March 2, 2025 • 30 mins
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In a compelling session exploring faith, mercy, and transformation, we dive into the extraordinary story of Bartimaeus—a blind man whose encounter with Jesus teaches us profound lessons about the nature of belief and the power of desperation. We unpack the significance of Bartimaeus recognizing Jesus as the "Son of David," a title rich in messianic meaning, and how his shameless cries for help exemplify the faith we are all called to cultivate.
As we explore this transformative episode, we reflect on Jesus’ tender question, “What do you want me to do for you?” revealing the intimate relationship that faith invites us into. Bartimaeus’ articulate response—“that I may receive my sight”—not only illustrates the clarity of his desires but highlights the importance of voicing our needs before God. This session invites you to consider how often we allow societal pressures or fears to silence our cries for help, urging us to embrace our vulnerability.
Join us as we unpack the richness of Bartimaeus’ faith, his immediate follow-up as a disciple after receiving his sight, and what this means for our own walks with Christ. This engaging conversation offers practical insights into how our spiritual journeys call us to action, encouraging listeners to reflect on their own faith journeys and the transformative power of being seen and healed by Jesus. Subscribe, share, and engage with us on this journey of faith!
Mark as Played
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Mark, chapter 10, anyways.
So Mark, chapter 10, we areobviously continuing through the
Gospel of Mark, and chapter 10,you'll remember perhaps
describes about a six-monthperiod of time.
It's Jesus' final ministry inthe territory of Judea.
Obviously, it's not everythingthat happened, but it's a
(00:34):
snapshot.
And in this time as well, weremember that it's Jesus' travel
towards Jerusalem, where heknows he's going to be crucified
and take the sin of the worldupon himself.
And he's told his disciplesseveral times.
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They don't get it, but that'sthe direction that we're heading
today.
We round out chapter 10 with aclassic account a blind man, a
guy known as Bartimaeus.
Let's just read it, verse 46,and then we'll go back and look
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at it Mark 10, 46.
Now, as they came to Jericho, ashe went out of Jericho with his
disciples, in a great multitude, jericho, as he went out of
Jericho with his disciples and agreat multitude, blind
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus,sat by the road begging.
And when he, that's Bartimaeus,heard that it was Jesus of
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Nazareth, he began to cry outand say Jesus, son of David,
have mercy on me.
And many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more
son of David, have mercy on me.
So Jesus stood still andcommanded him to be called.
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Then they called the blind man,saying to him be of good cheer,
rise, he is calling you, andthrowing aside his garment, he
rose and came to Jesus.
So Jesus answered and said tohim what do you want me to do
for you?
The blind man said to him,rabboni, that I may receive my
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sight.
Then Jesus said to him Go yourway, your faith has made you
well.
Immediately he received hissight and followed Jesus on the
road.
So here we see a wonderfulmiracle the healing of a blind
man named Bartimaeus.
And this is really the onlymiracle where a person is named
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specifically.
Now we can call him Bart forshort, but this is less of his
name than really who he was.
Notice we're told there thatBartimaeus the son of Timaeus.
So bar means son of, andTimaeus is his dad's name, Right
?
So he's, I guess, the son of,like Tim or something.
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This is the son of Tim, youknow, and maybe this was because
Peter knew this guy was aroundIn the early church.
You could talk to the son ofTimaeus, who was once blind and
then could see.
He had a testimony.
Perhaps His name is given.
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Who he was is given at least.
But what do we know aboutBartimaeus?
He was blind and Jesus healedhim.
He also had faith.
Look at verse 52.
This is at the end of theaccount here.
And Jesus said to him go yourway, your faith has made you
well.
So Jesus tells this man veryspecifically the reason why you
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were healed was your faith.
It was your faith that did it.
Now, faith is a huge theologicaltheme right.
Ephesians 2.8, for by grace youhave been saved through faith.
Hebrews 11.6, we read withoutfaith it's impossible to please
God.
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And it's important.
Obviously Faith is important.
It's essential to salvation.
But what is faith?
We talk about it a lot and wetalk about it a lot and yet I
still am a little fuzzy on it.
Faith when I was younger, youknow, I used to probably define
faith as believing something youknow can't be true.
You know Santa Claus, a toothfairy, whatever some fairy tale
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I believe you know.
Well, you got faith.
That's some faith right there.
But that's not what faith is.
The Bible gives us thedefinition.
Hebrews chapter 11, 1, aclear-cut definition of faith.
Faith is the substance ofthings hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen and, honestly, for me that doesn't exactly
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help.
It's not that clear, right.
Faith is trust, but it'ssubstance.
Faith is substance, somethingyou can touch, it's evidence,
something you can see ofsomething that is not seen.
You believe it, you trust it.
Now check it out In that samepassage, hebrews, chapter 11,
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where the author defines faith.
He then goes on to explain itand demonstrate it the hall of
faith we would call it, and youcould read Hebrews, chapter 11,
and you see the example ofpeople like Abraham.
You know, moses, a whole bunchof people, joshua, I mean the
list is great there in Hebrews,chapter 11.
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Whole bunch of people, joshua,I mean the list is great there
in Hebrews, chapter 11.
And we see here that faith ismaybe better demonstrated.
It's an active thing.
James tells us that faithwithout works is dead.
So faith that doesn't dosomething is not really faith at
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all.
Faith is better seen than saidright.
And so we look at this.
But we look and we go in verse52 here of Mark 10, that Jesus
confesses that, bartimaeus, itwas your faith that made you
whole.
Now, why did he say this?
Especially since we know itwasn't anything that Bartimaeus
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did, but it was Jesus, right?
I mean, obviously the healingwouldn't have happened unless
Jesus did it.
But Jesus said well, it wasyour faith.
Faith is just important to God.
It's what he wants.
He wants us to trust him.
I read this this morning fromSpurgeon.
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I thought it was good.
He says this Jesus does not sayI have made you whole though
that was true enough but yourfaith has made you whole.
And why is it?
Do you think that Christ takesthe crown off his own head and
puts it on the head of faith?
