- Now here's something that
I think about all the time because I don't know,
we're all wired differently and for those who are
into the Enneagram, any Enneagram fans in the house? Yes okay, only a certain
number of you raised your hand. Others of you are fives, I'm
a five so the fives are like, why did he ask us
to raise our hand? I need more information. (congregation laughing) So anyway, I'm a
five on the Enneagram which means I think I try
to understand everything and I constantly feel stupid. My whole life I have
felt stupid, it's true, and in school because,
and so our family, Sandra and I watch This is Us. That's kind of like our show. Any This is Us fans, yeah. And yes, so same
people who were fives. It's amazing, right here. (congregation laughing) Anyone, we might be related. Anyway, so when I
watch This is Us this is my thing I say to Sandra and she knows it's coming. She just rolls her eyes. I say, this program
makes me feel so stupid and it makes me feel stupid
because I can't figure out how they did it. And I just want to
figure everything out. So for me, when it comes to God and maybe you can
relate to this, there's something
in me like I'm sure there's something in
all of us that's like, if God would just do
something spectacular one time that I saw, then maybe I
would have bigger faith or more faith or I
would understand better. And I think as I think
about this all the time, I think God is so
present and I think God is so apparent that we miss God. And again we want God to
do something spectacular to prove that He is
and I wonder (laugh), I wonder if God thinks,
okay, like what? (congregation laughing) Like what do you want Me to do? Like, create a rock large
enough for you to live on and fine tune
everything about it and everything around it so it sustains life and
stands in stark contrast to all the other floating
rocks in the universe? What if I do that? Oh I already did that. And we're like, no no no,
do something really amazing. (congregation laughing) Okay, how bout this. How bout a 576 megapixel camera? How bout I give you two of 'em and put 'em on the
front of your head? And how bout I connect them
to a 3000 gigahertz computer with enough memory for
you to pass knowledge down generation after generation
after generation? Already did that too. How bout this little trick? While the speaker is speaking
and before he can finish this sentence, 50,000
cells in your body are gonna die and be
replaced by new ones before we can even
finish the sentence. And we're like, yeah,
and it does all that with no conscious
effort on your part. In fact, this is
really confusing and I don't even know
if this makes sense. This is just where my head goes. Our minds are way,
I mean our brains are way smarter than our minds. I mean, stuff's going on
in your body all the time you don't even know about
that it just goes on. And all of that's true (laughs) and what is our response? No, no no no, we want You to do something like
truly spectacular. (congregation laughing) Like a miraculous healing. That would just prove it and to which God may think, I don't, it's not smart to
put words in God's mouth but I think He may think, okay, well, thanks to that
3000 gigahertz computer that all of you are
carrying around, you are able to miraculously
heal most diseases yourself. I didn't just heal people. I created a species
of self-healers. In fact, if people
from 2000 years ago showed up and visited
a modern hospital, (laughs) they would think
the doctors are gods. Okay, so I just wanted to
share that with you today. (congregation laughing) We are in part,
oh look at there, we are in part five of
our series Bystander. The subtitle is John and
the Rabbi from Nazareth and we are following John
as he journeys with Jesus and John decided to
give us an account. He's an old man, as
I've shared with you, he gives us an account
of his time with Jesus and he dictates this. I don't think he wrote
this, maybe he did but he probably dictated
this because he's an old man. He probably couldn't
see very well, couldn't write very well and he organizes this account
around specific events that he says are
signs that point to not simply what Jesus did but
they point to who Jesus was. And he documents all of this
so that future generations would know the story
of Jesus but his agenda isn't simply that we
know what happened. His agenda is that
we would be convinced that Jesus is who
Jesus claimed He was. In fact, he has
an agenda for you and he has an agenda for me and he has an agenda for every
generation that would follow and here's his agenda. He tells us at the
end of his document that this thing we call
the gospel of John. He says, by the way,
these things are written, the ones I chose to write because he said I didn't
cover everything Jesus did. But the ones I chose to cover
and the order I put them in were written that
you might believe. I want you to respond to this, not go, oh that's interesting. I want you to believe
specifically all of
you Jewish people that Jesus is the Messiah that we had been waiting
on all of these years and if you're not Jewish,
I want you to be convinced that He is the actual,
as odd as this may sound, the unique Son of God and I don't want you to simply
believe that it is true. Once you believe
that this is true, I want you to place
your trust in Him. And by placing your trust in
Him and deciding to follow Him, you'll have a different
kind of life in His name. So he has an agenda
