Jesus Wants To Work In Our Lives - Part 2 Series

Jesus Wants to Work in Our Lives - Part 2

The Gospel of John

John 9:3-38

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - February 15, 2017

(Revised October 2, 2019)

BACKGROUND:

*John 9 centers around one of the Lord's wonderful miracles. Jesus healed a man who had been blind ever since the day he was born. Verses 1-7 say:

1. Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.

2. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?''

3. Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

4. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.

5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.''

6. When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

7. And He said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam'' (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

*Jesus miraculously healed that man and sometimes He gives miraculous healings today. But Jesus also gave that man the greatest miracle of all: the spiritual healing of salvation. All physical healing is temporary, but the healing of salvation lasts forever!

*Thank God, Jesus was sent from Heaven to be our healer. The Lord boldly declared this truth in Luke 4:18-19 when He said:

18. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. HE HAS SENT ME TO HEAL the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

19. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.''

*Jesus surely healed this blind man, but this miracle quickly got the man into trouble with the religious rulers who hated Jesus. The happiest day of his life also became one of the hardest days in his life, but Jesus works in the hard times too. And this part of the story shows us more about how the Lord wants to work in our lives. Let's begin by reading vs. 8-17.

MESSAGE:

*God is at work in our world, and there are countless testimonies of this truth. Here's an example that shows how far God goes to bring people to Him. This happened in the spring of 1998, and I heard it from Herb Hubbard.

*Herb was one of our deacons in West Monroe, and he heard it from a man at work named Jimmy. Jimmy's son, Jay, had been witnessing to one of his friends for a long time. And Jay couldn't tell if he was making any progress.

*But these two friends were big duck hunters, and as they drove out one day, it was obvious that Jay's friend had been thinking about everything. But he felt like he needed a sign, and he said, "You know, -- I 've never shot a banded duck before. If I shoot a banded duck today, that might be a sign from God."

*You may not know this, but shooting a banded duck is a very big deal to duck hunters. Well, that young man shot 3 ducks that day, and the third duck did have a band. When the friend cut the band off, he was amazed to find that it said: "Jesus loves you."

*I would call that a miraculous meeting with a duck, and yes he did put his trust in the Lord. But the greatest miracle wasn't that young man shooting the right duck. The greatest miracle was when that young man trusted in our crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ.

*God goes to amazing lengths to get people saved. God the Son, Jesus Christ, even humbled Himself to become a man and die on the cross for our sins! And right now, God is at work in countless ways. And this story of the blind man helps us see how Jesus wants to work in our lives.

1. FIRST TONIGHT, JESUS WANTS US TO SPEAK UP ABOUT OUR SAVIOR.

*The Lord gives us great things to say about our God, great things from His Word and great things from His work in our lives. God gives testimonies to His people, and He wants us to speak up about Him. The Lord can even turn our troubles into testimonies. That's what Jesus did for this blind man. And thank God, he had the courage to speak up about our Savior.

*We see the healed man's first testimony in vs. 8-12: