Series: Committed
Message: Adaptability
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 55:20-23.
Read: John 10:1-10 — Re-read in the ESV translation for new insights/questions.
Reflect: When I read the Gospels I always read Desire of Ages side by side. So when I read John 9 and I read about the Sabbath, and you know what Ellen White shares? That John mentions this point in the story to illustrate that the self-appointed leaders of their time were more interested in holding a committee on Sabbath to attack Jesus than to do good on Sabbath. This Jesus Christ does good on the Sabbath. Sabbath should be days where we actually do good. Where we live lives that affect each other. Where we do practical good for each other. Where we look after each other. What follows are a series of funny conversations between the Pharisees and the man with restored sight. They eventually get to his parents who answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” - (John 9:20-23 ESV) They didn't want to take responsibility for this! The church said “You are not healed unless your parents admit it to be true, and then they will be kicked out of the church.” So his parents said, let him speak for himself. But they themselves do not wish to receive sight. They are fighting against it.
They were joining the otherwayers that Jesus would address in John 10, struggling to embrace the power of Jesus in their lives.
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for courage.
Research: Why was being blind in Jesus’ time considered a sin of the parents or the individual?