Transcription
Turn in your Bibles, turn on your Bibles to Matthew 1353. What we are going to do is we've been looking at the life of Jesus, going through the book of Matthew. The last three weeks we've been in parables, and now we're going to get two narratives, two scenes that are going to be presented to us. Jesus has finished his teaching about the kingdom of God through a series of parables. Now the parables are over and we're going to these two scenes. The first is this scene in Jesus's hometown of Nazareth where he faces outright rejection. The second scene is the story of how John the Baptist died and how he was executed by Herod the big idea. The big idea is this, human resistance to God's work often comes from familiarity, fear or misplaced allegiance. Human resistance to God's work. My resistance. Listen, let's personalize it, okay? Listen, personalize it for yourself, your own resistance. My own resistance to what God wants to do in my life can come from familiarity, fear, or a misplaced allegiance. Let's look at this first one, this idea of familiarity. And you've heard this phrase before, familiarity breeds contempt. You've heard that saying, right? This is what we're going to see here that happens with Jesus's life and we'll walk through it. But let's pray first, Lord, we ask that you would teach us through your word. Our hearts are open to you.
We want your spirit to teach us this morning. I recognize God that not everyone here has become a follower of you yet. And so whether a person is seeking this morning or just interested in hearing more about your teachings, or God, if we're a follower of you, Lord, would you just meet us in this time? Teach us, Lord, thank you for these two different scenes we've asked that you would bring home to us what is personal and what's needed in our own lives? And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's look at this text together. It says that when Jesus had finished these parables, he left there. Now remember, he's teaching around the Galilee in the area of Capernaum, and he leaves there. He went to his hometown. His hometown, remember is Nazareth. That's where he grew up. And he began to teach them where?
Where's he teaching them? In the synagogue, right? So that would be a place, a Jewish gathering place on a Saturday morning on the Sabbath. And he's teaching him so that they were astonished. And they said, now you'll notice the things that the people in the synagogue are saying are questions. We're going to see a series of questions. Are you ready? Here's the first one. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Next question, isn't this the carpenter's son? The next question, isn't his mother called Mary and his brother James, Joseph, Simon and Judas and his sisters? Aren't they all with us? So where does he get all these things? So these are the questions and underlying these questions, which we'll see in the next section, is this sense of like, because of the answer to these questions, he can't be the Messiah. It's like, don't we know his family, his brothers and sisters? Don't we know who his father was and don't we know who his mother was and we're just familiar with him? He's the carpenter's son.
It's these questions that all relate to aren't we familiar with him? And despite Jesus's wisdom and miracles, Jesus' identity as the carpenter's son, it hinders their faith familiarity blinds them to his true identity. And right away, just think about this, okay? Sometimes we overlook the presence of God's work because it appears ordinary or comes through familiar channels. The very people who should have had the easiest access to Jesus's message struggle to accept it. There are people around you who have, they may hear about your own transformation, your spiritual journey, and meeting Jesus. And they may say to you, I would give Jesus his shot if he poked his head out of the clouds. And he said, here I am. And yet they're missing the miracles all around them, the very things that seem ordinary that they take for granted that are familiar, and they're just kind of looking past those things and completely missing the work of God.
That's what was happening in Jesus's hometown. This happens in another place in the Bible. If we go back to one Samuel, there's a character named David. And when David was young, he was the youngest in his family. His dad sent him with supplies to furnish his brothers that were in the military fighting off the Philistines. So you imagine back to the time of judges, and you have these enemies of Israel that are attacking, one of them are the Philistines and the Philistines have this champion soldier named Goliath. And Goliath would come out every day on the battle line and would just taunt Israel and just trash talk Israel. So David shows up at the battle and he hears Goliath's trash talking of Israel. And David spoke to the men who are standing with him and he says to kind of the other soldiers that are there, remember this is a guy that's younger.
He's not yet qualified to be a soldier himself. He's just there with the supplies. He says, what will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? So David has his own set of questions for these guys. Like, what's going on here, David? He shows up at the battle and he's shocked that this is going on. And he's like, well, who's going to get the reward when this guy's defeated the troops told him about the offer, concluding that is what will be done for the man who kills him. Here's the reward. And then look at this. David's oldest brother, IAB, listened as he spoke to the man and he became angry with David. Why did you come down here? He asked, who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness?
