"The Greatest Miracle" - Mark 8:22-30

There are certain things all of us bring into, even this morning and in our

lives, that whether we were raised to think certain ways or that we've come

to believe certain ways, they dictate everything about your life.

Oftentimes when we say, well, I get along with that person or me and that person

have a lot in common, usually what that means is, well, we like the same things.

We think the same way. We think about things the same way.

I have friends, some of them are Christians, some of them aren't.

Some of them would say they're Christians and may or may not be,

but there's still certain things that when we get together and hang out that

are non-negotiables, I was talking to somebody about this this week,

but if you were to hang out with our group and you were to sit there and start

bashing your wife and kids,

we wouldn't be friends with you very long, right?

We think highly of our wife and kids. And when you're like, oh,

the old ball and chain, it's like, no, actually I'm a pretty big fan of my ball and chain.

If I didn't have that ball and chain, there's no telling where I would be.

But there's certain things that make you you maybe it's the team that you root

for Right college football is upon us and that's really exciting. I know. Well, no, but.

Yeah, we don't do that here. I'm kidding. But that's a perfect example.

Like, I mean, I grew up going to A&M games. We weren't allowed to wear orange

at our house. And we still don't.

And Kara, since she's not in here, I will tell us we had a fall wedding.

There was no orange at the wedding and it was on a bye week.

Okay. These things matter. And for some of you in here, you're going like,

that's the dumbest thing ever.

Well, the truth is you could tell me something that means a lot to you.

And you know what I'd probably think? That's the dumbest thing ever.

Like, oh, we used to sit around and sing songs together as a family.

I'm like, yeah, that sounds like torture. I would never.

In fact, one of the first quote unquote dates me and Kareth went on,

we started dating. And some of y'all know we weren't dating very long.

We knew like we would have gotten married two weeks in if it would have been feasible.

But I came back to town. They were having kind of like a family reunion thing.

About 30 of the Schmitz were together.

And at the end of this kind of game night, we all went out and we're sitting

around a campfire and somebody pulled out a guitar and Kareth could feel me

being like, what is going on?

What are we doing? And they did. They started singing songs and Kareth,

because she loves me, was like, hey guys, Brady has this prior engagement that

he has to get to. It was like nine o'clock on a Tuesday.

And so she let me get out of there because for me, I'm like,

this is, I'm not, I did not want to be here.

And by the same token, when I started bringing her into A&M and watching A&M

games, she's watching me go crazy. And she's like, what is the, this is so stupid.

Like, what is the point? And you're like, you don't get it. And she's like,

cool. We've both gotten better.

But my point is, we all bring things into our lives and into the people in our

lives that kind of mark who we are, right?

Regardless of where you go or who you meet or what you're doing,

there are certain truths about you that define who you are and how you act.

And of course, as Christians, we always want to say, right, Christ takes precedence over those things.

Jesus is the first. And I think a lot of people would say that.

And what Jesus is going to do here in Mark 8 for his disciples is try to clarify

in their minds who he is, and then next week he'll clarify what he came to do.

This is a weird thing because you would think at this point they would get it.

We're halfway through the book of Mark. They've seen miracle after miracle after miracle.

They've heard teaching after teaching. They're walking with him every day.

They're around him all the time, and they still don't get it.

They still don't see what's going on.

And one of the questions we're going to ask this morning and hopefully answer

for you is, why don't they see it? Why don't they hear it?

Why are these things still missing them? All right, so let me just read.

This is Mark 8, 22 through 30.

And we'll jump into it. So he says, and they came to Bethsaida.

And I know we kind of read this story last week. I wanted to tie this into what we're doing this week.

And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.

He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village.

And when he spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything?

He looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking.

Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes and his sight

was restored or fully restored and he saw everything clearly.

And he sent him home saying, do not even enter the village.

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

And on the way, he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?

They told him John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others one of the

prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered,

I think collectively for the group, because that's how Peter works. You are the Christ.

And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. If you want to put a

finger in Matthew 16, we'll jump over there as well.

Luke also records this in his gospel. But let's just quickly look,

I know we did last week, at this healing of the blind man at Bethsaida,

because there's some weird things that go on here. Number one,

it's not that Jesus hasn't healed a blind man yet. He has.

But he pulls this guy aside and he looks like he's going to heal him.

And then when he opens his eyes, he sees people, but they look like trees.

