Lent: Receiving Sight from Jesus

Well, welcome.

We're in our fourth week of Lent.

Lent are the days leading up to Good Friday and Easter.

Our text is about light and darkness.

It's about blindness and sight.

Our first point is that we do not achieve or cause sight.

Jesus gives us eyes to see.

Now, our blindness is not physical.

This story is a metaphor for us to learn from.

It's a miracle for us to learn about our own spiritual blindness, a confusion that we have.

It's our lack of perception about what is true about life, what's true about ourselves, and about God.

Let's jump back in in verse 4.

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.

Night is coming when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva.

Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent.

So he went and washed and came back seen.

So the disciples asked that question: Who sinned, this man or his parents?

Who messed up?

Something bad happened.

Somebody must have messed up.

And Jesus has nothing to do with this line of thinking.

The man's blindness has nothing to do with a moral failure.

And when the man receives sight, it has nothing to do with him earning it or accomplishing it.

The blind man contributes nothing to the miracle.

It's Jesus that initiates the healing.

Sight is given.

It's only received by the man.

When our girls were little, we would read the book just because you're mine, this book.

Now my girls are older, but when they're little, we read this book every night.

I love this book.

This little squirrel keeps asking his dad, hey, do you love me because I'm fast?

Do you love me because I'm smart?

Do you love me because I gather acorns?

And this picture, I think he's he's jumping one branch to the next, and he's he's saying, you know, Dad, do you love me?

Look how brave I am.

Do you love me because I'm brave?

And the dad keeps saying over and over and over again, no, that's not why I love you.

That's not why I love you.

That's not why I love you.

I love you just because you're mine.

Not because you've done something impressive, just because you're mine.

That's very close to what's going on in John 9.

The blind man had done nothing to deserve the blindness, but he also had done nothing to deserve the healing.

Jesus moved toward him first.

The man simply receives.

Now the Pharisees in the chapter, they're struggling with this.

They want to do something.

You should have to do something to get this kind of love from God.

You should have to be moral or religious enough.

But Jesus shows the opposite that true sight is something that's given.

So we could say it this way: the gospel is not Jesus saying, if you see clearly enough, then I will love you.

No, the gospel is Jesus saying, I will give you sight, I will help you just because you're mine.

Notice the blind man doesn't go looking for Jesus.

It's a little bit of a joke that the blind man doesn't go looking for Jesus.

I know, it's a stretch.

Not only can he not go look for Jesus, he couldn't go look for Jesus.

Like he doesn't have the ability to.

Jesus comes and looks and finds him.

See, long before you were engaged toward Jesus, interested, pursuing, loving, Jesus was pursuing you.

His pursuit of you is the very thing that empowered you to love him, or serve him, or pursue him.

Paul explains this in 2 Corinthians 4, 5 through 6, continuing in this language of darkness and light.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord.

Worth ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge, the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.

In this John 9 story, we see this progress occur with this blind man.

At first, right after he's healed, he calls Jesus Jesus, and then he calls Jesus prophet, and then he calls Jesus Lord later in the story.

And that's what grace does.

That's what grace does in us is it transforms us as the Holy Spirit's working in us.

Grace doesn't just stop at the moment of giving you salvation and you becoming a Christian, it keeps teaching us how to see.

Here's how Paul explains it in Ephesians 5, 1 and 2.

Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children.

Okay, because we're beloved children, we should imitate God.

Verse 2, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Point number two is this as dearly loved children, we walk in the way of love.

In that verse 1 in Ephesians 5, the word therefore is there.

So in the scriptures, whenever therefore is there, we ask, why is it therefore?

Well, it's there because Paul's setting up a framework for us in this passage, but also in all of Paul's teachings in the New Testament.

We talk about it often.

It's the very thing that can transform us from being guilt-driven religious people, judgmental, self-righteous.

When you're doing great, you feel great.

When you're doing horrible, you feel horrible.

A move out of that insecurity, spiritual anxiety, over into a gospel, grace-centered, your free and your growing way of faith.

Here's how Paul sets up Christian living.

Paul says that we live imperatives through the indicatives.

Okay, we just look in the Ephesians 5 passage, right?

Walk in love, verse 2.

Okay, that's an imperative.

You should do this.

Love other people.

Well, how do we do that?

Well, we live it through the indicative, as dearly loved children.

You're already loved, out of that we go to love.

Meaning how we should live is fueled by what is already true about us, what's been indicated to us.

Who we are fuels how we live.

That word beloved in verse 1, beloved children is the Greek word agapatos, which means esteemed, dear, favorite, worthy of love.

