Seeing Jesus Clearly

Introduction

Growing up as a kid, my first love was baseball! In the early 2000s, when I was getting into sports, the Cardinals had one of the best baseball teams in the whole league and I grew up watching Albert Pujols have one of the best starts to a career anyone has ever had. Fast forward a few years and Springfield gets the Springfield Cardinals, and my love for the game was at an all-time high. I remember after moving to Ozark in 3rd grade, playing that summer at the Ozark park. One of the first games I had happened to be at like 8pm, after the sun had set, and the stadium lights were on. One inning we had a pitching change and I was moved into centerfield so the centerfielder could come and pitch… and first batter got a hit, and the next guy up hit a high fly ball to straight away center field. I see the ball off the bat and start backing up step by step, but eventually as I’m watching the ball, it crossed in front of the stadium lights and I had to look down because they were really bright! By the time I looked back up, I couldn’t see the ball. As you can imagine, the ball landed a few feet away and allowed the runner from first base to score… all because I was looking for the ball in the sky, but I couldn’t see it.

There is a difference between looking for something and seeing something. You can look at a picture for a long time, and fail to see things in that picture. You can look at a person and fail to see what that person is going through. You can have something right in front of you, and not even know what it really is. This morning, in Luke 18, we’re going to see two sets of people who had problems seeing things clearly. We’ll see Jesus’ own followers fail to see what He was telling them, and then we’ll see a man who physically couldn’t see, yet understood that Jesus was the promised King all along!

This morning, let’s read from God’s Word and ask ourselves this question: Am I seeing Jesus clearly?

Luke 18:31–43 CSB

31 Then he took the Twelve aside and told them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. 32 For he will be handed over to the Gentiles, and he will be mocked, insulted, spit on; 33 and after they flog him, they will kill him, and he will rise on the third day.” 34 They understood none of these things. The meaning of the saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. 35 As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. 36 Hearing a crowd passing by, he inquired what was happening. 37 “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by,” they told him. 38 So he called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 Then those in front told him to keep quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. When he came closer, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord,” he said, “I want to see.” 42 “Receive your sight,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has saved you.” 43 Instantly he could see, and he began to follow him, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Those closest to Jesus, didn’t always understand Him… and this blind beggar knew exactly who he was talking to. We can’t mistake familiarity with Jesus with being family with Jesus. Let’s ask Him to give us eyes to see and ears to hear this morning, let’s pray!

We Must See His Purpose (31-34)

One of the things we see throughout Scripture is that the God of the Bible has a purpose in doing what He does. God had a purpose when He called Abraham. God had a purpose in allowing Joseph to be taken to Egypt. God had a purpose in allowing Babylon to capture Jerusalem. God’s purpose isn’t always something that we see in the moment, but we see from Genesis to Revelation that He has a purpose and that purpose is for HIS glory and for our ultimate good. Jesus embodies this throughout His ministry. In Luke 9:51 we saw that Jesus determined to journey to Jerusalem. From Luke 9 through Luke 19, we see this travelogue as Jesus and His disciples make this trip to Jerusalem. We’ve seen some incredible stories during this travel section.

Good Samaritan

Mary and Martha

Prodigal Son

Rich Man and Lazarus

Rich Young Ruler

Just last week, we saw Jesus tell His disciples that there will be a cost associated with following Him. Look at this opening section of our passage - do you see the cost for Christ? Jesus tells them what will happen: He will suffer and sacrifice His life. Understand this morning that the cross is not an accident. The cross was always God’s Plan A to redeem His people

1 Peter 1:20 CSB

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.

Now, we know that Jesus died roughly 2000 years ago, but passages like 1 Peter 1 and Revelation 13 emphasize that this wasn’t a surprise. This was God’s intention all along, and this is hard for some people to understand. Some people think that God was caught off guard or the Romans or Jewish leaders or Satan won… but that’s not the teaching of Scripture. Scripture shows us that Jesus wasn’t hoping for a good outcome in Jerusalem, Jesus knew what awaited Him. He knew what the plan was. He knew the pain. He knew the cost. But, He also knew what His purpose was. Look at what He will endure in verses 32-33:

