John 9:1-41 “The Sight of the Blind & the Blindness of the Sighted”

1:26So I want to listen very carefully to the next statement. Or statements. It will become very clear here in chapter 9 that Jesus is using what is physical around him to show that he himself is the light that shines out of the darkness. In other words, this morning's story is an acted-out parable using a physical object, or in this case, a person, to depict or symbolize a certain aspect of Christ. Second, he is going to use irony to contrast the blindness of the Jewish leaders with the enlightenment of the blind man.

2:33This story, second, will portray what happens when the light shines. Some are made to see, like this man that is born blind, while others who think they see turn away as if blinded by the brightness of the light. So let us explore the theme this morning: the sight of the blind and the blindness of the sighted. We're going to divide the story into three parts: how a blind man was healed, who it was that healed him, and why he was healed. How, who, and why.

3:26Let's unpack the first piece. How was the blind man healed of blindness? Verse 1. As he, Jesus, passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. The blind man at the center of this miracle is physically blind from birth. Now, as we look at our acted-out parable, the man's condition is a picture that human beings are what? They are spiritually blind from birth. Keep that in mind. Because Christ is using the beggar's blindness as an illustration of the spiritual darkness that grips the world and can only be alleviated.

4:30By the work of him giving sight, giving light. Okay. Notice also in verse 1, this is very, very important. There is no indication, none, that this man cried out to Jesus, nor did he do anything to draw Jesus' attention. In fact, from start to finish in this story, and you'll see it again later in 35: salvation, restoration of this man was at the initiative of Jesus Christ. Verse 2, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents? That he was born blind?

5:26In verse 2, Jesus isn't interested in answering the question, who sinned? Nor does his answer in verses 3 through 5 imply that God heartlessly inflicted blindness on a newborn baby. Rather, Jesus is more interested in turning his disciples' attention to the divine purpose, verse 3, that the Works of God might be displayed in him and to their need to get about the work of ministry. Verse 4: We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.

6:21The response of the Lord is directed more to their attitudes and their actions than to some type of doctrinal instruction. Rather than argue, debate, and question who has sinned, Jesus wants them and Jesus wants us to look at every situation we face as an opportunity for God to manifest his grace. Now, in verse 6, the healing of this man employs what is readily at hand, dust and spit. All right, children, think about this for a second. You get something smudgy on your face. Okay? What happens?

7:16If you have a little brother and sister, your mom or dad reach in and get a diaper wipe and wipe your face off because it's available. It's ready at hand. And if they don't have that, have you ever seen? Them grab a piece of paper or Kleenex and what do they do? Many of you should have remembered this. All Jesus is using is doing what is readily at hand. Verse 7. I want you to notice three things about verse 7. Go wash in the pool of siloam.

7:53So the blind man went and washed and came back seeing. First, this is very intentional by John. John uses the pool of siloam. Siloam means sent to symbolize Christ as the sent one. D.A. Carson notes in his commentary: the deeper meaning is surely this: that for spiritual cleansing, one must go to the true siloam, that is, to the one who was sent by the Father to save sinners. Verse 7, first comment. Second, at no time, notice this, did Jesus promise to heal the blind man, nor does he tell the crowd that a great miracle is about to occur.

8:57As far as we can tell, the miracle took place. When this blind man was alone washing his eyes. Finally, number three, some will say, and it is not true, going to wash his eyes was not an act of faith. It was not an act of faith on the part of the blind man. Now, children, I thought I would help you out by giving you a better example today with your parents so their parents would understand because you'll get this. I really thought that what I should do is go get a can of shaving cream, walk out in the audience, pick one of my friends, and put a big dollop of shaving cream on top of his head.

9:47Now, what would that person do? Just sit there and go through the rest of the sermon like this? No, that person would feel compelled to run to the bathroom and get rid of it. Doing so was not an act of faith on their part. It was just a necessity. When this blind man has spit mud in his eyes, he's got to go wash it out. It's crusty. It's not nice. This isn't an act of faith. He's merely getting rid of this mud that some guy named Jesus has put on his eyes. And remember, he was not told that he was getting ready to be healed.

