Sermon for Lord's Day September 25, 2022 Luke 18:35-43

Luke’s Healing of the Blind Beggar and the Question of Apparent Contradictions

God's Word states in Luke 18, verse 39, these are the words of the living God. And the scripture states, as he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. Hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.

They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, and he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, recover your sight, your faith has made you well.

And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God, and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Thus far as the reading of God's Holy Word, you may be seated. If you're taking notes and would like to put a title at the top of your notes, I simply put, son of David, have mercy on me, for the title of my notes here, you can choose whatever you want, that's straight from the text there.

And we're gonna look at six things this morning, but the first three things, if you wanna make notes and leave space here, the first thing is that we're gonna look at very quickly some so-called discrepancies in the scriptures concerning this text, concerning this passage.

So the so-called discrepancies we're gonna look at, number two, I'd like for us to notice that the blind man was not hindered by the people's statements to leave Jesus alone. The blind man was not hindered by the people's statements to leave Jesus alone.

Good morning, good morning. Number three, notice the blind man's cry and the blind man's plea. The blind man's cry and the blind man's plea. So very quickly, first things first, let's look at the so-called discrepancies in the Bible about these accounts.

The Blind Healings in Matthew and Luke Are Not Contradictions

Now, there are skeptics and there are Bible haters who would say that this is a contradiction. Some would say that this is one of those mistakes in the Bible that proves it to be untrue. But today, church, I would argue that these differences in the accounts of the blind man are not mistakes at all, but rather they are more evidences of the wonders and the healings that Jesus performed to demonstrate that he is truly the only begotten Son of God.

Now, some of you may be questioning what are these supposed contradictions? They can be found as we turn back over into Matthew's gospel. If you turn over to Matthew chapter nine and mark your place and then mark Matthew chapter 20.

In Matthew chapter nine, in verse 27, the word of God states this. As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "'Have mercy on us, Son of David.'. And when he entered the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus said to them, "'Do you believe that I am able to do this?'.

And they said to him, "'Yes, Lord.'. Then he touched their eyes, saying, "'According to your faith, be it done to you.'. And their eyes were opened, and Jesus sternly warned them, "'See that no one knows about it.'.

But they went away, and they spread his fame throughout all that district.". And then if you turn over to Matthew chapter 20. In Matthew chapter 20, and we read in verse 29. Matthew chapter 20 in verse 29.

Notice what the gospel writer Matthew puts here. As they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men.

Sitting by the roadside.

And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, "'Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.'. The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, "'Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.'.

And David stopped, or I'm sorry, and stopping, Jesus called them and said, "'What do you want me to do for you?'. And they said, "'Lord, let our eyes be open.'. And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight, and they followed him.".

Again, these two passages set against this passage here in Luke is one that many skeptics will use to say, see, the Bible contradicts itself. See, the Bible's not consistent. But my friend, as I stated to you a moment ago, this is an evidence, this is a demonstration of the glory of God put on display specifically in specific instances, separately, where we see blind people being healed.

So this is not a contradiction, and we know this because in Matthew 20, it said that he was going out of Jericho, and here in Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 18, we see that he is entering Jericho. Two separate events, two separate times, three separate events of the blind being healed, but we do see consistency in them, that those who were healed cried out to the Lord, and they cried out, they called him the son of David.

Very, very important. So in verse 35 of our text here in Luke 18, as he drove near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing the crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.

They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, had mercy on me. So number two, notice that the blind man was not hindered by the people's statements to leave Jesus alone.

A Blind Sinner’s Need for Christ and the Cry for Mercy

If we look back in, again, just earlier on in Luke's gospel, in Luke chapter eight, if you turn back over to Luke chapter eight, and we read the account of Jairus's daughter being healed, and the woman with the issue of blood, notice very carefully as we look at this text as well, there was no stopping them getting to Jesus.

In Luke chapter eight, verse 40, the scripture states, when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there was a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue, and falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age,.

And she was dying.

And as Jesus went, the people pressed around him, and there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.

But the scripture states, she came up behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately, her discharge of blood was ceased. And Jesus said, who is it that touched me? And when all denied it, Peter said, master, the crowd surrounds you and are pressing in on you, but Jesus said, someone touched me, for I perceive that power is gone out from me.

And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him, and declared in the presence of all the people, why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.

And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you whole, go in peace. So just as we read in those two instances in Luke 8, this is what's going on here, that they were pressing toward Jesus, they were desiring to see Jesus, they were desiring to touch Jesus, and the Bible says that even as the crowds pressed in on them, so this blind man, this blind man who sat by the wayside begging as the scripture states, he was earnestly seeking the help of the Savior.

He had a great problem, now here's the problem, here's what we all have in common, here's an application of the text, he had a problem that only Jesus could fix. Each and every single person that has lived or ever will live has a problem that only Jesus can fix.

