Rejected Messiah

especially if you grew up in his hometown. He walks like us, talks like us, grew up like us, eats like us, sleeps like us. He came to be a true, full human, and they had experienced that full humanity, which kept them from seeing the absolute clear demonstration of his deity in the way he talked. This morning, we really want to see here there's two ways in which They miss who he is. The hometown in Herod, they miss who he is. There's two points to the sermon. There's two stories. Jesus came to his own people who will reject him. Jesus is confused with John the Baptist by the man who killed John the Baptist. Two pretty incredible stories that hopefully serve as warnings to us to make sure we have ears to hear, we have hearts that will receive, to know who Jesus is.

Jesus is rejected by his own people

Our first point, Jesus is rejected by his own people. We're there in Matthew 13, verse 53. We've just finished the third major discourse. He's just taught us the parables, and the parables, at some level, are intended to hide truths from certain people, but also to reveal new truths to his disciples. And now he's going to go back to his hometown where he's going to again teach in the synagogue.

Now we want to back up again and just kind of get a bigger picture. Jesus is the king. He is the great ruler and creator of all heavens and earth. He's come down to redeem his people and a key word that we must remember throughout Matthew is repent.

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

This is a very clear message that Jesus is going to always give, that the gospel requires repentance, because we have all gone astray. We have all turned in our own way. We've turned against God. Repentance is the most basic message of the gospel, that God, who sees us running in every wrong way possible, comes down to show us the one right way, and that is to turn to him. There is no salvation without repentance.

Here, Jesus is coming to his own people and even to his own hometown, and the gospel message is the same.

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

We go back a little bit further in Matthew 10. Remember that second great discourse, Jesus told the disciples, go out just to the people of Israel. If we were over and over again, the whole instruction, apart from go and proclaim the gospel, was preparing them for the suffering, for the way God's people, Israel, were gonna reject this message.

If we put in perspective here the hometown, it really captures the whole of what we saw in the Old Testament. God came down to a man named Abraham. He did not have a child. He was a worshiping pagan. before God spoke to him. God made promises to him that he would bless him with a child, with a people, a nation. It's incredible. The covenant formula that God gives throughout the Old Testament,

I will be your God and you will be my people.

And he makes that promise to a sinful people, a people who worship other gods and any god other than Yahweh.

And if we do just a whole big picture of the Old Testament, just Exodus alone, After God redeems them with mighty works, what do they do? They get to the Red Sea and they say, oh, well, there are not enough graves in all of Israel. They get in the wilderness and they say, well, God, we don't like how you're feeding us. Pharaoh gave us leeks and onions. He was a better king. When God is giving them instruction on how to worship, they build a golden calf with the gold God gave them. That is just anecdotal as to how the rest of the history goes. God is constantly calling his people to repent. And there are seasons and short segments of their history where God's people would repent, but over and over again, they worshiped other gods or committed what God calls adultery.

God, as we look at the Old Testament, it's incredible. He's not an angry God looking for sin. He's a gracious God that sees all of our sin and is patient. He's a gracious God and merciful God that keeps his promises, who seeks to woo his people back to himself where they would know true life and restoration. That God who constantly pursues his people, that God who constantly made promise after promise, repeating the promise after Israel would break that promise, is the same God, Jesus Christ, who's come down to be king. He's been rejected by God's people. Now he's going to go to his own hometown, where he grew up, and he's going to preach, he's gonna do great miracles, and they will respond just like Israel regularly responded.

There's two things that are consistent throughout scripture. God is holy, just, merciful, and gracious, always. A man is fickle, full of lies. We see this here. God is gracious and man rejects the great God who calls him to repentance.

If we look at our text, verse 53, when Jesus had finished these parables, we're moving to a different scene. He went away from there and he went to his own hometown, Nazareth. He began teaching the synagogue. This would be the center of religious life. And notice there, verse 54, they were astonished. This has been used to describe how people respond to Jesus already before in the Sermon on the Mount. They were amazed, they couldn't understand how this man taught with such authority. In the Sermon on the Mount at the end, they make it clear, he has more authority than the scribes and the Pharisees. How is this he knows so much about God's word? Well, he is God's word. You have God's word, teaching God's word as God. He opened it up to them and there's a right response. There was an astonishment. But here we must believe that he's called them in that word as he's regularly preached to repent. Now let's see what happens as they're astonished.

