The Flip Side of Faith—Unbelief.
Mark 5 teaches us three big lessons:
Jesus can free us from anything that controls us.
Faith in Jesus brings healing and peace.
Jesus has power over death, and with Him there is hope.
- Jesus Rejected at Nazareth (Mark 6:1-6) 2. The Sending of the Twelve Apostles (Mark 6:7-13)
- The Death of John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-29) 4. The Feeding of the Five Thousand (Mark 6:30-44)
- Jesus Walks on Water (Mark 6:45-52) 6. Healing at Graveyard (Mark 6:53-56)
So here in Mark 6 :1-6 Jesus gives His disciples and us a powerful object lesson about unbelief. Tucked in these verses are 6 powerful unbelief characteristics:
a. First, Unbelief hides the obvious.
V2, When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were 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? The villagers were more concerned about Jesus pedigree then what He taught. The rumors of dissent starting in Mark 3:6, along with familiarity bread contempt. For the disciples, there was an enormous contrast between the displays of unbelievable power and the blatant rejection by the people of Nazareth. Familiarity is not all that it is cut out to be. It breeds an infectious contempt. Paul remind Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12,”all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”. Not everybody will see faith as you and I do. We’ll be hit, hurt, slandered, passed over, ignored, and mocked behind our backs.
Familiarity breaks moorings, and sets us adrift.
Passionate first love drifts to second or third love
Zeal for God’s service turns into moments of connivence
Hunger for God’s Word is replaced by business, things, recreation, accumulations
Extended prayer time narrows down to just food blessings
Church offerings become leftover change
The danger for us is that our familiarity with Jesus and His Word can easily turn into complacency, indifference, and perhaps contemptuousness. Faith can turn oh so quickly into unbelief.
b. Second, Unbelief highlights the immaterial (v2-3)
Vs2–3, 2 many listeners were astonished, saying, “many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.”. The word ‘astonish’ in the Gk has the idea of “being blown away”. So the village people were being blowing away by His teaching. This wasn’t just a ‘wow’ moment. The people were basically stunned by what He had to say.
Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus taught that day. Luke tells us that on Jesus first visit to Nazareth (Lk 4:17-21) that he read from Isaiah 61 that described the coming Messiah. In the middle of the reading, He closes the scroll and calmly announces, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, ie., I’m the prophesied Messiah.
Take note, they knew Jesus—as the local town carpenter, they knew his mother Mary, His 4 brothers, and a couple of sisters. Listen, they couldn’t get past his humanity. They became agitated. What Jesus was saying and what they knew about Him didn’t compute.
Chris Mueller captures the village mindset with these words–They knew He’d not studied under any rabbi of influence. He lacked the proper credentials–He didn’t have a seminary degree, or a university doctorate. Therefore He wasn’t qualified for this ministry.
Don’t miss this—as they rehearse their negativity, it exposed their unbelief.
c. Third, Unbelief goes on the attack (vs2-3).
The messenger becomes the enemy. That brings us to the third unbelief truth, they go on the attack, vs2-3. Their astonishment didn’t turn to faith, but rather they turned and attacked Jesus outright with a series of rapid questions
V2, Where did Jesus get these things, ie., Whatever Jesus was teaching, they seemed to be asking, How did He get ‘whatever He said’ out of ‘whatever He was reading’? They are having a very hard time separating Jesus, the boy, from Jesus the teacher. Basically they are challenging Jesus authority.
V2, Where did He get His wisdom and the power for miracles? They were stumped. They knew the local school He had attend. And there was no profound local Rabbai. Things are not adding up. Jesus words and miracles were meant to show them that God was at work in Him, John 14:10 (NASB95) The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. But they couldn’t get passed His boyhood days.
V3, Isn’t this the ‘local’ carpenter? They are stuck. To them Jesus was the local handy-man. The question here is, why should we listen to a common manual labor handy-man?
V3, Isn’t this the son of Mary? Maybe Jesus’ father Joseph had died at this point. In His first visit, Luke says the village people spoke of Jesus as Joseph’s son which would be normal. Perhaps Joseph has died. The people remember the rumors of Mary’s pregnancy. To them Mary was an adulterous, and Jesus was illegitimate. The people used the rumors as an excuse to reject Him as Messiah.
V3, Isn’t Jesus just a local dud? Look around, there is James, Joseph, Judas, Simon, and sisters. Jesus’ family still resided in Nazareth. And we know that Jesus’ brothers and sisters had a hard time believing Jesus (Jn 7:3-5). To the village people He was just an ordinary guy. His ordinariness became their excuse to reject Him. Interestingly, both James and Jude would later author letters to the dispersed Jesus-Followers.
In Luke 4 they were about to throw him down cliff.
d. Fourth, Unbelief spurns Christ as Savior (v3).
They took offense at Him. Offense is a strong Greek word. It is used to describe someone you trip over, to cause you to stumble, to no longer believe, to reject faith, to cause to fall, to anger, to shock, to cause to sin. In taking offense with Jesus, the village people nailed their own coffin. Robert A. Guelich writes, their taking offense meant a total rejection of the truth of His “wisdom” and “mighty works,” that they heard and saw. They refused to accept him based on His words and work in lieu of who they remember Him to be. Their evaluation of Christ killed them spiritually.
e. Fifth, Unbelief shuts down the supernatural.
Unbelief shuts down God’s work, God’s blessing. V5, Jesus could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. The point being made for us, because of the vastness of the unbelief in Nazareth, Jesus was not inclined to exercise His power.
Unbelief froze the work of God’s power by in large, and yet in v5 we see a glimmer of faith: He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.”
f. Sixth, Unbelief stirs God’s heart (v6)
Jesus marvelled at their unbelief. Unbelief stirs the heart of God. The Gk word ‘marvelled’ is a powerful word. It carries the idea of ‘awestruck’. Jesus was literally stunned by the people’s unbelief. The unbelief of the people in His village really surprised Jesus. Usually it was the crowds that were astonished with Jesus, but this time it was Jesus who was astonished. Interestingly, we are told one other time of Jesus being astonished, and that was with the Centurion’s faith in Luke 7:9 Jesus marveled at the Centurion’s faith, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” But in Mark what astonishes Jesus is the unbelief despite His powerful works and words. They all denied the overwhelming evidence that Christ is God. They thought they knew Jesus, but missed seeing God in the flesh. They chose not to believe.
The people that should have easily believed did not and the one that had least information believed the most.
Plain as nose on your face.
All to action: confront your disbelief today,