The Power of Story(12March2012)
Sharing the Presence M3 (John 9) 12 03 18
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu with Gil Yeung giving testimony
Title: The Power of Story
Text: John 9
BIG IDEA: When we are touched by Jesus, we tell others about his grace.
Our three-year-old son Joey loves spare ribs. On Monday, my day off, when I pick up Joe from his pre-school for some reason he knows it’s Monday (maybe because I am picking him up) and he says, “Ribs! Ribs! I want Ribs.” So, for the last few months we’ve been in the habit of going to Earls, and getting take-out ribs.
The other Monday I walked into Earls with Joey to pick up our order and the hostess says, “The manager wants to meet you.” She comes into the open bar area where we are waiting and says, “I notice that you have been coming in every Monday with your son to pick up ribs. As a way to say thank you, today dinner is on us.” She gives me the ribs and on the box she’s written, “Thank you for your business on Monday nights.” And then a big heart, “Rachel and the Earls team.”
I am blown away. First of all, I’m surprised she remembers us because we are just in and out and Earls is primarily a sit-down restaurant. I am touched by her act of kindness. So driving home, I call my wife (hands-free of course) and I tell her the story. When I get home, I call my sister in Montreal who, when she was in high school, worked as a waitress…and let her know…and later some other people, as well. When something good happens to us, even if in the grand scheme of things it is relatively small, like being given a free meal at restaurant, or something bigger in our lives, like getting accepted into university, receiving a promotion, getting engaged, or our sister has a baby girl, or retiring, we want to share that good news with other people.
As we draw closer to Christ and realize how good he has been to us, one of the natural overflows of this will be a desire to share him with others.
We are in a year where we are emphasizing the theme of sharing the presence of God. And when we are touched in some way by the living God, we will want to bear witness to that reality.
Pray.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to John: 9.
In this passage we see how a blind man encounters Jesus and experiences grace, even in the face of significant opposition.
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The blind man is standing on the side of the road. Jesus is passing by and his students ask him, “Rabbi (or teacher), who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Jesus, the most brilliant person ever, could have jumped into a great theological debate about suffering, but he does not. He simply says that neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Jesus rejects the idea that the human experience is like using a vending machine where we put the coins of our deeds and then get exactly what we paid for. Jesus rejects the idea our suffering is directly tied to our own sins, or the sins of our parents, or our sins in some former life.
I don’t know if you heard the story of the coach of the English national soccer (football) team who said that people who suffered from birth defects and disabilities were being punished for sins that they had committed in a former life. This belief is held by some within certain Hindu traditions, although many Hindus would reject that idea. If you believe in Karma, an unstoppable chain of cause and effect running from the present life into the future one and on into another, and so on, like Jesus’ disciples you might ask if a person has been born with some kind of disability: Did they sin in a previous life? But Jesus in the passage rejects that idea outright. He says this person isn’t blind because he sinned, or the parents sinned, but so that the glory of God might be displayed in him (verse 3).
Notice, as I mentioned earlier, that Jesus does not enter into a prolonged theological or philosophical debate on the problem of evil in the world and suffering. Or why do a lot of people who are relatively good suffer at all.
He simply says in verses 5-7:
5 “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Having said this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Jesus says “I am the light of the world,” and then he spits on the ground, makes some mud with saliva, put it on the man’s eyes, tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man goes and washes and he comes home seeing. Amazing! Here is a person who has never known the light of day.
Darkness was all the blind man had ever known, never seen a blade of grass, never witnessed the blue of the ocean, never seen his mother’s face, but now he can see for the very first time! And now having followed the words of Jesus, and having washed his face in the Pool of Siloam… And when something that great happens to you – we can't help but talk about it. So this guy starts saying, “I can see…I can see… I can see!”
(transition)
When we suffer in some way, Jesus does not usually give us an abstract theological explanation of about why we are going what we are going through.
Instead, Jesus offers us his presence and brings some kind of healing to us (and that healing is not always physical).
Whenever Jesus comes into our life and brings some kind of healing, it is for us. It is gift, but it is not just for us.
As we see in verse 3 we are touched by God so that the works of God might be displayed in us, so that we and others might know that Jesus’ special identity as a special prophet, as the unique son of God, as the Messiah.
A similar kind of healing occurred in about the year 900 BC through the prophet Elisha.
In 2 Kings 5, the prophet Elisha, heals Naaman of leprosy.
Elisha promises to heal him so that people would know that there was still a prophet for God in Israel.
2 Kings 5:8 we read:
Have the man [Naaman] come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.
Elisha sent Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan River and Naaman miraculously emerged clean and free from leprosy.
