Unbelief

Mark 6

·       Good Morning

   This morning we will be in the Gospel of Mark. Turn in your bibles or scroll on your phones tablets to Mark chapter 6.    While you are trying to find Mark chapter 6.

I like to make sure everyone is fully operating this morning. Lets warm our brains up with a couple easy trivia questions.

Yall ready??

Question 1…. Keep in mind these have nothing to do with Mark chapter 6… depending on how you answer these questions will help me figure out how awake you all are this morning. These are common bible trivia question, everyone should know them…. Maybe everyone.

Anyways Question 1: What is the Last Word in the Bible?? (Don’t Cheat!!!)

o   Amen

Question 2: Who shut the door on Noah’s Ark?

o   God (Genesis 7:16)

Question 3: What are the first spoken words in the bible?

o   “Let there be Light” (Genesis 1:3)

Question 4:  What Apostle was a tent maker?

o   Paul (Acts 18 1-3)

Last Question:   What kind of man was Boaz before he got married??

o   HE was Ruth-less,……….You get it right??

o  Hopefully by now you all have made it to The Gospel of Mark, This Gospel happens to be one of my favorite books of the bible. Its fast, its to the point. If you come to me as a new Christian I will probably tell you to read this book first. I mean the first half of the book of Mark is full of confusion……… from all except for the demons. Mark Chapter 5 Shows us the Demon possessed man comes running to Jesus and says “I Know who you are Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy one of God!” no confusion there.

o  Then you see right in the middle of the book is a huge statement from Peter that sets the tone for the second half of the book “You are the Messiah” up until then they all thought Jesus was a man and prophet a really good teacher.. Which he was but he is so much more than they knew.

o  Marks Gospel is said to be Peters account of Following Jesus. How do we know this….. do you want to know?? WElll..… The bible tells me so......we know who Matthew was, when know who Luke was, and we know who John who was but Mark....

o  Mark happens to be a really good friend to Peter. We see this in a couple places Act chapter 12, right after Peter is arrested and escapes jail…… where does he go….. none other than the mother of Marks home. Hmmmmmmm….. they sound like the could besties to me…..

o  Then at the end of 1 Peter, Peter is ending the letter “She who is in Babylon chosen together with you sends your greetings, as does Mark….. hmmmmmm yap definitely Besties…. I would say its safe to say that Mark and Peter knew each other.

o  There is a few more evidence within the bible that we can explore but for now lets move on…

o  So Mark is writing this Gospel to the people of Rome. That’s why its short and fast paced. That was the writing style of the Romans. Headlines….

o  So now we are all on the same page and you all followed me down this history rabbit hole…. Lets read…. Mark chapter 6 verses 1-6..

§  Rejection at Nazareth

§  1 He left there(Capernaum) and came to his hometown What was his hometown??, and his disciples followed him(this was very normal for disciples to follow the teacher) . 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.

§  4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.” 5 He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching.

      These few verses from Mark 6 shows us what unbelief can do in your life. Unbelief can very simple and very complex.

    If we look at the definition of unbelief what do we find?

o  its simple: the definition of unbelief is “The lack of belief” it being a skeptic.

Throughout the New Testament the word unbelief or synonym  is used 30 times and is Normally the word used to describe the peoples reaction towards Jesus.

o  There are two times in the gospels that Jesus is amazed…

  Jesus is amazed at their unbelief here in this chapter.

The second time Jesus is amazed at the Roman Centurion in Luke 7 1-10. But this was a good amazement.

Just two times!!

·       Point number 1:

o  Your unbelief is limiting opportunity for Jesus to work in you.

o  What are some of the things We as Christians don’t do so good….

  Reading the bible..