Why?
Because he loves faith andbecause faith is quite certain
not to wear the crown, but tolay it at his feet.
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Of all the graces, faith is thesurest to deny herself and
ascribe all to him in whom shetrusts.
And so check it out.
God's not afraid to say thatfaith is important because faith
will never take credit for it.
Right, we trust God.
Well, we never go and go.
That was me that did it, though, because I believed.
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Right, we'll go.
Well, it's God that did it.
I've been trusting him, and sofaith always takes the crown off
its own head and puts it backon God.
That's what we'll do in the end.
Right, we'll lay our crowns athis feet.
There's nothing we can takecredit for.
So faith points to the objectin which it believes, and here
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it's Jesus.
Now maybe you found out thatfaith is something that God
wants to build in our life, allthe way through our life.
He wants to build us a trust inhim, all the little things that
we think we've said.
God, I trust you, he takes usthrough situations where we go.
I have to trust God and we layit down to him, we trust him
with it, and so God works.
That Faith is important.
What kind of faith do we see?
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Come back?
What kind of faith do we see inthis account here, in verse 46,
we see as an everyday faith.
It just happened whereBartimaeus was at.
He trusted in the instant.
This was every day forBartimaeus.
Every day he was brought to thegate of the city and he sat
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down.
You picture it to the gate ofthe city and he sat down.
You picture it.
He, you know, found his spotthere in the shade and he put
his coat in front of him tocatch whatever money people
would toss.
And charity was a decent thing,right, it was important to be
charitable.
So he was serving a purpose andthe people that gave him money
were serving a purpose in hislife, but that was his job.
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And money were serving apurpose in his life, but that
was his job, right, that's allhe could do at that point in
that world was just beg.
And day after day he sat there.
Now, as he's sitting there, thiscrowd goes by and the crowd
goes by and people say, oh, it'sJesus, it's a guy from Nazareth
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, jesus of Nazareth.
He's heard and he hears.
At that moment, right,sometimes, when you can't see or
can't hear, you know the othersenses are kind of developed and
he hears.
And that's the way that Godreaches him.
He hears that Jesus is comingby in his everyday life and all
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in a moment, he has theopportunity to believe or not
believe, to trust or not trust.
And it reminds me of what Paulsays in 2 Corinthians 6, too
that behold, now is the acceptedtime, now is the day of
salvation.
Whenever that comes into yourlife, whenever God says what are
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you going to do?
Are you going to trust me withyour life?
Are you going to follow me withyour life?
Whenever that happens, we havethe opportunity to act on it.
And here in his every day, hedecided to look to Jesus.
Now, I think that was God'sgrace in his life.
Right, even the faith seems tocome from God.
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But for whatever reason he says, this is what I need, this is
my hope to see Jesus.
But it's not just an everydayfaith.
Notice verse 47.
It's a messianic faith which isjust fun to say.
It makes you feel smart to saymessianic faith.
It's a messianic faith which isjust fun to say.
It makes you feel smart to saymessianic faith.
It's a messianic faith.
Notice he heard that Jesus ofNazareth was coming.
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He began to cry out and sayJesus, son of David.
This term son of David is aboutthe Messiah who would be
promised that God would sendsalvation through the line of
David.
Now, jesus was a descendant ofKing David.
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Interesting Jesus would havequalified to be the king of
Israel if Israel was still akingdom at that point, and
that's true.
But let's turn to 1 Chronicles,because how often do you go to 1
Chronicles?
But let's turn to 1stChronicles, because how often do
you go to 1st Chronicles?
Let's go to 1st Chronicles,important passage in chapter 17.
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1st Chronicles, 17,.
I think we have time to read it.
It's a little later on inDavid's rule 1, chronicles 17,
verse 1.
Now it came to pass, when Davidwas dwelling in his house, that
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David said to Nathan theprophet I should have given you
more time.
Huh, chronicles is more obscure.
1 Chronicles 17,.
I still have pages Very good.
Now it came to pass when Davidwas dwelling in his house that
David said to Nathan the prophetSee, now I dwell in a house of
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cedar, but the ark of thecovenant of the Lord is under
ten curtains.
Then Nathan said to David Doall that is in your heart, for
God is with you.
So check it out here.
David, later on in his rule, hestarts thinking about things.
He's got time to think.
The battles are kind of done.
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He's getting older and he looksand he goes.
I'm sitting here in this houseand God the tabernacle.
It's a tent.
God's essentially living in atent.
Now, god didn't live in thetabernacle, but that's where his
presence was.
And David goes.
I don't feel like this is right.
Why do I have a nice house andGod has a tent?
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God didn't care, but he getsthis idea.
Why is it?
And he goes to Nathan and sayswhy do I live in a house and God
lives in a tent?
Nathan sees what he's gettingat Nathan.
The prophet says do it, man.
Good idea, go ahead and do it.
Now notice verse three.
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But it happened that night thatthe word of God came to Nathan
saying go and tell my servantDavid.
Thus says the Lord, you shallnot build me a.
Came to Nathan saying go andtell my servant David.
Thus says the Lord, you shallnot build me a house to dwell in
, for I've not dwelt in a housesince the time that I brought up
Israel, even to this day, butI've gone from tent to tent and
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from one tabernacle to another.
Wherever I have moved aboutwith all Israel.
Have I ever spoken a word toany of the judges of Israel,
whom I commanded to shepherd mypeople, saying why have you not
built me a house of cedar?
Now, therefore, thus you shallsay to my servant David.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, Itook you from the sheepfold,
from following sheep, to ruleover my people, israel.
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And I have not, and I have beenwith you wherever you have gone
and have cut off your enemiesfrom before you.
I have made you a name, likethe name of the great men who
are on the earth.
Moreover, I will appoint aplace for my people Israel, and
I will plant them that they maydwell in the place of their own
and move no more.
Nor shall the sons ofwickedness oppress them anymore,
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as previously, since the time Icommanded judges to be over my
people Israel also, I willsubdue all your enemies,
therefore.
Furthermore, I tell you thatthe Lord will build you a house,
and it shall be when your daysare fulfilled, when you must go
to be with your fathers, that Iwill set up your seed after you.
Who will be of your sons, and Iwill.
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So check it out.
Here, god reasons with him andsays David, it's a nice thought,
but I don't need a house andyou're not the one to build it.
Solomon, his son, would buildit.
But here, notice, god tellsDavid, you're not going to build
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me a, a house, but I'm gonnabuild you a house, a kingdom
forever.
Now, time went on and thekingdom of Israel fell, the
northern kingdom fell to theAssyrians, the southern kingdom
fell to the Babylonians, andthere was this big gap where
they weren't really a kingdom atall.
And yet God says here's thepromise I'm gonna make to you,
david I'm gonna give you akingdom forever and your descent
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will rule forever.
And David knew, and people knewthis is the Messiah that God
had promised back in the gardenwhen we fell into sin, the one
who would save us.
So God promises the son ofDavid will rule, will be the
Messiah.
So check it out back in Mark,chapter 10.
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Bartimaeus understands this.
Now.
Not many people understood thisA few chapters before this.
Now, not many people understoodthis A few chapters before this
.
Peter has this amazingrevelation.
Jesus says who do people saythat I am?
And there's ideas are put outwho do you say that I am?
And Peter says you're theChrist.
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And Jesus goes whoa flesh andblood hasn't revealed this to
you, but my father.
That's a spiritual thing.
But even the disciples don'tget it right.
They're kind of oblivious tothe whole thing.
But here's this blind man,bartimaeus.
He's had time to think, he'sheard the word, obviously, and
all the promises of God, and hesays Jesus, you're the son of
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David, you're the one we'rewaiting for, and he believes.
That's a deep faith.
When nobody else really sawthat, this guy saw it and so he
cries out son of David, havemercy.
He had a mercy-based faith.
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That's important, right, havemercy on me.
Now, mercy is a theologicalterm right, it's a Bible talk
when I was in elementary school.
I've never been good at sports,but I was good at one game.
I don't know if you played thisgame, mercy.
Did you ever play that one?
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It's a barbaric game.
Along with, you know, bloodyknuckles and whatever this thing
is with the OK sign on yourknee.
You know two for flinching,barbaric game of childhood.
But mercy, right, you wouldgrab hands with someone and then
you would just like try tobreak their hands.
You try to break their fingers.
That was the game you know andwe loved it.
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But I was good at that game.
I honestly could not remember atime that I ever lost a game of
mercy and you would just wrenchsomebody's hands upside down
almost till their knuckles broke, you know.
And then they go mercy, right.
And you go, that's right.
And I won that game over andover again.
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I don't think I could win ittoday, but I was really good at
it.
So right, you know mercy.
You cry out for mercy.
You say uncle, but that's a badillustration.
As much as I wanted to sharethat, that's a bad illustration
because God's not trying tobreak our knuckles, he's not
trying to break our fingers.
It's a little more like a coupledays ago when I got pulled over
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driving 80, right, it was 70, Ithink supposed to be, and I was
driving 80 and the lights cameon and you know I didn't panic.
What are you going to do?
I was driving 80.
My wife panicked a little bit.
What are you going to do?
What are you going to do?
I'm going to say, well, I'mgoing to say sorry.
I guess I'm going to say sorry,there's not much you can say
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when you're going 80, you know,and, and you know, flashlight,
check, my license, all that kindof stuff.
And he said this is a warning.
And I go, thank you.
Thank you so much because Iabsolutely deserve a ticket
right now.
There's nothing I can say aboutit.
But you had mercy on me becauseyou didn't want to write me up.
I guess I don't know, you'rejust merciful and I said God
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bless, you have a nice nightofficer.
Thank you, and that was mercy,right, we've seen that before
and it's when we deserve onething, we deserve justice, the
ticket and yet we get mercy.
And obviously the Bible isreally clear we're all guilty.
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Psalm 14, verse 1 and verse 3says there's none who does good.
There's none righteous?
No, not one.
Paul quotes it in Romans 3there, and goes on to say all of
sin and falls short of theglory of God.
We're all guilty.
It goes on to say all of sinand falls short of the glory of
God.
We're all guilty.
We all need mercy and we don'tthink that way.
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In our world today there's a lotof entitlement going around,
right, what I deserve, right,demanded and all these things.
And yet what are we entitled to?
As we read the Bible, we'reentitled to hell.
Right, that was harsh, but it'strue.
Right.
The only thing we're entitledto is hell, and yet God, because
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he's merciful, he doesn't giveus what we deserve because of
what Jesus did.
He took the wrath of his fatherupon himself and he offers us
mercy when we deserve hell.
But this man understood that.
Not everybody understands thatright.
A chapter, not even a chapterago, his disciples came up to
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him and said Jesus, we want youto do for us whatever we ask.
We're entitled to a position inthe kingdom, and you know the
story.
You don't know what you'reasking, and yet this man sees it
, isn't it funny?
A blind man sees it that mercyis what I need and he cries out
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Son of David, have mercy on me.
That's some faith based onmercy.
Now notice, we'll just pick outa couple more things quickly
here in verse 47.
He's got some shameless faith.
He's crying out, right, cryingout is not some.
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This kind of crying out, thisscreaming kind of thing is not
something we generally do.
Naturally it takes a situationright.
I don't scream a whole lot,unstepped from the banks here,
don't even bother with the grasson the banks, with the
lawnmower, and I got it stuckand I had this great idea of
getting it out and I got off andI pushed it along and stuff
like that, and it rolled over onmy foot and I started feeling
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my foot go numb.
You know what I mean.
All I thought is I'm going tolose my foot today.
What a lousy way to go.
And I said Leah, leah, ourwalls are really good.
Our windows must bedouble-paned or something,
because nobody can ever hear youwhen you scream inside our
house.
But I screamed more and shefinally came out and
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single-handedly lifted thelawnmower.
You know what I mean?
Desper, desperation brings youto scream.
It's really hard to get to apoint of crying out unless
you're totally desperate andthis man was shameless.
He cried out.
And notice, there in verse 48,.
Many warned him to be quiet.
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Right, the crowd around him issaying, look man, shut up.
I'm not allowed to say that.
But you know, just be quiet.
The crowd around him is sayinglook man, shut up.
I'm not allowed to say that.
Just be quiet, stop with yourscreaming man.
And notice there in verse 48,.
But he cried out all the more.
He wasn't trying to bedifficult, but he was desperate.
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He's like this is my onlychance.
This is absolutely my onlychance for anything.
Jesus, son of David, have mercyon me.
And he is heard.
Jesus stood still, commandedhim to be called.
They called the blind mansaying be of good cheer, rise.
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He's calling you.
Notice verse 50.
I think it's important, or itwouldn't be there.
Right, verse 50,.
And throwing aside his garment,he rose and came to Jesus.
So he's also got.
The only word I could come upwith here was anticipatory faith
.
It's so smart man Anticipatoryfaith.
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He expects something good isgoing to happen here because he
knows enough about Jesus.
Right, so check it out.
He lays his garment aside.
Right, so check it out.
He lays his garment aside.
Now.
We talked about it at thebeginning.
But this guy's garment wasreally like a storefront.
He would put it in front of himand people would throw money on
there.
That's where the money would go.
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So his garment is kind of likehis job.
You know, it's his future.
And he looks at this and hegoes Jesus called me, it's as
good as done, I don't need thisthing anymore.
And so he sets his garmentaside.
That's some anticipatory faith,right?
He believes, and he left it.
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He knew he wouldn't need itagain.
And last thing, I think here isnumber 51.
Well, let's just read it again,what he does.
So Jesus answered and said tohim what do you want me to do
for you, man?
That's it.
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That's like the golden ticket,right?
Jesus says anything.
What do you want?
He didn't have to think aboutit long.
He's like my sight.
I want my sight.
Could you heal my sight?
And Jesus answered and sent himwhat the blind man said to him
Rabboni, that I may receive mysight.
And you know the story verse 52.
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It happens, jesus heals him.
But notice that word there inverse 51.
Rabboni, right, I don'trecognize that word.
Well, it's only like twice inthe Bible and this is one of
them.
The other time we see this isMary at the tomb.
She calls Jesus rabboni.
Now you know the word rabbi,right?
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The rabbis were the teachers.
It means teacher.
You could have been called, hecould have been called rabbi,
teacher, but this man calls himrabboni, which means my teacher,
my great teacher.
It's just like expanded huge.
You're not just a teacher,You're my teacher, you're my
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great teacher, you're the onlyteacher, right, and it's so
personal and that, of of course,is a thing we all need to
understand that faith has to bepersonal.
You're mine, you're my teacher,and and and this guy says it
now, why does he say that?
It's pretty amazing that hewould say that about Jesus
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you're my great teacher.
But it has to be personal.
Obviously, it can't be ourfriends, it can't be our
families, it can't be anyoneelse's faith but ours.
We personally come to Jesus andsay you're my savior.
So important and it's just sobeautiful, right?
The result Jesus heals him, andwe're not really that amazed,
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we're not.
Whoa, never saw that coming.
We know Jesus heals people andwe know he can.
It's not a big deal, and sonotice, though, what happens to
the man Immediately.
He received a sight and I liketo think about this.
The first thing that this mansaw was Jesus.
There's other people that haveblindness.
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Jesus healed them.
The first thing they saw wasthe face of Jesus.
Is that sweet, or what man sosweet?
He received his sight and hefollowed Jesus on the road.
So we get the idea here, but wedon't know when he stopped
following.
But we get the idea.
Jesus goes to Jerusalem andthis guy is hanging out with him
(27:23):
.
Right, man, you changed my life, I'll follow you wherever you
go.
You're going to Jerusalem, I'mgoing to Jerusalem.
And he becomes a follower ofJesus.
And this really is the result isa following faith, right?
A lot of times we just think ofsalvation as one of these
things.
Like I was a kid Maybe you havethe story in your own life I
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was a kid and I said a prayerand I got saved and I got a
piece of paper.
We got baptized, we celebrated,I was saved.
But you know that faith has tofollow the rest of our lives.
That faith has to follow therest of our lives.
It's not just part of our lives, it's the rest of our life.
And this man reallydemonstrates this.
I mean, we don't even see himgo back for his coat, right, he
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just follows Jesus on the roadand going to the next place and
until the road comes to an endhe's right there with Jesus.
I think that's the Christianlife Discipleship till the's
right there with Jesus.
I think that's the Christianlife discipleship till the very
end following Jesus.
So you know, here we see thisfaith.
But we know this can't be justto go get them to study right
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Now.
Go out there and let's havesome faith.
You know, trust Jesus.
But two things I hope we seefrom this, I think is number one
.
I hope we see who we are Likethis man, helpless in his world.
He needed mercy and he knew itright.
We can't figure it out, wecan't make ourselves better,
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we're absolutely helplesswithout God.
But then to know who he is,jesus is the Savior, the Messiah
, not just a good teacher, he isthe teacher.
He's the great teacher, notjust a Savior, but the Savior,
and he's worthy to be followedwith all of our lives, even this
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week.
You know, as you're going toyour life, that he's worthy to
be followed with all of ourlives, even this week.
You know, as you're going toyour life, that he's worthy to
be followed in the little thingsof our life.
God, is this what you want fromme?
Is this what you want me to dowith my time?
We don't always do the rightthing, but man, he's worthy of
it, and so that's what I hope wesee today.
Let's pray, god, I just thankyou for how good you are, how
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sweet you are.
We were so desperate and to thepoint of crying out, because
death was all we had.
Sin was all we had.
And yet you stopped and youloved us and you brought us near
.
It is so good that you careabout us like that.
You stopped and you loved usand you brought us near.
(29:58):
It is so good that you careabout us like that, god.
Thank you that you saved us asour Messiah.
