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The Admonition podcast brings you Bible lessons and sermons from the Collierville Church of Christ with host Aaron Cozort. Each episode focuses on interpreting Scripture in its original context, exploring the background of key passages, events, and teachings. Gain deeper insight into God’s Word as we study together, applying timeless truths to everyday life.
Good afternoon.
I I've met quite a few of you this
morning.
~ for those of you that don't know me,
I'm Logan Pate. ~ beautiful wife is Laura
Sue and her two girls,
~ Remy and Quincy.
~ just started over at MSOP.
~ today we're gonna start out over in John
9.
That's gonna be mostly where we're where
we're reading out of today.
we'll float around from there a little
bit.
Set up here.
Mm-hmm.
Then naturally coming from MSOP,
I'm gonna be mostly out of the ~ King
James Version.
So ~ I have a couple scriptures that will
be over in the New Standard.
But and as Jesus passed,
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 hath this man sinned, nor his
parents,
but that the works of God should be made
manifest in him.
~ today we're gonna talk about,
we're gonna have seven different points to
make.
~
There is a question that naturally rises
with our pain and suffering. maybe not all
of us,
but I would dare say a lot of us have at
some point
in our life begged the question,
why? Why me,
why now, why the suffering?
Why would I God put me in this position?
~ there's a lot of questions that come
from that,
from misunderstanding, from the suffering
we feel,
the guilt.
Going back to the text, the disciples see
the blind man and immediately assume that
there must be a reason rooted in guilt.
Someone must have failed, sinned,
or been at fault to cause such suffering.
We often assume suffering to be something
to escape.
Something to explain away, and sometimes
that God must
be displeased with us. But Jesus reframes
this entire conversation.
He does not explain suffering as
punishment,
he reveals suffering as purposeful grounds
for God's work.
As we get into this, we are going to go
over these six major points investigating
~ Jesus' stance on pain.
the first point to I have to make Jesus
rejects
the theology that blames the broken.
John 9 2 through 3.
~ going back to
Our original ~ text here,
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
manifested in him.
This statement is no small correlation.
It's a the theological earthquake.
Jesus dismantles the idea that all
suffering is a direct result
of personal suffering.
Sin. ~ We can find confirmation in that
in multiple places throughout the
scripture.
~ All throughout Job chapter one and two,
Job suffers not because of his sin,
but because of his faithfulness.
~
In Luke thirteen, one through five,
Jesus rejects the idea that tragedy proves
guilt and that
we are all guilty.
Let's see.
Luke thirteen, one through five,
there were present at the person some that
told him of the Galileans,
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them,
Suppose ye that these Galileans were
sinners above all Galileans,
because they suffered such things.
I tell you, nay, but accept ye repent.
Ye shall all likewise perish, or those
eighteen upon whom the tower
of Siloam fell and slew them, think ye
that they were sinners above
all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you, nay, but except ye repent,
ye shall likewise perish.
This gives us the ideology that we're all
sinners.
It doesn't it doesn't matter whether one
of us has greater sins than the other.
My point number two, suffering can exist
long before purpose is revealed.
This was the blind man from birth.
He was blind from birth.
a lot of people don't really take the time
to think about what that truly means
~ when reading that text. We get a lot of
the time focused on
the actual miracle of
Of Jesus healing him, which is absolutely
not to be ignored.
But looking at his history also gives us
the gravity
of the situation. ~ the blind man
has never seen color. He's never looked
upon the face of his mother.
He's never seen the faces of them or those
around him.
And he's never had memories of sight.
He was blind from birth. He never
remembered what it
was like to see the trees,
see his family, none of that. ~ and
nowhere in
the text does it suggest he understood
why.
God's purpose was unfolding in him from
before he was even born.
Supporting scriptures for that God works
in all things for good.
~ Romans eight twenty eight.
Romans eight twenty eight And we know that
all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose.
If you look at also Isaiah 55,
8 through 9, God God's ways are higher
than ours.
And then Psalm 139,
16, God's plans precede our awareness.
Psalm 139, 16.
We'll flip over there real quick.
Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect, and in thy book all
my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned,
then as yet there was none of them.
And knowing and nowhere in the text the
uncond comfortable truth
we we face ~ with with that recollection
is that purpose does not require our
understanding to be real.
~ our suffering,
we don't have to understand it for God to
have purpose in it.
~
The blind man he had no idea what was the
purpose of his suffering until that moment
Jesus talked to him and called on him.
~ he spent his wh whole life wondering.
And God isn't going to wait for us to
understand before he sets
his plan into motion. The blind man's
suffering
was meaningful long before he was healed.
My third point: Jesus enters the pain.
He does not just observe it from a
distance.
When we drop down a little farther in John
nine to verse six,
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.
Jesus could have spoken healing him from
afar.
He didn't have to get his hands dirty.
He didn't have to go to him. He didn't
have to lay hands on his eyes.
But instead he he kneels, he gets his
hands dirty,
and he touches our place of pain.
In Hebrews four fifteen, we see how he
sympathizes with our weakness.
Hebrews four fifteen for we have not on a
high priest which cannot be touched with
a feeling of our infirm infirmities
infirmities,
sorry, but was in all points tempted like
as we are,
yet without sin.
And John one fourteen
John 1.14, and the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us.
And we beheld his glory, the glory as of
the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Suffering is not proof that God is absent.
Sometimes it's proof that He is near.
Working in deeper ways than we can than
just what we can see.
a lot of the time we we get into that
mentality that
when we're going through suffering,
it's because ~
God's absence, it's that we can sometimes
feel like it's a reflection on our faith.
that there's a problem with us or with our
situation.
