A Man Called Jesus

In one paragraph

This message worked through John 9:1-41, the account of Jesus healing a man born blind. Pastor Carl traced the story from the healing itself through the man's repeated interrogations by the Pharisees, and then to the moment Jesus found him again and the man worshiped Him. Along the way, the sermon pressed on what it looks like to be a witness to what Jesus has done rather than a lawyer or a judge....

Read together

1. Mark 10:45 Jesus did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many
2. John 9:1-41 the healing of the man born blind, the main passage of the sermon
3. Isaiah (unspecified) prophecy that hearing they will not hear and seeing they will not understand
4. John 3 God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through him
5. John 12 if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them I do not judge him for I did not come to judge the world
6. 1 Peter 2 Jesus continually entrusting himself to the one who judges rightly
7. Acts 1:8 you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and to the uttermost parts

Talk about it

1. The pastor opened with the disciples' question about who sinned to cause the man's blindness, and connected it to the common assumption that suffering is always punishment for wrongdoing. Where do you see that kind of thinking show up today, and how has it affected the way you've looked at your own hardships or someone else's?
2. The formerly blind man's understanding of who Jesus was grew step by step, from 'a man called Jesus' to 'a prophet' to 'Lord.' Think about your own experience. Was your recognition of who Jesus is something that happened all at once, or did it develop over time?
3. The man simply obeyed Jesus' two commands, go and wash, and came back seeing. The pastor said simple obedience gives you a platform for simple testimony. Is there something you sense God calling you to do right now that you have been slow to obey, and what is holding you back?
4. The man's testimony was straightforward: 'I was blind and now I see.' He didn't explain the theology or defend the method, he just said what happened to him. What does your own firsthand testimony about what Jesus has done for you actually sound like when you put it into plain words?
5. The pastor drew a distinction between Jesus coming 'for judgment' and coming 'to judge,' saying what we decide about Jesus orders our life and our eternal future. He also said the church, as the continuing body of Christ, is called to be witnesses rather than lawyers or judges. What does it look like practically to hold that posture in your relationships with people who haven't yet come to faith?