03 Apr Mark 14: Bored with Jesus

Mark 6:1-6

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ² And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. ⁴ And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” ⁵ And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

For this sermon, I want to address a very specific audience. Now, this sermon is for everyone. Every sermon has something for our edification. But this text is addressed to a particular audience. It is addressed to people like me, people who grew up in a Christian family. How many of you grew up in a Christian family? In case you haven’t noticed, I am a PK. What is a PK? It is “Pastor Keren” aka cool pastor. That’s not true. PK is short for pastor’s kid. Now if you never hang around PK, let me tell you an open secret about most PK. Their parents might be pastors, and their parent’s job description is pretty much to show people the way to heaven. They are like angels in human flesh. But not PK. PK job’s description, if they have any, is to help their parents by showing people what the opposite of heaven looks like. So, people can see the contrast between the two and make the right choice. They are like demons in human flesh. How can an angel give birth to a demon? I don’t know. But it just works out that way a lot of time. However, the PK in our church are exceptions. I need to say it because we have 5 or 6 PKs in RSI. And they are all girls except for me.

My experience is different from most PKs. Granted I was the naughtiest kid in Sunday school when I was 5. I met my Sunday school teacher a few years ago and she said, “I can’t believe that you are a pastor now. In 20+ years of my time as a Sunday school teacher, you were probably the one that gave me the hardest time.” What a compliment. But other than that, I have a pretty good resume as a pastor’s kid. When my parents moved to Sydney to plant this church, I knew how to behave like a Christian. I was involved in every single ministry you can imagine. I was the overhead projector kid. I was a Sunday school teacher. I am ashamed to admit this, but I was a dancer at one point in my life. I was in a choir. I played banner. I played acoustic guitar because that’s what every cool Christian boy did back in the day. It was the sure way to become popular with girls. Then I led worship. And it did not take long before I started to preach. I preached my first sermon at a teenager’s service when I was 16. Everyone said it was very good and I was gifted to preach like my dad. But the truth is, it was a horrible sermon. I plagiarized the sermon of one of the popular pastors. I never knew a day when I did not know of Jesus. My weekends were filled with church activities. I went to a teenager’s prayer meeting every Friday night. I went to the church’s prayer and fasting meeting every Saturday. And I was at church every Sunday from morning to night. It’s a good thing the church wasn’t open 24/7 or I would have had to be there. Then I went to Dallas for Bible college, and it went downhill from there. I became a devil for the first six months. Another story for another time. But today I am a pastor. I have always been around Jesus. Some of you have the same story. You have been around Jesus your whole life. Or for others of you, it might not be your whole life, but you have been around Jesus for quite some time. And this text is addressed to people who have been around Jesus for a long time.

There is a strong warning that Mark gives to people like me. Here is the warning. Be careful of familiarity. It is very possible for us to be very familiar with Jesus and never know Jesus. This is certainly true of my own life. I have always been around Jesus ever since I was born but I only got to know Jesus personally when I was 21. In fact, from what we see in the book of Mark so far, do you know who has the hardest time believing in Jesus? We would think that it is the people who are far from God who would find it difficult to believe in Jesus. But it is not. When sinners and tax collectors meet Jesus, they tend to like Jesus. Those who have the hardest time believing in Jesus are the ones who are familiar with Jesus. It is the scribes, the Pharisees, and Jesus’s family who tend to reject Jesus. And this is what we find in Mark chapter 6.

Let me give you the context first. In the last few weeks, we have seen how Jesus exercises his authority as the king over storms, demons, diseases, and death. Jesus is the sovereign king of the kingdom of God. He is all-powerful and nothing is too difficult for him. And in Mark chapter 6, Jesus returns to his hometown. The story shift from Galilee to Nazareth. And this is not Jesus’ first visit to Nazareth after he started his public ministry. Mark does not record it for us, but Luke chapter 4 tells us of Jesus’ first visit to Nazareth. It did not go well. The people of Nazareth rejected Jesus and tried to push Jesus down the cliff. But Jesus miraculously escaped. And if I was Jesus, I would never go back to Nazareth. That’s it. They had their chance. They rejected me and tried to kill me. But praise God Jesus is not like me. Jesus refuses to give up on them. So, after some time, Jesus returns again to his hometown. This is his second attempt to reach out to the people of Nazareth. So, what happens? Do the people of Nazareth respond any better this time? Let’s look at it together.