This is the only healing that I know of in the gospels, and I could be forgetting

one, but I'm pretty sure, where he doesn't just heal him immediately. Right.

And a lot of people would read this, especially if you're a skeptic and go,

well, see, Jesus wasn't quite powerful enough. Like he had to double dip this

guy, you know, to get him to see what he really needed to see.

He must have been more blind than the other guy.

It's like, well, how do you raise a dead guy? Is that harder or easier?

You know, you could argue that. But I think what Mark is doing here by telling

us this story and what Jesus is doing by putting in here is he's giving us an object lesson.

He's giving us an object lesson through this man's blindness for 27 through

30, and really 27 through the end of the chapter.

Why do I say that? Well, first and foremost, we talked about this last week.

He pulls him aside, right? He doesn't do this in front of everybody.

He pulls him aside, just like he does you and me.

He heals him. But when he opens his eyes, he sees people, they look like trees.

Well, what we learn is this guy could see at some point in his life,

because if he could never see, then there would be no reference for trees,

no reference for people. There's nothing.

But he heals this guy and he goes, well, I see things, but it's still blurry,

right? It's still blurry. And Jesus heals him again, or continues the healing,

I think is a better way to say this.

And he opens his mouth and his eyes are fully restored. His disciples do see

this. He does pull them aside. His disciples went everywhere.

His disciples see this. They know about this.

Okay. So then we get into the meat of this passage, 27 through 30.

Jesus went on to his disciples to Caesarea Philippi. And on the way,

he asked the disciples, who do people say that I am? And again,

you've heard this sermon a million times. I'm sure if you've been in church,

this is the most important question you could ever ask yourself. And that's true.

It is the most important question you could ever ask yourself.

But I want you to see what Jesus is going to do, why he asked them the question.

Why does he ask them the question? Because they're going to give some actually really good answers.

All right, what do they say? John the Baptist. And others say Elijah.

And others say one of the prophets.

Now, this is the second time that somebody's called him John the Baptist.

This is more of a practical note, but you're getting a view into how people

thought about death and life and people coming back and spirits.

Everyone knows that John had his head cut off at this point.

And so what they're really saying is not that he is John the Baptist,

but that the spirit of John the Baptist has indwelled Jesus.

And now Jesus is John the Baptist in the flesh, but with John's spirit.

That should give you a picture of kind of the supernatural way that people thought.

Even Herod thinks this. John the Baptist was supposed to come back to life to

haunt me through this Jesus guy.

So that's one thing. They say he's the prophets. They say he's Elijah Elijah,

The point I want to make here is that they give good answers,

right? If I were to say, well, what am I like to you? And you were to say,

man, you are just like John the Baptist. I would think I'm doing pretty well, right?

Like, man, when I read the Bible and I read Elijah and Ezekiel and the prophets,

man, I think of you, I'd be thinking, man, I'm kind of knocking it out of the park.

It's like, if you've ever had someone tell you, like, you remind me of Paul.

You remind me of what, this is what Peter did. And you kind of remind me of

that. You remind me of Mary, whatever it is.

These are high lofty things they put on.

They're not trying to demean him and the crowds aren't either.

Remember the disciples are reporting what the crowds are saying and the crowds

have a very high opinion of Jesus.

They really do think he is special. They really do think he is unique.

The problem is trying to compare Jesus to anything and trying to give him a

label that's not one and only unique will always fall short.

This is still the case. There's plenty of other religions that revere Jesus.

There's a lot of talk about Muslims and Jews right now and how this works itself

out. But let me just tell you what Muslims think about Jesus if you don't know.

Jesus is referred to in the Quran over 90 times. 90 times.

Islam corroborates that Jesus was born to a virgin, that he was sinless,

that he performed miracles, and that he was superior to other prophets.

If you were to meet a Muslim today and you were to go, man, don't you love that

Jesus was sinless? They would give you a high five.

Don't you love that Jesus was born of a virgin? They'd go, absolutely, man. That's wonderful.

Don't you love that Jesus is really the greatest of the prophets to have ever

come? And they go, man, awesome.

Their issue is that they don't think Jesus is the Christ.

They don't think that Jesus is God. In Surah 575, I'm assuming no one brought

a Quran to read this, so I'll read it for you.

Christ, the son of Mary, was no more than a messenger.

Many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother,

Mary, was a woman of truth.

They had both to eat their daily food. And that was just a way of them saying

they both had to eat their food. They're not God.

