Mark 10:46-52 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Kenny Perdue

Wow, I'm excited to be a part of the book of Mark. And

let's go ahead and stand to our feet. We're gonna honor God's word,

and we're going to read our scripture text for tonight. It's found in Mark

chapter ten, beginning at verse forty six through fifty two. And they came

to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples, a great

crowd. Bartimaeus, a blind bager, the son of Timius, 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. Jesus stopped and said call him. They called the blind man,

saying to him, take heart, get up, he is 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, 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 you may

be seated. Let's pray and ask God's presence to continue to be with us

in his Holy Spirit. To be with us. Lord, we do honor

you and we praise you tonight for the word of God. And Lord,

we thank you for this story. Help us by the powering person of the

Holy Spirit to extract those spiritual truths. Lord, and as we apply some

points and some principles Father for our practical life, so we will be better

Christians and will be a better witness for you in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you were with us last week, you recall say, while we kind

of read this before, Pastor Diego kind of included it in the miracle service

and praying for the sick on a last week, and so I'm actually kind

of doing a part two Pastridego. If you're watching, I pray that it's

very complementary to what you shared and just the wonderful truths that he shared on

last week. But we're gonna look at this story about this one particular guy,

Bartimaeus who received this site, but not only did he receive his physical

site. I believe the scripture will show us that he received a spiritual insight

and a real relationship with the Lord. That I pray the principles and the

points that we will apply afterwards, you'll see that not only you can receive

something physically from the Lord, but you also can receive something spiritually. With

that said, if you've been following us in the Book of Mark, and

we've been doing verse by verse, because we want this to be a healthy

church, we want this to be a scripturally literate church, and so all

of you, all of us are becoming Bible students. Now when I say

that, I don't mean that we're going to become Bible scholars. Necessary that

takes education and training. But I think a close look at the scriptures so

that we can learn on a regular base, on a regular basis to apply

the principle scripturally, you and I will get the benefit from it. But

I think it's worth noting that Matthew, you out of the other two Gospels,

Luke and Mark, Matthews, he speaks of two individuals that receive their

healing. Now, the three books of the Bible are actually four of Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John there call the Gospels, but Matthew,

Mark and Luca call the Synoptic Gospels, because they're very similar in a lot

of their stories. Sometimes they're very similar and almost identical in their wording.

But I think a lot of the theologians believe that out of the two,

because I do believe that all three of occurrences and events are the same.

But I do believe, based upon some of the theologians, that Bartimaeus was

the more vocal one. He said, Jesus, son of David, have

mercy on me. And I think he was probably louder than the most than

the other two. But now let's just take a little time and explore the

text before we get into some of the principles that we're gonna apply for our

lives tonight. In Luke chapter Mark, I'm sorry, Mark, chapter ten,

verse forty six, we see they were on their way to Jericho.

Now I don't know some of you who are familiar with that term Jericho.

You're familiar with the story of the Israelites circling the city of Jericho seven times

in the Wall falling down. And so I said to myself, I wonder,

is this the same Jericho. Well, it's not, but it is

a new Jericho. That city in the Old Testament was destroyed by the Israelites

by the power of God, but Hered the Great during his reign in Palestine,

he decided to rebuild the city just south of about one mile and he

made this kind of like, you know, a little winter palace, somewhat

like maybe a Palm Springs. You know, Palm Springs is, you know,

just kind of a resort where you go play golf, you know,

you just go kind of enjoy life, and then you come back down here

to the regular cities and you live your life the way you normally live.

That's just for fun. But when you come back to Rancho, then you

have to live like normal people. Amen. And so that Jericho, this

Jericho here represents this new Jericho. Now. I think what's interesting as well

is that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. Now, if you remember

the text, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem so that he could become

the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. A

crowd was following him, oftentimes probably a lot of them were going to Jerusalem

for Passover. But here Jesus was going to Jerusalem for one reason, and

for one reason only. Then we also see this blind bagar. Now I

also begin to understand that, you know what, when I look at this

bager, it's kind of a different, bigger than maybe what you and I

would normally see on the streets and on the corners and on the freeways that

you and I frequently see bagars. Most of these begars were individuals who were

laying, they had some type of physical impairment where they couldn't provide for themselves.

