Unforgettable Encounters with Jesus - Bartimaeus

We're going to come to God's word. Why don't we pray together? Oh God, we thank you that now as we come to your word that we can trust that you're going to speak to us. Lord, your word is living and alive and Holy Spirit, you speak to us through it. And so we pray that you would do that today, that we would be receptive to what you want to show us, Lord, and that it would spark real change in our faith that we might grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

We pray. Amen. A few months ago I went to the Canberra Raiders home final against the Brisbane Broncos. Now I feel like enough time has passed for the Raiders fans that I can talk about this now without the. I think Arjuna might disagree with me.

It's still a sore point. I'm not a real Raiders fan, but my team didn't make the finals so I jumped on the bandwagon. Like, you know, probably 18,000 of the 25,000 that were there, we were on that bandwagon and some of you were there on that night. But campus stadium was sold out and that doesn't happen very often. The Raiders don't make the finals very often.

So I couldn't help myself. But it was sold out, 25,000 people there and it was packed. It was hard to get tickets. I was very fortunate. The member of the church got me a ticket and they got me a ticket in the official Canberra Raiders supporters bay.

Now there is something to be said about buying a ticket in the supporters bay or of our home final where like every bay is a supporters bay. But this bay was for the hardcore Canberra Raiders fans. So much so that like if you got a ticket in the supporters bay, they gave you a flag. It was crazy. There was a sea of green, it was noisy and it was really loud.

It was loud until like the last minute of the game when the Raiders lost. And then it wasn't quite so loud, but up to that point it was really loud. But the thing that amazed me was that over at the back of the Raiders supporters bay, someone had sold a ticket to a Brisbane fan. And this Brisbane fan spent what seemed like the entire game screaming, brisbane, Brisbane. Over and over and over again.

And somehow in the midst of the loud crowd, the Raiders supporters cheering and shouting and screaming, that voice could be heard. That voice kind of broke through the sound of the crowd screaming, brisbane, Brisbane. And that moment made me think of another scene that's kind of like it. This scene isn't in a stadium. It's Not a game of football, some of you will be pleased to know.

But it is instead by the dusty roadside just outside of of Jericho, and in the midst of a large crowd, a voice cuts through. One voice stands out, desperate to be heard. We're in Mark's gospel this morning, and so if you'd like to turn with me, we're going to be in Mark, chapter 10 and verse 46. And possibly it's a story that you know, it's only seven verses long. Let's read it together.

Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, jesus, son of David, and have mercy on me. Be quiet. Many of the people yelled at him, but he only shouted louder, son of David, have mercy on me.

When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, tell him to come here. So they called the blind man. Cheer up. They said, come, he's calling you. Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up and came to Jesus.

What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked my rabbi. The blind man said, I want to see. And Jesus said to him, go, for your faith has healed you instantly. The man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.

It's a short but incredible encounter. And I'm struck by, in the midst of this scene, how seven verses could capture for us the heart of the gospel. We see in these seven verses why Jesus came, and we see how he responds to the incredible faith of a blind man. As we work our way through this encounter this morning, I want to draw our attention to the faith of Bartimaeus. I want us to see the faith that he had.

And we have these four ideas, these four elements of his faith, that if you're taking notes, you might like to jot them down. They'll come up on the screen. Oh, they're there already. Bartimaeus shows faith that sees, he shows faith that persists, faith that responds and faith that follows. And so we have Jesus on the road out of Jericho.

And Mark's Gospel tells us that Jesus is has a large crowd surrounding him. It's estimated by biblical commentators that this was a really big crowd, probably around 10,000 people. It sounds like a lot, and it is a lot, particularly in the ancient world. But it shouldn't surprise us because we know that everywhere that Jesus went, the people flocked to him. They gathered.

I wonder if you've Thought about the makeup of this crowd, because it would have been like crowds today, a mixed group. It would have had in it the rich and the poor, the religious and the non religious, the curious, the desperate, maybe even the skeptical. It's perhaps not unlike us as a group as we gather on a Sunday, and somewhere on the road outside of Jericho was sitting a man named Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus would have been just one of the beggars that were lining the way out of Jericho, because it was normal for those who couldn't work because of sickness or disability to be lining the roadside, hoping that as travelers came past, that they would give them some food or maybe some coins. We find out that Bartimaeus is by the roadside because he's blind.

