Preached at Clearnote Church, Indianapolis on August 26, 2018.
Sermon Notes
Summary
AI-generated
Luke 18:35–43 presents a blind beggar who hears that Jesus is passing, repeatedly cries for mercy despite the crowd's attempts to silence him, and asks to regain the sight he once had. Jesus restores him, declares that his faith has made him well, and the man follows while glorifying God, leading the crowd to praise as well. The sermon uses the account to address resignation and the temptation to give up hope that difficult circumstances or people can change. The beggar calls because he recognizes a real need and believes Jesus can help, modeling prayer in the face of voices that suggest one's burdens are too small or unwelcome. His faith is not a payment that earns healing, nor does an unresolved illness prove insufficient faith. Instead, it resembles a child's simple confidence in a parent's ability: trust directed toward Jesus and his mercy. The available transcript ends while developing this illustration, so its later argument and applications are not preserved here.
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AI-generated transcript. Names, Scripture references, and punctuation may be inaccurate.
I want to start this morning by asking you a couple of questions. The first is, have you ever resigned yourself to live with certain hardships or burdens in your life? Have you ever just had something difficult happen and you go, well, that's just how it is, and I'm just going to have to live with it? Another way of asking it would be to say, have you lost faith that the circumstance or this person can change? Is there anyone here who hasn't given up at some point or at least been tempted to? To just say, I don't care anymore. It's hopeless. I'm just going to do what I want. You children, have you been exasperated by your parents? What is exasperation except to be driven to the point of giving up, not caring anymore? Have you worked on schoolwork and just not been able to get the concept, not been able to get the...
Get it all figured out. And you just throw your hands up in the air and you go, I guess I'm just an idiot. I guess I'm just stupid and I'll never figure it out. You just want to give up. What about singles? Those of you who are single, have you been tempted to think you'll never get married, presuming that you want that? It's hopeless. I'll never get married. Just resigned to be single and miserable. Those of you who are married, you ever lost hope about your kids? They just don't listen. They're not going to turn around. We're always going to be poor. I guess we're just going to be sick and die. Life's never going to be any good. We could go on and on asking these questions. Have we been tempted in these ways to give up? These are just a few of the ways that we may have been tempted or have given up in the past. My point in asking you these questions this morning is to acclimate you to our text. This morning we're going to read about Jesus restoring a man's sight. But before the man's sight is restored, he cries out to Jesus that he would have mercy on him.
And after his sight is restored, he follows Jesus, glorifying him. And the crowds who witnessed this miracle join with him in praising God. Would you please stand now for the reading of God's word? And by the way, this ought to be a very encouraging text to you, but it'll only be encouraging if you understand sort of what's going on behind the scenes. If it's just facts, then it's not all that encouraging. It's just there. But when you understand, and that's my hope that by the end of this morning, you will understand what's behind it. you'll find this to be a very encouraging and strengthening text. This is Luke 18, verses 35 through 43. As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, and he called out, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. And when he came near, he questioned him. What do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, I want to regain my sight. And Jesus said to him, receive your sight. Your faith has made you well. Immediately he regained his sight and began following him, glorifying God. And when all the people saw it, They gave praise to God. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So if you were reading this passage in, say, family devotions, and you have your kids sitting there, and you've read it to them, and you ask them for the chronology, you know, what happened? Young children would be able to tell you. They would be able to say, there was a blind man, and he was begging. And when he heard that Jesus was nearby, he began to cry out to him.
Those who were following with Jesus tried to silence the blind man, but he wouldn't have it. Jesus then had the man brought to him and asked the man, what do you want? The man responds, I want my sight restored, and Jesus does it, making mention of the man's faith, and then everyone glorified God, and they all lived happily ever after. This is basically the summary of the text. It's not a parable. It's not confusing. It's not hard to understand. There's a man who had a need. Jesus came by, and he begged Jesus to have mercy on him, and Jesus obliged him. And it resulted in the glory of God. Now, if you were in family devotions and your kids had said, well, this is what happened, the next thing you want to do is say, okay, well, what questions arise from this text? What questions do you have? As we were reading, what stood out to you? And so maybe you come up with, maybe someone says, well, I want to know why the man called out to Jesus. Or why did Jesus heal him? Or what does your faith made you well mean?
Or why did Jesus ask the man what he wanted him to do? These are all fair questions that arise from this text. Some of them are easier to answer than others. You know, why did the man call out to Jesus? Well, undoubtedly, this blind man had heard about Jesus, and he believed that Jesus could help him. It's worth noting that this man, when Jesus asked him, what do you want me to do for you? He said, I want to regain my sight. So what can we conclude about his sight? Other than that, at some point, he used to be able to see, and he lost his ability to see.
