Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

Spiritual Blindness, Part 1

Mark 8:11-21

 

I want to talk with you tonight and next week about spiritual blindness from Mark 8L11-21.  As you’ll see when we read the verses in a moment, there is only one reference inverse 18 that talks about being able to see and not see, but that one little phrase is really the subject of the entire text. 

 

And just to set the scene for the study, we need to know spiritual blindness is explained through two illustrations.  The first is an encounter between Jesus and the leaders of Israel and the second is an encounter between Jesus and the disciples. And together, they illustrate to us two kinds of blindness. One is a permanent blindness and the other is a temporary blindness.

 

And when you think about it, permanent blindness, spiritual blindness is the biblical diagnosis of every person who’s ever lived.  What do we read in John  

1?  Jesus is the Light of the world.  In Him was life and the light of men.  Verse 5 says the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it. 

 

This universal spiritual blindness has no capacity to comprehend light. This is the universal human condition. And for the folks we encounter here in Mark *, the light couldn’t have been any brighter.  He’s standing right there in front of them.  They could reach out and touch Him.  But they did not see it.   

 

And to compound the mystery ofo that, the leaders of Israel were the most enlightened people on the planet.  They, above anyone else, should have been able to comprehend the light when He came.  But they missed Him!

 

And every human being who has ever lived is in that condition and we fall into two categories.  There are those who are permanently blind and there are those who are temporarily blind. For some, the blindness is forever. For others, the blindness is only for a time. And you’re in either one or the other of those two groups.

 

Notice what we read in Mark 8:11-21

 

First we are introduced to

 

 

We see them in verses 11-13.

 

Once again, Jesus is face to face with those who hate Him. It’s been a while since they’ve been in contact.  Jesus has just returned from a tour of Gentile areas.  He’s been teaching His disciples the gospel is not just for the Jews, but it’s for all.

 

But now He’s back in Jewish territory and as soon as He arrives, verse 11, the Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him. He never has to look for them. He never has to find them. They’re there.

 

They hate the light. They hate the message of repentance. They hate the message of faith and grace. And they want to discredit Him publicly. There’s always a crowd around Him.

 

And just in this little brief section of three verses, we find three features that mark the spiritually blind and they come out very readily.

 

 

A couple of old clichés come to mind.  First, misery loves company and second, politics make strange bedfellows.  You find fingerlings or maybe roots of both of those in the Jewish leaders response to Jesus. 

 

It is amazing how universally the blind hate the light. That is to say, people of all false religions collectively, even though they are antagonist to each other in their religions, will agree to hate the truth. Right? The one thing the multiple of false religions of the world will agree on, even if they are mortal enemies with each other, is that they all resent Christianity, they all resent the gospel. 

 

A few years ago the preacher at Falls Creek was Jon Randles.  He wore various college jerseys every evening to preach.  He wore OU, OSU, Texas Tech, Baylor and Tulsa.  On Friday he mentioned those jerseys and said, “There is one thing we can all agree on” and then he gave us the downward turned horns!

 

Verse 11 says “The Pharisees,” and Matthew 16:1 adds, “Sadducees,” without “the” being repeated. “The Pharisees and Sadducees” with that one article being left out is a Greek way of unifying them.

They couldn’t be more antagonistic toward each other.  The Pharisees hated the Sadducees and vice-versa.  They were intense enemies on a theological level. And yet they become one and are united in a common hatred of the Light. That’s characteristic of the darkness. The darkness is comfortable with other people in the darkness. The systems may vary. The viewpoints may vary. But the common darkness ties them together.

 

That is the way the darkness works. If you’re in the darkness, you’re comfortable with other people in the darkness. However they define their darkness, it’s still darkness.  However they define their blindness, it’s still blindness. Evil company is better than righteous company even if the evil company is your enemy.

 

So they begin to argue with him. They just walked up and started a fight. The word is translated “dispute” comes from the Greek word for argue.  And in an attempt to discredit Him, they ask for a sign from heaven.  And it’s all in the form of a test. 

 

Now there’s a reason for this. The Jews believed that only God could do heavenly miracles.  Demons could do earthly miracles, but only God could do heavenly miracles.   So they come to Jesus, start an argument and dare Him to give them a sign from heaven, literally they ask for a sign out of heaven. 

 

Stop the sun like Joshua did or bring fire down from heaven like Elijah did. Eclipse the moon, rearrange the constellations. And they did it to tempt Him.  They wanted to discredit Him.

