Latest / Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago / Open The Eyes of My Heart | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series)

Transcript

Open The Eyes of My Heart | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series) · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

• 0:02
  I'm going to ask you to forgive me in advance.
• 0:04
  My throat is not in the strongest condition.
• 0:07
  It's a little weaker than it usually is, and so I'll resist
• 0:11
  the temptation of straining it. But if if that means anything
• 0:15
  for you, just lean it a little bit more.
• 0:18
  And I trust that the Lord will use it, because He promises us
• 0:20
  that His power is made perfect in our weakness, so we give Him
• 0:24
  glory for that. My prayer for you today, for all
• 0:28
  of us today, is that the result of what you would hear from the
• 0:31
  Word is that you would have a sincere cry from the depths of
• 0:36
  your soul, and that cry would simply be, Oh, God, open the
• 0:41
  eyes of my heart, please. I see, but I want to see more.
• 0:48
  I perceive, but I want to perceive more.
• 0:52
  Please, Lord, if this is available, I need you to touch
• 0:55
  me again. So I'm telling you in advance
• 0:58
  that that is the aim. That is the goal for all of us
• 1:00
  today is that we each individually, would be able to
• 1:03
  have that sincere petition before the Prince of Peace.
• 1:08
  Lord, please open my eyes again. So we come to Mark 8, where we
• 1:13
  get that truth, where we get that exhortation, And Mark 8,
• 1:17
  verse 22, Mark 8/22. And they came to Betsaida, and
• 1:34
  some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to
• 1:38
  touch him. And he took the blind man by the
• 1:41
  hand and let him out of the village.
• 1:44
  And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he
• 1:47
  asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I I
• 1:53
  see people, but they look like trees walking.
• 1:59
  Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his
• 2:03
  eyes. His sight was restored, and he
• 2:07
  saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home,
• 2:12
  saying, Do not even enter the village.
• 2:18
  Lord, we Revere you here. We fear you, Lord, even reading
• 2:24
  these verses, we tremble, realizing that this is the voice
• 2:29
  of Almighty God. And while we pray that you would
• 2:32
  grant us the grace to know what your heart is for this passage
• 2:37
  and what we can do, so that we can honor you through it.
• 2:41
  And so, Lord, may there be a special touch upon the delivery
• 2:45
  of this word. And Lord also a touch on our
• 2:47
  hearts, so that we may receive it, receive it the way you
• 2:51
  intended us to receive it. We give you honor in advance,
• 2:54
  and we trust that you will guide us in thought and an affection
• 3:00
  to make that heart cry. Open my eyes.
• 3:03
  I want to see more. In Jesus name.
• 3:06
  Amen. Whenever Jesus performed a
• 3:11
  healing miracle, it was always instantaneous.
• 3:15
  It was always immediate, whether it was a fever or whether it was
• 3:18
  leprosy, every kind and any kind of disease was helplessly
• 3:22
  subject to the demands of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
• 3:26
  highlight reel of the masters. Compassion and power throughout
• 3:29
  the gospels testifies of that consistency.
• 3:33
  No infirmity was ever able to resist the authority of Christ.
• 3:40
  But for the first and only time, we come to this passage and we
• 3:43
  read something quite interesting.
• 3:45
  We look here and we learned that there is a healing that is
• 3:49
  taking place, but the results are not what we are used to.
• 3:54
  This is unusual. This is a healing that takes
• 3:59
  place in stages. It's progressive.
• 4:02
  It's not something that happens right at the moment.
• 4:04
  It's not something that happens right when the command was
• 4:07
  given. You and I are used to seeing a
• 4:10
  single touch or even a brief word bring about the complete
• 4:15
  result of a man's restoration. That's all it took for the
• 4:18
  impossible to be made possible. But this time we read about the
• 4:22
  Lord reaching out and touching a man not once but twice.
• 4:29
  And for the quick reader, he might be tempted to make this
• 4:32
  mistake. And that mistake is this, to
• 4:35
  perhaps be persuaded that okay for the first time now Jesus has
• 4:39
  finally met his match. Here is a component of our
• 4:43
  fallen world that was capable of resisting the will of God.
• 4:48
  Or maybe you're not thinking that.
• 4:50
  Maybe the thought is, well, here's Jesus and his humanity.
• 4:53
  Yes, at this moment doing something supernatural, but
• 4:56
  because of the complexity of his nature, he was perhaps
• 5:00
  unprepared for the challenge that awaited him in Besada.
• 5:04
  And now he is taken by surprise that there is something that's
• 5:07
  actually putting up a fight. Any speculation, please be
• 5:12
  careful. Any speculation that attempts to
• 5:14
  undermine the character and the capability of the Lord Jesus
• 5:19
  Christ is off base. It's to be dismissed completely.
• 5:25
  What we need to understand here is that you know Christ enough.
• 5:29
  The Bible testifies enough to be confident that the Lord is
• 5:34
  always able and that there is no rival in any dimension, whether
• 5:38
  that dimension is physical or spiritual, that can resist him.
• 5:43
  He is irresistible. But the question still stands
• 5:47
  when we look at this text, right?
• 5:49
  What is happening here? Why is it that the Lord didn't
• 5:54
  achieve his goal from the first attempt?
