God’s Light For Your Darkness

Pastor Mike will be speaking on God’s light for your darkness. He will be in John 9-1-12

This generation can be characterized by the words of Jesus in Revelation 3 .17 that says, because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

So many are there. The blind needs sight. Welcome to Hope Worth Having. This is Pastor Mike Sanders. We are so excited that you are with us today and we’re looking forward to a great opportunity to study the Bible together.

We’re going to be in the Gospel of John and we’re going to continue our study and we’re going to begin in Chapter 9 today, Verses 1 through 12 and I want to talk to you today about God’s light for your darkness.

The Bible says that Jesus is the light of the world. I’m so glad that even though we live in a dark world that we have a Savior who lights up our life through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So let’s get into our study. Let’s learn more about how God brings light to our darkness. The essence of the hope of the Gospel and that is that we will rise and that we will be reunited with all of our loved ones and we will one day be in His presence forever and ever and ever and it is going to be so wonderful church.

I want you to take your Bible to the Gospel of John, Chapter 9. Our text this morning is Verse 1 through 13. John, Chapter 9, Verse 1 through 13. I want to share with you this morning God’s light for your darkness.

As we reflect on this passage this morning, I want to tell you a story. by Debbie Stone. She wrote a book entitled Adopted by Love, and this is what she writes about her own testimony. She had a lot of whys in this world.

She had been conceived in a womb of a frightened unmarried girl who was fearful of her parents and she, her mother, had traveled to Los Angeles to give birth, and she says to give birth to me in secret and a place and to place me for up for adoption.

Debbie had been adopted by a Jewish family, but at seven months she had become paralyzed by polio. Her adopted parents placed her in a series of hospitals and institutions, and finally they relinquished her to the courts, feeling that they were unable to care for their quadriplegic child.

Debbie’s childhood was spent in hospitals and institutions as well as her teen years. She had a brief stay in a foster home and she began to grow bitter as she became an adult. She moved into her own apartment and she hired a live -in attendant.

She enrolled in college and for the first time in her life she began to make friends outside of the hospital. Among them was a lady named Alice Johnson. Debbie recalls in her book she says I spent a great deal of time asking her questions.

Alice was a Christian and as she talked about her relationship with Christ I wanted to know Christ as well. The two of us agreed to meet together and to read the Gospel of John. My greatest unanswered question had always been why?

Why my disability? Why my loss of family? Alice. Alice read to her John chapter 9 verse 3 where Jesus said about a man who was born blind neither this man nor his parents have sinned but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

Debbie goes on to say I was thrilled to learn that my circumstances were not punishment for anything that I or my parents had done but that God had allowed these things to enter into my life to bring glory to himself.

She goes on to say that I became excited about the possibility of Christ being exalted through my weakness. So when Alice invited me to her church I was delighted to go, and on December the 6th, 1970, I committed my life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

She says, as I now look back on my life, I see how God has taken what appears to be a set of very negative circumstances and made something beautiful out of them. And she writes, he has a way of doing that.

And as I read that story, I said, boy, I got to tell the church because it is a powerful story of God’s light for our darkness. When we come to our text this morning, we finally made it through chapter 8 together, and it was a lot of confrontation and a lot of anger by the religious elite towards Jesus Christ.

And I’m just kind of glad to get out of that chapter. to come into something to see Christ doing His great ministry. In chapter 9, beginning in verse 1, I want you to follow along with me. The Scripture says, and as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin? This man or his parents, that he was born blind. Jesus answered, neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent.

He went his way therefore, and he washed, and he came seeing. The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him, that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged. Some said, This is he, others said, He is like him, but he said, I am he.

Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes open? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash, and I went, and washed, and I received sight.

Then they said unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not. This morning, as As we look at our texts, we need to always remember that when we come to a chapter in the Bible, it’s essential to understand the theme, to interpret everything around the theme so that we do not get off on tangents or even distracted in developing our own theologies or belief systems that contradict the Scripture.

So I call your attention back to verse 3, 4, and 5 because they are the crux of this chapter of what God wants to say to you and to me this morning. Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works, and you might underline that, that the works of God should be made manifest.

Again, verse 4, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh, when no man can what? Work, so circle those words, highlight those words because Jesus reiterates them. And you see, we don’t have to be great Bible scholars to understand the Bible.

We just have to look when Jesus repeats words, he’s trying to get a message across. And we see in verse three, he talks about the works of God. In verse four, he says the work of works of him. And verse, at the end of verse four, when no man can work.

God’s light for your darkness requires that we work. And the first thing that I want you to understand is that we are to do God’s work. As believers, we are to do God’s work after a time of confrontation and debate with those who just refused to believe in Jesus Christ, no matter how great the evidence was, and how strong the invitation was and the loving invitation that Christ gave to those who did not believe,

yet they refused to believe. Jesus switches course and he focuses on ministry. He focuses on those who are believing, who do trust him. And he is now illustrating to them how they have the responsibility to take God’s light to a dark world.

And it starts right out of the gate with we are to do God’s work. I cannot overemphasize this, but I must bring clarification. In bringing clarification, I’m probably gonna upset a few of you, but I want you to know you’re gonna be okay.

