Twice Healed – Pt. 2

Turn back once again to John chapter 9. John chapter
9. I began last week telling you
about this poor guy. He had some issues. He had some limitations. that life had imposed on him.
He had experienced some great difficulties. People often made fun of him.
Spiritually speaking, he was absolutely impoverished. He was
utterly hopeful. He had some basic needs that
he sought fulfillment in a lot of different ways. And ultimately,
that’s what turned him to seek God was his hopefulness in perhaps
another fix to his situation. He had lived so long in this hopelessness
that it was a faint hope, a flickering hope. He really didn’t expect
God to answer, but when God did, the answer was so much greater
than what this man ever expected. I’m talking about me. And I told
you last week that this story is a story about me. And for
years, I looked at John chapter nine as my story. Until I began to meet others,
who also empathized with this man, who also believed that this
story told the story of their lives, that they went to God
initially seeking some physical blessing, to have God meet some
need. only to have God so supersede
that, to so overwhelm them, not just with some temporal fix, but with the spiritual blessing
of eternal life. That was my experience. I didn’t
initially seek God for salvation. I sought God’s help for my wants,
for what I thought were my needs. Many people do that. And so John
chapter 9, the story of the man born blind, is a beloved story
to all saints. Would God’s people look again
to John chapter 9? Verse 1, As he passed by, he
saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him,
Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? That he should be
born blind. Jesus answered, it was neither
this man’s sin nor his parents, but it was so that the works
of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of
him who sent me as long as it is day. Night is coming when
no one can work. While I am in the world, I am
the light of the world. When he had said this, he spat
on the ground and made clay of the spittle and applied the clay
to his eyes and said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam,
which is translated sin. So he went away and washed and
came back seeing. Therefore, the neighbors and
those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, is this
not the one who used to sit and beg? Others were saying, this
is he. Still others were saying, no,
but he’s like him. He kept saying, I am the one.
So they were saying to him, how then were your eyes opened? He
answered, the man who is called Jesus made clay and anointed
my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went away
and washed and I received sight. They said to him, where is he?
He said, I do not know. to the Pharisees, the man who
was formerly blind. Now it was a Sabbath on that
day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the
Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, he applied
clay to my eyes and I washed and I see. Therefore, some of
the Pharisees were saying, this man is not from God because he
does not keep the Sabbath. But others were saying, How can
a man who is a sinner perform such signs? There was a division
among them. So they said to the blind man
again, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes?
And he said, he is a prophet. Then the Jews, the Jews then
did not believe it of him that he had been blind and had received
sight. until they called the parents
of the very one who had received his sight and questioned them
saying, is this your son whom you say was born blind? Then
how does he now see? His parents answered them and
said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he sees, we do not know. Or who opened his eyes, we do
not know. Ask him. He is of age. He will
speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid
of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone
confessed him to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.
For this reason, his parents said, he is of age, ask him. So a second time they called
the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He then answered, whether he
is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know that though
I was blind, now I see. So they said to him, what did
he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He
answered them, 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? They reviled him and said, you
are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that
God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know
where he’s from. The man answered and said to
them, 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. They answered him, you were born
entirely in sins. And are you teaching us? So they
put him out. Jesus heard that they had put
him out. And finding him, he said, do
you believe in the son of man? He answered, 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 he worshiped him. And Jesus said, for judgment
I came into this world so that those who do not see may see,
and that those who see may become blind. Those of the Pharisees
who were with him heard these things and said to him, We are
not blind too, are we? Jesus said to them, if you were
blind, you would have no sin. But since you say, we see, your
sin remains. This poor man, blind from birth,
sought favor from Christ, received it really without asking it,
had probably yearned for eyesight, but had long since given up hope
of receiving it. But as we see this narrative
unfold, we watch him not only receive his sight, his physical
vision, but we see his spiritual insight restored as well. We
see Jesus not only heal his physical need, but also his even greater
spiritual need It’s a truly remarkable and precious story, not just
to me, but I believe that there’s a backdrop here that must not
be overlooked. There is a scene behind the scene
that is utterly tragic. For while this one man is drawn
to faith in Jesus Christ, there are dozens, if not hundreds,
who are not drawn. There are four distinct episodes
in the midst of this narrative that together expose the pitfalls
that face an unbelieving sinner. Pitfalls that make it not merely
difficult but absolutely impossible for a person to come to saving
faith and that at any point Should they step in any one of those
pitfalls, saving faith becomes for them impossible. Each of
the very distinct scenes provides one unique pitfall, which warns
us of the utter danger that stands between a sinner and a loving
God. Jesus had come to this man born
blind and answered the carefully worded but foolish
question of his own disciples, who sinned, this man or his parents
that he should be born blind? And this was a very common understanding
of the maladies that came into the world. And we know that’s
where physical death comes from. That’s where all the curse is
poured out onto the world. That’s where pain in childbirth
and the sweat of the brow, physical sickness, ultimately physical
death. That’s where it all comes from.
