The Power of Unbelief
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2013 · 28 July 2013
We have finished looking at the seven parables of Matthew 13 and now come to the final section of Matthew 13:53-58, "Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables that He departed from there. 54 When He had come to His own country, 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 this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
We know of the power of faith or belief. In fact, our Lord said that if a man had faith the size of a mustard seed, he could remove mountains, do the impossible. David believed God and was able to slay Goliath. Abraham believed God and became the father of a great nation. A lame man believed God and was healed. A nobleman believed God and his son was raised. The leper believed and was made whole.
On the other hand, we need also to understand the power of unbelief. As believing saves the soul and enables the power of God fully to be released on behalf of the person, so unbelief stops the release of the power of God. Verse 58 says it so well. "He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” The power of unbelief stops God from showing what He can do.
So let us read in verse 53, that “He departed from there.” 'There” means Capernaum. Remember that in Matthew 11:23-24 Jesus said, "And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for you.”
Jesus had pronounced a curse on Capernaum, and when it says that at the end of verse 53, "He departed from there," Capernaum's history ended and God's judgment began. It marked a crisis in the town's history from which it never recovered. If you go today to Capernaum, no one lives there; it is an utter ruin. It has felt the curse of Jesus Christ for its unbelief.
Jesus went back to Nazareth in verse 54. "He came into His own country." That was walking distance from Capernaum. It says He went into the synagogue and taught them. This is not the first time He had done that. At the very beginning of His Galilean ministry, He went to His own hometown. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.
Let us look what happened about a year ago in Luke 4:16-30, “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
That is a very important text that describes the ministry of the Messiah and, to the very letter, the ministry of Jesus Christ. He was saying, "The Messiah is here in your midst; this is fulfilled." This is a monumental claim; this is the greatest day above all days in the history of Israel, the day when the promise is fulfilled!
“20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’” 24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.”
So Jesus left Nazareth and made His home in Capernaum. One year passes, and now we are back in Matthew 13. His desire is to return to give them a second chance, for Nazareth, that narrow minded, prejudiced and proud town. He went back fearlessly, graciously and lovingly to those same people who had tried to kill Him before.
Matthew 13:54 says, "He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished." He went right back into the teeth of the storm, right back into the same synagogue, and taught them. People would all be sitting there in the same place. In Matthew 7:28-29, it says the people marveled at His teaching because He spoke as one having authority, not like the scribes. First, this means to speak with conviction. Let us look for a moment how Jesus speaks.
The second way He taught was with all-knowing knowledge because He is God. Thirdly, there was grace in His speech, warmth, gentleness, love, sensitivity. Fourthly, His speaking was very powerful. In Luke 4:32, it says, "They were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with power." Power speaks of its effect on the hearers.
The fifth characteristic of His speech is in John 7:46, where they said, "There was never a man who spoke like this man." His speech was unique; He said what no one else said. He didn't say what was obvious, but what was not obvious, and He spoke primarily about the intentions of the heart. He cut through the traditions to the stuff they had never heard.
So what was their response to One who was authoritative, knowledgeable, gracious, powerful and unique, they were astonished. They were blown away by Him, astounded, amazed. But look what was in their heart in verse 58, “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
You can be amazed at Jesus, astounded at Him, astonished, but that doesn't mean anything if your heart is filled with unbelief. How can you explain that? How can you be unbelieving when you have just heard all this? Because unbelieving is a choice, an act of your will, it is something you determine. Let us look more at the power of unbelief.
Number one, unbelief blurs the obvious. Look at verse 54, He teaches, and they are astonished, but look at their question, "Where did He get this wisdom and these mighty works?" That is a stupid question. Where do you think supernatural miracles come from? Where do you think divine wisdom comes from?
Every time liberal commentators on the Scripture or liberal theologians do the same thing again and again. They deny the truth, and then they begin to concoct some impossible scheme to explain away everything supernatural and then they stand back and pat themselves on the back and commend their own intellectualism.
One of the greatest apologetics or defenses of the deity of Christ is the fact that it is not His friends or disciples or the Christian church that affirm that He did these miracles, it is His enemies. Over and over in the Bible, it is His enemies who never refuted that He did these miracles. There were thousands upon thousands of miracles, so much so that John 21:25 says, "The books of the world could not contain them."
