Christ Church at Grove Farm

Rev. Craig Gyergyo: Isn't it great to have the Watermark students leading us in worship today? Thank you, Bailey. Thank you, Liliana. Such a great job. We get excited, I get really excited about the next generation. And here's the thing about them leading worship: we're not thinking, well, someday they'll get to be participants in the life of the church. Now. They are the "now church." And that goes for all of us: kids, youth, adults. You're not looking forward to someday when you can participate in God's kingdom. You do it now. And these kids have set the tone for us this morning. One more time, let's celebrate Watermark. So grateful. That's good.

My name is Craig Gyergyo, and I serve as a pastor here at Christ Church at Grove Farm. Very excited to have the opportunity this morning to welcome you all and to get into God's word. I noticed this in the last few weeks, we've had a lot of guests show up, and we're really excited about that. We're praying for you and praying that you will find a church community. The family of families will be a real thing for you. So please take the opportunity to fill out that connect card as many of you have done during the past couple of weeks. We'll follow up and show you how you can get connected and be a part of the family here. Lots of opportunities.

We are in a series called "Come Alive." That's what we're looking at. In a moment, I'm going to share an observation with you, but before we do that, I would love to share a prayer with you from the Book of Common Prayer. We are a Christian church that worships in the Anglican tradition, and this is probably one of my favorite prayers. It's one that I like to go back to, and I think it's very appropriate for today. Would you bow your heads with me in prayer?

Father, Almighty God, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to see them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior, our living hope, Jesus Christ. All this we pray in his name. Amen.

So here's my observation. I think this is over a number of years now and seeing how we think and how people operate. Most of us assume that the greatest problems in life are the hardships that we face. For instance, you might think, well, if this burden was lifted, I'd be good. Or you might think, if this struggle disappeared, then I would be in another rung of living. Or if this limitation was removed, or if this diagnosis changed, or if the relationship that's broken were healed. We think this way, and then we think, then, if only then, if this thing was removed, then life could really begin. I could really live.

I think that's a fallacy because our greatest burdens, the greatest obstacles really, are not the burdens that we're talking about. Our greatest obstacle is our blindness. I want you to wrestle with the fact this morning that there's a degree of blindness that sets into the human heart. A person can see clearly and still miss what matters most. Because here's the deal: you can read the Bible and miss Christ. That's amazing. You can attend church and you can miss God. And you can even stand in the light and still remain blind. This is the complexity of our hearts.

Jesus Christ is inviting you into something deeper. We're going to see it here this morning. This passage is a wonderful passage. They all are, but this one has really gripped me this week. We're in John chapter nine, the Gospel of John. I encourage you to follow along if you've got a Bible with you. Open that up. You could follow along with a digital version of the Bible. That's cool, too. Jot down some notes. I prayed just now that God would grant us the ability to see, to see him and to see his truth in the scriptures. I believe he's going to do that, so you'll want to write down what he's saying to you. Let's dive deeper into this passage. We've got a lot of ground to cover, 39 verses. Let's begin with one through three right now. You heard a portion of this read already by Bailey. Now let's hear some more here.

Guest (Male): 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 works of God might be displayed in him."

Rev. Craig Gyergyo: First of all, I love the way this passage opens up because it says that as he went along, as Jesus is just walking along, he saw a man who was blind from birth. I want to point this out to you because you'll see the contrast later on. Jesus takes note of this man before anyone else says anything about him. What the disciples actually see is a theological problem. Jesus sees a person, and that difference means everything. That changes everything.

What the disciples want to do is they want to assign blame. What Jesus is doing here is he's revealing purpose. They ask, well, why is he born blind? Whose fault was it? And he says, this is so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We tend to interpret the suffering that we go through through the lens of fault. Why is this happening to me? What's going on here? Well, Jesus is interpreting it through a different lens now, and that is the lens of redemption.

What he says is that God can display his work even in the places that seem most broken in your life. I know I'm talking to somebody here. As you listen to this passage, listen with this hope that whatever's broken, whatever's wrong, that actually Jesus sees you and he desires redemption in your life. Let's keep going here.

