It's great to see everybody here this morning, and I invite you to take your copy of scripture and turn to Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6 will be continuing in our series in the Gospel of Mark, and as we have been singing about Christ and His glory and His grace, I trust that we will see His power and His glory in our passage this morning. Mark chapter 6, I'll begin reading for us in verse 1, we'll read through to verse 6. If you're using one of the Bibles there in front of you, in one of the chairs in front of you, you'll find it on page 841. I'll be referring back to the passage a number of times as we walk through this morning our text, and so it'd be helpful if you had your Bible and open, help you follow along this morning. Mark chapter 6, and I'll begin reading for us in verse 1. He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you again and we confess that we are needy. And Father, we we relish that we get to come before you. Again, in your word and hear your word proclaimed. And yet, Father, we confess that nothing of good or eternal value will happen in these moments apart from your intervening grace. And so, Father, we pray that you would come by your Spirit now and do what none of us can do, that you would change us and transform us. We pray that Christ would be irresistibly attractive. And, Lord, we pray that we would know His power and His grace afresh for your glory. And it's in His name we pray. Amen. So last week we considered Jesus's healing of the woman who had the issue with blood and also his raising of the dead of Jairus's daughter. And the response to Jesus, as we considered those two accounts last week, the response to Jesus by the main characters in those narratives was overwhelmingly responsive, I mean, or positive. Their faith was not perfect, and we saw that last week as we considered the text, but nonetheless they believed and they trusted in Jesus. Now, as we turn to chapter six in the Gospel of Mark, we see that Jesus visits his hometown of Nazareth. And we find here that in contrast to what we saw last week, that the overall response to Jesus is negative in the response of the city. We see that there is a progression, a progression in the response of his hometown, Nazareth. It goes from Astonished to offended to unbelieving. That's the progression that's made here in terms of their response to Jesus. And that's what I want us to consider this morning. I want us to consider these three stages that they walk through in response to Jesus. Astonished, offended, and then finally, First of all, notice there in the passage that they are astonished at Jesus. In verses 1 and 2 we read, He went away from there and came to His hometown, and His disciples followed Him. And on the Sabbath day He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by His hands? So here we see that Jesus, along with his disciples, they return to his hometown, which we know is Nazareth. And Jesus has been away for some time, and now he has an opportunity to go to the local synagogue there among relatives and friends, those whom he grew up with, and he has the opportunity to speak there at the weekly worship service at the local synagogue. And the initial response to Jesus as He teaches them from the Scriptures is that they are astonished. You see there in verse 2, And on the Sabbath day He began to teach them in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished. Now, they were astonished at a couple of things, two things in particular. One, his teaching, and secondly, his miracles. So, you see there in verse 2, they say, where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? They were astonished at his teaching. Now, we've seen this before in the Gospel of Mark. So, way back in chapter 1, verse 22, when Jesus teaches in a synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath day, we read there, and they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. And so it's not uncommon, we see in the Gospel of Mark, for folks to be astonished at the teaching of Jesus. And not only that, but we also see here in our text that they are astonished at the miracles that he performs. In verse 2, how are such mighty works done by his hands? And we have seen this a number of times in the Gospel of Mark. So after Jesus heals the paralytic, in chapter 2, verse 12, we read, and he rose and immediately, this is the paralytic, he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw anything like this. Or when Jesus calmed the sea, he spoke and the wind and the waves died down. We read in chapter 4 verse 41 of the disciples, and they were filled with great fear. That's another way of saying they were awed, right? They were amazed. And they glorified God saying, we never saw, or I'm sorry, and they said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Or in chapter 5, verse 15, when Jesus cast the unclean spirits out of the demoniac, we read, And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid. Or most recently, last week, when we saw Jesus raise Jairus' daughter from the dead, we read, and immediately, this is chapter 5, verse 42, and immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age, and they were immediately overcome with amazement. So here we see, not only in Nazareth, but throughout Mark's Gospel, people are amazed, they are astonished at the teaching and the mighty power, the miracles of Jesus. And this is a response, even as we think about our own day, this is a response that is not uncommon when it comes to Jesus. And many people, even as they read the Gospels, are struck by Jesus' knowledge and the wisdom of His teaching. In Jesus' day, as others were struck by His power and His