Jesus Offers Sight.
The Endless Journey - John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Reading:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Introduction:
The bible teaches us that we are knit together in our mothers womb by Christ Himself!
Creating for us the picture and teaching the truth that we are specifically designed for a purpose and on purpose!
How can so much potential with great purpose not come close to hitting the target?
“You can't fix spiritual blindness yourself — but one encounter with Jesus can change everything.”
We are often blind to the potential we have and that God has for us!
Is there a way for us to achieve clarity for our purpose and potential?
Seeing our lives from God’s perspective, instead of our limited and tainted one.
We need a revival to our dead spirit!
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
In our spiritual condition it is impossible to reach our potential and purpose that God designed us for.
As the Ephesians passages reveal: Thankfully there is hope!
Our spiritual conditioned can be revived, renewed, or as the phrase puts it: “made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved.”
“You can't fix spiritual blindness yourself — but one encounter with Jesus can change everything.”
Transition:
That change of position can only happen when we receive the grace He offers.
That opportunity comes when we find ourselves in a position similar to the man we read about in John 9.
A blind man is confronted with truth and encounters Jesus.
Thankfully: "Jesus seeks out the spiritually blind."
Verse 1 provides:
The Encounter (1-12)
The Encounter (1-12)
1 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.
The history of the man encountering Jesus is stated in the text by John.
He is blind!
How long has he been blind? - Since birth!
How we read this situation is probably much different than those in Jesus’ time.
Our culture sees this disability as just that— A Disability!
Their culture evaluates and “judges” disabilities much more harshly.
2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The connotation is that Sin always has a result or consequence attached to it!
How could a person who was born blind have contracted blindness because of a sin that was theirs?
Impossible!
The suggestion seems to connect or mesh together 2 principals regarding sin.
Personal sin.
These are the personal willful acts of sin.
Inherited sin.
This is the sinful nature we have as an inheritance from Adam’s sin.
Which sin brought this man his blindness?
For whatever reason the culture said there had to be a cause!
What should we learn from this thought process?
We have no idea why someone is born the way they are, and we would do well to carefully tread our thoughts as to why!
That would be passing judgment on the person or their parents. And a claim to have the mind of God.
The only thing we can do is evaluate how we treat them as God has allowed their situation.
Thankfully we don’t have to speculate about the reasons Jesus clears it up.
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Jesus says: he is blind because of this moment right here that you and all others will witness.
Jesus is offering sight for the first time to a man born blind.
A picture we can see that Jesus is offering a “new life” to this man.
The blind man encountered Jesus, and Jesus offers him new life.
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.
What Jesus does here was providing an opportunity!
Illustration:
Growing up I loved watching movies.
The actors seemed larger than life in the movie, they were cool.
Something even better than their acting was often their stories of how they got that “big role” and what their lives were like.
There are hundreds of stories about actors living in their cars, other peoples apartment couches, only had a few bucks, all while auditioning for anything they could get cast in.
Jim Carrey,
In 1990, when Jim Carrey was a struggling comedian, he envisioned a successful career in Hollywood. To manifest this dream, he wrote himself a check for $10 million, dated it for Thanksgiving 1995, and put it in his wallet.
The check was for "acting services rendered," and remarkably earned that exact amount for his role in "Dumb and Dumber."
There are many others with stories of rags to riches..
The moment their despair changed was the moment they encountered an offer for a new life or a better life then what they were currently living.
The same stories are found in professional sports.
To go from nothing to everything over night.
You can find it in internet sensations too.
The main idea is that because of one encounter a life was changed.
A blind man encountered Jesus and was offered a different life!
What did the man need to do to get this different life?
Have Faith!
7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
Faith would be revealed by what he chose to do with what was said to him.
He could sit with spit/mud on his eyes hoping there was magic in the mud and spit, as it was supposed by some folklore.
Or he could stumble and find his way to the pool of Siloam.
It was up to him how he chose to respond.
Application:
When someone encounters Jesus and His words offering a new life they have the same opportunity as this blind man.
Jesus can change your life, He offers a new life.
You can leave your former life behind.
He offers many things like:
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Do you realize we are already condemned unless we are in Christ?
Every life is heading to eternal separation from God taking their punishment.
Yet Jesus offers the removal of condemnation, offering eternal life instead.
Jesus offers a lot to us who don’t deserve it or sometimes even realize what we need.
It only requires faith! —How?
Believe His words, trust them and follow the instructions. That’s the B.I.B.L.E. Basic-Instructions-Before-Leaving-Earth!!
The blind man chose to believe and wanted the new life Jesus offered.
He went to the pool believing and came back seeing!
He was recognized as the man who sat and begged.
Being the one dependent on the community to survive and live; all recognized him.
Only now....He can see and probably won’t be beggar anymore.
People were skeptical...
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.”
