Is YOUR Faith For Real?
John 9:1-41
Sept 28, 2014 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland
I.
Introduction (John 9:35)
A.
A strong question for everyone
this morning – “Do you believe on the Son of God?”
1.
Not everyone does – not even
everyone who claims to, does!
2.
Most religious people only
have a devil’s faith (James 2:19)
a.
A superficial kind of “faith”
b.
Yes, they believe IN God -
accept the fact of God’s existence…
c.
But they don’t trust Him, and
definitely don’t follow His Son
3.
But Peter praises and honours
those that truly Believe and Love Someone they have not seen (1Peter 1:8;
2:6,7a), trusting, resting ON the ROCK, Jesus Christ!
B.
This question is asked of a
man in John chapter 9
1.
Who moments before had been
blind, but now could see.
2.
He had miraculously been given
the gift of sight!
3.
But not of salvation yet!
4.
This question, Do you believe
on the Son of God, was asked so that this blind man could be saved, and not just
healed!
C.
Could it be that someone this
morning in this room has missed the greatest miracle ever?
1.
Not of being healed of
blindness, or of cancer – as great as that would be
2.
But of being
forgiven of your sin and separation
from God!
D.
It only takes faith to access
such forgiveness.
E.
But it has to be real faith!
Tested faith! Focused faith!
F.
How Jesus dealt with this man
in John chapter 9 shows us how He is actively working in our lives too! Getting
us to honestly, confidently believe God!
Trusting Him to do what is always right in our lives!
II.
Message
A.
A Man Born Blind (John 9:1)
1.
This man had a big problem –
he is blind! He could not work. He was only able to beg
2.
This man’s blindness was from
his birth
a.
Blindness was a rare defect in
children
b.
Most blindness occurs long
after birth – glaucoma – age-related blindness
c.
Born without the ability to
see – he has never seen a sunrise, or a starry sky.
d.
Never had seen his mother’s
face. Never saw what orange looked like, or purple, or green
e.
He has never known anything
but darkness!
3.
This lonely, blind man, has
been sitting by the roadside begging all his life for people to have pity on
him, and give him some small change as they pass by
4.
In a brief moment, he is
completely surrounded by a crowd, with one man, Jesus standing squarely in front
of him!
5.
You know if Jesus is there, something wonderful is about to
happen!
B.
Religious Confusion (John 9:2,3) Who is to blame?
1.
People were very religious in
Jesus’ day
2.
Liked to talk about spiritual
things – trying to understand things from a spiritual viewpoint
3.
Asked Jesus how this man could
have become blind? Who is to blame? In their thinking, there were only two
possibilities of who to blame:
a.
Either HE sinned – which is
strange to believe! Because HOW could this man have sinned before birth and made
himself blind?
b.
Or maybe it was His PARENT’S
fault! Maybe THEY sinned. And it does happen!
1)
Drugs affect children in the
womb
2)
Cigarettes, Drink
4.
But they were all assuming
that ALL our problems are only because of sin, or Satan, or someone else ruining
our lives! That problems NEVER come from God.
5.
Jesus answered their question
with the third option:
a.
That GOD was to blame. That He
had another purpose for this man’s blindness
b.
This man was born blind… so
that God could do a miracle through a Galilean Man named Jesus! To prove that He
IS the very Son of God! So that anyone could be saved!
C.
Jesus Gets to Work (John 9:4-6)
1.
Remember, here is a man named
Jesus, a lowly carpenter from Galilee, standing in front of an impossible case –
a man BORN blind!
a.
Doctors could do nothing
b.
The Priests could do nothing
c.
What could Jesus do?
2.
Jesus Does the Works of
God Almighty!
a.
He said, “I MUST do the works
of HIM that sent me” – these weren’t His own works
b.
Jesus was claiming to be able
to do the works of God Almighty!
c.
More than any Doctor can do!
3.
Jesus’ Works Were Only for a
Short Time – until the end of the life of His Apostles
a.
Jesus said these miracles
could be done for a while at least, but then they will stop! And they did stop!
b.
Don’t believe the religious
hustlers out there who say they can do these things still – they are liars!
4.
Jesus’ work brought LIGHT into
this dark world
a.
Like no one else had ever
done!
b.
Jesus Himself IS the
light of the world
c.
In a world of darkness and
blindness, He is light!
d.
And He has
light not only for this one blind man, but for every man and woman
and child in this world
e.
So we get our first truth
here – that the whole world is like this blind man – living in darkness, and in
need of ONE PERSON (Jesus) to step in and bring Light!
5.
