Sermon Tone Analysis

Pre-Introduction:

At this time, we invite any children who desire to join my dear wife for a children’s service to follow her where you can hear a wonderful bible lesson and sing some uplifting songs about Jesus.

For those joining us by other means, you’re listening to the Services of the Broomfield Baptist Church.

This is the Pastor bringing the Sunday Morning message entitled "One Thing I Know.”

We invite you to follow along with us in your Bible in the Book of John, chapter 9.

Introduction:

[Start Low]

Illustration-

As a boy Robert Louis Stevenson was intrigued by the work of the old lamplighter who went about with a ladder and a torch, setting the street lights ablaze for the night.

One evening in Edinburgh, Scotland, as young Robert stood watching with childish fascination, his parents heard him exclaim, “Look, look!

There is a man out there punching holes in the darkness!”

With one statement of childish wonder, Robert Louis Stevenson summed up the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus came into this world and accomplished many great and miraculous wonders, yet His primary purpose was to punch great gaping holes in the spiritual darkness that shrouded this world.

He came to be The Light Of The World, v. 5.

In this passage detailing the healing and salvation of a poor, blind man is shining brightly.

While we have the opportunity today, let’s take some time and look at Jesus: The Light Of The World.

If you find that your are in darkness this morning, I am here to tell you that Jesus can and will lead you into the light if you will respond to Him call and come to Him by faith.

[Carr, Alan.

“Jesus: The Light of the World (John 9:1–11).”

In The Sermon Notebook: New Testament, 1677.

Lenoir, NC: Alan Carr, 2015.]

Main Thought: Jesus both saved this blind man through his personal faith while simultaneously condemning these Pharisees through their own personal unbelief showing that it eternally matters what one decides about who Jesus really is.

Sub-introduction: Illustrate how John is giving us signs for Jesus’ Deity with His miracles with the signs scattered through KS about a giant prairie dog… somewhere...

Literary Context

In this pericope the narrative transitions from a formal courtroom scene in the temple (8:12–59) to a more informal scene of a preliminary hearing.

Here an expert witness, one who has personal experience (and therefore expertise) of the defendant (Jesus) and the particular crime of which he is being accused (healing on the Sabbath) is examined by legal officials.1

The conflict initiated in the previous pericope has made one thing clear to “the Jews”: Jesus is a threat.

Questions surrounding him no longer concern his identity; they now entirely focus on his extermination.

Even though Jesus’s presence only frames the pericope, the dialogical exchange between several different characters serves to highlight his person and work.

The reader is being guided to “see” the meaning and significance of the mission of the Son of Man and to believe in him.

[Klink, Edward W., III.

John.

Edited by Clinton E. Arnold.

Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament.

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016.]

This miracle is also significant in that it demonstrates Jesus’ authority not only to grant life to those who believe but also to judge those who reject Him (cf.

John 5:22).

[Kim, Stephen S. “The Significance of Jesus’ Healing the Blind Man in John 9.” Bibliotheca Sacra 167 (2010): 317.]

Jesus used this miracle as the basis for a short sermon on spiritual blindness (John 9:39–41) and a longer sermon on true and false shepherds (John 10:1–18).

[Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary.

Vol. 1. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996.]

Body:

I. Jesus Visits in Our Misery (John 9:1-7)

[Go Slow]

First Dialogue: Jesus Heals an Unnamed Man Who Was Blind from Birth

Note - Compare this man with the woman of 8 (unnamed), and Martha of 11 (…Believest thou?)

A. Jesus Sees the Blind Man & The Disciples Inquire, "Master, Who Sinned?" (Jn.

9:1-2)

I am told that in the United States somebody goes blind every twenty minutes.

The man we meet in this chapter was born blind; he had never seen the beauty of God’s creation or the faces of his loved ones.

When Jesus arrived on the scene, everything changed, and the man was made to see.

However, the greatest miracle was not the opening of his eyes but the opening of his heart to the Saviour.

It cost him everything to confess Jesus as the Son of God, but he was willing to do it.

[Wiersbe]

Application-

A CURIOSITY

We have a tendency not to “see” those who are disabled or to treat them in ways that emphasize or trivialize their disadvantage.

For instance, blind people are often treated as if they can’t hear either, which is exactly what the disciples did on this occasion.

People appreciate being genuinely cared for, but resent being treated as a “case,” “problem,” or “curiosity.”

When dealing with people who are suffering or disabled, we must try to empathize with them.

We should always strive to treat others in the way we would want to be treated, were our situations reversed (see Matthew 7:12).

[Barton, Bruce B. John.

Life Application Bible Commentary.

Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1993.]

B. Jesus Explains This Man's Blindness in Light of "The Works of God" (Jn.

9:3-5)

HOME BEFORE DARK

The night cometh, when no man can work.

John 9:4.

When I was a boy growing up in the hills, it was a law of the Medes and Persians that I should be home before dark.

That was understood and there were no exceptions.

Night is settling on the world today and the time is short.

We must work the works of God while it is day.

We Christians are not of the night nor of darkness.

God is going to gather His children home before the final storm breaks.

I want to get home before darkness settles on my little day.

But the darkness precedes the dawn even as it follows the day.

I want to get home where it is never dark for there is no night there.

[Havner, Vance.

All the Days.

Vance Havner Bundle.

Baker Publishing Group, 1976.]

Note - Consider Dr. McGee’s insights on verse 5-

God has His own wise reasons for permitting sickness, disease, suffering, and trouble.

When I went to the hospital for surgery, I received letters from hundreds of people.

Out of those letters, there were several who proposed to tell me why God let this happen to me.

The only trouble was, I don’t think that any one of them knew.

God doesn’t always reveal to us why He permits things.

I believe this:

God never does, nor suffers to be done

But what we would ourselves,

Could we but see through all events of things

As well as He.

God has His way, and He doesn’t propose to tell us all His reasons.

He does ask us to walk with Him by faith through the dark times of our lives.

[McGee, J. Vernon.

Thru the Bible Commentary: The Gospels (John 1-10).

Electronic ed.

Vol.

38.

Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.]

Application-

GOD MAY USE OUR SUFFERING