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Series B – Twenty-Second Sunday of Pentecost – Sunday, October 24, 2021 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:28	the holy gospel according to saint mark the 10th chapter [Music]
0:39	they came to jericho and as Jesus was leaving jericho with his disciples and a great crowd bartimaeus a blind beggar
0:47	the son of timaeus was sitting by the roadside and when he heard that it was Jesus of nazareth he began to cry out
0:53	and say Jesus son of david have mercy on me and many rebuked him telling him to be
0:59	silent but he cried out all the more son of david have mercy on me and Jesus
1:05	stopped and said call him and they called the blind man saying to him take heart get up he’s calling you and
1:12	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
1:17	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
1:24	and immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way this is the gospel of the lord
1:31	in the name of Jesus amen all right so what are we going to do with this text another
1:37	healing of a blind person how many blind people does Jesus need to heal i mean come on we get the idea already Jesus
1:44	what’s going on here you know it’s like it’s easy for us as we read a story like this to just sit there and go well i
1:50	mean you know it’s not that big a deal it’s just another one of those yawn healings that Jesus gives to you know
1:56	poor blind people i would argue there’s a lot more going on than that you know
2:01	when you take a look ahead in the gospel of mark next stop for Jesus is jerusalem
2:07	palm sunday you know so jericho is like the last stop before we get there so
2:14	something’s going on in that matter but what i’d like to do is have you wander around the bible with me
2:20	a little bit and see if we can make sense of this yet another healing of
2:26	this blind man and see we can if we can figure out what the significance of it is now if you remember back in the gospel
2:33	of john chapter nine we’re going to pick up a few historical contextual clues here
2:39	remember there was that fellow who was born blind right remember that guy and so what
2:45	happens is is that the disciples ask Jesus Jesus who sinned this man or his
2:51	parents that he was born blind oftentimes the consequences of sin really can’t be tied to a particular sin
2:59	that we can just call it the the consequences of sin in general and Jesus basically says well no one no one sinned
3:05	that he was born this way so the glory of god might be displayed in his life and they’re like what
3:10	what and the always you have to ask the question where did they get this idea that you know it’s kind of a tit
3:16	tit-for-tat thing you know you’re suffering because you did that particular thing uh now now that does
3:23	happen by the way but that sounds more like you know karma or something like that but where do they get it from oh
3:28	well as chapter nine develops and then goes on to chapter 10 we know exactly where they got it from they got it from the
3:35	pharisees now little bit of a note here we lutherans are obnoxious we don’t know how to count all right let me let me
3:41	explain we you ask a lutheran how many religions are there two
3:46	and you sit there and go come on what is wrong with you people let’s see if we can work this out Christianity right
3:53	yeah buddhism uh-huh islam you betcha uh how about hinduism yeah jainism
3:59	that’s an exotic one that not a lot of people know anything about jainism there you go how many is that lutheran two
4:08	because here’s the thing you could take all the religions in the world and you kind of sort them out into two categories
4:14	works based religions the deity is unhappy with you to say that he is
4:21	unhappy is to say it politely and so you’ve got to placate his wrath by your
4:26	intentional efforts to get onto his good side it’s like trying to please your
4:32	mother when you haven’t done your chores good luck pleasing her now that you know she’s watching over you like a hot to
4:38	make sure you vacuum the floor right well you missed a spot right you know this is this is no this is not a good
4:44	thing here and every single the exception of one teaches that this is how this is done
4:50	all right you gotta you gotta you gotta you gotta they’re all religions of the law now they come up with different versions i
4:57	mean so one group says well yeah you have to pray towards mecca you got to do your alms and things like this and
5:03	that’s that’s one version of it and the other version you got to offer incenses and you know food offerings to these
5:09	little deities and then uh apostate forms of Christianity yeah those there’s a lot of those out
5:16	there too uh that you know there’s a form of legalism that we can all recognize maybe within the roman
5:21	catholic church but let’s talk about something a little bit more closer to home shall we then the charismatic
5:27	churches when when those televangelists get up and they say the lord wants to heal you
5:33	but you need to send me a thousand dollars right and the lord will you just gotta sow a seed offering into my
