Grace For The Unbelieving

Intro: To me Pastor Monte to my friend he was 3 X SB champ Monte Coleman.

My closeness to Monte allowed me to look pass the 3 x SB champ and see him as Pastor Monte.

What we find in our passage today is Jesus hometown’s familiarity with him was a roadblock for them seeing who Christ really is. What we will discover Jesus

Has Grace for an unbelieving people

His Grace is rejected by an unbelieving people

is amazed at the unbelief in unbelieving people

I. Jesus’ Has Grace For An Unbelieving People

A. Leaves from Jairus’ house and goes to Nazareth

about 25 miles away

small town not even mentioned in the OT

Population of about 500 people, so think a town like Grady or Gould.

If you were raised in Gould from childhood to about 30. Would the people in the town know you? Well this were Jesus is headed.

His disciples followed!

B. This was Jesus Second Visit to Nazereth, his 1st is recoreded in

Luke 4:16–30 ESV

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.

i

instead of responding in repentance and faith they try and kill him.

but notice their initial response

spoke well him

were amazed at his gracious words

Being amazed at Jesus says and does is not enough.

Jesus could have left Nazareth then and never come back, but what we fins is that Jesus has Grace for the unbelieving.

C. Jesus shows grace by giving Nazareth a second chance.

1. Jesus returns to the synagogue on the Sabbath

a. Jesus opens the word and preaches

b. the people are amazed again

c. There are many people in the world amazed By Jesus

we cant come to Christ and pick and choose what we like about him,

we must take him for who he is

II. Jesus’ Grace Rejected by the Unbelieving

A. The questions they are asking are not genuine, but sarcasm.

notice they listed his profession, carpentry

Mark The Source of the People’s Astonishment

Let us think about that first question: “Is this not the carpenter?” The people did not ask, “Is this not the son of the carpenter Joseph?” They knew Jesus Himself as a carpenter. However, the Greek word here, tekton, can mean “carpenter,” “stone mason,” or anyone who is involved in the craft of building; it is the word from which we get our word architect, which simply means “chief builder.” It is very possible that instead of being a carpenter who worked with wood, Jesus was a stone mason; that would explain the strength that He obviously developed as a young man. In all probability, however, He worked with both wood and stone, as builders in His day produced all sorts of things, from houses to cabinets to yokes for oxen.

When Jesus was a young man, Herod Antipas inherited a portion of the kingdom of his father, Herod the Great, and became the tetrarch of Galilee. He set out to build a city to serve as the regional capital of Galilee and to construct a palace for himself just a few miles north of Nazareth. Historians tell us that he hired craftsmen and laborers from all around the district to help him build his city. It is possible that those he hired included Joseph and Jesus. It is interesting to speculate that Jesus may have worked on this project for a man who would question Him and mock Him during His passion (Luke 23:6–12).

ii. Notice they said Jesus the son of Mary?

B. The were offended by Christ (skandalizamei)

C. Jesus’ response to their unbelief

you know me so well yet you dont recieve me.

you know me so well yet you really dont know me

III. Jesus Stands Amazed at Their Unbelief

A. Why couldn’t Jesus do any works here?

Here is where this passage gets twisted by proponents of the prosperity Gospel. They will say you have to have faith and if you are not receiving your miracle it is because you don't have enough faith. Is that is what is going on?

Let me ask you this, how much faith did the man filled with demons have?

The reason Jesus couldn’t do any miracles is

The judgement of God on Nazareth because of their rejection of Jesus

I am not sure if you are seeing a pattern in Mark but the miracles of Christ are done for the purpose of redemption. Tim Keller is helpful here, ““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” (Keller, “Mark,” 62). Christ-Centered Exposition - Christ-Centered Exposition – Exalting Jesus in Mark.

B. Jesus is amazed at their unbelief

isn’t funny that the two times the Bible says Jesus was amazed have to do with faith and unbelief. Jesus was amazed at the Roman Centurions faith in and here in our passage today, Jesus is amazed at the depth and callousness of their unbelief.

But what is unbelief? Is it just turning away of certain facts about who Jesus is? or is it deeper than that? is it possible for us as believers to show unbelief?

I like what john Piper says in his book Battling Unbelief,

“Unbelief is turning away from Jesus to find satisfaction somewhere else. Or, to put it positively, ‘belief’ in Jesus is coming to Him to feed on Him; that is to get my satisfaction, to have my soul-thirst satisfied from Him. That means that eternal life, as we said earlier in , is promised not to those who think things about Jesus as the Son of God merely, but to those who drink from the Son of God. Eternal life is promised to faith. And faith is not an idea in the head, it’s an appetite of heart fastening onto the Bread of Life. You can think all kinds of ideas about that loaf of bread, Jesus Christ, and if you don’t eat it to the satisfaction of your soul, you’re unsaved.”

But after we say yes to Christ do we exhibit unbelief? YES!

Every time we worry and take situations into our own hands we are exhibiting unbelief.

When depression grows so deep we think God cannot help us, we exhibit unbelief.

When our lonliness is so deep we begin to fill our lives with unhealthy relationships we exhibit unbelief.

When our desire to have the worlds goods that it disrupts our contentment with Christ, we exhibit unbelief.

When we envy, God why aren’t you blessing me like so so, why don’t i have what he has, we are exhibiting unbelief.

When we turn to pornography, we are exhibiting unbelief.

When we harbor anger,resentment and bitterness in our hearts, we are showing unbelief.

Do you see what I am getting at, the root of all your sin issues in your life, stems for your unbelief in God to fill that need.

The root of all sin is unbelief.