The Power of Unbelief

We are told in Hebrews 11:6: "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Romans 14:23, declares "... for whatever is not from faith is sin."  Without faith it is impossible to please God for whatever is done without faith is sin. True faith is not the work of a person's head, heart or hands but the gift of God wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God according to the hearing of a "rhema," a specific word from God's word.

True, saving, faith in Christ is a powerful factor that can enable the believer to treat the future as present, the invisible as seen, and the impossible as possible. Likewise, unbelief is a very powerful force since it restricts the works of God's mercy and miracles. It is true that Jesus healed some people without faith or based upon someone else's faith, but that was the exception and not the rule. As a rule, Jesus did not work in an atmosphere of unbelief.

The Fundamental Causes of Unbelief

1. A Barren Familiarity with the Truth - Mark 6:1-3

After an extensive period of ministry, Jesus has returned to his hometown. Perhaps he went back longing for a more favorable response than his first teaching received in the synagogue. On the previous occasion in which Jesus had visited the city of Nazareth, immediately after His baptism and at the very beginning of His ministry, he had been angrily rejected with furious violence. Instead of exercising faith toward God after he taught, they expelled him from their midst with the intention of throwing him off a cliff.

Our Lord’s reputation had once again preceded Him, so He was permitted to teach in the synagogue. Keep in mind that He was ministering to people who knew Him well, because Nazareth was His “hometown.” However, these acquaintances had no spiritual perception at all. In fact, Jesus reminded them of what He had told them at that first dramatic visit, that a prophet is without honor in his own country and among his own people (Mrk_6:4; Luk_4:24; Jhn_4:44).

To the credit of the townsfolk, they ask the right questions. Who is this Man? What is His wisdom? Where does He get His power? Until these questions are asked, there is no faith. Is Jesus human or divine? Are His words human philosophy or eternal truth? Is His power to work miracles natural or God-given? Once these questions are asked, a decision must be made. C. S. Lewis and others have said it so well: If Jesus is not the Son of God, He is a lunatic; if His words are not the truth, He is a liar; if His power is not given by God, He is in league with the devil, if they are true, He is the Lord God.

The tragedy of the townspeople of Nazareth is that they ask the right questions with the wrong attitude. Prejudice so overrules all the evidence that they answer themselves: "Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?" (Mark 6:3).

These questions are rhetorical, self-contained with the sneer of prejudice and the sting of unbelief. At the very least, they are saying that His birth is human and therefore He cannot be the Son of God. At the very worst, they are resurrecting the scandal of Mary's pregnancy before marriage and smearing Jesus with the charge of illegitimacy.

They found it difficult to believe that some village child, who has grown up beside them, and whose undistinguished public life they knew, has turned out a genius, a great man, or the Messiah of Israel. The last people to recognize a prophet are always his kindred and his countrymen.

It is truly astonishing that the children of Israel, brought up from their infancy in the knowledge of the law and the prophets, trained from their earliest years to look for the Messiah, and to expect a mighty "prophet like unto Moses," taught to believe in the possibility of miracles, and familiar with the story of miracle-working men in their ancient history, should reject Jesus of Nazareth, and not be moved by the mighty works which He did among them was truly marvelous and surprising.\

2. A Brazen Contempt Toward the Truth - Mark 6:2b-3

"Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him."

The English word scandalize comes from the Greek verb translated "were offended," which essentially means "to stumble," or "become ensnared," and fall into a sin. The residents of Nazareth were deeply offended at Jesus' posturing Himself as some great teacher because of His ordinary background, His limited formal education, and His lack of an officially-sanctioned religious position.

The leaders of the synagogue had to recognize the divine wisdom that Jesus expressed, and the divine power that he exerted for changing lives, and yet, though they could not deny the premises, they would not admit the conclusion. Instead, they attempted to disparage him, and to raise prejudices in the minds of people against him. The inferences from their assessment of Jesus were twofold: (1) He was just an ignorant carpenter; (2) He was the illegitimate child of Mary. All this wisdom, and all these mighty works, were discounted because he had a home-education, had never traveled, nor been to any university, or brought up at the feet of any of their doctors of law.

