Was
Blind – But Now I See
Mark
10: 46-52 October 25, 2009
This
morning we share one of my favorite stories in the Bible, as Jesus heals the
blind man… It’s filled with
inspiration… It’s a story of a seeker
being found… It’s the story of how Jesus
meets the needs of His people – those who are seeking His favor…
It’s the
story of Bartimaeus…
The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Bartimaeus… We’re told his father’s name, Timaeus, but we are actually not told the name of the blind
man…
Bartimaeus is simply a Jewish form of saying
who his father is… Just as Simon Peter
was Simon-bar-Jonah, or “Simon, son of Jonah,” this man was known as Bar-Timaeus, or simply, “Son of Timaeus…” We don’t even know his name…
And it’s
a bit ironic that the name “Timaeus” means “man of
wealth…” An ironic name (“son of wealth”)
for a man who is a blind beggar…
We know
he was blind and he was a beggar, but we’re not told how long he had been
blind… We know he was from Jericho… but we don’t know a
whole lot about Bartimaeus… but yet, we have a lot to learn from Bartimaeus…
Do you
ever feel like life is passing you by?
That’s how Bartimaeus felt… He had been sitting on the sidelines of
life… As a blind man, he was a beggar,
for begging was his only way to make a living…
We’re
told that he sat there by the roadside, begging as people passed by… People probably didn’t give Bartimaeus the time of day…
Illus: It’s like our modern day beggars who stand at
the interstate exits holding signs saying, “Homeless and Hungry.” We hardly even notice them – we try our best
to ignore them…
But this
particular day must have been special… Bartimaeus couldn’t see, but he could hear… and he must have
sensed that something special was happening…
He could hear the joy and the excitement in the voices of the people as
they passed him by… he
could hear it, but he couldn’t be a part of it because he couldn’t see it…
But then
he heard through the crowd, the reason for all the excitement is that it was
Jesus who was passing by… Obviously, Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus… he had heard about His teachings and
His healings and His miracles…
And, our
scripture tells us in verse 47, “When he heard that it was Jesus of
Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on
me!” It was a moment that would
change his life forever…
The first
thing I want us to see in the life of Bartimaeus, is that JESUS CHRIST
REWARDS THOSE WHO ARE PERSISTENT IN SEEKING HIM…
When
Bartimaeus began crying out to Jesus, notice that the
crowd tried to hush him… The Bible tells
us in verse 48 that “many sternly ordered him to be quite…”
But
Bartimaeus didn’t pay the crowd any attention… In fact, he cried out to Jesus even louder… and he was
PERSISTENT… He didn’t give up… He kept calling – he kept crying out – until
Jesus heard him… He was determined not
to let Jesus pass him by…
And
notice what happened – when Jesus heard his cry, the Bible says that Jesus
stood still… He stopped in His
tracks…
Jesus
heard his desperate cry…
over all the other voices…
over all the noise of the crowd…
Jesus heard the voice of the one who was PERSISTENT and crying out for
help… Wow!
Our
cries for help touch the heart of Jesus…
Our cries stop Him in His tracks…
He stands still… He listens… And He goes no further until He meets our
needs…
Friends,
PERSISTENCE pays off… If Bartimieus had listened to the crowd, Jesus would have
passed him by… He would have never met
the Master and there would have been no change in his life…
In
Luke 18: 1, Jesus taught us that we “should always pray and never give
up…”
You
can’t receive something from God if you don’t ask for it… You have to keep praying, don’t give up… Be PERSISTENT… Keep calling out to God, in spite of what
people say or the discouragements you face…
Keep
crying out, even when you think your request is impossible… You have to ask… and when you think you’re
not being heard, you have to cry a little louder and ask again…
You
keep asking, you keep praying, you keep crying…
You keep seeking Jesus…
In
Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given unto you; seek and you
will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks
finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened…”
The
blessings of God belong to those who are PERSISTENT and keep coming to God in
faith…
The
second thing that we can learn from Bartimieus is
that JESUS CHRIST REWARDS THOSE WHO ARE
PASSIONATE ABOUT HIM…
The
blessings of God are for those who are PASSIONATE about seeking God with their
whole hearts…
Jeremiah
29: 13 says that “God spoke to the people of Israel saying, you will seek
me and find me when you seek me with all your heart…”
What
that means is that if you don’t seek God with ALL your heart, you will not find
Him…
You
can’t be passive about God, you’ve got to be
PASSIONATE about God… HE’s got to be a part of all you do… HE’s not just a
Sunday morning God… HE’s
an everyday of the week God…
We
can’t come to church on Sunday mornings to get a small dose of God and think
that that’s going to hold us over until next Sunday… God doesn’t work like that… You need to seek HIM on Sunday mornings but
you also need to seek HIM on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and
Saturday…
God
needs to be a part of everything you’re doing…
People
think that the opposite of love is hatred…
But, actually, the opposite of love is indifference…
You
may not hate God, but if your heart is indifferent to HIM, you are far from
HIM… Like any other relationship, God
wants us to desire HIM…
to have this PASSION in our hearts for HIM…
Jesus
said in Matthew 5, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
will be filled…” The opposite is
true… For if you don’t hunger and thirst
for God and HIS righteousness, then you shall be empty…
God
blesses people who have this inner hunger and desire… those who thirst and who
are PASSIONATE about HIS relationship…
Bartimaeus was
filled with this PASSION as he cried out to Jesus… and Jesus responded to his passionate
cry… Jesus stopped in His tracks and
told those around Him to bring Bartimaeus to
Him…
The
Bible tells us that Bartimaeus was so excited that he
threw off his cloak and sprang up and came to Jesus…
Then
Jesus asked him an interesting question…
He said, “What do you want me to do for you?” Up until now, Bartimaeus
had only asked for mercy…
but now, Jesus wants the details…
That’s
why I think when we pray, we need to give God the details… HE wants to know what it is we want HIM to do
for us…
Illus: I think I’ve told you before, but my mom
always wanted a Cadillac… One day, my
dad comes home driving a big white Cadillac…
The problem is, it was 20-years old and needed a lot of work… He was going to restore it… Although it was a Cadillac, that’s not
exactly what my mom wanted…
Illus: Bruce Wilkinson tells the story in his little
book, The Prayer of Jabez, the story about Mr. Jones
who dies and goes to heaven…
St.