10:30So he's just wandering over to Siloam to get rid of the mud in his eyes. So before we go on to who it was that healed this blind man, I want to approach one quick practical application: blindness and sin. Why was this man born blind? The answer to that question is what we call theodicy. Theodicy is the attempt by man to vindicate God given that there's evil in the world. We have to explain or justify why there's evil in the world to defend God.

11:10A blind beggar was a familiar sight in the streets of Jerusalem. And the disciples had to come up with some type of simple theodicy to explain why there were blind beggars in the streets because they needed to defend or vindicate God. They know it's not God's fault. So what kind of defense did they come up with? They came up with this simple theodicy. Suffering is the result of sin. It's not God's fault. Now, in the disciples' defense, we know that they are partially correct.

11:53There is a connection between sin and sickness, because all sins are sincere. Sickness is the result of man's fall, Genesis 3. We do know that sometimes sickness is the direct result of sin in the life of the individual. The scriptures speak to that in Leviticus 26, 16, Deuteronomy 28, 22, James 5, 15, and a host of other passages. And we also know, Exodus 25 being an example, that sometimes sickness is due to the sins of the parents affecting their children.

12:36Yet, brothers and sisters, there is not always a connection between sin and sickness. Derek Thomas, in his sermon on this passage, used the example of AIDS to explain that lack of connection. There are two ways one can contract AIDS. One can contract by being sexually promiscuous. If you contract, if you're sexually promiscuous and get AIDS, it is your fault. But you can get AIDS through no fault of your own. You could contract AIDS through a spouse who's being sexually promiscuous or had been. You could get AIDS through a blood transfusion you need for a surgery. Or if you're in the medical field, you could get AIDS caring for a person. Person with AIDS.

13:33Do you see the difference? There is a connection sometimes between sin and sickness, and sometimes there is not. That's the explanation of how this blind man was healed of blindness. Let us now consider the various arguments about who it was that healed this man. In verse 8, the neighbors were the first to notice the amazing change in the blind man, but they couldn't agree or interpret what had happened. They said, Isn't this the man that used to sit and beg? Some agree that it is, but others said, Well, it kind of looks like the guy that used to sit and beg. And so, this whole time, you have these groups going, I don't know if this is the guy. No, this is the guy. I don't know if this is the guy. I don't know if this. And the whole time, my former blind man is sitting there going, Hello, I'm here. You're talking around me. It is me.

14:41In verses 10 through 12, the neighbors now press him to explain how his eyes were opened, who opened his eyes, and where is this man? When he tells them he does not know where Jesus is in verse 13, they take him. Send him. They take him to the higher authorities to ask these authorities what they should make of this healing. The meeting that he is taken to is not a meeting of the Sanhedrin in its formal sense, but it's not an informal gathering either. It's likely a smaller group of Pharisees within the Sanhedrin who meet as kind of a preliminary hearing to kind of adjudicate, to kind of determine: is there some greater, sufficient reason to take action against the person who healed this blind man?

15:43But the evidence that is presented creates a serious dilemma for the Pharisees. The Pharisees cannot unify their ranks. And without unity, they can't present a united front against Jesus. Some recognize that such a great work could not be anything other than from God. Another group concluded that Jesus could never have done this because he's a sinner and sinners can't heal. So, in frustration, they go back and turn to the blind man again. What do you think of Jesus? And without hesitation, The blind man says in verse 17, he is a prophet.

16:36Well, this answer is not a whole lot better than the confusion that they had. And so they now said, you know what, we're going to do? We're going to turn to this man's parents in verses 18 and 19. We're going to go check up. Because what they're going to say is, is this, their parents can clearly confirm that this man was born blind, that he was blind at the time of this alleged healing, and they might even be able to shed some light on how he became healed. So they turned to the parents.

17:10Shame on the parents. The parents completely abandon him. And they abandoned him because they know, if you see in verse 22, the Pharisees had already put out word that anyone who acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah would be excommunicated out of the synagogue. So the parents know this. So in 21 through 23, the parents confirm the fact that this man was their son and that he had, in fact, been born blind. As to who healed him, how it was accomplished, we have no idea. No idea. And if the Pharisees really want to know more, what they need to do is ask their son. Son. He's of age, and he can speak for himself.