Remember, here is a blind,
beggarly man who…
a.
Starts off with nothing – he
is totally, and completely blind!
b.
Doesn’t know what
light looks like! Only darkness!
c.
He is minding his own
business, begging along the wayside like he has always done
d.
Then Jesus comes!
e.
Notice and remember, that it
is HE that finds us, not the other way around!
6.
Jesus does a very unusual
thing to him – imagine this…
a.
Jesus literally SPIT onto the
ground – onto the filthy, dirty, dusty, unhygienic road dirt
b.
Then reached into the small
bit of mud it produced, and rolled it into two small smudges of clay
c.
And then put each smudge onto
the blind eyes of this unsuspecting blind man
d.
He presses the moist, dirty
clay onto this blind man’s very eyes!
e.
What an
Unusual Work! Nobody ever tried to heal THIS way
f.
And definitely an Embarrassing
Work
1)
Embarassing to watch
2)
And embarrassing to have done
to you!
3)
If the blind man could have
seen what Jesus was doing, he would probably have blocked Jesus’ hands, and
stopped Him from putting the clay on his eyes!
4)
So, maybe it was good that he
was blind!!!
g.
FACT: God only does HIS work,
HIS way – not our way! Remember that!
D.
The Faith of a Blind Man - What Does a Blind Man’s Faith
Looks Like? (John 9:6,7)
1.
Let’s see how this man reacts
to all this – all by simple faith!
2.
He trusted two things about
this Man from Galilee!
a.
The WORK of Christ on him
b.
And the WORDS of Christ to him
3.
He allowed the WORK of Christ
in his life – didn’t resist it
a.
He was willing to trust those
confident hands, and His confident voice that spoke to him
b.
He allowed someone He didn’t
know (the Lord Jesus) to do whatever is necessary to fix what is wrong in his
life!
1)
Even if it was embarrassing
2)
Even if it hurt
3)
Even if it didn’t make sense
c.
That is faith!
d.
Just how FAR will YOU trust
the Lord Jesus to work in YOUR life?
e.
I think you would agree that
we stop Him long before He accomplishes what He sets out to do in our lives!
f.
THIS MAN let Jesus work away!
4.
He secondly, trusted the WORDS
of Christ
a.
Jesus has placed clay on this
man’s very eyes
b.
He then commands this man,
still with clay on his eyes…
1)
To make his way to a specific
pool of freshwater – it was a bit of a distance away
a)
It was called the pool of
Siloam
b)
A massive 220 foot long pool
of water (almost the size of an Olympic pool) that everyone went to, to get
their water from – it was one of the main sources of water in Jerusalem
2)
Then, Jesus told him to kneel
down there and wash out the clay from his blind eyes!
c.
Did Jesus explain what was
going to happen? No
d.
This man was going to have to
trust Christ’s directions of what to do
e.
Hmmmm. That’s faith!
5.
Look at what this man does –
all by his faith, NOT by his sight!
a.
The man gets someone to lead
him to a pool he can’t see
b.
And there, at that pool, he
kneels, and splashes up handfuls of water into his face
c.
Not knowing exactly what would
happen
d.
And then, in the literal blink
of an eye, the man looks around, and sees everything!
1)
For the first time in his life
(remember, he was blind from birth), he sees the face of someone standing next
to him – probably freaked him out!
2)
He looks up and sees the
colour of the sky, and then of the water in front of him
3)
He sees his own hands and his
beggarly feet
4)
He sees crowds of people
staring back at him, gobsmacked, stopped dead in their tracks
5)
He must have been a sight to
see, as he just starred at everyone and everything around him!
e.
And then, like a bullet, he
grabs the man who took him to the pool, and demands that he take him BACK to
whoever that was that just gave him his sight!
f.
And he came back to Jesus,
SEEING!
6.
You never saw a happier man
than this!
7.
Wouldn’t YOU be happy too?
Ecstatic!
E.
The Evidence of Faith (John 9:7-12)
1.
Could this have been just a
religious “act”?
2.
Well, there are some proofs
that what Christ does in a person’s life is truly real! That you and I have
experience the supernatural!
3.
The first proof is that you
are willing to do whatever Jesus commands
a.
No matter how hard, or how
strange they may seem
b.
You just trust HIM! Because HE
said it, it makes it right!
c.
Most people who SAY they have
faith, do only what they want, not what Christ commands! That’s not faith!
4.
Secondly, You never are the
same – you change! Now, you are NOT made perfect, but you ARE different than you
used to be! Thank God!
a.
