April 21, 2024 - How to Experience a Dramatic Life Change - Pastor Paul Vallee

[00:00:00] Why do we stand as we go to the Lord in prayer this morning? And I just want to mention that that food fair, it's free, so you're getting food for free. All right. And it's a lot of fun. I just want to encourage you to do that. And you'll find out all the missions, projects and missionaries that we're supporting around the globe. And that's the reason why we do this. So you're aware of it. And then next Sunday, Doctor Thomas from India will be with us, sharing. Some of us know who he is. Some of you are new. You don't know who he is. We've been actually supporting their ministry for over 20 years. We actually built an orphanage in India and we're supporting orphans there. So it'll be very interesting to hear kind of an update on what's happening in that part of the world next week. So, Father, we thank you today for your amazing grace in our lives. And, Lord, as we enter into your word today, I pray that that word would become more than just an intellectual exercise. But I pray, father, that they will be living word, speaking to our innermost being, bringing hope and healing and grace and awareness. And even, Lord, a challenge and conviction varies in our soul that you want to bring about light and hope and healing in. And we thank you for that. And then we want to pray for those that are walking through a season of grief in our church family. We think of even Roger Leacock and his family, Lord, as they lost their son yesterday. And, Father, we just pray for all of these families in this season of time that you would comfort their hearts and give them your grace and your special attention in this hour. In Jesus name we pray. And God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated. [00:01:44] We're currently looking at a series of messages out of the gospel of John. And so right now we're in John, chapter nine. And I've entitled this message, how to experience a dramatic life change. And we know that in John's gospel, all of the miracles, which, you know, some say seven, but I think there's eight miracles that happen in this gospel. So they're a limited amount, but they're all designed as signs pointing to the person of Jesus. And, you know, it says, it even states that this is the purpose of which the reason John wrote the gospel, he says at the very end of his book here. Yeah, not advancing again. Okay. [00:02:26] Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing, you might have life in his name. So in John, chapter eight and nine, Jesus makes this amazing declaration. He says, I'm the light of the world. And he's contrasting light and darkness, and he's speaking of it in a moral context. He's not speaking necessarily of the lights that are on, but he's using this as a metaphor to help us understand something. [00:03:06] When we put our trust in Jesus, we will begin to receive spiritual sight that leads to eternal life. [00:03:16] Tasker, in his work, he writes this. This miracle is a sign that Jesus can open the eyes of the spiritually blind so that they can receive the complete sight, which constitutes perfect faith. Faith means passing from darkness to light. So one of the great challenges that we're faced with in life is spiritual blindness. We don't realize that. And all of us have. We have a vision impairment to some degree in our lives. There's a little bit of blindness in all of us. [00:03:49] You know, they've done studies on human beings. They know that you and I are unaware of certain things about ourselves. There are things that people know about you that you don't see, and then there's things that you might know about yourself that others don't see, but there's a whole bunch of stuff that nobody knows about but God. And even we ourselves are not even in touch with ourselves. And sometimes, you know, we respond in a certain way that's even a surprise to us, because we're not in touch with things that are below the surface. They're not conscious to ourselves. And so Carson says that Jesus, he says, did not come to a world of sinners aware of their need and eager to be rid of their sin. Isn't that interesting? When I see most people today, there's a recognition that most people don't want to be corrected, and they consider themselves fine just the way they are. Isn't that true? [00:04:43] I mean, if you talk to people, most people don't see a need for God to intervene in their life to help them out. I would say that's true of majority of people. And I would even say it sometimes, even as believers, we probably think we're okay. You know, we think we're doing fine. But let's just be a little bit open, because as I explore this segment of scripture today, I want us to understand something that we can think we are right when we're absolutely wrong. And if we maintain that hardened position that I'm in the right, even though I'm in the wrong, it can actually do a lot of destructive damage to ourselves and to others. So we want to be a little bit more humble, a little bit more open, a little bit, saying, you know, God, I know I haven't arrived. I know there's things that I need to grow, develop, understand. And, you know, because I'm looking today in our world and so many people are walking around, you know, you think we all have the answers and, you know, if we don't, we go on the Internet, right? You know, isn't that true? Come on, let's be honest. And everybody's informing everybody of everything. And sometimes it's just a lot of ignorance being passed around and we don't even realize. We think we know, but we don't. [00:05:54] And so let's, let God's spirit today explore our souls. Let's, let's have a little openness for God to go, oh, this is what I want you to see today. And maybe this is what needs to change so that you and I are brought to a whole new level in our relationship with God. Anybody say, I'm open for God to change my heart today. I'm open for God to shine the light in a place of darkness in my soul. I'm open for God to grow me as