Home Town Reject

Introduction

Last week we saw Jesus get back from his little trip across the sea of Galilee and he was with three people; Jairus, the woman, and the girl. In that we saw him meet all of their needs as well as their faith. This week is almost the complete opposite, Where there were lots with faith that wanted to see Jesus last week there are none this week.

Tonight we are going to see Jesus get rejected at his hometown. Though this story starts with rejection it will end with progression of the most important message that there is, the gospel.

Lets begin by reading our passage tonight.

Mark 6:1–13 ESV

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 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? 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 brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” 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.” 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. And he went about among the villages teaching. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

This passage begins a subsection in the book of Mark. Part one as we are calling it occurs in Galilee and then part 2 will happen on the way to Jerusalem and finally part 3 is in Jerusalem. This is still part one but we see that they are venturing out of the region of Galilee a little bit instead of being right next to the sea the whole time.

This is the natural progression of the book as Jesus works to take the gospel further and further. Tonight we will see a big part of his efforts to continue the spread of the gospel. This message was proclaimed in chapter one of the book and has been spread for all the time after, now it is still being shared and it is going exponentially faster now.

Imagine being in the shoes of these guys, Jesus gets rejected in his hometown and then sends you out to proclaim the same message, this had to be a daunting task. Yet we also see that in this passage Jesus equipped these men and in the same way he equips the called still today.

Lets pray then begin to look closer to the rejection of Jesus.

pray

Rejection

Continuing to move on Jesus comes to his hometown of Nazareth. This is about 20 miles south of Capernaum. Once here what we see is the people reject Jesus. They know him as the man but they do not know him as God.

I have to say that is someone came to me in my hometown and started making these claims I would need some pretty strong convincing, yet here they had the savior but weren’t convinced. Not even his own family accepted him but they all rejected him. We can remember that a few chapters back his family had thought that he lost his mind so they have not been on his side for a while.

The famous author C.S. Lewis once stated that Jesus is either “Lord, lunatic, or liar”, these people chose liar. Though his teaching astonished them they could not believe that Jesus the carpenter was who he claimed to be.

Many still today fall into this, they reject Jesus and become hardened to him. Jesus was a real person in history, that is a fact that historians agree on whether Christian or not. Jesus came to make a way for forgiveness yet rejection is the most common response to that. Jesus is either Lord, lunatic, or liar. What do you think?

Insult

These people rejected Jesus by insults that they said about him. It says in Mark 6.2-3 “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? 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 brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.” They said he is just a common man, he has no education, he is just a carpenter with some siblings. Jesus was so much more than a common man but they didn’t want to accept that.

The other insult that they said about him was a little harder to catch without knowing the cultural norms of the day. I am Daytona son of Darrel, not Daytona son of Kristen, even though both are correct. In this time you were identified by the fathers name. So what does it mean that they called him the son of Mary? They are basically calling him an illegitimate child. If you remember the birth of Jesus, he was born of the virgin Mary. It seems as though rumors circulated around about this at this point and they are insulting him based on that.

Insult after insult, rejection upon rejection.

perseverance

What was Jesus’s response to all of this? Well he did not do very much healing because of their rejection yet he kept teaching. it says in Mark 6.6 “And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.” Even through their shocking rejection he kept teaching in all the villages.

These people thought that Jesus was a liar but he kept on teaching them the truths of the gospel.

Look at the perseverance that Jesus demonstrates through the whole book of Mark and in this passage. This is all for the sole purpose of spreading the message of the gospel. Think about how important this message must be if he would go through all of this trouble to share it. Then think about all the trouble that the apostles went through to share it after Jesus had left, they were dying in the line of duty of sharing this message. Then think about all the people that you have heard of after the times of the Bible and what they have gone through to share it, billions of dollars given, countless deaths, people leaving the lives that they knew in hopes to share this same exact message. how important must this message be?

The message is that you are a sinner that is not in right relationship with God and destined for eternal punishment but God made a way for you to be forgiven. To accept this forgiveness you must put your faith in him and repent of your sin. This is a message worth persevering in sharing.

Progression

Through all of the setbacks and all of the rejection there is something interesting still happening, the gospel is going further and further. In this final section that we will cover tonight we see that Jesus gives the apostles authority and sends them out. Now it is not just him but several groups of guys.

It has been building to this moment from Mark 3.14-15 “And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.” They have been growing in their faith and being built up all this time, now he has granted them the last bit that they need to be able to go. He has been disciplining them and is now empowering them for the work.

They went out casting out demons and healing the sick while they proclaimed the gospel. They were to stay with anyone that would receive them and shake the dust off their sandals as they left anywhere that did not receive them. This was a symbolic action because the Jews would often do this act as they finish traveling through a pagan country, thus relating the two.

Method

How did they go about their mission of progressing the gospel? Mark 6.7-11 “And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.””

First they went in pairs, this is repeated through church history as we see their missionary journey’s. This gives them help as they go on and the principle that testimony should be established by at least two witnesses. I can go off and do something then come tell yall anything and without another witness you wouldn’t know if I was being truthful.

Next they weren’t supposed to take anything. The purpose of this is so that they could trust in the provision of God. They had to rely on God for all of their needs not what they already had. So often we do not rely on God for anything yet here the apostles are commissioned to rely on him for everything.

The last part of their method here is to not house hop. Whenever someone welcomed them they were to stay there and be content with it, they were not to look for an upgrade in where they could stay.

They were to go out together and trust in the provision of the Lord and be content in what they were granted as they worked to spread the message.

Message

So what was their message? Mark 6.12 “So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.” This is the same as what we see from the beginning in Mark 1.15 “and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.””

This is the message of Christ, this was the message that he was insulted for, this is the message that he persevered to teach, this is the message that continued to progress against the odds, this is the message that the apostles were equipped to proclaim, this is the same message that you need to hear today.

Tonight if you have never put your faith in Jesus you need to do so. You need to trust in him as the only way for salvation. You also need to repent which just means turn away from your sins. This you will continue to do for a lifetime. This is not something that is like fire insurance and it is not something that you want to try to do last minute because you never know when that last minute will be.

Hear this message tonight and accept it.

Conclusion

Jesus is either Lord, lunatic, or liar. I am under the wholehearted conviction that he is Lord. This message is what brought me to this belief and it is what will bring you to this belief as well. This is the message that Jesus teaches, the apostles teach, and I teach. Jesus wants to save sinners. Jesus wants to save you.

Maybe you are here and have already accepted the salvation that he offers, then in the same manner of the apostles proclaim this message with all your heart.