Amen. Well, if you turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 20, we'll be looking at verses 29 through 34 this morning, Matthew, chapter 20, verses 29 through 34. Last time, we saw Jesus once again emphasizing to the 12 disciples the virtues of humility and service and the way of being great in the kingdom of God is by the virtues of humility and by the virtues of service. In other words, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is Matthew refers to it, works exactly the opposite to the way the kingdoms of this world work. Here in this world, we tend to rise according to our efforts and our works as we seek to improve ourselves in our positions, and there's nothing wrong with that in this world, supposing again that we are doing things that are legal and good. If we work hard, typically we rise, we're noticed, even the Proverbs talk about how the diligent one usually is blessed and he is able to eat whereas the sluggard is not and all of that. And so that's justice in this world, that you work hard and that you rise and that you're able to enjoy things that you're able to possess things, there's nothing wrong with that in this world. That's human justice and it's good, in fact, it's wrong to deny somebody, that somebody who worked hard and earned a good grade, but you take it off of them because of their skin color or something like that. That is awful, that is unjust, but in God's kingdom, where all that we can bring to the table beloved, all that comes from our efforts is unworthiness, is corruption in God's kingdom. The more we humble and abase ourselves and give all the glory and credit to God's work within us, the more we show ourselves, in other words, to be touched and transformed by the spirit of God, this is being great in God's kingdom as it is manifested in this world of sin, that we give the glory to God who alone deserves it and we confess our sins and confess our unworthiness, that's being great in the kingdom of God. Because this is how we show ourselves, again, to be transformed by the spirit of God and in the midst of this teaching that Jesus has been giving on humility, on service, on forgiveness, on mercy, in the midst of this teaching, we get this almost out of place story about Jesus healing to blind man. It almost seems like it is something that ought not to be there, but it has a purpose beloved. It has a reason and that's because Jesus, again, is teaching them about service and humility and grace and forgiveness and he ended last week teaching the ultimate of such acts, his own becoming a ransom, then he would become the lowest possible, a sin offering to God in order to bring the greatest possible benefit, offerings of mercy, vessels of mercy, that he would be the vessel of wrath so that we would get to be the vessel of mercy. This is the greatest act of service which is why, again, Jesus is the greatest in the kingdom. He lowers himself to the lowest possible and he gets raised to the highest possible. This is the period of his humiliation as we see it in our text, Christ becoming an object of wrath knowing that he's going to Jerusalem for that reason so, again, that we could become objects of mercy and so, once again, we're faced with, then why do we pause, as it were, and have this account of this ordinary, in a sense, ordinary miracle that Jesus is doing all the time, healing people. What do we have to learn from this text? I find it a unique gospel story that's found in all three of the gospels, all three of them, as Jesus is going to the Jerusalem, in a sense, pauses for wrath to go back and to look at something we've seen many times, Jesus healing, some of the most humble and lowest of the servants. This is a unique text and it is a powerful one. Let's pray for God's blessing as we turn to His Word. Father, again, we pray that you would bless the reading and the hearing and the preaching of your Word, that it would bear fruit in our hearts, that it would cause us to humble ourselves before you, that your blessing would be upon us and that your name would be exalted in us. We pray this, Lord God, in Jesus' name, amen. Here now the Word of the Lord. From Matthew chapter 20, beginning in verse 29, this is the Holy Word of Almighty God, give attention to it. Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed him and behold two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David, then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet, but they cried out all the more, saying, have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David, so Jesus stood still and called them and said, what do you want me to do for you? They said to Him, Lord, that our eyes would be opened, so Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed Him. May the Lord establish this Word in our hearts this morning, I pray.