18:09Well, despite this testimony of the parents, the Pharisees are still divided. So they call the blind man back to appear for a second time. What they really do, we're speculating, is they suspect that there has been something hidden from them. So in verse 24, they tell the man, give glory to God. Well, in that day's context, that statement meant, before God, own up and admit the truth. That's what they were saying to him. The man doesn't, in verse 25, he doesn't even try to interpret what happened. So he says two things. He says two things. Before he was blind, now I can see.

19:03Well, Pharisees don't like that explanation either. So in verse 26, they ask the man to repeat once more how the miracle was concluded. And this exasperates the man. I already told you, and you do not listen, verse 27. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciple? That phrase, do you also, may be significant, for it may mean that this man had progressed from this is Jesus to this man is a prophet to, man, maybe I should become a disciple of this guy.

19:50But it appears, and it appears that the Pharisees, verse 28, think the same thing because they said they referred to him as a disciple of Jesus. But we, the Pharisees, we are not a disciple of Jesus, verse 28. We are disciples of Moses. They assumed that their traditions to be part of God's law, they thought that Moses was on their side, which meant that Jesus was a Sabbath breaker, a sinner, and he could not have healed.

20:17And so, by their definition, anyone that was not of Moses could never be sent from God. Knowing that they had no interest in the facts and that the Pharisees were simply looking for some loophole to make room for their preconceived ideas, the former blind man speaks out not having been asked to speak, but he becomes sarcastic. He turns the table on the Pharisees. Why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We see that God. Does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listen to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

21:22In other words, how could these Pharisees possibly conclude that he was not sent from God when he did what no other prophet had ever done? And how could they defend their position as religious leaders when they had no explanation for this man's appearance or this man's actions? As a side note, the Pharisees, in the midst of this debate back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, who healed this man, they forgot something because they're convinced Jesus is a charlatan and Jesus may be worse. He's a dangerous sinner. But they forget the ancient promise that one of the signs of the dawning of the Messianic age was the restoration of the sight to the blind.

22:20And that shows up in three or four chapters within the book of Isaiah. Also, like when they Pharisees got into a bait, the religious leaders got into a bait with Stephen, whose forceful rebuke of the Jews they were unable to withstand in Acts chapter 6. These Pharisees cannot refute what this blind man has said. So, guess what they do? They do the only thing they have the power to do: get out of the synagogue, just kick him out. I can't win the argument, but I can kick you out of the synagogue. And along the way, they said, You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us? And then they kick him out.

23:09Before we look at why the blind man was healed, allow me to highlight another practical application for us that will come from this second point here: blindness and systems. Blindness and systems. The text exposes the real reason why men reject Jesus as their Savior. It is not an intellectual problem, it is a moral problem. There was no deficiency in the evidence. The problem was that the Pharisees rejected the sheer weight of evidence because it did not conform to their preconceived ideas as to what should be happening, what should be the conclusion. They had devised a religious system.

24:00Which outwardly seemed to comply with the Old Testament revelation, but really their system defined God under their control. The reason they rejected Jesus was because He did not conform to their preferences as to what God should be like. They had created a God in their own image rather than confirming their theology to what God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. And so it is with us today. People say, I like to think of God as, or God must be, and that's precisely their problem. It doesn't really matter what you wish to think of God.

24:59The destiny determining reality is that we must worship God in spirit and in truth. When God does not conform to our preferences, our preferences must give way to the precepts of the Word of God. Friends, this is a word of warning. Any set of preferences that you have. Which attempt to define who God is, how God is supposed to act, and how one is saved independent of the scriptures is a false religious system. Those are the various arguments about who healed the blind man. I now want to consider why the blind man was healed. In this text, verses 35 through 41, we'll set forth two purposes: salvation and blindness.

26:12Just as our Lord initiated the restoration of the sight to this blind man, what does he do? Verse 35. He now seeks him out to give him spiritual sight. I want you to remember: has the blind man ever seen Jesus? No. He never saw Jesus. He goes, he washes his eyes out, and all of a sudden he comes back seeing, and Jesus is gone. He's never seen Jesus. But who seeks him out? Jesus does. He doesn't seek Jesus.

27:00When our Lord found this man, he asked him in verse 35, do you believe in the Son of Man? The Son of Man being a euphemism, do you believe in the Messiah? The former blind man kind of accepted Jesus as a spokesman for God because he's a prophet. He had to be a prophet because he did something. But who's the Messiah? I don't know who the Messiah is. The former blind man was open to believing, but he had not yet placed his faith in Jesus. So in verse 36, he says, Who is the Messiah that I might believe?

