Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all,
would you pray for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like
yourself? The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,
they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will
do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a
non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't
hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the
types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Let's just bow our heads in prayer, please. Father, we ask that you would continue to have
mercy on us and gently but deeply pour out the Holy Spirit upon each of one of us who are here.
Pour out the Holy Spirit upon those who are entering into worship online, either live or even
downstream, Lord, because time, that's a, you live outside of time. And so we ask, Lord,
that the Holy Spirit would fall with gentle but deep and penetrating power upon each one of us.
Father, help us to be able to be in your presence, to know that we are in your presence,
and help us, Lord, to receive the grace and mercy you desire to give us this morning,
and help us to respond in a worthy way. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen. Please be seated.
Amen. So a couple of weeks ago, I was having a conversation in a coffee shop. For those of you,
that's a bit of a surprise that I ever talk to somebody in a coffee shop. I was having a
conversation in a coffee shop a couple of weeks ago, and something happened that sort of, I guess
it's happened lots of times over the years. And it sort of, we're talking, and this was like a serious
talk about the Christian faith and about this person's faith, you know, her faith and the Christian
faith. And I realized when we were about half of the way through it, that one of the problems was
that we were using words differently. And so we started, I started to try to point this out. And
basically what it came down to was that this person basically said that I had to accept her definitions.
Like I had to accept how she understood words, and that was the only way we were going to have a
conversation. And I pointed out to her, well, you're using words in a very odd way, and you're using words
that fit with your worldview. If I accept your words, then I'm accepting your, like I've accepted
your position. So there needs to be some sort of neutral way that we can talk, you know, about this
and the truth. And anyway, we went round and round. And actually, I've spent the last couple of weeks
thinking about the conversation, trying to figure out how to move it forward. Now, we left as friends,
and, you know, we've seen each other, you know, since. But it really made me think of something that I read in the
paper a couple of years ago. And that is, when people no longer believe in truth, the only way to settle
differences is with your fists. When people no longer believe in truth, the only way to settle differences is with
your fists. And that's obviously said very starkly.
But, you know, it's really very true, a funny thing to say, isn't it, in our culture, that increasingly it doesn't
seem as if there's this, like this way that two minds or two groups can meet and have a discussion about what's true.
I mean, good grief. Good grief. What do you do with people who are responsible for education when they say that two plus two
equals four is a patriarchal imposition to oppress people?
Like, how do you have a conversation with somebody like that?
Like, when you hear that, all that's left are fists.
Now, the Bible text today, it's going to touch on truth, obviously. And in fact, the truth is very important to the text.
But it's also talking about something else that in our culture, even amongst Christians, is both misunderstood and not
wanted at all. But it's something else which is really needed if we're going to have peace in our own lives, peace in our families, peace in our neighborhoods, and peace in our world.
So it's something that Canadians don't understand and they don't want.
But it's also something on top of truth or beside truth or with truth that's needed if we're to have peace with ourselves,
peace in our families, in our neighborhoods, with our friends, in our country, and ultimately, of course, peace with God.
So let's look at it. And so we're looking at, if you're using this, it's page 66.
And if you have your own Bibles, it's Mark chapter 10, verse 46, the story that I read before.
But we're going to begin the verse before.
Because, of course, the book is written as a book, right?
It just goes from word to word, sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, all the way through.
But those of you who were here last week, you might remember that I said that this actually is a really...
I mean, all the verses are important.
But if you look at... Well, look at verse 45.
It begins like this.
It's for...
Now, the word for in this case, I'm not being just a grammar nitpicky guy.
It's a purpose verse.
It's the purpose for.
Like, what...
The purpose, for even the Son of Man, Jesus is referring to himself, came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And so, as I tried to show last week in the sermon, this is a very important verse.
Jesus is...
This is one of the two primary times.
There's another one or two.
But there's one of the primary times in the gospel where Jesus tells you what the purpose of his life is.
Like, what the whole purpose of the gospel is.
Like, you don't have to try to figure it out yourself.
You know, it's not like you have to sort of take animal entrails and try to figure out what the omens and the signs are.
Or here, you know, record five of your dreams and then try to figure out what on earth is going on in your psyche or your, you know, whatever.
Jesus tells us, okay, you're trying to understand everything in the gospel.
I'm going to Jerusalem to die.
Here's what you need to understand.
