Unbelief At Nazareth
By
Rev. Todd W. Allen
Mark 6:1-6
Villa Rica 2/20/05
Sir
Isaac Newton believed the Bible and was a committed Christian. He made a
replica of our solar system in miniature. In the center was the sun with
all the planets revolving around it in their various proximities. A
scientist entered Newton’s study one day and exclaimed, “My! What an
exquisite thing this is! Who made it? “Nobody!” replied Newton to the
questioner who was an unbeliever. “You must think I am a fool. Of course
somebody made it, and he is a genius.” Laying aside his book, Newton
arose and laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder and said: “This thing is
but a puny imitation of a much grander system whose laws you and I know,
and I am not able to convince you that this mere toy is without a
designer and maker; yet you profess to believe that the great original
from which the design is taken has come into being without either
designer or maker. Now tell me, by what sort of reasoning do you reach
such incongruous conclusions?”
The
American magazine once published an article giving a businessman’s
statement of why he knows there is a God. He had been frankly facing the
wonders of the stars and planets, their system and order; then he said,
“ It takes a girl in our factory two days to learn to put the seventeen
parts of a meat chopper together. It may be that these millions of
worlds, each with its separate orbit, all balanced so wonderfully in
space – it may be they just happened; it may be that by a billion years
of tumbling about they finally arranged themselves. I don’t know. I am
merely a plain manufacturer of cutlery. But this I know, that you
can shake the seventeen parts of a meat chopper around in a
washtub for the next seventeen billion years and you’ll never have a
meat chopper.
Popular
education once recognized Christianity as its mother, yet the academic
world has somehow come to treat supernatural religion as a disaffected
mother-in-law and finally as an outlaw.
-- Carl F.H. Henry, The God Who Shows
Himself. Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 14.
Unbelief is puzzlement. At
Nazareth Jesus was said to "wonder" at their unbelief. There is
something negative and unreal about unbelief. It produces nothing,
improves nothing and helps nobody.
Unbelief provokes God. The Israelites in
the wilderness were unbelieving and spoke against God, saying,
“Can God
prepare a table in the wilderness? 2 “Behold, He struck the
rock so that waters gushed out,
And streams
were overflowing; Can He
give bread
also? Will He provide meat
for His
people?” Therefore the LORD
heard and
was full of wrath; And a
fire was
kindled against Jacob
And anger
also mounted against Israel,
Because
they did not believe in God
22
And did not trust in His
23
salvation. Psa. 78:19-22
In that Psalm it is recounted how
God provided
water and food from heaven to meet their
needs, yet still
they did not believe in His wonderful
works and because
of their unbelief they ended their days
in futility and they
died in sudden terror.
What a sad commentary on that
generation. Faith on
the other hand is a great boon and
benefit All that we do
is because we believe something. As
Robert Dabney says
in his lecture on faith, "Everything man
does is because
he believes something. Faith, in its
widest sense, is the
mainspring of man's whole activity.
Every volition arises
from a belief, and none can arise
without it.” (Dabney
Lectures p 612)
We do not eat a meal without faith that
it will do us good and that it is not poisoned. When you board an
airplane you may have a shaky faith or a strong faith, but there must be
faith for you to step on board. If you do not believe you will arrive at
your destination you will not fly in an airplane. There must be faith in
the airline, the pilot and crew, the safety of the aircraft, the
competence of the ground crew, plus the belief that Providence will
favor your journey. If you believe in God you may say a prayer too. But
without faith you will not go.
Think of anything you have ever done or
are now doing and if you will trace back your motivation it was or is
due to some faith that you could do it.
If you go to school it is because you
have faith that you can make it. If you drop out it is because you don't
think you can make it or there is some other faith motivation to do
something else. If you start a job it is because you believe you can
succeed in that job. Faith is the mainspring of all that you attempt to
do.
Scripture says that
without faith
it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must
believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek
Him. Heb. 11:6
It tells us in Revelation 21:8
“But
for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and
immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part
will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the
second death.”
Rev. 21:8
Unfortunately,
unbelievers do not believe that there is such a place as the lake of
fire. For had they even believed that it might have been the means of
their coming to faith. Inducements to faith can be both pleasant and
unpleasant.
We see an
example of unbelief as Jesus goes back to his hometown of Nazareth.
Jesus had been raised in this town. He must have known many of the
townspeople. Although he was born in Bethlehem he spent his life in
Nazareth until his public ministry began. Joseph and Mary had settled
there after the death of Herod while Jesus was still a baby.
When he
returned to Nazareth as the anointed Messiah he went to the synagogue.
There were many people there to hear him speak. He began to teach and it
says that the people were astonished. They acknowledged that what he
taught was true and full of wisdom. They also admit that he had
performed miracles. Obviously they could find no fault with Jesus' works
or his teaching. But they managed to find things to prejudice people
against him. Their unbelief could not accept him for who He really was
-- the Heaven-sent Messiah, the God-man who could turn water into wine
and who could heal lepers and blind and deaf people. The Savior who
could forgive sins and cast out demons. Instead they take offense at
him. Why?
