Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:02
Well, let's take our Bibles and turn to Mark, chapter 6, as we move along through our study of Mark.
00:21
I want to remind us where we were last time.
00:26
We had gone through, as we noted, several of Jesus' parables and then several of Jesus' miracles.
00:39
And we ended on the miracle of raising the daughter of Jairus from the dead.
00:49
And that is the end of chapter 5.
00:58
Now, at the beginning of chapter 6, there are a series of things that we're going to see.
01:05
I was just, as I was preparing my lesson, I was sort of amazed at the length of the chapter and all of the things in the chapter, because I don't want to belabor any part.
01:20
I want to make strides as we go and study.
01:22
I talked to a man today on the phone, a pastor friend of mine, who is five books away from having preached every book of the Bible.
01:36
But he did say, he said, but I don't go as slow as you, which I thought was kind of funny.
01:45
He's a dear friend, and we were just talking about our styles of preaching and how long it takes us to get through something.
01:51
And he's one that giddy-up.
01:54
He wants to maintain the theme of the book as he goes.
01:59
And I think that's useful.
02:00
I think if we sometimes get too tied up in the particularities, we will miss the forest for the trees.
02:08
I've said that many times.
02:09
But, in chapter 6 of Mark, to take this all at one shot would be just about impossible for me, because several things happen.
02:20
The very first thing is Jesus is going to visit his hometown of Nazareth.
02:27
This is likely the second visit.
02:29
We're going to talk about that when we actually study the text.
02:33
And then, right after that, he's going to send his twelve out on a mission.
02:40
And we're going to talk about that in contrast to what happens in Nazareth.
02:44
And then it almost is like it stops for an aside, and it goes into an entire section, verses 14 to 29, is about the martyrdom of John the Baptist.
02:55
It sort of takes that story and plugs it in right here, a story which we're probably very familiar with.
03:02
And then we get to verse 30, and we see two miracles, or three miracles, really, back to back.
03:10
We see the feeding of the 5,000, beginning at verse 30.
03:15
Then we see the walking on the water, beginning at verse 45.
03:19
And then the last few verses, verses 53 to the end, is the healing of the multitudes.
03:26
Nothing really specific, but Jesus continues to do these healing miracles.
03:31
So I've entitled, and I like titles.
03:36
I know you don't have to have a title, but I do like titles.
03:39
I liked Mike's title for his Sunday school lesson last week, when I walked in to help him start his recording device.
03:45
And the king is dead.
03:46
Long live the king.
03:47
I thought that was a creative title.
03:49
And I like to try to be creative with my titles as well.
03:51
So my title for this chapter is Malice, Mission, Martyrdom, and Miracles, because that's what we're going to see.
04:02
And so tonight, we're going to study the first part, which is the malice part.
04:06
And I will admit, I did get that outline from Dr.
04:10
Wilmington.
04:11
I used his outline Bible.
04:14
And we're going to look at verses 1 to 6.
04:16
But I'd like to read through verse 13, because if time allows, I'd like to show what I think is a contrast in these two narratives.
04:26
We're going to see Jesus go into Nazareth.
04:28
We're going to see what happens there.
04:30
And then we're going to see Jesus send out the apostles, and something drastically different happens there.
04:37
And I do think that, again, I think the writers of these Gospels are strategic, and they're And I think that these two narratives go together.
04:48
So we won't read the whole chapter, but we will read verses 1 to 13.
04:56
Speaking of Jesus, it says, He went away from there, and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.
05:05
And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue.
05:08
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, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him.
05:34
And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his relatives, and in his own household.
05:42
And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
05:50
And he marveled because of their unbelief.
05:55
And he went about among the villages teaching.
05:59
Verse 7.
06:00
And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two.
06:04
And he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
06:09
He charged them to take nothing for their journey, except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
06:22
And he said to them, Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there.
06:28
And if any place will not receive you and will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.
06:39
So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.
06:44
And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick, and they healed them.
06:53
Father, I thank you for your word.
06:54
May you now keep me from error as I teach and bless the people to hear your word afresh and by the power of the Spirit be taught.
07:04
In Christ's name, Amen.
07:08
So, Mark chapter 6, verse 4, I have jokingly said is my life verse.
07:25
And the reason why I have jokingly said that is because, as many of you know, I have been at this church since I was seven years old.
07:39
And having been in the same place for so long, when Jesus said, A prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown, I can remember very well when I first became the pastor of the church and became the one who was preaching every Sunday, I can remember people who saw me as a little boy.
