Notice Jesus!

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you please turn in your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8. If you're using your pew bibles, you'll find that on page 890. Mark chapter 8.

And you'll notice on the bulletin it says one title, but in your handout there is a different title. Many times I create the order of worship months in advance or weeks in advance, and then as I study a passage, think about the passage, things go a different way. And so we're going to be looking, instead of at verses 1 through 26, we're going to zoom in and specifically look at verses 22 through 26, taking special note of Jesus Christ. Mark chapter 8, beginning at verse 22, brothers and sisters, This is God's perfect word.

Then he came to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. So he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, I see men like trees walking. Then he, that being Jesus, put his hands on his eyes again, and he made him look up, and he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Then he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you. for your word. Lord, it doesn't return void, but we need your spirit to make it effectual in our lives unto salvation. Lord, please. We pray that you would take your word and you would wield it in our hearts. The sharp two-edged sword. But Lord, this morning we pray that you would use it as a sharp surgeon's scalpel. That You might cut off the calluses of our hearts. That we might love You. Lord, we need Your Spirit to teach us this morning. And to move us to love You. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

Well, there are times in which providence just gives me something right in front of my eyes that happens. And this morning, or this week, as I was translating this text on Tuesday, I was going from the Greek. All of a sudden, a man that I haven't heard from in months sent me a text message. A man who I've talked with with the gospel before and have tried to encourage, and he text messaged me. His name is Jim, and he said, Brian, I'm going blind. Please pray for me. The doctors have tried. And they said, my vision is going to continue to deteriorate. I went in for surgery and it made it worse. It's only a matter of time. Please pray that I can learn in the darkness.

The deepest spiritual need that this man, in the story that we read this morning, was to be healed by Jesus in body and in soul. The man I talked to this week, his deepest need was to come face to face with Jesus Christ and to be healed body and soul, and it is our greatest need as well.

And so this morning, as we go through verses 22 through 26, I want you to take notice of Jesus. We're going to slow down this text and think through these different parts. And I desire, my hope for you is you will walk out of here and you will know Jesus Christ. Notice Jesus first in verse 22. See that the friends notice Jesus.

Verse 22, then He, that being Jesus, came to Bethsaida and they brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch Him. The man didn't stumble by himself to find Jesus. No, his friends brought him to Jesus. And when they brought him to Jesus, they didn't think it was too high for them, or somehow it was too great for them, but they begged Jesus. That He would just touch him. That Jesus would just lay his hands on him. Now notice where this is taking place at. Where did they go to find Jesus? They didn't go to find Jesus in the center of power. They didn't go to Jerusalem. They didn't go to where they would find the priestly class, where they would find the rich, where they would find the powerful.

They took him to a little tiny, Bethsaida literally means house of fish. They literally went to the poor fishing village on the north side of the Sea of Galilee to try to find this man in this obscure Galilean town. Can anything good come from Galilee?

What were they hoping for? They're hoping to find Jesus. Now, I don't know exactly if they knew what all Jesus was. In their mind, they just had a hope. That they've heard the rumors that there's a man, and if they bring their friend to Jesus, this man has the ability to heal people. I'm not sure they understand the depths of who this person was, if they've heard about him stilling the water, or walking upon the sea.

But no matter what little bit they've heard, it's enough for them to go and to beg Jesus. to entrust this man entirely to Jesus' hands. There's a parallel story that we've already looked at to this, that Mark's already brought up with the deaf man, and the deaf and mute man, his friends brought him, and the emphasis in that story, in the structure of the Greek, is on the friends, but not in this story. In this story, the emphasis isn't on the friends, but it's on Jesus. and his interaction with this man. My question for you this morning, with that caveat that the emphasis is not on the friends, we still have to ask ourselves, with all we know about Jesus, which is far more than these people knew about Him, do we follow in their example?

And think about, they just had a rumor, an inkling, just some little bit of information about who Jesus was, and they were willing to take this, their friend, their blind friend to Jesus and beg Jesus to heal them. How often do you pray for your loved ones that they would come to know Jesus? You know far more than these people ever did.

You know about his high priestly office in the order of Melchizedek. You know about Him ministering in a tabernacle not made by human hands. You know of Him being the Son of David, the Messiah, the Christ, the One who is promised to come. You know about His life, death, and resurrection. You know about Him sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. You know about Him commanding a legion of armies.

