is what we call Palm Sunday. I may change the order of how I preach things a little bit to try to get the beginning of Chapter 21 to land on Palm Sunday when we get there. But the important point for today is Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for the last time in his life. He's coming to Jerusalem again. You know that, right? Yes. So it's not his last time coming to Jerusalem. The next one will be quite spectacular. He won't be riding on a donkey. He'll be riding on a horse. and He'll be riding in the sky, and He'll be coming with a whole heavenly host with Him and all the saints. But now He's on His way to Jerusalem where He's going to fulfill His Father-assigned role as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And he comes out of the city of Jericho, so he's not too far from Jerusalem. And he's on the way, and we're told that a great multitude by this time is following him. Now, before I get into the details, I need to point out that, and this is very important, that this account is recorded for us by Mark and Luke, and there's a very, there's quite a difference between Mark's account between Matthew's and Luke's. And one of the biggest things that's different is we're told here, in verse 30, that two men were sitting by the road. In the Gospel of Mark, In the Gospel of Luke, we're told that there's one man sitting by the road. And in the Gospel of Mark, in this story, we're actually told his name. His name is Bar Timaeus, which is just a way of saying Bar Timaeus. Bar Timaeus means the son of Timaeus, which Mark also translates for us. And you wonder why does Mark give him a name and why does Matthew not? And there's a couple of other little differences like that. I like to highlight these things just for the sake of your own Bible study and your Bible reading. It is these little nuances, these little detailed differences that to me make the Bible strikingly authentic and real. It is without question because there are so many passages and the sequence of passages that verbatim parallel one another that one gospel writer was aware of another and one was aware of another, perhaps except for John, whose structure and order of things and choosing of different events in Jesus' life is a little bit different. But I've often thought to myself that Perhaps Mark, under the influence of Peter, wrote his Gospel first. Matthew, definitely aware of Mark's Gospel, recalled some of the things the same way, but knew other details or remembered perhaps other details that Mark did not. So Mark writes down that this is one guy and his name is Bartimaeus. Matthew remembers, wait, there were two guys. And God used that humanness of the people to bring forth his word. His word is perfect, but he used people to write it down. When this Bible says, when Paul writes to 2 Timothy, he says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's a long-sounding phrase that simply literally means God breathed, which is to say that even though men were used to pen the words and God used the experiences and the perspectives and even the memories of the men to put down what is on his page, every word is from God. So God was completely in control, overseeing, controlling the process of his word being recorded and written down for us. And one of the things that says to me that these accounts of Christ's life are authentic, historical, and trustworthy, while it's neat to find an extra biblical reference to Jesus like in the writings of Josephus or something like that, While that's neat to see, I actually don't need external corroboration of the Bible to know it's true. The fact that the Bible, there is nothing in history like the Bible, especially the New Testament. There is nothing in the history of literature like the New Testament. There are so many extant copies of the New Testament, thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of them, which date back centuries, sometimes to the 4th, 3rd century AD. There are fragments of the New Testament scriptures that date as far back as the 2nd century AD. One of them in particular, I can't remember the fellow's name who it's attributed to, but it's a fragment of the Gospel of John chapter 18 and it is just two generations removed from the Apostle John himself. And when you read these things and you realize that Mark wrote down the story of Jesus. Then Matthew wrote down the story of Jesus. But Matthew remembers a detail different. What that does is it shows you that these weren't just a bunch of guys conspiring to invent a religion. These are guys that are trying to tell us the truth. And it should make you look at your New Testament and say, wow, what a treasure I have in my hands. You have to observe that when you read this passage. because like, I mean, there are other passages like this as well, but some of the details are different. I mean, Mark tells us this is Bartimaeus, but Matthew tells us that this is two men, all right? Now, let's press back into this. These two men are sitting by the side of the road, verse 30 tells us, right? And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, They cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David! Have mercy on us! There's the cry for mercy. There's the reference to Him