Roadside Redemption

I. The Scope of Salvation

Salvation is a term that we use often as Christians, especially around the time of Resurrection Sunday considering the fact that it is the day in which our Lord conquered the grave, removed the sting of death, and gave us a living Savior in which to look upon in our greatest times of turmoil. This term salvation regards the atoning work that Jesus accomplished on the cross and how it is applied to each person individually. Yet, the question stands, what is the scope of this salvation? Unto who is it offered? Jesus answered this question clearly in Matthew 28:19,20.

Matthew 28:19 NKJV

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 28:20 NKJV

teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Our Lord did not say only make disciples of all the church members, Whitwell residents, or all the Americans. He said go to all the nations! Telling them about the unspotted Lamb who bore our sin so that we wouldn’t have to. Salvation is for any who will call upon the name of the Lord. Notice with me three things about the scope of our salvation.

a. A Glance at the Beautiful

Mark 10:46 (NKJV)

Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude

In our text we see Jesus on His way to Jerusalem and the path that He has chosen to get there runs through Jericho. If you are familiar with the book of Joshua this city will sound very familiar to you. If you recall this is the city that the children of Israel were commanded to march around once for six days and then on the seventh day they were commanded to march seven times around the city wall. After that the priests blew the trumpets and all the children shouted with all their might and the walls came crashing down. This mighty testament to God’s power was so amazing because of how powerful Jericho was yet with 13 laps, trumpets, and some yelling the walls came crashing down. Jericho did recover from this is in the way of building a second Jericho a couple miles down the road. This Jericho was just as prosperous, just as successful, and just as mighty as the first. Near to the city was a spring and through the power of aqueducts they got the water to the city to create fertile soil. This combined with the climate made the city a hot spot for trading and business. One historian described it as the Eden of Palestine. If you were anyone seeking to grow your name, your wealth, or your reputation you came here. Considering the fact that they were able to rebound so quickly and how well they were doing I am sure the residents of Jericho got a little nervous when Jesus came to town. The last time the name of God came near this prospering city they weren’t left with prosperity but rather a humanitarian project in the form of a complete rebuild. The last time God gave them attention they fell down but this time around instead of God giving them all the attention in the form of an invasion they actually get no attention at all. Now while Jesus was in Jericho it is clear that He was still working considering that He went in with His disciples and walked out with His disciples and a great multitude, but notice how quickly Mark gets off the subject of Jericho. As if to say Jesus went in and got out as quick as possible. That is because the point of this text isn’t to behold the beauty of Jericho. It isn’t to ponder their prosperity. There is something much more beautiful about to take place. Something much more mighty than this city. The amazing grace of God is about to be revealed to a lowly sinner. One of Hell’s residents is about to move out. There is nothing greater than this! There is nothing that can compare to the beauty of a sinner who was just born again. We only get a small glance at this city. Just as quickly as we see it the camera begins to pan over to some lonely blind beggars.

b. The Gloom of the Broken

If you have ever met someone battling depression or someone that has just had a traumatic event happen in their life you will understand exactly what I am about to say. It seems as if there is nothing that can cheer them up. They are downtrodden and sad. They are weary and worn. They have this constant plea for help yet nothing is able to meet their need. This is the case for Bartimaeus. After we learn of the beautiful city that Jericho is we are introduced to the broken, blind beggar named Bartimaeus.

Mark 10:46 (NKJV)

blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.

A few years ago there was a campaign that dealt specifically with how to address people with autism. The idea of “identity first” language was introduced. Where instead of saying “They are an autistic person” you would say “They are a person with autism.” This was a way to subtly say that people are not defined by autism. I agree with this movement to identify people as people and not as a disorder.

Bartimaeus did not have this luxury. We learn of his disability before his name. To further his misery for the rest of the passage he is no longer referred to as “Bartimaeus” but as “the blind man”. May I point out at this time that this is the case today with your sin.

You are not person with sin. You are a sinner.

At this time people if people were born with a disability or gained it as they aged, their whole life revolved around it. Blind people especially were hindered by this because they could do nothing to help themselves or to help other people. Because of this blind people were reduced to beggars outside of major cities. They would sit outside the walls or on the roadside, such as Bartimaeus, and lay down their coat on the ground. This is where people would lay their money if they were generous enough to give.

