If you had to think what would be the three most important words for a human being to consider, what would they be? What would those three most important words be? As a husband, I'm tempted to say, "Luella is wonderful!" Very important for me to say, I should say that, but those aren't the three most important words. The three most important words probably that you could ever speak are, "Jesus is God!" Because once you believe that, once you embrace the radical truth that this human being who walked on earth, whom you could hear, whom you could touch, whom you could see, was in fact the Son of God, everything in your life changes, everything you think about what is, you will think about in a different way.
It Will Rock You to Your Core
It's impossible for your world to be the same; it will rock you to your core. And if it doesn't, the question is, do you actually believe what you think you believe? It's really this issue - 'Jesus is God' - that is all that Mark is about. And there's a way because of that that Mark 6 is a bit of an epicenter of that thought, because we really get to see people grappling with the fact that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, really is the Son of God. Turn there in your church Bibles, if you would, to page 841, Mark 6.
Jesus is in His hometown, not really much of a place, craggily little hill town, Nazareth; probably in these days had the huge population of about 500. That sort of means everybody knew everybody. If you're a big-city person, you don't understand that; if you're from a small town, you know what it's like to be well-known. Jesus's family would've been known. As Jesus grew up there, He would have been known. And so that's the circumstance of the passage; that's the location. We find Jesus once again in the synagogue.
He would rise to teach, and the zeal of Christ's teaching is exactly what the zeal for preaching today should be, to argue that every Scripture you could ever look at is about Christ. And Jesus would rise up, and He would teach that these Scriptures, these Old Testament Scriptures, were fulfilled in Him. Now you can imagine how outrageous that claim would seem to be to people. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son; His mom was Mary. We know His brothers and sisters. And so that puts this question in the minds of these people.
Here it is: "Who is this man Jesus?" It really is the question of questions. And there really are two sub questions that lead to this big question. The first one is: "Where in the world does He get His wisdom?" No one has taught with this kind of wisdom; no one has said the things that this one has said. Where is His wisdom? What is the source of His teaching? Well, that's easy! His name is 'Wisdom'--in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The second question: "How in the world does He do the things that He does?"
Surely you know already if you've been here or if you have studied Mark that the crowds are after Jesus because the word's out there's a miracle worker among us. And maybe even the message has gotten to Nazareth that this one walked into the house of a synagogue ruler whose daughter had died and touched her hand and she came to life again. Who is this guy? Now there's something we need to say about this question. You couldn't ask this question if you hadn't first been the recipient of grace because God was unwilling for His world to live in its broken state, and God knew that the alternate solution for the brokenness of the world was Himself.
And so God incarnates Himself, and He comes and Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God. Jesus is the ultimate manifestation of God's glory. Jesus is God's final sermon--it's Jesus. And if your eyes are ever able to see the glory of God, if your ears are ever able to hear the truth of God, if your mind is able to consider the person and work of Jesus, you have been given grace. God is giving you an opportunity; He is revealing Himself to you. Imagine for a moment being in that synagogue; imagine being so blessed as to see the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Messiah, the thing that the world has groaned for now here, begin to open the Scriptures!
What amazing grace! That grace can only have one adjective -- amazing! Newton got it right. I have to say this, that the Gospel of Mark, along with the other Gospels because of this grace of display of God's glory in Christ, doesn't leave us the comfortable liberty of a superficial, politically-correct acceptance of Jesus. You can't read the Gospels and say that He was a great man; that's not enough. You can't read the Gospels and say He was a wonderful prophet, that He was a man of unusual compassion.
The Hope of the Universe
You're not left that liberty because the Gospels declare--this is the hope of the universe; this is the fulfillment of the prophets; this is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. And so He is the Son of God, or He's a raving lunatic, or a devious blasphemer; but you can't have a casual response to Him in the face of this kind of revelation - it's impossible! And the only response is to bow to His divinity, to live in light of His Lordship, to find His glory a greater glory than any other glory you ever pursued.
