Blind Man

Seeing Beyond

New Years Eve

We celebrate the blessings of 2023

praise God for the beautiful things we saw, lived and experienced.

We welcome the New Year 2024 and at this very moment.

We likely are thinking —

may it bring joy peace hope and love to us and those we love around us.

We are standing with in a few hours of History and Future.

the past and the future

Have you made any plans for what you are doing for your Spiritual Wellness in 2024?

We often plan out our new budget, our travel, our todo’s and all our plans

but did you schedule any changes for your Spiritual Wellness

Maybe it is joining us at the Disciplemaker Class

Visiting a small group from our church

maybe it is your time to consider or train to lead a group

It could be as simple as giving God 5 more minutes of study in 2024

Think of this --- do you believe God deserves your first and best?

5 min x365 days is over 30 hours of additional time in 2024

it is giving the Lord a full day and a quarter of solid study time.

WE NEED TO FOCUS ON OUR DEVOTION TO CHRIST THIS NEXT YEAR MORE THAN EVER

Our lesson today is about making a choice

do you want to walk in faith or walk in your list of facts?

Jesus is teaching to trust the WOrd of God —- the Word of the Old Testament prophets, the truth right in front of them and

the Jewish leaders are simply too blind to see.

Do you want to stay Spiritual Blinded?

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Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us open our hearts and minds to the magnificent story of the man born blind, as told in the 9th chapter of John.

This narrative is not merely a historical account;

it is a powerful parable for our own lives,

an invitation to see beyond the surface

and encounter the divine light within.

Imagine, if you can, living in perpetual darkness.

No sunrise, no vibrant foliage, no faces of loved ones etched in memory.

This was the reality of the man born blind.

He was BORN BLIND

He couldn't see the world we know, and had never seen a color or a shape or a sunset or sunrise.

yet he existed in his own, navigating through touch, sound, and whispers of description.

Then, Jesus enters his world.

In a seemingly unconventional act, Jesus mixes mud with saliva and spreads it on the man's eyes.

He sends him to wash in the Pool of Siloam.

This act defies expectations, disrupts established norms.

It's a messy, unpredictable miracle.

Lets read the story together.

Open you Bibles to Chapter 9 of John or follow along on the screen.

John 9 (ESV)

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

2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud

7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”

9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”

10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.

14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.

15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight

19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.

21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”

22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)

23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”

30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.

31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.

33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”

37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”

38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”

41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Sin and Suffering

What did we learn in prior lessons--

ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.

There is that WORD AGAIN ALL

I find that i am not blind to HIM,

but i need to wear corrective lens to see clearly.

To see past this world and into HIS.

We often think about reaching out to God to thank Him for the amazing things in our life

but we often forget to praise Him and seek to glorify Him in the stormy times.

For decades it has been my belief that the Jews for the most part

lived life in a black and white world.

If things were good you were blessed

if you followed the Law you would receive good things always.

but we have an example from the disciples of the flip side of this today.

If you are suffering or life is not well you must have sinned.

One of the many reasons we should all love Jesus is that is not the case for us as Christians today.

it is not our parents lives,

or our heritage that matters to Christ.

It is not our past failures

or our current messes or mistakes.

it is our present and future that Jesus sees in us.

our becoming

becoming more like Him.

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Jesus spits on the ground into the dirt and makes mud

lifts it to the man eyes and covers them with this mud.

Then He tells the man to go to the pool and wash.

I love the remembrance of How God created man, using the dust of the earth.

Miracles are Hard to Accept

This was a small town by today's standards

Estimates say the earth population in 30 AD was about 247 million

The whole of the United States last year had only 25% more than that in 2022

The population of Israel in Jesus' day was approximately 500,000 to 600,000 (about that of Vermont, Boston, or Jerusalem today).

About 18,000 of these residents were clergy, priests and Levites.

Jerusalem was a city of some 55,000, but during major feasts, could swell to 180,000.

The point is that the Jews in our verses

and the leaders KNOW THAT THIS MAN WAS BLIND FROM BIRTH.

there is much confusion on accepting a miracle.

Healing that comes only from God but we praise the world

Financial challenges that are met in an amazing way.

Friends we struggle with accepting a changed life.

We know someone and they act a certain way,

and when they seek to change we don’t believe them

and likely struggle to support them.

We can easily start to doubt the change especially if they backslide a little

We like our own mountains,

and don’t like to see them moved.

[pause]

Investigation

much of the rest of our text is about

the investigation and interrogation of the

man who now sees and even his parents are interviewed by the Leaders.

The Leaders are set in there ways.

Jesus restored a man’s sight on the Sabbath,

and therefore can not be a man of God (John 9:16)

The parents come and verify that the man is their son and that he was born blind.

But they are afraid of upsetting the Pharisees so even

the man’s parents defer.

They don’t want to be exiled out of the temple

They tell the Leaders to ask the man himself

SO

They bring the man back again.

They tell him to GIVE GLORY TO GOD

by telling the Truth.(John 9:24)

Friends the TRUTH gave him Sight,

the TRUTH — JESUS --- Gave him healing

Now we see the true heart of the Pharisees once again.

They attack the man who now sees!!

We must look at the man’s boldness before we close today.

This is an example for us --- Christ’s Disciples.

When we stand on the truth

The winds of the world will seek to cause us to drift.

Stand Firm

My brothers and sisters of the Faith

We were once blind --- but now we see.

We must be like a child during this process from our King.

We were blind from birth

We had Jesus open our eyes, so that we can see.

We have and will experience opposition for what God is doing in our lives.

people will question us when we proclaim that we changed.

People will accuse us of sin, as we are changing --- as we are maturing.

People will seek to deny the work of Jesus in us

because they

“ They like their own mountains, and don’t like to see them moved”

Jesus once again gives us our closing words today

Jesus came so that the blind will see, and those who see will become blind.

Jesus will separate the Believers and the Unbelievers

On this last day of 2023, may we praise the Lord that we are numbered as HIS.

Our challenge as a church is to realize that we were once blind and now we can see.

We need to do the work to keep our corrective lens firmly fixed

so to see the Way, The truth, and the Light

We are seers of the LIGHT, Walkers of the Way and living in the LIFE of a Disciple of Christ Jesus

all because of Jesus coming to this World.

May 2024 continue to improve your Vision.