I have a friend in Chicago, Illinois, that pastors one of the largest churches in America. His name is James MacDonald. He is a great preacher and has built an incredible church. I had the privilege of hosting him a couple of years ago in my home and took him to play some golf (which we both love).

We were talking about church as pastors always do and I asked him to tell me some things he had learned that had helped him build the church he started at a very small size into the gigantic work for God it is today. He explained to me the concept of “red apple” evangelism. He said, “James, there is a difference between red apple people and green apple people. He said, “God has prepared some people through, sometimes, very painful circumstances of life to be ready to hear the Gospel. Those are red apples and they are ripe fruit. Green apples are people who are not at this point ripe for the Gospel or for any spiritual truth. They are for the most part self-sufficient, successful, and satisfied.” He then said, “It is not hard to see who the red apples are in the world. These are people with problems. Their lives are falling apart. We need to look for them the same place that Jesus found them – up a tree, beside a well, or just sitting beside the road begging for somebody to pay attention to them.”

As I look back on my ministry and the people who have come to Christ I realize just how right James is. The people that are most open to the Gospel and in fact the people who were most open to Jesus were not the up and out, but the down and out. They are what we would call “The Desperate.”

Being a pastor I’ve dealt with a lot of desperate people in my life and it is amazing how many people I have seen come to Christ who under ordinary circumstances would never have given Jesus the time of day, but they were in desperation mode. People in this mode normally have three characteristics. First of all, they are hurting. They’ve got a problem such as a deserting spouse, a wayward child or a life-threatening illness. Then they feel helpless. They realize this is a problem they can’t solve. They can’t buy their way out of it and they can’t beg their way out of it. Finally, they feel hopeless. They don’t see any possible solution to their problem.

Henry David Thoreau, the famous American author and philosopher once said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Today, we are going to study an encounter that Jesus had with a man who was desperate. He had reasons to be desperate. He was hurting. He was helpless and he was hopeless. He was in the same place some of you are right now. You are listening to this message right now via the Internet or you are watching us on our media broadcast, Touching Lives and you are desperate. You are about to file for bankruptcy, in the middle of losing your marriage, you have a son or a daughter helplessly and hopelessly addicted to drugs or alcohol. Life is just not working out for you and you are desperate. Jesus specializes in people like you.

We are in a series called “On The Fringe.” Amazingly, the people that are on the outside looking in are the very people that Jesus went outside looking for. The people we either tend to ignore or avoid or reject are the very people that Jesus looked for and gravitated towards.

One of the reasons why this series is going to hit home and touch hearts so often each week is because so many of us will find ourselves in the story that we are going to study. One of those amazing stories is found in the Gospel of John. [Turn to John 9.] We are going to study a man who was not only desperate, but he was born in desperation. He was born blind. There is a night and day difference in how we treat people with physical handicaps compared to the way they were treated 2000 years ago. As you are going to see, if you had some kind of a debilitating condition, be it blindness, deafness, leprosy, or some other type of sickness your only hope was to have family members that cared enough for you to take care of you. You were seen as both a burden and a curse.

In 1990, George H. W. Bush signed the Americans With Disabilities Act into law. It is the most wide-ranging civil rights law in history that prohibits under certain circumstances discrimination based on disability. Not only does it forbids discrimination it actually promotes accommodation. So, in terms of employment you can neither be fired or not hired for certain jobs just because you may have a disability. There must be access to transportation, public accommodations such as restrooms, handicapped parking, and even telecommunications. The blind have access to Braille and the deaf have access to telephone service such as my deaf brother who can talk to me via video-relay.

Back in the day, if you were disabled or handicapped the word was not “accommodation” it was “desperation.” What we are going to learn today is this from this incredible story is good news for the desperate. If you are hurting, helpless and hopeless you are going to see (Key Take Away: The place of desperation is the perfect setting for God’s transformation.) If you are desperate, if you are at the end of your rope, if you have nowhere else to turn do what a blind man did.

I. Believe What Jesus Says

The way the story is introduced tells us basically all we need to know about this man

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.” (John 9:1, ESV)

This man was born blind. From the time that human hands pulled him from his mother’s womb he entered into a world where the velvet cover of darkness had been pulled over the light of the sun. A big reason for his desperation was isolation. Growing up no one could play with him and he couldn’t go out to play. He couldn’t go to school, because he couldn’t be taught. Remember – no specialized education, no Braille, no way to learn how to read or write.