The miracle itself is a priceless gift to Naaman, but it is not just for him, but the miracle is a sign that Elisha is a prophet.
When Jesus heals a blind man it's obviously an extraordinary gift for the blind man , but it's also a sign to him and us that Jesus is a prophet, the unique son of God, the Messiah—the Saviour.
So, Jesus in opening the eyes of this person who was born blind was not merely gifting him, he was also gifting the people around him...us, with a sign of Jesus’ special identity as a prophet, as the light of the world, as the Messiah.
Up until this point in Israel’s history no person, not even a prophet, had ever opened the eyes of a blind person. Not even Moses or Elisha had done that. Some of the Jewish people believed that when the Messiah came he would open the eyes of the blind.
So when Jesus heals us, touches us, transforms us in some way, and that healing may not always be physical, it is intended to not just be a gift for us, but a gift through us to the world as we through our witness affirm Jesus’ identity as the prophet, the light of the world, the Messiah—Saviour of the world.
(Transition)
When the blind man said Jesus had healed him, the Pharisees questioned that and contended that since Jesus was a sinner it would have been impossible for him to really heal him (vs. 16).
(As I said a few weeks ago, the Pharisees had a way of adding regulation upon regulation on top of what the Bible said. There is basically one commandment to not work on the Sabbath, but the Pharisees tried to make about 40 commandments. Jesus was not in fact breaking the Sabbath command, just the man-made regulations of the Pharisees that went well beyond what the Bible actually said.)
The man courageously answers (30-34):
“Now that is remarkable… We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
Then the Pharisees replied:
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
Sometimes when we bear witness to the reality of what Jesus has done in us, there is pushback. People like the Pharisees, try to dismiss our experience by explaining it away. When my wife Sakiko in her 20s first came into a personal relationship with Jesus, her family who were nominal Buddhists said, “It’s just a phase for you. It is going to be passing away.” (the phase has lasted about 2 decades). And in fact her grandmother, her mother and her sister came into a relationship with Jesus. Pray for her dad.
Sometimes when we bear witness to Jesus, we risk getting kicked out of some kind of official or unofficial social “club.” This man who had been blind was thrown out of the synagogue for bearing witness to Jesus. His parents were afraid that anyone who acknowledged the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue, so they did not want to directly testify that their son had been blind and had been healed by Jesus.
Sometimes we can hesitate to share what Jesus has done in us because we are afraid that someone will explain it away, or that we may get kicked out of some kind of social club.
We can fear the awkward moments that can come when sharing our faith.
Some time ago I was at dinner with about 12 people honoring a prominent political leader in our city. He was celebrating his receiving The Order of Canada award, the highest government bestowed civilian award in our country. Part way through the dinner the host asked each one of the people seated around the table to share for a few minutes something we were passionate about. There was a part of me that wanted to talk about a safer topic like my love of sailing or running through wooded endowment lands with our Golden Retriever, but I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to share part of my spiritual journey.
I said, “I’m pastor of Tenth Church here in the city. People sometimes ask why I choose to enter the somewhat unusual vocation of a Christian minister. As a teenager, I went through troubled years. I was involved in taking and dealing drugs, shoplifting, and joyriding. My dad as a convservative Asian was concerned about me. So, he took me on a “field trip” to a local prison, and later he said, “I just wanted you to see your future home…” When he saw that I wasn't “scared straight” he figured he’d try a very different strategy. He took me to a Christian youth conference. At that Christian conference I discovered I could have a new beginning with Jesus Christ and my life was radically changed for the better. So one of the passionate things for me is seeing lives changed by the power of God.”
Someone else at the table, a guest at that dinner, talked about how she too had recently started attending Tenth and had just been baptized there and spoke about her new faith. It felt like a really holy moment.
But if Jesus has done something in us, we don’t need to force the issue, but with help of the Spirit we may have to exercise some courage. And as the Holy Spirit gives us opportunities, we are called to bear witness to things that Jesus has done in us, bear witness to the healing and the transformation that Jesus has brought about in us. And as we do that, as was true of the blind man, the special identity of Jesus as a prophet, as the Son of God, the Messiah, is made known.
Sakiko and I had dinner with a committed follower of Jesus named Joe and his wife.
Joe shares the following story:
“It was six o'clock in the morning, and I had just finished my early run. As I passed Starbucks, I decided to stop in and get a coffee. Since the café had just opened, there was only one other person in line in front of me. But it wasn't your ordinary wait-in-line-for-coffee drill. The guy in front of me was in a tense argument with the clerk. The customer was loudly complaining that all he wanted was the copy of the Newspaper that he was holding in one hand while he was waving a fifty-dollar bill in the other. The fight was over the fact that the clerk did not have enough change yet to break the fifty-dollar bill, which made it impossible for him to sell the paper.
