SPEAKER_00: This is the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you guys today.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to week three of what will forever and affectionately be known as Jumble July.
SPEAKER_00: And we're so glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your flexibility and perseverance and just willingness to uh during this time uh to meet in this place.
SPEAKER_00: God is in work and he is moving, and aren't we thankful to be part of a church uh like like the one that we get to be part of?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to give uh a thanks to Aaron uh and the team for leading us today in worship.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't they do an amazing job?
SPEAKER_00: And and you might be asking, they did a great job, but but where is Pastor Mark?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we're gonna be here for Jumble July, I mean, why isn't Mark here on week three of Jumble July, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, he has a good reason for being gone.
SPEAKER_00: He is in St.
SPEAKER_00: Louis, Missouri right now, and well, let me just show you what's up with Pastor Mark and Lisa right now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they welcome their first grandchild, Canon, uh yesterday morning in the wee hours of the morning.
SPEAKER_00: And mom and baby are doing well, and he is just floating on a cloud.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no living with him uh when he gets back.
SPEAKER_00: He is one proud papa.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, we are so excited for them, and when you see him again, I'm sure he will tell you about his grandson.
SPEAKER_00: But you be sure to congratulate them, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But we're celebrating with them today while he is away.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you've got your Bible, I want you to go ahead and find your place in Mark chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: We are gonna continue our study of this gospel today.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get through the first six verses of chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I want to draw your attention to something you may or may not know uh about the gospels.
SPEAKER_00: In the gospels, there are only two places where it says that Jesus marveled at something, that he was amazed by something.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, we read about it in Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the faith of the Roman centurion.
SPEAKER_00: It says Jesus marvels at that faith.
SPEAKER_00: The context of that story is that he comes to Jesus and he says, My servant is ill and I need you to heal him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But you don't even have to come to my home.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even worthy to have you come to my home.
SPEAKER_00: You can just speak the word from right where you are, and my servant will be healed.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, Jesus marveled at such faith by the Roman centurion.
SPEAKER_00: Today, in Mark's gospel in chapter six, we come to the second place where it says that Jesus marveled, but it's not for incredible faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually for the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_00: It's extreme unbelief that Jesus marvels.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not by who you might think.
SPEAKER_00: It's not by the Romans, it's not by the Pharisees, it's not by his enemies, it's not by demons.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's by his own townspeople, his hometown crowd is not belief.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're gonna see today out of Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And it says Jesus is amazed, he marvels at the unbelief of the people in his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: And so as I was reading this text, as I was studying and preparing for the for today, the question I began to ask myself is how is it possible to be so close to Jesus and yet miss him completely?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the people in his hometown had a front row seat to his life.
SPEAKER_00: But Mark's gonna tell us in these verses they completely missed him and missed the opportunity that was before him.
SPEAKER_00: And so today I encourage you to think about, to ponder that question with me.
SPEAKER_00: How is it possible to be close in proximity to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: But miss him.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we dig into this gospel, look with me at verse one and what it says here.
SPEAKER_00: Mark sets up this account for us with a tale of two cities, and that's not Charles Dickens.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mark chapter 6, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: But look at what it says.
SPEAKER_00: He went away from there and he came to his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: And it says his disciples followed him.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just identify these two places together.
SPEAKER_00: It says he came from there, and he went to his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: The there that he came from, Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus' home base for his public ministry.
SPEAKER_00: This is a fishing village, a busy, bustling, energetic fishing town on the coast of the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he has performed miracles.
SPEAKER_00: All five chapters of Mark that we have covered so far happened around Capernaum, within a few miles of this town, where Jesus performed so many of these signs and wonders and teachings and all the things that we've been talking about as we've been on this journey together.
SPEAKER_00: But then it says he went from there from Capernaum, and then it says he traveled 25 miles southwest to a little town, quiet, humble, up in the hillside, a village, really, better than even a city, called Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Jesus grew up.
SPEAKER_00: This was his boyhood town.
SPEAKER_00: This is where his family lived.
SPEAKER_00: This is where he worked with his father Joseph, his earthly father, as a carpenter, his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: And it says here that Jesus goes home.
SPEAKER_00: He returns home.
SPEAKER_00: Capernaum had witnessed his miracles, a special place, a special opportunity for those folk.
