Mark 6:1–6
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Good morning. So, to protect the guilty, and maybe also because I went to high school with at least a few people, who are some of them staring at me right now, some of the names and details of the following story have been stretched and or fabricated. I had a friend named High School. In high school, let's call him Carl. Carl was cool. Like, he had a beard before he had his driver's license, kind of cool.
He was an athlete, he was smart, he was funny. And around junior year, Carl, as cool kids often do, Carl got a girlfriend. We'll call her Agnes. Told you I'd change their names. Now, Agnes was Carl's world. His whole life changed when they started dating. They would walk together in the hallway. They would sit across from each other at lunch.
Carl no longer went to Blockbuster. That's like Netflix, but like a brick-and-mortar version. He no longer went to Blockbuster with his friends on the weekends and then to my house for a sleepover. Instead, he spent his weekends frolicking around the mall, you know, going to the melting pot and spending money on fondue. That part is true. One of the most distinct memories I have of Carl, we'd be hanging out and Agnes would call him.
A phone call is like, it's like voice texting, but live. And Carl would adopt something called the boyfriend of voice. So he'd be hanging out with the guys. We'd be doing whatever. He'd be like, yeah, dudes. He'd get a call from Agnes. His ringtone would go off. Man, I'm aging myself. Probably be like Rascal Flatts or something. Their song. And his ringtone would go off and he'd pick up the phone and he'd be like, hey babe. Yeah, I miss you so much. Now here, Carl and Agnes dated a while.
One thing you need to know about high school relationships, and I've told the youth group this many times, is that generally speaking, the longer they go, the worse they become. And so as their relationship aged, let's say it didn't age like a fine wine, it aged like, well, something else. And they got more familiar with each other. And I noticed that Carl started hanging out with the boys more on the weekend. And we noticed that Agnes would call him and he'd be like, yeah. And he'd pick up the phone and he'd be like, hey, what's up? Where did the boyfriend voice go. Eventually, surprise, Carl and Agnes broke up. I expected in awe. Not kidding, I didn't.
You know, the more familiar you are with something or someone, the less amazing it becomes. It can be true of relationships. It can be true of beautiful skylines. That can be true of luxury cars. It can be true of, as a Patriots fan, Tom Brady's Super Bowls. It can be true of burgeoning bank accounts and finished basements and beach houses and new diet and exercise regiments. The more familiar you are with something, even something that seems temporarily life-changing, the less amazing it becomes. Now, last week we talked about what it looks like to follow Jesus, we said that it looks like desperate faith. We saw desperate faith in these two different people, Jairus and the anonymous woman. This morning, we're going to look at, you might say, what it looks like to not follow Jesus. We're going to look at an obstacle to following Jesus.
Last week, desperate faith. This week, deep familiarity. If you have a Bible, open with me to Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6. As you do, let me give you a very brief summary of Mark so far. Jesus comes on the scene with a message. He says, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. And then he demonstrates many, many times his authority to deliver on that message. In other words, he proves that he is God by doing what only God can do. Miracles.
He teaches with authority. But here's the thing. Jesus is not the kind of Messiah that most people expected. And so the response to him is mixed. Some people love him. Some people, as we saw last week, hate him, the religious leaders. Some people just kind of follow him because they love the spectacle. They follow him because that's what everyone else is doing. Now here in Mark chapter 6, we see Jesus come across a different set of people.
He comes across, you might say, his high school buddies, his hometown. How will these people who are super familiar with Jesus, how are they going to respond to him now that he's come on the scene saying that he's the Messiah? Here's what I want to try to convince you of this morning, which I think is the burden of these verses in Mark chapter 6. And it's simply this. Sometimes the more familiar you are with Jesus, the less amazing he becomes.
Sometimes the more familiar you are with Jesus, the less amazing he becomes. That word sometimes is important. Of course, a Christian who's walking in faith will become deeply familiar with Jesus, and he will become more amazing. But that's not always true. We're only looking at six verses this morning, and we're going to look at them, you might say, in three scenes. So here's scene one. It's really just the first verse and a half. Scene one, you could call it the hometown hero plays the hits. The hometown hero plays the hits. Scene one. That's Mark chapter six, beginning in verse one. I'm going to read for us the first verse and a half. He, that is Jesus, went away from there, which is exactly where we left last week, and he came to his hometown. His disciples followed him.
