Blessed Are The Eyes That See

Amen.

Amen.

Church, why don't you stay standing and please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 10.

We're going to be examining Luke chapter 10 verses 21 to 24.

Again, we invite you to stay standing for the reading of God's Word.

Luke chapter 10 verse 21, hear you this afternoon, the word of the Lord.

In the same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father,

Lord of heaven and earth, that you've handed these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to

little children.

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the

Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son

chooses.

To reveal Him.

Then turning to the disciples, he said, privately, blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

For I tell you that many prophets and kings desire to see what you see and did not,

and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.

This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

Allow me to ask the Lord's blessing over our teaching.

Father, we do ask humbly for the same Spirit in which the Lord

Jesus rejoiced in, the same Spirit that raised Him from the grave, the

same Spirit which hovered over the void of creation, the same Spirit that

brings us both physical and spiritual life, the breath of.

God.

May it fall upon us, may we rejoice in it, and may we have ears to hear,

eyes to see, and hearts to receive that which You've laid before us in Your Word for the glory

of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, to whom be glory.

Amen.

Well, church, again, we have the privilege of looking and examining the Scripture this afternoon,

particularly the words of the Lord Jesus Christ from Luke chapter 10.

And I told you we'd be going out of order this morning.

We preached from chapter 10, verse 25 to 37.

Now we will take the preceding verses from 21 to 24 and examine what it is the Lord has

for us this afternoon.

The name of the sermon is, Blessed are the eyes that see.

You know, we take for granted the blessing that it is to see.

I am having general eye health issues and had to

visit a specialist just a couple days ago, again, because I've been having

problems with my right eye and some vision problems.

Some of you are aware of some of the eye health issues, and for the longest time, I took for granted my

eye health, although my eye health has always been pretty poor.

It wasn't until I was around maybe 16 years old or 17 years old that I got glasses for the first time.

And this was around the same time which high -definition TVs were becoming a thing.

And so I remember when I got my glasses, it was like putting on HD glass, I could see everything in high definition, nice and crisp.

And even now as my eye condition worsens, I am, again, faced with the decision of

having to cherish the vision that I have and also

the limitations that it comes with.

Friends, we take for granted the gift of seeing, yet there are many

who have eyes to see, yet do not actually see.

I think of a friend that I had, an older woman from the first church I attended, and

she.

Was born blind.

And I may have shared this with you before, but I used to ask her all the time, I'd say, how do you know the difference between

colors?

Did you ever talk with a blind person, you want to ask them questions like, how do you know what something looks like?

What do you dream about?

What do you see in your dreams?

All these questions and these answers I'm getting from this person.

And one day, as I'm asking all these questions and stuff, and then finally, one of the questions I ask her is,

what's the worst thing about being blind?

Her answer was quite fascinating.

It was not knowing whether to trust people when handing them certain bills.

You take that for granted, right?

What's the difference between a dollar bill, a $20 bill, a $100 bill, and you hand it to a person at the

cash register, you don't really know.

And I ask her, what's the best thing about being blind?

She says, the best thing about being blind is the first thing I'll see is Jesus.

That's the best thing.

Oh, does she have eyes to see?

Because with little eyesight or with little vision that she has ever experienced, she has more vision than

the vast majority of people who have ever lived.

She has true eyes, true eyes of faith to see the glory and the majesty of Jesus.

And she is still alive today, but she's older, I think she's now almost in her 80s,

and the first thing she'll see when she goes to be with the Lord is the face of her Savior.

How precious is that?

And yet, so many today take for granted the gift of seeing, and here in this text of scripture, Jesus,

after sending forth his 70, after they returned rejoicing because of the kingdom authority that

they had now vested in them because of the power and name of Jesus.

It says that in that same hour, the same hour in which he saw the disciples return rejoicing, he then

rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of

heaven and earth.

You've hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

Now, Jesus rejoices in the Holy

Spirit.

We as Christians believe in one true and eternal God, the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

Not that these be three gods, nor three manifestations of this one God,

rather we hold to this creedal confession that there is one God in three

persons, one eternal and blessed trinity.

Or as one of the creeds say, we worship one God in holy trinity.

And this trinity is revealed even in this text of scripture, where you have in the same breath the Lord

Jesus praying, rejoicing in the Holy Spirit, just as we are later by the apostle Paul

instructed to pray in the spirit.

And what does it look like to pray in the spirit?

What isn't some orgasmic prayer of speaking in foreign tongues or

languages, nor is it a euphoric experience of falling to the ground, but rather

Jesus shows us what it is to pray in the spirit.

