Lighting A Candle

Text: John 9:1-41

Focus: Shining the light on Jesus

Function: Helping people to focus on Christ instead of other things in Church.

Form: Storytelling

Tell the story:

• The blind man saw
• The pharisees refused to believe what was before him
• They made up a reason to attack Jesus

Their deliberate and stubborn refusal to believe is almost appalling.

How people can, when presented with something good happening to them, and all around them, -how they can- refuse to believe amazes me.

How people can reject what is obvious because they are afraid to give up their ideology flabbergasts me.

It's like, the earth is still flat or something.

That is the story of this passage.

It is a simple message. Jesus did a great thing and some people refused to believe in Him.

Now, let me segue into an illustration that will lead us to the point of this story. The teaching point of the story is found in the last three verses of the text.

In March 3rd's sermon, I shared how God saved my life when the Azar's Big Boy restaurant that I was managing was robbed and I was beaten and left for dead.

Jesus saved me.

While the men were discussing how to kill me, I repented and prayed “Lord Jesus, I am sorry, forgive my sins and save me.

I felt Him enter my body right here (point to base of right ear).

What a miracle happened to me!

But I also shared that when I was a young man, I left the Church altogether because my Church had decided to move its location when the neighborhood integrated.

They did not want to worship with black people.

I let that destroy my faith.

Now, that Church did the gospel wrong.

The NT is very clear about racism, “there is neither male or female, slave or free, Greek or Jew” and “in Christ, God broke down the dividing wall...” between races. And “God has called the Church into the ministry of reconciling people...”

it is just as obvious to me in the NT as this miracle should have been to them.

I believe that they were that way because they were afraid of change.

Part of my restoration back to God had to include forgiveness toward that Church.

I had to accept what good I learned from them, and forgive the poor example.

When I boil that story down I realize something that this passage is trying to teach us.

Think about this.

The Church that I dismissed, the church I had to forgive, was preaching Jesus and racism.

I quit listening to them because they mixed the gospel message with their own personal bias.

This week, President Jimmy Carter attacked the Southern Baptists for preaching Jesus and gender discrimination.

Many Churches have lines drawn in the sand about politics so that the message is Jesus and their view.

I wonder how well people are listening to our message about the gospel of Jesus when Churches have take such strong stands, either for or against a myriad of issues.

Is it Jesus AND? Or, is the message Jesus, who loves us?

And here is what this has to do with the scripture this morning.

Let me read the last three verses from The Message Bible:

³⁹Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

⁴⁰Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”

⁴¹Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”

Jesus is the light of the World.

The light shined, and since they refused to see it, they were blind.

Their refusal to believe Jesus condemned them.

And Jesus point is a warning for us.

This man was clearly healed. A wonderful miracle happened but the leaders refused to acknowledge Jesus.

Instead, they choose to be blind. They choose not to see.

The whole story leads up to these verses where Jesus gives a warning... ...and it's not just to the Pharisees, but it is also to us:

Do not be blind leaders.

A good thing happened and they refused to shine a light on it.

The gospel is good news.

Instead of rejoicing in the good thing that happened, they condemned Jesus.

It is an avoidance strategy.

When you got nothing good to say, you curse the darkness.

So, I ask myself the question. Do I curse the darkness, or do I light a candle?

When Churches curse the darkness, the message is Jesus and whatever they are cursing.

Jesus was loving on this blind man. What a wonderful story of restoration!

And they changed the message. They condemned Him as a false prophet. They questioned His origin and when the blind man called them out on it, they condemned him as well.

Who else likes the book of Revelations?

It is highly symbolic book. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

It starts with letters to 7 churches. In Chapter 2:4-5 Jesus, from heaven, tells the Church at Ephesus that He will remove their lamp stand because they have left their first love.

This is important symbolism.

In the OT temple, there was this Holy Place and every day, they placed 12 loaves of bread in it. (move up on stage to lamp stand and uncover the bread)

It was called “The bread of presence.”

The candlestick illuminates the bread.

The bread is/was a prophetic symbol of God's provision for His people. It was an OT prophetic symbol of Jesus Himself.

In John 6:25-59, Jesus Himself specifically calls Himself this bread of life.

The Candlestick illuminates God's provision. Jesus.

And the Church in Ephesus was about to lose its candlestick because it started focusing on the wrong thing. It may not have been a bad thing, like racism. But it lost its primary focus.

If we are not shining the light on Jesus Christ, then we are blind leaders.

It is so easy to do “Jesus and” instead of Jesus alone.

The more we shine the light on other things, the less we shine it on Jesus.

We can easily move the light away from Christ.

Some of the things we move the candlestick toward are good and healthy.

There is nothing wrong with proclaiming them.

Whatever is pure...

If you listen to me long enough, you will think it is Jesus and Kairos Prison ministry.

At times the church needs to speak out.

But when it does, it must remember that it's job is shining its light on Jesus, the bread of life.

Cursing the darkness is not shining a light.

Way too often, we get so caught up in the “and” part of Jesus and that we forget that we are speaking for Christ.

This is Lent. We are focusing on Jesus.

And it is easy to get caught up with distractions.

When we do Jesus AND we too can confuse the issue.

At times, I am just as guilty.

Last year, after George Zimmerman was acquitted, I fell into the trap of getting into a political debate with some fellow Brethren ministers.

And I was invited to write an opposing view, which I posted to my blog. I was angry when I wrote it and I was very critical of some media personalities that they enjoyed.

My critical spirit was very unchristian.

And someone here pointed it out to me. When I reread it, realized how mean it sounded. So I deleted. But the damage was done.

I made a mistake because I was preaching Jesus and my viewpoints.

It is easy to fall into this trap.

We can easily forget that we are here to shine the light on Jesus.

This Lent, we shine the light on Jesus.

Pride gets in our way.

When we curse the darkness, it has the appearance of wisdom.

The Pharisees assumed that if they cursed it loud enough, people would listen to them.

Cursing the darkness can even have the appearance of Godliness. People confuse anger with Godliness.

But it is not for us. James 1:20 is clear, Man's anger does not bring about God's righteousness.

Our pulpit is not a bully pulpit, it is a pulpit of grace, bringing healing.

Every time we curse the darkness, we are preaching Jesus AND. We are moving the candlestick away from Jesus.

Our pride makes us want to be relevant.

On either side of every conflicting viewpoint are people that Jesus gave His life for.

We are good at being:

• Democrat or Republican.
• For gun control or against gun control
• MSNBC or FOX News
• One preacher, the one I got this candlestick/bread illustration from said that the Church turned into the 4-H club in the things they stand against:
  • Harry Potter
  • Hollywood
  • Halloween and
  • Dare I say it? Homosexuals.
    • On that last one:
    • Sincere people, who are fighting over it have moved the candlestick away from Jesus into the AND.

I have to continually remind myself to keep focused on Jesus and what He has done for me.

Pride will get us every time. It will distract the good news.

So, I'll blow you away with a different perspective on racists.

You hear me preach “love the sinner, hate my own sin.”

Well, I have been guilty of hating the sinner.

I did a wedding and they asked the ceremony to be on Wednesday because they didn't want the bride's father to come.

He and his father were Grand Dragons in the KKK. Her parents were divorced and her mother was remarried to a black man.

At the wedding reception, the last seat available was across from her step mother and grandmother.

I remember seeing them as haughty. But Jesus loved them.