05-09-20 Kevin Goins - The Church's Ministry of Healing, John 9:8-9, part 1

“Anatomy of an Illness: The Church’s Ministry of Healing”
John 9:8-9 (Part 1)

I First, sickness gets our attention and it gets the attention of Jesus (9:1).
II Second, sickness makes us uncomfortable (9:2).
III Third, sickness is caused by alienation (9:2).
IV Fourth, oftentimes our best theological or commonsense explanations for sickness are not good enough (9:3a).
V Fifth, sometimes sickness happens for a good reason, so that God can be glorified in our life (9:3b).
VI Sixth, all believers in Jesus are called to help sick people find health (9:4).
VII Seventh, sickness is a work of the kingdom of darkness; healing is a work of the Kingdom of light (9:5).
VIII Eighth, the how of healing is very important (9:6).
IX Ninth, sickness can be overcome by divine healing, but healing does not happen without some action on our part (9:7).

X Tenth, divine healing will always arouse ________________.

A. Now, John takes us to the r_____________ of the miracle and we read about it in verse __________.

1. Obviously, something aroused their c______________ and there is no question as to what that was.

2. Miracles get the a_______________ of people.

B. And that brings us to our first point: Miracles that transform people’s lives get n_____________ and these miracles arouse either _________ or ___________.

1. Why is that when we come face to face with what someone claims to be a miracle of healing, we feel this need to explain it in one of two very d_______________ ways:

a. either as a g_______________ work of God

b. or, as something which was not really what it a_______________ to be.

c. Why is it that no matter how much we try to believe that it is a miracle, it is so hard for us not to e_____________ it all away?

2. People can easily refuse to see a miracle because they do not e________________ to see miracles.

a. The “perception of incongruity” will not allow us to see what is c_______________ to our worldview.

b. That happens, even to us Christians, because we have been so thoroughly i______________ by our culture.

c. On this occasion the healing of the man born blind aroused a lot of doubt, and that is a s_______________ to many people.