Transcription downloaded from https://sermon-library.fbcmustang.org/sermons/103819/the-danger-of-learning-about-jesus/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. When people come to visit our home, really almost year-round, but for sure this time of year, but just about the whole year, people come to our house and if they've not been to our home before, the comment that we hear more than anything else are people who are mesmerized by all the turkey that are around.

[0:35] We live just one mile from here, but behind us is about a half a mile of just wooded area, and so turkeys roam free. And all of the smart aleck guys ask if they can come over and hunt and send me to jail, which we ask them to please not do, but we've got all these turkeys that roam around.

[0:55] And people come, they're just mesmerized by it. And you come to our driveway, and they just hang out in the driveway. And they're not afraid of you, and they feel like it's their home too, so they just kind of hang out. They'll scoot over, let you park your car in, just go ride all around.

[1:09] And this time of year, there can be anywhere from 10 or 20 or 30, 40 or 50 together. Years ago, I had to look it up to find out what is a big group of turkey.

[1:20] Is it a school, a tribe, a stack? What is it? It's a rafter. It's a rafter of turkeys. And people will come, they're just amazed by it.

[1:32] And I remember when we first moved into that house 14 years ago, I felt the same way. It was just crazy to have these turkeys just walking around everywhere. Well, 14 years later, they're just kind of part of our property there.

[1:48] Marcia will go out there and feed them every once in a while. She communicates. It's really an amazing thing. My wife can go out there and talk to them. She talks, they talk back. It really is a pretty amazing deal. I don't know that language, but they're just kind of a part of our place there.

[2:03] So much so that while I notice them, I don't really think about them on a daily basis because I back up every day, and they're there. I come home from work every day, and they're there. But people who come for the first time, it's always one of the things they're just kind of stunned by.

[2:20] And you've got things like that in your life too, things that maybe are breathtaking to you or unusual to you or exciting to you or beautiful. And after a bit of time, it just becomes normal, becomes commonplace.

[2:33] That's what's happened to the people of Nazareth. You might think that the hometown of Jesus is a place where the hometown people every single day are just mesmerized that Jesus is here.

[2:49] You might think that people who grew up every day seeing Him, talking to Him, playing with Him, conversing with Him, would just be in awe.

[3:02] Jesus is from here. He's one of us. But of course, that's not the way that it happened. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

[3:12] That their familiarity with Him led them to think really nothing of Him. Or maybe you've had the experience where you go back home.

[3:24] That's what Jesus does. He's going to go back home to Nazareth in this text. Some of you maybe went to high school and you moved away, and you go back for a 10-year reunion. Or you go back to a 20-year reunion.

[3:37] And for some, it's exciting to go back home. And for others, you think, oh, who's going to be there? And what are they going to say? And I wonder what the town looks like. And I wonder what everybody's up to.

[3:48] I remember the first, when me and Marcy were dating in college, she's from Newkirk, a little bitty town up north, almost to the Kansas border. I never heard of it. And we were going up there, and it's a little bitty town.

[4:00] And she was telling me, you know, it's a small town, but you know, it's a great place. It's not a bad place. You know, all this kind of a thing. And so we were driving up there, and she was telling me all about the town and the people she grew up with.

[4:12] She had just graduated the year before. We go to a Friday night football game, and we're just sitting there in the stands, small town, small little football stadium. And the PA announcer notices right before kickoff that Marcy's there.

[4:25] And so he just yells out over the PA, hey, Marcy, free, you're here. Why don't you come up and sing the national anthem? And I'm like, are you going to do that? And she's like, I guess. They told me to. She just gets up and climbs the bleachers.

[4:38] They hand the little, you know, PA microphone out the window. And I'm like, what kind of town is this? Hometowns are interesting. Hometowns for some are really fun, great memories.

[4:52] And some of you grew up in hometowns that you would rather forget. Well, all of that kind of is swirling around when you come to Mark chapter 6.

[5:02] You've got Jesus going back to Nazareth where he was from. He's going back to his hometown, and they're about to receive back to the city, the hometown rabbi now.

[5:16] And rather than them being grateful he's there and amazed that he's there, there's just so much familiarity that for them there's just really no interest at all.

[5:27] Mark 6, starting in verse 1, says that Jesus went away from there and came to his hometown. And his disciples followed him. So this isn't, let me just offer you, this isn't, this isn't just him going back home.

[5:43] This is a ministry visit. His disciples go with him. This isn't just going back for a reunion. This is, this is a time of ministry. Verse 2, then 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?

