And as you're finding your place in Mark chapter 10, we'll be in verses 46 through 52 this morning, I need to ask you a question. How many of you right now are missing that hour of sleep that you lost? This is the most challenging Sunday of the year for a pastor. And so I'm just gonna begin by sharing with you that I have a problem I need your help with. Proverbs says in the Bible, in the multitude of counselors there is safety, And so I need you to help me this morning because you'll notice as you turn to Mark chapter 10 verses 46 through 52 that the very next text is the triumphal entry. It's the beginning of chapter 11 of Mark's gospel. It's Palm Sunday and we're a couple of weeks out from Palm Sunday. And so I need your help. Our family will be gone March 26. Dr. David Jaspers will be speaking in my absence. You're going to love that if you don't have never heard Dr. Jaspers preach. But I need something to preach next Sunday that isn't Mark chapter 11. And so for the very first time in 28 years of ministry I'm going to ask the congregation I pastor to choose what I preach. You have two options. First, I can preach next week on Luke's account of Jesus interacting with Zacchaeus, because in Luke's account, Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus follows what happens this morning, Jesus' interaction with Bartimaeus. Or I can preach a sermon on the cross of Jesus. On Jesus dying on the cross. Now I realize that that means we'll preach on the cross first. I'll preach on the cross first and then a couple of weeks later I'll preach on the triumphal entry. So it'll kind of be out of order. But I need you to vote this morning by a raised hand. How many of you prefer a sermon on Zacchaeus? Raise your hands. Okay, how many of you prefer a message on the cross? Raise your hands. Okay, Zacchaeus wins this morning. So next week will be the story of Zacchaeus from the Gospel of Luke, but we've been working our way through Mark's Gospel. By the way, thank you for your guidance and your counsel. We've been making our way through Mark's Gospel, and this morning we find ourselves in verses 46 through 52, Jesus and Bartimaeus. I'm going to begin reading in verse 45 because verse 45 is the lead-in to verse 46. Verse 45 is the key verse in Mark's Gospel. It's what Jesus says For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And they came to Jericho and he was leaving, as he 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, literally here in the Greek, shut up. 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 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 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 Jesus on the way. This is the word of our God. This is the final healing miracle in Mark's gospel. And this is my personal favorite healing miracle in Mark's gospel. Sermon introductions are, for me, the most difficult part of crafting a sermon. Because I remember my preaching professor in college, Dr. Ralph Turk, saying that if a pastor doesn't grab the people's attention within the first three minutes, he's lost them for the rest of the sermon. So are you with me? Okay, good. Dr. Turk is now a Jesus. He'd be happy to hear that. And then he proceeded to say that your sermon introduction should not be more than five to ten percent of your sermon. So no more than four or five minutes, which obviously if you've been around here, you know I've got that nailed. But the big point Dr. Turk made… was that the introduction should always point to Jesus, because Jesus is always the point. He's the lead in every story, the hero on every page, the center of every scene. Now, I may have to turn in my man card here, so bear with me, but how many of you are old enough to know what precious moments figurines are? These figurines are the brainchild of artist Sam Butcher, and they were the thing in Christian circles in the 80s and 90s. During my freshman year in college, our choir visited the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri, which is just 90 minutes south of where I grew up. And as you'll see on the screen, the front wall of that chapel is actually a mural. It's a painting depicting children arriving on scene in heaven. And as they enter there, some of those children are tossing their eyeglasses aside, others are laying their crutches down, and there's a boy leaving his wheelchair behind. And the story goes that as Sam was putting the finishing touches on his mural, he walked to the back of the chapel to turn around and take a look at his work. And that's when he realized that Jesus was directly in the center of heaven. Everything in Sam's depiction of heaven centered on Christ. And that's a perfect picture of this scene in Mark 10 with Bartimaeus because Mark frames this scene to draw our attention to Jesus. He's the hero. He's the focus. He's the center because in verse 45 Jesus says that the big reason he's come to earth isn't to be served but to serve And then to lay down his life as a ransom for many. And now Jesus is going to show his disciples what that looks like