Notice the end of verse 54, which picks up kind of a Matthew's own paraphrasing of how they, responded. The first question they asked in their astonishment,

where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?

All right, this could be going well because they should be thinking if he speaks with this kind of authority and he's able to do things that only God can do, it must have come from God. Maybe he is God. There's a way in which this is a good question. Where did he get this incredible wisdom? Where did he get this incredible power? Could be a good question that might lead to a right response and confessing him to be the Son of God, the Word of God, the Savior.

We'll see what other questions they have.

Is not this the carpenter's son? Is this not his mother called Mary? Is not his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Are not all his sisters with us?

Here they're identifying him with their family, which is very Jewish. Every time you see somebody introduced, it's usually the son of. They understand him as not just someone who has grew up with them, but they know his family. Joseph here is not named. We assume he's passed away at this point. that they recognize as humble beginning, the carpenter's son. Maybe they heard the rumors of Mary being pregnant before the wedding. Maybe they've even heard that tale of a virgin birth, a virgin conception. So we know this guy. We know where he came from, we know his family. They could have eyes to see and understand.

What's significant is the next question and how they really, Matthew bookends, where did this man, where did this one get all these things? They're asking the right question beginning and end, but really it's a dismissive question rather than a curious one. It's not an honest inquiry, it's one with disdain. Seems they're saying, we know this guy. We've seen him grow up. We know his family. How is it that he has these things? Where could he have possibly gotten this kind of wisdom? Notice verse 57.

And they took offense at him.

The word here is scandalized. They're offended. There's a sense of shame, anger, disbelief, rejection. They find what he is saying, and it's not just what he's saying, notice it's him. They took offense at him. This one, how is it he could possibly have this authority? How is it he could have this wisdom? He's just like us, he's a nobody from Nazareth. Where did he get this from?

So there, that offense, verse 57, I believe it should take us back to Psalm 118 and 1 Peter. Jesus either offends you or he becomes a stabilizing, life-giving source. There's two options. There's no middle ground here. If you think you're just gonna think, oh, he's a good teacher, I'll listen to what I like and not like. No, when you hear Jesus for who he says he is and what he's come to say to us, repent. With all authority, he himself as God can bring you back to God. That's either the most offensive thing you'll hear or it's the most life-giving truth you'll hear.

The offense of the gospel is that he says everything about you is wrong and against God. And if we hear that, with ears to hear, we can actually come to God through Christ who gives us life. What would be offensive about Jesus and his teaching? Are you offended by the word repent? This word in Christ, it's a command, but I want you to understand it's an invitation. You don't have to continue in the darkness and deception and destructive life you have. Christ has come to restore you.

His own hometown rejected him. This one, how is it he has these things? How is it he would have this kind of authority? They're astonished, but that doesn't lead to a proper confession. It leads to an offense and a hatred. It assumes and communicates, the word repent, that we're doing this all wrong. You see, we fit into the history of Israel as the people of God who could hear the message of God, hear the promises of God, but not repent.

Hear the good news this morning. God has remained faithful to every promise to save us from all of our sins. And even though when he promises and we would believe in him, every sin has been paid for fully on the cross. The goodness of God has come with a full authority of Christ that we can be saved.

Jesus responds to their offense.

But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, in his own household.

Here he's used the word prophet quite often. He's referred to Jonah as a prophet. Usually it's John the Baptist the prophet. Here, I want to make sure we understand he's calling himself a prophet. And let's be very clear, he's the prophet. The absolute prophet. He is the word of God. He is the full revelation of God himself. He himself is the absolute prophet that every prophet before him was pointing to, and every prophet after him is supposed to be pointing to. And anyone who does not acknowledge he is the full, absolute revelation of God as God is a false prophet. That means Muhammad and Joseph Smith are false prophets. They have rejected him as the one true God and absolute prophet. We have to understand who he is as the word of God creator and any prophet who does not acknowledge that is a false prophet.

He's appealing to a principle that because they saw him as a young child and as a teenager, and he walked like them, and he talked like them, there's something about that experience that they just keep seeing that, and they can't accept that he has the wisdom of God, the anointing. There's something about someone who has seen someone grow up as a normal human being, but then that anointing of God will come upon them that the hometown would have a hard time accepting this is something different about him, unique.

