to their faith. We're going to find out if they're going to be Pharisees or not. We're going to find out if they're going to listen to the devil at a faster rate than listening to the Holy Spirit.

And we don't want to cause this stampede of well you know my you know that peer pressure you did it so I'm going to do it. Now I'm not saying we prohibit anyone from being baptized I'm just saying we encourage those who are really determined. I know the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean if a two year old could come up to me and say I know who Jesus is. He is my Lord and he is my Savior. What prohibits me from being baptized?

I'd pick that little character up and I'd soak them. But they got to get there. And they've got to be you know face to face and I don't know for you when it's my time to be baptized I knew who Jesus was and I knew who I was not.

And I knew who what he could make me one day. And to be able to with authority say here is water. What prohibits me? Nothing if you believe. This is our heritage given to us by God by Christ.

It is valuable. You know in Iran today they have to sneak out to get baptized. They go into other countries to get baptized.

Because if anybody finds out what's going on with them and Jesus Christ they're going to suffer persecution in some form. Verse four. But Jesus said to them a prophet is not without honor except in his own country among his own relatives and in his own house. Now this is a proverb not in intended to be a theological fact across the board because there are of course others in scriptures that were accepted by Moses you know. Both his older brother and older sister Aaron and Miriam they submitted to his authority.

They had some hiccups there but overall they were submitted. This is not intended to be the case all the time. The English equivalent of this is familiarity breeds contempt.

You get so used to somebody being nice and kind that you don't even appreciate it. I mean Christ living with these boys and these daughters they had nothing against him. Why would they side against him? In the end by the time we get to Acts chapter one we see them all believers but for now they're not with him.

They could not appreciate his goodness. I hope that's not me. I hope I'm not treating someone with contempt that I should be honoring.

I hope I'm not that person that you know bites the hand that feeds them. Here's someone trying to help you along, make you stronger, give you an opportunity and then you turn on them because you don't know what loyalty is. Every Christian should know what loyalty is because you have to fight to keep it. It's not loyalty if you can just you know dismiss it at a whim. And if you're going to turn against something have your facts lined up.

Be right. Not your emotions, your little feelings were hurt or something like that. I know it's tough when your feelings get hurt. Speaking of feelings, Isaiah 53 again, he was despised and rejected by men.

Woohoo! That had to be fun. Of course it was not. No matter who, Christ in the flesh it was not a beautiful thing. And so Isaiah continues, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.

He knew how to let his heart be broken and stay focused on what he was supposed to do nonetheless. Do you know how hard that is? Do you know how easy it is? I quit, I give up, I'm done. What does he say? Father forgive them, they know not what they do. I can call 12 legions of angels and put an end to this silly stuff right now. That's why he didn't send me to be the Savior.

I had to call 24 legions to make sure the job was thorough. Now of course that's the flesh seeking, but we understand the intensity behind these simple words. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows acquainted with griefs and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. They missed it. They blew it.

It was right there eye to eye and they missed it. And some of us are the same way. There are people that take care of us, that love us, that look out for us, that pray for us, that work with us and we just don't appreciate them. I'm not saying all of us are like that, but all of us have the potential to be that way.

And some of us are like that from time to time and I hope none of us are like that all the time. Samuel experienced this rejection. Yahweh said to Samuel, heed the voice of the people and all that they say to you on that matter, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them.

How that must have been, just the javelin in this belly of the Lord. They've rejected me, Samuel. Samuel's saying, I know, but I feel like I'm rejected too. Because he was. He was that attached to God. You didn't get to reject God without rejecting Samuel. And Samuel felt it. David, how many Psalms does David write?

You get to think, David, does everybody hate you? Because every Psalm, they're after me, the bulls of Bishan have surrounded me because he understood he got it. I think sometimes he wrote vicariously.

He wrote on behalf of someone else who he knew was suffering and he put it down in his writing because he knew it himself. He experienced it firsthand and often enough, he knew that there were people that were not loyal to him as king. Even though he was loyal to Saul, the maniac of Gibeah. So disloyal to the honorable, yet they tolerated and even celebrated fools. Paul had to put up with this.

Remember, what is this theme? The rejection. Paul says this to the Corinthians, to some of them. Because remember, in the Corinthian church you had the wackos who he needed to bring down, which I believe he did. Then you had the troublemakers and then you had the solid believers.

That's the Corinthian church. And he writes this to them, to the group, one of these things, if the shoe fits, wear it kind of a thing. But in grace and love, not a mean spirit, if the shoe fits, wear it. It's like, listen, if this is you and you see that, then fix it. That's the idea with love. He says, for you put up with fools gladly. Now you all don't do that. Since you yourselves are wise, for you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one slaps you in the face.