Guest (Male): Jesus continues. He says, "As long as it's 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," Jesus says, "I am the light of the world."

Rev. Craig Gyergyo: After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "go and wash in the pool of Siloam." This word means "sent." So the man went and washed, and he came home seeing.

I encourage you to read the context of this passage. When you do this, if you read back just a few chapters ahead in chapters seven and eight, you'll see that this event, this healing, is taking place in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles. During this festival, there were two powerful symbols that were present in Jerusalem. I wish I had more time to dive into this; stuff is really interesting. First, the priests would draw water from the pool of Siloam, and they poured it out in the temple. This is all connected to Old Testament history with the Israelites. Second, they had these massive lamps that illuminated the temple courts.

In the middle of these ceremonies, this big happening, Jesus makes not one but two what had to be astonishing claims to the Jewish audience. He says, I am the source of living water. You're drawing water and you're pouring it out ceremonially. He says, I am the water. And he also says, as I just read, I am the light of the world. It's astonishing.

Now, there's this unusual thing that happens in this passage, and I want to talk about that briefly because Jesus spits on the ground and he makes some clay—in some translations it says mud, but he makes some clay—and he places it on the man's eyes. He tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. John includes a little parenthetical note that tells us that Siloam means "sent." What that is doing is reinforcing the identity of who Jesus Christ is. He is the one sent by the Father.

Before this man sees, here's what Jesus does: he takes that clay and he smears it on his eyes. It's a strange detail. Let's be honest. But here's what it does: it points us back. Because in the beginning, God formed a man out of the dust, from the ground. Follow me on this. And here is Jesus kneeling in that dust again, and it's as if the Creator has returned to his creation. Here's what he's doing: he's beginning to remake what was broken from the start.

The man obeys. He goes and does what Jesus says and he returns seeing. Here's what happens: just as he said, the light has entered the darkness. In a very physical way in this case, but it's more than that. Here's what I want to do. This is a long passage, and if you would just hang in there with me, I'm going to read a lot of this now and I'm just going to jog through it because there are scenes that comprise the remainder of this astounding story. Let's get into it.

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" Some claimed that he was. Others said, "Nah, he only looks like him." But he himself, he insisted, "I'm the man. I'm the man." I like that. "How then were your eyes opened?" He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see." "Where is this man?" they asked him. "I don't know," he said.

Here's what you're going to see here: the neighbors are arguing, and it's interesting. They don't even recognize him. Whereas Jesus saw him, these guys don't see him. In fact, they couldn't even identify him. They're saying, no, that can't be him. He stands up and he says, it's me. I am the man. We already see now the beginning of his testimony forming. Let's keep going.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been born blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "Well, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others asked, "Well, how can a sinner perform such signs?" So they were divided. Then they turned again to the blind man. "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened." The man replied, "He's a prophet."

The investigation here begins, but the issue in their investigation is not the miracle. The issue here is the Sabbath. Just as a quick aside: why is the Sabbath such a big deal? Well, there's a few reasons here. Number one, when Jesus spit into the ground and he made the clay, they considered that to be work. And you can't work on the Sabbath. This is how strict these guys were. Not only that, they considered spit to be a form of medicine. And you can't use medicine on the Sabbath either. So that was a no-no.

The third strike was that he healed him. They would never want someone to heal on the Sabbath. This is how these guys thought. This is how they lived. Isn't it exhausting? But here's the point: religious certainty can become a barrier in your life to the truth. That was what was happening here. As we talk about a man who was born blind, as we talk about our big obstacle in life being our blindness, are you resistant to that? The religious certainty made the leaders even more blind. Look at this.

They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. "Is this your son?" they asked. Interrogation. "Is this the one that you say was born blind? How is it now that he can see?" "Well, we know he's our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age. He will speak for himself." His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That is why his parents said, "Well, he's of age. Ask him."

This is where fear enters the story, and it's in the form of these parents. They'll confirm the miracle in his life, but they refuse to say more about it. Why? Well, John tells us parenthetically again: they would have been kicked out of the synagogue. Faith will always come with social risk. You take up faith, you're going to find yourself somehow on the outs. Still true today.

