I want us to begin the word in the morning a little bit differently this morning by beginning, pausing and just praying towards Easter weekend. You know. Part of the core values of this church is that we value worship together. We value the teaching of God's Word. We value worship as the body of Christ, and we value that every week. But we also know that there are certain weeks of the year when people are even more responsive to our invitation to be with us. Christmas Eve and certain big events. And then there's also Easter weekend. As big as Easter is for believer’s hearts, there is also a draw to the community to know that something is happening that weekend. And we want to take full advantage of that, for our own souls to celebrate the resurrected King and be His light in this community. 

So, every week for the next couple of weeks, as we're in this series. We're going to pause together and pray for three specific things for all of us. I'm including myself in this. Number one, we're going to pray that God would just, in our souls, identify one person or one family that we can invite to be with us on Easter weekend. Now, I know a lot of us do that a lot, but I'm just absolutely amazed at how many people don't see that as something that's part of normal day life. Well, here's what I can tell you about Easter. People are way more willing to come on Easter than any other day of the year. So we're going to pray right now that God put somebody in your heart, somebody in my heart, somebody in all of our hearts to come and be with us. That's the invitation. Be with us. The second prayer is that God would go ahead of us. And begin to soften their hearts and begin to make it as if they're anticipating us to ask him, have you ever asked somebody a question? And it's almost like they've been waiting for you to ask them that. That's our prayer for these next couple of weeks: that God would go ahead and do that with somebody in your life. He would go ahead and lay down the tracks for that. And then here's the third prayer. That we're going to pray every week, and that is that God would do something incredible that day. And that weekend. Something beyond the planning and beyond the preparation, beyond all of the normal man, that was incredible to be here. But God would do an incredible act that weekend that would be unmistakably him. Those are the three prayers that I want all of us to put in our minds and all of us to come together and lift before the King on Sundays. So, let's just do that right now, and then we'll jump into the message. 

Lord Jesus, today. God, we honestly are looking towards Easter as an incredible expression of your power, your grace, and your mercy. But today, God. We come specifically before you and ask you just to put people in our hearts that we can invite to be with us. God, to hear the resurrection story, to hear the incredible freedom that comes with knowing you as our Savior. And our Lord and God. We pray that God, You will set people free that weekend. Lord, secondly, we come to you, and we ask you to prepare people's hearts for the invitation that we're going to give. And God, third, we just ask you, Lord, just to do a mighty work here. Not for our glory, not for this church's glory, but God for your glory. Lord Jesus. Have your spirit show in a mighty, mighty way. God, my prayer is that we look back on Easter and know that that is the day that you began incredible work in this community, Lord Jesus, and it's in your name. We pray. Amen. Amen. 

Thanks for that. If you got a copy of Scripture this morning, I want you to go ahead and turn with me to Mark chapter ten, Mark chapter ten, and today, as you see, we are starting a new series that we're just entitling The Road to the cross. And here's what we're going to do. I'm just going to lay the foundation kind of a little bit today, and then we're jumping in. We are going to just shine a light on a couple of the events from the life and from the ministry of Jesus, as he has his face set towards the cross. Now, let me start with a couple of disclaimers and a couple of explanations in there. So, I just feel like it's fair to say from the beginning. First, I just want you to know that there is no way that in three weeks, we can look at everything Jesus did as he said his face to the cross. So, those of you who have been studying the Bible for a long time know that it's about 40% of the gospels, right? Is those last days. So there's no way. In fact, I think if we started it today, we might finish it somewhere, and maybe Easter 2025 or 2026, right? If we were going to get to all, or if we're not going to do that, but what we're going to do is just look at a couple of those events. Also, we're not going to go in chronological order because we can't. There are some chronological snobs around, right? I am one of those who like things to be linear. We're not going to be able to do that because after Palm Sunday, there's not another Sunday, and there's a lot of stuff in there. So we can't follow it chronologically. So here's what I'm asking out of you. Then I'm just going to beg you right boldly. I beg you to commit to it on your own over these next three weeks. 

