Well, at the Abounding Grace Dinner last night, I was roasted somewhat for putting way too much into a worship service, but think about what we had to do today. We're thinking about Palm Sunday, we have a baptism, we have preparation for the Lord's table next week. So I thought this morning that where we landed in Mark chapter 6 is really helpful as a great way of preparation in thinking about what the lord desires of us what he is after in true faith as we have a great contrast here this morning of what no faith looks like as we've been considering true faith and so as we are preparing our hearts we remember that we are always to consider our sin to examine whether we are trusting in christ and and even that third way of examination it says that we should think about our consciences, whether we are resolved to live in faith and repentance. And I notice here today, this passage is a great help to understand what that looks like. So we're continuing our study this morning in the Gospel of Mark. We're just considering the first six verses of Mark chapter six. This is the word of the Lord. He went away from there and came to his hometown and his disciples followed him. 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? Is not this the carpenter, son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. Well, in Mark's gospel, we are really meeting and having presented to us the Son of God. Remember the first words out of the early part of Mark were stating the purpose of this gospel that was the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Those were the early words in Mark, the first words of Mark. And I have to confess, as I've been preaching through this gospel, I felt that in this preaching series, it has opened up afresh to me and helped me so much to meet Jesus as God's eternal Son, the weight of this that's being impressed upon us and His power and His glory and just who this is that we are following. Everything that I've been taught of who He is, His divinity, as true God and true man, His humanity, I am, in Mark's gospel, learning Jesus Christ. And the purpose, of course, for you and me and for all who read the scriptures and particularly as we're going through Mark, is that we would all have faith in him as God's eternal son. And the answer that has been provided, he has been provided to the problem of our misery, the problem of our sin. And we have been pressed with that. But think of how this has gone for a moment in chapter four in the parable of the sower jesus gave the great parable for all parables to be understood where he explained different kind of responses to him in the kingdom different kinds of responses to those who sit and listen to his word it's when the word was proclaimed and we come to chapter five and i don't know if you now step back from chapter five and can look at the big picture of what he's done, chapter 5 went on to show us his work of prevailing and creating faith in the hearts of his people. You have the good soil in chapter 5. Think of the revelation in chapter 5 of him. He showed himself as the Son of God. He was confessed as the Son of God by the demoniac. He showed himself as Lord of creation, Lord over the demonic realm. He showed himself at the end of chapter five as even Lord over death as he raised the dead. He has been doing marvelous works everywhere, hasn't he? Of course, those were all accompanying the preaching of his word, which Mark told us he wanted to do from the beginning. These works have been given, these marvelous works have been given to confirm his gospel, to confirm his good news, to confirm what he has been speaking, which has been his drive, remember, for this purpose he came forth, to preach. But his miracles and his healings and everything that we have seen in Mark's gospel came with that confirmation as a form of blessing for those who were hearing his word and as a benefit that the presence of his kingdom rule has come in his person and work. It was a benefit of his kingdom rule. These were blessings that were coming from his presence. and he has been working through the preaching of the gospel to create faith in the hearts of people and his disciples who have heard his word he created it in the demoniac who he freed he showed us a woman in the last chapter with the flow of blood who believed and then and then confirmed it and affirmed it as he raised the dead creating faith by the power of his word spoken through the work chapter 5 in summary was an outflow of the good soil where his word would be heard and his word would be believed that's chapter 5 now we have a radical shift and i mean it a big shift if chapter 5 was a chapter of the revelation of jesus christ as the son of God and what true faith is in him saying to his own disciples do you still have no faith showing them faith creating faith chapter six is the chapter of unbelief it's meant and I have to say this up front it's meant to be painful it's meant to confront us with the ugliness and madness of unbelief it's meant to challenge his own disciples because they're in training they have to understand what they're going to run up against as they're sent to the ends of the earth it's meant to challenge us with the goal that as the summary goes to not be unbelieving but believing and so as we're confronted in chapter six with the ugliness and madness and marvel of unbelief the goal is belief belief and that has to be shown to us sometimes in plain terms and with clear pictures what unbelief looks like. That's what chapter six is doing. The disciples needed to see this. And so after the chapter of faith, and just before he commissions them to go out with his word, notice there's a little mini commission given in the next section. They need a lesson on what no faith looks like. They have been taught it. Here now is no faith. And we have to understand this to be challenged to believe. so now we turn to jesus's teaching jesus's exposure of unbelief in chapter one i mean chapter six verse one we read that he went away from there a definitive break and he came to