The Healing of Bartimaeus

Introduction and Prayer for Spiritual Sight

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, August 23rd, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. As we continue our consecutive expositions of the Gospel of Mark, we come this morning to the last paragraph in the 10th chapter of Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 10. And I shall read in your hearing verse 46, or verses 46 through 52, Mark chapter 10 and verse 46. And they come to Jericho, and as he went out from Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the wayside. And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.

1:22 And many rebuked him that he should hold his peace, but he cried out the more a great deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and said, Call him. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good cheer, rise, he calls you. And he, casting away his garments, sprang up and came to Jesus.

1:56 And Jesus answered him and said, What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said unto him, Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go your way, your faith has made you whole. And straightway he received his sight and followed him in the way.

2:27 Now let us again pray that God will indeed give us spiritual eyes to perceive that which he knows we have need to perceive from this portion of his holy word. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, we have sung the prayer of our hearts to you in the hymn we have just together sung in your presence.

2:58 We acknowledge that our Lord Jesus alone is bread to our souls. We acknowledge that he alone is the light of the world. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will so attend the preaching and the listening. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will so attend the preaching and the listening.

3:16 And we pray that the Holy Spirit will so attend the preaching and the listening. That we may feed upon him who is the bread of life. That we may behold him who is the light of the world. That you would so bind the powers of darkness and the actings of our own sin.

3:35 And everything that would oppose the knowledge of Christ. That in this hour we shall behold the Savior. And beholding him. And trust him.

3:47 And love him. And serve him. And follow him. With every fiber of our being.

3:54 Come then Holy Spirit. And take of the things of Christ. And reveal them to us with power. We ask for his sake.

Avoiding the 'Bones' of Discrepancies in Gospel Accounts

4:05 And for our good. Amen. Now in a matter of a couple of hours. Most of us will be sitting at a table.

4:22 Before our Sunday noon meal.

4:26 And what would you think of a member of Trinity Church. If you heard and it seemed to be established upon very trustworthy reliable testimony. That he left this service. Went to his home.

4:44 And when it came time to be seated at the table. He came to the table with the other family members. And there saw a well prepared. Well balanced.

4:53 Meal. The main meat course of which. Was baked chicken. And the chicken was cut up into its various parts.

5:02 And he happened to take. A leg and a thigh. And then upon good testimony. You receive word that what he did.

5:11 Was very carefully and meticulously. Cut off all of the edible meat. From the leg and the thigh. Place it to one side on his plate.

5:23 Then take. The thigh bone and the leg bone. And the remaining sinews. And asked.

5:32 That a meat cleaver be brought to him. And a cutting board. And there at the table he took the cleaver and cut up the bones into about one inch pieces. And while everyone feasted upon his portion of the chicken thigh breast or picked away at the back.

5:51 He sat there chewing on the bones. Every few minutes. Coughing. Choking.

5:58 Asking to be excused from the table only to come back again to pick up the next piece of bone to chew and to choke and to leave the table. Now if such a report came to us the kindest thing we would all conclude is that we have an odd brother in our midst or we might conclude that we have among us someone with a death witch. But. Certainly.

6:28 We would not consider that normal or acceptable behavior.

6:34 To set aside. Nutritious. Edible. Well prepared pieces of meat.

6:42 In order to chew upon chopped bones is the height. Of folly. Well my brothers and sisters that is exactly what many do when they come to the passage that I have read in your hearing. For when we read.

6:59 The parallel accounts of this healing of the blind man named Bartimaeus. Accounts found in the 20th chapter of Matthew. Verses 29 to 34 and also in the 18th chapter of Luke verses 35 to 43. We find some very evident discrepancies in the accounts.

7:27 Both Luke and Mark record. The. Healing of one blind man. However Matthew records the healing.

7:35 Of two. Blind men. Matthew and Mark agree in their statement that the healing of the two according to Matthew the one according to Mark. Occurred as Jesus with the crowd was leaving Jericho.

7:53 However Luke says that the healing occurred as they were entering. Jericho. And those who come to the word of God with an evil and an unbelieving skepticism say aha here are some patent errors some very evident contradictions and therefore they choke themselves upon the bony parts of this portion of the word of God. Others coming to the word of God.

8:30 Not with an evil and unbelieving skepticism but with the bias of faith and confidence in the word of God make elaborate attempts to justify and resolve these apparent contradictions some go so far as to suggest that there were at least three or possibly four different people healed and that each of the accounts is a total. Totally independent account of an independent healing of the Lord Jesus that occurred somewhere in the area of Jericho others offer very plausible explanations concerning ways in which these passages can be harmonized but to me to spend even any of our time this morning would be to be chewing on bones while luscious meat. Away.

9:29 To be masticated and digested and so I would like to quote one man who approached the passage with that perspective and he said as is usual in all such cases many hypotheses have been devised by those who seek to harmonize the gospel accounts with the view of showing that there is no contradiction involved in the accounts. But I cannot say I'm satisfied with. Any of these efforts if we were in possession of all the facts as they really occurred it is quite likely that we should see at once how all three accounts are consistent with truth and with each other but as it is I prefer to make no attempts at removing the difficulties because all such efforts involved and on natural straining of the accounts given by the writers. And.

