Born again children of God must stand up for Jesus. Isn’t that odd to have to say? But in this highly sensitive age, where people get offended over little or nothing, the statement needs to be made. Do we shy away from Jesus when His demands on our lives go against the current of the age? Is it no longer cool to say that sin is sin? An individual writes, “A friend sent me a cartoon showing an old man in a rocking chair. As he rocked, loud squeaks could be heard. After several futile attempts to get rid of the squeaks in the chair, the angry man got his shotgun and shot the chair into splinters. In the final frame of the cartoon, the old man is shown walking away, but the squeaks were still there. They were in his knees. Sometimes the problems that exist in our church may be found within ourselves. Before we destroy everything else, perhaps we need to decide if we are part of the problem.”¹ Are we standing up for Jesus or are we the ones with the problem? That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why Doing the Word of God Is The Ticket to Success

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This week’s call is:

The challenge today is simple: determine in your heart to stand up and be a witness for Jesus in your everyday life. Stand up for Him at work, at school, in the grocery store or wherever your feet carry you.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: Where are you on Jesus’ healing ministry? Are you willing to stand for Jesus? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below?

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Podcast Notes

Stand Up for Jesus: The Man Born Blind

John 9:13–14, 18–23 (ESV) — 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. 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.”

• Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and it became a controversial thing.
• But, that’s only one of the controversies in this passage.
• Jesus not only healed on the Sabbath which got Him in trouble before, but He also formed mud on the Sabbath.
• Can you believe it?
• Jesus got into trouble with the religious establishment because He rubbed dirt between His fingers.
• Both healing and and ‘rubbing dirt’ fall under the religious leaders’ Sabbath no-no list because both they constituted work.

Stand for Jesus: Thirty-Nine Classifications of Work

• Per the Jews interpretation of the fourth commandment – you know God gave Moses the Ten Commandments – the fourth one says:

Exodus 20:8–11 (ESV) — 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

• The Jews sat down and established guidelines for what constituted work on the Sabbath.
• The problem is, they went too far.
• They got away from the Spirit of the Law.
• Over the course of years, Jewish interpreters of the fourth commandment came up with thirty-nine general categories of labor that they said are forbidden on the Sabbath day.
• Here’s a list of them.

Field Work

• Sowing
• Plowing
• Reaping
• Binding Sheaves
• Threshing
• Winnowing
• Selecting
• Grinding
• Sifting
• Kneading
• Baking
• Making Material Curtains

Shearing Wool

• Cleaning
• Combing
• Dyeing
• Spinning
• Stretching the Threads
• Making Loops
• Weaving Threads
• Separating the Threads
• Tying a Knot
• Untying a Knot
• Sewing
• Tearing
• Making Leather Curtains

Trapping

• Slaughtering
• Skinning
• Tanning
• Smoothing
• Ruling Lines
• Cutting
• Making the Beams of the Mishkan

Writing

• Erasing
• The Putting up and Taking down of the Mishkan

Building

• Breaking Down
• The Mishkan’s Final Touches

Extinguishing a Fire

• Kindling a Fire
• Striking the Final Hammer Blow
• Carrying
• So, if you look at these 39 categories, you don’t see healing or handling mud directly on this list.
• If it’s not on the list, why did the religious leaders get upset?
• So, when Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Siloam, he carried his bed away and the Pharisees got upset because he violated the work category called ‘carrying.’
• That was directly legit per the Jew’s definition of work.
• I say Jew’s definition because it may not have been the Lord’s definition.
• What I want you to see is that the Jews had 39 categories of work but, they spun off some of these categories.

Jesus Rubbed the Religious Crowd the Wrong Way

• When Jesus used mud to heal the blind man’s eyes, he rubbed the mud together.
• Rubbing mud together is not a general category but kneading dough is.
• So, they just carried that over.
• They point is that the religious leaders were upset that Jesus pushed past the norm.
• Jesus was okay with the fact that His actions lead to controversy.
• After all, some controversies are good.
• Mark Water said the following.

Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error.²

• Others are bad.
• The scriptures help us to distinguish, the good from the bad.

Bad Controversies

2 Timothy 2:23 (ESV) — 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

• The Greek word ‘foolish’ means devoid of wisdom or good sense or sound judgment.
• The word ‘ignorant’ means uneducated, lacking knowledge.
• One more word we need to address is the word ‘controversy.’
• Controversy is a dispute.
• It is a disagreement or argument about something important.
• Now the reason for all of this avoidance is that the end of lack of sense uneducated disputes is quarrels.
• Quarrels mean contention, a battle, an open clash between two opposing groups.
• It means strife and the scriptures plainly state that the servant of the Lord must not strive.