as Lord. The other Gospels point to Him actually calling out the name Jesus. Have mercy on us, Jesus, Jesus. But the thing that all three Gospel accounts pick up, in this cry of these two men, one of them being Bartimaeus, is this phrase, Son of David. Son of David is an amazing thing for them to be crying out because it can only mean one thing. That is that these guys sitting on the side of the road recognize that Jesus is what? The Messiah. The Messiah. I mean, we knew, they all knew, every Jew knew, every Jew still knows today that when Messiah comes, He is a descendant of King David. And He's going to sit on David's throne. The modern Jew maybe rejects Jesus as being that person. You need to witness to them. You need to pray for them. But that's it. That was a title that would be given to the Messiah. So what they're confessing as they cried out is, Messiah, Messiah, Messiah. Now that might explain the reaction of the crowd. What does it say? Have mercy on us, son of David. Verse 31 says, then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet. Why might the multitude warn them that they should be quiet? So this whole multitude is following Jesus, right? Because what? They had seen the miracles? They had been fed? They loved the way maybe Jesus stood up to religious rulers or maybe even civic rulers? that they perceived to be oppressive. There were all sorts of reasons why Jesus had this whole multitude following Him. And, of course, among them were real disciples and some sincere believers as well. We know from reading through the Gospels that there's a mix, right? Like in modern churches today, there's a mix. There's the true, there's the false, there's everything. There's people that are there for all different reasons. Hopefully everyone here that's sitting in this room today, hopefully everybody listening to this recording is a real believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. And you don't just see Jesus as someone to follow because He'll give you this, or He'll do that, or whatever. You really need His salvation. And you see the salvation that comes through Him, and you're a true believer in Him. But when these guys cry out, Son of David! Son of David, Son of David, the crowd is like, quiet! Shh, don't, what do you mean Son of David? Don't, how do you know, don't say He's the Son of David, right? Maybe the crowd is like a little embarrassed by the title. Right? Hey, listen. Some of this crowd, when you get into chapter 21, some of this crowd is going to be standing there saying, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord as he comes into Jerusalem. Then just about a week later, some of the same people are going to be standing in another big crowd in the same place saying, Crucify! Crucify! Crucify! You know, real Christianity, real faith in God is not about going along with the excitement of the crowd because the crowd can change like that. Real Christianity is about recognizing who Jesus is and recognizing that He is your only hope. And these two blind guys are sitting by the side of the road. They can't see. They can hear. There's a commotion. They ask, what is going on? Who is this? They tell him who it is. And it's like, Son of David! Son of David! Son of David! They cry out. They cry out. And the people tell him, shh! What's wrong with you? Knock that off! We don't need any trouble. We're enjoying this. Then. Comes. One. Of the best aspects of the story. In verse 32. So Jesus stood still. There he is. Jesus not going with the crowd, even though the crowd was adoring Him. You would think Jesus has exactly what He wants. There's a multitude following Him. I don't know how much noise the multitude would have made, but Jesus heard this cry, Son of David, Son of David, Son of David. And through the Son of David, Son of David, there's all the, Quiet! What's wrong? Son of David! What's wrong with you? Stop it! Leave him alone! What? Son of David! Son of David! And Jesus is walking along, and all of a sudden, just stops. And it says, what? He called them. Jesus stood still and called them. Now, before you read what he says to them, just stop and think about that for a minute. Jesus called them to I'm going to go over every one of these little points at a time, but I just want to get through the story. Jesus called them to himself. Luke's gospel records that. the people then changed, their tune changed. When Jesus stopped and called them, then the people started saying, you know, come, the master is calling for you. And we're told in the Gospel of Mark of Bartimaeus, and presumably this is true for both of them, that he actually just left his cloak there on the road and ran over to Jesus. Now listen, he's blind. Right? So he's just kind of, maybe someone was helping him, it doesn't say so, but it says he just jumped up and left his cloak there and just went straight for Jesus. So he's doing this like by ear, but he's not doing it in his own strength. Right? Because he's like, he's just kind of following what he hears. He's not walking and looking at what he's walking at like you and I would do. He's listening, and he's walking, and he makes his way to Jesus, and presumably both of them did. And then Jesus asks the question, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. You know, of all of the things, of all of the kinds of healings that are a beautiful picture of salvation, isn't this one of the best? That he opened the eyes of the blind. The songwriter, the hymn writer for Amazing Grace understood it, didn't he? Right? I was blind, but now I see. making a reference to God's grace, bringing salvation to him. It's tremendous and beautiful, and the story says that immediately they received their sight. And it doesn't end there, it says they followed him. Jesus had compassion on them, touched their eyes. And only Matthew records that he touched their eyes. Mark and Luke simply say that he spoke to them and said, Go your way. Your faith has made you whole. And they were immediately able to see. And in one of the Gospels, Jesus says, Go your way, your faith has made you well, but he doesn't go away. He follows him, rejoicing and glorifying God. That's the story. So what do you see in that story? You wanna take all these things. It starts off with a recognition. Listen, it starts off with a recognition that the Messiah is here. It starts off with a recognition that the son of David is walking by and we have the opportunity to reach out to him for help, okay? Then you see them crying out when they recognize Messiah. Then you hear the crowd trying to tell them, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet. Then you see Jesus stop in the midst of a crowd trying to dissuade them. You see Jesus just stop. Then you see Jesus call for them. Then you read of Jesus having compassion on them, then you read of Jesus touching them, and then you read of them following him. Isn't that like a nice little picture of hopefully what you have experienced in your own life when you came to salvation? At some point in your life, you recognized that Jesus was the Messiah, right? Someone preached the gospel to you, and God opened your heart to the truth. and you recognize who Christ is. At some point in your life, you cried out to him because you saw your need for salvation. You saw your need for the healing of your soul. You saw your need for the removal of the blindness of your heart. And so you turned to Jesus and you cried out. You found when you cried out that the world didn't make it easy for you. You found that the world does not stand there and cheer when you cry out to Jesus. You find that sometimes the world says, would you just shut up with that? You find that sometimes the world says, how can you possibly believe any of that? And you find that the world has all kinds of reasons why you shouldn't believe it. But then you find that through it all, even though the world is trying very hard to squelch it all out, what you find is Jesus hears you when you seek Him with all sincerity and with all of your heart. What you find is, and these are the points that I really want to take one at a time, these next ones, that Jesus stopped, that Jesus called them that Jesus had compassion on them, that Jesus touched them, and then that they followed him. So I've taken you right up to the point where Jesus stops. Did you ever think about that and be thankful for that? The day that you got saved, Jesus, as it were, stopped for you. The day that you got saved was not some thing that passed by unnoticed to God. The day that you came to Christ was a meaningful day for you, but it was a meaningful day for God as well. Did you know that the Bible teaches that when one sinner repents, that there's great rejoicing in heaven? What do you mean one sinner? How could God possibly know one sinner among the billions and billions of people? He does. He not only notices, but it's like, His rejoicing and gladness and happiness because His plan is being more and more fulfilled. His plan, He is being more and more validated and proven to be true and right. Everything that was His sovereign will continues to march on and come to pass and He is glorified. Turn with me really quick. I want you to see this wonderful verse in John chapter six. I'm thinking about first of all today that along this road, When Jesus heard these guys cry out, Jesus stopped. Turn to John chapter six. And verse 34. In John chapter six, you read of Jesus miraculously feeding a great multitude of people And when they eat, and then when they wake up the next day, Jesus is gone. He had crossed over, and they search for Him, to find Him. And when they find Him, He says something to them that's very powerful. Let's read from verse 32. Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So they said, give us this bread always. Maybe still not quite, still thinking about the bread that they ate for their stomachs and not realizing totally that Jesus is saying, the bread that I gave you is a picture of what you need for your soul, me, right? So Jesus tells them plainly in verse 35, I am the bread of heaven. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe. Now look at verse 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will in no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." And he goes on to describe that a little bit. Don't you hear those words when you read this story? And Jesus is going down the road with this great multitude. And these two guys start crying out, son of David, son of David. And everyone is saying, no, no, no, stop, quiet, quiet, stop. And then Jesus just stops to hear them. You know why? Because every single one, every single individual that God has called Every single one that with the sincere heart recognizes the Son of David and turns to Him, Jesus will not miss one. You know, life goes by and day by day passes. And maybe you feel as you battle and struggle daily with various things in your life, maybe you feel sometimes a little alone. Maybe you feel like there's all sorts of things going on and you're not in it, you're not included. Maybe you feel sometimes like you're not sure about your place in the world or you're not sure about your purpose for your life. Does your life count? Does your life matter? Maybe you just feel like you're insignificant and you don't matter. Now listen, in part that's true. Compared to God, we are insignificant. But may I say, to God, we are not. Every. Single. One. From anywhere. These blind guys that everyone was saying shut up! They turned to Jesus. They cry out and he stops because every single one that comes to him matters. And every single one that comes to him, he will in no way turn aside. I love that. Now, next in the story, it tells that Jesus called for them. This is another one of my favorite Jesus being Jesus aspects of his life. Jesus, so often it seems, went against what some mob was trying to do in order to fulfill his father's will. I don't know what that was. Yes, hello. He did that and he waved. There you go. Jesus called them. He found them. Really, you think about that. In the midst of that crowd and all those voices crying out, Jesus stopped and called for them to come. He found them. Another passage concerning a blind man. Turn to John chapter nine. Now everyone knows this. story. But there's a little nuance in the story that I think sometimes passes us by that we just maybe miss over if we don't carefully notice it. John chapter 9 is the story of Jesus healing the blind man. It's where the I was blind but now I can see line from Amazing Grace comes from. As the story goes along, if you don't, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but when Jesus heals this blind man and gives him his sight back, the people notice. And the people are like, the people are like, how did you get your sight back? And then the religious leaders notice, and they call his parents. Is this your son? How is it that he now sees? And they keep questioning the guy. Tell us how you got your sight back. And he keeps telling them, a man called Jesus came and he gave me my sight back. And they say things like, It seems like it got really loud there for a second. They say things to him like, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. And he's like, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. All I know is I was blind and now I see. And you know, it comes to the story in verse 26. It says, they said to him again, what did he do? How did he open your eyes? Verse 27. I told you already and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? So the guy who got healed gets a little, gets a little edgy with the Pharisees, with the teachers, the religious leaders. So he's like almost, there's a tinge of sarcasm to that, I think. You want to be his disciples too? Knowing that they're just looking to Destroy him. So verse 28, they reviled him and said, you're his disciple, we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses. As for this fellow, we don't know where he's from. Now look at this man. He answers and he says to them, this is a marvelous thing that you don't know where he's from, yet he has opened my eyes. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone's a worshiper of God and does his will, he hears him. Since the world began, it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Pretty reasonable response. But these guys don't like the fact that they're being lectured by this guy at all. So they say, you were completely born in sins and you're teaching us? And they threw him out. He was blind his whole life and he was healed. And because he recognized there must be something to this Jesus, they threw him out. Here's the Jesus being Jesus part of the story. Verse 35, Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, just stop there. He goes through the question and he asks him, do you believe in the Son of God? And this man, as far as we know, had never seen Jesus yet. Because he told them to go and wash, and wash the clay that Jesus had put on his eyes. And so the man's seeing for the first time. But it's not like he could look in the crowd and pick out Jesus, because he's never actually seen him before. He's heard his voice, but he hasn't seen him yet. So he goes, do you believe in the Son of God? He's like, who is he that I might believe in him? But aside from all that, it's the beginning of it in verse 35 that says, when Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, just stop there. Jesus went looking for the guy. Jesus caught wind of the fact that the Pharisee, it's the same thing in this story, where all the crowd is saying, be quiet, son of David, what are you talking about? Silence, don't, and then Jesus just stops, bring him here. Same