A Faith That Changes Things! — Mark 10:46-52
I don’t know if you have noticed this, but some things just need to change!
In 1966 I was 17 years old, driving around in my 1956 Ford Crown Victoria in Flagstaff, Arizona. Part of the year I was a high school drop in, then a drop out!
I worked part time as a bus boy in a café on highway 66, drank beer in the woods with my buddies and went to the dance of Friday night. It seemed like fun to get some crook cigars to smoke while drinking beer in the woods.
I did that, and the crook cigars eventually led to cigarettes. At the age of 17 I became a smoker. The time would come when I understood that smoking needed to change.
At that point I needed a faith that changes things!
We are going to see a man who needed a change. Why? He was blind.
Mark 10:46-52 – As we look at the history of Blind Bartimaeus, we can learn by answering three questions.
First, what do you need?
Jesus and His disciples are on their way out of Jericho with a large crowd of people. As they were going along a blind man named Bartimaeus was sitting by the side of the road begging.
Blind people in Jesus’ day had no social network to take care of them and meet their needs. They ended up as beggars beside the road and depended on charity from people passing by!
That is the life situation in which Bartimaeus found himself. His assessment was that he needed a change. When he got Jesus’ attention, Jesus asked him what he wanted Him to do for him.
Bartimaeus said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” Bartimaeus knew what he needed and asked Jesus for it plainly.
What changes do you need? I was smoking as a young man and came to a place where I understood that my smoking status needed to change to non-smoker.
Does your marriage need to change? Do your finances need to change? Does your health need to change?
I am 73 years old and have been diabetic since I turned 50. Back in 2017 it became obvious to me that I needed to get off medication for diabetes, which I had been on for about 18 years.
I prayed about it, went to the doctor and came up with an eating plan to take care of diabetes without medication. I followed it and lost 35 pounds and have the diabetes controlled to this day.
What changes do you need? Bring the question to the Lord and then white down the needed change. Second, who can help? Bartimaeus had obviously heard about Jesus’ healing people. He figured that if Jesus can heal other people, then He can take care of my needs.
Good idea Bartimaeus!
He heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth passing by, so it becomes obvious that the word was out that Jesus was going around healing people and He is the one who could change things for Bartimaeus.
He calls Jesus Son of David twice, first in verse 47 and again in verse 48. He calls out to Jesus, Son of David for mercy!
The significance of Son of David is defined in Jeremiah 23:5-6, (5) “The Days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. (6) In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in Safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our righteousness.” (NIV)
Jesus is the righteous branch, or descendant from David who will be King and rule in righteousness…. In fact, He is the Lord our righteousness.
The point is that Jesus is the Messiah and Bartimaeus is calling out for the Messiah to help him!
How about us today? We need to do the same thing. We need to call out to Jesus the Messiah to help us with our needed changes!
That needed change for diet to control diabetes was brought to the Messiah in prayer and He led me to the right solution.
When you need a faith that will change things, always seek Jesus the Messiah for that answer. Believe me, He has it.
Third, what do you do?
Do what Bartimaeus did. He called out to Jesus, the Messiah for mercy and he would not stop calling out to Him.
Notice that in verse 48 many rebuked him, but he called out all the more. The people there told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more.
It worked like this, “Shut up, Bartimaeus!” Bartimaeus responded with, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Then He said, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”
The more they told him to shut up, the more he hollered to Jesus for help. When someone today, tells you to shut up about calling to Jesus for help, ignore them and, like Blind Bartimaeus, keep hollering!
By the way, you holler to Jesus when you pray to Him persistently!
Jesus put it like this in Matthew 7:7-8, “(7) Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (8) For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (NIV)
Persistent prayer is asking, seeking and knocking, which is exactly what Bartimaeus did!
Jesus follows up Matthew 7:8 with the idea that, who of us would give his child a stone when he asked for bread? Who of us would give his child a snake when he asked for a fish?
Jesus makes His point when He says that even we who are evil know how to give our children good things, do you think that God the Father in Heaven will miss the opportunity to give good things to His children?
We can be knuckleheads and do the wrong things! God is never a knucklehead or a bozo and is not capable of giving us the wrong things.
The point is to be persistent, and God will give you the right thing!
The people who were present where telling Bartimaeus to be quiet. He ignored them. Who might tell us to be quiet today?
You might have something that needs to change that is really important to you. If you broadcast that to other people, some of them won’t see it as an important a thing as you do.
A lot of people will tell you to shut up and be quiet about it!
There are some things you just need to keep hollering to Jesus about and not bother telling other people what you are praying about. Why? People have a way of being Debbie Downer or Delbert Downer!
Often, people will put you down and discourage you. Some prayer issues just need to be between you and Jesus.
Have you ever had the conviction that you should be praying for a change and there is a voice in the back of your head saying, “don’t pray about that! That is nonsense and God is not going to take care of that for you!”
Ephesians 6:12 puts it this way, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (NIV)
Believe me there is a constant battle with spiritual forces of evil that goes on. These demonic forces want to convince you not to pray about things that need to be prayed about. If these Domonic liars can get you convinced that God does not want your crying out to Jesus about things that need changed, they will stop you before you get started.
Don’t let internal feelings keep you from calling out to Jesus for the faith that changes things.
Notice what Jesus said to Blind Bartimaeus when he told Jesus he wanted to see. Jesus said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” (NIV) Then he could see and followed Jesus.
Bartimaeus needed to see, cried out to Jesus for mercy and got his sight from Jesus. That is how Bartimaeus got a faith that changed things for him.
When we define what our need is, cry out to Jesus for mercy and do so consistently, He will give us a faith to change things!
In 1973 I was still smoking cigarettes like I had been since I was 17 in 1966. I married my wife in April and was praying hard for the Lord to take away the desire to smoke.
Some time in June of 1973 I wanted to not smoke more than I wanted to smoke. I had just bought a carton of cigarettes. I smoked the first cigarette out of the first pack.
I took the entire carton and went out to the dumpster behind our first apartment and tossed the entire carton in the dumpster. I have never smoked another cigarette. In June it will be 49 years.
I cried out to Jesus for mercy, and He gave me a faith that changes things. Do what I did, and Jesus will give you and faith that changes things.