WWUTT 2186 Jesus Heals the Blind Man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26)

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Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida, and at the start of this healing it almost looks like Jesus didn't accomplish it.

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It didn't work. He failed somewhere. He has to heal him a second time. But there's a lesson in this when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Mark, we're going to be finishing up Chapter 8 this week.

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And what we've got left in Chapter 8 divides neatly into three sections, which we'll be looking at between today and tomorrow and Wednesday.

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So let me start reading here in verse 22, and I'll go to the end of the chapter, and you might identify those three sections yourself.

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This is from the Legacy Standard Bible. And they came to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man to Jesus and pleaded with him to touch him.

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And taking the blind man by the hand, he brought him out of the village, and after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he was asking him,

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Do you see anything? And he looked up and was saying, I see men, for I see them like trees walking around.

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Then again he laid his hands on his eyes, and he looked intently and was restored and began to see everything clearly.

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And he sent him to his home, saying, Do not even enter the village. And Jesus went out along with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

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And on the way he was asking his disciples, saying to them, Who do people say that I am?

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And they told him, saying, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, but others one of the prophets.

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And he continued questioning them, But who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said to him,

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You are the Christ. And he warned them to tell no one about him. Then he began to teach them that the

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Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

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And he was stating the matter openly, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

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But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me,

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Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's. And he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,

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If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

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For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

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For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

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For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the

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Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

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So you probably identified the three sections as I went through that. We begin with the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida in verses 22 to 26.

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Then we have the confession that Jesus is the Christ in verses 27 to 33.

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And then finally, Jesus teaching the crowds, take up your cross and follow me in verses 34 and up to 38.

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So that's the way that we're going to divide this passage up and look at it between today, tomorrow and Wednesday.

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Today we're looking at the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida, and we're going to go into Peter confessing that Jesus is the

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Christ because I want you to see how those two passages relate to one another. Tomorrow we're going to come back to the section of Peter's confession of Christ, and I want to compare that with the way that Matthew puts it in Matthew 16, because there are details in Mark and details in Matthew that are not included in either one.

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It's relevant, especially considering a particular church out there that uses that passage as something foundational to its polity.

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You probably already know what I'm referring to. And then on Wednesday, we'll consider that teaching there where Jesus says to the crowds that you must take up your cross and follow me.

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So let's come back to this miracle at Bethsaida here. Mark 8, starting in verse 22, they came to Bethsaida and they brought a blind man to Jesus and pleaded with him to touch him.

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Now if you were reading all of this together, like say your devotional reading today was Mark 8.

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So you started at the beginning of the chapter and you got through to this point, then you're going to notice a certain theme going on because already

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Jesus has rebuked his disciples for having eyes and not being able to see.

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Remember that? Which we studied last week after the feeding of the 4 ,000. Jesus had seven loaves and several fish.

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And with those loaves and fish, he fed 4 ,000 people. But he provided so abundantly that the disciples were able to gather up seven baskets of leftovers after everybody had eaten their fill.

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But then when Jesus and his disciples were going away to the next town, he was warning them about the leaven of the

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Pharisees and the Herods. And the disciples were listening to this. They didn't really understand the concept or they were not listening well.

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They didn't understand the urgency of the warning that Jesus was giving to them. They thought he was talking about bread.

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So they start muttering with one another, oh, he's mentioning leaven. You know what? We forgot to bring bread and now we're hungry.

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And so Jesus rebukes them, like, do you not get what it is that I'm saying to you? Do you have eyes and you can't see?

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You have ears and yet do you not hear? And do you not remember when

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I broke the five loaves for the 5 ,000? How many baskets you picked up? They said 12. And when I broke the seven for the 4 ,000, how many baskets did you pick up?

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And they said seven. Do you not yet understand, Jesus said. So as he provided for these crowds, he would provide for them as well.

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And yet they're sitting there complaining about not having bread when they should be listening to Jesus say to them, beware the leaven of the

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Pharisees and the Herods. Jesus has rebuked unbelieving crowds for not having eyes to see and not having ears to hear.

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Now, at this point, the disciples are not listening to Jesus. So Jesus turns that same rebuke to them.

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You have eyes and yet you cannot see. Why don't you understand this?

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So we go from that rebuke to the disciples just a few verses before to now

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Jesus and the disciples come to Bethsaida and Jesus heals a blind man.

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And he doesn't just simply heal a blind man. It's a two -step process. He heals him at one point, and it's like the blind man can't quite perceive what it is that he is seeing.

