I'll tell you that this week, Thursday night, I was hit by a truck driven by a big burly guy who goes by the radio handle ragweed.
! And I've suffered for it. You guys really, I'm sorry, you really thought I was hit by a truck. I wasn't really hit by a truck.
It kind of flattened me just the same. On Friday, I'm still suffering from that now. A couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of
a quote by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones who said,
Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. And this morning, I feel like I'm just smoldering.
But we'll get through it together. We do believe in the primacy of preaching in our corporate meetings.
The preached Word of God is incredibly important to the people of God, and we live in a day where that seems to be on the decline.
And as it is, it also seems that the church is on the decline. And so even amidst suffering, rough voices, the preaching of the Word is of great, great importance.
Now today will probably be a briefer sermon than we've had in the past. I think you all are due that.
I think over the past, if I'm remembering correctly, over the past three weeks, I've preached for two hours and 48 minutes, I think.
So I'm going to try to bring it in for you tonight. Although ironically, we're going to cover more text the Sunday than we have in the past Sunday.
So join me at the beginning of verse 32 of Mark chapter 10 as I read through the end of the chapter.
Woe is right.
And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them.
And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.
And taking the twelve again, He began to tell them what was to happen to Him, saying,
See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes,
and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles.
And they will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him.
And after three days, He will rise.
And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Him and said to Him,
Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
And He said to them, What do you want Me to do for you?
And they said to Him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.
Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking.
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
And they said to Him, We are able.
And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink you will drink.
And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.
But to sit at My right hand or at My left is not Mine to grant,
for it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
And Jesus called them to Him and said to them,
You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their great ones exercise authority over them.
But it shall not be so among you.
But whoever will be great among you must be your servant.
And whoever will be first among you must be slave of all.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve,
and to give up His life as a ransom for many.
And they came to Jericho.
And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples, 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 said,
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.
This is God's Word to us, written for His glory and our good.
We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
Let's pray together.
Father God, we are in all ways and at all times beholden to Your strength.
We are completely weak apart from You.
But there are certainly moments in our lives that we feel that more readily.
And Father, this is probably the best place for us to be wholly dependent,
recognizing that we need You and we need You this morning to preach through me,
to apply the preaching of Your Word to our hearts,
to change us from one degree of glory to another.
We throw ourselves on Your promises.
We know that You love Your people.
And You want to see Your people come into perfection.
We know that You love Your glory, that You're zealous for it.
And You want a people that will honor You with their lives and with their lips.
And so have Your way with us this morning as we open Your Word.
And we pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
So, as we've discussed previously, Mark's Gospel is written in a sort of three-act way.
Now, I don't think he laid it out specifically in this way,
but you can kind of see some divisions.
And we've worked our way through Act 1 up through chapter 8, verse 21,
which largely accounts for Jesus' public ministry.
We certainly pick up some teaching in there.
We see lots of miracles.
All these miracles, they gave affirmation to the words that He was saying.
But since chapter 8, verse 22,
we've come into what we've kind of seen to be the second act,
where Jesus' public ministry is minimized
and His attention to disciples is emphasized.
We can see this in chapter 9, verse 30 and 31.
They went on from there and passed through Galilee.
And He did not want anyone to know,
for He was teaching His disciples.
This was the major thrust of His ministry at this time.
And in this act that goes through the end of chapter 10,
we see it punctuated by Jesus' passion predictions.
That is, His predictions of His suffering, His death, and His resurrection.
We saw that in chapter 8, verse 31.
And in 9, verse 31.
And then before us this morning in verses 33 and 34 of chapter 10.
So it seems to be marked out by these passion predictions.
And in each case of Mark's account,
these passion predictions are followed by a record of the misunderstanding of the disciples.
And I find it very easy to wag my head at the disciples
and not be able to comprehend how it is that they were so misled and so confused.
But as we've noted, the culture was informing them about who the Messiah would be.
They thought the Messiah was going to come and reign militarily.
They thought He was going to sit on a throne on this earth in that time.
And He was going to lead a great army and overthrow Rome.
That He was going to set the Jews free from their earthly oppression.
But because God's Word is written for us,
we ought not merely just muse at the response of the disciples.
Look at the poor, pitiful disciples and their muted understanding.
