You know, throughout history we can hear about or read about
certain things that have happened and and events that may
have turned out different because of missed opportunities.
I think of things that have happened in my life and wonder
how things may have turned out with certain decisions that I
made in life. Wondering what?
What if I would have got that job?
What if I would have got taken that opportunity but I missed it
and later regretted it? What if I would have left the
building at Stockton, CA, the, the, the congregational building
there at Stockton, CA and left maybe 1/2 hour early and maybe
not have met Vicki. So there are certain things that
we realize in life where we have missed opportunities.
Some of us have made bad decisions, we've missed
opportunities and wish we would have have jumped on those
opportunities. Others have made good choices
and we've made good choices, the right ones from time to time,
and we've benefited greatly as a result of those choices and
opportunities. Well, then, the text of our
lesson this morning, we read of a man who made the best of one
opportunity, just one opportunity in his life.
His name was Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus was a blind beggar
who needed a miracle. And one day he was sitting on
the roadside, the curb, if you want to say, I don't know if
they had curbs in those days, but he was sitting there
begging. Jesus was passing his way, and
it changed his life forever. But Mardamanus didn't know how
close he came to missing this miracle.
If he had procrastinated, if he had put it off of coming there
that day, he would have never had another opportunity to be
healed by Jesus. He would have spent the rest of
his life regretting his missed opportunity.
He would have had a lifelong consequences from this.
There are opportunities that we have in life and if we miss
those, sometimes they change our life.
They change our life forever of the decisions that we've made.
You see, Jesus on this day would never pass through Jericho
again. So this was one chance that
Bartimaeus had. Jesus is also passing by us
today. He is here this morning with us
in the capacity of an invitation for you.
And we want to make sure that we make the best of that
opportunity. We have a great opportunity
today, but today may be your last chance.
Now let's go to our text. Let's go to mark the 10th
chapter and verse verse 46 through 52 and we're going to
notice, we're going to study through this little by little
and consider the title of our lesson today, the last time
Jesus passes by. Bartimaeus story shows us three
things. It shows us what happens before
Jesus passes by. It shows what happens when Jesus
passes by, and it also shows us what happens after Jesus passes
by. Notice in verse 46 that there is
devastation before Jesus passes by now as they came to Jericho
as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great
multitude blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus set by the road
begging. Bartimaeus was one who faced all
kinds of difficulties in life and, and certainly there were
these physical difficulties, the difficulties of his blindness,
you know, there I would consider it a huge difficulty.
And if I you talk to Darren, Darren doesn't really consider
his blindness so much of A difficulty.
He just works around it. That's all he's known.
He just does whatever he, he amazes me at what he does.
But there are certain things that that I can do that Darren
isn't able to do. And and so was the case with
Bartimaeus here this morning. Bartimaeus had these physical
difficulties. He wasn't able to to take care
of certain things in his life. So it says that he sat by the
roadside and he was begging. It's very possible that he was
born blind. The scriptures don't tell us
about this. There was a lot of problems from
what I read about this condition being fairly common in the day
and time of Bartimaeus because of the lack of, of doctors, the
the lack of medicines, diseases that were in the country and in
the area. One writer even talked about,
you know, ash that was flying around all over the place and
good getting people's eyes possibly, but it was something
that was common in that time. There were many diseases that
resulted in blind blindness, but Bartimaeus also endured the
financial problems. He said it set by the roadside
and begged. His financial problems were
probably as a result of his physical problems.
He wasn't able to take on a job like other people that had the
site. He couldn't work a job to
provide for himself. Well, there was no Institute for
the Blind to take care for those and and help people with other
opportunities, maybe teach them a trade or something like that.
There was no Social Security in that day and time.
He didn't receive any kind of public assistance or any kind of
governmental programs that were available to you and I today.
There weren't present in that day and time.
He was a man who possibly had no idea where his next meal was
coming from because he didn't have a way to earn a living
other than sitting on the roadside and begging unless
someone came by and gave him food, brought a meal or gave him
some money so that he could go purchase some food or whatever.
