======================================================================== A BLIND MAN SEES CLEARLY by Fred Tomlinson ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking a deeper encounter with God, using the story of Jesus healing a blind man in Mark chapter 8 as a focal point. It challenges listeners to move beyond superficial knowledge of Jesus and embrace a personal, transformative relationship with Him. The sermon highlights the need to leave behind unbelief and worldliness, and to be open to God's unique and sometimes unconventional ways of working in our lives. It encourages a continual pursuit of God's deeper work and blessings, urging believers not to settle for shallow experiences but to seek the fullness of God's grace and sanctifying power. Duration: 36:38 Topics: "Deeper Encounter with God", "Transformative Faith" Scripture References: Mark 8:22, Matthew 11:28, John 4:14, Isaiah 43:19, 2 Corinthians 5:17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking a deeper encounter with God, using the story of Jesus healing a blind man in Mark chapter 8 as a focal point. It challenges listeners to move beyond superficial knowledge of Jesus and embrace a personal, transformative relationship with Him. The sermon highlights the need to leave behind unbelief and worldliness, and to be open to God's unique and sometimes unconventional ways of working in our lives. It encourages a continual pursuit of God's deeper work and blessings, urging believers not to settle for shallow experiences but to seek the fullness of God's grace and sanctifying power. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Earlier this week, one of the brothers that attends our Zoom meeting each Sunday, and let me just encourage those of you who have never joined us in the Zoom meeting on Sundays, let me strongly encourage you to come because it's a wonderful time of fellowship together and we get to see each other's faces and worship the Lord together in that unique way. You can find details of how to join us on the YouTube channel and also on a website which is very simply mckenziefellowship.com. Please be encouraged to come and contact us, we'll send you the link. But during this past week, a brother who joins us in one of the meetings wrote to me, I've never met this brother in person, but he was making reference to his own reading of Scripture and he'd been reading in Mark chapter 8 and he made a comment, I may draw your attention to the comment in particular later on, but as I was reading that passage again, it brought back so many memories to me because over these many, many years of being able to share, I know that I've visited this section from time to time and in the midst of all of the preparations for the house move we made yesterday, of course my mind was never that far away from this meeting and I felt increasingly that the Lord was putting this on my heart to actually turn there and look at it again. So, if you have your Bible and you'd like to turn with me, we're going to Mark chapter 8 and to many of you it will be a very familiar passage. I'm looking down to verse 22 and the reference of course, first of all, is to the Lord Jesus. And he cometh to Bethsaida and they bring a blind man to him and besought him to touch him. And he, that is Jesus, took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town and when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught and he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. After that he, Jesus, put his hands again upon his eyes and made him to look up and he was restored and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. Amen. I suppose the first question, which may seem irrelevant, but nevertheless, is who were they that are referred to? They bring the blind man to Jesus. Well, I think to answer that question, I would say, well, here were some people, whoever they were, who had a superficial knowledge of Jesus. By that I mean, clearly they had recognised that Jesus was a great teacher and I believe that they would have also recognised that this man was incredibly winsome, very loving man, and quite clearly, they had also had opportunity to discover that this man had very unusual powers and was able to do some remarkable things. But as to who he was, truly, really, I'd like to suggest they had not the faintest clue. And in saying those things, it seems to me rather reminiscent of today. The men of today, the Christian believers today even, in so many cases, they have a serious failure to truly understand the identity of this one we know as Jesus, or the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, so many, they read their Bible, I suppose I have to add to that, I think there are a lot who don't read their Bible, but let's give them credit, for though they may read their Bible and they understand the things about Jesus and his powers and so on, and I expect that very many pray, albeit perhaps for very many their prayers are kind of rapid prayers, until things go wrong, you know, until things get more serious. Very often these things may be things pertaining to health and wealth and happiness. They're common factors, I think, that find their way into people's prayers in particular ways and so on. I suppose that, I