A study into the proper way to address our Lord and Master. Darren Smith presents the message.

[0:00] Good morning. I can get all my contraptions on. Honored to be here. Our group in Miamisburg, certainly our prayers are with Marv and with his recovery.

[0:12] I'm honored that my family is here. Several of my family members are here today, my parents. And I'm honored that they are here with us today as well. Let's start off with a word of prayer and then we'll get started in our study.

[0:25] Lord God, we thank you for this time. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the clarity of it. We thank you for the wisdom of those that have gone before us that have helped us to understand the things in your word.

[0:37] We ask for your presence this time as we look into the things of your word and help us to glean the things out of it that we need to know. In the Lord Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Our topic this morning is honoring his name.

[0:52] And I'm taking that concept from John chapter 13, 13. Now it may seem a little different at first about how we're going to arrive at that topic.

[1:08] Because we're going to start out, as Gary read it, in Luke's Gospel, chapter 18. And with that story there about the Lord Jesus Christ and him going through the city of Jericho.

[1:20] And he comes upon the blind man, as we read. As we look at that story, let's read through it once again. Luke 18, 35.

[1:31] It came to pass that when he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging. We want to pay attention to all the different details of this story. Hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant.

[1:43] And they told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried so much more, thou son of David, have mercy on me.

[1:58] And then Jesus stood still. And he commanded him to be brought to him. And when he was come near, he said unto him, asking him, what do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

[2:11] And Jesus said unto him, receive thy sight, thy faith has saved thee. And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

[2:22] Now, if you're looking in your Bible and you have one of those reference Bibles that helps you attach certain verses in your Bible to other places in the Bible, which you can readily reference in regard to the same topic, many of your Bibles will show that you need to also look at the story in Mark.

[2:40] Because there, once again, in the Gospel of Mark, you have a blind person and you've got the city of Jericho. Mark chapter 10, starting in verse 46.

[2:53] And when they came to Jericho, they came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.

[3:08] And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace.

[3:19] But he cried the more a great deal. Now, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be a good comfort, rise, he calleth thee.

[3:33] And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

[3:47] And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith is saved thee. Immediately he received his sight and he followed Jesus in the way. Sounds pretty familiar with what we just read.

[3:59] But we want to look at one more reference. Again, if you have a reference Bible there, it's going to reference Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew. We read Luke first and we looked at Mark and now we're going to look at Matthew.

[4:11] Matthew 20. Starting in verse 29. It says, And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.

[4:27] And behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside. When they heard Jesus pass by, they crowd out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And the multitude rebuked them because they should hold their peace.

[4:40] But they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And Jesus stood still and called them. And he says, What will ye that I should do unto you? They said unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.

[4:53] So Jesus had compassion on them and he touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight. And they followed him. It's interesting when you look at your reference Bible and you read all those stories, they just kind of blend together there.

[5:12] If you have one of your study Bibles, for example, if you have an NIV study Bible, you might look down at your text note there on Matthew 20.30, the story we just read.

[5:24] And it will say there at the bottom, Two blind men. And it will say the other synoptics, Mark and Luke, mention only one. Did you notice that? When we were reading through that, we read the first two.

[5:35] First one said there was a blind man. And then the second one says there was a blind man, but it says the guy's name is Bartimaeus. Now, the third story we read, it says there was two blind men.

[5:48] Obviously, we would ask ourselves, OK, well, which one is right? Well, or we could say, well, maybe the first two writers just mentioned one of the two, and they didn't mention the other guy.

[6:04] An example of that would be if you had a Schofield reference Bible. You would look at the text note there in Matthew 20.30, and it would say a discrepancy has been imagined between this account and Matthew and those in Mark 10 and Luke 18.

[6:23] Now, the Schofield Bible says that Matthew and Mark obviously refer to a work of healing as Jesus departed from Jericho. Bartimaeus, the active one of the two, healed in Matthew's account, is specifically mentioned by Mark.

