very slowly through, trying to look at each verse, each passage, understand what God has for us. The last couple of sections that we've dealt with were fairly large chunks. This time we're going to be dealing with a fairly small chunk. And so I figured it was time to take a short one. And as I was studying and digging into it, looking at it, I'm like, OK, this is this is nice and simple. This is an easy one. It's transitional in nature. You know, we've been looking at these these really cool, big, powerful miracles displaying Jesus's authority and ability and and control over so many different things. And then this week, it's gonna be nice and simple transition. We'll be moving into another area where next week and in the weeks ahead, we see some of the things that the disciples do and some more of Jesus's miracles and activities. And then I got studying this section. And I realized it's not nice and simple and easy. In fact, just to tell on myself a little bit, you know, I try and get my sermon written and ready sufficiently advanced to then, you know, continue working it over. So like by Thursday, I like to have at least the basic idea all figured out and outlined and ready to go. And last night I was at my house thinking about it, praying about it and going through and I'm like, something's not setting right, something's not settled right. And you've heard the expression like a burr under your saddle, just something. And as I was going back through and digging into it, I came to realize that there's a phrase in this section that is kind of tough. It's kind of central to the whole idea though. And so do you ever read through scripture and come across something that you don't necessarily, you're not comfortable with. Like, that doesn't say what I want it to say. That's not, I wasn't raised that way, I'm not used to that idea, something of that nature. Obviously, you're well aware of this, but I want to remind you that sometimes when we run across those, we need to step back and say to ourselves, it doesn't matter what I think or what I want it to say. What does the text say? What does the Bible say? Because that's what I need to believe and accept and drive through on. So as we go through this, we're gonna come to some more challenging things, even though it is a transitional section that's moving from what has been talked about to what's going to be happening in what Mark is reporting for us. But even in some of those sections, I wanna encourage you as you're reading through scripture, don't take them for granted. Don't think that this is, oh, this is just a soft, easy piece because Every word is inspired by God, and every word is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Why? So that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Who knows where that one's found? Timothy? Go ahead, Alcia. Thank you. Second Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Speaking of memory verses, that's a good one. That's a really good one. Because if we say that the scriptures are our basis and our foundation, we ought to know why. Because all of them are inspired by God. Okay. Mark chapter 6 we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 13. So I'm going to go ahead and read that for us this morning starting off in verse 1. And he being Jesus went out from there and he came into his hometown and his disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and the many listeners were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to him, and such miracles as these performed by his hands? "'Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, "'the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? "'And 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 own relatives and in his own household.'" And he could not do miracles there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he wondered at their unbelief, and he was going around the villages teaching. And he summoned the 12 and began to send them out in pairs. And he was giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey except a mere staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belt, but to wear sandals. And he added, do not put on two tunics. And he said to them, wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. And any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake off the dust from the soles of your feet for a testimony against them. And they went out and preached that men should repent. And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them. All right, real quick review. What has just happened in the Gospel of Mark? Okay, so Jesus had just he had been in Capernaum area. He had traveled across the Sea of Galilee He had cast out a legion of demons He had calmed the sea as they were on their way across and then they crossed back over and so they arrived back we talked a little bit about how that on on the East side was less Jewish. That was more of a Gentile area. That's where the man with the legion of demons was. But then Jesus comes back to the more Jewish side. And as soon as he gets on the land, he is swarmed by this crowd of people. And one person in particular, Jarius, was there, a synagogue official. Now, this was really unusual, really strange, because why would the official of the synagogue be coming to Jesus? Well, the reason was his daughter was sick, sick to the point of death. Ultimately, we found out she died. But along the way, Jesus was surrounded by