The Overlooked Gift of Sight

Mark 8:22-26 March 21, 2021 Pastor Ricky Alcantar

Thesis It is only through Christ—the light of the world who reveals himself in Scripture—that we receive the gift of spiritual sight we desperately need but do not know we lack.

Series

—

Type

Expository

Tone

pastoraldidacticprophetic

Method

grammatical-historicalcanonicalapplicatory

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

23 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #17

"Ricky applies the first implication: we must see Jesus truly. He uses personal testimony to show how familiarity with Jesus in church culture can produce a superficial understanding that is not saving faith. He challenges teens and college students in particular to test whether they see Jesus as the only Savior or merely as a cultural figure."

Doctrinal loci· 8 surfaced

Christology · 7 Soteriology · 7 Bibliology · 4 Hamartiology · 4 Theology Proper · 3 Anthropology · 1 Ecclesiology · 1 Sanctification · 1

Bible citations· 9

Illustrations· 5

historical example · unit #2 — Ricky tells the story of Bob Dylan's infamous electric performance at Newport 1965 to illustrate how people thought they knew Dylan but were blindsided when he revealed his true self. The illustration parallels the disciples' and our own failure to truly see Jesus despite thinking we understand him.
cultural reference · unit #5 — Ricky recounts a YouTube sermon illustration where a preacher turns the congregation's approval back on themselves. He applies this dynamic to the Mark 8 miracle: Jesus is addressing not just the blind man but the disciples—and us—who think we see but are actually blind.
personal story · unit #7 — Ricky uses a personal story about eating outside with sunglasses on after dark to illustrate how we blame external circumstances when the real problem is internal—our understanding is darkened by sin, not by lack of light.
historical example · unit #9 — Ricky recounts a scientific experiment with upside-down glasses to illustrate how human perception adapts to distortion and eventually accepts it as normal. This parallels how sin distorts our vision until we think we see clearly when everything is actually upside down.
cultural reference · unit #13 — Ricky deconstructs the postmodern parable of the blind men and the elephant, showing that the fable's relativism collapses when someone who can actually see (or in Jesus' case, who made the elephant) reveals the truth. Jesus is uniquely qualified to reveal reality because he is the Creator.

Theological claims· 7

It is only through Christ that we receive the gift of sight—an overlooked gift that we all desperately need. unit #3
Our reason and emotions are darkened and miscalibrated due to sin, making both reason and feelings unreliable authorities apart from God's revelation. unit #6
Receiving the gift of sight begins with recognizing our own spiritual blindness. unit #10
Jesus alone can give the gift of sight because he is the Lord of all creation who reveals both the problem and the cure. unit #12
Jesus' cure for blindness is comprehensive—he addresses the root disease of sin by absorbing its darkness on the cross, restoring us to God's presence at the cost of his own life. unit #15
Jesus initiates the gift of sight—without his prior action of drawing near to us, there would be nothing for us to receive. unit #20
We draw near to Jesus through the Bible, which is the living voice of God himself—not merely a religious text but the place where we encounter the living God. unit #22

Quotations· 2

"I think, therefore I am." — René Descartes (implied by context) (unit #6)

"The only church he worshiped at was the church of his own reason." — Thomas Paine (unit #6)

Read it

Full transcript

26,120 characters 23 units ~29 min reading time Listen instead →

0 · Ricky opens by welcoming the congregation and addressing the post-pandemic shift from practical hindrances to spiritual distraction

Well, uh, welcome today. It is good to see you. My name is Ricky. If I haven't been able to meet you yet, I'm one of the pastors here at the church. Uh, we love Freddie.

He, um, is at a challenge as an employee to, uh, work with at times, uh, but he is well worth it. Um, we're going to be in Mark chapter 8, Mark chapter 8. And let me just, while you're turning there, let me just make a comment here about, uh, kind of the season we're in as a church. So over the last year, the primary obstacle to church involvement and coming to be with the gathered church for the word of God has mostly been a practical hindrance, meaning like there was a period of time we were not at the building. There was a period of time where a lot of folks were not able to come because of health issues.

Some are still in that place. But as more folks have been able to come back, more folks have been able to come in person at different times. I think we're moving to where rather than the primary obstacle being kind of practical hindrance, I think we're also gonna have to start fighting distraction, guys. I think we're gonna move into a mode where it's gonna be like, oh, now we can do more things. Now we can take trips, now we can, you know, and in some ways it's easy when things begin to reopen and life begins to restart.