And on the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. Now, if I were teaching the sermon to the youth group, I would ask them, what is Jesus' hometown? And then one of the kids who is better at Bible trivia than others would say, Nazareth. And we'd be like, good job, you're so great. And then I'd ask them, okay, what's Nazareth known for? And then somebody who's sarcastic, again, I'm just not going to say the name, but, you know, who are you thinking of in the youth group that's sarcastic? I don't know. They would say, it's known for being Jesus' hometown.
And I would say, ha, ha, ha, very funny, that's true. What else is Nazareth known for? And then they would look at me with silence. And the silence would be correct. Because Nazareth is known for nothing. It's not mentioned in the Old Testament. It's only mentioned a few times here in the New Testament. It's not mentioned in any that we know of historical book. Like this guy named Josephus who was a historian around the time of Jesus. Nazareth is known for nothing. Now, at this point in Mark's gospel, I think it's fair to say that Jesus has been something of an itinerant miracle worker.
So if you have your Bible open or on your phone, you can scroll back to Mark 5, verse 1. Jesus has been on the move since Mark 5, verse 1. Mark 5, he's in the Gentile-dominant area called the Gerasenes. This place is filled with pigs. It's terrorized by a demon-possessed man. What does Jesus do? He dispatches of the pigs, he dispatches of the demons in one fell swoop. He mercifully restores the man, which again is evidence that he is the Son of God. Okay, that's Mark 5 verse 1.
Last week, Mark chapter 5 verse 21, look what it says. Jesus crossed back over to the other side. Here's a side note. As you read Scripture, we are often tempted to sort of skip over, let our eyes skip over those kind of like location details. I understand. But they're not throwaway phrases. Generally speaking, they kind of orient us to a new setting, a new world, which not always, but often changes our expectations of what we think would happen. So again, last week, he's in a Jewish area. There's teachers of the law. There's a woman who is cut off. Well, why is she cut off? Because she's in a Jewish area, and they're following the Jewish law. Her countrymen are following the Mosaic law. What does Jesus do? We saw. He heals her of her disease. He reverses Jairus' daughter's death, which is, yet again, more evidence that Jesus is the Son of God. Mark chapter 6, verse 1. He goes to his hometown. I want you to notice
the trajectory. He's going back to his hometown. This is like Bruce Springsteen playing on the Jersey Shore. Okay, this is like, Greg Tarr's not even here, but this is like the Beatles playing a show in Liverpool, all right? Surely, driving around Louisville, you've seen these massive murals, right, of people. You know, there's one of Jennifer Lawrence, there's one of Denny Crumb, there's one of Muhammad Ali. And what do they say? Jennifer's Louisville. Denny's Louisville. For some reason, it says Louisville's Ali, not Muhammad's Louisville. Maybe it's just because it's too long. I don't know. But you understand. So when Jesus shows up at Nazareth, I think we would expect a banner kind of like that, just welcoming him in. This is Jesus's Nazareth.
I think we would expect that they can't wait to see him. Even if they don't believe necessarily everything about him, surely they will be curious and intrigued and full of anticipation. I wonder what he's going to do. I mean, Bruce Springsteen saves his best stuff for the hometown show. Maybe He's just going to do something amazing for us. For Mary, her son has come home. And as we read, again, I think the expectations are being met. Look down again at verse 2.
And on the Sabbath, He began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard Him were astonished. Again, He's playing the hits. That's what Jesus does. He goes to the synagogue and teaches. Could he be about to lead a hometown revival? Surely, as Mark is tracking Jesus' movements, again, from the Gerasenes, which is Gentile, to a sort of mixed area over on the other side, to his hometown, surely he's tracking a more intense belief, right?
So that's the first scene that kind of sets the stage. Here's the second scene, scene number two. Again, just another verse and a half. See, number two, the hometown hero gets booed off stage. The hometown hero gets booed off stage. Let's look at the last half of verse two and then to verse three. 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? Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us? They took offense at him. As it turns out, Jesus' teaching left them dumbfounded and bothered. amazed, sure, but annoyed, astonished, and overwhelmed, yet offended.
