Last week, in John 8, we saw how Jesus concluded his great and brutal debate with his avowed enemies, the Jewish religious leaders of his generation. He had begun the debate with the statement in the temple that He was the light of the world. He concluded it by making what I believe to be perhaps the most profound statement found in all of Scripture, “Before Abraham was, I am.” And the Jews, the Jewish leaders who had rejected Him, conclude the argument with the ultimate sign of exasperation and defeat—they turn to violence, and pick up stone to stone Jesus, understanding full well that Jesus had just for the third time in that discussion claimed to be very God of very God.
And so the account turns to what happened next, or at least very soon after this great debate. Jesus does another incredible miracle, he heals a man born blind, as if to demonstrate that He indeed is what He claimed be—the light of the world, the man who gives sight not only to the physically blind, but the spiritually blind. And before long, news of this incredible miracle is brought before the very religious leaders who are determined to eliminate Jesus once again. It’s as though they cannot, no matter, what get Jesus out of their hair. Here is a group of men who time and time again are doing their level best to discredit Jesus and to find reasons to reject Him, but who, at every single turn as they attempt to discredit Jesus found themselves once again confronted with the naked truth that Jesus is exactly, the Son of God, the God-Man, very God of very God, the Messiah and savior of not only Israel, but the whole world.
Now as we look at this story, we’re going to see two things. First of all, the absolute undeniability of the fact that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and our Savior, despite the best efforts of His enemies to entirely discredit Him. And secondly, we’re going to see what it takes to be used by God. For what we have here is an apparently fairly young man whose chief characteristic is his disability, his inability to see, his blindness, which makes him a person whom God can used mightily to bring honor to Himself. He is the man born blind from birth, but through the mercy and power of the Messiah comes to see not only physically but spiritually the truth about God and His Savior.
So the story goes that Jesus was passing through Jerusalem after his debate with the Pharisees in the temple had concluded. It could have been the very same day as the debate or very shortly thereafter. It’s, again, six months before his crucifixion at the Feast of the Tabernacles sometime in mid to late September of about 30 A.D. And He and his disciples come across a beggar who is known to have been born blind. And the scene prompts a question from the disciples. It’s a good question, one we might have today, though we would have posed it differently, about why some folks are born with disabilities or deformities. But they ask the question according to the prevailing theology of their day, which was that all human suffering resulted from someone’s sin. So they ask, “Did this man sin or his parents, that he would be born blind?”—the thought being what some Jewish rabbis of that time actually thought—that it was possible for someone to actually sin in the womb, and therefore suffer for it at birth and for the rest of his life.
Well, clearly Jesus had an entirely different outlook on the situation, for He answers in verse 3, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” And then He announced “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work”—an apparent reference to his coming death. And then He once again announced the truth that had sparked His controversy with the Jewish leaders. “While I am I the world, I am the light of the world.” And as if to prove this assertion, He spit on the ground, made some clay with the spittle and proceeded to apply the spittle to the blind man’s eyes.
Now how the blind man felt about this sudden invasion of his personal space right at this moment isn’t mentioned. I would imagine he was just a little bit surprised. I’ll bet no one had ever tried that one on him before. But the man was open, open spiritually-speaking. There weren’t a great many opportunities for blind men in those days, other than begging. And so when Jesus instructed him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam, well, he had nothing better to do. So he complied, and with incredible results. When he washed the clay out of his eyes, he could see!
By this time, apparently, Jesus and his disciples were long gone. And when the beggar had returned to his place, everyone among his neighbors and acquaintances and those who were accustomed to seeing him begging along the way were absolutely amazed, confounded, incredulous. They were so incredulous that there was debate among them as to whether he was the same guy who used to sit there, blind, and beg. Some said, no, it couldn’t possibly be him. This guy just looks like him. And others said, no, this is the blind guy. It’s really him after all! And finally the man born blind settled the controversy for them all. No, No, it’s really me. I was blind, but now I can see. And so they asked him how it had happened, and he simply told them what happened and that a man named Jesus is the one who had done it to him.
Now I want you to notice a couple things here. From what Jesus said, this man had been born blind for once specific purpose—that the works of God might be displayed or manifested in Him. In other words, from eternity past, God had planned that this man would be born blind, and would be sitting there along the way in Jerusalem as His Son, Jesus passed by, and He determined that He would be there for just this purpose—so that Jesus could demonstrate once again that He was indeed the Light of the World by giving light to eyes that God had sovereignly heretofore darkened from birth. In other words, this man was created just the way he was, blindness and all, for the express purpose that God could be glorified, God could be made famous, so that Jesus could be identified as the Light of the World, the Son of God who gives light to all who are spiritually blind and need to find their way to the Lord and heaven through Jesus.