But we also ought to apply Jesus' teaching to our own hearts.
To ask the question,
do we rightly understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
We have been called from our nets on the seashore.
We are now following Him.
But do we follow Him rightly?
And so we see their journey continuing in verse 32.
And for the first time, we see the name of the place that they are headed to.
I have been saying to you all along that this last six months,
as He's putting His major focus on the disciples,
that He's moving towards Jerusalem.
This is how we know that to be the case in verse 32.
They're moving from the east, headed towards Jerusalem.
If you're looking at a map,
it would look as if they're heading southwest.
But you see it says they're going up to Jerusalem.
But everything was up to Jerusalem in this day.
Jerusalem was the great pinnacle of civilization.
And furthermore, since they're coming from the east,
there actually was a climb.
They had quite a steep road on their journey to Jerusalem.
So they're traveling up to Jerusalem.
And we see in verse 32 a difference in the way in which they're walking.
Mark records that Jesus was walking ahead of them.
It doesn't seem to be a stroll amongst the disciples any longer,
where He's teaching them as they talk along the way.
But now He's walking out ahead of them.
He's now determined where He's going and what He's going to go and do.
You will note, for the original language,
we see that this fear and amazement is the fear of the disciples
and is the amazement of the crowd.
And these things should be read in light of the following words
that Jesus is going to speak to them.
Saying to them,
See, we're going up to Jerusalem.
And He makes this prediction once again,
a more expanded version of the predictions that He's made earlier
in chapter 8, verse 31,
and chapter 9, verse 31.
And we know from our hindsight,
from our position in redemptive history,
that all of these things came to pass.
Turn with me to Mark 15.
We'll look in a short text here
and see all of the realizations of all of these things.
Mark 15, beginning in verse 15,
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released for them Barabbas.
And having scourged Jesus,
they flogged Him.
He delivered Him to be crucified.
And the soldiers led Him away inside the palace,
that is the governor's headquarters.
And they called together the whole battalion.
And they clothed Him in a purple cloak
and twisted together a crown of thorns.
They put it on Him.
And they began to salute Him.
Hail, King of the Jews!
They mocked Him.
And they were striking His head with a reed
and spitting on Him.
They spit on Him
and kneeling down in homage to Him.
And when they had mocked Him,
they stripped Him of the purple cloak
and put His own clothes on Him.
And they led Him out to crucify Him.
We know what follows.
They did in fact kill Him.
So this tragic prediction that Jesus makes for us
in chapter 10 certainly comes true.
And the disciples are having a hard time understanding
why.
Why would the King of the Jews,
why would the Messiah,
the One who has come to deliver us,
die?
It seems that the fear of the disciples
is rooted in their temporal mindsets
of what this death march Jerusalem
was going to mean for them.
They had yet to fully comprehend
and understand the eternal purposes
of God and Jesus Christ.
They had yet to understand
that Jesus came to inaugurate
a spiritual kingdom
that would be consummated
someday in the future.
They seemed to miss that Jesus
had always finished
His passion predictions
with His resurrection.
He never fails.
Never fails to say it.
After three days,
He will rise.
He never leaves them hopeless.
After three days,
I will rise.
This is the exclamation mark
on the end of these predictions
of suffering.
Death will have no dominion
over me.
And therefore,
death has no dominion
over us.
Peter put it this way
in 1 Peter 1.3,
Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
According to His great mercy,
He has caused us
to be born again
to a living hope
through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ
from the dead.
In Jesus' resurrection,
we ourselves
have been resurrected.
We were put to death
and we have been raised again
to live with Him.
This is the beautiful promise
of the Gospel
when Jesus is giving it
to them right here
and He's laying it out
before them
and they have just yet
to fully understand.
And we see it again.
This is the third time now.
Look at the response
of James and John.
These brothers,
the sons of Zebedee,
they make a request of Him.
They want to sit,
one at the right,
one at the left hand,
in glory.
They want to reign with Him
in glory.
Perhaps because they're familiar
with 1 Samuel 2.8.
Which says,
He raises up the poor
from the dust.
He lifts the needy
from the ash heap
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
They were rightly asking
in some sense,
Lord, we want to reign with You.
We want the promise
of 1 Samuel 2.8
to come true for us.
But look at how Jesus responds
to them in verse 38.