Mocked, insulted, spit on, flogged, and killed. One of the things that I love about the Bible is how reliable it is and how historical it gets. Many people question the reliability of the Bible and say that there’s no way we can really know if certain things happened. Luke is helpful! In Luke 2, Luke grounds his Gospel in history. We can look up when certain rulers were alive and in power. There are historical accounts that help us date the Bible. There are inscriptions that show us when things happened all around the Middle East and Roman Empire. We can verify dates, people, and events. What we see here is fascinating. Jesus, the Promised Messiah, 3 times shared what would happen to Him and these were all things that were promised in the book of Isaiah nearly 700 years before they happened. Again, what happened in Jerusalem wasn’t a surprise - Jesus isn’t a helpless victim, Jesus is a willing Savior.

Isaiah 53:5–6 CSB

5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Do you see this? He was crushed because of OUR iniquities. He suffered because of our sin because He had no sin. This is what we call the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. He died as our substitute. He got what we deserved so that we could receive what He deserved! This was His purpose in coming. Yes, evil men did a sinful action and Acts 2:23 tells us that they were responsible for what they did… but their wickedness couldn’t stop God’s plan. God’s plan included God turning the biggest evil in history and making it into the greatest good in history. Do you see the end of Luke 18:33? Jesus promised that He would rise. Jesus doesn’t end in the grave - death doesn’t get the last word. And this is good news, because a Jesus who lived a good life and taught some nice things but who stayed in the grave doesn’t do you a lick of good. The resurrection is essential! We live on this side of the cross, we can look back with confidence and hear the Easter stories and sing the songs and read the verses… we know what Jesus did and how He fulfills this promise. But look at the response of the disciples in verse 34

Luke 18:34 CSB

34 They understood none of these things. The meaning of the saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

They didn’t understand. They didn’t grasp it. Why? The middle of this verse holds the key - the meaning was hidden from them. Jesus just explained everything to them and He couldn’t have been any clearer. He had done this before. I want to be clear here: This is a danger for us in 2026. God’s Word is sufficient - it tells us all we need to know! But, without the Holy Spirit’s help, we will be in the same situation as the disciples here. Have you been there? Reading something you’ve read before, and it finally clicked? That’s what the Holy Spirit does - He illuminates God’s Word. Without that, the meaning of Scripture remains hidden.

See, the disciples expected the Messiah to be a conquering king. They expected a coronation, not a crucifixion. They expected Jesus to conquer His enemies, not suffer death from His enemies. They expected a crown, not a cross.

Luke 24:25–26 CSB

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Do you see that phrase in verse 26? Wasn’t it necessary… Jesus’ death wasn’t a failure, it was a fulfillment of God’s plan. Suffering isn’t the end of the road. Suffering isn’t always a sign of failure. Suffering isn’t always a sign of God’s disapproval. Sometimes, suffering is God’s plan for God’s people to fulfill God’s purpose. This was true for Jesus, and it’s also true for us today. There are some things that we go through in life that we think can’t possibly be a part of God’s plan - like the cross. But we see in the Bible that the cross was a part of God’s plan and that the cross brought about something good. Have you ever struggled to understand what God was doing in your life? I’ve been there. Sometimes we think that there’s no way what we’re going through could be a part of God’s plan. We think that God should do this or must do that… and whenever His plans don’t match our expectations, we can struggle. This is when we remember that God’s plans are higher than ours. He has a purpose and that purpose is GOOD, even when life may not feel good. We must see that God’s purpose in sending Jesus includes hope, peace, and joy… but that purpose also includes conviction, repentance, and obedience. And the only way for us to receive the benefits of Jesus requires us to surrender ourselves to Jesus. To see Him for Who He is - and this requires divine intervention!