Thank you, god, that you'regoing to one day literally rule
and reign here, that all thepolitics and kings of this world
, they don't matter a single bit.
In the end, god, it's going tobe all about you.
I pray that we live in light ofthat promise even today.
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God, work these things into ourlives, into our hearts.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
Mark, chapter 10, anyways.
So Mark, chapter 10, we areobviously continuing through the
Gospel of Mark, and chapter 10,you'll remember perhaps
describes about a six-monthperiod of time.
It's Jesus' final ministry inthe territory of Judea.
Obviously, it's not everythingthat happened, but it's a
(00:34):
snapshot.
And in this time as well, weremember that it's Jesus' travel
towards Jerusalem, where heknows he's going to be crucified
and take the sin of the worldupon himself.
And he's told his disciplesseveral times.
(00:54):
They don't get it, but that'sthe direction that we're heading
today.
We round out chapter 10 with aclassic account a blind man, a
guy known as Bartimaeus.
Let's just read it, verse 46,and then we'll go back and look
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at it Mark 10, 46.
Now, as they came to Jericho, ashe went out of Jericho with his
disciples, in a great multitude, jericho, as he went out of
Jericho with his disciples and agreat multitude, blind
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus,sat by the road begging.
And when he, that's Bartimaeus,heard that it was Jesus of
(01:38):
Nazareth, he began to cry outand say Jesus, son of David,
have mercy on me.
And many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more
son of David, have mercy on me.
So Jesus stood still andcommanded him to be called.
(01:58):
Then they called the blind man,saying to him be of good cheer,
rise, he is calling you, andthrowing aside his garment, he
rose and came to Jesus.
So Jesus answered and said tohim what do you want me to do
for you?
The blind man said to him,rabboni, that I may receive my
(02:20):
sight.
Then Jesus said to him Go yourway, your faith has made you
well.
Immediately he received hissight and followed Jesus on the
road.
So here we see a wonderfulmiracle the healing of a blind
man named Bartimaeus.
And this is really the onlymiracle where a person is named
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specifically.
Now we can call him Bart forshort, but this is less of his
name than really who he was.
Notice we're told there thatBartimaeus the son of Timaeus.
So bar means son of, andTimaeus is his dad's name, Right
?
So he's, I guess, the son of,like Tim or something.
(03:06):
This is the son of Tim, youknow, and maybe this was because
Peter knew this guy was aroundIn the early church.
You could talk to the son ofTimaeus, who was once blind and
then could see.
He had a testimony.
Perhaps His name is given.
(03:26):
Who he was is given at least.
But what do we know aboutBartimaeus?
He was blind and Jesus healedhim.
He also had faith.
Look at verse 52.
This is at the end of theaccount here.
And Jesus said to him go yourway, your faith has made you
well.
So Jesus tells this man veryspecifically the reason why you
(03:52):
were healed was your faith.
It was your faith that did it.
Now, faith is a huge theologicaltheme right.
Ephesians 2.8, for by grace youhave been saved through faith.
Hebrews 11.6, we read withoutfaith it's impossible to please
God.
(04:12):
And it's important.
Obviously Faith is important.
It's essential to salvation.
But what is faith?
We talk about it a lot and wetalk about it a lot and yet I
still am a little fuzzy on it.
Faith when I was younger, youknow, I used to probably define
faith as believing something youknow can't be true.
You know Santa Claus, a toothfairy, whatever some fairy tale
(04:38):
I believe you know.
Well, you got faith.
That's some faith right there.
But that's not what faith is.
The Bible gives us thedefinition.
Hebrews chapter 11, 1, aclear-cut definition of faith.
Faith is the substance ofthings hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen and, honestly, for me that doesn't exactly
(05:01):
help.
It's not that clear, right.
Faith is trust, but it'ssubstance.
Faith is substance, somethingyou can touch, it's evidence,
something you can see ofsomething that is not seen.
You believe it, you trust it.
Now check it out In that samepassage, hebrews, chapter 11,
(05:23):
where the author defines faith.
He then goes on to explain itand demonstrate it the hall of
faith we would call it, and youcould read Hebrews, chapter 11,
and you see the example ofpeople like Abraham.
You know, moses, a whole bunchof people, joshua, I mean the
list is great there in Hebrews,chapter 11.
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Whole bunch of people, joshua,I mean the list is great there
in Hebrews, chapter 11.
And we see here that faith ismaybe better demonstrated.
It's an active thing.
James tells us that faithwithout works is dead.
So faith that doesn't dosomething is not really faith at
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all.
Faith is better seen than saidright.
And so we look at this.
But we look and we go in verse52 here of Mark 10, that Jesus
confesses that, bartimaeus, itwas your faith that made you
whole.
Now, why did he say this?
Especially since we know itwasn't anything that Bartimaeus
(06:30):
did, but it was Jesus, right?
I mean, obviously the healingwouldn't have happened unless
Jesus did it.
But Jesus said well, it wasyour faith.
Faith is just important to God.
It's what he wants.
He wants us to trust him.
I read this this morning fromSpurgeon.
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I thought it was good.
He says this Jesus does not sayI have made you whole though
that was true enough but yourfaith has made you whole.
And why is it?
Do you think that Christ takesthe crown off his own head and
puts it on the head of faith?
Why?
Because he loves faith andbecause faith is quite certain
not to wear the crown, but tolay it at his feet.
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Of all the graces, faith is thesurest to deny herself and
ascribe all to him in whom shetrusts.
And so check it out.
God's not afraid to say thatfaith is important because faith
will never take credit for it.
Right, we trust God.
Well, we never go and go.
That was me that did it, though, because I believed.
(07:33):
Right, we'll go.
Well, it's God that did it.
I've been trusting him, and sofaith always takes the crown off
its own head and puts it backon God.
That's what we'll do in the end.
Right, we'll lay our crowns athis feet.
There's nothing we can takecredit for.
So faith points to the objectin which it believes, and here
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it's Jesus.
Now maybe you found out thatfaith is something that God
wants to build in our life, allthe way through our life.
He wants to build us a trust inhim, all the little things that
we think we've said.
