How to Be Made Whole - Part 11: Get Out of Town!

REVIEW

So we have been learning for some time how we can be made whole – understanding first that God indeed wants us healed. But He doesn’t just want us healed and made whole partially; He wants us healed & whole completely and wholly. 

We’ve learned this from our golden text for this series – First Thessalonians 5:23 – where the Holy Spirit says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You see, so many Christians like to “spiritualize” God’s promises of healing & wholeness by saying, “Well, I know the Bible says that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed, but don’t you know that’s just talking about spiritual healing?” And so what this group of Christians does is they only apply ALL of these verses about healing to our spiritual condition that certainly has need of being made whole too. Yes, they will talk about how Isaiah 53’s prophecies of Jesus bearing our sicknesses and carrying our pains was referring our salvation from sin. But I think it is interesting how in the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that we are told how Jesus healed all their sick and cast out demons and then it says, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying, ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.’” (See Matthew 8:16-17). So if Isaiah’s prophecies were only talking about our spiritual condition being healed, why would the Gospels refer to Jesus’ healing people’s physical & soulish conditions as being the fulfillment of his prophecy?   

No, our verse in First Thessalonians makes it clear that God’s desire to sanctify, preserve, heal, and make whole is not just reserved for our spirit. No, it’s for our complete and whole man, which includes our soul and body. Amen? Church, God does not just want us made whole partially; He wants us whole wholly! 

So what we are learning is how this happens, for it’s obvious that it is not automatic. If it was, then we would all be made whole already. Yes, if it were just up to God’s will, every person would be healed & whole. 
 
So what we have been doing is looking at several examples of people who were healed and made whole in the Gospels and learning from those real-life stories what those individuals did to receive their wholeness. We’ve looked at examples like the healing of the man by the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus’ cleansing of the ten lepers, the healing of Blind Bart, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, the woman who had a spirit of infirmity, and last week, how Jesus raised up Jairus’ daughter from the dead.  




THE BLIND MAN OF BETHSAIDA

This week, I want us to look at another example from the Gospels – the story of the blind man of Bethsaida. 

Now have you ever heard the phrase “Get out of town” used? Of course, you have. It is a phrase used to express disbelief at a comment or statement like someone would say, “No way, I can’t believe that, or are you serious?” 

Well, that’s an interesting parallel because that is exactly what I want us to tackle today— this example of the blind man of Bethsaida in the Gospels is where the Holy Spirit was teaching us how certain places and groups of people (even towns) can have atmospheres of unbelief and then what to do about it. In fact, getting out of town is one of the big points. 

So let’s turn over to Mark chapter 8 and look at this story … 

Verse 22 begins with – “Then He came to Bethsaida …” 

Now there is a little debate on where this city was actually located, but most have Bethsaida located in the region of Galilee, at the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee. The word “Bethsaida” literally means “House of Fishing” (The Hebrew word “beth” used for a “house” and the word used for fishing is obviously a reference to their coastal location). 

Now I’ll get ahead of myself here, but a good question in this story is – Why did Jesus lead this man out of the town? Well, consider the name of the town! Bethsaida was one of the cities that Jesus “woe’d” for rejecting Him in Matthew 11:21 & Luke 10:8-16. So, do you reckon that Jesus took him out of the town because of the unbelief in the town? Absolutely! 

You see, apparently even the dust of those towns can have unbelief on it. That might be why Jesus said to even wipe the dust off of their feet. Oftentimes people need to be led out of certain environments and situations in order to receive all that God has for them. And this certainly includes certain relationships … 

You see, far too many of us have befriended “Beth Saida” – that is, we have associations in our life that are actually hindering us from receiving everything that God has for us. We need to understand that as First Corinthians 15:33 tells us – “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits’.” We can sit there and believe all day that their bad beliefs and behaviors are not affecting us, but the Bible tells us not to be deceived about this exact thing — that surrounding ourselves with evil company will corrupt our good habits. And this also applies to faith versus unbelief. If we encompass ourselves with unbelief, then it will corrupt our faith. Therefore, unless you know that you know that God has put so and so in your life to minister to them for a period of time, quit your friendship with “Beth,” church; she will only drag your faith down! 

Then verse 22 goes on to say, “and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.” 

Church, this is another reason it is important to have friends and faith buddies—those who will help take you where you need to be to get your healing when you are not able to get there yourself. I think it is safe to assume that this blind man was somewhat likeable, as evidenced by the fact that this group of people brought him to Jesus and begged Him to touch him. 

