From Blurry to Clear: The Process of Spiritual Sight

• Spiritual Clarity and Growth [00:25:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses how understanding God and spiritual growth is often a gradual process rather than an instantaneous event, using the metaphor of blurry vision.
• Exegesis of [Mark 8](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+8&version=KJV) [00:26:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes the specific miracle of the blind man at Bethsaida, noting it is the only recorded instance of Jesus healing in stages to illustrate a deeper spiritual lesson.
• Discipleship and Patience [00:29:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the biblical text to personal experiences with youth camps, emphasizing that spiritual formation requires patience and time for individuals to adjust to new truths.
• Spiritual Growth and Clarity [00:31:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that spiritual clarity is a process that takes time, urging intentional engagement with God through prayer, scripture, and church.
• Faith and Doubt (Thomas) [00:32:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the story of Thomas to illustrate Jesus' patience with developing faith and the need for proof, while also highlighting the blessedness of those who believe without seeing.
• Evidence for Faith [00:34:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor lists apologetic resources (Case for Christ, Cold Case Christianity, Mere Christianity) and the Bible as tools to strengthen faith and understand who Jesus is.
• Right Words vs. Right Understanding (Peter) [00:37:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes Peter's confession that Jesus is the Messiah, noting that while the words were correct, the understanding was flawed because Peter rejected the necessity of the cross.
• Human Expectations vs. God's Plan [00:42:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts Peter's desire for a conquering king without suffering with Jesus' mission of redemption through sacrifice, applying this to modern believers who resist God's will when it conflicts with their plans.
• Surrender vs. Comfort [00:49:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that following Christ means laying down personal plans and preferences so that God's will becomes the priority, contrasting this with the desire for an easy life.
• Spiritual Blindness [00:45:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The sermon defines spiritual blindness as a lack of clear vision regarding Jesus and the cross, using the analogy of driving through thick fog, and calls believers to help others see clearly.
• Scripture vs. Feelings [00:51:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes that while feelings are real, they are not reliable guides; wisdom begins with submission to God's unchanging Word rather than what seems right to us.
• Good Intentions vs. Godly Wisdom [00:50:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using Peter as an example, the pastor illustrates that good intentions (wanting to protect Jesus) do not equal godly wisdom if they oppose God's plan.
• Scriptural Transformation [00:55:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the purpose of knowing scripture is not intellectual accumulation but the transformation of the heart and daily living.
• Faithful Living Amidst Opposition [00:56:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses the difficulty of Christianity, encouraging believers to live faithfully and defend their faith even when facing social media criticism.
• Evangelism and Spiritual Sight [00:56:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor calls the congregation to trust Jesus as their guide and prays for the spiritually blind to find courage to seek help and understand the gospel.

• Sermon Illustration [00:29:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about leading summer camps, observing that children often take a few days to adjust to the leaders and the gospel message before deciding to follow Jesus, illustrating that spiritual growth is a process.
• Sermon Illustration [00:30:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a pair of sunglasses as a prop to illustrate the concept of adjustment, explaining that when one first puts on glasses, vision improves but isn't immediately sharp, requiring time to fully adjust, similar to spiritual clarity.
• Sermon Illustration [00:34:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references three specific books to illustrate resources for faith: 'Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel (investigative journalism approach), 'Cold Case Christianity' by J. Warner Wallace (criminal investigation approach), and 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis (philosophical defense).
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about taking Greek classes in seminary to understand the depth of Jesus' rebuke of Peter as 'Satan,' realizing the word means adversary or opponent.
• Sermon Illustration [00:42:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the biblical story of Peter rebuking Jesus about the cross to illustrate resisting God's plan, and connects this to the blind man in Mark and Thomas to show 'blurry spiritual vision.' He also uses the analogy of driving through thick fog to describe the experience of spiritual blindness where one can move forward but cannot see clearly.

• Pastoral Charge [00:54:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > Do not leave unchanged; do not ignore spiritual blindness revealed by the Holy Spirit; respond to what God has shown.
• Pastoral Charge [00:55:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Do not be content with just seeing the truth; ask self-reflective questions about understanding, believing, and living out scripture.
• Pastoral Charge [00:55:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > Use the Bible to transform hearts and shape daily living.
• Pastoral Charge [00:56:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > Let Jesus be the guide for life and put full faith and trust in Him today.
• Pastoral Charge [00:56:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > To surrender life guidance to Jesus and place full faith and trust in Him.
• Pastoral Charge [00:57:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > To seek out church members or family members for guidance to understand the gospel and follow Christ.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:00] Welcome to Eastside. I'm glad that you can get a peek into one of our services and join us in this way.
[00:00:07] My name is Tom. I'm the pastor here at Eastside, and I am so looking forward to our service this morning.
[00:00:14] We're a gathering of Christ followers, and we want to make Jesus known, the glories of our God known in everything that we do.
[00:00:24] And I hope that you can catch some of that in this service.
[00:00:30] If there's anything that we can do to help you, please reach out.
[00:00:35] Our service will begin shortly.

