Seeing and Believing

Well, if you would, please take your Bibles and open them up to the Gospel of John this

morning.

The Gospel of John.

We are continuing our series through John's Gospel.

We've made our way to John chapter 9 this morning, and when you found that in your Bible,

John 9 · chapter mention

if you would stand and follow along with me as I read John chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

Let's stand together out of reverence for the Word of God.

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 was born blind?

Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might

be displayed in him.

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.

Night is coming when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva.

Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam,

which means sent.

So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, Is this not the man

who used to sit and beg?

Some said, It is he.

Others said, No, but he is like him.

He kept saying, I am the man.

So they called to him, Then how were your eyes opened?

He answered, The man called Jesus, made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, Go to

Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed and received my sight.

They said to him, Where is he?

He said, I do not know.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.

Now, it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.

So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight.

And he said to them, He put mud on my eyes and I washed and I see.

Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.

But others said, How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?

And there was a division among them.

So they said again to the blind man, What do you say about him, since he has opened your

eyes?

He said, He is a prophet.

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they

called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, Is this your son

who you say was born blind?

How then does he now see?

His parents answered, We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.

But how he now sees, we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes.

Ask him.

He is of age.

He will speak for himself.

His parents said these things because they feared the Jews.

For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ, he was

to be put out of the synagogue.

Therefore, his parents said, He is of age.

Ask him.

So for the 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 answered, Whether he's a sinner, I do not know.

One thing I do know, though I was blind, now I see.

They said to him, What did he do to you?

How did he open your eyes?

He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen.

Why do you want to hear it again?

Do you also want to become his disciples?

And they reviled him, saying, 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 comes

from.

The man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing.

You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does

his will, God listens 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.

They answered him, You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?

And they cast him out.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in

the Son of Man?

He answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?

Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.

He said, Lord, I believe.

And he worshipped him.

Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and

those who see may become blind.

Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind?

Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt.

But now that you say we see, your guilt remains.

This is God's word.

Please be seated and let's pray together.

Father, Lord, we pray now, even thanking you for your work of salvation and the gift

of spiritual sight, we thank you that you have opened up our eyes.

We pray now again for clear sight as we look to Christ and his word.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

How clearly do you see the worth of Jesus?

One of the most popular hymns over the past 350 years is no doubt John Newton's work, Amazing

Grace.

I'd be willing to bet most of us know probably all of the words to that song, at least the

first line.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found was what?

Help me.

I was blind, but now I see.

John Newton, he was not physically blind.

In fact, his eyes, they worked just fine.

But something had drastically changed in his life.

Before his conversion, he was a slave trader.

He spent most of his life out at sea as a sailor.

And by all accounts, he was mean.

He was foul.

He was nasty.

He acted and talked and lived like a sailor.

But by the amazing grace of God, the Lord opened up his eyes, not physically, but spiritually,

opened up his eyes to see his sin and to see the beauty of the Savior.

And he believed.

So he wrote a famous hymn alongside many others that proclaimed the amazing grace of God.

I once was lost, now I'm found, was blind, but now I see.

We resonate with that song because that's the testimony of every single believer.

Well, this morning, we see a story of God's amazing grace.

This is a story of the lost being found.

It's a story of the blind being given sight.

But in fact, we actually, it's two stories here this morning that run in parallel.

It's a story of blindness in sight.

One is physical and the other is spiritual.

So first, let's look at the physical miracle of blindness to sight.

This is a beautiful picture, a beautiful lesson of sin, suffering, and God's mercy towards sinners.

Last chapter, John chapter 8, Jesus had just escaped death.

John 8 · chapter mention

If you remember, he made this proclamation, before Abraham was, I am.

And the Jews understood that he was claiming to be equal with God.

So they picked up stones to throw at him.

And somehow, we're not told how, somehow he escaped.

And we don't know how much time has elapsed here between the end of chapter 8 and the beginning of chapter 9.

But chapter 9 says that as he passed by, he saw a man who had been blind from the time he was born.

This man, he was born with a life-altering disability.

And we're not told really anything more about this man's life before this point.

But you can imagine the difficulty of being born blind, of going through your life, not able to see any part of God's creation.

And not being able to see anything that's going on around you.

