WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:19.760 We have been making our way through these different major miracles in the book of John, and what we have been seeing is what we say every week, and that is we are more broken than we originally thought, and we're all discovering that on some level, but we're more loved by God than we could ever dare to dream. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:23.519 And that's what we just keep discovering over and over again. 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:32.079 We've talked about our issues with miracles back in the first sermon because I have a lot of issues with miracles, and you probably have issues with miracles. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:37.439 And we've also been seeing how Jesus uses these miracles for a distinct purpose. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:45.520 He's actually using them to validate himself as the Messiah, as God Himself for people to see and for people to know. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:53.520 And so each story unfolds itself to us to teach us something about our hearts and about God. 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:56.079 So we're going to reread this. 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:05.120 John 9, 1 through 3, as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:10.319 And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind? 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:16.799 Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:24.719 Point number one is this we are free from moralizing our or anybody else's suffering. 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:26.719 It's very good news. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:37.920 This past Thursday, our dear parishioner Lauren Teague, came home after having two brain bleeds and brain surgery. 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:43.599 She was gone for 110 days from her home and her family. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:57.439 She was at Emory for the surgery, and then she's been rehabilitating at Shepherd Center, her brain and her body healing and her brain reforming those connections between her nervous system and the functioning of her body. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:02.560 She's been working relentlessly as her brain heals to regain all this function. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:08.800 Here's actually a picture of them on Thursday when she got back home with her family. 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:19.280 On Wednesday, I was down there with them, and Josh and I were walking around the Shepherd Center, and it's full of people who have had injuries. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:21.360 A brain bleed. 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:25.199 One day you're fine, the next day you have a brain bleed. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:32.719 A woman was walking across a crosswalk in Manhattan and she got ran over by a car. 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:40.639 This week in Marietta, a senior in high school, a boy, suddenly out of nowhere began having seizures. 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:46.719 Last week, a young mother in Marietta lost her fight with cancer. 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:53.840 Who sinned that this man was born blind? 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:55.039 His parents. 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:00.400 One of my steps in accepting this broken world came about 20 years ago. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:04.560 Kind of a lighthearted story, but it actually helped me in a really strange way. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:12.000 I was driving my uh green forerunner up the hill at Treblemill Park out in Tekula, Georgia. 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:19.840 I was in seminary at the time, taking all these philosophical classes on the problem of suffering and trying to solve these big issues. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:21.919 So I'm driving up this hill. 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:23.759 It's a beautiful day. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:25.520 The sunroof is open. 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:28.000 Dave Matthews' band is blaring. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:29.599 It's a good day. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:31.840 Going 30 miles per hour up this hill. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:32.960 30 miles per hour. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:34.479 Sunroof open. 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:48.719 And like it was destined for me, bird poop comes out of the sky perfectly through the window and lands on my knee, right in front of me to see. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:50.879 Destined for me. 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:57.759 One day you're driving down the road, having a fantastic time today, Matthewsman. 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:03.759 And the next day, the next moment, you are pooped on. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:06.240 Everything changes. 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:08.159 The broken world. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:09.520 It actually kind of helped me. 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:11.199 It's like, this world is broken, man. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:13.520 I was having a great time, and then I get pooped on. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:14.960 Strange, right? 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:19.439 Everything's fine, and then suddenly everything is not fine. 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:21.199 And you didn't do anything. 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:22.800 You're just living your life. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:24.160 Who sinned? 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:29.839 This man, first parents, that was born blind. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:33.759 Well, here's the good news. 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:36.160 We don't have to moralize our suffering. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:38.480 Here's what moralizing suffering looks like. 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:44.720 If I'm good and if I do good, then God will give me good things. 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:47.920 If I'm good and I do good, then God will give me good things. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:49.920 That's a moralization of suffering. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:52.000 Just have enough faith. 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:55.759 Just be good enough and God will give me good. 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:02.560 And it seems to work really good for a while because it makes us feel like we have control, which we love. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:04.079 It's not true, but we love it. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:08.800 But eventually, this equation, this way of thinking, it will crush you. 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:12.480 Because eventually you're pooped on. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:14.560 Eventually, life changes. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:16.240 Something happens. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:18.000 And life gets messy. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:23.839 And then suddenly that same equation that you thought was controlling your world crushes you. 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:33.120 Because if it works like do good and be good, and then God will give me good, but then I don't receive good, then that means something's wrong with me. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:37.199 I must not pray enough. 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:38.240 I must not be good enough. 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:39.199 I must not love enough. 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:40.319 I must have done something wrong. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:42.079 So God must be punishing me. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:46.000 This is the exhausting, crushing reality of that lie. 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:47.839 And we don't have to do it. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.279 But the disciples were doing it. 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:50.959 That's why they asked the question who sinned? 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:51.759 This man born blind. 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:52.240 Who sinned? 00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:53.040 Somebody had to sin. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:53.920 This is their belief. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:01.120 Their belief is, well, if somebody's suffering, somebody sinned, somebody messed up for God to come and zap them like this. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:03.759 And Jesus says, no. 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:06.720 Nobody sinned. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:10.160 Not the father, not the mother, not the man. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:16.720 Point number two is this God chooses an asymmetrical relationship with our suffering. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:24.319 When I was in the sixth grade, I had about the same amount of muscles I have now, which is not impressive. 00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:30.240 There was a rope in the middle of the school gym hanging vertically from the ceiling. 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:32.560 I don't know, maybe you had this rope in your gym. 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:33.839 I'm sure we don't have it anymore. 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:48.079 I'm sure the amount of uh the amount of times being sued stopped this practice of all the strong boys, you'd climb the rope and you had a bell up on the ceiling, 40 feet above the gym floor. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:51.600 And all the strong guys would go and climb up it. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:56.240 Timmy could do it, and my friend Kyle could do it. 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:00.720 And man, I, as you can guess, I didn't have a chance. 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:02.959 Not a chance. 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:14.240 I made it about 10 feet, and then I was at the bottom of the rope with my crush, Kristen Looney, looking at me, disappointed. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:17.040 I didn't have enough. 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:19.439 I didn't have what it took. 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:22.639 The reality of my life there. 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:25.279 You're at the end of your rope. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:31.759 Remember last week we said that we all want to think we're like the Titanic at first sale. 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:33.199 We looked at this image. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:35.839 We said we want to look like that. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:38.000 That's what we want our lives to look like. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:39.519 And we want our lives to look like that. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:41.120 I want your life to look like that. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:48.639 But often our lives feel like the Titanic submerging. 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:57.920 Or at some point it will, maybe not your whole life, but at some point at some season, eventually, some disappointed or something will get to us. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:07.120 And the amazing truth is that God's office is at the end of our rope, not at the top. 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:13.279 Which is great news if you've ever felt a little more broken than you should be or you want to be. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:18.319 He is endeared to our weakness and he's with us and he is for us. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:26.639 See, theologians say that God has an asymmetrical relationship with our suffering, meaning he permits it. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:30.399 He has compassion for us in it. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:36.879 And yet he's in control over it, and he will use it. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:45.039 Now, this does not mean that all of my answers or of all my questions are answered, and it doesn't mean that you're gonna have all your answers, right? 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:46.080 Not even close. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:49.200 I have my running list waiting. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.519 But I think it means a few things. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:58.559 Here's just a few kind of observations I had that it might mean for us. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:00.799 Number one, God loves us. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:02.799 That is settled. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:05.200 And he's not waiting to zap us. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:06.799 And that's good news. 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:13.919 Number two, God may lovingly guide us, Hebrews 12, but he doesn't punish us with suffering. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:20.720 Number three, you are free from condemning yourself when you suffer. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:25.279 Or condemning others when they suffer. 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:31.039 Which means you don't have to be judgmental towards somebody else, and you don't have to be judgmental upon yourself. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:40.639 Which then means you're free to experience love in your suffering, and you're free to love others in their suffering. 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:46.480 And then, if we can come along with all of that, I think it means two points of application. 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:52.240 Number one is we are free to grieve the hurt and even be upset with God. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.279 I think the book of Psalms gives us this. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:10:02.320 The book of Psalms has these lamenting psalms, people just emotionally pouring out on God. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:05.120 We can do that. 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:21.360 And as we grow from resistance to the suffering to acceptance, we can begin to ask, and we can become free to ask the Lord, what do you have for me in this? 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:34.799 Some sort of character building, certainly compassion, probably less pride, more compassion, probably some idol of your heart to topple. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:49.840 It's us asking the very question that Jesus is teaching that how could God possibly in your life, in your disappointment and hurt and pain and confusion, how could this be for his glory, and how could it be for your good? 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:52.799 The story continues in verse 6. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:58.399 Jesus spits on the ground, he makes the mud with that saliva, mixes it up, he puts it on the man's eyes. 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:01.840 He tells the man to go and wash in the pool of siloam, go and wash. 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:06.639 The man goes and washes, washes the mud off, and suddenly he can see. 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:29.039 The conversation continues as Jesus is using this man's blindness to teach us something about the blindness of our hearts or the lostness of our hearts, the fact that humanity lives in a confusion and a darkness unless God's grace disrupts us to open the eyes of our heart, to see that we actually need help from outside of ourselves. 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:34.799 The neighbors of the healed man, they bring him to the religious leaders. 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:38.720 These arrogant religious leaders, these Pharisees. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:40.879 These guys ask what happened. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:44.480 The man says, Well, you know, this Jesus you put mud on my eyes. 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:48.320 Really weird, putting mud on my eyes, I went washed, I can see. 00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:54.799 Well, Pharisees didn't like that, it doesn't fit into their categories, and Sort of doesn't fit into their religious law. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:11:57.200 And their mind is made up. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:11.440 Jesus can't be from God, he doesn't keep the Sabbath, he heals on the Sabbath, and yet at the same time, these religious people couldn't see that Jesus was there to fulfill the law, and he actually is the Sabbath. 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:24.000 He is rest for our souls, for all the ways we want to earn love and earn worth and earn value and heal ourselves and self-justify. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:25.919 He brings rest for us. 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:28.320 They ask the blind man, who do you think he is? 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:29.200 Who do you think this guy is? 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:31.600 The blind man says, Well, he's a prophet. 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:39.679 Pharisees still don't really believe that the guy was blind to begin with, even though like all these neighbors are testifying that this is true. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:41.360 They just don't want to believe it. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:43.279 So they sin for the parents. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:44.799 Yeah, let's bring the parents in. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:46.159 Who knows the life of these parents? 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:54.240 Because if the religious thought is that the parents sinned for the man to be blind, just think what these parents have been living through. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:59.840 Maybe some measure of being banished from community, belittled, judged, right? 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.240 We've never seen religious groups behave like this, right? 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:03.279 Never, just never. 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:05.519 Would never happen. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:09.600 Verse 19, John 9, 19. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:13.120 Religious people are talking to his parents. 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:14.159 Is this your son? 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:16.080 Who you say was born blind? 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:17.919 How then does he now see? 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:24.480 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. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:26.960 Nor do we know who opened his eyes. 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:27.759 Ask him. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:29.600 He's of age, he'll speak for himself. 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:32.799 I mean, very clear parents are like, we don't want to get involved. 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.200 We want to stay out of this. 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:40.559 Y'all have made our lives already very difficult and we don't like being here, is clearly. 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:45.360 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:52.399 For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:56.000 Therefore, his parents said, He's of age, ask him. 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:59.039 They just want nothing to do with it. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:11.120 So a second time they call this healed man in, and then they say to the healed man, Well, we know Jesus is a sinner because he keeps breaking all these rules, their rules. 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:16.240 And then the blind man answers, verse 25, whether he's a sinner, I do not know. 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:20.879 One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:25.919 They said to him, What did he do to you? 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:27.759 How did he open your eyes? 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.080 He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen. 