The Son of Man.
I am the Son of Man, which is both on one hand means that he's...
It's a way of saying that he's the representative of humanity because he's human.
But it's also claiming in the book of Daniel, Daniel, the Jewish people would have had a...
Couldn't have quite get their mind around it because it almost sounds like the Son of Man is God, which they couldn't get their minds around.
So this is what he used.
When he says the Son of Man, that's what's going on.
That he came not to be served, but to serve.
And he didn't just come to be...to serve.
He came for something even more important.
And it's when this other thing is understood that you understand why you'd serve.
To give his life is a ransom for many.
And that word ransom, you know, I've been thinking about this a lot this last week.
One of the things which you don't learn in school is that basically up until only a couple of centuries ago,
and only in places where Christianity was significant, every culture was a slave culture.
In fact, I think it was only around the year 2010 that there was a country in Africa that actually outlawed slavery.
And as we know, of course, the Chinese Communist and the Soviet Union, atheist states, practiced in effect slavery within their own countries.
So all cultures and countries up until fairly recently were slave cultures.
And one of the things that's so important about this word is its acts in the Christian consciousness of the followers of Jesus
as a way that slowly to move human beings who just think that slavery is natural
to a state of affairs where even if it's natural, it needs to be stopped.
Because at the heart of this image is an image that when a person in that time period, they're a slave, a doulos.
And it could be, you know, there wouldn't be a slave because of their race.
That's one of the things which was different about this time than it was, let's say, in the American South.
But it could be they were captured more.
It could have been because of debt.
It could be for some other type of reason.
But you could get out of slavery if the debt, so to speak, was paid, the debt that you were owed.
In a sense, if you think about it, it would be as if, you know, I'm the conquering army.
And if you fight against me, well, how dare you fight against me?
I just want to take over your country.
And in a sense, you sort of view that person fighting against you as now owing you a debt.
You fought against this.
You killed some of your soldiers.
You're now in debt to me.
You know, or you're just actually in literal debt because you've overextended yourself.
And so, in a sense, all slaveries were understood as a way of belonging to another person and, in a sense, trying to work off your debt, which would be impossible.
But it was possible for—sometimes a slave could work—save up some money and pay themselves and ransom themselves.
But fundamentally, it would be that somebody else pays that debt for you and ransoms you.
And in this case here, when Jesus says, for even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many,
he's saying that his life and his death upon the cross and his resurrection is a pain of your debt,
a debt that delivers you from slavery and transfers you into the freedom of Christ, the crucified king's kingdom.
You can see how, as that becomes sort of more real to people, as the gospel becomes more real, it starts to make slavery unthinkable at a very, very deep level.
And so, you have this very powerful statement by Jesus that, as you're looking through the whole gospel of Mark,
keep in mind that all of those things are recorded.
And part of the purpose—a very significant reason is that they're trying to communicate this profound mystery
that God, the Son of God, would set aside his glory and splendor and divine prerogatives and appearance as God,
but he'd still be God, but he'd take into himself our human nature.
And he, in a sense, could be then as that human one that could represent all human beings.
And that his death is an act of substitution and representation so that the debts that you owe are paid
and you now are freed from slavery and enter into the liberty and freedom of Christ's kingdom.
With Christ as your king.
That's the image.
Now, how does that get into you or how do you get into that?
Well, I mean, there's obviously several aspects about that,
but Mark wrote his gospel in such a way that almost immediately he helps you to start to understand that.
And that's what happens next.
Look what happens.
It's very interesting.
And it goes like this, verse 46.
Now, just sort of pause here.
I've talked a little bit before about how important stories are.
Because as you learn, one of the things that we need to do, one of the things for those of you who are parents with young kids,
it's really important you tell them Bible stories.
Because it's really important that you tell them Bible stories.
In fact, it's also important that you guard the stories they watch.
You guard that.
Because stories form us at a sort of a deep unconscious and subconscious level.
They make certain types of things more believable.
They help to form.
We might have this idea in our head and not realize, you know, that as a teenager and adult that there's this idea.
And not realize that it maybe came from a story.
Just as an aside, and this is just crazy.
I lived in a completely Jewish neighborhood.
I was the only Gentile kid.
Me and my brother and my sister, only Gentile kids.
And when they had the Jewish holidays in the fall, and in those days, you know, there were like hundreds of kids in our school.