There are four gospels. Take some time every day and just read and watch Jesus move to the cross. Watch as his life is and his eyes and his heart are said to the cross. And I can guarantee you something's going to happen to you. First, you are going to be blessed. And secondly, you're going to see Easter when that day gets here through a way different lens than if you just kind of pop in here one out of the next three Sundays. Right now, that's kind of the average, right? One out of the next three Sundays. I want to be here and hear one message at best. All right. So, my job is to shine a light on three of the events. And then, obviously Resurrection Sunday, we're going to preach the resurrection. Right. But my job is to preach three of these. Your job is to go home and just walk through the text on your own. All right. I don't want you to miss what Jesus is doing. 

All right. But today, we're going to jump into Mark chapter ten. Now, if you were here last week, you are kind of going, wait a minute. We were in Mark chapter ten last week, right? Well, yes, we were. I'm glad you noticed. And actually, today, we're going to pick up right where we left off last week. Last week, James and John had just come to Jesus and said, hey, make us the president and vice president, right of your kingdom. Put us in those spots. Right? And Jesus is like, you're missing it. Your role is to be a servant. And they kind of got a little bit of a lashing from Jesus for even asking. But today is going to be a huge contrast. Today, you're going to get to see Jesus answer that same question: what do you want me to do? But you're going to get to see Jesus's last miracle, which kind of heals the body and the soul together. That kind of puts both of those things together. On his way to the cross, on his way to the crucifixion. And in today's story, in Mark chapter ten, I'm going to be in verse 46. In just a minute, you're going to see some just incredible truths. No matter if you've been a Christian for a day or 95 years, it's got some things for all of us. Or maybe you're not even a Christian today. There are some things in here that are going to point you to who Jesus is. 

So, let me give you a game plan. We're going to read the text. I'm going to pause in a couple of places and just point out some truths that can change us. All right. That should have given you way enough time to find Mark. Chapter ten. Here it is. All right. Here we go. Mark chapter ten. We're going to start in verse 46. It says this. It says they came to Jericho. Now, I want you to stop right there. I promise we're not going to stop this much normally, but I have to do it right here because here is the context. And here's the background of what's happening. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, right? 

He is on his way to being crucified, and he has this huge following around him. The disciples there are there. There are lots of people around him. He has just left the North just before this in Capernaum. That's where I kind of stayed at a lot. He had crossed over Jordan to the east side, Bethany to the other side. If that rings a bell for anybody in Jordan who has done some ministry there, He had swung all the way to the south. This is one of those maps in the back of your Bible is important. He swung all the way to the south, and he crossed the Jordan again at the southern point. It's where Joshua crossed the Jordan to come into the Promised Land. It's where Jesus was baptized. He's just crossed through there. Actually, if you go to Israel with us next year, it's where we baptize people right here, where Jesus was baptized. Right here, he would have crossed over. So he's come back to Israel from Jordan. He is now coming upon the first town that you saw back then. And then you see today. And it's a town called Jericho. All right. It's Jericho. Now, this is incredibly cool when you think about Jesus's kind of miracle ministry. Why? In John chapter two, Jesus begins his miracle ministry at a wedding in Cana. All right. In Cana. Now, Cana was a small, little podunk little town that none of us had ever heard of. But because Jesus did this miracle here, we got to hear about it. It was made up of poor people, kind of just kind of second-class people that nobody would have ever known. 

