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Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a bible, I'd invite you to turn to the gospel of Mark chapter 10. Gospel of Mark chapter 10. We're continuing our series through the book of Mark, following the life of Jesus. And my name is Joseph Ray. I'm the discipleship pastor here at Redeemer.
Joseph Rhea:And today we're looking specifically at Mark chapter 10 verses 46 through 52. Mark 1046 through 52. You can follow along in your bible or in your worship guide. Let's hear God's word together. And they came to Jericho.
Joseph Rhea:And as Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him.
Joseph Rhea:And they called the blind man saying to him, take heart. Get up. He's calling you. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, what do you want me to do for you?
Joseph Rhea:And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, go your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately, he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. This is the word of the Lord.
Joseph Rhea:Thanks be to God. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we lift up this time together as we study what's behind these beautiful words, your faith has made you well. I pray that you would help all of us have that same faith that we might be made well. What we need is not my words today, we need your words.
Joseph Rhea:And so would you open your words to us in your scriptures, and would you speak them to our hearts. We pray this in the name of Jesus and for his glory. Amen. So the Habsburg dynasty was once one of the most powerful families in the entire world. They were emperors and empresses, not just kings and queens, in all kinds of countries in Europe for centuries.
Joseph Rhea:They're incredibly powerful, incredibly wealthy and their descendants are actually still around today. Not with the same kind of power, obviously, but still quite wealthy and well off. Their family are historically Catholic and many of them were and are faithful Christians. And they have a burial ritual when one of their family members dies, where the body is taken to the family crypt, which is in Austria, where they're all buried. There's actually a video of this happening for Otto von Habsburg, who died in 2011.
Joseph Rhea:So you can see this on YouTube. But the body is taken to the crypt in this huge procession. You know, you can imagine all the money and history behind that, what it would look like. And they come to the crypt, which has a closed door and a member of their, you know, party called the Grand Chamberlain knocks on the door. And someone inside says, who's there?
Joseph Rhea:And the first time, he says, the name and the titles of the deceased person. So I am Otto, emperor of Austria, apostolic king of Hungary. And he has like 30 titles. He goes on and on and on. But the voice inside says, I did not know you.
Joseph Rhea:And they don't open the door. So the chamberlain knocks a second time. And again, the voice says, who's there? He says, in this case, I'm Otto, his majesty, the king and emperor. And the voice says a second time, I don't know you.
Joseph Rhea:Nothing happens. So the chamberlain knocks one more time. The voice comes from inside. Who's there? And this time, the chamberlain says, I'm Otto, a poor mortal and sinner.
Joseph Rhea:And the voice says, come in. In the ritual, this wealthy and powerful family, they come to die. They first symbolize coming for glory, Coming with their history and their titles and the signs of their accomplishments and wealth, and they hear from the inside, I don't know you. I don't recognize that person. And then the 3rd and final time, they come not with glory anymore, but looking for mercy.
Joseph Rhea:I'm a poor mortal and sinner and they're welcomed in. That's a vivid picture of what Mark wants us to see in his gospel today. See, today is the 3rd story in a row of someone coming to Jesus and asking him for something. 2 weeks ago, we saw a rich young ruler come to Jesus and ask, what must I do to inherit eternal life? But as our conversation proceeds, we can see that he's not like, really asking Jesus for help.
Joseph Rhea:He's looking for more of like an attaboy, where he can kind of rattle off his resume and Jesus says, you know what? You're doing great. You're good to go. Get on out of here. Last week, we looked at James and John, 2 of Jesus' own disciples who they come to him and they say, hey, listen, when you come into your glory, can we call shotgun on like your right and left hand?
Joseph Rhea:You know, we wanna get dibs on the prime seats when you've inherited your kingdom. They also come asking for glory. To both of those men, both of those requests, Jesus says no. Today, a man comes and he asks Jesus for something. Jesus actually says the same thing to him that he said to James and John before.
Joseph Rhea:He says, what do you want me to do for you? But this man's request, Jesus says in verse 52 in response to it, your faith has made you well. Literally in a Greek that says, your faith has saved you. So 2 requests. 1 for glory, a second for glory.