 

 

We have to ask, “Did they really need another sign?”  It wasn’t as if they hadn’t had any.  As a matter of fact, Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, said, “We, speaking of the Pharisees,  know that You have come from God as a teacher for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”  They didn’t need more signs.  But this is how deep the darkness is.  It can even unite the bitterest of enemies around a common cause.

 

 

The darkness deepens. The more evidence that is rejected, the worse the blindness becomes.  Think about that:  Jesus has been creating food for masses, healing blind eyes and deaf ears and paralyzed vocal chords and even raising people from the dead. 

 

Is that not enough?  But still they ask for more and reject Him.  They were no different than Pharaoh. After all the signs and wonders that Moses did, it says, “Pharaoh hardened his heart.” That’s the second reality that’s so tragic. The more light you shine on them, the deeper the darkness becomes.

 

Voltaire, the French atheist, said, “Even if a miracle should be wrought in the open marketplace before a thousand sober witnesses, I would rather mistrust my senses than admit a miracle.”

 

Listen to this quote from Dr. George Wald, evolutionist and Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University at Harvard and Nobel Prize winner in Biology:

 

"There are only two possibilities as to how life arose; one is spontaneous generation arising to evolution, the other is a supernatural creative act of God, there is no third possibility. Spontaneous generation that life arose from non-living matter was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with only one possible conclusion, that life arose as a creative act of God. I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God, therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution."

 

Isn’t that ridiculous?  But you had a whole generation of Voltaires and Walds in Israel. Unbelief will always find a way to reject the truth and drive itself down deeper into darkness. It was that tragic figure Woody Allen who once said, “If God would give me a clear sign, I would believe, like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.”

 

And when Jesus saw what was happening, notice His response.

 

Verse 12

 

That He sighed is a very interesting word study.  This is the second time we’ve seen this response from Jesus.  The first one is in chapter 7, verse 34 when they bring a deaf-mute to Him and He heals a physical problem. 

 

Here He not only sighs, but He sighs deeply.  I think the reason for that is here the response is not to physical suffering, but spiritual blindness and the spiritual needs bring a stronger response than the physical.

Spiritual blindness breaks His heart.  That’s why He wept when He entered Jerusalem and why He cried at the grave of Lazarus.  He is seeing and experiencing in the real world the power and impact of sin and He grieves over this hard- hearted, obstinate unbelief in the face of massive evidence to His power. 

 

You hear the emotion of His heart in His response.   “Why does this generation seek a sign? For what reason? What more could possibly be done?”

 

And He sees beyond the Pharisees.  He speaks of “This generation” and then quotes the 95^th Psalm to add an indictment of Israel.  I’m not doing a sign from heaven. I’m not doing another thing.

 

This is an extremely strong statement.  Assuredly, truly, mark it down big and plain.  What I’m saying is unalterable.  I’m not giving any more signs.   

 

The blind are comfortable with the other blind and if they continue, the blindness will only get worse until,

 

 

If we were to compare our text here in Mark 8 with Matthew’s account in chapter 16, you would see that Jesus says some things Mark doesn’t record. 

 

For instance, Jesus said to them, “You can tell the weather but you can’t discern the signs of the times.”  You’re better meteorologists than you are theologians.  And you’re just primitive at meteorology, but you’re really bad at theology.

 

That’s why in Matthew 15:14 He called the Pharisees blind leaders of the blind. In Matthew 23 He called them blind guides, fools and hypocrites.

 

He also says in Matthew 16, “You’re a wicked and adulterous generation.”

 

That means nt just the leaders, but those of the entire nation that follow you.   

 

Then He added, “You will have one more sign and it is the sign of Jonah.”

 

What was the sign of Jonah?  Jesus said in Matthew 12:39 and 40, “As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth.”

 

You want a sign?  Here it is. That’s the only sign you’ll be given. No more signs other than the resurrection.

 

And when that sign came and the word got back to the leaders of Israel that He had risen from the dead, according to Matthew 28:11 to 15, they called the soldiers in who were guarding the tomb and bribed them to lie about the resurrection. That’s how determined they were to be blind.  They would deny it when they knew it happened.

 

And their denial ultimately condemned them to everlasting darkness.  Notice the last phrase of

 

verse 13

 

 

 

As far as He was concerned, He was through with them.  He left them.  That’s tragic, isn’t it? And yet, the whole world is full of people like tem.  They live in spiritual darkness.  And unless they give Jesus the opportunity to break into the darkness with His wonderful light, the darkness will only get worse until ultimately and eternally they will be with others who loved the darkness in eternal darkness forever. 

 

On the other hand, rather than the blind who will never see, there are the blind who will see and we’ll look at them next time.

 

Let’s pray.