Do you bring your friends and family to Jesus Christ? With all that you know, Would you beg Jesus that He would just lay His hands upon those you love? I hope that's the case, because if you've come to Jesus Christ, you know that someone led you to Him. Whether it was as a little child when they brought you to the front to be baptized, and from an early age you've always known Jesus because your parents loved you that much. Or whether it was because as a youth or as an adult, somebody brought you to Jesus Christ.

The friends take notice of Jesus, and we ought also to take notice of Him. But also notice the touch of Jesus. When they bring this man to Him, notice what Jesus does. Verse 23. So He, that being Jesus, He took the blind man by the hand. That's the tender care of Jesus for this blind man.

I remember One time, Olivia and I were on vacation. We were in Phoenix, Arizona. And Phoenix has just boomed into this mega city. There's millions of people who live there. It used to be where you could go and disappear. Not anymore. There's a gajillion people. And we pulled up to one of these stoplights. Now, it's not like a...

Well, we don't have any stoplights in Des Moines County anyways. But it's three lanes each way. So six lanes. So six lanes north and south, six lanes east-west, and there's a stoplight in the middle. And you can imagine how busy that intersection is all the time. Cars, cars, cars, zooms. And at this point, on a Sunday afternoon, sunny like it normally is, all of a sudden, all the cars were stopped. The light was green, but the cars were stopped.

And as I strained over to see what was going on, all of a sudden we realized what was happening. There was a blind man who had begun to cross the road and in all the midst of the noise of the traffic, he lost his way and ended up in the middle of the intersection. And he couldn't figure out where he was. Totally lost, totally helpless. If anybody had made a sudden move, could have killed this man. Until one person got out of his big black truck shut the door and gently walked over to him and just touched him on the shoulder and then reached down and held his hand and he walked him over out of danger and into safety.

That's what Jesus does with this man. He can't see Jesus, but Jesus shows compassion to him. In the midst of all the danger of his life and all the heartache of his suffering, Jesus doesn't find it below him. But the King of Kings holds a blind man's hand and reassures him of the safety that he's going to take him to. When we are spiritually blind, it's Jesus Christ who reaches down and holds our hand. who draws us to himself, who brings us to safety. Notice the touch of Jesus. But also notice the personal care of Jesus in verse 23. It goes on from here.

Jesus took the blind man by the hand and he led him out of the town. Where does Jesus take this blind man? He takes him away from the crowds. He takes him out of the village, he takes him out of the town, away from the hustle, away from the bustle, away from everybody who's crowding around, who wants to see, is Jesus going to heal this guy?

Everybody wants a spectacle, but Jesus is concerned with this man's care. He's concerned about this man. The man has Jesus' full attention. It seems Jesus has placed him in this point in his life where he needs to listen to Jesus alone, not to all the voices, not to all the people around, but he takes him alone to go care for him.

The hustle and bustle of the town would press heavy upon them, but that's not where Jesus desires to do his work. I'm going to suggest to you as well that in the hustle and bustle of your life, You might miss the tender care of Jesus Christ. Often, I don't know about you, but I mean, I prayed about this this morning, not because I'm trying to call any of you out, but because even in my own heart, in the busyness of life, with all the stuff and problems and things that crowd for your attention and your time, this is why Jesus talks about we need a prayer closet. This is why Jesus gives us the example of while it was still very early in the morning, it was still dark, he left and departed to a desolate place and there he prayed. Jesus takes this man to the side so he could focus on him. Far too often the hustle and bustle of our life crowds out the work of Christ.

It's actually one of the things when I moved here I loved. I remember talking to someone and they said something to me about, you know, a little church in the middle of the cornfields. And I thought, and they were kind of speaking about it in a bad way. And they were kind of like, well, it's not like in town. It's like, it's not in the heart of the city or anything. And I thought, that's wonderful.

You can have a retreat every Lord's Day. And you might get distracted by a tractor or something when you drive by. But I pray that this place would be used. I pray that where the Lord has planted our local congregation might be a place where people find that if they come from the city, if they come from the towns, that can stay there.