And blindness itself wasn't particularly unique in that time. In fact, historical accounts tell us that in the city of Jaffa nearby, where there was 5,000 people, 500 of them were blind. That's a huge amount of people that were blind. And the issue with being blind was that there was no hope. There was no way.

There was no doctors, there was no optometrist that could fix your eyes, that could give you glasses so that you could see. If you were blind, you were blind. Perhaps even worse still, we know that blindness came with it a stigma. It was considered that the blind were blind because God was judging them for their sin, or maybe for their parents sin. At least that's what the religious people believed.

The Jews had been told by God in the Old Testament to care for those who were disadvantaged. But they had wandered a long way from God's commandments of love and compassion and mercy. And so blind people like Bartimaeus were considered to be blind because they deserved it. And so they were left to a life of begging. Bartimaeus wasn't just blind.

He was socially invisible. He was pushed to the margins. He was despised by the people. And yet, as this crowd draws near, we see the first step of Bartimaeus faith. It's that he has faith that sees.

Look at verse 47. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. I don't know exactly how it played out, but I suspect that Bartimaeus at some point has heard the sound of these people traveling. Maybe he's felt the vibrations on the dirt ground. And he said, what's happening?

And we discover that as he is told, he begins to shout. His response is immediate. He begins to shout. The word here that's used in the Greek is a word, krazo. And that is stronger than just yelling.

It's probably stronger than even that crazy Brisbane fan. He yells and he screams and it means literally to scream or to cry out uncontrollably. I also want us to notice what he cries out because he's told by the people it's Jesus of Nazareth. They identified Jesus by his hometown. It was a very normal description in that time and place.

It was a practical description, but it's also a bit of a slur because Nazareth was a bit of a hole. It was out of the way, it was small, it was of no significance. It was looked down on by the rest of the region. So much so that it was considered that nothing good could could come from Nazareth. So the crowds say it's Jesus of Nazareth.

But Bartimaeus doesn't call Jesus that. Did you notice? He says, jesus, son of David. Now we might think, well, that's just another name for Jesus. Maybe it's a more formal name, but it's actually an incredible declaration of faith.

Cause this phrase, son of David, Bartimaeus is saying, jesus, the promised king. Jesus the Messiah who has been said would come and rescue God's people. It's the only place in Mark's gospel that Jesus is called this. Even the disciples hadn't yet really understood who Jesus was and why he came. But Bartimaeus sees that.

He sees that he is the Messiah. And he also sees why he came. Because he doesn't cry out, jesus, son of David, would you heal me? Or jesus, son of David, let me see. He cries out, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

He's saying, I know you're the one who carries the mercy of God. You're the one who can make me whole. Isn't that incredible? Somehow a blind man sees what most of the rest of the crowd can't see. They think that Jesus is a rabbi.

Maybe he's a prophet. The disciples and many of them are hoping that he's a political leader, that he's come to topple the Romans and set them free. But here, Bartimaeus declares that Jesus has come as the Savior to bring compassion to broken people. How does that happen? How does a blind man begging by the side of the road outside of Jericho see what others can't see?

It's incredible. I wonder if it's because he has been listening to what Jesus has been doing. He couldn't do much else with his day. And as people traveled past and as he overheard conversations and he asked travelers about what was happening around them. I suspect that he heard people talking about Jesus who healed a person, or the Jesus who calmed the storm, or the Jesus who made the lame walk.

Or maybe he's heard people saying, have you heard what Jesus has been saying? Have you heard the authority that he speaks with? And somehow these stories have taken hold in his heart. And often that's where our faith begins. Our faith begins by hearing the stories of what Jesus has done in somebody else's life.

Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing. And I suspect that's what happened for Bartimaeus.

I wonder if you're challenged by that. I wonder if you're challenged by the fact that he doesn't just acknowledge Jesus as a good teacher or someone who was particularly wise or someone who had some kind of good authority to be able to teach. Instead, he recognizes Jesus as the Savior.

And there's a difference here, because he doesn't want to just know about Jesus. He doesn't want to just hear the stories from the outside and keep his distance. He wants to really know Jesus. And maybe for some of us today, it's an invitation to us. Maybe it's an invitation to ask God to clear our spiritual vision that we might see Jesus not through the lens of our past experiences, or not through the lens of our disappointments or our expectations, but rather through the eyes of faith.