They had a strong emotional reaction to Jesus, but it didn't resolve itself in belief. Let's look more closely for a second about why his neighbors rejected him. If I could summarize the answer to that question in a sentence, here's what I would say. The Nazarenes rejected Jesus' divine wisdom and miraculous works because they knew him too well. They rejected him because they knew him too well.
Again, look down at verses 2 and 3 at every single question they ask. Where did this man get these things? He's just a man. He's not God. What's the wisdom given to him? I mean, wait a second, I knew this guy growing up. He didn't go to some special rabbi school. He didn't go to the Nazarene Baptist Theological Seminary. Like, who is this guy? Where does this wisdom come from? How are such mighty works done by his hands?
You can imagine them saying, I've got a bedside table this guy made. And you know what? It's a little bit rickety. I mean, just a few years ago, this guy made his living making stuff with wood and stone. And now suddenly he's using these same hands to zap people back to life. It doesn't make any sense. I know this Jesus. That's not who he is. Isn't this the carpenter? And then they go to list his whole family tree. Son of Mary, brother of James, Joseph, Judas, Simon.
Aren't his sisters here? Notice they call him the son of Mary, hinting at the mysterious, perhaps scandalous roots of his family tree. This guy, who might have been born in some sort of sinful situation, this guy is saying that he is God? I think this is the subtext of every question that these people are asking.
They don't believe that Jesus is who he says that he is because they've grown up with him their whole lives. The people of Nazareth, their familiarity with Jesus, their knowledge of their humanness, Their memories of his life growing up. Their friendship with his brothers and sisters and mom. Their curiosity about the possible conspiracy surrounding his birth. All of it, and more, had become a stumbling block to belief in Jesus.
It's getting in their way. Do you notice how strange it is? It's not their lack of knowledge about Jesus that's stopping them from belief. But their excess knowledge about him. And certainly their excess confidence in themselves. And so it's made them skeptical. it's made them overly familiar, it's made them hard-hearted and hard-headed. It might have made them bored. Now, in a room with this many people, I assume it is the case that for at least a few of you, a number of you, you had no familiarity with Jesus until recently.
You heard the gospel, you heard about Jesus' life and death and resurrection and how he extends himself to you, to all people as the Savior, should you turn from your sin and trust in him. You heard the message of the gospel, and when you heard it, it was like a light went off in your dark world. You had never heard anything like it, and the difference was refreshing, life-giving, amazing. How has no one ever told me about this before? I bet that's the story of a few of you in this room. But I think for most of us, we grew up hearing about Jesus, grew up hearing about faith and the gospel.
We don't remember a time when we didn't know who he was. If I had asked this room and participated, what's Jesus' hometown? I bet most of you would have been like, Nazareth, I know that, my mom taught me. Praise God. There was never a moment when most of us felt like the light went off because we kind of feel like we were born in a room where the light was already on. We're deeply familiar with Jesus.
We know the stories. Maybe you learned them from this church or another church. Hopefully you learned them from your parents. That's wonderful. Praise God. But Mark chapter 6, verses 1 through 6, makes it abundantly clear that familiarity with Jesus doesn't equal faith in Jesus. In fact, familiarity with Jesus can be the thing that gets in the way of faith in Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, friends, I'm going to repeat a version of that because it is really important to understand, and not just to understand rationally, but to believe. Familiarity with Jesus doesn't equal faith in Jesus. Proximity to Jesus does not equal faith in Jesus. Knowledge about Jesus does not equal faith in Jesus. Growing up in or around people who love Jesus does not give you faith in Jesus.
I love when Jesus stays silent. It teaches me to sometimes shut up. He hasn't said anything yet. How is he going to respond to his high school friends, to people he's known his whole life? who look at him with such contempt. Third and last scene we'll look at.
