Skip to content The Ministry of Christ Dec 16 · 55 min ...more
The Ministry of Christ
December 16, 2024 · 55 min
Join us in exploring the transforming power of Jesus' ministry as we dive into Luke chapter 18, seeking humility and truth.
Series The. Only. God. December 16, 2024 · 55 min · The. Only. God.
Join us in exploring the transforming power of Jesus' ministry as we dive into Luke chapter 18, seeking humility and truth. ...more Show the full description Show less Join us in exploring the transforming power of Jesus' ministry as we dive into Luke chapter 18, seeking humility and truth.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:01 Well, good morning. Will you help me welcome our Colorado Springs, Westminster, and online campus who are all worshiping with us today? So great to worship with all of you. And as we continue our worship, let's go before0:12 the Lord and prepare our hearts to hear his living and active word among us. Would you pray with me? Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, all the honor, all the praise, all the thanks. Our hearts posture0:24 ourselves in front of you because you and you alone hold life. And, Lord, we ask today that as we get ready to hear your living and active word that you would have your way with us because, Lord, we as a people believe0:35 that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear what you have to say. And so now for all those who have0:46 gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you, Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by0:57 saying the word amen? Amen. Today we're gonna talk about the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we've been in this series, the only God, we've been starting with Christology. We've been talking1:08 about how Jesus Christ is fully God, how he's eternal, how he's always existed. And last week, we took a look at the incarnation and how God became a man, how God1:20 became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And nothing is more powerful than that, that the God of the universe became 1 of us, and how he was born of a virgin so he could be sinless, and how1:32 he lived his life and all of that. So what did Jesus do when he was here and what was the purpose of his coming and why did he only stay for 33 years? And there's a lot that we could do to go over this. As a matter of
1:44 fact, in order to have a full understanding, we would need to read through our entire bible, specifically through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And then 1 morning it's gonna be difficult to do all of that.
1:55 And so I really prayed hard about where can we go today just to get a overarching picture of the ministry of Jesus Christ? And there were several contenders. Mark 5 was a contender and I was gonna
2:07 talk about how he had authority and power over demons, over disease, and over death, and several other different spots. But I landed in Luke chapter 18. And in Luke chapter 18, there's
2:19 really 4 different pictures that give you an idea of what Jesus was doing, what his ministry looked like, and how different people, based upon what he was sharing, responded to
2:31 him. And these are very similar to the ways that people respond to Jesus today because everybody seems to have their own ideas about Jesus and most of the time they're not biblical ideas. So
2:42 today we wanted to find ourselves in Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. We're gonna start in verse 18 and we're gonna go through the first 10 chapters of Luke chapter 19. We're gonna cover a lot
2:54 of ground, take a look at some different vignettes, and we're gonna talk about 5 truths about the ministry of Christ. Who he was and what he was doing. So as you turn your Bibles to Luke
3:06 chapter 18, let's take a look at this first story. Now you'll need to understand as we're getting here into the ministry of Jesus, Jesus Christ's ministry lasted about 3 years. Here we're
3:18 pushing towards the last days of Jesus Christ's ministry on the earth. After the stories that you read here, he goes into Jerusalem and is crucified within a week of these stories
3:30 here in Luke's gospel taking place. Some of these may be very familiar to you, some of them may be new if you're new to church, but I believe that they'll give us a picture of how Jesus Christ responds
3:42 to hearts that posture themselves before him. And the first story tells us about the ministry of Christ this way, that he challenged the prideful. Jesus Christ challenged the prideful and
3:54 when they experienced his ministry they rejected him. When Jesus Christ challenged the prideful, they rejected him. Hear this first story. It says, A ruler questioned him
4:06 saying, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So this ruler comes to Jesus and asks a very legitimate question. What must
4:18 I do to inherit eternal life? I wanna know what happens when I die. I wanna know that the future's taken care of. It's a question all of us ask. Whether you're
4:30 religious or irreligious, you recognize the fact that you're terminal. You recognize the fact that there's something after or you've convinced yourself that there's nothing after. But deep down in our hearts, we wanna
4:40 know what happens when we die. He's asking Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus is gonna begin to answer his questions. And Jesus said to him
4:52 this, why do you call me good? No 1 is good except God alone. He says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus does not say, here's what