this crowd pressing in and healed a lady who had 12 years of chronic disease, and she was instantly healed. And then, like I said, we found out that Jairus' daughter died. And Jesus goes to the house, raises her from the dead. And through that series, we saw that Jesus has authority over the wind and the waves. Who has that kind of authority? Only God himself. We saw that he had authority over not just individual demons, but a legion of demons. It was ultimately a battle between Satan's forces and Jesus himself. And who came out victorious? Jesus. There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And it was just a small little battle compared to ultimately there will be a massive battle. But even in that one, we know who's gonna win. So Jesus had the authority that God has over the wind and the waves, over the forces of Satan. He comes back and he has authority over a chronic disease and even over death itself. And throughout all of those, we've seen Jesus active and working and doing these amazing things. Previous to that, we saw examples of what he had been teaching. These were the parables that he had been going through. Many of them are at times very challenging to understand, to work with, and that was partly by design. Prior to that, then, we saw Jesus really dealing with one, or sorry, Mark is ultimately dealing with just one major question. Who is Jesus? We've seen him have the authority of God. We've seen him have the authority that no one else could possibly have. We've seen him teaching in amazing ways. We've seen him gathering his disciples. But the question that we looked at several weeks ago was, who is Jesus? Is he a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord? By now, we ought to have a fairly good idea of who he is. The last section in particular really pointed out who he was, not just a man, not just a normal individual, but God himself. There is no question about that based on what he's been doing, based on what's been going on. And yet we're gonna find a bit of an issue in this section. Jesus came to earth with a message we saw that all the way back in chapter one that he had a message to call people to the kingdom of God that the kingdom of God was at hand that they were to repent that they were to turn to God. Throughout this time, we have seen that he is the Messiah, he is in charge, and that Jesus's mission is what he is all about. He came to spread this word, to spread this message. As I mentioned, this is a transitional section because we're going from Jesus doing all of these things, we're about to see Jesus send out his disciples. Now, if you recall back in earlier sections, Jesus had called these disciples to himself so that they would be with him, but also so that they could go out and serve him, and that's what's about to happen. But before we get there, we're gonna start back in verse one. Notice the setting. He had just crossed over the Sea of Galilee. He'd been met on the bank by Jairus and the crowd and the woman, and now he leaves that area and is going to his hometown. Does anybody know where his hometown is? Nazareth, right? He has made up his base of operations there in Capernaum. Capernaum is on the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee. That's where he's been operating out of, for the most part. That's where he's been. But his hometown was in Nazareth. Back in chapter 1, verse 9, and also verse 24, talks about that being his hometown. In particular, Luke 4.23 gives us that distinction between Capernaum and his hometown of Nazareth. So that's where he's heading back to. It is a town about 25 miles southwest away from the Sea of Galilee. So this whole time he's been kind of on the shore in that area with a bunch of fishing type of an idea, and now he is moving further away from that into the hill country. This is, in essence, a backwater. It's an area that most people try to avoid. They don't really want to go there. It's not an economic center. It's not a major center of learning. It's just kind of out in the boondocks type of an idea, far away from anything else. Do what? Kind of like Lapine, perhaps. Some would say that, yeah. It's not the place that people would normally head to as a major area, but it's his hometown. Now, we're not told everything about where Jesus goes or when he goes or things of that nature. This is about a day's journey from where he had been, maybe a long day, maybe a two-day journey. But it's a little ways away from where he'd been. We're not given the specific timing of all of Jesus's movements or everything that he's doing. But when he arrives, what does he do? What is the first thing that he heads for in verse two? Okay, on the Sabbath, he goes into the synagogue. Now, the last time that the synagogue was mentioned was back in chapter three, and I'm not saying that all of that happened in one week's timeframe, but Mark has this tendency to keep the story moving, to go very, very quickly. And so with all of the verbs that he's using, the way that he's outlining these things, and the fact that it's almost looks like, okay, one Saturday, one Sabbath day, he was over here, and now he's made this big long trip, and all of this exciting stuff has happened, and now he's back in the synagogue again. It's Mark's way of keeping the story moving fast, very, very quickly. And we've already talked about how some of the, The verbs that he uses, the imperfect tense is there to say this is what he's