No Honor

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Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

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No Honor in His Own Country

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Bob Bradley

_________________________

Mark 6:1-6

1 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.

2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them .

6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

The first verse that I read to you here, the Bible says, “…he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples’ follow him.” Keep in mind that He has just done some wonderful things here in Capernaum. He has just raised the little girl from the dead. He has just healed the woman with the issue of blood. He had just come across the lake where he had the encounter with the fellow over in Gadara that was possessed with the legion of demons and devils. He has been doing some awesome things.

Now the Bible says that he goes unto his own country. What that is saying is this. He is going back home to Nazareth. We know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.   He did not live there long, or he did not stay there long. His own country, his own hometown was Nazareth.

Let’s look at the gospel of Luke 4.

Something happened about a year before this. What we are going to read here out of chapter four of Luke is an event that happened about a year before what I just read to you. If you go down to verse 16 the Bible says…

Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

Keep in mind this is about a year before what I just read to you here in the book of Mark. He goes to Nazareth. He goes into the synagogue and they asked him to read from the scroll/scriptures. The Bible says…

Luke 4:17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Luke 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Luke 4:20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

So, he goes to the synagogue as his custom was. They asked him to read. They gave him the book of Isaiah. He reads the scripture that I read unto you here. When he through reading, he sits down. He gives the book back to the minister that was there; the overseer of the synagogue.

Luke 4:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

What he is saying was that, “The scripture I just read unto you, I’m reading it to you and it is about me.” When he says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach, he has anointed me to preach; he is saying here the scripture of Isaiah 700 years before, he is speaking about me. Today this scripture is being fulfilled in your ears.” He is saying what Isaiah is saying 700 to 750 years before; he is saying this scripture is being fulfilled today.

Luke 4:22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

Keep that in mind because that is important. They said, “…Is not this Joseph’s son?”

Luke 4:23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

Luke 4:24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

Luke 4:25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

Luke 4:26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

Luke 4:27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

He is sort of, in a polite spiritual way, denouncing them. He is saying God took care of the prophets here, but he sent them up into Gentile country. There were many widows and there were many lepers in the land. He sent him way up in the Gentile country to do some great things.

Luke 4:28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

Luke 4:29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

Luke 4:30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

Now here’s what happens. When he preaches unto them and says, “…today this scripture is being fulfilled in your ears…” He brings up about Naaman. He brings up about the widows that were there and tells them what they did. They were very familiar with that. They were filled with wrath. They got so mad at him that they led him out to the edge of the hill whereon the city was built, out to the edge of a cliff and they were going to kill him. They were going to throw him off of the cliff and kill him.

Keep in mind when we go back to Mark 4 a year has passed. Do you know where Jesus goes? He goes right back to the place where they tried to kill him. I want you to think about that. I want you to keep that in your mind as we look at this scripture, had I went to a place where they tried to kill me, I probably wouldn’t go back. Would you? If I went to a place that they mocked me, they were filled with wrath and they rejected me; I probably wouldn’t go back. Would you?

Do you see the difference here with the way that we think sometimes and the way Jesus thinks? Jesus Christ—I don’t really think sometimes we understand how long suffering and how great his grace really is and how far it really goes. I really think sometimes, we don’t understand that.

Here he goes back to his own country. He goes back to Nazareth where he had been brought up. He lived in Nazareth for 30 years, probably. We know that he was a carpenter there. We know that Joseph, his father, was a carpenter. As I read to you down through here, we know that he had half brothers and half sisters. We know that he had them. We know that they were there. This is his hometown. This is where he lived for 30 years. This is where he ran the streets and played with the other neighborhood kids. This is where he went to synagogue. This is where he went to school. This is where he did all that he did, just like your hometown.

Some of you went to Rock Hill and some of you went to Ironton.

It was familiar surroundings for him. Not only that, but also, the people there knew him. People there knew him and knew his background.

You might say, “What’s that got to do with this story?” It’s got everything to do with this story. Sometimes things hit home. Even though I have read this scripture, I wouldn’t know how many times over the last 30 years, but sometimes we forget things. Sometimes we forget things and some of the lessons that Jesus taught us and some of the things that he said in his word.

