The Son of David

kids to little district and for the rest of us let's go and grab our Bibles and open them up to Luke chapter 18 you guessed it yeah we've been in there for quite a minute now uh Luke 18 this is actually the last chapter or last chapter last passage in Luke 18 before moving into Luke 19 and what's interesting over over the next um several months is actually we'll just be covering literally the last few weeks of Jesus's life and so he's just got just a few more weeks left um of his life and his death and his resurrection uh before his Ascension but for

us that'll be the last six chapters uh will be about 21 sermons or so it'll bring us right up to the beginning of Advent at the end of December uh Lord willing when it comes to that um but as you're turning there also just want to say um that I was really encouraged by reading just the testimonies from some of our women that attended uh the Gospel Coalition Women's Conference last week a couple of the themes that were consistent were just the power of the gathered Saints singing together the hunger for God's word and the desire to manage our lives in a healthier way um

investing in worthy things rather than worthless things and so I found that to be just several of the testimonies that were kind of pulled out of um the women that went you can see quite a few of the testimonies again if you reference the email that we send out on a weekly basis does anybody know when the email goes out did you say Thursday I love that uh Wednesday at noon it's Wednesday at noon every single week and so if you don't know where it's at in your inbox go back to Wednesday look at noon if it's not there check your spam for Wednesday at

noon all right it's going to be there same time just about every week but anyways those testimonies are in there I was super encouraged by them I think you would be as well um and so as we wrap up chapter 18 today starting next week in chapter 19 uh we will have a guest speaker that's going to be with us um his given name is well doctor's not given name he earned that one but uh his given name is William Edward Ashburn mfield uh which sounds like a KN from England but uh he goes by Pastor Ashley and so um Pastor Ashley was my first

uh youth pastor when I was 14 years old and then pastored me up until I was 26 uh where I also joined him on staff for about seven of those years before we started out planting churches and so he he knows the unrefined 14-year-old version of Dwayne um and so he'll be here next week uh preaching for us in um the story of zakus and so Luke 19 1-10 he'll be unpacking for us and if we have time for the end of service I'm going to do a little bit of a Q&A with him and so if you have any questions for the pastor who

pastored your pastor um definitely text those in or email them to me and like I said if we have time at the end of service we'll we'll dive into that but he'll be with us next Sunday all right let's Dive In God's word this morning um and I love this one it's going to have some similarity similar I ities to the passage that dealt with Jesus and children as well as some connection with last week's sermon uh by diving a little bit deeper into Old Testament history and fulfillment and so let's look at it together Luke 18 verses 35 through 43 starting in verse 35

as he drew near to Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging and hearing a crowd going by he inquired what this meant they told him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by and he cried out Jesus Son of David have mercy on me and those who were in front rebuked him telling him to be silent but he cried out all the more son of David have mercy on me and Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him and when he came near he asked him what do you want me to do for you he said Lord let me recover my sight

and Jesus said to him recover your sight your faith has made you well and immediately he recovered his sight and followed him glorifying God and all the people when they saw it they gave praise to God now I'm I don't normally do this but I'm also going to read the parallel passage of this that's also found in Mark's gospel uh so this is Mark's kind of vantage point of this exact same event that is going on because Mark provides for us a few more details that that are really important for this story and narrative so I'm going to read Mark 10: 46-52 as well it

says they came to Jericho and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd bmus a blind beggar the son of tus was sitting by the roadside and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say Jesus Son of David have mercy on me me and many rebuked him telling him to be S silent but he cried out all the more son of David have mercy on me and Jesus stopped and said call him and they called the blind man saying to him take heart get up he is calling you and throwing off his cloak

he sprang up and came to Jesus and Jesus said to him what do you want me to do for you and the blind man said to him Rabbi let me recover my sight and Jesus said to him go your way your Fai faith has made you well and immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way let's pray real quick for the reading of God's word Lord we thank you for your scripture we thank you for your word it is your Revelation to us it is you telling the story of who you are and how you deal with your creation it is you

