Can You See Him

Pastor David has been doing a great job leading us through this series called, Can You See Him.  He’s helped us understand that we can see Jesus in the events of our lives today because we know He was with us in the past. And last week he helped us learn how to see Jesus in those nudges we get and how to respond to God’s promptings when they come.  The truth is that there are times when it is easy to see God.  When we get the promotion we were hoping for, when we celebrate the gift of new life in a healthy child or grandchild, when we see the majesty of a sunset painted across the entire sky, or when we see the beauty in a tiny flower that God places in our path, there are times when it is easy to see Him.  But then there are those times when it is not.  

It is not easy to see Jesus when we face bitter disappointments.  When jobs and relationships crumble it’s hard to see that Jesus is with us.  When we experience sudden and unexpected loss it can be hard to see the power or goodness of God at work in our lives.  And when we have questions about God, questions about the truth of scripture or the reality of Jesus, it makes it hard to see Him.  

Have any of you ever questioned your faith?  Have you ever asked yourself where God is in the midst of suffering and pain?  Or how can there even be a God when we see so much suffering?  Have you ever walked through a personal valley so dark that you couldn’t see Jesus?  Are you walking in that valley today?  Are you facing doubt and disappointments today? If you are, you aren’t alone.  We all struggle with doubts and disappointments.  We all struggle to make sense out of the problems we experience and the pain we see.  We can say God is good all the time and all the time God is good, but there are those moments when we struggle to really believe it.  

In my first church there was a man we called the miracle man because God did two miracles of healing in his life.  The first miracle took place when Bob was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  The surgeons mapped out the tumor, did all the drawings on his head so they knew where to cut and how to get to the tumor to remove it.  When the day of surgery came they started operating and after they made the first cut and opened up his skull, the tumor popped out into the doctor’s hands.  It literally popped out.  The surgeons were stunned.  They looked at the tumor, realized it was intact and that nothing else was needed so they said, let’s close him up.  It was a miracle.  

The second miracle came several years later when Bob was diagnosed with colon cancer.  The doctors told him to go home and when things got bad to call hospice because there was nothing they could do. So Bob went home, but his family didn’t give up.  They looked at different ways to treat the cancer and they prayed.  The church prayed.  And we kept on praying.  

6 months later Bob returned to the doctors and they checked him out and did all the scans and then sat Bob down with his family and said, we don’t know what to say.  They thought the doctors were going to tell them that the cancer had spread and it was now just a matter of time, but they didn’t.  They said, we can’t find any cancer.  There is none there.  We can’t explain it.  We could explain it.  It was called prayer and the power of God.  Bob was once again the miracle man and we could all see Jesus at work in his life.  

As I marveled at Bob’s miraculous healing, I also began to have some questions.  Why was Bob being healed but others weren’t?  Why does God choose to miraculously heal some people but not all people?  It’s a question I still don’t have an answer for.  It’s just one of MANY questions that I still don’t have an answer for. 

Even as a pastor, I have doubts and questions.  When I listen to the news, I struggle to see where God is in the violence we see around us.  Where is God in the war in Ukraine, or when we hear about domestic abuse and the sex trafficking of children?  Where is God in some of the random and senseless acts of violence we see in our communities?  Can we still see Jesus when we don’t understand and are filled with doubts?  Can we still see Jesus when we are disillusioned and disappointed?  Can we see him?  

Today we are going to look at a gospel story that can help us answer this question and the bottom line is this: you don’t have to understand everything to believe in something.

This quote comes from the pastor and author Andy Stanley and it is important for us to take to heart.  We don’t have to understand everything there is about God to believe in God.  We don’t have to know all the inner workings of God’s plan to trust Him.  We don’t have to have every question we have about Jesus answered before we follow Him.  We don’t have to understand everything in order to believe and trust in something.  

In John 9 we find a story of Jesus healing a blind man.  The man had been born blind which means that he didn’t have much of a life.  He had gotten no education.  He had no job other than begging.  He was a burden to his family, and nothing had restored his sight.  Not only did he not have much of a life, but since he had been born blind, people were constantly asking who had sinned, the man or his parents.  

In Jesus’ day, much of the illness people experienced was seen as punishment for sin.  If you were blind, then someone somewhere must have been at fault.  Someone somewhere was a sinner   But Jesus said that neither the man nor his parents had been at fault but that what had happened in him was so that the work of God could now be displayed.  John 9:1-3, 6-7

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 works of God might be displayed in him.

