Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
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sermon. God Bless. Lord, we do ask that you be
our good shepherd and lead us in your ways. Would
we gladly follow you with all of our being, with
all of our lives. And now, would the words in
my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be
pleasing in your sight, the Lord, our rock and
our Redeemer. Amen. All right, on... On November
23rd in 2004, Rob Howes was going for a swim
on the north coast of New Zealand with his daughter,
I think it's Nissi, N -I -C -C -Y, and three
of her friends, Nissi was 15, a few teenagers
and one of their dads, and pretty quickly a bunch
of dolphins were coming towards them, which I
think was both very exciting and exhilarating
and scary. But what quickly happened is that
these dolphins encircled them. And fairly quickly
afterwards, what happened is that Howes realized
that it wasn't that they were actually coming
after them, but they were protecting them. because
what he saw, which he said when he was actually
interviewed by the newspaper afterwards, that
it was only about two meters away from me, the
water was crystal clear and I could see it as
clear as the nose on my face. What happened is
that as these dolphins started to herd us up,
pushed us together in a circle, a great white
shark was coming after them. And according to
the newspaper accounts that I read, this lasted
for about 40 minutes. The shark trying to come
in. And actually, the larger dolphins, supposedly
what he said, the larger dolphins would kind
of come out and go out and sort of deter the
shark from coming after Rob, his daughter, her
three friends. He said that the shark was, according
to him, nearly three meters long. nine to 10
feet or so, great white shark coming after you,
being circled until you could be safe by dolphins.
I mean, can you imagine having that experience?
Initially, probably an experience that is full
of fear. What are all these dolphins gonna do?
Why are they all around us? The sense of the
power. of other animals around you, maybe just
being overwhelmed in awe of their brilliance,
of their kindness, of their awareness, of their
almost eagerness to put their lives on the line
for these humans. Of course, the amazement at
the dolphins who sensed the shark long before
you would have and put their own lives on the
line for you, the great amazement was that you
were there thinking that I am totally helpless
to save my daughter and her friends and here
are these animals willing to do it for me. It's
amazing and it's amazing on many levels. I'll
be honest, when I first saw it, it was on an
Instagram account about history. And you know,
when those things come up, I'm like, I don't
even know if I believe this story. And that was
actually my first response. I don't really think
I buy it. And so I searched, I was like, oh,
actually, this is true. I don't think I believed
it. Actually, I was very skeptical. Yeah, there
it was. And you can look it up too. In fact,
we have eyewitness accounts from the shore, people
that say that they looked out and they saw these
dolphins encircling these folk. Amazing, it's
an amazing story. And probably because I was
also preparing for a sermon, the amazement of
this made me think of this spot we're in in the
gospel in Mark, because all these amazing things
are happening, right? that Jesus is doing. We
talked about some of them last week. Jesus is
speaking and the wind and the waves are obeying
him, listening to his voice and responding to
his command. And of course, what happens is that
the disciples are fearful, divine presence in
their midst. They're also amazed. Who is this?
Even the wind and the waves obey him, right?
And then of course, Jesus healing the demon possessed
man and all, you know, the people from the Decapolis,
which is the 10 cities in the area, the surrounding
area said they marveled. And probably there's
a few different marvelings happening, marveling
because this man who had cut himself up and had
lived in chains among the tombs was now in his
right mind walking among them, having conversations
with them, telling them of this man, Jesus, who
healed them. And then they were marveling also
because what is this again? Divine power, God
in our midst? That demons can be cast out? And
then of course, last week we looked at another
amazing thing. Jesus heals this woman with this
12 years hemorrhage, this bleeding that we read
last week. She had consulted other physicians
and she spent all she had. She had done all that
was humanly possible. And yet divine interaction,
God in her midst, healing her and of course the
12 year old little girl who had life after death.
And of course that also we are told they were
immediately they were overcome with amazement.
Amazed at being saved, amazed at God in their
midst. Interestingly though, our passage this
morning has a different kind of amazement. It's
a different kind of amazement. All these stories
are mentioning these different ways in which
people come face to face with the reality of
God and they're marveling and they're declaring,
oh my word, who is this? Even the wind and waves
can obey him. And all these people saying, we're
amazed. What is this? Jesus, God in our midst.
So we have different kind of amazement in our
passage this morning. Mark one tells us that
Jesus went to his hometown with his disciples.
