A bruised reed he will not break, a smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice and truth. That's what he does.
Doesn't mean he's on our timetable, but he does do these things. The truths of God are a must learn. We do not get a pass when it comes to spiritual truth. God never encourages us to be lazy when it comes to our faith, but to plow, to work hard and long. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in Mark Chapter 10 as he begins a new message called Now or Never. Mark's Gospel Chapter 10, we'll take verses 46 through 52. Now when they came to Jericho, as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. 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. Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man saying to him, be of good cheer, rise, he is calling you. Throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to him, what do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. And then Jesus said to him, go your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.
Now or Never is the title for this morning's consideration. And of course, keeping in theme with the blind man, there is much to see in this life. Some of it is very wonderful, some of it is horrific and much in between. And what we do with what we see matters very much to God. Some folks have witnessed some terrible things in life and they cannot explain God.
How can a loving God this and how can a good God that? Others, they press forward in faith nonetheless. In fact, not only have they seen horrific things, many of them have been persecuted and abused and still cling to the Lord.
And that is, of course, the outcome of faith, of true faith. God gave the ancient Jews the word through the prophets. And in that word is his will for his people, how man should live before him, who he was, what God had to say about himself and mankind.
But it was viewed as odd by some of the people who were called to be God's people. Prophet Hosea, who is the broken hearted prophet, he's not the only one, but his heart certainly reflected how God felt at the treatment that God received from the people whom he loved so much. And if you read through the prophecy of Hosea, only 14 chapters you can get through it in a day. If you read through it, you find that the prophet keeps mentioning how they would go elsewhere and not to God. And you can hear a lamentation in the voice of the prophet and in the voice of God. In the 8th chapter, God says this through Hosea, I have written for him the great things of my law, but they were considered a strange thing. They didn't see it as anything but odd. And God said, I see this behavior.
I see that you're not seeing who I am and what I am saying to you. And this, of course, is the story throughout the ages. Those people, they wanted something else instead of God, whatever. So they turned a blind eye to the word of God as though there were no consequences. But there are consequences in this life and in the life to come. And in this morning's consideration, which is about this blind man who did get to see Jesus and then followed him because what we see matters.
It matters to God. Some have seen him in Christianity, but Christianity did not live up to their expectations. And they become apostates. They fall away from the faith.
I mean, more and more it's going to be on the increase for many reasons, but it does happen. That's what an apostate is, someone who was once holding to and no longer is. Judas Iscariot became an apostate, a betrayer, because Christ did not live up to his expectations. And he became what we would say disillusioned.
Christ did not do for the apostate what the apostate hoped to do, so they abandoned the faith. We are very much aware that these things do take place. We who believe also know that the Bible tells us truths about God and ourselves that we must hear and respond to. We must act on.
It's not enough to be hearers of the Word. We understand this basic concept of our faith. And so, through the Holy Spirit, our eyes can be opened.
But what do we do with the sight that we are given? At the end of this story, we just stood and read that Bartimaeus, once he saw, he followed Jesus on the road. That's not put in the Bible by mistake. It's deliberate. Everything in the Scripture is deliberate. And that's why we cling to it. That's why God said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God. And this is repeated by the Lord in the face of Satan.
And we love it so. Now we look at the 46th verse, and hopefully everything I've just said will tie in as we go through this last section of Chapter 10. Now they came to Jericho as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude. Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. Well, we can't just pass by Jericho.
We have to comment on it. It is the first conquered city of the Jews in the Promised Land, just five miles from the Jordan River, about 15 from Jerusalem. That's where Rahab the harlot was. She understood what God was doing and converted, and that took away the excuses of everybody else in the city who perished by the sword of Joshua and his army. There are two Jericho's, incidentally. There's the ancient ruins of Jericho that was conquered by Joshua, and then not very far away is the inhabited city of Jericho, which plays into the Gospel stories, but I'm not going to take too much time to comment on that. In the city of Jericho, the Lord was offered hospitality by Zacchaeus, the tax collector. And of course, you know, there was a great conversion of Zacchaeus and that profound word that comes out of Luke, Chapter 19, verse 10, that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
He's talking about you and me also, lost souls who become saved by the work of the Lord. Also, this city of Jericho was put into a parable, the Lord and the good Samaritan. The Samaritan was coming from Jerusalem down to Jericho, when of course he was caught and beat up and then ministered to, not the Samaritan, but the Samaritan was the one that ministered to the man coming from Jerusalem to Jericho. Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus. Timaeus, that's his father.
Bar meaning son, and it means honorable. The name Timaeus means honorable, and to put it together, he is the son of the esteemed, of an honorable person. Only a handful of the people, of the multitudes, the countless multitudes that Christ delivered and cleansed and healed, only a few of them are named. One of them, Mary Magdalene, who the Lord cast out seven demons. Lazarus of Bethany, who was raised from the dead. Simon the leper, it's not explicitly said that Simon was healed of his leprosy or cleansed of his leprosy, but the implication is clear.
