Eye-Opening Light: Seeing through Shame

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 9:1-9, 35-41
April 27, 2025

John 9:1-9: As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 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 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

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?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”

John 9: 35-41: Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Sermon Outline

1. Intro: “What’s your story?”

2. Main point

3. The reasons for shame

• Our own sin

• The sins of others

• God’s work

4. The redemption displayed

• Jesus cleanses him

• Jesus exhibits him

• Jesus shepherds him

5. The reversal of sight

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing at Night

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 3:1-21
April 13, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Main point

2. A religious man (with a hidden problem)

• A man with wealth and influence

• A man with spiritual curiosity, but cultural hindrance

3. The Triune God (with an unbelievable plan)

• The Spirit gives life

• The Son is lifted

• The Father loved

4. All people (with ultimate beliefs)

• Whoever

• Response to the Light

• Empty living vs. eternal living

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing His Signs

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 2:1-11
March 16, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• A crisis at a wedding

• Why did John include this in his gospel?

• The main point

2. The revealing crisis

• Why a wedding?

• What the crisis mirrors

3. The foretaste sign

• Why Jesus said what He said

• Jesus brings purification to its pinnacle

• Jesus shields us from our shame

• Jesus sets enjoyment in eternity

4. The hour approaching

• The shadow cast over the gospel of John

5. The response of faith

• The response to the miracle

• Do you perceive Jesus for who he is?

• Train yourself, Christian, to let go of lesser joys

“How soon do earthly lovers come to an end of their discoveries of each other’s beauty; how soon do they see all that is to be seen?... [But] how happy is that love, in which there is an eternal progress in all these things; wherein new beauties are continually discovered, and more and more loveliness, and in which we shall forever increase in beauty ourselves; where we shall be made capable of finding out and giving, and shall receive, more and more endearing expressions of love forever: our union will become more close, and communication more intimate.” — Jonathan Edwards, Heaven, a World of Love (2020)

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing His Glory

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 1:1-18
March 9, 2025

2 Chronicles 26: 15-16: The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

Sermon Outline

1. His climatic coming

• God called out to his own

2. His sober diagnosis

• We naturally hide

• We easily misunderstand

• We quickly reject

3. His unbelievable message

• God adopts all who receive him

4. Applications

”When we approach Him in the intensity of worship, we gather up all the sweetness involved in Fatherhood and all the tenderness wrapped up in sonship; when calamities overcome us and troubles come in like a flood, we lift up our cry and stretch out our arms to God as a compassionate Father; when the angel of death climbs in at the window of our homes and bears away the object of our love, we find our dearest solace in reflecting upon the fatherly heart of God; when we look across the swelling flood, it is our Father’s House on the light-covered hills beyond the stars which cheers us amid the crumbling of the earthly tabernacle.” — Robert Webb, Adoption: The Sweetest Doctrine, TableTalk (2024)