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:00:37] Go ahead and get started one minute early if you'll let us do that.
[00:01:21] Ricky is out of town.
[00:01:22] Ricky and Amy are celebrating their anniversary and so they're gone.
[00:01:26] And so I get to be Ricky today.
[00:01:29] And then also we have another special treat.
[00:01:31] Caleb, our youth director, Caleb Dorough, is going to be preaching for us later this morning.
[00:01:36] So that's going to be a blessing also.
[00:01:38] but I'm so glad that we can gather together and sing to our great God. So can you join me? And we're going to start with Behold Our God. Who has held the oceans in his hand? Let's sing together

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:01:51] Behold Our God. What a way to start. I'm going to let you have a seat. We're going to do some

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:04:42] announcements, then we'll come back and sing some more. All right. Good morning, everyone. My name is Caleb, and I'm the youth director here at Eastside. I just have two very, very quick announcements for us this morning. The first one, youth, tonight will be meeting from 5 to 7 p.m.
[00:04:59] We will also be taking a last-minute ice cream trip as well. So if you're a teen in the area and want to grab ice cream tonight, we're going to be meeting from 5 to 7, and we'll also be getting
[00:05:07] ice cream in downtown Mooresville. Also, there was a small error in the youth newsletter. Move Up Sunday will be August 23rd instead of August 9th. So again, Move Up Sunday will be August 23rd

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:05:20] instead of August 9th as well. Thank you, Caleb. How many of you are excited about school starting back? The parents are like, I think so. The kids are like, I don't know yet. So school is starting
[00:05:38] back. I would encourage you be praying for the kids, be praying for the teachers, be praying that you can make it a couple more weeks. And then we do, we do get excited about kids moving up. So
[00:05:50] I know that the kids are excited about that. Also, the staff is planning a good move-up Sunday celebration, so August 23rd, come join us for that, and I know it will be a blessing and a wonderful
[00:06:03] time together. A couple more announcements. One, our marriage conference is coming up in the end of September, September 25th and 26th. I am very, very excited about this. Every year that we've done this. It has been such a blessing. And the gentleman, the speaker we have coming this year,
[00:06:21] I know is going to be a wonderful blessing and help to your marriage. Whether, I've said this every time, but whether you're struggling or your marriage is going wonderfully, this is an opportunity to invest and grow more. Whether you've been married just a few weeks or a few
[00:06:36] months, a few years, or whether you're starting to look like each other, come join us. Come join us for our marriage retreat, Dr. Chris Nanniken will be our speaker. He is very, very good. I've listened
[00:06:49] to quite a few of his messages and talked to other people, and he is going to be an immense blessing.
[00:06:54] So he'll be with us that Friday evening for our marriage retreat, and then the hope is, the goal is to also do an outreach dinner with him that Saturday evening, and then he'll be with us that
[00:07:04] Sunday morning. So all of us will get to celebrate and enjoy his ministry with us that weekend. But Please do put that on your calendar.
[00:07:12] Cost per couple is $200.
[00:07:15] We will be over on the shores of Lake Norman.
[00:07:17] Beautiful.
[00:07:17] I really encourage you, take that one Friday evening.
[00:07:20] Find somebody to watch your kids.
[00:07:22] Take some time off of work if you have to.
[00:07:24] It'll run Friday evening about 5 p.m. through Saturday lunch.
[00:07:28] It will definitely be worth your investment.
[00:07:31] Then also, back in the lobby, we have the Hayes picture.
[00:07:35] Brian and Michelle are getting ready to move to Tennessee, and we want to send them off with a gift.
[00:07:39] If you were with us last week, we went over and celebrated in the gym, had a lunch for them, but then also we have that picture.
[00:07:46] And if you've known them or if you're just a nice person, go sign that picture and send them off with some of our love and prayers.
[00:07:54] If you didn't get to sign it last week, go do that this week and we're going to give that to them.
[00:07:59] Then be praying.
[00:08:00] Tim and Adria sing.
[00:08:01] We know them very well.
[00:08:03] In fact, they're up here doing music with us.
[00:08:05] Adria's going to have cancer surgery this week.
[00:08:07] So pray for them that that would go well, that the Lord would guide the surgeon's hands and then strength for her as she recovers and heals after that.
[00:08:16] And then also we have a meal train that got sent out this week.
[00:08:20] If you did not get it or if you're interested in getting involved with that so that we can share some meals with them, please do let us know.
[00:08:28] And that is the phone number for our weekly updates.
[00:08:31] If you're interested in getting those, please do sign up for that.
[00:08:35] And we do have some openings for that meal train.
[00:08:37] and we would love to serve them and help them in that way.
[00:08:41] And then there's other people in our church family that are struggling with different things.
[00:08:47] In fact, last Sunday, if you were with us, we took time during our morning message to consider suffering.
[00:08:54] And so I pray that you would take time to look around and see if someone's missing, if someone you know is not here or someone you know is going through something and I would encourage you to reach out to them,
[00:09:05] maybe reach over and even give them a squeeze right now and then check in later and see how you can pray for them or support them that is something we can do as a church family let's sing
[00:09:18] some more though can we do that let's stand once again and we're saying complete in thee as we consider our lives as we consider all that god is doing we cannot do this without him and so

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:09:31] completing the no work of mine our next song is actually very old be thou my vision this is

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:12:16] one of the oldest songs that you can sing as a christian and so we're going to actually be in mark chapter 8 verses 22 through 33 we'll read them and caleb's going to preach them for us here
[00:12:30] in just a little bit. And it's the story where Jesus heals a blind man. Have you tried to walk through life? And sometimes you think you know what's going on. You think you can see in front
[00:12:41] of you, but then there's other times where you realize, you understand that you don't know what's

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:12:48] coming next. Let's sing this together. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Our last song, we just

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:14:48] saying, Be Thou My Vision, which, as I mentioned, is very old, and now we're going to come more recent, just here in the last few years. As Christians, we get to rejoice with every generation
[00:14:58] of God's church. So let's sing together, O praise the name, I cast my mind to Calvary.

