I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verse 46, as we kick off Passion Week. And really, I'm so glad you're here, because we're not really doing Passion Week this year at Compass HB; we're doing passion year, is what we're doing. So let me explain how this works. The last week of Jesus' life is often referred to as The Passion of the Christ. It goes from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, like in the Gospel of Mark, it's all the way from chapter 11, when he comes into town, all the way to chapter 16, when he rises from the dead. That's one last week in the life of Jesus. And so, traditionally, on the calendar, we remember from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. And we have this week to remember the last week of Jesus' life. Well, we're going to start Mark 11 next week. We're actually doing Palm Sunday, when he rides in on Easter Sunday this year. And then we're going to go through the last week of Jesus' life all year long, which means we'll get to another day later on this year, and we'll call it Good Friday, even though we'll meet on Saturday and Sunday. We'll call it Good Friday because that's when Jesus will die on the cross, and we'll celebrate not just Easter next week, but two Easters this year, when we actually get to his resurrection in the Gospel of Mark.
So, we're taking this last week of his life, and we're studying it all year long. And if you know what's going on, Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, and the weight of everything is on his shoulders. He's going to die in our place. He's going to rise again. But on his way, he stops because a blind man is by the side of the road, and he is crying out. And that's what we see here in Mark 10:46-52 now.
I've just been alerted by the ushers that there is a great handout shortage that has taken place. So, if you didn't get a handout coming in, can you raise your hand right now, and the ushers will bring you one if you were deprived of a bulletin coming in. I guess that means a lot of people are here at church on Palm Sunday, I guess is what that means. But raise your hand if you don't have a way to read the Bible with us right now, or if you need notes for this sermon, raise your hand and the ushers will bring you one right now, because I want everyone to read this passage of Scripture together. And out of respect for God's Word, let's all stand up for the public reading of Scripture, and please follow along as I read Mark 10:46-52. This is the last thing that happens before Jesus gets to Jerusalem. So, please follow along as I read.
And they came to Jericho. And 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. 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 him on the way.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead grab a seat, and maybe you can grab that handout out of your bullets in there, if you want to take some notes. And the first thing I'd love for you to do on your handout is to underline what the blind man cried out Jesus, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Could you underline that in verse 47? And then, also he cries it out again in verse 48, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” So, Jesus is on his up to Jerusalem tour. This is the last stop, which is the city of Jericho. We've got a map right here where you can see that Jericho is over here on one side. It's kind of this little city. And then you start going up, and you go up, and you finally get way up there to Jerusalem, the city on a hill. And so, Jericho, even to this very day, it's kind of where you might have lunch before you drive all the way up to Jerusalem. And so, as Jesus is coming through this last city on his way up to Jerusalem, we have this account with this blind man. And what is he shouting? Two things, “Son of David. Have mercy on me.” Now, have you heard Jesus referred to as the “Son of David”? I hope you know that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God who became a man, who put on flesh, and in the Gospel of Mark, we've even heard Jesus use this title “Son of Man.” And the Son of Man shows not only his humility and how he became a man, but also from Daniel 7:13-14, “One who looks like a son of man receives all dominion and power and glory in a kingdom.”
So, hopefully you know Son of God, hopefully you even know Son of Man. But do you know this title, Son of David? Because that's how the blind man cries out for Jesus. In fact, go ahead to chapter 11, and look where we're going to get next week on Easter. Look at chapter 11, verse 10, when they're shouting Hosanna, as Jesus comes into Jerusalem, which is traditionally Palm Sunday. And when they're shouting Hosanna, look at what they say in Mark 11:10, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David. Go over even to chapter 12, verse 35, where Jesus is teaching in the temple, and he says something that he's expecting the people there to understand. How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? So clearly, a thought on their mind about Jesus.
You know, the blind man. He's there by the side of the road, outside of Jericho, and a great crowd is coming through. You know, sometimes blind people can be very perceptive as to what's going on. He knows something's going on. They tell him it's Jesus of Nazareth, and immediately the blind man, Bartimaeus, thinks that Jesus of Nazareth, he's the Son of David. He cries out. So, I want to make sure that all of us know what that means. Go with me to 2 Samuel, chapter 7. Everybody grab your Bible and flip some pages with me, all the way back to the Old Testament, to 2 Samuel 7. David, who was king of Israel, thousand years before Jesus, and David, he was a man after God's own heart. You might have known how he defeated Goliath, the giant, in battle. You might know how David wrote many Psalms. Who's been reading the Psalms with us this year at Compass HP, right? We're almost done. Only two weeks left. We started in August. We're going all the way into April, and we're going to read all 150 Psalms. So, maybe you know a little bit about David. Well, David here gets this idea in 2 Samuel 7, that he wants to build God a house. He wants to build God a temple where God's glory can be among his people. And God flips it around and makes a promise to David that he's actually going to build David's house. So, this is often referred to as the Davidic Covenant. Look at 2 Samuel, chapter 7, verse 12, and this is Yahweh saying to David, the king of Israel, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” Who's David's son who ends up building the temple, everybody? Solomon. Now look at what it keeps saying, verse 13, “He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son when he commits iniquity. I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.” Now this is the key line, if you're if you're taking notes you want to write this down 2 Samuel 7:16, “will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.” This is a promise that God made to David.
