We are on Lesson 17, page 106 of the notes. You remember last time, last couple of times, we've been talking about and looking at several of the parables, a concentrated period of time when Jesus was teaching in parables. And so now we're kind of pivoting a little bit from that. And I'm on page 106. I'm going to read from the Blended account. This is where Jesus stills the stormy sea. Now on that day when evening came, when Jesus saw a crowd around him, leaving the crowd, Jesus got into a boat and his disciples followed him and took him along with them just as he was, and other boats were with him. And he gave orders to them, let us go over to the other side of the lake. So they were leaving the western side of the Sea of Galilee, the Lake of Galilee, moving to the opposite side, the eastern side. And so they launched out. But behold, as they were sailing along, Jesus himself fell asleep on the cushion in the stern. He was tuckered out. It was a long day. believe me teaching and so on takes a lot of energy. Fell asleep on the cushion in the stern and a fierce gale of wind and a great storm descended on the lake and the waves were breaking over the boat so that the boat was already filling up and They began to be swamped and to be in danger. And they came to Jesus and woke him up, saying, Master, Master, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Save us, Lord. And he said to them, Why are you afraid, you men of little faith? Then he got up and rebuked the wind and said to the surging waves, Hush, be still. And they stopped, and the wind died down, and it became perfectly calm. And he said to them, Why are you afraid? Where is your faith? Do you still have no faith? They were fearful and amazed, saying to each other, one another, what kind of man is this then that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him? You know, I never cease to be amazed. I'm pretty sure we would be very much like the disciples. But here they are. They've seen him do countless miracles, in fact, even that day. You'd think that these would be people of faith, right? And apparently Jesus was thinking that too. But when push comes to shove and danger comes, it's very natural for all of us, right, to be fearful and apprehensive. And to their credit, what was their first response? Go to Jesus. That was good, right? But they said, do you not care that we are perishing? And that was the kicker. We're perishing. And by implication, so are you, Lord. And you're, you know, you're just asleep in the boat. And why, why was it, why was Jesus concerned that they were so faithless? What, What should, what, how could they have connected the dots with everything that they had seen, everything Jesus had done, everything he had taught? How should they have responded here, you think? Yeah, and in fact, later, toward the end, and he's trying to tell them, I'm about to be handed over to the, the officials and they're going to hand me over to the Romans and they're going to kill me and of course that was over their head and that wasn't on their mind at all, right? They're thinking about the kingdom being established and they're thinking, but they weren't thinking that here, right? Any other thoughts there about what they maybe should have done? Not necessarily what we would have done in their situation, but given what we know, what would have been the appropriate response? Well, their perception, which I think was pretty right on, but they expressed it in a rather doubtful way, where they said, what kind of man is this then that even he commands the winds and the water and they obey him? But they had seen him do other miracles, right? Not all of the miracles yet, but enough. Even that day, he was healing people. And it's just so natural for us to respond to imminent danger with fear. It's out of our control, and this doesn't look like it's going to end well, right? And so, yes, they did go to Jesus, but they were scared. I mean, they were literally scared for their lives. And a lot of these guys were fishermen, and they understood the danger, right? It seems to be pretty clear that, yes, they had seen these miracles. They attributed these miracles to God's working through him. Many of them had already commented that, yes, we think this is the Messiah, but it was still a work in process in their minds, how to put this all together. He's fully human, just like us, and so clearly there's still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. But they went to him and they actually said, save us, Lord. I'm not sure what was in their mind about saving them, but he'd done miracles and yet they were still fearful. Well, I think there's in all of us sort of a respect and a fear for what we call acts of God. You know, earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes that are completely out of our control. And for the most part, we can't even predict these things and they're beyond us. But, you know, some of the sicknesses that Jesus healed were beyond anybody's ability to help. He raised at least one person from the dead, I think, at this point. That's something that people fear, death. Can you just feed 5,000 before this? Feeding, yeah, and meeting those physical needs and so on of people, feeding the 5,000. So I think it's hard to get into the minds of the disciples at this point, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that we probably would have responded very much the same way. I think what it's teaching us is that those disciples naturally are having to work through, what does all this mean? I see God working through him. We think he's the promised one. I don't think that, I may be wrong, but I don't think they've really yet faced the reality that this is God himself. And so they're just evolving in their understanding. In fact, what blows me away a lot is you get