The Bartimaeus Miracle

Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus. I love Bart.

He's a good man. He's a man of faith. He's a man who cried out when he needed

to cry out. And there's a lesson in that for us.

So in the sermon this morning, I don't want to focus so much on what Bartimaeus',

miracle was, but I want to focus on how he received it, how Bartimaeus received

his healing, because God's no respecter of persons or people.

He's a respecter of faith. And if we walk in the steps that Bartimaeus walked

on that day, then we can get our own miracles as well, be it teeth,

be it eyes, ears, bones, muscles, whatever.

They're available. There's miracles available to us. Amen.

Mark 10. Let's read about Bartimaeus. Mark 10 verses 46 to 52.

Mark 10:46–52

Only two Bible passages this morning, but let's get into them and pull them apart.

So Mark 10, 46 to 52, and it's the New Living Translation that says this,

Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town,

a large crowd followed him.

A blind beggar named Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus,

was sitting beside the road.

When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout,

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Be quiet, many of the people yelled at him, but he only shouted louder,

Son of David, have mercy on me.

When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, tell him to come here.

So they called the blind man, cheer up, they said, come on, he's calling you.

So Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up and came to Jesus.

What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked. My rabbi, the blind man said, I want to see.

And Jesus said to him, go for your faith has healed you.

Instantly, the man could see and he followed Jesus down the road.

Now, when I was preparing this message this week, something about this scripture

passage really jumped up at me.

It really got my attention, starting with the first sentence in our scripture.

Just put the first verse back up again, Johnny.

It says, well, it says, this is my way of saying it. It says.

And they came to Jericho.

Then it says, they left Jericho.

Nothing in between. They came to Jericho and then they left Jericho.

That really got my attention.

And this is what got my attention. Jesus, the son of God, the anointed one,

the one who heals the sick, the one who cleanses the lepers,

the one who casts out demons and devils and raises the dead,

comes to Jericho, goes through Jericho, but there's no record of anything happening in Jericho.

It's not until afterwards that something happened. As they were leaving Jericho, something happened.

So my question to you is this this morning. Is it possible for Jesus to pass

us by and we don't receive anything from him?

I don't know about you, but that's a pretty scary prospect.

And yet, I believe not only is it possible, it happens all the time.

Where we can be seeking after God, after Jesus, he comes and walks past us,

but we receive nothing from him.

It happens all the time. All the time I'm going to shock you I'm going to shock somebody right now,

Jesus doesn't heal you Deliver you Anoint you Bless you or give you a miracle Just because you need it.

And you're in the right place. It doesn't matter if you're in the right place

and you need a miracle. It doesn't necessarily mean that Jesus is going to heal

you. It's gone really quiet here.

I'm sure that was the case for many people in Jericho that day.

Just remember what that first sentence said, that first verse said,

he came to Jericho, he left Jericho.

No record of anything happening.

I guarantee you, there were heaps of people in Jericho that day that needed

a miracle, but didn't receive it, that didn't receive it. Why?

Why didn't they receive it that day? I believe it's because no one stopped him. No one stopped Jesus.

Nobody reached out in faith and put a demand on Jesus until Bartimaeus did.

The point is this, Jesus is definitely capable of healing you and blessing you

and giving you a miracle or breakthrough or whatever you need.

But need is not the catalyst for Jesus touching you.

Need is certainly an ingredient of receiving your miracle, but millions of people

that need the miracle touch of Jesus will never receive it. Why is that?

Because God is waiting for us, waiting for them to initiate an encounter with

him. That's what Jesus is waiting for.

God is waiting for you to initiate an encounter with him. He sees your need. He knows you have needs.

He created you. He knows what our needs are.

So he sees your needs, he feels your needs, but need is not enough.

Need is not enough. There must be some reaching in there as well.

There must be a desire that expresses itself in a tangible way.

In life, we don't get what we need or even what we want. Agreed? Agreed? Yep.

We get what we reach for. We get what we reach for.

Pursuit is the proof of desire. There's a good little phrase there.

You're not qualified for anything that you're unwilling to pursue.

Jesus didn't say, you have not because you have a need or because you don't have a need.

He said, you have not because you ask not.

Then he presents us three levels

of asking, doesn't he? He talks about asking, seeking, and knocking.

Asking, seeking, and knocking. Now, let's think about Bart. Let's think about

Bartimaeus this morning.

What did Bartimaeus feel that day?

Now, we can't say positively exactly what this blind man felt,

but knowing human nature, knowing human nature, we can guess that he was probably

feeling quite cheated in life and like life hadn't been fair to him.

Who thinks that's a pretty good assumption, that Bartimaeus,

the blind man, felt like he'd been a little bit cheated in life? Yep.