It dawned on me that this was an early morning opportunity to commit an act of [kindness] by demonstrating the generous spirit of Jesus. So I said to the clerk, "Hey, put the paper on my bill; I'll buy it for him." This immediately defused the tension, and the grateful Newspaper guy walked away saying, "Thanks a lot.”
To my surprise, when the barista handed me my coffee, he said, "Mister, that was a really nice thing for you to do. This world would be a lot better place to live if more people were like you."
His comments caught me totally off guard, and I knew that I could say something at that point that would point the glory upward…but nothing came. So I made some self-deprecating remark and walked out, haunted that I had missed a great opportunity to glorify God and share the presence. As I was walking down the sidewalk, it came to me. I should have said, "Well, this world would not be a better place if more people were like me. But it would be a better place if more people were like Jesus, because he taught me how to do that."
(I know I've had many experiences where a better answer has come to me after that conversation.)
I turned around to go back and tell him that, only to remember that by the time I left there was a line waiting for coffee. It didn't seem to me that it would be a great idea to break into the line and make a religious speech. So I prayed that for him.
There are times when we will miss opportunities to share our faith, and ideally, we will not beat ourselves up ourselves up and instead receive the grace of God and trust that although we may play a role, ultimately a person's coming to know God is going to be accomplished more by God than by us.
As we share our faith and bear witness to Jesus, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about our initial conversion experience per se. Both in my public witness as I preach and in my personal witness as I testify about Christ in the context of my personal relationships with people who are on the borderlands of faith, I don’t always tell my conversion story, but I may tell stories of how Jesus has transformed me in some area of my life, or is still transforming me in some areas of my life.
Many of you have heard me talk in the past about how, when I was younger, I was tempted to put my identity in sports and my success on the court or in the field. Then as a younger adult I put my identity in being in a relationship, being with a particular kind of woman. And for a good part of my adult life, and I am still struggling with this, the tendency to put my identity in my work and my productivity. Now as a relatively new father, I put it in family.
We can testify to the ways that Jesus in each stage of our life has brought grace and transformation.
Sometimes when we share our struggle with someone and how Christ has met us in this struggle, it can bear witness to the special identity of Jesus.
At this time I am going to invite my friend Gil Yeung to come forward. Gil has been part of the people in a rule of life small group that I was leading in the fall. He is going to come and share part of his story with us.
GIL’S TESTIMONY
When Ken first asked me to share a few months ago, my reaction was interesting. The sales manager in me starting calculating how much time I had to prepare. Targets and priorities began forming in a virtual spreadsheet in my head. In fact, Ken gave me a choice of 2 dates, one in February and one in march. I even selected the later date because I thought I would be able to share more presence by that time. I wanted some good data to present today. Or perhaps the first 2 rows of the sanctuary would be full of people that I had shared my faith with. I don’t know anyone in the first 2 rows. Then a few weeks later Ken mentioned it on a video- seriously, Ken, just a little bit of pressure. I thought about it, Ken, if you really want us to share the presence, you should just mass email the entire congregation, blind cc and ask them to come up and share on a Sunday with your sermon. That will get us going real quick.
When I was young, and a new Christian, I would often share my faith in ways that would be quite over the top. Guilt trips, often thinking that I could bring someone to Christ., major philosophical or religious arguments, or even childish arguments like “oh yah, well my God thinks your God is fat and lazy, Gramma!” - As I grew older, I began to go the other way- I became lazy and lethargic in sharing my faith. I had this attitude that , Well, people know I am a Christian, if they have any questions, they can just ask. It’s not up to me, its up to God.
Last year, when I got cancer and was in chemotherapy, I began to feel an urge to share my faith with fellow patients, nurses and even complete strangers. After my treatment, I wondered if that would change. Near the end of my last cycle, a sister of one of my friends transferred into the cancer ward as a nurse. So even after I was done the treatment, every time I had a bloodtest or xray or scan, I would go up to the chemo ward and visit her. Now this would freak some of the nurses out. You see, on your last day of treatment, they all say the same thing, “nice to meet you, hope to never see you again”. They tell me most former patients do not come back to visit. Not exactly a place of great memories. So the nurses always panic when they see me. it could also mean that I am back for treatment I guess. I just go- “Just visiting” and you can see the immediate relief in their eyes. So one day, talking to my friend the nurse, my blog that I kept during my cancer treatments came up. June had my blog made into a book for my birthday last year. I just wanted to read an entry from it- this was my first day after I had finished my treatment
Blog excerpt:
Sunday May 15th- POST CHEMO: Day 1
I am sure I will see you all very soon. I know there will be a time to celebrate. Right now, I am just slowly taking it all in. Just trying to figure out my recovery time. There are some lifestyle changes that need to be made. When I got a call from my cousin Ken in England yesterday, it made me realize something very important. Although I am the one who had the cancer, everyone that I knew and cared about went through it with me. You guys were all there with me. It wasn't just about me fighting. So many people worried and waited for updates and stressed over my condition. So many people were relieved when I gave good news. With social media, there is no hiding anymore. Good news or bad, it gets out quick(thank you facebook). I hope that my faith in God that kept me sane through all this isn't something we glance over. I hope that we can speak openly and that I can share what it means to have a relationship with God and to live a life that has Him in control. Could be easy to say now because the cancer is gone. But I would like to think that this blog wouldn't be much different even if I had gotten a negative prognosis.