And what we read is in some ways that he does
what he pretty much always does. He went away
from there and came to his hometown, and his
disciples followed him, and then verse two, and
on the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue.
We know that Jesus made it his habit to go to
worship on the Sabbath day, and we know that
he probably taught quite a few times. Most people
don't think this is the exact same account as
what happens in Luke chapter four, if you know
that story. It may be, but there's a little bit
of differences. He didn't always probably teach
when he went to the synagogue, but this time
he did. And we're told that many who heard him
were astonished. They were astonished at it.
And if you opened up your Bibles and you followed
along, maybe you opened up to a version that
didn't translate it astonished because that word
actually astonished could also be translated
amazed. It's amazed. The word could mean astonished
or amazed. And yet the English standard version,
the one that we use translates as astonished.
And I think that's probably a good idea because
it's actually a different word than the word
that was used two verses earlier in chapter five,
verse 41. But it has sort of the same, pretty
much the same meaning, which is this amazement
at Jesus. They hear him teach, they have him
in their presence, and they're amazed, they're
astonished. And what I'm suggesting to you this
morning is that Mark is putting all of these
stories that we've just been, you know, that
we looked at last week and then we looked at
last year that we picked back up on. And then
he's putting this story right there at the beginning
of chapter six intentionally all together. Mark
putting these stories of people seeing and hearing
and experiencing and knowing in a sense, Jesus
in their midst and being amazed by it. Being
amazed by the words and works of Jesus. And here's
the thing, is that for some people that leads
to deeper belief, an eagerness to follow, a desire
to be taught, a desire to be changed and healed
and made new. And yet for others, it's unbelief.
Which is to say, you can engage with Jesus You
can't even in a way know Jesus without believing
in him, without a changed life. So I want you
to see this morning that there's a knowing of
Jesus, a knowing of Jesus that does not lead
to life in Jesus. So first just knowing Jesus.
Okay, look at me back at verse two. We'll read
two and three. And on the Sabbath, like I said,
he began to teach in the synagogue, and many
who heard him were astonished, saying, where
did this man get these things? What is the wisdom
given to him? How are such mighty deeds done
by his hands? First, all statements of astonishment,
amazement. But it continues on, verse three,
is not this the carpenter? the son of Mary, and
brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon,
and are not his sisters here with us. And they
took offense at him. There were many it said
that were astonished with him. There were many
that were astonished with him who knew him, right?
And I want to suggest to you that it was maybe
because of their knowledge of him that they wonder,
where's this guy getting his teaching? Where's
he getting his wisdom? What's going on here?
How can he do such mighty works? This was not
the first time these people had engaged with
Jesus, right? He was familiar to them. Oh yeah,
we know what he looks like. Yeah, we can tell
you a little bit about him. Oh, we know his mom.
I know his brother's names. They grew up playing
T -ball with me. We know this guy. I know his
sisters. By the way, people think that likely
because of Jesus' age, his sisters would have
been married and that's maybe why they were referred
to as his sisters. They were kind of in this
different stage of life. They know his profession.
This is the carpenter. Which, by the way, is
not an offensive thing. A carpenter was actually
a very good job. The word tecnon there, tecton,
sorry. This is a very skilled person. A tecton
would have been somebody who could use many different
materials and create. great buildings. I mean,
think about our own building here. We have, you
know, bricks on the outside. We've got stained
glass made. We've got these, you know, carvings
that have been done out of wood. This is a very
skilled person who has lots and lots of ability.
It would have not just been a sort of a woodworker,
but also a mason and a plumber and probably could
do a lot of things. It would have been a finished
carpenter, somebody who could finish the whole
work and do it well. So he probably could have
also built a house and built the furniture for
the house. Very skilled person. Which is to say
that they may be thinking, Jesus did my dining
room table. When I had that roof, you know, that
those guys sort of tore apart, he's the guy I
was going to call to fix it up. It's Jesus the
carpenter. He put the deck off the back of my
house. He was the sculptor who created that sculpture
for my house. I mean, he would have been incredibly
skilled and they would have known him. Again,
they could have talked probably how Jesus ran
around with their own kids. Oh, he was the one.