And that is in verse four, we have a translation issue. In the King James, it says, I must work the works of him. The manuscripts, the older manuscripts say, we must work the works of him. newer translations, ESV, NASB, and et cetera, they say we must work the works of him.

And so some of you read that and you said, the pastor misspoke, but I did not, I’m reading the King James, but it is literally we in the Greek. And so therefore we understand this as an admonition and a command from Jesus.

We must work the works of him that sent Christ. We have a responsibility this morning to do his work. And you will note that he uses the word must, which indicates that it is a command. It is a imperative upon us.

It is something that we cannot just say, well, let the missionaries take care of it. Let the preachers take care of it. Let the deacons and the elders take care of it. Let the Sunday school teachers take care of it.

But here, we’re just coasting. We’re just here this morning to get our little Jesus and to get a little bit of him, to get us through the week. Know, my friends, all of us that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in his name this morning have a responsibility to work for God.

It is imperative, it’s intense in the Greek. It is affirmative that we are all required to do his work. And we are to work, it is to be a priority in our life. And what is interesting to me is that when Jesus passes this blind man, the Bible says in verse one that Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

When you read the Bible, you’re not only looking for repetitive words, but you’re looking for sometimes what it did not say. And what we find so often when Jesus is ministering is that he is doing what the disciples should have already done.

But they did not, they were following with Christ. They did not stop, they did not take time to minister to this man who was blind. But Jesus did, he passed by the way, he saw a man right up front. John wants us to know that Jesus is our example.

But what are the disciples doing? What most people do, what a lot of believers do. They’re looking backwards and that’s why they can’t work for God. They’re looking backwards and they’re asking why. But Jesus is not looking backwards, Jesus is looking forward and he is asking what?

The disciples asked him saying, master who did sin, this man or his parents, that he did sin. he was born blind it’s not that the question was an unusual question it seems like maybe its location and timing is odd right in front of the blind man who can hear the blind man was blind but he wasn’t deaf and he could hear what these disciples were saying but the disciples when they see this blind man instead of saying let’s minister to him let’s do God’s work in his life and let’s move him forward for God they want to look back and ask why Jesus corrects the misunderstanding that was in the Jewish culture that if your children were born with a disease or some kind of physical problem then that meant that somehow either the parents send or the child send and therefore God was punishing you Jesus says neither has neither has this man sinned nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Who are we to say that this man has sinned or his parents have sinned? Who are we to come to that conclusion? Because you see, friends, when we put ourself in that position, we are saying that we are God.

And we’re saying that somehow that we know everything and we’ve got it all figured out, but the truth is that God is in control of every situation. And though we may not agree with it, we may not like it, and we may struggle with the reality of what has come into our life.

The question is not why, in this sense. I know that it’s natural and normal for us to ask why. And I remind you that even Jesus Christ, while he hung on the cross, suspended between heaven and earth and all of the wrath of God for the punishment of mankind’s sin, was upon him.

And as the moon, or as the sun turned dark and the earth began to quake, that he cried out to God almighty. My God, my God, why? And so I get it. But the problem with believers living in the world of why is that there is not always an answer.

And it’s like a dog chasing his tail. If we spend our life in suffering, asking why, we will not be able to move forward in our life. We will not be able to take the steps that God wants us to take so that we might do the work of God.

And so the disciples like us are distracted, and they are saying why. Jesus quickly corrects that, and he says immediately that it is so that the works of God should be manifest in him. God has a plan in my suffering.

Wednesday night we’ve been learning about suffering and we were learning how God has this great purpose in suffering and we looked at Joseph and how Joseph in the midst of betrayal, in the midst of being rejected and forgotten, in the midst of being falsely accused, that Joseph says to his brothers who are in fear of retaliation, he says to them, what you meant for evil, God meant for good.

And so yes, there are people who mistreat us and yes, we find ourselves in physical challenges, and yes, We can even be falsely accused or mischaracterized in our life, but the truth is, remember this, that God is at work in your heart, and God is at work in your life, and that He can turn everything around, a tragedy into a triumph, and He can take your suffering and use it to make a huge difference in the lives of others.

And not only in the lives of others, but to bring glory to God. The disciples wanted to speculate, but Jesus wanted to put the focus on moving forward. And I want to say this to many of you this morning, and I say it out of the kindness of my heart, but I have to be straight with you.

Wallowing in pity will not make the suffering easier. And as hard as it is, emotionally and mentally and even spiritually, I need and God wants for you to write the last sentence of that chapter of your life as you look backward and start letting God write a new story, a new chapter in your life.

And I want you to look forward, not backwards. I want you to say, God, what are you doing in me? And what are you teaching me? And what are you calling me to? And God, what are you wanting me to do as I serve you in the days ahead?

That’s what Jesus is doing for the disciples. We are to do God’s work, and it doesn’t matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. We must all move forward, and we must all close the book. to whatever pain hurts and struggles and quit looking back and saying why but embracing what God has before us knowing that he has a great purpose and he has a great plan and that as I respond to him that God is going to bring glory even out of my suffering and if you get time later read 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 6 the Apostle talks about his affliction and here’s what he says that if I am afflicted for the encouragement of the saints and the salvation of others then God be glorified and sometimes God allows us to suffer that others may watch us and they may be encouraged and they may find that they have the strength through Christ to be able to endure and to be faithful and obedient to God and yet others who are unbelievers watch our lives and they see that there’s something real about this faith in Christ.