Yet, each time the coin would hit his coat. With each click of another dollar landing into his hands. I can only imagine that this caused Bartimaeus more agony. With each coin falling to his lap he was reminded of his inability, of his disability, and the simple fact that his need of sight was not able to be met. One commentator put it best,

The world seldom can reach the real needs of men. She can bestow honour, she can alleviate suffering, but she cannot heal or satisfy the soul. The gifts which the world gave to Bartimeus, kind and well intentioned as they were, were just those gifts which reminded him most keenly of his misfortune.

Don’t think that Bartimaeus is alone is in his blindness though. Blindness was such a common thing at this time that Jesus used it as an illustration to spiritual darkness.

John 1:4 NKJV

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Jesus is the only way to have sight. He is the only way to get light into your life. This world may offer you the gifts and gimmicks, but they only act as a reminder of our poor blind state. There is no true joy outside of Christ nor is there any freedom. Yet as we are about to read with Bartimaeus there is an opportunity for you to have sight as well today. Your journey begins the same as this blind man as you two sit together and notice the Grace walking By.

c. The Grace Walking By

Mark 10:47 (NKJV)

And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth

Reading this phrase I cannot help but think of Romans 10:17

Romans 10:17 NKJV

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The Bible is clear in this regard that we gain faith by hearing of Christ and that Bartimaeus learns that this is Jesus by hearing as well. One could say that it is obvious because Bartimaeus is blind yet this is to show that his faith will soon be rewarded. In Luke we learn that Bartimaeus asked about what was going on when the people walked by and they told him that it was Jesus of Nazareth.

The scene probably went something like this. Bartimaeus is sitting and begging next to the road. Typically he may hear one or two people walk by and he would begin to beg. Then all of a sudden he hears a large group of people coming and they are excited so he inquires about the noise. To which someone mentions Jesus. That name sounds familiar to him. Sounds like the one who turned water into wine. Who cast demons out. Who caused the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, and the BLIND to see. Bartimaeus, as we’re about to see, recognizes this as grace walking by his begging spot. He has done nothing for this opportunity, to him it may just be dumb luck but none the less he will not waste this opportunity. I remember multiple times that grace walked by my street corner.

Young lady asking if I was saved at the Chinese buffet. & sitting at home and reading Jeremiah 29:13

Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

I wasted the first time and most likely many others yet God saw fit to show me grace yet again. Someone who did not grow up in church. Someone who didn’t grow up singing about Zacheas in the tree and this little light of mine. Yet the scope of salvation covered me. The scope of salvation covers the beautiful, the ugly. The small and the tall. The skinny and the fat. The black and the white. Those who grew up in church and those who didn’t.

You may be hear today in the same situation as Bartimaeus today. You seek to find happiness in that beer, or at that party. You find pleasure in sexual things or maybe in crude things yet you’re beginning to see that they are only a temporary pleasure. Who is this that we get so excited about? Who is this that we say provides eternal security? The answer is the same. It is Jesus of Nazareth. This is the scope of salvation and I surrender to you that if you would call on the name of Jesus today it will cover you too.

II. The Sight of the Sightless

The common phrase today in response to something extraordinary happening is the little mantra, “Ill believe it when I see it”. It may come in the form of a kid telling their parent they cleaned their room perfectly. To which the parents giggle and say “I’ll believe it when I see it.” It appears by way of a husband sitting on the couch watching the football game and telling his wife that the fourth quarter is almost over. Being in this situation she rolls her eyes and says “Ill believe it when I see it.” Our fleshly tendency is to only believe things that we can see. We want to be able to reach out and touch it or perceive it ourselves. Yet, this wasn’t an option for brother Bartimaeus. If he said I’ll believe it when I see it people knew he had already made up his mind. Bartimaeus and the Christian today know that sight does not create belief but belief creates sight. Believing is seeing.

Armed with this knowledge we are able to see two responses that Bartimaeus gave because he knew that believing is seeing.

a. Response to the Opportunity

Mark 10:47 NKJV

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!”

Bartimaeus is one who clearly does not waste opportunity. This indicated by his quickness to call out to Christ but what makes this more interesting is the manner in which he calls to Christ. Notice the shift of his tone, indicated by the word “began”. He began to cry out. There is a shift from going through the motions of begging to a shouting out of the name of Jesus. His spiritual sight is about to shine in the ways that he addresses Jesus. First, he calls Him “Son of David”. This is a messianic term. Basically calling Him Messiah or Savior.

