Who Is This Jesus?
9. He is the Healer of Spiritual Blindness
John 9
November 6/7, 2004
Don Jaques
MAIN IDEA:
• All people are spiritually blind by nature but can be given sight by believing in Jesus.
INTRO:
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal, they lay down for the night and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend. "Watson, look up and tell me what you see." Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars." "What does that tell you?" Watson pondered for a minute.
"Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Why, what does it tell you?" Holmes said, "Watson you idiot, someone has stolen our tent." Sometimes we are blind to what is going on right in our midst, and in a spiritual sense, we can be blind to what God is doing so well for us.
As we continue our series through the gospel of John, answering the question “Who is this Jesus?” today’s chapter will tell us that Jesus is the healer of spiritual blindness.
Let’s hear the word of God as we read from John chapter 9.
John 9:1-41
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
10"How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
11He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
12"Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I don’t know," he said.
13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."
16Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.
17Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."
The man replied, "He is a prophet."
18The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19"Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"
20"We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. 21But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
24A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."
25He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
26Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
27He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
28Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from."
30The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
34To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
37Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"
41Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
“What? Are we blind too?” How can we know if Jesus thinks we’re spiritually blind? And more importantly, how can we be set free from spiritual blindness?
• How can you be set free from spiritual blindness?
o Admit you’ve got blind spots.
Don’t be like the Pharisees who were so sure they had God figured out.
• Notice the incredible lengths to which they go to deny that God could be at work through Jesus. They don’t believe the man himself. They don’t believe his parents. They try and make the man feel bad for having been healed. Anything but have to change their minds about Jesus!
• No wonder Jesus called them blind!
• In doing so they missed a great opportunity to worship God, to be filled with joy for his miraculous power, and to believe in Jesus and be saved.
We’ve got to admit we’ve got blind spots and …
Don’t be like so-called “religious” people who want to constrict God’s work.
• Example: Some say you only really know you have the Holy Spirit when you have an experience like speaking in tongues. Some say such experiences are demonic and that such activity ended shortly after Jesus left the earth. Both sides constrict God and limit Him to working in just the same way he has worked in them in the past.
• As for me – I continually come to God and say, “If there’s more of your Holy Spirit – if there’s more of you – that I can experience, I want it!” I try and emphasize in my discussions with people and in my prayer life that I don’t know everything about how God works and I’m open to him revealing himself to me in new and surprising ways.
• ILLUS: Darcie’s testimony of being healed after a televangelist looked into the camera and rebuked the devil and his work. This is definitely out of the box that I usually put God in.
• ILLUS: Tom’s story of having Merrily pray for God to heal his transmission when he was trading in his car.
• PERSONAL NOTE: I was reminded of my own blind spots in my own Christian walk and my leadership a couple weeks ago. I need to ask for your forgiveness if I’ve offended you by my tendency to be task-oriented rather than people-oriented. I’m working on it – and I’m so thankful that someone cared enough about me to share with me what they were perceiving.
Don’t follow your fleshly nature, which wants to assert it’s independence and self-reliance.
• Just as last week the first step toward being set from your sin is recognizing you’re in bondage – so if you want to really be able to see your life how God sees it, you’re going to have to admit you’re blind without Him.
• Maybe you think Jesus couldn’t possibly be the Son of Man – “god in the flesh” – because he doesn’t fit the mold you think he should fit. He is too unpredictable, perhaps. Or he’s too weak. But what are you going to do with testimonies of millions or people whose lives have been radically changed through their belief in and following this carpenter’s son?
So if we want to make sure we’re not blind to what God is up to in our lives and in our world, we’ve got to first admit we’ve got some blind spots, or that perhaps we’re totally blind! And then you’ve got to…
o Humble yourself before the Healer.
Be like the blind man, who submits to getting mudpies on his eyes and walking to a pool to get washed off.
• He didn’t really understand how it happened – or why – he just knew it had happened!
Listen to the warning to the church in Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-20).
Rev. 3:14-20 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
• Spiritual blindness is NOT just a condition of those outside of Christ. This passage is written to the CHURCH in Laodicea. They thought they had it all together. But they weren’t making a difference in the world. They were lukewarm.
• They were instructed to humbly consider themselves naked, blind, wretched. IF they would come to the Lord, he promised he would heal them, clothe them, and come in and dine with them.
CONCLUSION:
I was talking with someone who related a conversation he had this week: A friend asked him, why do you think women have such an easier time accepting the Lordship of Jesus in their lives?
The answer: pride. Men, this is an especially difficult place for us.
Christianity requires of us that we check our pride at the door. We’ve got to come to a place of saying to the Lord “I’m blind. I’m naked. I’m poor. And the only way out is for you to save me.
Lord I’m poor and naked and blind without you. I’m a pitiful mess. But with you I can be made whole.
Listen to what Max Lucado writes about one particular man who was blind:
For 51 years Bob Edens was blind. He couldn’t see a thing. His world was a black hall of sounds and smells. He felt his way through five decades of darkness. And then, he could see. A skilled surgeon performed a complicated operation and, for the first time, Bob Edens had sight. He found it overwhelming. “I never would have dreamed that yellow is so…yellow,” he exclaimed. “I don’t have the words. I am amazed by yellow. But red is my favorite color. I just can’t believe red. I can see the shape of the moon—and I like nothing better than seeing a jet plane flying across the sky leaving a vapor trail. And of course, sunrises and sunsets. And at night I look at the stars in the sky and the flashing light. You could never know how wonderful everything is.”
Jesus wants to open our eyes to the amazing truth that our lives can be made complete and abundant through a relationship with Him. He wants to open our eyes so that we can see how he’s at work in this world. If you want to be healed of your spiritual blindness – Jesus our healer wants nothing more than for you to submit to his authority, repent of your sin, and receive the medicine he’s got for you.
In the words of Bob Edens, “You could never know how wonderful everything is!”
