Introduction:
The theme for today’s sermon is “Now I can see”. Man is “fearfully and wonderfully made”. (Psalm 139:14) Man is a spirit being, he possesses a soul and lives in a body. The body relates to its physical surroundings through the five senses which include the sense of hearing and the sense of sight while the spirit relates to the spiritual realm through spiritual senses. In the beginning the spiritual senses and the physical senses were in harmony till Adam disobeyed God and sin entered the world. Once man’s spirit became separated from God, his spiritual senses, which included hearing and seeing, died and his physical senses, without his spiritual senses, became corrupted. It is this corruption that entertains the sinful life and we can all identify with it although we prefer to relate it to other people. We can all learn from the experience of a man who was born to a godly mother. She died when he was only a child and he was brought up by his sea captain father and taken to sea when he was just eleven. He grew up and earned a reputation for drinking, debauchery and foul language. He was involved in every sin imaginable and ended up trading in slaves. One day during a storm, when everything appeared hopeless, he desperately called out to God for forgiveness and deliverance. God answered his prayer and he emerged from that ship a completely changed person. He later became the chaplain of the English parliament. His name was John Newton and in gratitude to God wrote the song with the words ‘Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.’
Step One: Healing physical blindness
a) Jesus is the healer
The blind beggar in today’s gospel reading was born blind. He had never seen anything in his life. He had never seen his parents or seen his surroundings. When Jesus approached him, he could not see him but could clearly hear Him. “All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men”. Jesus, was the only one who could heal and restore his sight.
a) Restoring the sight of the beggar
Jesus mixed his saliva with clay and anointed his eyes and then told him to go and wash at the pool of Siloam. When he obeyed and washed the mud from his face, he had eyes that could see for the very first time in his life.
Illustration:
The restoration of the beggar’s sight began when Jesus came to him, applied clay mixed with His saliva to his eyes and sent him to wash off the mud at the pool of Siloam. His witness set off a chain of reactions that would eventually lead to the restoration of spiritual sight. We all need physical and spiritual sight to walk according to the truth of God’s Word. When God sent Samuel to anoint a new king to replace Saul, all that he was told was that God had chosen a son of Jesse to replace Saul. He needed physical sight to bring him to his destination and more importantly spiritual sight to reveal how to discern who the Lord had chosen and how to carry out his mission without endangering his life. Relying on his physical sight he looked at the physical appearance of Jesse’s sons and hoped to out the Lord’s chosen new king. He could only discover the Lord’s choice through revelation since God looks at the heart and not at outward appearances.
Application:
We need physical sight but we also need spiritual sight. We are often led to believe that physical sight is all that we need and that we can be effective in our life without spiritual sight.
Step Two: The response to his healing
a) The neighbours doubted he was the same person
Jesus Christ used the witness of the beggar and the response to his healing to increase his faith. When asked how he was healed he replied that a man named Jesus had healed him. But those who had known him were so used to seeing him as a beggar that they doubted whether he was the same person. But the beggar knew he was the same man.
b) The Pharisees rejected Jesus as the healer
The people sought an explanation from their religious leaders, the Pharisees. They, however, rejected the testimony of his parents and also rejected Jesus as the healer. They did not believe He was God but an imposter who did not observe their Sabbath rules. They were more concerned about Jesus breaking the Sabbath rules that they had instituted than about the healing of the blind beggar.
c) The Pharisees rejected the witness of the healed beggar
The Pharisees rejected the witness of the healed beggar and threw him out of the Temple. They excommunicated him, the very reason why his parents were afraid of the Pharisees.
Illustration:
The story of the healing of the blind man and the response to his healing is both a miracle and a drama of the central conflict going on in the gospel. When first healed and asked about the miracle he replied that “a man called Jesus” healed him. The next time he was asked his reply was that “He is a prophet.” When pressed again about Jesus he asserts “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” The reasoning of the beggar was sound but the hostility of the Pharisees would not allow them to accept it. Rather, they labelled Him a sinner because he had broken the Sabbath rule, and told the beggar to rather “give glory to God”.
Application:
The Pharisees wanted the healed man to believe them rather than God. Unfortunately, the same thing is happening today. Many people only believe what they want to believe and not what God says. Likewise, there are many religious groups who want their members or their followers to believe them rather than God.
Step Three: Healing spiritual blindness
a) Divine initiative
Healing spiritual blindness and restoring spiritual sight is the main trust of the gospel. It is divinely initiated by Christ Himself. He came to seek and save the lost and it was Christ who found the beggar, came to him and healed his spiritual blindness after he had been thrown out of the Temple.
b) Divine revelation
At their first encounter the man who was healed did not know the identity of the one who had healed him and referred to Him as a man named Jesus. After his healing and encounter with the Pharisees he believed that a person capable of giving sight to a blind man must be a prophet.
c) Confession of Jesus as Lord
Jesus Christ took him a step further when he asked whether he believed in the Son of Man. The Son of Man was a Messianic title used in the book of Daniel 7. And when Jesus told him He is the Messiah, he confessed Him as Lord.
d) Worship is a response to God’s gift
After he had confessed Jesus as Lord, he fell down on his knees and worshipped Him. The man who was healed gained not only physical sight but also spiritual sight. He received God’s gift of salvation and the only acceptable response is worship.
Illustration:
Christ is willing and able to heal our sight both physically and spiritually. Those who admit they cannot see are given sight, but those who insist that they can see perfectly without the Lord Jesus Christ, are confirmed in their blindness. Spiritual sight comes from a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. The Pharisees rejected Christ because they could not see their own sin and need for salvation. Instead of rejoicing that people were being healed and lives were being changed and taking advantage of the healing taking place, the Pharisees were only concerned about the observance of their rules. Because of their blindness they could not see that God never intended the Sabbath to become an excuse to prevent an act of mercy or of kindness.
Application:
The evidence of our salvation is worship and our desire to be in His presence and enjoy peace with God and the peace of God. Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your life?
Conclusion:
Whenever Jesus performed a miracle, it provoked all kinds of questions. Often these questions give the believer an opportunity to witness for the Lord. The man who had been blind at first did not know how or why he was healed, but he knew that his life had been miraculously changed and he was not afraid to tell the truth. His testimony was simple, yet convincing. He recited the facts of his healing; giving credit to the one who performed the miracle. We don’t need to know all the answers in order to share Christ with others. It is important to tell others how He has changed our lives.
Personal Response:
If we have met Jesus, heard His Word and received His gift of salvation, our only acceptable response is to worship Him and witness about His saving grace to the praise and glory of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen!