• 5:59
  And we can be spared for much confusion when you establish
• 6:02
  this simple fact that Christ's method here, not just the
• 6:06
  healing but His method, including the progression, is
• 6:10
  totally intentional. This is not being done
• 6:13
  unknowingly. This is being done purposely.
• 6:16
  This is being done with a different goal in mind, a deeper
• 6:20
  goal in Christ's mind. So understand that the Lord is
• 6:24
  just as much as control and control here with this process
• 6:27
  as you would be with any kind of miracle where things happen
• 6:30
  right there. And if that's true, then I want
• 6:34
  to know, okay, then what's His intention?
• 6:37
  What? Why is the Lord doing this in
• 6:39
  stages instead of doing it right there and then?
• 6:42
  Why waste the time? Why give people the idea or the
• 6:45
  possible temptation to question you concerning your ability and
• 6:50
  the Lord's not intimidated by our questions?
• 6:53
  The best way to understand the best way to find clues is to do
• 6:58
  something that you should always be doing.
• 6:59
  When you read something that seems challenging, look at the
• 7:01
  context. Look at the surrounding terrain,
• 7:05
  pull up the rearview mirrors and say okay, What is it that
• 7:08
  happened to me before? Maybe.
• 7:09
  What happens next that might give me some indication And give
• 7:13
  me some answers here? Because when you get the answer
• 7:16
  to the question that I just presented to you, there you will
• 7:19
  find gold Golden Revelation, the beauty of Christ's mind and his
• 7:25
  wisdom and his power. And so you were here in the past
• 7:28
  two weeks. But just in case you weren't or
• 7:30
  you forgot, let's look back. Look here in verse 14 down to
• 7:34
  verse 21 at the same chapter, Jesus feeds the 4000 and he and
• 7:39
  his disciples get into a boat and they are headed for their
• 7:41
  desired location. And while they're in the boat,
• 7:44
  Jesus cautioned them saying watch out, beware of the 11 of
• 7:47
  the Pharisees in the 11 of the of Herod.
• 7:49
  We talked about that last week. So here's Christ warning his,
• 7:53
  his own disciples about the influence and the impact that
• 7:57
  the false teachings of these parties can bring about in their
• 8:00
  own faith. And what did the disciples do?
• 8:02
  What the disciples do best, They don't even engage with it.
• 8:05
  They don't inquire. Further, the the idea of leaven
• 8:08
  springs up. And what comes up in their
• 8:10
  conversation with one another? Bread.
• 8:13
  They're talking about bread in verse 16.
• 8:15
  They begin discussing with one another the fact that they had
• 8:16
  no bread. Yeah, Andrew, you forgot bread.
• 8:19
  Did you freak? Peter, where'd you where they
• 8:21
  begin to just talk. And here's the Lord.
• 8:22
  Stanley, you just completely miss what I'm saying.
• 8:26
  And as they're discussing and as they're arguing maybe hear the
• 8:30
  Lord, aware of this in verse 17, does what he needed to do and
• 8:33
  what a good teacher will do from time to time He rebukes them,
• 8:37
  and this is what I want to bring to your attention.
• 8:39
  Look here in verse 17. And Jesus, aware of this, said
• 8:41
  to them, Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?
• 8:47
  Do you not yet perceive or understand?
• 8:49
  Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see?
• 8:53
  And having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember when I
• 8:57
  broke the five lows for the 5000?
• 8:59
  How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?
• 9:01
  They set them 12 and the 7th. For the 4000, how many baskets
• 9:06
  full of broken pieces did you take up?
• 9:07
  And they set them seven. And he said to them, Do you not
• 9:13
  yet understand? The last question Jesus asks
• 9:18
  before we are introduced to this blind man is do you not yet
• 9:23
  understand? Now you you just scroll back and
• 9:28
  reexamine his his diagnosis. Here, reexamine what he is
• 9:32
  saying. Notice especially verse 18
• 9:35
  having eyes. Do you not see, which means the
• 9:41
  same thing as verse 21? Do you not yet understand?
• 9:47
  The eyes are often a metaphor for understanding, and Christ is
• 9:51
  drilling that into the hearts of his disciples.
• 9:54
  He's saying here, you're not getting it yet, are you?
• 9:59
  He's communicating that although the disciples had their eyes
• 10:01
  open to an extent, they did not have it completely opened.
• 10:06
  And and to what extent were their eyes open?
• 10:07
  The disciples, at this point in Jesus ministry understood enough
• 10:11
  about Christ to love him and to abandon everything, to follow
• 10:14
  him. And yet the perception of deeper
• 10:17
  truths was still unclear. And so Jesus here, in other
• 10:21
  words, is giving an honest diagnosis of the spiritual
• 10:24
  perception of his closest followers at this point, and
• 10:28
  assesses this very boldly and courageously, but honestly and
• 10:31
  lovingly, that they suffered from partial blindness
• 10:36
  concerning 2 main things. His teachings and his character.
• 10:41
  His teachings and his character. And from there this is the this
• 10:45
  is the flow of thought. This is what the Holy Spirit is
• 10:47
  trying to do. From there, after establishing
• 10:50
  the impairment of his own, we now come to a man who is
• 10:53
  physically blind. And being physically blind, he
• 10:58
  receives a unique kind of healing, not the one that we're
• 11:01
  used to. Glorious connection praised me
• 11:06
  to his name for the simple discipline of honoring the
• 11:09
  context. Here is the link.
