And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
At Nazareth, his own country, he did few mighty works because only a few hearts were open to his blessing, though the people had time to reflect and had seen his wisdom and power spread everywhere. He did not and could not do more there because their unbelief hindered, prevented, and barred the way to the work he longed to do for them, binding and obstructing even Jesus, the source of all power and life. God never compels the will or belief, but does nothing without the cooperation of man, requiring the heart to be surrendered and placed in his hands like clay in the hands of the potter to be molded unto honor. Humble, trusting faith that acts before the work is seen receives his power to convert hearts, heal the sick, and give the Holy Spirit, while demanding miracles as proof with a scoffing spirit receives nothing and suffers great spiritual loss. What held him back in the days of Christ still holds him back today, when unbelief, especially among those in responsible positions, separates the church from its divine Helper, weakens its hold on eternal realities, and keeps back fuller manifestations of spiritual gifts.
Visit to Nazareth
The verse speaks of Christ's own country, Nazareth, on His last visit to people He loved and yearned to bless and save. It was given as a chance to undo their past cruel conduct and violence toward Him when He first announced Himself as Messiah, after they had time to reflect and repent and after the fame of His wisdom and power had spread everywhere. Only a few hearts were open to His blessing, so few mighty works were done there, and He left the town.
Though thousands had witnessed His miracles in casting out and silencing demons, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and raising the dead, and many Nazarenes themselves had seen them, they were no more ready to receive Him than at first. Their unbelief came because Satan blinded them, and because in fanatical zeal and the meek plainness of His explanation of the prophets they saw only the son of a carpenter and despised His humble appearance. They had already committed themselves to reject and insult Him, and kept their prejudice and refused evidence that He was the Coming One, the Redeemer of Israel. Uncontrolled pride and self-exaltation made them unwilling to admit the power of God in His mighty works, since to acknowledge Him would condemn themselves, and they loved the praise of men and the grandeur of the world and counted their judgment as perfect as God's. Having set their hearts in rebellion it was not easy to change course, the majority rejected Him and denied His testimony, every display of His divine character increased their hatred and jealousy, and they sought to hinder others from hearing His teachings or seeing His miracles.
At Nazareth the people first wondered at His gracious words, but unbelief whispered by Satan led them to say He was Joseph's son and His words faded from their minds. When He exposed their demand for Capernaum's miracles in His own country and reminded them that Elijah was sent to none of Israel's widows but to the widow of Sarepta in Sidon and that Elisha cleansed none of Israel's lepers but Naaman the Syrian, they were filled with wrath. They thrust Him out of the city, led Him to the brow of the hill to cast Him down headlong, and He passed through their midst and went on His way. In His own country people questioned who He was and rejected His words, resisting evidence and rejecting the Spirit's work.
Unbelief came from prejudice because His teachings interfered with their doctrines, growing so great that He must go from place to place to save His life. Like a fugitive in His own world which He created, He had no place of His own to lay His head, doing few mighty works among them in cities and villages.
How Unbelief Bars Power
He did not do many mighty works there, and indeed he could not, because the unbelief of the people hindered and prevented him and barred the way to the work he longed to do for them. Unbelief binds about and obstructs the way of even Jesus himself, though he is the source of all power and light and life. God does nothing without the cooperation of man, for he never compels the will or belief. The will must be given to the Lord completely, or he is not able to accomplish through human agency the divine work he desires to do and knows is needed.
As the potter cannot shape what has never been placed in his hands, so God's transforming work requires surrender to him. Unbelief withholds the heart like material never placed in the potter's hands, which cannot be molded and fashioned unto honor. By an act of faith a person places himself in the Lord's hands for him to work his good pleasure, and the Christian life is therefore a continual exercise of faith to be in Christ and keep in Christ, a daily surrender, submission, and overcoming that perfects a Christlike character and fashions the life into the divine model.
Christ longed to communicate the Holy Spirit in rich measure, but he found no place for it to rest. Blindness of mind and hardness of heart would not recognize or value it, would fear it or use it to exalt self, and would suspect some hidden evil that would harm them in the revealings and manifestations of God's power, so the Spirit does not descend. Hidden evil in the heart hinders the manifestation of his power, the mind is shut away from God, and the Spirit is quenched. If unbelief limited what the infinite Son of God could do, it still more limits what finite instruments and servants can do. As poor frail creatures they are affected by the moral darkness existing where unbelief prevails and cannot meet it.
