Seeing is Believing (John 9:24-41)

We're gonna be in John chapter 9, starting in verse 24.

John 9 · chapter mention

And really, we're picking up on this continuation of a story.

We had to stop last week right in the middle of this story of this blind man that Jesus healed and can now see.

And Jesus not only healed him, but he healed him on the Sabbath.

And on top of that, Jesus made clay on the Sabbath, breaking the religious leaders' man-made interpretation of the law.

So the religious leaders had a lot of questions and accusations to throw at Jesus.

They questioned this man that was healed.

They bring in this man's parents that were healed.

And that's where we pick up here on verse 24 when they summon this man for the second time to really, you know, interrogate him.

So if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word.

John chapter 9, we're going to be reading verses 24 through the end of the chapter.

John 9 · chapter mention

So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, Give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner.

He answered, Whether or not he's a sinner, I don't know.

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

Then they asked him, What did he do to you?

How did he open your eyes?

I already told you, he said, and you didn't listen.

Why do you want to hear it again?

You don't want to become his disciple too, do you?

They ridiculed him.

You're that man's disciple, but we're Moses' disciples.

We know that God has spoken to Moses, but this man, we don't know where he's from.

This is an amazing thing, the man told him.

You don't know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is God fearing and does his will, he listens to him.

Throughout history, no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind.

If this man were not from God, he wouldn't be able to do anything.

You were born entirely in sin, they replied, and you were trying to teach us?

Then they threw him out.

Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, and when he found him, he asked, Do you believe in the Son of Man?

Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?

He asked.

Jesus answered, You have seen him.

In fact, he's the one speaking with you.

I believe, Lord, he said, and he worshipped him.

Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see, and those who do see will become blind.

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, We aren't blind too, are we?

If you were blind, Jesus told them, you wouldn't have sin.

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

Let's pray.

Lord, as we do every week, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the availability that we have here in Atascadero to have all of these Bibles and all of these translations to be able to meet in a public place like this and speak of it in this way.

So, God, I pray that we would never take for granted this amazing opportunity that we have that a lot of other cultures don't experience.

God, we thank you for your word.

We pray that we would come to you with soft hearts that are open to the things that you have, with eyes that truly want to see the truth that you are.

Lord, help us to see who you are better here today through this passage.

We pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

So let's do a quick review of part one of this chapter that we went over last week.

We saw Jesus last week break some social norms, didn't we?

He explains that physical ailments are not God's judgment for sin, which was a widely accepted belief in this day.

We see that Jesus works on the Sabbath by making mud.

He didn't really work, that was just their wrong interpretation of the law.

That's what they're accusing him of.

And then we see Jesus challenged the religious leaders in their interpretation of the law.

Not the law, but in their interpretation of it.

And then Jesus introduced the blind man not only to physical light for the first time, but he introduces him to the light of the world on the same day.

Think about that.

The two things that this guy witnesses on the same day.

You know, I keep thinking about this guy and the emotions that he must be going through.

You know, to see for the first time in your life, and then to meet the Messiah face to face.

You know, when that guy woke up that morning, I don't think he was expecting either one of those things, to you.

You know, I bet today's the day that I'm gonna get to see and I see the Messiah face to face.

It's probably not the first thing that crossed his mind.

But have you ever seen those videos online of people that have been colorblind for their whole life?

And then somebody gives them those special glasses that allows them to see color for the first time.

Anyone seen those before?

Most of you, yeah, I would expect.

But they put on those glasses and they see color for the first time.

And I think in every single one of those videos, they just start to weep.

They just start to weep because they see for the first time the colors that they haven't witnessed.

They see the beauty that the colors add to the landscape and to human beings.

You know, if you need a warm, fuzzy video to watch, just go watch those videos.

It's like, oh man, you know, you start getting emotional.

You don't even know those people.

But this guy has never seen anything.

And now he's seen perfectly.

I can't even imagine what this guy is going through.

And on top of that, then this guy in our passage today, on that same day, is going to have to be confronted by these religious leaders and be interrogated and ridiculed by these religious leaders who, you know, are these revered men in society.

And all of this is happening on the same day.

You know, I'd imagine his emotions are just all over the place.

You know, as we head into verse 24, um, this is the second summoning of this man.

And I just want to get you an idea of like where this guy probably is mentally going through all of this.

Because it's going to play in, I think, to how he reacts to the second set of questionings.

So look at verse 24 with me.

So a second time they summon the man who had been blind and told him, Give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner.

In other words, I think they're just trying to tell him, you know, don't give glory to this guy Jesus.

You need to be giving glory to God.

