Only The Eyes That God Opens Can See Things As They Really Are by Ed Pruitt

Mark 8:22-26

Only The Eyes That God Opens Can See Things As They Really Are.

Sunday April 11, 2003

Pastor Ed Pruitt

Mark 8:22-26
22 When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch and heal the man.

23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”

24 The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.”

25 Then Jesus placed his hands over the man’s eyes again. As the man stared intently, his sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.

26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home.”

Tonight in our text we have a man that is blind receiving his sight from Jesus.

This particular miracle found exclusively in the book of Mark has some interesting elements.

First of all there was personal contact.

This is seen in the phrases “Jesus took the blind man by the hand”

Jesus led the man out of the village of Bethsaida!

You might ask why would He have taken the man out of the village?

Well, perhaps Jesus just wanted to spend some time talking to the man about his problems.

You know, Jesus loves to have us talk to Him and even more than that, Jesus loves to help us with our problems!

One thing we know for sure was from our studies, that the village of Bethsaida was full of negative thoughts and disbelief.

Jesus, had trouble with the people of this village before and He sure didn’t want the negative to rub off on this man.

It really amazes me at the way the negative of people sometimes has more power on a lot of other people than does the positive of Jesus Christ!

One thing that we should all learn from this verse is, it is better to go off away from others when we have problems in life and have just a little talk with Jesus!

What does Jesus do?

He makes it right, that’s what He does!

Jesus never fails us in our time of need if we will just stay focused on Him!

Now verse 23 tells us,

23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”

Now the scripture tells us that Jesus did another peculiar thing and that was he spit, in the man’s eyes!

I bet that got his attention!

Do you know that still today Jesus is trying to get the attention of people!

See if we are ever going to learn anything about Spiritual things, we are going to have to give our full attention to God and not just toy around with the thought!

How many times have we seen the Lord touch a heart, a sick body or a sin-sick soul?

We know who has the answer for every situation!

We know who can heal the blinded eyes!

We know who can raise the dead soul and give it new life!

We know in whom we have believed and we have seen His miracle working power already!

That’s why we can place our trust in Him and bring others to Him.

This man is an emblem of those who are spiritually blind.

He had no natural sight at all.

He could see nothing and did not have the least bit of light, or understanding of reality in this life, until, he was touched by Jesus Christ!

Men living in the realm of the flesh, are blind, and even become as part of the darkness itself through the power of sin, until they are made light by the Lord!

They have no sight, nor sense of themselves, of their sinful, lost, and dangerous condition they are in.

They know not because they are blind, that they are wretched, and poor, and miserable, and naked.

They have no vision or understanding of Christ, neither of the glory of His person, nor of the fullness of His grace, nor of His salvation.

They are blind to any saving knowledge of God in Christ, the way of life and peace by Him, and the work of the Spirit of God in the soul.

They know not the power of Gospel and have no vision of the glories of Heaven or of Hell.

Verse 23 Jesus asked the man, “Can you see anything now?”

And in verse 24 the man answered,

24 The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.”

His vision was still not complete.

I sense him straining to be delivered from blindness.

Jesus also knew the man had not yet been completely healed.

This is seen by him asking the man, “Do you see anything?”

And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.

His reply tells us he knew what trees looked like so we know he has seen before in his lifetime.

As far as trees go, the huge redwood trees in California are amazing.

They are the largest living things on earth and the tallest trees in the world.

Some of them reach to be 200 - 275 feet high, their trunks may be 8 - 12 feet in diameter and may be over 2500 years old.

The largest of its kind in Northern California stands at 368 feet tall.

You would think that something that large would need a massive root system reaching far into the ground to keep them standing tall and proud but, they don’t.

Redwoods have a rather shallow root system especially when compared to that of the Mighty Oak.

Instead, the roots are intertwined with others, each tree helping to hold the others erect and in place.

If one of them was off by itself, it would quite likely fall.
They need the other trees to be close to them for survival.

From the simple definition of community, we see that people live in this same state, depending on others through their interests, common ties etc.

Like the redwoods we need others for survival.

It is difficult to remain living as a strong Christian in this society of ours even when we have the benefit of other Christians living beside us.

Now in that 25th verse, it tells us,

25 Then Jesus placed his hands over the man’s eyes again. As the man stared intently, his sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.

Sometimes we, like the blind man, need a second touch by Jesus in order to see things from His perspective.

He looked at men and saw trees he looked at Jesus and saw clearly.

He looked intently, he used his effort to focus on Jesus Christ and his sight was restored.

Many feel this story illustrates the relationship of Jesus to the Disciples:

Spiritually, the disciples were like this blind man.

They could not see and understand things of Jesus.

They could only see in part.

(to the blind man people look like trees)

To the disciples, Christ looked only like a miracle worker, healer, teacher, a prophet.

They could not yet that he was more than all of these, that He was the Messiah, the Son of God, that takes away the sin of the world.

But I will say that Peter finally realized who He was just a few verses later!

Jesus asked, Who do you say I am?

Peter replied quickly, You are the Christ!

But at this particular time, they saw little but were not as others that saw nothing at all.

The second stage of healing was preceded by the touching of the eyes.

And when he did so, he began to see all things clearly.

“When Christ is the center of your focus, all else will come into proper perspective.”
As we begin to focus upon God, the things of the Spirit will take shape before our inner eyes.

A boy said to his girlfriend, “Ah, look at that cow and calf rubbing noses in the pasture.

That sight makes me want to do the same.”

His girlfriend said, “well, go ahead. It’s your cow.”

