The Familiar Jesus

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Don Filcek; Matt 13:53-58 The Familiar Jesus

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called
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Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Good morning,
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Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here, and we're going to go ahead and get started. So those of you out in the hallway, if you can come on in and find your seats, that would be great.
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I'm glad that you have gathered together as God's people this morning. I hope that that is your sense, that you've come together not just to take in a service, not just to take in a show, but ultimately to connect together in a group of people in the gathering of God's people to worship him.
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At Recast, we are seeking to worship God and are also seeking to find more worshippers for him.
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That's actually our mission statement. That's why we exist, to worship him and to find more worshippers for him.
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We believe that his word is the truth and is worthy of our careful study, that it is worthy of our attention.
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In his goodness, in God's kindness, he has been gracious to communicate to us his love and his mercy by recording scripture for us and putting it down in writing, down through the ages.
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And this morning, we get a chance to worship God in singing. We also are going to get a chance to worship
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God by enjoying some donuts and some coffee, some of you already have. You get a chance to worship God by interacting with others in this place.
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But as we do so, let's be mindful that we can turn everything into a moment of worship by reflecting back thanks and gratitude to God.
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It is not just strictly in the gathering together on Sunday morning that we worship God. I hope you are worshipping him throughout the week.
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I hope you are worshipping him by the way that you worked for your employer or the way that you handled issues with your employees and the way that you did what you do throughout the week.
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The way that you worked with your family, with your kids, with your spouse. The way that you interacted over the whole inauguration thing.
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I hope that you are able to turn everything into a moment of worship throughout your week. We're going to be looking at a text this morning and in our text in Matthew chapter 13, as we wrap up this little mini -series through part of the book of Matthew, we're going to be seeing a text where Jesus is going to be rejected.
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He is going to be utterly dissed by his own people, by his hometown, and even by his own family, he says.
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And as we work through the text this morning, we are given a reminder that this life of following our
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Savior is not one of everyone liking us. Of everybody thinking that we're great.
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You see, I'm convinced that we need the support of a church community who understands the importance of Jesus.
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Many people we encounter on a daily basis do not understand our commitment to Christ or our commitment to his word.
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How many of you interacted with somebody this week that doesn't hold the same values that you hold regarding Jesus Christ?
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Most of us, right? And some of you, maybe even some of those conversations don't turn out well.
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They don't go the way that you want them to or it's even hard for us sometimes to engage our culture in discussions about Jesus Christ, right?
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And the world doesn't see things the same way that we see them. But in this place, this morning, we come together to be reminded that we are not alone.
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We're not alone. And we come to take in his life -giving word. So if you have a
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Bible in front of you or a means to navigate to a Bible, please turn to Matthew chapter 13, verses 53 through 58.
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That's going to be our text this morning. If you don't have a Bible or a device on your lap that has a Bible on it, if you would just, and not to call you out, but if you just raised your hand,
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Mike's got some Bibles back here. He'd like to get one in your hand. So raise your hand, keep it up, and he will bring you a Bible so that you have it so you can follow along in Matthew chapter 13, again, verses 53 through the end of the chapter, verse 58.
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And recast, I say this often before I read God's word, but I think it's a beneficial reminder for us to think through that what we are about to hear and take in with our ears and process with our minds are the very words of God, the creator, the one who designed all of this and has exhibited his love to us through the cross.
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And this is what he desires for us, recast, to be studying and looking at this morning. So follow along Matthew 13, 53 through 58.
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And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there. And coming to his hometown, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
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Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers
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James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all of his sisters with us?
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Where then did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.
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And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you so much for Jesus Christ who came as the sacrifice for us and he exhibited in his life just what it means to honor you, to be a sinless human life here on this planet.
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But Father, the depth of the humiliation that he endured on this planet is not just strictly the cross, the greatest and gravest of all humiliations, but even rejection, even rejection by his hometown, rejection by his own people.
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He did so so that he could bring in his kingdom. He came and endured that indignity for us so that in the end he could make a way and a pathway by his sacrifice for any who would come to him by faith.
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So Father, I pray that we would rejoice this morning with our voices that he took so much on himself, a penalty that we couldn't pay, so that we could be set free.
