WCB -EPISODES 7 & 8 OF 8 EPISODE SERIES "THE CROWD HE COULD NOW SEE" 7-10-26

THIS LAST MESSAGE IN THIS SERIES EXPLODES WITH CLARITY AND UNDERSTANDING OF JUST WHAT JESUS ACTUALLY GAVE BARTIMAUS ALONG WITH HIS PHYSICAL SIGHT!  IT IS AN AWESOME LIFE LESSON FOR ALL OF US TODAY!  YOU DEFINITELY DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS ONE  

Transcript

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Throughout this man today, they're all men who have heard their call. They are faithful ministers, God's watchmen on the wall.

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Welcome to the Watchmen's Call. We invite you to study with us the ancient prophecies of the Bible and witness their fulfillment in our modern time. Before we get started, I just want to let y'all know that I'm going to combine episodes seven and eight together like we did five and six. And so this will be the final message in our series of When Heaven Stands Still. The title of this episode is The Crowd He Could Now See. We hope that y'all enjoy this episode and that this series has helped you in your daily walk with Christ. Be blessed, and we look forward to hearing from you in the comments. So let's get started. So for most of his life, Barnum Bess lived in a world of sound but not sight. He heard footsteps and he heard conversations. He heard movement and he heard the crowd and he also heard rejection. He heard the voices that told him to be quiet, and he heard the tone of people who had already made up their minds about him. He knew what they felt like to be around all these people, he knew exactly what it felt like. And even though he was around them, he knew what it felt like to be unseen. But now everything's changed because the man who once sat blind by the roadside can finally see. He can now see the road, he can see the people, he can see the faces attached to those voices. Think about that. He can now see the crowd, look them in their eyes, and that raises a really powerful question, friends. What do you do when the people who once hurt you come into view? Think about that. What do you do? What do you do when God opens your eyes and you can finally see clearly? We'll deal with those questions and more, so stay with us as we take a very close look at the crowd he can now see. So our scriptures come from Mark chapter 10, verse 52. It says, Jesus was talking to him and he said, Go your way. Your faith has made you whole. And immediately, immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. This final verse don't just describe a healing. It describes a decision. He received his sight. See, that was just a beginning. But then he did something totally unexpected. The last part of that scripture says, and then he followed Jesus. Wow. Barnabas found something he wanted more than that old lifestyle, that old security, that old hopeless space that had been hiding him all his life. Now he wanted Jesus. So sight changes what you see, but also how you see. See, the Bible says immediately he received his sight. Immediately, not just little by little, not over several days, not in like slow uh stages, but immediately. One moment blind, the next moment sin. Mark chapter 10, verse 52 emphasizes the immediacy of that miracle. And again, he immediately received sight, and Jesus ties the healing to faith. A lot of different scholars also say that that phrase made you whole points beyond physical healing to restoration and wholeness. And when God opens your eyes, it's not just that your vision changes, but your interpretation changes. Think about that. What used to confuse you, now it makes sense. Your eyes are open. What used to feel random now has context. What used to hurt you now becomes part of your testimony. Thank God for that. Because clarity changes everything. You see, sometimes the pain is the same, but once God gives you understanding, there's scripture that says in all your gettings, get understanding. Once God gives you understanding, the pain no longer controls you. Healing don't just change what you feel, it changes what you understand. He can now see the crowd. It's the same crowd, the same people, the same road and the same voices, but now he sees them clearly. See, the text keeps the crowd in view throughout this whole story, but remember, earlier the crowd rebuked him and told him to be silent. Then, after Jesus' command, they became the ones saying, Take courage, he's calling you. All of a sudden, boy, their attitude changed towards him. And we can imagine that for the first time, what he had only heard before now had shape. Now there's faces. Now there's expressions. And now, for the first time, probably in his life, there's recognition. He recognizes every time a voice is spoken, he recognizes that voice and he can put a face to it. We can imagine him seeing the same group that once pushed him down with their words. Now they're standing in front of him. Imagine some of them's mouth is standing wide open and they're afraid to say anything. But here is what is so powerful. The text does not show him stopping to talk to the crowd. Have you ever read in there where he said anything to them? They were talking to him. It don't show him turning toward old voices, it shows him following Jesus. The crowd was not neutral. Some of the people that you can now see once tried to silence you, just like with him. Some of those people had already made themselves known. And in your life that might be so too. They had tried to silence Barnabas. They'd rebuked him. They wanted him quiet. They wanted him to stay small. They wanted him to not have any attention. They wanted him ignored. Mark 10, 48 says, many rebuked Barnabas and told him to be silent. From the scripture now, we understand that the crowd's response was forceful and it reflected social pressure placed on an overlooked beggar. And ain't that just how life feels sometimes? I mean, think about it, really. Not always with literal words, but with attitudes, sometimes with just a look, with a dismissal, with being overlooked like Barnabas, with being treated like your need is just an inconvenience. An inconvenience. And