Spiritual Blindness

Matthew 16:1-4

I. The Blindness.

A. Spiritual blindness can be found in the most religious of people.

1. A description of the two groups. Sadducees- Higher class, rich and influential, made money off of the Temple, liberal in their Theology. Pharisees- working class people, strict separatists by conviction.

2. There was a division between the two. Spiritual blindness leads to division. Paul actually used this to his advantage on one occasion. He was brought before the Sanhedrin for trial. He saw that there were both Pharisees and Sadducees present. He said “Men and brethren I am a Pharisee the son of a Pharisee of the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in question”. The Pharisees then said “we find no evil in this man”. A great argument started between the two and it was so serious that the chief captain removed Paul for fear that he would be killed in the battle between the two groups.

3. Ironically hatred for Jesus united these two groups. They found common ground in rejecting Christ. Which is true for all spiritually blind people. There are all types of spiritually blind people, many of which cannot stand one another. But they come together on the one point of rejecting Christ.

B. Blindness makes one cynical of Christ.

1. They come to Christ. But note why they come. They come to find fault in Him, not to find forgiveness in Him. There were always representatives of these groups following Jesus around. But they never saw His worth.

2. They tempt Christ. They want Him to show them a sign from heaven. In other words, in the heavens. It was a popular Jewish superstition that demons could empower a person to perform earthly miracles but not ones in the heavens. They wanted Jesus to do some miracle in the sky. Then they would be convinced, they claimed. What they are doing is trying to get Jesus to do something they believe He can’t do. If they thought for a minute He could do it, they wouldn’t challenge Him. There is a difference between a little faith and no faith. We may ask god for a sign because we doubt. They asked for a sign because they just flat out denied that Jesus was the Messiah.

3. In blindness man deceives himself. He thinks ‘I am trying. See I have attempted to come to Christ. All I ask for is a sign, a feeling, proof”. The idea is that the fault then lies on God because after all “We would believe if God would just do what we ask”. How many people in their blindness have said something like these men? “Lord, “I’ll believe if…” There is nothing virtuous about tempting, testing, challenging God.

C. People remain in spiritual blindness because they do not want to be healed.

1. That is a clear truth from Scripture. Romans 1:20-21 says “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse: Because that when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened”. The spiritually blind person has seen enough of God to know that he doesn’t want Him. Therefore, he pulled the shades, blew out the candle, turned off the light.

2. What we mean by spiritual blindness. Jeremiah spoke of a people in Jer. 5:21 who have “eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not”. That truth was a recurring them in Jesus preaching (13:14) as well as Paul’s (Eph. 4:18). In fact Jesus told Paul that his ministry to the Gentiles would be to “open their eyes and to turn them from the power of darkness to light” (Acts 26:18). Spiritual blindness means that person cannot see certain essential truths that would bring about salvation. 1)They cannot see the worth of Christ. 2) They cannot see the truth of Scripture. 3) They cannot see the seriousness of their sin.

3. People remain in spiritual blindness by choice. It would be impossible for us to grasp if a physically blind person refused a cure for their blindness. We would think “Why would a person choose darkness over a sunset, a rainbow, an ocean view, a starry night, the face of their loved one?” But everyday people choose to remain in spiritual blindness. Why? Because with the healing would come responsibility. Jesus asked a man lying at the pool of Bethesda “do you want to get well?” That seems like a silly question but for 38 years that man had not walked, or worked for himself. With healing would come responsibility. People know that if they are healed of their spiritual blindness then responsibility follows. It’s like those shows that show the starving children in Africa, we won’t watch them because we know we will be ready to empty out our savings and help them.

II. The Rebuke.

A. Jesus rebukes them for what they can see.

1. They had learned by observation to tell the weather. They knew the old poem “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in the morning sailor’s take warning”. He is saying “you are good weathermen, but not very good theologians!”

2. Jesus calls them hypocrites. They were hypocrites because they pretended to know so much about God but actually knew so little about Him. They couldn’t see the signs of the times. That is, the proof that Jesus is the Messiah. He was born of a virgin as the prophet predicted (Isa. 7:14), in Bethlehem as the prophet predicted (Micah 5:2), preceded by the voice in the wilderness as the prophet said (Isa 40:3), mighty in power as the prophets said (Isa. 35:4-5). They could look at one thing and determine the weather enough to plan their earthly life; they could see many spiritual signs and still deny the truth.

3. Jesus calls them wicked and adulterous. Their denial proved they were evil, sinful, their allegiance was to another god. And Jesus includes the whole generation with them. The people did not want to know the truth or else they would know it. By the way, two things the religious elite did not want to be called were wicked and adulterous.