Having no awareness of your surroundings physically.

Not being able to see where you're going, what's ahead of you.

His entire life was marked by dependence and vulnerability.

And here we see in verse 8 that apparently he had taken to begging.

We'll encounter his parents later on, but I just want to say now, I'm not too impressed with this man's parents.

Apparently, he was cast out.

They were no longer providing for him.

He was on his own, on the street, begging, hoping that someone might see him and care for him.

But it's a sad picture, isn't it?

And when you think about that sad description of this man's life, you might wonder, what kind of life is that?

What went wrong here?

Whose fault is it?

What did he do to deserve this?

And I wonder if you ever think that way.

Maybe when you drive into downtown and you see someone on the side of the road begging.

Someone who's homeless.

Someone whose life has fallen apart.

Begging for money.

Begging for food.

I wonder, do you ever wonder what happened here?

What went wrong in their life?

Whose fault is this?

Because as far as we can tell to our limited understanding,

this looks, visibly looks, like the judgment of God.

That's exactly what the disciples thought.

So they asked Jesus, look there to verse 2.

They said, Rabbi, who sinned?

This man or his parents?

That he was born blind.

Whose fault is it?

Who sin caused this blindness?

Either the parents or somehow this man had sinned in the womb because he'd been blind his whole life.

Whose fault is it?

The parents or this man?

The disciples, I believe the disciples had a faulty and incomplete, maybe an underdeveloped theology of sin and suffering.

So we need to address this because all of us live in a world that is marked by sin and suffering.

All of us individually are marked by sin and suffering.

We need to understand and think about this biblically and understand what God says about these things.

Well, the truth is that generally speaking, all suffering is a result of sin.

Right?

All suffering, physical or otherwise, is a direct consequence of sin.

Sin is the explanation for all of the disease, all of the sickness, all of the suffering in the world.

If there were no sin in the world, there would be no suffering in the world.

And we should know that sometimes suffering is a direct consequence of our sin.

Personal sin in our life.

We know this, don't we?

If we choose to drink ourselves drunk and then get behind the wheel of a car and we drive our car into a ditch,

that is directly a consequence of our sinful actions.

If we choose to cheat on our spouse and our marriage falls apart,

that is directly a consequence of our sinful actions.

Sometimes suffering is directly a consequence of sin.

We see that throughout the scriptures as well, though.

Sometimes throughout the scriptures we see God will inflict judgment on particular individuals for specific sins in their life.

You think of Uzzah who touches the ark and immediately he's struck down on the spot.

Or you think of Ananias and Sapphira who sold their field.

They kept some of the money back to themselves.

They lied about it and immediately struck down on the spot.

You think of the prophets over and over and over and over throughout the prophets in the Old Testament.

They say you're going into exile because of your sin.

There's a connection here.

Because of your sin, God is bringing judgment on your life.

We should know sometimes God does bring affliction directly as a result of particular sin in our life.

But more often, most often, I would say, that correlation between sin and consequence is not always clear.

The truth is that sin is messy.

It's unclear.

We want things to be black and white.

We want to understand why.

But the reality of living in a sin-cursed world is that we deal with the effects and the consequences of sin often without understanding.

Often without a clear explanation of why things are happening the way they are.

We know that suffering generally is a result of sin.

But we often are left wondering, well, why me?

Why this person?

Why this way?

Why like this?

Why right now?

Why this difficult?

And experience would tell us that sometimes, oftentimes, it's the most righteous people that seem to suffer most,

while those who are wicked seem to be doing just fine.

I just got back yesterday from my grandmother's funeral.

And I want to say I appreciate so much your prayers for us, for our family.

I appreciate your support during this time.

She was, without a doubt, she was one of the most godly people I know.

She was a saint.

And over the past few years, as she suffered, cancer was eating her up.

She suffered greatly.

Whenever I would speak with her on the phone or go to visit her,

she would say to me, I just don't know why I'm suffering like this.

I don't know why God has chosen to have me endure this pain, this suffering.

I don't know why.

I just can't seem to get well.

But what I do know is that God is good and that God has a purpose in this.

That's what she said to me.

Now, we have to approach suffering and sickness with humility.

That often we don't know specific answers that we want to know.