But when they come here, this is where they get to rejoice in the Lord and rejoice with the Lord's people. Jesus takes personal care of this man, and we ought to take notice of that. But notice that Jesus' cure is often humiliating. Notice a humiliating cure of Jesus, verse 23. So he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. This is a nice part, right? We like this part. Period.

And... when he had spit on his eyes. Now this is the second time Jesus has done something like this in close proximity to each other. He had done this when he had taken his spit and put it on the deaf and mute man's tongue, but now he takes and he spits on the man's eyes. I don't know about you, but if somebody started putting spit on my eyes, I might be a little grossed out, offended, or like, what are you doing? But even the spit of Jesus is more powerful than all the physicians that he has seen his entire life. And the thing I thought was amazing as I was thinking about this and just trying to put myself in his shoes, you really do have to close your eyes.

Because he didn't know what Jesus was about to do. He couldn't see him. He couldn't see Jesus' hands. He couldn't see Jesus' face. All he knew is as he was sitting there, all of a sudden, saliva, he could smell it, but he started feeling it on his eyes. He didn't have the visual clues that we would have. But there are many people today who are spiritually blind and they need the balm of the gospel, but it's too humbling for them. I've met these people before. You've met these people before. I don't need anybody's charity. That's exactly what Jesus Christ gives us. We don't deserve it. It's a debt we owe and a price He pays.

There are people who love everything so much and they've built up their entire lives and to tell them that they have to give it all up is to say my entire life has been a sham. I've been building up a deck of cards, a house of cards, and it's worthless. And their pride keeps them from the humiliating cure of Jesus Christ. To come to the great physician requires humility. Begging. Something's wrong. We must know that we need a cure for the darkness of our own eyes before we'll be able to take that cure.

But notice, even though this is a humbling thing for this man, there's a reassuring touch of Christ. Notice the reassuring touch of Christ in verse 23. And when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands on him. One writer on this, it's a book, Robert Lee and James Smith, they wrote, if his spittle was humbling, his hands would be comforting. The balm of Christ humiliates us, it humbles us, it puts us in our place, but his touch reassures us. of His love.

I know that you've experienced this in your own life if you know Jesus Christ. It's happened to me right here. I'm not talking about right here, I'm talking about where I'm standing. When I think, oh, I know the gospel, I know the depths of the gospel, I know the hope of the gospel, and I'm going to preach the gospel, and then I stand here in front of you just a year ago, And I'm supposed to preach to you about the sovereignty of God in the book of Esther. And I read Romans chapter 8, and the words that not even death can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

My father-in-law had just died. The Lord humbles us, and then He touches us with His comforting words. He cares for our souls. He does not just humiliate us to make us nothing, but He humbles us that we might know the depths of His love and of His grace. He applies the truth of the gospel powerfully to our hearts in that moment of humiliation.

Jesus did not spit at this man because He wanted to make a cruel joke. Jesus did not do this show with this man because he wanted to make him an object of scorn in the community. He didn't just spit in his eyes and command him roughly. But after putting his spit on his eyes, he reassured him by putting his hands in that same affected wound.

And notice what Jesus does next in verse 23. Notice the questioning of Jesus. And Jesus asked him, I would say the Greek is different here, I would translate it, do you see anything? Do you see anything? What do you see? Why did Jesus ask this question?

Does he know the answer? He's the sovereign one. He's just healed him in his eyes. Why does he ask this question? I'm not sure we know the answer to that, but I do want to mark the man's honest answer in verse 24. And he looked up and said, I see men like trees walking. The man has an honest answer.

He can see partially, but not totally. Things are blurry. Kind of just stuff out there, things moving, kind of like trees. Whether he's ever seen trees or not, we don't know, but in his mind, if he's guessing, this is kind of what they must look like.

I think we need to be honest in our own estimation about our spiritual darkness. I mean, you've been in this place before, haven't you? In your Christian walk, when the Holy Spirit has shown you something, often this happens with hindsight, and you think that you see, you can perceive things well, biblically and spiritually, you know what's going on, only five or ten years later for the scripture to teach you more and for you to understand more, and you go, oh, man, I really didn't understand or see that right. We need to be honest in our own estimation of our spiritual blindness. When we say, Jesus, I see, but I don't see perfectly yet.

