 at chapter 10 here, verses 46 through 52 in the Gospel of Mark. And so I'm going to begin reading at verse 46. I'll read to the end of the chapter, verse 52. And I'll be sharing with you about the heart of the minister. And you'll see why I chose to speak on that out of this passage in just a moment. So let's begin reading together here in Mark chapter 10. I'll read to you verse 46 through 52. And then as is my normal way, I'll share with you some things to give you a context of what's taking place. And then we'll go into the study and look at it verse by verse. So beginning at verse 46, reading to verse 52, Mark chapter 10, Mark writes, Now they came to Jericho. As he went out of Jericho with his disciples in a great multitude, blind by the mayors, ascended to mayors, sat by the road begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Then many warned him to be quiet. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, Be of good share, rise, he's calling you. And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, Roboni, that I may receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him, Go your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. And so I want to share a few things with you because I chose to refer to this particular study, the heart of a minister. And Jesus is communicating that to his men. And so I need to develop this a bit for you to remember some of the context in order to understand why this is standing out as we look at it even today. Jesus has been prepared, has been prepared for the work that they've been appointed to do. But in order to prepare them and train them, he had to call them. And he called them to leave everything and to follow him. This is because they were going to be the foundational blocks that the church would eventually be built on. Now he specifically called certain men to follow him full time. And these men are referred to as his apostles. So to train them, he spent time with them. And he taught them as modeled for them what ministry was. In Mark chapter 3, we saw in verses 13 and 14 that Jesus went up on the mountain and called to him those he himself wanted. And they came to him. Then he appointed 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach. So he called to them to himself those he himself wanted that they might be with him. Over time, he poured into them the purpose as well as the meaning of ministry. And he spent time with them so that they could learn how to be Christian ministers. He did it to mentor them because he wanted them not only to be genuine disciples, but to know and understand what ministry actually is. Now during the time of Christ, there was a process of developing disciples. And that process is something Jesus alludes to. It's a process that we today refer to as mentoring. He spent time with them in order that they might learn how to be Christian ministers. And he did this through a mentoring process. When you look at the old methodology of training people up to be disciples during the time of Christ, I was reading concerning that and this one brother was pointing out that a disciple is somebody who decided to follow a teacher. And then he would memorize the words of the teacher. He learned the way of ministry from that teacher. He imitated the teacher's life and character. And then when he was finally mature, he would raise up his own disciples. Jesus speaks concerning that. When he said in Matthew 10, 25, it is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher and the servant like his master. I was in Israel back in 1983 and I was standing in the western, in the area called the Western Wall. And I was there with my pastor of ending Chuck Smith. And Pastor Chuck and I were speaking and I was watching these rabbinic students who were there at the Western Wall and they were praying. And as they were praying, some of them would rock side to side as they prayed. Others of them would go, they'd bow forward and then stand back up, bow forward and stand up. And I was watching these different forms of styles of praying and I finally turned to my pastor and I said, Pastor, I said, what are they doing? Why are they doing that? Why are some people moving from side to side? The other ones are moving front to back and all that. And I'm noticing that they're different. And Chuck, as I was speaking to him, said, well, one, he said in the Old Testament, it tells us, it teaches us to love God with all of your strength. And he said it may be that they're putting their physical effort into their worship and prayer right now because they are demonstrating a love for God with all of their strength. He said a second reason would be that because they're rabbi that they are following and learning that they're being mentored under, that's how he prays. And so that was something they did 2,000 years ago and to this day continue to do so. I can sometimes can, I can tell you what church somebody goes to by the way that they act and the way that they speak. Sometimes when they're praying, I can say, well, that person comes from this fellowship or that way because I know the pastor of the church and he says those things or does those things. And that's just an unconscious thing with us. But there was a real thing during the time of Christ where they would actually learn these things and watch. And then ultimately what it would be is when they had reached maturity and Jesus said it would be enough that he'd become like his teacher, a servant like his master. And at that point, when they had reached that, they would begin to have disciples of their own. Now these men that Jesus is ministering