The Lord's not sitting at his table and he's still a leper, and reading into that a little bit, I would add his name to the list. Ismalchus, the one who had a close shave. Peter went to hack off his head and missed and got his ear, or at least put his head open and missed. And then there is the father of Bartimaeus. Mark is the one that names him. The son of Timaeus, Luke and Matthew also telling the story, they omit the name and he didn't have his own name.
That's part of the story to us. He's a blind beggar that is nameless. I mean, that's no name. The son of someone else. The son of Timaeus.
Did he have one? Did anybody even care? Evidently, the two of them were known to the early church, otherwise Mark would really not much point of putting their names in the story, but the early church, at least in the circles that Mark was in, likely knew these two men and they were likely believers.
But this is all we know of them. Matthew tells us there were two beggars. Mark and Luke single out Bartimaeus because he is the spokesman and likely the one that continued to follow the Lord. It says here in verse 46 that he sat by the road begging. All of this is important.
Every single word. Man shall not live by bread alone, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Not a jot or a tittle is unimportant to us because it gives the Holy Spirit opportunity to speak to us, to encourage us, if necessary to correct us. The word of God does so many things for the believer and as much as we have to see and face in this life, we can use all of the ammunition we can lay our hands on. And here this man sat by the road begging – not only is he blind, but he's poor.
Terrible combination. And the irony of this is here he is blind and begging and his name means the son of the esteemed one. There's not much esteemed about him right now on the road like this.
There's nothing to envy in this man. There's nothing about him that we know at this point that we could point to and say, boy, this is something that you want to have in your life. They put him on the sideline. He's no longer in the game.
He's just on the side begging, trying to get by. Few pitied him. Some despised him. Most probably ignored him. He was a defect on the landscape, not something that you want to look at, not something that would excite hope and admiration. There were other things that were more useful than this man. And Jesus knew all about it, of course.
The sufferings that we see in this life – you know, you can see animals suffering. Why would God allow such things? We begin to question the goodness of God, the kindness of God, and if we're not careful, that thing can turn into a fire out of control, as it has for many – abandoning God, protesting against him. But this man, Bartimaeus, he doesn't fall for that lie from hell. He doesn't say, well, I'm blind. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll come back to that. But Paul writes this just sort of a note from God that I know about the curse of sin.
I've not lost sight of it. Romans 8, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. You don't read the word groans and ignore it.
It stands out, because we can identify with groaning in life. And the apostle Paul, he just throws this in there, and the reader comes along and reads it, and the Holy Spirit takes his divine finger and points to these things, and we grow stronger and wiser and more useful because of it. Is there anyone here that wants to be a born-again Christian and useless to God?
I don't think so. I think we all want to be useful to God. That introduces a series of other issues and questions and problems. Because we want to be useful, that's not enough.
It's a good intention, it's a good start, but there needs to be more. Verse 47, we continue, 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. Luke adds this very critical point that sets the tone for everything that's going on between this man and Christ. Luke says, hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant because he couldn't see what was going on, he says. So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.
They only said Jesus of Nazareth. Bartimaeus connects the dots. He then calls him the Son of David.
That is quite profound. His theology was in place. He knew enough of his scripture to get in front of Christ, to get the Lord to have compassion on him. Bartimaeus, the Son of Timaeus, knew and believed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David. Just all they said, Jesus of Nazareth, they needed to say no more.
Then came the outburst. He began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. See, the prophets long ago said that the Messiah would be a descendant of David to the throne. We'll take one.
There are many. Jeremiah 23, behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, that I will raise to you, David, a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is the name by which he will be called, Yahweh, our righteousness. Of course, that incorporates, contains within that prophecy the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ, which we are going to be a part of.
There will be, actually there's a third. There's the coming of Christ for his church. We call that the rapture of the saints. And then there is the coming of Christ with his church, and that is the second advent, the return of Christ, where he cleans up the house. Then ends the rule of man and the kingdom now comes, enters into the millennial reign.
Anyway, back to our story here. Had they not told Barnabas this news, had they ignored him or left out that important name, Jesus, Barnabas might never have known that he was near. The story would not have gone in this direction. He never would have been able to call out for deliverance. Well, a Christian reads this and thinks about that and then says, how many people in my life do I need to tell about Jesus when the opportunity is given to me by God? Now there are times again God will tell us, no, that's not for you. As he did with Paul and Barnabas, closing doors for them, I don't want the gospel preached there yet, not by you, not right now.
I've got something else for you. That is a prerogative of the Holy Spirit, prerogative of God to lead and guide us. That's why he is Lord. Jesus was not coming this way again. It was now or never. He's heading towards Jerusalem, and there he will be murdered and crucified in public. Barnabas seems to be saying, I don't care what's going on, I'm calling out to him.
It is now or never. And so at this point, this blind man had to make two choices within his own heart. Was Jesus the Messiah indeed? The rabbis didn't think so.
