study in the gospel of Mark, so we'll be in Mark chapter eight as we continue moving through that chapter. We'll start in verse 22, down through verse 26 in a moment. Before we do, let's ask the Lord to bless our time together. Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for your word. I thank you that we can trust it, that we can continue to return to it for life, for truth, for comfort, for conviction, Lord, that helps us understand who we are where we've come from and where we're going. And I pray, Lord, as we study this next passage in Mark's gospel, that you would open our eyes and ears. May we have ears to hear, may we have eyes to see the truths that you have placed in your word for us, and may they be things that we can begin to apply and use in our lives in a practical way. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So Mark 8, chapter 22, we come into this next section and we've been following Christ's ministry, and he's been in, he's fed thousands, he's done these miracles, he's cast out demons, he has done amazing things, and as we come into this section, Mark chapter eight, verse 22, we've been seeing that Mark has been using a literary device, and what the scholars call a Marken sandwich, where he connects, he starts to tell a narrative, let's say for example, he stops to tell us about something else, and then he picks up and finishes the narrative that he started with. And so what we see here in this passage is we kind of zoom out for a minute before we dive into the verses for this morning, is not a sandwich in the literal sense, as in starting a narrative, stopping, and then re-picking up, narrative or rather a sandwich in the form of themes. He began back at the end of chapter 7. If you'll remember, if you weren't here, chapter 7 verses 31 to 37 is where Jesus does a healing. He performs a healing of a man that is deaf and mute. He can neither hear nor speak clearly. Jesus heals him of that, and there's just a beautiful picture there of the sighing of the Savior. If you remember, he lets out this sigh as he groans inwardly over the results of sin and how they've manifested themselves in the medical, the physical conditions of this man. And he takes the moment to identify and empathize with him. We move from that to the feeding of the 4,000, this grand miracle. where the disciples, he tells them, I have compassion. And they say, well, where are we gonna get food? He'd already performed the feeding of the 5,000. So they were still not getting who they were dealing with. And so he teaches them this lesson by providing the loaves and the fish for the thousands. And then the Pharisees come and they seek a sign and they're disputing with him. So he has his disciples that are kind of cold of heart not understanding, and they're not seeing, and they're not really hearing properly. And then the Pharisees don't really understand who Jesus is either. And so they don't have ears to hear, they don't have eyes to see. And he warns the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees, you remember in the boat, and the disciples take it as a pure physical reprimand because they had forgotten to bring bread with them. And he says it's not about physical bread, guys. It's about the false teaching of the Pharisees and the Herodians, specifically. And so we have, after this deaf man is healed, physically, we have a series of incidents where spiritual deafness is, I believe, brought front and center. The spiritual deafness, if you will, and blindness of the disciples, the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees, and the spiritual blindness, again, of the disciples. So we've got these two healings, and we're gonna do the second one this morning. We had a healing of a man that was deaf, and this morning we're gonna look at the healing of a man who was blind. And sandwiched in between those two healings are occurrences of spiritual deafness and spiritual blindness. And so, as Mark, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has been writing his gospel, I believe he's placing these events, perhaps not necessarily in perfect chronological order, but putting them together with purpose so that we would see the theme and we, as the reader, can connect the physical with the spiritual. And so, as we come into this, we're titling today's Lesson, when trees became men. When trees became men. Our outline, I believe if you have one, we might have run out of them. But we have four points here. The place, the person, the power, and the prohibition. So let's start off with the place. Where does this take place? Follow with me. Mark chapter eight, verse 22 says, then he, Jesus, and the disciples, is implied there, then he came to Bethsaida. Then he came to Bethsaida. Well, Bethsaida was a fishing town on the northern shores of Galilee. The little red dot on the map there shows you approximately where Bethsaida was. The name Bethsaida literally means house, so Beth is house, Bethlehem, house of bread. Bethsaida, house of the fish, or the fisher, or house of fishing. It was also the hometown of Peter, Andrew, Philip, we see this actually a couple places in scripture, but we'll look at John 144. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. So these three disciples grew up in this town. It was their hometown. And of course, the Bible seems to indicate that later as their business, their fishing business grew, they moved, relocated to Capernaum, which was larger and perhaps a better place for them to run their business. It was a simple fishing village when it started, but later, this city was enlarged and beautified by Philip the Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great. In fact, I believe Philip was buried in Bethsaida. Later, he renamed it Julius after Augustus Caesar's daughter, Julia. So it did not stay that name. Jesus performed several of his miracles in the Bethsaida region, maybe not in the town proper, but in the region, so the feeding of the five according to Luke 9, took place in this region. The walking on water, which immediately followed the feeding of the 5,000, we studied that back in Mark 6. And then today's passage, Mark 8, 22, shows us the healing of this blind man. Jesus condemned Bethsaida for their lack of faith in him. In Matthew 11, verse 21, woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. One of the commentators writes that the gospels portray the townspeople as fickle and narcissistic. Although they saw Jesus' miracles, they received his blessings, most people did not believe in him. John Berry writes that in the pillar commentary. As we go back toward the passage in Matthew where Jesus is judging Bethsaida, in verse 22 he says, but I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. So that is the place that Jesus has come into, Bethsaida. Let's look at the person. Who is this man? Of course, we're never given his name, but let's go back to Mark 8, 22, the second part of the verse. Then he came to Bethsaida. and they brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. Now blindness is a very difficult situation, a very difficult malady today. We'd all agree with that. But it was even more so 2,000 years ago. There were none or very little of the helps for the blind that we have today. The cause of this man's blindness is not given in the text, but the ancient world did lack much of the practical hygiene and modern medicines available today. Newborn babies were especially susceptible as they would develop what is believed to be like a gonorrhea of the eyes passed from the mother to the infant during the birthing process. So lack of antibiotics and things caused it. Also insects, such as flies, they carry diseases and this infectious, Ophthalmia would cause this heavy crusting, the droopy eyelids, the loss of eyelashes, and eventually the clouding of the cornea, often resulting in permanent blindness. Of course, there's other sicknesses such as malaria, exposure to sandstorms, desert sun glare, and of course, accidents. We're not told why this man was blind. I don't believe he was born blind. I think the text is going to show us that he had ability to recognize things as they were, but at some point in his life, he had become blind and they were bringing him, his friends were bringing him to Jesus for healing. The Old Testament law provided protection for the blind. Leviticus 19.14, you shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God, I am the Lord. And then in Deuteronomy 27.18, curse it is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road. and all the people say amen to that, and I would second that. Jesus' ministry of healing the blind was a fulfillment of prophecy in Luke 4, verse 18. He's quoting out of the prophets here, and I neglected to find the passage, maybe you know it. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, I believe out of Isaiah, because he has appointed me, this is Jesus speaking, he has appointed me, Jesus Christ, to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. And I believe there's more than just physical blindness in this prophecy. I believe also spiritual blindness, which, of course, Jesus does remedy, and he still does remedy today. Amen? Isaiah 61.1 is the passage. Thank you, Mark. And so this ability to heal the blind was part of the authentication of Jesus' identity as Messiah. And so as the people are seeing the blind being healed, they should have turned back to Isaiah 61.1. They should have recognized him. Unfortunately, many did not. As we return back to our text here, actually, we'll go back to Mark 7, we begin to see some of the comparisons between the healing of this blind man and the healing of the deaf mute man in Mark 7. Notice how similar the wording is. Then they brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to put his hand on him. And in verse 22 of our text, almost identical, just the malady is, of course, different. They brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. Both men were brought to Jesus by others. Both men had serious, incurable conditions. And in both cases, those that brought these men to Christ begged, we talked about that when we studied that, this idea of being a beggar for Christ. having that humility to beg, to plead. They begged Jesus to do something very