Introduction: ‘For 51 years Bob Edens was blind. He couldn't see a thing. His world was a black hall of sounds and smells. He felt his way through five decades of darkness. And then, he could see. A skilled surgeon performed a complicated operation and, for the first time, Bob Edens had sight. He found it overwhelming. "I never would have dreamed that yellow is so...yellow," he exclaimed. "I don't have the words. I am amazed by yellow. But red is my favorite color. I just can't believe red. I can see the shape of the moon--and I like nothing better than seeing a jet plane flying across the sky leaving a vapor trail. And of course, sunrises and sunsets. And at night I look at the stars in the sky and the flashing light. You could never know how wonderful everything is."’ Max Lucado, God Came Near, Multnomah Press, 1987, p. 13.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be blind, let alone blind from birth, never to have seen anything..ever…nothing.
•    Not the lovely face of my beautiful wife Kathy.
•    Not the over-the-top smile of my effervescent daughter, Becky.
•    Not even the looks on your faces when I tell a joke that really isn’t funny.

I can’t imagine living life without seeing anything…can you?

But there’s something far worse than physical blindness…it’s spiritual blindness.
•    Not seeing where your life is going.
•    Not seeing the hand of God all around you.

Explanation: But why is this important to you? Because spiritual blindness is much more tragic than physical blindness. In varying ways, we all are spiritually blind. And our spiritual blindness affects the way we live, how we ‘see’ life and view God. The good news is that there is a Great Physician who can cure our spiritual blindness and his name is Jesus.

Transition: Open your Bibles to John 9:1 (pg. 818 in the church Bibles under the chairs in front of you) Here we will see Jesus heal a man of both physical and spiritual blindness.

John 9:1-2        Who Sinned?
Read: John 9:1-2

The Pharisees taught that hardship in life is a direct result of sin. This meant that people who were blind, poor, ill or suffering any kind of hardship were not considered handicapped or just going thru a tough time, they were sinners who got what they deserved.

And they believed they shouldn’t show any kind of compassion or charity because their hardship was a punishment by God for their sin. To many in Jesus day, these people were a nuisance and even eye contact with them was avoided.

Now, don’t get smug on me
•    Aren’t we often guilty; aren’t we often blind to the plight of the disenfranchised, the impoverished, the handicapped, the homeless and suffering in our country
      …in our surrounding neighborhoods? 
•    Don’t we often turn a blind eye to the people who sit on the street begging or come up to our cars wanting to wash our windshields for some of our spare
      change?
 
We look straight ahead and avoid eye contact. It’s a signal letting them know we are not interested in giving them any money.

Jesus’ disciples were basically doing the same thing. As they walked along the road they saw a blind beggar. Rather than address his need, they avoided him by asking Jesus a ‘theological’ question. And the question was ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents? Like those who gave Job counsel, they believed that someone must have sinned because he was born blind.

And isn’t that our first reaction, our first thought about those we see who are begging on the streets, living in boxes on the sidewalk? Drugs, alcohol, crime…sin, personal sin…you got what you deserved.

Transition: We can be a lot like the disciples. But O, to be more like Jesus.

John 9:3-5        The Work of God
Read: John 9:3-5

Who sinned asked the disciples? Jesus said no one. Got a pen, write this down. Bad things happens for a reason. There is no such thing as luck, coincidence, fate, and kismet. The Bible tells us that there are at least 5 reasons bad things happen to us and to others.

1. Personal Sin
The wages of sin IS death. We do REAP what we sow. There are consequences both natural and spiritual to our sinful choices.
•    If you have sex outside of marriage, don’t get angry with God when you get aids or pregnant.
•    If you do drugs, abuse alcohol, don’t shake your fists at God when you lose your job, your family and your mind.
•    If you steal something from the mall, don’t ask ‘where’s God?’ as you are carted off to jail.
Sin, personal sin is the reason for much of the hardships we go thorough in life. But not all.

2. The Fall
Adam and Eves sin in the Garden of Eden brought a curse upon the ground and decay and chaos entered the world. The Apostle Paul in Romans 8 reminds us that the earth is groaning, awaiting the coming of God to make all things right again. Much of the hardships that result from what we call natural disasters are the result of a decaying and chaotic world waiting to be transformed back to the Garden, when Jesus comes again.

3. Satan
Jesus is Satan’s enemy and if you have asked Jesus to be your Savior, you are Satan’s enemy too. And just as Satan hates Jesus, he hates you. Sometimes life’s hardships are attacks from Satan to make us ineffective followers of Jesus Christ.

4. Spiritual Growth
Sometimes the hardships in life are God’s way to break us, so he can mold and reshape us into what he planned for us to become. Hardships sometimes come to purify us and make us holy, sanctified, to help us grow in our faith. Remember ‘All things work together for good.’ God meant all things, even the hard times in life.