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:15:17] I cast my mind to Calvary. I see his word. My Savior. Be seated. As I mentioned a little bit

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:19:35] ago, Caleb is our youth director. I know most of you, many of you, hopefully all of you have had the opportunity to meet him and he has been a blessing and he's been serving now with us for
[00:19:50] the last about four months, part-time and then full-time. And so this morning we've been praying and working and looking forward to this morning and he is going to open God's word for us. He is
[00:20:03] incredibly well prepared. And I would guess he might just be a little bit nervous, but I know he's going to do just a little bit, but I know he's going to do a wonderful, wonderful job. And I know
[00:20:16] it's going to be a blessing. And so we're going to spend time in Mark chapter eight, and then I will pray and then let him come and share God's word with us. We are jumping back into our Mark series.
[00:20:29] If you've been attending with us, you know that we took a break over the summer and we did a summer series, Who Am I?, which was so powerful.
[00:20:37] We had several guest speakers come in and it was a blessing.
[00:20:40] I've heard from many of you and even that you have had the opportunity to share this with others.
[00:20:46] But now we're going to come back and step back into the gospel of Mark.
[00:20:50] We started in January and we're working our way through and our goal is to see Jesus.
[00:20:56] us. Whether you've been around church for a long time, or maybe you just randomly walked in this morning, or maybe you're an atheist, or you have all these thoughts about God, we all carry preconceived notions, preconceived ideas about who God is. And even for people who've been around
[00:21:17] church for a long time, even if you've been a Christian for a long time, sometimes our ideas about God don't match up with who he is. And so we're walking our way through the book of Mark.
[00:21:32] We want to see Jesus, not for who I think he is, not for what some popular bestseller says about him, not for what my parents always told me. I want to see Jesus for who he reveals himself to be
[00:21:44] in his word. And so this morning, we're going to step back into Mark chapter 8. And this is a key passage. It's really a turning point in the gospel of Mark. It's right at the midpoint
[00:21:56] of the book and it's Mark chapter 8. And if you have it, read it along with me. Follow along as I read it. Mark chapter 8 verse 22 through 33. And they came to Bethsaida. This would be they
[00:22:11] being Jesus and his disciples, the people following him. And some people brought to him a man, a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he, Jesus, Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him
[00:22:26] out of the village. When he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he, the blind man, looked up and said, I see people, but they look like
[00:22:38] trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. And Jesus sent him to his home saying, do not even enter
[00:22:55] 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? And they told him, John the Baptist
[00:23:07] and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that i am peter answered him you are the christ and he strictly charged them to tell no one about
[00:23:25] him and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders the chief priests the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again and he said
[00:23:36] this plainly and peter took him aside and began to rebuke him but turning and seeing his disciples he rebuked Peter and said get behind me Satan for you are not setting your mind on the things
[00:23:49] of God but on the things of man let's pray together Lord I am so grateful for the opportunity that we have to come and hear from your word and to see you Lord I pray that you would speak
[00:24:03] through your word open our hearts and minds remove barriers Lord thank you for Caleb and for his ministry and I pray that you would use him this morning and I pray this in Jesus name
[00:24:13] Amen.