He may have been angry. Probably was. may have been resentful.

He may have even been angry at God for where he was in his life.

What we do know for sure about Bartimaeus though, was that he was a beggar. He was a beggar.

That means basically he lived on the generosity of others.

So we can rightly assume that being a beggar, he was living a very scrappy,

simple sort of life, just barely getting by.

Do you agree with that. Yep.

We don't know how long he'd been blind for. It could have been a year or he

could have been born blind. We don't know.

It's very possible by this time he'd given up all hope though of ever being able to see again.

In all likelihood, we're looking at a man who struggles every day just to survive.

He is likely frustrated. He's likely angry and feels that his life has been dealt a very bad hand.

Very possibly he was angry at society and even possibly blamed God for his blindness.

Now we can look at what the blind man heard. What did Bartimaeus hear that day?

We know he couldn't see, but what did he hear that day?

I'll tell you what, he heard some good news. He heard some good news.

We don't know exactly what he heard, but we know he heard enough because faith

comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And you know who was walking towards him?

The word of God was walking towards him. We know that he'd heard enough because

he cried out to Jesus for mercy that day.

Now, what did the blind man see that day? Not a lot. Not a lot.

Well, he saw something that most people there didn't see that day.

They saw Jesus of Nazareth, but he saw the Messiah.

He saw the son of David. He saw beyond the humanity of Jesus that day. He saw his divinity.

What else did he see? He saw possibility. He saw possibility.

With man, these things are impossible, but not with God.

For with God, all things are possible and all things are possible to him that believes.

He saw the possibility that his life could change that day.

He saw the possibility that maybe he could see at the end of the day,

face to face with his family. He could see the faces of his wife,

perhaps, or his children.

He saw the possibility, possibly a daughter, a son, a wife, his mother,

his father, and possibly he could see the flowers and the sunset that day.

He saw possibility and just the possibility of change taking place woke something in his spirit.

Something started stirring in him that day. I believe today that this is what

the Holy Spirit wants me to bring to your attention, that with God,

all things are possible.

There's no such thing as impossible with God. No such thing.

The word impossible is not even in God's vocabulary.

It's not there, and it shouldn't be in ours either.

Tell your neighbor, it's possible. It's possible. It's possible.

Now tell your neighbor, it's highly probable.

It's highly probable. What else did he see that day? What else did Bartimaeus see that day?

He saw himself well. He saw himself healed.

He saw himself living a sighted life.

That means that he saw himself living a normal, productive, self-supporting life that day.

I'm sure that just the thought of being self-supportive must have stirred him up.

Just the thought of no longer being a charity case and feeling like he was a

burden on society caused a stirring in his spirit.

What else did the blind man see? He saw an opportunity. He saw a chance for new life that day.

How do we know that? Well, he expressed it in his cry.

He expressed it in his cry. His cry was a declaration of faith that day.

His cry was evidence that he saw an opportunity to receive a miracle from Jesus that day.

But he knew to get the miracle, he had to get Jesus' attention that day.

He had to get Jesus to look towards him.

Surely we understand that the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, don't we?

We know the eyes of the Lord are everywhere. He sees everything. He sees the lot.

Surely we know that. And he sees everything and everyone.

But there's a difference from just seeing you and looking at you and looking

at you. I have to tell you the truth.

I don't just want to be seen by the Lord. I just don't want to be seen by the Lord.

But I want him to look at me. I want him to look at me.

I want him to look at us because I know if he's looking at me, I have his attention.

And if I have his attention, I can get what I need from him.

Amen. Sometimes to get his attention, you've got to make a little bit of noise as well.

Tell your neighbor, I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you, but I just need to get

the attention of Jesus. Go on, tell them.

Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I'm just trying to get the attention of Jesus.

We need to do that more often.

We need to be annoying sometimes.

Sometimes to get his attention, you have to make a little bit of noise.

Now, when Bartimaeus Maus starts crying out and trying to get Jesus' attention,

they rush up to him. And in effect, they tell him to shut up,

but he refuses to listen to them. Why was he so noisy?

Why couldn't he bring the volume down that day? Well, it's my conviction that he was desperate.

Jesus was coming down the street. He was within earshot. It could be that the

opportunity may never come again.

Jesus may never pass that way again. So Bartimaeus made some noise.

Please shut up, they charged him. You're making too much noise, they said.

The Bible doesn't say this, but you know me, I like to use my imagination.

I like to show you what's going on in my head sometimes. Now,

the Bible doesn't say this.

I can see the blind man. I can see Bartimaeus grabbing hold of one of the disciples

who was telling him to shut up and saying, Bartimaeus saying to the disciple, hey, are you blind?

