Community Group Questions
1. Share with the group a time in life when you felt rejected.
2. Have you ever been rejected for your faith?
3. How does it make you feel to know that Jesus was rejected?
4. Have you ever compromised your own moral values in order that others accept you?
5. Of the 3 points from Mark 6:13-17 which is the most helpful and why? (points are at the bottom of notes)

Snapshot14 Mark 6:1-29 “Rejected”

We all have a need to feel accepted. In Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need to belong only comes after basic needs and security needs are met. No one wants to be rejected.

The feeling or reality of rejection tends to stick with you.

“A boo is a lot louder than a cheer.” Lance Armstrong

Tonight I want to look at Mark 6 and in it we see people who were rejected and felt rejected including Jesus. Then Jesus gives some directives to His disciples about going out into the world to tell others about the Kingdom knowing they would be and feel rejected.

-Sometimes the feeling of rejection has to do with personal sin. Herodias 6:14-29

Vrs 19 Herodias had a grudge.
Vrs 24-25 Herodias asked for the death of John

Often times people who feel bad, act bad and try to make others feel bad too.

People who tend to stick by their sin as if it is not sin will look for way to make themselves look good or exonerate their name. “I am right and I will go to any extreme to prove that”

With that mindset we actually start to reject those who want to help us. In Herodias’ case it was John

-Sometimes we are rejected because we do what is right. (John the Baptist) Verses 17-18

John was trying to uphold righteousness and was rejected for it. But he was also trying to help because he knew the right way.

Did you ever try to help someone who was so intent in their sin that it just turned into a disaster? They didn’t look at you as trying to help them.

Maybe you rejected someone because you were so intent on your sin and you did not want to hear them out. Proverbs 27:6 “wounds from a friend are better then kisses from an enemy”

-Sometimes rejection is one of our greatest fears. (Herod)Vrs 26-27 Backtrack vrs 21-23 Herod Antipas has some serious acceptance issues.

When have you fallen into the trap of doing the wrong thing because you were afraid people will reject you?


We start to think, “people will not like me, they will make fun of me or will not respect me” James tells us to “confess our sins to one another” admit your faults so you can move on.

-Rejection is a result of spiritual blindness Vrs 6:1-6
How do we know this? People rejected Jesus. Like many prophets before Him Jesus is not honored in His hometown.

Jesus will not force his miracles on a hostile, skeptical audience. It stands in contradiction to the character and will of Jesus.

There was no limitation on His power, but His purpose was to perform miracles in the presence of faith. Only a few here had faith to come to Him for healing.

We know that Jesus was no stranger to rejection.
John 1 talks about Jesus being rejected. “stone that the builder rejected” Mt 21:42

He was despised and rejected1 by men; a man of sorrows,2 and acquainted with3 grief;4and as one from whom men hide their faces5he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isa 53:13
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Lk 9:22

Jesus was willing to be rejected on our behalf to show that HE would go to extreme measure to prove to us that He is willing to accept us if we trust in Him. GOSPEL (sum up what we learned a bit)
In the next passage Jesus commissions His disciples
It seems that Mark may have put these two accounts together because he wanted to remind his readers that there will be rejection from others anytime we are following Jesus. And this section can help us deal with times when…

When you are rejected (or feel rejected). Mark 6:7-13
A. Rely on Jesus’ power. Vrs 7-9

Jesus directs the disciples to rely on Him. Not stuff or even people. Those things have no real power.

We should not let the people who are rejecting us have power over us. They don’t define us… Jesus does. They have no control over us… Jesus does. They don’t love us like… Jesus does.

B. Don’t let it get to you. Vrs 10-11

They should also expect rejection. If any place would not offer hospitality or listen to their message, they were to leave there and to shake the dust off their feet.

Devout Jews did this when they left Gentile (alien) territory to show that they were dissociating themselves from it. This would tell Jewish hearers they were acting like pagans in rejecting the disciples’ message.

When friends or family reject you on the account of the message “shake the dust off, don’t let it get to you.” You are not wrong… it is not you it is Jesus and His message.

C. Keep following Jesus. Vrs 12-13

Don’t let the feelings or reality of rejection in any way, shape or form discourage you from following Jesus. Let it rejuvenate your commitment.

“I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” Sylvester Stallone

Jesus said in John 15:18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.