Jesus In Jericho

Okay, we are in Mark chapter 10 tonight where we will begin in our study of the life of Christ, Mark chapter 10. Jesus is nearing the last week of his life. In fact, he is making, as we will see tonight, the last stop before he gets to Jerusalem in the town of Jericho. And so we're going to see Jesus in two interactions with individuals in Jericho tonight. The first one is with a blind man, Jesus will heal a blind man. And that account has given us in three gospels, but we're going to look at Mark's account tonight in Mark chapter 10. Remember that Jesus is, is resolutely marching toward the cross. We've been seeing in the last couple of weeks that Jesus was determined, had set his face like a flint to get to Jerusalem. The Bible says, and he was determined, resolutely determined to go to Jerusalem in the face of all the opposition. He comes to Jericho, which is about 17 or 18 miles east of Jerusalem. It's the last stop before people would go up to Jerusalem. It was kind of the place where people would would rest up for a day or so and then make that last push. You could walk the 17 or 18 miles in a good day's walk, but it was not an easy walk. And so you had to take some rest in Jericho. So there are great crowds of people in Jericho before they make that last push for Jerusalem in time for the Passover. It's important to recognize that there are tremendous crowds in Jericho at this time because Jesus is going to focus on two individuals, not the crowds, but there are huge crowds following Jesus. In fact, they're lining the streets as he walks through as we'll see a little bit later tonight. Let's do a little bit of geography first, okay? We're going to look at a map to kind of place where we are, and we don't put the ropes up anymore, but if you want to see the screen, you probably need to move forward a little bit. Jim didn't say anything about that tonight, so it was my turn to say something about moving forward. Okay, here is Jericho right here. This is the Jordan River, Dead Sea, or also called the Salt Sea. And from Jericho, over to Jerusalem is a hard, difficult climb of about 4,000 feet up through mountains. And Jericho is in a plane which is actually the lowest land spot on Earth. The Dead Sea and the northern part of the Dead Sea right through here is about 1200 feet below sea level. And so it's the lowest land area on planet Earth. And so you go up about 4,000 feet in 17 miles to Jerusalem. Let's take a look at the next picture. This is a satellite map. So this is where Jesus has been. He was in Jerusalem in this area left to go to Ephraim after the raising of Lazarus because of the intense opposition on the part of the Pharisees. And then he went up into Samaria right along the border of Galilee, comes back down to the east side of the River Jordan. This is the River Jordan right here, the Rift Valley, Jordan emptying into the Dead Sea. And Jericho is right over here. Take a look at the next one. This is an actual photograph from the mountains just west of Jericho looking over the Jordan River plain. This is the Jordan River. This is Jericho right here. These are the mountains that you start up into immediately out of Jericho. You start climbing up into mountains. And most people believe this is the area of Jesus' baptism here. The baptismal site. I'm sure you can read all this. The amount of temptation right here. This is the kind of wilderness area where Jesus would have been tempted shortly after his baptism. But looking over Jericho, this area right here is Jericho. Okay, it's a very fertile area in a very barren surrounding. There are palm trees and some springs and so forth here. So it was the last stop. People would stay there, refresh themselves, and then make the last push up to Jerusalem through the mountains. If you can see this, you probably not able to read this. The ruins of biblical Jericho right here. The Old Testament archaeological site is right here. This is the current modern city of Jericho and it's kind of spread out over this whole area. But here would have been where it was in Bible times. Now we're going to just give you a picture next of what it might have looked like as Jesus is going into the city. The artist has tried to capture the small narrow streets that would go into the city, crowds beginning together around Jesus and possibly one of the men that we will see coming to Jesus as he goes into the city. All right, Mark chapter 10 in verse 46 says, then they came to Jericho as Jesus and as Jesus and his disciples together with a large crowd. Remember the dynamics of this? This is the gathering point for huge throngs of people on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover. Huge crowds following Jesus. As they come with a large crowd, as they were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus, which means son of Tameus, was sitting by the roadside