Episode 183
Faith Over Sight: Spiritual Blindness and John 9
Show Notes: Faith Over Sight: Unpacking Scripture at the Bible Bistro
Episode: Walking by Faith, Not by Sight
Hosts: Ryan and Brian
Date: March 03, 2025
Website: thebiblebistro.com
Welcome back to Ryan and Brian’s Bible Bistro! In this episode, your hosts Ryan and Brian serve up a hearty discussion on what it means to "walk by faith, not by sight." With their signature bistro charm—real, unpolished, and full of heart—they dig into scripture, explore narrative storytelling in the Bible, and connect it all to our lives today. From the healing of the blind man in John 9 to Elisha’s angel armies in 2 Kings, this episode is all about seeing the unseen. Grab a seat and let’s unpack it!
Opening Banter: The Bistro Charm
- Ryan and Brian kick things off with their usual laid-back vibe—no bloopers reel needed, just authentic charm.
- They tease the topic: Bible theology and all things Christian faith, with a focus on "walking by faith, not by sight."
Main Discussion: Walking by Faith, Not by Sight
Scripture Starter: 2 Corinthians 5:6-7
- Text: "Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight."
- Ryan’s Take: Living 2,000 years after Christ, faith means trusting the Bible’s truth without seeing Jesus firsthand—like leaning on the book in front of us.
- Brian’s Insight: Paul’s talking about trusting God for our eternal state, even when we can’t see it. It’s a funny spot to be in—betting our eternity on someone we’ve never met face-to-face!
Deep Dive: John 9 – The Blind Man’s Story
- Text: John 9:1-38 (Healing of the man born blind).
- Key Moments:
- Verses 1-2: Jesus sees a man blind from birth; the disciples ask, “Who sinned—him or his parents?” (Reflecting the 1st-century Jewish view tying blindness to sin.)
- Verses 3-5: Jesus flips the script: “Neither… but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” He’s the light of the world!
- Verses 6-7: Jesus spits, makes mud, sends the man to wash in the Pool of Siloam (“Sent”)—and he comes back seeing.
- Verses 13-15: Plot twist—it’s the Sabbath! The Pharisees grill the man: “How’d this happen?”
- Verses 24-34: The man sticks to his story—“He put mud on my eyes, I washed, now I see”—even as the Pharisees excommunicate him.
- Verses 35-38: Jesus finds him, reveals Himself as the Son of Man, and the man worships Him.
- Brian’s Narrative Lens: Why tell it this way? John withholds the Sabbath detail to pull us in—miracle vs. lawbreaker tension! The man’s consistent testimony, despite never seeing Jesus till the end, mirrors our faith today.
- Ryan’s Thoughts: The Pharisees can’t accept any explanation—sin or no sin, they’re stuck. The man’s boldness stands out.
Big Idea: This story’s about seeing with faith—Jesus as the light, and us as witnesses, boldly sharing what He’s done, even without seeing Him ourselves.
Connecting the Dots: More Scripture on Faith and Sight
- 1 Peter 1:7-9
- Text: “Though you have not seen him, you love him… you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”
- Takeaway: Peter nails it—we love and trust Jesus without seeing Him, and trials prove our faith’s genuineness.
- 2 Kings 6:12-20
- Story: Elisha’s servant panics seeing Syria’s army, but Elisha prays, “Open his eyes!”—revealing God’s angel armies. Then blinds the enemy and leads them to Samaria.
- Connection: Faith sees God’s greater reality beyond the visible trouble. Bonus: Naaman’s wash in 2 Kings 5 ties into John’s “sent” theme!
- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
- Text: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
- Insight: Paul contrasts light, momentary troubles with eternal glory. Focusing on the unseen takes effort—closing our eyes to distractions to see what’s real.
So What? Applying It Today
- Ryan’s Question: How do we focus on the unseen when the seen (troubles, news, daily grind) is so loud?
- Brian’s Answer: It’s tough! We need quiet—turn off the noise, close our eyes, and connect to Jesus’ eternal reality. Like the blind man, we testify to what He’s done, even without seeing Him.
- Practical Tip: Take time to be still. Reflect on what’s eternal—Jesus, whom we love though we haven’t seen, is more real than what’s in front of us.
Closing Thoughts
- Ryan and Brian wrap up with a nod to Mark’s blind man (partial sight to full)—a reminder to see beyond the daily blur to the eternal Messiah.
- Call to Action: Loved this episode? Share it with a friend, leave a review on Apple Podcasts, or visit thebiblebistro.com for resources (we get a tiny cut if you buy something!).
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Ryan and Brian's Bible Bistro.
Speaker A:I'm Ryan.
Speaker B:And I'm Brian.
Speaker B:And this is the Bible Bistro, a podcast all about Bible biology and all.
Speaker A:Things say it related to the Christian faith.
Speaker B:You want to do that again?
Speaker A:No, no, this is just what we do.
Speaker B:This is real.
Speaker B:This is authentic.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker A:This is the charm.
Speaker A:The charm, the bistro charm.
Speaker B:We'll never have a behind the scenes issue, though, because, like, we'll never have a bloopers reel, so we're lucky to.
Speaker A:Get out the regular reel.
Speaker A:So, yes, you're right.
Speaker A:I seriously doubt there'll be a behind the scenes.
Speaker A:Well, Brian, welcome back.
Speaker B:Hey, good to see you.
Speaker B:How are you doing?
Speaker A:I'm good, Brian.
Speaker A:Good.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Yeah, Good times.
Speaker A:Good times.
Speaker B:What do you want to talk about today?
Speaker A:Well, I thought we'd talk about John.
Speaker B:It's not exactly John.
Speaker B:So I have been preaching through the Gospel of John, and this is a passage I've looked at several times, and it's one of these things I like to kind of think about and play around with a little bit.
Speaker B:Actually, we're not starting in John.
Speaker B:We're starting in 2 Corinthians.
Speaker B:So you know that phrase, Ryan, we walk by faith, not by sight, Right?
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read that whole passage there in 2 Corinthians 5, 6, 7, if you would.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we live by faith, not by sight.
Speaker B:This is related a little bit to what we talked about last week with the idea of being present with the Lord away from the body, this kind of an idea.
Speaker B:But this idea, what does it mean?