She read some of it and the next time I visited, she asked if she could share it with patients that are going through the same thing I did. I said absolutely. So a few months went by and I got a text from her and she said there was a guy who had just started the protocol that I had already gone through- she asked if she could share my blog with him. I went straight down there that day. He was gone already, but I said to her, here, give him my blog, my cel phone, my home phone, email, you name it. The doctors and nurses are phenomenal but having someone who has gone through it before, that would have been great when I was going through it. So then I waited, and a few weeks later, he emailed me and we started a conversation over email and text, and I asked if it would be ok if I came down to see him. So I did. We talked and he had read some of my blog. We talked about side effects, drugs, and I even met his girlfriend. Right before I was going to leave, I felt God tugging at my heart. So there was a nurse in the room and 1 or 2 other patients and I asked him if it would be ok if I prayed for him, and his girlfriend. I prayed for healing and for peace in his recovery. Maybe it was awkward but I felt moved to do something. I continue to keep in touch with him,email on text. Just a few words of encouragement. Here is an excerpt.
… Hope you came out of the last round ok, at least feeling normal from monday onwards. Its only gonna get better from now on. Praying for you and your girlfriend. Talk to you soon
We continued to keep in touch after his treatment. My daughter Rhys and I would pray for healing for daddy’s new friend at bedtime. He has also been declared cancer free just recently. I realize that God opens doors for me all the time to share my faith. And how that faith help me weather the biggest storms of my life. I just need to recognize those opportunities and do something. I feel blessed to be able to share what I went through with others. On that note, I want to share another fairly big event that happened recently in my life.
I just bought a new car. My first new car in over 10 years. I did my research- a lot of research and finally decided on a brand new Kia sportage. And I love it, and I can’t stop talking about it. I keep offering people rides just so I can talk about the car. In fact, I will be around later in the upper east hall if you want to discuss it. This car has everything I ever thought I needed in a car, and a few things I never thought I would need until now. Built in Bluetooth, backup sensors and even heated seats. Now I am always asking people if their bum is cold. Kinda weird. I am always looking at ways to let everyone know what a great car I got. People hear me talk about it and go, do you work for kia? I don’t but I should, just talking about it seems to come naturally now.
IF its something I believe in and love, why wouldn’t I share it with friends , family and even complete strangers. I wonder sometimes, if sharing the presence is like buying a kia. Shouldn’t telling people about Jesus be just that simple?
Gil has a story… I have story do you have a story of how God has touched you?
Do you know Jesus personally? I don’t necessarily mean just your initial coming into a friendship with Jesus, but somewhere along the line, at some stage in your life, you experienced the grace and transformation of God.
I am going to give you a couple of moment to briefly write out a story of what Jesus has done for you.
If you never had this experience, I invite you to write out a prayer asking Jesus to open your eyes spiritually so you might see what he’s doing in your life. As was true in the Scripture passage, it possible for Jesus to do something but like the Pharisees we don't see it, we don't recognize it.
PAUSE for a few minutes.I encourage you to share that story with someone as the Holy Spirit gives opportunity.
If you feel comfortable doing so, I would love to hear it myself. If you could e-mail me at ken@tenth.ca and share your story in 200 words or less (we have about 2000 people who attend our services or listen on line), I would be grateful to hear them and pray over them.
You can write it down now on the sermon notes page and email it to me or write an email or text to me write now on your phone.
Your sharing will be held in confidence.
As you do that others other may come to recognize the special identity of Jesus as a unique prophet and as the Messiah. And as was true of the blind man as your share your vision of Christ you will be able to “see” more of who Jesus really is. At the beginning of the story the man who had been born blind was only able to point to Jesus and say that man healed me, but as he shared what Jesus had done for him with others he went on to believe and worship him. As the blind man shared with others with Jesus did for him, his vision of Christ grew and so will ours.