begging. Let me stop right there and say there are a couple of things in this passage that have drawn the attention of liberal scholars and critics of the Bible. Actually two difficulties in this passage that critics have jumped on to say, see there are contradictions in the Bible, the Bible is not reliable, you can't believe it. One of them is that whereas Mark's gospel says they were leaving the city, Luke's gospel said they were entering the city. Uh oh, we got a problem here, right? We got a contradiction. This is where we ought to thank God for archaeologists because archaeologists have turned up evidence that there was no contradiction here. In fact, in Jesus' day, there were two cities of Jericho. There was the old city left over from Old Testament times, but King Herod had gone in and just south of that city had built a new city of Jericho, complete with a summer palace for him or Winter Palace for himself and several other buildings. And so there were actually two towns. Both were true. Jesus was leaving one and entering the other. And so both gospel accounts are true. The other problem that some raised is that Matthew's gospel says there were two blind men. Mark and Luke only mentioned one. Again, the liberal critics are quick to say, okay, we got a contradiction in the Bible here. Again, it's not trustworthy, not historically correct. You can't trust the Bible. But obviously, there are two blind men. One of them is more vocal and he is the only one named. His name is Bartum Aes. And so Mark and Luke focus upon the one that was vocal and the other gospel. Matthew gives us the additional detail that there were actually two men. You see, you have to remember that the gospels are four different accounts of the life of Christ. Not all of them have the same details, but you have to put them all together to get all of the information. And so when you do that, you realize there were two blind men, but one of them was more vocal and crying out. And he is the one that is noticed and mentioned in Mark's and Luke's gospels. Okay, they come to the city. They're leaving the old city and beginning to enter the new city. Of Jericho and this blind man, Bartum Aes is sitting by the roadside begging. Verse 47, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. What is amazing to me about this encounter is that Jesus with huge throngs of people around him will focus on two individuals as he's in Jericho. His heart and his mind is for the individual, for people who have need. One of the two has a physical need. The other has a spiritual need. Probably both had spiritual needs, but the focus of the scriptures is on the physical need of Bartum Aes and the spiritual need of Zacchaeus. Let's take a look at this man, Bartum Aes, because in this story, what you have is really a beautiful picture of what it means to come to Christ as Savior. Jesus reaching out to heal Bartum Aes is a beautiful picture of what he does when he saves somebody. So let's take a look first of all in verses 46 to 48, the plight of the center. We've seen that Bartum Aes is a blind man. He's a beggar. He cries out to Jesus and in this conversation and contact between Bartum Aes and Jesus, there's a wonderful picture of the plight of the center. In order for us to come to Christ as Savior, we have to be aware of and recognize the same things that Bartum Aes did. First of all, there must be an awareness of our condition. In order for us to come to Christ, we have to have an awareness of our condition. Verse 46, notice Bartum Aes's condition. He was a blind man and he was sitting by the roadside begging. His world was dark. We're not told whether he was blind from birth, but his world is dark. He's not able to see and thus not able to be gainfully employed and is reduced to begging. His plight, his condition is really a symbol, if you will, or symptomatic of the spiritual condition of every person who comes into this world, because the Bible does teach, doesn't it, that we all come into this world blind spiritually? And we are reduced to rags, beggars, spiritually. Look at a couple of verses we have on the screen for you. Second Corinthians chapter 4. The Bible says, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God. So every person comes into this world, a sinner blinded to the light of the gospel by Satan himself. And we have to recognize that. We have to recognize that spiritually we are blind. We do not know, do not know Christ, do not know God. We do not understand the gospel. But the Bible also says we are in an spiritually impoverished condition. Isaiah 64 verse 6 is the other verse on the screen there for you. All of us have become like one who is unclean. All our righteous acts are like filthy rags. We all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind, our sins sweep us away. We are clothed spiritually speaking in rags. Even all of our righteous acts are