10:29 Because the very existence of such diversities is a proof of the independence of the gospel writers and is absolutely incompatible with the theory that there was any collusion between them to palm off a forgery upon their readers taking then the account given by mark as being probably the earliest of the three and availing ourselves of the occasional side lights. Given by. You and Luke let us proceed with our exposition and that's what we're going to do so as we set aside the bones of attempting to reconcile them and for you who want to go bone picking just read the standard commentators believing godly commentators who hold the highest view of scripture and you will see that there are many and varied plausible reasonable ways to reconcile them. And. You and Luke let us proceed with our exposition and that's what we're going to do. Given by.

The Setting and Significance of Bartimaeus's Healing

11:31 accounts. But we want to come to the account that is set before us in Mark's gospel, believing it indeed to be the word of the living God, inerrant in all that it asserts, and by the grace of God to feed our souls upon its truth. Now I remind you of where the Lord Jesus is at this part of his earthly pilgrimage. He has left the upper regions of Galilee, is making his way down to Jerusalem, making his way through the area called Perea that was east of the Jordan River, and midway between Galilee and Judea. And as he comes down into that area, he would have to cross the Jordan River in order to enter Jericho, which was about five miles from Jerusalem. And he would miles west of the Jordan River and about 15 to 20 miles north and east of Jerusalem. So that will give you some idea of the general setting. Our Lord is making his way to Jerusalem, obviously as

12:40 we have seen particularly in this 10th chapter, with the great realities of a world's redemption pressing down upon his spirit, consuming his whole inner being. As with resolution and immovable determination, he goes to the place of Jerusalem knowing that it will be the place of rejection, the place of scourging, the place of crucifixion, the place of death, and the place of resurrection. And as we come to the paragraph, in our hearing, it is significant that it is the last recorded miracle of healing in the Gospel of Mark. Furthermore, it seems to be very significant that it comes after this tremendous concentration of material on the death of Christ and the spirit of servanthood which marked the Lord Jesus in contrast to the carnal ambition of the disciples and then the the record that begins in chapter 11 of our Lord actually entering into the outskirts of Jerusalem and on into Jerusalem, leading to the events of the Passion Week. And in that setting, then, we come to this paragraph,

14:06 and in thinking our way through its contents, we shall consider, first of all, the needy man introduced, verse 46. Then, secondly, the needy man's encounter with Jesus, verses 47 to 52. And then, thirdly, the great lessons of this incident of Christ's healing of this needy man. First of all, the needy man introduced.

The Needy Man Introduced: Place, People, and Personal Condition

14:37 And they come to Jericho, and as he went out from Jericho with his disciples and the great... multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the wayside.

14:55 Now, in introducing this man to us, Mark gives us three categories of information. First of all, the place, the people, and then the name and personal condition of this man. First of all, the place where the incident occurred. The incident...

15:15 The incident occurs around a place called Jericho. Now, many of you children will immediately recognize the word Jericho. Some of you remember the old Negro spiritual, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came a-tumbling down. And we often think of Jericho in terms of that mighty conquest as Joshua led the armies of God into the promised land.

15:45 Well, that particular Jericho was destroyed. And God had said that anyone who attempted to reconstruct it would do so with tragic consequences. And in the period of Israel's apostasy, someone became so bold as to put God to the test and attempted to rebuild that old Jericho and did so with the death of his own son. But under Herod, Herod the Great, a new Jericho, came to unusual prominence as a beautiful resort city approximately one mile south of the old Jericho.

16:26 And it is that particular Jericho that was right smack in the middle of the main road leading up out of Jerusalem and going north and eastward, or if you were coming down from the Galilean region of Upper Palestine, you would pass through Jericho if you were following the main thoroughfare. You remember when our Lord gave the parable of the Good Samaritan. He talked about a man going up to Jerusalem from Jericho, up geographically, down in terms of the direction of the compass. It would have been very natural for any businessman to travel the Jericho road.

17:09 And so we are told that the needy man, is to be brought before us in precisely this place called Jericho. Now we understand from Luke chapter 19 that our Lord during this time, either just prior to or subsequent to the healing of this blind man, had done an amazing work of grace in a notorious tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus. For Zacchaeus was, at least in business in Jericho, it would be very natural for a toll collector to be found near a large city on a main thoroughfare, and no doubt the fame and the report of his conversion had made its way through that city, perhaps just prior to this incident recorded in the paragraph before us. So that's the place. That's the place where the incident occurred, according to our text, as our Lord was going out from Jericho. Now what about the people involved in the incident?

18:25 Well, there was our Lord himself. The text begins with the words, and as he, that is the Lord Jesus, went out from Jericho. And remember, he went out not on a stroll. He went out not on a...

