Opening Blind Eyes
Sept 9, 2007
What does God want you to see?
If you have 20/20 vision, I want to bring you into my world for a minute. This is, more or less, what I see in the morning when I go look in the mirror, and you might say, “That’s doable.
Let me tell you it’s a lot more doable if you don’t know any better but it’s a lot tougher if you understand what the world really looks like.
I got my first set of glasses when I was in sixth grade. I still remember the ride home from Traverse City. It was amazing to be able to see individual leaves on the trees! Before glasses, I had seen only blurry green globs. This didn’t bother me though, because I just figured that fuzzy green trees were what everyone saw when they drove along the roadway.
Living in a world that is blurry has some challenges. Unfortunately, sometimes when we are blind we don’t even know what the challenges are.
So what causes our world to be blurry? It’s not just the misshapen eyeball, a diseased cornea, or a clouded lens. It’s the stuff of life that happens all around us that we see but don’t get. It’s the stuff we just don’t understand.
Here’s what I want to do this weekend. As we look at this story, I am praying that the power of God would reveal the answer to this question. What is it that God wants us to see during those times? When we don’t understand why is this happening? What is He looking at, what does He want us to see?
Let’s look at the story of Jesus when he healed a man who was blind from birth. We’ll find it in John 9.
God wants you to see opportunities
John 9:1, “As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Our story begins with a guy who was born blind, and interestingly, he was born into a culture that blamed him and his sin for his blindness.
One of the reasons that I love this story so much is that I have ridiculously bad eyesight. Anybody else have really bad eyesight? Come on, don’t be ashamed put your hands up there. I can’t them anyway!
The disciples, when they came upon this guy, they didn’t see him – they saw the obstacle. He was blind, but notice, they didn’t say, “Jesus, is there anything that we can do for him? Is there any hope? Jesus, could you heal him?” No, no. All they said was, “Who is to blame?”
You are seeing an obstacle illusion when the obstacle leads you away from people to the place of hopelessness.
There’s nothing else to do but find someone to blame. Jesus saw through the obstacle to the other side where hope lives. Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, this happened, So that the work of God might be displayed in His life.
Jesus saw through the obstacle to the person – and the purpose.
RR Tracks going into the distance
An optical illusion is a lot like an optical illusion. Take for example, these railroad tracks. Let’s say we are going to stand right in the middle of these tracks and look at the horizon as far as our eyes can see. What do our eyes tell us these rails are doing? They are telling us they are getting closer together.
Now, would we actually to walk down those railroad tracks, would we found any point at which they actually can converge? Would we? No. Well, if you do, it’s time to get off the train, for sure.
But, no. It’s an optical illusion. What you see doesn’t equal what is real.
And so, maybe you get a doctor’s report and you are reading it, and you think to yourself, “Life, as I know it, is over.” Is it really over? Or, could there be a purpose in it?
Or say you are a church and you are working on a building program in a state where the economy is struggling and the banks are just a little skittish. Do you say, oh no, there’s no hope? Or do you say, Ok, God what do you have in mind. What’s your purpose? See past the obstacle to the purpose. It’s not easy but if you can do that you are beginning to see what God wants you to see.
I’m not saying, in any way, that the obstacles that we face are not real. They are very real. Nor am I saying that the pain that is associated with those struggles in life, that they are not real. It’s all very real; however, the moment you find yourself in a place of hopelessness, of there’s nothing to do but find blame, you’ve got to stop going there and start seeing the danger of this way of living. We’ve all got to see through that hopeless way of living.
The worst question you can ask is Why? God Why me? The best question you can ask is “What is your purpose?” What is the mighty work you want to do so that we can see you in us?
Maybe, it is so that the work of God may be displayed in your life.
Now, I would never suggest that this is something anyone wants to do!
How many of you guys can honestly say, “You know what? There is a mountain, an obstacle in my life that I am facing that I wish I wasn’t.” Would you guys be honest? Say, “Yeah, that’s me.”