I know your arrogance and your evil heart. You came down here to just watch the battle. You're just coming to get your kicks to see us get our rear ends kicked by this guy Goliath. This is entertaining to you. Now the rest of the story, the rest of the story is that David's going to destroy. He's going to take on Goliath single handedly, and he's going to kill Goliath with a slingshot and a stone. Not even the typical spear or sword or the armor that a normal soldier would have. David becomes the champion. Now, his brothers can't see that. They're like, you're the youngest runt in our family. They are so familiar with David that when David shows up, they're like, what good's going to come from you? You're the shepherd boy that we left back at home. They can't handle. David. This whole idea is it is a phenomenon that exists. I'm sure you've dealt with it in different ways in your own life, and yet sometimes there is this overlooking of the presence of God's work. David, David is God's anointed king. So he's not just called to destroy Goliath, but he's the future king of the nation. But IAB is looking at David and this is like, nah,
Nah,
Can't happen. Right? He
Didn't do a single handedly though. He had God behind him.
Exactly.
Yeah, that's right. They couldn't see that God's hand was on David. They saw David the little shepherd boy, they didn't see. But when God looked at David, what did God see? The future king, the warrior that could defeat Goliath, the empowered God is not limited. I guess the message here is that if your perception of yourself is that, look, I am useless because of I'm the shepherd boy, or I'm the youngest in my family, or I don't have the pedigree. I didn't graduate from high school or people told me that I had this learning disability, or I don't have much money or I am ugly. Or for me, you know what it was when I was a kid, I was in ninth grade, I got teased for my voice. I would have people walk up behind me and they thought for some reason it was funny to go, it's funny now.
But I took that to heart. I took that to heart because I had this funny voice. So when I was 35, I got asked to be the host of a national radio program and I was like, oh, I can't do that. I got a funny voice because you believe these things about yourself. I think I hit pure puberty already. I don't know. I don't know. But you believe those things, right? You believe those things. And it's this kind of like with Jesus, it's familiarity. They believed a particular story. You're the carpenter's son, so your future's probably you're going to be a carpenter. Maybe you're not going to be a carpenter, but you're probably going to do something like everybody else in Nazareth does. We know your brothers, we know your sisters. We know who your mom is. How could you be the one who's dropping all this wisdom and doing these miraculous things? They just were generally skeptical. Yes. And now here you are speaking to all of us. Here I am like, isn't that crazy? Put his hand on you. And now here you are speaking to us and down.
And that's letting God do his work, not believing the condescension or the teasing. And how many of you were teased when you were in school, right? And it's easy. I was talking about this this week with my wife, about our kids. There are things that are like teasing. You're teased and you end up believing that story about yourself. And here's a part of following Jesus. And when we pray, remember when I prayed just a couple minutes ago, I say, God, we're ready to listen to you. And there's a part, there is a part of following Jesus where you say, I'm willing to let go of the stories I've believed about myself that are shaped up and formed by a life of experience, right? You are called, you and I are called to walk by faith in Jesus and follow him in whatever he calls us too.
And Jesus is the champion of that. He's our champion. So we're called to be with Jesus, the Messiah, and we're called to learn from Jesus, to be walking kind of shaped into his image is what it says in two Corinthians. It says that in Romans eight we're shaped into his image. And so the experience that Jesus has in this story could be your experience. You could have people who are like, nah, nothing good could come from you. You shouldn't even call yourself a Christian. I know your story. I know what you have done. Yet if we follow Jesus, we let God determine our calling. Do you know what it says in Ephesians That God has prepared for you the good works that you're supposed to walk in before the foundation of the earth. God already has a plan for your life, and that plan is a part of his redemptive work.
