This Sunday we had the privilege of having one of Providence’s temporary elders, Rev. Doug Hart, preach from Psalm 27.

Death, which is the thing that causes us the most pain and sadness in this life, the Christian can face with confident hope.

And of course that hope isn’t found in anything that you have done or in anything that you can do - rather the source of the Christian’s resurrection hope is only found in Jesus Christ.

When was the last time you were reminded of God’s love? When was the last time you really stopped to ponder the depth of God’s love?

This passage is densely theological but the theology really points us to Christ’s love for the sheep. After all, sacrifice, intimacy, inclusion, and voluntarism are expressions of love.

What we learn from this passage is that the good shepherd, Jesus, offers each of us abundant life. He is the door we must pass through in order to receive spiritual nourishment, protection, and guidance, because there are thieves and robbers who want to lead you and me astray. There are three points that I want to highlight this morning: First, we see the role of the shepherd (vv. 1-6), second, we see the threat of thieves (vv. 7-8), and lastly, we see the provision of the good shepherd (v. 9-10).

We live in a world that craves authenticity, and yet we somehow lack it. Social media encourages you and me to only post the highlights of our lives. The best vacations, the big graduations, and big promotions only those sorts of things find their way onto social media. But that doesn’t reflect real life! No one’s life is one perpetual highlight reel. In many ways, it’s disingenuous.

But God demands authenticity. In fact, he demands sincere authentic worship. And authentic worship is the result of a living and active faith in Christ.

This morning, we find ourselves in the aftermath of Jesus healing the man born blind. His name is never revealed so throughout the course of this sermon, I’m going to be referring to him as the healed man.

I’m sure you probably noticed this morning’s passage doesn’t include Jesus or his disciples. Jesus is obviously central to the passage, but he’s not present. He’s off-camera or backstage if you will.

What we just read in verses 13-34 was what you and I might think of as a formal church discipline trial. The Jews and Pharisees are wielding the disciplinary powers in an irresponsible manner. They’re using church discipline as a means to silence those that say things they don’t like, regardless of whether it’s true or not.

The Jews and Pharisees have this healed man on trial. What was his crime? After all, he just shared his personal experience of being healed. He never challenged the Pharisees' authority. But his crime was recognizing his miraculous healing as a demonstration of Jesus Christ’s spiritual authority. On an even more basic level than that, he was on trial for telling the truth about Jesus.

And John 9:13-34 poses a very simple question to each of us this morning: are you willing to testify of Jesus Christ’s work in your life even in the face of adversity?

Many professing Christians believe in a version of karma too. They believe the pain, and suffering of today is God’s punishment for some sin you committed in the past.

Jesus clearly teaches that the struggles you face in life are not always punishment for a particular sin. Sometimes there are clear temporal punishments for the sin. If you commit a crime, don’t be surprised if you go to jail. But life isn’t always that straightforward is it? There’s no hard and fast rule that clearly explains why we suffer. It’s not always obvious is it?

How much abuse, opposition, and dare I say, persecution are you willing to endure for the truth of Jesus Christ? We often say here in America that we don’t really face “real persecution” which to a certain extent is true. Christians in other countries legitimately face death for their faith in Christ.

As it stands right now, I don’t think anyone received a death threat for coming to church this morning. But at the same time, so many are not willing to take even the smallest stand for the truth of Jesus Christ.

Spotting truth and lies have gotten more complicated these days, hasn’t it? Clear truth and lies have been replaced with your truth or my truth, misinformation, disinformation, and narratives and false narratives.

If you Google the words, “false narrative” you will get millions of hits. Did we even use the terminology twenty years ago? Nothing is clean and straightforward anymore. It’s all complicated and messy.

But distinctions that the world often wants to blur, God’s Word makes abundantly clear. Contrary to what the world teaches there is truth, and you can know it! And conversely, there are lies promoted by the devil himself.

We’re often led to believe that faith in Christ is akin to a pill that you take to treat your unhealthy ways. Christ can’t really do anything for you, he just makes you feel better about yourself. This teaching strips the gospel of any real power.

People might say that about Jesus, but he doesn’t say that about himself. He said he came to give liberty to the captive. Jesus Christ came to set you free from the power of reigning sin in your life. There is hope for the Christian, that by the power of the Spirit in Christ you can put to death the sin struggles that have persistently afflicted you. I don’t care what your sin struggle is!