They could take all of the non-Jewish kids.
And I think there were like 500 kids in the school.
And all of the non-Jewish kids added up to about 20 from all grade 1 to 8.
And they could put them in one classroom, which is what they did.
And after a couple of years, I said to mom, can I just stay home?
And be with all the Jewish kids?
And I did.
But anyway, so here we have this school with a Jewish teacher.
And I remember she read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to me.
And I remember crying in the classroom.
This would probably have been like grade 2 or something, or 3.
And I remember crying when Aslan died for Eustace.
I had no idea that this was a Christian story.
But later on, it struck me, like as an adult.
Gosh, that story that brought tears to my eyes of Aslan giving himself to the witch so that Eustace could go free.
That's Christian.
I mean, the teacher didn't tell me this was a Christian author or a Christian story.
It was just a good story.
And many, many kids in the class had tears in their eyes.
You'll go back and you can read it.
It's well worth reading.
Even though it's just written for kids, it's well worth reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
It's a simple but very profound read.
But here's the point about this story.
So it's a very, very simple story about Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, begging by the side of the roadside.
And he hears in verse 47 that it was Jesus of Nazareth who's going by.
Now, the first thing is this.
Bartimaeus is you and me.
Bartimaeus, he might have been in the vicinity of Jesus doing miracles, but he never saw the miracle.
He couldn't see the miracle because he was blind.
All he could do is hear about the miracle.
Does that sound familiar?
That's you and me.
I can't see the miracle.
I can only hear about the miracle.
So Bartimaeus, in a very profound sense, is you and me.
We can't see the miracle.
All we can do is hear about the miracle.
And the second thing is it's very interesting that there's a big crowd.
And look how they describe him in verse 47.
Jesus of Nazareth.
And some of you who've come to the church a lot, I know it's a terror.
I use this analogy over and over and over again.
This is not like saying, oh, gosh, you know, that's John of Cambridge.
Or that's John of Oxford.
Or that's John of Harvard.
Or that's Susie of Stanford.
Or that's, you know, that's Rebecca of Manhattan.
Or, you know, that's Sally of the city.
You know, a graduate of Oxford now lives in the city, that square mile right in the very heart of London.
Or wherever, of Paris.
And we get, you know, go, oh, wow, like that's a significant, whoa, that's a significant place.
What the crowd has just said, and it's really actually very Canadian,
it's like saying that's Jesus of Brudenell.
And Brudenell is a little speck on a map with, I think, just an old abandoned church and a rectory.
And you pass through Brudenell from nowhere to nowhere.
And so really, in a sense, they're putting Jesus down.
You know, they're saying on one hand, whoa, whoa, he's a great guy.
But, you know, it's like if you ever listen to a group of guys talking,
and the way that guys often talk is they talk by putting each other down.
They make little digs at each other.
I don't know if women do it as well, but it's a very guy type of thing,
that they make little digs putting each other down.
In fact, when I was serving in Eganville, a rural parish,
I knew the guys in the church had started to accept me when I was out for my run,
and they'd pull up beside me in the pickup truck, roll down their window, and insult me.
I thought, I've arrived. They like me.
How do I know they like me?
Well, they made fun of me.
That's how I know they like me.
And in a sense, the same crowd is doing this.
Yeah, yeah, he can do miracles and all that, but we have to remember,
he's just Jesus of Brudenell.
He's not Jesus of Oxford, not Jesus of Cambridge, not Jesus of Stanford,
not Jesus of Madison, just Jesus of Brudenell.
Like, he's not really a, you know, he thinks he's a big thing,
but he's not really a big thing.
But he's really fun. Let's hang around with him.
And then the thing then is that Bartimaeus, who's never actually,
like many of the crowd have actually seen Jesus do miracles,
but they still think of him as Jesus of Brudenell.
And Bartimaeus has only heard stories about Jesus.
He's never seen Jesus, and he's never seen a miracle.
But Bartimaeus says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
And son of David is a messianic title.
He's really saying Messiah, the Messiah of God, have mercy on me.
Now, verse 48 is, once again, like we can relate to it.
Like if you, many of our friends, and maybe this was true in your life,
maybe you started to tell people that you were actually thinking
you would become a Christian,
and many of your friends would tell you not to do it.
Or if they did, they'd just say, well, okay, become a Christian,
but just remember he's Jesus of Brudenell.