God, I trust you, he takes usthrough situations where we go.
I have to trust God and we layit down to him, we trust him
with it, and so God works.
That Faith is important.
What kind of faith do we see?
(08:21):
Come back?
What kind of faith do we see inthis account here, in verse 46,
we see as an everyday faith.
It just happened whereBartimaeus was at.
He trusted in the instant.
This was every day forBartimaeus.
Every day he was brought to thegate of the city and he sat
(08:42):
down.
You picture it to the gate ofthe city and he sat down.
You picture it.
He, you know, found his spotthere in the shade and he put
his coat in front of him tocatch whatever money people
would toss.
And charity was a decent thing,right, it was important to be
charitable.
So he was serving a purpose andthe people that gave him money
were serving a purpose in hislife, but that was his job.
(09:03):
And money were serving apurpose in his life, but that
was his job, right, that's allhe could do at that point in
that world was just beg.
And day after day he sat there.
Now, as he's sitting there, thiscrowd goes by and the crowd
goes by and people say, oh, it'sJesus, it's a guy from Nazareth
(09:25):
, jesus of Nazareth.
He's heard and he hears.
At that moment, right,sometimes, when you can't see or
can't hear, you know the othersenses are kind of developed and
he hears.
And that's the way that Godreaches him.
He hears that Jesus is comingby in his everyday life and all
(09:46):
in a moment, he has theopportunity to believe or not
believe, to trust or not trust.
And it reminds me of what Paulsays in 2 Corinthians 6, too
that behold, now is the acceptedtime, now is the day of
salvation.
Whenever that comes into yourlife, whenever God says what are
(10:06):
you going to do?
Are you going to trust me withyour life?
Are you going to follow me withyour life?
Whenever that happens, we havethe opportunity to act on it.
And here in his every day, hedecided to look to Jesus.
Now, I think that was God'sgrace in his life.
Right, even the faith seems tocome from God.
(10:29):
But for whatever reason he says, this is what I need, this is
my hope to see Jesus.
But it's not just an everydayfaith.
Notice verse 47.
It's a messianic faith which isjust fun to say.
It makes you feel smart to saymessianic faith.
It's a messianic faith which isjust fun to say.
It makes you feel smart to saymessianic faith.
It's a messianic faith.
Notice he heard that Jesus ofNazareth was coming.
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He began to cry out and sayJesus, son of David.
This term son of David is aboutthe Messiah who would be
promised that God would sendsalvation through the line of
David.
Now, jesus was a descendant ofKing David.
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Interesting Jesus would havequalified to be the king of
Israel if Israel was still akingdom at that point, and
that's true.
But let's turn to 1 Chronicles,because how often do you go to 1
Chronicles?
But let's turn to 1stChronicles, because how often do
you go to 1st Chronicles?
Let's go to 1st Chronicles,important passage in chapter 17.
(11:34):
1st Chronicles, 17,.
I think we have time to read it.
It's a little later on inDavid's rule 1, chronicles 17,
verse 1.
Now it came to pass, when Davidwas dwelling in his house, that
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David said to Nathan theprophet I should have given you
more time.
Huh, chronicles is more obscure.
1 Chronicles 17,.
I still have pages Very good.
Now it came to pass when Davidwas dwelling in his house that
David said to Nathan the prophetSee, now I dwell in a house of
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cedar, but the ark of thecovenant of the Lord is under
ten curtains.
Then Nathan said to David Doall that is in your heart, for
God is with you.
So check it out here.
David, later on in his rule, hestarts thinking about things.
He's got time to think.
The battles are kind of done.
(12:36):
He's getting older and he looksand he goes.
I'm sitting here in this houseand God the tabernacle.
It's a tent.
God's essentially living in atent.
Now, god didn't live in thetabernacle, but that's where his
presence was.
And David goes.
I don't feel like this is right.
Why do I have a nice house andGod has a tent?
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God didn't care, but he getsthis idea.
Why is it?
And he goes to Nathan and sayswhy do I live in a house and God
lives in a tent?
Nathan sees what he's gettingat Nathan.
The prophet says do it, man.
Good idea, go ahead and do it.
Now notice verse three.
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But it happened that night thatthe word of God came to Nathan
saying go and tell my servantDavid.
Thus says the Lord, you shallnot build me a.
Came to Nathan saying go andtell my servant David.
Thus says the Lord, you shallnot build me a house to dwell in
, for I've not dwelt in a housesince the time that I brought up
Israel, even to this day, butI've gone from tent to tent and
(13:39):
from one tabernacle to another.
Wherever I have moved aboutwith all Israel.
Have I ever spoken a word toany of the judges of Israel,
whom I commanded to shepherd mypeople, saying why have you not
built me a house of cedar?
Now, therefore, thus you shallsay to my servant David.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, Itook you from the sheepfold,
from following sheep, to ruleover my people, israel.
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And I have not, and I have beenwith you wherever you have gone
and have cut off your enemiesfrom before you.
I have made you a name, likethe name of the great men who
are on the earth.
Moreover, I will appoint aplace for my people Israel, and
I will plant them that they maydwell in the place of their own
and move no more.
Nor shall the sons ofwickedness oppress them anymore,
(14:23):
as previously, since the time Icommanded judges to be over my
people Israel also, I willsubdue all your enemies,
therefore.
Furthermore, I tell you thatthe Lord will build you a house,
and it shall be when your daysare fulfilled, when you must go
to be with your fathers, that Iwill set up your seed after you.
Who will be of your sons, and Iwill.
(14:44):
So check it out.
Here, god reasons with him andsays David, it's a nice thought,
but I don't need a house andyou're not the one to build it.
Solomon, his son, would buildit.
But here, notice, god tellsDavid, you're not going to build
(15:05):
me a, a house, but I'm gonnabuild you a house, a kingdom
forever.
Now, time went on and thekingdom of Israel fell, the
northern kingdom fell to theAssyrians, the southern kingdom
fell to the Babylonians, andthere was this big gap where
they weren't really a kingdom atall.
