In this message Pastor Dennis Toyne preaches on blind Bartimaeus, the beggar outside Jericho who heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out louder when the crowd told him to be quiet, threw away his beggar’s garment and received his sight. Pastor Dennis Toyne uses the story to show how a vision from God replaces the labels other people have put on us, why a victory shout still matters in church, and how Jesus stands still for anyone who cries out to Him.
Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for catching a new vision from Jesus this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This guest message was posted at NTC Ministries on July 25, 2023. It runs about 43 minutes and ends with an invitation to receive Jesus. Pastor Dennis opens by thanking the church for having him and says that, since he began traveling with the Hearts of Fire ministry, he has seen how special the presence of the Lord is in this house. He mentions that Pastor Sandy will minister the next time they come.
He had prayed about what to bring, and he believes God put this familiar story on his heart. He reads all six verses first, asking the church to fill in the key words aloud, then walks back through the passage one phrase at a time.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Pastor Dennis Toyne (guest) |
| Series | Single message |
| Main text | Mark 10:46–52 |
| Key theme | A vision from Jesus replaces the labels and limits that keep us begging by the road |
| Length | About 43 minutes, ending with a salvation prayer |
Jericho: A City of Past Victory
The story in Mark 10:46–52 is short. Jesus leaves Jericho with His disciples and a great crowd. Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sits by the highway begging. When he hears that it is Jesus of Nazareth, he cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many tell him to be quiet, but he cries out all the more. Jesus stands still, calls him, and asks what he wants. “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” And immediately he does.
Pastor Dennis sets the scene. Jericho was a main route into Jerusalem, and it was near Passover, so the streets were lined with perhaps thousands of people waiting to see who would pass by on the way up to the feast. Jesus and many others were among the travelers.
Jericho was also the city of a famous miracle, where Joshua fought the battle and the walls came tumbling down (Joshua 6:20). But that was a long time ago. When we only hear about miracles from long ago, Pastor Dennis says, we can start thinking God took a nap or is off for a millennium. Not true. With the right faith and the right cry, things can happen again on that same route, and even more than the first time.
He describes Jericho as a city that housed some twenty thousand priests and a similar number of Levites, who lived about fifteen miles from Jerusalem and took turns serving there. It was full of religion, philosophy and doctrine, and false doctrine too. Into that city came Jesus, rumored to be a troublemaker who did not believe like the priests, the Levites or the church across town, because He was God come in the flesh.
The crowds wanted a glimpse of this so-called rebel and of the twelve He had chosen: tax collectors, fishermen and people on the fringe of society. This was near the close of Jesus’ ministry, and thousands were following Him.
The Unclean One: Labels Versus What Jesus Says
Bartimaeus sat there nearly every day, begging for money to eat and find shelter. As the crowd thickened and the trampling of feet grew, he knew something was happening. He asked who was coming and was told it was Jesus of Nazareth. Before following his cry, Pastor Dennis stops on the man’s name.
He says he looked it up and found that Bartimaeus meant “unclean one.” What a terrible thing to call a child, he says; it would be like naming your kid Ugly. Where would such an idea come from? He points to John 9:1–3, where the disciples asked whether a man born blind or his parents had sinned. Jesus answered that neither had, but that the works of God would be revealed in him.
Pastor Dennis pictures thousands of priests and Levites in Jericho getting into Bartimaeus’ ear and telling him who he was. All his life he had grown up thinking he was a loser, a beggar, an unclean person, maybe judged by God before he was born for some reason no one would explain. In his words, “I don’t need anybody telling me who I am I need Jesus telling me who I am.”
He invites the church to imagine being Bartimaeus: unable to see, needing friends to guide him to his spot by the road every day, worn clothes, unable to shave or comb his hair. Parents pull their children away and tell them not to stare, while teaching them that this man is unclean, unloved by God and worth nothing. That is the label the crowd gave him.
Then he hears something different. A sense of joy moves through the crowd. Someone says Jesus of Nazareth is coming. Among thousands of people, he is the one inspired to cry out. God hears the cry of the brokenhearted, Pastor Dennis says, and He heard this man.
Pastor Dennis Toyne on Catching a Vision
Verse 47 turns on one word: when he heard that it was Jesus. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17), and Jesus is the Word. There may have been fifty other blind men by the road, Pastor Dennis says, since the sick and disabled were out on the streets in those days. Bartimaeus cried out because something stirred in him when he heard the name.
