Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
When Jesus Marveled | Pastor John Greiner
“When Jesus Marveled” examines the two times Scripture records Jesus marveling—at the unbelief of His hometown (Mark 6) and at the great faith of the Roman centurion (Matthew 8). Unbelief, whether from ignorance or stubborn disobedience, blocks God’s power, while great faith recognizes the authority of God’s Word and acts on it. The message urges believers to eliminate doubt through teaching, obey God’s Word fully, and grow in faith until they can stand confidently on His promises without needing constant external support. By trusting in the authority of Scripture and speaking it with conviction, believers can receive God’s best and cause Jesus to marvel—not at unbelief, but at unwavering faith.
Take your Bibles up. Let's just lift them up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I'm glad for Wednesday night. I'm here to be replenished, I'm here to feed my faith and to stir my spirit. I'm mindful of the day in which we live and I want to strike 12 for Jesus. I want to have victory on every side to bring him glory in Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 1:All right, let's turn in our Bibles to the gospel of Mark, chapter six, and also Matthew, chapter eight. We'll read in both of those gospels here in Mark, chapter six, 6, verse 5. This is talking about Jesus going back to his own hometown. And so they're not. They haven't received him very well, they have questions about him, and we'll just back up with verse 4. Jesus said unto them a prophet is not without honor, but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house, and because of that lack of honor, because they did not believe who he was and who he said he was, he could there verse 5, he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. One version says of minor ailments and he marveled. Everybody shout marvel. He marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages teaching he marveled All right. And then another place where marveled is Matthew, chapter eight. And of course this is very familiar, about the Roman centurion, verse 10,. You know, the Roman centurion came and he wanted him to heal his servant that was home sick of the palsy. Jesus said, sure, I'll come. He said, no, just speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. I recognize authority, I'm a man under authority. I know you are too, your word's good. And so when Jesus verse 10, when Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them all that followed verily. I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Hallelujah. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham, isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion go thy way and as thou hast believed, so be it. Done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. So just a simple message tonight, entitled when Jesus Marveled, when Jesus Marveled.
Speaker 1:These are the only two cases where the word marveled is used, and the word marvel means to wonder. It really has a positive connotation. It means to admire. When I see the word marvel, I think of the word startle, you know, you just kind of catch your breath at something. That's kind of a form of marveling.
Speaker 1:But in these cases one was positive. He marveled at the faith of the centurion, because he wasn't even a Jew and he hadn't been able to find that kind of faith in all of Israel. And the other marvel that he had was of his own hometown and their unbelief and their lack of honor. They said, well, who does he think he is? We've seen him grow up here, we know he's done mighty works, we know he's done all these great things, but who does he think he is? They just said that they refused to honor him.
Speaker 1:And so you know, as I was reading this years ago, I asked the question what was it that impressed Jesus to marvel so much that the Holy Ghost inspired men to write about it? I mean, everything we read in the Bible was written by holy men of God who were inspired to write these particular things. And they didn't write everything. There was too many things. There were too many things that Jesus did and said they couldn't get them all, but they did get these. These were written, and so I think it's good for us to delve in and find out when Jesus marveled.
Speaker 1:Let's just break it down. Let's find out what caused him to be amazed, what caused him to marvel, to wonder, and so, in this first case, as I mentioned, he went to his own hometown to preach. Friends and family were amazed at his teaching. They recognized his mighty work. See, that's another thing. It'd be one thing if they had denied that anything had ever happened. But no, they couldn't deny it. It was so fantastic, so wonderful that they were amazed at that part, but yet they would not give him honor as the Messiah. They would not accept his word about himself. He found the place where it was written about himself. Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me. In Luke chapter four, same time, same timeframe.
Speaker 1:They didn't like it then. They didn't like it in Luke chapter four. In fact, they got so mad at Jesus, they wanted to throw him off the brow of the hill. And I've been there. I've been at that hill, I've been at that drop off and that's the Valley of Jezreel right all through there, and you look over this side, this is Mount of Transfiguration. There's a Muslim town right over here. I mean, many battles have been fought in that area, many armies have fought right there and there was a spiritual battle fought right there that day and he just walked right through the midst of them because it wasn't his time to go yet and it wasn't written that man was going to kill him. They didn't have the authority to kill Jesus, they wanted to. So that's how angry they were and so they were offended at him and there was no honor.
Speaker 1:Everybody say no honor. You know, faith it comes. You have to honor God and honor his word. You know this word deserves honor and Jesus deserves honor. Well, who is Jesus? He's the word, and so they only saw him from the natural standpoint. I mean, they just were stuck on the fact that they grew up with him. You know, they knew how he was.
