Proclaiming Light in the Darkness (Luke 4:14-30; Mark 6:1-6) | Adult Sunday School

KCC, opportunity for us to rejoice and worship today, a couple of days before Christmas.

Getting your seats, come on in. For those of you who are already seated, open your

Bibles up to Luke and pray for us and then we'll get started with our morning study.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we humble our hearts before you this morning and we come to you with joy and great expectation for what you have for us in the word this morning.

Your word gives life and light to those who receive it.

May you delight us and encourage us today. May we go forth strengthened, empowered to do the work that you have designed us to do through your son, by the power of your spirit.

May we contemplate the Savior, our Savior, Jesus Christ, as we study him. May we see his example and proclaim him to a lost and dying world.

We ask this in the name of your son, Jesus, our Savior and our King. Amen. All right.

Well, if you're not already there, Luke 4 .14 is where your Bibles should be open to. This morning is the 11th out of 12, 11th out of 12 of our series.

So one more week. Next week, as we finish out the year 2024 in our series,

Walk by the Spirit. Now, last week we looked at two righteous responses to the person, the man, the humanity of Jesus Christ in the book of John and the book of Luke.

We saw how John and John the Baptist and his disciples responded to Jesus and then began to follow him.

We look at that to encourage us is that that's how we should respond as we in turn see him and then beckon others to come.

Now, Christmas time is an amazing time of year for us, is it not? There are many things that we can treasure and enjoy about Christmas.

As you can tell, I enjoy Christmas cookies a little bit too much. But actually, one of the things that I really enjoy about Christmas is the lights.

In fact, when Jessica and I were young married, we lived in Southern California and there was a street called

Thoroughbred Street in one of the suburbs of the neighborhood of Southern California where we lived. And to live on this street, you actually had to sign an agreement that you were gonna go all out and deck the halls with as many lights as your electrical system could physically sustain.

And this street would basically be shut down by the police for the evenings for the entire month leading up to December.

Olga's nodding her head because she remembers this. And you would have to go there and park or stand in this long line of cars that you could drive through it or walk through it.

And it was the most lights that I had ever seen before. In fact, I'm fairly confident that you could probably see it from space.

It was that strong. And that's the wonderful beauty of light, right? Is they penetrate into darkness.

But no matter how strong the light is, there's a level of darkness that it will not penetrate.

And we deal with that reality at Christmas time, right? There's a lot of light here in this room.

There's a lot of light that we can enjoy through the fellowship that we enjoy with family and friends and church family who have been saved by grace through faith in the son of God and who know and love him and have a sure and steady hope that no matter what happens to us in this world that we have a hope of the kingdom and the future.

But that's not true for the majority of people around us. And what gets really hard is when the darkness is not just way out there.

It's when the darkness comes close. It's when you have family members that you've prayed for for years, and they will not repent.

When the darkness is in our midst, then it really gets hard. So as we bring ourselves to the word this morning, we're going to remember the words of the

Apostle John. He says, John 1 .5, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

So the Christmas season can bring us to the point where our light of evangelism starts to fade a little bit.

I remember as a young married, freshly married, one of my fervent desires was to see my family come to Christ.

I have an uncle, one of the few relatives on my father's side of the family, who's a Catholic priest.

And after getting married, I wrote him a series of letters, trying to persuade him to repent and to come to faith in Jesus Christ.

And eventually, he shut me down and said, I do not want to correspond with you anymore about this.

The rejection of one's family is one of the weights that can weigh on a person.

And you know what it can do to your evangelism light? It can dim the light. It can cause you to not speak, to not shine forth when you should.

Does Jesus understand that discouragement? I think he does.

I think he and his humanity experienced that type of rejection. And I believe that as we study how he responds to the rejection of those closest to him, that it can provide us the encouragement that we need to brighten that light of evangelism and proclaim the good news to those who are lost in darkness.

Isaiah 9 -2, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light.

Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. So the title of our lesson this morning is

Proclaiming Light in the Darkness. And this morning, we're going to look at two strategies for gospel proclamation from Jesus' life so that we would persist in proclaiming the light of the gospel.