an individual. And I think we have to be open to that. You know, I think the tragedy is that when we don't see ourselves in need, we end up forfeiting the grace of God in our lives. Wow. And it often takes a crisis beyond the scope of human ability to cause us to look beyond human resources for help. How many say that's true? And some of us in our journey, even as a Christian, we've gotten at the end of ourselves. We've come to the end of ourselves. We just go, wow, I just don't know what to do. [00:06:50] This is beyond me. And it's okay to get to that place because there's things in life that are beyond us as human beings. And we really do need to look to God to help us through those experiences. So in John chapter nine, we're going to look at the entire chapter. We're going to see the sign of a blind man being healed. And I love what Kenneth gangl pointed out, and I had never really paid attention to this before, but he said, this is very fascinating. He says many Bible students are amazed to discover that the Old Testament contains no story of the giving of sight to the Lord the blind. [00:07:25] There is no healing of blind people in the Old Testament. I was shocked. The New Testament example outside of the gospels is this one encounter between Ananias and Saul of Tarsus in acts chapter nine. But when we examine the ministry of Jesus, there are more instances of the healing of blind people than any other type of miracle. [00:07:48] Now, you just all learned something, right? Because I think most of us didn't know this. Maybe some of you did, but I certainly didn't. I'm willing to admit that. Your question is why? Well, the healing of the blind is one of the key signs of the messianic age prophesied by Isaiah. And this is what Isaiah says in chapter 35. Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong and do not fear. Your God will come. He will come with vengeance, with divine retribution. He will come to save you. [00:08:20] And then it says, will the eyes of the blind be open and the ears of the deaf unstopped? And it was interesting that when John the Baptist, when he was imprisoned and began in his hour of crisis to doubt that even the person he thought was the messiah, because Jesus was not doing what he anticipated, said, go talk to Jesus and ask him, are you really the messiah? Do you know what Jesus did? He just kept healing blind people, healing deaf people. He just kept doing these signs. And then what he says to them, he says, go back and tell John, this is what I'm doing. What he was doing was reminding John that he's answering the prophecy of Isaiah. [00:09:12] This is the messianic age, and I am the Messiah. In John nine, we see how John addresses the miracle, both of the healing of physical. [00:09:22] But there's another miracle, spiritual sight, because the blind man, born blind, he is going to come to a deep, deeper understanding. It's so profound, it's going to change his life. Not only will he see for the very first time how many can't even imagine this, that you've never seen anything in your life, and then one day you can see the world and what which we're in. How many think that would totally change your perception of things? But he's about to experience an even deeper healing, and that's his ability to know who God is. So let's take a look at the lessons. I believe there are some amazingly profound lessons to be learned so that you and I will not live in spiritual darkness. Let's take a look at the first one. Simply the priority of ministry to those in need, rather than to understand the cause. You go, what do you mean, pastor? I think we're always wondering and asking the why. Questions like, why does God allow suffering? Why does God allow sickness? Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? These are all these questions. And you know what? Why is God letting this happen in my life? Why did God allow this to happen? We have the tremendous why questions. But I'm going to shift this today because I think there's a lot of people in this room wondering why some issue in your life. You're going, why? [00:10:41] However, I think the better question should be asked is, what are we going to do about it? And how does trusting God right now make a difference in my current situation? And maybe one of the questions should be, how can you and I be part of the solution? [00:10:59] So now I've moved you from the why questions to the what and how questions. Okay? We're going to shift, you know, and the first thing we are going to deal with is a thing called retribution theology. And they're raising a question, who sinned? That's the question that the disciples asked. You see, now this retribution theology is a very simplistic and very mechanistic view of society. And it really kind of goes something like this. And by the way, we're all dealing with this even today. This is how simple it is. If I do what God wants me to do, then God will bless me. And if I disobey what God wants me to do, then I'm going to have consequences for that. Okay? How many follow that now? How many know there's a truth to that? [00:11:42] But it's quite simplistic. And so it's not just, you know, I do the right things, I get the right results. If I do a, b, and C, I'm going to get x, Y, and z. [00:11:51] You see, this whole idea is when God is dealing with justice, it's far more nuanced than that. [00:11:58] And I think it causes us to question and wonder. And really, it's designed for us to trust God because God's not going to give you and I all the answers. If you had all the answers, why do you need to trust God? You already understand everything, but that's not the way it works. And so you and I are now forced in our inability to comprehend what's happening. I have to trust God to take me through this experience. [00:12:23] Now, it's such a simple theology that Job's friends certainly applied that theology on Job. And, you know, because Job was sick. They said, job, you know, listen, buddy, just cough it up, confess your sin. God will take care of you