Blind spot, three sermons in a row, three passages in Luke chapter 18 and 19, all about vision,
all about sight, all about finding and looking for the right thing.
And today's sermon is entitled, Blind Disciples Sighted Beggar.
Blind Disciples Sighted Beggar.
Just Opposition. That's the word that I want to talk about.
Just Opposition, say it with me. Just Opposition, say it again, say it again.
Just Opposition, what is that word? It's a literary word. It's a word that storytellers
have used for thousands and thousands of years throughout human history to help people clearly
understand difficult concepts. Just Opposition, say it with me.
Just Opposition. It's where we take two similar things and
lay them out side by side so that we can compare and contrast them.
In fact, a literary professor actually put this slide together and it really kind of
helps us understand it. It says, Just Opposition, putting two separate things, ideas, next to
one another or near each other to highlight their differences.
An example of that would be sweet and sour sauce or the tortoise and the hare.
They juxtapose one another, two things line by line, side by side to compare and contrast.
Say Juxt Opposition. Very good.
Now when two people in a story are compared, it's called a character foil.
You say, I didn't know I was in an English class today. Welcome, I'm Professor Tice.
What is a character foil? Let's go ahead and look at this.
What is a character foil? A character foil is a juxtaposition between
two characters whose personalities or backgrounds are starkly dissimilar to individuals who
are compared, different backgrounds, different story arcs, but they're compared to each
other. Examples of this would be like Cinderella
and her stepsisters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.
I'm a Slytherin. Any other Slytherins here?
All right, no wonder we like each other. We're the secret villains.
Character foil, juxtaposition, two characters compared.
Last thought before I teach the passage, ironic juxtaposition.
Ironic juxtaposition. That's where there are two characters or two things,
side by side, and the more you compare the two, the more irony you see. There's an ironic
element to this comparison. One of the best illustrations of that for
my childhood was a movie I remember coming out when I was a young teenager.
It was called The Hunchback of Notre Dame. How many of you remember The Hunchback of
Notre Dame? How many of you remember this? How many of you say Notre Dame? How many
of you say Notre Dame? How many of you say Notre Dame? You say it correctly, right?
How many of you say Notre Dame? You say it incorrectly, very good. All right.
Stop it. All right. And you compare this. You see this story.
Now this story is an ironic juxtaposition, a comparison of two characters.
One Quasimodo, who is a Hunchback, a monstrous type of an individual, and Frollo, a community
leader, a religious leader, a political leader. This ironic juxtaposition compares to individuals
and this story is set up brilliantly, especially in the 1990s cartoon, because the narrator
of the story actually begins with this fascinating line at the end of the opening song. Here's
the line. Are you ready for it? If you like literature storytelling, you're going to love
this. Here's the line. Here is the riddle to guess if you can. Who is the monster and
who is the man? Ironic juxtaposition. And by the time you get to the end of the story,
the one who looks like a monster is the real man and the one who looks like a man is the
real monster. Ironic juxtaposition. Luke chapter 18, the writer of the Gospel of Luke does
exactly the same thing as he compares two individuals. The two individuals he compares
are the disciples of Jesus and a disabled, blind, homeless man. Juxtaposition. Ironic
juxtaposition. The disciples were the good guys. Do you believe the disciples were the
good guys? If you do say amen. Disciples are the good guys. The homeless, disabled, blind
guys, just some random person, especially in the Greco-Roman society, they were considered
to be worthless. And in this story, we see a comparison that will blow your mind. If
you're ready for it, give me an amen. That's a long introduction, pastor, but you need it
to understand this passage. The person of the disciples. Let's go ahead and talk first
of all about the blind disciples. And then in the second part of the sermon, we're going
to talk about the blind disciples. Second part is going to be the sighted beggar. Blind
disciples sighted beggar. Let's look at the blind disciples first and foremost in the
passage. Luke chapter 18 and verse 31, taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, listen,
oftentimes he would take his disciples and teach in a large setting like this, and then
sometimes he would take his twelve or the sixteen or the twenty or the forty that were
following him really close and would say, I got a special message for you. This is one
of those special messages for just the disciples. He said, listen, we're going up to Jerusalem
where all of the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true.