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And then Jesus has to heal him a second time. But he's conveying something about this healing.

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It's not that Jesus failed to heal the man the first time, but he's showing something about a person needing to have eyes to see and ears to hear.

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So again, in verse 22, they come to Bethsaida, a blind man is brought to Jesus. They plead with him to touch him.

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Already they have faith to know that if Jesus just lays his hands on this man, then he will be healed of his blindness.

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And so verse 23, taking the blind man by the hand, he brought him out of the village.

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Now the script doesn't say exactly to us why Jesus took him out of the village.

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But the possibility is because when you get to verse 26 and Jesus says, do not even enter the village, it was because he didn't want the people to see what it was that he did.

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It was not yet time for the crowds to recognize this incredible miracle and what might possibly be the result of doing this miracle.

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The people are amazed at these miracles. They will crowd Jesus because of the miracles. But as the hostility of the

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Pharisees is ramping up, then they're going to look at this miracle and the things that Jesus taught as a way to persecute him, as a way to even imprison him and put him to death, which was really what they wanted.

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So Jesus doesn't let this be done in view of the crowds. Not yet time for that, doesn't want that attention.

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And then later on, when he talks with his disciples, he asked them, who do the people say that I am?

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So it would have been like, what would the people there at Bethsaida have said about me?

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What would you have heard there? Or what are they saying in any of these other towns and villages that we are going to?

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So he brings the man out of the village and he spits on his eyes and he lays his hands on him and was asking him, do you see anything?

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Now, this is this is gross. This isn't the way that we should be healing anybody.

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Don't go into the hospital, into the ICU and go through the rooms and start spitting on people's eyes, thinking that that's going to do anything to heal a person.

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This is divine spittle. It is not for you to heal anybody in this manner, although there are people who have tried.

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You probably remember the controversial clip from a couple of years ago when Michael Todd, who is the pastor of what's it called,

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Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He had spit in the eyes of a man on stage providing an illustration.

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He was telling this story, but he literally did it with this guy. It wasn't that he was trying to heal him.

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He was just doing something shocking because that's what Michael Todd does. So he spits in his hand and he rubs it on this guy's eyes and people were just totally outraged by it.

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But he got the attention that he wanted. He did eventually apologize and said, you know what? I looked back at the clip and I watched it and you're right.

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That was pretty gross. But it hasn't stopped Todd from doing other ridiculous and irreverent things to try to spark a reaction, whether it's from his own congregation, people in his city, so people come to Transformation Church, or he's trying to go viral on social media.

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He's always doing ridiculous things like this. But this is not going to heal anybody.

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There's no power in your spittle that is going to cure anyone of their diseases or their conditions.

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This is something that Christ is doing to demonstrate something that he alone has the power to accomplish.

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He spits in the man's eyes and lays his hands on him and says, do you see anything now?

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What else comes from Jesus mouth than spit? You know what else comes from his mouth, his word, what he preaches and what he says.

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And that is why you have the picture of him spitting here, because it is something from his mouth that is going to heal this man of his blindness.

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In verse 24, the man looked up and was saying, I see men and I see them like trees walking around.

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And the way that we understand this is that the blind man didn't really quite understand what it was that he was seeing.

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He had never seen before. He did not know what it was that he was perceiving. Now these moving shapes out here, they have to be men because, you know, surely these are people walking around, even though I've never set my eyes on them before.

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So just by matter of logical deduction, whatever shapes it is that he is seeing, he concludes that these must be like men, but they're kind of like trees.

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Maybe the image is fuzzy. Maybe he's not able to perceive exactly what it is that his eyes are receiving.

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They're receiving signals, but not able to communicate to his brain clearly what he was observing.

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And so then in verse 25, again, Jesus laid his hands on his eyes and he looked intently and was restored and he began to see everything clearly.

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So this was like a two -step miracle. I remember a number of years ago,

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Chuck Colson, who is the founder of Prison Fellowship, also the leading voice on Breakpoint.

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I think there's several other guys that do Breakpoint now. It's not Chuck Colson anymore, obviously because he's passed away.

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But Chuck Colson, a number of years ago, read this particular story on Breakpoint and he was comparing it to medical accomplishments in being able to grant people sight who have never been able to see before.

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Their eyes have never functioned. They've never had vision at any point in their lives. And yet medical science has been able to come to a place where some of them, not everybody, but some of them are able to have functional eyes and they are able to see.

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They're granted sight for the very first time. And some of the reports that had come out about these surgeries, about these operations, would report that when a person is given sight for the first time, they can't understand what it is that they're seeing because their eyes work, but their brain doesn't get it.