Now, if you've read any of these psalms that we've been going through, David writes a lot of the Psalms. A lot of the Psalms were written at the time of David, with the sons of Korah and Asaph, who were helping David in the worship of Yahweh. And in a lot of these psalms, David turns his problems into prayers, and he appeals to God, and he thinks that Yahweh is sitting on a what, everyone? A throne. He often talks to Yahweh like you're on your throne and you can do whatever you please. You can defeat my enemies. You can deliver me. You can help me through this trial. So, if you've read the Psalms with us, you've heard David appeal to God on his throne over and over again. So, David has complete confidence that Yahweh reigns on his throne. The question with David is, what's going to happen to my throne? What's going to happen to the kingdom of Israel? This is what David has invested his life in being God's man, to lead God's people and to have a place where God can dwell with his people. What's going to happen to that? And Yahweh makes a promise. He promises that in David's line, not just Solomon, but in his line, there will be someone on his throne forever, not talking about God's throne in heaven, talking about David's throne. So, maybe you've heard of the promised land and the covenant that God made with Abraham, that from Abraham there would be a nation, and they would have a land. Well, I want to make sure you've heard of the promised line, that in the line of David, there will be a king on Israel's throne.
So, let's get that down for point number one: You need to “See the promised line fulfilled.” See the promised line fulfilled. That's what the blind man is crying out. That's what the people are shouting out about on Palm Sunday. That's what Jesus is teaching in the temple. Why do they call him the Son of David? Why? Because it's the stuff of legend. The Great King of Israel had a promise from Yahweh that there would be his house and his kingdom and his throne forever. And so someday, the glory of Israel, the throne of David, will be restored. In fact, it'll be the greatest time ever when the descendant, the Son of David, reigns on his throne. This was the legend the people of Israel were waiting for. And now the blind man can see he's here. The King is here. “O Son of David, have mercy on me.” The blind man shouts. This is like maybe a book that you've read, or a movie that you've watched, or some TV show, because this happens in so many stories. It's kind of a classic thing that happens in the plot where you get to meet a group of characters and they're on some kind of quest or adventure. Maybe this is like medieval times, or maybe it's like a fantasy story, and here goes this group, and they're going to go fight the big bad guys, and how could they ever win? And then, all of a sudden, you realize in some plot twist along the way that one of the characters you've really started to get to know, and you've started to like some of these characters, one of them is just not the normal character you thought they were, because they're actually the son or the daughter of the king. You actually have a prince among you, or a princess, and, all of a sudden, you realize that there are prophecies about this person, and you knew that's why I like them, because they're going to be the king, right? Jesus is that character. Jesus isn't just some man from Nazareth. He's the King who's going to sit on the throne of David.
And the word is spreading. Even the blind man can see it, and he's shouting out, you're the Son of David. So, this is a title that everybody's supposed to know about Jesus. Under point number one, write down Matthew 1:1. Why does the New Testament begin with the genealogy, proving that Jesus is the descendant, not just of Abraham, but also of King and David? In fact, there's another genealogy that proves that Jesus is in the line of David in Luke 3. In fact, when the angel comes to Mary in Luke 1:32, the angel says about the baby that's going to be born, “He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David.” Even the angel is announcing this to Mary when he's telling her that she's going to have a baby.
So, this is something you're supposed to know right off the top about Jesus is that he comes in the line of King David, and he's going to sit on David's throne. If you ever heard the Apostle Paul teach, he would have taught you that Jesus is the Son of David. Go with me to Acts 13, and let's look at some of Paul's teaching in Acts, chapter 13. We get an example of one of his sermons in the synagogue. Now, if you know the apostle Paul, he was a Pharisee of the Jews, and he was a persecutor of the church. Paul got introduced as the bad guy in the book of Acts. Then he met Jesus. Jesus turned him around, and Jesus sent him to who? The Gentiles, not just the Jews, but the other nations of the earth, to the ends of the earth, He sent Paul, and Paul became a missionary, a church planter, an evangelist. So, he's teaching primarily Gentiles, and yet this is a theme in his teaching that he wants everybody in the church to know who Jesus is. He's the son of David. Here's an example of one of his sermons in Acts 13. Look at what he says in verse 22, “And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.” Look at verse 23, “Of this man's offspring,” or of David's offspring, “God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised.” You see what Paul starts preaching right away. Hey, the promised line of David has been fulfilled, and his name is Jesus. He's the King we've been waiting for. He's the one that all the prophecies are about.
Go over to Romans, chapter 1, just a few pages over to the right. Romans, often seen as the best of Paul's thirteen letters. Romans, why is it so great? It's because he always wanted to get to Rome, but he was never able to make it, and so he sent them his teaching ahead of him. Can you imagine if Paul came into town and he was teaching you? Paul, he would teach all night. People would fall asleep, they'd fall out the window. They die. He'd resurrect him. Keep teaching till the morning light. That's how it was when Paul came to town. He wasn't into this hour service, hour-sermon stuff. You didn't know how much time he had with Paul. He would go all day. He would go all night. And so, Romans is the most complete account we have of his teaching. Look at how he begins Romans 1:1, “Paul, a servant of Christ, Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God.” Hey, he sent me on a mission to bring the good news that's heaven sent. Here it is, verse 2, “which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Do you see how Paul doesn't just introduce Jesus as the Son of God through his resurrection from the dead, but he also introduces Jesus as the Son of David, as the Prophet said.
