Sermon

Jesus Of Nazareth | Geary Trent

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Morning everyone. It's good to see everyone here

  2. this morning. This morning we're just going to

  3. talk a little bit about Jesus. Very simple lesson.

  4. The Bible says that Matthew chapter 21, verse 11.

    Matthew 21:11

  5. So the multitude said this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth

  6. of Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth. So where was he from?

  7. Did the study I got to thinking about all the memories so many

  8. I've etched in my mind. Remember the schools I was

  9. raised in, the world I was raised in, the schools I went to

  10. the holidays, we celebrated the holidays.

  11. Others celebrated many events in my young life.

  12. I was raised in the church. I remember the church at Linwood

  13. when I was really small people. There were the Warwicks, the

  14. Cohes and the Foxes as a little kid.

  15. Churches at Montebello and Cypress, those churches, I

  16. remember those. I grew up all through my teenage

  17. years. Another affected me in my life.

  18. I grew up. I remember the diet we had.

  19. Mom was from Oklahoma, had some of the red beans, corbread.

  20. I was raised that kind of world. I was raised him and all the

  21. blue collar kind of people I was raised with.

  22. My dad was a mechanic. It was so my grandpa worked the

  23. oil fields, Jack stock up, We all know him.

  24. Those kind of people I was raised with, the blue collar

  25. type of folks, remember the government as I was being

  26. raised. There was impact in my life.

  27. The sassage, President Kennedy, troubles in Vietnam, at home and

  28. abroad. Remember those things,

  29. Resignation of President Nixon. I remember that.

  30. Remember all the families of my life at the time and their

  31. political views. We can all look back, reflect on

  32. the cultures we were raised in and those around us and our

  33. families and our neighbors and our friends and the values that

  34. made us who we are, kind of made them who they are, how it kind

  35. of formed them. Look at other folks.

  36. If any of them have lived a long way from home, where they were

  37. raised and how they're affected by their younger years, their

  38. hometown, their home, church, their family might say they're

  39. raising the old saying. You can take the kid out of the

  40. hills, but you can't take the hills out of the kid.

  41. They're just a little bit of truth in that many of our lives

  42. are defined by the circle of culture which were brought up in

  43. around here. Look at all the Depression

  44. people, all the similarities they have, how much they're

  45. alike, how affected them in all their older years.

  46. It was one of those sailors said his navigational chart was

  47. established in his childhood. Tom Brokaw wrote a book called A

  48. Long Way From Home. In that book he quoted, this

  49. could not be the man I was I am could not be the man I am today

  50. with the boy I was yesterday in a fireplace a long time ago.

  51. He's raised in South Dakota, long ways to New York.

  52. The question this morning is we were thought about Jesus in that

  53. way. What shaped him?

  54. We know he was the son of God, but he's also a man like us.

  55. Hebrews 4 and 15 The Bible says we do not have a high priest who

  56. cannot sympathize in our weakness, but was in all points

  57. tempted as we are, yet without sin, tipping always like we are.

  58. He understands us. He was affected by things like

  59. we are. John 1135 Jesus wept.

  60. He had emotions. He showed like us in many ways.

  61. He was raised from a child to a man.

  62. We know what was common and normal for us.

  63. What was common, normal for Jesus that he's being raised?

  64. Did his raising affect his adult life?

  65. What kind of environment did he come from?

  66. We're going to discuss his human element, you might say this

  67. morning, or to cover some questions in his life.

  68. This in the lesson, for example, Nazareth.

  69. What kind of town was it? What type of life was it in

  70. Jesus's day? The government in his day and

  71. time, His town's relationship with government, the influence

  72. of government in his daytoday life, A little bit about the

  73. family, Joseph and Mary's. He's being raised.

  74. How did a couple raise Jesus at a time like this where you talk

  75. about where Jesus came from and maybe we will see how his past

  76. effect is some of his life in his later years, maybe some of

  77. his teachings. We'll get to that.

  78. Reconstruct and dig down a little bit.

  79. All the evidence I can find is scripture, archaeology and

  80. history about Nazareth. Modern day Nazareth is a very

  81. busy tourist city. Being hometown Jesus is a

  82. pilgrimage for many, many people.

  83. People go there to see where Jesus grew up by souvenirs and

  84. the vendors look at the sites. Modern day Nazareth, there's a

  85. lot to see there. There's a place there in a

  86. church that said the Angel Gabriel came down and then he

  87. told Mary. But the divine conception,

  88. whether it's true or not, we don't know.

