He Saw More
Prairie Baptist Church – 11/8/09
A.M. Service
Text: Mark 10:46-52
Key verse: Mark 10:52 - 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.
Premise: Jesus saw more than a blind beggar on the roadside. We all have a little Bartimaeus in us that needs the caring eye of Jesus to notice and make it right.
The Introduction
A NEW LIGHT One of the greatest tragedies for people would be to live in darkness when they could live in the light… Rose Crawford had been blind for 50 years. Then she had an operation in an Ontario hospital. She said, “I just can’t believe it,” as the doctor lifted the bandages from her eyes. She wept - when for the 1st time in her life she saw a dazzling and beautiful world of form and color greeted her eyes and she could now see. The amazing thing about her story, however, was that 20 years of her blindness was unnecessary. She didn’t know that surgical techniques had been developed, and that an operation could have restored her vision at the age of 30. The Dr. said, “She just figured there was nothing that could be done for her condition. Much of her life could have been different.”
Imagine that, tomorrow when you wake up, you open up your eyes and see nothing. You are completely blind.
What do you do? What would you think?
What did Jesus see that nobody else saw? We can get a picture of this from His divine mission statement given in Luke 4:18-19.
Luke 4:18-19 - 18“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
Body
1. Jesus Saw He Was Spiritually Lost
A. To look into the heart is a talent reserved for God alone
i. Everyone in the crowd was concerned with shutting up the beggar
ii. Jesus could hear his cry through the maddening throng
iii. Yet Jesus saw the heart of Bartimaeus and sensed his need
B. There is a story of a photographer who went to the docks to take a picture of the "The Great Eastern". Its hull was black, having been coated with tar. That same day the man went to his own darkroom to develop the film and print it. As the picture of the ship began to take form, the word "Lewis" appeared on the hull. Immediately the photographer returned to the wharf to see whether that name actually was on the vessel. But it wasn’t visible. Astonished, he contacted the office of the shipping company and inquired about this strange phenomenon. He was told that the word "Lewis" could be found underneath the tar. The camera’s powerful lens and the sensitive film had picked it up. That is how God sees us; not just the surface but inside us as well. He can see the hidden parts.
C. Jesus sees people in need of a Savior (preach the gospel to the poor)
i. The whole world is a guilty, sin-cursed mess
a. All have sinned (Rom. 3:23)
b. No one can even claim any innocence that could make them right with God - Ecclesiastes 7:20 - For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.
ii. Jesus sees beyond the outer shell to the inner core of each person
a. Jesus sees the heart - 1st Sam. 16:7 – . . . For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
b. Jesus knows the mind - Ps. 139:2 – You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.
c. We can’t hide a thing from Him - Hebrews 4:13 - And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
2. Jesus Saw He Was Socially Rejected
A. Brokenness has a way of humbling us
i. Bartimaeus was broken through many years of being ostracized
ii. As a social outcast, he felt the sting of rejection and mocking but very little compassion
B. Several years ago the American Heart Association published the results of a remarkable scientific study. In 1998 Dr. Randy Bird did a study of 393 coronary care patients at Duke University Hospital. Dr. Bird is not a Christian and this is not a Christian study. But it asked the question: “Does prayer have any impact on patient’s healing?” Without the patients knowing it, people were asked to pray for only half of the heart patients. The groups were comparable in age & severity of medical conditions. The people praying were given the names of the patients and their diagnosis and were asked to pray everyday for their healing and recovery. Dr. Bird compared the outcome of each group and found those patients who were prayed for did better than those who were not. It was amazing! Everything from recovery rates, hospital stay, length of medication, type of procedure needed, was better for the group that was prayed for. Just to prove this was not a Christian study they observed that distance of those praying for the patients made no difference. Duh! But that’s significant because the people who were being prayed for didn’t know they were being prayed for. So it wasn’t psycho-somatic or a psychological trick. The truth is God cares about your hurts and He still heals! And not just physical hurts.
