Let's open our Bibles to Mark
chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Titled this message, The Miracle
of Sight. The Miracle of Sight we have
in Mark chapter 10, the story of blind Bartimaeus. Matthew,
Mark, Luke, all three record this event, but we'll be looking
tonight at Mark's record of it. In verse 46 of
Mark chapter 10, and they came to Jericho, and as they went
out of Jericho with his disciples, a great number of people, and
a great number of people, Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the highway side, begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great
deal, Thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And Jesus stood
still, commanding him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. 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. And Jesus said
unto him, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. There's so much in this miracle
that brings comfort to the believer's heart and how I hope tonight
that the Lord will speak peace to our hearts as he enables us
to identify with poor, blind beggar Bartimaeus. Before we consider the things about this miracle, Let
us look briefly at the person that the miracle was performed
on. And many times as I've read this
story, many times as I've referred to it, I've never noticed the
redundancy of Bartimaeus' name. You understand that the word,
that the prefix bar translated means son of, we find it in lots
of places in the Bible. And here the Lord identifies
Bartimaeus as the son of Timaeus. So if you were to read this in
the original language, it would say Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus. His
name is repeated. Looking up the meaning of this
name, We find that in the Hebrew language, the Old Testament language,
the name Bartimaeus means unclean, it means defiled, it means polluted. In contrast to that, the name
Timaeus in the Aramaic New Testament means highly prized. Highly prized. We just read it
in Isaiah chapter 61, where the Lord tells us that the child
of God would receive beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for
mourning. It's not either or. The child of God has two natures.
He's got an old man that is defiled and sinful. An old man that according
to the law, the Old Testament Hebrew law, his name is Bartimaeus,
unclean, unclean. And we see in the scriptures
that we're to We're to rejoice with trembling, to rejoice with
trembling. For the child of God, it's not
either or, it's both. It is the sinful nature of the
old man identified by the new man. We wouldn't know we had
an old man until we got a new man. But now that we have a new nature
in Christ, and now that in the Lord Jesus Christ, our ashes
have been turned into the oil of gladness, we find that Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus,
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, represents us in both natures. The son of Timaeus, what manner of love the father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children
of God, the sons of God. We are the son of the one who
himself is Timaeus, highly prized, highly prized. Oh, there's no
value that can be put on him. He's precious, precious in God's
sight. He's precious in the believer's
sight. And so this is a miracle. And Mark's the only one that
gives us this. Matthew doesn't even name him
as Bartimaeus. Matthew just tells us the two
blind men. Mark tells us his name was Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus. So, in our mourning, and believers do mourn,
they experience the condition of the Holy Spirit, they are
often exposed for what they are apart from Christ in their old
man. And they find themselves crying
out with Rebecca, why am I thus? Why am I thus? Well, it's because
you have two nature in you. And the older, that's the old
man, the flesh, will serve the younger. And so here we are. blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus. I want us to think for a moment
about where the Lord is and where he's headed. Scripture tells
us that he's in Jericho. Jericho is the place of fragrance. Jericho was known for the aroma
of many sweet spices, honey, balsam, cypress. A lot of things
were in Jericho and when you got close to Jericho, you could
smell Jericho and it was a good sense of smell. This is at the
very end of our Lord's earthly mystery. He's with his disciples. He has his face set like Flint
toward Jerusalem. He's going to the cross. But
before he does, he's gonna go through Jericho. But here in
our text, the Lord tells us that he's coming out of Jericho. And this miracle of sight begins
with the compassion that our Lord has for his children in
his incarnation. This short journey of about 10
miles between Jericho and Jerusalem, let's look at that as the entire
physical life, earthly life of our Lord here in his incarnation. He left the glories of heaven. He set aside his crown of glory. And he was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He was made of a woman under
the law to redeem them that are exposed to the law. Why did he
do that? Why did he do that? He did that out of compassion,
out of love. And every step of the way from
Jericho to Jerusalem had a purpose, and that was to go to the cross.