First of all, because they knew he was
home-educated. He had not been to any of the recognized rabbinical
schools. He had not attended a university or graduated from a seminary.
The congregation listening to him was astonished, saying,
“Where did this man get these things, and what is this
wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?
Mark 6:2
You would think that his lack of formal
or higher education would only be a confirmation that his wisdom came
from above, that he did not need human instruction. But such was their
prejudice against a man who had been raised in their own mean little
town, of which Nathaniel said, "Can any thing good come out of
Nazareth?" that they charged him in their minds with being a person such
as themselves. They wanted to consider him a sinner like themselves even
though he had proved to them that he was quite different.
Perhaps the reason Jewish people still
have such a hard time believing in Jesus is because they think to
themselves, if he is a Jew like me he could not be any better than any
other Jew I know.
The unbelief of man resents accepting
the fact that God became a human being just like you and me, except for
sin. Perhaps that's why the Roman church has trouble with this scripture
that says Mary had other children besides Jesus, that Jesus had brothers
and sisters. They want to elevate Mary to an immaculate conception and
keep her forever as the blessed virgin. But the people of Nazareth
latched onto the fact that she was the mother of at least seven sons and
daughters, and they knew the brothers and sisters of Jesus, and they
were quite ordinary folks just like themselves. And so they said of
Jesus,
“Is not this
the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas
and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at
Him. Mark 6:3
How could a lowly carpenter, a man
with no money, no estate, no status, no prominence in the community, who
has never been away from home to attend school, who is just one of us,
be the God-man? Just who is he pretending to be? He is taking to himself
airs and a place that he does not deserve. And they were offended at
him.
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his
hometown and among his own relatives and in his own
household.” Mark 6:4
He had come to do them good, to be a
Savior to them, to heal their sick and demonstrate his love toward them.
Of all the towns of Israel Nazareth should have been the happiest and
most blessed of all, for God had visited there and been raised there.
But because of their unbelief they lost any honor or blessing that might
have come to them. They go down in history as a mean and contemptible
town. The only good thing that ever came out of Nazareth was Jesus and
the family of Mary and Joseph. You don't hear of any other person who
ever lived there that is singled out for honorable mention in the Word
of God. The scripture says,
And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few
sick people and healed them. Mark 6:5
Faith pleases God. The essence of faith
is simply believing what God has testified of His Son. John wrote
9If
we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for
the testimony of God is this that He has testified concerning His Son.
10The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in
himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because
he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His
Son. 11And the testimony is this, that God has given us
eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12He who has the
Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the
life.1 John 5:9-12
The Nazarenes had
difficulty in believing in Jesus
as the Christ. Yet a little reflection will tell
you that they had all they needed to believe in Him. He spoke the truth
and wisdom of God and had performed miracles to attest to his divine
origin, but they refused to believe because they thought up things to
find fault with him, things that had no bearing on his wisdom and works.
Had they taken the time they could have set their minds at peace about
those things by simply accepting him and studying the scriptures. They
could have learned that he was virgin born, not at Nazareth but as the
scriptures predicted, at Bethlehem. And as Jesus said, if they did not
believe him they should believe the works that the Father was doing by
him.
Jesus wondered at their unbelief. The
King James says he marveled. It was so unreasonable to not believe and
such a benefit to believe. Why would anyone not believe, seeing that
through faith in Jesus Christ we may have peace with God and inherit
eternal life? By him is preached the forgiveness of sins.
The plan of God rings true. The life,
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the best-attested facts of
history. Yet men will not believe that they might be saved. Why? Why?
Why? Why would a man want to die in his sins? Why would a man turn away
from the only Person who can promise everlasting life and who promises
to be a Shepherd to him in this life? What good did it ever do the
citizens of Nazareth to remain in unbelief when Jesus came to them with
proof of his divinity? Was life made better or sweeter? What benefit did
they gain by unbelief? Think of the blessedness they forfeited by their
unbelief. Think of the misery they perpetuated upon themselves and their
children.
May I suggest today that you simply take
Jesus at his word? That you believe in him as your one and only Savior.
One time in the temple as he was
teaching
15The
Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned,
having never been educated?” 16So Jesus answered them and
said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17“If
anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether
it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. John 7:15-17
To come to faith in Jesus is
simply to take him at
His Word and
believe what He says. If any man will do that he will know that He is
truly Savior and Lord.
Faith must believe
God's testimony about His Son. Faith comes to Jesus and trusts Him for
the remission of sins and peace with God. Faith acts upon the offer of
the gospel. The gospel motivates you to action.
How do you stand this morning? Are you
in belief or unbelief? Do you believe on Jesus Christ in a personal and
saving way, or are you still withholding judgment, still persisting in
unbelief? Come to Him today and be saved.
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The paper and sermon manuscripts from
Pastor
Todd W. Allen
are made freely available for review and
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distributed for any reason. Please be
gracious to forgive typos and errors of
expression. These notes are faithful
approximations of what has been preached.
May God be glorified in the preaching of
His Word.