[6:00] 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 the brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?

[6:20] And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.

[6:35] And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.

[6:47] And he went about among the villages teaching. And we're going to spend the next couple of Sundays here in this brief text as we continue our walk through this gospel.

[7:01] Let me give you a few things to make note of. Let's start with this. I want you to see in verses 1, 2, and 3 that Jesus is rejected in his own hometown. Jesus is rejected in his own hometown.

[7:16] Again, he went away from there and came to his hometown. He's left Capernaum. Capernaum, as you know, has been the headquarters of his ministry for a while. And that is going to come to an end at this point in his ministry.

[7:31] And it says in verse 1, he came to his own hometown. It's a phrase that means his father's land. He's come back to the fatherland. He's come back to the place where he is from.

[7:43] And it was just the day before when, as we looked in Mark 4 and 5, that he was there teaching and healing. And his brothers came down to where he was.

[7:54] And they tried to take him by force and arrest him to seize him because they thought he was out of his mind. He was saying these things. And his own brothers who didn't believe in him thought that he was out of his mind.

[8:06] Well, now Jesus is going to go back to where his family is the next day. He's traveled about 25 miles. And he comes to his hometown of Nazareth.

[8:18] It's not the city of his birth. We know that. He's born in Bethlehem. And then he will spend some time being raised in Egypt. And then after that, his family comes back home when he's a little boy to Nazareth where he will live as a youngster.

[8:36] And Nazareth is this kind of isolated area of hill country. In Jesus' day, it's only about 60 acres. The entire town of Nazareth is about 60 acres.

[8:48] Scholars tell us that as few as 200 people lived there, maybe as many as 450 or 500. So probably Jesus grows up in this town of about 2 to 3 to 400 people in this small hill country.

[9:06] It's not a place with a great reputation, Nazareth. You'll remember in John 1 46 when someone asked of Jesus, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

[9:20] This is not a place with a great reputation. Verse 2 tells us that it's the Sabbath and he began to teach in the synagogue and they were astonished. Now it's interesting that this takes place.

[9:33] In Luke chapter 4, Luke tells us of a time where Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and he picks up the scroll and he reads it.

[9:44] And after he reads it, the people are offended by him. And they actually try to take him and throw him off of a cliff and kill him.

[9:56] Now scholars have different opinions on this. I take this as a separate event. I believe that that event in Luke 4 happened early in Jesus' ministry in Mark 6.

[10:07] We're much later in his ministry. I take this as a separate event from what happened in Luke 4. Which is interesting because this means that maybe two years later, Jesus has come back to his hometown.

[10:22] And he's giving them a second chance to hear him preach the truth. Now when he comes back to the hometown, something is different.

[10:33] In the verses I just read to you, something is very different than what Mark has been telling us in chapter 3, 4, and 5 in the other places he's gone. Everywhere else Jesus has gone, you hear Mark telling us huge crowds gathered there.

[10:46] He could hardly go anywhere. He tries to get away from the crowds to rest and the crowds go and meet him there. Everywhere he goes, huge crowds. He goes to the houses this year and the day, huge crowds are there, wherever he goes.

[10:58] When he comes to Nazareth though, the only mention of a crowd is on the Sabbath. It seems that once he's come back home here, it's just kind of old news to them.

[11:10] Jesus is back. The rabbi, you know the guy that's from here that says all kinds of strange, weird things.

[11:21] People don't know what to do with him. People don't know what to think about him. He's back in town. And there's no mention of these huge crowds that go with him every single way he goes. But on the Sabbath day, a large crowd shows up at the Sabbath.

[11:34] It's interesting to me that he would be invited to come back and maybe even more interesting, he would accept to return because when he was here last time, they tried to kill him.

[11:47] Now, I don't have a real long list of prerequisites. If someone asks me to come preach at their church, if I'm able to, I'm happy to go minister if I can. But I think on that list somewhere would be, I'd like to make sure no one has tried to kill me there before.

[12:00] That might be, my schedule might be a little full. If I've gone somewhere and they try to throw me over a cliff, if I get an invitation two years later, I might just be busy, right?

[12:10] I mean, who's going to go back to that? But, as was the custom of the day, a visiting rabbi is in town, so the elders do what they were customary to do, invite the visiting rabbi to come and speak, and Jesus agrees to do it, and he shows up and he's going to once again teach them.

[12:27] Now, just in these first couple of verses, I want to kind of walk you through what's going on, because what is being said may be a little bit different in its meaning than it initially sounds to us.