and he organizes this incredible account
around these events that he calls signs. So today we come
to the fifth sign. The way some people count these
it might be the sixth sign but I'm gonna call
it the fifth sign and he again outlines
this and gives us this in such a way that
we might follow along this little piece of narrative and come to the conclusion,
wow, John, you're right. Jesus is who Jesus
claimed to be. Now if you had a paper Bible, an actual physical Bible, your grandparents had these. Anyway, if you had
a physical Bible, you would see a heading,
something like this, Healing of a blind man in this part of your
physical paper Bible. So let me catch you up with
where we are in the series and then we'll jump
into this narrative. Jesus travels
throughout His ministry, up and down, up and down, north and south,
north and south, south and north from
Judea to Galilee back to Judea to
Galilee to Judea. In Judea, He's usually in danger because this is
where Jerusalem is and the temple leaders and they're a little bit
put out by John the Baptist and then by Jesus
because they contradict, or seem to contradict so
much of what they believed. And they're stirring
up the people and they don't want
the people stirred up because if the people
get stirred up, Rome gets stirred up. And if Rome gets stirred
up, there's just trouble. So Jesus will go to
Jerusalem and dabble and kinda stir things up. Then He'll go back to
Galilee, take a breather, teach and then come back. So in this particular
part of Jesus' journey, He's back in the
vicinity of Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem. John is with Him and John says, here's what happened. As we, he could say,
but he says, He, as He went along,
or Jesus went along, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples, John
being one of these followers, asked him, Rabbi, and I'm sure they
whispered this. Rabbi, You see the gentleman
over there, begging. He's there all the time. We're curious. Who sinned? Who sinned? This man, this blind
man or his parents that he was born blind because the assumption
in the 1st century was that there was a cause
and effect relationship between sin and suffering. If somebody is suffering,
it's because they sinned. So in some sense, they were
getting what they deserved, which obviously had an
interesting relationship with the compassion shown
to people who were suffering if you believe they were
suffering for some past sin. But the way they
thought about it, a pregnant woman could
go into a pagan temple and her son or daughter,
once they were born, would suffer because of
their mom's disobedience to God by going
into pagan temple. So they had all this mystery
and all this superstition. Now we know that
sometimes our behavior results in suffering, right? And we also know that
sometimes we suffer because of other
people's behavior. But when that's the case,
it's usually obvious. And when it's not obvious, as
Jesus is about to point out, there is no connection. So Jesus shifts their
paradigm at what He says next. He says, the answer
to that question is it him or his parents, the answer is neither. Neither this man nor his
parents sinned, said Jesus. This is, this, you're
thinking completely wrong about all this. And then He says something
that may create a new category for you and you may think
is insensitive for me to say but I promise I
would not say this if I was not quoting Jesus. I'm not that insensitive. He says, but this happened, this being this man
being born blind, but this happened so that. This happened so that. Jesus teaches here and Jesus
teaches in other places that pain can have a purpose, that pain can, pain and
suffering can actually have a divine purpose. Perhaps pain and suffering
always has a purpose. Jesus' pain and
suffering certainly did. This man's pain and suffering
certainly did, and maybe, maybe your pain and suffering
has a purpose as well. We know it's a category. But Jesus continues. But this happened. In other words, this man
isn't being punished, his parents aren't
being punished, but this particular
pain and suffering or episode of pain and
suffering happened so that. And then he gives
us the so that. So that the works of God
might be displayed in him. So that the works of God. In other words, sometimes, sometimes God chooses. Sometimes God chooses
to display His power on the platform or
the stage of our pain and our suffering. In fact, you've seen
that before, I bet. You've seen someone
whose pain and suffering, their response to their
pain and suffering was so extraordinary, it caused
your faith to get bigger. I've seen that. As a pastor, I have
seen all kinds of things as you might imagine. And the most
extraordinary things to me in my personal Christian life, the most extraordinary
things to me are not the people who
live wrinkle free lives. Their kids all get scholarships and everybody lives to be
99 and dies in their sleep. That's not impressive, right? (congregation laughing) What's impressive is a
man or a woman or a child or a family or individual
that goes through an extraordinarily
difficult difficult time and their faith is rock solid. There's a man in our
community group, has ALS. His name is Tim. Tim is dying of ALS. His faith, his smile and his
confidence is staggering. He makes me want
Christianity to be true even if it's not true because of what I see and
what I experience with Tim. He's got an incredible
sense of humor. I wasn't planning
