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Book: John
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John 9:2 Whose Fault is It?
Intro. When there is a serious accident there are two types of emergency
vehicles that usually respond. The police and the paramedics.
The police are usually the first to arrive, and they secure
the area. They begin to question the witnesses and measure
the skid marks, their purpose is to find out who's at fault.
When the paramedics arrive they immediately rush to the
injured and begin to minister to the wounded people. Their
purpose is to help those who are hurt.
I. In the ministry we often come upon the tragedies and disasters of
humanity.
A. There are those who begin to ask questions seeking to find out
where you went wrong; what law you violated; why you are
suffering; why this tragedy has come upon you.
1. They want to give you the reasons why your life is
such a mess.
2. They are quick to point out your sin and cite you for
your violation.
B. There are others who are more like the paramedics, who are not
interested in why you are hurting, but how can they alleviate
the pain.
II. The story of the man born blind.
A. The disciples asked Jesus the question, "Who did sin this man
or his parents that he was born blind?
1. Whose fault is it?
2. Is this some kind of punishment that God is inflicting
upon his parents for their sin? Is he suffering for the
sins of his father?
3. The Jews at that time believed that a person could sin
in the womb. Did he commit some sin while in the womb
for which God is punishing him?
4. The disciples were much like policemen who had come
upon a causality, there main desire was to know who is
to blame?
B. Jesus answered them neither hath this man sinned nor his
parents.
1. The plain answer is that this blindness is not
punishment for sin.
2. Why is it that when things go wrong, and we are facing
some tragedy that we seek to blame God? We look at it
as punishment from God. We think so often of God as
judging or punishing.
a. In the story last week of the woman taken in
adultery who the Jews according to their law
were ready to stone, what were the words of
Jesus to her? "Woman where are your accusers?
Hath no man condemned you? Neither do I
condemn you, go your way and sin no more."
b. Jesus said He was sent to seek and to save
those who were lost. He said that God sent His
Son into the world not to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved.
c. He finally said to Philip, "He that hath seen
Me hath seen the Father."
3. We remember so well the story of Job.
a. Here was a man who was stripped of everything,
wealth, health, family and friends.
b. Those friends who came to comfort him were
certain that Job was hiding some heinous sin,
and they could not be deterred from this
position.
c. Job ended up calling them miserable
counselors, and they ended up calling him a
liar for denying his sin.
4. Why do we look at human suffering as punishment from
God?
C. Let us make this clear, there are certain activities that
carry their natural inevitable consequences.
1. God is His love has sought to warn us against doing
these things for He knows the pain that they can
bring.
2. If your child is around a light socket and you warn him
to be careful, for if he puts his finger in the socket,
he will get shocked, should he then decide to put his
finger in the socket, you did not shock him, you only
warned of certain consequences of certain actions.
3. It's a matter of cause and effect, certain causes will
produce certain effects.
4. God does not always tell us just what the consequences
of certain actions will be, he just warns us not to do
it.
5. With Adam and Eve, he did tell them that the fruit of
that certain tree would bring death.
III. Why was the man born blind? According to Jesus, that the works of God
might be made manifest in him.
A. God had an eternal purpose in allowing this man to be born
blind.
1. His blindness will allow Jesus to manifest the works of
God to the people.
2. God is always working our His eternal purposes in our
lives.
3. Often what seems to be a tragedy is intended by God to
be an opportunity for Him to work and thus be
glorified.
B. Jesus then declared, "I must work the works of Him who sent
Me."
1. What did He then do?
2. What was the work of Him who sent Him?
3. He healed the man from His blindness.
4. The work of God is that of healing, making the wrongs
right, removing the pain and suffering of this world
cursed by sin.
C. What a different picture of God Jesus gave to us than those
that were passed down to man by tradition.
1. In the previous chapter Jesus had said to the Jews,
"You neither know Me or My Father. If you had known
Me, you would have known My Father also."
2. They did not know God, the loving heart of God. They
were ready and eager to stone the woman, God was eager
to forgive her sins.
D. Again, how do you respond to the tragic consequences of human
failure? Like a policeman or a paramedic?
1. Please do not misunderstand what I am saying, I am in
no way denigrating the police, it is their
responsibility and duty to uphold the law, to determine
the guilty party and see that the guilty party is
cited.
2. Without the police, our society would soon
disintegrate, and man would be living in the savagery
of the jungle.
3. They are a necessary and important part of every
society.
4. They are men who are willing and often do hazard their
lives to see that we might live in relative peace and
safety.
E. In a spiritual sense, God has called us to by paramedics rather
than policemen.
1. Ours is not to find the cause of the suffering, but to
minister to the one that is suffering.
2. The work of our Father is to heal the hurts of a broken
world.
IV. He then declared His mission. "As long as I am in the world, I am the
light of the world."
A. If you are looking for causes for the breakdown in our society
and the reason for all of the suffering, it is the natural
consequence of man throwing off the imagined restraints that he
feels God has put on him, and living in darkness.
1. They are not really restraints but warnings. If they
were true restraints, God would not allow you to do
them.
2. In His wisdom God has warned man, do this, and this is
what will happen.
3. Jesus said that as long as He was in the world, He was
the light of the world, Jesus earlier said that men
loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil.
4. Man refuses to come to the light lest his evil deeds be
exposed, and he should be compelled to cease.
B. Now that Jesus is no longer in the world, He said to His
disciples, "You are the light of the world."
1. Even as He declared that He must do the works of the
Father, so as the light of the world, reflecting His
light to the world, we also must do the works of the
Father.
2. The work of the Father is seeking to heal the effects
of men who live and walk in darkness.
3. To open the eyes of men who are blind to the truth,
that they may see the light.
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