WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.860 Over the past few years, I have become intimately acquainted with Interstate 76. 00:00:08.859 --> 00:00:15.980 ! Interstate 76 is an interstate in southwestern Pennsylvania on your way to Pittsburgh if 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:22.080 ! you're driving from here to Pittsburgh. My wife grew up in Pittsburgh and my in-laws still live there. 00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:29.960 So in the past few years I've driven that road many times. And on one particular occasion when I was 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:37.079 driving on Interstate 76, one of the first times I was driving on this road, I saw a sign off to the 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:45.799 right. And the sign said, remove your sunglasses now. It was a sign that I had never seen before 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:50.240 on the road and so I just kind of laughed at it. I was like, that's kind of a silly sign. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:54.540 Like, I'm not paying attention to that. And it was a sunny day. You know, it was a sunny day. I had my 00:00:54.539 --> 00:01:00.939 sunglasses on. I'm like, I'm not removing my sunglasses. The sun's out. And then just a few 00:01:00.939 --> 00:01:06.459 minutes later as I'm coming around a curve, I realized why the sign was there. Because we were 00:01:06.459 --> 00:01:12.939 about to enter a very long tunnel. If you've ever driven Interstate 76, you know about the 00:01:13.180 --> 00:01:20.079 Allegheny Mountain Tunnel. It's a long tunnel that goes underneath and through Allegheny Mountain. And I 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:30.060 realized the sign on the road wasn't silly. It was actually meant to be helpful. The sign to remove 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:37.579 your sunglasses was actually a warning to drivers about blindness. Because if you have sunglasses on 00:01:37.579 --> 00:01:44.019 while you're going into a tunnel, your vision could dangerously be impaired. Things could get really dark 00:01:44.019 --> 00:01:52.479 really quickly. And so the sign was there as a warning against blindness. Our passage in John chapter 9 this 00:01:52.479 --> 00:02:01.140 morning functions very similarly to that sign. It's a warning against spiritual blindness. And if you read this 00:02:01.140 --> 00:02:10.240 story on first glance, you might think that this story is about one blind person. But if you study it a bit 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:16.320 more, you realize it's actually about multiple blind people. If you read the whole chapter, John chapter 9, 00:02:16.740 --> 00:02:22.379 you realize you have the man who's physically blind. But then you have people who are spiritually blind, 00:02:22.540 --> 00:02:29.480 the disciples and the Pharisees. And so in the midst of this story, that's a warning about 00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:37.820 blindness. It's about physical and spiritual blindness. We meet Jesus who claims to be the light of the world. 00:02:37.819 --> 00:02:42.639 The light of the world. And so that's the question that we're going to look at this morning. 00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:50.479 In a world of spiritual and physical blindness, what does it mean for Jesus to be the light of the 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:54.719 world? What does it mean for Jesus to be the light of the world? We're going to see three things. 00:02:55.060 --> 00:03:00.099 That as the light of the world, what it means for Jesus to be the light of the world is that wherever 00:03:00.099 --> 00:03:11.859 Jesus goes, he exposes. Wherever Jesus exposes, he heals. And wherever he heals, he says. So let's look at those in order. 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:21.639 First of all, wherever Jesus goes, he exposes. So verses 1 and 2 tell us that one day as Jesus was 00:03:21.639 --> 00:03:27.779 kind of walking along with his disciples, they notice off to the side a man blind from birth. 00:03:28.539 --> 00:03:35.619 And the disciples ask Jesus a question, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born 00:03:35.619 --> 00:03:42.899 blind? And this sounds like a really strange, silly question to modern ears. You know, why are they 00:03:42.899 --> 00:03:49.319 asking this question? There's a couple of possibilities. We don't actually know exactly what's motivating this 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:53.659 question because John doesn't tell us. There's a couple of possibilities. One, it's possible they're 00:03:53.659 --> 00:04:00.259 misreading and misinterpreting the Old Testament. There are places like in Deuteronomy chapter 5 00:04:00.259 --> 00:04:08.519 where God says that he will punish the sin, that he will punish the sin from parents onto their 00:04:08.519 --> 00:04:15.319 children. Punishes the children for the sins of the parents, sorry. But that would be taking that verse 00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:19.259 out of context. It would be misreading it because that particular section is about people 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:26.060 who abandon and reject God's covenant. So God doesn't do that indiscriminately with everybody. 