Mark 6:1-6
6 Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.
4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” 5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.
Last week we talked about what or who the bible says that we are in Christ Jesus. We talked about that how,
• As a believer, you are saved. - Ephesians 2:8
• As a believer, you are new creation. - 2 Corinthians 5:17
• As a believer, you are a son of God. - Galatians 3:26-29
• As a believer, you are an ambassador. - 2 Corinthians 5:20-21
Then Paul encourages us in Philippians 3:12-14 to press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He said, “but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” In other words, Paul is not letting his past of who he was to hold him back from the calling God has on his life.
The person that Paul use to be we see in the book of Acts. Paul who is also called Saul was a persecutor of the church of Jesus Christ. His main objective was to destroy the church. Bur when Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, Jesus redirected His life and gave him new purpose. Then when people heard that the man Saul had meet Jesus and is now a changed man, nobody could believe it!!
Even in our text for today, we see Jesus had, had the same problem. In His hometown, we see the people of Nazareth were puzzled about the wisdom and power of God flowing through Jesus. After we get saved its hard for family, friends, and those who knew us before we got saved to believe the change that has occurred in our life. Then living this Christian life gets hard, but we learn how to press on and move forward inspite of the obstacles in life. We KNOW, that we have been changed, we KNOW we are a new creation in Christ Jesus, WE KNOW!!!
But what do you do ….. When people can’t get passed your past.
There are a few points I want to share with you this morning about, “When people can’t get passed your past.”
I. Realize people will be amazed and offended by who you were then and who you are now (vv 2-4).
After studying the text, I realized that there are two groups of people in the text. Those of Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth are one group and His disciples are the other group of people. Both know Jesus, both are familiar with Jesus, both know of the miracles he has performed, both know of the wisdom of God he teaches ….. BUT … one group can’t get past his past.
Mark 6:2-4 says:
2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.
4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”
It was customary for a visiting Rabbi/Teacher to have to opportunity to teach in the synagogue. The bible says that many hearing were “astonished or amazed”
• were astonished - ἐκπλήσσομαι: to be so amazed as to be practically overwhelmed (Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: Based on semantic domains). Literally it means – to be beside oneself.
o It is in the imperfect verb tense — The verb tense where the writer portrays an action in process or a state of being that is occurring in the past with no assessment of the action’s completion. In other words, as Jesus spoke they became more beside themselves, more amazed, more astonished.
Placing this in context, it wasn’t the miracles or the wisdom that they were amazed at. In fact the bible says they were offended at Him…
• they were offended - σκανδαλίζωc: to cause someone to experience anger and/or shock because of what has been said or done.
o The word is skandalizō (σκανδαλιζω), “to put a stumbling block or impediment in the way upon which another may trip or fall, to cause a person to begin to distrust one whom he ought to trust and obey”; in a passive sense, “to find occasion of stumbling in a person, to be offended in a person, to see in another what one disapproves of and what hinders one from acknowledging his authority.” They could not explain Him, so they rejected Him. (Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English reader)
The questions that are asked in the text are not ask because they want to know the answer to them. The questions are a reflection of their anger toward Jesus. To the extent, that they call him the “Son of Mary” which in that culture, could be considered a sign of disrespect.
They saw Jesus grow up, they saw Jesus work as a carpenter, they saw Jesus taking care of his mother, and brothers, and sisters. They KNOW about Jesus, and that is the problem. They are familiar with the carpenter Jesus, but are offended by the Rabbi Jesus. The carpenter Jesus was good enough to fix stuff around their house, the carpenter Jesus was good enough to buy from. However, they fail to accept the authority of Rabbi Jesus.
The problem is they can’t get passed his past, to see who he is today!!!
II. Because they are stuck in their yesterday, they will miss their blessing for today. (vv 5-6a)
Mark 6:5-6a
5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief.