showing us your grace and your mercy through your act and through your will and the plans that you have for us it is also showing us how you have come to fix and restore all that we broke and messed up and so God the Bible is literally just a story of your love and your grace and your mercy it's also a story of your judgment it's also a story of just showing us the very heart of God in serving us and so we thank you God for your scripture we thank you for your word and we know that we as humans merely cannot understand it

or grasp ourselves but we need you to reveal it to us we need you to show us and guide us in your truth with your Holy Spirit what it is that you would have for us this morning and so that's what we're praying for that's what we as Beggars are begging for and are desperate for is for your holy spirit to guide us in the truth and to show us how it is making us more like Jesus it's in your name we pray amen all right a couple of points to make in regards to the context before we see what's really going on here first

of all Luke says they were Drawing Near to Jericho while Mark and then even another parallel passage in Matthew both say that they were leaving Jericho and so if you start thinking oh no like this is an error in the Bible this is something that would be inconsistent the reality is is that both can be true simultaneously they can be nearing Jericho or approaching Jericho while at the same time leaving Jericho because what we actually know um well if you've heard of the phrase Jericho you might know that it's also referencing uh the Old Testament Jericho the walls of Jericho you might know would be

when the people of God were surrounding Jericho and the walls of Jericho and they were marching around it for seven days and on the seventh day finally the walls of Jericho fell down this was the people of God approaching the promised land and this was kind of their first entrance into it where God was beginning to hand it over to them so they've been wandering around for 40 years in the wilderness um and then finally get through and this is where God is destroying a city that needed to be destroyed in order for the people of God to to come through and begin taking hold

of and possessing what God had possessed for them and so that would be old Jericho that would be the Jericho that most of us are familiar with now by the time you get to Jesus in the New Testament that old Jericho is already an ancient city so it's like several thousand years old and so it's already in Ruins and if there was anything left as far as inhabiting it it would be very much a remnant of what old Jericho used to be so then if you were to go from there um because that was a little bit Northeast of the New Testament Jericho just a

few miles away there was this thriving flourishing filled with reservoirs and aqueducts that were moving into it um literally Jericho is the city of palms and so it was um and bostom palm was one of their biggest um um plants or or uh kind of Market that they had there and so they it was a very thriving City so much so that even Herod had a Palace built there he ended up going there to kind of retire and eventually die because it was such a beautiful city history also tells us um that the new Jericho literally Mark Anthony gifted it to Cle Patra and so

it was a uh very high population city so you have these two different Jericho that are coexisting where they as they are passing through and Jesus is heading to Jerusalem which from new Jericho is about a 6our walk uphill uh because it's like literally about 3,000 ft of elevation to get to Jerusalem they have to pass through this area in order to make their way there so it's quite possible that both writers depending on which perspective or vantage point they're looking at they could literally be leaving Jericho and also approaching Jericho so that there's no inconsistency when it comes to the scriptures here but rather

what we can really draw and conclude is they're around Jericho all right they're around Jericho and we end up seeing two people that are that Jesus interacts with while he's in Jericho one is who we'll be seeing today the blind beggar and then secondly is also zakus and so the story of zakus happens while they're here so we know Jesus spends at least a couple of days here because we know that he as you'll see next week spends a night at zaki's house and so um he is either entering in around near or leaving Jericho and that's all consistent within what could happen during that

time so when you're reading scripture and you see those inconsistencies there's more to the story than that um what we also see secondly another point to mention in regards to this passage is that this is the final Miracle performed by Jesus before he goes on to the Cross John MacArthur tells us that Jesus bookended his ministry with Miracles the first turning water into wine at Kaa canaa was at the northern point of Galilee so it's about as far as you can get from Jerusalem while still remaining in the Palestinian area and then this one is coming back to nearing Jerusalem M so that as everyone

from Jerusalem to the northern point of Galilee all the villages and towns were able to experience jesus' teaching experience Jesus's signs and wonders and the Miracles that he performed so that essentially no one would be without excuse but he is eventually here um bookending and completing his miracle there's still another like one thing that he does where he like curses a fig tree but this is the last miracle to a person in a public public setting that Jesus performs before heading on to the Cross so much so that the parallel passage in Mark um well because of what Jesus has accomplished from canaa all the

