Sermon Preview – Week of April 2



The last verse in John’s Gospel has always piqued the interest of students of the Bible …“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”   While John’s statement serves to stir a curiosity to know the unknown, it also gives great credence to the value of the works of Christ that the Holy Spirit ordained to be set down in God’s Word.  With a sense of the glorious worth of the historical events attributed to the Messiah we will consider this Lord’s Day perhaps the most unique of all Christ’s works in the form of his miracles, the Healing of the Blind Man at Bethsaida.

This miracle, which is only recorded by Mark, has several peculiar features.  Some of these it shares with one other of our Lord’s miracles, which also is found in Mark’s Gospel, – that of healing the deaf and dumb man found in chapter 7.  In both of these our Lord takes the needy man apart and works his miracle in private and makes use of the same physical means to bring about healing – our Lord’s touch and his saliva.  But this miracle had another peculiarity in which it stands absolutely alone, and that is the work of healing is done in stages.  Whereas the mere spoken word of Christ raised the dead, healed the lame, purged leprosy from the afflicted here we see it seems to labor, with the cure coming slowly!  Like a physician trying a new drug asks the patient if any relief is noted and hearing some but not eradication of the illness, employs a second application to see if that brings complete healing.

What is the meaning behind the Sovereign Lord of all creation bringing about the blind man’s healing in stages?  What lessons can be gleaned as we endeavor to walk in the footsteps of a blind man from Bethsaida?  By the grace of God and the illumination of the Holy Spirit may we peer ever so slightly into the seeming mystery of this miracle and see a glorious similarity between the literal restoration of physical sight to a blind man and the reconciliation of a sinner to his Creator.  At the center of both we find the God-Man, Jesus Christ.


Preaching – Joe Flahive
Sermon Title
He Who Gives Sight To The Blind
Preaching Text – Mark 8:22-26
Meditation Passage – Isaiah 35
Call to Worship Passage – Isaiah 42:1-4
Benediction Passage – Ephesians 1:18-21


Songs for Sunday –

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)
Open the Eyes of My Heart
O Spirit Life Our Eyes To Jesus
How Sweet and Aweful Is The Place
Amazing Grace

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