• 11:11
  Think about it. What is taking place with this
• 11:14
  miracle is meant to compliment and elaborate the truths that
• 11:18
  we've already discovered from the previous conversation.
• 11:22
  Have you eyes but do not see, Do you not yet understand?
• 11:27
  And then we transition. And here's a man who can't see.
• 11:31
  But when he receives the touch from the Lord, it's gradual.
• 11:37
  When he grows in his perception, it's progressive.
• 11:42
  It's not immediate. There are many messages behind
• 11:46
  the miracles of Jesus, and there is a parable with this miracle
• 11:49
  especially. And this is the message.
• 11:52
  In the same way that this man had partial vision, the
• 11:54
  disciples also had limited spiritual understanding.
• 11:57
  And yet, in the same way that this man with his physical eyes
• 12:01
  receiving healing gradually. Check this out.
• 12:05
  The disciples could also expect greater clarity as Christ would
• 12:08
  continue to work in them. Not only are you like this man
• 12:14
  who cannot see completely, though he should, but I also
• 12:19
  will work with you as I did with this man.
• 12:24
  That's the object lesson. And many people come to the
• 12:27
  miracles of Jesus and appropriately parallel the
• 12:30
  experience of the miracle with the experience that you and I
• 12:33
  gain at salvation. But this is not a miracle about
• 12:36
  salvation. It's not dealing with what
• 12:37
  happens to you when you become born again.
• 12:40
  No, this illustrates what happens after you get saved.
• 12:45
  This is a miracle that points and illustrates your
• 12:47
  sanctification. Christ doesn't just open your
• 12:51
  eyes when you repent and believe.
• 12:52
  Christ longs to open your eyes to see as he sees more and more
• 12:58
  and more. And that process is not
• 13:01
  instantaneous work. It takes time.
• 13:07
  Now, if we're honest, we can all admit that that's a miracle that
• 13:10
  we each need every single day. I'm talking to you born again.
• 13:12
  Believe it. I'm not talking to the person
• 13:14
  who still needs his his eyes to be open at the beginning of all
• 13:16
  things. I'm talking about you who had
• 13:18
  your eyes open enough to say this.
• 13:21
  Jesus. He is who he says he is, and I
• 13:23
  want to follow him. Praise God for your eyes being
• 13:26
  open to that. But you and I are fully aware
• 13:29
  that there is more to see, more to behold, more to comprehend,
• 13:34
  and we need the Lord to be able to touch us.
• 13:36
  But that's not the main point of this miracle.
• 13:39
  The main point is not that. The main point is that the
• 13:41
  disciples should have known. They should have had the
• 13:46
  knowledge of certain things by now, but they suffered from
• 13:49
  seeing as Christ would want them to see.
• 13:51
  Christ has your growth in mind, and more than that, he expects
• 13:56
  us to be at certain places as we walk with him.
• 14:01
  I know we're a grace people. I know we love grace, and I know
• 14:04
  we we should love grace. But Christ has through His grace
• 14:08
  a growth in mind. And just like His disciples,
• 14:12
  when we don't reach certain place, where when we stagnate
• 14:14
  spiritually, we're not in the will of God, we're not in the
• 14:19
  will of God. And here we see that the
• 14:21
  disciples should have been somewhere by now, and they
• 14:24
  weren't. And where were they?
• 14:26
  Where were they off place? Where were they not where Christ
• 14:28
  wanted to be? Again, I said it.
• 14:30
  Let me say it again concerning their knowledge of the truth and
• 14:34
  concerning the person of Jesus Christ.
• 14:37
  Think about it. When he brought up the leaven of
• 14:39
  the fair season of Herod, they start talking about bread, their
• 14:44
  biblical understanding right their their simple knowledge of
• 14:47
  truth that they could not grasp it.
• 14:51
  So they were shallow in their understanding of the word of
• 14:53
  God. But more than that, we have the
• 14:56
  character of Christ. Not only were they talking about
• 14:59
  bread when they should be talking about the spiritual
• 15:00
  leaven, they now begin to talk about the bread.
• 15:03
  Because they were fearful. They were anxious.
• 15:05
  We don't have food for this trip, and so that is indirectly
• 15:10
  an affront to who Christ is. Christ who not only warned about
• 15:14
  11:00, but Christ who earlier materialized food out of thin
• 15:17
  air. And they witnessed that with
• 15:19
  their own eyes. And yet they could not hold on
• 15:22
  to that truth long enough to believe it in a time of need.
• 15:27
  OK, are we any different? Have things change with
• 15:30
  disciples of Jesus Christ today? Is it possible for a Christian
• 15:33
  to walk in a certain length of time and not grasp certain
• 15:36
  truths yet from the word of God? Absolutely.
• 15:39
  Is it possible to walk with Christ and even experience
• 15:42
  testimonies, personal stories of him intervening?
• 15:46
  And yet, still, in a time of crisis or need or uncertainty,
• 15:50
  we begin to discuss as though he's not in our midst and he
• 15:53
  hasn't come through before. Those are evidences that you
• 15:58
  see, But you see men as trees. You see the silhouette of
• 16:04
  Christ, but not the substance of Christ.