Two strategies that will come to us by observing how Jesus responded to the rejection of his hometown crowd as he proclaimed the gospel to them so that we will persist, not give up, in proclaiming the gospel.

So look at Luke chapter 4. We're going to read verses 14 -30 this morning.

And in Luke 4, 14 -30, we're going to see the first strategy is to proclaim the full gospel.

The first strategy for us to imitate in Jesus' life is proclaim the full gospel.

Let's read God's word together this morning. Starting in verse 14 of Luke 4. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the

Spirit, and news about him spread through all the surrounding district. And he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the

Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the

Lord. And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

And all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips.

And they were saying, Is this not Joseph's son? And he said to them,

No doubt you will quote this proverb to me. Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.

And he said, Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land, and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the

Syrian. Now all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

And they got up and drove him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw him down the cliff.

Passing through their midst, he went his way. Now there is about a year between Luke chapter 4 verse 13 and Luke 4 verse 14.

And we know that that year of Jesus' early public ministries is predominantly recorded for us in the book of John.

We spent time there last week in John 1 and 2, but John 1 through 4 covers that time period where Jesus is beginning to teach, he's beginning to perform miracles.

We saw the turning of water into wine that he did in John chapter 2. And so he's beginning to demonstrate the authenticity of his gospel proclamation, his kingdom proclamation, that he is the promised one, the

Messiah. And the responses of the people in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, going north, had been positive as a whole.

Let me just read to you a couple of verses here. From John chapter 2 verse 22, we see the response of Judea.

It says, Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing the signs which he was doing.

Jesus travels north into Samaria, meets the woman at the well. Listen to Luke 4, 39 through 42.

It says, From that city many of the

Samaritans believed in him, because of the word of the woman who testified, He told me all the things that I have done.

So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

Many more believed because of his word. And they were saying to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the

Savior of the world. And then look at the response of Galilee. Look back at 4 .14,

which we just read. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through all the surrounding district.

And he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. Public enthusiasm is high as Jesus returns to his hometown.

Now the first question that I had to wrestle with, and I want you to participate in with me this morning as we study this, is why does

Jesus return to his hometown of Galilee at this time?

I believe there's multiple answers to this question. The first is I believe he's likely avoiding premature conflict with the rulers of Judea that might have stemmed from his cleansing of the temple, that's recorded for us in John, and the imprisonment and death of John the

Baptist, his cousin. So Jesus moved safely up into the regions of Galilee outside of their political control for a short time.

Now secondly, we know that Jesus studied his Old Testament, and he knew that the Old Testament prophesied that the

Messiah would bring good news to the region that we refer to as Galilee of the

Gentiles. Listen to Isaiah 9 .1, it says, But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish.

In earlier times he treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the

Gentiles. So the northern region of Israel, the former northern kingdom that had been predominantly

Gentile since it had been conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC was a place of darkness, and Jesus came to bring light to that region.

Third, I think the other reason he goes back to Galilee is that Jesus had a genuine desire to proclaim the good news of his kingdom gospel to his family and friends with whom he had grown up with in this region.

And finally, I think the fourth reason that Jesus goes here is he is led there by the Spirit. Look back at 4 .14,

it says, And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. We know that the

Spirit has been one of the themes that Luke has pulled forward for us as he organizes his gospel.

So he leaves out that full year of Jesus' public ministry, but he has a theme here.

It started all the way back in Luke 1 .35 when he said, The angel said to her, Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

Luke 2 .40, the child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

Luke 2 .52, Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

Luke 3 .22 is baptism. Then the Holy Spirit descended upon him. Luke 4 .1,

Jesus, full of the Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness.

And then here we just started our passage with Luke 4 .14, And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the

Spirit. The Spirit is present and participating in Jesus' ministry by guiding him, informing him, empowering him for the work that he is doing.

So Jesus arrives in Nazareth, and what does he do? As was his custom, look back at verse 16, he goes into the synagogue on the

Sabbath. This was a consistent activity for him.

He had been in the synagogue for 30 plus years of his life. He participated regularly in the study and teaching of God's Word.

So here's another question. If you look at the text, it says, they handed him the book of the prophet

Isaiah, so he didn't necessarily choose it, unless something's omitted here and he asked for the book of Isaiah.