always doing. He's always teaching. He's always in the crowds. He's always healing. He's always doing this stuff. And it's a constant flow of Jesus' action. Mark doesn't give him a moment of rest, it seems. He just keeps him going forward through all of this stuff. It's a constant, continuous action. But as was his normal activity, and that's the thing to realize, regardless of specifically which Sabbath day this was, Jesus's normal activity was to go into the synagogues. Now, he had just been doing some amazing things. And now he comes back to his hometown, this small backwater, and he is invited to teach. That's actually, to me, one of the interesting things there. He began to teach in the synagogue. Now, you'll recall from some of the earlier things that we've looked at, some of the religious leaders want nothing to do with him. They want him executed. They want him dead. Last week we saw Jarius who was a synagogue official. He was the one who organized and made the running of the synagogue work and function correctly. Well, apparently the synagogue official there in Nazareth invited Jesus to teach, to speak, to say something. We don't know exactly what, but he stands up and is teaching. Many listeners, again, he's surrounded by the crowds. The crowds are constantly there, always. We're gonna see that over and over and over again. They are constantly around, but they were astonished. Now, why would they be surprised? Why would they be astonished? What do you think? Okay, because of his knowledge? Okay. Well, let's... Yeah, that is another quote. What good could possibly come out of Nazareth? It was not somewhere that wise individuals came from. Well, let's read through verse two. What does it say that their response is? They were astonished, they were surprised, but what does it say is the reasoning for that? Verse two, when Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and the many listeners were astonished, saying, where did this man get these things? What is this wisdom given to him, and such miracles as these performed by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters with us? So they're asking some questions. Basically, what happens is they see a bit of a disconnect. They hear him teach and then they're like, wait a minute, we know this kid. We watched him grow up. We know everything about him. How is it possible? What in the world is going on here? He goes into the synagogue, this is the regular meeting place for Jewish learning and instruction, and there's a large crowd there, and they were astonished, just like every time that we have seen him speak before. Back in chapter one, verse 22, it said that he was teaching with authority, and the people were amazed. That idea of amazement and astonishment comes up over and over and over again as he interacts with people. In this case, it's the wisdom and the miracles that he had. And so they asked those questions that we just read through. Why is this? How does he get this knowledge? How does he have these things? Notice we just spent the last couple of weeks looking at the authority of Jesus and they don't recognize his authority. They don't recognize that he has the right to be teaching this way. He has the authority to speak and teach. And so they're trying to figure it out. But the questions that they ask are such that they assume it comes from somewhere else. Look at them again. Where did this man get these things? Well, he had to have gotten it from somewhere else, because nobody from Nazareth could possibly have this kind of wisdom. Yes, ma'am? Yeah, for some it's a perfectly reasonable question. They watched him grow up. They knew his background. They knew about him. He had been there as a laborer. We're going to get into that idea of the carpenter here in just a minute. But they knew who he was. They knew his background. And they look at him and he comes back teaching? He must have gotten that from somewhere else. Where could he possibly get that? Starts off as a fairly reasonable question. They also ask, what is this wisdom given to him? Again, the idea is that it must have come from somewhere outside. There's no way that this is his own wisdom or his own power or understanding. And what about these miracles that have been performed by his hands? Surely that must be somebody else's power and authority. Yes, sir. When they went to the temple, he did interact with the leaders down there and ask them questions, and they were amazed. Again, that idea of amazement is just a constant thing that keeps coming up, is that they are astonished by what's going on. Go ahead. Keep up with the story. We saw that back in chapter one, verse 21, that they were astounded by the authority that he was teaching with. Yeah, because in that timeframe, a lot of the rabbis, they would quote other rabbis. They would quote other individuals. It would be like me getting up here and saying, well, according to John so-and-so, John Rice, John Piper, John MacArthur, John, you know, fill in the blank. There are lots of Johns out there. Great men, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that they are terrible men, but they are men. And so am I going to base everything on what they say or on something of higher authority? And that's the disconnect. That's the disconnect that these folks are having is that he's speaking with an authority that's not from these other people, not from these other things. The questions that they ask, they're