Believing Is Seeing - Part 2 Series

BELIEVING IS SEEING

Part Two

Let’s go back to the story we looked at a couple of weeks ago. The story found in John 9 about the healing of the man who was born blind.

I want to look at the remaining verses of this chapter. It is a story of the

1. Resistance that this man met with the people that knew him.

2. Obstacles to faith that he overcame

3. Gradual insight and relationship that he gained as he learned more and more about Jesus.

The beginning of this story is about a man with a great need in his life.

He once was blind, but Jesus gave to him his eye-sight.

The end of this story takes place when the man finds himself at the feet of Jesus, and his spiritual eyes were opened. He whole life changed.

Telling this story would be much easier to tell if we knew his name. Perhaps his story will have meaning for us all.

See if you can relate to the blind man, his healing, and his growing relationship with Christ.

Text: John 9:8 thru 12

First of all, the man returns from washing his eyes in the Pools of Siloam but evidently he cannot find the One Who healed him. He is seen by his neighbors, but notice how they react:

"Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?"

They were reluctant to believe that this miracle has actually happened. Some say, "Hmmm, I’m not sure.

It may be him, but he looks different."

But the man said, "I am the man."

Question: Have you ever seen someone’s life change dramatically as a result of finding Christ?

It really is amazing how people will change when Jesus opens their eyes.

Things have to change in a believer:

1. They seem to be happier

2. They are more honest with themselves, and others

3. They don’t want to live like they used to live

4. I have seen their skin/complexion change almost to a glow

5. They give up old habits they may have had for years

6. They talk more about things that are positive, instead of complaining

7. And like the blind man in our story, they begin to look at things differently

I think this is why the blind man’s neighbors were so confused.

Some said, “This is the blind man.” And others said, “No. That’s not possible. There is no way…”

But the man, who was once blind, simply told everyone, “I am the man.”

It really is easy to see when some folks get born again. You really can see the difference with a true salvation.

After being blind all of his life, the man in our story is more than happy to tell others what has happened.

He is so relieved to finally have his sight. There is nothing anyone can say that will change his mind as to what the Man from Nazareth did.

Although the man has yet to physically see this Man from Nazareth, he knows that something miraculous has happened to him.

This is more than a healing…

Interesting isn’t it? What a close relationship we can have with Christ when He has finally opened our eyes?

It truly is an amazing miracle, isn’t it?

You and I were once like the blind man. We had no idea as to what life was really about. That is, until the day Jesus came and opened our eyes.

Personally, I can remember friends and relatives talking about how I changed. Some liked what happened to me. Some didn’t.

Some thought I had just had an emotional experience. They thought it would be a matter of time before I’d go back to the way I once was.

Like the blind man, I had always been that way.

They didn’t know me any other way.

But not anymore. Once I received my sight, my life would never be the same. And it was all because the Man from Nazareth came & opened my blind eyes.

Jesus came to me out of nowhere.

I wasn’t looking for Jesus and I certainly did not see Him coming.

I can understand exactly what went through the mind of this man.

His neighbors would not accept the fact that his eyes had been opened.

When Christ opens your eyes so that you can see Him clearly, others will notice the changes in your life.

That’s the way it is with healing and salvation. Or, the way it should be…

When Jesus opens your eyes there’s going to be some confrontations.

In you, and in the people know you.

People are going to want to know what happened to you.

The man that was blind wasn’t able to answer all of the questions that people asked him. All he knew - he once was blind but now could see.