I want you to notice this morning, first of all, knowing Jesus. I want you to notice knowing Jesus. Verse 29, now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed him. We've been looking at Jesus as he was on the east side of the Jordan. He's making his way south to Jerusalem and he's going there for the last time. He's made that clear. And at this point in our text, we don't read where, but somewhere before our text and somewhere probably in the midst of chapter 20 earlier, Jesus has re-crossed the Jordan and he's made his way to the city of Jericho. Jericho is the first major city if you come across the Jordan at that point, into Judea proper. It's the first major city as you're coming across the Jordan, which is why when Israel invaded the land, it's the first city that they attacked and conquered. It's the gateway to Israel. It opens up the valleys and the roads to Jerusalem, to the north and to the south and to the further west. You've got to pass through this area known as Jericho. Jericho is 18 miles northeast of Jerusalem and it's 3,000 feet lower than Jerusalem. It's a long, high uphill road to Jerusalem from Jericho. That's why the Jews would always think that they were going up to Jerusalem because the roads just typically go up from the other lower portions of the world. So they're going up to Jerusalem and there's this massive crowd that gathers around Jesus because it's the Passover season and they want to get to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover especially in the train of this great, famous prophet and teacher that they've all heard and that they've just seen his miracles on the east of the Jordan and now as he's crossed over and he's leaving Jericho, they're following him. There's a couple of discrepancies in the text that we have to just deal with briefly because critics really like this text as well. They like to point out what they think are contradictions but an honest man would admit that that's not the case and in fact there are clear explanations for these things. What am I talking about? Well, Mark and Luke mention only one blind man. Matthew says there are two. Now if there are two blind men, I want to put a complicated theory before you, that means there was at least one. So to say that there was one, isn't wrong if there were in fact two and neither Mark nor Luke say there was only one. It would be a contradiction if Mark or Luke said there was only one but they just mentioned the one. Mark in fact named him. This is blind Bartimaeus. We all know the story right from Sunday school, the story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus. Mark says his name was Bartimaeus, the son of Tameus which would explain why Mark only mentions the one because this man is of some renown. People would have known him. That's why Mark names him. Mark recounts all sorts of healings of Jesus. He rarely names anybody but he names Bartimaeus, the son of Tameus. Tameus whether or not he was famous before or whether or not he was famous after and that's why Mark names him. It doesn't matter to us but the fact of the matter is Mark names him because he was an important person that people that he was writing to would have known would have heard about Bartimaeus. That would account for why Mark doesn't mention the other person. If I was at the airport and I ran into Ben Rathlisberger and his cousin and I was talking to you later and I only mentioned Ben Rathlisberger nobody would wonder why I had mentioned his cousin who no one knows anyway. But if I wanted to say to somebody else for some reason that I was talking to two people at the airport I would and no one would charge me with the contradiction and so again beloved it's foolish to say that there's anything wrong with the fact that Mark mentions only one loop mentions one and Matthew mentions both. We saw this before in the Demoniacs coming out of the garrigatines Matthew mentioned that there was two and Mark and Luke only mentioned the more prominent of the two who was as it were the leader. So that's what we have here again. The slightly more difficult situation is the fact that Matthew and Mark both state if you notice it in our text as they went out of Jericho whereas Luke uses the word drawing near and says as they were drawing near Jericho these things occurred. Well again there's a lot of explanations that we can offer there's not a clear contradiction here but we don't know exactly why Matthew says and Mark says they were leaving and Luke says that they were drawing near but we do know a couple of possible explanations there were two Jericho's at the time. There was the older Semitic Jericho that was still inhabited by Jews and by others that had been rebuilt before Christ but there was also a Roman Jericho and they were about a half mile apart so it's very easy that Jesus could be departing from one of the Jericho's and approaching the other one and that would explain the text and that is a reality of the situation that could easily be the explanation. It's also possible that Matthew or Mark or even Luke is telescoping the event and that it happens as Jesus is entering and then as he's leaving the miracle occurs the Bremen began calling out as he's entering and then as he's leaving Mark puts it in a unique way Mark actually says now they came to Jericho very next sentence and as they went out of Jericho and then he goes on with our text. So it might have been that Jesus just went in and threw very quickly and as he was coming as it were and as he is leaving very quickly this event occurs it's also the case Luke tells us that Jesus is passing through Jericho when the key is sees him remember and it's the the keyest text that occurs very next in the Luke passage whereas Jesus could have been passing through and leaving and the miracle occurs and the key is about the same time in the tree sees Jesus and Jesus goes back in to have dinner at his house which he said he had to do. It's also possible like in Pennsylvania you could be leaving a city and that road curves back around and you could be drawing near as you're leaving there's so many possibilities beloved it's just not it's just not logically Sandra consistent to say oh here's a contradiction in fact the same critics that are pointing out the difference