Jesus Returns to Nazareth

Introduction: Jesus Returns to Nazareth and the Marvel of Unbelief

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 2nd, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 And now if you'll turn with me please to the sixth chapter of Mark's Gospel, Mark's Gospel chapter six, and follow if you will please as I read the first six verses, Mark chapter six, verses one through six.

0:38 Mark, writing of the activity of our Lord, says, And he went out from thence, and he comes into his own country, and his disciples follow him. And when the Sabbath was come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, Whence has this man these things? And what is the wisdom that is given unto this man? And what means such mighty works wrought by his hands?

1:14 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended in him. And Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and among his own people.

1:38 And he was in his own house, and he could do there no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief, and he went round about the villages teaching. Now let us again bow to seek the help of the Spirit of God as we come to grips with this passage. This passage, which in many ways is one of the most sad portions that we will read and study together in all of our expositions of the Gospel of Mark, let us plead that God will help us both to understand its truth and to feel the weight of it upon our hearts. Let us pray.

2:31 Our Father, we have already pleaded to you that in the person of the Spirit you would come and minister to us. And now we come again as with one heart we bow in your presence, confessing that nothing less than a present and powerful ministry of the very Spirit who wrote these words through the pen of Mark must be our portion if we are rightly to understand and rightly to feel the weight of this truth upon our consciences. O Lord, come to us. By the word, O Holy Spirit, have dealings with us, revealing to us the glory of Christ, revealing to us the horror of the sin of unbelief. Come, Holy Spirit, and do that work which you have been sent to accomplish in human hearts. We plead these mercies to the end that the Lord Jesus will be glorified and our own soul will be glorified and our souls profited in our study together. Amen.

3:47 Now, those of you who have been with us know that last Lord's Day morning we completed a section in Mark's Gospel in which four of our Lord's most arresting miracles are recorded. At the end of chapter four in Mark, we have the miracle of the calming of that wild, tempestuous sea by the very word of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. And then in chapter five, the three great miracles, the casting out of the legion of demons from the garrison demoniac, the healing of the woman with an issue of blood which had afflicted her for twelve years, and then the raising of Jairus' twelve-year-old daughter from the dead. Now, the result of these and the other mighty miracles that are recorded in Mark's Gospel are that again and again, the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified and our souls profited in our study together. Amen. And again, men are said to have marveled at our Lord's mighty power and restorative grace.

4:52 No fewer than four times in the first five chapters, it is said that men marveled at the mighty works of the mighty worker, the Lord Jesus. This is asserted in chapter one and verse twenty-two, chapter two, verse twelve, chapter forty. Verse forty-four and verse forty-one, and chapter five and verse forty-two. However, in the passage which is before us today, the action recorded does not result in the amazement and in the marveling of the people, but it directs us to something which caused amazement, astonishment, and marveling on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Amen. The subject of the passage before us can very simply be entitled, Jesus Returns to Nazareth. And what happens when he returns to Nazareth results not in the marveling and the amazement of the multitudes, but in the marveling and the amazement of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

The Return of Jesus Described

6:12 As we attempt to think our way through this passage, we will see that the Lord Jesus Christ returns to Nazareth. And as we go through the passage, notice with me first of all the return of Jesus described. Verse one, the return of Jesus described. Three very simple statements comprise Mark's account of Jesus' return.

6:34 We are first of all told that he went out from Thence. The Thence refers to the area of Capernaum where he had performed. These previously recorded miracles in chapter five. Two of them in the area of Capernaum, one of them across the lake in the area of Gerasa.

6:57 But now Mark in returning, describing his return, simply states that he went out from Thence. From Capernaum, the place of his mighty works. The place where he was constantly in the midst of enthusiasm. Enthusiastic crowds.

7:16 The place, you remember, where he was welcomed by that large welcoming committee back on the seaside when he returned from casting out the demons from the Gerasene demoniac. The place where the multitude so pressed in upon him that scripture uses such strong words as they were choking him, they were suffocating him by the pressure of their presence. He left. He left the area of Capernaum.

7:47 The second thing we are told about his return is that he comes into his own country. Now Mark does not name his own country because he has already told us what that country or city is. In chapter one in verse nine, he has already told us it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth. He came from Nazareth.