We Must See His Person (35-40)

Like many young families, bed-time is full of adventures and routines in the Hayworth house. Typically, Lindsey gets Isaiah ready for bath and bed while I help with Gabriel. Last week, Lindsey was reading Isaiah a book like they do every night and said a prayer. After the prayer, Isaiah said, “Mommy, where is Jesus?” Lindsey explained that Jesus is in heaven but He also lives inside of Christians, so He’s with us… and Isaiah said, “But Mommy, I can’t see Him!” Who knew that the jump from 2 to 3 would bring us some heavy hitting questions along the way! Isaiah wants to understand, but he, like us, can’t see Jesus at least in person. We live on this side of the cross and that’s our reality. 2 Corinthians 5 talks about how we walk by faith and not by sight. Here in verse 35 we’re introduced to someone who was in the same boat… not because he was born after Jesus’ ministry, but because he was unable to see. Think about that, you live unable to see the sunrise, the leaves fall, the faces of your family and spouse and children. This was all this man knew - for all he knew, this was another ordinary day to wake up, go to the main gate of Jericho, and beg for money. But this was no ordinary day - we’re told that Jesus is approaching Jericho. He’s within a day of Jerusalem. He’s close by, but He’s not done with His ministry on the journey quite yet. We’ll see two key miracles in Jericho in the next two chapters.

Here we see a Blind Beggar and next chapter we see a man named Zacchaeus. Both are lacking things. The blind man lacked sight, and Zacchaeus lacked height, but don’t miss this: Both were sought out by the Savior! We must see the person of Jesus in these stories as Jesus summarizes His purpose in Luke 19:10

Luke 19:10 CSB

10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

This man experienced physical loss. He couldn’t see. But suddenly he knew that there was something unique about this day - he hears the crowd start to murmur and someone says that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. Likely this man had heard the rumors about this Jesus. There was all sorts of built up expectation and excitement in Israel… was this the Messiah?

Notice what happens in our text - he cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” This phrase is significant. Son of David. Not Son of Man, like Jesus has used before. Not Son of Joseph… but Son of David. Back in 2 Samuel 7 we see that God makes a covenantal promise with David saying that one of his descendants would sit on the throne and that his Kingdom would rule forever. This is a Messianic promise and the blind beggar is calling Jesus this promised King. The Messiah. The disciples believed Jesus was the Messiah too, but they didn’t understand His mission. This blind beggar recognized Jesus for Who He was despite his own suffering. This man makes this theological connection. The people who knew Jesus best and followed Him the closest missed the purpose of Jesus, and here we see a man who can’t see physically, but he has spiritual eyes that see things as they truly are. He knew who Jesus was, and because of this, he knew that Jesus was the only one who could help him - and this is why he asks Jesus to give him mercy. This is the same cry of the Tax Collector earlier in Luke 18. “God have mercy on me, a sinner.” This beggar asks for the same thing: mercy.

Friend, this is what our plea must be before Jesus! We can’t come confident in our merit and milestones, we only come confident in His mercy. Last week we saw a man, the Rich Young Ruler, who came before Jesus confident in his ability to keep the commandments. He had wealth. He had power. Yet, whenever Jesus called for him to surrender those things and follow Him, the man left sad… Today consider this blind beggar named Bartimaeus.

The Rich Young Ruler had tremendous wealth - the beggar had next to nothing

The Rich Young Ruler asked what HE had to do - the beggar begged for Jesus’ mercy

The Rich Young Ruler left Jesus sad - we’ll see that the beggar leaves and glorifies God

The Rich Young Ruler had everything the world could offer… but he walked away from Jesus. The blind beggar had next to nothing, but he recognized that Jesus had everything he needed! I need you to get this today - it doesn’t matter what you have or what you don’t have, each of us are united today with a common need: We all need Jesus! We need His mercy. We need His salvation. We can’t achieve this through our goodness or possessions, we must receive this through by grace through faith in Christ. This beggar knew he needed Jesus - today, have you come to that conclusion? I pray you have.

Sadly, whenever you do, sometimes that’s whenever you are attacked the most! The crowd, verse 39, began to shush the beggar. We aren’t told why. Maybe it was embarrassment. Maybe it was selfishness. Maybe they thought the beggar was unimportant to Jesus because he wasn’t important to them. Regardless, they didn’t want Bartimaeus to meet Jesus… but this man is persistent and keeps seeking the Lord. Do you remember earlier in this chapter that Jesus’ own disciples hindered children from coming to him? Jesus rebuked them! Sometimes seemingly good people can become obstacles for people to come to Christ. As a church, we want to be a people who are serious about exalting our Savior in all that we do and we want to engage our society and that starts with welcoming people who come through our doors and pointing them to Jesus, not hindering them from Jesus!