He goes home. He goes back to Nazareth where he was brought up. I don’t know what particular house he went to. I don’t for sure a lot of things. I don’t know where he went but I know that he went back. Also, when we verse two, the Bible says…

2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

He comes back home. He goes to the synagogue. He goes to the place here of worship. It was not a temple, but it was synagogue; a place here where they would go in and someone would read the scriptures; someone would expound the scriptures and teach from the scriptures awhile. They would offer prayers and do different things. This is where he was at. The Bible says when he gets there—I don’t know whether Jesus knew personally the minister here that was the overseer of the synagogue. He probably did.

Keep in mind something. When we studied back in Mark 3, do you remember when he did some great things down in Capernaum and the delegations of people come from his hometown and come down there? They thought that Jesus had lost his mind. They thought that he had gone crazy. They thought that some of the claims that he was making and some of things that were going on; they thought that he was just completely insane. Therefore, there is no doubt in my mind, those rumors—even from his family—those things had got back home.

When somebody makes it good a lot of times, we don’t hear those things. However, somebody can mess up one time and everybody in the world knows it.

Even though Jesus did not mess up, but what they were coming back here and telling here at Nazareth; they were telling things very negative. They were gossiping here. However, gossiping goes a whole lot further than truth does. Even 2000 years ago it did. Gossip just goes a long way. Everybody wants to hear gossip.

I read something somewhere one time; I probably said it here before. Someone heard something from somebody and he made the statement, “Well, I want to go tell somebody else before somebody comes along and says that it is not true.’ We are like that a whole lot of times. We hear something and we just can’t wait to tell somebody else. Many times we don’t have to have any substantiation of it. We just say it.

Keep that in your mind here.

When he gets back to Nazareth here, he gets back here and the gossip and all the rumors about him being crazy and being beside himself and being mad from his own family, his own kin, his own relation, and his own hometown. No doubt that has spread everywhere.

The reason that I want you to think about that is this. When we have negative things to say about God’s people, not only is it going to affect you, but it is going to affect those that are around you. Not only is it going to affect you—you might say, well somebody told me this. It does not matter. If you repeat what someone else says and it’s a lie then you have lied too. It does not matter if someone else may have told you that, but if you repeat it and it’s a lie then you have lied too. We need to be very careful about we are saying.

These folks here had said all kinds of things about Jesus. They had said he is beside himself, he is mad, he is crazy, he has lost his mind, and he is insane. No doubt, it went all over the whole city here of Nazareth. He comes home. He goes back here to the synagogue. …I don’t know some things, whether Jesus knew the minister; he probably did. The overseer of the synagogue had been hearing the things that Jesus had been doing all over the land. Anyways, he asked him read. The Bible says…

2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

Saturday is the Sabbath day. So he goes in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. That was his custom. He went to worship. He went to praise the Lord. They asked him to read again and asked him to teach again. As he was teaching the crowd that was there were completely astonished at his teaching. What that means is that they were completely flabbergasted. When you look at the word in the Greek, it means to be flabbergasted. What that means is that they were just blown away. They just couldn’t comprehend that this man could teach and this man had the wisdom that he had. Do you know why they couldn’t? …because of all the gossip that they had heard. All the things that they had heard about him, all the things that they had heard negative about him, they were absolutely blown away that when he got up and preached and taught with the authority and the wisdom that he had; they were absolutely blown away.

You might say, “Well, what’s good or bad about that? “ It is good that they recognize that he had wisdom. It is good that they recognized that he had a mannerism about teaching that they had never heard before. …What’s bad about that is this is them being familiar with him.

Keep that in your mind.

What’s wrong, what’s going to happen here and what’s going to keep this city from being able to receive some great things by the hand and through the hand, and by the power of Jesus Christ is that they were too familiar with him.

We never thought about that before.

Jesus, everybody knew him. He was raised here. He played ball in the streets. Probably some of the women, some of the men that were in this synagogue on this day, may have baby-sitter for him. Some of them here may have changed his diaper. Some of them here may have fed him meals. Some of them here may have gone fishing together. Some of them here may have done a lot of different things together, but they knew him. They knew who he was. They saw him grow up. They saw him and they thought that he was just like any other child. That is what they thought. They thought that he was just like any other man. They were familiar with him. They were very familiar with him.

Familiarity is good in ways if we keep things in the proper perspective. However if our familiarity with people becomes a stumbling block or hindrance to us or them because we know them too well; then we need to watch that.