[6:38] His name is mentioned in Mark. The healing described in Luke occurred before Jesus entered Jericho. See, so what, if you summarize that, what that means is, the Schofield notes is saying that the miracle in Matthew and Mark is talking about the same miracle.

[6:55] Luke is talking about a different miracle. Luke is talking about when they came into Jericho, and Matthew and Mark are talking about when they came out of Jericho, and then it also says that, well, Mark just only mentioned the one.

[7:11] It was the same healing as the one in Matthew, but he just mentioned one. He mentioned Bartimaeus. Well, that's another way to look at it.

[7:24] There's a third study Bible that you could look at. The Companion Bible. If you look at the Companion Bible text note on Matthew 20, verse 30, it says two blind men.

[7:36] And it says there are no discrepancies between this account in Matthew and those of Mark 10 and Luke 18. They describe three miracles on four blind men.

[7:49] One on approaching Jericho, as told in Luke. One leaving Jericho, as told in Mark. And two after he left Jericho.

[8:00] And that's what was told in Matthew. This is one of those studies that strikes at the heart of the inspiration of the Scripture.

[8:11] Well, we get into kind of just looking at them superficially, and we say, well, it was a blind man. Well, it was Jericho. And we say, okay, they're all talking about the same thing.

[8:23] As the first study Bible that we looked at kind of insinuated that opinion. But the closer that you look at these stories, you'll see how different and distinct all of the minute details are.

[8:37] Now, if you're a note taker, and you're thinking maybe you want to try to copy all this, don't worry about that. I've got extra handouts of this specific slide back on the desk there as you go out.

[8:50] So if you want a copy of this slide, it'll be available for you. But as you compare and contrast this story, you'll see, obviously, the number of blind people varies.

[9:02] In the account in Matthew, it says there were two. The account in Mark and the account in Luke says that there were just one. Does it name the blind people? Well, the account in Matthew doesn't name them.

[9:14] The account in Mark, it does name them. It says it was Bartimaeus. The account in Luke, it doesn't name that guy either. What prompted the interaction and the healing?

[9:26] What caused the blind person to interact with the Lord? In Matthew, it says that they heard Jesus passed by. In Mark, it says they heard that it was Jesus passing by.

[9:41] Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus passing by. Now, remember the account in Luke, they didn't know what the crowd was about. They heard the crowd. They heard all the commotion. They said, well, what's going on? Then they tell him it's Jesus.

[9:54] And then he starts crying out. What were the blind individuals doing? Now, this is interesting, too. In Matthew, the two that were healed, it says they were sitting.

[10:09] And in both Mark and Luke, it says they were begging. The two are just sitting. The other two are begging. Now, the first time that they cried out to the Lord, compare and contrast what they said.

[10:26] Because in Matthew, the account where there's two blind men, they cried out the first time. They said, oh, Lord, son of David. Now, Bartimaeus, when he cried out the first time, he said, Jesus, thou son of David.

[10:41] And the unnamed guy in Luke, when he cried out the first time, he said, Jesus, thou son of David. Now, remember, the Lord doesn't stop at the beginning.

[10:54] They cry out a second time. The second time that they cried out, the two in Matthew say, oh, Lord, son of David, again. They repeat the first thing that they said. The one in Mark, Bartimaeus, he says, thou son of David.

[11:08] The unnamed person in Luke says the same thing. He just says, son of David. And now the Lord's response to the second cry out, it's interesting that in the one in Matthew, where the two cry out to him, the Lord called to them himself.

[11:31] The one in Mark, Bartimaeus, the Lord commanded him to be called. In other words, he said to his servants, go call that guy. Then remember, they go to Bartimaeus and they say, the Lord's calling you.

[11:44] And the third one there in Luke, the unnamed blind man, the Lord commanded him to be brought to him. Go get him and bring him here. Now, what was the request from the blind individuals?

[12:01] The two guys in Matthew, they say, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. That was the phrase they use. And in Mark, Bartimaeus says, Rabbi, the word for Rabbi.