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:24:16] All right, well, good morning, church.
[00:24:18] As Pastor Tom just mentioned, we will be in the book of Mark this morning.
[00:24:23] But before we do, I'd love to open us up in another word of prayer.
[00:24:28] Dear God, thank you so much for this morning.
[00:24:29] God, thank you so much that we get the opportunity and the joy and the privilege to be here, God, to learn more about you, to actively dive deeper into your words.
[00:24:38] So God, that we can see Jesus.
[00:24:41] God, I pray this morning that eyes will be opened.
[00:24:44] God, that hearts will be turned so that we can get closer to you. God, I just ask that you speak through me through this message today, God, that it's not just my words, God, but it's your message
[00:24:55] being preached through me, God. I'm so grateful to be here. I'm thankful for everyone that is here this morning, God. I just ask that you open our hearts up to the word this morning. In Jesus' name
[00:25:05] I pray, amen. Amen. Well, I want to start off this morning with the sermon title, and the sermon title this morning is, When You See But Don't Understand. And I want us to take a minute to
[00:25:17] kind of reel that in, try to understand what this could mean, when we see but don't understand. And the passage that Pastor Tom just talked about and that we will be kind of going through this morning
[00:25:27] is Mark chapter 8, verses 22 through 33. But our main idea, we can put the main idea slide up there, the main idea that we're going to be looking at today is sometimes we don't always see clearly
[00:25:38] at first, and that includes our walk with Jesus. So I want us to think about something. Maybe you read a text message the wrong way and thought someone was upset with you. Or maybe you assumed
[00:25:50] something about a situation only to realize later that you were completely off. Or maybe you made a decision that felt right in the moment, but later you saw things differently. The truth is sometimes we don't always see clearly at first. Sometimes our understanding is limited. Sometimes our
[00:26:08] perspectives are incomplete. Sometimes what feels obvious in the moment turns out to be far from reality. And this morning, we're going to be looking from the book of Mark, and we see that the book of
[00:26:20] Mark is one of the Gospels. And the Gospels are these accurate accounts written when Jesus was here on earth performing miracles. And he wanted to show us proof of who he actually was. So in
[00:26:32] Mark chapter 8, verses 22 through 33, Jesus is going to show us something very powerful. So what I want to do is I want to go ahead and turn here to Mark chapter 8, verses 22 through 26 to start
[00:26:44] out with. And this is where Jesus is healing a blind man at Bethsaida. So it says here in verse 22. It says, they came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to
[00:26:55] touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, do you see anything? He looked up and said,
[00:27:07] I see people. They look like trees walking around. But once more, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home saying, don't even go into the village. Well, what do we see is happening here?
[00:27:29] Well, we see that this verse begins with a blind man being brought to Jesus. And instead of being instantly healed, the man says, I see people, they look like trees walking. And what we can take away
[00:27:41] from this is that we can see that his vision was better, but it was still blurry. But it doesn't end there. Jesus was healing in a stage, so it doesn't end there. So Jesus touches him again,
[00:27:51] and this time he is able to see clearly. Now one thing as I was kind of reading through this and reading through the gospels and going through seminary, I learned something. I learned that this is the one time in the Bible, the only miracle recorded, where Jesus heals in stages.
[00:28:08] and that should get our attention. But you got to ask ourselves. I was asking myself the same question. We had to ask, did Jesus mess up? Did Jesus try to heal him the first time but not use
[00:28:20] the right words? Of course not. So the question we got to ask ourselves then is, why was this miracle recorded in stages? Well, church, we're going to learn that Jesus was being intentional. This miracle wasn't simply about restoring physical sight. It was preparing the disciples and us
[00:28:37] for the lesson that follows that, again, we will talk about in just a few moments. But for the next few minutes, we're going to set the scene for what God is trying to teach us. We're going to see from
[00:28:48] this passage that clarity doesn't come all at once. Sometimes growth is a process.
[00:28:57] And as I was thinking through those words that clarity doesn't come all at once and that sometimes growth is a process, I was thinking through all the amazing things I've been able to do this summer. One thing that I've had the privilege of doing was going and being a part of
[00:29:10] a lot of different summer camps in the area. As a part of those different summer camps, we see that these kids have an opportunity to go and hear the good news of Jesus. And when this happens, we
[00:29:22] see that, you know, the first couple of days, they're getting there. They're kind of learning the leaders. They're kind of learning God a little bit more. They're trying to understand who Jesus is, but then we see something really cool. By the end of the week, these kids decide, some of them
[00:29:37] decide to make that next step to follow Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. But how did that happen? We see it wasn't through me. It wasn't through the volunteers. We see it was through
[00:29:48] the patience of each person that was there, because we see that growth is a process. We don't have all the answers all at once. We need to take time to understand what the Bible says. We need to
[00:30:00] take time to ask questions because the more we ask questions, the more we ask ourselves, what does this mean? God is going to reveal himself to us. It may not be easy, but God will reveal himself to
[00:30:12] us. One thing that I got here is I got this pair of sunglasses. Anyone like sunglasses in here?
[00:30:18] I love sunglasses. So I want to kind of illustrate this as kind of just a generic pair of glasses.
[00:30:24] We see that what happens when you put on a pair of glasses at the beginning, like whenever you first pair of glasses. We see that at first things are better, but still not sharp. It takes time to
[00:30:34] fully adjust. And maybe that's where some of us are right now. Maybe you're following God, but things still feel unclear. Or maybe you're trying to understand what he's doing, but it's still blurry. Maybe you're in a similar situation where you want healing, but you haven't found it yet.
[00:30:51] So this brings me to my first point, which is blurry doesn't mean broken. It means that God is still working in and through our lives today. He doesn't want us to be spiritually blind. He calls
[00:31:03] us into a relationship with him. We see that Jesus was not done with the blind man, and he is not done with us either. So going back to this, we could ask ourselves, what does point one mean? Well, we learn
[00:31:15] in this first section of the passage that growth takes time, and that clarity is often a process, And it's important to be intentional with your relationship with God and take time to truly understand what God is trying to teach you. But the question we got to ask ourselves is,
[00:31:32] how do we do that? How do we grow in our relationship with God? Well, we can do this by praying. We can do this by reading scripture. We can do this by going to church and taking time
[00:31:42] to intentionally seek time to see what God wants to tell us. But secondly, we learned, and we're going to see how this connects in just a minute, but we're going to see how this Bible
[00:31:52] acts or the story in the Bible acts as a metaphor for the disciples' own slow, progressive understanding of who Jesus is. It is a reminder to us that Jesus works in our lives by his timing,
