The Shackling of Omnipotence

Good Evening,

Id like for you to turn with me in your Bibles to am speaking on the subject of the shackling of the Omnipotent, or TYING THE HANDS OF JESUS. Let’s Read

Jesus is about to start His journey back to Nazareth remember He was born and raised there. Born in Bethlehem raised in Nazareth, and His ministry HQ was located in a little town called Caperneaum right on the sea of Galilee, but here in our story Jesus is going back and He is going back for a second time and we will talk about that later on.

At this point Jesus has been doing some miracles, some mighty works up in Caperneaum and word has gotten around and everybody’s talking about Jesus the Son of Joseph, but they refer to Him as the son of Mary.

Mark 6:1-

Mark 6:1–6 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.

Jesus only marveled twice in the Bible He marveled once when nonbelievers believed, and He marveled a second time when believers didn’t believe.

The gospels record that after the Lord visited His hometown on 2 occassions once he left Nazareth he stayed away for about a year and then He came back and then He stayed away for another year and then He came back again. So it was here that Jesus was raised as a boy, worked as a carpenter until He was 30 years old.

Luke 2:52 ESV

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Now it is apparent from the text before us that unbelief affected the Son of God in His hometown and among His own people, and unbelief still affects the ministry of JEsus in our lives, in our homes and in our churches.

Always keep in mind that is preceded by in particular and many other recorded miracles. Maybe Jesus thought that word of His many miracles had preceded Him and prepared the way for Him to go back home. His heart yearned for his hometown and the people of His own country.

To Charles Darwin belief was the biggest distinction between mankind and the lower animals. If this is true then it means that lack of faith on man’s part puts him on the same level as the animals.

Hebrews 12:

Hebrews 12:15

Hebrews 12:13 ESV

and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Hebrews 12:15 ESV

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

Jesus is looking for a people who will allow Him to be Himself, you don’t need to be offended by Him, you don’t need to be ashamed of Him, just let Him be Himself, He lives in you now let Him live through you in the workplace and the school.

Now it has been a year since Jesus has been there, where when He went before He was rejected by the people and kicked out of the church. It is in this context that we find a people who did not take Jesus seriously, can I ask a question?

Do you take Jesus seriously?

What He desires to do with you His desires for your life?

Or do you do what most of us do through the week, you set down the things you need to get done thoughout the week, and when you finish it you check it off. If your not careful Sunday church is on the checklist, and Read devotional book is on the checklist and you didn’t really get anything out of it but you did check it off so at least you did it..

Maybe there is a familiarity within the house of God where there is nothing new you can learn again you have already heard it and now you have grown numb to the Holy Spirit of God who desires to move through the sermon and devotional to speak to your heart but you cant hear anything.

This Text Shows Me the Fearlessness of the Son of God.

I mentioned that Jesus has only been to Nazareth on two occasions is the second occasion, is the first occasion and when He went the first time they treated Him harshly and the way they treated Him, none of us would blame Him if He never went back.

You say boy if you knew how they treated Him it is a wonder that HE would even go back. What did Jesus do the first time to set them off the way they were set off?

Well when there is a visiting rabbi or teacher of God’s law visiting or at home in a village it is not unusual for the rabi to invite the guest rabbi to come and speak so what they would do is hand the visiting rabbi a scroll, and He happened to be given Isaiahs scroll and He stood and He read a prophecy from Isaiah of the coming Messiah from and it talked about how one would come to redeem the people and Jesus folded the scroll up and Jesus looked out over the congregation and looked out and said TODAY THESE WORDS ARE FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING.

What Happened?

One of the people looked over at someone else and said: “Did He says what I think He said? The other person said I think so, He just said the coming Messiah, He is saying He is the coming Messiah..GOOD BLASPHEMY, HE IS CLAIMING TO BE GOD!

We gotta do something about this I mean words going to get out that He said this and the religious community is going to say… “DID YALL HOLD THAT DUDE ACCOUNTABLE?”

So they said we know what we’ll do there is a real high cliff and let’s push Him over and the Bible says He just sort of pulled a houdini made His way through the crowd and they couldnt find Him.

So someone might have said hey Jesus I heard you got to go home this weekend I bet it was good to see everybody…

even his brothers did not believe Him

His families didnt even believe He was who He said He was.

“No Jesus you dont understand we asked how things went when you went home...”

“Yep I heard you they tried to kill me”

So here is what I would say about the fearlessness of the Son of God, His devotion is seen in that regardless of how they treated Him, He was still overwhelmed with their deep need.

Were supposed to learn from the attributes of God it doesnt matter what your neighbor said it doesnt matter what your family member has said, keep pressing in they NEED JESUS SO MUCH.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

So here is a good question how many times has HE given you to open your hart fully to Him? Let’s go a step further

His Determiniation

Jesus Christ identified Himself with a place where the word of God was read, its wonderful when the man of God takes the word of God teaches it to the people of God in the power of the spirit of God, in the house of God for the glory of God.

With determination Jesus stayed running after His purpose He did not waiver.