C. He sees people who are heartbroken – (to heal the brokenhearted)
i. God is drawn to those humbled through a broken heart - Ps. 34:18 – The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.
ii. He is the greatest heart surgeon ever - Ps. 147:3 – He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
iii. When we find ourselves truly humbled and down, He will be the one to lift us up - Luke 18:13-14 - 13And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
3. Jesus Saw He Was Captive of His Circumstances
A. We all live in prisons called limitations
i. For Bartimaeus, he had a multiple of limitations
a. He was forced to beg
b. He could not see to function properly
c. He was relegated to this life by his culture
d. His greatest limitation was sin, which kept him from true freedom
ii. Our limitations can keep us captive
a. A sin that we are trapped in
b. The limitation of narrow-mindedness
c. The limitation of being stuck in a rut
d. The limitation of unteachableness
B. Next time you’re in an airport notice the difference between passengers who have confirmed tickets and those on standby (Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray 113). Those who have confirmed tickets are relaxed, their confident and expectant. Those on standby hang around the ticket counter, they pace and smoke, pace and smoke, pace and smoke…all because of uncertainty. God offers us freedom from the burden of uncertainty, so we can know for sure where we stand with God.
C. He sees people who need freedom – (to proclaim liberty to the captives)
i. The ability to say no to sin - Gal. 5:1 – Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
ii. Our freedom is spiritual and Spirit given - 2nd Cor. 3:17 – Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
iii. It is based on the truth of God - John 8:32 - And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
4. Jesus Saw He Was Physically Disabled
A. Disabilities can either drive us to God or embitter us against God
i. It all depends on how we react; negatively or positively
ii. Disabilities are not always physical:
a. Emotional disabilities (depression)
b. Spiritual disabilities (besetting sin)
c. Psychological disabilities (fears)
iii. All of these can alter our perception, or vision, of life the way God intends for us to live it.
B. He sees people who need vision restored – (recovery of sight to the blind)
i. Because of the blindness of sin
ii. Because of hardness of heart – Mark 16:14 – Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
5. Jesus Saw He Was Comfortless
A. God knows exactly when we have had enough and how much we can take
i. Bartimaeus had his share of being browbeaten and oppressed
ii. As Christians, we often experience the same feelings of Bartimaeus:
a. We are sometimes demoralized (disheartened)
b. We are sometimes oppressed
c. We are sometimes mistreated
B. A hospital administrator was once startled to see a patient fleeing down the hall out of the operating room, his loose hospital gown flapping in the breeze behind him. He stopped the fleeing patient and said, "Do you mind telling me why you ran away from the operating room?" The patient looked at him with startled eyes and said, "It was because of what the nurse said." The administrator said "Oh, what did she say?" She said, "Be brave! An appendectomy is quite simple." The administrator looked a bit confused and said, "Well, so what? It is quite simple. I would think that would comfort you." The patient said "Are you kidding, the nurse wasn’t talking to me; she was talking to the doctor."
C. He sees people who need comfort – (to set at liberty those who are oppressed)
i. Comfort is in the character of God - Isaiah 40:11 – He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.
ii. In the midst of concerns and worries, God’s comfort still gives joy - Ps. 94:19 – In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.
iii. God’s Word gives comfort - Ps. 119:50 – This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.
iv. Our comfort can and should be shared with others - 2nd Cor. 1:4 – Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
v. Our greatest Comforter is the indwelling Holy Spirit - John 14:26 - But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Conclusion:
If you are here today and have never accepted Jesus as your Savior, Satan is trying every way possible to blind you to the truth of salvation. Do not allow him to do this but rather cry out for Jesus this morning so he can restore your vision and make you whole.
Christian, what has God opened your eyes too this morning?
Are you brokenhearted? Let Jesus lift you up.
Are you enslaved to a sin that is holding you down? Let Jesus set you free this morning.
Are you bogged down by what you think is a disability? Let Jesus turn the disability into an opportunity.
Are you down and depressed and demoralized in your life right now? Let God be your comforter and friend.
Now is the time of decision and commitment!