But regardless, why does he choose to go all the way to nearly the end of the

Isaiah scroll? Remember, it's a scroll, so it's not pages, chapters. He's got to know all the way where he's going to go.

At the very end of this scroll, Isaiah 61 .1, he skips over Isaiah 53, he skips over Isaiah 42, he skips over Isaiah 49, all passages that would have been amazing to hear him teach in this synagogue.

So why does he go all the way to Isaiah 61 .1 and 2 to talk to them to that day?

Well, look back at it. It says, the spirit of the

Lord is upon me. Jesus wants to proclaim that his gospel message is the message that the spirit has been prophesied to proclaim from the

Old Testament. This is his anointed task. He is anointed by the spirit to preach the gospel.

Secondly, who is this gospel for, according to Isaiah 61 .1

and 2? Look back at Luke 4, 18. Because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, which, if you read back in your

Old Testament, is the afflicted. This is a gospel for all those who are afflicted and poor.

It's a message for those who are captives. He has sent me to proclaim release to captives.

It's a message to those who are blind. It's a message to those who are oppressed, captive to their sin, blinded by their sin, oppressed by their sin.

This is his hometown crowd, and everyone around them in the region of Galilee that needs to hear this message from Isaiah 61 today.

They need to hear it now. There's an urgency in Jesus' gospel proclamation, and I think that reflects into our evangelism.

We teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ with an urgency associated with it.

Finally, this gospel message is the proclamation of the blessings of the kingdom.

I wish I had time with you to spend more time in Isaiah 61, but I would commend it to you this

Christmas season. Go back and read Isaiah 61 in its fullness and see that it's perfectly consistent with the blessings that we are studying in Psalm 37, as Jim preaches through that.

The nation of Israel had an honest expectation that God would bring blessing to them when the kingdom comes, and Jesus is proclaiming, this is the favorable year of the

Lord, if you will repent. Now, what is the response?

Well, Jesus stands up. He reads from this section of Isaiah 61, 1 and 2.

He sits down. He closes the book, gives it back to the attendant, verse 20, and sits down, and what does it say in Luke?

The eyes of all in the synagogue are just fixed on him.

I mean, they have every bit of attention focused upon him. There's no doubt.

They have heard the word of God preached to them, and he has their full attention.

Look at 4, 21 to 22. What does he say? Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

What is he saying? He's saying, I am the one who can bring this to you, and all were speaking well of him and wondering.

Hold on to that word, wondering. We're going to come back to it later on in our second strategy, but they were wondering.

They were amazed at the gracious words which were falling from his lips, and they were saying, is this not

Joseph's son? Now, question four. If I was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world, and I got that kind of response,

I'd be tempted to stop right there. I mean, that is good news, and I have got their attention, and they're like, man, that's fantastic news.

But does Jesus stop there? No, he doesn't stop there.

So why does he say the things that he says to them in 23 through 27?

I mean, if you want a positive response, why do you say something like what he says to them in 23 to 27?

If you want people to believe, just give them the good news and let them hold on to that good news. Now, it's possible that the statement that they make, is this not

Joseph's son, indicates one of two things. Maybe it's a dismissal of him, basically saying, look, you're just Joseph's son.

How can you be the one who's going to be bringing us all of these blessings? We don't know. We can't hear the vocal inflection.

We can't see their faces and their body language as they say it. We don't know what exactly they're saying there.

It's also possible that the same statement could indicate that they were pridefully looking at themselves, going, man, we got it pretty good here.

The blessings are coming, and we have the Messiah. He's our hometown guy. We're going to be better off than others because we are the chosen ones, right?

We're the people of the hometown. So either way, we don't know. We don't know.

But we don't know as well what Jesus could discern and observe in their facial expressions, in their body language.

It's possible that even though they were amazed, they wondered at his words, that they were resentful, that they were words only and no miracles.

I think this is where it is. I think that they were expecting a miracle that day because what does

Jesus say to them? He says, no doubt you will quote this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself.

Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown. So they had heard some great teaching, but was the teaching enough?

I think they wanted miracles. And I think Jesus knew that they wanted to see miracles.

And I think he knew that the desire to see miracles was not a genuine desire out of faith.