But this was not their question. They wanted to pin it on someone
specifically, either him or his parents. And Jesus said, it’s
neither. It’s neither. It’s so that the work of God
can be done. It’s so that God can be glorified
in the healing of this man and Jesus proceeds to do precisely
that. What comes out of that is just
astounding. And I want to tell you that these
four scenes intensify as they develop. But each of these four
scenes will impart to us one of the many pitfalls that face
the unbelieving heart. Look back at the first section
which begins in verse 8. The response or pardon me, the
reception rather of the healed man. The reception of the healed
man. Look at verse 8. Therefore the
neighbors and those who had previously saw him as a beggar were saying,
is this not the one who used to sit and beg? He would have
been known by those, not only in his own neighborhood, but
in the surrounding area, having regularly appeared as a beggar. But the tone of their observation
seems to be a quite muted response, doesn’t it? Can you imagine anyone
in your neighborhood who had been born in a particular malady,
say blindness, And suddenly, you know, you maybe had seen
them walking with a stick down the street for years and years
and years to their respective mailbox. And then suddenly you
see the individual, quite obviously having been healed, who no longer
has his stick and is going about like any other normal man seeing. with his eyes, could you really
drive by? Could you really just give a
courteous wave? Could you really just go on about
your day? Because that’s exactly what this
seems like to me. Is that the guy? Isn’t that that
guy? The tone of their observation
here of this man who now has obviously received his sight
is utterly muted. There ought to be rejoicing.
And maybe it didn’t warrant a parade per se, a circus-like reception,
but something, some kind of response, some kind of an acknowledgment
that a great thing had just happened, even if they didn’t know it was
a miracle. There have been stories where someone receives a bump
on the head and either their hearing is restored or their
eyesight is restored. Modern medicine has given rise
to restoring once lost vision through a variety of means. Curiosity
at least, rejoicing that this poor guy who had no other way
to make a living than to beg had been set free. Can’t we rejoice
with those who rejoice? I don’t know that I would have
really cared to live in this particular neighborhood, do you?
They couldn’t just ignore what had just happened, what the man
himself will go on to note, something that had never before happened
in the history of mankind. Not even recorded in the miraculous
pages of Holy Scripture. And so you begin this debate.
Is it him or isn’t it him? It’s really curious. Look at
verse 9. Others were saying, this is he. Yep, that’s the guy.
That’s it? Yep, that’s the man who was born
blind, but now sees. There isn’t even that kind of
a pause. Still others were saying, no, but he’s like him. Perhaps
this new gift of eyesight had altered his appearance so dramatically
that he looked like a different man. I don’t buy it. There seems
to be a reluctance here. There seems to be a reluctance
to acknowledge the miraculous. There seems to be a reluctance
to rejoice in the joy that another had received, namely, the miracle
of eyesight. Maybe they just thought that
simply acknowledging a miracle, heaven forbid, especially one
worked by Jesus, that Jesus fellow. Maybe they thought that that
would get them in hot water just to acknowledge that a miracle
had taken place. And so they don’t go there. Actually,
we think that we’ll just downplay this little event for now. We’ll
just kind of keep this between us, our little neighborhood secret.