Stand for Jesus But Strife Is Not the Way

2 Timothy 2:24 (ESV) — 24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil,

2 Timothy 2:24 (KJV 1900) — 24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,

• In these two different translations of 2 Timothy 2:24, you see both definitions, strife, and quarreling.
• In either case, the servant of the Lord must not be involved.
• That is if your dealing in areas that are foolish, lacking, sense, uneducated, and contain uninformed discussion.
• This is bad controversy.
• Now, Jesus was not involved in this type of negative discussion or striving when he rubbed clay and put it on the man’s eyes.
• He was following the leading of the Spirit of God.
• It was the Holy Spirit who told Him to put clay on the man’s eyes.
• It was the very Holy Spirit of the Most High, who got involved in the healing of this blind man.
• The Spirit of the Lord did this knowing that the face of religion would get all cramped up over it.
• The scriptures about not striving are not applicable here.
• Jesus wasn’t violating God’s law, He was coming up against men’s traditional interpretation of God’s Law.
• With that thought, here’s the quote of the day.

No great advance has been made in science, politics or religion without controversy. – Lyman Beecher³

• So if you are standing up for Jesus, and that action produces controversy, you are on safe ground.
• Do you remember Elijah and the 850 prophets of Baal?
• Didn’t Elijah’s handling of that situation produce controversy in Israel?
• Controversy is needed for change.
• But, where do you draw the line?

Stand Up For Jesus: Divine Healing

• So, we need to stand up for what God stands up for.
• We need to say what Jesus said about His Father.

John 5:17 (ESV) — 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

• If God is working, we need to work with Him.
• I like to say it this way: “Find out which way God is moving, and move with Him.”
• In the area of divine healing, there are millions and millions of testimonies to back up the fact that the Father God is working.
• He hasn’t stopped.
• The reports of His demise are not accurate, they are not true.
• God is moving.
• The cramped up face of religion has said the Lord has stopped.
• He’s not healing anymore, it’s all been done away.
• But, it’s not true.
• He hasn’t.
• The Lord is still healing people today, and I’m living proof, He healed me of sleep-apnea, who are we to deny it?
• In our modern-day, divine healing has an element of controversy.

Stand for Jesus: The Face of Those Who Refuse to Believe in Divine Healing

• On Wikipedia, it states:

Virtually all scientists and philosophers dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience. Faith healing can be classified as a spiritual, supernatural, or paranormal topic, and, in some cases, belief in faith healing can be classified as magical thinking. The American Cancer Society states “available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments”. “Death, disability, and other unwanted outcomes have occurred when faith healing was elected instead of medical care for serious injuries or illnesses.”⁴

• So, this writer of this article is anti-divine healing.
• The question for you today is simple: “Where are you on this subject?”
• In those sections of Christendom where divine healing is controversial, the belief is that God’s intended to use divine healing just to get the church started.
• The question is if it takes gas to get a car started, how can it not take gas to keep it going?
• Just because a thing is controversial and some choose not to believe, does not mean that the doctrine is not truly from heaven.
• We need to stand up for Jesus.

How the Parents of the Healed Man Born Blind Did Not Stand Up for Jesus

• We do not need to act like the parents of this blind man in John nine.
• They knew that their son was born blind and said so.
• In verse twenty of John nine, His parents answered the religious crowd by saying, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 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.”
• Isn’t this an odd reaction?
• Their son was born blind.
• Now, he sees.
• Where is the rejoicing?
• What happened to the praising of God.
• This family has just received a HUGE miracle, a gi-enormous miracle.
• Think about the financial possibilities for the future.
• This son, whose been a burden, can now go out and bring in an income and be a blessing.
• Why this reaction of the parents?
• Drop down to verse twenty-two of John nine – I read it for you earlier.
  • (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.) Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

Stand Up for Jesus: Overcoming Fear

• Fear is the reason.
• To stand up, you have to stand against fear.

Proverbs 29:25 (NIV) — 25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

• It is far better to fear God than to fear man.
• Fear of people can hamper everything you try to do.
• In extreme forms, it can get so bad that it can make you afraid to leave your home.
• By contrast, fear of God—respect, reverence, and trust—is liberating.
• Why fear people who can do no eternal harm?
• Instead, fear God who can turn the harm intended by others into good for those who trust him.
• So, these parents of this boy would not stand up for the miracle of God in their son’s life because they feared the Jews.
• Specifically, the fear was that they would be excommunicated – put out of the synagogue.
• You see this in other places in John’s gospel.