The mighty works he would do include converting hearts and restoring the sick to health. That embraces both healing and the Spirit's work on human minds, which unbelief holds back as a barrier between people and God that limits the manifestation of his power. Weak faith as well as unbelief limits God's work in a place, so that where faith is weak he is kept from doing many powerful works there.
Faith That Receives Blessing
Humble, trusting faith receives God's power, while demanding miracles as proof with a scoffing or unbelieving spirit does not receive it. Such demanding does not express the faith that receives God's work, and even powerful signs given in that spirit may then be dismissed as the work of Satan. The lack of fuller manifestations of spiritual gifts is limited in the same way, for unbelief among professed followers keeps God's power from being more fully shown.
Faith trusts and acts before the hoped-for work is seen, and by that trust opens the way to receive Christ's help. Unbelief obstructs that receiving, for it believes only where it can see and walks by sight instead of by faith. It is a heavy load that darkens the Christian experience.
Those who come to Christ in faith can trust that He is able to help and will bless them. Believing God and taking Him at His word opens the way for His salvation and truth to be seen with power. Without faith He cannot work in their behalf, and unbelief brings great spiritual loss, preventing people from receiving the good He is ready to give. That unbelief is cruel and should be cast out.
When hearts are sinful and faith is limited, God cannot work in power for them. What is needed is humble repentance, forsaking of sin, obedience, and living faith to receive His power and blessing. If His people sanctify themselves by obedience to His precepts, the Lord works in their midst, renewing humble contrite souls and making their characters pure and holy. Full and free blessings are ready for all who come to God in the name of His Son and observe the conditions laid down in His Word. Then He opens the windows of heaven and pours out blessing beyond room to receive it, and the Father and the Son, equally interested in securing man's salvation, give with joy from the overflowing fountain of love to those who uplift the standard of Jehovah.
God's work received by faith includes converting hearts and restoring the sick to health. It includes the Spirit's help and the rich grace that makes people wise for salvation, patient, discerning of heavenly help and of Satan's devices, and strong to resist sin. When difficulties arise, faith should go to God to ask Him to strengthen faith and give power to overcome. For the Christian life is a continual exercise of faith to be in Christ and keep in Christ, a daily surrender, submission, and overcoming that perfects a Christlike character and fashions the life into the divine model. By an act of faith a person places himself in the Lord's hands for Him to work His good pleasure.
Unbelief Hindering the Church
What held God back in the days of Christ holds Him back today, for unbelief and faithlessness still hinder what He can do for His people. Believing God and taking Him at His word opens the way for His salvation and truth to be seen with power. Unbelief separates the church from its divine Helper, weakens its hold on eternal realities, and disappoints God and robs Him of the glory that faith would bring. The unbelief that hinders God is especially the unbelief of those who stand in responsible positions and of leaders. Satan seeks to bring a dead, lifeless spiritual atmosphere into institutions and to turn and twist every circumstance to his own advantage to shut out Jesus Christ. Converting power is needed before teachers and leaders will understand the word of God and be willing to humble themselves before Him as learners.
The lack of fuller manifestations of spiritual gifts is due to unbelief among professed followers of Christ. Humble, trusting faith receives God's power, while demanding miracles as proof with a scoffing or unbelieving spirit does not. Even powerful signs may then be dismissed as Satan's work. As when He visited His own country, the same cause kept mighty works from the Sydney church. Such unbelief is an evil heart departing from the living God that always results in separation from God, as men refuse to hear His voice until the heart is hardened and unimpressible to the Spirit. Through cherishing evil thoughts, surmising and speaking evil, and criticizing His messengers, the eyes of understanding become blinded and sensibility to good is lost, so His living power cannot abide in the heart and His perfection cannot be revealed in character.
Likewise criticism and opposition within the church obstructed God's work and kept the church from serving as an agent for saving souls, and words of truth do not profit hearers when they are not received with faith. At Battle Creek, when leaders obstruct the way and the people lack love and sacred zeal, God's work and the manifestation of Christ's power are hindered. This includes blindness of mind and hardness of heart that fail to recognize or value God's Spirit, and hidden evil can hinder the Spirit's work. When the way is prepared, the message can go forward and missionary zeal can revive. For Stanmore the verse is a warning, where the work is going forward and many souls will accept the truth, that the work must not be held back by weak faith lest the same be said.
Unbelief and hardness of heart hinder God from doing great works. His power is not lacking, but those who reject His requirements and choose their own way, rejecting light and turning from Him, forfeit His favor and blessings promised to those who love and obey Him. Unbelief in certain localities hedged up Christ's way so He could not do many mighty works there. Even Christ was affected by the unbelief of the people, and much more His servants, as poor frail creatures, cannot meet the moral darkness existing where unbelief prevails. Therefore God's workers must not force their way into churches that are not in condition to respond to their labors, but must wait until their way is fully prepared. God sends help only when the people see the darkness they have been in and their real need of help, take the burden upon themselves, and stand up to sustain the right testimony and do the work they had neglected.