And we’ll stay out of trouble. We’ll quietly go about our own
business, move along. Blind man, what blind man? That’s the attitude that you
get. That’s the sense that I get from this really sad debate between his closest human friends,
his neighbors. But watch what happens, look
at verse nine. Others were saying this is he,
still others were saying no, but he’s like him. He kept saying,
I am the one. I mean, here’s a unique idea. Ask the
man, didn’t you used, aren’t you, didn’t you used to sit by
the gate? You can almost picture this poor
guy jumping up and down, waving his arms as people debate the
situation. Is it him or isn’t it? Look at
this. He kept saying it. Over and over and over. This
happened. This happened to me. This man
came by and cured me of my blindness. I am the one. I’m that guy. I was formerly blind and now
seeing. I used to beg. I am that guy. Hello. Look at verse 10. It takes another
sad turn. As if they haven’t already missed
the boat, they move immediately from the what of the cure The
fact that a man born blind had now received his eyesight, they
move immediately from the what to the how. So they were saying
to him, how then were your eyes opened? How on earth did this happen? By what means were you healed?
Now this could be just a naturally enthusiastic question inevitably
would come to people as they heard this. Wow, really? You received your eye sight?
How? What? How? How did this happen? What medicine do you take? What’s
the doctor’s name? And I’m telling you, given the context,
as you watch the context unfold, it appears that this is not the
result of excitement, but doubt. Detail for us exactly how this
happened Tell us what procedure the doctor used. What was the
medicine used and It’s gonna proceed into the absolute absurd
in their mind Nevertheless the happy young man joyful to receive
his sight Explains precisely what happened look at verse 11.
He answered the man who was called Jesus and he could have stopped
right there You could have stopped right there because he was about
to empty the town square just by mentioning his name. The man
who is called Jesus anointed my eyes and said to me, go to
Siloam and wash. And I went away and washed and
I received sight. The progression of this man’s
faith as it develops through this is really noteworthy. All he knows of is a name. He only knows that his benefactor’s
name was Jesus. And as the event develops, he
will, in time, acknowledge him as a prophet. Then, in time,
he acknowledges him as a man of God, in verse 33. And finally,
when asked by Christ himself, he acknowledges him as the Son
of God. There’s a progression. This is
the plain truth, though, this little testimony that he gives.
This is his straightforward testimony, what one called a simple, unvarnished
account of the facts of the cure. He doesn’t embellish it. He doesn’t
add any unnecessary detail. But watch what happens. Simple
testimony, right? But one word makes this testimony
an absolute bombshell. The name, Jesus. Jesus made clay. Jesus put the clay on my eyes. Jesus told me to go and wash. And in reality, Jesus fixed my
blindness. They will immediately decide
that more knowledgeable people than themselves should hear this.
