Henry David Thoreau, the famous American author and philosopher once said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Today, we are going to study an encounter that Jesus had with a man who was desperate. He had reasons to be desperate. He was hurting. He was helpless. And he was hopeless. If life is just not working for you and you are desperate. Jesus wants to help you. He wants to help those who are in a desperate situation.
One of those amazing stories is found in the Gospel of John. [Turn to John 9.] We are going to study a man who was not only desperate, but he was born in desperation. He was born blind. If you had some kind of condition, be it blindness, deafness, leprosy, or some other type of sickness, your only hope was in family members that took care of you. You were seen as both a burden and a curse.
Today, I would like to teach you to Believe what Jesus says, Receive what Jesus has, and Conceive who Jesus is. We are going to learn about an incredible story of good news for the desperate. If you are hurting, helpless, and hopeless you are in the perfect setting for God’s transformation. If you are desperate, if you are at the end of your rope, if you have nowhere else to turn, do what this blind man did.
I. Believe What Jesus Says
The way the story is introduced tells us basically all we need to know about this man, “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.” (John 9:1) This man was born blind. He entered into the world with darkness.
Spiritual Blind: But this man had a bigger problem. He was not just physically blind, but he was spiritually blind. Remember at this moment, he had never met Jesus and he didn’t know Jesus. That is why Jesus says in verse 5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5) That is an incredible statement. Jesus said he was “the light of the world.” He makes this incredible claim that He is “the light of the world.” Back in chapter 1, John makes this incredible statement about Jesus. “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9, ESV)
You know what darkness is – it is the absence of light. If Jesus is the light of the world and Jesus is the One who lights up every one, if you don’t have Jesus in you, you are living in spiritual darkness.
You could have perfect 20/20 vision, but be spiritually blind. What does it mean to be spiritually blind? People who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ don’t have a physical problem. But they have a spiritual problem. They are not physically blind. They are spiritually blind.
Augustine was once approached by a pagan who showed him his idol and said, “Here is my god. Where is yours?” Augustine replied, “I cannot show you my God – not because there is no God to show you, but because you have no eyes to see Him.” As we read this story, keep in mind we are not just dealing with physical blindness, but we are dealing with spiritual blindness.
This blind man had a deeper problem, because people believed that if you had some kind of a physical disability it must be because either you did something wrong or your parents did something wrong, so there was not just something physically wrong with you, but there was something spiritually and morally wrong with you. That is why we read, “And his disciples asked him, saying ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (John 9:2-3) They just assumed that a physical handicap was a sign of God’s spiritual displeasure.
There’s a lovely story of a Christian woman who went to a pet store. She saw a beautiful parrot, and fell in love with it and wanted to buy it. The owner, knowing this lady’s spiritual background said, “I cannot sell you that parrot.” She said, “Why not?” He said, “This parrot used to be owned by a very wicked man and when he got angry he would break its feathers.” The woman said, “I don’t care about this parrot's disabilities, I want to redeem and help it. With God’s help, I’ll keep the parrot.”
Now listen to what Jesus says, Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” (John 9:3)
The works of God: Here is the principle. A time of desperation is the setting for God’s transformation. This man was not born blind, because of something he had done. He was born blind, because of something God wanted to do. This next statement is very important: but if you don’t get it you won’t understand the story. This man was not blind because he couldn’t see. -He couldn’t see-, because he was blind. Let me translate that into a spiritual truth. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are born sinners. We are not born with God - and then somehow lose God along the way. We are born without God. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. (1 John 5:1) That is why we must be born-again.
This is where the story gets interesting. “Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”(John 9:6-7)
Here is what I want you to see. This man had never met Jesus. Jesus makes a mud with His own spit, puts it on the man’s eyes and tells him to go wash in a pool. This is the key, “So he went and washed and came back seeing.”