And give glory to God was a way of them kind of putting him under oath.

You know, this dates back to the Old Testament where we see it a couple different times.

We see it one time when in Joshua 7 with the story of Achan, and Joshua says to Achan, give glory to the Lord.

And then Achan confesses all of the wrong that he's done, and judgment happens, and Israel stones the guy.

But they're telling this blind man, you need to fess up like Achan, and stop telling the lies and start telling the truth of what actually happened to you today.

You know, the conversation was already heated and it just started for the second time.

And it's all because they don't want to accept his first testimony.

They just decided we're not going to accept that.

This guy needs to come and tell us the truth.

Because they're already convinced that Jesus is a sinner and therefore incapable of doing the things that this guy is claiming.

Look at verse 25 with me.

He answered, whether or not he's a sinner, I don't know.

One thing I do know, I was blind and now I can see.

That is what I know.

You know, this man is speaking of the physical here, what Jesus did for him physically, but what he doesn't know is that Jesus is about to do the same thing for him spiritually.

Deal with an ailment that he has been dealing with with his whole life, and that's sin.

And that is the deeper part of this sign.

I think the deeper meaning of what Jesus is performing here today, that's our application here today as well.

We are spiritually blinded by sin.

But Jesus wants to heal that and make us see clearly.

That's his desire for each one of us.

We were all born blind, and Jesus wants to heal all of us from that blindness if we allow him.

You know, this previously blind man says, all I know is that I was blind, and after encountering Jesus, now I can see.

Which, if you have come to faith in Jesus, that should be your testimony as well.

You know, and sometimes I think it's our testimony that can be the most effective witnessing tool that we can use.

You know, you may not be able to debate somebody into salvation.

You know, you might not be able to debate creation versus evolution or free will versus predestination or the inerrancy of the Bible or whatever it might be.

All good things we should study and we should know.

But something nobody can argue with is the change in your life before Jesus and after coming to Jesus.

I was this way, and now with Jesus, I'm this way.

I was blind and now I can see.

You know, that's really what this guy is doing.

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

Here's the evidence of what Jesus did in my life.

Look at verse 26.

Then they asked him, What did he do to you?

How did he open your eyes?

So they were obviously not satisfied with the first telling of this story, were they?

And I think we see some frustration starting to build up in this guy.

Look at verse 27.

He says, I already told you, he said, and you didn't listen.

Why do you want to hear it again?

You don't want to become his disciple too, do you?

You know, I read sarcasm when I read this verse.

But I love sarcasm in the Bible, so I might be reading into it a little bit.

But there's definitely frustration.

I think there's definitely frustration that's coming through in what this guy is saying here.

And I can see why.

You know, think about it.

Have you ever told somebody the complete and absolute truth and they didn't believe you?

That's maddening, isn't it?

When you're telling the exact truth, and they're like, no, tell me what's really going on.

I can tell you again if you want.

That's right where this guy is, right here.

He's just frustrated and he's starting to show it verbally.

Look at verse 28.

They ridiculed him.

That word ridicule by definition, they reproached him, they railed at him, they reviled him, they heaped abuse upon him, is what the definition of that word is.

They ridiculed him.

You're that man's disciple, but we're Moses' disciples.

You know, both sides are frustrated.

They're getting angry at one another.

And look at what they intend to be an insult to this guy.

You follow Jesus, but we're legalistic.

That's really what they're saying right here.

You know, I wouldn't mind that compliment.

You know, like but they go on.

Look at verse 29.

We know that God has spoken to Moses, but this man, we don't know where he's from.

You know, these leaders were supposed to be followers of the law.

You know, at least that's what they had set out to do and missed the mark horribly at this time.

But because of this, they considered themselves disciples of Moses.

You know, he was the avenue in which God gave Israel the law.

And because they became so focused, because they were so concerned with their interpretation of the Sabbath, they missed the amazing things that Jesus was doing on the Sabbath.

Really, they missed Jesus completely.

You know, I don't know if there's anything more sad that you can say about them than they missed Jesus.

You know, maybe there is one thing, you know, they missed Jesus because of legalism.

You know, I just want us to stop and think about this for a second.

Let's put this in a different context of this story.

So, say somebody that we know that's been a part of our church for years, say that they are blind.

They've been blind from birth.

And this morning, they walk through those doors, and there's no glasses, there's no cane, there's no dog, you know, there's nobody there by the hand to lead them in, and they just come in with just so excited, and they say, Some guy prayed for me yesterday, and I'm no longer blind.

And the first thing that comes to our mind is, on a Saturday, that'd be horrible, wouldn't it?

