John 9

John 9

Tonight we're gonna be in John Chapter 9, and looking at this entire chapter got it broken down into three sections, as you can see on the handout tonight with the 1st. As usual in the book of John, the 1st is a story of what happened. A true account of a miracle that Jesus performed. And then after that, there's some controversy. There's also some things after that that Jesus said that affirmed his deity, that affirmed exactly who that he was. We'll start off tonight by looking at John Chapter 9, the 1st 12 verses. And keep in mind this is a true account. This is a factual account of what happened, of a miracle that took place.

It says, “as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples. I asked him, Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents, that he would be born? Mind, Jesus answered, it was neither this man sin nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me. As long as it is day, night is coming when no one can work. While I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay. The spittle applied the clay to his eyes and said to him, Go wash in the pool is Shalom, which is translated scent. So he went away and washed and came back. Seeing therefore the neighbors and those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, Is not this the one who sit and beg? Others were saying this is he still others were saying no but he is like him. But he kept saying I am the one. So they were saying to him how then were your eyes opened? He answered the man who is called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me go wash in salon. So I went away and washed and. Same side, they said to him, where is he? He said I do not know.”

So a lot of stuff has happened here. We see this miracle from Jesus. Does it truly is a miracle? This is something that Jesus did. He healed this man, this man who was born blind. This man never was able to see one day in his life until Jesus came along. You see his disciples and most Jews during that day, most people during that day believed that sin was the primary cause of suffering. Whether it was your sin that caused you to suffer or maybe your parents that caused you to suffer, they thought that was the primary and a lot of them thought that was the only reason for bad things to happen was because of sin. Punishment if you will.

But one thing I've always liked about this verse and this section of verses is Jesus affirms that bad things sometimes happen to good people. Sometimes there's a reason. Sometimes we get to see the will of God. Sometimes these bad things happen to show God's power. And that's exactly what is taking place here in verse 3. Jesus said it was neither this man's sin, it wasn't his parents, but it was so the works of God might be displayed in him.

You know, a lot of times when something tragic or when something sad happens like this, say a child is born blind because that's what happened here. Now we don't know how old this man was at this time. But I at some point a child was born blind. The tragic thing, this is not something that anybody wants to happen. But think about the parents. How do they feel? Like I said, at the time, it was common to think that was the reason for that. It was their sin. Think about how they felt. Because their sin may have done this harm to this child, the child they loved so dearly, I'm sure. Just like we all over children. How do you think they responded to what Jesus said? Not only that, Jesus healed their Son, who made their Son able to see. But how do you think they responded to what he said about It wasn't their sin, It wasn't the child's sin?

How many times can we use the scripture to help others as well when others are going through this same thing when others. Are going through something their child is not well, their child has been born with a defect. Their child has been born blind. You can show them God's word. You see, that's why this scripture is so important is because not only does it apply to when it was written, does it apply to when all this took place? That it is still very useful to us.

So we know when Jesus performed this miracle that he spit on the ground. He made clay. Put it on his eyes. He told him to go wash in the pool was Shalom and he did and he was able to see. You know, no matter what we're going through, we can see God's work, we can see his miracles. We can see his power. But it's up to us to give God the credit. It's up to us to give him the glory. To honor his power. Because you see, there was all kinds of debate over who this person was when he was able to go and see other people, when people were able to see him. And they said, well, he's the one that used to beg. He's the blind man. People were saying, no, that's not him. There's no way this could be the same. Died because he was blind. Now he's walking around, he can see.

Sometimes things happen and there's no other reasoning. One of the most vivid things in my mind is right after Brett was born they told us he had a bad brain bleed. The night he was born, he was doing OK. Today they told us, you know, he had a bad brain bleed and they were going to do some scans and get the results and see. And they were preparing us for the worst. They were preparing us if it was a stage four brain bleed. We had all the signs. The doctor come in the next morning, read the results, She said they don't have no brain bleed. She was convinced That he did. You see, sometimes when we pray, things happen. And there's no other way to explain it. They didn't give him any medicine. They didn't give him anything to stop the bleed. God took care of it.

You see, this blind man was able to give a testimony as to what would happen. And that's what we need to do as well. When we have a miracle happen to us, we don't need to keep it to ourselves. We should be telling people. We should be telling people what God has done for us. What God can do for them as well? Because if he done it for us, he can do it for them. If he done it for this blind man, he can do it for us. Never lose sight of that. Never get to the point that we think God cannot help us. Do not get to the point that we think God can't do that for us. Remember that nothing is impossible for God. The saying God that healed this behind me and is the same God that is still on the throne today.

Move down just a little bit. Look at John Chapter 9, verse 13 through 34. It says, “They brought to the Pharisees a man who was formerly blind. Now it was the Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes, and the Pharisees were asking him again how he received his sight. He said to them, He applied clay to my eyes. I washed and I see. Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath. But others were saying, how can a man who is a Sinner perform such signs? There was a division among them, so they said to the blind. And again, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes and he said he is a prophet? The then the Jews did not believe it of him, and he had been blind, and received sight until they called. The parents of the very one who had received his sight questioned them, saying, Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does this see? His parents answered them and said we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confesses him to be the Christ, he will be put out of the synagogue. For this reason, his parents said he is of age. Ask him so a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, Give glory to God. We know this man is a Sinner. He then answered whether he's a Sinner I do not know. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. So they said to him, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them. I told you already, but you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become his disciple, do you? They reviled him and said, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but As for this man, we do not know where he is from. The man answered and said to them, well he is an amazing thing that you do not know where he is from and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God fearing and. His will, he hears him. Since the beginning of time, it has never heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. But if this man was not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him. You were born entirely in sins, and you were teaching us. So they put him out.”