Worrying

Trusting

Sharing the Gospel

These are examples of unbelief…. See somethings are very easy for us to do and not even realize.

o  Lets look back at verse 2:

§  2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.

o  First off you all here this morning are more like Jesus than you know. See verse 2? When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue…..

o  Jesus went to church!!! If you get nothing else out of this morning just know you are following Jesus perfectly. You are here!!! That’s something to be proud off. Good Job Guys!!!

o  Unbelief is a hard one to avoid for us as humans.  

o  If we are lacking in belief we are siding with the people of Nazareth in this story. We are not allowing God to use us for his purpose.

o  Their unbelief of Jesus’s words made it where Jesus could no longer help them. His own people….

o  You may feel like you pray and nothing happens. I hear this from so many.

o   James chapter 4 gives us some clues on why we are not seeing God work through us:

§  Verse 2-3: You desire and do not have, you do not have because you do not ask. You ask but and don’t receive because you ask with the wrong motives.

§ So James is saying are you a true believer? God is not obligated to answer prays from no believers.

§ Also what are you asking for? Are you asking for selfish reasons?

o  God has a greater plan than what we can see… so have faith and believe.

·       2nd point:

o  Have You Created a “MY Jesus” in your life?

o  Lets look back at Verse 3:

3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.  

o  What do I mean by My Jesus???

o  A few years ago myself and a college student wanted to kick start our church men’s ministry and I used this quote from the book Manliness of Christ by Dale Partridge.

the quote went like this:

o  “We the culture have painted a picture of My Jesus:

Churches have painted a picture of Christ based on the soft smiled Roman Catholic painting where Jesus looks like he just put on a fresh coat of blush and tweezered his eyebrows. Right, you know what image I am talking about… We have all seen it.”

o  This is not My Jesus just so you know, that is not the Jesus of this bible.

o  That Jesus described is just an created image.

o  See these people of Nazareth knew who Jesus was, they had an image of him. They had known him since he was little, so some where around 30 years or so. They had their idea of who Jesus was to them. They didn’t know Jesus, the son of man, The Lion on Judah, the Good Shepherd, the Messiah, the Savior. they couldn’t wrap their heads around what Jesus was teaching. Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary.

o  There are so many Christian churches and church leaders teaching false doctrine or they are deconstructing Christianity all together, all this leads to is so many Christians going down a dark, dark path. Because they created a “My Jesus”.

o  That “MY Jesus” they created fits their narrative. Taking out the hard verses of the bible, re writing Gods word so Jesus is all inclusive and soft. They praise what this bible calls sin. And Hate righteous, moral living.  If  every word of scripture is Gods word Breathed, how can we possibly change it. We Can’t!!!

o  Don’t get me wrong the bible clearly says repent and believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. All of these liberal Christians, Deconstructionist love the gentle lamb. But so many forget He is also the Lion of Judah.

o  And that Lion side speaks strongly against their agendas.

o Scripture describes Jesus’s teaching in many ways,

In Matthew 7:28 and 29 it declares that His teaching was authoritative.

In John 7:15 and 16 it was knowledgeable

In Luke 4:32 it was powerful.

And according to John 7:46 it was unmatched. No man ever spoke like this man spoke.

o   I talk against these big motivational speakers, who call themselves pastors and woke mega churches, but guys you must be careful what you are listening to and reading. Whether it is music or a pastor giving his Monday morning daily devotional. Do yourself a favor Read your bible, so you can decide for yourself.

·       3rd and final point this morning:

o  “Amazed at your unbelief”

o Lets look at the last couple verses: 4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.” 5 He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief. 

o  Did Jesus Lose his Godly abilities to heal, stop storms, raise people from the dead, walk on water, cast demons out???

Did he lose them???

o   NO….

We can look back a chapter and see Jesus heals a women who was bleeding for 12 years just by her faith and the touching his clothes….

And then Jesus raises a 12 year old girl from death… His Godly powers are there..

o  The People of Nazareth’s unbelief decided what Jesus could do.

o  Jesus Didn’t Neglect anyone, even these people of his hometown who did not believe who Jesus said he was. Jesus still came taught but was rejected.

o  Take joy in that…..

o  SO don’t beat yourself up when you try to share the gospel and you get rejected.

o  The people who Thought they knew who Jesus was rejected him……..  