way down here to Jericho because of who he is and all the signs and wonders as Mark tells us he has amassed a great crowd that is following him that is leading um or or following and and coming alongside of him and so with that context I'm going to ask us three questions for today who is the blind man who is the son of David that the blind man calls out to and then who are we in the story who are we in the story in our passage Luke does not give the blind man a name but we do see in Mark 10 that Mark

calls him barus now anytime you see a name that starts with bar bar literally just means son so it's son of whatever the rest of the name is so here you've got bardus that then says son of tus well his name literally just means son of his father son of tus which is like we don't have any name for you so we're just going to say you are the son of your father which is appropriate because both my fathers are here today but my real father biological father dad is here in this room so this would be like literally his name is just son of

Robbie son of um your father uh which basically he's just an unknown God like even his identity is based on just his father himself well not only that but his father's name tus means unclean so this beggar is not only unknown but considered unclean he is the son of unclean and this goes in um consistency with Jewish culture because of the fact that he's blind anyone who has had a physical disability all the Jewish people believed it was a manifestation of a of a spiritual uncleanness that they had so there's either sin in their life or that they are considered cursed or broken off from

The Fellowship of the community and the congregation and the Jewish society and so they are considered unclean and they would not be allowed into any of the benefits of what it meant to be Jewish so they're not allowed to go to the temple they're not allowed to offer sacrifices for themselves they're not allowed to clean themselves they're not allowed to hear the word of God preached they're not allowed to hear any of those things because again they are separated and so this man not only is he uh unknown but he's unclean and unallowed to participate in anything that the rest of society would have access

to which at the end of the day just means that this man is a desperate man he's a desperate man and that's literally what beggar means like they're desperate for life and substance they they can't get it for themselves and so they're at the mercy of anyone else to provide for them now what's interesting that I believe the fact that Mark gives the blind beggar a name is actually indication that Mark knew who he was so if you know anything about how the scriptures were written this account is happening somewhere around 30 to 33 ad well Mark didn't write the gospel of Mark until around

70 AD so it's almost 40 years later that he writes this so how would he remember who this blind beggar was unless he knew him and as we see spoiler alert in the story we know that the blind beggar Jesus restores his sight but he gets up and he follows Jesus and so I believe this man became a part of the first church and not only that but probably a significant person in the first church so much so that after four decades have gone by and when the gospel writers inspired by the Holy Spirit are recording the Miracles and the stories and the testimonies of

Jesus they're calling out Mark and saying hey we want your story we've seen what God has done in your life we know who you are and so I believe he's become this prominent figure in the the the early church I believe he was probably there in the upper room when they're praying and receiving the Holy Spirit like scripture doesn't tell us that but I like to believe that if I'm wrong then heaven will let us know that I'm wrong but I like to believe that he's there because of this situation because of what Jesus does for him and the fact that 40 years later Mark

knows him Mark knows him enough to be able to record his name in scripture for eternity which is just a wonderful beautiful thing in seeing the turnaround of what Christ does and so back to our Passage barus literally means unknown and unclean and he has the audacity to call out to Jesus like when it comes to Jewish culture when it comes to speaking to or interacting with a rabbi like if you're unknown and unclean like you don't have any credentials you don't have any reason to be able to go and speak to a rabbi speak to a good teacher speak to someone who is a

religious leader but what does he say look at verse 36 hearing a crowd going by he inquired what this meant got to remember he can't see so he's just hearing this this this commotion this crowd that is coming by and um if I were to see someone drawing a large crowd of people I mean I too would inquire we were at the uh Olympic trials last week and looking down on the floor there was this man standing down there and there every single person that came came out and other people that came out in kind of lines or groups I mean they all went to

this guy they all went to this guy to shake his hand to give him a hug like there was something about this individual that Drew everyone and kind of created a little bit of a commotion of people wanting to say something to him or shake his hand and so forth and it's like all right well you're at swimming trials like what's the significance of this man well it was Michael Phelps like that's a pretty significant person in the context of where they were and so for us like looking at this would be one of those moments where Jesus is a significant figure in this time