Speaker B:How would you describe it, Ryan, to say to walk by faith, not by sight?
Speaker B:What do you think is being gotten at with that saying?
Speaker B:There are no wrong answers here.
Speaker A:So I would say, I mean, for me, in my context, living 2,000 years after the time of Christ in some way to kind of go like, I didn't see personally see Jesus do this, or, you know, I wasn't one of the 500 that Jesus appeared to post resurrection.
Speaker A:And so I think it is in some ways of faith and trusting is believing this to be true, you know, and investigating it.
Speaker A:And so I don't have a direct quantitative, you know, there's nothing quantitative for me to hold on besides the book, the Bible we have in front of us.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:And so I would say that's part of taking it by faith.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:And you know, Paul here is talking about to be apart from the body.
Speaker B:Even though we can't see what our end state is going to be, we trust that.
Speaker B:Like we talked about again last week, we trust that God is able to keep our lives with Christ.
Speaker B:We're actually going to be talking exactly about what you said a minute ago about the fact it's kind of a.
Speaker B:We don't really think about it too much, but it's kind of a funny situation we find ourselves in where we have never seen Jesus face to face, and yet we have trusted our whole, not only our lives, but our eternities to him.
Speaker B:And actually, Peter talks about this.
Speaker B:We'll look at a passage that he talks about a little bit later.
Speaker B:But there's a story in the Gospel of John, John, chapter nine.
Speaker B:And I think we've looked at this a little bit before.
Speaker B:It's the healing of the blind man.
Speaker B:And I wanted to kind of look at it again for a couple of different reasons.
Speaker B:One of the things is we've been kicking around how is it that we approach the Bible?
Speaker B:In other words, how do you study the Bible?
Speaker B:Because people will say from time to time, well, I never would have seen that on my own.
Speaker B:Or how did you see this?
Speaker B:And so we've been trying kind of unpack a little bit about, here's how we look at things.
Speaker B:And one of the big things for me, especially when I'm looking at the Gospels, or we're going to look a little bit in the Old Testament as well in narrative sections.
Speaker B:In other words, in those parts of Scripture, not like letters of Paul, not like the Psalms, right?
Speaker B:But in those parts of scripture that are telling a story, that are a narrative, those to me are some of the most fascinating parts of scripture.
Speaker B:And the interesting thing is to see how through the Holy Spirit, these authors chose to tell their story.
Speaker B:Because you can tell the same story differently, right?
Speaker B:You talk about this sometimes with your occupation being a videographer.
Speaker B:You talk about the way that you present a story.
Speaker B:What are some of the things that you think about when you're trying to decide how to, how to tell a story?
Speaker A:Would you say audience?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:You know, like, audience is a big, you know, messaging is everything, you know, I mean, it's always thinking about the audience and what you want them to know, what do you want to think, what do you want them to feel?
Speaker A:And kind of working backwards from there, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like, there's information and we have to figure out how do we craft the narrative of that information to Impact the audience that we've set up.
Speaker B:Okay, so to impact them, you want to engage the audience, make sure that they kind of are still on there.
Speaker B:How about the use of.
Speaker B:Do you ever use anything like.
Speaker B:Oh, I don't.
Speaker B:Tension is the right word.
Speaker B:Or do you withhold some information in order to kind of give it to people later?
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, we.
Speaker A:We've done some.
Speaker A:You know, there's different ways to do it.
Speaker A:You know, you can start with the hook where you give them part of the story and then you rewind it.
Speaker A:I mean, that's a very.
Speaker B:What was that?
Speaker A:Clever.
Speaker B:What was that guy that used to be on the radio?
Speaker B:Now you know the rest of the story, Paul Harvey, Kind of like that.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, I mean, that's.
Speaker A:That's part of the.
Speaker A:Is, you know, you want to create tension.
Speaker A:I mean, every story, there's a problem.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like, there's always.
Speaker A:You have.
Speaker A:That's what makes a story a story, is that there's a problem.
Speaker A:There's a hero that overcomes the problem, and then, you know, and here's the outcome from it.
Speaker A:Here's the transformation.
Speaker A:And so, like, when we're working on a project like that.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:We're always trying to connect with our audience, with that base emotion, like that thing that might resonate with them.
Speaker A:They might not be in the exact situation, but how do they connect with that?
Speaker B:When you're looking at these narrative sections.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:That kind of thing, you want to ask basically, why did the author choose to tell the story in the way that they did?
Speaker B:Sometimes they withhold information, sometimes they.
Speaker B:They emphasize different parts, all these different things.
Speaker B:And this is a good example, I think, John 9, the story of Jesus healing the blind man here, that account is a good example of where we can apply this idea of narrative.
Speaker B:And so there's a couple things that I think are really clever here.
Speaker B:Let's go ahead and start at the beginning.
Speaker B:This is a long chapter.
Speaker B:I'm going to warn you, so I'm going to try not to read all of it.
Speaker B:But there are certain things we need to read.
Speaker B:Let's go ahead and read verses one and two.
Speaker B:Actually, I'll read that, and then I'll let you respond in a minute with verses three, five, if you will.
Speaker B:But here's verses one and two.
Speaker B:And we were talking about this a little bit before we came on.
Speaker B:As he went along talking about Jesus, he saw a man blind from birth.
Speaker B:And that's a very important detail here.
Speaker B:Blind from birth.
Speaker B:The Disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he's born blind.
Speaker B:Now, what the disciples are reflecting here is the common understanding of their day.
Speaker B:Blindness was very closely connected in the first century.
Speaker B:In a Jew culture, the idea of sinfulness and blindness as a punishment for sin were very closely connected.
Speaker B:And so for the disciples, there's no question that this man's blindness is a result of sin.
Speaker B:What they're struggling with is he was born blind, so if it's his sin, how could he have sinned in his mother's womb?
Speaker B:That's really what they're struggling with.
Speaker B:They have no question at all that this man is a sinner.
Speaker B:And we've talked about these stories before.
Speaker B:You're mentioning the Book of Tobit, which is.
Speaker B:That's the same thing he's dealing with.
Speaker A:He's actually an apocryphal book.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's an interesting story.
Speaker B:We have another podcast where I kind of unpack that a little bit.
Speaker B:But in that story, what they struggle with there is he's actually trying to do what's righteous.