saying, he must have gotten this from somewhere. Well, where does the authority come from? That's what the last section has all been about. Where is Jesus's authority from? He is God, so it's from himself. It is his own authority, it is his own power, his own abilities that he's doing any of these things. These miracles that they've heard about, these teachings that he has, all of this stuff is his own power and authority. And yet, they don't recognize that. And so there's a little bit of a disconnect, and they're trying to figure this out. They're trying to figure out, did he get this from somewhere else or from somebody? Not realizing that the whole point is, it is from himself. It is his own authority. Because, as I said, Mark, throughout all of this, his point has been, who is Jesus? He just showed us Jesus is God himself. He's the God man, but he is God himself. And so they are faced with a quandary. Now, we also shouldn't forget that previously some of the religious leaders, they had accused him of getting the authority from Satan himself. And so they had completely missed it and ascribed the power and authority from somewhere else. This crowd doesn't go that far. They don't go to that extreme, but they still don't understand where this power is coming from. They then ask a question, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary? Now, we have this idea of a carpenter as someone who works with wood, and that is the primary idea here, but it's not just limited to wood. This phrase, this word, can mean really craftsman, is the idea. So a craftsman could be in metal, it could be in stone, it could be in wood, I'm not denying that. Another way that we could call it is a builder, a craftsman, or a general contractor. He could have been any of those. Now, it is probable and likely that he did work with wood, at least some. One of the things that I found that is referenced is the number of times in which he refers to agricultural equipment, yokes, things of that nature. And if he would have had an experience of working with those, he would know, okay, a good, well, a lightweight, easy to pull yoke as compared to a hard one, things of that nature, but it doesn't specify. That's the whole point. It doesn't specify what he was a craftsman in as much as that he was a craftsman. He worked with his hands. He was a general laborer. Yes, sir? Joseph, his dad was also a carpenter. Yeah. Again, specifically what he made, I don't remember furniture being a major thing, but he was a craftsman. Now, that's not to say, again, I'm not saying he didn't work with wood. He probably worked a lot with wood, but like a craftsman today, he could have worked with wood or stone or metal or anything else. not an issue. The point, though, is that he was a manual laborer. He was a skilled laborer. He worked with his hands. He was able to do some of these things. It is a worthy trade. They aren't looking at this and saying, well, he's just a lowly nobody. They're saying he's just like us. We're craftsmen, we're laborers, we work hard, we do things, but We're not teachers. We're nothing special. So why would he be teaching us? How could he possibly have this authority? How could he possibly be doing these things? That's the question that they are asking. He is a craftsman or a carpenter. In Matthew 13, verse 55, Joseph is called the carpenter, and Jesus is the son of a carpenter. And so what that tells us, not that there's a conflict. I've mentioned before that sometimes one gospel will say it one way, another gospel says it a different way. And some people look at that and they're like, oh, well, they're in conflict. Well, this one says it's Joseph, this one says it's Jesus. No, there's a very simple explanation for that. How is it possible that Joseph, his father, was a carpenter and that Jesus was a carpenter? Think about that logically just for a moment. What do you think explains that? The father taught the son how to do it. There's no issue there. So don't get hung up on some of those discrepancies between the two of them. Perfectly reasonable, makes sense. In that time and in that era, the father would train the son in how to do the trade that they had. Apparently, Joseph had been a good teacher because Jesus also became a carpenter. And so we're able to see a normal practice of the son following in the father's footsteps. In short, Jesus was a manual laborer. He had a worthy trade, but it wasn't a teacher. That was unusual. That was strange. He worked with his hands, not with his mind. That's what the people expected to see. That's what they assumed that they would see when he's there. And yet he is speaking with authority. He is teaching in an astounding way. They look at his hands and ask the question, how could he be performing these miracles with his hands? Like, that doesn't make sense to them, because they knew that he was a manual laborer, and that he worked hard. They also recognized his family that was there. Not only did they know his occupation, they also recognized his family. His mother, Mary, was there with them, and they knew him. Now it does say Mary and it doesn't mention Joseph. Why do you think Joseph's not mentioned here? Do what? For some reason he's out of the picture. It doesn't specify. It doesn't tell us. Now, we do know that Joseph was a righteous man. That's Matthew chapter 1 verse 19. So it's doubtful that he ran off, that he left them. I don't ascribe to that. I don't