Becoming Like Jesus
By
Pastor Samuel Chess
Grace
Emmanuel Church
Port
St. Lucie, Florida
Jesus' Miracles
A) Counting the times Jesus healed large groups of
people at the same time as one, how many instances of Jesus
performing miracles do you think are recorded in the Gospels?
(1) (12 ) (24 ) (36 ) (72 ) (108)
B) Miracles recorded in the gospels were very much supernatural
events and were not just ordinary daily events. In fact, Jesus did
not grandstand his miracles; he often asked that they be kept
secret.
1) At the transfiguration or the raising of the 12 yr. old dead girl
he
only allowed his closest disciples to watch with
strict order to keep quiet.
2) While he never seemed to deny anyone’s request to be healed he
always turned down requests for a demonstration of his power to
amaze the crowd.
C) It seems clear from the Gospels that the excitement generated
from miracles did not readily convert into
life-changing faith.
1) Many denied what they were seeing was real and many attributed it
to magic or the devil.
2) Far from convincing the masses, Jesus miracles aroused suspicion
and even contempt. Only occasionally did they bring about true
faith.
I. The Possibility of a Miracle
(John 9:1-12) As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His
disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?"
This is the only miracle in the gospels where the sufferer is said
to
have been that way from birth. This is an important
point here for several reasons:
1) Everybody knew the man, the disciples knew him, they knew he
had been born blind. The disciples brought up a point
of doctrine that everybody was concerned about. The Jews connected
suffering with sin… not because the Old Testament law taught that
but because the Pharisees commentary on the Old Testament (which had
come to carry as much weight as the Bible itself) taught it:
1) Teaching of the Pharisees- “There is no death without sin and no
suffering without iniquity” You can see the hand of God’s punishment
in natural disasters, Birth defects and serious conditions like
blindness and paralysis.
They believed in pre-natal sin, You began to sin while you were
still in the womb…or your parents sinned and passed the sin
genetically on to you. Jesus is going to blast this religious theory
out of the water…
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this
happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As
long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is
coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the
light of the world."
Jesus is actually saying two things at the same time: a) Neither
this man’s sin nor his parents sin are responsible for his
condition: that is based on a mistranslation of God's word
that the sins of the parents will be visited on the third and fourth
generations… He’s also saying: b) In your face Pharisees! I don’t
want you to miss that…Every time Jesus heals someone, he is
throwing it directly in the face of the Pharisees who have been
teaching all along that those people deserved to be sick, and
certainly didn’t
c) Jesus did not accept, at all, that sickness was a punishment from
God: (Luke 13:1-5) Now there were some present at that time who told
Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their
sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were
worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered
this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all
perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on
them-- do you think they were more guilty than all the others living
in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will
all perish."
d) He told the disciples not to look back and ask the question
“Why”, but to look forward and ask the question, “To what end?”)
Don’t be always looking back to find a cause, but be looking forward
to find a purpose! Not a bad piece of advice for all who are reading
this today:___________
It’s true that suffering comes as a result of original sin and the
curse but you must not fall into the trap of finding every
individual case of sickness to be the result of current actions of
sin. Jesus said, "This happened so that the work of God might be
displayed in his life.” The verb used their indicates that the works
of God are
continually being displayed in this man’s life and
our lives, but sometimes it takes something special to get us to
focus on what God is doing.
This man’s blindness simply provides the opportunity for God to show
his power to not only this man, but his friends and family, his
town-folk, the Pharisees, and to every generation since them
including us here today.
II. The Pathway to a Miracle
“Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the
saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash
in the Pool of Siloam" (Siloam+ the One Sent: Pool formed by spring
that ran out of Temple hill: used in sacred rites. Just as Jesus
used the Temple as his Father’s house so he used the spring to imply
his deity)
Most of us would go a long way to keep from getting another persons
spit on us! The early Jews thought spit had medicinal benefits after
all when you hurt your finger what do you do with it? They
though fasting spittle had particularly healing powers. We
think fasting spittle has particularly strong needs for a bottle of
scope! Either Jesus was working within their current beliefs or he
knew something we still don’t know about spit but he sent the
man to the pool at the end of Hezekiah’s tunnel, eyelids caked with
spit mud…..
Results: So the man went and washed, and came home seeing! Now if
that were the end of the recorded account we would all praise God,
go home and miss the full weight of how his town and the Pharisees
responded to his healing. At first this week when I looked at this
miracle and other miracles, after 25 years of preaching I was
freshly startled by their response; then I realized it wasn’t so
different from anything we see today.
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked,
"Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" (tense
implies-that’s incredible!) Some claimed that he was. Others said,
"No, he only looks like him." But he himself insisted, "I am
the man." "How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
Did they know who he was? Then why this sudden doubt about his
identity?