Peter is showing Mr. Jones around heaven and they walk by this odd-looking
building… it
looks like an enormous warehouse… Mr.
Jones wants to go in a look around but St. Peter tries to talk him out of
it… He says, “trust
me, you don’t want to go in there…”
But
Mr. Jones is PERSISTENT and PASSIONATE about seeing what’s inside the building… so St. Peter gives
in and allows him to go inside… and
inside Mr. Jones finds all these boxes with names on them…
Mr.
Jones rushed over to isle “J” and found his box… He was so excited until he opened it… because inside his box were all the blessings
that God wanted to give him while he was on earth… but Mr. Jones had never asked…
God
has so much to give us, but we’re too busy pursing the things of this world to
be PASSIONATE about the things of God, and so we never ask…
Notice
what happens to Bartimaeus… Look at verse 51, Jesus said, “What do
you want me to do for you? And the blind
man said to Him, “My Teacher, Let me see again…”
And Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has made you
well…” and
Immediately, he regained his sight and followed Him on the way…”
Can
you imagine the excitement that must have filled the heart of Bartimaeus… Jesus the Master,
heard his cry… He stopped in His
tracks… He stood still… and met the
needs of Bartimaeus…
In
closing, I want to get real with you for a minute… The Bible says that Jesus came to Jericho and
was leaving Jericho, when Bartimaeus called out to
Him… In other words, Jesus was just
passing by…
That’s
what Jesus is doing right now – as this service comes to a close, Jesus is
passing by… and there are some here this morning that need to call out to
Him…
Bartimaeus couldn’t
see Him, but he could hear Him… We can’t
see Him either, but we can hear His voice…
When
Bartimaeus heard Him, he cried out to Him… in spite of what the crowd might think or what the crowd
might say… Bartimaeus
cried out to Jesus… And it was this cry
that stopped Jesus in His tracks… that made Him stand still…
Jesus
was stopped by the cry of a blind man… the cry of a beggar…
I’m
afraid that many of us are blind… we are spiritually blind to the things
of God… and therefore, beggars in the kingdom…
But
we are blind by choice…
because seeing carries the responsibility to change… Bartimaeus knew
that to receive his sight would end his right to beg, that his life would be
totally changed…
But
Bartimaeus was ready to change his life… He was tired of being blind and tired of
begging… So he stood up and cast off his
cloak… leaving
his old position that defined him as a beggar… his old condition that defined
him as blind… He stood up and followed
Jesus…
Are
you willing to do that? As Jesus passes
us by this morning, are you willing to cry out to the Master… to cast off your old garments… and
follow Jesus Christ…
You
know some people are not willing to change… they had rather be blind than
change… and rather beg than change…
They
are the ones that need to cry out the loudest…
Jesus, Master, have mercy on me…
In
Matthew 13, Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking
for fine pearls. When he found one of
great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it…”
Jesus
is the pearl of great value, and to lose Him is to lose everything…
Those
who fail to be PERSISTENT in their quest for Christ are robbed of God’s
greatest gift – Christ Himself…
Those
who fail to be PASSIONATE in their quest for Christ, settle for a life of
begging for the meager things this world tries to offer, but which can never
truly satisfy…
Those
of us who fail to call upon the name of the Lord will remain in darkness… blind
to the blessings of God…
But
those of us who are willing to cry out to Jesus and who are PERSISTENT and
PASSIONATE… we can approach the throne
of grace – proclaiming and giving thanks to God – because I ONCE WAS BLIND –
BUT NOW I SEE!
Our
closing hymn “Pass Me Not – O Gentle Savior” (#351) is a hymn written by a
blind lady named Fanny Crosby… She was
also a life-long Methodist…
She
wrote over 8,000 hymns, great hymns that we sing today such as: Blessed
Assurance, To God Be the Glory, Praise Him – Praise Him, I Am Thine O Lord, Tell Me the Stories of Jesus, and on and on
and on it goes…
Fanny
Crosby was blind but she could see so much better than many of us…
Listen
to these words that she wrote at the age of eight…
Oh what a happy soul I am,
Although I cannot see;
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy,
That other people don't;
To weep and sigh because I'm blind,
I cannot, and I won't."
She later remarked:
It seemed intended by the blessed
providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the
dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not
accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been
distracted by the beautiful and interesting things around me.
She also once said, "When I get to
heaven, the first face that
shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!"
She
did get to heaven and on here tombstone are the words, “Blessed assurance,
Jesus is mine. Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.”
As
we sing our closing hymn, Church, Jesus is passing by this morning and he hears
the cries of those who call upon. Is
there anything you want to ask him, or say to him, or share with him…
Now
is the time – don’t let him pass you by…
I
want to invite you to this altar this morning… If you’ve got something that you
need to say to Jesus, don’t worry about the crowd… Bartimaeus didn’t
let the crowd stop him…
Someone
told me that “Altar Moments – Altar Lives.”
When was the last time that you spent a few moments at the altar?
Let
us pray!