Like don't get carried away, like don't get too crazy about it.
Just remember he's Jesus of Brudenell.
But in verse 48, many rebuked him, telling him to be silent,
but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.
Now, here's where we're going to have to have a little bit of a longer pause.
And we have to take off, in a sense, our Christian hats for a second.
We have to look at this phrase, son of David, have mercy on me.
Son of David, have mercy on me.
Now, how would most Canadians counsel Bartimaeus to speak to Jesus?
And this is an important question to ask because, you see, we're Canadians.
Like how would the editorial board of the CBC or the Globe and Mail
or the National Post or how would the psychology faculty
or other academics at the University of Ottawa,
how would counselors advise you?
How would coaches and lifestyle gurus
and TikTok and Instagram influencers,
how would they counsel you to talk to Jesus?
Well, here is Bartimaeus' blind.
Well, many, many, many, many people in our culture would say,
don't be an ableist.
You're just differently abled.
Don't demean yourself by asking for mercy.
If you demean yourself by asking for mercy,
you're saying you're being an ableist.
You're saying you're not fine the way you are,
perfect the way you are.
You are giving up autonomy and authority of your life
to some other person.
Don't you say that.
Many of them would also give the different advice.
It's sort of a contradictory advice
because it's one of the things
which is so contradictory in our culture.
In fact, it's one of those things in our culture
that it's incoherent,
but people aren't aware of the fact that it's incoherent.
Because on one hand,
you have to accept people the way they are.
But on the other hand,
if they don't want to be the way they are
because they want to find their true self in some other way,
you've got to support that.
It's almost as if they've talked to you,
you have to take a step back and say,
okay, one moment.
Okay, just time out.
Let me figure this out.
Am I supposed to encourage you
because of the way you are
or encourage you because you don't want to be the way you are
to become some more authentic self?
And if you guess wrong,
you get yelled at, right?
Or you're accused of doing something terrible.
But once again, you see,
the advice would be,
pardon me, don't be an ableist.
Like, don't degrade yourself by asking for mercy.
Or in fact, just don't even,
the fact of the matter is,
is you just need to,
you need to say,
Jesus, I'd really like your support to support me
as I become the man I've chosen to be.
Or it might be even that we just sort of go right to rights.
One of the ways,
if you go back and you read the three of the,
the three of the accounts of the,
of this miracle,
it looks as if there's a bit of a contradiction,
but there's not a,
not a contradiction.
It's, it's, it's, it's, it's a,
there was the ancient city of Jericho,
which was by now mainly ruins,
but it's still on the main road.
And then just off the road,
Herod had built this magnificent palace
just outside of Jericho.
And, and of course,
with the palace and a magnificent palace
and administrative center,
that would have meant that
that's where most of the stalls
and market and food place
would be at the new place,
but it's just off the main road.
And so probably what's happened is
Jesus has left the main road with his disciples,
gone to this other center,
and then he's walking back.
And, and so some people might say,
you know, Jesus,
and so he's walking back
to the old original ruined city of Jericho.
And some people might say to Bartimaeus
that Jesus went by you that first time
and didn't heal you.
You have rights.
You deserve to be healed.
You don't call out for mercy to Jesus.
You stand up and be a man
and say, Jesus, how come you didn't heal me?
I demand you heal me.
I have rights to be healed.
Don't say, have mercy.
Say, give me the rights that I am owed.
And that's how we would counsel
Bartimaeus to speak to Jesus.
And that is actually
how many of us speak to Jesus.
We say, Jesus, didn't I?
Good grief, Jesus.
You know, I, I, I've given,
I've given money to the church.
I've helped in the Sunday school.
I, I've, um, you know,
I've worked as a door host.
I've, I've been a warden.
I've been served on council.
And, and don't you think
after all those things I've done for you,
I, I deserve to have that boyfriend.
I deserve to have that marriage.
I deserve to have that promotion.
I deserve to have health.
And that didn't help me.
Jesus, I, I have,
we, you see what I mean?
It's in our heart.
It's in my heart.
It's in your heart.
But there's another deeper problem here
with the text,
beyond the fact that most in our culture
wouldn't counsel Bartimaeus
to say, son of David,
Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
And the second thing is this,
is that fundamentally,
we don't need mercy.
You and I don't need mercy.