It was an expression of unbelief. Listen to John 6, 26. Jesus says, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

He knows that just seeing and observing miracles does not save an individual.

Listen to John 2, 24 and 25. It says, but Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men, and because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Jesus had obtained wisdom through 30 years of studying the scriptures and depending upon the

Holy Spirit. He knew that the good part of the gospel is not the only thing that this group needs to hear.

When we proclaim the gospel, we can't just give them the good news. It's insufficient.

This group of people needed to be confronted in their sinful pride that would reject a gospel message that extended beyond their sphere.

So what does he say to them? He says, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah.

Remember Elijah? But did he bless only the widows of Israel?

No, he blessed the widow from the land of Sidon, a woman who was a widow there, a non -insider.

The message is for everyone, both those in Israel and outside. He also says there were many lepers in Israel in the days of Elijah, and yet none of them was cleansed, but only

Naaman the Syrian. He's poking at their pride and their arrogance and saying you cannot hold this prideful disdain for those outside of your midst and still receive this blessing of the kingdom.

You must repent of that pride. Well, what's their response?

They are filled with rage. Verse 28, all the people, there's a lot of alls in this passage.

All the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

Think about this. This is all the people that Jesus knew and loved and grew up with for the 30 years.

And he comes into their synagogue and speaks to them the good news of Isaiah 61. And what do they do?

They are ready to drive him off the hill and kill him. It's a violent reaction.

So question number five, how does he evade them? Well, look at verse 30.

I love how simple Luke is. But passing through their midst, he went his way. How does he do it?

Our minds, I think, tend to insert an explanation that relies on his deity. This is the guy who can walk through doors and appear in rooms where he wasn't, with a locked door.

So we tend to just jump right to the explanation that relies upon him exercising a deity here.

I'm not ruling that possibility out. But I don't want any of us to also rule out the possibility that in his humanity,

Jesus could have said or done something that would create enough confusion in this crowd that he could safely pass through their midst, as the text says.

He passed through their midst and left. So what are the implications that we should draw out of this section here?

Jesus chose by the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news of the gospel of the kingdom from Isaiah 61, 1, and 2 to his hometown crowd without any accompanying miracles.

That was his and the Spirit's decision that day was to proclaim the good news, but no miracles for the people.

His message is intended to bring light to the regions of Galilee, the regions where darkness characterized them, generational darkness, generations of sinful unbelief.

This was a region that had been dark for a long, long time. His message is the full gospel.

It's the good news that freedom, righteousness, and blessing are available to all those who will respond in faith.

But the bad news that those whose sinful pride has blinded them will refuse the offer and will choose judgment over salvation.

He proclaimed to them the full gospel. The response of the people was one of initial wonder, initial excitement, initial acceptance.

They're really happy with the first part of the gospel message, the part that brought them blessing, but ultimately they rejected the message and the messenger.

Note here, the rejection of the message does not invalidate the messenger or the message.

This is important for all of us who are seeking to share the good news of the gospel with those around us this

Christmas season. When one rejects your message, it does not invalidate the message or the messenger.

It points to the reality that the only way that men and women will receive the message is if what?

The spirit works in their heart. The spirit removes the blindness.

The spirit opens their eyes. And I think this is really pertinent for us today.

If Jesus' hometown crowd would not believe him, why should we be surprised when people that we know and love reject our message about him?

I mean, should that surprise us in any way, shape, or form? That people that we know and love and we've shared the gospel with for decades will not believe?

No. If the people who knew Jesus from his birth would not believe, then no level of unbelief should ever shock or surprise us.

So our first strategy for gospel proclamation is to proclaim the full gospel.

What questions or comments do you have from that first section? I intend to leave time for more later.

Section number two, I'm going to have you turn over to the book of Mark, chapter 6. Turn back in your

Bibles to Mark 6. We're going to read the first six verses of Mark 6 as part of our second strategy here.

Second strategy is to persist in the face of unbelief. First strategy, proclaim the full gospel.

Second strategy, persist in the face of unbelief. Let's read Mark 6, 1 through 6.

Jesus went out from there and came into his hometown, and his disciples followed him. When the

Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and the many listeners were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things?

