Sermon Tone Analysis

START OFF MENTIONING ABOUT PASTOR DAVID’S SENIOR BIBLE STUDY CLASS THAT MEETS WEEKLY ON TUESDAYS.

(They meet at 10:00 am on Tuesdays, but the second Tuesday of the month, they meet at 11:00 am with a covered dish dinner.

These are in depth Bible studies led by Pastor David and not your typical light topical studies.

These are more deep expository teaching classes!)

This morning I want to turn our attention to where we would have found Jesus, at this time in His life, while He walked this earth, some 2,000 years ago.

In we read the following,

In Luke’s gospel record, starting in chapter 9 with this verse and going forward, the rest of the Luke’s gospel is dealing with Jesus’ journey back to Jerusalem and the culmination of His earthly ministry, awaiting Him at the cross and then His glorious ressurection.

So basically, over half of Luke’s gospel, is focused upon this time period where Jesus’ heart and mind are focused on completing the very reason that He came to this earth.............paying the price for our sin and ransoming us back!

And so, as we move forward from chapter 9 in Luke’s gospel, we see the events that were taking place within this narrowed down time period in the life of the Christ.

I find it interesting in this same passage of , that as soon as Jesus sets His face and attention towards heading back for Jerusalem, He is instantly met with rejection!

Let me read to you verses 51-55 of that chapter.

“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him.

But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

But he turned and rebuked them.

And they went on to another village.”

So, as soon as Jesus starts back to pay the price for all of mankind, He is instantly met with rejection by mankind.

And why?

Why did they reject Him and not let Him come in and stay at their village?

We know that the people of Samaria had not collectively and ultimately rejected the good news of Jesus, because we read of Jesus reaching out to the Samarian woman at the well in and ultimately to her entire village.

The reason that He was rejected in this instance, is because He didn’t meet their agenda and their particular wants.

You see, the Jews didn’t care for the Samaritans and the Samaritans did care for the Jews.

(It was a feud, much like that of the Hatfields and the McCoys!

Bad blood!)

The people of this village in Samaria rejected Jesus’ passing through, because they heard that He was on His way to Jerusalem and they found that offensive; kind of like they weren’t getting His special, undivided attention!

How sad, that they could have spent time with the Son of God.

Especially since He, on His last journey through that region and on His way to the cross of Calvary and ultimately His death for them, He chose to be with them and share those last days with them and yet, they rejected Him!

It was His desire to spend part of His last days on earth, with them and because it didn’t look like they wanted, they rejected Him!

Do you know and understand how relative and pertinent this same image is for today and for God’s children all around the world?

The Savior, the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, desires to spend time with His children and He is right where you are, you don’t have to go after Him and find Him.

He is right where you are and wanting you to let Him share time and fellowship with you.

And because it doesn’t meet our agenda and our wants and time slots, we reject Him, by closing out our hearts and minds to Him and giving them to someone or something else!

HOW VERY SAD, that He is right here, in this very room this morning and yet many of us will keep our hearts closed and leave here in the same condition that we came never heed His call!

So, moving on with the message!

We are going to turn our attention all the way up to chapters 18 and 19 of Luke, which will be our prime focus for this morning’s message.

By the time that you reach the end of chapter 18, you have now officially entered into the last two weeks of the life of Jesus, before He goes to the cross!

I though about this in terms of my own life.

If I knew that I had two weeks to live, how would I spend my remaining time?

And we are not just talking about having two weeks to left live due to some illness, but rather, if I knew that I was about to be tortured and violently killed, as an innocent man in two weeks, how would that knowledge alter the use of my time for that last two week period of my life?

I assume that I would be petitioning to higher authorities and seeking some legal precedence that would acquit me and remove me from any guilt or possible harm!

I would surround myself with my family and loved ones for all of the moral support that I could get.

I would probably be devoid of very much, if any at all concern for others and have little to no peace and joy in my heart, due to the worry and concern of the fate that lie before me!

Does this sound about right to most of us here, or of those who may be watching this video?

Well, it’s here, at the end of Luke chapter 18, that we find Jesus, as He is now officially on the home stretch to Jersualem.

And in the last 9 verses of and the first 10 verses of , we will put our focus on what transpires in these passages, for today’s message.

In both passages, we find Jesus healing the blind eyes of two different men.

Of the first man, Jesus heals his natural, physical eyes.

And of the second, Jesus heals and opens his spiritual eyes!

In , we read of Jesus approaching the city of Jericho.

As He is approaching the city, a blind man was sitting there, seeking assistance from passer-byes, as was customary for the lame and blind to do.

