Blieving Is Seeing

Henry David Thoreau, the famous American author and philosopher once said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Today, we are going to study an encounter that Jesus had with a man who was desperate. He had reasons to be desperate. He was hurting. He was helpless. And he was hopeless. If life is just not working for you and you are desperate. Jesus wants to help you. He wants to help those who are in a desperate situation.

One of those amazing stories is found in the Gospel of John. [Turn to John 9.] We are going to study a man who was not only desperate, but he was born in desperation. He was born blind. If you had some kind of condition, be it blindness, deafness, leprosy, or some other type of sickness, your only hope was in family members that took care of you. You were seen as both a burden and a curse.

Today, I would like to teach you to Believe what Jesus says, Receive what Jesus has, and Conceive who Jesus is. We are going to learn about an incredible story of good news for the desperate. If you are hurting, helpless, and hopeless you are in the perfect setting for God’s transformation. If you are desperate, if you are at the end of your rope, if you have nowhere else to turn, do what this blind man did.

I. Believe What Jesus Says

The way the story is introduced tells us basically all we need to know about this man, “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.” (John 9:1) This man was born blind. He entered into the world with darkness.

Spiritual Blind: But this man had a bigger problem. He was not just physically blind, but he was spiritually blind. Remember at this moment, he had never met Jesus and he didn’t know Jesus. That is why Jesus says in verse 5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5) That is an incredible statement. Jesus said he was “the light of the world.” He makes this incredible claim that He is “the light of the world.” Back in chapter 1, John makes this incredible statement about Jesus. “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9, ESV)

You know what darkness is – it is the absence of light. If Jesus is the light of the world and Jesus is the One who lights up every one, if you don’t have Jesus in you, you are living in spiritual darkness.

You could have perfect 20/20 vision, but be spiritually blind. What does it mean to be spiritually blind? People who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ don’t have a physical problem. But they have a spiritual problem. They are not physically blind. They are spiritually blind.

Augustine was once approached by a pagan who showed him his idol and said, “Here is my god. Where is yours?” Augustine replied, “I cannot show you my God – not because there is no God to show you, but because you have no eyes to see Him.” As we read this story, keep in mind we are not just dealing with physical blindness, but we are dealing with spiritual blindness.

This blind man had a deeper problem, because people believed that if you had some kind of a physical disability it must be because either you did something wrong or your parents did something wrong, so there was not just something physically wrong with you, but there was something spiritually and morally wrong with you. That is why we read, “And his disciples asked him, saying ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (John 9:2-3) They just assumed that a physical handicap was a sign of God’s spiritual displeasure.

There’s a lovely story of a Christian woman who went to a pet store. She saw a beautiful parrot, and fell in love with it and wanted to buy it. The owner, knowing this lady’s spiritual background said, “I cannot sell you that parrot.” She said, “Why not?” He said, “This parrot used to be owned by a very wicked man and when he got angry he would break its feathers.” The woman said, “I don’t care about this parrot's disabilities, I want to redeem and help it. With God’s help, I’ll keep the parrot.”

Now listen to what Jesus says, Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” (John 9:3)