Turn over to Mark chapter 10. Amen.
Mark chapter 10. Praise God, Mark chapter 10.
We'll start in verse 46 to 52. I'll read the whole account and
then we're going to come back and break down this particular
account in Mark chapter 10, starting in verse 46.
And it says, and they came to Jericho and as he and as he with
his disciples, a large crowd went out of Jericho blind barn.
Emmaus, the son of Timaeus was sitting by the road by the side
of the highway begging. 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. And many warned him that he
should be quiet, but he cried a great deal more.
Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and
commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying to him, Be of good comfort, rise up, he is calling
you. And casting away his garment, he
rose up and came to Jesus. And answering, Jesus said to
him, What do you desire that I should do to you?
And the blind man said to him, My Lord, that I may see again.
And Jesus said, Go, your faith has healed you.
And instantly he saw again. And he followed Jesus in the
way. Hallelujah, I said.
Instantly he saw again, and he followed Jesus in the way.
Instantly he saw and he followed Jesus.
Glory to God. Now, in this passage of
Scripture, they're leaving Jericho.
OK, And as they're leaving Jericho, there's a custom of
someone by the name of Barn Emmaus.
And it could be that he's seen so often that he was known by
his condition. We call him Blind Man
Bartimaeus. Now, it could just be that the
scripture says Bartimaeus is a blind man.
However, it also can mean that he was known as Blind Man
Bartimaeus, because a lot of times when people have things in
their life, they begin to identify with that which they
have. We do this all the time,
especially when it comes to disease or sickness.
We say I have, you know, cancer, I have, you know, leukemia.
We say I am ADHD, I have PSPTSDI have it.
Say it again, I have it. Now, I'm not belittling any of
those things. Those things are real, no doubt
about it. But they can become our
identity. They can become our identity.
And what it means is then we begin to wear something that we
become identified that even the world sees it on us.
Now, you have to understand this.
These scriptures here are not in in today.
There is set back in time and there were customs and there
were things that people did. And I'm wearing this as a
representation of a cloak. This is definitely not what the
cloak look like. I just pulled this off my couch
in the office. OK.
So please do not act like this is what he was wearing.
This is just symbolism. All right?
And so this garment that Bartimaeus had actually
represented something, OK, he by his garment, by just the garment
he wore, identified him as a professional medicant, which is
just a beggar. That's a bigger word for beggar,
a professional medicant. He was a professional beggar.
You know, when my father, who was in painting, he was a
professional painter. He went to work in all whites,
white pants, white shirt in white.
He's a painter, but he wears white now, you know, like, why
do you pick white? Why is white?
I mean, you have all these colors to pick from, yet the
painter profession is in white. So they're, you know, just
white. And then every time he had a
different color, it'd show up on his pants and and his jeans.
And then all of a sudden, you know, there's colors all over
him. You know, when you go to the
doctor, why are nurses and they're different types that are
wearing different colors when you go into a hospital.
Now the medical professions, they know what those colors
represent. Are you hearing me?
They know it. They so when they walk in, they
see a person in a different color scrub.
They know what they're specialized in.
Correct. Even in the automotive industry,
you know, they're just uniforms. When I go fly on a plane ride, I
the, the, the stewardess, they're, they're all in uniform.
You know who is serving you and who's part of the plane.
I've never had someone in plain clothes come and say, what would
you like to drink? That's never had they're
identifiable. They are in a professional
uniform. Same thing with our pilots.
I know the difference between the stewardess and the pilot
because they're not wearing the same outfit.
So you understand this gentleman is a professional beggar and his
outer garment identifies who he is, which means from a distance
people will say, oh, that's a beggar, that's a beggar.
And so that outer garment was really significant because,
number one, it would give them warmth at night because again,
if you're begging, you may not have the means to have a place.
In fact, a lot of people who are begging had already lost their
property and all kinds of things have taken place.
And so this outer garment was really significant because it
was really kind of like their whole livelihood.
It's how they kept warm at night, So much so that there was
a law that protected this outer garment.