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:34.560 Or perhaps they're thinking about a few chapters earlier in John chapter 5 after Jesus heals a man 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:40.879 who can't walk. And after he heals him in John chapter 5, Jesus says, stop sinning or something worse 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:48.279 may happen to you. So there's a couple of possibilities for why the disciples are thinking this, what sort of 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:55.959 motivates them to ask the strange question. We can't be exactly sure. But regardless, they are making an 00:04:55.959 --> 00:05:02.759 assumption about the reasons for this, about the reasons for this man's suffering, the reasons for 00:05:02.759 --> 00:05:09.599 this man's blindness. And the assumption is, is that the reason for his blindness was sin, either his sin or 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:18.480 his parents sin. And this is very similar to the idea of karma in religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:23.180 And although karma looks differently in Hinduism than it looks in Buddhism, they share the same principle 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:29.980 in karma that if someone is experiencing suffering, if they're experiencing an affliction like blindness, 00:05:30.780 --> 00:05:37.360 then they are likely deserve it. They likely deserve it because they are experiencing the consequences for 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:42.480 sins in a previous life. It's connected to this idea of reincarnation, that we live multiple lives. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:48.960 And so functionally, the disciples are, even though they're Jewish, they're operating with a karmic 00:05:48.960 --> 00:05:54.980 assumption. They're operating with the assumption that if you're suffering, you're getting what you 00:05:54.980 --> 00:06:02.220 deserve. You're paying for the consequences of your sins. And even if you're even people today who are 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:07.940 not Hindu or Buddhist, this is actually a popular conception, this idea of karma. And so is this, 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:14.600 is the idea of karma right? Is that how the universe works? Well, how does Jesus respond? He says in verse 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:22.100 three, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be 00:06:22.100 --> 00:06:30.880 displayed in him. And here we see that Jesus is exposing the disciples' blindness. He's exposing the 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:38.159 blindness of the disciples' theology of suffering. Now we don't have time to do a deep dive into a 00:06:38.159 --> 00:06:42.439 biblical theology of suffering this morning, but we should at least take time to reflect on what Jesus 00:06:42.439 --> 00:06:50.300 is saying here. Contrary to the idea of karma, the Bible teaches that the reasons for suffering are 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:57.819 always complicated and they are always a mystery. On a macro level, we can say that all suffering is 00:06:57.819 --> 00:07:04.420 in some ways related to human sin because we live in a fallen world that has been broken by sin and 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:09.719 death and where suffering exists. So on a macro level, there is a sense in which suffering is related 00:07:09.719 --> 00:07:15.959 to sin. It's a consequence of living in a fallen world. But on a micro level, it's important to realize 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:22.680 the Bible does not give us permission in any particular instance to know with any degree of 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:29.060 certainty the reasons for an individual's suffering, either our own or someone else's. 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:35.759 That is a deep mystery that we leave only to God. And this is something that you find out, by the way, 00:07:36.540 --> 00:07:44.060 if you read the book of Job. And you find that Job's friends who are trying to give Job the reasons for 00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:52.899 his suffering are incredibly unhelpful and annoying. The Bible teaches that lots of people suffer in 00:07:52.899 --> 00:08:00.519 ways that are entirely unrelated to their sin. Lots of people suffer unjustly. The Bible teaches we 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:07.600 will only really be able to fully understand the problem of suffering and evil one day at the end of 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:14.460 history when Jesus comes and makes all things new. That's the only time where we'll really only be 00:08:14.460 --> 00:08:18.800 able to understand the problem of evil and suffering. Until then, it in many ways remains a deep mystery. 