5:04 you must do. What does he say? Why do you call me good? There is no 1 good except God alone. Let me say it again. This is a great place for an
5:16 amen. There is no 1 good except God alone. Yeah. Most people don't believe that. This rich young ruler is not gonna believe that. Jesus is getting him to
5:27 see that he's God. We know he's God in flesh. You've been studying it for the last couple weeks and he he comes to Jesus. Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Hey, why are you calling me good? There's no
5:38 1 good except God alone. In other words are you recognizing that I'm God and you're not? And that's not where he's at. Because notice what he says next. No 1 is good except God alone. He said you
5:50 know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. These are commandments 7, 6, 8, 9, and
6:02 5, if you're keeping track. Now think about these commandments. How how well are you doing it? Do not commit adultery. Jesus
6:14 said in the sermon on the mount, you committed lust in your heart. If you've lusted after someone that's not your spouse, you've already committed adultery in your heart. Means if you've hit puberty,
6:26 you broke it. Do not murder. Jesus said, you've heard it said do not murder but I tell you he who thinks his calls his brother an idiot is a murderer. If you have siblings you're
6:38 guilty. Right? If you've driven on I 25 guilty. You've been to the DMV guilty. I mean, you you understand what I'm saying? Do not steal.
6:50 That means there's no time in your life you've ever taken something that doesn't belong to you. Whether it's somebody else's homework, somebody else's ideas, somebody else's stick of gum. I mean, there's never been a
7:00 time you've taken something that doesn't belong to you. All of us are guilty. Do not bear false witness. There's never been a time you've ever said something ill of somebody else. There's never been a time that you've
7:10 ever listened to somebody else say something ill about someone else where you haven't told them that was wrong. There's never been a time you slandered or beared false witness. Honor your father and mother. Never
7:22 been a time from birth that you've dishonored them in thought, word or deed. All of us have fallen short of all these. So Jesus says, you know, why do you call me good? There's no 1 good except
7:34 God alone. And by the way, you know the commandments and he gives them 5 of the commandments and here's how the man responds. And he said, all these things I've kept from my youth.
7:46 You set the standard Jesus. I've met your standard. I'm good enough to get to heaven on my own. That's what he's saying. Now that may be laughable to those of us in church but that's
7:58 exactly how most of us think when we come out of the womb. I'm good enough for God. I'm good enough for where I am and if God doesn't accept me for where I am that's not the God I would wanna serve because I'm a pretty
8:10 good guy or I'm a pretty good gal and I'm somewhat religious and I've somewhat kept the commandments and I'm somewhat moral and I've done them. I'm pretty good. As a matter of fact, when I compare myself to the
8:22 people I associate with, I'm really good. That's what he's saying. Now he Jesus just got done saying there's no 1 good except God and this guy is saying I'm really good too. Like Jesus you're good and I'm
8:34 good. We're both the same. We're very very similar is what he's saying. When Jesus heard this he said to him. Jesus
8:46 doesn't go through the law and say you're an idiot. He doesn't say you don't get it. He says to him this, he says 1 thing you lack. In the
8:58 different gospel texts and I believe it's in Mark's gospel he looked at him and he loved him. It's very loving to give people the law. It's very loving to tell people the truth. Did you know that? He's very loving to
9:08 this guy. He says, 1 thing you still lack. And really, what he's gonna highlight here is commandment number 10, do not covet. Do not wish you had things that other people had. Do not hold on to those things. It's like 1
9:20 thing you still lack. Sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Jesus
9:31 being God in the flesh can see into his heart and recognize this guy doesn't realize he's breaking all the commandments. Let me lay 1 out for him that I know he's gonna understand because this guy is wealthy. And when
9:42 the Bible goes to great lengths to tell you somebody's wealthy, the rich young ruler, it means he's got opulence. It means he's got wealth. It means he's depending upon that. And he says, here's what you lack. Go sell
9:54 all that you have. Like give it all away then come and follow me and you'll have great treasure in heaven. Now how's the man gonna respond? He was asking about how to have eternal
10:06 life and if life here is a blank and eternity is forever, you would think you'd be like, if that's all it takes, give it away. That's not what he does. But when he heard these things, he became very sad for he
10:17 was extremely rich. He was extremely rich. In some of the other accounts, it says at that point in time, he started to walk away. Now notice how Jesus responds to this. And
10:29 Jesus looked at him and he said let me tell you what he didn't say. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. Let me tell you what he
10:41 didn't say. Come back. We could really use your money for our ministry. Here's what he said. How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.