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So may we sing this morning as a people who are free and please, Father, receive our songs as an offering to you, as worship to you for your great plan of salvation that is worked out through your son
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Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that this would be so much more than an exercise of our singing abilities, but it would be genuinely making a joyful noise to you from hearts that are overflowing with thankfulness.
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Give us a perspective of gratitude as we see you as you are, high and exalted, our unworthiness and where those meet at the cross this morning, in Jesus' name, amen.
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Big thanks to Dave and the band for leading us in worship this morning, I'm just really glad for the effort and time that they put into that for us and so really, and really ultimately for God, it's worship for them as well.
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I would encourage you to get comfortable if at any time during the message if you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts, you're not going to distract me.
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And then I also say this most weeks, but I know that the seat that you're sitting in is not the most comfortable and so if you need to get up and stretch out in the back or I know that some people, those chairs aren't so great for your back and so if you need to do that, do that, but our main purpose in all of that is to just keep your focus on God's word over the next half an hour or so that we have together.
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And I would also lastly ask you to keep your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 13, verses 53 through 58.
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We read that at the start, I recognize that not everybody was all in here at that point, but Matthew 13, 53 through 58 is the outline, it's the text that we're walking through.
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I'm going to walk us through that and explain that to you. Sometimes it's very important in the
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Bible, actually all the time it's important for us to understand kind of a little bit about what's come before this and even though I've been marching through Matthew 13, not everybody was here, last week's message is very significant for our understanding of this week's message.
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Last week we saw Jesus give some parables that ultimately taught that his kingdom, remember his kingdom is simply the rule and reign of Jesus Christ.
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When you see the word kingdom in the New Testament, think the rule of Jesus and you're heading down the right road. But his kingdom is of utmost value and utmost worth.
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That was the primary focus and force of the text last week. Two primary parables that we looked at, that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, his kingship is like a treasure discovered in a field, a pretty glorious and amazing thing.
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A man goes out, finds this treasure in a field, sells all that he has to purchase that field so that he can obtain the treasure.
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Or like a pearl trader who finds the ultimate of all the greatest pearls, sells all that he has in order to obtain this one pearl.
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So the great worth of the king and the great worth of his kingdom is the point last week, but Jesus in those parables claimed great things for himself and for his rule.
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If you think about it, Jesus is telling stories about how awesome he is. And either it's true or he is just kind of like out of his mind and gone mad with power, right, and he thinks he's something he's not.
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Either he's just completely nuts or he's claiming what is true for himself and he is indeed all of that and even more than our words can express.
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Worth the sacrifice of all that we have according to the stories he was telling, the parables.
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You see, I believe Jesus knew that he was king over all. He knew that he was the pivot point of all history, even as our calendar shows.
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He knew he was the one through whom God would judge all mankind in the end, a day that's yet to come.
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And he knew he had come to save his people. I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but every time that somebody said
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Jesus's name, they were reminding him of his purpose. Jesus means he who saves his people.
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Every time that somebody said Jesus, he was reminded of his purpose. He was reminded of why he was here.
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And the text this morning, I kind of made a joke about alliteration the last couple of weeks. It doesn't have three points this week.
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It only has one, which makes it difficult to alliterate, so hard to alliterate with just one. I guess maybe
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I'm just, the main point has one. But the main point of this text this week, the one main focus, is really a stark and naked and even somewhat discouraging statement at face value until we explain it and kind of tease it out a bit.
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And it really is kind of discouraging regarding the human heart. Something that when we dig down deep in our own hearts, we can, anybody ever been frustrated with yourself?
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You ever just kind of, yeah, there's darkness in here. In the chest of every man and woman, there is darkness, there is sin that started from the very beginning.
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And so what we see in our text this morning is just simply that Jesus was rejected by those who should have known him best.
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He was rejected by those who should have known him best. And it's not accidental that Matthew puts this account right up next to the text from last week where Jesus declared how awesome and glorious his kingdom is.
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How much worth and how much value his kingdom has, but people didn't see it. People didn't honor him for what was due him.
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Have you ever worked with someone, just thinking about it in terms of somebody who is kind of self -aggrandizing or whatever, have you ever worked with someone or had a relationship with someone who was pretty sure that they were the most amazing human alive?