so much between Luke and Mark are the same ones who like to say all the time that well Luke just copies from Mark and he's not really a third witness he's just reproducing Mark over and over again why did he do it this time why did he have such a strange detail there are the same critics who are always telling us well there are all these revisers in scripture and they're always revising the text and what we have is hundreds of years in the making it's been revived by editors to make it harmonious why didn't they make this one harmonious there's not a single scrap of evidence that anyone ever tried to make these two difference details harmonious no one tried to there were no none of these revisers and so the critics themselves are the ones who are inconsistent we see all sorts of possible explanations and by the differences we have a stronger more credible case we have three clearly unique witnesses that each bring out different details that ought to strengthen our faith and not indeed weaken it but beloved let's look at the text now that we've handled the little problems that are in it what we really need to see here is that these blind men knew Jesus they knew who he was we know this from what they said look at it in verse 30 and behold to blind men sitting by the road when they heard that Jesus was passing by cried out saying have mercy on us oh Lord son of David they call him Lord they know he is the Lord when they hear it's Jesus when they're told Jesus of Nazareth is passing by they immediately say Lord he's the Lord in fact when Bartimaeus is healed mark tells us that he says to Jesus Reboni there's only two people that say Reboni to Jesus in all of the Bible the other one is Mary Magdalene after Jesus has risen from the dead and she doesn't recognize him at first and he turns and looks at her and says Mary and she cries Reboni which literally means my master my teacher this more prominent blind man calls him Reboni my master my teacher they knew who he was and they claimed him by faith they knew he was Lord and even more significantly in a sense because Lord could be just a generic title in a sense you would call the governor Lord or even you could call Caesar Lord as long as it wasn't what it became later when it became a replacement for a price but but in a sense anyone who was higher than you could be Lord but to call him son of David that's a messianic title the son of David was probably the most clear messianic title in use in the New Testament son of David that is the Messiah there's the son of David who's going to come all the Jews had hopes in this it was God's promise to David that he would have a descendant who would sit on the throne forever that was the Messiah and so when they cry out son of David beloved they know that this Jesus who is Lord is the Messiah and what's interesting to me is that it's so obvious by this point in the gospel that these two blind men who think of it never saw a miracle they know he's Lord they know he's Messiah how many times have you heard that I've had people unfortunately loved ones that I've owned who have said I could only see a miracle I believe if I only saw a miracle I believe these blind men never saw a miracle obviously and they believed they believed by what they heard they heard about the miracles of Jesus they heard it from Gasa they heard it from hearsay they heard it from the crowds some of the crowds weren't very reliable we hear it from the infallible word of God that he did miracles they believed what excuse do we have if we don't we have so much more reason to believe than these two blind men beloved it's not because it wasn't in that day there were many opinions right controversy the people were divided the leaders were against them it wasn't because of a lack of evidence two blind men could see it it was because of hard hearts that they were not naming and following and believing in Jesus Matthew Henry says this quote this multitude that followed him for loaves some for love some for curiosity and some in expectation of his temporal reign which the disciples themselves dreamed of very few Matthew Henry says with the desire to be taught their duty but that's what the Lord would do remember the Samaritan woman when Messiah comes he will teach us all things that's what these men see in Jesus rebony Lord son of David again Matthew Henry very few with desire to be taught their duty yet for the sake of those few he confirmed his doctrine by miracles wrought in the presence of great multitudes who if they were not convinced by them would be the more inexcusable so Matthew Henry he did these miracles over and over again and of course these men know that one of the singular miracles of the Messiah in fact only in the in the Old Testament the only one who who heals anyone or said to heal of the blind is the Messiah or God which is kind of interesting because we know the Messiah is God now in the New Testament but that's the only one Elijah never heals the blind man Elijah never heals the blind man Moses there's never the healing of a blind other some people struck blind and then their blindness is allowed to go away we think of the ones that are brought to the Samaria that time but no blind person is healed in the Old Testament it was a mark of the Messiah to open the eyes of the blind and these men knew that it was a mark of the Messiah we we saw it in our scripture reading did you see it and we saw it in our call to worship I give you two passages look at them where God is the one who opens the eyes of the blind the Messiah will