Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Missouri is known as the Show Me state. It is said her residents don’t believe anything they don’t see for themselves. Do you know anyone like that? Are you one of those? Jesus met a few…in court.
Scripture
Luke 22:67-69
Sanhedrin: If you are the Anointed One whom God promised us, tell us plainly.
Jesus: If I give you an answer, you won’t believe it. And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer it. But this I will say to you: from now on, the Son of Man will take His seat at the right hand of the power of God.
Sanhedrin: So You are the Son of God, then?
Jesus: It’s as you say.
Devotional
Have you ever met anyone that no matter what you say and no matter what evidence you give, they just won’t believe you? It’s everywhere with almost everyone these days, I think. I know I’ve been guilty at times.
Research information
Internet
.com – selling something
.org – raising money for cause
.edu – professor’s ideology
.gov – well…
Written word
Peer review – maybe
Junk science
Fantasy
Just to sell books and make names
Found out in elections
Hard to trust
Hard to believe<
Sanhedrin fell into that category
Jesus evidence was clear
Prophecy they read and believed
Jesus’ birth
Jesus’ childhood
Jesus’ ministry
Jesus’ teaching
Jesus’ miracles
Still didn’t believe even with evidence in front of them
Are we as unbelieving as they are with all the evidence in front of us?
2,000 years of evidence, still people fail to believe
What category are you in? Believer or unbeliever?
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 6:4 Jesus (seeing this): A prophet can find honor anywhere except in his hometown, among his own people, and in his own household.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Do you really want to test your faith? Do you really want to know if what you’ve found in Christ is real and can stand up to the test of the world and the ridicule of those you ran around with as an enemy of God and His kingdom? Then live Christ in front of your family. Day in and day out live the life God wants you to live. Share what God puts on your mind. Do the tasks He calls you to do. Love the way He wants you to love within your family.
When you live your life in front of your family, they know if you are real. You can’t put on a façade in front of them, at least not very long. They know your past. They know your habits. They know the things you’ve started and quit. They know the resolutions you’ve made through the years and failed in keeping. They know the buttons to push to get you riled up and send your emotions flaring. Your family knows you better than anyone else.
When Jesus came back to His hometown to share the message that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, He shared it in the synagogue where He grew up as a boy. The rabbi and the elders in around the facility probably told Him and His brothers more than once that they needed to stop running on the property when they were growing up. The scribes sitting around the synagogue remembered Him sitting in their classes just learning the scriptures. Yes, He had an uncanning interest and skill in learning them, but Jesus was still just a kid in the class and played and sang and rough-housed with all the other boys. The scribes watched Him grow up around them.
The people of Nazareth watched Jesus in His father’s carpenter shop. He cut wood, hauled scraps, sanded rough planks, delivered finished products to customers. He learned His father’s trade and became a carpenter Himself. Somewhere along the line, Jesus’ father died and Jesus took up His father’s work to provide for the rest of the family. But everyone in the town knew Him. It was a small town and there were few secrets. They all even knew that Jesus was too old for Mary and Joseph to have been married when He was conceived.
Everyone knew everything about Jesus. So now, He was preaching in their synagogue. This illegitimate son of Mary and Joseph that grew up in their village. How could He talk to them about the scriptures? How could this carpenter school them in how God thinks we should live and act? What makes this laborer think He can challenge the teachings of the scribes and interpret the scriptures better than the rabbis who studied in Jerusalem?
It was tough for Jesus, the thirty-year-old man, the Son of God, to be heard in the town where His mother raised Him as a toddler, a teenager, and a young adult. Those older adults, those scribes and rabbis just couldn’t see past the teenager that grew up in their town. They couldn’t see the wisdom and knowledge Jesus gained over those last twenty years because they didn’t want to consider that He really was the Son of God. Why would God live in Nazareth? Surely He would live in Jerusalem and learn in the Temple if He were to come in the form of man, right? Jesus couldn’t be the Son of God. They watched Him grow up in their town. They knew nothing good came out of Nazareth…because they lived there.
Doesn’t say much for what their chamber of commerce put on their city advertisements, does it?
So what does that tell us about living for Him in our own homes? What do we learn from this short exchange in which Jesus declares that prophets receive honor everywhere except in their own hometown? I think He tells us we still need to witness to our lost family members, but expect them to question your faith. Don’t be surprised when they ridicule your newfound relationship with God. Don’t be surprised when they don’t believe you have been changed by the power of God’s Spirit living in you.
Like those living in Nazareth, family and close friends that have known you all your life, will always be the most skeptical of your changed life in Christ. They have seen you try those fad diets, New Year’s resolutions, organization trials, exercise programs, and all those other things that lasted a month or two before you fell into your old habits. They will think the same of your life in Christ. And even when the see the change over time, they will not recognize the change because they will test it over months and years to see if it sticks and by then they will put blinders on and forget the old you. Satan will put a veil over their eyes and try to hide the truth from them. It is hard to share the gospel with family. Not impossible, but hard.
What are we to do? Keep doing exactly what Jesus did. He still taught in the synagogue even though many didn’t listen. He still healed even though many didn’t come to Him. He performed a few miracles even though many didn’t believe and limited the usefulness of God living in their town. Jesus still did exactly what His Father asked Him to do. And that’s what Jesus expects us to do. Listen to Him and carry out His will, even in our families.