• 16:07
  You have a a a glaring understanding of His promises
• 16:11
  and of his doctrine, but not enough to cause you to know that
• 16:16
  this is true, this is applicable.
• 16:18
  This is a warning. This is an encouragement.
• 16:21
  This is a miracle. Not for the unsaved, but for the
• 16:24
  saved. And it's a miracle that's
• 16:27
  desperately needed. Instead of seeing things
• 16:30
  clearly, they saw men as tree walkings themselves.
• 16:34
  And I want to just look. I'm not going to take too much
• 16:36
  time with this message. I want us just to walk through
• 16:39
  to give you an idea just to challenge you.
• 16:41
  This challenge me just to look at Paul's language concerning
• 16:45
  some of the truths that not pastors, not theologians, but
• 16:48
  believers who have access to the word of God should know or at
• 16:51
  least strive to know. So let's just do a little survey
• 16:54
  here, go to Romans 1125 quickly, let's go to Romans 11/25.
• 17:00
  I I'm not trying to elaborate on these verses.
• 17:01
  I'm trying to bring you bullet, bullet point form exertation.
• 17:06
  So we go to Romans 1125 together.
• 17:09
  Notice what Paul says, lest you be wise in your own sight.
• 17:21
  I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.
• 17:28
  A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness
• 17:32
  of the Gentiles has come in. Keep in mind that phrase.
• 17:35
  I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery.
• 17:40
  Now come to 1st Corinthians chapter 10, First Corinthians
• 17:44
  chapter 10, and look at verse one.
• 17:54
  For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our
• 18:01
  fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea.
• 18:05
  There's that phrase again. I do not want you to be unaware.
• 18:09
  Go to chapter 12 of the same book, First Corinthians 12,
• 18:11
  verse one. Now concerning spiritual gifts.
• 18:17
  Brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.
• 18:22
  Interesting. Now skip over a few books.
• 18:24
  Go to 1st Thessalonians, chapter four, First Thessalonians,
• 18:28
  chapter 4, chapter 4, verse 13. But we do not want you to be
• 18:43
  uninformed brothers about those who are asleep that you may not
• 18:46
  grieve as others do who have no hope.
• 18:49
  OK, I'm just trying to show you by way of example how Paul is
• 18:53
  speaking to these different Christians from different
• 18:55
  churches and he's saying something similar.
• 18:57
  I don't want you to be ignorant. I don't want you to remain in
• 19:01
  ignorance. I want you to be equipped.
• 19:04
  I want you to be fully familiar with these truths and what
• 19:07
  truths I mean think about these different truths, the different
• 19:09
  shades of truth. When he speaks to the Romans, it
• 19:12
  says here that he wants them to not be uninformed.
• 19:14
  About what? Not generally uninformed.
• 19:16
  No, specifically, I don't want you to be uninformed, Romans
• 19:19
  about God's sovereign plan for the ethnic people of Israel.
• 19:24
  I don't want you to be uninformed about that.
• 19:25
  I want you to be fully informed. I want you to be educated about
• 19:27
  that certain doctrine. OK, then First Corinthians 10.
• 19:31
  I I don't want you to be unaware brothers.
• 19:33
  And then what is Paul doing? 1st Corinthians 10.
• 19:35
  He uses the Old Testament as an illustration book for new
• 19:40
  covenant principles. He talks about the wilderness
• 19:41
  journey. He talks about the the plagues
• 19:44
  that they experience while they were in rebellion for unbelief.
• 19:47
  So what is Paul saying there? I don't want you to be unaware
• 19:50
  of how the Old Covenant speaks to new Covenant realities.
• 19:54
  I want your eyes to see that those are not just stories.
• 19:57
  Those are God's way of exhorting you and encouraging you.
• 20:00
  OK, what is he saying for Scrutine Swallow.
• 20:02
  This is a controversial one. I don't want you to be unaware,
• 20:05
  uninformed about what the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• 20:08
  Now come on, how? How many of us are familiar with
• 20:11
  this stuff? I don't want you to be
• 20:13
  uninformed about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, how you can
• 20:15
  identify them and understand how they are to be utilized.
• 20:20
  What about first Ceciline, chapter 4, verse 13.
• 20:22
  I don't want you to be uninformed about what the event
• 20:26
  of the return of the Lord, the event of the return of the Lord,
• 20:29
  and what the hope of eternal life to come.
• 20:33
  Now just just gather those exhortations, gather those
• 20:38
  topics and reel them in and ask yourself.
• 20:40
  I mean, I have to ask myself, how familiar am I about the
• 20:43
  sovereign plan of God for Israel?
• 20:45
  Am I still ignorant in that? How uninformed I am about the
• 20:48
  gifts of the Holy Spirit? How uninformed I am about my Old
• 20:52
  Testament? 2/3 of my Bible?
• 20:54
  Can I look at the That's why what we do, what we do on
• 20:56
  Fridays. We want people to be informed
• 20:59
  about how the Old Testament ties in with the New Covenant.
• 21:01
  But how many of us know it? How many of us are confident to
• 21:04
  go to the Old Testament? How many of us see the value of
• 21:06
  that? What about the event of the
• 21:08
  return of Christ? What about that?