PRAY
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu with Gil Yeung giving testimony
Title: The Power of Story
Text: John 9
BIG IDEA: When we are touched by Jesus, we tell others about his grace.
Our three-year-old son Joey loves spare ribs. On Monday, my day off, when I pick up Joe from his pre-school for some reason he knows it’s Monday (maybe because I am picking him up) and he says, “Ribs! Ribs! I want Ribs.” So, for the last few months we’ve been in the habit of going to Earls, and getting take-out ribs.
The other Monday I walked into Earls with Joey to pick up our order and the hostess says, “The manager wants to meet you.” She comes into the open bar area where we are waiting and says, “I notice that you have been coming in every Monday with your son to pick up ribs. As a way to say thank you, today dinner is on us.” She gives me the ribs and on the box she’s written, “Thank you for your business on Monday nights.” And then a big heart, “Rachel and the Earls team.”
I am blown away. First of all, I’m surprised she remembers us because we are just in and out and Earls is primarily a sit-down restaurant. I am touched by her act of kindness. So driving home, I call my wife (hands-free of course) and I tell her the story. When I get home, I call my sister in Montreal who, when she was in high school, worked as a waitress…and let her know…and later some other people, as well. When something good happens to us, even if in the grand scheme of things it is relatively small, like being given a free meal at restaurant, or something bigger in our lives, like getting accepted into university, receiving a promotion, getting engaged, or our sister has a baby girl, or retiring, we want to share that good news with other people.
As we draw closer to Christ and realize how good he has been to us, one of the natural overflows of this will be a desire to share him with others.
We are in a year where we are emphasizing the theme of sharing the presence of God. And when we are touched in some way by the living God, we will want to bear witness to that reality.
Pray.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to John: 9.
In this passage we see how a blind man encounters Jesus and experiences grace, even in the face of significant opposition.
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The blind man is standing on the side of the road. Jesus is passing by and his students ask him, “Rabbi (or teacher), who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Jesus, the most brilliant person ever, could have jumped into a great theological debate about suffering, but he does not. He simply says that neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Jesus rejects the idea that the human experience is like using a vending machine where we put the coins of our deeds and then get exactly what we paid for. Jesus rejects the idea our suffering is directly tied to our own sins, or the sins of our parents, or our sins in some former life.
I don’t know if you heard the story of the coach of the English national soccer (football) team who said that people who suffered from birth defects and disabilities were being punished for sins that they had committed in a former life. This belief is held by some within certain Hindu traditions, although many Hindus would reject that idea. If you believe in Karma, an unstoppable chain of cause and effect running from the present life into the future one and on into another, and so on, like Jesus’ disciples you might ask if a person has been born with some kind of disability: Did they sin in a previous life? But Jesus in the passage rejects that idea outright. He says this person isn’t blind because he sinned, or the parents sinned, but so that the glory of God might be displayed in him (verse 3).
Notice, as I mentioned earlier, that Jesus does not enter into a prolonged theological or philosophical debate on the problem of evil in the world and suffering. Or why do a lot of people who are relatively good suffer at all.
He simply says in verses 5-7:
5 “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Having said this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Jesus says “I am the light of the world,” and then he spits on the ground, makes some mud with saliva, put it on the man’s eyes, tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man goes and washes and he comes home seeing. Amazing! Here is a person who has never known the light of day.
Darkness was all the blind man had ever known, never seen a blade of grass, never witnessed the blue of the ocean, never seen his mother’s face, but now he can see for the very first time! And now having followed the words of Jesus, and having washed his face in the Pool of Siloam… And when something that great happens to you – we can't help but talk about it. So this guy starts saying, “I can see…I can see… I can see!”
(transition)
When we suffer in some way, Jesus does not usually give us an abstract theological explanation of about why we are going what we are going through.
Instead, Jesus offers us his presence and brings some kind of healing to us (and that healing is not always physical).
Whenever Jesus comes into our life and brings some kind of healing, it is for us. It is gift, but it is not just for us.
As we see in verse 3 we are touched by God so that the works of God might be displayed in us, so that we and others might know that Jesus’ special identity as a special prophet, as the unique son of God, as the Messiah.
A similar kind of healing occurred in about the year 900 BC through the prophet Elisha.
In 2 Kings 5, the prophet Elisha, heals Naaman of leprosy.
Elisha promises to heal him so that people would know that there was still a prophet for God in Israel.
2 Kings 5:8 we read:
Have the man [Naaman] come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.
Elisha sent Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan River and Naaman miraculously emerged clean and free from leprosy.
The miracle itself is a priceless gift to Naaman, but it is not just for him, but the miracle is a sign that Elisha is a prophet.