thing here, the religious leaders, throw him out. Jesus hears that the religious leaders threw him out, what does he do? He goes and he finds him. And what does he do? He fills in graciously what is necessary for the man not only to have his eyesight, but to be saved. Do you believe in the son of God? Who is he? You have to love verse 37. You have both seen him and it is he who is talking with you. This guy had never seen anything. And here's Jesus saying, basically what he's saying is you're looking at him. He says, who is he that I might believe in him? You're looking right at him. And the guy had never looked at anything in his life. So one of the first things that he ever saw was Jesus. I mean, that's awesome. But the thing, the part of the story, because you get lost in that whole story because it's so awesome, that I wanted you to see was Jesus actually stopped whatever he was doing at the time when he heard that the guy had been thrown out, and he went and sought him and looked for him. You know why? Because not one single person that the Father has given him will he lose. Anyone that comes to him, he will in no wise cast him out. Another great example of this, back up a few chapters to John chapter five, same little aspect of the story. So now Jesus is at the pool of Bethesda, And they had this thing going on where they believed that an angel would come and stir the water. And they had all kinds of this beautiful pool became like a place for very sick people to hang out, which in a sense to me is like a sad thing and a desperate thing. And they're sitting there because they believe that an angel would come and stir the water. And whoever could get in the water first would be healed. So there's this guy here who can't move. He's never been able to move, and he's just laying there. And Jesus asks him in verse 6. Actually, before he asks him anything, I actually underlined the words in my Bible, Jesus saw him lying there. There's Jesus. Don't overlook that. Amidst the crowd of all of these people laying by this pool, we're told Jesus saw this one guy lying there. There's the one soul mattering to him again. And Jesus just stopped what he was doing, whatever he was doing, and goes up to the guy. He already knew that he had been in the condition for a long time, and goes, said, do you want to be made well? The sick man says, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. Someone gets in before me every time. He's just laying there, hoping someone can put him in the water before anybody else. And Jesus just says, get up, rise, take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. Jesus just stopped what he was doing and went, listen, it doesn't end there. It says that day was the Sabbath. We know that the Jews were always persecuting Jesus because he would do good things on the Sabbath. They were blind, they could not see anything, right? All they could see was, oh, Sabbath, not supposed to do anything. There's a guy carrying his mat. Forget the fact that the guy hadn't walked in like four decades, right? So they go to him and they ask him, who did this? He answers in verse 11, he who made me well told me, take up your bed and walk. So they asked, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? But the one who was healed didn't know who it was because Jesus had left, right? A multitude being in that place. Now look at verse 14. Afterward, Jesus found him. In the temple. Here he is again! It's just like this guy on this Bartimaeus and the other guy, the two blind guys on the road. Everyone's saying, quiet, quiet, quiet! And Jesus just stops and says, bring him here. The blind guy in John chapter nine. The Pharisees, how dare you teach us! And they throw him out and Jesus goes and finds him. Do you believe in the Son of God? Here again, the Pharisees doing their thing. This guy who could never walk and now he's walking. And you think it's done, but it's not done. Jesus goes and find them because every single one, whether it's the blind guy, guys in Matthew on the road from Jericho, or it's the blind guy laying there, or it's the guy laying by the pool of Bethesda, or you, or it's the person who sits and wonders. Does anyone care? It's the person who sits and wonders, is there any hope for me? It's the person who sits and wonders, is there really a God? It's the person who sits and thinks, does anyone love? Does anyone? Listen, Jesus cares about every single one who will turn to him. who will turn to Him, who will turn to every single one. Listen, you become someone who recognizes Jesus. You recognize He's the Son of God. You recognize there's hope in Him. You recognize that there's peace, there's healing, there's life. And you turn to Him. Jesus says not a single one will be cast out. In fact, what we see here is that Jesus went seeking out even single people among multitudes of other people. You think He can find you? You think He can care for you? You think He can love for you? Can I insert something here? Shake your head, yes. It's one of the important reasons why Christians, churches need to be a good testimony in the world. Because when people see that Christians love one another, remember how all this started? It all started with these guys on the side of the road