[12:43] They're going to ask three questions. They're going to give three reasons for their problem or their protest, and they're going to give one verdict. The three questions we read about here in verse 2, Jesus has taught they're astonished, and you might hear that and think they're astonished because they love what he said, or they're astonished because they believe what he said, or they're astonished because they're just so grateful he's come, but that's not really what's going on at all.

[13:13] Those who heard him were astonished, saying, here are the three questions. Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him?

[13:27] And how are such mighty works done by his hands? Here's the first question. Where did this man get these things? Now they do not say, where did Jesus get this?

[13:44] They know his name. He grew up there. These people played with him. They were educated with him.

[13:56] They worked with him. They know his parents. They know his siblings. They've heard all the stories of what he's doing these days as he travels village to village, and he comes and he speaks, and it's not where did Jesus get these things?

[14:13] It's where did this guy get this? Not even the respect of mentioning him by name. It's just this man. It's a dismissive remark.

[14:25] Where does this fellow get this? Where did this guy come up with this? And their question here is about the origin, the source of what he is teaching them.

[14:39] Where did this man get these things? What's the source? Who told him this? Who showed him this? How does he know these things?

[14:52] And the second question is, what is the wisdom given to him? Where did he find all this wisdom? And the third question, how are such mighty works done by his hands?

[15:08] The emphasis here is not so much on the mighty works, as much as it's on his hands. We hear about these miracles that he's done.

[15:19] We hear how his hands are powerful enough to touch and to heal. How does this guy have that kind of power in those common, ordinary hands?

[15:40] Where does he get this stuff? Where did he get this wisdom he talks about? And we hear about these mighty works that he's done.

[15:54] How does he do it through those hands? We know those hands. We used to play games in the field with him with those hands. He would throw a ball with those hands.

[16:06] He would pick up a stick with those hands. He would hold a hammer or a knife with those common, ordinary hands. Those are the three questions.

[16:18] Now, let me show you the three reasons why they're skeptical. Reason number one, verse three, is not this the carpenter?

[16:35] This guy talks so unique with a wisdom and an authority and a clarity that is so strange to our ears.

[16:47] But isn't this guy the carpenter's son? This is the guy we grew up with. There was nothing extraordinary about him growing up.

[16:59] He was just common. He didn't walk around the village as an older boy or as a teenager with a glow about him. He didn't do miracles as a child.

[17:10] And all of a sudden, he's talking this way and people are telling the stories about him doing all these things. Is not this the carpenter? The word here is tectone.

[17:23] It's a word that means someone who is a builder. It can refer to someone who works with wood, as we most commonly think of what his profession would have been.

[17:36] It can also refer to someone who works with brick, like a mason. It can refer to someone who works with stone. It's a builder. It's a craftsman.

[17:50] We eventually get our English word architect from tectone. You can hear it in the word. This is the carpenter. This is the builder that grew up here, right?

[18:01] We're supposed to listen to the words of this man. He's just a common laborer.

[18:12] This is the carpenter. He built your mailbox. He built your rocking chair.

[18:26] He fixed your front door. He bricked your shed. He came and helped patch a hole on your roof.

[18:39] That's how they would have meant it. This is a common... This is a man who just works with his hands. And here he is in the synagogue telling us all these things we're supposed to believe, that we're supposed to think are true about him.

[18:54] All these lofty things, these wisdom sayings. Isn't this the guy who used to grow up and work with his dad, with his hands, and just went around building things with tools?

[19:05] It's an insult. It's reminding people that he was no big deal.

[19:25] The second insult is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary. Now, there's two ways to take this.

[19:37] They could be just meaning this is Mary's boy. I'll grant you that. But I don't think that's what's going on here. I think the context suggests something different.

[19:49] I think this is a very purposeful slight at leaving out Joseph. Now, Joseph may be deceased by this point. Yet, in that day, it was still the custom of the day to refer to someone according to their father.

[20:07] The most normal, polite thing would have been, this is Jesus, the son of Joseph. But they say it's the son of Mary.

[20:18] You remember when Mary was first becoming pregnant, that it was a bit of a scandal because she had been pure.

[20:32] She had never been in a sexual relationship with Joseph. But who would believe that? And so, while she was faithful and honest, and Joseph was faithful and honest, neither did anything wrong.