It's almost like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like church kind of drops into your priority list a little bit or even Bible reading and being with the word drops on your priority list. And I think just like we have fought in this last year, we have fought really hard to keep meeting in person for as many as could do it. We gotta fight now, I think, begin to fight even distraction where it's like, ah, I can go to brunch now, you know? And we haven't had to compete with brunch over the last year.

And so I think let's continue to fight, not because, Not because there's anything that's magical about the human beings that put on services here, but because when the church gathers around the Word of God, something powerful, unique happens. So would you do this? Would you stand up with me? We're going to stand for the reading of God's Word today as a reminder of the uniqueness and power of the Word of God. This is God's holy and authoritative Word.

1 · Ricky reads the primary text aloud—Jesus' two-stage healing of a blind man—then prays for the congregation to receive eyes to see

Mark 8, verse 22. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a man, a blind man, and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking.

Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, do not even enter the village. This is God's word. And Lord, give us eyes to see today.

Help us to see what you have for us. In the name of Jesus, amen. You may take a seat.

2 · Ricky tells the story of Bob Dylan's infamous electric performance at Newport 1965 to illustrate how people thought they knew Dylan but were blindsided when he revealed his true self

Well, in 1965, Bob Dylan played the Newport Folk Festival for the second time. The first time he had played it, it was part of his kind of skyrocketing national fame in the folk scene.

If you are a Gen Zer, you are probably furiously Googling, "What is Bob Dylan?" But there was a time that he was sort of like Donald Glover and that environmental activist girl Greta and a Hollywood, you know, actor, Harry Styles. I don't know. I'm just trying to pull names out of thin air to try to relate to you in some way. So anyway, he was real famous, but not just a famous person. He was sort of a movement leader in the folk scene in the 1960s in America.

Folk music was not just a style of music, like, "I like EDM, I like this." Folk music was a movement. It was a movement of peace and love and authenticity. And Bob Dylan, because of his raw sort of personality, his raw acoustic guitar playing, his kind of ragged voice, he became the figurehead or one of the figureheads for the folk scene in the 1960s. But at the Newport Folk Festival, 1965, he did the unthinkable, and perhaps unforgivable. His band walked on stage and plugged in stacks of amps, and Bob Dylan plugged in a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, and for the next 12 minutes, he proceeded to rock.

And the reaction of the crowd is legendary. The crowd reacted in yelling their surprise and booing loudly. The boos kind of were sporadic throughout his set, and then he ends the set, walks off stage, and there is a near riot. And there's a number of people, you can hear the audio recordings, shouting stuff like, "Bring back the old Bob Dylan!" You know? And like, "Get off the stage!" You know?

And people are just going nuts. They felt betrayed. Right? But this was who Bob Dylan was all along. He was always and has always been an edgy, countercultural provocateur.

And people were disappointed. Everyone had come to see Bob Dylan, their folk hero. Hero, only to discover they'd never really seen him at all. And in many ways, the same thing is happening in this part of the Gospel of Mark. Everybody thinks they see who Jesus is, but people can't see him at all.

The problem is not that Jesus is not revealing himself, right? Jesus has progressively been revealing who he is. The problem is that people are not seeing it. Because they think they've figured him out. They think they see him already.

They need the gift they don't know they need, right? They need the gift of sight, and yet they don't know they need it. And the same is true for us. We often think we see Jesus when in reality we don't see him at all.

3 · Ricky states the sermon's thesis: only through Christ do we receive the gift of spiritual sight

So the main point that Mark is going to show us today is that it's only through Christ that we receive this gift of sight.

It's an overlooked gift, if you could say that, but it is a gift that we all need. And if you're not a Christian, man, if you're not a Christian, if maybe you're in church for the first time or first time in a long time, we want to say thanks for joining us. This is a great place, a safe place to learn who Jesus really is, not who people say Jesus is out there, but using his own testimony and witness to learn who Jesus is, and I hope you'll learn to see him today. 3 sections today. The first section is our need, the need for the gift, the need for the gift.

4 · Ricky explains Mark's sandwich literary structure, showing how the healing of the blind man sits between Jesus' question about the disciples' understanding and Peter's confession

Now, biblical commentators have pointed out a pattern in the way Mark writes his gospel, right? It's— and the way they summarize it is the Markan sandwich. It doesn't mean like a first-century hummus and falafel sandwich. This is the way Mark structures his writing. We saw a couple weeks ago that Mark had a story about Jesus feeding the crowd and then a story about the Pharisees and then the disciples wondering if they'll be fed and Mark says, hey, this is all saying one thing.