08:11
I mean, some of the people here had been Sunday school teachers to me when I was a child.
08:16
Some had verbally disciplined me over the years for getting into trouble and things.
08:28
I was always thankful for Patsy Hoffman because she always treated me with a lot of respect, even though she, again, was my Sunday school teacher when I was a kid.
08:36
It was like a flip-flopping of relationships when I became an adult.
08:43
But I remember specifically, and Pat will get a kick out of me sharing this, I remember specifically on one particular theological topic, and I'll tell you what it is, it was the subject of women pastors, and there was a person here who disagreed with my position on it, and they said, Well, you just believe that because that's what your mother believes.
09:04
And they were referring to Pat, of course, my stepmom, but just said, Well, you just believe that because that's what your mother believes about women pastors.
09:15
And I remember thinking, Well, certainly, I did hear that growing up from my stepmom and I did understand that that was wrong having heard it from her, but I also came to that conclusion based upon my own understanding of the scripture.
09:35
It wasn't just because Mommy said so, and what's interesting about that going a little bit further is there are things that Pat knows that I've disagreed with her about, and even things that I've been able to show her, and things that we, even as a church, have grown in of these things.
09:58
So I just remember that being somewhat discounting.
10:03
Well, you were just a little boy, and Mommy taught you that, and she doesn't, you know, you don't really, that's not really the truth, that's just what you think because that's what you were taught as a child.
10:13
Very dismissive.
10:15
And what I learned is that, and you've all heard this phrase, but I want you to, tonight, this is really what I want you to think.
10:24
Familiarity breeds contempt.
10:28
Familiarity, you know, when we first get to know someone, sometimes we think a lot of that person, and then the more we get to know them and we start seeing the holes in the dike, we start seeing the problems, you know, we start to feel a little bit more familiar and a little less impressed.
10:48
And I remember one of my seminary professors said, he said, you know what an expert is? I said, no sir.
10:56
He said, an expert is a man who's carrying a briefcase and he's 20 miles from home.
11:02
And what he meant was, he says, you're an expert when you leave your hometown and you go somewhere else.
11:09
People who don't know you see you coming, oh, this guy's the expert.
11:13
But when you're at home, you're just Keith.
11:15
When you're at home, you're just that guy, right? And so familiarity, that type of familiarity is in one sense what we're seeing here in the situation with Christ.
11:28
Christ has come back home.
11:31
He's come back to Nazareth, and Nazareth did not have a great reputation.
11:39
If you remember in the Gospel of John, when Jesus was first meeting the apostles, and one of the apostles said, when they said, we found the Messiah, he's from Nazareth, what'd they say? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? So Nazareth as a place did not have the best of reputations.
12:05
Nazareth was in Galilee.
12:06
It was about 20 miles west of the Sea of Galilee, and it was on a rocky hillside.
12:17
I think, if I remember correctly, I don't have it in my notes, but I do believe it was about 60 acres.
12:24
So I mean, I know people who have property that's more than 60 acres.
12:28
I mean, 60 acres is kind of big, but it's not that big.
12:32
If you think of this square block right here, it's about six acres.
12:35
So it's only about 10 times the size of our church property.
12:41
And there was only about 500 people who lived there.
12:46
It was a very small place in a very small location, small group of people.
12:56
So I bring that up to simply say, Jesus would have probably known everyone.
13:02
In a town of 500, you don't have much anonymity.
13:08
In a town of 500, you're going to know everybody, and everybody's going to know you.
13:15
And I want to point out one other thing before we get into the nuts and bolts of this text.
13:23
This text is also given to us in Matthew 13, 53 to 58, with basically the same verbiage.
13:33
But Luke's gospel gives us an entirely different account where Jesus visited Nazareth, and he spoke from the word of God in the synagogue, and the people took him out and wanted to throw him off the cliff.
13:49
You guys remember that story? Remember what they said then? Yeah, that time they also said, this guy is the carpenter's son.
14:03
Who does he think he is? In fact, very quickly, if you don't mind, just turn with me to the Luke story, because I actually don't think it's the same story.
14:13
I actually think it's possible that this was Jesus' first visit to Nazareth after his ministry began, and the one we're reading in Mark is the second visit.
14:23
They read as two different accounts, and we see the one consistent thing is this group of people within the community that do not want to respect this man because he's the hometown boy.