think that that makes any sense. Most likely, by this point, he's died. It happens. We're not told specifically. We don't know exactly why Joseph is out of the picture. But because Mary is mentioned and Joseph is not, we can assume that Joseph was out of the picture for a while. And they're used to the idea that Mary is his mother. And which that also kind of indicates to us that Jesus took care of Mary, stayed around to care for Mary and make sure that she is provided for and all of those things as well as a good son should, particularly in their culture. So Jesus had taken care of Mary, but they knew Mary. They knew that Joseph was out of the picture. Like I said, most likely he died by this point. They also recognized the brothers. Now this is another of those you start digging into, you start reading any kind of literature and there's all kinds of arguments and fights over these brothers. What that boils down to, I've read a great quote about it, what that boils down to is the fact that unless you want to add to scripture, it means that they're his brothers. stepbrothers, but his brothers. A lot of people try and say, oh no, Mary couldn't have had other children. There is no scriptural reason why. That's an addition by certain groups who don't want to acknowledge that. These are Jesus's brothers. Mary and Joseph had more kids. Apparently, at least six of them, because four brothers are mentioned, and it says, and his sisters as well. Sisters being plural, There's at least two, we don't know how many. We don't know their names. We know really very little about any of these, but there's at least six other siblings that Jesus grew up with, that he knew, that the townspeople knew. And they look at those siblings and they're like, well, wait a minute, we know all of them. And even those siblings, they don't start following Jesus until after the resurrection. We'll get to that one eventually. But so there's a whole lot going against Jesus here. The whole home crowd does not buy into it. There's this huge disconnect, and they just don't understand. He's teaching great, but he's just a carpenter. He's just like us. His family is here, we know people, we know what's going on, they can't figure out, and in modern vernacular, we say familiarity breeds contempt. That's the same idea that happens here. They thought they had him all figured out, and he didn't fit their mold, and so, what is their reaction at the end of verse three? They took offense at him. this idea of a fence, it comes up actually several more times in the Gospel of Matthew. We already saw it back in chapter 4, verse 17, in one of his parables of the soils. And the seed that fell among Rocky sprang up and then fell away. Well, that's the same idea. They were offended and thus they didn't follow him. They didn't trust him. We're also going to see it come up in a little bit to make a little one stumble. Same word, same idea. It would be better for an adult to have a millstone tied around their neck and cast into the sea than to make a young one stumble or fall away or be offended. That's the idea that's going on here. They didn't trust him. They didn't want to follow him. They wanted to go their own way and so they fell away from him. The mere fact that they cannot understand how a local boy could be the Messiah was too much for them. That's really what it came down to. There was a disconnect in their minds. They couldn't understand how this kid that they saw grow up, who they knew the family, they knew the occupation, they knew about him, didn't fit their mold. And so they were offended by it. They couldn't stand it, couldn't accept it, couldn't abide by that. And so they get upset with that. In Jesus' response, we find in verse four, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household. He understands their hesitance to follow him. He doesn't approve of it. He doesn't like it, but he recognizes it, and he understands it, and he gives this statement, kind of almost like a proverb. Like I said, it's like our idea of familiarity breeds contempt. It's just they thought they knew him, and they weren't willing to follow him. He starts the statement very broad, and then he'll work his way narrower. He starts with his hometown, Nazareth, his relatives, the family, an extended family, but then specifically even his own household. And it hearkens back to the fate of many of the Old Testament prophets as well. Jesus is referencing back to those Old Testament prophets that were persecuted, that were stoned, that were cut apart, that were all kinds of different things. Think of the persecutions that Elijah endured or that Jeremiah endured. If you want a big list, go to Hebrews chapter 13, verses 32 through 38 are gonna talk about a bunch of Old Testament people who experienced all kinds of different persecutions. You could even, in modern day, look at Foxe's Book of Martyrs and the impact that persecution has had. Jesus understands it. He recognizes it. And as a result, we get to verse five. And this was the one that kind of stood out to me as like, wait a minute, how does that work? That doesn't make sense. It says, and he could do no miracle there, except he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And I'll admit, I look at that and I'm like, okay, there's gotta be like a translation issue there or something. How can you possibly say Jesus can't do something? Mark just got done proving Jesus is God. Jesus is God himself, so