You Can't Go Home Again

You Can’t Go Home Again

Mark 6:1-6

Open your Bible to Mark chapter 6.

Thomas Wolfe wrote a novel called “You Can’t Go Home Again”. The book is about a man named George Webber, an author who has written a successful book about his hometown. When he returns home, he expects to receive a hero’s welcome. Instead, he’s driven out of town by his own friends and family. They feel betrayed by what he’s written about them in his book. Webber is shaken by their reaction to his work and leaves his hometown behind to go find himself. George Webber discovered that those who know you best tend to respect you the least.

Our text finds Jesus returning to Nazareth. He is going home again. Our Lord’s return to His hometown does not go the way one might expect it to. After all, Jesus is something of a celebrity by this time. He has been going around the countryside preaching, teaching, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead and controlling the forces of nature. He has proven that there is something very special and very different about Him.

Of course, the last time Jesus was in Nazareth things didn’t go too well for Him. He went to the synagogue and preached from Isaiah 61.

Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Jewish Messiah. The people of Nazareth rejected His message and tried to kill Him by throwing Him over a cliff! He left Nazareth and preached in other places in Galilee. Now, a year later He returns to the very place He was rejected. He wants to give His family, His friends and His neighbors another chance to receive Him and His message.

That is grace!

I’m amazed that God would give you and me one chance, much less opportunity after opportunity to believe in Him and His Gospel!

When Jesus arrives in Nazareth, He isn’t greeted by anxious crowds. It seems that they ignored Him until the Sabbath Day came and they all went to the synagogue. I want to look at His visit to Nazareth. What happened there has something to say to those who are saved and to those who don’t know Him. What’s important is the people’s reaction to His preaching and His person.

Let’s take a look at the events of that Sabbath Day visit to the synagogue in Nazareth. Let’s look at the ways the people responded to the Lord and what their response cost them.

Let’s pray and then we’ll read our text.

Pray!

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.

The first thing we notice is the people were shocked by His preaching

The People Were Shocked

When Jesus began to speak, the people who heard Him were “astonished.” This word means “to strike with panic” or “to shock.” When they heard Jesus, they astonished but extremely skeptical.

They immediately began to talk amongst themselves and question three areas of His ministry that amazed them.

His Words

When Jesus preached, He did so with grace and charm. His words were filled with divine authority. He didn’t speak like the local rabbis. They quoted other rabbis and had no sense of certainty in their words. When Jesus spoke, He knew what He was talking about. He left no doubt in the minds of His hearers that His words must either be accepted or rejected. He left His hearers no wiggle room.

In fact, when men were sent from the Pharisees to hear what Jesus had to say, they came back and said, “No one ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46). When the people of Nazareth heard Jesus speak, they were amazed.

His Wisdom

When Jesus spoke, His words were filled with truth. The people heard Him declare old truths in new ways. They listened as He taught spiritual truth by using the common everyday things around them. While His illustrations may have called on the common, the truth He preached was anything but common. His wisdom left them shaking their heads in disbelief.

His Works

His fame had preceded Him to Nazareth. They’d heard about the miracles He’d performed elsewhere. They couldn’t believe that a young man from their own town could do the miracles that were attributed to Him.

The people of Nazareth couldn’t believe what they were hearing and Who they were hearing it from. They heard what Jesus had to say and were left with their mouths hanging open.

His message still affects people that way. When you read the Bible and study the message of the Gospel, it can cause you to be astonished. Think about some of the claims of the Bible:

· Everyone is a sinner

· All sinners are condemned to hell

· All other religions are false and lead to hell

· There is only one way to be saved from sin and its penalty

· The only way to be saved is to put your faith in a man who lived, died and rose from the dead 2,000 years ago

Those are amazing claims because they condemn most of the world to a lost eternity. When people in our day hear the claims of the Gospel, they react in anger. They reject the message and attack the messenger, just as they did in Jesus’ day.

What do you think when you hear the claims of the Gospel? Do you rejoice in its truth, knowing that it has saved your soul? Or, do you hear it and reject its message, thinking you know a better way?

Proverbs 16:25 ESV

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

The people were shocked by His preaching and they stumbled over His person.