That was to go to the cross. And that while we were yet sinners,
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Without strength,
sinful, the Lord Jesus came in compassion Here's the miracle
of sight. Had the Lord, the love of God
is the first cause of our salvation. Scripture says, because he foreknew
us, he loved us in eternity past. It's the cause, it's the beginning
of this great miracle. And Jerusalem in this picture
is a picture of this fallen world. Jerusalem was the city of David. Jerusalem means that place of
peace, Shalom. But now the scriptures refer
to this glorious city of Jerusalem as Sodom. refers to Jerusalem
as Babylon, refers to Jerusalem as Egypt. And man has turned
this holy city into a, well, when the Lord cleansed the temple,
what did he say? You've turned the house of prayer
into a den of thieves. And man has obbed God of his
glory and And yet, and we're part of that. And yet hear the
Lord in his compassion to give sight to a blind beggar by the
name of Bartimaeus. He comes out of Jericho and he
goes to Jerusalem. Obviously, Bartimaeus, well,
Matthew tells us that he heard that Jesus was coming. But how
did he know that the Lord Jesus was the son of David? How did
he know that? There's only one way he could
have known. He heard about the miracles that
the Lord had performed. And he heard particularly about
the Lord healing blind men, giving sight to the blind. And he knew
from scripture, from the fulfillment of Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 59 in
particular, that when the Messiah came that he would come to give
sight to the blind. And so the Lord has given Bartimaeus
this understanding so that when he comes by his way, he believes
what he's heard. He believes what he's heard.
That's a miracle. It's a miracle that the Lord would love us.
It's a miracle that we would believe what God has said. But this is why the Lord prepares
his children to hear gospel. Most people just thought that
this Jesus of Nazareth was nothing more than a miracle worker. The
Lord rebuked them often because they just wanted to see the miracles
and they just wanted the benefits of those miracles. But here,
Bartimaeus calls the Lord by a designation that identifies
him as the Messiah, the anointed one, the one who fulfilled Isaiah
61. Where do you get that from? Well,
that's a miracle. Where'd you get it from? Where'd
you get it from? You got it from scripture. But why did you believe what
the scripture says? And so many people just throw
the name of our Lord around and use religion only as far as it
benefits them in this physical world. Only as far as it benefits
them in their fleshly needs. They have no interest in a Savior,
they have no interest in a Messiah. What made the difference? Well,
it was a miracle. It's a miracle that we heard
the scriptures, we heard about the Lord Jesus Christ, and then
we believed. This miracle continues in that
our daughter Emmaus began to cry. It's a miracle that we would
cry out for help. Isaiah tells us to seek the Lord
while he may be found and call upon him while he is near. Why do we do that? Why do we
believe to do that? Why do we have a need to do that?
It's a miracle. It's a miracle that we would
cry, that we would lift up our voice. David put it like this,
when, Lord, when you said, seek ye my face, my heart said unto
thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. When God said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, why did we believe? When God said, seek
ye my face, why did my heart say, thy face, Lord, do I seek?
Why? That's a miracle. This is the
miracle of sight. If the Lord didn't leave heaven
in compassion for his people to save people, if he didn't
enable us to see that unclean man that we are left to ourselves
and the perfect righteousness that we have in the one who is
highly esteemed and valued. If he didn't give us his word and enable us
to believe what we hear, if he didn't cause us to cry out, we
would never see. We would never have sight. This
is all part of this glorious miracle of grace. Have mercy upon me. Lord, that's
what I need. I need mercy. Always in need
of mercy. Lord, withhold from me what I
deserve. And the only way that God can
do that is to satisfy His justice in the one who did not deserve
the wrath of God. And so as we cry out to God for
mercy, we're reminded in that cry that the only way the Lord
can have mercy upon me is if the Lord Jesus Christ bore my
sins and suffered the wrath of God in order to satisfy God's
wrath and justice. That's the only way God can have
mercy. He's a just God and he must punish sin. And so these
things are not separate, they're together. Yes, we, as you receive
Christ Jesus, the Lord so walk in him. How did you receive him
the very first time? As an unworthy mercy beggar,
a sinner in need of a savior, in need of one who would bear
your sins and satisfy God's justice. One who fulfilled God's holy
law on your behalf. one who would be your substitute,
your sin bearer and your shepherd before God. That's how we come. And that's how we continue to
come. Notice in verse 49, this is maybe
the most glorious thing in this miracle. And Jesus stood still. And Jesus stood still. What parent, in hearing a sincere
cry, we know the difference between a feigned cry and a sincere cry.