Speaker B:Tobit is trying to do the right thing.
Speaker B:And as a result, there's no nice way to say it.
Speaker B:A bird poops in his eye and he goes blind as a result of trying to do the right thing.
Speaker B:And so it's kind of the same thing.
Speaker B:And here Jesus is going to.
Speaker B:And this is why I let you say this part of it.
Speaker B:Jesus is going to overturn their understanding of how this all works.
Speaker B:So go ahead and read that next part there in chapter nine.
Speaker A:Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happens so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Speaker A:As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.
Speaker A:Night is coming when no one can work.
Speaker A:Well, I'm in the world.
Speaker A:I am the light of the world.
Speaker B:So light has to do with being able to see as well, and darkness notice.
Speaker B:This is part of the theme that he brings in.
Speaker B:He says neither this man nor his parents sinned.
Speaker B:And he's not saying that they're completely.
Speaker B:He's not saying that they're sinless.
Speaker B:That's not what he's trying to say.
Speaker B:But he's saying that this blindness did not result from a specific sin that either this man or his parents committed.
Speaker B:That's the point.
Speaker B:You're talking a little bit about this.
Speaker B:You want to say kind of what you were thinking about.
Speaker A:I think a lot of times, I think the question or what people might latch onto with this verse is.
Speaker A:But this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him and thinking like, well then God made him blind in this situation.
Speaker B:I don't think that's it either.
Speaker B:I don't think it's God caused his blindness is the way I would understand it.
Speaker B:What do you think?
Speaker B:Where do you think blindness comes from then in this situation?
Speaker A:I think it is sin.
Speaker A:Like it is a generic sin.
Speaker A:There's just as we're not supposed to die, I think that is not necessarily it is a result of sin.
Speaker A:But if I do a sinful act, that doesn't directly mean that's the one that made me die or something like that.
Speaker B:So sin not in the sense of like the disciples are looking for a specific sin.
Speaker B:But you're talking about the fallenness of the world.
Speaker B:Fallenness of the world because of our propensity to sin, because of that.
Speaker B:That's how that's affected all of creation.
Speaker B:That's where we have disease and death and everything back in Genesis chapter three.
Speaker B:That's where all that stuff comes from.
Speaker B:And ultimately, like you said, death not a direct result of a specific sin, but because of our overturning in our rebellion the order in which God had created the world.
Speaker B:So, so Jesus goes on and he says the work of God is going to be displayed in this man.
Speaker B:And I would say this, that anytime we have an effect, I'm going to use the term curse, right?
Speaker B:We talk about the curse.
Speaker B:What's that one carol we sing?
Speaker B:Far as the curse is found, basically that Jesus has come to over joy to the world, right?
Speaker B:And so that anytime there's an effect of this, it's an opportunity to see the way that God is going to operate in that life.
Speaker B:That's what I think Jesus is talking about here.
Speaker B:And very specifically he's going to heal the blind man.
Speaker B:Not to give away the ending of the story.
Speaker B:Not to be a bad narrator myself, but he goes on and here's the other thing I want to talk about.
Speaker B:Verse 6.
Speaker B:After saying this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with saliva and put it on the man's eyes go.
Speaker B:He told him, wash in the pool of siloam.
Speaker B:And the word siloam, John explains, means sent.
Speaker B:So the man went and washed and came back seeing.
Speaker B:Now this is one of those examples when people talk about a narrative and trying to understand it, you're looking for these kind of strange details and you really need to kind of think about them.
Speaker B:Why is this specific way in which Jesus healed included?
Speaker B:We have Lots of examples of Jesus healing in the Gospels.
Speaker B:This is the only one I know of that's done in this particular way.
Speaker B:What are some of the other ways that Jesus heals?
Speaker B:Can you think of any other examples of how healing takes place?
Speaker A:Well, I mean, people have just touched him before.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, that's a good example where.
Speaker A:The woman touched his garment and he said, come out.
Speaker A:You know, he says the last just by speech speaking.
Speaker A:I mean, he healed another blind man and Mark.
Speaker A:But it was.
Speaker A:He did it himself, like put spit, mud, wiped it off.
Speaker A:The man could see, like looked like trees, but they weren't.
Speaker B:Instead of sending him away, that's what you're saying, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:In that case, yeah.
Speaker A:He himself was part of that process right there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And even at a distance, centurion's servant, I always think about Jesus wasn't even present.
Speaker B:And the centurion comes and say, well, just like, I know you're like me, people are under my control.
Speaker B:I just tell them, do this or do that, and they do it.
Speaker B:So he's like, you don't even need to come to my house.
Speaker B:Just speak the Word.
Speaker B:And the Gospels tell us the very moment that Jesus spoke the Word, he was healed.
Speaker B:So there's lots of different ways that Jesus heals.
Speaker B:So one of the questions we have to ask ourselves is why is this the particular way?
Speaker B:Now, you did mention that Mark passage where he spits on the mud.
Speaker B:And so some people think this has to do with some kind of a mystical, almost like herbal.
Speaker B:Like Jesus is a great herbalist, you know, and there's something special about the mud alchemy here.
Speaker B:Yeah, right.
Speaker B:Some people think there's something about the saliva.
Speaker B:I'm going to go ahead and tell you.
Speaker B:I think there's something in being sent to wash and coming back saying, and I think that's what's going to help us unpack this passage a little bit as it's going on.
Speaker B:So the first thing that happens here is that there's a question about whether this.
Speaker B:When the man comes home seeing, there's a question about, can this be the same guy?
Speaker B:Because it's unusual to have a person born blind that would come back seeing.
Speaker B:So they say, are you the person?
Speaker B:And he insists, I am the man.
Speaker B:They say, how is this possible?
Speaker B:And he says, the man they call this is verse 11.
Speaker B:The man they called Jesus made some mud, put it on my eyes, told me to go to Siloam and wash.
Speaker B:So I went and washed, and then I could see.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker B:Here's A repeated thing in the narrative.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We just had it narrated.
Speaker B:And then he tells the story.
Speaker B:And then we're going to find that he tells the story a couple more times in this chapter.
Speaker B:He ends up telling this story a couple more times other than this.
Speaker B:Now, what else is interesting is in verse 12, where is this man, they asked?
Speaker B:I don't know, he said.