·       God gets the attention of non believers in so many ways, some are harder than others. We are here to plants a seed and watch what the Holy Sprit will do.

·       Koda’s Story

I have a story i want to share that shows the power of seeds being planted,

but Before I tell you this story I want to give my story. which will help set context for my other story.

being that ,This is our third time meeting, i want to give you a very quick testimony and how God called me into ministry.

My family were church goers since i could remember. mainly my mom. My dads works schedule didn’t allow him to attend with us regularly. We joined our current church in 98, and we are still going there today.

I was accepted Jesus at a young age. I was 9 years old. Our pastor at the time whom I love and still talk to, to this day. He did not disciple me at all after I was saved. It felt like I was just another one to add to his list.

So that left me with very little information on what to do next!!!

So I struggled..… a lot for years and years.

I would say it wasn’t until I was 19 or 20 before I came to understand what it truly ment to be a Christian. I wasted 10 years of a walk with Christ because i did not have a mentor to help me. to lead me to help me when I fell to teach me how to study.

I have been happily married now for 15 years. We have 3 beautiful children. and 2 adopted teenagers. (Not planned), I will explain hahah.

I started student ministry because our church did not have a volunteer to take students to camp.

This is where a mentor should have told me, “Once you Volunteer in a baptist church, that’s your job now”.

I’m kidding, God took my completely introverted self and flipped it upside down. He alone used me to fill a spot.

and in doing so, my wife and I had two students a few years ago coming regularly to our church. attending classes. And they would call me to help with rides to and from school. I knew they didn’t have much of a family. I knew they had other issues in the home. After about 6 to 8 months of their Jr year, they showed up to church one summer Sunday with bags......

They no longer had a home. They were forced out of their home because for some people they prefer drugs over their own kids. Baylee and I knew this was coming, God had already prepared us as a family to do what we knew was needed.

SO we became a family of 7. Our big family is still figuring it out.

I tell you my story to tell you this story.

I Recently meet with a young teenager who is a friend of my two teenagers. He doesn’t know Jesus as his lord and savior.

This is my bread and butter as a student pastor. These are the conversations that keep me coming back for more.

He didn’t have the best childhood. No God in the family, no church, no bible. no bible believing friends and that was in the least of what I can share that is church appropriate. Among other stuff this young teenager had a rough life. The reason I want to tell you about our meeting is to show you how Seeds get planted. And sometimes they get planted with out us even knowing.

See he went on to tell me that he notices people that have been around Baylee and I,  have changed for the Good. He noticed They walk tall, proud, different attitudes. He noticed this… Not anything to do with Baylee and I but… God light is so bright guys… It’s the light in the dark. And so many are attracted to this light.

·       He went on to tell me how God worked in him and made him realize how he needed to walk in that same light. He just didn’t know how that could be possible because of so much unbelief in his life.

·       His story is being written still God is working on him still. But the seeds are planted…

·       This story is why I like to remind Christians, its way more than going to church on Sundays. People see you…. And see how you walk in your faith on the other 6 days. Its powerful.

·       Closing

As I close out this morning I want you to see, There is so much unbelief in this broken world. We as Christians also fall to unbelief. But,

Its time to choose…. Are you a part of the church or a part of the unbelieving world.. you can’t have both…

so many try to have one foot in the church and one foot in the world. And some of us that accurately describes you.. that was me years and years ago….

You have one foot in the church and foot in the world.

You got just enough church that you can’t enjoy the world, but just enough world that you can’t enjoy church.

You are in this place where you are miserable, and you are limping through life and I want to echo what Elijah said to the people of Israel in 1st kings Its time to choose.

It’s time to pick what side of the fence you are going to live on.

Do you either want God or do you want this culture? Because you can’t have both.

Come this morning,

if you are stuck in a pattern of unbelief come the alter is open.

If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior make today that day… we are not guaranteed tomorrow. I don’t say that to scare you I say it to give you perspective.

·       I want to finish how we started with one more question?? Is that okay…

o   What is the best way to get to Paradise????

§  Turn Right and Go Stright!

·       Lets Pray