When Jesus heals a blind man it's obviously an extraordinary gift for the blind man , but it's also a sign to him and us that Jesus is a prophet, the unique son of God, the Messiah—the Saviour.
So, Jesus in opening the eyes of this person who was born blind was not merely gifting him, he was also gifting the people around him...us, with a sign of Jesus’ special identity as a prophet, as the light of the world, as the Messiah.
Up until this point in Israel’s history no person, not even a prophet, had ever opened the eyes of a blind person. Not even Moses or Elisha had done that. Some of the Jewish people believed that when the Messiah came he would open the eyes of the blind.
So when Jesus heals us, touches us, transforms us in some way, and that healing may not always be physical, it is intended to not just be a gift for us, but a gift through us to the world as we through our witness affirm Jesus’ identity as the prophet, the light of the world, the Messiah—Saviour of the world.
(Transition)
When the blind man said Jesus had healed him, the Pharisees questioned that and contended that since Jesus was a sinner it would have been impossible for him to really heal him (vs. 16).
(As I said a few weeks ago, the Pharisees had a way of adding regulation upon regulation on top of what the Bible said. There is basically one commandment to not work on the Sabbath, but the Pharisees tried to make about 40 commandments. Jesus was not in fact breaking the Sabbath command, just the man-made regulations of the Pharisees that went well beyond what the Bible actually said.)
The man courageously answers (30-34):
“Now that is remarkable… We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
Then the Pharisees replied:
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
Sometimes when we bear witness to the reality of what Jesus has done in us, there is pushback. People like the Pharisees, try to dismiss our experience by explaining it away. When my wife Sakiko in her 20s first came into a personal relationship with Jesus, her family who were nominal Buddhists said, “It’s just a phase for you. It is going to be passing away.” (the phase has lasted about 2 decades). And in fact her grandmother, her mother and her sister came into a relationship with Jesus. Pray for her dad.
Sometimes when we bear witness to Jesus, we risk getting kicked out of some kind of official or unofficial social “club.” This man who had been blind was thrown out of the synagogue for bearing witness to Jesus. His parents were afraid that anyone who acknowledged the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue, so they did not want to directly testify that their son had been blind and had been healed by Jesus.
Sometimes we can hesitate to share what Jesus has done in us because we are afraid that someone will explain it away, or that we may get kicked out of some kind of social club.
We can fear the awkward moments that can come when sharing our faith.
Some time ago I was at dinner with about 12 people honoring a prominent political leader in our city. He was celebrating his receiving The Order of Canada award, the highest government bestowed civilian award in our country. Part way through the dinner the host asked each one of the people seated around the table to share for a few minutes something we were passionate about. There was a part of me that wanted to talk about a safer topic like my love of sailing or running through wooded endowment lands with our Golden Retriever, but I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to share part of my spiritual journey.
I said, “I’m pastor of Tenth Church here in the city. People sometimes ask why I choose to enter the somewhat unusual vocation of a Christian minister. As a teenager, I went through troubled years. I was involved in taking and dealing drugs, shoplifting, and joyriding. My dad as a convservative Asian was concerned about me. So, he took me on a “field trip” to a local prison, and later he said, “I just wanted you to see your future home…” When he saw that I wasn't “scared straight” he figured he’d try a very different strategy. He took me to a Christian youth conference. At that Christian conference I discovered I could have a new beginning with Jesus Christ and my life was radically changed for the better. So one of the passionate things for me is seeing lives changed by the power of God.”
Someone else at the table, a guest at that dinner, talked about how she too had recently started attending Tenth and had just been baptized there and spoke about her new faith. It felt like a really holy moment.
But if Jesus has done something in us, we don’t need to force the issue, but with help of the Spirit we may have to exercise some courage. And as the Holy Spirit gives us opportunities, we are called to bear witness to things that Jesus has done in us, bear witness to the healing and the transformation that Jesus has brought about in us. And as we do that, as was true of the blind man, the special identity of Jesus as a prophet, as the Son of God, the Messiah, is made known.
Sakiko and I had dinner with a committed follower of Jesus named Joe and his wife.
Joe shares the following story:
“It was six o'clock in the morning, and I had just finished my early run. As I passed Starbucks, I decided to stop in and get a coffee. Since the café had just opened, there was only one other person in line in front of me. But it wasn't your ordinary wait-in-line-for-coffee drill. The guy in front of me was in a tense argument with the clerk. The customer was loudly complaining that all he wanted was the copy of the Newspaper that he was holding in one hand while he was waving a fifty-dollar bill in the other. The fight was over the fact that the clerk did not have enough change yet to break the fifty-dollar bill, which made it impossible for him to sell the paper.
