Sunday 1 June 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 01-06-2025

Speaker: Jamie Boland

Sermon Title: Finding Purpose From Darkness

Scripture Reading: John 9:1-7

 Today's reading is from John chapter nine verses 1, 2, 7.

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind? Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus. But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life as long as it is day. We must do the work of him who sent me night is coming when no one can work.

While I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said that, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva and put it on the man's eyes. Go. He told him, wash in the pool of loom. So the man went and washed and came home, seen, hear the words from the Holy Bride.

Thank you, Catherine, for that reading. What I'd like to do today is draw out some observations from our reading, and I want us to consider what it means to follow Jesus as we encounter brokenness in this world. The title of my message is Finding Purpose from Darkness. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this time where we can gather around your word. Holy Spirit, we ask and pray that you would speak. We pray that you would speak deeply. Speak to our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now I know this is heavy. I wanna begin though by stating that I believe that despite what's happened, God is with us.

Do you believe that? Yes. Despite what's happened, God is with us. And I believe that our response to this situation has honored God. First and foremost, I believe we've acted with honesty and integrity, and I believe that God will honor that. I also believe that it's a good thing when God kicks up the dust and speaks to his church.

God is in the business of bringing things to light so that he can redeem, restore, and renew. Is that something you believe? Yes, God is in the business of shining light on things so that we, his people can respond and he wants us to respond in a way that he can redeem, restore, and renew. It's natural to feel something in response to this.

Whatever you are feeling, it is natural to res to, to feel something heavy in response to what it is we've had to go through. Now, about two hours after receiving this notification from the government, I received an email from my, you know, in my inbox from a mailing list I subscribed to, and it's from a New Testament scholar named Scott McKnight.

Now, I believe the timing of this email was providential. It was a look at this story from John chapter nine. It was titled, we Aren't Called To Assign Blame, but to Accept Responsibility. Now, John chapter nine, it's an interesting chapter. It follows this extended account, this long extended account of Jesus in Jerusalem.

He's there for the Feast of Tabernacles. Now Jesus is there and he's in the temple courts, and he's engaging in this, you know, aggressive back and forth with the chief priests and the Pharisees. What he encounters is criticism, finger pointing, accusation. The crowds are saying, we think this guy is the Messiah.

The religious leaders though, they're, they're late. They just dismiss this. They actually claim that he's a Samaritan and demon possessed, and as I'm reading that, I'm thinking they probably see one as bad as the other. This guy's not the Messiah. He's a Samaritan. Our despised half cousins, and if he's not that, then he's demon possessed.

Now, every night during the Feast of Tabernacles, the city of Jerusalem would be lit up by these four enormous lampstands. Now, these lampstands, they were huge. They're about 25 meters high. And what they would do is they would fill them up with oil and they'd set them a light. Now they were so bright that the entire city would be illuminated, and what would happen next is the elders of Israel and some of the people would come and they danced the night away in front of these, these lampstands.

This was, you know, this was party time. The flame is burning the oil of the lamp. Let's just celebrate God's goodness to us as a people. In chapter eight, the final night of the feast has taken place and against this backdrop of these huge extinguished torches, Jesus stands up and he says, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Now the message is clear. Jesus is the true lipo, which we can see, and the chief priest and the Pharisees, well, you know, they're in spiritual darkness. They're leading people astray. They are the blind leading the blind. And Jesus says this openly and publicly in the temple courts.

Now, can you hear this? These are fighting words. These are words that can get you killed. Jesus then goes on to say that he's from above and that Israel's teachers are from below. And if that's not enough, when they question him about his father, implying that he's illegitimate, and therefore bastard, Jesus responds by telling them that their father is the devil.

Okay? We rarely see Jesus as aggressive as he's here. We then get this story of this man who was blind. And as we heard in our reading, Jesus heals him and he sees, and what we unsee, what we see unfold in the rest of the chapter is this. This man who once lived in darkness, now has light while the teachers of Israel, those who claim they can see, they're actually stumbling about in darkness.

