7-7-2024
“THE WORD OF GOD: DESPISED WHEN RIGHTLY TAUGHT”
Text: Mark 6:1-13
Sunday July 7, 2024 – Pentecost 7
Trinity Lutheran Church – Creston/Mount Ayr.
Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Our text for the Seventh Sunday in Pentecost is the Gospel lesson from Mark 6 that was just proclaimed.
Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, you send your Holy Spirit to remind us that amidst the chatter of so many voices that surround us, only your voice brings comfort and peace to our lives. Amen.
Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:
When we take the Lord’s blessings in our life for granted, we may become thankless and unbelieving. Today’s Gospel warns us that in fact we are surrounded by and living in the context of great danger.
A prophet is never honored in his hometown. What about among you? What about in your congregation? What about in your family?
3. The Word of God is never so despised as where it is rightly and richly taught.
a. That our Lord Jesus was not rightly understood and confessed by the people of his hometown and relatives indicates that the same or similar thing may and does happen among us also (vv 1–4).
(1) Church history provides ample examples.
(a) Are there baptized Christians who uphold the Book of Concord as the sound exposition of the Bible in Jerusalem?
(b) What about in Wittenberg?
(2) Why are there not many Lutherans in those places? Why are there not many Christians over there?
(3) Unbelief is not a foreign concept for us.
b. The fact that heresies do not arise except amid the churches and only from the churches is a warning sign for us.
(1) The congregation in which the Word of the Lord dwells richly today may become the place where it is despised. Do we listen? Do we hear?
(2) We pray the Lord to grant us faithfulness to his Word. We should never take the Lord’s abundant blessings on our body and soul for granted.
(3) We may be asked to stand firm in the face of opposition, because the peace of the Lord that we experience is found in the context of dangers that surround us and are found within us.
2. The central question still is who Jesus actually is!
a. Our text directs our attention to the fact that the central point of diagnosing the danger we face has to do with the question of who Jesus is (vv 2–3).
(1) Nazareth could only see Jesus as the carpenter, Joseph and Mary’s son.
(2) They couldn’t see him as God’s Son—and they didn’t want him to have authority over them.
b. We are very good at creating a Jesus we like according to our needs and according to our preferences.
(1) Today the great majority of Christian churches around the world deny the authority of Scripture as the pure Word of God.
(a) They emphasize novelty rather than historic Christian practice; they interpret Scripture critically; they substitute current cultural viewpoints for clear teachings of the Bible.
(b) Therefore, they embrace numerous unbiblical practices.
(2) The LCMS had its own dangerous experience with this in the 1960s and 1970s.
c. But we preach Christ crucified (1 Cor 1:23; 2:2).
(1) In our text, Jesus did not retaliate against those who exhibited unbelief.
(2) What happened to him in his hometown was but a foreshadowing of what would happen to him in Jerusalem.
(3) Jesus came to bear the sin of all people, and by bearing it he reconciled us to God.
1. This same Jesus continues to serve us in our congregation through the ministry of his apostles.
a. Mark lets us focus on the work of the twelve apostles (vv 7–13).
(1) It is through them that Jesus will continue to reach out to those who rejected him, as in his hometown.
(2) Even against those who would hate and kill him in Jerusalem, Jesus does not retaliate but sends his apostles to proclaim that his death has actually reconciled them to God.
b. Jesus’ ministry now continues among us through the pastors he sends.
(1) Watch your pastors, who preach the Word of God to you.
(2) Watch your pastors, who bring into your mouth the body and blood of Jesus to eat and to drink for your forgiveness of sins.
(3) As you see and hear them and receive the gifts they give, Jesus himself is giving you the gifts of his reconciling cross.
We know that the prophet is not honored in his hometown. But here in our congregation, our Lord is indeed honored.
And just as his glory was found when he was hung dead on the cross, so his glory is located in our congregation when he lets us eat his body and drink his blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
The Lord Continues to Serve Us in Our Congregation, Even Though the Word of God Is Never So Despised as Where It Is Rightly and Richly Taught.
The peace that the Lord gives us is not found in an ideal world that eagerly welcomes and embraces its Savior. It is found only in this place and places like it where sinners are gathered by our Lord. Against all the rejections of Christ, his Word, and his people, we are weak.
But our Lord’s mercy is abundant, as Jesus says: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). Amen!
Now may the peace of God which far surpasses our human understanding guide and keep us in the one true faith until life everlasting…Amen