By calling Jesus “Son of David,” Bartimaeus was confessing Him as the Messiah. He caught a revelation: this is my moment of change; by the end of this day I am going to see. Before that, his vision had been obscured by his problems, and Pastor Dennis says ours can be too.
He remembers a science teacher explaining how enormous the sun is, then showing that you can block it out with your thumb. Our problems work like that thumb. We hold up our inadequacy, our lack of finances or understanding, and blot out the Son. Lower the problem and look into the glory of the Son of God, he says, and everything changes.
He gives a short definition of what losing vision does. The table below follows his list and the examples he gives of people God gave a vision to, and people who looked the wrong way.
| Person | Vision as Pastor Dennis describes it | Where it took them |
|---|---|---|
| Abraham | A nation of people who would follow God | — |
| Moses | The tabernacle and the words of God on tables of stone | The commandments written down and given to the people |
| David | A temple where God would be worshiped around the clock | — |
| Mary | A little boy who would take away the sins of the world | The eyes of her understanding opened |
| Lot’s wife | Looked back toward Sodom and Gomorrah | The wrong vision |
| Peter | Lost his vision on the stormy sea | Lost his vision until he brought his eyes back up and followed Jesus |
| Stephen | Saw Jesus at the right hand of God while being stoned | Where he was looking: heaven |
A loss of vision, he says, is a loss of perspective, influence and direction, an inability to function and a loss of spiritual revelation. Twenty thousand priests could not put a vision in this blind man, but one word, Jesus, did. Lot’s wife looked back (Genesis 19:26), Peter sank when he looked at the storm (Matthew 14:29–31), and Stephen looked steadfastly into heaven while the rocks flew (Acts 7:55–56).
His conclusion is simple: your vision gives you the direction you are going. Even a false vision will take you where you are looking. If you do not like where you are headed, zero in on the right vision, the Son of God. Pastor Dennis Toyne also notes that people receive revelation in stages: you may have a revelation of going to church but not yet of reading your Bible, or of being saved but not yet of being filled with the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues.
The Victory Shout and Persistent Faith
Bartimaeus did not just whisper. Pastor Dennis connects his cry with Jericho’s history: on the seventh time around on the seventh day, the people agreed with God by shouting, and the walls fell. He and Pastor Sandy visit many churches, he says, and too often the shout is gone. When soldiers go to war, they do not hang their heads and call it a victory sleep.
He challenges the church to worship louder, saying they will feel the Holy Spirit energizing them like jumper cables on a stalled battery. Victory songs pump up your reserve and build you up in your most holy faith (Jude 20), and then you go into worship. Psalm 115:17 says the dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence. Bartimaeus refused to go back to quiet begging once the noise passed.
Why would he expect to be heard? Pastor Dennis points to Psalm 34:17–19: the righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Bartimaeus must have heard about Jesus’ miracles, he says, and that gave him faith that Jesus would hear him.
He shares his own story. After he was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, he would sit in his car outside the college dormitories in winter, praying in tongues and shouting to God until the windows fogged up. He encourages everyone to find a place alone where they can be vocal before God without worrying who is watching.
Verse 48 shows Bartimaeus’ persistence. Many sternly told him to be quiet, and he cried out all the more. Pastor Dennis recalls parents who, when their children got saved and started attending the church he pastored, said they would rather see their child in jail than in that church. He calls that demonic and urges the church never to be the voice in the crowd telling a seeker to be quiet, but the voice saying, “Come on, let’s go see Jesus.”
Jesus Stood Still: Casting Away the Old Garment
How could Jesus hear one voice in a street packed with thousands? Pastor Dennis believes it was a supernatural appointment, like the woman with the issue of blood who touched Him in a pressing crowd with the touch of faith (Mark 5:27–30). Then come the words he loves: “Jesus stood still.” God interrupted a procession to Passover for one beggar.
He compares it with Joshua asking the Lord to stop the sun and moon so Israel could win the battle (Joshua 10:12–13). Here it was not the sun that stood still but God Himself. Jesus will stand still for you too, he says, and He does not care what you smell like, what you are wearing, or how rich or poor you are.