The synagogues in those days were built in such a way that they pointed toward Jerusalem, that means everytime Jesus would take a scroll and stand to read, anywhere in the land of Israel he was facing Jerusalem. The Bible says this that His face was set like flint toward Jerusalem and toward the cross of calvary He never lost sight of His mission.

He was facing the cross where HE was going to die for the sins of the world, so JEsus was determined to preach in Nazareth in hopes that someone would believe.

He was fearless,He went there they tried to kill Him He is coming back. He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him by His striped we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

THAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS AND IT WAS SOUNDED 800 YEARS BEFORE IT WAS FUFILLED IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST AND JESUS KNEW AND THATS WHY HE STOOD WITH DETERMINATION AND FEARLESSNESS TO PROCLAIM THAT MESSAGE.

Theres the fearlessness of the Son of God but there is the familiarity at the house of God.

The familiarity at the House of God

Notice their reaction

Mark 6:2 ESV

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?

MArk 6:2

The word astonished means to strike by blow

to be stung by a lick

When they heard Jesus say what He said they were flabbergasted.

In other words when they heard Jesus they were thinking SAY WHAT DID YOU HERE WHAT HE SAID! ?

They are at the house of God they have heard this message so many times before they know they are in the hometown of Jesus, they have heard of all that He was doing they had become too familiar with Him. Listen to this statement.

THEIR EXPECTORS HAD EXPIRED

This is the one who even Ciaphus the high preist who was part of sentancing JEsus to death He even said that in His study of the sacred writings that He knew that One must come and die for the nations and atone for thier sins. But when the one who claimed to be that One came on the scene and died they rejected HIm.

THEY USED TO EXPECT THIS MESSIAH BUT THEY NOW HAD NO HOPE THAT HE WAS COMING AT ALL.

Do you remember a time in your life when you came to church and you sort of pressed in, and had a mindset that God’ s really going to do something here today and you expected God to do something?

It means that what Jesus was doing was dumbfounding them, that would be the language.

WHY WERE THEY SO FLABBERGASTED?

Because Jesus was commonplace to these people, this can happen to us we come to church and hear about Jesus and these things can become commonplace to us.

So the truths of the Bible become so ordinarythat they don’t stir us anymore, everybody listen to this: In HIS HOMETOWN OF NAZARETH THEY WERE NOT IMPRESSED WITH JESUS

Jesus was talking to the pharisees and they were pressing Him and they were referring to the greatness of King David, and JEsus made it known.

They referred to themselves as Davids son, and JEsus made it clear DAVID IS MY SON!

He did the same thing with Abraham, they said to Him your only 30 years old how can you say your Abrahams Father?

Jesus said before HE was I AM

Mark 12:37 NKJV

Therefore David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He then his Son?” And the common people heard Him gladly.

You see sometimes in our world today of religious liberalism preachers think they have tome come up with something new and relevant, and we have gotten too big for our britches, we think were just intellectually beyond the blood of Christ. The Glory of God

The preciousness of Jesus

There was familiarity in the house of God.

GYPSY SMITH was aksked after years of evangelism how he could preach so passionately the same passages he had preached for over 50 years and He said I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN OVER JESUS.

The same sun, that melts the ice, hardens the clay

So for some they come come in like Ice and the gospel just melts them, then there are others you just come in and youve heard it and you become GOSPEL HARDENED

So as a result JEsus wisdom was criticized His works were criticzed Jesus even says this on one occasion, IF YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THE WORDS THAT I SPEAK BELIEVE THE WORKS THAT I DO!

It didn’t matter what He said they didnt believe, it didnt matter what He did they came up with a way to discount Him! Instead of receving simple truths!

Mark 6:3 ESV

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.

SON OF MARY- you always refer to a young man by calling Him the son of His Father. When they said this about Jesus they were calling Him a bastard saying that He didn’t have a Father. They were calling His mother the harlot because she had become pregnant and no one knew who the father was.

That was their view of Jesus

It says that even some of JEsus’ family was there with them agreeing with these people who wanted JEsus gone.

Jesus here is being rejected by the people he came to save, the family who rejected him, a community that slandered Him and yet here he stands, He has the choice right now of whether or not he is going to backtrack, tell them what they want to hear that He is sorry for saying the things He has said and try to make a mense, He is out manned and out gunned.

Mark

Jesus refused to change His message

Mark 6:4 ESV

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

He refused to deny the truth of who He was, and did you know there are followers of Jesus right now in other countries who stand outmanned and outgunned and dont have the freedom we do in this country and they refuse to denounce or backtrack on the truth of who Jesus is?

Yet we live in a country where everyone is afraid of hurting each others feelings and we dont stand for what we know is right, and there are some right here right now that have never learned how to speak the truth in love but we refuse to have gospel conversations with those who are lost because we dont want to cram it down there throats or make them feel uncomfortable.

Im sorry but it is high time we proclaim the gospel and let the chips fall where they may.

(Josh)

But here is the scary part

Mark 6:5–6 ESV

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.

Mark 6