Turn in your Bibles this evening to Mark chapter 10. And also, once you find Mark chapter 10, I would like you to find a map in the back of your Bible, if you have one, that says, the promised land in New Testament times, or Israel during the times of Jesus, something of that sort. It will give you a little bit of a visual to help along with the sermon. in trying to determine how to begin this meeting, and I say revival, but only the Lord can send revival in our hearts. But it seems to make the most sense to preach something that glorifies Jesus as the Son of God, and at the same time puts the question to us, what do you want from Jesus? And that's the goal with the sermon this evening. Mark chapter 10. Our text is gonna be verse 46 through 52. Mark chapter 10, starting at verse 46. And they came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called a blind man, saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus said unto him, and Jesus answered and said unto him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious and loving Father. Lord, we are so thankful to be in your assembly with your brothers and sisters in Christ, that we might fellowship with one another, and that we might sing your praises, and we might approach your throne of mercy, and we might hear from your Word. Lord, I ask that you'd please bless the reading of your Word and the proclamation of it. We know, Lord, that you've promised that it will accomplish your purpose. It will not return to you empty. And so we ask, Lord, that you would fulfill your promise and show your power through this word that it would bring glory and honor to you and your son, Jesus. I ask that you'd please be with the family of Brother Meadors, Lord, that you'd give them comfort and strengthen them. I ask that you'd please forgive me of my failures. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. The occasion of this scripture is almost the end of Jesus's earthly ministry. For three years, the Savior has traveled the countryside preaching in the temple and in the synagogues, healing the sick, raising the dead, proclaiming the need for repentance and faith. And a chronology of the Gospels tells us that Jesus had already predicted his death and resurrection, and all three times he'd done it, the disciples failed to understand. But now he is on the road to Jerusalem, and he is about to enter that city for the final time. In fact, if you look at Mark chapter 11, you'll see Mark chapter 11 begins with what we call the triumphal entry. Jesus enters into Jerusalem with great fanfare and then goes to the cross a week later. If you would, look at the map in the back of your Bible if you've got a map of Israel during the time of Jesus. You'll note that you can find Jerusalem and then from Jerusalem just to the east of Jerusalem, about 13 miles away, you'll see the city of Jericho. It might help you to visualize what's happening because much of Jesus' ministry was in northern Israel, near and around the Sea of Galilee, and now he's traveled south to Judea, and he's at the city of Jericho, just about 13 miles east of Jerusalem. So he's left the north, and he's traveled down to the south near the Dead Sea, and he's been over on the east side of the Jordan River in the area that might be marked in your Bibles as Perea. and he's left Peoria and he has crossed over the Jordan River, and just like the Israelites in the Old Testament, the first place he comes to is Jericho. And he's headed to Jerusalem. It's not far now. The end is very near. This account of the healing of Bartimaeus, along with the healing of the high priest servant's ear, are the final miracles of Jesus's earthly ministry. The final healing miracles, I should say. Matthew and Mark and Luke all record this account with Bartimaeus, although this has led to some complaint from some quarters because they say that it presents a contradiction. In Matthew chapter 20, Matthew says there are two blind men, but Mark and Luke only say that there's one blind man. In fact, Luke doesn't even give us his name, but there's really no need to complicate this too much. Neither Mark nor Luke say that there was only one blind man. And simple math tells me that if there was two, that means there was at least one, and one of them was this man named Bartimaeus. So there's no contradiction here. In fact, the Gospels don't try to give us every detail of every event in Jesus' ministry. I find it interesting that Mark, for whatever reason, leaves out another great account of Jesus' ministry that happens on the same day on the same roadway. As he's going through Jericho, Jesus not only encounters this blind beggar Bartimaeus on the road, but he also calls a stubby little tax collector named Zacchaeus to come down out of a tree. Same road, same day. Zacchaeus and Bartimaeus become the two trophies of saving grace on Jesus' way to the cross. And it's odd that so often we call this man old, blind Bartimaeus. I'm not sure why. We don't know that he was old. It doesn't say that. And I know this seems odd, but his given name is not Bartimaeus. The prefix bar, or ben, in Hebrew culture means the son of. So you can see right there in verse 46, his name is Bartimaeus, which means the son of Timaeus. So we actually know his father's name, but we don't know his own name. And that does lend itself to some speculation that probably he was blind since birth. It was very likely known to the residents of Jericho that Timaeus' son was born blind and he grew up being known as Timaeus' blind son. That was likely fine with Bartimaeus as if people knew his father, it would have caused them to be more generous as he begged for a living. And