14:45
So go with me to Luke chapter 4 and verse 14.
14:57
In Luke's gospel, this happened right after the temptation in the wilderness.
15:02
This, again, is why I think it's a different situation.
15:04
It says in verse 14, And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went through all the surrounding country, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
15:17
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
15:26
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
15:29
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
15:37
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
15:46
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
15:50
And the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him.
15:53
And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
16:00
And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.
16:05
And they said, Is this not Joseph's son? And he said to them, Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself.
16:16
What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.
16:22
And he said, Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
16:27
But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.
16:45
And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elijah, and none of them was cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian.
16:53
When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
16:57
They rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff.
17:08
But passing through their midst, he went away.
17:12
Now again, I'm not saying this is the same story as Mark chapter 6.
17:18
I'm saying look at what happened the first time.
17:23
According to Luke's narrative, I think this is Jesus' first time.
17:27
Probably a year has separated Mark 6 and Luke 4 as I've been able to look at these two events.
17:36
And in Luke 6, Jesus goes and at first, He stands up and He reads the Scripture.
17:47
And by the way, that's a powerful Scripture.
17:49
He reads the Scripture about the promise being fulfilled of God's blessing on His people.
17:56
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to anoint the good news, the gospel to the poor.
18:02
Jesus said this is the gospel and then He points to Himself and He says this is fulfilled in your hearing today because of me.
18:12
And what's their response? Is this not Joseph's son? Now I think in that moment, verse 22, I think it's a positive.
18:23
And the reason why I say that, if you read verse 22 again.
18:26
And all spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from His mouth.
18:31
And they said is this not Joseph's son? And the idea of look at the hometown boy.
18:36
He's made good.
18:38
Right? And He stood up and He preached and now He's saying a powerful word.
18:44
Look at the good that He's doing.
18:47
But then Jesus in His inimitable way turns the crowd against Him.
18:53
Jesus was good at that.
18:55
Jesus was good at speaking truth and then having people not like it.
18:59
If you remember John chapter 6, He has an entire crowd of people who are listening to Him preach.
19:07
And at the end of chapter 6, they're all gone.
19:09
Only the disciples are left.
19:11
And the reason why is because He preached hard words in John 6.
19:15
If you read John 6, it's a hard sermon.
19:16
Even to this day, it's hard to interpret and understand exactly what He was saying.
19:21
He's talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
19:24
There's a lot of difficulty there.
19:26
And you can imagine that first century audience going what in the world is this guy talking about? Well in this, Jesus uses two Old Testament examples.
19:35
Gentile examples specifically as receiving a blessing.
19:40
Jewish people don't want to hear that.
19:42
And so they respond with murderous rage.
19:46
They're going to throw Him down the cliff.
19:47
And as I said, Nazareth is built on a rocky cliff.
19:52
So this is, again, the first time we hear Jesus utter the words, A prophet is not acceptable in his hometown.
20:06
So He's already said it once.
20:08
He's already experienced this once.
20:11
Hatred and wrath.
20:14
And then we get to Mark 6.
20:19
And He's now back.
20:22
It says in verse 1 of Mark 6, He went away from there and came to His hometown, and His disciples followed Him.
20:30
And on the Sabbath, He began to teach in the synagogue.
20:35
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? And then they begin to interrogate, Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary? Now, other gospels, I think it's Matthew's gospel.
21:05
We can look if you want.
21:06
But I'm pretty sure Matthew's gospel says, Is this not the carpenter's son? That is not a textual variant or a discrepancy.
21:15
It is most likely that both gospels are correct.
21:19
Jesus, having been brought up by Joseph, would have been by trade the same trade of His Father.
21:25
So it's likely that some of them said, Is this not the carpenter's son? We read that in Luke's gospel.
21:30
Is this not Joseph's son? But it's also some, Is this not the carpenter? Is this not the tradesman? Who is this guy preaching to us? This guy is a carpenter.
21:42
Now, the term carpenter here, the Greek word, it has the same root as our word architect.
21:50
Tech is the root.
21:53
And it actually can also be translated as a stonemason.
21:59
But Josh McDowell's book, More Than a Carpenter, would have to be more than a stonemason, and it wouldn't work.
22:05
So we'll go with carpenter.
22:07
But actually, at that point, it could be either.
22:10
And it's likely that the artisan or the craftsman would have worked in wood and stone at that point in time.
22:17
And so it's not as if one or the other is necessarily right or wrong.
