Just something I found online which I would like to share.
LONG TEXT OF WORD INC, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Text: John
9:1-7
1 Now when he was passing by he saw a man blind from birth. 2
And his disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned? This man
or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither
this man sinned nor his parents, but he was born blind in order
that the work of God might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the
work of him who sent me as long as it is day; the night is coming
when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of
the world. 6 After he said these things, he spit on the ground and
made mud of the spittle, then he smeared the mud on the man’s eyes.
7 And he said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is
translated Sent). Therefore he went away and washed, and came
seeing.
Sermon:
You have perhaps
experienced a misfortune. This may be why you are reading this
sermon. If so, my heart goes out to you. May our Lord help you and
bring you through it. My sympathy goes out to you, because our
misfortunes are serious matters and anything but funny.
Saying your
misfortune is anything but funny reminds me of what happened to me
one night a few years ago. While I was walking through the dark
bedroom in my stocking feet, I stubbed my little toe. An
excruciating pain shot through my toe and the side of my foot. It
hurt so much that after hopping around on one foot I fell backwards
onto the bed. While holding my foot in agony, I rocked back and
forth to try to cope with the pain. The pain caused tears to flood
my eyes. Now my dear wife, bless her loving, sympathetic heart,
heard the commotion and my moaning in the bedroom. She hurried in
to see me rocking back and forth on the bed while holding my foot.
Now what do you think she then did? Did she say? “Let Mommy kiss it
and make it better?” No! Did she say, “Oh, you poor dear! You
really hurt yourself. Can I help?” No! She started laughing! And
the harder she laughed the more angry I became. There I was
suffering the misfortune of a broken toe, as it turned out, and she
was laughing at me.
We certainly don’t
want others to laugh at our misfortunes. On the other hand, neither
do we want them to blame us for what happened to us. Take my broken
toe for example. Instead of laughing suppose my wife had said to me
when I was in the midst of my pain, “What terrible sin did you
commit that God punished you with a broken toe?” How do you think
that would have made me feel? Was my broken toe a punishment for
sin any more than your misfortune is a punishment for sin? Let’s
consider this on the basis of John 9:1-7.
Verse 1 says,
“Now when he was passing by he saw a man blind from
birth.” Talk about
misfortunes! Don’t you think that man’s blindness was a terrible
misfortune? He was born blind. He had never been able to look up as
an infant and see his mother’s face. He had never been able to see
the light of day. He had never been able to do the things other
children and adults did. He knew only a world shrouded in darkness.
Would you want to trade places with him? I doubt it.
Verse 2 tells us
what Jesus’ disciples thought about the man’s misfortune. The
disciples asked, “And his disciples asked him, saying,
'Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born
blind?' ” What did the
disciples think was the cause for the man’s blindness? Didn’t they
think that misfortune was the punishment of God for some sin? Yes!
The only question they had was: Whose sin was responsible for the
man’s blindness? The man’s sin? or, his parents’ sin?
The disciples have
not been the only ones to think another person’s misfortune was the
punishment of God for a sin the person must have committed. Others
have thought this, too. There once was a man who lost his children
and worldly possessions through a series of tragic misfortunes. His
friends told him that he must be guilty of some sin against God and
that his misfortunes were a punishment of God for that sin. They
told him to repent of his sin, that God might have mercy on him and
withdraw his punishment. Was it right for his friends to claim he
was being punished by God for his sin? Do you know whom the man
was? His name was Job.
A family I once knew
had their house burn down. They told me that a rumor had been
spread that they must have been guilty of some horrible sin, which
was why their house burned down. Was it right for individuals to
say their misfortune was a punishment for a sin they had
committed?
Misfortunes can be
the punishment of God on the sins of unbelievers. God may use their
misfortunes to call them to repentance. But does God punish with
misfortunes his children who possess the forgiveness of their sins
through Jesus Christ? Was my broken toe a punishment of God? Was
that burned down house a punishment of God? Was Job’s misfortunes a
punishment of God? Is your misfortune a punishment of God? We all
have misfortunes of one kind or another. Are they a punishment of
God for sin?
Verse 3 tells us how
Jesus answered his disciples’ question of who was to blame for the
man’s blindness. The man? or, his parents? Jesus answered,
“Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but he was born blind in
order that the work of God might be revealed in him.” Was the man or his parents being
punished for sin? No. Neither the man nor his parents had committed
a sin for which the man was punished with blindness.
