Experience TRUTH - #6

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Everything changed in the life of a poor blind beggar when he encountered Jesus Christ. I'm Stu Everson. Welcome to Experience Truth. So glad you're with us. I'm with my buddy, baseball legend, trainer, coach, pitcher, everything, Joe Sperley. Joe, it's good to have you on Experience Truth, pal. Thanks, Stu. Great to be here.

You are something else, man. You're part of our Wednesday in the Word journey, and once in a while I grab a couple of those guys in here, and we go through the Word together on the radio. And you've also got your own radio show we're working on, right? So you train a lot of these young people, and you're trying to give a mission statement of what you're trying to do out there, Joe. Yeah, we're trying to bring all these athletes out there to the Lord. A lot of them go down a road and path, and they get competitive, and we're trying to understand that the Lord is really first and the sports come second. So my talk show, we talk about what's the missing link to advancing and playing sports that we really want to have everybody listen to, because I see too many boys and girls that go on and that should be playing a lot longer than they do, and that's one of the missions God has laid on my heart to help those, but first lead them to God first. Fantastic. And like that blind beggar, we all need the Lord, don't we?

We're going to go in there today. Read for us, will you? This is, what's the passage this week, Luke? Luke, Joe, what's the passage this week? This is Luke 18, 35 through 43.

Okay, read it for us, will you? Then it happened, as he was coming near Jericho, then a certain blind man sat by the road begging, and hearing a multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, and he cried out saying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet, but he said, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to him, and when he had come near, he asked him, saying, what do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him, receive your sight, your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God.

And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. What a great story, and what a great event that actually happened, and it happened at the end of Luke chapter 18. This is a journey through Luke we do every week on Experience Truth. Joe, ask that first question right there that's tied into the context, and this will kind of take us right into this discussion. How does this blind man compare, contrast with the older brother, the prodigal, the Pharisee, the publican, and the rich young ruler?

Wow. So there's this theme in Luke, Joe, and you've been in our study with this. You know, there's this, Jesus is contrasting over and over again. We just came out of the story of the rich young ruler, the man who was too good to go to heaven, contrasted with the babes, the little ones that Jesus said, bring them to me, that such is the kingdom of God. And then you look at the prodigal son who was too sinful to even come home to his dad, and his dad accepted him in grace, contrasted with a rich older brother who was proud and self-righteous and all these things. Then you have the two men that went to the temple to pray, right? The guy who was arrogant and proud, and the man who was humble, the sinner.

He wouldn't even go into the inner court, he wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven. He said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. And then we have this poor blind beggar. So this is a real fascinating story. This is an event in Christ's life, and it opens up by saying, as he came up to Jericho, which it's interesting he says that because we know from topography and geography that Jericho is about 700 feet, kind of below sea level, but it's coming. So when you're coming from Jericho, you're coming up from Jericho into Jerusalem.

So you're coming kind of on an upward climb. So Jesus is leaving, coming out of Jericho. He's done all these miracles. We know that he's going to meet a guy named Zacchaeus, right? So he's actually coming into Jericho up toward Jerusalem. So there's some events that are still going to happen in Jericho before his triumphal entry later in chapter 19. So Christ is wrapping up his earthly ministry.

We're getting kind of to the wine down here, toward the cross, toward Jerusalem, toward the triumphal entry, and so on. And it says, this is a great statement, a certain blind man. So let's talk about the blind people. In ancient Israel, the blind people were viewed just a notch higher than the despised tax collectors, than the wee little man we're going to learn about in Luke later in chapter 19.

You have these guys. Attributed to the blind is the presumption of sin. When religious people saw the blindness, they said, don't be like him, there's something sinful in his life, generational sin going on. This guy is despised by God because he has this blindness.

If you're deaf, you're blind, you're maimed, you're leprous, they would assume they would assign a sin to you. And so this guy had a lot of shame on him. He had all kinds of stigma associated with him.

And of all the blind folks, by the way, it was this certain blind man. It shows the specific nature of who Jesus calls. He calls individuals.

He calls certain people. And it's a real fascinating... Of course, we could do a whole conversation, Joe, about spiritual blindness. You talk to these young people all the time about the Lord. They don't get it because the light's not on. There's a spiritual blindness that's epidemic in our culture.

No question. There's a spiritual blindness that I call, it's like they just don't open the shade to really let the God spirit into them, and they just kind of have the blinders on. And a lot of them go down some paths in life and in sports that really is a huge destruction that it takes them to hit that rock bottom before sometimes God gets to them. Yeah, and so read this next little question here, or that'll get us even door.

I just don't want to make this note. He sat by the road begging. So likely someone brought him there. Someone maybe was depending on his begging to support his life. He had to eat, right? He had to stay somewhere. He had to be accommodated. Go ahead and read this question right here.

Why did they rebuke him for calling him out, calling out to Jesus? Okay, so here's what you have going on. You have this blind beggar. So he's blind.

He's already got problems there. He's a beggar, so he's dirt poor. What does he have to bring to Christ?

What does he bring to the table, right? He's a certain blind man. He's a certain blind beggar. And he sits by the road. So he's sitting there. He's helpless. He's just sitting there, immobile. And he hears the multitude passing by, and he asks what it meant.

He's like, what's going on? Well, this multitude, no doubt, is going to tell them, you're not going to believe what's going on. What Jesus is doing.

