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No Longer Blind Because of Jesus, Part V, John 9:28-41
The man born blind but now given sight by our Lord Jesus Christ now faces those who desire to know how such a thing happened to him, not to rejoice with him, but to gain knowledge that can be used to destroy Jesus.
What wicked hearts we see in the Pharisees!
They see Jesus as the worst of the worst, a Sabbath breaker, one who opposes their station in Israel, a station where they load burdens on the Jews in order for their power to be protected and continued.
They desire to prove this man Jesus a fraud and that this man blind from birth is part of a conspiracy against their laws and traditions.
So the interrogation of this man continues to a point where frustration sets in and the man born blind uses a bit of sarcasm in his reply to these unbelieving Pharisees.
He says: I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?
So the man with eyes to see exposes the folly and unbelief of these Jews.
This was too much to take for the proud Pharisees.
So they resort to reproach, to vilification.
They pronounce anathemas which means abominations and curses and denunciations against him.
They rail at him and abuse him and resort to invectives and name calling.
They have no argument to the one who was blind but who now can see.
They have been defeated in debate.
So they call him by a name which is the greatest of compliments to the Christian.
Thou art his disciple! Disciple means follower, believer, student.
Isn't that what we desire to be known as?
Isn't that what we want our testimony to broadcast?
But they, in verse 28 and 29, continue in their haughtiness and revile him: Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
They boast of their credentials.
We are Moses-ites and you are nobody-ites.
We have standing, you have none.
This fellow from Nazareth is a nobody. It’s the same heart today.
If you are not such and such brand religious name you are nothing.
I am a Protestant; I am a Baptist; I am a fundamentalist.
I graduated from the approved school.
I did but you didn't!
Pride, Pride, Pride always springs from the sinful heart. Comparing ourselves among ourselves which the Bible says is not wise.
We Pharisees know for a fact that God spoke to Moses but this fellow has no credentials.
He is not one of us and therefore not worth the time of day.
The Lord had already told them in John 5:46, For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
These Jews simply had a hollow intellectual knowledge of Moses but had no heart understanding, never trembling at the Word of God as spoken by Moses.
The Word of God did not regulate their lives.
They were filled with pride in their blindness as they devoted their lives to their own imaginations.
So now they were to hear truth from a member of that society considered lowly and worthless and without merit.
John 9:30-33, The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
The man born blind is inspired by the persecution he receives from the Pharisees and puts common sense to use!
Hooray for common sense, which is not so common anymore!
Why this is a marvelous thing; this is a surprising thing.
How can this be?
How can you who claim to be the guide of the people be in the dark on a matter like this?
You have finally concluded that my eyes have been opened.
My parents have testified that I was born blind.
You say, Give God the praise!
And yet you do not acknowledge that he who has done this miracle is not a sinner.
But we know that God does not hear sinners.
This man knows what the scriptures say:
Psalm 66:18, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
Psalm 34:15, The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
By saying this, the man born blind recognizes that a miracle of this magnitude must be in answer to prayer and the man who received this answer to prayer must be no ordinary man.
He cannot be the sinner that the Jews believe him to be.
The wonder to him is that the Jews are blind to this common sense!
It is obvious to the man that Jesus has power with God because he is able to do something that has never been done before.
No scripture had ever recorded a miracle of a man born blind receiving sight.
No memory of man, no experience, no history revealed such a thing.
This was a one-time event in the history of the world!
It was an amazing event and yet the Jew’s blindness, the Jew’s heart prevented them from seeing this spiritual lesson. Oh how deeply was the darkness in which they lived.
We see that his newly found sight is in more than his physical eyes for he now sees spiritual truths.
By his new found spiritual sight he concludes that Jesus is from God for if he were not he could do nothing.
All the arguments of the Pharisees could not shake him for he is growing in the knowledge of God.
He first called his benefactor the man that is called Jesus, then he claimed his as a prophet, and now he is a man of God, a man that God heard, and a man who worshipped God.
We see here in this man born blind, but now a man who can see, also being able to see spiritual truths.
Remember Jesus’ blessings upon Peter as he grew in spiritual truths:
Mat 16:17, And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
So blessings from God also come to this man who testified truthfully to these Christ deniers.