Believing is Seeing : That is not the way it is supposed to work. There’s an old saying, “Seeing is believing.” Not according to Jesus. According to Jesus, believing is seeing. For example: If this man had not believed what Jesus said, if this man had said, “I don’t know why you are doing this. I don’t understand it? I’m not going to believe it? and I’m not going to obey You. If he said to Jesus; He would have died a blind man.” - Why did he believe Jesus? Because he was desperate. Nobody else had offered a cure. Nobody else had offered a change. Nobody else had offered an opportunity for this man to see. He believed what Jesus said.
That is why I say to those living lives of quiet desperation today. (The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.) If you want to solve your desperate situation, if you want your time of desperation to become the setting for God’ transformation, you need to believe what Jesus says. You need to believe what Jesus says about you. You need to believe what Jesus says about Himself. Now this is where the story really gets interesting. When you believe what Jesus says to you, you will see wondrous things in your life –Secondly,
II. Receive What Jesus Has
Listen again to the last statement of verse 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.” (John 9:7)
What does a man with blindness need? Sight. What does a man in darkness need? Light. Here Jesus, the light of the world, had given this man sight to his eyes.
You would have thought that everybody would have been happy. But, “the neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘It is he.’ Others said, ‘No, but he is like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ So they said to him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” So I went and washed and received my sight.’They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’”(John 9:8-12, ESV)
Here is a man that had been blind from birth. How old was this man? He was a grown man and maybe he was 40 years old. For four decades the man had been blind. Now he can see and instead of celebration, they are wanting an explanation.
“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.” (John 9:13-15)
Here are these religious leaders who believe in God and should believe that God works miracles, but once again instead of a celebration of what had happened to this man, they wanted an explanation of how it happened to this man.
Then the whole crowd of Jews get involved. “The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man. (John 9:18-21, ESV) Now, his parents get (Mom and Dad) involved. As we read in verses 22 and 23. “His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” (John 9:22-23)
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.” 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.” (John 9:24-25)
This man says something to those Pharisees that changed the whole argument. He said, “I am not going to try to explain what I don’t know, but I am going to tell you what I do know. I don’t understand completely how this has happened, but you can’t deny that it has happened.”
Their attitude was “Until I understand everything I don’t want to understand, and until I get every question answered I don’t want the answer. I will not believe it.” They still thought, “seeing is believing.” Let me tell you something. If you wait until you understand everything and until you get every question answered you will never believe, because seeing is not believing, but believing is seeing.
This man believed what Jesus said and because of that he received what Jesus had. Here is the way God works. When you believe what Jesus says you receive what Jesus has.
III. Conceive Who Jesus Is:
“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. (John 9:35-38)
Because this man had responded to the first light that Jesus had offered him he now received the full light of who Jesus was. Notice this man’s faith in Jesus. The first thing he believed about Jesus was that He was a good man. When the Pharisees asked him about Jesus he said this, “He is a prophet.” (John 9:17)
He moved from calling Jesus a “good man” to calling Jesus a “great man”, “a prophet.” 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” (John 9:31-33)
This man was right. Nowhere in the Old Testament and nowhere else in the New Testament, a man who was born in blind has ever been completely healed of their blindness. This man must be from God, so now He is not just a good man or even a great man, but He is the son of God! There is a prophetic word given by Psalm 146:8. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Isaiah 35:5
Then, as we just read he says in verse 38 “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.” (John 9:38)
Now he understands that Jesus is not just a good man or a great man or a godly man, but He is the son of God. Here is what I want you to see. This man responded to the very first light and when he saw God, He received more light.What do we do when God gives us light? When God gives you a little light, if you respond to that light He will give you more light. If you reject even the first light you will never see the full light.
Never forget what happened to this man. This man did not believe because he could see. He could see because he believed. If you are a believer and you have seen the light. And you have been delivered from the darkness of desperation. And you have experienced transformation through Jesus Christ. Or even if you are an unbeliever I would encourage you to simply do this. Instead of asking “How? Why” start asking, “Who?” and “What?” I would encourage you to begin reading this gospel that I preached from today, the Gospel of John, and simply ask two questions: Who did Jesus claim to be? What am I going to do about it? Believe what Jesus says, Receive what Jesus has, and Conceive who Jesus is. Amen.