John 16:2 (ESV) — 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

John 12:42–43 (ESV) — 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Individualism Versus the Group Mentality of the 1st Century

• Now for us in America, who wake up every day and put on the fabric of western individualism sprayed with cologne as we head out the door, this is hard to grasp.
• Our thought is, “Who cares if they put us out of the church – if they do, we’ll just find another one.”
• But when we read the Bible, we are not in the western world.
• The Bible is not a western book, it’s an eastern book.
• You are not in the twenty-first century as we read John’s gospel.
• The setting is the first century.
• And in the first century, you didn’t have individualism, you had a group driven honor and shame-based society – which you need to know still exists in Anny parts of the world.
• People from our day who read passages like this and who live in honor and shame-based group driven cultures – when they read this – have no trouble understanding the fear of these parents.

Stand Up for Jesus: But, Remember God Did Not Just Write the Bible for Americans

• It’s crucial that you understand that God did not write the Bible just for Americans.
• That’s arrogant to think so.
• No, the Father God wrote the Bible to all of the people on the planet.
• And the kind of society which saw Jesus live and walk is still in place in many parts of the world.
• They pick-up a passage like this and no trouble with it – whereas we struggle.
• We struggle with huge portions of scripture over this very reason.
• The fear of these parents was real.
• Being part of the group was real.
• Honor and shame were real.
• That’s why they said to the religious crowd, “He is of age – ask him about his healing.”
• What the parents didn’t do is stand up for Jesus.

Dudley Tyng’s Illustration of Standing Up for Jesus

• With that thought, here’s the illustration of the day.

Dudley Tyng served as his father’s assistant at Philadelphia’s Church of the Epiphany and was elected its pastor when his father retired in 1854. He was only twenty-nine when he succeeded his father at the large Episcopal church, and at first it seemed a great fit. But the honeymoon ended when Dudley began vigorously preaching against slavery. [Preaching against slavery was controversial.] Loud complaints rose from the more conservative members, resulting in Dudley’s resignation in 1856. [Dudley took a stand.]

He and his followers organized the Church of the Covenant elsewhere in the city, and his reputation grew. He began noontime Bible studies at the YMCA, and his ministry reached far beyond his own church walls. Dudley had a burden for leading husbands and fathers to Christ, and he helped organize a great rally to reach them. On Tuesday, March 30, 1858, five thousand men gathered. Dudley looked over the sea of faces and declared, “I would rather this right arm were amputated at the trunk than that I should come short of my duty to you in delivering God’s message.” Over a thousand men were converted that day.

Stand Up For Jesus, the Song

Two weeks later Dudley was visiting in the countryside, watching a corn-thrasher in the barn. Dudley’s hand moved too close to the machine and his sleeve was snared. His arm was ripped from its socket, the main artery severed. Four days later his right arm was amputated close to the shoulder. When it appeared he was dying, Dudley told his aged father: “Stand up for Jesus, father; and tell my brethren of the ministry to stand up for Jesus.” Rev. George Duffield of Philadelphia’s Temple Presbyterian Church was deeply stirred by Dudley’s funeral, and the following Sunday he preached from Ephesians 6 about standing firm for Christ. He read a poem he had written, inspired by Dudley’s words: Stand up, stand up for Jesus, / Ye soldiers of the cross; / Lift high His royal banner, / It must not suffer loss. The editor of a hymnal heard the poem, found appropriate music, and published it. Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus soon became one of America’s favorite hymns, extending Dudley’s dying words to millions.⁵

Stand Up for Jesus: Peace But Not Compromise

• The Word of the Lord urges us to pursue peace but never at the expense of compromise.

Romans 14:19 (ESV) — 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

• You can have peace and principle, that is, you can be at peace with God and His Word and as much as is within you be at peace with others.
• But peace with Him comes first.
• Don’t shun Jesus because of the pressure of the age.
• There will always be something controversial about Jesus.
• It’s that light and dark thing.
• Settling is what people want in the natural.
• It’s people’s normal mode.
• Unfortunately, it’s the reason full-blown revivals cease and revelation wanes.
• We get comfortable – we don’t like change – we hold to old ways even though they don’t work.
• Don’t get angry because Jesus challenges your thinking.
• Always remember, that in controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.⁶
• You guys have a great God week and we’ll see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

How You Can Minister Healing As Jesus Did

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