Please turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 18. This morning we'll finish chapter 18 of Luke's gospel and we'll look at verses 35 through 43. Luke 18 Verses 35 through 43. Hear the word of our Lord. As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd go 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, gave praise to God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you've not kept everything secret, but you've revealed these things to us, particularly the truth as it is in Jesus. The truth about who Jesus is and what he's done. You've held up a mirror to ourselves that we would see the ugliness that's within, that we might be confronted with our own sinfulness and just find this painful reality to be inescapable in order to humble us. But God, you have given us hope and comfort because you've also revealed to us the truth about Jesus. And we have this as God, a great, again, hope and comfort. We thank you and pray that, God, that you would give us instruction in your word that you would open our eyes to see and our ears to hear and God that you would open our hearts to understand the things that you've revealed and that God ultimately you would do us a good help us to grow that you would we believe we pray that you would help our unbelief and you would increase our faith and even this morning that you would grant faith for those in whose heart there is no faith in Christ God, so let it be that those who are yet in their unbelief would trust, savingly trust in Christ this morning. And that they would, trusting in Him, they would find Him to be a all-sufficient Savior. And that they would receive this salvation, this spiritual blessing that only He can provide. God, we also pray that You would increase our faith and help us to trust in Christ all the more and look to him for everything, every good thing. And so all of these things we ask you, asking them in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen. In the immediately preceding context of our passage, Jesus spoke to his disciples of his death and they did not understand it. Look with me again at verse 34. We read there that they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp what was said. And so Jesus, of course, he's been speaking of not only a prediction of his death and resurrection, his suffering, his death, his resurrection, everything that he would accomplish at the end of his ministry, at the end of his life. But the way that all of these things which would come to pass were connected with the prophecies and the promises that were made in the Bible going back into the Old Testament. And he begins to lay this out for them because as Christians we have to understand the death of Christ. And it is a big problem if you, like the disciples, don't understand the death of Christ. Because if you don't understand the death of Christ, how can you be saved? Or if you don't understand the death of Christ, how can you have any assurance of salvation at all? What is the purpose of Jesus' death in your mind if you don't understand what it means in connection to your own sin and your salvation? There are some people who look at the death of Christ and they think, Well, I mean, Jesus laid his life down for his friends. The meaning of this is that he just gave his life for his friends, laying it down in order to set an example for those who would follow. That we might just look at the sacrifice that Christ was willing to make, and the lesson for us is just that if we're going to follow Jesus, we're going to follow in his example. and that we're going to be willing to sacrifice and do for others. That's the whole meaning of the cross of Christ. Well, Christ set an example in his suffering, his death, and there is an example there as in everything we can look to Christ and seek to walk in his footsteps and to follow him very closely, we can expect to suffer. We can expect to even give our lives for the cause of Christ, for the kingdom of God. And certainly we can sacrifice for our brothers and sisters and the Lord, sacrifice in order that others might come to salvation. So there is an example to be learned from what Christ did for us, but that doesn't exhaust the meaning of the cross, and so far from exhausting, it doesn't really even get to the point of it. It doesn't get to the heart of the meaning and the message of the death of Christ. Because if you don't understand that Jesus' death was for you, then you don't understand it at all. If you don't understand that Jesus died so that you would not have to, and not primarily with reference to a physical death, because we look at the death of Christ and we might think that of course I know Christians who have died and I expect myself to die if Christ doesn't come again before that, that I'll die. So it's not that he died a physical death in order that we would not have to face physical bodily death. but that on the cross Jesus faced this, what we might call a spiritual death. He experienced the fullness of wrath of God poured out on him, which would otherwise be known to us. We would have to face God's wrath on our sin, but Jesus experienced this for us. He suffered under the full weight and burden of the wrath of God as our substitute. So if you don't understand the death of Christ as a substitutionary death, that He made peace between you and God by taking your sin upon Himself and experiencing God's wrath on your behalf, then you really don't understand it. And evidently, Jesus' disciples did not understand the death of Christ. So you can see what a big problem this is. If you don't understand this, then what are you actually trusting in, if you're trusting in Christ? And what is the gospel to you, and what is your faith? And so there's really no salvation. and there's no assurance of