10:53 And while you're sitting there saying, yeah, that's true of all those rich people, you're 1 of the rich people he's talking about. I don't care if you're listening online or you're here in Inglewood or wherever you're
11:05 at. You're some of the richest people in the entire world when 2 thirds of the world's population live off of less than not a hundred dollars a month. You're rich. How hard it is for people like us to enter the kingdom
11:16 of heaven. He says for it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Now some people say well the needle's eye was a place in the city wall where you had to
11:26 get low to come down and so it was really, really hard so a camel would have had to take off his backpack and get in. That's not what he's saying. He's talking about the eye of a needle like a sewing needle. He's saying
11:37 it's it'd be easier for a camel to fit through a sewing needle than it would be for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. And then those who heard it said, then who can be saved? Do you know what the disciples
11:48 are saying? If a wealthy religious moral man that's doing his best to keep the law can't be saved, who can be saved? If good people can't be saved,
12:00 who can be saved? If churchgoers can't be saved, who can be saved? If people who are earning a living and depending upon their wealth can't be saved then who can be saved? Because for the disciples in the
12:12 first century, Jews who had wealth were considered blessed of God. Many of us look at people that have wealth and say, they're blessed of God. You may have wealth and say, I have wealth because I'm blessed of God. The
12:22 disciples are saying, if someone like this that's religious and moral and sees themselves as good, who's trying to do the right things can't get saved, who can get saved
12:34 then? And notice what Jesus answer is. He says this, the things that are impossible with people are possible with
12:45 who? God. It's impossible for man to save himself. That's what he's saying. You can't save yourself. I can't save myself. The rich young ruler couldn't save himself. There's
12:57 nothing that you can do on your own to get to heaven. That's why his question's flawed. All of our questions are flawed when we ask, what must I do to get to heaven? Here's the answer. You can't do anything to get there.
13:10 If there was something you could do to get there, God the father would not have needed to send his son Jesus. Here's the point of the story. You can't get to heaven
13:22 apart from God. There's nothing you offer him. There's nothing good you've ever done. There's only 1 who's good. It's Jesus. Here's his story. You're not good.
13:34 I kind of think I'm good. No you're not. You may be good in comparison to other human beings. You may be good based upon your own moral stance, but
13:46 compared to the glorious excellencies of God you are not good. And God only takes that which is perfect.
13:58 That's the point of the story. Rich young ruler is like, hey what do I gotta do? I think I got most of it sewn up, but if there's a couple things I'm missing let me get those things right before I die. And
14:10 Jesus says to him, you get everything wrong. You're not good. You've broken all the commandments. Let me just highlight 1 for you because you depend upon your wealth. Your wealth is keeping you out of the kingdom so
14:22 why don't you trust me more than your wealth? And this man gets sad. He doesn't get excited about Jesus. He's saddened because here's what he's looking for. He's looking for this.
14:35 How can I continue to enjoy my life here? How can I live my life best here? What's the minimum requirement for me here so that I get to live my life here
14:47 any way I want and then be assured that when I die, I step over the line and I'm loved in heaven. And here's what Jesus tells him. There is no such thing. If you don't give up your rights to your
14:59 life here, you will never experience life with me eternally. And what did he do? He's like, well, that's the burden. I'm he's saddened. He's like, I don't I don't want that because I'm I'm I'm I was just asking you.
