Matthew 13 verses 54 through 58, these are God's words. When He had come into His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and in his own house. Now he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. We are finishing up this long section that has begun, especially in the wake of the healing in the middle of chapter 12, to which the Pharisees had responded, this fellow does not cast out demons. except by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. And so there has been this extended treatment of right response to the Lord Jesus and how much is at stake and the fact that even within the church, there are going to be many who do not respond rightly to him. And now it concludes in a return to Nazareth. He finishes all these parables and the end of last week's portion, verse 53, and he comes to his own country and immediately there are these, at least at the time, these terrorists, these bad fish, and others whom we have good hope are going to come to faith. But he comes to his own country in verse 54, and he begins teaching them in their synagogue. And we have a parallel passage in Luke 4. It's either the very same incident or another one very like it, so that this type of thing, this very similar type of thing may have happened on multiple occasions. But it does seem very much to be the same incident. And so we know not just that he was teaching them in their synagogue, there in Luke 4 we have the text that Jesus identifies himself as the Christ, indeed even the Lord, who proclaims the good news of his kingdom. And he tells them, this has been fulfilled in your hearing. So Jesus has given these proofs about himself and made this proclamation about himself all over in other places. And now he comes and he does the same in his hometown. This reminds us that Jesus gives, the Lord gives different people different amounts of proof about himself, different amounts of exposure, declaration of himself to them. He gives everyone enough. I grew up in circles where they talked about those who never had an opportunity to know God. which is just not true. Romans 1 says it's not true. Psalm 19 says it's not true. The scripture as a whole says it's not true. Everyone has enough proof. He has made it obvious in His creation. He has made it known within us. And then not only does everyone have the truth about God in the creation, so that 2 Thessalonians 1 will say that his glory burns against those who did not know him, who refused to know him. But there are many who have gotten to hear the gospel. and they've had God proclaimed to them in Christ from His Word. And that's why in 2 Thessalonians 1 it goes on to say, not just those who did not know Him or refused to know Him, that's enough and all men are without excuse, like Romans 1.21 says that men are without excuse because of this knowledge, but if God has declared Himself to you in His Son, in the Gospel of His Son and His Word, than it is all the more for obeying not the gospel, as 2 Thessalonians 1 says, that the glory of God would burn against you. And so there's this principle in scripture of from him to whom much is given, much will be required. And the more that you have the gospel, the clearer, the purer the doctrine, the more vital the work of the Spirit in the church where you are, the more culpable you are. Like we see in Hebrews chapter 6, where people taste the heavenly gift and the working of the Holy Spirit and the powers of the world to come, but they're even unconverted among them, and it's much worse for them. Well, Jesus comes now, he comes home. He comes to the town that admits that they know him and his family. And so there was this perfectly righteous, perfectly godly boy, and then young man in the man that had grown up there. Full of love towards God full of joy and peace all the things that are the fruits of the Spirit are the fruits of the Spirit Because he's producing Christ likeness in us And so you you think of all of that and it is this composite picture of his character He never even thought or felt sinfully towards anyone once, never gave an unkind glance, never spoke out of turn or incorrect word. He loved the Sabbath day and took delight in it. loved the worship of God and sang with all his heart. Never had there been someone who loved the Lord like he loved the Lord. Never had there been someone who loved his neighbor as himself like the Lord Jesus. Never been a more dutiful, obedient, diligent, zealous, serving child unto his parents. It is difficult to imagine just how different Jesus was. They had evidence. Before there was a single sermon about his identity, why it is that he's full of grace and truth. Well, he's full of grace and truth because he's the word who became flesh, the only begotten of the father. That's why he's full of grace and truth. But before there was a single sermon from him about why he's full of grace and truth, there was all of this evidence in his life. that he was full of grace and truth. And now there are not just sermons, but there are mighty works. And the people who are most prepared in all of the world to attest where he got these words and these works. The people who should have said, oh, that makes so much more sense now. This is God the Son in the flesh. This is a God-man. This is an unfallen new Adam. He is not like us, because we need to come into Him and be received by Him and be saved by Him, just like He's preaching. Their