specific, which was to do what? To touch him. They wanted the healing touch. So we're not given either man's name, but we know both men had people in their lives that cared deeply for them. deeply enough to come and beg Jesus to heal them, to heal the men, deeply enough to care for them. They were the ones bringing, they were the ones leading this man, come with us, we're going to Jesus, come with us, come with us, leading him along, caring for him. And so there's a practical lesson, of course. It's obvious in the text. Do we beg Jesus? I found this so convicting. As we think about prayer and the principle of prayer and understanding the discipline of cultivating a life and a mind of prayer, are we beggars in our prayer life? or are we demanders? Sometimes my children will ask me for something and sometimes the answer is no. And the response is not a very nice response sometimes. And I'll point out to them, well, you didn't really ask me for that freedom or that privilege or whatever, you demanded it. And I know that you demanded it because when I said no, your response was this negative, maybe it was bad attitude or something. When we go to God, we must go to Him not demanding anything. Who are we to demand anything from God who knows everything and knows what's best in every single situation? Who are we to demand Him of anything? And so we must come as beggars in our prayer life and beggars for our lives. In this case, beggars for the people around us. Do we beg God for mercy and for Him to touch the lives of the people that we care about? Do we keep asking, seeking, knocking as Jesus commanded? And expecting, do we pray with expectation? that the things that we've asked Him to do according to His will and in His timing, which isn't always ours, that we expect them in faith, are we willing to beg? Above all other things that we can do as Christians, do you know I believe our chief work as Christians is prayer? It is our chief calling, along with studying and reading the scripture. But we must pray. We must be a praying people. It's the beggar that God is close to. We talked about it in the earlier service, how the humble-hearted are the ones that God leans into. The humble heart is the one that God desires to be close to. So the beggar is the one that God is close to. It's the beggar with the broken heart that God answers. because the beggar isn't demanding. He's asking, and whatever God says, that's what I know is best. So we've seen the place and the person, and now we see this power from Christ. So the power, starting at verse 23. I'm gonna go down here and just grab my water bottle quickly, which I forgot to bring up here with me. Okay. So we have this power now. We're gonna see Jesus at work once again. So exciting to see what he does and how he cares. Look at verse 23. We've divided it up into two sections. First of all, the powerful passion of Christ. I don't mean the passion as in the cross, of course, but more of the compassion. And we see this in verse 23. Notice Jesus' response. Mark 8, 23. So Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. Do you see the tenderness of Christ to take this man by the hand and gently lead him? We don't know if this man had ever met Christ before, potentially not, probably not. Or it seems like he wouldn't be blind anymore. We can't say for certain, but likely had never met until a total stranger. Jesus knew that. And so, the tenderness, the gentleness to gently take this man by the hand and lead him. And again, such a picture of how God expects us to be the hands and feet of Christ, to be that tender, gentle, Have that attitude of gentleness. And of course, we don't have the opportunity to heal blind people. I don't believe God has given us that gift in a physical sense. But what about all the spiritual blindness around us? Are we willing to gently help people see and guide them to the truth? Or is it, come on, you've gotta, you know, and I know Jude talks about, some snatching them out of the fire. And sometimes there needs to be more of energy, if you will, as people are perhaps in dangerous situations. But Jesus shows so much gentleness, tenderness with this man. And just as he did with the deaf-mute man, here's another parallel for us as we compare the two miracles side by side. Once again, Jesus takes him away from the crowds. He did this with the deaf mute man, now he's doing it again with the blind man. Jesus was not a showman. He was not healing for show. Certainly, he was healing as a way to fulfill prophecy, as a way to love people, and also as a way to authenticate his identity as Messiah. He told the Jews. If you don't wanna believe my words, believe my works. They testify of me. But it was not a desire for fame. In fact, he avoided it, as we're gonna see at the end. And just as we saw with the deaf mutant man, Jesus was healing out of compassion. He knew that this man could not see. He reaches out, he takes this man by the hand, probably out of taking his hand out of the hands of those that had brought him. as they probably were leading him by the hand. Now Jesus reaches out and replaces their hand with his and leads him out away