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Some of you had a name pop in your head, some of you were like, no, I don't know anybody like that. Then maybe it's you, I don't know.
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You got to ask the question, always ask the question, am I that one? Grinding arrogance is hard to relate to, right?
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I think it is for even arrogant. Even if we tend towards arrogance, if that's one of our particular sins, we still don't like to be around arrogant people, right?
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It's not something that we prefer. I don't need to spend time, really more than a few minutes with someone who's unashamedly self -boasting and self -promoting to get tired of them, right?
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Anybody with me on that? Are we all on the same page on that? But Jesus was not arrogant.
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Jesus was not full of pride in the things that he said. He was measured in his declarations about himself.
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He knew who he was. He understood his mission. He knew where he came from, which is pretty amazing origin, right?
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He worked his mission with confidence, but he also worked with significant compassion.
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He ministered to the lowly. He ministered to the broken, the fringes of society.
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He spent most of his time with those out on the fringes, even to the degree where the religious elite of his day accused him of hanging out too much with sinners and tax collectors.
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They said, he must be a drunkard and a glutton. Look who he spends his time with. But in his teaching and in his miracles, he proved himself to be so much more than just a nice teacher, so much more than just a nice rabbi.
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And so in verse 53, where we take off in our text this week, he finished up his parables, the text tells us, and then he turned his face toward home, towards the city of Nazareth.
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Some scholars reasonably tie that his return to Nazareth might be something that ties in with something we talked about several weeks ago before Christmas.
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At the end of verse 12, his mom and his brothers came to the crowd and called for him from inside while he was speaking some of these parables that we've been studying here.
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They showed up to talk with him. He finished what he had to say to the crowds, and then it's quite possible that now he heads home with them.
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We don't know for sure, but it seems to indicate that maybe he did, they were there with him and we at least know that they were there in that place where he was telling the parables.
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And then he turns and heads towards Nazareth. Now Nazareth was the boyhood home of Jesus.
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He was born in Bethlehem as we know, but he spent a couple of years in Egypt, and then his family moved to Nazareth, and it seems like he spent the rest of his growing up years in the hills of Galilee, in that area.
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His father was the community, it says even in our text, the word that's used there in Greek is tekton.
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It is a fairly generic word that we ought to probably translate as the builder.
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He was the builder, he was not Bob the builder, he was Joe the builder, okay? And he was the builder, he was known in the community as the builder.
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We've translated that word as carpenter, I'm not quite sure why, even just looking over some things this week, I still am not very settled on why,
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I think it's tradition really sometimes does seep its way into translation and what makes people comfortable and doesn't make people comfortable.
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But the reality of Palestine in the first century, him being titled the builder for the community of Nazareth, he was probably really more like a handyman of sorts, the jack of all trades.
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Probably specialized in stone work though. The majority of building was done with stone during the era, some of you are going, oh
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Don, you're shaking me a little bit here, because he's supposed to have a plane and a level and be working with wood, and there's supposed to be carvings on the floor, go ahead and run with that if that's really that valuable to you, he probably was a builder in stone.
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The tiny community of Nazareth would have had work for one builder, and in verse 55, Joseph is referred to as the builder for that community.
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Now I set the stage to make it clear that Jesus was known in this community. His father would have been imminently known in this community, and he was known by his father as the builder's son.
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Some of you maybe are known by your father in some circles, right? Like, oh, you're his boy, or you're his daughter.
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Some of you have that relationship where maybe you've stayed close to home, you're raised in a small town, and everybody knows you as the hardware store owner's son, or something to that effect.
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So it would be something that you maybe can relate to. Some of you grew up in small towns, but even small town
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America though, with its rumor mills and grapevines, I don't think could hold a candle to first century
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Palestine, the way that things could travel there. Remember, everybody had to come to a common well every morning to get their water for the day.
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Imagine some of those conversations. Everybody knew everything about everyone. Everybody knew the role and station that everybody was supposed to have in life.
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What is Jesus supposed to be in this first century culture? A tecton.
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His dad is one. He's supposed to learn the trade. He's supposed to follow dad, and he's supposed to know his place in this community.
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What is his rightful place? He's got a responsibility to fulfill in this community. Follow dad's steps.
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Some of the things that we need to understand the culture to make sense of their frustration with Jesus here in this text.