We don't know specific reasons that we want to know.

But rather than dwelling on what we don't know, we ought to cling to what we do know.

Namely, that God knows.

That God is good.

That God is wise.

That God is sovereign.

That God is worthy of our trust.

That God is at work even in what we often deem to be meaningless, empty suffering.

This is exactly what Jesus teaches the disciples.

Here, in verse 3.

Look there with me.

Jesus says,

It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but there's a purpose here.

There's a God-ordained purpose in this man's disability and suffering.

What is it?

That the works of God might be displayed in him.

Think about that for a moment.

That, I think, it's transformative for how we understand suffering and sickness and disability.

Why was this man born blind?

That's the question.

Jesus says,

His disability was given to him by God so that God's works might be displayed through him.

Could it be that we often spend so much time asking,

Why God?

Why me?

When the biggest why has already been answered.

In some way, we know God is at work in our suffering.

He's at work in our disability.

He's at work in our difficulty, in our pain.

In some way, to display his glory.

Instead of asking why, we ought to ask God,

How?

How can you use this, even this, to demonstrate your works?

How can you use this to demonstrate your glory?

As we know, the fact is that God delights to make his glory known in weakness, doesn't he?

God loves to demonstrate his works in what the rest of the world deems unworthy.

I think of several in our own congregation.

I hesitate to say your names because I don't want to embarrass you,

but I know that so many of you are facing different effects of sin.

Whether mentally, sin has come in and clouded your thoughts and made thinking very difficult for you.

Or maybe physically, you're dealing physically with the effects, the weights of sin.

When you're struggling emotionally, you're struggling with loss, with sadness, with grief.

And you often ask, What's the reason for this?

Why am I going through this pain?

This passage teaches us, doesn't it, that none of it is wasted.

For the non-believer, our suffering is a warning light.

It's a warning sign that something is not right here.

You are bearing the effects of sin, the consequence of sin.

Things are not as they should be.

But for the non-believer, this suffering in this world is just a tip of the iceberg for those who don't trust in the Lord.

For the believer, though, we can take comfort, can't we?

In knowing that in some way, now or in eternity, the glory of God will be displayed through our suffering.

How?

Now, let's think about some ways how here.

For one, we know that suffering shapes godly character.

Romans chapter 5, Paul says,

Romans 5 · chapter mention

We rejoice in our sufferings.

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.

Endurance produces character.

Character produces hope.

There's an explosive chain reaction of godliness that begins with the spark of suffering.

And God is glorified as we're made more like him, as we're made more like Jesus through suffering.

We know that suffering deepens dependence.

And the fact is, when everything's going well, when we're healthy, happy, and all is right in our world,

we are much more likely to say, well, I think I got this.

I think that I'm okay on my own.

But God is glorified when we turn from our own self of sense of self-sufficiency and call out to him.

Lean on him.

Lean on him and depend on him and his strength in our suffering.

And as we do, you know what happens?

Our suffering becomes a powerful witness to the glory of God.

The world doesn't understand suffering with joy.

The world doesn't understand suffering with hope.

But we do suffer in hope because we know that ultimately, those who trust in the Lord,

our suffering will glorify God when we are miraculously delivered.

Maybe now.

Maybe in this life we pray, we long, we want, we desire to be healed here and now in this life.

But our hope ultimately is for all who trust in the Lord that we will certainly be delivered in eternity.

And when we get there, we'll know that all of our suffering, no matter how deep, no matter how difficult,

no matter how painful, all of it was light and momentary in light of eternity.

How many believers?

How many suffering infirmities, suffering disabilities, suffering sickness and weakness,

like this man who the world has laughed at, scoffed at, tossed aside, rejected.

How many of them will stand and shout and rejoice and worship our God

in the presence of those who ridiculed them here on earth

when the Lord returns and makes them well?

And ultimately, that's our hope.

That's when God's redeeming power will be demonstrated in full.

Well, this man, this man was healed of his physical blindness.

Jesus said in verse 4,

For we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, night is coming,

when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

I'm here to bring light.

I'm here to work the work of God.

I'm here to bear witness to the glory of God.

And this man has suffered for years for this very purpose.

And then he did something very strange in verse 6.