They aren’t qualified to evaluate this great thing. They need experts. So they said to him in verse
12, where is he? This is almost ornery. The last
time he had seen Jesus, Jesus is just instructing him, go to
the pool and wash. He’s a blind man. How does he
know where Jesus is? Jesus didn’t lead him to the
pool of Siloam. That was all an act of faith
initiated by the Savior himself. He told the man to obey him by
going to the pool, which was some walk for this man, especially
in his blindness. And he got up and he walked and
he went. How does he know where Jesus
is at this moment? You see, they would have loved
to drag Jesus along to answer for this shake-up of their peaceful
little community. But conveniently, the man whose
eyesight has only been just now restored has irresponsibly let
this perpetrator slip away. That’s the sense that you get
from those words. Where is he? So they brought to the Pharisees,
verse 13, the man who was formerly blind. We don’t have enough information
here to be absolutely sure about the neighbor’s motives, but there
is enough here to be suspicious. Why the Pharisees, and especially given John’s note
that it was a Sabbath, Why on earth would they drag this poor
man, born blind, who had just received a glorious miracle,
why did they insist on dragging him to the Pharisees, especially
since it had occurred on the Sabbath? That part seems to have
made the townspeople very nervous. And they were inclined to let
the religious experts now look into this. Their own fears begin
to take over as one called the Pharisees the great authorities
in matter of legal observance in orthodoxy. They take the man
to the Pharisees to examine the man and this supposed miracle
and they would have taken Christ as well had he been available. In other words, this is far too
great a job. for these simple townspeople,
these lifelong neighbors of this poor man. That instead, they’ll
drag him to the Pharisees and let the Pharisees decide. I told
you that in the midst of each of these scenes, and this is
the first, the reception of the man born blind. I told you that in each of these,
there was a pitfall that is exposed. Let me put it this way. An individual
will never come to saving knowledge of the truth unless they personally
evaluate the information themselves. Here were people that wanted
to debate whether he was even the right guy. They didn’t even
want to acknowledge the miracle. They didn’t want to interact
with the data. And when the chips are down,
instead of evaluating the man’s report for what it was, and perhaps
seeking Jesus out to hear what Jesus had to say, they instead
turn the case over in its entirety to the Pharisees. They don’t
want to be burdened with thinking. They don’t want to be burdened
with wrestling with the data before them. They’re willing. to stake their own souls on what
other men think. That’s a sad reality to this
very day, isn’t it? As you have scores and scores
and hundreds and thousands and millions of people that will
readily submit themselves to the most foolish counsel, the
most ridiculous ideas. You think of the what Walter
Martin once called America, the kingdom of the cults, where people
will just submit themselves and imbibe all kinds of foolishness. But they will not spend even
a few moments in pondering the claims of Christ on their own. With their own soul before Almighty
God, they won’t do it. Not only is there a reception
of this man, but the second scene presents before us an examination. They’ve taken him now before
the Pharisees and the examination begins. The Pharisees have no
idea what they’ve gotten themselves into. Look at verse 14. It was
a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his
eyes. We don’t know enough, as I said, to make sure that the
Pharisees have done wrong here. But the fact that John includes
this little tidbit, that the townspeople were taking
him before the Pharisees and that, oh, by the way, this all
occurred on the Sabbath, that’s the part that made them
nervous. And so they have to have the religious experts look
into this matter The New Testament records seven
such miracles that were performed on the Sabbath. Matthew 12, the man with the
withered hand. Mark 1, a man with an unclean
spirit. Simon’s mother-in-law, sick with
a fever, Mark chapter 1 at the end. A woman bent over double,
Luke chapter 13. A man suffering from dropsy,
which is where the tissues in the body literally begin to swell,
retaining all the water. A crippled man lying by the pool
of Bethesda, which passage we just preached several months
ago. Why would Jesus provoke these
religious leaders by continuing to heal on the Sabbath? And by
the way, John at the end of his gospel tells us that those seven
miracles that all were performed on the Sabbath, that’s probably
just a drop in the bucket. All the pages in the world couldn’t
contain all that Jesus Christ did, so this is just the beginning,
really. Why would Jesus continue to almost
needle these Pharisees? One pastor said, one of the objects
of our Lord in working so many miracles on the Sabbath was to
instruct the Jews in the true doctrines and proper duties of
the Sabbath. And to let them know that works
of necessity and works of mercy were very consistent with the
true doctrine of the Sabbath. In other words,
he says, look, these people had taken a position that to do good,
to heal someone even of their blindness, on the Sabbath was
prohibited. And Jesus is going to push the
issue again and again and again. Look at verse 15. Then the Pharisees,
who also were asking him again how he received his sight. This
is just strange. Just like the crowd, before they
have even acknowledges the what? The miracle. they want to press
into the how. Before they even acknowledge
that a miracle had occurred, blindness had been cured, eyesight
restored to a man who had lived his entire life utterly blind.