at the very end of the story, You know, you're very familiar with Matthew 28, 18 through 20, in which Christ, after the resurrection, gives the disciples the Great Commission. The verses just immediately preceding that, it said that many of them doubted. I mean, even at this point, they had seen the risen Christ, and yet they couldn't put the pieces together in their minds. And he's taken away from them, and now he's reappeared. It's really him. He's resurrected. But how does it all fit together? And so he opens the scriptures to them, and from, well, the scriptures that they had, of course, at that time, were all the Old Testament. And he walks through how all of that pointed to him, and they're still processing it even then. So it's perfectly understandable, and yet Jesus chided them for their lack of faith, and makes you wonder if he would chide us for our lack of faith, probably, right? Yeah, but if you had faith even the size of a mustard seed, right? You could do amazing things. Not because of your faith, but because of who you have your faith in. You'd think you would connect the dots somewhere along those lines. So it's interesting. It's helpful when you go through accounts like this to see the development of the disciples' thinking, their faith, their maturing in that faith. And even when you look in the Old Testament examples, we have a lot of history on Abraham, for example, and there's very clear progression in his faith. And a lot of times when he's stumbling as well, we've got all that, and it's a process. Fortunately, God is patient. Anyway, any other thoughts on this one? Yeah. Yeah, I think I alluded to it a minute ago, but maybe to clarify on it. If you look at all of scripture, the issue is not the size of our faith, but the object of our faith. So if our faith is in us, we ought to be fearful, right? But if our faith is in God, then what's going to be critical about that faith is what our understanding is of God and his faithfulness and his character, right? And in this situation, his ability. So That leads me to think that they were not really sure about his deity yet. Because if they really were, and they really thought through the implications of that, I think they would have acted differently. I think it was evolving. So yeah, he said little faith. But when he said elsewhere, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, I tell you that you can say to this mountain, be cast into the sea and it will happen. What he was emphasizing is not that this is faith that's generated by us or it's our own wishful thinking or whatever, but if you've got your faith in God and you're depending on God for something big, then That's what he's commending. If you have faith in yourself and in your own logic and your own abilities and so on, then it doesn't matter how much, how big that faith is, it's not going to be helpful. So this will keep coming up, by the way, the whole connection between faith. In fact, later today, we'll see that a lack of faith in Nazareth meant that, it actually says that he could not do many miracles there, not just that he would not, so that's interesting. Anyway, I hope that helps. Okay, so let's go to section 73, another very well-known encounter here. So they're on the boat and it got calm, all of a sudden everything's hunky-dory, but they kept on going to the other side, right? It's all on page 108, and I'll read from the blended account. Then they sailed to the other side of the sea. So that would be to the east, right? The eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, into the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when he got out of the boat and came onto the land, immediately he was met by two men from the city who were possessed with demons, who had not put on any clothing for a long time and were not living in a house. but in the tombs. Seeing Jesus from a distance as they were coming out of the tombs, one ran up and cried out and fell down before him and shouting with a loud voice said, What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of God of the Most High? Have you come here to torment us before the time? I implore you by God, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had seized him many times, and no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain. Because he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard, and yet he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. And no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains and gashing himself with stones. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. And Jesus asked him, what is your name? And he said to him, my name is Legion, for we are many. So he's talking directly to the evil spirit here for many demons had entered him and they were employing him earnestly not to command them to go away out of the country into the abyss now there was at a distance from them a herd of many swine feeding nearby now you know it's not Israel at this point right we're on the east side of the Sea of Galilee swine are not exactly popular in Israel any They said, if you're going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine. And he gave them permission and said to them, go. And the demons came out of the man and entered into the swine. And the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned in the sea. I'm not sure what that means about where the demons ended up, but it's not a good thing, I guess. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, They ran away and reported in the city and out in the country everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, the whole city went out to see what happened. And they came out to meet Jesus and found and observed the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had the legion. And they became frightened. Now that's interesting, too. Frightened? Really? As if they weren't frightened by the guy beforehand? But why would they be frightened? Yeah, there's a greater power. So, whoa. Those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon-possessed had been made well. And when they saw him, all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked him to leave their region, for they were gripped with great fear. And he got into a boat and returned. But as he was getting into the boat, the man from whom the demons had gone out was imploring him that he might accompany him and he did not let him but he sent him away saying go home return to your people and report to them what great things the Lord God has done for you and how he had mercy on you so he went away and began proclaiming throughout the whole city in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him and everyone was amazed okay so A lot of things going on here. Maybe to kick it off, you may have noticed, maybe it's harder to notice in the blended account, but Matthew says there were two demoniacs and Mark and Luke focus only on one. It seems clear that the one of them who Mark and Luke focus on was the key one who had this legion of demons in him and he was also apparently the only one who was completely transformed. He wanted to follow Jesus now. We don't hear anything about the other one and so maybe that was not the case with him. But I guess each of the gospel writers had to make some decisions about how much detail to provide and how much to leave out. And so it seems pretty clear that there were two demoniacs and they had very similar condition, but one of them particularly was the focus of the whole episode and he had quite a transformation. It's sort of like when Jesus is on the cross, there are two thieves, but really when we speak of the thief on the cross, which one are we thinking of? The one who turned to Christ and said, you know, think of me when you enter your kingdom. it's probably something similar here. There were two of them but one of them really stood out and most of the action was there and the response was primarily with him. So you probably heard about the Decapolis. It might be helpful to look in the back if you've got your maps accessible. If you look on page 313, map 9-2, where it shows the various regions, it actually shows Decapolis. It's a large region that's mostly east of the Jordan River. And it's called Decapolis because there were 10 very prominent cities there under kind of a common rule. And two of those cities are mentioned in the Gospels here. Some of the accounts, which is which here? Matthew makes reference to the country of the Gadarenes, and Mark and Luke make reference to the country of the Gerasenes. Well, it turns out those are not the same place. It sounds like maybe there's just a translation issue. But if you look at map, I think it's 9-5, actually 9-4 you can see it. Well, 9-5 is okay. On page 316, you can see at the very south end and a little bit to the east of the Sea of Galilee, there's a place called Gadara Harbor, and that's still a harbor today, actually. I don't know that it goes by that name, but then if you look On that same map, we're a little further to the bottom on the very right, it says Decapolis. There's that region, right above the sea in Decapolis, that's apparently where the city of Gadara was. But it obviously had, that was the major place that was in that part of the Decapolis, and that harbor apparently was mostly related to that city. Oh, that squiggle, yeah. That would have been, if that's where they ended up. I'm not sure that that's where they ended up for this, because all it says is the country, meaning the vicinity, the area, not necessarily a specific place. And it specifically talked about the herd of swine going down a very steep slope. Well, you don't have a steep slope at Gattera Harbor. where you have the steep slopes is on the eastern shore and further to the north of the Sea of Galilee. But anyway, there are 10 of these cities, most of them on the eastern side of the Jordan River. There's at least one, Besshan, on the western side. And so that was a region that was not Israel. And so very different people here. And yet, Jesus wanted to minister there as well. OK. What else did I want to mention here? There's a note at the bottom of page 108 that lists the 10 cities of Decapolis. My impression is that over time the name Decapolis stuck, but which 10 cities were the 10 in the Deca may have fluctuated a little bit over time. Okay, we're going to come back to this, but you remember how often Jesus would tell people, don't tell anybody what I did for you, right? Stay, stay, you know, mum's the word. which strikes us as being rather weird, I think. Here, he doesn't do that, right? He tells the former demoniac, go and tell your family, your friends. And I think one of the reasons for that here is this is not Israel. And this is on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And what do you think was some of the rationale that Jesus would have given you if you asked him, Why don't you want people to hear about what happened in this miracle? What do you think some of the reasons were? So it could increase opposition for lots of reasons. Yeah. And they tried to do that a few times. Any other thoughts? And I think both of those are right. Yeah. And so, you know, he had just come, it says, I'm not seeing reference to it here. But wherever he went, particularly in Israel, there were crowds. Why were there crowds? They wanted to either have a miracle done to them or watch the spectacle of it, right? One reason Jesus wanted to get away was to have some time with his disciples and have other aspects of ministry that wasn't impinged by the presence of so many people, particularly if there's so many people who aren't there