Unbelief

Glad to be back. I am proud of you church. I have not got to talk to Jeff myself, but he told Beth that you guys were very friendly and loving. That is what every pastor wants to hear about his church! Good job Liberty.

Did you know that some alligators can grow up to 15 feet. But most only have 4!

Talk about the Olympic opening ceremonies.

Romans 12:17–21 NASB 2020

17 Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We are not to judge the world. When the world does things like this, they are just acting like their father, the devil. We should not be surprised. I would have been shocked if they hadn’t done something. They have the whole world watching, they were going to take that and use it to show who they belong to. This is just the world being the world. It is ok to be offended, but we must not react out of that offense.

Today we are going to be in Mark 6:1-6.

When we were last in Mark, we saw Jesus heal a woman who had an issue of blood and raise a little girl from the dead. Jesus did a lot of miraculous things while He was in Capernaum. The people there were excited about Jesus being there and the miracles that He was doing. We saw a different reaction to Jesus when He went across the Sea to cast out the legion of demons in the man. Those people were frightened of Jesus and what He had done. They implored Him to leave the region. Today we are going to see another reaction to Jesus when He goes to His hometown. Let’s read our verses and see how they reacted.

Mark 6:1–6 NASB 2020

1 Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man learn these things, and what is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? 3 Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are His sisters not here with us?” And they took offense at Him. 4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not dishonored except in his hometown and among his own relatives, and in his own household.” 5 And He could not do any miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He was amazed at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.

Jesus goes home! This wasn’t a vacation or a little time off of work for Jesus. He took His disciples with Him. He was going to minister in Nazareth. He came to work, to reveal who He is to them. It had been about a year since He was last there and was ran out of town and they were going to throw Him from the cliff. We can see this account in Luke 4:16-30.

Nazareth is a small town, village would be more appropriate. It was 25 miles SW of the Sea of Galilee and the town of Capernaum. There would have been no more than 500 people in Nazareth. It was so small that it didn’t get its first Christian church until the 4th century. Archeologists have dug down and found that the village was built on a rocky hillside and there were a lot of caves in the area. Nazareth was only 60 acres in size. This was a small village. Just like in small towns today, everyone would have known each other and would have been in each others business. Everyone would have known who Jesus was and what He was like when He was growing up. It was far enough away from Capernaum and small enough that what had been done in Capernaum, hadn’t reach Nazareth yet. We can tell this because there was no large crowd greeting Him. It was just Jesus coming home to visit. He was there at least a day before the Sabbath because verse 2 says, when the Sabbath came, He began to teach. Jesus got there sometime in the middle of the week and on the Sabbath, He began to teach. We talked about this before, but we can see that Jesus went to church. He thought it was important to be there, as should we.

Again we see that when Jesus teaches, people are amazed, astonished. Jesus teaches like no one else can. He taught His words, His truths. He wrote the Old Testament. Jesus is the Word. He has an understanding that we can never have. It is like the inventor who made this marvelous motor that was unlike any other motor. It was installed in the ship and was working perfectly until one day it started making a whining noise. Several mechanics looked at it and couldn’t fix it. So, finally they called the one who made the motor and he came and looked and listened to the motor for a while and then He grabbed his hammer and whacked the motor and it began to hum again.

When the owner got the bill for $20,000, they were outraged. They called the man and asked why the bill was so high. The man said it was $8 for the hammer and $19,992 for knowing where to hit the engine. He had a knowledge that no one else had because he made the engine. Jesus spoke the Old Testament. It is natural for people to be astonished when He taught.

The people were asking where He got this knowledge and wisdom. How did He perform the miracles that He had done? They went from astonished to dumb founded in the same breath.

They said is this not the carpenter. They had known of Jesus by his trade while He was there. He was a builder. The word used for carpenter is a generic term for builder. Jesus more than likely built things out of stone and wood. He was not like a carpenter we would know today. He was a builder. He was more than likely a good one also. Notice that they say is this not THE CARPENTER. Like He was the one to build something. He was the go to guy to get something built. A builder back then was not anything special, it was just a common trade that anyone could do. He would not have been look up to for his knowledge or skills, They would have thought of Him as just a builder.

