021-Mark 6:1-6

Introduction

We know that Jesus said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”Jesus allows us to choose. We can choose the limits we put on faith.We can choose the limits we put on the promises of God. We can choose the limit that we put on the blessings in our life.Jesus said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”Not according to finances or fame or fortune but according to our faith.This passage of scripture is Jesus coming to His home town for the second and last time.He’s coming to the town of Nazareth. Notice the scripture.

Bible Verse

Mark 6:1–6 CSB

1 He left there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 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.

In Matthew’s gospel, he makes it very clear.

Matthew 13:58 CSB

58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

What he’s saying is that the people of Nazareth tied the hands of omnipotence.The people of Nazareth actually fettered the hands of Jesus.He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t have the power because in Mark’s gospel in the previous chapters.Jesus had conquered demons.Jesus had healed the eyes of the blind.Jesus had done many powerful things.Jesus walked into a room and a little girl who had been dead was raised up from the dead and yet when he came to his own home town, He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.They had limited the power of Jesus.They had tied the hands of omnipotence.We wonder how could it be possible that man could limit the power of God. Yet, when we read the Psalms, we find that it was said of Israel, that Israel limited God.That Israel, like these in Nazareth, actually fettered the hands of God in the day when they wandered through the wilderness. They limited the works of God in their midst. You and I need to understand that it’s even so today.You can limit what God wants to do in your life.You can limit all the possibilities that God has for you.You can limit the achievements that God wants to do in and through your life.God has exciting plans that He wants to accomplish through all of us and yet, many times, these things do not happen.Our dreams do not come true because we, ourselves, limit God by lack of faith.I know this morning that it is impossible to even grasp all the mighty things that God would do if we allowed God to work a work of faith in and through us.Most churches limit what God wants to do in them and through them because of lack of faith.One of the sad statements that I could make about a church is that He could not do many mighty works their because of their unbelief.I want you to see the lesson on why they limited God and why they didn’t believe.

1. We limit God when we allow faith to be encumbered by emotions.

Explanation

Mark 6:3 CSB

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.

Then they heard that Jesus was coming and they heard what He had done in other towns. They said, “We know this man. He grew up in our midst. He played with our children. He’s the carpenter’s son and He’s a carpenter. He’s Jesus, son of Mary.”Did you notice that they said, “Son of Mary” not son of Joseph?You see, the rumors were going around. “He’s son of Mary. We are not really sure who His father was.”It was already going around town that maybe He was an illegitimate child. They said that He didn’t even know who His father was and why should they believe on him? They were offended at Him and wouldn’t believe on Him because of their emotions. They were encumbered by emotions.You cannot be emotion-driven if you are going to have faith.Faith is not based on feelings.You don’t believe God or not believe God because of feelings.

Illustration

Some people, you ask them if they are saved and they say that they feel saved and feel that they are going to heaven.Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with how you feel.It’s what the Word of God says.

Talking with high school students that made an emotional decision when they were young and later they were full of question about whether they were truly saved or not.

Sometimes you feel saved and sometimes you don’t, but it’s what God has promised in His Word that counts.Sometimes you may feel that God doesn’t love you and other times you feel that God does love you.The fact is, it doesn’t change God’s, unconditional love.He loves you whether you feel like it or not and here were people who were offended at Jesus and they limited God because they were going on how they felt. They were offended by Him.

Application

You know, you go to do your daily devotions and you say, “Well, I just don’t feel like it today.I’m just not going to go to church today because I don’t feel like it.I’m not going to read my Bible because I don’t feel like it.I’m not going to believe God because I don’t feel like it. My faith is low.”Do you know how you spot a mature believer? Mature faith? It’s not based on age or years of following Jesus.A mature faith believes God no matter how you feel.Don’t let your faith be hindered by emotions. It has nothing to do with faith.

2. We limit God when we allow our faith to be altered by appearances.

Explanation

Mark 6:3 CSB

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.

They said, “We know who this man is. He’s the carpenter’s son and here are his brothers and sisters. We know His family.”Here’s their logic. They said, “We know Him. We’re not much. We can’t do much, therefore, He can’t do much.”They were looking at the outside. They had every reason to believe.They had heard about the mighty works that He had been doing but when they looked at Him, they didn’t see a mighty man on the outside, they didn’t see a mighty Christ on the outside and so they let appearances limit their faith. You may be in a situation today that looks impossible. You may be looking at circumstances that seem insurmountable.You may be saying today, “You know, I just don’t believe that God can do anything about this. My situation is hopeless.”Right now, you may be looking at your faith and saying about your situation, “Nothing can get me out of this. This is something that not even God can do. This is something that not even God can handle. My situation is absolutely hopeless.”