And here’s our first point this morning. You want to know how you can be used of God. Well there’s something you’ve got to decide once and for all know. Something you’ve got to know without a doubt. And this that’s this—that God has made you just the way He wanted you so that you could glorify Him—you could bring honor and glory to Jesus. That is He made you complete with all your strengths as well as your weaknesses, all your beauty marks right along with all your warts, all your abilities along with your inabilities and in that total package designed to be who you are with what you can do so that you might be a testimony to the reality and the love of God, and that Jesus is the Light of the World.
You know why it’s so important to know this, and to decide this once and for all? I’ll tell you why? Because even as a committed Christian you’re going to go through hard times, you’re going to through times of real self-doubt and you’re going to wonder whether and how God could use you. I know, because I’ve been there, many times. As many of you know just about five years ago I went through this and this church went through a very, very hard time. A lot of people decided they didn’t want me as their pastor anymore, including the folks that had previously been my biggest supporters. I had gone through years of self-doubt about myself and my abilities and why I was in the ministry. And in the middle of that, actually as the whole matter was heating up and it was becoming evident that I was going to be completely rejected by a number of folks, my self-doubt turned into several degrees of self-loathing. And at the time I was getting some training in a certain kind of counseling called Theophostic Counseling to help some folks in our church who had had deep hurts from their childhood that they struggled to overcome. And about the time that all this was going on, I realized that I had not only received this training to help them, but to help myself. Because in this sort of counseling, God would often speak to the people—not audibly, but in their thoughts. It was incredible. And as I was pondering my circumstances and how I was feeling about myself while reading about how to do this kind of counseling, I suddenly became aware that I had been badly hurt as an 11 year old—that I had been rejected and made fun of in front my whole class of fifth graders by a friend who was envious of my friendship with another boy, and who had decided to call me a mama’s boy, which was true, and claimed I like a certain girl in a romantic way, which I did not, and that was a very shameful accusation against any fifth-grade boy in that time place—after all girls had the cooties. And in the midst of this I proved his point by beginning to cry in front of everybody. Well, the next morning as I began to tell that story of great shame to my wife, I suddenly found myself balling like a baby, overwhelmed with the very same feelings I had experienced as a fifth grader, and I sensed that I had been broken, and that perhaps in that brokenness God was ready to come near and speak to me as He had done so with others. And so I asked, “Lord, am I completely unacceptable, completely unlovable. And all he said to me was this, “I love you.” At first, I thought that this was an awfully trite statement, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks that if the Almighty God of the universe loved me, then it didn’t matter how many people rejected me. His love was all that mattered, and I began crying for joy. But there were still other questions. So I asked, “Is this, pastoring, what you really want me to do?” And again, there was an immediately reply, a thought that was not my own, but not entirely unexpected, because He had said, “I have called you.” And then I asked Him a question very relevant to what we’re seeing today, “Why did you make me like this?” And He said, “I made you just the way I wanted you to be.”
And so the message this morning is this—You gotta know God made you just the way He wanted you to be to be used of God. If He made the man born blind just the way He wanted Him to be so that He might glorify God, so He made you and me just the way he wanted us to be, complete with our inabilities and our abilities, our weaknesses and our strengths, so that each of us could be used in the context of our friends and neighbors, and maybe even for generations beyond ourselves, as this young man has been used, to glorify God as only we could glorify Him. Think about that. God made you jus the way you are, so He could use as He could use no one else.
Well, the story continues. This young man’s neighbors are so amazed they report this incredible miracle to the authorities. And guess who the authorities are. The very same people who are the avowed enemies of Jesus, who had just become absolutely exasperated as they tried to disprove Jesus’ claim that He was the light of the World. And now here is the physical, undeniable evidence that He is just exactly what He claimed to be now, again, being delivered to their doorstep.
So the Pharisees, those self-righteous legalists, launch an investigation, an investigation that in their minds, has a foregone conclusion. Jesus could not have done this miracle. Because, once again, He has performed this incredible miracle, this wonderful healing, on the Sabbath, the day when no work whether good or bad, was allowed. And therefore He was a sinner.