I am going to do something different with my sermon today. Rather than separating the passage based on my sermon points, I want us to look at the whole narrative and study the passage first. Then I will give you the two lessons we can learn from the passage. Let’s get into the text.

Mark 6:1-2 – He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ² And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?

Let me tell you a few things about Nazareth. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he grew up in Nazareth. And Nazareth is a very small town in the middle of nowhere. Nazareth is never mentioned in the Old Testament and only mentioned a few times in the New Testament. Scholars believe that the town has a population of about 500 people. In fact, when one of Jesus’ disciples, Nathanael, found out that Jesus was from Nazareth, he said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” So, it is a small town with a small population in the middle of nowhere. For many of us, we grew up in a big city. We don’t know what it is like to grow up in a small town. But we used to have a member of our church who was from the city of three mistakes, Salatiga. And she told me that Salatiga used to be a very small town that had no mall or movie theatre. So, if she wanted to watch a movie, she had to get a group of people together and traveled to another town. And what’s interesting about living in a small town is that everyone knows everyone. They might not know each other personally but they know that so and so is from so and so’s family. Everyone knows what’s happening in everyone’s life.

So, Jesus returns to Nazareth with his disciples, and he teaches in the Synagogue on the Sabbath. And when the people hear Jesus teaches, they are astonished. They are amazed. Because there is something different about Jesus. And it is not his name. If you grew up in church, you probably heard the song, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there’s just something about that name.” But scholars said that Jesus is actually one of the most common names among first-century Jews. It is like having the name “Josh” in our church. There is nothing special about that name. It is very common. But there is something about Jesus that amazes the people. And it is not the amazement of faith. It is not the amazement of, “Wow, this is great.” This is the amazement of, “Huh? Okay, we can see that this guy has wisdom. He is a good teacher. He can do miraculous things. But isn’t this, Jesus?” This is the amazement of unbelief.

Look at the questions they ask in Mark 6:2-3 – ² And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Do you see what happened? They are not celebrating Jesus. They are very sceptical of Jesus. They are saying, “Okay, obviously this guy stands out above all other scribes and rabbis. But where did he get this wisdom? He didn’t do any theological studies. He didn’t go to seminary. He is not a rabbi and he never trained to be one. He is a carpenter. Didn’t he come to our house to make a few things for us in the past? He fixed our broken table. We know him.” Now, can you see the problem? The problem is not that they do not know Jesus, but they know Jesus too well. They witnessed Jesus grow up among them. They have been around Jesus for a very long time. And to their eyes, Jesus is just their ordinary neighbour. They look at Jesus’ credentials and they find nothing extraordinary. It is very different from most pastors today. If you look at some pastors on Instagram, some of them have titles that are longer than their names. B.A; M.Div; S.Th; M.Th; D.Th. But Jesus is different. They check out Jesus’ Instagram account and his credential is very short: Jesus the carpenter. In other words, Jesus is very ordinary.

And not only that, but they refer to Jesus as “the son of Mary.” To our ears, it might sound normal. But this is not normal in Jesus’ days. Usually, people are addressed based on the name of their father. So, for Jesus, it should be, “the son of Joseph.” So why do they refer to Jesus as “the son of Mary”? Most scholars agree that this is an insult to Jesus’ identity. And I think they are right. Think about it. Nazareth is a small town where everyone knows everyone. There is no such thing as a secret. People talks all the time. It’s like this. Let’s say there is a small English-speaking Indonesian gospel-centred church in Sydney whose pastor is single. And let’s say that there are some single girls in that church. And one Sunday the pastor smiles brightly at one of the single girls and acts nice to her. Do you know what happens? Every eye is watching. And everyone in the church, including those who are tuning in online, will know about it in a matter of weeks. I mean, he doesn’t even have to make a move. All he does is act kind and people talk already. They assume that the single pastor is interested in the single girl. By the way, this is just a hypothetical situation. Any similarities you see are purely coincidental. But can you see what happened? If you lived in a small town and you get married in March and you give birth in September, people know. They are not dumb. They are counting the months. They know something is off with Jesus’ birth. And their best guess is that Jesus is probably an illegitimate son. They questioned the identity of Jesus’ father. And that’s why they call him the son of Mary.

