Blind
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Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a privilege to share the Word of God with the saints and faithful believers in Christ at Durbin Memorial Baptist Church.
Recently, online, there has been another viral trend. On TikTok, women have been asking their husbands a seemingly odd question and then they film the men’s responses. The question is, “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” This seems like a wildly random question, but the responses showed that it may be something that happens more often than you would think.
My own wife, being on top of the pulse of things in the world, even asked me this question. I didn’t really know it was a trend, but I answered, “I don’t know… maybe 3 or 4 times a week?”
When I watched through the videos, I found I wasn’t alone! From multiple times a month, to multiple times a day, it seems that it is pretty common for men to think about the Roman Empire.
But then the question is why?
My reasoning was that studying Scripture requires at least some consideration of the Roman Empire for context as the gospels and the Early church take place smack dab in the middle of it.
But most of the men responding weren’t thinking theologically. They mention the influence the Roman Empire had on society. One guy said, every time I see a straight paved road I think about the Roman Empire.
Others suggested it was the tactical genius of the Roman military leaders that they gravitate towards. They like thinking about the strategies that were employed.
Others talk about how interested the are in the Gladiators and the Colosseum.
Others mention the architecture.
I find myself often daydreaming about Bath, a town in England full of natural hotsprings that the Romans turned into a cultural centerpiece in 60 AD.
The Roman civilization lasted about 1,000 years, from 753 BC to 476 AD, with its impacts still apparent today.
I can attest and see why guys think about the Roman Empire.
My point this morning, though, is not to tell you that you should or should not be thinking more often about the Roman Empire. Rather I want to use the inarguable significance of the Roman Empire to point our attention to overlooked, but longer lasting Kingdom.
At the peak of the Roman Empire, I’m sure the rulers thought their reign would last forever. They would conquer and rule all of existence. We have the benefit of looking backwards and we can see that did not happen. The Empire fell in 476 AD.
In Scripture we are told of a Kingdom that will not fall.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Right before this verse Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, the King, the Anointed One. And Christ says that it is upon this confession that that He will build His Church. The church is then built on the profession of faith in Jesus as the Worthy Son of God, Christ the King is King of kings. Christ says that the very gates of hell will not prevail against this kingdom.
Elsewhere Christ says this kingdom will grow globally:
I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
Christ proclaims that this kingdom will grow to include people from all over the world. From Jerusalem, to Judea, to all the ends of the earth.
If Christ is the Anointed One, the Son of God, the Authority, then that necessitates that these declarations are not just wishful hopes, but certain certainties!
That should mean that we are able to look through history from that moment on and see those statements coming to fruition. And you know that great thing about that? We can!
We can read through the book of Acts and see the formation of the early church. We can see afflicted and oppressed groups in hostile territory remain true to the faith and grow in their numbers. We can look to historians and watch as faith in Christ spread from the middle East across Europe and Africa. We can verify that the same faith of the Early Saints has made its way to our little corner of Clay’s Ferry today! We can see not only the spread of Christianity, but its resiliency!
But you might push back on this a bit and point to the decline of Christianity in the US and Europe and think that like the Roman Empire, this kingdom too will fade. But that is a bit myopic, when we consider that Christianity is even to this day growing in every other Continent of the World. Just a few weeks ago on Sunday Evening we got the opportunity to speak with missionaries to Brazil who told us of the wonderful growth they have witnessed over the last half century in that country. Don’t be fooled by what is just right in front of us. Christ the King has declared the growth and permanence of His Kingdom and it is happening!
If we want to push this idea even further, we exist in time, in most cases we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, Scripture even tell us that. But for somethings, Scripture gives us a glimpse of the future. And we read in Revelation:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Here we see the culmination of the great commission and permanency of God’s Kingdom! The gates of hell will not prevail over the Kingdom that spreads from the East to West.
If you have not already, turn in your Bibles to Matthew 9. As we get into the text today, it is important to again remind ourselves of the purpose of Matthew’s Gospel. He is declaring to the reader that Jesus is the Christ. The Authority. One way that we can have grounded faith in that reality is through the expansion and permanency of the Kingdom, as we have highlighted thus far this morning. The reality of Christ’s Authority is also proclaimed through the healings we read about this morning. Let’s begin in verse 27.
