Kingdom Paradox | Part 7 | The Paradox of Blind Faith

Title of my message today is Blind Belief. Blind Belief. Let me ask you a question. This went over very uniquely in the first service. So let's see how it lands today for the second. How many of you love Christmas movies? Okay. There was a roar and the first service. You would have thought that they were all like spiked up on hot cocoa and like had just finished watching like their favorite movie. So I can tell it's a little indifferent here. Let's see how this goes. I'm gonna give you my top three favorite Christmas movies. Okay. And I'm gonna go ahead and let you know here first. Polar Express, not even in my top ten. Okay. So we're just gonna let that settle in. I said it for the rest of us who are afraid to say it. You only got 27 more minutes then to deal with me. Alright. I mean to be honest with you, I'll put Die Hard in front of Polar Express. And it is a Christmas movie by the way, I would like to say. I love Christmas time. I love Christmas movies. My wife loves Christmas movies. She started watching Christmas movies I think like the moment the clock struck 12, October 31st. It was like November 1. Hallmark was on. Christmas tree was up. Stuck. And I'm like, we got like a really pretty great holiday coming up in like 25 days, you know. It's called Thanksgiving. Remember it? She was like, must have been a tough year, you know. I love Christmas time. I love watching Christmas movies. My favorite. I'm gonna give you my top three. I'll start with number three. Okay. Maybe you can relate. Number three, Elf. Come on. Who doesn't love Elf? I mean great, great movie, right? Grown man wearing an elf costume, bounce around the streets of New York. Did you find your dad? You know, it's just like, ah, kind of hits home a little bit, you know. My wife hates this movie, so I don't get to watch it very much in my house. That's why I put it in my sermon for today. Number two. Number two is Home Alone. Come on. There you go. I love Home Alone, man. I honestly wanted to be Kevin. Like, I didn't want to be left alone, but like, I wanted the BB gun, I wanted to put all the traps, and then my dad was like, no, we're not gonna do that. Now, this one didn't go over very well for the first service, but we're gonna see where it lands for this one. My number one top movie Christmas of all time is Home

Alone 2. Okay, two before one all day. I mean, they get out of jail, and they come back, and now they're in New York, and he's like, randomly has an uncle that he gets to climb up, like, a weird air vent to create this booby trap. I mean, it is, it's amazing. Once you get to, like, Home Alone 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, like, what happened, you know? It's like, we change characters, mom is different now. I don't get it. There's something about Christmas, watching Christmas movies, and here's what I think. This is what I think is the case. I think there's typically a thread in every Christmas movie that there's something good, then something goes wrong, and then something great happens at the end. Sound familiar? Something good was created, something went wrong, and then there's something good that happens in the end. You can find the thread in almost every movie, but there are a few movies that have a particular saying. I wanted to bring the saying to your attention this morning. The saying goes something like this, oh, if you just believe, then you will see. I can't remember the exact movie that I heard that exact line in, maybe some of you could remember, but it goes, oh, believing is seeing. Now, for some of us, we can stand, our faith is our gift, and we can say, oh, yeah, absolutely, believing is seeing, but others of us are kind of like, no, I don't know how I feel about this, because I would actually like to see it before we believe it. See, believing is seeing, it sounds sentimental. It feels like it's a part of the Christmas season, but believing... Believing is seeing is actually a kingdom principle. The thing is, we don't live in a world like this, do we? Our world, the world we live in, the culture that we are being shaped by, operates by a different rule. What is it? See to believe. And I'll give you a few examples of how it shows up. It shows up in our relationships, whether that's with our neighbors, with our co-workers, or with the people that are really close to us.

Show me, then I'll trust you. What about in leadership? What does it say there? Well, prove. Prove it. Prove it to me, and then I'll follow you. Or what about in faith, in our relationship with God? Well, give me clarity, and then I'll obey. When you look all throughout scripture, some of our favorite Bible stories, you don't see seeing as believing. You see believing is seeing. But yet, for some reason, when it comes to our life, we want it differently. And maybe it was just for the first service that wants it differently. Maybe it's just for me that kind of wants it differently. But I kind of would like to have the answers before we're asked to move. I mean, where do we start? How about with Abraham? I want you to go sacrifice your son on the mountain. OK? Like, any more there? No. Just obey. How about Moses? You're going to lead people. OK? Anything else?

