Text:\u00a0 Mark 6: 1-6<\/p>\n
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 <\/sup>When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhere did this man get these things?\u201d they asked. \u201cWhat\u2019s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! 3 <\/sup>Isn\u2019t this the carpenter? Isn\u2019t this Mary\u2019s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren\u2019t his sisters here with us?\u201d And they took offense at him. <\/em><\/p>\n 4 <\/sup><\/em>Jesus said to them, \u201cOnly in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.\u201d 5 <\/sup>He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 <\/sup>And he was amazed at their lack of faith. <\/em><\/p>\n My dad and I used to go camping with a friend and his dad.\u00a0 One time we were hiking along a trail and my friend\u2019s dad asked us a question.\u00a0 What\u2019s the first rule of the woods?<\/em> He had asked it before and so I knew the answer.\u00a0 I looked up and said:\u00a0 Watch where you put your feet.<\/em> And just as I said it I stumbled over a rock and down I went.\u00a0 For years my friend\u2019s dad loved to remind me of that.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s no joke.\u00a0 Watch where you put your feet<\/em>.\u00a0 When we get older and our balance is not so good and our bones not so strong that footing is especially important.\u00a0 We can stumble and fall if we\u2019re not careful.\u00a0 The same goes for our faith.<\/p>\n That brings us to these people here in the synagogue long ago, in church with Jesus.\u00a0 In fact, Mark uses a word that means much the same.\u00a0 They let something trip them up.\u00a0 They lost their spiritual footing and so they met Jesus with rejection and unbelief. \u00a0That\u2019s why we say:<\/p>\n Keep Your Spiritual Feet <\/strong>It\u2019s a homecoming of sorts.\u00a0 Kind of like when a new pastor goes back to his home church after a time to preach.\u00a0 Jesus had been away from Nazareth for a year or so.\u00a0 He had gathered his disciples.\u00a0 He was preaching and teaching. \u00a0The news of his miracles had no doubt reached them.\u00a0 A man with rotting leprous flesh, healed.\u00a0 A man blind since birth now seeing.\u00a0 A dead girl raised back to life.\u00a0 The news had no doubt come to the people of Nazareth that Jesus had grown up with.<\/p>\n The Sabbath came<\/span>.\u00a0 That day of rest that God had commanded his Old Testament people to observe.\u00a0 It was a time to gather.\u00a0 It was a time to rest from the week\u2019s work and find rest for the soul in God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And little did they know, this day was a very special Sabbath.\u00a0 For the One God had promised in his Word.\u00a0 The One who would bring \u00a0rest to our souls, had come.\u00a0 He came among them. This one who would one day hang on a cross for us all and rise again.\u00a0 The one who offers forgiveness to guilty sinners.\u00a0 The one who offers hope to dying sinners.\u00a0 The Sabbath now came and now Jesus, our true source of Sabbath rest stood among them.<\/p>\n He began to teach<\/span>.\u00a0 If this is the same occasion that Luke describes, someone handed him a scroll from the prophet Isaiah.\u00a0 He opened it to the place where it said:\u00a0 18<\/sup>\u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is on me, <\/span><\/p>\n because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor<\/span>.<\/p>\n He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19<\/sup>to proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favor.<\/span>\u201d (Lk 4:18,19)\u00a0 That was God\u2019s promise to send the Christ, the Messiah who they were expecting. Then came this dramatic moment when Jesus sat down to teach.\u00a0 For what did he say?\u00a0 Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing<\/span>.\u00a0 In other words, I am that One.\u00a0 And he went on to teach them.<\/p>\n Many were amazed. Amazed at his wisdom, already amazed at the news of his miracles all evidence that showed Jesus to be the One God promised, the One we all need.<\/p>\n But then something happened.\u00a0 They stumbled.\u00a0 They tripped over something.\u00a0 They lost their spiritual footing.\u00a0 3 <\/sup>Isn\u2019t this the carpenter? Isn\u2019t this Mary\u2019s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren\u2019t his sisters here with us<\/span>?\u201d In other words, how can he be the Messiah?\u00a0 We know him.\u00a0 We know his family.\u00a0 He\u2019s got calluses on his hands like us. We saw him grow up.\u00a0 And so instead of believing in Him, rejoicing that he had come, they stumbled.<\/p>\n Well so can we as Jesus comes to us.\u00a0 What do I mean?\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 One way that Jesus comes to us is through people that bring us his Word.\u00a0 Starting with our parents. They share their faith with us.\u00a0 But then there comes that time when we can lose our spiritual footing.