Jesus started his miracle ministry in the North. And now Jesus is going to kind of end his miracle ministry way down in the South at this incredibly influential, rich, pious town of the South. Now, when you think about Jesus's miracle ministry, how cool is it to see that Jesus did miracles in the North? He did him in the South. He did him with poor people. He did them with rich people. He did them on one side of the Jordan. He did them on the other side of the Jordan. All this just shows us that Jesus is the one. He's the one. That's what all of his miracle ministry was about. So now, as he points his face towards Jerusalem, right? The last time, he is on his way there as the suffering Servant, the Lamb of God. He is now proclaiming even more one more time that I am the one. So what's happening? There are a few days left before we get to the triumphal entry right here. There are a few days left, and he comes to this town that is called Jericho. It’s still there today. Remember the walls filled there one time, but it's still there today, right? It's still there. And two things happened in Jericho. Part of my job as a pastor is to put all the pieces together for you. Two things happen. The first thing that happens in Jericho is that Jesus meets this wee little man named Zacchaeus, right? He meets Zacchaeus. He sets Zacchaeus free, and one of the most gnarly, nasty, rich chief of tax collectors in the town is transformed by Jesus. 

The second thing that happens in this town comes right after that. And we got to catch it in verse 46. All right, here we go. I told you, that's the background. Verse 46 says this. It says that they came to Jericho when Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city. A blind man, Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging. Now think about this with me just for a minute to what's going on. Jericho was in the South, and it was actually the key route that went into Jerusalem to go to the temple. It's Passover time. If you were a Jew, you had to do this from the South. It was actually about one day's travel. So it was the last stop between anybody in the South, and when they got to the temple to worship at the Passover, that was a requirement for all the Jews. So, the people would come to Jericho, and much of Israel came through this way. So the town was just swelled with people. Think worship plus vacation. All right. You come from a little small town. You go to Jericho and have a great time because it's an amazing city. On top of all the people who were just there for the Passover, On top of that, the streets were crowded because people knew at that moment that Jesus was heading out of town. They may not have known exactly who Jesus is, but they knew that Jesus had been there. They knew that Jesus had sent the wee little man free, right? He brought him down out of the tree, had dinner with him, and transformed his life. And they surely knew that if that tax collector’s life could change like that. There's something to this Nazareth guy named Jesus, right? So the news was out. Jesus had been healing. Jesus had been doing all this stuff, and he was walking out of this crowded city. 

And then there was this blind man, right? His name was Bartimaeus. I'm probably going to call him Bart for short. Right? There was this blind man sitting by the road as the crowd came by. I mean, this is logical if you really think about it, right? Why? Because if you're a blind man, if you're a beggar and you want to be a good beggar and you want to eat that day, would you stay at home? Would you stay on the other side of the wall? Would you stay out where there's nobody? No. You go to the Braves game in the Falcons game, right? You would go to the exit at I-20, right? Yes. What you do. Why? Because that's where people are, right? If you're going to be a good beggar, you put yourself in the traffic of other people. And that's what he did. Well, in Israel, this was incredibly common. There were beggars all over the place. There was no welfare system. There was nobody that really took care of people. They really just shoved the beggars into the road, and they helped somebody by throwing him some coin every now and then. It made him live. 

I love that Matthew chapter nine tells us that Jesus healed many of these beggars, many of these people. I love that he took his time walking in a lot of these situations. If you look at his healing ministry, so many of them were people just like our guy named Bart, right? Well, Bart was blind. We don't we don't know if he was blind from birth. Or maybe something happened in his life that happened back then. A lot of times, some infection or something made him blind. But the blind people of this time were looked at as some of the lowest of people in all of society. So, Matt, why is that? Well, there was this Jewish legend that blind people were really under the curse or the judgment of God. No, there was no truth to it, but I just kind of believe that for some reason. And remember Jesus asking who? Remember Jesus asked another blind guy, right? Hey, who sin you are your parents, right? So there was this conversation around that. And as a result of that, blind people of this day were below the normal poor people. They were below the other beggars; they were below just the people who maybe had something else going on in their lives, and really, they were forgotten. By everybody except who? Jesus. Right. 