You do not know
what you are asking.
If you are to receive
the blessing of reigning with Me
in glory,
do you understand
what that means?
And He asks them a question,
a rhetorical question,
which He answers
that they will in fact
be able to do.
Are you able to drink
the cup that I drink
or to be baptized
with the baptism
with which I am baptized?
And this question
is saturated
with Old Testament imagery
of suffering.
They would have understood
what He meant
when He talked about
drinking of a cup
and being baptized
with this baptism.
Drink the cup that I drink
means the cup of God's wrath.
This is what He's specifically
referring to in this case.
At the hands of men,
Jesus Christ on the cross
was going to experience
the full cup of God's wrath.
Psalm 75.8 reads,
For in the hand of the Lord
there is a cup
with foaming wine
well mixed
and He pours out from it
and all the wicked of the earth
shall drain it down
to the dregs.
This is why Jesus prays
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Good record of this
is Luke 22.42.
Father, if You are willing,
remove this cup from Me.
Nevertheless,
not My will,
but Yours.
Let us be done.
Jesus knew that it was
the very wrath of God
that was going to be
poured out on Him
for our sins
that He was going to drink of.
And in His human nature
asked that if God's will
could be accomplished
in another way
that He wouldn't have
to do this thing.
But yet,
this being the will of God,
the preordained will of God,
Jesus drank it
to the very last drop.
How about the baptism
that He refers to here?
That's a clear allusion
to God's judgment
in the flood.
That Jesus was going to be
overwhelmed by God's judgment.
Again,
poured out on Him
because of the sinfulness
of mankind.
And James and John
respond to Him,
we are able.
We are able.
And I don't think that they
fully comprehended
what Jesus was talking about
in His suffering.
None of us can suffer
the way that Jesus suffered.
I don't know how many of you
saw the passion of the Christ
such a brutal depiction,
a fairly accurate depiction
of what crucifixion looked like.
The thing that was
heartbreaking to me
about that
is everybody said,
oh, look at this man
and what they did for me
and the things he did
in his flesh,
others would do.
I think James and John
understand that.
I would do that for you.
I would receive that kind
of physical suffering
for you,
but the thing that I could
never do for you
is to be punished
in my spirit
the way that Jesus was.
To drink of the full wrath
of God
for the sins of the church.
To have His judgment
wash over Him.
One who had been
in perfect union
with the Godhead
for all eternity.
Suddenly had God
turn His back on Him.
This is something
that none of us
could have ever bore
except for Jesus Christ.
So they say we are able
and if we're getting
to this point in the text
and we've yet to read
the rest of it,
we should say,
no you can't.
Impossible.
How could you possibly?
But what does Jesus
respond to them?
The cup that I drink,
you will drink.
With the baptism
with which I am baptized,
you will be baptized.
Now is He talking about
the exact same suffering
that He would go through?
No.
He's not.
But He is talking about
the physical suffering.
The persecution
that He'll receive
at the hands of the Gentiles.
They will receive
as well.
Surely you will.
James and John
were not lacking
in willingness.
But they didn't fully get
what they were saying.
They wanted a reward
for their part in the suffering.
It's if they're coming
to Him to say,
we want to guarantee
that if we're going to continue
to follow you to Jerusalem
and this is what's going
to happen to you,
that something really good
and positive is going
to happen for us.
We are willing,
we are able to suffer
if only we can have
the promise of glory.
You see,
they wanted to serve Jesus
for their sake
and not for the sake
of others.
And they certainly did.
James,
you can read about
in Acts 12.2,
was killed by King Herod
with a sword.
John was exiled
to the island of Patmos.
Tradition holds
that he's the only apostle
that was not martyred.
However,
he was tortured.
He suffered greatly.
It's believed that he died
of natural causes,
but he took on
all kinds of torment.
He had even been dipped
in hot oil
and the skin on his body
was removed
by that process.
They certainly suffered
for the sake of the name
of Jesus Christ,
but Jesus presses to them
that this suffering
does not guarantee
some special status,
a future glory to be sure,
but not some special status.
However,
humility does lead
to exaltation.
It turns me to Luke 14
while I take a water break
from my throat.
He says to them,
it's not for me to decide
who will sit at the right hand
or the left hand of me
in glory.
This place has been prepared
beforehand.