So when you look at this city, when you look at your neighborhood, when you look at your family, God has this good plan not just to rescue you from that junk that you've known and seen and been a part of, but to rescue you and graft you into this good story that God's doing. You have to be willing to believe and trust what Jesus is doing. So back to Matthew, Matthew 1353. Despite Jesus' wisdom and miracles, Jesus' identity as the carpenter's son, it hinders their faith, familiarity blinded them from Jesus's true identity. They missed it. Let's go to this next section. It says this, they were offended is back with the residents of Nazareth in this synagogue. They were offended by Jesus. And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor. So in other words, a prophet has honor, right? He's not lacking honor. That's an honorable thing to be a prophet, except there's one exception, his hometown and in his household.
It's just this thing. It is kind of like a rule, right? It is a rule where it's like the people around you kind of know you, and those people just don't have the ability to see you in a new light. And some of you, as you're being transformed, there's a new dynamic and understanding the relationships around you, some of you, you need to stay right there in those relationships because you're called to be a witness and share what Jesus has done in your life to those old friends. But then some relationships, you need to just turn your back on and move forward because those people, they just can't accept what God's done in you. Yes, Mary. How can you be sure who you should
Help, who you shouldn't help? And if you help that person, how do you know the right thing to do? Because sometimes you do the right thing and you said to God once, you still get damage done to you. You know what I mean? How do we know the right thing to do and when to step away? We help as once we could.
Yeah, no, that's a great
Just talking to you about this.
Yep. Yeah, I think that's a really good question. And I'll give you a couple of things. When you look at Jesus, you see that Jesus understood what he was called to do. And so one of the things you want to ask and what you want the Holy Spirit to show you is what does it mean for you to be fruitful? So we know when we look at the humans that God made in the garden, at the very beginning of God's story, they were called to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue and to rule. And so every human that's been born is intended to be fruitful, multiply, subdue and rule. But since Genesis three, all humans are fallen from the plan of God and are broken. There is a dysfunction. So there's an internal rebellion against God, and they live and operate in a world of other humans in rebellion against God.
So every once in a while they're functional, and whether they're a follower of God or not, they do what is right and good, and they're fruitful, but not on a consistent basis and not in a way where that fruit lasts. They're not connected. So the first thing you have to do is you have to be reconciled back to God. That's what Jesus. So we talk about being a follower of Jesus and you get baptized. So now once you do that, now you're in a relationship with God. One of the things that happens when you enter into that relationship is that the Holy Spirit is given to you. So the spirit of God is in you. Your body is a temple, meaning it's a house. The spirit of God lives in you. And so one of the things that the Holy Spirit begins to show you and to speak to you about is this is what it looks like to be fruitful for you to do, to do good.
And so he gives you his word. So we look through the Bible. The Bible teaches us, here's the guardrails. These are the commands of ethics. But that's only 20% of your life. You only need to know what's good and bad a fraction of the time. Really what we need to do, life is wisdom. And so we go to the Bible, we meditate on the Bible, we're thinking and wrestling with scripture because it gives us wisdom, principles on how to do life, and it's chiefly found in Jesus. So I know this is a long answer, but I'm trying to break it down in steps. So the Holy Spirit needs to show you what it means to be fruitful. And then at that point, and one of the things he's going to show you is the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, right? That's the fruit of the spirit. I have a problem with self-control. My temper gives the best of me, and I try not to, but
It's very hard because you see the position I'm in,
I
Still let that temper try to rule me, but I've had God with me. Sometimes when it starts to come out, I pour it back in.
That's good. That's the Holy Spirit. So once you're a follower of Jesus, the Holy Spirit fills you. And now you have two voices in your life. You have your old nature, which is called the flesh. That's what the Bible calls it. Your old person yelling at you, Hey, rebel against God, fulfill your desires. Put yourself first. You also have the spirit as a dominating voice in you saying, Hey, this is what it means to be fruitful in the world, to be beyond mission, to be a child of God. Here's the love of God. So the spirit is speaking in you, but then you also have this other part of you that doesn't go away until you die. Okay? So you have these two things. In Galatians chapter five, it says that the flesh is at war against the work of God's spirit in our life.