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, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

When the world looked at this man, they just saw a sinner.  They saw a failure and a situation that could never be redeemed.  When people looked at him they just asked, who sinned? Who was responsible?  Whose fault is this?  But when Jesus looked at this man, he didn’t see a problem but an opportunity, an opportunity that might help more people see God and give God glory.  

While this isn’t true for every problem we face, there are many situations in life that we see as a setback that God wants to use as a setup so that His power, work and glory can be seen.  For years this man’s blindness had been a setback, but now it was going to be a setup for a miracle.  There are many stories in the Bible that look like a setback that end up being a setup for God’s power and glory.    

If you know the story of Joseph in the Old Testament, his brothers were jealous and despised him so much that they sold him to be a slave in another country.  As a slave in Egypt, Joseph was falsely accused of rape and sent to prison. All these setbacks might cause us to think that God had given up on him, but God was still there and these problems became the pathway for God’s glory to be revealed. 

Think about King David.  As a young boy, David wanted to be a soldier in the army but his brothers told him to go home and be a shepherd.  That setback set him up to be a warrior who used the skills of a shepherd to bring down the giant Goliath.  Even David’s failure in committing adultery and conspiring to murder were setbacks that humbled David so completely that he learned how to lean into God’s grace and it helped him trust God even more.  

While I don’t believe God intentionally casts us down and sets us back so that He can later lift us up, I do believe that the setbacks we face, the failures and tragedies we do go through can be the springboard for God to move us forward in life and faith.  I have seen too many people come through painful times only to use those times to encourage and lift others up to  see those setbacks as a setup for God’s glory to be seen.  

Romans 8:28. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.  It doesn’t say God causes all things but that God can work in all things.  The setbacks we face can become the setup for us to see God and for others to see God in us.  If you are experiencing a setback today, if you are going through a difficult and painful time or walking through a difficult and dark valley, ask God how He can see you through it and how He can help you use this experience to help others see Him.  Use your setbacks as opportunities for people to see Jesus.  

The setback of this man born blind was the setup God used to show people the power and authority of Jesus.  Jesus did what no one else could do, He healed a man born blind, but instead of people giving glory to God, they started asking questions.  Was this really the man who had been born blind?  Was it the same man?  They asked him if he was the blind man and he said, Yes! It’s me!  

That wasn’t good enough.  The religious leaders and people still couldn’t see God at work in him so they went and found the blind man’s parents and asked them, is this your son who was born blind?  When they said yes, they asked them how this happened.  How did he get his sight?  They replied, we don’t know how it happened, but we know he had been blind but now he sees.  

What’s amazing is that while many people were literally standing in front of a miracle, a man who had been blind from birth was now able to see, the people couldn’t see God’s power at work.  Because the people couldn’t understand how it happened and why Jesus would heal him on the Sabbath against the religious laws, they couldn’t see Jesus as the son of God.  Because they couldn’t understand it all they refused to believe Jesus was the Son of God.   

The religious leaders kept questioning the man whose sight had been restored and they told him that since Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath that Jesus must be a sinner and sinners can’t do miracles. The man replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”  John 9:25.

This man didn’t know how his eyes were opened, he didn’t have all the answers, he wasn’t even sure who Jesus was, but he could see and he could see in Jesus the power of God.  He didn’t understand everything but he could believe in something.  He didn’t understand how he was healed or why Jesus chose to heal him on the Sabbath but he believed Jesus did it and in time he believed Jesus was the Messiah.   I once was blind, he said, but now I see.  

Like the man who was born blind, there are lots of things I don’t understand.  There are lots of questions I don’t have answers to, and there are ways of God that I can’t comprehend.  There are doubts I wrestle with and while I may not understand everything I do believe in something.    

I believe there is a God who created this amazing world and set it into motion.  I don’t know how God did it, but I can’t look at the world and see the intricate balance that is needed for life and think that it all just came about by chance and luck. I believe God created the world and us. 

I believe there was a man named Jesus who lived in the first century and died on a cross.  That truth is undeniable.  That Jesus lived and died is a fact recorded by historians of that day.  What I also believe, however, is that this same Jesus who died on the cross and was laid in a tomb, was also raised to life by the power of God.  