15:10 Here's my question. I was just asking you how I could continue to do what I'm doing and just get into heaven. You're telling me I gotta change everything. You're telling me there's a standard I can't keep. You're making
15:21 me feel bad. And Jesus is like, yeah. I'm telling you it's impossible for you to get to heaven. You can't do it. The disciples are shocked. And every time that prideful people get challenged, they reject Jesus. Here's
15:33 what prideful means. You might not see yourself as prideful. Prideful is this. I'll pick my own way to heaven. I'll decide what heaven should look like. I'll decide what my
15:45 God would accept. I'll decide what I can do. There are things that I'm doing that are pretty good things and God needs to recognize that I'm a pretty good person. Friends, I live that way my whole
15:57 childhood till I was 18 at a Young Life camp being taught about sin. And when I was being taught about sin, I was saying that's why Jesus died. And I don't remember exactly
16:09 what my young life leader said to me, but it hit home because I was ticked. Because I told him and I made a great argument. I said, if what you're saying to me is true, that would mean that God loves, like, ax murderers
16:20 and prostitutes and everything the same way that he loves me. And he was like, yeah that's exactly what I'm saying. I'm like, if that's true, I would never wanna serve a God like that. I've worked really really hard. I'm
16:32 a pretty good person. Oh, I got confirmed both Lutheran and Methodist. I was like doubly confirmed. And you're telling me none of that counts? Like, what have I been trying
16:43 for? But he was telling me the same thing, and I had to come to a place in my own poverty where I realized I was bringing nothing to Jesus because here's the reality of all of those who experience eternal life with
16:54 Christ. Nobody brings anything to them except their sin. That's all you can bring. That's all you have to offer. And that's what he was trying to get him to see. And he laid out 5 of the commandments, and he's like, no.
17:05 I don't see any sin in me that way because I've been keeping all those. Let me give you the tenth because you're breaking that. And that's when he goes away sad, like, well, maybe I'm not perfect, and he's disappointed.
17:17 Friends, when the prideful are challenged, they always reject Jesus. Let me tell you a second part of Christ's life. I feel like we're kinda looking at a diamond here looking at from different perspectives all the
17:28 same ministry. Says this, that when he taught the disciples and they experienced his ministry, they misunderstood him. As Jesus taught his disciples, they they completely misunderstood him. It
17:40 should give you great confidence because here's a group of people that spent 3 entire years with Jesus, and they still didn't get what he was telling them. Notice what it says. Peter said, behold we've left
17:52 our homes our own homes and followed you. So Peter's watching all this and the disciples are saying, then who can get saved? And Jesus said, well, what's impossible with people is possible with God. Only God can
18:04 save. And then Peter's like, well, what about us? As authentic Peter, like, said, we we left it all. Like, we're following you. Like, what are we gonna get out of this deal? Now isn't that interesting? Peter is
18:16 talking to the God man of the universe asking him, what do we get? I mean, how selfish do you have to be? You're you're you're you've been invited by God into his inner circle and like, yeah, what are we gonna get out of
18:28 this? Isn't that how we respond sometimes? He's spending time with the God man in flesh and he's asking what are we gonna get? Like there's like there's more to this and Jesus responds and he
18:40 says, truly I say to you there's no 1 who's left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age
18:51 to come eternal life. Here's what he was telling them. He's like, if you're living for the kingdom and there's at times you've had to leave your wife to go do ministry, there's times you had to leave your kids to go do
19:02 ministry, there's times that you've preferenced the kingdom, I'm telling you, you won't fail to receive much in this life. Meaning that you're gonna meet other believers in other homes and other
19:14 families and that the family of God is gonna fulfill what is lacking. You're gonna experience great things here and in the life to come you're gonna experience my eternal life. That's what he was saying. He's not
19:26 saying, if you leave your wife today, God's gonna bless you. Don't hear that. Right? He's not saying if you go all in in the kingdom, you're gonna be rich and have lots of houses. That's not what he's saying. He was
19:38 telling them, if you preference my kingdom, if you put me first and my kingdom first, I promise you in this life you're gonna have a full life, because the family of God is gonna be so strong for you. You
19:49 will have everything you need at all times and in the life to come you'll experience all my eternal life. That's what he was saying. Did they get it? No. They don't
20:01 get it. They they never got it. It's interesting for me that when I study the life of the disciples prior to the dispensing of the Holy Spirit that came in their life, here's how much they understood. Zip.