familiarity, however, was mixed with blinding pride. So Christ gives each of us different proof, but sufficient proof. We who are at Hopewell, I think, in God's great mercy to us, obviously we don't just have the truth about God and the creation, but we do have the God's declaration of himself and in his son and in the gospel of his son But I think we have even much more to answer for Because the Lord has been very merciful and done much gracious work in us and among us and given us to know Him and His worship and what worship is, or at least given us generally, and those who have received it know and embrace and enjoy and love and devote themselves to drawing near to Him in Christ, engaging with Him. So first Christ gives each of us different proof, but sufficient proof, but those to whom the more is given of them More will be required. But then there is this great danger, this great danger of being proud. The people of Nazareth were proud, and their pride, assuming that others are like them, assuming that Jesus is like they are, so that here this supremely different one is among them. But the implication of what they say is, he's the same. He's the same as we are. He's part of our economic community. He's the carpenter's son. He's part of our social community. We know Mary, his mother. He's just like, you know, he's just one of his family. Probably his family, generally speaking, were more pious, more godly than others. The Lord had given him the parents that he needed in order for his spiritual well-being and care, even those things that were, to a large extent, out of his control as a baby. And almost certainly, Joseph and Mary brought up boys and girls that were godly kids. but they just assumed that Jesus was the same, that their being familiar with him meant they knew all that there was to him, which is something we must never conclude about the Lord Jesus. Praise God, we may be grateful for all that he gives us to know about him, but God forbid that we should ever think that we know all that there is to know about him, for we will continue to discover his glories and his goodness for all eternity. But they thought they They had the book on Jesus. Their familiarity had bred contempt, a not valuing or recognizing or honoring the glory and the goodness that was in him. because of how near it had been for how long, and they'd just grown accustomed to it, and so they treated it as a small thing. But we must not let our familiarity with the Lord Jesus breed contempt, because contempt for the Lord Jesus, treating him as a small thing, is the cause of condemnation. And there are those who grow up in good churches and they are around the truth of Christ and the life of Christ, but they never come to an end of themselves. They never discover by grace, of course, but they are never Overwhelmed with the truth about Christ they may have Intense experiences of Christ, but they are not overwhelmed by him himself as he is And so they don't come out of being their own and into being his they don't they don't Turn to him rejoice in him delight in him and as a result all of the things they do in worship all of the teaching that they hear and all of the practice in the church. It's just so much religious exercise and religious ideas and religious rules. But for them, it is not Christ. Christ himself is a small thing. and they don't see the connection of the worship to Christ. They don't see the connection of the truth to Christ. They don't see the connection of the life and godliness to Christ himself and coming from union with Christ. And eventually they fall in love with other worship or no worship at all. They get enamored and tricked and give themselves to other ideas. And they definitely, because their fleshliness is so desirous of it, are glad to throw off any morality. Familiarity breeds contempt, which breeds condemnation. Pride mixed with familiarity is dangerous. we must have humility. The more familiar we are with Christ, the more humbled we must be before Him, that we do not begin to treat Him as small. One of the reasons for that, a great reason for that, is that we owe Him we owe him to believe in him. He's preaching this sermon. They respond, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? And then they go through this reasoning in the rest of verse 54 and verse 55, and then in half of verse 56. And then they conclude with the same question, where then did this man get all these things? They don't conclude that he got them because he is who he said he is in the sermon. They conclude with doubt. They conclude with asking the same question. Now we live in a culture where quote-unquote honest skepticism or honest, quote-unquote honest doubt is treated as if it is a virtue. But when the Lord has declared himself plainly to us, and because the Lord is the one who has made us and is the only Redeemer. Doubt and skepticism are not honest. They may be honest about yourself, but they are dishonest about the Lord, and they are dishonest about the truth, and they are an unworthy and wicked response to God's revealing of himself. It is not good. to continue doubting. So they were offended at him, and the word being translated offended is made to stumble. So, here Jesus is who he is, he does what he does, and he preaches what he preaches. And the result of all of that is that their hearts being hard towards him, and dark and dead, rather than responding in