Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed: 02/17/19

Intro:

• News sources reported that it was around  this time of the year 23 years ago when the then Cleveland Browns separated from their head coach.
• The team was already in process to move to Baltimore, change its name, and hopefully transform its whole organization.
• That said, the coach’s record with the team in the 1991-1995 seasons stood at 6-10, 7-9, 7-9, 11-5, and 5-11. That is four losing seasons out of five, and most damaging, the final season was the worst losing season.
• Team owner Art Modell had mentioned that he would take the head coach with him, but surprised everyone by releasing him from his contract in favor of hiring the last Baltimore Colts coach to head his new Baltimore franchise. To add insult to injury, Modell actually told fellow owner Robert Kraft that if he hired the coach it would be one of his biggest mistakes.
• Headlines through the head coach’s tenure included ones such as “Cleveland’s fans yelped for his head,” “Browns should’ve kept Kosar, booted [coach}” “Browns fans are seeing red,” and “The latest in Browns wear: Beavis and [the coach’s name] T-shirts”.
• No one at the time looked at this coach and thought that he was going to make it as a head coach. Nearly everyone rejected any idea that the man could lead a team anywhere close to the Super Bowl.
• To be fair many have characterized this coach as a grumpy jerk, and there certainly has been no shortage of controversy surrounding his career. But the difference in Cleveland revolved around the rejection for not looking like he had any idea as to what he should be doing. Most dismissed and rejected him as “that Bill Parcells assistant who could never cut it as a head coach.”
• Speaking of Parcells, this disgraced Browns coach went quietly back to being a defensive assistant coach under Parcells during the 1996-1999 seasons at two different teams.
• He was named head coach of the Jets when Parcells left, but in the same media event as the announcement of his hiring resigned from the team to accept an offer to coach the New England Patriots with near total control over football operations.
• Now 23 years later, Bill Belichick just won his sixth Super Bowl, more than any other coach. He is both the oldest Super Bowl champion coach and longest tenured NFL coach. He stands as the all-time #1 coach in playoff win percentage, and all-time #3 coach in regular season wins.  Arguably he stands as one of the greatest NFL coaches in history, but years ago, he left Cleveland dismissed and rejected.
• 1) https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/02/15/bill-belichick-firing-cleveland-browns-baltimore-ravens-art-modell-bernie-kosar 2) https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/02/15/on-this-day-23-years-ago-the-browns-ravens-fired-bill-belichick/ 3) Bill Belichick

Hook:

• Whether you like and respect Bill Belichick or not, his story relates an important truth – none of us are immune to rejection.
• All of us deserve to be rejected for some of our less that righteous behaviors and comments; but without a doubt all of us will also face rejection that comes without a genuine basis.
• Even Jesus faced rejection, and sought to teach his disciples how to handle and conquer rejection.
• So today, lets zero in on Jesus’ plan for conquering rejection and overcome this debilitating struggle.

Message Points:

