Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Turn with me in your Bibles to John 9.

When I was in college, I took a class called Organic Chemistry.

The professor frequently reminded us to wear our safety goggles, but we often took them off when he wasn’t looking.

They weren’t the most comfortable things in the world, and they usually left a nice red ring around our face by the end of lab time.

One day during lab I had to use the UV light as part of an experiment, in order to see things which couldn’t be seen normally.

Since the UV light was in an adjacent room, away from prying eyes, I decided to give my face a rest and take off my goggles.

After all, I wasn’t using dangerous chemicals or anything, and I thought, “It’s not like these flimsy, clear goggles have UV protection or anything.”

As it turns out, they DO have UV protection.

I went about my business, using the UV light for no more than a minute and never looking directly into the light.

I went about my day and all was well.

Until about 3 am that next morning.

I woke up and my eyes were on fire and extremely irritated.

It felt like I had scales in my eyes.

My first thought was that I must have eyelashes in both eyes.

But I quickly realized that didn’t make sense.

The pain and irritation was too much for just eyelashes.

Remembering that I had been in Chemistry lab that day, I thought that I must have gotten acid on my hands and then rubbed my eyes while sleeping.

But why weren’t my hands burned?

I crawled out of bed and staggered over to the sink and flipped on the light.

I couldn’t see.

The pain was intense.

It was like looking through a glass of milk.

I couldn’t see shapes and I could only vaguely see a hazy glow from the light.

I started to panic.

I was going blind.

Would I ever see again?

I woke up my roommate and he took me to the ER where they determined I had welder’s burn from exposure to UV light.

I had to have salve put onto my eyes and wear bandages over my eyes the entire next day or so until they healed enough to remove the bandages.

Now there is a permanent sign in my honor in the Chemistry lab which states “You must wear your goggles!” and the professor always starts the year off with a safety story about one student who sunburned his eyeballs because he didn’t wear his goggles when using the UV light.

My experience with blindness happened suddenly and lasted only a day or so.

But it was enough for me to realize how awful a condition blindness is.

Scripture Introduction: In John chapter 9, we see Jesus healing a blind man.

But we see another type of blindness that is even more awful than his physical blindness—spiritual blindness.

John 9 is not really about physical blindness.

In the preceding chapter, Jesus has just made his great ‘before Moses was, I AM’ statement and the Pharisees had tried to stone him.

The point of John chapter 9 is to compare the physical blindness of the man who was blind from birth to the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees.

FCF: By nature we are all spiritually blind, unable to see or grasp spiritual truths.

Main Idea: But Jesus came to give us light, to open blind eyes and enable us to see and receive the truth of the Gospel into our lives.

Read John 9

Prayer for Illumination

Transition: As we have seen with all the miracles in John, Jesus’ healing of the blind man isn’t just a trick, it isn’t merely because he was compassionate (although he definitely was), but his healing of the blind man was done for a very specific purpose.

Jesus healed the blind man so that you might not be spiritually blind.

(vv.

1-12)

Jesus’ act of healing was not just a parlor trick, it was a sign pointing to greater truths.

Jesus makes mud perhaps to symbolize an act of re-creation.

Or maybe just because he could…Either way, the point is to demonstrate his power.

The Pool of Siloam (which means “the one who is sent”) connects Jesus’ act of healing the blind man to the One who sent Jesus, the Father.

By having him wash in the Pool of Siloam, Jesus is showing that he is truly "the one who is sent” by the Father.

Sometimes suffering in our lives is given by God so that God might be glorified in you as he fixes the situation.

(v. 3)

God allowed this man to be born blind and live his entire life up until this point—into adulthood—just so that God could be glorified in this moment.

Are you willing to suffer in order to be used by God to show his light to others?

To suffer physical ailments?

To suffer the loss of loved ones?

To suffer persecution?

When God’s people suffer with grace, it shows Christ to the world.

The world is blind.

They need the light of Christ.

Spiritual blindness prevents you from seeing the truth of who Christ is and what God’s Word requires.

(vv.

13-17, 24-34)

Spiritual Blindness prevents you from seeing the truth—that Christ is the light of the world

A relationship with him enables you to see where you’re going and see things as they truly are.

The Pharisees didn’t have that and, therefore, couldn’t see Christ (or the blind man) as they truly were.

Blind people can’t see the light.

There’s a reason blind people can’t drive.

They can’t read the road signs or see other cars approaching!

The Pharisees, even though time and time again they witness Jesus performing signs that clearly point to his divine nature, can’t see the truth.

They are blind.

The light is shining, but they can’t see it.

When we try to reach people for Christ, we must recognize that we are trying to open blind eyes.

In our own power or clever reasoning, we simply can’t do that.

Evangelism is like trying to show a great painting to a blind person.

“See how beautiful this is?

Aren’t the brush strokes just perfect!

Look how the artist has captured the light over here, and the colors!”

Spiritual blindness prevents you from seeing what God’s Word truly requires

The Pharisees had memorized God’s Word and his Law, yet seem oblivious to what it’s really about.

They majored on the minors, and minored on the majors.

Spiritually blind people, when they look at God’s Word see a list of “do’s” and “don’ts”, a list of legal requirements to earn God’s satisfaction.

Are you living as though you believe you have to open your own eyes?

What God’s Word really requires is for you to humbly depend upon him:

But instead of walking humbly with God, those who are spiritually blind live in fear.

Spiritual blindness keeps you living in fear.

(v.

22-23)

The parents reveal their spiritual state when they fearfully refuse to proclaim Christ.

They’re afraid of being excommunicated—put out of the synagogue.

Throughout the book of John, we see people living in fear, refusing to boldly proclaim Christ for fear of what other people will think or do.

But something changes between this point in John and the book of Acts—the Resurrection!

When Christ was resurrected, blind eyes were opened.

Christ’s disciples, instead of cowering in fear, boldly proclaimed him knowing that they would suffer.

Their perspective was changed—just like getting glasses or your sight for the first time!

They realized that they didn’t need to fear being marginalized by other people.

Christ himself had been marginalized!

That just made them more like their Master.

They realized that they didn’t have to fear death.

Christ had overcome death!

When you gain spiritual sight, your perspective on life changes.

You don’t have to live in fear.

Many people today are living in fear.