I believe Jesus rolled the stone away and conquered sin and death.  I believe His disciples saw Him and that their testimony stands as confirmation of Jesus' resurrection because they were all willing to give their life for it.  When people told them to give up this crazy idea that Jesus died and rose again they said no - we have seen Him.  

I believe that the disciples didn’t have all the answers and that they had doubts but because they had seen Jesus standing in front of them alive, they believed He was the son of God, the Savior of the world, and the Lord of their lives.

Because of their witness and testimony, I believe in the resurrection of Jesus and that His death and resurrection paid the price for my sin so that I can experience life with God now and forever.  I believe that the resurrection of Jesus and the power of Jesus given through the Holy Spirit changed the lives of the disciples then and continues to change the lives of Jesus followers today.  I believe my life has changed because of the power of God and that any courage I have to stand here and say these things is because of the power and strength of Jesus.  

I also believe that God still speaks to His children.  I believe God has spoken to my heart and that through God’s word I can still hear God’s word for me and for the world.  I believe that  I can still be surprised, challenged, inspired, and humbled by the words God spoke generations ago.  

And I believe that even though we won’t understand everything and even though we will have deep disappointments and lingering doubts and questions about our faith that won’t get answered this side of heaven, I believe that God is still for us and I believe that God is still with us and I believe that if we are willing to open our eyes and our hearts, we can see Him.  

Can you see Him?  You don’t have to understand everything to believe in something.  You don’t have to have all the answers to believe that Jesus is with you and for you.  You don’t have to know God’s full plan for your life to trust Him to lead you into tomorrow.  You don’t have to understand everything, but believe this - you can see Him because He is right here with you and He is for you.  You can see Him because He loves you.  

Next Steps

Can you see Him?  Week 3

What questions, doubts, and difficult situations keep you from seeing Jesus?  How do these things make it hard for you to believe?  What dark valley are you walking today that keeps you from seeing Jesus?  

What do you think of the statement: you don’t have to understand everything to believe in something. 

Read the entire chapter of John 9 and outline the story of the man born blind.  

● Why did people have a hard time believing that Jesus healed him?  

● When have you seen the power of God at work but had a hard time believing?  

● When have you limited what God can do because His work didn’t fit your expectations?  

● When have you said, I once was blind but now I see?  What helped open your eyes?  

Read Isaiah 55:6-9.  

Why is it so hard when we don’t understand everything?  

This week:

● Make a list of what you do believe about God.  

● Identify what is undeniable to you about Jesus.

● Identify the differences Jesus made in your life.

● Find 2 or 3 passages of Scripture that speak truth to you and read them every day.  

What setbacks in your life might be the setup for God to reveal His glory?  Ask God to give you the courage to step out and trust Him.  

The final Angel's Message

The angels that foretold the coming of the Messiah, and then proclaimed His birth, didn’t stop speaking after Jesus was born.  In Matthew’s gospel, we hear about angels who appear to Joseph two more times and give him directions on how to keep Jesus safe in the years after His birth.  These angels came to Joseph after the Magi, or wisemen, came looking for a new king in Israel.  

The Magi would have been considered scientists of their day.  They were most likely a cross between an astronomer and an astrologer.  They studied the skies and the placement of the stars and when they saw a new star appear in the sky it told them that a new king had been born in Israel.  For a king’s birth to be proclaimed in the heavens, they knew this was going to be a great king, so they traveled to Israel to kneel before Him.  Not knowing where the king was to be born, they first went to Jerusalem to ask the religious leaders.  When they found out it was in Bethlehem, they followed the star there and found Jesus.    

When Herod, the current king of Israel, heard about the Magi and the news that a new king had been born, he was not about to allow this king to come to power.  Herod decreed that all the baby boys who were 2 years old and under, and living in Bethlehem, be killed.  As this decree was taking place, an angel was giving another decree, a message to Joseph that he was to take Mary and their child and flee to Egypt.  He needed to protect Jesus from Herod’s violence and the safest place at that moment would be in another country.  So Joseph took Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt.  

Matthew 2:13-14.  An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”  So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt.  

After Herod died and it was safe for Jesus to return to Israel, an angel again came to Joseph with these instructions.

Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.  But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.  Matthew 2:19-23a

Joseph followed God’s word and took Mary and Jesus to Nazareth which would have been one of the safest places in Israel to raise Jesus because no one would believe that a king would come from Nazareth.  