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It's a culturally fueled frustration that the people are going to express here in a minute.
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But everybody in these communities, they would have known each other's lineage. They knew what everybody did. They knew what everybody's preferences were.
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They knew a lot about each other. So Jesus comes to that kind of home. He's coming back.
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The pearl of great price comes home. The treasure of the field comes home.
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The king of all glory comes to his childhood home. The one who will be in charge of the final judgment is the one who is coming home.
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Well, in his community, there's one synagogue. He heads straight for it. This is the synagogue where he grew up.
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This is the synagogue where he would have been raised in religious understanding and study. And Baptists hadn't been invented yet.
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So according to the text, there wasn't a second or a third synagogue of Nazareth yet. So that was supposed to be funny, you guys.
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Some of you are like, what's wrong? I don't even get it. I don't know. That's all right. I'll have to rewrite that later for a future reference.
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The size of this community, though, the size of this community by archeology and by historians who study these kinds of things show that at the highest end of the guesswork about what the population would have been of Nazareth during this time, about 2 ,000 would be the highest extent that anybody's willing to venture.
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Most historians, kind of the average is somewhere around 400 to 500 people. I'll put that in perspective.
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We're not talking about even the size of Matawan here, which is a fairly small town, right? We're talking about tiny, tiny little rural community.
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But either way, whichever size we go with, 400 or 2 ,000, his hometown has one synagogue according to the wording that's used in verse 54.
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And Jesus went there and taught the people in their synagogue, it says.
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Synagogue being the Jewish church, if you will, the place on the Sabbath where they would gather together and hear the reading of Torah, the
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Old Testament, and hear the reading of the prophets. And it was quite common for a guest to get a chance to read in front of them.
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And so a guest comes through town who's a religious leader or a rabbi, and they would say, come do the reading for us.
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And that's what Jesus is doing. Now at first, we might be encouraged by their response. The text, if you look at it, it says they were astonished, astonished at this hometown hero returned, okay?
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He should have been a hometown hero if you think about it. I mean, he's known throughout the countryside by this point in his ministry, and he's returned from his gallivanting around on a speaking tour, and he's come home, and he's now brought the word of God to them and spoke the word of God to them in their presence.
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And part of that would be beyond reading to then interpret it or to explain it to them.
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Like in one situation, Jesus reads out of Isaiah, and then his interpretation is just simply this.
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This is fulfilled right here, right now. This text about your coming Messiah, here
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I am, he sits down, drops the mic, and walks away, right? Like that's what he does. So there was always a portion of interpretation that would have gone with that, and so here in this context, we don't see what he taught, we don't see what he read, but we do know that he would have given them some interpretation of what he's reading.
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And their astonishment comes with that interpretation. There's a disconnect in the people who know him most between the wisdom that he expresses in his teaching and his roots, his origin, his upbringing.
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His people, the people that he grew up knowing in his community, in his hometown, they came to his basketball games, they watched him play soccer, they watched all of his activities, you know, they watched him make birds out of clay and breathe life, no, that's apocryphal, that's not real, but they watched him grow, okay?
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They had the privilege of seeing that. How many of you think that if there was a perfect kid in your community, you'd know it?
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You might know it, I don't know, but I mean, I don't know how all that looked to the community to see like the son of God raised in their midst.
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I don't know if they noticed it or if they just kind of assumed he was a rascal on the side, man, he's really good at hiding it, he's really got us all fooled.
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I don't know what their opinion was. But they're impressed with his speaking, and they want to know where does he get this wisdom from?
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They're looking for the source, and further, they want to know the source of his mighty works. Now, so far, we don't have any recorded miracles in Nazareth yet, but it's implied that at least they caught wind of his miracles and believed them to be true even though they haven't experienced his miracles for themselves, and so they're saying, where does he get all of these things?
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He's doing miracles out on the road, and here's this great teaching. Where is that coming from? I mean, we've watched him since he was in diapers.
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We know this kid. Now, I want to take a pause for a minute and identify that astonishment is never sufficient.
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Astonishment is not the target of biblical teaching, and if you've ever been dazzled by biblical teaching, probably not here, but somewhere, you've probably been dazzled at some point by biblical teaching.