Well, maybe it will help to think about it this way: You are going to a ball game in Detroit where you’ve never been before. You have this phone that has a little GPS Navigation thing on it, and her name’s Beverly. She talks to you. She’s like a second mom. And so, Beverly’s telling you where to go, and you’ve really gotten to the place where I don’t do anything unless Beverly tells you where to go, unless the little GPS thing says, “Turn right.” You know, and “Point five miles, turn right.”
And so, you get to this place on the highway where it is totally gridlocked, and there’s just this wreck ahead, and you think to yourself, “I’m not going to get to the game.”
And, guys, you all know that if you are not there to cheer for your team, they are going to lose. So you think, “Great, they are going to lose and it’s going to be my fault. Beverly, throw me a bone.” She says nothing. So, then you go kind of crazy.
You get off on the grass. You get off the highway, because you was determined to get there. And then you find yourself in a neighborhood you’ve never been in before. It’s a little scary. People are looking at you and they look hostile. Some of them throw rocks at your car.
Then suddenly your little GPS thing makes a little beep and Beverly speaks up and says, “Recalculating your route.”
When life throws you a curve ball, and man, life has thrown us a bunch of curve balls, what if that is not a dead end? What if that’s not a stop sign at all? What if it’s, perhaps, a detour?
I promise you, God is going to get you exactly where He desires for you to go, but you may see some things that you didn’t expect to see in the process.
When things get fuzzy and life throws you an obstacle, see through the illusion of hopelessness. There is always hope and there is always a purpose.
God wants you to see His response to our obedience
6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
John 9:6-7
God wants us to see His response to our obedience.
You’ve got this blind guy, and he overhears the disciples talking about the fact that who’s fault is it. Is it sin? Is it his parents’ sin? And it’s not an argument he hasn’t heard before. And then, Jesus walks up to him and doesn’t say word. He doesn’t say, “Hey, I’m the Son of God. You’re blind. I can fix you.” He didn’t say any of that.
He just spits onto the ground and makes some mud. Now, I don’t know how much saliva it takes to make mud out of dirt, but I’m going to guess it’s probably more than one spit, and so which is altogether gross, by the way. And so, Jesus, knowing more than I know, spits in the dirt, mixes saliva and dirt together, makes mud, smears it on the guy’s face and over his eyes.
All right, people are complaining about how it’s my fault that I’m blind, and how some stranger just put mud all over my face. I’m the blind guy and I’m thinking, “This is not a good day,” and then, Jesus speaks, and what does He say? He says what? He says, “Go.”
Say it with me. He says, “Go. Go to the pool of Siloam,” and what was so crazy is that he went, just like that.
He instantly obeys. Scripture says, “And so the man went and washed and came home seeing.”
God wants you to see His response to our obedience
Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from Grace.
Thomas a Kampis.
I think it’s interesting, from my perspective, that when Jesus said go and wash, you notice the guy didn’t say, “Yeah, I’m going to have to pray about that for a while, but I’ll get back to you. I’m just going to really, I’m going to spend some time in prayer, and I’ll let you know.” Or, he didn’t say, “You know, that really sounds kind of Old Testament to me, so I don’t think that applies to me.”
He simply, immediately obeyed, and as a result of a guy who could never see, ever, now understood what blue was, and understood what a tree looked like, because he instantly obeyed something that he didn’t possibly understand.
What has God called you to do that does not make sense? Have you ever said, “I know God’s called me to do this,” and yet, you still haven’t done it.
Listen folks, with love in my heart, hear this. Delayed obedience is disobedience every time.
No matter how you cut it, how you look at it, delayed obedience is disobedience. We ask God why? We say, “Why can’t You give me a breakthrough?” And I ask you, have you obeyed? Have you done what He’s asked you to do, even if, and especially if, it doesn’t make sense. God wants us to see His response to our obedience.