The flesh looks like this, and the spirit looks like this. So the spirit is at work though, that we want to just keep saying yes to God's spirit at work in us. So how do you make a decision about relationships? Think that for you and I, you go Bible, holy Spirit, and then from there you're making your own personal decision. You're praying. And God, show me, teach me, guide me. That's exactly what you want to do. And I think the wisdom comes from Jesus. We look at Jesus. Jesus was so on mission that there were cities where he's doing miracles and he's preaching, and the people in that city are like, Hey, stay here. Jesus. And what does Jesus say? Nope, I got to move to the next city. So Jesus was so on mission that nobody was getting him off mission. Now, his mission is the most radically loving mission ever, but it doesn't mean that he's always making people happy.
When he left that town, I'm sure those people were bummed. There was another guy that was demon possessed that he healed, and the guy's like, I want to go with you Jesus. And Jesus is like, Nope, you need to stay here and you need to tell the town there all that Jesus has done for you. You need to bear witness in me. You don't get to follow me right now. You don't get to go with me. But then he's got other people where he is like, Hey, follow me. Come and follow me. When it came to the rich young ruler, what does he say? Go sell all your stuff and give to the poor. So there is this personal work of the Holy Spirit taking the Bible, of applying it in our lives, showing us this is what it means for you to be fruitful.
We know that it's guaranteed. He wants you to be fruitful to walk in the good works that he's prepared from the foundation of the earth, but you have to personally determine what does that mean? Does that make sense? Okay. Yeah. And then there's going to be times, there's going to be times where it doesn't feel good, where it's just like, man, I had to create that boundary and that person's upset with me. I don't like conflict. I'm like that. I'm one of these people that avoids conflict, but sometimes I got to, for the sake of what God's called me to do, I got to put down the line and be very direct and say, Nope, not happening, right? So yeah, it's not always pretty, right? Sometimes it's a little bit of a mess. But I think you look at Jesus' life like we're doing, we get some really good wisdom, principles and some comfort. Okay, let's keep going. We've got just a few more minutes before we're going to run out of time, okay? Here is what Jesus says. They were offended by him. Do you see that? They're offended by him? Jesus offended people.
Okay? Was that wrong? Did he sin? No. No, he didn't. He was just doing his mission. He's on mission. He's following God. He's obeying God in what the God the Father has called him to do. They're offended. There's going to be people who get offended. Wait until we get to the next story about John, right? He wasn't offense. He ended up with his head cut off, right? Sometimes as you follow Jesus, it's an offense. So Jesus says, A prophet is not without honor. In other words, a prophet lives an honorable role, but there is this exception to the rule his hometown and his household rejects him. But look at this. He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. The city, the town of Nazareth missed out on just this abundance of miracles because of their attitude of unbelief. Look at how Mark talks about this.
Mark tells the same story and Mark says he was not able to do a miracle there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and he healed them. So here's this city that misses out on Jesus's ministry because of the condition of their faith. And I want to spend a little bit of time on this, okay? Jesus is limited not because he is powerless. He doesn't lack power in Nazareth, but it is the lack of faith. The offense they take is rooted in their unbelief, which prevents them from experiencing the fullness of Jesus's power. And this is a theme throughout the gospel. So we had the story of the centurion in Matthew chapter eight, verse five through 13. There the centurion expresses his faith to Jesus. And Jesus says to the centurion, your daughter's going to be healed. Let it be done according to your faith.
Jesus says, I'm going to do this powerful work, but your faith is involved in that. Then you get the story of the woman who is hemorrhaging. She had the issue of blood. In Matthew chapter nine, she grabs the hem of Jesus's garment. Jesus talks with her and she responds, and Jesus says, it's because of your faith that you are healed. You have the healing of the demon possessed boy in Matthew 17. We haven't gotten there yet, but it's Jesus sends the disciples out and somebody can't get healed. And the disciples are like, why can't we heal this man's son who's demon possessed and has these epileptic seizures? Why can't we do this? And Jesus says, it's because of the lack of your faith. It's doesn't come out without fasting and prayer. Their faith was not corresponding to the moment and what needed to occur. And then Jesus has this teaching in Mark 11 about a withered fig tree.