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You'd be like, wow, insightful, amazing, awesome, new, fresh, novel, but faith is the target of biblical teaching.
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Faith is the target. My goal in bringing the Word of God each week is not to entertain.
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It's not to dazzle with insight, to give you nuggets of historical trivia, although some of us enjoy that.
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That's not the point. The target of the teaching of God's Word is faith. Faith means simply this, that you would believe it and that you would trust it and adjust your life according to it.
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That's what faith is. Believe it and live it. Or maybe another way to say it is believe it enough to live it.
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Believe it enough to let it into Monday morning through Friday. That's faith, and that's what we're trying to grow into here at Recast Church, to grow in faith, to grow in community, to grow in service.
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But let me suggest to you that faith is something that you brought with you to this place this morning.
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You brought some level of faith, everybody to some degree, to some portion that you have been granted.
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You have it with you and it's already here. The teacher doesn't give that to you. I can't make you believe the things that I'm saying.
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I can't make you believe the Word of God. So, effectively, taking in God's Word requires that we bring a submissive posture to the teaching of God's Word.
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I'm not suggesting submission to me as a pastor, submission to a teacher, but submission, a submissive pose to the
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Word of God. If it says something, if I up here say something that you disagree with, and that's going to happen from time to time, especially if you attend for a while, if I say something you disagree with, check the
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Bible first to determine if you're disagreeing with me or you're disagreeing with the Bible. If you're disagreeing with me, man, let's talk that through and I will receive correction.
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If you can point out something that I'm saying that's inaccurate to this Word, man, I want to get this right.
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I pray every week and every Sunday morning a lot for accuracy with the
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Word. Accuracy, clarity, zeal, those are three things that I pray for every week in the presentation of this message.
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I want to get it right, but I'm not infallible. I'm not perfect.
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But if you can find that what I'm saying that you're disagreeing with is what the
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Word is saying, now we have a different issue, don't we? You don't ever have to bring that up with me, but you do need to talk to God about that.
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You do need to wrestle with that in your heart. Now, you can talk to me if you're kind of going, I need help with this. I mean, I'm looking at it and I'm seeing the
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Bible says this and I kind of feel like this and how do I bring those two together?
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And I would suggest to you always lose, always lose to the Word of God. Every chance you get, lose.
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If the Word of God is telling you something and you feel something different, that feeling is just a feeling. Let this, let this be the authority in your life.
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That's faith. That's faith. At Recast, we believe that everyone needs to grow in those three areas that I mentioned before to be on the right path with Jesus.
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We need to grow in faith. We need to grow in community, a relationship together towards God and to grow in service.
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God has created you with a purpose. He's created you with a set of gifts and talents and abilities with which you can serve one another.
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I don't know about you, but I've been astonished before at teaching with very little effect in my daily life.
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It's happened to me. I've been entertained and just gone on to live my life the way that I wanted to with very little change.
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But when I take in God's Word and believe it, trust it, live it out, that's when
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I find the power to overcome sin and to live a more joy -filled life with God and with others.
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It's in taking in His Word, trusting it, and taking it on for the week. So Jesus is there in the synagogue in Nazareth where he grew up in his hometown, and they are astonished at the boy's teaching.
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And then a murmur begins in the crowd, hey, ain't that Joseph's boy up there? Yep, that's
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Mary's son, all right. His brothers and sisters, don't we know all of them too? Aren't some of them even here with us?
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A couple of them live right down the street from me. Yeah, that's, wait, that's just Jesus. And they have an attitude of it's just Jesus.
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Just Jesus. And then they wrap up their questions with, well, then where did this man get these things?
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And I think that's the way it's asked. Then where did he get that? It's a rhetorical question of unbelief according to the text because at face value you could see it as a perfectly reasonable question.
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You could read it with a tone that's like, oh, where did he get it? Where did you get this, Jesus? I guess if it's a genuine question that they're looking for an answer,
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Jesus, where did you get this information? But you can see in verse 57, it is declared directly that they then take offense at him.
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They're offended by him. It's a rhetorical question of unbelief that they ask.
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How could they be offended by his astonishing teaching? Ask yourself that. Teacher gets up. He's like, amazing, mind -blowing teacher.
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How does that offend you? Or he's healing blind people and performing miracles and casting out demons from people.