Jesus can do anything. So what's going on here? Well, in part, I think that's why Mark writes it this way, to be a little bit shocking, to catch our attention and realize, hey, there is something big going on here. Yes, sir. Exactly that that really is what it comes down to is that that there is no faith. There's no faith there and that's that's where personally I have this this disconnect of like wait a minute if if It has to have faith for these miracles to happen, then why is Jesus limited by this? What's going on there? And my mind starts racing and trying to figure this out, and then I am stuck with the fact that God is way bigger than I am, way more powerful than I am, way more capable than I am. Let's dig into it a little bit. There's this disconnect that they had. What did Mark just get done showing us and declaring us? That Jesus is God himself. That Jesus has all the authority and all the power that God has. And yet, here, he makes the statement that Jesus could do no miracle there. Now it does express immediately following that he does do a few miracles. He does do some healing. But the issue is that very question of faith. Which as I continued to study this and to dig into it, I had to go back to the section that we just looked at. And how many times was faith mentioned? It comes up a lot. And again, you know, I'm just being real with you here. Isaac doesn't have it all figured out all the time. And I'm willing to acknowledge that. Yeah, shocking, isn't it? We all ought to have that level of humility to look at scripture and be like, this doesn't quite fit. This doesn't quite make sense. How do I understand this and step back and start digging in? And what I come to realize is one of those things that I've known forever and for always Does Jesus force himself on people? What does he do when he calls people to himself? He asks them, he says, hey, trust me. From the very beginning of the Gospel of Mark, he has been sharing this message, letting it be known and calling on people to come to him, calling on people to accept him, calling on people to have faith. In him, Dennis is a lot sharper than I am on this one. And he just jumped right to it. It must be that people didn't have faith. That's what the issue was. And in the previous sections, we saw that he responded to their faith. Your faith has made you whole is what he says to the lady who is suffering for 12 years with a chronic disease. Even as he's talking to Jarius, when his daughter has died, he says to him, just believe. Don't be afraid any longer, just believe. Jesus responds to their faith. But in this situation, they didn't have it. They rejected him. They chose not to accept him or to follow him. And as a result, he lacked the power, he lacked the ability to do the miracles that he had been doing everywhere else. Not because Jesus was incapable. And that's really where we do have to recognize, Mark is not saying that Jesus doesn't have the power. Just like when we look at all kinds of other things, God has ultimate, ability, but how does he choose to use that? Jesus limited himself. Jesus laid aside some of his ultimate power and ability to do all things and submits that to the will of the father, submits that to the way that God wants to operate. And in this instance, in this situation, Jesus is not able to do the miracles because there's no faith. People aren't trusting him and accepting him as they have everywhere else that he's been. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Jesus is constantly dealing with the spiritual side as well as the physical side. And so Mark is making this very clear distinction and really using some very shocking language to do that, to let us know, hey, this is strange, this is odd, this is different. Jesus doesn't have the power, the ability to do these miracles that he's been doing everywhere else because the people there didn't trust him. Now, does that stop him? Does Jesus then just throw up his hands and say, well, you know, they're not trusting me, they're not following me, forget it, I'm done. Well, no, that's where Mark says he did lay his hands, the same hands that the people in the area were looking at like, well, that's laborer's hands, he couldn't be a teacher. He lays those hands on people and heals them. There are some, but comparatively speaking, it is nothing like what we've just been exposed to over and over and over constantly. He's out healing. He's out teaching. He's out casting out demons. He's doing all of this stuff. He can't do that in Nazareth because they reject him. They do not trust him, his hometown, his own relatives, his own household. rejects him. Now, the amazing hope that I see in that I alluded to just barely. We do see his brothers come to faith in him later. And so just because they've rejected him here does not mean that they have completely and ultimately and totally reject him. But at this point, he is left in wonder. Verse six, he wonders at their unbelief. Up to this point, we've seen amazement, we've seen awe, we've seen shock of all kinds of ways from everybody else. Jesus always has it figured out. He always knows what's going on. And yet here, we see that Jesus is in awe. He's in awe because of their unbelief. He doesn't get it. They should know better. They are the ones who saw him, who understand, who grew up with him. They ought to know, and yet they don't. They reject him because, as I've mentioned before, familiarity breeds