You are that to God because Jesus is saying you are that.

It's indicated to you.

I was out of town for a few days last week on a pastor's retreat.

Two nights, three days, come back in that third day now.

In the old days when the girls were little, when I came back in town, there'd be a sign on the fence and they'd draw stuff, and they're waiting.

Nobody's waiting.

Just pulling the driveway.

Nobody's where is everybody?

Don't know.

I have to go hunt them down.

They got their own lives going on.

But I'm gonna go to each one and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna hug them.

I'm gonna hug each one.

A hug is going to come at them.

It will not be their choice.

I will hug.

And that embrace is not based on how well they did the two days while I was gone.

Don't even ask about that.

They're gonna get a hug.

I make them hug me.

My love comes at them, and I'm an imperfect father.

How much more?

How much more does the love of God come at you even before you serve Him, even while you're blind, and you don't see something that's true about yourself?

You don't see some area of weakness, some area of sin.

Even while you don't fully understand how much God loves you, how much more does this God love you and come at you?

We are his dearly loved children.

Brendan Manning, author of Abba's Child, he writes this: Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.

This is the true self.

Every other identity is illusion.

Am I a pastor?

Are you an accountant?

Are you a teacher?

Are you just a mom, just a dad?

Or are you something much more profound?

Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.

That's who you are.

Paul says in Ephesians 5, to be followers of God's example as dearly loved children.

That verse 1, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.

What Paul's addressing here in Ephesians 5 is as the heavenly father's sons and daughters, how should we live?

How now do we live?

And walk in love as Christ loved us, gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering, sacrifice.

Now I've got this little four-month-old puppy I've been telling y'all about.

This is Brock, little Brock Bowers.

And so, little Brock Bowers, I am trying to love him.

I am trying to love him.

And he pees all over my floors.

I turned my back and he has a shoe.

He has eight bones on the floor, but he wants a shoe.

This week I was walking across my backyard.

I'd finished some yard work.

It looked so nice and tidy, looked beautiful, fresh mulch, everything.

I was just walking through, enjoying the spring weather, looking at my hydrangeas, and a shark latched onto my right leg.

I looked down and he is clamped on my Achilles.

This is this is the puppy that I walk.

I physically get him out of his crate at night to take him out to go pee in the yard.

I bathe him.

I have found him in pools of his own urine in the crate and I bathe him.

I feed him and he he bites me.

My legs.

I told Chris yesterday if I was on a blood thinner, I'd bled out.

My legs are all marked up.

I mean, what a wonderful and horrible calling to love another person.

Because the puppy is mean.

Because your mother and your brother, not your family, but like other families.

I'm not talking about y'all, heaven forbid.

Impossible.

Family members can be impossible.

Your friend can disappoint you.

I mean, how do we love in a world where it's so hard to love?

And Paul says, Well, we we love like Jesus.

We love as Christ first loved us, which is lavish.

It's not based on our resume.

It's just one way, which means that it's sacrificial.

Like for me to love this puppy or to love another person, it's gonna be sacrificial.

For somebody to love me, it's gonna be sacrificial.

But as dearly loved children, it's indicated to you we can love other people.

Now that chapter goes on in Ephesians 5.

As you're beginning to see this, you see your love.

Okay, I can see I can love somebody else.

I don't have to be so self-righteous and judgmental upon them because I receive love, I didn't cause it, so I have no judgment over other people.

I'll love them.

And then as well, you also begin to see that sin is destructive.

And so that's why the rest of this Ephesians 5 is about the destructiveness of sin, but also the way of holiness.

Because you've seen some things now.

You've seen that lust and greed and selfishness.

Yeah, it just always ends up in destruction.

And you've seen it.

So now you begin to live like, Lord, help me.

Lord, forgive me of that.

God, help me.

Forgive me of that thought and that thing, and forgive me of that, and help me here, and help me here, and help me here, help me to see.

Ephesians 5, we could summarize it this way: Because we are so dearly loved by God, we walk in love toward others and godliness.

And it all comes out, it's all fueled by this secure, one-way love we have from Jesus.

After Jesus heals that man in John 9, and the neighbors bring the blind guy who can now see to the Pharisees, these religious guys, it should have been a celebration, but they don't believe the story, so they start to investigate why this happened, when this happened, oh, and now they think they didn't get Jesus healing on the Sabbath.

That gets them all excited, maybe get this Jesus in trouble.

So, what should have been a celebration for a man's sight, it turns into this investigation.

