Countryside Vineyard Church
Mark - The Sending out of the Disciples Pt. 32
  • I Know A Name
  • I Speak Jesus
  • Make Room
  • Invitacion Fountain

      • Mark 6:7-9ESV

      • Mark 6:10-12ESV

      • Mark 6:13ESV

  • Introduction

    Good morning and welcome to Countryside Vineyard
    I’m Joe Fager, one of the pastors here.
    We are moving right a long in the gospel of Mark.
    Today we’ll be in Chapter 6 verses 1-6.
    Last week Bill wrapped up Mark’s emphasis on Jesus’ amazing authority.
    Over the last several weeks we have seen that Jesus has authority over
    nature - storm sea waves
    Demons - Garasene demoniac
    last week
    sickness
    and even death itself...
    And over the last few weeks we have been asking a really important question:
    “If Jesus has authority over storms, demons, sickness, and death, what exactly is beyond His reach?”
    And the answer is:
    Nothing.
    There is no storm beyond Him. No bondage beyond Him. No sickness beyond Him. No grave beyond Him.
    Last week Bill kept bringing us back to this idea:
    How we approach Jesus matters.
    We saw Jairus come desperate. We saw the bleeding woman come broken, humble, needy, reaching for Jesus in faith.
    And Mark showed us over and over that Jesus responds to people who come to Him honestly, humbly, desperately.
    But now Mark gives us the exact opposite picture.
    Jesus comes home to Nazareth… and instead of desperation… instead of humility… instead of faith…
    He is met with familiarity, skepticism, and offense.
    And I submit to you today, that many of us fall into that same trap.
    It is possible to be around Jesus… hear about Jesus… even grow up around Jesus…
    …and still completely miss who He really is.
    Let’s Pray...

    I. Too Familiar to Worship

    Mark 6:1–3 ESV
    1 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, 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? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
    Listen to the series of questions the townspeople ask about Jesus
    Where did this man get these things?
    What is this wisdom given to Him?
    How are such mighty works done by his hands?
    These are appropriate questions.
    They know about the teachings, the wisdom, and the miracles...
    and it says they were astonished...
    … the issue for them is not lack of evidence...
    They can hear his wisdom...
    They have seen and heard about the miracles
    They know that all of this is highly unusual.
    Instead of surrendering to the evidence they have, they explain him away.
    Is not this the carpenter?
    That’s not humble curiosity…
    .. it’s reduction
    We know this guy
    He’s ordinary
    He’s from around here
    Mark is intentionally showing us the danger of familiarity.
    They know his family
    his town
    his background...
    …but not Him.
    They looked at Jesus and tried to shrink Him down into something manageable. Something safe. Something explainable.
    And people still do that today.
    Jesus is a good teacher — “I just follow the words in red.”
    Jesus is a moral philosopher — “He had some good ideas about love and kindness.”
    Jesus is a role model — “A good example of how to live.”
    Jesus is a spiritual life coach — “He helps me become a better version of myself.”
    Jesus is a religious mascot — “A name I attach to my politics, my platform, or my success.”
    Jesus is a motivational speaker.
    Jesus is a therapist who comforts me.
    Jesus is a historical figure — filed away beside Buddha, Muhammad, or Gandhi.
    Jesus is a tradition — Christmas, Easter, and church when it’s convenient.
    Jesus is a good luck charm — someone to call when life falls apart.
    Jesus is a piece of my identity — but not the center of my identity.
    Jesus is acceptable as long as He stays useful, inspiring, and non-offensive.
    Jesus is welcomed as long as He never demands repentance.
    Jesus is loved as Savior but resisted as King.
    Jesus is admired from a distance but never obeyed up close.
    Jesus is tolerated until He starts overturning tables in my life.
    Jesus is fine in the synagogue as a carpenter’s son — but offensive as the Son of God.
    Jesus is acceptable when He heals the sick — but unbearable when He claims authority.
    Jesus is easy to celebrate until He refuses to stay in the categories we made for Him.
    But Jesus does not leave us those options.
    CS Lewis Liar, Lord, Lunatic
    Because good moral teachers do not forgive sins committed against God. Good moral teachers do not claim authority over demons, disease, nature, and death. Good moral teachers do not say they existed before Abraham. Good moral teachers do not accept worship. Good moral teachers do not claim they will judge the world.
    At some point you have to answer the question: Who exactly is this man?
    Because the people in Nazareth thought they already knew Him:
    “We know His family.” “We know His job.” “We watched Him grow up.”
    And their familiarity became blindness.
    They were so close to Jesus… that they missed Him completely.
    We take pieces of truth about Jesus, mix them with culture, tradition, opinions, and assumptions… and create a Jesus we can manage.
    But the real response to Jesus is not editing Him.
    It is worshipping Him. Submitting to Him. Loving Him. Following Him as Lord.
    The Lord according to Scripture, not our preferences.