Next things start to get ugly. They say, is this not the son of Mary? This would have been an insult in this time. It was customary to refer to a man as the son of his father. What they said was a derogatory remark. They were insulting Jesus by saying this. They would have all know that Joseph was not His father. They would have all know that Mary was pregnant before she married Joseph. They were calling Jesus an illegitimate child. This was a intentional insult to Jesus. We will see His reaction in a few minutes.

Next they say is this not brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon. Jesus had 4 brothers and none of them at this time believed or followed Him. We learn later on in the New Testament that James becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem and writes the letter James. Judas also is a believer later on and writes the letter Jude. So at least 2 of His brothers believe after His death and resurrection. We don’t know anything about His other 2 brothers. We also find out that Jesus had sisters. We don’t know anything else about them. We don’t know there names, or how many He had. We don’t know if they later became believers. We just know that He had sisters. They were like His brothers and sisters are here, and they are not anything special. Why is Jesus acting like He is some great teacher? He didn’t train under any of the well know Rabbi’s of His time. He didn’t go to college and get a degree in Old Testament theology. He was just Jesus to them. He had a normal, ordinary up bringing.

They then began to get mad and take offense to the way He was acting and talking to them. We saw the people from Galilee loved Jesus, the people from Gerasene were afraid of Him and implored Him to leave. And now His hometown people are offended by Him. When people met Jesus, He always had an affect on them. Good or bad. No one ever encountered Jesus and said eh! and went about their life. They either loved him or didn’t want Him around or were offended by what He taught. What was your reaction to your encounter with Him?

Next we see Jesus’ response. He said that a prophet is welcome in his hometown and his own household. That is the Jason paraphrase. They new Him all to well to accept Him as who He really was. They concluded that because of who He was as a boy and young man, He was nothing special to them and it was offensive to them that He should try to be something He wasn’t. Verses 5 and the first half of 6 are very sad.

He could do no miracles there except He healed a few sick people. Now, do not think that these people prevented Jesus from doing anything! Belief has no power over Jesus, our King. If Jesus wanted to He could have wiped out all sickness in Nazareth. I believe that since they didn’t believe Him, they were not bringing people to Him to give Him the chance to heal them. Also because of their unbelief, Jesus limited what He did there. Jesus did not cast His pearls among swine. He wasn’t going to do miracles for those who didn’t believe. He was not a circus act. He wasn’t doing party favors. Jesus doe not force Himself on anyone. As we can see in His brothers James and Jude. Later on they believed and Jesus gave them the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Their unbelief was so bad that Jesus wondered at it.

I don’t ever want that said about me!! That is possibly one of the worst things that Jesus can say about someone, next to depart from me I never knew you. Only 2 times are we told that Jesus wondered about something. He wondered about the great faith that the Roman Centurion had when he told Jesus that He doesn’t have to come to his house, all He has to do is speak and it will be. Luke 7:1-7 you can read about this interaction. Jesus said then that not even in Isreal had He found such great faith.

And again in verse 6 He wondered at their unbelief.

2 things Jesus marvel about, great faith and great unbelief. Which camp are you in?

Even though they insulted and made fun of Jesus, He never lashed out at them, He never punished them. All He did was marvel at their unbelief. He didn’t go home and have a pity party. He didn’t lock Himself in His room and cry Himself to sleep. We can see that He left Nazareth and went around to the near by villages and taught. He kept doing what God sent Him to do. To teach and reveal Himself to the people. He didn’t need to react to them. He didn’t need to get back at them. He just needed to keep doing what He was sent to do. That is how we are to react when we see people insulting or making fun of Jesus. We are to love them and pray for them.

Romans 12:17–21 NASB 2020

17 Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We are to never stoop down to there level. We are not to be like them. We are different than the world. The world hated Jesus then and they still hate Him today. Nothing has changed in that. They are going to hate us. We are to feed them, give them a drink. We are to love them like Jesus did, all the way to the cross! Jesus didn’t just die for you and me, He died for everyone. Whom so ever! Before I believed, I was no different than the Nazarites. It is ok to be offended by the World. But we must never react out of anger. We must never act like them. We are to act like our King. We are to be little Christs, like our names says. Christians. Anger or revenge is not a fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5:22-24

Galatians 5:22–24 NASB 2020

22 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 crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

We as believers have crucified our flesh and we should no longer have those desires to take revenge. If people hate us and Jesus, we are to do whatever we can to show them love. It is through that love, that some may change. If we react out of our offense, then none will change. We will drive them farther away from Jesus.