Unsearchable Purposes, Unspeakable Glory! (John Part 27)
Text: John 9:1-3
I don’t know about you, but to me it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago when we started this series on John. It was the first Sunday of the year I think… and here we are now in the month of September, and we’ve come all the way to chapter nine. So maybe by the end of the year we’ll get to chapter 12… I don’t know… we’ll have to see. But like I said, we’re in chapter nine this morning… and I might camp on this passage for a few Sundays because I think there’s a lot to see here… and there’s a lot of misconceptions we can address, so we might just spend the next three Sundays here in John 9… So let’s go ahead and open up our Bibles and please follow along as I read the text this morning.
(READ John 9:1-3)
Now I have no idea what it feels like to be physically blind. I do know that when Gabby was little, we were told that she was legally blind. And it was obvious that she couldn’t see very well. She would sit super close to the TV… We’d ask her what color things were or what they looked like, and she couldn’t tell you unless she got really close to them. Thankfully; by God’s grace, her vision is almost 20/20 now with glasses or contacts. But for a while it was difficult for her. And it was really interesting when she finally got her glasses… She was surprised at how different the world looked. She was like, “Oh, that’s what that building looks like.” “That’s what painting is actually of.” She was able to see things as they were for the first time in her life.
The closest thing I’ve probably ever experienced to blindness was being in Alabaster Caverns when I was a kid, and the guide shut the lights out and you’re standing in pitch darkness. They don’t do that anymore by the way… which is kind of disappointing… but that’s about the closest thing I’ve experienced to what physical blindness would be like. And I’m always amazed at people who are blind… at what they’re able to do, and accomplish. It’s a testimony to the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We’ve been given other sense that compensate and that make it possible to still be active and get around, and live.
But it’s not quite the same when it comes to spiritual blindness. You see; spiritual blindness isn’t the result of some injury, or genetic mutation, or a disease or sickness. It’s the result of being spiritually dead. And because of that… the person who is spiritually blind, doesn’t see the world in the same way you and I see it. To them, it’s ok to let people murder their children… they call it “choice”, and it’s normal to let men marry other men and women marry other women… and it’s normal to lie and cheat, and lust, and be immoral. To them, it’s just the way things are… they see things, but they don’t seem them correctly or rightly. They don’t seem them in light of the truth, or in light of righteousness and holiness, and moral uprightness.
Now to me, our text is interesting here because it starts out by saying that as Jesus passed by, He saw a blind man, who was blind from birth. Do you remember what just happened before this? Jesus had just rebuked the Judeans and Pharisees and they were going to try and kill Him. And I don’t know about you guys, but for me… if I had just escaped an angry mob that was trying to kill me, I don’t think I’d probably notice a blind dude sitting beside the temple gate… I think I’d probably be trying to get to a secure location where I could set up a defensive perimeter and regroup. And it’s not like this blind man was calling out to Jesus or anything like that either. He doesn’t see Jesus, He doesn’t ask for healing, or help… But Jesus notices him.
Jesus finds him. Jesus initiates the contact. He’s got an angry mob, just inside the temple that want Him dead. His disciples are probably confused and probably wondering what the heck just happened, but Jesus takes the time, to show concern and mercy, grace, and love to this man… and He’s going to also take the opportunity to teach His disciples something in this as well.
The idea from the text here is that Jesus sees this guy and points him out to His disciples… and they look at the guy and try to get theological.
Remember; Jesus had just told the Judeans and the Pharisees that He was the light of the world, and whoever followed Him would not walk in darkness… He had just told them they would die in their sins and their father was the devil. So the disciples are still thinking about all that, and they’re thinking, this guy’s walking in darkness.
Now to be blind, in Jerusalem, during this day and age was a terrible thing… really to be blind anywhere during that time period was a terrible thing. You would have to make your living by begging… and chances were, if you didn’t have someone to help you out, you probably weren’t long for this earth. It was a terrible, horrible thing to be blind in ancient times. So they’re thinking that there must’ve been some kind of sin that was responsible for this mans condition… So they ask Jesus, “Who sinned here? This man or his parents?” And their question displays a level of ignorance on their part.
I don’t know about ya’ll but I’m glad the Bible doesn’t cover up the fact that the disciples were ignorant about a lot of things. It makes me feel better about myself.