8:14 He rose from Nazareth. He has risen from Nazareth. And he has chosen to be born again in the name of his father Jesus. He is the son of Goliath.

8:18 He is the son of Galilee. And then in verse 24 of the same chapter, what have we to do with thee Jesus thou Nazarene. And you will remember through your reading in the gospels and in the book of Acts, Jesus is referred to time and time again as Jesus of Nazareth. Though he had been born in Bethlehem, had removed to Nazareth and for a short time went down into Egypt to be protected by God from Herod's attempt to kill him. He returned to Nazareth, and we are told both in Matthew 2.23 and Luke 2.39 and 40 and verse 51 that Nazareth was the place of his dwelling from his infancy. And we ought to think for a moment of what a privileged city Nazareth was. Of all of the cities in Palestine, it was that city about

9:16 a day's journey south and west of the northern shore of Galilee where Capernaum is found. If you think of the Sea of Galilee like my hand, Capernaum here, the Jordan River running down out of the Sea of Galilee into the Dead Sea, Jerusalem here, Nazareth is up in the Galilee. In the Galileean region, about ten miles due west and a little south of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee, about a day's journey from the city of Capernaum. And it was here in the city of Nazareth that the townspeople of Nazareth had a privilege denied every other city and town, village, metropolis, hamlet upon the face of the earth throughout all the generations of mankind. It was in Nazareth that people were privileged to see, passing through every stage of normal development, the only person in whom was ever found, perpetual, real, ordinary, but sinless humanity joined to full, undiminished, essential deity. The gospel record tells us in Luke that when he went down to the city of Nazareth, he was found in the city of Capernaum. And he was

10:38 subject to his parents in Nazareth, that it was there that he grew in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and with men. It was from Nazareth that he would go down to Jerusalem with his parents at the annual feasts. It was in Nazareth that Jesus would have had playmates with whom he played as a toddler. It was in Nazareth that he would have developed childhood friendships with his parents. It was in Nazareth that they saw him develop into a young man with a keen mind and with earnest application to the trade that he was learning from his father. Blessed Nazareth, the only place upon the face of the earth that had as its favored son the incarnate God. And Mark tells us that he left the area of Capernaum and he cometh into Nazareth. To his own country. And then in describing the return, he gives us a third fact, that he comes with his

11:46 following disciples. And his disciples follow him. Now this could refer exclusively to the twelve, for sometimes they are designated as the disciples, or as we have seen in previous studies, it could refer to the twelve plus. That inner circle of the disciples is the inner circle of the disciples.

12:08 The inner circle of devoted adherence to Jesus, whom he described at the end of chapter three as constituting his spiritual family, pointing to those who were gathered around him. With the twelve, he said, these who hear and do the word of God, they are my brothers, my sisters, and my mother. And so the return to his hometown is described very simply by Mark in terms of the terms of these three verbs. He went out from thence, he comes to his own country, and his disciples follow him. Unlike the return to Capernaum after the excursion to the Gerasene area, there is no record of anyone coming out to meet him. Now think of it for a moment. The subsequent data in the passage clearly reveals that they were very much aware of the mighty work that he had done.

13:08 They were very much aware that this was no ordinary son of Nazareth. And in a very real sense, he was indeed that city's favored son. But unlike the attention and the honor paid to the favored son in our towns and cities, there was no welcoming committee to greet him. In our day, when a certain team was the world's series, not only is that team welcomed to its home city, be it Detroit, New York, or Los Angeles, wherever it is, by a ticker tape parade, but then after those more general recognitions, when the individual members go back to their hometown, often the town's favored son is recognized in a very special way. This is true of astronauts and Olympic athletes and many others.

14:08 But Mark, who is a stickler for details, records with a simplicity that is almost shocking that as the Lord Jesus returns to Nazareth, there is no indication whatsoever that his coming to town made any stir upon the populace. No one goes out to greet him. He has a handful of his followers who, coming behind him, enter the city. Now, having looked at Mark's description of the return, consider in the second place the activity of Jesus upon returning.