to, these men have heard his sermons. They've, they've witnessed his miracles. They've observed his authority. They've seen him cast out demons. They, they have seen him as he has healed the sick. He's cleansed leopards. He is, they have seen him still the storms. They've eaten miracle meals with him. They, they saw him heal from a distance. They've seen Jesus Christ raise the dead. They could say that they had witnessed so many things, but they're still lacking one thing. It's the one thing that the Lord continues teaching them. You see, they could speak of his works, but they didn't understand who he was. And this is something that he desired for them, that they might understand him. They were learning the how of ministry, but they also needed to know the why. It's one thing for somebody to know how ministry is. It's another thing to know the reason behind it. You can go to a church and you can know what the pastor does. But many people don't know why he does what he does. In Psalm 103 verse 7, it says, he made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The children of Israel could say the Red Sea, or they could say manna. They could say things of that nature. They had seen the works of God. But Moses knew why God did what he did. They knew what he did, but Moses could say, and this is why. And so what happens is he made known his ways to Moses, but the children could speak of the things that God does. Well, they needed to learn the why. They needed to know why Jesus did what Jesus did. They needed to learn the lesson of compassion. It's a lesson that's been modeled by Jesus Christ. In Matthew 9, 36, Matthew writes, when Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered like sheep, having no shepherd. You see, the heart of compassion is the key to properly performing future ministry. Now the Bible reveals to us that God is compassionate. And the Bible tells us that God is moved by suffering. Paul spoke of this when he was writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3. He had said, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort. So the father of compassion, the compassionate father, Paul spoke concerning him and somebody speaking of God's compassion said it like this. They said, God is compassionate. He's sympathetic to the suffering of his people. He sees our distress. He takes pity on us. However, his compassion is more than sympathy and pity. God's compassion is related to his mercy, kindness, patience, grace, forgiveness, and love. This is a key element to the training of the 12th. They are once again about to receive a lesson on the heart of the minister. And by the way, this isn't something that's only for apostles. This heart of compassion is to be the airmark of a believer. The heart of compassion is to be the way we as Christians actually act in today's world. So as we begin to look at this notice, verse 46, I'll begin by sharing just a few things and move into some application. In verse 46 here in chapter 10, again, it says, Now they came to Jericho as he went out of Jericho with his disciples in a great multitude, blind to Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus sat by the road begging. Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem. He's been up in the north. He's been on the eastern border of the Jordan River in a region that is called Piraeus. The Jews normally under normal circumstances would, if they're coming from the north, they would cross the Jordan to the east, travel south till they pass Samaria, then they would re-enter into the land of Israel. And that's what the root is that Jesus is taking. And so it's now nearing the time of the Jewish Passover. Now Jesus is about to lay down his life and he's been emphasizing certain ministry principles to his men. And as we've been going through this portion of scripture, we see how he had recently taught them using a small child that he had taught them that children have value. Then he challenged a rich young ruler and in doing so he emphasized the value of the eternal by dealing with the request for special honor from James and John. He emphasized the value of humility. So he's about to teach them once again the value of compassion. You see, the kingdom of God is composed of people who love and have compassion and care for other people. And compassion and concern for others makes God's kingdom needed in today's world. If there's ever been a time when we need compassion, it's today. Our world is very busy. And it's unusual to see compassion displayed. And it's been noticed and this is interesting to me. The lack of compassion and kindness has been noticed and some have even tried to once again reveal the value of compassion. I don't know if you know this, but there's a foundation that has been dedicated to doing caring things for others. And they even established something called Random Acts of Kindness Week. And that Random Acts of Kindness Week was celebrated March 7th through the 11th of this year. And I was in compassion at all during that week. It was terrible. Random Acts of Kindness Week. That serves to emphasize that compassion and kindness is a value that many share. Did you know there's even an app to help people learn how to spread kindness in the world? There is. Being compassionate is something that Jesus wanted his disciples to learn. That's because compassion is simply an expression of love for other people. And it's been said, and rightly so, that love is the birthmark of the believer. Jesus said, By this shall all men know you are my disciples if you have love one for another. By this shall all men know that. And so