and it's drawn such a commotion to where this man is saying what's important about this guy who is this man like I want to know why because again he's a beggar like if someone has come through who's just extremely wealthy I would like to know that so that I can ask for them to help me out in this situation are they a physician I would like to know that so that I can see if they can maybe rub something on my eyes to make mayy help me out with that who is this that has caused this commotion and someone from the crowd we don't know

who from the crowd but somebody responded to this man and said it is Jesus of Nazareth who is passing by now again we don't know who that was that said it but they couldn't have said anything that was more simple than just that phrase it's just it's Jesus of Nazareth which just goes on to show us that that person didn't know who who Jesus actually is because just to just say it's Jesus of Nazareth is well we know his name that everyone calls him but then we also just know where he's from so that would be like saying hey there's someone down on the floor

his name is Mike and you're like okay like I don't know who Mike is oh well Michael Phelps you know probably the greatest swimmer of all time like it's um and so you you just saying Jesus of Nazareth is is just saying we know where he's from but we don't really know who he is but there's quite a bit of commotion here it would be like saying Saul of Tarsus or Joseph of ARA this is Jesus of Nazareth but what happens next is the good stuff up to this point it's just the disciples it's a big crowd passing through Jericho they're on their way to

Jerusalem all that is just fairly normal and its routine up to this point even even the person in the crowd trying to tell this blind man that the popular guy is Jesus of Nazareth all of that is just normal but what barus does next is not normal he then Cries Out Jesus Son of David have mercy on me notice barus does not say Jesus of Nazareth have mercy on me that's what he was just instructed that's what he was just told who this man is but he doesn't call him by that name or by that title he calls him by a different title and it's

because bardus knows this isn't just some Man from Nazareth named Jesus he knows that this is the son of David and it says he cried out in Greek that is the word katzo and it means to scream to scream I mean to like to take everything you have in order to try to get a message across to try to get someone's attention um as I heard hearing from some of the women at the Gospel Coalition Conference during one of the sessions with again 9,000 women packed into a room there was this medical emergency where about 10 to 15 people started crying out for a medic

and so someone either they either passed out something was happening and of those kind of in the group right around her I mean they were screaming for an emergency for a medical team to come in so much so that it caught the attention of 9,000 people even the the keynote speaker on stage to where they stopped the session and began just praying like they were doing katza like they were crying out they were screaming like this was a moment of desperation that this man this this bamus is literally grasping for and claiming that he was the son of David calling out to the son of

David now that's something that has not been said yet of Jesus we've seen other things that have been said of Jesus when Jesus is walking down to his baptism and John the Baptist looks up and sees him on the road what does he say Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world now that's a prophecy that John the Baptist is portraying of Jesus and what his end of his life is going to look like he is going to be the sacrificial lamb for us he is going to the Cross he is going to die for all of our

sins like that's who the Lamb of God is but this is not the title that is given to him in this moment David didn't go and sacrifice himself for us that's not what the foreshadowing is of David and his title Instead This is this man saying that not only is yes he the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world but this is the one who is going to take the the Throne of the kingdom and that his Rule and Reign is going to be forever and that he is the rightful Heir and king of all that God has for us several

theologians speak of this title that the son of David is the heir to the Messianic Throne 2 Samuel 71 12-14 God promises that David is going to have a greater son who will have an everlasting Kingdom and the people knew the son of David was not Solomon everyone thought maybe it's Solomon maybe Solomon was supposed to be the one that was going to be the rightful Heir because again there was no one wiser than Solomon but what happened after Solomon's Reign literally the kingdom of God divided so they knew it wasn't going to be Solomon he wasn't the promised one he wasn't the Messiah he

wasn't going to be the one that would be considered the true son of David the the Messiah being linked in lineage to David was so important and so imperative that the New Testament writers begin in Matthew and in Luke with genealogies showing that Mary and Joseph both have links to the davidic bloodline because they knew whoever the chosen son would be is going to come through the lineage of David in Luke 132 and33 the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and prophesies to her about the child in her womb telling her he will be great and he will be called the son of the most high