his hometown his disciples followed him and it says that in verse two that on the sabbath he went into the synagogue and he began to teach as was his custom he loved to do this this is where his heart was. He has gone back to Nazareth. You can imagine this for a moment, can't you? Reports are all over the region about him. Everyone has heard of the marvel of his works. Everyone has been hearing about Jesus and his fame, and now he comes back to his hometown family and his friends. You know this. There's always something rather exciting about coming home. There's always something exciting about seeing and going back to where you started and seeing the old friends, the old family. If you ever look at anyone with fame or notoriety or anyone who's made it in the outer world, they love to come back to the hometown, to their roots, and everyone loves to see them. It's a great moment for the hometown, isn't it? Everyone's sort of overjoyed. It's a big name who has made it on the outside. It's somebody who has done well, and hey, he drank our water. He's of our stock. He is our own. He's of the hometown. We do this all the time in my little town where I grew up in, in Lemore, as it's pronounced. We would boast of Steve Perry from Journey. Yep, Steve Perry. Lorenzo Neal of the Chargers. Tommy Smith, the Olympian. That wasn't always the most prideful moment for L'Amour, but Jesus was famous in the land. Famous. And in Jerusalem. And they saw the hometown boy doing amazing things out there. They heard the reports. I mean, you know how things travel in the grapevine. People took pride in it. Well, Jesus is not coming home for the homecoming. Jesus is not coming home for what we think he's coming home for. This passage, and John tells us this much in its construction, but I won't go into that. This passage was Jesus purposely demonstrating something for us, for the disciples, for generations to read and understand. Mark records that the first thing that he wanted to do was enter the synagogue and start preaching and teaching. big moment you can imagine this this is jesus so he enters in the synagogue and we know that jesus was no ear tickler he had a goal in his preaching and his goal was to confront his goal was to be direct his goal was to be hard-hitting his goal was to be full of grace and speaking the gospel to people it was the time was fulfilled the kingdom of god mark said was at hand people should repent and believe in him how do you get that to the hometown we think of him in this context and other gospels particularly i'm thinking of luke's where he enters into the synagogue and he grabs the scroll of isaiah and he unrolls the scroll and he found the place where it was written the spirit of the lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me think of this to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and in front of them all he takes it and he rolls it back up and he hands it back to the attendant now imagine this moment we're home today it is fulfilled in your hearing what? You? Mark doesn't give us any of that detail. Mark doesn't go into what the other Gospels do. But I want to do as much as I can to capture the scene for a moment. There is, we know mom, not sure if dad is dead yet. Joseph. There's all the family. There are all the friends there. All the people he grew up with. We know from chapter three that his family had already tried to stop him. Remember, his family had had a big problem with him. His family had done an intervention and they had gotten together and they said, listen, we've got to put a stop to this madness. He's gone out of his mind in what he's saying and saying these kind of things that he's saying. We've got to halt this. And remember, they stood outside the house when he was preaching. Jesus, come on. This is embarrassing. Family is really on edge. But for a moment, it seems like everything is going well. doesn't it i want you to notice that in mark's gospel for a moment you get the sense that everything has gone really well in fact luke says they marveled at his gracious words that he spoke the word that mark chose to describe their initial response here you'll notice is one of astonishment they're astonished at the message the impact the punch of his preaching reaching down right into the heart this was no boring preacher he had them all and you can imagine what when it ended the effect you ever walked away from a sermon and said wow oh that just got me that just oh that's what happened he kept him the whole time probably preached an hour and here we're given a clear indication of what happened something happened mark captures what seems to be an immediate change of heart did you see it there in one moment they're astonished and in the next moment mark records a barrage of questions that seem to take away the punch of the sermon the effect of the sermon the astonishment that was gone quickly turns into what turns out to be clearly ridicule where did this man get these things what with what wisdom did he get them how are such mighty works done by his hands wait wait is this not the carpenter the son of mary the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon and hey look his sisters are right standing by us as a side note to say as Roman Catholics say that Mary never had children seems to be refuted here doesn't it now I know of no better place to go and illustrate what Jesus has just taught in the parable of the sower that the first soil when the word is preached as the Word is preached lands on a path. And Jesus described that path as a sort of human heart. When they said Jesus went on to describe when people hear the Word and then Satan comes and immediately snatches away what was sown in the heart. I don't know if you get a better picture of that than this. What are they questioning? Notice that everything has to do, as Mark has been doing with his identity. Chapter 5 had shown us the Son of God. It had been confessed by the demoniac. Disciples had asked, who is this? They get it answered in the next section. Chapter 5 had shown him