The People Stumbled

As the people of Nazareth heard the message Jesus was preaching, they rejected His message because they thought they knew everything there was to know about Him.

He had grown up around them and was one of their own. They had seen Him play there as a child; they knew His family; they thought they knew Him. They knew that He had never been to the divinity schools. They knew that He had no formal training. They knew everything there was to know about Jesus, or so they thought!

To them, Jesus was just another boy from Nazareth. He did not deserve their respect. They saw Him as a common man!

They also knew His occupation. They call Him “the carpenter.”

A carpenter in those days wasn’t really what we think of today. It’s actually just kind of a generic word for “builder” or “worker.” It was used for someone who could do woodworking to building a house. It’s possible that the people of Nazareth had things that Jesus had made or even lived in homes He had helped construct. They thought of Him as just one of them. Maybe they were even thinking, “You’re no better than we are. Why should we listen to you?”

We’re even told, “And they took offense at him.” And because these people couldn’t explain Jesus, they refused to listen to Him. They couldn’t see past the carpenter standing before them.

These people did what all people do when they can’t understand someone.

They resorted to ridicule! Ridicule is the final refuge of a small mind! And we see that all over our country right now. People don’t agree, they’re from different political parties, they’re different colors or simply don’t have the same views on the same issues. So, they resort to ridicule.

And do you know what? It’s even worse that we don’t think twice about it.

But these people ridicule Jesus when they call Him, “the son of Mary.” This wasn’t a polite way to refer to someone. A boy was always referred to as the son of his father even if the father was dead. Calling a boy, the son of his mother was implying that the mother wasn’t faithful to her husband and that the child’s legitimacy was in question.

They were suggesting that there was a conspiracy surrounding His birth.

The people of Nazareth couldn’t explain Jesus, so they reacted to His words, His wisdom and His works with contempt and ridicule. Just listen to the contempt in their voices, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?”

These people couldn’t accept what they couldn’t explain!

This state of mind is still with us today. People reject what they can’t easily explain. When it comes to Jesus, there is so much that can’t be explained to people’s satisfaction.

· People seem to have little trouble with the manger. They’re able to accept a little, harmless baby lying in a manger. But, when you tell them that the little baby was born of a virgin and that He’s God in the flesh, they can’t handle that!

· People seem to have little trouble with Jesus going about from place to place preaching His message of peace, love and acceptance. But, when you tell them that He is the only way and that rejecting Him will lead to Hell, they can’t handle that!

· People have no problem with Jesus hanging in shame on a cross. But, when you tell them that He rose again after He died and that He still lives today to save all those who will accept Him by faith, they can’t handle that!

If your concept of Who Jesus is stops with a baby in a manger or a dead man on a cross, you’re missing the whole point! You must come to the place where you understand that Jesus Christ is the very Son of God. You must understand that He died for your sins and that He rose from the dead. You must come to a place where you turn from your sins, and believe in Him for your soul’s salvation or you have no hope of Heaven.

There’s a lot about Jesus, the Bible and the Gospel that I don’t understand. I can’t figure out why He would love me. I can’t figure out why He would even care where I am going to spend eternity. I can’t understand how He was able to save me from my sins when I simply asked Him to. But my questions don’t stop me from believing!

What I don’t understand doesn’t prevent me from acting on what I do.

Here is what I know and believe to be the absolute truth:

· Jesus is God in the flesh

· Jesus was born of a virgin

· Jesus lived a sinless life

· Jesus died for my sins on a cross

· Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day

· Jesus ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God

· Jesus is coming back

· Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords

· Jesus is the only way

· Apart from Him there is no hope, no salvation and no heaven

Is that what you believe? If it isn’t, don’t allow the claims of the Bible to cause you to stumble. Believe the message just as it is and receive Jesus. Don’t allow won’t you do not understand to cause you to stumble and send you to Hell!

The people were shocked by His preaching, stumbled over His person and were shunned by His power.

The People Were Shunned

The people rejected Jesus and they rejected His message. How did He respond?

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

Basically, what He’s saying is, “familiarity breeds contempt.”

The people of Nazareth, like people everywhere, took for granted what they had and wanted what they didn’t have. They looked at Jesus and saw one of their own. They treated Him as a common thing.

