May 27, 2018
Pastor Jason Rogers
Sermon Notes
For weeks now, our pastor, Pastor Jeff, has been teaching on risk takers. It’s all or nothing. And he’s been giving us all of these different examples throughout the Bible, different Bible stories of risk takers, and we’re going to be learning about one more of those stories today.
That man that you saw {video clip shown}, it’s a really interesting thing that he did, being able to stand up and be the only one to stand and speak truth to power. You know, what we describe that as (that man that stood up), we would say that was courage. That was courageous. And one thing that I want you to know (you can write this down) is that courage cannot exist without fear. And so, this man, he stood up and spoke out, but in the beginning he knelt like everyone else out of fear. You know he didn’t know what was going on, what was happening, but he stood up and spoke out.
So, as we get ready to get into the Scriptures, we’re going to be looking at a very familiar Bible story in John chapter 9, and we’re going to read through the Scriptures in just a moment, but I wanted to take a second and just set the scene for you.
In this time period, what we’re looking at, there was a religious group who were the moral authority of their time. They were the religious majority. They were the party of family values, if you will, of their day and age. This powerful group of people, they reserved the right to say whether or not something was sin or godly. This group of people, they were the ones who were consulted, and they were the ones to decide whether or not something with a miracle of God or a trick by a demon. If you wanted to know whether something was right or wrong, it was this group, the religious authority, that you would check with.
This group had an enormous amount of power. -so much power, that they could sway kingdoms and governments alike. -so much power that kings and politicians alike would fear them, and they would align themselves with this powerful (and oftentimes political) party, so that they could garner the support of the people and maintain power. That’s right. I’m sure you’re very familiar with this very religious and sometimes political party that I’m talking about. It was the Pharisees.
Jesus arrives on the scene, and we catch up to him during a time when he was breaking all the rules. He was frustrating the Pharisees, this religious majority, this moral authority, and while this group, this religious authority of the time, was doing its best to hold on to its power, Jesus comes along and is disrupting their plans and their ability to control the narrative. When he comes along, it is quite frustrating.
I. Risk Takers – Speak truth to the lost
The first point that we’re going to make is that risk takers speak truth to the lost. Now, this was quite a frustrating thing that just happened, not of course for the man who had been healed, not for Jesus, who had performed the miracle, but for the religious authority of this time, there had basically been an unsanctioned miracle. -something that happened when it wasn’t supposed to happen by someone who wasn’t supposed to be able to do it. So, here are some important points that we’re going to make here, but we’re going to read through the Scriptures because it’s important that we make sure we get it right straight from the Bible. John chapter 9, verse 1 reads:
John 9:1-12
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. 8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” 10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. 11 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.” 12 “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.
If there’s nothing else that that you gather today, one thing that I want you to hold onto is: Speak truth to power. Risk takers speak truth to power, and in this first point that we’re making, that risk taker speaks truth to the lost, it is important to note that even the disciples believed that there were only two reasons that this man was blind. They had even themselves decided there was only one of two reasons, and both were sin. Either he sinned, or his parents sinned. The disciples themselves were still learning. They were still learning the difference between a life influenced by religion and a life influenced by holiness.
So, this was a lesson as much for the blind man as the disciples. The disciples were lost too. The disciples were still what we would call today affectionately, “baby Christians”. They were still trying to understand, still learning from Jesus, and Jesus made the correction very quickly. When they asked Jesus, “Who sinned, his parents or him?”, Jesus made a very profound statement, “But this happens so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
I want to encourage you today and all throughout your week, that when people find bad things happening in the world and they don’t quite understand, the first thing that lots of times people will point to, is sin. And they will say, “Well, someone must have done something wrong. Was it the parents? Was it him?”
As you know, we experienced another school shooting this past week, and our hearts and our prayers go out to all the families who have had to endure such a tragedy. No one should have to lose a child that way. But as I watched the news stories and as I looked at social media and saw this story unraveling, there are always these people I would find who said, “Well, if there was a God, this wouldn’t happen.” Or they would say, “Why does God allow this to happen? Why does He do this?” And there are the people who say, “Well, there is no God, because if there was a God, he wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t allow this to happen.”
See, the problem that we often run into is that we don’t know who to blame, and we immediately start looking to make it someone’s fault. Something bad happened, so we’ve got to blame somebody. So, in this particular passage, Jesus said, “But this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
You know, the one thing that I have found fascinating about every time that there is a school shooting, every time there’s any kind of tragedy, there is a push, there are people who run to prayer. There are people who come back to the church. They fall on their knees, and they say, “Oh Jesus, help us!” So, I submit to you today that if nothing else, if for no other reason but, this happened so that the good works of God might be displayed in him, in them, in us.
I only say this to encourage you today, to stop looking at your problems as a punishment, and look at them as an opportunity. This man was blind his whole life for other people. What is that about? Can you imagine that? -to find out that you had been blind your whole life, all the way into adulthood, that you had begged on the street asking people to help you? Your whole life, you were blind for other people, so that the works of God might be displayed in you.