Jesus practically eliminated disease from Palestine, taught profoundly on every conceivable subject related to life, death, time, eternity, God, man, heaven, and hell. John 5:36 says, "But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish, the very works that I do bear witness of Me." Everyone should make the obvious connection between these supernatural manifestations and God.
All Jews knew that wisdom comes from God, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and yet they say, "Where does He get all this wisdom?" Did they think He had taken an advanced course at the Rabbinical Training Institute? No. They knew where it came from God. So where does He get this power to do these mighty works - healing the sick, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and healing the lame? Those questions are the stupidity of unbelief. For those who are continually demanding more and more of that kind of evidence, it is a love of evil.
Secondly, unbelief also builds up the irrelevant. When you witness to someone who is resistant and unbelieving, inevitably, they will attach themselves to something that is totally irrelevant and focus on that to divert you from the real issue. Maybe you have brought someone to church, and you present Christ to them. You get comments like this, "They weren't very friendly. I didn't like the seat; the guy in front of me kept moving his head, the preacher speaks too loud, or too long. I hate that music.”
The Jews were totally surprised that a person from their town could have risen to such power. They just wouldn't accept that Jesus from their community could have gone higher than they did; it was a pride issue, an envy issue, a pettiness issue. It was all bound up in their unbelieving hearts, so they come up with all this totally irrelevant stuff.
Matthew 13:55-56, “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” What does that have to do with the truth of what He said? James also did not believe at first but he later became the head of the Jerusalem church and presided at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.
In John 7:15, the same approach is used again, this time in Jerusalem. He went into the temple and taught, just as He had done in Nazareth. And there is the same reaction; the Jews marveled. But this is their reaction. "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?" They're saying this guy can't be special because He does not have a degree. They ignore His words and works because of a lack of human education.
And thirdly, unbelief blinds you to the truth. In verse 57, it says they were offended by Him. They couldn't handle it, this couldn't be the Messiah; they were offended at Him. "He can't be the Messiah!" Jesus must have talked to them of their sinfulness, and the need to repent, and the whole thing offended and scandalized them.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God." When he talks about why God set Israel aside, he says in Romans 11:20, "Because of unbelief they were broken off." They refused to believe, not because the facts aren't there, but because there is not a willingness to deal with their sins.
Only those who believe will understand. In John 8:31-32, the Lord said, "If you abide in My word, 32 you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." It is only those who show a willingness to understand; the heart has to be open. Remember the story of Lydia, in Acts 16:14 it says, “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul,” that is what needs to happen.
The Lord responds with a statement He used on several occasions in verse 57, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house." That was a proverb. They were saying, "No one from our town could be an expert. This is just Him, no one special." But He is saying, "You have fulfilled the proverb, you have rejected Me.”
In John 7:5, it says, "For even His brothers did not believe in Him." This demonstrates that humans are typically envious and jealous, even within His own family. So there was no honor in His own town; He was nobody. There was no honor in His own house; He was just the older brother. And so what happened next?
Fourthly, unbelief blocks the supernatural. As a result verse 58 says, "He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief." There are times when Jesus acted in response to faith, and times when He acted where there was no faith. While faith, then, is not necessary for miracles in the gospels, but unbelief that is hard and overt will always stop miracles.
Look at Luke 17:14 where the ten lepers met Jesus, and Jesus said, "Go show yourselves to the priest,” to pass the test he gives. The minute they obeyed Jesus they were physically healed. This test was done so that they could go back into society, because lepers were outcasts. Jesus healed all ten of them, but only one came back to give glory to God, and Jesus asked, "Where are the other nine? And He said to him in verse 19, "Your faith has made you well."
Jesus didn't mean the man was cleansed from leprosy; he already was and so were the other nine. What He meant was, "I healed them physically by My sovereign choice. Their unbelief ended the miracle at that point. You came back, and receive not only physical healing, but your faith has made you well." Being well relates both to the physical and spiritual, and only that man received the salvation of his soul. Let us pray.