Good evening. I invite your attention to the
gospel according to Mark chapter 10. The gospel according to Mark
Chapter 10. Tonight, God willing, I'd like to bring to you a message
titled, Bartimaeus Healed by Jesus. Our text is found in Mark's gospel,
chapter 10, verses 46 through 52. In the ninth chapter of this gospel,
our Lord was in Galilee, and he's going to depart Galilee, make his way down to Jerusalem. We read in chapter 10, verse
1, that he arose from there, that is, Galilee, and came to
the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan, meaning that
our Lord went from Galilee to Judea, but he did not go north-south. That would have taken him through
Samaria. Our Lord traveled east out of Galilee, across the Jordan
River, and then down on the east bank of the Jordan River, and
then crossed the river again and was headed up toward Jerusalem. In chapter 10, verse 32, we read
that now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem. The ancient Israelites always
considered going to Jerusalem as going up. You always went
up to Jerusalem. It was Mount Zion. It was a city of mountains. But you always went up. to Jerusalem. And our account here commences
with these words in verse 46, that then they came to Jericho,
and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great
multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Pimaeus, sat by the
road begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of
David, have mercy on me. Then many warned him to be quiet,
but he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. Then they called the blind man,
saying to him, Be of good cheer, rise, he is calling you. And throwing aside his garment,
he rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said to
him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to
him, Rabboni, or my great one, that I may receive my sight.
Then Jesus said to him, go your way. Your faith has made you
well or saved you. And immediately he, that is Bartimaeus,
received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. I want us to look tonight at
about 12 things, rather briefly, that describe the various incidents
in this account. First of all, I want you to see
that Bartimaeus was a pathetic man. And the things that made
him pathetic in the physical realm are the same things that
make you and me pathetic in the spiritual realm. Observe, first of all, that he
was pathetic because he was blind. Now, of the five physical senses,
sight is by far, I think, you will agree with me, the one you
do not want to be without. I'm losing my hearing. I've lost
a good bit of my hearing. Should I lose it all? I can still
get around okay. I enjoy tasting my food, but
if I have to eat it without tasting it, I can get by with that. The sense of smell, it's good
to have, although sometimes I wish it was not so keen, but if I
had to do without it, I could do without smell. And touch. That's a very important one.
It's good to know if things are hot or cold. But I could get
by without touch. But don't let me lose my sight.
A blind man. This man was blind. It makes
him dependent on the kindness of others. And it also makes
him susceptible to the mischief of others. He's blind. And so
are you. and me in the spiritual realm. In our native state we are those
who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded,
who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. And
as physical blindness made a Levite unfit for the priesthood, So
does spiritual blindness make you and me unfit for any service
to God. And if the blind leads the blind,
we both, we all know what happens to them both, they fall into
the ditch. Now this man is blind, he's pathetic. But then again,
you're pathetic too. By nature you're blind, you're
blind. Second, he was pathetic because
he was impoverished. That's why he sat by the road
begging. Now it was not uncommon for the
blind to be beggars, for their infirmity hindered employment
and generally resulted in impoverishment. Being unable to provide for themselves,
they would sit by the road and beg alms of those who passed
by. Help the blind. Help the blind. I'm blind. Can you spare me?
Well, all of us are impoverished. We are devoid of spiritual good.
The Holy Spirit says of you and me that surely these are poor. They are foolish for they do
not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God.
Notice, these are poor. in our ignorance of God by nature. That's who we are. We are impoverished,
poor, beggars, and furthermore, we sit by religion road and hoping
that somebody from religion will pass some morsel our way that
might get us through the night at least. But this man furthermore
resided in a futile place. He was not going to get any help
where he was. Jericho. Now, our Lord had come
down on the east bank of the Jordan, crossed the Jordan, and
was coming to Jericho. Now, if you'll remember, this
was the first place the children of Israel came to in the Promised
Land. They crossed the Jordan and came
into Jericho. Now, what does Jericho mean?
The scholars are not really sure. Some say that it means fragrant. Some say that it has a meaning
that probably means moon. We're not sure. We do know this.
Jericho was a very fragrant city because it was known for its
palm trees. It was known for the flora that
grew there. And furthermore, it was a sweet-smelling
place because of those trees. And we know that Jericho was
associated with the moon because the Canaanites had a center of
moon worship in that place. But let me tell you this, my
friends. If you're blind and impoverished and pathetic, a
sweet fragrance is going to do you no good. And the moon is
going to do you no good. And that's true of us. Man-made
religion. May burn incense for us, it may
smell good, it may look good. It'll do you no good. And false
gods, such as the moon, they'll do you no good. These are the
things that man-made religion will give to you. Man-made religion
would be quiet at home at Jericho. It smells good, and the moon
is worshipped, but you'll get no help there if you're blind
and impoverished, sitting by the road begging. Now, the second
thing I want you to see is not only was he pathetic, but he
was the son of honor. Look at verse 46. His name is
Bar Timaeus. Now, Bar is a Hebrew word meaning
son of. Timaeus is his father's name
and it means honor. So, Bar Timaeus, son of honor. What's your name? Your name is
Bar-Dwight. Is it not? Your father's name is Dwight,
you're Bar-Dwight. Okay? All right. Well, you see,
because you're son of Dwight. Well, Bar-Timaeus, his father's
name was Timaeus, so Bar-Timaeus, son of Timaeus, and Timaeus means
honor, his name means son of honor. But his name mocks him. His name mocks him. What honor
is there for a man who's blind, impoverished, begging along the
road? Not much honor as that is there.
What I tell you right now, this man is about to be healed by
the great physician. And when he does, He will become
a son of God by the Son of God, and when that happens, he is
indeed the Son of Honor. Our Lord Jesus Christ says that
if anyone serves me, him my Father will honor. The true Son of Honor
is a Son of God. If your name is Son of God, you
are truly a Bartimaeus, Son of Honor. Third, I want you to observe
that Jesus went to the place of Bartimaeus. In verse 46, Jesus went to where
Bartimaeus was. Why? Because Bartimaeus could
not come to Jesus. So Jesus went to Bartimaeus. Now, this is not the only time
that Jesus went to Jericho looking for someone. There was another
occasion. And you will remember that in
that instance our Lord said that I have come to seek and to save
that which was lost. He said that in Luke chapter
19. What was that occasion? Our Lord
had another lost person. However, this one was not a beggar.
He was very rich. And the Lord had again come to
Jericho. Both times the Lord went to Jericho
he was looking for someone. The first time he's looking for
Bartimaeus because Bartimaeus cannot come to him. And the second
time it is a man by the name of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a
chief tax collector and a very rich man. But Zacchaeus is not going to
go looking for Jesus. because he's a sinner. But he
hears that Jesus is coming through Jericho. So Zacchaeus, being
short of stature, unable to see Jesus, climbed the sycamore tree. And our Lord has come to Jericho
for what purpose? He himself said, I came to seek
and to save that which was lost. That's what he's doing. He's
looking around. He's looking for someone in particular. Now, where is he? He's looking
for him. There he is, up in a tree. Zacchaeus, come down. I have come looking for you today. I have come to seek and to save
that which was lost. Zacchaeus would not come to the
Lord until the Lord told him, come down to me. Bartimaeus cannot
come to Christ because he's blind, he's a begging, and so Jesus
goes to Bartimaeus. I say to you, my friend, that
will be true of every one of us. Jesus says that all of us
by nature are incapable of coming to Him. Our Lord says that no
one can come to Me. No one can come to Me unless
it be granted to them by My Father. I know the free willer will say
otherwise. He will say, oh, you can come
to Jesus anytime you want to. Well, that's true. Whenever you
want to, you can. You have no desire to. So therefore,
Jesus must come to you and make you want to come to him. Oh, that Christ would visit us
tonight. Oh, that Christ would pass by
our Jericho tonight. Looking for us. Looking for us. Fourth, I want you to see that
