The Carpenter

SCRIPTURE: Mark 6:3

6: 1-3 Jesus left there (Capernaum) and went to his hometown, (Nazareth) accompanied by his disciples.

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles!

Jesus returned to Nazareth where a year before He had been rejected by the people and evicted from the synagogue (Luke 4:16–30). It was certainly an act of grace on His part to give the people another opportunity to hear His Word, believe, and be saved; and yet their hearts were still hard. This time, they did not evict Him: they simply did not take Him seriously.

Two things astonished these people: His mighty works and His wonderful wisdom. Actually, Jesus did not do any mighty works while He was there, so the people must have been referring to the reports they had heard about His miracles.

Our Lord’s reputation had once again preceded Him, so He was permitted to teach in the synagogue. Keep in mind that He was ministering to people who knew Him well, because Nazareth was His “hometown.” However, these acquaintances had no spiritual perception at all.

Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

The people who called Him “the son of Mary” were actually insulting Him; because in that day you identified a man by calling him the son of his father, not the son of his mother.

Isn’t this the carpenter they asked.

Why a carpenter? He could have come as a king, a shepherd, a rabbi, a priest, or a physician. All would have been appropriate. But a carpenter?

(6:3) Isn’t this the carpenter? The word for carpenter in the Greek is tektōn (τεκτων). It comes from tekein (τεκειν), tiktō (τικτω), “to beget, create,” like technē (τεχνη) “craft, art.” It first was used of the worker in wood or the builder with wood like our carpenter. Then it was used of any artisan or craftsman in metal or stone, and even of sculpture work.

Our Lord was known first in Nazareth as the son of Joseph the carpenter, and after the latter’s death, as the carpenter of Nazareth. (Wuest)

Jesus worked in the carpenter shop until He was thirty years old. There He developed the strong physique that carried Him through those strenuous years of His ministry.

A carpenter was a respected artisan in that day, but nobody expected a carpenter to do miracles or teach profound truths in the synagogue. Where did He get all this power and wisdom? From God or from Satan? (see Mark 3:22) And why did His brothers and sisters not possess this same power and wisdom? Even more, why did His brothers and sisters not believe in Him?

HE CAME AS A CARPENTER

HE CAME TO BUILD

I want to look at 5 things that he built.

1. He Came to Build a Gate to Heaven. It required hammers, nails, and the wood of the cross, the very implements Jesus knew so well.

It is through His death on the cross that opened the way that we could be made to be Holy before God through the forgiveness of sins. Opening the door way to heaven. Jesus said that “no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Jesus went to the old wooden cross, was nailed to this wooden cross with the tools that were so familiar to Him. He was our sacrificial lamb there upon that cross. It was there that He took upon Himself the sins of the world – your sin and my sin. It was at the cross that we were made holy before God. It was there at the cross that Jesus built a gateway to Heaven.

2 He Came to Build a Temple in Three Days

(John 2:19-­22), Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

The Jews demanded some sort of proof that Jesus was who He said he was – what His authority. But Jesus answered “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

During Jesus’ time, the temple at Jerusalem was undergoing extensive reconstruction and renovation. Desiring favor among the Jews, King Herod pledged to build a magnificent temple that would perhaps recall some of the glory of Solomon’s temple (1 Kin. 6:1). Work began in 19 a.d. and was carried on until a.d. 64.

At first the priests opposed Herod, suspicious that his real intent was to either do away with the temple altogether or erect something profane in its place. But Herod proved he was serious, hiring 10,000 laborers and ordering 1,000 wagons for hauling cream-colored stone.

Still the priests feared that this most sacred place would be profaned. So Herod had 1,000 of them trained as carpenters and masons so that only priestly hands would construct the Most Holy Place. Unfortunately, the priests themselves turned out to be their own worst enemies: poor craftsmen, they did work that sometimes collapsed and had to be replaced.

He was crucified dead and buried. On the 3rd day He arose from the dead. He rose with anew constructed body

At the rapture He will come again for His saints and His saints will raise again with a new constructed body. This will be a holy and perfect body – no more sickness, no more imperfections.

3. He Came to Build His Church

(Matt. 16:18). And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

“UPON WHICH ROCK?” Jesus pronounced a blessing on Peter, declaring that only by divine revelation could he have made his confession (16:16). Jesus then foretold the founding of his church (16:18; see Acts 2). He said, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church” (16:18). Some have interpreted this to mean that Peter was the foundation of Christ’s church. The wordplay in Greek shows, however, that Christ himself is the foundation:

• “You are Peter [petros, a little stone]”

• “and upon this rock [petra, massive rock] I will build my church.” Peter’s own confession (16:16) identified Christ as the church’s true foundation (compare 1 Cor. 3:11; 1 Pet. 2:4–8).

He used Peter immensely in the building of His church – but it is Jesus that is the foundation of the church. And it is Jesus who builds the church. Peter’s own confession identifies Christ as the church’s true foundation.

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

4. He Came to Build Us. We are God's building, His workmanship

(1 Cor. 3:9). For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

The use of the architectural metaphor is best understood if one remembers the magnificent temples and buildings common in Corinth.

Just as the Corinthians we are God’s fellow workers, we are God’s field, and God’s building. In the same way that Corinth’s magnificent buildings had the benefactor’s name inscribed on them, the Corinthians are God’s building with His name written on us.

He came to “build” us. Each in our own unique individuality and each in our own special capacity.

5. He Came to Build Us an Eternal Dwelling Place

(John 14:3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

(Heb. 11:8-10) By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Jesus Christ has built for us a Heavenly home where we will dwell with Him for all of eternity.

Revelation 21 gives a description of this Heavenly home – The new Jerusalem.

What a beautiful and glorious place it will be. And to think that we will reign there with Christ for all of eternity. As with Abraham we are looking forward to that city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.

CONCLUSION:

Jesus the Carpenter

Visualize Him today, wearing His workman's apron, wielding hammers and nails, busy on your behalf--the Carpenter of Nazareth. He can straighten bent nails, sand rough surfaces, clean dirty timbers, and make a beautiful temple of your life.

(Philippians 1:6) He who has begun a good work in you will carry it on to completion.

He will not build a building, a temple, a life as the priest did during the rebuilding of the temple way back there. Christ is the master architect, the master builder. His works are good and He carries them through to completion. All we have to do is open our hearts to Him, to submit to Him, and He will begin a good work in us and He will carry it on to completion.