He says, fellas, I want you to know something. We're about to go up to Jerusalem. Now this
is interesting because right now in the story of Jesus, they are on the other side of the
Jordan River. They had come from Galilee through Samaria. Now they have crossed over the Jordan,
spent time in the land of Priya. They're going to cross back over the Jordan, go through
the town of Jericho. Jericho is at the base of the mountains where Jerusalem is at the
height of the mountains. And they are on their way to go up to Jerusalem so that Jesus can
die. This story takes place three to four weeks before the death of Jesus. Now if you've
been studying with us for the last year and a half, we've been going through the entire
story of Jesus' life. And over the next four months, we're going to see the rest of the
book of Luke. And you are not going to want to miss. I'm telling you a single Sunday because
every single one of these sermons, every single one of these passages tell us more
and more about Jesus in the last three to four weeks of his life than anything you've
ever heard about Jesus that matters most. And as they're about to go up to Jerusalem,
Jesus pulls his disciples aside and he says, fellows, I want you to know we're going to
go up to Jerusalem. And when we get there, all of the predictions about the Son of Man
are going to be fulfilled. He calls himself the Son of Man. Say that with me, Son of Man.
Say it with me, Son of Man. Say it again, Son of Man. Let it roll around in your mind.
Son of Man. Why does he call himself this? There are many disciples to describe Jesus.
I'm, excuse me, many descriptions that describe Jesus, many titles. He is the Son of God.
He is the man from Nazareth. He is the rabbi carpenter. But the very number one term that
he refers to himself as, the number one term he calls himself, do you know what it is?
Son of Man. The Son of Man in Hebrew. The Son of... Do you know what the word man is
in Hebrew? Do you know what it is? Adam, Adam. Literally, the Son of Adam is going to Jerusalem
and all of the predictions and the prophecies that you heard about him are going to come
true. And then Jesus goes through the predictions. Look at what he says. This is going to blow
your mind. He looks at his disciples and says, he will be handed over to the Romans. He will
be mocked and treated shamefully. He will be spit upon. He's saying, three weeks from
now, I'm going to be turned over to the authorities. They're going to beat me. They're going to
mock me. They're going to spit upon me. And then they will beat. They will flog me. They
will whip and then kill me. But on the third day, don't worry, I will rise again. Aren't
you thankful Jesus rose from the grave? Can I get an amen? But look at this. Look at the
next verse. It's going to blow your mind. But they didn't understand any of this. The
significance of his words were hidden from them and they failed to grasp what he was
talking about. Jesus looked him square in the eye and said, we've got to go up to Jerusalem
because when we get there, the Son of Man is going to be taken, killed, crucified. Don't
worry, I'm going to be buried and rise from the grave. Everything will be okay. And they're
like, huh? I don't get it. I really don't. Like imagine if this happened with your friend.
Or imagine if your friend and you and a group of friends were like, let's go to San Diego.
And you're like, yeah, San Diego. And the guy looks at you and says, okay, we're going
to go to San Diego. We're going to go to the zoo. We're going to get some dinner al-qayyoti
in the old town. And then I'm going to be taken by a gang. They're going to beat me
with whips. Then I'm going to die. Then I'm going to rise from the grave. Three days later,
everything's going to be fine. You too would be like, huh? But you definitely want to forget
that that's what was said. These disciples not only didn't understand, the Bible says
in the next verse, they were blinded to this truth. They were blind to it. Look what it
says. Look what it says. It says, the significance of His words were hidden from them and they
failed to grasp what He was talking about. Blind. They couldn't see what was right in
front of them. Isn't it terrible to be able to have the truth right in front of you and
you're blinded to it? Anybody from the 1990s here, anybody that survived the 90s, would
you raise your hand? How many of you? Okay. Yeah. 90s babies. All right. Yeah. There's
my older millennials right there. Hey, all right. How many of you remember a magic eye
art? You remember a magic eye art? Yeah, it looked like this. If you remember, there were
these fuzzy paintings and it was a big deal in the 90s. How many of you remember this?
Right? Right? It was the internet and this, but they just created both. Internet stuck
around. This went away. And the idea of these, where if you looked at it in a certain way,
there was a hidden image right in front of it. You remember? How many of you were really
good at this? Like immediately, like cross your eyes, there it is. How many of you were
really good? Raise your hand. It's okay. Be proud of yourself. You're this good, right?
