John 9 - Don't see the way of the world

How much time do you think it takes with Jesus, to make you a good witness? How much prep? How much study? 

The story of the man born blind answers the question...listen in.

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Good morning church. Welcome to Pentecost Sunday. This is the birthday of the church. I'm so excited that we could be together to talk. I have a question for you and you know I like my questions, but how much time do you think you need to spend with Jesus in order to be a good witness? Here's the choices. One month you think a month with Jesus would make you good. How about six months? Six months. So that's six times the amount. How about three years? That's six times any of those. How many give me a Hawk or something like that out there in the car anyway, you're going to make sure that you know what's going on and, and, and, and what you're thinking about today's text has some of those questions in it. But the problem with it is, is that it answers them differently than we often think it will. And so I want to make sure that we get in here that we don't understand how God works when he first comes to us. And the text that I'm going to talk about does that. And so he comes to this man and he does this mat, this magnificent work in his life at all the questions about how we judge and, and what we think about how we're to be his people and all that are changed because we get different answers. So, so let me read the text. It's a whole chapter, but it's a story. So just go ahead and, and listen in here for a second and I'll talk about this stuff. So this is a story about a man born blind. As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth rabbi. His disciples asked him, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents sent that? Listen to that. This is the way we think as human beings. I even talked about this a couple of weeks ago about do I think that this current situation we're in is the wrath of God? No. See the wrath of God was poured out on the cross. He's not looking around for that, but we still judge and even think that way. Whose fault is it? That's the first thing the world does. Here's the example. Jesus says it was not because of his sins or his parents sands and Jesus answered this happened. So the power of God could be seen in him. We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent us. The night is coming when no one will be able to work, but I'm here in the world. I am the light of the world. Now I want you to make sure that you don't judge that comment the way that the world judges that comment. In other words, that man's blindness was entirely for this moment. No. When we are built the way we're built, we're built that way so that God's work can be seen in us and then if there's a healing that needs to be done, not just as that the power of God seen in us, but even in blindness. We let the problems that we are born with did in our way of showing God's work in us, when, when, how he works and as works through those the best and then when the healing comes. That also is for his power. So it's not, he wasn't just made blind so that this moment, his way, he was formed this way. But here's the word. Jesus spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva and spread the mud over the man's blind eyes. He told him, go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam. So the man went and washed and came back seeing his neighbors and others who knew him as the blind beggar asked each other, isn't this the man who used to sit and beg? And some said he was and others said, Oh, it looks just like him. But the beggar kept saying, yes, that's me. I'm the one. Now here's a second part of the world judging. They didn't ask him if he was the one initially they asked each other because you know you wouldn't want to ask the first person that comes to mind that would know for sure if he was the biker, you'd want to ask him, is this him? No. Ask him. But the world seeks the wrong source of information. But so curious. Yes, I'm the one. Well, who healed you and what happened? He told them the man they called Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself. So I went and washed, I squashed. And now I can see. Now this is really cool. And it's also reminiscent of something from the old Testament in the story of Elijah that there's a a man with leprosy, right? So blindness and leprosy are plagues in the age of world, but there's a man with leprosy who comes to Alicia to be healed, and Elijah sends him to go DEP in the Jordan river and he kind of complains what I gotta go dip in a muddy river. So here's that whole thing again. Jesus only doing what he sees his father doing, but that when he finally dipped in the money river, that man was healed as well. When he followed, finally followed instructions, this man follows them without argument. Anyway, here they go again. Well, where is Jesus now? I don't know. That's a good, that's the perfect response from that thing. Now then they took the man. This is the first 13 who had been blind to the Pharisees because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him, and the Pharisees asked the man all about it. So we told them, he put mud over my eyes and then I washed it away and I could see some of the Pharisees said, this man, Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath. Others said, but how could an ordinary center do such a miraculous signs? So there was a deep division of opinion amongst them. Here they are human beings forming opinions from, from partial and incomplete information. Now they ask the man and the first he's questioned the man again. Here we are, verse 17 again in the Pharisees again, question the man who had been born blind and demanded. What's your opinion about this man who healed you? Now, before I read his response, we want to ask you this question. What would your opinion be if you were the one healed like that? You wouldn't think, well, he's a center. You think he's my savior or he's a prophet or something like that? The man replied, I think he must be a prophet. The Jewish leaders still refuse to believe this man. This man had been blind and could now see. So instead of the witness of those that brought the blind man because it was work on the Sabbath, now they're doubting that this is the way that human sight and the world judges things. They asked him or, I'm sorry, I jumped in. So they brought, brought his parents in and they asked them, is this your son? Was he born blind? And if so, how can he now see? And was parents replied, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but we don't know how he can see or who healed him. Ask him. He's old enough to speak for himself. Now his parents had said this because they were afraid of the leaders. Of course they were. They had spent their whole life in a community with a blind son and the whole community with human eyes had been asking, well, is it your sin or his sin that it caused the blindness? And if you get asked that question long enough, pretty soon you start flinching at the very thought of the people that ask that question, asking you a different question. And so as parents sad, ask him, this is again, part of the way the world conditions as to be. Um, is this him? The first is ask, well, why don't you ask him? He's old enough. Or in other words, don't ask us. Ask the one over there. It's not our fault anymore. His and, and so anyway, the Jewish leaders had announced than anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. And that's why they said is