But what does
humiliation
award us?
How can we
persevere
through persecution?
And there is a future promise
for us.
He tells a parable
beginning in verse 7,
Luke 14.
Now he told a parable
to those who were invited
when he noticed
how they chose
the places of honor,
saying to them,
when you are invited
by someone to a wedding feast,
do not sit down
in a place of honor,
lest someone more distinguished
than you
be invited by him.
People in this day
who were more distinguished
sat closer to the head
of the table.
Verse 9,
And he who invited you both
will come and say to you,
give your place
to this person,
and then you will begin
with shame
to take the lowest place.
But when you are invited,
go and sit in the lowest place
so that when the host comes,
he may say to you,
friend,
move up higher.
Then you will be honored
in the presence of all
who sit at table
with you.
For everyone
who exalts himself
will be humbled,
and he who humbles himself
will be exalted.
So the very thing
that they're asking for
is the self-exaltation.
And the point is further made
by the response
of the other ten.
This activity amongst
James and John
and the other disciples
leads Jesus
to the teaching
of verse 42, 43, 44, and 45.
It says when the ten heard it,
verse 41,
they began to be indignant
at James and John.
They became angry with them
because James and John
were asking for seats of honor.
It was the same problem
we saw back in chapter 9
where they're arguing
about who is the greatest
among them.
They're feuding in between
of their little band.
Who's going to be generals
and who's going to be colonels
in Jesus' army?
And Jesus calls to them together
and says,
You know those
who are considered
rulers of the Gentiles,
lord it over them.
They deal with them unjustly.
And their great ones
exercise authority over them.
You know it to be true
of this world
that people who are
in positions of power
rain down on people
who are lowly.
But God's kingdom
looks different.
Verse 43,
But it shall not be so
among you.
But whoever will be great
among you
must be your servant.
And whoever will be first
among you
must be slave
of all.
It seems to be
a little backwards
in God's economy
that if we want to be
first,
we must be last.
That we must
empty ourselves
and serve
others.
And then Jesus
gives for this
the great
example
of His own life.
For even
the Son of Man
came not to serve,
not to be served,
but to serve,
and to give His life
as a ransom
for many.
The Son of Man,
Jesus,
the Christ,
the Messiah
came not to rule
militarily,
not to be set up
on a throne
and worshipped
in the temporal,
but to serve
in the eternal.
To give up
His life
that we may
have life
in Him.
He secured
an eternal
redemption
for the church
in this great
climax
of redemptive
history.
He's just
driving the same
point.
It's the theme
of this second
act of Mark's
that He's made
previously to us.
Remember Mark
chapter 8,
34 and 35.
This is in response
to the improper
understanding
of the disciples.
If anyone
would come after
Me,
let him deny
himself
and take up
his cross
and follow
Me.
That is,
empty him
of himself,
all of his
self-determination,
all of his
self-worship
and follow
Jesus.
Verse 35,
For whoever
would save
his life
will lose it.
But whoever
loses his life
for My sake
and the Gospels
will save it.
Again,
Mark chapter 9,
after the inappropriate,
the misunderstanding
of the disciples,
their argument
about who
would be first
and who
would be the
greatest.
In verse 35
of chapter 9,
if anyone
would be first,
he must be
last of all
and servant
of all.
And Jesus
again drives
all of this
with the great
example of
His life
and the way
in which
He came
to serve.
Why do we
think,
why do we
misunderstand
understand
that we
would be
any greater
than this?
Jesus came
into this
world
and was
hated.
You see,
the thousands
that are following
Him through the
first part of
Mark are
following Him
because of the
things that they
do,
not because of
who He is.
For the things
that can be
granted to them,
not because they
want Him.
He's rejected
in His own
town.
People will
follow Him
for a while
and then when
He says
something difficult,
they will
leave.
He's got a
very small
group of
people that
are devoted
to Him.
We see in
the beginning
of Acts
probably about
120.
120!
Our normal
Sunday morning
congregation is
larger than
that.
This is
Jesus,
the Christ.
Why do we
think we
would be any
better?
He was
delivered to
the authorities.
He was
spit on.
He was
flogged.
He was
mocked.
And He was
finally killed.
Why do we
think anything
different would
come to us?
In case you
do,
Matthew
chapter 10.