It's amazing how many blind people Jesus healed. You know, this never really hit me until I really studied this week how many people Jesus gave sight to. Do you know what it's a message of? It's a message that no matter how low you think you are and how forgotten you think you are, we have a God who has not forgotten you. And that's what it is about blindness. Blindness is not always about the eyes. What Jesus wants us to see, what he is going to see, and what we're going to see in this story are that it's more about him opening the eyes of the heart. And showing us who he is. So Bartimaeus may have been forgotten by society. But he wasn't forgotten by Jesus. And actually, it's kind of cool that here, we are over 2000 years later, and we still know this guy's name. We still know his name. Because what Jesus did the keep reading. Watch what happens right here. Verse 47. It says this when he, that's Bartimaeus, right? When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Now, I love how Luke describes this. Welcome to the New Testament. Luke tells the same story, so watch what he says about it in verse 36. 

Luke 18:36 says, when he, that's Bartimaeus when he heard the crowd going by, he asked, what's happening? Why? He's blind. You don't know what's happening, right? Somebody's got to tell him. In verse 37, they told him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. So what happened? Somebody had to help him, right? Somebody had to look at him and say, hey, you know this guy that we've been hearing murmurings about named Jesus? You know, he's from Nazareth. He's coming by. Now, there's nothing special about that language, right? Jesus of Nazareth is kind of like saying Matt from Mableton, right? That means nothing, right? It's just where he was from. It was a label on him. But what did Bartimaeus call out? Even though what he heard was Jesus from Nazareth? Bartimaeus shouted out, what? Jesus, Son of David! Now, I say this all the time. Language matters. He's hearing this guy named Jesus from Nazareth is walking by. But what did he do? He shouted, Son of David, son of David! Now, I want you to look at the word shout right here. Because it doesn't mean that he just called out. The literal Greek word here is the word ????????, And it literally means that he shouted with a scream of anguish or desperation. Here's what this word means. It is defined in this time period as a word that came out of the mouth of a lady giving birth. You want a mental image right there. There it is for you, right? That's what he did. He shouted, Jesus, Son of David! Jesus is what everybody said. But Son of David, listen to this. That's the Messiah. That's the one in whom was going to come. That's the one in Second Samuel chapter seven, where it says that he is coming. That's the one they've been watching for, for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. That's the one that connects the dots with all of the chronological order of all of the people in Matthew and in Luke. Notice it's not. Hey, Jesus. a son of David. It is Jesus, the son of David. Jesus, the one that we're waiting on. So for Bartimaeus, if Jesus, the Son of David, is who he claims to be, this is the greatest day in the greatest moment of his entire life. Here's the principle for us: I want you to write this down like Bart, right? It's true for us, too. 

The greatest moment of our lives is when we recognize, we trust, and we surrender to Jesus. It's the greatest moment of our lives. Listen, the greatest moment of your life is not when you graduated high school. It's not when you graduate college. It's not after year 12 you finally get your master's. It's not when you get married. It's not when you had a kid. The greatest moment of your life is when you recognize who Jesus is. You give Jesus your life. You trust him. You surrender to him. And watch what's happening in Bart's life. Right? What's going on? The Messiah is right in front of him. I want to say right before his eyes. But I thought that would kind of be me. It was right in front of him, right? It was right. Was that bad? It was right in front of him. That didn't happen in the last services. You guys got a bonus right there that's not in the notes. All right. That just kind of came to me. He's right there, right in front of him. But Bart, he's not going to miss it. He's not going to see it. He's not going to miss it. Right? I mean, nothing would stop him. Nothing would stop him. There was no barrier that was too great. 

There was no wall of pride that was going to keep him from making it. When he heard that Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God in his mind, was coming by. He knew there was nothing going to keep him from getting to him. Let me ask you this question. I put it in your notes. What obstacle is currently preventing you from wholeheartedly calling out and surrendering your life to Jesus? What's the obstacle right now? For Bartimaeus, one would say it was him being blind. But what are we seeing? There is no obstacle too great. For you, is it busyness? Is it pride or self-sufficiency? Is it doubt or priorities? Man, I get all of those things are hard. But listen to me closely. When we have a right understanding of Jesus being present in front of us, and we really believe that it is Jesus and he is present, none of the rest of that stuff is ever going to stand in the way.