  89. But that's more they have there. It's noisy city with a mix of

  90. Palestinian Christians and Christian Muslims.

  91. One part of the city Jews have different sects.

  92. In another part of the city it is separately for satellite

  93. dishes, construction sites, heavy traffic, lot of

  94. Mercedes-Benz cars, KF C's cell phones, Hopkin double parked

  95. cars like you would think. Very busy place, not much in

  96. common with current Nazareth and the Nazareth of Jesus 20th

  97. century. Separate the two layers of

  98. debris of all type are stacked over.

  99. It's quite a job to uproot and find the town which is Galilean.

  100. Roots were and John 145 and 46. The Bible says this.

  101. Philip found Nathaniel. Nathaniel said to him, We have

  102. found him of whom Moses is the Moses is is in the law.

  103. And also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of

  104. Joseph. Nathaniel said to him, Did you

  105. think good come of Nazareth? You think good come of Nazareth?

  106. Sounds like an insult to me. Why do you think you said this?

  107. Did they have a bad reputation or just not have any reputation

  108. at all? Outside the Gospels, early

  109. Christian texts, there's no record before the Emperor

  110. Constantine of the city of Nazareth at all Is ever

  111. mentioned by Jewish rabbis in history during discussing the

  112. Talmud. It's not there.

  113. They mentioned 63 other Galilean towns.

  114. They don't mention Nazareth Josephus, who we all pretty much

  115. know about. In his writings he mentions 45

  116. sites in Galilee. He never misses Nazareth.

  117. It's almost like it's never never known in significant town.

  118. It's not mentioned in the Old Testament.

  119. There's nothing connecting Nazareth to God's messianic

  120. plan. The discussion we saw here, we

  121. see here in John one between Philip and Nathaniel.

  122. That's his statement only makes sense in the conversation

  123. they're having about the Messiah.

  124. Nathaniel sees no connection between Nazareth and God's

  125. Mitziani plan, but I think it can come from Nazareth.

  126. This should be no surprise. At that time, like now, writing

  127. and political power and upper class activity.

  128. Those who learned to read and write were the rulers, the

  129. wealthy, the scribes, the like like that, not someone from

  130. Nazareth. The elite cared little about the

  131. majority of the people. What went on, the small areas,

  132. rural villages and countryside towns are truly what was what

  133. Nazareth was and we shall see. Nazareth was basically a peasant

  134. town. The population of about 2000,

  135. give or take, depends on which period scholar you read.

  136. That's about what it was. I'd just say about 2000.

  137. The Jewish village adhering to what was called temple oriented

  138. Judaism which we get to in a few minutes, we talked about Jesus

  139. is the religion in Jesus's time. So basically Jesus was a Jewish

  140. peasant background summer to many we know today like saying

  141. he was from Arvin pretty much our home like he was in Sanger.

  142. Sanger is close to Fresno. Arvin is close to Bakersfield.

  143. LA could be the Jerusalem, you know that's that's kind of the

  144. way the situation it was a little town like that look at me

  145. the heritage here today. Dust Bowl people and look at

  146. some of the folks that I've known my life.

  147. We all know our history you know mine love a labor lot know know

  148. it's like not have much. That's kind of where Jesus came

  149. from. A peasant at the time of Jesus

  150. in a town like Nazareth have little time to read or write.

  151. Usually, as I said before that multi upperclass people, they go

  152. to the temple but their daytoday life is usually pretty busy, but

  153. mostly work in the land. Many were farmers, some are

  154. tradesmen, some are merchants. We'll discuss this later.

  155. How it's evident in his teachings, his dialogue.

  156. We're having knowledge of some of these things, the temple

  157. agriculture, things like that. Pretty much.

  158. Most think there was a Rock Corey nearby.

  159. There's a town by there ever. The rock quarry has been found.

  160. Some anatomy may have worked at that rock quarry, had rocks from

  161. that rock quarry and they may have been manufactured there in

  162. Nazareth. We don't know hills.

  163. It was a Carpenter at the time. Being a Carpenter consisted more

  164. than hammer and nails and it does today.

  165. At the time many skills were involved, working from stone,

  166. the abundance of stone nearby, maybe making farm implements,

  167. plows, ox carts, furniture, maybe tooling other necessities.