The Activity of Jesus Upon Returning

14:48 Verse 2, And when the Sabbath was come, he began to teach in the synagogue. Having described his return to Nazareth, Mark now sets before us the activity of Jesus upon returning. We are not told what day it was on which he returned. There seems to be a suggestion that he returned somewhere midweek, and after the passing of at least a day or two, or possibly three or four days, he then appears in the synagogue and assumes the position of a teacher. From our previous studies in the Gospel of Mark, we know that this was not unique to our Lord. As a young man, he would be given by the ruler of the synagogue permission to stand and to read from the Scriptures and then to sit and to expound the Word of God. And since it was customary in these towns for people to go to the synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath day, perhaps the report of his being back in town had swelled the attendance a bit on that particular day.

16:05 We do know that he had had previous visits to his hometown of Nazareth. One previous visit some months before is described in Luke's Gospel, chapter 4 and verse 16. And on that occasion it is said that they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from his mouth. And so perhaps the news that he was in town and the remembrance of his past patterns at least stirred up enough interest.

16:35 That on that given Sabbath day, synagogue attendance was somewhat more increased than usual. And as Jesus comes into the synagogue, he follows his ordinary pattern of teaching the Word of God. And let me just note in passing that here, as in every place, Jesus gave first place and primacy to the public reading, exposition, and application of the Word of God. And that's the only activity thus far recorded of our Lord Jesus after his return to his hometown of Nazareth.

The Response to Jesus' Teaching: Astonishment and Offense

17:17 Now having seen what Mark tells us about the return itself, secondly, the activity of Jesus upon returning, now note in the third place the response to his teaching. What was the response to the teaching of Jesus? Well, Mark records two specific responses. Verse 2, they were astonished.

17:44 At the end of verse 3, they were offended. They were astonished and they were offended. First of all then, they were astonished. And here again Mark uses one of his vigorous words.

18:03 It's a strong word. It means to be amazed, to be overwhelmed. The same word used in chapter 1 and verse 22. They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority and not as their scribes.

18:24 And in their astonishment, Mark tells us, they begin to ask some questions. Notice the language. And many hearing him. Many hearing him were astonished, saying, their astonishment provoked the questions.

18:42 And it's important for us to see that connection. Their astonishment did not lead to worship. Their astonishment did not lead to faith. It led to three questions.

18:57 Notice those questions. They were astonished, saying, Whence has this man these things? And what is the wisdom that is given unto this man? And what means such mighty works wrought by his hands?

19:20 Now do you see what the questions are concerned about? The questions are concerned with the matter of the origin or the source of his astounding teaching, his penetrating wisdom, and the mighty works of which they had been hearing continually. Whence, whence, whence. And that emphasis is even more forcefully underscored in the parallel passage in Matthew 13.

19:51 Turn there for a moment, please. I want to validate this because it's crucial to our understanding of the passage. In Matthew 13, 54, the parallel passage, Matthew writes, And coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue insomuch that they were astonished and said, Whence has this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Verse 56, And his sisters, are they not all with us?

20:27 Whence, then, hath this man all these things? So it is a question, of the source or the origin of the astounding teaching, the penetrating wisdom, and the mighty works. Then, as though answering their own questions, they begin a process of elimination as to the source of both the power in his teaching, the penetrating wisdom, and the miracle-working power. They go on then to say, as though answering their own question, Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon, and Arne, with us?

21:31 Whence is our amazement? Whence things we know must be doing, for so many witnesses have testified to his mighty works, that we cannot write these things off as mere fables and rumors, where does this power come from? What is the source of these things? Is not he the carpenter?

21:58 Well, then, it cannot be that his powerful teaching was learned from one of the rabbis, for he did not have the luxury of sitting at the feet of a notable rabbi, as Saul of Tarsus spent years sitting at the feet of Gamaliel. This is the carpenter. And Matthew says, Is he not the son of the carpenter? He's our hometown boy.

22:26 When we went to have a yoke made for our oxen and went to Joseph's carpenter shop, we remember seeing him not at the feet of a rabbi in another room, but there at the carpenter's bench with his father. And when we needed some artifact or some piece of furniture manufactured, and we went to the local carpenter shop and saw Joseph there, Jesus, was always there, until we saw him develop into a carpenter of great skill in his own right. Do not some of us have the very things that he manufactured with his own hands in our own homes? Whence?

23:06 Whence this authority? Whence this power? It certainly doesn't come from some association with the rabbis and with the ordinary teachers. Is not this the carpenter?