And so, you need to see that Jesus is the King who's going to sit on David's throne in Israel and carry his kingdom into forever, not just a throne in heaven, but the throne of David there in Jerusalem. That's where they're expecting Jesus to sit. Go over to 2 Timothy, chapter 3 in Paul's last letter. Look at what Paul says in his last letter to Timothy, his true disciple. And Paul, knowing he's going to die, one of the last instructions he gives to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:8. He says, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.” Now, I hope you know that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, and he did die for our sins, and he did rise from the dead. But do you know that he's the offspring of David? And the reason that's so significant is it means Jesus isn't some nobody from nowhere who just came on the scene. He's not really Jesus of Nazareth. No. He was born of his father, Joseph and his mother, Mary. And when it was time to register for the census, where did they go, everybody? They went to Bethlehem, which is the city of who? David. Why? Because they were descendants of King David. And so, God worked this out in an amazing way where he would need to have a father in the line of David, because that's how the kingly line was passed down. But his mother would also need to be in the line of David, as a she was a virgin when he was born, so it needs to come from her, physically, and from his father with the right to be king. And both of them are in the line of David.
And so, there he is, the blind man, shouts, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” He's saying that Jesus is the King who is coming. And when Jesus gets to Jerusalem, the whole crowd is going to be shouting, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of our father, David.” Now go back to Mark chapter 10, and you need to see how Jesus stops to talk to this blind man. In fact, wherever the gospel of Jesus is preached, his kindness to the blind is supposed to be mentioned. You can't read any of the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John without having at least one account where Jesus opens the eyes of a blind man to see. This is a part of the message you're supposed to hear about Jesus, that Jesus has compassion. Jesus cares. See, this blind man, and we get his name here in Mark Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. Bar is a prefix that means son of and so he's the son of Timaeus. And so, hey, who is this guy crying out? Well, most people are telling this guy to be quiet. Hey, hey, Jesus, he's too important. Jesus doesn't have time for you. You're just a blind beggar. That's how they're treating this man, like, hey, keep it down. Jesus is very important. He's not coming and talking to you. And then Jesus stops everything in this great crowd just to talk to this blind man that other people are ready to just pass by like he doesn't matter. But he matters to Jesus, and so, we're all supposed to know of his kindness to those who suffer from blindness. In fact, go back to chapter 8, and maybe you remember how he already healed a man who was blind in Mark chapter eight. In fact, I think that Mark intentionally put a story about him healing a blind man in chapter 8 and now puts this story about him healing a blind man at the end of chapter 10. And it kind of frames this middle section of the gospel of Mark, where the emphasis is on Jesus teaching his disciples.
So, I think Mark has intentionally used stories about Jesus healing a blind man to set apart his narrative in the Gospel of Mark. And if you go back to chapter 8, verse 22 maybe you remember what happened in Bethsaida, that “some people brought to him a blind man, and they begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes.” Does anybody remember this? “He laid his hands on him, and he asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’” And the guy can kind of see at this point. “He looked up and said, ‘I see people, but they look like trees walking.” We talked about this. Is that referring to how the disciples can kind of see who Jesus is at this point. And then verse 25, “Jesus laid his hand on his eyes again. He opened his eyes. His sight was restored. He saw everything clearly, and he sent him to his home, saying, ‘Do not even enter the village.’” Remember, this was when Jesus was in stealth mode. Now he's on his way up to Jerusalem with the great crowd. Now everybody knows what's about to happen, but back then, Jesus was still saying, don't tell anybody that I just healed you from your blindness.
Go back to Matthew, chapter 9. Let's look at another example of Jesus being kind to the blind in Matthew, chapter 9, verse 27. There are two examples of him healing two men who were blind in the Gospel of Matthew. So, Mark has two blind man accounts, Matthew has two blind man accounts. And in Matthew 9:27, it says, “As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David.’” That's interesting that they're shouting that, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” “A When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “’Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then he touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith let it be done to you.’ And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, ‘See that no one knows about it.’”
Now, what happens in the Bible when Jesus tells somebody he just did a miracle and please don't tell anyone about this? What do they do? They go tell everyone about this. That's what they do. And pretty soon everybody knows that there are blind men shouting out, “Son of David, have mercy on us.” And the word spreads. I would imagine the blind community paid particular interest to this piece of news, which is why, if you go to Matthew, chapter 20, you'll notice two more blind men shouting out for Jesus here in Matthew 20:29. In fact, I think one of these blind men was Bartimaeus. I think this is the same account. They just don't use his name here in Matthew, and they say there were actually two blind men, rather than just Bartimaeus, that Mark talks about. So, if you go to Matthew 20:29, “As they went out of Jericho.” So, we're at the same place at the same time in the gospel here, and a great crowd is following him. “And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out.” This makes sense now, “Lord have mercy on us, Son of David.” Well, yeah, if it worked for the guys in chapter 9, I'd be trying it in chapter 22, right? So, these guys, they've learned, hey, he helped those other guys who were blind. Maybe he'll help us. “The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent.” See, if you were blind, and we know this from John, chapter 9, where Jesus heals another man, a man who's born blind. If you were blind, what did they ask right away in John 9? Who sinned? Was it his parents who sinned? Or did this man sin? They thought if you were blind, that was because you had done something wrong, or your parents had done something wrong. So, it wasn't just that you had a physical challenge, it was that there must be something wrong with you, is what they would have thought.