  168. Similar to the the blacksmith of our the past years, me and me.

  169. And this economic level they struggled, was trying to make

  170. the ends meet, had to pay taxes, which was a great big deal back

  171. then, and live in what was left. In archaeological digs around

  172. Nazareth they found cups and bowls out of limestone.

  173. Nearby they found wood, cups, little bowls as evidence they've

  174. been turned on lays. They have a centering point in

  175. them. They might think back then they

  176. might not have had lays. Well, I got documentation in my

  177. Bible here. It's back to 300 BC.

  178. That evidence of lays called rope lays.

  179. They had the string lays. So they may not be as primitive

  180. back then as we think of the things they found.

  181. No lays have been found there. We know they exist.

  182. We can tell they're not rich or fluent by the not only by the

  183. way Mary and Joseph lived or where they lived, but by the

  184. journey to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.

  185. Most of you're familiar with this story.

  186. Bethlehem was about 75 miles or so South of Nazareth, with Mary

  187. being that far along. Think about it, your wife being

  188. nine months pregnant, putting her on a donkey or ox cart and

  189. taking her 75 miles away in some dirt Rd.

  190. It really wouldn't be the thing you would want to do.

  191. You'd want to stay home, but they had to go when they went.

  192. There's no place to stay. They stayed in a in a Manger

  193. doing now what we do about Nazareth.

  194. It may not be surprising person of Nazareth living where they

  195. live come to where they went for an official visit.

  196. Yes, if they're upper wealthy class things may have been

  197. different. Money talk then just as it does

  198. now. Connections counted.

  199. Then just say do now. Obviously Joseph didn't have

  200. money, didn't have connections. There are many, there have been

  201. many archaeological digs around the Nazareth area.

  202. There's a town 4 miles north of Nazareth called Sephorest.

  203. They've done a lot of digs around that place.

  204. It's one of herd's so-called capitals.

  205. Herd had like palaces of forest. It was a Jewish town with the

  206. Roman presence. So they had the Roman overseers

  207. seeing even though it was a Jewish town, they were doing

  208. their best. It said the town resembled a

  209. miniature Cesaria. They found evidence of over 20

  210. baths, fancy house with mosaic floors, plastered walls some

  211. even two-story a lot of air coins in there in the in the

  212. area when they dug it up you can tell what's found by what type

  213. of city it was. The people that live there and

  214. NASA for example we know is this Jewish settlement died of a

  215. Jewish peasant was simple and small.

  216. The main foods were probably bread, olives, grapes, simple

  217. things like that. Lentil soup, maybe some nuts and

  218. cheese, depending on the season. Meat was occasionally there with

  219. fish, mutton and goat. Remember, they were Jews.

  220. Ada's Jews did. No pig bones were found in those

  221. digs. Other animal bones were, but not

  222. pig bones. Meat was not probably every

  223. meal, maybe on a special occasion when they had it.

  224. Dig the rich political figures, dig in places like sephorest.

  225. Things were different. Different findings and remains.

  226. You find different things, evidence of a diet being

  227. different, clothing being different, even finding jewelry.

  228. Some of the grave sites, you didn't find any ivory when they

  229. dig it at Nazareth. You didn't find things like that

  230. those day and times. And as a peasant, a case of the

  231. flu or an abscid tooth, an affection like that could kill

  232. you. There's a remedy for those

  233. things. Life expectancy was was less

  234. than it is now, even less than it was in the urban areas.

  235. The more populated areas, they had to work harder.

  236. They weren't cared for as well. Childhood death was common.

  237. Think about the risk of traveling when Jesus is a

  238. newborn. Remember, they went to Egypt

  239. after he was born as a newborn had traveled all way to Egypt.

  240. As a parent, think of your concerns and the faith that took

  241. to do those things. Scholars figured about half the

  242. children at that time died in infancy, and maybe half of those

  243. lived to adulthood. They didn't make it to

  244. adulthood. They died too.

  245. He went famous, come from Nazareth, didn't seem so

  246. unknown. Village folks who lived close to

  247. the edge didn't travel much. Famous people didn't come from

  248. places like Nazareth. The famous were the Jews,

  249. Jerusalem and people like that. And there exists a circle is

  250. pretty inclusive. Luke chapter 2, verse of 41

    Luke 2 chapter mention

  251. through 52. The Bible says this.

  252. His parents went to Jerusalem every year.

  253. Remember this Jerusalem every year at the feast of the

  254. Passover and when he was 12 years old they went up to

  255. Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.

  256. When they finished the days they returned.

  257. The boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his

  258. mother did not know it. But but supposing him who have

  259. been in the company, they want a day's journey, and sought him

  260. among their relatives and acquaintances, so they so when

  261. they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking

  262. him. So now it was.

