What does First B Jackson teach about spiritual blindness?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on spiritual blindness starts with a simple observation: blindness is not always what it looks like from the outside. Pastor Carl's walk through John 9 showed that the man born blind was not suffering because of sin, his own or his parents'. Jesus flatly rejected that assumption. The blindness was an occasion for God to work, and what followed was a steady, visible transformation in one ordinary man while the religious leaders around him moved in exactly the opposite direction, growing more certain and more blind at the same time.
The same pattern showed up in Pastor Carl's teaching from Mark 8. The disciples were in a boat with the one who had just multiplied loaves for thousands, and they were anxious about forgetting bread. Jesus named what was happening: they had eyes and could not see, ears and could not hear. The two-stage healing of the blind man at Bethsaida sat right in the middle of that, and Pastor Carl read it as a picture of how understanding actually comes, not all at once, but in stages, with Jesus staying with a person through the whole process.
What the teaching keeps coming back to is the contrast between the person who comes to Jesus with nothing to argue and the person who comes with a case already prepared. The Pharisees demanded a sign and walked away unsatisfied. The man born blind simply told what he knew from his own experience, and his account of Jesus moved steadily forward under pressure, from 'the man called Jesus' to 'Lord.' Ron Turpin, speaking from 2 Kings 6, framed the same thing through Elisha's servant: the need in a hard moment is not new circumstances but restored sight, seeing what is actually present and actually true.
Taught from John 9:1-41 · Mark 8:1-26 · 2 Kings 6:15
The passage taught · 1 John 3:1
1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- April 30, 2023 I Once Was Blind, But Now I See A blind man's simple obedience, honest testimony, and quiet worship in John 9 show what it looks like when Jesus transforms a life and people must choose what to do with Him.
- February 14, 2023 The Bread of Life for All Who Would Believe Mark 8 shows Jesus feeding thousands, rebuking hard hearts, and healing a blind man. Pastor Carl traces His patience with doubting disciples and with us.
- August 28, 2011 Open My Eyes That I May See A Wyoming congregation hears a teaching from 2 Kings 6 on seeing God's protection when surrounded by fear, drawn from Elisha and his servant's story.
Mentioned along the way
- September 18, 2022 Nothing In My Hand I Bring Jesus warns against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, a blind man receives sight in stages, and a pastor reflects on having nothing to offer but faith.
- February 19, 2017 Shooting for the Center Colossians 2:1-15 sermon on Christ as the perfect center of faith, and why our only hope of hitting that mark is trusting what He has already done.