Jesus isn't God. He's not God in the flesh. He's just a messenger.

If you were to meet a Buddhist on the street, they would say that Jesus was

an enlightened and highly compassionate being who chose to remain in the cycle

of rebirth to help others, akin to Buddha himself.

In other words, Jesus was enlightened to where he could have died and ascended

to a next phase of his life, but he chose to come back, right?

Does this sound familiar? He chose to come back and to help people along the way.

This is true of even what many would consider Christian denominations.

So if you were to walk into a Mormon temple today and you were to say,

don't you love Jesus? They would say, absolutely.

You'd say, Jesus is the son of God. They would go, yes, he is.

Say Jesus was sinless. They would go, yes, he is.

But in the words of the founder, Joseph Smith, he says, Jesus Christ is God,

the second, the redeemer, the first created being of God.

Well, that's not Jesus anymore. That's not the Jesus of the Bible anymore.

Jesus isn't a created being. He is God in the flesh. He has no beginning in

the end. He calls himself the Alpha and the Omega. He calls himself one with

the Father, not proceeding from the Father, not born like we're born.

Jesus to a Mormon is the spirit brother of Satan, that him and Satan both gave

plans to God for what they would like to do.

Jesus was chosen, Satan's wasn't, and that's how you get this divide.

That's why they hate each other.

You could go on and on. Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus is their savior.

They would say Jesus saved us, but they again, view him as a created being.

They don't worship Jesus. He's a created being.

If you read in the Old Testament, every reference that they see,

the Archangel Michael, they would go, well, there's Jesus. That's how he showed up before.

And of course, if you talk to friends that are not believers,

they're okay with Jesus being a good teacher and a moral example.

And we've talked about this a lot in here, but certainly living in East Texas,

there is inherent advantages into living in a place that even if they don't

believe that Jesus was God, they follow his teachings.

There's a reason people move to East Texas. There's a certain way of doing things

here that people like. Well, the reason they like them is because what I would

say is broadly a Christian culture.

We're respectful. We're kind. We try and be gracious. We try and do the right

thing. We try and act the right way. We raise our kids to do that.

We have higher expectations. That's not true of everybody, but we were just

talking. If you go to some other cities not far from here, you will not find

that. They don't have that.

Again, what's the problem with what the crowds are saying? The problem is Christ

is uncomparable. He is unique.

He is the one and only son of God, but he is one with the father.

He is just as much God as God, the father, just as the spirit is just as much

God as God is. God is those three things, right? This is why we say he's Trinity.

And even though the crowds are giving what they think is very high esteem for

Jesus, Jesus is going, that's not who I am. That's not who I am.

So, of course, then he asks the next question. But who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am?

Now, there's been accurate declarations of who Jesus is in the gospel of Mark.

They just haven't come from people yet.

Right. In 1-1, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that's the narrator,

that's Peter, but he's writing after this has been written.

God the Father at his baptism says, you are my beloved son, I take delight in you.

In 1-11, the demons cry out in chapter one, this is the Holy One of God.

In 3-11, you are the Son of God. In 5-7, Jesus, Son of the Most High God,

that's what the demons say about him.

There's been accurate declarations, but to this point, there's no people that

have really said, you are the Christ. That's the word we're looking for.

Just for clarification, in case you've never heard it, Jesus' middle name,

nor his last name were Christ.

It wasn't Jesus Christ, whatever. Jesus is his name.

That's what we learn in the Bible. He will be called Emmanuel,

Jesus. That's his name of Nazareth.

Christ is a title.

It's a title for the Messiah that was promised from Genesis 3,

that was promised to Abraham, that was promised to Moses, that was promised

through David, that was spoken about in every single prophet.

This is the Christ, the Messiah, the one of God that would come to take away the sins of the world.

That's who Jesus is. That's his title.

And to this point, no one's given him that title.

Now, John, at his baptism, does recognize somewhat who Jesus is.

Right. He realizes I'm not even worthy to tie this guy's sandals.

What we read earlier before John is killed at the hands of Herod and really,

this incredibly evil moment, even John has doubts about who Jesus is.

And he sends his disciples to ask him, hey, are you the one or should we be waiting for another?

Because what they're expecting is a king like David, a leader like Moses,

a father like Abraham, a prophet like Isaiah, right?

They're expecting this incredibly powerful, charismatic leader to show up on

the scene and take back over everything they've lost.

