September 21

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.)

You know what I love about this church is how people just listen to the Lord and to the Spirit of the Lord. So we're singing, we're praying, and I stand and I pray here and I go down and I said, Lord, thank you for just the blessing to be part of this. And then Doris comes up to me, she puts her hand on my shoulder and she says, I just felt the Holy Spirit speak to me in these moments, and he said that we should have a prayer time in this church this morning, and I said, Doris, we listen to the Spirit.

So at the end of this sermon, we're going to take a little time to pray, just to be in the presence of the Lord. Thank you for being open to listen to the Spirit of the Lord, to listen when he speaks into our lives, and thank you for being open that we can do these things, because we're not that kind of church who does things by, this is the next decision that we listen to what the Lord says to us, and we do that. Second last in our series of, this series where we look at the miracles, but we look for the man behind the miracles, John 12, 21.

We want to see Jesus. The Lord, in these moments as we walk through your words, that amazing gift that you give, thank you that we won't just hear words and listen to words and see words, but that we may see Jesus. Thank you for your Holy Spirit.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for what you do and what you will do with me. In the name of Jesus, we've all been there, right? Asking the why questions. Why me? Why that? Why now? Why at all? Why? Why? Right? Been there.

Word is going to take us in John this morning to one of those really big why questions. But my prayer is that you will, at the end of this sermon, look at your why's and maybe answer them in a different way. So go with me to John chapter nine.

I'm going to read from the New Living that will be on the screen, New Living Translation. You know the story so well. As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

Rabbi, his disciples asked him, here's the question, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents' sins? It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins, Jesus answered. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.

The night is coming and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world. Just for a moment, pause there.

John, throughout the book of John, you will see, because John paints Jesus as the son of God who is the father, like the father. And throughout John, you will get the I am's. I am the light of the world.

I am. I am. Because what did God say? What was God's name when Moses asked him? I am who I am.

So when you read John and you see the I am's, let the light bulb go on, right? So that's exactly what we see here. It says, but while I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva and spread the mud over the blind man's eyes.

And he told him, go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam. Siloam means sin. Man, there's so much I want to teach you.

Siloam means sent. And in the Greek, it means Siloam. And then he says he's apostello.

Does that word apostello in Greek ring something in your English ear? Apostle. What does an apostle means? To be sent. Good morning, apostles.

How are you? So the man went and washed and came back seeing his neighbours and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other. Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg? Some said he was, and others said, no, he just looks like him. But the beggar kept saying, yes, I am the same one.

They asked, who healed you? What happened? And he told them the man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself. And so I went and washed. And now I can see.

What a cool story. The man behind the miracle. So Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem.

Jesus had a little bit of an altercation with some of the folks in the temple, and he decided that he needed to just leave the temple area for a little while. And as he leaves, this is where he comes and meets this blind man. Now, I cannot, for the life of me, just imagine how hard it must be to be blind.

I don't think us seeing people have an idea how it must feel to live in that darkness all the time. But I can't, for the life of me, not even think how hard it must have been in those days and in that culture. There was no help for those people.

There was no jobs for those people. There was no financial assistance for those people. There was no government assistance for those people.

If you were blind, you were kind of on the outs and see ya, take care of yourself. So what would they do? They would do what this man did. Hopefully they had someone who could take them and put them somewhere where there's a lot of people where they could sit and beg.

And that's your life, day in and day out. Can't see a thing. You sit in the street, and you hope that someone's charity would be bestowed on you.

Maybe put a little food there for you to eat or maybe drop a few pennies so that at the end of the day, you can take care of yourself. Always someone that has to go with you. Scotty, you need me? Okay, I'm always worried when the sound guy comes down.

There you sit, and usually you're invisible, like the invisible people that stand at our traffic lights, the invisible people that sit outside the Zayers that ask for change. You're just invisible. So you're just sitting there invisible.

But in this moment when Jesus walks past, here's the word that started in verse one, and Jesus saw him. Remember I said that last week. That's so Jesus.

He always sees what others don't see. He sees those who are in need. He sees those who are struggling.