for good reasons. He wanted to minister to them, but he needed to be building into his disciples. Like, let's pray up a storm and see how they respond, right? And then healing this demoniac and so on. This is all meeting the needs of people, but also training these disciples to have more faith and to understand who their faith should be in and so on. So we're going to see this even next, the same kind of contrast. But I think a lot of it is the distinction between Israel versus not Israel and it's a strategy. He knew he still had some time and he needed to keep ministering and he needed to be sure that the opposition that was going to be coming wasn't premature and that people weren't crowding out, literally, the things he needed to do. a tough balance because he came to seek and to save the lost and to serve people. But it was very easy just with the press of people to be limited and just physically limited in what he was needing to do. But telling this non-Israelite to this whole other area that spreading the news there would bring glory to God. He said specifically, report to them what great things the Lord God has done for you." Now, would they have been thinking that this is the Lord God? Probably not. An Israelite would understand what you mean when you said the Lord God. These people, probably not. And yet, here this guy can be a missionary to his own people. Okay. Any other thoughts on this? Yeah. I think just like the simplicity of like what a powerful minister he would be to the people with the capitalists when they knew who he was previously. And I can just say like the moms holding back their children when he's coming over and being like, this guy is insane. He's like, you have nothing to fear. Jesus saved me. And that would just bring all that curiosity and like that practicality of like, wow, this is something serious. That guy was crazy. And now he's completely restored at mind. Let's hear what he has to say. I couldn't think of a better minister, like a better, I would think that context and that their knowledge of him, particularly those who knew of him or knew him personally, ought to have that response, but the response we're actually seeing so far among the townspeople was just the opposite, wasn't it? They were saying, get out of here. We don't know what to do with you. What they needed was this guy's personal testimony. And so that, but it's not like it's going to be a shoe in. He may have his work cut out for him to explain to people. Um, no mere mortal could do for me what was done for me. And, um, um, it'd be a great testimony. Yeah. Um, tell them what great things the Lord has done for you. So it's always pointing toward God and his goodness and his character. And we're just exhibit A. We're not the reason. OK. So moving on. Page 110. Again, we're at Matthew, Mark, and Luke together. This is the episode of Jairus's daughter and the hemorrhaging woman. reading the blended account on page 110. When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat, so crossed over again, what's that mean? He's going over the Sea of Galilee from east to west now, back to Israel. And returned to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him. Here we go again, right? Predictable. And the people welcomed him, for they had all been waiting for him, and so he stayed by the seashore. In fact, he probably would have found it hard to do anything other than stay by the seashore because they were blocking him in. They wanted more, more, more. While he was speaking to them, one of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him, fell at his feet, bowed down before him and implored him earnestly, for he had only one daughter, about 12 years old, and she was dying. And he began to implore him to come to his house saying, My little daughter is at the point of death and has just about died. Please come and lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live." Jesus got up and began to follow him and so did his disciples. And as he went off with him, a large crowd was following him. See that? It's just inevitable. And were pressing in on him. And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, so that's nothing new, right? Enduring much at the hand of many physicians. They were just practicing medicine after all, right? Still practicing medicine. Yeah. And had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak. For she thought, If I just touch his garments, I will get well. Immediately her hemorrhage stopped, the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus perceived in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And this is funny, right? And while they were all denying it, Peter said, Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on you. But Jesus said, Someone did touch me, for I was aware that power had gone out of me. And his other disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing in on you, and you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. But when the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her. and fell down before him and told him the whole truth and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. I want to pause right there. Frankly, I'm challenged and kind of befuddled. I don't understand. various ways in which Jesus healed people, sometimes healing in response to their faith, sometimes healing regardless of any faith or lack thereof, and in this case the power of his healing went out without him even thinking about it. There's a lot going on there that I don't think we'll ever understand completely. But suffice it to say that in this case, this lady had great faith, and her faith was well placed in Christ. She had either seen or heard of others who had been healed, and she said, this is my best chance. Nobody else has been able to help me. I think he can. And