And that problem is the problem of sin. Our sins have separated us from a holy God, and the only way that we can be made right and be reconciled unto God is by and through the finished work of Jesus Christ, for Christ died for our sins.

He was buried, and on the third day, he arose from the grave. This man, he had a problem that only Jesus could fix. Now what was his problem specifically in the text? He was blind. And because he was blind, he was unable to do anything, to care for himself, to work for a living, to do this and that, to go on, so he was constantly depending on another.

But this need that he has, this blindness, could not be remedied by the magicians of their day. This blindness could not be faked, this healing could not be faked.

By the charlatans of that day.

This is a work that only the son of the living God was able to do. So he was not hindered, he had a problem that only Jesus could fix, and that problem was that he was literally blind and unable to provide for himself a living.

And then number three, number three, notice his cry and his plea, for that truly is what it was. This idea of coming to Christ flippantly, this idea that we see, and we see it brought to fruition in so many cases.

You see when you're, you might be at a big conference, at a big meeting, the messages that are giving are stirring. And it may be that they say, if you want to come down to this altar and trust Christ as your savior, you can.

And then you see hundreds of people streaming down the aisles. You see kids, particularly at youth conferences. By the way, I got saved at a youth conference. But I want to say this is to preface what I'm saying.

I was not able to get up and to flippantly run down to the front with the rest of the crowd that was there. I was stuck way up high in the balcony. I was in a place that I couldn't get out of and get down to where everybody was going and getting saved.

But I'll tell you who was there, the Lord was there. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost of God convicted me of my sin way up high in that balcony. He met me right where I was. But the problem and the issue that I was talking about, you see these altar calls given and people come by the hundreds.

You see kids skipping and hopping and laughing and cutting up as they're coming up to the front to quote unquote be saved. My friend, when we get a sight and a realization and the biblical vision of who God is, there is no way that we will come to him flippantly.

There is no way that we can come unto the throne of God, come unto the throne of grace in any other way than that old tax collector and that publican in the temple that Jesus talked about previously, but with our heads hung low, smiting upon our breasts and crying out this, Lord, please be merciful to me.

I'm a sinner. And if you come to Christ, you'll come to Christ as an unworthy sinner. So number three, his cry and his plea. Notice what he cried. He cried, son of David, have mercy on me. He could have hollered Jesus of Nazareth to get Jesus' attention.

He could have done like most of the other accounts that we hear where folks just call Jesus rabbi or good master as the young ruler did. But no, the Bible tells us here, we have specifically in this account and in Matthew's account, again, consistency.

We have consistency in the scriptures that the blind men who came to Jesus, whether they were the ones coming into Jericho or the ones going out of Jericho, all cried the same thing, have mercy on me, son of David.

And so what does this mean, this son of David? Well, in his commentary, John Gill puts it quite clearly, quite nicely. He said this concerning the blind man. He said concerning the blind man, he believing him at once, Jesus, to be the Messiah, which he calls him the son of David, which was historically, contextually, which was the character and the title of the Messiah, well known to the Jews, to the promised Messiah.

In your time this week, I encourage you to read Matthew chapter one. To most folks, it may be one of the most boring parts of scripture. It may rank right up there with the book of Leviticus. But I'm telling you what, when you understand and you realize that the genealogy that's given to us in Matthew's gospel, the genealogy of Jesus Christ puts Jesus Christ in the line of King David, which was the prophecy that went on concerning him.

And what is amazing, amazing to me is that the blind man could see Jesus for who he was. The blind man could see Jesus that he is the son of the living God. And yet the multitudes would not see Jesus for who he was.

In Matthew chapter 12, verse 22 through 28, we have the account of the demon oppressed man. This is the word of God. Then the demon oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him and Jesus healed him so that the man both spoke and saw.

And all the people were amazed. And the question that they asked, again, this is in Matthew's gospel.

When Jesus did this,.

The question that the people asked was this, can this be the son of David? You know what they were referring to? You know what they were asking the Pharisees about? Is this the promised Messiah? We have read about the Messiah that is to come and that Jesus Christ being the son of the living God, fully God and fully man, could do only what he was able to do.

Could this be the son of God? And then going on there in Matthew 12, verse 24, the Pharisees heard this question. They heard this question and they said, it is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.

When they heard the people refer to Jesus as the son of David, they began to attribute the works that Jesus was doing to the works of Beelzebul. And the scripture goes on there in Matthew 12, 25. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city and no house divided against itself will stand.

And Jesus said, if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. And he asked this question to them, how then will his kingdom stand?

Right?

A kingdom divided will not stand.

But he said, how will the devil's,.