SPEAKER_00: But yet, Mark shows that Nazareth also witnessed something special.
SPEAKER_00: They witnessed his childhood.
SPEAKER_00: They got to see him growing up.
SPEAKER_00: They get to witness what Luke and his gospel in chapter 2, verse 52 says, and Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Nazareth had gotten to see that.
SPEAKER_00: So two different perspectives that are coming together here in this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: But then we move into the assessment of his hometown crowd.
SPEAKER_00: As he comes back home, what are the people going to think about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: They've heard the stories.
SPEAKER_00: They know news has traveled from the Galilee region, from Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: They know some of the things.
SPEAKER_00: They're hearing the whispers about what he had done.
SPEAKER_00: He's healed the sick.
SPEAKER_00: He's fed people.
SPEAKER_00: He's cast out demons.
SPEAKER_00: He's raised people from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He's walked on water.
SPEAKER_00: He's calmed storms.
SPEAKER_00: What is this guy?
SPEAKER_00: Who is he?
SPEAKER_00: The news has traveled with him.
SPEAKER_00: And now here he comes.
SPEAKER_00: And in our minds, this sets up an incredible homecoming.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a powerful moment for the hometown crowd.
SPEAKER_00: And look at what he does when he arrives in Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things?
SPEAKER_00: What is the wisdom given to him?
SPEAKER_00: How are such mighty works done by his hand?
SPEAKER_00: Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and Judas and Simon?
SPEAKER_00: And are not these his sisters here with us?
SPEAKER_00: And it says, and they were amazed.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, they took offense at him.
SPEAKER_00: So let's unpack this just phrase by phrase for a few minutes to understand what Mark is trying to communicate to us today in his gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing I want you to see, it says he began to teach there in the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Many who heard him were astonished.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been with us through our study, this ought to draw your mind back to chapter one, where Jesus is standing in another synagogue in Capernaum, and he's teaching there.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter one records it for us in verse 21, in verse 22, it says that Jesus was teaching and he was teaching with authority.
SPEAKER_00: And it says the people there were amazed because he was teaching like no one they had ever heard before.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now here we are in chapter 6, and he's teaching in another synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: And what is the response of this crowd?
SPEAKER_00: Amazement, astonishment.
SPEAKER_00: Again, they're thinking the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: No one is ever taught like this.
SPEAKER_00: This guy is completely different in his teaching.
SPEAKER_00: We know Mark chapter 1, verse 15, it says the message that Jesus was teaching, that he was proclaiming, was that the kingdom of God had come and that they were to repent and believe that that was the appropriate response to the person and work of Jesus is repentance and belief.
SPEAKER_00: And so now he comes to Nazareth, preaching that same message.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is here.
SPEAKER_00: Repent, turn from how you were living and believe.
SPEAKER_00: Place your faith in Jesus and follow after him.
SPEAKER_00: This audience in Nazareth is reacting in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to understand something.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is a press in Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: A reaction to Jesus is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus demands a response with our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He demands a response.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Mark is setting up for us here.
SPEAKER_00: And the response of the hometown crowd is described for us here in these two verses with four questions that the people ask.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to look at each of these individually for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to understand something.
SPEAKER_00: These four questions really are one question expressed in four different ways.
SPEAKER_00: And I think these four ways, the more I read it, the more I thought about this and prayed through this text, I think this is just four different aspects of the human heart as we think about answering the question that is before us who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And so the way they ask these questions, they're asking this of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They're asking this of this man.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the questions here.
SPEAKER_00: The first one Where did this man get these things?
SPEAKER_00: This question, the heart behind this question, it's a question of authority.
SPEAKER_00: It's a question of authority.
SPEAKER_00: We might say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: What gives you the right to tell us what to do?
SPEAKER_00: That's really what the crowd is asking there in Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that the isn't that what we're asking today too?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had that as a as a question of your own heart if you're really honest?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, what gives you the right to tell me what to do?
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell myself what to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's the pull of our sinful nature, is it not?
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to willingly submit to anyone's authority but our own.
SPEAKER_00: As sinners, many sinners will admit that they need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We can recognize our brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: We can recognize that we don't have everything we need in and of ourselves to meet the greatest needs of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, far too many will not admit or willingly bow their knee to a king.
