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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. The trying of our faith produces patience, perseverance, so it strengthens us. Paul had what he called a thorn in the flesh.
Do you remember that term? In 2 Corinthians 12, he said, Because of the abundance of the revelations that I received, there was a thorn in the flesh given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with God three times that it would depart from me.
No answer. God didn't do anything, but after three times, he said, The Lord spoke to me. And he didn't say, Paul, your prayer has been answered. I'm taking the thorn away from you, buddy.
You're going to walk in prosperity and perfect health. He said, The Lord told me what I didn't want to hear. He said, My grace is enough. My strength is made perfect in weakness. You are weak, but I am strong. And my strength is really good at taking somebody who is not strong, who is totally weak, and enabling them as an act of my grace, my strength instead of yours. You're weak, so it'll equip you. It will strengthen you. I can think of something else suffering does. It corrects us.
It corrects us. When my son Nate was a young boy, I spanked him. Of course I don't do that anymore.
I would be afraid of the consequences. He's grown up. But the pain inflicted at that stage of his life worked. He's the man he is today, in part because of discipline.
We all had that from our parents. David said before, listen to this, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word, Psalm 119. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.
C.S. Lewis, who put things so well, had such insight. I love what he said. He said, Pain plants the flag of truth in the fortress of a rubble soul.
Isn't that good? Pain plants the flag of truth in the fortress of a rubble soul. So it corrects us.
God uses it to get our attention and to correct our steps and to put us on the right path. So think of it this way. Nothing happens to you. It happens for you.
How's that for a truth? Nothing happens to you. It happens for you, for we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. So don't say, this happened to me.
No, it didn't. It happened for you. Behind the pain is a God who is in control of every prescription, of every pill you take that you go, oh yuck, I hate taking that medicine. It's okay to swallow. There's a perfect physician behind it. He knows exactly what you need. Nothing happens to you.
It happens for you. So he says that the works of God should be revealed in him. Now notice his reaction.
They're making this an academic discussion. Jesus is making this a practical demonstration. He says, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.
The night is coming when no one can work. I don't want to discuss stuff theologically. I want to do stuff practically, lovingly. It's a nice discussion to have, disciples, and it is. There's a place for that.
There's room for that. But once you discuss it, now you've got a day to work. And the metaphor of the day, the while, the day is your lifetime. You don't know how long that's going to be.
I don't know how long mine's going to be. At some point, the sun will set. We will die. Life will be over, which means all of the opportunities we have to do good will be over. You won't be doing good works to help people, to heal people, to comfort people, to counsel people, to evangelize people in heaven, will you? Because only the people in heaven are the people who have responded to Christ or in a perfect environment, completely renewed, restored, resurrected.
Life is good. You're not going to pass out a tract in heaven. You're not going to pray for the sick in heaven. There won't be any. So all of the opportunities we have to work for God happen right here during the day.
The night is coming when no one can work. So Jesus is urgent about this. Second thing is that He is personal about this. Verse 6, when He had said these things, He spat on the ground and He made clay with saliva and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. You go, ooh, wouldn't the guy just be repulsed?
Of course not. He couldn't see what's going on. Makes it kind of fun. Now without getting too detailed about this, it would take a lot of saliva to be able to make mud to smear it on two eyeballs, right?
So I'm sure the disciples are going, what are you thinking? Now why did He do this? Why did He do that?
Why did He spit on the ground and do it? I don't know. I could guess. There have been several guesses and I won't bore you with all the guesses because they're all lame guesses. They're all guesses. We don't know.
We're not told. But for me, it hearkens back to Genesis when God formed man out of the dust of the ground. I think there's something there because it says, John said concerning Jesus, without Him, nothing was made that has been made. He made eyeballs anyway. He made all people anyway.
He made the world anyway. This Jesus is the Creator and now the Creator is recreating eyeballs for this man. So He spat and then He, it's funny how some people, you know, say, well, you know, we need to do what Jesus did and get back to the New Testament. And I have never seen those who do healing ministries ever try this. I don't think their ministry would last very long if they went around traveling to different convention center, just started spitting and putting in people's eyes.
They'd lose their audience. I had to just get that in. So He spat, made clay, and then He said to them, go wash in the pool of Siloam. It's that pool where those priests went down at the Feast of Tabernacles we told you about last time, that lower city pool, the Gihon Spring, which is the water source of Jerusalem. The water was brought into Jerusalem in the Old Testament by King Hezekiah. He made a tunnel to it and then a pool was built so people could gather water. And so He went down into the city to get the water. That's where the pool of Siloam was. Jesus said, go wash.
It is translated sent. So He went and washed and He came back seeing. So I say that Jesus made it, He was personal about this. He wasn't just urgent. He was personal. Listen, He touched the man with His hands.
