Giving Sight To The Blind, One Step at a Time-Mark 8:14-26

As we begin this morning, go ahead and turn in your copies of God’s Word to Mark chapter 8, this morning we will be looking at verses 14-26. You may also want to bookmark Matthew chapter 16, verses 5-12, as much of it is parallel to Mark with some added details not included in Marks account.

Two Sundays ago, in a sermon entitled Spiritual Blindness, from the Biblical account in Mark 8:11-13 and Matthew 16:1-4, we looked at a confrontation Jesus had with Pharisees and Sadducees. They came to ask Jesus to perform a sign in the heavens, but in looking at both passages, it was clear that they were only there to test Him, certain He would fail the test and would be publicly discredited. While He could have easily performed a miracle in the heavenlies, He was heartbroken at their hardened hearts and ignored their test.

After this encounter, there is an important shift in the ministry of Jesus, from this point forward, He spends the vast majority of His time with the disciples and left the region of Galilee, thus ending His public ministry in that region. He did return to Galilee, but He did so secretly, the door of opportunity had now closed for Galilee, as well as for the religious leaders in that region. Jesus now moved His focus from that region to the regions of Judea and Jerusalem and set His face towards the cross. And for the most part He spent most of His time with His disciples and others who already believed in Him, and John MacArthur writes “He gave no more arguments or signs for unbelievers, only additional truth for those who believed.”

We closed by asking the questions, how did this passage relate to you and me in todays society? And the question for us was, do we fit anywhere in this account? Whether it be the hardened hearts of the Pharisees and Sadducees, individuals steeped in religious teaching, with a better than average understanding of what is recorded in the pages of the Bible. But the things we learned never made the short journey from our heads to our hearts.

Or maybe your more like those in the region of Galilee, raised in the church, walking through the doors Sunday after Sunday, but never having been transformed by the truths of the Word of God unfolded before us each week.

There comes a time for anyone in either of these situations, where God says, enough is enough. I’ve given you ample time to embrace the truths of the good news of what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross, and you have, over and over again turned your back on these truth's. I am now turning My back on you.

With this as an introduction, let’s go before the Lord this morning in prayer.

Our most gracious and loving heavenly Father,

We are humbled as we step into Your presence this morning, humbled at the love You have displayed to us through the blood of Your only Son, Jesus, shed on the cross to purchase our redemption. Humbled as we acknowledge we are far from worthy of that blood. As we sang earlier this morning, we were all wretches, lost in our sin, blind to the beauty of Your grace. But You sent Jesus, Who left the splendor of heaven, and found us, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, our blind eyes were opened. The chains that once bound us were loosed and we were set free. Through the cross of Christ, the Living Hope, the chasm that lay between us and You, the Holy God, was bridged. Hallelujah, praise the One Who set me free! Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me! As a result of all You have done for us in the finished work of Christ on the cross, we turn our eyes upon Jesus, looking full on His wonderful Face, Jesus our glory and our prize, we adore You, Behold You, Our Savior ever true, Jesus we turn our eyes on You.

And now, Father, as we open the very Word of God, the Word You divinely inspired, we pray what we sang a few moments ago, Break Thou the Bread of Life, Dear Lord to me, Open the Word of truth, send Thy Spirit Lord, that as we open the sacred page, as we seek You through the living Word, that You would Mold Thou each inward thought, and for each of us From self set free. That Thine Image on my life Engraved will be.

And Father, I pray that as I, as the preacher, open this the most sacred of all texts, that I would get out of the way, would disappear into the background. That I would be nothing more that Your mouthpiece. And that we as people, chosen and set apart by You, look through the pages of Your living and active Word, we would be transformed.

We pray these thing in the Name of Jesus, our victory, Amen

Now, would you please stand, in honor of the reading of God’s Word?

Mark 8:14–26 (ESV)

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And He cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?

19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21 And He said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to Him a blind man and begged Him to touch him. 23 And He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when He had spit on his eyes and laid His Hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?”

24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid His Hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

26 And He sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.

One of the first things we notice in reading through this morning’s passage is that the;

The Disciples Had Appetites for the Things of this World Rather Than the Things of God. They had eyes for the temporal Rather than the Eternal. Vs. 14

After Jesus, having turned His back on the religious leaders of Israel and those of the Nation of Israel who blindly followed them, He and the disciples boarded a boat to head for the northeastern side of the Sea of Galilee to the shores near Bethsaida. Apparently someones stomach began to growl and then it dawns on the 12 that they only had one small loaf of bread among all of them, for we read in verse 14 “Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.”

You get the impression that the Pharisees and Sadducees weren’t the only ones who were spiritually blind! The 12 were as well, and by this time they had walked side by side with Jesus for, probably, close to 2 1/2 years, had seen too many miracles to count. Experienced Him spoon feeding them from the living Word of God. Yet here they are oblivious to the power of the One right there on the boat with them!

In stark contrast to the disciples;

Jesus Had an Appetite for the Things of God Rather The the Things of this World. His Eyes were on the Eternal Rather than the Temporal. Vs. 15

Chances are, still heartbroken and angry at the hardened hearts of the religious leaders who had just confronted Him, yet one more time, we read in verse 15; “He cautioned them (the disciples), saying, ‘Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.’” Matthew adds the Sadducees to the list of those they were to whom they were to watch out.