and the Lord God will give to him the Throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end John the Baptist's father Zechariah even knew this as well that the Messiah would come from the House of David in Acts the early church Apostles and the leaders they preach preached about Jesus being the son of David everyone knew that the Messiah The Chosen One the appointed and anointed one would come from the House of David that is the bloodline of David and be considered the son of David that was the title they

were looking for that was the person that they were looking for and hopeful for and in just a few days when Jesus arrives at Jerusalem in Matthew 21 it tells us that the people will cry out hosana to the son of David it reminds me of Matthew 16:1 15-17 when Jesus asks Peter who do the people say that I am who do the people say that I am and Peter replies you are the Christ you are the son of the Living God and what Jesus does is he responds to Peter Blessing him but telling him flesh and blood has not revealed this to you which

is his way of saying Peter you got it right right but you did not get this right in your own intellect and in your own understanding what does he go on to say but my father who is in heaven revealed this to you so when Jesus asks Peter who am I and Peter answers correctly you are the Christ the son of the Living God Jesus tells Peter the only reason you were able to say that is because my Father in Heaven showed it to you revealed it to you allowed you to be able to see me rightly and to understand me which brings us back

to this barus how do we know that he knew what to say because this is Faith Like This Is God revealing to him when they said hey this is Jesus of Nazareth in that moment God did a spiritual Supernatural work in the heart and mind of Bemus where he said to bardus no this is not just Jesus of Nazareth this is Jesus the son of David this is Jesus the son of David and the faith that he granted to this man is what allows this man to then cry out with desperation if it is the son of David which I believe it is the son

of David he cries out not questioning but claiming that it is the son of David then he knows exactly what Jesus is capable of he knows who he is being unknown and unclean and he knows exactly who Jesus is in his righteousness and his clean cleanliness and he knows exactly what Jesus can do for him and it says in that moment he cries out in desperation and I want to ask a question do for for a moment I want to have a little pause of reflection here knowing who we are knowing where we're at in our lives what are we desperate for and like let's

be honest about it like what are we actually desperate for because maybe that's not a question we ask often because it kind of feels like that's selfish it feels like that's self-centered it feels like that's me thinking about my own life and my own I'm considering only my own interests but the the Bible doesn't tell us that we can't ever ask the question like what are we desperate for what do we need what are we longing for what do we feel like we're lacking what do we feel like we don't have that would be a blessing for us and in this moment I believe this

is a story where it allows us to have space in our life to cry out to God with what we are desperate for I mean this man was desperate to not only regain his sight but to hear from and have the son of David respond to him to interact with him and so he's not going to allow the people to rebuke him and silence him he's going to get past that and it says even start crying out all the more over them so that Jesus might hear him and so there's going to be sometimes where you're going to have bad counsel in your life bad

advisers in your life and they're going to tell you different things that you should not be considering and it might be one of those moments where we have to yell past that and we have to cry out past that and actually get to the Lord and say look whether I'm right or wrong here's what I'm desperate for and I need you to hear me I need you to hear me I need you to answer me and you might not grant me what I'm asking for because you're wiser than I am and greater are your ways than my way ways and if it's a no then

I at least want to know that it's going to be a no but I need to bring my desperation to you what are we desperate for I want you to really think about that this week I want you to write that question down and I want you to answer that question and I want you to bring it to the son of David I want you to bring it to Jesus who is sitting on the throne who has all authority to be able to answer you and it might just just be something that he's willing to give because again as scripture has said we don't have

because we don't ask well now is an opportunity for us to ask it says Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him I love the details Mark includes Mark 10:49 says Jesus stopped and he said call him and they called the blind man saying to him take heart get up he is calling you which is I mean you can you can see the shift in their perspective a little bit there it's like no no no no no be quiet quiet you know don't bother him and then just like call him like Hey Hey no no yeah take heart he's excited to talk to

you like we are too so come on like it's it's amazing how quickly we can um assume things about Jesus and who Jesus wants to interact with and yet it it might always be different than what we expected Jesus In This Moment shocks his disciples and says no no no I want I want to talk to that man go get him and so they turn their attention to him they tell him to get up and they tell him that Jesus is calling for him and I love what it says in verse 50 of Mark 10 throwing off his cloak he sprang up and came to