So it's the right question to ask because there has been a tremendous display of God's glory. But sadly, the home-towners give the wrong answer, and they give the wrong answer because they actually follow the wrong process of thinking. Here it is: "We know where He's from; we know His mother; we know His siblings ... He cannot be who He's claiming to be." And so they take offense. It's exactly what unbelief does with grace. Now I think this is a very important place for us to stop and consider what is actually being displayed here because this is a very, very important critique of human culture.
And I would say, even more the modern culture in which we live. I don't know if you have thought about this or not, but the surrounding world actually says that unbelief is the only way to accurately understand what is. That you have to clear your mind of the superstitious thoughts of faith and rely upon human research, human experience, and human reason in order to properly understand what is. "Belief won't get you there. Belief will get in the way of that. This mystical faith in a God you can't see and you can't touch and you can't hear and you can't quantify will never ever get you at the proper understanding of what is."
This crescendo of reliance on human reason really got ushered in the Enlightenment. As I was thinking about this, I came across this incredible quote by Thomas Paine. You know Thomas Paine was a great American patriot; in case you didn't know this, not a Christian. He says this, "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, not by any church that I know of. (Ready for this?) My mind is my only church."
As you hear Thomas Paine, and you say, "What a horrible thing?" I would ask you, "What do you do in those moments where God's call to you doesn't seem to make sense to you? What do you do in those moments where you're tempted to think perhaps you know better than God does?" Now what is actually true is this, that the ultimate fact of facts which exegetes and explains every other fact a human being could consider is the existence, the plan, and the character of God. You can't understand life if you don't start with faith in God.
I love what John Calvin said, "There is no knowing that doesn't begin with knowing God." And the epicenter of knowing God is embracing the truth of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this means that, as human beings, we were created to be dependent on the revelation of God in order to properly understand life. You can't just take your horizontal view of experience, your horizontal understanding of the situation, horizontal human research, the best of human reason and understand what is.
And you see that powerfully depicted in Genesis 1. If you remember, what's the first thing God does immediately upon creating Adam and Eve? Do you know? He talks to them; because although at that moment they are perfect people living in a perfect world living in a perfect relationship to God, God knew they did not have the capacity to figure life out on their own. God knew that they needed truth outside of themselves in order to make sense out of life. And so God immediately began to explain to them their meaning and purpose and moral boundaries for their living and the nature of their relationship to Him because they needed that revelation in order to understand life.
Unbelief Is Never Okay
Faith in God is the portal to knowledge; it's the portal to wisdom. Unbelief is the ultimate distortion of what is. And so unbelief is never okay; it's always dangerous; it's always destructive; it always leads to trouble. Because of unbelief, Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden. Because of unbelief, the children of Israel were led into captivity. Because of unbelief, Jesus had to die. What a powerful thing is being depicted here in face of the beauty and glory and gracious love of God's personal revelation of Himself in the person of Jesus.
People look around and they say this, "Reason tells us this man can't be who He claims to be," and they actually, rather than celebrating, rather than worshiping, rather than feeling a deep sense of privilege, they are offended at the claim. Pretty powerful. What a result. People who were made for relationship with God whose identity and meaning and purpose is meant to be found in the One who stands before them, reject Him and reject His claims! Jesus says this, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household."
Now, you need to understand what Jesus is saying. Most times a prophet doesn't get the honor at home that he gets elsewhere because the people at home know him. I travel a lot and when I'm on those weekends, people have a totally unrealistic view of who Paul Tripp is. After someone will say something unrealistically sweet to me, I have a couple things that I say: "Well, you don't have to live with me." Sometimes I say: "I could give you Luella's number and help you to reach greater clarity in terms of who I am."
Because the closer you are to someone, the more you see the realistic warts and failures and weaknesses. Christ is not saying that. He is saying that the closer people are to me, the more there is a struggle between what seems reasonable and this amazing thing that God is doing that He's actually revealed Himself in human form. And then Mark makes this editorial note that Jesus couldn't do His mighty work there, and He goes off to other villages, not saying that Jesus was hamstrung by the response, but Jesus responded to faith, and He went where that faith would be to continue His work.