I love Jesus’ response in verse 40 - He stopped. Think of everything on Jesus’ mind. He knows where He is headed (Jerusalem). He knows what’s waiting for Him there (the cross). He knows the pain and the betrayal… yet, here He stops. He makes time for this broken, blind beggar. He sees him. See, Jesus was always moving somewhere but He was never in a hurry. He had a mission, but He was always quick to show compassion to someone in need. Does anyone else struggle with this? Y’all there have been weeks before when everything hits at once. Kids are sick. Someone is in the hospital. A few late night meetings. Couple of unplanned meetings or texts that say, “Can I come by and talk about something (always say what you want to talk about!)?” And those are always the weeks when something unexpected pops up. You can’t control those things - there are things out of your control! But what you can control is your response to them. The words you say. The expression on your face. Jesus had all sorts of interruptions on the way to Jerusalem, but He always made time. He always let people know they were seen.

This blind beggar was insignificant to the crowd, but he was known by Christ! This man couldn’t see much, but this passage shows us that he saw two crucial things: He saw his condition and he saw his Christ. Friends, there is one thing worse than blindness and that is not realizing that you’re blind in the first place. This man knew he needed help - not only physically, but spiritually. This is why he asks Jesus for mercy. Today, have you come to this realization? Have you come to see your condition for what it is? Do you see your need for the person of Jesus? Billions today are spiritually blind. They think that they are good enough. They think that they are powerful enough. They think they are obedient enough. Scripture shows us that before Jesus, we are dead in sins, walking in darkness, and children under wrath. The most dangerous position to be in today is ignorant of your blindness. To think that you can see, but to still be walking in darkness. This is a temptation even in the church as people are tempted to think that they are saved because of their action - I walked an aisle. I prayed a prayer. I got dunked. I, I, I. We make a contribution to our salvation - are you ready? We contribute the sin that makes salvation necessary. That’s our contribution! Here’s what we need: A Savior who accomplishes our Salvation - good news, that’s what Jesus does. He seeks and He saves. We must see His person and we must cry out for His mercy!

We Must See His Power (41-43)

Jesus’ is traveling to Jerusalem and accomplish His purpose - to bring about the salvation of His people! Jesus’ person is to seek those in need who are crying out for mercy. Finally, we see the power of Jesus. Jesus commands this man to be brought to Him in verse 40, and He asks a simple question in verse 41: What do you want me to do for you?

Now, do you think that Jesus couldn’t tell this man’s problem? Jesus is fully-God and fully-man. We’ve seen examples in Luke’s Gospel already where Jesus knew what people were thinking and He called them out on it. We’ve seen examples in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus did what only God could do. Do you think that Jesus didn’t know this man was blind? Do you think it was a surprise for Jesus to hear that this man wanted to see? Absolutely not! But Jesus gives this man the opportunity to express his need and this is what he does as he asks Jesus to help him see. He doesn’t elaborate. He doesn’t give an extended list of requests. He is direct - LORD, I want to see. Again, imagine being blind. Not being able to see your family. Your home. The sunrise. The snowfall. Anything! This man was powerless to fix his problem - so he asks Jesus to do for him what he could not do for himself. And who better to ask than the God-man Himself?

Look at Jesus’ response

Luke 18:42–43 CSB

42 “Receive your sight,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has saved you.” 43 Instantly he could see, and he began to follow him, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Jesus doesn’t have to do anything crazy to heal this man. He simply speaks and we see that His words have the authority to bring about healing. The One who spoke the world into existence spoke sight into this blind man’s eyes! This is the One in John 11 who called for Lazarus to “Come Out” and it’s a good thing He specified Lazarus, because if He had not, every dead corpse in the graveyard would have Come Out at the sound of His voice. Hear this, Jesus is the One who speaks life into dead hearts today! Titus 3 teaches this “HE SAVES US!” This is His power!