And we don't, we don't jump to attention in a feigned cry, we
know that. But when you hear your child
cry in desperation, you drop everything and run to them to
help them. And if you being evil know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more, how much more. Our love for our
children cannot be compared to the love that he has for us.
Here's the miracle, here's the miracle that the Lord would put
it in our hearts to cry for mercy and that he would respond to
that cry. and stands still. But he always
does. He always hears the cry of his
children. As I said, he's got his face
set toward Jerusalem. He's going to the cross. And
there's a multitude of people with him. It reminds me of the
time when the woman with the issue of blood came and touched
the hem of his garment. And he asked, who touched me?
And the disciples were amazed that he would ask such a question.
Lord, everybody's touching you. Everybody's a piece of you. No,
no, no. Virtue has gone out. This wasn't
just a curiosity touch. This was a touch of desperation. This was a touch of need. This
was a touch of faith. And the Lord stood still. And
he identified that woman. And he healed her. And it's always
the case. The Lord always stops for the
cries of his children when they cry out to him in need. Always. David said it like this in Psalm
130. Out of the depths have I cried
unto the Lord. And then for the next six verses,
David talked about that cry in Psalm 130. And then the eighth
verse, the last verse of Psalm 130, David comforts himself in
saying, the Lord shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. The Lord heard my cry and he
answered me. He always hears the cry of his
children. Let us bear our hearts in need
to him because it's a miracle that he would put it in our hearts
to cry out to him. And it's a miracle that he would
stop and that he would show to us mercy. Jesus stood still and
commanded him to be called. He commanded him to be called.
Now, before that, notice in verse 48, many charged
him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great
deal, thou son of David have mercy upon me. It's a miracle. It's a miracle. that we would
not be deterred from seeking the Lord by the opinions of men.
That's a miracle. By nature, by nature, we love
the praise of men. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Oh, man, man glories in the attention
that he gets from other men. And if he feels like something
he's doing is not acceptable to someone else, he won't do
it. He won't do it. And you see it in your own family
members. I see it in people that I talk
to. They might have an interest in
learning about the gospel. We've seen it in people that
have come here over the years. And yet, as soon as they receive
a little rebuff, as soon as someone tries to quiet them, they are
quickly silenced and they go the other way. They're not going
to sacrifice the praise of man for praise of God. And you and
I wouldn't do it either. But here we see another aspect
of this miracle. that the Lord will not allow
his Bartimaeuses to be deterred by the opinions of others. To
the contrary, to the contrary, the opposition of the world to
who we believe and what we believe only makes us to believe it even
more. It gives us more assurance and
more determination and more faith. We're more convinced as a result
of the opposition of the world towards the gospel. They tried
to silence him and he cried all the louder, Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. That's a miracle. that the efforts
of the world to deter us from believing would actually only
make us believe all the more? That's a miracle. And he commanded him to be called.
Here's a miracle that the Lord would call us to himself. He would call us by our name. And that that call would be effectual.
It wasn't, it's not a call that's gonna go unheeded. It's an irresistible
call. And we come. We come. The evidence that we've been
called is that we've come. And we, Bartimaeus, dropped his,
well, look what he says. Jesus stood still, verse 49,
and commanded Bartimaeus to be called. And they called the lineman,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, arise, he calleth thee. Here's
a miracle. A miracle. That God's call on
us would be comforting. If If the call wasn't an irresistible,
effectual call, it would be like, we would be like Adam. When the
Lord said to Adam, Adam, where art thou? God was calling Adam,
but Adam was afraid. He wasn't comforted at all. He
was hiding from God. The blood had not been shed.
