{"id":12995,"date":"2016-08-17T01:39:55","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/a-reason-to-suffer\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:39:55","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:39:55","slug":"a-reason-to-suffer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/a-reason-to-suffer\/","title":{"rendered":"A REASON TO SUFFER"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>JOHN 9:1\u201312<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>Jesus answered, \u201cNeither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(John 9:3)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>When Jesus\u2019 disciples met the blind man near the temple, they were confronted with a theological puzzle. To them, every physical affliction could be traced to a particular sin; but in this man\u2019s case, he had been blind since birth. How, then, could he be suffering the effect of his own sin? Could it be, therefore, that his blindness was the result of a sin committed by his parents? Confused, they immediately put the question to Jesus.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>According to the Scriptures physical afflictions can be traced to various causes: 1) the sin of Adam, in whom all have fallen and are by nature guilty before God. All physical affliction in this context can be traced to the sin of man, that is, we all suffer from original sin and its consequences\u2014physical affliction (Gen. 3:17\u201319). 2) The sins of the parents (see Ex. 20:5; 34:7, Num. 14:18, Jer. 31:29, Ezek. 18:2). 3) One\u2019s own personal sins (Deut. 28:15\u201368, Ezek. 18:4). Causes two and three always cause one.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>What, then, was the cause of the man\u2019s blindness? Jesus immediately rules out the parents\u2019 sins and the man\u2019s personal sins. He could have mentioned the sin of Adam, as our representative head, as the cause. But He chooses not to. Instead, He says the man\u2019s blindness provided an opportunity for God\u2019s power to be displayed. This was an option the disciples never even considered. And often, it is an option we fail to consider as well. While it must be assumed that all physical affliction is the effect of Adam\u2019s sin, we must not always assume that we are suffering because of some particular sin either in our life or the lives of our parents. While it is always wise to consider these options so that sin might be dealt with (especially when our own sin is the cause, for we are to examine our own lives), we cannot rule out that God is simply working in a painful situation so that His glory might be revealed. He does this either through healing us, giving us the grace to stand fast under the affliction, or allowing us to suffer so that we might comfort others. In all of these situations, God\u2019s glory is manifested.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>In the case of the blind man in John 9, God\u2019s glory is displayed through his miraculous healing, and Jesus\u2019 power and authority is once again brought to light as a testimony to His true identity.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>2 Chronicles 29\u201331<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>John 18:1\u201323<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:   18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Much conjecture surrounds Jesus\u2019 decision to put   mud onto the man\u2019s eyes. Certainly, He could have done it without the mud. It   is likely that Jesus did this to test the man\u2019s obedience, for the man had to   go wash the mud off. The man could have protested, but he didn\u2019t. What lesson   do you learn from this man\u2019s actions?<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: Deut. 5:9; 28:32 \u2022 Rom. 5:12\u201321 \u2022 1 Cor. 15:21\u201322 \u2022 Eph. 2:3<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>tuesday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>june<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHN 9:1\u201312 Jesus answered, \u201cNeither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him\u201d (John 9:3). When Jesus\u2019 disciples met the blind man near the temple, they were confronted with a theological puzzle. To them, every physical affliction could be traced to a particular sin; but in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/a-reason-to-suffer\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A REASON TO SUFFER&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}