Now in the book of Mark, while it is not necessarily in chronological order, we see multiple miracles being performed by Jesus to confirm who He is. We see demons being cast out, paralyzed people moving freely, people being healed completely, and many more. Despite these things the first time that Jesus is referred to as “Son of David” in the book of Mark is found in chapter 10 verse 47. Where this man who hasn’t seen a thing for his entire life sees clearly who he is dealing with. I am willing to say that Blind Bartimaeus had more sight than Pontius Pilate. Than the soldiers who beat and mocked Jesus. Than the crowd who cried out at the crucifixion, “If you’re really God, save yourself!”. Bartimaeus rightly describes Jesus as the Messiah followed by the words “Have mercy on me”.

This little phrase confused me. For the simple reason that if you remember the difference between mercy and grace. Grace being receiving good things that you don’t deserve. Mercy being NOT receiving bad things that you DO deserve. Grace gets you into Heaven while mercy keeps you out of hell. What Bartimaeus is crying for here is mercy. Saying boldly, loudly, and publicly “Jesus! Savior! Please do not give me what I deserve!”. My question is what did he do?

Even if he wanted to do something bad it seems like he couldn’t. He’s blind, yet considering the fact that he is unable to really do anything. He’s never seen pornography, he’s never looked upon a woman lustfully(never looked upon anything actually). The worst thing this man has probably done is wish that he had functioning eyesight and yet he calls out for mercy. In this time if you were born with a disability people simply concluded that God’s hand of judgement was upon you by removing the ability to be functional in society. People believed that if you couldn’t walk, talk, hear, or see you were in a bad standing with God almighty. Now, while we know today that those with physical disabilities did not necessarily come upon those disabilities because of their sin it is a clear biblical fact that each and every one of us is born with a spiritual disability. A spiritual blindness that is there because of our ancestors sin and our current sin. This blindness that we possess is because God’s hand of judgement is upon each and every person who does not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And like Bartimaeus it would be wise of us to respond in similar fashion to this opportunity. To grace sitting right on our doorstep in the form of crying out “Jesus! Have mercy on me!”. Bartimaeus recognized that without the help of Christ judgement was upon his hand and when presented with the chance for change. When given opportunity to be made whole. He did not shyly raise his hand. He did not send a text message. He did not wait until Sunday morning. He cried to the Lord for mercy! Although it was not written yet it is clear that Bartimaeus took heed to the words from Hebrews 4:16

Hebrews 4:16 NKJV

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

And oh that we would mimic this today. That we would come boldly to Jesus confessing our need. For the sinner the great need to mercy and for the saint the grace needed for our trying hour. I think that something gets in the way of that though. Sometimes it is our own pride and sometimes it is sadly other people. What we would refer to as legalists. This opposition is common in our day and it is nothing new as our blind brother is facing the same problem.

Mark 10:48 NKJV

Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

There was clearly some push back from this crowd. Some opposing force trying to stop him from crying to God. But notice Bartimaeus’ second response. His response to opposition.

b. Response to the Opposition

While the size of this multitude is not named we can safely assume that it is a large group of people by the description of “great multitude”. Yet despite this Bartimaeus is still boldly crying out to God, despite the opposition. Now while many of us would be scared to do something like this in a small group of people, the blind man does it proudly and without hesitation. I think the simple reason being is that for once in his life. Being blind came to be an advantage. To help illustrate this I’d like to point you to a new student at a Texas high school.

This family had just moved to Dallas and enrolled their only son at the local high school. On his first day he met a few people and they wanted to get to know him better. They asked him what his favorite hobby was to which he just said, “Staring contests”. The kids thought this was a pretty weird hobby but they went along with it and had a staring contest with him. He beat three kids in a row and they were all amazed. This trend continued for a few weeks, the kid was accepting all challengers and remained undefeated in all of these staring contests. The kids of the school were starting to become frustrated and decided to plot against him to get him to blink. They went and found the meanest kid in school. 6’5 275lbs. He was missing three teeth and had tattoos on his face. The kids paid him off and asked him to do one simple thing. They knew they could not win in a fair staring contest so they asked the mean looking kid to look as scary as possible. They went and found the guy’s crush and had her stand behind the mean kid in an attempt to make him blush too. They even went and got the funniest guy in school and had him to make faces. With this trinity of fear, laughter, and blushing they were sure he would blink. High noon came around and the staring contest began. The tall kid was terrifying, the funny kid was hilarious, his crush even tried winking at him to get him to wink back. He still won the staring contest. The kids gave in and asked for his secret, to which he simply replied “Its pretty easy to win staring contests when you cant see who you’re staring at.” They were confused at this statement so he pulled out his wallet and handed them a disability card which stated not only was this kid blind. He had two glass eyes.

