Cast Off Your Garments Series

Title: CAST IT OFF BY FAITH

Theme:

Text: Mark 10:46-52

Note: The bulk of this body came from a message by Bishop Wayne Dority. I wanted to share it in the series of sermons on The Miracles of Jesus. I thought it was too good not to share.

Mark 10:46-52 Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. (47) 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!" (48) Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" (49) So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, "Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you." (50) And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. (51) So Jesus answered and said to him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" The blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, that I may receive my sight." (52) Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

Introduction

You will recall that the Lord Jesus is on His way to the city of Jerusalem.

For the last time He will go there, for they will take Him and crucify Him upon a cross.

So, on this final journey to Jerusalem He goes down through the city of Jericho.

Most of us are familiar with Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus is a picture of the condition of people outside the Lord Jesus, a reminder of what it means to be lost.

Bartimaeus lived in a very narrow world, a world of darkness.

He was blind, he could not see.

They say that there is no-one so blind as he who will not see.

I suppose that is true, for there are many people who’s eyes work fine, yet they cannot seem to see.

Bartimaeus could see nothing with the physical eyes with which he had been born,

Yet he could see things one a spiritual level that others were blind to.

Here is a man who had been begging for money, now he is begging for mercy

Jesus Son of David

When he called Jesus the son of David, it shows that he had insight which some who had eyes did not have.

Jesus indeed, was the son of David and Bartimaeus had come to see more than others that day.

He had come to understand that Jesus was the Messiah.

So, he addresses Jesus by his royal name. He recognizes

Jesus as the Son of God, the Son of David, the Messiah who would come.

One of the things the Bible had prophesied about the Messiah is that he would give sight to blinded eyes.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. (Luke 4:18-20) (Isaiah 61)

This man was blind physically, but he had 20/20 spiritual vision.

Some things that stand out to me about Blind Bartimaeus

Notice he was:

I. BEGGING BY THE WAYSIDE

A. Notice the story begins with a blind man sitting by the wayside begging.

1. Sitting implies that his is a life out of motion;

He's not going anywhere;

He has no vision;

People are passing him by on the main highway.

2. The scripture says he was by the wayside,

That implies that this man has somehow gotten off track.

Somewhere along the road of life, he veered off from the straight and narrow and he ended up in the ditch;

His life is out of motion.

3. Other people are on their way to their destiny; on their way to blessings and good things.

Something has gotten this man off track and now he's sitting without motion watching life pass him by.

B. The Bible said that he was in the wayside, but Jesus notices people who are by the wayside.

This gave me a different perspective of Mark 4. This is the famous story of the sower and the seed. Some fell on stony ground, some fell among the thorns, some fell on good ground but then there were those that fell by the wayside.