So you see, he had these financial problems, you know,
and there are many people here today in this building that may
have physical problems, deal with similar problems and may
have health, health issues that 'cause you a great amount of
pain. I know Denny is dealing with
severe back pain right now. Others may have pain and
headaches in in their in their head or or hip problems or back
problems or or knee problems, whatever.
It may be some kind of physical thing that keeps you from doing
what you want to do and limits your physical abilities in
several different things. It's quite possible that it may
hinder you in in able to earn a living or or financial things
happening differently in your life because of that pain.
So these are some serious problems that some of us may be
facing. Then there's some that don't
have either of these problems. You're physically fit and
financially stable. You may be thinking that all is
well, but that's sometimes those folks have a greater problem
than those that have the physical problems because what
they're doing, what happens when their life is that they have
spiritual problems and their spiritual destitute or bankrupt.
Bartimaeus was physically blind, but there are some who are
spiritually blind, blind to their sinful condition, blind to
the reality that we will stand before God someday in the day of
judgement and we will answer for our our life.
Bartimaeus was financially broke, but some in their sinful
state are spiritually bankrupt. When we think of a person that
is spiritually bankrupt, what comes to mind is that there's
nothing that that person can do to earn salvation.
Now Bartimaeus, if he was able to heal himself, if he was able
to fix or heal his blindness, he would have done it by now.
He would have done it by this time, but he wasn't able to do
that. He didn't have the ability to
heal himself. And we cannot live good enough.
We cannot perform enough good works to earn our salvation.
There's nothing within us, within us that we can do by
ourselves that can help our spiritual condition.
In fact, we can be worse than sick.
The Bible says that we are dead in our trespasses and sins.
Ephesians 2:00 and 1:00, and also Colossians 2 and verse 13.
So if we're living in sin, if we haven't accepted Jesus as our
Savior and been baptized for the remission of our sins, we are
spiritually bankrupt and we are dead in our trespasses and sins.
But there is a solution. Bartimaeus needed a cure.
We also need a cure this morning.
We need to be born again. And the good news is that there
is someone passing by today who can give you what you need.
And that person's name is Jesus. But I've got to warn you this
morning that this could be the last time Jesus passes by.
Jesus is the only answer and solution to the problem of
spiritual bankruptcy. But the devil is going to do
everything he can to discourage you, to try to turn you away to,
to make things look different than they really are.
The devil is going to make sin look very inviting and very nice
and very comforting and very fun and not warn you about the
dangers of sin. So we have to be careful about
that. We have to be careful about how
the devil will try to stop us from getting to Jesus.
There are distractions as Jesus passes by.
Notice verse 47. And when he had heard that it
was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son
of David, have mercy on me. Bartimaeus was so close at this
point to receiving this blessing, to receiving this
miracle, to receiving that what he had desired for his entire
life. You know, I'm, I don't know,
maybe if I shouldn't speak on behalf of Darren, I don't know
if Darren would want to receive his sight today.
He may say I'm fine with the way I am, but I think that
Bartimaeus in this day and time with having to sit there begging
every day for for the what he needed every day that if he had
the opportunity to receive his sight instantly, he would have
taken that on for sure. So he had been waiting for this.
He hears the that Jesus was passing by and he calls out to
him. Thayer says the cry out means to
cry out loudly, speak with a loud voice.
So this wasn't something that Bartimaeus just said.
Hey Jesus, hey, look over here, over here.
He cried out as loud as he possibly could, knowing that
Jesus was the person that could heal him.
And he cried out loudly. Listen to what Luke's says about
this and Luke 18 and verses 36 and 37.
And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant.
So they told him that it was Jesus of Nazareth passing by.
What was Bartimaeus's motivation for yelling out to a man that he
had never met before? Well, here in verse 47 in our
text, we see that there's some important information.
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.
It seems that news had had reached Bartimaeus concerning
the miracles that Jesus had performed previously to coming
to Jericho. He had heard the healing of
lepers, the curing of the sick, the raising of the dead, the
lame to walk and the deaf to hear.