5:40	private jet fund so make your check payable to pastor chris rosebro you know
5:46	you get the idea here okay what is that it’s a form of legalism and then what happens for people who are
5:52	suffering legitimately suffering you think of those people who have
5:57	long-term diseases maladies in their bible in their body they they have issues with their body because they’ve
6:04	been in an accident you know just name the the thing and then what happens is that they ask said person why am i
6:11	suffering well let’s check your tithing record to see if you’ve actually been tithing because maybe god has sent the
6:17	destroyer to wreck your health because you’re not tithing off the gross or or or they’ll say something like you
6:24	don’t have enough faith this is all legalism this is this is in that second that that other category then there’s
6:30	this the one religion biblical Christianity basically says
6:35	yeah um i hate to say it it’s way worse than you think uh when we when we look at the law the
6:41	law if you if the your your diagnosis of yourself is that you know the law is telling me that things are bad but
6:47	they’re not that bad all right i i like made the analogy in the bible studies this past couple weeks talking about
6:54	remember the movie dunkirk that’s based on a historical thing there’s there’s the british army they’re on the shores of dunkirk and the nazis are not not
7:02	that far away and the situation is dire so what what happens is is that you know
7:08	churchill says if you own a private boat get to dunkirk pick up our boys bring them back the
7:14	situation was dire but it wasn’t hopeless and so they rescued the majority of the army right but your situation under sin is way
7:20	worse than that it’s not dire it is utterly hopeless
7:26	you are way sicker than you can possibly imagine more evil than you have even
7:32	considered and what you have earned by your rebellion against god in his word
7:38	eternity is not looking good for you you sit there and go well that doesn’t make me feel good about
7:43	myself you shouldn’t that’s the purpose of the law is to condemn you not give you a list of boxes to tick off that if
7:50	you check off that box and that box and that box then we’re in right no no no
7:55	the law is given to condemn you and then in the one religion we hear the good news that Christ has
8:02	fulfilled the law for us for you and he has bled and died on the cross
8:09	taking your sin upon himself bearing your guilt and iniquity suffering the
8:14	wrath of god in your place so that you can receive from god a full pardon
8:20	forgiveness of your sins reconciliation with god and eternity in a new earth
8:26	gratis 100 free not a thing you can do to earn it
8:32	now you can kind of see it yeah there’s only two religions right so when the pharisees come along which religion do
8:39	you think they’re a part of right you’ll note that they didn’t really get along with Jesus and we learned from the
8:45	gospel of john chapter nine that after Jesus gave sight back to that fellow who’d been born blind he was immediately
8:52	hauled into court i mean what kind of churches have a court okay
8:58	so they hauled him into court and basically just raked him and his family
9:03	his mother and father over the coals his parents buckled under the pressure and he was left basically confessing his
9:11	confessing Christ on his own oh and that’s also where we learned this are you ready
9:16	anybody according to the pharisees by this time in the gospel of john anybody who says that Jesus is the messiah
9:24	you’re out no church for you you’re excommunicated from the synagogue
9:31	what kind of synagogue excommunicates people who believe that Jesus is the messiah
9:37	i would say the synagogue of satan right that seems to make sense so you you get
9:43	the idea here and then in that chapter 9 we also learned this we also learned this that Jesus
9:50	has this thing that he does he uses physical blindness
9:56	and the ability to see to kind of talk about a different kind of blindness
10:02	how does it say it in the old testament prophet you have eyes but you do not see ears but you do not hear it it’s a
10:07	recurring theme in Jesus’s teaching so after healing this guy and then finding
10:13	him and comforting him and the guy believes in Jesus and worships Jesus Jesus says these words it is for
10:18	judgment that i came into the world so that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind well
10:26	the pharisees were johnny on the spot and they took offense at what he said and so they said are we blind also
10:32	and Jesus said listen if you were blind you’d have no guilt just basically takes their false theology and shoves it right
10:38	up their nose and then he says but it now that you say we see your guilt remains
10:45	so the the healing of that blind man in john chapter nine i mean you’re gonna note he starts off blind in two respects
10:54	he starts off physically blind and spiritually blind Jesus gives him both physical and
11:01	spiritual sight and that’s kind of the point now that that plays into this so kind of take