22:21
Jesus, like many today who work in construction, probably worked in many different mediums as a person who built things.
22:30
But we translate it typically as the word carpenter.
22:36
And it says, Is not this the carpenter? And then they bring up the next issue, the son of Mary.
22:46
Now, why the son of Mary? There's a lot of debate as to why it mentions Mary.
22:52
Some people reference the fact that in Jewish rules, the mother is the one through whom the lineage comes, not the father.
23:01
Jewish people are a matriarchal society.
23:03
You get your Jewish roots from your mother, not from your father.
23:08
I don't think that's the reason for this.
23:11
I think it's possible that it's referencing that Joseph has died.
23:15
Joseph is not mentioned after Jesus' 12th year.
23:19
You remember when Jesus was left behind at the temple and Joseph was there? That's the last that we read of Joseph in the narrative.
23:29
And so it's possible that he has already gone on to be with the Lord.
23:32
And so only Mary is mentioned.
23:35
And again, that's just one possibility.
23:38
I think sometimes we over-read into things.
23:42
But it says, Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother? And it lists James and Joseph and Judas and Simon.
23:53
And then it says, And are not his sisters here with us? So we have four brothers named and an unknown number of sisters.
24:06
And a couple things just to say about that.
24:10
In Roman Catholic tradition, Mary is considered to be a perpetual virgin, which means that she did not have any other children other than Jesus.
24:23
And even Jesus was not birthed naturally, according to Roman Catholic teaching, Jesus was birthed in a supernatural way that would not disturb Mary's virginal integrity.
24:36
I've often equated it to something like Star Trek.
24:40
He was beamed from the womb to the room because there is a strong teaching in Roman Catholicism that Mary maintained her virginity throughout her life.
24:52
And so when we come to passages like this, we say, Well, Jesus had brothers and sisters.
24:57
How could Mary have remained a virgin? Well, the typical answer that Rome gives is that Joseph had other wives, or at least one other wife, and therefore these brothers and sisters are not by his mother, but only from his earthly father.
25:20
There is nothing in the text to substantiate that.
25:22
That is seeking to find an answer to a question based upon a theological presupposition.
25:30
It's what we call an a priori assumption.
25:34
Or baloney.
25:35
Yeah, it's also a Greek word, baloney.
25:36
That's right.
25:37
There are some who say that the word should be translated cousins rather than brothers and sisters.
25:44
Again, that's baloney.
25:48
It's in Nazareth, not Middleburg.
25:53
Okay.
25:56
But anyhow, so you understand this text tells us he had brothers and sisters.
26:02
And I want you just, again, it's not necessarily relevant to this, but I want you to notice two of the names, two of the important names, James and Judas.
26:13
Now, Judas is another way of saying Jude, or Jude is another way of saying Judas.
26:18
We have two books in our Bible.
26:20
One is the epistle of James and one is the epistle of Jude.
26:25
And it is my belief and the belief of many scholars, and I think our elders all agree, that the two men, James and Jude, are the brothers mentioned here.
26:37
And what's interesting about that is they're not believers during Jesus' lifetime.
26:41
We see other places in the gospel narrative where these men are saying Jesus is out of his mind, you know, and we've talked about that in previous classes.
26:50
But I just thought it important to mention their names.
26:54
This is the James who would later become the pastor of the church at Jerusalem.
26:59
He would be involved in Acts 15, which is the Jerusalem, sometimes referred to as the Jerusalem Council, where they were discussing Gentile entrance into the church.
27:09
And he speaks at that council.
27:11
He's referenced in the book of Galatians as being the brother of our Lord.
27:18
And, again, we have the letter which bears his name, the book of James, and Jude as well.
27:25
And Jude and Judas, again, some people say Jude was Jude because Judas has such a negative connotation with Judas Iscariot, and that's possibly true, but it's also just our English way of saying it.
27:39
In fact, James isn't even James.
27:40
In Hebrew, it would have been Yakob.
27:44
It would have been Jacob, not James.
27:48
There is no J sound in Hebrew, so anytime you hear a J sound, that's a Germanic change.
27:58
That's German brought in the J sound, and that sound where we get Jesus and Jehovah and all those things are from that.
28:07
It's not something we see in Hebrew or in Greek.
28:10
In Hebrew, it's Yesu, and in Greek, for Jesus, it's Yesu and Iesous, in Greek and Hebrew.