What's going on, what's going on, what's going on? Jesus is passing by. Then they cry out, Son of David, Son of David. People ought to be able to look at Christians and look at churches, listen, and look at the way that we treat each other. And we don't always treat each other great, but even in the way we're gracious with one another and we're patient with one another. You know, sometimes, Sometimes you just gotta take really seriously when Jesus says, you know, taught us to pray, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us. And you just, the world ought to look the way Bartimaeus and the other blind guy heard the commotion going down the road, the world ought to be able to look at Christians and say the same thing. What's going on there? What is it about them? God, He uses the church, the local church to be the manifest display of his power to save and to bring people together around the truth of the gospel. People ought to be able to know among Christians that there's love and there's forgiveness and that there's grace and that all the things that God has shown to them, they show to each other. And then when people look and see this, And remember, they're just as blind as Bartimaeus and his friend on the side of the road. Maybe they're not physically blind, but we live in a world that's spiritually blind. They're just as blind. And in the midst of that spiritual blindness, they ought to see among Christians hope, love, faith, peace, joy, not without trouble. The point is that in the midst of seeing people who struggle with all of the same things that they do, they have come to Christ, they have found eternal salvation and the forgiveness of sins, and they are able to go forth even in the midst of their trouble because they know that their sins have been forgiven and they have the promise and the hope of everlasting life. And they ought to say, just like these blind guys on the side of the road, what's going on there? And the world will say to them, no need to look, quiet down. But Jesus, but Jesus will find that one who genuinely seeks. And listen, I know the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. I believe in election. I believe in God predestines those whose he has chosen. But listen, the way that God works that out in time, is often that people will come to a point in their life where they seek, they seek, and they seek. And the Bible tells us that we should seek Him while He may be found. It's important for us to be a good testimony because we want people to say, wow, what do they have? Wow, what's going on there? The world will try to block it. But Jesus will stop and find them if they genuinely seek them. Jesus stopped. Jesus sought. Jesus called them. Jesus had compassion on them, didn't he? You see how, back in Matthew, you see how the story doesn't just say, they said to him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened, so Jesus touched their eyes. You see how Matthew sticks in there, not just that Jesus went right to giving them what they wanted, but they showed the heart of, Matthew showed us the heart of Jesus in doing it. That's the priest that we serve. For time's sake, I'm not going to turn there. But if you look in Hebrews chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 5, it speaks of Jesus experiencing in his life all the same temptations that we do, yet he was without sin. And as a result, though, he's not unsympathetic to our weaknesses. He's able to be compassionate. Hebrews chapter 5 speaks of priests When a priest is called, he has to go and he has to make sacrifices, not only on behalf of people, but also on behalf of himself. Now, Jesus never sinned and had to make a sacrifice on behalf of himself. But the point is that Jesus is our compassionate high priest. And when a person turns to Jesus, it's not just this religious obligation that causes him to respond. It's not just a religious system. It's not a sacrament, or like Jed pointed out before, it's not device or creed. You know, it's not like some religious ceremony that we go through or some creed that we recite or commit ourselves to. My hope, as another hymn says, is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. And listen, when someone comes to Christ, they're coming to someone who, as a priest, is compassionate and understands. That is to say, Jesus knows what you struggle with, and He's not sitting there ready to whip you because of it. God is not, Jesus said, I have not come to destroy the world. I have not come to condemn the world. When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he told him the world's already condemned. Jesus didn't come to show people everything that was wrong. Listen, we need to be convicted of our sins and God's law does that and God's spirit convinces the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. But Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn the world. He didn't come to condemn the world. The world through him might be saved, John wrote, right? He who believes in him is not condemned. He who has not believed is condemned already, Jesus said, because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jesus came with compassion. Jesus came recognizing that, man, I might be stretching the