23:20 Well, can it be that it comes from God? That it comes from some unusual association by way of bloodlines? That he comes from some unusual royalty? That he comes out of a circle in which he's had unusual influences brought to bear upon him, that it molded and shaped him into what he is?

23:40 And they answer the question for themselves. They say, Is not this one the son of Mary? And the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us, probably married by then and living in the town?

23:57 He does not come from any extraordinary lineage. He was just one son among many brothers and sisters. Whence? Think of the pressure now of what they're wrestling with.

24:14 They cannot deny the usual authority in teaching. It has caused them to be astounded. They cannot deny his penetrating wisdom. It has shocked them.

24:30 He has handled the scripture. They are not ready to refute the hundreds of witnesses to his mighty works in the Upper Galilean region. They cannot deny these things, but it's the sin that troubles them. Where does he get them?

24:47 It can't be from his training. He's a carpenter by trade and association. It cannot be from his lineage and ordinary filial associations. He has an ordinary mother.

25:00 Ordinary brothers. Ordinary sisters who are yet here amongst us. Whence this man, these? Well, you see, once they've ruled out that it did not come from any special training at the feet of the profoundest religious thinkers of the day, once they've ruled out that it did not come from some unusual breeding and upbringing, you see, it left only one of two alternatives.

25:30 It either came from God or from the devil. It came from God. It came from God. But there was a power at work that they could not in ordinary life.

25:46 If he received none of these things from our leaders in the ordinary instruction, if he had no special endowments by birth and family associations, then either he's received them from God or from the devil, and the former were not prepared to acknowledge, and though some of the scribes and the Pharisees had already professed. professed the latter they were not prepared to take that position either and you know what happened the second thing that mark tells us look at verse 3 and they did in him now that word offend stumble it comes from a word that referred a wooden stick that was a snare that was arranged to catch an animal and over it one would stumble to his destruction and the passive verb is used

26:50 of Jesus the order origins the ordinariness of his occupation the ordinariness of all was a stumbling block to them and it was the intimacy of their knowledge of him in all and with what they knew that them to the place what he claimed to be on a visit to the temple of Jesus Christ and they were recorded in Luke 4, 6 following, when in the synagogue of Nazareth He stood and read from the prophecy of Isaiah and said, This day this word is fulfilled in your ears, Messiah, upon whom the Spirit has come with power to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of sight to the blind. But they could not embrace that and they were caused to stumble.

The Reaction of Jesus to Their Response

28:19 They felt it would be a free but accurate paraphrase of Mark's words. Well then, consider now in the fourth place the reaction of Jesus to their response.

28:40 How does Jesus react to their response? Their response was amazement, giving birth to the questions of the source and the origin of His power, resulting in their stumbling. How does Jesus react? Three things are recorded.

28:58 First of all, He repeats an aphorism. Now an aphorism is a short, concise statement of a principle. When you say it's the early bird that gets the worm, you're using an aphorism. There's an aphorism among the Pennsylvania Dutch.

29:17 He's too soon old and too late smart.

29:21 And what they mean is we grow old much quicker than we grow wise. It's an aphorism, a short, concise statement of a principle. Now in response,

29:35 leading to their stumbling, the first thing Jesus does is to repeat an aphorism, a statement they had heard perhaps many times. They had at least heard it once before from the lips of Jesus in that very synagogue as recorded in Luke chapter 4. Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not a prophet, not without honor, save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

30:08 Now what is the meaning of this aphorism? Is it a statement that a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own country and his own house? No, that isn't what the text says, and it isn't what the aphorism said. Prophets many times were dishonored in many places.

30:27 But what he is saying is, and this is this aphorism, this little catch saying that if a prophet receives honor, and for a prophet to receive honor means simply he's received as a messenger of God, for that's what he is. When you honor the king, you treat him for what he is, the king. When you honor a policeman, you treat him for what he is, a representative of the existing powers of the law. To honor a prophet is to recognize him for what he is, a mouthpiece of God who speaks the word.

31:01 Now, this little aphorism states that if a prophet receives honor, if he is received as a messenger of God, it is seldom in the threefold circle of his own town, his own relatives, and his own household. Notice, a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, among his own kin, and in his own house. It was a common saying. He had already used, he had already used it earlier at Nazareth.