imagine that the background to praying such prayers is that maybe the Lord is just waiting, because he's such a loving God and tender in his mercies. He's just waiting to pick up our plates that have fallen over that we've kept spinning for quite a long time, but now they've fallen or something's happened, and the idea can so easily be that the Lord is there to pick them up, to straighten things out again for us and so on. And even as I'm saying these things, it's saddening to even think that this could be the case, but I fear that all too often that is true. People get serious with God or more serious with God when things start to fall apart one way or the other. But few, I fear, even begin to grasp the fact that our God is an awesome God. And building on that great fact, few of us really fully or even begin to understand and appreciate that this awesome God has actually chosen men and women. I want to state it this way, he's actually chosen you as an individual. I believe that God has actually appointed this very meeting, this opportunity. There are people who are sitting in the various homes around the world listening to me right now, and some of them see me because they're on the Zoom meeting I mentioned. There are others who haven't got a clue who I am, perhaps, and they've just stumbled on me, as some people put it sometimes. But the fact is, I believe that even as you're listening to me right now, not that I'm anything, I am only a representative, a channel at best, for his life and his word, but I believe that God has ordained this awesome God. He's concerned about you, he's engaged with you, whether you have realized it or not. And what an amazing thing that is. And be assured if this is true, and I believe it is, it's because he actually has a plan and a purpose in drawing near to you, in speaking to you. And his plan and his purpose is to do something in your heart and in your life that is far beyond anything you could have imagined. You know, one thing that we can say about God, and there are many things that we can say about God, and we've got a book full of things that speak about God, but one thing I'm sure about is that God is not half sovereign. If he's not fully sovereign, then he's not sovereign at all. And if he is sovereign, and he's chosen to speak to you today in some particular way, I remind you, he's not doing this merely so that he can improve you in some way, or fix these matters in your life that may be very concerning. And I'm not saying he's not prepared to do that, but he's got a bigger purpose and a bigger plan. And he's speaking to you and drawing you to himself, because he knows that your greatest need, whomever I am speaking to, this applies, your greatest need is for God himself, that you might know him and enter into a relationship which is actually a union with him. This is God's heart, and he wants to make your wounded spirit whole. He wants to conduct you to himself. He wants to conduct you and draw you to God himself. What an awesome concept, and it's true. And less than that is not the Christian gospel. There's a lot that's said that it's just not the gospel. This is the gospel. It's the gospel of God, as Paul put it. It's a gospel of God who is truly awesome, who loves you, who's engaged with you, who's speaking to you. And he wants to do something in your life that you can't possibly do. You can't possibly accomplish yourself. Only he can do it. Are you ready? Are you prepared? Well, you know, in this passage of Scripture that I've read to you here from Mark, chapter 8, there are some features in this interaction between Jesus and this blind man that I wouldn't call them types and shadows. I don't think they fit into that category. We can talk about that in a week or two's time, I think, if the Lord allows me. But I believe that this passage of Scripture, with these details, they provide... Let me put it a different way. They provide Jesus, because he ordained them. They provide Jesus with a graphic illustration of the actual process of him accomplishing these great things in your life and in mine. So we want to take note. You know, the very first thing that strikes me as I start reading these words is that the people who brought Jesus, they make it known why they're there. And then we read, Jesus took him by the hand. This ties right in with what I've just been sharing with you. Think of it. This awesome, utterly, absolutely sovereign God who created all things engages now in the person of Jesus, God incarnate. God incarnate taking a poor, blind man. Perhaps he'd been a beggar because they wouldn't have had all the social services and benefits that are around in our parts of the world today. But this God, in the person of Jesus, takes him by the hand. Amen. Let me ask you something while we're right here. Have you ever sensed that happening in your life, in your situation? Have you ever sensed that God is engaged with you in such a particular and personal way? If you look closely, you'll see that the hand that is holding yours is nail pierced. Amen. And he has caused circumstances in your life to come together and to converge with this moment as he takes hold of you, my dear brother and sister. Because he wants to prepare you and position you for