Lost Opportunity, the Results of Unbelief

Lost Opportunity, the Results of Unbelief

Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Matthew 13:58

How often do we think lightly of the sin of unbelief; yet how devastating a sin it is!  Witness the scene which occurred in Nazareth during the days of Christ’s public ministry.  It was the time of His popularity, when multitudes were flocking to hear Him teach by the Sea of Galilee.  He was performing miracles, “and the multitudes marveled.”  When He arrived at His own hometown, however, the inhabitants offered Him a different reception altogether.  They heard the words that He spoke in the synagogue; they had obviously heard of His “mighty works,” for they make reference to them; but they did not believe.  In fact, “they were offended in Him.”  The net result of their unbelief was that “He did not many mighty works there.”  In the face of unbelief, God chose to limit His mighty working.  It was not as if there was no crying need for mighty works.  They certainly had the need.

Nazareth would not have been much different from the other towns so far as having in it those who were blind, deaf, diseased, lame, or mad.  They were not somehow exempt from having the need of mighty works by virtue of some special hedge that prevented such things from occurring within their walls.  At that very moment they had Him in their midst who could perform mighty works.  He had already done so elsewhere.  He had already cleansed the leper, spoken the word to heal the centurion’s servant, healed Peter’s mother-in-law from fever, cast out Devils, and cured the palsied man.  He had proven His power over and over before an abundance of witnesses.  How did they, His neighbors, respond to these facts?

“There were offended in Him,” and they lost their opportunity because of their unbelief.  It was not that their unbelief somehow tied the hands of the omnipotent God; rather He choose to limit the quantity of His mighty works there “because of their unbelief.”  One of the most tragic circumstances which can ever occur to a town or district is for God to leave its inhabitants to their own devices.  He did it in Nazareth.  What an evil result came upon that people “because of their unbelief.”  Let us learn to regard unbelief as the most heinous of sins.  Let us abhor it and oppose it everywhere we find it especially in our own heart.

O Lord, we believe;

help Thou our unbelief.

By Thy grace

give to us believing hearts.

Cleanse us from the 

sin of unbelief.

Where the Bush is Burning

Tomm Tice