The hero leaves town. Jesus finally speaks up. He does so with a proverb, verse 4. Jesus said to them, A prophet isn't without honor, except in his hometown, and among his relatives, and in his household. In other words, a proverb is a generally true statement. Generally speaking, it shouldn't surprise us that where someone is known most, in his hometown, among his family, at the dinner table, he will be honored the least. Again, the proverb makes sense. I feel it even in this moment.
Right now, I am preaching as a preacher in my hometown, in a room with a fair number of people who have known me a really, really long time. I mean, the first time I met Mark Jordan, who did the prayer a few minutes ago, I was ding-dong ditching in his neighborhood, okay? It was just three years ago. No, I'm kidding. I was in middle school. And so, I was in middle school. It was not my idea. Maybe it was. I don't know. I don't know how Greg preaches in front of his parents every week. I have no idea how he does this. It makes sense. But here's the thing. Again, it's a proverb. This lack of honor for a prophet in his hometown is, generally speaking, right. Because in normal, benign cases, it's simply a fair response to human frailty, to weakness, not wickedness. Do you notice the circle of intimacy tightening? In the same way that we've kind of gone from the Gerizines to Jesus' hometown, The parable goes from his hometown to among his relatives to in his own house.
There's a tightening scope of the comment. In other words, the guy you graduated high school with, he knows you. But he doesn't know you as well as your grandma Sally. And your grandma Sally doesn't know you as well as your wife or your husband and your kids. It's true of prophets. It's true of everyone. An awesome businessman might snore when he sleeps or forget to take out the trash or be a bit too lax in leading family devotionals. A wonderful athlete might be a terrible cook or forget his friend's birthdays or have an Android and not an iPhone.
People aren't perfect. Those who know us best know this best about us. We're not perfect. But in other cases, you could apply this proverb. Someone's lack of honor can be a righteous response to hypocrisy. So a successful businessman might be a terrible husband, a terrible father.
From 9 to 5, I mean this guy probably works 8 to 6. People at his work, man, he is loved. He is worshipped. People sit at their desk, clacking away on their computers, and they crane their neck for a little bit of his attention. They listen for him to walk by, because they want this guy to notice how good at their job they are. Oh, man, this awesome businessman is worshipped. But when he gets home, walks in the door.
His wife and kids don't move. Because they know how he really is. I mean, there are some horrible situations that would fit that. There are just some kind of bad situations. But he's a bad dad. So this guy is without honor. because he's a hypocrite. You can think of the church member.
We see him not only once a week, but twice a week, because we meet twice. And this person, man, they are here, and they are serving their butts off, and they're singing the songs, and they're just doing everything. They're in nursery. They're honored, respected by all. But when they get home, to the people who know them most at their dinner table in their own house, Monday to Saturday, those people know that this person is somebody else.
And so they're without honor. A successful businessman can be an abusive husband. An impressive athlete can be an absent father. A perfect student can be a terrible son or a terrible daughter or a terrible sibling. A church member can be a hypocrite. A pastor can be a wolf.
but this is jesus he's not frail he might snore i don't know but he's not frail he's certainly not a fake so what is he doing by saying this proverb well here's what he's doing he's not applying it to himself. It's like, well, does it make sense? No, he's using it as an ironic judgment on his friends because he's not fake. He's not a hypocrite. He's not a mere prophet, and so this proverb simply does not apply to him in any way, shape, or form. In fact, it's the people who've known him the longest, that should have had the longest memory of all the wonderful, magnificent things about
Jesus. His love, his joy, his peace, his patience, and so on. Jesus' longtime friends and family do not have dirt on him. My goodness. What's going on here is simple. These folks, familiar with Jesus as they are, have hard hearts. And they're using the familiarity with Jesus as an excuse not to believe in Jesus like Jairus did, like the woman did. And what's the result? Last week I said we get a humorous jab here against the prosperity or health and wealth gospel. And here it is. If you want a one-verse reason for why it doesn't make any sense, that's the nicest thing I can say about it, You should go to Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6, verse 5. And Jesus could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. I love it. Mark is funny. We can
laugh. It's funny. The Bible is sometimes funny. He could do no mighty work there except for the mighty work he couldn't help but do. That's basically what that verse says. Brothers and sisters, nothing can stop Jesus. We don't fill him up with our belief. And then look at verse 6. Jesus marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. Last week, we saw that the people with problems rushed to Jesus because they had desperate faith.