It says,

He spit on the ground and made mud with his saliva.

And he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and sent him away to go wash his eyes in the pool.

And a miracle happened.

He did as Jesus asked.

He went and washed and he came back seeing.

He was blind, but now he sees.

It's an incredible display of the saving mercy of Christ.

For the rest of this passage, I think it shows us that this physical healing was just a small picture of something much, much bigger.

It's representative of a much bigger healing for those who trust in the Lord.

The rest of this passage, it shows us that this man is being brought to spiritual sight,

while others around him are still stuck in blindness.

This is our second point this morning.

The rest of our passage is a display of spiritual blindness and spiritual sight.

Look there at verse 8.

Verse 8 says that the neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, they were all confused.

Is this the man who used to sit here and beg?

These neighbors, you might imagine, they likely passed by this man almost daily.

They would see him there begging on the street.

They were deeply familiar with his life before this encounter with Christ.

And now they see him after this encounter with Christ.

They see him and he sees them.

And they see that he sees them.

And they're trying to wrap their minds around what's happening here because they saw his condition before and after.

So he spoke up and said, yes, it's me.

I see you looking at me.

I hear you talking about me.

I am the man.

And they asked him, well, how were your eyes opened?

Look what happens.

He tells them.

He bore witness to the saving mercy of Jesus.

He said, this man called Jesus, he came to me.

I didn't come to him.

He saw me.

I didn't see him.

He saw me and came to me.

And he did this crazy thing with mud in my eyes.

And I did exactly what he told me to do.

And now I see.

This is, I think, the simple, irrefutable power of a personal transformation.

It's a simple, undeniable witness of what God has done in this person's life.

What's yours?

One thing's for sure.

When something supernatural like this happens, the world takes note.

You can't ignore this.

A miracle has happened.

And this was an opportunity now for this man, this healed man, to bear witness.

Now, you should know as we read this, that if you have been brought from spiritual blindness

to spiritual sight, you should know that just like this man, you now have a story to tell.

You have a testimony of personal transformation.

You have an opportunity to bear witness to the work of God in you.

You know, those who know you best, those who saw the before and now see the after, they will ask you,

what's happened to you?

And if ever your friends or your family, they ask you,

well, isn't this the same person who used to join us in our sin?

Isn't that the same person who used to get angry at us and chew us out and cuss us out?

Isn't this the same person that used to go out and party with us and drink with us?

Isn't this the same person that used to go sleep around and walk around town?

That's an opportunity for you to say, I am that person.

That's me.

But I have been changed.

I didn't see Jesus.

Jesus saw me.

I didn't come to Jesus.

Jesus came to me.

I was blind.

I was poor.

I was rejected.

But Jesus has changed all of that.

Jesus has opened up my eyes.

So now I see his glory and everything is different for me now.

It's an opportunity to say, this man, Jesus, sought me out and opened up my eyes.

That's what this man is doing here.

He's bearing witness to the transformation that's happened in his life.

Well, that answer apparently wasn't quite good enough, was it?

So these neighbors, they took him to the Pharisees.

The Pharisees, rather than glorifying God for the miracle that's been done, they began an interrogation.

Because this miracle happened on the Sabbath day.

And we've seen this crop up before, haven't we?

Jesus, he healed the paralytic man on the Sabbath day.

That didn't sit well with the authorities then either.

And here we go again.

In their oral law, not the written word of God, not the law of God, in their oral tradition, healing was forbidden on the Sabbath day.

And the rule was, unless the person was near death, it could wait a day.

So that's strike number one.

Jesus healed this blind man.

He'd been blind from birth.

He could wait another day.

That's strike number one.

Strike number two, they thought, some of them thought that anointing of the eyes was forbidden on the Sabbath day.

So the way that he went about this healing was strike number two.

Strike number three is hilarious to me.

Some of them thought that the kneading of dough was forbidden on the Sabbath day.

And so the argument went, well, the way that he spat on the ground and made this kind of,

he was kneading this cake-like mixture with the mud,

that didn't sit well with them.

Strike number three is too far for some of the Pharisees.

So they began to argue amongst themselves.

There's a division brewing.

Some said, well, he can't be from God.

He doesn't keep the Sabbath.