And what they've gotten is this meek and mild Jewish rabbi who doesn't look,

particularly important, who doesn't seem to want the power that people keep offering him.

In fact, multiple times in the gospel we've already read, he'll go into town,

he'll start healing people.

They'll say, Jesus, will you just stay here, man? We'll give you a house.

We'll give you a place to stay.

If you could just hang out here, we'll make your life so easy.

And what does he say? No, I've got to go.

Later on, he'll say the son of man has nowhere to lay his head,

right? People hate who Jesus is. There's plenty of people that don't want him

to be around. And even the people

that do want him around often want him around for the wrong reasons.

And even the people that want him around for the right reasons don't really understand who he is.

If you ever felt misunderstood, I promise you, no one has ever felt more misunderstood

than Jesus of Nazareth. No one.

So he asked, well, this is who the crowd say, but who do you say that I am?

Peter says, you are the Christ, right? You are the savior. You are the one that is to come.

Peter says that without having any understanding of what he's really saying.

Not that he doesn't understand the Old Testament. Not that he doesn't understand

that there is a Messiah, savior to come. But we're going to see real quick.

Peter recognizing who Jesus is, is only half the battle.

Peter recognizing that Jesus is the Christ doesn't mean that Peter understands who Jesus is.

He gets the title right, but the function completely wrong.

He gets his identity right, but what that means completely wrong.

And the question becomes, well, what do you need to know about Jesus to be saved?

I'm going to make the argument that at this point, if you will profess with

your mouth, believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, that he is the Christ, you're saved.

That's how you're saved. That you believe those things, that you believe those

things in your heart, that Peter is saved here.

But don't miss that, again, Peter doesn't really understand what's going on.

It won't be long, and we'll get into this next week, where Peter,

you're blessed beyond measure. You get it.

I am the Christ. And then verses later, what does he tell Peter? Get behind me, Satan.

You talk about Peter's head exploding. He's like, oh, I thought I was blessed.

And now I'm Satan. And like, where is this going? I'm not real sure how this works.

If you've studied the Bible for very long at all, if you've been a Christian

very long at all, you've had that moment where you're like, man,

I feel incredibly blessed.

And the next day you're like, I feel completely the worst. I don't know what's going on.

Reason that is important is because this belief that Peter has is not an intellectual assent.

It's not an intellectual goal. Peter is not coming to this conclusion because

he figured something out.

Why do I say that? Because if it was just about him figuring it out,

surely he would have gotten it before and surely he would understand it after.

Again, how many miracles do you need to see? How many dead people do you need to see raised?

How many blind people need to get their sight? How many thousands upon thousands

upon thousands of people have to be fed from what is essentially a lunchable

before you look at Jesus and go, you know, I think he may be the guy.

I told you if you had your finger in your Bible, turn to Matthew 16.

I'll be honest with you. I don't know why this isn't recorded in Mark.

Peter is obviously really writing the book of Mark through an interpreter.

And it's Peter the one that says it. There's a reason they didn't include it,

but we're blessed to have the whole Bible in front of us.

So this conversation in Matthew 16, 13 through 18 goes much the same way it does in Mark.

Verse 15, he says, but who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

I think it's important to note just real quick on a practical level before we get into this.

When you read the gospels, these are conversations that were had,

but the conversations were probably much longer than what's recorded.

We feel like, man, this is a quick, this is like a conversation and a conversation.

We're moving another conversation. There's conversations going on constantly.

What we're getting in the gospels is the meat of those conversations, right?

I say that because when you read different accounts and you're like,

well, he adds this and he doesn't have this and he has that.

That's just a recollection of that conversation. They're getting the meat of it.

And Matthew, we get, you are the Christ, the Son of the God,

verse 17. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona,

for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, my father who is in heaven.

If anybody could have figured out that Jesus is who he is by watching and by

seeing and by hearing, it would have to be the disciples.

It would have to be Peter. It would have to be James. It would have to be John.

No one had more access to Jesus than they did.

You go, well, we have every story. They were there for every story.

So there's different ways These people kind of play mental gymnastics in their

head on this. And they'll say things like, well, you know, they were first century

people and maybe they just weren't the smartest and it took them in to figure it out.

And you're like, so your answer is just these people were dumb and I'm smarter. Right.

Or, you know, maybe it just took them a long time because.

Just couldn't understand how it was going to work out, and they didn't understand

the theological reasons behind what was going on. Well, I think that presupposes

they don't know their Old Testament.