open the eyes of the blind and there's about six more places in the Old Testament where only God where only the Messiah in fact four times thus far Jesus has given sight to the blind and Matthew 9 and Matthew 11 Matthew 12 and now Matthew 15 and these men who've never seen a miracle when they hear it's Jesus they know he's the Messiah they know he gives sight to the blind and so I want you to notice secondly petitioning Jesus I want you to notice petitioning Jesus well again they they hear he's passing by they begin crying out verse 30 his titles this proves that they know and they believe that he is the Messiah and so knowing who he is what do they ask him for what do you think they ask him for he's the Messiah he's coming by well we just ran into two men who also knew who Jesus was and who also asked him for something and that's in verse 21 of our text when Zebedee's wife the mother of the sons of Zebedee is a scripture like to say it came to Jesus and said after a question he says to her verse 21 what do you wish and she said to him grant that these two sons of mine may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left in your kingdom and again I said to you from the other gospels that shows James and John actually asking the question whether they put mom to ask first so they all ask together we don't know what they were all wanting James and John they were asking two men this is what we want we want the glory you promised us 12 thrones this isn't out of you know there was some there was some faith in this we looked at this already they have faith but they wanted the two best thrones one on your right and one on your left give us glory Messiah what are these two men at one have mercy on us have mercy on us son of David they ask for mercy beloved they don't ask for glory
even afterwards when they're told to be quiet they continue to ask for mercy again mercy that's all they ask for we've already seen that they're blind mark and Luke add that they're beggars they were blind beggars we've been very hard in that time in that culture for a blind person to earn his own living so we understand why they would be beggars their livelihood their lives depended upon the generosity of others that would give them coins and so no wonder they would sit on the road between the two Jericho's be real close half a mile apart to get water and things but that's where everybody would pass through so Jesus was leaving one Jericho and coming to the other and they're begging and what do beggars cry out for from pastors by money help food maybe medicine maybe take me somewhere I need to go somewhere but I can't see some kind of help some kind of food water medicine money usually alms right alms for the poor they would have said and yet when they hear that Jesus is passing by what do they ask for when he comes and he stops and he says to them what do you want me to do for you they said to him Lord that our eyes would be open beloved you wouldn't ask that from normal people that's impossible for them to give why would you as a blind beggar when you hear that somebody famous is going by say open my eyes unless again you knew he was the Messiah you knew he was the Son of God you knew he was sent to open the eyes of the blind beloved we see the faith in these men they know and believe him to be the Christ and they believe that he came to do these things and so they asked him to do what he came to do there's a sense in which we learn a lot about prayer in this text we learn a lot about praying and how we are to pray we've been looking at this in in different venues just the other night at in my Calvin group that I like to meet with some of the guys we're going through Calvin's institutes and we did the chapter on prayer chapter 20 and book three a whole big chapter on prayer but I want to give you several points of prayer in this text first of all we see the importance of fervent prayer they're crying out sometimes it's said that that would be unseemly right even the Bible says about Jesus that God heard him because of his loud cries and his fear of the Lord as he would cry out in prayer these men are crying out in prayer they're fervent they're humble they don't ask for glory they ask for mercy it's humble prayer it's submissive prayer they pray to the Lord they don't see a cosmic bell hop that is there to do whatever they want he's the Lord they they submit themselves to him it's a prayer of knowledgeable faith again we've seen it son of David they believe him to be the Messiah so there's knowledge there's faith it's important prayer I love that word important it the dictionary gives three pairings to describe it trouble suddenly urgent trouble suddenly urgent some of you have some important children right or bexatiously persisted that's another one boy I like that one important prayer think about it when Jesus taught how to pray he gave two parables as an example and both of them lifted up and showed forth an emphasized importanity in prayer remember what they were it was the poor widow who just kept harassing that judge wouldn't leave him alone she was unfortunate and she would get her answer cry said and then there was the neighbor who comes in the middle of the night who's beaten on the door and eventually the other neighbor who's leaving is going to give him whatever he wants because he's so important it these men would not shut up when the crowd pulled in the be quiet the whole crowd is telling them be quiet but they wouldn't do it they were unfortunate they were trouble suddenly urgent and also beloved