What John is showing us is that Jesus is the true tabernacle light. The true tabernacle light has come, but only those who believe in Jesus see the light. And having seen the light, Jesus now calls us to see as he sees. And so the question is, what does it mean to see as Jesus sees deceased? That's the question I want us to consider as we walk through our text verse one.

As he went along, Jesus saw a blind man from birth. Now there's no location Mark here. We dunno exactly where he is and when this is. But Jesus is passing by and he doesn't just notice this man. There's this deliberate gaze. He wants to draw attention to this man and the disciples. They get this, and this is why they ask Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?

When something goes wrong, one of the first things we do is ask who's to blame? Blaming others is something we learn in child childhood. Yeah, parents tell me, take a step back in time. Tell me this, the kids are playing. Think back in your mind. The kids are little, they're playing together. Something happens, maybe a fight starts, there's a huge commotion.

You walk in to sort things out and, and what's the first thing you hear? She started it. No, it wasn't me. It was him. It's this nat natural reflex. We learned to blame from a very young age. In fact, it's something we've been doing right from the very beginning. It wasn't me, it was her. It wasn't me. It was the snake.

And that's what's happening here. The disciples see a man who is blind. Something is wrong in this world. There's brokenness and they want to know whose fault is it? Who's to blame? Is it the parents? Perhaps God is punishing them for some past sin, or maybe they did something during pregnancy to cause this, or maybe it's this man.

Maybe he did something to deserve this. Do you know some Jewish teachers would actually trace this back to sin in the womb? He must have done something in utero. That's how they explain what's happened. Now, either way, someone did something, someone's to blame for what's happened here. Now it feels good when we can point the finger.

Yeah, it feels really good when we can point the finger and blame someone. One, have you noticed we live in a blame oriented culture? Do you watch the news? One political party blames the other. They don't take responsibility. It's their fault. The current government blames who they blame, the former government, the poor blame, the rich, the rich blame the poor one race or nation blames the other.

When something happens, there's got to be someone to blame, and all we need to do is find out who you know, who's at fault so that we can tell them to fix whatever it is they've messed up. Blame feels good because it gets us off the hook and it helps us, you know, it helps us distance ourself from the problem.

There's the problem. It's not my responsibility someone else's to blame. It's your fault. It's your mess. You fix it. I'm off the hook. Now, think about this situation. They're here, the disciples with Jesus, the blind man is right there in front of them suffering, and the disciples are talking about him like he's a case study.

Hey, Jesus, tell us who's to blame for this. You've got all the answers you tell us, Jesus. Do you see what they're doing? They're debating theology. They're not actually thinking about how they can help, and this is what blame does. It dehumanizes. It deflects responsibility. What we see next is that Jesus responds with something radical.

He's about to shift the conversation from blame to purpose and from guilt to grace. Did you get that there about blame? He's about purpose there, about guilt. He's about grace. Let's look at how Jesus sees this. Verse three. Neither this man nor his parents sin said Jesus, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Jesus doesn't play the blame game. What Jesus does is he reframes the moment. This isn't about sin, it's about opportunity, and it's not about the past, it's, it's about what God wants to do right here, right now. And so in other words, he's saying to the disciples, stop pointing fingers and start rolling up your sleeves.

This man is suffering and his suffering's not a puzzle to figure out. It's a mission to step into. Do you get that? Don't try and work out what's going on here. Don't see it that way as something to figure out. See it as a mission to step into. 'cause God's got a purpose for us here in this moment. But you know, it can be so easy to see brokenness and ask, why did this happen?

Instead of asking, how can I be part of God's redemptive work here? Are you with me? Now, I'm not saying that we ignore root causes. Sometimes things happen because people have been unwise and other stuff has happened. I'm not telling us to ignore root causes. What I'm saying is that we don't stop there.

Let me paraphrase what Jesus says. He says, it's not the man's fault. It's not his parents' fault. What this is is an opportunity for God. Jesus is not interested in discussing who's at fault. What mattered for Jesus was that a moment had presented itself in which God could show his power, mercy and grace, this is what it means to see as Jesus sees, this is what it means to see by the light.