He sees two groups in that crowd: the group that said to be quiet, and the group Jesus sent to call the man. Jesus likely turned to His disciples and told them to bring him, since it would have been hard to push through the crowd. We need people on that second team, he says, who notice someone crying out to God in a store or at the fair and offer to walk them through the obstacles to Jesus.
The disciples told Bartimaeus to be of good comfort, which Pastor Dennis says means take courage: rise, He is calling you. Be strong and of good courage, for the Lord your God is with you (Joshua 1:9). Then Bartimaeus threw aside his garment. That robe was his tool; spread over his knees, it caught the coins people tossed so he did not have to feel for them in the dirt. It also identified him as a beggar.
Throwing it away meant putting off his old self, his old occupation and his old identity. Pastor Dennis pictures him expecting a new robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) when he met the King of kings. When Jesus asked what he wanted, he did not get cocky. He humbly asked to receive his sight, and Jesus said his faith had made him whole.
Crying Out Like Bartimaeus This Week
Pastor Dennis closes by asking whether the church is ready for an encounter with Jesus that restores sight, vision and dreams, including callings some received as children. Here are practical steps from this message by Pastor Dennis Toyne:
- Lower your thumb. Name the problem that is blocking your view, then deliberately turn your attention to Jesus.
- Reject the old labels. Let Jesus, not the crowd or your past, tell you who you are.
- Find your victory shout. Get alone with God somewhere you can worship and pray out loud without holding back.
- Keep crying out. When others discourage you from seeking God, press in the more, as Bartimaeus did.
- Join the come-to-Jesus team. Watch for people who are seeking God and offer to pray with them and guide them.
- Throw off the old garment. Let go of whatever identifies you with your old life so you can receive the new.
For anyone who did not yet know Jesus, Pastor Dennis said they were not outcasts begging by the road, because Jesus loves them enough to die for them, and he led a prayer of repentance and salvation.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Thanks to the church and Mark 10
- 1:11 Reading Mark 10:46–52
- 2:20 “Lord, that I may receive my sight”
- 3:35 Jericho and the walls that fell
- 4:44 A city of priests and Levites
- 7:02 Bartimaeus by the roadside
- 8:16 The name that meant unclean one
- 9:15 John 9: who sinned?
- 11:23 He hears that Jesus is coming
- 12:52 Faith comes by hearing
- 15:09 Problems that block the sun
- 17:27 People God gave a vision
- 19:43 Peter and Stephen: vision sets direction
- 23:10 Where is the victory shout?
- 25:33 Psalm 115:17: the dead do not praise
- 27:30 Psalm 34: the righteous cry out
- 30:38 Persistent when told to be quiet
- 33:58 Jesus stood still
- 35:18 Two groups in the crowd
- 38:36 Casting away the beggar’s garment
- 40:46 Restored vision and salvation prayer
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Bartimaeus call Jesus the Son of David?
Pastor Dennis explains that “Son of David” was a way of saying “You are the Messiah we are waiting for.” The priests in Jericho had not taught Bartimaeus this, but when he heard Jesus’ name, something stirred in him and he recognized who was walking down his road. He believed no one could do the miracles Jesus was doing unless He was the Son of God.
Do I have to shout to be heard by God?
Pastor Dennis is clear that God hears the cry of the brokenhearted, and he jokes that if someone does not want to scream in church, that is fine. His challenge is that churches have grown too quiet. He believes that worshiping out loud, and finding a private place to be vocal with God, stirs up something inside you by the Holy Spirit.
What does the beggar’s garment represent?
According to Pastor Dennis, the garment was Bartimaeus’ tool of trade. He spread it over his knees to catch coins, and it marked him publicly as a beggar. By throwing it aside before he could even see, he was leaving his old identity and occupation behind in faith, expecting Jesus to give him something new.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Mark 10:46–52 — blind Bartimaeus receives his sight
- Joshua 6:20 — the shout at Jericho
- John 9:1–3 — neither this man nor his parents sinned
- Romans 10:17 — faith comes by hearing
- Matthew 14:29–31 — Peter on the water
- Acts 7:55–56 — Stephen sees Jesus
- Psalm 115:17 — the dead do not praise the Lord
- Psalm 34:17–19 — the Lord hears the righteous cry
- Mark 5:27–30 — the touch of faith
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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