Christ didn’t come to make you feel comfortable in your prison cell and to make sure your chains aren't too tight… Christ came to set you free!

Throughout the book of John, Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms who he is. He tells people over and over again, and yet, they keep asking him, “Who are you?”

And that’s what we see in verses 21-30. But this time, Jesus tells them exactly who they are and contrasts it with who he is. First, Jesus tells the Jews that they will die in their sin (v. 21), which is a symptom of their disease (vv. 22-24), and that the only remedy is to believe in Him (vv. 25-30). You might say, what we see in this passage is the symptom, the disease, and then the cure.

The more exposed light there is, the easier it is for you to know where to go.

And this is really the essence of our passage: Jesus is the light of the world! To follow Jesus means your life is on course. You are heading in the right direction. It certainly doesn’t mean that it’s perfect or easy. But your life is being navigated by the light and brightness of Christ!

We often quote to our children and to one another, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone!” We quote it in order to caution harsh judgment while failing to adequately judge ourselves. We rush to punish someone while ignoring our own sins.

It’s such a beloved story, and yet, all the evidence seems to indicate that this particular passage wasn’t originally in the gospel of John. In other words, it’s unlikely that the Apostle John actually penned this story.

Jesus is both the most unifying and divisive person of all time. He’s both. The church is centered and founded upon the work of Jesus Christ which is our source of peace, but in the world there’s great hostility that is centered around the work and person of Jesus Christ. It all centers around him, and whether you experience peace or division comes down to how you answer the question: Who is Jesus Christ?

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Feast of Booths. The Feast and all the ceremonies, celebrations that take place over the course of the week-long Feast find their fulfillment in him. He’s the one that all their ceremonial pomp and circumstance is pointing to!

At the ceremonial grand finale at the Feast of Booths Jesus stands up and bids all who are thirsty to come to him.

It seems that the very thing that we need is often the very thing that we hate.

This is precisely what’s going on in our passage. The Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees knew the Scriptures promised a Messiah. They expected God to send a Savior. But here’s the problem: they hated the Savior that God sent. He didn’t meet their qualifications. He wasn’t doing or saying the things they wanted him to say.

So we see their hatred for Jesus in two clear ways in this passage: first, they want him arrested (vv. 32-34) and second, we see their hatred for Jesus in their mockery of him (vv. 35-37).

We might say, “Jesus is the reason for the season,” or “don’t leave Christ out of Christmas,” or faithfully hold the line on, “Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays,” but in reality Christmas has turned into a season of excessiveness, consumerism, self-indulgence, gluttony.

Consumerism in the worst possible sense has almost completely taken over Christmas.

My point isn’t to condemn Christmas and all its fun traditions, rather, my point is the actual Christmas story, the one we just read from Luke, emphasizes the exact opposite of the stereotypical Christmas experience!

Luke 2:1-7 stresses the simplicity of Christ’s birth.

“I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” Psalm 9:1-2

We certainly have much to be thankful for as we reflect on what the Lord has done this past year in the planting of Providence Presbyterian Church!

He brought and gathered people together during the winter, administered the details for beginning worship services in the spring, and sustained us and added to our number in the summer.

Most recently, He formed stronger relationships among us this fall.

We all have a spiritual addiction to sin. Jesus said it most clearly when he said, “no one is good except God.”

You and I need outside help. We need a spiritual intervention!

And I think that’s precisely what we see in our passage this morning. We see the Lord taking drastic measures in order to redeem sinful humanity.

And how would he do it? By becoming just like you and me. By leaving the heavenly throne room and taking on flesh.

Because ultimately, in order for there to be hope of redemption, God had to intervene. The God of the universe would momentarily suspend the natural laws that govern our world in order to miraculously create a life that would redeem us from our sins.

Perhaps there was a point in time in America when there was a social incentive to refer to yourself as a Christian. Perhaps it got you around the right people. Going to church could function as a great place to network, and the morals that were taught were generally thought of as positive.

With each passing moment, there are fewer and fewer social incentives to refer to yourself as a Christian.

However, even in the face of open hostility and scrutiny toward Jesus Christ, people still get saved.

We see this clearly in John 7:25-31.