Unbelief and Rejection

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Most of us think we’re open-minded and willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads. But sometimes, no matter how much evidence we see, we remain in doubt. Pastor Nick Gatzke describes a group of people in the Bible who saw miracles and still refused to believe. Their doubt wasn’t for lack of evidence. It was something deeper.

Jesus had been preaching about the coming of the kingdom of God. And he crossed back and forth across the sea to different places to preach and to heal and to cast out demons. And his reputation was growing. Growing so much, in fact, that people had never seen the things that he could do. And they never heard the things that he had said. He was growing famous. And you would think… as he returned back to his hometown, that there might be a parade waiting for him, or a hero’s welcome, or at least something of high honor. You would think that he would be a hometown hero, but that was far from the case.

Let’s read about their reaction together as we follow in Mark 6. Look with me. Mark 6, starting at verse 1, says this. It says that “he went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 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 this wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, son of Mary? And brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him.”

“And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.’ He could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. And he called the 12 and he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, ‘Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you, and they will not listen to you. When you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.”

Jesus had decided to go back home. He had a mixed relationship with the place and the people there, and you might expect that he would receive a hero’s welcome. A true hometown hero. One that the community could get behind and celebrate and the community would be lifted up as a result. But what happened was the furthest thing from that. And it’s really interesting as you look through the Gospel of Mark up to this place that everywhere Jesus goes, it seems like there’s a large crowd present. It seems like the large crowd is actually preceding him. They heard he’s coming and they’re waiting for him to get there. Everywhere he goes except his hometown.

And so it seems that Jesus strolls into his hometown with his disciples. There’s no big scene, no hero’s welcome, and he waits until the Sabbath day to teach. And as the people gather in the synagogue, he does exactly that. And the response is fascinating. It’s a series of five questions, five… of conversation among those in attendance. And it starts in some way from amazement and moves all the way down to blatant, cynical unbelief. Many who heard him were astonished, it says. The first two questions reflect that. Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? They knew that Jesus was not a trained rabbi. And yet he spoke more eloquently than the rabbis did.

But it wasn’t his eloquence. Jesus was able to explain the teaching of the law and the prophets and apply it in a way that was imminently helpful to them. And if they actually believed him, would be life-giving to them. And these first questions sound to me like questions of curiosity, questions of amazement, questions of wonder. But then something… The next question begins to shift. This question could be a positive question or it could be a cynical one in its expression. How are such mighty works done by his hands? I mean, on one hand, you could see how a person would ask that question. Jesus is doing things they’ve never thought possible, never seen before, or never even heard about, and they’re amazed by it. On the other hand, you might remember just a few chapters back when Jesus was doing miraculous works in this town, and the Pharisees accused these works of being accessed by the power of Satan.

So it could be a positive curiosity, or it could be a cynical remembrance of the accusation already leveled against him. But regardless of whether it was positive or cynical, what comes next is most certainly poor form. They ask, “Is this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters with us?” He’s just a carpenter, they said, a local tradesman. He can’t be anything special. And he’s the son of Mary, they said. And this is a low blow. These are fighting words. Because in the ancient world, Sons were always identified by their fathers, even if their fathers were dead.

And so to say, isn’t this the son of Mary? Is essentially to call Jesus’s mother a slut and refer to him as an illegitimate child. Disdain, accusation, doubt. And verse 3 tells us they took offense at him. The Son of God was right in front of them, but they perceived him to be normal. In the synagogue, beauty rang out for all to hear, but because they didn’t recognize its source, they didn’t appreciate its sound. Jesus, the very eternal son of God, full of grace and truth, the true light, which gives light to everyone who was in the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him. And yet the world did not know him. They thought he was normal. He spoke truth and life to them. They couldn’t hear it because they didn’t recognize who he was. And in chapter three, Jesus had received a humiliating blow in this same area. His own mother and his brothers came to stop his ministry because they thought that he was out of his mind.

And that mindset was now spreading in the community. Everywhere else, people were clamoring for him, but not at home. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about and among the villages teaching. The problem at its core wasn’t familiarity. It appears, like the old adage would be true, that familiarity breeds contempt.

But the problem is something different. The problem is unbelief. And our English rendering is not the most helpful here. It’s not that Jesus could not do mighty works there. He’s the all-powerful one. Omnipotence is omnipotence no matter where you are. And he has already done greater miracles in harder situations than this. It’s that Jesus would not do any miracles there. He was not compelled to help them to see. Their distaste and their disdain was so palpable that he would simply leave. And so all the while, those suspicions, doubts, rejections were peppered with cynical questions.

And you know, there’s a difference, right? You know the difference between a general question that seeks to understand and a cynical accusation that’s posed as a question. You know the difference. You can hear it even in the tone very often. First example of that is seen very early. Satan approaches Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he says, “Did God actually say that you should not eat of any tree in the garden?” That was not a question to learn. That was an accusation posed as a question. That’s the true nature of unbelief. You know the difference when you hear it, but do you know the difference when you’re the one asking the question?

And that’s the warning. Jesus warned his hearers just a few chapters earlier to be careful how you hear. He said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you. For the one who has more, more will be given. And from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Be careful how you hear. The way you hear is disposed toward belief, and the way you listen could be marked by unbelief. And that leads to a very important question. You could ask it a couple different ways. Does this mean that our belief should simply be blind? That we should never ask a question or explore a deeper meaning? And to answer that, Very quickly, we can say that belief is not an engagement that lacks any type of thought, nor is belief blind acceptance without discernment, because there are plenty of people in the world who claim to speak for God, but are not actually speaking for God.