Jesus is not to blame for what's happened here, but he's willing to take responsibility.

When Jesus announced his public ministry in Luke chapter four, he read from the prophet Isaiah words, we know very, very well. He said, the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

This is what Jesus is all about. The disciple see a blind man and the, their default mode is to, to work out, to assign blame. Someone's responsible for this and that ain't us. Who's to blame? And what Jesus sees is the chance to do what he'd been sent to do, to recover the sight of the blind and to set people free.

Jesus is there. He's able to respond, and he does. Are you with me? This email I received on the same day as this notification from the government, it, it contained an interesting story the writer says. Once I was with a group of friends and one of the guys in the group began to talk about his marriage.

According to our, according to our friend, he and his wife were on the verge of breaking up. When we asked what was wrong, he gave us a long list of things his wife was doing and not doing. That was tearing his marriage apart. One guy in our group began to probe and push back, which frustrated our friend.

Finally, our friend slammed his hand down on the table and he said, listen guys, it's not my fault. We are not saying that it is. The second friend replied, we're not saying it's your fault at all. What we're saying is that you are responsible for your family and your marriage. It may not be your fault, but you are responsible to this day.

It's one of the most profound things I've ever heard anyone say. It may not be your fault, but it still may be your responsibility. What kind of story would we have here? If Jesus had just looked at this man and said, Hey, you are blind. I get it. I'm not responsible. I'm not to blame. It's not my fault, and he just keep walking.

What kind of story would we have? What kind of story would we have if God had looked at our broken and messed up lives and simply said, yeah, that's definitely not my fault. You have reaped what you've sowed. I'm not responsible. I'll leave you to your brokenness and your mess. Imagine if God responded to what he saw in us.

In that way, I know where I'd be. I'd probably be dead, and I'm probably not alone here. The message of the gospel is that Jesus took responsibility for everything, even though none of it was his fault. That's the gospel. And the gospel has lived out. Every time a follower of Jesus sees a point of brokenness and says, it doesn't matter whose fault this is, this is a chance for God to display his glory.

Amen. And this is what Jesus brings out in verses four and five. He says, as long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Can you hear the sense of urgency in Jesus words? Time is short. People are suffering.

Now we must work while it is day. There is a clear emphasis here on time is also another emphasis. Jesus says, as long as it, as long as it is day, we must do the works. Now, did you catch that? Not he must, but we must. We are called to see as Jesus sees and partner with him. Jesus is the light of the world.

He shines that light, but we are the ones, his people who carry it forward. The healing work of God is not just the responsibility of Jesus. It's also the responsibility of those who bear his name instead of assigning blame and trying to figure out whose fault it is. Our call is to ask, what role can I play in making this situation right?

And that's a question we're gonna ask, knowing that we can't always do everything. We're weak, we're limited. We can't possibly address and fix all of the world's brokenness. But what we can do is ask God to show us how we can engage with the brokenness that he brings along our path. Amen. Now, as I said earlier, next week, we're gonna host someone from every daughter matters.

They're on the frontline rescuing girls from human trafficking and the sex industry. We're talking about vulnerable young girls who are lured by the false hope of a way out of poverty, a poverty that we can't even begin to imagine. Now this ministry, they can't end the sex trade. They can't end the poverty that drives these young girls to seek for a better life.

But what they can do is cast a net and seek to save as many girls as they can. They're not to blame for what's happening, but they're out there doing the works of Jesus. And can I tell you, they're toing the works of Jesus in the midst of omo overwhelming darkness. It is a pure evil that they are trying to combat in ministry.

They are out there shining the light of Jesus in the, in the midst of terrible, terrible evil. I watched a video last week with Ross Ncar. It, it, it breaks your heart. There is so much darkness out there, and they're on that front line and they are shining the light of Jesus. This is what it means to see as Jesus sees and do the works of the one who sent him.

