The Blindness Of Man

* Jesus often warned about spiritual blindness.

* <Mt 15:14>: “Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit”.

* Spiritual blindness has got to do with the hardening of the hearts.

* <Jn 12:40>: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

<Luke 12:54-57>:

54 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time? 57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?

* Jesus was marveled and astonished about the people’s unbelief.

* Yet, large crowd gather to listen to Him.

* Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another… <Luke 12:1>

* Jesus replied: “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. <Luke 7:22>

* The Pharisees and Scribes rejected both John and Baptist and Jesus.

* “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” <Mt 11:18-19>

* Bible – History + Correct interpretation.

* Disasters in this world is a result of SIN.

* Sin has blinded us to the real meaning of events.

An expository of Man’s sinfulness

1) Makes life contradictory.

* Man is at the climax of his achievements.

* Yet Man is also failing tragically.

2) Makes life futile.

* All our success is eventually of NO VALUE to us because we fail in the most important thing (i.e. our Eternity)

* Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”” “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

<Lk 12:13-20>.

* When every learning and pursuit is directed to the material but not spiritual, it will reach final futility.

* Jesus said: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” <Mt 6:33>.

* But our cleverness never rise above the material (temporal).

* Such a person is not only failing with God, but failing with life itself.

E.g. Human relationship, Morality, Managing of this world.

3) Makes us hypocrites.

* Greek term for “hypocrite” – Actor. Trying to “act as if”, or “to pretend”.

* Excuses often given by hypocrites:

(1) Insufficient light (Lack of Evidence/Data).

* When there is a group of unbelief people, there is also another group who willingly and unreservedly believe in Jesus.

* And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day <Mt 11:23>.

* This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil <Jn 3:19>.

(2) Intellectual inabilities.

* Problem of stubbornness/ hard-heartedness/ laziness.

* These men loved darkness because their deeds were evil.

* They will face the consequences of their sins soon.

* The one who will judge the living and the dead is coming <2 Ti 4:1>.

Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? <Lk 12:57>.

* Man is given both the intellectual and moral capacity to make judgement.

* When the truth is given, the ONUS is on us to judge what is right.

* Solution given: Settle with your adversary. Reconcile with him before he drags you off to the judge.

* Beware of false assurance.

* “If this world has your heart, why would you think that Heaven is your home?” ~ Paul Washer.