Jesus which is an expression throwing off his cloak of saying I'm leaving everything and coming to you this Des desperate man is willing to leave all that he actually has he doesn't have much a cloak to this man's probably pretty valuable but yet he's willing to leave it in order to come to Jesus because he knows that Jesus has heard him that he's calling for him now and what he's going to get from Jesus is greater than anything he already had and so even in our desperation we need to know that when we're re when we're asking of the Lord to intervene in our life

it might also cause us to lay aside something in our life in order to receive that thing that we are asking for and that's difficult because what we want is well don't touch my life don't touch my stuff don't touch my calendar or my schedule don't touch my relationships I I'm asking for this thing from you but but leave the rest of my stuff alone and Jesus might be saying no no no what you actually are desperate for is right and holy and good but in order for me to answer it you also have to lay aside of these other things you might have to

make some changes in your life that going to be hard but it's for the better we have this slogan that's over it's on the wall in our room that just says choose the good portion choose the good portion are we choosing lesser than portion ions and ignoring the good portion that Jesus actually has for us when we are calling out for him sometimes we're praying the right thing but we're not willing to lay aside other things in order to receive what he is actually providing for us so the only appropriate response when Jesus calls you is to drop everything and run to him and that's

what barus the son of the unclean does but what does Jesus do once barus gets to him verse 14 1 in our passage says what do you want me to do for you what do you want me to do for you now remember and literally it's been since Luke 9:51 Luke 9:51 is when it says Jesus turned his face to Jerusalem and began the journey towards the cross Jesus knows and this is nearing that end he's about to literally go up to Jerusalem to suffer the punish pment for the sins of the world to be scored tortured betrayed mocked and beaten flogged crucified and killed

if you missed last week we Dove deep into that we Dove deep into everything that Jesus accomplished for us in his suffering as a servant and yet here he is taking a moment taking a moment I mean he's merely like it's within days that he is about to go on his trial and he takes a moment and he pauses his journey to stop and interact with this blind beggar this unknown and unclean man and he asks him how can I serve you how can I serve you I mean that is the very Heart Of God like that's what God is like like when we when

we perceive God you know you got your big like old man with the white beard sitting on a throne and every time you make a mistake he's just you know sending a lightning bolt down no no no that's Zeus in your mind God is not that when we think about God we should see him like this we should because this is Jesus who reveals who who is the visible representation of the invisible God he sees us in our need how can I serve you and in the beauty of the Bible that's what actually brings worship to him rather than worship to us he's not saying

how can I serve you because you're awesome because you're the greatest thing that's ever been created and because when I look around you everyone else is a bunch of dummies but you're I mean you've got it together and so how can I serve you no that's not it it's Jes Jesus saying um I've never done anything wrong I'm actually you're right I am the son of David I have a rightful Throne that I'm going to be taking up very soon I'm also the Lamb of God I am everything that the prophets of the Old Testament have testified about and have spoken of that I am

about to fulfill I am everything is what Jesus is is essentially getting at but because I am and you are not how may I serve you how may I serve you because you need me to serve you is what Jesus is saying here like we need Jesus to serve us because we can't serve ourselves like we can't serve ourselves we can't fix ourselves we need him to do for us what he has done for this blind man MacArthur tells us that the final four people that Jesus saves before his death are a blind beggar a tax collector a thief and a Roman Centurion four people

that represent the bottom of the barrel the lowest of the lows the scum of the earth the hated and the despised the Forgotten and The Forsaken and Jesus comes to them and asks what do you want the son of David to do for you just before the parallel passage in Mark 10 Jesus says this in Mark 10:45 for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many I mean that's in Mark 10:45 right before Mark starts in verse 46 with bmus so he's showing us the son of man has come not

to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many and let me show you exactly how he did that there was a man named bmus who is the son of the unclean who was unknown and nobody wanted anything to do with him except for Jesus Jesus wanted to have something to do with him Jesus wanted to change his life he wanted to save him and pursue him and call him out of his blindness I mean blindness was a serious situation in first century so much so that when Jesus calls for an illustration of what it means to be sinful