from the crowd. He's communicating so much by touch. And those that suffer from a loss of one sense often have a heightened awareness in the other senses. No doubt this man's sense of touch was heightened from his blind His blindness and he feels this new hand that he's not felt before Reaching and touching and taking him And I can't help but believe he was also speaking to him I don't want to speculate too far out of the text because it doesn't specifically say that but In order to lead someone that doesn't know you, I can't imagine that he wasn't speaking kindly and gently to him. He's also communicating something to everyone that's watching that can see. When people were blind, and Jesus was with the disciples one time with a different blind man, and they said, well, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he's born blind? Because that man was born blind. And Jesus said, no, you're not thinking about this right. He's blind so that God can be glorified. And that's a whole nother lesson, but it helps us get a little window into the hearts of the first century Jews and how they viewed blindness. It was almost like uncleanness, yet Jesus is willing to touch. He was communicating his passage, his compassion by physical touch. It was not gruff, it was not callous, it was gentle and caring. Go with me to Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. We talked about Isaiah 61 earlier, that Luke quoted from. But let's go to Isaiah 42 for just a moment. I won't have these verses on the screen. Isaiah 42, verses one, two, and three. Follow along with me here. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my elect one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. Who is God talking about here? Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. Verse two, Jesus will not cry out nor raise his voice nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Jesus was filled with humility. Verse three, A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for the truth. Do you see the gentleness in this verse? If you take a plant and break it halfway, how hard is it to just separate? It's pretty easy, isn't it? Pretty soft fibers in a plant like that. He's using these word pictures to help us see that even holding something as fragile as a bruised reed will not be broken in His hands. A smoking flax, I always pictured a little candle wick that's all black and it's already been blown out and it just has that little tendril of smoke coming off How easy is it to reach down and crush that candle wick? Isn't it one of the most fragile things? Yet it's saying Jesus could hold that and not crush it between his fingers. Jesus' gentleness prophesied was being fulfilled. Go to the book of Matthew with me, Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, we're gonna read verses 28 to 30. Listen to Jesus as he describes himself. This is the only passage in scripture where Jesus describes his character in this way. Verse 28 of Matthew 11, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, here it is, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I am gentle and lowly. Jesus' description of himself. And now, as we go back to Mark chapter eight, we see that in living color, he takes this man by the hand, has this amazing passion. Jesus was the epitome of a gentleman, and he was also a gentle Man, he exemplified this over and over and over again as he reached out to touch those that came to him. The gentleness and the love. Did he flip tables in the temple? You bet. Did he make a whip of cords before he did that? Oh, yeah. Will he ride in victory one day on his horse and command the death of thousands, if not millions? Yes. Same person. but as he deals with the brokenhearted, as he deals with those that are being crushed by this world and the sin curse of this world, he's gentle, he's gentle. So we have the powerful passion, we also have the powerful process, and this is such a unique miracle. There's no other miracle recorded than I know of in the New Testament that Jesus did that was like this. It's so amazing to me, it's very unique. So Jesus has taken the man away gently by the hand, leading him away from the crowd. Watch what he does. And of course, we're paralleling this with the healing of the deaf mutant man. And we're gonna see a lot of parallels. And again, I believe Mark is doing this on purpose to help us understand. Verse 23, the second part of verse 23 of Mark chapter eight, And when Jesus had spit on his eyes and put his Jesus hands on him, the blind man, he asked him if he saw anything. This is totally unique compared to pretty much all of Jesus' other miracles. Once again, just as with the deaf-mute man, what is he using? What's the medium he's using as a physical representation of healing? Spit, saliva, once again. Very interesting choice. It seems that based on the text, he literally either spit from his mouth into the man's eyes, which, man, when you talk about somebody spitting in somebody's face, it's generally a pretty negative thing. It's like one of the highest dishonors that I suppose that someone could do to someone else outside of striking