And yet God says here's thepromise I'm gonna make to you,
david I'm gonna give you akingdom forever and your descent
(15:28):
will rule forever.
And David knew, and people knewthis is the Messiah that God
had promised back in the gardenwhen we fell into sin, the one
who would save us.
So God promises the son ofDavid will rule, will be the
Messiah.
So check it out back in Mark,chapter 10.
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Bartimaeus understands this.
Now.
Not many people understood thisA few chapters before this.
Now, not many people understoodthis A few chapters before this
.
Peter has this amazingrevelation.
Jesus says who do people saythat I am?
And there's ideas are put outwho do you say that I am?
And Peter says you're theChrist.
(16:15):
And Jesus goes whoa flesh andblood hasn't revealed this to
you, but my father.
That's a spiritual thing.
But even the disciples don'tget it right.
They're kind of oblivious tothe whole thing.
But here's this blind man,bartimaeus.
He's had time to think, he'sheard the word, obviously, and
all the promises of God, and hesays Jesus, you're the son of
(16:38):
David, you're the one we'rewaiting for, and he believes.
That's a deep faith.
When nobody else really sawthat, this guy saw it and so he
cries out son of David, havemercy.
He had a mercy-based faith.
(16:59):
That's important, right, havemercy on me.
Now, mercy is a theologicalterm right, it's a Bible talk
when I was in elementary school.
I've never been good at sports,but I was good at one game.
I don't know if you played thisgame, mercy.
Did you ever play that one?
(17:20):
It's a barbaric game.
Along with, you know, bloodyknuckles and whatever this thing
is with the OK sign on yourknee.
You know two for flinching,barbaric game of childhood.
But mercy, right, you wouldgrab hands with someone and then
you would just like try tobreak their hands.
You try to break their fingers.
That was the game you know andwe loved it.
(17:43):
But I was good at that game.
I honestly could not remember atime that I ever lost a game of
mercy and you would just wrenchsomebody's hands upside down
almost till their knuckles broke, you know.
And then they go mercy, right.
And you go, that's right.
And I won that game over andover again.
(18:03):
I don't think I could win ittoday, but I was really good at
it.
So right, you know mercy.
You cry out for mercy.
You say uncle, but that's a badillustration.
As much as I wanted to sharethat, that's a bad illustration
because God's not trying tobreak our knuckles, he's not
trying to break our fingers.
It's a little more like a coupledays ago when I got pulled over
(18:25):
driving 80, right, it was 70, Ithink supposed to be, and I was
driving 80 and the lights cameon and you know I didn't panic.
What are you going to do?
I was driving 80.
My wife panicked a little bit.
What are you going to do?
What are you going to do?
I'm going to say, well, I'mgoing to say sorry.
I guess I'm going to say sorry,there's not much you can say
(18:45):
when you're going 80, you know,and, and you know, flashlight,
check, my license, all that kindof stuff.
And he said this is a warning.
And I go, thank you.
Thank you so much because Iabsolutely deserve a ticket
right now.
There's nothing I can say aboutit.
But you had mercy on me becauseyou didn't want to write me up.
I guess I don't know, you'rejust merciful and I said God
(19:08):
bless, you have a nice nightofficer.
Thank you, and that was mercy,right, we've seen that before
and it's when we deserve onething, we deserve justice, the
ticket and yet we get mercy.
And obviously the Bible isreally clear we're all guilty.
(19:28):
Psalm 14, verse 1 and verse 3says there's none who does good.
There's none righteous?
No, not one.
Paul quotes it in Romans 3there, and goes on to say all of
sin and falls short of theglory of God.
We're all guilty.
It goes on to say all of sinand falls short of the glory of
God.
We're all guilty.
We all need mercy and we don'tthink that way.
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In our world today there's a lotof entitlement going around,
right, what I deserve, right,demanded and all these things.
And yet what are we entitled to?
As we read the Bible, we'reentitled to hell.
Right, that was harsh, but it'strue.
Right.
The only thing we're entitledto is hell, and yet God, because
(20:15):
he's merciful, he doesn't giveus what we deserve because of
what Jesus did.
He took the wrath of his fatherupon himself and he offers us
mercy when we deserve hell.
But this man understood that.
Not everybody understands thatright.
A chapter, not even a chapterago, his disciples came up to
(20:36):
him and said Jesus, we want youto do for us whatever we ask.
We're entitled to a position inthe kingdom, and you know the
story.
You don't know what you'reasking, and yet this man sees it
, isn't it funny?
A blind man sees it that mercyis what I need and he cries out
(21:08):
Son of David, have mercy on me.
That's some faith based onmercy.
Now notice, we'll just pick outa couple more things quickly
here in verse 47.
He's got some shameless faith.
He's crying out, right, cryingout is not some.
(21:37):
This kind of crying out, thisscreaming kind of thing is not
something we generally do.
Naturally it takes a situationright.
I don't scream a whole lot,unstepped from the banks here,
don't even bother with the grasson the banks, with the
lawnmower, and I got it stuckand I had this great idea of
getting it out and I got off andI pushed it along and stuff
like that, and it rolled over onmy foot and I started feeling
(21:57):
my foot go numb.
You know what I mean.
All I thought is I'm going tolose my foot today.
What a lousy way to go.
And I said Leah, leah, ourwalls are really good.
Our windows must bedouble-paned or something,
because nobody can ever hear youwhen you scream inside our
house.
But I screamed more and shefinally came out and
(22:20):
single-handedly lifted thelawnmower.
You know what I mean?
Desper, desperation brings youto scream.
It's really hard to get to apoint of crying out unless
you're totally desperate andthis man was shameless.
He cried out.
And notice, there in verse 48,.
Many warned him to be quiet.
(22:43):
Right, the crowd around him issaying, look man, shut up.
I'm not allowed to say that.
But you know, just be quiet.
The crowd around him is sayinglook man, shut up.
I'm not allowed to say that.
Just be quiet, stop with yourscreaming man.
And notice there in verse 48,.
But he cried out all the more.