F and to be saved he says I was blind and now I see so blindness was literally equivalent to being sinful and deserving of hell and so he calls out to this blind man just like he calls out to us and he says I'm going to save you I'm going to restore you to relationship with me I'm going to recover your sight and that's exactly what this man asked for Lord Lord again I love that in Luke Lord I mean this man has great theology great theology for a blind beggar that's unknown and unclean that does not have access to the temple that does not

has have access to hearing the word of God preached and proclaimed again thank you God for the Revelation that you give to us and you Grant To Us by faith in you this man calls out Lord which is his way of saying all you have is Authority and omniscience like it's it's when you call Jesus Lord you're giving to him every attribute of God that is in the scriptures you're all powerful you're all knowing you're all all present you are everywhere always in your fullness and you have all authority everything is under your your foot stol like you are God and so Lord is what

he calls him so he's even been amplifying you're not just the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world you're not just son of David who is going to have the rightful Heir and Throne of the kingdom of God but you are God you are Lord let me recover my sight and Jesus said to him straightforward all right your sight is recovered I just love that like for whatever reason sometimes we believe that Jesus doesn't answer that way so we'll pray a prayer and then we're like all right maybe in 10 years he'll he'll answer it or maybe you know after I

get my stuff together he'll answer it maybe after I get my ducks in a row he'll answer it maybe after I serve myself he'll serve me and I just want you to be reminded that there are moments where when out of desperation we ask of the Lord this is what I'm desperate for and this is what I'm asking for there are going to be moments where he says says okay it's done it's done Jesus said him recover your sight your faith has made you well and immediately he recovered his sight and it says he didn't go back to his cloak he didn't go back to

his home he didn't go back to his spot he followed Jesus he followed him glorifying God third question is who are we there were two reactions to the people in this passage the first reaction was in verse 39 and those who were in front rebuked him telling him to be silent the second reaction was at the end and all the people when they saw it they gave praise to God again we have to learn the activity of Jesus they're still learning at this point so you can kind of give them the benefit of the doubt here they're still learning what Jesus is choosing to do

and not do and this might have been one of those moments where as a people they were thinking dude Jesus is not he doesn't want to waste his time with an unknown and unclean blind man that's beggar like he's not so stop stop yelling out you're bothering him again it goes back to how they dealt with children and the children were trying to get to Jesus and Jesus was like hey don't rebuke the children they were like stop like you know you're not old enough yet to be able to have benefit of what Jesus is offering and so they're trying to rebuke the children and

Jesus is like no no no stop let the children come to me for such is the kingdom of heaven and so they're still learning what Jesus is all about and we are still learning what Jesus is all about the question I have for us is Are we more apt to be like those who rebuke and tell others to be silent when they want to come to Jesus and obviously I'm not saying that we're like literally that verbal about it you know we're not just like walking into a coffee shop and someone sees oh I you have a Bible what's that about we're like be silent

like don't talk to me about that I'm here for coffee and donuts like it's no like we would probably be like oh yeah let me like show you so it's not it's not the the the abrasiveness of that it's actually more of I think the areas that we're not willing to let go of that keep us from creating space in our lives to show others Jesus and so that's where we got to do the harder work of looking at how we I mean just it's auditing your day like how do we spend our day is it serving ourselves or are we like Jesus looking for

opportunities to serve others are we looking for opportunities to pause and take a moment and reach out and see the blind beggar and call out to them and say we'd like to show you something we'd like to tell you about Jesus we would like to have space to sit down and talk with you about Christ CHR and what he has done for you do we do that do we allow space in our lives so that when we see Jesus interact with them and do a miracle we're able to see it and then give praise to God do we see people do we call them by