So, as we're going through the gospel, we're seeing that in Jewish culture at this time, there were people they had no problem throwing away. There were people that didn't fit. They didn't matter. They even viewed children like that. We've seen that particularly, they viewed blind people like that. Oh, this blind guy, there's something wrong with him, not meaning physically wrong. No, there's something wrong with him. He must have sin. That's why he's blind. That's why you're always going to see the blind people being disregarded by other people like they don't matter. And that's how they treat these guys, but they keep crying out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David. And stopping, Jesus called them and said, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.’” And then here's the key, verse 34, “Jesus, in pity, touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.” In pity. That's the idea of compassion. That's this idea that Jesus cares.
Let's get this down for number two: “See he's kind to the blind.” We want to see he's kind to the blind. This is something all of us are supposed to know about Jesus, and even the blind people saw this about Jesus, “Son of David,” they knew who he was, and then what was their request? “Have mercy on me.” See, I need your compassion. I need your care. I need your pity. That's what the blind people are asking for Jesus for. Okay, so under that point, you might want to write down that mercy is the withholding of judgment. Mercy is when God doesn't give you what you deserve. The wages of your sin is death, and after death comes judgment, and when God doesn't judge you for your sin, that is mercy. And so, when the blind man, Bartimaeus, is crying out, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” he is agreeing with the fact that he does have sin. And he's asking, please don't judge me according to my sin, please give me your care, your compassion, your mercy. Those of us who have been reading through the Psalms, there's one word that really comes up over a hundred times. We've already read it in the Psalms, and it speaks of God's steadfast love. In fact, last Saturday night, we had a worship night where this word was the theme. And there's one chapter, Psalm 136, where it says this word twenty-six times to really make the point. What is the word? The Hebrew word I'm talking about, everybody? Hesed. Okay? So, when they take the Hebrew Bible and they translate it into Greek, it's called the Septuagint, the abbreviation for the Septuagint is LXX. That's the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. They use this word mercy here. That's the main way they translate hesed. So, if you know hesed is God's covenant with his people. It's His steadfast love, that once God sets his love upon you, he is always going to love you to the end. That's the idea behind this mercy. I need forgiveness of my sin. I need you to love me, Jesus, that's what he's crying out when he says, “Have mercy on me.”
Has Jesus had mercy on you? Was there ever a day in your life where you called on the name of the Lord Jesus and you asked Jesus to be merciful to you? Please don't give me what I deserve, Jesus. Please forgive me for my sins. Please love me and care about me. You could write down under point number two, 1 Peter 2:10. It says, “Once you were not a people, but now you're God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” All of us need to know that there was a time in our life where we called on the name of the Lord Jesus, and he gave us his mercy. He's withholding his judgment for our sin. You could also write down 1 Timothy 1:16 where Paul, who was known for persecuting the church before he became a missionary for the Church, he says, I receive mercy as an example that other people could see God's patience, that other people would have hope that God will be merciful to them. I'm like an example. If God cannot judge me when I'm out here killing his people, then there's hope for everyone that they could receive mercy.
So, this mercy is something that every single one of us needs. Go with me to Luke 16:24, let's look at an example of a man crying out for mercy. And here in Luke 16, Jesus tells a story of a rich man who dies and goes to Hades. For some reason, when Jesus is telling stories, he often tells stories of rich men who die and go to hell. This is a common theme in the stories of Jesus. In fact, in this story, a rich man dies and goes to Hades, and a poor man dies and he goes to where father Abraham is. And if you're a Jew, you definitely want to go to wherever father Abraham is. And so, the poor man, Lazarus, he ends up with Abraham, but the rich man, he ends up in Hades. And that's what we might call hell. In Greek, they would have called it Hades. In Hebrew, they would have called it Sheol. It's the place of death. It's a place of torment. And in Luke 16:24, “The rich man called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’” And you thought you were dehydrated after the bunny run, not compared to this guy. He's in such torment in this place of Hades. It's known for darkness. It's known for fire. This man is in such torment. He's begging for mercy, and mercy in his mind at that moment is just a drop of water on the tip of his tongue. I felt bad before. Never felt this bad where all I wanted was a drop of water on the tip of my tongue. This guy is calling out for mercy, but it's too late. He's already getting the judgment for his sin in this place of death. And so, Abraham says, hey, that's not how it works. Nobody's coming from up here to down there where you are. And so, the rich man, what does he say? He says, Father, Abraham, you’ve got to send my neighbor, my old neighbor, Lazarus, back, because in my father's house, I've got all these brothers, and all my brothers are going to end up right here with me in this place of torment. But if you send Lazarus back from the dead, if Lazarus resurrects, and they see the miracle of Lazarus back alive, because they know that he died, if they see him alive again, maybe they'll repent, maybe they'll believe, and then maybe they won't come to this place of judgment like I am. And Abraham, he says, but your brothers, they've got the Scriptures. They've got Moses and all that he wrote. They've got the prophets. They can read the Scriptures, and they can repent and believe and be saved. And the rich man is like, Abraham, you don't understand how it worked. People aren't reading the Bible to be saved anymore, but if somebody resurrects from the dead, then they'll believe. And what does Abraham say? No, they won't. Even if someone rises from the dead, they won't believe unless they hear the Word from the Scriptures, from Moses and the prophets. That's how people get saved, is they hear the Word.