27:38The one whom told him to wash his eyes. The one whom he now beheld with his restored eyes. The one to whom he spoke. That one was the Messiah. And with this revelation, the man fell at the feet of Jesus in verse 38 and worshiped him. And with this bending of the knees, the blind man received spiritual sight, which we, of course, know as salvation. Now, why, while the healed man bent his knees, the Pharisees watching stiffened their necks in rebellion and resistance. Back to what I'd said earlier. Verse 35 through 41, salvation.

28:30Blindness. Now we're going to talk about blindness. Our Lord's coming resulted not only in the restoration of the sight to the blind, but also blindness of those who profess to see. Verse 39, for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Now, some of you said, there's a contradiction here. Jesus didn't come to condemn men, he came to save men. We see that in John 3, John 12. Our Lord's purpose in coming was to accomplish salvation. This is contradictory. Yes, but in the process of coming as the light of the world, he also exposes the blindness of men. Let me give you an analogy. If I were to go across the street in the evening, after hours, to work in the system office, I'll twiddle up, not to the sixth floor where Brian Bricker is, I'll go up to the seventh floor where I offer it. And if I'm working away and I happen to look out at the parking lot where all the SUVs for the system are parked, and I see someone crawling underneath there removing a catalytic converter, you know, one of the things that's happening a lot.

29:52My call to the police, if they get there quickly enough, would result in the thief's arrest. What was done for one primary purpose? Purpose, I went to the office to work, may result in something different, an arrest of a thief. Such is the case with the coming of Christ as the light of the world. He came to accomplish salvation, but it also results in blindness. So, one more thing in this text I want you to notice. Many do not notice it, but it's here. The offended Pharisees in verse 40 are not of the same mindset of the Pharisees who had just put the former blind man out of the synagogue.

30:42The Pharisees in verse 40, I'm going to put them over here, are the Pharisees near him. The question asked by this group of Pharisees, are we also blind, sets them apart from the other Pharisees. Are we also blind like these Pharisees? They're asking Jesus something like this. Wait a minute, when you speak of the other Pharisees being judged by being made blind, you're not talking about us also, are you? The second group are with Jesus. This second group is not trying to arrest Jesus or have him put to death. They're not the same Pharisees who expelled him out of the Synagogue.

31:33Unfortunately, our Lord's response to these Pharisees is not of much comfort to the Pharisees near him. Jesus does not say to these men, Oh, I'm not talking about you, only about them. Instead, Jesus says to these near him: if you were blind, that is, in the sense that I have spoken of blindness as a lost condition that cries out for illumination, you would not be guilty of sin because you're dead in your sins. You're blind. But now that you claim to see, you are satisfied with the light of the law as interpreted by your received traditions, and consequently you reject the true light when it shines upon you. As a result, your guilt remains.

32:37It is not enough for these Pharisees to be around Jesus and to distance themselves from the more radical element of the other Pharisees. In order to be saved, for their sins to be forgiven, for them to receive spiritual light, they must. Acknowledge that they are blind. They must renounce Phariseeism as a false system of salvation by works. And they must embrace Jesus and place their faith in His work as guilty sinners. To do anything else would cause them to remain in their sins.

33:29So our story ends with the one who is blind having his eyes opened and coming to faith in Jesus Christ. It also ends with those who thought they could see being confirmed in their blindness. Allow me to highlight another practical application: blindness and salvation. I alluded to at the very beginning of this, this is an acted-out parable. I want to tie four items together from the story to how one comes to faith in Christ. Like this blind man, we are spiritually blind from birth.

34:17Like this blind man, Jesus seeks us out to save us. We do not seek him because Ephesians 2 says, We're dead in our trespasses and sin. Last time I checked, you know, the analogy of the man who went over into the water and is swimming. And all you got to do is throw the life preserver out, and if you just reach out and grab the gospel, you can save yourself. Well, the problem is that man in the water is floating upside down. When you throw the life preserver out, it hits them on the head and bounces. They can't reach it. Number two, like this blind man, Jesus seeks us out while we're dead in our trespasses and sin. Number three, Jesus gives us spiritual sight, he enables us to be born again to be able to exercise faith. And then, number four, having been born again, he gives us the faith to see. This man had spiritual, he gets physical sight before he gets spiritual sight. And many of us will be born again, and that process of borning again will include giving the faith to be able to exercise. All we need is the Holy Spirit to open our eyes so that we can be saved. And when our eyes are opened, what is it that we see? We see the same thing this man saw when he believed and he worshiped. This blind man was not saved when he went to wash his eyes. This blind man was not saved when he testified of Jesus as being the one who healed him. This blind man was not saved when he even might become a disciple of Jesus. He was saved when he believed, bowed, and worshiped.