Everyone knew this man, who he
WAS, and WHAT he had been all his life…
1)
A man born blind
2)
A beggar
3)
Pitiful
b.
And yet, here was the same
man, now seeing perfectly
1)
No longer blind – didn’t
understand everything he saw, but he knew that he was no longer blind!
2)
No longer a beggar either!
3)
His life has been completely
changed!
c.
And he knew it! He knew what
had happened to Him – I AM HE!
5.
Everyone questions not whether
it happened, but ‘HOW did it happen?’
and ‘WHO made it happen?’
a.
He couldn’t explain the
miracle. He didn’t have all the answers
b.
And he didn’t know who the Man
was that had done the miracle!
c.
He just knew what someone had
done something impossible for him - a miracle, a true blue, honest to God
miracle had happened in his life!
d.
He could now see!
F.
The Testing of Faith (John 9:13-34)
1.
All the surrounding people
brought this man to the ‘authorities’ to test it and make sure it is real, and
not demonic, or of witchcraft!
a.
It is the right thing to do!
People should never get upset at being questioned.
b.
So they bring him to the
Pharisees – who were very sceptical of miracles
2.
They questioned whether his
sight was real (9:13)
a.
Asked him to explain it - He
couldn’t
b.
All he could do was say what
happened to him
c.
THAT is what a testimony is –
not having all the answers for people’s questions, but just telling them what
happened to YOU when Jesus touched YOUR life!
3.
They dismissed the miracle
next (9:14,16,17)
a.
Said, It CAN’T be of God
b.
Because it was done on the
Sabbath, and God would never condone such a thing (9:14)
c.
They never cared about
troubled people – they would never have operated a hospital on the Sabbath!
d.
A few others argued it had to
be of God if it is a miracle
e.
But all it did was cause
division and arguments
4.
They questioned his parents
next (9:18-23) – like a courtroom
a.
The parents admit
1)
That the man standing in the
middle of the crowd was their son
2)
And that he was indeed born
blind
3)
And that he now could see!
4)
ALL THAT was easy to admit!
b.
But they refused to publically
admit that JESUS had healed him!
c.
They were AFRAID to admit such
a thing
1)
THINK ABOUT IT! If YOUR son
was just cured, healed perfectly of blindness… wouldn’t you be delighted?
2)
But notice how fiercely the
grip of the Pharisees had on the people so that they feared to upset the
religious leaders!
3)
Told the Pharisees to only
deal with their son and not them! Leave them out of it
4)
The parents had NO faith, only
fear!
5.
The Pharisees examined the man
one final time (9:24-34)
a.
Demanded that he make no
mention of a man healing him, but only say “GOD” had healed him. They believed
NO ONE could have done such a miracle
6.
But this man begins to shine –
he is NOT afraid – he stood tall and confident in his faith!
a.
Listen to him…
1)
I don’t know much about the
Man who healed me, and I don’t know about His sinlessness
2)
But this one thing I know, I
once was blind, but NOW I see! I know that!
b.
They ask him to tell them
AGAIN how the Man had healed him
c.
The man was surprised, and
said, Do you REALLY want to hear it again?
1)
Disciples want to hear the
truth told over and over again – never get tired of telling what a prophet
taught or did
2)
Do YOU want to be one of His
disciples too?
d.
Oooo! That REALLY made them
angry!
1)
They were JEWS!
2)
Disciples of MOSES. And Moses
proved HE was from God by his MIRACLES!
3)
Hmmmmm.
4)
And here was someone named
Jesus… doing the very same!
5)
And all the while, not showing
off His powers! Jesus was not even around to gloat and take the credit
e.
And then this beggar began to
teach those hard-hearted Pharisees all about GOD!
1)
“We know that God doesn’t hear
and answer the prayers of ungodly people
2)
But if someone is a worshipper
of God, and obedient to His will, that is someone that can get answers to
miraculous prayers
3)
No one has ever heard of a man
born blind getting healed, and yet here I am!
4)
This man
Jesus must be from GOD!”
7.
And that was when those
Pharisees ganged up on him and forcibly shoved him out of their presence and
declared he was an infidel and not
welcome in the Synagogue anymore – he was from that moment
ex-communicated!
a.
Notice the COST of his faith!
What it cost him to live by faith!
1)
It cost him his family! So
sad!
2)
It cost him his religion!
That’s okay!
3)
It cost him acceptance by the
community – they accepted him as a beggar, but not as a changed man!
b.
These religious leaders had
examined what happened, and rejected it all anyway
c.
But he, and everyone else knew
it was real!
d.
True Christian faith stands up
to all the tests and pressures thrown at it – because it is REAL
G.