How will Satan's kingdom stand if it's divided against itself? And Jesus said to them, if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, whom do your sons cast them out? Big question here. Very big question. What was being stated by Jesus in this question?

Because the practice of the Jews during this time was that the scribes, the Pharisees, the elders deemed themselves to be holy men of God. And they went about quote unquote, casting out demons and doing miracles and signs and wonders, which were only counterfeits, which were only fakes.

They were the charlatans that I referred to earlier. We have charlatans in churches today who fake, who put on counterfeits, but my friend, there is only one who is able to heal both soul and body. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so Jesus told them, they will be your judges. And then he said, but if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons. He said, if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

He left them no out. He said, look, if it is by the spirit of God that I've done the work that I've done, then you need to realize something that the kingdom of God has come. And we know this to be true.

This term son of David was used 72 times in the gospels to refer to Jesus. Now, blindness to the person and to the work of Jesus Christ, blindness to the person and the work of Jesus Christ was a reality then, and it is still yet a reality today.

Men and women, boys and girls alike, if left to themselves, if you left to yourselves, you are unable to savingly see and to know Christ in and of yourselves.

Why?

Well, the scriptures tell us why. Because of the blindness and the hardness of our hearts as human beings. But I will say this, thanks be unto God. Thanks be unto God today that he is able to give sight to the blind, that he is able to give hearing to the deaf, that he is able to give life to the dead, and it is by and through his work of regeneration in the hearts and in the souls of men.

Some of you may say, well, what do you mean by blindness and hardness of our hearts? Again, we go to the scripture, 2 Corinthians chapter four, 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse one through six. The apostle Paul in his second letter to the Corinthian church writes these words.

Therefore, having this ministry, by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful and underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to temper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

And that's when he said this, and even if our gospel is hidden, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let there be light or let light shine out of darkness,.

He has shown in our hearts.

To give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God,.

How?

In the face of Jesus Christ. So notice again, to that second point, back to that very quickly, how this man cried out to Jesus, his plea and his cry. Gil went on to say concerning this man's plea, he said he neither dropped the character of Christ nor his request to him.

At the same time, he understood that Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of the living God. And yet at the same time, he didn't let up in seeking Christ. This is a beautiful picture of how we are to pursue the Lord.

So Gil went on to say this, but he called out even more loudly when the crowds were saying, no, no, no. He cried out more loudly. He cried out with greater earnestness. He cried out with greater vehemence.

And so Gil comes to this conclusion, so persons sensible of their need of Christ and of his worth, of his excellency and of his ability are not to be discouraged from an application to him by whatever they meet with from men or by devils.

Now what Gil was saying there was this, we ought not to impede the progress of anyone coming to Christ. Christ warned the Pharisees that they were actually keeping people from the kingdom of God by doing the things that they did.

And the people here in this context, the people who were surrounding Jesus and according to the context, the people, the crowd that was out in front of Jesus, right? They're the ones that heard Bartimaeus, I'm sorry, not Bartimaeus.

They heard the beggar crying out for Jesus, right? They heard beggar crying out for Jesus and they tried to hush him up. They tried to quieten him down. But let me say this, if Jesus is coming, if Jesus is calling, not a Sarah Young book reference, that's her heresy by the way.

But if Jesus is calling, if the Holy Spirit bid you come unto him and be saved, then my friend, there ought nobody try to get in your way. And there is nothing that will keep you from coming to Christ.

There is no circumstance. There is no situation. There is no person, no matter how powerful they may be, that can keep you from coming to Christ when Christ calls you unto himself. So he heard Jesus was coming to town that day.

He heard the hub, what's the hubbub, right? He heard the ruckus. He heard the crowds as they were coming. And they said, well, Jesus is coming. And immediately he cries out, son of David, have mercy on me.

Jesus’ Response, the Man’s Sight, and the Crowd’s Praise

Again, if we, we've already looked there at Luke's gospel, back at Luke's gospel, chapter eight, verse 48. But very quickly, as we move to a close here, let's look at the latter portion of this text from verse 40 to verse 43.

The scripture says, and Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, recover your sight.

Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Three things that we're going to see in this last portion.

Three things, we'll see Jesus' response. Number two, we're going to see the seeing man's response. He wasn't blind no more. We see the seeing man's response. And number three, we'll see the crowd's response.

So what was Jesus' response? That was in verse 40 through 42. Jesus' response, when he heard this blind man crying out, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus' response, the scripture says that Jesus stopped.

Obviously stopped right near where the blind man is, right in his vicinity. So Jesus stopped. And what did Jesus do? He commanded him to be brought to him because this man being blind, didn't know his way around.

He couldn't tell where Jesus was in that crowd. Now Jesus could have been talking to his disciples or he could have been talking to the crowd. But it was likely part of that bunch that kept saying, hush, hush.