He kept making goals. I don't know why he was
that good at soccer. Maybe they were on that
singular trip that we know Jesus made in his
youth down to Jerusalem with his parents. Maybe,
at the very least, Nazareth, we know is not a
very big town. Four to five hundred people. I
bet his, you know, not coming back with everybody
and his parents going, oh my word, we left Jesus,
who is the Christ, who was called Jesus because
he would save people from their sins, back in
Jerusalem, we better go get him. I mean, it probably
would have been the talk of town, right? This
youth that was left by his parents back in Jerusalem,
they would have all heard the stories. Maybe
if his sisters were married, these were the folk
that maybe attended. their weddings. Maybe they
made toasts roasting the bride and groom. Maybe
Jesus was there at some of those celebrations.
Which is to say they knew Jesus. Is this not
the son of Mary? Aren't these his siblings? Isn't
he a carpenter? In French, and I would assume
many other languages, but this is the one I know
best other than English. There are a couple different
words that mean to know, to know something. One
word is savoir, like savoir faire, like you know
how to do something, you know, he has the savoir
faire, which literally means to know, to do,
putting them together. And that kind of knowing
is like the person, well, they know facts about
something, you know. Brown balding hair, brown
eyes, just shy of 5 '10". You know, I know Peter,
that's what he's like. This is somebody who knows
information. Maybe they also know a skill. That'd
be kind of a savoir. And so if you sort of knew
somebody who knows savoirs, France, they're like,
well, they know the capital is Paris. Maybe they
know, as you all no doubt know. that one of the
nicknames for France is the hexagon, because
it's shaped like a hexagon. Maybe they know that
France is known for its museums, like the Louvre
and the Orsay, so many others. Maybe they know
that it's known for its food and its wine. Savoir.
That's a kind of knowing. There's another kind
of knowing, which is the word connect. And let
me sort of illustrate this way. If you told me,
or if you asked me, Peter, do you know Melisse?
I would not say, oui, je sais. I would say, oui,
je connais. Because it's not a knowledge that
is strictly sort of the outside. I know the facts,
but I know the experience. i know the reality
i know the truth a deeper truth not just knowing
the facts about one's wife but knowing them or
if you said uh oh uh do you do you know france
you could say oui je le sais or which would just
mean the stats we could say oui je connais which
would mean i've walked the streets I've tasted
a 60 cent baguette that would go for a fortune
in the United States. It just breaks, and it's
crispy on the outside, it's chewy on the inside.
It's fantastic. You know it. Which is to say,
to know Jesus is not just to know, oh, he's the
carpenter guy. Oh, that's his mom. I know his
sibling's name. his brothers and sisters, but
to experience him, his heart, his presence in
the midst of the storm, his ability to speak
and creation itself is listening, his knowledge
that he can take the time with the woman who's
reaching out to touch the hem of his garment
and to heal her and to hear her story and yet
at the same time know that he is going to care
for the young girl. her family and her friends.
Know that he has power, not just over the physical
world, but the spiritual world. The man oppressed
by demons living among the tombs is safe in the
arms and the presence of Christ. Now here's the
thing. Mark is writing this knowing that his
audience, his original audience and his continued
audience like ours today, is gonna fall into
these categories. There's gonna be those who
are amazed at Christ because they know him in
the deepest sense. They know his power, his ability.
He knows that he could say, stand up and be well
or your sins are forgiven. He says, which one's
easier? Both are in my domain. He also knows
that there are going to be plenty just like it
was on that day long ago in that synagogue on
that Sabbath that say, yeah, I know him. I've
got the stats. I've got the facts. I've heard
of the miracles. I've heard his teaching. Nobody's
denying that he exists. He's not who he says
he is. Maybe you're here and you find Jesus wise.
Maybe you want to have him teach you. But maybe
it's precisely because of your knowledge of him
already. You won't give yourself over to faith.
Surrender to belief. Cling to him in need and
find him to be sufficient. Which is to say that,
again, there is an amazement, there's a knowledge
about Jesus that does not lead to life. to belief.
Think about this. We keep going in our passage.
This is pretty interesting. I think this is really
interesting. If we keep going in our passage,
what we find is that it's not just that there
were many there on that Sabbath long ago that
heard Jesus and were astonished, or we can say
it translated amazed, but there's a part of our
passage where Jesus himself, well it says marveled.
Let's look down at it. The first part of verse
six, if you look down there. Verse six. And he,
that's Jesus, marveled because of their unbelief.
Marvels at their unbelief. And again, interestingly,
I looked this up, marvel could also be translated
amazed. He was amazed. Their unbelief. Different
word, but connoting the same meaning. There's
an amazement at Jesus, like in this passage,
that does not lead to faith in Him. There's an
engagement with Jesus. Even a way of saying,
wow, what a teacher! Wow, what great acts! It
doesn't lead to what God actually most desires
from you, faith and life in Him. And think of
this. This is done, at least in this text, in
the context where people would say, I know Jesus.