You say – sure I’ll obey. I just don’t know what he wants me to do! Hey, this isn’t rocket science.
Moses gave us 10 commandments. That’s pretty simple. Jesus gave us two commandments. And it’s not that hard to figure out what God’s will is for your life! This summer I taught on this and gave you five quick scriptures on this. Let’s review them!
God’s Will for your life
Saved – 1 Timothy 2:3-4
3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
God’s Will for your life
Spirit Filled – Ephesians 5:17
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit
Ephesians 5:17
God’s Will for your life
Sanctified – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
God’s Will for your life
Service – 2 Corninthians 8:4-5
4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. 5 And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.
God’s Will for your life
Suffer – 1 Peter 4:16-19
16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name… 19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
1 Peter 4:16-19
Moses’ 10 commandments aren’t hard to figure out
Jesus 2 great commandments aren’t difficult to understand.
And God’s will for your life is pretty clear.
Just do it – or at least try for here is the source of good living – even the tough times produce good for God – when you are following him.
God wants you to see people
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided.
John 9:16
Jesus wants us to see our blind spots. There was a group of religious folk, this time, they are called the Pharisees, and they knew this guy. They knew that this man was blind from birth. They passed him every single day begging for money in the temple courts, and when they heard that his eyes were opened and he could now see, they flipped out.
And so, they brought him in front of, and they just began this inquisition of questions. “Who did it? When did they do it? How did they do it?” And the guy’s just standing there and says, “Are you guys for real?” And then he responds to them.
In verse 30, “The man answered, ‘You said you don’t even know where Jesus comes from, yet he opened my eyes. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’
Yesterday, I was blind. Today, I stand before you and I can see. I can see your faces, I can see, and you are asking me who, what, when, where, and how? Trying to disprove that Jesus had the ability to heal this guy? They had a blind spot. They were so focused on the law and the fact that this was done on the Sabbath, they couldn’t see that the Son of the living God just healed the guy’s eyes.
Where is your blind spot? Where are you so focused with what you have put in front of you as priority that you can’t see what is right next to you?
Father’s story of time with his son:
A father takes young son to a concert and a night out. He asked him afterwards what the best part of the night was thinking that his son would talk about the music or the cool light effects or something else about the evening. But his son said, “Well, I guess I like best that you are spending some time with me.”
What’s your blind spot? Where are you so fixated that you’ve lost sight of the things around your life that are absolutely the most important?
I guarantee that your blind spot probably has to do with the people in your life. God wants us to value people and use things. We get into trouble when we value things and use people.
The truth is that believing is seeing, not the other way around.
God wants us to see through the hopelessness of our obstacles.
He wants us to see His response when we obey Him, when we just do what He says.
He wants us to check our blind spots, and it is at this place in this story that Jesus finally introduces Himself.
So, the guy doesn’t give the Pharisees the answer they are looking for, you know, and they get pretty ticked off at him. They kick him out of the temple, and so, Jesus heard this and He went to find them.
Verse 36, “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he had found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Well, who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus responded, ‘Well, you’ve now seen him. In fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ And the man responded, “Lord, I believe.” Again, he said, “Lord, I believe.” And then he worshipped Him.
And so, we as the human race, tend to be so fixated on that which is fixable, on that which is tangible, on that which is quantifiable, and we look at a story like this and we think, “How incredible that this guy, who’d never seen, ever in his life.
His eyes were healed, and now he can see colors and shapes, and everything that God made. That’s so incredible.” And it is. But the guy died a couple of years later.
It was a miracle, but it was only temporary.
But what happened right there, what we just read, happened right here, and what was here lasts forever. It’s eternal. It’s amazing that God has the power to change and heal a body, but how much more amazing is it that He can change a heart, and take someone from death to life, from being lame to being healed, from being blind to being able to see? And that happens here, in all of us.