The lamb had not yet died. The robe of righteousness had
not been given to Adam yet. And Adam in his nakedness is
hiding from God because he's afraid. What do we have here? We have a picture of God's mercy
and God's grace calling his people and causing them to be comforted
in that call. Not to be afraid, but to come Verse 50, and he casting away
his garment. We can only imagine what that
garment looked like, how filth it was, how holy it
was. It's all he had, I'm sure. He
was a blind beggar. He wasn't gonna go to the Lord
with that thing. And he dropped it right there on the side of
the road. And there we have another picture
of the miracle of God's grace in giving sight to his children.
We don't come to him without our filthy righteousness. That's
what that robe represents, isn't it? It's a miracle that we would
come to the conclusion that all of my righteousnesses are as
filthy rags that I cannot come into the presence of a holy God
based on anything that I've ever done. Any prayer that I've ever
prayed, any decision I've ever made, any work I've ever performed,
I cannot. Those righteousnesses are as
filthy rags before God and would drop them to come to Him. Amen to Jesus. I want you to notice in verse
51, something very amazing. And here's another miracle. The
Lord is proving the faith of Bartimaeus and he proves our
faith. And faith that's been given of
God will be proven to be true faith. The Lord is asking Bartimaeus
a question that's very curious. A question that you wonder, why
would he ask such a question? What would you have me to do
for you? I'm blind. What would you have me to do
for you? There's a couple of things in this. First of all,
the confession that I'm blind. Lord, I can't see. Lord, I don't
know anything. I don't understand anything.
I don't know who I am. I don't know who you are. Lord,
I'm completely dependent on the light of the gospel and your
grace and mercy to shine in my heart in the face of Christ for
me to have any wisdom. Christ is my wisdom. That's what
it means to see. Apart from him, I'm blind. I can't see. So the Lord is getting
Barabbas to do what he gets every one of his children to do, confess
to him that they're blind. In contrast to those Pharisees
who said, are you suggesting that we're blind? Why, we're not blind. We're children
of Abraham. We know the Bible. And the Lord
said, if you were blind, if you were blind, then you could see,
but because you say that you can see, therefore your sins
remain. The greatest blindness of all is the man who thinks
he can see when he can't. And so when we're always coming
to the Lord, I won't be able to see if you don't show it to
me. If you don't turn the light on
and reveal it to me, I can't see it. I'm blind. But I think there's something
more to what the Lord is asking Barnabas. And it's similar to
what the Lord said to that crippled man that was at the Pool of Bethesda
in John chapter 5. When the Lord singled out one
man, the whole place was full of men, women and children. They were halt and blind and
lame and sick and they were all waiting for an angel to come
and stir the water. What a glorious picture of the gospel that is.
The angel of God comes and stirs the water of God's Word and all
those that get in that water are healed. And the Lord looks
at that man and He says to him, Would thou be made whole? Would the body be made whole? These aren't just rhetorical
questions. These are questions that the
Lord's asking just to, you know, just to be asking them. He asked
this lame man, do you want to be healed? I had no man help
me is what he said. When the water's stirred, someone
else gets in before me. And here he asked Bartimaeus
a very similar question. What would you have me to do
for you? And it's the same question that the Lord probes our hearts
with. Do you really wanna see? Do you
really wanna see? Do you really wanna be made whole? Artemius had lived off of the
sympathy and the generosity of others all of his life. He never
had to work a day in his life. He never had to go to battle.
He was disqualified for being in the military. Now, he's going to have to get
up every day and go to work. He's going to have to be responsible.
He's going to have to start caring for others instead of living
his whole life someone caring for him. He's going to be qualified
now to go to war if need be. You really want to see Bartimaeus?
Because this is going to change everything in your life. Everything
is going to change Bartimaeus. Do you really want to be Meho?