Speaker B:So they bring him to the Pharisees.
Speaker B:And this is where John chooses.
Speaker B:And I think he does this intentionally.
Speaker B:He has withheld some information from us until this point.
Speaker B:So go ahead and read verses 13 and 14.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.
Speaker A:Now, the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:So it's not until halfway through this, or I shouldn't say halfway through the story, but through the story, after the healing had taken place, that we find out it's a Sabbath day.
Speaker B:Now, I think John does this intentionally because it kind of pulls us into the story.
Speaker B:You talked.
Speaker B:We talked about engaging the audience.
Speaker B:We're put in the same position as those in the story now, because here's a man who healed a blind man, Jesus, I'm talking about, which is a remarkable thing that would seem to be a power that comes from God.
Speaker B:And yet, according to the Pharisees, we know what they're concerned about.
Speaker B:He's a lawbreaker and he's a sinner.
Speaker B:So the Pharisees kind of bring this man, almost put him on trial.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read the next verse.
Speaker B:I should have had you read that already.
Speaker B:Verse 15, 9.
Speaker A:15.
Speaker A:Here we go.
Speaker A:Therefore, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.
Speaker A:He put mud on my eyes, the man replied, and I washed, and now I see.
Speaker B:So you see what I'm saying?
Speaker B:He keeps having to tell the story over and over again.
Speaker B:And so the Pharisees go on and say, we know this man is not from God because he did this on the Sabbath day.
Speaker B:He broke the Sabbath very particularly.
Speaker B:This is another reason it's important in this narrative to say that this man was born blind.
Speaker B:Very similar to what we see in John 5, when Jesus heals the man who's been paralyzed by the pool of Bethzatha.
Speaker B:Another healing that takes place next to a pool there.
Speaker B:That man has been very specific detail.
Speaker B:38 years, this man has been paralyzed.
Speaker B:So here's the point.
Speaker B:For the Pharisees, you were allowed to do something to save someone's life.
Speaker B:You could act as a doctor to save someone's life on the Sabbath.
Speaker B:On the Sabbath day, Right?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:On the Sabbath day.
Speaker B:If somebody was going to die.
Speaker B:So I don't know, let's say somebody gets a cut, they're bleeding to death.
Speaker B:As a doctor or someone else, I'd be allowed to bind up that person's wound.
Speaker B:And that would not be considered work because I was saving their life.
Speaker B:And basically that's allowed on the Sabbath.
Speaker B:But the fact that this man was.
Speaker B:This was not a life or death situation.
Speaker B:Same with the man who had been paralyzed, an invalid, for 38 years.
Speaker B:It was not that Jesus had to do it that day.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so again, I think Jesus intentionally chooses to heal on the Sabbath.
Speaker B:John chooses to tell us this way.
Speaker B:So we're struck with the same kind of an issue and there becomes this debate because some of them are saying, oh, he's a sinner.
Speaker B:Others are saying, then how could he do something so incredible as opening the eyes of the blind?
Speaker B:Very similar to what we said.
Speaker B:The worldview of that day that saw blindness as a punishment for a specific sin.
Speaker B:It's also remarkable to see healing of blindness in that day too.
Speaker B:And so basically they're saying, how could somebody do this unless he was from God?
Speaker B:They went ahead.
Speaker B:They still didn't know if this was the same guy's questions of identity.
Speaker B:They bring in his parents, believe it or not, to ask him.
Speaker B:And we get this other little detail that his parents were afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue.
Speaker B:There's a very specific word that's used here.
Speaker B:It's used three times in the Gospel of John.
Speaker B:Aposunagoges, just like it sounds like from the synagogue.
Speaker B:They're afraid of getting kicked out of the synagogue.
Speaker B:So they basically say, well, this is our son, and yes, he was blind.
Speaker B:How he sees, we have no idea.
Speaker B:Ask him yourself.
Speaker B:And it says, they did this because they were afraid.
Speaker B:So they go back to the man again and they ask him again a second time.
Speaker B:Verse 14.
Speaker B:They summoned the man who had been blind.
Speaker B:Give glory to God by telling the truth.
Speaker B:We know this man is a sinner.
Speaker B:Now, this isn't a very good trial because it's one.
Speaker B:They've already concluded the outcome.
Speaker B:We know this man's a sinner, so you're lying clearly about how this all took place.
Speaker B:So you need to tell us the truth.
Speaker B:So go ahead.
Speaker B:I'll give you this.
Speaker B:This is the best line in the whole thing, I think verse.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read verse 26 down through verse 27.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Then they asked him, what did he do to you?
Speaker A:How did he open your eyes?
Speaker A:He answered, I have told you already and you did not listen.
Speaker A:Why do you want to hear it again?
Speaker A:Do you want to become his disciples too?
Speaker B:So he's like, I've already told you this, you know, I've already said over and over again, what has happened here?
Speaker B:And are you trying to become his disciples?
Speaker B:And so their response, verse 28, they hurled insults at him.
Speaker B:They said, you're this fellow's disciple.
Speaker B:We're disciples of Moses.
Speaker B:We know that God spoke to Moses.
Speaker B:But as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from.
Speaker B:Throughout the entire Gospel of John, by the way, this is one of those issues.
Speaker B:Where is this Jesus from?
Speaker B:Who is this guy?
Speaker B:Who's his father?
Speaker B:Is his father Joseph?
Speaker B:Or.
Speaker A:Like we know where he's from.
Speaker A:He can't be the Son of God.
Speaker B:He can't be.
Speaker B:And he came from Nazareth.
Speaker B:Don't we know that when the Messiah comes, he's going to come from Bethlehem?
Speaker B:You know all these issues about Jesus identity and where he's from?
Speaker B:Of course, Jesus continues to say over and over in the Gospel of John that he's from heaven.
Speaker B:I have come from the Father, the one who sent me.
Speaker B:He says over and over again.
Speaker B:Now, I love the man's response here too.
Speaker B:Verse 30 says, the man answered, now this is remarkable.
Speaker B:You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.
Speaker B:We know that God does not listen to sinners.
Speaker B:He listens to a godly person who does his will.
Speaker B:Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.
Speaker B:If this man were not from God, he could do nothing to this.
Speaker B:They replied, you were steeped in sin at birth.
Speaker B:How dare you lecture us?