[12:16] Some of your King James versions still has the word Lord there, but that is a different Greek word there. It says, Rabbi, that I might receive my sight. And the unnamed blind man in Luke says, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

[12:29] He uses the word for Lord, which is Kyrios in the Greek language. Now, the Lord's words in response to the request, Matthew doesn't record anything.

[12:41] He didn't say anything to the two. In Mark, Bartimaeus, after Bartimaeus is healed, the Lord says, Go thy way.

[12:52] Thy faith has made thee whole. The unnamed blind person in Luke, he says, Receive thy sight. Thy faith has saved thee. He doesn't tell him to go his way.

[13:05] Now, does the Lord have any other reaction to the blind individuals? Notice in Matthew 20, where there's the two blind people, he says he had compassion upon them.

[13:17] Now, nothing is mentioned about any other reaction by the Lord in Mark with Bartimaeus or with Luke, the other unnamed blind guy. And now, how did the Lord heal the blind person, the blind individuals in each miracle?

[13:32] Remember in Matthew 20, when it was the two blind guys, he touched their eyes. Remember in the other two, it was just he spoke the word. He said, Receive thy sight.

[13:44] And they could see. So what you can see is that while a lot of people will harmonize these and put them together, there are a lot of different distinctions with each one of these things, each one of these stories.

[13:58] And while they're very close in the things that happen, obviously there's a call out and then there's a repeated call out. And each time the multitude's kind of like, you know, hey, be quiet.

[14:12] But each time they call out again. And then each time the blind man is healed. Well, once again, this strikes at the heart of the inspiration of the scripture.

[14:23] Do we just harmonize them and say that, well, one guy wasn't really paying attention as much and he didn't notice the other guy or he got the details a little wrong?

[14:34] Or is every specific word of God true exactly as it was written? The notes in the Schofield Reference Bible and the notes in the Companion Bible mention about where and when these miracles took place.

[14:52] And that's your key to understanding it. If you look in your Bible, obviously the order in your Bible is Matthew, Mark, and Luke. When you think about these miracles that happened in Jericho with these blind people, just reverse them as far as their chronological order in your Bible.

[15:08] Because the one that was in Luke happened first. The one that was in Mark happened second. And the one that was in Matthew happened third.

[15:19] And as you see the introduction there in Luke 18, it says, And it came to pass that as he was come nigh unto Jericho. This gives you the key as to when this miracle took place.

[15:32] Yes, it's Jericho. And yes, it's a blind person. But this is as he's coming into Jericho. And it's really striking. The people that were following the Lord and that were watching everything that he did must have been kind of blown away that this thing happened three times.

[15:49] Almost in, you know, a short amount of time during his just sojourn in this one city. But it's as he was come nigh unto Jericho that the first blind man was sitting by the wayside begging.

[16:03] And now if you look at the introduction to the passage in Mark 10, in verse 46 there, it says, They came to Jericho and as he went out of Jericho.

[16:15] So he's in Jericho. He came into Jericho. And now as he is starting to go out of Jericho. So he's just starting to leave Jericho. So that's your key to show you that when Bartimaeus is healed, he's healed just as the Lord starts to go out of Jericho.

[16:35] And then you'll see that when the two blind men are healed in Matthew 20, it's as they departed from Jericho. So now they're outside.

[16:45] Now they're going from Jericho and they're departing from it. And they're leaving it back in their sights in the background. They're departing from it. And now there's two blind men.

[16:58] And now all the different discrepancy that seem to be discrepancies vanish. If we just pay attention to where the Lord was coming and where he was going.

[17:10] So on our little chart, I added there at the bottom, when and where the story happened. Luke was when he was coming and I into Jericho.

[17:21] Mark was when he was, as he was started to go out of Jericho. And Matthew was as they departed from Jericho. So there's four blind men that get healed.

[17:33] And the occurrences of these miracles at Jericho happened, like I said, in the reverse order as they appear in your Bible. Now why do we bring up this particular story?