Now we can't be there and we can't do what they do, but we can engage this darkness through giving him prayer. And can I exhort you? We should never underestimate the difference we can make by doing just that. Amen. Amen. We can make a difference. Prayer is a powerful weapon. We can pray, we can give. I saw a story recently of a pastor who served part-time as a chaplain for the fire department.

Now, whenever there was a house fire, he was called to come and care for the family that's been affected by the fire. He writes, first responders have only two jobs. Keep everyone safe and put out the fire. Finding out what caused the fire was someone else's job. The fire crews were only there to put the fire out.

If someone was trapped in the burning house, no one discussed whose fault the fire was. No one said, well, the fault's your fire. We're not gonna save you. What they did is they got people outta the burning house. All of these other questions will be answered by someone else later, and he concluded, this is us.

Every time we see a piece of our broken and messed up world, we have to remember, we're not here to decide whose fault it is. We are there to pull everyone out of the burning house and put out the fire. Finding blame is done by a totally different department. So look around the mess in the world around you may not be your fault, but it may still be a responsibility and a chance for God to show his power, mercy and grace are you with me verses six and seven.

After saying this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with a saliva. And put it on the man's eyes. Go. He told him, wash in the pool of sil oam. This word means scent. So the man went and washed and came home sing. So this is a very interesting picture we see happening here. Jesus spits. Imagine if I'm standing here and I spit.

Now, it happens sometimes with preachers. I remember once being in the front row, some guy got so excited and passionate. He's just spitting everywhere. Okay? But I'm not deliberately hawking a lougie down onto the ground. That's what Jesus does. He spits into the dirt. He bends down, he kind of puts his fingers in it, makes some mud, and then he applies it on the man's eyes and tells him to wash.

And where he tells him to wash is significant. John tells us that this word s am means scent, which it does in Hebrew. Now this word scent has spiritual significance. In John's gospel, you'll find it over 20 times. We're told over and over and over again that Jesus was sent by God. And so what we have here is this blind man is told to wash in this place called scent by the one who was sent by God.

Now what's happening here, it's a deliberate play on words designed to show us that the source of healing is not this Paul called sent, but rather Jesus, the one who is sent by God. Now the last use of this word in John's gospel. Anyone know where it's found? Anyone? Posit a guess. It's in John chapter 20.

Jesus says to his disciples, as the Father sent me, so I am sending you what he's saying is that we too are called to be agents of healing in this world. As the father sent Jesus into the world to be light, to shine bright, we too are sent by Jesus into this same dark world. To bear that light to others, that's our call.

And if you read John's gospel, what does? What does Jesus do after that? He breathes the Holy Spirit into them new life. The Spirit carries us into this mission of healing. Now thinking back to John chapter nine, Jesus could just speak the word and the man's gonna be healed. Yeah. Jesus just says, see and he'll see.

Instead what he does is he stoops down and he gets his hands dirty. This is what it means to engage the brokenness in our world, you don't engage brokenness and darkness by keeping your hands clean. You wanna do that sort of ministry and mission. You've got to roll up your sleeves, and you've got to get your hands dirty.

There's no clean hands in ministry. Is that right brother? Milton, your hands don't stay clean when you, you're working in ministry, you gotta deal with stuff. American Pastor Jim Simbao, he shares a story that powerfully speaks into this. Now it's a story that landed on my computer on Thursday. I was ready to finish my message.

I, at this point, I'm thinking, I'm done. I'm finished. Message is completed. Thank you, Lord. It's only Thursday, and then this story lands on my computer, and I believe that it's landing on my computer at that point is also providential. Here's what Jim Sinah writes. He says This. It was Easter Sunday, and I was so tired at the end of the day that I went to the edge of the platform, pulled down my tie and sat with my feet draped over the edge.

Now he's at a big church that probably has had multiple services all day Easter Sunday. He says it was a wonderful service with many people coming forward. The counselors were talking with these people. As I was sitting there, I looked up the middle aisle and there in about the third row was a man who looked about 50 disheveled, filthy.

