Introduction
1. Today is a special day - as we have received Tom and Jonathan Olsen as members of First Reformed Church. We celebrate the grace of God that He calls us into fellowship with one another. We celebrate the participation of the Olsen family in our fellowship over the past few years.
2. To change membership from one church is not an easy thing to do. There are many factors involved and we can appreciate the factors that have led to Beth’s and the remaining children’s decision to remain members of the Valetta Church while actively involved in our church and Beth’s supporting Tom in the vows he has made today. Showing respect and sensitivity to friends and family.
3. We have been going through a series on the 7 deadly sins. Today we would have completed the series by examining the sin of lust, but we will postpone this until next week.
4. I thought it more appropriate to focus on what it means to be part of God’s church and what God has called us as a church to do together. A time to reflect on what church is really all about. And perhaps the passage that I have chosen may not seem to deal with church, at least with First Reformed Church, but I hope we will soon see how it does.
Teaching
1. The story is fairly well known. Jesus and His disciples come across a man who has been blind since birth.
2. In His words and actions Jesus teaches His disciples what their ministry was to be all about. And he teaches His disciples here today the same lesson. The text or main passage that reveals this is when Jesus tells them "we must do the work of Him who sent me." Friends, FRC, people of God from other churches, Jesus says to us today. "We must do the work of Him who sent me".
3. In fact that is why we exist as a church. We are not a social club or a place for us to simply be encouraged to face the challenges of life. We are not here to just carry on past traditions. We are not even a church just to be taught the truth of God’s word. We are here "to do the work of Him who sent me."
4. What is this work of God? Jesus, earlier in John, had told the disciples (John 6:29) "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." But I’m not sure they understood and so Jesus teaches through the blind man that stood before Him. For He says that the man was born blind so that the work of God might be displayed in His life. Let’s find out what He means.
5. As we said, the blind man crossed their path. The blind man could be any person with physical or spiritual needs that cross the path of God’s people. How do we react to those who cross our path, the path of us as the church? There are three ways we can react, as we see in the passage and its setting.
a. One way is to reject them. We see this in the last verse before this passage. We see it how the "recognized church" of the day, the Pharisees treated Jesus when He crossed their path.
John 8:59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
They were jealous of Jesus and so they chased Him away. We can also see people as a nuisance or hindrance. We can ignore them and pretend they don’t exist. We see the world around us and those in it as something to be avoided.
b. A second way is to see them as a object of theological debate. The disciples asked why this man was born blind, whether he sinned or his parents. We may have people come to us with difficulties or afflictions. They may have spiritual struggles. They may have broken marriages and broken hearts. And we may wonder why and we may discuss how God’s word may apply to them. They become objects of curiousity. And while theology is important that is not enough. It is not enough to ask those in need if they are saved or to tell them to be saved. That is not wrong but it misses the point.
c. And so Jesus shows us the right way of dealing with those who cross our paths. We must respond to them with the love and compassion of God, of Christ Himself. When we do this we do the work of God.
6. Jesus did the work of God. He knew what His Father’s work was. He was sent to earth to do His Father’s work. And that work was to bring good news and to heal the afflicted.
7. The work of God in the blind man’s life would be partly to heal him of his blindness. The work of God was a miracle in which the power and love of God could be displayed.
8. We may say that Jesus did the work of God but not the disciples. But Jesus made it clear that it was not just His duty but that of His disciples as well.
a. That is why He said WE must do the work of Him that sent me rather than I must do the work of Him who sent me. We are God’s presence in the world today and that means we must do His work. We must bring healing and sight to the blind
b. That does not mean that God leaves this work up to us alone. For He is at work through us. We see this in the way that Jesus healed the man. Jesus spat on the ground and mixed the spit. with the dirt to make some mud. Why did He do this? There are all kinds of reasons given but Jesus does not tell us why. I see something significant in this. Jesus gives of Himself but He uses the things of the earth. He comes into our midst, He comes into our hearts. And when He does He transforms us. For we are like the dirt. We come from the earth and we have nothing to offer in ourselves. No man can heal another as Jesus did, but when Jesus is in us He uses us for healing and for doing the work of His Father.
9. Friends, we are here for one reason. The church has one calling. To be the healing presence of Christ in this world.
10. But as we see this healing is not just physical healing. For as much as we are called to bring healing and to care for those who are sick we have a much greater responsibility. For physical healing is temporary, but there is a healing that is permanent. And we see this in the blind man. After the blind man is questioned by the Pharisees and thrown out, Jesus finds him and says:
John 9:35-38 "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.
11. The healing of his eyesight did more than open His eyes. It opened His heart and it was used as a way for Him to learn and believe that Jesus was the Son of Man, that He was God Himself. And so He confessed His faith. He said "I believe" and he worshiped Christ.
12. The work we are called to do is the work of salvation.
13. John 5:20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.
John 14:11-12 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
The works of spiritual healing is much greater than the work of physical healing. That is the work that God has entrusted to us.
14. And there is an urgency to this work.
John 9:4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
15. There will be a time when night comes and we cannot work any more. That time may be when we die or when Christ returns. And we do not know when that time will be.
16. The world is a dark place. The world does not acknowledge sin and the need to believe in Christ alone. It says its alright to believe in whatever or whomever you wish. But unless we receive Jesus as our only Lord and Saviour, we are lost. And although the world may not like to hear that message, it is the one that Christ gave to us.
17. And so Jesus says: John 9:5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
18. He calls us to be that light as well. To our children and to the world. Jonathan was baptized today, but one day He will have to choose for himself to follow Jesus Christ. To trust in Him. But Tom and Beth and all of us are to show forth the light of Christ, so that He may be guided to make the right choice. That what this is all about.
19. We do not know whom God will send across our paths. Some may be blind. Blind to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. May we be used to bring sight to that blindness. That is why Christ left His church behind
Mat 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