it's the love of Christ is God's love in us that is actually the birthmark of the believer. And as his people, we're to take the time to care for those who are in a real need, in genuine need. Like it says in the book of Galatians chapter 6 verse 10, therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. So Jesus is about to share once again about this important Christian virtue. Now notice again in verse 46 he went out of Jericho with disciples and a great multitude. Now this great multitude is made up of pilgrims who are traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. We saw in chapter 10 verse 1 that Jesus was on the eastern shore while he's come down and he's entered in, he's gone southwest, he's on his way to Jerusalem. We know that Jericho is about 15 miles northeast of Jerusalem and it's a few miles west of the Jordan. So he's traveled south, he's on that eastern side as I said, he bypassed Samaria and he's traveling to Jericho and there are those who are traveling with him and they're now ascending or on their way to ascend towards Jerusalem. I want to point something out here. Notice that Mark says that he went out of Jericho and encountered Bartimaeus. In Luke 1835 giving us the same account or another account of the same event it says it happened as he was coming near Jericho that a certain blind man sat by the road begging. One says he went out of Jericho, the other said he's coming near Jericho and so there are those who say well see that's the problem with the Bible it has so many contradictions. One person says that he's entering, another person says he's leaving and so it seems to us that there's an obvious contradiction. Is he going out of Jericho or is he coming near Jericho? I don't know let's just keep going. Anyway, you know, now let me answer that. One time there was a, I was asked this question a long time ago, probably 35 plus years ago now and I was asked this question. They said listen if you were to be isolated on a desert island and you were to remain there with just one book, the Bible, but one other book. If you had two books, the Bible and a second book, what is the book that you would take to a desert island? What book would you want? The Bible and one other book and I immediately said at that time and I would probably still say it to this day, I would take Alfred Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Alfred Edersheim was a Jewish believer. He had rabbinic training, was well aware of the customs and the teachings of Judaism, came to faith in Christ and was able to incorporate those things in his understanding and teaching of the New Testament. Alfred Edersheim answers this particular question here. Edersheim tells us that there were two sites of the city of Jericho. One site was called ancient Jericho. It's the Jericho of Old Testament days. The other site was the modern Jericho. So he's leaving the ruins of Old Testament Jericho, but he's entering into what is called New Testament Jericho. There's your answer. It's no contradiction. It's just knowing the geography of the lander in that day. Well, it says in verse 46, Jesus came to Jericho accompanied by his disciple as well as a multitude. Now I'm going to develop this with you because I want to share with you some things that I believe are practical as I've laid a foundation so we can get an idea of what's taking place. One, he has entered in, he's got his men. He's got people who are followers, but you also have just a multitude, a group of people and not everyone who are there following after Christ are necessarily his followers. Many joined the group of disciples that were traveling with him. That makes this what is called a mixed multitude. There are followers of Jesus and there are those who simply joined them and that kind of gathering of believers and those who are not necessarily believers in Christ, that happens to this day. It's true in every Christian gathering. There are those who follow the Lord and there are others who simply are in the mix and what has happened is they have joined in with Jesus as followers and there's a festive kind of environment. They're following him in what I call the Christian parade and as they're there in this Christian parade and they're entering into the city and there are groups of people in Jericho as Jesus is entering in who are there on the streets looking at those who are coming in. They're talking amongst themselves or listening carefully. What they're doing is they're joining in an event and there are lots of people who are there and they're listening, they're restraining to hear what Jesus is saying because more than likely as Christ is going in the front people are asking him questions and he's answering them so there are people restraining their ears to hear what he's saying as this is taking place and what they're about to be exposed to is love in action. You see the crowd begins to enter Jericho and people of Jericho begin to take notice and somewhere in the crowd lining the street while there's a blind man there his name is Bartimaeus. Now Matthew in his gospel mentions that there are two blind men. Luke and Mark mentioned only one and that's because Bartimaeus is singled out as the spokesperson. Now he's a blind man both of them are blind. You need to know a little bit about what was taking place during the time of Christ because at that time many considered those who were blind to be sinners who were cursed by God. In John chapter 9 verses 1 and 2 John said it like this he said as Jesus went along he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him Rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind so they saw blindness as a symbol of sin and we want to know how this took place. The disciples connected suffering with sin and they knew that that sin was at the root of all suffering. You see in the fall of man sin entered the world along with with sin came affliction and came disease and so the question that they're asking is who sinned this man or his parents that he was noticed that he was born blind that gives you some insight by the way that then I think I'll take a moment to touch on because when they asked the question who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind tells us their concept of human nature and it speaks of the fact that they believe that a baby in the womb is capable of sinning which also gives us insight that the Jews believe that that is a baby and not a fetus that it is a baby in the womb it's in scripture people ignore these things who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind. See when Rebecca in the Old Testament became pregnant she was found to be carrying twins Jacob and Esau and in Genesis 25 verses 22 and 23 it reads the babies jostled each other within her and she said why is this happening to me so she went to inquire of the Lord the Lord said to her two nations are in your womb two peoples from within you will be separated one people will be stronger than the other the older will serve the younger the Jews believed as we do to this day that the life was in the womb not when it took its first breath but that the life is in the womb and God speaks of them as your babies and that's important to know that's important to know they believe that unborn had emotions and that some of those emotions displayed sinfulness and the sinful emotions were the result of their fallen human nature Psalm 51 verse 5 surely I was sinful at birth sinful from the time my mother conceived me so that is a biblical truth there now it may be that the people at that time were seeing this blindness as a curse from God many thought they were cursed and because many thought that they were cursed by God they were reduced to begging and that's what's taking place with Bartimaeus Bartimaeus may have been blind but he and his companion could hear and they heard the commotion luke 18 36 and 37 says it hearing a multitude passing by he asked what it meant so they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by well verse 47 of mark 10 when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say Jesus son of David have mercy on me Bartimaeus obviously had heard of Jesus because Jesus was very well known and at first he might have become excited when he at first heard the sound and as this crowd is now approaching where he is he might have thought man this is great these these will be pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem and pilgrims are normally religious people who are very generous and because religious people are known to be more generous than the non-religious and so they probably will know as they would they know the scripture that commands them to be generous towards the poor due to Ronomy 15 verse 11 there will always be poor people in the land therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land and so they're thinking as as this Christian parade is beginning to pass by they're thinking man I've struck it rich this is great there's a whole lot of them what's going on and so they're saying well you know they can tell there's a commotion what's going on while they're beginning to ask what is this oh Jesus of Nazareth is passing by well notice verse 47 when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out that word cried listen when you read your bible the the New Testament is written in what is called Greek or Koine Greek common Greek and so there are words that we translate in the English that when you look at the root word and what it meant you get a deeper understanding and so if you read it and it says he began to cry out that's one thing but the word cry there is a very strong Greek word that actually is literally speaking of crying out at the the top of your lungs it's another way of saying he was screaming out he was screaming loudly above the crowd that was going by he wasn't just crying out oh he was screaming at the top of his lungs the word is often used for speaking of crying for help and that's exactly what he's doing his opportunity for more than just a handout has come he's his opportunity because it's Jesus of Nazareth passing by his opportunity has arrived for him to be able to be healed if he cries out and i'm not about to let this go by is what he's thinking this is my greatest hope of ever regaining sight and so he begins a shout out at the top of his lungs and notice what he says it says Jesus son of david have mercy on me now in verse 47 it said when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out but what did he cry out Jesus son of david why is there in why is that interesting well one if it's of Jesus of Nazareth it's simply speaking of the village he came out of but when he said son of David that's a cry of faith he's recognizing him as not just a rabbi from a city called Nazareth he's saying you're the son of David son of david is what is called a messianic title so he's crying out that's why Jesus will will will say your faith has made you well you recognize who i am you recognize who i am Jesus son of david have mercy on me now earlier we saw how mark recorded that Jesus had healed a woman with an issue of blood remember that she had come up quietly touched the hymn of his prayer shawl but here Bartimaeus screams out at the top of his