And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”
In our exploration of Matthew 8-9 for the last 6 or 7 weeks, we have seen many instances of Christ’s healing and divine power. He has cleaned the leper, calmed the sea, restored the afflicted to the community, casted out demons, and raised the dead from their sleep. So what else is there to learn? Why do we need to read about another soul that needs the Master’s help?
Well first of all, the repetition of similar concepts is used to reiterate the point. We may be tempted to gloss over similar passages and assume we have learned it all already. But these stories are grouped together thematically so that we will really dive in and see the great truth. By the time we come to the end of Matthew 9 there should be no doubt in the careful reader’s mind that Jesus Christ has full Authority over Creation and is the cure for the consequence of sin.
We see this even more acutely in what is to happen with these blind men. When you read through the gospels, you will see that the healing of the blind is one of the most common miracles that Jesus’ performs. However, what you may not realize is that in all of Scripture, in every story included in the Old and New Testament, Jesus is the ONLY one to ever give sight to the blind. You might point to Ananias and Paul in Acts 9, but even then the scales fall off of Paul’s eyes under direct obedience to commands that come from Christ Himself.
This is massively important for us to see, no pun intended. In that day blindness was seen as incurable and the men in our pericope today would have had little to no hope, outside of Christ, to find healing for their affliction. Further, for the scribe and the skeptics watching Jesus, a healing of this nature would have been huge.
These blind men knew their hopeless condition well. They do the only thing they know to do. They take it to Jesus. They take themselves to Christ with faith in Him.
Our text this morning says that they followed Jesus. This would be now small feat for the blind men. Fumbling around in the crowd. They were unable to truly gauge how close they were to Christ, so they cry out in the streets, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” Their hope is in Christ and they will do whatever they can in an attempt to get His attention. They had no reservations in following their King. We know that they understand Jesus as king because they refer to Him as Son of David. This title, Son of David, was a Messianic title. They recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the promised Deliverer that would come for God’s People.
They took their pleas of mercy to the King. It should not be overlooked that their asking for mercy indicates an acknowledgment of their own sin. They did not simply ask for healing, but for forgiving mercy. “They knew they were undeserving of the Lord’s help, but they also must have known that ‘the Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in loving kindness,’ that He ‘is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.’” as is proclaimed in Psalm 145. They come to Christ, not only seeing His greatness and worthiness to be praised, but also seeing their own ineptitude and unworthiness.
Jesus does not respond immediately but allows them to demonstrate their faith in Him throughout His walk with the crowd. We see in the next verse that Jesus continues to allow them the opportunity to demonstrate their faith:
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.”
Jesus enters the home, certainly with His disciples, if not the larger crowd that is always following Him near by. The blind men, boldly come along with the crowd and have finally made their way into the immediate presence of the one they call the Son of David. Jesus asks them a fairly simple question: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Do you believe that I am capable of extending the mercy that you seek? Do you believe that I have the Authority to forgive sins and the power to do what mortal man cannot?
They answer “Yes, Lord.”
Before we move forward I think we need to press in on this exchange a bit more. We have been showcasing the Divinity, the “God-ness” if you would, of Jesus throughout this entire study. With that in mind, we have to ask ourselves, “Why did Jesus ask them this?”
Is it that Jesus wasn’t sure what these men really thought and so He had to ask just to make sure?
But if Jesus really is the second person of the Triune-God, He wouldn’t have to be convinced of their sincerity, He would already know if they were sincere or not. Even in this same chapter, in Matthew 9 verse 4, Jesus knows the thoughts and intentions of the hearts of the Scribes. We know from whole of Scripture that Jesus is the Word that discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
So why then, does Jesus ask the blind men if they believe He is able to do this, even when He already knows their answer?
What we are seeing here is the divine convergence of Sovereignty and Human Responsibility. Jesus is providing the blind men with the opportunity to believe in their hearts AND confess with their mouths that Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah who would extend forgiveness ,ultimately by His death and resurrection. Even in Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, that we looked at in the introduction of this sermon, Christ there states that the Father revealed such glorious truth to Peter’s soul. That revelation resulted in public declaration. Understanding the power and grace of God will always result in public declaration. As we receive faith resulting in salvation, all coming by the Grace of God, we are provided the opportunity to show that faith before others as we accomplish the good works God prepared for us beforehand, that we should walk in them.