What’s your focus in life?

Rubbing noses with a cow?

Sometimes our focus on God and giving furtherance to His Kingdom seems about as important as rubbing noses with a cow.

At least, to God it does!

If we are ever going to get anywhere in our Spiritual life a lot of us are going to have to put a little more effort in our focusing.

God is going to have to be our main focus in life!

I would like to talk about the eye’s for a minute.

Many of us today wear glasses, contacts, or have had Laser Eye Surgery to correct a vision difficulty.

Now you can see better!

People, as a whole, are spending millions and millions of dollars to improve their physical vision!

They are spending money on technologically advanced eye exams, better frames, lenses, contacts, and now, Laser Eye Surgery.

No expense seems to be too great!

The eyes have it!

There are several levels of vision impairments ranging from low vision to blindness.

When we have vision problems we go to the optometrist to get help!

He sits us down in the chair and givens us several test to help us.

Many give you a peripheral vision test.

You have to count the flash of the stars.

Pressure tests and the old fashioned chart test.
You’re almost done when you are sitting at that huge machine in front of you with all the lenses.

He takes one circle and brings it in line with the other circle.

He asks you how you can see.

As you look to the chart in front of you tell he always ask what is the smallest line you can see.

Our vision is considered good if you can see the smallest elements of the line.

Now, let’s get back to what God can do for you!

God is in the corrective vision business also!

God is in the eye-opening business!

When God opens eyes, things become very, very clear!

Things are not always what they appear to be!

How is your spiritual sight?

That is the churches problem today our focus on souls.

Our Vision of men is not clear.

We need a second touch!

That is where our focus needs to be.

After Jesus clears our vision we will see souls as they really are!

The first thing this man saw clearly was Jesus.

Therefore he was able to see men as they were.

Not just shadows moving in the wind, But souls to be won.

Too many times we see the hard bark and the rough surface of people we deal with.

They are walking around us, over us, and by us.

So many times we just can’t see their need, and remember that they are lost.

We need the second touch of the Lord to Remove our blindness, Improve our focus and clear our vision.

Some environments are hostile to healing.

Sometimes God has to lead you out of your city to get your blessing.

Blindness we said earlier speaks of the understanding and the thought life.

Change in that arena though dramatic is often slow going at times.

Negative speaking can also trap you and it takes time to break out of it.

Divine life is poured in, you have to respond by being in the same groove.

A lot of young Christians have spiritual pride, and all they really see is men as trees walking.

A few thousand more sessions with Jesus and things will be better.

Stand still, tarry and have another session with Jesus.

Now, look at what Jesus tells the man in the 26th verse.

26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home.”

Now why do you think that Jesus told the man this?

Jesus didn’t want the man to be around anything negative.

Sometimes church people have more negativity about healing than people in the world do.

Some environments are not conducive to keeping what God has given you.

Don’t listen to the people of Bethsaida.

Get in an environment that is better for you spiritually.

He tarried with Jesus long enough to get the full treatment.

Some people have only had enough of Jesus, that the net effect is that they have been inoculated against saving faith, or healing faith, or delivering faith.

Tarry with Jesus, let Him hold your hand for the full journey, get the full treatment, and then you also will see every man clearly.

Jesus has to begin to open our eyes by making us lift up our heads and look into his face.

Faith is found when our vision is fixed on Him and not upon the old circumstances of life that we have lived with for so long.

We have to lift up, look up, and get up if we are to receive the things of God.

Jesus must lift us up out of the miry clay, out of the pits of darkness and set our feet upon the rock to stay.

Even though we are saved, our vision of Jesus, and the ways of the Kingdom of God are still hard to understand.

Over time and with the continued touch of God, our vision and understanding will become clearer.

We become blinded to the things of this life so that the things of the eternal realms may come into view.

One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person.

To truly see Jesus and His truth means more than observing what He did or said, it means a change of identity.

The Christian walk is a faith walk – one day at a time.

Here a little and there a little, each day adding to our knowledge of Him until we are slowly, gradually changed into the very image of the Lord who saved us from our blindness.

These words are a command of Christ to the man to lift up his eyes, and try again to see more than we did before.

In closing we can sum it up in this way,

This is the only healing miracle recorded that took place in stages.

This miracle, found only in Mark, raises several interesting questions.

First, why did Jesus lead the man out of the town before healing him?

Bethsaida was under judgment (Matt. 11:21–24), so Jesus took the man out of there and told him not to go back.

Be careful where you send people whose eyes have been opened to Jesus and His mercy.

Why didn’t He heal by simply touching the man?

Why use such an unconventional means as saliva?

Why didn’t the man receive perfect sight immediately?

This is the only cure in the Gospels which took place in stages.

Finally, why did Jesus forbid the man to tell about the miracle in the town?

Be cause of the disbelief that was there : Disbelief is a faith killer: Jesus could not do many wonderful things because of disbelief, and that is still very true today

Our Lord is sovereign and is not obligated to account to us for His actions.

There was a valid reason for everything He did, even though we might not perceive it.

Every case of healing is different, as is every case of conversion.

Some gain remarkable spiritual sight as soon as they are converted.

Others see dimly at first, then later enter into full assurance of salvation.

Jesus’ healing of the blind man in stages paralleled the disciples’ imperfect perception of Jesus.

Like the man, they were no longer blind, but they could not see clearly either.

Only the Holy Spirit could clear their vision.

And only the Holy Spirit can clear our vision!

And make us able to see things as they really are, by a divine revelation from God.
 

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