humanness of it, but as a human, Jesus could say, I believe. It is really hard to be human. He never sinned, so he doesn't have that experience. But he knows what it is to be tempted and how hard it is to walk through this life. And so when Jesus heard these guys crying, Messiah, son of David, son of David, and no doubt he also heard the crowd trying to tell him to be quiet, he stops. He calls them. The crowd goes, hey, good news. He's calling for you. Bartimaeus throws off his robe, Mark says, and goes to Jesus. Jesus says, what do you want me to do? They say. We want to see. And Jesus just he feels that in that moment. Compassion. Now, listen, it's a picture of salvation. The fact that we sin. and that we're beaten down with it. And we have so hard time overcoming it. He gives us strength in His Spirit to cast down strongholds, pull down strongholds and overcome things, yes. But it's so hard. The heart of every true Christian longs in the freedom. We were singing about the song before, all the bars are broken away, the shackles are torn off, all the chains are taken away, right? Now that we have that experience, we long to walk right before Him. But even in that, we struggle. And we're thankful for His grace. Listen, I want to encourage you with this. Every struggle, every hardship, every temptation, every failure, every sin, He's not sitting at the Father's right hand, waiting to destroy you when you mess up. The Bible actually teaches that we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. See, whereas in our sins, what we deserve is to be punished and destroyed. Our advocate, our advocate at the right hand of the father, Jesus. the righteousness which he achieved and lived in this life has been credited to us. So that my standing before God is not based on my devices or creeds or anything else that I do, but it's based on his righteousness. And so now when I walk through life, It's not that he's waiting to catch me when I mess up. He has compassion upon compassion, upon compassion, upon compassion. Listen, we ought to strive to be holy. We ought to strive to do what's right and to walk in righteousness. But don't let the struggle or the failure trick you into thinking that somehow God has no compassion for you. Do you see what Jesus went through? You see what he's doing here? The whole crowd is telling these guys to shut up and Jesus feels compassion. The crowd feels consternation. The crowd feels annoyance. As I said before, perhaps the crowd feels shame because of the Son of David, Son of David thing, and they're not ready to go there yet. The crowd feels all of these things that might be a little offense and bitterness towards these guys who are crying out. Jesus feels compassion for them, and he feels compassion for you. For the one who is humble before him and trusts in him, he feels compassion. What goes along with that compassion? His grace and his mercy, right? What is grace? Grace is that goodness of God that we do nothing to deserve or earn on our own. What is mercy or forgiveness, if you will? Forgiveness is a type of mercy. What is that? That is under the umbrella of grace. Grace takes more forms than just mercy and forgiveness. But mercy and forgiveness are a function of grace, right? Mercy is when, forgiveness is when you choose no longer to hold against anyone. Your anger with them. That's what God does for us. He shows us that kind of forgiveness because He poured out the just wrath on His Son. And by His grace, by His mercy and forgiveness, He does not hold against us our sins. This healing of this blind guy is a picture of that. He had compassion and gave them their sight. And in similar fashion, he has compassion for the person who will humble themselves and seek him. And he will take away the blindness of your hearts and of your souls and replace it with eternal life and salvation. So what does he do? It says he touched their eyes. In Mark and Luke it says, he simply said to them, go your way, your faith has made you well. Why are those two different? Well, again, different recollections maybe. Matthew was there, Peter was there, and Peter likely had an influence on Mark. Luke was not there, but Luke talked to people who were. Most likely, in fact, I would say certainly both happened. Jesus touched them and said, go your way. Your faith has made you whole. Right. Very simple to reconcile. But that's what Jesus does for the humble heart that comes to him. He has compassion. And he touches them, so to speak, spiritually, he touches them, he touches them, he touches them. And he makes them well. He takes away their sin. The Bible says that He and His Father actually come in by way of the Holy Spirit and make their home in that person. They become a building block in His temple, the real temple of God, which is not made with men's hands. Their sins are removed as far as the east is from the west. They're buried in the ocean. They're never dredged up. They're never remembered again. They're never remembered, never recalled again. He takes our sins away. Wipes away the handwriting of requirements against us. Wipes them out. Healing from sin. As the prophet said, by his stripes you are healed. Then the last little bit of it is what? It's not the end of the