Be Jesus to The World

John 9:1-11 ESV

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

I love this story! Don’t you? Now, you know Jesus was not saying that the man’s parents never sinned, but that the man’s blindness was not caused by his or by his parents’ sins. Now I thought about how the man could have sinned prior to being born blind, if that were possible, but then I decided that was beyond me and so I skipped over that part other than to point out that we humans have all sinned and we all come up short of attaining God’s divine approval and acceptance. For we can never be good enough in our flesh.

But as I thought about Jesus’ words and how he said that the reason this man was born blind was so that the works of God might be displayed in him, I was encouraged by that. For if you think of all the things that have happened in your life or in the lives of people you love and care for, some people have gone through so much that it is hard to imagine how any of them came out sane and whole. But I love it that God can take the impossible situations of our lives and he can turn them around for good.

And then I love what Jesus said in his next words. For people are dying every day. I have lost people who I loved to death, and I know I will probably lose more, or I could be the next one to die. Not one of us knows if we have tomorrow. So, while there is still time, and while we still have the breath of life in us, if we are believers in Jesus Christ, we must be doing the works of God while we still have today. And we must be doing the kinds of things Jesus did, and we must speak the words that he spoke, and we must be sharing with people the truth of the gospel while there is still time.

So, what is the truth of the gospel? In a nutshell it is that Jesus died on that cross and was raised from the dead in order that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). For Jesus died to free us from our slavery to sin and to empower us to live godly and holy lives pleasing to him. But if we choose not to obey the Lord, and if we choose to continue living in deliberate and habitual sin against God and against other humans, then we need to know that heaven does not await us.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Be Jesus to The World

Video Talk

November 3, 2022

https://youtu.be/503p8irnZo0

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