We hear that as Bartimaeus screams, the crowd responds. And this is our second element of his faith in verse 48 says, Be quiet. The crowd yelled at him, but he only shouted louder, Son of David, have mercy on me. See, Bartimaeus is breaking all the rules here. Beggars are not supposed to be yelling like this.

They're not supposed to be getting in the way. They're supposed to be out of the way by the side of the road. And yet Bartimaeus, he screams and he yells and he tries to get the attention of Jesus. And perhaps for the religious people, they're even worse. He is declaring that Jesus is the messia.

And so they say, bartimaeus, get out of the way. Be quiet. Stop screaming. I want to make a really quick point here. It's something that's easy to miss that this crowd, the crowd that's traveling with Jesus, is probably mostly a group of religious people because they're traveling to Jerusalem for the Passover.

So it's religious people traveling to a religious festival. Somehow the people who were with Jesus have no time for someone who desperately needs Jesus. That's confronting, isn't it? I wonder how often in our Day we meet people in our neighborhood, our workplaces, maybe even our families who are hurting. They are broken.

They're crying out for hope. And sometimes, if we're honest, we're too busy or it's too messy. And so we walk past the people that Jesus stops for. But I love Bartimaeus faith because did you notice that even though the crowd tells him, you know, this is one man, one beggar, and there's this large crowd and they're yelling at him to be quiet, his desperation to be close to Jesus means he just keeps on going. He just keeps screaming.

And maybe that's an encouragement for you today, because sometimes faith feels costly. Sometimes it would be more popular not to follow Jesus. Sometimes people around us don't understand what we know to be true about him. And so we listen to their criticisms, we listen to their discouragement. But we see in Bartimaeus that a faith that persists gets Jesus attention.

There in verse 49 says, When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, tell him to come here. So the blind man came over. Cheer up, they said, sorry. So they called the blind man. Cheer up, they said, come on, he's calling you.

Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up and came to Jesus. What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked my rabbi. The blind man said, I want to see. Bartimaeus voice is so loud, it is so desperate, that even in the noise of the crowd and the commotion, Jesus stops.

See what Mark says? It's powerful. He says, when Jesus heard him, he stopped. Jesus stops for the one who calls out to him in faith. And then Jesus says to the crowd, call him.

And so the same crowd that just a moment ago was telling him to be quiet. I reckon Mark chuckled as this was written. This crowd is saying, be quiet. Stop calling out. And now saying, cheer up, get to your feet.

He's calling you. Come on, Bartimaeus.

What a picture of how quickly things change when Jesus steps in. And that's our third step of faith, faith that responds. Because Bartimaeus response is immediate. It's incredible. Mark tells us that he throws off his coat, jumps to his feet, and he comes to Jesus.

I don't want us to miss this, because his coat would have been his most valuable possession. It's possibly his only possession. And he's blind still at this point, he doesn't know what Jesus is gonna do if he throws off his coat, his most valuable possession, and he's not healed. He probably never finds his coat again. In the midst of a crowd of 10,000 people.

But instead he throws it aside. His faith is saying, I'm not gonna need this anymore. His coat is his old life.

It's his begging coat. It's what would have kept him cold on those cold mornings and kept the sun off his skin on those hot afternoons. But he's not holding onto that anymore. He's all in. He's not content to just sit and wait.

So when Jesus calls, he gets up and he goes, I wonder if you can picture Bartimaeus there, because I love it. The idea of Bartimaeus, this blind, probably dirty, probably stinky, disheveled beggar, now running to the voice of Jesus. He's possibly stumbling. He's still blind, remember, but he's gonna get to Jesus.

And Jesus says to him, what do you want me to do for you? Now, of all the questions Jesus could have asked, like that one seems a bit simple, don't you think? Like he's blind. Jesus. It would have been pretty obvious.

But Jesus asked not for his own sake, but he asked for Bartimaeus sake.

And in that moment, Jesus reveals something that is so important that we understand. He delights in us asking him.

God still asks this question, what do you want me to do for you? And sometimes we go without simply because we don't ask. James 4. Two tells us, you do not have because you do not ask.

And yet, even with Jesus standing before him, Bartimaeus has a choice. He could have gone small. He could have said, hey, Jesus, do you have some coins that I could have? Or could you tell the people in the crowd to give me some of their money? Or could you organize a better spot on the roadside for me?

