SALT & LIGHT

Part 3: Life Testimony

Scripture

John 9

¹ As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ² And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶ Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud ⁷ and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. ⁸ 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?” ⁹ Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” ¹⁰ So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹ 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.” ¹² They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” ¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴ Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵ 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.” ¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. ¹⁷ So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” ¹⁸ 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 ¹⁹ and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” ²⁰ His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. ²¹ 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.” ²² (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. ²³ Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”) ²⁴ 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.” ²⁵ He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” ²⁶ They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷ He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” ²⁸ And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹ We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” ³⁰ The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ 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. ³² Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ³⁴ They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. ³⁵ Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶ He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” ³⁸ He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. ³⁹ Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Sermon Recap

This sermon closed out the "Salt and Light" series, which has explored the theme of "deep and wide" — the idea that the deeper our relationship with God, the wider our witness to the world. Bo grounded the message in John 9, the account of Jesus healing a man born blind. He invited the congregation to see this miracle not merely as a physical event, but as a picture of spiritual sight — how God opens our eyes to see him, ourselves, and the world rightly. Bo asked a probing question to open: if your entire life were condensed into a half sheet of paper, what would it say? He used Harriet Tubman as a vivid example — a woman whose profound experience of liberation compelled her to go back, at great personal risk, thirteen times to free others. That kind of testimony, he argued, doesn't come from shallow faith.

Bo structured the message around three movements: seeing starts with God, seeing turns to sharing, and seeing ends in worship. On the first point, he highlighted that the blind man had nothing going for him — financially destitute, socially ostracized, spiritually labeled a sinner. Yet Jesus came to him, not the other way around. That's the pattern of grace: God is the initiative-taker. Drawing on Ephesians 2:8–10, Bo reminded the church that salvation is entirely God's doing, and so is the purpose he gives us afterward. The problem, he noted, is that we tend to start with ourselves — either convinced we're too broken for God to use, or too self-sufficient to need him. Both are forms of blindness.

On the second point, Bo observed that the man born blind didn't just receive his sight and walk away. He came back — voluntarily — and told his story three times, to neighbors, to Pharisees, and to religious leaders, even as the opposition mounted. Bo contrasted this with the man's parents, who deflected when questioned because they were afraid of being cast out. He was honest about recognizing himself in those parents — afraid to say the extra three words ("we went to church") in a Monday morning work call. He pushed the congregation, especially parents and students, to ask whether fear of social standing is quietly silencing their witness, and whether their faith experience is deep enough to naturally overflow into sharing.

The third movement brought everything to a head. The blind man, facing expulsion from his community, staked his entire life on Jesus — his finances, his social circles, his future. That's what seeing ends in: a life architectured around Jesus rather than one that simply adds Jesus to an already full life. Bo warned that shallow faith ends in self-worship — just as the Pharisees grew more self-confident in their system and had no room for Jesus. He closed with the parable of the prodigal son, noting that both sons were blind to the father's love, and the father ran out to both. The good news is that God is still the one pursuing us, drawing us deeper, even when we are more blind than we realize.

One Thing: The deeper we experience what God has done for us, the more naturally our lives become a testimony — seeing starts with God, turns to sharing, and ends in worship.

Discussion
Questions

Connecting

If someone asked an AI to summarize your life in two paragraphs, what would you hope it said — and what do you think it would actually say?
Think of someone whose life story has genuinely inspired you. What was it about their story that stuck with you?

Considering

In John 9:1–7 and 35–38, what does Jesus say is the reason the man was born blind — and what does the man's response when he meets Jesus again tell us about what true "seeing" looks like?
Looking at Ephesians 2:8–10, what does Paul say God both saves us from and saves us for? How do those two things connect?

Confessing

Two ways we tend to be blind — thinking we're too broken for God to use, or thinking we're self-sufficient enough not to need him. Which of those do you lean toward, and how does it show up in your daily life?
When was the last time you genuinely told someone what Jesus has done in your life? What held you back, or what made it possible?

Committing

Who is one person in your life — a friend, coworker, or family member — that you've been afraid to share your faith with? What would one small step toward honesty with them look like this week?
If you were to write out your testimony on a half sheet of paper using the framework "I was blind, but now I see," what would you write — and who needs to hear it?

Next Steps

As part of our annual theme, Deep & Wide, we invite our church family to go deeper in relationship with God so that we can be the greatest blessing to one another and the world around us. Each week, we will follow up from the sermon with simple, practical steps to help us receive God’s blessing and apply the truths of the gospel more deeply into our lives.