Come forth! part 2

There are two facets of believing I’d like us to deal with. One has to do with non-Christians and the other has to do with Christians. We are not forgetting this account in John 11, concerning Lazarus, but I want us to see something else regarding believing first. 

Mark 6:5-6 “And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief.” As I was studying John 11, I got to looking at some other instances where Jesus healed people. It’s interesting what I found. At first glance, it would appear that the people’s unbelief was blocking Jesus’ ability to do miracles. It says, “He could do no miracles there...” However, I believe the answer is found in the Lazarus account. 

After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, some believed and some didn’t. John 11:45 “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what He did, believed in Him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.” I find it incredible that some of those who just witnessed one of the greatest miracles of all time – a man being raised from the dead (and not just a newly dead man, but a man dead long enough to stink) – has his life returned to him. Some believed while others ran and told the authorities on Jesus. His life was now threatened because of the miracle.

Can’t you just see the type of person that cannot shake themselves away from the law – even in the midst of a miracle that proves who the Son of God is? “Nope, nope, nope, I cannot accept it. It goes against the law. I’m telling on you.” They are so hung up on how it is supposed to be that they simply cannot see grace or mercy. Mercy is what made Jesus so controversial. His acts of mercy seemed to be contrary to the law which subsequently was used against Him in order to justify crucifying Him. 

Here is what I concluded: When it says “He could do no miracles” (Mark 6), it’s not referring so much as to His ability to perform a miracle as it relates to how useless it is to do these great acts in the presence of those who do not believe. I don’t think it is proper to suppose that His POWER was limited by their unbelief, but that they were so prejudiced, so set against Him, that nothing would convince them. They would have charged it to derangement, or sorcery, or the devil. 
 

In John chapter ten, when Jesus told them He was the only way into the Kingdom of God, they accused Him of having a demon. John 10:20 “Many of them said, ‘He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to Him?’” It would have been of no use in proving TO THEM that He was from God, or to have worked miracles – subsequently He simply healed some of them.

Continued tomorrow