nothing better than rags in the sight of God. You know, we try to dress ourselves up spiritually. We may try to do that. We may try to look good, make a good presentation of ourselves to God. But as God sees us spiritually, we are in rags. So in order for us to come to Christ, we have to recognize our plight. We have to recognize that spiritually we are blind and we are beggars. We are poor. In other words, we have nothing to offer God, right? We are not able to save ourselves. We are spiritually blind and impoverished. The second condition that is needed in crisis that we need to recognize about ourselves is an understanding of the person and work of Christ. In order to come to Christ, we not only have to understand our own condition that we are sinners, spiritually blind and unclean and impoverished, but we also, in order to come to Christ, we have to recognize who he is and what he has done. In verse 47, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. The verb is a present tense verb, so it means he keeps on repeating this. He keeps on shouting this. He didn't shout one time. He kept on shouting this, Jesus, son of David. Now what does that say to you about what this man realized about Jesus? The word, the title that he uses, what does that say? What? The Old Testament teachers would teach that Christ would come from David. He recognizes that Christ is the Messiah, OK, Bingo, that's it. The son of David is the one who will rule on David's throne. He is the son of David, the angel Gabriel, introducing that way to Mary. He will rule on the throne of his father, David. And so the son of David is a messianic title. So what Bartimaeus is saying to him is, I believe you are the Messiah. He's saying something about what he understands about who Jesus is. You are the Messiah. You are the son of David. You have the right to rule on David's throne. Now how did Bartimaeus know that? How do you think Bartimaeus knew who Jesus was? Divine revelation. Divine revelation. Divine revelation. Maybe God revealed it to him. It's possibility. Might have had godly parents who instructed him in the Old Testament. That's possible. There is a lot of line. There is a lot of line. There is a line with the end. Exactly. We are at the end of Jesus' ministry, right? A lot of miracles have been done. This has not been done in a corner. This has been spread throughout the nation. What has been done? And a lot of blind people have been healed. Maybe Bartimaeus knew some of those people. Maybe he had had some friends or some people that he had connected with or maybe even had begged with at the city gates of Jericho who had heard about Jesus or maybe had been healed by Jesus. So in some way, whether it's through divine revelation or the teaching of parents or maybe through the reports that he has heard about Jesus, he has somehow gotten information. He's got information about this teacher who has miraculous power and claims to be the Messiah and he has believed that. He's trusted that. He has understood something about the person of Christ that Jesus is the son of David. And he also says, have mercy on me. What does that say about his view of Jesus? He's able to do something for him. Okay? What do you think he believes he's able to do? He believes he's able to do that miracle. Does have mercy on me. Obviously, he's asking for healing. And so he believes that Jesus has the power to heal him. Again, this is something about the person and the work of Christ. But there's even more than that. We haven't gotten to it yet. But look down at verse 51, when Jesus asked him, what do you want me to do for you? The blind man said, Rabbi. Okay? Rabbi or Rabboni, which is the expression for my teacher or my master. The eye ending is the Hebrew or Aramaic way of saying my. So this is my teacher, my rab, my teacher, my master. It's a personal expression of his faith in who Jesus is. He believes he is the Messiah. He believes he has the power to heal him. And he is claiming him as my teacher, my master, which I believe is an expression of faith from his own heart as to who Jesus is. So the plight of the center in order for him to come to Christ, in order for us to come to Christ and find salvation, we have to come just like Bartimaeus, recognizing our spiritually impoverished condition. We can't do anything on our own, but we realize who Jesus is. He is who he claimed to be. He is the Son of God who came to die for our sins. He has the power to put away our sins. And we claim him as my teacher, my master, my Lord, my Savior. Okay? That's what it takes in order to be saved. But it also takes something else. It takes thirdly a sense of urgency. Did you notice that in the story of this blind man, Bartimaeus, the sense of urgency in verse 48? Well, verse 47 first, he began to shout. Okay? And this is a continual thing. He keeps saying this over and over again, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. You can just hear him over and over and over again, crying out this. And verse 48, many rebuked him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted all the more. Son of David, have mercy on me. Okay? Get the picture here. Jesus is coming into the city of Jericho after having left the old part of the city, coming into the new part of the city. And there's a great throng of people and all of a sudden this voice is crying out and people are trying to shut him up. People are saying, quiet, beggar, you're making too much noise, you're making a scene. Quiet. But he won't. He won't stop. He just keeps crying out. Son of David, have mercy on me. And somebody's saying, you know, if you don't be quiet, you're going to need some mercy. You know, give it down, be quiet. And he won't. He just keeps crying out. There is a sense in this man of urgency. There's a sense of if I don't connect with Jesus now, it will probably never happen. This is my one chance, my one opportunity to connect with Jesus. And for us to come to know Christ is savior, it really takes that kind of a sense of urgency. You know, intersections with God when we intersect with what he is doing in his plan are not to be trifled with. You know, the Bible says, don't boast of tomorrow. You don't know what a day will bring forth. And so when God is speaking to your heart, and you have that opportunity where God is close, God is near. And he's speaking to your heart. You don't, you don't trifle with that. You don't play with that. You don't say, I've plenty of other chances. In order to be saved, it requires, I believe, a sense of urgency, like, like Blind Bartimaeus had, who would not be deterred, who would not shut up even though people were trying to quiet him down. He shouted all the more. Son of David, have mercy on me. So I see in that the plight of the center and really the plight that we find ourselves in and what it means to come to Christ. Any questions, comments about Bartimaeus himself, John? Yes. Yes. Really did. I mean, he was courageous and persistent. It did not matter to him what other people thought, what other people said. He knew that he needed to get to Jesus. And you have to admire that. Yes. We got three hands up. Wow, this is a record. Let's start in the back. I think yours was up first. Great point. He didn't wait till he got better. He didn't wait till, you know, yeah, yeah, he didn't wait till he cleaned up his life to come to Christ. He came just as he was, as the old him says. I'm blind. I'm a beggar. I'm not going to wait till I, you know, clean up a little bit, get something better on the rags, maybe get a job or at least get my hand out for the day, have something to offer. He just came like he was. Good point. Tommy, I think you had your hand up. Okay. Wow. You know, that's a great testimony. Tommy, and I think probably many could echo that same thing, that you realize when you got saved, that was when God was dealing with you. And if you had passed up that opportunity, you might not have had another chance. We're going to see that, not only with Bartimaeus, Raghavus, also going to see that with Zacchaeus. And it's what makes this so fascinating that Jesus is focused on these two individuals in the midst of this huge crowd of people. Well, thank you, Edger Handel. That's a good possibility. Yeah. I don't know if you everybody's hearing what's being said that, based on the question to disciples, ask Jesus earlier, John 9 about who sinned, blind man, who sinned? Him or his parents that caused him to be this way. Maybe people who were trying to shut up Bartimaeus felt like he wasn't worthy. That, you know, he's probably done something wrong. That was very typical Jewish thinking, by the way, in that day. No, he wasn't worthy. Yeah, exactly. And the point, obviously, is that none of us are worthy to be saved. Obviously, that's true. But maybe there was a connection with what people were thinking about. Jesus didn't, he'd not come paying attention to you. You're just a beggar. You're just a blind man. You've done something wrong and simple because again, the prevailing view in Jesus' day, and we'll see it again with Zacchaeus, is Jesus, you know, why are you hanging out with bad people? Hang around with us good people, self-righteous Pharisee kinds. You know, that was the prevailing viewpoint in Jesus' day. And so I think that may well have been true where people were saying, you don't count. You know, shut up. You don't count. Jesus is not looking for you. Okay? Back in the back again. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't get all that with some other noise and coughing, but I think it was the idea that I'm sorry. I didn't get enough of it. Yes. Yes. Good. Good. Exactly. Yes. Okay? Exactly. Yeah. We're spiritually impoverished and blind just like he was physically, John. There's no indication in scriptures as to why Jesus' healings were different. You know, there was no set formula that Jesus followed. Whether or not it was because of the individual or the individual circumstance, we don't really know. But, you know, I think maybe when we were in the passage that Jesus used, or two times in the gospels where Jesus actually used spit and made clay and put it on the eyes, and maybe that was an object lesson for the person or an indication to the person of what he was going to do. And so there may have been something that Jesus knew in their heart. They needed that encouragement or extra assurance or something like that, but we're really not told why the difference. Okay. I want us to look not only at the plight of the center, but also the power of the Savior in verses 49 to 52. Notice how Jesus responded. Jesus, first of all, had the power to sympathize with him. Verse 49, Jesus stopped and said, call him. I don't, don't rush over that. Let that sink in. Just let that kind of roll over you. Again, think of the context. Huge crowds. Last stop before Jerusalem. Th wrongs of people in Jericho. We're going to find that when Jesus actually gets into the city, that people are lined up along the streets so much that Zacchaeus can't even get through the city. So there are huge throngs of people. And here's this one guy over here crying out. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David, have mercy on me and over and over and over again. But despite the clamor and the pressure of the crowd, and despite the inward pressure and the heavy weight of the cross that is looming over him like a dark shadow, Jesus hears the one voice. He hears this one guy calling out his name, have mercy on me. One person in distress and Jesus stops and says, calling. In other words, whoever was closest to Jesus, Jesus probably could not get to Bartimaus, heard him calling from some distance. He says, calling. Bring him over here. Bring him over here. To me, that is an amazing window into the heart of Jesus. Think about it now. Think about you. Think about me. Jesus is in heaven now. He hears the cries of and the adoring worship of the throngs of heaven, all the angels, millions and millions and millions of angels, and all the saints in heaven singing his praises if you will, the clamor of the crowd. Okay. He hears that all the time. And not only that, Jesus hears thousands and maybe millions of prayers coming to his attention all the time. But he also hears the one voice. And someday that one voice is yours, someday it's mine, and he hears that one voice. Don't ever think that your cry will go unheated, because no matter what's going on in heaven or on earth, Jesus is also sensitive to the one plaintive cry of a blind beggar. And that to me is one of the most amazing windows into his heart in all the scriptures. Please don't ever think he doesn't hear you. Don't ever think he's too busy with everything going on in the world or listening to the worship in heaven to hear you. He will hear you. He stops and he calls for Bartimaeus. I love that. So he had power to sympathize, to feel with, to hurt with this blind beggar outcast of society, that everybody's trying to shut up. Get out of here. Now, Jesus has time for him. I love that. He also has the power to strengthen this man. And by the way, it's interesting the crowd. Jesus stopped in verse 49 and says calling so they call to the blind man. Cheer up on your feet. He's calling you. Probably the same people that were saying shut up. Be quiet. Get out of here. Lord doesn't want you. It's kind of like one of those things, you know, the basketball coach, who in the player takes his wild outside shot from way beyond three point range. And the coach said, oh no, no, no, no, no. And the guy makes good shot. You know, it's kind of, I see the crowd kind of like that. Shut up, shut up, shut up. Oh, he's calling you. Come on, come on. You know, that that drastic change in tone of the crowd is also a window into their hearts, isn't it? And the hypocrisy. But notice what Jesus does in verse 50, throwing his cloak aside. He jumped to his feet and came to Jesus again. The picture is just so so beautiful throwing his cloak aside. Probably the only thing the man had, it was a cloak that would keep him warm at night that he would spread out together gifts as he begged at the city gate every day. It's all he had probably in the world was that cloak and he throws it aside and makes his way to Jesus. No, it's the blind man. Okay. How did he make his way to Jesus? Maybe someone helped him. Maybe he kind of stumbled his way toward where he heard the commotion, but he came toward Jesus and noticed what Jesus does. And I believe this is to strengthen him in verse 51, what do you want me to do for you, Jesus asking? Now, it seems like an unnecessary question, right? Obviously, it's obvious to everybody what this man