Speaker B:And they threw him out.
Speaker B:So interestingly, the Pharisees give an answer to the question the disciples had at the very beginning here.
Speaker B:Is it this man who sinned, or his parents?
Speaker B:And the Pharisees said, well, you were blind from birth, so you were steeped in sin from the time you were born, right?
Speaker B:They're going back to that same worldview that the disciples have about blindness and its connection to sin.
Speaker B:So stop here for just a moment and let me ask you, what do you notice about all this?
Speaker B:How would you summarize kind of the action to this point?
Speaker B:What.
Speaker B:What are some significant.
Speaker B:Like we see the repetition.
Speaker B:What are some significant things that you would pull out here?
Speaker A:You know, it's the things that I would say is like, you're blind.
Speaker A:How can you see?
Speaker A:How did it happen?
Speaker A:The blind man is constantly, like, he did it, you know, like, I don't know what else to say, right?
Speaker A:And this Pharisees seem to be coming back to the same thing over and over again.
Speaker A:Like, well, that's not a good enough explanation.
Speaker A:And, you know, like, for me, I'm thinking as you're reading this, what kind of explanation would have been acceptable for them, right?
Speaker A:You know, for him to say, like, you know, like, well, he did a, you know, if he did, like an alchemist, as we were talking about, like something special in the dirt, whatever they would have been, they would have said, well, he sinned, right?
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Because he did work on the Sabbath day.
Speaker A:And so it mixed up, you know, elixir.
Speaker A:There's.
Speaker A:There's no win here for any of them.
Speaker B:So the interesting thing is, do you notice how the man, you said it, he repeatedly tells the story over and over again.
Speaker B:And I think that's a significant thing.
Speaker B:He doesn't waver in what he says, even though his parents are threatened by the way they kick him out, which I think is more than just throwing him out of the court.
Speaker B:They're saying, you're out of the community, right?
Speaker B:We're excommunicating you because you, you insist on not basically taking our side in this whole story, but he firmly and consistently tells the story about how Jesus opened his eyes and he could see.
Speaker B:Now, here's where I'm going to go ahead and say this at this point, and I think it's going to become clear in what we read the very next part of this passage.
Speaker B:I'll have you read in just a minute.
Speaker B:But this leads, I think, to why Jesus chooses to heal him in the way that he does.
Speaker B:Because he's healed at a distance.
Speaker B:Jesus makes the mud, puts it on his eyes, and he goes.
Speaker B:And it's not until he washes that he comes back seeing.
Speaker B:So at this point, this man, this blind man, has never seen Jesus.
Speaker B:He's in a similar situation that you mentioned that we find ourselves in earlier.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, right.
Speaker B:We've never seen Jesus.
Speaker B:And yet what this man does, you know, I like to play around with the idea of witness.
Speaker B:In the Gospel of John, he firmly maintains his testimony, right?
Speaker B:Consistently.
Speaker B:And, and he.
Speaker B:He holds on to it no matter what threats or what fear, you know, his parents are afraid.
Speaker B:He's not afraid.
Speaker B:He boldly and consistently speaks about the way that Jesus has touched him and has opened his eyes, has made him able to see.
Speaker B:And that's what I think is Going on in this entire passage, it becomes, in a way, an example for us.
Speaker B:Not only do we learn something about who Jesus is, He's the light of the world.
Speaker B:He's the one who shows us the truth.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:But it also says something about what it means for us to be his disciples.
Speaker B:We are called to consistently and boldly proclaim what Jesus has done for us, even though we have never seen him face to face.
Speaker B:Right, let's go ahead and read this next part and then we'll play around with this a little bit.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read starting in verse 35, down through 38.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Jesus heard that they had thrown him out.
Speaker A:And when he found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man?
Speaker A:Who is he, sir?
Speaker A:The man asked, tell me so that I may believe in him.
Speaker A:Jesus said, you have now seen Him.
Speaker A:In fact, he is the one speaking with you.
Speaker A:Then the man said, lord, I believe.
Speaker A:And he worshiped him.
Speaker B:The emphasis I would put on Jesus words there, you have now seen him.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:You get what I'm saying?
Speaker B:Up to this point, this is the first time he's seen Jesus.
Speaker B:And his immediate response is to worship him.
Speaker B:Jesus doesn't stop the worship, by the way, too, which is another one of those signs that Jesus can considers himself divine.
Speaker B:Here there's a couple of other interesting things.
Speaker B:The word sir, there, who is he, sir, in verse 36 is the word kurios, which is often translated as Lord.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And then even when Jesus says, do you believe in the Son of Man?
Speaker B:Now, there's some people who think that Maurice Casey made the longest, loudest argument for being wrong on this.
Speaker B:But the Son of Man, there's some people who think it means nothing more than myself.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:It means me.
Speaker B:But I think the Son of Man, as I've said repeatedly on this podcast, is a reference to Daniel, that this Son of Man, who's given all authority and power.
Speaker B:And there's lots of other things that Jesus says, you'll see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of glory.
Speaker B:There are other things that he says along the way that shows that this is his understanding.
Speaker B:Not only am I the Messiah, but I'm also the Son of Man who's come into the world as was promised in Daniel, and is given all authority, dominion and power from God himself.
Speaker B:And so here the man finally sees Jesus face to face.
Speaker B:But my point is he has been a good witness all along.
Speaker B:So this is what Jesus says in response, verse 39, for judgment.
Speaker B:I have come into the world so that the blind will see, and those who see will become blind.
Speaker B:And so Jesus shows that he's.
Speaker B:This whole idea of seeing and being blind is a part of what he's playing with.
Speaker B:Pharisees who were there.
Speaker B:This is verse 40, heard him and asked, what, are we blind, too?
Speaker B:Jesus said, if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin.
Speaker B:But now you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
Speaker B:The Pharisees have had evidence after evidence.
Speaker B:We even see it here in this story.
Speaker B:Everybody's telling him.
Speaker B:The man's consistently saying, I don't know.
Speaker B:He made me see.
Speaker B:What kind of a person makes a blind man see?
Speaker B:The parents say, yeah, that's our son.
Speaker B:And yeah, he was blind.
Speaker B:How he sees, we don't know.
Speaker B:Over and over again, they've heard the evidence, and yet they refuse to believe it.
