SPEAKER_00 0:01

We're continuing our series in John. We are in John chapter 9 today. If you have a Bible, please flip to John 9. If not, the text will be on the screen. And I am I often cook for the family, and I'm going to say to you guys what I say to my family. We have five kids, and you know, cooking for everybody's likes is difficult. So I'm going to say to you what I say to them. Some of you guys are going to like this. Others at least have to try. Let's pray before we begin. Father God, I pray as we open your word, as we encounter Jesus, as we encounter the, as we encounter the message that your word would plant in our souls. I pray that we would receive it. I pray that it would transform us. That it would not be in one ear and out the other, but that it would, it will have, it would have its intended effect on your people. In Jesus' name. Amen. So I'm a big fan of the uh the books, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Any fans out there? We've at least seen the movie. Yeah, good one. Um so the second book is called The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It's a funny, it's hilarious. Um, written by Douglas Adams. But in the restaurant at the end of the universe, the the heroes who travel around in a bizarre spaceship, um, you know, and hilarity, nerdy hilarity ensues. Um, they go in search of the ruler of the universe, right? They're trying to find the ruler of the universe. There's one person who's kind of behind it all, as they say. And their search leads them to this remote planet that is guarded by all sorts of weird things. And when they land on the planet, there's just this little shack in the middle of a scrub brush field. Pardon me. And the rain is coming down in buckets, right? And they get into this shack and and they see a little room with an old beaten-up chair and an old mattress on the floor, and an old table, and an old cat, and this tall, shambling man. And this guy is like, he's like this ultimate skeptic, right? He believes nothing. They he he's he's talking to his cat and he says, you know, um, if you don't eat your fish, your your cat, you're gonna waste away. And um, and then he goes to the table and and he he's he has there's a pencil and a paper on the table, and he picks up the pencil and paper, and he tries every combination. He holds the paper upside down and the pencil under it, and then he puts the eraser on the, then he wraps it around the pencil, and then he puts it on the table, and he he makes a mark with the lead end, and he's delighted with his discovery, as he is every single day, because he takes nothing on faith, including his memory, you see? And so they start asking him questions. And uh and they ask him, you know, how long have you been ruling the universe? And he says, Well, you're asking a question about the past. How do we know that the past isn't a fiction? And he says, he says, and what do you mean by ruling the universe? What's the universe? And they say, you know, out there. He says, What do you mean out there? The door's closed. How do you know anything's out there? And he says, My universe is my eyes and my ears, everything else is hearsay. And after they leave, he ends up talking to his table for a week just to see how it's going to react. And as they're leaving, they say to one another, I think the universe is in pretty good hands, don't you? Right? And the reader is supposed to agree with this. Now what's going on? Douglas Adams, being a good representative of Western Enlightenment rationality, believes that the most, the most worthy person, the most sophisticated and wise person is the one who what? Who doubts, doubts, doubts, doubts, doubts, who is the most skeptical, who doesn't believe anything that can be doubted. Now, in the West, we kind of see skepticism, we see doubt, we see critical thinking as equivalent to smart, wise, sophisticated. And the opposite is kind of presented as faith. Right? Faith is often thought of as irrational or simple-minded, it's for less intelligent people, or, you know, it might, at best, it's like, you know, you've got your rationality over here, which is skeptical and doubting and evidence-based, and then over here you have faith, something completely different. It's just a different category. And many of you guys who have gone to college, I hear stories, right, about, you know, you go to college as a Christian and you get mocked for being naive, you get mocked for being anti-intellectual. Faith is held up as something as something sort of like unsophisticated, as unintelligent, as evidence that there's a problem with you. You know, even when we look at our public intellectuals, who do we who do we all agree is smart? Oh, well, uh, you know, Neil deGrasse Tyson or Stephen Hawking or Noam Chomsky or these people, right? They're all thoroughgoing enlightenment rationalist skeptics, right? Those are the people that get held up as the smartest. I mean, look at the slogans we like. Question everything. You seen that one? We've all seen that one. Question everything. I wonder if we're supposed to question, if we're supposed to question everything, though. See that critical thinking? Very sophisticated. Even within the church, right? Like there's a there's a huge dose of skeptical Western enlightenment thinking within the church. Right? You get a lot of people doing the, well, who's to say? Who's to say? What are we supposed to believe about this? Who's to say? Right? It's just doubt becomes