and restore everything that you lost. Right? [00:12:43] Job goes, I didn't sin. [00:12:46] I'm not sick because I sinned. I've been doing the right things. I don't understand why God is allowing this bad stuff to happen in my life. As a matter of fact, Job was a little unhappy with God. [00:12:56] He goes, didn't I do all the right stuff? And why is this happening? And you know what I found out when I studied that book? God never gave him an answer. [00:13:06] Isn't that true? He never answered them. As a matter of fact, God doesn't feel accountable. To answer your question and my question, as a matter of fact, we're accountable to God. [00:13:16] Let's move this thing the right way. Right. [00:13:19] So, Job, it's just this very simple idea. And so I just have already said it. God's justice is far more nuanced. John, chapter nine, verse one. As he went along, this is Jesus and the disciples. Jesus saw man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? I don't even know how they knew this information, but obviously they did. [00:13:46] So what were their disciples focused on? Why? [00:13:50] Why the blindness? [00:13:52] Why would somebody be born blind? I mean, got to be his parents sin to allow this to happen? Or is it possible, Jesus, that this man somehow sinned? Like, why is he blind? See how they're thinking. [00:14:05] Jesus response is fascinating. He goes, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. While the disciples were focusing in on the cause of this man's conditions, Jesus was concerned about transforming it and using it as a powerful vehicle to reveal the need for spiritual sight. Merrill Tenney writes to the disciples, he was a subject for a theological analysis. The disciples were bewildered by the seemingly irrationality of an affliction which had befallen the man at birth and which could not be traced to a definitive retributive judgment. [00:14:43] This wasn't fitting in their theology nicely. How do you factor this thing in? [00:14:50] They were wondering who was at fault. Again, that simple cause and effect theology, right? They equated illness with some act of sin. Jesus explained that sin was not necessarily the cause of this thing on a personal level, so that it was neither this man's sin or his parents sin. And so there is a general sense that all sickness is a result of sin being in the world. That's true, as da Carson relates. But once theologians move from generalizing statements about the origin of the human race's maladies to tight connections between the sins and sufferings of an individual, they go beyond the biblical evidence that a specific illness or experience of suffering can be the directed consequence of a specific sin. Few would deny there are occasions in the scriptures it teaches this, somebody sinned and this was the consequence. Right. [00:15:44] But that it is inevitably so, that every sickness is a result of sin. That's what he's saying. Numerous biblical texts flatly deny. [00:15:56] So in other words, you know, sickness may be a result of an individual sin, but not usually and not necessarily. [00:16:08] We could never jump to that conclusion. So we have to be careful. We're not judging people based on their physical maladies. That's what we're learning from this experience. The best corrective for this simplistic approach is go read the book of job. [00:16:21] Now, needs are potential opportunities to minister to others. [00:16:27] Jesus includes us in the disciples. In a statement, he says, we must do the work. [00:16:34] See, he says it here. As long it is as it is today, as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Okay, you know, I never picked up on this. Isn't that interesting? The word we. We must. He's including his disciples in this. He's not just saying I must. He's saying, we all must. We must work while it is yet day. That's what Jesus is telling us. What's he mean by that? Well, there's an opportunity. Night is coming when no one can work. [00:17:06] Now, I think all of us can say that we've probably missed a few opportunities in life. Anybody say that? You know, there was an opportunity. I probably could have done something for some. For whatever reason, I just didn't do it. I missed that opportunity, you know, and we failed. [00:17:24] And, you know, sometimes as christians, we think, well, I'm doing really good in my christian life, but there are sins of omission too, right? And that's a sin of omission where I knew to do good and I just didn't do it, Lord, would you forgive me? I had an opportunity and failed to approach that. But then there are certain needs that we neither have skill nor resources to meet, except for the willingness to pray for someone. [00:17:50] And, you know, we can't meet every need. [00:17:53] So we can't walk around living in complete guilt all the time saying, well, here's a need before me. I gotta meet this need, and there's another need. I gotta meet that need, and there's another need. Know how many needs are around us? There's a lot. [00:18:05] Here's my answer. [00:18:07] Maybe we can't meet all the needs, but we better meet some of them. [00:18:11] Okay? And we just need to say, God, help me to meet the needs that you want me to meet and zero in and don't feel overwhelmed by the needs, because it is overwhelming. The needs are greater than any human being can meet. And I notice God isn't leaving heaven every single day to rush down here and straighten every problem out. Anybody noticed that? And so I don't feel like I have to be Superman here and try to rescue every situation. You'll go crazy. But there are some things that God is asking you and me to do, and we need to be doing those things. He says, while I'm in the world, Jesus says I'm the light of the world. And after saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva and put it on the man's eyes. Doesn't that sound nice? [00:18:55] Go. He told them, wash in the pool of siloam. This word means scent. So the men went and washed and came home seeing. Now, notice here we have