Illustration

Well, you need to talk to Moses about it, when he stood the Red Sea.You need to talk to Joshua about it when he faced Jericho.You need to talk with David when he faced Goliath.You are letting your faith be altered by appearances.You say, “Well, I don’t have an education. I don’t have a degree.”Whatever excuses you are making for not believing God for victory in your life, these are outward appearances.God is not able to do a mighty work in your life because of outward appearances.You are letting your faith be altered by what you can see.Talk about my Insurance Test- Constantly feeling like I cannot do it.

Application

Some call this: The Nazareth Syndrome

The Nazareth Syndrome says, “Seeing is believing.” But what does God say?God says, “Believing is seeing.” You say, “Well, where does God say that?” Well, He says it in His Word. He says that believing is seeing.

2 Corinthians 5:7 CSB

7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 4:18 CSB

18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

God says that the reality is the things that are not seen. The things of unreality are the things we see because they are passing away.

What do you need for God to do in your life today? Whatever it is, God can do it.Nothing is impossible with God.What do we need in this church? We need the power of God more than anything else. We need for God to move in a mighty way this year in this church and God can do it if we will not limit Him.We need to take the shackles off our faith and not be ruled by appearances or the impossibilities.We need to untie the hands of Jesus by getting rid of doubt and negative thinking and believe in God.

3. We limit God when allow faith to be rooted in reason

Explanation

We’ve gotten into a bad habit over the last several years and that habit is, we do everything by logic.We do everything by reason. We wouldn’t want to get unreasonable…NO!! That would be dangerous.There was a day when we did everything by faith. You see, faith has to go beyond reason.If you can reason it out, it is not faith.I’m not talking about doing foolish things. I’m not saying that faith is not based on reason somewhat, but you see faith goes beyond reason.There is a logic to the Gospel, that’s true, but logic can only carry us so far.Faith challenges logic.Faith challenges reason.It goes beyond reason.God will ask us to do things that go beyond reason.

The people at Nazareth reasoned this out.

John 1:43–46 CSB

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” 46 “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him. “Come and see,” Philip answered.

Nathaniel said, “Well, what good thing could possibly come out of Nazareth?” It was a town that people looked down on.The people of Nazareth were barely above the Samaritans.It was a town considered to be poor and ignorant.The people of Nazareth didn’t even believe in themselves.They said, “The Messiah, come out of this town, you’ve got to be kidding us. This man couldn’t be the messiah.Why should we listen to Him? Why should we pay attention to Him? Jesus said, “Yes, a prophet is not without honor except in his own town.”

Illustration

Small towns are notorious for this right.Why is so hard for people to change in small towns. Because someone will remember something you did in 1999 and say: See I have a good reason not to trust such and such.But it goes beyond that:You remember the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand? Remember the first thing Jesus did?He said to Philip, “How are we going to feed this multitude?” It said that Jesus asked him but He knew what He was going to do. Philip got out his calculator and said, “It would take a years wages just to feed this crowd a little bit.”That wasn’t faith. Anybody could figure out how much it would take.All you had to do was count the crowd and figure in the factor of how much per person and then multiply that by how much the food was going to cost.An atheist could have figured that out.But it says that Jesus took five loaves and two fishes and He fed the crowd and had twelve baskets full left over for the disciples to have a sack lunch the next day.Jesus was moved by faith. Sometimes reason will restrain your faith. It will tie the hands of Jesus.

Suppose you want to go to Hawaii and you want to go by car, you are tired of pulling off your shoes at the gate of the airport. Even harder to fly during COVID.So, you get in the car and you drive and you drive as far as Alaska and you find out there is no highway and now you have either got to go by ship or airplane.So, you have to get on the airplane.Now, the car took you as far as Alaska but then you had to get on a plane to go the rest of the way.It’s like that with faith. You can go part of the way.

Application

Reason will get you so far, but then there comes a part with faith that you have to go beyond reason.It’s like when somebody needs to be healed, they can go so far with doctors and medicine but there may come a point, when they have gotten you as far as they can, they can’t get you any further and you have to go to Dr. Jesus.It’s that way in anything you attempt in your life.Everything great accomplishment that’s ever been accomplished for God, somebody had to go beyond reason.They had to go out strictly on faith and believe God.If all you are going to do is figure it out man’s way and do it man’s way, you’re going to tie the hands of Jesus.You’re going to shackle the hands of omnipotence.God’s going to say of you that He could do no mighty works because of unbelief.That’s the great problem today, is unbelief.

Conclusion

What is limiting God’s work in your life right now?

Are you encumbered by emotions? Put your feeling and emotions aside and trust in the word of GodAre you limiting God because of appearances? What do you need for God to do in your life today? Whatever it is, God can do it.Nothing is impossible with God.Are you limiting God by allowing faith to be rooted in reason?Reason will get you so far, but then there comes a part with faith that you have to go beyond reason.Everything great accomplishment that’s ever been accomplished for God, somebody had to go beyond reason.