What Do You Want Me to Do for You?: Mark 10:46-52

The scripture sermon text comes from Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

Be reading verses 46 to 52.

Hear the reading of God's holy word.

And they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples in 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.

And Jesus stopped and said, Call him.

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?

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 reading of God's precious word, his powerful word, his true word.

May we invite the Spirit in to do his work among us.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for how your Spirit divinely inspired this word, this story, this true story.

You know how much we need to hear today, so unclog our ears.

Please, Lord, take the darkness from our eyes that we could see.

Would you give us soft hearts to receive what you want to give us?

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

His name was Bartimaeus.

He was blind.

He was a beggar.

He was a man who spent every day, probably pretty much the same, on the street corner in the town of Jericho, waiting for people to come by and to drop a coin in his outstretched arm.

He needed help.

He couldn't make it on his own, and he knew that very well.

And though his eyes didn't work, his ears worked fine.

He would listen to the conversations of people going by.

And this day he heard that people were talking in an excited fashion about Jesus of Nazareth coming by.

And it's clear that he had already heard about Jesus of Nazareth, that he knew something about him.

But this day was unlike any other day for Bartimaeus.

This day, as he heard the crowd speak of Jesus, he wasn't going to waste his opportunity.

This day was going to be unlike any other day.

So he cries out, understanding that Jesus was within his voice, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

And the people around him, the text says, told him to shut up.

They rebuked him.

Be quiet.

Why are you trying to disturb the mission of Jesus of Nazareth?

But he cried out even louder.

Rather than quieting him, it emboldened him all the more.

And then Jesus does something that just stuns me.

Remember where Jesus was?

He was on his way to Jerusalem.

He knew this is his final passion.

He knew his life would end soon.

He had a lot going on.

What did he do?

He stopped in his tracks.

That's what the language tells us.

He just came to an abrupt stop.

What did he do?

He stood still and he said, call him.

Call who?

Call that beggar who's crying out for mercy.

Call him.

And you know the crowd around him, his disciples, it says, the disciples were with him in a great crowd.

And you know, we know enough from what we've seen of the disciples earlier, like a week ago.

What, Jesus, what are you doing?

You don't have time for this.

And we have to understand that they did not expect him to stop for people who couldn't help them.

They didn't expect Jesus to stop for blind beggars who had nothing.

Now remember, if you were here last week with us, you might expect the disciples to say, oh, the rich young ruler?

Yeah, let's stop.

Let's stop with the rich young ruler.

I mean, there's somebody that can help us.

Somebody who's got wealth, someone who has power, someone who has charisma.

We have time for him.

But do we have time for this guy?

No.

Oh, pay attention when you read through the Gospels, how many times the Gospels tell us that Jesus looked at someone.

It's a beautiful message entwined through the Gospels.

When everybody else walks by or looks down on them, Jesus looks with loving eyes at them.

Keep an eye on that when you read through your Gospels.

Compassion was the emotion most attributed to Jesus.

Jesus says, No, I have time for him.

And he said, Take, then the people around Barnabai say, well, he's calling you.

I mean, again, you could just hear the voice intonations.

You?

Him?

Really?

Take heart.

Get up.

He's calling you.

This poor beggar would not let Jesus pass by in wasting his opportunity.

He had one chance and he wasn't going to blow it.

I love that about this guy.

What about us?

How many times have you let Jesus pass by you?

Some people have let Jesus pass by without salvation.

They've heard the gospel preached, but they have not responded.

Other people, and I think this includes everyone in this room, including me.

How many times do we let him pass by where we hear the word of God preached?

We read the word of God.

We hear the word of God, but we leave the same way we came in.

Anybody here escape that?

I don't think so.

You know, the preacher can preach and let Jesus pass by.

Did you know that?

The preacher, is the preacher's heart really gripped with the glory and the beauty of Jesus?

You know, the tendency we have is, well, he'll be back.

He'll come around again.

It's like a bus every 30 minutes.

He's coming back.

You don't know that.

You don't know that.

You don't know when the last time is that he's going to pass by.

You or me.

Friends, what I'm saying is, God clearly wants us, every time we encounter him in the word of God, through the preaching of God's word as well, he wants us to stop and say, Lord, would you please speak into my heart?

