Jesus in Mark: Wk 8

Introduction:

Spiritual Inoculation Illustration: COVID-19 caused many people to think about, question, or research things that have been happening and practiced in the medical community for long before the pandemic. From what is a pandemic, to how does a virus spread, to do masks work, how to social distance, and then the one that likely tops them all- do vaccines work? Now, please know I am not going to talk about any of these things tonight, and am not getting into anything controversial in that area. But I bring it up because of that last item- vaccines. They are a basic idea in medicine and have been around for about 300 years now. Again, not saying that makes thing good or bad, right or wrong. But until COVID many people just got their baby vaccines and never thought about them beyond that. But when COVID hit and people were talking about a vaccine to prevent it, it caused many people to look into what that actually meant, is a vaccine a cure, is it medicine for the sick, is it a shield to perfectly protect people from the virus? But in case any of you aren’t familiar, here is how it is, a vaccine is a form of inoculation. What does that mean? Here’s the definition of inoculation: Inoculation is the act of implanting a pathogen or other microbe or virus into a person or other organism. It is a method of artificially inducing immunity against various infectious diseases. What? Basically, it means to put a knock off version of the virus in your body to trigger your immune system to react to it so that your body will learn how to resist and reject the real, full version of the virus when you come into contact with it later. It is introducing your body to an incomplete, and safe version of the virus to build immunity resistance to the full version. So, there you go, crash course on vaccines- I’m sorry I know that’s not what you want to think about tonight.

Your body is used to the virus so it resists it in the future.

This isn’t just the case with viruses and vaccines, but many things. For instance, you all know how much I love coffee. However, I like real, high quality, freshly roasted, freshly ground, and freshly brewed coffee. It is great and has incredible flavors! But you want to know the people who dislike it the most when I give it to them? It’s not those who never drink coffee, or those who have only had bad coffee. It’s people who love fake coffee. People who love super sugary, watered down, and over flavored “coffee” taste real coffee and hate it. It’s not sweet enough, it’s too strong, and it’s not pink and purple with whipped cream on top.

People who haven’t tasted coffee, or only had bad coffee a long time ago, taste the real deal and are amazed by it, but those who have become used to a fake, misrepresentation of coffee, can’t comprehend the real thing.

Transition:

Unfortunately, this illustration doesn’t stop with vaccines, or coffee. This is a sad reality for some people who grow up in and around the things of Jesus. People who are introduced to a cheap, small dose, misrepresentation of who Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian…Unfortunately, this can produce the same resistance and the same rejection when they are face to face with the real Jesus and genuine faith among his people. It’s easy to grow up in church, it’s easy to grow up around things that look like Christianity. It is easy to get comfortable with acting the right way, talking the right way, and checking all the right boxes. But, then what happens when you see crazy, powerful revival breaking out somewhere? What happens when we see people confessing their sins openly and plainly and being delivered from all types of struggles? What happens when a miracle happens or when a miracle doesn’t happen? If our view of who Jesus is and our knowledge of him is limited to a Sunday school lesson on be good like Jesus- well then we are confused, frustrated, or even outright upset by the idea that Jesus could ever do more than just be a nice idea for life. Or a step further, if we have this casual knowledge and familiarity with Jesus, but then we hear commands like go and make disciples of all nations, go and sin no more, pray without ceasing, or you will do even greater things with the Holy Spirit than Jesus did. We resist, reject and refuse to belief those things. They don’t fit our box of who God is and what Jesus can do.

Tonight we will be looking at a story from Jesus’ life that is difficult to see and challenging to us as we honestly evaluate how we think about Jesus.

Turn with me to Mark chapter 6.

