"Is Not This The Carpenter?” Series

“Is Not This The Carpenter?”

The Significance and Blessings of Jesus’ Pre-Public Ministry, Mark 6: 1 – 6

by Pastor Thorold Marsaw

Shenstone Memorial Baptist Church

Brantford, Ontario

Canada

(519) 756-2870

Please Read the Following Scripture Before Viewing the Sermon

Mark 6:1-6 (New International Version)

1

Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples.

2

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles!

3

Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.

4

Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor."

5

He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.

6

And he was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village.

I am absolutely convinced that the most significant thing I can do for anyone is to bring them to an awareness of God’s desire and capacity to influence the events of their lives.

When we are in trouble, really in trouble, it is absolutely essential that we can trust the One to Whom we can turn to. All that is written within the pages of the Bible are designed to demonstrate that we can always turn to Christ for our every need.

What do I mean by this? Let me explain in a very unusual way. That is, by examining the years between Christ’s coming of age and the beginning of His public ministry. Few people realize the significance of His early years on Earth in terms of our day-to-day lives and the blessings that they hold.

I have chosen as my message title, an expression found in the third verse of the sixth chapter of Mark, “Is not this the carpenter?” That expression links us with the so-called mystery years of Christ’s life.

The context here of course, reveals that His lowly start in life was a real stumbling block in the hearts of His neighbours. They could not conceive that Someone with such an ‘insignificant’ heritage could possibly have anything truly worthwhile to say.

It is a sad truth that the unbelieving will often sneer at the idea that He Who made the world, the Creator of the universe, would spend thirty years of His physical life as a poor and unknown worker of wood.

This is particularly tragic when you realize that those same critics look back upon another historic figure, Peter the Great and dub him to be a hero for doing what might be deemed, essentially the same thing. The heir to the throne of the Russian Czars laid aside his imperial dignity and entered the British service as a shipwright (a carpenter). He did this so that he would learn the art of building a navy—a navy that, as he saw it, was essential to achieving national greatness.

Was the purpose of Peter of more importance than that of the Son of God? If Peter the Great might leave his rank and descend to humble employment and escape the commendation of the world, why ought not the King of Kings be praised for an infinitely higher purpose. That is, leaving the hallowed halls of heaven to come to earth to save our souls?

Beloved, it is a fact that by far the greatest portion of Christ’s physical life was spent as a lowly craftsman, a carpenter. He did not launch upon His greater work until He was thirty years of age- the age which the Law establishes as appropriate for entry into the priestly service (Numbers 4: 3).

So what did He do during these thirty years? Did he simply mark time? Absolutely not! What was accomplished was a critically essential part of that which was to follow during the years of His ministry. Indeed one misstep, one slip and he would not have had His ministry.

It is my conviction that Christ first had the obligation to practice what He would eventually preach. That is, He had to demonstrate that the life He was to advocate could really be lived.

In Hebrews 4: 15, the Holy Spirit working through Paul tells us:

“We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

I love the way the Living Bible puts it, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, since He had the same temptations we do, though He never once gave way to them and sinned.”