to talk about him, but I'm talking about him. So, Tim, he's at home, watching. Sorry, dude, I
apologize ahead of time. Anyway, Tim, the other day, he was just kinda moping around. Usually he's just so happy. He can barely get around anymore and his wife Carla
says, Tim. (laughs) Says, Tim, what's
wrong with you? And he said, he can barely speak so I'm not gonna try
to talk like him. She said, Tim, what's
wrong with you? He said, I think I have ALS and I can't kick it. (congregation laughing) He comes to our small group. His joy is so, it's just,
I mean, you've seen this. You have seen God
demonstrate His power on the platform of human
weakness and suffering. So He turns to His audience, Jesus turns to His
audience and He says this. Okay, they're focused
on this blind man. They're kind of
whispering about him. Jesus turns to the disciples
and He says, hey guys, as long as it is day,
we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming when no
one can work. (laughs) To which they thought, see, that's what you do. We're talking about one thing and now You're talking
about something else. Okay, we're talking about
why this man is blind and now what? He goes on. He says, while, this
is so important. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Here's His point. This is so powerful. This is the point
of John's gospel. He says, look guys. My identity, who I truly am, will never be more apparent
than it is right now. The light of the world, Me, the light of the world
will never be brighter than it is right now
while I am on Planet Earth and when I leave, it will be dark. And when I leave, it
will be dark indeed. So gentlemen,
ladies, He would say, watch Me, learn
from Me and believe. And John, you and Matthew, you guys take good notes. I don't know if He would
have said that or not. After saying this, they're like, okay, are we
back to the guy that was blind? After saying this, Jesus
does the strangest thing. He spits on the ground
and before they could say, hey, we don't do that
here close to the temple, He made some mud with the saliva and He put it on the man's eyes. Now I wish we had more
details but we don't. (congregation laughing) Did He ask him first? (congregation laughing) Did He say, Peter and
John, hold him down? I mean, I don't think so. But this is just odd and we
don't have any more details. So Jesus makes, spits,
makes mud with His saliva and just (laughs) (sputters) puts it
on the guy's eyes. And then He says
something to him that we've heard Him
tell other people. He says something that actually He tells our whole generation. He says to the man
who was born blind, go, He told him. Walk away from Me. Leave My presence. Go and wash in the
Pool of Siloam. So the blind man. This is foreshadowing. This is John's whole point. This is why he chose this event. So the blind man walks by faith and not by what? - [Congregation] Sight. - Literally. You know what he did? He did what your Heavenly Father would like for you to do. He chose to trust someone he could not see based on rumors
about that person. At the end of John's gospel, we're gonna talk about
this when we get there. I just gotta rush ahead. He says this. He said, we talked
about a little bit. He said, hey,
blessed are you guys 'cause you saw all this stuff but I'm telling you double
blessed are those who believe and have not seen. So, the man went. He went to the Pool of Siloam. He did what Jesus said
and he washed his eyes and suddenly he could see. And where did he go? He went home. He went home. And his neighbors and those
who knew all about this guy, his neighbors and those who had formerly seen
him begging asked, Wait a minute, isn't
this the same man who used to sit and beg in the
same place every single day, every single week,
every single year? Some claimed that he
was but others said, no, that can't be him. He just looks like that guy. But he himself
insisted, no, it's me. I'm the guy that used to sit
there, begging all that time and I know I look a
little bit different because now I can see and
I'm walking differently, my stick's gone and
my friends are gone. And of course they ask the
question anybody would ask. How? How were your eyes
opened, they asked. And he replied,
here's what happened. The man they call Jesus, the man they call Jesus,
we've heard of this man. We've heard rumors. Some of you said
you've seen Him. The man they call
Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. I guess he didn't know
how He made the mud. Maybe it's better not to know. (congregation laughing) He made some mud and
put it on my eyes and He told me to go
to Siloam and wash. And I did what He asked me to do even though it made
absolutely no sense. There it is again. I did what He asked
me to do and I washed and then I could see. And of course they're curious. And where is this
man, they asked him. And he said, I don't know. I didn't see which way He went. (congregation laughing) Sherlock, right? (congregation laughing) I shouldn't put
words in the mouth of someone that Jesus healed. So this is what
he actually said. (congregation laughing) He said, I don't know. So they did what they
were supposed to do based on the old covenant
or the relationship between God and the
nation of Israel when someone was
miraculously healed or it seemed like somebody
was gonna be able to come back into society after being
healed of a disease. You were to take them to
the religious leaders. They were to present themselves