31:34 He's saying their very familiarity with him as a man breeds for him as a man of God. You see it? Their very familiarity with him as a man breeds for him as a man and messenger of God. So the reaction of Jesus is first of all to repeat this aphorism.

32:02 Secondly, he restrains his healing power. Verse five. And he could do their mighty work save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. Literally, the text says he was unable to do many mighty works.

32:25 Unable? Unable? Is Mark saying that the prevailing of Nazareth, his bold sick folk, who broke through the prevailing spirit of unbelief and skepticism and rationalism and Jesus manifesting the grace and tenderness of his heart even in the midst of that thick, heavy, smogged spiritual atmosphere reached out and touched some and healed them. And then the third thing he did, he reacts with amazement, repeats his aphorism, restrains his healing power, but then verse six says he reacts with amazement. Do you know how many times in the gospels it is said that Jesus was amazed? There are only two in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

33:53 that it is said that Jesus was ever amazed, or two incidents. One incident recorded in Matthew and in Luke pertained to that Gentile centurion who believed that Jesus could heal his servant at a distance with a word. And we read in Luke 7, 9 that Jesus was amazed. That is the first thing Jesus is said to marvel at and this is the second and the only other one.

34:32 Only twice in all of the gospel records is it said that Jesus marveled at something and isn't it interesting? He marveled at strong faith and he marveled at this horrible spirit of unbelief. And he marveled because or on account of their unbelief. He was amazed.

Application 1: The Patience, Long-Suffering, and Aggressiveness of Jesus' Love

35:02 He was filled with marvel and wonder that the unbelief of his townspeople would be so deep, so pervasive, and so persistent that it created a moral in which it was impossible for him to do many mighty works. Now having examined the record of the return of Jesus to his hometown, having looked at the details of the passage with regard to his activity, the response of the people to his activity, and then the reaction of Jesus to their response, we now ask the question, what does all of this say to us? What does the entrance of the Son of God to his hometown of Nazareth 2,000 years ago have to do with some 500 people gathered in Montville, New Jersey on the first Lord's Day of June in 1985? Well, let me lay before you three very pointed lines of application. Number one is this.

36:13 Learn from this passage the patience, long-suffering, and aggressiveness of the love of Jesus. Learn from this passage the patience, the long-suffering, and the aggressiveness of the love of Jesus. If you will turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, you will notice that the last time he had been in Nazareth, as far as we know from the record, any other visits that he may have made are unrecorded. He did not leave the town with everyone standing on the edge of the town waving to him, saying, The blessing of Jehovah be upon you as you go forth to preach. We read in Luke 4, 29 and 30, or verse 28 through 30, these words, And they were all filled with wrath in the synagogue as they heard these things. And they rose up and cast him forth out of the city, led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.

37:37 When Jesus had finished preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth, a sermon in which he had asserted his own stupendous claims to being the Messiah, and then preached a sermon on the sovereignty of God in the dispensation of his grace, illustrated in the widows in the days of Elijah and the lepers in the days of Elisha, the response of that synagogue crowd, the same crowd that Mark tells us is now amazed, was to cast him out of the city to try to take him to a precipice and throw him down headlong. The last sight he had of his townspeople was a sight in which the hate of murder was in their countenances and in their designs. Now, some months later, with no record of any official apology, no representative coming out to plead on behalf of the synagogue or the townspeople that Jesus would come and give them another opportunity to hear his message, as the reports filter down, and you remember Mark is careful to say the reports filtered all the way down into the borders of Gentile land on the southeast and Gentile territory on the northwest, surely in Nazareth the reports

39:05 were flooding in daily. He's healing the sick. He's opening the eyes of the blind. He's speaking words of grace and pardon to the vilest of sinners.

39:17 He's showing mercy to publicans and to harlots. The reports would filter in day after day. After we mourned, the posture to him was throw him down. No official apology, no repentance, no subsequent action to show that they had reconsidered.

39:43 And as far as Jesus knew, that same disposition would meet him upon his return. Why in God's name did he go back? Why? Why did he go back to a people who didn't want him?

40:00 When he said, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. To do what? Not to harm, but to deliver and to heal and to impart grace. And they take one who says, I am anointed.