And they also know all of Jesus’ brothers by name. Some of Jesus’ brothers will become future leaders of the church. But during Jesus’ public ministry, they are not yet believers. They think that Jesus is crazy. And Jesus’ sisters are married to some people in the town. This is why they are amazed. Not because they believe in Jesus but because they cannot reconcile what they witness before their eyes with what they know about Jesus. Do you see? They grew up with Jesus. They ate meals with Jesus. They attended synagogue with Jesus. And now they listen to Jesus’ great sermons and wisdom. They see Jesus’ authority to heal the sick and cast out demons. They witness the power of God working through Jesus. But despite the overwhelming evidence, they cannot bring themselves to believe in Jesus. They are too familiar with Jesus to believe in Jesus. Instead, they are offended by Jesus. And the word offence comes from a Greek word, “skandalon”, from which we have the English word, scandal. It literally means a stumbling block. So, this is not just a disagreement but hostility. We would think that seeing and having Jesus in person would make it easier for us to believe in him. But the reality is, those who know Jesus the longest are offended by Jesus.

Mark 6:4 – ⁴ And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” I am not Jesus, but I think I have some slight idea of what Jesus means. You know that I travelled to Indonesia a lot for ministry, especially Surabaya. And whenever I minister in Surabaya, the vibe I get is, “Guys, YOSI IS HERE!” But when I am home in Sydney, the vibe is, “Guys, Yosi is here.” It’s just another ordinary Sunday with Yosi. And there is nothing wrong with it. It is normal. Having me with you is nothing special. You know me more than the people in Surabaya. And when you get close to me, you see my weaknesses and inconsistencies firsthand. This is why I can be a superstar in Surabaya, but I am just an ordinary person in Sydney. Especially in the Yusuf family. I might preach the gospel to thousands of people and many people get saved through my ministry, but if I am not home by 10 PM, my parent still messages me and say, “Where are you? How come you are not home? Who are you with?” Translation, “Are you with girls?” I am 36. But for them, I am just their little boy. They are not impressed by me. My parents have seen too many of my weaknesses and inconsistencies to be impressed by me. But not so with Jesus. There are no inconsistencies in Jesus. Jesus’ words and actions are in sync 24/7. He is who he says he is at all times in all places. But his family and hometown still rejected him. It tells us an important lesson. Proximity to Jesus does not guarantee anything. Exposure to Jesus, and being around Jesus, does not guarantee faith in Jesus. Throughout the book of Mark, we see those whom we expected to believe do not believe and those whom we never expected to believe do believe.

And pay attention to what Mark says next. It is bewildering. Mark 6:5-6 – ⁵ And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. Wait. What? Jesus could do no mighty work? What do you mean Mark? Jesus is the king with all power and authority. He is not bound by anything or anyone. What do you mean by Jesus could do no mighty work? And Mark goes on to say that Jesus marvels at their unbelief. What does it mean? It cannot mean that Jesus is incapable. Some people try to explain this verse by saying that Jesus’ power and authority are dependent on people’s faith. The more faith one has, the more that Jesus can do. The less faith one has, the less that Jesus can do. There is an element of truth to it. There is a direct connection between our faith and Jesus’ mighty work. I believe one of the main reasons why many of us do not witness Jesus’ mighty work is because of our unbelief. Our unbelief has robbed us of Jesus’ power. But it does not mean that Jesus is incapable of displaying his power without faith.