John Calvin said, we see as through a glass darkly. And we have all sorts of glasses now. They get a little bit dirty and you just clean them off. But that's not the type of glasses we look through. It's almost like we look through broken, old Coke bottles. We can see some, but we can't see everything perfectly yet. Too frequently, though, Christians are satisfied with seeing things moving about like trees. knowing that there must be more spiritual clarity, knowing that there must be more biblical understanding, and yet are fully comfortable with just, that's enough for me. I can just see, as long as I can see things moving, that's enough.

But this man isn't satisfied there. He speaks to Jesus clearly. He hasn't been fully healed yet. Notice the perseverance of Jesus in verses 24 and 25. And he looked up and said, I see men like trees walking. Then he put his hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everything.

Sometimes this is how Christianity works, isn't it? That the Holy Spirit starts a work in your heart, and then later on comes more into fruition, and later on comes more and more. I don't like to do too many autobiographical illustrations, but this is how the Lord worked in my life. There were verses that I memorized that I wanted when I was a little boy, and they somewhat made sense to me, and the Lord stored those away in my heart, even though I didn't quite love Him. The Lord had me sit under some gospel preaching, and I had some religious affections, some stirring up of emotions, but yet I didn't quite understand everything. And yet the day came, when Jesus Christ put His hands on my eyes and showed me my stupidity and my absolute need to subject myself to Him as Lord. And my eyes were opened.

He had started that work in my life at a young age, but it wasn't until later that it came to fruition. I think we're What I'm trying to get at here is Jesus perseveres, right? If He's started a good work in you, He's going to complete it unto the day of perfection. Jesus doesn't leave people as half cured, quarter Christians, almost done. No, the work that He starts, He completes.

But in our lives, sometimes we've just... There's so many bad Christian movies. Do me a favor, just cut the amount of Christian movies you watch by three quarters. The bad theology that we just absorb from this stuff is that every single person needs to have a come to Jesus crisis moment in their life. That then, boom, they understand everything, they come out.

But that's not how it often happens. especially in covenant communities like ours. I loved what Ben Turner said during one of the examinations for a person coming into church membership was a question of when you came to Jesus Christ was this was it like a sudden crisis conversion moment or was it more like the sunrise where you saw the glory of Jesus with a little glimmer in the morning and through your life it's just gotten more and more and more glorious. Brothers and sisters, sometimes that's what Jesus is doing in our lives. This is what Paul knew well when he said, some people sow, other people water, and other people reap.

The ministry of Jesus Christ, we want to just... Jesus could have just healed this person. The woman with the issue of blood just had to touch the hem of her robe and she was healed. The woman with The synagogue leader with his daughter who is dead, Jesus just had to say the word and she was alive.

But here Jesus chooses to use a process to show the perseverance of his miraculous power. And he who has begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ Jesus. He saves us to the uttermost. And it's beautiful and it's not in the text, right?

Then he put his hands on his eyes again and made him look up and he was restored and saw everyone clearly. But I wonder who's the first one he saw. I wonder when he opened his eyes for that second time after Jesus has touched him. If the first person he saw was his Lord and Savior. The one who had healed him. and it cared for him. He opens his eyes and sees clearly for the first time the face of his good shepherd.

This is what I think is most likely happening here. Faith comes by hearing. But brothers and sisters, one day, we're not gonna have faith. That might be a little bit concerning to you, a little bit jarring to you, but it's better. because someday we're going to see Him face to face. There won't be a place for faith anymore because it will be full knowledge and love. We will see Him and know Him and be with Him forever. I want you to notice Jesus. This man has sent the very last verse. He sent to his home. Go home. Don't go into the town. Go home. Don't tell anyone. But it's not gonna stay that way.

The blessing of Mark chapter eight is that the story keeps on going and that Jesus now has said it's no longer the time to go home and to be quiet. But now we go into all the nations, telling all peoples of every country, of every tongue and language that the Savior has come, that Jesus Christ is to be taken note of. that He is a compassionate Savior who chose us everything we need to see.

Closing Prayer

Brothers and sisters, I pray that you take note of Jesus, that you notice Him, because He sure does take note of you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the story That is a parable of spiritual insight. Lord, we pray that we would have eyes to see and ears to hear.

We thank you for the hope that you have given us in Jesus Christ. We pray that your spirit would apply these words to our hearts in Jesus's name. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.