wants from Jesus. Why did Jesus ask him that question? Wanted him to admit what he wanted. He wanted him to say it. I think you're exactly right, Tommy. You see, it's not an unnecessary question. It is not a strange question. It is not a question for information. Jesus knows obviously what Bartimaeus wants. It is a question designed to cause Bartimaeus to verbally profess what he needs and what he wants from Jesus to articulate his desire. There is something about having to think and say what is on your heart that clarifies exactly what your need is. I used to have a professor in seminary that said thoughts become unjumbled when you write them down on paper. That's the reason we make you write so many research papers because it clarifies your thinking. And that's what I believe Jesus is doing here. Jesus is wanting him to articulate, to express what his need is. You know, you get right with God, you come to the Savior in your heart, don't you? But there is something to be said. There is something focusing and clarifying on expressing that to other people. To making known what you're making known what your need is and articulating it openly and publicly. We settle our sin problem in our soul. That's true. Between you and God. But to be able to articulate that and say that to others, there is something that strengthens our resolve and our faith when we do that. I think that's what Jesus was doing. So the blind man said, Rabbi, my teacher, my master, I want to see. I want to see. And he's out with it. He said it. He's expressed his heart and then in verse 52, go said, Jesus, your faith has healed you. So here's the power of the Savior, not only to sympathize and to strengthen him, but to saving. Go, your faith has healed you. He was blind. Now he sees. There's no surgery needed, no bandages temporarily, no glasses to get his sight to adjust. Immediately, he has perfect sight. Jesus healed him. But interestingly enough, the word for healed is actually the Greek word for saved. Your faith has saved you. And so there's more than a physical healing here. And that's the reason why Jesus talks about his faith. Because not only was he healed physically, his faith in Jesus. Remember the person and work of Christ. You are the son of David. You are the Messiah. You are able to do miraculous powers. You're able to heal me. And I profess you as my Lord, my master. And I believe the man was saved. And Jesus is saying, your faith in me has saved you. Well, what happens to him very quickly? Four things. And these are the priorities of the saint. Once this man has come to Christ, his reaction, his response is immediate. And it's interesting to see what really happens to him. It's the same thing that should happen to a new believer when we get saved. There are four things that happen. First of all, there's a new understanding, middle of verse 52. Immediately, he received his sight. Now obviously here, this is physical sight. But translating that to us spiritually as we've been making the application all along, when we come to Jesus as our Savior and our sins are forgiven, we receive spiritual sight. We gain a new understanding. Remember the Bible talks about the things of the spirit of God or hidden from those who are not saved, hidden to the natural man because their foolishness to him. He doesn't welcome them. He can't receive them. First Corinthians 2.14. But once we come to know Jesus as Savior, immediately, our eyes are opened. And we began to understand spiritual things. I'm sure many of you could give testimony to the fact that the Bible became a new book to you after you came to know Christ, that it began to make sense. You began to understand. It's not that you knew everything immediately. It's not that all of a sudden you could read a verse and explain it, as well as the greatest theologian in the world, not that. But the Bible began to make sense. You began to understand what God was saying in His Word. A new understanding. Secondly, yes. Please do. Feel free to interrupt me anytime. I talked about Jesus's说, at the time of Pharaoh. There were several representatives of him. Right. What kind of discrimination is that? Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's not exactly a number. Right. Right. Yeah. And again, we have to be careful with that. You know, we have to be a little careful to make sure that we don't push that to the extent that we say, okay, you've got to say certain things before you're saved. Or verbalize things a certain way before you save you. You can carry that too far. But the point of Romans 10, 9 and 10, and the example of this man is that if you are genuinely saved, the expression of the heart comes out in the mouth. And you're willing to publicly express the fact that you're saved. And that all goes together. Okay. There's a lot more we could say there. But yeah, real quick. Yes. Yes. Yeah. It's a part of regeneration that when we come to know Christ, our eyes are opened and we begin to see not only who we are, but we begin to see the Bible. We begin to see what God means in His word and how things are supposed to be. I mean, it's theologians speak of it as the spectacles of faith. And the regeneration God puts on the spectacles of faith and you begin to see things that were unclear before. That's very true. This man saw it physically. We see it spiritually, a new understanding. But he also secondly followed Christ. Following Christ is also a result of him coming to the Savior. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Think of this. He's able to see now. And so he begins to follow Jesus. Maybe he followed him all the way to Jerusalem because that's the next stop. Jesus is going to stay overnight in Jericho and then go to Jerusalem. And maybe he followed him on. In fact, Jewish tradition tells us early church tradition tells us that Bartimaus became a leader in the early church in Jerusalem. And so think of it for a moment. If he did follow Jesus all the way to Jerusalem, think of what those eyes newly opened saw. Just think of all that he saw in the next week. Whether or not he had ever seen, whether or not he had been blind from birth or not sure, but... He just got his eyes full as he began to follow Jesus. There's no indication that he went and picked up his cloak. Did he? Luke's gospel tells us two other things that happened. Luke 18, verse 43. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus praising God. So he was praising God with great gratitude for what God had done for him. And Luke also says, when all the people saw it, they also praised God. So there's glorifying God. To glorify God means that through your actions you draw attention to the nature and character of God so that other people see who God is and what he's doing in your life. That's what it means to glorify God. Not the same thing as praising God. Praising God is gratitude, thanksgiving, verbally. We're praising God. Glorifying God is not the same as praising. Glorifying God means that you are demonstrating who he is in your life. People see his glory in and through you. And because of what happened to this man, they saw the glory of God. Other people were seeing and were praising God. The beggar was glorifying God, causing other people to praise God because of what had happened in his life. So those are some of the results of true faith in Christ. And wow, it's two minutes till eight and we are out of time. Really wanted to get the Zacchaeus so that we could get Jesus through Jericho and on up to Jerusalem that we'll have to wait on that. Jesus next encounter is with a very different kind of man. He has, as he goes into the city, reached out to one of the lowest of the lows, a blind beggar. And now he's going to reach probably the wealthiest businessman in town. A man who was the head of all the tax operations for one of the wealthiest tax areas in all of Jerusalem or in all of Israel. Because of all the trade routes that went up to Jerusalem through Jericho coming out of Korea. Everything would be taxed, coming into Jericho, going up to Jerusalem. This guy was the bureau chief in Jericho. And so he's probably the richest businessman in town. And again, Jesus focuses upon this one individual. Amazing. From the two different ends of the spectrum, runs the gamut of people that Jesus would reach. And he focuses on these two individuals in the midst of a huge throwing of people and in the midst of the crushing weight of the cross looming before him. And he focuses on a beggar and a rich tax collector. Again, what we're seeing is we look at the life of Christ is windows into who God is. We're seeing windows into the heart of Jesus. And it certainly should serve as a challenge to us. We'll look at Zacchaeus next week. Okay? We might even sing the song. Who knows. That's great. Father, we thank you for windows into our Savior's heart. To be able to see the way he interacted with people, that when the crowds were around him, he still focused on individuals. And had compassion on those who needed him the most. Lord, help us to learn from him. To move through our communities, looking for those who are needy, looking for those who are hurting, looking for those who need you. Regardless of what they come from, whether they're the blind beggar on the side of the street or the wealthiest businessman in town, help us to look for people who need you and focus upon them. And may we be, missional like Jesus was, concerned about people who need you, focused on and sensitive to their needs. Lord, we know there are times when Jesus focused on his disciples, and there's a time for that. There's also a time for focusing on those who are outside the faith and help us to learn that balance from Jesus. Thank you for lessons we can learn from him. In his name we pray, amen.