for him in real life. He's going to prove to him to his disciples that he's a king whose glory is all wrapped up in serving sinners and saving sinners because he has come to die for sinners. It's the big idea that Jesus delights in showing mercy to those in need. Do you believe that? All those words that Jesus delights in showing mercy to those in need, that He is the King of compassion, the King of mercy, that He isn't just a great King who possesses unilateral power. He's a good King. who wields that power to put what's broken back together again. He gives working feet to the lame and hearing ears to the deaf and seeing eyes to the blind. And just seven days out now from this scene in Mark 10, Jesus will put the finishing touches on his purpose for coming. He will lay down His life on a cross to redeem broken people. That's what it took to do what God said Messiah would do in the verses we read this morning from Isaiah 61. That Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to open the eyes of those who are blind. Jesus is the King of mercy and he goes to the cross to prove that and to purchase that mercy for us. Praise the name of Jesus. That's the power of his mercy. So can I ask this morning, where are you tempted to doubt the power of his mercy? Is it a health issue that isn't getting better? Is it a relationship issue that isn't going away? Is it a parenting issue that isn't getting easier? What is it where you are tempted to doubt the power of our King's mercy? Because whatever that is for you, this scene is here for you to open your eyes to the truth that Jesus delights in showing mercy to those in need, even when he's on the journey to Jerusalem to die at Passover. And that's an important detail for us to get because for the Jews, Passover isn't just a celebration, it's the celebration. Jerusalem, we're told by Josephus, the Jewish historian, we're told that Jerusalem on a normal day is home to fewer than 100,000 people. But at Passover, Jerusalem swells to more than 2 million. And that's why there's this growing group of people who are traveling with Jesus to Jerusalem. And one of their final stops before they reach Jerusalem is at the city of Jericho. Maybe they stop there for supper. Maybe they spend the night. Because Jericho is just 18 miles northeast of Jerusalem. It's the last big town before you make the final turn west and head up the mountain into the city. And as Jesus and his disciples are packing up their stuff and heading out for Jerusalem, they're accompanied by this great throng of people. Now, as we've learned in our study of Mark's gospel, it's not unusual for Jesus to be surrounded by a big group of people. But on this journey, this crowd is especially enthusiastic. The atmosphere is electric. And that's because just a month or two earlier, Jesus raised a man named Lazarus from the dead by enabling him to walk out of his tomb after being dead for four days. And that got everybody's attention. John chapter 11 tells us that many Jews now believe on Jesus, which triggers the Jewish religious leaders to put out an all points bulletin on Jesus. Maybe they posted wanted posters around Jerusalem. Maybe they took out wanted ads in the local newspaper. Maybe they ran PSAs, public service announcements on radio and TV. Okay, they didn't have radio and TV back then. But John 11 tells us that the chief priests and the Pharisees have now given orders that anyone who knows the whereabouts of Jesus is to come forward with that information so that they can arrest Jesus. And so, everybody in Israel is looking for Jesus. Some are looking to turn him in. Others are looking to worship him and follow him because now after raising Lazarus, everybody's enthralled with him. Others, though, are the paparazzi, and they want to follow Jesus because they want firsthand to see the showdown that's coming between the chief priests and Jesus. So the big question floating around at this point in Mark's gospel floating around Israel isn't about politics or the economy or who's going to be the next mayor of Chicago. It's do you think Jesus is coming to Jerusalem for Passover? He's the topic of conversation in the coffee houses and barbershops. That's why this crowd that's with with him is so joyful and jubilant. Jesus is here. He is going to Jerusalem and we're here with him. They're so excited that they walk right by a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. Like he's not even there. And let's be honest this morning. Sometimes we Christians can get so caught up in the zeal of our religiosity, especially in gatherings like this, that we don't even see the one who's craving mercy. We're the in crowd. We're the ones with Jesus. We're celebrating and worshiping Jesus. And we don't notice the one sitting beside us who desperately needs the mercy of Jesus. Could the people of Jesus ever become an obstacle to others experiencing the mercy of Jesus? Could we ever be with Jesus and not be like Jesus? Because that's the people with Jesus here. Nobody notices the beggar who's sitting beside the