SPEAKER_00: We'll admit we need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: But we will not willingly as often admit and that we need to surrender and bow the knee to a king.
SPEAKER_00: We want to separate the two.
SPEAKER_00: God, give me the stuff I need, but I'm gonna keep for myself what I don't want to give, and that is surrender of my will to follow after you.
SPEAKER_00: So this first question is revealing that area of our heart that resists the authority of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But there's another question that they ask that is this what is the wisdom given to him?
SPEAKER_00: Like, he's teaching in a way that's powerful and it's demanding a response, and it's so unlike anything we've ever heard.
SPEAKER_00: They're asking this question: who says your way is the right way?
SPEAKER_00: Man, this one is so relevant to our culture today.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Believers and unbelievers alike are asking this question so many times, and we don't even realize we're asking it sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, who says your way is the right way?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I want to define truth for myself.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the message that we hear in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: Truth is relative.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can have a truth and you can have a truth, but don't let your truth infringe on his truth or her truth.
SPEAKER_00: You get to define it for yourself, just follow your heart, you'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's just this abstract thing.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody just do their own thing.
SPEAKER_00: But the press of Jesus is no, there is absolute truth.
SPEAKER_00: He is absolute truth.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We don't get to determine it, we submit to it.
SPEAKER_00: And so this question begs us to say, will we trust his wisdom when it conflicts with our own, or when it conflicts with the wisdom that we want to follow after?
SPEAKER_00: Or will I trust Christ when his word contradicts my feelings or contradicts my preferences?
SPEAKER_00: It's another question of the heart that is getting to the heart of who is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one with all wisdom, he is the one with all authority.
SPEAKER_00: But they're asking a third question.
SPEAKER_00: It says, How is such mighty works done by his hand?
SPEAKER_00: It's a question of power.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what they're not saying here.
SPEAKER_00: They're not denying his miracles, they simply just can't explain them.
SPEAKER_00: They've heard about them.
SPEAKER_00: And their question is not really, does Jesus possess power?
SPEAKER_00: They're not saying those are just rumors.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he didn't really do those things.
SPEAKER_00: No, they believe.
SPEAKER_00: No, we have evidence, right?
SPEAKER_00: We have firsthand eyewitness evidence that Jesus has done these things.
SPEAKER_00: The real question that they're asking, what is revealed about their heart in this question, what they really want to know is Jesus, what is your power?
SPEAKER_00: The evidence of your power gonna demand of us?
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus' miracles, the signs and the wonders of his kingdom that had coming.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They they demand a response.
SPEAKER_00: They were evidence of who he was.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question of us is are we going to accept it?
SPEAKER_00: Are we going to accept the evidence that God has given us concerning who Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: Or are we going to try to continue to explain him away so that we don't have to bow our knee to the one who has all power and authority?
SPEAKER_00: Evidence of who Jesus is, I just want to say to you today, it has never been the greatest obstacle to faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's not evidence.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: People try to hide behind evidence and say, if I just had more proof of who Jesus is, then I would follow him.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I need.
SPEAKER_00: Just give me proof.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we have the proof.
SPEAKER_00: We have the proof in his word.
SPEAKER_00: We have the proof and changed lives.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The proof is there.
SPEAKER_00: Evidence is not the greatest need of the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not the greatest obstacle to faith.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is the greatest obstacle to faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is that willingness to surrender, it's that willingness to bow before the king, to acknowledge his authority and his wisdom and his power in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where the people of Nazareth are wrestling.
SPEAKER_00: It's coming into conflict with their nature.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: I see who you are, and this is making me nervous.
SPEAKER_00: So they ask a final question.
SPEAKER_00: Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
SPEAKER_00: And are not his sisters here with us?
SPEAKER_00: Now, at first glance, you just read that and say, oh yeah, they're just identifying who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to understand something here.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to go too long with this, but this question is not as innocent as it sounds.
SPEAKER_00: Even the way they ask it, there is an insult behind it.
SPEAKER_00: It means their mind is already made up as they ask it.
SPEAKER_00: As they say, isn't this Mary's son?
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't they mention Joseph?
SPEAKER_00: Now some would say, oh, it's because Joseph has already passed away by this point.