Do you ever think about this? He didn't have to, right? How could Jesus have healed? He could have done this.
Let's say you're there and I went, be healed. That would have worked. He could have done that. He could have waved His hand.
Be healed. And it would have worked. He could have healed crowds in mass if He wanted to.
In fact, He could have said, you know what? Paralytics over here, of course they'd have to be carried over there. All the blind people, you sit over here.
All the congenital anomalies over on this side. Ready? One, two, three, boom. Could have done that. But I don't want you to miss the fact that Jesus touched him. Touched him. And I say that as a setup for what an author wrote and I wanted to read this to you, see what you think. Jesus' mission was not primarily a crusade against disease, but a ministry to individual people, some of whom happened to have a disease. He wanted those people one by one to feel His love. Jesus knew He could not readily demonstrate love to a crowd, for love usually involves touching.
It's a beautiful thought. Love involves touching. When you put your arm on a shoulder and you pray for someone, we put out a hand and we shake it. That embrace, that human touch means so much studies have been done of children who didn't have touch at a young age and what that does to them.
It equips them for life. The ministry of touch. So Jesus did that. So a couple of quick questions to ask yourself. Are you willing to embrace suffering if it drives you to God? Think of suffering. Are you willing to embrace suffering if it drives you to God? I just want you to have to think about that for a minute.
Some of you are maybe entering into a season. The suffering has been prolonged. You, like Paul, have prayed more than three times that God would take away that thorn in the flesh.
It's still there. And you're wondering, well, where's God? Well, maybe this isn't real. Well, why would God allow that? Are you willing to embrace suffering if it drives you to God to depend on Him? You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, in order to connect even more people with Jesus in the year ahead, Connect with Skip Heitzig needs to meet a financial goal by December 31st. And we're asking for your help to meet this goal in full so that together in 2025, we can reach more people with gospel-centered teaching and resources that connect them with the God who loves them. Finishing this year on solid financial footing will mean that Connect with Skip Heitzig can grow current efforts and say yes to new opportunities in the coming year to expand to new stations, new countries, and new technologies, all with the goal of sharing the good news of Jesus with more people around the world. Your gift today will have an eternal impact on many lives. So go to connectwithskip.com slash give or call 800-922-1888 and give a tax-deductible year-end gift to help connect more people with Jesus in the year ahead. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Second question, are you willing to alleviate somebody else's suffering if it'll drive them to God?
Now that's very practical, isn't it? Are you willing to alleviate somebody else's suffering if it will drive them to God? This man will be driven to the Savior. Therefore, the neighbors, verse 8, and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, is not this he who sat and begged? Some said, this is he. Others said, well, he's like him.
I just think he looks like him, but I don't think that's really the guy. He said, I'm the guy. I'm him.
I'm he. Therefore, they said to him, how are your eyes open? Now notice the question how it will be repeated four times in the text. How, how, how, how? Wrong question. Right question, who? Not how, who?
Who did it? They're trying to figure out how is that possible? Well, if you understand who, you'll get the how. If you just keep trying to figure out the how, you'll never get it, but if you understand who, then you'll get the how.
You need the who for the how. He answered and said, a man called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes, and said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and I received sight. Then they said to him, where is he? He said, I don't know. And so you see the mixture of wonder and confusion trying to figure this out. They're so confused by it, that they're willing to believe it's a case of mistaken identity, rather than that this man who is blind can now see. And why is that? Well, it's simple.
This is simple. Nobody expected a blind beggar who's been at that gate for years begging as a blind man, which is what they were reduced to in those days. Nobody ever expected the man to be anything but a blind beggar. Now listen, suffering lowers the expectation that life is going to get any better than it is now.
It always lessens the expectation that life could be any different than what this is. I'm a blind beggar. I'm just a blind beggar.
I'm always going to be a blind beggar. Suffering does that. However, though God may call somebody to prolong suffering, we cannot ever limit the power of God.
We can't limit it. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He did then, He can do now. That man and those neighbors never expected this blind beggar to be able to see again. Their expectations were lowered. In Psalm 78, there's a passage of Scripture about the children of Israel that says, and they, listen to this, and they limited the Holy One of Israel by their unbelief. They limited the Holy One. How do you limit a limitless God by unbelief? Jesus went to Nazareth, the Gospel of Mark, and it says Jesus could do no great miracle among them except a few things because of the unbelief that persisted. He marveled at their unbelief. We must never limit God even though that expectation is lowered.
Maybe God's going to do something, and He does. They brought Him, verse 13, who was formerly blind to the Pharisees. It was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened His eyes. You know, Jesus does this a lot on the Sabbath. It's kind of like He looks at His watch. Of course, He didn't have one, His hourglass, and He says, you know, it's the Sabbath.