Jesus said, you, bring him over here to me. The very ones who tried to impede his progress.

Coming to Jesus.

Jesus, the Lord has done that repeatedly throughout the scriptures. Those who God uses to punish the people of God, he winds up getting his revenge on them and avenging what has taken place. So Jesus stopped.

Jesus commanded the blind man to be brought to him, according to the text here. And when he came near, when the blind man came near, Jesus asked him a very simple question. What do you want me to do for you?

Because what this blind man did was cry for mercy. And it was merciful for the Lord to give this man his sight. So Jesus' response was that he stopped and he commanded the blind man to be brought to him.

And now, notice the seeing man's response. The seeing man's response. He answered the Lord by saying, Lord, recover my sight. And Jesus responded to him by saying, your sight is recovered. You can now see.

I can't imagine what it must have been like for him that day. For the first time to see with his own eyes. And we talk a lot about, in the stories given a lot of times, examples are given a lot of times of folks who have been blind and deaf from their birth.

They trust and they believe in Jesus Christ, are saved by the grace of God. And we rejoice in the fact that the very first voice that they hear when they are in the presence of God is the Lord's voice.

The very first person that they see with those eyes that have been blind are not, it's not men and women like you and I, but they see the son of the living God. This man's first sight was of Jesus Christ.

And I believe there is nothing that compares to Jesus Christ. So Thomas Watson actually said this, but let me preface this. What this man had now and what he did not have before.

Was hope.

He had hope.

He had hope in the true and the living God. You can have hope in the things of this world. You can put your confidence in the things of this world and in the power and the strength of your own flesh, but my friend, it will all fail you, but God never fails.

So Thomas Watson, the Puritan states this, hope, hope is an active grace. It is called, according to the scriptures by the apostle Paul, a lively hope. Hope is like the spring in a watch. It sets all the wheels of the soul running.

Hope of a crop makes the husbandman sow his seed. Hope of victory makes the soldier fight. And a true hope of glory makes a Christian vigorously pursue the glory of God. Here is a spiritual touchstone, Watson said, to try our grace by.

If we have the anointing of the spirit, it will oil the wheels of our endeavor and make us lively in our pursuit after the heavenly kingdom. So we see that this man had hope, hope in the living and the true God.

And lastly, we see the crowd's response, how the crowd responded here at this moment. The scripture puts it plainly. The scripture says it clearly. And the last sentence, and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

William Grinnell, he said this, the joy, joy is the highest testimony that can be given to our complacency in anything or any person. These people at this moment and at this time, according to the text of scripture here, says that they gave praise to God, meaning that there was joy in what they had seen.

Jesus Christ had done what no mere mortal man could do. He gave this blind man his sight. Matthew Henry said, the poor beggar himself that had his sight restored followed Christ. That was part of his response, by the way.

I left that out, I'm sorry.

His response, right? His response was he had hope, he received his sight, and therefore he followed God. We are called in the text of scripture when the gospel call is proclaimed to people. Believe on Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

Repent and believe the gospel. Turn from your sin and turn unto the Savior. This call does not mean that it's done in a haphazard, half-hearted way where we approach Christ, as we mentioned earlier, flippantly, but where we realize and where we understand to follow Christ means I'm gonna be dead to myself.

To follow Christ means I am going to give my life, heart, mind, soul, and body to the Lord Jesus Christ and that I'm gonna follow him. I'm gonna follow him in the good times. I'm gonna follow him in the bad times.

I'm gonna follow him when I'm happy and I'm gonna follow him when I am sad. For Jesus said, if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow after me. In closing, Matthew Henry states, Christ made it his business to glorify his Father and those whom he healed pleased him best when they praised God.

As those shall please God best who praise Christ and do him honor, for in confessing that he is Lord, we give glory to God the Father. And it is for the glory of God that we follow Christ as those will do whose eyes are opened.

The people that saw it, Matthew Henry said, the people that saw it could not forbear. They couldn't stop. They couldn't not give praise to God because they had seen him who had given such power to the Son of Man.

And by him, he had conferred such favors on the sons of men. And no, we must give praise to God for his mercies to others as well as his mercies to ourselves. So that being said, I would ask you to search your heart, to search your mind, and to ask yourself, am I actively praising God in my life?

Am I actively worshiping God in my life? And I'm asking this to those who profess to be born again, to be saved by the grace of God. Ask yourselves, am I actively following Christ? Are you denying yourself?

Are you taking up your cross? And are you following Christ? Are you daily looking to Christ? Are you daily recognizing where Christ has brought you from? The old country, isn't the old country term is this, you could be in hell with your back broke right now, but it's by the mercy and by the grace of God that you are where you are.

So we ought to give thanks to God. Give thanks to God for all things, according to the scriptures, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Stand with us if you would this morning.