18:42 He went out not on another preaching mission primarily, but according to verse 32 of this chapter, he went out to resume his journey to Jerusalem. And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them, and they were amazed, and they that followed were afraid. There is that set of his jaw, that resolution that oozes, as it were, through every pore of his sanctified human personality, that he is on a mission. And as he leaves Jericho, it is that he might resume his trip inevitably to Jerusalem. And in that frame, there are with the Lord at least the twelve. The text tells us that he went out with his disciples, and possibly another little while, and he went out with his disciples. And there is a little wider circle of those who perceived more clearly his identity, and were prepared to follow him and minister to him.

19:52 But whether it refers exclusively to the twelve, or to the twelve plus, that little wider circle of devoted followers, Mark tells us that our Lord goes out from Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude. Mark tells us that our Lord goes out from Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude. A large crowd of people. In fact, the crowd was so large that even a blind man, by hearing the distinct sounds of a crowd, became aware that there was an unusual crowd.

20:31 For in the parallel passage in Luke, we read in Luke 18.36, and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. We are told that blind people's hearing becomes cultivated to an almost uncanny degree. For their ears must in great measure become their eyes and their hands and their other faculties.

21:00 And so accustomed to the normal thump, thump, thump of the many feet that would pass through the city gates of Jericho in a main thoroughfare, There was on this occasion an unusually large crowd of people surrounding the Lord Jesus and his followers, most likely those who were making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And it could well be that these were many of them, devout Jews who were going to Jerusalem in obedience to God's mandate that all of the males should appear before him three times each year in those great appointed feasts of the Old Covenant. And so the needy man is introduced in terms of the place where the incident occurred, the people involved in the incident, but then thirdly in terms of his name and his personal condition. His name is Bartimaeus, the man of the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of Timaeus. Now what we have here is very simply this.

22:15 To put the word bar in front of a name means son of. When someone is bar mitzvahed, they become a son of the Lord. And so bar Timaeus means son of Timaeus, but Mark writing, particularly with Romans in view, apparently gives this explanatory word so there would be no confusion, so, So he identifies the man as son of Timaeus whose name was Bar-Timaeus, and it's an odd combination because use of the word bar would be Aramaic, a bit of a prostituted Hebrew, whereas Timaeus seems to be a Greek word. And so the commentators and the linguists have a great time playing ping-pong with that particular phenomenon. But be that as it may, he is identified as son of Timaeus who may well have been in the early church a notable person, and for that reason his name is brought forward. But whether that is true or not, the most significant thing is not his name, but his personal condition.

23:29 And he is described to us in two very simple but tragic words. He was a blind beggar. He was blind. And we are told that this was a common tragedy in that part of the world at that point of human history, even as it is in some parts of the world today.

23:54 A man who was unable to use the faculty of sight that so often we all take for granted, and yet how horrified we are if for five minutes we are shut up in a room in which there is absolute and total darkness, most of us psychologically and emotionally panic. Well, here is a man whose world was shut up in that thick, horrible darkness of blindness. And his blindness then led to his having to sustain himself in this most degrading of all positions, the position of a beggar. One who had to sit by the gate of a large city where many people were going and coming, and there cry out for alms and cry out for mercy and pity that he might have sufficient wherewith to feed himself and keep soul and body together. And remember, it was a shameful thing to be a beggar. Jesus, in one of his parables, speaking about the unjust steward.

25:09 He records him as saying, I am ashamed to beg. And he came up with another alternative. So here is a man who has experienced the horrible privation of sight and all that that brings. And then it has brought him to such a state of destitution that he must sustain himself by begging.

25:34 Apparently, no loved ones with the means. Or if they had the means, they had not the heart to care for him in a way that would have preserved his dignity, provided some form of manual occupation that would have helped him retain a sense of worth and of making some contribution to society. But each morning he faced the darkness. And it was no different than if it were midnight.

26:03 And there, as often happens. He probably had his own way. He had his own marked-out turf. In cities where beggars gather, there are unwritten rules of how they carry out and ply their trade of begging.

26:21 And on a given day, outside or just on the precincts of Jericho, this man, Bartimaeus, goes forth with the burden of his blindness to take his place, his marked-out piece of turf. And there, with his outer garment, to spread it like a woman would her apron, and cry to the passers-by whom he hears with his ears, but cannot see with his eyes, alms, alms for the poor, mercy, have mercy upon the needy. Well, there the needy man is introduced to us. I hope you see him.

27:03 If that doesn't help you, remember the song many of us learned as early Christians. One sat alone beside the highway begging, his eyes were blind, the light he could not see. Do you see and feel something of this needy man as he's introduced to us? Well then, let us move, secondly, to see what the text says about the needy man's encounter with Jesus.

Bartimaeus's Introduction to Jesus: Hope Awakened, Desire Expressed, and Intensified

27:36 And the encounter has two main sections. First of all, his introduction to Jesus, verses 47 to 50, and then his interaction with Jesus, verses 51 and 52. First of all, then, his introduction to Jesus. How does it begin?

27:55 Verse 47, And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, here the introduction to Jesus begins. I'm calling hope awakened. And how was hope awakened? Well he heard with his ears that Jesus the Nazarene was somehow at the center of or was the principal cause of this unusual crowd that is passing him at that precise moment.

28:35 I remind you of Luke's words. Verse 48. Verse 49. Verse 50.

28:40 In an instant a multitude, going by, he inquired what this meant. And the word came to him from one or two or perhaps many sources. It is Jesus the Nazarene. It is Jesus of Nazareth from the upper regions of Galilee.

28:55 And obviously a beggar who had sat day after day at a main thoroughfare, 15 to 20 miles north and east of Jerusalem. The place from which Jerusalem broke. Verse 50. Jerusalem dwellers would go, were they to go north, and those who were up in the Galilean region where Jesus had done many of his mighty works, and it says his fame spread abroad throughout the whole area and down all the way into Judea, no doubt many a time with his heightened sense of hearing.

29:32 He had heard passers-by speaking of what they had seen, what they had heard of this prophet, mighty in word and deed, who came out of Nazareth. No doubt many times he had heard the stories of how he had opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf, and it was reported that he had even raised the dead. And as I sat at my desk trying to read this, I heard a voice say, If I had been trying to think what would go through my mind had I been in his condition, I could describe them in no other way than I would indulge holy fantasies. If I had heard that the person who could actually open blind eyes and unstop deafened ears was within proximity of my voice, and hope is awakened within the breast of this man, and perhaps he already began,

30:34 as it were, to flash upon the walls of his mind, what would it be like for my eyes to be opened? I've heard tell that he spat upon one man's eyes and they were opened. He touched another, he touched another's ears, he raised the dead by the speaking of his voice, and while his mind and spirit are indulging these holy fantasies, hope is awakened on one thing only. He hears that Jesus, the Nazarene, is passing by.

31:08 But then we see in his introduction to Jesus not only hope awakened, but desire expressed. Look at the last part of verse 47. And when he heard that it was Jesus, the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. Desire expressed.

31:36 He began to cry. Now, to whom did he cry? Notice. He did not cry, Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy.

31:47 But he began to cry, Jesus, you Son of David. Now, where did he get that name for Jesus? When he inquired, what's the meaning of all the tramp of the many feet? There's an unusual crowd.

32:09 Well, don't you know? It is Jesus of Nazareth. Or, in a way that perhaps was a little negative nickname, Jesus the Nazarene. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

32:21 Perhaps some of his detractors and enemies were there. But the word came through, Jesus of Nazareth. But when his desire, based upon hope awakened, begins to frame words, he addresses Jesus, not as Jesus of Nazareth, certainly not Jesus the Nazarene, but Jesus, Son of David. And as the title, Son of Man, Son of David, is a messianic title, and this is clearly set forth in a passage such as Matthew chapter 21, and I give you just the one passage to establish this fact.

33:02 Matthew chapter 21, verses 15 and 16. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were moved with indignation and said, Don't you hear what these are saying? You see, the Son of David was none other than Messiah. And when the religious leaders heard these children and others praising Jesus as the Son of David, they were moved with anger and said, Don't you realize what they are doing?

33:40 They are ascribing messianic titles to you. And the Lord does not at this point refuse the messianic title. He says, If they did not give it to me, He says in another context, I'm sorry, but here he quotes the passage out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, You have perfected praise. And so his desire is expressed in the direction of Jesus of Nazareth, whom to some degree, and what degree we cannot tell, he acknowledges to be the Son of David, the promised Messiah, the gracious Almighty, the powerful messianic King.

34:24 Now that's the person to whom he cried. Now, for what did he cry? Well, in an imperative form that we have found in other contexts, he cries for mercy. A wooden rendering would be, Mercy me.

34:45 It's an imperative. And mercy in the Bible is pity joined to or expressed in appropriate action. And what he is saying is, Son of David, Jesus, Son of David, Mercy me. Exercise towards me in my condition that compassion which I believe is in your heart, in terms of that appropriate exercise of power which I believe you have to heal my blind eyes.

35:28 And how did he express his desire? He expressed it with a holy vehemence. The verb used is krabzo. And Lenski, knowing that cry out is a weak translation, actually translates it in his commentary, he began to yell and to say, Son of David, mercy me.

35:58 Here was desire, deep, real, pressing, all-consuming, like the desire of a parent who may stand on a busy thoroughfare in Newark or in the middle of New York and amidst all the din of the honking taxi cabs and all of the roar of the trucks and of the cars and the other background noises of a great city, sees his child begin to cross the street into the oncoming path and above the din and the blare of horns and the screech of tires, musters all of his or her faculties and cries out, Johnny, watch out! That's what we have in the passage. That's what we have in the passage. The hope awakened now finds expression in desire, a desire that causes him to do nothing less than to gather up all of the faculties of speech and to hurl them, as it were, upon the eardrums, the eardrums of the Son of David.

37:11 And remember, if you're a beggar like a street hawker, I'm amazed at the vocal powers of some of these guys that sell papers in New York. I think preachers could learn lessons from that. Paper! Get your paper!

37:25 And they'll go on hour after hour. They don't get hoarse. They don't...

37:29 It's amazing. Now, here's a man that earned his living by crying out. So when he cried out, he cried. Can you hear him?

37:40 Son of David, have mercy upon me. But hope awakened, desire expressed, is then met with hope and desire discouraged. Verse 48. In his introduction to Jesus, he must pass through a period of hope and desire discouraged.

37:58 Look at it. And many, and many, not just a few, but many rebuked him. Many were rebuking him. It's an imperfect.

38:11 In other words, there wasn't just one that said, hey, be quiet, and forgot it. Another said, hey, no. There were many who kept on saying, shush up, shush up, stop it, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet. Many were rebuking him, telling him to be silent, hold his peace.

38:28 In common, vulgar vernacular, many were telling him, shut up. Now, why? I don't know. Do you have any idea?

38:40 Yeah, I've got lots of ideas. But I'm not called to preach my speculations. So I don't know why. But all I know is that many felt it was their duty to discourage him.

38:52 And they kept rebuking him, telling him to hold his peace, shush up. My Swedish grandmother had a very terse little way of saying it. And I don't know whether it was sanguished Swedish or whether it was proper Swedish, but it was terse. And when she said terse, you know what that meant.

39:13 Rotten your lip, that was it. Terse. It says it, doesn't it? Well, many were saying, terse.

39:19 Be still, be quiet. But then we see this only results in hope and desire intensified. Look at verse 48b. But he put his tail between his legs and slithered away, saying, oh well, I tried.

39:37 No. But he crowed the moor a great deal. And here you have another imperfect, which is past continuous action. But he kept on crying out a great deal.

39:54 He says, you ain't heard nothing yet. For every decibel of a voice that said, shush up, test, be quiet, he cranked up his cry a few more decibels. That's what the passage says. But he kept on crying out the moor a great deal.

40:14 And he didn't change his appeal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. He said, you can tell me to be quiet, but I'm convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is the messianic king. I'm convinced he has power and ability, and I'm convinced he also has the willingness to meet my need.

40:43 And there's nothing you can do except slit my throat, cut my head off, rip my throat, my tongue out. The son of Nazareth is here, that I shall know his touch of power upon me. His hope and desire are intensified. Now try to picture this scene.

41:05 Here's the mob. Here's the beggar crying out. Here's the people telling him to shut up. And his cries are drowning out there, imperatives to be quiet.

41:15 I imagine it got quite noisy. It isn't often that I laugh reading my Bible, but I found myself laughing as I tried to, study this passage. Put my mind, and my heart, and my whole being there, by that path, road, going out of Jericho. Hope and desire intensified, to the point where he continues to cry.

Bartimaeus's Hope and Desire Fulfilled: Jesus's Response and Bartimaeus's Action

41:40 And then, in his introduction, we see hope and desire fulfilled. Verses 49 and 50. And these are some of the most beautiful words in all of the Bible. And, Jesus, stood still, and said, called him.

41:59 And they called the blind man, saying unto him, be of good cheer, or be of good courage, rise, he calls you. And he, casting away his garment, sprang up, literally sprang up upon his feet, and came to Jesus. Hope and desire are fulfilled. Notice the amazing response of Jesus to his cry.

42:23 And Jesus stood still. May I say it reverently? It was his persistent, piercing, determined cry for mercy, that froze the Son of God in his tracks. He who would not stop his journey, knowing that rejection, and suffering, and scourging, and death awaited him, when his own close disciples, stood in his way, to say, no, Lord, you must not go that path.

42:59 He says, get behind me, Satan. To Jerusalem, I must go. To suffering, I must go. To death, I must go.

43:08 The cup, I must drink. I must be baptized with my baptism. And where all appeals to self-interest, and self-preservation, and self-pity, could not stop our Lord, on his way to Jerusalem. The desperate, insistent, persistent, cry of a needy, blind man, froze him in his tracks.

43:30 And Jesus stood still. And Jesus stood still. The amazing response of our Lord to his cry. Then look at the command of Jesus to those about him.

43:43 And how humbling it must have been. Probably some of the very ones telling him to shush. Jesus says, call him. Call him.

43:52 And there's a lovely little touch in Luke's Gospel. That indicates that the Lord did not expect him to get there on his own. For in Luke 18 and verse 40 we read, Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. Commanded him to be brought.

44:11 So when the Lord stopped, and then said, call him. He obviously sent along some to take him by the arm and guide him. For he was still a blind man. And then the response of Bartimaeus to the command of Jesus.

44:31 Verse 50. Here is hope and desire fulfilled. It begins to be fulfilled when Jesus responds by standing still. Further, when Jesus commands, bring him to me.