Let's go into this text. Now a second time, the Pharisees summoned the man who had been born blind. They said, "Give glory to God by telling the truth. We know this man is a sinner." He replied, "Whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know: I was blind, but now I see." They asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He answered, "I've told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?"

I love this guy. He's got it, doesn't he? They hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple. We're disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this guy, we don't even know where he comes from." The man answered, "Now, that's remarkable. You don't know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth. How dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.

So these leaders demand that this man denounce Jesus, and instead of doing that, he speaks a classic, simple, yet profound testimony. What does he say? He says, "One thing I know: I once was blind, but now I see." That would make for a good song, wouldn't it? Yes, it makes for a great song. He says, "I once was blind, but now I see." Now I want you to note something about this guy: his understanding of Jesus is still unfolding. Earlier, when he's asked about what happened, he says, it's the man called Jesus. Then you fast-forward a bit longer, and he refers to Jesus as a prophet. And now he's saying, well, if this man wasn't from God, he could do nothing. You see, his understanding is growing.

That reflects something really important: spiritual sight often unfolds gradually. What you think you can see at the present time actually may still be some blindness in you. You don't see the whole picture. Faith doesn't begin with perfect understanding. Spiritual sight begins first with an honest encounter. This is what I consider to be a really powerful way to pray: to simply say to the Lord, "Lord, help me see. Lord, help me see." You don't know what you don't know about your sight. Lord, help me see.

The leaders, what'd they do? They threw him out. They threw him out of the synagogue. To be cast out of the synagogue in these days was devastating for a Jew. He was losing his worship life. He was losing his relationships. In a way, because of how the Jewish faith and tradition is tied to the synagogue, he's losing his identity as a person. This same guy who once sat outside begging is on the outs again. Only this time, it's not because he's blind. It's because he told the truth. But the loss actually prepares him for something greater. Go to verse 35.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me, so that I may believe in him." Jesus said, "You have now seen him. In fact, he is the one who is speaking with you." And the man said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him.

Again, here we go with Jesus: "And when he had found him." How about that? When he had found him. The leaders threw him out, and that meant he lost the synagogue, but he gains now a Savior. Remember, when Jesus put the clay on his eyes earlier, the man was still blind. But think about what that means. Jesus sent him to Siloam. It says that the man washed and he came home seeing. So when the man first received his sight, according to what we have here, Jesus was not there. This man had never actually seen the one who had healed him. The first person that he saw in his life when his eyes were open was not Jesus. This man trusted Jesus before he ever laid eyes on him. Faith does not come by sight.

Later, Jesus finds him and asks, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He says, "Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him." Jesus says, "You're looking at him. You're looking at him." Imagine that moment. This man who once had lived in total darkness—have you ever closed your eyes and left them closed and imagined what it's like to be blind? Total darkness. Now he's beholding the face of the Son of God right in front of him. A life that began in darkness is now lit up by the light of the world, Jesus Christ.

The only fitting response is the one he gives. He says, "Lord, I believe." And he worships him. What began with mud ends up with worship. The greatest miracle of the story is not just physical eyes and the healing and the opening of those. It's the opening of spiritual sight. This guy can see. It reveals a pattern that still holds true today: faith often begins without sight. The man was trusting in the voice of Jesus Christ before he ever saw his face. That's faith.

You will not encounter Jesus by sight first. You'll encounter him in some other way. For instance, you'll encounter him through testimony. Someone speaking of Jesus, someone telling you what he's done. And the Spirit will stir in you and slowly, your understanding will grow until one day you realize what this man realized: that the one that you have been searching for, what you've been looking for, he's been searching for you all along. He was looking for him.

There's a moment in the life of Helen Keller that captures the power of what we're talking about here. If you don't know about Helen Keller, I encourage you to read up on her. As a child, she was both blind and deaf, and she was living in what she later called and described as a silent, shapeless world. We have a picture of Helen. Her teacher, who's there pictured with her, was a woman named Anne Sullivan. Anne placed Helen's hand under a stream of water and she repeatedly traced the letters in her palm: W-A-T-E-R. Over and over again. At first, those motions on the hand meant nothing to Helen, of course. But then suddenly, there was a connection that happened. Helen later wrote about that moment. She said, "The mystery of language was revealed to me." What a powerful, beautiful picture.

