New Believer's Bible Sample - Flipbook - Page 56
J ohn 9
page 1008
F I R S T
S T E P S
You don’t need special
training to share
read JOHN 9:13-33
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons many
Christians haven’t shared their faith is that
they feel inadequate. You might say, “I’m
not qualified to speak for God! He could
never use me.” But really, once you invite
Jesus Christ into your life as Savior and
Lord, you can begin to tell others about
your newfound faith.
This passage tells the story of a blind
man whose sight was restored after Jesus
made some mud with his own saliva and
spread it on the man’s eyes. After Jesus
healed this man, certain religious rulers
known as the Pharisees challenged the
man, asking him some rather complex
questions about Jesus. The man’s response
was classic. He said, “I know this: I was
blind, and now I can see!” (John 9:25).
In many ways, we as believers are like
this formerly blind man. We, too, were
once blinded by the power and deception
of sin. Scripture tells us that “Satan, who
is the god of this world, has blinded the
minds of those who don’t believe. They
are unable to see the glorious light of the
Good News” (2 Corinthians 4:4). But one
day God lovingly opened our eyes to see
our real spiritual need, and we responded
to the message of the gospel.
We may not yet be great scholars of
Scripture, but we still know more about
the gospel than many, and we can start
with that. Like that blind man, we can say
to others, “Once I was blind, but now I
can see!” And as we continue to study the
Bible on a regular basis, we will be able to
answer many of the questions people have
about our faith.
For the next note on “Share Your Faith” turn to page 1038.
yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means
“sent”). So the man went and washed and
came back seeing!
8 His neighbors and others who knew him
as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this
the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said
he was, and others said, “No, he just looks
like him!”
But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the
same one!”
10 They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”
11 He told them, “The man they call Jesus
made mud and spread it over my eyes and
told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash
yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I
can see!”
12 “Where is he now?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
13 Then they took the man who had been
blind to the Pharisees, 14 because it was on
the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and
healed him. 15 The Pharis ees asked the man all
about it. So he told them, “He put the mud
over my eyes, and when I washed it away,
I could see!”
16 Some of the Phar
isees said, “This man
Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the
Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So
there was a deep division of opinion among
them.
17 Then the Pharis
ees again questioned the
man who had been blind and demanded,
“What’s your opinion about this man who
healed you?”
The man replied, “I think he must be a
prophet.”
18 The Jewish leaders still refused to believe
the man had been blind and could now see,
so they called in his parents. 19 They asked
them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind?
If so, how can he now see?”
20 His parents replied, “We know this is
our son and that he was born blind, 21 but we
don’t know how he can see or who healed
him. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for
himself.” 22 His parents said this because
they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who
had announced that anyone saying Jesus
was the Messiah would be expelled from the
synagogue. 23 That’s why they said, “He is old
enough. Ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called in the
man who had been blind and told him, “God
should get the glory for this,* because we
know this man Jesus is a sinner.”
25 “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the
man replied. “But I know this: I was blind,
and now I can see!”
26 “But what did he do?” they asked. “How
did he heal you?”
27 “Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you
9:24 Or Give glory to God, not to Jesus; Greek reads Give glory to God.