You shut up. You shut up.

Yeah, I believe it. I believe that's what he was like.

Then Bartimaeus says, you shut up.

And he raised his volume even more. So here's another secret to receiving from

God, persistence, persistence.

The sad truth is that many people never, many people miss their miracle because

they aren't desperate enough and they aren't persistent enough.

There's something about persistent and desperate people, isn't it?

They shake things up. They disturb things.

They get things done, just like what I was saying for the last few weeks about

being a dangerous Christian.

We need to shake things up. We need to be persistent.

We need to be desperate in what we do. Now, I'm convinced that there are two

main ways to get Jesus' attention.

One of them is desperation and the other is unbridled, passionate worship.

So they told him, hold your peace, Bartimaeus. Be quiet, Bartimaeus.

But he just increased his volume. He kept going. He was persistent.

And the word persistent means to continue with strength.

He was persistent. Keep pushing, keep fighting, keep praying,

keep singing, keep the pressure on.

Then Jesus called for him. We've just read about the fact that Bartimaeus called

for Jesus, and now Jesus is calling him.

First, the blind man called for Jesus. Then Jesus called for him.

I have a question for you. I have another question for you this morning.

Would the blind man have received his sight if he hadn't made a disturbance

and called out for Jesus?

The answer is clearly no. He had to initiate his miracle that day.

So Jesus calls for him to come and he does something amazing.

Bartimaeus does something amazing. He gets up, which means he left the position

of being a beggar behind him.

He got up and left that position behind him.

He cast away his robe. He cast away his cloak, which was actually a beggar's robe.

It was a beggar's robe, which identified him as a professional beggar.

So what he was doing right there, he was stepping out in faith.

He was, Before he even received his miracle, he believed he was about to get

it, so he cast away all evidence that he was a beggar, because in his eyes,

he was no longer a beggar, he was no longer blind.

So when he threw that robe away, he threw away the self-portrait of being a beggar.

His actions said, this is over. I'm not begging anymore.

I'm not a beggar anymore. I'm going to sit. I'm not going to sit on the side

of the road, hoping someone will drop a few coins in my cup.

I'm not going to walk through town with my hands out asking for directions and

hoping somebody doesn't send me off a cliff.

I'm not doing that anymore. I woke up a blind beggar this morning,

but I'm going home with a miracle. This is before he could even see.

Before he saw anything, he saw everything.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Before he saw anything with his natural eyes,

his spirit eyes saw possibility and opportunity.

Then his eyes of faith saw himself completely healed, walking without any assistance or direction.

He saw himself back in the workforce, a productive, self-supporting member of society.

What did Jesus say to him when Jesus called him over? Bring him here.

What did Jesus say to him?

He said, what do you want?

What do you want? Do you know what you want from God?

Do you know what you want from God? There's something powerful about being specific

and knowing what you want. Faith needs a target What do you want?

You can't get everything at once, you know So

you need to know what you really want The more specific you are The more power

is concentrated on producing it You need to know what you want So you can tell

God what you want Do you notice I'm using the word want?

And not necessarily need Stay tuned, stay tuned.

You need to know what you want so you can tell God what you want.

Yes, he knows what you need.

Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, he knows what you need.

But he said, ask and you shall receive. He said, you have not because you ask not.

Nobody needs to be jealous of me for what I have in my life.

I'm not any better than anyone else. I just ask for it.

You have to ask for what you want.

Who loves Jabez? Who loves Jabez? Who loves 1 Chronicles? Let's read that.

Let's read about this man that knew what he wanted.

1 Chronicles 4 verses 9 to 10 says, now the Bible tells us about a man named Jabez.

1 Chronicles 4:9–10

It says there was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers.

His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful.

He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, oh, that you would bless me

and expand my territory.

He knew what he wanted, that you would bless me and expand my territory.

Please be with me in all that I do and keep me from all trouble and pain.

And God granted his request.

So Jabez was born in very negative circumstances.

Yeah. But he rose up out of and above the negative forces because he knew what

he wanted and he asked God to bless him, to prosper him, and to give him great

influence in the earth. And God did it.

And God did it. You have to ask for what you want.

So when Jesus asked Bartimaeus what he wanted, Bartimaeus didn't say,

let me think about it for a little while. Let me pray about it for a little while.

Bartimaeus knew exactly what he wanted. Of course, he had other needs.

There's no doubt about it. But he knew what his most immediate and most urgent pressing need was.

And it was his desire to see.

And he told Jesus, I want to see. I want to see.

And Jesus said to him, go, for your faith has healed you.

And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way.

Let me say this about needing and wanting, okay?

Need in itself is not the qualifier for receiving from God.

The truth is rarely are our needs, our wants, okay?