The heart of Jesus was continually in tune to the heart of the Father. The eyes of His mind was also on the future ministry of the disciples in His absence. As a result, He takes this moment in the boat, away from the multitudes that surrounded them constantly, to give them a warning.

The confrontation with the religious leaders, probably less than 2 to 3 hours earlier, was already gone from their minds. Instead they were consumed with hunger pains! Mere days earlier, Jesus fed as many as 15,000 with 7 loafs of bread and a few fish, and they had 7 large baskets of leftovers afterwards, and here the disciples are, discussing among themselves that they only had one small loaf of bread between the 13 of them. I mentioned a few moments ago that they were headed to the northeastern side of the Sea of Galilee to the shores near Bethsaida. Well they had been to that same area a few months earlier. Do me a favor, turn in your copies of God’s Word to Luke chapter 9, verse 10-17.

What took place when Jesus and the disciples were in Bethsaida In Luke 9:10-17?

Another question;

With what the disciples had seen over the last few months, Who should they have turned to knowing they had only 1 small loaf of bread between them?

(Jesus, the Bread of Life).

Which brings me to a question for us today;

Who should we turn our eyes to first for all of our needs?

(Jesus, the Bread of Life).

The fact that the disciples had joined Jesus in turning their backs on the Pharisees and Sadducees and climbed in the boat with Him, was evidence that they were no longer spiritually blind, however, their cure from spiritual blindness was only a partial cure, their was still a bit of a spiritual fogginess, their spiritual eyes were still somewhat fuzzy and out of focus. Keep this thought in mind for a little later this morning.

Jesus took this opportunity to break out the spiritual eye chart to test the spiritual vision of the disciples.

Not everyone here knows this, but I wear contact lenses, very expensive contact lenses. Each year a get 2 sets of lenses for each eye. The cost for these 4 lenses, roughly $900! You see, I have a particular eye condition and without these specially made lenses, my uncorrected vision is somewhere around 20/400 in one eye and about 20/600 in the other eye. My eyes are bad enough that I can’t see the traditional E at the top of most eye charts. To put this in terms we can all understand, this means that without my corrective lenses, I would be able to tell there were people in this sanctuary, but, unless they spoke, I would be unable to identify anyone, including Pam. I am not legally blind, because my vision is correctable to close to 20/20, albeit with very expenses contact lenses!

That kinda gives you a picture of the difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees from 2 weeks ago, and the disciples of this weeks passage. Because of their hardened hearts, the Pharisees and Sadducees from our passage 2 weeks ago were, in a spiritual sense, legally blind. Although in their case, they refused a prescription that was readily available. That would be like me refusing to wear the contact lenses prescribed to me.

By now most of you know of my fascination and love for the original languages of the Old and New Testament. Well there is a a Greek word for this type of individual. The Greek Word is:

μωρός “dull, stupid, foolish” “moros”

Translating this word to English we would use the words “dull, stupid, foolish”. If we spelled it using the our English alphabet, we would spell it “Moros”. Any guesses what English word we get from moros? “Moron”!

Thankfully, for the disciples, they were willing and ready to take hold of the spiritual prescription for their spiritual blindness. Which brings us to Matthew 16:8-12 where we read; Matthew 16:8-12

Matthew 16:8–12 (ESV)

But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?

11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Adding one other influential parties from the Nation of Israel, Mark adds the “leaven of Herod” referring to the Herodians. “Leaven or yeast” in Scripture is frequently used to illustrate sinful influence. What happens if you put a little yeast into bread dough? (The dough rises). You see, yeast or leaven influences the dough.

For the next few minutes we are going to look at these three influential parties and discover that they compare very closely to influential parties frequently seen churches and denominations throughout the United States today. In ancient Israel, these three influential parties were vastly different and much of the times enemies of one another, yet their great hatred for Jesus brought them together.

The First is the Pharisees. In the church today;

The Pharisees would be represented by the Religious legalist.

John MacArthur writes of the Pharisees;

“The leaven of the Pharisees included both their doctrinal errors and personal hypocrisy (cf. Luke 12:1). Their system of works-righteousness and superficial externalism produced spiritual frauds who looked good on the outside but inwardly were full of death and uncleanness.” John MacArthur, Mark 1–8, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2015), 403.

So,

What does religious legalism look like in todays Christian circles?

Erik Raymond of The Gospel Coalition writes; “Legalism may take things that have been biblically true but not biblically applicable and attempt to make them binding…. it may be what you eat or drink, what you do on Sundays, or it may be what you wear for clothes, what kind of music you listen to, or whether you have piercings or tattoos, wear a suit or don’t on Sundays, or home school or not, or whatever…. legalism is a system that thrives on personal performance, personal supremacy, and sadly, the trampling of others. It relentlessly squashes grace, mercy and humility…. To maintain that you can merit God’s favor outside of the work of Christ is to say that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus either was not necessary or was not sufficient.

