Discovering The Works Of God Series

Introduction

I. When you read scripture, aren’t you sometimes just amazed at the miracles God has done.

II. I really enjoy reading the Old Testament,

A. About the battles that God led his people through.

B. About the victories of men like Moses, who though afraid to lead, and yet through faith led an entire nation out of bondage.

III. I enjoy reading the New Testament,

A. About how Christ performing miracles of healing and restoration,

B. About disciples that gained a new purpose for living through a relationship with Christ,

C. About thousands coming to faith in one day,

D. About how mere mortal men stood solidly proclaiming Christ, even though they would be beaten and even killed.

IV. What has happened to those miracles today?

V. If Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, why don’t we experience more miracles today.

VI. How can we/I experience the works and power of God in my life.

VII. That is the lesson of John, chapter 9.

The Purpose of Trials (vs. 1-3)

9:1 And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 “We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work. 5 “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). And so he went away and washed, and came back seeing. 8 The neighbors therefore, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” 9 Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” 10 Therefore they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam, and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” 12 And they said to him, “Where is He?” He *said, “I do not know.”

I. In Exodus 34, Moses meets with God for the rewriting of the law.

A. Beginning with verse 5, “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. 6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.’”

B. From this passage the Israel had built the theological concept that bad things happen to people because of sin; either theirs, their parents or even their grandparents.

1. If you are poor, you are poor because you sinned against God.

2. If you are sick, you are sick because you sinned against God.

C. The overall concept is true to this point, bad things, to include sickness and death are the general result of sin in the world, however, not every bad thing that happens in our lives is necessarily the result of our particular and individual sin.

II. The basic story is this,

A. Jesus and the disciples are passing through town, and happen upon a man blind from birth.

B. The disciples do not seem to be moved in inquire about the man’s plight based on compassion, but rather based on a TRADITIONAL theological belief.

1. This man is blind, even from birth.

2. His blindness must be the result of either his parents sin, or even some sin that he committed before he was even born; after all the Psalmist had written, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”

C. The disciples therefore simply were holding fast to what they had been taught by the religious leaders of the day.

III. But more than this, can you imagine the pressure that this man must have felt and the thoughts that must have gone through his mind on occasion.

A. He had been taught this same belief, therefore his self-esteem must have been terrible.