I like the quote I found from Warren Wiersbe: “The people who jest about faith don’t realize how big a part it plays in everyday affairs. It takes faith to get married because marriage vows are basically promises. It takes faith to send children off to school. It takes faith to get a prescription filled. It takes faith to eat in a restaurant, deposit money in a bank, sign a contract, drive on the highway, or get on an airplane or an elevator. Faith isn’t some kind of religious experience for the elite; it’s the glue that helps hold people’s lives together. But remember, faith is only as good as its object. If we trust people, we get what people can do; if we trust money, we get what money can do; if we trust ourselves, we get what we can do; if we trust God, we get what God can do.” That trust in God is the subject at hand right now.
Faith. It’s the premier condition to receive salvation! Heb. 11 says without faith we can’t please God! Want to please God? I need faith. You need faith!
Still, sometimes you amaze yourself with your lack of that one basic thing in your relationship with God. You have doubts, or you find yourself behaving as though you never even believed in God in the first place. Inside, you sound like the man in Mark 9, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"
I have good news: John’s gospel is all about building our faith. John says that in the book itself:
John 20:30-31
Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
So, you can figure that John’s gospel is going to invite you to faith in Jesus. The 9th chapter of the book is a story of a man coming to such faith. My hope is that by looking at his story, you might understand what it will take to make your faith grow too. In a short time, he was a man who was changed. A changed heart, that meant a life forever changed.
I doubt any of us here can fully relate to the man who takes up chapter 9 of John. Remember, we’re reading the story of a man who has never seen anything in his entire life. Nothing. Suddenly, he can see. What would you be doing? My guess is, something other than standing in front of the Pharisees to hear them argue about their man-made Sabbath regulations. But by the end of the chapter, I’m glad that this man was there to speak.
There aren’t many places for a blind person to make a living where he was living, so he basically hung out at the temple gate and begged with the others. But he was more than just blind in his eyes. He was spiritually blind too – him and most of the rest of the Jewish people.
The day he was healed wasn’t too unusual. No doubt, there were many people who acted like he couldn’t hear or feel either. It wouldn’t have been too unusual for them to pass by and pontificate about his condition. Like the disciples, there were people who seemed to care more about why he was blind than how he felt. So the disciples want to know – why is this man blind? Was it his parents’ fault? Was it his fault? (even though he was born that way!) Why the blindness?
John 9:3-7 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
It wasn’t the only time Jesus used good ol’ spit as He healed someone. In Mark 7 and 8 He healed a deaf man and another blind man and used spit. Scholars aren’t precisely sure why Jesus chose to do it this way. One thing is sure, though – this blind man had mud in his eyes and it wasn’t coming off unless he went and did something about it. Jesus sent him to a pool called Siloam. John points out to us that this means “sent.” Coincidence? I doubt it. Wouldn’t it be neat to learn that 700 years earlier this pool was named “Sent” because Jesus was going to send this guy there?!
The Pool was a pretty good walk away from the temple, down on the SE side of town. There’s a pool still there today. It’s fed by a spring and an underground tunnel that was dug through the rock clear back in Hezekiah’s day.
People couldn’t believe it was him, the blind beggar, running around looking them in the eye for the first time. So they naturally wanted to know what happened.
John 9:8-12
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?" Some claimed that he was. Others said, "No, he only looks like him." But he himself insisted, "I am the man." "How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded. He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see." "Where is this man?" they asked him. "I don’t know," he said. (mark, in your Bible “the man” in v11)
Word got out pretty fast. He never knew the Pharisees were so interested in him! So they called him in for a quick opinion poll.
John 9:14-17
Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see." 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. Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened." The man replied, "He is a prophet."
The more he thought about it, the more he rolled the events of the day over in his head, the more this guy had to conclude that Jesus wasn’t just a man. The more the Pharisees considered it, the more they got agitated. There had to be some graceful way out of this! Maybe the guy wasn’t really blind! Maybe he was planted in the crowd to make Jesus look genuine! So they called in his parents. They would know if he was born blind. They were afraid to say anything more than “Yes” because (v22) they had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. “Put out” meant being excommunicated – cast out from the Jewish community, persona non grata, to the point where they would consider you as dead.
So, now we have a formerly blind man, his scared parents, and a group of angry Pharisees. No one could deny what had happened. There he was, living proof, standing right in front of them! And not only was that proof to them, but proof to the man who could now see. The Pharisees’ first and second ideas didn’t work, so they called him to speak again.
John 9:25-33
He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?" Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from." The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." (mark that in your Bible, v33. Now he’s openly saying that Jesus is from God.)
Do you suppose he knew that he’d be kicked out for that one? I do. Remember, not just kicked out of their inquisition, but kicked out of the Jewish community. So v34 says,
John 9:34
To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
This man’s life would never be the same. From now on, he’d be alienated by his people. Of course, Jesus had given him sight. Sure he was changed! And the evidence shows that it wasn’t just the outside of his world that was changing. He was changing on the inside.
Up to this point in the story, this man has never seen Jesus. Remember, he left Jesus, went to wash, and then came back seeing. Jesus was gone then. He’s just learning to see faces for the first day in his life. He wouldn’t know Jesus if he saw him. Here’s something to notice in v35. Jesus doesn’t leave him out on his own. This man has stuck his neck out for Jesus, and now Jesus is going to help him.
John 9:35-38
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him." Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
Now, mark those words in v38 – Lord, I believe. This man, in a few hours, went from referring to Jesus as the “man they call Jesus” to calling Him “Lord” and worshiping Him. Most of you who are Christ followers didn’t reach that point so suddenly, did you? What did it? How does a man go through that kind of growth in such a short time? And what is it that will cause that kind of growth in your life? What will make you fall at His feet and call Him "Lord?"
I believe you can grow in your personal faith, and I want you to feel confident that you will grow in your faith. Let’s review this chapter, and see what made it happen for a man who was formerly blind.
I. He Followed a Command
Jesus put mud on his eyes and told him to go wash in Siloam. That was work for a blind man! He had mud on his eyes, and no one else was going to be begging at the gate for his tin cup that day. Still, he believed at least enough to think it was worth a try. That was some amount of faith.
That’s not overly impressive, is it? After all, look at some of the things people are putting their faith in today – a lottery ticket? a new prescription? good health? good credit? There’s a whole list things that people are placing their bets on, counting on, to make life good. Putting your faith in a Savior Who is God and who rose from the dead isn’t so far-fetched an idea after all, is it?
This man did the simple thing that Jesus told him to do, and he came back seeing the 1st time in his life.
As much as we resist it, faith needs that. Faith needs to be exercised. James said that faith without works is dead. What if this man hadn’t gone? Besides having mud stuck to his eyes, we’re left to assume he would have remained blind. It’s hard to imagine reading this story, “So the man acted like he was going, but instead he hid around the corner, and he came back seeing!” It took a certain exercise of faith. It took obedience to what Jesus said to do for his faith to begin to grow.
Ill - When we were kids, our moms would take care of skinned elbows and knees. I remember that stingy red stuff, Mercurochrome. Remember that? I never could figure out how that stuff helped fix your woes when it hurt so much! But every time there was an ouchie, here comes Mom with the Mercurochrome. Fortunately, it was taken off the market by the FDA in 1998, and little kids everywhere breathed a collective sigh of relief. But why did we let Mom put that stuff on? Why did we keep going to her with our ouchies? Because we trusted her. We trusted she was right, even though it may not have made a lot of sense to us at the time.
That’s a lot like baptism. Here God has given us something for our healing. You have to have a certain amount of faith in Jesus before you’ll do it. It’s not a work we do. It’s very much like going to the doctor and being given a prescription: "Here, take this and you’ll be cured." It’s the natural outcome of faith and the place where God has promised to forgive us.
When this man came back seeing he didn’t say, "Look! I made myself see." Jesus did the work of healing. He just met the conditions for it to take place. When we’re baptized, when we go to the place where Jesus has said, "Go and wash...", we’re not doing some work that forgives us. God is. Jesus did the work on the cross, and God applies it to us when we’re baptized. We’re just meeting the conditions that He’s given for us to be healed. It’s just doing what He said we need to do.
Do you want your faith to grow?
1. Start with the faith you have and be baptized.
If you have faith in Jesus this morning and that’s something you haven’t done, what are you waiting for? Jesus has said, “Go, wash!” If you haven’t yet, there’s no reason to delay receiving what God has for you.
2. Practice obeying His commands
How can we have a relationship that says "I believe He’s God’s Son and deserves 1st place..." and not obey Him?! This man grew because he did what Jesus said to do!
II. He Was Healed
Talk about a faith-builder! In the midst of the doubting and the denying that was taking place, in the midst of all the questioning, this man kept going back to the simple fact: All I know is, I was blind, but now I can see. Everything he looked at just proved how great Jesus is!
