Amazing Faith or Amazing Unbelief
Truth Taught- Jesus was amazed at the unbelief of those in His hometown and larger Israel.
It’s important that we never think we know all there is to know about Jesus. We must be in awe of Him and never think we can fully grasp the second Person of the Trinity. He is the Messiah, the Son of God infinite and holy in all His person and ways.
There was a group of people who thought they knew Jesus. They were accustomed to Him. They were used to Him. To them, He was just a hometown boy who had grown up in their village. They had a superficial knowledge of Him.
As believers, the longer you are in Church and the longer you are associated with spiritual things, there could come times when you get laxed concerning the things of God. While we wait for the reality of our faith, we must stay diligent and remain steadfast not wavering or turning to the left or to the right.
We are going to meet a group of people today who thought they knew Jesus. They did not know Him. They really had no idea who Jesus was and so they missed their opportunity by not seeing and acknowledging Him for who He really is…Jesus is not the carpenter’s son, as some would say, but He is the Son of God.
We have just left the section of Mark where Jesus was showing everyone who He really is. The disciples especially are confronted with the reality of Jesus’ person. He is not a carpenter from Nazareth but the divine Son of God.
If we are to maintain a passion for Jesus, we must know Him. I fear there are those who think they know Jesus but really don’t. Perhaps they think they know Jesus but it’s in a superficial way…just a little surface knowledge won’t do. We must truly know Him.
Let’s turn to 2 Peter to see together what it means to know Jesus and what happens as a result.
Peter speaks about the knowledge of Jesus and how this knowledge leads us to love Him more and more. So, if we are going to maintain and then more than that grow in our love and passion for Jesus, we must be learning about Him.
2 Peter 1:1–10 (ESV)
1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
How can we love Jesus more and more?
Know Him…learn of His attributes. Learn about His character. Read His promises and understand they are meant for you. When you experience God working in your life, thank Him and praise Him.
Then, Peter tells us to take what Jesus has given us, and add virtue more knowledge, self-control and steadfastness.
So, we take what we know and live it out and as we do God will add more to us…we will learn more of Christ as we live out what we know and we will grow and love Him more.
Studying the Bible and praying are the first steps to developing a passion for Christ. We need to understand His ways and promises before we can fall deeply in love with Him.
Like any loving relationship, intimacy with Jesus requires that we spend time with Him—worshipping and listening to Him, not just working through a list of to-dos. In order to achieve a true friendship with Him, we must talk with Christ as with a friend and listen to Him speak to us.
We should also look for evidence of the Lord’s work in everyday circumstances. He promises to give us direction and provide for us (2 Peter 1:3). If we’re on the lookout, we will see His promises in action. Sometimes a situation might seem too tragic or stressful to yield good, but if we continue to pray, study Scripture, and be patient, God will reveal His plan to us.
Mark 6:1–6a (ESV)
6 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.
1. Jesus’ Astonishing Wisdom and Works (6:1-2)
6 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?
Word has spread about Jesus. He has returned to His hometown with His disciples. As was the custom, He entered the synagogue as the visiting Rabbi and began to teach.
Luke 4…
[18] “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,
[19] to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
[20] 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. [21] And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” [22] 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?”
The synagogue ruler gave Jesus the scroll to read and to preach that day. The scheduled reading was to be from Isaiah 61. As was the tradition of a synagogue service, there would be prayers, Scripture readings, singing, and an expositional sermon brought based on a text of Scripture.
What providence was at work here to have Jesus preaching the very day Isaiah 61 was to be the Scripture text! The synagogue had a scheduled litany of readings. Jesus didn’t simply pick the text; it was the text that was scheduled to be read. The timing here is amazing.
If you’re familiar with Isaiah 61, then you know that this is the chapter of hope. In this chapter, God promises an everlasting or new covenant between Him and His people.
Here in the Isaiah passage, we see that the One who would usher in the new covenant would be the Anointed One of Israel, the Messiah. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.
Jesus stood up to read the Scripture and was handed the Scroll of Isaiah. He unrolled it almost to the end, to Isaiah 61. He reads the first two verses and then backs up the scroll and reads a verse from chapter 58. Then, as was the custom, the preacher sits down and begins His exposition of the text. Jesus, looks at the people and with authority declares that Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
What was Jesus saying? As your ears are hearing these verses from My lips they are being fulfilled.
As one commentator writes, While you are listening to Me, the passage I read to you has been and is being realized.–Hendricksen
It was the proclamation by Jesus and the hearing by the people that fulfilled the prophecy concerning these verses in Isaiah.
[18] “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
At that very moment He was proclaiming the good news to the poor.
So, Jesus is preaching the Gospel to His hometown. He’s giving them Good News and proclaiming favor to the captive souls.
They are astonished at His wisdom and amazed at His works but there is no faith there….
Listen, something here we must see… being astonished and amazed is not faith. Rather than believing what He told them, they were sceptics. They marveled at His teaching but did not submit to what He taught.
2. They Said, This is Not the Son of God but a Carpenter (6:3)
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
He reads from it two messianic prophecies about the Spirit of the Lord being upon the Messiah. The Messiah arriving to preach the gospel and proclaim release to the captive, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed, and proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. He then closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, sat down. Everybody was looking at Him. They were fixed on Him. And He said in verse 21, “Today the Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Wow. And that’s only what He began to say. The rest was He told them He was the Messiah. He told them He was the Messiah.
“They were speaking well of Him” – how could they not? – “and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips. But they were puzzled and said, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’ And Jesus says, ‘No doubt, you just want more magic, you just want more miracles.’ So, you’re going to say to yourself, ‘Whatever was done at Capernaum, do it here.’
Jesus claims to be the Messiah from these wonderful passages and they are offended. They’re okay if He wants to do a magic trick but not okay when He begins to make certain claims.
Then our Lord begins to tell them that they are just like all the unbelieving people from the OT…
The implication is, “You’re not going to receive it, because you’re just like previous generations.” And He tells them the story about Elijah. There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the famine came, and yet God never sent Elijah to any widow in the land of Israel. There wasn’t a widow in Israel worthy of a prophet, and he had to go to a widow in Zarephath, the land of Sidon, which was Gentile area where they worshiped Baal. In other words, the prophet Elijah turned his back on Israel in his day because of their unbelief.
And then he talks about the prophet Elisha. There were many lepers in Israel, but God didn’t go to any of them, but rather to a border terrorist by the name of Naaman who was a Syrian, and God healed him. It’s the same old story, Jesus is saying, “God has never been able to move with power among you because of your unbelief, because you will not recognize you are the poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed, in a condition of utter sinfulness, desperately in need of saving grace.”
Here’s the point, after Mark shows others who did believe from Disciples to Demons, he now shows us a group who does not believe and will not believe. They are condemned along with the rest of their generation.
So, we see this group consisting of some of Jesus’ family and His neighbors. These could be compared to the Pharisees because they all in their own way thought they were okay with God. These, in our text today, think they know Jesus and they were offended. We don’t need Jesus, we’re good. The Pharisees believed their works were sufficient to earn God’s favor. What we should see here is that we must have Christ. Our good works are filthy rags.
Much of Israel did not believe. They are lost and in their sin.
3. Jesus is Amazed at Their Unbelief (6:4-6)
4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.
This entire section sounds strange to us. After all the Kingdom advancing passages, we have looked at, now there is the rejection of Jesus.
The disciples and even demons stand in awe and fear of Jesus…who is this that even the wind and waves obey? Jairus- if you can just touch my daughter she will be made well. The dying woman-If I can just touch the fringe of His garment, I’ll be made well.
Here there are three things that seem odd to us…
First, the axiom of Jesus concerning the common rejection of the prophets among the people of their home town.
Crowds of people throughout the region were hearing Christ’s message, witnessing His mighty works, and responding in faith to God. But the people of His “own country” and “own house” rejected His message and claims.
Familiarity can lead to contempt.
This dynamic can be seen when children are raised in a Christian home and reject the Gospel of Christ. We must accept Christ ourselves and remember we cannot be saved by the faith of our parents.
Second, He could do no mighty works there. It tells us He did heal a few sick people but He didn’t do much else. It’s not that He couldn’t or that His power somehow is dependent on man’s response but that His mission centered around the faith of those He came to save, not His wonder working power.
Third, Jesus was amazed at their UNBELIEF…
6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.
If the sinner is unbelieving and unwilling to come to Christ by faith, he/she will bear the responsibility for that unwillingness and that unbelief.
John 5:39–40 (ESV)
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Matthew 23:37 (ESV)
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
Jesus marvels at two things in the NT. He is astonished at the centurion’s faith who said to Jesus You don’t need to come to my house, just say the words and my daughter will be healed…
Matthew 8:10 (ESV)
10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
Then Jesus marvels at the unbelief of His hometown.
Let’s listen to John MacArthur…
Listen to Matthew 11: “He began to denounce the cities” – verse 20 – “in which most of His miracles were done, because they didn’t repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sack cloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it’ll be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.’ That is to say, it’ll be more tolerable in hell for idolatrous Gentiles than it will be for religious Jews who rejected Christ.—MacArthur
Conclusion
We must know Jesus. We must be growing in our knowledge of Jesus. I pray you are amazed at all Jesus is and has accomplished for you. Faith is what our Lord desires and unbelief is cursed.
Read God’s Word anticipating the Holy Spirit working through the pages. Pray, seeking to know Christ more. View your everyday life through the lens of faith and know God is at work. Praise Jesus for His promises and thank Him for your salvation.
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
May Jesus be amazed by your faith and not by your unbelief?
Resources
Mark by William Lane
Words of grace
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