20:14 I mean, you're like, well, I wish I was Peter. I wouldn't know. They didn't know anything. I mean, they saw Jesus do miracles and they didn't get it. They saw Jesus come to see. They didn't get it. They they never got
20:22 it. You know what? That should give you great comfort. Because as believers, sometimes we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. I should have known that. I should get that. I should understand that. It takes a lifetime and
20:34 a pursuit of Jesus to grow with him. And on this side of heaven, you won't know everything. Remember, we're talking about the eternal God man. If there were a way that you could
20:46 know all the things about Jesus and how he operated in your finite life, then he's not as grand as what the bible makes him out to be. He's phenomenal. He's he's beyond excellency.
20:58 He's beyond words. And notice this, the whole reason of Jesus coming was his crucifixion. So then he took the 12 aside and he said this in verse 31. He couldn't be more clear. Behold,
21:10 we are going up to Jerusalem and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles and he will be mocked
21:22 and mistreated and spit upon, And after they have scourged him, they will kill him. And on the third day, he will rise again. Here's what he says. Everything that's
21:34 written about in the Old Testament about me is gonna come to take place. Everything that God said was gonna happen is gonna happen through me because I'm the Messiah. You know that I'm God. So here's what's gonna happen.
21:44 We're nearing Jericho. We're gonna go up to Jerusalem, and next week when we get there, here's what's gonna happen. They're gonna mock me. They're gonna beat me. They're gonna spit upon me. They're gonna scourge me and
21:55 after all that they're gonna kill me. How much more clear could Jesus Christ be about what's going to happen? I mean do you understand what I'm saying today? I
22:07 understand it. It's crystal clear. And notice what the disciples understood. But the disciples understood none of these things. That's how much they got.
22:19 I mean, Jesus told them exactly what was gonna happen and they understood zilch. And the meaning of this statement was hidden from them and they did not
22:30 comprehend the things that were said. Meaning this, apart from the Holy Spirit in your life as a believer, you can't understand the things of God. You you can't. They're they're spiritually discerned.
22:42 You can you can read the Bible, but if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you can read the Bible and not understand what you just read. I remember after I got saved, I remember the first book of the Bible I ever read. I
22:52 came home and read the book of James. Now, understand, I went to a Lutheran grade school and I went to a Methodist church and I'd read the Bible and I memorized scripture. And I remember when I got home after getting
23:02 saved and I read through the book of James. And for the very first time in my life as I was reading the word, I was thinking this. I understand this. This makes perfect sense. Like this
23:14 is so clear. How could you miss? I'd read all those scriptures many times. Never understood a thing. Understood some principles. Understood some I was reading the Bible as if God was speaking right to my heart while I
23:25 was reading it. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was in my life, and apart from the Holy Spirit being resident in a believer's life, you understand nothing. And at this point, the Holy Spirit had not been dispensed into the
23:37 disciples' lives, so they didn't understand. Even when Jesus told them, this is exactly what I'm gonna do. They're like, I don't I don't understand. Crucifixion, what kill? That's not gonna happen to you. Peter promised
23:47 him he'd never let it happen. I mean, they didn't get it. He taught the disciples and they misunderstood. Now when you think about this for a minute, think about if you're the Lord Jesus Christ, you're the eternal son of
23:58 God, you're full deity, you're fully man, you come to this world, you have a purpose to die on the cross and rise from the dead, you spend 3 years with a group of people that your father told you, these are the people I
24:07 want you to pour into because they're gonna carry your enterprise around for the rest of time. And you tell them a week before you're ready to die why you come and what's going on. And they're looking at you like, yeah.