This man had a bigger problem. He was not just physically blind, but he was spiritually blind. Remember at this moment, he had never met Jesus and he didn’t know Jesus. That is why Jesus says in verse 5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5, ESV)

That is an incredible statement. Jesus said he was “the light of the world.” At that time, most of the world, 99.99% of the world didn’t know who He was and had never seen Him. Yet, He makes this incredible claim that He is “the light of the world.” Back in chapter 1, John makes this incredible statement about Jesus.

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9, ESV)

You know what darkness is – it is the absence of light. If Jesus is the light of the world and Jesus is the One who lights up every one, if you don’t have Jesus you are living in spiritual darkness.

You could have perfect 20/20 vision, but be spiritually blind as a bat, because you not only have eyes in your head, you also have eyes in your heart. People who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ don’t have a physical problem. They have a spiritual problem. They are not physically blind. They are spiritually blind.

Augustine was once approached by a pagan who showed him his idol and said, “Here is my god. Where is yours?” Augustine replied, “I cannot show you my God – not because there is no God to show you, but because you have no eyes to see Him.” As we read this story, keep in mind we are not just dealing with physical blindness, but we are dealing with spiritual blindness.

This man had a deeper problem, because people believed that if you had some kind of a physical disability it must be because either you did something wrong or your parents did something wrong, so there was not just something physically wrong with you, but there was something spiritually and morally wrong with you. That is why we read,

“And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:2-3, ESV)

Even though Jesus healed blind people on at least five occasions, this is a unique story, because it is the only case on record where Jesus healed a congenital disease. When people saw someone in this condition, they automatically asked the question, “I wonder what this person did to deserve this?” They just assumed that a physical handicap was a sign of God’s spiritual displeasure.

I love the story of a very devout follower of Jesus who went to a pet store. She saw this beautiful parrot, fell in love with it and wanted to buy it. The owner knowing this lady’s spiritual background said, “I cannot sell you that parrot.” She said, “Why not?” He said, “He used to be owned by a very wicked man and when he gets angry he just curses a blue-streak.”

The woman said, “I don’t believe even a parrot is beyond redemption and I do want to buy him. With God’s help, I’ll break him of that habit.”

She took the parrot home and no sooner had she gotten that parrot home that something happened that the parrot didn’t like and that parrot began to spew out curse words and obscenities and profanities that would make Hollywood blush. She looked at that parrot and said, “I’m not going to have that kind of language in this house. I’m going to teach you a lesson. I am going to put you in the freezer for 30 minutes. See what that does for you.”

She puts this parrot in the freezer and a half hour later she pulls him out. Shivering uncontrollably he looked at the woman and said, “Lady, I am never going to curse again, but just tell me one thing. What did the turkey do?”

Now listen to what Jesus says, “Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” (John 9:3, ESV)

Here is the principle. A place of desperation is a setting for God’s transformation. This man was not born blind, because of something he had done. He was born blind, because of something God wanted to do. This next statement is going to sound so simple, but if you don’t get it you won’t understand the story. This man was not blind because he couldn’t see. He couldn’t see, because he was blind. Let me translate that into a spiritual truth. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are born sinners. We are not born with God and then somehow lose God along the way. We are born without God. That is why we must be born-again.

This is where the story gets interesting.

“Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mudand said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”(John 9:6-7, ESV)

I do not mean any disrespect to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but you’ve got to admit that is kind of gross. Just the fact that he spit some of you mothers right now are saying, “Didn’t Mary teach Him better?” Here is what I want you to see. This man had never met Jesus. Out of the blue, without even asking for permission, Jesus makes a mud pie with His own spit, puts it on the man’s eyes and tells him to go wash in a swimming pool. This is the key, “So he went and washed and came back seeing.” (John 9:7, ESV)

That is not the way it is supposed to work. What is the old saying, “Seeing is (believing).” Not according to Jesus. According to Jesus, believing is seeing. If this man had not believed what Jesus said, if this man had said, “I don’t know why you are doing this. I don’t understand it and until I do I’m not going to believe it and I’m not going to obey You. He would have died a blind man.”

Why did he believe Jesus? Because he was desperate. Nobody else had offered a cure. Nobody else had offered a change. Nobody else had offered an opportunity for this man to see. He believed what Jesus said.