Bartimaeus recognized Jesus for whom he is in verse 47. Now,
Luke's parallel account tells us that hearing a multitude passing
by, he asked what it meant, so they told him that Jesus of Nazareth
was passing by. Now, Mark does not tell us that,
but Luke does. Here's a commotion. He hears
the footsteps, a number of people walking by. He says, what's all
this people? Is it a parade? A lot of people
going, tell me who's going by? And so they told him it's Jesus
of Nazareth. He's passing by on this street
where you are. Now, read what Mark here says. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of
David. Now watch this carefully. When
he asked who's passing by, whom did they say? Jesus of Nazareth. What is Jesus of Nazareth? That's
some man from Nazareth. It is some man named Jesus and
he's from Nazareth. But that is not the way that
Bartimaeus addressed him. who's passing by. It's some man
named Jesus. He's from Nazareth. And Bartimaeus
hollers out, what does he say? Jesus, son of David! He doesn't
call him Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, son of David! He calls
him. Bartimaeus recognized Jesus for
whom Jesus is. Recognized. He said, He's not
merely some man named Jesus from Nazareth. This is Jesus, son
of David. Now what does that mean? The
name Jesus. You know what the name Jesus
means? Jehovah is salvation. You shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. That's what
His name means. What is His name? His name is Savior. Savior. And Son of David, what does that
mean? That means He's Messiah. For
all the Jews knew very well that the Christ is the Son of David,
Matthew 12, verse 35. They knew that when Messiah came,
He would be the Son of David and He would save them from their
sins. And Bartimaeus, I do not know how he knew this except
taught the Spirit. He knew that that one they called
Jesus of Nazareth, this is Jesus, the Savior, Son of David, my
Messiah. He also in verse 51 called him
by the Hebrew title Rabboni. It means my great master. He also called him Lord. This man knew the deity of Jesus
Christ. He was convinced of the deity
of Jesus Christ. This man is like Thomas, when
the Lord appears and Thomas says, my Lord and my God, well Bartimaeus
has recognized Jesus of Nazareth as being that, my Lord and my
God. I say to you that if you will
recognize Jesus of Nazareth for whom he truly is, If you'll recognize
Him as Son of Man and Son of God, as Lord of David and Master
of Savior of sinners, if you'll recognize Him as that, good things
are bound to happen to you. Some will say, well, He'll save
you if you let Him. Then you don't know this one.
He's trying his best to save sinners if they would only let
him. You don't know the Savior that Bartimaeus knew. Bartimaeus
knew whom he was. And then notice that number five,
Bartimaeus begged from Jesus what he could not obtain from
others. Look at verse 27. Have mercy
on me. When others went by, he begged
for alms. He does not ask for money from
Jesus. And believe it or not, you can
search the scriptures to see if I'm true, Jesus never gave
money to anybody. He gave something better. He
gave something better. He begged for alms from everybody
that walked by. but he did not beg for money
or alms from Jesus. Have mercy on me. He wants something
greater in value than he'd ever begged for before. He wanted
healing and salvation from Jesus and perhaps he remembered that
prophecy of Messiah's coming that then the eyes of the blind
shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. And then the lame shall leap
like a deer and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. Isaiah 35
verses 5 and 6. This man knew that his one opportunity
to be healed of blindness was right now. He will seize the
moment. Have mercy on me. Have mercy
on me. Number 6, look in verse 48. Then many warned him to be quiet." Now, we do not know why. That
is, we should say, no reason is cited. I'll give you two reasons,
possible reasons why they wanted him to be quiet. First, they
were trying to convince him that this was Jesus of Nazareth and
he keeps calling him Messiah. or second, or second. Do you remember when the Lord
healed the madman of Gadara? And the community comes out to
see what has happened. Here is a madman who chased people
around lived in the tombs, they could not tie him, they could
not bind him, and when Jesus comes and heals the man, the
people come out and they see him sitting clothed and in his
