Laser Surgery For The Soul

1) THE DIAGNOSIS (9:1)

¡§Jesus¡Ksaw a man which was blind from¡Kbirth¡¨ (John 9:1). The word ¡§saw¡¨ means ¡§to intensely perceive mentally.¡¨ In other words, He did not merely give a cursory glance as He passed; He saw something tragic.

Notice the difference in man¡¦s diagnosis and God¡¦s evaluation of the man¡¦s condition. The disciples only glanced at the poor man and remarked, in a judgmental evaluation, that he was receiving the due reward of his sins, or at any rate, that of his parents. But what Jesus saw when he looked at the man was that his blindness was a picture of every man who is born into the world, and had nothing to do with personal or parental sins. Similarly, we have to recognize that the moral, spiritual blindness of the souls of men and women, boys and girls, is not something we can dismiss with an observation, a speculation, an opinion, or even a disagreement. It is a tragic fact. EVERY FAMILY MEMBER WE HAVE, EVERY FRIEND WE HAVE, EVERY WORK ASSOCIATE WE HAVE¡KWE ALL HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON, WE WERE BORN WITH SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. Paul reminds us, ¡§For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.¡¨

2) THE DESCRIPTION (9:8)

¡§His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?¡¨

After his eyes were opened, his neighbors asked, ¡§Is not this he that sat and begged?¡¨ A fifth of the world¡¦s pleasures and treasures were dead to him, of his five senses everything that sight could bring him in his life, he was denied. How true this is of those who are still in the darkness of a spiritual night. The Bible tells us in, 1 Cor. 2:14: ¡§The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.¡¨

Illustration: I wish I could rerun a video for you of every man and woman I have ever shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with who have responded to me, ¡§Larry, I thank you for taking the time to share this with me but honestly, I JUST DON¡¦T SEE IT!¡¨ Of course you don¡¦t, YOUR SPIRITUALLY BLIND. It would be like Dr. Gailitis telling me, ¡§I have this machine that is worth thousands and thousands of dollars and I have been trained on this machine to use it to help restore correct vision to your eyesight and me saying, ¡§Well, I understand what you are saying but I just don¡¦t see it.¡¨ What we really should say is, ¡§I JUST DON¡¦T BELIEVE IT WILL WORK FOR ME!¡¨ So what are you going to do¡Klive with blurred vision or take a step of faith and trust what the Physician tells you as well as what others who have been to the Physician tell you now that they can see.

II. HIS OPERATION (9:10-11)

¡§How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded. [11] He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.¡¨

¡§And then I can see¡K¡¨ cried the blind man, after he had encountered the Lord Jesus. But how did it all happen? The simple answer is that it was a miracle, and miracles cannot be explained. This was something that the religious zealots were not able to accept. All that the man could do was to describe what had happened and leave the how to the Christ who had touched his eyes. As far as he was concerned, there was: