One of the men that I admire that most in this world is my grandfather. He is a simple man who works hard. I have never heard a person speak poorly about my pap. One of the things I always remember about my grandfather is that he has always been hard of hearing. It was hard for him to acknowledge that his hearing was going, to be honest I think it's difficult for any man to admit that a part of their life is diminishing or receding. After a long battle my pap got hearing aids and his world changed dramatically. He was able to clearly hear things that he hadn't heard for years. Most of the time he loved the return of his hearing....but at other times he didn't want to hear certain things. I remember him having two different sets of hearing aids. One set had a battery the other did not. Pap would switch them out based on what or who he wanted to hear from. I won't tell you which one he used when he was in trouble with my grandmother. I love hearing the sound of birds singing, the sound of rushing water, worship music on the radio, and the sound of my children. There are times when I am not so fond of what I hear: things like car horns blowing, people yelling, kids fighting, and the horrific sound of finger nails on a chalk board. Our ears hear both the good and the bad, but our ears miss some things too. We don't hear everything. But there is someone who hears all, God. I want to take a few moments and write about some of the things that God hears from us.
The first thing that God hears is our cries. I'm reminded of one particular cry that Jesus hears in Mark chapter ten ( https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+10:46-52&version=ESV). In this particular passage we find Jesus traveling to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. The Passover was a Jewish festival that required that it's citizens leave their homes and travel toward Jerusalem to worship God. It was a remembrance feast, a remembrance of the 10th plague that struck Egypt prior of the Exodus. The Israelite's were asked of God to sacrifice a young lamb without spot or blemish and them to place the blood of that lamb on the door posts. When the death angel came over Egypt that night it would pass over the homes where the blood was applied. The Jews celebrated this occassion, but little did they know that the true Passover Lamb was coming (John 1:29). Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover but He with each passing step He was coming closer to complete His mission, voluntarily laying down His life for the sins of the world. With each step down that dusty road Jesus would inch closer to the cross...closer to when the immense weight of humanity's sin would be laid upon Him. It looked like the end of the road.
Our text shows us someone who has already reached the end of his road, a blind man named Bartimaeus. A blind man was
considered worthless. The only thing in which he was able to do for a living
was to beg. He could no longer
grasp a hammer in his hand to make beautiful works of art, he could no
longer paint or run his hands along a potter’s
wheel. Fishing and farming were impossible to him…finding
your way around your home became the most difficult task.
A person in the ancient world that became blind would lose everything they ever had or
hoped to have!
Typically the blind or the
maimed/diseased would be taken to the city gate to beg. Not only would it be humiliating to be blind, but now to beg. I highly doubt that many of us have ever had to beg and plead for just enough
money to fill your stomach. Even worse was the fact that most people heard the cry of this blind man and
simply ignored him, leaving him as the rich man
does in Luke’s Gospel, to die!
Bartimaeus might have been
blind but he was not deaf, he heard the footsteps of many people approaching. Voices
became clearer and clearer, Jesus was coming! The fame of Christ had spread throughout Judea, the man knew of Jesus
and realized that his hope for receiving his sight rested only
upon Jesus of Nazareth. It was at
this moment that according
to verse forty seven
he CRIED out! That term cry means to
shout, to scream, to plead and beg. This time the beggar was
not asking for alms to eat but instead coming before the
Messiah for healing! The cry of desperation is often
the most beautiful song in the Creator’s ear, true and unadulterated worship!
The crowd around Bartimaeus must have found him quite annoying, they refused to listen to his cry out for help. But I find something quite amazing here, Bartimaeus didn’t care what the crowd said or did, he was determined to get near Jesus. We could use more
believers like this man. A man that is willing to cry out to Jesus, out in the open streets and not be ashamed of what others think, a man that is determined to cry out to Jesus instead of obey the ears of men. The world will try to raise
its voice louder then our cry unto the Lord, but let your voice be louder, deeper, bolder, and let it be more persistent. Those of you that are reading this during the quarantine would agree that the world has been awful loud lately. Yelling hopeless or false hope, lack of peace, etc. They are speaking frequently and loudly but our response as the believer is throw the voice of faith and Christ into the fray.