Context:

This story immediately follows what we have been talking about the last few weeks. It comes immediately after the four miracles that Jesus does with his disciples: The calming of the storm, the healing of the demon possessed man, and last week we saw the two combined stories of the woman who had bled for 12 years healed, and Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Then, we get here. Jesus returned to his home town, Nazareth with his disciples. In Luke’s account of Jesus life, we can learn that this is his second trip back to Nazareth since he began his public ministry. The first trip did not end well. Jesus revealed to his family, friends, and neighbors in Nazareth that he was the one Isaiah the prophet was talking about who would come to rescue the people, set the captives free, and usher in the Kingdom of God. They question and doubt him from the start, so he tells them that A prophet is not accepted in his home town and he reminds them of how Israel had rejected and abused the prophets throughout the OT and that the only one who was healed was a foreigner named Naaman. (suggesting that Gentiles, not Jews would be saved) And they get to mad at him that they try to throw him off a cliff and kill him, but he escaped from them. So, last time He was in Nazareth, about a year before this story we are about to read, and they attempted to kill him. But he has apparently been invited back to teach in a Synagogue in Nazareth and this is the story of what happens.

Read with me in verse 1:

Mark 6:1–6 (CSB)

He left there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands? Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.” He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching.

So, trip number two didn’t go much better. But hey they don’t try to kill him this time right?

What do we see here?

Jesus has been invited back to Nazareth to teach in the Synagogue- probably because some leader of that Synagogue had heard about or heard directly, Jesus’ teaching in other places and his reputation had grown so much that even the leader in Nazareth wanted to have Jesus come and teach in their synagogue.

So, Jesus is teaching in their synagogue, we don’t hear what he teaches, but based on every other time we hear Jesus teaching in the Bible- it was probably around the fact that the Kingdom of God was near, He was here to announce this kingdom, and people needed to repent and believe in Him to find life!

But look at verse 2 again and see how they respond to his teaching:

Mark 6:2 (CSB)

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands?

They hear him teaching and they are astonished… meaning amazed and struck by what he is saying. Again, the message of the kingdom of God is a powerful and striking message. The call to repent and believe can be surprising.

But then we see things shift. We see a line of questions that everyone in the crowd begins asking of themselves about Jesus:

“Where did this man get these things?” they said.

“What is this wisdom that has been given to him,

and how are these miracles performed by his hands?

Ultimately, they are saying this- we see the miracles he has done, we hear the things he is teaching, and the wisdom that he seems to have- but we don’t understand how HE, JESUS from NAZARETH, can do all of this!

Think about it with me though, He doesn’t actually do any miracles here before they say this, he is just teaching. That means they had heard about or even seen some of his miracles before, Jesus came back to Nazareth- Just in the Gospel of Mark, these miracles included:

Exalting Jesus in Mark His Miracles May Captivate You, but that Is Not Enough (Mark 6:2)

1. Peter’s mother-in-law (1:29–31)

2. Many more in Capernaum (1:32–34)

3. A leper (1:40–45)

4. A paralyzed man (2:1–12)

5. A man with a deformed hand (3:1–6)

6. Many again (3:7–12)

7. The storm and sea (4:35–41)

8. The Gerasene demoniac (5:1–20)

9. The woman who bled for 12 years (5:25–34)

10. Jairus’ daughter who had died (5:35–43)

So, how do they hear of, or see these things take place, then hear Jesus teaching so powerfully, and immediately turn to doubts, questions, and unbelief? This should all add up tot hem believing in who he is, having great faith like Jairus and and the woman! how could they doubt him after all that?

Well, because this is his hometown, theses are his closest family members, long time friends and neighbors from Nazareth.

His hometown crew does not deny all these things, but these things do not bring them to faith. They simply cannot reconcile what He has done with who they think He must be, who they know him as!

Criss Angel Illustration:

I think this shift in mindset at this moment is kind of like when you see a magic trick. Like a quick and simple slight of hand done really well is impressive and you’re like dang that was cool. But when someone does something CRAZY and over the top and try to claim they are really a magician, you just kind of stop and you’re like wait, hold up you’re a fake, stop lying. When I was growing up there was this guy on TV called Criss Angel, his show was Criss Angel Mind Freak and he would do some really impressive tricks, but then he started like flying through the sky and walking on water. And, at least for me, who doesn’t believe that this random dude is just going to gain the power of FLIGHT, it changed from entertainment, to frustrating deception. I was like bro, this is cheesy, you’re clearly dangling from a wire and walking across a glass platform, who do you think you are!?