But especially here, Jesus, because his true origin isn't that he was born in Nazareth. Actually, he's born in Bethlehem as a king. He grew up in Nazareth in order to identify with the nobodies from nowhere with any reputation. He came to be like us in every way. But before that, he was the son of God, the creator, the eternal one. True wisdom can be with us. Think about how to apply this.

Seeing is not believing

There's a curious thing here regarding how we know God. That's what we've looked at with the whole parables and how God makes himself known and even hides truth about himself. Here I wanna make sure we understand two very important principles about the word of God and knowing God.

First, seeing is not believing. Seeing is not believing. They're looking at God. When the disciples will later ask,

show us the Father

, Jesus says,

if you see me, you see the Father.

They're seeing the mighty works. They're astonished by the great authority and power he has, but they still reject him. Seeing is not a cure for unbelief. Second, hearing the best argument is also not belief. I'm not gonna go on a limb here. Jesus gave the best argument for believing him anybody's ever given. The most effective rhetoric ever proclaimed ever in the history of the world is happening right here in the town of Nazareth, and they still reject him. Their callous hearts, their dulled minds reject God himself.

The word became flesh. We must be thankful that God blesses us to hear him, to believe in him. There's a way in which we must come to God's word with the right posture. If we keep saying, if he just answers this problem I've got, or if he just shows me what I really wanna see, then I'll believe in Jesus. That's not the way God regularly works. It's amazing how kind he is that he comes down to heal us and speak to us. He does come to us where we are, sinners, but he comes to us to make himself known in his word.

If you're not a Christian this morning, I encourage you, I challenge you, take up the book of Matthew and read it. Read it between now and Christmas, and read it asking that God would make himself known with his authority and his kindness. Ask him to ask better questions. Ask him to help you ask better questions.

But believer, I encourage you, do you long to hear the gospel with expectancy? Do you long to open up your Bible by yourself with others? Do you long to come with others and hear the word of God read and proclaimed with expectancy? The Word of God doesn't dwell with us like he did in this situation. He's at the right hand of the Father. Jesus says it's actually better for you because the Holy Spirit dwells in your hearts. The spirit of truth illuminates your hearts and your minds so that when the Word of God is read and proclaimed and taught, you yourself can be renewed and restored and brought into growth in the life of Christ. Listen in with expectancy.

There's two things we have to hold in attention here. This hometown, they will be held responsible for rejecting God. And at the same level, we know we are fully dependent upon God in order to hear him, know him, and believe in him.

Another question I want to ask from this text, what is it that offends you about Jesus? There's a concern that we will believe in Jesus when he either answers our questions or when he agrees with us. And we're not really getting who he is. Jesus has come in order to tell us what is true and right and what is good. The whole of our Christian life is to be aligned with God, to think God's thoughts after him because he's proclaimed them. Jesus calls us to repent. Christian, if that's not good news, you haven't quite gotten how sinful we are. It is such a good gift to have someone who loves you enough to tell you no. Stop it. It is such a good gift that God would send his own son to stop us in our headlong run into sin. The gift of repentance is that we can turn away from this kind of rejection. and turned to Christ.

Jesus is confused with John the Baptist

Our next story is also about rejecting Jesus, but in a different way. Here, Jesus is confused with John the Baptist.

Chapter 14, verse one.

At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, and he said to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead, That is why these miraculous powers that work at him.

All right, so there's one thing that everyone has seen and heard. Wisdom and mighty works, right? Go back a few weeks. The Pharisees, whenever they saw the mighty works and the crowds were astonished with the mighty works, they had to come up with some answers. They said he does it by the power of Satan. They can't deny the works. They just have to come up with some of the reason why he's able to do that.

The hometown, their reason is, we know who this guy is. He grew up with us. We can't believe in him in this way. They're astonished but offended.

Here, Herod the Tetrarch, he comes up with his own unique theory. This is John the Baptist raised from the dead. Kind of an unusual interpretation.

Herod the Tetrarch, he's Herod Antipas. He's the son of Herod the Great. We go back to Matthew 2, 7, where we saw Herod the Great just briefly, the magi come and they say, where's the king of the Jews? That's a bold question, because we're asking the king of the Jews, who's pretty brutal, where's the real king so we can worship him?