Often the criteria for Jesus performing miracles was dependent upon the faith of the individuals in need of a miracle. And because the people of Nazareth could not get passed Jesus’ past in hindered the flow of the power of God being released in their lives. Now understand God is not limited, but the demonstration of his power was release by their faith, and because they had no faith, they experienced no miracles. The word “no” in the text literally means, “not even one”, and the words “mighty work” is the Greek word “dúnamis” which is explosive power that rearranges what it comes in contact with. So, the bible tells us that not even one life altering act of God was experienced … because … of their lack of faith ….. which was the result of them being unable to get passed Jesus’ past.
But you say preacher the text said, “except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” The sick in the verse should be understood as people who were sickly and not sick. The difference is the sickly can still function day to day. See when I have a little cold, I’ll feel a little sickly, but I’ll still get up and go to work. But when I have the flu and I’m running a fever then I’m sick and need to stay in bed. So, the sick that Jesus healed were those with the sniffles and not those who were dying.
And because of their unbelief they didn’t even bring the sick to Jesus, even though they had heard he could heal their sickness. So, the sick, stayed sick, and the lame, stayed lame, and the mute, stayed mute. All because they couldn’t get passed Jesus’ past.
• marveled θαυμάζω thaumázō; - to wonder or marvel at some event or object—‘to wonder, to be amazed, to marvel’ (whether the reaction is favorable or unfavorable depends on the context).
What is interesting is Jesus had just healed the servant of the Roman Centurion. While in Capernaum the Roman Centurion ran up to Jesus and asked if he would heal his servant. Jesus told him that he would come to his house. The centurion understanding authority told Jesus, all he had to do was speak the word. And the bible says that Jesus marvel at the faith of the roman Centurion.
He marveled at the faith of the Roman centurion where one would not expect faith (Matt. 8:10=Luke 7:9). Then here in our text he marvels at the lack of faith where he had a right to expect it, not merely among the Jews, but in his own hometown, among his kinspeople, even in his own home.
III. The people missed their blessing, their miracle, their healing because they couldn’t get passed Jesus’ past.
The bible tells us in Mark 6:1 that Jesus, “…came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him.” We’ve looked at the reaction and interaction of Jesus with those of his hometown of Nazareth. And during this whole time Jesus’ disciples were watching, observing, taking mental notes. It was important for them to see that everyone will not be receptive to God’s invitation. The bible tells us at the end of verse 6, “…Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.” Jesus went into the surrounding villages ….. teaching …. Look at what it didn’t say. It didn’t say he went into the surrounding villages healing the sick, casting out demons, laying hand on people … it said he was teaching… As a carpenter, Jesus would have worked in the surrounding villages and I believe he encountered the same level of unbelief.
When people can’t get passed your past, do you know what you should do? Jesus did it, and in the scriptures following our text today, Jesus sends out his disciples to preach, heal the sick, cast out demons….. and you know what he told them …. When people reject you and the message you preach, “shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them.” Don’t get made, don’t raise your voice, don’t beat them with your bible … but … shake the dust off.
The reality is that everybody don’t want to hear YOU, talk about Jesus. Because some people are so familiar with who you use to be they can’t see who you are today, and they ain’t trying to hear you talk about Jesus.
I don’t know about you … but .. I’ve learned … that everybody don’t want to hear me talking about Jesus. Some people only know the old Juan and don’t want to believe that God has changed my life….. but … I still have to try and tell them about Jesus …. And how he died for their sins on Calvary’s cross….. he was buried …. In a borrowed tomb …. And on the third day, he got up.
But Jesus showed me what to do, when people cant get passed my past….. he said …. Shake the dust off my feet, and keep stepping.
If my ace boon-coon for high school don’t wanna hear about Jesus, Ive got to …. Shake the dust off my feet, and keep stepping.
If my daddy don’t wanna hear about Jesus, I’ve got to …. Shake the dust off my feet, and keep stepping.
If my mama don’t wanna hear about Jesus, I’ve got to …. Shake the dust off my feet, and keep stepping.
If my cousin pookie’nem don’t wanna hear about Jesus, I’ve got to …. Shake the dust off my feet, and keep stepping.
If my co-workers don’t wanna hear about Jesus, I’ve got to …. Shake the dust off my feet, and keep stepping.