Right now, this week, the only way to understand this week's passage is to understand what comes right before it and right after it, okay? So last week, remember the disciples, they didn't see who Jesus was clearly, they were worried. They were gonna starve when they had the giver of all bread and life in the boat with them. And Jesus says, "Do you not yet understand?" And then there's this story, and then next week is Peter the apostle responding to the question. Jesus says, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter says, "You are the Christ," right?

So you've got Jesus saying, "Don't you understand who I am?" And then Jesus saying, "Who do you say that I am?" And then this story in the middle. Now, what is going on with this story? At first, it seems like just a random detour. It's not a detour. Sinclair Ferguson points out that every miracle Jesus does is a sign, but this sign is not primarily for the blind man.

This sign is primarily for the disciples. And actually, by way of extension, the sign is actually for us.

5 · Ricky recounts a YouTube sermon illustration where a preacher turns the congregation's approval back on themselves

There was a few years ago a famous kind of message that went around on YouTube from a pastor who was talking to a group of youth. And the group of youth were gathered there. And so he's preaching to them and he preaches a pretty rough message about like, hey, you may think you're a Christian, you may not be a Christian.

You may well not, you're probably not a Christian, you know? And he's kind of laying into people who think that they're Christians and the crowd begins clapping like, yeah. And then he pauses and looks at the crowd and says, I don't know why you're clapping, I'm talking about you. And the youth group's like, mm. You know, this is in essence what Jesus is doing.

He's healing this man from his blindness, and the disciples are like, "Yeah, he was blind, definitely very blind. Good job, Jesus." And Jesus, as it were, looks back at the disciples and says, "I don't know why you're clapping. This miracle is about you," right? And by extension, why is this in our Bibles? Because we do the same things the disciples do.

We show up, we're like, I got it, I see Jesus, I'm good to go. And Mark and Jesus and the Bible would look at us and say, church, I don't know why you're clapping. This story is about you, right? This story is about you and me and all who come assuming, yeah, I got it, I see it. No, we are similarly blind.

6 · Ricky exposes the cultural idolatry of autonomous reason and authoritative feelings

The Bible is actually, uh, incredibly offensive, especially to our modern culture, in the way that it talks about our sight and our ability. The Bible says our reason, our sight, our emotions, the way that we see the world, that is darkened and miscalibrated. Ephesians 4 has this summary, it says, "They're darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart." Like the ignorance is not just like, I just don't know. It's like, no, I could know, but I'm not going to because my heart is hard. And the effect is that our understanding, our ability to see the world becomes darkened.

Now, this is extremely important for us in our 21st century context. There are sort of two currents that we've learned to trust, I think, what the Bible would say, far more than we should, okay? So the first current that we've learned to trust is our reason. Now, we live in the Western sort of civilization culture, post-Enlightenment, so we've learned to trust our own reason above all else, right? I think, therefore I am.

Our identity is tied to our ability to reason. And Thomas Paine had this great statement. I'm saying it's a good statement, I'm saying it's a great summary statement, just clarifying here before I say it. Thomas Paine, one of our founding fathers, said he didn't go to church, he didn't believe in any, you know, religious institution, The only church he worshiped at was the church of his own reason, meaning, like, he's the guy. He's going to decide among all these things.

Not this, not this. He's going to decide, right? That is kind of a cultural current that we're still going through. It's like, if it doesn't make sense to me, if I don't get it, then it must not be true. But second, I think more recently there's a current of feelings.

We've added to that. Well, what I feel must be definitive and authoritative. And so if I feel you're doing this to me, then that's what you're doing, right? You're like, I'm not being that way. Oh, you are.

I feel like you are. You're like, no, no, no, I'm not. I feel like you are. And that's kind of the end of the argument. And in our modern age, these two things are what we've learned to trust.

The way that I think, what makes sense to me, and the way that I feel, what feels right to me. The problem is Ephesians 4 says that we are darkened in our understanding, that our emotions and our reason are miscalibrated due to our hardness of heart, and we can't even see things correctly.

7 · Ricky uses a personal story about eating outside with sunglasses on after dark to illustrate how we blame external circumstances when the real problem is internal—our understanding is darkened by sin, not by lack of light

Right, there was a number of years ago where I was, I remember, I was such an idiot, but I was sitting in my backyard, and the sun is going down, and it's getting darker and darker, and so we're kind of trying to eat outside, And I remember thinking, like, man, it is so dark out here. It's hard to see, like, what's in the bowls, you know? And I'm trying to see, like, is that— what kind of a salad is that?