them. Or he could have been that he spat on his fingertips and touched his eyes as he did with put as he did with the deaf man when he and the mute man when he put his hand into the man's mouth literally but in either case he touches him isn't that what the people begged him to do they begged for the touch and he gave them the touch this gesture of personal contact could not have Jesus just spoken and had the healing. He didn't even have to speak, did he? Remember the Syrophoenician woman's daughter who was not even in the same building or town where Jesus was when the mother came to him? He didn't even say, get out, or in my name be cast out. He simply thought it and told her, your daughter's healed. That's the power, the unlimited. power of Christ, the God-man. But here, he takes the time to not only lead him away, because it could have happened at any time, lead him by the hand away, but to use physical touch to perform the healing. It's a gesture of personal contact, demonstrating his love and compassion. Again, Jesus could have done it in any number of ways. but he chooses physical touch on purpose. He wanted the personal connection with this man. If you think about it, if Jesus would have just thought it or spoke it, the man would have been really glad to be healed, right, of his blindness. I'm sure he would have been very happy. And he would have never forgot that he was healed. But now Jesus adds this other layer, if you will, of physical touch, this man will never did never forget, I don't believe, the feel of that touch. Deeply, deeply personal connection. And then we get to this unique part. Of course, a lot of this happened with the deaf mute man, but now Jesus asked him a question. Do you see anything? Did it work? Did what I do, was it enough? Now, did Jesus know the answer to this question? Yes, because he's God and he knows everything. But he asked it anyway. He was once again making this very personal for this man. He was doing this on purpose. This was the process that Jesus was using, and I believe as a demonstration to the disciples, to the people, and to us as the reader, to understand how Jesus often chooses to work. He's teaching something about God here. Remember, Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father. And so we see not an instantaneous healing, but we see a process of healing. And he asks him, do you see anything? The man answers in verse 24. And he, the man, looked up and said, I see men like trees walking. I see men like trees walking. This is the verse that tells me it's likely this man was not blind from birth because he recognized these things. And I'm sure if those that were blind from birth probably had felt a tree, but this man without feeling anything saw it and believed that he understood. It looks like trees. He was seeing people. He was seeing probably the disciples and maybe the others that had followed him from the crowds, but to him they looked like trees. Was the man's healing complete yet? No. Not yet. His sight had only been partially restored, which again makes this such a unique miracle. And so as he's going through this process, Jesus doing this here, I believe, on purpose, this man's blurred vision was not an indication that Jesus' power was somehow lessened. I mean, did Jesus, like, all of a sudden run out of healing power when this guy, like, no, no. He had not forgotten how to heal. He wasn't like a doctor. You know, a doctor's practice, right? It's practice. They're always working on things, always developing in their knowledge and their skill of caring for people physically. And Jesus is the great physician, but he doesn't practice. He's doing this on purpose. Jesus wanted it this way. He wanted it this way. He wanted it to be a process, a healing process, which is a powerful picture. Remember where Mark has placed the recording of this healing and the recording of the deaf mutant man are both standing as these bookends, if you will, of healing, and in between we have all this spiritual blindness and spiritual deafness. There is a process that must be followed for people to become spiritually sighted and spiritually hearing. It is a process. And that is what I believe, at least part of what Jesus is illustrating and revealing this to his men. Remember, his men were in the group that were spiritually blind and spiritually deaf, the disciples. Yes, I believe that they did believe in him except for Judas. but they still had a long way to go, and don't we all have a long way to go, spiritually speaking? Our spiritual life is a process. You know, the world will fight against this, this idea. Spiritual maturity and understanding is revelation from God. We cannot grow spiritually unless God reveals truth to us. I can't find it in myself. I can't find it in any other person. I must find it in the word of God. Now some other person can help me understand it, which I'm thankful for many that have and still do help me understand the word. And hopefully you have the same experience in your life. But ultimately it goes back to the word and the Holy Spirit as he illuminates it. We cannot grow apart from God. The revelation for