But instead, his request matches his revelation of who Jesus is, so he understands that Jesus is the Messiah. And so his request matches that. And he asked Jesus to do something that only Jesus can do. He says, rabbi, I want to see.

I wonder how you respond to the voice of Jesus. I wonder how you respond to him. Because when we open God's Word, when we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, Jesus still speaks to us today. And so what's he asking you to do? Because the Bible is full of his words, full of challenges, full of invitations, full of calls to action for the believer.

And I wonder how many times we just hear Jesus speak, but we don't respond. We hear Jesus direct us or challenge us or invite us into something, and we just sit by the roadside holding onto our cone.

And then finally we see that Jesus responds to Bartimaeus faith there. In verse 52, Jesus said to him, go, for your faith has healed you. And instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.

So as Bartimaeus says, jesus, I want to see. Jesus replies with something that sounds so simple. He says, your faith has healed you. But that word faith, sorry, healed, is full of meaning. It's a Greek word that Jesus uses.

It's sozo. It's the same word that he's used for salvation. So when Jesus says, your faith has healed you, he's saying, your faith has saved you. And Bartimaeus has been saved. Where he was once physically blind, now he can see.

Where he was once spiritually blind, now he knows he's savior. Where his life was once destined to be spent by the side of the road begging, he now has hope and purpose. And the result of this, we see, is that he follows Jesus down the road. As we close this morning, I want to just go back to one detail at the start of the story. It's really easy for us to miss.

Back in verse 46, Mark tells us the name of this beggar. It's between Jesus and Bartimaeus. Now, that probably doesn't jump out to us, particularly if we've heard this story before, but it's actually incredibly unique because this is the only place in Mark's gospel where someone encounters Jesus for healing and we're told their name. And there's a reason for this. It's most likely because Mark's first readers knew Bartimaeus.

Otherwise there's no point naming him. He might as well be anonymous like all of the others. But instead, we're told his name, which suggests to us that Bartimaeus didn't just have one moment with Jesus. He became a living testimony in the early church. He became Bartimaeus, the one who Jesus had healed by the roadside.

And the only reason is because he must have been there. He must have been known by them. And what I'm challenged by is his faith didn't stop at I can see. It could have. He could have said, I can see.

That is going to make me so much better at begging. I'm going to know when people are coming past. I'm going to pick out the rich ones. I'll know who to hassle. It could have stopped there.

He could have found his coat and returned to his begging. But instead, what does it say he does? He follows Jesus down the road.

And I wonder for some of us, we stopped at I can see. We stopped at I can see. We had that realization of who Jesus is, that he is. The Savior, that He's made us where we were once spiritually blind, now able to see who he is. But I think some of us did that and then returned to our begging.

But what does Bartimaeus do? He follows Jesus. He steps into a life of discipleship.

He wants to hear from Jesus. He wants Jesus words to shape his life. He wants his gifts to bless the early church.

And so Bartimaeus doesn't just stop at I can see, he steps into an active life of discipleship. And that's my encouragement to you this morning. Church is when we encounter Jesus. The first thing is declaring with our voices and believing our hearts that he is the risen king. That's the first step.

The second step is following him down the road.

Second step is the path of discipleship. So my encouragement to you today would be that if you stopped at I can see, make the choice to continue following Jesus. Let's pray. God, we thank youk for the story of Bartimaeus.

Lord, we are challenged by it this morning. Father, we pray that yout would help us to step beyond I can see into the path of discipleship. That we would be growing in our knowledge and understanding of you. That we would be in your word, that we would be spending time with you in prayer. That we would be using our gifts to bless the body of Christ, Lord, that we wouldn't just stop at I can see, but that that would propel us into now choosing to live in a way that is so close to you, that is shaped and guided by your voice.

Father, we thank you for Bartimaeus faith. We thank you for the way, Jesus, that you respond when we call out to you, when we persist in our desperation, that when we come to you, that you respond, that you are the one who brings mercy, that undeserved compassion from God.

Lord, I ask this morning for those amongst us who are crying out to you, Lord, that they would know your mercy, Jesus, that they would know that you still stop and you still meet with them, that they can encounter you.

Help us to be passionate and fervent in our faith.

We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.