Seeing the Light

Me

Here’s something you might not know about me, when I came into my faith journey, I had a set of expectations.

One of those expectations was that God wasn’t fun. Consequently, I found my original pursuit of God to be not fun. Not b/c God wasn’t fun, but b/c was I taught as a child that I could have…

God or fun but I could not have them both.

That informed my faith for a long time, until at one point I started to realize that God did allow for fun and in fact, Jesus seemed fun!

I had put God in a box.

We

Here’s a concept that I’m sure you don’t think often but you have a God box too.

Your relationship with the Lord comes with a set of expectations or sometimes preferences. They’re expectations that where given to you by your family or perhaps they were developed over time with your experiences, but every one of us come into this relationship with the Lord with expectations. In fact, you came in here with expectations.

life to be problem free

immediate answer to prayer

only works when the music is hymnals

only works when the preaching is exegetical

God’s will to align himself with our desires

And honestly, sometimes those expectations are good and then other times they are not. In my instance, they were not good. And we find ourselves maybe just like me you put God in a box because you have these expectations on him. Or perhaps you have these preferences and if you're not careful, those expectations can get in the way of seeing God more on that just a moment.

God

MIRACLES: RECAP

Week 1 — Water into Wine // Came to do something new

Week 2 — Healing of the Nobleman’s Son // Believe Jesus will and behave as if he already has.

Week 3 — Healing at the Pool // Do you want to get well?

Week 4 — Feeding the 5,000 // God brings the Miracles, we bring the loaves and fish.

Week 5 — Walking on Water // God comes to you in the storm.

John 9:1–2 NIV

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

This was a common belief for the jewish people.

physical ailment = sin.

John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–10 The Man Born Blind (John 9.1–12)

This is a comfortable sort of thing to believe if you happen to be well-off, well fed and healthy in body and mind. (In other words, if nobody can accuse you of some secret previous sin.)

John 9:3–5 NIV

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

This makes everyone uncomfortable, but the truth is God is sovereign over all things. Sometimes, things happen so the works of God can be displayed in us.

Ask the question >>> What might the Lord be up to?

John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–10 The Man Born Blind (John 9.1–12)

We have to stop thinking of the world as a kind of moral slot-machine, where people put in a coin (a good act, say, or an evil one) and get out a particular result (a reward or a punishment). Of

There are times when the Lord will use a situation or perhaps as circumstance that the Lord will use to change the people around you.

John 9:6–7 NIV

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Weird — why? Something from the dirt something from the mouth of God

Dirt — substance of man

Spit // Mouth of God — substance of God

Genesis 2:7 NIV

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

John includes these details to point to Jesus being the creator king. Remember everything in John’s Gospel points to Jesus as king. Jesus is God.

John 9:8–12 NIV

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.

People saw him and began asking questions b/c he has been blind his entire life. They asked questions and realized that it was Jesus who healed him.

John 9:13–15 NIV

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

I was one way before and then I met him and I am something different.

John 9:16–19 NIV

Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.” They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”

They don’t want to believe it either so they go get this mother and father and as if this is really this their son. Johns tells us that…

John 9:20–23 NIV

“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

The pharisees pulled the blind man back in and tell him to give glory to God b/c we know this Jesus man is a sinner. The man doubles down and he’s not afraid of these people and he says look, IDK what to tell you. I was blind…and now I’m not. Jesus was the one who did it. Glory to God sure, but Jesus was present and I cannot stop telling people what happened.

John 9:24–26 NIV

A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

Now he’s getting fed up..

John 9:27 NIV

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

He’s had enough. Sends them through the roof.

John 9:28–29 NIV

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

The Pharisees are furious b/c Jesus, his existence and his persistent healing on the Sabbath, and what he was doing is not what they expected.

John 9:30–34 NIV

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

In other words, you guys have missed it. This man has healed me and demonstrated power over sickness. In fact, he’s done this before for the Pharisees and yet they still miss who he is.

This is what I call…

Willful blindness.

This is you know what’s right and yet you choose to do something else, or you choose to believe something else. The religious people, should have seen him coming, should have recognized that only God could do this, however, they missed it.

B/c they where so focused on what the Messiah should look like, what they think he should look like that they missed God in flesh.

You

Now, believe it or not, the church today is not much different. We expect God to look or behave a certain way and it’s an expectation that we have b/c you church experience has shaped or created the lens that you view God through.

And let me be honest…some of us… me included have allowed traditions to get in the way of seeing God.

The Pharisees refused to see God working b/c he worked on the Sabbath. They just couldn’t get past it b/c they had a God box and they couldn’t imagine God working outside of the box.

Music style

Preaching style

Type of building

Denomination

Church programs

Christmas must look like this…

Thanksgiving must look like this…

Easter must look like this…

You should have your opinion about things, but let’s be honest, those opinions aren’t biblical…or Christlike. They’re just your preferences and those are all well and good, but don’t let those preferences get in the way of seeing God.

My point is simply this: Our expectations put God in a box.

Don't let your expectations, that you were handed as a child get in the way of seeing God today. The Pharisees expectations totally got in the way of them seeing the works of the Lord.

What have you missed b/c God showed up and didn’t fit in your box?

We

Now, pause for just a second. What would it look like if the church was able to remove religious preferences, and simply pursued God?

Do you think the world would be better if we set some of those non-essential preferences and expectations aside, and focused more on seeing God in the world?

How much better with your relationship with the Lord be if you were able to set aside some preferences and expectations?

Have I put God in a box?