B. Every generation should take heed to what Jesus says here.

1. We are good at predicting the earthly. We have weathermen that we rely on, they predict the weather for us and we plan our lives accordingly, we predict the stock market or have a broker do it for us. We know when to buy and sell by watching. We predict sports. We look at the stats and determine who is going to win the game. We predict the real estate market. We buy or sell as it rises and falls. We are good at reading signs and predicting the future. And if we are not so good we have connections with people that are good at it.

2. We predict the earthly because we care about the earthly. This is where our joy is found, dreams are established. We care about bigger barns, physical health, earthly accomplishments. And we ought to, but not to the neglect of spiritual matters.

3. There seems to be one thing about the earthly we do not predict so well. That is death. It’s ironic because death is a sure bet. We know, we don’t guess about death. But my point is that so many people do not plan for it. Even as the signs get more vivid. Old age, sickness, death of friends, etc. does not even seem to convince us. I mean, we will plan our funeral before we plan our death. Death is something we would rather not see so we close our eyes to it.

C. God has given our generation signs to remind us of what’s important.

1. The establishment of Israel as a country again. Ezekiel 34, a lot of the end time events surround Israel and it wasn’t even an independent nation for a very long time. Prior to 1948 one may have wondered how so much bible prophecy could be fulfilled since Israel was not even a nation anymore. It’s reestablishment is a sign that we are nearing the end of days.

2. The prophecy of a one world government. As well as a religion. Revelation 13 outlines that for us. This type of government would have been impossible in the days the Scripture was written. But it’s possibility is so obvious now that it is eerie. The world is connected via the internet, satellites, and other forms of technology. Nations are connected. Superstars in America are also superstars in Japan. We know our politicians and we know North Korea’s. Looking at the global popularity of Barack Obama we see how the world could easily unite behind a single leader.

3. The signs Jesus warned of. False prophets, men’s hearts growing cold, wars and rumors of war, earthquakes, persecution of believers, famines, the preaching of the gospel to all nations. Yet , generally speaking the world is not preparing itself.

III. Principles for us all to glean.

A. Spiritual blindness is a reality.

1. It can come from sin. John 3;19 says ‘And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil”.

2. It can come from Satan. 2 Cor. 4;4 “The god of this world hath blinded their minds…”

3. It can come from God. Luke 19:42. God will respond to rejection with spiritual blindness. Just as He struck the would be rapists in Sodom with blindness he will give a deeper blindness to those that willfully reject Him.

4. The end of spiritual blindness is seen at the end of verse 4. Look at it “And he left them and departed”. That is a sad and heartbreaking thing. That should be enough warning for us all to take spiritual blindness seriously.

B. Spiritual near sightedness is also a danger. This is a danger for believers. 2 Peter 1:9 speaks of a partial blindness “we cannot see afar off”.

1. We can be surrounded by the things of God but unable to enjoy them. Twilight zone episode of book lover, no time to read, nuclear war, only one left, finds a library and the breaks his glasses.

2. Sin can cause this. When we live in rebellion there is only one side of God we can see. We see His hand of discipline. That also goes for other believers. All we will see is that they are judgmental. Sin will corrupt our perception of God.

3. Spiritual immaturity causes this. Spiritual growth is knowledge put into practice. When we do what we learn we grow. The spiritual life is a journey, to grow is to take steps forward on that journey. The more steps you take forward the closer you get to Go and the more clearly you see Him. Many believers have been cured of their blindness but still have a clouded vision. God wants to clear that up. He doesn’t want us surrounded by His glory but unable to see it well enough to enjoy it.

C. There is much of God for us to see.

1. Too many just enjoy the basics. Some folks study sports they can tell you everything you want to know. Just the other day I had some guys ask me who the coach of Georgia was in such and such a year. I told them I didn’t know. They then began to hound me saying I was not a true fan. This went on for a while until I finally told them, “You’re right, but I can name all 12 disciples”. My point was, I like football but it is not the most important thing in my life. I want to know the details about who God is. I don’t want to know the basics. I want to be an expert on who he is.

2. Satisfaction with the basics is not where a believer should be. It’s like enjoying the ocean. You look at it from the balcony and it’s beautiful. After a while you walk down to it and feel the sand, taste the air around it, experience the power of the wind and waves. You step into it and experience it even more. Some get more intrigued and get in a boat and experience it, and some even put on scuba gear and go deep into it. So you see we can “see” the ocean from the balcony but we are only seeing it partially. We can see God from a distance or we cal plunge into His depths and stand even more amazed at Who he is.

3. Sin and neglect will cloud the glory of God from our lives. Let us not be experts in the things of this world and an amateur in the things of God.