11 29 2015 A Journey from Blindness to Sight: John 9:13-41
Today we look at John 9:13-41, the follow-up to the miracle given to the man who was blind from birth, and we read: They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see." 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, "This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath." Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" And there was a division among them.”
Jesus warned in Luke 12:51 “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” We see that the division in the Gospel of John is over the very person of Jesus: Who is this man? People who are steeped in unbelief wanted to kill Him but those who were being saved, received Him and the grace that He offers.
Verse 17: They said to the blind man again, "What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet." 18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" 20 His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself." 22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
The parents of the blind man don’t want to answer for their son for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; they want to separate themselves from the judgement of the religious leaders. You see how faith in the Lord Jesus divides families, but the division is actually between “belief” and “unbelief” concerning the Lord Jesus.
Verse 24 “So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, "Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner." 25 He answered and said, "Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see."
26 Then they said to him again, "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? Do you also want to become His disciples?" 28 Then they reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from."
They knew where Jesus was from, namely, Nazareth, but they refused to acknowledge that He was sent from God. They willfully refused the testimony of Jesus’ signs and miracles and the testimony which He, Himself, proclaimed: That He was the Messiah. To acknowledge this, they would have to admit that their “tradition of the elders”, their human interpretations were wrong.
Verse 30 “The man answered and said to them, "Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! 31 Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 33 If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing." 34 They answered and said to him, "You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?" And they cast him out.”
The leaders were convinced that Jesus was merely a charlatan and that He was leading Israel astray, not being able spiritually to discern the evidence, but the man who was given sight appeals to “common sense.” Since Jesus had performed a miracle that had been unheard of in all of history, that He had done the unthinkable, namely that He restored the sight of a person born blind, the man’s common sense urges him that God DOES listen to the righteous but not to sinners and if Jesus were a sinner, He could not be from God and He would be powerless to perform such a miracle. The leaders could not admit such a great miracle had taken plan and so they were forced to keep their own word concerning Jesus, and they “put him out”: They excommunicated Him from the synagogue.
Characteristics of Willful Unbelief
The Self dies hard and in our text we see the demonstration of the Pharisee’s characteristics of Willful Unbelief. The basic condition of an unsaved heart and life is that of unbelief. John defined unbelief back in John 3: 17-19: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” The characteristics of willful unbelief naturally follow when men love darkness rather than Jesus, who is the light.
Unbelief naturally sets ungodly standards. Standards for appearance sake are false standards. The standards of the Pharisees focused on the outward appearance, and not on the condition of the hearts. Remember the warning by Jesus in John 7: 24: Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.” The standards of the Pharisees were based on a wrong interpretation of scripture according to the traditions of men, and so their conclusions concerning Jesus were inevitably false and ungodly. No doubt one of the reasons for the Pharisees’ anger was the performance of this miracle on the Sabbath; they had the same accusation for Jesus when He healed the lame man on the Sabbath.
Another characteristic of willful unbelief is that unbelief never has enough evidence. If a heart has not been illuminated by the Spirit of God in order to believe, no amount of evidence will be sufficient to change that heart. It is not that the evidence is not clear or sufficient, but that the heart loves the darkness rather than light.
When all the incredible evidence and facts are in concerning the Lord Jesus, His Divine character, and His Saving Work, unbelief STILL rejects the facts. Believing and following Jesus is not without evidence, testimony and even common sense, but unbelief is spiritual darkness and it will reject what is clearly Biblical fact because unbelief is not Christ-centered but self-centered. Unbelief is blind toward personal spiritual need and is desirous of personal want. It includes all of the above but excludes Christ as central because it desires self above God.
A Journey from Spiritual Blindness to Sight
Look at Verses 35-38: “Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" 36 He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" 37 And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you." 38 Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him.”
What a journey from spiritual blindness to sight! Last week we heard the Beggar describe Jesus as “the Man” in verse 11; He said: “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes.” He then progresses in His understanding in verse 17 when he says: “He (Jesus) is a prophet!” In verse 25 we read: “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” He did not call Jesus a sinner but rather credits His new found sight to Jesus. Then in verse 30 he says: “He has opened my eyes,” in other words, “Jesus IS A HEALER!” And finally in verse 33 he exclaims: “If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing," in other words, he is saying: “This man, Jesus, is absolutely FROM GOD.”
Many times a person’s understanding concerning Jesus does not happen all at once. Nicodemus was taught by Jesus initially and came to faith later. If a person comes to saving faith and belief He is being drawn to Jesus. This is true of the man who was healed of his blindness.