to the religious leaders. So they take him
to the Pharisees. So they brought
to the Pharisees, the man who had been blind. And then the music,
the soundtrack changes. Now the day, He's done it again. Now the day on which
Jesus made the mud and opened the man's
eyes was the Sabbath. When will He learn? (congregation laughing) According to the
tradition of the elders, according to the oral,
not the written Torah, you weren't allowed to do
certain things on the Sabbath. Obviously, and one of the
things you couldn't do was mix. You couldn't knead, K-N-E-A-D and because He took spit and mud and He mixed and kneaded,
He broke the Sabbath, and you weren't supposed
to heal or do medicine on the Sabbath either unless
it was to save a life. So He's in big trouble. Therefore the Pharisees, when
they found out what happened, they asked him how he
had received the sight. And he said, well, He put mud on my eyes
and the man replied, the man replied. And I washed, and
now he's probably violated the Sabbath as well. And now I see. And some of the Pharisees said, This man, talking about Jesus, is not from God. (laughs) Okay. How do you know that? Well it's obvious. For He does not
keep the Sabbath. Well technically He didn't keep their version of the Sabbath. Technically He didn't really
break any of God's written law but what happened was, and let's not be too judgmental, Jesus didn't fit
in their God box. And whether you
recognize it or not, most of you, maybe all of us. Maybe even those of you who
don't even believe in God, we have a God box and
Jesus is operating outside the boundaries
of the God box. Therefore, He cannot
possibly be from God. But others ask a very
important question. Wait a minute, wait a
minute, wait a minute. Others ask, how can a sinner, if He's not from God
then He's like one of us, and the rest of us are sinners. How can a sinner
perform such a sign? Not a miracle, a sign. John says, these were
all pointing to the
identity of Jesus. How can a sinner
perform such signs? So they were divided. Then they turned again to
the man who's standing there and to the blind man, they said, what do you have
to say about Him? Is He a sinner or
isn't He a sinner? He's the one who
opened your eyes. And the man replied,
I don't know. He's a prophet. Now some of the Pharisees still did not even believe
that he had been blind and that he had
received his sight. They think he's making
this whole thing up until they sent for
the man's parents and so they bring
in the man's parents and the man's parents are afraid because when you get
called in by the Pharisees on the Sabbath, you've
probably done something wrong. Is this your son, they
asked his parents. Is this the one you
say was born blind? How is it that he can now see? And they said,
well, we know this. We know he's our son,
the parents answered, and he know he was born blind. But how he can now see and who opened his
eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He's old enough to
tell you himself. He's old enough
to stand in court. He's old enough to
testify for himself. His parents said this. Check this out. His parents said this
because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders who had, and here's
where some of us are, who had already decided. Who had already
made up their minds. There was not room
in their theology, there was not room
in their worldview for what they were seeing, for what they were experiencing, for what was happening right before their very eyes. They had already decided that anyone who acknowledged
that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out
of the synagogue, ostracized from the community. The word we might use is
excommunicated from Judaism, from 1st century
Judaism, temple Judaism. The religious leaders, like
some of us, let's be honest. The religious leaders were
the ones who were blind. They were actually blinded
by their presuppositions. They were blinded by
their assumptions. Francis Collins, as we
heard a few weeks ago, referred to this as
willful blindness. When there's something to
see but you won't look. When there's
something to discover and you won't take the
time to discover it. When the cognitive bias
that just allows you to only take in the
information that affirms and confirms, confirmation bias where you only
take in information that confirms what
you already believe and you refuse to
acknowledge anything that might pull you
out of your context, that might cause you
to think beyond your, if you're a Christian
or even a non-Christian, outside your God box. So, they're still not
done with this guy. So a second time, a second
time they summoned the man, come back over here. Give glory to God by telling
the truth, they said. We know this man is a sinner. Okay, so you were blind,
we've gotten that far. We've asked your parents. So something has happened. But clearly this Jesus man
had nothing to do with it so give glory to God because this man is a sinner and sinners could not
perform such a sign. He replies, whether He, Jesus, is a sinner or
not, I don't know. And again, here we are. Whether He's a sinner or not. In other words, he would say,
look, I don't know everything. I don't understand everything. But here's the thing. I don't have to understand
everything to believe something. I don't have to be able
to explain everything to believe what's right
before my very eyes. I don't have to
be able to explain how everything worked
out and why it worked out to know that something