And what is this wisdom given to him? And such miracles as these performed by his hands.

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon?

Are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him.

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

And he could do no miracle there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

And he wondered at their unbelief. And he was going around the villages teaching.

So contextually, this is Jesus' final recorded visit to his hometown.

He may have gone back, it's not recorded for us in the Synoptic Gospels, but this is the last time we see him go back as recorded in Scripture.

It occurs during the middle to later stages of his Galilean ministry. After enough time, that his wise teaching and his miraculous works would have been absolutely well known.

There's nobody in Nazareth who can claim the well, I just didn't know excuse.

They knew. They knew what he was saying, and they knew what he was doing.

So this is a really important question for me today. Why did he go back? We just saw that they were filled with rage, tried to kill him.

So why did he go back? I have lots of questions that I hope to answer someday in the kingdom when

I get more information. The text does not say. It just does not tell us why he went back.

It says he goes back. Jesus went out from there and came into his hometown and his disciples followed him.

Second sub -question, why the heck did they listen to him a second time? So here's my hypothesis.

This is just a hypothesis. I'll demonstrate where it comes from here. My hypothesis is that Jesus had a genuine love and a desire to see the men and women that he knew and loved to believe.

And he was not willing to let the initial rejection recorded in Luke 4 dissuade him from another attempt.

I believe that Jesus had a genuine humanity made like us in all things.

I believe he wanted to see people believe from this group. So he goes back.

Now, it says that he taught in the synagogue. I wish we could see what he taught that day.

It was great to see what he taught the first time around, but scripture doesn't tell us what he taught that day.

But look at their response. On the surface, verse 2, there's a good response, right?

It says the many listeners were astonished. So they're still, their minds are just overwhelmed by the message and the messenger, right?

There's no denying that the truth that came out of Jesus' mouth was astonishing. It encountered their minds.

But this is where we have to be careful. When you read this off the top, it says, where did this man get these things and what is this wisdom given to him?

I can even read that to you in an inflection that makes it sound like it's a good thing. Like they're saying, oh yeah, where did he get all this stuff?

This is amazing. But when you look at the Greek and the way in which the pronouns are phrased, it actually is a contemptuous response.

It's not a good response. It's more like this. From where does this guy get these things?

What is the wisdom given to this guy and the miracles that are taking place through his hands? This guy is the carpenter, isn't he?

The son of Mary. It's not a positive response.

Look down further. We know they took offense at him.

Now, they did not, in their vocalization, deny the wisdom of his words.

They can't deny the wisdom of his words. Nor did they attack the authenticity of all the miracles that he has done.

They didn't go to the extent of some of the Jewish leaders and attribute his miracles to the works of Satan.

They don't go that far. But instead, what do they do? They attack his credentials for doing them.

They're basically expressing a human pride that says, well, I'm only going to listen to you if you meet my standards for authority.

I'll listen to you if you can come underneath my bar of what defines truth.

If you'll do it my way, then I'll listen to you. Is that not the response of many that we encounter who will not receive the truth?

Jesus had not been taught by the most authoritative rabbis that were out there.

And while his work in the trades, as a carpenter, stonemason, it would not have been demeaning necessarily to the

Jews that lived in Galilee. It was actually a fairly good trade to be in if you were from that region.

But it certainly would have discredited him to the wider Gentile world. The Greek world didn't look very favorably upon the people who worked with their hands with stone and wood.

What is clear here is that the residents of Jesus' hometown saw him as unqualified to elevate himself to any level of authority over them because he was merely one of them.

Look back. They say, is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, are not his sisters here with us?

He's just a guy, just one of us. He has brothers, he has sisters.

He's not anything special. Why do we have to listen to him? The phrase son of Mary is possibly an attempt to discredit him through a veiled insult based upon the appearance of illegitimacy attached to his birth.

If true, if that's true, then it's evidence that his hometown crowd had never really accepted what

Joseph, Mary, or even Jesus himself had said about how he was conceived through the power of the

Holy Spirit. They really never believed that. And just imagine growing up with the shame of that attached to your whole life.

Everybody around you kind of doesn't believe you or your parents. They took offense at him.

