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Reading Mark 10:46-52 where Jesus was passing by Jericho and healed a blind man named Bartimaeus, who begged Jesus to show him mercy and give him healing. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
A man who was blind asked Jesus for his sight, and Jesus restored his vision, and that man followed him. We have been granted sight also by the Savior, so let us follow him too when we understand.
The text.
You are listening to When We Understand the Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God. For questions and comments send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Mark, we are finishing up chapter 10 today with the healing of a man named Bartimaeus. I'm reading from the Legacy Standard Bible, Mark 10, verses 46 -52.
Hear the word of the Lord. Then they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
And many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, Call him here. So they called the blind man, saying to him, Take courage, get up, he is calling for you.
And throwing off his outer garment, he jumped up and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered him and said, What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said to him, Rabboni, I want to regain my sight.
And Jesus said to him, Go, your faith has saved you. Immediately, he regained his sight and began following him on the road. I remember several years back, I was approached by a young man who had a number of questions for me, and I just began answering whatever questions he had.
Some of them had to do with theology. Some of them have to do with things that were specifically said in the Bible that he did not understand, and he was asking for an explanation. And some of those questions had to do with personal relationships in his life.
I have a relative that does this. How do I respond to him when he's choosing to live this life this way? He even says that he's a Christian, but he won't repent. How do I talk into his life? Or he would say, I've got a group of friends who are also Christians, and they do and say these things, but I don't think that's correct, and so what do I do?
How do I minister to them or witness to them or something like that? So after a period of, I don't know how long we were talking, 20 to 30 minutes perhaps, he began to weep, tears filled his eyes, and I asked him if he was okay, and he said, I've been wanting to ask these questions for so long, but people told me not to.
And I said to him, well, what do you mean by that? And he said, well, like with the first questions I asked you, and he was referring to some of those theology questions, things about the Bible that he didn't quite understand.
He was always asking of somebody, but when somebody would give him an answer of something that was in the Bible, and he didn't think that answer was quite right or it wasn't sufficient, he would try to dig deeper.
He would dig more into the question, and the person would respond, why don't you just trust what the Bible says, or why don't you just trust God? Just trust God and put your faith in God. And he said, I do trust God, but it was like they were telling me not to ask these questions, but to just trust God.
But how do I know what God is saying to me if they won't answer my questions? And so I was touched by his curiosity. I don't think that it was necessarily me that enlightened him or illuminated thoughts to him.
There could have been someone else who is just as learned and skilled in understanding scripture as I that could have answered his questions. But it was just the fact that somebody was willing to listen to him ask and help to guide him in the scriptures that so moved his spirit.
And what really moved his spirit was that he saw Christ all the more clearly because his answers about, or his questions about the Bible rather, had been answered. I thought of that when I came to this lesson, when I was preparing for teaching this particular devotional lesson, and this man is calling out to Jesus and saying, son of David, have mercy on me.
And everybody's trying to get him to be quiet. And this man has an opportunity to be healed here. And this is probably his only opportunity to be healed. I'll explain that here in just a moment. And yet, as he's calling out to Jesus, people are trying to get him to quiet down.
Don't bother him. You're a nuisance to us. So be quiet. And how many times has there been somebody that has wanted to know more about the scriptures, but somebody tells them to hush? I think I've done this with my children before, right?
Maybe I just want a quiet evening and I'm tired and I'm done answering questions today. Daddy's not making any more decisions. And yet my daughters want to ask me questions about the Bible. I have a nine-year-old in particular who is very keen on asking specific questions about.
Scripture.
She'll even come up to me after preaching either on a Sunday morning or in a Sunday.
Evening.
Something I have said has stirred a question in her, and she will want to ask that question. Well, sometimes she'll ask when I'm feeling kind of tired and how many times have I kind of shooed her away and like, not right now.
Daddy's resting or something like that. She wants to know. She desires to know more about God and the word. And yet I'm not giving her the attention that she really needs that would help her to draw closer to Christ.
So as we come to this account here in Mark 10, verse 46, they came to Jericho. This is the Jericho that you're thinking of. Yes, it was the Jericho that Joshua and the people of Israel marched around blue trumpets and shouted and the walls came tumbling down.
Jericho is a part of Israel. Because remember, this was part of the promised land that they were coming into inhabit. Jericho is like the first city that they are encountering and having to conquer as they are bringing the judgment of God upon this people in the land of Canaan so that they may inhabit the land that God had promised to the descendants of Abraham.
So Jericho is still part of that place. Now, the city is called Jericho. It's in the vicinity of the original Jericho, but there wasn't anything built on the actual ruins of Jericho. That city was utterly destroyed, raised to the ground.