Rejecting Messengers and Truth
Unbelief among those who profess to be God's people keeps many mighty works from being done, in many places and on many occasions, just as in Christ's day. That unbelief shows itself when those who should first catch the heavenly inspiration of truth oppose Him with unbelief, showing contempt for the message God sends for that time and for the messenger. It shows itself further in respecting people who are bound in fetters of darkness because God has used them, and in stirring doubt and prejudice against messages of truth that heaven seeks to give through human agents, especially justification by faith and the righteousness of Christ, and the same condition causes doubt and resistance to truth.
When God sends light through a messenger who has the truth in the heart as well as on the lips, God is with him and will work by him if he is received as one bearing a message from God, but unbelief toward him hinders that work. There is no virtue in refusing to receive the light God sends, for every ray of light from heaven is needed. God's sending of light is His love, and it should be received cordially, in brotherly love, accepted joyfully and appreciated.
Even so, truth moves on past those who despise and reject it and, though apparently retarded, cannot be extinguished. When the message of God meets opposition He gives it additional force to exert greater influence, so endowed with vital heavenly energy it cuts through the thickest barriers, dispels darkness, refutes error, gains conquests and triumphs over every obstacle. Cherished unbelief is like that of the Jews at Nazareth: despite repeated evidence and spiritual conviction, a person turns back to doubt, and since God gives light but does not compel belief, rejecting that light and welcoming unbelief leaves a person without the spiritual help God offers.
The same spirit that resists the Holy Spirit and does despite to the Spirit of grace still blocks His working. That resistance to the Spirit of God makes messages of warning, reproof and encouragement of no effect, doing personal harm to those who hold it. Such unbelief barricades people against Christ, so that they stand in their own light and gather clouds and darkness to their souls, while all His humiliation and sacrifice was borne to bring many sons and daughters to God. It is therefore the duty of each person to grasp every ray of light with sanctified resolution, self-control, and supreme love for Christ in order to stand in right relation to God and humanity.
At Nazareth, his own country, he did few mighty works because only a few hearts were open to his blessing, though the people had time to reflect and had seen his wisdom and power spread everywhere. He did not and could not do more there because their unbelief hindered, prevented, and barred the way to the work he longed to do for them, binding and obstructing even Jesus, the source of all power and life. God never compels the will or belief, but does nothing without the cooperation of man, requiring the heart to be surrendered and placed in his hands like clay in the hands of the potter to be molded unto honor. Humble, trusting faith that acts before the work is seen receives his power to convert hearts, heal the sick, and give the Holy Spirit, while demanding miracles as proof with a scoffing spirit receives nothing and suffers great spiritual loss. What held him back in the days of Christ still holds him back today, when unbelief, especially among those in responsible positions, separates the church from its divine Helper, weakens its hold on eternal realities, and keeps back fuller manifestations of spiritual gifts.
Visit to Nazareth
The verse speaks of Christ's own country, Nazareth, on His last visit to people He loved and yearned to bless and save. It was given as a chance to undo their past cruel conduct and violence toward Him when He first announced Himself as Messiah, after they had time to reflect and repent and after the fame of His wisdom and power had spread everywhere. Only a few hearts were open to His blessing, so few mighty works were done there, and He left the town.
Though thousands had witnessed His miracles in casting out and silencing demons, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and raising the dead, and many Nazarenes themselves had seen them, they were no more ready to receive Him than at first. Their unbelief came because Satan blinded them, and because in fanatical zeal and the meek plainness of His explanation of the prophets they saw only the son of a carpenter and despised His humble appearance. They had already committed themselves to reject and insult Him, and kept their prejudice and refused evidence that He was the Coming One, the Redeemer of Israel. Uncontrolled pride and self-exaltation made them unwilling to admit the power of God in His mighty works, since to acknowledge Him would condemn themselves, and they loved the praise of men and the grandeur of the world and counted their judgment as perfect as God's. Having set their hearts in rebellion it was not easy to change course, the majority rejected Him and denied His testimony, every display of His divine character increased their hatred and jealousy, and they sought to hinder others from hearing His teachings or seeing His miracles.