That Herod, who is called Herod the Great because of how brutal and earthly accomplished he was, He had four sons. Here we have Herod the Tetrarch, which means he has a quarter of the rule. And we see here he has a very unusual relationship with John the Baptist. He has this theory of who Jesus is because of John the Baptist. And he has to come up with this story because he needs to make some kind of rationale as to the fame of Jesus and the great things he's doing.

Remember the hometown, they said, where did he get these powers? Well, here he says, well, This must just be John the Baptist come back.

Now, verse three tells you why he says it's John the Baptist, and let me just prepare you, this is complicated and concerning. Here the great had four sons, different wives. Here the Tetrarch is his third son, his first son Aristobulus, had a granddaughter named Herodias. We see her in the story below. In verse three, there's a fourth son, Philip. I really wish I had a whiteboard at this point in the sermon. There's Herod, Philip, and Aristobulus. Herodias, the daughter of Aristobulus, we'll just call him Arrest for short there. Herodias first marries Philip, her half-uncle. Herodias marries Philip, her half-uncle, which is already breaking the law. But Herodias then falls in love with Herod the Tetrarch. So she leaves Philip, her uncle, to marry her other uncle because they fell in love.

So Herodias, the granddaughter of Herod, was married to one uncle, half-uncle, leaves him without cause to marry another uncle. This is unlawful in numerous levels. There is no lawful divorce, there is no certificate of divorce, therefore remarriage is out of bounds, and the marriage of incest here is wrong in about five different levels.

It's significant because the king is supposed to be the one who leads God's people into righteousness and goodness. He's defaming the goodness and sanctity of marriage.

Now, let's just pause. What I just described about Herodias and the uncles, we would describe that as gross. We can't just define sin as to when we think it feels gross. We know this is sin because God's word speaks against it. God's word is true and everything God's word says is sin is sin because God said so.

I say that because too often we tilt our sense of morality with our twisted heart. If we only call things sin that makes us feel gross, we're going to miss what sin is somewhere. Our hearts pervert the righteousness of God.

Let's just say it this way. The heart wants what the heart wants. Aw. and our hearts are twisted. Our hearts want things that are out of bounds. If your starting point is what your heart wants, you are guaranteed to go the wrong way. God's word speaks to all areas of life regarding truth and goodness.

Verse three,

for Herod has seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.

There we see that confusing relationship.

Because John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her.

This is a bold declaration from a bold prophet. We know John the Baptist as the one who precedes Jesus, who's pointing to Jesus, who gets to say,

behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

This is bold and courageous.

We have to kind of understand something. He's a prophet of God, he cannot stay silent. And as a prophet of God, he does what a prophet does. He takes God's law and he applies it to the common day problem. And God would declare to him, this is the right words and the truth to say. He's applying God's word to an obvious situation. So here the Tetrarchy uses authority to bind him and cast him in jail. And notice Matthew shares that Herod wanted to put him to death.

Verse five,

and he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet.

He wanted to kill him. But he puts him in prison. Now, why did Herod fear the people? Was it because he had re-election coming soon? Did he want to make sure the polls didn't take a dip? We gotta do some transvaluation here. Herod serves not at the privilege of the people, he serves the privilege of Rome. And if the people start uprising, Rome hears about it, they remove Herod because his one job is to keep the peace of Rome. The peace of Rome comes with a mighty sword. And if he can't keep his people at bay, Rome will come in with a mighty sword and they will bring their peace. He's afraid of the people because they might revolt and that means his job is in trouble. Herod doesn't put him to death for a good reason. He puts him to death because of a fear of man, for a fear of losing his position. He doesn't want the death penalty for righteousness' sake. He's a vindictive man.

The people believed John was a prophet, and he is. He's a man who will declare the truth of God. He's the one who pointed out who Jesus is, and now he's calling out sin for sin. Now, Matthew takes us to a whole nother scene. So first, verses one and two, that's just how Herod responds to Jesus. He's John the Baptist. Tells us a little bit about the past, not friends, Herod and John the Baptist. He had him bound because John the Baptist called him out as a prophet.

And now a whole nother scene.

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias,

The wife who was married to Philip, her uncle, but now is married to Herod, her uncle.

The daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod.

All right, it just got grosser. The mother and the stepfather are allowing their daughter to be exposed in this way and it pleases them. That's twisted.