growth comes from God and his word. It does not come from in ourselves. Our culture would say otherwise though. Maybe you've heard the word, the term self-actualization. Anyone heard this term? A few. This is a man-made philosophy that eventually our highest pinnacle and all the truth and resources we need, they're already inside us. We just have to find a way to get them out. Well, it's very different from what the word says about us. This part of an article out of the Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling explains it like this, humanistic psychology with its presumptions that a person is basically good and free, and that our primary drive in this life is towards self-actualization, that we are fundamentally self-sufficient, and that pathology is often the result of external imposition. So a pathology would be a problem, okay? A pathological liar, for example, or some other pathological problem. It's the result of external impositions of expectations and standards. And it renders traditional religion, and I'm using that word biblical truth, we could put in there, it renders it irrelevant. Because all your problems, basically is what he's saying, come from the outside. You need to look within and find your self-actualization from within. And we're not promoting that, okay? This is not an endorsement of that. The Bible says the opposite. Our greatest need is not found within ourselves, but in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our greatest need. It's not in ourselves. So the talk of follow your heart or, you know, you are enough, and all of these platitudes, they sound really flowery and nice, but at their core is this false philosophy That self-actualization, and if you could just focus and meditate, which is, meditation is great when it's biblical, but this kind of worldly way of meditating and emptying of the mind, if you will, so that it can be refilled from within, is against everything that God promotes and says in his word. We don't need self-actualization. The Bible's pretty clear about my self-actualization, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's ourselves apart from Christ. So Jesus here, he's making it clear we don't need self-actualization, we need Jesus actualization. Jesus is making it clear that the process of spiritual enlightenment does not come from us, it comes from the Lord. What did the blind man contribute to his healing here? Nothing from inside, right? It came from the Lord. Truth and spiritual enlightenment does not come from us. We are not the source of our own salvation. We're not the source of our own sanctification. We're not the source of our own glorification. Christ is the source. Now, he's given us a part to play in our sanctification especially because if we close the word and we choose not to pray, we are going to starve spiritually. So he's invited us into the process of that. Let's move on to our passage as we wrap up this morning. Verse 25, then Jesus put his hands on his eyes again and made him look up and he was restored and saw everyone clearly. What an awesome sight it must have been for him. The second touch brings the life This second touch, again, it's unique to this miracle. I haven't found any other miracles where this process is shown. But why two touches? Jesus wanted it that way. He wanted it that way. That's why. Sometimes we don't fully understand the God in the Bible, amen? He is actually will never, I don't think fully, because He's infinite. I think even in glory, it's gonna be an eternity of understanding Him in a greater and deeper ways. And so God though is, while we're struggling to understand, while we're in the process of understanding truth, God there, he's faithful and patient and kind, just as Jesus was, leading that man, willing to help us understand and see clearly. What if that man had pulled his hand back from Christ and tried to get away from him? He could have done that, right? He had the free will to do that. He chose to let himself be led, though. Even after we believe, we can pull our hand away as the Spirit leads us and shows us more of our own issues, more of our own pathologies, if you will, in the light of Scripture. And we can pull away and we can fight against that. God wants us to follow Him, to trust in Him. We need to be willing to understand. I'm very thankful for a God who is willing to touch us again. I'm thankful for a God that's willing to do the second touch, the third touch, the fourth touch. How many touches it needs, Lord? Because I know I've needed a lot more than two. Tony. Well, he might have had his, I'm not sure. I mean, it could be just the way that it happened. I mean, he could have been, his head could have been bowed as Jesus was touching him again. Like, I'm not sure. Maybe he was of shorter stature, yeah. Yeah, not sure exactly, but what's that? That's true. He wasn't used to looking up. He had been blind at least for some time. I don't believe his whole life as I stated, but yeah. And so we need to remember that God is in the process of redeeming us from ourselves and we need to help. We do not help, but we need to submit to that. We