Spiritual Blindness

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Sermon: Spiritual Blindness Date: March 16, 2025, Morning Text: Luke 18:31–43 Series: Luke Preacher: Conley Owens

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Please turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 18. Our preaching continues here in Luke chapter 18.
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So the previous context was the rich young ruler and the answer given to the disciples who questioned whether anyone could be saved.
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Peter, speaking about leaving homes and following Jesus. Jesus' answer, truly
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I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will not receive many times more in this time and the age to come eternal life.
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Now, Jesus speaks of his death again and then heals blind Baker in this passage that we will look at today.
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When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's word and we will read this passage. Luke 18, 31 through 43.
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In taking the 12, he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the
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Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished for he will be delivered over to the
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Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him and on the third day he will rise.
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But they understood none of these things. The saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp what was said.
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See, drew near to Jericho, blind man was sitting by the roadside begging and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.
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They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by and he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
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Those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.
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Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And then when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you?
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He said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, recover your sight. Your faith has made you well.
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And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
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Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you today for your word.
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We thank you for this promise of spiritual sight. We ask that you would help us to understand your word, that you would give us eyes to see.
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Praise it. Like your disciples who needed to understand your death and resurrection, we are disciples who need to understand your death and resurrection.
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Like the blind man who needed his eyes open, we need our eyes open. We pray that you would open our eyes so we might understand these things.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Well, you may be wondering, although it may be obvious from the prayer
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I just prayed, why I would preach these two passages together. I have, in general, had a habit of preaching relatively small portions of scripture.
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This past pericope about the rich young ruler preached in three different segments.
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So why is it that I would take these two things that in the ESV are two distinct sections and combine them together?
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Well, these both have to do with the notion of sight. Both have to do with the ability to see.
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Jesus' disciples have things hidden from them they cannot see to understand the nature of Jesus' death and resurrection.
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The blind beggar cannot physically see, but he understands who Jesus is, unlike the disciples, and Jesus healed some.
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And so this is a passage that teaches us of spiritual sight, what we need in order to pursue spiritual sight, what it is that we lack, and what it is that we ought to have.
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So just considering the nature of this passage, the actual text and narrative of it, let us walk through it once here.
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In taking the 12, he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem. So they are on their way to Jerusalem.
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They have been on their way to Jerusalem since chapter nine. Chapter nine, Jesus said that this is where he would depart, or scripture says this is where Jesus would depart, referring to his death.
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And so they have been traveling to Jerusalem since chapter nine. So as they are nearing
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Jerusalem, he's going to explain to the 12 disciples, his closest of disciples, remember he has many disciples, but to his closest of disciples, he's explaining what is going to happen at Jerusalem.
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Everything written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. In the final chapter of Luke, he explains that not only is it some things written in scripture that Jesus fulfilled, but all things written in scripture ultimately points to him, and that he fulfills primarily in his death, burial, and resurrection.
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We know not only of many patterns of third -day deliveries from death, for example,
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Jonah being delivered on the third day, Hezekiah being delivered from his death on the third day, Isaac on the third day, as they were traveling for him to be sacrificed, delivered from death.
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Hebrews says it was a resurrection as a type. The cupbearer being delivered on the third day rather than the baker who was hung on a tree on the third day.
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Right, there are all kinds of patterns that we see in scripture of these third -day resurrections. But then there are frequent things about prophets, about priests, about kings, all these things pointing to our ultimate prophet, priest, and king,
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Jesus Christ. All of scripture is pointing to Jesus. All of scripture finds its fulfillment in him.
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In fact, all of creation finds its fulfillment in him. Bible says that all things were made by him, for him, through him, and to him all are things.
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All things are for Jesus Christ. But most especially, the scriptures are written about Jesus Christ.
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So he must go to Jerusalem in order for these scriptures to be completely fulfilled.
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Yet the disciples do not understand this. It says, for he will be delivered over to the
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Gentiles. Speaks of the Romans here being delivered over to them. He will be mocked, shamefully treated, and spit upon.
