There’s No Place Like Home!
Text: Mark 6:1-6
Introduction: Up to now in our studies of Mark we have largely witnessed the growth of Jesus’ popularity. Everywhere He went crowds thronged, people wanted to be near Him, to hear Him, see Him even to touch Him, but now as we open to this sixth chapter we begin to see the turning of the tide. For the second time in His ministry Jesus comes to the synagogue in Nazareth. The first time He was here was at the outset of His ministry. Then He read from Isaiah’s prophecy and claimed to be the fulfillment of the prophet’s words. The response then was less than favourable.
See Luke 4:16-30
There are a couple of interesting points that we should notice from this first incident. Then, as now, they marveled at His words, and then, as now they reflected on His background and questioned how He of all people could come out with such things. On that occasion they asked, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
It is significant too that the Lord drew their attention to Capernaum, and that one day they would say, “Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.” (vs 23). Of course, the rise in His popularity and fame largely focused around events in and around Capernaum. There would come a time when they would want a piece of the action, want Him to do for them what He was doing for others. But even then, the Lord reminded them that this would not happen because of their inability to honour Him, “Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.” (vs 24) He then points them to the ministry of Elijah and reminds them that during three and a half years of drought many widows of Israel died through want, and yet they had not approached the prophet whereas the one widow who survived was Gentile – the woman of Zarephath. He reminded them during that same period, though there were many lepers in Israel, the only leper Elijah helped was the one who came – Naaman – also a Gentile. Those words were s stinging rebuke of their unbelief and unwillingness to accept Him, and they were met with absolute fury as they sought to murder Him – vss 28-29.
Now, He is back in the same place. His fame was spread abroad. He was renowned as a great teacher, and a miracle worker, perhaps things would be different. We have to say it took great courage and conviction on the part of the Lord to come back to this place, given all that had gone before, but He wanted to help them, these were, more than all others, His people. The people He grew up with, friends, family, schoolmates, customers, neighbours. Surely now, having heard of events in Capernaum they would welcome Him.
It is interesting how a hometown responds to its heroes. Just a few days ago my hometown buried the snooker player Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins. Suddenly all his failings were forgotten. He was no longer the drunk who wasted it all. His outbursts, his rage, his violence, his troubled life was soon forgotten and he was laid to rest as “The People’s Champion.” Here too, in Stoke-on-Trent, there are local heroes. Robbie Williams, Phil Taylor, Stanley Matthews, Godon banks, Arnold Bennett, Lord Ashley and Reginald Mitchell. People like to tell how they are related to such folk, or how they met them or if they went to school together.
You would think that now Jesus was a celebrity in Galilee he would find a welcome in Nazareth. But not so:
I. Their Hostility Toward Him – vss 1-3
A. There are two key observations to be made in these verses that summarise the attitude of the Nazerenes towards Christ.
1. He astonished them – vs 2
2. He affronted them – vs 3.
B. As before when Jesus taught in the synagogue His words made an impact.
1. But when it says they were “astonished,” that does not necessarily mean they were impressed.
2. It is an interesting term – it means, ”This word means “to be seized with panic; to be struck with terror; to be stricken with startling and sudden alarm.”
3. In other words He scared them!!
4. Sometimes good preaching will do that to a congregation.
a. There are those who contest religion, all religion, on the basis that it is grounded in fear, that it capitalizes on people’s fears.
b. Certainly a faith that is motivated purely by fear is a weak and unwelcome form of faith.
(i) The detractors have a point that in many fields of religious belief fear is the key factor.
(ii) That is what governs much of the pagan world, Hinduism, Islam etc.
(iii) It is also the driving force in many of the cults.
c. A faith that never rises above fear is certainly to be questioned.
d. Scripture teaches that it is by the love of God (both God’s love for us and our reciprocal love for Him) that the Lord is best served.
(i) This is best illustrated by marital love. Some time ago I was in discussion with a group of men about adultery. As I recall some well known preacher had left his wife or been found out in some way, and we sharing our shock at this news and questioning the wisdom of such a man. In the course of this conversation one man piped up that he would never leave his wife, and he said, “Do you want to know why?” “Because my father-in-law threatened me on our wedding day that if ever I did anything to hurt her he would come after me with his gun!”
(ii) That is a poor reason not to leave a wife. How much better it would have been if he said the reason he would not leave her was because he loved her and she loved him.
5. That said, there is an element of fear where the gospel is faithfully declared.
a. You see, the gospel includes within it the notion of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, and when the gap between the two is realised often fear is the resulting emotion.
b. Is such fear warranted? Absolutely.
c. When a child has done wrong, and he knows it, and he knows he must come stand before his father about it – is he not to experience fear?
d. Or a man who stands at the bar, having been condemned by the law, and awaiting sentence – is he not to experience fear?
e. You see, without a sense of the gravity of our situation we can never really enter into the marvel of the grace of our salvation.
f. That is why the Bible over and over again speaks of fear as a positive thing:
(i) Proverbs 1:7; 14:16 & 26-27.
