From Old Testament times, the Jewish people knew that only God and his Messiah could open the eyes of the blind. However, over their long history, it had never happened. Therefore, when Jesus healed the eyes of a man born blind in John 9:1-41, he caused quite a stir. Some rejected the miracle as spurious, but the healed man held firm to what he knew to be true: "I was blind, and now I see." This is the same testimony of the simplest Christian whose spiritual eyes Jesus has opened to the truth. (sermon notes)
The Thessalonian Christians show us what it looks like to live out God’s grace under persecution.
Paul’s time in Athens provides an example of how to present Jesus and the resurrection to a cultured non-Christian audience.
Although we work for the growth of the kingdom, it grows mysteriously in ways that we cannot understand or control.
