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NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!

WE CAN DO BETTER!

INTRODUCTION

We have all probably watched someone participate in a sport, or perform in some way, or do some sort of a job, or maybe even listened to a person speak, and came away saying,

"WELL, I CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT".

There are times when saying, "I CAN DO BETTER" is a good thing. If saying "I CAN DO BETTER" motivates us to do our very best, that's good.

There are many success stories in the Bible. Hebrews 11 gives many examples.

Concerning these things, we probably would say, we can't do any better than that!

However, not only are there successes in the Bible, but there are failures too.

In many of those cases, we might be tempted to say, WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT!

And that's a good thing to say, if we are motivated towards Godly living, and if we realize that we can only be successful with God's help.

Zechariah 4:6 - …Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

This morning, by way of Mark 6:1-6, I bring you to Jesus' hometown of Nazareth. Jesus is visiting there for the second time that we know of, after some very successful ministry.

You would think that the reception Jesus would received would be very positive. However, in both of Jesus' recorded visits to Nazareth, we find the hometown folk mired in unbelief.

In fact, during Jesus' first visit to Nazareth, the townspeople took him out to shove him off a hill outside the city, but the Bible records that Jesus just passed through their midst and went on His way! You can read about that in Luke 4:16-30 sometime.

Now to those of us who are Christians, I want to encourage us today. WE CAN DO BETTER! We can have more faith than the people of Nazareth. I'm not saying that we have more faith than the people of Nazareth right this moment, but I am saying. . .WE CAN DO BETTER!

I.         JESUS’ PATH. (Vs 1)

We see that Jesus took a journey and arrived in his own country, which would be His hometown of Nazareth.

There is a simple, but great statement in this verse, that we need to take to heart - Mark 6:1 - “. . .and His disciples follow Him.”

Of course, these words mean that Jesus' followers went with Him. They went where He went. They let Him instruct them. They did what He wanted them to do.

If we would like to do better than the people of Nazareth did, we need to be active disciples of the Lord Jesus! The people of Nazareth were anything but disciples of Jesus.

            What's involved with being a disciple of the Lord Jesus?

Luke 9:23 – “And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

            A.        The Decision Involved In Discipleship.

                        To be a disciple of Jesus, one must first make a decision to follow Him.

“If any man will come after me. . .”

We need to decide to follow Jesus. In order to follow Jesus, we must believe in Him. We can't really, sincerely follow someone we have don’t have faith in.

The greatest part of Jesus' mission was that of dying on the cross and shedding His precious blood for our sins!

2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

                        And the great news is that Jesus did not stay dead but rose from the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 – “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; [4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

Jesus said in John 3:16 –“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

My friend, in order to be a disciple of Jesus we must decide to follow Jesus as our only way to Heaven. Jesus said in John 14:6, …I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Let me ask you a personal question. Have you, at a specific moment in time, decided to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and trust Him as your Lord and Savior? Have you placed your trust in Him alone for your salvation?

How can you be His disciple unless you've decided to believe on Him as Savior? YOU CAN'T!

When we make a decision to believe on Christ, a wonderful thing happens. We become born again by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God takes up residence in our life. And He gives us a desire to follow Jesus.

Christian, the most important decision you ever made was to trust Christ for everlasting life. The next most important decision you can make is to decide to follow Christ, to be His disciple.

                        Why should we be His disciples?

                        He forgave our sins! He saved us from the hell! He gave us eternal life in Heaven!

                        The only logical decision is to give our lives for the one who gave His life for us!

                        1 John 4:19–“We love him, because he first loved us.”

            B.        The Denial Involved In Discipleship.

Luke 9:23–“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Not only must we make a decision to be disciples, but we must also deny ourselves.

Denial means putting our plans on the back burner so we can do what Jesus wants us to do.

            C.        The Death Involved In Discipleship.

                        As we deny ourselves, Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily.

The cross was a symbol of death. I have seen people deny themselves in some areas without actually dying to themselves.

Denial can be limited in scope. We can deny ourselves in some areas, but not in others. Athletes will deny themselves in some ways, keeping their body in shape.

But then some will not deny their body alcohol or drugs, and by doing so cause themselves many heartaches.

Death is total! When we're dead to self, we have absolutely no plans of our own! And we should have no plans of our own, only those of our Master!

            D.        The Direction Involved In Discipleship.

After decision, denial and death, comes direction.

                        That direction comes from following Christ through the Word of God!

Then we can truly follow Jesus, to go where He wants us to go and do what He wants us to do, and be what He wants us to be.

We can do better than the citizens of Nazareth, if we follow Jesus as His disciples did.

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

II.       JESUS’ PREACHING. (Vs 2)

The people recognized that Jesus' teaching was unlike any others. And his marvelous wisdom was undeniable. And they had heard about His mighty miracles. These people had the privilege of being under the teaching of the Son of God, but they did nothing with it because of unbelief, as we'll see in a moment.

            My friend we can do better than the citizens of Nazareth!

For almost 38 years there have been men of God in this pulpit who have preached and taught the Word of God.

Many of us have been taught the Word of God by knowledgeable and Godly preachers, teachers, and evangelists. We can do better than the citizens of Nazareth if we do something with what we have received, that is, if we obey the Word of God.

III.      JESUS’ PROBLEM. (Vs 3)

We see that the citizens of Nazareth thought they knew Jesus, but they didn’t recognize Him for who He truly was!