Before they even acknowledge the what, the miracle, they want
to know how. And this man returns to his testimony. You can tell that he doesn’t
have it written on a three by five card you know, points and
illustrations and verse references. He just goes by memory and gives
them the shortened Reader’s Digest version and he said to them,
he applied clay to my eyes, I washed and I see. Much shorter than
his original version. That’s what they really needed
to know. This man put clay on my eyes, I washed, I see. The
quickness and the brevity of that response seemed to reveal
almost a growing impatience of this man with all these questions.
Where’s the joy? Where’s the rejoicing? That I
can now see your faces and see the clouds in the sky and I see
what actually are birds flying in it. Where’s the rejoicing?
Look at verse 16. Therefore some of the Pharisees
were saying, this man is not from God because he does not
keep the Sabbath. When they refer to Jesus as this
man, you can just sense the disdain dripping off of it. They’re growing
in irrational contempt. The Jews cannot yet disprove
the miracle. They will try. But the fact that
it was done on the Sabbath seems proof enough to dismiss it out
of hand, to call it illegitimate. that God could not possibly have
had a hand in this, because to do so would be to break His own
Sabbath law, or so they reason. Look at the end of verse 16,
however, but others were saying, they’re in this meeting. After
all, it’s a Pharisees meeting. It’s been called, duly called,
and they’re there as Pharisees. But it says others, other Pharisees
were saying, just one quick question. How
can a man who’s a sinner perform such signs? Other Pharisees perhaps such
as Nicodemus, noble minded man, Joseph of Arimathea. Men who
were not so closed to the truth. who were prepared to investigate
carefully, objectively. Amazingly, there were some who
were noble enough, even in the room full of these zealots, there
were some noble enough to evaluate all the data, not just the alleged
Sabbath violation. They were concerned about that
too. But also, this alleged, this
reported restoration of eyesight. Because the fact, the fact was
a miracle, or so it surely appeared, had indeed been performed. And
they had no answer for that. And miracles were the exclusive
domain of God himself. And so, verse 16 just says, in
complete subtlety, there was a division among them. There’s
a growing wedge, even among the Pharisees. You have some ready
to string Jesus up for offending the Sabbath. Then you have others that want to pause and want to
move carefully and deliberately and slowly. Look at verse 17. So they said to the blind man
again, who, by the way, is no longer blind. What do you say
about him? Since he opened your eyes, they
basically let’s go to the source. What do you what do you think
about this guy? Never mind this argument that’s developing among
our own group. What do you think of this guy?
Who would you say that he is? And without even hesitating,
he says he’s a prophet. His faith is growing. All he
knew up to this time was that his name was Jesus, but now he
realizes how stupendous this miracle is. Never before in the
history of the world has this happened. He must be a prophet. That word doesn’t have to be
limited to the idea of a foreteller of future events, but a servant
of God, a spokesman to proclaim his message, one sent for a God-given
divine message and mission. This was a regular suggestion. to Jesus’ identity, wasn’t it? Remember the suggestion made
to Herod about Jesus’ identity. Maybe he’s a prophet. I don’t
know. When the woman’s son was raised
in Luke 7, fear gripped them all. They began glorifying God,
saying, a great prophet has risen. That’s the first place that most
people would turn, especially the Jews. So much so that in
the triumphal entry, Matthew 21, The crowds were saying, this
is the prophet Jesus. There’s a pitfall in this section
as well, isn’t there? Did you see it? An individual will never come
to a saving knowledge of the truth unless they personally
evaluate the information. That’s pitfall number one. And
unless they conduct an unbiased investigation, You have to set
self aside when you come before Christ. You have to put all your
preconceived ideas about life and the afterlife and salvation
aside when you come to Christ. The Pharisees weren’t willing
to do that, not at all. They weren’t willing to be objective
in their evaluation of Christ, and therefore they fall headlong
into this pitfall. There’s a third section. Not
only the reception of Christ and the reception rather of the
blind man and the examination of the blind man, but the third
section beginning there in verse 18 is the confrontation regarding
the healed man. The confrontation. And it involves
his own dear parents. Look at verse 18. The Jews did
not believe it of him. Nope. We don’t believe you’re
blind. And if you were, you know, we
don’t believe that some man rubbed clay on your eyes and, you know,
as simple as going and washing. This is a gradual return of your
eyesight due to some, you know, they did not believe it, would
not believe it, that he had been born blind and received sight.