This is the shift we see in the crowd in Nazareth. It’s like whoah that’s good teaching Rabbi…wait a minute- you’re just the skinny kid from down the street why would you ever be able to teach like this, know these things, or have this power to do miracles. Who put you up to this? Who told you all this?

It goes from interest and amazement to total unbelief- all because of who they had always thought Jesus was.

And who is that?

They say it in the next few verses:

He is just a carpenter- a handyman.

He is just the son of Mary- which is most likely them insulting him as a being born outside of Mary and Joseph being married. Otherwise- they would have identified him with His father’s name, not Mary.

And they are like and this is just the brother of these brothers and sisters here. Like, we saw them grow up together in the streets of Nazareth- this guy isn’t anything or anyone special. This is all a fraud.

Their unbelief is incredible. And Jesus responds in the same way that he did the first time he was with them and they didn’t believe in Him- He says in verse 4:

Mark 6:4 (CSB)

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.”

See, it keeps coming back to 1 problem. Familiarity with Jesus can actually prevent us from genuine faith in Jesus.

Our previous prior knowledge and familiarity with Jesus- and how we were introduced to Him, especially when it is a small, knock-off, inaccurate version of Jesus- can be exactly what keeps us from ever truly knowing and experiencing Him personally in our lives.

Faith in Jesus doesn’t just come by Knowing the right facts, its by encountering the powerful love of Jesus and trusting Him to transform you with it!

And his family and friends in Nazareth refused to trust him.

This doesn’t mean they never believed in him, many who were there we know later did believe in Jesus and put their faith in him- specifically some of His brothers who even wrote some of the New Testament!

But again, when we grow up around a lot of information or assumptions about Jesus, it can actually make it harder to truly have faith in Him. Because true faith in Jesus requires throwing out everything we are familiar with, and stepping into a real relationship with Him as LORD of our lives.

Familiarity doesn’t bring about faith, intimacy does. Close, personal, relationship with Jesus allows us to truly believe in him and grow in that faith!

But they refuse, boldly and completely. And look at verses 5-6, these are some of the toughest verses to wrestle with when you first read them:

Mark 6:5–6 (CSB)

He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching.

Their unbelief AMAZED Jesus.

The word used here is only used twice about Jesus.

The other time is in Matthew 8:10 when a Roman Centurion, not even a Jewish person, comes to Jesus begging him to heal his servant, Jesus offers to come to his home and heal him and the centurion says no, you have all authority you can do it from here, just say the word and I know he will be healed. And Matthew 8:10 “Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith.”

Literally the exact opposite of this story. The ONLY 2 times this word is used about Jesus. He is so blown away by that roman man’s faith in him and so utterly shocked at how his friends and family in Nazareth refused to believe in him. .

The shock went both ways- “[The crowd] could not get past Jesus’ humble origins and familiar feel. Jesus was astounded at their unbelief in light of what He said and did.”

Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), Mk 6:6.

What is unbelief though? What is he referring to?

So, the literal word in greek is not unbelief, but basically NOT-FAITH.

So you know there is symmetrical and asymmetrical and we know those are opposites.

Well here, there is Faith- pisteuo and this word is the opposite, not faith- apistia

We don’t ever really say UNFAITH in english, so we translate it unbelief, but the belief isn’t necessarily the problem- they believe Jesus exists, they believe what he is saying, however they have NO Faith in him to actually BE who He says He is and DO what He says he will do.

It is a lack of faith and trust that causes them to miss out on what Jesus wants to do in them.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that their lack of faith caused Jesus to lose his power, not at all. But Jesus did miracles and displayed the power of the Kingdom for the sake of redeeming people by bringing them into the Kingdom of God experience. So if people already rejected him and didn’t want him to move in their lives, don’t believe he can make a difference in their lives then he wasn’t going to. Jesus won’t do a work that will fail to redeem people. So their lack of faith prevented Jesus from doing powerful miracles among them.