44:46 And then the response of Bartimaeus in its graphic in the original. And when you think of this being said of a blind man. He casting away his outer garment. That would be like my jacket.

45:01 It would be the outer cloak which he most likely had wrapped around him. Spread out like an apron to catch the coins that people would throw in. And the picture is this. While he's sitting the word comes from these ambassadors of Jesus who say, call him to me and assist him and bring him to me.

45:24 The moment that word reaches him. Apparently, quick as a flash, he riddles out of that outer garment and says, he cast it from him. It's very vivid in the original. He didn't fold it up and lay it to one side and say, you know, tuck the coins very.

45:41 No, look at the language. Even our English translation is vivid enough. And he casting away his garment sprang up upon his feet. And I like to picture him.

45:53 Beginning to run and the people grabbing his arms and saying, hey, no, this way, that way. And straining, he's going to Jesus. That's the picture. He sprang up on his feet and he came to Jesus.

Bartimaeus's Interaction with Jesus: The Question, the Request, and the Healing

46:10 Now then, notice his interaction with Jesus. There's his introduction to Jesus. Now the two of them are together. What's going to happen?

46:18 Well, there's first of all, the pointed question of our Lord. Verse 51. And Jesus answers, Jesus answered him and said, What will you that I should do unto you? Very same question he asked James and John.

46:34 Remember when they came and said, Lord, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. And the Lord says, what do you want me to do for you? There it was carnal ambition that stank in the nostrils of God. Here it was the motions of expectancy and hope and faith and desire.

46:54 Jesus knows what he needs. But for the strengthening of the man's faith, for the testimony to all about him, he asks him, what do you want me to do for you? Can you imagine what it must have meant for this man who had heard perhaps for months about Jesus of Nazareth, whose hope had been kindled that morning with the thump and the trump of the feet of the multitude. And upon inquiry, he finds that somehow that multitude is connected with Jesus of Nazareth.

47:29 And in his heart, faith is developed to the point where he believes that Jesus, though he's never witnessed one of his miracles, to be the messianic king. Now he's standing in his very presence. And this one says, what do you want from me? And his clear response, there was no beating around the bush.

47:50 There was no mock humility. There was no equivocating. And the blind man said unto him, Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. Rabboni is an intensified form of the word rabbi, which mingles the concepts of both teacher and master.

48:10 So that the one other place this is used, John chapter 21, it is given a free translation or interpretation as teacher. And yet in the parallel passages, in Matthew and Luke, we have the word Lord used. So there's a mingling of the concepts. He is addressing the son of David, the messianic king, as both the one who is God's prophet to teach and God's king to bring him in subjection to that teaching.

48:42 And so with the intensified form of the word rabbi, he addresses him, Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. He didn't mess around. He didn't give the Lord a lecture on how sight operates and how he just says, Lord, Rabboni, teacher, master, that I may receive my sight. And then the climactic words of Jesus are found in verse 52a.

49:14 And Jesus said unto him, Go your way, your faith has made you whole. Go your way, your faith has made you whole. Go your way, what you hoped for, desired, cried out for, what you have sought and asked for, is yours. Moreover Jesus says it is yours as the fruit of faith.

49:45 Now Jesus is not saying that the man's faith was his salvation, and his healing. No, it was Jesus who opened his eyes. It was Jesus to whom he cried. It was Jesus who said, What do you want me to do for you?

50:04 So when Jesus said, Your faith has saved you or made you whole, Jesus is not making faith this man's salvation or healing. He is saying that my gracious healing and perhaps even saving power has come to you in the way of faith. What you heard of me prior to this day, the reports of who I am and what I do, and how I am able to open the eyes of the blind, and that connection you have made with your knowledge of the Old Testament between Jesus of Nazareth and the Messianic King, Son of David, who has compassion and opens the eyes of the blind, whom you are prepared to recognize as teacher and master. He says to Bartimaeus, Your faith has saved you. That is, I have by the secret operations of my own spirit drawn you to a knowledge of who I am and what I've come to do. And as you've embraced me in the way of faith, so my mighty power and deliverance has come to be yours.

51:18 And then the narrative closes with the immediate result of the words of Jesus. That's the final strand of his interaction. Look at it, and straightway, immediately, one of Mark's favorite words, euthus, straightway, immediately, without delay, he received his sight, and this is beautiful, and he followed him in the way. Jesus said, Go your way!

51:47 You've received what you came for, your sight, go your way! And as the Lord Jesus starts to leave Jericho, Jesus' way has now become his way. So it says he followed him in the way. Isn't that beautiful?

52:08 Go your way! And he says, Lord, my way is your way. And where you go, that's where I'm going to be. And I got a sneaking suspicion in the triumphal entry when they were shouting Hosanna to the son of David.

52:24 There was one man leading a good part of the chorus on the way. Who could see with his eyes was drinking in the wonder of God's handiwork and that spiritual beauty that he had seen in Jesus of Nazareth with the eyes of his soul. Well, dear people, that's the story. That's what the text tells us of a needy man and his encounter with Jesus.

