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LOJ #88: ‘Seeing Jesus’
Andover Baptist Church-January 2nd, 2011
Opening
A. Text for today is Mark 8:22-26 and our sermon is titled ‘Seeing
Jesus’
B. Scripture NET:
Mark 8:22–26 (NET) "8:22 Then they came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to Jesus and asked Him to touch him. 8:23 He took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village. Then He spit on his eyes, placed His hands on his eyes and asked, “Do you see anything?” 8:24 Regaining his sight he said, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.” 8:25 Then Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes again. And he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 8:26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”
C. Children’s Sermon (SLIDE)
1. Say: ‘You know when I take my glasses off you all look
like scary little munchkins from the Wizard of Oz’
2. Put them back on and look at Timmy: ‘Wow, some of
you still look like scary munchkins from the Wizard of
Oz’
3. Timmy: ‘Thanks for shooting down my self-esteem
Goliath’
4. Ask the kids if any of them want to look though my
glasses
5. How come things look funny?
6. Did you know when I was born the doctors told my
parents I would be blind?
7. But I'm not am I Timmy (ask one of the other
kids)….just kidding
8. I know why I wasn't because my parents and others
prayed that I wouldn’t be and I wasn't….I didn't even
need glasses until the 3rd grade
9. Today we are going to see Jesus make a blind man
see….and you know what He still does that today…He
takes people who are blind to Who He is and opens
their eyes so that they can see Him and spend forever
with Him in heaven (I pray each of you sees Jesus)
D. Introduction
1. The high point in the book of Mark…like the hinge of a
door the rest of the book opens up after this miracle of a
blind man
2. One commentator calls this story the Continental divide
in the Gospel of Mark (and life of the disciples)
3. This story is really about discipleship, discipleship
Sermon
READ: Mark 8:22 (Scripture slide)
"Then they came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to Jesus and asked Him to touch him”
A. 'Bethsaida' (Slide: picture of)
1. Means 'house of fishing' or 'fisherman's house'
2. Philip, Andrew and Peter lived here (cf. John 1:44;
12:21)
3. Located on north eastern side of Sea of Galilee, opposite
of Capernaum
4. Some people think there were two towns with this name
a. I believe from my study that there was only one
but since it stretched on both sides of the Jordan
it was often referred to as two
b. Example of Kansas City KS, Kansas City MO
one town separated by a state line)
c. The west side was bigger than the east side, due
to Phillip the tetrach renaming it for Emperor
Augustus' daughter Julias and declaring it a polis
(a city instead of a village)
5. Has significance in the Life of Christ because it is
possibly the place of feeding of the 5k, it’s also where
Jesus walks on water and here the healing of the blind
man
6. In fact they had seen so much of Jesus’ miracles that He
chastises them for not believing in Him
Matthew 11:21 (NET) “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”
B. 'brought a blind man to Jesus' (Scripture slide)
1. 'they'
a. The crowd brought this man to Jesus to be healed
b. The man, being that he was blind, was incapable
of coming to Jesus
c. The desire may have been there but not the
means, or his lack of desire may be one of the
reasons that Jesus deals with him the way He
does
d. Either way we can learn from these friends of the
blind man in that we need to help people be
introduced to Jesus
e. By them wanting Jesus to touch him it shows a
primitive understanding of Jesus’ ability
2. Jesus healed more blind people than any other group
a. He is the light of the World (previous sermon)
b. Only God was seen to restore the blind
c. It's God's prerogative and right in Scripture to
heal the blind
Exodus 4:11 (NET) “The Lord said to him, “Who gave a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”
Psalm 146:8 (NET) “The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. The Lord loves the godly.”
d. In fact another blind man will soon be healed by
Jesus in Mark 10:46
e. Physical blindness was a scourge in that day
f. William Barclay, "Blindness, was and still is,
one of the great curses of the East. It was caused
partly by ophthalmia and partly by the pitiless
glare of the sun. It was greatly aggravated by the
fact that people knew nothing of hygiene and of
cleanliness. It was common to see a person with
matter-encrusted eyes on which the flies
persistently settled. Naturally this carried the
infection far and wide, and blindness was a
scourge."
g. I think that one of the reasons that Jesus healed
the blind, other than the obvious Messianic
promise tied to the act of healing the blind, was
because it was a picture of Him removing
spiritual blindness as well
READ: Mark 8:23-25 (Scripture slide)
“8:23 He took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village. Then He spit on his eyes, placed His hands on his eyes and asked, “Do you see anything?” 8:24 Regaining his sight he said, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.” 8:25 Then Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes again. And he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly”.