00:08:20.200 --> 00:08:24.580 And so the reasons for suffering biblically are they're complicated, they're a mystery. Lots of people 00:08:24.580 --> 00:08:31.260 suffer unjustly all the time. And just as a side note, the kind of practical outcome of all of this, 00:08:31.259 --> 00:08:37.700 this theology of suffering, is that wherever we see physical affliction and suffering, 00:08:38.220 --> 00:08:48.379 we should always respond with great compassion. With great compassion. Because our working assumption 00:08:48.379 --> 00:08:54.059 should be that wherever we see people suffering with physical affliction, that this is a person made 00:08:54.059 --> 00:09:02.919 in God's image, who, like me, is living in a fallen world. And they're just like me. That should be our 00:09:02.919 --> 00:09:09.659 working assumption. And this is what Jesus is saying to his disciples. This is what he says to them. 00:09:10.079 --> 00:09:15.399 Neither this man sinned, nor his parents. This man is living in a fallen world, just like you. 00:09:15.399 --> 00:09:25.840 Showing. And the thing is, because the disciples are blind, showing compassion is exactly what the 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:31.399 disciples don't do. It's exactly what they don't do. Because they have this major blind spot. They 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:37.419 have this blind spot in their theology of suffering, and Jesus exposes it. So that's the first thing that 00:09:37.419 --> 00:09:45.360 we see, that wherever Jesus goes, he exposes our blind spots. You know, part of what it means to be a 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:53.700 blind. Sin makes us blind to the truth about God. It makes us blind to the truth about ourselves. 00:09:54.800 --> 00:10:00.740 And it makes us blind to the truth about others. On our own, we don't, and we can't see the world 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:08.320 accurately. We all have blind spots in our thinking, our living, our habits, our relationships. And so we 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:14.340 need Jesus, the light of the world, to come and expose and shine his light into our hearts, into our 00:10:14.340 --> 00:10:21.280 minds, into our relationships, and to illuminate the places that we need to grow and change and repent. 00:10:22.800 --> 00:10:29.320 The good news is that in a Christian life, Jesus doesn't do this all at once. I mean, imagine if 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:34.860 when you became a Christian, Jesus showed you all of your sin and all of your blind spots all at one time. 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:43.539 At least for me, that would be incredibly overwhelming. It would wreck me. I would not be able to stand that. 00:10:44.259 --> 00:10:50.080 Jesus is gracious. He, over time, gradually shows us more and more of our blind spots in our sin. 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:57.120 And he's gracious with us. He's gracious with the disciples. And he exposes our blind spots over time 00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:02.440 in a way that our humanity can actually handle. And practically what this means for the Christian life 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:09.840 is that we need to continually come to Jesus in prayer, asking him to graciously expose our sin 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:16.580 and to reveal our blind spots. And I don't know if you noticed, but our liturgy every Sunday actually 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:23.000 trains us to do this. Our liturgy trains us to do this. In our confession, which we just sung earlier, 00:11:23.820 --> 00:11:26.380 in our confession, we confess things that we have done. 00:11:26.379 --> 00:11:33.299 And we confess things that we have left undone. Let me ask you a question. 00:11:34.779 --> 00:11:41.080 What percentage of things that you have left undone are you fully aware of? 00:11:44.340 --> 00:11:52.500 How many of those things are you aware of? If you're like me, it's not many. If you're like me, 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:58.519 that the percentage that I'm unaware of is far greater than the things that I am fully aware of. 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:03.899 I have blind spots. We all have blind spots. So even in our confession, we're actually naming the 00:12:03.899 --> 00:12:10.240 fact that we don't see everything. We don't see our hearts fully. We don't see God fully. We need 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:16.600 Jesus to come and expose our blind spots. This is also why we need great Christian friends. 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:21.960 Good Christian friends help us to see our blind spots. I think whenever we're in the midst of a 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:26.659 major decision or we're struggling with something or we're processing something, part of our question 00:12:26.659 --> 00:12:33.659 to our Christian friends is, hey, I know you love me. This is how I'm thinking about this. Can you help 00:12:33.659 --> 00:12:38.220 me see my blind spots? I'm assuming I have blind spots. Can you, what can you help me see? 