When I was in the third grade at Carroll Bell elementary school here in San Antonio, I begin having headaches in class. My mom decided to have my eyes checked. And sure enough, I needed glasses. I don't know exactly how long I had been seeing things blurry but when I got my new glasses it was so refreshing to be able to see clearly again. I then understood what I had been missing all along.
This is often how we operate in the spiritual realm. We think we're seeing life for what it is, but when we encounter Jesus and see the world through Him, we see the truth, and we see it clearly.
If you have been journeying through life without Jesus, you have no idea what you have been missing. Today we are going to take a closer look to see how Jesus will open our eyes to the truth. Prayer.
Being a pastor, I am confronted with things from every angle. Phone calls, text messages, office visits, mail, meetings, messenger messages, and the list goes on. I am always thinking ahead in planning things like sermons and such. Many times, I'm so focused on what’s coming up that I’m not so focused on what is happening at the time.
Caran says that I don't listen. And she might be right some of the time. But most of the time my mind is so wrapped up in other things that I am not as focused as I should be in the moment.
This wasn't the case for Jesus. He knew where He was going, ultimately to the cross, and yet He took advantage of every moment along the way to love, teach, and serve people. This was the case in our story today when Jesus and His disciples passed by a blind man on their way out of the Temple complex.
John 9:1-7 – “As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. 4 We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
******6 After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.
I told a short story of this event to the children two weeks ago. Let's look at it in a little more detail. The temple was very crowded. With all the hustle and bustle around the area, it would have been easy for Jesus and His disciples to just walk on by. Even more so, because Jesus was already having to keep a low image in order to escape being stoned by the Pharisees. But this threat didn't keep Jesus from seeing this man. What did Jesus see? He saw a man who had never seen anything. Jesus took advantage of this amazing encounter.
In the first century, it was assumed that any illness or infirmity was the result of sin. The religious leaders looked down on the disabled because they saw them as unclean and sinful. This is one of the main ways Jesus set Himself apart from the religious leaders.
While the religious leaders ignored and even shunned these people, Jesus embraced them. He saw them and their needs. Even Jesus's disciples assumed sin was the cause of the man's blindness. They were unsure, though, whose sin had caused this ailment. Was it his or his parent's? Jesus's answer helped them realize the years of bad theology. What Jesus was about to say would open their spiritual eyes, even as He would open the blind man's physical eyes.
And here comes one of Jesus's truths. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned." And there it is! A new truth to process. One theologian explains this in this way. He says that "God did not deliberately cause the child to be born blind in order that, after many years, His glory would be displayed in the removal of the blindness. He says that what it does mean is that God overruled the disaster of the child's blindness so that, when the child grew to manhood, he might, by receiving his sight, see the glory of God in the face of Jesus. This man who had lived in darkness was about to see for the first time. The Light of the world was going to illuminate the darkness of this man's life. I am reminded of what Jesus said in:
John 12:46 – “ I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.”
Now let's see what happens next.
John 9:13 – 16 – “ They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. 14 The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Then the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight.
“He put mud on my eyes,” he told them. “I washed and I can see.”
******16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.
John 9:24-31 – “ So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”
******26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 “I already told you,” he said, “and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?” 28 They ridiculed him: “You’re that man’s disciple, but we’re Moses’s disciples. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses. But this man—we don’t know where he’s from.”
******30 “This is an amazing thing!” the man told them. “You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him.”
These religious leaders were simply spiritually blind to the truth. Some people just miss the point. Here’s a good example of people missing the point.
We know the story of the Wright brothers. It was in Dayton, Ohio, that the airplane was invented. In December 1903, the Wright brothers took their invention to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, testing their flyer.
After a number of attempts, they were finally able to get the flyer off the ground. Obviously, they were extremely excited, having accomplished something that had never been done before. But one of Dayton Ohio's newspapers ran this headline. "THE WRIGHT BOYS ARE COMING HOME". The editor of that newspaper missed the point. Man had achieved flight for the first time and all the newspaper editor saw as news was that the brothers would be home for Christmas.
In our story today, the Pharisees were not much different. They were upset that Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath, and they didn't know where Jesus was from. These two details were all they could focus on. They missed the point.
A formally blind man could now see! And Jesus was responsible for the miracle. The great thing about Jesus is that He is still at work. The questions are: Will we see Him at work? Or will we miss it completely because our focus is somewhere else?
There's a great lesson in this for us. We all need to ask God to open our eyes to see where He is at work around us. We need to look for signs of God's work as we read the news, check our Facebook, and interact with others. God is at work all the time but we so often miss His vision and don't see His blessings.