If we blindly accept something that everyone says, then that would lead us to a very unhealthy place. But a disposition of unbelief is one that says, no matter what I’ve seen, no matter what I’ve heard, I will not follow. I will not believe. I’ve seen people like this. Perhaps you have too. I can think right now of men and women who have experienced and who have loved ones who put their faith in Christ. You see, they’ve seen the mighty works of God in their lives. They’ve heard stories, maybe even stories like you’ll hear in the baptismal today, of radical transformation that God does in people’s lives. They’ve been given victory over addiction. They’ve had their marriage saved. They’ve received inexplicable joy that they had not previously had. And yet the loved one simply ignores the source of all of those things. They explain it away.

They write them off as cuckoo. Unbelief, a disposition of unbelief, a closed mind to God and to the things of Christ. And so there’s a lot of ways that you could apply that, but just very quickly, do you recognize Jesus as ordinary or as the divine savior of the world? How you recognize him is a way you guard against unbelief. Do you come to his word with a disposition inclined toward belief or cynically inclined toward unbelief? There’s a warning for me and there’s a warning for you here against unbelief. And there is an application with regard to how we share the gospel with other people because we live in a world that is marked by unbelief. And yet in the midst of that world, God still saves people and they have belief.

And that’s where the next section turns. In verses 7 through 11, Jesus turns to training his disciples to be ministers of the gospel in an unbelieving world, to experience the thing that he just experienced and have the power of God displayed in them and through them. And so it says in verse 7, he called the 12, he began to send them out two by two, and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Jesus sends them out two by two, dynamic duos. The need for encouragement is evident. Ministry’s hard. It’s even harder when there’s opposition. So it makes sense that he would send them out together to support and encourage each other. It also makes sense that he would give them authority over evil spirits and demons because their message was the message of Jesus himself. Repent, turn away from your sins for the kingdom of God is at hand. And who are the enemies, the chief enemies of that kingdom?

The members of a different kingdom, Satan and his demons. So the disciples are winning souls for the king, and they’re casting out the enemies of the king. And he gives them instructions about how they are to conduct themselves as they go. You might break it down into three categories. Gives them instructions just very quickly about their provisions. He gives them instructions about their accommodation, and he gives them instructions about their disposition. With regard to their provisions, they’re told not to take even the most basic supplies. No food, no change of clothing, no money, no cell phone charger. Simply the tunic on their back, the sandals on their feet, and their walking staff, that’s it. And in the ancient world, that wasn’t an imposition for those they were ministering to because their level of basic hospitality was a lot higher than ours.

But for the disciples, it helped them with an important lesson. And the lesson was this. If they had nothing to rely on, then what could they rely on? They had to rely on God. The lesson was a lesson of dependence. Gospel work is a work of dependence on God. And their dependence on physical things pointed to the reality that they needed to depend upon God for the spiritual things. How is unbelief overcome? Through dependence on God. God overcomes unbelief through those who are dependent on him. With regard to their accommodation, they’re supposed to go and stay in the same place during the stay in every village.

And that was to honor the host that they would stay with. And it was to prevent them from ladder climbing toward more comfortable accommodations. Because maybe your first invite isn’t the best, but that was important. Gospel work was uncomfortable. True Christianity is often uncomfortable. They would experience that. And lastly, with regard to their disposition, Jesus taught them, if any place will not receive you, will not listen to you, i.e. is marked by unbelief, when you leave, shake the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. Jesus expects that they will go into some places that will be marked by unbelief. And just like those in his hometown, their unbelief could be hostile. And in the ancient world, there was a custom for devout Jews who had traveled to a foreign country, the pagan lands, as they might say. When they returned, they would shake the dust off of their feet and their clothing from those pagan lands and have a symbol of their disassociation from the pollution that those lands might have and their pagan beliefs.

Jesus’ instructions to his disciples is in line with an act of the prophets. It’s an outward sign that recognizes a village to be marked by unbelief and to call a Jewish village, to call a Jewish village a pagan village. That’s quite a symbol indeed. And of course, it wasn’t meant to be mean-spirited. It was done with the hopes that some would see and receive the warning, and indeed they would repent and believe the gospel and become part of the kingdom, which was growing throughout the region. The result, verses 12 and 13, is that they proclaimed that people should repent, and many did. Many demons were cast out, and many people were healed of their sickness. God had overcome unbelief.

And so how did the two accounts fit together. The account of the synagogue and the account of sending out the 12. Why are they placed that way? Why is unbelief followed with dependence? We might say it this way. God overcomes unbelief through those dependent on him. God overcomes unbelief through those dependent on him. So there’s a warning and there’s an encouragement. The warning is watch out lest you be one who rejects Jesus in unbelief. That can cause many of us to worry because we live in an unbelieving world. How will you be successful? You must depend on God. Who cracks into a hard heart? Who takes the blinders off of somebody’s eyes? Who removes the plugs from people’s ears? It’s not me.

And it’s not you. It’s only God that does that. God overcomes unbelief through those dependent on him. And so keep depending. Every day, keep depending and just see what he does through you. Let me pray. Father, thank you for empowering us. Help us to trust and depend all the more. Give us courage as we rest in that dependence. And God, may you use these men and these women and these boys and these girls to be proclaimers of your kingdom in the different areas in which they live. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.