Speaker B:I hadn't thought of this connection, but it reminds me a little bit of Pharaoh in the book of Exodus.
Speaker B:Do you remember?
Speaker B:The one that I remember specifically is when you have the plague of the livestock.
Speaker B:And we always say that's kind of a double miracle because all of the Egyptian livestock dies.
Speaker B:Not one single of the Israelite livestock dies.
Speaker B:And the scriptures tell us that Pharaoh sent people to go and investigate.
Speaker B:He sent people down to find out if that was true.
Speaker B:And they come back and tell him.
Speaker B:And yet he hardened his heart, right?
Speaker B:Despite the evidence, Pharaoh refused to believe.
Speaker B:And it's a very similar thing here with the Pharisees.
Speaker B:Over and over again, they're confronted with Jesus.
Speaker B:Finally, in the Gospel of John, what brings it all to a head is chapter 11, where he raises somebody from the dead.
Speaker B:And all these Jews who come in for the feast of Passover come and see this.
Speaker B:And what do they do at the end of chapter 11?
Speaker B:They start to plot, well, we better kill him and we better kill Lazarus too, right?
Speaker B:Because here's the evidence.
Speaker B:Who else can give life except someone from God himself?
Speaker B:So they are, you know, consistently turning their backs.
Speaker B:Well, I guess let's keep the metaphor.
Speaker B:They're closing their eyes to the very evidence that, that.
Speaker B:That they have their thoughts on that, or comments or questions.
Speaker A:Okay, I'm going to ask you so what?
Speaker A:Because again, like, I'm processing, like, common questions.
Speaker A:I think that we go through this, and so I'm thinking, if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin.
Speaker A:So is there in some way, like, if, If.
Speaker A:If it's not been revealed to you?
Speaker A:I don't want to make too much of this.
Speaker B:Yeah, I, I wouldn't make too much.
Speaker B:If you haven't seen though, I mean, all you can do is respond to the things that you have been given.
Speaker B:Right, Go ahead.
Speaker B:We're gonna.
Speaker A:Well, and it's just like you would not be guilty of sin.
Speaker A:I mean, now I, I understand this like this is what the law was given so that sin may, you know, like, so they understood their sin in the law.
Speaker A:But do you see a way and does that apply to us today as we think about.
Speaker B:And I'm going to tell you this, I realize there's one more thing I probably should have said earlier.
Speaker B:I mean, you're bringing it up.
Speaker B:In the Gospel of John, there is one sin that is greater than all other sins, and that is to reject Jesus, to fail to believe that he is who he claimed to be.
Speaker B:That is sin.
Speaker B:That is really sin in the Gospel of John.
Speaker B:That's what separates life from death.
Speaker B:Okay, so I'm going to fast forward a little bit to the Thomas narrative which I really Enjoy.
Speaker B:In chapter 20, you might remember, after Jesus had been raised from the dead, he appears to ten of his disciples.
Speaker B:Judas is no more.
Speaker B:Thomas happens to be.
Speaker B:The rest of them are behind locked doors for fear of the Jews.
Speaker B:Thomas is not there with them.
Speaker B:They all say to Thomas, we have seen the Messiah.
Speaker B:He's alive.
Speaker B:And Thomas response is, do you remember?
Speaker A:Unless I touch his nail, pierced hands and his side, I will not believe.
Speaker B:I will never believe.
Speaker B:He says it's an emphatic.
Speaker B:It's may you understand that.
Speaker B:Now emphatically, he says, I will never believe.
Speaker B:It's the same exact phrase that Jesus uses for the.
Speaker B:He said, this wicked generation will never believe unless they see signs, right?
Speaker B:And so Thomas says, unless I see for myself and touch him with my hands, I will never believe.
Speaker B:So Jesus of course appears again and he comes to Thomas.
Speaker B:He says, thrust your hand in my side, stick your fingers in the nail prints in my hand.
Speaker B:And Thomas's response that time is, my Lord and my God, right?
Speaker B:He says, my Lord and my God.
Speaker B:And then Jesus words to him I think are very important for us to understand.
Speaker B:Jesus says, blessed are you.
Speaker B:Good for you, Thomas, that you believe.
Speaker B:Blessed are those who will believe without having seen.
Speaker B:And then John closes this section of his Gospel by saying, and I've written, Jesus did many other things in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book.
Speaker B:These I've written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, right?
Speaker B:And by believing, you may have life in his name.
Speaker B:So that whole idea of believing without having seen is an important thing for John because he's writing to people who are not in that generation, many of them who'd seen Jesus face to face.
Speaker B:And so he's writing for people who are now in the same situation we are.
Speaker B:And that's why I think this blind man then becomes for us kind of a stand in.
Speaker B:And it shows us you don't have to have seen Jesus face to face in order to know what he has done for you and to be able to consistently tell others that.
Speaker B:And I'll say this as well.
Speaker B:In the Gospel of John, part of what it means to be a disciple is to give testimony, is to tell others about what it is that Jesus has done for you.
Speaker B:That's part of what it means to be a disciple.
Speaker B:Not all that's part of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
Speaker B:So that's what I think the so what is John is giving us these examples from Jesus life so that we can also believe even though we had never seen him face to face.
Speaker B:Let me pull out a couple more passages.
Speaker B:One is 1 Peter 1:7:9.
Speaker B:Because I mentioned earlier, Peter talks about the very thing that you mentioned earlier that we find ourselves in this kind of funny situation.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read that for us if you have it there in front of you.
Speaker A:Yeah, 1 Peter 1:7.
Speaker A:Here they have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Speaker A:Though you have not seen him, you love him.
Speaker A:And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
Speaker A:For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Speaker B:So we began with this question at the very beginning of this podcast.
Speaker B:What does it mean to walk by faith and not by sight?
Speaker B:And so here he's saying that the genuineness of our faith is proven.
Speaker B:These have come, by the way, is referring back to the trials you're receiving.
Speaker B:These trials of various kinds.
Speaker B:They have come to prove the truthfulness of your faith that you're going to hold on.
Speaker B:Same way that the blind man, the trial, the literal trial that the Pharisees put him under, and the trial of the threat of excommunication tested the genuineness of his faith.
Speaker B:And it's the same for us when we're confronted with times where we may want to turn back from our faith in Jesus.