28:20
Yeshua, rather, and Iesous.
28:23
And this would be Yakob.
28:27
All right, so it says, and are not his sisters with us? And they took offense at him.
28:32
The whole town is downgrading Christ based upon their familiarity with him.
28:41
We know this guy.
28:42
We know his mama.
28:44
We know his brothers.
28:45
We know his sisters.
28:48
We've seen him do some amazing things.
28:50
We've heard of him doing some amazing things, rather.
28:54
But instead of receiving him, they take offense at him.
29:00
And so Jesus repeats the phrase, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.
29:09
Notice that phrase addition.
29:12
Why does Jesus mention his household? Because even in his household, there were those who did not yet believe in him.
29:23
Verse 5.
29:26
This is the hardest one for me.
29:27
I'll just be quite honest with you.
29:29
When I'm studying and trying to get my thoughts together, this verse 5 is the most difficult.
29:37
It says, and he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
29:49
Now, the reason why I say that I find that difficult is because we live on this side of the charismatic renewal.
29:57
As you're familiar with, Pentecostalism was given birth in the early 1900s.
30:02
Charismaticism has risen since then.
30:05
And what's come out of Charismaticism is the word-faith teaching.
30:11
Word-faith is not biblical.
30:13
Word-faith is not something that is derived out of Scripture.
30:17
It is something that has been force-fed into Scripture.
30:21
But there are those who would say that you exercise your faith in such a way that God becomes a guarantor of whatever your faith demands.
30:36
And so they say the phrase that you're probably very familiar with is the phrase, name it and claim it, right? And so what this group, these hypercharismatics have done is they have created the idea that if you are not healed from whatever your malady is, it is because somehow you have not expressed enough faith.
31:04
We mentioned Richard Taylor earlier.
31:08
Richard Taylor was a dear friend, and his wife was a legend in our church, a legend of faith.
31:15
She was just a wonderful lady who just had a sweet disposition and a wonderful way about her and Sybil.
31:23
The years that she was here, she and I had dozens of very meaningful conversations, and she had been in a wheelchair since she was 12 years old.
31:34
She was a paraplegic, meaning that she had no feeling below the waist, and so she had to be in a wheelchair before she was a teenager.
31:48
And Sybil and I talked a lot about her pain that she suffered, and I remember the last years of her life, those things increased, and it was very difficult for her.
32:02
And she told me how, over the years, there were those who had said to her that if she had enough faith, she could get out of that wheelchair and walk.
32:15
And I'm not one to want to strike just anybody, but that does make me angry when I hear someone mock the faith of someone that I know truly has genuine faith.
32:36
Johnny Erickson Tata is probably one more familiar to you all, a lady whose faith has been demonstrated in years of faithfulness to the Lord, and yet she was injured diving into a pool, broke her neck.
32:52
She has no use of her body from the neck down, and yet she trusts in the Lord.
32:59
And so I only mention this as to say when people come to verse 5, and they say, Jesus could do no mighty work there except that he lay hands on a few sick people and healed them.
33:10
And we go into verse 6, and we're going to talk about verse 6, where it says he marveled at their unbelief.
33:14
Some people believe that somehow the reason why people today are experiencing pain, suffering, sickness, illness, is because they don't believe.
33:26
And I do not believe that that is what this text is intending to convey.
33:31
But I have to step back and say, okay, then what is it intending to convey? Because it's easy to say what it ain't, but sometimes a little harder to say what it is.
33:42
And I did touch on this a little bit last week, because I said even though I don't believe that Christ's power is diminished over our lack of faith, I do believe God responds to faith.
33:57
And so that's what I think we're seeing here, is Christ is in a place of people who have dismissed him due to their familiarity.
34:08
They have dismissed him due to his family.
34:12
They've dismissed him due to his lack of notoriety, being born and raised in their own hometown, and it says he could do no mighty work there.
34:24
And again, I simply take that to mean that his healings and miracles were not on display there as they were in other places because of their unbelief.
34:40
Jesus is responding to their unbelief.
34:43
And we see his response in verse 6.
34:46
Look at what verse 6 says.
34:49
And he marveled at their unbelief.
34:55
Now I want to say something.
34:57
There are only two passages in the Bible where Jesus marvels.
35:04
Only two places that I'm aware of, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think this is right, I looked it up, but again, I could have overlooked something, but I found only two places where Jesus is said to have marveled, and it's this and the other place is Matthew chapter 8, verses 5 to 13.