11:06	this little bit of information let’s put it off to the side now for a second let me ask you a question
11:13	why do we suffer so much as a result of sin
11:21	it’s not karma okay i i would like to throw in a little more information into
11:26	the mix maybe should we consider psalm 107 psalm 107
11:33	and in psalm 107 the psalmist says these words to begin with o give
11:39	thanks to yahweh for he is good his steadfast love endures forever
11:46	so we’re here invited to ponder and to think through and to meditate on the
11:52	steadfast love of god but it’s going to include both a hot and cold tap if you would and there’s a
11:59	reason for the cold tap listen to what he says so let the redeemed of the lord say so whom he has redeemed from trouble
12:07	and gathered in from the lands from the east from the west from the north and from the south and now what comes is a series kind of a
12:15	litany of like really terrifying results consequences here on planet earth as a
12:22	result of well our collective sin and this is what it says some have wandered
12:27	in desert wastes finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty
12:33	their soul fainted within them and then they cried to yahweh in their trouble
12:39	and he delivered them from their distress he led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in let them
12:46	thank the lord for his steadfast love for his wondrous works to the children of man for he satisfies the longing soul
12:53	and the hungry soul he fills with good things i think a good way to think of it
12:58	is is that the consequences that we experience because of our sin and this
13:04	will include desert wastes you think of people who i just recently read a story about a family who was on a hike in
13:11	southern california and they up and disappeared they found their bodies five days later couldn’t figure out what how
13:17	they died and turns out they died of dehydration right terrible thing
13:22	and so every night when we watch the news does the news always tell us good things
13:28	no it always tells us all the things that are going wrong in the world food shortages lockdowns vaccine rebellion all this
13:35	kind of stuff the whole world’s gone nuts right well note this that this is the consequence of our sin and sometimes
13:42	god just basically says all right i’m gonna let this play out okay
13:47	you don’t want me you don’t want good well i’m just going to give you what you want then because if you don’t want god
13:53	in his good graces and his gifts and his mercy his love his care there’s nothing else to give you that
14:00	so we’re just going to take our hands off and see what happens and that’s when things well they go to seed
14:07	and in the midst of that then desert wastes are formed and you’ll see the idea here and so people having to wander
14:14	through these things they get themselves in trouble and they long for the good
14:19	things that god gives you know like daily bread and food and water and
14:24	shelter and things like this and so in their trouble in their distress what do they do they
14:30	cry out to the lord ah there’s a method to the madness here
14:36	then it goes on and verse 10 says well some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death prisoners in affliction and in
14:42	irons for they had rebelled against the words of god and they spurned the council of the most high
14:49	so he bowed their hearts down with hard labor and they fell with none to help
14:55	then they cried to yahweh in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress he brought them out of darkness
15:02	in the shadow of death he burst their bonds apart let them thank yahweh for his steadfast love for his wondrous
15:09	works to the children of man for he shatters the door of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron are you starting
15:16	to see the pattern here well the nice thing about scripture is is that when it teaches us a pattern it goes ahead gives
15:22	us more examples of the pattern some were fools through their sinful ways the
15:28	psalmist writes and because of their iniquities they suffered affliction they loathed any kind of food they drew near
15:35	to the gates of death but then they cried out to yahweh in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress he
15:42	sent out his word and he healed them and he delivered them from their destruction and let them thank let them thank yahweh
15:49	for his steadfast love for his wondrous works to the children of man let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and
15:56	tell of his deeds and songs of joy some went down to the sea and ships
16:02	on the great waters they saw the deeds of yahweh his wondrous works in the deep for he
16:08	commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea
16:13	they mounted up to heaven they went down to the depths their courage melted away
16:19	in their evil plight they reeled and they staggered like drunken men and were
16:24	at their wit’s end and then they cried out to yahweh in their trouble and he delivered them from their
16:30	distress he made the storm be still the waves of the sea were hushed then they were glad that the waters were