What do you have to say to me from your word by your spirit?

You know it's a sad, sad thing.

When worshipers come into sanctuaries week after week after week, and they don't see Jesus pass by.

They just say, go ahead.

Preoccupied, distracted, discouraged.

It just doesn't connect.

Well, we do need the Holy Spirit for that connection.

But Jesus wants us to connect.

Today.

He wants us to call out to him while we can.

The scriptures say today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day.

The Bible is clear, although we must cry out to Jesus for mercy, he always calls first.

He must first send his Holy Spirit to awaken us, to awaken us because we are spiritually dead until he does.

Otherwise, we wouldn't know who he is or what he can do for us.

Bartimaeus knew who he was.

He called him the son of David.

That's a very robust term in their culture of that day.

Carries this explicit messianic overtone that shows that he looks to Jesus.

He's looking to Jesus right now as the Messiah.

He knew that.

The one who brings salvation, the one who brings healing alone.

Take heart.

Get up.

He's calling you.

You.

Okay?

Me.

This is not just a story 2,000 years ago.

It's a true story.

But it's meant for our ears and our hearts today.

He throws off his coat.

He sprang up and he came to Jesus.

What do you need to throw off today?

What is holding you back?

What is closing you up?

What is it that you need to throw off that would lead to springing up to run toward Jesus?

I've had a whole week to think about that question.

I know this is fresh for you.

But let me ask you to give that prayerful consideration.

What is it that is binding to you that's holding you back from being able to really hear Jesus and to spring up and follow him as a disciple?

What do you need to throw off?

What is it that you need that's getting in the way?

Jesus has a question.

It's going to be a familiar question if you were with us last week, as Josh or Pastor Josh preached.

He asked this man, this blind beggar, one question.

Remember what it was?

What do you want me to do for you?

Now that didn't go so well last week, did it?

Remember who he asked that question to last week?

His disciples, James and John in particular.

Do you remember how they answered?

Oh, the egos.

Oh, the egos and the pride of God's followers.

Still today.

What did James and John say?

Oh, they'd already been thinking about it.

They get sense that Jesus was going to build a kingdom.

He was going to start his own administration, all right?

We're Washington.

We would like to be the top two cabinet members.

James and John.

We know, and this is going to be good.

We're going to really help you, Jesus.

And Jesus says, What?

Is that what you're really asking for?

Is that what you really want?

Do you live for power?

Prestige?

Do you live for your own glory?

You know it's possible as a Christian to be living for your own glory.

That's a sad thing.

What do you want me to do for you?

They wanted glory.

They wanted fame.

They wanted reputation.

They were living for reputation.

They wanted people to think highly of them.

And they were missing Jesus.

That's not for us.

He said, Raboni, which is really a better translation than just Rabbi.

Raboni is my Lord, my God, my master.

It's very personalized.

This was a wise man who knew what he needed most was healing.

And so I asked this question as well this morning.

Are we any different?

Are you any different?

What we most need, just like that beggar, is healing.

What would our lives look like if we experienced the deeper levels of healing that Jesus is offering to us that we're not hearing, we're not seeing, because we're just so busy, we're wrapped up in life, we're wrapped up in ourselves.

What's he offering you?

But you're still sitting by the roadside, you're not on the road because he's going to be on the road with Jesus.

Are you still sitting by the road?

Letting Jesus pass by?

When Jesus wants to speak into your life, Jesus wants to bring deeper levels of healing in every person in this room, including me.

It's true.

I'm so grateful to have a wife who is equally committed to this as I am.

For the last 35 years of our lives, we have been asking that question.

What needs more healing?

What needs to be healed inside of me?

Why do I do the things that I do that are harmful, that hurt, that wound others?

Why do I do that?

Well, because I'm when I do, because I'm not really thinking.

I'm not applying the gospel to my heart.

Jesus wants to heal you.

There's more healing to be experienced.

That's really honest.

He wants you to experience a deeper level of healing so that you will be more loving to your spouse.

You will know more how to move into the lives of your children.

That you'll be, that you won't have sharp elbows through life.

He wants to rub off those sharp angles that wound, that hurt.

And only he can do that.

He wants us to be introspective.

It takes courage to be introspective as a Christian.