Because in the Jewish culture, people who maybe were downtrodden, people maybe

who had lost jobs, people maybe who were down on their luck, they

could become bond servants and work for people so that they could gain a wage

and take care of themselves and their family. But begers in the Bible days

were often individuals who were sick, who were shut in, who couldn't provide

for themselves, And so blind Bartimaeus is that beger. I'm reminded of Acts

chapter three, when James and John at the Gate of Beautiful came across this

individual. Once again, he was a bagar, and that bager was asking

for alms. It's interesting that I'm before Jesus. Before blind Bartimaeus knew that

it was Jesus, he was probably going to be at the same place at

the same time like he normally is, asking for alms. But when he

found out who it was that was coming, and that'll make a lot of

sense in just a few moments, as we continue to explore the text,

we look at verse forty seven, and when and when he heard that it

was Jesus, he began to cry out with the loud voice, Jesus,

son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, son of David,

have mercy on me. Now, I have this barrier here because this barrier

represents something that was trying to stop blind Bartimaeus. You know, when I

see this barrier, I think of the Academy Awards, and you know,

sometimes when we have events here, even on the campus, we'll put these

barriers up so that we can lead traffic in the way that we wanted to

go. And for blind Bartimaeus, he had a barrier in front of him.

But when he heard that it was Jesus, not just someone that maybe

could give him some money, not just someone that maybe could give him something.

But when he heard that it was Jesus. When he heard, when

he heard, when he heard, when he heard, I want to read

a verse of scripture found in Isaiah, verse nine, chapter twenty nine,

beginning at verse eighteen. And in that day the death shall hear the words

of the book, and out of their gloom and darkness, the eyes of

the blind shall be open. So when this verse says and when he heard

that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he connected something him probably being much like

you and I if we were raised in church. Let's you know, we

say raised in church. He was raised in the Jewish customs, and so

they read the Old Testament scriptures, and so he heard about an individual that

was going to come and open blinded eyes. According to Old Testament history,

there were no individuals blind or who received their healing that were blind in the

Old Testament. And so this was what is called a messianic verse of scripture,

a verse subscripture, a prophecy that talks about someone that's going to come,

that's going to bring healing not only to sight but also to the ears.

But not only to the ears and to the eyes, but also to

the heart. And so it's important for us not to only just look for

and expect, oftentimes for physical healing. But we're trying to extrap something from

the scripture to see why was it so important? How was he able to

connect his faith to the Messiah, because he like we should after reading the

book, after reading scriptures, after reading truths about our Lord and savior,

Jesus Christ, it should generate faith, it should ignite faith within our hearts.

Another verse of scripture found in Jeremiah, verse twenty, chapter twenty three,

beginning at verse five, reads, for the time is coming, says

the Lord. When I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David's line,

he will be a king who rules with wisdom. He will do what

is just and right throughout the land. And this will be his name,

the Lord, our Righteousness. In that day, Judah shall be saved and

Israel shall live. And say, would we say that Israel is living in

safety right now? Absolutely not so. When we see blind Bartimaea saying,

and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, I believe on the

inside of him, he said, wait a minute, this is the individual

that the scriptures talked about. Now this is going to make sense when we

get to the principles. But for blind Barnimaus, he said, wait a

minute, this is the individuals who the scripture was talking about. And he

called him son of David, because the Bible says in the Old Testament that

David would have a king that would reign forever. And so there's only one

king who could reign forever, and his name was Jesus. We'll see a

little bit in just a while, the truth of the Old Testament scriptures that

Blindbarterimas had for such a long time, Let's probably give him the benefit of

the doubt, probably for years. When he heard the crowd and he heard

that it was Jesus leading the crowd those scriptures, that word that he had

been taught rose up within him. Pastor Arry and his persistence. See,

they tried to keep him quiet, and so this was a barrier. And

so even though he could not see physically, he heard, and he probably

also heard that other individuals was healed. He couldn't see their healing because he

hadn't received his healing yet, but he heard. But he heard. The

Bible says, So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of

God. And so we have to get beyond the place of the scripture doesn't

say faith comes by seeing, but the Bible says faith comes by hearing.

And so he said, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

This barrier represents the crowd he couldn't see. They were telling him to

be quiet the Bible. The scripture says, he cried out all the more.

This is going to make sense in just a few seconds. Truth number

one, sing with one eyes doesn't guarantee that individuals will see with their heart.

It's amazing we talk about blind Bartimaeus recognizing Jesus of Nazareth and connecting the

miracles. So he had heard about other miracles. So he connected the scriptures

and say this must be the Messiah, this must be the savior of the

world. But it's interesting that people who saw oftentimes in the Bible days didn't

connect the scriptures. It's so important for us when we're exercising our faith to

connect the scriptures because the scriptures give us support for us to stand on amen.