It dawned on me that this was an early morning opportunity to commit an act of [kindness] by demonstrating the generous spirit of Jesus. So I said to the clerk, "Hey, put the paper on my bill; I'll buy it for him." This immediately defused the tension, and the grateful Newspaper guy walked away saying, "Thanks a lot.”
To my surprise, when the barista handed me my coffee, he said, "Mister, that was a really nice thing for you to do. This world would be a lot better place to live if more people were like you."
His comments caught me totally off guard, and I knew that I could say something at that point that would point the glory upward…but nothing came. So I made some self-deprecating remark and walked out, haunted that I had missed a great opportunity to glorify God and share the presence. As I was walking down the sidewalk, it came to me. I should have said, "Well, this world would not be a better place if more people were like me. But it would be a better place if more people were like Jesus, because he taught me how to do that."
(I know I've had many experiences where a better answer has come to me after that conversation.)
I turned around to go back and tell him that, only to remember that by the time I left there was a line waiting for coffee. It didn't seem to me that it would be a great idea to break into the line and make a religious speech. So I prayed that for him.
There are times when we will miss opportunities to share our faith, and ideally, we will not beat ourselves up ourselves up and instead receive the grace of God and trust that although we may play a role, ultimately a person's coming to know God is going to be accomplished more by God than by us.
As we share our faith and bear witness to Jesus, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about our initial conversion experience per se. Both in my public witness as I preach and in my personal witness as I testify about Christ in the context of my personal relationships with people who are on the borderlands of faith, I don’t always tell my conversion story, but I may tell stories of how Jesus has transformed me in some area of my life, or is still transforming me in some areas of my life.
Many of you have heard me talk in the past about how, when I was younger, I was tempted to put my identity in sports and my success on the court or in the field. Then as a younger adult I put my identity in being in a relationship, being with a particular kind of woman. And for a good part of my adult life, and I am still struggling with this, the tendency to put my identity in my work and my productivity. Now as a relatively new father, I put it in family.
We can testify to the ways that Jesus in each stage of our life has brought grace and transformation.
Sometimes when we share our struggle with someone and how Christ has met us in this struggle, it can bear witness to the special identity of Jesus.
At this time I am going to invite my friend Gil Yeung to come forward. Gil has been part of the people in a rule of life small group that I was leading in the fall. He is going to come and share part of his story with us.
GIL’S TESTIMONY
When Ken first asked me to share a few months ago, my reaction was interesting. The sales manager in me starting calculating how much time I had to prepare. Targets and priorities began forming in a virtual spreadsheet in my head. In fact, Ken gave me a choice of 2 dates, one in February and one in march. I even selected the later date because I thought I would be able to share more presence by that time. I wanted some good data to present today. Or perhaps the first 2 rows of the sanctuary would be full of people that I had shared my faith with. I don’t know anyone in the first 2 rows. Then a few weeks later Ken mentioned it on a video- seriously, Ken, just a little bit of pressure. I thought about it, Ken, if you really want us to share the presence, you should just mass email the entire congregation, blind cc and ask them to come up and share on a Sunday with your sermon. That will get us going real quick.
When I was young, and a new Christian, I would often share my faith in ways that would be quite over the top. Guilt trips, often thinking that I could bring someone to Christ., major philosophical or religious arguments, or even childish arguments like “oh yah, well my God thinks your God is fat and lazy, Gramma!” - As I grew older, I began to go the other way- I became lazy and lethargic in sharing my faith. I had this attitude that , Well, people know I am a Christian, if they have any questions, they can just ask. It’s not up to me, its up to God.
Last year, when I got cancer and was in chemotherapy, I began to feel an urge to share my faith with fellow patients, nurses and even complete strangers. After my treatment, I wondered if that would change. Near the end of my last cycle, a sister of one of my friends transferred into the cancer ward as a nurse. So even after I was done the treatment, every time I had a bloodtest or xray or scan, I would go up to the chemo ward and visit her. Now this would freak some of the nurses out. You see, on your last day of treatment, they all say the same thing, “nice to meet you, hope to never see you again”. They tell me most former patients do not come back to visit. Not exactly a place of great memories. So the nurses always panic when they see me. it could also mean that I am back for treatment I guess. I just go- “Just visiting” and you can see the immediate relief in their eyes. So one day, talking to my friend the nurse, my blog that I kept during my cancer treatments came up. June had my blog made into a book for my birthday last year. I just wanted to read an entry from it- this was my first day after I had finished my treatment
Blog excerpt:
Sunday May 15th- POST CHEMO: Day 1
I am sure I will see you all very soon. I know there will be a time to celebrate. Right now, I am just slowly taking it all in. Just trying to figure out my recovery time. There are some lifestyle changes that need to be made. When I got a call from my cousin Ken in England yesterday, it made me realize something very important. Although I am the one who had the cancer, everyone that I knew and cared about went through it with me. You guys were all there with me. It wasn't just about me fighting. So many people worried and waited for updates and stressed over my condition. So many people were relieved when I gave good news. With social media, there is no hiding anymore. Good news or bad, it gets out quick(thank you facebook). I hope that my faith in God that kept me sane through all this isn't something we glance over. I hope that we can speak openly and that I can share what it means to have a relationship with God and to live a life that has Him in control. Could be easy to say now because the cancer is gone. But I would like to think that this blog wouldn't be much different even if I had gotten a negative prognosis.