[00:32:04] often in stages. We're about to learn how this miracle talked about above directly follows the disciples' failure to understand Jesus' teachings and his gradual grasp of his divine mission. But before we do this, I want to connect this to another passage in the Bible. And what's
[00:32:21] important to note is we were in Mark, which is before Jesus's crucifixion on the cross. But now what I want to do is I want to go to John chapter 20 verses 24 through 29. And we're going to see
[00:32:32] again how Jesus is working through people's lives and how he is patient with people whose faith is still developing. So again, we're going to be in John chapter 20 verses 24 through 29. And this is
[00:32:45] when Jesus appears to Thomas. It says this. It says, now Thomas, one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to
[00:32:57] them, unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and
[00:33:10] Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand,
[00:33:23] and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him after that, my Lord and my God.
[00:33:32] Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not yet seen or have not seen and yet have believed. So what do we see is happening here? Well, we see
[00:33:46] that this is Thomas and Thomas was experiencing this blurry limited faith and was very impatient to see how God was going to work in his life. But we see that Jesus was impatient and invited him
[00:33:58] to see and believe. We learned that Thomas struggled to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. He struggled to understand the meaning of the resurrection. He wanted proof. He wanted certainty. But yet in that moment, Jesus didn't reject him. Jesus met him where he was, and he
[00:34:16] invited Thomas to see and believe. We see that Jesus continues to give us proof every day that he is real and that he is who he says he is. And church, as I was kind of thinking through this
[00:34:30] this morning, I wanted to kind of give you guys some examples of some ways that people here right now are giving us proof that Jesus is real and that he is who he says he is. So here's some
[00:34:41] examples I want to go through. We have a picture on the screen, I'm pretty sure, of these books.
[00:34:45] But the first one is Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Case for Christ was written by a former investigative journalist. This book details interviews with biblical scholars to examine the historical and archaeological evidence for Jesus. The second one, Cold Case Christianity
[00:35:03] by J. Warner Wallace, authored by a former homicide detective. This book examines the New Testament eyewitness accounts, which we're currently studying about today, using standard criminal investigation techniques to test their reliability. We see another one,
[00:35:19] Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. This is a classic philosophical defense that uses logic and reason to argue for the existence of God and outline the core principles of the Christian faith.
[00:35:33] But church, we see something else that's important, is God gives us all these other resources to help us understand who Jesus is and help us have a bolder faith. But the most important thing that
[00:35:43] we're missing out of these is the Bible. We see we have the Bible as well that have accurate accounts of when Jesus was here on earth performing miracles, and we get to talk about those today
[00:35:54] and see how they're still relevant. A definition I found for the Bible was a collection of sacred writings, a holy book, and the authoritative word of God. So church, we see that Jesus is patient
[00:36:08] with people whose faith is still developing. Thomas had a blurry faith. The disciples had a blurry understanding, which again, we're going to connect those dots in just a few moments.
[00:36:19] Many of us have blurry perspectives about what God is doing in our lives, but Jesus is patient.
[00:36:25] He wants our eyes to be open. He wants us to see clearly, and that is why he gives us so many resources in order to have a stronger faith. But the question we've got to ask ourselves is whether
[00:36:36] we will stay close enough to him to allow him to work in and through our lives today. But now what's important to know is we're going to go back into Mark, and we're going to read Mark chapter 8
[00:36:47] verses 27 through 30. And I want to make this very clear. We are going back to before Jesus was crucified. This is important to note here in this next passage. So we're going to turn here to Mark
[00:36:58] chapter 8 verses 27 through 30. And this is when Peter is declaring that Jesus is the Messiah.
[00:37:05] It says here in verse 27, Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, he asked them, who do people say I am? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets. But what about you, he asked,
[00:37:26] who do you say I am? Peter answered, you are the Messiah. Take a look at verse 30 though. It says, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. Now, the first time I read this, I was shocked
[00:37:40] that Jesus would say something like that. I was like, my entire life as a Christian, I have been going out and sharing the gospel and proving that Jesus was the Messiah and that Jesus was who he
[00:37:49] said he was. But here in this moment, Jesus is saying, do not go and tell anyone about me.
[00:37:58] Why is that? Why is that? Well, we see that this is important because it's the right answer, but the timing was wrong. It's also a big, big moment in the passage. Because just because Peter
[00:38:10] said the right thing doesn't mean he understood it fully. It's like someone who knows all the right answers in church, but hasn't fully grasped what they mean. Or like a student who memorizes information, but doesn't truly or fully understand it. And that leads us to point two, which is Peter
[00:38:28] had the right words, but the wrong understanding. And I know someone in this room is thinking right now, what do you mean, Caleb? What do you mean Peter had the right words, but the wrong understanding?
[00:38:37] How does this first connect to what we're going to do? Well, now what we're going to do is we're going to connect all the dots together, and we're going to read Mark chapter 8, verses 31 through 33,
[00:38:47] and we're going to see and understand why Peter had the right words, but the wrong understanding.
[00:38:53] So turn with me here. We're going to keep reading in Mark chapter 8, verses 31 through 33, and this is when Jesus was predicting his death. Again, before the crucifixion of Jesus, he said this,
[00:39:04] He then began to teach that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days
[00:39:15] rise again. So again, that's the gospel message, right? That Jesus died, rose again for our sins, and that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. But we see that Jesus spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Think about that.
[00:39:33] One of Jesus' closest disciples, Peter, who was claiming that he was the Messiah and all these things. And now, all of a sudden, he's rebuking Jesus. But then we see something. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan, he said. You don't
[00:39:53] have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. So what do we see? What do we see is happening here? Well, we see that and we learn that faith is more than words. It's fully understanding
[00:40:07] who God is and fully surrendering our lives to God. In this passage, we learn that Peter gets the title right, but the meaning wrong. His confession in the passage uses technically accurate language, but you cannot see fully what the language represents. When Jesus rebuked Peter
[00:40:25] and referred to him as Satan, I decided, I took a couple Greek classes in seminary, and I was able to do a deep dive on what the word Satan meant. Because I was like, man, that's a harsh way to
[00:40:35] talk to a disciple, right? Like get behind me, Satan. Like that, to me, that was crazy. So I did a deep dive on that. And it says, I learned that the Hebrew word Satan means adversary, opponent,
[00:40:46] or accuser. So we see in that moment that Christ recognized that Peter had put himself in a adversarial role in opposition to the Savior's ultimate saving mission. We learn that not only does Jesus' identity include his eventual death and resurrection, it will be finally defined
