Doing The Work Of God

“Doing the Work of God”

John 9:1-7

Primary Purpose: To stress the importance of demonstrating the

compassion of Christ.

God calls us to work alongside him to do the work of God that we

might display that we know Him. In this passage, the disciples see a man

born blind. They assume v.2 that someone has sinned, either he or his parents

for him to be born this way. They don’t stop for a moment to consider other

options. Jesus contradicts everything that they have been taught. He leads

them to consider that someone else’s need may be a opportunity that God is

giving us to display the light of Christ. (Read Scripture).

In Pomona, California a week and a half ago, a 2 year old girl had to be

rescued from a locked running washer at a coin laundry. Her mother was

arrested for putting her chld into the machine and turning it on. An officer

smashed through the window of the machine with his baton and rescued the

girl, who was submerged in water, unconscious, but still breathing. She is

expected to survive.

Several weeks ago, in Houston. A mother took 2 of her boys out into

the front yard and hit them in the head with large garden stones, killing two of

her boys and seriously injuring a third. When she was arrested, she told

police that God had told her to kill her children.

What do these events have to do with our text you might ask. All three

of these situations call for what Jesus called “light”. Can you imagine being

the little girl who was locked in that washer. For the rest of her life, she’s

gonig to know that her mother tried to kill her. The scars that could leave on

a person could last forever. But, Jesus can heal even those scars of abuse and

neglect, but it’s up to you and me now to be the light and the love of Christ to

those who are hurting.

James Moore tells the story in “Attitude Is Your Paintbrush” of a

young orphaned boy who had been taken to his grandmother’s house. The

house caught fire one night. The grandmother tried to rescue the little boy,

but was overcome by smoke and died in the disaster. As the fire blazed, a

crowd gathered. They could hear the boy crying for help, but nobody could

seem to find a way to reach him.

Then, a stranger rushed out of the crowd and climbed a metal pipe that

stretched past an upstairs window. the pipe was extremely hot, but the man

ignored the pain. He went in, reach the boy and climbed with him back down

the hot pipe to safety below.

A few weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who should

have custody of the boy. One by one each person spoke about how they

could care for the boy. A farmer, then a teacheer, then the town’s riches

citizen suggested because of his great wealth he should have the boy.

The judge asked if anyone else had anything to say. Slowly, a man

walked to the front of the room. As the man reached the front of the room, he

slowly took his hands from his pockets and showed everyone present badly

scarred hands.

Suddenly, the little boy cried out with surprise. He recognized his

rescuer. The scars were from the hands he had received climbing the hot

pipe. The boy fell into the open arms of the man who had saved him. One by

one the crowd left, because those scarred hands said more than anything else

anyone had to say.

As Christians we should model compassion because we also follow

one whose hands are scarred. They were scarred for you and me.

The disciples- They were interested in placing blame. They wanted to

engage in the age old argument of who sinned. Jesus told them rather that

this happend that the work of God might be displayed in him. v.3 Jesus told

them to consider that night is coming. The word night here means death. It

means that you and I have only so many days to make an impact on someone

else’s life for Christ. When night comes our opportunity is over. So, we

would do well not to make excuses, but look for the work that God has set

before us.

Some years ago, there was a ten year old boy named Johnny who was

sitting alone on a park bench one afternoon. It was a beautiful day and he ws

watching some of the other kids playing baseball. A older man walked up

and sat down next to Johnny. He asked Johnny, “If you had three wishes,

what would you wish for?”

Johnny thought about it and said, “First, I would wish for peace and