And it says, until. There’s hope in that word. until
they called the parents of the very one who had received his
sight. All right, let’s bring him in, let’s examine them, and
surely they’re gonna tell us, well, it wasn’t blindness, he
wasn’t legally blind, he could drive with one eye. And they
questioned them, is this your son? who you say was born blind, is
that really? Can we see his birth certificate
where the doctor, okay. You see, now the religious leaders
begin questioning the man’s parents with a line of questions. indicating
doubt of the man’s story, that he had actually been born blind.
And if truly born in that particular condition, then surely the parents
have some reasonable explanation as to how the man received his
sight. A blow to the head, restored
sight, perhaps it wasn’t actual blindness, but really poor eyesight
that had gradually improved. Perhaps the medical profession
had provided some cure, something, anything, But a miracle, and
watch these parents, just listen, just listen in your mind’s eye
to the pronouns that are used and the plentiful use of them. His parents answered and said,
we know that this is our son. That much they’re willing to
stick to. and that he was born blind and
how he now sees, we do not know. Or who opened his eyes, we, you
know, you can just see them backing out the back door. We do not
know, ask him. He is of age, he will speak for
himself. You see, here the parents clearly
try to distance themselves from their own son. They’re not ready
perhaps to disown him. They acknowledge that he is indeed
their son and that he was indeed born blind. But now they’re ready
to fall mute on any of the other details. It’s kind of like they
take the fifth, right? Pass, right? They don’t wanna
say another word. Certainly nothing in defense
or in his support. In a sense, they don’t want anything
to do with these proceedings. They’re quite uncomfortable to
even be there. The sense that they give is that
this whole thing is none of their business. They even go so far
as to point out that he is of age, which according to Jewish
reckoning was about 30 years of age, that now he can speak
for himself. A responsible individual. He’s
a responsible adult. Not only can he speak for himself,
he can suffer whatever consequences his words elicit. Ask him. It’s
utterly sad what happens here. But we find out why in verse
22. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews.
For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him
to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. For
this reason, his parents said, he is of age, ask him. They were
cowards. John here, the writer of this
gospel under the direction of the Holy Spirit, provides the
reason for the parents’ strange behavior. All but pretending
that they don’t know their own son. And the reason is that they
were afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue. Can you imagine?
I mean, their argument might go something like this, but we’ve
been longtime members. We work in the nursery every
other Sunday. We’ve given lots of money. That
was probably the biggest part. All of our friends are there. And it was indeed a severe punishment
to be excommunicated. Even if it was only temporary,
usually it was for 30 days approximately. No ability to participate in
the community of faith. They couldn’t come within five
feet of a fellow Jew. No ability to do basic commerce,
buying and selling. But to back away from their own
son, to retreat and hide under the cover of the Jewish church,
it’s shockingly inexcusable. It’s cowardly. And for any of those who were
sitting in that room, waiting for a bold witness, these parents
did not come through. And therein lies a pitfall. An
individual will never come to saving knowledge of the truth.
unless they personally evaluate the information for themselves,
unless they conduct an unbiased investigation of the information,
and thirdly, unless they disregard the cowardly witness. And sadly,
they are all too plentiful, aren’t they? The person who will not
speak up for Christ, the person whose life does not testify of
Christ, the person who will not even admit that they are a Christian
when pushed. It’s the cowardly. It’s the parents
who would not stand up and say, yes, this is our son. And he
was absolutely blind. And we don’t know exactly how,
but our son’s not a liar. And he said that Jesus touched
his eyes and healed him. We believe him. Not these parents. They were cowardly witnesses.
And if people are going to come to Christ, they can’t be led
astray, they can’t be disheartened, they can’t be struck down by
a few or even a thousand cowardly witnesses. There’s a third section,
rather a fourth and final section. Not only the reception of the
healed man and the examination of the healed man, the confrontation
regarding the healed man, But finally, the inquisition of the
healed man, they come back to him. He probably was in the room
when his parents threw him under the bus, ran out the back door,
but there stands the man alone in a growing confidence. It’s
absolutely palpable here. Watch what happens. Look at verse
24. A second time they called the
man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.
This is a very obscure and debated saying, give glory to God. It
just can’t be as simple as telling the young man, look, you should
give God all the credit because in a very real sense, he was
giving God the credit for his healing. He’s eager to give God
the credit. The reality is that they were
not yet even convinced that a cure had occurred. They were not yet
convinced that the man had ever even really truly been blind,
let alone a miracle had taken place. And they certainly weren’t
ready to conclude that God himself had granted the cure. So they’re
not asking him to conduct an impromptu worship service on
behalf of the God who had healed him. They’re not. Basically what
they mean here, it’s a rare but recurring Old Testament phrase
that essentially means, come clean, tell the truth, glorify
God in your answer, stop with this nonsense. Joshua 7.19, 1
Samuel 6.5, Ezra 10.11, it’s a repeated phrase in the Old
Testament. Not without offering any evidence
to support their charge, though, they identified Jesus as a sinner. He did this miracle on the Sabbath,
therefore, he must be a sinner. Look at verse 25. He answered,
whether he is a sinner, I do not know. The man’s neutrality on the matter
is really noteworthy. It’s important that we acknowledge
that. He isn’t a plant for Jesus. He isn’t a shill. He isn’t a
spokesperson or even yet an advocate. He really doesn’t even know him
yet. And he certainly doesn’t know much about his character. And so he isn’t willing to deal
in conjecture. All he knows, all he has before
him, and really all he wants to review and cite and maintain
are the facts. Whether he’s a sinner, I don’t
know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.
That’s a pretty significant fact. So they go again. Verse 26, they
said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
Perhaps they were hoping to catch him in a lie. A frequent tactic
of interrogators as they interview witnesses is to go back again,
tell the story. and detail is added or left out
or omitted or changed. Perhaps they were hoping to return
to the original line of questioning. Review your testimony one more
time, sir, and tell us how you regained your eyesight. Verse
27 takes a very fascinating turn, doesn’t it? 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? I mean,
this is really, I mean, I think there’s humor in Scripture, and
I think this is one of them. The man’s tone takes a very surprising
turn. It’s impatient, for sure. I mean,
after all, he just received his eyesight, and still nobody has
rejoiced with him. All of his life, he’s been born
blind, not able to see anything but darkness. And now, suddenly,
the whole world is technicolor, and nobody will give so much
as a single praise. But his tone takes almost an
ornery, and if I may, sarcastic tone. Perhaps it’s a budding
righteous indignation. Whatever the case, he certainly
has gained confidence. He’s gained confidence in dealing
with these men that everybody else was afraid of. And when
he wonders if they want to become Jesus’ followers too, he may
not necessarily mean in addition to me, because I don’t believe
that he’s a follower. Yet, he may simply be referring to the
other faithful followers of whom he had heard, Jesus’ disciples. And so, perhaps at the tone of
the man’s voice, at the sarcasm, they revile him, verse 28, and
said, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to
Moses, but as for this man, we don’t know where he’s from. We
don’t know anything about this guy, this one. And so the man,
now you really begin to see him buffeted by God himself. Because
his reasoning is so technically precise. The man answered and
said to them, well here is an amazing thing. That you, in contrast
to all of the wheeze that they had just thrown at him, You do
not know where he is from. You’re the religious experts.
You should be the experts on miracles and the experts on those
who would come working them, prophets, what have you. You do not know where he’s 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. And the response In his response
to their brazen, we, we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke
to Moses. We do not know where this man
is from. The man just replies directly,
you. This is a young man talking to
the official religious leadership of the day. You don’t know that
he opened my eyes. It’s pointed. But he doesn’t
stop there. He says, basically, let’s reason
together, shall we? Let’s strip it all away and see
what we can agree on. We know that God does not hear
sinners. He hears the God-fearing, the
obedient, who do His will. He hears Him. We can agree on
that, can’t we? Certainly the Pharisees would
have known Proverbs 15, 29, the Lord is far from the wicked,
but he hears the prayer of the righteous. Psalm 66, if I regard
wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. We could agree, he says, on the
fact that such a thing has never happened before. We’re in totally
uncharted waters here. Nobody has ever even heard of
such a man being born blind, receiving his sight. Nobody has
ever heard this. This is absolutely unique. We can agree on that, can’t we? Not in the history of the entire
chronicle of their nation was it recorded that a man born blind
had received his sight. So the only conclusion is that
this man must be from God. There’s no way that he could
have performed this miracle, curing my blindness, unless God
himself was with him. Well, that’s it. That’s it for
the blind man. Verse 34 says that they answered
him, you were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us? You see, you wonder where Jesus’
disciples got this idea. Who sinned first, this man or
his parents? They got it from these guys. This was a principle
that they had taught frequently. These were the original health
and wealth guys, right? If you’re not doing so well physically,
financially, then you must have done something wrong, not enough
faith. And they point back to this man
and to his blindness as absolute proof That he must have sinned,
born entirely in his sins. So it says they put him out. They’re going to excommunicate
him, but look at the arrogance that precedes that action. It’s
an absolute denial of their own sin. And a shameless indictment
of this man. In essence, blaming him in full
for his blindness. You, they say. You, more than
anybody else. You, as opposed to we. You, especially
you, were born in sin. How arrogant. How arrogant these
men are. But we see in that the fourth
and final pitfall. You see, an individual will never
come to saving faith unless they personally evaluate the information.
You can’t let somebody else evaluate the claims of the gospel for
your own self. You can’t rest on something that
someone else decides or thinks through or carefully studies
through. You’ve got to interact with it,
interface with it, and you’ve got to come to Christ on your
own terms. An individual will never come to saving knowledge
of the truth unless they conduct an unbiased investigation. You’ve got to come before God,
strip away all your previous conclusions, and realize that
righteousness is not something that we achieve in time. Righteousness is something that
is imparted by faith. It’s God’s righteousness, not
your own that you want. An individual will never come
to saving faith, saving knowledge of the truth unless they disregard
the cowardly witness. I can’t tell you how many people
I’ve stood before that basically chucked. Their. Consideration of the claims of
the gospel simply because of some of the Christians that they
knew. You can’t you can’t come to Christ unless you disregard
a cowardly witness. But the fourth, an individual
will never come to a saving knowledge of the truth unless they first
acknowledge themselves to be sinners. And Jesus isn’t done
with that point. You see, the Pharisees saw themselves
as righteous. They saw themselves as not needing
even a savior. They saw themselves as being
good and right. They were above everybody else. It’s a lesson we do well to ponder
in our own day and age, to ponder in our own hearts. If you do
not know Christ, you are a sinner. If you do not know Christ, there
is absolutely no hope for you except the Lord Jesus Christ
and His righteousness. Humble yourselves before Him. Our merciful God, We come before
you so thankful that our own eyes, for those of us who know
the Lord Jesus Christ, we remember that day. We remember that day
where someone shared the gospel and we began interacting with
it in earnest for the first time in our whole lives. Lord, we
were careful about it. We began to set aside our preconceived
ideas about Christ and about salvation, about ourselves being
good people. And Lord, we had no doubt that
there were troubled Christians, people that had thrown a stumbling
block in many ways in our step. We had no doubt but to disregard
them and to move aside from them to know that that was not Christ. And finally, Father, we We came
to the point where we knew, we knew in our heart that we were
sinners. We knew in our heart that we were desperately wicked
and without hope. We saw that you had provided
the only remedy for sinners, that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
who had already paid our penalty on the cross. Lord, if there
are any who do not know Christ, grant that they Do not fall into
any of these pitfalls. Draw them graciously to Christ,
to the Savior. We pray these things in our precious
Savior’s name, our Lord Jesus Christ.