Look over in Exodus chapter 22, verses 25 to 26.
It says it this way. It says if you lend money to my
people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor
to him. You shall not charge him
interest. If you ever take your neighbor's
cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the
sunsets. Why?
For that is his only covering. It is his cloak for his body.
What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that
when he cries out to me, I will hear him, for I am gracious.
Meaning if you've taken it as a pledge before nightfall, if you
kept it and they cried out, the Lord would heal, hear them and
it would not bode where for well for the one who is still holding
on to the outer garment. Are you hearing me?
So these things are not like, you know, our coats that we
throw on and off and don't think nothing about it was
identification. Another thing that the cloak did
is it allowed them to be able to hold it out in order to collect.
So not only was it a sign of protection for them, a place of
security, a place of war, but it
also was the means by which they could capture anyone's
generosity when they went by. So it was very significant
garment in the days that he lived.
It was this identification that people knew.
This person was struggling, this person needed help, this person
was poor, this person didn't have much.
And because of that, they were treated not always extremely
kind. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So because Bartimaeus was blind, he obviously could not develop a
trade. He had to.
His whole life was centered around begging.
He could not see a thing and so he would make his way.
However, there's no indication that he had someone who took him
there. Not like a lame person who had
someone sit them somewhere he could get around.
So apparently he learned how to get around, to get to this place
where he could by all rights be able to hold out his cloak and
look for the benevolence of someone else.
There may be many days that Bartimaeus went by with nothing
in his coat. There could be other days that
maybe there was more. But this is all that he can do.
And as much as he would love to do something else, he cannot.
And so this cloak, which is extremely powerful in the sense
of identification, it was his very, how can we say it, social
identity. What he was on the outside was
identifiable to everyone and to himself.
Are you hearing me? But the scripture tells us that
as he's on this highway, Blonde cannot see people starting to go
by, which is a custom. But apparently enough went by
that he recognized something's going different today.
This road's being traveled by more people.
There's enough commotion going on that had him asking
questions. The Luke account, he says what's
going on, what's happening? And in the Luke's Gospel, it
says that they say, oh, Jesus of Nazareth has passed, has passed
by now. He, Jesus, has already passed by
him, which tells us that Jesus did not hear by the Holy Ghost
beforehand to stop and heal this guy.
So Bartimaeus represents something a little bit different
in Scripture. And so here Jesus is passing by
someone who is not even aware that he has gone by.
But once he heard, I said, once he heard that it was Jesus,
there became there came something that rose up in
Bartimaeus. He did not have to see
something, but he sure did have to hear something.
Now we can conclude in Scripture that he this is not the first
time he's heard the name. Are you hearing me?
It's not the first time he's heard the name because when they
tell him who it is, there was an association with that name.
Are you hearing me? There was an association with
that name. So he could not see, he was
blind, he didn't had no reality based upon seeing something that
Jesus had passed by. Which tells us a lot of times
you'll never notice God just by your seeing.
Which also tells us if you keep going through life trying to see
God, you can miss God because seeing is not required, but
hearing has more power. Are you hearing me?
Was it not Jesus who said to Timothy, he said you believe
'cause you see more? Blessed are those who believe
not because they see, but it's obviously because they've heard
Hallelujah. And so we live in a world where
there are many that are blinded to Jesus.
They do not recognize him. This is why every time you as a
believer shows up at a restaurant, every time you show
up at a place of work, every time you show up in a store, you
can be walking past people and they do not recognize God in
you. They are not even aware that God
has passed them by. Now I'm not calling you God, I'm
just saying you are the temple of the Holy Ghost.
God lives in you. You have the glory of God on you
and that can be seen by those who have perception.
Typically it's seen more by those that are born of God.
Because I remember when my wife and I, we went to Israel and we
were blessed with a trip to go there.
And so I looked at my wife. I said, we are only Earl and
Marci here, OK? We don't want nobody to know.
We come from the ministry. What we're going to do is we've
we've come to learn, we've come to grow, we've come to see the
sights and walk the same places that the Apostle Paul did, the
Apostle Peter, Jesus Christ himself.