  263. And after three days he found him in the temple, sitting in

  264. the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking

  265. them questions. And all who heard him were

  266. astonished at his understanding and answers.

  267. So when they saw him, they were amazed.

  268. And his mother said to him, Son, why have you done this to us?

  269. Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously.

  270. And he said to them, Why do you seek me?

  271. Did you not know? That must be about my father's

  272. business? But they did not understand the

  273. statement which he spoke to them.

  274. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was

  275. subject to them. His mother kept these things in

  276. her heart that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor

  277. with God and men. This amazement was not only he

  278. was 12, but gift. Nazareth with his background

  279. could be so smart in the scriptures, he could be so

  280. informed 12 years old. Imagine he asked him who he was,

  281. where he was from at 12. Did Jesus know how to read?

  282. It doesn't say. Really.

  283. He read it, says he. He discussed the scriptures with

  284. them. The reason with them, That's

  285. amazing. 12 years old. Where would that knowledge come

  286. from? Being a Nazareth nor formal

  287. teaching or training? He had them shaking their heads.

  288. I just wonder where these guys were 22 years later.

  289. Jesus started as ministry. Did some of them remember Jesus?

  290. Did Jesus remember? Some of them remember every year

  291. it said they went, there's a familiarity with this.

  292. We'll get to this later in the lesson.

  293. So when he 22 years later, when he or 20 years later, he's 12

  294. here. So our mystery is 30.

  295. These guys in the temple, you're so amazed at him this year.

  296. Were there other years like this?

  297. So Jesus probably knew some of these people.

  298. He touched me through later on his life from his earlier years.

  299. He knew how it worked. He knew how it was in Jerusalem.

  300. He had a history, you might say, of being in the temple and with

  301. some of those people there. Sorry.

  302. Also in the cage is probably dangerous traveling then.

  303. That's one reason why they did in groups.

  304. He's looking out for the other kind of the wagon trains.

  305. And the old was to see in the movies, all the wagon trains

  306. circle the wagons. We all know about that for

  307. protection. The same principle was there.

  308. We had Indians then, but that time they had bandits just like

  309. they've had all over the place. Like they have many places right

  310. now. We'll ambush you on your

  311. journeys. If you're out, away from

  312. everywhere, you pop it just together.

  313. Each time they went for safety and to make it easier in each

  314. other, it mentions their relatives and acquaintances.

  315. They had relatives. We know Jesus had siblings.

  316. We'll get to that in a few minutes.

  317. He had four brothers, at least two sisters, because it says

  318. sisters. It mentions a plural, so at

  319. least six. There may have been others.

  320. We don't know those things, but imagine as a parent you worries

  321. the concerns traveling a day and time like that with that many

  322. children. What would you be thinking?

  323. We don't know how much other travel Jesus did in his early

  324. years. We know they went to Egypt and

  325. back when he was the baby figured they were in Egypt about

  326. two years. So he's just a toddler when they

  327. came back from Egypt. That's also probably a rough

  328. journey. Also remember the life

  329. expectancy of a child, the risks they were taking, you know,

  330. traveling we don't know about. Maybe they went up to sephoras

  331. because it was close by, maybe it was just 4 miles north.

  332. That's not very far. May went there to conduct

  333. business, deal with the Romans. Sometimes.

  334. Joseph was a Carpenter, trained his training, his sons be

  335. Carpenter. May went there for work.

  336. A lot of construction there and if you missed we'll find out.

  337. There was an amphitheater there. There's always 20 bass, a lot of

  338. things going on. They may went there for labor.

  339. We really don't know. Another way to find the economic

  340. level, the life of people there is look at material and those

  341. digs are not common, not from the area.

  342. As I said, like you didn't find ivory and Nazareth.

  343. These are pottery, jewelry, perfume containers, glassware,

  344. period cones, things important. None of this was found in

  345. Nazareth. What they found in Nazareth are

  346. things made of local materials he's made in the area, which may

  347. be that quarry nearby. There are no grand tombs found,

  348. no great engravings found, no grand homes or palaces found,

  349. none of those things, None of those ruins.

  350. There's evidence of simple people with simple lives.

  351. That's the world Jesus was in, in Nazareth.

  352. People asked, was Jesus a Carpenter when he was young?

  353. The Bible says marked six and three.

  354. This word talks to his brothers and sisters.

  355. It says it's not this the Carpenter, the son of Mary,

  356. brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon are not his sisters

  357. here with us, so they offended him.