That is why I say to those living lives of quiet desperation today that if you want a way out of your desperate situation, if you want your place of desperation to become a setting for God’ transformation, you had better believe what Jesus says. You had better believe what Jesus says about you. You had better believe what Jesus says about Himself and you had better believe what Jesus says He can do through you, in you, and for you. Now this is where the story really heats up and gets interesting. When you believe what Jesus says you –

II. Receive What Jesus Has

Listen again to the last statement of verse 7.

“So he went and washed and came back seeing.” (John 9:7, ESV)

What does a man with blindness need? Sight. What does a man in darkness need? Light. Here Jesus, the light of the world, had given this man sight to his eyes.

You would have thought that everybody would have been happy. You would have thought people would be throwing a party. You would have thought this would have blown up on Twitter. You would have thought this man would have been on the front page of the Jerusalem Times and expected to see him on “Good Morning Jerusalem”, but instead only got one question repeated over and over. Look first how the neighbors responded: “The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘It is he.’ Others said, ‘No, but he is like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ So they said to him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” So I went and washed and received my sight.’They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’”(John 9:8-12, ESV)

That scene blows me away! Here is a man that had been blind from birth. How old was this man? He was a grown man and maybe he was 40 years old. For four decades the man had been blind. Now he can see and instead of celebration, they are wanting an explanation.

How did the Pharisees react?

“They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.’” (John 9:13-15, ESV)

This is amazing! Here are these religious leaders who believe in God and obviously should believe that God works miracles, but once again instead of a celebration of what had happened to this man, they wanted an explanation of how it happened to this man.

Then the whole crowd of Jews get involved. How do they respond?

“The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?’ His parents 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.’” (John 9:18-21, ESV)

They bring the parents in for a time of interrogation and investigation. They ask them for an explanation. He is your son. Now he can see. He couldn’t see for 40 years. How did this happen?

Mom and Dad aren’t getting involved. As we read in verses 22 and 23.

“(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 9:22-23, ESV)

You have to understand how serious it was to be excommunicated from the synagogue. If you were kicked out of the church you could no longer be employed, your friends would disown you, you could never get into the synagogue and you would die believing that your relationship with God was cut off. When you died, you wouldn’t even be given a funeral, so they wouldn’t even stand up for their own child.

They called this guy back to the witness stand, because they are determined that their interrogation and their investigation is going to lead to an explanation and a formerly blind, illiterate, uneducated man takes on a group of the most knowledgeable, intellectual, religious people in the world and blows them away with one statement.

“So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.’ He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” (John 9:24-25, ESV)

This man says something to those Pharisees that changed the whole debate. He said, “I am not going to try to explain what I don’t know, but I am going to dwell on what I do know. I don’t understand completely how this has happened, but you can’t deny that it has happened.”

Do you know why everybody else in this story refused to believe in Jesus except this one blind man? Because their attitude was “Until I understand everything I want to understand and until I get every question answered I want answered I will not believe.” They thought, “seeing is believing.” Let me tell you something. If you are out there today and you are refusing to believe in Jesus because you’ve got this question unanswered and that question unanswered and you don’t understand this or you don’t understand that, then I can predict one thing for you. If you wait until you understand everything and you get every question answered you will never believe, because seeing is not believing, but believing is seeing.

It amazes me how people will treat faith in Jesus different from the way they treat faith in everything else. What I mean is this. All of us, every day, act on things that we believe, but that we absolutely don’t understand. We don’t focus on the unexplainable. We live in the undeniable. I don’t know how a cell phone works, but I use it. I don’t know how this microphone works, but I wear it. I still don’t understand aerodynamics. I do not know how a plane that weighs several tons can get into the air and fly, but I have flown almost two million miles on airplanes.

I came across something the other day that fascinated me. Robert Adair is the Sterling Professor of Physics Emeritus at Yale University. He was talking about the physics of trying to hit a 90mph fast ball. He broke it down into three categories:

1. Looking
According to Adair it takes about 200 milliseconds for the batter to locate the ball once it is released from the pitcher’s hand.

2. Thinking
It takes another 100 milliseconds for the batter to decide if it is a fastball, curveball, slider or changeup and if it is high, low, inside or outside.

3. Action
It then takes another 150 milliseconds for the brain to signal to the body to make contact with the ball and to actually swing the bat across the plate. In the first 50 milliseconds he can stop his swing, but after that it is too late.

