Seeing all those children go down reminds me to remind you about the need for volunteers to work with our children either in nursery or children's Sunday school or children's church. It's a great responsibility that we're given to help disciple and expose children to the love of God through Jesus Christ. Also, I begin with a children's illustration. Often times when we have young children we play that simple little game of peekaboo where we cover our eyes and then we say I see you. We begin to expose them to focusing and to paying attention and thinking about that. When I looked up peekaboo on the internet I realized that for most people today that's going to be a photo service. But yet when we think about peekaboo it is that introduction to that wonderful game that is in so many games the game of hide and seek which is probably the most ancient game because that was the game that Adam and Eve and God played in the garden when they tried to hide and they found out that God would come both to seek them and to find them. We know that in good stories that the plot doesn't begin until somebody has something to hide and then the story is going to unfold as they follow the narrative and the people as things are exposed and as people seek out that which has been hidden. Hiding is not just something that's ancient. We find that we use our technology to hide don't we? Remember when answering machines first came out and people would just kind of wait to see who it was. Now we have a little more sophisticated at least in our house when we're downstairs because we give time order cable that the phone pops up there. We can see who it is and decide are we going to run for the phone and we're just going to let it go to voicemail. And a lot of people we know would rather text and talk because they can control and edit because they have a hard time having a conversation because they have a hard time staying focused on the person and on the conversation. Because oftentimes in a conversation you don't have that sense of control that so many people want in life that fantasy that you can control everything whether it's through technology or through skills charisma or other kinds of things. But hide and seek is part of the basic daily lives of most of us as we discover things as we either go to seek something or sometimes as we seek to hide from people. And I raise that because when I look at these two passages that I've been given as I look at them and I think about them as two postcards that Luke is giving us of Jesus's journey towards Jerusalem that they're separate events one is a private event one is a public event but they're two events on the way to Jerusalem that Luke gives to us. And I think he gives them to us this way for us to consider the opposite of in the beginning when he is at that intimate conversation with says if he says stop I want to spend some time with you guys I want to open up the Bible I want to teach you things but what happens. It's all hidden from them here they have Jesus Christ incarnate son of God teaching them the Bible and it's hidden it will be explained and open up on Easter. When he opens their minds when they can understand. And so we realize that sometimes even though the Bible is being opened up it is hidden from people because we need grace. The second event as we simply look at it is something that I think someone is both seeking God this person on the margin this person in the back row as it were this blind beggar that Mark calls Bartimaeus. When he hears he cries out and asks for mercy he seeks Jesus out in Jesus response. And so you have this contrast between those that are intimate with Jesus those who have been walking with him is sharing the meal and sharing the journey and it's hidden. And then all of a sudden somebody from the margin somebody from the back row Jesus says what do you want me to do. And so we have that contrast so let's let me read the passage to you from Luke chapter 18 and taking the 12 he said to them see we're going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the son of man by the prophets will be accomplished. Or he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shaped and treated spit upon and after flogging him they will kill him and on the third day he will rise again but they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp what was said. As he drew near to Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging and hearing a crowd going by he inquired what this meant and they told him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out Jesus son of David have mercy on me and those who are in the front rebuked him telling to be silent he cried out all the more son of David have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped to commanded him to be brought to him when he came near he asked him what do you want me to do for you he said lord. Let me recover my sight and Jesus said to him recover your sight your faith has made you well and immediately he received his sight and followed him glorifying God and all the people when they sought gave praise to God. Jesus is a central character in both what I call these postcard events these little vignettes that are a part of Jesus's journey to Jerusalem. Now we have to remember in this passage that you have Jesus and then you have two names that he one refers to himself as the son of man and the other this blind man this beggar cries out son of David. Remember that the name of Jesus was something that was given before his birth back in Luke chapter one and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. Jesus in describing himself and identifying himself uses that term the son of man which echoes back for the people of Israel for the people that had the book that had scriptures back to Daniel when Daniel would write I saw in the night visions and behold the clouds of heaven were come up like one of the son of man. He came to the ancient of days and he was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. He shall not pass away and his kingdom one that is one that will not be destroyed from Daniel 7. Jesus identified himself as the son of man he did so 25 times in the gospel of Luke and 29 times in the gospel of Matthew. So even in weaving that in in the conversation of who he thought he was he's drawing them into scripture and trying to give to them this information about who he was. And then when the blind man called out and used the name son of David son of David is a name that is given to Jesus that when it cries out it has to do with two specific ideas one of being the Messiah being the Christ and the other is that of mercy because he is the all powerful King because he is the Messiah that he is also the merciful one. But yet in all of this powerful names these names given by angels he's a negate names given by God. What does he do in describing his life and why he is going. It is what I described as both a humiliating sacrifice and yet victory over death he says we're going up to Jerusalem. And everything that is written by the prophets about the son of man will be fulfilled. Listen to this litany that he gives us. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles imagine that a Jew given over to the Gentiles given over to outsiders given over to somebody else's power. They will mock him insult him and spit on him they will flog him and kill him on the third day he will rise again. And so in that short sweeping sentence he describes wrapping up with all the prophets he says wrote about me it's interesting to me that he does not give us text. He doesn't say well I want you first to look in Isaiah then I want you to read this song then I want you to read this passage in that passage. And this connects and that connects he doesn't do it he just sums it up because he assumes that his disciples will be studying the Bible they will be studying scripture. And in doing so they will see both his humiliation and his substitutionary sacrifice as well as his victory over death. But the understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus we only know about that from scripture because of grace. He wanted his disciples to know that they're going up to Jerusalem that all of this could be fulfilled but notice what verse 34 says. The disciples did not understand any of this it's meaning was hidden from them. And they did not know what he was talking about Jesus the one people called teacher rabbi taking the old testament and opening up to them and saying I'm the one they're talking about the humiliation the sacrifice the death. And then the resurrection they didn't understand because it wasn't their time to understand God waited until after his death and resurrection till that Easter night it says to open their mind so that they might understand as parents. Sonny school teachers people who work with young people you ever feel like you're giving out the truth but it still seems hidden to your audience your children or your family people in the Bible study. It doesn't stop us because we know it has to be God's grace and God's time. Now we have a responsibility to be clear and to be accurate and to be rooted in what God says and how that shape our understanding. But we know that all of our cleverness all of our insights all of our skills charisma whatever we want to call it is not going to make an impact without God's grace and often God's grace puzzles us doesn't because you see it being closed off in this story. It's a not yet for the grace for the disciples but for what this person I call someone from the back row someone from the margins of society someone who is poor who is a beggar who can't see think about all the things in that culture they were against part of us. They said you're never going to amount to anything and in spite of the crowd because the crowd says keep quiet you don't deserve to talk to him. You're not the kind of people Jesus wants to see quiet down and he keeps raising his voice and raising his voice and raising his voice Luke just tells the story in a way that is so powerful. You remind us that sometimes the people that godly people want to prevent from getting to Jesus that guy just break through because they see who he is and it won't be stopped. Because they know they need God's mercy they know that Jesus is about mercy that he is a Messiah that he's the son of David. He may not have the sophisticated faith and sophisticated understanding that the disciples were supposed to have but he knew where mercy was and he would not let the crowd stop him he wouldn't let being embarrassed. I was trying to think about this a blind guy in the back of the room in the back of the room but you know away from the crowd the road because you don't want to get run over because you don't know who's coming along. So you're used to being away from everything. You can't see you rely upon what other people tell you so he says what's going on look at the text. It's Jesus of Nazareth somehow the information about who Jesus of Nazareth had gotten to him and he knew it was and he ignited something in him. And he jumps up but he says son of David have mercy on me. Son of David have mercy on me son of David have mercy on me that God's grace can break into people's lives in spite of the religious circumstances where people may even want to say quiet down quiet down. Don't bother Jesus how many stories do we have in the gospels that what I think of is don't bother Jesus stories. I want to make sure that I'm not a part of that the people in the margins the people that I might not overlook people that all they can know because they're blind because they don't know he said Jesus is the place of mercy. See in our society where we create the illusion that you know we're going to climb up the ladder through our abilities we're going to do all these things we're going to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps all the things that we have that say I can do it I can make it by myself that we're not people who think we need mercy. This is way we come to Jesus because we need more. We need to make sure that we're not the ones to say hate. I talked to my mother last night. Then trying to reach her for a couple of days and finally got a holder of her and she said I just got back from a women's retreat. Oh great mom. It's nice to know because when you're 89 year old mother doesn't answer the phone for two days you begin to wonder should I call my brother who lives six blocks six streets down the six houses down the road. Oh man it was awesome because you know we did we paid for all the women in this recovery house to come be a part of our retreat these women that are addicts. They're trying to figure out how to recover. We just said just come we'll pay for you you can eat you can you know you can do whatever. Here's my 89 year old mother talking to addicts. She sat next to this young girl the first thing she did because she'd come from such an impoverished thing was she went up and she got to play the cookies. And then she went and got the rest of her food. See unless we reach out you're not going to have people like that mix with people like us. We need to make sure that we're not in our systems in our society preventing the people in the back row the people who are blind and have those don't have those abilities from being able to say here's Jesus. And then they cry out and say Lord have mercy because they understand the need for mercy because they have nothing to offer so often we focus on what Jesus does for us whether we talk about justification or sanctification or adoption. Which are legitimate things of what God does for us to those declaratory acts where God declares us to be just where declares us to be his children or works with us to make us more and more like his son. Those are important things to know and to think about but yet we need to make sure. We need to make sure that we are rooted in what Jesus has done and who he is. Now it's obvious that I'm an older guy. One of the things that I see happening because these things just happen is I see people trying to tribalize Christianity in some of our circles that were associated with where you have people who you know we're going to have a gospel center church. We're going to be gospel central people. And you got people over here who says we are going to be a grace central church everything is going to be about grace. And you listen it almost becomes a brand. It becomes a dividing point if you're not like me if you're not like me then you don't get it. I