Are You Being Saved?

If you have your Bibles this morning, please take them and find Mark 8:22.  In today’s text, we want to ask and answer the question, “Are you being saved?”  That may sound odd or weird, but hopefully, by the end of my sermon, it will make more sense.

 

Remember what we have seen in the recent weeks.  Some Pharisees came to Jesus to argue with Him demanding another sign to prove His and authority and identity.  Jesus refused.

 

Last week, after leaving the Pharisees, Jesus and His disciples went across the Sea of Galilee, and on that trip, He warned them to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. 

 

The leaven of the Pharisees was legalism and hypocrisy.  The leaven of Herod was immorality.  Ultimately, the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod was unbelief.  Jesus warned the disciples of unbelief because they were struggling to understand who He was.

 

This morning, we’re going to see Jesus heal a blind man.  However, it is unlike anything that Jesus had ever did or will do.  As a matter of fact, this miracle is only recorded in Mark’s gospel.   I want you to notice three touches from Jesus to the blind man.

 

 

1. The First Touch, Mark 8:22-23a

22 Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. 23 So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.

 

Jesus and His disciples are now Bethsaida, and they are not alone.  The crowds that normally followed the Lord Jesus had now joined Him in Bethsaida.

 

They brought to Him a man that was currently blind, and they begged for Jesus to touch and heal him.  They did this because they cared about the people around them specifically this man who was blind.

 

Notice what happened next.  Jesus touched the man by taking him by the hand and leading him out of town.   Why would He have done this?  I would suggest it was to establish a personal relationship with him.

 

I believe this is symbolic of the salvation process.  We can point our family and friends to Jesus and pray for Him to save them, but Jesus doesn’t save based on our desires.  He has to establish a personal relationship with individuals in order to save them.

 

 

2. The Second Touch, Mark 8:23b-24

And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  24 And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.”

 

Jesus had already touched the man once to lead him out of town to begin that personal relationship.  Now, He touched him a second time with His hands.

 

The end of verse 23 says that Jesus spit on his eyes and put His hands on him.  We don’t know exactly why Jesus did what He did, but regardless, we can know it was what Jesus felt this man needed. 

 

After Jesus spit on his eyes and touched, He asked the man if he saw anything.  Jesus wasn’t checking to see if His touch worked.  Again, this part of the process. 

 

The man said could see men like trees, walking.  In other words, he couldn’t see clearly yet, but he could see more than he could previously.  By the way, because this man recognized trees, that is probably evidence that this man wasn’t born blind.  Something happened later in life that caused his blindness.

 

3. The Third Touch, Mark 8:25-26

25 Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. 26 Then He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.”

 

In verse 25, now for a third time, Jesus touched this blind man, and for the second time, He specifically touched his eyes and made him look up.  Notice the result. The man was restored and saw everyone clearly.  He had been healed completely.  His vision was now perfect.

 

In verse 26, Jesus sent him home and told him not tell anyone.  Otherwise, Jesus would have been mobbed, and He had no interest in that.

 

 

Applications/Conclusions/Invitation

So what do we learn from this experience and these three touches from Jesus to this blind man?

 

First, we learn and can see that only Jesus can heal, and only Jesus can save.  In this instance, Jesus used saliva or spit maybe like we use medication today, but it wasn’t the medication that healed but Jesus. 

 

Of course, this man’s sight being restored is symbolic of our spiritual blindness needing a touch from Jesus.  Every man and woman or boy and girl is born spiritually blind and needs to be healed by Jesus through a personal and saving relationship, and a touch from Jesus is the only possibly way lost people can ever be saved.

 

Secondly, if you believe what I just said, what are you doing about it?  If you believe that only Jesus can heal and only Jesus can save, what are you doing about it? 

 

The people in verse 22 brought this blind man to Jesus and begged Him to heal him.  Are you begging or praying to Jesus to heal your physically sick family and friends?  Are you bringing your lost family and friends to Jesus and begging Him to save them?  If not, why not?  Do you not believe that only Jesus can heal and only Jesus can save?  Are you ok with their blindness or disease?  Are you ok with their lostness and going to hell when they die separated from Christ and literal torment for eternity? 

 

 

Finally, salvation and spiritual maturity is a process.  Jesus touched this man three times and his eyes twice before he was completely healed.  Is that because Jesus wasn’t powerful enough to heal him with one touch?  Of course, He could have.  We have seen Him do just that. 

 

However, salvation and spiritual maturity is a process.  Last week, the disciples didn’t get it about Jesus and leaven and bread, but eventually they did.  We are here today because eventually they got it. 

 

I was saved or justified on April 2, 1985, but I am also being saved or sanctified today.  I am being made more like Jesus every day through obedience, and so are you.  Listen to what Paul said to the Corinthian Christians and the Philippian Christians.

 

1 Corinthians 1:18, 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

 

2 Corinthians 2:15, 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

 

Philippians 2:12, 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

 

Philippians 1:6, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

 

This last verse actually points to a future salvation as well.  I was saved.  I am being saved, and I will be saved because salvation and spiritual maturity is a process, and they key to moving forward in the process is obedience. 

 

Are you being obedient in baptism and church membership?  Are you being obedient in daily Bible study, in prayer, in church attendance? Are you being obedient in tithing, in witnessing, in ministering?  Are you being obedient in your relationships at home, at work, at play? 

 

If there is no obedience, you aren’t being saved and it is a legitimate concern if you have ever been saved.  However, you can be obedient today to call on Jesus to save you or in repentance turning away from you will and way and turning to His.