At Nazareth the people first wondered at His gracious words, but unbelief whispered by Satan led them to say He was Joseph's son and His words faded from their minds. When He exposed their demand for Capernaum's miracles in His own country and reminded them that Elijah was sent to none of Israel's widows but to the widow of Sarepta in Sidon and that Elisha cleansed none of Israel's lepers but Naaman the Syrian, they were filled with wrath. They thrust Him out of the city, led Him to the brow of the hill to cast Him down headlong, and He passed through their midst and went on His way. In His own country people questioned who He was and rejected His words, resisting evidence and rejecting the Spirit's work.
Unbelief came from prejudice because His teachings interfered with their doctrines, growing so great that He must go from place to place to save His life. Like a fugitive in His own world which He created, He had no place of His own to lay His head, doing few mighty works among them in cities and villages.
How Unbelief Bars Power
He did not do many mighty works there, and indeed he could not, because the unbelief of the people hindered and prevented him and barred the way to the work he longed to do for them. Unbelief binds about and obstructs the way of even Jesus himself, though he is the source of all power and light and life. God does nothing without the cooperation of man, for he never compels the will or belief. The will must be given to the Lord completely, or he is not able to accomplish through human agency the divine work he desires to do and knows is needed.
As the potter cannot shape what has never been placed in his hands, so God's transforming work requires surrender to him. Unbelief withholds the heart like material never placed in the potter's hands, which cannot be molded and fashioned unto honor. By an act of faith a person places himself in the Lord's hands for him to work his good pleasure, and the Christian life is therefore a continual exercise of faith to be in Christ and keep in Christ, a daily surrender, submission, and overcoming that perfects a Christlike character and fashions the life into the divine model.
Christ longed to communicate the Holy Spirit in rich measure, but he found no place for it to rest. Blindness of mind and hardness of heart would not recognize or value it, would fear it or use it to exalt self, and would suspect some hidden evil that would harm them in the revealings and manifestations of God's power, so the Spirit does not descend. Hidden evil in the heart hinders the manifestation of his power, the mind is shut away from God, and the Spirit is quenched. If unbelief limited what the infinite Son of God could do, it still more limits what finite instruments and servants can do. As poor frail creatures they are affected by the moral darkness existing where unbelief prevails and cannot meet it.
The mighty works he would do include converting hearts and restoring the sick to health. That embraces both healing and the Spirit's work on human minds, which unbelief holds back as a barrier between people and God that limits the manifestation of his power. Weak faith as well as unbelief limits God's work in a place, so that where faith is weak he is kept from doing many powerful works there.
Faith That Receives Blessing
Humble, trusting faith receives God's power, while demanding miracles as proof with a scoffing or unbelieving spirit does not receive it. Such demanding does not express the faith that receives God's work, and even powerful signs given in that spirit may then be dismissed as the work of Satan. The lack of fuller manifestations of spiritual gifts is limited in the same way, for unbelief among professed followers keeps God's power from being more fully shown.
Faith trusts and acts before the hoped-for work is seen, and by that trust opens the way to receive Christ's help. Unbelief obstructs that receiving, for it believes only where it can see and walks by sight instead of by faith. It is a heavy load that darkens the Christian experience.
Those who come to Christ in faith can trust that He is able to help and will bless them. Believing God and taking Him at His word opens the way for His salvation and truth to be seen with power. Without faith He cannot work in their behalf, and unbelief brings great spiritual loss, preventing people from receiving the good He is ready to give. That unbelief is cruel and should be cast out.
When hearts are sinful and faith is limited, God cannot work in power for them. What is needed is humble repentance, forsaking of sin, obedience, and living faith to receive His power and blessing. If His people sanctify themselves by obedience to His precepts, the Lord works in their midst, renewing humble contrite souls and making their characters pure and holy. Full and free blessings are ready for all who come to God in the name of His Son and observe the conditions laid down in His Word. Then He opens the windows of heaven and pours out blessing beyond room to receive it, and the Father and the Son, equally interested in securing man's salvation, give with joy from the overflowing fountain of love to those who uplift the standard of Jehovah.
God's work received by faith includes converting hearts and restoring the sick to health. It includes the Spirit's help and the rich grace that makes people wise for salvation, patient, discerning of heavenly help and of Satan's devices, and strong to resist sin. When difficulties arise, faith should go to God to ask Him to strengthen faith and give power to overcome. For the Christian life is a continual exercise of faith to be in Christ and keep in Christ, a daily surrender, submission, and overcoming that perfects a Christlike character and fashions the life into the divine model. By an act of faith a person places himself in the Lord's hands for Him to work His good pleasure.
