"When Blind eyes see"
John 9:1-11
(Prayer)
The greatest of all healing miracles was the giving of sight to blind eyes and it was reserved as a testimony of the true nature and position of Christ Jesus. When John the Baptist was in prison, he sent his followers to question Jesus if he was really the Lamb of God or if they should look for another. The first words out of the mouth of Jesus were the ones saying that blind eyes see and this fact confirmed that he was the Son of God with a divine nature and purpose.
(1) I’ve never been blind but once I stuck a stick in the white part of my eye causing me to lose the ability to see for almost three weeks while it healed
a. unable to drive
b. not able to read my bible or study
c. miserable
(1) There is also a spiritual blindness that only Jesus can heal
Jesus once told a message about the condition of our hearts to the message of the gospel in Matthew 13 by the parable of the soil. He also answered the greater question of why he had spoken in a mystery at the request of his disciples.
Matthew 13:13-15 "Therefore speak I to them in parables because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says, By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive. For this people’s heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed LEST AT ANY TIME THEY SHOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS AND SHOULD UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS AND SHOULD BE CONVERTED AND I SHOULD HEAL THEM."
The subject of our message this morning isn’t a theological debate about the condition of each type of soil described by Jesus that day or even whether the stony soil or the thorny soil are saved since they have sprung up and withered away respectively. We’re also not going to speak about the supernatural and overwhelming production of increase in the lives of the good soil because we really need to hear a word from God today. The message of Jesus Christ today pertains to the conversion of our hearts from spiritual blindness into the grace of salvation by Almighty God but even to do that we need a better realization of the words we throw around so flippantly in our religious rhetoric.
"Herein is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins."
1 John 4:10
· By the death of Jesus on the cross and by his subsequent resurrection from the grave, JESUS BECAME THE MERCY SEAT OF GOD TO REVERSE THE CONDITION OF MANKIND WITH GOD. At the fall of Adam and humanity in Genesis 3, we all suffer from the disease of sin. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and goes on to say in Romans 6:23 that the deserved punishment for sin is death YET THE WORD ALSO PROCLAIMS THAT THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE. THE WILL OF GOD ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE IN JOHN 3:16 SAYS THAT HE DOESN’T WANT TO SEE ANYONE DIE AND GO TO HELL. The completed work of Jesus on the cross bridged the gap that separated us from a Holy God and acted as the propitiation, the act of reversing our standing before God.
· Mercy is the compassion God had for us which moved him to provide a Savior for the unsaved
· Love was and is the motivation of all that God has done and is currently doing in the unsaved’s life to move them to salvation
· Propitiation is the act of Jesus on the cross to move all humanity to the place that their sins can be forgiven
a. Acceptance or rejection of Jesus doesn’t diminish or increase the finished work of salvation
b. Faith in that propitiation is what covers us in the righteousness of the blood of Jesus Christ
c. Hebrews 2:3 "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"
· Grace is the ruling out of all human effort to place the unsaved soul in the covering of Christ’s sacrifice
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace are you saved through faith and even that isn’t you but is the gift of God."
So many times there are those that think in our own human understanding that there are people beyond the grace of God saving them. We will even go so far as to try and determine who is responsible for their dreadful condition.
"And his diciples asked him saying, Master? Who hath sinned, was it this man or does the responsibility lie at his parents doorstep, that he has been blind since his birth?" Verse 2
And if we stopped with nothing but the question these men have asked, we would eventually arrive at a reason for explaining away the physical blindedness of this man and the spiritual blindness of the unsaved around us. Jesus doesn’t stop there though because he responds to the question and proclaims from the throne of God that some things happen just so the glory and power and majesty of God can be manifested in our sight.