To cling to personal merit through doing things (however good or biblical they may seem) is to demote Jesus from his place of supremacy.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/erik-raymond/what-is-legalism-and-why-is-it-so-bad/

The next influential party and what they would represent today is;

The Herodians would be represented by the Religious Nationalist.

On this one, I need to be a little careful, considering we just celebrated Independence Day earlier this week!

Oftentimes the religious nationalist equates their salvation with their national heritage. To many, the United States is considered a “Christian Nation”. As a result, there are quite a few born in this country to whom, if you asked “Are you a Christian?” Their response would be “Well of course, I mean I was born in America!”.

The Herodians embraced to the rule of Herod and felt that through Herod’s leadership, the Nation of Israel could finally become the powerful nation that prophecy spoke about.

A more modern day example of this was a powerful political movement that started in the early 70’s called “The Moral Majority”. The founders of the Moral Majority saw the quick decline of morality in the United States and were greatly distressed and concerned by what was taking place. Quite frankly, they were right to be distressed, as we have a right to be distressed at the even further decline of morality we see taking place today. The problem was, the Moral Majority sought to transform the morality of the country by organizing a powerful political movement that sought to vote in political conservatives. In other words, they sought the legislation of morality. And while the believer should take seriously what takes place in the political world, while we should take seriously the incredible right and responsibility we have been given to vote, and in some instances run for political offices. The morality of this country cannot be transformed through legislation. And we can’t determine whether or not a person is a believer by their political affiliation.

The next influential party and what they would represent today is;

The Sadducees would be represented by the Religious Liberal.

The Sadducees controlled the temple and they were the party the high priest came from in Israel. They were largely from the tribe of the Levites. They used religion and their relationship with the Romans as a means of obtaining great wealth. They were religiously extremely liberal, not believing in the supernatural.

In today’s world they could be compared to the liberal denominations that turn their backs on true Biblical teaching for the sake of embracing sinful lifestyles in an effort to build the church, and not a church centered on the teachings of Jesus Christ, calling people to confession and repentance and surrender to God.

They could also be compared to churches and denominations that embrace health and wealth schemes that use the church and people to obtain great wealth for themselves. Many times these are the fastest growing churches in the country.

These three influential parties had the potential to stop the ministry of the disciples dead in it’s track, so Jesus takes this time to warn them in advance. The problem was, as we see in verse 16, the disciples still had their minds on the temporal, rather than the eternal. Thankfully, we find out in Matthews account, in chapter 16 verse 12, that after Jesus’ questioning of them, they finally got the point of the lesson.

This brings us to the last few verses. Look at Mark 8:22-26 where we see the people bring a blind man to Jesus. Interestingly, Jesus heals this man, as the title of this morning’s message highlights; “One step at a time”.

Since we are running out of time this morning, let me explain to you, briefly, what I believe is taking place here, particularly as it relates to the disciples. This is the only 2-fold miracle we see in all of the New Testament. It really gives a vivd picture of how Jesus cured the spiritual blindness of the disciples. As was pointed out earlier this morning, the fact that the disciples joined Jesus in turning their backs on the religious leaders of the day, when they climbed in the boat and headed across the Sea of Galilee, gives evidence of their spiritual blindness being overcome, but their hearts and minds were still, largely on the things of the world, on their own appetites, on the temporal rather than the eternal. What we saw taking place in verses 14-21 of Mark chapter 8, is comparable to what we see taking place in verse 25;

Mark 8:25 (ESV)

Then Jesus laid His Hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

So, as we close, what is the application for us?

1st. We need to be careful of the 3 areas Jesus warned the disciples about. The Religious legalist who cheapens the power of the blood of Jesus and what He accomplished on the cross with a faith that revolves around do’s and don’t’s. Adding rules and regulations to the blood of Jesus Christ. A life of surrender to Jesus will, inevitably bring about change in the believer, Jesus died to save and then transform those who trust in Him, not to save those already transformed.

The religious nationalist who also cheapens the power of the cross by tying it to a political party or to a particular national Heritage.

Or the religious liberal, who cheapens the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, by embracing sinful lifestyles in an effort to put seats in the pews and money in the offering plate.

Lastly, the disciples full transformation was a by-product of spending time with Jesus. John MacArthur put it this way, and I will close with this;

“this miracle served as an illustration for the disciples of temporary spiritual blindness. Spiritually speaking, they had once been like that blind man. Having been raised in traditional Judaism, they had been taught to follow the guidance of the blind Pharisees and scribes (Matt. 23:16). Even with the light of Old Testament Scripture (cf. Ps. 119:105), and the advantages inherent in being part of God’s chosen nation (cf. Rom. 3:2; 9:4–5), their understanding of spiritual truth had been hopelessly blurred by centuries of rabbinic tradition and religious hypocrisy. All of that changed when they met the Savior. His saving touch removed the veil of darkness that once shrouded their unbelieving hearts (cf. 2 Cor. 3:14–15). In an act of infinite compassion, the Lord Jesus miraculously gave them eyes of faith, as He does for every sinner whom He saves, so that they could clearly apprehend truth for the first time. He is, as the apostle John describes Him, “the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9). John MacArthur, Mark 1–8, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2015), 410.

Let’s close our time this morning in prayer.