He wasn't trying to bedifficult, but he was desperate.
(23:03):
He's like this is my onlychance.
This is absolutely my onlychance for anything.
Jesus, son of David, have mercyon me.
And he is heard.
Jesus stood still, commandedhim to be called.
They called the blind mansaying be of good cheer, rise.
(23:25):
He's calling you.
Notice verse 50.
I think it's important, or itwouldn't be there.
Right, verse 50,.
And throwing aside his garment,he rose and came to Jesus.
So he's also got.
The only word I could come upwith here was anticipatory faith
.
It's so smart man Anticipatoryfaith.
(23:46):
He expects something good isgoing to happen here because he
knows enough about Jesus.
Right, so check it out.
He lays his garment aside.
Right, so check it out.
He lays his garment aside.
Now.
We talked about it at thebeginning.
But this guy's garment wasreally like a storefront.
He would put it in front of himand people would throw money on
there.
That's where the money would go.
(24:08):
So his garment is kind of likehis job.
You know, it's his future.
And he looks at this and hegoes Jesus called me, it's as
good as done, I don't need thisthing anymore.
And so he sets his garmentaside.
That's some anticipatory faith,right?
He believes, and he left it.
(24:28):
He knew he wouldn't need itagain.
And last thing, I think here isnumber 51.
Well, let's just read it again,what he does.
So Jesus answered and said tohim what do you want me to do
for you, man?
That's it.
(24:49):
That's like the golden ticket,right?
Jesus says anything.
What do you want?
He didn't have to think aboutit long.
He's like my sight.
I want my sight.
Could you heal my sight?
And Jesus answered and sent himwhat the blind man said to him
Rabboni, that I may receive mysight.
And you know the story verse 52.
(25:09):
It happens, jesus heals him.
But notice that word there inverse 51.
Rabboni, right, I don'trecognize that word.
Well, it's only like twice inthe Bible and this is one of
them.
The other time we see this isMary at the tomb.
She calls Jesus rabboni.
Now you know the word rabbi,right?
(25:31):
The rabbis were the teachers.
It means teacher.
You could have been called, hecould have been called rabbi,
teacher, but this man calls himrabboni, which means my teacher,
my great teacher.
It's just like expanded huge.
You're not just a teacher,You're my teacher, you're my
(25:52):
great teacher, you're the onlyteacher, right, and it's so
personal and that, of of course,is a thing we all need to
understand that faith has to bepersonal.
You're mine, you're my teacher,and and and this guy says it
now, why does he say that?
It's pretty amazing that hewould say that about Jesus
(26:15):
you're my great teacher.
But it has to be personal.
Obviously, it can't be ourfriends, it can't be our
families, it can't be anyoneelse's faith but ours.
We personally come to Jesus andsay you're my savior.
So important and it's just sobeautiful, right?
The result Jesus heals him, andwe're not really that amazed,
(26:39):
we're not.
Whoa, never saw that coming.
We know Jesus heals people andwe know he can.
It's not a big deal, and sonotice, though, what happens to
the man Immediately.
He received a sight and I liketo think about this.
The first thing that this mansaw was Jesus.
There's other people that haveblindness.
(27:00):
Jesus healed them.
The first thing they saw wasthe face of Jesus.
Is that sweet, or what man sosweet?
He received his sight and hefollowed Jesus on the road.
So we get the idea here, but wedon't know when he stopped
following.
But we get the idea.
Jesus goes to Jerusalem andthis guy is hanging out with him
(27:23):
.
Right, man, you changed my life, I'll follow you wherever you
go.
You're going to Jerusalem, I'mgoing to Jerusalem.
And he becomes a follower ofJesus.
And this really is the result isa following faith, right?
A lot of times we just think ofsalvation as one of these
things.
Like I was a kid Maybe you havethe story in your own life I
(27:44):
was a kid and I said a prayerand I got saved and I got a
piece of paper.
We got baptized, we celebrated,I was saved.
But you know that faith has tofollow the rest of our lives.
That faith has to follow therest of our lives.
It's not just part of our lives, it's the rest of our life.
And this man reallydemonstrates this.
I mean, we don't even see himgo back for his coat, right, he
(28:05):
just follows Jesus on the roadand going to the next place and
until the road comes to an endhe's right there with Jesus.
I think that's the Christianlife Discipleship till the's
right there with Jesus.
I think that's the Christianlife discipleship till the very
end following Jesus.
So you know, here we see thisfaith.
But we know this can't be justto go get them to study right
(28:28):
Now.
Go out there and let's havesome faith.
You know, trust Jesus.
But two things I hope we seefrom this, I think is number one
.
I hope we see who we are Likethis man, helpless in his world.
He needed mercy and he knew itright.
We can't figure it out, wecan't make ourselves better,
(28:52):
we're absolutely helplesswithout God.
But then to know who he is,jesus is the Savior, the Messiah
, not just a good teacher, he isthe teacher.
He's the great teacher, notjust a Savior, but the Savior,
and he's worthy to be followedwith all of our lives, even this
(29:15):
week.
You know, as you're going toyour life, that he's worthy to
be followed with all of ourlives, even this week.
You know, as you're going toyour life, that he's worthy to
be followed in the little thingsof our life.
God, is this what you want fromme?
Is this what you want me to dowith my time?
We don't always do the rightthing, but man, he's worthy of
it, and so that's what I hope wesee today.
Let's pray, god, I just thankyou for how good you are, how
(29:38):
sweet you are.
We were so desperate and to thepoint of crying out, because
death was all we had.
Sin was all we had.
And yet you stopped and youloved us and you brought us near
.
It is so good that you careabout us like that.
You stopped and you loved usand you brought us near.
(29:58):
It is so good that you careabout us like that, god.
Thank you that you saved us asour Messiah.
Thank you, god, that you'regoing to one day literally rule
and reign here, that all thepolitics and kings of this world
, they don't matter a single bit.
In the end, god, it's going tobe all about you.
I pray that we live in light ofthat promise even today.
(30:21):
God, work these things into ourlives, into our hearts.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
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