right mind. And when they saw this man, the
madman, whom they could not help, sitting clothed and in his right
mind, they begged Jesus to leave. Why is that? I'll tell you why. Man-made religion doesn't like
the competition. Man-made religion does not want
Jesus around. They want to tell you about a
Jesus who can do something if you'll let him. If you're an
insane man like this madman, he'll save you if you'll take
our 12-step self-help course. If you'll do this or the other,
Jesus comes along and does things His way. He does! And religion doesn't
like the competition. Jericho was a very religious
city. They evidently did not care for
Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah, Son of God. And so, when Bartimaeus
says, Jesus, son of David, they said, shh, be quiet, be quiet,
that's not who he is, he's Jesus of Nazareth. Some things never change, do
they? Number seven. Bartimaeus more
fervently cried for mercy. Look in verse 48. But he cried
out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. I'll tell you
right now, a blind, impoverished beggar
will not be silent when the only one who can help him is there. If you tell him to be quiet He
will cry out all the more and all the louder, Have mercy on
me, son of David. This man was not going to be
quiet. Number eight, observe that Jesus
mercifully responded to Bartimaeus' cry in verse 49. So Jesus stood
still and commanded him to be called. The good news is this,
Jesus, Son of God, Son of David, never turns a deaf ear to anyone
who begs for mercy. I promise you. I promise you.
You will search the Scriptures in vain for anyone earnestly
seeking mercy from Christ and Him saying, no, I don't have
any for you. Jesus did not turn a deaf ear.
Jesus stopped. He knew they told the man to
be quiet. He heard that man when he cried
out all the louder. So Jesus stopped. Now what happens
when Jesus stops? Everybody stops because they're
all following Him. And Bartimaeus is sitting there
by the road and he hears the feet going by. Jesus going by
probably hears the voice of Jesus talking to those with him And
he calls he calls out all the louder because Jesus is soon
going to be out of earshot Jesus son of David have mercy on me
and the next thing he hears is silence Because Jesus stopped
when Jesus stopped everybody stopped and Bartimaeus his ear
is tuned to this. They stopped. They stopped. Is
he going to hear my prayer? And then he hears something else.
Jesus told somebody, bring that man to me. Bring that man to me. They told him to be quiet. He
cried out all the louder. And Jesus said, bring that man
to me. Bartimaeus heard that. Now remember,
he can't see. He does not know how to get there.
He knows the general vicinity of the Lord, but he can't see. So therefore Jesus said, bring
him to me. Bring him to me. Look in verse
49, here's the ninth thing I want you to say. Barthimaeus was dutifully
called to come to Jesus. Then they, our Lord evidently
spoke these words when he commanded that Barthimaeus be called, he
evidently told this to his disciples. Because it evidently was the
Jerichoites that were telling Barthimaeus to be quiet. We don't
think it was the disciples who would tell one to be quiet. So
our Lord commands that Bartimaeus be called, evidently to his disciples,
and the disciples called the blind man and they said, Be of
good cheer, rise, he is calling for you. Well, I don't think they had to tell
him to be cheerful. He had heard that Jesus commanded
him to be called. and he will rise. He will rise. Jesus is calling. I'm so glad. I'm standing up. I'm ready to
go. Just take me. Just take me, okay? I'll be glad
to go. I'm cheerful. I have risen. Take me to the one who calls
me. The tenth thing I want you to
see is Bartimaeus dutifully responded to Jesus' call. Look in verses
50 and 51. I want you to see four things
he did. First, he discarded his outer
garment of tattered rags, notice this, and throwing aside his
garment. Now folks, This man had sat by
that road for many years in that one garment he had and it's all
tattered. It's torn. It's all he's got. Jesus now calls and what does
he do? He gets rid of his garment. Why? Well, it will impede his progress. You don't want to trip over your
garment going to Jesus. So he got rid of his garment. If you ever come to Jesus, you'll
have to get rid of your garment. It's a robe of self-righteous
rags. The Lord called it filthy rags. You'll have to get rid of it.