Let me say it like this. You don't have a discipline problem. You have a Jesus problem. You don't have an action problem. You have a Jesus problem. Because when we know that Messiah is in front of us, our choice will always point to him. In fact, write this down. We have a choice every day whether to call out to Jesus or to just keep sitting with the crowd. Every day, we have a choice. Look at what Bartimaeus had said, still to this day. Then, the next day would have been just like every other blind day of his life, and it would have never changed. The same is true for us spiritually. If you don't choose to stand up and get out of the crowd, I can promise you that the next day will always be just like the day before. And you will not have these eyes of the heart set free. That’s what we're seeing right here. But let me warn you. Although it's totally worth it when you do this. It's going to cost you because there are always those other people around who are going to drag you down. Watch what happens in verse 48. It says this. These people have been here since Jesus, right? It says many rebuked him and told him to be quiet. How do you tell a blind man to be quiet? Right? They did. Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more. Son of David, have mercy on me! What's going on? This man, Bartimaeus, knows that he needs mercy. He knows that he doesn't deserve anything. In fact, he probably sees himself as a cursed Jewish person. But he knows that he needs the mercy and the grace of Jesus. He knows that he's a sinner. He knows he needs a Savior. And the only way to describe Bartimaeus is that he really believes the Messiah is in front of him. 

You know what I believe? I believe that his heart had seen the light way before his eyes saw the light. I believe that his heart has seen Jesus way before his eyes are going to see Jesus. And I believe because of that, he can not contain himself. But he's got no graces from the crowd around him, right? They don't want him to do it. They're screaming and him and telling him to be quiet. But he doesn't. What does Bartimaeus do? He gets even louder. Son of David, he says, I don't know how you get louder than a birth cry. But he does. He gets louder. Son of David, have mercy on me. And guess what happens? Jesus hears him. He hears him. In fact, let me kind of bring this into our world just because I want to keep these thoughts in our minds so we can walk this out this week. Let me give you a thought or a principle that believers can have in confidence. Here it is. Write it down. Here's the here's the principle. Every cry for Jesus is heard by Jesus. No matter the level of noise in you or around you. Now, those are two very specific things, right? There's always noise in you. There's always don't do it. Don't say it, don't lift it up. Don't do it. Your pride, your role, your status. What are they going to say? But there's always noise around you as well that's going on. All of the pressure, all of the culture. But here's the deal. When you cry out to Jesus, he hears you. He hears you. Don't think you're too gone because you're not. Don't think you're too far down the road. 

Don't think there's too much noise in here or in here. Because when you cry, he hears you. And here's the deal about where we live, which is way better than what old Bart lives. Now, Jesus doesn't have to be within earshot of our cries because he is in heaven. He is with the father, and he hears every moment and every time and every sentence and every language in real-time. And he hears you. Don't let Satan take that from you. He hears you. You're not alone, believer. You're never alone. You have access to the maker of the universe. But the question is this: are you linking into him? Are you linking into him? Are you still trying to do it on your own? Are you still trying to listen to the crowd, thinking that they're going to let you up? Because I can tell you this. They're not going to do it. Look at the response of Jesus in verse 49. Watch what it says. It says Jesus stopped. Man, you might want to underline that word stop, because I'm so glad that we have a God that stops when we cry. I'm so glad we have a God who lives with a compassionate mindset, and when we cry, he stops. 