Turn there
please.
Jesus is not
unaware of what
will happen to
us as we
devote our
lives to
us,
as we
die to
ourselves,
take our
crosses,
as we
follow Him.
Beginning of
verse 16,
Matthew 10,
Behold,
I am sending
you out as
sheep in
the midst
of wolves.
So be
wise as
serpents and
innocent as
doves.
Do you know
what happens to
sheep in the
midst of wolves?
Beware of
men, for they
will deliver you
over to courts
and flog you
in their
synagogues.
And you
will be
dragged before
governors and
kings for
my sake,
to bear witness
before them
and the
Gentiles.
When they
deliver you
over, do
not be
anxious how
you are to
speak or what
you are to
say, for what
you are to
say will be
given to you
in that hour.
For it is not
you who speak,
but the spirit of
your father
speaking through
you.
Brother will
deliver brother
over to death
and the father
his child,
and children will
rise against
parents and have
them put to
death, and you
will be hated
by all for
my name's
sake.
But the one
who endures to
the end will
be saved.
When they
persecute you
in one town,
flee to the
next.
For truly I
say to you,
you will not
have gone
through all
the towns
of Israel
before the
Son of
Man comes.
A disciple
is not above
his teacher,
nor a servant
above his
master.
It is enough
for the
disciple to
be like his
teacher,
and the
servant like
his master.
If they
have called
the master
of the house
Beelzebul,
how much
more will
they malign
those of
his household?
He says
again,
John 15
18-20,
If the
world hates
you,
you know
that it
has hated
me before
it hated
you.
If you
were of
the world,
the world
would love
you as
its own.
But because
you are not
of the world,
but I chose
you out of
the world,
therefore the
world hates
you.
Remember the
word that I
said to you,
a servant
is not greater
than his
master.
If they
persecuted
me,
they will
also
persecute
you.
So if we
belong to
the Lord,
if we are
following Jesus
in his way,
we will
suffer.
There's no
wiggle room
in this.
There's no
way around
it.
And so what
does it
mean for
us if we
don't
suffer?
v. 19
of John
15,
if you
were of
the world,
the world
would love
you as
its own.
It is
possible to
be a
disciple of
Jesus Christ,
to have
made a
profession of
faith in
him,
to be
truly saved,
and to
have stopped
following
him altogether.
That
possibility
exists that
you become
so ensnared
by the
traps of
this world
that he
has gone
on ahead
of you,
and you're
just sitting
in the
luxury of
the things
around you.
If the
world doesn't
hate you,
it's because
you look
like the
world.
If you're
following
Christ and
you look
like him,
you will
be
persecuted.
Now,
what does
this look
like for
us as
American
Christians?
We have
laws that
prevent
by and
large
physical
persecution.
It's not
likely that
any of
us would
be beheaded,
drug out
of our
homes,
thrown
into
prison,
certainly
not
crucified.
There are
laws that
prevent
such
things,
but yet
persecution
should
exist
in other
forms by
us being
thought
strange,
being made
fun of,
people thinking
that their
intellect is
so much
larger than
ours,
because we
do things
like skip
watching the
Super Bowl
to be with
God's people
on a Sunday
evening,
because we
don't let
sports get
in the way
of our
child's
spiritual
growth,
because we
don't go out
late on
Saturdays,
because we
care about
our activity
on Sunday
morning,
because we
don't go
along with
every narrative
taught to
us in
the classroom,
we don't
make the
best grades
sometimes,
because we
don't put
down the
answer the
professor wants
to hear,
because we
work extra
hard,
even at
menial tasks,
even when
no one is
watching,
because ladies,
you don't fit
in on the
beach,
because you
care about
modesty,
because you
would rather
serve others
than be
served,
because you
warn people
of their
certain
destruction
unless they
repent and
believe in
Jesus Christ.
Beloved,
there are so
many things,
these are
examples that
popped into
my head,
ways in which
we should be
living that
sets us apart
from this
world,
following in
the ways of
God,
being disciples
of Jesus
Christ,
is going to
make us
strange.
We should
suffer in the
world.
We ask this
question,
do you feel
more comfortable
in your
other spheres,
the other
circles that
you run in,
than you do
when you
come and
you're with
the church?