This week, and in response to that desperate faith, he healed and restored them. this week, these people have a problem with Jesus because of their deep familiarity with him. They're simply convinced they don't need him. They're simply convinced that he is not who he says that he is. And so it's not as if their response of unbelief is neutral. Their response of unbelief elicits a response from Jesus, which is simply not to say, well, I'll come again another time. No, he says, all right, I'm out. He passes them over. He leaves town. He withholds his gracious and merciful power. He perceives their hardness of heart, their blindness, and He does nothing to change it. He simply leaves town.
I think we should have two applications, and then I'll try to answer two questions that this passage raises, and then we can close. Here's the first application I'd like to make to us in light of Mark 6. Jesus understands rejection from those who ought to accept Him. Jesus understands rejection from those who ought to accept Him. I think some people stiff-arm Jesus because they think to themselves, He'll never get me.
Or He doesn't understand. Or they still form the church because they say stuff like, well, these people are all perfect. I mean, look how dressed up and nice they are. These people are all just perfect. My life is messed up. So, like, I don't need that. They don't want me. There's a lot of places you can go in Scripture to hopefully disabuse you of that notion. Here's one. If you've ever been rejected by the people who ought to accept you.
Your parents, your siblings, your co-workers, your friends at school. In Jesus, you have a Savior who understands. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows acquainted with grief. these folks were not expecting a messiah like jesus they should have read their bibles more closely if you're here this morning and you're not a follower of christ you should read your bible more closely too it's not just a bunch of rules it's not like a bunch of fictitious stories it's not a bunch of sentimentality it's the story of the savior of the world who is god the son you should read your bibles not for more information but to see in the actions in the
words of christ an invitation he is the son of god who died on the cross and rose again you should turn from your sins and you should trust him maybe one avenue to sort of inch toward the Lord in trust is to acknowledge, I recognize this feeling of rejection that you're talking about. And my goodness, I have gone to so many places for help. I've gone to food. I've gone to alcohol. I've gone to therapy. I've done so many things. And some things have helped a little bit, but nothing fixes it. My friend, let me introduce you to Jesus. I'm not saying that when you go to Jesus, and when you trust him, your life suddenly reverses course and everything becomes easy.
But I am saying when you go to Jesus, you go home. Second application, this one's obvious, but it's worth being explicit. No one is naturally predisposed to believe in Jesus. No one, that is zero people in the history of the universe. are naturally predisposed to believe in Jesus. Now, when a Muslim dad and a Muslim mom give birth to a child, insofar as I understand it, that child is a Muslim. He or she is what his parents are. I believe the same is true with Roman Catholics. That's what baby infant baptism does in the Roman Catholic Church. It wipes away original sin and ushers the baby into the church.
Now, I think this is a confusing teaching. It does not match with Scripture. It is simply not true. Your parents could be the two most godly Christians in the universe. But when two Christians, when a Christian dad and a Christian mom give birth to a child, that child is not in any way a Christian. My lovely kids, Elliot, who is here, Johnny and Zoe, were not born Christians. They might, I hope, oh God please, that they would be raised in a Christian home. But they are not Christians. That Christian is an adjective, not a noun.
A Christian is someone who has personally, individually put their faith in Christ. Someone who was born spiritually dead and has been made alive by the redeeming power of our gracious God, which we've been singing about all morning. And the first thing that that newly alive person does is give back to God the faith that he gave them on their spiritual birthday. That's what a Christian is. And so to my young friends in the room, let's say, oh, I've said this to the youth group a thousand times. So if you're between, how old are the kids? Six, seven?
Six to ten years old. Listen up. All right? I'm not going to ask you to, like, raise your hand. But if you're between six and ten or eleven years old, listen up. Do not mistake your familiarity with Jesus with faith in Jesus. Please don't do it. Don't try to claim the faith of your parents as your own. It's simply not yours. They can't even give it to you when they die. And you can't take your parents' faith with you when you die.