And let it be known that publically and boldly proclaiming faith in Christ Jesus is a good work. It is a good testimony to all those who hear where our faith lies. It is the fruit of the Father’s growth in us! Church, I hope that even in our affliction we publically and boldly proclaim Faith in Christ to the rest of the World. It is not something we do to earn the favor of the Lord but a result of receiving it. The phrase you’ve heard before, “God knows my heart” is true, but our actions and declarations are to reflect the reality of the salvation we have received! If you want to do something good for the benefit of God’s Kingdom, join in with the blind men and share loudly that Jesus is the one whom extends mercy and forgiveness!
If we’re continuing on in our passage, we next see Jesus demonstrate His Authority to do so.
Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.”
Jesus touches theirs and says “according to your faith be it done to you.” Then instantly their eyes were open. The blind could now see.
There is a lot to unpack here.
We’ve talked a lot through this series about the healing power of Jesus’ touch and words so I don’t want to hang around there other noting that the Overwhelming holiness of Christ supersedes the uncleanliness of their disease. Christ is not made dirty by touching them, but in touching them He makes them clean. The same is true for all sinners who believe in their hearts and confess with their mouth Jesus is the Risen Savior. He makes the unclean clean.
But I do want to spend a little bit of time of on the interesting phrase, “according to your faith be it done to you.” Does this mean that the blind men were finally able to muster up enough faith to get the healing they desired? By no mean. Ephesians 2 shows us that faith is gift of God, not a work so that we may boast in ourselves and our abilities. Faith, then, for our formerly blind brothers, and us even today is the means through which we receive the salvation God graciously gives. We’ve seen in the previous passages that even a feeble faith is blessed by God, even if is not perfect. We’ll see in the following verse that the faith of the men in this story is not perfect.
This passage highlights three truths for our understanding of faith:
Faith always has an object. That means we don’t just have an ethereal faith, but faith in something. This passage shows us that saving faith is in Jesus Christ.
Through faith in Jesus Christ we receive Mercy. Mercy, grace, undeserved forgiveness for our sin.
Faith in Christ comes through, and is expressed by hungering humility. No worries about the social pressure, all consumed with being before their Lord.
The blind men hungrily and humbly came before the rightful object of faith and received great mercy. Have you done the same?
The Authority of Jesus is on full display in this passage. The act of healing is a tangible proof of what the blind men knew by faith before they ever made it into the presence of Jesus. That He is the Son of God. Psalm 146:8 “the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.”
Jesus never said that all the blind who believe in Him would be able to see the rest of their earthly days. He never said everyone who believes in Him would never have physical afflictions. But Jesus did say everyone who believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. That is the spiritual healing that certainly comes to every single one of us who hungrily and humbly come before the rightful and divine object of faith. We receive mercy everlasting.
Its a good thing that the mercy given by the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ is not dependent upon our own actions, because as you look at the last half of verse 30 into verse 31, we see that the faith-filled formerly blind men were not perfect in their obedience:
And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
Jesus warns the blind men not to tell everyone about the healing they received that day. You’ll see this fairly often after Jesus’ healings. A command not to tell others about what happened. This has been a hot topic in some circles. Some scholars refer to this as the “messianic secret”. There are a lot of theories around this “secret”. But the most textually sound conclusion is that Jesus was not interested in building an earthly Kingdom akin to the Roman Empire. Later down the road there would be the public declaration of Him being the Messiah at the Triumphal entry. That would be followed by opposition that would lead Him to the cross. All of that would take place in the fullness of time and now was not that time. Its also likely that to some extent it illustrates that Jesus’ ministry is not centered around physical healings. Those were the necessary by-product of His ministry and the fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecies, but as we discussed in greater depth last week, Jesus’ ministry didn’t exist to simply make people live comfortable lives. He came to provide atonement for the sins of all those who would believe in Him.
Our formerly blind fellows received the instruction, but they didn’t follow it well. Verse 31 says they spread His fame all through the district.