road on the outskirts of Jericho. His name is Bartimaeus, literally means son of Timaeus. He's a beggar because he's blind. We don't know why he's blind. We don't know how long he's been blind, but we do know that because he is blind, he's been ostracized and stigmatized. That's why he's a beggar. Either he has no family or he's been shunned by his family. And that's because in Jesus day blindness was thought to be a sign that God hates you. That he has cursed you. You're religiously unclean. You're unwelcome in the local synagogue. You cannot participate because you've been banned from the Jewish religious festivals. So Passover isn't for you. You're not just an outsider, you're an outcast. And so when people see you sitting beside the road with your cardboard sign and your tin cup, they pass by on the other side. You can't see them, but you can feel them staring. You can hear them whispering. Very few ever stop to drop a coin in your cup. But still you sit there, begging. You have to, to survive. You're waiting, hoping, praying that perhaps today God will show you mercy. That's all you need. That's all you want. God, please, please, please show mercy to me. Just enough money for just enough bread to make it through another day. Bartimaeus is destitute. And so Bartimaeus is desperate. And I think there's something that we today can learn from Bartimaeus. Because even when we've got money in the bank and food in the pantry and two cars in the garage, we are no less dependent upon God's mercy to make it through another day. That's why Lamentations 3, what Pastor Dave read earlier this morning, says that God's mercies are new every morning because we can't live We need those mercies every moment of every day. Do we think that way? There was a young man who grew up with my wife, Joanna, near Houston, Texas, who was born with cerebral palsy. Doctors told his parents that he would never walk. But he did. And one of his life goals was to get his driver's license. And at 18, he did. And then every time Stephen got behind the wheel of his car, before he put his key in the ignition to start that car, he bowed his head and prayed. God, help me to drive safely and help me to arrive safely. Every trip, every time, even if it was just a short two or three minute trip to McDonald's, he prayed for God's mercy to come running to him. You can be the safest driver in the northwest suburbs, but only God can cause you to arrive safely at work tomorrow. You can eat right and exercise often, but only God can keep your heart beating. You can lay your head on your pillow this evening, an hour early, and drift off to sleep, fully expecting to awaken in the morning. but only God can keep you breathing. We are Bartimaeus. Every one of us, every moment of every day. It's just that we don't act like it, or think like it, or pray like it. And that's why Jesus teaches us to pray saying Father give us this day our daily bread. So do you feel your need like Bartimaeus this morning? Do you feel your inadequacy? Your desperation? That life is a situation you can't solve. Would you acknowledge your need to God? Would you cast all your cares on the one who cares for you? Would you cry out to him like Bartimaeus does here when the king of mercy shows up and passes by? Jesus is surrounded by this large and growing group of people while Bartimaeus is sitting alone. Jesus is walking to Jerusalem to fulfill God's plan of redemption by dying while Bartimaeus is stuck at his begging station. Jesus is being celebrated as king while Bartimaeus is overlooked as a beggar. It's the tale of two men living in two different worlds. Or is it? Bartimaeus' world seems so different than Jesus' world until at this moment when their two worlds meet and Bartimaeus hears that Jesus of Nazareth is in the crowd, that he's passing by. And I wonder for a moment, is Bartimaeus surprised, speechless? This is the moment he's been waiting for and praying for and hoping for. He's heard so much about Jesus and here he is, but he can't see Jesus. He doesn't know if Jesus is out in front of the crowd or at the back of the crowd or in the middle of the crowd. And so the blind beggar becomes the town crier. Jesus! Son of David, have mercy on me. Not once or twice. He keeps crying out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And that's significant. Because it's the only time in Mark's gospel that anybody refers to Jesus as the Son of David. As a descendant of David. That's an Old Testament title for the Messiah. Somewhere Bartimaeus had learned that 2 Samuel 7 is the place where God promises that Messiah will one day reign from David's throne in Jerusalem. And the Messiah's glory in that day will be so great that it will fill the earth and that every wrong will be made right, every crooked thing made straight, every broken thing put back together again. And every miracle of Jesus is a glimpse into the eternal newness that's coming through Jesus when he rules and reigns on the throne of David on this earth. Bartimaeus knows that. Bartimaeus believes that. And so