And he says, look, if you have faith like the size of a mustard seed, mountains are going to move. And so this question arises, what does it mean? What does it mean to have faith? Let me show you that passage out of, and Jesus is teaching early in the morning as they're passing by, they saw the fig tree that was withered from its roots. Earlier in the story, Jesus had cursed this fig tree because it wasn't fruitful. And then Peter remembered and said, look, rabbi teacher, the fig tree that you cursed, it's withered. And Jesus replied, have faith in God. Truly, I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you everything you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
So Jesus is encouraging his disciples to have an attitude of faith. I want to spend a moment just kind of warning you about some of the teachings that exist about faith that you may see on TV from Christian preachers on tv. It's called the word of faith movement. And one of the pieces of the word of faith movement is you need to name it and you need to claim it. And it's based off of some of these teachings of Jesus about faith, but it's taking what Jesus teaches about faith and twisting it just a little bit. The word of faith teaches that word of faith teaches. It says that words have spiritual power. If believers speak faith filled words, they can create or manifest blessings, healings, wealth or success. The proponents of this teaching would be somebody like Creflo Dollar or Benny Hin or Kenneth Copeland. They're some of the most popular teachers of the word of faith teaching. And I'm going to explain to you why this is not the teaching of the Bible about faith. Faith is important, but how these guys are teaching it is not accurate. Name it and claim. It is a slogan within the word of faith movement or their circles. And it emphasizes this idea of naming or declaring a specific desire like financial provision, healing or success. And then you claim it by faith.
You claim it by faith, expecting God that God will deliver it. The problem is that it encourages believers to boldly declare what they want in Jesus' name based on a conviction that God wants them to have it. And it often extends to material wealth, physical health, and personal success. It teaches that if a believer's faith is strong enough and their words are enough, God is obliged to grant what is claimed. So here's the concerns, okay? First of all, it is a misrepresentation of faith. It often distorts the biblical concept of faith, making it more of a technique to get what you want rather than a relationship of trust in God's will. So it's like you got to declare God, I want that Lambo. I want that Lambo. I want that Lambo in Jesus name. Give me that Lambo. And it's like if you just have enough faith, you're going to get it.
And it's taking away this aspect of relational trust and this idea that God is the one who has the plan. You didn't become a Christian just to rub a lamp and have a genie or like a end of heavenly vending machine. That's not why we became Christians. The second concern with the word of faith movement is this focus on material blessing. It tends to overemphasize earthly blessings, sometimes neglecting the broader biblical teaching on suffering, humility, and a surrender to God's will. It oftentimes short circuits, it's like, God, just make me rich. Make me rich, make me rich. I claim it in Jesus' name. Make me rich. But it doesn't take into account the wisdom of scripture, which teaches that if you work, you will make money. If you have good friendships and you hang out with the right people, your life will be happier than hanging out with the, it takes away just the wisdom, embedded wisdom principles of scripture around material blessings and the idea of stewardship and that God entrusts material blessings to us so that we can be a blessing to others.
It just is this the word of faith? It really flourishes and takes hold in the midst of poverty where people are struggling and it's just like, man, maybe this guy, Kenneth Copeland, look, he's got a jet and he's got a runway and he's got this massive property, and maybe I just need to name it and claim it and claim it in Jesus' name and think positive thoughts and I'll get it. And that's not what the Bible teaches. That's not how we become rich. That's not how we become happy or lived a blessed life. What we are invited to is into the kingdom of God. And it's not opposed to your material blessings, but material blessings are not the end. It's a part of the wisdom of God and following God. And if he blesses you with material blessings, that's awesome, but it has a purpose. It serves a purpose in your life.
So that's the second concern. The third concern is the manipulation of God. It risks treating God as a means to fulfill personal desires rather than as the sovereign Lord who acts according to his wisdom and his purposes. Again, the genie in the bottle type teaching. And that's not how we treat God, right? That's not how we want to treat God. We don't want to interact with him as if he's a genie in the bottle. He loves us, he wants good for us. So lemme give you five principles about faith. Okay? Five principles about faith in five minutes.