And I'm just really struggling. And it doesn't seem like anyone else at the table is struggling in any similar way. And it was, like, probably a number of minutes into the meal when I realized I'm still wearing my sunglasses. Like, the sun is down. I'm wearing sunglasses.

That's why it feels pitch black out here, right? That is what Ephesians is saying has happened to us. We, we think we're like, man, it's really hard to see out here. And God's like, it's not, it's not that hard to see. It's that your understanding has been darkened, right?

8 · Ricky expounds Romans 1, diagnosing the root cause of spiritual blindness: humanity's willful refusal to acknowledge God

So Romans 1 diagnoses where this darkened understanding comes from. It says that God has clearly revealed himself to us, but we refuse to see God and therefore refuse to see the world around us. In sin, we basically say, "I don't want to see you, God. I don't want to look at you. I don't want to have anything to do with you.

I'm turning away." But when we do that, it means you can't see anything else clearly, right? It'd be like if an astronomer said, "You know what? I don't like the sun. I love everything else in the solar system, but not the sun. I'm going to not believe the sun exists.

I'm going to refuse to acknowledge it, and I'm going to do astronomy." You'd be like, "I don't think this is going to work." Like, well, why do you think that things go round and round? I don't know, maybe it's some sort of magical— planets are curved, so maybe they like to turn. And they're just coming up all kinds of crazy explanations when the other astronomers would say, just the sun makes sense of everything else, right? This is what we do as human beings. We're like, no, God, I'm not gonna see relationships or life or anything in relationship to God.

And therefore we can't really see anything. Romans 1:21 says, "For although we knew God," or they knew God, "they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." You see both the reason and the emotion there? Our futile thinking, our foolish hearts were darkened. "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind." consequences of our sin, and we're saying, "I don't want to see you, God. I don't want to see you." Then God says, partially in judgment, "Then you won't see me.

That's what you're saying. You don't want to see me. Then I'm going to give you over to not seeing me." And in this way, our upside-down sort of version of the world begins to make sense to us.

9 · Ricky recounts a scientific experiment with upside-down glasses to illustrate how human perception adapts to distortion and eventually accepts it as normal

There was an experiment a number of years ago where scientists were studying how our eyes adapt to problems in vision. So, if you've ever had a really dirty pair of glasses and you take the pair of glasses off and you see like, it's smudgy and there's stuff on the glasses, but when you were looking through, you thought, I could see, you know, fine. And you take 'em off and you're like, oh my gosh. Well, it's 'cause your eyes learn to adapt. They essentially, they've done experiments where they'll like put a dot on somebody's glasses or contacts, and your eye, after a while, you won't see the dot anymore, 'cause you'll learn to see around it, in a sense. So this one scientist wanted to see how far he could take this, so he got glasses that flip the world upside down, which was horrible and nauseating, and the guy was absolutely in excruciating pain for like 24 hours. And so finally, he fell asleep, he woke up, and amazingly, his eyes adapted to the glasses, And he now thought he was seeing right side up.

Then, of course, what happened? He had to take the glasses off, right? Another 24 hours going back the other way. This is what happens to us as human beings. We're like, I see fine, when in reality everything's upside down, everything is darkened.

10 · Ricky returns to the primary text to make the theological point: we are like the disciples—like the half-healed blind man—thinking we see when we are still blind

And so the beginning of this text, what this text is trying to get us to see is we are just like the disciples. We're like this half-healed guy that we can see a little bit and we're like, I think we're good, I think we see it. And Jesus is like, no, you can't see it, look, let me show you. Look, he sees a little bit, now he sees everything, right? This is where you guys are at and we're like, no, no, I don't need that gift, I can see fine, right?

Getting the gift of sight, receiving the gift of sight starts with seeing our need for the gift of sight.

11 · Ricky signals the structural shift from the first section (our need for sight) to the second section (Jesus giving the gift of sight)

Second, giving of the gift.

12 · Ricky declares the gospel promise embedded in Mark 8: Jesus not only diagnoses our blindness but provides the cure

The good news about this passage is that Jesus not only reveals our blindness, he reveals the cure for our blindness. The gift of sight. And this is such good news because Jesus in the Gospel of Mark has been revealed as the Lord of all creation, the maker himself come to give the gift of sight.