Joseph Rhea:Jesus says, no. I'm not gonna give that. This man comes asking for something else and Jesus says, yes. Specifically, he says your faith has saved you. It's to you guys' faith before it didn't.
Joseph Rhea:This one does. And so what Mark wants us to look at today is what kind of faith gets that response from Jesus? What kind of faith saves? What kind of faith leads to being made well? Because maybe you're coming here as a relatively secure person who's curious about Jesus, which is what the rich young ruler was.
Joseph Rhea:Maybe you're coming as one of Jesus' followers, like the disciples. You've been in and around him for a while now. Or maybe you're here and you're just hurting and you have no idea where you stand with Jesus or what he thinks of you. That's what Bartimaeus is. I don't know what you're looking for from him today, but this story tells us what kind of faith Jesus honors.
Joseph Rhea:He tells us what saving faith looks like. Through these characters and their interactions today, we're gonna see 3 qualities of saving faith. A faith that leads to being welcomed into God's kingdom. The first quality is that saving faith sees clearly. Saving faith sees clearly.
Joseph Rhea:Let's look at verses 46 through 48 again. It says and they came to Jericho, and as Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.
Joseph Rhea:So Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem and is coming in preparation for the great Jewish festival called the Passover. It was one of the biggest traditions in his culture at that time. And Jews would make a pilgrimage from all over the region to Jerusalem if they were able to do it. And they would stop at various sacred sites that were on their road on the way. Jericho is one of those on the path that Jesus is going.
Joseph Rhea:So he passes sort of through Jericho, and as he's coming back out, there's this great crowd of people who are along the way with him. And on that road from Jericho onto Jerusalem, there's a blind man named Bartimaeus. Now I'm sure you all learned Aramaic in high school and you've kept up with it over these years. But in case you haven't, Mark helps us out and tells us that Bartimaeus is Aramaic for son of Timaeus. So he tells us who this guy is.
Joseph Rhea:And the fact that he's begging on the road means that he doesn't have any family members who can take care of him. And no one's gonna hire him to work because he's blind. In those days, there just wasn't much for a man who was blind to do. So he has to sit by the side of the road and just beg for a living. That's how he survives.
Joseph Rhea:So he hears this great crowd suddenly come along the road and we don't know if he hears the name Jesus or if he starts asking around like, hey, what's what's all that commotion going on that I hear? But he finds out that somewhere at the center of this crowd is Jesus of Nazareth. And he said something of who Jesus is because it says in verse 47, he began to cry out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And when the crowd rebukes him, Jesus' followers, the first thing he hears back is people telling him, be quiet, don't bother him. We're busy.
Joseph Rhea:He cries out all the louder, son of David, have mercy on me. See, in the gospels, you can tell a good bit about what people think about Jesus by the name or the title they give him. This is a big concern in Mark especially of who do you say that Jesus is? We see a bit of that in our world today. See, many people think that Jesus was a good teacher or a nice moral example.
Joseph Rhea:People who are on the left might think he had some good things to say about compassion and loving your neighbor. On the right, there's this kind of strange renaissance of cultural Christianity, where people seem interested in the moral heritage Jesus represents and people as diverse as Elon Musk and even, Richard Dawkins, who's an atheist, has called himself a cultural Christian. So I don't really know what to make of that. But it's happening. So, but the rich young ruler and James and John, they both called Jesus teacher.
Joseph Rhea:Which was a respectful title. That meant that like, they listened to his podcast. You know, they valued his opinion on things. He had something to say in their estimation. James and John even see a little bit more clearly.
Joseph Rhea:You know, they know that Jesus is some kind of king, is gonna have some kind of glory one day. So none of that's wrong. But look at what Bartimaeus calls Jesus. Son of David. He does it twice.
Joseph Rhea:This is the first time in Mark's gospel that anyone has called Jesus the son of David. It's the first time this title has been used in this biography. And the term is loaded with meaning. See, about 900 years before this, God had promised king David that one day, David would have a son, a descendant, who is going to have an eternal kingdom. So this promise is recorded in the book of 2nd Samuel chapter 7.
Joseph Rhea:God says, I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And he goes on to tell David, your house and your kingdom will be made secure before me forever. That there's an eternal king coming. By Jesus' day, people understood that this son of David was the Messiah. So the human savior of God's people.
