Following Jesus against Unbelief

This morning we saw usually hometown kids who make it big, become hometown heroes.

 I remember driving through Wilmington, NC, and noticing part of the highway was named after Michael Jordan. That makes sense.

 But instead of being celebrated & having the road named after Him, Jesus experiences rejection in His hometown of Nazareth. They found Him offensive.

 And V. 6 tells us He was stunned. “And He marvelled because of their unbelief.”

 Almost every time we see a word for “amazed” in the Gospels, it’s the crowds who are amazed by Jesus. But here Jesus is amazed by the crowd. He’s amazed by their unbelief.

 Unbelief is a powerful force.

·      Adam & Eve exercised unbelief and the whole human race fell under the Curse.

·      Noah was called to be a preacher of righteousness, but what did the people in his day do? They laughed at Him. And what was the result of their unbelief? The whole world (except Noah’s family) was wiped out.

·      Aaron’s unbelief led to 3,000 people being slaughtered.

·      Unbelief kept Moses and 100s of 1,000s of Israelites from entering the Promised Land.

·      Even when they got to Canaan, God’s people continually struggled with unbelief and went through cycles of apostasy & judgment.

·      Achan’s unbelief resulted in the death of his whole family and many Israelite soldiers.

·      Sennacherib’s unbelief led to his assassination by his own sons and the massacre of 185,000 of his troops.

·      Judas’ unbelief led to his suicide & the betrayal of Christ.

·      The Pharisees & scribes were almost all unbelievers.

 The Bible has a lot to say about faith, belief, but also unbelief.