This Greek word, skandalizo, right, where we get the word scandal from, means to trip, to entrap, to stumble over, to entice, to sin.

It occurs eight times in the book of Mark. It's one of his signature words. They were scandalized.

They were entrapped in their sin. They stumbled over him. They took offense at the man,

Christ Jesus. They were put off or repelled by him rather than being softened or drawn to him.

Just meditate on that thought with me for just a moment. By God's good grace, those of us who are saved by grace through faith, how do we respond when we read about or encounter

Jesus in the New Testament? Our hearts are warm. There's a joy and a delight and an expression of fullness.

We can't get enough of this guy. We're driven back to our words to say, I gotta see him more.

I gotta know this man. I cannot wait to see him. And not only can I not wait to see him,

I'm in him. He died for me. He's the one who gives me fullness of life.

He is the one who's the source of all of my joy. And our family members hear us talk about him and they go,

I don't want any part of that. Don't talk to me about him anymore.

Jesus' hometown crowd wanted nothing more to do with him. Imagine his response and his humanity.

Look back at Mark 6 verse 4. Jesus said to them the same thing he said to them the first time.

A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.

Jesus again quotes a proverb that's not a scripture -restricted proverb.

This is not something you only find in the scriptures. It's a proverb of the world that he lived in. A truth that could be applied to more than to himself.

But it speaks to the reality that he experienced the same rejection that is common to many human prophets.

They're not welcome in their own household. Not just hometown.

Among his own relatives. His own household. We know from John 7 verse 5 that even his brothers didn't believe in him.

Even his brothers. Think about that. The five brothers that we know about who grew up around Jesus and experienced more of his life than even his disciples did.

They had seen so much evidence of his righteousness. They heard what he said.

They saw what he did. They heard who he claimed to be. And yet only a couple of them believed.

But it's in that, that a couple of them believe, is hope. We know that two of the gospel writers, likely

James and Jude, did believe. So as unsuccessful as this return trip to Nazareth was on the surface, is it unsuccessful in the big picture?

No. The Spirit chose at a later time, likely, to save.

At least two. So what are the implications of their unbelief?

This is where it gets challenging for us. Stick with me here. Mentally, you've got to gear up for this section. Mark 6 verse 5 says he could do no miracle there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

And he wondered at their unbelief. Mark says what?

He could do no miracle there except healing a few sick people.

Maybe it's just Mark. Maybe Mark overstates this a little bit. Maybe Mark is kind of just embellishing a little bit.

I don't think so. The parallel passage in Matthew 13, 58 agrees that his miraculous works were muted and limited in Nazareth.

Listen to Matthew 13, 58. And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

How is that possible? Is this not Jesus, the

Son of God, all -powerful, capable of independent exercise of his power without any contingency associated?

Can he just do miracles whenever he wants to? Yes, he can take your water into wine.

He can create food out of nowhere. He can raise the dead. This is

Jesus, the Son of God. How is it possible that the lack of belief of his hometown crowd could limit his miraculous works?

I think we have the answer. I suggest to you that it's something that we can tie together from all that we have been studying in this series so far.

We know from Philippians 2 that Jesus chose to empty himself by not independently exercising his rightful equality with God, the

Father. Rather, he chose to take upon himself the fullness of humanity which included a full dependence upon the

Holy Spirit to fill him with prophetic insight and power.

In other words, he would choose to limit his miraculous works to the time and context which the

Spirit indicated was correct. Since miraculous works are given by God as a means of authenticating the message of a prophet to people who should respond in belief, if the people will not believe, as is the case right here, the miracles are not necessary.

And the Spirit can choose to withhold the power to perform them based upon the context of the unbelief.

The statement that says he could do no miracle there does not, listen to me here, does not speak to an inability of Jesus as the

God -man. I am not saying that he was not capable of performing miracles while in Nazareth.

It's rather an expression of his faithful dependence on the

Holy Spirit to provide the power and the exercise of it in time and space.

Jesus does not choose to override the Spirit's choice. He chooses to submit to the

Spirit's choice. It's not saying that Jesus could not have acted miraculously because he's only a human, but rather that he chose to live in an authentically human fashion in full dependence upon the

Spirit of God so that he can be made like us in all things and our perfect Redeemer who obeys

God the Father through authentic human will, authentic human mind, and authentic human strength.