I said here when I first came here, many years ago; I told this to the deacons and I may have made this statement before that I was not going to loaf with them. I was not going to be at their houses every Sunday. I was not going to do a lot of things with them as far as, loafing with them. I wasn’t going to be their best buddy, because when we get familiar with people and they get familiar with us; you don’t pay a lot of attention to us. You get familiar with people, you know their ins, you know their outs and a lot of times, as a pastor, we lose our effectiveness because we get too familiar with people. That’s truth.

The same thing is happening here with Jesus. They knew who he was. They knew him. They watched him grow up. They watched him run in the streets. They watched him play ball. They watched him play with the kids. They watched him do all that he did, but here is a man when he was 30 years old, leaves here, starts going all over the country, preaching and teaching and doing miracles and raising people from the dead, walking on water—they heard all of that. Do you know what they were thinking? There were people in the community that was a whole smarter than he was. There were people that came from a whole lot more influential families than he did. There were people that came from the better side of tracks than he did. There were people here that had a better standard of living than he did.

What I am saying in all of that is this. When they looked at Jesus, they looked at his background. They looked at how he was raised. They looked at what they knew about him. Then they looked at everybody else here that was in the city and the other young men that had been raised up here, who came from different families. Maybe they excelled in different things.

When they looked at Jesus and his plan of being the Messiah, the Son of Almighty God, the long awaited Messiah that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob said he was going to send. When they heard that claim coming from Jesus and looked at what God said that the Messiah would be and do—when they looked at the verses concerning Jesus Christ, they could not bring the two together. Do you know why? [They could not bring the two together] because of familiarity. They knew him.

Day in and day out…week in and week out…year after year…they watched him grow up. He worked in a carpenter shop. He went with his dad. He probably worked on different homes and done different things—or Joseph, his step-dad. They watched him do all that. They got so familiar with him, that they got to thinking that this could not be the Messiah. This could not be the Son of God. This could not be someone that God has sent to be the Messiah.

I am going to say something here tonight and probably some of my family will be listening to this and I don’t mean this in a bad, bad way. Back when I was first called into the ministry, I went to a church where all of my family was at. I know they love me, but some of the officials that were in that church and some of the deacons that were in that church, they changed my diapers before. I stayed with them when I was a baby. They fed me. I played with their kids. We run together. I stayed in their house. They come and stayed in my house. When the Lord called me to preach and I started preaching there, they did not hear me. They did not hear me. Do you know why? [They did not hear me] because they were too familiar with me. Do you know what they thought? They thought this boy, this baby, little Bobby; he can’t teach us anything. That is what they thought. That is probably true. I probably couldn’t. However, because of familiarity they watched me grow up. They changed my diapers. They fed me. They watched me make all the blunders and mistakes that I made through my teenage years. They saw how I was raised. They knew that I was not near as intelligent as their own kids and the other kids that were in the church. They knew that. However, when I got behind the pulpit, I might as well have been talking to the pulpit because they did not listen. Bobby can’t tell us anything. I have been going to church for 50 years. He just got called to ministry. What does he think that he is going to tell me? I’m not being critical of those folks when I say that, but that is what familiarity does in our lives. This is what is happening here at Nazareth.

They heard him teach. They were astonished at his wisdom. The Bible says…

2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

In other words they are saying, “How can he do this? Where is he getting…Who’s taught him?” They knew that he did not have any formal education. They knew that he had not went to Jerusalem, or some of these other cities here in the land, and been taught by some of the great teachers of Greek and Hebrew. They knew that he had not gone there. They were astonished in his teaching. They were asking where he got this wisdom at. How can he come in here and teach us with such great wisdom and such eloquence? How can he do that?

2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

They are asking this question. How can he do this? We know who he is. We know all this. How can he do this? How can he come in here and be so intelligent by teaching from the Old Testament scriptures, teaching from the Law of Moses and the prophets and expound upon these things and give us this understanding that he is doing. Where does he get this wisdom from? How is he doing all these mighty works that we have heard of all over the whole land?