And so, there are going to be people crying out for mercy, but it's going to be too late because they didn't listen to the Word of God. Please don't let one of those people be you. If you know that you need mercy, you should call out for it today. You should say, Jesus, please don't judge me for my sin. Today, you should call in the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved. That's what this blind man's doing. Now, if you have received mercy, I want to make an appeal to you that, especially at this time of year, it's time if you've received a mercy where Jesus isn't going to judge you for your sin. We need to pass that mercy on. Go ahead to the book of Jude with me. Go to Jude, the book right before Revelation, the second to last book in our Bible. Jude is a brother of Jesus, and after Jesus dies and rises from the dead, Jude believes in his brother Jesus, as the Son of David, the Christ. And then Jude writes just a one chapter letter, and he wants to write about how great it is to be saved, but instead he has to contend for the faith, because this whole message is getting twisted, and there are all these false teachers creeping in and deceiving people in the church, and so Jude actually ends up writing this intense defense of the faith and this calling out of so many false teachers, because instead of seeing Jesus as the Lord, they want to act like you don't have to obey Jesus. And instead of talking about the grace of Jesus to save us from our sin, they're using the grace of Jesus as an excuse or a license to sin. And so, it's all getting twisted, this Good News of Jesus, and Jude, he's writing to defend it. And as he comes to the end of his letter, look at what he says in verse 21. He says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” Make sure you know the love of Jesus. Make sure you're waiting for his mercy, that he's not going to judge you, but he's going to forgive you. And then he says this in verse 22, “Have mercy on those who what? Those who don't believe, those who aren't living by faith. In fact, look at what he goes on to say, verse 23, “Save others by snatching them out of the” what? All the people who are on their way to that place of judgment and torment.
Now, see, I think when I share some of the things from the Scripture in the Gospel of Mark to our culture, if we were to say today that someone with a disability or someone who is blind or someone like a child should be disregarded, I would hope that all of us would agree that's not right. No, every person, every soul matters. But I think that there might be other people that we here at church today are okay with disregarding the people who don't believe. Like, how do you feel about people who have different politics than you? How do you feel about people who have different morals than you? See, there's a hypocrisy that happens in the Church of Jesus, and a lot of people know about it, that people at church start to talk and act like they are better than other people because they believe the right thing, or think the right thing, or want to do the right thing, and because they don't agree with what is right, if you're not careful, you can start to have this tone that I'm better than them. Well, let me just make it very clear here today that we were all born blind in our sins. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? In fact, it says very clearly in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 4, that the god of this world, Satan himself, is blinding the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the glory of God in the Revelation of Jesus Christ; they can't hear the gospel. They can't see who Jesus is. They have been blinded by our real enemy, which is not people of different politics. Our real enemy is not flesh and blood. Our real enemy is Satan and the rest of the demons, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places that are even now deceiving people. Even when people leave this service, they will try to snatch the seed of the gospel out of their soul. That's the real problem that we have, is the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And yet, I hear people at church all the time act like our fellow Americans are our problem, are our enemy. Have mercy on those who doubt. You know somebody who's going to hell, have you judged them in your mind already there? Or do you want to see them get snatched out of the fire before it's too late.
This Easter, I want you to consider the person that you've written off, the person that you've given up on because they say those snarking things whenever the family gets together, the neighbor who persecutes you, the coworker who blasphemes Christ and takes his name in vain. Yeah, are you angry at them, or do you realize that you were them until Jesus opened your eyes. What's the difference between you and someone who has this woke liberal view? What's the difference between you and someone who just wants to continue in their sin? What's the difference between you and somebody who doesn't believe? The only difference is Jesus opened your eyes because you were exactly like them. In fact, if it were not for the grace of God, you would be them right now. And so, we need to make sure, we need to check our own hearts that we were all blind beggars asking Jesus for mercy, and the only reason we can see is because he opened our eyes. The only reason we won't be judged is because he forgave us. It has nothing to do with us being better than anybody else. In fact, we should be extending that mercy on those who doubt, and we should be praying for those who are going towards the fire that they could be snatched out of it before it's too late for them to receive mercy too.
So, who do you need to start praying for again this Easter season? Do you need to call up or walk up to and invite them? Because why have you given up on them if Jesus hasn't judged them yet? See this idea of being kind to the blind, it's not just something people are supposed to know about Jesus. It's something they're supposed to know about his followers too. And we got way too many Christians judging other people not ready to pass on mercy to them. Who have you said they're not significant? They don't matter. I don't agree with them. I don't like their opinion, and you have written them off. You're acting like Be quiet. Be silent. I want to encourage you to really think about how Jesus stopped the whole crowd for one man who was blind. And who could you reach out to? Who could you pray for that's blind this Easter?