Because you cannot come to Jesus garment that you wear when you
sit beside Religion Road begging for morsels from religion as
they pass by. You can't come, so get rid of
your garment. Second thing he did, he rose.
He got up. Do you know that this word rose
is the same word that is used of Jesus Christ when he rose
from the dead? That's what Bartimaeus did. He's
no dead sinner down there. He gets rid of his garment. He
no longer needs it. He rises from the dead, as it
were, and that's what we'll have to do. Rise from the dead when
our Savior calls and enables us to do so. Awake, thou that
sleepest. Rise from the dead and Christ
will give you light. And when he gives you light,
you'll do what Bartimaeus did. You'll see. You will see. Alright. Third thing he did.
He came to Jesus. He came to Jesus. Now why did
he come to Jesus? Well, to whom else could you
go? Who else can do what Jesus, son
of David, can do? He came to Jesus. He had asked
for mercy, have mercy on me. Jesus is the mercy of God. You'll find this in Luke chapter
1 verse 32 where we read that Messiah, Jesus was sent to perform
the mercy promised to the fathers. Christ is God's mercy. And then he prayed to receive
his sight. Jesus said, what do you want
me to do for you? And he says, rabboni, that I
may receive my sight. That I may receive my sight. What did he want to see? Do you suppose he wanted to see
what those palm trees around Jericho looked like? Do you suppose he wanted to be
able to see the moon that was worshipped in that place? No. He wanted to see Jesus of
Nazareth, son of David, the one having mercy. When the Lord opened my blinded
eyes, that was the first thing I beheld, the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. It is the God who has shone out
of darkness into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He prayed to receive his sight. He wants to see his Savior. Number 11, verse 52, by faith
he was healed. Then Jesus said to him, go your
way, your faith has made you well. And I want you to see this,
that faith in Christ does what cannot be done by works of self. keeping the law, duties of religion. This man was fully convinced
that Jesus of Nazareth could give him sight. He believed that.
And Jesus said, your faith has healed you. Your faith has saved
you. By faith you received sight. And then, number 12 and last,
Bartimaeus' way. Now watch this carefully. Jesus
said, go your way. Go your way. What was Bartimaeus'
way? Now watch carefully. Verse 52. And immediately he
received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. My twelfth point is this. Bartimaeus'
way was Jesus. That's a blessed thought when
you think about it. Jesus said, go your way. He said, okay. And he got in line behind Jesus.
He said, you're my way. You're my way. I'm going to follow
you all the way to the Father. The faith that healed me and
gave me sight with these eyes, never take my sight off of you. You told me to go my way. You
are my way. And I'm going to follow you all
the way to the Father. Undoubtedly, He did. Jesus leads him out to glory
because He'll lead you nowhere else. No one comes to the Father
except through me. Jesus leads Bartimaeus to the
father. Son, who is this? Bartimaeus, down by the road
in Jericho, told me that he wanted me to
give him his sight and leave the good. So I did. I did what he wanted. He wanted
to see. He trusted in me. Just call. Just call. Religion
will try to turn your attention elsewhere and tell you to be
quiet. Just call her a little louder. Number two, three, five. Here's a hymn for us blind Bartimaeuses. Two, three, five. We can probably do it a cappella
without the music. I think we know it very well. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief. in deep contrition. If my eye believed not a third,
trusting only in thy merit, would I see thy face, heal my wounded
Spirit, save me by thy grace, and the last laugh, the spring
of all my comfort, more than life to me. by thee, who in heaven bought
thee. Savior. Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Reverse.