What happens here is not that Jesus is not capable, but Jesus intentionally withholds his power. Why? Because miracles are not the point. Jesus never performs miracles for miracle’s sake. The purpose of miracles is always to point people to the identity of Jesus. Jesus’ main priority is always to preach the gospel and call people to repentance. And the mighty works function to validify the message of the gospel. Timothy Keller puts it nicely. “Jesus’ miracles were not ‘magic tricks’ designed to prove how powerful he was, but ‘signs of the kingdom’ to show how his redemptive power operates. His miracles always healed and restored and delivered people in ways that revealed how we are to find him by faith and have our lives transformed by him. He ‘could’ not do a deed that would not redeem.” In other words, miracles call for faith and repentance. If people refuse to have faith and repent of their sins, then there is no reason for Jesus to perform more miracles. Jesus is not interested in putting on a show for unbelieving people. The people of Nazareth are too familiar with Jesus. Jesus is too ordinary for them to believe in him. And from this story, we can see that the greatest obstacle to faith in Jesus is the unwillingness of the human heart to accept the God who came to us in our likeness. So, what can we learn from this passage? There are two warnings that we must heed from this story.

The danger of familiarity

First, beware of the danger of familiarity. There is one very catchy Christian song that we used to sing a lot. Some of you might know the song. Let me change the lyric a bit so that I don’t get into trouble when this sermon is posted online. The lyric says, “Jesus you are my best buddy, you will always be, nothing will ever change my best buddy.” Don’t we just love that? Jesus is my best buddy, Jesus is my soulmate, Jesus is my homie etc. But if we are not careful, familiarity can blind us to Jesus’ greatness and glory. It is very possible to be very familiar with Jesus and miss out on who Jesus is. Parents, do you know what it means? It means that you can bring your children to church every Sunday and it does not benefit them at all. Do you know that there is a high percentage of Christian children who walk away from their Christian faith when they enter University? This is very concerning. At this season, RSI is blessed with many babies. And I am sure every parent in this church wants their children to grow up to be men and women after God’s own heart. So, what do you do? You bring them to church every Sunday. You expose them to Christianity and Jesus from a very young age. And as they grow up, you give them a list of what to do and what not to do. Do not smoke, do not hang out with wrong friends, do not have sex before marriage, do not go home later than 9, and do not date. And if your child asks you, “Why can’t I date? Everyone in my school has a boyfriend and girlfriend. It’s not fair.” You say, “The Bible teaches us to imitate our pastor. Look at our pastor. He is 36 and he is single. Imitate him as he imitates Christ.” What are you doing? You focus on getting them familiar with Jesus and Christianity. But it is not enough.

Parents, hear me. I love you but I need to be straight with you. For many of you, you get your priority wrong. Ever since your child is very young, you already prepared them for life. Some of you even ask me for a church letter of recommendation to apply for school and your child is not even one year old. I applaud you for that. But here is my concern. You can be so busy preparing your kid for their future. You take them to gym lessons, swimming lessons, piano lessons, math lessons, soccer lessons, drawing lessons, dance lessons, and all of them are good. You give them many good things, but you miss out on the most important thing. You never disciple your children in the word of God. You confess with your mouth that you want your children to be like Christ, but you never take the time to help them to know Christ. And you say things like, “That’s why I bring them to church on Sunday. For the Sunday school teacher, for the ET teacher to do their job. That’s why I bring my kid to RSI. So, you can do your job Yos.” With all due respect, it is not my responsibility, it is not ROCK Kids and ET teachers’ responsibility to make sure that your children know Jesus. Parents, it is your God-given responsibility to disciple your children. I’m not saying that the church does not have a role to play. Exposure to Jesus through the church is important. But it is not enough. You have to personally disciple your children to know Jesus for themselves. Parents, a lot of time you expect too much from the church and too little from yourself. Dad, something is wrong if you are more comfortable teaching your kid how to play games than teaching them the Bible. Mom, something is wrong if you are more comfortable teaching your kid how to put on make-up than teaching them the Bible. If you never take time to disciple your children, you have no one to blame but yourself if your children walk away from God. If all you are giving them is exposure to Jesus without discipling them to be like Jesus, it is deadly. What ends up happening is that your children become very familiar with Jesus without knowing Jesus.