What if he would have been embittered and mad at the world because of his condition? What if he would have been so self-absorbed about his condition that you couldn’t carry on a conversation with him without him going on and on about his disadvantages in life, etc. etc. etc. Well, I suppose that this would have caused him to run off a lot of these friends who brought him to Jesus. Then where would this guy have been? Not in the Gospel of Mark, I can assure you.   

But notice how they brought him and begged Jesus to touch him … 

So, here we see the faith involved in this miracle. They obviously believed that if they could get this blind man to Jesus and if Jesus would touch him, he would be healed. But notice how Jesus responded to their pleading …

Verse 23 says, “So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.” 

So Jesus touched him by taking him by the hand, but that didn’t get the guy healed. We are about to see that Jesus ministered healing to him differently than these people had it in their hearts. This shows us as ministers of healing that we do not need to only minister like the people expect us to. We need to be led by the Holy Spirit in how we minister because while they believed that Jesus just needed to lay hands on him for him to be healed, Jesus knew something they didn’t—and that was that He had to get him out of the town in order to effectively minister to him.  

Verse 23 goes on to say, “And when He had spit on his eyes …” 

Now this is something we saw Jesus do from time to time—using His spit to heal people. We see this here and also in the healing of the deaf and dumb man (Mark 7:33). We also saw Him doing this in the healing of the man born blind (John 9:6). 

So what was it about Jesus’ spit that healed people? 

Well, first of all, it’s important to understand that spitting is regarded as an insult. People spit on others to show their contempt and disdain for them. So do you reckon Jesus hates infirmity? He spits in the face of sickness, disease, and infirmity like the Roman soldiers spat on Him. Also, if you compare the Scriptures in the Law regarding “spit” you will find some interesting things … 

First, in Leviticus chapter 15, when addressing bodily discharges, the Lord said, “If he who has a discharge spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening” (vs.8). So what we see here is that when someone who has a particular uncleanness spits on someone else, they are also considered unclean for a certain period of time. 

So do you reckon it might work the other way around – that if someone is absolutely clean (like Jesus) were to spit on them, that they could be considered clean too? Yes, and amen! 

Then in Numbers 12:14, regarding Moses’ intercession for his sister Miriam who was struck with leprosy, the Lord said, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received.” What the Lord was saying in response of Moses’ plea for mercy for her was that she must follow the prescribed seven days outside of the camp for those inspected and found to have leprosy—because simply being spit on by her father would have required a similar duration of shame. So the effects of being spit on in their days was that of shame and required a certain duration of being ostracized. Therefore, if Jesus spit on the curse, wouldn’t it also be ostracized from the person as well? Amen! 

We also see something similar in Deuteronomy 25:9 when it comes to the duties of a surviving brother and his widowed sister-in-law. If he did not fulfill his duty in marrying her, then she was able to spit in his face in the presence of the elders—putting him to an open shame and condemning him before the people. Likewise, Jesus spits in the face of sickness & disease, making a public spectacle of it openly, triumphing over it through the Cross (Colossians 2:15). 

So what we are seeing here is that under the Law, spitting on someone was considered a negative thing—an insult, an action of contempt, a cursing if you would. So when Jesus would use His spit to touch their infirmity, what He was doing was essentially cursing their curse: He was showing disdain and contempt for it! He was telling it that it must go from that person—that it was considered unclean and must leave their tent. Amen! 

But Jesus didn’t just spit on this man’s infirmity; Verse 23 also says, “… and put His hands on him.”

So Jesus wound up meeting these guys where they were by ministering to him where their faith was (i.e. “and begged Him to touch him”- See verse 22). Plus, He ministered to him how the Holy Spirit led Him (i.e. “spit on his eyes”). This is a very good model for ministry: Meet the people where their faith is and honor their requests, but also listen to the Holy Spirit and minister according to how He leads you. 

So after Jesus then asked him if he saw anything, verse 24 tells us that the man “looked up” (Greek anablepo). This man was not looking up, like into the heavens. His head was evidently down. Jesus had to make him “look up.” We know this because when he told Jesus what he saw after looking “up” was men like trees walking. So if you had to look up to see that, then your head was obviously down. 

This is very important to understand because this inferiority complex and insecurity will keep one from entering into their God-given inheritance. We need to be a people whose heads are lifted up and who walk around confidently with our shoulders back — confident in who we are in Christ. 