• Chapter six of Mark comes on the heels of the great examination of Jesus’ authority over every kind of fear that believers might have.
  • But as we will see, just because Jesus has the Supreme Authority in the universe, He does not always exercise that authority.
  • This concept, that Jesus does not always exercise his authority, is a part of the doctrine of Christ called submission.
    • As the 2nd Person of the Trinity, Christians believe Jesus has an equality of power and authority with the other persons, however he submits himself to the will of the Father.
    • Further, Christians believe that Jesus, during the incarnation, for a time and a season submitted himself to the frailty and the limitations of human flesh. After the resurrection His flesh was glorified and perfected so that he no longer had to submit to those limitations.
    • Further, Christians also believe that during his incarnation Jesus submitted himself to fallen, but God-ordained authorities such as his parents, his Jewish religious leaders, and even the Roman government.
• This is important for us to remember, because had Jesus not submitted himself to the will of the Father, to the limitations of his flesh, and to human authorities, he would have never been rejected.
  • And yet, Jesus to be like us and offer to us the kind of help we need when rejected submitted himself to the experience of rejection.
  • Though it is foreshadowed here, Jesus willingly experience the ultimate rejection of execution for us.
• So let’s examine this passage. If we seek to get an idea of the flow of this passage we can quickly see that it breaks into five specific scenes.
  • Jesus goes to his hometown and is rejected there.
  • From that point, Jesus sends his disciples out with a plan for how to deal with rejection.
  • Then in an important aside, we see that Herod Antipas understands Jesus as a prophet to be rejected, like John.
  • Jesus then teaches five thousand men and find his disciples reject his call to feed them and the meaning of the feeding.
  • Finally as Jesus walks to the disciples on the water, dealing with their rejection with gentle reminders of his authority and love for them.
• From these scenes we begin to see Jesus’ plan for dealing with and conquering rejection. Christians conquer rejection by receiving new orders to please God, not people.
  • This shift in perspective and attitude helps us to take three difficult but necessary steps to conquer rejection.
  • It is those steps that we will focus the rest of our attention upon today.
• First we will see that Pleasing God will utilize Righteous Retreats (6:1-13).
  • That step becomes most clear in the first thirteen verses of this passage, but we can see it in other parts of this passage.
    • After Herod becomes fearful of Jesus in verse 16, Jesus and his disciples avoid the territory of Herod Antipas in Mark’s gospel, specifically his center of power in Perea on the west side of the Jordan River.
    • Further, When the disciples begrudgingly participate in the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus dismisses them and the crowds to spend time away in prayer according to verse 46.
  • But this step is unmistakable when Jesus comes finally now to his hometown with his disciples.
    • Nazareth was some twenty-five miles from the seaside town of Capernaum, in the hills of the Galilee. That is roughly the distance from here to Union.
    • The town initially receives him and welcomes him into the synagogue to teach, but they quickly reject him.
    • In verse two the word amazed is used, but look at the quotes in that verse.
      • The amazement is not one that leads to respect, but one that leads to rejection.
      • “Where did this man get these things?” is their statement, almost as if to say, when did he get to being so “uppity”.
      • Then verse three points out some important facts.
        • They see him as nothing more than their town carpenter. That role would have been a well respected one in a town as small as Nazareth, seeing that likely he would have been involved in helping everyone in the town sooner or later. Even so, the position would not have been seen as one that granted the carpenter a say in affairs past construction.
        • They mention him as Mary’s son. It is most likely that this mention betrays the fact that Joseph has died and Mary still lives among them in Nazareth. However, it also could be a veiled reminder of Jesus’ unknown origin.
        • They also list his brothers and sisters. Without reference to their ages, it is likely that this mention is a sort of “calling out” of Jesus for stepping out of Joseph’s role, thereby neglecting the care of his mother and his siblings who may still remain in the house. This is reinforced by the proximity of this list with end of verse 3, which plainly says that they take offense at Jesus.
      • So great was the rejection at Nazareth that Jesus could not do any miracles except to lay hands of a few to heal them according to verse 5.
    • Verse four gives Jesus’ famous response, that “a prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relative and in his own home.”
      • We should note that Jesus connects himself with the prophets of old. Thus we should expect that Jesus would be treated as those prophets.
        • As early as the return from Exile, Nehemiah 9:26 recognizes that Israel had “killed [God’s] prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to [God]”.
        • The rejection of God’s Word among Israel becomes a theme in the later prophets and certainly in the New Testament.
        • Jesus, as a prophet can expect to be rejected and even killed for speaking God’s Word.
        • Friends, in a world that wars against our Christian stance on so many issues we need this reminder.
