Sermon Tone Analysis

*Spiritual blindness The Bible addresses spiritual blindness as the great human problem.

Israel was supposed to be God's servant *

*Isa.

42:19*

*19        Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send?

Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the LORD?

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*(NIV)*

*but was blind to the role God wanted them to fill.

Called to be watchmen protecting the nation, they instead blindly preyed on the people *

*Isa.

56:10.

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*10        Israel's watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep.

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*(NIV)*

*As the Pharisees gained leadership, they became blind leaders of the blind Matt.

15:14;*

*14        Leave them; they are blind guides.

If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit." *

*(NIV)*

*Matt.

23:16-26.*

*16        "Woe to you, blind guides!

You say, `If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' *

*17        You blind fools!

Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

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*18        You also say, `If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' *

*19        You blind men!

Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

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*20        Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

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*21        And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.

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*22        And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.

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*23        "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You give a tenth of your spices-- mint, dill and cummin.

But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-- justice, mercy and faithfulness.

You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

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*24        You blind guides!

You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

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*25        "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

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*26        Blind Pharisee!

First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

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*(NIV)*

*Jesus came to reverse the situation, making it clear who had spiritual sight and who was spiritually blind *

*John 9:39-41 *

*39        Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."

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*40        Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What?

Are we blind too?" *

*41        Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

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*In verse #41 what Jesus is saying is that when one realize there sinfulness and know that sinis binding them and keeping them from knowning the truth, then they can be helped, but when one is so self-centered that they reject the truth they have become Spiritual Blind *

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*Peter listed the qualities a person must have to have spiritual sight.

Without these, a person is blind (2 Pet.

1:5-9 read these verses from the bible).

The problem is that the spiritually blind do not know they are blind (Rev.

3:17).

They are blinded by the "god of this world" (2 Cor.

4:4).

They walk in darkness, eventually being blinded by the moral darkness of hatred (1 John 2:11).*

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*We see here these two disciples who were walking on the road from Jerusalem on there way to Emmaus.

As  we look we can see that they were not only blind of the present of Jesus , but they were going in the wrong direction.

The followership with other belivers were back in Jersalem, not int he direction that they were going.

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*Much of there blindness was caused by being preocciped with there own disappointments.

They knew Jesus, but could not see him.*

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*If we are going to see Jesus our eyes must be opened.*