SPEAKER_00: And that may be true.
SPEAKER_00: He may already be, uh have passed away by this point when Jesus returns to Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think when you read it in context, that is the point that they're making by leaving Joseph's name out.
SPEAKER_00: It's more of an insult of, oh, we know the real story about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That was scandalous.
SPEAKER_00: We're not even sure he is Joseph's son.
SPEAKER_00: They're questioning, this is an identity question that they're asking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they're saying, Jesus, who do you think you are?
SPEAKER_00: We know you.
SPEAKER_00: You're just a carpenter.
SPEAKER_00: You come from a poor family, from a poor town, a humble background.
SPEAKER_00: You came into this world with scandal around you.
SPEAKER_00: People were whispering in the corners about who you were.
SPEAKER_00: We know who you are.
SPEAKER_00: What gives you the right to stand here and demanding repentance and belief of us?
SPEAKER_00: See, they don't want Jesus to define himself.
SPEAKER_00: They want to define him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they want to control who he is and what place he has in their life.
SPEAKER_00: Guilty.
SPEAKER_00: Too many times in my own walk with the Lord, have I done the same thing and had these tendencies to say, Jesus, I'm gonna put you over here, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna think about you in these ways, but I'm not really gonna let you touch these other areas of my life, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't want you over here.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna try to explain you away.
SPEAKER_00: We do it all the time by the way we view Jesus, by the way we try to define him.
SPEAKER_00: Some people will try to define him as a cosmic bellboy.
SPEAKER_00: Pick up the bell, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Jesus, uh, got a little issue here.
SPEAKER_00: Can you help me with this?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of in a tight spot, made a mess of things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, can you get me out of this?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you the next time I blow it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's one view we have of trying to say, Jesus, this is who I want you to be.
SPEAKER_00: I want you just to be the butler, taking care of my needs when I present them to you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, we wanted to find Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's just that big grandpa in the sky, right?
SPEAKER_00: Who just sits back and he watches with a smile on his face.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you crazy kids, you know, you just go ahead, knock yourselves out, have fun, do what you want to do, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, and I'm really not watching that close, but just make sure you come see me on Sunday, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just come for a visit and bring the kids, right?
SPEAKER_00: That kind of a view of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We have all these different ways we want to define him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it is uncomfortable for us.
SPEAKER_00: It rubs up against us, it comes in conflict with our sin nature when he is defined the way scripture defines him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just be honest.
SPEAKER_00: It is because who Jesus is demands surrender because he is king, because he has authority, because he is the source of wisdom, and he is the source of power, and we are not.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a little scary.
SPEAKER_00: To relinquish our perceived control to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And so at the end of the day, their response with these questions is gonna take them somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Going to see it in just a minute, but I want you to know something else.
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, Jesus refuses to fit into the expectations of the people of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to just succumb to their expectations of him and try to measure up to those.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to do that for us either.
SPEAKER_00: So if we're honest, we've got to answer this question.
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing to embrace the kind of Messiah that the Father sent, or only the one that we wish he had sent?
SPEAKER_00: That's what Nazareth is having to come to terms with.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I have to come to terms with that as well.
SPEAKER_00: And they do.
SPEAKER_00: They come to terms with it.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the verdict.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it says, the people say after these questions.
SPEAKER_00: And they took offense at him.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't take offense because he lacked authority, or because he lacked wisdom, or because he lacked power, or because there was actually a real flaw in his identity.
SPEAKER_00: No, the reason that they took offense at him, the reason they chose to reject him, to not believe who he was, was because he actually didn't meet their expectations.
SPEAKER_00: They had a set of expectations.
SPEAKER_00: They were so familiar with him, but that familiarity was such a danger.
SPEAKER_00: Their familiarity with Jesus, the Jesus they thought they knew, actually was robbing them of experiencing the Jesus that they actually needed.
SPEAKER_00: Let that sit for just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Their familiarity with the Jesus they thought they knew actually robbed them of experiencing the Jesus that they actually needed.
SPEAKER_00: Church, that is so true for us as well.
SPEAKER_00: We can get so comfortable with the Jesus that we create over here that we actually have the potential to miss who he really is and what he really came to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: There's a result to the response of the people of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There's results to their rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what verse 4 through 6 say.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.