lungs he didn't want his opportunity to regain psych to slip away it's like with the psalmist in psalm 77 verse 1 wrote when he said my voice rises to god i will cry aloud my voice rises to god he will hear me well as he's screaming out Jesus son of son of david helped me well verse 48 when many warned him to be quiet the crowd didn't appreciate the disturbance so they told him quiet down i want to spend some time looking at this with you i think this is very practical and as i would think as believers it's something that we can benefit from considering together why would they say to this man be quiet why well one it could be that they were just simply showing respect to jesus christ Jesus might have been speaking and this man is interrupting so i want to be charitable towards these people they may have believed that they were showing reverence to jesus by asking for things to be quiet and that's understandable even jesus's own apostles often didn't understand remember how jesus's men had recently rebuked parents for bringing their children to jesus for for jesus to bless it and how it had displeased him and he had to correct his men for doing it well in this case they warned him to be quiet that word warned speaks of forbidding of admonishing him forbidding him to speak and what they're doing is very instructive to those of us who follow jesus christ and this is where i want to begin sharing a little bit with you they were walking with jesus they're walking with jesus but they are still callous to the pain of other people over the years i've become more aware of how easy it is to become callous to other people's pain we see so much of it so much pain that it becomes commonplace and even ordinary people who are different can sometimes be disturbing and uncomfortable to people at his first cry they should have brought the man to jesus but instead notice the people are disturbed even going so far as to saying be quiet and instead of bringing partomias and his friend to jesus they're keeping them from jesus it's not hard for people to misunderstand and what i'm going to share right now is not intended as a condemnation i'll say it first like this we here in this fellowship obviously value a quiet atmosphere why because i teach and i don't want to be shouting over other people and i don't need a cheering section and all of that right we're here to teach so i value it by respecting people around us i value a quiet atmosphere i do that's just the way i am but sometimes people's needs can disturb us when they make them known i began to learn this in ministry many years ago i was a young pastor it's back in the 80s and we used to meet at a place called ontario christian chapel i'm sorry ontario christian school and in the school sat the the school that we use the little auditorium sat between 250 or so maybe up to 300 i i don't remember anymore i just remember that that we had 200 to 300 people that were coming to church we had a couple of services there in all ends i remember on one particular sunday morning i was teaching and as i was teaching the particular very very much like i'm doing right now just teaching at one point somebody who was maybe six rows or so from where i was at which is a close it's real close um all of a sudden this older man it's funny for me to say that now but to me then he was an older man he had to be at least 50 but anyway this this this older man this older man let out a moan like like someone had stabbed him it was that kind of moan it was loud it was a loud moan so much so that it shocked me and again it was only a few rows away from me so you could hear it very easily and he he moaned and sounded like he is in great pain and and i i was kind of shocked and i looked to see what's going on and he got louder and then right behind him was a young couple and they acted as if a as if a dynamite a stick of dynamite had exploded i'll never forget that because they looked at each other with almost a panic look and they both stood up that's how i was able to locate where the noise was because they stood up and when they stood up they went to the center aisle went out the door and i never saw him again and i thought why what's going on because you know church is quiet normally people listen respectfully and so for that to take place is very disturbing especially in a small room well i found out later on what had happened something in what i was sharing touched him because his son had just died his son died and whatever it was that was being shared opened up that wound and as a father mourning his son he cried loudly he hit him so hard and when i saw that i thought it's very sad that the church doesn't have the capacity to have compassion for those who hurt to the point that's so disturbing we're willing to boot out of that place and never come back and i never have forgotten that i've never forgotten how people's pain sometimes can be a mess there was a time for some time in our fellowship we had a brother who would he was exuberant he sat off to my left he never called me pastor david he called me pastor davis pastor davis and he would talk to me after church often i would walk down there and he's always waiting to talk to me he was a bit exuberant very exuberant as a matter of fact it was so exuberant that we had to we had an Easter service where we recorded the worship to make it available to the to the church and we had to edit his big mouth out i mean he was just he would get so caught up and he would turn around and he'd try and get people to stand with him and he was very disturbing and i would go down there and he always waited to talk to