My Familiar Friend: Conforming God to Your World.

Class Outline:

Sunday April 27, 2025

Intro: We are in the middle of the Gospel of Matthew: the point of the chiasm, and now we are climbing back out / up.

 

We saw the rejection of the King in Mat 11-12 and now we see the same theme in Mat 14-17 (characteristic of chiasm: see lesson for April 24, 2025).

 

MAT 13:53 - Mat 17: Rejection of the King (Jew, family, Gentile, even weak disciples - strong faith in one: Canaanite woman). 

 

MAT 13:53-14:12 Rejection by Nazareth and Herod. 

 

The reaction of Nazareth gives us an important picture: familiarity definitely breeds contempt.

 

Main text: MAT 13:53-58

 

Transition from discourse to narrative (teaching to action).

 

Astonished: where did He get it (2x)?

 

“Is this not… is this not …”

 

They took offense: (skandalizo - to be brough to a downfall, sin, and in context, by not believing in Christ, they fell into sin becoming apostate).

 

God and the Jesus we know. Compartmentalized. 

 

Compartmentalized life.

The divine in a familiar face, bursts into their familiar world.

 

The Christian becomes two people: religious and secular. His so-called secular life was in tension with his church life.

 

The “secular” is God’s realm.

 

All comes from God and is subject to Him.

 

All the world will one day be redeemed with the saints (ROM 8:18-25).

 

Putting God into our narrative: all aspects and areas of our lives - expecting God’s works (supernatural: His normal).

 

Learn to believe and expect God to overwhelm you with His good every day.

 

GAL 5:22-26

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

 

Do I expect to walk by the Spirit today? Do I expect with confidence the fruit of the Spirit today? If you are a believer in Christ you are born-again, new, indwelt by the Spirit - so, yes!

                                                                                              

Main idea: The people of Nazareth became offended at Jesus’ divine expression because they had already assigned Him a place in their world.

 

History: how this dualism has come about in our world?

 

This “two lives” thinking has steadily developed over time. Devil loves dualism

 

Plato: matter is separate from God (Platonic dualism).

Church fathers: Grace / Nature (separate: influenced by phil.).

Reformation: Maintained separate Nature.

 

Enlightenment Philosophy (Descartes): Mind and Matter.  

Newton: Freedom (self) / Nature.

Modern Philosophy: Ethics / Science.

Postmodern: Mysticism / Scientific Naturalism.

 

All pagan creation narratives have dualism. It is a kingdom where God is not allowed to walk.

 

JOB 1:7

“From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”

 

Satan loves the idea of carving out a domain where God will not be or be mentioned and Christians, familiar with the culture’s demands that the secular belongs to the natural world, indeed is the true world, and your religion is a private matter, have submitted to it. All things, and all realms belong to Him.

 

Biblical support for being and doing the divine, expecting the divine in all of life. 

 

“God wants me to be and do the incredible: Who does He think I am?” This is really the question: Who does God think He is? 

 

PSA 139:12

“Even the darkness is not dark to You,”

 

JER 23:24

“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.

 

ISA 66:1

“Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.”

 

ACT 17:26

He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation

 

ROM 11:36

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

 

COL 1:17

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

 

And the believer will see and do the divine:

 

JOH 14:12

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do;”

 

2PE 1:3

His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness…

 

COL 3:1

 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of …. (look up).

 

 

Application: What are some steps you can do to correct this veil of familiarity?

 

Morning prayer - alone time with God. In your usual prayer; ask that God shake you of the familiar and to open your eyes to expect His presence today (JAM 1:5 - believe).

 

Remember Nazareth. Would you like to be among them? 

 

Remember history: You have been the recipient of faulty thinking that has been developed over the ages and passed on to you. (We all tend to think that the world begins and ends with us.) 

 

Sift through the right and wrong and reject the wrong. 

 

Remember that some supernatural things have already happened to you (indwelling of Christ and the Holy Spirit, redemption, new birth, election, adoption). What should their manifestation be?