You'll see. How about David? I mean, we could go on and on and on. You could tell me your favorite, and we could find it in the scripture, where there were moments where believing comes before seeing. The problem is, even today, we bring this type of mindset into our relationship with God. And here's the result. The result then becomes spiritual blindness. Not because we reject God, but because we insist on seeing the result first. The world, this culture, has trained us to demand proof before trust. And we can see this even in the scripture that we're going to read today. John chapter 9, verse 35, Jesus gives a paradox. Before that, though, let me give you a little context. Jesus, on the Sabbath, heals a blind man. And instead of people celebrating, Bible says that these Pharisees, who were people who thought they knew it all, who had it all together, they, instead of celebrating the miracle, they begin to try to investigate it, question it. And they wanted to know how it was happening and the way that it was happening. This man was questioned, pressured, and he was rejected. Ultimately, the man who was healed

was cast out of his own community. And then in verse 35, we pick up where it says, and when Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man. I want you to note there, he did what? He found the man. Jesus is in the business of finding people. He found a man. And he asked, do you, what's the word there, believe in the Son of Man? The man answered, who is he, sir? I want to believe in him. Verse 37 says, you have seen him, Jesus said, and he is speaking to you. Yes, Lord, I believe, the man said, and he worshiped Jesus. Verse 39, then Jesus told him. This is important to note. I entered this world to render judgment, to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are really blind. There's two types of blindness that Jesus is paying attention to here. Verse 40 says, some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, are you saying we are blind? If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty, but you remain guilty because you claim you can see. See, Jesus asks one question. The question was, do you believe in the Son of Man? And what I love is that the man answered honestly. He admits what he doesn't know. He believes before he fully understood.

See friends, faith, belief, it comes first. Clarity, understanding and revelation, that's what follows. Let me read it to you again. Faith, belief come first. For you are saved by grace through faith, not answers, not certainty, not knowing at all, not control. Faith, belief comes first. Clarity, understanding, revelation, this is what follows. So here's the paradox that we find in John chapter nine, verse 39. There are two types of spiritual blindness. Jesus says something that almost feels backward. This is what he says. I came so that blind would see and the ones who think they see would realize that they're blind. Sounds a little harsh until you sit in it for a moment. But Jesus isn't attacking blindness here, friends. He's exposing something deeper. Here it is, this is what he's exposing. The blind who know they cannot see. Sound familiar? There are people who know they cannot see. They are not pretending, they're not posturing, they're not posing, they're not trying to impress anyone. They recognize they too are sinners in need of a savior. They have all forms of depravity and recognize that they are in need.

They're honest and they are the ones who say, I don't have it all figured out. I do not understand everything. And at one point in their life, they came to a moment of surrender where they said, Lord, I need you. And other phrases that's translated as, Lord, have mercy on me. And Jesus says, that person, the person who recognizes that they cannot see, it's that person is exactly who we came for. The reason for the season, the reason we celebrate, the reason we have Christmas Eve, the reason we show up on Sunday morning to worship, it's because we begin to believe that that is the reason why Jesus came. Because humility always attracts heaven. And need, friends, always draws near to the heart of God. So you have the one who cannot see, admits it, owns it. But then there's another type that Jesus talked about in verse 39. Those who think that they see. You ever use air quotes? Think that they see. Well, these people, these are the certain ones come across the cross and they say, I don't have it all figured out. I don't have it all figured out. I don't have it all figured out. Well, these people, these are the certain ones

come across as a little bit arrogant, somewhat pride. This would not be a time to look at your neighbor. Little entitled, slightly judgmental, and convinced they're the ones who know they can see. They know the verses, they know the language, they know how to do church, they know the right moment to stand up, they know the right things to say. Come on somebody, bless God. You ever ask somebody how you doing? How you doing? God is good. I know God is good. I didn't ask how God was, I asked how you were. Blessed, really blessed, like fully blessed. I get it, I understand where it comes from, but I think the deeper part of it is as long as I can remain closed, as long as no one gets too close, as long as they don't know who I really am, because it's in that moment that they might not accept me, they might not value me, they might not appreciate me. It's the one sitting or listening right now going, I don't wonder when this dude's gonna be done. I got other things that I could be doing. Yeah, Jesus jumped out in verse 39 and he's talking to you. But self-security without surrender has the potential to become its own type of blindness. So then what exactly do we do with this text? Well Jesus is not saying that they are blind because they are wrong. He's saying they're blind because they're closed off. They are unteachable. They are unopen to the possibility that there might be something beyond their sight. And the most dangerous, hear me friends, and the most dangerous place you can be spiritually is not confused. The most dangerous place that you can be spiritually is when you're convinced that you know it all. Because when you think, you see clearly, you stop listening, you stop leaning in, you stop developing, you stop pursuing, you stop growing, you stop asking. And Jesus cannot heal a blindness that you refuse to admit. But here's the beautiful part. For me, for you, and for anyone watching online or anyone who chooses to believe, here's the beautiful part. The doorway to sight is not intelligence. It's humility. It's the courage to say, Jesus, I thought I saw this clearly. But I need you to open my eyes to the hidden areas. Because the people who receive sight are not the ones with all the answers. They are the ones willing to say, Lord, I need you. Have mercy on me. Hear me. The ones who

