Mark 6a (10-1-25)

What's up everybody? It's Pastor James. Welcome back to our midweek Bible study.

We are going to start chapter 6 today and cover three different passages, and

it's a good bit of scripture, so let's get started for the sake of time. Let's

begin reading verses 1 through 6a as we talk about Jesus being rejected in his

own hometown of Nazareth. So Jesus left the party, that part of the country, and

returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown. The next Sabbath he

began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. They asked,

where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles? Then they

scoffed, he's just a carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph,

Judas, and Simon, and his sisters live right here among us. They were deeply

offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, a prophet is

honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his

own family. And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any miracles among them

except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them, and he was amazed

at their unbelief. So this is a very interesting account of Jesus and his

ministry. It also gives us a very good indication as to the life that Jesus

lived prior to his ministry, and it's simply insight that helps us form a

hypothesis. But it does seem that Jesus lived a relatively normal life in

Nazareth prior to leaving and beginning his ministry. Notice how the people said

things, where did he get this wisdom? Where did he get this power? He's just a

carpenter. He's just the son of Mary and the brothers of James, Joseph, or Judas, and

Simon. His sisters are right here, and it offended them. You know, it's like they

could not understand how all of a sudden this very normal person was all of a

sudden just kind of larger than life, and they didn't know how that happened. They

could not make sense of it, and therefore they were not willing to

believe in him. And, you know, I would say that there are people that we may know of

like that in our life. There are people who are really, really successful, you

know, relatively famous people that I know that are just, to me, they're just

normal people because I've always known them, but they've been highly successful

in the business world, highly successful with social media, highly successful with

sports or something like that, and I've had the privilege to know them and meet

them, and they're just normal people, but to other people they are above just a

normal person. And so his family and his friends and his people from his

original community just cannot move past this, and it seems that Jesus would have

been quite normal enough to be shocking in his abilities as he comes back

during his ministry. Many people have speculated at the things that Jesus did

as a kid and how he may have healed or performed miracles, but this account of

Mark does not give us any indication that Jesus ever did anything miraculous

before this moment among his own people and family. However, the absence of

information does not mean that there was an absence of miracles or that

anything had happened. They may have just been unaware of it, but let's talk

about Jesus just being a carpenter. We automatically begin to visualize someone

in a wood shop making furniture or building things out of wood, but in this

area of the world, wood is not readily available. If you remember, when they

built the temple, Solomon had to import the logs and the beans from another

country. So the term for carpenter during this time meant a broader term as more

of just a builder in general. And more than likely, Jesus would have worked

with stone as it would have been the choice of materials for the day, as

stone was very much available and used in most buildings. More than likely, Jesus

would have worked with stone, and he used the analogy of him being the

cornerstone many times. So it would not be an uncommon or a far-pitched to

say that Jesus was probably more of a stone mason than an actual wood carpenter,

as many of us would like to picture him most of the time. Now this gives us the

age-old saying, this passage gives us the age-old saying, that a prophet is

never honored in their hometown. Many people have said that those who go into

ministry should move away from their hometown in order to do so and to be

effective. And I think this is true for the most part because it is hard to

move past the knowledge of who someone is before the Lord has called them. It's

hard to see how significant someone is when you have known them your whole life

and you take them for granted. And as I've said earlier, there have been people

that I know of in my life that I just look at them as normal people, and I love

them and appreciate them for that, and other people see them as being almost a

celebrity status. But the most profound part of this passage is how the

unbelief hindered Jesus from being able to do much with his own people. He was

able to do very little, and that's really sad when you think about it.

Mark said that their unbelief amazed Jesus, and we don't really see that

anywhere else as Jesus is moving around, that he is so amazed by their unbelief.

It doesn't really indicate that anywhere else in Scripture, but only with his own

hometown. So as a result, he's able to do very little, and he's sad about that.

Mark said that he was unable to fathom how much they could not trust him and the

fact that they were offended by him. To me, that's the biggest thing

is they weren't happy for Jesus. They weren't like, oh well that's really cool.