me and pastor davis pastor davis i just and he would tell me his story and i would say to my cement i said you know i appreciate it do me a favor what's that calm down a little bit just a little bit i said because yet you're causing people around you to kind of say what's going on you see there were people in the church who were angry some left because i didn't do anything about this i was supposed to stop this it was disturbing them in church they didn't know that i would talk to this guy what am i supposed to do stand up and say oh by the way you see that guy there i talked to him quite often when i supposed to embarrass him in front of people so people are satisfied saying oh he's a good leader no i don't do that my dad taught me a long time ago when you correct somebody do it privately don't embarrass people that's how you do it so i would talk to him and i say brah you've got to slow it down man take it down a notch are you know pastor davis you know and i'd say yeah well he died he died recently he died of covid listen i learned a lot forgive the emotion i learned a long time ago to love people who are different and to be aware of the fact that some of them have some pretty messed up backgrounds and the one place that they should always feel safe is with brothers and sisters in the lord and we should never be so caught up with trying to keep order which i am very much into keeping order i'm not into disturbing and using the flesh know me but i am also willing to accept a person where they're at to help them to realize some things aren't acceptable let's learn to do the things that are i think that's very important see i walked into a church at the age of 20 i was already on drugs and alcohol for several years i was a hippie my hair was long i was barefoot i didn't wear shoes i'd wear slacks and a and a dress shirt with no shoes i never wore shoes i didn't like shoes as a matter of fact i was still barefoot when this church began and it was my mother who told me i don't want to look at your feet anymore put on shoes that's a fact that's a fact so i started wearing some you know foot coverings for my mom's sake because i used to kick them off when i teach and say put those shoes back on son i don't want to look at your feet see so but i walked into a church it was called calvary chapel and there was a young man by the name of lani frisbee who was the teacher at that time pastor chuck was the pastor over the church and i walked in barefoot and i walked in with long hair and i walked in with beer on my breath because i had been drinking before i came and my eyes were bloodshot because i was smoking dope so i walked in barefoot hippie bloodshot eyes and beer on my breath and i was accepted not for those things but in spite of those things by a group of people who were not disturbed by real life because at the end of the day at the end of the day we're all sinners in the need of Jesus's grace and we ought to love each other we ought to and i think that we have to be careful because Jesus is teaching his men lessons of ministry it's it's it's that when there's a crying need how do you meet it do you tell the person be quiet don't disturb the master or do you open the door for him to be brought to the master how's it work and that's what we're seeing here we're seeing a group of people that are not sensitive to these blind men cursed by god in their sight who are crying out especially varda mayas to jesus who's not referring to jesus as jesus of nasser who's crying out son of david and they're missing the whole point and the earlier earlier in the gospel they they bring babies and the disciples say oh don't disturb the master and jesus has to correct him and and i think he does that to this day that we we we should be aware that not everybody else in the place starting with me is that sanitary that we all need help we all need help and jesus brings it god help us god help the church to not be so mad at the world that we forget that jesus tied for it god help us to take the love of the gospel and envelop it in human flesh incarnate it to people and say i may not like what you're doing i don't jesus died to set you free but guess what i love you and i would like god to set you free too i'm no better than you but he saved me and he can save you too and that's what the gospel needs to that's how it goes out and the church needs i'm telling you we're living in a time when people leave church sometimes mad at the president or mad at the government or mad everybody's evil yeah guess what so am i and that's why i need a savior no i do not approve of the things that are going on and i never will it would not be right for a person to preach the gospel in compromise i don't do that but i hate that sin but i will i ask god help me to love the sinner help me to never forget where i came from i was no better than anybody else and to this day i still am no better but i have a great savior he changes lives he forgives sins he transforms us and that's why we preach the gospel we need to remember that the disciples needed to understand and these people there who are telling him be quiet they needed to understand that that god hears those cries and god moves and that's what's about to take place notice that they're saying to him be quiet be quiet but his response in verse 48 is that he cried out all the more son of david have mercy on me i'm not about to lose out on receiving from you son of david messiah and what happens verse 49 so jesus stood still commanded him to be called and they called the blind man to him they said he's calling you so his crying his persistence is his