Go back to Mark chapter 10, and let's look at exactly what Jesus did, because it got everyone's attention. This man who's shouting out, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” And he cries out, all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” In verse 49 it says, “Jesus stopped,” which means the whole crowd stopped, where it comes to a halt. And he said, “Call him.” So, clearly, the guy's far enough away that somebody else has to go get Bartimaeus. And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart, get up. He's calling you. And throwing off his cloak,” he comes and he sprang up, “And he came to Jesus, and Jesus said to him,” notice this personal way that Jesus responds, “What do you want me to do for you?” See, I'm not sure. Some people, I think maybe, oh, Jesus, he's the savior of the world. But no, Jesus, he's your Savior. See, he doesn't have some kind of script. He doesn't have some one size fits all way of doing this. No, like Jesus is now stopping everything with everybody just to focus on one blind man, Bartimaeus, what can I do for you? This is the same question, if you go back to verse 36 that he asked James and John, when they came up to him, he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And their answer was, oh, nothing much, just to sit at your right and your left hand in your glory on matching thrones with color coordinated upholstery. That's all we're looking for, right? And that was a request that Jesus did not grant, because he said it was the fathers to give that kind of reward in the kingdom to come. But then here, when Bartimaeus says, “Rabbi, I'd like to recover my sight, look at what Jesus says in verse 52. Jesus said to him, “Go your way,” and then notice this. Underline this right here, “your faith has made you well.” You could translate that “Your faith has saved you.” And “immediately,” here's our key word of the gospel of Mark. We haven't seen it for a while, “immediately,” which means “at once, straight away,” like Jesus is coming. You’ve got to get ready at once. And it's like at once this man recovered his sight. Now I want you to pay attention, though, because Jesus said to him, Go your way.” But then the end of this verse is that “he followed him on” what? “The way.” So, Jesus gives this man sight. This man could now go wherever he wants. Where does the man want to go? He wants to follow Jesus. So that's why I think we know him as Bartimaeus. If you go through Mark, most of the people that Jesus heals, we never get their name. It's just a man with this problem, or a woman with this problem, or a mother with this kind of daughter, or a father with this kind of son. We don't usually get people's names. The reason I think we know Bartimaeus, the reason I think that Mark mentions Bartimaeus by name is on this day, not only did he get his sight, but he became one of the disciples who followed Jesus. And I think the reason he mentions Bartimaeus by name is it's possible that when Mark's writing this, he's expecting some of the people who will read it to each know who Bartimaeus is. Well, this is how Bartimaeus joined us right here, the blind man by the side of the road, crying out, became a follower of Jesus on this day because Jesus says, “Your faith has saved you.”
And so, Jesus is acknowledging that even before he could see Bartimaeus, he already had faith. In fact, we see that Bartimaeus had this very active response. As soon as he heard it was Jesus going by, he began to cry out, Son of David, have mercy on me.” And then when they told him to be silent, he cried out all the more. And then when they told Bartimaeus “He's calling you,” what did Bartimaeus do? He threw off his cloak. If you're a blind man, I would imagine you don't just throw your cloak because you're going to have to find that cloak later. But here's Bartimaeus already asking. He's already acting like he's not going to need that cloak anymore. He's springing up. He's coming to Jesus. He's very excited because he believes. See, the kind of faith that Bartimaeus has here, it produces action. He keeps calling out. He throws his cloak off, he springs up. He comes up to Jesus. And then what? He keeps following Jesus all the way into Jerusalem.
See, a lot of people today, their faith is not active. Their faith is very passive. If you listen to how people talk today, you'll even hear it. They'll say, oh, I asked Jesus to come into my heart, or I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, or I repeated a prayer, the sinners prayer after somebody else who showed me what to pray. The way a lot of people talk is like, well, I prayed and then nothing happened. So, I guess it didn't really work. That's how a lot of people talk these days. That's not what you see when people have faith in the Scripture. When people have faith in the Scripture, they're going to actively seek out Jesus until they get to him, and nothing is going to get between them and Jesus, because they believe in Jesus, they don't just pray one time, and then we'll wait and see what happens. That's not faith in the Scripture. That might be faith in America today, but it's not faith according to Jesus Christ. See, Bartimaeus had faith way before he had sight. And a lot of us, we just want some kind of thing that we can see or some kind of thing that we can feel. And Jesus, He will only be followed by faith.
Let's get that down for number three: You need to “See by faith, then by sight,” see by faith, then by sight. That's what we see with Bartimaeus. We see him as one of many examples where Jesus affirms his faith even before he opens his eyes. Bartimaeus can already see who Jesus is before he can physically see. And we need to learn from that kind of faith, the faith that Jesus is looking for. And we've seen other examples where I don't think people just got physically healed. I think they got salvation. I think they got saved in their soul. Go back to Mark, chapter 2, verse 5. Do you remember this when they were in the house in Capernaum, all the way back in Mark, chapter 2? And the house was so jammed full of people listening to Jesus that all the doors were closed. Nobody else could fit. But these friends had brought their brother, their friend who was paralyzed. Remember that? And they're carrying him to come see Jesus. And there's the house where Jesus is, and it's jammed full, and the doors are all filled with people. Did they say we prayed? We prayed, Jesus, make it clear, if today is the day, show us. Give us a sign. Jesus, make it clear to me if I should go or not. Well, I guess it's a closed door, guys, we'll have to come back another day. That's how Christians today would pray about it. If you ask to see something that's not faith. Asking for a sign is not faith. Faith is the belief in who Jesus is and what Jesus has already done. Even Christians are approaching Easter like I wonder what Jesus will do in my life this Easter. How about the fact that he already died for your sins and rose from the dead on the third day. How about that? He already did it. It's already finished. It's already won. So many people acting like I hope I can fight the battle today, when we have victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I hope it happens. Still waiting for something they can see, still waiting for a feeling to take over their life.