And it is a prayer that focuses on the grandeur, greatness, holiness,

and majesty of the one true God.

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.

Jesus centers His prayer on the Father as He, in other places, taught us to

pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.

When Jesus sets that model of prayer, He's not telling us that this is the way you ought to

always pray in this methodical way or of this, almost in this paganistic way of

just having this ritual.

He warns against that in the preceding verses of the Lord's Prayer.

He tells us not to pray like the heathens, not to pray like the pagans who do so just out of vain

repetition, but rather a prayer that glorifies the heart of God is a prayer

that focuses on the lordship and grandeur of this one true God.

So He again says, I thank you, Father.

See, you see again, that model prayer that He sets for us in our Father prayer or the Lord's Prayer.

You are Father, Lord of heaven and earth.

You have hidden these things.

What things does He speak of?

What was hidden that is now revealed to the children of the Most High

God?

What precedes this text in chapter 10 of Luke is Christ's message of the

kingdom.

This kingdom message, this kingdom gospel that the 12 and then the 70,

the 72 go forth preaching and proclaiming to the different towns, to the different cities

is the very kingdom that He is rejoicing that is now being made manifest through His

ministry.

This is what is the focus of the revelation of His prayer here for His disciples.

He thanks the Lord.

He thanks the Maker of heaven and earth that you've hidden these things from the wise and understanding

mimicking or the Apostle Paul later mimics this prayer in 1 Corinthians when he

says that it was not to the wise of this age or to the debater of this age that He's

revealed these certain truths, but by His Spirit to those who are spirit bought sons and

daughters.

So, too, we see with great anticipation the Lord Jesus saying likewise and

saying that model for Paul later to follow in.

You've hidden these things from the wise and understanding.

You revealed them to little children.

Think about that for a moment.

Many of us are parents in this room.

We have little children and we distinguish a parent from his son or

daughter not just by stature, not just by age, but also by wisdom, what they

know.

We tend to think the older you are the wiser.

Now, that's generally true.

Generally the older we are the wiser we are, but God's kingdom, God's economy, things

tend to function in a little bit of a different way.

It's been called the upside down kingdom by some commentaries.

The reason why there's this upside down kingdom or reality is because what is

naturally true in the world is not always spiritually true

in the kingdom.

What do we mean by that?

Oftentimes in the world those who are the wisest are amongst the oldest, who have a background

in academics, who have a background in foreign policy, who have a background in many

things, and these are the ones who we go to when times get tough.

There was a movie that was made several years ago about the economic crash that happened in 2008 called The

Big Short.

One of the interesting things on The Big Short is that it's modeled after an actual story that happened in real life.

One of the individuals who was a young broker, his comment was when all this was

happening, what confounded him the most is that when he went into the old building of Lehman Brothers

after the great collapse in 2008, after that bank that's said for more than 100 years failed, he says he was

expecting to see adults in the room, but he didn't find any.

All the adults were gone.

All those who had so much power and stature who were supposed to make all these important decisions were nowhere to be found.

And such is true at times generally in this world, but also spiritually.

Who does Christ reveal these important biblical spiritual truths about the

kingdom?

Not to the high and the lofty, not to the bankers, not to the politicians, not to the kings or

queens or the princes and princesses, but instead to the lowly, to those who are like

into little children.

It is to those who you least expect to be given such weighty information, such weighty responsibility, it is to

them that Christ reveals these hidden and secret things.

God's kingdom operates often in an upside down manner, which is

again why the Lord Jesus after glorifying His Father, He says that you have hidden these things

from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

My question for you this afternoon, beloved, is do you have a

childlike heart to receive the riches of spiritual truth?

Because often what it takes is a childlike innocence.

Again, for those of us who are parents, we can tell our kids and we tell them right and wrong, this is true, this is not true.

And it surprises me sometimes how they are so readily to

accept what you say simply because.

You're the one saying it.

You're the one saying it.

Why would mom or dad tell me something that's not true?

Why would they tell me, you know, they trust you?

And it's that childlike trust that the Lord calls us all to even today, even

later as we pray.

You ever hear a child pray?

I love it when we do family worship, hearing my children pray because they pray in such simple

terms, sometimes seriously, sometimes not seriously.

But when they pray seriously, it's almost matter of fact.

It's almost like, God, thank you, I know you, I trust you, I

need you, amen.

And sometimes it just takes that childlike innocence of just knowing who your dad is, knowing who your

provider is, knowing where your security is.

Jesus as a son of the Father knew where his security was.