Well, Barnabas, the son of Timaeus, evidently did not care what the rabbis said if it did not match what he believed. A lot of people will go wherever the wind goes. I've noticed driving, for example.
Here we go. A lot of folks, they don't want to do their speed limit. They want to do your speed limit. That's why you catch up to them, and then they won't let you go. Why can't they keep doing the 20 miles an hour in the 50 zone that they were doing before I got there? Okay, it's a little personal. I'm sort of like, I could see it happening, and you're not with me, because you must be the people I'm catching up to.
It's like, get your own speed limit. All right, back to this, since I'm the only one that struggles on the road. He said, no, Pastor, we've heard about your struggles on the road.
Tell us some other things you struggle with. No, don't be nosy. Anyway, the other point that he had to settle in his own heart is the Messiah good. If He is sovereign and all that the prophets say He is, is He good?
Does He care about me? I've been blind. I'm poor.
I don't even have a name. Why can I approach Him? He did not allow all those things to get in His way. He is determined to get in front of Jesus Christ. The lessons that fly off the page, they rob those who have excuses for coming to Christ of any seriousness.
Are you kidding me? Again, if Rahab can understand these are the people of God, then what was wrong with everybody else in the city? Rahab had enough heart fortitude to say, I don't care what they think.
I know what I think. She acted on that. There are those that cast themselves into serving Christ, as I mentioned earlier, only to discover that faith and devotion do not deliver to them what they had hoped. They hoped that Christianity would be this miracle drug in life that would just somehow do the things that they listed before God. And when they find they still have to struggle, they still have to fight, they have to deal with fear, they have to deal with depression, they have to deal with opposition, they have to deal with all these other things still. Instead of clinging to Christ, they slide away because they factor out the important things of God's word that face up to these things. God does not shy away from human suffering.
Just because He doesn't stop it doesn't mean He turns a deaf ear or a blind eye to it. We all know this verse, we who believe. If I said, who said this, class? Though He slay me, I will trust Him.
Like that, you'd say, Job, you'd know it. Though He slay me, I will trust Him. The apostate does not do that. The apostate may do it early in the walk then fall away later in the walk and Satan is counting on it.
That's how he plays people. Oh, you do not listen to me today, I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back next month.
I'll leave you for a while, but I'll be back. We know this, that's his M.O. It's his method of operation. Job chapter 19, for I know that my redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. This is deep into Job's experience. This is not the first day of his struggle.
He's been deep into this now and now he's got these four friends and the entourage with them show up. They don't help him, they hurt him, but he stands firm. I know my redeemer lives and you can't take that away from me.
I know the one that's going to rescue me is alive and I don't fault him for allowing this. Yeah, Job struggled, there were those down days, down moments that he had, you know, God is chasing me, he sets me up like an enemy, comes at me like a warrior, then he'd get it back together again. He did not even know. He did not know that he was God's champion, that it was Job and his testimony, a righteous man who turned from evil versus Satan. Some question again the goodness of God.
Therefore they go on oftentimes to question his existence by staring too long and too hard at the curses in this world and they get their eyes off of God. Barnabas didn't have eyes to get off of God, you could say. He had a heart for him. He did not fall for that from hell. He knew that lie.
He likely had thought of it time and time again. He had every reason to be bitter at Christ, at religion, at people who talked about faith and God's mercy. Men have good reason to question God but no reason to deny him. You can ask all the questions you want. Sometimes you'll get answers. My experience is most of the time you won't outside of what's been answered in Scripture.
There are exceptions but I cannot unknow him. Where else am I going to go? As Peter said to Jesus, there's nowhere else.
You're in. You've encapsulated everything that I need to know about God and I'm not going anywhere. Verse 48, then many warned him to be quiet and he cried out all the more, Son of David have mercy on me. People interfering with this man calling on Jesus. He overcame their interference. He dialed it up after that. I mean, what were they going to take from him?
His eyes? I mean, was he going to make him a beggar? Maybe to give them some of the benefit, maybe they thought he was going to ask Jesus for money as a beggar would do.
That is possible. Anyway, this determined spirit to lay hold of God's blessings is found throughout Scripture. One of the most poignant or outstanding cases is Jacob wrestling with the angel of the Lord to obtain the blessing. He just wouldn't let go.
He wouldn't stop. Now granted, in Jacob's case, the match lasted through the night. For us, it can be a long night.
Night can be a lifetime. But we will lay hold of the blessings. God will not silence a voice that truly calls out for him. He's not going to silence that voice. Isaiah said it this way, a bruised reed he will not break, a smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice and truth. That's what he does.
Doesn't mean he's on our timetable, but he does do these things. The truths of God are a must learn. We do not get a pass when it comes to spiritual truth.
God never encourages us to be lazy when it comes to our faith, but to plow, to work hard and long. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-09-25 23:50:29 / 2023-09-25 23:59:57 / 9