[20:45] In fact, both are called in the Scriptures as righteous and just for the way they responded to what the Holy Spirit was doing. Yet, the people in that day looked on them with some shame, so much so that Mary's going to leave town when she's pregnant to go visit friends and family to get out of the gossip of the day.

[21:07] And in John chapter 8, when his opponents are talking of Jesus, and there is this disagreement back and forth, their rebuttal to Jesus is, hey, we're not born of sexual immorality.

[21:22] meaning, but you are. That's a stigma that's never gone away.

[21:36] Jesus comes to his hometown, and he's teaching, and they say, wait a minute, you're nobody special. You're the carpenter. You're the builder. You're the tech tone.

[21:47] You're just the one who works with his hands. And by the way, carpenter, you're Mary's boy because your father is not worthy of our respect.

[22:02] I think this is a slight and a way of throwing back up in front of him these old charges of infidelity before his mom and dad were officially wed.

[22:17] Verse 3. Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?

[22:32] Now, why mention the brothers? Well, because what happened the day before? And it was a long time ago in our study because this was, you know, about a chapter ago, but for us it's been a number of weeks ago.

[22:44] But remember, just the day before, Jesus was teaching there, and his brothers came into town to seize him because his brothers said he's out of his mind.

[22:55] So the reason the people say is not this the carpenter, he's nobody special, the son of Mary, his family is sketchy, and he's the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon.

[23:13] What's the big deal with naming the brothers? Here's the big deal. His own brothers did not believe in him. Not until after the resurrection.

[23:27] The townspeople are saying, if you were somebody that was the real thing, wouldn't your own family believe you? He's got four brothers, James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon.

[23:46] We don't know how many sisters. We know there's more than one because it's plural and not his sisters here with us. So he has at least two sisters. Matthew chapter 13, verse 56, refers to all of his sisters are here.

[24:05] So he probably has more than two sisters. We know there's at least two, probably more than two though because of the way that they would refer to it as all of his sisters. So you've got four brothers.

[24:17] For sure, two sisters, probably more than that. And his own family doesn't believe in him. Now, after the resurrection, everything's going to be different.

[24:34] James, who is one of his brothers, listen to verse 3, is going to go on and lead the church in Jerusalem. He's going to write the New Testament letter that bears his name, James. Judas is going to be known by us as Jude and writes the New Testament letter that bears his name, Jude.

[24:53] But at this point in Jesus' life, his own family are unbelieving. And so Jesus has come back home and he's in the synagogue teaching.

[25:06] Then they're astonished, but they're not astonished because of worship. They're astonished because of these lofty things this common, ordinary man is saying.

[25:16] This guy is just a common man who works with his hands.

[25:29] In their mind, his family background is sketchy. And to cap it off, his own siblings don't believe in him.

[25:43] Who does this guy think he is? That's why back in verse 2, their first question is, where did this man get these things?

[25:56] Who does this guy think he is? That's what they're saying. There are three questions and there are three objections lead to one clear verdict.

[26:11] It's at the end of verse 3. And they took offense at him. They were offended by him.

[26:27] Scandalizo. You hear the word there. Our English word scandalize. They took offense. He was a scandal in their minds.

[26:42] What he was saying, what he was preaching, what he said of who he was, was nothing more than a scandal. They were offended by it. How dare you say this? You come into our town, into our synagogue, and say you're the son of God.

[26:57] We know you. We grew up with you. We watched you. We went to school with you. We played on the playground with you. We know everything about you. Now it's true. You were never in trouble.

[27:08] It's true. No one was ever having to correct you. That's true. But those hands, those are normal, common hands. We've seen them. Your hands bled when you've got a sticker in your fingers.

[27:28] How do you do mighty works from those hands? This is an offense. This is scandalous. Same word used in 1 Corinthians 1.23 where Paul said, we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.

[28:00] A scandalous claim. An offensive claim. Claim. For those who will not believe.

[28:14] Which is why in Matthew 11 verse 6, Jesus says this, which at first reading might even sound strange to our ears. Jesus said in Matthew 11 verse 6, blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

[28:29] Now why would somebody be offended by him? I mean, let's look at what Jesus has done. He goes to towns. He teaches. People of their own volition choose to come and hear him.

[28:43] What's offensive about that? Jesus will look at men who are blind and he will touch them with his hands and they through his spoken word will be given sight.

[28:56] The blind can see. How is that offensive? He will touch ears that have always been stopped up unable to hear and with his spoken word will allow for the first time hearing to come to their ears.

[29:11] How is that offensive? He will talk to a lady that has been having a medical condition for 12 years that Mark 5 recorded for us.