16:37	quiet and he brought them out to their desired haven let them thank yahweh for his steadfast
16:43	love for his wondrous works to the children of man let them extol him in the congregation of the people and
16:49	praise him in the assembly of the elders he turns rivers into a desert springs
16:56	of water into a thirsty ground note the pattern here a fruitful land he turns into a salty waste because of
17:03	the evil of its inhabitants but then he turns a desert into pools of
17:09	water a parched land in the springs of water and there he lets the hungry dwell
17:15	and they establish a city to live in they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield and by his blessing
17:22	they multiply greatly and he does not let their livestock diminish
17:27	ah you see the you see the idea here you despise the word of the lord you hate
17:34	him and what he’s given you and god says fine i don’t have to give you my good things and so we instead return he returns
17:43	well we return his good with evil so he allows evil to run its course
17:48	and then we go what were we thinking what were we thinking right and we cry out to yahweh and he hears us and you’ll
17:55	note then the idea is is that the suffering and the difficulties that we go through there is some meaning behind
18:01	them have you noticed that each of these patterns here it’s as if these difficult
18:07	circumstances bring people to their senses
18:12	and then they cry out to god and they cry out to god hungry and
18:18	thirsty for the good things that he provides and you’ll note the world that we live
18:24	in oh it’s wearing out like a garment things are going pretty bad here right now it doesn’t look good for me either i
18:29	keep getting uglier by the week it’s the strangest thing it’s like clockwork all right
18:35	but if i were to stand before Jesus and ask him for something anything temporal i wouldn’t ask him to make me skinny
18:42	again because i’d squander that i’d be fat in a week so you know i i
18:47	i need something a little bit that had had a little greater impact on it and and this is where i would know that we
18:54	all suffer in many different ways and i’ve talked about it in the past but i’ll reiterate it i i struggle with
19:00	depression and people who don’t understand depression they always are so annoying when they try to help you when
19:06	they don’t understand a thing about depression well pastor roseboro why don’t you just be happy because it’s not
19:12	about me not being happy all right if you don’t know what what depression’s about it’s it’s kind of really an
19:19	anxiety disorder you life’s anxieties come up and you’re mentally you trigger
19:25	and then what happens is that your brain gets stuck in a loop the best way i can put it so what happens is like you know
19:31	the economy has gone bad and you’re afraid you’re going to lose your job and so if you have depression what happens
19:37	is you start running the scenario what’s gonna happen next and every time you run
19:42	the scenario everything goes to its worst possible outcome and then when you get to the end
19:48	everybody’s dead all right your family is dead all right you’re dead you’ve you’ve died
19:55	horrific deaths you’ve starved and frozen to death at the same time you lost your house all your clothes
20:01	everyone was naked it’s just and everybody hated you the end it’s terrible and then when you’re done you
20:07	know what you do you run the scenario again in all of its gory detail and it still
20:13	ends up as everybody’s dead that’s what depression’s like okay
20:20	it’s loads of fun if you have never tried it you should try it once or twice you know but then be done with it but
20:26	the idea here is is that if i were to ask Christ for anything i would ask for like the complete relief from that i’d
20:31	like to not never have that again right but the thing is i will say this is that
20:37	i’ve learned through my depression to really count the blessings that god does give me
20:43	because despite all of my fear and anxiety my family didn’t die naked or frozen all
20:48	right despite the difficult circumstances that we had to go through god was gracious and you’ll note that in our bad
20:55	circumstances they created us a yearning for something to give we yearn for
21:02	a different place a new earth if you would where Christ has made all things new and that’s
21:08	really the point to consider the steadfast love of the lord is to not merely consider
21:14	the good things that he’s given us but also to consider all the different ways in which we suffer
21:20	which then creating us a longing for something different for the good things of god for god himself
21:26	and so you’ll note the psalmist continues he turns rivers into a desert springs into water of water to a thirsty
21:32	ground a fruitful land into assault salty waste because of the evil of its inhabitants he turns a desert into pools
21:38	of water a parched land in the springs of water and there he lets the hungry dwell they establish a city to live in
21:44	they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield by his blessing they multiply greatly he does not let