How many of you were like me? You could never see it at all. Like never at all. How many
of you were like me? You, like it got frustrating. People are like, oh, you have to cross your
eyes. Look really close. Move your head back. How many of this has happened to you? I hated
that. I hated that. And so I got to confess. So I would just lie. They're like, do you
see it? I'm like, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like it's awesome. Like that's, wow. Wow. That's
cool. That's cool. You're like, yeah, that's amazing. I'm like, they're like, it's a beautiful
ship. I'm like, yeah, pirate ship. They're like, it's a cruise ship. You know, I'm like,
but I didn't want, I couldn't see it. It was right in front of me, but I was blind to it.
Jesus was right in front of them and they were blind to it. Why? Because they don't
want to see it. Can I ask you a question? What is it that God has been trying to tell
you and you choose to be blind to it? Like what is the thing that God keeps trying to
show you and you're like, I don't want to see it. What is it in your life right now?
Maybe for you, you need to get saved. You need to get baptized. You need to become a
member of the church. You need to join a small group. For some of you, you know community
is your answer. You need other men and women in your life, but you're like, you're blind
to it. And then you go around complaining to others and to God, what's wrong? And God's
like, do this and you're like, I don't want to see. You're blind to it. You choose to
be blind to it. It's right in front of you, friend. For some of you, it's Jesus himself.
You say, I don't know what's going to happen. My life needs to be saved. And the answer
is, he's right there. Come forward. Talk to me. We'll go to coffee. I'll talk to you
how you can be saved, how you can follow Jesus. Now, what were the disciples blind to?
Did the disciples believe in Jesus? Yes or no? Yes, they did, but they were still blind
to a few things. And I want to share with you what they were blind to. Anybody here interested
in history, if you are, raise your hand. You like history? How many of you like history?
Okay. This next part of the sermon, you're going to dig like deeply. You're going to
be like amazing. Now, if you don't like history, I'm not going to raise your hand. This next
part of the sermon, it's going to be rough for you. Okay? The next five to seven minutes
are going to be like, oh, pastor, can you tell us a story about Disneyland later? Okay,
later. Because this next part is deep history, but it's going to be really important for
your Christian faith. What were the disciples blind to? Here's what they were blind to.
They were blind to what we call, are you ready for this? What we call the vacant throne and
the way to the throne? The disciples were blind to the vacant throne and the way to
the throne. You say, what do you mean the vacant throne? Okay, little history. To understand
the concept of the Bible, one of the key themes about the Bible is there is an empty vacant
throne. It's introduced in the book of Genesis, and it's filled up by the time you get to
the book of Revelation. There's a throne and nobody's in it. And there have been stories
and movies and television series that have kind of spun this concept of fighting for
a throne, right? That concept goes all the way back to the Bible. There's a vacant empty
throne that's introduced in Genesis, and somebody needs to fill that throne. It's introduced
in Genesis chapter one in verse 26 when God creates Adam and Eve, Adam, Adam. What does
the word Adam mean again? What does it mean? Man, the son of Adam, Jesus, the son of Adam.
And God creates Adam and Eve, and he says to them, he puts them in the garden, and he
says to them in Genesis chapter one, go ahead and look out on the screen, Genesis chapter
one verse 26 and 27, he says, I want you to be fruitful and multiply and fill up the earth.
And everybody remembers that that's one of the first things that God tells Adam and Eve,
have children, have children. That was the first of two commandments, but there was a
second commandment. The first one was be fruitful and multiply. The second one that often is
forgotten, forgotten is this, take dominion. I have given you dominion over the fish of
the sea, foul of the air, the creeping beasts and the creeping things. Mankind, man, Adam,
was given the throne to rule and have dominion over the earth. Now you say, well, that's
for men, not women. No, relax. This is not the Barbie movie. Amen. All right. It's a
joke. It's a joke. It's a joke. I haven't seen it yet. Okay. Adam, the concept of man,
is mankind, Anthropos in Greek. It means mankind, men and women. Listen to me. We humans have
a right to rule over this planet. You say, no, no, God is the ruler of this planet. Actually,
according to what you see in the Bible, God created the planet to be co-ruled. Him sitting
on one throne and on his right hand is supposed to be Adam, man, dominion, kingship. If deep
inside of you, you've always thought of yourself as a strong king or queen, the answer is you
were created to be a king and queen. You were created to have dominion over this planet,
to have dominion, to rule and to reign, not over one another, but over God's creation.
