Sermon Tone Analysis
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Remembering My Repentance
Throughout my life when I stumble around blindly and searching for the right path, it is at times when I have forgotten that God lights my footsteps.
Only if I focus on the light that He has placed before me will my steps not take me towards destruction.
However, when I am unwilling to obey, listen, and worship God, I falter, I stumble, and I fall down.
Thankfully, God is not finished with me when this happens.
He sets out to ensure that which He starts is completed (Phil.
1:6).
It is also a good reminder that it is not in my time that I am perfected but until the day of Christ.
Therefore, I am constantly learning to rely on God’s Grace, learn more about Him, and remember that I too was blind to the light of the world, Jesus Christ.
God Reminds us of Our Repentance
Our former place of being in sin is a place where we don’t often like to dwell.
We are often told to keep our eyes focused on the future and the path ahead of us.
However, there are many times when God wants to remind us of who He is by explaining to us where we were when He found us.
Like the blind man stumbling around before Jesus told him to wash up and testify of who Jesus is, we too should be mindful of the times in our lives when we were stumbling blindly through life.
Our testimonies come from the times in our lives when we were at our most vulnerable, most helpless state, and our reliance on ourselves became evident as being impossible.
God Knows Others Will Judge our Former Lives
How often have you been confronted with your former self?
People claim it is impossible for you to have been blind in your sins and then set free from that blindness through Jesus Christ?
How would you know that people believe that way if you don’t share your testimony?
God knows that the world is blind and incapable of seeing the works that He is accomplishing if their hearts are hardened to the light that is Jesus Christ.
Instead, the world judges those who are set free.
They remain in their state of hardness by not allowing forgiveness to occur.
They remain in their state of blindness by not listening to God’s call for repentance from their own sins.
We too are capable of either becoming an obedient servant to Jesus Christ or one who stands in opposition to the miracles He is working in the world.
There is no in between.
John 9:13-34
John 9:13-34 Summary
Jesus’ timing on the delivery of His miracles was not out of chance.
He did not happen to perform a miracle on the Sabbath but had decided to do the will of His Father.
The waters of Shiloah were “sent,” Jesus was sent by his Father to do the works that would manifest God’s glory, and Jesus sent the man—who acted in faithful obedience and was healed.
Commentators mention that those who are obedient will do the will of God just as Jesus has done.
The Pharisees were concerned for the law of the day, that the man, Jesus, had performed something on a day that was set aside for worship, the Sabbath.
Now, understanding the importance of maintaining such a day takes us to a time when the Pharisees knew that the prophets before them had testified of being exiled from the land for not keeping the Sabbath.
However, honoring the Sabbath meant to honor the forgiveness towards others in the cancelling of debt.
It was a law that was put in place to remind the Israelites of the rescuing of their place in slavery to a place of freedom found only in God’s will to allow them to escape their former lives.
The Pharisees would have known also of the messianic prophecy of one who would heal those who were blind.
However, their insistence upon maintaining their rituals blinded them from seeing the truth that was evident before their own eyes.
John announces Jesus’ arrival differently than the other gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
John proclaims that Jesus is the Word, logos, and that He has opened the eyes of the blind.
Jesus is the one who is proclaiming the Word of God and opening the eyes of those who are willing to listen.
If it is God’s will to accomplish His works on any day, He will do so.
His heart’s intention is greater than anything we can imagine.
Here, Jesus is attempting to display to the world who He is.
He is showing the Pharisees that He was sent by the Father to accomplish all that had been prophesied about the savior of the world.
God knows the Truth Will Set You Free
Later, John writes that Jesus proclaims He is the truth and is the only way to the Father.
The blind man testifies of what he experienced.
However, his parents were scared of the religious leaders.
“This is the way we have always done things here!”
We must not allow healing to occur differently by an outsider who has not been trained in the way of our synagogue we can hear the Pharisees proclaim.
The Pharisees insistence upon the way things should be done blinds them to seeing Jesus’ miracles at work.
At this time, the Pharisees are reluctant to acknowledge the fullness of what Moses had proclaimed to them.
In the words of the Pentateuch, Moses had proclaimed there would be a greater prophet than himself (Deut.
18:15) and the people should listen to him.
When you are confronted with the truth of who Jesus is, you may be inclined to turn back to the comfort of a small text of scripture that allows you to be comfortable and complacent.
God is much bigger than the box we place Him in.
He is the fullness of all of His words and is capable of doing what He desires to reach us.
He calls us to testify of the works that He is doing.
Jesus calls us to know that we are to turn away from our former lives and rely on Him to guide us.
When the blind are healed and the deaf hear and they testify in front of us, you are to praise God, not condemn the person who has received God’s grace.
Does the Church Follow Christ?
We must ask ourselves if we are blind to what Jesus is doing in the world.
We must lay down our intentions and listen to all who testify of what God is doing in their lives.
Often we, the church, have become so consumed with following rituals that we forget to follow Christ.
We believe in God the Father
We believe in Jesus Christ
We believe in the Holy Spirit
Just as the blind man was able to see once he obeyed Christ, our church, community, and nation could be healed as well if we submit to hearing and seeing God.
The Pharisees speak the truth about those who are God fearing and God seeking but like them we often know the truth but don’t practice it.
Or, we believe we have it all figured out and when confronted with new ideas, new opportunities, new ways of seeing God at work we decide that we should put out those ideas.
We snuff out the light of the world from our eyes and remain blind to the way God is working in the world.
We cover the lamp and hide it for fear of being kicked out of our comfortable religion like the blind man’s parents.
Instead, we should heed the call of those who testify of God’s will working in the world.
We should submit ourselves to becoming a disciple of the Lord, Jesus Christ instead of any man.
God is ultimately the one who stands as judge so why not submit to the one who holds your life, breath, and future in His hands?
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