He alone can actually give this gift.

13 · Ricky deconstructs the postmodern parable of the blind men and the elephant, showing that the fable's relativism collapses when someone who can actually see (or in Jesus' case, who made the elephant) reveals the truth

Now, there's a classic sort of postmodern fable that gets tossed around a lot, right? And here's how the fable goes. 3 blind men come to an elephant and are asked to describe the elephant. So one person holds the tail and says, "Okay, it is a snake.

It is like a snake. The elephant is like a snake." The second person holds the leg of the elephant and says, "The elephant is like a tree." The third person holds the ear of the elephant and says, "The elephant is like a bat or like a bird." And the moral of the fable is that basically, usually, the moral is all religions are kind of right, they all see a little bit, so let's all just be cool with whatever you wanna— whatever you see is good for you. Have any— I'm curious, have any high school or college students, kids heard this? Is anybody tracking with this? The elephant thing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is really common. The problem is this. The fable misses a crucial truth that we know to be true, even based on our own experience. The truth is this.

There is such a thing as an elephant. And we know that because we have all seen the elephant before. The solution to like, well, this person says this, this person says that, this person says this, so I guess we'll never know what an elephant is. That's what our culture does. I guess we'll never know.

No, find somebody who can see the elephant, who can say, look, this is the elephant. It has a trunk, it has big thick legs, it has a tail. And you're like, oh, then even the blind people will start to be like, Oh yeah, I move my hand a little bit over and if you— oh yeah, I'm— okay, yeah, yeah, I'm tracking with you, right? Right, this is what Jesus can offer that no one else can. Not only can he see the elephant, right, clearly where nobody else can, he made the elephant, right?

He made the universe, he spun out the stars. And so human beings are stumbling around thinking, I guess we'll never know. How to use romance and sexuality. I guess we'll never know what the meaning of life is. And Jesus is like, I know, I made it, right?

This, this is why Jesus is utterly unique.

14 · Ricky expounds John 8:12, showing that Jesus claims to be the exclusive source of spiritual light

And this is what he says in John 8: Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Jesus comes onto the scene like a light, and he, in his ministry, what he is doing is he is illuminating the world around him. And he says, listen, if you want to see, follow me, follow me, and you will not walk in darkness. That is how radical Jesus' claim is, that unless you see him clearly, unless you follow him and walk alongside of him, you will not see anything else clearly. That Jesus is not just a religious teacher offering some truth about the universe, he is the authority on all things, preaching the capital T Truth that is unfiltered, unbiased, infallible.

Right? This is who Jesus is.

15 · Ricky connects spiritual blindness to the doctrine of sin and shows that Jesus' cure is comprehensive: he does not merely heal symptoms but addresses the root disease

Now, though, Jesus' trajectory in the Gospels reveals something else. That blindness is a result of sin, but Jesus is not offering a shallow cure. He's not just gonna cure the blindness, he's gonna go all the way to the root, right? Sin produces blindness, it cuts us off from God himself, in a sense, it casts us out of the light in which we can see light. The psalmist says in Psalm 36:9, in your light do we see light. Meaning it's only when you're in the presence of God, when you're close to God, that you can even see the world around you clearly.

So apart from God, in our sinfulness, when our hearts are hardened, we're not only unable to see, we're cast out away from God. But Jesus' trajectory, as we're seeing all throughout the Gospel of Mark, is that he's gonna go and his mission will be not to just cure the symptom, but the disease. And on the cross, Jesus goes and suffers in the place of sinful people like you and me. And as he does it, what happens even in creation? The sun is blotted out, right?

No one is able to see because it's a symbol of Jesus being cast into darkness for us. But he bears all of it. In a sense, he absorbs this darkness into himself. So that we can be welcomed back into the light of God's presence. Jesus' cure for blindness is not a shallow cure.

Jesus' cure for blindness is an all-encompassing, soul-curing, eternity-altering cure that costs his very life. This is what Jesus has come to do, to give this gift.

16 · Ricky explains the purpose of the two-stage healing: it is a symbolic depiction of the disciples' partial sight

So then, why again, why this strange two-stage healing? It was not as though Jesus tried to heal him once and it's like, "Ah, didn't fully charge the batteries on that one." So he has to take, you know, second hit, boom, okay, great, got it that time. No, this is a picture of the disciples, right?

Do the disciples at this stage of the gospel know Jesus? Well, yes and no. They know enough that they were compelled to leave their nets and old lives and follow him full time. So did they see him? Well, they see something.

