Blinded by Pride

Jesus is the Light, and He comes to illuminate our dark hearts so we can know Him!

Walking through a dark house, I might be confident on where I am going, but the darkness has a way of hiding what’s really around me, and the dangers that I might step on, or fall over.

With light, and the Light, we can know exactly where we are going.

****Or the story of people living under the city.***

Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. Back in the days before electricity, a tightfisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. "Why," he exclaimed, "when I went a-courtin' I never carried one of them things. I always went in the dark." "Yes," the hired man said wryly," and look what you got!"Jesus describes Himself as the Light of the World and He comes to illuminate our dark hearts.

Jesus describes Himself as the Light of the World and He comes to illuminate our dark hearts

I’m thankful that Jesus is the Light of the World and has opened our spiritual eyes and dark hearts to Him, Amen?

This morning I want to preach from the book of John in Chapter 9, and I want to ask that you turn their with me, and as you turn the title of this message is:

“Blinded by the Pride”

Jesus does what religion and rituals can’t do… open spiritually blind eyes.

Context:

Verse 35 is where we will begin, but we’re entering into the story of one of the blind men Jesus healed.

What’s going on?

Jesus and His disciples are walking down the street and see this blind man begging.

His disciples asked if he was blind because of a specific sin either he committed or his parents.

Jesus explains to them in verse 3-5 that he was blind so that God could work in him and be glorified:

Stop: God is constantly working in and through you for His glory and your good!

Jesus explains that He is the light of the World, and goes to this man, bends down and spits in the dirt. rubs mud on this man’s eyes and tells him to go to a pool to wash up

the man obeys, and when he washes his eyes - he can now see

Verses 8-12: people noticed

Verses 13-18: the pharisees get involved and say Jesus is a sinner and not of God

Verses 19-23: the Pharisees go to the parents and say, “is this your son and how has he received sight?” - fearing getting kicked out of the synagogue they say, “he’s old enough, ask him.”

verse 24-34: “here’s what I know, I was blind and now I see.” - after talking with the pharisees, he gets kicked out of the synagogue and in that he has lost his family, religion, and “hope”

Read with me verses 35-41

as we read this, and talk about: Jesus does what religion can’t do, open spiritually blind eyes…

Religion demands something much different than Jesus does…

I want you to notice with me:

1. Jesus Pursued/Prompted a Question to the Man

1. The Light Pursued// Jesus Asks a Question

Can you see it?

A man whose entire world changed completely not once, but twice in one small time frame.

Thrown out of the synagogue, losing loved ones, hope, and life…

In a moment seeing the great beautiful details of things he had never seen before, now not seeing a bright future for himself at all… all at the hands of religion.

All in these very brief moments, we can notice:

Jesus Found him

verse 35: “and when he had found him”

It is vitally important to understand that Jesus came to find us!

Jesus Questioned him

Jesus looked for the man, it was not the other way around!

We need to be very careful when we talk about “finding God” or “I found Jesus”

The truth is God the Father and God the Son were never lost, we were.

Jesus comes to not just give a blind man sight, he comes to make a lost man found.

maybe you’re here today, struggling -

I read somewhere this week that it’s not:

addict to sober

Adulterer to faithful

poor to rich

gay to straight

ITS LOST TO FOUND!

Jesus Questioned him

v. 35: “dost thou believe on the Son of God?”

This is the most important question ever asked for this man, and for us.

This question is the climax for this blind man, and up until now he had not yet received the full revelation of who Jesus was

this question was going to give this blind man a chance to not only have physical sight, but spiritual sight

How beautiful!

what was the question?

verse 35: “dost thou believe the Son of God?”

who is the Son of God?

Jesus

what does it mean to believe in the Son of God?

Important: The blind man had obeyed and gone to the pool and had his eyes opened… but he still needed to answer this question.

Maybe you’re sitting here this morning thinking:

“I grew up in church and have always believed in Jesus.”

Maybe you’ve lived a moral life

But do you have genuine faith in the Son of God?

Jesus asks this once blind man an important question, and as we just discussed the _______________. I want you to next notice:

2. The Light Gives Sight// The Man Believes// T

verse 35 leaves us in suspense: “do you believe on the Son of God?”

The blind man comes back and says: “Who is he? that I might believe on him?”

Notice a couple of things about verses 36-38:

The Man’s Reaction

People were asking him who healed him, and he said:

verse 11 - Jesus

He knew His name but had never met Him

verse 17 - Prophet

this was a high regard and shows this man had high respect of Jesus

Verse 31-33 - “a man of God”

a lot of us have an opinion of Jesus, but our opinion doesn’t matter… we’ve got to believe in who He says He is!

The Man’s Readiness/Vulnerability

The Man’s Readiness

“who is he that I might believe on him?”

This dude’s heart was already stirred.

The question he asked back gives us proof that he was eager to make the decision to believe because was already at work in his heart!

The Messiah’s Revelation

v. 36 - “you’re looking at Him, and talking to Him.”

Could you imagine this moment?

The Perfect Son of God revealed Himself to this blind man and he saw spiritually for the first time ever.

What a moment!

His spiritual eyes were opened!

I’m reminded of a Baptist preacher with a similar testimony - a man that taught Sunday school

This morning we’ve spent time preaching that Jesus is the light of the world and we’ve preached 1) The Purpose of the Light, and 2) the Revelation of the Light

but the last thing I want to show you this morning is the Response to the Light…

3. The Priority of a Response// The Response to the Light

3. Priority of Faith

In this story from God’s Word, Jesus made Himself the pivotal point of human destiny.

It’s all about Jesus.

Notice the two responses:

Faith in the Light

when this man saw the Light, saw Jesus.

3 things happened:

He gained Spiritual Sight

he saw who Jesus really was

he saw who he really was

He Confessed Jesus

He Worshipped Jesus

He worshipped the Light of the World not what the Light showed in the world.

While he worshipped Jesus, Jesus made a huge statement in verse 39

The Gift giver is a whole lot better than the gifts

The Sight Giver is a whole lot better than the sights seen

Faith in their Sight

Jesus says something extremely important in verses 39 & 41 -

He explains that He is here to split people into two groups:

Those that “see not might see

and those that “see might be made blind”

What does He mean by that?

The pharisees asked the same thing:

“are we blind also?” - this was a rhetorical question.

If you just admitted that you are blind you wouldn’t be guilty! If you just admitted that you need Jesus you would be made right...

what these Pharisees did was:

Suggest that they saw just fine on their own

Rejected the gift of Jesus

their hearts were hardened.

Invitation

Maybe you’re here today and you have had your own opinion about Jesus for a long time. And from that, you’ve thought, “I’ve always believed in Him.”