Speaker 1:He's the son of the carpenter, you know. I mean he was building cabinets and chairs. You know, a few years ago, who does he think he is? And the Bible says in verse 5, he could there do no mighty work. It wasn't that he was mad at them, it wasn't that he was offended at them. He marveled. I mean, how could you be so? I mean I'm saying this, he didn't maybe say it, but it implies how can you be so stupid to admit that he did mighty works on one side and on the other side just say, oh no, who does he think he is? And so he marveled at their unbelief. And so he marveled at their unbelief.
Speaker 1:Now you know, unbelief is something we ought to look at tonight, because we don't want any unbelief in our lives. You know, unbelief always has a response from God. It makes him angry. He was angry at Israel's unbelief. Unbelief always angers God. Now, it doesn't mean that you're in danger of God doing something to you. Well, you're more in danger of the devil doing something to you, because that's a big crack, having unbelief. You've got to drive out the doubt, knock out the doubt in every area of your life.
Speaker 1:So there's two kinds of unbelief. Number one there's ignorance and of course, as you know because you've heard me speak this many times, ignorance can be partial or it can be total, and the cure to all ignorance is teaching. You know, I like what TL Osborne said one time he was preaching. He said many of you are waiting until I quit teaching to get your healing and I'm waiting for you to get your healing so I can quit teaching. That's TL Osborne, right there. You know what a privilege it was for me to get to meet him and go to his home and Gladys and I knelt in his presence. He laid his hands on Gladys and I, you know, just a few months before he went to heaven, and what an honor it was to get to chat with him and to get to know him a little bit. I didn't have a lot of fellowship with him, but that's him. I'm waiting on you to start to get your healing so I can quit teaching.
Speaker 1:So the cure of all unbelief is teaching, see, and so if unbelief is curable, you know, then ignorance is curable, ignorance is curable, unbelief is curable. So if you can cure unbelief, you can cure anything. You can cure any sickness you can cure. If unbelief is present and it can be cured, you can cure anything. What Teaching? In fact, that's what happened here. He sent his disciples out by two and two. His response to being marveling at their unbelief is he sent the disciples out by two and two to teach all over the countryside and to correct them and to get them to gain knowledge. Gain knowledge about the kingdom and lay hands on the sick and cast out devils and bring a demonstration, and so anything can be cured. Any sickness can be cured, because teaching will cure it, cure the unbelief.
Speaker 1:The second form of unbelief is disobedience, stubbornness or inaction. Disobedience, stubbornness or inaction, or inaction. So, for instance, the children of Israel could not enter the promised land. Why the Bible says because of their unbelief, and they would not be taught. They had two teachers that stood up in their midst that saw the same thing To where 12 spies. 10 of them had a bad report. 10 of them said we'd be not able. And they persuaded the rest of Israel. But you had Caleb and Joshua. Both they said no, no, god, they're bread for us. Let's go up at once. God gave us the land. We can possess it. God told us. And they tried to cure the unbelief by reminding them who told them to go into the promised land. It's God, God's idea, it's not our idea. We didn't dream this plan up. But they would not listen, they would not.
Speaker 1:Stubbornness A lot of people are just too stubborn to let go of their theories that they have of God. You know they've been taught a bunch of theories about God instead of God's word of God. They've been taught a bunch of theories about God instead of God's Word. We know what a theory is like what Brother Hagin said A theory is a supposition based on ignorance of the subject under discussion. A lot of people just take theories like miracles passed away. That's a theory and it's a lie. They didn't pass away and so forth and so on. So disobedience, stubbornness or inaction. Children of Israel could not enter into the promised land.
Speaker 1:And if they could have been persuaded to obey and act on God's word, you know if they could have just said, okay, well, we're afraid of the giants, we're afraid of the. You know the wall cities, but God told us to do it. We're just going to depend on God to take care of us. He's taken care of us all these tears. He took care of us in Egypt. He brought us out of Egypt. It looked pretty dicey there for a while, but he brought us out of Egypt. It's been dicey here in the wilderness, but he brought water out of the rock. He brought the quails. I mean, let's just go ahead and just depend on God to do what he said he'd do. No, they didn't do that and they would not. They would not and so they would not act. You know they would not act.
Speaker 1:I like what Smith Wigglesworth said. He said faith moves God, faith moves mountains, but faith won't move anything until it moves you. You know faith without corresponding action is dead being alone. You know we want what God says. We've got to move, we've got to act, we've got to act on the Word, we've got to act like the Word is true. We can't just have a, you know, like a mental agreement with it. Even our words alone Words. Speaking the word and agreeing with the word is the first act, but it's not the only act. I mean, you know, we can confess that we're healed, but if we act sick, then our actions are nullifying the words that we spoke. We might be speaking right, we might even have the right faith in our heart, but we're not acting on the faith. Our faith didn't move us to act. And until we act, you know we're not going to get what God said we could have. Praise God, all right.