that which is in his heart to further unveil and reveal in you. Amen. I know this much for this blind man. I don't know how far he walked with Jesus. But I believe I could guarantee that that blind man, as he had been known, would never ever forget that moment and that walk, that journey, walking with this unique man. Glory to God. Amen. Are you ready? Am I ready? You can ask me. To hear what he may say to you as you journey together in this way. And so with that in mind, we see in this passage that the very first step in the way that he, God, had ordained this little interaction and situation was that this blind man must first leave the village where he had been living. How should we understand that? Well, there's a really clear answer that we can find to that question as we read through the Bible. You see, we're not going to do it in this brief session together, but if we were to turn to Matthew chapter 11 and verse 20, we would find that Bethsaida, which is where this first initial interaction was taking place, was one of three communities that were condemned by the Lord Jesus for their indifference to him and to the word that he was sharing. In other words, they became cursed and condemned because of their unbelief. And it really is more serious than any of us can begin to understand to actually be exposed to the true living word of God and to ignore what we have heard and simply walk away from it. And that's essentially why this had happened. So this community was a community that was under the curse of God and it was under the curse of God because of its unbelief. Amen. And that presupposes to us what I believe is a fixed principle in the things of God. And it's this, that you will never enjoy God's power while you reside or continue to reside in the village of unbelief and worldliness. You know, I think for too many professing Christians, they make their home in vanity fair, as John Bunyan would refer to it. But maybe there are those I'm talking to today who are actually in that situation. You've been living there in the world and in the areas of unbelief far from God. But listen to me, if God is speaking to you, if you sense that he's touching some area in your inner being, in your heart, then listen to him very, very carefully. You know, another word of scripture that ties right in here, in my mind, would be where the Lord says, Come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing. In so many cases, there are professing Christians, I've talked to many of them over the decades now, they flirt with the world, they flirt with uncleanness. If they don't engage fully, they get as near as they think they can and get away with it and still call themselves Christians. They flirt with the things of the world and the world's entertainments and performances and one thing and another. And they think they're getting away from it, but the reality is they're simply limiting their experience of a fuller knowledge of the blessings that God has for them. The next thing that strikes me here is in the 23rd verse. In the Old King James, it sounds pretty offensive, it says that Jesus spit on his eyes, that they'd reached the point that God ordained for this to happen. And there are other translations who soften this or bring it more, you know, that Jesus wets his fingers and touched his eyes with his fizzle. I don't know how it took place exactly, but what I do know is, and I believe this was intentional, that Jesus chose here a strange method to accomplish his purpose, which tells us something that many of us have learned over the years and that is that with God, there's nothing stereotype. We can be sure of his love and his grace and his mercy, of course, but in terms of the way he deals with his people, there's nothing stereotype about it. And that certainly is seen here. And that actually becomes a stumbling block to many of us. You know, many, many years ago now, I had the great privilege of being taken by a Welshman. I know there are some Welsh people listening to me today, but this was many decades ago. A dear brother who lived in a city in Wales took me a good drive to a church where he had arranged for me to speak. The fact was that this church was one of the central churches in the Welsh Revival. And I could tell you a lot of things about that particular day, but I want to just mention this one thing. In the course of an open prayer time, one of the phrases I heard many times was, Lord, do it again. Do it again, Lord. Not that, I suppose, the majority of people who were in that meeting personally experienced the things of the revival that had taken place there. I believe there was one man who did, and remember, I'll just tell you this, he broke out in prayer. And immediately I needed to look to see who it was because he certainly had a fervency about him. An elderly man, I could talk about him more also. But the fact is, this was his prayer, do it again, Lord, do it again. But the fact of the matter is, God's not going to do it again the way it took place back then. And he's the God of infinite variety. Even in his dealings with people, Jesus' dealings with people, we know that sometimes he touched people, sometimes he just spoke a word, sometimes he did neither. I can think of one occasion