36:14Let me ask you, friend, have you seen the light? Have you come to recognize your sin, your helplessness, your blindness to spiritual truth, your deadness to doing the works of God? Have you acknowledged Jesus as the one sent by the Father to die on the cross of Calvary for you, bearing the guilt and penalty of your sins? Let me urge you to come to the light, to trust in Jesus Christ as God's only provision for lost sinners to be saved and for the spiritually blind to see.

37:03So we have explored this morning our theme, the sight of the blind and the blindness of the sighted. We divided the acted-out parable about the healing of the blind man into how he was healed, who it was that healed him, and why he was healed. I want to close with one more practical application this morning: blindness and suffering. Jesus says very clearly. Clearly, to the answer to the disciples' question in verse 2 of why the man was born blind, verse 3, these things have happened in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.

37:46Brothers and sisters, there is always a purpose in suffering. Some of you this morning may be going through unimaginable suffering, trouble. The story of this blind man, listen very carefully, who suffered blindness from birth and suffered blindness for two or three decades. This story is written for you. It is written to underline that God has a purpose in suffering. Now, I can't tell you exactly what that purpose is. Sometimes the purpose of suffering is to grow us in Christ's likeness. Romans 8:28, and we know for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Sometimes the purpose of the suffering is to bring glory to God Himself.

38:50Jesus deliberately, we'll find out later in chapter 11, waited for his friend Lazarus to die rather than heal him of the sickness. In order for God to be glorified. And sometimes the purpose of suffering, like it is in this story, is for salvation itself because it chops our legs out from underneath us. Whatever the purpose for your suffering, I think this story clearly teaches us that Jesus is most concerned about the answer to this question: How can God be glorified in the midst of our suffering?

39:34I'm going to challenge you as you're in the midst of suffering, instead of wallowing in sorrow, grief, and self-pity, instead of trying to figure out who's to blame for the suffering you're enduring. I want you to understand that the ultimate goal of suffering is not our happiness, it's not freedom from pain, it is not freedom from trials, it is not freedom from tribulation. And the one who is saying this and who declares this, Jesus. He's the one declaring this in verse 3. Jesus is the same one who came, who gave up the most to come out of heaven. He took on human flesh, he took on himself the sins of Those he's going to save. He suffered the wrath of God for those same sinners.

40:38That person who declared this is telling us that the ultimate goal of our suffering is the manifestation of God's glory by the fulfillment of his purposes and by the doing of his works. I challenge you to think this: if God chooses to use suffering in our lives to get us to glorify him, I challenge you to lovingly accept because it is well worth the price to see that God is glorified. Let us pray. Lord, this is an amazing story.

41:29We have a clear picture of our condition at birth. We have a clear picture of how you seek us out. We have a clear picture of how you give us sight and faith to believe. There are going to be others here in this room who have never placed their faith in Jesus Christ. May they see the Their sin, their inability to save themselves, and to place their trust in Christ's perfect and completed work on the cross, and then place their faith in that work, and then trust and follow Him.

42:16There are others in this room who have crafted a system of belief that God must be like, that God is like, not because the scriptures say, but because we want God to be like that. May those be convicted that that's creating a false system. The only truth, the only true vision of who you are is what the scriptures reveal. May we mine the scriptures. And last, there are brothers and sisters in here who are suffering right now.

42:57While we do not know the reason or purpose for this suffering, we do know that much like Job, despite the loss of family, of wealth, and of health, our purpose in enduring suffering is that we, in the midst of our suffering, would say, You are worthy of our worship. Even if we suffer, may those of us who are not suffering reach out to those who are to support them, to pray for them, and to encourage them that their suffering is a perfect opportunity to glorify God in a world that is without hope, light, or peace.

44:04We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.