3 Blind Mice” Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run! See how they run! They all ran after a farmer's wife, Who cut off their tails with a carving knife. Did you ever see such a thing in your life, As three blind mice? WHAT KIND OF THING IS THIS TO TEACH KIDS?
Many nursery rhymes started out as social commentary or political cartoons in verse. In this case, the "farmer's wife" was Queen Mary I of England, so called because her estates included a lot of farmland. She was displeased with 3 ratty noblemen, but she didn't dismember them as the rhyme suggests. She simply had them burned at the stake!
WHO COULD BE SO CRUEL TO THOSE CONSIDERED BLIND? WHY WOULD THEY ATTACK THIS POOR MAN WHO HAD SUFFERED SO MUCH IN LIFE AND NOW WAS SET FREE?
Sometimes the greater the evidence that proves you wrong the harder you fight against it.
• These ever watching Pharisees were always on the lookout for anything they could accuse Jesus of doing that was wrong. The fact that this miracle had been done on the SABBATH DAY was finally something they could accuse Him with.
One of their religious laws forbid even SPITTING on the Sabbath because in doing so you would mix saliva and dirt which makes mud which is what they used to construct their homes. That was considered brick making and work. If you spit on the Sabbath it had better be on a ROCK. Rabbis said it was forbidden to heal on the Sabbath day. They specifically said, "If you find somebody with a broken leg you can keep it from getting worse, but you cannot make it any better."
• How horrible and unwise to make rules and restrictions that don’t allow God to be God on the most holy day of the week.
25 He then answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."
A couple years ago, I took a tour of a cave near Raystown. The guide taught us an interesting fact about this. A person who lives in total darkness for just a few months will become irrevocably blind. Darkness not only hinders sight, it causes blindness.
SOME PEOPLE STRUGGLE WITH THE THINGS GOD IS DOING:
• Sometimes we can make ASSUMPTIONS upon the ways of God and as a result fight against the very acts of God that don’t fall into those assumptions. How free is God to work in your life in ways He has never done before? How has God worked in the past in ways He has not worked in our day? Could He work tomorrow in ways different than in the past or present? The obvious answer is yes so why do we find so many people resisting His changing ways?
1. QUESTIONING THE MAN BORN BLIND: 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
• Here is a man who wasn’t asking for trouble or looking for trouble but simply because his life troubled others he becomes the center of this controversy. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOUR LIFE WAS WORTH TAKING CONTROVERSAL NOT OF?
“Live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God didn’t exist!” – Cardinal Suhard Chuck Swindoll asks, “Is your life a cold monument to religious duty, or is it a living mystery?”
• This man must have been excited celebrating this great miracle and looking to tell all he could about it and then he runs into the SOCIETY FOR THE TRUE BLIND. While others saw a blind man healed they focused on the fact that Jesus MADE CLAY. Save man in pool with no swimming sign.
15 Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, "He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see."
16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, "This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath." But others were saying, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And there was a division among them.
• According to the reasoning of the super religious, ‘It is impossible for God to work outside the box we have constructed’. Jesus could not be from God, not because He broke the laws of nature to do a miracle, but because He broke the religious laws these Pharisees had added to the Biblical text.
• Breaking their law made Him a sinner and thus God could not use Him. Do you know anybody with their own set of laws that they think nobody could be used by God if they break?
17 So they said to the blind man again, "What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?" And he said, "He is a prophet."
• Blessed are the UNINTIMDATED: This man should have seen the danger of answering this question a certain way but a life truly changed does not worry about those things.
• HIS PARENTS? That was a different story.
2. QUESTIONING HIS PARENTS: 18 The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, 19 and questioned them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?"
• I could not imagine two more excited and grateful people in Jerusalem than these parents whose son was now healed. In spite of that they were stood too fearful of these Pharisees to be willing to answer this question.
20 His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself."
• God has done something amazing and in the life of our own son but we have nothing to say, ask him. WHAT IF THIS WAS YOUR CHILD?
22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
• The man’s parents seem to do the equivalent of today’s pleading the 5th lest they incriminate themselves.
• This type of intimidating fear is something you might see in the Middle East today in the Muslim religion.
What would it take for you not to share the most wonderful news in your life? What has it taken in the past? What is it taking right now?
The Results of Spiritual Blindness. On November 30, 1991 fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per-hour winds reduced visibility to zero. The afternoon holocaust left a three-mile trail of twisted and burning vehicles, some stacked on top of one another 100 yards off the side of the freeway. Unable to see their way, dozens of motorists drove blindly ahead into disaster. These religious leaders constantly derailed those on the avenue of faith to miss their destination.
SOME PEOPLE ARE MORE IN TUNE WITH THE THINGS OF GOD THAN THOSE WHO CLAIM TO KNOW GOD BETTER THAN THEM: 24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner."
• This man is given the most unusual choice of ‘glorifying God’ by rejecting the very work that God is doing.
1. A SIMPLE ANSWER TO HOW GOD WORKS: 25 He then answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."
• This man gives an answer that is impossible to argue with. Obviously he was blind…obviously he now sees.
You may not be an authority on Theology, but you are the world’s greatest authority on what has happened to You! “A man w/an experience is never at the mercy of a man w/only an argument!”
