Unbelief Blocks the Supernatural

From the desk of Pastor Ben

“He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”
                        (Matthew 13:58)

Jesus did His miracles to strengthen the faith of those who trusted Him. Although God could have worked through Him to perform miracles in the absence of faith, He chose not to do so when there was willful unbelief. The Lord possessed all His supernatural power at Nazareth, but the Jews’ unbelief caused Him not to fully exercise that power (Matthew 7:6). His signs were beneficial only as they led sinners to faith in Him or strengthened those who already believed. Miracles did not benefit those who were fixed in their unbelief — miracles were not for entertaining the crowds or satisfying ungodly curiosity.
We would do well to consider the case of the man born blind in John 9:1-3.
“As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him’”
After Jesus restored the man’s sight, he was brought before the Pharisees who debated Jesus’ credibility in the miracle and questioned the man. The man’s favorable testimony of Jesus only served to harden the Pharisees in their unbelief. But when the healed man realized that Jesus was the Messiah, he turned to Him in saving faith.
The Pharisees stubbornness in John 9 illustrates that when unbelief meets Christ’s miracles, it rejects them (see vs. 6-41). Unbelief rejects God’s works because it rejects His truth.

Ask Yourself:
You are within your rights and privileges as a follower of Christ to ask Him for miracles, to pray for seemingly impossible things. But how would a positive response from Him advance your faith or serve as a beacon of His power to others? That is an important question to answer.

Unbelief Is Blind to the Truth

From the desk of Pastor Ben

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.” (Matthew 13:57)

The people in Nazareth “took offense” (Greek, scandalize, from which we get the English word scandalize) at Jesus’ claims, especially since they came from one so ordinary, with no formal theological education or official religious status.
The New Testament does not tell us exactly what Jesus taught on either appearance in the Nazareth synagogue. However, during both occasions, the Lord caused His hearers to stumble at what He declared. No doubt he exposed the hypocrisy of their wicked desire for Him to perform miracles for miracles’ sake. He likely spoke to them as well about their sinfulness and need to repent. All in all, the people were antagonistic toward Jesus because their firm unbelief made them blind to the truth. “While seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13:13; 1 Corinthians 1:23).
The gospel will offend a person until he allows god’s truth to plow up the hard soil of his heart. Then that man or woman must confess sin and forsake it. The truth of the gospel will be hidden and the blessing of knowing Christ will be lost until a person faces his sin in genuine repentance.

Ask Yourself:
You probably aren’t offended by Jesus. You love Him. You’ve given your heart to Him. But are you offended by what life with Him costs at times? Offended by the fact that obedience doesn’t always result in visible blessing? How should you deal with these instances of disillusionment?

From the desk of Pastor Ben
Unbelief Focuses on the Irrelevant
“Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and his brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”     (Matthew 13:55-56)
Jesus was simply an average carpenter’s son to those friends and relatives who knew Him while He grew up. This commonness of Jesus and His family contributed to the people’s’ stumbling over His true identity. It was difficult for them to accept Him as a great teacher, much less as the Messiah.
Like people throughout church history, residents of Nazareth found many excuses and irrelevant facts to distract them from the real issues and prevent them from believing. People today don’t like the personality of the evangelist, claim all church members are hypocrites, and dislike the details and order of a worship service. There is always a rationalization for them to reject the clear message of Jesus Christ. The genuine seeker, on the other hand, may have a lot of questions about the Bible and the gospel before turning in faith, but they prove their sincerity by eventually accepting the truth.
True skeptics are easily offended by the most trivial things Christians do, and they often allow those matters to be all-important and the center of their perspective. As for most citizens of Nazareth, they allowed pride, envy, resentment, embarrassment,and dozens of other sinful factors to fill their hearts and prevent them from coming to salvation. We dare not do likewise, or allow others to hide behind irrelevant obstacles to saving faith.
Ask Yourself:
Beyond the smokescreens that hinder people from receiving salvation, we believers can still be quite adept at using all kinds of excuses to keep us from taking Christ’s claims seriously enough to live by them. What are some reasons you’re using to justify less-than-biblical living?