the answer. Skepticism becomes the answer, and we say, well, how enlightened, how sophisticated, right? Or people I think don't know where this term comes from, but I you hear a lot in recent years about deconstruction. Right? I I don't I don't think most people who throw the word deconstruction around have read Derrida, and if you don't know who that is exactly, but the idea there is hey, I'm I'm having a faith crisis. What am I gonna do? How am I gonna solve it? The Western way, with more doubt. Tell me what I love. But did you notice that sort of the ruler of the universe in Douglas Adams' story, the the most enlightened guy, he's what? What does he actually know? He thinks his cat is there, he thinks his cat'll die if it doesn't eat the fish, right? He figures out every day how to use a pencil. He's willfully ignorant, isn't he? You see what I'm saying? Skepticism. Skepticism is an essential part of discerning falsehood. So don't hear me say I don't like it. I use it all the time, and so should you. For instance, I get about 30 notices a day that I'm approved for a loan. I am rightly skeptical that I am not. Okay, if I if I just believed everything and didn't have discernment, didn't use skepticism to say, I don't think they're throwing straight dice here. You know. But here's the thing about skepticism, and some of you guys have a really skeptical turn of mind or heart. This is how you lean into the world. Here's what it doesn't do: it doesn't lead to knowledge. Doubt, skepticism, critical thinking, it leads away from falsehood, but it does not lead to knowledge. And the thing is, is that skepticism as a worldview, as a whole way of looking at the world, right, this whole idea of I believe nothing that can't be proven. Do you realize it fails its own test? If you say we can only call knowledge what's proven by reason and evidence, that can't be proven by reason and evidence, can it? Because here's what's actually going on. There's no such thing as unbelief, only alternate belief. Everyone has faith in something. It's totally unavoidable. And here's the other thing. When we let skepticism be our be the main way we lean into the world, right? And again, I'm not anti. It's just that when when we take the enlightenment western way of looking at the world and let that be the lens through which we see all things, it has an effect on you as a person. It affects your heart, it affects the way you lean into relationships. Have you ever noticed that the most thoroughgoing, skeptical people are really hard to get to know? Why? Because it's it's a it's a Heisman, right? Skepticism is pushing things away. That's all it does. And it and if that's all you got, if that's your one move, you don't know how to believe, you don't know how to trust, but you do know how to doubt, then it makes you a very distant person, and you're gonna struggle with relationships because you're so guarded. Now, one of the main themes of the book of John is speaking to skeptics. After all, later in the book is where the famous story of quote, doubting Thomas, skeptical Thomas comes in. So this is one of the main themes, and we see it today uh very strongly in our text, actually. And so we're just gonna get into the text and then talk about what the message is. Okay? So John chapter 9, verse 1. As he passed by, he saw a man, this is Jesus, blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming with when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud, and he said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back, not to Jesus, but to his neighborhood, seeing. So, imagine you're this guy. You've been blind from birth. Your job is begging, and that's what he's doing. Jesus does this interesting thing, we're gonna find out why, where he just takes dirt and he spits in it. Why this way? It's not really certain. Um but he puts it on his eyes, right? This this new creation power that Jesus has. He brings the power of the new creation into the broken creation of this guy's body. And he's healed. Now, what does this guy actually know about Jesus at this point? The answer is not much. He just put mud on his eyes, made with his own spit. So he let him, I guess. But then what does Jesus say? He says, go wash. Now put yourself in his shoes. The man born blind. Like someone just puts the mud on your eyes. Are you are you doing what they say? I mean, that he's demonstrating some faith right there, right? He he he does what Jesus says. I mean, that seems an odd thing to do, but he receives his sight. Verse 8. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, Is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, It is he. Others said, No, but he is like him. He kept saying, I am the man. So they said to him, Then how were your eyes opened? He answered, The man called Jesus, made mud, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him, Where is he? He said, I do not know. Right? Um, so notice he said, Jesus made mud, and also what does he call him? What is his what is his level of belief? Did you notice what he said? The man Jesus. Okay? It's like the man. That's it's a statement of fact. It doesn't express much, does it? Verse 13. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud. Oh, let's say it sheds a lot of light, and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight, and he said to them, He put mud on my eyes. Did you notice here? He does not say he made mud, just he put mud. There's a reason for that. It says, And I washed and I see. Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, How can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, What do you say about him? Since he has opened your eyes, he said, He is a prophet. Okay, couple things going on here that aren't immediately obvious. So Jesus broke the Sabbath law, but not from the Bible, from what's called the Mishnah, which were the oral traditions that the rabbis believed in. In particular, this is Mishnah 7.2, and one of the things that is forbidden in Mishnah 7.2, there's 39 forms of work that you can't do on the Sabbath, like sowing or reaching above your head. So does it seem this is speculative on my part? Could Jesus have healed him without making, without needing? Probably, right? Probably. I mean, I'm not gonna write a commentary here, but does it seem like Jesus kind of wants the smoke here? Right? You know what I mean? Anyway. So he breaks their traditions about the laws, and you notice that the man born blind gets what's going on. He does, he just says he put mud, not that he made mud. Whereas before he told his neighbors he made mud. You see, catch that? But what does he say about him now? He said, What do you say about him, man born blind? He says, He is a prophet. Because what are they saying? They're saying he's not from God. Is a prophet from God? So he's weighing in saying, no, he's from God. So he went from the man Jesus to he is from God. He is a prophet. Verse 13. Oh no, we already did that. Hang on. 18. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received a sight until they called the parents of the man who had received a sight. So you see, their skepticism kicks in. They're like, how do we get out of this? We're divided here. Um, you know, if we there's a lot at stake here, so maybe we could just dissolve this question totally and just say, well, this guy was never blind. No miracle, no problem. Skepticism. And asked him, Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Right? That that's a catastrophe if you're Jewish, to be put out of your synagogue. It's said in ancient writings if you're kicked out of your synagogue, you might as well move somewhere else. You're so cut off from society. Therefore, his parents said he is of age. Ask him. Thanks, Mom. They're like, we're not taking this one to you, kid. Glad that you got your sight and all that. It's hard that you were born blind, but nope. Okay, so why are they skeptical? Because they have a genuine doubt. Doesn't seem that way. Maybe. But here's what's going on for the Pharisees. Who's the top rabbis in Judea and in Galilee? The answer is they are. If they say this Jesus actually performed a miracle and he's from God, now who's the top rabbi? Jesus. Not only that, these are the same guys who have been trying to kill Jesus since chapter 5. They're looking for a reason. Right? And so, as I said in a previous sermon, no one ever, no one ever says to themselves, are we the baddies? They'd have to admit they're the baddies. They'd have to say they're in the wrong. This guy's from God, we've been killing him, we've been trying to kill him. My bad, Lord. Okay, so there's a lot to lose. And so, have you ever noticed skepticism kicks in when we don't want to believe something? Now, they call back in the man born blind. Verse 24. So the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, Give glory to God. That's like, you know, be honest. You know, take your oath or whatever. We know this man is a sinner that is not from God. He answered, Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was born blind, now I see. They said to him, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I've told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? You like this guy? I like this guy. That is great A snark. And they reviled him, saying, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from, meaning, has he been sent by God? The man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind? If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, You were born in other sin, and you would and you would teach us, and they cast him out. Hey, what are we seeing here in these verses? Well, what's this guy's background? Been blind his whole life, been a beggar? Is he literate? No. Can't we? There's no braille. This illiterate beggar surrounded by hostility, right? You're you're in the meeting place of the Pharisees, the the top heavyweights in the Jewish world, and they are regarding you with hostility, they're talking down to you, they're being abusive, all of these things. Can you imagine what that feels like? Have you ever been in a situation like that where the pressure, you're facing a hostile audience of some kind and you're trying to keep your brain working? When I was quick story, when I was uh finishing my first year of seminary, or maybe my first semester, they had us do oral group finals for this class called Covenant Theology. And it was like a crash course in theology where you find out you don't know anything. And they sit you down across the table and you don't know who who the professors who are asking you questions are gonna be until you get in the room. And I drew the absolute aces spades. I drew Jack Collins. That means nothing to you guys. If Bill was here, he'd tell you. If you look in your ESV, if you have an ESV Bible and you look at the contributors to the Old Testament, Jack Collins was the Old Testament chair for the translation committee of the ESV