Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 2nd May 2010
Mark 10v46-52
Following all the events we have already seen in this chapter, Jesus is back on the road and gets to Jericho. Here he performs his last healing in Marks account.
1) outside the kingdom: the blind beggar Bartimaeus
V46: the scene is set, Jesus enters and then leaves Jericho with the disciples and a crowd following.
The picture is full of people all focused on Jesus, who is on the road, on his mission to Jerusalem.
But then there is the blind beggar singled out for special attention.
- Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus!!
Jericho, the crowds and the disciples all seem to shrink into the background as blind Bartimaeus comes into focus.
But for the moment he is just sitting by the roadside begging.
A good place to sit and beg because this was the pilgrim road to Jerusalem.
So we have a picture of Jesus, the disciples and a great crowd on the one hand.
All the people are there because of Jesus. He is the focus.
But on the other hand Bartimaeus is just sitting begging, lost, blind and without hope.
App:
Getting to the hopeless cases:
Jesus is living and active in the world.
And there are many who are following Him.
But there are many too, sitting on the edges of life.
Needy people. What are we doing to get them into the kingdom?
People like Bartimaeus, hopeless cases – can we do anything to help them?
It is a terrible place to be, outside the Kingdom.
The image of Bartimaeus scratching about in the dark, barely able to survive sums it up.
What is our responsibility towards such people?
We need to get into the Kingdom ourselves and then lead as many others with us as we can:
2) getting into the kingdom
V47 Bart discovers it is none other than Jesus of Nazareth.
And when he hears it he is provoked into shouting out. Loudly, demanding attention!!
V48 lots of voices rise up in rebuke against Bart’s unseemly crying out!!
They want him to be silent. But the rebuke only spurred him on! He requests again: son of David, have mercy on me!! Only time Son of David title is used in Mark.
“Son of David” title – would indicate he though of Jesus as King, as son of David!
Thus he is asking the King for Mercy!!
Bart has faith in Jesus as King. He knows he has every right to seek the King for mercy.
He is taking heaven by storm!!
App:
Getting into the kingdom takes violent, aggressive wholehearted assertion:
Bartimaeus becomes a changed man at just the mention of the name “Jesus of Nazareth”.
What a response! Here is Jesus walking by, this is his chance!
Royalty has come to town!
Think how a town would prepare for a visit from the Queen. How exciting it would be.
But then she would leave, and life would just go on as normal.
Not so with King Jesus.
He comes through town and Bartimaeus calls out for him!
· Here we see a picture of what we can do to be saved.
Call out for the King, he will call out for you, then follow in obedience!
The kingdom of heaven is open, the King is seeking servants, if you want it, go get it!
Maybe you have been listening to the voices that would seek to silence you?
Voices that say it is not the right time, or that it is too late!
Or that Jesus is just not interested in you? Or that you would be no use?
Don’t listen to that, instead listen to “Jesus of Nazareth”, “Son of David”, he is passing by!
Call for him!
3) life in the kingdom
V49 Jesus hears the man’s calls and is stopped in his tracks! Then he calls for the man!
The people bring Bartimaeus the good news, get up, he is calling for you!!
V50 he throws off his jacket and springs up and goes to Jesus
V51 and Jesus answered him saying: what do you want me to do for you?
Then Bartimaeus calls him Teacher. From King to Teacher?
The request is for sight again.
V52 and immediately he is healed. Jesus tells him to go his way, that his faith has healed him. Then the man follows Jesus on the way.
Often after a healing the word is “go”. Jesus wants people to get on with living.
He saves us to free us, to follow Him, as the Bartimaeus did.
App
Life in the kingdom grants us privileges and possibilities.
1) we get the ear of God!
If we are in earnest in seeking God we will find him.
And in getting his ear we get the chance to make requests!
How does that work?
We go to him as our Teacher. In other words we go to learn from Him.
He is the King, he has saved us, he calls us to come to him with all our requests, but we must go to Him with the humility of heart that is between a poorly educated child and a great Master Teacher!
2) we get new life and new direction.
Jesus sets us free to live for him, we are to be a “going” people.
And as we are going we are always to be following him.
Bartimaeus is such a great example of this.