It pleased him so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

So we see here Herod is acting with folly upon folly. His fear of man, his self-delusion, his self-indulgence, he acts with folly upon folly upon folly. All of his fears and ambitions are misplaced and out of order. So he makes an oath in front of everybody that he will give her whatever she asked. And so Herodias, the mother, the daughter we believe is named Salome, she said,

give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.

Again, we see the twistedness of this story.

And the king was sorry.

He was sorry that he made that oath because he didn't want to go to the extent because he understands this might mean the people revolt.

But because of his oath and his guest, he commanded it to be given.

We see how he's functioning again out of the wrong fear. His fear of man, his fear of his own party guest, his fear of how to make him look like if he didn't keep his promise, led him to do what is evil.

And the king was sorry, but because of his oath and guest, he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. And this, the disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.

" It's a disturbing story about an abuse of power, an abuse of authority. It's a concerning story because we see how twisted sin can become with misplaced fears, with misplaced priorities, with a self-indulgence. We see a man that's mistreated in John the Baptist who's a great hero of the faith.

We must believe in Jesus

The first thing I want us to really think about with this passage, though, goes back to verses one and two, which relates to the first story. To what extent will we try to explain away Jesus is the Son of God, the only Savior, who died on the cross and rose again. We see, too, as the primary point of this passage, the extent in which we will try to move away from Jesus. We want something that's either oversimplified or so complicated it avoids these simple, clear absolutes.

These folks were walking and talking during the time of Jesus. They could see his miracles. Herod heard of the miracles. The hometown heard him teach and saw the miracles. They're a warning for us as to how we will either oversimplify or overcomplicate in order to avoid the clear, absolute truth. We must believe in Jesus, the Son of God who came to save sinners.

If you want to know what's so clear, Jesus claimed to be God. He claimed, I am, over and over again in the Gospel of John. He calls God his father, and they want to stone him for it because they know what he's saying. He's God. He was prophesied to be God. He was foretold in the Old Testament. He taught with the authority of God. That is what is repeated over and over again in Matthew. He did the mighty works only God could do. The Father and the Spirit testify that he's God. And he rose again from the dead, revealing he is God's son.

If you're not a Christian, are you oversimplifying or complicating the gospel of Jesus Christ? We are sinners. God promised to save us. And the only way he could save us is by sending his own son to be like us, so he could die for us in our sin and rise again to give us life. whatever your overcomplication or oversimplification is, look to who Jesus is and what he does for you. He alone can forgive you and give you a new life.

Suffering is to come

We were blessed to have two baptisms earlier. I charge you young men, desire to thrive and grow in Christ. Desire to recognize how evil and twisted your heart can be, and a desire to be so close to the word of God and his people that you are protected, that baptism is designated to communicate to you, you're washed, you're regenerated, you're adopted, you're a new creation, and to walk as ambassadors. And I must warn you, as we are gonna command that you deny yourself and carry your cross and follow Jesus, the world will treat you like they treated Jesus. Suffering is to come. Suffering is to come. Prepare yourself. Lean in to be built up in the faith to stand firm. That's true for all of us.

This kind of treatment is how the world treats God, his Savior, his prophets, his church. We're elect exiles. Are we seeking to be built up so that we're ready to deny ourselves and follow him, which means we'll carry our cross, suffering for the name of Christ.

One of the things that is especially challenging, going back to the very first story, Jesus came to his own people and they rejected him, but here is his hometown. There's something very precise and painful about that. Whenever there's suffering in your home like this, it is especially pressing and painful. When those you know and love in your own home would be the ones who would turn against you and cause this kind of pain, it's especially painful and difficult.

That's where I point to Jesus himself has suffered this way. He's done so so that he can sympathize with you and what you're suffering. He not only has come to save you, He comes to walk with you, to care for you. He's able to sympathize with whatever you are facing and being rejected and hated for His name's sake. May we learn to walk in Him, walk in His ways, and trust Him.

Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your kindness, that you have always been merciful to promise, and you've always been patient in our stubbornness. You've shown yourself powerful to save. Would I pray for those you would call to yourself here right now that they would not leave without asking more of who you are to be drawn to you. We pray for Keenan and Samuel that they would leave today in a different way with the name of Christ being put upon them in baptism with a benediction to go out and be faithful witnesses, ambassadors of Christ.

May he bless us all as we go into a world that has hated you. May we be prepared, wise, and live courageously, knowing Christ has risen, He's at the right hand, and He will return again. In His name we pray, amen.