Keep going in the verse. Jesus stopped and said, call him. So they called to the blind man, cheer up on your feet. He's calling you. I mean, it's it's kind of weird right here. A little bit of irony, right? The crowd changes its tune so fast. But I can tell you in life, that's what the crowd does, right? Now that Jesus stopped the crowds, like, well, let's just let this play out right. Let's just let's see what happens. Right? But watch how Bartimaeus responds. Verse 50 is probably the best verse here. It says that throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. You know what scholars really, really, really lean in, that's the smart people, right? They really lean in right here to the decisiveness of this sentence. The decisiveness. There was no question. There was no thinking about it. There was no holding back. They really lean into how strong this sentence is and how decisive Bartimaeus is at this moment. And then they also really lean into the fact that what did he do? Well, they didn't really mean in the fact that a blind man jumped. But I've never seen a blind man jump. But he did. But secondly, he. What did he do? He threw his coat aside. 

Now, for us, that doesn't make any sense, right? It makes no sense to us at all. Why? Because we have 47 coats in the lost and found right now. It doesn't really matter to us, right? But. But for them, especially for him as a blind beggar, the reality is his outer cloak would have been the most costly and most precious possession that he had. And think about it just logically: I know this seems a little bit funny, but it's not. Listen, when this blind man stood up and threw aside his most costly possession, he didn't see where it went. He doesn't know who's going to pick it up. He doesn't know if he'll ever give it back. He knows that he can never replace it because he has no money. But listen, he counted the cost and was willing to pay whatever price it was necessary to follow Jesus. That's why it's pointed out like that. Which made me think about myself. Man, am I doing everything I can in this world to hold on to Jesus with my left hand but yet hold on to everything in the world with my right hand? Or am I jumping in, abandoning what matters the most in this so-called world, but not holding on to Jesus? Listen, you can't hold on to both. That's what it's showing us right here. It's a no-brainer for the man that knew who Jesus was. It's a no-brainer for the man who says, That's the Messiah. He's in front of me. So what happens? I'm glad you asked. Look at verse 51. It says this. Jesus said. What do you want me to do for you? I love it when Jesus asks questions. What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked him. Now you know James and John were like, don't answer that. Don't answer that. Right? From last week. 

He said, what do you want me to do for you? The same question he asked them, but his heart was different. Look at verse 51. What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked him. The blind man said, Rabbi, I want to see. I want to see. Now, I know I keep harping on this, but language matters. Every word matters. And he didn't notice something really fast or notice who were the crowd calling Jesus? They were calling him what? Jesus of? Great, three of you. Nazareth. All right, we're going together. Me and you three. Maybe we'll have lunch today. All right. What did Bartimaeus first call Jesus? He called him Jesus, the son of David. Man! Look at that. We're gonna have dinner on the ground. That's. That's a lot more of us, right? There's. There are a few more. All right, so we've gone from the crowd calling him Jesus of Nazareth. That's just a name. That's Matt from Maybleton. Now he's gone into Jesus, son of David. Right. That's the blind guy, Bartimaeus, going, you are the Messiah. You are the Messiah. But now, after this encounter, what is he saying now? He's saying now, Jesus Rabbi. I want to see. 

Now, that doesn’t mean anything to us. Because we don't call anyone that, right? If you call me Rabbi, I don’t think it would make a difference, right? I'm not. I'm not your rabbi. Right? But Jesus is Rabbi. Do you know what rabbi means? It means master. It means master. Do you see where this is going now? Are you seeing how he has gone from Jesus, that guy from Nazareth, to Jesus, the one that was going to come? And now the blind guy in his heart, he's looking at him, going, Jesus, master. In fact, Luke 18 tells the story, and he says, Lord and Master, which is even more descriptive. He says, Lord and master, I want to see. What does that mean? I know who you are. I know that you're the Messiah. I know that you're the one to come. I know you're the one that can heal. And now I know that you are the one that I want to follow my life with. Will you restore my sight? So that I can be yours? 