Because that man who was 38 years old and lived that way all of
his life lived the same way Bartimaeus lived. Listen, I've dealt with
homeless people before. and you give them every opportunity
to get out of homelessness, and I've had every one of them that
I've had to try to help, refuse. Now, I'm sure there's some people
in a homeless situation, particularly women, maybe abused women with
children, that would be welcome to help. I'm just talking anecdotally
from the experience I've had with homeless people. They don't
want out. They would rather sleep in the
rain and fight the mosquitoes and be dirty and be hungry than
to have to be responsible. I've had them tell me, I don't
want to answer to anybody. Well, I'll take you to the homeless
shelter. No, they've got rules and regulations
down there. I got to be in at a certain time,
and they close the doors behind me, and I've got to live by their
rules and regulations. And I don't want any of that.
I want my independence. And they will remain homeless.
I went to Ukraine right after the Soviet Union fell. And I
found people that had lived under communism all of their lives
with no ambition and no interest in bettering their lives. You read stories about people
that were slaves. and the Emancipation Proclamation
come, Proclamation Man, and they, you know, don't, no, I wanna,
why? Because I, this means that I'm
gonna, that everything in my life is gonna change. If we've
been made new in Christ, there's not a single part of our lives
that the gospel doesn't touch. And there's not a single part
of our lives that the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't rule and reign
over. And the Lord said what he said
in that example when he said there was a man who went to war.
but he didn't count the cost, he didn't consider whether or
not he would, whether or not he'd be able to defeat the enemy.
And when he got into battle, he realized he didn't know what
was going to take. There was another man who was
going to build a building. He got halfway through it and
he didn't plan, he didn't have the means to finish the job.
And what is the Lord saying? He's saying count cost. Count
the cost, and I think that's what he's saying to Bartimaeus
here, and I think that's what the Lord was saying to the man
at the Bethesda. Are you sure you wanna be made
whole? Bartimaeus, are you sure you wanna be able to see? Because
everything in your life's gonna change. How many people we've seen jump
on the bandwagon enthusiastically, seeds of the gospel go out, and
they fall on rocky soil, and they spring up, and then the
heat of the summer comes, and they have no root to them, and
they dry up, or the entanglement of the world wraps around them,
and they fall away. Why? Because they didn't count
the cost. This is a miracle. It's a miracle if you and I are
confronted by God. And with this, you really want
to see? You really want to be made whole?
You really want everything in your life to change? You really
want me to have control and authority over every part of your life? You see, it's not a matter of
our commitment or determination that it would say, hey, Lord,
I need to see. It's a miracle that we would
say that. It's a miracle of God's grace
that we would submit ourselves to such a thing, to such a one,
that we would have an interest in the Lord taking over every
part of our lives. That's a miracle. It's not to our credit. It's
not to our credit that we would say, yay, Lord. It's to his glory
that he would make us to say, oh Lord, that I might see. In closing, the final miracle,
the final part of this miracle in verse 52, thy faith has made
thee whole. Now don't be confused about that. The nature, men make a work out
of faith, they think that faith is something that they've made
a contribution to but in doing that they've misunderstood the
very nature of faith. Faith by its very nature is the
complete absence of works. Faith by its nature is trusting
in another. It's looking in trust to Christ. Faith by its nature, true saving
faith is a gift from God and it can't be gloried in. All the
glory in saving faith goes to the object of that faith. And
so when the Lord says, thy faith has made thee whole, there's
no saving without faith. There's no seeing without faith. That faith is not something we
boast in. The very nature of that faith
is that it gives all boasting and all glory to him. And then the Lord says to Bartimaeus,
go thy way. go that way. And here's the last
part of this miracle, look at it. And he followed Jesus in the
way, in the way. The way that Bartimaeus wanted
to go was to follow Christ. Being made willing in the day
of his power is not just, it's not just the willingness that
he gives us in the new birth, it's the continuation of willingness
that he gives us to follow him in the way, in the way. That's a miracle. It's all a
miracle. Our heavenly father, thank you. For the miracle of your grace, Lord, might we continue to be
the beneficiary of that, of that mercy and that grace. We ask
it in Christ, amen. Yes. OK.