In fact, actually mercy,
well, sort of mercy,
it's one of those fundamental things.
We sort of, maybe we sort of do
and maybe we don't.
See, because the fact of the matter is
for most, most of our culture,
what most of our culture would mean by mercy
isn't actually what the Bible means by mercy.
And we're either both wanting it
or repelled by it.
I'll give you an example.
I'll give you an American political example.
What, in fact, if it turns out
that Hunter Biden has been selling influence
to the Chinese and his dad knew about it?
Now, if you're a Democrat,
what are you going to want?
You're going to say, give him some mercy.
What does mercy mean?
A pass.
Give him a pass.
On the other hand,
what if it turns out
that Trump actually did collude
with the Russians
to fix the election that he won
in 2016?
Like they prove it.
Like prove it.
They finally prove it.
Well, Democrats are going to want his head
and people who like Trump
are going to say, give him mercy.
What does mercy mean?
A pass.
Right?
Of course, we're all way better
than all those other people.
Not.
I was talking to somebody the other day
about a couple of months ago
and they made some comment about,
oh, you don't have to worry
about that thing's a church.
Everybody in the church
are good people, right?
And I felt like,
afterwards I kicked myself.
I said I should have told them
a church isn't where good people meet.
A church is a hospital for sinners.
That's what a church is.
A hospital for sinners.
But you see, here's the problem, right?
For basically, the problem is
for us, mercy,
and it goes along with forgiveness,
is basically letting yourself
or your friends have a pass.
But in the Bible,
and that's why on one end we want it,
on the other hand we don't want it.
And so texts like this,
not only will we never counsel them,
but it doesn't really make any sense to us.
Because you see, here's the thing,
is the Bible understands mercy
as being at one with justice
and at one with truth.
And that's one of the reasons why justice,
that's one of the reasons why mercy,
when you see real mercy,
is deeply beautiful.
It's deeply, deeply beautiful.
Now, how do I say that?
Well, because you see,
that's, remember,
it all began with verse 45.
For even the Son of Man
came not to be served,
but to serve,
and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
And what does that mean?
Jesus looked at my life,
and he saw George
as George really is.
Jesus knows the dreams
I have at night
that I forget when I wake up.
Jesus knows the different masks
and fronts
which I put up
to keep people at a distance.
And he knows every mask.
He knows every false front.
He knows the order I put them in.
He knows the way
I will use those masks
to keep people from seeing
who I really am.
And he knows every single thing
about my life
from the moment I was born
to even for me,
which, unless he comes back,
I hope it's not for another 40 years,
my moment of death.
And he knows every single thing.
He knows everything I've done
that I'm ashamed of.
He knows every single thing
I've done that I've wronged.
He knows all those times
I could have done something right
and I didn't do it.
I closed my eyes.
And he knows all those,
he knows how I talk about other drivers
or how I talk about people.
And he knows all that self-talk in my head.
And he sees every single aspect
of that completely, truly.
And mercy says,
he still died for me.
And in his mercy,
not only does he die for me,
you see, what happens is,
remember I said in slavery,
in a sense what happens
is the debt is accrued.
And one of the ways to understand
anybody wronging you,
in some ways,
they owe you a debt.
It might be that they've,
you know, punched you or something
and scarred you physically
and you might have to bear that scar
for the rest of your life
and you feel that you've been wrong.
Something's been stolen from you.
Maybe it's been something
in their language
or they've lied about you
and you've had some type of a punishment.
And in a sense,
you've had something taken away from you.
They've taken something from you.
And part of life is
that you want to try to get that back
and, but you can never really
always get it back.
Even if the person goes to jail
and even if it's actually
a just, a just sentence.
Not one of those times
where judges do something,
you go, what?
Like what?
Even when those things happen,
it's still not a full
repaying of that debt
of something that's been stolen from you.
But what we see here
is that Jesus sees everything
there is to see about you
and he says,
remember I said that as son of man,
he's the only,
he can actually represent you.
And because he can represent you,
he can become your substitute.
And he says,
George,
you're sitting on that chair over there
and the judgment is read out about you
and the list,
it just goes on and on and on and on
and you cannot possibly pay that debt.
All those people you've wronged,
the ways you've even wronged,
the created order
and wronged God.
And he,
and Jesus says,
George,
you can get off that chair,
the chair of judgment,
and I will sit in that chair in your place.