Last week we said “Faith allows us to experience the power of Jesus”

Well, “Unbelief prevents us from having a personal experience with Jesus.”

Because: only by faith are we saved. Only by faith in Jesus as Lord can we step into a personal relationship with God through the forgiveness of sins and and new life in Christ!

We will not experience God’s power in our lives by simply knowing the right things about Jesus, or acting the right way around the Church.

The experience of God’s power and new life that He wants to give us is experienced through throwing everything you think you know about Jesus out the window and jumping into His arms for yourself and letting Him show you and give you all of Himself as Lord of your life.

Jesus doesn’t want your knowledge, your attendance, or your traditions. Jesus wants to live in you and through you as your personal Savior and Lord.

He wants to fill you with His power.

He wants to lead you by His Spirit.

He wants to move and bring healing and transformation and redemption and revival.

But our familiarity with a small, easy to understand, easy to palate Jesus can lead to an immunity resistance against the real Jesus!

JD Greear a pastor and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention wrote in one of his books:

“Because we have made [God] small enough to be understood, he is no longer big enough to be worshiped.” ― J.D. Greear, Not God Enough

I was just in a conversation with someone yesterday actually who had grown up in church and recognized they had drifted and continued to live in sin and were struggling with a lot and just felt like something was missing. And they kept saying- no really I believe in Jesus, I believe that Jesus lived and died- and they gave a lot of good sunday school answers for who Jesus is- but I told him about the story of the four soils, and about Jesus’ call to follow Him as Lord- and I said the one thing you have to figure out is if you actually want to truly FOLLOW Jesus as much as you KNOW about Jesus.

For us tonight- we need to make sure that we have personally met, believed in, and surrendered our lives to Jesus as Lord. Knowledge about Jesus, is good, but can’t save us. Attendance at church and small groups is important, but won’t change our lives by themselves. If we want to see God move in our lives, if want to see God answer our prayers for our family and friends to be saved, if we want to experience the power of Jesus in our lives and our world, we must have faith in Jesus- a personal, fully surrendered, faith in Jesus as Lord of our lives.

Many of you have made that decision already, so I want to encourage us all to examine our lives and see the ways we still try to put God in a box, the ways we still hang on to a small view of Jesus rather than the all perfect, all powerful GOD OF THE UNIVERSE that Jesus truly is, and who he wants to be in our lives as LORD!

Unbelief will prevent us from a personal experience with Jesus.

But Faith allows us to experience the power of Jesus in our lives.

How?

Make sure you know the real Jesus- spend time in the Gospels studying his life and teachings, spend time in prayer daily to talk with the real Jesus, and worship Him for how big and awesome he actually is.

Spend time with him- grow in trusting him - live surrendered to his power in your life

Have faith in Jesus- the real Jesus! Jesus, the Savior and Lord of heaven and earth!

Bow your heads and let’s take this to God together in prayer.

The greatest enemy to answered prayer is unbelief.

Warren W. Wiersbe

We will keep talking about praying for revival, praying for God to transform our church and our world with His power, we will keep praying for God to save our friends and family members who are lost and struggling.

But I want us to ask ourselves a REALLY difficult question what if our unbelief is actually preventing God from moving in our lives, what if holding on to a familiar, small, misrepresentation of Jesus is preventing us from experiencing the fullness of His power in our lives and those we are praying for?

Ask God to show you if you have been falling for a wrong view of who he is and what he can do.

Ask God to show you any way you have lacked faith in Jesus as Lord in your life.

Ask God to help you to see Jesus with new eyes for who he really is and help your unbelief.

Gospel Invitation

Prayer

Let’s worship God together for how big he Actually is. HE is savior, he is lord, he is healer, he is redeemer, he is the way maker and promise keeper. He is the light in the darkness, the loving father, the creator and sustainer of all things- let us worship him tonight before we go!