But the man born blind is naïve. He has no idea who this Jesus, who has healed him, is claiming to be. He has no idea that these Jewish authorities are His enemies and bent on discrediting and eliminating Jesus. He has no personal axe to grind. He’s not there to support Jesus or oppose the Jews. All he knows is that he was blind, and Jesus gave him sight. And he’s not even a true believer at this point. He’s not even born again. That won’t happen until the end of the story because He doesn’t know enough about Jesus to be a believer. He has innocently been thrown into the midst of a violent spiritual storm.
So the Jews interrogate Him. And the man just simply provides them with facts. This stranger Jesus just came along and applied mud to my eyes, I went and washed and now I can see. But a huge division occurs among the Pharisees about the matter. This man Jesus couldn’t have done the miracle because it was done on the Sabbath. Therefore Jesus is a sinner. God doesn’t hear the prayers of sinners. Therefore, Jesus did not perform the miracle. He could not be from God, could he? So they decide to ask the man born blind what he thought. Not a good choice if you’re trying to discredit Jesus at this point.
Verse 27: “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.” At least that! Again, the man doesn’t know who Jesus is claiming to be, so he gives it his best shot. He gives an answer that indicates he certainly believes Jesus is from God, and that the miracle came from God.
This man, though not even a true believer in Jesus yet, is being used by God. He’s testifying to the fact that Jesus is from God before a bunch of rank unbelievers. He is giving glory to Jesus and God, even though he doesn’t know that much about Jesus. He’s just responding as the detective on Dragnet would ask any witness to respond, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”
And you know how he’s being used of God? He’s just simply telling these people what Jesus did for Him. And that’s our second point this morning. Want to know how you can be used of God. Just tell people what Jesus has done for you. And if you’re a true believer, He has done some incredible things for you. He loved you so much that He died for your sins. And if you’ve truly believed, He’s forgiven your sins. He’s taken away your guilt and your shame. He’s made you a child of God. You now have peace with God and relationship with God. Now since your sins have been taken away, He indeed does hear your prayers. And if you’re continuing in His Word, the Bible, as you should, He’s changing your life. He’s improving your relationships. He’s teaching you what real love is all about. And He’s given you a new purpose and new direction and hope that goes beyond this life, that transcends even death. You’ve got plenty to say, if only you’re willing to say it. And no one can tell you that it hasn’t happened, even as no one, not even the religious authorities of the day, could tell this man that Jesus hadn’t given Him sight.
So determine to tell other what Jesus has done for you. And you’ll be used of God!
But not everybody will believe you, just as these Jews wouldn’t believe the man born blind, despite the fact that all his friend and neighbors had told them that he had indeed been blind from birth and had been healed. They refused to believe, so they looked for some reason not to believe. They would now prefer to believe, despite everyone’s testimony, that no miracle had happened at all. And since they didn’t like what the man born blind was saying, they would seek out his parents and find out whether he really had ever been blind at all.
So his parents show up and they are evidently respected members of the synagogue. And they are familiar with the latest decree of their religious leaders—namely, that if anyone should believe in Jesus he would be cast out of the synagogue. Well, they knew their son’s story, and they knew they would be in trouble, in big trouble with the Big Kahunas in their synagogue if they testified to what their son testified. So they were asked, was you son born blind. Yep, he was born blind! Sure enough. But how he sees, we do not know. Ask him, he is of age. He’s 21, or 18, old enough to be an adult and to be trusted. They washed their hands of Jesus, and threw their son under the bus, so to speak.
So despite every effort to discredit Jesus, these Jews are continually faced with the naked truth—this guy was healed. An incredible miracle had taken place by the hand of none other than that dreaded Jesus—they just can’t get them out their hair.
So determined to discover some facts that agree with what they preferred to believe, they head back in the direction of the man born blind. And this time, they’re not just asking questions. They’re attempting to prejudice the witness. They’re tampering with the witness. They’re going, “Come on kid, tell us the real truth. This man Jesus is a sinner. Since this miracle occurred, give glory to God, not Jesus (After all, they’re not one and the same.).
But the man born blind stands firm, innocently replying in verse 25, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
Can’t you just see the exasperated look of these desperate enemies of Jesus. “Darn, we just can’t bend the facts to support what we don’t want to believe. And so they ask him to repeat his story, looking for some inconsistency they can use to support their evil, unbelieving intentions.
But the man born blind is not stupid. He’s begun to figure some things. These people don’t want to know the truth; they are determined to find something wrong with his story. And so he’s no longer going to cooperate. In fact, the imp in him shows up. He’s got a great big needle in his hands that he’s going to use for all it’s worth. So he replies in verse 27: “’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?’”