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How could that be offensive? How could anyone be offended by someone who's performing miracles?
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I guess that some of us in this room have been offended by people who claim to perform miracles. All of a sudden we could probably snap that into focus pretty quick by watching some televangelists.
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People who claim to be doing things, well, that's just the trick, isn't it? You would assume that they're claiming to do these things.
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I would suggest to you that it's very easy to be offended by someone's great teaching if you assume they're plagiarizing.
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If you assume it's coming from another source and they're faking it, it would be very easy to be offended by someone who's performing miracles if you think they're a fraud.
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Would that be offensive? You better believe it. You see, this community had no room for him to jump out of the station of life that they expected him to fit into.
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They had no category for him to become something more. He had to be faked to them.
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He had to be using tricks. We watched you grow up. And they assume that his teaching must have been plagiarized or come from another source.
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But Jesus then declares a proverb over his own hometown here at the end. A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown at his own household.
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That's a lonely statement. It's a very lonely statement. It's easy for us to look at the things that Jesus says from academic eyes, try to pull it apart, try to figure out the parts of speech, try to figure out what he's saying and what does he mean by this and what's the source of this?
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Is he quoting some Old Testament prophet? Is he quoting from the Proverbs? Where is he getting this? We could talk about all kinds of things but jump to the fact that he calls himself a prophet in here.
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But pause for just a minute and let Jesus feel something for just a minute.
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Feel that with him. Let him be a man chosen by God to bear the sins of the world.
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Let him be a man despised and rejected by his own. Let him speak these words in sorrow and in loneliness.
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Let him relate to you in your sorrow and in your loneliness. Feel a small pinch of what he went through to bring forth his glorious kingdom.
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Rejection by his hometown, his own household rejected him. He adds that little phrase at the end, oh and a prophet isn't respected even in his own household.
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Do you think he felt that? Do you think he just said it academically to get a point across? He's shot down, he's rejected, he's dissed by family and friends, he's the king, he knows he's the king, he's the pearl of great price, he's the treasure rejected by his people.
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Rejected by his own. Now he is strong. He is enduring this humiliation for you and me.
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But don't think that he was a robot, don't think that he was a machine without feelings or emotions. I have no question that he said this with multiple levels of sorrow in his heart.
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Sorrow for his own loss of connection with family and friends, people that he grew up with, people that he knew are like, you're a joke, you're a fraud, you're a fake.
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Get back in line Jesus, says his community. Get back to the shop where you belong.
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But also, I think that he felt the deep sorrow of knowing that this rejection by his community was synonymous with their rejecting his father.
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He knew what that meant too, heavy, heavy on his heart that he knew that his community, the place that he grew up with, the family, the friends, the relationships, the people that he loved, the people that he played little league with, whatever, they were rejecting the kingdom, they were rejecting his salvation.
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His hometown, condemned by the rejection of him.
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Heavy stuff, heavy stuff for the son of God to be enduring during his life here.
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In verse 57, Jesus blatantly and clearly identifies himself as a prophet who is bringing new revelation of God to the people.
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And he joined a long line of prophets who were rejected and abused by their people.
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And I would suggest to you that the calling to minister for the king, which is a calling on every single person in here who calls
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Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, everyone a minister, not just me, not just the elders, not just those in volunteer leadership positions, to a person all called to be ministers for the king.
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And it is often a calling to isolation. It is often a calling to loneliness. It is often a calling that feels the rejection of others.
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That's why this gathering is so important. It's so valuable that we get together and we see that we're not alone because out there,
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I don't know about you, but sometimes Monday to Friday feels lonely. Anybody relate to that? Anybody ever feel lonely in your faith out there?
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It can feel lonely. And I would suggest to you that a man or a woman who lives for God all week long will find that he or she are often left on the outside of conversations.
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You ever been left on the outside of a conversation based on your faith because of your faith?
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There are TV shows that when I'm at the coffee shop and somebody starts talking about Game of Thrones, I can't talk with them.
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I am on the outside of the conversation. Not that I judge them for watching it, but that I can't in good conscience watch it.
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By the way, it's the kind of show that from what I've read about it, it'd be my wheelhouse. I love that. I'm a sci -fi fantasy nerd geek kind of person.
