The Man They Call Jesus

The man they call Jesus

John chapter 9:1-12, 35-41

Introduction-

This week a 29 year old man from Missouri named Chris Shaw won 258 million dollars in the power ball lottery. He bought it from a convenience store that he worked at. This man had 28.96 in his bank account. I don’t condone the lottery because most people just throw their money away. The people that need it most are the ones that play to win. I will say this, this man life will never be the same.

I want you to think about this man they call Jesus. I don’t care what is going on in your life, when you meet Jesus, your life will never be the same. It is impossible to meet Jesus and not respond. Some respond negative, want nothing to do with Jesus, and some respond positive and He rocks their world and changes their life forever.

John 9:1-12

I will read and then I will respond, and then we will read v 35-41. So stay there for just a minute.

- we see Jesus walking with his disciples.

- They encountered a blind man from birth.

- disciples ask who’s fault is this Jesus? This man sinning or his parents?

- Jesus answers “This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

- Jesus spits on the ground/ makes mud pies and puts it on his eyes and tells him to go wash it off at the pool of Siloam.

- The beggar obeys and gets his sight.

Close your eyes for a moment. Go ahead, , humor your pastor. I promise not to do anything. How hard would it be for you to get around? Some of us do things so often, we probably could do without sight. You could hit the alarm, you can go to the closet, but picking out your clothes would be a problem. Now imagine this blind beggar born from birth who could not see. He doesn’t know colors. He does not know what it is like to do things for himself. He depends on people to help him and hope that they do not rip him off. He meets a man , who he can only hear, putting mud on his eyes, which probably scared him. He tells him to wash it off, which he needed somebody to go with him. And then he gets his sight. Not regained his sight, but for the first time is able to see things around him. His world is new and expanded. Okay, if you haven’t opened your eyes, go ahead, I don’t want anyone sleeping. The Pharisee’s show up with all their righteous attitude and demand to speak to the blindman. How then were your eyes opened? The man they call Jesus (Hallelujah) showed up and put mud in my eyes, I washed and now I can see.

They say:

- he can’t be God- he did it on the Sabbath.

- can’t be from God- because he healed a sinner. A sinner so bad that he was blind from birth.

- they were divided on what they thought. They didn’t believe so much that they got his parents to verify.

- This your son?

Was he born blind?

How was he healed?- I don’t know, I know he is my son, I know he was born blind, ask him yourself how he was given his sight.

What do you say Mr. Blindman? What do you say about this Jesus? He is a prophet. They got so upset at this blindman that they throw him out of their presence.

John 9:35-41

Jesus addresses 2 issues in this man’s life. This man was physically blind. This man was spiritually blind. Jesus heals him of both. Spiritual blindness is where a person is not able to see who Jesus Christ really is. Spiritual blindness is not seeing that Jesus Christ can rock your world when He becomes your savior. Spiritual blindness is not seeing that Jesus Christ desires you to surrender your will to his will and accept the things that God wants for you. The disciples didn’t understand this- they walked with Jesus, see a blind man and ask Jesus who at fault for this mans blindness. Who did wrong?

Jesus reveal His power here- every time Jesus perform a miracle, it was to show them that He was the Messiah, He was who He said He was.

The disciples had a blind-spot in their lives. Blind-spots are areas that you can’t see. If your driving, they can cause accidents. In our thinking, they can cause us to go down the wrong path. The Pharisee taught that someone must of sinned. Either you sinned in the womb, or your parents did. That’s crazy but they were taught this and they were superstitious. 2 things I want you to see in the passage. 1- some people don’t realize they are spiritually blind. 2- some people don’t want the solution to their problem, because they like where they are at. Mud in the eye from people can cause us to be blind. Mud in the eye from Jesus results in miracles. Like I said a couple weeks ago, instead of saying - this is my pastor, he can help you. Say this is my Jesus, He can transform you. You have any blind-spots this morning? Ever see someone suffering and say- wonder what they did? Ever ask God- what did I do to deserve this? God, why are you punishing me? Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes God wants us to use that situation for His glory. Either healing or through the act of suffering. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be blind. Never see the women that I love. Being able to read, and get around for myself. See color, know a sunset. But spiritual blindness can be for eternity. This man they call Jesus wants to speak to us this morning. He wants to put spiritual mud in our eyes so we can gain spiritual insight. He wants us to be able to check our blind-spots and prevents accidents of life and He wants us to keep the path that He intends for us. With your physical eyes this morning, I want you to look around. This world has it’s faults and most are heading in the wrong direction. But this world is an example of God’s creation and God’s mercy and love. You cannot look at nature and not see God. You cannot look at human beings and not see God’s creation. Man wasn’t formed by accident. It is because God created us. Each one unique. This man called Jesus wants to minister to you this morning. You look up this morning, 93,000,000 miles away is the sun. It is the perfect distance away. Any closer and we would burn up. Any farther we would freeze to death. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. The heat you feel from the sun took 8 minutes to get to you. We live in a galaxy called The Milky Way. One of millions of galaxies God created.. They know from the Hubble space center that there is another galaxy that is 31,000,000 light years away. 186,000,000 miles per second. 5.888 trillion miles in a year times 31,000,000. You do the math. I cannot comprehend 258 million dollars- I cannot fathom a million of anything.