Now it would be very easy in a passage like this for you to step aside from it and to say, "My, what terrible people they were!" And I would be so bold as to propose that perhaps this war between belief and unbelief, this war between submitting to the claims of the Gospel and my reliance on what seems reasonable to me, still exists in this room. Do you really believe for example, do you, that in Jesus, you have been given everything you need for life and godliness? Do you believe that? As a parent this week, did you actually believe that truth?
Did you live with courage and continuance and perseverance and hope, not because your children are easy to parent, but because you believe the truth of the Gospel; you believe you've been supplied with everything you need, and you step forth again to have that conversation for 1000th time, glad that you have been amply supplied for the task you have been given? Or do you walk down the hallway, "I can't believe I have to do this again. I just can't take it. I'm way beyond ..." whatever you say to yourself?
If your marriage is not everything that it's supposed to be, do you live with hope and courage in that marriage because you believe the radical claims of the Gospel? For example, that you don't have to search for identity and meaning and purpose in your spouse; turning your spouse into your own personal messiah because you have been given the deepest of identity and the deepest of acceptance and the deepest of meaning and purpose in Christ. And so it doesn't make any sense to search horizontally for what you've already been given vertically.
Do You Believe?
Do you believe? Do you embrace the call of the Gospel that Jesus didn't come just to make your little kingdom work, but to invite you to a much better Kingdom? And so the greatest thrill for you should not be your thrill in your getting your way, but your thrill is at the advancement of the Kingdom of God. So it's not hard for you to give to the work of the church. And you're not just restricted to a tithe; you liberally give to the work of God because you really do believe in the call of the Gospel; you are excited by that.
Or does the reason of your finances, the equations of your checkbook, become more important to you in God's call? If you are a university student, do you sort of, to make life easier, become part of the secret order of the saints? Or, do you believe in Christ's call that you would be salt and light in that place, and you don't know all the places where you do that, but what you refuse to do is expedient; you refuse to live in fear; you'll live in faith and the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be honest, appropriately honest, not arrogant, condemning, and proud, but humbly honest about who you are?
I wonder of myself if I had been in the synagogue, what would I have thought? What would I have said? You see, this is the war of wars. Is your life shaped and molded by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Or, is there another authority that you run to that wars with that faith in very, very specific places in your life? Well, what should you do with this passage? Well, perhaps you're here and you would have to honestly say, "I don't think I've ever put my trust in this Jesus. I think I've stood outside.
I think I've been that person who has comforted myself by that politically correct, socially acceptable, 'This is a great prophet, this is a great man, and I realize that's not possible.'" And so I would say, "Come, confessing your need and receive the grace that only can be found in the Son of God, the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ." Maybe you're a believer and you say, "You're right, Paul, I recognize that battle of unbelief in my heart. I recognize I don't always act like I believe that Jesus is God, and that His promises are true, and in Him I've not only found forgiveness and eternal life, but everything I need to live in the here and now in the way that He's called me to live.
I don't always live that way." Well, because of the sacrifice of Jesus you don't have to hide in guilt and shame and fear because all of your weaknesses and all of your failures and all of your sin have been covered by His blood; you can run into His presence and say, "Oh, I believe, but help me in those places where I don't believe." May God help us to say 1000 times next week, "Jesus is God! Jesus is God! Jesus is God! Jesus is God!" And may the glory of what that actually means draw us in a deeper dependence, a deeper worship, a deeper celebration, and a deeper service of Him.
Let's pray: Lord, this passage really does put before us a critical human struggle. The power of this passage is these are people like us; and even in that moment of unbelief, they are giving empirical evidence for the reason You had to come. Because only Your sacrifice could conquer that unbelief, conquer the arrogance to think that I can understand it all by myself, I can live by myself; I'm okay. Lord, it's shocking, but it's true; even as your children, there are times when we think we know better than You.
Thank you that we don't have to cower in fear of Your anger because Jesus has taken our punishment, may we run to You and find mercy and grace that only You can give. In Jesus's name, Amen.
