The blind man Christ couldn’t heal
Of all my senses I imagine my sight would be the worst to lose.
Much of our learning comes from the positive example of others. However there are many more examples of what we shouldn’t do that we can learn from as well.
I wan’t to talk about the situation of Judas Iscariot.
He was:
1- Exposed to absolute truth.
He had Christ himself teaching him
2- Saw firsthand the miracles proving who
Christ was.
3- Held a privileged position before Christ.
As apostle and money-keeper
Despite all of this he ended up not only denying Christ but betraying Him.
We wonder how Judas could have possibly acted the way he did.
How can a person with all the facts,
spelled out for him in living color,
still not believe?
2 Cor. 3:14
Propostion: What could possibly blind someone from the truth?
Three things that blinded Judas.
Need to set the story
John 12:1-8 - Annointing at Bethel, Judas’ rebuke.
Matt 26:14 - Directly following the events of John 12, Judas agrees to betray Christ.
1- GREED BLINDED HIM
Matt. 6:22-23
Here we have a little passage tucked away between two well known verses.
vs. 21 "where your treasure is"
vs. 24 "no man can serve two masters"
Both passages before and after are speaking of material things or money. (Some Bibles say "mammon which means money)
And 22 and 23 speak of a person with a good eye that can see and a person with a bad eye cannot.
What are the Scriptures before and after talking about? - Greed
What is this Scripture talking about? - Greed
Greed blind from the truth. A person with a bad eye, an eye focused on material things, cannot see the truth.
Judas’ real objection to Mary’s annointing was not that he was concerned about redistributing the money that selling the perfume would’ve brought in. He just wanted a chance to skim his "share" of the top.
Greed blinded Judas to the truth of Christ
And it certainly can do the same for us.
It causes us to set our focus on the earth and not Christ.
vs 23- "If your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness."
All Judas could see was the perfume
He couldn’t see the Messiah that it was annointing.
2- PRIDE BLINDED HIM
John 9:39 -
Christ said that he came to bring sight to the blind and blindness to the seeing.
That sound just a little strange.
But to those Pharisees that thought they understood...
Matt 13:13 - "Seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."
Because Christ didn’t want them to understand? NO!
Because they convinced they already understood.
Back to Judas-
John 12:4,5 - Judas objects to what Christ was allowing.
His motives were wrong, like we discussed, but he was acting like he knew better than Christ.
What did Christ say to Peter when Peter thought he knew more? Mk 8:32,33
It’s pretty serious to think that we have got things figured out that Christ doesn’t/
But that is exactly what we do when we don’t take His commandments seriously.
When He spells out exaclty what he wants from us and we refuse to do it, aren’t we saying we know better?
Pride will blind us to the truth.
3-GUILT BLINDED HIM
Sometimes the thing we need the most is the very thing we can’t see. (glasses, pens, car keys, etc.)
It’s right in front of our eyes
I guess one thing we can say for Judas was that he was honest. After the deed was done, he didn’t ignore, deny or justify his guilt as so many do today.
But because of his sin and false beliefs he was blinded to the message of Christ
FORGIVENESS
And he couldn’t see the very thing he needed the most.
This is the real tragedy of Judas’ story.
What sin can Christ’s blood not cover?
But so many live with the same tragedy Judas did - OVERWHELMING GUILT.
They can’t allow Christ to forgive them
Guilt has blinded them to the truth of forgiveness.
CONCLUSION-
I am here to tell you that Christ can open your eyes.
Just as sure as he did when He healed the blind.
How?
-By acting on our belief in God
-Changing our ways
-Allowing the blood to wash our sin away
-living a dedicated life for Him.
Just like Judas-
-We have been exposed to the truth.
-We have been told of the miracles of Christ.
-We have been given a privileged position of adoption.
Will we make the same decisions that Judas did?
Judas was the blind man that Jesus couldn’t heal.
Becuase Judas didn’t seek healing
Have you been blinded?
God is giving you the chance to see!
The real questions is- will you allow it?