Jesus methodology in healing. The blind man Colin Cruz explains why John gives this detailed account of his methodology, because this was a different methodology than he had used at other times. He said on two other occasions, Jesus used saliva in acts of healing. Here he uses it to make mud, mixing it with dirt. Okay? And then he puts it on this guy's eyes and tells him to go wash it off. His eyes. By the way, you're probably motivated to wash it off, right? I don't know. Maybe that was going to help him. Maybe this was an aid to faith. You know, I'm going to help this guy do something. This becomes significant later in the story when we're told he performed the healing on the Sabbath because the act of needing, like, you know, how you knead bread. Well, in this case, making mud from saliva and dirt was regarded as one of the 39 forms of work that violated the Sabbath in the oral law. Okay, so they saw now that this Jesus had performed some work on the Sabbath. We got to keep that in our mind because this is going to make a lot of sense here in a moment. What's happening in this miracle now, this is the second healing John records for us at the temple area on the Sabbath. It's not the same Sabbath, but a different one. Remember, he heals. First of all, healed a paralyzed man. Now he's healing a blind man from birth. [00:20:32] And I think this, the first one was to address the issue of Jesus as lord of the Sabbath. This one is actually to address a totally definition. The issue is to help us understand the human condition of spiritual blindness. It's a metaphor in some ways. Okay, let's take a look at the second lesson that we can learn from this parable. And it's the challenges faced as we experience an encounter with Jesus. You know, everybody thinks, well, as soon as I meet Jesus, all my problems go away. [00:21:03] No, actually, when you encounter Jesus, it eliminates very significant problems in your life and creates a new set. Okay? You just have to decide which set you'd rather have. And to me, I'd rather have the ones that are with Jesus. [00:21:20] That's where I live. When we give our life to Jesus, we're going to begin to see things differently than we ever have before. How many say that was true with this guy? I mean, he's blind now. He's seeing the world around him for the first time. And do you know, the moment you give your life to Jesus, you encounter Jesus, there's a change in your life. The people around you are going to respond to a different. [00:21:42] That's normal. [00:21:43] You make a change, people respond to you differently. You know, that's why I always say to couples when they're having marriage problems, don't worry about your spouse, work on you. If you make changes in your life, it's going to affect how they're responding to you. That's just the nature of life. And that happens to all of us. [00:21:59] These changes that happen within us are going to affect the response that are happening around us. So the challenge begins always with those who know us best. And here we're going to see how his neighbors and family respond to this miracle. His identity to this point has been the blind beggar. [00:22:18] That's his label. [00:22:20] And I think that's what we do to people. We kind of label them. This guy's the party clown, or this person is the person battling alcoholism, or this person is the drug addict. We all have labels. [00:22:33] Isn't that true? People put labels and we wear labels and we see ourselves with the label and you go, well, that kind of identifying this guy, pastor, listen, he's blind and he's begging. I can see why they labeled him the blind beggar. Well, yes, I know, but when Jesus comes into your life, the labels don't fit anymore. [00:22:53] You see, that's what we need to understand. And I think what we need to understand is when we are healed, the labels many times still remain in other people's mind. And sometimes it remains in our mind minds even though we're now a new creation in Christ. [00:23:09] And I think we often keep the label and of how people are relating to us. But here's the good news. I want you to hear Jesus doesn't see you with the label anymore. [00:23:21] Is that beautiful? You and I are a new creation. [00:23:25] You need to begin to understand the new label. And I think a lot of christians are living in the past because they're still struggling with the old label. [00:23:36] I'm a new creation. [00:23:39] I belong to Jesus. I have a new mandate. I'm no longer the person I was. I'm a new creation. God has a new purpose for my life. I need to begin to see myself the way God sees me. I'm beloved. I'm forgiven. I've experienced grace. I need to allow this to permeate my thinking so that I now begin to live in that reality. And you know what will start happening? Your life will begin to change dramatically. [00:24:08] Verse eight goes on the stories. Neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, hey, isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg? In other words, they got him labeled. They got him back there in his past. Some claim that he was. Others said, no, he only looks like him. Now, why would some people say he only looks like him? Well, first of all, he can see. And most people don't show up one day after begging for x number of years. Born blind. All of a sudden, boom. They're walking around seeing, and they've stopped begging. That's amazing. [00:24:41] But he insisted, I'm the man. [00:24:44] Then how then were your eyes open? They asked, and he said, the man they called Jesus. I want you to pick up on that phrase. The man they call Jesus. He doesn't know Jesus. He's never seen Jesus. [00:24:57] But now the man they call Jesus made some mud, put it on my eyes. Remember now? When he finally saw jesus wasn't there, he sent them off to the pool of siloam. Remember that? Now he washes it the first time he can see. He's not looking at Jesus. He has no idea what jesus looks like. So he says, I went and I washed, and then I could see. [00:25:19] Where's this man? They