  358. Is this not the Carpenter? That time in the Jewish world is

  359. common to train your sons in a trade, preferably traded the

  360. father. It was only calmer him to do

  361. this. All Jews were taught to be able

  362. to take care of themselves. The Apostle Paul in Acts chapter

    Acts 18 chapter mention

  363. 18, verse three talks about being a tent maker.

  364. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisees.

  365. The Pharisees that he was a tent maker.

  366. He knew a trade in the craft. There's not that unusual the

  367. time to do that. So yes, Jesus, no, he was the

  368. father Carpenter. He was a Carpenter because it

  369. was a normal thing. His normal, remember, is

  370. different than ours. The time to do that, be able to

  371. have a way to take care of yourself.

  372. Nazareth did not attract attention.

  373. Become a historical site to app. The conversion of Constantine

  374. and 312AD. That's almost 300 years at the

  375. death of Christ, before people ever thought about going to

  376. Nazareth. Being a pilgrimage place.

  377. It still wasn't that popular even after Jesus died for

  378. hundreds of years. Religion in Jesus's day, Time of

  379. Jesus, the temple of Jeruism had.

  380. I didn't write this, but the guys call it priesthood

  381. dominated Jewish religion. That's what the experts call it.

  382. Which means basically the priestess ran everything.

  383. The Pharisees are the most influential priests of the time.

  384. Most religious leaders described the scholars, the Pharisees, and

  385. lived in urban settings. You might say some are wealthy.

  386. They're sure not poor. Many had enough support to

  387. write, perform tasks for the temple and for the people.

  388. Many were well known. They're popular with the people

  389. prominent. Many gatherings.

  390. They had people you wanted to have at your gatherings because

  391. of who they were. Pomp and circumstance was

  392. evident at that time. In the synagogue's outlying

  393. areas like Nazareth or gathering place for the community.

  394. Which marriages were done, Circumcisions, done, meetings,

  395. held, things like that. All the scriptures read out loud

  396. from Hebrew to Arabic. Whatever the whole language was

  397. usually Arabic in Jesus. This time elders were consulted,

  398. traditions talked about. Traditions were a lot bigger

  399. thing then than they are now. Now people kind of just do what

  400. they want to do, kind of ignore traditions of their parents or

  401. their families. Then it was a pretty big deal.

  402. The new tradition of a peasant time in Jesus Galilee was

  403. important to everyone. The Jews tradition of a priest.

  404. The time really was this. The city of family, the births

  405. and deaths of people, the Sabbath season, celebrations,

  406. daily meals and opportunities to pass on.

  407. The traditions pass on from Moses to them being good Jews,

  408. very important. Living in Galilee, there was

  409. some removed from the temple in Jerusalem, a distance that might

  410. have been spiritual as well as in mileage.

  411. He's really different in Galley in Jerusalem, but also some

  412. similarities too, which we'll find later on.

  413. Nazareth had a synagogue, Luke chapter 4, verse 1617.

    Luke 4 chapter mention

  414. The Bible says. So he came to Nazareth.

  415. We've been brought up. We just came back here to preach

  416. after he was an adult. As his custom was, he went to

  417. the synagogue on the Sabbath day.

  418. He set up to read and he was handed the book of the prophet

  419. Isaiah. Open the book, he found the

  420. place was written. We'll get to the rest of it in

  421. just a minute. But the last part of that

  422. chapter was turn to read verses 20 to 30 in chapter 4.

  423. So all those the synagogue, when heard these scenes were filled

  424. with wrath and rose and thrust him out of the city, let him out

  425. to the brow of the hill which the city was built.

  426. Then I throw him over a Cliff. Then then, passing through the

  427. midst of them, he went his way. Greetings tells us a little bit

  428. about the city. City built on a hill.

  429. It had a Cliff ledge at the end of it.

  430. They're going to throw him off, evidently high enough to kill

  431. him. We thought we had some honorary

  432. friends. Well, that's they turned it in

  433. pretty quick. He went from much to here to 0

  434. real quick. He's popular before he came into

  435. town at the one sermon. This is what they're trying to

  436. do. But the way the town was.

  437. This makes sense of having that Cliff in Rena Town by Nazareth

  438. and Sephora, where they found that limestone quarry, evidence

  439. of a workshop and some tools for the quarry.

  440. Having that kind of makeup, the rocks and everything

  441. geographically, yes, that clip would be there, but they have no

  442. idea what the form of the synagogue had.

  443. There's our archaeological evidence.

  444. Have a hard time with that word. Excuse me, archaeological

  445. evidence, nothing been discovered.