Lessons from Jesus: Largeness of Heart, Greatness of Power, Wisdom of Walk

52:55 Now, what is the central or are the central lessons of this amazing account of the healing power of Christ? Well, let me first of all direct you to what is central to every portion of the word, but particularly a passage such as this. Consider what it reveals about our Lord Jesus. Consider what it reveals about the largeness of his heart.

53:21 With all the weight of the world's redemption upon his shoulders, with the awareness of the cup that is awaiting him and the baptism that awaits him, with Jerusalem and all the agonies of Gethsemane and Golgotha casting their dark but unmistakable shadow over his path, the Lord Jesus is stopped in his tracks by the cry, of a needy blind man who begs for mercy. You see, Jesus' heart was so big that though it was full of the pressures of the salvation of all his people, there was room for the cry of a needy blind man. And dear people, it's just the same today. The heart of our Lord Jesus in heaven is a heart that carries in it the concern of all its people. Read the 17th chapter of John.

54:32 He prays for them all, those that have already been gathered in, those who are yet to be gathered in. According to Ephesians 1, his heart is full of the administration of all the affairs in the entire universe with a view to the well-being of his church. His heart and his mind are full of the great concerns of the full accomplishment of the redemption purchased by his own blood. But may I say it reverently, every true cry for mercy that pierces his ear will find there is room in his heart for the neediest, most insignificant sinner who cries, Son of David, have mercy. The heart of Jesus is now as it was then. And this passage wonderfully demonstrates the largeness of his heart, but further, it illustrates the greatness of his power. Matthew tells us that with his word he also simply touched the blind man.

55:43 Imagine that. To make sightless eyes see, not by the wonderful gift of common grace now deposited in medical science, whereby delicate operations performed with unusually precise instruments in greatly controlled circumstances, sanctified physicians' hands can help restore sight. But Jesus of Nazareth simply touches his eyes and says, Go your way. What you've desired is given.

56:19 Power was exerted either to give life to dead optic nerves, to melt away cataracts, to reconstruct retinas. Whatever was wrong with the eye and with the optic nerve, with just his word and his touch, he brought it to full health and vigor again. And dear people, little comfort could come if Jesus had a large heart for sinners, but a weak heart. Because the Bible says his sinners were dead.

56:55 We're bound. We're blind. We're in such a state that we need more than a large heart full of pity. We need an arm of omnipotence that can meet us where we are and raise us from the death of sin, break the chains that bind us, quicken us to newness of life.

57:18 That's the Jesus who went to Jerusalem and died for sinners. That's the Jesus who was raised from the dead on the third day. That's the Jesus who went back to the right hand of God the Father. That's the Jesus who lives today.

57:36 The Jesus who is ready to be stopped in his tracks by your cry for mercy. And you will find him to be the Christ of a large heart but of a mighty arm. And just in passing quickly let me say this also manifests the wisdom of his walk. You see, this passage not only demonstrates the largeness of his heart, the greatness of his power, but the wisdom of his walk.

58:06 He's told us walk in wisdom toward those that are without. Earlier in his ministry he did not draw forth the confession, Son of David. Why? Because with the carnal notions of Messiah it would have been a terrible hindrance to his true ministry.

58:24 But as he's on his way to Jerusalem to die, he must now make it evident he's dying as Messiah. And so he draws the confession out of the heart of a blind man. Son of David. Son of David!

58:41 And then he has a procession as we'll see going before him. Hosanna to the Son of David! And now they say we've got to get rid of him. And Jesus said, yes, my time has now come.

58:54 Oh, how our Lord sets the pattern of walking in wisdom. When to draw out the proper confession. When to restrain it. And we are called upon to walk as he walked.

A Vivid Picture of How God Saves the Sinner: Accessibility and Acknowledged Need

59:08 But I must close by underscoring in the second place in my final application that this incident contains a vivid picture of how God saves the sinner. It's very interesting. There was only one commentator of the many that I read who found himself unable or should, yes, who found himself unable to see in this passage one of the most vivid illustrations of what it is for a sinner to come to salvation and to life in Christ. Where did it all begin with this man?

59:45 Well, it began with the accessibility of Jesus. You see, this story would not be here had Jesus not gone to Jericho where the beggars sat day after day. And my friend, the gospel is that Jesus is accessible. You don't need to go to Jericho.

60:05 You don't need to go to Jerusalem. You don't need to go to Rome. You don't even need to come down to the front of this church in Mountainville. He's so accessible, the Bible says, in his word which we preach, he's as near as the breath you breathe.

60:21 Paul says, the word is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, the word of faith which we preach. And dear people, come to grips with this. If you're ever to be saved from your sins and be right with God, it'll be because you come into living, vital relationship with Jesus of Nazareth who is indeed the messianic king. But the only way you'll ever find him accessible is in his word preached in the gospel.

60:52 Jesus comes in his word in his word. Christ in his word draws near. And Christ is accessible this morning with the largeness of his heart, with the might and power of saving omnipotence. There was the accessibility of Jesus.