So they ask this question… and this is something people do all the time. You know; something terrible happens and people automatically assume that some secret sin must’ve been committed and that’s why the terrible thing happened. Now I’m not talking about iniquity here… and neither were the disciples in this instance. Iniquity in the Bible is that propensity to sin that we all have… and you’ll see certain groupings of sin run in families. Grandpa’s an alcoholic, dad’s an alcoholic, son’s an alcoholic. Grandpa has anger issues, dad has anger issues, son has anger issues. Grandpa struggles with sexual sin, dad struggles with sexual sin, and son does too. That’s iniquity… it’s passed on from the father to his children. We all have it. But the disciples aren’t talking about sin and iniquity that’s passed from the father to the children… they’re talking about punishment for sin… they’re thinking this man was born blind because either his parents had sinned, or God foresaw this man sinning, and God punished him by making him be born blind. And again; we’ve all seen that sins can have consequences… and even the sins of parents can have consequences for their children… A parent does drugs and it causes physical, or developmental, or even social problems with the child. A parent drinks and the baby has fetal alcohol syndrome. A parent is selfish and a baby gets aborted… a parent makes their child an idol, and the child becomes a narcissistic, hedonistic, monster…
But Jesus tells His disciples that’s not the case with this particular man. He wasn’t born blind because of some specific sin. Instead (and this might blow your mind)… He was born blind so that “the works of God can be displayed in him.” In other words; Jesus was saying, “This man was born blind for this specific moment in time, when I’m about to heal him, and show the works of God, and prove My Divinity as God the Son.” God had a purpose in this man’s blindness… He was born blind, and has spent his entire life as a blind man, because at this moment in time, Jesus was going to heal him, and prove that He was God in the flesh.
THAT’S WHY HE’S BLIND!
Now people hear that, or they read this passage, and they say, “Would God really do something like that? Would He really let a man be born blind, and go through his entire life blind, just so Jesus could heal him at this point in time?” And Church, this is where your theology becomes super… SUPER important. So let me ask you – do you believe in and serve a god who “WANTS” to heal, but for whatever reason he can’t? Or do you believe in and serve a God who CAN heal, whenever He wishes and wills to, but at times, for whatever reasons, it’s not His wish or will to do so? Only one of those is the God of the Bible…
The God of the Bible is SOVEREIGN and He’s ALMIGHTY!
Psalm 115:3 (this was one of our fighter verses a while back) says, “Our God is in the heavens, He does all that He pleases.” Psalm 135:6 says, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” Jeremiah 32:27, “Behold I AM the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for Me?” Job 23:13… this is Job speaking about God. He says, “But He is unchangeable, and who can turn Him back? What He desires, that He does.”
Or Job 42:2, where Job is talking to God, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.”
Like I said, our God is sovereign and almighty! He can do whatever He wills and wants to do… and people say, “Well the Bible says God cannot lie.” That’s because He doesn’t will or want to lie… lying is a sin, and God doesn’t want to sin, it’s against His nature and character and moral being. Not only that… He’s sovereign and almighty. The minute God said it, it would come to be. God could say, “The earth has rings around it like Saturn.” And it wouldn’t be a lie, because immediately, it would happen… immediately the earth would have rings around it like Saturn.
Here’s my point, and the point of our passage.
This man was born blind, for this specific reason – “That the works of God might be displayed in him.” It wasn’t because of some specific sin… it was because it was part of God’s plan and purpose.
So people ask… “Then why doesn’t God heal everyone?” Or, “Why doesn’t God stop war?” Or, “Why doesn’t God end poverty, or abuse, or suffering?” And again; your theology is going to determine your answer. Either God wants to do those things, but for some reason He can’t… OR… He allows those things to happen and take place, because they are a part of His plans and purpose. And that’s what the Bible teaches us… that God allows those things to happen (Just read the Book of Job and you’ll see it)… He allows them to happen, and sometimes He heals, and sometimes the healing doesn’t come in this life. Sometimes He blesses financially, sometimes He doesn’t. But let’s think it through together… if God wants to heal, or end poverty, but for whatever reason He can’t or is unable to… then that makes Him less than sovereign, and less than almighty?
And so ultimately; Church… it comes down to, like I said, our theology. Is God almighty or not? Is God sovereign or not? If He is sovereign and almighty… we then have to ask: “Is God good or not?” The Bible says He is… and so if He is almighty, and if He is sovereign, and He is good… then when a person doesn’t get healed… or when a person suffers… or when a person has to live in poverty… we can still have hope and confidence in God, because we then understand that it’s part of His plan and purpose… even sickness, or suffering. That somehow God is using that for a greater good, and a higher good… That God is going to be glorified in it some way.
And I just have to tell you all; this has really hit home with me personally the last couple of weeks.
//\\ PERSONAL COMMENTS HERE //\\
But eventually; we all go to be with the Lord. He may come and rapture us, or we may go to him, and whether it’s an illness that God uses to bring us into eternity, a car accident, or some crazy wacko shooter, or if its just when He comes again, If you know Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you're going to be with Him. My hope and prayer… for myself and for you, is that no matter what… no matter what we face in life, or have to go through in life, or deal with in life – that the works of God are displayed in us. That He will work in us, and through us, and be glorified!
CLOSING