    II. Too Offended to Surrender

    But when we create a version of Jesus shaped by culture, preferences, feelings, or comfort… the real Jesus eventually becomes offensive to us.
    Mark 6:3–4 ESV
    ” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”
    What is happening here?
    That word “offense” is much stronger than we usually mean today.
    In Greek, it carries the idea of stumbling. Being trapped. Falling away.
    It is where we get the word scandaleezo “scandal.”
    Jesus Himself became a stumbling stone to them.
    Think about that.
    The very One who came to save them… became the One they stumbled over.
    Why?
    Because Jesus refused to stay inside the categories they created for Him.
    They wanted the carpenter. The hometown teacher. The familiar Jesus they could explain.
    But Jesus came as far more than that.
    He came with authority:
    Authority over sin. Authority over demons. Authority over disease. Authority over nature. Authority over them.
    And that is where amazement turned into offense.
    Because people are often comfortable admiring Jesus… until Jesus confronts them.
    We love Jesus when He heals the sick. But what happens when He tells us to repent?
    We love Jesus when He comforts the broken. But what happens when He confronts our pride?
    We love Jesus as Savior. But what happens when He comes as King?
    That is the issue in Nazareth.
    Jesus did not fit the Messiah they wanted.
    And Jesus responds with a painful truth:
    “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”
    In other words: the people closest to the prophet are often the ones who reject him most.
    This was the story of Israel over and over again.
    God sends prophets… and Israel resists them.
    Jesus Himself says later in Matthew 23:37:
    “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it…”
    Stephen says the same thing in Acts 7:51–52:
    “You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?”
    Nazareth is repeating the same tragedy.
    The people who should have recognized Him first… rejected Him.
    Just like John says:
    John 1:11 “He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.”
    What a tragedy.
    YHWH is standing in front of them… and they reject Him.
    And people still stumble over Him today.
    Not because He lacks wisdom. Not because He lacks evidence. Not because He lacks power.
    People stumble over Jesus because He refuses to leave us unchanged.
    The same Jesus who says, “Come to Me,” also says, “Follow Me.”
    The same Jesus who forgives sinners… also commands surrender.
    We like a Jesus who saves us from hell. We struggle with a Jesus who tells us to die to ourselves.
    We want Jesus to heal our wounds, not expose our idols.
    Everybody loves Jesus the miracle worker until Jesus starts demanding allegiance.
    We are comfortable with Jesus touching the blind man’s eyes. We get uncomfortable when He starts exposing blindness in us.
    We love Jesus calming storms. We resist Him when He starts disrupting our lives.
    We want a Jesus who blesses our plans, not a Jesus who replaces them.
    We want Jesus near enough to rescue us, but not close enough to rule us.
    The real Jesus does not merely comfort sinners. He calls sinners to repentance.
    The real Jesus will never remain a decoration in your life. He comes as King.
    People love a Jesus who carries a lamb. They struggle with the Jesus who carries a cross and says, “Follow Me.”
    We admire Jesus until obedience costs us something.
    We love the parts of Jesus that heal us. We resist the parts of Jesus that change us.
    A safe Jesus never transforms anybody.
    The problem is not that Jesus is hard to understand. The problem is that He refuses to stay under our control.
    The crowds loved Jesus when He fed them bread. Many left when He demanded belief and surrender.
    We are fine with Jesus forgiving sin. We are less comfortable when He starts defining sin.
    Jesus becomes offensive whenever He threatens the throne of self.
    Everybody wants resurrection life. Fewer want crucifixion first.
    The real Jesus is not offensive because He lacks love. He is offensive because He refuses to compromise truth.
    We do not stumble over Jesus because He is weak. We stumble because He has authority.
    Scripture says He is never neutral.
    He becomes either: a cornerstone… or a stumbling stone.
    Isaiah 8:14 “And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
    Romans 9:32–33 “Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.””
    1 Peter 2:7–8 “So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”
    Psalm 118:22 “22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
    Jesus in Matthew 21:44 “44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”” If you fall on me I will break you into peices - repentance, if you don’t then I will fall on you and crush you - judegment
    The question is not whether you have heard about Jesus. The people in Nazareth had.
    The question is: What will you do with Him?
    Will you fall at His feet? Or stumble over Him?
    The real statement you can take home from Nazareth is this:
    They were amazed at his power and authority until they realized his power and authority applied to them too.
    Familiarity caused them to reduce Jesus. Offense caused them to resist Jesus. And resistance eventually hardened into unbelief.