[00:41:06] by those things in the future. By focusing on the Savior's coming death, Peter failed to understand Jesus Christ's true mission, which was the redemption of all mankind, right? To come save us from our sins. So the question we've got to ask ourselves is, why was the rebuke from Jesus so
[00:41:25] strong. I'm going to kind of circle back to it a little bit, because we see that Jesus needed to remind Peter that the cross was non-negotiable, that Jesus's death was necessary so that we can
[00:41:37] enter into a personal and everlasting relationship with God. We see that any attempt to avoid the cross undermines salvation itself. It highlights again that Peter doesn't truly understand what being the Messiah means. And another thing, even well-meaning disciples can oppose God when they
[00:41:57] misunderstand him, when they misunderstand God. We see in this passage that Jesus begins to explain that he must suffer, that he must be rejected, he must be killed, and then rise again. And Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him. Think about that. Peter just correctly identified Jesus,
[00:42:17] and now he's correcting him. Why? Why is that? Well, again, we're circling here, but it says because Peter, because Jesus didn't fit Peter's expectations. I want to make that very clear because Jesus didn't fit Peter's expectations. Peter wanted a conquering king that has glory
[00:42:37] without sacrifice, victory without pain, a crown without a cross, not a suffering savior.
[00:42:44] And in our world today, we think the same way sometimes.
[00:42:47] We want a Savior who is a winner, not a leader who suffers and dies.
[00:42:52] When Peter had to learn that Jesus had to be nailed to a cross and die for our sins, he was like, no, I don't want you to do that.
[00:43:00] I want you to just be this king that doesn't have to do that.
[00:43:03] But Jesus reminds him of what has to be done in order for us to be saved.
[00:43:10] We see that Jesus reminds Peter that redemption requires suffering and that obedience must come before glory. We see that if we're honest, sometimes we do the same thing. Sometimes we say we follow Jesus, but we resist his way when it doesn't match our plans. We expect life to get
[00:43:30] easier, but sometimes it gets harder. We pray for doors to open and then those doors close.
[00:43:35] We think we know what God is doing, and then everything changes.
[00:43:39] Or we know what God wants us to do, and we try and do things differently.
[00:43:44] And in those moments, we're tempted to say, you know what?
[00:43:47] God, this isn't what I signed up for.
[00:43:50] I don't want to do it this way.
[00:43:52] And that's exactly where Peter was.
[00:43:54] Jesus responds with those strong words, get behind me, Satan.
[00:43:58] You don't have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
[00:44:01] That's a correction.
[00:44:03] Jesus is going to correct us when we mess up.
[00:44:06] We see that, this brings us to point three, that you can believe in Jesus and know about him and still resist his way.
[00:44:15] That's so important.
[00:44:16] We see that Peter believed in Jesus.
[00:44:18] Peter loved Jesus.
[00:44:19] Peter followed Jesus.
[00:44:21] But yet Peter still resisted Jesus's plan.
[00:44:25] This is such a powerful reminder to us because we learn that sometimes we want Jesus without the cross.
[00:44:30] We want to have the reward that Jesus wants to offer, but sometimes we truly, truly, truly don't want to follow him. And this is such a powerful reminder that we have a choice to make,
[00:44:42] that we can be all in for Jesus and follow him through the good and hard times, or we can choose to be all out. But here's what's cool. I told you I was going to connect the dots. I promised y'all
[00:44:53] that. But we see that the story of Peter is connected to the blind man and connects to the Thomas lesson. We see that the blind man had this blurry physical vision, and Peter and Thomas had
[00:45:06] this blurry spiritual vision. They could see, but not clearly. But what's important to note here is that before and after Jesus's resurrection, people still struggled to believe in Jesus and understanding the importance of the cross. And church, I'm here today to call us that our goal
[00:45:23] as Christians is to help people who have the spiritual blindness, to help people and help lead them closer to Christ, just like Jesus did in this passage to prove who he really was.
[00:45:36] We need to be able to explain that Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection was necessary for our salvation, and that Jesus did truly rise again. One of the most well-known verses out there, One of my favorite verses, we teach the kids this all the time, John 3, 16, right?
[00:45:53] John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only forgotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
[00:46:05] Jesus doesn't want us to be spiritually blind.
[00:46:08] Jesus doesn't want there to be fog built up in our lives.
[00:46:11] Jesus wants us to get closer with God.
[00:46:14] Jesus wants us to dive deep into his word.
[00:46:16] God wants us to dive deep into all the amazing things he's given us in this world today to prove who he actually was. And we see that sometimes spiritual blindness that we were talking about
[00:46:29] is like driving through thick fog. Who's drived in thick fog before? Anyone in the mountains or anything driving through thick fog? We see that sometimes you can still move forward. You might know where the road is a little bit, but you can't see everything clearly yet. And that's where many
[00:46:44] of us are. So we see some things about Jesus, but not everything clearly yet. And that's why sometimes we get frustrated when life doesn't go the way that we expect. We often want a version
[00:46:55] of Jesus who makes life easier and removes struggle and fits into our plans. But here's the thing. Jesus doesn't come to fit into our own lives. He calls us to follow his. He calls us to
[00:47:07] follow his plan he has for our lives. And the good news is this, that Jesus doesn't give up on the people with blurry vision. He corrects them. He stays with them. And just like Jesus
[00:47:22] helped the blind man, he also helped Peter and Thomas as well. And Jesus is wanting to help us too. He doesn't want to leave you all alone. He doesn't want you to be confused about your faith.
[00:47:34] I see people all the time on social media that say, you know what, because I don't believe one thing about the Bible, I'm just going to walk away completely and not even try to understand it.
[00:47:43] God doesn't call us to walk away from the Bible, to walk away from our faith when it gets hard.
[00:47:48] God calls us to walk to the faith, to walk to the Bible, to walk to God so that we can understand who he is and so we will not have spiritual blindness anymore. God wants us to have a
[00:48:00] personal relationship with him, where things might still feel weird in some moments, but where God can be more clear in our lives, where God can lead us through the questions that we have, because God
[00:48:12] gives us the church. God gives us his word. God gives us a lot of things in order to know him and seek him more. So what can we do with this? What can we do with this? Well, we see when things
[00:48:27] don't make sense. We trust him anyway. We trust God anyway. Don't walk away. Take time to understand what God is trying to teach you. When our expectations are challenged, we can stay teachable.
[00:48:42] When our faith is challenged in many different ways throughout life, or someone questions you about your faith, we stay teachable. We understand what is God trying to teach me through that moment.
[00:48:52] How can I share the gospel to the people that need it most?
[00:48:56] How can I have more boldness in my faith to live out what God has called me to do?
[00:49:02] We see that when our vision feels blurry sometimes, again, we stay close to Jesus.
[00:49:07] We don't walk away.
[00:49:09] I see too many people walking away from their faith.
[00:49:12] Why?
[00:49:12] Because their spiritual blindness is there, and they're not willing to fix it.