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You're familiar with the ways that Jesus was mocked. He had a placard put above his cross, mocking him as king of the
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Jews, even though he actually is king of the Jews. Repeatedly, he was spit on and beaten.
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It says, for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked, and shamefully treated, and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him.
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And on the third day, he will rise. Ultimately, he is crucified, and then rises again from the dead on the third day.
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It says, but they understood none of these things. This thing was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.
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So even though he's speaking to them, they do not understand the things that are being spoken. They don't understand what it means.
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You see, in other times, they are too afraid to even ask him. This is what other passages in the
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Gospels tell us. They were too afraid to even ask him what he's talking about. And then other times, they simply wouldn't have it.
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They simply reject it. Peter tells him, these things will never happen to you, because they don't like what he's saying.
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So on one hand, they're too afraid, they're too proud to accept it, or to even ask.
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And other times, they're too proud to consider the difficult realities. They don't even like what is being said, so they reject it.
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So these are various reasons why one might not understand, but at the end, they simply do not understand these things.
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They are hidden from them. So it's not just that they can't see them, but they are being hid so that they cannot see them.
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This next passage we see about the beggar. Talks about him drawing near to Jericho.
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So Jericho is on the way to Jerusalem. It's about 18 miles out. So that is where Jesus is at this point in time.
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About 18 miles out of Jerusalem. These two have been connected earlier in Luke, in the parable of the
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Good Samaritan. Where was the man who got beaten traveling from? He's traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho.
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Okay, so these two cities have been connected before as a route that people would often take.
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So it speaks of a blind man sitting by the roadside begging. Now there are a few details that we see in other gospels.
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This appears in Matthew 20, it also appears in Mark 10. And these, it is identified, his name is identified as Bartimaeus.
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And in Mark, it's even mentioned that there are two blind beggars. It's not even just one, but there are two.
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So there's some details that we don't think that we would see here that the other gospel writers record for us. But one thing that strikes many people as they compare the gospels is the fact that Mark speaks of this happening as he is leaving
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Jericho. Here it says as he draws near to Jericho. There it says as he's leaving Jericho. There could be different reasons why this is the case.
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The one I find the most attractive is the fact that Luke is arranging this material in a particular fashion.
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In fact, even this right here, where Jesus foretells of his death and then heals the blind beggar, it is not like that in Matthew.
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It's not like that in Mark. There's another narrative that appears in between. But Luke is intentionally putting these things together.
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And so intentionally, he's paying attention to how he's arranging this material with later this passage about Zacchaeus coming later.
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And what does it say in Luke 19 .1? He entered Jericho and was passing through. And so fitting these narratives together and treating them as a single unit, he addresses this all as a single event that happens as he's entering
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Jericho rather than describing the blind beggar as something that's happening as he's leaving.
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He's describing both of these as a unit that happened as he enters. So this is why Luke would speak in this way.
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Even if you considered the event on its own, it might be as he's leaving. As you're considering all these events together, it is as he is entering.
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So in hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. So the blind man hears of Jesus.
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They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
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So he addresses him as the son of David. This is the title of the Messiah, the one who comes from David, who was supposed to rule over Jerusalem.
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And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.
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Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want for me to do for you?
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He said, Lord, let me recover my sight. Okay, so he's being kept away by the people.
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Then he is brought to Jesus after Jesus tells him to come, tells him to be brought.
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And then Jesus asks what he wants to be done. He says he wants a sight. Jesus said to him, recover your sight. Your faith has made you well.
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And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
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So he recovers his sight immediately. He follows him. That means he becomes a disciple, right? Travels around with Jesus.
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He is going to be traveling to him, traveling to Jerusalem with him. And he glorifies God, along with the people, all the people who see it glorify
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God. And so Luke intentionally conjoins these passages, puts them together, showing the nature of spiritual sight.
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Jesus' closest disciples, not really being able to see and understand, but this blind man seeing who
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Jesus is and having his physical eyes opened, revealing this. And so even though they are his closest disciples, they do not see, but this blind man, he sees and he understands who
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Jesus is. He speaks of Jesus as the son of David, right?