  446. They found ones in town similar to Nazareth in the time of Jesus

  447. town of gold and gamma ones. This is they existed time of

  448. Christ but not as grand as you might expect.

  449. Moses also they figured built at a communal expense.

  450. Everybody got together, put the funds together and built them.

  451. They weren't big, rich, grand things like it was in other

  452. places, but there's not enough evidence.

  453. Tell much else about them. Bible tells nothing about the

  454. leaders of the synagogue and Nazareth.

  455. But you have a Fluence They had on Jesus, who they were, All

  456. that we know about them. Is this in game here?

  457. What happened to them here? The rivers of them is in lute,

  458. but you go back and read what it says, when it says place where

  459. it was written. Let's read on lutes from 16 on.

  460. The Spirit of Lord is upon me because he has anointed me.

  461. That's what he's telling the people in Nazareth in the

  462. synagogue to preach a gospel to the poor.

  463. He has sent me to heal a broken hearted, to became liberty to

  464. the captes, have a sight to the blind, set liberty to those who

  465. are oppressed, to to proclaim the acceptance year of the Lord.

  466. He closed the book, gave back to the attendant and sat down.

  467. And the eyes of all who in the synagogue were fixed on him.

  468. And he began to say to them, today, today the scripture is

  469. fulfilled in your hearing. So Arbor witness to him and

  470. admirable that the gracious words would proceed to proceed

  471. of his mouth, they said, is this not Joseph's son?

  472. Seems he heard that before, and he was 12 with the temple,

  473. Didn't he familiar with these kinds of things?

  474. Maybe some of the shock when only that he's he was there

  475. teaching to him about the Messiah, but he was his Messiah.

  476. He was home, his home church, so to speak.

  477. Hear most does not read well. Then he's a carpenter's son, one

  478. they knew here he's reading. That may have been one shock

  479. right there And the knowledge and building for the elite, the

  480. well schooled describable experts.

  481. And Jesus came with this. The Jesus before he came there,

  482. he had done a lot of miracles. He had a father when he came to

  483. Nazareth. He was already getting kind of

  484. famous when he came, but Jesus knew here.

  485. He learned here, as he learned before the separation, Religion,

  486. status, social position was so evident as peasant, regular

  487. people. If you can't read, it doesn't

  488. mean you know. If you're literate, doesn't mean

  489. that you're ignorant. This means you don't know how to

  490. read. Those people were smart.

  491. They knew the way traditions were passed down like they'd

  492. always been. The old test traditions.

  493. They passed down by actions or words near the scriptures, by

  494. listening to them and memorizing them, And by doing it, they

  495. could live the life of good Jews.

  496. They're very religious people. So when Jesus began to teach the

  497. synagogue as he did, there's one reason the level of amazement

  498. leaders of congregation say he was Messiah put him on a

  499. different level, just preached to them, and he warned them, and

  500. there's lesson there. You see, heeding the warning,

  501. they're enraged. They wouldn't take it from him.

  502. Bible speaks of their unbelief, which is really, really sad.

  503. I think of Jesus feeling for all those people.

  504. They're his relatives, friends and acquaintances, and they

  505. rejected him how he must have felt, even though it's wrong to

  506. inflict punishment, the Sabbath and these people there knew that

  507. they were not swayed by that. And that day they took him out,

  508. throw him off the Cliff. No miracles in Nazareth, just

  509. attempted murder. And how sad that is such as

  510. religion in Jesus's day in his hometown, far away from

  511. Jerusalem. But not that different from

  512. Jerusalem, was it? All this conveys in the areas of

  513. uncovered no pave streets, no bath houses, no palaces, no

  514. theaters, no defensive walls Around the city, none of those

  515. things. They found one house and no

  516. mansion. They're still working on digging

  517. that up. See how that is?

  518. They found evidence of all the presses or wine presses.

  519. They found water cisterns, evidence of grain silos from

  520. farming grinding stones scattered about.

  521. As I said, no pig bones. It was a kosher town, you might

  522. say, just as sports was and other ones the town simple

  523. working folks trying to make it the best they could.

  524. Small town boy raised the ways of religion with additions of

  525. Moses living the Roman world. So was Nazareth.

  526. A small town over the hill walk a distance of course with Jesus

  527. home. Jesus of Nazareth.

  528. One more aspect real quick. I know I'm almost out of time.

  529. The outside world in his day, how that affected his world, I

  530. don't believe in that day and time there's a lot and they had

  531. a lot of association with the outside world.

  532. The Jews as is now modern day Nazareth, as many areas of the

  533. world, they do this separately as much as they can.