It's a good thing these friends of this paralyzed man didn't think like we do today. Oh, let's assess the situation. Jesus is inside. There's a whole bunch of people in our way. The doors are all closed. I know what we'll do. We'll go in through the roof. That's our plan. Nothing will stop them from getting to Jesus. That's faith. I know he's there. I know who he is. I know what he said, and I'm going to him. And what does Jesus say when he sees their faith? Look at Mark 2, verse 5. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are” what, everybody? Wait. I thought he was going to tell the guy to pick up his bed and walk out of the room and heal the man. No, yeah, he did heal the man, but he did more than heal the man. He called him his son, and he saved the man on the basis of his faith. That man received mercy. That man had all of his sins forgiven because of his faith.
Go over to Mark, chapter 5. Remember this woman who was bleeding for twelve years in Mark 5? Remember how she spent all her money with people trying to heal her, and no one had ever, no doctor had ever really helped her, and she was bleeding for twelve years. If you're bleeding in the Jewish culture, that makes you unclean. That means you're an outcast from society. You can't be around anybody else, or you'll make them unclean too. And so, what does this woman think when she begins to hear the Word of Christ, when she hears that he has a healing touch, that everybody he touches ends up healed? What does this woman get in her mind to do? I'm going to go right into the middle of the crowd and I'm going to touch Jesus and he's going to heal me. That's this woman's faith. A woman who's been on the outskirts as an outcast is now going to go into the crowd. Do you realize how many people tell me on a regular basis that they won't even come to this church because the crowds are too big, like that's a common thing these days. And this woman, who would have been outcast, she goes right through the crowd, and she goes up there and she touches Jesus, because she has faith. In fact, Jesus again, stops everything. And what does he say in Mark 5:34? The same thing he says to Bartimaeus in Mark 10:52, he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well,” or your faith has saved you. And I think he's talking about her soul being saved, because he tells her, “Go in peace,” like peace with God, and also be healed of your disease. Yes, you're going to stop bleeding, but the real thing you've got is forgiveness of your sins and salvation in your soul. Daughter, your faith has saved you. What are the examples of faith that we're seeing a blind man who will not be quiet, a lame man who will come in through the roof with his friends, and a bleeding woman who will go right into the middle of the crowd and touch Jesus. If you know that you need mercy, if you know that you need Jesus to save you, you should not leave here until you get Jesus. You should have an active response. You should call on the name of the Lord Jesus until you know he has saved you. You should come up and talk to me after the service and demand an audience. You should go out to that little easy up out on the courtyard and say, which one of you people can help me get saved? Because I'm not leaving here today until my sins are forgiven. I need mercy. What are you waiting for? To see something, to feel something? This is the Word of Christ. This is how people get saved before they go to torment is they hear this and they respond by faith.
It's an active response. And last night, a man did go out to that easy up, and he said, which one of you can help me get saved? And this morning, after the nine o'clock, two men stood up here until it was their turn, and they said, I'm exactly the person you were talking about. So, who will it be this service? Hey? No, no, no, no, no, we're not clapping yet, because we’ve still got people in this service that need to respond to the gospel. I don't want you in fire and darkness saying, have mercy on me. Say it today. Say it by faith. Ask Jesus to open your eyes so you can really see. One of the guys in the last service, he's like, I think I came to church with the wrong motives. Do you think I should stop coming here to this church? I was like, Brother, let me tell you a little secret. We all started going to church with the wrong motives, and none of us came in here right. Nobody had a new heart; nobody had the Holy Spirit. Nobody knew how to love God or love other people? That didn't happen until Jesus opened our eyes and saved us. Yeah, we all came here for the wrong reasons, but Jesus can make us right. Have you kept calling on Jesus until you got to him?
Go to Matthew 15. I want to give you another example of this mom who was desperate for her demon possessed daughter. In Matthew 15, verse 22, this Canaanite woman, this foreign woman, maybe you remember this from the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus went outside of the borders of Israel and he went up north to Tyre and Sidon, he met this Syrophoenician woman here in Matthew 15:22, it says, “Behold,” look at this, a Canaanite woman. So, what we're trying to say here is she's a woman and she's a foreigner. So, she's not a Jew, she's not a man. So, it would have been an interesting situation for a man to talk to a woman or a Jew to talk to a Gentile, and this woman is crying. Look what she's crying. Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” This lady is not even from Israel, and she knows Jesus is going to be the king of Israel. She knows she needs mercy. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, but he did not answer her a word, and his disciples came. Look at this. “His disciples came and begged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying out after us.’” Hey, Jesus, when are you going to get rid of this lady? So, that's literally what they're saying. This lady has cried out for Jesus, the Son of David, to have mercy on her. So many times she has officially annoyed the disciples. Jesus, are you going to send this lady away because she is raising a ruckus over here? She doesn't matter. She's not a Jew. She doesn't matter. That's how they would think. And look at what happens. “He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” Jesus now says to the woman, I'm here for the chosen nation of Israel. I'm here for God's people, the Jews. But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” I'm here to feed God's people, God's children of Israel. The dogs would have been considered unclean animals at this time by the Jews. And look what the woman says back to Jesus. She said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.” And Jesus answered her, “Oh, woman, great is your faith.” She kept crying out. She came and knelt before him. He even said, I'm here for the Jews who she knew she was not. And she says, yes, I'll just settle for the crumbs Jesus. And Jesus is like now that's what faith looks like. Faith will not take no for an answer until it gets to Jesus. It doesn't need to see it; it doesn't need to feel it. It already knows who Jesus is. But that's what faith is. “Be it done for you as you desire and her daughter was healed instantly.” Oh woman, Jesus says, great is your faith?