Jericho was about 18 miles outside of Jerusalem, which is how we know that this is into the last two weeks of Jesus life.

Now although I am pulling this account from Luke’s gospel, I am also using some of the other details from Mark’s account of this same miracle.

In , we read of this same account.

Except that, Mark gives us the man’s name, to make it more personal.

This man’s name was Bartimaeus.

Between Luke and Mark’s records of this same miracle, we find out that as Jesus was approaching the city, there was a large crowd coming with Him.

(Which was pretty common.

Crowds were always drawn to Jesus, to see what He would do and to hear what He would say next.

The paparazzi will always follow people of notoriety, because where these people are, there will somehow be a form of money and/or opportunity!)

So, as they are approaching, the blind man Bartimaeus, hears the commotion and asks someone what is going on.

How many of you know that when you are blind, your sense of hearing becomes much more acute and your mind is more attentive to the sounds and alert to any difference that may occur!

So, Bartimaeus asks someone what is going on, and they tell him that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby.

As soon as Bartimaeus heard who was approaching, he began to yell out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

By calling Jesus, “Son of David”, Bartimaeus was acknowledging that Jesus was the Messiah, as the Old Testament had prophesied and said that the Messiah would come from the lineage and throne of David.

This shows that Bartimaeus was already spiritually able to see and not blind, because he was saying that Jesus was the Messiah.

Just as Peter had spiritual sight and stated who and what Jesus was, wen he said, “ You are the Christ/Messiah, the Son of the living God”, so too did Bartimaeus have this spiritual sight!

The thing that Bartimaeus lacked and wanted restored, was his physical sight!

And Bartimaeus knew that his chance of getting healed, was rapidly approaching and would soon be rapidly departing!

You see friends, when you know that Jesus is near and you have need of His touch and forgiveness and total healing in your life, you had better run, scream, jump flop wail, or whatever it takes, to get there in faith and belief and let Him cleanse you from all unrighteousness by His perfect and pure blood!.

Because, the Bible says that we are not guaranteed a tomorrow and for this very reason, you had better respond while Jesus and His offer of salvation for your life is there before you and while Holy Spirit is drawing you to the Lord!

So, as Bartimaeus starts yelling for Jesus, some of the people start telling him, “BE QUIET!”

It’s like they were saying, “You’re embarrassing us dude; stop it!”

Let me tell you something right now!

When you’re the one who is broken and hurting inside and you have tried all of the drugs and alcohol and sex and every other thing that the world has to offer as a numbing agent to the very pain that it is responsible for; you would begin to do the exact same thing as Bartimaeus!

You would begin to SCREAM at the top of your lungs and cry out for Jesus to come and heal and restore and save you!

That is the very reason why I say, when the altar is open for people to come down here and to pray and have others gather around you and pray and you know that Holy Spirit is calling you, you had better run and answer that call at all cost and forget about the people are saying, because the people who are saying it, can’t heal you, they can’t restore your brokenness and they most definitely cannot forgive your sins and give you salvation!

You need to cast everything aside and run into the arms of Jesus!

Bartimaeus knew this and the Bible says that he began to yell and shout louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus, upon hearing his cries stops and says, “Tell him to come here.”

So, hearing that Jesus wanted Bartimaeus to come to Him, the people changed their song and dance and started saying, “Man, cheer up vato!

Jesus wants to you to come to Him.

Come on ese, let’s get a move on, ¡Ándale, ándale!!”

Upon hearing this, Bartimaeus slings off his coat and jumps up to get to Jesus!

In other words he is laying aside anything that may hinder or limit the speed by which he can get to Jesus!

Jesus looks at Bartimaeus and asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Although Jesus already knows, before we even ask, He still wants to move in faith and belief and ask Him!

Bartimaeus doesn’t even pause, but says, ““Rabbi, let me recover my sight!”

“RECOVER MY SIGHT”!

You see, it’s one thing if you have never seen, but it is another matter altogether to have had your site and then to lose it!

To recover has the understanding that it was held once before.

You cannot recover that which you never had!

This also applies to those who have tasted of and know the TRUTH of the gospel message and then return to the former desires of this world.

You once saw through spiritual eyes and then became blind again!

Would you like to “recover your sight”?

He is hear today and waiting for you to return to Him!

Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well” and immediately he recovered his sight.

As soon as he recovered his sight, the Bible says that Bartimaeus followed Jesus and glorified God!

That is truly what happens when you have encountered the Christ and He touches your life!

You follow Him and your life begins to glorify God!