Just as our high school student found a great use for his disability so did Bartimaeus because although there was this huge crowd between him and Jesus, he didn’t know any better. All he knew was that Jesus was there and he needed Jesus. Someone would yell hush and he would yell even louder because he needed Jesus Christ to help him. Let this be an encouragement to someone here today that may know of their sin and there's something or someone in the way. Maybe in the form of “I will do better first” or there is a literal person in your life saying do not call on Jesus. What you need right now is some blindness in your life. You need to close your eyes ignore the noise and call to Jesus in faith.

For a moment though I would like to point out one more thing regarding Bartimaeus being so bold. I want to put forward this very simple yet challenging question. Who are the ones telling Bartimaeus to hush up? Who are the ones yelling at him, “You’re too broken! You’re poor! You’re blind!, Just be quiet already! We are on our way to Jerusalem.” This multitude is most likely the former blind people, former lame people, former poor people. In today’s language we would call them church members. What this people had done was developed a quick case of dementia. And all I mean by that is they were quick to forget the sin or situation that Jesus brought them out of. As mentioned earlier Jesus wasn’t in Jericho for very long and so these people hadn’t been following for very long. Meaning that hadn’t been healed for very long…

All I am getting at is these people, because they were now walking with Jesus, thought that they were better than other people. They thought that their sin could be forgiven and that they could be healed, but blind Bartimaeus was too far gone. Jesus could change me but there's no way He can change you. How often do we do this? In our pride we will say “never” but Shane Pruitt gives a different perspective in the form of a fill in the blank statement.

Blank will never change. If you are able to put someone in that blank, you need to change first

If you think that you can be changed by the power of the Gospel, but someone else can’t you need to be changed by the gospel. That is what Bartimaeus was after in this moment. He was seeking to be changed so he seized the opportunity and fought the opposition but there is one more response we must examine. Not from Bartimaeus, or from the crowd, but from Jesus Christ Himself.

c. Response to the Occurrence

Mark 10:49 NKJV

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.”

The phrase What Would Jesus Do comes to mind when I read this. Jesus stood still. We must keep in mind that outside of context this makes no sense but in this very moment we must remember that Jesus Christ is on a mission. A mission that is greater than any youth retreat, cookout, revival, or church service because this is the mission that makes it all possible. This journey will take Him to the old rugged cross where He will bleed and die for the sins of His people. Securing salvation for all that will call upon the name of the Lord!

You could say this was top priority. This was number 1. Yet what did Jesus do? He stood still. As if to say, “Yes the cross is important. But he is the reason I am going to the cross. He is the one who I came to save. He is worth stopping for.” Jesus stood still. And in this stop of forward progress he commands Bartimaeus to be called. In one fell swoop He has chastised His followers and invited the sinner.

Typically when Jesus invited someone to follow Him it was in the form of direct conversation but this time He does it indirectly. Not only foreshadowing the way in which we will be representatives of Christ today but also to correct the ones who were just saying, “We don’t have time for this! We need to get to Jerusalem!”. Christ is very clearly saying, “We do have time, if we don’t get him there's no point in going to Jerusalem.”

And so the people listened to Jesus and said,”Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you”. This same call stands today. To all that sit under my voice this morning He is calling you! To which you should be of good cheer and rise for! For this to happen both for yourself and for Bartimaeus one more thing must happen. The surrender to the Savior.

III. The Surrender to the Savior

One of my favorite hymns is I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender All to Him I freely give I will ever love and trust Him In His presence daily live

All to Jesus I surrender Make me, Savior, wholly Thine Let me feel Thy Holy Spirit Truly knowing that Thou art mine

All to Jesus I surrender Now I feel the sacred flame Oh the joy of full salvation Glory, glory to his name

I surrender all Oh, I surrender all All to Thee My blessed Savior I surrender all

This wonderful song encapsulates all that is required for salvation. A total surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. A waving of the white flag and saying, “Lord, I need you!”

a. A Combined Repentance

Mark 10:50 NKJV

And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.