Now, that's bigger than just a blind man finding Jesus, right? That's a heart that has found Jesus. And here's the point I just really want to make. There's no way to really know Jesus through the lens of Messiah and through the lens of Rabbi and not have it absolutely change you. Here's the principle that makes it easier to remember. Your perspective of who Jesus is shapes everything about you. It shapes everything. You don't have a discipline problem. You have a Jesus problem. You don't have a temper problem. You have a Jesus problem. You don't have a money problem. You have a Jesus problem. You don't have a priority problem. You have a Jesus problem. Why? When we realize the master of the universe, the Rabbi of our life, is calling us, and we submit our hearts to him, it shapes everything about us. It shapes how you spend your time, how you worship, how you make your decisions, how you treat others, and what you ask God for. I love Bartimaeus’ heart because of what he is saying. He's saying yes, I'm yours. I want to see. I want to see. 

And watch Jesus’s heart. Verse 52. What does Jesus say? Jesus said, go. Jesus said, your faith has healed you. Immediately, he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Now, that one verse 52 could have been. The rest could be actually all morning long. There's so much here. But here's what I want to point out right here. Yes, Bartimaeus received his sight, and that is an absolute miracle. That Jesus, knowing He was about to go to the cross, stopped and had this encounter with this guy. That's amazing. But it's so much more than that. Why? Because Jesus looked at him and said, go. What is he saying? You're good. You're set free. You're healed. Go live your life. Jesus said, your faith has healed you.

Now, this word healed here doesn't mean like, oh, I had a broken arm, and it healed all right, although he could have used that word. But that's not the word that he used here. The word healed here, and I know this is a little nerdy, but it's the word sozo s o z o. And literally, it's where we get our word to save. So what did Jesus do? Yes, Jesus healed this guy's eyes, but what he really did was he opened the eyes of his heart and he saved him. 

He set him free. That is a radical change. It's one thing to heal somebody physically, but it is a whole other thing to heal him spiritually. There's no doubt, church, that this guy knew he was a sinner, knew that the Lord was in front of him, knew that he needed mercy, knew that he needed the master in front of him. And what did he do? He called out to Jesus, and Jesus saved him. That's the gospel. That's the gospel that is offered to you and offered to me. And that's what we're seeing Bartimaeus walk through. That's what salvation looks like. It's more than a physical healing. It's that he was saved, his eyes were opened, and Bartimaeus started following Jesus. In fact, write this principle down. Maybe it'll help you. Real salvation, that's the word sozo again, is always accompanied by a change of direction and a true desire to follow Jesus. That's what the whole story is teaching us right here. It is always accompanied by that. The text says that. What did the text say? 

The text said that. Bart. Right. What do you do? He jumped up. He left his coat. And what did he start to do? It says he literally started following Jesus. Now look, I, I don't know this for sure, right? I don't know this for sure. It's not in the Bible. Okay, I'm going to leave the Bible right here. I'm going to go to Matt's sanctified imagination over here. I just want to clear this up for you. Right? Right. What did he do? Bartimaeus jumps up in the crowd. He starts to follow Jesus. And look, I don't I don't think this is a hey, I'll follow you to the edge of town kind of conversation in Bartimaeus’s life. I really don't think that. Why? Well, because I think that Bartimaeus stayed with Jesus. I think that he stayed. And he went on up toward the toward what? Toward the cross. I think that he went on up and experienced possibly the triumphant entry. I think they may have experienced the day of just harshness of the crucifixion. My mind even says maybe, just maybe, he was one of the 120 in the upper room at Pentecost. Why do we even know this guy's name? Because Mark remembers his name. Mark gets his name when he's writing his account, and Bartimaeus was an influence. 