Unbelief Hindering the Church
What held God back in the days of Christ holds Him back today, for unbelief and faithlessness still hinder what He can do for His people. Believing God and taking Him at His word opens the way for His salvation and truth to be seen with power. Unbelief separates the church from its divine Helper, weakens its hold on eternal realities, and disappoints God and robs Him of the glory that faith would bring. The unbelief that hinders God is especially the unbelief of those who stand in responsible positions and of leaders. Satan seeks to bring a dead, lifeless spiritual atmosphere into institutions and to turn and twist every circumstance to his own advantage to shut out Jesus Christ. Converting power is needed before teachers and leaders will understand the word of God and be willing to humble themselves before Him as learners.
The lack of fuller manifestations of spiritual gifts is due to unbelief among professed followers of Christ. Humble, trusting faith receives God's power, while demanding miracles as proof with a scoffing or unbelieving spirit does not. Even powerful signs may then be dismissed as Satan's work. As when He visited His own country, the same cause kept mighty works from the Sydney church. Such unbelief is an evil heart departing from the living God that always results in separation from God, as men refuse to hear His voice until the heart is hardened and unimpressible to the Spirit. Through cherishing evil thoughts, surmising and speaking evil, and criticizing His messengers, the eyes of understanding become blinded and sensibility to good is lost, so His living power cannot abide in the heart and His perfection cannot be revealed in character.
Likewise criticism and opposition within the church obstructed God's work and kept the church from serving as an agent for saving souls, and words of truth do not profit hearers when they are not received with faith. At Battle Creek, when leaders obstruct the way and the people lack love and sacred zeal, God's work and the manifestation of Christ's power are hindered. This includes blindness of mind and hardness of heart that fail to recognize or value God's Spirit, and hidden evil can hinder the Spirit's work. When the way is prepared, the message can go forward and missionary zeal can revive. For Stanmore the verse is a warning, where the work is going forward and many souls will accept the truth, that the work must not be held back by weak faith lest the same be said.
Unbelief and hardness of heart hinder God from doing great works. His power is not lacking, but those who reject His requirements and choose their own way, rejecting light and turning from Him, forfeit His favor and blessings promised to those who love and obey Him. Unbelief in certain localities hedged up Christ's way so He could not do many mighty works there. Even Christ was affected by the unbelief of the people, and much more His servants, as poor frail creatures, cannot meet the moral darkness existing where unbelief prevails. Therefore God's workers must not force their way into churches that are not in condition to respond to their labors, but must wait until their way is fully prepared. God sends help only when the people see the darkness they have been in and their real need of help, take the burden upon themselves, and stand up to sustain the right testimony and do the work they had neglected.
Rejecting Messengers and Truth
Unbelief among those who profess to be God's people keeps many mighty works from being done, in many places and on many occasions, just as in Christ's day. That unbelief shows itself when those who should first catch the heavenly inspiration of truth oppose Him with unbelief, showing contempt for the message God sends for that time and for the messenger. It shows itself further in respecting people who are bound in fetters of darkness because God has used them, and in stirring doubt and prejudice against messages of truth that heaven seeks to give through human agents, especially justification by faith and the righteousness of Christ, and the same condition causes doubt and resistance to truth.
When God sends light through a messenger who has the truth in the heart as well as on the lips, God is with him and will work by him if he is received as one bearing a message from God, but unbelief toward him hinders that work. There is no virtue in refusing to receive the light God sends, for every ray of light from heaven is needed. God's sending of light is His love, and it should be received cordially, in brotherly love, accepted joyfully and appreciated.
Even so, truth moves on past those who despise and reject it and, though apparently retarded, cannot be extinguished. When the message of God meets opposition He gives it additional force to exert greater influence, so endowed with vital heavenly energy it cuts through the thickest barriers, dispels darkness, refutes error, gains conquests and triumphs over every obstacle. Cherished unbelief is like that of the Jews at Nazareth: despite repeated evidence and spiritual conviction, a person turns back to doubt, and since God gives light but does not compel belief, rejecting that light and welcoming unbelief leaves a person without the spiritual help God offers.
The same spirit that resists the Holy Spirit and does despite to the Spirit of grace still blocks His working. That resistance to the Spirit of God makes messages of warning, reproof and encouragement of no effect, doing personal harm to those who hold it. Such unbelief barricades people against Christ, so that they stand in their own light and gather clouds and darkness to their souls, while all His humiliation and sacrifice was borne to bring many sons and daughters to God. It is therefore the duty of each person to grasp every ray of light with sanctified resolution, self-control, and supreme love for Christ in order to stand in right relation to God and humanity.