40:14 If I go back to such a people like that, you see something of the heart of God in his patience, his long suffering, and I know not what else to call it, but the aggressiveness, of his love, is mirrored in the action of the Lord Jesus. This was not the only time. You'll remember some of you, I'm sure, the incident recorded in John's Gospel, chapter 11, where Jesus said to the disciples in verse 7, after this he said to the disciples, let's go to Judea again. And the disciples said unto him, Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and do you go thither again? You know what their disposition is. A short while ago they were set upon your destruction. You're not going back there, are you?

41:10 But he did. Oh, dear people, what a picture, what a picture, of the patience, the long suffering, and the aggressiveness of the love of Jesus. I'm speaking this morning to men and women, boys and girls, who've shown exactly the same disposition as the dwellers in Nazareth, Christ has come to you in the Gospel, not once, not twice, not three times, four, but dozens and hundreds of times. He's been set before you, not as a narrow-hearted, tight-fisted tyrant, who wants to impose a vicious and crippling, unreasonable will upon you. No, he's been set before you in all the plenitude of his grace, and compassion to sinners. You've heard his own word of invitation, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

42:25 He's been set before you as we've preached through the Gospel of Mark, as the one who delights to cast out the demons of sin, of our pride, and our ambition, and our self-centeredness, and our hypersensitivity, and all of these other soul-withering sins. Christ in his grace and mercy, as anointed of the Father, Jesus who's been held before you. And what's been your disposition to this very hour? Take him out to the nearest hill!

43:05 Oh no, not literally, but spiritually that's what you've done. Away with him! His claims, his offers of mercy, his gracious demands to acknowledge him as God and Lord, and say, I want to be thankful for the patience, the long suffering, and the aggressiveness of the love of Jesus. For it's that aggressive love that has kept you alive to this very hour. It's that patience and long suffering that has kept your sanity, that you're able even to understand the words that I'm speaking. It is that patience and long suffering and aggressive love that has kept this pulpit preaching the gospel and holding up a mighty, a gracious, a willing savior of sinners. But my friend, the aggressiveness of his love, the scripture says, my spirit will not always strive.

44:31 And many of these who stumbled over him, stumbled never to rise again. For I remind you that shortly before his crucifixion, Jesus, behold, that nation that had rejected him, said henceforth, your house is left unto you desolate. Oh, dear people, learn from this passage the patience, the long suffering, and the aggressiveness of the love of Jesus. But do not despise it to your destruction.

45:10 And child of God, may I remind you of John's words. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. There's that unsaved son or daughter, husband or wife, neighbor. And every time you've sought to do them good, you've been met not just with indifference, but with hostility and resistance.

45:36 What are you to do? You're to be like your Savior. You're to continue to track them down with your prayers. Track them down with kindness.

45:46 Do good to them that despitefully use you. Though there isn't the slightest indication that they want the overtures of mercy, continue to manifest the graciousness and the patience and the aggressiveness of the love of Christ. For the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. If peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him unto his will.

Application 2: Familiarity Breeds Contempt for Spiritual Privileges

46:27 We learn from Jesus' return to Nazareth unsought, unwelcomed, unappreciated, meeting with a growing spirit of unbelief. We learn, I say, something of his patience, of his long suffering and the aggressiveness of his love. But in the second place, learn from this passage the frightening possibility that familiarity with the greatest privileges can breed the most frightening contempt. Familiarity with the greatest privileges can be the breeding ground of the most frightening contempt. There was only one town, Palestine, that had the privilege of the incarnate God and Son. Never once did they hear an angry word from his lips. Never once did they see anything in his conduct

47:55 that could be called the slightest deviation from the holy law of his Father. But it was that very thing that became the breed of contempt where they had never seen him as a child, never seen him as a teenager,

48:53 never seen him as a young man. Not for the people in Nazareth, but you see that very familiarity bred a contempt that cursed them in unbelief. What a horrible, horrible, horrible reality. And all I can say is, would God, that that reality had ended with the cessation of that generation.

49:31 But the principle is the same to this very hour. I want to speak a word to those of you you see who have had Jesus in your streets for years, born in a Christian home, nurtured under the sound of his voice in Scripture, nurtured under the sound of his voice in a Sunday school class, nurtured under the overtures of his gracious words from the pulpit. You have had, as it were, shoulder to shoulder contact with Christ day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in, year out, from your mother's breast. You've seen him in his people unlike the Savior who was never stained. You've seen the sins of his people, but you've seen his people mourn over their sins. You've seen mom and dad come to you when they've been short of temper, when they've wrongly judged you, and you've seen them at times with tears ask your forgiveness.