it is that to a lot of people, but not to Christ. Some people don't have to say much at all to make you feel small. You can hear it in their tone of voice. You can feel it in just the way they stand there in front of you. You can tell when somebody has already decided that you are not worth stopping for. Wow. Barnamaus knew that feeling. I mean, he lived with it every single day. He knew what it meant to be around people, to live around people, and still be pushed to the outside of society. But the same story tells us that Barnamaeus cried out all the more. He refused to let the pressure of the crowd silence the urgency of his faith. See, he needed to get to Christ. He had to have Jesus hear him, regardless of what was going on in his world at that time. The crowd may know your condition, but I'm telling you this only Jesus knows your value. See, some of the people that you can now see, they change when Jesus speaks. And that brings us right here to the other side of this story. Some of the same voices that told him to be quiet later said, Take courage, get up, the master's calling you. Boy, don't that just sound so awesome and friendly and kind and inviting. But those same people were like vipers biting at him just earlier. The same crowd had changed its tune. And after Jesus stopped and said, Call him, the crowd became the messenger, telling Barnabas to take courage and get up because Jesus is calling you. There's a lot of people that say that the crowd shifted from being a barrier to being a bridge, but only after Jesus spoke. And that teaches us something very, very important if we pay attention. People are often so unstable. Their tone changes with the moment. Their support changes with the atmosphere. God knows we've had a lot of people change their tone and their attitude with us that promise different things. They're going to be a big help. And then when the everything is just when the rubber meets the road, they say, Boy, you can't find them. So think about it. One minute they're against you. The next minute they're cheering for you. One minute they don't even want to hear you. They don't want to see you. And the next minute they're all patting you on the back and helping you up. Come on, let's be happy and come to where we are. See, that's why your faith can never be anchored in people. Never be anchored in people. If you build your confidence on people, you'll be crushed every time they changed. You've seen churches that just set their pastor up on a pedestal. And when that pastor falls, if he falls, and and we pray that none do, but a lot have, and when that pastor falls, the church just goes all to pieces because they were following the wrong thing. They were following a man and not Christ. Just like we said, you'll be crushed every time they change. But if you build your life on Jesus, you can remain steady no matter who shifts around you. It don't matter what the people do. If you are founded, your foundation is based on Christ. You are on solid rock. Jesus is the consistent center of the story all the time. The crowd changes, but the outcome turns on Jesus' call and Bartimaeus' faith. Do not build your identity on the crowd. A lot of people do that. They gotta look like Mr. Boastful, you know, or miss everything's just it's all about me, like the whole world revolves around me. Those people fall every day, and it's terrible. It is terrible to watch them go from, I don't know what the words are, but the big shots down to somebody who's having to do some little job. We've seen high rollers wind up on the side of the road selling t-shirts. Nothing wrong with selling t-shirts, but God has a way of bringing the halty down. Again, do not build your identity on the crowd. The crowd's too unstable to hold your future. Now that Barnum Bes can see clearly, he has to decide where to look. And folks, that brings us to us right now. Once God opens our eyes and lets us see a situation or even a group or a job or whatever, once he opens our eyes so we can see it clearly, we gotta decide what to do with that and where to look next. You see, sight is a gift, but sight is also a test because now he can see he has options. Think about this. He can look at the faces that hurt him, he can look back at the road where he used to sit. He can look around at everybody who once overlooked him, or he can look at Jesus. That same thing goes for us today. See the text final movement, it's really clear. Barnabas received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. See, there's different studies that describe this as discipleship, not just a healed condition, which was awesome and great and wonderful and a miracle, but a new direction. Think about that. From his healing, he was given the option to take a new direction in his life, even joining the road going towards Jerusalem. When Jesus heals you, when God heals you, however that comes about, it's not just for the physical healing, my friends. God's also just give you options. You don't have to be physically blind, but when he opens your eyes, when he, again, when he heals you, an option just came available. God only knows how many options. Now you've got to decide where you're gonna be like that one guy that Jesus healed. I think it was on the Sabbath. They come, they said, Who healed you? And he said, Man, I don't know who healed me. All I know is I once was blind, but now I see it, and he went on his way. Went on his way, never even give it a second thought from what I understand. Or we can be like Barnabas. Once God opens our sight, our eyes, our understanding, our perception of things, now we've got options. Do we go back to that same old spot we used to live in? Or do we follow Jesus even more? And that is the real test after healing. Where will your attention go? Because, see, healing can tempt you to revisit old wounds. That's right. Even clarity can tempt you to replay old betrayals. It can now you understand, oh, why didn't I see that? How could I not see that? You got friends that'll come up and say, you know, I didn't want to say nothing, but well, you need to take that on down the road somewhere. You should