SPEAKER_00: And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and he healed them.
SPEAKER_00: And he marveled because of their unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: And he went out among them, teaching in their villages.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at these phrases, but these verses phrase by phrase as well for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: The first phrase there about the prophet is not without honor.
SPEAKER_00: This is not just a random statement that Jesus is making that is really just about himself.
SPEAKER_00: Like, well, I'm, you know, I can't get no respect here in my hometown.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is a repeated theme in the life of the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Think about your knowledge of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Let me help summarize it and connect some dots for you.
SPEAKER_00: Time after time after time throughout the Old Testament, God would send a messenger.
SPEAKER_00: He would send a prophet to his people.
SPEAKER_00: And what would that message be?
SPEAKER_00: Repent.
SPEAKER_00: Believe.
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
SPEAKER_00: Quit following after these other gods.
SPEAKER_00: Repent of that.
SPEAKER_00: Turn back to me.
SPEAKER_00: Return to me.
SPEAKER_00: What was the response of the people time after time again throughout the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_00: No, rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Not to listen to God's messenger bringing his message to the people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying they're doing it again.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't listen to Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't listen to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't listen to Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't listen to Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't listen to the greatest prophet that the Old Testament tells us there was in the Old Testament, and that was Moses.
SPEAKER_00: It says they didn't even listen to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, so now a prophet greater, the prophet greater than Moses, the real messenger, the King of Kings, the Word of God who took on flesh, is now standing before them, and they are rejecting him.
SPEAKER_00: This is an indictment on the human heart that we want to reject who Jesus is because it comes into confrontation with our sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: See, they were having trouble seeing who Jesus really was.
SPEAKER_00: Because they had an expectation and he was not measuring up.
SPEAKER_00: One scholar says it this way: they were having trouble seeing through the veil of his ordinariness.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Isaiah 53 is a great explanation of what I mean by that.
SPEAKER_00: Listen as I read, starting in verse 2, it says, talking about Jesus, prophesying about Jesus, he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_00: He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
SPEAKER_00: He was despised, rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.
SPEAKER_00: He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the people of Nazareth were struggling just like others, just like us, if we're honest, today.
SPEAKER_00: There are times we we have an image of who Jesus should be and what we want him to do.
SPEAKER_00: And when he doesn't measure up to that, we we struggle.
SPEAKER_00: And here in this moment, Nazareth is struggling because they're like, how could this be the one?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He's not doing what we want him to do.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come the way we thought he should come.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have the pedigree that we think he should have.
SPEAKER_00: Why would we follow after him?
SPEAKER_00: Because he didn't come the way they wanted.
SPEAKER_00: They rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: Now look how sad this next phrase is.
SPEAKER_00: And he could do no mighty work there.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me clear up something here.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a statement about whether Jesus has the ability to do a mighty work there.
SPEAKER_00: This is not about physical impossibility.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because we see at the end of this, he heals people, right?
SPEAKER_00: He has the ability.
SPEAKER_00: What is this speaking to?
SPEAKER_00: This is more of a, he has no, it is a moral and spiritual inconsistency for him to show his power, to show the signs and the wonders that authenticate the fact that the king has come, the king of the kingdom has come.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he bring signs and wonders to validate that message if those people had already decided in their hearts that they were going to reject him?
SPEAKER_00: The signs and the wonders authenticate the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: They're not circus tricks used to entertain.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not going to just come and show these things to people with hard hearts who have already determined not to bow the knee to King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so he does no signs, he does no wonders there among his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: But I do love what we see about his character.
SPEAKER_00: Mark lets us in and he goes, oh yeah, but he healed a few people.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like his compassion, his mercy, his grace, his love for the broken.
SPEAKER_00: It's like he still healed people.
SPEAKER_00: He quietly healed a few people while he was there in that area.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's who he is.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he came to do.
SPEAKER_00: He came to heal, restore, to demonstrate his love and grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: But the sad part for Nazareth is that their unbelieving hearts were exposed and they robbed them of actually seeing the power and ultimately the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The very thing they needed, they rejected.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, last week, remember what Pastor Jason shared?
SPEAKER_00: Is we looked at the woman who just touched the the wings of his prayer shawl, and she was healed of an infirmity that she had had her whole life.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus raises from the dead, Jarius's daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is the this is the one he's brought dead to life.