From the desk of Pastor Ben
Unbelief Blurs the Obvious – Part 2
“They were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’”         (Matthew 13:54b
Just as the religious leaders did, the people of Jesus’ own home synagogue allowed willful unbelief and prejudice to blur the obvious truth about who He was. They refused to let the seed of the Father’s Word and the Son’s specific gospel message penetrate their sin-hardened hearts. This phenomenon happened and still does, in large part because “men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Their stubborn refusal to believe their Messiah occurred in the face of overwhelming evidence, and because they wanted to keep their sin. The Jews preferred their way to Christ’s words and way.
When people reject the Lord, even the most convincing evidence and arguments won’t persuade them to turn from error to truth (Luke 16:31). Members of sects & groups and those who prefer liberal and postmodern theologies always seem to find countless arguments for not acknowledging who Jesus really is and for discounting the most obvious Scripture truths. They have an academic respect for the Bible but don’t apply its precepts, and they want to honor Christ in a superficial way without embracing Him as Lord and Savior. To such people, our Lord continues to say, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matthew 7:21).
Ask Yourself:
How deeply are you affected by the fact that people who reject the truth about Christ are dooming themselves to eternal damnation? How often is this heart’s cry a part of your praying? How are you laboring to present authentic faith to those who are turning away from Christ?

From the desk of Pastor Ben
Unbelief Blurs the Obvious – Part 1
They were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?”         (Matthew 13:54b)
The Jews’ unbelieving attitude against Jesus remained the same. Their skeptical question revealed again their refusal to recognize the obvious. We have to ask how they could for a second time reject their Messiah when it was obvious God had empowered Him. To this point, the Lord had taught the truth about everything pertaining to spiritual life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), and demonstrated an unrivaled, omniscient, and omnipotent mastery over it all.
Our Lord did not study at an elite rabbinical school or have any more formal Bible training than the average layman. So when He taught the people, the religious leaders were amazed, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” (John 7:15) In spite of having no academic credentials, Jesus’ spiritual and moral wisdom was so credible and profound that His critics could not refute Him.
Nicodemus immediately conceded that Christ had “come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless god is with him” (John 3:2). Later, Jesus urged a group of Jews who wanted to stone Him, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not 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” (10:37-38).
How could the Jews not embrace the obvious that Jesus was God, when that was the only explanation for the extraordinary things He did in His ministry?
Ask Yourself:
What continues to mystify you as to why people can’t see the hand of God in creation, the hand of God in world events, the hand of God in people’s lives who are so obviously changed by his presence in their hearts? How have you seen the hand of God on display in recent days?

From the desk of Pastor Ben
Jesus Returns to Nazareth
“He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue.”
                    (Matthew 13:54)
Jesus returned to Nazareth following His baptism and temptations (Matthew 4:12-13), and Luke tells us the response to Him then was the same as on this occasion. Then, Jesus had been gone just a short time and was still a familiar figure in the Nazareth synagogue. The devout Jews present on that particular Sabbath had attended services there for many years. They might have thought things would go on as always, but they would witness a fundamental change in Jesus. While away from town, Jesus began His ministry and became well known in the region: News about Him spread through all the surrounding district . . . And He was praised by all” (Luke 4:14b-15b).
For that earlier Sabbath, Jesus stood and read the familiar messianic passage of Isaiah 61:1-2 (see Luke 4:16-22). Realizing that the people’s initial response (4:22) derived merely from a faithless recognition of His popularity and power, Jesus exposed their real motives — wanting to see signs without having to believe. He reminded them of the drought and famine god had sent during the time of Elijah, the divine mercy shown to the Gentile widow of Zarephath, and how God had healed Naaman the Syrian of leprosy but no Israelites during Elisha’s day (vs. 23-27). Jesus’ point is clear: God accepts believing Gentiles, but not unbelieving Jews.
In their attempt to kill Jesus (vs. 28-29), the Jews revealed their evil character. They selfishly wanted only entertainment and earthly benefits from a miracle worker, not forgiveness of sins and salvation from the Messiah.
Ask Yourself:
We, too, can be guilty of wanting Jesus primarily for the things he can do for us, for the way He makes us feel, fo the possibility of answers to our selfish prayers. What happens when these become the primary motives of our faith? How have you experienced the disappointment?

From the desk of Pastor Ben
The Importance of Relationship – Part 2
Stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”     (Matthew 12:49-50)
Being a member of Christ’s human family did not by itself merit salvation. Any gospel invitation He ever gave implicitly included His relatives, because they too needed redemption from darkness to light. Anyone who faithfully obeys Jesus is a member of His spiritual family. That’s why He tells us here in these verses, “Whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus’ use of “whoever” denotes the universal inclusiveness of His invitation (Matthew 18:11-14; 1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9): no one who believes is excluded, and no one who does not believe is included. God’s great desire for all humanity is that people be well-pleased with His Son, just as He is (Matthew 3:17), and that they believe and obey the Savior (John 6:29). Outside of such relationship, God can’t and won’t give spiritual help, and a person can’t truly serve Him.
Having a right relationship to Jesus, however, demands much more than just a rhetorical statement of intellectual understanding or superficial loyalty (see Matthew 7:21-23). A true saving relationship results only when we humbly respond to the gospel of grace, as described at the birth of the church: “When they heard Peter’s sermon, they were pierced to the heart, and said . . . ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 2:37-38)
Ask Yourself:
How has God helped you overcome any doubts about the salvation you have received by His grace, through faith? What gives you confidence that your relationship with Him is not based on words or mental assent, but rather on His own sure promises and your genuine repentance?