And they see something compelling. But do they fully know Jesus as the messianic king? No, I don't think so. Not until Peter says it next week. Do they know him as the suffering servant and the messianic king?

Definitely not. Not that until the cross. So this has two implications for us today. What does this mean for us? It means we must learn to see Jesus fully and learn to see Jesus truly.

17 · Ricky applies the first implication: we must see Jesus truly

We have to see him truly enough to believe. Right? I grew up in church. I know well— like, I sat in that classroom over there hearing my teachers faithfully talk about Jesus forever. And I'm like, yeah, I get it.

Yeah, I get it. Who's Jesus? He's a good guy. And what does he offer? He offers to help good people like me.

Like, no, you don't get it. They keep preaching the gospel to me week after week. Who is Jesus? He's a good guy. He's the best guy.

What about you? I'm pretty good. No, you said— they said, keep going. Right? I did.

I heard him all the time. I could have described him to people, but I did not see my need for Jesus or see who Jesus was in relationship to my need, right? We must see the full picture of who Jesus is as Savior and as Lord. And we have to make sure we don't see him as something that our culture would like to advocate for, which is Jesus is a nice guy. He's a fine guy.

He helped the poor. Great, good for him. No, Jesus is either the only true seeing, sight-giving universe shaper, or he is nothing, right? There's no, well, I kind of like Jesus. Either you see him or you don't.

So the test really is this, do you see Jesus truly? And I want to encourage you, man, especially if you've grown up in the church, if you're a teen, if you're in college, like that era is where you start to think like, oh, Well, I know Jesus. And I see tons of people even reject Jesus, or who they think Jesus is, 'cause like, oh, I got him. I heard about that growing up, and that doesn't work for me anymore. No, if Jesus is something you could take or leave, I'm telling you right now, you do not see Jesus truly yet.

But you can, but you can.

18 · Ricky applies the second implication: even Christians must continue growing in their sight of Jesus

Second, we must grow ever more in seeing Jesus fully. Right, even in Christ, once we've had the light of salvation break in on us, we are all tempted to say, okay, now I get Jesus. Now I understand Jesus. And Jesus can become boring or stale or like, "Yeah, sure, I get it." No, no.

If Jesus is boring to you or stale to you or you think you see him or you think you get him or you think you understand him, you do not. Press in to see him fully.

19 · Ricky signals the shift from the second section (Jesus giving the gift) to the third section (how we receive the gift)

Third then, receiving the gift. How do we receive this gift?

20 · Before moving to human response, Ricky establishes the priority of divine initiative

Well, before we talk about receiving the gift, just— I want you to see this and remember this. Jesus is the one who initiates this gift, right? He's the one that holds the gift out. Jesus comes to earth, Jesus comes to this town, Jesus invites the man forward, Jesus leads him, Jesus makes the first move, Jesus reveals himself. Otherwise, there'd be nothing to draw near to if Jesus had not drawn near to us.

21 · Ricky identifies the first step in receiving the gift: come to Jesus

But there also is a component where this man must receive the gift. So how does he do that? First, come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Sometimes we overcomplicate the Bible and, you know, we could say things like, okay, well, so when this man comes to Jesus and receives healing, like, what does that symbolize? I'll tell you what it symbolizes.

You come to Jesus and you receive healing, right? That's— sometimes it's that simple. You come to Jesus, the healer, and he brings healing throughout all these areas of life, including our sight.

22 · Ricky establishes the means of drawing near to Jesus: the Bible

So then how then do you draw near to Jesus? You do it through the Bible. I don't know if you've noticed, but Jesus is not physically walking around anymore. So you might just say, "Oh, well, I guess we'll never know." No, I guess we will, because he's revealed himself in these pages. Like, the Bible claims that it is more than just a religious text. The Bible claims that in these pages you encounter the living God. God.

In 2 Timothy 3:16, it says that all Scripture is breathed out by God and useful for everything, right? That means that the pages of this book, the stories in this book, the commands in this book are words coming from the very living God himself. And see, here's where I just— sometimes I do this as well. We could say, man, I just wish I knew what God would say about this thing in my life, or that thing in my life. I wish I knew what I was supposed to do.

It's there. The Word of God is open and ready to speak to you, the words of the living God himself.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Feb 14, 2021

The Ghost on the Sea

Our storms reveal that Jesus is both higher than we think—sovereign over all creation as the wave-walking God—and nearer than we think—the incarnate Savior who climbs into the boat with doubters and sinners.