I think I'm going to do something. I say that because seven times, there are seven miracles that Jesus did on the Sabbath, and He always stirred up the leaders, ruffled their feathers, seven separate miracles in the New Testament, all done on the Sabbath day. Jesus did it not just to tick off the leaders but to ruffle the feathers of those who wrongly interpreted what the Sabbath was all about.
You see, in the Jewish writings called the Mishnah, the Mishnah, commentary on the law, there was a tractate, an entire book, in other words, on what you could and could not do on the Sabbath day. Did you know it was forbidden in the Mishnah to heal on the Sabbath? It was forbidden to set a broken bone on the Sabbath unless it was life-threatening. Otherwise, you have to wait until the next day before you set that broken limb. Now interestingly, in the Mishnah, it was lawful.
They talked about these things and wrote it down. It was lawful to spit on the Sabbath. But if your spittle rolled in the ground, now you broke the law. Because now you have created a furrow in the ground, and that's the agricultural process of digging a furrow in order to plant. Seriously.
This is how crazy it was. So they were always worried, it's the Sabbath. Now, what kind of people don't rejoice when a blind man is healed? Answer, people who prefer policies to people.
The policy is more important than the people. To Jesus, the people were more important than the policies because the policies did match up with the Word of God. God created this person.
I'm going to heal him. So, they brought him who was formerly blind to Jesus. It was the Sabbath. Verse 15, the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, he put clay in my eyes and I washed and I saw. Therefore, some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs?
And there was a division among them. They said to the blind man, what do you say about him? Because he opened your eyes. He said, he's a prophet. But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them saying, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered them, we know that he's our son and that he was born blind. But by what means he now sees we do not know. Or who opened his eyes, we do not know.
He is of age, ask him. He will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that he was the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. They're not satisfied with his testimony. They want to bring in his parents. Now it's interesting, his parents, can I just say, aren't that great of parents, it would seem because why isn't he at their house and they're taking care of him? He's a blind beggar. And they want to, in answering this, throw their son under the bus for the Pharisees.
Don't ask us, ask him, he's of age. In other words, he'll be responsible for himself. And what they were afraid of is being un-synagogued. That's really the term, apocinagogos, kicked out of the synagogue, cast out, which means you were socially ostracized from society at that point.
You could lose your job, you could lose your family, you'd be put out of the culture. They didn't want that. So they said, well, you know, let him get de-synagogued, not us.
Therefore, his parents said, he's of age, ask him. So they again called the man who was blind and said to him, give God the glory. We know this man is a sinner.
Just pause over that. Here is sinful, religious, arrogant, pompous, unrighteous man calling the sinless perfect son of God a sinner. We know this man is a sinner. He answered and said, whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I know, though I was blind, now I see. John Newton got the words of his song, his hymn, Amazing Grace, from this text. The slave trader who was converted, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
And here's what I love, because I don't know all that stuff you're asking me, but there's one thing I know. I was blind, but not anymore. I can see. That I know for sure. And you cannot take away a person's personal testimony. That's why your testimony is so powerful. Tell people, tell unbelievers how you came to Christ. This is what happened to me. This is who I was before I came to Jesus. This is what happened to me. This is who I am now. They can't say, they can't say that, because it happened to you.
So I love it. He just sort of like, I don't know that, but I know this. And there's a principle there. There's a lot of things we don't know. But never give up what you do know for what you don't know. You know, I don't know this, so therefore I'm just going to leave church and never be a Christian and I'm not going to read the Bible anymore because I just, I can't figure that out.
What? Just hold on to what you know and let what you don't know come in due time. Put a file in your head. Create a file and title it, entitle it right in that file. This is called, the file is called, Waiting for Further Information. It's a good file to have.
I got a lot of stuff in that file. I'm waiting for further information on a lot of things that have happened in my life that kind of bug me and I'm thinking, I want to ask God about that, but it's like, you know what? I don't see it all.
I'll wait for further information. He'll clarify it. And I'm sure that once I'm in heaven and see his face, I won't even have a question. Hey, listen, do you think this guy blind all of his life is in heaven right now going, man, I'm so bummed out that God let me be blind all those years. Do you think he's thinking that?
Are you kidding? His story is still being told in hundreds of thousands and millions of people have been blessed and enlightened by the story that is told about him to this day. That's how God can use your story, your suffering. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you of the financial year-end need that must be met by December 31st to ensure this ministry you love stays strong, reaching millions more in the year ahead. Your gift today will help share gospel-centered teaching with more people in 2025, making an impact that will last for eternity.
So jump in with your best year-end gift. Call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash give. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