Most of these guys knew their Old Testament way better than you or I or anybody

in this room will ever know it.

Now, would they have had it in their nightstand? No, but they've been hearing it their whole lives.

They know the stories. They know the promises. They know the law.

They know all of these things. They know their Old Testament.

They know what the Messiah is supposed to look like.

That's why they're following Jesus as they're going, this guy's checking a lot of boxes.

Jesus makes clear when he tells Simon, Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed

to you my father who is in heaven. What's he saying?

Your brain and your ears and your eyes are in some way, shape or form incapable,

of understanding who I am.

Incapable. There is no way for someone to look at Jesus in their own accord

with their own mind, again, their own brain, their own thoughts,

and to come to the conclusion that he is the Christ,

the son of God, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, that from him,

all things were made, that everything that you see was not just made by him, but for him.

Jesus' point to Peter and the disciples is, you didn't get this because you walked with me.

You didn't receive this gift because you saw miracle after miracle and heard

teaching after teaching. You didn't get this, Peter, because you walked on the water.

You didn't get this, Peter, because of something you did or something that happened

to you. You got this because God himself revealed it to you.

Jesus says in John, right? The passage we probably all know.

No one comes to me unless what? Unless the father who sent me reveals himself.

This is consistent with the biblical teaching.

Revealed to Peter. And how is it revealed? Because he's blessed.

He doesn't say, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,

my father who is in heaven, because Peter, you're Peter. And of course you get to know.

Because Peter, you got out of the boat. Because Peter, you followed me.

Because Peter, you did it.

And you've unlocked the code. You followed the law. You've done the right things.

You've figured out the Christian equation for how to do this.

And because you've done that, you're blessed. He just says to Peter,

blessed are you, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you,

my father who is in heaven.

Hard truth, because then what do you do with that?

How do I go to someone? Do I just go to people and I witness them and say like, hey, are you blessed?

And I'm like, yeah, I'm blessed. What do you think of Jesus?

Well, I think he's a really good guy. You're not blessed. And just move on.

Just like, well, blushing blood can't reveal it to you. So what's the point of me?

Not at all. One of the things that understanding that God has to draw you into

salvation does to you is it should, I'm not going to say it will,

it should, number one, humble you.

Number two, embolden you to witness to everybody.

Who could I not witness to now? Who should I be intimidated by?

Is it a Muslim I should be intimidated by, a Mormon, an atheist,

the most rabid atheistic person I know?

Is there someone I should come across where I should go, well,

there's no point in me sharing the gospel with them because they hate Jesus.

They don't want anything to do with They had a bad experience in church.

Or when I go to witness somebody, can I go, God, if you so choose,

if you so decide to bless this person through the gospel proclamation I give

them, you can save anybody.

You can save the most rabid atheist. You can save the most wayward person.

You can save the person who's hated Jesus every single day of their life and is on their deathbed.

God, you, because you are God, can reveal to them who Jesus is.

And you can cause them to proclaim that you are the Christ. You can do that.

The claim that's often made when I start talking about this is,

well, what does that do for missions? Well, listen, it should embolden us for missions.

And in fact, the flip side is, how prideful do we have to be to think that we

can go somewhere and save people on our own?

That I can go take class after class and I can learn my Bible and I can learn

the Greek and I can study the Quran or I can study the Book of Mormon.

And I'm going to go, man, I'm going to go reach these people because I'm really

smart and I've figured it out. And if I can just go to them and I can sit down and reason with them.

I know I can convince them to believe.

Really, can you provide to them the evidence that Jesus did to the disciples?

Can you go and do miracles like Jesus did? Can you go and raise people from the dead?

Can you go and feed 5,000 people with a couple loaves of bread and some fish?

Or do we humble ourselves and go, you know what, God, you're in control here.

You're in control, but I know you're gracious and kind.

I know you're abounding in steadfast love. I know you delight in saving sinners.

And so I will go and I will open my mouth and I will tell people about you because

I believe that you will save anybody at any time through any way that you deem necessary.

16, Jesus tells this parable of Lazarus, this dead man.

And I don't think this is a literal thing. I think it's a parable,

but I think he's giving them a picture of what it's like for someone to have

been in hell and someone to have been in heaven.

And they're having this conversation. I don't want to go through the whole thing.

But at the end, this brother says, hey, will you go to my brothers and will

you tell them about how this is going down?