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:44.759 And so whether it's our thinking, our habits, our ways of relating with others, we need Jesus to come 00:12:44.759 --> 00:12:52.100 and shine his light into our hearts and lives and to expose the places that we need to grow and change 00:12:52.100 --> 00:12:56.980 and repent. So that's the first thing we see. What does it mean for Jesus to be the light of the world? 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:04.440 It means that wherever he goes, he exposes our blindness. The second thing we see is that where Jesus 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:15.020 exposes, he also heals. Where Jesus exposes, he heals. Verse three, neither this man sinned or his 00:13:15.020 --> 00:13:20.720 parents, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. The reasons why God 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:28.900 allows suffering are a great mystery, but in a fallen world broken by sin, one of the reasons why 00:13:28.900 --> 00:13:34.420 sometimes God allows suffering is to put his power and his glory and his grace on display. 00:13:35.180 --> 00:13:41.480 And Jesus is saying, this is true of this man. This happened so that the works of God might be 00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:47.440 displayed in him. Verse four, as long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. 00:13:48.060 --> 00:13:53.440 Night is coming when no one can work. And while I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 00:13:54.100 --> 00:13:59.940 This nighttime that Jesus is referring to is he's referring to his own passion and suffering and 00:13:59.940 --> 00:14:04.360 death. And Jesus is saying, before I go to the cross, before my own suffering and 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:12.879 death, I'm going to be busy with the work that the father gave me to do, including what I'm about to do 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:19.060 right now, what I'm about to do right now, which is to bring light and healing into the world and to 00:14:19.059 --> 00:14:27.519 put God's power on display in this man's life. Verse six, after saying this, he spit on the ground, 00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:34.619 made some mud with saliva and put it on the man's eyes. Go. He told him wash in the pool of Siloam, 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:43.539 which means sent. And so the man went and washed and came home seen. Now this story is simultaneously 00:14:43.539 --> 00:14:53.639 really powerful and really strange. Jesus heals a blind man and gives him the ability to see. That's 00:14:53.639 --> 00:15:04.000 amazing. That's incredible. Praise God. What's not so amazing is how he does it. How does he do it? 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:13.220 He spits into the dirt. He makes a nice little mud paste with his hands and he puts the mud paste on 00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:19.980 the man's eyes. Can you imagine being this man? Like, Jesus, what are you, what are you doing? Like, 00:15:19.980 --> 00:15:27.559 this is really gross. Like, this is a really strange scene. I think, uh, I have to admit that I think out of 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:33.899 all of the things that Jesus does in the gospels, this ranks among the weirdest. Um, it's kind of 00:15:33.899 --> 00:15:39.139 socially awkward thing to do. Um, and so why does, you know, why does he do this? Because, you know, 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:43.500 if you think about it in other places where Jesus performs miracles, you know, sometimes he can just 00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:50.319 heal with a word. He can just say a word and he heals somebody. So it begs the question, like, 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:58.500 what's with the mud pie? In verse 14, if we continue to read, John tells us that this scene 00:15:58.500 --> 00:16:05.020 here is happening on the Sabbath. And in Jewish law, uh, both the actions of spitting and of making 00:16:05.020 --> 00:16:11.740 clay from dirt were both prohibited on the Sabbath. So in one sense, Jesus is showing his authority over 00:16:11.740 --> 00:16:16.920 man-made Sabbath traditions, uh, which is actually something he does a lot when he performs miracles. 00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:23.000 He's showing his authority over the Sabbath. But again, Jesus could have shown his authority over 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:28.079 the Sabbath some other way. Uh, so why does he, why does he do this? What's with the mud pie? 00:16:31.479 --> 00:16:43.279 Where else in the Bible do we see a man, dirt, and the power of God? Where else do we see a man, 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:54.039 dirt, and the power of God? How about Genesis 2 verse 7? Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of 00:16:54.039 --> 00:17:01.339 the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 00:17:02.199 --> 00:17:09.920 The very creation of the first man, just as God created the first man from the dust of the ground, 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:19.720 so he is recreating this man from the dust of the ground. By restoring his ability to see, 00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:27.200 Jesus is restoring and healing his humanity. He is bringing about his new creation in this man's life. 