Speaker B:And again in John, at least failure to believe in Jesus is the greatest sin.
Speaker B:Peter here talks about this strange situation.
Speaker B:Though we have never seen Jesus, we love Him.
Speaker B:It's kind of one of those.
Speaker B:It's an irony.
Speaker B:We don't think about it too much.
Speaker B:But also we placed our faith in him and we essentially are saying, even though I have never seen him face to face, I know that he has opened my eyes.
Speaker B:I know that he has touched me and that he has changed me.
Speaker B:Paul talks about this a lot.
Speaker B:One of my favorite things.
Speaker B:I'm not going to spend too much time on this.
Speaker B:But in Romans, chapter one, he talks about, since the creation world, God's invisible qualities have been clearly seen.
Speaker B:And that seems like an irony too, right?
Speaker B:The very definition of invisible is you can't see it.
Speaker B:But he says that the unseen parts of God have been clearly seen, and so it puts us in that state.
Speaker B:So again, you think about walking by faith and not by sight.
Speaker B:I can't decide.
Speaker B:Yeah, let's do this.
Speaker B:You want to look at an Old Testament passage that I think relates to this too.
Speaker B:So 2 Kings, chapter 6 is a great story.
Speaker B:Go ahead and get that.
Speaker B:I'll have you start reading verse 12.
Speaker B:I'll set up the story.
Speaker B:The king of Syria, Syria is just north of Israel, has.
Speaker B:Is trying to attack Israel.
Speaker B:And some things never change, I guess.
Speaker B:But anyway, the king of Syria is coming down from the north and attacking Israel.
Speaker B:And so what happens is that every time he goes to attack, the king of Israel is able to anticipate where he's going to send the army.
Speaker B:And so the king of Syria finally decides, well, I must have a traitor in my midst.
Speaker B:And so he says to his cabinet, which one of you is telling the king of Israel about what my plans are?
Speaker B:And so here's how they respond.
Speaker B:Verse 12.
Speaker B:Pick up there.
Speaker B:And then read down through verse 17.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:None of us, my lord, the king said one of his officers.
Speaker A:But Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.
Speaker A:Go find out where he is, the king ordered, so I can send men and capture him.
Speaker A:The report came back, he is in Dothan.
Speaker A:Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there.
Speaker A:They went by night and surrounded the city.
Speaker A:When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.
Speaker A:Oh no, my lord, what shall we do?
Speaker A:The servant asked, don't be afraid.
Speaker A:The prophet answered, those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
Speaker A:And Elisha prayed, open his eyes, Lord.
Speaker A:So that he may see.
Speaker A:Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around.
Speaker B:Elisha, we have that song, Angel Armies that we sing that I think is based on this idea.
Speaker B:But isn't that a great story?
Speaker B:So the funny thing here is he knows what's going on in your bedroom, King, Which.
Speaker B:That's kind of a scary thing to think about.
Speaker B:But then he says, he sends him out and he surrounds him.
Speaker B:The servant of Elisha goes out and he sees.
Speaker B:He sees the trouble.
Speaker B:He sees the problems that are surrounding them.
Speaker B:And he says, what are we going to do?
Speaker B:His response is, oh, no, Lord, what are we going to do?
Speaker B:And Elisha says, those who are with us are greater than those who are with them.
Speaker B:And that's faith, right?
Speaker B:Now he says, open his eyes so that he can see.
Speaker B:And then he sees these hosts, these angelic hosts that are greater.
Speaker B:And that, again, is.
Speaker B:We often get distracted by the things that are in front of us, right?
Speaker B:The things that we see.
Speaker B:Now, it's funny, there's a couple of other interesting things about this passage that I haven't really thought about too much, but.
Speaker B:2 Kings, that's 2 Kings, chapter 6, 2 Kings, chapter 5.
Speaker B:Do you remember what that story is?
Speaker B:Without looking.
Speaker B:Don't look.
Speaker B:Do you remember what 2 Kings, chapter 5 is?
Speaker A:I do not.
Speaker B:It's the story of Naaman.
Speaker B:Do you remember he was a leper.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And his servant girl from Israel said that, I know someone who can heal you.
Speaker B:And Elisha's command to him, do you remember what he says to do?
Speaker A:Dip in the Jordan seven times.
Speaker B:Go and wash.
Speaker B:Which is interesting.
Speaker B:Go and dip in the Jordan seven times.
Speaker B:And he says, oh, why can't I?
Speaker B:We have great rivers here.
Speaker B:Why do you want me to go to the Jordan?
Speaker B:But isn't that interesting?
Speaker B:You have the healing in John of the Sending, right?
Speaker B:He sent and he's healed.
Speaker B:At a distance, you have Naaman that goes.
Speaker B:And in faith dips.
Speaker B:And then we have this idea of blindness and seeing.
Speaker B:Because the next part of the passage.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read verses 18 through 20 there.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, strike this army with blindness.
Speaker A:So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
Speaker A:Elisha told them, this is not the road, and this is not the city.
Speaker A:Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.
Speaker A:And he led them to Samaria.
Speaker B:So he leads them to the capital city.
Speaker B:They go inside the walls of the city.
Speaker B:And basically he hands this whole army over to the king of Israel.
Speaker B:And even that.
Speaker B:I'll go ahead and just tell you the rest of the story because it's kind of cool, because the king of Israel says, should we kill him?
Speaker B:And Elijah's like, no.
Speaker B:He said, let's feed him.
Speaker B:So they give him a big feast, and then they send him home.
Speaker B:And then it says, the king of Aram, never king of Syria, never attacked Israel again.
Speaker B:So it's kind of this.
Speaker B:This idea.
Speaker B:What are you going to do?
Speaker A:Point received.
Speaker B:Yeah, but you see the same, the seeing and the blindness here.
Speaker B:So he opens the eyes of faith, if you will, of the servant, but then he makes blind those who've come in order to attack.
Speaker B:And that's, again, I think that's kind of teaching us very importantly a lesson here about what it means to see.
Speaker B:So here's the final place I want to go.
Speaker B:And all this was kind of leading up to this.
Speaker B:We looked at 2 Corinthians 5 a little bit at the beginning.
Speaker B:We walk by faith, not by sight.
Speaker B:Just a little bit before that.