The Purpose of His Faith (John 9:35-41) – And of OURS too!
1.
Word spreads throughout the
whole city
a.
Not just of the miracle that
had been done
b.
But also of the fear of the
parents to stand with their son
c.
And of this man being kicked
out of the synagogue!
2.
Jesus then moves through the
crowd to find this smiling man, who is still amazed that he can see – his smile
never drooped, even though people began to stand back from him as he walked
through the city
3.
Jesus then asked him one
question – THE biggest question (9:35)…
a.
Do you believe on the Son of
GOD?
1)
Jesus did not say, Do you
believe IN God – that would have been a no-brainer
2)
He asked, Do you believe ON
the Son of GOD?
3)
Do you rest ON Him? Do you
fully trust His ways? Will you allow Him to work in your life from now on?
b.
Or, Are you still BELIEVING...
1)
Your religion? They just
excommunicated you!
2)
Your doctors? They could not
heal you!
3)
Your priest? He didn’t care
about you! Would have let you die blind as long as he was still in control of
your life, and pocket-book!
4)
Your family? They turned their
back on you!
4.
Listen to his answer (9:36,37)
a.
Who is he, Lord? Who is the
Son of God?
b.
I WANT to believe on Him! And
I WILL!
c.
Just tell me who He is, and
where He is, and I will believe Him!
I will trust Him for the rest of my life!
5.
Jesus doesn’t hesitate, but
says, the very person standing there in front of him, literally, physically, is
HE! I AM THE SON OF GOD!
6.
And the man decides, I
believe!
7.
And he worshipped Jesus!
a.
He worshipped Jesus not as a
good man, but AS GOD
b.
And as the Lord of His life –
from that moment on
8.
You see, the purpose of this
man’s faith, was so that he would use it to
believe on the Son of God, not just for healing, or for answers to
prayer, or for needs to be met, but for everything!
III.
Conclusion (John 9:39-41)
A.
I ask again… “Do YOU believe
on the Son of God?”
1.
Do you only have a superficial
kind of “faith”?
2.
Or do you confidently, and
consistently trust Him, and following His Son?
B.
Could it be that someone this
morning in this room has missed the greatest miracle ever? Of being
forgiven of your sin and separation
from God!
C.
We ALL have a big problem – we
are born sinners. The WORST kind of blindness
1.
There were several Pharisees
hanging around Jesus, watching everything going on, and hearing Jesus’ words to
the man who could now see
2.
And they get concerned when
Jesus announces that he has come to show who is blind and who can truly see.
Christ came into this world to reveal the
hearts of people (9:39)
3.
They ask Him, Are WE blind
also? A good question!
4.
Our responsibility is to ask,
are we blind also? Not only ask, but accept our condition and then accept the
cure (9:40,41)! Are you blind also? Saved?
D.
Have you allowed Jesus (not
anything else but HIM) to work ON you? You can cry out to Him right now and ask
Him to heal the sins and scars of your heart, and forgive you!
1.
You may only have THIS
opportunity
2.
It will be the exact opposite
of what you expect…
a.
He won’t use baptism, or
laying on of hands, or a gentle feeling of comfort come over you
b.
It will be humbling, to get
you to allow Jesus to do whatever is necessary to save your soul
c.
And it WAS humiliating – when
HE was stripped and beaten and nailed to a cross
d.
FACT: God only does HIS work,
HIS way – not our way! Remember that!
E.
There should be EVIDENCES of Your Faith
1.
A Yielding - He allowed the
WORK of Christ in his life – didn’t resist it
2.
An obeying! Where you trust
the WORDS of Christ enough to do what He says
3.
A Change! You never are the
same – you change! Now, you are NOT made perfect, but you ARE different than you
used to be! Thank God!
a.
Everyone who knows you should
be able to say you are NOT the same man or woman or teen you used to be!
1)
A rebel
2)
A drunkard
3)
An angry person
b.
And above all things, YOU
should be able to tell you are different!
F.
Your Faith Will Be Tested and Attacked by Almost Everyone
Around You
1.
But it won’t matter
2.
You, and everyone else will
know it is real!
3.
True Christian faith stands up
to all the tests and pressures thrown at it – because it is REAL
G.
So, Do you believe ON the Son of GOD?
1.
Do you rest ON Him? Do you
fully trust His ways? Will you allow Him to work in your life from now on?
2.
That man decided, I believe!
3.
Will you?
4.
That man decided to worship
Jesus! Not Mary, or the saints!
5.
Will you do the same, from
this day forward?