            They knew Him as the carpenter or village handyman.

They referred to Him as “the Son of Mary.” Usually, people were referred to as the sons of their fathers. This shows that they knew that he wasn’t the son of Joseph. However, they did not recognize Him as the Son of God!

I believe that they called Him "Son of Mary" as a slam, inferring that Jesus was illegitimate.

They also knew his brothers and sisters. These would have been the sons and daughters of Mary and Joseph.

They were offended at Him. They "stumbled over him". Who was Jesus, that He should be telling them what to do? They had no desire to do as He said because they did not see Him as both God and LORD!

            If we are not careful, we can be just like these citizens of Nazareth.

            We can sit in church and Sunday School and endure the messages.

            We can say in our hearts:

                        "We heard these Bible Stories all our lives."

                        "We know all about Jesus."

                        "We know all about the teachings of God's Word."

                        "But, we have no intent of truly doing what the Bible says."

            Beware, we can very easily be offended by or stumble over Jesus or we can do better!

            We can say instead:

            "This is God's Word and I want to know what it says."

            "This is God's Message and I want to hear from God."

            "This is God's Will and I want to do the will of God."

            "This is God's Son and whatever it takes, I will do what God's Son tells me to do!"

IV.      JESUS’ PROCLAMATION. (Vs. 4)

Jesus proclaimed that a prophet is most likely to be rejected by those who think they know Him best. They think that the prophet is just like them.

            They rejected Jesus because they thought they knew Him. They were familiar with Him.

Can it be, my friend, that in this assembly, that there are some here who have become so familiar with the name of Jesus, so familiar with His teachings, and so familiar with His Words that don't really honor Him in their life like they should?

V.        JESUS’ PARTICIPATION. (Vs 5)

            Does that mean Jesus was incapable of working miracles?

            No, Jesus was very capable as God the Son at working miracles.

It means that Jesus, on moral grounds, would not work mighty miracles there! Because the people did not believe.

            Matthew 13:58 - “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

            The only miracles Jesus worked was to heal a few people.

            But, Jesus could have done so much more!

What do we expect on Sunday when we come to church? Are we content that Jesus would lay his hand on a few sick folk and not do mighty works in our midst?

            Some get upset if people respond to the invitation because it might lengthen the service.

                        We don't expect people to be saved.

                        We don't expect Christians to change for the better.

                        We don't expect God to speak to us.

                        We don't expect God to touch our services with His power.

            Quite frankly some of us don't expect God to do much of anything!

                        And so He does do very little. Why? Because He's unwilling?

                        No. It's because of our own unbelief. We limit God with our unbelief

VI.      JESUS’ PERCEPTION. (Vs 6)

You wouldn't think that there was anything that would make the one who is God marvel or be amazed. But, Jesus was amazed at the depths of unbelief in His hometown.

Here was the Son of God right in front of them, working great and wonderful miracles and teaching them with power and authority that no other man ever had. And people still didn't believe!

            Are we any better than the citizens of Nazareth.?

            In John 14:27 Jesus says, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  

            Through our unbelief, we allow our hearts to be troubled and be afraid.

In Mark 16:15 Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” In our unbelief we won't even invite our friends, or family, or co-workers, or neighbors to church, let alone share the Gospel with them.

In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells us that after a person is won to Christ they should be baptized. Some of you in your unbelief refuse to receive believer's baptism.

Galatians 6:10 says, “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Are we doing that?

Hebrews 10:24-25 - And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: [25] Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” In unbelief, many people can't be consistent on Sunday Morning let alone Sunday night and Wednesday night.

John 14:13-14 - “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14] If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”

In our unbelief we do not pray for the things we should pray for so that God's kingdom will be advanced.

            I am reasonably sure that Jesus is equally amazed today at our unbelief.

And look again at Vs. 6 - What did Jesus do when the citizens of Nazareth were mired in unbelief? He moved on! He went to other villages. How long will it be before Jesus "moves on" figuratively speaking and allows this individual church to roll over and die in it's unbelief. Oh, Christians will not lose their salvation, but our witness for Christ could be lost.

            But wait! WE CAN DO BETTER!

            We can do better than the unbelievers in Nazareth.

            We can do better now!

Isaiah 55:6-7 - “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: [7] Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

We can do better by confessing our sin of unbelief. God is waiting to forgive and cleanse us.

            We can do better by doing by faith that which we know we should do.

            We can do better by faith, by trusting Jesus with our problems and not worrying.

            We can do better by faith, by being baptized as we know we should.

            We can do better by faith, confessing and forsaking a sin habit.

            We can do better by faith, by joining the church as we know you should.

            We can do better by faith attending the services we know we should.

            We can do better by faith witnessing to our friends, neighbors and co-workers.

            We can do better by faith becoming men and women of prayer.

            You can do better by faith, if you haven't already, by trusting Jesus as your Savior!

            Jesus marvelled at the unbelief on the citizens of Nazareth.

There was another man, a centurion, who asked Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus said I will come and heal him.

            The centurion however made a wonderful statement of faith.

Matthew 8:8 - The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

Matthew 8:10 - When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

This is the second time that it is said that Jesus marveled. One time he marveled at the unbelief of the hometown crowd. The other time he marveled at the faith of the centurion.

            Does Jesus marvel over your unbelief or over your faith?

            With God's help, YOU CAN DO BETTER! Will you?

Home Page   Contact Us    Service Times   Sermons   Are You Going To Heaven?

NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!