35:26
Now in Matthew chapter 8, if you want to go there, I just want to show you the difference between what's happening here and what happens in Matthew chapter 8.
35:45
Go to verse 5.
35:53
It says in verse 5, When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.
36:04
And he said to him, I will come and heal him.
36:07
But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
36:17
For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.
36:22
I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes.
36:25
And to my servant, do this, and he does it.
36:28
When Jesus heard this, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, Truly I say to you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
36:41
I tell you, many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness.
36:53
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
36:56
And to the centurion he said, Go, let it be done for you, as you have believed.
37:01
And the servant was healed at that very moment.
37:06
So, Jesus marvels in this text, but he's not marveling at unbelief.
37:12
In this text he's marveling at faith.
37:17
So the two times we see Christ marvel in the scriptures is first, he marvels at faith, and that's the centurion, what we just read.
37:29
And I love this story.
37:30
I wish I had time to go through it, but how the centurion says, You don't have to come to my house, just say the word.
37:35
I have men under me.
37:37
Think about what the centurion is saying.
37:39
I have men under me who do what I command, even from a distance.
37:42
All you've got to do is say the word.
37:44
That's a level of faith that is really astounding.
37:49
You know, we think about, and we're going to see at the end of chapter 6, just like at the end of chapter 5, the lady touching the garment, the different things, people feeling like they had to be close to him, feeling like they had to do something.
37:59
This guy said, If you say the word, he'll be healed.
38:02
That level of faith is amazing, and it astounded even the Lord.
38:07
It caused even the Lord to marvel.
38:10
So Jesus marvels at faith first, but then in Mark chapter 6, as we return there, we find that he marvels at something else.
38:21
He marvels at unbelief.
38:23
Yes, sir? That's right, and in Mark, it does say, yeah, it says he could not, and that's, it does come across in Mark as a could not, did not, would not, or did not.
38:52
Yeah, I looked at it, because I was trying to find an answer too, right, and in Matthew's gospel, it seems like a willful thing, and in Mark's gospel, it seems like an ability thing, and that's why I was saying, I don't think it is an ability thing.
39:04
I think it's a choice.
39:05
I just want to know.
39:11
I'll double check, but I don't, I don't, as I said, when I was looking through it, I didn't, because I was looking for an answer, and I thought that very same thing, brother.
39:19
I thought, well, maybe it's just an issue of how this is translated.
39:22
How does the King James, going back to Mark 6, how does the King James translate to verse 5? Yeah, any there could do, yeah.
39:40
Now, one more thing about this, before we go to verse 6, because I want to end, and I know we've run out of time, but the other thing to just mention about that, because I think I said this last week.
39:55
Jesus can do anything at any time, and we know that because when he was on the water and the waves were crashing around, they didn't believe.
40:05
They said specifically, Master, do you not care that we are perishing? They didn't say, hey, get up and still the storm.
40:14
They said, do you not care that we're perishing? And Jesus got up, calmed the wind and the waves, and he looked at them and said, what, O ye of little faith? So, he didn't respond to their big faith at that moment, and in verse 5, it says he didn't do many mighty works, but he still healed people.
40:36
Notice what it says at the end.
40:37
He says, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
40:42
He wasn't without power.
40:46
But he was without motivation.
40:48
Maybe that's a way to put it.
40:50
He had a group of people who were staring at him in unbelief, and he marveled at their unbelief in contradistinction to how he marveled at the belief of the centurion.
41:04
And so, amen.
41:09
Yeah.
41:10
Yeah.
41:10
See, you're the title man.
41:12
That's good.
41:15
And, did you have something, Rosanna? I saw your hand.
41:38
No.
41:39
And that's the point I'm making.
41:41
It's faith is not required for Jesus to do anything.
41:44
It wasn't required for him to calm the storm.
41:47
It wasn't required, does God call us to faith? Does God respond to faith? Yes.
41:52
But the idea is, is faith required for him to have the ability? No.
41:56
And here's another proof text if you will.
42:00
It's not Jesus, but it's the apostles.
42:02
When they were going to the beautiful gate in the book of Acts, there was a man who was there who was lame, thank you.
42:13
I couldn't come up with the word.
42:14
Lame man outside the beautiful gate.
42:16
And the man was asking for alms, which are donations, right? And what did Peter say? Silver and gold have I none, but this I say unto you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, rise and walk.