She realized that everything had a name, and she wanted to know the name of other things. The world that once felt chaotic suddenly became rich with meaning. Here's what she said, again in her writing: "That living word awakened my soul, and it gave light and hope and joy. The living word awakened my soul." The reality had been present all along, but until that moment, she didn't perceive it. She needed a revelation.

The truth is that many of us live in that same condition spiritually. We move through our days. You're surrounded with the presence of God, and we don't perceive it. Sometimes for myself, I'm thinking about this and I'm like, Lord, forgive me. I am blind to God's activity in my life and this world. I'm blind to my own problems. I'm blind to my pride which is shaping my decisions. And I'm blind to the wounds in my life that I've conditioned myself to live with. Like the man in this story, we often do not realize how much we cannot see.

Look at this, John 9:39. We made it, verse 39. Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who do see will become blind." This is the great reversal of the gospel. The humble receive sight, whereas those who are certain that they already see remain blind. This miracle that we've heard today from John 9 exposes the condition of every heart. Every heart in the story, every heart in the world today. It exposes the condition of our hearts.

Think about this blind man's journey. This is the journey that we all must take. He moves through stages. He goes from first blindness, to then curiosity, to then courage, and then to confession, and finally into worship. He progresses through those stages. But remember, the man didn't find Jesus. How did it happen? Jesus found him. The gospel is all about a Savior who is looking for people who are walking in darkness. This is the gospel. Do you feel like you're walking in the dark? Do you feel like you're living in the dark? The gospel is about a Savior who's looking for you. Thank you, Lord.

In fact, look: you in the darkness today, Christ is stepping into your darkness right now. Right here, today. Right in this moment. As we share this gospel, as we share the remembrance of this story and this blind man and his life and how he received sight, it's all speaking to us. What you are sensing as you hear this is the stirring of the Holy Spirit. He's still finding people today, and the Savior is still opening eyes today. He wants to open your eyes to really see.

When the light of the world steps into your darkness, you're going to move in either one of two directions. The first direction is you move towards sight. The other thing is you can move towards blindness. So the question of this passage as you reflect on it ultimately becomes very deeply personal. The question is this: what will you do with the light? Will you turn towards sight? Will you turn towards blindness? What will you do with the light?

Some of you have been asking God for clarity. Some of us feel like you're in a spiritual fog. You can't see. Listen, the light of the world still opens blind eyes. You don't have to stay in that state. Are you going to cling to your certainty about things? Or will you fall before Christ and express what the man finally said: "Lord, I believe"? He humbled himself, and that moment is when we truly come alive.

Here's what I want to do. Before we sing—and we're going to do that in a moment—I would like to share a prayer of illumination that followers of Jesus have prayed for centuries. We'll put it on the screen, and I want to give you just a moment right now. Why don't you read this prayer for yourself? This is a way of putting words to what we're expressing. And here's the thing: you don't know what you can't see until your eyes are open. So you come before the Lord and you express this to him.

Let's do this. In a moment, I'll ask you to rise. When we read through this, we're going to lift our voices together. We're going to pray this together. When we do, I'm going to pause after a few of these lines and just let it sit for a moment. Would you rise? Let's come before God, expressing through faith these words, saying:

Lord Jesus Christ, light of the world, where we are blind to your presence, open our eyes. (Pause)

Where we are blind to our sin, open our eyes. (Pause)

Where we are blind to your grace, open our eyes. And give us the sight that leads to worship. Like the man in this story, may we see you and believe. Oh Lord, open the eyes of our heart.

Our team is going to lead us in a song that's been around the church for a long time. It's called "Open the Eyes of My Heart." This song is intended to be a prayer. We're going to sing this song as a prayer to God. You may need to close your eyes as you sing this as an expression of the reality that there are spiritual eyes that are yet to be opened. Oh Lord, open the eyes of our heart. We want to see you. Let's sing this with full hearts, with faith, to the God who opens eyes.