We have come to learn. And you know what, I was like
some good my old roots. You know where I sit in the back
of the bus like some sit, you know, as far away from, you
know, the one speaking as possible.
OK, now I'm not talking about anybody in the crowd.
I'm just saying in general. OK, so I was intentional.
Let me get away from the source of the communication.
And so we sat in the back of the bus and, and we were going, I
don't remember how many days it was, but we were coming up on
the day that we were going to be going to the Jordan River and
the day of the Jordan River. They said, now tomorrow we're
going to be for anyone who wants to be baptized in the Jordan,
it's really significant. A lot of people want to be
baptized in Jordan to follow what Jesus did.
Same place. Now we technically weren't in
the exact same spot that Jesus was in, but we are definitely in
the same body of water. And, and they said, but now I
would say this, that if you are a minister, it would really mean
a whole lot to the bus, you know, and I, you know, wanted to
sit on my hands, you know, I just wanted to put my head down
and, you know, like in your classroom, don't pick me,
teacher, don't pick me type stuff.
But on the inside, I said on the inside I heard the Lord say,
because then they asked this question, is there any ministers
with us? So on the inside I heard the
Lord say, Raise your hand, son. So I raised my hand and when I
did, our God looked and he goes, I'm not surprised.
I thought, well, there's something about the way we
carried ourselves, because again, those that are in the
light can see the light, but those that are in darkness
cannot. They may not be able to see the
light, but they sure can hear. Are you hearing me?
And so when he heard that it was Jesus, he began to cry out.
Now it could be that Bartimaeus knew of this Psalm that was
written, it says in Psalm 7212. For he will deliver the needy
when he cries for help, the afflicted also, and him who has
no helper, because this guy had no indication that he had anyone
helping. He could have been coming out
day after day on his own, using some kind of walking stick to be
able to navigate himself to some place developed by the sense of
hearing that he had developed, or through conversation.
Am I at this spot? Am I here?
Am I there? And once again, so everyone
knows who I am, My identity is I am blonde, I cannot see and I am
poor, broke, cut off from society.
This is who I am. Can you see it?
But when he heard Jesus came, he knew of this one that would come
that has been prophesied about and he begins to raise his voice
and says these statement, this statement, Jesus son of David,
have mercy on me now son of David's extremely significant
because son of David is title. He is recognizing that Jesus,
this is the one that is the Messiah, the Christ, the King of
the Kingdom, the one that's been prophesied about.
I've heard about this guy that's been going around healing
people. He has been causing the blind
eyes to see, the hearing, the deaf ears to hear.
He's been causing the lame to walk.
He's been causing demons to be cast out.
He has been raising the dead. This is Jesus.
This must be the anointing. So he addresses him as the
anointed one, son of David, cause David's name was famous in
the land that Bartimaeus grew in.
There was a king that would come from the line of David that
would set up his Kingdom and have no end.
So he is acknowledging the king has come in front of me.
How can I not address the king? Did I miss the king?
I must acknowledge that the king has passed me by and if there's
anyone who can help me, it's the king.
So he says, Jesus, son of David, our King, have mercy on me, have
mercy on me, have mercy on me, have mercy on me.
And man, when he called out, guess what?
He received backlash. He received backlash because he
has been in the society that he lives in day in and day out as
the beggar. We know who you are.
You're put, shut up. Who do you think you are calling
on the affluence? Who do you think you are crying
out? Shut your mouth, don't say
anything. It says that as he cried out,
son of David, have mercy on me. One trip, one of the gospel says
they rebuked him. It wasn't like.
It was the crowd turned on him and said shut up, man.
Shut your mouth. Don't be disrespectful.
Hush, Don't talk. What are you doing?
Quit talking. We're not here to give you any
money. Just sit there and beg.
Shut up. We got somewhere to go.
You're out of your place. You're not worthy to even talk
right now. Don't even open your mouth.
Shut up, say nothing. But the Bible says he raised his
mouth all the more. Jesus, come on, when you start
crying out for Jesus, don't you find that people try to get you
to shut your mouth? They don't want you to talk
about you, Jesus proclaim you Jesus want to keep you quiet.