It's amazing that he's come so far from just being such an ordinary person, but

actually they were offended by him. Jesus offended them, and that really

gives you a result of the heart of most human beings, is that when someone who

you feel like is your equal rises many times, it offends us, or we become jealous

of them, or we try to treat them as, hey you're just a normal guy, you're just a

normal person, and that's very hard for us to deal with as people. But it's

really sad to see in Scripture that it says that Jesus offended them because he

had such wisdom and such miraculous abilities. So let's read the second half

of verse 6 through 13 as Jesus sends out the 12 disciples. It says,

Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people, and he called his 12

disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority to

cast out evil spirits. He told them to take nothing but for their journey

except a walking stick. No food, no traveler's bag, no money. He allowed them

to wear sandals but not take a change of clothes.

Wherever you go he said, stay in the same house until you leave town, but if

any place refuses to welcome you or listen to you, shake its dust from your

feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their faith.

So the disciples went out telling everyone they met to repent of their sins

and turn to God, and they cast out many demons and healed many sick people,

anointing them with olive oil. So after Jesus is rejected, he begins traveling

around from town to town, but now he is also sending his disciples out to do

ministry as well. And this is important as it reveals the true heart of Jesus

to share his ministry with all of us. He doesn't want to hoard the credit and the

fame for himself, but he is very willing to send his disciples out. He gives them

strength, power, and authority in the Holy Spirit to help them do what he had done

and even greater things. And it's important that he told them to take

nothing. There needed to be an aspect of faith on their part that the Lord and

the Lord's people would take care of them. They were called to rely on the

generosity of people that they ministered to, and this is, I'm gonna

tell you, this is a difficult thing, as some people will take really good care

of you and some people won't. You know, one of the things that I tell young

pastors and people who are going into ministry is that some people will

treat you like a king, and some people will treat you like a slave, and you need

to be weary of both people, because it's not good when people lift you up on a

pedestal and treat you like a king, because that can really cause you to

stumble as a minister, and it's not good when people try to treat you like a

slave, because obviously they're not treating you how the Lord would have

them to treat you, or like you should treat anyone else, but there needs to be

some sort of understanding in the life of ministry that we're really reliant on

the Lord and the Lord's people, and that's not always easy, because it doesn't

always happen, so there has to be some faith in that, that God is going to

take care of you. There will be times of blessings, there will be times of

suffering, and we have to be able to be okay with that, so they needed to have

faith. They were called to rely on God's people and rely on God, and there were

strict instructions to stay in the same house when you go to a place, so

that you don't cause disruption or give signs of favoritism, that when you go

and you stay in the first home that someone invites you in, you stay there

until you leave that town.

The first person who was willing to show hospitality got the benefit of the one

presenting the gospel, staying with them and ministering to them. There's a huge

blessing in that. They would have the blessing of the Lord's servants staying

in their homes for their generosity, and then Jesus told them to pronounce a

blessing on those homes. So, if the people refuse, you shake the dust from your

feet, they're going to be people in places that reject them. They're going to

be people in places that reject you as a witness and minister of the gospel.

That's why Jesus gave instructions on how to deal with being welcomed and

dealing with being rejected. If they were rejected, they were to

send a message that they had been abandoned to their own fate, their own

stubbornness, and even the dust from that place will not be taken with them

in any way. But the people had decided their own fate. It is the people's

choice, and I think that's important as Christians. We have a responsibility to

be faithful and serve the Lord, to preach the gospel, to love others, to be

good servants, and in our faithfulness it is always up to the other people to

choose whether or not they will believe in Christ and submit to Him. It is their

own faith. They decided themselves. The disciples will move on to the next

place. They must go to other places where people are willing to listen and

accept the message of the gospel. So, if you present the message of the

gospel to someone they rejected, don't stay there and keep preaching it over

and over and over again. Shake the dust from your feet. Go to a different person.

Preach the message of gospel to someone different. It's interesting that Mark

chooses to show the disciples being victorious in this as there were times

when they were not victorious in casting out demons, which we'll see in

Mark chapter 9 and we saw in Matthew 17 in the previous gospel. So, this is an

Mark 9 · chapter mention

interesting account. Let's read our last section of Scripture verses 14 through

26 as we talk about the death of John the Baptist. So Herod Antipas, the king,

soon heard about Jesus because everyone was talking about him and some were

saying, this must be John the Baptist raised from the dead. This is why he can

do such miracles. Others said he's the prophet Elijah, so others said he's the

prophet like the other great prophets of the past. When Herod heard about Jesus,

he said, John, the man I beheaded, has come back from the dead. For Herod had

sent soldiers to arrest and imprison John as a favor to Herodias. That is Herod's

wife, Herodias. She had been his brother Philip's wife, but Herod had married her.

