Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe who lived with the limitations of our humanity so He could demonstrate how God can live in our humanity.
"He didn't diminish His deity--you can't quit being who you are," explains Jordan. "He exercises His deity attributes at times, and at other times He doesn't; He limits them. But He does all of that based on a doctrinal understanding of what His Father has communicated to Him.
"In Mark 6:3, they're not admiring Him; they're mad at Him, jealous of Him. And you've got to understand their unbelief--their astonishment, their offense--came out of envy and jealousy. At the heart of hatred and unbelief is going to be those two things.
"Verse 4: [4] But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. He's making that point that He came to His own and His own received Him not. He's not without honor except that.
"Verses 5-6: [5] And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
[6] And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
"There are only two times it says Jesus marveled. One, He marveled at the centurion's faith in Luke 7--that a Gentile would have this great faith to believe the Messiah when Israel wouldn't. This centurion understood the Abrahamic blessing. He had blessed Israel, built them a synagogue. They come to Jesus and say, 'He's worthy of the Abrahamic blessing; he's blessed us.'
"These hometown folk in Mark 6 are a picture of what's going on in the nation. That's really the core issue here. It was their folly. They've got all this evidence to believe and they don't believe.
"These are not just isolated incidents in Christ's life; there's a bigger picture of Israel. He comes to His own country, His own people, His own kin, and although He's manifested and demonstrated Himself with the mighty works and the words of wisdom, they receive Him not.
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"Their jealousy and unbelief represents Jeremiah 2: [11] Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
[12] Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
[13] For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
[14] Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?
"That's the idea of marveling. 'Just be astonished. Let it scare the britches off of you.' He says, 'They've forsaken me. I'm the source of life! But they didn't just forsake me, they went out and tried to make a substitute that can't even hold water, much less the water of life!'
"They've taken the Word God gave them, the oracles of life, forsaken it and gone after a vain religious system that can't do anything. Jeremiah told them, 'Listen, you want to be astonished, you want to marvel, you want to let your 'what-in-the-world's-going-on' hang out . . .' That's the situation in Israel and there they are.
"When it says in Mark 6:5, 'He could there do no mighty works,' this is one of these things where faith healers will tell you, 'Well, you just didn't have enough faith to get healed.'
"Here's a bunch of people in unbelief, and when unbelief is prevalent, all they could do is get healed! He couldn't do any mighty works; He'd just go out and heal a few people. Now, the few opposed to the many; the point is it's the little flock amongst the apostate nation.
"All this stuff where people use the Bible to abuse you . . . what religion does with that is they use the Bible to put you under a guilt trip so you'll send them more money to get you out from underneath that guilt trip. There's a lot more dangerous things to teaching people tithing than just getting their money. It's putting them under a guilt trip where you cripple them with guilt, shame, failure and fear. That's what unbelief does.
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"In Matthew 13, it says, [58] And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. He did not do them because He could not do them.
"That's like in John where it says they did not believe that Isaiah 53 might be fulfilled, therefore they could not believe. You see, the 'could not' comes after the 'did not', because of the hardness of their heart in their unbelief.
"John 7 says He's been speaking words of wisdom that they recognize. They're just mad about it because those mighty works make Him the standout and they say, 'Hey, he's just one of us; he's from our town. He's our neighbor; he's raised just like we are. He's not any different than us; he can't teach us anything.'
"You see how dumb that is? If He can't teach anybody anything because He came from your town like you are, that means you can't either. You just condemned yourself. That's what Christ is marveling at; how stupid unbelief is, how counterproductive. You look at any kind of unbelief and it will always be that way.
"John 7:14 [14] Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
[15] And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
[16] Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
"Now you're back in the same situation as in Mark 6. Jesus answered them and said in verse 17, 'If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
"That's a startling kind of a statement. He said, 'If you have in your heart a willingness to God's will that will create the capacity for detecting the divine authority of what Christ is saying.'
"You have to always remember that unbelief comes, not because there isn't enough evidence, but because there's a disposition in the heart that doesn't want God's will.
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"The 20th Century evangelical industrial complex today has created a mammoth diversionary 'evangelism' movement where they think they're going to go and win people through fighting evolution and presenting evidence for creation, for design, for the Creator. And all that evidence is supposedly going to convince people they need to go trust Christ. The answer to unbelief is to preach the Word.
"You know what the problem is with what's called intelligent design? If you prove there was intelligent design behind creation, who is that? That doesn't prove it's the God of the Bible.
"At the end of Ben Stein's Expelled movie he talked to Richard Dawkins and two other science guys and asked, 'Where do you think things came from?' All three of them answered, 'Creatures from outer space.' That is a standard response today, that intelligent life out there came here to Planet Earth, deposited life and left. But that begs the question, 'Well, where did that life come from?' But you see that's the problem.
"That's what Christ is saying: 'I marvel at intelligent people, with smarts, skills to figure things out, and they can't see it.' Why? Because there's a heart problem. 'The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.' Paul writes, 'When they did not like to retain God in their knowledge he gave them over to a reprobate mind.'
"The answer isn't trying to convince them their head's wrong; the answer is their heart's wrong. They believe they can figure it out. God says, 'No, you're not going from puddle to paradise; you're going from paradise to the puddle,' which is the opposite of evolution. You're on a course of de-evolution.
"Mark 6:6 ends, 'And he went round about the villages, teaching.' That's a lonely little sentence. It's stuck in there. Verse 7: [7] And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;
"He commissions the 12 apostles. His answer to unbelief was to preach the Word. That's the point. What did He do in the midst of their unbelief? He just went about the villages, teaching, and then He took His apostles and said, 'Hey, dudes, you 12 disciples, I'm going to make you apostles and send you out with words of wisdom and mighty works.' "
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