You know what? He’s not the only person to understand what it meant to be healed by Jesus. Some have had physical healing that made their faith grow. Marriages and homes that were on the rocks have been put back together. Lost innocence has been regained. Hopelessness and purposelessness has been changed to certainty and meaning in life.
So often we fail to grow in our faith because we forget from what Jesus has healed us.
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
That’s healing.
Hebrews 9:13-14
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
A clear conscience! That’s healing!
Do you want your faith to grow? Let yourself be healed by God! Let Him heal your spiritual blindness with the truth of His word!
But if you want to be healed, you have to show up! The blind man had to go to the pool of Siloam. Maybe you need to quit running from your problems by keeping busy and sit down and work through them with a Christian friend. Maybe what you need to do is catch one of our elders today after services and ask him to help you with something you’ve been struggling with. One way to have your faith grow is to let the Great Physician heal you. It will convince you that Jesus was more than just a great man!
III. He Was Tested
As long as there has been school, there have been tests. And, as long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools! They have a purpose. Tests help us grow. In math, the teacher hands you a sheet full of math what to do? (problems) Why? Because they help us grow.
He was called before the Pharisees. After all, Jesus had done the unthinkable: healing on the Sabbath! So he told them he thought Jesus was a prophet. His parents weren’t much help. They were afraid of being kicked out of the Jewish community. The Pharisees accused him of being ignorant and stupid. His mom and dad didn’t say a word in his defense.
Too many people are afraid that difficult times and challenges to our faith will hurt us and scare us away. But look at this man. Being put through the ringer is the very thing that made his faith grow. This story is the story of someone sticking his neck out for Jesus and how it made his faith grow.
From the burning of Rome under Nero in 64 AD right up to the most intense persecution of Christians under Diocletian starting in 303, the church was seeing some of its greatest growth. A man named Tertullian wrote, "The martyrs’ blood is seed." But in 313, just 10 years after the Church was outlawed, the growth stopped. Why? Because Constantine became emperor and made Christianity an accepted religion of the Roman empire. Persecution against Christians stopped. It was no longer a challenge to be a Christian. In fact, it was nearly required. And the Church stopped growing.
Now, I’m not suggesting we have to go out and convince someone to threaten our lives to grow in our faith, but history does show that the Church grew the most when the faith of the individual members was tested more than it grew when times were easy.
Do you want your faith to grow? Get out of the comfort zones and into some situations that require you to have faith. Give when it hurts. Say something when it’s awkward. Work when you’re tired. Love when it’s risky. Show your faith when it might be embarrassing. Do something that’s hard that requires you to trust in God. Go out on a limb for Jesus, and you’ll find that the limbs you’re on are strong enough to support you.
One last thing that helped this man:
IV. He Learned Who Jesus was
v34 "they threw him out." But Jesus doesn’t leave you alone when you’ve been cast out for Him. Do you hear me? Young people, your peers who you want so bad to accept you and look up to you will cast you out in a second for any one of a whole list of reasons. But when you’re cast aside because you did what was right, Jesus won’t leave you alone. You don’t have to be young for that to be true. I just happen to know that being a teenager is a tall order, and I want to reassure you that Jesus won’t leave you hanging.
I’m so glad to see how Jesus didn’t leave this man alone. He had stuck his neck out for Jesus, and Jesus went out of His way for him. His faith had grown enough. All he needed was a chance to put a person to that faith! It was Paul who wrote to the Romans, “How can they believe in One of Whom they’ve not heard?”
Some people struggle with growing in their faith because they simply don’t know Jesus. They speak of their Savior, but they rarely speak to Him. They say He’s great, but they really don’t know much about Him. They say He means everything to them, but He’s hardly on their minds. How can you expect to grow in your faith, to become more like Jesus, if you just plain old don’t know Him?
You want your faith to grow? Meet Jesus. Get to know Him. Read the gospels and discover what He’s like. Speak to Him. Spend some time with Him. Recognize His presence. KNOW Him.
Philippians 3:8
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
I wonder how many of you would say the same today: "Who is He, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in Him." I wonder how many would accept Him if someone would just take the time to answer that question that’s there but you just don’t ask it out loud.
Want your faith to grow? Learn who Jesus is. Meet Him and experience Him. No one can have faith in a Jesus they’ve never met.
These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