recorded in Scripture where he just glanced at someone, his name was Peter. You'll remember the passage I'm referring to maybe, and it had a tremendous effect on that man. It touched him more deeply than I think anything had ever touched him before, and he broke down sobbing. You know, we must be careful that we don't insist that he does for you what he's done for someone else, or he does certain things in your life or in your church assembly life the way it took place before. The very fact that I'm speaking to you now in this particular manner is only a reminder to me that God is doing a completely new thing with me. Whatever other people have done with the radio waves and whatnot over the years, that's never been my way of operating. But God opened a door which I believe is a very effectual door at this time, and it's been very challenging for me personally to sit here in a room alone as I am just now speaking and not standing in an assembled gathering and preaching in that context. But the fact is I am compelled to acknowledge this is God. He's doing something, and it's different to the times in the past. And it's as though he's always moving on. He's moving on because he wants to produce and perfect in each one of us faith and trust and confidence. Well, we do what Mary once counseled some people to do at a wedding feast. Remember she said concerning Jesus, she said, Whatever he says to you, do it. And that's the challenge for each one of us. We need to have an ear that is attentive to him continually. We need to sense the way he's prompting us and nudging us, and we must be ready to do it. Whatever he says to you, however he says it to you, because there's another area. Sometimes God spoke to us in a particular way, and we think, well, it can't be God unless it happens in the same way again. Well, you can pretty well rest assured it won't happen the same way again, although someone's going to challenge me on that, I dare say. It's not that God is into novelty business, coming up with new ideas. That's not the point I'm making at all. He wants to make sure that your ear is open and that you're genuinely listening and that you're ready to obey him whenever he speaks to you. Glory to God. I do notice that when Jesus speaks to people, he doesn't just simply pull out a tract out of his pocket and give you, and say, just kneel here and repeat this prayer after me, and so on. He said things like, if anyone's thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Or on another occasion, follow me. Or on another occasion, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Or to Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house for tea. Or to someone else, go and sin no more. Amen. To the weary, he says, come unto me. All ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Amen. This is his touch. I wonder if your heart is becoming strangely warmed in the process. I wonder if you're finding your heart touched by God. And he's drawing you away from all the other gods, and from all the other props, and all the other allegiances, and from all of the other fascinations. It's not a painful business. To some it sounds like legalism, surely, and so on. It's not a painful, difficult thing. Once you sense the fragrance of his presence, and it's becoming your delight, you have no difficulty when he nudges you, and leads you, and you respond, even though on occasions it's a very costly, costly thing. Jesus says to the man in this story, he says, can you see anything? And he says, yes, yes. And of course Jesus knew exactly what was going on, because he'd begun to unfold something in the details of that moment that people like us today can read and find the Holy Spirit quickening an inspiring message and truth from it, and so on. The fact is Jesus knew that he'd begun something, but there was something bigger yet to be done. And that's true for each one that's listening to me today. We can say, well, by God's grace, I know he's been working me. I've done these things. Listen, this is the story that my life, this is the journey, this is the way that God has moved. And that's wonderful. But whoever you are, I can say to you, and I speak this to myself as much as I speak it to you, that God still has a bigger thing to do, a bigger work to accomplish in your life. He's intent upon his sanctifying power to penetrate every nook and cranny in your inner life, in your person, in your personality. Amen. There's always a great end to his purposes and to his engagements with us. And he is intent upon confirming in you his image, the image of Jesus, inwardly and outwardly. Amen. We read on how this went on. Let me just draw your attention to it again. Jesus asked him if he could see. He looked up and he said, yes, I can see men as trees walking. After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored and saw every man clearly. Whatever you do, don't imagine that the need for this second aspect to his ministry to this man was any sign of a lack of Jesus' ability to do the job in one go, as it were. Not at all. Jesus was teaching something which I'm believing to be very important. While every touch of Jesus upon our lives is a miracle, absolutely. If it's truly him doing it, it's a miracle. It's something