Welcome to the Paul Tripp podcast, where pastor and bestselling author Dr. Paul David Tripp

connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

It's very tempting to read stories in scripture through the lens of religion instead of the

lens of the gospel.

Today, we're going to continue through Paul's sermon series in the Gospel of Mark.

And in this message, Paul teaches on the story of Jesus giving sight to Bartimaeus

and how there's a right way and a wrong way to interpret this famous narrative.

Here's Paul with this message from the Gospel of Mark.

Thank you. Here's Paul with this message from the Gospel of Mark. This is a dangerous passage.

Now, me of you wondering how can a passage in the Word of God be dangerous?

Well, it's not that the content of this passage is dangerous, it's that it's

tempting to miss the point of this passage. If you're still confused, let me say it to you

this way. There are only two lenses that you can look at this passage in Mark 10, if you

want to turn there in your order of worship through. You can look at it through the lens of the

gospel of religion, or you can look at it through the lens of the gospel of redemption.

The gospel of Religion makes Bartimaeus the hero of this story and reduces this account

to how to be a person of faith. Let's learn from Bartimaeus how to be a person of faith.

And when we do that, we turn this story into a list of moral, spiritual lessons to be learned

from the life of Bartamaeus. How can you be good in the eyes of God?

Or more crassly, you could title the story,

how to get God's attention,

or buck up and believe.

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