• 21:11
  Can we can we explain that? Can we can we give people an
• 21:13
  understanding of what to expect concerning the event of the
• 21:16
  return of Christ? What about the life to come?
• 21:19
  So even from those verses that we just kind of scaled through
• 21:21
  right there, we're being even informed.
• 21:24
  Don't remain ignorant in that grow advance, be challenged.
• 21:32
  So even in those examples in the epistles we can tie it in with
• 21:37
  what is happening in Mark chapter 8.
• 21:40
  The disciples at that point should have been somewhere, but
• 21:44
  they weren't. And in like manner we can come
• 21:46
  to these truths and remain ignorant.
• 21:49
  And here's the scary part, be content with our ignorance.
• 21:53
  Be content with our ignorance when God saying no, I want you
• 21:56
  to graduate. I hope you never read those
• 21:59
  verses ever the same way again. I don't want you to be
• 22:02
  uninformed. Wow, that's not Paul speaking.
• 22:06
  That's the Spirit speaking through Paul.
• 22:08
  I want you to know what an invitation.
• 22:13
  And we think of this, and we can now give you examples not just
• 22:15
  concerning doctrine, but concerning the person of God,
• 22:19
  his character, how he actually intervenes and supervises your
• 22:23
  existence. Am I growing less and less
• 22:28
  anxious? Am I growing more and more
• 22:31
  confident? Am I actually allowing these
• 22:33
  testimonies that I see in prayer with my church, with my family,
• 22:37
  with these trials? And do I like Joshua, that
• 22:40
  generation established stone memorials, permanent testimonies
• 22:45
  and journal entries in my heart to say I can trust him for
• 22:48
  tomorrow I can trust him for Let me give you one example of that
• 22:52
  first, John, I got better hurry up here.
• 22:55
  But let's go to 1st John quickly for you for you to see an
• 22:57
  example of that. Do you want to know if you
• 23:02
  really, really see the love of God The way you see you should
• 23:05
  see the love of God. If you want to know if you see
• 23:08
  the love of God the way God wants you to see it, here's a
• 23:10
  great test in first John and 1st John chapter 4.
• 23:17
  To measure my experience of the love of God.
• 23:22
  I can take this test. We're here in chapter 4, verse
• 23:27
  16. So we have come to know and to
• 23:31
  believe the love that God has for us.
• 23:32
  God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God
• 23:36
  abides in Him. By this is love perfected with
• 23:39
  us. Meaning the word perfected is
• 23:41
  matured. Achieve the IT is achieved its
• 23:44
  goal in you. Perfected with us so that we may
• 23:47
  have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so
• 23:51
  also are we In this world there is No Fear and love, but perfect
• 23:54
  love cast out. Fear for fear has to do with
• 23:57
  punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
• 24:00
  If I hear a teaching a sermon about the judgment to come, and
• 24:06
  I am fearful concerning that judgment, I know one thing.
• 24:09
  God's love has not been matured in me.
• 24:13
  It's not I, I I see men walking streets.
• 24:16
  I have a blurred understanding. My my vision of the love of God
• 24:20
  is fuzzy. You see you, you know it.
• 24:24
  You know He loves you. You understand He died for you.
• 24:28
  But deeper than that, OK. So when it comes to the
• 24:30
  judgment, how confident are you? What's your vision of the
• 24:35
  throne? What's your vision of him being
• 24:36
  your advocate? And if there's fear in there,
• 24:39
  I'm not seeing right. I'm not seeing right.
• 24:43
  So, So even in that, concerning the nature and the character of
• 24:46
  God, we can be partially blind like the disciples were.
• 24:52
  But what does this miracle really teach?
• 24:53
  More than that? It doesn't just challenge you,
• 24:57
  it encourages you and encourages you in this way.
• 25:01
  Yes, disciples, this man you see right here.
• 25:03
  And it could be that the the men that this, the, the, the blind
• 25:06
  man saw were were actually the disciples.
• 25:08
  It could be very well that the people that he saw in that in
• 25:11
  that moment were the followers of Christ, were witnessing this
• 25:14
  miracle. Disciples indirectly.
• 25:17
  What a master teacher. This this right here.
• 25:20
  This is you. This is you.
• 25:24
  And yet watch. He lays hands on them again.
• 25:26
  He sees and he sees clearly and he goes.
• 25:28
  This can also be you. This can also be you.
• 25:34
  The point is more than just a rebuke.
• 25:36
  It's an invitation. An invitation to see more
• 25:39
  clearly, to open your eyes more and more.
• 25:42
  But that doesn't mean that there's nothing required of us.
• 25:43
  Go back to Mark chapter 8. I want you to see what Jesus
• 25:46
  does in verse 23. And he took the blind man by the
• 25:53
  hand and let him out of the village.
• 25:58
  And we had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him.
• 26:00
  He asked what a, what a question.
• 26:02
  Do you see anything? Do you think Jesus knew?
• 26:07
  Whenever Jesus asks a question, it's not because he's looking
• 26:09
  for an answer. Never.
• 26:12
  He knows, but he wants the man to answer honestly.
• 26:19
  Think about this. He heals him partially, though
• 26:23
  he could have done it fully. And then he steps back.
• 26:28
  Do you see anything? You know what the man could have
• 26:32
  said? Because he answers in a very
• 26:34
  important way. But he could have said.