salvation apart from an actual understanding of these things. And we'll circle back to this in a moment because I think that there's an implication here for our evangelism You know, how can those that you know to be lost, who are far from Christ this morning, who don't believe in him, who are very confused about his death, they know it's important, they know that Jesus is important, maybe they even believe that he's God, but they don't understand the meaning of his death. How can you expect them to come to that understanding and to believe in him in this way without an explanation? And if you're not going to explain the gospel to them, then how can they expect to know and understand these things. And so, it's really a big deal, this lack of understanding. It's a big problem. You must understand what Jesus accomplished on the cross as the perfect substitute for those who believe. And I hope that you don't leave here this morning without an answer to this all-important question. What does Jesus' death mean for those who trust him? And if you don't get your answer, if the answer to this doesn't occur to you as you listen this morning to the sermon, then please talk to me afterward and just ask, I don't understand the meaning of the death of Christ. Please explain it to me in other words so that I can understand. Don't leave here without an answer to this all-important question. What does Jesus' death mean for those who trust Him? Well Jesus speaks of his death and Luke tells us the disciples they could not understand the cross because the meaning of the death of Christ was hidden from them. This is an important part of this that we touched on last week was that really until God grants that understanding then you or I won't understand. So we need to look to God for insight and for understanding and pray to him and cry out to him that he would help us to understand. That's why we pray these prayers of illumination. God, give me eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to understand. We pray that because God answers that prayer. Because only God can answer that prayer. So that the meaning of the death of Christ was hidden from Jesus' disciples. And then Luke follows this up in verse 35 with a story about an encounter that Jesus had with a blind beggar. So I wonder, is this a coincidence? You know, sometimes we read the scriptures and there are stories, and we read them as we should, as historical, so it's not that these are Aesop's fables type of just made up. stories that have a moral point. There are parables that Jesus tells a story that has a moral point, but this isn't one. This actually occurred, and so this is a historical account of this encounter that Jesus has with a blind beggar. But maybe you read this and you think, okay, well this is just what happened. This is what followed chronologically. It's what came next. There's no other significance to it than that. But I would just encourage you as you study your Bible to ask yourself, why does this follow that? Because at one level, we know from the different Gospels, if you compare them, that oftentimes the authors of these Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, they take these stories, they'll each tell them, but they'll put them in a different order. Have you ever noticed that? The actual ordering of these these stories it's different depending on which gospel you're reading. Well why is that the case? Well it's because these evangelists are trying to make a point. They take one story and they sandwich them between two others and they repeat language. There are certain words and phrases that might be repeated throughout a series of parables or stories and we need to pay attention to these things so that we understand the point that's being made here. Well, is this a coincidence? I don't think so. The way I see it, the Holy Spirit has caused these texts here to be juxtaposed so that they're side-by-side so that we might see the connection between the lack of understanding on the one hand, the disciples inability to understand the gospel, and this blind man Here he is providentially, and in this encounter between Jesus and the blind man, Jesus demonstrates the human condition and the human problem of spiritual blindness and spiritual disability, and he demonstrates his power to cure it and his power to save. And the implication here is, I think, that the disciples and we are blind beggars, and our deliverance comes through faith in Jesus Christ. We need our spiritual blindness to be overcome and to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened so that we might see things as we ought to see them and to understand who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us and for our salvation. And the key to this passage is found in verse 42. You see there, your faith has made you well. Actually, there is a better translation, I think, of this verse. The King James got it right. There are very few modern translations, though, that get this right, in my estimation. Verse 42 says, your faith has made you well. But the word in Greek is the same word as salvation, tsozo. What is actually being communicated here is Jesus says, quite literally, your faith has saved you. And so this is the point here, is that the focus is on the sort of faith that results in spiritual welfare, the sort of faith that results in salvation. And so I want to consider with you this morning this faith this man demonstrates. And first, we want to consider the person of faith in verses 35 through 37. In verse 37, look with me at verse 37. There, this man, this blind man who's sitting by the roadside begging, he cries out, he cries out, Jesus, son of David. And these words, son of David, would have been well known and recognized by all as being a messianic title. And so this