50:38 You've seen real Christianity in the body of Christ. And it's that very familiarity with Jesus in his word and his people that has bred contempt for him, for his word, and for his people. When one hears the stories of what's going on even now in this generation in parts of the world where for centuries men and women have never heard the gospel, and where the very announcement that someone will come and speak from the word of God will bring tens of thousands flocking together under burning African suns to stand or sit for hours. I've talked to men who've looked into a sea of darned faces in many parts of the third world, and I've heard them tell me how they've preached for two, begin to nod in the news and look at their watches. What is our fraud? Our familiarity is the best thing God could do.

52:07 Our privileges so that there was no Bible to read, there were no Christ-centered sermons to hear, there was no visible representation of Christ and his people, and we tried to make it in this parish. And perhaps we begin to appreciate a little more our high and holy privileges. You see, what is true in a general sense is true even more specifically when God is pleased in his will and providence to give a church a lengthy ministry. And I believe I've been here long enough, and why I'm here is plain enough to all of you who know me at all that I can say this without being misunderstood. Familiarity breeds contempt. Do you know what I have to do when I go to many other places? I have to prove to people that if I eat garlic, my breath smells as bad as theirs, and that if I don't use deodorant, I have the same social problem as anyone else.

53:26 They have this bigger-than-life image of Pastor Martin. They've been helped by just a little mechanical preacher. For years, they've thirsted and hungered for some honest, plain, forthright deal, forthright dealing with the Word of God. And they've had a little cassette here and a cassette there, and their souls have fed upon it.

53:49 And they have this bigger-than-life image. We had someone here just two weekends ago threatened at the very thought of shaking my hand. Such a bigger-than-life image. What a joy it is to let people know that I'm made of the same stuff that they are, and to let them know that I'm a man of like passions, a privilege that all of you have week by week in this place, as your flesh is pressed at the door and your eyes are greeted and your children are loved.

54:22 They say, Pastor, what are you emphasizing this for? For the simple reason I fear some of you have allowed that familiarity to breed contempt. And it's not a wounding of my ego. If I wanted to feed my ego, all I'd need to do would be go full-time into that other kind of ministry where everywhere I go, front and center, oh, you're Pastor Martin.

54:47 And then they somehow expect a faith when I breathe. Yes. If I had some problem with ego that needed to be fed, just make it known I'm available for that. At this conference last week, a man who's been writing me a letter for three years pleading, can you come for even two or three days between Sundays?

55:12 A man 40 miles from here been pleading for four years, can you come for just one Sunday? That keeps me here. It's the law of your conformity to Christ. Yet with some of you, the familiarity has bred contempt.

55:35 There was a time when you hung upon every word. There was a time when you esteemed in love very highly Christ's servants. Do you know what's happened? Whence this interest?

55:59 Whence this authority? Whence this sense of God? Is not this the man that we know? Has he not been with us X number of years?

56:11 Do we not? Yes, that's all true. And you've been around long enough to know the sins which more than once have been confessed in your presence where necessary. But I plead with you, my dear people, don't let my ongoing ministry be the occasion of breeding contempt.

56:32 Because if you have contempt for me as God's servant or any other man who stands in this pulpit, you cannot profit from that preaching. It may cause amazement. You may have to sit and say there is something at work beyond human personality, beyond the gifts of human utterance that God may have given. God is upon that ministry and you may be amazed and astounded and still stumble, fail to profit.

57:05 If it can happen with the Son of God Himself, it can happen with any of His lesser servants. This is why Charles Wesley said, he said, I fear if I stayed in one place longer than a year, I would preach both myself and my hearers into hell. That's what Charles Wesley said. You know what he meant by that?

57:39 He feared that being a resident pastor, his voice would become so ordinary that people would no longer hear him and that he would lose the edge of his own sense of urgency and freshness. Because of his familiarity with the people. I don't believe either of those things are necessary. And I know in answer to the prayers of many of you, God can keep me and all the other men who minister in this pulpit fresh.