SPEAKER_00: He's healed the sick.
SPEAKER_00: He's walked on water.
SPEAKER_00: He's calmed storms.
SPEAKER_00: He's healed diseases.
SPEAKER_00: He's cast out demons.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He has everything to meet every need that the people of Nazareth have.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't, they reject it.
SPEAKER_00: All because they don't want to bow the knee to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It says he marveled at their unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is the other time.
SPEAKER_00: This is the time.
SPEAKER_00: The only other time in the gospel where Jesus marveled.
SPEAKER_00: And the point Mark is making for us by seeing this here is how sad it is.
SPEAKER_00: The outsiders, those who the world would have thought were far from God, recognized Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But his own people rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: What an indictment.
SPEAKER_00: But with the time we have left, I want us to turn our focus.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not that far of a leap to move from Nazareth to Bernie, Texas.
SPEAKER_00: See, we live in a community where almost everybody knows something about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us, many people that we rub shoulders with every day grew up in church.
SPEAKER_00: They know some Bible stories.
SPEAKER_00: They can sing the songs, right?
SPEAKER_00: They can speak the language.
SPEAKER_00: They're fluent in Christian ease.
SPEAKER_00: They know church culture, right?
SPEAKER_00: They know when to stand, they know when to sit, right?
SPEAKER_00: They know where the hands are supposed to go up and what parts of the songs, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like they got it.
SPEAKER_00: They got the motions down.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the reality: proximity to Jesus is not the same thing as surrender to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We were at youth camp this past week.
SPEAKER_00: I got to tag along.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I go under the uh the guise of I'm just going to help, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to be there as an encouragement and a cheerleader for our volunteers and our staff for Garrett and Andrea, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to be there to love on them.
SPEAKER_00: But if I let you know, the reason I really go is just because I want to stay young.
SPEAKER_00: And I think going to youth camp every year is going to keep me young.
SPEAKER_00: But what actually happens every year, I come back and I realize how old I am.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to go again next year because I'm going to maybe next year is the magic year where it's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: But all that to say, while we were at camp, the theme for the week, we were in John chapter 15, and our speaker for the week was talking about abiding in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I think far too often we think we can check that box of, oh yeah, we're what are we called to do as followers of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Abide in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we will equate that with proximity.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, I show up at church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm abiding in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Check.
SPEAKER_00: Or I'm in a Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: I go to a growth group, right?
SPEAKER_00: I go to youth group on Wednesday night, whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00: And all of those things are good things.
SPEAKER_00: And all of those things are kind of part of what it means to abide in Christ, being with God's people, worshiping, hearing the preaching of the word of God, being in community, accountability, all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: But those things in and of themselves is just proximity.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Abiding in Christ speaks to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what this is, this is what this is making us, forcing us to take that step further into what Jesus is talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: Proximity is not the same thing as surrender.
SPEAKER_00: And the call of the gospel is surrender to Jesus, repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the warning of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest danger is not opposition to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest danger is actually becoming so familiar with him that we've lost our awe of him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the greater danger for you and I.
SPEAKER_00: That's the greater danger for Bernie, Texas.
SPEAKER_00: Is that we have become so familiar with holy things that we don't even recognize the Holy One.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We can become experts in Christianity and remain strangers to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We can create expectations and assumptions about the kind of Savior that we want and reject the one that we truly need.
SPEAKER_00: So in the first five chapters of Mark, he has spent it answering for us who is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he's shown us time and time again who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Every miracle, every healing, every sermon, every confrontation, every storm that he calms is just another answer to the question: who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: He is the promised king.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one with all power.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one with absolute authority, and he is the only one worthy of worship.
SPEAKER_00: The question of who is Jesus has been answered.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need more proof.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need more answer.
SPEAKER_00: Mark 6 says, let's quit asking the question, who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And now let's ask the question, will I surrender to him?
SPEAKER_00: That's where the rubber meets the road.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Mark continues to press for us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the gospel continues to press for us.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_00: And you might say, Daniel, quit saying that.
SPEAKER_00: I've already done that.
SPEAKER_00: I checked that box.
SPEAKER_00: I walked an aisle.
