Tell them what you have experienced. John 9.10-34
8/2/2012 1:49:12 AM
Aug 1, 2012~John #72 in series


 

Tell them what you have experienced. John 9.10-34

Click to read: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%209.10-34&version=NLT&interface=print

Key verse: “I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” John 9.25

Twelve young people came to my house to talk about Jesus on a warm Saturday night in July.  Sure, I fed them, but what I really wanted to do was prepare them!  Several are leaving for college, one works at Disneyland, and another at a nearby grocery store.  Each had a copy of More than a Carpenter, ready to discuss what is different about Jesus, and why they can be sure of him, despite what is said about him by agnostic professors and the scoffers they will encounter.  ‘It is not enough to say that Jesus was a good man as many of today’s ‘spiritual’ people say of him; he called himself the Son of God, so if he was just a good man and not the Son of God, then he was lying, right?’  I pointed out the flawed thinking of the ‘Jesus was just a good man’ point of view. 

Besides, ‘How is it that those who follow Jesus are changed by him?  Do you know anyone who changed as a result of trusting Jesus to lead his life?’  All around my living room, heads nodded.  Of course, they did!  And so did the blind man we have been studying about in John chapter 9; because he trusted Jesus, he was able to see for the first time in his life!  And then, he told what he had experienced. 

We saw it in John chapter 4, when the Samaritan woman who Jesus engaged at the well, ran back to town to say, ‘Come, meet the man who told me everything about me!’  Like the (formerly) blind man, she told what she had experienced.  And wonder of wonder, people came, and met Jesus. 

That is what happens when we tell what we have experienced in Jesus Christ.  ‘Be my witnesses,’ Jesus said in Acts 1.8.  A witness tells what he has seen or experienced.  Has knowing Jesus given you a sense of purpose?  How about peace?  When you know who holds the future—your future—in his hands, are you able to release your death-grip on the control of your life?

“This one thing I know—I was blind, but now I see!” he said.  Powerful.  Could not be argued or dismissed. 

And you?  Like the blind man, be ready to tell someone about your experience with Jesus.

Christine