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Their brain has never had to process these signals before. And so the eye might function, but the brain can't grasp what it is that the eye is perceiving.

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It's having trouble being able to make sense of the signals. Now this has been a problem in some cases of blindness where doctors are not able to restore a person's vision because it's actually not their eyes that are dysfunctional.

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It's the brain. It's the eyes and the brain. So that part of the brain just doesn't work to be able to transmit those signals and help a person perceive what it is that the eyes would be looking at.

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But in those cases where they have been able to restore a person's sight, there is a process of physical therapy that must then happen so that the brain can get used to processing what it is that the eyes see.

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And the doctors might give a patient a certain regimen, things that they have to do, stuff that they have to study so that the eyes gain the strength and the brain gains the ability to be able to process what is being seen.

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And then over a period of time, months, maybe even years, if it takes that long, that a person who's been granted sight is finally able to see.

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The eyes and the brain are working together. And Chuck Colson showed how in this miracle in Mark 8,

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Jesus accomplished something that medical science has only just caught up with. For even in this miracle, we see that Jesus has healed the man and he's able to see, but he can't process what he's seeing.

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So Jesus lays his hands on his eyes again, and then the man looked intently and was restored and he began to see everything clearly.

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So what we understand from this is that Jesus healed the man's eyes first and then secondly healed his mind to be able to understand what it was that the eyes saw.

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Now, why is this relevant? Why is this miracle presented to us in this way? And how are we supposed to understand this?

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Well, we can hear the word of God, but we cannot understand it unless we are given the understanding by God.

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James says in James 1, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach.

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Whatever we don't understand, we come to God and we ask for him to teach us and to help us to understand, to illuminate to us and make it clear to us by his spirit what he communicates in his word.

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The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, these things God has revealed to us through the spirit for the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

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For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him. So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.

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Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

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And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

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Now hear this in verses 14 and 15, the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

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The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

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Verse 16, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.

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And with the mind of Christ, we are able to understand and discern spiritual truths.

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So the picture here is that on the one hand, Jesus gives a man sight and his eyes see it, but his mind can't perceive it.

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And then on the other hand, Jesus heals the man's mind, renews his mind, gives him new understanding so that the man may not only be able to see, but even understand what it is that he is seeing.

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Now this miracle sits right between Jesus rebuking his disciples for not having eyes to see and Jesus asking his disciples, who do you say that I am?

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Peter answers correctly the first time, but then rebukes Jesus when Jesus goes on to talk about how he's going to be crucified.

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And Peter takes him aside and says, far be it from you, Lord, for this to happen to you. And Jesus has to tell

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Peter, get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.

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It's as if the disciples have eyes to see, but they can't perceive.

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They don't understand what it is that they are seeing. Going back to the rebuke that Jesus had said earlier in the chapter, where after the feeding of the 4 ,000, he says, having eyes, do you not see?

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And having ears, do you not hear? And then verse 21, do you not yet understand?

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You can see it, but you don't understand it. And Jesus has many more things that he is going to teach them that they have yet to see before he will finally open their minds to understand all that they have seen and heard.

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And all of this is happening so that the disciples will know that my being able to see and being able to understand all these things that have happened is only by the grace of God.

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If you have eyes to see, if you have come to faith, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you have come into this faith and into this understanding by the grace of God.

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Praise him for that and desire to grow in that all the more. And that growth also comes from God.

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The apostle Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 4 with the Corinthians. This is a growth that comes from God.

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So if you desire to grow in this more, ask God for that. Lord, thank you for giving me eyes to see and ears to hear and a mind that is able to perceive these things and understand them.

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Now help me to understand more and more. Grow me in these things that I may grow in the knowledge of God and of your word, that I may grow all the more in Christ.

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Ask God to give you this. And again, as it says in James 1, he gives generously to all without reproach.

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But James also says you don't have because you do not ask and you don't receive because you ask with wrong motives.

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So let it be that we desire God and come to an understanding of his word through the spirit that illuminates the truth for us.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here with regards to this particular miracle.

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And even coming up a little bit later on, there's a man who's going to come to Jesus and say, Lord, I believe now help my unbelief.

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And may that be our cry as well. We have seen, we have read, we have heard, we have come to believe.

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And so now help our unbelief. Where are those places in our lives that we don't yet know and we don't yet understand?

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May we not continue in ignorance, but desire to know the Lord all the more and draw closer to you.

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It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com.