So many
times,
I've heard
the accusation,
people will
come here and
not come back
because they
don't make
them feel good
about themselves.
It's not my
job to make
you feel good
about yourself.
It's make
you feel good
about Jesus,
to love Him,
to see your
own failing.
But shouldn't
we walk in
here together
and feel
comfortable
in our
failing?
Shouldn't
we walk in
here together
and want
to be
together?
Because this
place is a
refuge where
we all come
together and
say we fail
in the way,
but we know
the way.
And we know
the way isn't
crazy.
Encourage me,
spur me on
in the way.
I want to
follow Jesus.
I want to be
like Him.
Shouldn't
this be where
we're most
comfortable?
Isn't this
why we come
together as the
church?
We might
encourage each
other in this
way,
we might press
each other on
to go back
out and to
keep fighting?
To go to a
place that's
hostile towards
us?
A place that
doesn't want to
hear the things
we have to say
because it's not
of the world?
The answer to all
these rhetorical
questions is a
resounding yes.
This should be
true of us.
This should be so
true of us.
James 1, 2-4.
James says,
Count it all
joy, my
brothers, when
you meet trials
of various kinds.
For you know
that the testing
of your faith
produces steadfastness
and let steadfastness
have its full effect
that you may be
perfect and
complete, lacking
in nothing.
Do we want to be
driven on in our
faith?
Then welcome the
suffering.
I'm not suggesting
that you go and
seek the suffering,
but begin to
arrange your life
so that it looks
like the life of
Jesus and I
promise it will
come and count it
a joy when it
comes because you
will be purified by
it.
Your faith will be
increased by it.
Beloved, we are
so far ahead of so
many others in the
Christian faith.
We have much to
rejoice in.
God has done good
things with us,
but we are also a
long way from where
He would have us
be.
We have so much
changing to do
in our lives.
Casting off our
American Christian
culture and truly
being devoted to
the One who has
called us.
We see in the
summation of
chapter 10 a
beautiful picture of
calling.
As their journey
brings them to
Jericho, northeast of
Jerusalem, north of
the Dead Sea, a man
named Bartimaeus
hears that He's
coming and he
cries out to Him
and he cries out to
Him with a very
specific name,
Jesus, Son of
David.
That means that he
recognized that Jesus
was the Son of God,
that He was the
Messiah.
He knew who
Jesus was.
And Jesus says in
verse 49,
call Him.
He hears the call
of the blind man
Bartimaeus and He
says to him,
call Him, and you
see in verse 52
that His sight is
restored.
It's immediately
recovered because of
His faith.
I've said to you as
we've worked through
the second act that
it's bookended by
two accounts of
Jesus healing
blind men.
We see the man at
Bethsaida, 8,
22-26.
He's a man who's
healed in degrees
and he's brought
to Jesus by
others.
Brought to Him.
Not given a name
here.
And Jesus takes
him away and He
does two miracles.
He partly restores
the sight and then
He fully restores
His sight.
And then He sends
him off and says,
don't go into the
village.
Then we see
Bartimaeus who's
healed immediately.
And these things
seem to be, by
Mark's inspired
account, put it
either in, bookmarked
it either in, to
drive the point that
Jesus is not only
the miracle worker
over physical
blindness but over
spiritual as well.
That He is the Lord
of spiritual blindness.
And I just love the
picture of Bartimaeus
calling out to Him.
He calls him to
Himself.
He restores His
sight.
And as He says to
him, verse 52,
go your way.
Your faith has
made you well.
And Mark's record
says, and immediately
He recovered a sight
and followed Him
on the way.
Bartimaeus' way
became Jesus' way
when Jesus restored
His sight.
When He made Him
whole once again.
And so we can take
some confidence in
the fact that Jesus
is Lord over
spiritual blindness.
If we will simply
call out to Him,
put ourselves
at His mercy.
Paul said this
in Philippians 1.6,
and I am sure of
this, that He who
began a good work
in you will bring
it to completion
at the day of
Jesus Christ.
And so as we feel
bad about ourselves,
as we recognize
that we don't suffer
for the sake of
Jesus Christ and
the gospel the way
we should,
we can take
confidence in the
fact that He is
completing in us
the work that He
set out to begin,
that we are still
on a road of
sanctification,
that He has not
given up on us.
Let's pray together.