I know a lot of people say God doesn't promise to give us what we want,

just our needs. God only wants to give us what we need.

I understand that because I know that we can be very selfish and self-centered,

but Jesus didn't ask the man what he needed.

I'm sure Jesus could tell what the blind man needed.

I'm sure he could tell by the way he moved that he was blind.

But Jesus didn't ask him what he needed He asked him, what do you want? What do you want?

Now hold on a second Because I'm going to say something That you need to think

about it When it comes to receiving God From God.

Desire excels need It does Desire excels need You may have a hundred different

needs in your life But what translates into desire that will get God's attention?

The Bible says, whatever you desire when you pray, believe that you will receive

them and you shall have them what you will have.

The things you desire when you pray, desire what you want.

The Bible says everything you desire

Anything you desire Whatever you desire

You may need a miracle You may need healing You may need deliverance from drugs

or alcohol or cigarettes But you aren't going to get it just because you need.

It There's no doubt you need it You have to want it You have to want it.

Every single person hearing my voice this morning, whether you're here now,

whether you're listening in, needs the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

They need the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but you don't get it just because you need it.

But when your need becomes a desire and a want, and you start expressing to God with a whole heart,

it won't be long before you'll be singing, I just got what I wanted from God. what I wanted from God.

The Bible says in relation to Bartimaeus, and he immediately received his sight

and followed Jesus in the way.

The Bible is absolutely clear on this.

The fact that God is no respecter of persons, but he's a respecter of faith.

Josh, come on up for me. So when we

look at the Bartimaeus miracle We're not

really focusing on what his miracle was

We're not looking at what his miracle was But we need to look at the steps that

he took And the way his faith manifested to get his miracle that day This is

possibly one of the most powerfully detailed accounts Of how faith receives from God,

This was the Bartimaeus miracle, but it could be your miracle today.

It can be the Tim miracle. It can be the Britain miracle.

Music.

It could be your miracle today. This time next year, you could be standing where

I am preaching about your own miracle testimony.

Music.

Is there anybody here that needs anything from God?

Yeah? Anyone here that needs anything from God? I'm going to get a little bit more specific though.

Is there anyone here who knows what you want from God?

Good. If you know what you want from God, then I want you to come and join me

up the front here. Come on.

If you know what you want from God, if you have a need and you know what you

want from God, then come and join me at the front here. Come on.

Because you know what? I believe that Jesus is passing by today.

I believe that Jesus is passing by today and we need to make some noise to get

his attention. And do you know what?

Just the fact that you got up from your seats and you walked to the front.

Music.

That's making a lot of noise to Jesus.

You with me? Even you guys back there, I know that you have wants.

I know that you have wants.

It's like, who was the apostle that stepped out of the boat and walked on water?

Yeah? He knew what he wanted and he just stepped out and did it. Okay?

You guys, you know what you want, which is fantastic.

You've stepped out onto the water with the carpet and you've walked to the front.

That's crying out to Jesus, Son of David, I need your miracles.

I need from you, I want from you. So as you stand at the front and perhaps as

you're sitting there, I want you just to.

Music.

Needs in their life, but to be more specific, knowing that they want in their

life, Lord, that you have heard their cries.

And Lord, as you walk by, you're in effect looking at each of them.

Music.

Not looking in their direction, but looking at them.

And you are saying, you have what you want.

You have what you want. So Lord, I pray for each person here this morning,

Lord, to give them what they want, Lord God, their specific wants, Lord God.

You've said, Lord, we will have nothing if we ask for nothing,

which means that we will have what we ask for.

So, Lord, as these people have come to the front, stand at the front of this

church at this altar in your presence where you're walking backwards and forwards,

looking at them, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name, that you will grant their wants

now in Jesus' name, whether it be breakthrough financially,

whether it be breakthrough in healing,

whether it be that their mind becoming clear, whatever it is,

Lord God, your desire is to grant the requests of your people.

It's your desire, Lord God. And we cry out right now in Jesus' name.

And we ask that you grant the requests and the desires of these people.

Music.

The testimony of a man named Bartimaeus, who Lord needed something,

wanted something and received because he was bold enough to go after what he wanted.

And Lord, I pray for every person here this morning, Lord. I bless them with

what they want in Jesus' Name.

Music.

Grant their requests, grant their desires, grant their noise-making.

Don't be told to shut up, church. Keep crying out for what you want from God

And He will provide He will answer in Jesus' name Hallelujah,

Praise you Jesus Amen Amen Bless you guys Are you coming up here to say something

profound Andrew? No, you're done,

Love you brother Love you Bless you guys, let's have some morning tea this morning

And some fellowship And yeah.

Music.