After being healed, the first thing he did was tell people about this man named Jesus. This man’s whole life was a tragedy. His whole life was painful. His whole life was disturbing, and people looked down on him his whole life. He’s a grown man, and after being healed, he didn’t say, “Jesus, why’d you have me blind my whole life? You’ve been walking around. You couldn’t have gotten here a little sooner?” He didn’t say that. He doesn’t say, “God, why me? I know some people over there who could have been blind. They ain’t did nothin’ with their life! Why me?”
He didn’t say that. Instead, the first thing he did was tell people about this man named Jesus. Not only does he do that, but he told them the truth about who he was and who Jesus was. He wanted people to know the story of what happened, and when he wanted people to know the story of what happened. There was a group of people that came along to challenge that story, to challenge the narrative, to dispute the facts and hide the truth.
II. Risk Takers – Speak truth to power in spite of fear
That leads us into our second point: Risk takers speak truth to power in spite of fear. So, this is the same point that I was making earlier about how courage cannot exist without fear. It is what you do in spite of fear that makes you courageous. So, we continue reading in our Scriptures.
John 9:13- 34 13
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath 15 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.” 16 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 perform such signs?” So they were divided. 17 Then 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.” 18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” 20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” 25 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!” 26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 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?” 28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
It is important to note that the proof of the Pharisees’ authority and power was displayed in the fact that in verse 13, the people who heard the story of what Jesus did for the blind man immediately took the man to the Pharisees. The people who were just hanging out and witnessed the miracle, they had been conditioned in such a way that they saw something they couldn’t explain, and they took the man directly to the Pharisees like, “Here, here. y’all got it. Y’all gotta do what y’all do…” -because the fear was that again, anyone acknowledging that Jesus the Christ was the Messiah would be thrown out of the synagogue.
This is important to understand what that means to be thrown out of the synagogue. To be thrown out of the synagogue means that your family is now discarded by society. You are now an enemy of the State. You will have no friends; no one will like you. It’s like being a leper. Your whole family is now shamed, and people will not associate with you whatsoever.
You see, the Pharisees had heard of Jesus and had already decided that he was a sinner. “You heard them. The miracle that was performed, this happened on the Sabbath.” They felt it was their responsibility to question the validity of what Jesus had done, and whether or not it was even true. Once the man told them the story of what happened, they ignored the truth and focused on the fact that rules were broken.
Then they asked the man for his opinion about Jesus. Once he said that Jesus was a prophet, they now shifted their focus on proving that the man’s whole story was untrue and that he had not even been blind in the first place. So, look at this. This is the strategy, right? You guys have seen this before in modern times. Something happens that people in power don’t believe, or they know it to be true, but they’ve got to keep it from being true. -or at least keep people from believing it. So, the strategy is to bring up his past. It’s what they did to the formerly blind man. Bring up his past. “Quick, someone find some dirt on this guy. Question his credibility. Let’s find some people who know him. Where are his parents? Let’s get them in here. And of course, for good measure, let’s call him a liar.”
They brought his parents and questioned them. The parents were afraid, and instead of defending or sticking up for their son, they basically threw their son under the bus. The Pharisees asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind?” Now, they hadn’t asked the question, yet they had already decided that the family had made a statement. “This is the man you say was born blind?” And his parents are like, “Uh uh uh uh, well he’s our son, and yeah, he was blind, but all that other stuff, -Who healed him? What happened? -we don’t know nothin’ about that. We don’t want nothin’ to do with that. He’s a grown man. He can speak for himself. Y’all talk to him about all that; we don’t want nothin’ to do with that.”
They were so afraid of being thrown out of the synagogue, that when they had the choice to stick up for their own child or to be shunned by this religious majority, this moral authority, they chose to side with the powerful instead of their own family. When given the opportunity to speak truth to power, they chose to sacrifice family rather than to speak up.
And so, since questioning the parents didn’t work, they brought the formerly blind man back in and tried to intimidate him further. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” They basically said, “Tell the truth, because we know you’re lying.” And then they tried to force him and intimidate him to change his story. The man refused to change his story, and the Pharisees could not find a way to disprove the facts. This man refused to change his story. And so, instead of backing down, this man decided to speak truth to power. This man, instead of backing down, called them out on their hypocrisy.
As a side note, risk takers are not afraid to challenge thinking. He did this on their own territory where they held all the power, without fear of any repercussions whatsoever. Just so we understand the seriousness of what this was, this is like going to a political party’s rally, and they give you a microphone, and they say, “Tell the truth.” And you get up and look the leaders and everybody else in the room dead in their faces and tell them that they are wrong and that they are all hypocrites.
That doesn’t happen often. As a matter of fact, it’s a little dangerous, because one of things that happens is, there’s a visceral reaction to that. There’s such a visceral reaction, people get so angry and so caught up in their own narrative, in their own story line and what they are willing to believe in, what they’ve decided is true, that when someone comes in and challenge their way of thinking and stands up and says something different, people literally can be shaking in anger because they’re so rooted in their belief systems.
After he did this, they attacked his character. They questioned his motives and attacked the character of Jesus. Even still, the man persisted and used their own logic and reason to turn their argument upside down. The Pharisees were so frustrated that they couldn’t disprove the facts and that they couldn’t argue against truth, that they decided to change the subject, insult the man and then for good measure, throw out something completely untrue and irrelevant to the argument. Then they threw him out in order to have the last word.
