INTRODUCTION
We are living in a world that can actually be characterized by its unbelief. The world does not want to know Jesus, and actually the world does not want you to know Him either. That’s how the world is when it comes to Jesus. “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” (John 1:10) and so one of the most important questions that you will ever have to answer is, who Christ Jesus to you? Do you know believe in Him with your whole heart or do you believe somewhat in Him and need a little help with your unbelief? What makes this question so important can be found in John 3: 16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” and in contrast, whosoever should not believe Him will in fact perish and not be the recipient of everlasting life. Belief and unbelief seems to be a motivating in America today, there are some things we should not believe; we should be unbelievers of. For example, I do not believe that the entire universe came into existence simply by an explosion in space known as the “The Big Theory” no…I just don’t buy the renown Dr. Stephen Hawking’s “no-God needed theory” and don’t care how smart he may be, I truly believe that “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. And even if there were such thing as the big bang theory, I would still believe that it was God who caused the bang. America even today is at a civil war so speak with their belief and unbelief. Some even in the Church believe that same-sex marriage should become the law of the land, and some hold to the belief of the traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Some believe that there should be stricter gun control while others believe that we have the right to bear arms regardless of the violence that permeated this nation. There are all kinds of unbelief’s in the world today but the most dangerous unbelief of them all is the unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s dangerous because even in the very house of God there are people who have “…a form of godliness, but deny power thereof…” (2 Timothy 3: 5) It is dangerous because the unbeliever faces the peril of being lost from God forever. I heard someone say that you ought not wait until God makes you a believer because He might use a casket to do so and then it would be everlasting too late. Of all the unbelief’s throughout the generations whatever it is or was people disbelieved, I submit to you that the unbelief in Jesus Christ stands alone, this unbelief is in a class all by itself. It’s dangerous because this unbelief of the unbelievers caused Jesus Christ Himself to ask the question, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18: 8b) this unbelief of the unbelievers caused Jesus to ask His disciples “Who do people say that the Son of man is? (Matt. 16: 13 – 17) Why did Jesus ask such a critical question? He asked this question because we must know what others say about Jesus, just who He is. What people think of Jesus, determines their destiny, and helps us determine how we are to reach out to them. Jesus asked this question to help the unbeliever’s reaction to us as we witness to them, and this vital question determines to a very large degree the morality and justice of a society. There are even today a lot of false confessions concerning Jesus Christ. Sadly enough, the world has many different opinions about Jesus most of which was developed to suit the way they want to live which is contrary to the will of God. They say He was a good man even a great man, but that’s all that He is. They place Jesus in the same category of other well-known men made of flesh such as John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah but not above them, they infer that He is equal to them but nothing else. Obviously the lost do not know Him, but today there are people in the Church who don’t know Him either. They come to Church every Sunday, and they still don’t know Him and the reason you can tell that they know Him is by their actions and behavior. When they’re stuck on themselves that’s an indicator, when they argue, fuss, and fight over the money, that’s a sure sign they don’t know Him. When they get together to form cliques in the Church, watch out because they really don’t know Him. When they get excited over the singing and the praise dancing but step outside when the preaching starts they don’t know who He really is. Some of people today, share the unbelief that the unbelievers here in our exhibited.
1. THEIR CONCEPTION OF JESUS (v. 1- 3b)
What is your belief? Who do you say Jesus is? In the text, Jesus comes home to Nazareth, He was raised up in Nazareth, and Nazareth was His hometown. And you know there is something special about home isn’t it? No matter where you should move there is something special about coming back home. I’m quite sure that it was a special occasion for Jesus when He came back home but the people of Nazareth did not accept Him in the way you would have expected Him to be accepted. And I believe it was because of their conception of Him. There were some doubts about Him and there were some who just could not accept Him as being nothing more than a carpenter. He was a carpenter; it was the trade that He learned from His earthly father Joseph. He did know about the building trade, He made reference to it every once and a while. He knew what it was all about to build a house, in fact, in the seventh chapter of Matthew He talked about the wise man that built his house upon a rock. In Luke 13: 14, He spoke about the tower that fell, and in the twelfth chapter of Luke, He taught us about the rich man who wanted to tear down his barns in order build bigger barns. He had a perfect resume because He knew all about building upon strong foundations—He actually was a carpenter but at the same token He was much, much more than that but their conception of Him was that He was nothing more than a carpenter and what’s worse they considered Him merely a common laborer. And this is how they defined Jesus Christ our Lord people will do that. Give them the chance and they will try to define you, give them the chance and they will place you in a box and even expect for you to go along with who they say you are. But whatever you do, never let anybody define who you are because only God can do that! He’s the One who created you and gave you breath, He’s the only One who really knows all about you and what you are capable of doing. And here, they tried to define Jesus, they said He’s a carpenter and that’s it. Eventhough they were astonished at His miracles and His power they still stood in line with the unbelievers. No, they couldn’t accurately explain the miracles and the power but nonetheless they concluded that He was just a local man and this was their only conception of Him. They rejected Jesus because He just didn’t have the proper credentials, He didn’t have the education they required, the social status that was expected or the money and prestige to elevate Him in their way of thinking. Sounds like today doesn’t it? They marginalized Him and placed Him a box. People will do you that way if you let them, they will define you to fit their own world and expectations. They did not believe that He was actually the Son of God, the long awaited Messiah; they concluded that He was just a carpenter, Mary’s boy; in their minds He was the child she had out of wedlock. It is sad and tragic to have a misconception of Jesus Christ but so many even today share this same misconception of Him.
