This morning we come to a new chapter and section in Mark’s gospel. So far we have seen Jesus perform many miracles and those miracles come to climax with the resurrection of a twelve year old girl from the dead (the raising of Jairus’s daughter), which we saw last week (that was how chapter 5 ended).
All through these opening five chapters, Jesus has been demonstrating that He has power to heal any affliction, He has power to cast out and conquer demons, He has power to control the wind and the waves of the sea, He even has power over death itself.And the conclusion Jesus wants us to arrive at from observing these mighty works is that Jesus is indeed God, Jesus is divine. No one could do all of these things the way that Jesus does unless He is God. And so miracles are given as signs of Jesus’ divinity, and yet not all who hear and see these signs come to that conclusion. As Jesus said when he taught in parables, not everyone has ears to hear nor eyes to see.This is especially true of Jesus’ own family, his friends, and his acquaintances back in Nazareth. And the question I want to set before us as we ponder this text is: Why is it that some people refuse to believe in Jesus? We know of course the big answer is sin, but what specific sins, what specific obstacles are there, for people to believe on the Lord Jesus?This text is going to give us some good examples to answer that question.Christ Covenant Church (CCC), is a local reformed church in Centralia WA. We are a gathering of saints who love the Lord Jesus Christ because He first loved us. We are a thoroughly Trinitarian, Biblically devoted, and Historically Reformed church founded within the CREC denomination in 2021 in Centralia, WA. Learn more at ChristCovenantCentralia.com