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He is the Messiah. This is not a title that has come before in this gospel.
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You see it implicitly in Jesus' genealogy that he is the son of David, but this is not how people have addressed him before.
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And so Luke is saving that title for this man to show that this man has particular insight into who
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Jesus is, right? It's not even before in this gospel that he has been addressed so directly as the son of God.
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This status as the Messiah is something that has not been clear to people, but to this man it is clear that this is indeed the
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Messiah. And another thing that is being done in the way that this is presented to us, both the way that the
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Holy Spirit has inspired history itself in the event that happened, and also the way that he has inspired the words to be given to us, it really does seem to allude to another passage in Scripture, and that is 1
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Samuel 4. In 1 Samuel 4, what happens? Blind Eli is sitting there and he is wondering what is all the commotion about?
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What is all the commotion about? Someone tells him the ark of God has been removed from Jerusalem, and so he collapses and dies there when that happens.
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And what happens in this passage? The blind beggar is sitting there wondering what is all this commotion about?
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They tell him Jesus of Nazareth is here. And just like blind Eli realized that the presence of God had left
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Jerusalem, this blind beggar is realizing that the presence of God is entering
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Jerusalem, and he is declaring, son of David, have mercy on me. Okay, so he recognizes this, and we can even see that in the allusion that's being made to Eli, Eli being blind yet understanding the presence of God, leaving him being blind yet understanding the presence of God coming into Jerusalem.
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And so he recognizes his need for, his need to see, his need to understand, sorry, his need to, he understands who
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Jesus is, and he understands that Jesus is capable of opening his physical eyes. But the disciples, who can see with their physical eyes, do not realize that they need their spiritual eyes opened.
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And what is it that is in view here? What is it that needs to be seen primarily?
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What is it this man understands and wants to see? What is it that the disciples do not?
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It is Jesus himself. This man understands who Jesus is, and he wants to see Jesus with his physical eyes.
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The disciples see Jesus with their physical eyes, but they do not understand who he is.
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And so the main thing that needs to be understood by a Christian is
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Jesus Christ. The main thing that needs to be understood by anyone is who Jesus Christ is.
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Now, as we have seen from verse 31, all of Scripture is being written about the
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Son of Man, and this is reinforced with even more explicit words in chapter 24. All of Scripture is being written about Jesus, and so the way that you understand about Jesus is by understanding his word.
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So this is not just seeing him in person, physically. This is not even just knowing him as a person the way you might know someone who walks with you, but knowing him in a more complete way that includes everything that the word has spoken about him.
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This is what needs to be understood. And how is that given, or why is it withheld?
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The answer is ultimately this comes from God. We see that here when this man receives a sight from Jesus.
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We see that also when it says that these things were hidden from the disciples. It doesn't merely say that they were unable to see them, but they were hidden from them, implying that there is one hiding them.
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Now, Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 11, 25, when he says, blessed be you,
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God, who opens the eyes of children and blinds the wise. God hides his truth from some men.
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This comes up repeatedly in Scripture. Okay, Matthew 13, 13, when Jesus is explaining the purpose of the parables, so that some of these things would be hidden from people.
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Isaiah 6, why is he prophesying? So that the people would be blind, right? There is an intent of God to withhold some things.
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Now, God when he does this is doing it in a sense passively, but purposefully, okay?
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So it's not that God is taking people who are able to see, right? Taking people who are holy and righteous and able to see things and then shutting their eyes so that they can't see, right?
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What this refers to is him leaving people in their blindness, okay? That's why when you see it address hardness of heart in Exodus, it goes back and forth between saying
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Pharaoh hardened his own heart and that God hardened his heart, right? Pharaoh is sinking into the depths of his depravity.
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When it refers to God hardening his heart, what it means is God withholding his hand so that he would sink further.
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Okay, so this is passive on God's part. He does not force any man to sin. He does not force any man into depravity, but he permits them into such things purposefully and because it is purposeful, sometimes it is described as though God is actively doing it, right?
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That he is the one hardening the heart or he's the one hiding these things or making men blind, right?