24:15 We don't get it. We don't understand anything. And that's who you're entrusting the world to. Right? That's what we see here. He taught his disciples. They misunderstood everything. They didn't know until the Holy
24:27 Spirit came into their life in acts chapter 2. And then all of a sudden, they begin to remember everything that Jesus began to do and to teach. So he challenged the prideful and they rejected him. He taught the
24:39 disciples and they misunderstood them. But look at this, He rescued the desperate and they worshiped him. He rescued the desperate and they worshiped him. Notice this.
24:51 It says that Jesus was approaching Jericho. So here he's getting ready to come into Jericho and a blind man was sitting by the road begging. Nothing really new. There were beggars in the first century. There's beggars
25:03 still today. This was a blind beggar. He couldn't do anything if Jesus Christ or somebody else didn't show up and help him. If he wasn't around people who could give him money, he wasn't gonna get any money. He was just
25:13 begging. He was dependent upon others to come to him. Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth
25:25 was was passing by. So he hears all this noise. He's blind, but he can hear, and he begins to hear this huge crowd coming, and he starts asking, well, what's this crowd about? What what's going on? And they tell him
25:36 Jesus of Nazareth is coming by. That's all he hears. Blind, begging, dependent. Here's the word you need to hear. Desperate.
25:48 How do you know he's desperate? Because of how he's gonna respond. Notice what he begins to do. And he called out saying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
26:00 What's he saying? Jesus, I know who you are. I know how the the scriptures reveal you. I know you're the son of David. I know you're the
26:12 Messiah. And here's what I'm begging of you. I'm not begging for money. I'm begging for your mercy on my life. Lord, give me mercy. And he
26:24 yells at once and guess what happens? Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet. So as this crowd is coming, here's this
26:36 blind beggar saying, Jesus I mean, he can't see. He doesn't know where he's looking. He's just screaming towards the direction of the crowd, but as the crowd gets close, the ones who are up front are like,
26:48 shut up. Shut up. Jesus has more important things than to deal with you. Stop it. You're being annoying.
27:00 Nobody wants to see you or hear you. So what does he do? Does he stop calling? He doesn't. But he kept crying out all the more. Son of David
27:11 have mercy on me. Now why would he do that? Because he's desperate. Because he recognizes this, Jesus Christ is passing by.
27:23 If he doesn't get Jesus Christ attention now, he will never ever get Jesus Christ attention ever. It's it's now or never. You know what that's called? Desperation. You know how most of us approach
27:35 Jesus? Well, maybe I'll go to church someday. Well, maybe I'll consider the claims of Jesus someday. Well, that's not desperation. Desperation is when you hear his voice,
27:47 you do not harden your heart. You recognize today is the day of salvation. Because there's something that's different about being curious than being desperate.
27:59 Right? Curious is I'd like to learn how to swim. Desperate is I'm drowning. When I'm drowning, I'm not curious about a swim lesson. I'm wanting to be
28:11 saved. You see the difference? Curious is when I'm just on the land. I'm curious what it'd be like to swim. Most of us approach Jesus as inquires. We're curious. Tell me, you know I'm living my good life but if
28:23 you got something better for me. Desperate is I know if Jesus passes me by, I stay in this condition for the rest of my life, and I'm
28:34 discontented, and I'm desperate, and you can tell me to shut up, and you can tell me not to pursue. I don't care what any of you say. I need a touch from Jesus. And he kept
28:46 crying out. Now notice this, Jesus notices the desperate. He always recognizes the desperate. Prideful people will never act desperate. The rich young ruler was he was just as desperate
28:58 as the blind man, but he couldn't recognize his desperation because he didn't wanna look needy. And how many times have you heard people in the world? Yeah. I don't I I I Christianity is just a crutch for weak people.