name do we point them to Jesus because that's exactly what Jesus did In This Moment and I'm going to tell you this there's when we talk about joy and we talk about the good life the good life when you look at the life of Paul who had everything and then gave it all up for Christ and then considers it all worthless in knowing Christ even in knowing Christ when Paul says my joy is complete he's not even just talking about the relationship with Christ that is making the joy complete but it's him seeing others come to know Jesus that makes the joy complete so it's

if your life is let me just have you know Jesus my Bible and I and I have my quiet time and I have my alone time with Christ and and that's the only time that I like interact with the Lord and so I'm treasuring Jesus in that moment yes amen you're treasuring Jesus in that moment you are abiding in Christ but your joy is not complete until what you experience in your relationship with Christ is expressed outwardly to sharing it with others so that they can also come to experience the same thing that you are experiencing in Jesus Christ this is why we always say

worship is an expression not just an internal intellectual um a sent like it's it's why when we say when we come into this room let's not look dead because if you just hold it in and you're just like you know I just I just want to be I just want to be quiet you know I just want to just want to do my thing you know it's my personal relationship with Jesus no it's your public relationship with Jesus like it's got to be expressed it's why like when you um we went and saw Nate baratti this last Wednesday night and and I've told several people

about it because it was an enjoyable experience like he's a great comic a clean comic he grew up like 15 15 20 minutes from where I grew up and so I relate with a lot of how he talks even though I've lost a lot of my accent but um it's it's I enjoy that but when I then go and share like if I just experienced it and was like man that was amazing and I like go and I'm like I really want to tell someone but I'm just not going to do it like it like it it it kills the joy and that's what we

do with Christ like what we experience with Christ if we keep it in and never get it out it kills the joy it's why like when I look at people who have been Christians for 3040 years who grow to be like just scile and and and um not fun at the end of the day I think it's because they've lost their first love I think it's like they they know Jesus and they know what they believe but at the end of the day they've stopped in they've stopped participating in the mission of Christ like they they sto participating in in the multiplication of the gospel

and seeing it go out seeing seeing other people that were blind now see like that's the joy of the work and that's what Jesus is inviting us into over and over and over again is he wants to see us not only experience what we get to experience with him but getting to see other people experience it and that's why Paul says this makes my joy complete and for us like that's what is going to allow our cup to overflow like Christ is going to fill your cup up with himself because he is your satisfaction but what overflows is when we start to see other cups

getting filled up in Christ and it just begins this kind of wave of of um not only just excitement but just worship just Joy like that's the good stuff that's the good stuff and so when what we're desperate for I hope is also that I hope we're desperate for like deep Joy that's abiding in Christ but also is connected to others coming to see him as we see in this passage the disciples Jesus and this is where I love Jesus working this in the man calls out to Jesus and Jesus doesn't go straight to him what does Jesus do he pulls in those who were

rebuking the man and allows them the opportunity to go get the man so that when he comes to Jesus they get to see what happens like do you see that Jesus just could have said all right y you dummies get out of the way come here barus let's do some work and then bmus you know recovers his sight and then goes away and then Jesus is like you foolish ones like why would you you know no he says y'all come on I want you to see what I'm doing and then they are able to see it and it says they gave praise to God and

so that's what he's doing with us that's what he's doing with us he's giving us opportunity over and over and over again to see the work that he is doing in others lives so that it brings us joy it brings us joy let's pray together father we thank you so much for these stories that you give us these stories that are true that have happened over 2,000 years ago these stories that show us the heart of God the heart of a savior who is sent to serve to serve because we can't serve ourselves we are the helpless Beggars we can't restore our sight we can't

see for ourselves all we can do is desperately cry out to you and thank you God that you hear us and that you listen and that you come to us and you ask us how can I serve you and I thank you God that you answer that you answer you're good you're gracious and you're merciful and father I pray that that same message and that what we see you doing here with these disciples and with this Blind Men I pray that you increase that in our church in our community that we would also look for those who need sight restored and that they would come

to know you and treasure you and find joy in you and that that would make our joy complete with the overflowing Grace that we experience in seeing the work that you have done in other people's lives it's in your name we pray amen let's go ahead and stand as we enter into our time of communion