miracles, many today are astonished at His wondrous works and power and miracles. They recognize as they read the Gospels that there's something unique, there's something different about Jesus. But my friends, as we will learn this morning, to recognize that there is something unique or different in Jesus, or even to be taken by Jesus, to be amazed by him, to be emotionally affected by him, is not the same as believing in Jesus. It is no doubt a good place to start, right? So it's not a bad thing that they're astonished, but it's not saving faith. It does not put one in a relationship with Jesus or make one a follower of Jesus. And that'll be increasingly clear as we walk through our passage. So first of all, we see that they are astonished. Secondly, we see they are offended. Look there in chapter six, I'll read verses one to three again. We read there, he went away from there and came to his hometown and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue. And many who heard him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. Now, it's interesting because their astonishment here we see in the passage quickly turns to offense. In verse 3, they took offense at him. Actually, that word offense is literally scandal. They were scandalized by him. And why? Well, their rationale for taking an offense at Jesus is presented to us in a series of questions in verses 1 through 3. You see the questions there. Let's just walk through them, okay? So here's the rationale. The first question is, where? Where did this man get these things? Now, there could have been a number of things behind this question, but it does seem, as we look at the text as a whole, that one of the concerns that the people have about Jesus is in regards to his origin, where he comes from. Today, Nazareth, which is his hometown, is a well-known tourist site, but it was anything but well-known in Jesus' day. In fact, if you go back to the Old Testament scriptures, Nazareth is not mentioned even once. Other important Jewish documents like the Apocrypha or the Talmud or the writings of Josephus don't have any mention of Nazareth in them. Excavations reveal that at the time when Jesus was on the earth, Nazareth was a small village community located on the slopes of a rocky hillside and comprised about 500 people. Very small community. From the references we have regarding Nazareth in the New Testament, we discover that it was not well thought of by others. So you might remember when Nathanael was told that Jesus came from Nazareth, he asked the question, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And then you go to the book of Acts. And the early Christians are ridiculed because they are identified as, or they are ridiculed by being identified as, a sect of Nazarenes. They follow that guy from Nazareth. It's interesting because being from Tarsus, you remember Paul, the great Christian apostle, he could boast that he was a citizen. These are his own words, a citizen of no obscure city. Tarsus is a well-known, respected city. That's a good place to be from. Jesus could not make such a claim. One was not likely to boast of being from Nazareth, and even the people from Nazareth knew it. The second question they ask is what you see it there in verse two. What is the wisdom given to him? Where did he get this wisdom? It's been given to him. But where does it come from? You see, Jesus was not a schooled rabbi. Jesus hadn't studied under a well-known scholar of his day. Jesus didn't go to seminary. What is this wisdom given to him? The third question they ask is how. Look there in verse 2. How are such mighty works done by His hands? In other words, and this is a modern objection to Christianity, right? We should be able to understand this. We should be able to explain this. We should be able to wrap our minds around this and tell you exactly what's happening. How is He accomplishing these miraculous deeds? It is interesting that this is an objection to Christianity and to the Christian faith, because there are rationales and there are defenses for the Christian faith. But if Jesus is truly the Son of God, in other words, if He is truly God come in the flesh, then doesn't it make complete sense that you and I would not be able to fully understand it all? Isn't that entirely rational? In fact, if we could provide a detailed explanation for it all, erasing all mysteries and we could package it and explain everything away, then would that not be a powerful argument that Jesus is not who he claimed to be? So they ask where, what, how? The last question they ask is who? Look there in verse 3. Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. In other words, what they're saying is this man is all too common to be who he claims to be. He's too much like us. I mean, we know his mom and his brothers and his sisters. We went to school with this guy. We grew up together in this small town. Who does he think he is teaching with such authority, doing these things, making these claims? And notice from the text, it seems that they are implying that not only is Jesus like us, but Jesus is less than us. So you notice that they refer to Jesus as the Son of Mary. Now that was highly unusual in this culture to refer to one by making reference to their mother rather than making reference to their father. And you remember, Jesus, you remember the account of his birth. It was a virgin birth. This is a small town. Some of you may be from small towns. You know how small towns work. People talk, things get around, right? You can imagine they're thinking in their minds, okay, Mary and Joseph were married in July. Baby came in October. That doesn't work out right. In other words, many