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:34.140 Imagine all of the ways that seeing would have allowed this man to more fully experience his 00:17:34.140 --> 00:17:41.720 humanity. He's never before seen his family or his friends. And now he can see their faces and see 00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:49.020 their facial expressions. Um, he's never been able to see the sunset of a, of a tree or a mountain or a 00:17:49.020 --> 00:17:55.240 flower or, or anything in God's creation. And now he can see the beauty of God's creation. 00:17:55.920 --> 00:18:02.800 He's never been able to read the Torah in Hebrew. And now he can read God's word. Um, 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:09.419 he's never been able to work and have a job and now he can work and earn a living and, and, and, 00:18:09.419 --> 00:18:16.039 and go about meaningful work. He no longer has to beg. And so here's what Jesus is kind of 00:18:16.039 --> 00:18:23.099 disgusting mud pie shows us. It's that when Jesus heals someone, he's not just performing a party trick. 00:18:23.099 --> 00:18:28.579 He's not just showing off his divine power. He is doing the work of recreation. 00:18:28.579 --> 00:18:41.839 He is restoring their humanity. And this is what Jesus does as the light of the world. Light exposes, 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:54.000 it shines into dark places, but light also heals. It heals. We know from science that sunlight and 00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:01.039 other kinds of light do all kinds of amazing things for our brains and our bodies. Sunlight brings vitamin D 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:08.859 to our skin. Yeah. Sunlight brings, it helps our brains produce serotonin, uh, something that regulates 00:19:08.859 --> 00:19:15.259 our brains. It regulates our mood and our mental health. As the light of the world, Jesus brings his 00:19:15.259 --> 00:19:22.460 light, not only not to, uh, Jesus exposes our blind spots, not to shame us. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:33.200 Not to out us, but to heal us, to heal us. And this is the goal of confession in the Christian 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:37.359 life to kind of come, come back to that for a moment. If you look at the prayer book, 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:44.359 confession is actually under a subset of something called the rights of healing. 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:50.700 It's under the rights of healing. So whether we're confessing our sins during worship that we just did a 00:19:50.700 --> 00:19:57.100 moment ago, whether we're doing confession with a pastor or whether we're confessing our sins to a 00:19:57.100 --> 00:20:03.500 Christian brother or sister, confession is always an invitation to experience the healing power of 00:20:03.500 --> 00:20:09.700 Jesus. We bring things into the light of the presence of Christ because his light isn't just an exposing 00:20:09.700 --> 00:20:17.740 light. It's a healing light. Verses that we read just, just earlier, first John one, seven through nine. 00:20:17.740 --> 00:20:24.019 If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of 00:20:24.019 --> 00:20:31.200 Jesus, his son purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:37.279 the truth is not in us. That's spiritual blind. Spiritual blindness is admitted is believing that 00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:43.740 we actually don't have sin, that we don't have darkness. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful 00:20:43.740 --> 00:20:48.359 and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:56.140 What might God want to expose in your heart this morning? 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:04.539 What blind spots may he be wanting you to see? 00:21:04.539 --> 00:21:12.159 How might he be leading you to walk in the light through confession? 00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:20.399 Perhaps some things to reflect on this morning and throughout the week, whatever it is, wherever 00:21:20.399 --> 00:21:26.279 Jesus is shining the light into your heart and mind, he's drawing you into the light, not just to 00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:32.480 expose you, but to bring healing into your life in order to restore your humanity. 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:39.380 Just like this man, he is bringing about the work of new creation into your life. 00:21:39.880 --> 00:21:44.819 So that's the second thing we see. Where Jesus goes, he exposes our blindness. 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:50.319 Where Jesus exposes our blindness, he heals our humanity. 00:21:51.099 --> 00:21:58.019 And finally, where Jesus heals, he also sins. He also sins. 00:21:58.019 --> 00:22:04.980 After putting the mud pies in the man's eyes, he tells him to go and wash in the pool of Salome, 00:22:05.299 --> 00:22:11.119 which John makes this editorial comment and he tells us that Salome is a word that means scent. 