    III. Too Resistant to Believe

    Mark 6:5–6 ESV
    5 And 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. And he went about among the villages teaching.
    I want to be careful here, because this passage can be misunderstood very quickly.
    At first glance, it can sound like Jesus somehow lost power in Nazareth because the people did not believe.
    But that cannot be what Mark means.
    Because in the same sentence Mark says Jesus still healed people there.
    Jesus was not powerless. Unbelief does not weaken Jesus.
    The issue is deeper than that.
    Nazareth did not respond to Jesus the way we have seen others respond to Him throughout Mark’s Gospel.
    Think about the contrast.
    Jairus falls at His feet. The bleeding woman pushes through the crowd just to touch Him. Desperate people are bringing the sick to Him everywhere He goes.
    Why?
    Because they actually wanted Him. They trusted Him. They came to Him.
    But Nazareth resisted Him.
    They were offended by Him. They dishonored Him. They rejected Him.
    So this is not a story about faith being some magical force that controls Jesus.
    It is a story about people hardening themselves against the very One who came to help them.
    Unbelief does not weaken Jesus. Unbelief refuses Jesus.
    Now look at verse 6
    He marveled at their unbelief...
    Think about that.
    Jesus marveled.
    The One who knows the hearts of men… the One who is never surprised… stands amazed at their unbelief.
    Why?
    Because they had every reason to believe.
    They heard His wisdom. They saw His works. They knew His character. They watched His life.
    And still resisted Him.
    Their problem was not lack of evidence. Their problem was a hardened heart.
    You wanna know the only other place Jesus marveled in the Gospels?
    It’s the exact opposite situation.
    The Centurion whose servant was sick. A Roman soldier an enemy of the Jews (Matthew 8:5-13)
    Watch this, he looked for Jesus. He personally sought him to help his servant. And it says that Jesus marveled and said no where in Israel have I seen such great faith.
    Jesus marveled at their unbelief and here’s another dose of tragedy:
    Mark says he went about the other towns preaching.
    I don’t think this pleased Jesus at all. He didn’t say fine you want to be stubborn, I’m moving on. I think he was troubled seeing the town he grew up in reject Him like that.
    If you sit with this passage and just sit with Jesus you can literally sort of identify with his pain.
    It’s a foreshadowing to the real rejection of the whole nation as they hand Him over to the Roman governor to be crucified by Pontius Pilate on a Roman cross.

    Closing

    As the worship team comes up,
    I want to speak directly to two distinct groups of people this morning.
    First, to the believers in this room carrying heavy hearts for people they love.
    Maybe it is your son. Your daughter. Your spouse. Your parent. Your friend.
    Maybe they seem hardened toward God. Maybe they resist every conversation about Jesus. Maybe you have prayed for years and nothing seems to change.
    Do not lose hope.
    Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in Him during this part of the story. And yet later James becomes a leader in the church, and Jude writes Scripture.
    People can change. Hearts can soften. Jesus still saves people.
    I think about my own mother praying for me. There were probably moments where it looked hopeless. But Jesus is still in the business of doing mighty works in people’s lives.
    Second, I want to speak to those of you who may recognize yourself in Nazareth.
    Maybe your unbelief comes from pain. Maybe disappointment. Maybe hypocrisy you experienced in church. Maybe familiarity.
    You have heard about Jesus so long that your heart has stopped really seeing Him.
    But do not stay there.
    Do not harden yourself against the very One who came to save you.
    Nazareth had Jesus standing right in front of them and still pushed Him away.
    Don’t do that.
    Bring your hurt. Bring your questions. Bring your sin. Bring your doubt.
    But bring it to Jesus.
    Because He still does mighty works. And He still saves those who come to Him.
    If you want to more about how to come to Jesus, simply find one of us and we’ll help you get there. Ok don’t leave without changing that.
    He wants you but he won’t force you to come. Open your heart and let Him in.
    In Jesus’ name, Let’s pray...
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