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

As we begin this morning, go ahead and turn in your copies of God’s Word to Mark chapter 8, as we did last Sunday, 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.

Last Sunday morning, as we began looking at Mark 8:14-26 and the parallel account in Matthew 16:5-12 in a message titled Giving Sight to the Blind, One Step at a Time, we began to look at Jesus warnings to the disciples to “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” Matthew’s account adds the Sadducees to the list. Unfortunately, the minds of the disciples were focused more their growling stomachs that they were on the things of God! Their minds immediately went to the fact that someone forgot to bring the bread and they only had one small loaf between them. Forgetting that over the last few months, including one event likely no more than 2 to 3 weeks earlier, Jesus had miraculously fed combined crowds totaling close to 40,000 (including women and children) and they had leftovers! Marks account finds them discussing their foodless predicament amongst themselves, instead of going The Bread of Life!

Hearing Jesus warning, they thought Jesus was talking to them about leaven in a loaf of bread rather than the false teachings of these three influential groups that were putting thousands and thousands of Jews on the fast track to hell.

We concluded last Sunday by briefly looking at one of the three groups, this week we will finish that look as well as consider the other two groups.

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

Our most gracious and loving heavenly Father,

What an incredible privilege it is for us to be here this morning, to corporately step into the presence of You, El Elyon, the Most High God. And Father, we just want to thank you for what You accomplished for us At The Cross, when You, through Your great love for us, and at an immeasurable sacrifice, made not only by Jesus, but also by Yourself, sent Jesus, our Savior to bleed, and then did my Sovereign die. It is amazing to contemplate the reality that we sang Would He devote that sacred Head, For sinners such as I! To remember that it was for crimes that I (we) have done He groaned upon that tree. Such unfathomable love seen in the Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree! O Father, we pray that the thought of what Jesus did on the cross would Dissolve my (our) heart(s) in thankfulness, and melt mine (our) eyes to tears. Because of all this, Lord, we say what we sang Here, Lord I (we) give myself (Ourselves) away; ‘Tis all that (we) I can do.’

And as if Your love displayed on the Cross wasn’t enough, You have also provided for us Your inspired Word, Your love letter, this the infallible, living Word of God, that we can read and study and discover even more, of You, the Vine, and we the branches, more about You, in Whom we find our strength, and can enter in to a peace sublime! Father, we ask that as we look into the pages of Scripture this morning, that You would open our eyes to the truths You have for us today. That the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of our mind and give us understanding to Your Word.

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, The Vine, 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.

Now, let me take a moment and read to you from Matthew’s account of this event. If you have it book marked in your copies of God’s Word, go ahead and follow along with me. We find this in Matthew 16:6-12 where we read; Matthew 16:6-12

Matthew 16:6–12 (ESV)

6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”

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.

As was mentioned last Sunday, “Leaven or yeast” in Scripture is frequently used to illustrate sinful influence.

This morning, I want to continue our 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.

First last Sunday morning we began our look with the Pharisees. In the church today;

The Pharisees would be represented by the Religious legalist.

When I was growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, religious legalism was the norm. If you were a man getting ready for church on Sunday’s, you wore a suit. If you were a woman, you’d wear a dress, and maybe a hat. They were kind of unwritten rules and if you violated the rule, most would look down on you. I spoke of some of the other unwritten rules last Sunday, like going to dances, playing with face cards. Thankfully, even though I was raised in a pastors homes, my parents never made these the rules of our family. Most likely my parents realized, these were not from Scripture.

R. C Sproul, who now lives in a pretty awesome mansion in heaven, outlined 3 forms of legalism;

1. Focusing on God’s laws more than relationship with God.

Legalism forms “where one is concerned merely with the keeping of God’s law as an end in itself.”Sproul points out that legalism divorces obedience from God’s love and redemption. “The legalist focuses only on obeying bare rules, destroying the broader context of God’s love and redemption in which He gave His law in the first place.”

2. Keeping external laws without a truly submitted heart.

Closely linked to the first, Sproul says legalism “obeys the externals while the heart is far removed from any desire to honor God, the intent of His law, or His Christ.” Legalism divorces obedience from our relationship with God.

3. Adding human rules to divine laws and treating them as divine.

What Sproul calls “the most common and deadly form of legalism,” is when we add “our own rules to God’s law and treats them as divine… Jesus rebuked the Pharisees at this very point saying, ‘You teach human traditions as if they were the word of God.’ We have no right to heap up restrictions on people where He has no stated restriction.”

Now, I do want to caution us. While Scripture is clear that salvation is:

In Christ Alone.

Through Faith Alone

By Grace Alone

For the one who has truly put their faith and trust in Christ, it is hard to imagine there not being physical evidence of salvation. The religious liberal, who we will address a little later this morning, loves to quote Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

There is powerful evidence in these 2 verses that flies in the face of the religious legalist who has a checklist of things you should and shouldn’t be doing. And. quite frankly, it should! But let’s not forget what Paul goes on the write in the very next verse, Ephesians 2:10

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

What is it we have been created for in Christ Jesus? (good works…which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Moving on, the next influential party and what they would represent today is;

The Herodians would be represented by the Religious Nationalist.

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!”.

In Jesus day, 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.

Now, let me ask you a question; What do you think is meant by the phrase “legislate morality”? (trying to force morality on the Nation through laws and regulations). One of the problems with what took place through the efforts of the Moral Majority is, they were voting in people who ran on a platform of morality and conservatism, yet far to many of them lived lives that were quite the opposite.

Now, please understand this, the believer should take seriously what takes place in the political world, and we should take seriously the incredible right and responsibility we have been given to vote, and in some instances run for political offices.

That being the case, 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.

If you’re serious about the transformation of this great, but quickly declining nation of ours, yes…vote! But far more importantly, start spending time in God’s Word and prayer daily. Then, begin to put to practice what you see written in these pages. And start boldly proclaiming of what Jesus has done in your life. If every believer began to do these things, I’d venture to guess this nation would be transformed in less than 20 years, and the transformation would have noting to do with how people voted.

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 two types of churches are the fastest growing churches in the country.

But in both instances, they water down the Gospel, they water down the truths of God’s Word, to fill the pews. They care more about church attendance numbers than they do seeing lives transformed by the truth's of God’s Word. They are more concerned with building their own empire than they are building the Kingdom of God.

So, there you have the three influential parties Jesus was dealing with, and how they match quite well what we see taking place in our world today. Here is the problem Jesus was seeking to open the eyes of the disciples to that day;

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”.

Moving Spiritual Vision Past Walking Trees.

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 we talked about last Sunday, 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.

It is clear that much of their spiritual blindness was gone, or they would have never gotten in the boat with Jesus that day, but in some ways, spiritually men were like trees walking around, if you get what I mean. It was imperative that Jesus finish the job!

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.

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

And 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.