repentance and faith, their response is to be made to stumble. As end of Romans 9, beginning of Romans 10 describes, they stumbled over the stumbling stone and realized that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. He is their Creator and all their hope for salvation. And so, to continue in doubt after Jesus has declared Himself to you is a stumbling, according to the first part of verse 57. The second part of 57, the specific type of stumbling, it is dishonoring the Lord Jesus. It's not just trying to be real, man, or just trying to be authentic. genuine, whatever. It is genuinely unbelieving, genuinely stumbling, genuinely rejecting, genuinely dishonoring Christ. And those who, in the opinions of men in the court of public opinion, and in the vain fancies of their own conscience, think that they will get some credit for being authentic, will be shocked when they stand before him who declared himself to them. And the true nature of the skeptical response is exposed in the light of standing before him who had declared to them his gospel. And they will see that their skeptical and doubting responses were so wicked. But we don't have to wait until that day. We can see and hear it and hear it preached, meditate upon it. From Matthew 13, verse 56 and 57, continuing to question who Jesus is, not wonder about him. We will wonder about him forever. But continuing to question what he has said about himself is stumbling and dishonoring him. And Jesus warns that those who are most familiar are in most danger of doing this. Moses was particularly despised in his own family. He speaks generally of the prophets himself being the last prophet, the great prophet with a capital P. This has been true also in church history. Not that a man like Jonathan Edwards was Jesus, but he was a preacher whose ministry fell on largely deaf ears. Within the congregations he served he was kicked out of two of them the sermon that he preached that the Lord used to ignite the the Great Awakening in that part of the colonies at the time that He was preaching there were others whom the Lord used to ignite it in different places Freulinghausen or Whitfield but in in Northampton and that area. It was a sermon that Edwards had preached in his home congregation to almost no spiritual response. And then something happened with a nearby minister and they needed last-minute pulpit supply and The word came to Pastor Edwards, and he grabbed that recent sermon and went and preached it there, and the Lord did a great reviving work. Instrumentally speaking, familiarity with the preaching of the gospel from their own pastor had bred contempt, and that's how his local congregation was made hard. And that brings us to verse 58. in which there's opportunity to give more proof, right? The way verse 58 could have gone was, so he did many more mighty works there, proving himself more, or preached many more sermons. But Jesus doesn't owe us more proof. He doesn't owe us more opportunities. He doesn't owe to us to persuade us. And so he decides his holy and right and just response is to not do many mighty works there. Now this helps us understand the parallel in the gospel of Mark and Mark 6, 5, it even says he was unable to do. It uses the word for power, but that's because Christ's power and Christ's will are one. It's not like unbelief somehow neutralized his omnipotence. There are people who treat faith that way, as if faith unleashes as the catalyst that facilitates God's ability to do things. Blasphemous, blasphemous way of thinking. But verse 58 in Matthew 13 explains this two sides of the same coin of Jesus' ability and Jesus' willing. As was said earlier by the leper, if you are willing, you are able to make me clean. And remember, Jesus said, I'm willing, be clean. His willing and His ability is the same. And in response to their unbelief, in response to their quote-unquote honest doubting, which was this stumbling and dishonoring and rejection of Him, Jesus was unwilling to reveal Himself more to them. their opportunity was coming to an end. Remember what we've been hearing from Amos. God gives a limited amount of time, a limited opportunity for repentance and faith. And if we are not repenting and believing, then our opportunity is coming. to an end, but how good He has been, how good He has been to make Himself known to us in the creation, how good He has been to declare Himself to us in the gospel. And may He grant to us that work of His Spirit that would give us soft hearts, that familiarity would not breed contempt, that we would respond by believing Him to be whom He has declared Himself to be. God Himself, God the Son, who became a man, a perfect, godly, righteous, gospel-preaching about Himself, miracle-working as signs to show that His preaching about Himself is true, God, Man, Savior, may He give us soft hearts to receive and believe and embrace this truth about Himself so that He might be our righteousness. so that He might be our salvation, so that He might be our life. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we pray that You would indeed give us soft-heartedness towards You, towards Your Son, towards and by the work of Your Spirit. Don't let us be those who resist Christ because we're so familiar that our hearts have grown hard and dull, and we treat him as a small thing. Don't let that happen to any one of us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.