~ and there's there's instances where ~
We just don't understand. There's some
really rough things that people
go through and I'm sure a lot of you have
been through that
we just can't find explanation for
sometimes.
but ~ the point number four,
healing does not require difficulty,
it redirects it. The miracle did not end
the man's hardship.
After he was healed, he didn't just
go on through his life having a perfect
life.
~ once he was healed,
he was actually questioned. He was doubted
by those around
him and not only doubted, but he was
pressured to deny Christ.
And in John 9:34,
They knocked they actually kicked him out
of town for his faith,
even though he was he got healed.
Everyone had seen it. His neighbors that
had known him since since birth,
that had known he was he was blind,
you know, there was it was impossible.
For to see him with sight, and yet they
still found a way to blame Christ,
and ended up kicking him out of town.
John 934.
They answered and said unto him,
Thou wast altogether born in sins,
and dost thou teach us? And they cast him
out.
Verse 35. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out.
And when he had found him, he said unto
him,
Dost thou believe in the Son of God?
He answered and said, Who is he,
Lord, that I might believe in him?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both
seen him,
and is he that talketh with thee.
And he said, Lord, I believe, and he
worshipped him.
I couldn't imagine being in that situation
being
healed in a manner that was you know,
n never expected, ~ going through your
whole life with the expectation and
probably the hopelessness that it's never
going to be fixed.
that there's no there's no way out of it.
It's something that this is this is what
it is.
This is my life and I need to,
you know, find a way to make the best of
it.
And being confronted with such
a feat of healing and then
Asking who is this Lord that you sp that
I've heard
of that you're able to do these things
through
and finding out that he's standing in
front of you,
that the one that was able to completely
change your life
to to
shift your entire existence to have him
standing right in front of you.
I could not imagine what that must have
felt like for him.
And I want you to notice his response
to those that did have skepticism in John
925.
Just a second to get over there.
He answered and said,
Whether he is a sinner or not,
I don't know. One thing I do know that
though I was blind,
now I see. Then they said unto him,
What did he do to you?
How did he open that your eyes?
And he answered them, I told you already,
and you did not listen and
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you also want to become his disciple?
Then they reviled him and said,
You are his disciple, but we are Moses'
disciples.
We know that God spoke to Moses as for the
fellow,
as for this fellow, we do not know where
he is from.
And the man answered and said to them,
Why, this is a marvelous thing.
that you do not know where he is from.
Yet he has opened my eyes. Now we know
That God does not hear sinners,
but if any one is a worshipper of God and
does his will,
then he will hear them. Since the world
began,
it has been unheard of that any one opened
eyes of one who was born blind.
If this man were not from God,
he could do nothing. And they answered and
said to him,
You were completely born in sins and
and are you teaching us? And they cast him
out.
There is a lot of power in testimony
if it is about the power of Christ and not
centered on ourselves.
God often allows for our suffering so that
our faith
is not just theoretic but visible
and more deeply meaningful. A daring
invitation
to shift the view suffering as assignment.
Jesus says in 9 4, I must work the works
of Him who sent
me while it is day.
Suffering does not pause God's mission,
it advances it. I personally ask you
today,
when you go through suffering,
to try and shift your manner of this
thinking,
from why did he do this to me,
to what can I do for him? How can I
be used to spread the glory of God through
my suffering?
Suffering is not just something to endure,
but something through which God intends to
work through us,
to deepen our compassion, to mature our
faith,
and to point others to faith.
Turning over to James chapter 1,
verses 2 through 4. James 1,
2 through 4, count it all joy,
my brothers. When you meet trials of
various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your
faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full
effect,
that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking nothing.
God doesn't give us a rejection of pain,
He gives us a rejuvenation of the soul.
I do not recall ever learning from
the scripture that our lives were going
to be without transgression or without
pain,
without suffering.
The life of a Christian is
not the easy path. It is
the straight and narrow. It is something
that not many people choose to take.
And it is a choice. It's something we have
to choose to take.
And it's not an easy road.
It's it's something that takes work,
takes ~ effort and takes perseverance.
A little bit later, Jesus finds this man
again in John thirty five thirty eight.
The man does not just receive sight,
he received revelation. He says,
Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him.
Our physical healings fade with time.
Our sufferings come and go,
healing comes and go, but our spiritual
sight lasts forever.
This miracle
Points to the Gospels in John eight
twelve.
Jesus is the light of the world.
In eight twelve,
Jesus spoke.
Jesus again unto them saying, I am the
light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness,
but shall have the light of life.
And every believer is a form of this blind
man who has been seen
by Christ and rejuvenated. At one point or
other in our life,
we answered
the call to Christ and to be baptized,
to put on his blood.
And up until that point.
We were blind going through life,
going through our suffering without
understanding,
without purpose. and that blood that that
He gave us and He shed for us was the
blood that opens our eyes.
The blind man didn't choose his suffering,
but God chose how it would end.
Some of you still may be in the middle of
his story,
asking yourself why, and still waiting for
clarity,
whether it's with or through God or not,
but
God wastes nothing. He doesn't waste
tears,
he doesn't waste time, and he doesn't
waste pain.
He works through all of these things.
And one day we may look back and realize
what you thought
was meaningless suffering was actually
sacred ground for God's glory.
The world may be looking at you.
You may be looking at you, wondering why
would God do this to me,
but God works with purpose. He doesn't
just patronize us.
We're not ants under his magnifying glass.
We're his children. We need to trust him,
find his glory and purpose in times of
hardship.
And if you have not found him in your life
yet,
I ask what you're waiting for.
If there's something holding you back.
Because this entire time, through our
suffering,
through all of our decisions, our
shortcomings,
he has been there waiting for us with open
arms.
Just as the just as he waited for the
prodigal son.
He waits for his children. And if you have
not answered
his call to come forward and enter his
kingdom and
be part of his body, we ask that you come
forward now as we stand and sing.