Can you imagine the frustration and the anger and the exasperation this created within these hypocrites who were determined to deny the truth? Can you imagine at the same time the impish glee that the man born blind is experiencing as he watches the same blithering spiritual idiots begin to do to him as they had done to Jesus, when they could not win the argument, when they simply found it impossible to deny the truth.
So they revile Him, just as they did Jesus. And they debate with Him, and they say they don’t know where this man Jesus is from. But amazingly, this formerly naïve man born blind has figured some things out for himself. He knows where Jesus is from, and He tells them exactly how He knows whee He’s from. And he replies to their questions with the impeccable logic found in verse 30-33: “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”
And then, being unable to refute His logic, these Jewish authorities do the same thing to him, in effect, that they did with Jesus. They call him names, namely a man who was born entirely in his sins according to their erroneous theology, and they unceremoniously cast him out of both their presence and the Synagogue.
So, how can you be used of God. I’ll tell ya’ how? By simply making what should be obvious, absolutely undeniable—that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior. Oh, there will be those who will not hear, but there will be others who will hear, and believe. And God and His Son Jesus, the God-man will be glorified.
At this point we see the love and mercy of God, for just as this man is rejected, guess who shows up to pick up the pieces. God, in the person of Jesus Christ. Verse 35: “Jesus heard that they had put him out and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man.” Now the term “Son of Man” had been used in Daniel 7:13 as a name for the Messiah, and the man born blind apparently knew this much. So he understood what Jesus was talking about to a point. He didn’t understand that Jesus was claiming to be the Son of Man. So he asked, in verse 36, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him. Jesus said to Him, You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with You.”
And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And at that point he saw what the spiritual pride of the Jews would never allow themselves to see, that Jesus was not only Messiah, but God Himself. And it says, “And He worshiped Him.” That is, he appropriately responded to his recognition that He was in the very presence of God Almighty, His Creator, and now His Savior, Himself. And He did what you do not do to a mere man, or an angel, or any other creature, He worshipped Him as God Himself.
And so Jesus, seeing this, observes in verse 39: “For Judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”
In other words, what’s necessary to recognize that Jesus is your Savior and your God is the humility to acknowledge that you’ve been spiritually blind, that you didn’t know He was savior and you’re a sinner in need of a savior. And when you have that kind of humility, your spiritual blindness will be turned to spiritual sight because Jesus is the light of the world. And through believing, your eyes will be opened to the reality of God’s saving grace through Christ’s death for your sins and His resurrection.
The seemingly ubiquitous Pharisees who were rejecting Jesus were there observing this scene as well. And oddly, they seem to understand what Jesus is implying—that they are truly spiritually blind because they have rejected the Light.
So they interject, “We are not blind, too, are we.
And Jesus replies in verse 41, If you were blind, you would have no sin, but since you say, we see, your sin remains. In other words, if you were humble enough to acknowledge your spiritual blindness and had accepted me as your Messiah, I would have taken away your sin. But since in your spiritual pride you have said we know better, we know you’re not the Messiah, your sin remains, and you will be judged for your sins.
You know what this says to me about what you’ve got to do when you’ve been used of God and suffered for it. Just be thankful you’ve seen the light and that you’re going get out of this life alive. All because Jesus died for you and took your sins away.
Want to be used of God? Recognize that God made you just the way He wanted you to be—and it’s for His glory—And just tells other what Jesus did for you.
Maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve just realized you’ve been blind. You’ve been spiritually blind. And like these men who rejected Jesus, no matter where you turn, no matter how you try, you cannot deny the undeniable, the truth about Jesus, that He is indeed the Son of God, the God-man, and the Savior of all mankind.
And now that you’ve seen the light, you want to be one of those men whom He saves. And you can be this morning, if only you will believe. If only you will put your trust, your entire faith in Jesus as the one who died on the cross to pay for your sins and thus has taken them away.
If you want to be in that number this morning, pray this prayer with me: Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus as the Light of the World, and the Light of Life. I’m a sinner, I can’t save myself. I’ve been blind to the truth, but today I’ve seen the light. And I’m believing not only that Jesus was the Son of God, the God-man, but I’m believing He’s my savior and My Lord. Thank you for making this perfectly clear to me this morning. Now make me the kind of person you want me to be—make me like Christ and use me, warts and all, to honor and bring glory to you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