[17:49] It always struck me when I read an account like the one in Luke. That there's a whole multitude going by and the Lord Jesus is walking by and the blind man calls out to him and he says, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

[18:12] And what does the Lord do? I guess he keeps walking. And then the blind guy cries out again. They tell him to be quiet and the blind guy cries out again.

[18:23] He says, he cries out again and he says, Son of David, have mercy on me. And the Lord stops. What's the only difference between the first thing that he said and the second thing that he said?

[18:41] Now, Son of David is obviously a term that's related to Messiahship. The Messiah who was to come to Israel was to be of the line of David.

[18:54] And so, when they looked for their Messiah, for their King to come, they would say that we are looking for the Son of David. So, that affords him his proper office, his proper authority.

[19:07] How do we address our Lord? What is the proper way to address our Lord? I went through a study. I started in the four gospel accounts.

[19:18] And I went all the way through the Lord's ascension in Acts chapter 1. Do you know that there are 145 times where the Lord Jesus Christ was addressed with some type of name or title?

[19:31] And then, I'm not talking about when a writer is referring to Jesus as he went about and did his ministry. In other words, they say, Jesus departed from Jericho.

[19:43] We're not talking about times when a writer is describing what the man did. I'm talking about instances where people are talking to him. They are addressing him. And 145 times, the Lord Jesus Christ is addressed by different individuals.

[20:04] 67 times, 67 of those 145 times, they would say to him, Lord. And you know what? The majority of the times that you see any of his followers, any of his disciples address him, they will call him Lord.

[20:21] 48 times, they call him Master. Now, I included the word Rabbi, which occurs two times. Now, I think I should probably break that out in further study because it's translated Master a lot in the King James Version and some other versions.

[20:39] But they say Master 48 times. Now, there's eight times that he's addressed as Jesus. Seven times, he's addressed as Son of David. Sir, six times, Son of God three times, God one time, Son one time, Christ one time.

[20:58] Is there a proper way that we should address the Lord Jesus Christ? And as we study through and we see how individuals addressed the Lord while he was here on the earth and even after he arose, remember when he arose and he appeared to Saul on the road to Tarsus, he said, Who art thou, Lord?

[21:21] How do we address him? And what can we learn from the scriptures about that? The theme of my message is taken from John 13, 13. And that's where the Lord Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says, You call me Master and Lord and you say well for so I am.

[21:44] In other words, you know what? You're doing a good thing. When you talk to me and you address me and you say Master or you say Lord, you're doing a good thing.

[21:57] You say well because that's what I am. The Lord commends them for calling him Master and calling him Lord. The Greek words that you'll find there, and I always give the Strong's Concordance reference numbers because I'm not a Greek person.

[22:13] I don't know Greek. I always use my Strong's Concordance because you can look up Greek words there and it gives you the definition. So I always give the Strong's Concordance number there when I go to a Greek word.

[22:27] But the word for Master there is that's kalos. And I know I butchered that but it's 1320 in your Strong's Concordance. It means a teacher, one who teaches concerning the things of God and the duties of man.

[22:41] Or it also says that you call me Lord. Kyrgios 2962 To ye to whom a person or thing belongs about which he has power of deciding.

[22:51] Master, Lord. This title is given to God and the Messiah. 79, according to our charts, so 79, almost 80% of the time that our Lord is addressed in the Scriptures, they call him Master or they call him Lord.

[23:08] And the Lord commends them for this. He says that's a good thing. That's a good thing. But now, I want to look at this other word where they call him Jesus.

[23:22] You know that there's only eight times in the Scriptures that anyone addresses our Lord and calls him by the name Jesus.

[23:34] Now, what we should understand about the name Jesus from Luke chapter 1 and verse 31, we should understand there right at the conception, right when the Lord was conceived in Mary's womb, the angel said, Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son.

[23:54] You shall call his name Jesus. And we've got to realize that that is the point in time that our Savior was given the name Jesus.

[24:09] So, if you look at that, you look at eternity past. Remember, he was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him and through him. So, he existed way back in eternity past.

[24:21] When the Lord God said he was going to create the heavens and the earth, he said, let us make man in our image, for example. The Lord was there at that time.