Joseph Rhea:Another prophecy about him in the book of Isaiah, in it, God says to the Messiah, I'm gonna give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations to open the eyes that are blind. For Bartimaeus to call Jesus son of David, meant that he saw that Jesus was more than a teacher. He was trusting that this man was God's savior. The servant who had the power to open blind eyes like his. He saw Jesus not as a teacher with some good ideas, but the savior who could give him hope.
Joseph Rhea:Ironically, this physically blind man sees Jesus more clearly than the people who came before who had physical sight. And he also sees himself more clearly than the other men who make requests of Jesus. Because they both asked for glory. The rich young ruler wanted the glory of Jesus saying, you know what? You're doing a great job.
Joseph Rhea:I approve of you. You know, go on your way. James and John wanted to call dibs on, positions of honor in Jesus' kingdom one day. They wanted glory from Jesus, which means they thought they deserved glory on some level. They thought, yeah.
Joseph Rhea:I'm in the right place. I should ask for this. This guy, he's gonna give this to me, because of who I am. I'm moral enough. I'm physically close enough.
Joseph Rhea:I'm respectable enough. I can get that Jesus approved certification and you know, kinda go on with my life. But what does Bartimaeus ask for? Look at verses 47 and 48 again. He says, son of David, have mercy on me.
Joseph Rhea:See, Bartimaeus doesn't have the illusions that the other men have about himself. He sees exactly what he is. He's a beggar in desperate need of mercy. The Indian Christian and evangelist, DT Niles, has said that evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. So it's not us coming in positions of authority or honor to sort of bequeath truth and goodness on other people.
Joseph Rhea:It's hey, I was desperately lost and in need of just basic supplies and someone told me where to find them. Someone told me where life is and you can have it too. That's who all of us are before Jesus. And that's what Bartimaeus sees. I'm a beggar desperately in need of mercy.
Joseph Rhea:It's a Habsburg emperor not saying, God accept me because of all my titles or who I was, but accept me because I'm a poor mortal and a sinner in need of grace. Saving faith sees Jesus clearly, and it sees myself clearly. It sees that Jesus isn't just a teacher who's a step ahead of me in wisdom and morals, he's the divine and human Messiah. The son of David and the son of God with the power to open blind eyes and the authority to rule the creation for eternity. And it sees that I'm not a decent guy who's good enough or churched enough to get glory from God.
Joseph Rhea:I'm a blind beggar with nothing to hope in, except for his mercy. It means we don't come to Jesus for an attaboy or to bargain with him in kind of a tit for tat arrangement. We don't have anything to bargain with. It means that we come to God's eternal king, his messiah and his savior with nothing in our hands. And that anything we're gonna receive from him is not because we deserve it, but because it comes from his mercy alone.
Joseph Rhea:If your faith feels stale or if you're not sure what saving faith looks like, start by asking those 2 questions. Who do I really think that Jesus is? And who do I really think that I am? What do my prayers and my actions and my habits show about these things? Do I really think that Jesus is the eternal king and savior?
Joseph Rhea:Or does my life treat him like a good guy? There's some nice ideas to consider every once in a while. Do I really see myself as a beggar dependent on mercy? Or do I think I'm kind of entitled to glory for what I've done or what I haven't done or who I am or who I spend time with? Because if that's my view and I think I'm not really that far from Jesus, then I'm not gonna see him, because I'm gonna miss the depth and the scope of his mercy.
Joseph Rhea:But if I can realize who he is and who I am and I could see the vast gulf there, then I'm gonna realize that all I have to lean on is his mercy and that alone. That's where saving faith begins with seeing clearly who Jesus is and who I am. The next quality of saving faith is that saving faith seeks Jesus. Saving faith seeks Jesus. Let's start in verse 47 again and read through verse 50.
Joseph Rhea:And when Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call in. And they called the blind man, saying to him, take heart. Get up.
Joseph Rhea:He's calling you. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. So we've already seen that Bartimaeus sees clearly who Jesus is. Here, I want us to look at how he responds to that clear sight. See, when he hears that Jesus is nearby, maybe in earshot, he cries out.