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I like that kind of stuff. It seems like the kind of show I would love except for the pornography in it. I can't bring myself to watch it.
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I've read enough reviews. I know what the content is and I'm like, I can't do that. So now I'm left out,
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I'm marginalized. I'm pushed out of conversations and I don't know about you, but I kind of would like to be the cool kid sometimes.
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Any of you kind of like to be in? You like to be in the in crowd, not in the out crowd and all of a sudden you're outside based on some conviction, based on some sense of like,
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I can't do that. I can't be involved in that. The calling to a holy life will make a person stand out.
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I think that's a challenge for all of us. Do you stand out? Is there any area of your life where you're like, you don't fit in?
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If you fit in with every worldly person everywhere you go, take a pause and consider why that is.
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Take a pause and consider why that is. That's up to you to figure out. I don't make lists.
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I just mentioned a certain TV show. I don't even like to do that. I just did that for an illustration, but at the end of the day, you know we don't have a thumbs up, thumbs down TV show list.
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We don't publish movie lists or what ratings you're allowed to go to. None of that stuff. You have a relationship with God that I intentionally,
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Recast Church is intentionally working to trust the Holy Spirit in your life to convict you where you need it.
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You hear the principles, you hear the teaching, you're taking in God's word and then you're going out and living it.
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My prayer for you is that you have some conviction, that you have some places where you're like, God has grabbed my life and I can't dishonor him by doing this, this, or this.
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In our text, Jesus is rejected. People in his hometown were offended by him and refused to believe that he was anything.
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It's implied that they considered him even a fraud. And so he didn't do, it says in the text, many mighty works, many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
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I want to be clear about what verse 58 does not say. There's been a lot of debate and a lot of argument over something that people think he says that he just doesn't say here.
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It does not say that Jesus could not do miracles there because of their unbelief, is that what it says?
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No, it doesn't say that he couldn't, it says he didn't, a choice.
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He did not do many miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief. The other gospel writers record a couple of small miracles that he did perform in Nazareth, he just didn't do many.
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Just to 58 is, verse 58 is that he chose not to do many miracles because of their unbelief.
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They had a posture of opposition to him in their hearts and he was not going to try to persuade them with a dog and pony show.
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It's not, that's not why he did miracles. He didn't do miracles as a dog and pony show. The word unbelief, by the way, at the end of our text this morning could be translated as rejection.
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That's another potential translation. They rejected him in their hearts. There's been a lot of debate over that last verse because of the misconception, by the way, about miracles.
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Many have drawn out of this verse a belief that a person who wants a miracle done for them must exhibit a significant faith in the miracle work in order for it to have its effect.
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But Jesus more often spoke about the faith of the miracle worker. If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can say to a mountain, move and it moves.
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It's talking about the person who is exacting the miracle or doing it. If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move a mountain.
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It's not an exorbitant amount of faith, it's a tiny amount of faith. But further, we might harbor the misunderstanding that miracles exist to produce faith.
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If I could see enough miracles, then I'd really believe. Then I'd really be rock solid in my faith. You want to grow in faith, man?
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Jesus, you want me to grow in faith? Show me miracles. Do miracles and then it'll happen.
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Then I'll believe you. But Jesus routinely rejected the notion that faith comes through miracles.
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I did an interesting study this week on miracles and found something interesting. The majority of miracles that I studied in scripture this week are done to bolster the faith of God's people, not to bring outsiders into the faith.
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So think about the primary movements of miracles in the Bible. Think about the Exodus. Who was the parting of the
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Red Sea for? Whose faith grew as a result of the parting of the
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Red Sea? God's people. It built up the faith of the Israelites. Who was the manna for? Who was the parting of the
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Jordan River for? What about David and Goliath? That's pretty amazing. Who was that for?
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The massive movements of miracles in the Bible are for the encouragement of God's people to trust in Him more.
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Those with faith, those who trusted Him, are given more strength and more strength and more strength in their trust of Him, growing in faith.
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Miracles are wasted often on unbelievers. Without eyes to see, miracles are easily explained away.
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So how do we process this rejection of the pearl of great value? What does it have to do with us here where we live in 2017?
