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.