[24:33] Was he called Jesus yet? No. It was at the time the Lord's conception, the Lord's conception in Mary was announced that the virgin conceived and was with child.

[24:47] Then the angel said that you shall call his name at this point Jesus, meaning Jehovah's Savior. He's going to take, he's going to become the Savior of us, Savior from our sins.

[25:03] If we look further in our Bible, do you know that in Revelation 3.12 and in Revelation 19.12 it says that our Lord will have a new name that nobody even knows yet. So, you've got this window of time, you've got this window of time between Luke chapter 1 where Mary conceives in her womb until that time in Revelation where the Lord has given a new name, that is the time that he took upon the name Jehovah's Savior.

[25:34] If we look at Philippians 2, we understand a little bit more about what the Lord Jesus did. In Philippians 2 starting in verse 5, he says, Christ Jesus who being in the form of God, he's in the form of God in eternity past, he says, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but it made himself of no reputation and he took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.

[26:00] And he found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of a cross. The God of the universe that created everything from him and through him all things were made.

[26:14] He existed in eternity past. Remember, he said, before Abraham was, I am. That God became one of us.

[26:25] Do you think that's taking kind of a humbling step? Going from that to this? But he did it to save us.

[26:37] He did, he became Jehovah's Savior to save us. So, eight times, though, this name that he was given in Luke chapter 1, eight times this name is used when addressing the Lord.

[26:54] Let's look at those eight times. Matthew 8, 29, there were two demons in the Gergensenes. Mark 1, 28, a man with an unclean and demonic spirit.

[27:09] Mark 5, 7, a man with an unclean demonic spirit. Luke 4, 34, a man in Nazareth with an unclean demonic spirit. The man in the gatherings with two unclean demonic spirits.

[27:22] this is what the demons call him. Now, this gets back to the story that we were looking at before.

[27:34] The only other times that anybody addressed him as Jesus was our blind people. Blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10, 47, and the certain blind man in Luke 18, 38.

[27:48] There's one other time in Luke 17, 13, there were 10 lepers. These are the only times that anybody called him by the name Jesus.

[28:02] If we look up these references, Matthew 8, 28 was the first one. They come to the other side into the country of the Gergensenes. There met him too possessed with devils coming out by the tombs and exceeding fear so that no man might pass by and behold they cried out saying, What have we to do, Jesus, thou son of God?

[28:23] Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? Look at Mark 1, 23. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying, Let us alone.

[28:35] What do we have to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know who thou art, the holy one of God. Mark 5, verse 1, They came unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

[28:51] When he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. Drop down to verse 6, But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and he cried with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God?

[29:06] I adjure thee by God, thou torment me not. Luke 4, in the synagogue, there was a man, starting in verse 33, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?

[29:23] Art thou come to destroy us? I know who thou art, the Holy One of God. Finally, in Luke 8, they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over by Galilee.

[29:37] And when he went forth to a land, there met out of him the city a certain man which had devils a long time, and he wore no clothes, neither abode in any house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried and fell down before him with a loud voice, What have I to do with thee, thou Jesus, thou Son of the Most High?

[29:53] I beseech thee, torment me not. Are we getting kind of the picture here? Think about an illustration that we can relate to.

[30:08] If you had the President of the United States, and let's say for a charitable organization, he wanted to help out and make a statement about charity.

[30:19] Let's say that this man became janitor for a day at the local school to help clean up. After that, would you call him Mr.

[30:31] Janitor? Or would you call him Mr. President? We afford respect and honor to those who were in positions that warrant respect and honor.

[30:49] I think of another illustration, one that I watched play out on TV, another one regarding the President. It was an interaction I saw on TV where there was discussion and debate going on.

[31:04] I believe it was about the recent health care issue. And President Obama was discussing the issues with John McCain. And I remember John McCain presenting his contentions to the issues about the health care debate.

[31:22] And obviously McCain was on the polar opposite side of the issue. Polar opposite side than Mr. Obama about the issues.