          • As we stand as prophets, speaking for God we can expect rejection when we talk about…
            • The authenticity, reliability, authority, and sufficiency of the Bible,
            •  the goodness of gender as God created it,
            • on the testimony of marriage between one man and one woman to the reality of Christ’s redeeming love for his bride the church,
            • On the reality that post fall, all of mankind is badly broken by sin, suffering, death, and apart for God’s grace is bound for hell,
            • And most importantly one the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ, meaning that the only way that people can be saved is through a life transforming faith in His finished work on the cross.
            • Even our offer of God’s amazing grace will likely be rejected by a #MeToo world that refuses to allow atonement for one’s past.
          • So we all need to hear Jesus’ words that the world will reject us.
            • And when the world does, rather than staying and picking a bigger fight, it is likely more important to righteously retreat from a greater conflict.
            • A righteous retreat avoids completely destroying a relationship so that we might have a voice later.
            • Further it does not preclude us from showing kindness as Jesus does by healing the few.
      • And we also should note that the first rejection comes from those closest to Jesus. Mark takes pains to report this rejection fully.
        • His description begins with his hometown, then his relatives, and even in his own home.
        • Can I tell you from personal experience friends that we need this reminder as well.
          • It was my mother who first rejected my belief that God had called me into ministry, for fear of the sacrifices I would have to make.
          • For a number of years, every time a  Baptist church in Union was looking for a pastor they would ask for my resume, but in the end would reject me because I was from Union.
          • And to this day, my brothers have never heard me preach a message other than the funerals I have presided over for our loved ones.
        • Again, Jesus does not stay to badger his hometown friends or family about why they do not have faith, but he moves on in his ministry.
    • This righteous retreat is Jesus’ first response to rejection.
      • Just as the town was amazed in a negative way about Jesus, he was amazed at the town’s lack of faith.
      • Even so, Jesus’ amazement did not discourage or defeat him.
        • Rather, this amazement leads Jesus to then go from village to village in the hills of the Galilee  teaching.
        • Jesus can do this without discouragement or defeat because he knows that His goal is to please God and not to please people.
      • In verse seven he then sends out his disciples in teams of two to allow them to experience this principle.
        • He gives them His authority to teach, cast out demons and heal. Verse 12 tells us that they preached repentance, cast out and healed many.
        • He gave them instructions that focused in Mark on them taking a staff, presumably due to the hills; but leaving behind most other supplies.
        • He tells them to stay in a house that welcomes them until they leave a town.
        • The most important instruction is the one about a righteous retreat.
          • If a place did not welcome or listen to the disciples they were to do as their master did and righteously retreat.
          • The rejection of the people would be a witness to their uncleanness. This followed the tradition of the rabbis who shook Gentile dust off of their feet both as a witness to the Gentiles folly as well as to their commitment not pollute the Promised Land.
        • These lessons are all ones that we can apply to our lives as well.
          • Once converted, our desire should be to please God and not people.
          • God called us to make disciples, and we do not need specialized tools or training, we simply need to repeat the message and the ministry of Jesus to us.
            • Jesus’ message was one of repentance from selfishness and trust in salvation from God.
            • His ministry was one of mercy and grace.
          • That is what we offer to people, and when they reject that, rather than trying to force the gospel upon them, we thank them and move on so as to please God by spreading this message.
• This full picture of the method and plan of Jesus to conquer rejection will focus next on the message that Jesus and those like him proclaim.
• The next section of our passage, from verse 14-29, forms the primary place Mark teaches that Pleasing God will utilize Heart-Penetrating Truth  (6:14-29).
  • Jesus advocates teaching a message of heart penetrating truth.
    • This is not a message of manipulation. In fact nothing could be further from the truth.
    • Again look at what the disciples preach out of Jesus’ authority in verse 12. They teach “that people should repent”.
    • This implies that people have sinned so greatly that they cannot move on or go forward with business as usual.
    • Without confessing their sin, showing regret and remorse for it, and demonstrating a willingness to move in a different direction, change cannot happen. That is a heart penetrating truth.
    • Consider your own life, even as a believer.
      • How often do we like to admit that we spoke out of anger to our children, or lazily did a project at work or school, or neglected a friend or family member when they were in need?
      • We don’t like to admit that our actions have broken a relationship. And we especially don’t like the idea that people have a just reason to reject us.