• 26:38
  I see. Yeah, I can see.
• 26:42
  It's a little hazy. But this is good.
• 26:45
  This is good. Thank you so much.
• 26:48
  You are where they say they are. Thank you.
• 26:50
  Thank you. I can live like this.
• 26:51
  I can live like this. This is awesome.
• 26:52
  Praise be to your name. And he could have walked on his
• 26:55
  merry way. He doesn't say that.
• 26:59
  He says. I see people, but they look like
• 27:02
  trees walking. And there was something about
• 27:06
  that where he expressed the need for more.
• 27:11
  There was a there was a an attitude of faith in this
• 27:15
  confession that drew Christ in to do a deeper work.
• 27:22
  Here's the truth. If we want our inner eyes to be
• 27:24
  touched by the healer, the demand is no different for you
• 27:27
  and I. We must be transparent.
• 27:30
  And you and I must be willing to come before the presence of the
• 27:32
  Lord with humility and desperation and say I need you
• 27:35
  to touch me again. I see, and I'm thankful that I
• 27:40
  can see. But, Lord, I'm ignorant here.
• 27:45
  I'm ignorant here. I'm still fearful.
• 27:47
  I'm still anxious. Okay.
• 27:49
  Let Let's make it more personal, right?
• 27:51
  Just like this man. How do you see people?
• 27:55
  How do you see your wife? How do you see your children?
• 27:58
  How do you see your parents? How do you see your local
• 28:01
  church? Do you see clearly?
• 28:02
  Do you perceive the way God wants you to perceive, or is it
• 28:06
  blurry? Are you misinterpreting things?
• 28:09
  Are you failing to give it the value that it deserves?
• 28:12
  Are you acting in a certain way because you don't see the way
• 28:15
  God wants you to see? I mean, if I see people as
• 28:17
  trees, I'm going to treat them drift differently than if I see
• 28:20
  them as people I'm not seeing. The way I'm supposed to be
• 28:25
  seeing in my heart testifies of that.
• 28:27
  My attitude testifies of that. My behavior testifies of that.
• 28:32
  Lord, you need to touch me again.
• 28:35
  I'm not satisfied seeing this way.
• 28:38
  And if there is more than pleased that there be more.
• 28:40
  And I will tell you the means by which he will touch you.
• 28:44
  I will show you how it is that God extends his hand upon the
• 28:48
  eyes of your heart and is able to peel off more layers so that
• 28:53
  you can understand the way he wants you to understand.
• 28:57
  It's very simple. 2 verses two different places.
• 29:00
  You combine them together and you will know miracles in your
• 29:03
  life. The first one is in Psalm 19.
• 29:07
  In Psalm 19, verse eight, we were given a promise about the
• 29:15
  eyes of our heart. Psalm 19 eight reads, The
• 29:24
  precepts of the Lord are right to rejoicing the heart.
• 29:27
  The commandment of the Lord is pure, doing what?
• 29:30
  Enlightening the eyes. You can't see better if you
• 29:35
  don't know the word of God. If you don't come to the word of
• 29:38
  God, this word has power to heal your blindness.
• 29:45
  I remember personally when there was a defining moment where I
• 29:50
  was able to see the power of the the word of God enlightening the
• 29:54
  eyes. When I first got saved, I had no
• 29:56
  grit for anything, no grit for church, no grit for sermons, no
• 30:00
  grit for denominations. I had no grit for anything.
• 30:03
  And I remember I when I was first introduced to a church
• 30:05
  service, it was questionable in their approach and it was very
• 30:08
  much like the mega church kind of secret sensitive thing.
• 30:11
  But I had no grit and so when I was there I didn't have anything
• 30:14
  to really discern. I had nothing to work with in my
• 30:17
  own heart, so I was just absorbing whatever was there.
• 30:19
  I was content to some extent as as a person who who had his eyes
• 30:23
  open but not seeing fully. And A and a few weeks would go
• 30:28
  by and by God's grace was able to read the Word.
• 30:31
  And but something began to happen as I begin to read, just
• 30:34
  read the Word just day after day.
• 30:36
  Coming to the word not understanding everything, but
• 30:38
  just reading it and coming to an asking God for me to understand
• 30:42
  it, I began to see things differently.
• 30:45
  Wait a minute. That's wait a minute.
• 30:48
  You probably shouldn't be saying that in a sermon.
• 30:51
  What's going on here? What's happening here?
• 30:55
  Enlightening the eyes more and more and more to see what things
• 31:02
  should really be. And that saved me from a lot of
• 31:04
  trouble. A lot of trouble.
• 31:06
  Credit the word credit. Just come to the Bible.
• 31:10
  Credit. Just trust that this thing
• 31:11
  vibrates with a force that can rescue you from seeing men as
• 31:16
  trees, walking, from seeing a sermon that is not really a
• 31:20
  sermon that's laced with heresy, laced with different motives.
• 31:25
  Believers who claim to be believers but are actually
• 31:28
  wolves and sheep's clothing, convictions and ideas and
• 31:33
  arguments that are not based on the word of God, but because
• 31:36
  your eyes have been open. Why?
• 31:37
  Because this word, this word heals, heals your vision.
• 31:43
  And I I praise God that over the years this book is what has kept
• 31:48
  me and this book is what will keep you.