42:29
That man, there's nothing about his faith in that story.
42:33
But at the name of Christ, rise and walk.
42:37
So the idea that faith is some form of prerequisite to give power to God.
42:44
And that's what some charismatics have said.
42:47
I don't know if you've ever heard them say it, but they'll say that God is empowered by our faith.
42:52
That is the worst kind of blasphemy because it's saying that God needs us to do what he can do.
42:58
And that certainly is not...
43:01
That's right.
43:02
Lazarus is four days dead.
43:05
By now he stinketh.
43:07
King James.
43:09
Yeah.
43:10
And that's God's prerogative.
43:15
And so when we think of this, I definitely don't want us to come away thinking that Jesus is somehow made impotent by lack of faith.
43:24
But when I said he lacks motivation, maybe that's the wrong way of thinking of it because often we think of motivation as somewhat of an emotional thing.
43:32
But Jesus chooses, as Brother Andy said, what Matthew says probably more clearly is what is here is he's choosing not to because he's not responding to their unbelief.
43:49
Sure.
43:50
And as I said, this is why I've been dealing with it this week as I've prepared.
43:53
But I just cannot take away from that that he lacked the power.
43:58
Like I said, I could say, I've talked about this before when I say I can't do something.
44:03
There's two ways of taking the idea of can't do something.
44:06
Like if I said, you know, I can't strike an old man.
44:11
That doesn't mean I don't have the physical ability to do it.
44:14
It just means I don't have the, I don't have the desire or motivation.
44:17
I'm not going to do that.
44:19
I can't do that.
44:20
I have a moral qualm with striking an old man.
44:23
Well, striking anyone, but particularly.
44:26
Oh, you young men, watch out.
44:28
No, it's okay.
44:29
But you understand, right? So when I say I can't do it, it's not a physical limitation.
44:34
It's a choice.
44:36
I can't do that because it would go against who I am.
44:39
So in that sense, I think that may be the way Mark is using the can't here or couldn't.
44:47
That's what I'm saying.
44:48
Yeah, yeah.
44:49
But how do we understand that? I think it's best to not in any way consider Jesus to be impotent.
44:55
And I know you're not saying that.
44:57
So, real quick, just to finish out.
45:03
I was hoping we'd get to the next story.
45:04
We didn't.
45:05
We're out of time.
45:06
But just to show you a comparison because we did read all the way to the end.
45:09
Notice at the end of verse 13.
45:12
And we'll study this story more next week.
45:14
Notice the end of verse 13.
45:19
Actually, read verse 12.
45:20
It says, So they went out.
45:21
This is the disciples, not Jesus.
45:23
Jesus sent them out two by two.
45:24
They went out.
45:25
They proclaimed that people should repent and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
45:32
And here's what my mind because I often compare and even the way I make my notes I do it like a table.
45:38
Like I'm looking back and forth.
45:40
What I see is Jesus is here the all powerful one.
45:44
But he's in a group of unbelievers.
45:47
And he doesn't respond to their unbelief but he deals with them in their unbelief.
45:52
The disciples go out who don't have power in and of themselves.
45:56
They have the power that Christ has bestowed upon them for this mission.
45:59
And in that they go out and they do all kinds of miraculous things.
46:03
Casting out demons and doing all kinds of things.
46:06
Why? What's the difference? We can only assume that as they went out the people responded in faith.
46:13
So there is a distinction that we can see between what happens to Jesus in his hometown and what happens to them when they go out into the area to minister.
46:25
So familiarity breeds contempt.
46:28
It did in Jesus' own hometown.
46:29
It does with us.
46:31
Often texts like this become very familiar.
46:33
And we don't pay attention to them as well as we should because we think we know them too well.
46:40
So as we're leaving tonight a quick thought and just something to put in your mind as you're leaving.
46:45
Have we become too familiar with Christ? Are we so familiar with these stories that we don't look as deeply as we should? Because it's just too common.
46:57
Jesus was common to these people.
46:58
And therefore, was not spectacular.
47:02
Jesus is spectacular.
47:04
And we should always look at him as such.
47:07
Let's pray.
47:08
Father, I thank you for your word.
47:10
I thank you for your truth.
47:11
I pray, Lord, tonight as we've studied this together that your truth would go forth.
47:16
And, Lord, if I've said anything in error that you keep me, keep those words back from our memories.
47:21
And, Lord, that you would be glorified in the study of your word.
47:24
In Christ's name, amen.