they were persistent persistent prayer does not cease when it gets difficult or when it looks like it's not going to work or when you're told to be quiet they were persistent in their prayer by the way why did they tell them to be quiet there's a couple of possible reasons it could be the unseemliness of it this is not dignified you've yelling for Jesus don't you realize that he is this great teacher we're following him and you know you've got to keep your little petty concerns to yourself be respectful and stay blind as the Messiah walks by it's more respectable that way one of the things I have to admit that I have a Christian friends who are much less knowledgeable many non-reform Christian friends and I don't admire or I don't envy their lack of knowledge but sometimes I do admire and envy their zeal for the Lord willing to make themselves fools for God because they think the Bible teaches this there is something good in that element of wanting to obey even though we want to obey rightly and understand what his word says but these men would cry out didn't care what it looked like could be that it could be that they're in a hurry they're going to Jerusalem for the Passover he doesn't have time for this or it could be that because they're crying son of David son of David they're a little worried about the authorities and they're not quite ready to own him in that way but what I want you to notice is that Jesus stops verse 32 the whole crowd's going by there's a crowd thronging him he's going up to Jerusalem they're passing through Jericho they're going up that great road Jericho road to Jerusalem and Jesus hearing these men suddenly stops all three gospels recorded and that he says he stood still Mark and Luke say he stopped it's just so interesting to me this whole throng of people it's like a train probably everybody had to stop right all of the sudden because of these two men these two nobody's Jesus stops and he speaks to them and says what do you want me to do for you they ask him according to again what they knew was his Messianic office it wasn't in the sense that oh God doesn't know what we want until we have to make it know some people have done that with this text that's not the case Matthew Henry gives a wonderful answer quote it is the will of God that we should and everything make our request known to him by prayer he doesn't know them already but that we should do this not to inform or move him Matthew Henry says oh God didn't know I got to tell no he said but to qualify ourselves for mercy to qualify ourselves for mercy that's why he wants us to come he wants us to exercise our faith he wants us to show that we believe in Jesus that we look to him that we don't look to ourselves that that work of faith that he is doing in us would be seen and would glorify him Matthew Henry gives a neat little analogy and he says you know when the boatman brings the boat to the shore and he grabs a hold of the shore he doesn't try to pull the shore to the boat he pulls the boat to the shore and in the same way we don't try to pull God's mercy down from heaven we as it were draw ourselves to where we would receive God's mercy and this is petitioning our Lord Jesus we must feel our need of mercy desire to see him exalted and believe who he is this is petitioning Jesus thirdly notice Jesus serving notice Jesus serving again we know the immediate goal of his mission is mission at this point he stated it in verse 28 just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many I actually debated on doing a whole sermon on this verse but I didn't maybe I regret it now just looking at it again the fact that the son of man did not come there's pre-existence right he was already and he didn't come to be served but to serve to give his life we've already talked about last week the substitutionary atonement that Jesus himself affirms with this word ransom translated by that way by all the good literal English translations ransom for many even as the Passover lamb redeemed Israel those who put the blood on their door right who believed God put the blood on their door so that the angel of death passed by and that was just a symbol and that was just a type and a seal and it was important for that to happen now it did save their lives that night but they repeated that Passover every year right to show that they ought to die and that it's only by the blood of the lamb that they would continue to live and now Jesus has come the Lamb of God the real one the one the only one that's effectual there's other ones were types placeholders millions of lambs and we said at the Passover that when they sacrificed the lambs in a priest could do three a minute and there were thousands of priests because of the million worshipers that would come the blood would run down off the back of Mount Zion and it would look like the whole mountain was bleeding because of all of the blood and it wasn't enough it would have continued to go on year after year after year but now the one comes who can ransom who can pay the ultimate price who can take the wrath of God and that's the thing we have to recognize that this ransom is not paid to Satan there was an old medieval era that many scholars even had in theologians that somehow Satan has control of this world and God has to kind of trick them and tame off so the Satan you know has his way with Jesus and tortures him and destroys him but that ransom now allows God back into the world to save his elective that's just heresy that's not true Satan would have no power over anyone unless