asked him. I don't know. [00:25:23] They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now, so this man, he says, yeah, I'm the guy that was once blind, but now I see. And they're saying, how did it happen? He explains the whole story to them. And when they ask where Jesus is, he doesn't know. And so the neighbors now are thinking, what are we to make of this? And how do we respond to this? And let's. Let's, you know, like, we are a very different culture. This is a culture that's tightly, highly attuned to community, and highly attuned to relationships, and highly attuned to the way the culture thought. And it was a religious community. What do you make of this? So they're going to go now to their local religious leaders and God, what is this all about? [00:26:15] How do you explain this? So they're going to their pastors. That's probably what's happening. I got a spiritual question I'm going to go ask my pastor. So they go to these religious leaders, these Pharisees, and they're going to bring the man with them. And they go, you got to hear this. And so they bring him to the attention of the religious community. And it's not a very favorable situation, as we're going to see. They're threatened by what had happened to the blind man. [00:26:42] This is something we cannot explain. Don't you love it when something happens that people can't explain? It really throws people. They don't like that. People feel uncomfortable with uncertainty. And when they don't have an answer, people don't like that kind of stuff. People are threatened by what they don't understand. We all want answers. So we have this interview with these religious authorities. And as a result, they initially become divided on what they are trying to figure out. This is all about. So they, you know, it's really coming down to the authenticity and the authority of Jesus. And the religious leaders are now divided on the opinion. Let's pick up the story in verse 14. Now, on the day in which Jesus had made the mud and made the man's eyes open. The man's eyes was the Sabbath. Therefore, the Pharisees had asked him how he had received his sight. He put mud on my eyes, the man replied, and I wash. And now I see. [00:27:38] Some of the Pharisees notice very important point. Some of them said, this man is not from God, speaking of Jesus. For he does not keep the Sabbath. But others. [00:27:48] How can a sinner perform such signs? So they were divided. So now the religious community is split. Everybody follow that? So they're trying to determine, is this a sign from God or not? And some of them are so locked into the fact that it happened on the Sabbath. They conclude automatically that if Jesus is breaking the Sabbath, he can't be from God, therefore he's a sinner. Okay? That's their conclusion. The other side say, hey, listen, nobody. We've never even heard of somebody being healed from. You know, in a sense, a blind condition from birth. We've never heard of this. Only a person from God could do this. Now, what makes this even more interesting and quite ironic is that we know that miracles alone don't always attest to the origins being from God. So this is really a confusing situation. And if you don't believe that, you can go to deuteronomy, chapter 13. It talks about that. But here's a text in the New Testament. It says, the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works, and he will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie. So in other words, the enemy can counterfeit some signs and wonders. And so, in a sense, the one argument seems stronger than the other argument. But as Carson points out, the first group represents an argument that is actually logically more compelling, provided their interpretation of the Sabbath is correct. And that's the problem. [00:29:16] John's sympathetic readers know that the first group's conclusion is wrong, and Jesus is indeed from God in ways far more profound than the religious authorities of Jesus Day could actually ever imagine. Isn't that true? Inevitably, that means their understanding of the Sabbath is also wrong. Well, let's just stop there for a minute. If we get the wrong idea and something happens and we're using that as a measuring device to make a judgment, and we're wrong to start with, we're going to end up with the wrong conclusion. And that's why I say sometimes, you know, we know, say it this way. I think there are some things in Christianity that are absolutely, we can be absolutely dogmatic. You say, what do you mean, pastor? There are some things that are so fundamental to Christianity that if we don't agree on these points, it's not even Christianity. And what are those points? The person and the work of Jesus. It always comes down to that. You have to understand who he is and what he did on our behalf. When you get that right, everything else doesn't matter. That's the most important thing. But a lot of times as Christians, we get off on that and we go over here and we start making all kinds of judgments over here, and we try to decide right and wrong. And these are all areas that, you know, people have different viewpoints on, and it should never be the basis on which we're evaluating people from. [00:30:40] We need to know that. [00:30:42] Let's take a look now at this growing confession of the man who was healed, verse 17. Then they turned again to the blind man. Well, because they're divided on this. Well, what do you have to say? I mean, hey, you're the guy that had this happen to you, right? You know, it was your eyes he opened and the man says he's a prophet. So he starts out with the man they call Jesus. When he's asked now who he thinks he is, he goes, well, he's got to be a prophet. Why does he say that? He says that because a prophet is a messenger from God. He's got to be someone that came from God in his mind. [00:31:17] And the reason he says that is because look what he did. They still did not believe that he had been blind. So now they're going, okay, here's the problem. [00:31:29] You know, he may