It was also believed in Jewish culture that blindness was a curse. But

we read here in Saint John chapter nine, beginning at verse two, master

his disciples asked him, why was this man born blind? Was it a

result of his own sins or those of his parents? Jesus said neither.

Jesus said neither. And so I'm reminded of Job and all of the suffering

that Job went through. And sometimes, apart from the scripture and apart from

understanding God's truth, we will always attribute suffering, wrong, hurt, disaster,

loss as a curse or a sin. But here, because notice and

his disciples asked Jesus who sinned, his disciples were a byproduct of the culture,

even though they were his disciples. And so becoming a disciple doesn't necessarily

change your culture unless you stay walking with him. You have to stay walking

with him so that it'll then you and I will then adopt a new culture.

If we don't stay walking with him, the old culture will influence some

of the scripture that we know, and we don't want that to happen.

As we conclude in just exposing and exploring the scripture here in ten fifty two,

Jesus said to him, go your way, your faith has made you

well. Immediately he regained his sight and he followed him. Notice, I

underlive the word follow, So not only did he receive his sight, but

when you get something from Jesus, it ought to cause a reaction within our

lives. And that reaction should be a reaction of follow. It shouldn't be

a reaction that once we get what we want from the Lord, then we

don't follow. But we see here and scripture really leads us to believe that

not only did he receive his physical sight, but he got born again.

I would imagine, pastor, that he followed Jesus the rest of the way

to Jerusalem and he saw firsthand high probability his Savior becoming his passover. Lamb.

Amen. Now listen the rest of the way, covering two to three

points. I want to call them application points that now we can apply the

scripture into our own life. Point number one, be moved by what you

know and believe about Jesus more than your condition. I'm going to read that

again, be moved by what you know and believe about Jesus more than your

condition. Notice that I am acknowledging the condition. Sometimes we have conditions.

But and blind Bartimaeus had a condition. But when he heard that it was

Jesus, he didn't allow the barrier that was in his life. We're going

to talk a little bit about some barriers that can be in our lives.

He didn't allow the barrier that was in his life to stop him from receiving

what was rightfully is his because of faith. And so, conditions will exist,

They will come and go. They will be a part of this human

experience. But we should not be motivated, We should not be overly influenced

by our conditions. Conditions will be a reality, but they can't be our

only reality. I'm going to say that again. Conditions will be a reality

of our lives, but they can't be the only reality. God's Word,

God's truth, our faith connected to it has to become a reality in our

lives as well. First Peter, Chapter one, verse eight and nine.

You loved him even though you have never seen him, though you do not

see him now, a pastor, Aaron, if Jay Vernon McGee was here,

he stopped the Bible bus right now. Notice this. You love him

even though you have not even though you have never seen him, though you

do not see him now, you trust him, and you rejoice with a

glorious, inexpressible, inexpressible I can express this connection that I have with my

Savior. I can express how I felt a few minutes ago when this old

song was sang. It connected with my heart, It connected with this forty

plus years of being saved, he said, Pascani, I have been saved

that long well, as my mother say, if you live long enough,

you will be. You keep walking by faith and not by sight, and

you will be. You'll see the promises of God in your life. But

here I like Peter giving this because he commends those who didn't have a physical

and and a visual relationship with the Lord. Peter walked with the Lord.

Peter could ask him questions, Peter could touch him, Peter could see the

miracles. But Peter commended these believers when he said that even though you have

never seen him, and though you don't see him, now you we trust

him. Faith has to be connected to trust and what we don't see,

and that trust and what we don't see will oftentimes, in all areas of

life, bring it into a reality. But you know, we have an

enemy of our faith, and that's the devil. And he's going to try

number one, to get us away from the Word. Because if he gets

us away from the Word, then we don't have nothing to connect our faith

to. We're going to end up connecting our faith to all other types of

things, and we'll talk about that in just a few moments. Grief,

suffering, and persecution drive us to think of our own pain and what we

are going through. Because we can be easy absorbed into our own difficulties.

We need the active responses of faith, hope, and love. They will

keep us from being neutralized, inactive and becoming stationary or stagnant stuck. Truth

Number two, Igniting your faith is in your relationship with God's work. Igniting

your faith, say, pastor, how do I ignite my faith? It

has to be connected to God's work? And we have to stay with the

word. We'll be the first to say, even now after pastoring thirty plus

years, that I don't understand everything that's in this book, but my faith

and your faith, our faith cannot only be connected to what we understand.