How terrible a thing would it have been to be able to see and then to go blind? Hey, David, can you silence my phone? It's in the bag, right up here, outside, next one, right there. Just turn the volume off. It's beeping at me. And I don't know if it's bothering any of you, but it's a distraction to me. Thank you. So this man had been able to see at some point, and then he'd gone blind. And so why did this man call out to Jesus? Well, because he had a problem, and he thought Jesus could help. It's very simple. And the question to us is, you know, if you were leading family devotion, you'd say, okay, well, we see that this man, when he had a problem arise in his life, he called out to Jesus and said, have mercy on me. Do we do that? This is what you'd ask your family. This is what you'd be thinking. What's there for me to learn? Well, this man did something, and it was a good thing. Is this what I do when I have problems arise?
If you do call out to God, how do you handle the temptations that arise and say that God doesn't want to hear your problems or that he can't help? What do you do then? You realize this is the place of the crowds trying to silence the man. He doesn't want to hear your problems. Be quiet. Same thing they did when the people brought their babies out to Jesus. Take them away. This isn't time for them. You blind man, you be quiet. Jesus is too important. He's got bigger things to deal with and worry about than your problem. Have you ever thought that about the burdens that you have? So why did this man call out to Jesus? Well, because he had a problem and he thought Jesus could help. He believed that Jesus could help. What about the next question? Why did Jesus heal him? Or think of it this way. Did Jesus always do what people asked him to do? No, he didn't. He often didn't. The most poignant example is when Pilate's questioning him. Answer me these questions. And he just refuses to answer him. Won't do it.
Or when he's on the cross and they say, if you're the son of God, bring yourself down from there. And he doesn't do it. How about when he speaks in parables so that hearing they will not hear and seeing they will not seize? Otherwise, they would repent and believe. So did he always accommodate people's weaknesses and provide for their infirmities? And the answer is no, he didn't. He did not always. So why did Jesus heal this man? Well, the sort of simple answer, the 30,000 feet high answer is, to glorify God, his Father, by demonstrating his power and his mercy. That's why Jesus healed him. But actually, Jesus grounds his healing of this man in his faith. What do you want me to do for you? Lord, I want to regain my sight. Receive your sight, for your faith has made you well. So this man's faith has something to do with why Jesus healed him. And that's a scary thought.
Why is it a scary thought that this man's faith had something to do with his healing? What's it mean if you have a problem and it doesn't get resolved? What's the tempting thing to believe? You don't have faith, or you don't have enough faith. Have you ever heard it said that someone, you know, the reason that they weren't miraculously cured or healed or what have you was because they didn't have enough faith. I once, I lived with a guy before I was married who had cerebral palsy. Years before I lived with him, one of the guys that cared for him took him to a, I don't even know what to call it, a healing rally? I don't know. They took this quadriplegic man there to be healed, to be fixed. Well, Bob has cerebral palsy, and he's had it his whole life. And he didn't get healed. They took him.
They prayed. They told the squad to stand up, get up and walk. And he didn't. And it wasn't for lack of desire. And it wasn't for lack of faith. And you know what they said? Go home and give it time. In a few days, maybe it'll take. But it was communicated to him that he didn't have enough faith to be healed. Now, if you've ever had that thought, that you don't have the faith to be healed, is it not the most monstrous and terrible burden? That you've ever felt. Because what it does is it takes your infirmities, your brokenness, your blindness, whatever that is for you, and says, heal yourself. You have to make a payment. The currency is faith. And if you don't have enough, you can't have healing. And so somehow you've got to accrue enough faith to be healed. It's a very discouraging and depressing way to live. To think.
Sinner, save yourself. Heal yourself. So what in the world does it mean? What does Jesus mean when he says to the man, receive your sight for your faith has made you well? If it doesn't mean you have enough faith to get healed, as opposed to some other people, what does it mean? Let me answer the question by asking you a different question. Same question, different context. Have you ever had a young child? ask you for something extravagant, or believe that you're capable of doing something that there's no way you could do? My mommy, this. Your mommy, what? My daddy, he can do this. Really? Now, why in the world is it that kids say things like that? Isn't the obvious answer that they believe that you can? They do. They just simply believe you're capable of whatever the thing is.
My daddy can lift 10,000 pounds. Really? Huh. The child simply believes it. They're not lying. They just think there's nothing you can't do. They have faith that you're capable. So they tell people.