And let me tell you, there's a whole world out there that are
blind without God and all the sudden is he comes through and
the message of Jesus. And they say, you tell me a
little bit more about that, but their peers say, who do you
think you are? Are you're just like us?
You run with us, you party with us.
You talk like us. I mean, seriously, do you think
God's going to forgive you? Of all the things you've done,
what you've been? You need to quit.
Don't even hang around those church people.
Quit listening to them. Quit listening to their
preaching. Don't be asking these questions.
Just sit there and beg. And the world will always try to
quiet those that know there's an answer somewhere else and just
hadn't found it yet. Something about this blind man
Bartimaeus, he knew some things. In John chapter 8 verse 12,
Jesus spoke and said to them, I'm the light of the world.
He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have
light. In Second Corinthians 4/4.
Has he not done this? Well, the devil, in whose case
the God of this world, that is the devil, has blinded the minds
of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the
gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
We need to know this church, is that if we are born of God, we
are the light of the world. We are to set our light on a
heel so that it can be shown, because those that are in
darkness need to come to the light and us walking along is
not enough for them to notice God.
We must be saying something because it's by faith, through
hearing that believing comes into play.
So it's not enough for us to just be seen.
We must be heard. Yeah, that's good.
And when you get around someone that, you know, based upon their
life is pretty identifiable. But if they begin to cry out and
say, tell me more, we do not shut them down.
We do not. In fact, we say, come on, we'll
take you to Jesus because Jesus heard the cry of Bartimaeus as
he cried out. He said, Son of David, have
mercy on me. And he kept shouting all the
more and all the more and all the more till Jesus stopped and
said, bring him to me. Bring him to me.
Now what's interesting is when he gets to Jesus, Jesus asked
this question, What do you want? Well, that should have been
obvious. But you know what?
It's really not obvious. It's really not obvious.
People need to know why you would bring them to church.
It's not obvious. Well, if they just come to
church, it's obvious they'll want to get sick.
No, no, no, no, no, no. I remember one time we had a
line where we were laying hands on the sick and a girl came down
that could not see. She was blonde.
She had the stick and everything.
And so as I went down, you know, and obviously you know how
believers are. You know, we want the miraculous
and we should, we should desire the supernatural.
There's no doubt about that. But we cannot desire something
beyond what's actually happening because God himself will not
override the will of man. Now He can engage in a place
that man's will is not through his gifts, like the man at the
pool of Bethesda. That man had no faith in Jesus,
didn't know who Jesus was, but he did want to be healed.
And the only way he knew to be healed was to go into this pool
when the Angel stirred it. But he had no one to help him.
So it's, it's not that he didn't want to be healed.
He just had no faith that Jesus Christ, who Jesus Christ was,
that he was the healer and that he could heal him.
But God by his mercy and through the gifts sent Jesus to the
place where a lot of people were sick that day.
But Jesus healed one man by the name, this man at the pool of
Bethesda, and said to him who had been there for 38 years, do
you want to be healed? He said, man, I don't have
anybody. Now his answer is, I don't want
to be healed. His answer was, I don't have
anyone to put me down in the water.
So he's answering I want to be healed.
He just thinks the only way this occurs is if you're the first
one in the water and I have no one in essence the guy saying
this, are you going to be the one that'll help me get down
first? But Jesus lets him know I am
that water. I am that water, right?
He said get up and walk and the man got up and walked, didn't
even know who he was. That healed him.
All he knows as this was the guy to help him and it didn't
require him to be picked up and waiting, waiting for stirring of
the water. He was water.
He was the water. He was the well that was a
spring of life that never runs dry, that is always producing.
Yet when I went down to that heal of nine, I said, what do
you want? And they said, well, I've had a
cold. I want to be healed of my, you
know, symptoms. Said nothing about their
eyesight. So I laid hands on them and I
believe and I know they were healed of their cold symptoms,
but they went back without their eyes being restored.