5. To Show
And sometimes, God wants to use our hardship or the troubles of others, to show who he is to those who need to see him, as he is.
Sometimes God wants us to show us that we must always depend on him, in the good and in the bad times of life.
Sometimes God uses the hardships of others to show us what it looks like for a Christian to live faithfully before the world.
Sometimes hardship is present to show us God at work so we can  give him glory.

This is the case with the blind man in our text this morning. God was about to show this man and many others, the power of almighty God…to heal and to save.

Read: John 9:4

I think Jesus was saying rather than worry about the ‘why’ we must be more concerned about responding. Sometimes we get so caught up in the ‘why’ of suffering and hardships that we fail to see the bottom line…
•    How can I help?
•    What does God want me to do?
•    Can I see the work of God around me?
•    Will I give God the glory for what he is doing?

Transition: So what does Jesus do? Something very unsanitary by modern standards.

John 9:6-7        Sent
Read: John 9:6-7

Jesus, not willing to make this man purely the object of a theological discussion, has compassion on him. He looks at him and then he makes a mud pie out of spit and dirt and puts it on the mans eyes. But at least he told him to wash it off in the Pool of Siloam. And the man does it. Whether or not this was an act of faith on his part we are not told because he had to wash it off anyway. However I believe it was a sign of his obedience to the words of Jesus.

Important: The first thing necessary to see the work of God is to be obedient to the word of God.

Transition: The man washes his eyes and can see for the first time in his life and others take notice of the change.

John 9:8-12        The People Question
Read: John 9:8-12

Notice that people saw the difference in this man, but some questioned what they saw. They ask who healed him, he told them Jesus. Perhaps they didn’t know about Jesus, but more likely they just wanted to make sure this Jesus was the same Jesus who claimed to be the Messiah.

Why? Because it was the Sabbath and healing on the Sabbath is against Pharisaic Law and the people wanted him punished.

Transition: The people who knew this man questioned what they saw, and they were not alone.

John 9:13-34        The Pharisees Question
Read: John 9:13-34

The Pharisees didn’t see Jesus as the Messiah so they couldn’t believe that what he did was the work of God.

They thought the man was lying about being born blind…so they called his parents in. His parents were afraid to tell the Pharisees that Jesus had healed their son because it seems the Pharisees said that anyone who made reference to Jesus as the Messiah would be excommunicated from the very center of Jewish life… the synagogue.

What that essentially meant was, the Pharisees would block their entrance to eternal life, to heaven.

So, his parents only gave name, rank and serial number…
•    yes he is our son,
•     yes he was born blind,
•    yes he was healed

Then they lied to stay a part of the religious community when they said they didn’t know who how or who healed their son.

The Pharisees brought the formally blind man back in for questioning and they tell him this man (the one who healed you) is a sinner. The man replied said ‘look, I only know one thing. I was once blind but now I see’.
•    What a great testimony! He just told them how his life had changed since he met Jesus. I think we can learn something from that.

The Pharisees again don’t like what they hear and call him and his parents sinners and they threw him out of the synagogue.

I want you to notice that during this whole interrogation, the Pharisees always refer to Jesus was ‘the man’, ‘the one’, ‘this man’…never by his name, never as Jesus.

Why?  Because Jesus means ‘God Saves’ and they couldn’t get that off their lips without being guilty of hypocrisy.  They wanted to block their chances for salvation while Jesus came to bring the salvation of God.

Whether they were willing to admit it or not, as we sang this morning, ‘There’s Something About That Name’.

Transition: The name of Jesus changes lives.

John 9:35-41        Spiritual Blindness
Read: John 9:35-41

Rejected by others, the man who was once blind was sought out by Jesus. And when he finds him he goes right to the point. Do you believe in me? When he saw Jesus for who he was, he said yes, I believe.

For this man, his physical blindness was the means for spiritual sight. His life tragedy was the springboard for his new life in Christ. He saw what God had done in his life and gave glory to God.

Conclusion
A few closing points of life application

In the hardships of life
1. Look for blessing not for blame.
•    You don’t always have to know why bad things happen, you will not always have all the pieces fit nicely together so you can feel some measure of control
      and security.
•    Look for blessing by seeing what God has done and give him the glory.

In the hardships of life
2. Look for God to work ‘outside the box’
•    Jesus healed people different ways. He spoke to them, he touched them, he let them touch him, he made a mud pie. Don’t limit how God can bring healing,
     don’t limit how God can answer your prayers. Make room in your life for God to be God.

In the hardships of life
3. Open your eyes to see God at work around you.
•    While it is easy and sometimes oddly comforting to wallow in our misery, we will never honor God unless we give him the glory for how he is working around us.
     And we will never give him the glory if we are not intentional about seeing him at work. God sightings, look for them, everyday and give God the glory.

Are we blind?
We are if we fail to see God at work around us.