You say how do we know he's an influencer? Look at verse 43. In Luke chapter 18. When he tells the story. He says this immediately after he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it. They also praised God. Here's the deal. Do you know what radically saved people do? They lead other people to serve Jesus radically. A man that could go nowhere. He was a blind beggar who was transformed by Jesus. He was saved and set free by the compassion of Jesus. And now he's leading others to know and praise Jesus. Church, that's a picture of who Jesus desires us to be. And I get it, I get it. None of us are physically blind. Well, some of you are close, but none of you are all the way blind. That is the best I know. I watched you. But I can tell you this: many of us are teetering on the edge of being spiritually blind. We're teetering. We're right on the edge. And here's what I want to say as we close this up this morning: how many of us are still sitting around like a spiritually blind beggar when the Messiah, when the Savior, when the Rabbi when the master Jesus is walking right in front of us? 

Let me speak to two groups of people really quickly. As we close. Number one, there are some of you who are hearing this message that for the first time, honestly, you need to do what Bartimaeus did and surrender your heart to Jesus. You need Jesus to save you radically. Now, I'm not saying that to be mean. I'm saying that there is hope that he will. You need to call out to Jesus literally. I need my heart to see. I need you to open my spiritual eyes. Some of you need to look at Jesus and say, you are who you say you are. I repent. I give my life to you. Be my Savior, be my Lord, come into my life. I want to see. 

Listen, if that's you this morning, here's the great part about this message. You can do that right now. You can invite Christ into your life right now. We're not going to have to go out on the road and wait for a procession of people. Right now, if that's where your heart is, you know what that means? That feeling in you is the Holy Spirit beginning to deal with your heart, to tell you that you need Jesus. Maybe today, if that's you, you just need to say something like this to Jesus. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that you're the Savior. I know that you died for my sins. You rose on the third day. And come into my life. Listen, if that's you today, there are two things I want to say. Number one, welcome to the family of God. And number two, you can now see. You can now see. And here's what I want you to do in just a minute. If that's you today. All right. If that's you today, in just a minute, we're gonna have an invitation. We do it every week here. I'm going to stand over here by this next steps banner. 

And I just want you to look up to me. Walk down the aisle, look for me or one of the other people who are with me today, and just say, hey, listen, I just met Jesus for the first time, for real. And man, we just want to pray with you. We want to encourage you. We want to set you on a path. Listen, if that's too bold for you, you can jump on the Next Steps app, and there's a little banner there. You can click it and just say, hey, I gave my life to Jesus today, and somebody will follow up with you in the next 24 hours, and they'll pray and encourage you. Some of you today, that's exactly where you are. But there's a whole other group of you here today. You have given your life to Jesus. But for some reason, you're just kind of feeling a little bit spiritual, spiritually blind right now. You say Matt, I don't even know what that means. Well, okay, I came up with a little acronym for you. Let me give you some symptoms of blindness real fast. Number one, spiritually blind people believe in worldly lies, and they reject God's truth. They live for the here and now and not for eternity. They inflate the view of self and overshadow the glory of God. They neglect the purposes of Jesus and live for the advancement of self. And last, they diminish the dangers of sin. I worked really hard to make that say blind. Nobody even cares. I don't think, right? 

But that's where a lot of us are living our lives right now. But here's what I want to say to you. I'm not going to beat you down about it. I'm just going to say the Savior is making his way down the road, and all he wants you to do is to call out for him to deliver you, to set you free. Is that you today? Maybe you need to use this altar. Maybe this next invitation time is just for you to say, hey Lord, I feel like I'm flying a little bit blind right now. Be mine. 

Lord Jesus, in these next couple of minutes. Jesus, walk with us. God, I just pray for a holy hush in this room so that we can do business with you. Lord, I know that there are people here who have given their lives to you today, and I just pray they're bold in letting us know so that we can encourage them. I know there are people here who are just struggling with their spiritual life right now. I don't know which line hit them the most. But there's one of them. God, I just pray that today they can see how much you want them to know you. Thank you, Jesus. And I was once blind, but now I see. It's in your name we pray. 

Amen, Amen. 

Let's stand together. I'll be right over here. I’d love to pray with you. Bless you.