so Bartimaeus is at this roadside in Jericho begging and the pickings are good this day because this is almost a week from Passover. When Jews from far and wide would travel to Jerusalem and the busyness of those roads would swell as Passover came closer, the foot traffic would get greater and even beggars today know you gotta go where the people are. And so Bartimaeus is at the side of that road on that day, begging from the travelers, the pilgrims who would head toward Jerusalem for Passover. But even with the large crowd, something becomes noticeably different for him. There seems to be a lull. There is a much greater noise. Coming down the road, I'd ask you to close your eyes and imagine the sounds as he heard the far off crowd getting closer and closer. Although if you do close your eyes, you have to promise that you're going to open them again. Luke's gospel describes it as hearing the multitudes pass by, he asked what it meant. So why is it that there's so many people that are pushing together onto this road? They're almost to Jerusalem. They're a mere 13 miles away. They've got a week before Passover. There's no need to hurry yet. There's plenty of room on the road. So why all of a sudden is there this huge crowd of people passing by? And so some of the people in the crowd explained to him what it is that he can't see. It's Jesus of Nazareth. You see there at the beginning of verse 47. No doubt he asked what the noise was and someone in the crowd said, it's Jesus of Nazareth. And Bartimaeus' reaction was more than just, Oh, it's Jesus of Nazareth. There's more than he could have hoped for for the past three years. He's heard the stories of Jesus spread far and wide. This is the man who's healed lepers. He's raised the dead. He's given other blind men sight. But virtually every story has taken place up in Galilee, in northern Israel, or over in Jerusalem. Nowhere near Jericho. News that Jesus was passing by was a better gift than any coin that Bartimaeus might have had dropped in his cup that day. Verse 47 says, when he had heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And here's what we find, there is more to this man than being a poor blind beggar. He has observed something in his blindness that the people who were following Jesus to this point couldn't see. It would take a few sermons to try to explain everything it means. to call Jesus son of David. And we don't have time for that, but we will do just a quick review. If you want to look with me, you may at 2 Samuel chapter seven. It was the prophet Nathan returns to King David with a message from God. And God made some promises to King David. We actually call 2 Samuel seven the Davidic covenants. And one of the promises that God makes to David is that one of David's descendants would sit on the throne of Israel forever. 2 Samuel 7 verses 12 and 13 says, And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, in other words, David, when you're dead, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever." It actually goes on and God says, I'll be His Father and He'll be My Son. We know who this is that it's talking about. It's the promise that there would be a son of David who would rule and reign forever. And when the New Testament opens, the angel comes to Mary and tells Mary, you're going to have a child. And part of that promise was the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father, David. Now look at verse 47. When Bartimaeus asked what the noise was, what did they tell him? Oh, it's Jesus of Nazareth. They might as well have just said, it's just that carpenter's kid. It's just that guy from up north everybody's talking about. It's just that teacher that stood up to the Pharisees. But Barnabas's reaction was, no, he's more than that. He's the son of David. He's the king of kings. He's the fulfillment of prophecy. This is the hope of Israel. It's God's own son. Bartimaeus sees himself and says, look, I'm just a blind beggar who asks mercy for everybody who passes by. And now for the first time in my life, the one who can actually give me mercy is passing by. Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me. Oh, what this blind beggar could see. He's blind in body, but not in soul. He's been gifted with more insight than he has eyesight. Some people think, well, seeing is believing. You know, show us a miracle and we'll believe. Bartimaeus' story absolutely annihilates that kind of thinking. He had not seen Jesus' compassion on the poor. He had not witnessed a single miracle during the ministry of Jesus. He had not listened to Jesus teach, nor had he had any interaction with him other than what he had heard about him. Bartimaeus is a perfect example of the truth that Paul wrote to the Romans, that faith comes by hearing. Bartimaeus heard and Bartimaeus believed. And really, that's the way that we have to understand this man. Here he is an outcast, a sinner, the physically disabled and the poor were viewed in that culture as being that way because, well, if you were physically disabled or you were poor, it's because you were under the curse of God. And no doubt that message got hammered home to him day after day as he feels the disdain and the scorn of the people who pass by. He couldn't see Jesus, but that didn't matter. Those who saw Jesus didn't think much of Jesus. Jesus would have looked just like any other sun-beaten, dust-covered traveler. Nothing spectacular. There were no royal robes. There's no crown, no scepter, no royal guard. He's just being followed around by a ragtag bunch of misfits he calls disciples. In many ways, it was the people who saw Jesus for what he looked like that had a problem seeing Jesus for who he is. Bartimaeus isn't hampered by eyesight. He's heard about Jesus. And in the fertile imagination of this blind beggar, it allowed him to glimpse the beauty of the Savior. And his poor heart had seen the light of the world long before his eyes ever did. And while we know in hindsight that this is the next to last healing miracle recorded in the Gospels, Bartimaeus no doubt knew that this chance to appeal to the mercy of Jesus may be his last and only chance. And so he cries out to Jesus. He's trying to get his voice through this massive crowd. Folks, I mean, he was loud. Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me. As you can imagine, not everybody was glad to hear it. Verse 48 says, many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried out, the great deal more, the more a great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. Those words hold his peace. That is such a nice way of what we would say today is they told him to be quiet or more likely, would you just shut up? The word charged there in verse 48 actually carries the idea of warning. Jesus doesn't care about you. Jesus doesn't have time for you. You're just a poor blind beggar and he's the great teacher on his way to Jerusalem for the Passover. You're a nuisance. You're a pest. If you know what's good for you, you will just shut up. But he just kept shouting. trying to shout over the people now who were trying to shout him down. Imagine what it is like for a man who cannot see, knowing that somewhere out there in the distance was Jesus, his Savior, but being surrounded by many, many voices who kept warning him to be quiet or else. And so he resorts to the only thing that he could resort to. Calling out Jesus's name and appealing to his mercy. Well, I wish that all who need Jesus would mark his conduct and walk in those steps. He didn't care for the rebuke of the world around him. He didn't listen to the unfeeling crowd and their insistence and said that his appeal to Jesus was distasteful. It says he cried out the more a great deal. Folks, there will never be a shortage of people in the world who stand around you and insist that your appeal to Jesus is worthless. Or they'll use words like, well, you know, you're so young, it's too soon for you to do that, or you're so old, it's too late, or you're taking things too fast, or you're going too far with this, that you're wasting your time in appealing to Jesus because He doesn't have any time for the likes of you. And when you start saying that you need Jesus, you'll find yourself surrounded by people who want you to just shut up. But look at this and see it. Jesus cares. Jesus has time. He's walking down that road surrounded by this huge crowd that has swallowed in and pressed in around him. And many of them are pretend disciples who apparently don't think he's anything more than Jesus of Nazareth. And then somewhere in the distance, he hears that cry, that shriek of desperation that calls out, Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stops in his tracks. Verse 49 it says, And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calls thee. Jesus stops, and I imagine in this big crowd he probably had to ask for quiet. Not quiet from Bartimaeus, but quiet from those who were trying to quiet Bartimaeus. Jesus commands the people in the crowd around Him, likely a couple of His disciples, to go get the man that that voice belongs to and bring him here. Because there's something unusual about that blind man's call. It's not just the call of desperation, but it's the call of faith. Nobody, and I mean nobody in Mark's gospel has called Jesus son of David. and it stops him in his tracks. The very creator of heaven and earth, the perfect son of God who upholds all things by his power, the sovereign, all-powerful God whose will cannot be thwarted, stops because a blind beggar calls out to him. There's room in the heart of Jesus for the cry of a helpless, hopeless beggar. That's the kind of Savior we have. He stops because of the cry of mercy and faith. And that's important because that's what we are. Let's not waste our time or energy beating around the bush about this. We are poor beggars. That is what a Christian is. A Christian is nothing but a poor beggar with no worth of our own, no ability to help ourselves, but we've called out to Jesus in our desperation, and we find out that we have a Savior who will stop and answer the call. We've called out in faith, have mercy on me, and Jesus stops. and meets with us and shows mercy to us. There's room in the heart of Jesus for a beggar who calls out for mercy. Now, the disciples of Jesus, the real disciples of Jesus, now have to go through this crowd that had warned Bartimaeus to be quiet, and they come up to Bartimaeus and they tell him, cheer up, stand up, he wants to talk to you. How excited do you suppose Bartimaeus is? Look at verse 50. And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. This garment that he cast away is the outer cloak that the Jews would wear. They had their inner robe, and then they had sort of this coat or outer robe that was a little longer, a little more cumbersome. And Bartimaeus probably threw this off because it hampered his ability to get up. It's interesting to me, though, that In the Greek language, in Mark's gospel, he uses a different word for rise in verse 49 than is used for rise in verse 50. In verse 49, it would essentially be translated as stand up, but in verse 50, as it describes what he's doing, it would be best translated, he jumped up. Maybe that outer robe was tossed aside because it allowed him to move more quickly toward Jesus without it. I don't know, but