This is a warning for every Christian as well. We can become so familiar with Jesus that we are no longer impressed by Jesus. Jesus has become a once in a week habit for us. While I was in Surabaya early this year, I met a group of people who were recently exposed to the gospel. These people were from Jakarta. But they hired a minivan and travelled together from Jakarta to Surabaya just so that they can learn more about the gospel from Gibeon church. So, they arranged a one-day meeting with Ps Michael Chrisdion and I tagged along with him. And I can see how eager they were to learn more about the gospel. I can see from their facial expressions how captivated they were with the gospel. They were like, “This is the best news ever. How did we not know this all this time we have been Christians? Please tell us more about it. We want to know more and more.” We ended up meeting and talking to them for 7 hours. But for many of us today, when we hear the gospel, we are like, “Oh, it’s the gospel again *yawn*.” We hear the gospel every week, we are surrounded by the gospel, and we do not see the privileges we have.

Now, listen. It is okay for you to be bored with my sermon. Not too often though. I give you permission to be bored with my sermons once in a while. It is okay to yawn when I preach. I got used to it already. But it is very dangerous to be bored with Jesus and his gospel. Some of us have been around Jesus and the gospel so long that we are no longer amazed by them. And this is a very dangerous place to be. And for many of you, this is where you are right now. You are still in proximity to the church. You still call yourself a Christian. But you are no longer amazed by Jesus. You have no problem whatsoever when the church is cancelled because of a covid outbreak. You love the fact that you can tune in online while you enjoy your weekend at home. You know enough of Jesus to call yourself a Christian, but truth be told, you are bored with Jesus. And this is a very dangerous place to be. Church, we must never get bored with Jesus and the gospel. So, the question is, are Jesus and his gospel still precious to us? Are we intentionally preaching the gospel to ourselves constantly? Or are we trapped in the danger of familiarity? Because here is the danger if we are not careful. The first generation gets the gospel, the second generation assumes the gospel, and the third generation loses the gospel. We must beware of the danger of familiarity. This is the first lesson we learned from this passage.

The danger of ordinary

Second, beware of the danger of ordinary. The reason many people in Nazareth are offended by Jesus is because Jesus is too ordinary for their liking. Jesus is from a humble family in a humble town. In their understanding, Messiah could not be so ordinary. Messiah must be someone extraordinary from a special class in Jerusalem. The ordinariness of Jesus offends the normal human understanding of how salvation works. Every other religion says salvation needs to be impressive. Salvation requires escaping humanity to reach a higher stage. But Christianity says salvation comes through very ordinary means. Salvation requires God to enter humanity and lives an ordinary life. God becomes one of us. And this is offensive.

Let me give you an example from the Old Testament. When Naaman, a Syrian general, sought a cure for his leprosy, he went to the king of Israel with all his riches. He wanted to buy his healing with his wealth. But the king of Israel could not heal him and Naaman came to see the prophet, Elisha. And once again, Naaman offered riches to Elisha to heal him of leprosy. But Elisha refused Naaman’s wealth. Instead, he told Naaman that if he wanted to be cured of leprosy, he must dip himself in the Jordan River seven times. And Naaman was furious. Naaman was furious not because it was too hard. He was furious because it was too easy. Naaman was angry because what Elisha said did not meet his worldview. He was expecting Elisha to tell him to slay the dragon and save the princess or maybe to climb to the top of the Himalayas to get some special herb. But to dip seven times in the Jordan River takes no ability or attainment at all. Anyone can do that. Even an idiot or a child can do that. It was too easy. It was too ordinary.

Can you see the problem? Until Naaman learned that the God of the Bible is the God of grace whose blessings cannot be earned, he would not receive his healing. As long as Naaman held on to his success and worldly significance, he would not experience the grace of God that comes from faith which is reflected in trust and obedience. “Dip seven times,” was a command that was extremely hard because it was extremely easy. To do it, Naaman had to admit that he was helpless and weak and had to receive his healing by faith. Naaman had to put aside his knowledge and mindsets and achievements, and simply look to God. Instead of coming to God saying, “Look at all I’ve done to deserve my healing,” God wanted Naaman to look to him. What God wanted from Naaman were humility and faith. God did not care if Naaman was a great man with great accomplishments. Everyone comes to God the same way: humility and faith. And this is extremely hard. One of the hardest things to do is to admit that there is nothing we can do and all we can do is receive freely. It makes us feel weak. It makes us feel like a beggar.