You say, well, if that's the way God created it, to be co-ruled, God and man, co-ruling
the earth, what happened? Good question. The answer to that question is Adam and Eve, they
screwed up. Do you remember the story? Don't eat of that tree. They're like, what tree?
They walk over to the tree, they eat of the tree. The moment they eat of the tree, God
says, get out of the garden. They not only lost the garden, they lost the throne, the
throne of Adam. And now you're stuck in history. There's an empty throne throughout all of
human history. It sits at the right hand of God the Father. And there have been all sorts
of men throughout history who have tried to sit in that throne. Pharaoh of Egypt is an
example, tried to rule over the world. Didn't work, didn't work. He did not live up to what
the son of Adam should be. It wasn't just Pharaoh. It was Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon.
It was Xerxes of Persia. It was Alexander the Great of the Greeks. It was every emperor
of Rome throughout history. More recently, it was men like Napoleon or Hitler. They tried
to sit in the throne of Adam and rule mankind. But they were all unworthy. It's not just
the Gentile nations, it's also the people of God. The people of God had their heroes,
Saul the First King, David the Second King, Solomon the Third King. All of them tried
to sit and rule in the throne of Adam. But Saul was unworthy because of his pride and
David was unworthy because of his adultery and violence. And Solomon was unworthy because
of his idolatry. And so even the people of God could not fill this throne of Adam.
And so now we're reminded of what Jesus meant when he looked at his disciples and said,
guys, we're going to go up to Jerusalem. And when we get there, the son of Adam is going
to be crucified. He's going to be killed. Don't worry, he's going to be buried and
rise from the grave. Why does he call himself the son of Adam, son of Adam, the son of man?
Well, because 700 years before the time of Jesus, there was a prophet named Daniel. And
Daniel wrote a prophecy about when the Messiah would come. And in chapter seven of the book
of Daniel, Daniel marks through all of the great rulers that would come through history
up until the time of Jesus. He talks about Nebuchadnezzar. He talks about the Greeks.
He talks about the Persians. He talks about the coming Romans. And he says none of them
will be able to take this throne from Adam. But then he says in Daniel chapter seven,
look at this, this is amazing. Daniel chapter seven, verse 13, as my vision continued that
night, I saw someone like, what does he say? I saw someone like, what does he say? I saw
someone like what? The son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he approached the
ancient one that's God, the ancient one that's God. And he was led into the presence of God.
And he was given authority. What was he given? He was given authority and honor and sovereignty
over all the nations of the earth. What did Daniel foresee? Daniel foresaw that there was
somebody called the son of Adam who would come and he would claim the throne of Adam.
And when Jesus comes, Jesus says, hey, I'm here. I'm the son of Adam. It's my throne.
Wow. So Jesus did take the throne. He sits upon the throne. From the moment he died upon
the cross, he sits upon the throne. He's rightfully sitting upon the throne. That's why when we
say don't worry, God is on his throne, it's true. Not only is God on his throne, but on
his right hand sits the son of Adam. When we say son of man, when Jesus talks about being
the son of man, it isn't just highlighting his humanity. It's highlighting his divinity.
The son of Adam has finally sat upon the throne and has been for now 2,000 years. What were
they blind to? They were blind to the vacant throne, but the disciples were also blind
to the way to the throne. This is where men throughout history have lost it. Men and women.
Can I get an amen? We think the way to victory is by conquering everybody else. And so the
disciples thought, yeah, let's go up to Jerusalem. We'll kill everybody that's bad there. Then
we'll go to Rome and kill everybody that's bad there. And Jesus says that's not what's
going to happen. The way to the throne is not through conquering. The way to the throne
is through the thorns. The way to the crown is not through conquering. The way to the
crown is through the cross. Why? Because Jesus knew the prophecies. He was the fulfillment
of the prophecies. He remembers what Isaiah said. Isaiah the prophet, Isaiah, say Isaiah.