Right. I don't. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't understand why

when the first time we saw each other at this New Year's Eve party,

that she didn't have the same feelings for me as I did. But I

stayed with it. I stayed with it. We'll talk about that when we

get home. You know, you know, she asked me to marry her,

and I said, yes, Okay, I want to go to my

application. Point number two, Beware of barriers. Beware of the barriers of

your faith. I always like to have a positive. This is negative neutral,

then I'm gonna sandwich it with another positive just a few moments. But

beware of the barriers of your faith. These barriers come in all shapes and

sizes. Number one. The crow, the crow, and you know what,

the crow for Bartimaeus was just people who were following Jesus. People who

were going and maybe in a direction of Jesus, but not going for the

same reason. There's a crowd here in this sanctuary. It's our desire that

everything we do, from the pulpit to the pew would help everyone in here

that have the right reason for why they come. But sometimes people come for

all types of reasons, relationship reasons, business reasons. Some people, wow,

look at all these people, man, I better go to Staples and

get a whole bunch of business cards. People just come for all types of

reasons. Beware of the barriers of your faith. Burier Number one. The

problem that can be a barrier that can stop you. Number two, public

opinion. Notice that I put in parentheses social opinion or social media. Why

did I do that because passor guard friend. It used to the phrase used

to just be public opinion. And so you know, I'm I'm, I'm,

I'm from south central LA. So I lived my whole world was probably,

you know, fifteen square miles. So there's not a whole lot of

opinion I can get in that public But this thing in my pocket, in

your purse, in your hand has expanded the influence of opinion so much so

that it's become very crafty. And we as believers have to be careful because

it can be put together so wisely, and it sounds you ever heard this

statement, It sounds just too good to be true. And so on occasion

we're gonna always talk about being careful with this. It can be a barrier

to your faith. And if you're if you and I are not careful,

we will counsel this when we see Jesus of Nazareth coming by ready to bless

us and be a part of our lives. Number three, a lack of

a lack of persistence and obedience to what you know to do. Now,

I want to talk a little natural. We cannot separate a healthy lifestyle and

healing. And I'm the first one to say outs, we can't separate a

healthy lifestyle drinking more water. You know, I hurt my back many many

years ago, and I was taking eight hundred milligram multr and like candy for

years. What did it do? It compromised my kidney kidneys? You know

work pretty good because I you know, I still go to the bathroom and

T T yeah, some of some of you just woked up. Why what

did he say that? But I violated some physical laws and principles, and

we can't continue to do that and exercise our faith or make a faith confession

or have someone pray for us. It is a barrier. And when the

Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, sometimes everybody says, sometimes sometimes we don't

receive because we believe that faith is substitute for a healthy lifestyle. Enough said

number four skepticism, John twenty and twenty nine. Jesus said, so you

believe because you have seen with your eyes, even better blessings are in store

for those who believe without seen. Now, I want, I always want

to give Thomas credit because I think, if you know, they took my

savior and they beat him and they did all the things to him. And

I was around and my cousins and them got thrown into prison, and people

were being persecuted and stuff. I don't know. I may have been a

skeptic too. He just said, I'm not saying that I don't believe Jesus,

but you said he's here. I got to put my hand, my

finger in his hand, in my in my hand in his side. Thomas

beat us to heaven, so that this this is not about heaven and hair

issue. But I bring this up because skepticism sometimes can be a barrier to

our faith. We'll have to be careful of that. Number five apathy.

Apathy is just a lack of interest or concern. But I bring up apathy

again. You say past again. I think I heard you say apathy before.

I'm gonna keep saying it because I find out that apathy has a disguise

in the sky, and the disguise look like looks like I'll get around to

it. I'll get around to it. Business is going things are going well.

I'll get around and going to church. Maybe you go to church.

I'll get around here spending time with the Lord. These can be barriers to

our faith. Number six in the last one, a lack of seeing my

need for him blind bartery. Mayas saw his need. He not only had

a desire to see by the mere fact of what he said. When he

heard who it was, Son of David, I'm connecting something to this person

walking down this road going out of Jericho to Jerusalem. They said, I

said, hey, who is that coming? They said, that's Jesus of

Nazareth. Something rolls up in him. Wait a minute, The Old Testament

scripture says, son of David, he connected. He connected the dots.

You and I have to connect the dots, my friends, we have to

connect the dots. Perhaps that perhaps this is our final barrier. Many do

not come to Jesus because they don't feel that they need him. Do you

recognize your spiritual blindness? Are you willing to leave everything behind and quickly respond

to Christ? And last, but not least, this last bullet point is

find the voice that will express your faith James two seventeen. In the same

way, faith by itself, if it's not accompanied by action, is dead.