29:08 I'm not that. Bro, you're dead. You need a lot more than a crutch. You need to be made alive. You understand? This guy understood his condition. Most people don't
29:20 understand their condition, and he's calling out and he's calling out, and he is not gonna shut up until he knows there's no way that Jesus is within earshot. And he's calling and he's calling and
29:32 Jesus then stopped and commanded that he be brought to him, and when he came near he questioned him. Now isn't this interesting? The people in the front were like, that's not the way you do it. That's not the way we
29:44 do it in church. Shh. Be quiet. Don't be so don't be so boisterous. Just kind of be calm like the rest. If I don't get in touch from Jesus right now, I'm dying.
29:56 I need him. And what does Jesus see? Jesus sees the desperate, like, stops the whole crowd, all the things that are going on, all of his ministry going forward, said bring the guy here. I want to talk to him.
30:08 Out of the whole crowd, who does Jesus notice? The 1 who's desperate. Out of a whole church, who's the 1 that Jesus notices? The 1 who's desperate. Not the 1 who's hurting because many people hurt. Not the 1 who's
30:20 challenged because many people are challenged, but there's some who are here that are like, I'm desperate. I mean, there's something Jesus can do. I'll anything he wants. I just want him. He sees that and he
30:31 responds to that and he brings him forward and he questions him. Now what's he gonna question him? Now here's what we know. He's a blind beggar. You and I without being the eternal son of God would have known. He's a
30:43 blind beggar. It wouldn't take rocket science to realize the guy can't see and the guy's totally needy because he's sitting on the side of the road where he sat every single day asking for help.
30:55 So what's Jesus' question gonna be? What do you want me to do for you? Now, what in the world would Jesus ask that question for? What do you want me to do for him? I mean, Jesus, I
31:07 could tell you what he wants. He's blind and he's begging. He needs help. He wants to see. He wants to be able to regain his life. Why does Jesus ask him? Because Jesus wants him to
31:19 be humble enough to tell him what his need is. See, it's 1 thing to see people hurting. It's 1 people to it's 1 thing to be aware that you're hurting. It's another when people say, what do you need? And you're like, this
31:30 is what I need because I can't fix this. How many times do we in our culture, like, even our marriage could be breaking up, relationships could be challenged, money could be short, whatever. And with people what what can
31:42 I do for you? Oh, we'll be fine. We're working on it. She's like, okay. Keep working. But when you get to a place, like, I don't care who knows and I don't care who sees, if a marriage doesn't get a touch
31:54 from Jesus, this thing's over. If somebody doesn't come through with my finances, this thing's done. I I don't care who knows. I don't care what people think of me. I I I don't care what I need to change.
32:06 I'm blind, and I can't see. Lord, help me regain my sight. That's what I want. And that's what he does. He says, Lord, I wanna regain my sight. And Jesus says to him
32:18 this, receive your sight. Your faith has made you well. Receive your sight. Your faith has made you well. Now when we read that, a lot of people take that a lot of different ways. Some people read that and be
32:30 like, everybody that's blind, if you trust Jesus, will be able to see again. Some people take that to mean that was a 1 time thing Jesus did and he doesn't do that anymore. That was just to show he was the son of God. I
32:41 think neither is really true. I think when he was saying, I wanna see. I wanna regain my sight. Jesus said, receive your sight. Your faith has made you well. Who it's not what Jesus was placing or what the blind man
32:53 was placing his faith in. It was who he was placing his faith in and who was he placing his faith in. He was placing his faith in Jesus to tell him this, you do whatever you want, and I'm good with that. Jesus wasn't
33:05 telling him your faith made you well, like you had this incredible faith because you had faith that I could heal your eyes. He was saying you had faith in me. It's not how strong your faith is. It's
33:17 who you place your faith in. Using the drowning illustration, if you are drowning and you place your faith in the life raft with a rescue team on it and you place all your faith in that,
33:29 you could have even stronger faith that you could hold an anchor. It doesn't matter which faith was stronger. It's the content of what your faith was in. If you grab onto the life raft to the people
33:41 that can pull you in the boat, you're gonna have a lot better chance of survival than have a really strong faith in the anchor that sank all the way to the bottom of the ocean. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's not
33:50 the it's not the quality of your faith. Like, I gotta faith more. I gotta be so faith. It's not about you. It's about where you place in your faith. Here's what the blind man was saying. I'm placing my faith in you,
34:01 Jesus. You do whatever you think is best. You ask me what I wanted. I'm authentically telling you what I want, but I'm trusting you to do whatever you think is best. And Jesus said, hey, that kind of
34:13 faith will heal you. It doesn't mean that Jesus always does everything you ask for. But I think that blind man would have trusted Jesus even if he hadn't seen.