What is Jesus' response to the unbelief from those whom he held dear?

Well, I think it's important for us to see here, he doesn't issue a scathing rebuke. He doesn't say, burn in hell.

Forget you all, I never wanted you anyway. That would be an unrighteous response, and our

Savior would not do that, and neither should we. He does rebuke the

Pharisees in a righteous way in other passages, but he doesn't do it here. He also doesn't fight against God's sovereign will that the unbelief not be reversed here.

This is a challenging question that we don't have time for this morning, but I don't believe that Jesus had the capacity to look at a guy's forehead and say, does it have an

E, elect, or a U, unelect on it? A B for believer, an

L for loser. I don't care what letters you use. What does he do?

He wonders at their unbelief. He marvels. He's amazed at their unbelief.

It speaks to an authentically human response to a human problem.

Why will they not believe? Jesus has not given up on this group, and we know that his brothers, some of his brothers, will believe.

So what is our second strategy for gospel proclamation from this passage, from Jesus' life? Persist in the face of unbelief.

Don't give up. Jesus persisted in proclaiming the gospel to his friends and his family despite their repeated rejection of his message.

This should hearten us to imitate that example and not give up the proclamation of the good news when our family, our friends, our co -workers, our neighbors, or even members of this attended body do not believe.

Don't give up. Jesus did not change his message upon rejection.

Well, that didn't work. Let me try something else. Well, I guess the words are just not enough here.

They're going to have to have miracles, so I'm just going to give in and give them what they want. Only miracles can save,

I guess. No, Jesus doesn't change the message and neither should we. We have to be faithful to proclaim the full gospel as it's proclaimed in Scripture and let the

Spirit work when he works. We don't know when he will work, but the

Spirit is the one who opens the minds and the hearts of unbelievers. What is our job? Proclaim the message.

Jesus' miraculous power was muted in the face of unbelief. So what does that remind us? It reminds us that miracles do not save.

The Spirit does. The role of miracles in the New Testament and the

Old Testament, all of Scripture, is to authenticate the message of the kingdom and the gospel.

It points to the authenticity of the man who is delivering the message and says these words are authentic kingdom words.

Finally here, remember that Jesus experienced the real pain in his human manatee of rejection.

This should cause us to respond in at least three ways. Number one, we should be very, very, very thankful that God has graciously chosen to save us.

Without his gracious work, we would have taken the same offense as his family did.

Without him working in your heart, you would be doing exactly the same thing. Be very thankful for your salvation through the

Spirit. Number two, we should have an overflow of compassion for the unbelievers around us who are lost in unbelief.

No matter how hard or how ugly their sin is, how many years they've rejected, do not lose the compassion that Jesus has for the lost.

Number three, do not be surprised that unbelief persists. And it will bring

God's judgment. The judgment on this world may be delayed from our perspective, but it will be just as sure as the promises of blessing to those who receive him.

So this morning as we summarize here, we've seen that the message of the gospel, it's life and it's light to those who will believe in Jesus and the darkness and death to those who reject him.

Because we are joined together with Jesus by grace through faith, we are in union with him and we could proclaim the message of the gospel to a lost and dying world.

Our proclamation is Jesus. We proclaim him. He is the power of God unto salvation.

He's the second Adam, the son of God who took on human flesh, lived the life of obedience that we could never live and then gifts us that life of righteousness in exchange for the punishment that we deserve.

This Christmas season as we continue to interact with the unbelievers we live around, I want you to embrace the challenge.

Let your light shine. Go to the cross, go to Christ and enrich yourself in that so that the light comes pouring out of you into a dark and dying world.

May God grant us through his spirit, the strength and the wisdom and the faithfulness to persist in our gospel proclamation.

Let's pray. Our Father, our hearts are broken by the sinful rebellion, the darkness that we see around us, particularly those who are close to us, who have rejected the good news of Jesus.

We entreat you this morning. Father, work mightily in our hearts to bring light to those around us.

Open their eyes. Bring righteousness through your spirit. May you grant us the faith as we need it to walk daily by the spirit and persist in our gospel proclamation.