has happened. I don't have to
understand everything to believe something. And here's the good news. Neither do you. And maybe this is where
you've been hung up. And I understand this. You want to
understand everything before you believe anything. I get this, I am
so wired this way. But here's the thing that you
and I have in common, okay? Isn't it true that you and I don't
hold to this standard in other areas of life? Right, I mean, do you believe in love? Can you explain it? (congregation laughing) Do you believe in energy? I know you can't explain that. Do you believe in consciousness? We can't explain that either. Here's a big one. Do you believe in information? Yeah, I believe in information. Do you use information? Yeah. Can you explain it? Not really. Same with energy, same
with consciousness. Same with love. Here's some great news because I know some of you would love to come
back into faith but your brain won't let
you, your mind won't let you. Some of you, I know
this for a fact, some of you miss the songs. Some of you miss the energy. Some of you miss the community. But something happened
and you got bumped out and you stand on the
outside looking in and you think, okay,
I miss some of that. But I've gotta
understand everything before I believe anything. And you don't hold
yourself to that standard in any other arena of your life and your Heavenly
Father who's way bigger than your God box says, let's just take a baby
step and believe something. And perhaps along the way,
you'll understand more. The story continues. This young man, he's
getting bold now. He's kinda fed up
with this whole thing. He replied, whether He is a
sinner or not, I don't know. But there is one
thing I do know. And I love this next line. This may be my favorite
line in the whole Bible that wasn't uttered by a prophet or uttered by Jesus. He says, here's the
one thing I know. Okay, let's just start
with what I do know. I can't answer all
your questions. I don't know if He's a sinner. Don't ask me any
theological questions. Here's what I know. I was blind but now I see. Let me go over that
again for you guys. I was blind but now I see. And here's the incredible thing, for many of you, you know this. This is the story of millions
and millions of Christians. This, I bet for many of you, this is your story, right? I can't explain it all. I don't understand it all. All I know is this. There was a season in my life when I was at the end of myself. There was a season in my life when I had hit a wall. There was a season in my
life when I was controlled by an addiction. There was a season in my life that I was so lonely,
I was suicidal. There was a season of my life where I had come to the end and I had no place else to go and I cried out to God or I asked God or
I got on my knees and I don't, I can't explain it. I can't show you any verses
to substantiate this. All I can tell you is this. Something happened. And for some of you,
it happened instantly. And for some of you,
it happened gradually. But something happened and you were blind and now you can see. You've never been the same. And when people hear your story, you acknowledge
there are some gaps and yeah, I'm not sure how
this lines up with that. I'm just telling you, I would not go back to
where I was for anything and only by the grace of a living, personal God who has invited me
to call Him Father am I where I am today. All I know is this. I was blind. Now I can see. Then they ask him,
they're still not done. Then they ask him, okay, so what did He do to you? How did He open your eyes? They want more reasons
not to believe. And now this guy is done. He answered, I have
told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want
to hear it again? And then he gets right
up in their face. Do you want to become
His disciples too? (congregation laughing) He's done. They hurled insults
at him and said, You are this fellow's disciple. We are disciples of Moses. We know for certain
that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know
where He comes from. And now this guy, he's just all up in their face. The man answered, now, that is truly remarkable. I mean, me being healed today, that's remarkable,
but here's something more remarkable than that. You don't know
where He comes from yet He opened my eyes? Isn't it obvious
where He comes from? Isn't it right before your eyes? How much more
evidence do you need to know that He came from God? Somebody who's not from God could not open the eyes
of a man born blind. He continues. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing like this. To which they replied, because they're
not used to this, You were steeped
in sin at birth. In other words, you deserved to be born blind. Your parents
deserved to raise you and spend all that extra time and all their extra
resources raising you and then being
embarrassed by you because you became a beggar. You deserved exactly
what you got. You were steeped, you
were conceived in sin. How dare you lecture us. And they threw him out. Willful blindness. Willful blindness. Refusing to look. Refusing to see what can be seen. Refusing to discover what can be discovered. Being too afraid to turn around and peer beyond
what we already know into the unknown. Let's just be honest
for all of us. That's not flattering to anyone. That doesn't look
good on anyone. And Christians, we are
certainly not immune. I mean, come on, historically, our resistance to science, our resistance to people
