(58) Is God’s Power Limited? | David and Robin Watters

The Preface:

If the work of God was dependent on your faith, how much would God be able to accomplish? If your ministry was dependent on your faith and what you believe God can do, how much would God be able to accomplish through you?

The Passage:

Matthew 9:27-34; Matthew 13:54-58, Mark 6:1-6a

The Process:

What did Jesus ask the blind men? (Matt 9:28)
What was the condition of their healing? (Matt 9:29)
How did the common people respond to Jesus vs the Pharisees? (Matt 9:33-34)
Why did the people of Nazareth think they knew Jesus? (Mark 6:3)
What conclusions did that cause them to make?
What was the result of their conclusion? (Mark 6:5-6)

The Purpose:

What was God doing? Why did He have this written down?

We have seen some incredible stories of God’s power displayed through Jesus. We saw Jesus speak and the wind and the waves obeyed! (Mark 4:39) We saw a man with 6000 demons fall at Jesus feet and beg for mercy. (Mark 5:7-8)

Then we saw some amazing examples of Jesus displaying His power in response to faith. The woman with the issue of blood, had incredible confident faith that motivated her to action. (Mark 5:34) Jairus, although his faith was cautious, with a little help from Jesus (Mark 5:36), he too was moved to confident believing faith that saw his daughter raised from the dead! (Mark 5:41-42)

In this passage Jesus asks these 2 blind men who come to him seeking healing, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matt 9:28) Do you believe? Do you have faith in me? Do you have a confident believing faith in my power to heal? When they respond in the affirmative, Jesus heals their blindness. Jesus then responds with an incredible statement. “According to your faith be it done to you.” (Matt 9:29)

God can do incredible things in response to believing faith. Actually He can do anything whether we believe it or not. But, He loves to do things in response to our faith. I think it’s so interesting what Jesus said to the blind men compared to what happened in Nazareth. Jesus told the blind me, “According to your faith be it done to you.” (Matt 9:29) The reality is that the same was true in Nazareth. “He could do no mighty work there… he marveled because of their unbelief.” According to their faith it was done… actually nothing was done, because they had no faith!

The Plan:

As I ask these questions of myself, I encourage you to ask them too.

What can I learn from this? What is God saying to me and my life from this passage?
- God works in conjunction with faith. The amount of faith determines the amount of work God can do.

What do I need become more aware of?
- What hinders God from working? Do I hinder God from working because of my lack of faith? What limits my faith?
  - What is it like to be nothing? If someone came up to you and said, “Hey man, you’re nothing!” How would that make you feel? But, that’s the attitude God has called us to have. Paul says, “Take this attitude which was in Christ.” (Phil 2:5) Who made himself nothing..” (Phil 2:7) You can’t prove Jesus deity by His miracles, because by His own profession He did nothing, said nothing, and was nothing. It was all His Father working, doing, speaking, in and through the Son (John 5:19,30; John 14:10) This is what God is calling us to do. (John 15:5) How are you at being and doing nothing?
  - As I was meditating on these thoughts, I took some time to ask the Lord, where am I still holding on to something? Where am I still trying to be something in myself? As I evaluated some of the things I have been struggling with in our ministry, I am seeing it really boils down to this. I want to be something. I want others to see me as something. I am not content to be nothing. Even though, when I am nothing than everything I do will be “the activity of the Father in and through me, His adopted Son.” But I am still trying to be something. And in those areas then my activity is not the Father in and through me, it’s me, striving in myself, to still try and be something! How are you at being and doing nothing?

One of the biggest things I am realizing that hinders my faith is simply my own ability. Instead of depending on God, I still try and do a lot in my own strength.

What God challenged me from the words of Charles Price in his sermon on Philippians 2 is very applicable here.

How does God want me to engage with this? What does He want me to do because of what He is saying here?
- How can I act more like these blind men and not like the people of Nazareth?
  - The blind men were nothing. They came to Jesus in brokenness and knew they were completely at Jesus mercy. They couldn’t see him, didn’t know him, and simply had to believe what they heard. They put their faith in Him completely.
  - The people of Nazareth thought they knew Jesus. They thought they knew what He could do and couldn’t do. And instead of believing what they heard, they relied on their own knowledge and ability.
- I too need to believe I can do nothing! I need to acknowledge I can do nothing. Then I need to do nothing… in my own strength, and be content to be nothing, just like Jesus.