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:16.960 And this Greek word is actually where we get the English word for missionary. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.099 From the Latin word, missus. 00:22:20.099 --> 00:22:25.679 And the name of this missionary pool called scent has a rich background. 00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:29.299 The Greek name Salome comes from the Hebrew name Shiloh. 00:22:29.899 --> 00:22:36.679 And before the temple was built in Jerusalem, Shiloh was where God's presence dwelled among his people at the tent of meeting. 00:22:37.980 --> 00:22:42.379 And all over the Old Testament, God promises that after the exile, 00:22:42.539 --> 00:22:46.879 his presence is going to be restored to his people like it was at Shiloh. 00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:56.100 And that the glory and the presence of Shiloh would be restored when he would send his servant. 00:22:56.500 --> 00:23:05.200 When he would send someone who would be, according to Isaiah 42, a light to the nations, a light to the world. 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:14.620 A scent one who, according to Isaiah 42, among other things, would open the eyes of the blind. 00:23:14.619 --> 00:23:20.000 And I think John knows exactly what he's doing. 00:23:20.539 --> 00:23:22.919 And he's picking up on all of this. 00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:24.819 And he's trying to show it to us. 00:23:25.739 --> 00:23:29.099 Because all over John's gospel, he calls Jesus the scent one. 00:23:29.099 --> 00:23:42.459 And here in John chapter 9, we're meant to see that the scent one sends a blind man to be healed at a missionary pool called a scent. 00:23:42.460 --> 00:23:50.299 Why does John care so much that we would know the name of this pool? 00:23:52.299 --> 00:23:55.440 Because John wants us to see who Jesus is. 00:23:56.440 --> 00:24:01.680 And that where Jesus heals, he also sends. 00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:05.279 Where Jesus heals, he also sends. 00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:10.920 And if you continue to read the rest of John chapter 9, this is exactly what you see. 00:24:11.740 --> 00:24:16.960 Throughout the rest of this chapter, this man is telling people about Jesus and what he did in his life. 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:18.799 He is sent as a missionary. 00:24:20.119 --> 00:24:23.160 First to his friends and neighbors and then to the Pharisees. 00:24:23.799 --> 00:24:25.519 And this man doesn't have any training. 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:30.180 He doesn't have any sophisticated theology or a structured gospel presentation. 00:24:30.180 --> 00:24:32.600 But people are asking him what happened. 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:37.180 And the guy just says, hey, I don't really know what happened. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:41.120 I don't really know anything about this guy other than his name is Jesus. 00:24:42.299 --> 00:24:44.740 But I once was blind. 00:24:46.019 --> 00:24:49.480 And now because of him, I can see. 00:24:50.140 --> 00:24:51.019 I can see. 00:24:51.720 --> 00:24:58.320 It is a missionary proclamation about the healing and recreating power of Jesus. 00:24:58.319 --> 00:25:14.220 And the great irony of chapter 9, if you continue to read it, is that this man who was blind is telling his story to people who think they can see when in fact they are the ones who are blind. 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:20.980 They are blinded to the truth about who Jesus is and they are blind to the truth of God's power. 00:25:22.919 --> 00:25:26.179 Where Jesus heals, he sends. 00:25:26.180 --> 00:25:43.120 And friends, maybe this morning Jesus wants to show you that where he has brought about healing and growth and change in your life, that in that place he also wants to send you. 00:25:44.060 --> 00:25:45.779 He wants to give you a vocation. 00:25:46.259 --> 00:25:48.860 He wants to give you a mission in that place. 00:25:48.859 --> 00:26:05.659 Could it be that in the places of your struggle and your pain and shame, could it be that God in that place is where God wants to send you as a missionary to give you a vocation? 00:26:05.660 --> 00:26:17.180 Maybe in the past you have struggled with addiction or drugs or alcohol and you've experienced some progress and change and healing in that area of your life. 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:23.620 And maybe God wants you to help other people walk along the journey of recovery. 00:26:23.619 --> 00:26:35.839 Maybe you've been through a season of grief or loss in your life and God has brought healing into that place. 00:26:36.979 --> 00:26:44.899 And maybe he's inviting you to consider walking alongside others in their grief and in their loss. 00:26:44.979 --> 00:26:48.739 There could be any number of things here in this room. 00:26:48.740 --> 00:26:51.240 I know it's been true of my life. 00:26:51.299 --> 00:27:02.380 I know that the places where I have often experienced the most pain and struggle have often been places where God provides opportunities for me to minister and walk alongside others. 