crying out for the lord well the lord listened in psalm 18 verse 6 it says in my distress i called upon the lord cried out unto my god he heard my voice out of his temple my cry came before him even to his years so jesus stood still he commanded him to be brought to him he halted the parade to minister to these men he's willing to stop everything that he's doing to reach you and it says in verse 49 it says jesus stood still commanded him to be called and they called the blind man saying to him be of good cheer rise he is calling you throwing aside his garment he rose and came to jesus and so this garment was part of what would keep this man warm at night this garment was very important to him in many ways the garment was was a source of comfort it was a source of great value mark tells us part of mayors threw aside his garment and rose and came to jesus he discarded it he threw off what might stumble him as he came to christ you see this outer cloak had great worth to him but he cast it away so he could be healed in Philippians chapter three verses seven and eight the apostle paul said it like this he said what things were gained to me these have i counted loss for christ yet indeed i also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that i may gain christ remember recently a young ruler would not let go of his wealth and was stumbled by it people get stumbled over various things some people stumble over their husband or their wife oh they're going to be upset at me if i follow jesus christ some get upset over their kids all the kids don't want to go here or do that because of my christianity so we let the kids we let the kids rule our house and tell us where we go to church and what we do sometimes we're concerned for our siblings brother or sister who gets upset or friends relationship and because of that we're afraid to follow christ but this guy let it go because he wouldn't have anything stumbling him he was going to come to jesus he was going to receive from the lord though physically blind with spiritual eyes he saw who jesus was and he came to him and so in verse 51 jesus answered and said what do you want me to do for you now he had recently asked the same question to james and john what is it that i can do for you but this time the request is recognized as legitimate they wanted to say to jesus's right hand or left hand he said it's not for me to give that but this is legitimate i want to see well it would seem that at first that his need was obvious but sometimes we simply need to admit it he needed to say it i need help i need to see so in verse 51 the blind man said my dear rabbi my dear teacher that i may receive my sight it's interesting that word when he says i may receive i looked that up in the original i wanted to see how that word is actually what it is intended to communicate the word received carries with it the connotation of recovering may i recover my sight gives the intonation that he had lost his sight and i want to receive it back i want to recover it and so what does jesus say verse 52 he says to him go your way your faith has made you well and immediately received his sight and followed jesus on the road let's close with a couple of thoughts in matthew 20 verse 34 jesus had compassion touch their eyes immediately their eyes received sight they followed him luke 18 42 and 43 receive your sight your faith has healed you immediately he received his sight and followed jesus praising god and when all the people saw it they also praised god when you receive your sight you follow him when you receive your sight you impact others so that they will also praise god that's how it works someone once said there are such things as christian tears and too few of us ever weep them i was teaching at a pastors conference many years ago now and when i teach sometimes i just get overwhelmed as you see my heart just becomes welled with something and i tear up i don't like it i don't want it it just happens what can i say and that happens when i'm touched by something that i'm thinking of or it i just so some of the pastors said why does that guy cry but why does he cry and they mocked it not that long ago i was speaking at a pastors conference q and a and pastor next to me i had just shared something from my heart in the q and a and i teared up for a moment and the pastor next to me a friend of mine teased me and said i don't cry like he does and so when i gave my message to the to the pastors and assistants i said it isn't a question of why i cry my question is why don't you because if you know what god has done in your life if you understand how deeply you were in sin how lost you were how messed up your life was how can you not cry over how good he has been to you how can you not show that because god has forgiven you and you're going to heaven think about that for a minute if i look i can do this i won't i have to close but if i look around here and start pointing people out to you you would blow your mind and maybe get a little scared at who you're sitting next to but god but god he forgives he washes and he changes you and that's why we tear up that's what i tear up when i talk about the goodness of god that's why because i know how undeserving i am and yet he still loved me and he still gave himself for me and he changed my life that's not simply a testimony that's a declaration of the goodness of god so instead of keeping people from him god help us to get out of the way so people can come to him because that's what god would have us as christians to bring people to jesus that they might be able to see our father we ask that you would work