    • And this leads us to the most heart-penetrating truth of all. The rejection that should hurt us the most is the just rejection of God at our sinful and selfish rebellion against Him.
    • Our relationship with God is so broken that without some sort of major change in us and some sort of major grace from Him we have no hope.
  • Jesus teaches this message of repentance and faith in  Nazareth according to Mark 6:1. He teaches the disciples this message as well in his interactions with him during the feeding of the 5000 and his walking on the water.
  • And this type of heart penetrating truth has formed the prophet’s message for generations.
  • Looking at verse 14-16 we see that Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who ruled over just a small portion of his father’s territory, Galilee and Perea, may have rejected the heart penetrating truth of John the Baptist, could not ignore it.
  • The story of Herod is introduced because he has heard about the minsitry of Jesus and his disciples according to verse 14.
    • In the social media of Herods day, people all had opinions about Jesus. Some said he is a resurrected John the Baptist, others say he is Elijah, but again verse 15 reinforces that others claim Jesus is “like one of the prophets of long ago.”
    • But from among these options Herod only hears one. His heart has been so pricked that he can only exclaim in fear that this is the resurrected John that he had beheaded.
    • The intrigue of the Herodian court had prompted John the Baptist to speak out in verse 18 against Herod committing adultery with his brother’s wife, Herodias, divorcing his own wife, and then marrying his brother’s former wife.
      • This sort of sexual anarchy, which objectified people and elevated gratification over commitment, is the hardness of heart God sought to avoid when he spoke through Moses on divorce and remarriage.
      • That truth lead to John’s arrest, but also to Herod’s intrigue with him.
      • If we read verse 20 we find that, even though Herodias wanted to kill John, Herod feared and protected him as a righteous and holy mand. Further Herod was “greatly puzzled” and liked listening to John.
      • Had it not been for his step-daughter’s provocative dance at his birthday, and subsequent foolish promise, Herod may well have kept John alive indefinately.
      • But like the prophets before him, John too was executed.
    • The Heart-penetrating truth John spoke led Herod to reject him, but to be puzzled and intrigued by him.
    • Just as every prophet should testify to a new life so different and so attractive that even if people might reject that offer, they cannot escape the authentic goodness of it.
    • We cannot alter the truth to facilitate people’s acceptance of it. WE must preach the truth in a loving but faithful fashion.
      • Talk about SBC Sexual Abuse Scandal.
  • Finally then as we read the final verses from 30-56 we see that Pleasing God will utilize Tactical Patience (6:30-56).
    • Make no mistake as the disciples return, the crowds are so great that they cannot even eat.
    • Even as they try to retreat to a solitary place the people follow.
    • Jesus has compassion on the large crowd because they are like sheep without a shepherd.
      • Following his own principle, when people welcome us we do not leave that place.
      • Stayin where people were teachable led to a significant problem reported in all of the gospels, namely that it was late enough for the evening meal and no food.
      • When Jesus asks them, who have been empowered by Jesus to provide them food, they balk.
      • Verse 52 again says they have hardened their heart.
    • Thus Jesus, knowing that he must exhibit tactical patience, chooses to do a miracle to bless the people and teach his disciples.
    • Just as in a Sabbath meal, Jesus took the loaves, fishes, and looked to heaven before giving thanks, blessing and breaking them. The provision was so great that there were twelve basketfuls, likely used to hold the fish in a catch, left over, one for each of the disciples.
    • Still showing patience, Jesus does not rebuke his discipels but sends them onto the sea to Bethsaidia.
      • That would have been north and east of Capernum on the lake.
      • The wind was so great they had to bring out the oars, explaining why they landed near to Gennesaret in 53, which was south and west of Capernaum.
      • Without Jesus, all of their efforts had actually resulted in them loosing ground on the journey towards their destination.
      • This lesson is one that they needed to learn as we do as well.
      • When we reject Jesus’ way we loose ground. And when we see someone we love reject Jesus’ way, it may be that loosing of ground that teaches them best.
    • Mark does not report Peter’s walking on the water, but does report that Jesus come to them walking on the lake and they are afriad as if seeing a ghost.
    • This clear miracle terrifies the disciples, but Jesu says, “Take courage! It is I”.
      • In the other gospels it is at this point that the discipels confess as a group that Jesus is the Son of God.
      • But Mark’s gospel simply says they were amazed, this time in a very positive sense.
    • The account completes with the multitudes recognizing Jesus, and like the woman with the issue of blood in chapter five, express the faith that if they just can touch the edge of his cloak they will be healed.

Conclusion:

• Do you have the faith to rigtheously retreat, allow the heart-penetrating truth about Christ to work, and show tactical patience as to when you will reengage?
• Most importantly do you hear the call of God giving you a new set of orders that tells you pleasing God is possible because your sin is forgiven?
• Respond to God today.