man is making a connection in his mind and in his heart, he's making a connection between all the redemptive promises of God in the Old Testament and Jesus. And the promises and the plan of salvation in the Bible, as you go along, it all is progressively revealed to focus on the coming of a heroic, royal savior. And everyone knew that this heaven-sent deliverer of the people would be descended from King David. And so we called Jesus Christ. And you know, that's not a surname, that's a title. He is the Christ, He is the Anointed One, He is the Messiah, He is the Son of David, the Savior. All of these are roughly synonyms. And this man, which is interesting, is that he recognizes that Jesus is the Savior. We can't take for granted that everyone who's following Jesus, this crowd that's gathered to hear Him teach, has quite this estimation of Jesus or is making these connections between all of the promises of God throughout the Old Testament leading up to this point and the fulfillment of these promises in Jesus who is as this man believes he is the Savior. And so and I think quite frankly it's surprising and it's somewhat unexpected for us to see that this man of all people is the person to recognize who Jesus is. and to have confidence in him. After all, this man was not the profile of a socially respectable and morally upright, upstanding member of his community. He was rather a outcast, and he was one among the lowest class in society. In the first century, it was customary for rabbis to teach those who followed them while walking from place to place. And so we find Jesus doing this in our passage. He's passing through and a crowd is following him to hear his teaching as he makes his way along. Now you can imagine the sort of people who might stand closest to the rabbi. Maybe some people kind of keep their ears open, their ears perk up as Jesus passes by. I wonder what this itinerant minister is going to say as he sort of teaches aloud as he travels along. But there are some people who've gathered near and they are right there at Jesus' heels, following very closely because they don't want to miss a word of all that he has to say. And we can imagine what kinds of people these might have been. These are the well-dressed, the buttoned-up sorts of people. These are the people who always made time to listen to the rabbis when they passed through town. They're always doing this. And in our day, these are the consistent church attenders. These are the ones that show up not just on Sunday morning, but on Wednesday night. These are the people who can't get enough of good preaching, and so they are always listening to sermons on the radio and on their phones. And maybe you're thinking, well hey, that sounds like me, or that sounds like some of the people that I know. Well, there's nothing wrong with being like this. In fact, this is exemplary religious devotion in practice to show up, you know. I would encourage you to wear your vest to church and to show up consistently, regularly. And I would encourage you to listen to sermons throughout your week to help you to grow. But what I'm saying is that this is who we would expect to sort of get it. These are the people who we would expect to understand the gospel best. We expect street people, like this blind beggar, to struggle to get it. You see, that's the expectation that we would have. The person who's on this end of the spectrum of church attendance and Bible study, these are the people who are going to see Jesus and the light bulb is just going to turn on. And they're going to recognize that this is the Son of David. And they're going to cry out to Him for salvation. The straight person, this is a person who's never darkened the door of a church a day of their life. And they really don't know very much at all about the promises of scripture. We would expect them not to get it, at least. And yet, it is the disciples who cannot yet grasp the point of it all. We've learned in verse 34. They just don't understand the message of the gospel. And this beggar, the blind beggar, is the one who gets it. He understands immediately the significance of Jesus being so near to him. And actually this is an important point for us to consider. What kind of person do you need to be in order to receive Christ? attending church three times a week and you're listening to sermons, then I'm just going to commend you for that and encourage you to continue in that. Nothing wrong with that, but there's a question we need to ask that's more fundamental is, do you have to be that kind of person to recognize who Jesus is and to benefit from what he's done? And the answer is very clearly, no. What is truly important, we might ask, in terms of personal characteristics, for those who are able to really understand Jesus, what is truly important? And the answer is you don't have to reach a certain level of Bible knowledge or religious devotion before you can understand and benefit from Jesus. And I'll warn you, there are certain people I fear who always sort of hold Jesus at arm's length, hold Him at bay. For some reason they want to deserve the blessings of Jesus. They know that He is certain things and they need Him and they want to be devoted to Him and to follow Him, but they want to sort of deserve that and to be worthy of what Jesus has done, who He is and what He's done. And so they're always holding Him at bay, holding Him at arm's length, and they're sort of Jesus adjacent. You know, they come to church, they're reading their Bible, but it's never personal for them. They're not receiving the grace of God in Jesus Christ because they're not yet ready to just totally despair of earning salvation or being good enough. And so, although we might commend them for their Bible knowledge or their religious devotion, they're