Bible. And the other guy I got is former Army Ranger and very grouchy Canadian Mike Williams. These were intimidating guys. And they're my my two my two uh guys in my cohort fell apart immediately. They were they were all thumbs, they couldn't answer a single question, so I'm I'm I'm fighting for our lives in there, and you know, like I am just getting pure grouch face from both of these guys. You couldn't take it. You can't take mine. I'm telling you. And then I look, they had like a sheet in front of them with our pictures and names, and I and and Jack Collins is doodling on my picture as I'm trying to answer a question, and I see what he's doing. He was drawing an afro on my head. He's like, what? I was shook. This man born blind is basically a lot worse than that. And what's he doing? He's getting off some ziggers, isn't he? Is he is he is out arguing the Pharisees on their own turf. Right? Then look. Then look at uh it must it must just be said how exceptional this is. Right? That this guy goes toe-to-toe with a hostile room of Pharisees. What do the Pharisees sound like? They sound like they're yelly, they sound like they're irrational, right? Then look at verse 35. Jesus heard that they cast him out. Having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? So like he's like, point me to him. At this point, Jesus, I yeah, just I'll I'll I'm there. Who's the Son of Man? He answered. And Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you, and he's wearing my robe and he has my beard. Right? Like Jesus is being completely open with this guy. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Now, track the growth of his faith. The man Jesus, he is a prophet. And now what's he doing? Lord, I believe, and he worships him. If you are a monotheistic Jew, who do you worship? Just anybody? No, this guy gets it, doesn't he? He gets it at a high level. He has, he's the closest to professing Jesus as who he really is, as God himself, as anybody has been so far in the book of John. Jesus said, For judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind? Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. So Jesus sums up the whole thing. He says, This whole thing has been an enacted parable. That this formerly blind, you know, uneducated beggar gets it. He's the one with what? Knowledge. And knowledge in the Bible isn't just facts, it's life-giving truth. Tell you the difference. It's a fact that human beings have ten fingers. It's a truth that we're made in the image of God. See the difference? One is true, it doesn't do a whole lot for you. The other is true, and it changes everything. It's a life-giving truth. So this guy has the life-giving truth. He has knowledge. And what has become of the experts? What has become of the high-level guys? The ones who see supposedly clearer than anybody else? They've done what? They said, are we blind? He says, No, you're not blind. You've closed your eyes. You've made yourselves blind. Right? Their willful unbelief has led them away from knowledge. So what is the message to the hearer? It's that we're to move towards trusting Jesus and away from skepticism. Move towards trusting Jesus and away from skepticism. Why? Because trusting Jesus leads to knowledge. Life-giving truth. You might say, I'd like to, but I really struggle with doubt. You guys ever heard of the chocolate cake principle? How many? No? This is a helpful Bible reading tool. How many words do I need to get my kids to eat chocolate cake? Maybe one. Yeah. Okay. And there are. Now, what about, I don't know, like a very bland thing of steamed vegetables. Lots, right? So what's the harder persuasive task? The vegetables, right? So when something gets a lot of air time, when the scriptures spend a lot of time persuading us of something, we know that that is something that's identified as hard. How much of the scripture is a call to belief, is a call to move towards Jesus and away from skepticism. For instance, the entire book of John, that's the main point. Right? So God is aware. That's why so much of the scripture speaks to our doubt and skepticism. Now there may be those who are just struggling with the basics of the faith. You're almost there, or you're curious, and you just have this nagging question, could it really be true? Or you are a Christian and you're being pulled in the other direction. You're being nagged by these doubts. Here's the thing. There's really strong reasons to believe that Christianity is true. It is not a leap in the dark with no rationality behind it. You know, because look, when you just take the basics of the faith, there is a God who made all things revealed in Jesus, who is our Savior, right? I realize that's very brief. Can you answer from that, where did all things come from? The answer is yes you can. Can you answer, how do we know there's a right and wrong? Of course you can. Can you answer what's the meaning of existence? Why are we here? Yes you can. Can you answer how human beings are distinct and have inherent dignity and rights? Of course you can. Take that away. And say the secular story that we are in accident is true. Can you answer those questions? Not a one. Zero. Or you can take that the fact that the fact that the resurrection of Jesus has loads of historical evidence behind it. We're not gonna go over all of that, all of it, but there's there's lots of reasons, but it's not quite the same as believing that water freezes at 32 degrees.

unknown 28:31

Right?