I know him. All kinds of people know things about
Jesus. So I was reading this week in preparation
for this, some writing by the famous atheist
Sam Harris. Of course, you all know he doesn't
believe in Jesus. But he knows a lot about Jesus.
He knows an awful lot about Jesus, actually.
If you read his writings, you're like, well,
this guy, maybe he knows more than I do. And
he says he doesn't believe in Jesus, in part,
not because he hasn't read the Bible. He's read
it and he finds that it's not how he thinks God
should communicate. Why would God write this
text like this? It's part of what he says. This
is what he says. Take a moment to imagine how
good a book could be if it were written by the
creator of the universe. Such a book could contain
a chapter on mathematics that after 2000 years
of continuous use would still be the richest
source of mathematical insight the earth has
ever seen. I mean, maybe that's you this morning.
You know, it's not that you haven't engaged with
the teachings of the Bible. It's not that you
haven't read the parables of Jesus. It's that
you read them and you think, this isn't what
it should be. This isn't how God should present
himself. He's a carpenter. Come on, can't you
do better? Sam Harris goes on, why doesn't the
Bible say anything about electricity? about DNA,
or about the actual age and size of the universe.
If this is a true accounting, why isn't it what
I think it should be? How about this? Maybe this
resonates more with you. He goes on after saying,
or about the actual age and size of the universe,
what about a cure for cancer? Which in some ways
is to say, what about the problem of evil and
suffering? Millions of people are dying horribly
from cancer at this very moment, many of them
children. When we fully understand the biology
of cancer, this understanding will surely be
reducible to a few pages of text. Why aren't
these pages, or anything remotely like them,
found in the Bible? The Bible is, after all,
a very big book. It's not that he doesn't know.
It's not that he hasn't read. And maybe that's
your experience. You think, I know this. I was
raised knowing Jesus, knowing the stories of
him, knowing how he went off to Jerusalem and
came back and all the rest. I can tell you the
facts about Jesus. And sometimes it's actually
that knowing that is actually a hindrance to
the deeper knowledge of faith. giving yourself
over to a committed life, surrendering to the
only one who can bring peace and life, protection,
care. You may know an awful lot about the Bible.
The truth is, at least according to this text,
you may be even amazed by a lot of it. You may
be amazed by it. And yet you can't come to believe
to really confess. that you can only find your
life in Him. You may know the doctrines of Christian
religion and not actually know the God of the
universe. You may find them offensive, like Sam
Harris does. Think about this. Isn't this the
carpenter? You mean God? You mean you guys think
that God actually became a human? And that's
where you find salvation. Think of Paul writing
how the cross is a scandal. You think that this
God man dying on a Roman cross long ago is the
center of life? That that's where you find your
hope? You mean your sins are actually so bad
that they demand God's death? Do you know what
that does psychologically to somebody to have
that high a view of sin? It's not that you don't
know what it says. It's not even that you don't
at times find it amazing. But you just can't
believe that that could possibly be true. Probably
many of you have heard of the somewhat recent,
though the conversation seems to be waning, but
the deconstructionist movement recently in Christianity.
And it's largely folk that have been raised in
the church. And that's the whole idea, deconstructing
what you have been given. And it's significantly
more common in sort of evangelical circles. Largely
left the faith they were raised in. And I want
to say this actually pretty clearly and I'm going
to share a few quotes about this too. There's
a lot of good reason for that. I mean, there
is a lot of abuse in church settings. I mean,
a lot of people point to sort of purity culture
in this movement as a way of actually being taught
that their bodies are not lovely and fearfully
and wonderfully made by God, right? Okay, there's
something to that. A lot of people have gone
to that movement because the massive abuses of
authority found in the church and pastor figures,
okay. They are not unfounded reasons. In fact,
I would say that there's some really good reasons.
Paul Tripp, maybe some of you who listen to the
podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mark Silva, Paul
Tripp said this. We should all be deconstructing
our faith. We better do it. Because our faith
becomes a culture, a culture so webbed into the
purity of truth that it's hard to separate the
two. And we better do some deconstructing or
we're going to find ourselves again and again
in these sad places, talking about the abuse
that took place in that setting. But I also want
to say that these are largely folk that would
say they know Jesus and yet don't continue on.