21:51	their livestock diminish when they are diminished and brought low through oppression evil and sorrow he pours
21:57	contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes but he raises up the needy out of affliction ah that’s
22:03	you and like that’s i we are the needy we are brought up out of affliction god makes their families like flocks the
22:10	uprights see it and they’re glad and all wickedness shuts its mouth so whoever is wise let him attend to these things let
22:17	him consider then the steadfast love of the lord all right so there’s the steadfast love
22:24	of the lord now how does this help us out well this helps us a little bit here to understand what it is that bartimaeus
22:32	the son of timaeus has gone through and how is it that we know not only his name
22:38	but his dad’s name all right because bartimaeus is not a like a popular name in Christ’s time
22:45	bart there’s not a lot of guys with bartimaeus usually when you know their father’s name is for disambiguation
22:50	purposes how do we know this guy’s name hmm well kind of put that one off to the
22:55	side too i’m creating more questions and answers in the sermon right well there’s bartimaeus he’s blind that’s his
23:03	daily existence darkness in order to get where he needs to go he needs help and this is long before the
23:10	days where they had crosswalks that talk to you right so i mean getting around is difficult and by the way finding good
23:17	jobs as a blind person that’s tough too okay you’ll note he wasn’t a pilot he
23:23	wasn’t a race car driver he was a beggar right that’s about the best job that you
23:28	can do so he spends his day and we learn from the other gospels that there were other blind men
23:34	with him he spends his day asking for people to be merciful
23:42	to show some kindness to be generous and help out a poor blind man that’s just
23:48	insanely humbling that’s not a good existence and i’m sure
23:54	you know he has a lot of time to talk and of course we know this that at the time of Jesus everybody’s talking about
24:01	Jesus the days before the internet all right and everybody’s buzzing about Jesus and we know from this text that he
24:08	knows something about Jesus but what he believes about Jesus is not
24:14	what the pharisees allow you see he thinks that Jesus is the
24:21	messiah how so well he calls him the son of david
24:26	that’s a messianic title where did he get that idea from
24:33	he didn’t get it from the pharisees because remember the pharisees said if you say he’s the messiah you’re out no
24:40	church for you maybe he heard it from the prophet isaiah now i’m speculating here but
24:46	here’s a good text that talks about certain things the prophet isaiah chapter 35 he writes
24:53	the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad oh there’s that theme again wilderness dry land being made glad the
25:00	desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing the
25:07	glory of lebanon shall be given to it the majesty of carmel and sharon they shall see the glory of yahweh in the
25:14	majesty of our god so strengthen the weak hands make firm the feeble knees say to those who have an anxious heart
25:21	be strong fear not ah that’s me the anxious heart the depression guy right be strong fear not behold your god will
25:28	come with vengeance with the recompense of god he will come and he will save you then the eyes of the blind shall be
25:35	opened the ears of the deaf unstopped then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will sing for
25:41	joy for waters hang on a second here
25:50	it’s a sign now [Applause]
26:00	yeah let me back up a little bit here
26:05	verse 5 the eyes of the blind shall be opened the ears of the deaf will be unstopped
26:12	then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy the waters break forth in the
26:18	wilderness streams in the desert you know it’s not it’s not a stretch
26:24	to think of blind bartimaeus sitting outside gates of jericho begging
26:29	for alms talking with the other blind guys that are there you know the people who’ve been kind of
26:35	pushed outside of society and for them to say hey did you hear what Jesus did
26:43	not that long ago there was that guy who was born blind he gave him his sight
26:48	how did he do that how did he do that well they cast him out of the synagogue they excommunicated the guy but he says
26:55	that Jesus is the messiah what do you think what do you think you can hear the buzz because that’s is that
27:01	how this all goes right that’s how this all goes everybody’s got their opinions about
27:06	Jesus when Jesus took his disciples outside of judea took him up north took
27:11	him to where you know the gates of hades are in the grotto dedicated to pan he asked them
27:18	who do people say that i am and they they share the buzz well some say one of the prophets come back from sensei john
27:24	the baptist right who do you say that i am who um
27:30	what does peter say you’re the Christ the son of the living god peter confesses that Jesus is the
27:36	messiah and Jesus warned them not to say anything or not to tell anybody that that was the
