The Bible teaches us that to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the basis for our salvation, the means by which we become a child of God, for receiving eternal life. In John 1:12-13 we read, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the means by which we are born again of the Spirit.
Jesus was continually preaching that one must believe in Him for salvation. Jesus said in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” He said in John 6:35 "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” Jesus said in John 7:38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’" In John 11:25-26 He said, ”I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” And in John 12:44 and 46 Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me…” 46 "I have come [as] Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”
So to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the means by which we are born again. Paul said in Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
So what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? It means to believe Jesus is the Christ, that is the Messiah, that He is the Lord, the Sovereign King of the Kingdom of God, that He is the Son of God, who became flesh and blood and who died on the cross for our sins, and who was raised from the dead and now stands at the Father’s right hand, and who is coming again for those who believed in Him.
Then what constitutes unbelief? Unbelief may actually believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a man who lived in 30AD. Unbelief may actually believe that Jesus was a great prophet. Unbelief may actually believe that Jesus was the perfect man. But ultimately unbelief means that you reject the idea that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the Messiah, God incarnate and that He died on the cross as our substitute and the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sin, and that He was raised from the dead and reigns forever.
Now the passage before us tells us that the townspeople of Nazareth where Jesus grew up did not believe in Him. They had been witnesses to Jesus as a child. We are not told what they thought of Him when He was young, but they would have naturally believed in what their senses told them - that He was the son of Mary, that they knew Him and His brothers and sisters as the kids living down the street. But, having been witnesses to Him growing up, they couldn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God. You might think that they would have been thrilled to realize that Jesus, who had lived among them and grown up in their town, was actually the Son of God. But having known His family, His father and mother and brothers and sisters, having seen Him growing up in their village, made it almost impossible for them to imagine that He was who He claimed to be. And so because it went against what their experience had taught them, they rejected Jesus as the Son of God, and consequently, brought condemnation upon themselves.
As the apostle John says in John 3:18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Now let’s look at the text and see how Mark describes this unbelief of Jesus’s hometown and it’s consequences. He says in vs 1, “Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him.” So this is His second visit to Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus. The previous time that He came to Nazareth was at the beginning of His ministry.
In His previous visit recorded in Luke's gospel He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the scriptures. He read to them Isaiah 61, "“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
He then sat down and declared, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And as He began to teach them they were so filled with rage that they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff, but Jesus escaped from their midst.
Now Jesus has come back again to Nazareth, and in the mean time He had been doing what Isaiah had prophesied - He had been preaching the gospel to the spiritually destitute. He had been preaching deliverance to the captives and had healed the blind and all manner of sicknesses. He had even raised the daughter of Jarius from the dead.
So what is their reaction this time to Jesus? Did they believe in Him? Let’s look at vs 2, “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? 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.”
Their question is kind of odd isn’t it? Where did this man get this wisdom? Where did He get this power? You can almost hear the indignant tone to their voice. Because they knew Him as just Jesus the carpenter’s son. They knew Him as the son of Mary. By the way, the fact that they don’t say Jesus the son of Joseph one of the reasons a lot of commentators think that Joseph had died by this point. Once Jesus began His ministry Joseph isn’t mentioned in a living sense. And so as the eldest son, Jesus would have taken on the responsibility for the well being of His family, in the place of His father. We see that in His first miracle, the turning of the water to wine. We see that at the cross when Jesus gave to John the responsibility for the care of His mother Mary.
But that aside, the answer to their question is obviously that His power and His wisdom came from God. But they don’t want to believe that. After all, they probably believed that He was born under dubious circumstances. Mary had not yet been married when she had been pregnant with Jesus. And so they would rather believe that, than believe that somehow He was begotten of God. They don’t want to believe that this young man who had grown up among them was actually the Son of God. The only obvious answer to where His teaching and His power came from was God. As Jesus said in John 10:37, “If I do not do the works of My Father, don’t believe Me. But if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I in the Father.” The only explanation, again, is that God is present in Him.