Don't say I'm giving my life despite the fact
I want to push away some of this stuff. I'm giving
my life and committing my life to surrendering
to Christ. I want to suggest to you, sort of
as I begin to wrap up, that there is a key. in
a way in this text for why so many might know
Jesus, the facts about him, but don't want to
actually give themselves over in faith and belief
to following Jesus. And so Jesus can still be
marveling because of their unbelief. I want to
suggest to you this, many don't want to do this
because he shines a light on our need. He shines
a light on how big our sin is. He shines a light
on our rebellion against God. And he says, you
are utterly in need of that which is outside
of you. Okay, so verse four, it's kind of interesting.
Verse four, if you look down there, it says,
and Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without
honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives
and in his own household. And And we think, we
think that what Jesus is largely saying is sort
of a maxim of his day. The prophets now without
honor accepted his home, hometown, you know,
all this sort of stuff. That it was a phrase
that was kind of known. But we have a similar
phrase today. It was familiarity breeds contempt.
You can know something so much that you actually
don't love it anymore. And the other thing that
I think is key here though is that Jesus is indirectly
calling himself a prophet. What does a prophet
do? It's the role of a prophet. The main role
of a prophet is to call people back to God. Say
if you continue down this road, let me tell you
what's gonna happen. But consider there's another
way, come back to the Lord. Most often the role
of a prophet was to call people back to God.
To say to them you are heading down the wrong
direction You're heading down the wrong way Prophet
would say that they are going down the way that
leads to death If they're gonna continue rejecting
God's way Embracing the way of sin who will only
lead to death. That was the primary role of a
prophet. Don't go that way and Jesus is preaching
the kingdom He's named Jesus because he will
save his people from their sins. That the main
thing that's happening in the text of scripture
is not what Sam Harris wants, right? The mathematic
text, the DNA, all that. But the main thing that
Jesus is about and the scriptures are about is
repent. Turn from your ways. Embrace the work
of Christ. And just like then, And just like
throughout history, that message has become so
offensive that people say, I don't want to be
told that. I would rather persist in my unbelief,
dismiss you with what knowledge I sort of have
of you, and continue on with making myself the
center of my life. I'm suggesting to you that
this is the reason why so many in Jesus' day
and in our own day, they might know him, but
they will not surrender to him. give their life
over to him. So they do not want to receive him
as the one that orients their life instead of
themselves. It's him as the true life -giving
one who saves us from our sins. And so we read,
Jesus marveled because of their unbelief. Think
about this with me. Let's go back to the dolphins.
Were you amazed by that story? Did any of you
just think like, what? Are you kidding? I mean,
probably what you did, because I can do this
too, is I said, I want to have that experience.
How wild would that be? Have dolphins encircling
you, saving you from a great white shark. How
exhilarating. You're amazed at how dolphins can
save a man and his daughter and her friends.
Amazed. and how intelligent they are and how
wondrous creation is, how they preserved life.
And no doubt these people have heard the stories
of what Jesus has done, right? They're marveling
at his mighty works. The story we had just heard
was that he saved this girl who had died and
given her new life. And I think that what Mark
is doing in putting these two stories together
is he is saying, don't you want this? Do you
want to continue just saying you know God, but
having no deep abiding faith in him, experiencing
him? Really experiencing the reality of God saving
you when you can't do it. If it was up to you,
that shark is getting you. Don't you want that
kind of belief? Wouldn't you long to have Jesus
who can calm the storm? Who can heal the demon
-possessed man? Who can stop the bleeding? Who
can heal the young girl? Or do you want to brush
him off? He's the carpenter. Mary's son. Those
are his siblings. I think, I think what Mark
is doing by putting all these stories of amazement
together as He is asking us, will you believe?
Will you believe? Will you continue in a kind
of belief that is just savoir, facts? Or will
you give yourself over and find within your life
and your light and your salvation? Let me pray
for us. Lord, Thank you for the beauty of your
word. God, I pray today, I pray for each one
here. God, would we ask ourselves this afternoon,
would we maybe do it around our dinner tables?
Would we maybe call up a friend? Would we wonder
aloud with one another? What is my belief like?
What do I do with Jesus? And then would we, Lord,
please give ourselves over to faith, to trust,
to surrender to you alone who has life and life
abundantly. Your prayers, Lord. Amen. Thank you
for listening to Second City Sermons podcast.
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