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Which is something we can repeat again and again and again, and we say, well, I'm gonna doubt it. I'm gonna doubt it so hard, and and right, no, there it is, freezing at 32. So it is not a pure faith leap with no rationality and no evidence and no reason, but it's also not that. Right? But but here's the thing. If we decide that we're not going to believe, if we lean hard into skepticism, if that's the way we look at these things, right? Like there is no amount of rationality, there is no amount of evidence or whatever that's going to overpower that against your will. My question is, if that's where you are right now, could your intellectual issues, what you think are intellectual issues, might they really be heart issues? Might it be that skepticism in this case, as it is with so many things, is you protecting yourself against surrendering your life? Right? There's parts of your life you don't want to give up. And you know you have to if you're gonna make a full, uh, a full-hearted commitment to Christ? Could it be that you just have a hard time with commitment generally? Because it closes down other options. How do we, how does someone in that place move towards Jesus and away from skepticism? Well, it's to take the next step towards, right? Like you notice how that progression of his faith, the the man worldwide, it was gradual. He didn't start with Jesus as God, he started with the man Jesus. Yeah, I trusted him. Right? And it and it progressed. That is fine. That is expected. But here's the thing is I sometimes run into people who they they say they've got these questions and they don't do a thing about it. They don't ever seek out a serious conversation with someone who can address those issues. They don't ever read a serious book about like Reason for God by Tim Keller or Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright. They just walk around saying, oh, well, I'm not gonna commit because I've got doubts. And they don't move, they stay there. But also, even if you're a committed believer, we all know, those of us who are, that you get nagged by doubt too. Whether it's doubt about the truth of it, but even more so, just the functional faith. You struggle to trust. When the rubber meets the road, faith doesn't kick in. You're not living as though it's true. Like for me, I will tell you right now, I believe God is my all-powerful, loving Father, loves me as his child. And I have fearfully sweated my way through my entire life feeling I've had a hair's breadth escape every day from pure disaster. That's how I live. That's not trust, that's not faith. You know, it's like, hey, I've got I've dealt with every every problem in my life, I've overcome them, right? There's always been a way when I was worried about provision. God always provided, I've always been okay, I've never missed a meal, always had a roof over my head, doing fine right now, but how do I know I will tomorrow? I'm worried. I'm the only one though. No one else does that. Or how about this? I believe Jesus did everything necessary for salvation. It is by grace Jesus did it all on the cross. And yet, when I lay in bed at night, I fear that on the day of judgment it won't be enough. Recognize what that is. That's that's a lack of faith, right? That's skepticism, isn't it? Or I believe in the renewal of all things, I believe God is redeeming, and and but when I look, and this is true of me, when I look at all the misery in the world, when I read world history and I see just how much evil has been done, I say, really? My belief just fails to say, to to to walk in the confidence and hope that someone can really make all of this right. What do you do? How do we move from that skepticism and closer to Jesus when when those things are assailing you and me? Preach to your heart. Preach to your heart. Remind yourself of the gospel. Remind yourself of what Christ has done and who he is. And if you're having a hard time preaching to your heart, call me, I'll preach to it. Call your brother, call your sister, they'll preach to it. We need each other for this, guys. We can't bear all this alone. And then there's others who have had a hard experience with faith and with church, as I spoke about earlier. And this is different because it's not necessarily a purely intellectual thing, and it never is, but in your heart, on an emotional level, you've just got faith in Christ tied up with some very hard experiences, or people who did not lean into you as Jesus would. And, you know, a place like this, an experience like this, you're wary. You're you're coming into it with the Heisman of skepticism. Here's the thing. In uh in something called attachment theory, you know, when you have a bad relationship, when someone betrays you or abuses you or whatever, that's called an insecure attachment. Do you know what this the cure, the only cure for an insecure attachment is? A secure attachment. That's right. You can't you can't get over an insecure experience like that by never attaching again, by maintaining your wariness and your guardedness. You have to at some point drop the guard and trust again. As the great Sue Johnson used to say, either you let someone close enough to wreck you or the loneliness wrecks you. Those are your choices. In the same way, the only cure for a church hurt experience is a healing church experience. There is no other option. You won't heal from that by staying out. We need to move towards trusting Jesus and away from skepticism. There's a beautiful story in the book of Mark. Jesus has taken a couple of his disciples to witness his transfiguration, his revelation of his true glory. And as he's coming down, there's a crowd around the disciples. And when they see Jesus, they all come running over. And they were having an argument, and Jesus says, What's the argument about? And a man steps forward and he says, uh, he says, My son has a spirit, and an unclean spirit that makes him go, that makes him mute and it makes him lay rigid. Right? And and I asked your disciples to cast him out and they couldn't do it. And Jesus is like looking at the disciples, they're like, I don't know how I'd do, honestly. And Jesus says, How long do I have to put up with this faithless generation? Right? Implying the problem is they didn't believe he could. And and and Jesus says, How how long is this spirit, has he had this spirit? He says, since childhood. And he says, and and not only does it make him rigid, it it makes him foam at the mouth, it it tries to destroy him by throwing him into water or fire. And he says, Please, Jesus, have compassion on us. You know, if you can do anything, we'd really appreciate it. And Jesus literally says, if you can, this dude. And this guy says something that I think we we could get another banner made of. He says, I believe. Help my unbelief. As we look, skepticism is just the air that we breathe. It's something that we do without realizing we're doing it. But our call, because skepticism, it doesn't lead to knowledge, it doesn't lead to life-giving truth only away from falsehood. The way we move to life-giving truth is by trusting Jesus and moving away from skepticism. Please pray with me. Jesus, that our faith would be made strong. How many of us struggle with this? We know that you have compassion on us. We know that you call us further up and further in away from away from simply doubt into a living relationship of trusting in you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.