27:43	case and assured them that that was revealed to them by god the father and so you’ll note that in the midst of
27:49	all of this our gospel text teaches us something very important that each and every one of us
27:54	we right now we’re a lot like blind bartimaeus and here’s what i mean
28:00	we all struggle we’re all dying i’m looking terrible and worse by the day my anxiety levels well at the moment
28:05	they’re being managed but you get the idea but here’s the thing the one thing we have in common with blind bartimaeus
28:12	is that we can see have you ever stopped to think that kind of the significance of this account
28:20	is that bartimaeus is already spiritually unblind
28:26	he can see exactly who Jesus is and that’s the point
28:33	he’s not spiritually dead blind and physically blind he’s only physically blind
28:40	so in that context hear that hear this text so they came to jericho
28:47	and as Jesus was leaving jericho oh and by the way we know from the gospel of luke Jesus spent the night there
28:54	in jericho remember the story of zacchaeus zacchaeus was a wee little man a wee little man was he climbed up the sycamore we talked about him a few weeks
29:00	ago right Jesus spent the night in jericho so all of jericho’s buzzing
29:06	they’re buzzing and bartimaeus uh yeah he’s he’s heard the scuttlebutt himself but of course
29:13	Jesus he spent the night with a sinner oh my goodness can you and he ate with a sin can you believe that
29:19	again if Jesus didn’t eat with sinners he would eat by himself so it says there was a crowd and now Jesus
29:26	is heading out of jericho where is he going jerusalem next stop
29:31	next order of business once he arrives in jericho it’s palm sunday
29:37	Jesus has less than a week before he’s hanging on a cross bleeding and dying for your sins and mine and for
29:44	bartimaeus’s and so there’s a big crowd this is probably the crowd that accompanied Christ
29:50	on that palm study sunday and laid the palm branches before him bartimaeus heard the scuttlebutt heard
29:57	the commotion and he was the son of tomatoes he was sitting by the roadside when he heard that it was Jesus of nazareth
30:04	he began to cry out and listen to what he says Jesus son of david have mercy on me
30:15	that’s some really good theology right there hmm there’s some pretty and by the way when
30:22	i teach catechism and we talk about the different portions of the liturgy the
30:27	curie lord have mercy you know which text we use
30:34	to say this is where this comes from it’s this one right here all right now it doesn’t have the word
30:40	lord it’s son of david but if have you ever heard this the word eleazon there was a there was a band in
30:46	the 80s called mr mister yeah and they had a song kyrie and and and they would sing kyrie they
30:52	saw as the road that i must travel right all right lord have mercy and the greek
30:58	here is wonderful it’s eleason may mercy me lord mercy me
31:04	oh that’s a good prayer too but you know we pray that every sunday
31:11	how many of you in your affliction pray it every day lord have mercy on me
31:16	and so you’ll note here what is he doing he’s confessing that he believes that Jesus is the messiah
31:23	this is going to get you excommunicated and so what happens is is that many people rebuked him and i never
31:29	understood why they were rebuking him is it because he’s a because he’s a blind man and he dares to address Jesus i
31:34	think it has to do with the content of what he was saying you can all see them as soon as he says it Jesus son of david
31:40	have mercy on me you can see them all go oh there’s pharisees here quiet
31:46	don’t say that you’re gonna get us all in trouble right
31:53	those guys get upset that when you say stuff like this so they tell him be quiet
31:58	but he cried out a little more son of david have mercy on me
32:04	ah i know this prayer you know this prayer
32:09	and what does Jesus do shh no what does he do he stops
32:16	call him and by Jesus stopping and saying to saying call him he’s affirming
32:24	bartimaeus’s confession that his confession is true bartimaeus is the blind man who can already
32:31	see so they called the blind man take heart
32:38	get up he’s calling you throwing off his cloak
32:43	he leaves his cloak behind the cloak it was probably sitting on his lap and there were coins in it right
32:49	he’s not going to need this anymore he knows he throws off his coat and he immediately comes to Jesus and Jesus
32:56	said to him what do you want me to do for you and i want you to consider this for a
33:02	second here because bartimaeus is the blind man who can see he can’t see the face of Jesus
33:08	yet but have any of you seen Christ’s face yet
33:16	i haven’t you haven’t are we not all this blind beggar we’re
33:22	just like him we’ve been made to suffer the consequences of our sin we long for
33:28	something different in the world for love in our life for the good things of god
33:34	and still we suffer and every day when we cry out to god god
33:40	have mercy on us we let our petitions be made known to god the god whom we have not yet seen
33:46	with our eyes and neither has blood emmaus he has not seen Jesus with his eyes yet and yet he prays