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It is not that he is pushing anyone into sin, rather he is removing his hand and permitting them to fall deeper and deeper into their own depravity and sin.
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So this is why it speaks this way. So these things are hidden.
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It is something that comes from God himself. As I said, there are many reasons why the disciples didn't understand, right?
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Could be because they were afraid to ask, can be because they do not like the consequences of what's being said, regardless they are blind.
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So what then is the cure for spiritual blindness? What is the cure for it?
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Well first, what is needed is in order to recognize that you are blind. This is really what allows this man to ask for Jesus to give him insight.
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He recognizes that he is blind. The disciples do not recognize that they are blind.
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They may be aware that they don't understand, but this is not, they do not recognize it in a way that they sense it as a real need to be corrected such that they would take the actions necessary in order to correct it.
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Recognition really is the first step, the most important thing that is going on here.
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And this man not only recognizes his need, but he recognizes the solution is found in Jesus Christ.
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And so he places his faith in him. Now something else is going on too with the way that Luke has very carefully arranged this.
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And I really do believe out of all the Gospels, Luke is the most particular in the way he has arranged these passages so that they follow, so that their proximity is communicating things to us in a way that the other
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Gospels are not necessarily trying as hard to do. Luke is doing this in a particular way. And I very much appreciate the way that the versification works in this.
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Now the Bible was not given with chapters. Those things were given later, and then later there were verses given to these things.
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But you notice this chapter is very neatly arranged so that what is happening with this blind man really is associated with all the other narratives that have come before.
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Consider what we learned in the parable of the persistent widow, right? She persistently begs for justice to be given to her.
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What is this man? He is persistent. If nothing else, he keeps calling out. It doesn't matter how much he's rejected. He calls out again and again and again.
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So we see all these lessons about faith being added up into this final passage in this chapter.
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While the chapters don't always need to be thought of as chapters, this is one where I believe you really can. Like this was the intent of the
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Holy Spirit to put this together as a unit. So he is persistent. He is calling out.
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These are different things that faith looks like. What do we learn from the Pharisee and the tax collector? He must come humbly to God, right?
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Not saying, thank you, God, that you didn't make me like the other, like the tax collector, right?
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Not realizing any kind of need for a problem, but realizing you have a great need, being humble and going to the
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Lord and begging for mercy. And so this is what he cries out. He cries out, Son of David, have mercy on me.
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Recognizing his need. So he's persistent. He recognizes his need. And then what do we learn with the little children?
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Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. He receives it with faith.
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And then to connect that narrative further, what happens? He wants to come. People are refusing him, treating him as unworthy to come, right, just like the children.
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Like Jesus doesn't have time to deal with the children. Jesus doesn't have time to deal with the blind man. And what does Jesus do? He says, bring him to me, just as he said with the children, bring them to me, right?
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These things are connected here. And so those narratives, even the details about him being brought to Jesus are to let us know that this is giving us an illustration of how this faith comes into practice.
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It is having the heart of a child, trusting in Jesus in this way.
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And then the rich young ruler. This rich young ruler is not willing to leave behind the things he has.
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Jesus gives him the command, sell all that you have distributed to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven and come follow me.
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This is a command he's given, come follow me. Man is not certain he wants to do it.
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He goes away without any real resolution. Presumably he doesn't. But then the disciples, including
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Peter, point out that they have followed Jesus, right? And so what does this man do at the very end of all this?
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He follows Jesus. He renounces whatever he had before and he follows him.
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He leaves other things behind and he follows him. All these narratives together, and then interrupted briefly,
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Jesus talking about his death, then talking about the blind beggar, show us what real spiritual sight looks like, what it looks like to have your eyes opened to have real faith, to trust in the
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Lord. It is persistent, it is humble, it is trusting, it is willing to leave it all behind.
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All of this summarized in the narrative of the blind man. And what is it that, and how is it that he is healed?
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He is healed by the command of Christ. I also don't believe that it is simply coincidence that this narrative about Jesus speaking about his death and the disciples not understanding that he would be talking about his death and resurrection.