"Neither this man sinned, nor his parents, BUT THAT THE WORKS OF GOD SHOULD BE MANIFEST IN HIM!" The Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:12-16 (read) In effect he was saying that even then God was using the things that he had done to be a testimony of the grace and power of God to save all that call on the name of Jesus Christ. WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME TOT HE FOOT OF THE CROSS AND BE SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS AND CLOTHED IN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
There have been times that I have tried to understand the far reaching hand of God coming down on my life in a lost family. Why did God save me? Why did JESUS send the Holy Spirit to stir my heart and my little brother sat right beside me and was never moved to ask Jesus to save him? Many others that I have know and heard about that were moved by the grace of God who had no background nor anything in their former life that would have shown them deserving of the grace of God filling them with the Holy Spirit and sealing their eternal destiny for Glory. FOR YOU TO GO TO HELL MY FRIEND YOU’LL HAVE TO WADE THROGH THE BLOOD OF JESUS AND PULL DOWN THE MERCY AND LOVE OF GOD TO BE FOREVER SEPARATED FROM THE LOVE OF GOD BECAUSE THE WILL OF GOD IS THAT NONE MIGHT PERISH.
I’m so glad that for all the lepers crying out to be made whole and for all the moma’s and daddies crying out for their children to be touched by God THERE IS STILL A THING CALLED THE GRACE OF GOD. For all the Bartimeus’s screaming at the top of their lungs to be given sight and for all the Mary’s falling at the feet of Jesus weeping at their broken hearts and the death that has claimed a loved one, THERE IS STILL A THING CALLED THE GRACE OF GOD. For all those who may have deserved a miracle and for all those who have earned the right to a blessing from God, THERE IS STILL A THING CALLED THE GRACE OF GOD AND THIS GOES WHERE IT WANTS TO AND HEALS WHO IT WILL.
· THIS BLIND MAN WASN’T ASKING FOR GRACE AND NO ONE WAS COMING TO JESUS ON HIS BEHALF BUT JESUS HEALED HIM ANYWAY
· HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW ENOUGH ASK AND NOBODY ELSE CARED ENOUGH ABOUT HIM TO PRAY FOR HIM BUT THE GRACE OF GOD GOES WHERE IT WILL
Nobody cared for the man preaching to you today and I didn’t even know enough to have the faintest inkling of how to be forgiven or ask for help but the I thank God the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ touched my heart and made me whole. I MAY NOT BE THE MAN I NEED TO BE BUT THANK YOU LORD I’M NOT THE MAN I USED TO BE. THE GRACE OF GOD TOUCHED ME AND I’VE NEVER BEEN THE SAME BECAUSE HE WIPED AWAY MY BLIND EYES AND MADE ME SEE AND BY THE CONTINUED GRACE OF GOD THIS MISFIT OUTCAST PREACHER IS AN HEIR TO THE THRONE!
Whew! Glory! By the grace of God I have been saved and I won’t miss heaven because Jesus was the propitiation for all my sins past, present and future. And if when Jesus touches your heart you’ll feel like shouting too! Nobody else can understand what Jesus has done in my life and how magnificent it is to see things with God’s eyes and hear things with God’s ears. Paul said that it was too magnificent to even speak about but I can tell you this, when the hand of God touches you, YOU’LL NEVER BE THE SAME! NOBODY ELSE CAN UNDERSTAND BUT THAT DON’T MAKE IT GO AWAY. This man was brought before the "religious experts" because they couldn’t understand what all the shouting and the hubub was about… they were lost. His own family thought he was a lunatic and distanced themselves from him… they were lost!
Peter said in 1 Peter 1:12 THAT THE ANGELS LOOK INTO SALVATION WANTING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT BUT ANGELS DON’T NEED SAVING. I NEEDED SAVING MY FRIEND AND I KNOW THIS, IF YOU’LL ONLY LET HIM JESUS WILL SET YOU FREE FROM THE SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS AND HEAL YOU HEART.
I MAY NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU MY FRIEND, BUT WHERE I WAS BLIND NOW I CAN SEE, WHERE I WAS EMPTY NOW I AM FILLED AND I HAVE TASTED THAT THE LORD IS GOOD SO I’LL NEVER BE THE SAME.
VERSE 27-30 (READ)
JESUS IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR SITUATION. THE GRACE OF GOD CAN SAVE YOU FOREVER TODAY IF YOU’LL NOT HARDEN YOUR HEART AND LISTEN TO THE GENTLE WHISPER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TELLING YOU HOW MUCH YOU NEED TO RESPOND.
INVITATION.
