True Sight: Seeing God at Work John 9:1-41
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who gives us true sight.
Our message is, True Sight: Seeing God at Work, based on John 9.
This is one of the most detailed stories we have of Jesus’ miracles, and especially of what happened after, the stir it caused in Jerusalem.
We’ll take a closer look at this chapter, and then we’ll talk about what this means for us.
First a brief outline of John 9…
1. Jesus heals the blind man, and people see that he’s healed. (vs. 1-12)
2. The Pharisees investigate the healing. (vs. 13-34)
3. Jesus finds the healed man and assures him. (vs. 35-41)
In John 8, Jesus is in the temple… “I Am”… tried to stone Him…
1. Jesus heals the man born blind.
- Who sinned? “Neither… that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
- Mud, water, and healing…
- His neighbors see him healed… This is someday else… It’s me… this man called Jesus…
- They take him to the Pharisees…
2. The Pharisees Investigate.
They asked him how he came to see, and he told them…
Some of the Pharisees said that He, Jesus, couldn’t have done this of God, because he was breaking the Sabbath…
Others said, “He couldn’t do this without God”…
So they asked the healed man what he thought… “He is a prophet”
Still wanting to discredit Jesus, they sent for the man’s parents, who verified that this was their son, and he was born blind, but that they didn’t how he had been healed.
Ask Him… he’s an adult…
They didn’t want to get in trouble… expelled from the synagogue…
So the Pharisee summon the healed man again…
“Give the Glory to God… this Jesus is a sinner.”
“I don’t know about that, but I know I was blind, and now I see.”
They said, “Tell us how He did it.” They were still trying to find some way to disprove or discredit it.
He said “Why, do you want to be His disciples?”
That really made them mad. They said, “We follow Moses, who was from God. Who know this Jesus guy comes from.”
And then the healed man gave this incredible testimony about Jesus that made those highly educated Pharisees look like a bunch of clowns.
He said, “So you don’t where he came from, yet He did what no one else has ever done... You know that only God could do that...”
They knew full well that when the Messiah came, one of his miracles would be to give sight to the blind, as was prophesied by Isaiah, but they just wouldn’t admit the Messiah had come to them in Jesus. He wasn’t the Messiah they were hoping for; they knew they couldn’t control him and get them to do what they wanted. He only listened to God.
Having been bested by the healed man, the Pharisees attacked his character… They called him a horrible sinner and threw him out.
3. Jesus finds the healed man and assures him. (vs. 35-41)
Then Jesus found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered, “Tell me who He is, so that I can believe.”
And Jesus said, “He’s the one you’re at and talking to.”
He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Three things this means for us….
1. True Sight is seeing by faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit…
For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7
The eyes of the heart matter more than the eyes of the body…
Jacquie…
The eyes of her body and mind don’t see well but the eyes of her heart and soul still see by faith…
True Sight is seeing by faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit…
God sees more than we see…
And He sees it more accurately…
He helps us to see everything more in the way He does…
Seeing by faith, we see God at work…what a great thing to see…
In the functioning of the Universe…
In the Church… among His people… around the globe…
The good His people are doing, is His doing…
True Sight is seeing by faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit…
The eyes of the heart matter more than the eyes of the body…
2. The day will come when we will see perfectly with both, the eyes of the body, and the eyes of the heart…
The resurrection… glorified eyes…
Seeing in Heaven… better with the eyes of the body, and perfectly with the eyes of the heart…
Seeing new and glorious things eternally… a feast for our glorified eyes…
3. Seeing God at work means better seeing who we are to be, and what we are to do on earth…
True sight is seeing our sin, and our need for God’s grace…
We need Jesus, His death for our forgiveness…
And His rising to give us life…
And His Spirit to give us sight, to be able to see by faith…
Seeing God working in our Baptism… seeing that we belong to Him…
Seeing true fellowship by God at work in Holy Communion, seeing at His table that our fellowship is with Christ, and His family, not with sin and the world…
Seeing by His Word what is eternally true… and seeing what is an eternal lie…
Seeing in the life of Jesus, a true example to follow… seeing how our lives are to be… and how we are to serve on earth.
To believe in Christ is to have true sight.
May we always see by faith, so that we may always walk in love.
And as you believe, you will see the peace of God, which passes understanding, but is at work in you, guarding your heart and mind, in Jesus Christ, who opens the eyes of our heart and gives us true sight. Amen.