34:25 If he would have just known that the god man of the universe was spending time with him and saying, I'm with you always. It was his faith. Faith in who? Faith in Jesus. Not how strong his
34:37 faith was and whatever. And notice what happens. He says, your faith has made you well. Immediately, he regained his sight and began following him, glorifying God. And when
34:49 all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. When desperate people that have no chance call out to Jesus and Jesus
35:01 changes a life, not only does that person worship, but several around begin to say, there's something special going on here. Because if that individual can change, well it's possible
35:13 for a lot of things to happen in this world. Do you understand what I'm saying? I mean for those of you that have a testimony, you've been changed. Whether your testimony started at the age of 3 when you trusted Christ
35:25 or whether your testimony started later in life, I'm not talking about what you left in, I'm talking about what you've become. And when you become what the Lord wants you to become, it's worthy of worship because you're
35:36 like, I'm worshiping the 1 that's made that happen. And that's what happens. And desperate people see the hand of God. You have to be desperate to see him. Most people don't get to that place of
35:48 desperation. When the gospel is preached, you should feel an entire sense of desperation because you bring nothing to the table. Like people that die that think I'm gonna be okay are not okay. They're in hell
36:00 100 percent of the time. There's nobody that gets to God on their own. You can't do it. That's why Jesus said what? You must be born again. You you can't you don't have life. You don't have anything good.
36:12 You have nothing to offer. That's why I had to come. If you follow me in my kingdom, I'll take care of you. But you gotta understand, I'm going to the cross and dying. Yeah. We don't get that.
36:24 But the blind beggar was saying, I know. This may be my last chance. You know there's some of you sitting here today and there's some of you in Colorado Springs and Westminster online. Today may be your last day to ever
36:34 hear the gospel. And you're like, well I'm only 18 or I'm only 40 or I'm only 50. I got time to think about this. Maybe you do and maybe you don't. You have no idea. I have no
36:46 idea. I may be aware of my birth date because people tell me but I don't know when my death date is gonna be but it's already been set. So today if you hear his voice don't harden your heart.
36:58 Don't don't walk out of this place and say, well, you know, I'll figure it out. See yourself as that desperate 1. When he rescued the desperate people worshiped. Let me give you a fourth 1.
37:11 He confronted the curious and when they experienced his ministry, they they welcomed him. Notice where he goes now. Now he entered Jericho. He was on the way to Jericho when he saw the blind man. Now he's entering
37:22 Jericho and he was passing through. And there was a man by the name of Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and guess what? He was rich. Now remember a
37:34 rich young ruler? He was rich. He was extremely rich, and Jesus said how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. It's easy for a camel to go through an eye to kneel for a rich man to be saved. Oh no. Here's
37:43 another rich guy. No way he's gonna get saved because he's rich. And as a chief tax collector you need to understand this he extorted people for their money. Because the tax collectors not only had to
37:55 collect the taxes, but they could collect however much they needed and pocket the additional for themselves. Tax collectors were hated in the culture. He was an extortioner. He he was hated by the
38:06 people. His name was Zacchaeus. But notice this in verse 3, Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was and was unable because of the crowd for he was so small in stature. For those of
38:18 you who grew up in church, you probably know the song about Zacchaeus. The wee little man and the wee little man was he. Climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. I can do the hand motions and
38:27 everything all day. Right? But here's this white collar criminal that's extorted everybody that's curious because now he sees Jesus and he can't see over the crowd so he's running aheadShow more
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