want this to take a tour to two passages a scripture because whether you are pushing for grace or pushing for gospel you always need to bring people back to Jesus Christ. The gospel never stands alone. It always brings you back to Christ. Grace never stands alone. It always brings you back to Christ. Let's look at a passage in Romans one. The gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets is the holy in the holy scripture concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord. That's like Jesus he drives us back to scripture. It was about a son. The senate of David the son of God. The spirit of holiness and the resurrection Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what the gospel is. Here it is the gospel of God. It's about his promises that are in holy scripture and he was declared to be the son of God. Now we need to understand in that first century that was going what was going on in terms of describing someone as the son of God. Because if you go back to do say the 50 years before Jesus was born you have somebody who made a little impact on history called Julius Caesar. But how did Julius Caesar introduce himself to people? He was the son of Venus. He was the son of a God. All of the Julian emperors up through the early parts of Christianity all claimed incarnate status to be children of God. What may Jesus is claimed to be the not a the only one son of God because the latter part of what I've got on the slide. Julius Caesar, Augustus, were they resurrected or did death win them over? The resurrection which Jesus said all the Old Testament pointed to because he was going to die and be resurrected. That was one of the ways it is declared to be the son of God. We have to realize that the claims that are made about Jesus Christ in the gospels competed for competing ideas in the century that they were introduced. Now let's go to a second passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now I would remind you brothers of the gospel. I would remind you brothers of the gospel. I preach to you when you received which you received and which you stand and by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preach to you unless you believed in vain. For I delivered it to you as a first importance of what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. That he was buried and was raised on the third day in accordance with Scriptures. The gospel drives you back to the Scriptures who drives you to Christ. That's what the gospel is all about. Taking the word of God and getting you back to Christ who died for our sins and who was resurrected. That is something that again and again in terms of the gospel touching people's lives and bringing mercy. To believe that Jesus Christ overcame death through resurrection because the Christian life is hard. In our family this last week my and follow the connection of the relationships. My oldest daughter's sister-in-law died after three years of battling breast cancer. Vicki left a husband four children ages three through ten. This morning Bob had to get up the kids along with the rest of the family and take those four kids to church for the first time in their lives without their mother. But yet they can encourage both themselves and their children that their mother first of all is with the Lord and that there is a resurrection. Now here's where hide and seek comes in. Do you think a three year old and I will tell you that as an Air Force chaplain I have had to try to explain the death of a military parent the two and three year olds. It takes time. Painful time. Because in the military they understand that oh mom and dad go away all the time. They're just gone. They'll come back. Or for young Jake at three mom goes to the hospital a lot she'll come back. You see the power of the gospel. It's sometimes it's hidden and sometimes in children's lives. Sometimes we may make it made very clear. And sometimes young people will lead us because they will see Jesus even in death of a parent who are loved because they've learned that simple song. That Sunday school song Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. You see the power in those simple words to teach that to our children. To remember that as adults that they can sing themselves to sleep in the confusion of loss in the confusion of pain. Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Is that not the gospel that you have scriptures that take us to Jesus? Because when we cry out for mercy and we get that gift of great by given by grace it produces praise. Notice that in these two postcards who ends up praising God. The guy from the back row the beggar the blind guy. We know that the disciples time is going to come. We're not going to beat them up. But I think it's amazing how sometimes God's grace because of the power of his presence and because they understand his mercy and change someone's life and their response immediately is to praise him. Now I want us to think about something that's very important to all of us. We live in a very individualistic society where we want to experience everything. We want to be the one healed. We want to be the one that has this that God does this for. We want to be the person where God makes the trophy out of. But notice what happens. In that community let's take a look at the end of the passage. When all the people saw it they also praise God. These people in the Jericho road. They could praise God because God had worked in somebody else's life not in their lives in somebody else's life. Can you praise God because he isn't worked in other people's lives and not covet that experience not be jealous of them. But join in their praise of God because God isn't work among us. So often we want it to be us. We want to be the center of attention. But these other people knew that God was at work and he was worthy of praise. When we hear what God is doing in our lives whether it's a life of a young child or someone who was older. Or someone who is new in the Lord. Or someone who is struggling because the Christian life is hard. Can we join in and praise God because he is worthy of praise because he is the merciful God. Because the Messiah, the Christ, is the one who brings mercy. And he brings mercy to hard lives. Times of loss and pain and doubt and confusion. He compels. Because Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Let us pray. Father, it is about you. It is about your son. That's what the gospel is about. That's what grace is about. And we pray that we might give you the glory. That we might praise you whenever you are working people's lives, whether it is in bringing life or in the loss of life. My Father, we pray that we might find the power of your resurrection to be where the power of our joy is. Because we know that nothing can separate us from you. And Father, we would ask. We would beg. That when we read the Bible, when we study the Bible this week whether we inspire ourselves or together, that Father, your grace would make it clear so that we can see you that things are not hidden from us so that we understand. And it would be fresh. Oh, Father, like that blind man, we see Jesus. We see Jesus because you have loved us first. The Bible tells us that. We pray these things Jesus in your name. Amen.