58:09 And I know from the testimony of some of you who have been with us for 22 years that God can keep you coming each Lord's Day like it were the first time. Now I've spoken frankly and I believe the relationship I sustain to you makes it proper that I should speak so frankly. Has familiarity bred contempt? If so, own up to it.

58:37 Not with me. Deal with God. Deal with God. And ask God to give you back that freshness you once knew when you counted as it were the hours between Lord's Days.

Application 3: The Crucial Place of Faith and Unbelief

58:51 When you came and there was that eagerness because at last you'd found a place where no matter who was in the pulpit you knew this much, you were going to get 16 ounces to the pound. Bible, the Word of God was going to be handled accurately and warmly and earnestly and passionately and would be brought home to your conscience with earnestness, tenderness, with pointedness, with sharpness where necessary. But then I conclude briefly with this third application. Learn from this passage the crucial place of faith and unbelief in response to Jesus and His claims.

59:34 The crucial place of faith and unbelief in response to Jesus and His claims. What did He marvel at? He marveled at their unbelief. Here they're saying on the one hand we acknowledge that you are no ordinary man.

59:55 Whence hath ye these things? We acknowledge that you're doing these mighty works. Whence are these mighty works? Whence this wisdom?

60:08 They had all pressing in upon them from every side saying Jesus is God's Messiah! Jesus is God's Son! Own Him! Worship Him!

60:23 Trust Him! And when all of that was pressing in and they even confessed it and still did not believe but were caused to stumble Jesus in His human spirit may I say it reverently He put His hands to His head and said how can it be in the face of all of this evidence acknowledged by their own lips yet they still do not believe. Faith says if Jesus is what He claims to be and if His words are what He claims them to be then I have no alternative but to give myself to Him and to obey Him and to trust Him. Unbelief looks at all the evidence and finds any explanation but the one that brings us broken and trusting to the feet of Jesus. And oh what a word to us as a church as I've meditated upon these verses I said oh God may it never be said that in Trinity Church Jesus could do there there in Trinity Church no mighty works because of their unbelief. Yes He can work sovereignly. There was no faith

61:43 in the demoniac. This is not saying that Jesus only performed miracles where He was met with faith. He cast out the demon by His own power without any faith on the part of the demoniac. But the general principle is according to your faith be it unto you.

62:03 Oh dear people of God at Trinity may it never be said He does there not many mighty works because of unbelief. All that God has done for us is but a trickle of what He's able to do. Where He has been pleased to save the tens and the twenties can He not save the dozens and the hundreds? And where He's been pleased to cause our vines to spill over the wall and touch people here and there can He not multiply it a thousand fold?

62:38 Is there any want of power in our mighty exalted and reigning Savior? Oh if there is one prayer we ought to pray as a people it is this Lord increase our faith increase our faith faith fueled by the promises of God faith fueled by large views of God's glory and His purposes until we so lay hold of God in believing prayer that we see God do things that will cause us like those in Psalm 126 when the Lord turned the captivity of Zion we were like unto them that dream. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see God doing such things that we'd sit here and say I must be dreaming and have to pinch ourselves and say no it's happening God is doing this. Why? Not because of who we are but because He finds a people prepared to believe His word to trust Him that He will glorify Himself. A sad story a sad ending but filled with helpful lessons that can have a happy ending if we lay those lessons to heart and by the grace of God live in the light of them.

Prayer

64:01 Let us pray. Father we thank You for Your word we never cease to marvel at the freshness of Your word that these documents written hundreds of years ago are a living word that speak to us in our present circumstances and oh we ask that the word preached this morning will bear abundant fruit we pray for any who have been running from that gracious aggressive love of our Savior oh Lord overtake them this morning and arrest them in Your grace we pray for any who have begun to have a spirit of contempt with the word preached in this place because of familiarity with it and sit and nitpick at this and that or the other while thousands hunger and thirst for a word of life and power from Your lips oh God deliver us from that cursed sin and then we earnestly pray that You drive the spirit of unbelief from our hearts we do not want it to be said of us that You could not do many mighty works here because of a climate of unbelief oh Lord Jesus so show us Your glory

65:30 that we will trust You for great and marvelous things to bring glory and honor to Your own worthy name hear our prayer may the blessings of Your grace rest upon us as we leave this place hear us as we plead these mercies for Your dear name's sake Amen