Now if you're just sitting out there like, Oh well, the Lord
didn't heal them. The Lord healed them exactly
what they wanted, exactly what they wanted.
And when this man comes to Jesus, Jesus does not assume.
Jesus asks, what do you want me to do for you Now?
Why does he ask that question? Because he says, you have
acknowledged me in my authority. Jesus, son of David, the king of
God's Kingdom, have mercy on me. What word do you want from me?
Because you know at my word it shall be.
He says, I want to see again. And he said according to your
faith, the faith that you believe in my word and my
ability to do what you're asking, it's done according to
that belief. And he instantly he began to
see. And that's a powerful healing
testimony that we love to preach when we go to lay hands on the
sick to let people know that God heals the sick.
But the thing I'm keying in on today is what happened just
before he was healed. That moment between his crying
out and God's call. He said, Son of David, have
mercy on me. And he cried out all the more.
Why? Because he had a desire, a
desire, a desire that was so real to him that he could see
it. And if he could just get a word
from the King, he knows he'll get it.
And Jesus stops and command and said, tell him to come.
And the Scripture tells us when this takes place.
Look at this in verse 50. Let's read it again.
Look at verse 50. It says in casting away his
garment. That may be the most powerful
display of faith in this context, is that here is someone
that he's always been identified with, that he is needed night
after night, day after day, the whole way he existed.
It keeps him warm. It keeps him protected.
It keeps it gives him income so that it sustains his life.
It's his very survival. It's the only way he knows how
to live in his condition. Yet at a word that Jesus says
come, he cast that life away. I am not going he he's blood.
He has casted. He don't even know where he
threw it. He didn't lay it down to say I'm
not 12345 that way when I'm done I can.
Are you here in case it don't work?
I'll come back to it. Let me get over here just in
case it doesn't work. Then I'm 32 steps away from my
identity. Oh y'all don't want to hear
this? See man, when Jesus calls you,
when you want to get right with God, you got to make a decision
before it happens That I never going back.
I never going back to that life, to that identity, that who I
was, that is never going to be associated with me ever again.
I'm never going back. I am never going to be known as
that. He cast that garment and he
stands before Jesus. He says, what do you want?
He says, I want to see. And it says immediately he could
see. And he does not run back and go,
I'm coming, Jesus, I'm coming. I'm going to follow you now.
OK, let's go. How many times have people come
to the altar because their insecurity, their prostitution,
their fornication, their drugs, everything they were ever
identified with, all that everyone knew you were that
they'll cry out to God and say, Lord save me.
And then after they say Amen. This is God never intended you
to take an old identity into a new life.
True lordship is casting off the old life.
Come on, can we see it here? Look what it says here in
Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 starting in
verse form and give you the easy read version so you can get it
down. He said yes Christ is now your
life and when he comes again you will share in his glory.
So put everything evil out of your life, sexual sin, doing
anything immoral, letting sinful thoughts control you and wanting
things that are wrong and don't keep wanting more and more for
yourself. That is the same as worshipping
a false God. God will show you his anger
against those who don't obey him because they do these evil
things. You also did these things in the
past when you live like them, but now?
But now put these things out of your life.
Anger, losing your temple temper, a doing or saying things
to hurt others and saying shameful things.
Are you seeing this? We are to get these out of our
life. In essence, when we came to God,
we're like, I'm done with that. I'm getting rid of that.
That's not me. That's not who I am.
And I'm going to tell you the world would recognize Jesus more
in what they hear from you when you demonstrate what you're
saying. Because this man had heard about
Jesus, that Jesus only did what he said.
He always did what he said, which gave him the boldness.
I want to see again. Because anyone you've ever
touched that had blind eyes, they saw.
I want mine. God's not a respecter of person.
Jew, Gentile, slave, free male, free female.
I don't care what nationality you are, what race you are.
God's not a respecter of person. What he's done for one, he'll do
for all. He just requires one thing.
You get rid of the old self and come on into the new.
You don't bring your sorry sinners saved by grace existeth
in a walk with God. You cast that thing to the side,
you leave it out the order. You never go back to it.