He sees those who are going through those deep, dark moments. He sees those who are sitting in the dark, and then that light all of a sudden comes into that darkness. Just think about it.

He saw the woman in Samaria sitting at the well. But he didn't just see a woman who came to get water for her animals. He saw this woman who was in pain, who was in need, who came when no one else came, who was struggling.

And he told the disciples, you go ahead. Because he saw her and her life changed forever. Can you remember that story? This woman who came so that no one would see her because she was afraid.

She went into that town and she became this preacher and brought them out to Jesus. Because he saw her. He saw the man at the pool of Bethesda who was lying there for years and years.

Didn't pick him up and say, let's see if I can dump you in the water and maybe that works. He knew this man and his life. Said, get up, pick up your bed and walk.

And his life was changed forever. He walks in Jericho, crowds around him. But he saw the one guy who got in the tree, said, hey, Zacchaeus, come down.

Let's go have something to eat. And his life was never the same. That's the man behind the miracles he sees.

And I said it last week and I want to say it again because I can't say enough. And he sees you. He sees you and your joy, your happiness and all those amazing things.

And he celebrates with you and he dances with you and he laughs with you. But he sees you. When you're worried about my little grandchild who's in the ICU.

And he sees that little buddy. What's his name? Jake. And he says to little Jake, I see you, bud.

And I'm going to take care of you. I'm not just going to walk right past you. I'm going to be there.

And I don't know what you need to be seen. Can I tell you? He sees you. You might think he doesn't, but he does.

I'm going to show you that. The disciples saw too. But what the disciples saw was an opportunity to ask the why question.

Can I read that for you again? Rabbi, his disciples asked him, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents? Interesting why question, right? Because that's usually where the why comes from. Who's to blame? Who caused this? Because this must be something. Because that's how God works, right? He's going to hurt this kid because his parents did something.

This little unborn kid who hasn't done anything. God's just going to decide, I'm going to nail you. Because that's how God works, right? That's the God who doesn't see.

But that's how we often ask the question when we do the why's. It's the blame thing. Someone has to be blamed.

Someone had to cause this, and that's the effect of that cause. Boy, listen to how Jesus answers. And I specifically looked at the message because I think Eugene Peterson nailed this.

Verse three, Jesus says, you're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There's no such cause effect here.

Look instead for what God can do. New Living says, look at the power of God. Rather, look at the power of God that can work in even the most challenging situations.

You're asking the wrong question. We want the why's. Why me? Why that? Why couldn't it be Louis? Why didn't he give it to me? God says, don't ask the why question.

Rather ask, what can God do in this situation? That's how it works. We want a reason. God says, no, no, no, forget that.

Rather ask me the question. What can you do? What can your power do? How can you be seen in this? And God says, here's the thing. I have a plan.

I have a plan, but the plan is not based on your power, your ability, what you can do. But the plan is based on what I can do, on my power. And I know, I know this is not an easy thing to hear.

This is not easy to say when we go through these difficult things. Been there, done that. Like each one of you.

And in that situation, we want to yell that why thing. But can I remind you of what God is saying, what Jesus is saying? Look at what God can do. We won't always find the reason why it's happening or what is happening.

But we, what we will hear is that Jesus says, look at the power of God, because here's what I can tell you. This is not the last chapter of your story. The why kind of hits us in that.

This is who I am. This is not the last chapter in your story, because God has a plan. Now, can I just say this before I finish this? The disciples thought this is what he meant.

So God made him blind so Jesus can heal him. No! He was born blind because of the brokenness of this world and these bodies that happened way back there when Adam and Eve decided to do what God said don't do. And in that moment, we started dying, all of us.

Thank God there's a day that comes. We'll get those new bodies. But God had a moment in which he could send the light of the world.

And Jesus saw him and said, this is not the last chapter. Spit on the ground. That's funny.

I wonder why Jesus did that. It's such a cool image. Spits on the ground, makes a little mud, puts it on his eyes.

Now, just put yourself in the blind beggars there situation. He doesn't know who this guy is. He knows his name is Jesus.

Many Jesuses in those days was Joshua. It was a well-known name. Many Jesuses.