            The raising of the dead

            The blinded eyes

            The lepers been cleansed



How does he do all this? We know who he is. We know he is the son of Joseph. We know his sisters and we know his brothers. We know his mother. How in the world can he do this? That is what is going on. They city here is buzzing. The synagogue, if we would have been there, would have been a very exciting time on one hand, but a very sad time on the other hand. They heard his wisdom. They heard from his lips great teaching, words of wisdom, enlightenment that he had by teaching from the prophets could be matched by none. The mighty works that he had been doing could be matched by nobody. Yet, they are sitting there listening to him, watching him, knowing what he has done, but yet it keeps running in their mind that this is just Joseph’s son; the little boy that ran around here in the streets. That is all that he is. We don’t where the wisdom comes from. We don’t know where he got all this intelligence and learning that he has got. We don’t know how that he is doing this mighty works that he is doing, but we know who he is.

THEY DID NOT KNOW WHO HE WAS. They may have known that he walked the streets. They may have known all those things, but they did not know who he was. They did not know who he was because Jesus the Son of Almighty God—the only begotten Son of Almighty God was the one that was born in a manger that came to Nazareth, that had been raised among them, played with them, ate with them…the very Son of Almighty God. Many times about things and about people we don’t want to do any research about things and people. We just hear one thing and we automatically make judgments. There were a lot of folks here that thought Jesus had been born in Nazareth. A lot of folks here, even in the synagogue may not have known that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem. They probably knew nothing about the angels that came, the wise men that came. They knew nothing about the heavenly hosts that came. They did not take time to investigate. They said we know that he is wise. We know that he is doing some great things. We know that he has got great power, but we know him. We know who he is. We know him.



4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

What does that mean to you?

What does the word “honor” mean? It means to be “reverenced.” It means to be “respected.” It means that we have a high respect for someone; a high regard for someone, or a very reverential attitude towards someone. He says here, “…A prophet…” One that predicts, preaches, teaches the Word of God is not without honor. In other words, we have honor everywhere—a man of God will have honor everywhere, except in his own country. Do you know why? [A man of God will not honor in his own country] because of familiarity.

Do you know why I wasn’t respected where I was at? I know they loved me, but I wasn’t respected. Do you know why? [I was not respected] because they knew me. They knew how naughty I was. They could remember when I broke the windows out of the house and shot the dog. They could remember all that. They could remember all those things.

Here is the thing that I want you to remember. Unbelief is a killer. Unbelief will destroy you and unbelief will destroy this city if we continue in unbelief.

He says here that a prophet is not without honor, but in his own country… He was in Nazareth where he was raised. That is his country. It goes on to say, “…among his own kin, and in his own house.” Those distant relatives, those who have been around him:    the half-brothers and half-sisters and all the cousins and right on down the line. His relations did not respect him. His own family thought he was crazy, that he was insane, he had lost his mind. Not only that but it goes on to say, “…and in his own house.”

It is one thing sometimes for us to make judgments about things when we know the whole story. When we research things from the beginning to the end and we make judgments about things. It is never right to judge people. God never gave me the right to be your judge. There is one judge that sits on the throne and you had better leave the judging up to him because when you try to judge people, you always mess up and I do too.

Unbelief is something here that will destroy you. You see, keep in mind that here he is, back in the same city, and in the same place where a year before they tried to kill him. Here he is giving them one more opportunity to repent. They did not do it.

5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them .

Now, we are talking about Jesus, the Son of God. We are talking about Jesus that has all power both in heaven and in earth was given unto him. He says here that he could do no mighty works there. Do you know why? [He could do no mighty works] because of unbelief.

Unbelief is something that will destroy you and that will destroy me. Being familiar, being too familiar, getting too close, knowing too much—we think---and when we get there we won’t investigate things. We think we know it all. Then we make judgments about things and people that are absolutely wrong.

Even Jesus could not do anything there because of their unbelief.

When things don’t go well in churches, we always want to blame the preacher. That is the first thing that we want to do.

We were talking about NASCAR racing the other day. This team wasn’t doing any good so they were going to change the driver. When they changed drivers, they got worse. What they figured out was that the driver was not the problem that the problem was somewhere else.

Many times that is the first thing that we want to do is change the driver/pastor. That’s true, sometimes that needs to happen. However, you can have the greatest pastor, the greatest leader, the greatest individual that ever walked in shoe leather and those that are sitting in the pews, if they will not believe the message that is in this book [Bible], there will be nothing that will ever be accomplished that will amount to anything. Do you know why? That’s because of unbelief. Unbelief restricts. Unbelief stops the flow of the power of God in your life, in your family, in your community, in this church and any church. Unbelief will absolutely—just like taking a water hose that is running full stream and you can twist it around and tighten it up and double it over and it will stop flowing—unbelief will shut off, unbelief will stop the blessing of God in your life.