But they did not learn, they did not accept this common sense but instead met such sense with scorn and ridicule!
John 9:34, They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
How dare you teach us for you are a nobody!
Your blindness from birth reveals that your parents sinned grievously.
You are the wages of their sin! It must be so.
How do you who begs in the street, presume to teach us.
We know you have no standing to quote scripture to us for we are its keepers and interpreters.
They had no argument so they continue the low debate for they were arrogant.
Be careful of pride of self by thinking that one in a lowly station of life cannot teach you something.
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; .... the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;... base things of the world, and things which are despised.
So in their rage they cast him out.
He did not even have to separate from them for by taking a stand for Christ they left him.
He had followed the light, he had followed truth, simply and in a sincere manner and he was cast out of the temple.
Error cannot stand truth so it separates from it.
Darkness flees from light for the two cannot co-exist.
But in casting him out they had done him a real service.
That which his parents had so feared was the best thing to happen to him for they excommunicated him from the Jew’s religion.
They made him an outcast, he would now be scorned and cutoff from the society of Israel.
But such things are to be expected for a follower of Christ.
Old things have passed away and all things become new.
He lost the right to go to the temple, he lost the right to take part in the religious system of Israel.
But the one thing that made those things dim for the man born blind was the fact that he could now see!
The things of earth do indeed grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Priorities are clear in the light of God.
John 9:35, Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
The man had faced the Jews alone as Jesus had wanted.
His will for him was to walk by faith not by miracles, so he left him in a situation where he would have the opportunity to grow in grace for the just shall live by faith. God so ordains it!
But Jesus heard that they had cast him out and immediately found the man to strengthen him in this dark hour.
The man lost what he had in the dead religion of the Jews but by losing that, he is presented with opportunity to walk in the true light, the light of Jesus Christ.
God closes the door that leads to death and presents him with the door that is life, Jesus Christ, the living door.
He is evicted from the Jewish fold to become a member of the flock of the good shepherd.
Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
John 9:36, He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
This was a man prepared by God.
Just tell me who he is and I will believe.
I trust you because you are a man of God, you are a prophet.
No one from the creation has done what you have done.
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
John 9:37,38, And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
Jesus tells him directly that He is the Son of God.
Notice how he reveals himself to his own.
He was afar off from the Jews and Pharisees and would not commit himself to them because he knew their heart.
Remember in Luke 10:21, how Jesus prayed: I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
God only reveals himself unto babes, only to those who come to him as a little child, humble, contrite, and repentant.
With no hesitation the man born blind, but now with sight, believes on him who restored his sight.
He comes to Jesus with a humble, contrite, repentant heart, calls him Lord, and worships him as the Son of God.
So in this passage we have seen a work of grace by the Lord Jesus Christ.
We met a blind and helpless beggar, The Lord sought him out, worked a supernatural work upon him, he was given opportunity to testify of the work, he was severely tested by the Lord's enemies, where he confessed Christ.
Denied the support of his parents, he must then depend upon God.
He is reviled by the Jews and cast out of the religious systems of the day, but he is sought out by the Savior and finds the person of Jesus Christ as the only person fit for worship.
John 9:39-41, And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn or judge the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
But the very presence and the activity of Jesus Christ constitutes judgment.
Always Jesus’ presence called for people to declare themselves for or against him.
Those who are against him are judged already, not because he has judged them but because they judge themselves.
His presence calls for a decision.
Are you for me or are you against me, he asks?
The judgment he talks about here is division.
He divides as he says in Luke 12:51, Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
Jesus brings judgment, his life will cause people to judge for themselves whether he is the Son of God and whether he is to be their Savior.
They judge themselves by what judgment they reach about him and about themselves.
Are they blind? Can they see? He says to judge yourself blind.
If you do not and judge yourself as seeing then your sin remaineth.
Division between the blind and the seeing. That is what he brings.
Those that know they are blind will see Jesus and therefore their sin will not remain and those who think they see will not see Jesus because their sin remains.
Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
So blindness brings sight and sight is blindness. God knows our heart! |