33:52	and yet we pray what would you like me to do for you and you’ll note we make our petitions known
33:59	to Christ daily so the blind man said to him
34:04	rabbi let me recover my sight
34:11	and here’s where the greek helps and Jesus said to him go your way your faith has saved you
34:18	i love the word play here sodzo it could mean heal but i just think that misses the whole
34:23	point but the thing is is that Jesus by saying that your faith has saved you
34:29	he’s affirming something much bigger than the fact that he recovered his sight
34:36	and always and again faith has an object to which it’s looking faith is like eyesight what are you what’s your faith
34:42	looking at is it looking at your money your bank account no you’re much there so i had no point looking to that
34:49	is it looking to your health to your job to your family what’s your what’s your faith looking at
34:55	can what you’re trusting save you no if your faith isn’t in Christ it can’t
35:00	save you your faith is misplaced but Jesus affirms your faith and you can watch how this works since
35:07	bartimaeus’s faith is in Christ you can change the word faith to the object of
35:14	that faith and it still holds the same meaning it doesn’t change the meaning of
35:20	the text at all watch this go your way bartimaeus your Jesus has
35:25	saved you it right
35:30	and that’s the point so immediately he recovered his sight and listen to these words he followed him on the way
35:39	he followed him on the way i think this is the reason why we know bartimaeus’s name
35:45	i mean he didn’t have a job to show up to it’s not like he needed to call in and say you know listen boss i’m not
35:51	going to be there i’m you know i i need a couple of days off he’s got nothing but time he’s got nowhere to go he’s got
35:57	nothing to lose so what does he do he follows Jesus where
36:03	to jerusalem and there’s really good scholarship over the past few decades that really
36:10	make the claim that when we see names of people who have been healed by Christ in
36:15	the gospels there’s a really good chance that the reason why their names are recorded is because that they were
36:22	prominent members of the early Christian church bartimaeus the son of timaeus he follows
36:28	Jesus on the way one has to wonder was he one of the ones laying the palm branches before Christ as he rode in to
36:35	jerusalem was he sitting at the feet of Jesus when Jesus taught in the temple all that week
36:43	was he there when the report came that Christ had been arrested
36:49	and sentenced to death was he with the disciples
36:57	when Jesus appeared was he one of the eyewitnesses of the resurrection
37:04	it doesn’t say but it kind of strongly hints that he might have been and the reality is this you and i will
37:11	someday all be eyewitnesses of the resurrection we will see Jesus with our own eyes and Christ has already given us
37:17	sight sight to see that in him there is forgiveness and mercy as it says in our
37:23	epistle text that Jesus is our great high priest who is not like any other
37:28	high priest of the ancient world see all the high priests of the ancient world they were prevented by death from
37:34	continuing their office but Jesus he holds his priesthood permanently
37:40	because he continues forever
37:46	death couldn’t hold him after he died for your sins and mine on the cross his body laid lifeless in the
37:52	tomb but on the third day he rose victoriously from the grave and death no longer has any power over him therefore
37:59	he continues for ever and as a result of that consequently the writer of hebrews
38:05	says Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to god
38:12	i love it it just doesn’t say he’s able to save it’s to the uttermost
38:18	that includes you yeah but you don’t know what i’ve done i just no i do it there’s nothing special about your sin
38:26	Christ can save us to the uttermost and he does draw near to him cry out to the son of david to have mercy on you and
38:32	you know what he does cry out to him in the day of trouble and in your consequences ask him for help he will
38:39	give it he is able to save to the utterance those who draw near to god through him since he always lives and he is
38:46	presently making intercession for you and for me and unlike the high priest of the
38:52	ancient world Jesus didn’t need to offer sacrifices daily for his own sins
38:57	because Jesus is the spotless lamb of god who takes away the sin of the whole world your sin and mine instead he
39:04	offered up himself as a once for all sacrifice so that you me and even bartimaeus could be healed
39:13	forgiven pardoned reconciled and have hope so brothers and sisters
39:20	this isn’t just another healing of a blind man
39:25	when you consider how the scriptures would teach us to look at this account
39:31	we can see that we are all a lot like this blind bartimaeus
39:36	and by god’s grace we can see and so i thank god for the miracle that Jesus Christ
39:42	gave sight to a man who already could see in the name of Jesus amen

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