6. Now if all we do is fear that is unhealthy, because fear ought to give way to love.
a. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1John 4:18)
b. But in the case of the Nazarene fear gave way to loathing; “they were offended at Him.”
C. What was their problem?
1. Their problem was that they couldn’t accept that someone from their town was worthy of the acclaim and honour Jesus was receiving.
2. Theirs, if I may say it, was a typically working class response to success, driven with envy.
a. Remember the saying was that, “no good thing could come out of Nazareth.”
b. No one in that town had ever made a name for themselves, and now they are faced with one who Name would ultimately be above every name, and they couldn’t handle that.
e. Every one of their questions was designed to bring Him down.
3. “From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?”
a. Who does he think he is? We know where he went to school, we know whom his teacher was, and he is no better educated than the rest of us. How can He speak with any authority or perform any real miracle?
4. “Is not this the carpenter?”
a. He’s nothing special. Just a carpenter, no more, no less.
b. Didn’t we visit his father’s shop? I remember when He made a plough for me, I remember buying a yoke from him, it’s good yoke, but it’s nothin’ special.”
5. “Is not this the son of Mary?”
a. When He first preached at their synagogue they called him the son of Joseph.
(i) That was the normal designation; a son was always identified with his father.
b. This question was designed to insult, it was a slur a suggestion that they knew all about his mother’s past, that he wasn’t really Joseph’s son, that he was illegitimate – John 8:41.
6. “Is not this the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon and are not his sisters here with us?”
a. “We know your family. We remember you as a kid. We know where you come from."
7. In Belfast they have a saying that you sometimes hear applied to someone who is thought to have gotten above himself. They say, “I remember him when he had no backside in his trousers.”
a. It says, “He doesn’t fool me, he’s no better than I am, he had even less than us growing up.”
b. That is what the Nazerenes were saying.
8. They were afraid of Him, and He affronted them, and these two emotions combined to ensure their rejection of Him.
II. His Helplessness Towards Them – vss 4-6.
A. It is tough to be rejected. It is especially tough to be rejected by your own kith and kin.
1. Drawing yet again upon that same proverb He had used before, He said again unto this congregation, “A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”
2. We have a saying like that today, we say “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Certainly this seems to have been the situation in Nazareth.
3. No wonder John wrote, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
B. But now as we come to the fifth verse we see the great tragedy in all this, “And he could there do no mighty work.”
1. It wasn’t that He lacked power. He was/is omnipotent. But there are certain laws in place that even the operation of God is bound by, and the first of those is the surrender of the human will.
2. He was limited in what He would do, because they were unwilling to acknowledge His person and His power.
3. How He wanted to help them, to bless them and to meet their needs, but He could not.
a. It is like that moment when He cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt 23:37)
b. It was not His unwillingness, but theirs that led to His helplessness.
C. It was their FAMILIARITY.
1. And is that not a problem for us too.
2. Too often we come to church expecting everything toi be the same, everything as was, nothing to change, and heaven forbid that any would try to change it!!
3. That same spirit of familiarity kills the potential for what the Lord might do, if we would but let Him!
D. It was their PRIDE
1. They thought they were as good as he was. They were as worthy. They were as significant.
2. They were wrong.
3. And it is that same spirit of pride that keep many a one today from acknowledging their wrong, admitting their sin and trusting Him as Saviour.
E. It was their UNBELIEF – see vs 6a.
1. Here is a marvel – that God marveled.
2. You know nothing takes God by surprise, He knows the “end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,” and yet on two occasions Jesus is said to have marveled.
a. He marveled at the belief the centurion. (Matt 8:10)
b. He marveled at the unbelief of Nazareth.
3. Because of their unbelief His blessing and help for them was stymied.
Conclusion: I believe those same three problems are limiting God today. Why is there no revival?
Because we have become familiar with holy things: we take the things of God for granted. The Bible for granted, though previous generation spilt blood for this Book. The church for granted, though our liberties were hard won, and Jesus for granted, even though He gave Himself to the cross for us.
We have allowed pride, a belief in ourselves, our goodness, our intelligence, our education, our ingenuity to come between God and us. What God could do if we would but get out of the way.
And unbelief. We just don’t believe He is interested in us. I mean truly interested, that He wants to do us some good. And so we limit Him, render Him helpless and restrict His work, even as is seen in this text, to a few here and there.
I wonder did you come to church tonight expecting something from God? Or did you come with an attitude that says “same old, same old… I’ve seen and heard it all before.” That was Nazareth. You know sometimes it makes no difference who the preacher is, even Jesus, or how good a sermon it was, if the attitude of the people isn’t right. William Barclay put it this way: “There can be no preaching in the wrong atmosphere. The congregation is responsible for at least half of every sermon. In an atmosphere of expectancy, the least effort will catch fire. In an atmosphere of coldness or indifference, the most spirit-filled of sermons will fall flat.”
May the Lord save us from that. May we always take stock of Him and appreciate Him for Who He is. May we humble ourselves before Him, and may, above all, we have an absolute belief in Him and His Word, so that He might do His mighty work among us.