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Let me suggest for us three applications this morning in conclusion, considering the response of those who knew
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Jesus best. The first is pay careful attention to His teachings and work. Pay careful attention to His teachings and work.
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Jesus astonished His home crowd with His teaching and His miracle ministry, but they did not let
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Him into their hearts. David Platt said this of this passage.
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He said they heard His words. They saw His works, but still denied Him worship.
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A heart that is surrendered by faith to the King will believe and trust in His words, will heed
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His words, will act on His words. We cannot believe what we do not read or hear.
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We need to be a people who take in God's word. Second, take comfort that He can relate to our sense of being outsiders.
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He can relate to our sense of being outsiders. When you feel alone for your faith, know that He did too. When you feel rejected because of your witness of His glory, know that He did too.
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He was despised and He was rejected. He was alone even to the point of being rejected by His own family and His own hometown.
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And don't forget that He took on that humility for you. When we think of the humiliation of Jesus Christ, our minds rightly turn to the cross, but have you ever considered the humiliation that followed
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Him all of His life, mocking and ridicule from people who should have loved Him most?
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Do not think that this rejection in Nazareth was an unemotional thing for Jesus. He felt that rejection and endured it to bring us to glory.
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Lastly, take caution because I think it is indeed a truism that familiarity can breed contempt.
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Some of you grew up with Jesus. He was in your hometown. And He, that process of growing up familiar with Jesus has served as an inoculation to you from hearing
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Him clearly. Every time He tries to change you. Every time
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He tries to reveal Himself to you in a fresh way. Every time He calls you to take deeper steps in your faith.
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All you now hear is yada, yada, yada. You assume you already know it.
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You have a nice tame Jesus that you put in a box and you call Him out when you need something. He never offends you.
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He never judges you. He never would ask you to be uncomfortable. I would suggest for all of us that we let
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Jesus speak for Himself. That we listen carefully to His words.
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But take it a step further and allow Him to be bigger than our traditional understandings. One of the deepest signs of immaturity in the
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Christian life is the feeling like you have nothing more to learn. That's scary. Feeling like you have nothing more to learn.
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When you stop growing in understanding, you have stopped maturing. Let me suggest to you that the newest
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Christian with the most childish understanding of the kingdom who is growing is more mighty than the oldest of Christians who think that they have nothing more to learn.
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To think that they've arrived. Be willing to let Jesus be
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King Jesus in your life. On the night that Jesus was betrayed,
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He took out a loaf of bread and He broke it and He passed the pieces out to His disciples.
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He let them know that that was a symbol of His body that the very next day was going to be broken for His people.
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At that same dinner, He took a cup of wine and passed it out, encouraging everyone to take a drink, telling them that that was a symbol of His blood that would be shed for the forgiveness of their sins.
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And then He finished this up by saying that they should do this when they gather together to remember
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Him. I think I have a good feeling that what
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I say of myself here could be said of you and that is that I need to remember Jesus.
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I need to remember throughout this week, this very next week, I need this reminder that I am loved.
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I am forgiven. I am made right before God because of the sacrifice of my
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I need that reminder. We take communion each week because we are forgetful.
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I'm forgetful. And Jesus knew that we would be forgetful, so He gave us a remembering service, a remembering thing.
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So if you're all in with Jesus and have asked Him to be your King and Savior, if you believe that He died on the cross to cover your sins, then come to one of the four tables and take communion this morning during this next song.
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He was rejected for us so that we could be made acceptable to His Father.
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Let's pray. Father, there are so many levels to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, including
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His incarnation, His coming here from glory. Just that sacrifice alone is immense and amazing, but then to be despised by people, to be rejected by people, pain after pain, sorrow after sorrow, all the way up to the point of being despised by You for us.
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All the way up to the point of taking the penalty that we deserve from You on Himself. So Father, I pray that You would allow our hearts to rejoice, and even this potentially negative and down and dour message of the rejection of Your Son and His hometown, that we might take encouragement this week, that He took that for us, and we can certainly endure for Him.
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Because of the joy set before us, because of the hope of an eternal kingdom that our great and glorious King promises to bring
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His people through these trials, through these difficult days, through whatever the world throws at us, whatever rejections we might face, that we have the eternal hope of glory with our
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Lord and our King, who we remember by taking the bread and the juice this morning.