How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded. He replied, "The man
they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to
go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
"Where is this man?" they asked him. "I don't know," he said.
(implied faith)
Clearly this incredible miracle did not sway those who were
unprepared to believe. Although faith may produce miracles, miracles
do not necessarily produce faith!
You need to be careful of this…There are those you will see on
television who will assure you that their ministry is full of the
miraculous and as such is stamped by God to show his power to
a waiting world who will undoubtedly through the miracles be drawn
to Christ in a way they could not possibly otherwise be. That
doesn’t line up with the truth of what we actually see taking
place in the gospels….
We have, in most cases, no follow-up to show us that those Jesus
healed passionately followed him for the rest of his ministry. It is
not inconceivable that some of those shouting crucify him at the
trial were some he had healed months before. Certainly some of
them had seen others miraculously healed and it didn’t make any
eternal difference.
Apply:
No where is this attitude of: “I already know what I am prepared to
believe so don’t bother me with the facts” more evident than in the
religious leaders of the day:
III. The Paradox in the Miracle
(John 9:13-34) They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been
blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the
man's eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how
he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied,
"and I washed, and now I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "This man
is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others
asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were
divided.
Making the clay was a violation of the Sabbath. Jewish law forbid
healing on the Sabbath. ( Not the Old Testament Itself but the
Talmud) If someone was dying you could stabilize them but you were
forbidden to do anything to make them better. If someone had a
broken bone it had to remain unset until the end of the Sabbath.
Specifically the Talmud said: “As to fasting spittle, it is not
lawful to put it so much as on the eyelids.” Might be important to
note that Jesus wasn’t specifically trashing the Mosaic Law, He was
simply giving no weight to the Pharisees commentary on the Law.
There was actually serious disagreement among the Pharisees
themselves over whether Jesus breaking of the Talmud could still be
consistent with one sent by God….
There is such confusion that they do something totally
unexpected…they ask the opinion of the blind guy that there
teachings say is blind because of sin in his life! They, the most
righteous are asking the spiritual opinion of a sinner.
Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say
about him? It was your eyes he opened." The man replied, "He is a
prophet." (notice the progression in his belief from the “man they
call Jesus” to “prophet”)
Probably they don’t really care as much about the blind man’s
opinion as they do about discrediting him. He has to know that if he
stands with Jesus he will be excommunicated from the temple. (He
soon is)
The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had
received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. "Is this
your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How
is it that now he can see?" "We know he is our son," the parents
answered, "and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or
who opened his eyes, we don't know.
There lying…This visit to the Pharisees didn’t happen instantly upon
his healing. Whenever something follows immediately in Scripture
there is a connecting conjunction that isn’t present here. The first
thing the blind man would have done was go tell his parents whom he
almost certainly still lived with. You can be sure he didn’t leave
out any details of how this great miracle happened.. they
would have asked a million questions.
They were scared… not only could they be banned from worshipping in
the temple but all their property could be confiscated by the
religious leaders.
Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." His parents said
this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had
decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would
be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said,
"He is of age; ask him."
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory
to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."
The phrase “Give glory to God” was a Hebrew way of saying, You have
to tell the truth…may God strike you dead if you lie to us…We
already know this man is not from God but unless you confess it
publicly here and now your vision is not going to make up for the
miserable life you are going to lead. He replied, "Whether he is a
sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but
now I see!" (You can almost feel the man’s faith expanding)
This is no small affirmation of faith…This was the argument used by
many of you when you first came to faith. I can’t explain all the
reasons why but I can simply tell you that I sued to be lost
in spiritual darkness, now I can see. It’s one of the evidences for
the very existence of God! (empirical)
In fact this paints a clear line between those who have received the
touch of Jesus hand and those who have not. If you are sitting
here this morning and you are saying: I’ve certainly heard a lot
about Jesus but I don’t see life any differently than I ever have….
You need to understand that sitting beside you or in the row behind
you is someone who is saying:
I used to be so very blind but no I can see!
IV. The Prison of the Un-miracled
Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your
eyes?"
Well, I’ve probably already lost my place in the temple…They will
probably confiscate my tin cup… However there is one thing they
cannot take…I used to be blind but not anymore and I owe it all
to the Prophet, Jesus/Savior…could it be?????? Well here goes:
He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do
you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his
disciples, too?" Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are
this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God
spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he
comes from." The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You
don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that
God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does
his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born
blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." To this
they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you
lecture us!" And they threw him out.
V. The Plan of the Miracle Worker
(John 9:35-39) Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he
found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Who is he,
sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking
with you." Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped
him. Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that
the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