He had heard about Jesus, so he already knew that there's a man
out there, there's someone that could heal my blindness if I can
just get to it. And all of a sudden, you know,
you know, sometimes I one thing I remember that happened this
last year, we were downtown at that the, the parade, Christmas
parade. And all of a sudden we started
seeing the commotions, just things going on and seeing
people kind of running and moving around quickly and, and
moving away from an area. Of course, many of us realize
what happened was some some guy ran his truck into someone else.
But the thing was, we were we were attentive to what was going
on. Now Bartimaeus is sitting here
doing what he does every day, going out and sitting on the
roadside waiting for someone to put some money, whether at a cup
or a plate or a cloth or whatever it may be.
And all of a sudden he hears commotion going on.
He hears the crowd kind of gathering, the crowd maybe
getting liar louder and louder and, and hearing this commotion
going on. He was what in the world is
happening? But it's clear that he'd heard
about Jesus and he'd heard about the changes that Jesus had made
in other people's lives. Maybe this will be something
that would help him as well. Barmaidas Bartimaeus had
received this important information about Jesus, but now
there was some who someone who tried to stop him from getting
to Jesus. Today is just like back then.
When Jesus passes by, there will be the intentional interruptions
by Satan in your life, by the devil in your life, distractions
and barriers and and walls put in front of you trying to keep
you from getting to Jesus, whatever it may be.
It may be a job, it may be a friendship and maybe a family
member. It may be some of your working
relationships, whatever it may be, but there may be someone or
something that is keeping you from making the decision to
follow Jesus. Now here in verse 48, it says
then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the
more son of David, have mercy on me.
You know this kind of pictures to me just the intensity, the
the the gradual intensity of of Bartimaeus and his excitement to
hear about Jesus. He hears Jesus is coming by and
he's only got so much time. You know, when someone comes by,
you only have so much time to say something to them and then
they get out of years reach. You hear they're coming.
You hear the commotion here, they're coming here, they're
coming. And he says, Jesus, son of
David, have mercy on me. And they say shut up, hush.
And that's exactly what that means.
There is. It means the crowd told him be
quiet. And that's what the world is
telling us today. Sometimes the world is telling
us and Satan is telling us, be quiet.
You don't need Jesus. They're telling us He doesn't
have anything to offer you. It's just a figment of your
imagination. It's just, it's just something
that's a fad. The Bartimaeus knew what Jesus
had to offer. If he can heal the blind, and I
mean if he can heal the leper, if he can make people here, if
he can raise the dead, certainly, certainly he can heal
my blindness. And so Bartimaeus has only got a
certain amount of time as Jesus passes by to say something to
Jesus to try to get him and get his attention as he passes by
before he gets out of reach of hearing.
And so as the crowd tells Bartimaeus be quiet, Bartimaeus
yells out even louder and says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy
on me. He was doing everything that he
could to get Jesus attention. But this this word, it says here
that many warned him and the King James versus has charged
him. And that means that they rebuked
him sharply. And it wasn't just saying, you
know, like we do sometimes with our children to say just quiet
down, just quiet down. It wasn't like that they but
they told him shut up. I don't know why.
Maybe they were embarrassed by him, they knew who Jesus was,
there was excitement going on. Maybe they thought it was just
not out of place. But it's never out of place to
call on the name of Jesus. It's never out of place.
The reason that there will be an interruptions because Satan's
doing everything he can to try to keep you from getting to
Jesus. They will tell you all kinds of
things. They will tell you your life is
too messed up. They will tell you you've have
too many things going on in your life, that your your life is too
sinful, and that Jesus, certainly Jesus won't be able to
fix you. Satan can use people to stop you
from crying out to Jesus, and he will.
But I want to encourage you to be like Bartimaeus.
And when people tell you to stop seeking Jesus, to stop talking
about Jesus, to stop studying and reading your Bible, to stop
praying because you don't think it's doing any good, keep crying
out. Just do it a little bit louder
and don't be ashamed to cry out, for Jesus drowned out that crowd
of naysayers. That's what Bartimaeus did.