as Lord 4 and 5, Lord of creation, Lord of the demonic realm, Lord of the death and grave over the death. But here comes the question. Where did he get this? These works. Where are they from? You have two choices, I suppose. Jesus openly said in his teaching, my works are from God. John's Gospel made that case very strongly. But back in chapter 3, many were already saying at the instigation of false teachers that his works were from who? Satan. These works were so powerful that you couldn't be neutral about it. You had to come up with some kind of great conclusion, some kind of radical conclusion. Either they were from God, as he was saying, or you opened yourself up to say, as the religious leaders were pumping out into the society, these works are satanic. That's the only way you can explain the greatness of the works that he's doing. And of course, they began to entertain the latter. the word that was spoken to them was clearly being ripped away through the entertainment of that suggestion, which seems to be right here in the text. So unlike the woman, and think of the contrast, unlike the woman of the last chapter who concluded, and think of her mind and how it worked and how Jesus stopped and pinpointed and said, ah, that's what I'm after right there. The woman hearing the word or receiving the reports of what Jesus was saying, seeing the works, concluded in her mind that his word must be true and if his word is true then he must have the power and the ability to heal me and jesus said that's faith she believed in contrast they have concluded his word is not true so that means his works have to come from somewhere else other than god this is helping us with unbelief and then it gets worse they say is this not the carpenter the son of Mary we remember his shop remember his dad's shop we remember him in that shop he's a worker with his hand he has a conclusion never been trained he's never been to rabbinical seminary he's never written one book he's a blue collar craftsman he's a blue collar craftsman no credentials whatsoever we know this about him and is he not the son of Mary no one ever spoke like that in that day you always said isn't that the son of joseph you could say well maybe joseph's dead at that point but even that would be unnatural to say think of john's gospel when he was teaching one day and they said how does this man know letters having never studied and he goes on in the midst of that uh criticism and says my doctrine's not mine but his who sent me. And then they said, you have a demon and we know where you're from. And here's the question that came out. Where is your father? Where is your father? And Jesus at one point then soon after yells out in the temple, you know me and you know where I'm from. What a conflict. You see, Mark wants us to feel the insult that are you not the carpenter the son of mary we don't know who your real father is remember joseph had sought to put her away at the beginning because he was afraid of the ridicule she would take with the assumption that there was a different father involved we don't know your father you're the son of mary the concluding statement comes out and they were offended by him. Offended. You know, I thought to myself as I was preparing this this week, how do you capture what the offense of Jesus is? How do you capture it? What was it about Jesus that really offended them? Is there not a divide about Jesus today? You have to decide, is he who he says he is or is he not? And if he's not, he has surely bumped into and impacted so many, the impact of his teaching and ministry all these thousands of years. You've got to make a great decision about Jesus, don't you? As I studied this past week, I wanted to find some way of summarizing what was the real offense. And I noticed that more than a few commentators were passing around a certain phrase, and pastors were using it, and I think it's absolutely right on about the problem of Jesus. The pastor, on this statement, I could not get out of my head that the people of Jesus' hometown could not get past the veil of His ordinariness. The veil of His ordinariness. No training, no books, no degrees here are his sisters we see his family everyone knows joseph's not the real dad and now he comes home and with this ragtag group of fishermen are you kidding and a tax collector i mean if these are his choices if these are his people how in the world could this be from god what school did he go to is he from old money think of the question where are the badges on his robe what are the tassels where are the letters after his degree am i getting a little closer now no credentials whatsoever you wonder today if jesus would be received in the academy. You wonder today if Jesus would be received in the seminaries where elitism reigns. You wonder if he would be received in the higher education places. If he were walking on the earth. Isn't this just the problem of what Isaiah prophesied? He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised and we held him in low esteem. I had to ask myself, do you see what unbelief is? If Jesus came today, what would be our problem with him? This gets a little closer to home. It's not just the elitism in the higher education models that I'm talking about now. Pardon me for a moment to mention what's going on in the political process. I'm doing this not to make any political push at all. I want everyone to know that. I'm only recognizing in what I'm about to say what is attractive to human nature. I'm going to comment for a moment on Donald Trump. I'm not pushing. I'm not rejecting. I'm not doing anything like that. I want you simply to consider what's in front of you. What do we love about the moment? Why so much energy? It's a strong man. I'm going to fix all the problems, which are many. I'm going to build walls. I'm going to bring back jobs. We're losing everywhere. Others are going to pay for this. How does it all come? With a jumbo jet that says Trump. With a lot of power. A lot of claims. A lot of mockery of those who disagree. A lot of aggrandizement. A