53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Matthew 13: 53-58 ESV
Matthew 13: 53-58 The Sin of Unbelief
Unbelief is something you determine. You will not believe. Unbelief is the hard ground, the stony ground. It’s not like the man who said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. I’m trying to believe; help me the rest of the way.” But theirs was that hard, hard unbelief. “Doesn’t matter what the evidence is, we don’t believe.”...
Number one: Unbelief blurs the obvious. It is the nature of unbelief to blur out what is obvious. Look at verse 54. Here He teaches, and they’re astonished. And look at the question they ask – unbelievable: “From where hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works?”
Now that is an absolutely stupid question. That is a dumb question. “From where hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works?” I mean if that isn’t obvious, nothing is obvious. I mean where do you think supernatural miracles come from? Where do you think divine wisdom comes from? I mean a child knows the answer to that. But, you see, it is the nature of unbelief to make the choice to reject, and then blur out what is obvious. ...
Nicodemus knew it. Nicodemus came to Jesus, in John 3, and this is what he said: “We know that Thou art a teacher come from God;” – why? – “for no man can do these things that Thou doest, except God be with him.” I mean that was obvious. It was obvious. He did miracles all over the place; and these people had seen some of them.
It says, “He did not many mighty works.” Now I don’t know whether or not He may have done just a few. But if He didn’t do even any in Nazareth, He had done them in that area; and you could walk in less than a day, and maybe an afternoon from Nazareth to Capernaum. And the word was all over everywhere. And the lame were walking, the blind were seeing, and the deaf were hearing; and believe me, they were telling about it. And there was no question. In fact, they even said in the question, “From where does the man get His wisdom and His mighty works?” They don’t deny either one.
Now may I add a footnote here for those of you who are into apologetics? This is one of the greatest apologetics or defenses of the deity of Christ on the pages of Scripture. You say, “What is it?” It is the fact that it isn’t His friends, and it isn’t His disciples, and it isn’t the Christian church that affirm that He did these miracles; it is His enemies. And over and over and over in the Bible, it is His enemies who never ever try to refute that He did these things. - J Mac
And coming to His hometown - Jesus grew up in Nazareth, which is by human standards apparently a reason not to believe Him. We know from other parts of the gospels that even His own brothers did not believe in Him. We also know that He was known as a good man, but this is often an annoyance to sinners as well, imagine, a brother who never does anything wrong, and who is wisdom incarnate from your earliest memories of him. As they say, "familiarity breeds contempt".
…45Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One the prophets foretold—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. 47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”… John 1: 45-47
…51Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2: 51-52
Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works - Amazing, we acknowledge the wisdom, that it is not typical, and the works, that they are impossible, humanly speaking. Being able to make the blind see, the lame walk, hearing the testimony of others who had not only seen but received these miracles, knowing what the prophets foretold of Messiah, huh, I wonder where He got this power? Let's think about this, if they, the Jews, Scribes and Pharisees, believed that there is a God, believed in the testimony of Moses, the prophets, then they had heard stories of the miraculous which happened to their forefathers in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the times of the Judges, Who was the source of that then? As far as wisdom, who did Solomon go to for wisdom? Did Abraham find God by process of scientific method, or did God make Himself known to Abram? Was Abraham a man of faith, who believed so hard that it made God appear, or did God build a relationship with Abram, make a unilateral covenant with him, reveal His power over the barren womb, protect him from his enemies and draw him out of his unbelief? If this Jesus does and says things that are supernatural, outside the normal human experience and ability, well then, just like salvation, it comes from God.
38nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the One He sent. 39You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me, 40yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.… John 5: 38-40
Is not this the carpenter's son - You can't be the Messiah because of your humble beginnings, you are a nobody from nobodies. Now you may cringe at this, and think, wow, people were so caste like back then, judging someone because of where they came from, because they were poor. It happens today, and people can't answer simple questions, like, "what is a woman?" They say, "I don't know, I am not a biologist." Well is it raining? I'm not a meteorologist. Is that a cow? I'm not a vet or a farmer, so how could I possibly know? The truth is a constant, and it does not matter who is telling it, how much money they have, what town they were born in, what piece of paper they hold. Your degree does not make what comes out of your mouth true, it was already true or not true before you said it, your mouth doesn't create truth. In fact, this is all the more reason to stand in awe, that yes, He is the carpenter's son, not formally trained, not one of the Scribes from a well to do or respected home. Joseph didn't teach Him these things, especially how to perform miracles, so where did this come from?
Is not His mother called Mary - They knew who His mom was.
James, Joseph, Simon and Judas - They knew who His brothers were, and also that Mary had more than one son, so they knew more than the Roman Catholic Church does.