Jesus recognized her faith. but the power went out from him to heal her apparently without him even thinking about it. But when it did happen, he knew about it instantly. I find that fascinating, but I can't completely understand it, which is okay. The point of this, I think, is it's here in, I guess, all three of those Gospels. to kind of round out our understanding of Christ's healing ministry and its purposes, its effects, the mechanics of it. It was not just a one-size-fits-all ministry. There were a lot of people touching him that day, but this one came to him with great faith. Yeah, good points. Whenever I read this story now, I'm reminded of a painting I saw in Magdala, Israel, on the wall, a very large painting, on the wall of what is now a Catholic chapel. It was a painting of a lot of people's feet and obviously dressed in this time period. Feet, but you know, the robes and it was a crowd of people. And you see this hand reaching out to touch the hem of someone's garment, which obviously is Christ. And just the, just capturing that moment. It's, it's, it's, it's a fabulous picture anyway. So he commended her and he says, take courage, your faith has made you well. Was the faith itself that made her well? What did he mean by that? You were placing your faith in the right person. Yeah. I also wanted to mention, it's interesting sometimes the details you see between the gospel accounts. You see Luke, the physician, saying that she couldn't be healed by anyone, whereas Mark says that she suffered at the level of the Holy Spirit. Luke didn't put it that way, huh? Mark. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So we put a pause on the account here. OK, sort of in the middle. While he was still speaking, someone came from the house of the synagogue official saying, your daughter has died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, do not be afraid any longer. Only believe and she will be made well. And he allowed no one to accompany him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. And they came to the house of the synagogue official. And he saw a commotion, flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder, and people loudly weeping and wailing and lamenting for her. This was normal. This was cultural, right? And entering in, he said to them, why make a commotion and weep? Stop weeping. Leave, for the child has not died, but is asleep. And they began laughing at him, knowing that she had died. But putting them all out, he took along the child's father and mother and his own companions, and entered the room where the child was. And taking the child by the hand, however, he called to her, saying, Talithakum, which translated means, little girl, I say to you, get up. And immediately, her spirit returned, and the girl got up and began to walk, for she was 12 years old. And immediately, her parents were completely astounded. And he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this. And he said that something should be given to her to eat. And this news spread throughout all the land. Not the news about her eating, but the news of her being resurrected. So much for the strict order. But here is the example I was thinking of when earlier I said we've got this contrast between what he told the demoniac who was healed versus what he's saying here. What he's saying here in Israel is in the context of lots of crowds and more risk that his timetable would be seriously impacted by the opposition, the growing opposition. So, an interesting thing, you might not have caught it in the blended account, but if you go back to page 109, Matthew's account, again, is a little bit different from Mark and Luke. In Matthew, it begins the account in verse 18, while he was saying these things to them, that's the previous account, a synagogue official came to him, bowed down before him and said, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand upon her and she will live. Mark and Luke have it in two parts. Part A, he's coming in desperation, hoping she doesn't die. And part B, he's being told that she's already died and don't bother the master anymore. Matthew has a penchant for including some things and excluding others, as really all the gospel writers do. And so when I blended it here, if you look on the blended account, For Mark, it's saying my little daughter is at the point of death, and then it picks up Matthew and has just, instead of just died, just about died. I inserted the word about so that it would be parallel to the other accounts. But on further reflection, it may well be that, yes, there was a Part A and a Part B, and Matthew picks up on part B, where he's already learned that she's died. It doesn't include the account about him pleading for her life before she dies, which Mark and Luke do, but he introduces it. And all of them, however, begin this by saying, while he was saying these things to them, in verse 18 of Matthew, verse 35 of Mark, and verse 49 of Luke, they're all saying, He was speaking and then he was interrupted about this case. And so I'm now thinking it's possible that Matthew just got to the point real quick. He didn't include the part A where he's pleading for her life. And it records only the second part after he's heard that she's died. Because by the way, people have already assembled at her place and they're already mourning her death. And so time has passed. So anyway, that's what I mean. So here now, I think for the first time, we haven't gotten to the transfiguration yet, right? But for the first time, I think, Peter, James, and John are also being told, don't tell anybody about this. And they probably should have taken that to mean, don't even tell the other disciples yet. When we got to the transfiguration, he tells them the same thing, but I think he tells them there, wait until the