contempt. But like I said, that does not stop Jesus. That does not make him give up. It says in verse seven that he, or sorry, in verse six, he was going around to the villages teaching. So just because there in Nazareth rejected him, he went to the area surrounding, to the small villages around it, and he continued to teach, and he continued to do what he was going to do. But then we see a transition to the next section in which, starting off in verse 7, he calls his disciples. And he calls them to himself, he brings them together, sends them out in pairs, and gives them authority. Now this is one of those where Mark is making some really amazing points as you dig into this. The people didn't understand the authority that he had. They rejected his authority and his ability because surely it must have come from someone else and they couldn't believe him. Well, here we find that his authority is not just that Jesus has it, but also that he's able to pass that on to others. He's able to give it. So in very quick succession, Mark says, you know, they were thinking that it was somebody else who had given Jesus the authority. But here we find out Jesus is the one with the authority and he's able to give it to others. And so he passes that authority to his disciples. He was giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them with certain requirements for their journey. Now, back in chapter three, verses 14 and 15, we saw that Jesus had appointed his disciples for a purpose so that they would be with him and so that they would be able to teach. Well, now they're actually putting that into practice. They're getting ready to go out. And in this next section, as we get into the next couple of weeks, we're gonna see some of the things that they do. And actually down in, I believe it's verse 30, they're gonna come back and give their report of what happened and what they were able to do. But he gives them some instructions on how they're supposed to go out. Verse eight, he instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey except a mere staff. no bread, no bag, no money in their belt, but to wear sandals. And he added, do not put on two tunics. So obviously you can take some time and dig into each of these items and what's going on with them. Specifically, he's telling them don't make provision, don't make preparations, just go. Yes, sir. He's setting them up to go out and to do what he's been doing and to trust him, to have faith in him and in his ability. Specifically, we get down to verse 10 and he says, whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. So in part, we see a cultural situation where normally when someone would go into an area, they would be taken care of by others. That was hospitable. That's what was normal to happen. But he also tells them, once they enter a house, stay there. Now, that one kind of struck me as like, well, why do they need to stay there until they move on? I mean, why would you be giving that instructions? Obviously, stay where you're at until you go somewhere else. Here's what I think's going on with this. It would be very tempting if they went into a town and they arrived and someone says, yeah, yeah, come on over. I'll take care of you. I'll feed you. And then they start preaching and teaching. And then it gets out. Word gets out and like, oh, we have this amazing teacher here. And then somebody of higher rank invites them over and says, well, You know, why don't you come over with me and hang out? And so, in part, he's saying don't try and work your way up the social ladder. Wherever you go, just accept that and trust it. On the flip side, there's also the idea of if they go in somewhere and there's someone who invites them and is going to take care of them and then they aren't well received and things don't go well, Well, Jesus also addresses that in a moment, but they're to go to one place, accept whatever hospitality is given to them, because it's not about them. It's not about their stuff. It's not about how much provision do they take. It's not about all of that. It's about the message that they are bringing. What is the message that they're bringing? The exact same one that Jesus has been bringing the whole time. They're supposed to go as his representatives under his authority as apostles, really, that's what this is. They are sent ones under his authority to share the same message that Jesus has been declaring. The kingdom of God is at hand, repent. Verse 11, if any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake off the dust from the soles of your feet for a testimony against them. He's letting them be known, hey, you're going to find places where they don't accept you. That's OK. Just keep moving on. Shake the dust off your feet is a cultural reference that kind of deals with some of the ways that they understood these activities. They were to not even carry that with them. Get rid of that dust and just keep moving. and it says that it was a testimony against them, it bears witness that they were not willing to accept the message, that they weren't willing to accept the gospel either. Now we've just seen Jesus experience both of these, places where he is well-received and places where he is rejected. And his disciples now are getting ready to go out, and they will come to places where they are well-received and places where they are rejected. And how are they then going to respond to that? Well, We come to verse 12 and