Just as angels prepared people to help bring the Messiah into the world, angels worked to protect the Messiah once He was here.  Angels gave directions to Joseph and Mary to help them keep Jesus safe.  These angels show us that God was not going to allow any darkness or evil to extinguish the light of God.  At the beginning of John’s gospel says that Jesus is the light of the world and that light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  God was not going to allow His purpose and plan to be defeated, so He sent angels to give directions and guidance to keep Jesus safe.  

These angels show us that there is no power that can stop God’s plan.  The darkness of this world cannot overcome the light of God.  The conflict we see in the world, the hardships and tragedies we see and experience around us cannot stop the plans God has for us.  God truly is sovereign and works through all things for His purpose.  What we might see as a setback in life might just be the steps we need to take in order to move forward.  The struggle we see in the world might be the pathway for God’s greater good to take place.  God does not bring about the evil and hardships to accomplish His purpose, and God does not take delight in conflict and trauma, but God can use those things to keep the light of His purpose and plan shining in the dark.   

In the midst of the darkness that we might be facing in our own lives right now, we need to remember that there is no darkness that can overcome the light of God’s presence, power, and peace.   Psalm 139:7-12 says, 

Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 

There is no darkness that can overcome God’s light.  There is nothing we have gone through, or will go through, that can separate us from God and the love He has for us.  We can trust God to not only be with us in the darkness, but to guide us from darkness to light, from problems to answers, from hardship to safety and even success.  That’s what God did for Mary and Joseph, He sent angels to give them a message that guided them to safety and life.  

Mary and Joseph, however, had to be willing to listen and work with the angels.  They had to trust God to be with them.  They had to believe that God was watching over them, and providing for them, and they had to be willing to do their part to protect Jesus and keep Him safe.  There is a message here for us.  We have to be willing to listen and work with God if we are going to find His purpose and power and peace, and walking in the light of God, walking with Jesus, is not always going to be easy.  

I often wonder what Mary and Joseph thought when they first found out that they were going to be parents to God’s Son.  Did they think it was going to be easy?  After all, it is God’s Son.  God had a plan for the Messiah and God would clearly help make sure everything worked out according to the plan.  If they thought it would be easy, what did they think when they were told they had to flee to Egypt?  What did they think when they were told to return to Israel but that they could not go back to Judea?  These were challenges for them.  These were hardships and it may not have been what they expected when they first said yes to God.  But they listened and responded.  

Too often we get the idea that loving God, accepting Jesus, and saying yes to all God has for us means that everything should be easy.  After all, God can make things easy if He wants to.  If we are being faithful and obedient, why wouldn’t God bless us with an easy path forward?  If God loves us, why wouldn’t God make everything easy?  But it often isn’t like that, in fact, most often it isn’t like that.  

There is still darkness in the world that tries to put out the light of Christ in us.  There is the darkness of sin in our lives that pulls us away from what God has for us.  There is the darkness of being disillusioned because following Jesus isn’t as easy as we thought it would be and we aren’t getting what we thought we’d get.  There is the darkness of hardship or even tragedy and loss that make us question God’s power, or plan, and His love for us.  So many things, so many dark things, try to extinguish the light of Christ in us, and like Mary and Joseph we have to work to keep that light shining.  We have to work to protect and nurture our relationship with Jesus.  

Every new year brings with it a sense of hope and light.  It’s a clean slate, a fresh start, and we want our faith to grow and flourish.  We make resolutions and create new practices that we hope will last beyond January14, and they can last if we tell ourselves today that it will take some work.  Like Mary and Joseph, we have to work to nurture our relationship with Jesus and here are four ways we can do this.  

1. Read God’s word every day.  The message of the angel’s was God’s word.  It was that word that guided Mary and Joseph.  The Bible remains one of the most powerful ways that God speaks to us.  If we want to hear God’s message, then we need to open ourselves up to what God says here.  God’s word is living and active and it has the ability to speak to our lives today.  The practice of setting aside time to read God’s word every day is important, but it is not the end goal.  Reading God’s word isn’t the end goal, living it out is.  

One of the rhythms in our relationship with God is scripture but it’s not the discipline of reading scripture that is important, it’s allowing God’s word to direct our lives.  Mary and Joseph allowed God’s word to direct their life.  They didn’t just listen to the angels; they acted on what they heard.  They allowed God’s word to guide them and that is what we need to do.  But before God’s word can guide us, we have to hear it, we have to read it.  A discipline for us to embrace in the new year is to read God’s word every day.  