It’s easy to be a
Christian in a room full of other Christians, but when the rubber hits the road
are you able to be as “loud” with your faith in Jesus
outside of these four walls. Going to Church doesn’t usually try or refine your faith, usually it’s the life
that we live after we leave the church building!
Notice
how the text flows next, Jesus hears this blind man’s
cry and the blind man is brought before Jesus. We often miss
out on the divine beauty of this passage, Jesus hears your cry.
HE HEARS EACH OF YOUR CRIES! It doesn’t matter how
big or small, no matter how hard or easy, no
matter how
impossible or seemingly possible, Christ hears your cry. He
hears your voice, He yearns to hear you speak
unto Him, He
desires that you would cast your every care
on Him by crying
out to Him, DAILY!
If we are assured to
have the listening ear of Jesus why then are we so hesitant to cry out to
Him? Why do we try to answer our own prayers (which complicate the matter), why do we try to
rationalize something to see if it is “prayable.” Cry out to
Jesus and do it now! Cry out for healing, for salvation, for your family, for your
marriage, for your job, for yourself, and your Church. Just CRY out to Him and He will hear you!
Now the text reveals to us that
Jesus heals this man, but here is the part we often miss, look at verse fifty two, the man
followed Jesus. So often Christ hears and
answers our cry and it never impacts our walk with Jesus, we
never allow that
answered prayer and accessibility to Him
change the depth of
our fellowship with Him. A result of knowing that Jesus hears your cry is to follow. I
believe there is a direct correlation between your crying to Jesus and your walk. A communication with Christ leads to a better fellowship!
Bartimaeus followed Jesus. If you were to look at the next chapter in Mark you would find it is Palm Sunday. More then likely Bartimaeus was there shouting Hosanna, more then likely he was there when he was crucified, more then likely he was one that witnessed the resurrected Christ.
The next thing we are going to examine that God hears is our complaints. Complaining. We all complain and we complain about those people that do complain. We are
chronically doing it and many times we don’t even realize that we are doing it. I expect unsaved people to complain about life, they are
unsaved, so complaining should come naturally, BUT we that
are saved shouldn’t have a reason in the world to complain about any one thing (this is coming from the king of
complaining). Complaining shows a lack of
contentment, lack of trust, and it is a disease that
steals the joy of those surrounding us. Mark Twain once wrote “Don't complain about your problems--80 percent of people
don't care; the other 20 percent will think you deserve them.”
Now let me state this right now, there
is a huge difference
between a complaint and a cry.
To cry is to trust
in the Lord
to complain is to speak poorly of your
situation without trusting in God, it is a means to vent about
something, it
typically is said in a negative way instead
of a positive way!
Crying to Jesus is beneficial, complaining to
Jesus is a waste
of breath and precious air. Complaining in general is destructive in nature!
The ears of Jesus didn’t just ear
the cries of mankind, but He also heard the complaints of man.
In Luke’s Gospel (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+5%3A27-32&version=ESV) we find in the fifth chapter a mentioning of a man named Levi, or as we more commonly know him, Matthew.
Matthew was a tax
collector, probably the most hated man in the entire city of Capernaum, and probably the one that the
people complained
the most about. Instead of
eating chicken for dinner they
feasted on Matthew. He was a Jew from birth, but by
joining
the Romans in regards to tax collection he
was considered a
traitor.
He was forbidden from entering the synagogue to
worship and was by all rights, an outcast!
All that changed when Matthew
heard the words of Jesus in verse twenty seven
“Follow me.” The words melted the
spiritually starving heart of Matthew, the
words filled the
spots where loneliness once resided but now
the vacancy of
his heart was filled with Christ. Tax collectors were
typically fairly well off in those days, so it made sense to have a huge feast
and invite friends to come. The purpose of the feast wasn’t to eat but for his friends to hear from Jesus. If Matthew
could be changed then surely anyone could be changed.