I find many Christians would rather not do that.

Many Christians would rather just kind of live with the blinders on.

I'm too busy to really look inwardly.

I'm too busy to really deal with what's going on in my heart.

I'm just too busy.

I've got to keep moving.

And by the way, I'm very busy at church.

Yeah, right.

If you're too busy at church, if I'm too busy at church to look into my own heart, search me, oh God, know me, show me what's offensive to you.

If I'm too busy to look into my own heart, I need to get out of some ministry.

I mean that.

That's no excuse.

Tom, I want your heart.

I want you to see, I want you to be captured by my beauty, my glory.

Then I can use you.

I'm still on that journey.

I'm still trying to understand the parts of me that have not yet experienced his healing.

But I want that.

And I'm asking him for that.

I ask for feedback from my people that are close to me.

I ask them, what do you see?

What do you see that I don't see maybe?

Do you have enough courage to ask that question to people who know you well?

We asked a question when we did sonship in this church for many, many, many years, and week 10 every year was the question: if there's one thing about me that you could change, what would it be?

Do you know what?

I could predict every year, there was a 16-week course, I could predict every year that was going to be the least attendant week.

And I would joke about it.

I would say, I mean, you know, nice, then I it was so sad I stopped joking about it.

People didn't want to do that homework.

Christians didn't want to do that homework.

It takes courage to look inside, doesn't it?

You need a gospel that's really sure and strong.

You need a foundation that'll hold you, even if you hear stuff that you don't like.

Because you're not going to fall when the foundation is Christ.

What is there?

What is there about me that you would change, Sharon?

I asked that 25 years in a row.

And that's other people, why would I not want to know what's getting in the way?

Unless I'm scared.

Unless I'm living in fear.

Well, then I would say, let's go back to the gospel.

Let's go back to the gospel.

It's not about my reputation.

It's not about appearances.

He doesn't care about that.

I shouldn't care about that.

Jesus wants to heal us, friends.

And I asked the question: what would our lives look like if we experienced deeper levels of healing in our lives?

Jesus, Bartimaeus is saying, Jesus, I want to see, really see you.

How much I need your mercy.

And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Is there something you need to recover today?

He said, I need to recover my sight.

Is there something in your Christian experience that you had that it feels like you've lost?

Something to recover?

That's a good word.

Have you lost your joy?

That's what Paul said to the Galatians.

What happened to all your joy?

You used to have the joy of the Lord in your life.

I don't see it now.

Is it your peace?

What is it that you need to recover?

That God wants you to recover today.

As you look away from yourself and you look to Jesus.

Healing awaits the desperate.

Isn't that the problem?

It's almost like you have to be spiritually desperate.

If we're not spiritually desperate, we just easily let him pass by.

One commentary I read, the title of this section was The Model Disciple.

Bartimaeus.

Isn't that great?

Who would have thought this is the model disciple?

Scholars believe that this whole part of the Gospel of Mark starts in chapter 8, chapter 9, and chapter 10.

It's a very tight knit unit.

Remember when Jesus said to chapter 8 to the disciples, Who do you say that I am?

Peter said, Well, you're the Christ.

He said, Yes.

And then Peter immediately blows it.

I mean, chapter 8, chapter 9, last week, we see the disciples still, we see the disciples who had been with Jesus for years are still messing up.

They're still looking for their own glory sometimes when their eyes aren't on Jesus.

Who's the model disciple in the gospel of Mark?

I know this is going to blow your minds, is blind Barnamaeus.

It's not the person.

Who looks like they've got it all together.

It's not the person who's lived a very moral life.

A very moral life, but kind of doing it by the numbers.

But there's no real deep joy.

And there's no really deep passion for Jesus.

And there's no growing sense of how much we've been forgiven.

That's the model disciple.

Jesus says, I'm looking for people who are so broken and so weak that they have space for Jesus to fill.

That's a beautiful thing.

Are you broken enough?

Are you weak enough for Jesus to take over?

And watch what he does.

The model disciple.

Again, the man who was sitting beside the road is now on the road with Jesus.

He's a disciple.

We must also understand, as one person put it, faith that does not lead to discipleship is not saving faith.

Did you hear that?