He continued to call out to Jesus because he needed a
miracle and he knew that Jesus was his only hope.
If you're lost, you must realize that Jesus is your only hope,
nothing else. You can't fix yourself.
You need Jesus. As Bartimaeus stood crying out
to Jesus, Jesus heard him and had compassion on him.
Notice there is compassion when Jesus passes by.
This meeting was no accident. It's not just a coincidence.
There was a divine appointment here today and it and, and let
me say this, that no accident that you are here today at this
place at this time and Jesus is calling your name here today.
That is what happened here in Jericho.
Notice that there was a personal call or a personal invitation.
And verse 49. So Jesus stood still and
commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying to him, be of good cheer, rise, He is calling you and
throwing aside his garment. He arose and came to Jesus.
So Jesus answered and said to him, What do you want me to do
for you? Jesus heard.
He hadn't got far enough away. Bartimaeus had not waited long
enough for Jesus to get out of earshot.
He didn't put it off. He didn't procrastinate when he
heard Jesus was coming. And when Jesus was in the area,
when Jesus was within air shot, he yelled out for Jesus.
Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
And Jesus hears it and he stops and he says go get him.
The man who called out for me, go get him, bring him to me.
So Bartimaeus arose and went to where Jesus was.
Remember, the crowd was trying to shut him up at that time, but
perhaps they thought that Jesus was too busy for someone like
Bartimaeus. You may think that you're too
busy in life for Jesus. You may think that you've got
all the time in the world. You may think that you'll have
tomorrow. You may think that Jesus too
busy for Someone Like You as well.
But I'm telling you that Jesus came to this earth for people
just like you. In fact, it came specifically
and especially for you. Jesus himself said that he came
to seek and save that which is lost.
Luke 19 and verse 10. Also, Jesus came to die so that
we might live. Romans 5 and verse 8.
But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.
You know, there are times when we've done favors for other
people and you know, maybe they want 5 bucks, maybe they want a
little bit of something so they can get a meal, whatever it may
be, and you see it and just take off.
They don't go into the restaurant to get food, they
take off doing something else. You'll really
But while we were yet sinners, even while we were sinners,
Christ died for us. God's desire is not is that no
one should be lost. Second Peter 3 and verse 9.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promises.
Some count slackness, but His long-suffering toward us, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance. Notice so in verse 50.
And throwing aside His garments, He rose and came to Jesus.
Jesus has given the call for you to come to Him today.
It is your responsibility to accept that invitation.
You will not receive the blessing unless you accept the
invitation. Bartimaeus would not have
received his sight had he not accepted the invitation to go
towards Jesus. But we have to throw off all the
old garments of sin. We have to get rid of those old
things, and we have to put on Christ.
It says He arose. This word means to leap up, to
spring up. And as soon as he heard the
invitation, he leaped up without hesitation to accept this
invitation. It doesn't say that.
He said, well, and you know, my, my legs are hurting.
My back's hurting from sitting here.
OK, OK, I'm going to get up. The Bible indicates that he
leaped up. He got with it.
Here was the opportunity, and he jumped on it.
He took advantage of the opportunity to be healed.
We sometimes in our life just wait around.
We say well, you know God just let me get some things cleaned
up in my life 1st and then and then I'll serve you.
Let me take care of this. Let me take care of that and
then I'll live a life dedicated to you.
But it here Bartimaeus jumped up.
So Jesus answered and said to him, what do you want me to do
for you? Well, you know, people want all
what Jesus do all kinds of things for them.
But you know, Lord, I want salvation.
Lord, I want a home in heaven. Lord, I want the healing, Lord,
I want the sickness taken care of.
Lord, I want this Lord, I want Lord, I want Lord, I want, I
want all these things. But when it comes to serving
God, that's a different story. No, I don't really want to do
that. I don't want to dedicate my life
that much. I've got other things to do.
Bartimaeus jumped at this opportunity.