have said it before now. But see, now you and Jesus are one-on-one. And you got clarity. So you're gonna just waste your time on these old betrayals, this old stuff? Even vindication. Once God has vindicated you, that can tempt you to turn around and try to prove something. I told y'all I was right. I told y'all the whole time I was right. All of y'all was wrong. What good does that do? He didn't heal you for all that stuff. What did he heal you for? See, we got to look at the lesson. Barnabas does something powerful, and again, it is so, it is so unpredictable. I think it surprised everybody around him but Jesus. He does not use his healed eyes to study the crowd, to look back at the wounds, to look back at the betrayals, to try to prove something. He uses his healed eyes to follow Jesus. You see, that's maturity. That is wholesomeness, and that is true and total transformation. A healed person don't waste time, don't waste a new vision on an old pain. You see, he didn't seek revenge, he chose direction, and that is Barnabas' lesson to us. This is where the story gets holy, I guess you could say, because the text does not show revenge. It doesn't show confrontation, it doesn't show him stopping to call people out. It doesn't show him trying to get Jesus, that's the one, that's the one, that's the one, they're all the ones. Do something to him. It don't show none of that. What it does show, see, all that's confusion. It just show direction. He followed Jesus. This verse says, Barnabas followed Jesus in the way. The Bible emphasizes that after healing, he chose to follow Christ rather than simply go his own way, showing discipleship and purpose. And maybe that's the word for somebody listening right now, just maybe. So stop wasting your strength trying to answer the crowd. Stop trying to explain your healing to people who didn't understand your pain to start with. Stop trying to win arguments with voices God has already delivered you from. The truth is, you don't need revenge, you need direction, and that is your option right now. You don't need to go back and make everybody understand that's a waste of time. You need to keep walking with Christ. The way that language in Mark points to following Jesus on the road ahead. This final response is true discipleship. See, the greatest response to what hurt you, it's not revenge, it's following Jesus without looking back. Man, you crush the devil's head when you do that. You don't even give him a chance to put garbage in your head. So he heard them, Barnamaus, before he ever saw them. He endured them before he ever looked on their faces. But he survived their silence, he survived their rejection, he survived the road, he survived the crowd, and now he can finally see. He can see who stood there, he can see who doubted him, he can see who tried to silence him, and he can see who changed when Jesus spoke. Man, he can see who Jesus who changed. He can he knew the voices, he could feel it, and when his eyes was open, he could see them, but he did not stop. He does not turn around, he does not get lost in those faces, in his anger. No, he don't let the crowd become the center of his story. They never were to start with, they were the oppressors. What he does do is what he set out to do while he was sitting there blind, is he got Jesus' attention and now he follows Jesus. And maybe that is the final lesson of this entire series that we've been going over this whole time. It really never was about the crowd. It really never was about who liked you. It was never about who dismissed you. It was never about who changed their tune. Oh, they like you, they don't like you. They're with you, they're not with you. What never about that? It was always, always, always, this whole journey was always about Jesus. That's where it started. Jesus came into, he was coming down the road. Jesus has been coming down the road where you're at. Maybe you're the one that cried out, Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, help me. That's what made this story about Jesus. The one who heard him, the one who stopped was Christ, the one who called him was Christ. The one who healed him was Christ. And that is the one, my friends, that is totally worth following. Now I know this segment is kind of long, but there's a reason for it. Y'all just stay with me. So if God's opened your eyes, don't spend your healing staring at the crowd. Don't waste your time with that. Don't use your new vision to rely on old pain. Don't use your breakthrough to revisit broken places. Why would you do that? Use your healing to follow Jesus. Use that clarity that Jesus gave you to follow him. Use your restored sight to follow Jesus. You see, everything goes back to following Jesus going forward. Because at the end of the day, some people will still misunderstand you. They are just not gonna get it. Some people will still change for you against you, for you against you. Some people will still be inconsistent. That's just part of the way humans are. But Jesus, Jesus will still be Jesus. And if you can see anything clearly now, see him. If you can walk in any direction now, walk with him. And if you can focus on anything now, fix your eyes on Jesus. He spoke with faith and received his sight. But in the end, again, it was never about the crowd. It was always about following Jesus. And now the question is this what will you do with what you've seen? Don't waste your moment on the crowd. Follow the one who has called you. This has been when heaven stands still. Y'all be blessed. Thank you for joining with us here at The Watchman's Call. My friends, Jesus is coming back very soon. The signs for his return are showing up all over the world, even as we speak right now. Our job is to reach as many people as we can and warn them about his return. And you can help us do that by sharing these messages with everybody you know. That means the saint and the sinner. Everyone must be warned. And we don't have much time left. Y'all be blessed and keep watching. And remember, leave us a comment to let us know your thoughts and concerns.

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