commentators believe that what they're implying here is we don't know who your father is. We know who your mom is. We know who your brothers are. We know your sisters are. Joseph may be your father. He may not be your father, but we don't know you're illegitimate. So they ask where, what, how, who, and then we see in verse three, they took offense, they were scandalized. Now, listen, my friends, what we see here in our text is that we learn that the incarnation and let me define that word for you, the the reality that God. Became man, took on flesh and dwelt among us, the incarnation is a scandal. In other words, when humanity, when when we and when those from the city of Nazareth look on the incarnation, we naturally say, I wouldn't have done it that way. If I were thinking about the Son of God coming to dwell among men, I would not have chosen for Him to come in obscurity and weakness and frailty and disrepute. But let me ask you this question. Is that a strike against Jesus and who He is? Or is that a devastating critique of our own pride? and an affirmation of the incomparable humility and compassion of Jesus. We considered this last week when we thought about the values of Jesus. And what happened last week, if you weren't here in the passage, is that Jesus is confronted with a woman who has an issue of blood and with Jairus, whose daughter is sick. And when you compare and contrast those two individuals, Jairus is a religious man. He's wealthy. He's well thought of. He's respected in the community. The woman who has the issue of blood is sick. She's ceremonially unclean, she's poor, she's marginalized, and Jesus shocks us in that account because he gives preference to the woman. Now, with our natural sensibilities, of course we would give preference to Jairus. But listen, my friends, that is not an argument that we are God and Jesus is not. Instead, it is an argument that we are sinful and twisted and Jesus is the God that our hearts have always longed for. Of course, we would not naturally gravitate towards the woman. But when we see Jesus doing so. There's something deep inside our own hearts that cries out, yes, that is right. That is good. And I want to worship a God like that. My friends, that is the essence of the incarnation. Jesus comes in obscurity because God really is humble and compassionate and full of mercy and came to save the weak and the needy. What was gloriously beautiful They took offense at and were scandalized. The third stage in their response to Jesus is that they were unbelieving. Look there in verses four through six and we read these words. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief, and he went about among the villages teaching. Now, in the Gospel of Mark, and I gave you the examples before, I'm not going to recount them again, but in the Gospel of Mark, we've seen repeatedly that people are amazed and astonished at Jesus, at His teaching and His miracles. And here, most recently, we see in this text here that we're looking at this morning, in chapter 6, verse 2, that when they heard Jesus teach in the synagogue, they were astonished. But now, in chapter 6, verse 6, we see a flip. We see a reverse. We see that now Jesus is astonished. Jesus is amazed. And what is it that amazes and astonishes Jesus, the Son of God? He is amazed. He is astonished at their unbelief. Verse six, he marveled because of their unbelief. Now, what I'm about to say is is countercultural, OK? But I think it's important for all of us to hear. The scriptures, we see it here, but we see it across, I think. The landscape of scripture. The scriptures teach us that unbelief in the God of the Bible and unbelief in Jesus presented to us in the gospel is irrational. That's why Jesus is marveling, right? He marvels at their unbelief. Why? Because their unbelief, given the situation and circumstances, is irrational. You see it in our text, by their own admission, Jesus' teaching and his works bear witness to who he is. In verses one and six, they say, where does this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? In other words, they do not deny his wisdom. They do not deny his knowledge. They do not deny the miraculous works that are being done by his hands. They've heard it, that's the teaching. They've seen it, the miraculous works. They have eyewitness accounts who can give them testimony of what they have heard and what they have seen, and yet they still reject Jesus. Now, the reason why I say this is countercultural is perhaps this identifies you this morning. Perhaps you've made the assumption, because this is the large assumption of our culture now, that skepticism in unbelief is rational, but faith is irrational. But do you see what Mark is doing here in our text? Mark is pointing out the irrationality of Nazareth's unbelief. Paul makes this point in Romans chapter one, but he applies it more generally to all humanity. In Romans chapter 1 verses 9 to 22, I'll just read the passage for you. You don't have to turn there, but this is what Paul says. For, talking of God, His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. How have they been clearly perceived? In the things that have been made. So through creation. The eternal attributes and divine power of God have clearly been seen through a sunset or through the intricacies of the human body or through a flower coming to life. The eternal reality and power of God has been clearly displayed. And then Paul goes on to say, so they are without excuse, for although they knew God, For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools." Do you see what Paul is saying? That creation is so glorious, And so clearly reveals the reality of a creator that to deny