And notice that the townspeople said his brothers and sister were there with them. We know from John 7:5 that not even His brothers were believing in Him. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs when one’s own family doesn’t believe in you. Remember when His brothers and His mother came to do an intervention on Jesus because they thought He was losing His mind? And so Jesus looking about at those who were sitting around Him who were believing in Him said, ”Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
And of course I must point out that the fact that the scripture tells us that Jesus had brothers and sisters indicates that Mary did not stay a virgin forever as the Catholic Church teaches. The try to explain away the obvious for the sake of maintaining their worship of Mary as some sort of divine by saying that Jesus’s brothers and sisters must have come from a previous marriage of Joseph before He married Mary. But there is no basis for that claim, other than their desire to venerate Mary as a perpetual virgin, who was sinless, and who was assumed into heaven, never having died. I’m here to tell you that if you hold to those beliefs about Mary, and you pray to Mary, and worship Mary, then you are guilty of worshipping another god.
So Mark says that the townspeople took offense at Jesus. Did you know that the gospel is offensive? I think the majority of preachers in the contemporary church try as hard as they can to make the gospel unoffensive. To make it as innocuous as possible. I think that’s why they dare not talk about sin. They dare not mention the judgement of God. They dare not mention hell. They only want to talk about love. That God loves you just the way you are. Period. And so every offense, every objection is taken out of the contemporary message of the gospel.
But Jesus said in Matthew 11:6 "Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” Why is the gospel offensive? Because Jesus came to save sinners. People are offended at the idea that they are sinners, condemned to death. They are offended that there is something about them that needs to be made right. And I believe people are offended today if you tell them that they are sinners and need to be forgiven, they need to be converted. We want to think that we are ok, that we are basically good people. That God loves us just the way we are. It’s offensive to think that you need a Savior, that you need to be saved from your sins. And I think that is the root of their offense taken towards Jesus. “This guy? This man who we saw grow up here, who does He think He is? This guy is not going to be our Savior. He will not rule over us.”
So what is Jesus’s response to their unbelief? Vs4 Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his [own] relatives and in his [own] household.” What that means is Jesus was accepted in other areas on the basis of His word and His works. But the exception is the people from his own town, and those from his own household who could not seem to accept Him. As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt. Those who had grown up with Him found it impossible to reconcile what their natural perception told them from what they might see spiritually.
What then is the result of their unbelief? The result of their unbelief is found in vs 5, “And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” Because the people of Nazareth rejected Jesus, and were in that respect even worse than the Gerasenes, for they had received more light, and greater privileges, they did not flock to Him to be healed or to bring their sick. So these rebellious unbelievers were not delivered from their illnesses. Of course, the most deadly illness is that of sin. And so being unbelieving not only prevented them from being healed physically, but it also prevented them from being healed spiritually.
It was not that their lack of faith rendered Him unable to heal, but their lack of faith prevented them from coming to be healed. Jesus had just healed a dead girl, the daughter of Jarius. She had no faith herself being dead. But still Jesus healed her. The demoniac of the Gerasenes had no faith, being demonically possessed, but he was healed from demonic oppression. So Jesus could have healed, but their unbelief hindered them from coming to Him. That’s why I quoted the verse earlier that said, as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become sons of God.” There is a responsibility on our part to believe, to receive Him as Lord and Savior. And the people of Nazareth would not do that and so were not delivered.
And that reaction on their part, caused Jesus to be amazed at their unbelief. Vs 6, “And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.” That’s a poor translation. The way that sounds it seems as though Jesus wondered why they didn’t believe. No, Jesus didn’t wonder why. Jesus knew full well why they refused to believe. What it means is that Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. Or even better, He marveled at their unbelief. It’s like when you see a tremendous car accident. You might marvel at it. You might say, how could someone be that stupid? How could someone be that blind? I think that’s the thought here.
In another instance, the scripture says that Jesus marveled at the centurions faith who asked that Jesus speak and his servant would be healed. And He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” So here is the opposite to great faith, which is great unbelief, and Jesus marvels that they could have been given so much light, so much privilege, and yet be so unbelieving.
And so Jesus left Nazareth and preached the gospel to other villages in that region where His gospel would be received and believed.
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