We need to become far sighted Christians – just like this man came to the place where he saw men like trees walking (who were the men that looked like trees? The unbelieving city folk. Make unbelief blurry), you have to make certain things blurry and focus in on the place you want to go. It’s called being far-sighted where we are focused on things in the distance and cannot see the resistance right in front of us! (Compare Second Peter 1:9)
 
Verse 24 goes on to tell us what this blind man responded with – “I see men like trees, walking.” 

So I envision that he was seeing the people around him walking around but his semi-restored vision was seeing them stretched out to be tall like trees. This reveals to us that this man was not always blind because how would he know what men or trees looked like to compare what he was seeing to? Plus, verse 25 tells us that his sight was “restored.” You can only restore something that you had at one point. 

Verse 25 then tell us – “Then He put His hands on his eyes again …” 

This shows us that there are times where we need to pray again for certain things. The key is being led by the Spirit. But persistence is the key. Some people will pray once for someone or for themselves and if they do not get healed within a certain frame of time, they will quit. We need to keep hitting disease with the hammer of the Holy Spirit and not grow faint. Sure, sometimes faith will pray once, believe and receive. But there are other times where you keep hitting that thing until it breaks. Again, the key is in being led by Him in every situation. 

But did you know that this was the only instance we have recorded where Jesus had to pray for someone more than once and do you think it was a coincidence that this man came out of a town full of unbelief. Unbelief must be shaved off in layers. Yes, He got the man out of the town, but He obviously hadn’t gotten the town completely out of the man. 

Notice that Jesus did not say, “Well, it’s better than what you had.” No, Jesus prayed again because it was God’s will for his sight to be FULLY restored. Again, we need to keep tackling the sickness & disease, not settling for “good enough.” Let’s press in until we get “more than enough.”  

So after Jesus made him look up again, the man’s sight was completely restored, seeing everyone clearly. But I want you to notice what Jesus then said to him in verse 26 – “Neither go into the town, not tell anyone in the town.” 

So, again, the first thing Jesus did was He took the man by the hand and “led him out of the town” (vs.23). Now we see here that He told the man to not even go back into “the town” nor tell anyone in “the town.” There sure are a lot of references to “the town” here in these five short verses, aren’t there? This clearly shows us that the “town” was the problem here! 

Notice that Jesus not only told this man to not tell anyone in the town what had happened to him, but Jesus told this guy not to even go back in the town itself. Now one of the obvious reasons Jesus would tell certain people not to go tell the world about their healing or miracle was because the unbelieving are proficient in spilling their unbelief over on someone who has received a touch from the Lord. In other words, they will say things like – “Well, that’s just mind over matter. Don’t think that was a divine intervention. It’s just a coincidence.” If we give an audience to that spirit of unbelief, it can certainly talk us out of our healing. But evidently there is a detrimental effect of even being in the atmosphere of unbelief. That’s why Jesus told the man not even to go back into the town. 

Church, the “town” we live in – whether that be a specific geographic location or simply certain relationships we have – can drastically affect things. 

We see this even in Jesus’ hometown: In Mark 6:1-6, we read – “Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?’ So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.’ Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.”

This is why it is important to reverse the process… You see, if an atmosphere of unbelief can prevent the mighty works of God from being performed, then wouldn’t an atmosphere of faith promote the mighty works of God being performed? Absolutely! Therefore, it is imperative that we surround ourselves with faith filled friends, faith filled groups, etc. Yes, it is vital for us to create an atmosphere that is conducive for the miracles we desire. And according to this example of Jesus’ hometown, it all begins with honor. 

You see, because of their familiarity with Jesus and His family, they had a difficult time receiving from Him – which is a big problem because the old saying is true, familiarity does indeed bring contempt. And this creates offense, a stumbling. 

So what did Jesus do – Mark 6:6 says that He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching. The language here indicates that Jesus went into the villages all around Bethsaida, but didn’t go back there. Why? Because Jesus lived by His own words of not giving what is holy to the dogs or casting His pearls before swine. If people were bent on rejecting Him, not giving Him the honor or respect, He would go somewhere else. Lord, don’t let that be us! Let us be a people who honor You to the full degree that we can, so that we can see more mighty works in our midst. 
    
So, my point today is clear—we need to “get out of town” and “get the town” out of us. Be careful what we are watching and what we are listening to. It comes through prayer and fasting—drawing near to God and moving away from Bethsaida.