What, then, was the
reason for the man’s blindness? Jesus said it happened so the work
of God might be revealed or displayed in the man’s life. His
misfortune was a blessing of God in disguise. His blindness
provided Jesus with the opportunity to display God’s work in his
life. Jesus would make his blindness work for his good to bring
God’s blessings into his life. The man’s blindness was not a
punishment for sin, but part of God’s good and gracious plan for
him and his life.
So it was in Job’s
case. Job’s misfortunes were not a punishment of God for sin. Job
had committed no sin. Before his misfortunes God had commended him
as being the most blameless, upright, God-fearing man on earth.
What, then, was the reason for Job’s misfortunes? God allowed Satan
to plague Job with misfortunes to test Job’s faith. As a result of
those misfortunes God drew Job closer to himself as a God-fearing
man. God used Job’s misfortunes for Job’s good.
Being believers in
Jesus, so it is with our misfortunes. Read carefully what Romans
8:28 says to you as a believer in Jesus. “And we know that
God works all things for good for those who love him, for those who
are the called ones according to his will.” Did you note that for us
believing Christians who love God, whom he has called to faith
according to his will, that he causes all things to work for our
good? All things includes our misfortunes, too. So our misfortunes
are not punishments of God for sin. They are blessings of God in
disguise for our good in some way.
Hebrews 12:6 states
that the Lord disciplines those he loves. He punishes everyone he
accepts as his child. Then Hebrews 12:11 says, “Now all
discipline for the present, to be sure, does not seem to be a joy
but an affliction; yet later on it yields a peaceful fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” What do those verses from the Book
of Hebrews call our misfortunes that do not seem pleasant, but
painful? Our misfortunes are called a discipline of the Lord. And
for what reason does the Lord discipline us with those misfortunes?
The verses say the reason is because the Lord loves us. So our
misfortunes are not a punishment for sin because God is angry with
us. They are God’s acts of love for us who are his children through
faith in Jesus Christ. And what good does God use those
disciplinary misfortunes to accomplish in our lives? To produce a
peaceful fruit of righteousness. Through them God gives us the
opportunity to grow closer to him in godly living and
peace.
Jesus used the man’s
blindness to work for his good, too. In verses 4 and 5 Jesus
stated: “We must work the work of him who sent me as long as
it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. While I am in
the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus had said the man’s
blindness happened so that the work of God might be displayed in
his life. Jesus had come to do that work of God in his life. Jesus
was in the world to do God’s work of being the light of the world,
and Jesus was about to show he was that light by what he would do
for the blind man.
Thus we read in
verses 6 and 7: “After he said these things, he spit on the
ground and made mud of the spittle, then he smeared the mud on the
man’s eyes. And he said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”
(which is translated Sent). Therefore he went away and washed, and
came seeing.” Why did
the man have the misfortune of being born blind? So that Jesus
would have the opportunity to show the work of God in the man’s
life by opening the man’s eyes to see as he had never seen
before.
Jesus opened more
than the man’s physical eyes that day. Jesus opened the man’s
spiritual eyes to see that he is the light of the world. The verses
that follow John 9:1-7 reveal that the man came to see that Jesus
is the Lord and that he worshipped Jesus as such.
In like manner our
Lord Jesus uses our misfortunes as opportunities to open our eyes
to see his light of grace and salvation as we had not seen it
before. In him is life. And the life he gives shines into the world
as a light for people like us. Apart from him there is no light of
life, for we are sinful human beings under the sentence of death
and damnation. But in him we have the grace of God for the
forgiveness of our sins, salvation from hell, and eternal life in
heaven. Through our misfortunes he drives us to his Word to open
our eyes to see his grace and life more than we had seen them
before.
So being the
children of God through faith in Jesus, are our misfortunes a
punishment for sin? No. And let us not assume either that others
must be guilty of some sin which is the reason for their
misfortunes. For us Christians our misfortunes are blessings in
disguise, which Jesus uses as the opportunity to open our eyes to
see his light of life and salvation. Amen.
Misfortune is blessing in disguise ? I think you will only say
that when you are not the one who experience it. I read in papers
that there was a young girl in Korea (I think she is about 8
years old) was raped by an old man in one of the church. Her
internal organs are permanently damaged. May I know what blessing
in disguise in her case ?