Others said, well, but he's doing these amazing things.

How can a sinner do such signs?

They argued back and forth, back and forth, back and forth,

before they finally looked to the man who actually experienced the miracle.

And you can imagine, here he is, probably just sitting back enjoying everything he's seen.

He's never seen an argument before.

And they asked him, what do you say about him?

He said, well, he is a prophet.

That answer didn't sit well with them either.

So they called him the parents of the man who had been born blind.

I already told you I'm not a big fan of these parents.

And they give me another reason why, right here.

The Pharisees asked his parents, well, is this your son?

How can he now see?

Help us understand what's happening here.

And his parents now, rather than rejoicing that their son has been healed,

you'd think that'd be an opportunity to celebrate, to rejoice, to praise God.

Rather than backing him up, his parents plead the fifth.

They say, we don't know.

Yes, that's our son.

Yes, he was blind.

But how he sees now, I don't know.

He's old enough.

Go talk to him.

John tells us they did this because they were watching their words very, very carefully.

Because at this point, the Jews had decided anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ

would be removed from the synagogue.

They were protecting themselves from the dangers and the consequence of social exclusion.

So they said, well, have you talked to our son?

Ironically, I think the irony of this account is that I don't think either of these two parties could see clearly.

The Pharisees and the parents, both of them are spiritually blind.

So they called back into the room the only one who could see.

It said in verse 24, give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner.

See, they've already drawn their conclusion, haven't they?

And they're just looking for someone to back it up.

At this point, the blind man, he's probably a little tired from all the questioning.

He's ready to go out and enjoy his new sight, go ready to see the world.

And so he, again, bears witness.

He says, I don't know what you're talking about.

And whether he's a sinner, I don't know.

How am I supposed to know?

All I know is that I was blind and now I see.

And they said, well, tell us how that happened again.

And he said, well, I've already told you.

And you wouldn't listen.

Why do you want to hear it again?

Do you also want to become his disciples?

And here's where things start to heat up.

They reviled him and they mocked him.

They laughed at him.

It was a laughable thought for them.

Us, his disciples.

And you should know that that's what the blind do.

It's a joke to them.

Us, follow Jesus.

Don't be surprised when you bear witness to what Jesus has done to you

that you get laughed out of the room.

And what we need as we go and proclaim the miracle that God's done in our life through Christ,

what we need more than anything, what we have to have,

is boldness from God to declare the glory of God.

We need boldness from God to bear witness in the face of opposition.

That's exactly what happens.

Look here.

They said, why would we become disciples of this man?

We're disciples of Moses.

We know God's spoken to Moses.

As for this man, we don't even know where he comes from.

So now, the blind man is fed up.

He said, well, isn't this amazing?

You don't even know where he came from?

Aren't you supposed to be the experts here on the works of God?

Aren't you supposed to be the authorities here?

But you don't even know where this man came from and he opened up my eyes?

We know that God does not listen to sinners,

but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens 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.

Now, I think there's some questionable theology in his lesson.

Right?

He's a new believer, fresh believer.

Well, we've got to appreciate his boldness.

Do you feel his boldness here?

This is the boldness of new sight.

Here's this man who has been rejected and despised and ostracized his whole life,

suddenly standing up and bearing witness to the religious elite at all costs,

knowing he was going to be ostracized again.

This nobody is suddenly filled with boldness to proclaim the gospel.

Something has happened in him, not just physically, externally,

but internally, spiritually, to change who he is

and give him boldness to proclaim God's glory at all costs.

The world just can't quite understand this.

You might think of Peter and John in Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

We talked about this in our men's Bible study this week.

Acts chapter 4, verse 13.

Acts 4:13

It says,

When the Pharisees saw the boldness of Peter and John

and perceived that they were uneducated, common men,

they were astonished,

and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

That's the key to boldness, isn't it?

They had been with Jesus.

You may remember some of the zeal that you had when you first became a Christian.

When your eyes were first opened up to see the glory of Christ,

and I'd be willing to bet you were eager, zealous, excited to talk about what God has done for you.

I had a friend who told me when he became a believer,

he was walking in darkness, and the Lord saved him radically.

He said,

I couldn't even stand in the line at a grocery store

without bothering the people around me about Jesus.