Once again, this year we will provide a reading plan so that if you want to read through the Bible in a year, you can have a plan to do it.  I like the 5-day plan because there is always that day I miss for some reason and if I do, a 5-day plan is easy to get back on track.  If you do the 5-day plan, don’t just skip the other two days, however, go back and reread something that spoke to you, or challenged you.  

2. Worship every week.  Make a commitment today to worship God every week.  Worship helps us center our life on Jesus.  Worship is like coming into the light of God’s presence after being in the darkness of the world.   Worship can help ignite or nurture a passion for God that can help us keep Jesus at the center of all we do.  Worship also places us in a community of believers where we can experience love.  

One of the 3 Relationships we believe is important to our life and faith is a relationship with the church, God’s people.  We were never meant to walk in faith alone.  Mary and Joseph had each other.  The first thing Jesus did in ministry was gather people around Him because He knew that community was important to a strong faith in God.   we need the encouragement, the accountability, the inspiration, and love and support that comes from others who are walking with Jesus and being in worship together can bring all of that into our lives.  Weekly worship will help nurture and protect our relationship with Jesus.  

3. Serve every month.  Find one way to serve God and others once a month.  Service to God can be in and through the church, it can be sharing your faith or praying for the needs of others.  Service is simply taking a moment to use the gifts God has given you to help care for someone else.  The rhythm of service in our lives helps us become less self-centered and more Christ centered.  Serving others also brings us joy, and the practice of serving God and others can reshape our thoughts and attitudes.  I know counselors who ask people who are battling depression what they are doing to serve others because they believe that service can lift our hearts and minds.  Serving others won’t solve all our problems, but it does bring some perspective and light into our lives.   

4. Give every moment to God.   While this seems daunting, scripture tells us that this is how we are to live.  The Apostle Paul said, in Him we live and move and have our being.  In God we are to live every moment of every day and so we need to think about how to honor God in all our actions.  The Apostle Paul also said, 

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Philippians 4:4-8

All our thoughts and attitudes should be given to God.  We are to rejoice and give thanks in every moment and every situation.  We are to reflect and think about only what is good and Godly.  Every moment should be given to God.  Every thought should be given to God.  Every action should honor God.  It is in God alone that we find the fullness of life and so every moment of life needs to be given to God.  

As we begin a new year, I want to invite you to give yourself fully to God.  We are going to close with a prayer that John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement, gave to the people.  It is a prayer that we could use every day, but it is especially good on the first day of this new year.  It is your prayer to give every moment to God, would you pray with me:

Almighty God, 

I am not my own. I am Yours alone. 

Make me into what You will. 

Rank me with those You will. 

Put me to use for You. Put me to suffering for You. 

Let me be employed for You. Let me be laid aside for You. 

Let me be lifted high for You. Let me be brought low for You. 

Let me be full or let me be empty. 

Let me have all things or let me have nothing. 

With a willing heart, 

I freely give everything to Your pleasure and disposal.

AMEN

Next Steps

Following the Angels Message in the New Year

Read Matthew 2:1-23

● Why did God keep speaking after the birth of Jesus?  

● What were the angels’ messages to Joseph?

● What was his response?

What darkness is trying to put out the light of Christ in our world?  In your life?  Read Psalm 139.  

4 steps to keep the light of Christ shining in our lives.

1. Read God’s word every day.

● Read through the Bible in 2023. Reading plans available

● Use a devotional or the Upper Room as a discipline for daily Bible Reading.  

2. Worship every week.

● Commit to being in worship every week.  

3. Serve every month.

● Find one way to serve God through Faith Church.

● Find one way to serve God in the community.

● Use prayer as a way of serving God and others.

4. Give every moment to God.  

● Use John Wesley’s prayer to give God every moment.

Almighty God, I am not my own. I am Yours alone. 

Make me into what You will. Rank me with those You will. 

Put me to use for You. Put me to suffering for You. 

Let me be employed for You. Let me be laid aside for You. 

Let me be lifted high for You. Let me be brought low for You. 

Let me be full or let me be empty.  

Let me have all things or let me have nothing. 

With a willing heart, I freely give everything to Your pleasure and disposal.  AMEN