Say it again, Isaiah. It's important to remember for the rest of the story. Say Isaiah. Isaiah
the prophet said in Isaiah chapter 53, when the Messiah comes, this is what it's going
to look like. They're going to beat him. They're going to whip him. He's going to be a man
of sorrow acquainted with grief. He'll bear our sorrows. He's going to be whipped and
chastised for our sins. All of our iniquities are going to be placed on him. And all we
like sheep are going to run away from him. But he will stand before his judgment, his
accusers, and he will be silent instead of speaking back to them. All of this was prophesied
by Isaiah. The prophecy was that when the Son of Man came, Messiah, to get the throne
back, the way to get the throne was suffering and death. The disciples didn't want to see
that. They were blind to it. But that's exactly what happens. The cross is before the crown.
The thorns do come before the throne. And what we're going to see when we get to Luke
chapter 22 in a few months at the end of our study, Jesus is going to be standing. There's
a, I think I have a picture of this. Jesus is going to be standing before the Sanhedrin.
And as Jesus stands before this council, they're going to say, so you think you're the Messiah,
do you? Go ahead and do some miracle. There's this fight. He's standing in court about to
be killed. And look at the words of Jesus in Luke chapter 22. It's going to blow your
mind. Jesus says in Luke chapter 22, Jesus was led before the high council and they said,
tell us who you are. Are you the Messiah? But he replied, if I told you that I was the
Messiah or if I asked you a question, you wouldn't listen to me anyway. And then Jesus
says this. Jesus says, but from now on, the Son of Man will be seated in the place of power
at God's right hand. Jesus at his own trial looks at the people and says, if I tried to
tell you who I was, you wouldn't believe me, but I will try to tell you. I'm the Son of
Man, the Son of Adam. The next time you see me, I'm going to be sitting on the throne.
It's a virtual mic drop moment. That's why they freak out and they take Jesus, they
rip out his beard, they put a crown of thorns on his head to mock the idea that he's the
King, the Son of Adam. And then they murder him. Who murders him? Mankind. Man, Adam,
kills the King. The way to the cross, the way to the crown was through the cross, the
way to the throne was through the thorns. All of this is spoken of in the rest of the
New Testament. If you're a student of the Word, suddenly all of these dots start lining
up. That's why in the book of Hebrews it says that we have a high priest who did suffer
for our sins, and the moment he suffered for our sins, he ascended into heaven and he sat
down. What did he sit down upon? The throne of Adam.
You know in the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 4 and 5, you are introduced to the
throne room of God. And when you get to the throne of God, what happens? On the right
hand of the big throne is a smaller throne. And who is standing beside that throne? Jesus,
a lamb as it had been slain. And he has the authority to take the scroll and open those
seals. It all connects, friend. How many of you love history? Can I see you raise your
hand? How many of you love history? All right, very good. Put your hands down. For the rest
of you, we're done. Can I get a, can I get a, wow, wow, wow, blind these beggars were,
or these disciples were. This is an ironic juxtaposition. Luke introduced us to disciples
who were blind. Now he's going to introduce us to a blind man who can see Jesus perfectly.
The blind man, now I'm going to call the sighted beggar. Look at what the story goes on to say.
Look at what it says. The second part of our sermon, we're almost done. As Jesus approached
Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. This is a beautiful storytelling
device. But it's not just a story. This actually happened. And the book of Luke wants us to
see them compared to each other. The disciples who could see nothing. And a blind man who
could see everything. There was a blind beggar sitting on the road. And when he heard a noise
of the crowd going by, he asked, hey, hey, hey, I can't see what's happening, what's
happening. And they looked over at him and said, hey, hey, Jesus of Naz, the Nazarene
was going by. So they told him that Jesus was here. Now, the man had never seen Jesus,
nor had man ever met Jesus, but he had heard about Jesus. Can I ask you a question? Have
you heard about Jesus? Some of you have been following Jesus for many, many years. Awesome.
Some of you have only really heard about Jesus. And some of you are a little turned off by
Jesus because some people that you know said they followed Jesus, but they're actually
idiots and they're not real followers of Jesus. And so you think because those idiots called
themselves followers of Jesus that Jesus might be a bad guy and he's not a bad guy, those
people were just idiots. And you've heard about Jesus and here's what I'm trying to
tell you. Here's what I'm trying to say. If you have a chance to see him, don't close
your eyes. Don't be willfully blind. This blind man who could see nothing, could see clearly,
I need Jesus in my life. And so he starts shouting out. As soon as he hears Jesus was
going by, he starts shouting, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Oh, that's interesting.