2. THEIR CONTEMPT FOR JESUS (v. 3c)
They had the wrong concept of Jesus, and they also had contempt for Jesus. He had “offended” in Luke’s Gospel it is said that they were so offended and so full of wrath until they wanted to kill Him. (Luke 4: 29) But eventhough He offended them, Jesus didn’t hold back, He didn’t negotiate, He didn’t beg, He didn’t say what He thought they wanted Him to say and so He offended them. Most of us know what it is like to be offended. Someone else received a gift but I didn’t, someone else has a wonderful ability but I don’t, someone else is recognized but I’m not. Jesus knew people would be offended because of Him, in fact, it was prophesized in Isaiah 8: 14, “He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” He was offensive to them because of who He was and because of what He said and did. When you really think about it is easy to be offended because sometimes the truth hurts, yes Jesus was in the blessing business but a lot of people were offended by Him and still are! Search the Gospels and you’ll many people offended by Jesus and as a result treated Him with contempt—in the 3rd chapter of Mark, there was a man with a withered hand and Jesus healed him on the Sabbath, this didn’t sit well with the Pharisee and so they went to take counsel with the Herodians on how they might destroy Him. In the 5th chapter of John, after Jesus told the impotent man to “Rise, take up thy bed and walk” again on the Sabbath they wanted to slay Him. In the 9th chapter of John, after the man born blind got his sight back, they doubted Jesus. And it makes me think that whenever God dares to lift us up there’s always somebody, somewhere around the corner who doesn’t like it. They become offended and develop contempt for Him. There are still haters in the world, do you know or do you realize that not everybody wants to see you and I be blessed by the Lord? Just like here with the people of Nazareth that day, there are still people who knew you when—they’ll say I know where you came from, I know what you used to do, and where you used to go. There are people who will always try to remind you where you came from. They’ll say, “You call yourself a Christian but you’re just one of us—that’s what they were saying to Jesus, you’re not significant; you’re just one of us. They were upset with Jesus because they doubted Him; anytime your faith is not where it is suppose to be instead of being blessed by Jesus you end up being upset with Him because you just don’t trust Him, as you should. In other words, you start going down the wrong road. That’s what these unbelievers of Nazareth did, instead of being blessed by Him they stumbled because, in New Testament Greek the word “offended” means “to stumble” to be exact to stumble in your belief. This is why in some of our churches there are people who leave blessed and then there are people who leave angry. Some people cannot stand the truth and as a result they leave the church service offended, because they can’t fight God they will fight the closest thing to them usually the pastor. The unbelievers here in the text failed in their conception of Jesus, had contempt for Jesus, and as a result Jesus came to a conclusion concerning them.
3. JESUS’ CONCLUSION OF THEM (v. 4-6)
Jesus was among the people of His hometown, the people who watched Him grow into a young man. Jesus was among the people who should have received Him as a hometown hero so to speak. Let me say that there is nothing wrong with honoring a hometown hero in fact we do it almost everyday. Whether the hero/heroes is a sports team who just won a championship, whether the hero is movie star or civic leader, whether the hero is a soldier back from war, we love to honor our hometown heroes. Well, here in the little town of Nazareth had greatest hometown hero to have ever lived. He’s different than any other hero; He is our victor who conquered satan and his demons. He is our redeemer, our justification, our propitiation, our expiation, our ransom and reconciliation, and our revelation. The very Son of God, and here they are with their unbelief, there was not one demon in hell that could hinder to the slightest degree one iota of Christ’s work yet they still refused to believe. God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above all names and here they are refusing to honor Him. How about us? We honor athletes; politicians, movie stars, rock stars and hip hop rappers, but what about Jesus? Again, There are all kinds of unbelief’s in the world today but the most dangerous unbelief of them all is the unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ. This particular unbelief is sinister. In fact, this sort of unbelief is so insidious that in Hebrews 3: 12 the writer says, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief” that’s right God called unbelief evil! Verse 5 of our text says, “…He could there do no mighty work accept that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” He came to Nazareth in order to do so much more, but they would only allow Him to do a minimum. In these days of high gas prices, I don’t need a minimum of anything, I don’t know about you but when it comes to miracles I want the maximum of His power. In the morning when you wake up to face another difficult day you ought to want and need a maximum miracle. These people, these unbelievers of Nazareth missed their blessing. One of the most tragic things in life that can ever happen to you is to miss your blessing. Jesus came to do some good, but concluded His visit there by leaving. Do you realize how serious that is? Do you see the tragedy? Jesus was there, but because of their unbelief He decided to leave, they had the very Savior of the world right there in their midst but they allowed their unbelief to run Him away. What a horrible testimony!
CONCLUSION
Jesus actually ‘marveled’ at their unbelief another word for marvel is amaze, He was amazed at their unbelief. Let’s look at it again, the people of Nazareth mocked Jesus, made fun of him, did not believe he was God in human flesh. They explained away his miracles, and as a result of the vast negativism and cynicism He could do no mighty works in His hometown except for a few sick people. I can relate to this in our day and time, because we here of so many sinful things done by unbelievers and taking place all around us until it even makes us marvel at their unbelief. And the question comes to mind, how can you neglect so great a salvation? Salvation is deliverance from sin and redemption. Let me inform you on why God's Salvation is so great. It is great because it encompasses the entire world, it was offered to whomsoever will—it was offered to Hitler, Charles Manson, Osama bin Laden, etc., and even if they refused to believe the offer still stood. The offer still stands right now at this very moment, all you have to do is accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, all you have to do is just believe. Acts 2:21 And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