Now what we see here is there's a little bit of controversy from this man who was born blind and who Jesus had healed. They did not want to accept who Jesus was. I didn't want to accept the fact that he was the Christ. They didn't want to accept the fact that he was the Son of God. He was here on earth. He had the power to be able to do these things. And again we see that Jesus healed somebody on the Sabbath. He done something on the Sabbath. He wasn't supposed to do according to their tradition. He didn't violate God's law. Keep that in mind. He didn't sin. He just violated their tradition. This made the Jews furious. Because he kept doing these things, he kept violating their interpretation of the law. Jesus did not care about their interpretation of the law. He cared about what God said. He cared about God's law, and that was it.

But they continued to investigate him. They called the parents of the one who was blind. They called him in and they said, is this your son? They were convinced it was somebody else. I said, is this your son who was born blind? I said yes. You see, they could not accept the fact that Jesus healed this man. They still didn't believe. They told the man give glory to God. They didn't want to give any credit to Jesus. They didn't want to accept who Jesus was. But if you notice, his story didn't change. He kept saying that Jesus healed him, and he kept saying that Jesus spat on the ground. He made clay, He put it on his eyes, He washed. And then he was able to see.

If you go back and look at Scripture, I believe the man who was blind was getting a little aggravated at the Pharisees because he said I've done told you once and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear this again? In other words, he's saying, hey, I didn't told you what happened. If you don't want to accept it, move on about your day pretty much. But the story's not going to change. This is what happened. But the Pharisees got mad at the man because he would not give credit to God. He was telling them exactly what it took place, that Jesus healed me. But the Pharisees didn't want to accept the deity of Jesus. So they put the blind man out of the temple. They didn't like him correcting them. Because if you remember from the last couple of verses that we looked at, he said if this man wasn't divine, he couldn't do it. He couldn't do anything that he just did. If he wasn't from God, he couldn't have done this. Ohh, they didn't like that.

The reason I wanted to mention that not only is it in Scripture, but it's something we can learn from because when we testify, when we tell somebody that God done this or God done that, God helped us do this. There's gonna be times at some point somebody is going to say God can't do that, God didn't do that. That's just a coincidence. Like the evenings when Susan left Buchanan General with internal bleeding, got to Johnson City sitting up in the bed talking. I guess that's just a coincidence. If it just happened once, maybe. Time after time after time, when something happens, when we pray and things happen, it can't be a coincidence. Don't let anybody tell you that God's not real. Don't let anybody tell you that your prayers don't get hurt. Don't let anybody tell you that God still doesn't answer prayers. Because he does. He answers them. We need to stand firm in our testimony. When God does something for us, don't let anybody convince us that it was somebody else. Don't let anybody convince us that it was just. Coincidence. Stand firm. And what God has done for us.

Let's finish up this chapter. Look at verses 35 through 41. It says, “Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, You have both seen him, and he is the one talking with you. And he said. Lord I believe, and he worshipped him. Jesus said for judgment. I come into this world so that those who do not see Macy and that those who see may become blind. Those are the Pharisees who were with him, heard these things and said to him, We were not blind to are we? Jesus said to them, if you were blind you would have no sin, but since you say we see, your sin remains.”

Really what this section of scripture does here. And if your Bible has little subheadings, mine says Jesus affirms his deity. He is saying who he is. He is saying that he is the Son of man. Now apparently Jesus was having this conversation with this blind man, asking him if he believed in him and telling him that he is the Son of man. And apparently the Pharisees were overhearing this conversation. Because they said there in verse 40, We are not blind too are we? Jesus responded to him. There in verse 41, he said if you were blind you would have no sin. Since you say, we see your sin remains. This is a little confusing to understand on why he would say that, but one commentary says if they knew their lostness and their darkness and they cried out for spiritual light. They would no longer be guilty of sin, of unbelief in Christ. But they satisfy, they were satisfied that their darkness was light. Continuing rejection of Christ.

What does that mean? Again, it seems a little confusing, just like the scripture. But basically, they were satisfied and didn't want to change their lives. They were satisfied living the life of sin, the sin of unbelief. They didn't believe in Christ. They didn't believe He was who they said that He was. They didn't want to change. They were satisfied with where they are. We don't need to get caught up in that. We need to understand that we have sin. We need to understand that if we're not saved, that there's things we need to change. And even if we are saved, there are things that we need to improve on because we all sin. We all fall short of God's glory.

But the bottom line with these verses here, the last thing I want you to remember. Don't be comfortable with where we are. Know there's something that we can change, that we can improve on. Know that there is always improvement. We can always do better. We can always sin a little bit less. There's always room for improvement.