[29:24] And with faith she will reach out and touch his garment and he will heal her and he will stop and talk to the one that nobody else would talk to.

[29:35] He would give attention and compassion to the outcast. Why would you be offended by that? He would go with Jairus the synagogue ruler in Capernaum and rush to the house where his little girl who is 12 years old is just deceased and the mourners are there and the wailers are there and it's this sad heavy painful scene and he will take mom and dad and three disciples and go into the bedroom and he will grab this little girl by the hand and say Talitha Koum which is to say little lamb wake up.

[30:19] And the little girl who had died is brought back to life. Who could take offense at that?

[30:34] And yet Jesus says because he sees the way people respond to him blesses the one who is not offended by me and in Nazareth his own hometown take offense at him.

[30:52] Why would you be offended by someone who offers salvation? Why would you be offended by someone who offers eternal life to those who believe in his name?

[31:08] Well those who believe in him would not be offended. They would be converted. But those whose hearts are filled with unbelief and refuse to submit to his lordship take offense because he would call them sinners in need of salvation.

[31:34] And to drill down even more specifically while he offers salvation he offers a very exclusive salvation. Not exclusive in who it's offered to exclusive in who salvation is found in.

[31:51] Namely only himself. And for those who believe his words are the sweetest sound they've ever heard.

[32:09] But for those who refuse to believe with hardened hearts with pride people who are filled with self-sufficiency for people who want to think they don't need a savior for people who want to think how dare you talk to me about sin and judgment for people like that what could be more offensive than to tell them that as you are you are a sinner deserving of judgment and wrath.

[32:47] death. See the gospel message is the most beautiful message this universe has ever heard.

[33:00] And for those who refuse to accept it it is nothing short of offensive. Some of you have shared the gospel with your family your friends your co-workers classmates and you think to yourself why do people get so offended by the gospel I'm telling them how they can have eternal life and you're just sometimes stunned that people are offended well here's why for those who refuse to believe in who Christ is the gospel is a stumbling block of offense because it reminds us that we are fallen sinners and we cannot save ourselves and people are offended by that if you have someone out in the middle of the ocean and they're drowning right in the middle of the dark ocean and a boat comes by with a life raft!

[34:24] And that man in the middle of the ocean says how dare you think I need saving? How dare you think I can't do this on my own? They could be offended at the offer of help.

[34:36] But you find someone who's struggling and gasping for air and kicking and flailing doing everything they can to keep their mouth just a centimeter above the water and a life raft comes and they say we offer you to come and be saved.

[34:59] That person will rejoice. Same condition same offer for the one who rejects offense unto death for the one who believes salvation unto eternal life.

[35:25] friends if today there's never been a time in your life where you have confessed your sin and placed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ do not make the same mistake the people at Nazareth made.

[35:49] Do not be offended that the Lord tells you or today that I tell you speaking the words of scripture do not be offended that I tell you that you are a sinner.

[36:00] That's who you are. That's who we all are. Do not be offended that someone tells you the truth even if the truth is not what you want to hear.

[36:13] If your house is on fire and someone tells you your house is on fire there is a way out and you say I don't need to escape this burning house.

[36:25] I don't need firemen to come and put the flames out. I can do this myself. You can be offended by the offer and you'll be offended unto your death.

[36:40] Or you can say the building is on fire and there's a way of escape and you run out of the fire and your life is saved.

[36:58] Don't be offended that the gospel tells you your house is on fire because it is. Don't be offended the gospel tells you that if you do not repent you will die and face judgment because you will.

[37:19] but be relieved and be blessed by knowing that Christ has made a way of escape.

[37:35] In Jesus' day and in our day when the gospel goes forth some will believe some will be offended.

[37:49] The truth does not change. In your hearing today do not harden your heart. Repent.

[38:01] Believe. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Lord we thank you today for your word and pray that you would use it to help us to understand the truth.

[38:21] Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for enduring the scorn of men and absorbing the wrath of the Father that we could be saved.

[38:39] Amen. Amen. If we can help you, if we can pray for you, if we want to do that, use that connection card that's in your bulletin. Let us know if you have a question of how to know Christ as your Savior.

[38:52] Let us know if you need a prayer about anything in your life. We would love to help you. We would love to pray with you. We would love to meet with you. Any way that we can serve you to help you to understand the us know your need, your prayer request, drop it in one of the boxes on your way out.

[39:14]  We would love to follow up with you any way that we can.