3. A Biased Conclusion Toward the Truth

Unbelief breaks the connection with the truth, by its biased conclusions, that would enable and empower true faith and release the power and provision of God.

Consider these four things about unbelief:

First, unbelief blinds to the obvious. “Where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom given to Him and such miracles as these performed by His hands?" They were more concerned about where his wisdom came from than about what it was because they were into all these layers and layers of rabbinical teaching. There is only one sensible answer to where his wisdom came from, and that is that it came from God. It is obvious that Jesus is who He says He is. He is Messiah, the Son of God. He is the One who has come to fulfill all the messianic prophecy as He told them the first time He came. That’s obvious. There’s no need for such silly questions.

Thus, the only obvious answer to where His teaching and His power came from was God. John 10:37, “If I do not do the works of My Father, don’t 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.”

Secondly, unbelief bolsters the irrelevant. The questions they were asking were ridiculous. “Is not this the carpenter, the Son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?”

What does that have to do with anything? But that’s the way they thought. They couldn’t possibly have focused on the power and the profundity of His teaching and the true identity of his person because they have already rejected Him wholesale. Now they want to attack Him by attacking His family. They’re convinced that this is a nobody from a nowhere family - and that his life began with an illegitimate birth! This is typical of unbelief to focus on the irrelevant.

Thirdly, unbelief belittles the messenger. “They took offense at Him.” The word means they were scandalized by Him. It was an absolute blasphemy in their minds that He would claim to be God, the Son of God. This is scandalous, this is the same word you’ll find in 1 Corinthians 1 where the gospel is a stumbling block to the Jews. Repeatedly the Scripture talks about how they stumbled over the reality of Jesus and over the gospel. This is adamant antagonism. This is the attitude of an unbeliever when pressed with the truth, when the truth is obvious and the truth is relevant. He tries to obscure the obvious, elevate the irrelevant and then turn on the messenger.

Fourthly, unbelief blocks the supernatural.

Mark 6:5, “He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” He shut down the whole supernatural operation.

How astounding is it that they had a person in their midst who could heal all their diseases, conquer death, deliver from demons, who could provide by a word a sumptuous meal for untold thousands of people, who showed compassion, who could show them the way of life and its every aspect, yet they want to kill him?

Aaron Burr, the third Vice President of the United States, was raised in a godly home and admonished to accept Christ by his grandfather Jonathan Edwards. But he refused to listen.

Instead, he declared that he wanted nothing to do with God and said he wished the Lord would leave him alone. He did achieve a measure of political success despite repeated disappointments. But he was also involved in continuous strife; and when he was 48 years old, he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. He lived for 35 more years, but through all this time he was unhappy and unproductive. It was during this sad chapter in his life that he declared to a group of his friends, "Sixty years ago I told God that if He would let me alone, I would let Him alone, and God has not bothered about me since." Aaron Burr got what he wanted.

Unbelief is so foolish. Only twice are we told that Jesus "marveled." First at the faith of the Roman centurion and here at the unbelief of the people of his hometown. But not only is it foolish, it will ultimately prove fatal! As far as we know, Jesus never returned to Nazareth, and the village along with the nation as a whole continued in their unbelief until Jesus would wept over the capital city of Jerusalem before its final rejection of their Messiah, saying, in Matthew 23:37-38,  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.”

I think we are seeing similar events taking place today throughout Western civilization. It appears to be unraveling before our eyes. I don’t think it is merely a cultural shift but is instead a divine judgment unfolding in real time. As societies reject God, they descend into moral chaos, corruption, and confusion. The apostle Paul warned of this in Romans 1:18-32, a passage that perfectly diagnoses any and every society since the first advent of Christ – and our present condition.

History is clear - when a people reject God, He gives them over to their own destruction. This is not speculation; it is the inescapable reality revealed in Paul’s Roman epistle.

From the redefinition of gender and marriage to the suppression of Christian convictions, to the beginning of the persecution of Christians, the erosion is undeniable. Romans 1 is not just a historical passage - it is a roadmap for understanding cultural decline, where truth is exchanged for lies, and righteousness is openly mocked.

