Today we will look at the testimony of the formerly blind man. Jesus healed the man born blind. What a testimony that man must have had!
John 9:6–12
Adrian Gonzalez is the first baseman for the New York Mets this past year. He has played on a number of different tesms. He is also a believer. Each of his bats bears the inscription: “PS 27:1. The psalm reads:
Psalm 27:1 (NKJV) The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
González has spoken about his faith saying, "I don't want to be remembered in baseball. I want to be remembered as a good witness for Christ. ...I'm just trying to use this platform to bring people to Christ." When asked about the inscription Gonzalez replied, “Whenever you’re in a tough moment, you look at that bat and realize it’s not about the moment, it’s about God.” [1]
What kind of witness are we? Are we bold? Are we ready with a testimony? Let’s look at the man born blind. Last week we looked the theological question of who sinned? As Jesus pointed out, that question is irrelevant. Look at what Jesus said:
John 9:5 (NKJV) As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Jesus is the Light of the world. As we will see in the coming weeks, the world is full of blind people, not physically blind, but spiritually blind. But here is one person that Jesus opens their eyes, not just his physical eyes, but as we look at the progression of the man’s faith, we will also see that the man’s physical eyes will be opened, while others are being closed.
John 9:6 (NKJV) When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
Jesus healed several different blind men in the gospels. One man Jesus just touched and for other man he touch with some spit. We are not going to overly analyze the method and miss the message. The clay Jesus made from the dirt with His spit was not a medicine but an aid to faith.
John 9:6–7 (NKJV) When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
Then Jesus sends the man born blind to go and wash. John purposely includes the meaning of the name “Siloam” as “Sent.” The name “Siloam” comes from the Hebrew word “solah” meaning “to send.” Jesus is the one sent from God, and now Jesus sends man born blind to wash in the pool of Siloam. It is about obedience. Jesus tells us:
John 20:21b (NKJV) As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
It is about obedience. Jesus sends and we go. Jesus sent the blind man and he went. Notice that Jesus never told the blind man that He was going to heal him. The blind man never asked for healing. The man born blind has only known darkness and did not understand sight other than it was a sense that others had that he lacked. But Jesus said: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” And the man born blind obeyed. So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
We don’t know some of the particulars of this story. Where they were when Jesus said “go.” We don’t know how far the man had to go to get to the Pool of Siloam. When he returns Jesus is nowhere to be found. We don’t see Jesus again till near the end of the story. But he came back seeing. He came back not to beg, but to tell. This was an unbelievable thing that occurred.
So much so that people wondered if this was the same man.
John 9:8–9 (NKJV) Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?” 9 Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.”
How excited this man, who was born blind must have been. To have never seen anything and now seeing everything. His encounter with Jesus changed everything. You have to wonder, when we encountered Jesus and Jesus touched our lives, did people think we were any different? When Jesus touched our lives and we are saved from our sins and the Holy Spirit took up residence in our hearts, something should have changed. No matter how good a person we were previously, something should have changed that our friends and neighbors should have noticed. If something had changed, what is the question people will ask? “What happened?” “Why are you different?” And that’s just what happened here.
John 9:10 (NKJV) Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”
Look ahead in your Bibles. This same question is asked no fewer than four times in this one chapter, in verses 10, 15, 19, and 26. Perhaps the better question would have been, “Who opened your eyes?” So how did the formerly blind man answer? Take note, because this is the very basis of a witnessing testimony. Very simply, it telling what you know.
John 9:11 (NKJV) He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.”
There it is, plain and simple. Just the facts. And the credit clearly goes to Jesus.
It is interesting look at the progression of this man’s faith as he is called to recant his testimony over and over. We’ll get into the particulars of this formerly blind man going before the Pharisees next week, but for now let’s just look at his testimony. Despite the opposition, his testimony only gets stronger and his faith matures and strengthens. In verse 10, his faith was about “a man named Jesus.” In verse 17:
John 9:17 (NKJV) They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
Now the man named Jesus is now a prophet. In verse 33, the progression continues, the man now says:
John 9:33 (NKJV) If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”
To this formerly blind man, Jesus went just a man, to a prophet and now He, Jesus, is from God. And when the man encounters Jesus, at the end of the story, Jesus is now the “Son of God.”
John 9:35 and 38 (NKJV) 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?” . . . . 38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.
Look at the boldness of the man, the Pharisees were trying to put holes in in the man’s story. They were calling Jesus a sinner and this man, without any theology training, without ever been trained in “Evangelism Explosion” (EE), knowing the “4 Spiritual Laws.” This man had no formal education, he just sticks to what the knows.
John 9:25 (NKJV) 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.”
Someone once wrote, “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see" [2] Someone ought to write a song about that!
That is what witnessing is all about. It is telling what you know. People cannot argue with what you have experienced and all you do is stick to the truth. Notice that this man, who was formerly blind, just stuck to the facts, and the more he gave his testimony, the more his faith grew, and the more bold his witness became. When we experience a life changing transformation in our lives, and we give out our testimony, others will be asking, not so much as to the how, but the who. How can we find Him?
John 9:12 (NKJV) Then they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”
The people asked. But this is where this man was lacking in this part of the story. He did not know where Jesus could be found. Remember, up to this point, He has never seen Jesus, but he did hear His voice.
When we tell our testimony to others, if they were to ask, “Where can we find Jesus?” will we know how to answer?
This man, who was born blind and now sees, he had no fear of telling others the good news of what has happen to him. Why do we fear about telling others about the good news of what has happened to us?
I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see!” I am no longer bound for an eternity in hell. What good news is that?
Leighton Ford, in the forward to his book, “Good News is for Sharing” makes the following observation: “In preparing for this book, I have talked to a lot of people, and the fear issue comes up front again and again. What makes people hesitate to share their faith? Here are some of the fears that have been mentioned to me:
"I am afraid I might do more harm than good."
"I don’t know what to say."
"I may not be able to give snappy answers to tricky questions."
"I may seem bigoted."
"I may invade someone’s privacy."
"I am afraid I might fail."
"I am afraid I might be a hypocrite." [3]
Why is the telling of good news a fearful things. If you won the lottery, wouldn’t you be telling others? Jesus is calling everyone of us. And He calls others through us. Won’t we tell others the Good News today? The man born blind was excited. He knew what Jesus could do. Even when they excommunicated him from the synagogue, his eyes were opened, not just his physical eyes but his spiritual eyes as well. It is amazing what we see and perceive about the world around us when our spiritual eyes are opened.
Has you Spiritual eyes been opened. Have you been touched by Jesus? Is Jesus calling you today?
[1] http://www.freshministry.net/illustrations/data/TESTIMONY.htm#END and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adri%C3%A1n_Gonz%C3%A1lez
[2] Amazing Grace, John Newton.
[3] https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/79968/evangelism-fear-of-by-sermoncentral?ref=TextIllustrationSerps and Leighton Ford, Good News is for Sharing, 1977, David C. Cook Publishing Co., Page 15.
