Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: In the summer of 1990 I was in Mexico City.

The pollution in the city is really bad.

Some of the worse in world at that time.

We would go to the roof of the dormitory to exercise of just read and get away.

All summer I would visit the roof top.

You could see about 100 yards in every direction but due to smog that was it.

One day I came up to the roof and saw the most epic, majestic, snow top mountain I have ever see.

The smog had covered it all summer.

This beauty had been sitting just over there all summer but I had never known.

This is what John in His gospel is trying to show us.

There is this majestic, awe-inspiring, utterly captivating, transforming, soul fixing, being in the person of Christ but they can’t see Him and He is right in front of them.

Main Points from our Text

Spiritual Blindness and the cataracts of religion (, , ,, John 4.31)

Spiritual food (John 4.31-34)

Sowing and Reaping (John 4.35-42)

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1. Spiritual Blindness and the cataracts of religion (, , ,, )

Four Glimpses of Our Blindness

The lens of the human eye is mostly made of water and protein.

The protein is arranged in a precise way that keeps the lens clear and lets light pass through it.

The lens is mostly made of water and protein.

The protein is arranged in a precise way that keeps the lens clear and lets light pass through it.

But as we age, some of the protein may clump together and start to cloud a small area of the lens.

This is a cataract, and over time, it may grow larger and cloud more of the lens, making it harder to see.

No one knows for sure why the eye's lens changes as we age, forming cataracts.

But researchers worldwide have identified factors that may cause cataracts or are associated with cataract development.

Besides advancing age, cataract risk factors include:

Ultraviolet radiation from sunlight and other sources

Diabetes

Four Glimpses of Our Blindness

Hypertension

Obesity

Smoking

The lens is mostly made of water and protein.

The protein is arranged in a precise way that keeps the lens clear and lets light pass through it.

Prolonged use of steroid medications

Statin medicines used to reduce cholesterol

Previous eye injury or inflammation

Christ is revealing our spiritual blindness in these first few chapters of John.

It seems that often are vision is blocked by religion.

In other words are efforts to save ourselves through trying to do good or be good enough to earn our salvation.

Because of the spiritual blindness the beauty and glory of God Himself could be standing in front of us and we like them would not recognize Him.

Look with me back at John’s examples.

Christ is revealing the need for spiritual sight and Cataract removal

First, in , Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

And the Jews said to him, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”

They had no spiritual sight for what Jesus was talking about, namely, his own death and resurrection.

They were blind to the glory of what he was revealing—that he himself is the presence of God more than the temple is, and that when he rises from the dead, from then on, he will be the place where people meet God.

Second, in Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

And Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Nicodemus had no spiritual sight of what Jesus was talking about, namely, there is a second birth that is spiritual.

It brings into being something that did not exist before in you—a living spirit and the ability to see the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Third, in , Jesus says to the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

And the woman says to Jesus, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.”

She has no spiritual sight of what Jesus is talking about, namely, the supernatural spiritual life that that comes from receiving Christ himself—indeed, the supernatural life that he himself is.

And fourth, here in our text, , his disciples say to Jesus, “Rabbi, eat.”

And Jesus says to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

And the disciples said to each other, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”

They had no spiritual sight of what he was talking about.

Verse 34: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

We Need the Holy-Spirits Help

We Need Holy-Spirit Help

Why does John keep showing us their spiritual blindness

1.

Because we are blind!

Not just them.

We are blind as well.

Before becoming a christian we are blind but even after it is like the world acts as the protein that covers the lens of our eyes and begins to cause blindness again.

Unable to see without the Holy Sprit intervening and causing us to see.

We are blind and dead in our sins.

How marvelous is the grace of God

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” ().

We need the mighty, sovereign, life-giving, eye-opening, heart-wakening work of the Holy Spirit.

That’s why we need to pray.

2. We need the HS help to see that Jesus is indeed the Christ?

We cannot see this on our own.

We are blinded to the glory of God.

Blinded to His Majesty, Unable to see that He is the creator and sustainer of the universe, until our eyes are open to the reality of Christ as savior we chase our tails in this life in desperate hope like the women a the well.

We are numb to the things of God

Illustrate: Thailand and leper colony

sin is like a spiritual leprosy.

It deadens your spiritual senses so that you rip your soul to shreds and don't even feel it.

- John Piper

If we should/could see God more closely to what and who He is right now it would change us radically.

But as we age, some of the protein may clump together and start to cloud a small area of the lens.

This is a cataract, and over time, it may grow larger and cloud more of the lens, making it harder to see.

No one knows for sure why the eye's lens changes as we age, forming cataracts.

But researchers worldwide have identified factors that may cause cataracts or are associated with cataract development.

Besides advancing age, cataract risk factors include:

Ultraviolet radiation from sunlight and other sources

Diabetes

Hypertension

Obesity

Smoking

Prolonged use of corticosteroid medications

Statin medicines used to reduce cholesterol

Previous eye injury or inflammation

Previous eye surgery

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.