  534. They live in Roman society but they literally what you might

  535. say closed community. There was business and

  536. government activity, the association of traveling include

  537. the outside world, but not that much.

  538. Remember just got in trouble later in life or associated with

  539. the outside world. After he called Matthew out,

  540. Matthew had dinner at his house. He went to his house, got in

  541. trouble eating with Republicans and sinners.

  542. Mixing isn't good. Remember the Samaritan woman?

  543. Mixing isn't good. The Old Testament redo, a

  544. testament when the Jews got too close and mixed too well with

  545. people of the world, kind of got him in trouble.

  546. That was carried over. That's the life they were living

  547. at that time. We know the outside world

  548. affected him, affected him from his birth.

  549. Remember his parents had to flee to Egypt that he was born and he

  550. has the outside world to put him to death.

  551. Sadly, he lived in a very violent world.

  552. We're talking about brutality in our world now and there is a lot

  553. of lot of brutality in our world and it's awful.

  554. This is very common in the time of Jesus Jesus' time, the lands

  555. he lived in. It was very very common in

  556. brutality and they mean it was comprehend living in such

  557. conditions that Jesus knew as he grew up of how it was.

  558. Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 to 16, the flight to Egypt and he

    Matthew 2:13–16

  559. departed. Behold Angel Lord appeared to

  560. Joseph in a dream saying Oriah see the young child his mother

  561. flee to Egypt see it until I bring you a word for Harry will

  562. see the young child to destroy him.

  563. When he rose he did the child and his mother by 9 to party

  564. Egypt. It was there until the death of

  565. Herod that might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord to

  566. the Prophet saying out of Egypt I call my son the Herod.

  567. When he saw he was deceived by the wise, many was exceedingly

  568. angry, and he sent forth to put to death all the male children

  569. in Bethlehem and all of his districts but two years old and

  570. under growing the time which he determined from the wise men.

  571. Some say it was hundreds, some say it was thousands.

  572. We don't know. We just know it was brutal and

  573. horrific. We know that Jesus grew up.

  574. He was aware of that kind of world he lived in.

  575. It's just kind of rough. Think about raising your child

  576. in a world like that. He had to flee because they're

  577. after him when he came back. Even living that real close to

  578. Roman province, the Roman capital right there, that close

  579. to the Romans, knowing this about them, a few years after

  580. Christ was born, that city, Sephoras I spoke of, four BC was

  581. burned to the ground. At the same after Harry was died

  582. it was burned to the ground. About 3000 people were killed.

  583. The resident heavens were sold in slavery.

  584. All kinds of those people. Things were done there in that

  585. town right in Jesus neighborhood 4 miles north of him.

  586. When host, one historian said the guilty were crucified in the

  587. roadside outside of the forest. Remember Nazareth was only four

  588. miles in there. What a world Jesus raised in.

  589. He knew crucifixions as he was young because that was in four

  590. BC when that was done. What environment, What a strange

  591. normal to live in. It seems the Roman and Jewish in

  592. in that world Roman and Jewish submission was necessity or else

  593. That's why Christ teaching was so refreshing when he came

  594. along. Because the way the world was

  595. also found. The Sephoras was a theater

  596. capacity of about 4000. I played for entertainment.

  597. All those things that was common in the day.

  598. It possibly refers to finding beasts and Ephesus and 1st

  599. Corinthians and 1st Scruthians 1532.

  600. That was a common thing at that time.

  601. Those kinds of things. Hair Roman ruins were

  602. treacherous to all. Hair murdered, murdered his own,

  603. his own son. We can go on and on with these

  604. folks. We just know how they were.

  605. Historian Josephus book speaks of 1000 being crucified around

  606. Jerusalem. Remember Jesus went there once a

  607. year. He's very familiar.

  608. Jerusalem. What went on there after death

  609. of Herod? Herod died in 4B C When they

  610. moved back there were 2000 crucified at that time in

  611. Jerusalem. After after the Jerusalem there

  612. was 500 a day they figured crucified all through Jesus's

  613. life. Crucifixion was a normal thing.

  614. Violence in the world. Jewish world, the Roman world

  615. from his own people. Jesus saw it.

  616. He heard about it, was victim of it from beginning to end.

  617. What a normal life to have to deal with.

  618. For Amanda, be on violence that much.

  619. He'd be active that much for his whole life.

  620. To teach things like he did is amazing.

  621. Just that should make you an awe.

  622. So Jesus was baptized by John. That's where he headed into.

  623. And he knew it. He knew all about it.

  624. He started to teach the people, not the leaders.

  625. Followed him. He spoke their language.

  626. His teaching was different. He taught like no other.

  627. Know what we know now. So the teaching makes more

  628. sense. He references to agriculture.