The point of the story is that only the grace of God can save us. But for us to receive grace, God must first destroy our self-sufficiency. There is nothing we can do to merit grace. You cannot put a price on God’s grace. Grace comes to us as a free gift of God. Now hear me. Do you know why it is so hard for us to receive grace? Get this. Grace is too difficult because it is too easy. Grace requires us to confess our own inability and simply cling to God. It requires us to confess that we are sinners just like everyone else. That we are no different than prostitutes and murderers. All we can do is receive. And all we must do is receive. That’s it. It is very ordinary. The gospel is good news, but it offends our pride because the mean is very ordinary. If salvation involves some great deed that we do, it gives us leverage with God. It gives us a bargaining chip. We can say, “Because I did this and this, now God has to….” But the gospel tells us that we have no bargaining chip. The only thing we bring to the table is our sins. And the only thing we can do is receive salvation as a free gift of God. It is very ordinary. Beware of the danger of ordinary.

But here is another side of the coin. Grace is too difficult because it is too easy. But grace is too easy because it is too difficult. Listen carefully. Grace is not too easy because it is cheap but because it is too difficult. God’s standard is incredibly high. God demands perfection or nothing. And there is zero chance of us ever meeting God’s standard. Grace is easy because someone else paid the difficult price. The gospel is good news for us because it is bad news for someone else. Do you know why we receive the grace of God for free? Because Jesus is called “the son of Mary.” Do you know what the townspeople are saying? They are saying, “Jesus, do you think you are awesome? Do you think you are somebody because you teach well and can heal the sick and cast out demons? Let us remind you that you are not. We know who you are. We know your history. We know you are the son of Mary. But we do not know who your father is. It could be Joseph, but it could be someone else. It means you are a person with no identity. You are a man without a father. You are nobody. You are just a bastard.” That’s what they are saying to Jesus.

And we might think that it is unfair for them to treat Jesus that way. But that’s exactly what Jesus came to do. Jesus is the king of the kingdom of God. But at the cross, Jesus truly became a man without a father. Do you remember what he said at the cross? “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” At the cross, Jesus lost the presence of God the Father. Why? Not because he was fatherless but because he took the rejection that you and I deserved. By default, we were enemies of God. We were children of Satan. And we were like the people of Nazareth. We rejected Jesus and we were unable to believe. It did not matter how much evidence we had before our eyes, we were blind to Jesus’ glory and greatness because of our sins. And we deserved eternal condemnation for our rejection of Jesus. But Jesus voluntarily took what we deserved out of love. Jesus took the ultimate rejection of God so that when we put out faith in Jesus, we could get the ultimate acceptance of God. Jesus’ rejection is our acceptance. We freely received our acceptance because Jesus was rejected at the cross. And now, because of Jesus, we became children of God. We have the God of the universe as our father. And there is nothing that can remove us from his family. When we put our faith in Jesus, our name is not “son of Mary”, our name is forever “sons and daughter of the Most High God.” Do you see that? Do you see Jesus getting the ultimate rejection that you deserved so you could be brought into the family of God? Does it melt your heart? Does the gospel amaze you? Or have you fallen into the trap of familiarity and ordinary? When is the last time you are amazed by Jesus and the gospel? My prayer is that you will never ever get bored of Jesus and the gospel. Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. Have you ever gotten bored with Jesus? What happened?
2. Look at the questions the crowd throw at Jesus in verses 2 and 3. What are their problems with Jesus? Can you see the same problem in you?
3. Why Jesus could do no mighty work in Nazareth? Explain the relationship between miracles and the proclamation of the gospel.
4. There are two main dangers that we must avoid: Familiarity and ordinary. Which one resonance the most with you? Why?
5. How does the gospel enable us to avoid the two dangers?
6. List out some specific practical steps that you can do in your daily life to avoid these dangers.