John had been telling Herod, it is against God's law for you to marry your

brother's wife. So Herodias bore a grudge against John and wanted to kill

him. But without Herod's approval, she was powerless. For Herod respected John

and knowing that he was a good and holy man, he protected him. Herod was

greatly disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so, he liked to listen

to him.

Herodias's chance finally came at Herod's birthday. He gave a party for his

high government officials and army officers and the leading citizens of

Galilee. Then his daughter, also named Herodias, came in and performed a dance

that greatly pleased Herod and his guest.

Ask me for anything you like, the king said to the girl, and I will give it to

you. He even vowed, I will give you whatever you ask up to half my kingdom.

She went out and asked her mother, what should I ask for? Her mother told her, ask

for the head of John the Baptist. So the girl hurried back to the king and

told him, I want the head of John the Baptist right now on the trade. Then the

king deeply regretted what he had said, but because of the vows he made in front

of his guests, he couldn't refuse her, so he immediately sent an executioner to the

prison to cut off John's head and bring it to him. The soldier beheaded John in

the prison, brought his head on a tray and gave it to the girl who took it to

her mother. When John's disciples heard what had happened, they came to get his

body and buried it in a tomb. Alright, so finishing up this chapter today, we have

this very sad account of how John the Baptist's life was ended. Mark gives us one

of the more detailed accounts of the circumstances surrounding John's death as

he directly opposed Herod and Herodias as being married, because Herodias is the

one who had divorced her husband to marry Herod. And Herodias is the one who

really had it out for John and eventually found a way to kill him. I

don't know if you've heard of him, but it's quite interesting to think that Herod

thought John was coming back to haunt him as he heard about Jesus. Mark makes it

seem that John's death happened pretty early in Jesus' ministry, as Herod had

just heard about Jesus right after he had John executed. But many scholars

believe that this dance performed by his stepdaughter would have been very

sexual and provocative to kind of keep that PG. And it goes to show you how

wicked and perverse the culture was during this time and how wicked and

perverse Herod was, that his own daughter would dance for him in that way

and it would please him. Although he was the unrivaled king of the Jews, he was

anything but Jewish as he cared nothing for the law of God, which was the

foundation upon which the Jewish people were built. And so I think as you see

Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, everybody who's gonna come in that line, they

were wicked. And yet there was still something in Herod Antipas that he did

not want to kill John the Baptist. There was something in his heart that was

moved when he spent time with him. He was uneasy but yet he enjoyed it. He

knew John was speaking the truth and he knew that John did not deserve to die.

But much like Pilate, Herod decided to save face rather than do what was right.

He did what was favorable to the crowd and not what was right in the eyes of

God. So he gave John's head on a platter just like Pilate gave Jesus on the

cross to the people of Israel. And so it's really sad to see two of the

most spiritually influential people to ever live. Both were unjustly killed at the

waltz and whims of people who were jealous and bitter over him. And so we

see John the Baptist, he is removed from this situation. You know, for anyone who

would have said that Jesus was John the Baptist come back from the life or

anything like that, they would not have known them very well. They would not have

been very familiar with them because John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins.

They lived at the same time and their ministry happened at the same time.

There was some overlap in their ministry. So anybody who would have said

that Jesus was John the Baptist back from the dead would just have not

known them very well. It would have been a very uninformed resolution to

come to in that way that they would think that because it just was not even

a feasible thing. So that's all I have for you today. I'm gonna pray with you

and let you guys go. Jesus thank you again for this day and this time we

have together. Thank you for watching everything God the Lord. Thank you for

your word and your love and your mercy and I pray God it should speak into our

hearts. Lord as I think back to sending your disciples out and sharing

your ministry with them. What an amazing privilege it is that you want to share

your ministry with all of us. Help us all to be filled with your spirit, to be

mindful of your kingdom and mindful of all the things that you want to do. Lord

Jesus we love you and we thank you for everything. We pray that you would guide

us and help us in all that we do and we ask all this in Jesus' precious and

holy name. Amen. Alright guys thanks for tuning in for another week. Thanks

for being a part of the Graham Chapel family. We love you. We're praying for

you and let us know if we can do anything to serve you. Have a great week

guys.