he is old enough. Ask him again, just conditioned from living within a community that doesn't see quite right. So the first for the second time, they called the man and who had been born blind and told him, now they're not asking, God should get the glory for this because we know this man, Jesus as a center. How do they know that? Well, humans are centers, right? Right. But then you might be in this world where you think that God came to make immoral people not immoral or centers to me. Not centers that when you come to Jesus and you are a sinner, Jesus didn't come to make you not a center. You still sin and you still have that in your life. You still sin, but Jesus came to make people that were on the road to death and an emptiness on the road to life and fullness. That doesn't stop you from sending along the way. What? What? That misunderstanding is this human understanding that leads us to ask parents if their kid's sickness is because they sinned. Anyway, back to the story. I don't know, says the man. Verse 25 I don't know whether he's the center. The man replied, but I know this. I was blind and now I see, but what did he do? They ask, how did he hear you? Look, the man explained. I told you once. Didn't you hear me? Why do you want to hear it again? Would you like to become his disciples? Now, listen, remember that question that I asked you in the beginning? How much time does it take to be with Jesus to be a good witness? Now, many thing that you need to come into a church and sit there for a while and just sort of acclimate, and I think you do need to acclimate to a church and understand what their methodology is and how you're going to do that. But that isn't how you become a good witness. You a good witness by being moved by the spirit and Jesus has work in you. And if you do that, and if you then sit down and don't do anything for awhile, that's what you'll get used to doing this guy, remember this guy has spent the last, then maybe 10 minutes with Jesus, 10 minutes with Jesus. This is what I says. I told you once, didn't you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become Jesus's disciples too? Then they cursed at him and said, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know God spoke to Moses, but we don't even know where this man comes from. Why? That's very strange. The man replied, he healed my eyes and yet you don't know where he comes from. We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. Remember, this is a man who has spent chest a little bit of time with Jesus just a minuscule amount of time. Listen to this faith that is alive in him. This is a Pentecost moment. If there ever was one, he healed my eyes and you don't know where he comes from, but you know if the way that the world works, you know that God doesn't listen to sinners. Well of course he does listen to centers because there aren't any on earth right now that aren't centers. God doesn't listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do as well. The issue of sin has nothing to do with whether God listens to you. God listens to those who worship and do his will. They're ready to worship and do it as well. That's ever since the world began. No one has ever been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn't have done it. Here's the world. Verse 34 again, you were a total center answered. You're trying to teach us and they threw him out of the synagogue. Can you see the world just not understanding what's going on, but they have this other path that they're on? Anyway, here's the path that we're on. When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked him, do you believe in the son of man? Man answered, who is he? I want to believe in him. Will you have seen him? Jesus said, and he is speaking to you. Yes Lord. I believe, and the man said, any worship of Jesus. Then Jesus told him, I entered the world to render judgment and to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind. Some Pharisees were standing nearby. I heard him and asked, are you saying that we're blind? If you were blind, this is Jesus' response. If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty of not worshiping God, but you remain guilty because you claim you can see. So here's the thing about being human. We claim, we can see and we claim authority and we see the wrong pieces of information and then we render judgements that are incomplete and incorrect. Like who sin was it? Is this the man? Well, we shouldn't ask him, we should talk to this, right? You just see it building in them, but this is what Jesus says, that if you admit that you're not the authority and that you don't know or that you could come and just recognize that you just saw a man born blind. If you could do that, you wouldn't be guilty because you would be as the man said right back in verse 31 we know that God doesn't listen to senators, but he's ready to hear those who worship him and are and do his will ready to hear those who worship him and do it as well, but they don't, aren't ready to worship him and they aren't ready to do as well. But because they say they can see God and they don't do that, they are guilty because they claim they can see this is the essence of the Jewish understanding of sin and trespass, which are not the same thing in the Jewish tradition. Sinning is something you do when you don't know any better. That's why the Greeks were centers, right. They didn't know any better. They were blind people that didn't know any better, just fumbling around in the darkness, but the Jews claimed that they understood everything and that then they didn't worship God because of that. It was trespass. They knew what was right and they didn't do it. And because of that, the claim to see causes the depth to be so much worse. This is the key to birth and life of not just the church, not just the birthday of the church, the Pentecost day of the church, but the continued life of the church is that we must never become the authorities of our own VA. And you can see that happening around us in the world that well, we know what to do with this and that and the other thing. But the claim to know when you don't means not just that you're center, but that you're trespassing. It's worse. This is the birthday of the church. This is the way we become. We just like this one man. We spend a moment with Jesus. The amount of time doesn't matter. He acts in our life and we are changed. And if we are willing to worship him and do his will, he will listen and open our eyes so that we can see that he is God and we are not. He is the judge as Jesus said. I was, I was sent to judge the world and render judgment. That's what he says to render judgment. Verse 39 and it gives sight to the blind, the show, those who think they see that they're blind. Pentecost is about that rendered judgment and sight to the blind. Welcome church. May we ever live according to this model that Jesus gives us sight, but we still need him. Pentecost, the birth of the church, a birth of a community that is ready to worship him and do his will and always be so good morning church. I just hope ask that you would stick with me for a second as I pray us out of this moment that we could be or people, Lord Jesus, I thank you for each and every one here that has spent just a moment with Jesus. May that moment multiply thought life and us as we are ready to do his will and worship him. Thank you Lord. Amen. As you could leave this time now please accept this benediction. May you hear and know the work of God in your life may be a piece and not do the judges go in peace. Amen.