Will you explain to them how this works. If you would go to them and you would

show them and you would do a miracle for them, I know that my brothers who have

not died yet will become believers because of that experience.

And this is what Jesus says.

He said, no, I'm sorry, this is the brother, no father Abraham,

but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent, right? This is the idea.

If my unbelieving family saw someone from the dead sit in front of them,

I know they would come around, right? This is the logic of unbelief.

I need another sign. I need another miracle. I need another,

I need some more information.

Jesus said to them, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets,

neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

All right, this is Jesus setting the stage for there will be people who see

me rise from the dead. They'll watch me die.

They'll watch me get put in a grave. They'll watch me come back and And they'll

still go, I'm just not quite sure.

I just don't think that's right.

When you think of what defines you and what makes you, you, and we think about

being Christians and knowing Christ, what truly defines a Christian is not what they think about Jesus.

It's what Jesus has done for them.

It's what Jesus has accomplished for them. It's what God has done for them.

What makes you, you, what makes you a Christian is not that you are smarter than someone else.

It's not that you're better than someone else. It's not that you picked the

right church and you sung the right songs and you went to the right VBS and

you sang I am a CH faster than every other kid, right?

That's a joke that only hits on a few people, but if you get it, you get it.

That is the way the world thinks.

That is the way that Satan would love for you to think that you did it, you figured it out.

He would love for Peter to think that.

And the reason that Peter is going to be called Satan pretty soon is because

Peter is still thinking that.

Well, we don't think that way. We shouldn't think that way.

We are saved by grace through faith, but the grace comes before the faith.

That's a simple way to think about this. When people say, well,

I'm saved because of faith. Amen.

What comes before faith? Grace does.

You're saved by grace. And the grace that you received gives you the faith that

you're saved through. That's Paul's argument in Ephesians 2.

That's Paul's argument in Romans 3.

That's Jesus' argument in John 6.

That's God's argument throughout the whole Old Testament. So when he looks at

Peter and he says, blessed are you, Simon Marjona, for flesh and blood has not

revealed this to you. What he wants Peter to understand is you are just like the blind guy.

Let's go back up to where we started as we get ready to close.

This healing of the blind man in Mark 8.

Jesus wants his disciples to look at that blind man and go, that's me.

Now think of all the people that Jesus has healed. Think of all the people at

this point in Jesus' ministry that he's healed, and it's thousands upon thousands upon thousands.

All the people that he fed, tens of thousands of people.

All the people that have heard him teach, again, tens of thousands of people.

If you were blind and you walked up to Jesus and he healed you,

would you walk away from that going, I did that or Jesus did that?

If you were deaf and you walked up to Jesus and he healed you and you walked

away and you told people, well, I mean, Jesus touched me, but I think it's really

because I said the right thing.

I think it's because I did the right thing. People will look at you and go, how can you say that?

You've been blind your whole life. You've been deaf your whole life and you

think you figured it out. Don't you think if you could have figured it out,

you wouldn't have been blind your whole life.

You wouldn't have been deaf your whole life. You would have got up and walked on your own.

Of course, most notably, when Jesus walked up to a dead person and raises them

from the grave, do you think it would make any sense for them to get up and

walk out of the room and be like, I figured it out.

I was dead and now I'm alive. And let me tell you how I did it.

And people go, what about that Jesus guy? It's like, well, he was there.

But I mean, if I wouldn't have done X, Y, and Z, he wouldn't have been able to heal me.

No, it's the most asinine way to think about all these things.

And yet when we talk about our salvation, that's kind of how we sound sometimes.

Right? Jesus did a lot of it and Jesus was there and he was present and he started

it, but really it was me. Like it was really I that did it. I really,

I again, I walked the out, man, I said the prayer, like I did all the things.

And Jesus looks at Peter and he looks at us and he says, no,

don't do that to yourself.

Don't rob yourself of receiving the amount of grace that you've actually received.

You've been blessed, Peter.

You've been blessed. Flesh and blood, your flesh and blood, my flesh and blood.

It didn't reveal this to you.

God in heaven reached down and opened your eyes and he unplugged your ears and

he has made you able to see me and hear me for who I truly am.

And instead of trying to figure that out, why don't you just receive the grace that you've been given.

That's most of our problems is we want to explain it. You want to explain how

the God of the universe reached his hand down and saved you?

You want to put that into an equation? You want to try and write that in a book? Good luck.

I've read a lot of books. That's not a brag, by the way. I've been forced to.