God gave it to him and God only gives it to him as his judgment upon our sins that's why Satan is in this world that's why he's active the power of Satan is death and the power of death is sin it's because of God's wrath that judgments like Satan are loose on this world and our own flesh desire sin in the world itself it's God's indignation the wrath of God is revealed from heaven Romans chapter 1 says and so Christ came not to appease Satan not to satisfy Satan not to make Satan go away he came to satisfy God he came to take the wrath that God has for you and me for you and me not for the bad people yeah for the bad people for you and me that we deserve the wrath of God this is what Jesus is coming to do and he knows that he mentions it in verse 28 and so his mind is is focused on this incredible work this work that no one could ever do no one ever has done since could do again to take the wrath of God this cosmic eternal significant work he's about to endure the greatest of all tests and can you imagine his state of mind as he's preparing for this Luke actually talked about where Jesus says I have a baptism to undergo and how distressed I am until I do it's a little paraphrase but it's from Luke chapter 12 I'll give you the exact wording Luke 12 verse 50 but I have a baptism I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am till it is accomplished and yet he said his face like Flint right he's going to go do it because it was his mission to do it it's interesting to me because when I have something important to do I don't want to be bothered right I mean you probably like that if you something really you got to focus on related to be disturbed you you don't want to be disturbed you don't want to be bothered I have a little pattern way I do things if my week works out normal on Monday I do the original language work I interpret and translate the text and I do word studies and I look at the Greek or the Hebrew from the Old Testament and then on Tuesday I read the commentaries and then if everything works well on Wednesday morning I write my sermon the first thing I do is I put the sign on my door do not disturb I got a focus to write that sermon sometimes it takes two hours three hours four hours and then I'm rewriting it again at the end of the week Robbins like oh don't tell me you're rewriting the sermon Saturday morning sometimes I do that but I need that time to focus and if I get interrupted it takes me a good half an hour to get back to where I was in my mindset and beloved I want you to consider what Jesus is considering what is on his mind no human being has ever had business like this to deal with a mission like this nothing can compare with it it's because God forced silk him as it were put his wrath on him that God is with us and will never leave us he was going to do that he's about to endure that and yet Christ shows in this text and this is where I'm getting to the importance of this text he shows in the midst of that he's still here's these two blind figures because they cry out to him by faith they believe in him and he's doing this great big cosmically significant work that's huge the face of the world depends on it for real and who cares if these two guys remain blind for another 10 or 20 years before they die doesn't really matter it mattered to Jesus when he heard them and when he allowed them to exercise their faith he stops everything and he said what can I do for you I'm about to become your ransom on the cross but in the meantime there's something else something small I could do some other way that I could serve you beloved this is where Christ shows that he cares that he hears that he grants ordinary comparatively petty requests of his lowest servants in the middle of the great big cosmically significant things that he's doing that we are never too low if we believe in him we can come to him by faith and notice when they ask him he has compassion on them the text says so Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him this word compassion is the word pity and it's not the first time we've seen this Christ has pity on his people he had compassion on his people that come to him by faith that believe in him and I want to really stress that this morning because I see a great error that's occurring in the church so many times today that there are many who are taught or who seem to believe that Christ will pity me in the end because I am pitiful and that I can trust in my pitifulness that God will certainly have pity it's as if God would be wrong to not have pity on me a pitiful creature and now I will be saved by pitifulness that's just not true beloved sinners can have no ground to hope for pity from God apart from the cross of Christ our Westminster Confession states that if you reformed you you ought to believe that chapter 12 of justification of all those that are justified God vouched safe it in and for his only son Jesus Christ to make partakers of the grace of adoption and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God have his name put upon them receive the spirit of adoption have access to the throne of grace with boldness listen are enabled to cry abba father are pity we're only pity because of Jesus he recognizes if you go before God and you don't believe in Jesus and you cry out for mercy that cry deserves wrath from him there is no reason why he should hear it there is nothing in you but more provocation to his wrath you're most pitiful Christ apart from faith in Christ only deserve wrath they are pity they are protected they are