And I will pay the price
that you cannot pay.
And I will do it,
knowing full well
all the wrong you've done
and knowing that justice
is needed to be done.
And I will do it for you.
And I will do it
out of mercy.
The word mercy
comes from a Latin word.
You know what the Latin word means?
Price paid.
Those little Christians
knew what they were talking about.
And so you see,
for Christians,
we understand mercy
as being something
which is at one with justice,
you see,
if it's unjust,
it's not mercy.
And if it's not true,
it's not mercy.
And on this side of the grave,
it's very, very hard
for us to get those things
all straight.
But that's the model
by which we understand mercy.
I'm sort of jumping ahead
a little bit,
but I think I need
to say it right now.
Remember at the beginning,
some of you,
if I haven't put you
to sleep,
I told you how
that thing,
that if you no longer
believe in something
like truth,
where you can meet
and discuss things
and work things out,
all that's left are fists.
And I said,
there's something else
which is deeply needed
for there to be peace
within your life
and peace in families
and peace in our culture.
And what is needed
is what is no longer
found in our culture,
which is mercy.
We need mercy.
We need people
to start showing mercy.
And a mercy
which is at one
with justice
and at one
with truth
that isn't just
favoritism
and passes
for your tribe.
And you see,
for a Christian
who follows Jesus
and the gospel
starts to become,
one of the things
I pray very regularly
is that the gospel,
you know,
this thing that
Jesus died as a ransom
for me,
he didn't come to serve
but to be served in,
I pray very regularly
that this will become
more true to my heart.
It will become
more true to my heart,
very center of who I am.
And you see,
as it becomes more true
to who you are,
as you understand
that this is what
Jesus has done for you
so that you can now be
in his kingdom
as a full citizen,
you're reconciled to God
because of his
profound mercy.
And as that shapes you,
it has to shape you
to start to say,
I need to show mercy.
And I have a model
for how mercy is.
And you see,
all mercy
and all forgiveness
is always going
to involve
you accepting
and accepting
to pay yourself
part of the price
of the wrong
that was done to you.
And you do it
not because
your mom forced you,
not because people
say it didn't matter,
not because people
say it didn't happen,
not because people
say they suffered enough,
not for any of those reasons
because those are lies.
They're untruth
and they're unjust.
And it's not
that you listen to lies.
Don't listen to them
when they say
that it didn't happen.
Don't listen to them
when they say
it didn't matter.
It did matter.
It did happen.
Don't say
they suffered enough.
No, they did not
suffer enough.
Don't listen
to any of that.
But you can listen
to the one
who came
to give his life
as a ransom
for many.
And you can say,
you know,
there will never be
any peace
in my family
if I don't forgive,
if I, in a sense,
don't swallow
part of the wrong
that was done for me.
and recognize
I need to set aside
the desire for revenge
or the hatred,
the slander I desire
to do the other person
because I want
to make them pay.
I want to make them pay.
And I don't have peace
until they've paid.
And even if they never repent
and even if they never
do anything wrong,
the Bible is so unbelievably wise
that you and I need
to learn to show mercy
and have forgiveness
because to go through
your life
wanting them to pay,
well, you know what,
that's like
every day
you have 10X laxes
hoping they get
diarrhea.
And it just doesn't work.
It just beats you up
and bends you out of shape.
So you see,
we don't think
we need mercy
and we wouldn't
counsel people
to be like Bartimaeus
and pray for mercy,
but mercy is exactly
what every single
one of us needs.
In fact,
if you meet a person
who only thinks
they need justice
and they don't think
that there's anything
in their life,
anything about the way
they've treated
other people,
treated the created order,
treated their pets,
that there's never been
a single thing
that they've ever done
that they need forgiveness
and mercy for,
that all they ever need
is justice
and their rights,
well, you know
there's something wrong
with that person,
don't you?
You say to yourself,
well, they think
they're at the number
twos they do
in the toilet,
don't smell like
everybody else's,
but they do.
They're just a
self-righteous person
who's unfeeling
and uncaring
about how they
treat other people.
So the Bible
very wisely tells us
in a way that
reminds us that
what we need
is truth,
for to have peace
and in our culture
and in our own lives
we need to show mercy
and we need to receive
mercy from Christ.
Just very quickly
wrapping it up,
the last little bit
is also very important.