for him, it isn't that seeing is believing. It's that believing. is seeing. That's why he's crying out, Son of David, have mercy on me. And that's when the crowd goes from ignoring him to rebuking him. Everybody's trying to shush him by out yelling him. It's like parents trying to quiet a group of kids by out yelling them, which rarely works because the kids respond like Bartimaeus here. The more they tell him to shut up, the more he cries out. The louder they yell, the louder he yells, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stops. Dead in his tracks. One voice. crying out for mercy stops Jesus cold. He is not an indifferent king. He is not a reluctant king. He is not an unhearing king. He's the merciful king. The one who will die for Bartimaeus stops for Bartimaeus and the prince will serve the pauper. See the deep, deep love of Jesus. See the abundant mercy of Jesus as he says to the crowd, you all call him. Ever stop to think that Jesus doesn't need the crowd to do that. Jesus could have parted the crowd instantly with just a wave of his hand. Jesus could have shushed that crowd with the same three short words he used to shush the storm back in Mark 4, peace, be still. And then he could have called out to Bartimaeus. But no, Jesus will teach the crowd something about mercy. He will use the very same people who were shutting up Bartimaeus to call out to Bartimaeus. They will serve as the voice of Jesus and the heart of Jesus as they speak the words of Jesus. Take heart Bartimaeus get up. Jesus is calling you. It's what Jesus says in Matthew 11 verse 28. Come unto me. All you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You know, perhaps there's someone in your world that God wants you to speak his words to. Words of encouragement, words of mercy, words of hope. Young people, maybe it's a classmate at school who's being bullied. Parents, maybe it's one of your own children who's being ostracized. Maybe it's a friend going through a divorce or a loved one, or excuse me, a friend who's lost a loved one. Don't avoid that person. Don't shush that person or ignore that person. Be a conduit and a vessel of God's mercy to that person and speak His words that give hope to the hopeless. And that's why Bartimaeus throws his cloak aside and springs to his feet. Blind people don't do that. Blind people don't stand up like that. They stand up slowly and carefully and deliberately. But when Jesus calls, Bartimaeus jumps to his feet, the crowd splits down the middle, and the blind man walks, stumbling over the rocks in the road and shuffling through the ruts in the road until finally the man who sees nothing is standing eye to eye with the one who sees everything. And Jesus asks, what do you want me to do for you? And maybe we're thinking, well, that's a dumb question. I mean, really, Jesus? Do you not know what the blind man wants? No, no, no, no, no. Jesus knows. Jesus knows everything. Because that question isn't for Bartimaeus. It's for the disciples who are with Jesus. It's especially for James and John. Because just a few verses ago, back in verse 36, Jesus asks James and John this very same question. What do you want me to do for you? And they answer, Jesus, when you're sitting on David's throne in Jerusalem, we want to ride shotgun. We want the best seats in the house, VIP passes with full access to the backstage buffet. We want power, prominence, perks, and position. Not Bartimaeus. He's desperate. He's thinking about his next meal and where he's going to spend the night. And that's why he says, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. All I want is for you to make me to see again. That's all I want. Does that not cut deep into your heart like it does mine? All I want is to see. He doesn't ask for Jesus to bring his family back or for enough money to buy bread for a year. He doesn't ask Jesus to exact revenge on all the people who had dehumanized him over and over again. Unlike James and John, he doesn't ask for the best seats. He asks for mercy. Just new eyes. So that I can see you and follow you. And maybe you're thinking, but PK, that's not what the text says. Bartimaeus doesn't say that. Just give me new eyes so that I can see you and follow you. And you're right. The text doesn't say that, but the text shows that. Because Jesus says, You've seen with the eyes of your heart. You believe what you couldn't see. And so I'm not just giving you new eyes. I'm giving you a new life. Your faith has made you well. I'm making you new through and through. You can go your way. and immediately the blind man can see perfectly. He can go his way. His whole new world has opened up to him. But no, Bartimaeus won't go on his way. Instead, he will leave his cloak behind and follow Jesus on the way. It's what the rich young ruler wouldn't do back in verse 22. That man had too much. He wouldn't leave any of it behind to follow Jesus. But Bartimaeus leaves the only thing he has behind. Because in Jesus, we don't just have everything we need, we have the one thing we can't live without, mercy. And