lot of pomp. A lot of show. A lot of confidence. Everything about it can be summarized with an iron fist. Who's at the center of this? Evangelical Christians. Why? What should be recognized is that for a long time, Christians have been frustrated with the losing team. But even more than that, stay with me, we crave a strong man. Why? Because we've been taught from God that there should be a strong man. Think of the Jews for a moment and their kingdom. Think of Rome. We expect this. And so what have Christians done? Christians have done everything they can to make Jesus powerful again in worship truth be told we as christians have tried for years to make jesus great again oh yeah that should have been my sermon title make jesus great again so if you ask the questions where would jesus have some of the greatest lack of interest today if he were here walking on earth would it not be for many in the church no degrees no jets no pump not a big jet that says jesus they looked at jesus and said he's way too ordinary a little boy that grew up among us are you kidding i mean you know the phrase familiarity breeds contempt you've heard it and today think of the problem that frustrates all of us. It's so familiar to us. Word preached, baptism, sacrament, singing of psalms. There's just got to be more to this, right? There's got to be more. Come on. I mean, things are too uneventful for us. They don't penetrate us anymore. I always like to remind people that when the Bible was first translated into English, Do you know they had to bolt it to the pew? Because they were so rare and people wanted it so badly, they were ripped off and stolen. Can you imagine hearing these stories for the first time? Hearing these stories read to you for the first time, how everyone would have been, just to do a reading. Oh, we want something more. Here's what's sad, I believe, among the hometown crowd, especially in those raised with Jesus. Sometimes the oldest of churchgoers, ironically, especially those who can say there was never a time I didn't know Jesus. There was never a time I didn't know Jesus. It's so sad that in there, the worst kind of apathy and the worst kind of indifference to him can exist. A wall built up. Seen it? Indifference and no real desire to know him. You see, Jesus had come back to the hometown and what offended them was the veil of his ordinariness. A prophet is not without honor, said Jesus, except in his hometown, among his own relatives, and in his own household. How hard it is sometimes to be received, Jesus to be received from the hometown crowd. Isn't this something? And then verse 5, as I thought about it this week, I thought, I've seen this, I've lived this, I know this. It says he could do no mighty work there. That's a remarkable statement, except that he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them. And the emphasis being, he couldn't do it. And you think, what do you mean he couldn't do it? He couldn't do it. Surely he had the power to do it. That's not what it's saying. It's not that he lacked ability. It was, we were just told that their unbelief presented any mighty work there. You say, well, how does that show itself? Is not this Jesus all-powerful? Of course he's all-powerful. When I'm talking about Jesus, I'm not talking about a weakling. He has just shown Himself Lord of creation, Lord of demonic realm, Lord over death. But I think this really gets to the point of it this morning. He's been doing mighty works everywhere. He's been healing the sick. He's been freeing people from demons. He's been raising the dead. Oh, this is a strong man. But they could not see Him for who He was. Why? The power of Christ is not found where you think it's found. It's bound up with his message. It's bound up with his word. So that the ability to see Christ for who he is as the son of God in power has to be appreciated from the word preached and believed. Or you won't see him. You see, as he came to the hometown, there was no belief in his word. There was no confidence in his word. That's where this passage started. That's what he went to do. He went to preach. He went to teach. And as they rejected that word, What was the consequence? They could not receive the power and the miracles and the things that testified and confirmed the word. It's Isaiah 53, how it starts. Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm, power of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no former majesty that we should look at him. He had no beauty that we should desire him. See? He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Who received that report? Who believes that report? That's not the kind of report that makes us all that excited, is it? Unless you understand your grave problem. When he preached, he had one goal. It was that people, Mark 2, would receive the forgiveness of their sins. And he proclaimed it freely. The message of power that he was proclaiming in his life, death, and resurrection by faith and believing him, that they would be saved. This is what he was teaching Jairus last week. Your daughter has a way greater need than physical restoration. I'll deal with that in the resurrection. Your need, her need, greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. God was showing his power, but were the people really all that interested in that message? No. And let me be as plain as I can. That's why many in the church today can tolerate sitting under ministries and having their souls absolutely starved. No preaching. No Christ. Don't even value having their kids sitting in it. Wanting to be entertained to death as they remain disinterested in serious engagement with the Word of God to hear Christ proclaimed, it breaks my heart. And what was the consequence? What is the consequence? Listen carefully. There is a consequence working its way out right now. He did no mighty works there. All these we've been studying were the blessings of His kingly rule. These works. The blessings that He gave to come and confirm the Word, to believe His Word, but take hearts that