But I want you to notice something else Jesus says in verse 42: "Your faith has saved you." Now, depending on your Bible translation, you might read, "Your faith has made you well." The Greek word here is sōzō, which can mean to save, rescue, or heal, depending on the context. Throughout Luke's Gospel, we've seen this language before. In Luke 7:50, Jesus told the sinful woman, "Your faith has saved you." In Luke 17:19, He told the Samaritan leper the same thing. And now Jesus says these words to Bartimaeus. But notice how this man responds! Luke doesn't simply say that he received his sight and went on his way. Luke tells us that he followed Jesus and glorified God! Church, I believe we're seeing more than physical healing here. We're seeing the saving mercy of Jesus transform this man's life! Jesus didn't merely restore something this man had lost. He gave him something he could never obtain for himself. This man recognized his need, his problem, cried out for mercy, placed his faith in Christ, and followed Him!

Today, each one of us face problems of all sorts of shapes and sizes. This week at the Missouri Baptist Convention, I spoke with several pastors who shared stories of struggles they’re walking through right now. People they love in their church who are walking through loss. Others have been cut off from family members. Some are struggling with bills. Some pastors have had people leave for a church down the road with no contact. Today, you know what it’s like to have a problem that you can’t solve. Relational, financial, physical. But our greatest problem is spiritual. Bartimaeus couldn’t fix his problem - and we can’t save ourselves from our sin. It’s impossible! This is what Jesus said last week

Luke 18:27 CSB

27 He replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

We’re good with believing that God can do this as Christians… but sometimes we struggle with what we do in the process. The word that Jesus says is that this man’s faith saved him and that can lead some people to think that if we have a certain level of faith, we can get God to do what we want Him to do. That our faith can deliver us or even save us. There are lots of people out there who have faith. This morning, you got into your car and either turned your key to fire up the ignition or if you have a newer car, you pressed a button… and what do you have faith in during that moment? That your car will turn on! There are billions of people today who have faith in something. Allah. Buddha. Themselves. The amount of faith is not what saves you… what saves is the object of your faith. Weak faith in a strong God is infinitely better than strong faith in a false god. I pray that your faith today is in Jesus Christ because He is the only One who can save! Salvation is only possible because of Jesus. Our salvation, Ephesians 2 reminds us, is only because of His gift. His sacrifice. His substitution in our place.

And whenever you see the power of Jesus, you must respond to Him. Many people in the Gospels were impressed with Jesus. They admired Jesus. They respected Jesus. They enjoyed Jesus. Some even followed Him for a season… but there’s a difference in giving praise to Jesus and being transformed by Jesus. There’s a difference in knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. And whenever you’re transformed by Jesus. Whenever you’re saved. Whenever the God of the Universe reaches into your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh, you can’t help but rejoice. You can’t help but follow Him. You can’t help but tell everyone you know about the Jesus who changed you!

I pray you’ve had this story. I pray that you can look back like John Newton did and say that there was a time in your life whenever you were lost and now you’ve been found. When you were blind but now you see.

Fanny Crosby famously wrote thousands of hymns during her life and tens of millions have sung those hymns over the years. She was blind and experienced a number of hardships as a result of not being able to see. There was a man who once said that he wished that she was able to see… She replied that that “Blindness cannot keep the sunlight of hope from the trustful soul. It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.” Later on she said, “If at my birth, I had been able to make one petition to my creator, it would have been that I should be made blind.… Because, when I get to heaven, the first face that I ever see will be the face of my Savior!”

Church, this is a woman who could not see… yet, she saw Jesus clearly through her faith! And one day, her faith was made sight as Revelation 22 encourages us that we will see His face. (When we all get to heaven) We will see the face of the One who made us, died for us, and saved us! And whenever that day comes, we’ll praise Him for all eternity… but, we can’t wait until that day. We have to start today. Today, do you see Jesus clearly?

These disciples who spent years with Him, didn’t understand His purpose. Bartimaeus couldn’t see physically, but he had faith and he followed Jesus. Today, which one are you? Are you the person who knows the stories, sings the songs, and just knows the stats about Jesus… or are you the person who truly knows Jesus? You’ve been changed by Jesus because like this blind man, you’ve been given mercy by Jesus. We can’t save ourselves… but He is willing and He is able! Today, you can “receive your sight” by repenting of your sins, asking Him for mercy, and trusting in Him as your Lord and Savior! South Gate - let’s be a people who follow Him, glorify Him, and praise Him for Who He is and all that He has done. Let’s pray

If you’re afraid that you’re facing something bigger than yourself, remember there is nothing bigger than your God!