\u00a0 That time when our parents seem so uncool.\u00a0 If that\u2019s now, keep your spiritual feet.\u00a0 Don\u2019t turn away from Jesus because your parents follow him and your friends don\u2019t.<\/p>\n The same thing can happen with your pastor.\u00a0 After a time his warts and weaknesses become more obvious.\u00a0 We know how easy it is to focus on that sort of thing. \u00a0He\u2019s too old.\u00a0 He\u2019s too young.\u00a0 He\u2019s too serious.\u00a0 He\u2019s never serious.\u00a0 Keep your spiritual feet.<\/strong> Your pastor, your Bible teacher may have warts that are distracting.\u00a0\u00a0 But Jesus uses him to come to you.\u00a0 He uses him to forgive you and give you hope.<\/p>\n There\u2019s one more place I need to mention.\u00a0 His Supper.\u00a0 Can you remember the first time you received it?\u00a0 I do.\u00a0 It was so special. But what can happen as the years go by, as we come again and again.\u00a0 Like these people in church with Jesus, we can lose our spiritual footing.\u00a0 I see it too often.\u00a0 Something so special as Jesus coming with his true body and blood to forgive you becomes not very special, not very important.<\/p>\n So keep you spiritual feet as Jesus comes to you<\/strong>.\u00a0 But also keep them as you have opportunity to come to him<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Jesus had spent many days ministering to large crowds.\u00a0 He taught them and people brought the sick and demon possessed, the blind and the lame and Jesus set them free. So many came to Jesus that by the end of the day he and his disciples would be exhausted.<\/p>\n So now Jesus has come home.\u00a0 You might expect even greater things would happen there.\u00a0 But what are we told:\u00a0 5 <\/span><\/sup>He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.<\/span> Why?\u00a0 Only a few believed.\u00a0 Only a few came or were brought.\u00a0 Only a few asked in faith.<\/p>\n What about us?\u00a0 What about the opportunity we have to come to our Lord?\u00a0 Prayer.\u00a0 Call upon me in the day of trouble\u2026Ask and you will receive, knock and the door will be opened<\/span>\u2026 Do we believe that?\u00a0 Does our prayer life show we do?\u00a0 If Mark was writing about our prayer life instead of people coming to be healed, would he say only a few prayers were offered, only a few prayers were heard by the Lord?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Keep your spiritual feet<\/strong>.\u00a0 Keep praying and don\u2019t give up.\u00a0 It\u2019s a throne of grace you are approaching.\u00a0 He will hear.\u00a0 He will answer.<\/p>\n I wonder what the twelve were thinking as they made their way to Nazareth.\u00a0 Many had come out to hear him.\u00a0 Many put their faith in him.\u00a0 They probably expected at least that by the hometown folks.\u00a0 This is going to be great.\u00a0 But Jesus knew better.\u00a0 It would be the very opposite.<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 disciples were about to learn an important lesson. They were about to meet people who were neighbors of Joseph and Mary.\u00a0 They watched Jesus grow up.\u00a0 They would meet Jesus\u2019 brothers and hear about his sisters.\u00a0 But they would also meet their rejection of the One they followed.<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 disciples needed to see this.\u00a0 For they had families.\u00a0 They had friends.\u00a0 And what would they find as they lived out their faith<\/strong>, as they shared the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Something that might have knocked them off their feet.\u00a0\u00a0 A father or mother, a child, a brother, , maybe all of them, would reject Jesus too.<\/p>\n That lesson is also for us.\u00a0 It prepares us to live out our faith<\/strong>. For the time will come if it hasn\u2019t already when someone close to you will reject Jesus.\u00a0 Or worse yet, all those around you.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a burden we must be prepared to deal with.<\/p>\n Yet what else did they see here. \u00a0Even though the Son of God knew they would reject them, he came to them.\u00a0 He reached out to them and one day he would die for them.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what helps us to keep our spiritual feet as live out our faith<\/strong>.\u00a0 For the them<\/em> was once you and me.\u00a0 You and came into this world stumbling in unbelief.\u00a0 But Jesus came to us.\u00a0 He reached out to us \u2026.and one day he died for us.\u00a0 How blessed we are!\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Mark 6: 1-6 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. \u201cWhere did this man get these things?\u201d they asked. \u201cWhat\u2019s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! 3 Isn\u2019t this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 As Jesus comes to you.
\nII. As you have opportunity to come to Him
\nIII. As you live out your life of faith<\/p>\n