And we laugh at that,

but oh, to bottle that up

and to keep that zeal

and that boldness

to bear witness to what Christ has done for you.

The miracle of new sight is no less amazing

and no less worth proclaiming now than it was when you first believed.

Church.

But of course, the Pharisees wouldn't have it.

They said,

you were born in utter sin,

and would you teach us?

And they cast him out.

Once again,

he was rejected,

thrown out of the synagogue,

discarded and rejected

almost by everyone,

but not by everyone.

Look there to verse 35.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out.

And having found him,

he asked him an unusual question,

not what happened,

not even how are you.

He asked him,

do you believe in the Son of Man?

And he said,

well, who is he, sir,

that I may believe in him?

And Jesus said to him,

you have seen him.

You have seen him.

Not just physically,

but you have seen him.

And it is he who is speaking to you.

And he said,

Lord, I believe.

And he worshiped him.

This is spiritual sight.

This is the point of the story.

Do you see the progression here for this man?

Jesus,

Jesus sees him.

Jesus approaches him.

Jesus heals him.

Something is different about this man.

His neighbors question him.

At first, he says,

well, this man named Jesus,

he healed me.

He's questioned again.

He says,

this man,

he must be a prophet.

He's questioned again.

He says,

I'm his disciple.

Do you want to be his disciple?

He's questioned now again

by Jesus himself,

face to face.

And he says,

Lord,

I believe you are the son of man.

He was lost,

but now he's found.

He was blind,

but now he sees.

And you know,

that same work has happened in you,

Christian.

All of us who know the Lord.

So,

how should we respond to this?

How should we respond to this?

For one,

we should,

we should rejoice in the amazing grace of God.

We should worship him,

enjoy him,

delight in him,

rejoice that by God's grace,

you have been sought out

and given eyes to see.

We should,

we should rejoice with the joy of a new believer

at the grace of God in our life.

And then,

we should go and bear witness,

boldly and broadly,

telling everyone we know,

everyone we see,

about the grace of God

found only in Jesus Christ.

You know,

our standards of worthiness

are not Jesus' standards.

You know that?

And Jesus did not come to heal those

who think they are well.

Jesus came to heal those who know

they are sick.

He did not come for those who think

that they are worthy of him,

but those who have realized by,

by his grace,

that they are nothing apart from him.

He didn't come for those who,

who think they know it all,

think they understand,

think they see clearly,

but for those who are blind.

This is what he says here

at the end of the passage.

For judgment,

I came into this world,

he says,

that those who do not see,

may see.

And those who see,

may become blind.

Apparently,

he said this in the earshot

of some of the Pharisees.

Verse 40 says,

some of them heard these things

and said,

are we also blind?

Jesus said to them,

if you were blind,

you would have no guilt.

But now that you say,

we see,

your guilt remains.

And that's the key verse

for this whole story,

isn't it?

None of this ultimately

is about physical sight.

He healed a physically blind man,

yes,

but that physical blindness

is an object lesson for us

about a deeper spiritual condition

that all of us face

outside of Christ.

Every single one of us

was born spiritually blind.

The God of this world

has blinded the minds

of the unbelievers

to keep them from seeing

the light of the gospel

of the glory of Christ,

who is the image of God,

2 Corinthians 4.

Sin is blinding.

But the good news

of the gospel

is that Jesus came

to heal the spiritually blind.

Jesus came to find

those who are lost

and to give sight

to those who are blind

so that

all who turn their eyes

upon Christ

may look Him in the face

and know that

this is the Son of Man

come to seek

and to save the lost.

Have your eyes been opened

by the grace of God?

If so,

are you bearing witness

to the work

that He's done?

Let's pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Lord,

apart from Your grace,

we would still be blind.

And if we see You at all,

if we recognize Your goodness,

Your greatness,

if we love You at all,

if there's any part of us

that desires to know You

and to be with You,

to cling to You,

to trust in You,

Father,

that's from You

and Your grace.

We thank You

for the work that You've done

to give us spiritual sight.

And now we pray,

now we pray

that You would use us

to bring the gospel

to those who still walk

in darkness.

Lord,

use us to open the eyes

of the blind

as we proclaim Christ

to those around us.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.