If you don't, you fail and you're paid, so you better pass. I've read plenty

of books on it, and it's great. I'm not opposed to those things.

I don't want you to hear me say, just throw all your books away.

I love that people read and study, and I think it's wonderful.

But at its core, when you walk up to someone and they ask you, why are you a Christian?

Your response to them can say, because I was blessed, because God showed mercy,

because God showed grace.

And if somebody goes, well, how can I be saved?

Your response can be just like Jesus, hey, repent and believe the gospel.

And then when they do that, you go, man, you know why you were able to do that?

Because God has blessed you. He has shown you grace and mercy.

He loves you. And then when they go, well, how does that work?

You go, I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know how all of these works. I can't give you this easy way to think

about it. What I can tell you is God loves saving sinners. And if you're saved,

it's because he saved you.

If you're saved, it's because he's redeemed you.

If there's any part of you that is still walking around trying to figure out,

how you can do something for the Lord, I don't mean serve in missions.

I don't mean serve at the church. I mean, how you can bolster what's been done for you.

I would just tell you that Jesus is going to remind you next week,

man, that is how the devil thinks.

That is how Satan would love for you to think. Jesus does not give them that

out. And look back again at this story where he heals the blind man,

this two-stage healing. I told you earlier, I think this is an object lesson

for what's about to happen.

Opens this man's eyes and he sees trees, people that look like trees.

Jesus opens Peter's eyes and he sees Jesus.

But I think if you ask him, hey, how clearly do you see Jesus?

He'd be like, man, I don't know, but he's like an oak tree. I know that.

Everywhere this guy goes, he is strong. He is big. He takes control of every situation.

I don't see him exactly for who he is, but I do know he's there. I do know he's there.

And for us in here, I think it's a good takeaway way to know that if Jesus has

saved you, which I think, again, most of us in this room would say,

he has saved me, don't be discouraged if you still see things a little blurry. That's okay.

Again, I think in a lot of theological circles, the mark of Christian maturity

is that you're able to articulate everything that you believe.

For most of Christian history, that has been impossible. Most Christians couldn't read.

Most Christians that have lived didn't have Bibles at their house.

Most Christians that live certainly

didn't have Christian living books at Barnes & Noble to go pick up.

I can go to Mardell's and there's a thousand Christian living books,

a thousand theology books, a thousand. I get on my iPad right now.

I have this thing called Logos on here. I can get on here and it gives me hundreds

upon hundreds of commentaries and sermons and thoughts from people like Augustine

and Jerome and Calvin and Luther and R.C. Sproul, whoever I want.

I know more about things than every other Christian that almost has ever lived.

I have more access to that stuff. Does that make me more of a Christian?

Does that make me more faithful? Absolutely not.

You to do everything you can to learn about this book and to figure it out and

to get every theological term you can get right and to get everything nailed down.

I encourage you to do that for your own sake, for your own confidence.

But don't walk out of here thinking, until I get to that point,

I just can't be faithful.

Man, I've got so many blurry things in my Christian life that I just haven't

nailed down. That's okay.

Because when Jesus heals the blind man and he sees trees, Jesus knows he's not

going to leave him like that.

He knows he's going to come back and finish the job. You know what this sounds a lot like?

Sounds like Paul in Philippians, that he who began a good work in you will complete it.

That's what it sounds like. It sounds like the song we just sang,

that he's going to hold you fast, that he'll do it, that you are going to get

all kinds of things wrong, that we're all going to get to heaven and go,

I was really dumb about that.

I really thought that that was the way it was. I used to argue with people online

and now I'm wrong. They're probably wrong too.

Okay. What you need to get right and what you need to know this morning is in

your heart of hearts, do you look at Jesus and say, that's the Christ.

That's the Messiah. That's the promised serpent crusher of Genesis three.

That's the promised seed of Abraham.

That's the promised one that Moses looked forward to. That's the promised king from David's line.

That's the promised one from Jeremiah, who said he would give us a new heart

and new eyes and literally put flesh on our dead bones.

That is who Jesus is. If you can say that, you're blessed.

And you are in no way, shape, or form a second-class citizen in the kingdom

of God because you can't explain some of that.

Again, I encourage you to study and to learn, to give you more confidence and

to know things better and to have more ability to express your faith,

but that doesn't make you a super a Christian.

It doesn't make you something more than what Jesus has already made you.

Jesus, again, doesn't say, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah,

once you figure out all the details.