The Power; Implement and Integrate

The power to change is in the implementation and integration of what God is saying to us. We can talk all we want, make lots of plans, but until we do something about it, and develop habits that integrate those truths, we will never change. What is the one thing I need to do as a result of this study today?

My commitment:

Daily I need to acknowledge my nothing-ness. I need to acknowledge I can do nothing, saying nothing and am nothing without Jesus!
Then pray for the words to share and for boldness to be Jesus mouth.

Verse by Verse Commentary

Matt 9:27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

As Jesus leaves Jairus’ home, a large crowd continues to follow him. In the crowd were 2 men who were blind. They cried out to Jesus, using his Mesianic title, “Don of David,” requesting healing. Fruchenbaum notes that, because they were “asking for a miracle on the basis of His messianic character, which Israel had already rejected. On that basis, Jesus could not help them; therefore, He did not respond immediately.” ¹¹ Arnold Fruchenbaum. (n.d.). Yeshua, The Life of the Messiah.

Matt 9:28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.

While they addressed Him by His Messianic title, Jesus needed to determine their faith. He would not heal based on his Messianic title, but He would heal based on their faith. So, once they entered the house, and were together in private, Jesus asked about their faith. “Do you believe I am able to do this?”

Once they confirmed that the basis for their request was because of their faith in His power, and not just His Messianic title, Jesus chose to heal them.

Matt 9:29-30 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” ³⁰And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” ³¹But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

Jesus healed them “according to their faith.” Because they believed that Jesus had the power to heal them, they received what they believed He could do.

If that were the measure of what God does for us, how much would God be able to accomplish? (Confident, Cautious, Critical?)

After opening their eyes, Jesus sternly tells them not to tell anyone about what He had done. That would be a tough command. If I were blind, and Jesus healed me, that would be pretty hard to conceal, especially to anyone that knew me at all. But, for the same reason Jesus did not heal them based on His Messiahship, He told them not to share what He had done, because the nation as a whole had rejected him, and the offer of Messiah was no longer available.

Matt 9:32-33 As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. ³³And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel. ³⁴But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

We saw in Matt 12, lesson 50, the significance of a demon possessed mute, and why healing, or casting a demon out of someone who was mute was such a big deal. In Matt 12, it was the last straw that caused the religious leaders to reject Jesus. It was at that point where they first made the claim that Jesus was operating in the power of Satan. Therefore Jesus condemned them, and this whole generation for rejecting him.

So, here again, we see a demon possessed mute healed. They marveled and said, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel. While the priests and religious leaders were able to cast out demons, they were not able to cast a demon out of someone who was mute. But Jesus had now done it twice!

While it did amaze the people, and was a clear sign of Jesus Messiahship, they had already rejected him, and His offer to be their Messiah was now no longer available. And, the Pharisees continued in their claim that He was not the Messiah, but a servant of Satan.

Mark 6:1 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.

Jesus has been ministering in Capernaum, but after a very busy day of healing, he decides to go back to Nazareth, his home town. (Jairus’ daughter, the woman with the issue of blood, 2 blind men and a demonic seems to all have happened in one day)

The trip from Capernaum to Nazareth was about 40 miles. Jesus’s disciples followed him as he made the trek back to his home town.

Mark 6:2-3 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? ³Is 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 rumors and stories of what Jesus had been doing had reached them. And they had a hard time reconciling what they heard with what they knew of Jesus. They had seen him as a child with his parents. They had watched him grow up. They knew his kwerks and his likes and dislikes. “There’s no way he could be the Messiah. The Messiah wouldn’t be from Nazareth.”

So, when Jesus gets up and teaches, they just can’t accept what He is saying. They just can’t believe He is who He says. They think they knew Him, and He can’t be that!

Mark 6:4-6 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” ⁵And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

We have seen some incredible examples of faith in the last couple of sections. The woman with the issue of blood, Jairus, the 2 blind men… God can do incredible things in response to believing faith. I think it’s so interesting what Jesus said to the blind men compared to what happened here in Nazareth. Jesus told the blind me, “According to your faith be it done to you.” (Matt 9:29) And here in Nazareth the same was true. “He could do no mighty work there… he marveled because of their unbelief.” According to their faith it was done… actually nothing was done, because they had no faith!