Son of Man is glorified or something like that, after it's all over. So Jesus told the crowd, she has, well, the child has not died, but is asleep. And of course, the euphemism of sleep is many times in scripture used as a characterization of death. because we're looking forward to the resurrection. So it really is a temporary thing. I think he said something very similar to that about, maybe not, Lazarus, because eventually he did acknowledge to his disciples, yeah, he died, and I'm glad for your sake that he did, right? So here's a raising of the dead. a very public thing, just like Lazarus's was, why would he not want this publicized yet? Except he was also in the habit of saying to other people in Israel, don't spread the news about this. Well, Jairus was a synagogue leader. OK. Jairus was a leader of the synagogue in some way or another, an official. It might have put him in a, because he's, I think, pretty obviously Both the parents, I'm sure, their faith in Christ was boosted by this, and that might have put Jairus in an awkward position with the official. Well, the Pharisees also were setting a plot to kill Lazarus after he was raised from the dead. They were. So this would put this little girl directly in their cross. Yeah, so there's a lot of potential opposition associated with it, the crowds. Can you imagine how many people, already there are people coming to him for healing. How many people do you think would be coming to him, can't you raise, my mother died last week, can't you come in, right? It's not that he wouldn't care for them, but they're missing the point. And so, if that's true, what was the point here? Why did he, Why did he respond this time and perhaps not other times? So he had great faith in Christ. And it's pretty likely that if word got out, there would be other people responding, but not with faith like that. It would just be a selfish kind of thing, a natural, but selfish kind of thing. Yeah, it's kind of hard to speculate, but it's often useful to think things through, see if we can see what Jesus's thinking was and his priorities. So all those factors are probably at play here, for sure. Yep. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And clearly the time was not ready. He knew it was going to happen, but it had to happen in Jerusalem at the right time. Okay. Let's see if we can real quickly cover the last two on page 111. Jesus gives sight to the blind, casts out a demon, falsely accused again. This is just Matthew. As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying out, have mercy on us, son of David. When he entered the house, it's apparently Capernaum, the blind men came up to him, and Jesus said to them, do you believe that I am able to do this? And they said to him, yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying, it shall be done to you according to your faith. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, see that no one knows about this. Yeah, right. But they went out and spread the news about him throughout all that land. And as they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to him. And after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds were amazed and were saying, nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. But the Pharisees were saying, he casts out demons by the rule of demons. So you see just there in a nutshell all of those reactions. It just multiplied multiple times. Crowds, healings, opposition, it's all mounting. And then back to Nazareth, section 76. This is Matthew and Mark. Jesus went out from there and came into his hometown. And his disciples followed him. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach them in their synagogue. And many listeners were astonished, saying, where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom given to him? And such miracles as these performed by his hand, is this not the carpenter and the carpenter's son, and the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? Are not all of his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, and among his own relatives, and in his own household. And he could do no miracle there because of their unbelief, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. But he wondered at their unbelief. It's sort of a continuing theme here of compassion, and yet in the face of unbelief, even among those who are crowding around to follow him, there's a lot of unbelief. And at least they believe there might be a spectacle, but they're not believing that this is God at work amongst them. And no place more than that probably than Nazareth where he grew up. This passage, of course, is one of several that makes reference to his half-brothers and half-sisters, some of whom the brothers are named. And by the way, the brother James later became a believer, and in Acts we see him as a leader of the church in Jerusalem, actually. He's the writer of the Book of James, And it mentions also there was a Joseph, who I guess is named after their father. And Judas, that's not Judas Iscariot, right? It was a common name. But this Judas is the Jude who wrote the book of Jude in the New Testament. Even by the time of his death, his brothers were skeptics. But by God's grace, at least some of them came to faith. Okay, well, let's go ahead and close in prayer. Father, we see the emphasis that Christ had on faith, genuine faith, saving faith, and I pray that we would be characterized by that kind of faith in everyday life, not just in the moment of salvation, but in trusting you, obeying you, relying on you, when apart from you, we would rely on our own resources and end up failing. Pray, Lord, that we would not come to you as a last resort, but rather as a first resort, and that you would get the glory and all the praise. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.