SPEAKER_00: I prayed a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I know that I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that Jesus came to die on the cross, to pay for my sin, to be my substitute.
SPEAKER_00: And I have asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I believe he lived and he died and he was buried and he rose again on the third day and that I will spend eternity with him.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: That is good.
SPEAKER_00: But did you know that repentance and faith is actually part of your daily life with him and not just about a one-time decision we make?
SPEAKER_00: And that is the press for you as a believer.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here today without Jesus, you came in here today and you do not know him, then yes, repentance and faith for you is a decision that you must make.
SPEAKER_00: You must come.
SPEAKER_00: You must come face to face with the claims of who Jesus is, and you must decide: will I bow a knee to him?
SPEAKER_00: Will I acknowledge him and confess him as Lord and accept the salvation that he is offering as I declare him to be my king?
SPEAKER_00: But for you as a believer in this room who have already done that, repentance in faith for you is a daily practice.
SPEAKER_00: For me, it's an every minute practice of repenting of my desire to be my own king.
SPEAKER_00: Repenting of my tendency to try to define Jesus in a way that I'm comfortable with.
SPEAKER_00: And instead to believe what Scripture says about who he really is and trust it enough to surrender what I think are the rights to myself, to him, and find freedom in it.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance and faith, that is the call, even for us today here in Bernie, Texas, who have got this Christianity thing down to a science.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus is not willing to be king of a kingdom that you create or that I create.
SPEAKER_00: That's way too small a throne for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He will be king of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is king.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, he is giving you and I a chance to do that willingly, to come to him in repentance and faith every day to practice that.
SPEAKER_00: Saying, Jesus, my life is yours, my marriage is yours, my children are yours, my job is yours.
SPEAKER_00: Help me not to try to control these things, but to surrender them to you and allow you to leverage those for what you want to do in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Have we become so familiar with Jesus here that we've been lulled to sleep?
SPEAKER_00: Have we gotten so comfortable with him?
SPEAKER_00: That now what we find is that our walk with him has just kind of become weak and lifeless and frail.
SPEAKER_00: Because who Jesus is is not really the Jesus that we're following.
SPEAKER_00: We must heed the warning of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: These people weren't atheists, they were synagogue goers, church goers.
SPEAKER_00: But as they listened to his teaching and as he even stood in front of them, they refused to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: May that not be true of you and I.
SPEAKER_00: Mark's gospel reminds us there's there's no record of Jesus ever coming back to Nazareth after this.
SPEAKER_00: They had an opportunity, they rejected, and the opportunity was gone.
SPEAKER_00: For you and I today, may we not let familiarity cause us to lose our awe, to pollute our worship, to minimize our obedience, but instead may we come to him every day, repenting of those tendencies in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Because we believe that he is king and he is good and that abiding in him is where freedom is found in our everyday life.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: As our worship team comes, we're gonna sing together.
SPEAKER_00: And as we sing today, we're gonna sing one song of response.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I encourage you, implore you to use this time for.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let this just be a box we check and just kind of a closing part of the service, but instead use this time to ask yourself some uncomfortable questions.
SPEAKER_00: Have I become so familiar with Jesus that I've lost my awe of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Am I guilty of trying to put him in a box that I'm comfortable with?
SPEAKER_00: Rather than allowing myself to surrender to who he is and fighting the freedom and victory and the life that comes when I do surrender, when I do bow that knee.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe today you need to repent and once again say, Lord, I repent of practicing unbelief, even though I'm an unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: Today I need to get that right.
SPEAKER_00: I need to repent of trying to define you one way and instead let you be who you are and actually acknowledge it and surrender to it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how the Spirit of God might be working in your heart today.
SPEAKER_00: But I know since his word has been opened and it's been shared in this room, I know God works through his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to invite you to respond however the Spirit is leading.
SPEAKER_00: You can pray right there in your seat.
SPEAKER_00: I would be delighted and honored to pray with you right here at the front.
SPEAKER_00: But let me encourage you right now, stand to your feet as we begin to sing here in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: God, have your way in this place.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you move?
SPEAKER_00: God, would you convict?
SPEAKER_00: Would you comfort?
SPEAKER_00: Would you challenge our hearts in this moment that we have together in Jesus' name?