The point to all of this is that I don't want anyone to miss the opportunity to produce fruit for God. That is what all of this is about. The Pharisees missed the point. This man, blind from birth, could now see, but the Pharisees were only concerned with what day of the week the miracle happened and who this healer thought He was. These "religious experts" (and I use the term loosely) who were supposed to be able to see with spiritual eyes were utterly blind. But this man born blind saw a miracle and believed the miracle worker. He could see enough to know that this man, Jesus, must be from God. "How could he not be?" He had done something no one thought possible: heal a man that had been blind from birth.
John 9:32-33 – “Throughout history no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
Now back to the thought of producing fruit for God. Jesus empowers us to join Him and His work. When we're blessed to notice God on the move, we don't need to stand around and argue about it like the Pharisees did. We just need to jump in and join in. When we obey God in this, we are not only jumping into His work, but we are jumping in with His power.
This formerly blind man said something to these leaders that was eye-opening. Remember that this man had not been around Jesus all that long. Yet he said, "If this man were not from God, He wouldn't be able to do anything." This is the same truth Jesus would later teach to his disciples. He said in:
John 15:5 – “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”
Jesus is telling us that we have no power to act on our own. Nothing that is eternal will be done by our hands or said by our lips unless we stay connected to Jesus. He is the source of all wisdom, power, and strength.
John 9:34-35 – “You were born entirely in sin,” they replied, “and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, and when he found him, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
After this confrontation with the Pharisees, the formerly blind man was belittled by the so-called "spiritual shepherds" of Israel and they threw him out. It was at that moment that this man showed greater spiritual insight than the religious leaders, so they responded by excommunicating him. By excluding him from the Jewish community, they wouldn't have to listen to him anymore.
When Jesus heard that this man had been thrown out, He did what a true Shepherd of Israel would do: He went looking for him. Notice clearly what Jesus did because He still does it today. This act of Jesus looking for the man was intentional. Looking and finding someone doesn't happen by accident. So often when were talk about situations like this we talk about "finding God", but God is not the one that is lost. We are! This is why God sent His Son into the world to find us and save us. It shouldn't surprise us at all to see the Good Shepherd finding this man.
John 9: 36-38 - “Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” he asked. 37 Jesus answered, “You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped him.
When Jesus found the man, he asked him one of the most important questions that can be asked: "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" I think this man was ready to believe even before he knew who the Son of Man was. He wasn't like the Pharisees, who refused to believe the truth. They refused to see the truth with eyes of faith. The blind man in this story was not the one suffering from the greatest blindness; it was the Pharisees. They had seen Jesus physically but could not believe. The blind man saw Jesus with spiritual eyes and believed.
Notice that this man's faith ended in worship. He made a declaration of his faith and then worshiped. When we declare our faith in Jesus Christ, it's an outward sign of something we have come to believe. And it really is that easy to come to know Jesus. The apostle Paul said it this way. Do you want to know what you need to do to become a Christian, to receive the gift of salvation, the gift of eternal life?
Romans 10:9 – “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The more we know Jesus and the closer we get to Him the more we will want to worship Him. I don't know what the man born blind was thinking or feeling when he met Jesus, but I have to imagine that even after experiencing all that had happened to him, he was still not prepared for what Jesus told him.
Jesus asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" The man's answer clearly shows that he didn't understand who he was speaking with. The man answered with the request to know who the Son of Man was so that he might believe in Him. Jesus basically answered, 'I am He."
The man, with his newly acquired vision, had now physically seen the Son of Man. Someone who was unable to see anything for so long had now seen Jesus. So his response comes as no surprise: "I believe, Lord," he said, and he worshiped Him.
I pray that Jesus has opened your eyes to the truth that He is the Son of God and that He is the only way to heaven. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me."
Have the things of this world blinded you to the truth about Jesus and knowing Him personally as your Savior? Has the world tried to convince you that there are many ways to get to God? Satan uses the people of this world, the clubs, the organizations, the schools and it's leaders, the celebrities, tv, and movies to persuade us that there are many other ways to get to God. We use all of these things as excuses for not getting involved in our church. If the truth is told, sometimes we use our own families as an excuse for not coming to worship.
So, I close with a quote from A. W. Tozer. "Jesus is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is He the best of several ways; He is the only way."
And that's the truth. I hope Jesus had opened your eyes to see the truth. If so, now start living the truth and stop making excuses.
Why not choose Jesus as your way and then come and worship Him.