The Blind man experiences rejection, abandonment and scrutiny from the Pharisees; he is thrown out of the synagogue. His friends no doubt brought him to the Pharisees in verse 13 and his family did not stand up for him under scrutiny by the Pharisees. Still, when God is drawing someone to faith, He will be brought to life and light from the Only One who is able to save. If the Lord God is doing it, it will be accomplished.
Notice that it is Jesus who seeks and finds the man in verse 35 and confronts him with this question: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Some versions use “Son of God”, but the original text said “Son of Man” which coincided with Daniel 7:13-14: "I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. 14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.”
The heart that is being drawn wants to know more and the man answered: Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” No doubt that what had happened to him at the hands of the Pharisees and in the light of the great miracle done to him, the man seems eager to believe and forsake the traditional religious authority. You have to realize that as of yet, this man had not seen Jesus: He had only been obedient to his command to “wash”.
Then Jesus replies, “You have both seen Him and He is the one who is talking with you.” The man’s response is immediate and instantaneous: "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him.” There is no doubt that his second usage of the word “LORD” has a fuller and deeper significance than his original usage as “Sir”. For the man to “WORSHIP” Jesus, it is clear that the man had an understanding of the essential God-nature of Jesus and that He was the One sent from God with power and authority to deliver the oppressed and that He was Worthy of Worship.
If Jesus were not God, He would have rebuked the man for worshiping Him and instead directed the man to worship God alone or at least that the man follow the words of the Pharisees: GIVE GLORY TO GOD”, but instead the Lord Jesus accepts the worship of the man. The man had received physical sight from Jesus, the Light of the World, and he had seen the truth about Jesus, he believed in Him as the Son of Man. So we see that the Blind man journeyed from blindness, to obedience, to witness, to assent, to belief, and to worship.
A Stern Warning
We close with the last verses of chapter 9: 39 “And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind." 40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?" 41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.”
Jesus proclaims the sternest of warnings in these closing verses of chapter 9, using the word “judgment” in terms of spiritually seeing or being blind. In verse 39, Jesus states two reactions to His coming: One is those who admit that they cannot see and realize that they need “light”. Those are “poor in spirit” according to Matthew 5:3. They KNOW they have no hope in themselves and they come in humility to the Savior so that they might be forgiven, enlightened and receive eternal life. They understand that Jesus came into the world to bring sight to those who are spiritually blind, and they know they die without Him.
The other are those “who see and become blind”. Those are the ones who are convinced that they have their own spiritual “lights”. They have a pride in their own ability “to see”; they exalt themselves above God because they feel their own light is sufficient. They demonstrate a hardness of heart and actually a blinding BY THE LIGHT which causes them to be blind to the truth.
In verse 40, Jesus was probably speaking to the blind man in a public place and His conversation was overheard by the Pharisees which caused them to say: “We are not blind too, are we?” In their self-righteousness they could not imagine that Jesus’ lesson could apply to them. Their question demonstrated that their self-sufficiency prohibited them from recognizing their own blindness and “predestinated” them from receiving the light.
Finally, verse 41, Jesus utters this most crushing statement: "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.” Pride and arrogance keeps the sinner in willful unbelief. The ultimate sin in life is NOT receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior. Failure to do so is the greatest of failures. Proverbs 26:12 says: “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” Resistance to God’s grace binds a person to his own sin and blindness.
The opposite is true for those who humble themselves before God: If you confess your utter blindness and desperate sinful condition and seek SIGHT from the Light of the World you will be saved. Otherwise you are sure to remain in death and darkness. The desire of God is that you might look with eyes wide-open at your own blindness and come to the Light of the World, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I. The Pharisees demonstrate characteristics of Willful Unbelief.
1. Unbelief sets ungodly standards.
2. Unbelief never has enough evidence.
3. Unbelief rejects the facts.
4. Unbelief is not Christ-centered but self-centered.
II. The Blind Beggar demonstrates a Journey from spiritual blindness to sight.
1. The Blind man grows in His understanding of Jesus: “The Man”, “The Prophet”, “The Healer”, “This man from God”.
2. The Blind man experiences rejection and abandonment but life and light from the One who saves.
3. The Blind man journeys from blindness, to obedience, to witness, to assent, belief, and worship.
III. Jesus proclaims the sternest of warnings. (vs.39-41)
1. Verse 39: Jesus states two reactions to His coming.
2. Verse 40: Self-sufficiency prohibits sinners from recognizing their own blindness and “predestinates” them from receiving the light.
3. Verse 41: Confess your blindness and seek SIGHT from the Light of the World or remain in death and darkness; look with eyes wide-open at your own blindness.
Resistance to God’s grace binds a person to his own sin and blindness.