He enters into the kingdom and receives all the kingdom privileges and then begins to work it out in practice.
Again how does this work?
There is only one way it work:
by us putting into practice what we have learned from the Teacher.
sunday evening 2nd May 2010
Mark 11v1-11
Intro
Chapter 11 marks the first day of Passion week for Jesus.
The end of the journey is almost in sight, the cross is almost upon Him.
The background to the events of this section is the prophecy of Zech 9v9.
Here the Israelites are told to rejoice because their King is coming bringing righteousness and salvation, but he is coming humbly, riding on a colt!
Here then we have that prophecy fulfilled in Jesus.
1) the king requires a colt! v1-6
By this point the Road is almost at its end for Jesus. He has come all the way from the north of Israel and is now at the point of entering the capital!
He reaches Bethany, one of his favourite places, the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha.
Here he makes a very strange request – go get a colt and explain why it’s being taken!
Then the two disciples do as requested and the events unfold just as they were told.
Of course the King had every right to the colt, it was His! But its return is also promised.
App
Jesus has need of us today! Modern days colts v3!
The King could do as he pleases without our input, but he has planned to use us.
God is calling you into service today!
This is the glorious good news! The King is calling you into service today.
No matter who you are, what you have done, how old or young, the King is calling.
You may have been living your life tied to the world, even as the colt was to the door.
Life has just been passing you by!
But God has need of you! Yes you!
What are you to do then? Humble yourself before God and obey his call.
Your life will never be the same again, but you will have life and life to the full.
2) the kingly procession v7-10
Following the collection of the colt comes the procession of the King.
The need that Jesus had for the colt was for transportation.
Here was the king coming in his victory procession into Jerusalem.
The colt is properly covered for him to sit on, the road is covered with branches and jackets.
But note there are no chariots, no great warriors, no trumpets sounding victory!
None of the usual trappings of royalty!
Jesus is the people’s Messiah, and here He continues to show that.
Yet, even without all the trappings the people know he is King!
Thus they shout in worship and adoration “Hosanna...Blessed....”
Hosanna literally means “save, I pray”
“Blessed.....” a quote from ps118v26
There is a great air of excitement, the King is coming, the Kingdom will be restored!
At last the wait is over. This was the time of the Passover celebration, a time when Gods salvation was remembered and re-expected.
All that added to the air of expectation and excitement.
App
God is the God who has saved and who will save.
Jesus has secured victory over death, he has paid for our sin, and is coming again soon.
· Our role in the mean time is to praise Him.
· And to lead others in praising Him.
How might we do that?
By doing all we do for the glory of Jesus.
Think of yourself as the colt! Your job is to carry Jesus into the world.
You carefully make your way in the world for the Glory of Jesus.
3) anticlimax v11
What a shocking anticlimax!
All the fanfare and shouting and expectation crumbles in the night time sky.
He enters Jerusalem, goes to the temple, has a look around and then goes back the way he came but only with the twelve!
The brevity of Marks account lead one only to think that it has all been a failure!
There is no miraculous rise of the Kingdom, no overthrow of Rome!
No great celebration and welcome at the temple! Nothing! They just go back to Bethany.
Why? For the 12 – they were the ones who were still with him!
Jesus wants them to learn the true way of the kingdom.
He wants them to know that He is indeed the King, but that the Kingdom will not come as they expect.
He is teaching them, they still have much to learn.
Of course there is no real anticlimax here!
He does something, he goes into Jerusalem and looks around!
Why?
The look around is surely to get inspiration for the work to come.
The Jewish attempt at the earthly kingdom had failed miserably!
The temple in Jerusalem was a pale shadow of Solomon’s original construction and even more a pale shadow of the heavenly one!
App.
We have already seen that Jesus has need of us, modern day colts, and that we need to careful carry Jesus to the world by living life for His Glory.
Finally we are left with the necessity of keeping as close to JEsus as we can.
just as the disicples were the ones who stayed with him!
he needs us for transport into this world - thus we must stay as close to him as possible.
The flip side of that is that we simply live for ourselves, we serve ourselves, satisfy our own needs and go where we want to!
But that is no life of discipleship!
It is not what we have been made for, it is not Good News, Kingdom Living.