Speaker 1:So now the second case, and it's talking about. You know, he marveled at their unbelief. We've broken down unbelief. Now let's look at the second case. Broken down unbelief Now. Let's look at the second case, because Jesus marveled at this man's faith, at this centurion. He said I've not found so great a faith. No, not in Israel. Just look at the adjective describing the faith of the Roman centurion.
Speaker 1:A man without a covenant. He did have a, he did have a, a, a a servant that had a covenant. He had a Jewish servant, but he himself did not have a covenant. And yet, and here he was and he's acting on, uh, he's asking for his on behalf of his servant, and uh, and he had great faith. He said oh no, you don't have to come to my house, just speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed, because I'm a man under authority. And I say to this man go, and he goes. This man come and he comes. And I say to another do this, and he doeth it. So, in other words, he understood authority, he understood authority.
Speaker 1:He's a centurion, he's got a hundred men, trained killers, professional soldiers of the greatest army in the world at that time, one of the greatest armies ever to exist on the earth, and he is a commander of a hundred that looked to him. He didn't get that overnight and he didn't get that by being a marshmallow, and so he is a man that also had pressure on him. He had superiors that would command him to do this and to do that. Go here, go there. You know, come here. There, you know, come here. And so he was really good at obeying and obedience being obedience to orders. And so he recognized that in Jesus he said in verse eight. He said speak the word.
Speaker 1:Only See, he had absolute faith in the authority of the word and the authority of the one who was speaking it, absolute faith in the authority of the word and the authority of the one speaking it. You know your faith can grow to the point where you know you don't really need a prayer group or a you know some prayer ministry to pray for you. You'll get to the place in your faith where you really don't have to ask a whole lot of people to pray for you. You get to a place in your life and in your faith life that you'll identify what the Word says about your situation and that settles it. Now you might not be there yet, and so it's not wrong to come up here and have people agree with you. You know we do a lot of agreeing up here and sometimes, when people have not yet prayed and they don't maybe don't know how to access god's promises, well, yeah, we'll lay hands on people and pray over them and and help them get what god has for them. But our intention here at Glorious Way is to teach you the Word of God so that you can stand on your own two feet. And you know that's a child. A child needs to be held by the hand and a child needs to be guided. But at some time, at some point in time, you know, they leave the nest and they get out on their own and hopefully, if you've trained them properly and you've disciplined them properly, they'll identify good from evil, danger from you, know safety, and they'll know how to go through life without you holding their hand and telling them all the answers and hovering over them like a helicopter. You know, hopefully, you.
Speaker 1:You know I grew up. I grew up in the 50s and my mother let me go play in the neighborhood. I'm four years old. I'm four years old and I rode my tricycle to Woody's Barbershop on Clinton Avenue. Clinton Avenue is a real busy. I mean Clinton Avenue. They got these 18 wheelers running up and down. I mean, it is a big, I didn't have to cross Clinton, I'm just on one side. But she trusted me to ride my tricycle to Woody's and I you know big, big boy, four years old, walking there, you know, and I got my quarter to pay for my haircut. And he picked up the phone call. But well, he's here. It wasn't until later that I found out she was checking up on me. You know, make sure I got there.
Speaker 1:But see, it's a different world today. We've got to guard our children. I mean, we've got to guard them and guard, but at some point they've got to grow up, at some point they've got to get to the place where you have taught them and trained them. See, that's what we want to do with your faith. We want to get you to the place where you can grab a hold of God's word on your own. You don't need a whole lot of help, you don't need somebody to hold your hand. I mean, in fact, you're holding other people's hands. Praise God Now. If you're not there, that's fine. You're not there yet, you'll get there, but that's the ideal.
Speaker 1:I have not found so great a faith. Jesus said no, not in Israel. It thrilled him. Now, see, how do you get? I mean, how do you be so? How do you marvel at unbelief and then marvel at faith? See, it's kind of strange, because marvel is really is mostly a positive word. It's part of the meaning of it and your concordance. It means to admire, it means to admire, but obviously Jesus did not admire unbelief, but he was astounded by it, he was stunned by it. Hey, you know he, you know we look all these words, you know that he, he was startled. He did not expect them to have that level of unbelief, even though it's his hometown, even though he grew up around these people, and so, uh, but here he's marveling at faith.