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:33.600 Why do you want to hear it again? 00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:36.240 Do you also want to become his disciples? 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:45.279 And they reviled him, saying, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:51.679 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:54.960 They go on, they throw the healed man out. 00:14:55.919 --> 00:15:06.639 And yet we see this other beautiful moment in this story where Jesus pursues that blind man now healed, but he's been thrown out, and Jesus pursues him in that. 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:10.399 And Jesus says to him, Do you know who the Son of Man is? 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:13.600 This is Jesus' way of saying, Do you do you know who God is? 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:15.360 And Jesus answers it. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:16.799 He says, I am. 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:24.799 And is Jesus saying, if you want to know who God is, it's the point of Jesus, if you want to know who God is, look at Jesus. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:26.399 This is the gift of Jesus for us. 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:32.240 That we don't have to keep on pondering this and wondering this, that we can look at this Jesus. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:37.840 And the man says to Jesus, Lord, I believe. 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:52.240 What we've said the past two weeks, I think it fits again with this message, is that the greatest transformation most of us will go through is from I got this to I need help. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:11.600 Verse 39, Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see, or they think they see, may become blind. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:16.960 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind? 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.960 Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt. 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:25.120 But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:30.879 Bit of a riddle there, but point number three is this we are all blind. 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:32.879 We are all blind. 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:38.879 And need God's astonishing disruptive grace in our lives. 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:44.480 These religious leaders thought that the law was enough. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:46.879 Being good enough, a list of rules. 00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:49.360 We call that works righteousness. 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:50.559 That was enough. 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:54.159 The way of the law is obey enough and then you will be loved. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:17:01.440 If I can only get it all under control and be good enough, then God will accept me and I'll be okay with him, have a relationship with him. 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:03.360 But Jesus is actually teaching the opposite. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:07.119 Jesus is teaching that God already loves you. 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:10.400 In Christ, the law is fulfilled. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:20.880 In Christ, all of our sin is put upon him on the cross, and his righteousness is given to us, so we are forever beloved, so you are free. 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:29.519 Christian faith is that you are so lavishly loved and provided for in Jesus. 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:33.039 That you are free and becoming free. 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:38.720 You are already godly and learning how to walk godly. 00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:41.920 This is the gift of the cross. 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:44.000 God's grace to us. 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:51.839 God is not waiting at the end of your rope when you're in that disappointment or failure or suffering. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:56.640 He's not waiting down there to say, climb higher. 00:17:58.559 --> 00:17:59.599 Get a little bit better. 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:01.599 Now the rest of the world will say that. 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.039 But God's office is at the bottom of your rope. 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:09.599 And there at the bottom, he says, I accept you. 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:12.640 I'm here with you and for you. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:14.960 Do you see it? 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:17.279 This is the issue of sight. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:20.960 Do you see that you need help? 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:27.359 Do you see that we all need to be delivered? 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:32.799 God does not condemn you. 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:36.000 He doesn't condemn you in your suffering or disappointment. 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:37.759 He pursues us. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:42.400 He wonderfully disrupts our lives with grace. 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:49.599 And he gives sight to see what is true about my heart and what's true about your heart. 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:52.079 About our needs. 00:18:53.759 --> 00:18:55.839 And his sufficiency for us. 00:18:56.160 --> 00:18:57.599 Let's pray together. 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:09.359 Lord, there are some of us here who are blind to our blindness. 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:12.240 We don't even know we're blind. 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:19.839 And I pray through your Holy Spirit that your grace that you would disrupt. 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:24.720 That you would begin to give eyes to see that they are your children. 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:27.759 Perfectly loved. 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:34.319 Perfectly forgiven and righteous in Jesus, and that you love them and you have provided for them in Jesus. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:45.839 And there's many others of us here who are blind to our worth because we are stuck in a wound or a mistake or a suffering. 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:48.480 And we have allowed it to define us. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:57.039 Help us to see the wealth of our identity in you, that we are ultimately your beloved, perfectly loved by you. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:00.799 Not when we get better, but just right now. 00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:02.319 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:02.960 Amen.