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It is not just that they don't understand something that he talked about. They don't understand his death and resurrection.
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It really is by Christ's death and resurrection, it is by his status as a Messiah, his resurrection being that thing by which he is declared to be the
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Son of God, declared to be the Messiah according to Romans 1 .4, that he heals. Consider why it is that he speaks of him being delivered over to the
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Gentiles. He doesn't say he's going to be given to the Romans. He says he's gonna be delivered to the Gentiles. Well, what's the curse in Deuteronomy that's spoken to the people?
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If they do not obey God, they will be given over to the Gentiles. They will be ruled by others and they will be just constantly afflicted by Gentile nations.
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So what Jesus is doing in describing this as being handed over to the Gentiles and not just handed over to the Romans is he's letting them know that he is going to be fulfilling the curses of Scripture, that he is going to be bearing the curses of Scripture as he is handed over to the
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Gentiles, bearing that curse in place of others. We know from other passages, other ways that symbolize that he bears that curse.
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He is hung on a tree, Galatians explains. That shows that he is bearing the curse of God. And so that curse that is due to sinners, he is bearing.
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And then he is raised again from the dead on the third day.
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And what does it say in Hosea? Hosea six, verse two. After two days he will revive us.
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On the third day he will raise us up that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the
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Lord. His going out is as sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.
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And so when he speaks about being raised from the third day, while there are many passages that talk about third day deliveries from death, one passage really stands above them all, which is the passage that talks about all
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God's people being raised together on the third day. And they are all raised with him on the third day. On the third day he will raise them up that we may live before him.
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Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. So how is it that people know the
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Lord? How is it that people understand? They understand by being raised up with him on the third day.
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It is through him bearing the curse that our blindness is removed, that blindness being part of the curse.
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It is through him being raised from the dead that we are exalted, right? This man comes to him humbly knowing that he is in need and it is through Christ that he is exalted to this higher status of being a man who can see and a disciple of Jesus Christ.
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You know, no one tries to heal themselves in this way, right?
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If you were a blind man, you wouldn't go in front of a mirror and say, okay, let me take a look at these eyes so that I can try to fix them and try to heal them, right?
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You would understand how foolish it is. A blind person can't see his problem, right? He also doesn't open up an optometry book and try to learn how to understand eye things because he can't read, not at least in that way.
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I know we have audio books and things now, but hopefully my illustration makes sense. A blind person is not capable of fixing his problem.
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He has to call out to one who is capable of fixing the problem. It is through Jesus Christ, he is the one who can fix the problem because he has borne the curse, because he has been raised on the third day to raise all his people with him that we can have our blindness removed.
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And this blindness is not just restricted. Now, when we think about spiritual blindness, we often think about it being those people who do not know the
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Lord. If you today do not know the Lord at all, if you are not saved, if you have not been born again, you need to know
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Jesus Christ. You need to have your eyes open so that you can see, so that you can understand who you are, so that you can understand who he is, so you can understand your place in this world and where you are going.
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However, however, it is not restricted to that. Consider it is who are the blind ones in this passage.
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It is his closest disciples. Do not think that just because you are among his closest disciples belonging to a reformed church that you do not have any blindness that needs to be addressed.
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The first step in dealing with this is recognition, recognition of your blindness.
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Now, it is difficult for a blind person to see that they are blind, but it can be done.
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A blind person can be aware that they are blind, but you must sense your need for further revelation from God.
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Do not be confused also, not just by a particular church you belong to, but by a particular lineage.
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You know, do not think that because, you know, I come from a particular line of godly people,
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I was always raised up in a godly home, all those things often are, people fool themselves, they are self -deceived because they imagine that their upbringing informed them far more than it actually did.
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In Sunday school today, we read some quotes from people who were observing this, that many people raised up in Christian homes think that because they were raised up in a
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Christian home that they know a lot about Christianity, when it's simply not the case. It is a common trope you see among,
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I've hung out with a, I've interacted a lot with Christian apologists to atheists.
