What does First B Jackson teach about unbelief?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on unbelief starts not with condemnation but with honest recognition that it is a condition shared by disciples, crowds, and fathers who have been praying for years without seeing an answer. When Pastor Blake walked the congregation through Mark 9, he kept returning to the father's cry, "I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief," and named that honesty as itself a movement toward faith rather than a failure of it. The point he pressed was that faith is not something a person produces by trying harder. He called it God's divine persuasion, always a gift, and said the way to receive more of it is to do exactly what the father did: yield, admit the lack, and ask God to supply what is missing.
Pastor Mark brought the same passage into focus from a different angle in the Hebrews series, holding the Exodus generation up as a warning mirror. Unbelief there was not a single moment of doubt but an interior condition that hardened over time through repeated disobedience. The two things, unbelief and disobedience, are inseparable in Hebrews, and the writer never lets that pair go. What makes that warning urgent is that the people who drifted were not strangers to God. They had seen His works for forty years. Familiarity did not protect them. The writer's answer is daily encouragement within the body of Christ, not as control or judgment, but as the kind of honest, regular attention that counteracts the deceitfulness of sin while it is still called today.
Running through all of these messages is the recognition that unbelief is rarely dramatic. It often looks like an argument at the foot of a hill instead of prayer, or like Herod, who respected John the Baptist, felt conviction when they talked, and still never moved. Pastor Mark noted that the sadder figure in the death of John the Baptist was actually Herod, a man who heard the word and had some response to it but never acted. The congregation is taught to take that seriously in their own hearts, and to bring whatever honest, wavering faith they have directly to God rather than waiting until it feels stronger.
Taught from Mark 9:14-29 · Hebrews 3:7-19 · Hebrews 4:1-13 · Mark 6:1-29 · Psalm 95
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 14:33
33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- July 17, 2022 As You Are Going Three healing miracles in Matthew and Mark show Pastor Ray what truly amazes Jesus: not power or crowds, but the simple presence or absence of faith.
- March 7, 2022 Bring the Boy to Me In Mark 9, a desperate father and struggling disciples teach us that faith is a gift we ask God to grow, and prayer is where real power begins.
- August 25, 2019 Let Us Fear, Let Us Be Diligent Hebrews 4 calls believers to fear missing God's rest, trust Christ alone, and let His living Word shape their faith before another day passes.
- August 25, 2019 Let Us Fear, Let Us Be Diligent A study of Hebrews 4 on what it means to enter God's rest, why unbelief leads to disobedience, and how the Word of God searches and shapes the heart.
- August 18, 2019 Today, If You Hear His Voice Hebrews 3 calls us to decisively fix our eyes on Jesus and not harden our hearts, learning from Israel's wilderness failures to persevere in faith today.
- August 18, 2019 Today, If You Hear His Voice Hebrews 3:7-19 warns against hardening your heart toward God. The preacher's sermon traces Israel's wilderness failure and calls believers to hold fast to Christ today.
Mentioned along the way
- October 9, 2022 Set His Face to Go to Jerusalem Luke 9 shows disciples who keep missing the point, while Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem, the cross, and the suffering that saves us all.
- July 17, 2022 As You Are Going Pastor Ray walks through Matthew 9, Mark 6, and Matthew 13, exploring faith, compassion, and what it means to minister to others as you go about daily life.
- January 17, 2022 Pay Close Attention to What You Hear In Mark 6, Pastor Ray walks through Jesus rejected at home, the sending of the Twelve, and John's death, tracing how faith shapes what we see God do.
- January 13, 2013 Willing Is the Prerequisite of Knowing A sermon on John 7 exploring how willingness to follow God's will, not mere head knowledge, is the first step toward truly understanding His word.