story, right? What's it say? Immediately their eyes received sight. When the person puts their faith in Jesus, immediately they become God's child. When a person humbles themselves, comes to Jesus in faith and believes in Him, immediately they pass from death to life. Immediately they become someone that God has qualified to become a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Immediately, they are adopted as children. Immediately, they become a subject in His kingdom. Immediately, their eternal destiny goes from death to life. Immediately, they are touched. And then when that person is touched, what ought they to do? They ought to follow Him. You can write this down if you want to look it up later. For time's sake, I won't turn there. But back in John chapter 10, Verses 22 through 30, if you read through the story, ultimately what arrives at is Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, they know my voice, and they what? They follow me. The sheep now, listen, when you come to Jesus, you're a sheep with a new shepherd. You're a sheep with the good shepherd. And you learn to hear his voice and you follow. Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus actually said, go your way. Your faith has made you well. What do you want? I want my sight. Compassion, touches, heals. Go ahead, go your way. Wouldn't leave. What do you mean, go your way? Well, I have a new way to go. What's my new way to go? I'm gonna follow you. And it actually says that he glorified God and he followed them. He followed the crowd, he followed Jesus. And Luke's account says that the whole crowd glorified God and praised God for this great thing that had happened. So his following of Jesus became a testimony to everybody else around. You can sit here all day and make parallels between this and what Christ came to. And that's why it's written down. We weren't just shown these things to tease us. We weren't just shown these things to amaze us. We have been shown and told these things so we can see not only His power to save, but the intricate workings of it. what's going on in his heart, how he actually will stop to hear one person in the midst of 7 billion on the planet right now. His compassion, his calling, his healing. And then hopefully what happens when a person turns to him is they follow him. Do you follow him? We have a hymn that we sing sometimes that goes, he leads me, oh blessed thought, and the chorus ends up saying, his faithful follower I will be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Right? They followed him. Do you follow? How do you follow? Listen, here comes the The bottom line in like every Christian teaching when it comes to your personal relationship with God comes down to that. Do you read the Bible every day? Do you study the Bible every day? Do you meditate on the Bible every day? Do you pray? Are you close to Him? That's how you hear His voice and you follow Him. To follow Him means to receive His instruction and His teaching and to be a doer of His Word. That's how you follow it physically, like looking for something to follow. We're listening in our spirit for his voice to follow him, just like the sheep recognizes the good shepherd's voice. You need to recognize his voice. And follow him like Bartimaeus did. Like that other unnamed guy did a close with this. Matthew tells us there's two guys. Luke tells us there's one. Mark tells us there's one and that his name is Bartimaeus. Who's the other one? Maybe it's you. Maybe it's you. Maybe you need to respond the way that Bartimaeus did. I know that preaching in church on Sunday morning probably means I'm preaching mostly to people who are saved. I hope it's true that I'm preaching to a building full of people, every single one of them is saved through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, but maybe you're not. Maybe you listen to a passage of scripture like this and you realize, I need this. Listen, Jesus gave his life for your sins and rose from the dead, and he can hear you right in the midst of all of this, right in the midst of all of this in the world. If you will turn to him, if you will look to him, if you will humble yourself and come to him, he will hear you. He will not turn you aside. He will not lose one single one. Come to Jesus. And may I apply the principle to Christians while we're at it? Maybe you're walking through your life and you're walking as a Christian. Maybe you're in a season of struggle, a season of difficulty. Listen, maybe you need to just stop and kind of step back and look at Jesus anew and afresh and just turn to Him and just kind of get a restart with Christ. Devote yourself to his word. If you're in Christ, you have the teacher living in you, his spirit. Come to Jesus. Devote yourself to his word. Devote yourself to prayer. Devote yourself to fellowship. Devote yourself to being a doer. You think Jesus has compassion for the lost person, but he doesn't have compassion for the person who already believes? I think his compassion is very much on his own children who walk and struggle. Come to him. Come to him. Find his compassion. Find his touch. Find his healing. Follow him all the days of your life. Jed and Amy, come on back up here and let's close out for the day.