As kids, this is what that looks like: “Na na na na na, I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you…” Has anybody ever seen children have an argument that just goes off the rails? You’re like, they were having a pretty good debate, and then one of them was like, “No No No No! Blah blah blah. I can’t hear you!” And you’re like, Whoa! How’d that happen?
But you know, nowadays you see the same thing happen with adults. The same thing happens with grown people. It happens all the time. People who refuse the facts and refuse to believe something and refuse to have civil discourse… All of a sudden, yelling ensues, and insults have begun to be hurled, and you hear things like, “You’re a phony! You’re a liar! Fake news! 3% of the population is left-handed…” “Wait, what?! Wait. Hold on. Where did that even come from? I mean, I forgot what we were arguing about.”
This happens on a daily basis, but it’s not ok to be okay with lies. It’s not ok to allow people to know that they’re not telling the truth, for them to know you know that they’re not telling the truth, and for you to accept that. That’s not ok.
III. Risk Takers – Don’t tolerate willful ignorance
Third point: Risk takers do not tolerate willful ignorance. Willful ignorance is not ok. I’m running out of time, but let me get on through this. Verse 35:
John 9:35-41 35
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said,[a] “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” 40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” 41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
You see, Jesus heard about what happened, and at this moment he fully reveals himself, not just as a profit, but the son of man, the Messiah. Once the man knew who he was, he worshipped Jesus. And this particular Scripture, I really appreciate, because Jesus says, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now that you claim to see, your guilt remains.” See, Jesus was pointing to the fact that he knew that the Pharisees had heard this man’s testimony. They listened to the blind man’s story, and they willfully decided that they would not believe. -not because there was any evidence, not because the man was lying. Jesus knew that the Pharisees knew the truth, but they were willfully ignorant. They made a conscious decision not to believe. And this formally blind man and Jesus will not tolerate willful ignorance.
Have you ever met somebody who was willfully ignorant? Don’t look at him if they’re here. Have you ever met someone who was willfully ignorant? -someone who you know knows the truth, but they refuse to acknowledge it? As a matter of fact, they will do anything but acknowledge the truth. They will change the subject. They will offer alternative viewpoints. They will attack you. They will lie. They will scream. But they will not tell the truth.
This happens all the time, and what you have to ask yourself is, what are you willing to sacrifice in order to speak truth to power? -because this happens in our own families. It happens in our churches. It happens in our politics, certainly, but it is not ok to be willfully ignorant. It is not ok to go along with lies just because they support a narrative that we feel strongly about. You can feel strongly about something that you value, something that is important to you, without allowing somebody else with a loud voice or the powerful to come in and tell lies to everybody in order to support that narrative, because at that moment, everything that you support and the values that you try to stand on have now been compromised and infiltrated by lies. And now you’re on sinking sand.
Always remember that the Pharisees were willing to kill Jesus rather than have their power taken away. You must speak truth to power because the voices of the powerful are loud, and they reach far and wide. The powerful must be held accountable, because just because something is powerful or someone is powerful, does not make them right. Just because they dress nice and have a microphone or have a platform, doesn’t mean that their voice should be heard louder than the others, and it doesn’t mean they deserve your support, because if we don’t hold the powerful accountable, it can cause the masses to lose their way. Masses of people can stray and go in a direction and end up in a place that they never thought that they would be.
This is why our politics can never be bigger than our Bible. This is why our party affiliation should never overshadow our testimony. This is why our holiness must be greater than even our religion. This is why truth must come before all holiness, above all, and Christ over everything.
I don’t care what party you subscribe to. I don’t care what your politics look like. All of this should drive us to our knees and to prayer, to rely on the Lord God Almighty. -because no matter what party you’re a part of, no matter what your politics are, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess, it is Jesus Christ who holds all the power. And we can vote and weaken support. We can do this and do that, but if you are not constantly in prayer about what you should do and who you should be, and if you are blindly following those people, whoever they may be, then you are outside of God’s will for your life. It is not this political party or that political party or this government or this nation that should lead the world. It is the church that should lead nations. It is the church of Jesus Christ, the son of the only living God, that we turn to, and this is the truth that we should speak to power on a daily basis.
Next Steps
• Today, I trusted in Jesus’s death and resurrection to wash my sins for the first time.
– Out of convenience or fear I’ve sacrificed truth. Help me to speak truth to power this week.
+ I will courageously speak truth to power this week.
Discussion Questions
- Have you ever put being right over being honest?
- Have you ever sacrificed the opportunity to speak truth to power out of fear or convenience?
- Are you willing to risk relationships for the sake of truth?
– Friendships
– Your Job
– Family - How do you believe this Bible story is relevant today?
- Do you have the courage to speak truth to power even in your own family?
- Are you able to differentiate between facts and your opinion?
- Have you ever witnessed yourself or someone else be willfully ignorant?
- Pray that God would give you courage, wisdom, discernment, and empathy as you navigate through difficult conversations.