She read some of it and the next time I visited, she asked if she could share it with patients that are going through the same thing I did. I said absolutely. So a few months went by and I got a text from her and she said there was a guy who had just started the protocol that I had already gone through- she asked if she could share my blog with him. I went straight down there that day. He was gone already, but I said to her, here, give him my blog, my cel phone, my home phone, email, you name it. The doctors and nurses are phenomenal but having someone who has gone through it before, that would have been great when I was going through it. So then I waited, and a few weeks later, he emailed me and we started a conversation over email and text, and I asked if it would be ok if I came down to see him. So I did. We talked and he had read some of my blog. We talked about side effects, drugs, and I even met his girlfriend. Right before I was going to leave, I felt God tugging at my heart. So there was a nurse in the room and 1 or 2 other patients and I asked him if it would be ok if I prayed for him, and his girlfriend. I prayed for healing and for peace in his recovery. Maybe it was awkward but I felt moved to do something. I continue to keep in touch with him,email on text. Just a few words of encouragement. Here is an excerpt.
… Hope you came out of the last round ok, at least feeling normal from monday onwards. Its only gonna get better from now on. Praying for you and your girlfriend. Talk to you soon
We continued to keep in touch after his treatment. My daughter Rhys and I would pray for healing for daddy’s new friend at bedtime. He has also been declared cancer free just recently. I realize that God opens doors for me all the time to share my faith. And how that faith help me weather the biggest storms of my life. I just need to recognize those opportunities and do something. I feel blessed to be able to share what I went through with others. On that note, I want to share another fairly big event that happened recently in my life.
I just bought a new car. My first new car in over 10 years. I did my research- a lot of research and finally decided on a brand new Kia sportage. And I love it, and I can’t stop talking about it. I keep offering people rides just so I can talk about the car. In fact, I will be around later in the upper east hall if you want to discuss it. This car has everything I ever thought I needed in a car, and a few things I never thought I would need until now. Built in Bluetooth, backup sensors and even heated seats. Now I am always asking people if their bum is cold. Kinda weird. I am always looking at ways to let everyone know what a great car I got. People hear me talk about it and go, do you work for kia? I don’t but I should, just talking about it seems to come naturally now.
IF its something I believe in and love, why wouldn’t I share it with friends , family and even complete strangers. I wonder sometimes, if sharing the presence is like buying a kia. Shouldn’t telling people about Jesus be just that simple?
Gil has a story… I have story do you have a story of how God has touched you?
Do you know Jesus personally? I don’t necessarily mean just your initial coming into a friendship with Jesus, but somewhere along the line, at some stage in your life, you experienced the grace and transformation of God.
I am going to give you a couple of moment to briefly write out a story of what Jesus has done for you.
If you never had this experience, I invite you to write out a prayer asking Jesus to open your eyes spiritually so you might see what he’s doing in your life. As was true in the Scripture passage, it possible for Jesus to do something but like the Pharisees we don't see it, we don't recognize it.
PAUSE for a few minutes.I encourage you to share that story with someone as the Holy Spirit gives opportunity.
If you feel comfortable doing so, I would love to hear it myself. If you could e-mail me at ken@tenth.ca and share your story in 200 words or less (we have about 2000 people who attend our services or listen on line), I would be grateful to hear them and pray over them.
You can write it down now on the sermon notes page and email it to me or write an email or text to me write now on your phone.
Your sharing will be held in confidence.
As you do that others other may come to recognize the special identity of Jesus as a unique prophet and as the Messiah. And as was true of the blind man as your share your vision of Christ you will be able to “see” more of who Jesus really is. At the beginning of the story the man who had been born blind was only able to point to Jesus and say that man healed me, but as he shared what Jesus had done for him with others he went on to believe and worship him. As the blind man shared with others with Jesus did for him, his vision of Christ grew and so will ours.
PRAY
posted by Shigematsu at 4:58 PM
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