Joseph Rhea:And when people rebuke him and tell him to be quiet and not to bother, he doesn't listen, but he cries out all the more. And then look at what happens when he hears that Jesus is calling him. It says he threw off his cloak, he sprang up and he came to see Jesus. To cry out, throw off, spring up. You can hear the energy, the desperation in how Bartimaeus responds to this reality, this chance to meet with Jesus.
Joseph Rhea:He is desperate to seek Jesus and receive his mercy. This is a vivid picture of what real faith can look like. You may have grown up in a faith tradition that defines faith as just kind of like a calm serenity. That no matter what happens, you're placid and peaceful. Or maybe you grew up with faith as kind of a fatalistic resignation that God's gonna do whatever he's gonna do because he's the big man in control and so why bother him?
Joseph Rhea:Now there's some truth in those things that there is an element of faith that can remain calm and peaceful in the worst of circumstances. And God is absolutely in control over all things and is completely wise. But at least as often as we see those things in scripture, we see that faith looks like a parent calling every medical professional they know, because their kids followed half a bottle of medicine and they need to know, do I need to take them to the ER? That's a completely hypothetical circumstance, by the way. Not at all from my own experience as a parent.
Joseph Rhea:Faith can look like this desperate hammering at God's door because he's the only one who has the mercy that I need. I know that some of you feel that need for God's mercy today. You're in the dark like Bartimaeus is. Maybe it's a physical condition like he has. Maybe it's a relationship or a person you love that's in a desperate place.
Joseph Rhea:Maybe it's a struggle with sin that you just can't get out of or this pervasive sense that God's not there, but you're it's all darkness over you right now. And you're wondering, should I even bother praying? Why would God even care about me if I'm way down here and he's up there? Why would he listen to me? But those are exactly the kinds of people that Jesus listens to.
Joseph Rhea:See, the bible says that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Jesus gives mercy to Gentiles, to the sick, to the unclean, to outsiders, to prostitutes and tax collectors who seek him in desperation. And so if you're in the dark right now, you need to hear this phrase, cry out like Bartimaeus does. You need to cry out for God's mercy, because I don't know why God delays sometimes. I don't know why Jesus didn't respond to Bartimaeus the first time he cried out, but Jesus hears.
Joseph Rhea:God hears you and he cares. If this is you, you're not alone in the dark. God hears you. And as you cry out to him, there's not a guarantee that you'll find exactly the answer you're looking for. I know people who have been healed from sicknesses in ways that seemed miraculous.
Joseph Rhea:I've also known people of faith who haven't been healed. We don't get a guaranteed answer to whatever it is that we ask of God, but we do get the guarantee that God hears our desperate prayers. And God changes us through that time, that as we cry out to him, as we labor in prayer, I've heard someone describe it as travailing in prayer, like a woman's body travailing to get ready to give birth. That if we sit in that kind of prayer, that God meets us and God changes and transforms us through that time. If you're in the dark, don't give up.
Joseph Rhea:Keep crying out to God, because he will hear and there will be light one day. If you feel like you're on the outside of Jesus' mercy somehow, if you're looking for him, these words are for you. Saving faith sees clearly, sees who Jesus is and who I am. Saving faith also seeks Jesus like we just saw. But there's one more character, so to speak, in this story.
Joseph Rhea:And this is especially relevant for, people who are in leadership of any sort, and especially those of us who are in Christian leadership of some sort or other. And their example shows us one more quality of saving faith. Saving faith shows mercy. It shows mercy. Let's read verses 47 through 49 again.
Joseph Rhea:And when Bartimaeus heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him. And they called the blind man saying to him, take heart.
Joseph Rhea:Get up. He's calling you. If you'll remember, there's this huge crowd following Jesus. We don't know exactly who they are or exactly what they've seen of Jesus, but we can guess that they see 2 things. 1st, they see that Jesus is immensely popular.
Joseph Rhea:There's this huge group of people who wanna be around him, who wanna be close to him, making demands on his time and attention and following him around. And second, they can see that Jesus is busy. That he's got this task, this mission that he's on to go to Jerusalem. He's been very adamant about that. And so Jesus is very popular right now.