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I don't spend a lot of time, spend that much time talking to atheists, but I know people who do, and they often like to point out how often atheists will say, well,
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I was raised up in a Christian home, I was, you know, I was raised up in a church, and I know all these things, and they really have very little clues about the
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Christian faith. But this is true for Christians too, right? A lot of them think that they know a lot because of their particular upbringing, and they actually know very little about the
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Christian faith. And this is especially true of pastor's kids. I don't know if we have any pastor's kids here other than mine, but for my kids, you know, know this.
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This is a real temptation you'll face is to think, oh, because I was raised in a good Christian home, because my dad was a pastor, that means
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I know a lot. No, approach the word humbly. You don't know as much as you think you do.
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Yeah, and don't think that just because you're saved, that's all the spiritual sight that is needed. These are Jesus's closest disciples that need more spiritual sight.
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So be sensible to your needs. Call out to Jesus, have mercy on me, and desire it.
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You must crave the truth. A lot of people may be aware that they don't understand that much, but then they don't want it to be fixed.
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You know, Jesus asked the one man, do you want to be healed? Now, on one hand, it seems like a silly question, but the more
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I, you know, go about ministry and talking to people in the world, in the church, anywhere,
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I realize it's such an important question. Do you want to be healed? You must desire to know the truth.
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Consider what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2 .11. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure and unrighteousness.
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You know, those who do not love the truth but have pleasure and unrighteousness are led astray.
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Let me read the previous verse also. It says that the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.
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Those who refuse to love the truth are subject to deception. God gives them over to deception.
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You might imagine that you're a wise person who can't be fooled, you're not gullible, but if you do not love the truth,
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God will give you over to gullibility. And if you consider the
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Reformed interpretation of that passage in 2 Thessalonians, I know that this has fallen out of popularity among many today, but the standard
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Protestant interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2 throughout the Reformation was that this referred to Roman Catholicism.
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The lawless one that it's referring to is the rise of the pope and people, him having set himself up over the temple of God, the house of God, like it describes in that passage.
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If you consider what kind of things exist in Roman Catholicism, right? People, you know, going and bowing to statues that are crying or seeing
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Jesus in a piece of toast or just all kinds of nonsense, you know, maybe things that are really happening by demonic power, other things that are just, you know, coincidence that they raise to ridiculous levels.
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And you ask, how can someone be so deceived about such silly things?
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Like, especially if you go and you look at some of the myths that these people believe. Well, the answer is right here in this passage.
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How does it happen? They're subject to all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.
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If you do not love the truth, if you have kind of an ambivalent attitude towards the truth, you will be given over to deception.
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You must love the truth, you must crave it. I often ask, especially in my home visitations,
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I'll often ask people if there's anything they would like to know more about the faith, you know,
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I wanna offer anything I can give them from scripture that they would like to know more about. And maybe people are mostly thinking about like academic questions and they don't have any academic questions, but really this could be anything, could be practical things, you know, why do
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I struggle with sin X or something like that, right? But I've found that a lot of people don't necessarily have questions, right?
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They don't have anything that they desire. And I don't know whether or not that is representative of the fact that they don't have a particular desire for truth, but sometimes
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I wonder, you know, if you are reading scripture, if you are really desiring truth, would there not be some burning questions in your head about who
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Jesus is? Wouldn't you desire to know him more? Now, once again, I'm not saying everybody has to be some kind of academic theologian that's wondering how many angels can fit on the head of a pen or, you know, whatever the case may be, you know, those are good questions, though, if you are asking them.
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But you should desire to know Christ more. There should be ways that your heart burns to know him.
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And you should learn to articulate whatever those questions are, whatever those desires are, in order that you could ask people to help you with them.
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So, yeah, develop a desire. You know, you can ask yourself right now or even after this message, you know, what do
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I want to know more about Jesus? What do I want to know more about his word? And if, you know, if answers are coming to you slowly, that's something to consider.
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You know, maybe I need to cultivate a greater desire to know him more, to know him more deeply.
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If you spend a lot of time in God's word, there will be questions that come up. You know, there will be many questions that come up.