This is a note that we can all probably identify with. Jesus is real. Their faith is real. Their healing is real. Their salvation is real. But their obedience is imperfect.
Their obedience does not match their faith.
Can you empathize with that statement?
This week, Brother Troy helped me change the brakes on my wife’s car. We did everything we needed to do, changed the pads, even the rotors. The brakes were brand new! The time came for me to get in the car and test out the brakes. I got in the driver seat, Put the car in drive and started to pull out of the driveway. The car was picking up speed a little too fast, so I pressed down hard on the brake pedal. There was just one big problem, even though I had the brakes all the way down to the floor of the car, IT WASN’T STOPPING! A million thoughts rushed through my mind and I didn’t know what to do! I thought for certain I was about to meet the garage door at the neighbor’s house across the street! Fortunately I had the wherewithal to slam down the emergency brake. and I stopped in the middle of the street before ever making into the neighbor’s driveway.
See here’s thing. When you get your brakes changed, you have to pump them to get the caliper back in to right position. Until that compression is back in the system, the brakes don’t work! I knew this! I could’ve told you a hundred times that you’re supposed to pump the brakes after you change them. But in the heat of the moment, it didn’t matter what I knew, because I didn’t do it.
I think that’s what happened here with the formerly blind fellows. They knew Jesus was Lord. They knew what He commanded them to do. But in the heat of the moment they lost sight of what they knew and they actually sinned against their Savior, even if it came from a place of zealous love for Him.
The reality is that even though we know the Savior, our feeble flesh and the heat of the moment often times lead us to forget the faith we sincerely have and we sin against God. It’s not that we don’t know and love the Lord, its that we are stupid sheep who need our Shepherd to correct us. The Bible make it clear that even after knowing Christ, we struggle with the flesh. That’s why the letters to the churches were written, the sheep needed correction and God made His appeal through other believers. 1 John says if we say we have not sinned we are calling God a liar. The great news for all those saints who sin is that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ! And the mark of knowing Christ is the sincere desire and action to keep His commandments!
The men in our story today were saved by the grace of God through faith in the Son. But in their flesh their obedience was not perfect. Thanks be to God that they have an Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. Their salvation was accomplish through Him, not their own works.
Does this mean that we are to willfully continue in sin with no desire for righteousness? By no means! Whoever says they abide in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. And when we trip we thank the Lord that He is there to pick us up, dust us off, and renew us for the good works He prepared for us beforehand.
I want to spend just a few moments looking at the last few verses from the section we have read earlier today. This is another story of Jesus’ healing power.
As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”
This is another presentation of Jesus’ Authority. We discussed a few weeks ago Jesus’ authority over the real demonic influences in the world so I’ll refer you back to that sermon for deeper dive into that topic.
But as we are coming towards the close of this series, next week being the final chapter for now, we should be seeing a rhythm throughout each of these miraculous events. I’ve said it a hundred times throughout this series: All of these stories present the Authority of Jesus Christ. Every reader, carefully seeing these stories, and all the persons involved as witnesses when they actually happened should come to the same conclusion. “Only God could do that.”
I said in the introduction to the first sermon in this series that your view of Jesus is absolutely important. I also said that if your view of Jesus is different than the Jesus presented to us in God’s Word, it is your view that needs to change.
The Scribes and the Pharisees have been lurking around, witnesses everything that has happened throughout each of these events that we have looked at. Their conclusion is that Jesus is not the Son of God, but a servant of the prince of demons. They are equating Christ with Satan. They could not be more wrong. And they are lost in their damnable estate. They are blind, unable to see the glory of Jesus Christ. They refuse to believe in Him and thus they are condemned already.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Are your eyes open? Have you seen the light of knowledge? Do you recognize the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
Are you a forewarn saint who has been trudging along in sin, you know the Lord, but in the heat of life and the feebleness of the flesh your practice does not match your faith?
In both cases, to the one just seeing the Light and the one returning to it, the message is the same: repent and believe for the Kingdom of God is at Hand. We’ve got work to do.
If you’re in either catagory, come forward today, I’d love to pray with you and talk about how we can serve the Lord together. He is the Authority. He is worthy to be served. Let’s pray.