Joseph Rhea:Jesus is very busy right now. So those two factors, fame and busyness, they are some of the most compelling idols in our world today. Who doesn't on some level, want a lot of people who admire them or a lot of customers or a lot of followers on social media? Who doesn't want a job or a passion project that feels so important that it absorbs me completely? And if you've ever had any measure of either one of popularity or of busyness, if you've taken on a really absorbing job or risen to a level of leadership that puts you up on a platform, you know that they eat your attention.
Joseph Rhea:And most of the modern books about leadership or success will say things like, you've gotta be selective with your time and attention. You've gotta focus on keeping momentum, on building the platform, on growing the business, finding and wooing the people who are gonna help you become more and more and more successful. And all the distractions, the people who are gonna get in your way or hold you back, you've gotta cut those out so you can focus on what's important. The crowd starts out assuming that that's Jesus. That he cares more about his popularity, the huge crowds of people around him or his busyness, this mission that he's on, than he would about this random beggar on the side of the road.
Joseph Rhea:That guy's a distraction. That's why their first response is to rebuke him. Just don't bother or don't bother with the crowd. But Jesus' priorities are different. He stops and he says call him.
Joseph Rhea:And the crowd's voice changes in that moment from don't bother to take heart. Take heart. Get up. He's calling you. See when the crowd assumes that Jesus is like them, they make popularity and busyness their top priorities.
Joseph Rhea:But when they're corrected and they're turned around to follow Jesus' lead, they flip the script and they invite this man into the mercy of Jesus. That's what ministry is. It's inviting people into the mercy of Jesus. In the weird providence of God, Redeemer is a fairly popular church right now. We've had a lot of people coming.
Joseph Rhea:We have a lot of things going on. And that means that it's very tempting, especially for those of us who are leaders in the church. Not just elders and pastors, but teachers and home group leaders, ministry leaders like in youth and college, to get so caught up in our growth and our busyness that people kinda become a distraction. They wanna have time for mercy. We got things to do.
Joseph Rhea:But mercy is our ministry. Our ministry as a church is seeing people in pain and saying, take heart. God sees you. I see you and I'm with you. Let's get on this road together.
Joseph Rhea:Let's come talk to Jesus together. It means loving people who need mercy and showing that in how we live. In a previous church where I served, one of the pastors grew up the kind of kid that most people just would have given up on. His dad was killed when he was young. His family was deeply poor.
Joseph Rhea:His life was an absolute mess. But in high school, he said some men in the church took him into their lives, teaching him about Jesus, and also just helping him grow up into adulthood, which he didn't have any like healthy role models for in that moment. These weren't guys who were related to him or had any kind of thing to earn from him. It was just by their mercy they started investing in him. And their investment changed, not just the course of his life, when he became, he has become, you know, a pastor, a non profit leader, but it's also changed the lives of dozens and dozens of others, because he's been able to turn around and help people in similar situations to what he grew up in.
Joseph Rhea:And it started because someone saw him and showed mercy. In their words and their actions, they told him, take heart. Jesus is calling you. Those are the people who get Jesus. That's what saving faith looks like.
Joseph Rhea:If we see clearly who Jesus is and who we are, we're gonna cry out for his mercy. We're gonna seek him with all we've got. And then once we've received it, we won't be proud or arrogant or pull up the ladder behind us. We'll ponder how much mercy we've been given and we'll be inspired to turn around and we'll just show that mercy to others in turn. Because I'm just a beggar that someone gave bread, and so I can tell someone else where the bread is as well.
Joseph Rhea:Because we'll see that the son of David, the eternal king of God, gave up his throne to humble himself and died to liberate us. He went down into our darkness so that we could see his light. He suffered God's wrath that we might receive God's mercy. May we see that clearly and show that mercy to others. Let's pray.
Joseph Rhea:Lord Jesus, we praise you that you are a king of mercy. That you do not hold fast to your own glory, but you gave it up because you saw a desperate need and you were moved to help us. God, if there is anyone here who is laboring and struggling in the dark right now, I pray that you would bring them to cry out to you and give them hope. Let them see light. I pray that we might seek you together as a congregation to be close to you, to be rescued by you, to be changed by you.
Joseph Rhea:And that from that change, we would turn around and show mercy to those in need. Not because we've become great, but because your mercy to us has been so great. We pray these things in your name and for the sake of your kingdom. Amen.