He looked up at me rather sheepishly, as if saying, could I talk to you? We have homeless people coming in all the time asking for money or whatever. So as I sat there, I said to myself, though, I am ashamed of it. What a way to end a Sunday. I've had such a good time preaching and ministering, and here's a fellow probably wanting some money for more wine.

He walked up when he got within about five feet of me, I smelled a horrible smell like I've never smelled in my life. It was so awful that when he got close, I would inhale by looking away, and then I talked to him and then look away to inhale, because I couldn't inhale facing him. I asked him, what's your name?

David? How long have you been on the street? Six years. How old are you? 32. He looked 50 hair matted, front teeth missing, wino, eyes, slightly gazed, glazed. Where did you sleep last night? David. Abandoned truck. I thought, oh, I'll just give him some money. I won't even bother getting a volunteer. They're busy talking with all these other people.

Usually we don't give money to people. We take, take them to get them something to eat. So I took the money outta my back pocket and, and David pushed his finger in front of me. He said, I don't want your money. I want this, Jesus, the one you're talking about, because I'm not gonna make it. I'm gonna die on the street.

I completely forgot about David and I started to weep for myself. I was going to give a couple of dollars to someone God had sent to me. See how easy it is. I could make the excuse that I was tired. There is no excuse. I was not seeing him the way God sees him. I was not feeling what God feels, but oh, did that change?

David just stood there. He didn't know what was happening. I pleaded with God. God forgive me. Please forgive me. God forgive me. I'm so sorry to represent you in this way. I'm so sorry God. Here I am with my message and my points, and you send somebody and I'm not ready for them. Something came over me.

Suddenly I started to weep deeper and David began to weep. He fell against my chest as I was sitting there, he fell against my white shirt and tie, and I put my arms around him and there we wept on each other. The smell of his person became a beautiful aroma. Here is what I thought the Lord made real to me.

If you don't love this smell, then I can't use you. 'cause this is why I called you where you are. This is what you're about. You are about this smell. Christ changed David's life. He started memorizing large portions of scripture. We got him a place to live. We hired him in the church to do maintenance, and we got his teeth fixed.

He was a handsome man when he came out of hospital. They detoxed him in six days. We spent that, sorry. He spent that Thanksgiving at my house. He also spent Christmas at my house when we were exchanging presents. He pulled out a little thing and he said, this is for you. It was a little white hanky. It was the only thing he could afford.

A year later, David got up and talked about his conversion to Christ. The minute he took that mic and began to speak, I said, this man is a preacher. We later ordained David. He's now an associate minister of a church over in New Jersey. And I was so close, close to saying, here's some money. Take it be on your way.

I am a busy preacher symbol. Close with this prayer. Lord, thank you for sending others our way. May we never stop seeing them as your precious children. No matter how busy or tired we become. Amen. N

we can't fix all of this world's brokenness. But we can engage the brokenness that God brings along our path. And that begins by seeing, as Jesus sees as a church, a terrible evil has come along our path. It's an evil that breaks God's heart, and if we see as God sees, then it should break our hearts as well.

A young life was destroyed and God was misrepresented when that abuse took place. Someone who professed the name of Jesus has misrepresented God when they perpetrated this abuse. We may not be to blame for what's happened, but we are taking responsibility and that's what we see in the cross. Jesus takes responsibility for actions and behaviors that weren't his.

This is our ch. This is our chance as a local body, a local community of Jesus followers to live the cross. We are gonna close with communion. Every week we take time to remember the one who encountered us when we were bit a vile stench. You know, we selt bad just like David. That's how, that's how we were when Jesus first met us.

Yeah, Jesus saw our deepest point of need. And what did Jesus do? Jesus made atonement. Jesus saw us at our worst, at our most broken. And what did he see? He saw a need, a deep need for a retirement, and that's what he made.

I just love this mosaic. At the heart of the Christian faith is the good news that someone else has taken responsibility for the things we have done. Jesus took upon himself our darkness so that we could be brought into light. And in response he asks that we will see as he sees and follow him as light bearers into this world.

If I could ask those distributing the elements to come forward in service, please. Thank you.