would not believe His Word and hated his ordinariness or hated what he represented or hated what he was coming to do, if he performed great works among unbelieving people, what would have happened? That would have made matters worse. You know that would have made matters worse. It would have hardened their hearts further. These were blessings for people who believed. That was the intention. So where his word is received, do his people doubt his power? I want you to stay with me on this thought and we'll close here in a moment. Where the gospel and the word is received, do people doubt His power? In other words, where the word is believed and where there's faith in Him, what will you see? People who want to be at worship. People who would never want to miss worship. People who would see Sunday as the greatest blessing of their life because they're coming to receive a meal for their soul. Who see the message of the cross as God's power to save them and their children? And what is the general experience among saints who really value God's Word and love God's Word and grow in His Word? What is the experience among the saints? You know His power in your lives. You can testify. I've heard it on your lips and hearts, from your hearts. I had somebody last week say, you know, in the midst of our greatest moment of suffering in our life, we never doubted God's love for us and care for us. We never doubted his help, that he was there helping and encouraging and strengthening us the whole time. And that's evidence. Oh, you may not get a supernatural miracle today come down from heaven, but you get that. The same power that resides, Paul says in Ephesians, in the power that raised Christ from the dead is now in you. And that power is exercised by faith in the word. those are the benefits that flow and I see it in your joy and I see it in your peace and I see it in your love and I see it in your service and your forgiving of one another and your love for neighbor I see that power everywhere but I look at those people and those places and churches that have been unsatisfied with what seems to be the mundane ordinary Jesus who they want something more and they are worried about everything else under the sun a greater outward display of power Here's the irony. While seeking that, the power and the greatness and the pomp and the glitter, the true power in the lives of those people that flows from faith in the Word is absent. It's absent. Miserable. No joy. No relishing in the forgiveness of sins. No taking in Christ. And that's why the disciples were pressed with the question, do you believe Jesus is showing as painful as it is with the goal to impress upon you the madness of unbelief did you notice Jesus's statement at the end of this Jesus marveled over their unbelief and that proves this morning that no amount of evidence will ever convince you the evidence Jesus gave was only bishop beneficial to those who had received and believe the word and true faith the testimony that came forth from god about him and that's where we come today mark has pressed us pressed us with who has come down to us this is the son of god this is as mark said at the beginning the beginning of the gospel of the son of god the revelation of him now we're seeing it all in fulfillment unfold he's the messiah he's the answer God sent you his only begotten son God has spoken the gospel to you that you should repent and believe in his son in the living God God has sent the one his beloved son in whom he's well pleased the one whom everyone understood and why many didn't want him because he made himself equal with God the one who shows us the father the one who is the only way truth and life by which we enter the kingdom the one who said whoever believes in me shall never perish but have everlasting life But the truth rings out that He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. But to those who did receive Him, to them, He gave them the right to be called sons of God. It moves me to ask this morning then, have you received Him? Faith is of a mustard seed. It's enough. Can you accept a Savior right now who maybe is not great and we know is not to the world who was crucified for your sins raised for your justification but who this day still to this day when he is preached is hidden under the veil of ordinariness. Do you understand that? Still to this day he's hidden under the veil of ordinariness until he comes again and shows his glory to your faces. Well what holds anyone back when he's offering forgiveness? What holds anyone back when he's offering freedom? there are two times Jesus marveled in the Bible. One is before us today. He marveled at their unbelief. But the other marvel was the centurion who when he asked Jesus to come heal his sick servant, remember what he said, Lord, just speak the word. I've got people in authority. I tell them what to do. Just speak it. He'll be healed. Ah, it says Jesus marveled. Marveled at his faith. When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said, I have not found so great faith, not in Israel. Is Jesus marveling at your faith or your unbelief today? Even Bob Dylan said, you either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain't no neutral ground. If Bob Dylan can say it, I can say it, right? May the faith that we have in him be the marvel and evidence of his grace to us in our lives. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow the head realizing how shallow we are and how much we need you for faith is a gift. And we ask that you would give us believing hearts and where we have offended you with unbelief as the hometown crowd often, take that away. Take away dullness. Take away apathy. Let us be satisfied in who you have sent to us. Because we know that day when he is revealed in all of his glory and all of his might we are going to see him for who he is but until now let us rest in your promises and let us believe your word and love your word and grow in your word and we know for you've told us we will see great power among us in jesus name we pray amen