From the desk of Pastor Ben
The Importance of Relationship – Part 1
Stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”     (Matthew 12:49-50)
When Jesus’ family came looking for Him (Matthew 12:46-47), it gave Him the perfect opportunity to illustrate the necessity of a personal, saving relationship with Him. During our Lord’s earthly ministry, no evidence clearly revealed that any member of His family, other than His mother, Mary, trusted in Him as Savior and Messiah. His brothers did not believe (John 7:5) — although they did later (Acts 1:14) — and perhaps even Mary, despite divine revelations to her in Luke 1:26-2:38, had not embraced Jesus as her Lord.
Scripture does not tell us precisely why Christ’s earthly family members sought Him (Mark 3:31-32; Luke 8:19-20), but likely, they were very concerned about His safety and even joined friends from Nazareth in fearing that He had “lost His senses” (Mark 3:21). The people probably already had passed rumor’s along of the Pharisees plan to kill Jesus. So, His family, likely, wanted to convince Him to discontinue His ministry and get Him to go into hiding until the trouble passed.
Some public teachers would have been greatly upset if their families did as Jesus’ family did, but our Lord was not upset. He loved His family (John 19:26-27) and understood their concerns; but He used this occasion to declare a more transcendent truth: all genuine disciples were His spiritual family. So, Jesus was not renouncing His physical family; He was just teaching that anyone who believes can become an intimate member of His divine family, and that ultimately, only God’s family matters.
Ask Yourself:
In what ways are your ties with brothers and sisters in Christ more intense and meaningful than even the ties of natural family relationships? How has God knit you together through shared experience and belief to form un-breakable bonds of unity, togetherness, and joy?

From the desk of Pastor Ben
The Danger of Moral Reform – Part 2
Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, “I will return to my house from which I came”; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself.             (Matthew 12:43-45a)
A terrible aspect of formal, pharisaic religion is that it tends to get more ungodly over the generations. Jesus indicted the religious leaders: “Woe to you, scribes and arises, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make I’m twice as much  a son of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:15). One who is discipled into legalism often becomes more self-righteous than the person discipling them.
It is far easier to reach someone overwhelmed with a sense of sin and guilt than someone who has a false security of his own morality. That’s why Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). Remember, it was not the common, unrighteousness people of Israel who crucified Jesus, it was the arrogant religious leaders who were proud of their own goodness.
Many years later, the apostle Peter also warned of the danger of personal reformation without true regeneration (2 Peter 2:20-22). Such an individual, who merely escapes the world’s pollutions for a time, will eventually revert back to sin just as the dog returns to its vomit or the pig back to its mud — because their nature was not really changed. We can’t emphasize enough that outer reformation without inner transformation does not bring justification for sins.
Ask Yourself:
Are you ever tempted to think that you can manage just fine without God’s help, or perhaps that God is fortunate to have someone of your high standards and character on board with Him? How does self-righteousness sneak into your manner of thinking and living?

From the desk of Pastor Ben

The Danger of Moral Reform – Part 1

“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself.”         (Matthew 12:43-45a)

In these verses, Jesus provides the picture of what happens when religious and moral reformation occurs apart from a right relationship to Him. The parable’s main character is a demon whose specific evil characteristics are unidentified. For whatever reason, and by whatever means, an un-named man became free of this evil spirit. Perhaps the man morally renounced a sin and the demon temporarily lost control over him, or maybe Jesus cleansed the man of the demon but the man did not fully embrace Jesus.
After a time, the unclean spirit decided to “return to his house from which he came,” which indicates he still had a strong sense of ownership over the man. That the spirit was so easily able to re-enter the man, along with other more evil spirits, proves the practical reality of his possession. The unoccupied nature (by any other demons) of the house, along with its clean, orderly status, suggests that the human resident had engaged in some sort of real moral reformation. But such self-cleansing, no matter how complete and well-meaning, is never permanent.
If repentance from sin and trust in Christ do not deal with someone’s basic sin nature, the removal of a sinful habit or demon leaves the person’s spiritual house vulnerable to re-occupation and becoming worse than before. The self-righteous, self-reforming person is subject to Satan in a way an immoral person is not, because their morality blinds them to their fallen condition and need for redemption.

Ask Yourself:
Have you tried to cover over certain pockets of rebellion in your life, not by genuine repentance but by the establishment of daily disciplines and religious practices? What “results” have you seen?