Some of your bibles say, faith without works is dead. We have

to have something that corresponds that, that that that expresses our faith. For

for for blind Bartimas, it was his voice for the woman with the issue

of blood. Because if I was a title this message, it would be

the voices of faith for the woman with the issue of blood. It was.

She said, if if if I could just but touch daughter, your

faith has made you well. What was the faith that made her well?

She was Hemorrhagy. She knew by Jewish law that she shouldn't be out in

public. She pressed her way. She pressed her way that she shouldn't be

there. Jewish law says, you shouldn't be doing, you shouldn't be in

public. She pushed away. You and I we have to find our voice

of faith. Maybe it maybe maybe it's our persistence. Maybe it's I'm gonna

okay, I haven't maybe been a good store with my finances, but okay,

I'm gonna stop spending and and and okay, I know we gotta eat

top ramen for maybe the next month. But but I'm not going in and

out and I'm gonna be I'm gonna be obedient. I heard this truth about

about managing my money and I'm gonna do it for I'm gonna do it.

That's what you and I have to do. That has to you and I

have to find our voice. And in the a Hebrews chapter eleven, there's

so many expressions of faith, so many voices of faith that we can see

that was manifested. It's my prayer tonight that as we do an expository teaching

of this text, that we can excrapulate some truths, some applications that you

and I can apply for our lives, so that you and I will be

the better. Let's pray. Lord, We honor you, and we praise

you for this time that we've spent in your word. Lord, we thank

you for the example of this blind bagar. He shows us a picture of

persistence. He shows us a picture of someone who has some Bible knowledge about

a man called Jesus, and I am going to make my way to him

no matter what, Lord, may we be a where of the barriers of

our faith? I just listed a few holy spiritual us. Maybe where there

are some barriers that maybe you've been talking to us about. We haven't been

listening. While Christians are praying, every head is still bound and closed.

I want to talk to us. I'm want to talk to those who are

watching online. Thank you so much for watching our service, our midweek service,

so many wonderful services you could have watched, but you chose to watch

Patriot. We thank you so much for it. It's my prayer that these

words that were spoken from the Bible will come off the page and we'll connect

with our hearts and with our lives. A lot of you, who are

you're seeing me here in this service? You're watching me online. You can

physically see, but maybe you can't spiritually see. And that spiritual sight that

needs to be healed. Maybe in your life is that there was someone over

two thousand years ago that died for your sins and minds, and he wants

to go further than that. He wants to come into our heart and be

our personal savior. And Lord, maybe you're watching me online, maybe you're

listening to me here in the sanctuary. You say passconi. I've prayed that

prayer before, But if I were to be honest, I've allowed some barriers

of my faith to maybe even question whether I believe or not. And I'm

tired of that blockade. I'm tired of that barrier that's stopping me from getting

to my Savior. Friend, you're in the right place. We want to

pray with you. Maybe you're under the sound of my voice. And you

say, Pastor, I'm pretty good. I'm walking out my faith, but

I'm in hearing about the Holy Spirit and his empowerment within my life. For

any of the three options, salvation, rededication are being felled by the power

of the Holy Spirit. Our heads about and eyes are closed. I'm going

to give you an opportunity by a show of hands. You'd say, I

like to come to Jesus for the first time. Anyone under the sound of

my voice in the sanctuary. Maybe you're outside, We want to welcome you

in. Is there any anyone who would want to come back to the Lord?

You say, pasty, I'm that individual who have allowed barriers to get

the best of me, and I want to come back to the Lord.

Is there any I see that hand? God bless you, God bless you,

God bless you. Thank you so much, God bless you. You

can put your hands down, God bless you. Thank you so much.

God bless you. And for the last invitation, I want to be influenced

by the Holy Spirit, like I see some of my other brothers and sisters

who tend to rebound may be faster than I do. Probably one of the

things is that they have the Holy Spirit empowering their life. I'm going to

ask all of us to lift up our heads and I'm gonna lead us all

in a prayer. I'm gonna ask everyone to pray this prayer with me,

especially for salvation and rededication if it's your very first time. But I want

us all to as a family as we join our faith together with our brothers

and sisters for the first time. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for this

moment in time. Thank you for the Word of God. I asked Jesus

to come into my heart, be my savior and Lord, help me to

live for you each and every day. Fill me with your Holy Spirit in

Jesus' name, Amen.