receive sight are the ones who can say, Lord, I need you. Have mercy on me. And it can be even in those moments that follow that, that you don't get immediate clarity. But I'll tell you what you do get. You get someone who the Bible says is with you, that is closer than a brother. You get someone who says he'll never leave you or forsake you. He went, I'll abandon you. He did not say that hard moments wouldn't come. But what did he say? He said that he would be with you when the moments appear. I don't know what it is that you might be facing today. I don't know what it is that you're going through. I don't know if it's a relational tension, if it's health, if it's financial, if it's mental, if it's emotional. But what I do know about the God that we serve is that he's with us. There's a Christmas word that we use that's far beyond the season. It's called Emmanuel. You want to know what Emmanuel means? God with us. This is his character. This is who he says he is. is. And the one thing, when everything else feels uncertain, the one thing that we can be certain about is who God says he is. The Bible says he's the what? The same yesterday, today, and forever. So when moments show up in our lives, we have some choices. I don't know about you, but I search for questions to ask on things that I don't understand. I think when we find ourself in low moments, what we like to call valley moments or moments where we don't quite understand, we tend to ask, and I would dare to say that one of the questions that we're asking might, it's not that the question is wrong, but it's just not giving us what we're looking for, and we keep trying it over and over and over and over again. The question is like this, why? Now I get it. I want to know why too, okay? You ever, you ever, you ever asked why? Why, God? I mean, I can remember sitting in 2018, having some of the worst moments of my life, and I found myself going, looking up to heaven going, God, why? And what did I want in the why? I wanted an answer. I wanted an outcome. Following why typically came, well, how? How'd I get in? How am I gonna get out? How'd I get here? How am I leaving? Typically what follows why is why, how, when, where, what? All of them. There's one that we keep forgetting. One is who. Now, this is unique because, you know, in the English framework of

sentences, this kind of doesn't make sense, because it makes sense to go why, but when you go who, it's kind of like you're, who? Let me propose to you today that it's actually in asking who that you find what you need. See, why gives you results, why gives you outcomes, but who, who gives you revelation? Who gives you an understanding of the person that you believe? Who gives you his character? And it can go something like this. God, I don't understand the situation, but who are you trying to show yourself to me to be in the middle of whatever it is that I'm facing? This is maturity. This is what it looks like to say, God, I don't understand. It's hard to follow, but I trust that your character is being revealed in me. Who are you trying to be, and who are you trying to show me to be? God, who are you cultivating? I'm oftentimes not grateful for the hard seasons that I went through in the moment, but when you look back, you can say, God, I'm grateful, because it was in that moment that I developed the character that I needed for where God was trying to take me in the future. I didn't have the roadmap, I didn't have the plans, I didn't have the four-step calculated, but what I did have was a God, come on church, who said he's with me. He said he's for me. He said he's not against me, and it's in those moments that I cling to who he is. There was a man born in 1724, travel back a couple hundred years. It was a man by the name of John Newton. John Newton was a pretty terrible human. He was a part of the Atlantic slave trade. He was a sailor, so he had all types of sailor activity. He was a thief. Some would say that he was a disgrace. 1700s, he found himself in the middle of the sea, where he was in a storm. You read different articles and different things about him, the storm was raging all around the, the, the waves were coming into the boat. In fact, there was a few of the passengers to his left and to his right and the people that he was working for who died in this shipwreck in the middle of the sea. This is a man who was not following God, who was living a life that was absolutely far from God, but it was in the moment in the middle of a storm, in the middle of a sea where he cried out, this is what he said, Lord, have mercy on me. He was miraculously saved from this shipwreck. And you would think that in a moment like

that of seeing everything that you saw that you would immediately turn your life around. But that's not how us humans tend to do it sometimes, is it? It's a few other things that we got to go through in order for us to really surrender. Goes on to say that later in the 1700s, he surrendered his life to Christ. And in fact, he became a pastor. He, he began to fight for the, the very things that he used to stand for. He used to fight and now he fights against. He became one of the greatest leaders, greatest pastors and even one of the greatest songwriters we come to know. In fact, he wrote a song in the 1700s that you can find in hymnals and sung in most churches still here to this day. Here's the song. Amazing grace. You ever heard of it? How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. Friends John Newton had nothing to give. He had nothing to offer to God, but his surrender. I would dare to say to us today, what do we have to offer to God, but our surrender. That's the beautiful part of grace that we can stand and say how amazing it is. How sweet the sound that saved, come on, not just your neighbor, not just your coworker, not just someone that you love and that you're praying for. Come on, this grace saved you. It's in that moment that you recognize your own sin, your own need for repentance, your own depravity. You say to yourself, I once was lost. Oh, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see.