[31:34] But McCain went through his list of contentions, his list of issues that he wanted to present. And I noticed at the end he says, Mr. President, I'd like you to present this for your considerations, Mr.

[31:50] President. Though I disagree with you and though I'm presenting my opposing opinion, I'm going to address you as Mr. President. President. And I remember President Obama responding and saying to him, well, John, he didn't say Mr.

[32:12] Senator. What kind of respect and what kind of honor do we give to those people who have deserved it?

[32:25] I, for example, don't agree with a lot of President Obama's policies, but if he were to come into my presence, I would address him as Mr.

[32:40] President. It is the office and the honor that goes with it that is paramount to consider. So, what do we think about in relation to our Lord and Savior?

[32:55] Jesus Christ? The disciples and his followers consistently all the time, they said Lord, Lord, Lord, or they said Master, Master, Master.

[33:13] And doesn't it make sense that it's the demons, the demons who are always saying consistently, every time you see a demon talking in those gospel accounts, then they address him, they say Jesus.

[33:30] Wouldn't the demons want to ridicule him? You know what? You are just Jesus of Nazareth. You are just the human being, Jesus of Nazareth.

[33:43] God. So this is why I brought up these stories about the blind men that were healed in Jericho.

[33:58] Aside from the demons addressing our Lord as Jesus, these are the only times in your scriptures where you see anybody set using the word Jesus.

[34:09] So let's go through these stories real quick once again. And we'll notice some of the things that really help us see the distinctions and help us understand, I think, a lot of the things that the Lord is trying to teach us.

[34:24] The first story was in Luke 18, verse 35. It says, And it came to pass that he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside.

[34:35] He's begging. Now remember, the two were seen as begging. It shows they're in a desperate condition. These things are symbolic as well as real and literal.

[34:47] There literally was a blind guy and he literally was sitting there begging. But the types are always shown, they always display the wisdom of God. This guy's in the condition where he's begging.

[35:01] He hears the multitude pass by and he asks what it meant. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. this shows that this beggar had no idea the Lord was coming to town.

[35:12] He had no idea about the fact that salvation was so close at hand. He simply asked what the commotion was all about. And they said it's Jesus of Nazareth. You almost see this guy as being a different type than Bartimaeus.

[35:27] Because this guy has no idea who's coming or what the deal is. He's just made aware of it. But he's in a begging and desperate condition. So he starts to cry out.

[35:39] Now notice the first time that he cries out he says Jesus thou son of David have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him that he should hold their peace.

[35:50] But he cried all the more. Now the second time he cries out he just says son of David have mercy on me. And you know what?

[36:01] The Lord stops. Let's keep track of this guy's how he addresses the Lord. The first time he says Jesus son of David. The second time he says son of David.

[36:16] In other words Messiah. So Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near he says saying what will thou that I should do unto thee? And then he says Lord curious.

[36:32] Lord that I might receive my sight. And the word for receive my sight. It's a compound word. And a bleepo. It's 308 in your strong concordant.

[36:42] It's from a it's the from the combining Anna which is 303 which means again. And bleepo which is 991 which means to see. And I believe that Gary's translation had it.

[36:56] I want to see again. So this is what he's asking about. He's asking about I want to see again. And he addresses him by the proper term.

[37:06] He says Lord. So he's went from Jesus thou son of David then he went to just son of David and now he says curious Lord. And the Lord's response receive your sight.

[37:23] And then he has to make sure he understands something. I think that because this guy is a new guy. He says thy faith has saved thee.

[37:37] He's got to make sure that that blind guy understands that it was his faith that made the Lord heal him. His faith saved him.

[37:48] And it was important for the Lord to inform him of that. So immediately the guy receives his sight and follows him glorifying God and all the people. When they saw it they gave praise to God. But you see the progression.

[37:58] So in the first miracle the guy goes from Jesus son of David to son of David and he says Lord. And then the Lord heals him.

[38:09] He says I'm giving you your wish. You got your sight back. And he says I need to inform you. I need to like bring it's like bringing along a beginner. You need to know this that it was your faith that saved you.