The Bible says that he could do no mighty works there. The Bible says here that he laid his hand on a few sick folk and they were healed. Do you know why? It is because of all the things that had been said about him, because of all the familiarity of him; he could not do anything there. They would not even come to his meeting. Had they come, they could have been healed. Had they come their lives could have been changed and would have been changed, but they would not even come because they don’t want to hear him. They did not want to hear him. He did not have enough charisma for a lot of those folks. They knew who he was. They watched him grow up. He just could not be the Son of God, even though he has tremendous wisdom, even though we are astonished at the way he teaches, even though the miracles that he is doing we cannot explain how he is doing them, but this can’t be the Messiah, the Son of God. The claim he is making is all wrong. This can’t be him.

The Bible says that he could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief.

I hope you understand today how dangerous and how sad it is when I personally, when we collectively as a church, when we as a community continually rejects the teaching, preaching that comes from Almighty God; then friend there is no help for us. God is not going to do anything in your life if you do not believe him. Do you think that God is going to do something great in your life if you don’t even believe him? It is not going to happen. If you don’t really believe that he is God; when we say that we know that there is a God up there, but if we don’t really believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God then we will never believe that he will take care of us. We will never believe that he can do great things in our life. If we just simply don’t believe who he is and what he has done and what he can do in our lives and will do in our lives; if we don’t believe that then nothing good is ever going to happen to you. You are going to go through life beating, banging, stumbling, and falling and bumping your head…always running from satan. That is what you are going to be doing all of your life; miserable day in and day out, never ever coming to the place that you can just simply believe that Jesus Christ is and was the Son of God. This city couldn’t. His own family did after he was gone—some of them did—as we read the scripture.

I want you remember this and don’t ever forget this.

6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

He marveled—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the creator of heaven and earth and everything that is here—He marveled. He marveled at their unbelief. He was also astonished at their unbelief. This troubled him—their unbelief.

It is sad.

He leaves here this day, he leaves here this day. He teaches. They are astonished. They are beside themselves. They cannot explain his miracles. Jesus looks at them and says, “Hey, I have honor everywhere else, but I don’t have any here. I don’t have any in my own country. I don’t have any among my own family, among my own friends. I don’t have any honor.” And he could do nothing there.

Keep this one thought in mind. He never came to Nazareth again. This city rejected him. This city and the folks that were here that he gave time and time again opportunity to repent and to believe him; he never came to Nazareth again.

There is going to come a time that he is going to visit you and me for the last time. Whether we are saved or whether we are unsaved, there is going to come a time here on planet earth that he is going to speak to my heart for the last time and direct me to do this or do that or whatever it is. There is going to come a time in your life if you are listening to me tonight and you are unsaved, there is going to come a time that the Holy Spirit of God that is going to come to knock on your heart’s door for the last time.

I don’t when that is going to be.

The people here at Nazareth never dreamed this would be the last that they would see Jesus. They probably never thought about that. They probably never considered that. They just did not believe him. Because they did not believe him he did not do much there.

If you don’t believe much, then you are not going to see much happening. That is the book. That is the Bible. That is truth.

It is my prayer tonight, if there is any unbelief in us about anything, we need to get rid of it because it is hindering you in your walk with the Lord. If you are saved, been saved and there are areas in your heart and things in your life that you think God cannot and will not and don’t have the power to take care of and you want to turn them over to him—you think God can’t do that, then you need to understand that there is not going to be a whole lot of good come out of your life until you turn those things over to him. Just simple believe him. Put it all in his hands. Sure you may be familiar with a lot of things. Don’t get to the place in your life that you think you know enough about God that you think that God is never going to help you with your problem. When you get to thinking that, you are dead wrong. God will help you. Jesus Christ will help us if we will just simply believe him.

You have not gone too far. I have heard people say, “Preacher, you don’t know what I have done.” I don’t care what you have done and Jesus doesn’t care what you have done. I don’t care how horrible it has been. I don’t care how bad it has been. It does not matter what you have done. If you believe Jesus Christ tonight, he will forgive you. He will cleanse you. He will make you ready to go to heaven. When life comes to and end we will all be able to go together.

Trust him tonight. Believe who he is. He has proven who he is. Let’s believe him tonight.

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