Can You Stop Jesus?

 

Mark 10:46-10:52

 

Introduction: Have you ever been in a service and you could actually feel the presence of the Lord? Have you ever been so tired of being a spiritual beggar and you wasn’t concerned who was there because you needed to stop Jesus?

 

Have you ever been in a desperate situation and you knew that this may be my chance to stop Jesus? You were ready to throw aside whatever identified you as a beggar?

 

There are a lot of people in the bible that felt this is my last chance to stop the Master and nothing was going to hold them back! Are you one of those people?

What I suggest to all of us is that we cast off our beggars garment and put on a Garment of Praise and a Spirit of expectation to stop Jesus while he is in the house.

 

Story: Jesus Came to Jericho and left Jericho (This is an illustration of what happens when we do not prepare ourselves for his presence, He will come and go and we will not receive anything.

1. One blind man by the name of Bartemaeus was willing to reveal his emptiness,
2. He was willing to endure the persecution for admitting he had a need.

Bartimaeus heard the Crowd. (Thank God. God always gives us something to work with)

1. He couldn’t see but he could hear
2. And he used what he had.
3. He couldn’t see but he had good vocal chords, so he used what he had.

 

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out for mercy

Bartimaeus had been contemplating his condition and cultivating the spirit of desperation

His plea for mercy was a cry of desperation for deliverance. Are you desperate?

 

And many charged him that he should hold his peace but he cried the more a great deal.

Don’t let anyone stop you from trying to stop Jesus.

It was this cry that stopped Jesus in his tracks (Jesus stood still)

 

Can you stop Jesus tonight?

Those who had told him don’t bother the Master: But then he told them bring him to me, “They said be of good comfort rise he calls for you.”

 

I believe that somebody is here tonight and the Master is calling bring him here.

Isn’t it amazing how fast people can change when it will make them look more spiritual?

 

If they had cared about Bartimaeus they would have took him to Jesus

Mark 10:50 And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus.

Bartimaeus had on a beggars garment and he cast it off. That was a sign of faith!

• This garment was symbolic of his lifestyle,
• He had lived in this garment the life of a blind beggar.
• It represented all the restrictions and limitations and impossibilities of his life.

 

It symbolizes the mental disposition that held him captive, that defined and determined his actions.

This coat said: I am blind therefore I cannot do for myself and provide for myself.

And therefore I am a beggar.

(My life and my existence are determined by the generosity of those who have sight).

Basically he was saying I have to depend on others.

 

You may not believe it but there are people everywhere depending on someone to get them to Jesus.

 

I wonder today how many are spiritually blind, to the things of God and are therefore beggars in the kingdom.

There are many who know nothing of the Spirit of revelation and truth quickened and made alive within their spirits,

 

1. There are many who like the Israelites,
2. (Who choose to live as blind beggars)
3. Who choose to receive everything second hand.

 

Many in the church today are blind by choice. (Because to see carry’s the responsibility to change.

Bartimaeus knew that to receive his sight would end his right to beg, he would now have to labor for himself and he publicly made that decision.

He was ready for a change are you?

• What Bartimaeus heard of Jesus called him beyond his condition and convinced him of a fuller life.
• This faith in his heart created a spiritual sight,
• And he began to see himself with sight and no longer a (beggar)

 

He casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus

He Rose= He Stood up. This means he made a decision to be different.

 

He desired to see and the Master was there to give him his heart’s desire!

 

1. In standing up he was leaving the position that defined him as a beggar,
2. In coming to Jesus he was leaving the condition that defined him as blind.
3. In coming to Jesus: He was stepping into the unknown.

 

Every phase of growth in the spiritual life requires that you step into the unknown=and go where you have not gone before and you have to leave your comfort zone,

 

When God called Abram He obeyed and went out not knowing whether he went.

 

As the children of Israel prepared to cross the Jordan into their inheritance, they were told to leave a space between them and the ark so they could see which way to go because they had never passed that way before.

 

Many of God’s people are missing what God has for them:

(1) Because they are not willing to trust him where they cannot trace him. That is; if they cannot see or make sense of what he is requiring and they refuse to follow.

(2)Because they are not willing to cast away the old garment, Jesus said you can’t put new wine into old wineskins, or put a piece of new garment into the old.

 

That means we have to be willing to turn loose of the old to receive the new!

As Elijah’s mantle fell to the ground Elisha took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

(What was he doing? He was removing the old to make room for the new).

 

Are you willing to throw off your old garments to make way for the new?

(3) Some are still bound because they are not willing to admit spiritual poverty

(4)Because they are not willing to change, they would rather be blind than change and rather beg than change.

 

Do you want Jesus to stand still where you are? Are you willing to do what it takes to get him to stand still?