outside of the scope and realm of my ability to accomplish things. Even the fact that he took my hand at some point, so to speak, and began something, that's wonderful. But this I know and I'm compelled to acknowledge is that I'm surrounded by so many who profess to be Christians. They've known something of his touch, and that's undeniable. And yet, in so many cases, you can't help... This is not a critical observation or anything, but by their fruit, you know, by the way people talk, by what they talk about, by their manner, by their tones, by the way they're choosing to live their lives, by the way they spend their money, by everything. They give away the fact that, spiritually, there's a real shallowness about their experience of God. And, you know, I'm convinced that, you know, what we've known, or what we've come to know and accept as being normal, the measure of sight that we have, if you will, to come back and work with this passage of Scripture, seeing shadows has become very average. You know, it's not uncommon at all. We're partaking, so many are partaking of a shallow gospel that produces shallow benefits. It's what so many of our social friends within the assemblies are happy with. They're sort of content with partial sight. In most cases, they don't realize it's partial sight. But here, I do know this, that for many of these people, when it comes right round to talking about it, as I'm talking about it today, they reject any suggestion that there's actually more. You know, and that's a big thing. We need to have hearts that are open to God. And if there is more than I'm actually experiencing and enjoying today, God's looking for people who want that more than anything else in the world. You know, I think this second touch, as I may term it here, in this story, I do not believe it in my own mind and heart as it's some kind of proof text for, you know, a so-called second blessing. I don't read it like that. What I do read it as is being a token of the fact that a further work of God's grace is available for every single one of us, whatever stage we're at. We can have a ton of doctrinal knowledge in our head and yet have a grave scarcity of that mystical fragrance of his holy life. And there's more, beloved, there's more for you. You know, at the outset, I mentioned a brother who had communicated with me. His actual words were these. He said, I confess that I thought I could see, but now I ask Lord Jesus that I need a second touch so I can see clearly, unquote. You know, there's a fullness, my dear friend, of God's blessing that remains for the people of God. It remains for those who are hungering and thirsting for more of him. And I hope and trust that I'm making a reference to you. You know, I'm thinking of a story in John chapter 4, you know, that Jesus is interacting with a woman at the well of Samaria. And do you remember how she said, but the well is deep, how are you going to draw water from this well? And you'll remember how Jesus said to that dear woman, he said, if you only knew who it was who was speaking to you. He said, you'd be asking him a different question. He said, because, and I'm paraphrasing it deliberately, because I am longing to impart into your heart an artesian spring that will fill you with unspeakable joy, as Peter put it, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. God wants to do that for you. You know, the very last part of this story was in verse 26. He sent him away to his house saying, neither go into the town nor tell it to anyone in the town. I don't know where his house was in relation to the town. That's not for us to know. But I do know this, that at the end of this interaction, from the holding of his hand and the leading and the two stages in this great miracle for that man, Jesus said, there's something essential. Whatever you do, man, don't go back to that city, you know, because the curse of God is on it. Don't go back there. And that's a word, you know, for people I'm talking to today. Whatever you do, don't go back into the old things. His word is, behold, I do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Perhaps it's springing forth in your heart and your life today. Amen. Jesus sent this man off to his own house with those words. Don't go back into that village, whatever you do. Amen. Amen. Don't allow the comfort and traditions or social connections or your common sense to keep you away from the fullness of this great blessing that God has for you in Christ Jesus. Let me just pray. Father, we look to you, trusting, Lord, that your Holy Spirit has been in this message, Lord, as we have found it and found you speaking to our hearts through it. Lord God, I pray that there shall be many people who will recognize that you, Holy Spirit of God, are speaking into their hearts, that you, Lord, are taking hold of their life and conducting them out of the village where they've lived to the place of faith and response and healing and blessing and joy, Lord, and let it be so to the praise of your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/_6kheJUN0MU.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/fred-tomlinson/a-blind-man-sees-clearly/ ========================================================================