that's why Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die. Jesus will go to the cross to purchase God's eternal mercy for all who will trust in him. Mercy isn't free. Mercy costs Jesus everything. That's why 1 John 3 verse 16 says, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us. Jesus dies suspended between a holy God in heaven and sinful people on earth because he is bearing the wrath of a holy God against sinners. He takes our place. He becomes our substitute. And there he bears our wrath, purchasing our mercy. That's why Titus 3 verse 5 says that he saved us not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his own mercy. By the washing of regeneration, that's the new life through the Holy Spirit who renews us. New life, new eyes, a new heart because of Jesus and his death. Not by works of righteousness that we have done that he saves us, only by his mercy. Can I ask is that what you're trusting in to gain you entrance into God's eternal glory? Will that be your answer on the day of judgment? God, I don't deserve to be here. I haven't earned my way here. I could not and I would not. It's only and always by the mercy of Jesus. I throw myself upon the mercy that he won for me through his cross. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Will you? Will you come to Jesus like Bartimaeus, blind, crying out for the mercy of Jesus to see? Trust in Christ. And when you do, When you have the King of Mercy as your Lord and Savior, there are three big takeaways from this scene for you. The first is, be merciful. Be merciful. Micah 6 verse 8, God says this to us, God has shown you what is good and what is required of you. To do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. To love mercy. Do you love mercy? As a child of mercy, you are now called to be a vessel and a conduit of mercy. You've been shown mercy. So actively scope out those in your world who need mercy, those who are craving mercy in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in this room, as you enter on Sundays. I would ask you to pray and ask God to open your eyes and your heart to the ones who are sitting at the fork in your road. Would you be God's vessel and conduit of mercy to them? This scene calls us to be merciful because secondly, this scene calls us to be hopeful. I love that as we follow Jesus around the gospel of Mark, that time and time and time again, we don't see a Jesus who runs and hides from this world's brokenness. We see a Jesus who stands eye to eye with beggars, blind beggars like Bartimaeus, viewing the ravages of what sin has done to him. And Jesus confronts that and overcomes that and there is coming a day when Jesus will reign on David's throne in the New Jerusalem. There is coming a day when Jesus will do universally what he's done for Bartimaeus personally. There is coming a day when blindness will be no more, when cancer is cured and dementia forever forgotten. There is coming a day with no more divorces, no more miscarriages, no more funerals, because through Jesus' cross and empty tomb, sin has been disarmed, Satan has been defeated, and death has died. It's a glimpse of what's coming on that day, the glory that is right now on its way. There is coming a day when the mercy of Jesus will so fill this universe that what's broken will be made perpetually new. There is coming a day. So be merciful, be hopeful, and thirdly, be worshipful. Worship isn't just about being impressed by the mercy of Jesus or even blown away by the mercy of Jesus. Worship magnifying the mercy of Jesus is acknowledging how desperately and deeply we need that mercy of Jesus. Bringing our neediness to him. crying out in our desperation before Him, and bowing before Him, throwing ourselves on His never-stopping, never-quitting, never-ending mercies. It's the mercies of amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Like Bartimaeus, I was blind, but now I see. See the one Bartimaeus sees and follows, the one who delights in showing mercy. worship him by following him because he has promised that surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of my God surrounded by his mercy forever. Amen. Father, take your truth plant it deep in us, shape and fashion us in your likeness and for your glory. May we see the mercy of Jesus. May we believe the mercy of Jesus. And may we throw ourselves on the mercy of Jesus. Do you know His mercy? There's only one way to find that mercy, to obtain that mercy, to live in that mercy eternally, and that's to come to Jesus by grace alone, through faith alone. Have you come to Him? Are you trusting in Him? Do you belong to Him? You can trust in Christ right now where you are and cry out in your need and he will hear you and he will save you. And Christian, is your life demonstrating the mercy to others that you've been shown by Jesus? Are you hoping in that mercy, looking forward to a forever in that mercy? And are you worshiping the one by calling out in your desperation and your need, magnifying the mercy of Jesus. Lord help us in Jesus name. Amen.