provided for and shaken by him as a father yet never cast off this is what we have in Christ we have his pity in Christ we have his compassion in Christ because God is for us now we're outside of Christ he is against us today's the day of salvation today you can come and be saved if you haven't but there's a day when that will be too late God offers pity in Christ but he offers it in Christ and these men come to him again by faith we're a bony my master and the other gospel say Jesus says in Luke let it be according to your faith and mark your faith has made you well it's because they believed they received his healing and beloved it's when we believe that we receive his love his compassion and his pity the scriptures declare this over and over again psalm 103 verse 13 as a father pities his children so the Lord pities those who fear him doesn't say so the Lord pities everybody as a father pities his children so the Lord pities those who fear him for as high as the heavens are above the earth so great as mercy toward those who fear him Mary understood this his own mother when she was carrying him in her womb she cries out and Luke chapter 1 verse 50 his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation and only those outside of Christ Ezekiel 910 which by the way this verse the words of it are repeated many times in Ezekiel God says my eye will neither spare nor will I have pity but I will recompense them according to their deeds that's what we can expect outside of Christ no pity justice according to your deeds in Christ pity compassion love salvation and so I want you to notice fourthly and lastly Jesus made known Jesus made made known I want to remind you of something earlier in Matthew he alone recorded an account in Galilee when two blind men cried out for healing back in chapter 9 verse 27 let me read it to you when Jesus departed from there two blind men followed him crying out and saying son of David have mercy on us very similar fact some critical scholars try to say it's the same thing as if Matthew would record it twice but clearly it's not so many differences here some of them verse 28 and when he had come into the house the blind men came to him they would have been brought to him obviously and Jesus said to them do you believe that I am able to do this and they said to him yes Lord then he touched their eyes saying according to your faith let it be to you and their eyes were open now listen to this and Jesus sternly warned them saying see that no one knows it you see the secrecy they're crying out son of David son of David Jesus doesn't even acknowledge them he gets in the house in the privacy of the room since had them brought to me heals them and that sort of private setting and tells them obviously it can't be many people see that no one knows it there couldn't have been many there or that sentence that charge doesn't make sense it was interesting but Jesus didn't want that publicly to be known that he was the Messiah healing the blind that's back in chapter 9 right we've seen that repeated in chapter 12 and chapter 16 where he said to his disciples he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ that was the way it was do you see the difference in our text these men in the middle of the road son of David son of David Jesus stops in the middle of the road in the middle of the road where everyone can see have them brought to me what can I do for you our eyes would be open he touches them and heals them and then what happens in the text it says and they follow him they got in the train and they begin to reclaiming no doubt the Messiah he opened our eyes Jesus doesn't rebuked them he doesn't say keep it a secret he doesn't say keep it why what's the next event in Matthew the first section of 21 the very next verses it's the triumphal entry he's going up to Jerusalem and they're going to cry out Hosanna to the son of David Hosanna in the higher blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord they're going to proclaim him the Messiah and it begins here these two blind beggars are the first they get the privilege of crying out Messiah and he doesn't rebuked him and he doesn't stop them because the time is coming the king is coming to Jerusalem beloved will they be ready you know the king is sitting right now in the right hand of God and we're all in the scheme of things about to be brought to him we don't have a long matter how young you are are you ready do you know him as Messiah do you know him as Lord he has made himself known he calls us to seek him by humble faith that our eyes to would be in remain open let's pray father we thank you for your word we thank you for your goodness Lord God we confess to you that apart from you not only were we blind but we would be blind to the things today we would be blind tomorrow for the God there's a sense in which it is the sinner who cries out to you for the first time Lord have mercy on me I'm a sinner and yet Lord God it should be the prayer of a Christian all of his days Lord I still need your mercy I'm still a sinner father help us to keep our eyes open help us not to be beguiled by the things of this world by thinking somehow it could be our works it could be something else we've done enough help us to always be like these blind beggars that we would know that you're the Lord that you are the son of David indeed that you are the son of God and that we can come to you for mercy and you will hear us when we do so by any faith at all in you give us that faith strengthen it in our sweet pray in Jesus name amen