Let me simplify what Dr. Adair said. It takes 4/10 of a second for a baseball traveling at 90mph to travel 60 ½ feet to home plate. It takes 500ths of a second for the batter to decide whether or not he is going to swing. It takes 2/10 of a second for the batter to decide where the ball is going and how to swing the bat. It takes 2/10 of a second for the batter to swing and hit the ball. Keep in mind, that a 90mph fastball actually passes the plate in less than 500ths of a second. To put it another way, it takes a batter 450 milliseconds to hit a ball that covers the distance in 400 milliseconds. Dr. Adair’s conclusion? It is physically impossible to hit a 90mph fastball. Yet, people are out there making millions of dollars a year doing what science says is impossible. Neither Dr. Adair nor you or I can explain how a batter hits a 90mph fastball, but what we can’t deny is – it is done every day.

I am witnessing to a couple of men right now who are skeptics. One was here Easter Sunday and one comes almost every Sunday. They do not believe what Jesus says and they have not received what Jesus has. They think seeing is believing when in reality believing is seeing. I already know I will never be able to answer every question they have. I already know there are some things I can’t explain.

I also know there are some things they can’t deny. They can’t deny that this is a book that has survived for thousands of years, though many have tried to destroy it and today it is still the world’s best seller. They cannot deny that the same disciples that ran away from Jesus at His crucifixion gave their lives preaching His resurrection. They cannot deny that that tomb on that Sunday morning was empty and the body of Jesus has never been discovered. They cannot deny the two billion people in this world who claim their lives have been radically and irrevocably changed and transformed by the risen Jesus Christ. Every time we baptize someone in this church, they cannot deny another life that has been changed by this man named Jesus.

If you say, “When I see it I’ll believe it” then you will never believe it. When you say, “I believe” then you will see. This man believed what Jesus said and because of that he received what Jesus had.

Recently at our Good Friday service a man came up to me and said he wanted to join the church. I asked him to tell me his story. The first words out of his mouth were, “Six months ago I came out of Atheism.” I was amazed. I said, “What happened?” He said, “It is real simple. I tried everything else and nothing else worked. Atheism certainly doesn’t work and when I decided that Jesus was who He said He was and did what He said He did all the questions that really mattered to me got answered.” Here is the way God works. When you believe what Jesus says you receive what Jesus has.

III. Conceive Who Jesus Is

“Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.’ He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.” (John 9:35-38, ESV)

Because this man had responded to the first light that Jesus had offered him he now received the full light of who Jesus was. I want you to notice how this man’s faith in Jesus progressed. In verse 11 he says, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” (John 9:11, ESV)

The first thing he believes about Jesus is he is a good man.

When the Pharisees asked him about Jesus he said this, “He is a prophet.” (John 9:17, ESV)

Now he has moved from calling Jesus a “good man” to calling Jesus a “great man”, because you couldn’t pay a person a higher compliment in that day than to call them “a prophet.”

When the Pharisees came back to him a second time and asked about Jesus he says this, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:31-33, ESV)

This man was right. Nowhere in the Old Testament and nowhere else in the New Testament do you ever read where anyone who was born blind has ever been completely healed of their blindness. In fact, it is the only time in recorded history that this has ever happened. This man must be from God, so now He is not just a good man or even a great man, but He is a godly man!

Then, as we just read he says in verse 38

“Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.” (John 9:38, ESV)

Now he understands that Jesus is not just a good man or a great man or a godly man, but He is the God-man. Here is what I want you to see. When this man responded to the very first light that he saw God gave him more light. When God gives you a little light if you will respond to that light He will give you more light. If you reject even the first light you will never see the full light.

Don’t miss what happened to this man. This blind man did not receive his sight because he was exposed to the light. No amount of light effects blindness. You can put a blind man in broad daylight at noon and he will be just as blind as if he was in pitch darkness. All the light in the world will never help a blind eye see. This man did not believe because he could see. He could see because he believed.

If you are a believer and you have seen the light and you have been delivered from the darkness of desperation and you have experienced transformation through Jesus Christ you’ve got a job to do. Go out and find other people who are red apples, sitting beside the road living lives of quiet desperation and offer them the same light that has been given to you.

If you are an unbeliever I would encourage you to simply do this. Instead of asking “How?” start asking, “Who?” and “What?” I would encourage you to begin reading this gospel that I preached from today, the Gospel of John, and simply ask two questions:

Who did Jesus claim to be?
What am I going to do about it?

It is when I decided to believe in Jesus as a 9 year old boy that I saw me for who I was, and I saw Jesus for who He was, and my life has never been the same and neither will yours.