The most clear picture of repentance is throwing aside all sin and self ability and fully trusting in Jesus’ name. This is what Bartimaeus is doing here. This image of throwing aside his garment should not be taken in the way of stripping himself naked but rather in the way of forfeiting his own sufficiency. If you remember a few moments earlier I described the life of a beggar. They would sit down and lay down their coat which is where they would receive the money being offered to them. What Bartimaeus is basically doing is saying, “I cannot do this by myself! My way isn’t working! I forfeit that for what Christ can give.” He wasn’t coming to bargain or to ask for money, he was coming for salvation, Matthew Henry summed this up nicely by saying,

“Those who would come to Jesus, must cast away the garment of their own sufficiency”

If you desire to come to Christ you must forfeit your ability and your way. Let me assure you Christ is the better way! Now if you notice here we have a glorious image of what it means to repent, but this image is double sided. There is two forms of repentance going on here. One from Bartimaeus and another from the multitude.

The Bible says that he rose and came to Jesus

How did the blind man find his way over there? He is sitting on the side of the road begging and Jesus is on the road. How did he traverse the different obstacles and the people in the way? Well, he knew the general direction to go from the sound of Christ’s voice, but someone from that multitude had to have taken him by the hand and led him to Jesus. His repentance caused action in the form of literally leading someone to Christ, and I believe this example could fix many problems in churches today. That our repentance of sins is followed by action.

Imagine that I put a kayak into the river and begin to float downstream. I can turn around and face the right direction all I want, but until I start to paddle nothing is going to change.

Christian, maybe you are stuck in this rut of sin where you fall short of the glory of God and you repent but it seems like you fall back into it. May I suggest that you take action after you repent, one of the best actions being leading someone to the Lord. Now I must clarify something.

The person that led Bartimaeus to Jesus could only take him so far. He was able to help him avoid the potholes and the people, but once he got to Jesus all he could say is, “I got you here, but you have to do business with Him yourself.”

You can only get people to the foot of the cross. You cannot take them up the stairway to Heaven. It is your responsibility to get them to the cross. It is their responsibility to personally submit to the Lord. This is exactly what Bartimaeus was after. He wanted to do personal business with Jesus and it came in the form of a simple request.

b. A Cleansing Request

Mark 10:51 NKJV

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.”

This short but powerful statement begins with Jesus answering. What was He answering? Bartimaeus’ plea for mercy. I find it interesting that for this plea for mercy Jesus says, “What can I do for you?”. I mind instantly goes to Mark 10:45

Mark 10:45 NKJV

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Which is the verse right before the text we deal with today. It is that verse is a setup for this entire passage. That Jesus was about to serve Bartimaeus in the form of bringing back his sight. Christ asking Bartimaeus what He wanted Him to do is a simple allusion to the fact that there is nothing you can do to earn your salvation! Christ earned it for you.

The blind man gives a simple answer, he says. “Lord, please let me see”. This was an open invitation to ask for riches, wisdom, or fame. Yet Bartimaeus only asked for his sight. As way of saying Lord please pull your hand of judgement from me. Let me see. Sinner today you can make that same request for Spiritual sight. It will be followed by something though.

c. A Confirmed Regeneration

Mark 10:52 NKJV

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.

Your faith has made you well. This word “well” in the NT refers to a spiritual salvation not so much a physical healing. While he was healed physically I am convinced that Bartimaeus was also healed spiritually that day as well. For this simple reason that Jesus said “Go your way”. Do whatever you want Bartimaeus.

This is silly but I think of the Genie from the Disney movie Aladdin. He is no longer confined but free.

Bartimaeus is no longer confined to blindness and Christ has commanded him to go his way. What did Bartimaeus do? He followed Jesus on the road. My way is Christ’s way. The most amazing part about this though is found in the fact that Bartimaeus joined forces with the multitude. The same ones that were just telling him to be quiet. He joined right in. Be the change!

Conc. It is a great thing that Bartimaeus called on Jesus when He passed by because Jesus never passed that way again. Do not waste this opportunity. Call on Christ while He is near and I promise He will stop and give you sight.