Verse 5 tells us that because of their unbelief, Jesus was unable to perform many miracles there. Only a few sick people were healed. Let’s get one thing straight; their unbelief didn’t stop His power. Jesus was and is absolutely sovereign. He could’ve done anything that He wanted to do.

He had the power, but He refused to demonstrate it in the face of unbelief. The hands of Jesus weren’t tied. A few people came to Him in faith and those people received His help. The rest rejected Him and were rejected by Him.

There’s a word here for the health and wealth crowd. There’s a word here for those who promote the prosperity gospel. People who have embraced the prosperity gospel believe that God only responds to our faith. In other words:

· If you have enough faith, you’ll be healed.

· If you have enough faith, you’ll have plenty of money.

· If you have the faith you can enjoy endless health, wealth and blessing.

This way of thinking holds God captive to our actions!

I want to remind you that we serve a sovereign God! He can do whatever He wants, when He wants. Our faith, or the lack of it, doesn’t pose a problem for Him. In this case, they refused the message, so they forfeited the miracles.

God’s best blessings aren’t the works of healing, multiplying your loaves, or meeting your needs. The greatest work of God is saving lost souls! If you’re saved, you’ve experienced the greatest of His works.

When Jesus saw the depth of their rejection, “He marveled because of their unbelief.”

Jesus is said to have “marveled” only twice. Both times His amazement was over faith. He marveled at the faith of a centurion in Luke 7. Here, He marveled at the lack of faith among His own people.

Jesus was amazed that these people had heard the truth, seen the truth and still turned away from the truth. As a result, He left Nazareth, and there’s no record that He ever returned. Their rejection of Jesus was total and He abandoned them to their choice!

That is what He does!

He sends out a call for people to believe the Gospel and be saved. When people reject the truth of the Gospel and the message of salvation, there’s no more hope for them. He might call them again and He might not. Regardless, there will come a point where the Lord will call them no more and they are abandoned to their choice.

There is a word here for the church. Jesus shows up when we meet. He desires to teach us truth and He wants to help us to grow. If we come expecting something from God, we’ll be amazed at what He can do. But, if we come with an “I’ve seen it all and heard it all before” attitude, we can’t expect anything from Him.

We come to church and expect the preacher to preach it. The fact is, a great worship service demands the participation of both preacher and congregation.

William Barclay put it this way:

“There can be no preaching in the wrong atmosphere. The congregation is responsible for at least half of every sermon. In an atmosphere of expectancy, the least effort will catch fire. In an atmosphere of coldness or indifference, the most spirit-filled of sermons will fall flat.”

If we don’t want Him here, Jesus will do what He did in Nazareth. He’ll leave and go somewhere else. We can have what we want here. We can have glory, power, the presence of God and we can have worship. Or we can have cold, dead orthodoxy. We can’t have both!

My prayer is that we’ll embrace Him and all He wants to do in us and for us. I pray that we’ll be careful to not push Him away. I pray that we’ll accept His Word, His presence and His power and make Him welcome in this place.

Just as He did in Nazareth, He won’t force Himself on us here. We can have His blessings, or we can turn Him away. If we embrace Him, we’ll experience more of His power and blessings than we could ever imagine. If we don’t want Him here, He will go somewhere else! If we turn Him away, He’ll bless another church

What happens to us is up to us!

I’m afraid that as Baptists we’ve become a lot like the people of Nazareth. We’re so familiar with the things of God, the message of the Bible, the crucifixion of Jesus, the burial and the resurrection that we’re no longer moved by them. We’re reminded of what Jesus did for us and we say “So what?”

We talk about the cross and no one cares anymore.

We’ve allowed our hearts to grow cold and calloused toward Him. Today would be a good day to come before Him and ask Him to warm your cold heart one more time.

Others here have never been saved. You’ve never embraced the death of Christ as your death. You’ve never confessed your sins and asked Him into your life. You need to come to Him today.

Has He spoken to your heart today?

If He has, let me ask you to do something. If the Lord has touched your heart on any level, why don’t you leave your seat, bow in this altar and let Him do in your life what He wants to do.