A. Jesus 'took the blind man by the hand'
1. Similar instance with the healing of the deaf mute in
7:31-37
2. Imagine the shock of all the images flooding his eyes
in a busy intersection in a town
3. It could have been an over whelming and stressful
situation for the man, not a place to relax or feel
comfortable…so Jesus took him to a quite place
4. There is a lesson for us to learn her as well
a. Once we bring a person to Jesus…He takes over
b. Jesus becomes their Guide, as He did for this
blind man
c. You see he needed to be led until he can lead
(picture of discipleship which we will look at
soon)
d. We can also see the compassion of Christ and His
ability to sympathize with us
e. His taking the man by the hand must have been
comforting, and He does the same for us
f. We don’t really know where Jesus is going to
take us in this life, but we can know that where
ever we go it will be with Him and that can give
us peace
B. Now at first glance we have what appears to be a very strange
healing
1. But like all healing in the Gospel it starts with contact
with Jesus
2. Often times we see the Gospels telling the same stories
from different perspectives, but here this one is found
only in Mark
3. It boggles our modern sensibilities that Jesus would spit
on someone to heal them
a. Actually a double action: spit on the man's eyes
and laid His hands on him
b. The method was likely used by Jesus because
touch would mean more to the blind than
words….Jesus chose this method for comfort
c. The blind man would have been able to feel this
and understand what was going on…maybe a lift
in his faith
d. Spitting was a normal way of healing in that day
e. The idea of spit having a healing quality is not so
strange: how many of you have cut your finger
or slammed it put it in your mouth almost
instinctively?
4. It’s a unique healing in the Gospels because it was the
only instance of a two stage healing of Christ Jesus
a. Some people have purposed that Jesus had ran
out of healing power, because He often healed
with just one touch
b. Some say it was because the blind man had little
faith and that meant Jesus had to try harder
c. Let me just say that is not only wrong, it’s
heretically wrong
d. There is no limitation upon Jesus that could have
made Him do this in two stages
e. Therefore there had to be a reason
f. You see Jesus purposely meant this healing to be
gradual
g. The first touch = sight, the second touch =
understanding of what he sees
h. Once he was healed the blind man could see
perfectly, a complete unhindered restoration
C. The reason Jesus did this was because of His Unseeing
Disciples
1. You see we have a healing and a parable wrapped up
into one in this story
2. When this blind man started to see, he saw people
(probably the disciples) walking around like blurry trees
3. Jesus was purposely contrasting the physically seeing
disciples with the spiritually seeing blind man
4. Jesus' question was intentional
a. He knew what the man could or could not
see
b. But it was fitting considering that the last thing
Jesus had said to His disciples was a rebuke for
not being able to see Him in faith
c. This man’s eyesight was weak and dim, just as
the disciples faith in Jesus had been weak and
dim
d. Jesus had just asked the disciples how come they
did not see in 8:17, here he asks the man
virtually the same thing
e. The slowness in removing the blindness may
symbolize the slowness in which the spiritual
eyes of the disciples eyes were opening up to
Jesus…they weren't quite there yet
f. Pair this with Jesus just healing a deaf man in
7:31-37, Jesus is pressing the point that the
disciples need to open their ears and their eyes to
Who Jesus is
D. We also see in this healing a picture of discipleship (becoming
closer to Jesus and your life taking more and more the pattern
of His)
1. Jesus can heal both the physically and spiritually blind
2. Jesus works with us as we grow in Him (no such thing
as instant disciples)
3. No one instantly grows up in Christ
4. God is sovereign in all things, including our own walk
with Him
5. Jesus is never pigeon holed in how He approaches
people
6. Jesus has total freedom in how He interacts with us, He
is not bound by any set pattern
7. So too the Holy Spirit works in a way like the wind…He
goes about as He pleases
8. As we grow in the Lord He becomes much bigger to us
(Narnia clip: Aslan appears bigger to the little girl)
9. As this man gradually got more sight, so do we as we
grow in Christ get more spiritual sight (26 years ago I
accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior…but I have a
much deeper knowledge of Him now than I did then)
Philippians 1:6 (NET) “For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
READ: Mark 8:26 (Scripture slide)
“ Jesus sent him home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”
A. The man must not have lived in Bethsaida for Jesus sends him
home, but tells him not to even enter into the city
B/ Messianic Secret
it may be that since Jesus had pronounced judgment on this town He wished no further miracles be shown to them due to their unbelief
-Bethsaida who had seen miracles and refused to believe in Him would not see the man who couldn't see, now see….he would receive sight, they would remain blind
-Isa 35:5-6 (healing of the blind associated with the coming of the Messiah and God's Kingdom)
-Jesus took this man away from the busy crowds, He did not want this miracle to add any more unwanted attention to Him (i.e. un-properly directed attention to Him…as a miracle worker, or political powerhouse, etc)
-as much as Jesus wanted to heal people's bodies…He did not want it to interfere with His mission priority: the saving of souls
-it is important to feed the homeless, care for the orphans, etc, etc but we must be primarily concerned with their spiritual state for it is the state that lasts eternally
-the man, unlike others Jesus had told not to tell and did, obviously obeyed
Invitation
-Jesus' hand effects the cure
-the only way you can see spiritually is if Jesus opens your eyes
-the only way you can be saved is if Jesus touches your life and comes in
-maybe over the years your eyes are starting to open to spiritual things, just as this mans physical eyes gradually began to clear up
-maybe you have been saved for years, but need to get off the sidelines and into the game
-Spiritual discipleship
-we have not even conceived no eye has seen what God has in store for His people
Let us sing our last song # ,
[pic]
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