who aren't like us, our resistance to people
who don't fit in the box of what we have always been
taught is acceptable to God. Doesn't our unwillingness to look beyond our God box make us look a little bit
like the religious leaders in the story? And what happens on the
other side of that journey for many of us is instead
of expressing compassion, we have expressed disdain. For different generations,
there have been different groups of people who have met this when they came to the church where we sing about
God's mercy and grace because we couldn't
figure out how they fit in the God box we grew up with. If you've limited God to the god of the box, if you've limited God to the god of the box, you run the risk of leaving outside the
context of your spirituality many many many people
that God loves. And not only this,
here's the worst thing, I'm convinced of this. You will ultimately miss God. We should be the most curious, the most accommodating,
the most accepting, the most loving, the
most compassionate, the most open-minded people
in any room we enter. We should not be afraid
to gaze past the frontiers of our knowledge,
past the frontiers into our ignorance. We should be the most
excited about science and we should be
the most excited about creating context for people who are far from
God to move toward God. And any step anyone
takes towards God, whether it fits in
our little box or not should excite us to no end. Even if they don't
get the words right. Even if they don't get
the theology right. Even if they don't pray right. And if we don't move
beyond the god in the box, like the men in the story, here's the, again,
the great tragedy. We run the risk of missing God. Now, if you're not a
Christian or you used to be or somebody's making
you watch this. They're gonna feed you dessert or they're gonna
take you to lunch. I don't know how they
got you to watch this or you're accidentally
watching it, I don't know. Here's the thing for you. Have you looked? Are you afraid to look? Are you curious? Have you looked lately? Have you closed the door on all religion? Have you closed the door
on the concept of God? Have you closed the door on the fact that
Jesus might in fact be who Jesus claimed to be? Have you closed the
door on the concept of a physical literal
resurrection 2000 years ago? And here's the question. Is that, is that really wise? And is it possible, just sayin', is it possible you
have a God box as well? And anything that
doesn't immediately fit, you immediately discount and perhaps that's why
you walked away from faith long ago or maybe even recently? In fact, it's even
stranger than that. Maybe, maybe the God
you quit believing in is the same God that
some of us Christians try to keep in a box and you had the courage
to look beyond the box and lost faith and
many Christians are afraid to look
beyond the box because they're afraid
they'll lose faith. And the truth is, God is a whole lot bigger than
our little itty-bitty box. In fact, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps God is bigger
than you thought He was and perhaps, this is the kicker, perhaps God is bigger than
you were taught He was. Because I think we
would agree with this, it's okay to be wrong. It's okay to be wrong
about something. We're all wrong about
a lot of things. I mean, every 10 years, you
look back and you go, oh, (laughs) that's
embarrassing, right? I mean, look at what you wore and you look at what you thought and both of 'em
are embarrassing. (congregation laughing) Fortunately there
are no pictures of our misconceptions
about things, right? 20 years ago, oh my
goodness, I can't believe I thought that and
believed that, right? 100 years from now, we're
all gonna be proven wrong about most things, right? You think about the things
your parents taught you or believed, it's
like, my parents. Hey, one day, I mean,
it just goes on. I mean, it's okay,
it's okay to be wrong. And it's okay not to know
because we're all learning and we're all curious and
we're all figuring things out. But could we all agree on this? It is not okay not to look if
there is something to be seen. And John's entire message
throughout his gospel is simply this. There is something
you should see. If you had seen what I saw, if you had seen what we saw, I'm convinced, he would say, we're convinced that you too would believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing, you would have life in His name. Here's what I
think he would say. He would say, look,
I'm a simple man. I was a fisherman. (laughs) I was minding
my own business when He came along. I was just a bystander who had the privilege to live in the days when the
light of the world touched down in the world and
it was so unbelievably bright. And it was so much better. And He was so much bigger than any of us thought He was. The biggest discovery of all, I think he would
tell us is this. He so loved the world that He gave Himself so that no one would
ever be lost to God. And that took us
all by surprise. And when He died, we assumed we had been fooled, we had been tricked and it was over. But then He rose from the dead and we realized He's exactly
who He claimed to be. And oh my goodness, this whole thing was so much bigger
than we thought it was. The good news is this. You do not have to
understand everything to believe something. So would you consider the invitation of John and just look and
perhaps one day believe or for many
of you, believe again.
