When Jesus Comes... Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: March 18, 2011

Date Preached: March 20, 2011

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: Falling in Love With Jesus

Sermon Title: Jesus – Healer

Sermon Text: John 9:1-7 [ESV]

1As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 6Having said these things, He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then He anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

Background:

Let’s set the stage for our passage this morning… at this time, Jesus had just forgiven the woman caught in adultery and made the proclamation that He was the ‘light of the world!’… A confrontation with the religious leaders ensued and Jesus revealed to the religious leaders that He was the Son of God… they boasted in being children of Abraham… Jesus told them that before Abraham was, I AM, which meant that He was God…

Jesus was proclaiming His ever present self…that He was BEFORE all things! This statement, along with other passages, confirms to us that Jesus was ONE with the Father, thus giving us a vivid picture of the Trinity! God the Father was the One who sent Jesus into the world… Jesus was God the Father wrapped in humanness who came to save His own creation…

The religious leaders become so angry at Jesus that they pick up stones to stone Jesus. Now, I find this act by the religious leaders rather ironic… they had just thrown down the stones because they all realized that NONE of them were worthy and without sin so as to stone the woman caught in adultery… but NOW they were willing to stone Jesus… it doesn’t make sense to me... their rage and anger had overcome their sensibility to the God.

However, because it was NOT yet His time…Jesus would not allow them to stone Him so He ‘hid’ Himself and went out to continue His ministry… and so it is HERE in this passage where we pick up the story of Jesus and His ministry… Jesus and His disciples are walking thru the city they come upon a man who is blind…

1As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.

We are told he was blind from birth, but how they knew… is not revealed. I am sure that in His omniscience Jesus knew, but I can imagine Jesus or one of the disciples asking this him how long he had been blind…

Here in this passage we see how Jesus came to a man who was blind… today I want us to take a look at these first few verses and learn just what it means when Jesus comes into our lives… finally there are 2 principles that are exposed in the remaining parts of this chapter that I want us to take into our hearts and apply them in our lives. Before we get to that… the disciples had a burning question for Jesus… we see this in v.2:

2And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

The disciples ask Jesus to answer a question that had been debated for centuries among the religious leaders of Israel. It was commonly thought that if a malady or disease came to you in life, it was because of sin. Rabbinical teachings taught that… ‘suffering is directly related to the presence of sin…’ In other words, ‘any suffering in your life is directly proportional to the sinful life you have lived…’

I can remember a phrase I used to hear when I was growing up… when someone saw others experience something great in their life you would hear them say, “They must be living right!”

This phrase implies that the blessing they had just rec’d was directly proportional to the righteousness in their life. And which the opposite would be true… if malady or suffering came your way, there OBVIOUSLY was sin in your life!

Take the story of Job… Job’s friends pounded upon him relentlessly to submit and confess his sin so that this suffering would cease. Job knew he had no sin to confess, but he could not explain the suffering…

Today we see people taking the same approach to blessing and suffering… The disciples of Jesus’ day were NO different. When they walk by a man who had been born blind they ask Jesus a question, ‘Who sinned to cause this man’s blindness?’