• 31:50
  I know people that are believing things that you would not even
• 31:53
  fathom to believe in their walk with the Lord.
• 31:56
  And it's because of one thing they didn't trust that this can
• 31:58
  enlight their eyes. But more than that, there's
• 32:03
  another thing, and it's an Ephesians.
• 32:05
  One verse 16. In Ephesians one verse 16.
• 32:12
  Paul prays for this church and he says something quite amazing.
• 32:15
  Some of you know where I'm going with this.
• 32:18
  Look what he says in verse 16. I do not cease to give thanks
• 32:26
  for you remembering you in my prayers.
• 32:29
  And I was going to tell him what he's praying for.
• 32:31
  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
• 32:35
  give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and knowledge
• 32:38
  of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.
• 32:44
  Oh, what a man of God he was. When Paul prayed for this
• 32:47
  church, he asked that there would be the spirit of wisdom
• 32:49
  and revelation for one goal, that the eyes of the hearts
• 32:53
  would be enlightened, open further.
• 32:55
  Is he talking to the world, or is he talking to the Church?
• 32:58
  He's talking to the Church That your eyes, oh church, would have
• 33:02
  greater understanding. Having the eyes of your hearts
• 33:05
  enlightened in three things. In three things.
• 33:07
  Look at this, that you may know what is the hope to which he has
• 33:11
  called you two. What are the riches of his
• 33:14
  glorious inheritance and the Saints?
• 33:16
  Three. And what is the immeasurable
• 33:18
  greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the
• 33:21
  working of his great might? Oh, I'm begging God nonstop that
• 33:27
  You Ephesians, would know the hope that you would see right.
• 33:30
  Many of us are asking God to bless us, and that's great.
• 33:32
  We should be asking God for that.
• 33:34
  But what Paul here is saying is I want you to see the blessings
• 33:36
  God has already given you. You don't feel this way, and it
• 33:41
  could be not because it's lacking but because you don't
• 33:43
  see it. So I'm asking that you would
• 33:45
  know the hope. I'm asking that you would know
• 33:47
  the the wealth that you have inherited because of Christ, the
• 33:51
  spiritual riches that are yours because of Christ.
• 33:54
  I want you to see it. And lastly, the immeasurable
• 33:58
  greatness of his power toward us who believe.
• 34:01
  Look at this according to the work of his great might that he
• 34:03
  worked in Christ. Hope, spiritual riches, power.
• 34:09
  I want you to see it. And the only way it's going to
• 34:11
  come through is not just when you come to the Word, it's when
• 34:14
  you pray and ask God for it. Because that's what I'm doing
• 34:16
  for you. And So what does this require
• 34:19
  for me? How do I, how can I know Christ
• 34:21
  giving me a second touch, a third touch, a fifth touch.
• 34:25
  When you come before the word of God, the Spirit of prayer, and
• 34:29
  you say, Lord, open the eyes in my heart.
• 34:32
  I don't want to stay where I was.
• 34:34
  I'm not content seeing men walking as trees.
• 34:37
  I'm not being. I'm not content looking at you
• 34:39
  with an elementary understanding of you.
• 34:41
  I want to come to the Word and actually get the Word, and I
• 34:44
  want to live the Word, and I want to trust you in this world.
• 34:47
  You need to help me and you need to touch me.
• 34:51
  Honesty, transparency, but also the willingness to let the hand
• 34:56
  of Christ lead you where it needs to be led.
• 34:58
  And that's through His Word and through seeking Him.
• 35:01
  And what begins to happen. Here's what will happen.
• 35:03
  You look at the world, You see all its toys and all its
• 35:06
  promises and all its vain glory, and it begins to lose its color
• 35:11
  and lose its shine. And something begins to happen
• 35:15
  to your soul where now you actually know satisfaction in
• 35:17
  God, not just storing up information, satisfaction in
• 35:22
  God. You look at your suffering and
• 35:24
  now you are comforted and caressed by the sovereign care
• 35:28
  of your master. You look at people, you look at
• 35:31
  people and and they're not just people for your benefit, people
• 35:34
  that are to be used for your good.
• 35:36
  No, you look at people the way Jesus wants you to look at
• 35:39
  people and you begin to treat them as such.
• 35:43
  You look at life through the lens of eternity and you realize
• 35:48
  that this is not it. I'm just traveling through and
• 35:49
  you begin to feel lighter in this world, and you begin to
• 35:52
  feel like you're floating through this world.
• 35:53
  And you begin to realize my address is being prepared for
• 35:56
  me, and I'm just borrowing some things here.
• 36:00
  And the best thing you begin to see Christ as more beautiful
• 36:05
  than he was yesterday, as more precious as more near than
• 36:10
  anybody else in your own existence, closer than your
• 36:12
  wife, closer than your husband, closer than your children.
• 36:15
  You begin to know something of the manifestation of His
• 36:17
  presence. Because you've come to the
• 36:19
  conclusion I'm not satisfied seeing partially open the eyes
• 36:23
  of my heart. Amazingly, we learned here what
• 36:31
  happened before this miracle took place.
• 36:32
  But do you remember what happened after?
• 36:35
  Go back to Mark 8. This is amazing.
• 36:40
  I love the Bible. I love the word of God.