What he's talking about. The miracles coming in the wake of all this stuff. You're not going to believe all the amazing things he's done in the adjoining towns nearby, and so on and so forth. And so as soon as he hears Jesus... you know, the word travels. Maybe he knew other people that were blind that were healed by Jesus. Maybe he knew some of these characters that were leprous, or even people that were dead that were raised from the dead. Maybe he'd heard about these awesome miracles of Christ.

And so he's wanting to know what's going on, what's happening. And so they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. Now, they said Jesus of Nazareth. That's what they did in those days. That'd be like saying Joe from Minnesota, or Steve from Arizona.

It's just an association, or from the south side of New York or whatever. Well, he cried out, verse 38. And it's interesting that he cried out. There's passion in that word, cried.

There's an intensity in that word, cried out. He cried out saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Now, that's interesting. They said Jesus of Nazareth. They gave Jesus his human title. He gives Christ noble title, Son of David.

Now, what is significant about that? Well, David was the great King of Israel. So he was assigned to Christ the nobility to his name. He was calling Jesus by not just his birthright as a human, as a man, and as the God-man, but as his kingly heir. And Christ did have the blood of David coursing through his veins as both Mary and Joseph came in the line of David.

Of course, God promised David a seed who would reign forever, right? And so here is the Son of David, Jesus. So he says, Jesus, Son of David, look at the next part of his prayer, have mercy on me. So this is a great statement of crying out to God for mercy. This is like the two men that went to the temple to pray we talked about, you know, a couple weeks ago.

You know, one of them cried out. The one that prayer was answered, that didn't just hit the ceiling, was the poor publican, the sinful, dirty, rotten publican who said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. Well, here he cries out with a great passion, Son of David, acknowledging God is the Messiah, the Savior of kingly assent, have mercy on me. Which is the same as David prayed in Psalm 51, where he said, had mercy on me, O God, according thy lovingkindness.

Blot out my transgressions. So very, very similar, but he's praying this to the only one who can have mercy on him. So this question, why did they rebuke him?

You know, verse 39, it says they tried to shut him up. What is this guy doing? Good gracious, man, we've all brought our kids, and we've brought our family, we've brought our other sick, and we're trying to hear the Master, and he's in a hurry, and he's got to get to Jerusalem for the Passover, and there's a lot going on here. And who is this guy? This numbskull nobody, blind beggar, worthless son of a gun, nothing, Joe, and he pops in there, and Jesus is too busy for this.

And know that the disciples are like, what in the world, man? You know, but what's interesting is the last guy that came to Jesus was the dream, the rich young ruler. We talked about him last time. This guy was the ideal person. You know, this guy would, hey, this guy brought a lot of value to the table, right?

He was rich, he was young, he was a ruler, likely on the Sanhedrin, a religious guy, he kept all the commandments. I mean, this is the guy we want in our building program. This is the guy we're like, this, I was like, hey, make way, the VIP section.

Hey, let's check your credentials. This blind guy didn't have any credentials, couldn't see a lick, and what did he have to bring? I think that's so powerful right now, when we look at here 2,000 years later, is that Jesus is still working through everybody, and everybody needs to come to him, and he will forgive them, and you will have, you know, eternal life with him, and I think I see a lot of hurting people right now that if you're listening to this, Jesus, it doesn't matter what you've done or where you've been, you need to turn your life over to him, just like this blind guy did, and Jesus, he'll heal anybody, and I see so many now, Stu, that can really, in this world we live in, and everybody going in such different directions, and so many people homeless, and so many people without employment, and so many hurting use that they just need to really now, if Jesus did that years ago, he can do that 2,000 years later. There's a different, yeah, that's exactly right, and there's a spiritual blindness that is blinding Far Greater, and ask this question here, because Jesus, it's amazing what Jesus did, because after these people said to be quiet, he just dials it up more. I mean, it says, those that went before him warned him to shut up, be quiet, but he cried out all the more. So here he's even, that's even feeding the fire, stoking the flame of him, crying out more, Joe, and he says again, he said, Son of David, have mercy on me. Verse 40 is a great thing, it says, so Jesus stood still. Now, how many things caught, you know, Jesus told a storm to stand still, right? A lot of folks stood still at the sight of Jesus, at the sound of his voice, but how many times you have Jesus standing still?

He hears the cry. You know, I love the, I love Psalm 34, it says, the righteous cry, and the Lord hears them, Psalm 34, and delivers them from all their troubles. Well, Jesus, now that's fascinating, because it's so loud there. I mean, this is the crowded road to Jericho.

This is, you know, bedlam, crazy, all these people, all this commotion, all this clamor, and no doubt Jericho's a thriving, you know, Middle Eastern, growing, you know, very robust economy. People are buying and selling and trading and eating and, you know, capitalistic like crazy, and a lot of these Jewish merchants are going nuts, and they're doing great things, and this was one of the major trading routes here, through Israel up to Jerusalem on down, and so here, in all the noise and clamor, Jesus stood still. After hearing this guy cry out, Lord Jesus, or Son of David, have mercy on me, it says he did two, Jesus did two things. He said, he stood still, and he commanded him to be brought to him. That's interesting, he cried out, Lord, couldn't even bring himself to Jesus. Jesus commanded him to be brought to him, and when he had come near, he asked, now Jesus asked this guy a question, but Joe, we're out of time. Read the Word, share the Word, study the Word, be in the Word, and join us next time for Experience Truth. As we journey through Luke, it's always great to have you with us. This is the Truth Network.