need to surrender to that. Let God do his work in you. It's gonna be difficult because what his work is involved in that is showing you the dark recesses of your own heart and my own heart and the problems that are inherent in us. And the closer we get to the light, the more easily we see the shadow of sin in our own life. And I think sometimes that's why even Christians recoil from the word. because the more we spend time with the Lord, the more we see His beauty and His perfection, but then that contrast with our own sin nature, and we begin to see the things that God wants to root out, the things that God wants to heal and fix, and sometimes pride keeps us from letting Him do that. We did a whole series called Trusting the Process, or Trust the Process. It's on our different outlets, and we explored 2 Peter 1, 5 through 11. I was gonna turn there, our time is gone. But 2 Peter 1, 5-11, if you want to jot it down, 2 Peter 1, 5-11 is one of the best progressive sanctification passages. And we did a whole series. I think it was a five-week series, four or five weeks. And again, it's on our website, our Facebook, and things. You can just search that. Trusting the process. Well, he gives him a prohibition. Let's just close here. We started four minutes late, so I get an extra four minutes, I think. So going back to this just as a note, the word clearly here is important. Tony asked about made him look up. There is some wording there, we don't have time to dig into it. There was some things in my notes about that. But in any case, clearly here means clearly at a distance. So we're talking full restoration. No prescription needed, okay? Full, perfect vision is what it's being told here. And then we have this prohibition finally as we close, verse 26. Then Jesus said to him, sent him away to his house, saying, neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town. Very similar, again, another parallel with the healing of the deaf mute man. And so he did this often, he did this with the leper back in Mark chapter one, and he's done it other times. He instructed him to keep the miracle to himself. See, Jesus had a mission to complete. He had a cross to get to, and he couldn't let the crowds and the celebrations and trying to pull him into some kind of a king as they did after the feeding of the 5,000, if you remember. According to John's gospel, they tried to make him a king. No, not yet. I've got a cross to get to. So he also knew that the healing would stir up trouble. It seems like Jesus was good at stirring up trouble, especially with the religious establishment of the day. So he was...although he was God, he was still in the flesh, and he worked within those boundaries for the most part. And he knew he had to fulfill his mission. And so he sends him away so as not to stir up Great trouble. What do you see the so-called healers doing today? You see them doing this? No, no The fraudulence and the audacity and the horrible Selfishness of those that claim to heal and do these big services Yeah, it's all about look at me not look at God it's they want the glory they want the wealth and the fame So remember we need to learn what Jesus was trying to teach the disciples as we conclude. Remember Jesus questioned back in verse 18 the disciples. He said, having eyes Do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear and do you not remember? Eyes and ears, healing of the deaf mute man, healing of the blind man. Physical healings that represented what Jesus wanted the disciples to understand spiritually. So he heals this man. right after asking this question. Right before he asked this question, he healed the deaf mute man, right after the blind man. The disciples struggled spiritually deaf and spiritually blind just like we do. They had short memories. Was there any hope as we finish up? Yes. They had the greatest spiritual healer right in front of them, and we do too. Let's conclude with this verse out of John 16, 13 to 15. Jesus is telling his disciples, he's telling us, however, when he, the spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. He will perform the process of spiritual renewal that we need. For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine, therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. There are no self-taught disciples. They don't exist, not in God's economy. We must be willing to submit ourselves to the process and trust the one who makes it happen. Father, thank you, Lord, so much for the process of spiritual growth. Lord, you're so gracious to us. I don't know how many times I've fought against it as you have tried to gently lead me by the hand into a new spiritual level of understanding and truth. Yet, Lord, I find myself pulling away at times, and I'm sure many others do as well. Please help us, Lord. to trust you as this blind man did, to lead us where you want us to go so that you can teach us what you want us to learn. Lord, help us to be beggars at your feet and submit ourselves to your authority in our lives, because it's the only way we're going to grow. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us, guys. Have a great day.