This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're beginning a look at Mark chapter 6
today. Day 1 we're going to look at verses 1 to 6.

And as we walk through Mark chapter 6, you're going to see that this entire week
we're going to be looking at Jesus as the Worker of Miracles. He works six
actual miracles in Mark chapter 6. And when not working miracles, the chapter
tells how certain people felt about, reacted to the miracles of Jesus.

What are the miracles that he worked in this chapter? Well one, he healed a few
sick people in verse 5. Number two, he worked the miracles of casting out demons
and healing people through his disciples.

Number three, he fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fish. Number four, he walked
on the water. Number five, he stopped the wind.

And number six, he healed those who touched the fringe of his cloak. And this
chapter about miracles starts with Jesus not being able to do many miracles in
an unexpected place. Listen to what happened in Mark chapter 6 verses 1 to 6.

Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When
the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue. And many who heard him
were amazed.

Where did this man get these things, they asked? What's this wisdom that has
been given to him that he even does miracles? Isn't this the carpenter?

Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren't
his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him.

Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown among his relatives, and in his own
house as a prophet without honor. He could not do any miracles there except lay
his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of
faith.

And then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. " Now, as we begin
this week looking at Jesus, the miracle worker, let's take a second to talk
about miracles. Make sure that you ask the right questions about Jesus'
miracles.

A lot of people get caught up in the how of miracles. If you believe Jesus is
whom he claimed to be, you don't have to ask how. How did he work this?

How did he do that? God can do whatever he pleases. So you know it was done by
God's power because Jesus is God.

The important question is why? Why did Jesus work miracles? Did he do it to
prove his divinity, to prove that he's God?

No. Miracles were not meant as proof of faith. Because Jesus knows that you
can't prove faith.

Faith is a choice. What miracles are instead, well, they're two things. They're
an expression of love.

Jesus worked miracles because he had compassion on people. And they're also a
sign to attract attention. Not to convince belief, but to attract attention so
people would notice Jesus and see Jesus.

And in seeing him would be drawn to faith in him. The interesting thing as we
walk through this chapter is seeing how different people reacted to these
miracles. We're going to be seeing a lot of different reactions to miracles this
week.

And here we see his own people, the people in his own town. And they, when they
saw Jesus the miracle worker, the Bible says they took offense. They didn't
believe.

And so he could do no miracle there. Now that word in Greek for offended is
scandalizo. It's the word for scandalized.

They were scandalized by the fact that Jesus Christ would work miracles. Here's
my question. How did they miss it?

How did they miss God and human flesh growing up in their midst and not be
impacted by that in their lives? How did they miss it? Well, they became
familiar.

They became so familiar with the things of God that they were unable to believe.
They were offended even by the things of God because they became so familiar
with the things of God. And that can happen to me.

That can happen to you. Happen to anybody who's trying to follow God in their
lives. Notice what happens with those in Jesus' hometown.

Notice that they became familiar with Jesus and that they mentioned his family.
Now their mention of Jesus' family here is interesting to us because it shows us
names of his brothers. Isn't this the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and
Simon?

Now obviously these are actually half brothers. They had the same mother, Mary,
but God is the father of Jesus and Joseph is the father of James and Joseph and
Judas and Simon. This also tells us they're at least two sisters in Jesus'
family.

So we're interested in this because it gives us some information about the
family of Jesus. But the reason they were interested in it was quite different.
It's mentioned by them because they saw Jesus as just a part of this family.

Someone just like everyone else. And the familiar circumstances surrounding
Jesus' life caused them to miss the miracle of God's Son growing up among them.
Makes me ask myself, where do the familiar circumstances of my life cause me to
miss the miracle of what God is doing?

Their wrong expectations also caused them to miss the miracle. They expected
that when the Messiah came, the miracle working man that would come amongst
them, he would be born of a king, not a common family. So their expectations and
their familiarity caused them to miss it.

They mentioned Jesus' family. They also mentioned his work. They say isn't this
the carpenter?

The word for carpenter in Greek that's used here is the word for a craftsman, a
simple laborer. How could a simple laborer be the Son of God? They just couldn't
see it.

The interesting thing to me in these verses is that Jesus could do no miracles
there because of their lack of faith. Now Jesus could obviously have worked
without people's faith. God can do whatever he wants to do.

And yet most of the time Jesus chose to work with people's faith instead of in
spite of their lack of faith. And that's true in my life and in your life today.
God could work in our lives even though we had a lack of faith.

And sometimes he does for his own purposes. And yet most of the time God works
with our faith instead of in spite of our lack of faith. And I want you to
notice something in these verses.

Both the people in Jesus' hometown and Jesus himself were amazed in these
verses. Did you notice that? At the beginning the people were amazed and at the
end Jesus was amazed.

But the interesting thing is the word amazed here is used in a more negative way
than we're used to. The people were amazed and the word that's used there in
Greek for amazed has the idea of being struck with something. And they were
amazed.

They saw Jesus who had grown up amongst them and Jesus who had been familiar to
them. And all of a sudden he's working miracles. All of a sudden he's teaching
in the synagogue.

And the word amazed there means it struck them in the wrong way. Has that ever
happened to you? God begins to use someone that you didn't expect he would use.

God begins to challenge you to do something you never expected him to challenge
you to do. And it strikes you in the wrong way. And because it strikes you in
the wrong way you hold it at arm's length.

You become so familiar with it you miss it. The people were amazed. And Jesus
was amazed.

At the end of these verses he was amazed at their lack of faith. A different
Greek word is used there for amazed. It has the idea of astonished, of stunned.

How could this be? Jesus created me. He created you to have faith in him.

That's the way we were made in creation. Then we went through the fall. Jesus
came back to show us the way to faith.

And it amazes him that we don't make that choice in our lives. How could this
be? When it's put before us the opportunity is right there right now.

How could this be that I missed the opportunity to have faith? I want to amaze,
I don't know about you, but I want to amaze Jesus in a positive way, not a
negative way. I want to amaze by my choice to have faith in difficult
circumstances.

But I know if I'm going to do that I need his strength. I need his power. I know
how much I am like these people in Jesus' hometown.

How easy it is for me to become familiar with the things of God. How easy it is
for me to miss the miracles of God in my life. And so I need God's power in my
life.

If I'm going to be truly a person of faith, I think you do too. So as we pray
today, let's pray for God's power. Jesus Christ, let us not become so familiar
with who you are and what you are doing that we miss who you are and what you
are doing.

Help us to see it. Help us to see it today. The work that you are doing in our
lives, the work that you're doing in this world.

And God, we pray that you would give us the power, the strength to have faith in
you. We realize that by ourselves, we slide so easily into selfish familiarity,
comfort. But Lord, with you, depending on you, you will challenge and you will
strengthen a faith in us that can change everything.

Do that today, we pray. And we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Tomorrow, we're
going to be looking together at verses 7 to 13.

Join us as we see Jesus sending out the twelve.