Mark 6:45-52

Feb 21, 2021

Heart of Darkness

The heart of the problem is our heart, but Jesus aims his ministry at the heart of our problem by offering his righteousness in exchange for our defilement and renovating our hearts by the Spirit.

Mark 7:1-23

Feb 28, 2021

The Kind of People Jesus Welcomes

Only a certain kind of person can receive help from Jesus, but that certain kind of person is defined by faith in Christ, not by moral achievement, ethnic identity, or social respectability—and that means the door is open to all who come in humble, wholehearted, persistent trust.

Mark 7:24-30

March 21 · This sermon

The Overlooked Gift of Sight

It is only through Christ—the light of the world who reveals himself in Scripture—that we receive the gift of spiritual sight we desperately need but do not know we lack.

Mark 8:22-26

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

In Mark 8:22-26, Jesus heals the blind man in two stages rather than all at once. What do you notice about how the man responds each time Je…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we trace the arc from our desperate need for sight, through Christ's power to give it, to the Bible as the place where we encounter him and receive the gift.

Prayer

Father, Open Our Eyes

Father, we come before you in humility, acknowledging that you alone are the source of light and life. You made all things through Christ, a…

Family table

What Can You See?

This prompt invites your family to notice what they can and cannot see in their everyday lives—a concrete way into the sermon's theme of spi…

Couples

Seeing Jesus Together

What part of the sermon made you most aware that you've been spiritually blind in some area—and what did it feel like to consider that Jesus…

Memorize

John 8:12

This verse crystallizes the sermon's central claim: Jesus alone is the cure for spiritual blindness. The metaphor of light cutting through darkness anchors the entire argument—we are blind until Christ, the light of the world, reveals himself to us through his Word and his cross. To memorize this verse is to hold fast to the gospel's diagnosis and provision in one sentence.

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

In Mark 8:22-26, Jesus heals the blind man in two stages rather than all at once. What do you notice about how the man responds each time Jesus touches him? What might this tell us about how spiritual sight works?

Mark 8:22-26

→ How is this different from what you might have expected Jesus to do?
The disciples witness this miracle, yet Jesus says they still don't see—they remain spiritually blind about who he is. What does it mean that you can witness something with your own eyes and still be blind to its true meaning?

Ephesians 4:18

→ Where have you experienced this in your own life—where your reason or your feelings told you one thing, but Scripture revealed something different?
According to the sermon, our culture tells us to trust our reason and our feelings as the ultimate authorities. When have you discovered that trusting only your reason or your feelings led you astray? What happened?

Romans 1:28
Jesus says, 'I am the light of the world.' What is the connection between light and sight in this passage, and what does it mean for Jesus to be the light that restores our ability to see spiritual truth?

John 8:12

→ How does John 8:12 deepen what Mark 8 is showing us?
The sermon emphasizes that we must first recognize our own spiritual blindness before we can receive the gift of sight from Jesus. What does it look like to admit you're spiritually blind? What makes this admission difficult?

→ What happens when we refuse to admit our blindness?
If you were to invite someone this week who is spiritually blind to encounter Jesus, how would you lead them to Scripture—and what would you want them to see there?

2 Timothy 3:16

→ What gift would you most want them to receive?

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we trace the arc from our desperate need for sight, through Christ's power to give it, to the Bible as the place where we encounter him and receive the gift.

Monday Ephesians 4:18

Paul diagnoses us with surgical precision: we are darkened in our understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance and hardness in us. This is not a problem we can think or feel our way out of. We need light from outside ourselves—the kind only Christ can bring.

Tuesday Romans 1:21

The text shows us that blindness began when we knew God but did not honor him or give thanks. We had sight once, in a sense, but we squandered it. The good news is that sight—true spiritual sight—is still a gift available to us, but only if we turn from our self-made darkness and toward Christ, the source of all light.

Wednesday John 8:12

Jesus does not merely show us light; he *is* the light. He is not a teacher pointing to the truth; he is the truth incarnate. When we follow him, we do not walk in darkness—we receive the light of life itself. No created thing, no reason, no feeling can offer what Christ offers: the presence of God made visible and accessible to us.

Thursday Psalm 36:9

In your light we see light. All illumination, all life, all goodness flows from God. When we are cut off from him by sin, we live in the deepest darkness. But Christ came to restore that connection—to bring us back into the light of God's face where life itself is found. His death and resurrection make that restoration possible.