00:27:03.420 --> 00:27:08.240 Where Jesus heals, he also sends. 00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:13.299 It was true of the blind man in John chapter 9. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:17.079 It was also true of a man named John Newton. 00:27:17.079 --> 00:27:31.699 John Newton was an 18th century Anglican priest who, as a young man, made his fortune as the captain of a slave ship that carried slaves from the coast of West Africa. 00:27:32.639 --> 00:27:36.139 And on one journey, his ship came across a terrible storm. 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:39.779 And it seemed like the ship might sink. 00:27:39.859 --> 00:27:41.039 There was water coming in. 00:27:41.519 --> 00:27:43.439 And Newton didn't think the ship was going to make it. 00:27:43.500 --> 00:27:44.799 He didn't think that he was going to make it. 00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:50.960 And so he was, while he was bailing water from this ship in the middle of the storm, he cried out to God for mercy. 00:27:51.960 --> 00:27:55.960 But in reflecting later on this moment, he thought that he had sinned too much. 00:27:56.039 --> 00:28:02.259 He thought that he had sinned too much for God to ever show him mercy, for God to save the ship or for God to forgive his sins. 00:28:02.259 --> 00:28:13.680 But as he's crying out to God for mercy and as he's bailing water from the ship, John Newton remembered the things that he had learned as a child about the free grace of Christ in Jesus. 00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:26.680 And in the place of his own blindness and his own helplessness, as John Newton was bailing water from the ship, the light of the grace of Christ came into his heart. 00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:32.519 And it healed him and it changed him and it transformed him. 00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:35.820 And the ship eventually made it to shore. 00:28:35.819 --> 00:28:47.460 And over time, Newton realized not only was he blind to his own sin and his own heart, but he was also blind into how he had treated his fellow image bearers. 00:28:47.460 --> 00:28:53.980 And so he abandoned the slave trade and he eventually trained to become an Anglican minister. 00:28:54.600 --> 00:28:57.620 And he would preach the gospel of grace for the rest of his life. 00:28:57.819 --> 00:29:06.620 And eventually he would join Hannah Moore and William Wilberforce and many others to bring about the abolition of the slave trade in England. 00:29:06.619 --> 00:29:20.519 And he would later write a book called Thoughts on the African Slave Trade, where he exposed the evils of the slave trade, including exposing his own sins in an honest confession. 00:29:21.179 --> 00:29:28.799 And John Newton would become one of the key witnesses in Parliament to the horrors and the realities of slavery. 00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:34.279 Where Jesus goes, he exposes. 00:29:35.619 --> 00:29:38.940 Where he exposes, he heals. 00:29:40.220 --> 00:29:43.240 And where he heals, he sins. 00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:44.460 He sins. 00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:47.799 The man born blind lived this. 00:29:48.379 --> 00:29:50.200 John Newton lived this. 00:29:50.599 --> 00:29:52.480 And we are invited to live it too. 00:29:53.019 --> 00:29:58.240 Later in his life, Newton would pen the words of one of the most famous songs ever written. 00:29:58.799 --> 00:30:06.559 About how Jesus, the light of the world, had come into his life and opened his blind eyes and healed him and sent him. 00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:19.460 And I think because the words and the melody of Amazing Grace are so familiar, even to religious people, I think sometimes this song can sound cheesy or sappy. 00:30:19.460 --> 00:30:29.380 But if you know John Newton's story, if you know John Newton's story, I think the words become a lot more powerful. 00:30:31.380 --> 00:30:32.779 Amazing Grace. 00:30:34.259 --> 00:30:35.620 How sweet the sound. 00:30:37.220 --> 00:30:41.380 That saved a wretch like me. 00:30:41.380 --> 00:30:45.220 I once was lost. 00:30:46.500 --> 00:30:49.160 But now I'm found. 00:30:50.420 --> 00:30:52.200 I once was blind. 00:30:53.500 --> 00:30:54.820 But now I see. 00:30:56.180 --> 00:30:57.400 Let's pray together. 00:30:58.560 --> 00:31:01.360 Lord Jesus Christ, light of the world. 00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:06.119 Come into our hearts and shine your light. 00:31:08.479 --> 00:31:09.439 Expose our blindness. 00:31:11.199 --> 00:31:12.059 Expose our sin. 00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:15.139 Expose our faulty thinking and living. 00:31:16.619 --> 00:31:19.879 Come heal us and restore us and make us new. 00:31:19.880 --> 00:31:27.660 And show us where you are sending us into the very places where you've healed us. 00:31:28.660 --> 00:31:31.420 And we pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:31:32.080 --> 00:31:32.280 Amen.