That's what he says. Second Corinthians 11 19 and 20. Where's the discernment? You let people abuse you, but a righteous teacher comes along and you'll have none of that. You get the sarcasm?

Not sardonic. He's not trying to wound them, he's trying to snap them out of it. What could they say when they read that? It hurt Paul to write that.

He says, you're putting up with these people and you're attacking me. Paul tried, he made his quick trip to Corinth to try to fix things. It was a disaster. He started that church. How did that happen? The great apostle Paul, who else was teaching like Paul? Who else was doing miracles like Paul? Who else was handpicked like Paul? How dare somebody reject him?

And they did. Verse five. Let me pause here. When I was preparing for this, I said, Lord, I do not want this to be a sneaky autobiography of the sufferings of a pastor.

I want this to remain true. But let me tell you what happened to me once. Because it's not just for pastors, it's for all of us. If my Lord had his feelings hurt, I want to know how he dealt with it. If Paul had his feelings stepped on in the interest of his Lord, I want to know what he did with it. Because here's Paul praying for these people, loving them, with them in sickness, with them in lawsuits, with them in whatever they had to deal with them as slaves.

And many of them turned on him nonetheless. Verse five. Now he couldn't do no mighty works there except that he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them.

Thank you, Lord. He was still the Lord says, okay, fine. You don't believe, but this one does.

And this was not going to suffer because you don't believe. And he ministered to them. Stephen, Stephen and some of his last words, it cost him to correct the guilty, did it not? Cost him his life. He said, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit.

As your fathers did, so do you. May it not be us. May we not resist the Holy Spirit. Ananias, when he was sent to Paul to minister to him and then baptize him, he did not resist. He just questioned. He said, Lord, this guy's killing Christian. Are you sure you want me to? We got the right guy. I just want to make sure I understand this.

I don't want to go to the wrong address. And of course, the Lord says he's a faithful servant of mine. You're going to show him how much he's going to suffer for me.

And Ananias was off. He says, he's going to suffer, right? But anyway, still verse 5 says, he touched those who believed in spite of those who did not. He touched them. Read again, verse 5. Now he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. To be touched by Jesus.

Can you imagine? They didn't have the scriptures and the knowledge we have. Verse 6, and he marveled because of their unbelief.

Then he went about the villages in a circuit teaching. Now this is the marvel of disappointment, not delight. This is a negative impression they left on him. He didn't go, wow, that's how you do it.

It was, wow, that was bad. They admitted to the miracles. They admitted to the teachings and they still turned on me like that. Those who rejected him, they couldn't stop him. That's the lesson. The rejection. What's the lesson? He continued ministering. He did not let that stop him. Look, being, getting your feelings hurt, being made bitter is a powerful force.

It can knock you out of the race. So the writer says, let us, you know, laying aside the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with diligence the race that is set before us, laying aside the sin that so easily trips us up. Whether it's your sin or the sins of others, Christ's response to their rejection is fine.

The work goes on with or without you. He went about teaching because ignorance could not be ignored by him or by God. You know, there's a saying, you think education is expensive? Try ignorance. It's true.

This is consistent with his deity and that's what catches my eye when I read this. So I don't want to come up and say, let me tell you about all of, you know, all the daggers and stabbings and bad things people say. They don't know what they're talking about.

My side of the story is right and theirs wrong. Instead of doing that, I'd rather say, let me tell you about some of the pain and how to push through it. Because one day I'm going to stand before Christ and I don't want him to say, you were almost there, kid, until you got that whole feeling hurt thing. And then you stopped. Who bewitched you? Having begun in the Spirit, were you made perfect by this kind of behavior?

I don't want to hear that. And so I take the pain knowing, knowing that he knows what he's doing and I'm submitted to that whether I like it or not. And what can hell do against a Christian who thinks that way? So he concerned himself with the Word of God and he taught God's Word. Matthew 4, Jesus answered and said, this is basic, but we need a reminder. It is written. This is the Scripture. This comes from the Word, from the throne of God, from the mouth of God.

It is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Remember that the next time you think that I need more than Bible, I need this and I need that.

Yeah, you do need those other things perhaps, but you need the Word of God always. No matter what, don't let Satan steal, wash or spill the wind from your sails. Verse 7, and he called the twelve to himself and began to send them out two by two and gave them power over unclean spirits. So there you are in hell and you're not the people, but hell itself, the inhabitants say, ha ha ha. We shut them down in his own hometown and then Word comes back.

But now he's 12 times stronger. He's sending out the apostles and he's giving them specific instructions. Nazareth did not want to hear it.

He had others who would, and he had so many that he had to deputize his men. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the Book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the Book of Mark right here on Cross Reference Radio.