The reason this is so powerful, is because every single one of us are born blind, here, to the things of God. We can’t see Him for Who He truly is because of our sin, and it’s not until a moment like that, where we have this face-to-face encounter, and we fall in abandonment to God and say, “I believe. I don’t just believe, I believe that you are the Son of God,” and we live a life of abandonment to Him. That, and at that time only, is when our eyes are truly opened to who He is, and who we can be in Him.
The truth is that believing is seeing, not the other way around.
Believing is seeing.
John Newton was born in London in the Eighteenth Century. He was the son of a Godly, Christ following mother and the son of an angry God hating father. When John was six years old, his mother died, and he instantly became embittered at the God that she loved. I mean, if God was so good, as she said He was, why would He take her from me?
Do you see the blurriness in his life right there – the obstacle? The illusion is that there is no God or if there is that he doesn’t care.
And so, at age eleven, John Newton joined his father as a merchant sailor, and he grew and festered in his hate for God. He lived in direct rebellion to the very nature of God.
For years lived a life without purpose or direction. He served as a midshipman on a Royal Navy man-o-war and was degraded to ordinary seaman after he went AWOL. He was traded to a merchant ship and from there assigned to serve on a plantation where he was treated poorly and punished often. Eventually the captain of the Greyhound, a friend of his father, found him and rescued him. It was on this trip that John Newton, a drunken, loud mouthed brawler came to find the Lord.
For months he cursed and took great pride in thinking up new ways of cursing. Even the hardened sailors were shocked at the things he was willing to say.
It was on the long journey home, some 7000 miles of ocean without touching port that two very important things happened.
The first was the John was a learned man. He had read Euclid and learned advanced math on his own. There was a copy of “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis on board and John started reading it.
They had set sail in early January and by 9th of March a severe westerly gale was in progress. In the night Newton was awakened by a sudden jolt and water flooding into his cabin, followed by a cry from above that the ship was sinking. Going up on deck he met the captain who told him to get a knife. He turned back and the next person to go on deck was washed overboard. The ship was severely damaged and the crew set to pumping out the water and baling in another part of the vessel. Here in Newton’s own words, from ’An Authentic Narrative’ is an account of the ordeal.
“The sea had torn away the upper timbers on one side, and made the ship a mere wreck in a few minutes... Taking all the circumstances, it was astonishing, and almost miraculous that any of us survived to relate the story. We had recourse to the pumps; but the water increased against our efforts... We had but eleven or twelve people to sustain this service; and, notwithstanding all we could do, she was full, or very near it: and then, with a common cargo, she must have sunk of course; but we had a great quantity of bees wax and wood on board, which were specifically lighter than the water...”
Towards dawn the wind lessened and they were able to use bedding and clothes to plug the leaks, nailing pieces of boards over them, the intake of water slowed and the crew continued pumping. Newton remained at the pumps until noon, waves continually breaking over his head as he worked; he and other made themselves fast with ropes to prevent them from being washed overboard. In a state of exhaustion Newton, who had been at the pumps for some nine hours, went to his bunk to rest for an hour. He was called to steer the vessel until midnight. Here he had the opportunity for reflection on ’the extraordinary turns in my life; the calls, warnings, and deliverances I had met with... about six in the evening (I heard) that the ship was freed from water, there rose a gleam of hope. I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favour; I began to pray.’
I began to pray...
He read a book is called “The Imitation of Christ” and in the pages of that book, he saw for the first time, Jesus.
He didn’t see, he saw. And in the distance between who he is and Who God was, he recognized that as hateful and as sinful as my life has been, the power of the cross is so much more powerful.
John marked that day as the day he became a follower of Christ, and it wasn’t too much longer after that that John Newton wrote a song, and we are going to close by singing it together.
You know it – it one of the most well known songs in our world. The song he wrote goes like this, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.” Come on, with passion. “That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see.” I was blind, but now I see.
Will you begin to pray today?
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