I do think being blind, someone had to lead him to Jesus. And there's a sermon there for a different day. Verse 51 says, and Jesus answered and said unto him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. All right. Look, we need to leave this narrative for just a minute. Put that story on pause in your mind and back up a little bit if we're gonna understand this question that Jesus is asking. Because just before this account, before they get to Jericho as they're traveling or as they're resting for the night, two disciples of Jesus named James and John had come to Him because they want something from Him. Look back in verse 35. Verse 35 says they came to Him saying, you know, Master, there's something we want. Don't you love when someone comes up to you and says, hey, would you do something for me? But they don't tell you what it is yet. They were trying to pull it 2,000 years ago. There's something that we want from you. We would, thou should do whatever we shall desire. And he said unto them, what would ye that I should do for you? Does that sound like a familiar question? What do you want me to do for you? It's a simple question, but their answer was anything but simple. They said, oh, we want to sit by you in glory. When you rule and reign, we want to sit, one of us on the left hand and the other on the right. It's funny to me that they didn't say which is which. We want power and prestige. We want to be there in a position of glory and a position of authority and honor where everyone's going to see us, but which of us is on the right and which is on the left, that's up to you. We don't want to be presumptuous. What a ridiculous request they're making and Jesus rejects it. But now with the faith of Bartimaeus proclaiming him to be the son of David and appearing to understand more than all of his disciples had managed to grasp. Right there in front of James and in front of John, Jesus asks him the exact same question. What do you want me to do for you? Well, in some ways, Bartimaeus has already answered that, right? Have mercy on me. But here's his chance to make some really extravagant requests. This is the kind of occasion that makes a prosperity preacher drool. You know, this old dude, he'd better start naming and claiming it. Because I know being healed of blindness is an extraordinary thing. I'm not making it less than what it is. It's an amazing God-honoring miracle that Bartimaeus is asking for. But it's not minimizing at all to point out that it's nothing so extraordinary as what James and John had asked for. You know, here's Bartimaeus' chance to ask for a chariot and a house. There's preachers in the world today who say, look, if you're going to ask for something from Jesus, you just got to go for it. Get yourself a house, and a car, and a spouse, and some nice clothes, and some prestige, and have them throw in a monthly income. Get whatever it is you want. You name it and claim it. You blab it and grab it, however you want to describe it. That's what people say today. It's Bartimaeus' answer. I want my sight. It's really not extravagant. He's not asking for anything that the world around him doesn't have. But it would remove the stigma of being under the condemnation of God and perhaps Even Bartimaeus thought he was under the condemnation of God. And if so, he's come to the right person to ask for it to be removed. Jesus is the only one who can take that away. This is what faith in Jesus is supposed to look like. Bartimaeus gets it and James and John don't. But I wonder what you would say. If Jesus granted you an audience and asked you the same question, what do you want me to do for you? What would your answer be? You know, I don't believe that Jesus is going to speak to you in an audible voice today or stand in front of you, but he does come to us in providence, especially through the proclamation of this word, and he's brought you here today, and the voice of Jesus is asking you through his word, at the moment of opportunity, you poor, helpless beggar, what do you want me to do for you? Understand, the scripture shows what his answer is going to be. If what you want from Jesus is for Him to lift you above the ordinary and grant you honor and glory and prestige like James and John, their answer was no. If you're listening to the world around you that tells you to shut up and not appeal to Jesus, if what you ask for from Him is nothing, then you're going to get exactly what you ask for. You're going to get nothing. But if you recognize your hopelessness and you see Him in faith as your Savior and you call out to Him for mercy, Jesus is rich in mercy. So what do you want Him to do for you? I don't know all of your backgrounds. Maybe some of you think, well, I just don't understand all this Jesus stuff. Okay, then there's your answer. A good step might be saying, Lord, show yourself to me. I mean, you need that. You need to see Jesus for who he is. And Jesus gave Bartimaeus that gift. Look at verse 52. Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith has made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. I just want you to visualize that for a moment. Don't just read over it. Don't take it for granted. What did Bartimaeus see when he opened his eyes? We can only imagine what it's like to be a blind person who gets their sight restored. If you've ever seen any of the videos online about deaf people who've received implants so that they can hear, if you can watch those videos without bawling your head off, you've got to be heartless. a wife weeping at the sound of her husband for the first time, children laughing to hear their mother's voice. It's hard to imagine that and equate it with vision, to receive vision for the first time. But what did Bartimaeus experience as the scales fell from his eyes and light starts to register where there was only darkness before and he begins to perceive colors and he can make out shapes and he can start to see what it is he could only imagine before. and those shapes and those colors start to form into sight. What is it that he sees? When the blindness finally falls from that beggar of Jericho as miraculously as the walls fell around the city of Jericho so long before, who does he see? According to Matthew's account, Jesus actually reached out and touched him and said, receive your sight. So as he gets vision, it might have still been dark in his eyes as Jesus moves his hands away and shows himself to Bartimaeus. But he finds himself looking into the face of his precious Savior, and it seems like he was the only one who could see him to be the son of David before this, and now he can actually see him for the first time. face-to-face with Jesus. By the way, folks, you're going to experience that someday. Saved or lost, there will be a day where you come face-to-face with Jesus and you need to pray that the kind of faith Bartimaeus showed is found in you. It is as if Bartimaeus' very request, knowingly or unknowingly, was asking to see Jesus. That's what he wanted Jesus to do for him. What do you want Jesus to do for you? Folks, you should beg Him to save you if you've not seen Him in faith yet. Save you from the wretchedness of existence without God. Save you from the emptiness and alienation of life without Jesus. from the lostness and futility of this cycle of work and pleasure and money and sleep that we just get into in our lives. Save you from the sin that separates you from God's love and condemns you to God's judgment. Being saved, incidentally, is exactly what this is about. The very words of Jesus tell us so in verse 52, your faith has made you whole. That word whole there is actually the Greek word that is translated saved in much of the New Testament. You're saved because of your faith in Jesus. Believing, having faith in the work of Jesus brings the salvation and the rescue that you need. And that salvation becomes the beginning of your life following him. Because that's what Bartimaeus does. What does Jesus say to Bartimaeus as he heals him? The first thing he says even before your faith has made you whole is, go your way. He doesn't say what that way has to be. Many times before this in the gospels, you'll see Jesus heals someone and he tells them exactly where to go. You're a leper, you go to the temple and show yourself to the priest. The demoniac that he saved in Gadara, he says, no, you can't come with me. You have to go back home and tell your family and friends what great things have been done to you. But here Jesus tells Bartimaeus, go wherever you want. Go your way. Now which way does Bartimaeus go? It says immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way, or down the road, literally. Bartimaeus' way was to follow Jesus. We don't even see that he went back and picked up that outer garment that he dropped in verse 50. He follows Jesus on the way or down the road. He joins in with the other disciples who go up the road with Jesus toward Jerusalem. Just visualize who all's there. Jesus is walking down the road to Jerusalem with his face firmly set to go there because he knows what will happen. And there's the fisherman Peter who would deny him. And there's James and John maybe walking with their heads down in shame if they had been paying attention. Matthew, the publican who had just witnessed on this day, another publican named Zacchaeus be saved. and also this poor beggar in his underclothes, staring around in amazement at the world that he has never seen before, but being certain to stay step in step with Jesus, follows him down the road, falls uphill into Jerusalem where Jesus enters the city in triumph. Bartimaeus no doubt is there when the crowd in Jerusalem takes up the very words of this formerly blind beggar. It's not hard to guess where that crowd got their cue when they started shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. I kind of wonder if Bartimaeus looked around and went, you're welcome. He finally figured it out. He follows them to Jerusalem where Jesus dies on the cross a week later. Bartimaeus, can now see and follow Jesus to the extent of seeing the price for his own healing and salvation. It's probable that Bartimaeus was not only there through the week and the crucifixion, but also the days that followed in the resurrection of Jesus. Personally, I think it's very, very likely that Bartimaeus is one of the 120 in the church when the book of Acts opens. Luke's account says Bartimaeus followed Jesus, glorifying God. Because that's what every believer in Jesus must do. Because at some point, Jesus came across the road of our life and stopped full of compassion and listened to our appeal for mercy. Because He's not going to ignore the cry of a repentant heart. He saves sinners who are desperate for mercy and seek Him. So what do you want Jesus to do for you? You can try to ask Him to grant you glory for yourself and prestige in the eyes of men, but He's gonna say no. You can listen to the world around you and ignore the question, but that's essentially saying to Jesus, I don't want anything from you. Folks, that is a dangerous and fatal road to go down. Or you can answer in faith, have mercy on me. and find that he'll lovingly reveal himself to you and you can follow him. But it is a question that echoes down through the ages. What do you want Jesus to do for you? Brother Tom.