Principle number one, faith creates an environment, an open space or context where God can work. So think of an arena. When you place your faith in God, you're creating the atmosphere where God can work. So in Nazareth, they didn't have faith in Jesus, and it says that that limited Jesus from what he could do. Jesus is still just as powerful as any other day, but it wasn't mixed with faith and they missed out. So faith creates an environment where God can work. Principle number two, faith is always proportional to the degree of God's revelation. What should I believe when I want to place my faith in Jesus? What should I believe? Will you believe as much as he's shown you? Here's the idea. Biblical faith responds to what God has already revealed, whether through scripture, personal conviction by the Holy Spirit or clear expressions of his will.
It's not about wishful thinking, but about responding to God's promises, commands, and character. You are the responder, not the initiator. You're not going to God and saying, God, I believe you for Lambo. You're listening to God's direction, his will, the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, and you're saying, God, I trust you for that. You're responding in faith to what God's showing. You're the responder, not initiator. Principle number three, true faith always aligns with God's character and his kingdom purposes. True faith always aligns with God's character and his kingdom purposes. Here's what that means. Faith is not merely about what we want. It's about God's redemptive plan. When Jesus speaks of mountain moving faith, he is talking about a faith that cooperates with God's mission on earth, faith that seeks his kingdom. First, you can look at Matthew chapter 6 33. You could look at Matthew seven, the Lord's Prayer, or Matthew six earlier on with the Lord's Prayer.
Your kingdom come principle number four, faith is about deepening trust in God, not using him as a means to an end. It's about deepening trust in God, not using him as a means to an end. At its core, faith is relational, an expression of trust in God's goodness, sovereignty and wisdom. It's about walking closely with him even when the outcomes aren't what we expected or desire. And principle number five, faith holds both confidence and surrender, acknowledging that God's ways are higher than ours. While faith can be confident in God's revealed promises, it also submits to his mysterious ways when he doesn't act as expected. Think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when he says, not my will, but yours be done. Jesus is praying, Lord, if there be any way, take this cup from me, and yet then he prays, but not my will. Your will be done.
Those are the four or five principles of faith that I want you to hold on to. What was happening in Jesus's hometown is they were just missing the work of God in their midst because they were familiar. It was too common. It was like, that's the carpenter son. And listen, the living God is in our midst. The living God, the Spirit of God is in you. He's He's around you. There are angels around you. God's in the midst of Baltimore. Do you know that God is working right now in Baltimore City? There's crazy things that God's doing right here in our neighborhood, and he is not asking your permission, and it's okay if you don't see it. It doesn't get in the way of him. He's just doing it. All that you have this morning is this invite, Hey, come and see. Come and be a part of it.
Come and be about what I'm doing. But in your personal life, it is possible. It makes you wonder, right? Are you missing out on the power of God? Because you're not creating that arena of faith where you're just trusting. You're like, God, I trust in you. I don't know. Ask that question. Ask that question. Am I rising to the occasion with my faith? On one hand, you don't want to name it and claim it and be coming up with crazy stuff, but man, we want to be responding to God and all that he is and all that He's capable and all that He's shown us. We want to be saying, yes, God, you can do it. The perpetual optimist, the one who's believing that our life is a part of this plan where God's at work.
Well, we don't have time to get into the story of John. We don't have time. Yeah, so next week, next week, next week, we're going to have to look at the story of John. You can read ahead. I'm saying you can read ahead through the first 12 verses of Matthew 15. Matthew 15. Let's stand. Let's stand and pray. You guys are awesome. We're going to sing in this song in a minute, but let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you, God for your goodness. Lord, we pray. We want to respond to you in faith. God, we want to trust in you fully what you're showing us. We want to believe it in faith. We don't want to be getting out in front of you, but God, we want to be those that are just believing that you can do it anything you want, and man God, we don't want to miss out on your work like the people in Nazareth because we're familiar, or it seems too common, or it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's the carpenter's son. God. Would you give us just a fresh optimism and belief and trust that God you are at work and that you want to work and you can work in us? Lord, we believe in you. Thank you. Thank you, God.