  629. Turn the other cheek because he saw so much violence.

  630. Knew where the route was. I knew where it led to the B

  631. attitude. The Sermon on the Mount.

  632. Read that thinking this. No one where Jesus came from.

  633. Think where some of that came from his heart.

  634. Well, he was raised how it affected him.

  635. How we dealt with those really, truly in need.

  636. The blind, the beggars, the lame, those of low estate, even

  637. the variety of people. He chose the apostles no Rd.

  638. scholars there. Who did he choose?

  639. Talked about the rich man, Lazarus the fair, is he

  640. republican? And the prayer and the leaders,

  641. religious leaders of the time. He knew the hearts, he knew

  642. where to hit them, he knew what to say.

  643. Been on the temple for years, since his youth.

  644. Here he talked about the temple, talked of all the activity in

  645. temple. How could the Kip and Nazareth

  646. know all that? Well, he knew it.

  647. He'd been going there a long time.

  648. Here he goes. How it really was.

  649. He'd seen it, lived it and suffered because of it.

  650. But knowing his story, where he came from, maybe understand

  651. better how he lived his life, why he responded like he did,

  652. why he did what he did, what he told us he did.

  653. He covered the whole spectrum. He's called the King of Kings.

  654. Lord of Lords was crucified between 2 thieves alone.

  655. He he covered all the territory. I tried to recreate the world of

  656. Jesus, recreate the time he lived in as he lived it, his

  657. hometown, his government, his religion, and some other items.

  658. Try to have it. We could imagine living in

  659. Jesus's world, living how he did.

  660. We say we have it bad. We do sometimes not even close

  661. to what he had as I presented it.

  662. Remember going back to Hebrews, what it said to Hebrews.

  663. He suffered, been tented always as we are.

  664. He knows how we feel in our lives and our struggles, if we

  665. ever wondered. Jesus understands us if we know,

  666. want to know how. If he really, really feels, he

  667. does. We talk about the word sympathy.

  668. Sympathy is a feeling or a pity for another, just sad for the

  669. situation just has more than he has with the word called

  670. empathy. He actually knows how we feel.

  671. Empathy is defined by our ability to understand how

  672. someone else feels. Understand your compassion, not

  673. just sad for them. You really actually know how

  674. they feel. That's what it means in Hebrews.

  675. He actually knows how we feel. We're tempted.

  676. He's as us and knowing what he put himself, knowing that world

  677. and he came from heaven and entered that world be sacrificed

  678. for us. You talk about what love is.

  679. It's almost can't comprehend that kind of love to be sitting

  680. at the right hand of God and come down into a world like that

  681. and go through he did just for us, that is that to me is just

  682. amazing. I should make us emotional time

  683. for that. What he's done for us, what he

  684. went through. Hope you did this less.

  685. We understand a little bit about what's a little bit more what he

  686. went through. But where he came from.

  687. Maybe some why he talked about like he did about some things.

  688. It helped me read some of the stories of Jesus.

  689. Knowing some of these things, it made more sense to me.

  690. That's my lesson this morning. Both a little longer than I

  691. thought I was going to. Hope you've made something.

  692. Make you think this morning about Jesus by me.

  693. Brought you closer to Jesus. I can become closer to him.

  694. We all want to go to heaven together.

  695. The way to do is become a Christian.

  696. If you're not a Christian you can do that this time you've

  697. heard the word Todd. I did my best this morning to

  698. teach the word to teach you a little bit about Jesus.

  699. Have to repent this repent. You shall likewise perish with

  700. 13 and three. Have to confess as a as a as an

  701. Acts. Chapter 8.

    Acts 8 chapter mention

  702. Fill up in the unique. The confession is there.

  703. Be baptized. Rise.

  704. Be baptized. Wash away your citizens call

  705. name of the Lord Acts 22 and 16 is the apostle Paula Stone.

  706. He's baptized. You do those things.

  707. Become a Christian this morning. We thank you for listening to

  708. our podcast put on by the Church of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in

  709. Bakersfield. If you would like any additional

  710. information or you would like to receive a free Bible

  711. correspondence course by mail, please e-mail us at

  712. [email protected]. Our service times are Sundays at

  713. 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM. And Wednesdays at 7:30 PM Please

  714. make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

  715. honored guest.