• 36:44
  Look at verse 27 right? This is the verse that we
• 36:46
  haven't read. Immediately after when he tells,
• 36:48
  tells them not to enter to the village.
• 36:49
  And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of
• 36:53
  Cicerea Philippi. And on the way he asked his
• 36:56
  disciples who do people say that I am?
• 36:59
  And they told him John the Baptist and others say Elijah
• 37:01
  and others one of the prophets. And he asked them, But who do
• 37:04
  you say that I am? Peter answered him, You are the
• 37:07
  Christ, you are the Christ. Is that ironic that right after
• 37:14
  the person receives his full healing, Peter is asked the
• 37:17
  question about the identity of Christ and he gets it.
• 37:21
  And Jesus, Matthew says flesh and blood has not revealed this
• 37:23
  to you, but this came from the Father.
• 37:27
  The fact that you have this insight, the fact that you have
• 37:30
  this perception is the result of a supernatural touch from God.
• 37:36
  So before they could not understand a miracle takes
• 37:39
  place. And right after we have Peter
• 37:41
  being asked the question and he asked who do people say to them
• 37:44
  and and they are partially blind.
• 37:48
  They are blind, misidentifying him, misunderstanding him, not
• 37:51
  seeing what the scriptures prophesied concerning him.
• 37:54
  And then Peter speaks up and he says, no, no, no, I see you for
• 37:56
  who you are. You're the Christ in Jesus.
• 37:58
  This is supernatural. This is supernatural.
• 38:04
  And you need the same power as I To know greater revelations of
• 38:08
  Christ has to be a work of God in us.
• 38:12
  And he's given us a supernatural word.
• 38:13
  He's given us supernatural access and prayer and oh, you
• 38:16
  know what's amazing about this miracle?
• 38:19
  It's only found in Mark. You won't find it in Luke.
• 38:22
  You won't find in John. You won't find it in Matthew.
• 38:26
  I'm sure there are different reasons for that.
• 38:27
  But I just wonder, meditatively thinking about it, what Mark
• 38:30
  felt when he wrote this down when Peter gave him this
• 38:35
  account. I wonder what Mark felt when he
• 38:37
  was learning about the need for believers to have their eyes
• 38:40
  open further and further. Remember, Mark wasn't perfect.
• 38:44
  Here's Mark starting on ministry and very early on he says, I
• 38:48
  want to go back home and I didn't sign up for this.
• 38:51
  And then Paul is given the idea from Barnabas to have Mark
• 38:55
  again. And Paul's like, I'm not
• 38:56
  interested. I'm not interested in people
• 38:58
  just jumping off ship when they don't like it.
• 39:00
  I want guys that are in it for life and they get into an
• 39:03
  argument and they and they split.
• 39:04
  And then you read later in Second Timothy where Mark is
• 39:06
  summoned by Paul. Something happened between Acts
• 39:10
  and Second Timothy. And I wonder, I just wonder, if
• 39:14
  Mark loved this miracle to know the patience of Christ and
• 39:19
  willing to work with us, that as long as we are willing to
• 39:22
  acknowledge our need and our condition, the Lord is able to
• 39:24
  take us places where we never thought we would go.
• 39:28
  And so if you felt challenged, be immediately comforted to to
• 39:31
  to know that if you, if you see yourself lacking, I mean, we all
• 39:35
  do, I get it, we all do. But if you see yourself severely
• 39:37
  lacking and more importantly, content in your ignorance,
• 39:42
  content in your immaturity, then let this miracle provoke you to
• 39:47
  come to the master and say, Lord, you touched me once, I
• 39:51
  need you to touch me again. Please don't let me stay here.
• 39:55
  I want to see more. I want to see more.
• 39:59
  But we ask that you help us see you more.
• 40:01
  Oh Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit would bring this goal
• 40:05
  about in our lives, that we would be stirred to cry.
• 40:11
  I'm not satisfied. I don't want to be ignorant.
• 40:19
  I don't want to be sporadic in my trust in you.
• 40:24
  And so, Lord, you know precisely what it is that we need a touch
• 40:28
  in. It could be a particular truth.
• 40:30
  It could be about you and your practical leadership, or
• 40:33
  whatever it is that you need to do in us.
• 40:35
  We just humble ourselves before you and your presence.
• 40:37
  And we say, Lord, open the eyes of my heart.
• 40:40
  I want to fall deeper in love with you.
• 40:43
  I want to love the church more. I want to love my spouse the way
• 40:46
  you want me to love my spouse. I want you to.
• 40:49
  I want you to help me see my suffering the way you want me to
• 40:52
  see my suffering. I want you to help me see money
• 40:55
  the way I should see money. Lord, please, if you don't touch
• 40:59
  us. There is no strength in flesh
• 41:02
  and blood. There is no remedy.
• 41:04
  There is no hope in themselves and in another man.
• 41:07
  It must come from the Father. And so Lord, let there be this
• 41:10
  insatiable hunger to come to the Word and to trust the process of
• 41:13
  healing our eyes. And when we come, Lord, in
• 41:17
  prayer, as we drive, as we walk, as we fold our laundry, saying,
• 41:21
  Lord, I want more. Touch me again and we believe
• 41:25
  that you will. In Jesus name we pray.
• 41:30
  Amen. Amen.
• 41:32
  Amen.