As Christians we are called to be the light of the world, to live like Jesus Christ lived. Paul encourages us to take continual stock of our lives in Christ, and to make sure that we are moving in the right direction.

Today’s message is a simple but tough one. Look at Philippians 2: 1-11 and take stock of your life according to the example He set. This can be a very sobering process but it is important to know why we seek to follow His example. It’s because of His amazing love for us that we are saved. Being obedient to His Word and following His example are just two ways of showing that we love Him.

Philippians 2: 1-11

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like‑minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, 
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, 
taking the very nature of a servant, 
being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, 
he humbled himself 
and became obedient to death– 
even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place 
and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father.

By placing God’s way as the central focus of our lives we will bring Him glory. This video shows a prayer that you may like to echo:



Lord, make me an instrument of peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring love
Where there is wrong, let me bring forgiveness
Where there is discord, let me bring harmony
Where there is error, let me bring truth
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith
Where there is despair, let me bring your hope
Where there are shadows, let me bring light
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy
Lord grant that I would seek
Rather to comfort, than to be comforted
To understand rather than to be understood
To love than to be loved
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds
Its is forgiving that one is forgiven
It is by dying that one awakens eternal life
AMEN

(St Francis of Assisi)

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God shows us His glory in the healing of a blind man, the Pharisees respond by dismissing it because they don’t understand it. What happens to the people who faithfully and humbly accept the miracle is God’s. Today we look at the impact on the man born blind and how his life is changed by God.

John 9: 35 – 41

Spiritual Blindness

³⁵Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

³⁷Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

³⁸Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

³⁹Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

⁴⁰Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

⁴¹Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

The blind man in this story goes through a process that begins with the healing of his eyesight and ends with the healing of his heart. Lets look at this process and how God\’s plan to display His glory affected this man.

The Man Meets Jesus:

Jesus walks past the man at some point during His ministry on earth and responds to the man by seeing the need in his life and filling the void. Jesus does this exactly the way that God intended in order to display the glory of God in his life.

The Man Experiences the Glory of God:

As God heals the blind man, the man experiences the power of God in the fact that he is healed. Everything is different for him, life as he knows it has changed drastically and for the better. The man may have gotten used to the idea of being blind and may not even have completely realised what he was missing. God healed him and the man can now experience life in a very different way thanks to God\’s will working out in his life.

The Man Shows Jesus His Faith:

During the trial, the man comes to the realisation that Jesus is from God. After the trail, Jesus comes to him and they have the following conversation:

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

The man chooses to believe Jesus because he has realised that he comes from God. Whatever Jesus says the man will believe because he comes from God. The man’s life was impacted in such a real way that he undoubtably believed that anything from Jesus and God was good. He wanted to believe because of the experience he had not necessarily because it all made sense to him.

What happens when we see His glory?

Like in this story, God often chooses to display His glory to us. We can then choose to be a part of that Glory. The man in this story, became a part of the story by obeying the directions that Jesus gave Him (Go and wash in the pool of Siloam). Once the man had obeyed Jesus instruction he experienced the blessing that came from his obedience.

God\’s glory was experienced by the man because the man was obedient to God. If we want to see God’s glory displayed in our life we need to be obedient to Him. He has laid His law out in the bible, that is His instruction manual to us. As we obey the things of God, laid out in His word, we will no doubt see they glory of God displayed in our lives.

Seeing the glory of God in our lives lead us to trust God and to worship Him because He is worthy (Psalm 100). His glory in our lives will lead to a heart of thanksgiving for what we have seen and experienced from God.

How do we react to His Glory?

To wrap up this series on John 9 let me ask you 3 simple questions:

1) When was the last time you saw the glory of God displayed before you?
2) Are you letting your interpretations of God’s word cloud you spiritual eyes, that you have become judgmental of whatever does not make sense to you?
3) Or are you simply trusting God and obeying, because of your experience of Him?

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