It just says you're blessed.

I hope that's an encouragement for you more than anything this morning.

I think a lot of times we get wrapped up in these questions that Jesus asked

and I'm not saying they're not important. They're very important.

But if you get caught up in the question, you'll miss the point that the only

way you can answer it is if you've been given grace and mercy.

And a lot of Christians spend most of their time trying to figure out answers

to questions when really the Bible calls us to call out for mercy and grace every single day.

If you just go through the Psalms, I encourage you, read the Psalms every day.

I try to read one Psalm a day.

I'd be lying if I said I walked away from it every time going like,

man, that was really good. Sometimes I'm like, that was really depressing.

I was having a good morning and, you know.

But go through your Psalms and see the kind of things that David was saying.

Read Proverbs. Read Ecclesiastes. And see if you walk away from that going,

you know, I just need to be smarter.

I just need to know more. You need to figure this out more.

Or if you walk away from that going, I need more mercy than I ever thought I needed.

I need more grace than I ever thought I needed. I need God to humble me.

I need God to give me wisdom. I need God to give me perseverance.

I need God to do this for me because if reading the Bible has taught me anything,

it's that I cannot do that.

The most wise guy that ever lived fell into sexual sin.

One of the strongest kings to ever live, King David, fell into sexual sin and fell into pride.

Noah gets off the ark, immediately starts doing things he shouldn't be doing.

Adam and Eve are in the perfect place, immediately find themselves in sin.

Do you really think you knew more about the creative world than Adam and Eve?

He named the animals guy.

What every single one of them needed and what you and me need the most is for

God to be merciful for us. And he has told you, if you need mercy, ask for mercy.

You need grace, ask for grace. You need faith, ask for faith.

But at the end of all of those things, know that when you go to bed at night

and when you pray, the thing that we can all say, if we know who Christ is and

we can say he is the Christ is we've been blessed.

We have been blessed beyond measure. If God never did anything else for you,

if the rest of your life, if the rest of my life was just full of heartache and pain,

that if I walked out this door and everything, I lost everything that I thought

was important to me, I lost everything that I hold dear, that I could still

go to bed at night through tears and go, I am blessed.

God has blessed me. He has reached down and he has saved me.

And in your evangelism, that you would be emboldened to share the gospel with

everyone because you know God's in the business of saving sinners.

One of the reasons we do things the way we do here on a practical level.

Program, we don't try and do a bunch of things, is we really are convinced that

God saves people through his word.

That's how they're saved. Not by convincing them or reasoning with them or figuring

things out or giving them a reason to come forward.

I'm not opposed to any of those things. And I think all those things are well

and good natured, but none of those things save anybody.

God saves people, right? There's nothing else you hear this morning.

If everything I've said is like, man, I'm exhausted. I didn't hear a word you

said. Wake up real quick and just hear me.

God saves people and he doesn't save people based on their intellect,

their abilities, their homes, their lives.

He saves people because he delights in blessing sinners.

And if you're in here and you say, man, I know I'm saved, but things are blurry. Take heart.

Take heart. Christ will not leave you blurry, right? He will heal you to your full extent.

Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you will see him clearly face to face one

day and you will see him clearly because of him and what he has done.

Let's pray. Father, as always, thank you for your word.

Thank you that we can be humbled when we read it, that we can know there's nothing

we brought in here this morning that qualifies us to be able to read your word

and get anything from it.

There's nothing in our brains, there's nothing about our ears or eyes that inherently

make us able to understand anything that's in that book, but that you have been gracious and kind.

If we saw every miracle you ever did, right?

Even if you did the miracles to us, that doesn't guarantee our ability to look

at you and see you for who you really are.

It doesn't help us look at the Son and see him for who he is, the Christ.

But God, you have done that for us, that through the gospel preached to us by

faithful men and women throughout the ages, servants of you,

God, we know who you are because of the power that's come through that,

because you are gracious and kind.

And God, if nothing else, will we leave here this morning going,

I am blessed. I'm blessed.

I've been given something that I do not deserve, that I would rest in the grace

that's been shown to me instead of trying to spend my life figuring out what

I can do to earn that or what I can do to better understand that.

God, if we never were able to do that, would we just rest in your grace and mercy?

As Paul said, but we know that you began a good work in us.

You healed our sight. And even though there's times we look at you and man,

you just look like a big blurry tree, we know that you will complete it.

We know that you will heal us completely. And I pray, amen.