Jesus as a son of the Father knew who his father was and his father knew who he

was.

That intimacy, that relationship that Jesus shares with the Father is

unique.

But we also get a glimpse in the fact that we too can have a share in that intimacy of.

The Godhead.

It says this, yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

Again, Jesus, before Calvin, made a pretty good Calvinist.

When you examine his words, when you examine the things that he taught regarding the will and sovereignty of

God, it is very what we would refer to today as Calvinistic.

But instead, I would prefer to use the term biblical.

These are biblical terminologies that center around the immutable will of the

Creator.

And Jesus acknowledges that all these good things come from the gracious will of the.

Father.

He goes on to say in verse 22, all things have been handed over to me by my Father.

And no one knows who the Son is except the Father.

This is a pretty earth -shattering statement, beloved.

Consider those who believe that Jesus Christ is a prophet, or that Jesus Christ is

a created being, or he's one of other types.

How strange it would be had Moses said that he was such a great personage,

that only he knew the Father, and only the Father knew him.

Yet, such could be the claim of Christ when he says again, all things have been handed over to me by my Father,

and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son,

because Jesus shares in the very nature of the Father.

The scripture teaches us emphatically, time and time again, that Jesus, who though according to

Philippians chapter 2 verse 5, though he was in the very nature God, in the very form, the Greek word morphe, in the

very form of God, he did not count the quality of God a thing to be held onto or grasped, but

he humbled himself by taking the form of a servant.

He was very God from the beginning, yet in his self -humiliation,

in his humility, he takes upon himself a human nature, like and unto us.

And because of this, Jesus is able to pray, but pray not just like any other

prayer.

He prays in perfect unison with the Father, because of who he is intrinsically

as the.

God -man.

And Jesus prays this great prayer, and in this great prayer he says, all these things, all

things have been handed over to me by my Father.

Can you imagine Isaiah saying that?

Jeremiah, Ezekiel, saying that they are such a great and important person, that all

things have been handed to them by the Father.

Surely these would be words of blasphemy coming from any other human being, but they're not

words of blasphemy, for they come from the Son of Man, who is truly man and truly God.

He alone shares this unique relationship.

As the apostle John writes concerning this relationship, that no one has ever seen God, but the only

begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father has explained him, has exegeted.

Him.

Jesus is the one who is at the Father's side, he's the only begotten God who can reveal.

The Father.

And this is what the Lord Jesus goes on to say, for no one knows who the Son is except the Father,

or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to.

Reveal him.

Where does a knowledge of Christ and of the Godhead truly come from?

It must be revealed, not by flesh and bone, but

by the Spirit of Christ.

This is why, even when the apostle Peter makes that great confession of faith, thou art the Son of Christ, the Son of the

living God, he says, blessed are you, saying Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but

my Father who is in heaven has.

Every spiritual truth comes from the Father.

Every spiritual truth comes from the Son.

Every spiritual truth, according to the apostle Paul, comes from the Spirit.

You see the unison of the Godhead, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, working in unison to reveal

spiritual truth.

And such we see here in Holy Scripture, when the Lord Jesus declares emphatically that no one

can know the Father or the Son except through the Son, and whom He

chooses to reveal.

Christ and the Godhead are fully sovereign over who comes to Him.

Jesus puts it this way also in John chapter 6, verse 44, that no one can

come to Him unless the Father draws Him.

The Bible says of Christ that should Christ be lifted up, He shall draw all men to Himself.

Jesus is the one who calls, He's the one who draws, and He's the one who keeps.

We have a security, a safety in Jesus.

Knowing this, how will this change your prayer life?

Think about this for a moment, sincerely.

Knowing that you're kept, knowing that you are known, knowing that you have been called and that you've been

chosen, how will this change the way that you pray?

Will it lead you to gratitude like the Lord Jesus prays?

Notice the gratitude that fills Christ's heart where in that same hour the disciples return rejoicing.

He Himself rejoices in the Holy Ghost, and He says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven.

And earth.

That is a cause for rejoicing.

Do you have eyes to see that spiritual, wonderful truth

that the Son has been revealed to us, that the Son has chosen to reveal Himself

to us, not only through Holy Scripture but also through a personal testimony of

the Holy Spirit?

This is why in verse 23, then turning to the disciples, He said privately,

blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

Begs the question, what was He seeing?

Or what is the subject of the seeing that Jesus is referring to here?

Again, what precedes this is this climactic authority and kingdom

power that the seven and two are expressing over the forces of darkness, that even

the demons are now subject to them in Jesus' name.

Again, remember what He says in verse 19, behold, I have given you

authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt.