26 So they said to him, "What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?" 27 He answered them, "I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?"
• This is a moment of BIBLICAL HUMOR: This simple man must not of known the true nature of these hypocritical Pharisees but to us who now do this is a truly funny statement. How they must have reacted when he said this is priceless.
• This man had needed his eyes opened but these Pharisees needed their ears opened or actually their eyes opened to the truths of God.
• Their only response is the same they continually use against Jesus…personal attacks one after another.
28 They reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from."
Marsha, Marsha, Marsha…Moses Moses Moses….Abraham…Abraham… Abraham They keep reaching for the same old blindfolds
One of the greatest tragedies for people would be to live in darkness when they could live in the light…
Rose Crawford had been blind for 50 years. Then she had an operation in an Ontario hospital. She said, “I just can’t believe it,” as the doctor lifted the bandages from her eyes. She wept - when for the 1st time in her life she saw a dazzling and beautiful world of form and color greeted her eyes and she could now see.
The amazing thing about her story, however, was that 20 years of her blindness was unnecessary. She didn’t know that surgical techniques had been developed two decades earlier and she had continued in her blindness when the cure was available.
2. AN AMAZING ASSESSMENT OF HOW SOME CAN MISS GOD WORKING: 30 The man answered and said to them, "Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. 31 "We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. 32 "Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 "If this man were not from God, He could do nothing."
• In an amazing display of wisdom this man HITS THE NAIL ON THE HEAD.
It truly is amazing that those who claim to speak for God and represent Him can be found farthest away from what He is doing and in most opposition to the fact that He is doing it.
34 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?" So they put him out.
3 Types of EXCUMMUNICATION: 30 days of 6ft distance/indefinite from fellowship and worship/absolute forever
• Again their only response is a misguided personal attack.
Spurgeon “It is not our littleness that hinders Christ; but our bigness. It is not our weakness that hinders Christ; it is our strength. It is not our darkness that hinders Christ; it is our supposed light that holds back His hand.”
• They put him out before he had much of a chance to be back in. Having been unclean in his blindness he now is cast out because of his refusal to reject Jesus. There are places and groups you are best off being thrown out of.
JESUS SUMS UP THE THINGS GOD IS DOING:
1. There is something bigger here than just physical sight: 35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36 He answered, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"
• The Pharisees throw him out of their ‘church’ and right into the arms of Jesus. Sometimes a church setting can be the biggest obstacle to truly experiencing Jesus.
• This man finally comes face to face with Jesus: He left Jesus earlier with mud on his eyes and now he finally sees the face behind the voice of the one Who e than just physical sight: the Pharisees he has just been looking at.
• THE QUESTION: ‘Do you believe in the Messiah? Where is He so I can?’
37 Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you." 38 And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him.
• Nice touch that Jesus doesn’t just say, ‘He is the one talking to you’ but adds that he has SEEN HIM. Something impacting to a man blind from birth now seeing.
2. There is a bigger purpose than condemning the wrong: 39 And Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind."
• Some people don’t have to be judged or condemned because they already are doing that to themselves. GUESS WHO IS EASEDROPPING?
40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, "We are not blind too, are we?" 41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.
The reason for our Lord’s coming was salvation, but the result of His coming was condemnation of those who would not believe.
Our guilt is proportioned to our refusal of the light.
Perfectly illustration what John said in 1:5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
He doesn’t condemn them by making them blind; they blind themselves by rejecting Him! The same light that leads one can blind another!
The Gospel brings about different reactions from different kinds of hearts:
1. The blind sinner receives the truth and sees;
2. The self-righteous religious person rejects the truth and becomes even more blind.
There are none so blind as those who won't see!
1. Because you are self-satisfied you are un-healable!
2. Sometimes the Religious are often the blindest of all!
The healing of the blind man took place on 2 levels:
1. The physical level his sight was restored; and
2. The spiritual level he came to faith on Christ.
Now he sees w/his heart as well as w/his eyes!
THE MAN’S JOURNEY TO A SAVING FAITH:
1st in vs.11 stating He was, “a Man called Jesus”.(most Americans)
2cnd in vs.17 when he said Jesus was, “a Prophet”. (Muslims)
3rd in vs.33 when he said Jesus was, “a Man from God”. (many in churches)
4th when he understood Jesus to be, “The Son of God”, in vs.35,38.
The man’s “Lord, I believe!” was the turning point in his life.
Met a beautiful young lady at the A.J. Lewis’ funeral this past week. He mother brought her up to meet me during our lunch for the family. Around 18, she walked with a noticeable limp and shared with me how she had spent her middle school years conquering leukemia. I told her that some great things could come from her life because God had obviously invested so much in her at such a young age. Her mother agreed that she was not like normal kids who cared about so many trivial things but that this had taken her beyond her years.
This man born blind had lived a life that made him the perfect witness for Jesus in the face of these blind and intimidating Pharisees. While others folded before them this man had the character to stand and simply share what Jesus had done. While the Pharisees were rejecting Jesus’ words now they had to deal this man as well.
Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself and said, "I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured."
But this missionary had developed a process which would arrest progressive blindness. So people came to him, and he performed his operation. They would leave realizing that they had been spared a life of blindness because of this missionary.
He said that they never said, "Thank you," because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, "I will tell your name." Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it.