Faith that does not lead to discipleship is not saving faith.

The Bible's very clear, not everybody who says, Lord, Lord, didn't I do this for you, didn't I do that, are not going to be in heaven.

Jesus said that on the Sermon on the Mount.

It's not saying the words.

If you confess in your, if you believe in your heart, you say with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, if you believe that and your life is changed, you will be with him.

But people who just go through the outside, out formal process, I'm going to read it again.

Faith that does not lead to discipleship is not saving faith.

Saving faith always leads somewhere.

Things that are alive grow.

Everything that's alive grows and bears fruit.

We talked about that a lot this year in Vision 2026.

Multiplying kingdom impact.

It's true biologically and it's also true spiritually.

Are you on the road to discipleship with Jesus?

Tonight, there's going to be over 250 people come back to this church to be disciples.

It just really encourages me.

Over 250 people are going to be back here tonight saying, Jesus, teach us through your word.

From the little ones to the children to the teenagers to the three adult classes, Jesus, I want to be your disciple.

Teach me, keep teaching me, keep reaching me.

We run up against so much in the world, don't we?

I mean, does Jesus even have a chance?

All we listen to, all we absorb our minds with online, social media, whatever, entertainment.

Jesus says, I want you to be my disciple.

I want you to come and sit at my feet and listen and learn and grow.

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm not done growing, neither are you.

This is the final healing miracle in this gospel.

Luke tells us in his explanation of this that this man, Bartimaeus, glorified God, and all the people, when they saw it, praised God.

That's what happens when we sit at the feet of Jesus.

We take on more of his character.

And other people notice.

And some people will praise and glorify God because of what he's doing inside of you.

And it won't be because of your personality, it won't be because you're so nice.

You know what?

I don't need another person to tell me I'm nice.

Alright?

I don't.

I don't need another person.

But if somebody says, Tom, you're a loving man.

You're a joyful man.

You're a peaceful man.

You kind of remind me a little bit of Jesus.

I'll take that all day.

How about you?

What are we really living for?

Who are we really living for?

I'm going to end with three applications, if you will, from the story of Bartimaeus.

First of all, all of us have obstacles in our path when it comes to following Jesus.

What's yours?

All of us have obstacles in the path when it comes to following Jesus.

There's always going to be something in the path that looks like, well, I can't really do that.

What's the obstacle in your path?

Secondly, we all must hear his call.

For salvation, yes.

And maybe today you're going to hear his call for the first time in your life.

Maybe today, right now, the Holy Spirit is touching your heart, saying, this is true, what you're hearing.

Jesus can heal you.

Jesus can save you.

Jesus can forgive you.

And if you're hearing that, you respond to him.

Don't fight it.

Give in.

Say, Jesus, yes.

I want to open up to whatever it is that you want to do for me.

And if you are a Christian, if you're a Christian, it may be time to get back on the road with him.

Don't be sitting, standing by the road.

Get on the road.

He's going to take you somewhere good.

I promise.

If you get on the road with Jesus, he's taking you somewhere good.

And thirdly, are we on the road with Jesus as disciples, or are we still sitting beside the road in unchanged ways?

It's not too late to get back on the road.

That's what I want to say to you.

It's not too late to get back on the road with Jesus.

He can still use you.

He wants to bless you.

But we have to first bow.

From our pride, we have to bow and say, Jesus, please heal me.

I need more healing.

He says, Yeah, I know you do, Tom.

But I want you to just sit with me.

I want you to find your rest in me.

Let me heal you more.

The more he does that, the better pastor I'll be.

But I need his healing too.

We all do.

And so we have to ask ourselves, are we going to let him pass by?

Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry.

While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.

Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry.

While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.

Let me at thy throne of mercy find a sweet relief.

Kneeling there in deep contrition, help my unbelief.

Jesus never turns that down.

Jesus never turns down.

Jesus never walks away from a humble heart.

Jesus, give me a humble heart.

Oh Lord, we're asking now.

You know what's you know what needs healing in every one of us.

You know the parts of us that are sharp.

You know the parts of us that wound others.

You know where we're not believing you.

Get us back on the road, please.

Today.

Get us back on the road with you, for you, by you, by your spirit.

And that would be all we need.

In Jesus' name, amen.