Verse 49,
and Jesus stopped
and said,
call him.
They called the blind man
saying to him,
take heart,
get up,
he's calling you.
And throwing off
his cloak,
he sprang up
and came to Jesus.
Verse 51,
and Jesus said to him,
what do you want
me to do for you?
Now,
this question
is one of those things
that has lots of layers.
And the part of the layers
are seen in the next
few lines.
And the blind man
said to him,
Rabbi,
let me recover my sight.
And there's no way
in English
to communicate this,
but there's two
different words
in the original language
for Rabbi.
Rabbi.
And most of the time
the word that's translated
is the word for teacher.
But there's another
rarer word
that usually
in Greek literature
when it's used
is only used
of God.
It's only used
of God.
That God
is teacher.
And that's what
Bartimaeus says
to Jesus,
the son of David.
He says,
God who teaches.
Messiah,
let me recover
my sight.
Verse 52,
and Jesus said to him,
go your way,
your faith has made you well.
And you don't see it
in this version.
I mean,
you would if you had
a different,
but in some of your Bibles
it'll have a little note there
and it'll say
your faith has saved you
and it can be translated
equally either way.
But it's a very important
double meaning.
You see,
salvation is Christ's
making you well.
Our deepest need,
we were made
to have a relationship
with the triune God.
As Augustine said,
our hearts are restless
until they rest in you.
You have made us
for yourself
and our hearts
are restless
until they rest in you.
and we can't rest in him
unless we receive mercy
from him
and he takes us
to himself.
And so the act of salvation
is an act of being made well.
That's a way to understand
what salvation is.
He makes me well.
He begins to make me well
on this side of the grave
and one day,
on one day,
I can say
with complete confidence,
it is well with my soul.
I am well.
Free at last.
Thank God almighty.
I'm free at last.
That is our destiny in Christ.
And immediately,
Bartimaeus recovered his sight
and look at this.
Not only does he have faith
to call out to Jesus for mercy,
but he follows Jesus
on the way.
It's not just that we
have him make us well.
We follow him.
He sees when we follow him
that we start to learn
how to show mercy.
Because unless there starts
to be some mercy
in our culture,
all that's going to be left
is fights.
Just fights.
Fights upon fights.
And even if others
don't show mercy,
it is good for our soul
to receive mercy from Christ
and learn the way
of showing mercy
and forgiveness.
That is the way
for wholeness
and completeness
and freedom
and dignity
when we can learn
to do these things.
one of the things
I said to my friend
a couple of weeks ago
who couldn't agree on words
is I said,
you know,
there's no logical connection
or necessity
to go from the fact
that if Jesus really did
rise from the dead,
if he really did
in history,
in truth,
in history,
rise from the dead,
it doesn't prove
anything on one level.
but we know as a matter
of practical knowledge,
how do you know
that Jesus
can save him?
Because Jesus
made the blind man see.
how do you know
that Jesus
is God,
the Son of God?
How do you know
that his life
and death
and resurrection
is a ransom?
Because he rose
from the dead
in truth,
in history,
in time
and space,
recorded by Greek
and Jewish historians
as being the central
Christian claim
almost immediately.
he did it.
It's true.
And since it's true,
I urge you
to turn to him
in faith
and follow him.
I invite you to stand.
Please stand.
I invite you to
just bow your head
as we stand.
It's also sort of a chance
to get a bit
of a prayer stretch.
Let's just bow our heads.
Father,
if there are any here
who have not yet
come to Christ
as their Savior,
and Lord,
I ask, Father,
that your Holy Spirit
would move and work
in their lives,
whether they're here
or whether they're online,
and Father,
I just ask
as they hear Jesus
knocking on their heart,
Father,
that you would help them
sort of, in a sense,
stop listening to me
at this prayer
and speak to Jesus
and open the door
of their heart
and let Jesus come in.
That his mercy
might come in
and that he might come in
as Savior and Lord
to make them well.
Father,
I ask that you would
help them
to navigate that step,
that interior step of faith
and to do it now.
And Father,
for each of us,
you know,
Father,
how easy it is
for us to forget
the gospel
and to live out
of other scripts
and other narratives
and other stories
and live out
of our wounds
and live out
of our prejudices
and live out
of our hatreds
and live out
of our egos.
Father,
you know how easy
it is for us
just to revert
it.