The Pharisees and scribes began to
gather outside the door,
the glare of accusation in their eyes, venom upon their tongues. In verse thirty they murmured about the group in which Christ was eating with. The term murmur here means to complain, to grumble. Notice something unique about the text, it says that they said these words unto the disciples of Jesus, Jesus was not meant to be privy to hear their complaint, BUT nonetheless Jesus reprimanded them for their grumbling. I personally don’t think it was
the hearing ear of Jesus that knew what they
said, but instead the all knowingness of our Savior, but
nonetheless He knew about their complaint.
Complaints was not
something that Christ looked
favorably upon. We often try to negate our sin,
we try to rationalize that complaining isn’t that bad,
or maybe that Jesus doesn’t hear when we complain
about how bad our food is, or how dirty our home is, or
how slow the driver is going in front of us, or
how hot it is, or how dry it is, or how bored we are, or
over how underpaid we are, or when our sports team
isn’t doing as well as we would like, BUT Christ takes complaining very seriously, to the point of
silencing it right away!
At the first church that I pastored we
had problems with the air conditioner.
Sometimes it worked, other times not so much. The Church complained so much
about the air conditioner that I was ready to change the
name on the sign to “the first Church of the air
conditioner” b/c that was all we ever talked about. It became a serious problem, and it became infectious. Others would start to complain about not just the air
conditioner but
multiple different issues. Finally I put a complaint jar in the back of the Church, and for every
complaint they said would cost them a quarter. Two things resulted from this, the Church had a jar full of
quarters and at the end of the month no one was complaining
about the air conditioner!
Complaining does not benefit us in the least. It does not encourage or build up but it destroys and causes a horrible habit that sows constant seed of discouragement and discontentment. Paul said in Philppians 2:13 that we are supposed to do all things without grumbling (complaining). Instead of complaining about all things we are called to complain about NOTHING.
Out
West, a cowboy was driving down a dirt road, his dog riding in back of the
pickup truck, his faithful horse in the trailer behind. He failed to negotiate
a curve and had a terrible accident. Sometime
later, a highway patrol officer came on the scene. An animal lover, he saw the
horse first. Realizing the serious nature of its injuries, he drew his service
revolver and put the animal out of his misery. He walked around the accident
and found the dog, also hurt critically. He couldn't bear to hear it whine in
pain, so he ended the dog's suffering as well. Finally
he located the cowboy --who suffered multiple fractures--off in the weeds.
"Hey, are you okay?" the cop asked. The cowboy took one look
at the smoking revolver in the trooper's hand and quickly replied, "Never felt better!"
The last thing that God hears is our compliments. Everyone likes to hear a compliment,
and yet I find that there are a lot of people that are really stingy with complimenting others. It should never, AND I MEAN NEVER be easier to criticize other people instead of compliment. We dig so deep for the dirt on somebody when right on the
surface is gold and treasure there to compliment them for. What would you rather hear “You look nice in that” or “Um, that’s not your color.” Or “good job on your
test” or “you only got a b” or maybe even “that was a good meal” or “you mean this is food.” God called you and I to be a
construction crew, not a demolition crew.
People that fail to compliment
others typically fail in giving
compliments, AKA praise to Jesus.
This should never be my friends. As lavish as the grace is from
God so also should our praise and worship be to Him. Turn with me please to Psalm 150 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+150&version=ESV). The great
hymn book of God closes with one of the most famous Psalms, a Psalm of great praising God. Over twelve times we see the phrase “PRAISE HIM.” When was the last time that you genuinely
Let me encourage you that as you battle this week and
face
trials that will challenge your faith, keep
praising Him. Life
does get hard, push back at life by praising
Jesus! Live in a conscience reality that God hears your words, so be purposeful with the words that you use. You use words, He hears them, how do you feel about that?
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