2020-03-29 – Mark 10.46-52 – Do You Want to See?

Bible Text: Mark 10:46-52 | Preacher: Pastor Jerry Higdon | Series: Mark | 2020-03-29 – Mark 10.46-52 – Do You Want to See?

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Good morning everyone. It is so nice to be able to spend some time with you all in fellowship with the Lord. Thank you and God bless you for being with us today.

I am going to start out this morning with a short poem by Toni Umbarger that complements our message today. Called is it’s title, and it goes like this:

Called out of darkness; Called into light. Called out of blindness; Called into sight. Called from our burdens; Called into rest. Called to be co-heirs; Called to be blessed. Called out of unrest; Called into peace. Called to be holy; Called to be free. Called to be steadfast; Called to endure. Called to a mission; Called to be pure. Called out of sin; Called into Christ. Called for a purpose; Called at a price.

We are continuing on in scripture as we are going through the book of Mark to see and learn more about Jesus Christ who is our Rock and our Redeemer.

Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 10.46 of God’s Inspired, Infallible and Living Word. But let us first start with Prayer.

The event we are going to read about this morning is significant because it is the final miraculous healing of Jesus that Mark reports, and it leads up to what is called Jesus’s Passion. Mark sets the scene when Jesus is leaving Jericho on the last leg of His journey to Jerusalem, just fifteen miles away. The holiday of Passover is approaching and the road is jammed with pilgrims chanting on the way to the Holy City. Alongside the road is crowd of parade watchers, curiosity seekers, and those who are too poor or handicapped to make the journey to Jerusalem. By now the amount of people following after Jesus has swelled to “a large crowd”. For they had longed for a for a messiah savior that would rid their world of the Romans rule. They also knew that the established Jewish religious leaders were trying to prevent Jesus’s arrival. So all eyes were on Jesus as this piece of His-story unfolds in our first verses here. Verse 46 says:

46 ..as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many warned him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, “Have mercy on me, Son of David!”

So despite the large crowd all around him, this blind beggar hears about Jesus coming and obviously knows about His compassion and healings, so he starts crying out to Him. And just like the disciples had earlier attempted to keep the children from “bothering” Jesus, now they wanted the blind beggar to keep quiet too. However, Jesus consistently had a special place in His heart for the downtrodden and the oppressed. The man yelled out for Him as “Jesus, Son of David”. Whether Bartimaeus knew it or not, he was the first to introduce Jesus to Jerusalem for His triumphal entry, which we will go over next Sunday being that it is “Palm Sunday”.

Jesus is in fact a great, great, great (14) grandSon of King David, through both Mary’s linage and also His step-father Joseph’s family tree. Also Interestingly, King David himself speaks of Jesus in His pre-incarnate state. In Matthew 22 it says, “while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ Jesus then asked, If then David calls him ‘Lord’ how can he be his son?” To that no one could say a word in reply”. So in this, Jesus is pointing out that Father God “Lord” tells David’s “Lord” (Jesus), to sit at His right side. So how could the messiah be both at God’s right side and be born from the lineage of David. That answer could only be Jesus. The same Christ-Child that was born in Bethlehem which is also called the City of David.

So, Bartimaeus’s impassioned cry-out for “Jesus, Son of David” was perfect and it stops Jesus and His procession in their tracks. Can you imagine something like this happening in our world today? Imagine a dignitary or President coming for the first time into their new roll, and right before they step into the building, somebody from the sidelines cries-out to get their attention. I bet they wouldn’t even blink let alone stop. But that is not our Jesus, Jesus heard his cry, just like He hears all of our cries as well, and He listens.  Verse 49 continues:

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man and said to him, “Have courage! Get up; he’s calling for you.” 50 He threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

So again this Bartimaeus is a blind-man and a beggar. Still Jesus stops for him and He calls for him. The man is encouraged, and he just throws off his coat, and enthusiastically he jumps up this says and he came to Jesus. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a clear showing of faith. That coat he threw off, was probably all he had in the world, and he just through it off. What would you be willing to throw-off to meet Jesus?

51 Then Jesus answered him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Rabboni” [Teacher], the blind man said to him, “I want to see.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he could see and began to follow Jesus on the road.

All his life, the blind beggar had counted on others to lead and feed him. Now, although still blind, Bartimaeus jumps-up and walks out on his own. What a sight it must have been to see the crowd open a path for him as he comes to Jesus!
In one sense, his faith has already made him whole. His confidence and his will and his mind are healed. Jesus meets the faith filled Bartimaeus with an open-ended question, “What do you want me to do for you?” Coincidently, if you recall from last week, James and John had asked Jesus to grant them whatsoever they asked. The difference between Bartimaeus’s answer and the disciples’ request is the difference between faith and ambition. Faith asks for needs; whereas ambition begs for wants. Bartimaeus needed his sight; whereas James and John wanted places of honor.

Jesus wasted no time in meeting Bartimaeus’s need. He not only gives instant sight to the blind man, but He recognizes publicly his great faith. The once blind-beggar that day became a following disciple of Jesus Christ. Bartimaeus believed before he was healed. Bartimaeus responded in faith, “he jumped up, and came to Jesus”. We should all have such great saving faith.

Like this blind beggar, we all were at one time blind. But praise the Lord, for I was blind but now I see. Today, there are probably some of you watching or listening that are still spiritually blind and that is so sad to know. But there is hope for you this day. For just as Bartimaeus got the attention of Jesus Christ the Savior Messiah on the street leading up to Jerusalem that day, that same Jesus Christ cares for you as well, and He will stop in His tracks to address your needs here today. But the question we have before us is “Do You Want to See?”

Do you want to see your life changed as a result of Christ’s mercy and compassion? Do you want to see true peace, joy, contentment and purpose?
Do you want to see God’s love and kindness? And most importantly do you want to see heaven and God?

Each of us has to answer that question. Are you ready to throw off that cloak of darkness and jump-up to meet Lord Jesus today? Then I ask that you consider praying this prayer with me right now.

“Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead.  I trust and follow you as my Lord and Savior. Guide my life and help me to do your will. In your precious name I pray, amen.”

If you just prayed that prayer for the first time, and/or you have chosen to make Jesus your Savior and Lord then I want to hear from you. In Luke 15:10 Jesus said, “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”. And that most certainly would be our joy in Orion First Baptist as well.

Called out of darkness; Called into light. Called out of blindness; Called into sight.

Thank you all for joining us here today. I pray it makes a difference. God is Good All the Time.

As I indicated earlier, next week we are going to celebrate Psalm Sunday. It is the day we celebrate Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is the starting point to what is called the Passion Week. Passion Week is so named because of the passion with which Jesus willingly went to the cross in order to pay for the sins of His people. I hope you can join us here again online for this.

We are going to close with one verse of Amazing Grace, Then we have a special by my dear friend Dr. Toni Arnold-McFarland.