thought he was born blind, but maybe he wasn't. Maybe he had some sort of an eye problem. You know, this is the way people are. So, you know, only people would know for sure if he was born blind would be his parents, right? So they sent for the man's parents. How many getting an idea? This is a real investigation now. These guys are really trying to figure this thing out, you know, is this your son? They said to the parents, is this the one you say was born blind? How is it now he can see? [00:31:56] Hmm. [00:31:58] Well, this is their answer. Well, we know he's our son. [00:32:02] Well, they gotta, hey, that's an important point. Yeah, this is the right guy. This is our son. And we know he was born blind. Oh, they confirmed this, he was born blind. [00:32:13] But notice now the next response. [00:32:15] How he can see now or who opened his eyes, we don't know. [00:32:21] Ask him, he's of age, he will speak for himself. Now they don't want to say anything. They probably weren't there anyways, but I'm sure they knew what had gone down. This is circulating, everybody knows Jesus did this. And so this is, his parents said this because they were afraid of the jewish leaders who had already decided, aren't these guys fair? They had already decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. [00:32:47] So they already knew there was a bias to you. How many know? It's really hard to have a fair assessment when you have a tremendous bias against something. So these guys are going, listen, you know, we think, well, you know, why don't you just stand up, have a little guts, right? [00:33:03] When you're kicked out of the synagogue, you're kicked out of all of the community life. You can't do business, you can't do all kinds of, your jobs are done. I mean, your whole life has changed in a moment. You're in trouble, you're cut off from society, you're cut off from all the people. You know, it's a very challenging thing, he says. And that was why his parents said, hey, he's of age. Ask him. In other words, we don't want to get into trouble here. We're not answering that question. We're pleading, as the Americans say, the Fifth Amendment right. They don't want to answer that one. [00:33:33] Now, I think John is trying to get a point across, because let's remember, John wrote his letter way later than the other gospels. And by 90 Ad, which is when they assume he wrote about that time zone, there was a lot of persecution. And to be a Christian meant you had to confess publicly that Jesus was lord and people were, there was pressure not to say things. And, you know, I look at that today and I say, there's a real application today, because as we live in a far more pluralistic society where it's not really considered kosher or good to tell people that there's only one way to get to heaven, and that's through Jesus Christ. [00:34:20] You're going to get a lot of pushback if you believe that and say that. How many say that's true? [00:34:25] People don't want to hear that, but that's the truth. And to be a follower of Christ, we have to kind of step up to the plate and say, yeah, I believe that, and I think it is true. And I believe it's true. I believe that. To deny that is to deny Christ, and I can't do that. [00:34:42] So I'm going to see the attack these guys place on the blind man who's had the experience with Jesus. [00:34:48] Verse 24, it says here, a second time they summoned the man who had been blind. So bring him back up in front of him. Give glory to God by telling the truth. They think he's lying. What is he lying about? [00:35:04] I mean, he was lying. Now he sees who did it. Jesus. I mean, he's not lying. He's just telling them. They just don't want to face facts. How many ever been to talk to people before? They just don't want to face the facts. [00:35:20] They said, we know this man's a sinner. See, they've now made a judgment. Jesus, in their minds, is a sinner. How many think there's a little irony in this? They've now unified. [00:35:31] They were divided, but now they're unified. They've made a decision that Jesus is a sinner. Now, isn't that fascinating? The Bible says that Jesus is without sin. He's never sinned. [00:35:42] Here are human beings who have sinned, judging a person, and in this case, God in the flesh, as if he had sinned. [00:35:52] Does anybody find that a little ironic? And how many find it ironic that God gets blamed for a whole bunch of junk down here that he's not guilty of? [00:36:02] But we do it all the time, because you know what happens? We have to be careful when we make ourselves the judge. [00:36:09] Then we put ourselves above God. [00:36:12] And I think we do that more than we like to think. [00:36:16] So he's challenged now. So he comes back and he says to these guys, well, he says, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. I'm not making this assessment. One thing I do know, I was blind. I see. That's a very powerful statement. You know this. I know I was blind, and now I see. [00:36:41] So when he says this, he's now going to be challenged by these guys. So we need, I believe that one of the things we need to learn from this. [00:36:50] So then they say, well, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? We need to meet opposition with courage. I'm going to say that's true. [00:37:00] Fear not, be courageous. We got to meet the opposition with courage. [00:37:08] He answers, I've already told you, and you did not listen. Do you want to hear it again? [00:37:14] Do you want to become his disciples, too? [00:37:18] He's a little feisty, this guy. This guy actually has got a lot going for him. [00:37:24] Then he goes on, he says, then he answered, I've already told you. [00:37:31] We know that God spoke to Moses. They answered, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from. The man answered, now, that's remarkable. You don't know where he come from, yet he opened my eyes. [00:37:42] We know that God listen, he's going to give him a theology lesson. I love this. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. Apparently, this guy knew his old testament. He knew nobody had ever been healed like this. [00:38:05] He probably thought about it because, you know, he was born blind. He probably had a lot of questions and meditated on this. And we know from the scriptures in psalm 66 and verse 18 that if we regard inequity in our heart, God's not going to hear. So he's going, hey, if Jesus was a sinner, why would God listen to him? But, man, he did it. He did this amazing miracle. He says, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. [00:38:34] That's why he said he was a prophet. [00:38:37] To this they replied, you were steeped in sin at birth. How dare you lecture us? And they threw him out. They became abusive. Isn't that interesting? They insulted him. [00:38:49] I think what happened is he nailed them. They were convicted. What could they say? And then they use that. Remember that retribution theology bit? Well, look who's telling us what? You were a sinner because you were blind. See that bad theology, how it shows up again? [00:39:08] So they're locked into a certain worldview. Let's go to the third point. The spiritual healing or illumination of the beggar. [00:39:15] And. [00:39:20] Did I skip something? Oh, no. [00:39:23] The development and resistance to faith. So two things are going to happen in the story. One is the beggar now is moving towards faith in Christ. And the religious leaders are moving away from faith in Christ. They're going in opposite directions. We're seeing a resistance here. Do you know we're only left with two responses in life? I know our society likes to make us think there's all these different answers. There's two. [00:39:47] We either accept the testimony and the experience of the blind man who now sees, or we reject Jesus, the one who performed the miracle. We have to do one of the other. What they could not do was to reject that. Something supernatural that happened. They couldn't get rid of that. That was evident. So now we see this spiritual healing and illumination of the beggar, Jesus. I love this. When he heard that they had thrown him out of the synagogue, he knew how big this of a deal this was. He went and found him. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus has compassion. [00:40:16] And he said, do you believe in the son of man? [00:40:22] And he said, who is he? Sir? [00:40:26] Actually, some translation says, who is he, lord? Okay, but it's the Niv's doing the right thing. This is basically, he's being respectful here. Who is he, sir? The man asked, tell me so that I might believe in him. Jesus said, you have now seen him. In fact, he's the one who's speaking with you. He probably recognized the voice. [00:40:47] Then the man said, lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Now, Merrill Tenney says, when jesus heard of the unfortunate result of the controversy with the Pharisees, he was moved with pity. He sought for the man. And upon finding him, he asked him a very pointed personal question. [00:41:08] And the question is very fascinating. He says, do you believe in the son of man? Now, you know, when we read this, we go, he didn't say, do you believe in the son of God? [00:41:18] That wouldn't have made a lot of sense to a jewish person. But listen to what he said. Do you believe in the son of man? [00:41:24] And what is Jesus referring to? He's alluding. He's using the same text that eventually is going to cost him his life before the Sanhedrin. Here's the text in Daniel, in my vision at night, I looked, and there before me was one, like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority. The son of man was. He was given authority. Glory, sovereign power. All nations and peoples of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. And his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. [00:41:59] Is that beautiful? This man immediately understood what Jesus was saying and began to worship him as God. [00:42:07] That's very powerful. [00:42:10] Now, the fact that this man had amazing spiritual perception, I think immediately recognized what was happening here. This is another argument for the deity of Christ. Listen, if Jesus wasn't God, he would have said, hey, stop worshiping me. But he didn't do that. He allowed him to worship him. Then we get to the essence of Christ's judgment. [00:42:36] This is fascinating, though. Jesus came into the world not to condemn, but save the world. When light is rejected, all that is left is darkness. How many know that's true? If you reject light, all you have is darkness. Judgment comes upon those who refuse to accept deliverance. [00:42:53] Jesus said, for judgment, I have come into this world so that the blind will see, and those who see will become blind. It's a little parable here, little proverb. [00:43:06] Some Pharisees who were with him heard this and asked, what, are we blind too? So in other words, Jesus found this man somewhere in the place where there were other Pharisees standing around. And they watched this whole transaction. And they overheard this, what jesus had said. And then they said, are we blind too? And Jesus says this. [00:43:26] If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But now that you claim that you see, your guilt remains. [00:43:34] The fact that the Pharisees had witnessed this transgression. [00:43:40] Here we have the summary of the engagement. To the man who is blind, not only physically, but spiritual sight is granted. Isn't that amazing? [00:43:51] To those who had rejected and denied the significance of the miracle. Though they had physical sight, they were actually revealing their true spiritual condition. They were spiritually blind. [00:44:02] And this is the paradox that. [00:44:08] Well, to make it matters worse, Jesus is saying that the tragedy is that they claim to see or perceive. And Jesus says, no, you don't see. And because of that, you're remaining in your darkness. You're remaining in your sin. To know the truth and reject it leaves us in darkness. Rudolph