Speaker B:Just a couple paragraphs before that.
Speaker B:2nd Corinthians 4.
Speaker B:Now it starts with talking about, we have this treasure in jars of clay.
Speaker B:Do you remember that whole passage where it talks about, the gospel is within us, but our bodies are wasting away and we have all these troubles?
Speaker B:So here's how he concludes that part.
Speaker B:Look at 2 Corinthians 4, 16, 18, if you'd read that for me.
Speaker A:Therefore we do not lose heart.
Speaker A:Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
Speaker A:For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
Speaker A:So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
Speaker B:Go ahead.
Speaker A:Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal, we fix.
Speaker B:Our eyes on not what is seen, but what is unseen.
Speaker B:And that's not an easy thing to do.
Speaker B:That's really what it means to have eyes of faith.
Speaker B:I think a couple of things here.
Speaker B:Notice the contrast.
Speaker B:Your troubles he describes in what way?
Speaker B:He says they are light and momentary light.
Speaker B:And they're momentary.
Speaker B:We've talked before about glory.
Speaker B:The word doxa itself has this concept of weight to it.
Speaker B:It's a weightiness.
Speaker B:But he says that the glory is eternal.
Speaker B:And he says it far outweighs them all.
Speaker B:So we've got the light, momentary troubles, but it is achieving for us an eternal weight of glory.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So we have this light and momentary contrast with the eternal and the weighty.
Speaker B:And then Paul exhorts us, focus not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
Speaker B:And that's, like I said, that's a hard thing to do.
Speaker B:How do you focus your eyes on what is unseen?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:He's kind of playing with an irony here, I would call it.
Speaker B:It's an ironic statement that we need to pay more attention.
Speaker B:We need to focus our eyes.
Speaker B:We understand the meaning of that.
Speaker B:We need to focus our eyes on what can't be seen.
Speaker B:So what do you think that means for us?
Speaker B:Or can you think of examples of that, or do you want me to just expand?
Speaker A:No, I mean, I think for us, I mean, it's easy for us to focus on.
Speaker A:I mean, I think it's the same thing that applies to them.
Speaker A:It's easy to focus on what we see, what we actually experience, but focus on what you have to take on by faith, you know, I mean, like, there's a.
Speaker A:There's a sense of, yeah, you're.
Speaker A:You don't see.
Speaker A:See this, but it is real.
Speaker A:It is as real as what you see.
Speaker A:It's more real than what you see.
Speaker B:It's eternal.
Speaker B:It's eternal.
Speaker B:It has.
Speaker B:It has a greater reality.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So, you know, you think about the servant of the high priest or the servant of Elisha.
Speaker B:You're right.
Speaker B:He looks and he sees he's surrounded by an enemy army.
Speaker B:And his response is, oh, no.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You may say, oh, something else, I don't know, but what are we going to do?
Speaker B:And Elisha says, open your eyes so that you can see, and you recognize that God's hosts are greater than the troubles.
Speaker B:The light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory.
Speaker B:And that's really, I think, the message.
Speaker B:We, like you said, we focus upon what's not seen.
Speaker B:So part of this, I think, is not allowing, you know, our eyes are so easily distracted.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We're able, like you said, it's easy to see the things that are around us, the troubles.
Speaker B:And sometimes we need.
Speaker B:So part of focusing upon what is unseen is losing focus on the troubles.
Speaker B:You get what I'm saying?
Speaker B:Sometimes we need to turn off, you know, we.
Speaker B:I don't care what news channel you.
Speaker B:You watch, you know, constantly.
Speaker B:There's some kind of breaking news, right?
Speaker B:And sometimes we need to turn that off.
Speaker B:We need to turn off social media, probably.
Speaker B:We need to turn off the things, you know, not our podcast, obviously, because they help us, but we need.
Speaker B:We need to turn off all these Things that are bombarding our eyes constantly.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Advertisements and.
Speaker B:And all this stuff around us all the time.
Speaker B:And sometimes.
Speaker B:And this is going to sound ironic, but to focus our eyes, I think we need.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And we need to think about what is unseen.
Speaker B:Think about, like you said, the more real, the things that we're staking our eternities in.
Speaker B:And we think about Jesus, whom we have never seen but we love.
Speaker B:And we have to become quiet, I think, and we have to become still in order to have our hearts connect to him.
Speaker B:And again, this is just experience, but it is only in those times of quiet, I think, where we're not surrounded and bombarded by images and sound and everything.
Speaker B:It's those moments that allow us to open ourselves to him and to be able to experience him more fully.
Speaker B:His reality, his truthfulness.
Speaker B:I guess that's the message I would say, for us today.
Speaker B:So there's your.
Speaker B:So what.
Speaker B:I guess we need to make sure that we're focusing our eyes, which I think is eyes of faith, focusing our eyes on what is unseen.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:Well, thanks, Brian.
Speaker B:Yeah, no problem.
Speaker A:Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker A:I think this is, you know, well, having your eyes open again, we kind of referenced this a little bit.
Speaker A:Just that passage and Mark as well, like that.
Speaker A:You know, we.
Speaker A:We oftentimes.
Speaker A:I don't know, maybe I was thinking about.
Speaker A:This is just like the blind man who was partially healed at first, and he could see vaguely like, okay, that's what we can see, but we got to see beyond that, just as the disciples had to see beyond that.
Speaker A:Jesus was just the physical messiah, but he was the eternal messiah coming that we can get so caught up in those individual pieces of our daily lives that we miss the more real, the eternal that's out there, there.
Speaker A:So that's good.
Speaker B:Very good.
Speaker A:All right, Brian, thanks so much.
Speaker A:I appreciate it.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:If you enjoyed the podcast, go to.
Speaker A:You can go to Apple Podcasts and you can give us a review or share it with somebody.
Speaker A:You can Visit us at thebiblebeester.com where we have a bookstore of sorts with some resources.
Speaker A:If you buy something from there, we get a very small percentage.
Speaker A:But, you know, I guess the thing that would be most beneficial for us is just to share the podcast.
Speaker A:You know, if you're enjoying this, you know, share it with those like yourselves that might enjoy this.
Speaker A:We would really appreciate.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:Well, Brian, thanks so much, and we'll check next Tuesday.
Speaker B:All right, see you then.
Speaker B:Bye.