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And then pray. Pray. Pray for the Lord to open your eyes. How does this man have his eyes open?
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He calls out to Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. This is how you will have your eyes open, call to Jesus.
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Don't just go to his word without prayer, but go to his word with prayer. Call out to him, open my eyes.
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Your Bible study should be coordinated with prayer. This is something that I try to do, but often realize how much
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I fail at, is just going to the Bible without a, with a posture of submission, but not necessarily one that expands to actually seeking the
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Lord in prayer in adjacency to my Bible study. Right, in the mornings I try to remember to pray for my
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Bible study in general, but when I go to read the word, am I, am I approaching it with prayer saying,
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God, I know that I will only understand this appropriately if you explain it to me. Even if I understand the truths that are in here, the propositional truths,
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I may not understand and experience the goodness of it apart from your spirit working in me.
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Please do that in me for the good of your kingdom. These are things that you should, these are things that you should pray.
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And then humble yourself. Humble yourself like the, like the tax collector humbled himself before, before God when he asked to be justified.
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You know, a lot of people are simply too proud in order to be helped, right?
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A lot of times, and I find this especially when discussing ethics with people, ethics being questions of what is right and what is wrong, a lot of people will do some kind of ad absurdum fallacy where they say, oh, that can't be true because like this, the conclusion is just too preposterous to me or it's too difficult to handle, right?
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That would mean that my very kind grandmother was doing wrong, you know, or that would mean that all my friends are doing something wrong or that would mean that I'm doing something wrong.
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And so this is just a preposterous conclusion because I don't like the consequences, right? But that is not a way to approach it.
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You must approach it with humility. Maybe you are wrong. Maybe everyone around you is wrong. You know, submit to the
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Lord, not to norms or cultural standards. And yeah, ask yourself, would you accept the answer if it were something that was unpleasant?
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If it did mean you would have to have radical change in your life? You know, if God called you to something very difficult, how much would you resist?
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Would you be willing to, if you knew, if you were confident that it was right? You know, the answer should be yes.
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Yes, I'd be willing. I'd be willing to go. I'm willing to drop everything and follow him just like the rich man was unwilling to do, but Peter was willing and this blind man was willing to do.
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And don't be afraid to expose your ignorance. You know, when you speak to others who are more mature in the faith, once again, you know, either it doesn't matter if it's just in understanding the
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Bible or just having had more experience in the Christian life practically.
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Don't be afraid to expose your ignorance and say, I don't understand this. Could you explain it to me? You seem to have a lot of experience in this and I don't.
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Please explain it to me. Do not be like the disciples who elsewhere in scripture record say, they were too afraid to ask, right?
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They were too afraid to ask. Don't be too afraid to ask and show your ignorance. I don't know what kind of a workplace you all are in, but I know in the field of software,
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I have almost always found that those who do best are the ones who are very willing to expose their ignorance and ask dumb questions.
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And I think that the places where I fail, I'm trying to cover for myself, right, and make myself look more intelligent than I really am by not saying, what is that word that you just used or what is that system or, right?
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Because you can look like an idiot when you do that, but if you really are concerned about serving the Lord and not just impressing man, you will expose ignorance in order to be helped by others.
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God has given you not just his word, he's given you brothers and sisters to also help you. That was what the last passage we looked at was about, right?
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Everyone who leaves house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will receive many times more in this time and the age to come eternal life, right?
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God has given you brothers and sisters for your good. Make use of them. If you fail to make use of them, you are ignoring a wonderful gift that God has given you.
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Make use of them. Go ahead and expose your ignorance. Do not be afraid of doing that. Do not be afraid of being held accountable of people seeing your sin, right?
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We are to confess our sins to one another and be healed. So it explains in James 5, 16. These are things that we are called to do.
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Don't be afraid so that you would hide your ignorance or hide your sin. Go ahead and share these things.
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And take advantage of the opportunities you have. This man here that Jesus is going by and he didn't say, oh, well, maybe
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I'll see him again sometime, right? This was his opportunity. Jesus of Nazareth, son of David, have mercy on me.