Speaker 1:He found not found so great a faith. I have not found so great a faith. And then he prophesies about Israel. He said you know, you're going to be thrown out in the outer darkness. Why? Because most Israel rejected Jesus when he was on the earth, and so he basically knew that from the beginning. I mean, he's here to be a witness and he didn't have very much to show for it early on. But now Jesus has got a lot to show for his sacrifice. I mean, he's brought many sons under glory Everybody say many sons under glory but back then it didn't look that good. I mean, he came for a nation that basically rejected him except for just a tiny few. And so then, after he got through, bragging on the centurion and saying man, I've never seen anything like it and my nation is going to suffer because they're not like this.
Speaker 1:He said in verse 13, go your way and ask thou hast believed, so be it unto you. Believed, so be it unto you. So you can see, then, that what you believe is very critical about whether you're going to have that done unto you, as you have believed, as you have not believed, as you have not believed, so it shall not be done unto you. See, a lot of people just think God's going to do it just because he's good and because he's no, there are certain laws, there are certain things that you have to do in order to receive from God, and one of them is faith, and one of them is action. You've got to act on your faith. You've got to act like the Bible is true You've got, you've got action, and so, uh, uh, as you have believed, so be it done unto thee. I mean, he didn't even pray. He didn't pray, he just said it's your faith, it's great, I've never found anything like it. As you have believed, he didn't take any Jesus, just didn't take any credit. He said, as you have believed, you're the vessel, you're the vessel through which your servant gets healed. It's your faith. It's me speaking, but it's your faith making a demand on my anointing and I'm speaking that. And he didn't even talk about his anointing. He didn't even talk. He said, as you have believed, so be it unto thee. And I mean that servant was healed that self same hour. So I was remembering a testimony.
Speaker 1:Brother Hagin tells of his mother calling and she was in distress because I think it was his mother's sister's son. So it would have been Brother Hagin's cousin. His cousin and his wife had had a child, a baby, and it was born deformed and the head it collapsed, it was malformed, it was horrible and it was just not really. It wasn't breathing and they wouldn't let the parents even see the child. It would too upsetting to see this child. There's just no hope. We've got it back here. And so brother hagan's mother calls him right away and and he said you know, your cousin, benny. They had a child and it's born bad and and it didn't look like it's going to live, it's malformed.
Speaker 1:And Brother Hagin says tell Benny, the child will live and not die. Oh, son, oh, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. I'm so glad you had a word from the Lord. Oh, praise God. He said yes, ma'am, I do, I have a word from the Lord, mark 11, 23. Oh, praise God. He said yes, ma'am, I do. I have a word from the Lord, mark 11, 23. And she went oh, oh See, she expected a gift of the Spirit. She expected a word of knowledge, you know, gifts of healing. No, it was just simple. He said he'll live and not die, that's all. And Brother Hagin believed it in his heart and spoke it with his mouth. I'm talking about the authority of the word.
Speaker 1:Brother Hagin got to the place where he had such confidence of the word of God, with faith in his heart. The word of God coming out of his mouth would accomplish what the word of God would come out of God's mouth would accomplish what the word of God would come out of Jesus' mouth would accomplish what the word of God would come out of Jesus' mouth would accomplish. When you get to that place, you're going to see a lot of victory. I said, when you get to that place you might not be there yet, but you get to that place you see a lot of victory. But his mother said oh, son. She said do you think that'll work? He said do I think it'll work?
Speaker 1:Will the multiplication table work? Will two times two equal four is nine times 981? What do you mean? Will it work? Well, he had to repent later because he kind of rebuked his mama on the telephone. I wouldn't advise talking to my mother that way. But anyway, might pick up a bruise or two. But you know, some people just have more confidence in spectacular gifts of the Spirit than they do.
Speaker 1:The Word of God. I mean, look, we have the Word, and the Word of God in our mouth will accomplish what the Word of God in God's mouth will accomplish. He said light be. And it was. He said, you know, praise God. I mean he created everything with words and we can do the same. Praise God.
Speaker 1:So let's operate in faith to make Jesus marvel. I tell you, I want to make him marvel with my faith. I want to keep working on my faith. I want to keep exercising what I have. I'm not going to be satisfied with my faith. I'm going to keep exercising what I have. I'm not going to be satisfied with my level. I'm going to keep pushing forward. I'm going to keep going toward the upper limits of it and experience. This is a year of milestones, and God said there's a new anointing for us. We're going to break into things that we're not familiar with. I believe that includes the things that you believe by faith, are yours. Sometimes we don't need a sign. We don't need somebody else to get it for us. Our faith and our mouth can get it for us. Praise God when Jesus marveled, come on, lift your hands and receive tonight Hallelujah. How many of you want Jesus to marvel at your faith? Praise God. I think that's right. I think it's good that we want to please him. Thank you, lord.