You.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you.

What are we to rejoice in?

That your names are written in heaven.

That is cause for rejoicing.

And this, the fact that salvation was coming through the promised

Messiah, were things that prophets and king longed to

see.

As the apostle Peter writes in his epistle, even angels desired

to see and read into these.

Things.

Truly, then, blessed are the eyes that see what you see, Silicon Valley Reformed

Baptist.

Church.

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

Salvation has come in Jesus.

Christ reigns over His enemies.

He has bound the strong man, and that the kingdom of God is

advancing, shall advance, and shall bring an end to every earthly rule and

kingdom.

This is cause for rejoicing, and this is why the eyes of Christians are blessed

to see the salvation of the Lord.

He says again in verse 24, for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what

you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear,

and did not hear it.

Where do we fail to see and hear?

Oftentimes, beloved, we fail to rejoice in the Holy Spirit's work in us.

Notice how the Holy Spirit was at work in the rejoicing of the Lord Jesus Christ in the earlier text.

We don't always rejoice in the work of the Spirit, because one of the Spirit's primary work

in the believer is to sanctify us, to set us apart.

Now in our morning Bible reading, we're going through the book of Leviticus.

Leviticus is a book that focuses on the otherness or the

holiness of God and His people.

Another word for holy is other, otherness, it's like separate.

That's what the word holy means.

In Leviticus, we see how there's a lot of regulations, a lot of things that seem strange and foreign to us.

Is not the work of the Spirit a strange and foreign thing when it works in us, when our

desires change, when the things that we once found pleasure in, we no longer find pleasure in those things, when the

Spirit convicts us of sin and of righteousness?

These are all very strange things.

Just as in the book of Leviticus, God had called out a distinct people for a distinct name, so He has called

us today a distinct people with a peculiar name, the name of Christians.

We are to be Christians who follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

We fail to rejoice in the Holy Spirit's work often because we don't even see it.

Sometimes we don't recognize the progress that we are making spiritually because we often focus too much on our

sin or our errors that we fail to see and recognize the work of the Spirit in our life.

Friends, take time to recognize the Holy Spirit's work in each of us and

rejoice where you see His corrective hand.

Rejoice when you see His hand of mercy and compassion.

Rejoice when you see Him at work in us and those around us.

These needs can be met only in the sovereign Lord of heaven

and earth.

God is so big.

He is so great and He reveals to us that all of our needs are met

in Him.

He is sufficient and so great is this message of salvation, beloved,

that we have the privilege to declare what kings and prophets

wished to see and proclaim.

Do you recognize your privileged position in history?

Think about that for a moment.

You are privileged among church history.

Why?

Because not only do we live in a time post the crucifixion, post the resurrection

where we get all the spiritual benefits of the cross and of His resurrection and His ascension,

His intercessory work for us even now, but we also get the benefit of having completely in our hands

God's Word translated in our modern tongue.

What a great privileged position we are in that we do not live currently,

at least in this nation, under a great hand of persecution as has been the norm

in Christian church history.

You see, the norm in Christian history is persecution.

We live in such a time where we don't have to worry about those outsiders trying to do us

harm for what we do within these walls.

Those days may be coming, but we are not there yet.

Therefore, it is our duty, beloved, to recognize the supremacy of

Christ in all that the Father has given Him.

All things that the Father has given Christ is for Christ

and for the advancement of His kingdom.

The Bible puts it this way in Matthew chapter 28.

After the Lord is resurrected before His ascension, He says, all authority in heaven and earth has been

given to me.

By whom?

By the Father.

It is prophesied in Psalm 110, that the Lord shall say unto my Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah says unto

my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.

As God's decree to His Son, that He will hand over everything

to His Son.

Just like a good father will leave a good inheritance for his son, so the Father leaves the inheritance of

the cosmos to His Son, and what does Jesus do with that inheritance?

He shares that inheritance with you and I.

We get to share in the inheritance of the Son.

What a privilege.

What a beautiful gift.

Blessed are the eyes that see, and blessed are the ears that hear, and blessed are the

hearts that receive this incredible truth that Jesus is King

and that He reigns even.

Today.

Church, as a result of what you've just heard, I hope that our prayer this

afternoon can reflect these great truths, and that as we pray this afternoon, we would

pray in the Spirit like Jesus, and that we would give thanks and glory and magnify

the name that is above all names, even this glorious name of Jesus, and that because we

ask Him in faith, He may give us the response that

we look for and seek, should we be seeking His will.

And so, with that, we're going to end our prayer.