Are not all His sisters with us - More children, so Mary did not remain a virgin her whole life, what a blasphemous and stupid teaching to come out of Rome, contrary to the word of God.
And they took offense at Him - Why? What was their reasoning for not believing? When I was young, and I hear this from so many today, but I can have nothing but pity for them, because again, when I was young I prided myself on being a skeptic. I grew up in church, grew up hearing about God, my mom reading the Bible to us, but when I hit a certain age and was doing certain things, well, the Bible was no longer cool. I became a "truth seeker", looking for the truth that supported my lifestyle, and I hung out with other "truth seekers", who by shear dumb luck also happened to support my lifestyle. They would say brilliant things, like, "if there's a God, show Him to me." We need proof, right? My friends believed that everything evolved from nothing, and I wanted to believe this too, and what's cool, more than just my buddies believed this, people who called themselves "scientists and truth seekers", also believed this. They were respected in their circles, not like this Nazarene, and what they believed didn't interfere with my lifestyle, so all the proof I needed. I remember watching the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, and admittedly, I was no longer of the atheist persuasion at this time, but I thought Ken was an idiot for building an ark in the middle of Kentucky. If you watch the debate though, Bill makes a lot of faith statements, while seemingly accusing Ken of being a man of faith rather than science. At one point, he is making his final statements, and he says, paraphrasing from memory, "trust science, we don't have all the answers but we are getting there." You have already said you don't believe the Bible, in a Creator, made claims that it is macro evolution and that alone, that life came from nothing, and is in a sense a series of unguided happy accidents, yet you have shown no proof. Saying what you said is the same as saying, "I believe this now, and one day science will back up what I already believe." It's pseudo faith. The people in Nazareth, and the Scribes and Pharisees, they acknowledge the miracles, it's a no contest, but it says, "they took offense at Him". So it wasn't a question of evidence, but rather Who He is and the affront that He is to sinners. He's telling the Pharisees they got it wrong, so pride, not facts, evidence, nor proof, but rather their arrogance dictates that He is not to be believed. He is not from their circles, and even worse, it doesn't bother Him that He is of humble birth. He is a Nazarene, yet even the people there are offended, see Him as a bad omen. There is jealousy, pride, accusations without proof, unbelief in the face of great evidence that this man is from God.
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.” 3Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”… John 3: 1-3
And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief - So in the last post we mentioned hell, and it is a place that Jesus talks about more than any other person in Scripture. It is a place of unbelief, and you wonder, how is that, at this point every knee has bowed and every tongue confessed, yet you still think there will be unbelief? Yes, like the Bible tells us, the demons believe in God, and they tremble. They believe He is, that He is the eternal Being, but just believing that God exists didn't save them or the Pharisees, or Judas. It says, "you must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." And the only people who diligently seek Him, believe in Him as Lord, are those who are born again. There will be those in hell who come to believe that He is, but they will be offended by Him just like the Nazarenes. Why? Because they love their sin more than God. God is eternal, and He is that not only in His love, but also in His justice, He is holy and eternally so. Unless you are born of the Spirit you will continue in disbelief, thinking you are more just than God, that you are a good person, and you will stand in disbelief about His Word, what He said. The same word that He has made equal to His name, you will continue to despise. The wages of sin is death and you will never stop sinning against the eternal God, so you will be removed from the presence of His mercy and know only His eternal wrath. It is perpetual, your desire for autonomy, thinking you are the god of your own little universe, that the true God, the One without Whom you could not, would not exist, is unfair. The Creator of the Universe would not bow to your emotions and feelings, and you came to hate His facts and proofs. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, not repentance, but the eternal temper tantrum. Why? Well, first off, God doesn't owe you anything but that, yet in His mercy He has made Himself known to us by His word, His Son, and even nature demands by the evidences for design that there must be a designer, yet because of our adultery, our penchant for sin, we would believe anything else before we would believe in God, and believe what God says. Those in Hell do not want God for Who He is, as He has revealed Himself, they want a god after their own image. "Truth seekers", who would accept anything as true other than the truth, because it offended them, it demanded that they deny themselves and accept God's explanation for the universe. You must be born again.
So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13: 49-50
…16The LORD is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion Selah 17The wicked will return to Sheol— all the nations who forget God. 18For the needy will not always be forgotten; nor the hope of the oppressed forever dashed.… Psalm 9: 16-18
…6And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life. 7The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son. 8But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”… Revelation 21: 6-8
…8But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.… Romans 10: 8-10
31So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. 33But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.… Matthew 10: 31-33
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