You don't find that cloak. You ain't going to be
identified. You are not going to be
identified with that cloak. What you are going to be is
you're going to be a child of God and anytime something rises
up to that old life, you say, Nope, I don't wear you.
I don't wear you. See what it says in Ephesians
chapter 4? Ephesians chapter 4, starting in
verse 22, he says regarding your former way of life, you were
taught to strip off your old nature which is being ruined by
its deceptive desires, to be renewed in your mental attitude,
and to clothe yourself with a new nature which is created
according to God's image and righteousness and true holiness.
Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, this morning
the Lord wants you to take off your garment, cast it aside.
If you're here today and you've never made Jesus the Lord of
your life. Jesus is in the room, the
Savior. He has passed by already, He
said. When did he come?
I didn't see him. He was in our praise because God
inhabits the praises of his people.
He's already been in the room moving through by his Spirit.
Now he's passed by in that moment.
But if you'll call out to him, he'll stop.
I said he'll stop dead in his tracks because no man comes to
the Father, no, not one. But as Jesus calls them, the
Spirit draw them. Jesus is calling this morning.
He's calling to say, Will you let go of who you are to become
who I've made you to be? Will you cast off this existence
that you're familiar with? Because here's the problem.
You've been seeing without seeing the great deception the
enemy has done, making you think because you can physically see,
you can see, yet He's kept you in utter darkness where you've
chased after jobs, chased after promotion, chased after
popularity, chased after, you know, natural stimulants to feed
your lust, to fulfill your flesh, to make you feel good.
It's always just giving you an alternative type lifestyle.
In fact, He will give you the world at the cost of your own
soul. And all the while you're doing
it with eyes wide open, not recognizing that even though you
see like this, you don't see anything.
But Jesus being rich in his mercy because of his love for
you, died for you, rose for you, paid the price for you, and has
passed by. And all you have to do is call
out and say Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
And salvation is casting your garment off your way of living.
It's not being saved, but live the same way.
It's being saved from the way you live and got to put a new
nature in you to where you'll have spiritual sight.
You'll begin to see the light and see revelation before I call
you up. If you've never made Jesus Lord,
I want to deal with a believer because although this
demonstrates a person leaving the domain of darkness and
coming into the Kingdom of his beloved Son, we all have to
admit as believers we have blind spots, blind spots in our growth
and development areas that maybe you could say today I did ask
Jesus, but I brought my cloak with me and there's areas I keep
covered because the world wants to keep you covered up.
When I look across this room, there are a lot of different
people in this room from the outside, and I can speak
narratives to the color of your skin, which are outer garments
the world's trying to keep you identified in.
And until you cast all of that off, you'll never walk as a true
son and daughter of God because a child of God can always
receive and have what the King says they can have.
And he does not care where they came from.
They are not limited by another race.
They are not limited by an upbringing.
They are not limited by a lack of parenting.
They are not limited because once you come into the Kingdom,
you have a Father that cares for you, that will never leave you
nor forsake you, that will always take care of you.
And it's about you concerning you.
And He will perform His word about you.
He's not like a human being because he's not a man.
He's God, and he doesn't care whether you came from the best
side of town or the worst side of town, whether you had a full
family or whether you didn't have any.
You don't even know your mom and dad and was raised by your
grandma. Doesn't matter to him because
he's taking you out of that system anyway and bringing you
into the system of the Kingdom of God.
But if you don't watch out, you'll want to heaven, life
without heaven on earth, and you'll keep a garment in the
world and keep identifying yourself as slow, inferior,
insecure, traumatized, victimized.
So much so that the blessings of God can never fully overtake
you. You have to abandon that
identity. You have to abandon it.
So I need you to be an example to the lost today because you
know, you've seen a glimpse of God's goodness, but you know, if
you're still wearing something of your past, today's the day to
cast that garment off. And that you refuse to see
yourself as CNN tells you, Fox News tells you, MSNBC tells you,
your coworkers tell you, your neighborhood friends tell you.
You're only going to see yourself as God sees you,
because you're a child of God.