That the people who should be seeing, they don't see anything correctly.

Verse 17, so they said again to the blind man, Why do what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes?

He said he's a prophet.

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, Is this your son who you say was born blind?

How then does he now see?

And the parents confirm it.

The parents say, Yeah, he this is my son, and he was blind.

Beyond that, you gotta talk to him.

Because they didn't want to get kicked out of the synagogues.

They're like, hey, you gotta, they're just like skirting the issue.

I don't want to get involved in this, don't pull me in.

They were afraid.

So the parents answer, he's of age, ask him.

So the leaders call the guy back in again.

Pressure increases.

They're trying to force him to denounce this Jesus.

And so, verse 24, so for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, Give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner.

This Jesus is a sinner.

And then the blind man who now sees, he answered, Whether he's a sinner, I do not know.

One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.

The leaders keep questioning him, How do you open your eyes?

How do you do this?

He's like, I've already told you.

All I know is I couldn't see, and then this guy helped me see.

And the irony is striking.

Because the man who couldn't see can now see, and the people who are supposed to be seeing correctly, the religious people, they can't see anything.

And Jesus then goes on to explain this miracle, what it's all about, because it's not just about eyesight, it's about spiritual sight.

Verse 39.

Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.

Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind?

Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt.

But now that you say we see, your guilt remains.

And point number three is this paradox that we see.

It's a gospel paradox that when you see you are blind, you are ready to receive help from God.

Right?

It's only when you see you are in need that you receive salvation, forgiveness of your sins, a life with Jesus, to be God's son or daughter.

And then you begin to live a life where you see you don't see everything.

That God, I need your help.

Help me understand this, help me see this.

There's no way I can understand all this, no way I see all this.

I don't know how to move ahead.

I don't have control.

Help me see.

I need you, help me.

In the sixth grade, I got glasses, seventh grade, I got contacts.

I work, I hated wearing glasses.

I wore contacts all the time, probably 20 hours a day, all the way through college.

My eyes are so burned out.

So my eyes are hurting.

I hated glasses.

So finally I get out of seminary, Christy and I are engaged, I have a net worth of$8,000, and I go into the LASIK surgeon, and it's gonna be$2,400.

Net worth$8,000,$2,400.

And I'm like, I don't care, sign me up.

Like, I'm tired of this.

So the next week I'm in the chair, it's in a glassroom in a doctor's office, big kind of machine, and the doctor says, hey, we're gonna put this thing down, and we're gonna put a thing on top of your eyeball, it's gonna suck your eyeball out.

And when we suck your eyeball out, you're gonna go blind.

First time it's ever happened in my life.

I don't know if it's ever happened in you.

I've been in dark rooms, but I've never had my eyes open and not see and been blind.

Sure enough, suction cup, pull the eyeball out, a lot of pressure, go completely.

I couldn't see the reality in front of me.

I couldn't see what was true.

Doctor, big machine, doctors.

I couldn't, I couldn't see it.

And then finally they plop the eyeball back in there, and I could see again.

But I'll always remember that blindness to have your eyes open and yet not be able to see the reality in front of you.

This is what Jesus is talking about.

That there's there's all sorts of people, all kinds of people.

Religious people, non-religious people, walking around, and they don't even see it.

They don't even see that they need help.

That it's never gonna be about how good you are, it's never gonna be about causing or achieving.

It's always gonna be about receiving.

Jesus is saying that we are spiritually blind and that our sight comes from when we receive from Him.

That we can see the reality in front of us.

Who we are, who God is for us, what the world's like.

When you think you see, you're blind.

But if you realize that you can't see, now you're ready.

Now you're ready to begin to receive from God.

Understanding you're blind is the beginning.

The beginning of the beginning to see.

If you have any questions about the sermon, I'll be down front afterwards.

Love to talk to you and pray with you.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you do not leave us blind, and while we could not look for you and we could not, we didn't have the power to look for you.

You came toward us.

Even this morning, you're coming toward some of your children.

God, we pray for those of us who have never seen you clearly that this morning we would see that you are not a condemning policeman in disguise, but you are a loving Heavenly Father, and that Jesus is enough for all the forgiveness we need and all the righteousness we need and all the security we need as your sons and your daughters.

For those of us that have spiritual blindness in different areas of our lives, would you give us eyes to see?

Help us to see.

Increase our awareness of the areas of our lives that we have not surrendered to you.

And help us have our hands open wide, our hearts open wide to say, shine your light where you desire and have your way.

Help us to be receivers.

And will we trust Jesus more this morning?

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.