There’s something authentic about it that stands out in the midst of a dark world that has seen so many fake people and hearing so much, so many voices that are misleading them. So I want you to know that we are to do God’s work no matter what challenges are before us.

Some of you have quit working for God because you’ve been hurt. Some of you have stepped back because you are hurt and you’ve got to recognize, look, you got to move forward. You got to move forward because God has a purpose in our pain.

He has a purpose in our problems. He has a purpose even in what I call, and you’ve heard so many times, church, sandpaper people, people who rub us the wrong way. And just when you think you’ve gotten rid of one, another one shows up, amen?

But God is revealing in you what you need to work on. God is using those sandpaper people to smooth out the rough edges of your life. And the Lord knows that our edges are rough, amen? The second thing I want you to learn this morning is that the work of God, I want you to learn about the work of God that we are to do.

I really narrow it down to two things, but certainly out of it explodes many variances and styles of ministry. But I want you to write these things down, the work of God that we are to do. What is it?

Number one, it is bringing sight to blind. to the blind. Number two, it is bringing light to the darkness. These are the two things that we are to do. Let’s go back and let’s talk about the sight to the blind.

We look in verse 1. Jesus passed by. He sees a blind man. This man has been blind from the beginning. Jesus stops and begins to minister to him. We all understand that this is speaking to us spiritually this morning.

That every one of us is born into this world spiritually blind. And that blindness has brought us to the point where we literally are begging. We see in verse 8 the Bible says the neighbors therefore they which before had seen him that he was blind said it’s not this he that sat and begged.

You wonder why people run on tangents in life. they are begging for purpose, they are begging for meaning, they are begging for significance, they are begging for forgiveness, they are begging for fulfillment in life, they are begging for these things, and the thing is this, they don’t even realize that they’re begging.

They jump in different relationships, they turn to things into this world hoping that somehow it will satisfy them and bring some kind of fulfillment to their hearts that the emptiness will go away and the hurt will fade away in their lives, only to find that when they wake up the next morning, it’s still there.

Only to find that the world will abuse you, take advantage of you, and leave you on the side of the road once they’ve taken all that they can out of you, they will leave you there, and there you are again begging, begging.

We understand that every one of us that we are born blind spiritually, we are beggars. The Bible says for all of sin to come short of the glory of God, there isn’t a one of us that isn’t spiritually blind, but we must understand that there is hope for our blindness and that blindness comes, that sight overcoming our blindness comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the one that brings light.

He is the one that brings sight to our hearts. So as we examine the life of Christ and we see Him minister to this blind man, how do we do that? How do we bring sight to the blind? Here’s, write this down.

I just jot down a few thoughts here. Number one, help people see their blindness. A lot of people don’t see their blindness. Have you noticed that? They’re addicted to drugs and alcohol. They’re running from one relationship to another.

They’re trying to experience all that life has to have. They’re pursuing careers and money. And all along the way, they’re blind to the truth of Jesus Christ. This story I told you about Debbie, she didn’t know that she was spiritually blind.

But thank God for Alice, who God sovereignly brought into Debbie’s life, and Alice shared Christ, and she helped her see that she was spiritually blind, and she needed a Savior, and she received Christ as Lord and Savior.

Isn’t that wonderful? That’s your job, church. Go out of here and help people learn that they are blind. We’re not hateful and rude, but we’re honest and we want to help people understand that until they come to grips with their spiritual sickness, they can’t get any help.

You know that person in your family that will never go to the doctor, right? They won’t admit they got issues. You know that person that you’re trying to help in the community or maybe even at the workplace or even in your own family that has an addiction problem, that until they recognize they have this problem, there is no real help and solution for them.

This generation can be characterized by the words of Jesus in Revelation 3 17 that says, because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

So many are there. The blind needs sight. The Apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 3 and 4 that even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the Lord.

Light is a major theme of the gospel of John. Over and over again, John keeps reminding us that Jesus is the light of the world. In addition, when we go to 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, he teaches us about Jesus being the light, how important it is for us to know the light.

God has not called us to walk in darkness, but rather in the light. Today, I hope that you are walking in that light and that you have received Christ into your heart and you have let him through his light to dispel all the darkness that is in your life through the power of the gospel.

Now I want to remind you that at The Open Door Church, Hope Worth Having, that we are very much wanting you to know that we want to pray for you, so if you have a prayer request, go to HopeWorthHaving .com and hit the prayer request button and there you can fill out your prayer requests.

Each of these requests comes directly to me and I will take time to pray for you this week, whatever your issue is. Listen, friends, we know and believe that God answers prayer and God works through prayer.

And so sometimes it’s important for the people of God to rally together and start praying for each other. And I don’t know what your need is today, but I know that God has an answer. And so we’re going to look to Him.

So if you have that request, hopeworthhaving .com and hit the prayer request button and fill that out. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.