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Take the opportunities you have. You have mornings where some people's mornings, some of your mornings are very wasted, right?
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You wake up, you do not use the day as you ought and you kind of dilly -dally until work has to start and so there went two hours that could have been used productively to know the
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Lord better. Do not waste the time that you have. Use the time that you have in order to know the
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Lord. Take advantage of it. Take full advantage of the opportunity you have. If Jesus is passing by, grab hold of him and know him.
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Same thing, once again, applying to brothers and sisters. If you have a brother or sister that you could learn more about the
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Lord from, do so. If you do not, you know, another question you can ask yourself is, do
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I have at least one, if not multiple, people that I go to on a regular basis in order to know the
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Lord better? If the answer is that you don't, and I'm talking about on a personal level, not just, you know, listening to sermons, right?
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Or watching YouTube videos of teachers, that kind of thing. Right, you know, I know someone personally. If you can't answer that question,
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I would encourage you very strongly to develop an answer to that question over the next few weeks, to find someone that you can rely on frequently and do not think, do not make the excuses a lot of people make, oh, they're busy, they got a lot of things in life, et cetera.
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These are things that God has commanded to us to care about our brothers and sisters. You know, find someone who's a little further along in the
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Christian life than you are, a little further along in their understanding of God's word than you are, and latch hold of them, don't be embarrassed.
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Go ahead and be a, you know, if you have to be an annoying leech on their side to get some of that understanding of the
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Lord, do it, do it. That's more important than the social awkwardness involved in talking to them.
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Yeah, once again, you know, people who are really successful, a lot of them are willing to do that kind of thing, are willing to be persistent like this persistent widow.
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Right, they're willing to, you know, annoy people. They're willing to, and I'm saying this as like an extreme.
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I don't think you are actually annoying brothers and sisters. A lot of them are very blessed and encouraged that you would even think to come ask them for such a thing, right?
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Yeah, and then finally, as you look at this passage, how does man respond? He glorifies
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God, and all the people when they saw it gave praise to God. When you do have understanding, glorify God. This does not come by your own.
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It comes from the hand of God. He is the one who opens the eyes. He is the one who gives you understanding, and it ought to be responded to with praise to him.
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You can do that by sharing the truth you have learned with others. That's one way you can glorify God, or even just by thanking him that you receive the truth, but thanking him in the sight of others as well that they might be blessed too, that they might also glorify
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God for that truth that he has given, or for that experience of his goodness that you have from him.
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Glorify him. He does all things for his glory. Will he give you a deeper understanding of him?
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Will he open your eyes and make them clear in order to understand him? If there will be no glory, he will not.
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He does all things for his glory. Not selfishly, but because this is the only way that people experience him more is when he is more glorified.
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This is the only way people get a true benefit from him is if he is more glorified. And so if you approach this in a way that does not give
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God glory, right, it's a frequent saying in the study of God's word that theology must lead to doxology, right?
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Theology is a study of God. Doxology is praise, right, or a study of praise.
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So theology, understanding God, must always lead to praise of God. Okay, if you are not praising him, you are missing the point of the eyes being open.
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This man does not miss the point. He has his eyes open, he follows, and he glorifies
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God, and so others glorify with him. Now I hope today that as you consider all these things, you realize ways that your eyes might be cloudy.
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All of your eyes are cloudy in some way. We are not given perfect understanding in this life.
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And so recognize your need, take hold of him, call out to him, ask for mercy, be persistent, be humble, be willing to leave it all behind and give
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God the glory for what he has done. He will answer his promises. He will open your eyes.
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He will glorify himself in you, and he will fill you with the heart that desires to give yourself fully to him when your eyes can see the wretchedness of your own condition and the glories of his, amen.
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Dear only Father, we thank you for this picture of spiritual sight.
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We ask that you would open our eyes to know you better. We pray that we would not, out of our own pride, resist your word and the things it says.
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We ask that we would understand most especially those things which are most related to Jesus Christ, his death, his burial, and his resurrection, and we thank you that by those things we may have our eyes opened.