He calls out the Son of David. Why does he call him the Son of David? Because though
Jesus called himself the Son of Man, those who believed he was the Messiah called him
the Son of David. Say, why Son of David? Well, because in that ancient culture, there was
a prophecy given to the greatest king of Israel, David, the little boy who killed a giant grew
up to be king. He failed. He could not sit on the throne of Adam. However, God came to
him in 2 Samuel chapter 7 and said to David, David, though you have failed, I'm going to
send you a special Son. He will be the Prince of peace and the King of kings. He will sit
upon the throne of Adam and the sit upon the throne of David forever. And everybody over
the next 600 years who believed that, over a thousand years who believed that prophecy,
referred to the Messiah as the Son of David, the coming king. He believed the prophecies.
The difference between the disciples and the blind man is they both knew about the Bible,
but only one group in the story believes the Bible. And it's the blind disciple. It's the
blind beggar. And so he calls out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me. You know that
image of the empty throne? I can imagine the blind man could picture in his mind the empty
throne left. And he thinks to himself, Jesus is here to fill the throne. And then he remembers,
there's another prophecy. See, throughout history, and it still happens to this day, disabled
people are not only undervalued. Disabled people are underappreciated and honestly, we
don't think much of them. So we see this blind beggar homeless guy and we think, there's
not much that he would know. Yet here this man, every prophecy about Jesus he had ever
heard somehow got stuck in his mind and he believed it. Because he remembers at some
point hearing a prophecy that when the Messiah would come, Isaiah chapter 35, look at Isaiah
chapter 35, Isaiah chapter 35, that when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind,
unplug the ears of the deaf, the lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak
will sing for joy. And so now there's a blind beggar homeless guy sitting in Jericho, hey,
what's going on? Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus, Jesus, I think he's the Messiah. Son of David,
have mercy on me and his mind, he's remembering, the Messiah can heal blind people. And so
he shouted out, please, hey, get him. Now you would think, you would think the entire
crowd would be like, okay, we got to help this blind guy get to Jesus, right? If you
were there, you want to help the blind guy get to Jesus, right? But look at what the
crowd does, look at the next verse, the crowd says, this is so bad, the crowd says, be quiet.
The people in front of him yelled at him, but he only shouted louder. So everybody
says, shut up man, nobody wants to, Jesus doesn't have time for you. And all of a sudden,
instead of getting discouraged and sad and like disappointed and depressed, he shouts
even louder, Jesus, can I just stop and say this, when you see Jesus and want to start
pursuing Jesus, there are going to be a lot of people in your life who try to pull you
away from that. A lot of people are going to be shut up, who do you think you are better
than us and try to pull you down. And all you need to do is have the same faith that
this man does and shout out, bigger, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And then the
Bible says that Jesus heard his voice and he stopped and said, hey, bring him to me.
So they bring him to Jesus and he's standing there before Jesus. And look at what he says,
oh, I love this part. Jesus looks at him and says, what do you want me to do for you? Now,
to me, that's the funniest part of the story. It's funny to me because I have a weird sense
of humor. Anybody else, weird sense of humor? And sometimes I know Jesus gets sarcastic.
I'm not sure if this is one of those times. Maybe not, maybe, I don't know, it's just
the way I think. The guy's been shouting out, I need you, have mercy on me. And then the
guy's brought before Jesus, a blind man who can't see, who has no job, has no prospects,
he's dying and begging. And he says, and Jesus says, so what it'll be? If I was one of this
episodes, I'd be like, it's pretty obvious he's blind, you know what I mean? Like, Jesus,
let me help you out, you know, like, you can't see he's blind, you gotta do the blind thing.
Jesus wanted the man to verbalize for himself. I want to see. I want to see. What is it you
need from Jesus? Friend, why don't you go to him and say, Jesus, this is what I need
from you? I want to see. And then Jesus says, your faith has healed you. Huh. Instantly the
man could see and he followed Jesus, praising God and all who saw it praised God too. The
man who could see could see. The disciples were still blind. By the way, the disciples
would stay blind all the way through to the resurrection when they were surprised. Jesus
walks in the room and they're like, what are you doing here? And Jesus is like, I told
you, like, what was going to happen? How are you surprised? Because they don't want to see.