As Western nations abandon biblical Christianity, they do not become secular - they become deeply religious in new ways. Paganism, occultism, and mysticism are experiencing a cultural revival, replacing faith in God with faith in the self, nature, and the supernatural. Astrology, witchcraft, and New Age spirituality are not just tolerated; they are celebrated. The Pew Research Center reports that nearly 62% of Americans hold at least one New Age belief, such as astrology, reincarnation, or the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects. Pagan practices have been mainstreamed through media, entertainment, and even corporate training programs, pushing a secular mysticism that replaces biblical faith with self-exaltation. This is not enlightenment. The same idolatry that led Israel into exile is leading our nation into ruin.

I want to extend this study from unbelievers, to cover the example of unbelieving believers.

The Feeble Condition of the Church in So Many Parts of the World is Due to Unbelief – Mk. 9:17-24

Mark 9 shows a group of disciples who had been in training with Jesus for almost three years, but who were still unbelieving believers, unable to liberate those whom the enemy had enslaved.

It is my opinion that one of the basic reasons for the impotence of today's church is due to unbelief. I am not referring to the unbelief of those who deny the inspiration of the Bible and the fundamentals of the Christian faith. No, I am referring to those who are fundamental, bible-carrying, evangelical, praying, churchgoing, tithing, dedicated believers, and even soul-winners.

What! How can these be unbelieving believers? Well, for starters, the typical evangelical, fundamental church has no mystery about its operations. It is just barely supernatural. There is nothing explicable only in terms of God's miraculous working.  Everything can be explained in terms of the natural. Good preaching and singing, hard, dedicated, giving workers, a lovely building in a good location, and a program to suit every one's needs, provides the explanation for most church's success.

Common sense reasoning has programmed our churches to operate by observation, rationalization and experimentation to the exclusion of divine revelation. As a result, most churches are run like a secular business, void of the power and presence of God. So many of our churches have become fundamental with a big "F", and yet survive on, and in fact can only thrive on, unbelief. They pray for revival and wonder why it does not come. Yet all the while they resist any manifestation of the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit except as it fits their ability to manage and program how He should work.

Unbelieving believers have rationalized, psychologized, analyzed, traditionalized everything until the church is paralyzed! If a demonized boy were to be brought into the average evangelical church, as was brought to some of Jesus' disciples in Mark 9, not only would no help be coming, but the members would be deeply perturbed because any such commotion as might occur would upset their highly structured and streamlined worship services. And if the broken-hearted father and his demon-tormented son were not ushered out, they would be directed to the nearest mental hospital where "experts" could handle such cases. How many evangelical churches do you know of that could or would cast out demons?

How many churches do you know that regularly and expectantly pray for the sick and anoint them with oil and see God mercifully heal the diseases of their members?  We are instructed in James 5:14-15, "Is there any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." How many churches and pastors obey this admonition? Instead we explain it away as something no longer needed because of modern medicine, or because God no longer heals through such acts of obedience to His Word.

Jack Deere spoke so accurately when he said, "The surprising thing to me today is not how little God heals among the conservative, evangelical church, but how that he heals at all.  So much of the church is filled with unbelief that I am truly amazed that anyone ever gets healed."

Why was the embryonic church, as seen in Mark chapter nine, so powerless? Perhaps it was because they felt that since Jesus was absent in body his authority had been taken from them. They might have concluded that the physical presence of Jesus is necessary to handle such difficult cases.

This is the excuse that the Church uses most often today to justify our defeats and powerlessness. We believe Jesus gave the First Century church power tools, i.e., spiritual gifts, that He has withdrawn from us. We have concluded that because we haven't seen or personally experienced the powerful manifestations of God's miraculous power that they are no longer operative or available.

We blame our methods, our message and the apostate, end-time age in which we live for our spiritual impotence. We put far more confidence in the doctor than we do in the Great Physician. We rely more upon our intelligence than we do upon God's wisdom. We rely more upon those who claim to be somebody's than upon those who are nothings and nobodies in whom Jesus has become everything. We no longer believe that it is not "not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord," that the work of God is accomplished.

I repent of unbelief, Lord, and turn to you in total trust to become a consistent believing believer!

I believe. Help my unbelief!