Sermon Central
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John Chapter 9 Part 2 Series
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Aug 13, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon is about Jesus being the light of the world. This is a great miracle story and right when it gets going Jesus interrupts with a two sentence insight about Himself. What an awesome interruption! We need to be interrupted more often!
Today we’ll be taking a further look at the miracle of Jesus healing the man born blind.
Last week we saw that Jesus, being omniscient or all knowing, knew that the man was blind from birth and that his blindness not the result of personal sin or the sin of his parents.
We also saw that the man was born blind so that glory might be brought to God through his healing.
So, let’s continue on by taking a look at the first seven verses of
“As [Jesus] went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
“As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world,
I am the light of the world.”
“After saying this, He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ He told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’. So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.’
So, going back to verses 4 and five we see:
“As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
In this great chapter these two little verses can almost be overlooked! We want to get on with the spit and the mud and the healing and the dispute between the healed man and the Pharisees. And, we almost miss what’s most important!
In this fascinating interaction between Jesus and the disciples and the blind man Jesus not only takes the time to teach His disciples a great insight about the disconnection between sin and suffering but He also gives them a short, two sentence description of Himself.
Would you all be too upset with me if I rearranged these verses a little?
John 9:5, 4
“While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” “As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”
Jesus is the light of this world in the spiritual sense.
The Sun is the light of this world in the physical sense.
How do we know when it is day? It is light out.
How do we know when it is night? It is dark out.
Jesus has now returned to heaven. Does that mean that we are in darkness? What sources of spiritual light do we have with us now?
The Word of God and the Holy Spirit!
The concept of Jesus being the light of the world is found throughout the New Testament
Just look at John 3:19-21
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
“But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
Listen. This light of Jesus is glorious! And, at the same time this light has some very unnatural properties!
I can think of three instances where the Light of Christ acts in a way that is unnatural or is treated in a way that is unnatural!
1) A person can be in a church or family home or gathering that is just filled with the Light of Christ and yet be walking in total spiritual darkness!
Example - A child molester moves into the area from out of state. No one in the church knows him. He attends for a few months in order to build false confidence in his character and then expresses his interest to work with the children. All of the time he is focused on doing the works of the evil one while walking among disciples of Christ. He is filled with darkness and walking in darkness even though the place where he seeks his victims is filled with the Light of Christ.
This is unnatural because in the physical world if you are exposed to the sun during the daytime then you are exposed to the sun. You cannot walk in darkness even in the deepest woods some sunlight gets through, but, this person not only walks in the darkness while being in the Light of Christ but hopes to spread his darkness while being in the place of Light.