61:13 Secondly, there was acknowledged need. There was acknowledged need. He was blind and when Jesus said, what do you want? He didn't say, Lord, I'd like a vacation in Acapulco.

61:27 Or, Lord, I'd like a little chuck under the chin to be able to cope with my blindness a little. No, no. His great need was his blind eyes. And he didn't play head games on himself and say, well, you know, blindness is all a matter in the mind.

61:45 If you can see with the eyes of the mind, you can see. Therefore, blindness is not blindness. Blindness is only...

61:51 He didn't play head games. He was blind! And when Christ and his accessibility came by, he acknowledged his need with an honesty that accorded with reality. And my sinner friend, listen to me.

62:06 You'll never become a Christian. You'll never be saved. You'll never know the virtue of the power of Christ until you get honest about what you are as a sinner. Stop playing head games on yourself!

62:18 Oh, I've got a few psychological hang-ups. I've got a few moral wrinkles. I've got a few ethical blemishes. No, my friend, you're a dead, lost, hell-deserving son or daughter of Adam.

62:31 You're bound by your sin. You're an offense to God in your arrogance and your pride. And if you would know Christ's mighty power, do what this man did. Christ is accessible, yes, but he acknowledged his need.

A Vivid Picture of How God Saves the Sinner: Determined Desire and Conferral of Grace

62:51 Thirdly, he was determined to have Christ meet that need. What lay behind him the cry, Son of David, have mercy? What lay behind the intensification of the cry when people said to him, be quiet, hold your peace, for whatever reason he's got no time for you? What lay behind that crying out the yet more?

63:16 What lay behind it? It was that determination that he would have the touch of Christ at any cost. My friend, the Scripture says you'll seek me and find me in the day that you search me with all your heart. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

63:35 And what does that mean? Just to bow your head and mumble a few words that some personal worker puts in your ear? No! It means whether verbally or non-verbally, out of the depths of your heart, at least to have mercy upon you and not to rest in your crying until you know that he has touched you by his grace.

64:01 There was the accessibility of Jesus, the acknowledged need, the determined cry of desire. Then there was the conferral of grace. Jesus said, Go your way, your faith has made you whole. Straightway he received his sight.

64:16 The Lord didn't tantalize him. The Lord didn't play games with him. The Lord didn't throw him a curve. He said, I want my sight.

64:25 He said, Go your way, you have what you desire. And he saw. And my sinner friend Jesus doesn't mock us. He says, Call upon me and I will receive you.

64:38 Come to me and I will receive you. Seek me and you shall find me. And then there was the fruit of that grace. What was it?

A Vivid Picture of How God Saves the Sinner: The Fruit of Grace

64:47 The Lord says, Go your way, you free man. You can see now. You're free man. Go ahead.

64:53 Do what you will. And he says, Lord, what I will to do is follow you. And if you ever have eyes open, to see the beauty and the salvation of Christ, your heart will say, Lord Jesus, I want to follow you in love. I want to follow you in devotion.

65:12 I want to follow you and serve you all the days of my life. One of the commentators has beautifully captured the whole essence of this message that's in the narrative. And I close by simply reading the way he's done it in these five brief stanzas of a poem. Lord, I know thy grace is nigh me.

65:43 Though thou thyself I cannot see, Jesus, Master, pass not by me. Son of David, pity me. While I sit in weary blindness, longing for the blessed light, many taste thy loving kindness. Lord, I would receive my sight.

66:10 I would see thee and adore thee, and thy word the power can give. Hear the sightless soul implore thee. Let me see thy face and live. Ah, what touch is this that thrills me?

66:26 What this burst of strange delight? Lo, the rapturous vision fills me. This is Jesus. This is sight.

Exhortation and Closing Prayer

66:36 Room, ye saints, that throng behind him. Let me follow in the way. I will teach the blind to find him who can turn their night to day. Oh, my sinner friend, he's accessible to you.

66:55 Why go on, bound to your worldliness, bound to your pride, your empty religion. You see no beauty in Christ. Your blind is a bat to any beauty in Christ. That's why you pursue the world and things and houses and cars and name and profession and all the rest.

67:18 Oh, my friend, Christ is accessible. Humble yourself in Christ, son of David. Have mercy. And as he stood still then, he'll stand this morning.

67:34 May God grant that you cry to him. Let us pray. Oh, our Father, how we bless you that you so love the world as to give your only begotten Son. We pray that this day the Holy Spirit would shine upon the face of Jesus and that some who have never seen any beauty in him would in this very hour have their eyes open to behold him and find him to be the altogether lovely one.

68:17 We thank you for your mercy to many of us who once were as blind spiritually as Bartimaeus was, spiritually and physically, but we thank you you've opened our eyes and with all our hearts we want to follow you in the way. Oh, deepen our devotion as we contemplate your mercy and bind us to yourself in tighter, thicker cords of love than we've ever known before. We ask it for your name's sake. Amen.