There’s No Place Like Home, Unless You’re Jesus of Nazareth

Text: Matthew 13:53-58 (NKJV) Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there.

54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Manget this wisdom and thesemighty works?

55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?”

57 So they were offended at Him.

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.”

58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Introduction: Tonight we continue our series “Eyewitness News,” with tonight’s message entitled: “There’s No Place Like Home… Unless You’re Jesus of Nazareth…”

Over the past few weeks we’ve taken a look at what happened to people in the New Testament that had a face-to-face encounter with Jesus.

During week one, we looked at the calling of 4 of the Apostles. Once fisherman, we saw how their encounter with Jesus transformed them into disciples, and how God desires the same for us.

Last week we looked at the awesome story of Lazarus, a man that Jesus raised from the dead, after he had been dead and in the grave for 4 days. We saw the raw power of God, who is able to do such miracles (even today) as raising the dead, and we looked at how we are all dead and decayed until Jesus comes and gives us life and sets us free!

The one common thread that all of these stories have, is that the people impacted by Jesus received him with faith.

We saw how Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John responded to the call of God, left everything behind and followed Jesus.

We saw the faith of Mary and Martha, as they believed that Jesus could ask whatever He wanted of God the Father, and He would grant it. Surely it was true, as their brother Lazarus was raised from the dead.

But was there ever a time when Jesus was not greeted so openly? Did people greet him with closed minds and a lack of faith?

The answer is most certainly yes!

We see in tonight’s text, Matthew 13:53-58, that Jesus was not greeted with the inviting faith we looked at last week. On the contrary, we see something quite different.

Thesis: Jesus was denied and rejected in His own homeland. The parallels between this story and the United States today, are quite startling.

Transition: What Happened when Jesus visited Nazareth?

I. The people recognized Him as the Jesus they always “knew.”

a. 54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?”

b. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to grow up with Jesus.

c. Here we see Jesus returning to where he grew up. In those days, people didn’t move around much, so he was coming home to all the people he knew as a kid.

i. The people he used to play jump rope with were now the businessmen and leaders of the region.

1. Ok, they didn’t have jump ropes back then. And I can’t think of a more ridiculous thing for Jesus to be playing. Forgive me Lord!

ii. But the bottom line is He was back among those that had always known him.

d. There is next to nothing told in the gospels about Jesus’ childhood.

i. But we do know he led the normal Jewish life as a boy.

ii. The difference? He was the son of God.

iii. Yup, even at 5 years old he was God in the flesh. Fully God, fully Man.

iv. Could the people around him see this then? Doubtful. They just saw the kid they grew up with.

e. When Jesus returns to Nazareth, it’s no different. They just see the Jesus they grew up with.

i. 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us?

f. They saw Jesus only as the Jesus they always “knew.”

g. How often are we caught in the same mindset?

i. Many of you grew up in the church.

1. In a way you “grew up with Jesus,” not in the sense that you played videogames with him or had sleepovers…

2. But you grew up always “knowing” about Jesus.

ii. Many of you have only been saved for a short time.

1. But now you’ve spent time with Jesus and you’ve gotten to “know” Him.

h. We find ourselves in the same mindset sometimes. We become comfortable, complacent. We’ve come to expect a certain thing out of Jesus and we’ve come to believe certain things about Him.

i. As a result, we often, like the Nazarenes, ask the question

i. “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?”(Verse 54)

ii. “Where then did this Man get all these things?”(Verse 56)

j. Jesus’ neighbors failed to recognize Him because they thought they knew all about Him.

k. The same holds true for us when, mistakenly thinking we know all about them, we fail to recognize His presence in our midst

l. Do we really know Jesus?

i. Or do we just know about Him?

ii. Do we just know what other people say about Him?

iii. Do we know only our own experiences with Him?

m. Job 36:26 (NKJV) “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him…”

II. The people were offended by Him and Rejected Him.

a. 57 So they were offended at Him.

b. Matthew 13:57 (NLT) And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

c. Because they placed Jesus in the box of “the carpenter’s kid we’ve always known,” the Nazarenes were

i. offended by the signs, wonders, and miracles that Jesus had been performing. They couldn’t believe that “their” Jesus could have all this power.

ii. Didn’t believe he was the Messiah. The sent Savior their God had promised.

d. How true is this of America today!

i. We have a church on every corner

ii. Christian radio stations and TV stations all across the land.

iii. Jesus is very much a part of our culture.

iv. He influenced our constitution, and he even enters our swear words!

e. America is the next Nazareth!

f. We say “In God We Trust” but we only trust in the God we know in our minds.

g. Jesus is very much “at home” in the US, but because of what we’ve always believed about Him, we put him in a box.

i. The world Has told us that:

1. God isn’t real

2. And if he is, he’s much to busy to care about you.

3. He only wants to weigh you down with rules and regulations.

ii. The religious system has told us that:

1. God is boring.

2. God is detached and uninterested in you.

3. He only wants to get you into heaven.

4. Holy Spirit retired.

a. He’s not filling any more people

b. He’s not manifesting and more gifts,

c. He’s not prophesying and more prophecies,

d. and he certainly isn’t performing any more miracles!

h. Because we’ve placed Jesus in a box, we like Nazareth are offended when God wants to move!

i. The religious system and the world has told us:

i. Woe be to you that speak in tongues

ii. Woe be to you that raise your hand is worship

iii. Woe be to you that believes in the gifts of the Spirit

iv. Woe be to you that believes that God STILL CAN HEAL SICKNESS AND RAISE THE DEAD!

j. And the worse part is we’ve gone right along with it.

i. We’ve caught ourselves saying “I believe God can provide for me, but he can’t heal cancer, he can’t heal AIDS, he can’t provide for me when I’m broke, he can’t this, he can’t that”

k. And all the while God is saying “YES I CAN!”

III. Nazareth missed out!

a. What happens when we limit our faith in God to what we “know” about him or what we’ve experienced him do? Take a look at verse 58 for an eyewitness account.

i. 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

ii. Matthew 13:58 (NLT) And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.

b. You see, when we put the limits on God and are offended by him hand, God won’t move amongst our unbelief.

Conclusion:

If we do not believe in God, we miss out of everything.

If we merely believe that He can save us from our sins, that surely if we repent and worship the Lord we will be forgiven. Praise God for that, the greatest gift of all!

But I know that God has so much for us. Jesus said that we would see greater things! I long to see greater things. I don’t just want a ticket to heaven. I want all that God has for me!

May I not be like the Nazarenes; a people that didn’t receive their King.