it says, they went out. and preached that men should repent. And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them. They went out and did the same things that Jesus had been doing. And so ultimately what's going on is that Jesus says, you are my representatives. I am sending you out to do these things. And I want you to tell people the same message that I've been telling. They were to preach that men should repent. And Mark doesn't respond any of the responses of anyone that they talk to at this point. We're gonna come up on some of those eventually. But at this point, Mark doesn't really delve into those things. He simply records what they did. They went out and did what Jesus had told them and commanded them to do. They went out and were casting out demons, were anointing with oil and were healing people. Now, that is one where there's a little bit of a, okay, so why is oil mentioned here? Why were they anointing with oil? Did anybody run into that as they were pre-studying or looking at this one? It was the basic medication. That's all that it was. There's not some mystic amazing thing going on with this oil. It's simply that was the normal way that medication was administered. So they went out and they were doing what they could under normal physical means. But they weren't limited to that. They weren't just depending on that. They were also given the ability, the power, the authority to do the spiritual side as well, to cast out the demons and to heal people, miraculous healings, as well as the regular physical, just anointing with oil was the normal medicine, medicinal way of doing things. So Mark records all of these things. They were to go out, not taking preparations, not doing certain things, but going out, just trusting him, just living for him, doing what he had done, sharing the same message that he had done, trusting in him to provide for them. Now, this isn't necessarily one that we take and say, oh, well, automatically all missionaries, they're not allowed to take a staff with them. They're not allowed to take extra stuff with them. That's not what's going on here, okay? So there are some who try and read that kind of stuff into it. This is just simply how Jesus wanted them to go out in this time, trusting him, following him, doing things his way. There are other times in which he tells them go out with certain preparations, with certain things. But in this instance, he is limiting them to doing it this way. So what are we supposed to take from this section? The so what, as it were. What's going on in this? I said this is a shorter section, but obviously I can't keep things short. We're already a little bit over on time. My apologies. This is a simpler section, except there's so much going on in here, and I feel like I even missed certain things that are in here that I wanted to talk about as well. Well, what should we take from this? First and foremost, Jesus does not force himself on people. He gives them the choice. He gives them the option. He has been preaching this same message the whole way through and is laying it out and saying, trust me, believe me, follow me. And if they choose not to, he allows that. Number two, Jesus' goal was always to get the word out. Initially, he goes out and he makes that proclamation. He's the one preaching and teaching and letting it be known. But now, he is increasing his ministry by sending his disciples out with the exact same message, with the exact same preparation, so that they will go out and do what he has been doing as well. So what? What about you? Well, I think those same two things apply to us. Jesus doesn't force us to trust him. He asks us to. So if you've not trusted him, you ought to. And if you have, and you're going out and telling others, don't try and strong arm them and twist their arms and force them to give them the message, because that's how Jesus interacted with people. And number two, are we going out and spreading the same word, the same gospel? So often in the world around us, there's an attempt to add other things into it and to change it and to make it more comfortable to us. What did Jesus proclaim? Trust him. That's it, that's it. As you go out, are you spreading that same message? Are you sharing that with the lost? I hope so. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. Thank you for who you are. Lord, we've been going through sections that display your power and your authority and your awesomeness. And really it's shocking that anyone wouldn't trust you. When they knew who you were by your displays of authority, we know that you are God. And yet, there are so many who reject you. And Lord, I can't begin to fathom how that must feel to you, and yet you allow that. And you don't force people, and you don't require it. You let them make that decision. So Lord, first of all, thank you. But more than that, thank you that you spread your word, that you spread the message so far and wide. We thank you that we have been able to hear your message, the option of salvation by trusting you. And I pray that each one of us would recognize that we need to be spreading that same message, that we need to be going out and telling others I thank you that you love us enough that you came, lived on this earth, gave your life as a ransom for us. That is truly good news. Help us to spread it around so that others will know who you are and what you've done. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.