If you're between 7 and 10, I hope that growing up around Christian parents is a delight to you. I hope that their faith is in some ways clarifying and compelling. it makes Jesus attractive, but my friends, their faith is not contagious. It doesn't stick to you just because you get close to them. You should follow your parents' example by choosing to follow Jesus for yourself. That would be my encouragement to you. If you're thinking to yourself, I don't know what that's like. Well, here's what you should do after church. They're going to buy you ice cream, and you can ask them about this. We've talked a lot about Jesus' countrymen, his hometown people. We know that Jesus had siblings. Let's talk for a minute about
them. We know that he had at least four brothers. They're listed here. We know he had sisters. We don't know much about them. Two of his brothers we know quite well. James becomes the author of the book of James, a leader in the Jerusalem church, and Jude, most likely the author of that tiny little book in the back of your Bible, Jude. But again, look down at verse 3, if you don't mind. Look down at verse 3. Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, Joseph, which is another way of saying Joseph, and Judas, which is another way of saying Jude, and Simon. There are four brothers of Jesus, two of them we never hear about again.
We're not sure what happened, but I can't help but wonder, did their familiarity with Jesus remain an offense to them all the way until they died. I mean, picture this. Joseph and Simon, when they die and they meet God after their death, they stand before His throne in judgment like we all will one day. But when we're there, we'll see an unfamiliar face, one we've longed to see our whole lives.
But when they got there, they would see an oh-so-familiar face, one they'd known their whole life, one that belonged to their big brother, Jesus. You can imagine them saying, come on, Jesus, we've known you all our lives. We grew up with you. There was never a day we forgot about you.
And Jesus would acknowledge their familiarity with him. And he might say, depart from me. I never knew you. My friends, don't be so familiar with Jesus that you mistake your familiarity with him, with faith. Two questions I want to briefly answer. This is a good one. How do I know if I have familiarity or faith?
There's tons of possible answers to that. You could talk to people who know you well. You could examine your life for fruits of the Spirit as evidence of your faith in Jesus. All of that is excellent. Here's another way to answer that question. How do I know if I have faith or familiarity? Just wait. you will almost certainly find out when suffering comes. If you're relying on your familiarity with Jesus, when your circumstances suddenly become unfamiliar, you might run away.
Or maybe even scarier, you might slowly inch away when suffering comes. But oh my friends, if you're relying on your desperate faith in Jesus, Not perfectly, but genuine, desperate, deep, heartfelt faith in Christ. When suffering comes, your relationship with the Lord will deepen. I could point to several members of this church, some who are in this room right now, for whom that has been totally and obviously true.
If you want to know if you have familiarity or faith, just wait until suffering comes. that will be a helpful clue to you. Second question, what if my faith in Jesus is starting to feel familiar or stale? What do I do? Again, lots of possible answers to the question. There's not only one answer to that question, but here's one answer that has worked for me. My brother and sister, if that's true of you, here's a piece of advice.
spend time with new Christians. Make it a habit to invite someone to lunch after you hear them and see them get up here and get baptized. Go up to them after church and ask them, hey, when are you free? Pay attention to the testimonies at the members meeting on Wednesday. Pay attention. Is there anybody here who's maybe been a Christian for only a couple years? And if you find someone, get their number, they'll be in the directory or whatever, take them to coffee, take them to lunch, just hear their testimony. nothing thrills my faith, and I hope it's true for you, like hanging out with a young, energetic, baby believer.
Sometimes the emphasis of our conversation really feels like the emphasis is on baby. I'm like, oh my goodness, you don't know anything about anything. But to be honest, most of the time, the emphasis is on believer. These people love Jesus. The same Jesus that I love, they love. And guess what? Their new growing faith in Christ encourages me. So if your faith is beginning to feel stale or old or boring or whatever, friends, find some new Christians and surround yourself with them and be thrilled by the fact that Jesus is still saving people like he always has.
It's a privilege to do that in this church. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the confident, confident words of Christ in this passage. Oh Lord, I pray that none of us would mistake our familiarity, our knowledge with Jesus, with faith in him. Spirit, we ask that you would comfort and clarify for all of us exactly what it is that we're doing this morning. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.