that creator and not to give yourself to him completely and entirely is the height of irrationality. Now, listen, my friends, you might think that there's not nearly enough evidence to believe in God or the Christian gospel, but understand that's not what the Bible teaches. In fact, God says that there is more than enough evidence, more than enough of a rational justification for faith for you and me to believe and to commit ourselves to God and to Christ and to his gospel. So much so. But given the evidence and the rational justification for faith to not believe is irrational. Now, if on this point of unbelief, if unbelief, the unbelief of those who chose to not follow Christ is irrational, then let me say it is especially irrational for us as Christians to not believe God for great things. It is especially irrational for us as Christians to not believe God for great things. Last weekend, the elders here at Berea, we met on Friday evening and all day Saturday to pray and to talk and to dream about where God might be leading us as a church, and it was a very exciting time. And as I was studying this passage this week, I was just struck again by the reality that we can plan and strategize and dream, but apart from a living faith in the power of God and His gospel, all our plans and strategies and dreams will fall flat. Notice what it says there in verse 5. And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. This is amazing given where we are in Mark's gospel. Because if you remember in Mark chapter 4 and 5, the main emphasis that Mark's trying to communicate to us is that Jesus is the one who holds all power and all authority. So he holds all power and authority over nature as we saw him calm the sea. He holds all power and authority over unclean spirits as he cast out the demons from the demoniac. He holds all power and authority over sickness and death as He heals the woman with the issue of blood and He raises Jairus' daughter from the dead. But here in Nazareth, he is unable to do mighty works. Now, why? What is it that would hinder, that would stall the display of the authority and power of the Son of God? And you see it there in the text, unbelief. And listen, it's not that Jesus lacked the ability to do mighty works. That's been clear in Mark's gospel. He can do the mighty works, but Jesus refused to do so in light of their unbelief. Matthew, recording the same account in his gospel, puts it this way in Matthew 13, 58, and he did not do mighty works there because of their unbelief. In other words, he possessed the power, but not the will because of their unbelief. My friends, unbelief is a thief. Unbelief will rob us of all the good things that God has for us. Hudson Taylor, the pioneer missionary to China, famously said, attempt great things for God and expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God and expect great things from God. And my friends, may we, by God's grace, be such a church. Faith, and we see it here in this text, we see it all throughout scripture, faith results in the mighty power and working of God. Listen to Jesus in John chapter 14, verses 12 to 14. And my friends, this is an invitation to us, okay? Invitation from Jesus to us. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." Now listen, I know when I read that there's some of us who want to qualify that, right? We want to say, well, that doesn't mean that it's not just a blank check for anything, you know, pray that you get a mansion and God will give you a mansion. Okay, got that. You know, we have to pray consistent with God's will and the prayer that Christ is speaking of here is a prayer that's consistent with His will and with His kingdom. Yes, got that. But listen, don't qualify the text away. This text means something, right? And Jesus is calling us to dream big, to strategize big, to plan big, to pray big for the advancement of his kingdom and his gospel. And he promises that as we do so, he will act for his glory. He's inviting us to do so. As a result of, I mean, these are things we've been talking about, some of these things for months and years, in the elders retreat we were assessing some of these things, and out of that are going to be coming, I think, a number of exciting things, new things for our church. We're going to be kicking off a new semester, and I believe an improved semester, of men's leadership training here in about a month. And so we're dreaming and we're praying that God would use this to raise up more elders and more deacons and more home group leaders and teachers and pastors and missionaries that we can send out from our church. We're going to be implementing a shepherding system, Lord willing, in the months to come because we recognize with the growth of our body that we want to continue to provide faithful pastoral care for every member of our church. And so the elders will be assigned individuals and families in our body who are members to give specific care and to shepherd those folks. And so we're dividing the pastoral care up among the elders, and I believe it will be very beneficial for us as a church. Given our current growth trends, we are considering and discussing next steps as it relates to our services, to our facilities, to our structure and systems. There's a number of things here that we still gotta figure out, honestly. But I don't know if you know this, but since January, we've added 40 new members to our church. And so we've experienced significant growth even in the last several months. And so we've got a plan, okay, what does this mean for us in the future? And we're so thankful for that. We recognize that when we came here in the fall of 2010, we didn't even have 40 members. We've