Baltman explains the nature of the offense of the gospel this way. This is the paradox of the revelation, that in order to bring grace, it also must give offense and so turn to judgment. [00:44:42] In order to be grace, it must uncover sin. And he who resists this binds himself to a sin. And so, through the revelation, sin for the first time becomes definitive. Now, I know he's a theologian. What's he saying? He said, to be cured, we must address the problems in our lives. We must recognize them in our lives. We must come to the painful point of acknowledging that we are sinners, that we've sinned and confess it, rather than live in denial and come to the one who can actually cure us, and that's Jesus. Tasker closes with this remark. Christian faith begins when men and women come to see that sin has robbed them of spiritual vision, that in this sense they are all blind from birth and are wholly unable to free themselves from their predicament. [00:45:31] And faith comes to maturity when they accept Jesus as the one who alone can recreate in them the faculty that sin has destroyed. Let's stand. [00:45:44] I don't know. This gospel of John is a little bit intense. I think. [00:45:51] I think Jesus, you know, sometimes we develop an image of what we think Jesus is like. [00:45:58] But as I'm going through the gospel of John, you know what strikes me? Jesus isn't fooling around. [00:46:05] He's the most compassionate, loving person. [00:46:09] But he's not going to let us play games with him and live in sin and denial. [00:46:15] He's going to point it out. [00:46:17] He's going to back us into a corner. [00:46:20] He's going to force us to acknowledge that we need his help and everyone in this room, we all do. There's not one person on this planet that can say, I can live life apart from God. [00:46:33] That's a myth. [00:46:35] You know, they think they can, but they can't. [00:46:40] And we do all kinds of crazy things to live life on our terms, you know, but it's a broken life. [00:46:49] It's a diminished life. [00:46:51] It's a life that brings brokenness and heartache to ourselves and to those around us. [00:46:57] But when we come to Christ and we say, okay, I can't do this apart from you, I need your help, Jesus. [00:47:04] I need to come to you today. [00:47:07] You know, I can be a person who's never received Jesus or a person that's been walking with Jesus for years, same situation. Light shines into our lives. [00:47:17] God's exposing things and making us aware of these things. And when we come to him and say, okay, I'm not going to deny it, I'm just going to confess. Confess it and say, I need your help. God will set us free. [00:47:30] He's in that business. [00:47:32] He died to set us free. [00:47:35] And that's powerful. That's why truth is important. [00:47:38] You know, a lot of times we think of truth as an abstract thing. I think coming to grips with where we're really at in our lives, that's powerful. And understanding what he wants to do in our lives to set us free. I believe that God wants us to make us a better version of ourselves. What's that better version? We become more like him. And we can only get there when we say, I want a better version of who I currently am. [00:48:06] Maybe you're satisfied. I'm totally satisfied where I'm at, then you're going to stay exactly where you're at. But the moment you start hungering and thirsting after righteousness, the moment you say, you know, there's probably a better version of me and I want it, I want to have that transformation in my life. I want to continue this journey of change. And so maybe you're here today. You don't know Christ. I'm going to tell you right now, if you receive him, he's going to change your life. He's in the change the life business. [00:48:37] And maybe you're a child of God and you've walked with him for years and you're kind of stagnant. You're just stuck. I'm telling you right now, you have an opportunity for growth. You know, you have an opportunity. It's not just a mental growth, it's a, it's a spiritual growth. It means he's going to change you from the inside out. And he always starts from the inside and he starts with, you know, what's wrong with our thinking? Can you see that? These guys were so blind that they could not see that God was at work here, but because they had a wrong understanding theologically, they were judging the whole thing the wrong way. [00:49:14] There's a lot of christians out there. They have a wrong understanding and they're judging things the wrong way and they're diminishing what God's trying to accomplish in them. [00:49:22] Does that make sense? [00:49:24] Let's walk with humility. [00:49:27] Let's walk with openness. Let's invite Christ to come and search our hearts today, to shine the light of his love into the place of darkness to be willing to expose that darkness. Say, Lord, would you come and expose it? Would you help me to have the courage to acknowledge it and confess it and forsake it with your grace and with your power and with your help, I believe he can do that. [00:49:50] And so let's pray. Father, we thank you today. [00:49:54] This isn't just a theoretical message. This isn't just, oh, yes, I know. Jesus is the light of the world. I'm so glad there are people that need to get saved. No, we all need salvation. We all need to continue to grow in our relationship with you. We have to be open to the transformative work of your spirit shining the light in the place of darkness in our soul. And, Father, I pray that we'd have the courage to face that darkness and admit to you, Lord, forgive us. We have sinned against you. We have diminished who we really are as a human being. And we pray today that not only would you forgive us, but you would empower us, power us to forsake it and to find a new place of growth and freedom in our lives. That this transformation would bring about a tremendous level of development inside of us. And we thank you for that, Lord. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave today.