[00:49:17] So church, I'm calling us today as Christians, as followers of God, to help the people that need it most, to help the people that are spiritually blind, to help lead them in the right direction so that they no longer have to be spiritually blinded, but that
[00:49:31] they can be renewed by Christ day by day. Because clarity doesn't come from having all the right answers. It comes from staying near and close to Jesus. So our final points here is that, number
[00:49:47] one, that following Jesus isn't about comfort. It's about full surrender to God. Following Christ means laying down our plans, our preferences, our desires, so that His will becomes our priority.
[00:50:01] The question should not be, or is not, what makes me happy, but what honors God. Surrender asks us daily, what am I holding on to that Jesus is asking me to release? We see, number two, that
[00:50:16] good intentions don't always equal godly wisdom. Tom mentioned that earlier at the beginning, how we see that Paul at first was a little bit, or Peter was spiritually blinded, but then he was able to see clearly about what the cross meant, about what it meant to truly understand the power
[00:50:34] of the cross. We see that good intentions don't always equal godly wisdom. Sometimes we can genuinely mean well and still be wrong. Peter loved Jesus and wanted to protect him, but his advice opposed God's plan. So before acting, we need to ask ourselves, is this idea coming from God's word
[00:50:54] or simply from what seems right to me? Wisdom begins with submission to God's truth. Number three, we must align our thinking with God's word, not our feelings. This is a big one for me. We see
[00:51:10] that feelings are real, but they're not reliable guides. God's Word provides a foundation that remains true even when our emotions change. God's Word doesn't change. It's been here the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and God's Word will never change. Our feelings might change,
[00:51:28] but God's Word never changes. So we can take time to understand what it means by going into the Word of God together. So before acting, we should ask, is this idea coming from God's word or simply what
[00:51:43] seems right to me? Wisdom begins with submission to God's truth. And we've mentioned that other point here, but the last point, even spiritual language can be dangerous if it resists God's truth. We see that not everything that sounds loving, compassionate, or spiritual is actually
[00:52:02] from God. We see that Peter's words sounded caring, yet they oppose God's mission. So we should evaluate every message, including our own thoughts, through the lens of Scripture. Does this encourage obedience to Christ, or does it make obedience easier to avoid? I'm going to say that again.
[00:52:23] When we evaluate our own thoughts through the lens of Scripture, we need to ask ourselves, I'm going to say it again. Does this encourage obedience to Christ, or does it make obedience easier to avoid? So I want us to think about that this week. How can we grow closer to God?
[00:52:41] How can we remove that spiritual blindness in our lives that we have to get closer to God and know that He is true and put our full faith and trust in Him today? So some questions I want to ask
[00:52:54] you guys is, what is one area of your life where God is calling you to surrender control?
[00:52:59] Maybe it's something that has taken up a lot of your life where you need to spend more time getting into the Word.
[00:53:07] So think about where is God calling you to surrender control in your life?
[00:53:11] The second question, how can you spend time with God this week so that His voice becomes louder than our feelings?
[00:53:19] I'm going to say that again.
[00:53:20] How can we spend time with God this week so that His voice becomes louder than our feelings?
[00:53:28] As we come to the end of this message, I want us to remember this that the greatest tragedy is not physical blindness it's spiritual blindness it is possible to sit in church it's possible to read the Bible
[00:53:43] hear the truth and still fail to truly see Jesus for who he is Mark's all about seeing Jesus how do we see Jesus?
[00:53:51] we do that by going to scripture and seeing what Jesus is trying to teach us but the good news of the gospel is that Jesus still opens blind eyes. He still transforms hearts today. He still takes people
[00:54:05] who are wandering into darkness and brings them into his marvelous light. The question is that whether Christ is able to give sight, the question is whether we are willing to come to him with humble and open hearts. One of my favorite things to do in ministry is being able to have gospel
[00:54:24] conversations, being able to lead kids, to lead teens, to lead adults closer to Christ, and help them understand who Jesus is, and allowing them the opportunity to enter into an everlasting and personal relationship with God. So what I want to ask us today is, don't leave today unchanged.
[00:54:46] If the Holy Spirit has revealed an area of spiritual blindness in your life, whether it's pride, sin, fear, or simply unbelief. Like, I don't believe it. Don't ignore it. Don't ignore it.
[00:54:59] Respond to what God has shown you. We as a church, we as a body of believers would love to help you with any questions that you have. The Lord never reveals our blindness to shame us. He reveals it
[00:55:12] so that he can heal us. This week, don't be content with simply seeing the truth. Ask yourself, Do I understand it?
[00:55:22] Do I believe it?
[00:55:24] Am I living out what scripture teaches us to do?
[00:55:28] Because church, God's desire is not for us to know his word, but for his word to transform our hearts and shape the way we live every day.
[00:55:37] I see so many people out there that say, I've read the Bible, but they don't transform their hearts.
[00:55:44] So God is calling us to transform, to use the Bible to transform our hearts and shape the way we live every single day.
[00:55:52] So my prayer as we get ready to leave this place in a little bit, this church, is I want our eyes to be fixed on Jesus.
[00:56:01] I want us to know that our hearts can be surrendered to his will and have our lives committed to following him faithfully.
[00:56:11] Being a Christian isn't gonna be easy.
[00:56:13] It's not gonna always be a walk in the park, But God calls us to live faithfully, to live out our faith, even when it's hard, even when people on social media say badmouth Christianity. Our goal is to defend our faith and prove who Jesus
[00:56:29] is and why he's our Savior. We see because when Christ opens our eyes, we don't just see differently, we live differently. So the question is this, will you let him, will you let Jesus be the guide for
[00:56:47] your life? And will you put your full faith and trust in him today? Let's pray. Dear God, thank you so much for this morning, God. Thank you so much that through all these trials and temptations
[00:56:58] in life, God, that we know that, God, your word is the foundation for our life. God, that no matter what comes our way, that we can always turn to scripture and seek the truth and be able to live
[00:57:10] it out day by day. God, I pray if there's people in this church, if there's people in this community that haven't heard the good news, the gospel of Jesus, which was the death, burial, and resurrection,
[00:57:21] and that Jesus rose again, and if we believe in him, we can have eternal life. God, I pray that if people don't understand that, or if people have questions about the faith, God, I pray that they
[00:57:32] don't be spiritually blinded anymore. God, I pray that instead of them walking in that spiritual blindness, that they would have the boldness and the courage to come talk to a church member, to come talk to a family member, to go talk with someone that can help lead them closer to Christ
[00:57:48] and help them understand who Jesus is and who Jesus has called them to be. God, I pray for everyone in this room. I pray for anyone that is struggling, God, that their eyes will be fixed
[00:57:59] on you. That no matter what comes our way, that we can trust and put our full faith in Jesus every single day. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Thank you, Caleb, for pointing us towards Jesus.

