Saturday, February 27, 2010
Matthew 20 Blind but now seeing!
29 As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.
30 There were two blind men sitting by the road. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
31 The crowd told them to keep quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
32 Jesus stopped, called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
33 “Lord,” they said to Him, “open our eyes!”
34 Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they could see, and they followed Him.
The Scripture shows Christ demonstrating to His people that He is truly their Messiah. His many miracles were wrought amongst men as a proof that He was really from God and that His credentials were genuine. He came into the world claiming something that no one had dared claim from the beginning of time. He said He could forgive sin and give life from the dead. No one dared propose a solution to those problems of the human race.
These claims put Him on the spot! He had to demonstrate the reality of His claims. He was tested by Satan, man and God. He withstood every test and even though men rejected Him, it was with sufficient proof before them that He was who He professed to be. In rejecting Him, they sinned against light and perished needlessly.
The physical deformities in the Bible often were used to illustrate man’s spiritual condition. For instance, in John 5:3 we read, "ln these lay a great multitude of impotent of blind, halt withered, waiting for the moving of the water"-a perfect illustration of man's condition without Christ.
Let us study the case of the blind man and see the parallel between his physical condition and that of the spiritual condition of those without Christ.
We see the spiritual parallel in
ll Corinthians4 :3 and 4: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
I have had close friends who were physically blind but radiantly happy because their spiritual eyes were open. Some of you remember Olive. She was one like that. She couldn’t see physically but wow could she see spiritually! On the other hand, those who have 20-20 vision physically can see nothing because of the darkness of sin that envelopes them. What good is it to have eyes if you are in darkness continually? "The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble,' says Proverbs 4:19. The other side of the coin is verse 18: "But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
John Newton, in that wonderful song “Amazing Grace,” described his own salvation experience by saying, “I once…was blind, but now I see.”
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.”—II Cor. 4:3,4.
1. They Were Defective
There were many blind people in the Eastern countries. I have read that at one time for every one hundred persons there were at least twenty blind people, ten who had sight in only one eye and twenty others who had some affliction of the eyes.
It was probably worse in the Saviour’s day. The fact that He healed so many blind people is an indication that many were blind. The Bible records several instances where Christ healed the blind. Matthew 9, He healed blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46–52, the blind man in John 9 and others.
They were defective Physically So is the whole Adamic race. Their defect was noticeable, but you are also defective. Every living man bears in his body the seeds of death and. those defects that will ultimately send him to his grave. Puny man can boast in his strength, and scientists can seek for a way to make men live longer and longer but everyone gets ill ,everyone has physical defects and everyone will die. In his unregenerate state, man is dying from the day he is born. God told Adam, as recorded in Genesis 2:17,"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." He died spiritually immediately, and he began to die physically as well.
Death, spiritual and physical, is the result of sin, and "all have sinned"; therefore, if Christ tarries long enough, every person living now will totter off to a hole in the ground and be buried, because you are defective from birth.
They were defective Mentally Some people are willing to admit the deformities of the body but fail to admit the deformity of the mind. Your mind is as unsound as your body. lt fell at the same time. Man lost his top story in the fall and lost with it his ability to think. That is why we read in Scripture,
"Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." -2Tim. 3:7.
They were defective Spiritually Spiritual death is separation from God. Adam’s sin put him out of the garden. The prodigal son was in a far country away from his Father. Because of sin there is such a vast chasm between man and God that there is no way that man can ever find his own way to bridge that chasm. You cannot get there, but praise God, He made a way. Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah.
These blind men were wise enough to recognise their problem and cry out to the Only One who could fix their problem. ““Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
When I read the Bible, I am impressed with the fact that Jesus was attracted to the needy. And it seems the needier the individual, the more Jesus was attracted. For instance, in John 5, when He went to the pool of Bethesda, He was seemingly attracted to the man with the greatest need. The man he healed had been stricken with an infirmity for thirty-eight years. Where human sorrow was most conspicuous, divine power was most compassionate. Mercy met misery on its own ground. What an encouragement for the sinner! Romans 5:20 says, “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
In the story in this text, Jesus healed two blind men. Blindness can be viewed as a picture of the unsaved man. All men without Christ are blind. They have intellectual light but not spiritual light. Everyone comes to Jesus under a cloak of darkness.
2. They Were Desperate When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
“Notice, first, they were earnest. The word which describes their appeal is “crying.” This implies that the men were earnest, energetic, pathetic, imploring, pleading and beseeching. How eager they were! Far too many unsaved people are indifferent to their need.
I remember once when I explained to a man that Jesus Christ had died to pay his sin debt, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “What do I care? I don’t want anybody to do anything for me. I’ll take care of myself!” I could not believe what my ears were hearing. The man seemed so indifferent. There was no indifference on the part of these two seekers. They were earnest.
Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
They confessed their own unworthiness. They cried out, “Thou son of David, have mercy on us.” They were not asking for justice. If the sinner received justice, he would be in Hell. There was no talking about merit with these two blind men. When we come to Christ for salvation, we must approach Him as condemned criminals. Nobody ever receives his sonship until he recognizes his sinnership. Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and, if we expect to go to Heaven, we must realize that we are sinners and trust Christ as personal Saviour.
“Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
3. They Were Determined
They were Determined. “31 The crowd told them to keep quiet, but they cried out all the more,
But they were Determined. They would not give up!
There will always be detractors in the crowd “It’s too late!”
“He didn’t mean you” Anyone else except you.
“there will be a better time”
“This is the wrong church”
“It will embarrass your family”
“People will laugh at you”
And a hundred other things that could be said to stop you.
But if you would be saved then you must have the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. No matter how others condemn you or seek to stop you, you need to be determined. You will have him.
John 6: 67 Therefore Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life. ..”
These two blind men recognised Jesus as the Son of David. This meant they were determined to act on the faith they had. It was as Son of David that they addressed Jesus. That meant that they did believe him to be the Messiah. And since He is the only Saviour there is ever going to be, they had better get on board with Him.
How about you? Have you gotten on board with this Saviour? You know He is the Saviour, but you just haven’t done anything about it yet. Well you had better, because if you don’t you will be lost.
Those blind men could not have known that Jesus would never again go up through Jericho again. But He would never pass that way again. He would never be closer to them than He was now. And they were determined to make use of this opportunity.
You may never be closer to Jesus than now. You don’t know if there will ever be another opportunity in your life to come to Him. You don’t know the challenges that may be coming into your life even as we speak right now, challenges that will keep you form Jesus.
You don’t know whether your heart will be cold and keep you from Jesus forever after this day.
Because you do not know, then you should do something about the matter right now. Be determined to get close to Jesus! He is the only Saviour. Be determined that He should save you today.
CH Spurgeon : wrote
It pleased God in my childhood to convince me of sin.… My heart was broken in pieces. Six months did I pray—prayed agonizingly with all my heart, and never had an answer. I resolved that, in the town where I lived, I would visit every place of worship in order to find out the way of salvation. I felt I was willing to do anything and be anything if God would only forgive me.
I set off, determined to go round to all the chapels; and I went to all the places of worship; and though I dearly venerate the men that occupy those pulpits now, and did so then, I am bound to say that I never heard them once fully preach the Gospel. I mean by that, they preached truth, great truths, many good truths that were fitting to many of their congregation—spiritually-minded people; but what I wanted to know was, How can I get my sins forgiven? And they never once told me that. I wanted to hear how a poor sinner, under a sense of sin, might find peace with God; and when I went I heard a sermon on "Be not deceived: God is not mocked," which cut me up worse, but did not say how I might escape. I went again another day, and the text was something about the glories of the righteous: nothing for poor me.…
At last, one snowy day—it snowed so much I could not go to the place I had determined to go to, and I was obliged to stop on the road, and it was a blessed stop to me—I found rather an obscure street, and turned down a court, and there was a little chapel.…I wanted to know how I might be saved.…At last a very thin-looking man came into the pulpit and opened his Bible and read these words: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Just setting his eyes upon me, as if he knew me all by heart, he said, "Young man, you are in trouble." Well, I was, sure enough. Says he, "You will never get out of it unless you look to Christ."
And then, lifting up his hands, he cried out…, "Look, look, look! It is only look!" I saw at once the way of salvation. Oh, how I did leap for joy at that moment! I know not what else he said; I did not take much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, they only looked and were healed. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard this word "Look!" what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away! And in Heaven I will look on still in my joy unutterable.
4. They Were Definite
32 Jesus stopped, called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
33 “Lord,” they said to Him, “open our eyes!”
Not only were they earnest and persistent, but, third, they had a definite object in prayer. They knew what they wanted. They wanted their sight. There was no beating around the bush with these men. Too many blind souls do not know what they really want.
I don’t know which sins to confess? Get down on your knees and guess them!
These blind men had a definite object in their prayer. They knew what they wanted. When the unsaved man comes to Christ for salvation, his prayer need not be long, but it should be to the point.
Romans 10: 9 if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 Now the Scripture says, No one who believes on Him will be put to shame, 12 for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
5. They were Delighted.
34 Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they could see, and they followed Him.
Suppose someone offered you a million dollars. Would you say, “Well, I believe it’s real money, and I know I need a million dollars, but I want to put it off awhile; I need to think about it”? Why, certainly not. You would accept it immediately. And if there were any reason you should not have the million dollars, you would be careful not to let others know about it.
Suppose a man is on death row awaiting execution and one day someone walks in with a pardon and says, “I’ve got good news. In my hand I hold a pardon from the governor.” What would you think if the prisoner said, “Well, I know I need a pardon and if I don’t get a pardon I’ll be executed in a few days; to be honest, I would like to have a pardon, but I don’t want to rush into it; let me think about it awhile”? Why, you would think the man was crazy, and he would be. No. No. If a man were offered a pardon, he would jump at it. When Jesus Christ offers to save all who will trust Him, I wonder that they do not jump at it. But in many cases, rather than jumping at it, they begin to make excuses as to why they should not have a pardon and be justified and given everlasting life. The answer of the blind men was immediate. “Immediately they could see ...
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed!
“Immediately they could see and THEY FOLLOWED HIM.”
How about you? Will you follow Him now who has become your Saviour?
Will you live you life now for Him who loved you and gave Himself to be your Saviour?
Following Him is the natural act of gratitude. Follow Him!