And Jesus said, what do you want me to do?
What do you want from Jesus this morning?
What do you want Jesus to do for you?
This invitation is not only personal, but it's also to all
mankind. Notice in Matthew the 11th
chapter, verses 28 through 30. Come to me, all you who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
From my yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Jesus is waiting for us to accept the invitation.
Revelation 3 and verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and He
with me. When Jesus invites a person or
any individual, all mankind to salvation, it is a personal
invitation. You know, sometimes we get
invaded and a family may get invited to a wedding or whatever
it may be, or a shower or what. When someone sends you a
personal invitation, it's a little bit more, it's a little
nicer. Well, the invitation to Jesus is
something that is personal to you.
This morning we have a large crowd here.
This morning there was a large crowd in Jericho.
That day there were many others who were following Christ.
There was a great multitude. There were all those that were
following Jesus, the disciples that were walking with him.
So there was a lot going on. But Jesus picked out this one
man and said have him come here to me.
One man received this personal invitation.
The same is true today for you. We hear that there's a
passionate cry hearing this man. The blind man said to him,
Rabboni or Lord and Master or Master, that I might receive my
sight. Jesus asked him, what do you
want? He didn't say, well, I want, you
know a better house, I want better clothes.
I want this. I want that.
This was the one thing that Bartimaeus had on the top of his
list was to have his sight back. Jesus asked him, What do you
want? He says that I might receive my
sight. I might be able to see that.
I might be able to do the things that I want to do that others
do. I want to receive that blessing.
You may be here today and you think that you know what you
need. You may desire for a physical
problem to be healed or prayers of the church.
You may be looking for someone, some help and, and, and, and
dealing with some kind or some form of addiction.
You may be desiring comfort from certain worries or concerns or
problems that you have in life. Physical, financial, whatever it
may be, you may be wanting someone in your family to be
restored to Christ. Maybe you want to get your life
back together and get on the right path.
Maybe you're struggling with a problem with dedication in your
life. Maybe your prayer life isn't
what it ought to be. Whatever it is, Jesus can do all
of those things. But it's possible that you're
seeking one thing and Jesus sees that you need something greater.
You're seeking other things. Instead of turning to Jesus, you
may be hoping for an earthly solution, and what you need is a
spiritual solution. Well, the good news is that
Jesus can take care of that. He's passing by here today,
right now. But this may be the last time
Jesus passes by. If you decide to make those
changes and you decide to accept that invitation, there will be
big changes in your life. Notice there's a transformation
after Jesus passes by in verse 52.
Then Jesus said to him, go your way, your faith has made you
well or healed you, the NIV says and immediately he received, he
received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.
Now he had, he had got up this cloaker or garments that he had
wrapped around him, sitting there begging for things.
He says he let go of those things and he leaped up and he
went towards Jesus, doesn't say anything about him going back to
that anybody. He went now and followed Jesus,
left all that stuff behind, left everything that he knew behind
and followed Jesus. You know, we have to leave
things behind in life. We may not want to give certain
things up in our life. We may not want to give up
certain sins we want to, we may not want to give up certain
habits in our life, but we got to give that up and we have to
follow Jesus. We have to follow Him,
especially after we've been healed, after we've had our sins
washed away, after we've been been baptized for the remission
of our sins. We can't go back to that old way
of life anymore. Bartimaeus realized that he can
do anything without Jesus. He couldn't heal himself.
He realized that Jesus was the only answer.
And because of his faith, Jesus made him whole.
Jesus made him whole, not Bartimaeus.
Jesus. He was healed of his blindness.
The key to your healing today is your faith in Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 11 and verse 6. But without faith, it's
impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe
that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek Him. There may be some here today
that are in great need. Only Jesus can provide a
solution for that problem. But you need to accept the
invitation from Him while there's time.
Don't delay. Don't regret it.
Don't be that one person that says, well, I missed an
opportunity to see we've all sinned and come short of the
glory of God. Romans 3 and verse 23.
We all need Jesus, but we have to accept the invitation.