not where they need to be in order to receive Christ. You don't have to have a reputation for good works, and a certain standing in church or society before you can be saved. In fact, in some cases, that's an actual impediment because all of that just allows you to fool yourself into thinking that you either are good enough or maybe you could become good enough with a little more effort. And so you're just holding out for that. And yet what we find here is that it's a blind beggar who's just about as low as you can get, who has humbled himself, has been humbled by life and has humbled himself to the point where he can actually receive Christ. Of all the people who've gathered to hear Jesus teach, it's this man. Luke doesn't give us this beggar's name, but Mark does. It's Bartimaeus. I love that because I can call him Blind Bart. That has a nice ring to it. But his name is Bartimaeus. And Bartimaeus literally means in Hebrew, son of uncleanness. He was known by this name. Now this is just amazing. This man was known, his nickname perhaps, was Son of Uncleanness. You know, in a society that would have, you know, a person would have prided themselves with their connection to their ancestors, a son of David for example. This man is known as Son of Uncleanness, which marked him off as ceremonially or religiously unclean. I mean, undoubtedly he had earned this name. In all likelihood, in addition to his material poverty and his physical disability, he was, as his name suggests, poor in spirit and corrupted by sin. And he knew it. He was reminded of the sorry state of his soul every time someone called his name Bartimaeus. But surprising as this may be to you, this is exactly the right characteristic of a person of faith. Someone who has totally abandoned the idea that there's any good in themselves and who looks away from self to God for their help. That's the kind of person who can have this faith that truly saves. So first of all there is the person of faith. There's the blind beggar in this story who's a picture of us all if we're going to trust Christ for salvation. And we've got to get to the point where we see ourselves not as upstanding and upright and really exemplary and a very good person, but we see ourselves as blind beggars in so many words. So we see this and unless you come to God similarly as spiritually blind and spiritually impoverished, you'll never find the deliverance that this man finds. Second, there is we see the person of faith. Second, we see the prayer of faith in verses 38 through 39. He cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Verse 38. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. So the prayer of faith is the call for mercy. It's not the call for Jesus. Jesus, you're important. You are the Savior, the Son of David, the King. Recognize me." He's not saying, recognize my good works and commend me and applaud me or reward me. He's not saying anything like this. He's saying, have mercy on me. And this is, simply put, this is the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith is one that doesn't look with pride within and say, I am deserving of any good thing. but it's the one that says, unless God relents of His anger towards me, unless He decides against everything that I deserve to bless me and to forgive me and to make peace with me, then I'm without hope. And so it is a simple prayer. It's a call for mercy. It's a desperate prayer. You see that he just cries out in the midst of... He doesn't wait until Jesus is alone to tug on his sleeve and to say, you know, I can wait. I don't want to embarrass myself. You know, my need isn't that great to where I need to cry out now, but in the midst of all of these people who, I'm sure, despised him and would just have looked down their nose upon him, and even as he cried out, they're shushing, what are you doing, Bartimaeus? You know, be quiet, the master is talking, the rabbi. And yet, with a sense of desperation, he had to cry out, and he had to do it now. And I would just say to you that if you're not at the point where you must cry out now for salvation because you know that you're not guaranteed another moment, and that unless God relents of His anger towards you, and unless He shows mercy to you, you're without hope. And so you just can't stand the thought of a Christless eternity. And you can't bear the thought of walking out of here and not finding repentance, though you seek it with tears. But in this moment right now, you're at a point where you almost think you could cry out to Him for mercy. Then I would just urge you to do it now. Because this requires a sense of desperation. But it's not just a simplicity. of this and the desperation of it, it's a persistent prayer. In verse 39, and we've seen this already in Luke's gospel, the persistent widow and her prayer which is commended for its importunity, its persistence, but here this man, although he's rebuked, he's told to be silent, and yet he cries out all the more, verse 39, Son of David, have mercy on me. And so there's nothing more to it. You don't need a Bible college degree. You don't have to come to Sunday school and learn our church's confession of faith and just know theology to a great extent. It can just be a simple recognition that without Christ you are damned to hell, that your soul is lost. You have no hope. And that only Christ can save you. And so you just with a sense of desperation, you cry out and you cannot be dissuaded from crying out all the more. Christ have mercy on me. You are the Lord and only you can save me. Save me then. Have mercy on me. So we see the person of faith and we see the prayer of faith. Finally we see here in verses 40 through 43 the purpose of faith. The question here we might ask is what are you coming to Jesus for? What are you