Mark 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.
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.
See
here, how the Roman Catholic Church is wrong, and Jesus Christ has
half-brothers and half-sisters, and that Mary had many other children than
Jesus. She had at least six children other than Jesus. This and other verses
show that the Vatican doctrine is incorrect. Things like the Assumption of
Mary, she was a perpetual virgin, and the like have no Biblical basis.
Matthew
1:25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he
called his name JESUS.
Saying
that they were cousins or Joseph’s children from a first marriage has no basis
in the Scripture. We can’t get together with the Catholics if they reject God’s
word. It is impossible to pursue righteousness when you are zealously clinging
to error.
On a
side note wouldn’t you like to see some of the furniture or farm implements
Jesus made during his work as a carpenter? I’m surprised that the Roman
Catholics or Greek Orthodox haven’t claimed to own a chair or a table that
Jesus made or perhaps a plow. Now, that would be quite a relic, wouldn’t it?
Back
to the verse; the people who just marveled at His wisdom and mighty works are
now offended by the fact that they think they know Him as simply a humble
carpenter. They can’t reconcile who they think He is with what He has done,
much like the modernist or adherent of another religion who regard Him as a
great teacher and nothing else, like Thomas Jefferson or the Dalai Lama, have
to discount and deny His miracles because they can’t reconcile His teachings
with His claim of deity and being the only way to be saved.
There
are even foolish so-called Christians, such as many of our nation’s founders,
who believe that to be a Christian one might hold to some of the moral values
of the Bible without confirming the deity of Christ and the supernatural events
such as the resurrection of the body and the translation of the church. This is
simply a waste of time. If Jesus isn’t God you might as well be home watching
the news on Sunday morning and living like a maniac, burning out your body with
sin and depravity and going into a silent eternity with a worn out body and a
giant drunken blur for a memory. Because you’re going to spend a long time not
existing if you were correct in your assumptions.
But we
don’t believe that a person is merely an event in space-time that is here, then
gone forever. We believe by faith in eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, or eternal anguish as a suffering soul in a lake of unquenchable fire.
You choose. The price has already been paid. The free gift is there. You have
to accept it, to receive it, for it to be of any value to you.
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.
Deuteronomy
18:15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Deuteronomy
18:18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee,
and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I
shall command him.
With
regard to John the Baptist whom they thought might be that Prophet and asked
him;
John
1:21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art
thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
Country
would be a place but the last two words Christ uses, kin and house, describe
family. Kin we know but house refers to a family or a dynasty in ruling terms.
Exodus
1:21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them
houses.
1King
12:19 So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.
It
is interesting to note that in the Old Testament the house of God is a place
while under grace the house of God is a group of people, a family.
Genesis
28:17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none
other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
1Peter
4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if
it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of
God?
It
is common for us fundamentalists to refer to the church building as the house
of God. But it confuses our doctrine to say that and lends a carnal, temporal
touch to our belief much like asking the Holy Spirit to come down on a meeting
that, if the Holy Spirit isn’t already there then no one in the meeting is
saved. A new Christian or an unsaved person can leave such a meeting not
understanding that the believers they were with are the house of God, the body
of Christ, and the Holy Spirit was there and is always present within each of
us. It’s one of those things that those of us who left them held over from the
Roman Catholic Church which was an organization not an organism.
This
idea was based on the structure of the pagan Roman Empire, and everything had
to be interpreted in the very concrete and earthly dimensions of the Roman mind
which could only conceive of being inheritors of and carrying on the physical
Hebrew theocracy of David’s kingdom. It’s very comforting but erroneous. There
are no sacred spaces in Christianity except in the believer’s heart. The
Christianity that has sacred places, sacred relics, sacred groves, sacred
temples, sacred altars is not the Christianity of the Bible but merely another
pagan religion. The church that belongs to Christ is His body on earth. It is a
living organism, a living body with its head in Heaven, not simply an
organization.
There
is an important parallel here for the Christian. Your family and friends, with
whom you grew up, will be less likely to accept the change that comes over you
when you got saved.
With
regard to Christ Himself;
Isaiah
53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemed him not.
Is
Christ held in low regard in His own house, in the body of Christ, His own
church? How much is Christ elevated in your church body? Are Christ’s moral
teachings more important to you than who He is, God in the flesh? Is the Sermon
on the Mount more real to you than the Resurrection? Is the Golden Rule more
important to you than the Translation of the church? Is being a positive force
in the community or in politics of more value to you than worshipping a Risen
Saviour? Is your so-called service for the Lord more important than sitting at
His feet and letting Him speak to you through His words in the Bible?
There
are at least two types of Christianity. The Christianity of the Founders of our
country was one of honoring the moral values of the New Testament, not the
deity of the one who gave those moral values. The Christianity called for in
the Bible includes the moral values but elevates Christ as being the central
focus of the religion not the moral values He imparted without His elevation.
Then
within the second Christianity there are two sides. The one says the Christian
must examine the moral values that Christ manifests and choose to follow them.
That is Humanism, pure and simple. It assumes power on your part you really
don’t have to change yourself without uplifting your will in God’s place. It
makes the Bible a manual of training rather than a Living Book that speaks to
your heart.
The
truly Biblical Christianity acknowledges that the believer submits to Christ
and Christ makes all the changes through His word; written, spoken, and
preached. You choose whom you will follow but you have no control over where
they will lead. If you honor Christ, you will surrender your will to His, not
to your good intentions.
It
is interesting to note that with regard to Jesus’ earthly family his brother,
James, eventually became a follower.
Galatians
1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
On
the cross, Jesus assigned the care of His mother to the Apostle, John.
John
19:26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom
he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
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