Friday 2 Timothy 3:16

Scripture is not a dusty instruction manual; it is God-breathed, profitable for teaching us truth and correcting us in darkness. When we open the Bible, we are not studying words on a page—we are hearing the voice of the one who gives us sight. This week, as you read God's word, remember: you are not just learning facts about Christ. You are meeting Christ himself, the light of the world.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

What Can You See?

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to notice what they can and cannot see in their everyday lives—a concrete way into the sermon's theme of spiritual blindness and sight. Listen for where kids naturally land on what's hard to see, then gently connect that to the idea that we need Jesus to help us see spiritual truth.

Jesus healed a blind man so he could see. But the sermon says we're all spiritually blind in a way we don't even know. At dinner tonight, can you think of one thing in your life right now that you can't see clearly—maybe something confusing, or something you're not sure is true or false? It could be about God, about yourself, about what a friend is really thinking, or anything else. What is it hard for you to see right now?

works for ages 7+; younger kids can listen and name one simple confusion; teens and adults will naturally go deeper into what 'seeing spiritually' means

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

Seeing Jesus Together

What part of the sermon made you most aware that you've been spiritually blind in some area—and what did it feel like to consider that Jesus alone can open your eyes?
Where in our marriage do we rely on our own reason or feelings as the final word instead of coming together to Jesus through his Word—and how might receiving his sight together change that pattern?
What is one specific way you want to pray that Jesus would give your spouse clearer spiritual vision this week?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

John 8:12

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'

Why this verse: This verse crystallizes the sermon's central claim: Jesus alone is the cure for spiritual blindness. The metaphor of light cutting through darkness anchors the entire argument—we are blind until Christ, the light of the world, reveals himself to us through his Word and his cross. To memorize this verse is to hold fast to the gospel's diagnosis and provision in one sentence.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

Father, Open Our Eyes

Father, we come before you in humility, acknowledging that you alone are the source of light and life. You made all things through Christ, and in him is the light of the world. We adore you for your patience with us, for your willingness to draw near to those of us who are spiritually blind and do not even know it.

We confess that we have trusted in our reason and our emotions as if they were reliable guides, when in truth our understanding is darkened by sin. We have believed the world's measure of what is true and good, only to find ourselves alienated from you and from the fullness of life you offer (Ephesians 4:18). We have walked in darkness, calling it sight. Forgive us for the blindness we have not acknowledged, and for the times we have turned away from your Word, which alone reveals the truth about ourselves, about you, and about the world.

And here is the good news: Jesus, the light of the world, has come for us. He has seen our blindness and our need. He has absorbed the darkness of our sin on the cross, paying the price we could not pay, restoring us to your presence. By his death and resurrection, he has made a way for us to see clearly—to see you, to see ourselves, to see the world as it truly is (John 8:12). We receive this gift not through our own effort but by faith, as we come to him through his Word.

Father, we ask you to give us the humility to recognize our own spiritual blindness. Draw us near to Jesus through Scripture. Open our ears to hear his voice in the Bible—not merely as a religious text, but as your living Word speaking to us now. Give us eyes to see who Jesus truly is: our Lord, our Savior, our light. And having received the gift of sight ourselves, give us courage and love to bring others who are still blind to see him too. We commit ourselves to you this week, trusting that you will lead us into greater clarity and deeper communion with you through Christ.

All glory and honor to you, Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, forever. Amen.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church

About us · What we believe

Plan a visit →

Crawler & AI-search policy · view robots.txt and llms.txt

This sermon page is intentionally optimized for search engines and AI assistants. We've opted into being crawled by both. The crawler-config files at the domain root:

/robots.txt

User-agent: *
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://sermonsteward.com/sitemap.xml

/llms.txt

# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [The Ghost on the Sea (Mark 6:45-52, 2021-02-14)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2021/02/the-ghost-on-the-sea)
- [Heart of Darkness (Mark 7:1-23, 2021-02-21)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2021/02/heart-of-darkness)
- [The Kind of People Jesus Welcomes (Mark 7:24-30, 2021-02-28)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2021/02/the-kind-of-people-jesus-welcomes)
- [The Overlooked Gift of Sight (Mark 8:22-26, 2021-03-21)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2021/03/the-overlooked-gift-of-sight)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

The page itself ships with Schema.org Article + Church markup, Open Graph + Twitter cards for share previews, and a canonical URL. Transcripts are server-rendered HTML — no JS dependency for the readable body.