On Sunday afternoons, I have the privilege of having a special meeting. I love preaching
to large crowds like you, but I really as a pastor love one-on-one conversations. I
love talking to you. I really enjoy small groups. If you don't have a small group, man,
you're missing the best part of Christianity. And on Sunday afternoons, I have a small group
of what I call the Young Men's Mentorship Program. Catchy title, right? It's very long.
But every year between January and December, I take a new group of young men 18 to 30 years
old and it's invite only. Now, if you're in that age group and you really want to be involved
with that, you can see me and approach and we'll talk about whether or not we have opening
for this next year. But I've taken young men through this for years and years and years
and it's still a lot of fun. One of the things that I address is passion. I talk about leadership
principles from a biblical perspective and I talk about passion every single year. It's
one of our 21 lessons. And as we talk about passion, I say, I always say the same thing.
It's what I'm going to end with in my sermon today. I say, what is it that you want more
than anything else in life? Don't answer. Think. What is it that you want? What are you passionate
about? What is it that you want more than anything else in life? What is it that you
want that you're passionate about? And then I say, I want everybody in the room to answer
and so they start. Now, because it's a religious group and I'm a pastor, most often some dudes
are going to be like, I want God and the answer is, okay, good, good, me too. All right. What
else? What do you want more than anything else in the world? If you could stand before
God and say, this is what I want, passion. So oftentimes I'll hear men say, I want to
succeed, especially at that age, a lot of ambition. Man, I want my life to count pastor
like I want to do something big. I don't want to waste my life like I want to, I want to
be something, I want to do something. Fantastic. Awesome. Next, somebody else will say, to
be honest, I want a family. I didn't come from a good family. I want to be a good dad. I want
kids who like me and love me. I want a wife who cares about me. I know it's not going
to be perfect, but that's what I want more than anything else. Awesome. Fantastic. That's
great. Some people get really vulnerable and they'll be like, I think I want to lead, like
I want to be a leader politically or in the business realm or something like, and they'll
share all the things they want more than anything else in life. And then I always stop and I
say the exact same thing. I say, listen, I'm not a prophet and I can't predict the future,
but I'm going to do that right now. Right now. I'm going to predict and it's what's true
in that little room. It's true in this room too. Whatever you're thinking of, what do
you want most? Here's what, I promise you by the end of your life, whatever you want
most, you'll get it. You'll get it. Whatever you want most in life, you'll get it. Why?
Because you'll spend your entire life and all of your energy and all of your money and
all of your talents pursuing the thing that you want most. You will. You'll end up where
you're directing yourself. Never do I have a man in the room say this. Never. Because
it's a very serious conversation. I never have a young man say, what I want more than
anything else is to be the high scorer on this particular video game. That's what I
want. Never once have they said that. But you know what's funny? There are men in that
room who will be the high scorer of some video game. And that'll be the greatest accomplishment
of their life. Why? Because they said they wanted a family, but what they really wanted
was to spend more time playing video games. And they got what they were shooting for.
They just didn't say out loud what they really wanted. Never do I have a man say, my goal
is to be with more women than anybody can count. They won't say that out loud. They won't
say that to me. They don't want to say that in front of God. But some of them will be
with more women than anybody can count because that's what they're shooting for. And at
the end of their life, that's what they'll get. That's it. Granted, their kids won't
like them. They won't even know most of their kids. But they got what they wanted. You
understand? They got what they wanted. I promise you this as you leave today, whatever you
want most in life, you are going to end up with. You are the summation of your passions.
That's what you will be. What I love about this blind man is he wanted to see. I want
to see. If you want to see truth, you will pursue truth. If your passion is to see Christ
and know Him, you will see Him and you will know Him. And you will be fulfilled in not
only your destiny, but what you were created to be. Oh, my friend, my prayer for you is
that you would be the sighted beggar, not the blind disciple. Let's pray, Father. I pray
that my friends in this room would open their eyes before it's too late. For some, they
need to be saved. For some, they need to be baptized. For some, they need a small group.
For some, they just need to pursue you and spend time in the Scripture. For some, they
need to serve. For some, they need to spend their next lives asking what they need most
and want in life and, oh God, whatever it is, I pray they would seek it at your hand,
your hand, the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the one who sits as King of
Kings and Lord of Lords at the right hand of the Father. Even today, bless us now as
we leave. In Jesus' holy name, we pray.
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to make disciples for Jesus Christ. Have a great week. Bye.