added 40 in about the last six months. We're continuing to pray and discuss international missions and our international mission strategy, especially given that by God's grace there are more families in our congregation who are feeling a burden and a passion to go overseas long term. And they each have different desires and passions in terms of where their hearts are as far as different people groups and regions of the world. We are determined to give a renewed focus to local mercy ministry because we not only want to be as a church faithful in gospel proclamation, but we also want to be faithful in gospel presence so that our city knows that we love them and we want to serve them. We're pursuing strategic partnerships with other churches and networks to put us in a better position to plant churches, given that our vision here at Berea is to be a gospel-centered church, planting gospel-centered churches in our community and among the unreached peoples of the world. My friends, we're going to be saying more about all these things in the future, and you'll be hearing more details. But I want you to know in this passage, even impressed it upon me even more this week, I believe and we as elders believe that not because of who we are, but because of how great God is, Berea has just begun to scratch the surface of gospel advancement and fruitfulness. God has so much more for us if we trust Him and believe in Him. I want to invite you to join us in dreaming and praying that God would accomplish all these things and so much more. Join us in praying that God would do mighty work in us and through us for his glory and for the advancement of his gospel. And may it never be said of Berea, oh, by God's grace, may it never be said of us. He could do no mighty work there. But by God's grace, may he look on us of favor as we trust him. You see the progression of the people here in our text, they go from being astonished at Jesus to being offended by Jesus to being to unbelief. And I want us to return to that idea as we close. Why is it, why is it, as we've seen, that they were unbelieving and we are called to believe God for great things, given who Christ is. Why is it that they did not believe? And the reason that they didn't believe, as we've seen, is that they were offended by Jesus. They were scandalized. And what is it in particular that offended them that was scandalous? And it was the incarnation. The incarnation was scandalous, that Jesus was so common, He was so regular, He was one of them. They cried out, as our hearts naturally cry out, I would not have done it this way. The Son of God born humble and common in an obscure setting. Listen, my friends, the scandal of Jesus did not find its climax in the incarnation. Rather, the scandal of Jesus found its climax in the cross. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 23 to 24. He writes, we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block. Actually the word is scandal. Same word. We preach Christ crucified, a scandal to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. My friends, this is the ultimate offense of Jesus, isn't it? That our sin is so egregious, that our sin against God is so serious that we cannot save ourselves. Not by our own good works or deeds, not by our own good intentions. In fact, our sin is so serious and our sin is so egregious that nothing less than the crucifixion of the Son of God could atone for the guilt of our sin. This is a scandal. Who would have thought of such a thing? The Son of God crucified for sinners. My friends, for those who humble themselves, Nowhere, nowhere is the power and the wisdom and the glory of God more clearly seen than at the cross. I hope this morning that you will press through the offense of the incarnation in the cross to see the glory and the wisdom and the power and the grace of the Son of God crucified for sinners. Let's go to him in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you. For Jesus, who is so clearly revealed to us in your word. Father, I pray that. By your grace, we would not be found. Like the city in Nazareth to be unbelieving. when the revelation of who you are has been so clearly presented to us. And so, Father, I pray that even this morning if there are those who have perhaps been astonished by Jesus in the past but have never embraced Him fully, Lord, I pray that even this morning they would trust in Christ for the first time. I pray, Father, that if there are those who have been offended by Christ and by the scandal of the incarnation in the cross. By your grace, they would see the beauty and the glory of Jesus Christ becoming a man and crucified for sinners and how that reveals to us so clearly. Your compassion and mercy and grace and wisdom. So, Father, I pray you would do that work. And then, Lord, I pray as well for us as a church, Lord, who profess to believe in Christ and who have committed our lives to Him and want to follow Him and want to serve Him. Oh, Father, save us from unbelief. Lord, may we be a people who believe and trust in You and in Christ for great things. May we know greater works than these among us by your grace. May you do far more than all we can ask or imagine. Father, I pray that here in our body there would be a culture of faith in which we look to you repeatedly over and over again for great things. God, we thank you for the good things you're doing in our church, for lives being changed, and marriages being helped and restored, and people coming to faith in Christ. We pray, Father, for far more. Lord, we pray that you would multiply your gospel and your kingdom work in our midst for your glory. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.