This Jesus spits and puts his stuff on his eyes and he says, get someone to take you to Siloam and go wash your eyes. But he does. He gets up and he goes and he washes and his eyes are open.

But that's not what it's all about. It's far more than that. The rest of the story I didn't read because it's way too long to read the whole story.

I'll just tell you the story. So all of a sudden you hear these people say, this cannot be him. This must be someone else.

It just looks like him. All of a sudden the beggar is gone and there's someone else. They don't believe this.

The Pharisees call him in. Come sit here. And they interrogate him.

Who did this? What happened? He says, all I know is there's this man. He spit, put stuff on my eyes. He said, go wash and now I can see.

But he did this on the Sabbath. This cannot be a man from God. Well, I'm telling you he was a prophet.

No, he cannot be a man from God. He wouldn't do that on the Sabbath. Who would do stuff like that on a Sabbath? And they call his parents.

The parents say, listen, he's grown up. He can speak for himself. And they interrogate him again.

And he says, all I can tell you is I was blind, but I see. And they kick him out of the synagogue because he can see. Now I want to read you this beautiful piece.

Because here's the power of God that Jesus was talking about. It's not about seeing the blind guy's eyes open. Far more than that.

Far more than that. Eugene Peterson in the message. There's 35.

And I don't, Joel doesn't have this. I didn't give it to him. Listen, Jesus heard that they'd thrown him out.

And he went and he found it. You get what's going on. He asked him, did you believe in the son of man? The man said, point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.

Jesus said, you're looking right at him. Don't you recognise my voice? Master, Lord, he said, I believe. And he worshipped, had nothing to do with his blindness.

Had everything to do with his salvation. In listening and going and being obedient, his eyes were opened and he could see the son and all of the people. But in standing there and saying, do you believe in the son of man? Yes, I do.

And he worshipped him. He saw, he saw the light of the world. He saw the light of salvation and the power of God was proven in him, in us.

But did you hear? He didn't ask Jesus a why question. He didn't say, so Jesus, let's just play this game quickly. Why was I born blind? He hasn't asked that.

He worshipped. Because if there's one who knows about the why question, it's Jesus. He was nailed to a cross, but he was innocent.

He was nailed to the cross and all of our sins were dumped on him. And he asked the why question, but he used the Psalms of lament. My God, why have you forsaken? But he didn't ask the question to blame.

But to ask the cause. He asked the question because he knew that God had a plan and this wasn't the last chapter. And that's why when he was breathing his last breath, what did he say? Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.

I trust you because this is not the last chapter. And he died. And they put him in a goal for three days.

Why? Why? So that God's power would be seen. Three days later, that grave opened and the next chapter was written. Not just for Jesus rising from the dead, but the next chapter was written for us blind gods.

That we might see the light of the world. That we might worship also when we go through those difficult situations, when we feel that there we sit unseen beggars in the street. And we know it's not true because he sees you and he's going to stop.

And even if he has to spit on the ground and make a little muck, I pray that every day we will walk with him and we will see him. And we will know that it's not the last. He's writing.

He's writing and you'll look back at this chapter and you will smile at the next chapter. For that is the man behind the miracles. It's not the miracle.

Do you believe in the son of man? I do. And you worship. May we worship him.

We're going to take a little moment to be quiet. And then as God leads you, can we do a little prayer time? If you want to pray out loud, please do that. If you just want to pray quietly because that's easier for you, please do that.

The prayers are not for us. The prayers are for the Lord to hear. So you might not hear everything that someone says if they pray.

But that's okay because our Father in heaven will hear. Can we just take a few moments and then let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for each prayer that was prayed this morning.

Thank you that you're here. Thank you that we can be faithful that when we speak, that we may answer. And if there is someone today, Lord, who is struggling and going through difficult situations, I pray that they would hear.

This is not the last chapter. Look at what God can do as hard as it is. Because you're not alone.

He's right there. He does not walk past as if you are unseen. He is the God who will see.

Thank you that we may pray this in that most precious name that we know, the name of Jesus. We worship you. Amen.