He continued proclaiming his new life and testifying of who changed him.
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.”
His testimony was 2 fold.
Jesus did something, said something.
He believed and did as Jesus said.
I believe in Jesus and my life is changed because I trusted Him and believed in Him.
This miracle of healing the blind man took place on the Sabbath....and you know how the religious feel about the Sabbath works.
They launched the investigation:
The Investigation (13-34)
The Investigation (13-34)
Just a note about the investigation..
This world will question your changed life — stand firm anyway like this man did.
There is one thing to note here:
The temple had different locations inside.
Outer, inner, and Gentile porch.
When someone had a disability like blindness, lameness, or other physical disabilities they couldn’t enter the inner court until they were cleared by the religious order.
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.
The man was brought to the Pharisees (the enforcers of the law) so he could worship in the inner courts, the same day as his healing, on the Sabbath. \
14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.
The Pharisees asked what happened?
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.”
His testimony the second time is exactly the same as before.
Jesus did it! I had faith in what He told me to do and I can see.
(?) If you saw someone as a beggar and then you saw them the same day in the same clothes; but now they could see what would you think?
The Pharisees completely bypassed the miracle because of their hatred for Jesus.
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.
Their entire conversation revolved around who the miracle worker was instead of “clearing” the man who was blind.
We see 2 groups of thought here between them.
One group who stuck to their laws and rituals.
One group who brought logic into the picture!
The ones ruled by law said Jesus couldn’t be of God since He broke the Sabbath.
The one ruled by logic was anyone who could do this miracle is only of God.
The man came to his own conclusion:
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.”
The man said it is of God that his eyes were opened.
Hearing this they attacked the mans faith, then attacked his family.
They continued the witch hunt with the logic of: “maybe he wasn’t blind since birth...”
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.”
They were scared!
Because the Pharisees already set a precedent for any who believed in Jesus.
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.
What does this mean?
Imagine a small community where the technology consists of the need to depend on one another for everything.
Suddenly your whole community sees you as a leper and cannot speak to you, help you, or interact with you at all.
Your ex-communicated!
The fear this brought to someone was very real and very serious, not only is the worship of the Lord in the temple closed to you.
All of your community is closed to you.
Application:
Our relationship with the Lord is between us and Him. No one has control over it.
Our worship is exclusive!
The parents put the ball into their court!
Then they went after the man again.
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.”
Why try when their mind is already made up about Him?
They don’t have absolute knowledge or power!
He brought this to their attention further angering them, with what seems to be a little sarcasm.
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?”
They hated an unlearned man quoting scripture to them and proving them wrong.
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.
In this passage we find the truth of Proverbs 15:29; Isaiah 1:15; Micah 3:1-2, 4 etc...
34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
They shared the same cultural understanding that the disciples shared earlier - Someone has to be at fault.
We don’t always know the reasons God has for things; but as believers we can trust that He knows what He’s doing and He is providing us an opportunity to have faith and believe!
Transition:
The man was cast out of the temple, He probably never saw the inner courts, He only knew the name of Jesus.
This is a very simple plan of salvation.
Believe in Jesus and you will have a new life!
Jesus found the man after he was cast out.
What we find in the interaction is: A true encounter with Jesus ends in worship, not just appreciation.
Confession (35-41)
Confession (35-41)
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
Jesus’ question was much different than the Pharisees.
He inquired of his new faith, the Pharisees wanted condemnation of a man working.
The man’s response revealed an active commitment to Jesus, not just an appreciation of a miracle worker.
This comes from the question: Do you believe in the Son of Man?
He calls Him Lord!
38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped Him.
He lost his religion; by receiving salvation and eternity!
Jesus summarizes the scene by showing the spiritual blindness of religion compared to those who receive Him gain spiritual sight and eternity!
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.
Conclusion:
When it comes to our spiritual position.
We are dead in our trespasses and sins, there is no way for us to revive ourselves. “but one encounter with Jesus can change everything.”
Jesus shows up just like He did in this mans life.
What He offered the blind man is what He offers to you and I.
We can have a new life moving forward that can be different from our old one.
How’s that possible?
After believing in Him our eyes are opened, just like the blind man’s.
His life had a purpose for that moment when Jesus made Him see and He served as a great testimony of the power of Jesus.
Your life can be a great testimony of Jesus and the power He has to change a life.
You may find yourself being persecuted as the blind man was by the “religious or even the worldly” people.
Get thick skin, don’t fear what man thinks they can do.
When someone challenges your faith, your testimony is always enough.
You don't need a theology degree. The blind man just said: 'I was blind, now I see.' That's your testimony too."
You can look at the last part of chapter 9 where Jesus stood up to defend the man’s faith.
He will do the same thing when Satan accuses against us in the court, Jesus stands and defends our position!
Will you sit with the mud on your eyes or will you believe and do as Jesus says?
-Pray!