What would have happened if Bartimaeus had waited until the
next opportunity? What if he would have stayed
home that day? What if he would have
procrastinated and waited? So Jesus is coming.
Well, I'll get him next time. I'm just not feeling up to it
today. What if he had listened to the
crowd and told him that? Told him to be quiet?
If you continued reading through the book of Mark, you'll find
that Jesus never came through Jericho again because he was on
his way to Jerusalem to be crucified.
I'm not saying that you'll never have another opportunity to
accept Jesus as your Savior. I'm not saying that, but we're
never guaranteed tomorrow on March 21st of 2016, that's been,
that's been eight years ago. Eight years ago, Bob Smith
walked out the front door of Charlotte's house, never to
return, never to come back inside.
Bob didn't know that was going to happen to him that day.
I didn't know. Bob didn't know.
Charlotte didn't know. There are people that you may
think of, if you may be wrong, reminded of in your, in your
life, in your memories. Some was brought to our
attention this morning and didn't plan on falling and
hurting themselves, that didn't plan on passing out, that didn't
plan on getting in a car accident.
And you may not have the opportunity to live a life for
Jesus anymore because you let Jesus pass by.
Don't let it be the last time Jesus passes by, even if you
live for another 50 years. We are not promised that we'll
have the opportunity again. Some of us may intend to fully
surrender to Christ one day. Some others may just say that,
well, I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready to do that, Plan
on getting things right eventually.
Perhaps intend to change some things in their life before they
repent and turn to Jesus. But it doesn't work that way.
It does not work that way. You can't clean up yourself
enough to be worthy of salvation.
It won't happen. So what you need to do is you
need to repent and turn to Jesus and clean up.
Let Jesus clean you up because it's only the blood of Christ
that can cleanse you from your sins.
It was Colossians one of verse 14 and whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Also, first, John one of verse 7 and the blood of Jesus Christ
his Son cleanses us from all sin.
It's only the blood of Christ that can cleanse your sins.
You can't fix your life. You can't take away your sins.
You can't you can't straighten your life up by yourself.
You need Jesus to do that. You need his help.
You need his blood. You need his cleansing blood to
do that today. And don't wait for other things
to happen. 2nd Corinthians 6 and verse 2 says behold, now was
this accepted time. Behold, now was the day of
salvation, and we need to confess the name of Christ.
Matthew 10 What did I do? I've got it out of repent.
I'm sorry, I've got a little ahead of myself.
We must repent. I'll tell you now.
But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
There's others that will say, well, you know, I need to go sow
some wild oats before I calm down my life a little bit.
Need to go out and have some fun.
That's why I worry about kids that go off to college on their
own by themselves, go out and have a little bit of fun
sometimes without someone watching over them.
But as Lynwood Smith would say and other preachers would say,
you can't sow wild oats and then pray for a crop failure.
That's not the way it works. So Jesus is calling you.
So we also need, we also need to realize it.
We need to confess the name of Christ.
Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also
confess before my Father who is in heaven.
And then we need to be baptized into Jesus Christ for the
remission of our sins. Acts 2 and verse 38.
Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let everyone of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is passing by. Once you accept that that
invitation this morning and follow the example of Bartimaeus
and throw off the filthy garments of sin and rise up,
jump up and accept Jesus as your Savior.
Galatians 3 and verse 27 For as many of you as we're baptized
into Christ have put on Christ, rise up, throw those old things
off, but put on Christ because this may be the last time that
Jesus passes by. The lesson is yours this
morning. I hope that we've said something
that will benefit you in some way.
We never know those the minds of those that are present this
morning. There may be someone here that
is subject to that gospel call, subject to that invitation and
hearing the word. Won't you believe it?
Won't you repent of your life? Won't you confess the name of
Christ and be baptized into Christ for the remission of your
sins? But if you take in those steps
and for some reason you've turned away and you've, you've
lost your commitment to God. Once you come with a repenting
heart, confessing your faults, and we'll pray with you and for
you come while we stand and while we see.