Tonight we cover part one of our study in John 9 concerning the opening of man’s eyes. Chapters 8 & 9 of John are still under the title, The Revelation of Jesus, The Light of Life. Man is spiritually blind, and our eyes need to be opened. The mission of Jesus is to open the eyes of man.
Chapter 9 is the continuation of the subject Man’s Sinfulness. Jesus takes a man’s physical blindness and demonstrates the stages of spiritual insight and sight. By spiritual insight I mean seeing Jesus and Jesus alone. You see, Jesus is the very theme of God’s revelation. He is the perfect revelation of God and man’s spiritual eyes can be opened to see God but only through Jesus. A part from Jesus, no man will ever see God.
READ vv. 1-3. So Jesus is passing by. We don’t really know where He was at this point in Scripture, it’s not stated. And again, we don’t need to know or God would have told us. As He passed by, He saw a man who had been blind since birth.
There was something about this man that attracted both Jesus and the disciples. It says in verse one that Jesus saw him. This tells us that Jesus had an interest in the man, he cared, he had a concern, he had compassion. The disciples apparently felt the same interest and concern for the man because it says they began to wonder why he had been doomed to suffer so terribly throughout his life.
You see, it was a common belief that a man suffered because of sin, either his own sin or his parents’ sin. So they were attracted to the man and wondered about him. Was he suffering because of some great sin committed by his parents, or because God had foreseen that the man would be a great sinner before he was born? So God made him born blind.
The question is often asked, “How can a man who is not yet born be punished for sin he had not yet committed?” Apparently Jewish belief was that person’s sin was foreseen; so the person was “born in sins” and thereby punished. But lets’ notice two things about this passage so far:
1. Jesus said that the man’s suffering was not due to sin but that he suffered so that the works of God could be demonstrated in his life. So this gives us some insight into why man suffers. Man suffers. . .
So that God can. . .
• Have an opportunity to work
• Show His compassion
• Prove His power
• Demonstrate that He does care and looks after men
• Lead unbelievers to trust Him. BUT ALSO
So that man can . . .
• Give God an opportunity to show what He can do in a life.
• Learn to trust God more and more
• Demonstrate a special strength and endurance
• Set forth a dynamic example of God’s care and power to a lost world
• Better learn and know that he lives in a sinful, corruptible world and desperately needs deliverance.
Think about it. The person who suffers, whatever the suffering may be, has a very special opportunity to show the works of God in his life. He can allow the Spirit of God to be demonstrated in a much more powerful way than a healthy person. The sufferer can show that the grace and power of God are sufficient much more than a healthy person can. Very often a person suffers not because of sin but because God wants a unique opportunity to show His works.
2. The second thing we need to notice about this passage is that Jesus carried the discussion beyond the man’s blindness. The disciples were perplexed over this man’s situation, wondering and asking questions about the problem of suffering and sin. How could a man such as this be punished from birth? Jesus picked up the question, moving it to His worldwide mission as the Light of the world. He dealt with the problem of suffering and sin throughout the whole world. His very mission upon earth was to work the works of God.
READ v. 4. What is Jesus saying here? Jesus came to work the works of God.
Note the words “sent me.” (v.4) God sent Jesus. Jesus had come into the world on God’s mission. He was of God. He was from God’s very presence.
Note that Jesus came to do the works of God. It was God’s works that had to be done. And there are four works that are stressed in this passage.
a. There is the work of seeking man. God seeks man. Jesus took the initiative with this man, reaching out to help him. It wasn’t the man who reached out for help. In fact, the man was blind; he didn’t even know that help was available. If Jesus hadn’t reached out for him, he would have remained blind and been in darkness forever.
b. There is the work of caring for man. God cares that man is blind.
c. There is the work of loving and having compassion. God loves and has compassion for man in his blindness and darkness.
d. There is the work of delivering from darkness and giving sight.
Note the urgency of the mission. Jesus stresses this by saying two things:
1. The word “must” means compulsion and necessity. There are not questions, no suggestions, no urgings about the matter. The works of God MUST be done.
2. The time for work is limited. Christ and His followers don’t have forever to do the work. It has to be done now or the opportunity will be lost. Only so much time has been given. What is to be done must be done today, while there is still some daylight left. Night is coming, the time when no man can work. Time will end and the opportunity will be gone forever. This tells me that when God provides the opportunity for ANYTHING, we best take that opportunity right then. The opportunity might not ever come again.
Note, “WE must work the works of God.” Some translations say I instead of we or us. The better translations say “WE” must work. Jesus ties us to His mission from the Father. We, too, are in the world to do the works of God. Our very purpose for being on earth is to proclaim and show forth the works of God.
READ v. 5. Jesus stays firm is His claim of being the Light of the world. If a person wishes to be delivered from darkness, they must come to Christ. He is the only One who gives sight to man and His world.
READ vv. 6-7. Jesus came to demonstrate the power to give sight. Note that Jesus didn’t just speak the word of healing to the man. His Word alone was the method He often used in healing, but his wasn’t the case with this man. Why do you suppose Jesus healed by using a different method this time?
He did much more, and by His act He demonstrated two things to the world:
-He will do everything He can to deliver a person from darkness and give them sight.
-He has the power to deliver a person and to give them sight.
This man’s faith needed to be aroused and stirred. Jesus used two things to awaken the man’s faith.
1. He used a point of contact, the touch of His hands upon the man’s eyes. He made mud with His saliva. People of that day believed saliva had some curing qualities, and perhaps Jesus used spit because of this. The man’s faith would certainly be helped by thinking of its healing qualities. But Jesus wouldn’t want the man thinking that it was saliva that cured him. The man must know beyond question that Jesus was the One who healed him. So at most, the saliva would be used to stir the thoughts of healing in the man’s mind.
2. Jesus sent the man to wash in the pool of Siloam. Why do you suppose He told the man to do that? Note the parenthesis “this word means, sent.” There is the significance. Jesus was using the pool as a symbol of the Messiah who was sent by God to give sight to the world. The blind man, by obeying Jesus and going to the pool, would receive his sight. His obedience would demonstrate to the blind of the world that they, too, could receive their sight by coming to Jesus and obeying Him.
So the man washed and came home seeing. He received his sight because He did exactly what Jesus said.
I wonder how many things we ask of Jesus and never see our prayers answered because Jesus asks something of us in return and we are not obedient.
Man’s eyes can be opened, and he can be delivered from the darkness of sin and shame, death, and corruption, hell and destruction by coming to Jesus Christ and by obeying Him.
The lesson God has taught me from tonight’s passage is:
We ask many things from God. He only asks us to be obedient. How many blessings have I missed because of my disobedience?