[38:22] You know there's other times in the gospel accounts where the Lord makes it a specific point to go tell that person specifically your faith has saved you. Your faith has saved you.

[38:35] So that they understand. It's like he's leading them along. Now the second miracle they go into Jericho and now they're just starting to leave Jericho. Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples a great number of people.

[38:51] Now this guy is named Blind Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus. Now you know the word Bartimaeus it's 924 in your strong concordance. It's a proper noun transliterated from the Chaldean bar which means son and tammy which means a foul in a religious sense defiled polluted unclean.

[39:17] So it's interesting the emphasis that's placed on this. Bartimaeus son of polluted foul you know religious defilement.

[39:30] This is the guy that's coming to him the second time and he's in a condition of begging. He's in a condition of begging too.

[39:40] and they heard it was Jesus in Nazareth he began to cry out to Jesus thou son of David have mercy on me and the many charge him that he should hold his peace and again he cries out again and he does the same thing where it's almost like he's learning a little bit Jesus thou son of David and then just son of David he calls him to the second time.

[40:05] Now this time it says he calls to him and they come to the blind man and they say be a good comfort rise he calleth thee and he casts away his garment and he rose and he came to Jesus.

[40:17] It's almost like if he's symbolic of what his name means in other words if he's symbolic of religious defilement and he's got himself all worked up in all sorts of things that are defiling and unclean it's almost like this is symbolic of him throwing away whatever he was covering himself with before.

[40:36] So he comes the same thing and Jesus asked him again what should I do unto you and this guy says rabbi and I this is only used twice in the scriptures rabbi I might receive my sight.

[40:50] Now the Lord grants him but he adds one word he says go thy way thy faith has made thee whole and tell him to follow him or he doesn't but he says go your way go your way.

[41:02] Now he gives him his sight his sight is restored but it's interesting he says go thy way thy faith has made thee whole and immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way.

[41:13] It's almost like in both of these instances he's dealing with people who are almost at a certain level where they're learning the basics and he has to tell both of them your faith has saved you and in Bartimaeus' case he says go your way.

[41:34] Now look at how different look at how different now that you look at the details look at how different the account in Luke will be and we'll get to that here in a minute. Yeah let's get to the story in Matthew I'm sorry we'll get back to the story in Luke that I want to look at the end.

[41:57] The story in Matthew is where there was the two healed it says and they departed from Jericho a great multitude followed him so now he's healed the other two guys and it says and behold pay special attention to this.

[42:10] There's two blind men and they're just sitting by the wayside. They're not portrayed as being in a condition of begging. It's almost like they're just waiting for him to come by.

[42:24] They're just out there sitting there. And it says and when they heard that Jesus passed by they're sitting there and then they wait and then he starts passing by.

[42:35] So then they call out. Now notice the first thing they call out they get it right the first time. Oh Lord Kyrios thou son of David. And the multitude again starts to yell more and more and he says trying to tell them to hold their peace but they cry the more the same thing.

[42:53] Oh Lord Kyrios thou son of David. And Jesus stood still and you know what? He called them himself. He says come on over here.

[43:07] He talks to them directly. Jesus stood still and he called them and he said what will you that I shall do unto you? They said unto him Lord now look at the phrase that they use that our eyes may be opened.

[43:25] They don't just ask the anablipo they don't ask for restore my sight. They say they use the phrase that our eyes may be opened and that's 455 in your strong concordance.

[43:38] Spoken of the eyes to open the eyes means either one of own's eyes or those of another meaning to cause to see or restore sight. But metaphorically this is used a lot to open the eyes of the understanding of the mind and to cause to perceive and understand as in Acts 26 18.

[43:58] That phrase is used a lot. Open their eyes. Now do they mean make you visually physically see again? No. It means make you understand.

[44:10] That referenced Acts 26 18. That's when the apostle Paul was first saved. The apostle Paul is recounting his salvation here in Acts 26 to Agrippa.

[44:22] And he's recounting the story where the Lord Jesus said appears to him and Paul said in verse 15 Who art thou Lord? And he said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest but rise and stand upon thy feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which you have seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee.

[44:48] This is where the Lord Jesus Christ sends the apostle Paul to us the Gentiles and what does he send him to us to do he says to open their eyes the same word he sends him to the Gentiles to us to open our eyes and what does that mean that means to turn us from darkness to light from the power of Satan and the God so there's two things that will happen when our eyes you receive the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by the faith that is within me have our eyes been opened we as Gentiles today have we had our eyes opened it's interesting that that very same apostle the apostle Paul writes a letter to the Ephesians the Ephesians obviously are people that are already saved he says he thanks God for their love and faith in the Lord Jesus

[45:48] Christ but he prays for them in Ephesians 1 he says wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love unto all the saints I cease not to give thanks for you making mention to you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him you save people what do you need he says that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened so that your eyes will be opened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe let's ask ourselves today do we know what the hope of his calling is do we know what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints is do we know what the greatness of his power to us word who believe is those are things that Paul writes to saved individuals he says

[46:50] I want your eyes to be opened so that you understand these things so how well do we see how well do we see when these guys asked that their eyes be opened it says Jesus had compassion upon them and that's 4697 the compassion it comes from the word meaning bowel that means your inside your innards that means that the Lord felt deeply he yearned he had compassion and pity it indicates an inner feeling and is frequently recorded a Christ attitude towards the multitudes and the individuals so when these people said said Lord we want our eyes to be opened the Lord it really stirred something inside the Lord he had compassion upon them and you know what he touched them he touched them he reached out his hand and he touched them did he need to tell them that their faith had made them whole no do you see there's something closer here there's something that's more intimate recognize the

[48:02] Lord who he is and we honor him for who he is it's a better starting point for us to get to know him better to have our eyes open because you know what I don't just want to you know know about the Lord from a distance I want him to talk directly to me like he talked to these two I don't want to know the Lord from a distance I would be thrilled if you would reach out and he would touch me how do we perceive the Lord and how do we afford him the respect that he deserves the other we're not going to have time to get to it we're a little over but the other reference if you look in Luke 17 where the ten lepers respond to the Lord when the one leper comes back remember the other nine didn't when the one leper comes back the

[49:06] Lord will use the same phrase to that guy in Luke 17 13 he'll use the same phrase to that guy that he used the blind Bartimaeus he'll say go thy way thy faith is save thee and once again he reminds him it's not as intimate or not as close as what's happening here because I think that those people just didn't understand they didn't understand they were just learning maybe the first guy was just learning about the Lord maybe the second guy had slipped into some bad habits or some things that defiled him so he wasn't as far along but these last guys here in Matthew they've they've gotten to the point where they know how to address him properly they know who he is and how he should be addressed when we see him directly as he is he's more willing to talk to us directly through his word when we see him as he is he has more he has exceeding compassion for us and when we see him as he is he's more willing to open our eyes remember be careful what you hear he's willing to open up your eyes and make you see the deeper things that he would have us to see as we think about how we address the

[50:41] Lord when we talk to him do we say dear Jesus in our prayers when we sing to him do we say my Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine do we understand what we are saying or do we afford him the proper title that he warrants do we say Lord Jesus Christ do we say Christ Jesus Jesus Christ do we give him the title that he that he that he warrants with that let's close up with a word of prayer and we'll be dismissed Lord God we thank you for this time we thank you that you were willing to leave the glory that you had before time began and to become Jehovah Savior to become what we needed you to be to save us love love and things, that you are the Messiah, that you do have power to do miraculous things, but open our eyes to the extent that we understand that you are the Lord of all creation, that you existed before Abraham, that you made everything that we see, and that you control everything in our lives.

[52:25] We thank you that you are a compassionate God. When we recognize your glory, we are amazed that you would have anything to do with us at all, but you have counted the very numbers of the hairs of our head, and we thank you for that.

[52:40] In the Lord Jesus' name we pray, amen.