[00:58:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:58:24] Have you noticed the blindness? It's kind of backwards, right? If you're blind, you don't realize you're blind. That's where God's word steps in and calls us to see Jesus. And in those moments where we're struggling, those moments where we feel lost, in the moments where it seems
[00:58:44] like everything is a little bit hazy. You see people walking around, but they kind of look like trees. Then let's look at Jesus. We're going to close with a song you've already won. There's peace that outlasts darkness, hope that's in the blood. There's future grace that's mine today that
[00:59:03] Jesus Christ has won. This miracle, it wasn't an accident. Jesus didn't mess up. He healed in stages on purpose to illustrate for us the progressive sanctification, the gradual process of growth.

[00:59:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:59:19] Let's stand together and let's sing, You Have Already Won. Announcements quickly before we go.

[01:03:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:03:59] First of all, we forgot to announce earlier that we are starting our John reading videos.
[01:04:05] Ricky Horton is putting those out every day starting tomorrow. And we're going to read as church through the gospel of john and if you want to read along with us you can find those videos
[01:04:16] on our social media channels or we'll also send those out in our church updates i encourage you read through john we're working our way through mark on sunday mornings seeing jesus the gospel of john is a powerful it it overlaps and yet it shows us so many other beautiful truths about who
[01:04:34] god is so join us for that in the beginning was the word those videos with ricky you'd be about five or six minutes and he'll read through the passage and then just a couple questions to help
[01:04:45] you dig deeper. It would be a great way to spend time in God's word. And then lastly, if you're visiting with us today, welcome. We are so glad that you're here and we are grateful for the
[01:04:56] opportunity to share Jesus with you and also give you a glimpse of what God is doing here in our church. God has been doing wonderful things in our lives and in our church family. And so I would
[01:05:09] encourage you, if you're visiting, if you don't have a church home, I encourage you to give us three weeks. It's hard to come once and then get a glimpse of what God is doing and get to know
[01:05:18] other people around you. So I'd encourage you, give us at least three weeks and see what God is doing and see what God might do in your heart and in your life. Let me pray and then we'll be
[01:05:30] dismissed. Lord, thank you for the opportunity that we had to worship you together today. Thank you that you don't make mistakes and when our vision is limited you you know and you see you don't give up on us but you heal us lord be with us today help us as we walk from here to be the
[01:05:52] hands and feet of jesus christ help us to love others help us to love you help us to grow deeper in your word and lord i am so grateful for the good work that you're doing and i pray this in

[01:06:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:06:05] Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed. Thank you for joining us online today, and I hope the service was a spiritual blessing to you. If we can be a help in any way, please reach out to us. And if
[01:06:21] you would love to learn more about our church, you can find us online at visitebc.org. Visitebc.org, you'll find our website. You can also find us on social media and on YouTube. And then also, if you're in the Mooresville area, I would love to invite you to come join us in person
[01:06:40] next week and we can worship the Lord together. God bless.