Presenting Jesus Effectively

This morning I am reading from John 9:24-38 NIV:

[24] "A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
[25] He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
[26] Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
[27] He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
[28] Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! [29] We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
[30] The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. [31] We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. [32] Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. [33] If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
[34] To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
[35] Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
[36] “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
[37] Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
[38] Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him."

This story is remarkable for a couple of reasons. First, it is only at the very end that his man finds out who Jesus is, and actually experiences salvation. Prior to Jesus finding him again, he only knew he had received his sight and could only imagine that the person whom had healed him was from God. Jesus hadn't said that specifically and the man was just trying to understand how he had been healed. In spite of all the questioning and all the harassment that was heaped upon him, he refused to believe anything differently about the one who healed him.

Second, Jesus wasn't real worried about any proclamation of the Gospel, the healing was enough. The man was already convinced by his physical healing, and he just needed to know who Jesus was, and after being introduced the belief and worship was immediate.

To me this story underscores the importance of healing, signs, wonders and miracles in the spreading the Gospel. There is no better demonstration of the love of God than having one's life deeply impacted by experience. There was no amount of arguing that was going to convince the man who was healed that anyone other than God had healed him. That was the only possible explanation!

I pray for the renewed outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the church, that we would once again minister regularly with healing, miracles, signs and wonders. The world needs to see and understand that God loves all men and women, and is alive and touching lives. The church is meant to (re)present the Lord to the world, and when He walked the earth, this was how he ministered, how can we think to present Him in any other way? Come Lord and help us!