It was not going to be built upon again. So it's another town that's right there at that spot, though not exactly on top of it because Jericho was never rebuilt. So another town in that near vicinity that is therefore called Jericho.
This is in the southern region of Judah. Jesus is making a trip back around up to Jerusalem. He is on his way to be crucified, essentially, because what's the next event that we read about in the Gospel of Mark?
If you go to Mark 11, it's the triumphal entry. That's what we'll be reading about tomorrow. So Jesus coming into Jerusalem to the shouts of the people saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
And notice there's a large crowd that's following him here even as he is leaving Jericho. They came to Jericho as he was leaving with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road.
So Jesus has his disciples and also a large crowd that are going with him. And whatever miracles he is doing along the way, the crowd is observing this. So who knows how much of this had so stirred in the crowd's hearts that they become a part of that group of people that are therefore singing his praises when he comes into Jerusalem on the day of his triumphal entry.
Now, it's interesting that we know not only the name of this man, Bartimaeus, we know even whose son he is, the son of Timaeus. That's pretty significant because we don't see a lot of miracles being performed here, even in Mark's Gospel, where that much identity is given to the person who is healed.
Remember when we read about the man who had a son who was demon possessed and he asked Jesus to heal his son. We don't know that man's name. We don't know the boy's name. We barely know where they were because it was right after the transfiguration and Jesus with Peter, James and John are coming back to join the rest of the disciples.
And that's where they come into this commotion where the other disciples were not able to cast the demon out of the man's son. So there, no identity is given to us. We don't know exactly who that was.
But here, it's interesting that Mark notes this guy's name is Bartimaeus and he's the son of Timaeus. So if anybody wants to know about this healing, you can go find him yourself and you can ask.
Him about it.
He probably lives in Jericho. He's probably somewhere around there. This man who was once blind, Jesus heals and you can talk to him yourself. It's interesting anyway to me that that Mark included the name of this man and whose son.
He was.
So you can know this guy was actually blind. He really was a blind man. I was talking with somebody about this recently. But when you read the story of the man who was born blind in John chapter nine and Jesus healed him of his blindness, one of the things that man says, this is in John chapter nine, verse 30, when he's being pressed by the Pharisees, he responds to them like this.
Why this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from. And yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And the Pharisees answered him, you were born in utter sin and you would teach us.
And they cast him out. The words of that man who was born blind, who could now see because Jesus healed him. He said, never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
I always thought that was rather fascinating because you go back to the Old Testament and even the miracles that were performed by the prophets. No one ever restores a man's sight. A man who was born blind had never seen at all in his life.
So I use the expression restored sight, gave him sight in the first place, had never even seen before. This was not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament, even of prophets having done this of miracle workers, giving a person sight who had never seen before.
And here Jesus does it with this man, grants him sight for the very first time. And to this man, he knows that the one who healed me has to be from God. God wouldn't listen to a sinner to grant this kind of miracle to somebody.
This man has healed my sight. There's something gloriously significant about this. Why are you Pharisees trying to shut him up or turn me away or whatever else? And then, of course, the Pharisees rebuke him for teaching them.
But here you have a man who's blind by the side of the road. And Mark even gives us his name and his father's name so that you you can go and talk to him yourself. There were many people who had seen the miracles of Jesus who had been who had been so blessed to receive a miracle from Jesus.
That served as witnesses to the incredible things that he had done even after his death and his resurrection. How was it that Christianity was able to spread so quickly? Well, the first reason is because it was God's will.
That was the work of the Holy Spirit that was transforming the hearts of people. But you had the testimony of so many who were able to say, hey, I was there. I saw the miracles that he performed. I am a result of one of those miracles.
My withered hand. Look, it's perfectly good. It's like brand new. My withered legs. I can dance around on them. I was once a quadriplegic, and now I have I have full mobility. I was once blind, and now I see I was once a leper, and now I've been cleansed.
All of these different persons who had received such incredible, miraculous gifts from Christ became a testament to who he was, the son of God. And so here, Mark includes this man's name so that even through this man, that testimony of Christ could be heard by many.
When he heard that it was Jesus, the Nazarene, who was passing by, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Now, as I mentioned to you in a moment ago, this is probably his only opportunity to be healed, because, again, where is Jesus going?
He's going to Jerusalem to be crucified. He's never going to pass by Jericho again. We know that after his resurrection, he went up to Galilee, but he would not have gone back south to Jericho. And so this is the man's one opportunity, the one chance that he has for the miracle worker to come and grant him his sight.
He's never been able to go to wherever he hears Jesus is, since the man is blind. And who is going to take him there? Right here, he's calling out for Jesus to heal him. And even though Jesus is right there and Bartimaeus is right there, the people are trying to silence.
Him.
So he wasn't going to get any help from anybody. And here is his opportunity. He hears that it's Jesus of Nazareth who's passing by. And this man knows that name and already believes upon that name to say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
To call him that, even to say, Jesus, son of David, he knows this is the Messiah. This is the heir to the throne of David. He probably believes, like many of them believe, that this is the one who is going to set us free from the oppression that we are currently under.
Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. I've heard stories before of people who have said, I asked Jesus to heal me of my sin and he wouldn't heal me of my sin.
Take away my desire, take away my temptation of my sin, but he wouldn't take it away from.
Me.
I especially hear this from apostates, people who had claimed they claimed to have once been Christians, but they've since turned away from the way and making all these excuses about why they aren't believers anymore.
Well, I had this sin and I asked Jesus to take it away and he would not take it away. I would say to them, I don't really believe you. I don't think that in your heart you earnestly desired Christ to intercede in your life.
I mean, the evidence is right there. If the person's apostate, so you've already turned away from the Lord. You did not really want him to solve your problem for you. As James says, you ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives.
Or you do not receive because you do not ask. That's the other thing. And Jesus had said that as well in the sermon on the Mount. Why do you not have is because you do not ask here. The man is asking and he is persistent, though the people are trying to silence him and shut him up.
Yet he desires that he would be healed. Son of David have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him here. And so they called the blind man saying to him, take courage, get up. He is calling for you.
So Jesus calls the blind man to himself. And the blind man doesn't just answer. He throws off his outer garment and he jumped up and he came to Jesus. He's got men that come over to him that are going to help him over to Jesus.
But once it is said to him, Jesus wants to see you, he throws off his outer garment. And though the man is blind, he's he's going to find his way there. He is clamoring for Christ. This is a man who wants the Savior.
He wants to be healed. He is begging for the mercy of God. How many of us have had even a fraction of that have come before the Lord and have said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And we're persistent and we keep coming and we desire mercy.
And it is promised to us, if that is our heart's desire, that we would want the mercy of God. He will indeed give it to us. So Bartimaeus falls at his feet. And Jesus says to him, what do you want me to do for you?
And the blind man said to him, Rabboni, I want to regain my sight. So Jesus just simply asks, what do you want? I'll give it to you, whatever it is that you ask. And Jesus said to him, go, your faith has saved you.
And immediately he regained his sight and began following him on the road. He regained his sight and didn't just go, oh, that's much better. And then go back to sit in his spot from which he came. He became a follower of Jesus that day.
We have all been blind. We've all been blind from birth. We cannot see God. We do not desire God. Instead, what we see is our sin. And we go after our sin and the ways of this world, which satisfies what our flesh wants.
A lot of people want the gifts, but they don't want the giver. And here in this account, this blind man wanted his sight restored. What Jesus could do for him. But he didn't just want his sight restored.
He wanted the Savior as well. And so, my friends, we must turn from sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, who opens our eyes that we may see our own sinfulness and need for a Savior. And in our eyes being open, we see that he is that Savior who takes away the sin of the world.
Trust in Jesus Christ, especially in the midst of these times that we are in. Things can be crazy. Things can be constantly changing. The news this week, it's like the news has amnesia. We can't even remember the stories of last week.
The stories from two weeks ago are even more gone than that. And there's something new this week. Something big is happening in the news that's got us worried or obsessed or wringing our.
Hands.
And we're constantly on our phones or on our computers or on the chat boards trying to find out more information about it. We're messed up about the election. Who is it that's going to win? This is going to have huge ramifications on my future.
And you might be right. It could. Something that happens in this political process is going to affect a lot of people, no matter which way it ends up going. But, my friends, our obsessing over it is not going to change the outcome.
And the best way to prepare yourself is to trust in Christ, to be in his word, to talk to him in prayer, to be obedient to what he has instructed us to do. And no matter what happens in this world, if the outcome is really good or the outcome is really bad, we are ready for those days.
As the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4 .13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And that's the right context. Because he was saying there, whether I have plenty or whether I am in need, I know what it means to have both.
And I can do all things through him who strengthens me. We need to turn to Christ, have our eyes open to his word and his ways and trusting in his counsel and his sovereignty. And whatever is happening in the world will not cause us to despair, will not overtake.
Us.
We will trust that his way and his strength is perfect. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here. And I pray that we would not continue stumbling around blind. But if Jesus has opened our eyes, may we see the Savior and draw near to him all the more every day, being as a beggar, coming before the Lord and asking that our every need would be met.
Just like Jesus said in the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. We are poor. We desire what only the father can give. We hold out a hand. Lord, show us mercy. Show us your grace today.
And may we be comforted in knowing that the creator of the universe is for us through Christ, our Savior, who died for us, who rose again. Whoever believes in him will have everlasting life. It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.
Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.