I wonder what Jesus would say about your faith. Would he think that you have an active response to him? Would he think that you're calling out for him, that you're believing he's going to do it, that you're not going to stop until you get to him? Or would Jesus see past what your faith is and see that you kind of tried and then you gave up, you kind of prayed, and then you stopped? What would Jesus think about your faith? I want to encourage you to have an active, responsible obedience to Jesus. If you know who he is and you know what he's done, that's all you need to know to respond to Jesus Christ.
Now, there was a blind lady who came to our church. Her name was Erlinda. Does anybody here remember Erlinda? Did anybody meet her? There was a lady named Erlinda. She was legally blind, and she was left in hospice to die. And a man from our church who sometimes visited people in hospice, began to share the gospel with Erlinda. And he began every week when he came to see Erlinda, he went through the next chapter of the Gospel of John with her, and he explained who Jesus was from the Gospel of John. He answered all of Erlinda's questions, and they began to have these regular conversations. And even though Erlinda was legally blind, the Lord opened up her eyes to see Jesus, and she put her faith in Jesus Christ. And along with her faith in Jesus Christ, Erlinda made a miraculous recovery out of hospice, and she started attending our church. And she would come here, and I would hear Erlinda talk about Jesus, and she could bring up specific things that Jesus said in the Gospel of John. I'm thinking, I talk to people at our church all the time who can see and read their Bibles, and they're misquoting what Jesus says. And here's this blind woman hanging on the words of eternal life and quoting Jesus. And you could tell this woman has faith. This blind woman can see better than some other Christians I seem to know, and she is just on fire, and she wants to get baptized. And we mean about her getting baptized, and the day comes on the calendar. I even remember waking up that day thinking, what an exciting Sunday it would be at church, because Erlinda is getting baptized today. And she used to take the OCTA to church here regularly, faithfully, and she came in, and I said, Erlinda, are you ready? And I could tell right away something was off about Erlinda, something was not right about her. And I said, Erlinda, what's wrong? And she's like, I can't get baptized today. And I said, come over here. We need to talk. And she explained to me what had happened to her this morning that had so disrupted her and made her upset. It's that this morning, on the day she was getting baptized, and the people she lived with knew she was going to get baptized that day, she was going to eat her waffles for breakfast, and where there would be syrup, someone had removed the syrup, and they had put dish soap there. So, she couldn't believe that someone had done that to her, someone that she knew, on the day she was getting baptized. Why would they do that to her? Why would you be so unkind to someone who is blind?
See, my concern is many of us are putting dish soap where there should be syrup. And Erlinda, she bounced back from that, and she did end up getting baptized here at this church, and some of our brothers and sisters would go visit her, and when she couldn't come, she would listen to the sermons online. She ended up passing away during the time of COVID, and she is now seeing Jesus in all of his glory as one of our church members who have graduated, and their faith has become sight. And do you have the faith of Erlinda to see what cannot be seen? And do you have the love to extend that kindness to those who are blind? Or will you keep it to yourself? Let's pray.
Father in heaven. We need to hear how Jesus stopped everything on the way to Jerusalem because one blind man, Bartimaeus, was crying out. And we thank you for what he cried, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Let us see who Jesus is, the king in the line of David. Let us see who Jesus is, the one who can save us, the one who will care for our soul, the one who will give us pity and compassion to forgive us for all of our sins, to withhold our judgment, because he took that judgment in our place. O Father, I pray that even this very day, there will be souls in this service who will cry out to Jesus for mercy, and they'll keep calling on his name until they can see him, until they believe in him, and they know who he is, and they know what he did, and they've trusted in him for their salvation. God, please let this be a day of salvation. Let people have the eyes of their hearts open to see Jesus. And, God, I pray for those of us who have received mercy, for those of us who know Jesus is the coming King, for those of us who know all of our sins are forgiven and we have a new life in Christ. Let us look upon those who doubt, let us look upon those who are on their way to the fire, let us look on the blind that are all around us that the god of this world has blinded their minds to not believe in Jesus. And let us have compassion. Give us the very mercy of Christ. Let us follow his example and be kind to the blind. And let us not think that we're better than anyone else. Let us not think that because we do what is right or because we believe this, that's why we're different. Let us agree that I too was once blind, but now I see. And it's all because of Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. Let that be what is on our heart this Easter. And let many who can't see Jesu, let many who are blind today, let them come and see. Let them be introduced. Christ, let us be the ones who extend his mercy and who tell them, call on his name. He will save you, just like he did with me. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.