calling out for? in prayer to Him. And people come to Jesus for many things. There are some who would come to Jesus because they mistakenly think that Jesus is there to give you a wonderful and comfortable life here and now in terms of your earthly life. And so they think that if I just come to Jesus, and maybe if I serve Him, that he is going to bless me. He's going to return that service in kind and serve me and bless me. And this is really the key to me having a good life now. And there are some people who think this and people can think other things also. That they have enough faith that God will heal them of their diseases. This man certainly had a certain kind of faith in Jesus that believed that Jesus could restore his sight. But it was so much more than that I think. This blind beggar may or may not have come to Jesus for merely a physical deliverance from his physical handicap, but I believe that the words Jesus speaks indicate that his desire was for something more. Because there's something, there's a more comprehensive recognition of who Jesus is here. Look at the way that he says this in verse 40. 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? You're crying out to me, but what for? What really is the need of your heart? And what do you think that I can do for you? And what do you want me to do for you? And this man, first of all, he says, Lord. That actually is a word that is laden with significance here because with it is a recognition of Jesus' authority and of his unique identity. This is a word that is ordinarily reserved for God himself and for God alone. It would have been very rare to use this word of a human person and certainly not of an itinerant rabbi. There's a great deal of respect and recognition I think in this word Lord. He has a more comprehensive view of who Jesus is than that he's just a rabbi. who can give me an accurate understanding of the Bible. He can teach me something. This is the Lord. There isn't perhaps even a confession here that Jesus himself comes from heaven. from God because He is God. There's a greater recognition of who Jesus is, a greater knowledge of Jesus, and therefore, I believe, a greater confidence in what He might do. If you think that you're addressing God for help, that's different than if I ask someone to help me, a human, I have an understanding of what you might can do for me, and it's limited by who you are. If I ask, if I need to move something and I ask you, hey, will one of you men after church stick around and help me to move a heavy piece of furniture, you know, my understanding of what's possible is going to be limited by how much weight I think that the two of us can carry. And so our understanding of what help we might receive from somebody is limited by their power and their abilities. Well, he's recognizing that Jesus is more than just a man, I believe. He's recognizing that Jesus is from God and therefore there's a greater with a greater knowledge of who Jesus is there's a greater confidence in what he might do it may have begun with a simple desire for physical healing but the same faith which humbly cried for mercy to the Lord produced in abundance of what was sought yes he was given physical sight but I think here there's more Jesus doesn't just repeat himself in verse 42 recover your sight and then your faith has recovered your sight, as I think modern Bible translators are suggesting when they translate this as your faith has made you well, but this is more accurately translated, I believe, as your faith has saved you. In recognizing who Jesus is and what Jesus can do, and by trusting humbly in Jesus, this man finds salvation, as all who come to Jesus in faith find salvation. Jesus proclaimed that his faith had saved him. And you should know that if you come to Jesus in faith with no hope in your heart for salvation of any kind, anything of ultimate significance, any spiritual blessing that can be had, if you have no hope in your heart that that can be found in any other source but Jesus. That he's not just the best place to go. for spiritual blessing, but there are other places that you might find these things, including through your own efforts as a reward of your own obedience. But if you see that there's only one place that you can go for this thing, then you're gonna go to Jesus in humility and in saving faith. And I promise you, friend, that if you do that, you will find what you're looking for in him. Jesus, he answers this cry. Never once yet has he heard this cry for mercy. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. and declined to answer this prayer. And so call on him this morning. I urge you to call on him for salvation and find that he answers that call as we pray together. Father God, we thank you that you have revealed to us the truth about salvation. But God, more to the point, you've revealed your son to us, the Savior. We pray that you'd help us to understand Jesus, who he is, what he has done, that we might have salvation ourselves. God, we pray that we would not hold on to these vain hopes of preparing ourselves for salvation, of doing some good, of perhaps just doing a little even. before we come, but that we would, with all our unworthiness and undeservedness and great humility, that we would just simply, with desperation, cry out for mercy. And God, we also ask that you would increase our faith in Him. That we would be put to shame by the faith of a blind beggar. And that we would always look to Christ. And never a moment in our Christian lives, no matter how much we grow, No matter how thankful we may be for how far we've come, that we might never outgrow this simple and desperate faith that looks to Christ for blessing, for salvation, for our spiritual welfare. And grant us this faith, we pray in Christ's name.