We should celebrate with that person that this lifelong ailment was finally healed.

We should see the person first and see what God did for that person first.

You know, from what we can see of these leaders, I think they've just altogether stopped caring about people.

They started caring more about position and ceremony and law and themselves.

They lost sight, they lost sight of God and the heart of God behind the law.

And the heart of God behind the law is protecting his people.

And this wasn't something new that had just started within the faith.

This has been happening for hundreds of years at this point in the Bible.

You know, in Ezekiel 34, 2 through 6, God calls out the shepherds, the leaders of Israel, because they stopped tending the sheep.

And sorry this is so small, but we have a slide for it, but it's it's a big text.

It says, This is what the Lord God says to the shepherds.

Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves.

Shouldn't the shepherds feed their flock?

You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened animals, but you do not tend the flock.

You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost.

Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.

They want to kill Jesus, don't they?

Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.

They were scattered for lack of a shepherd.

They became food for all the wild animals when they were scattered.

My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill.

My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and there was no one searching or seeking for them.

You know, that looks a lot like what we're seeing here in our passage today, doesn't it?

These religious leaders that are trying to kill Jesus have lost sight of the heart of God for his sheep.

You know, it says there at the end that they weren't going after the sheep anymore.

Remember that, because that's going to come back into play in this in this story.

But they had lost their sight.

Now, the man responds, look at verse 30.

This is an amazing thing, the man told them.

You don't know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes.

This guy's pretty sharp.

As we go on, we're gonna see that over and over.

He knows the lingo of the religious leaders, he knows some prophecy, we see as well, and he isn't afraid to call them out.

He points out that they should know everything concerning anything regarding the Jewish faith.

And saying, Oh, you don't know where this guy is from?

You know, everybody's talking about him, and you want to kill him, and you want to banish him from the synagogue and banish any of his followers from the synagogue as well.

You know, he's performing all these signs and miracles that all these people are seeing, like opening my eyes.

And that was prophesied about the Messiah multiple times in Isaiah.

And he says, and you don't know?

Really, he's asking them, Haven't you done your due diligence?

Shouldn't you know where this man is from?

And he goes on speaking to them about things that they should know.

Look at verse 31.

We know, notice he says we, he's including himself here.

So this is a common understanding of the day.

He says, We know that God doesn't listen to sinners.

But if anyone is God fearing and does his will, he listens to him.

This argument probably stems from Isaiah 115, which says, When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look at you.

Even if you offer countless prayers, I will not listen.

Your hands are covered in blood.

God doesn't listen to sinners.

There's a couple psalms that talk about that as well.

Now, God obviously listened to Jesus, right?

Both in helping this guy and in helping a lot of other people as well.

So if Jesus was a sinner, both logically and according to Isaiah 115, he wouldn't be able to do things like this, would he?

You see his argument here?

You can't say he's a sinner when you witness how God listens to you and works through him.

He goes on with his argument.

Look at verse 32.

Throughout history, no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind.

If this man were not from God, he wouldn't be able to do anything.

Solid argument again from this guy.

And remember, when they saw something supernatural in this day, it was either God or demonic.

Those were the two categories they had.

And they already accused Jesus of having a demon.

So you can you know where they're going with this.

But let's think about the times that we have seen demonic activity in Scripture.

That sounds fun, doesn't it?

But even if we just look at the four Gospels, what we see, demons, much like the devil, they're always trying to kill, steal, and destroy.

They hurt people, they disable people, they make them a menace to their own community that they live in.

Jesus's work and ministry are in direct opposition to all of those things.

You know, Jesus casts out demons, he brings healing, he brings life.

So this guy's argument is pinning their argument to the wall, and they know it.

You know, it's not by mistake that God chose this particular guy to be healed on this exact day.

You know, I always think about how many times Jesus walked by this guy through both of their lives as he's begging there by the temple.

You know, and I wonder if Jesus was thinking, you know, not today.

But hang in there.

Your time is gonna come, and it'll be for God's glory and a story that's gonna be told to the end of time through the ends of the earth.

And that guy had no idea.

You know, God's timing in all of this is perfect.

You know, even when we have no idea that he's working, he has a plan that's going on in the background.

You know, what did Jesus say in verse 3 of this chapter when he came across this guy?

He said, This came about so that God's works might be displayed in him.

And this guy is doing just that.

He's not only the object of the lesson that Jesus is teaching in this sign, he also points out the fallacy in these religious leaders' thinking.

So, do these guys finally recognize their error and repent?

Let's see.

Verse 34.

You were born entirely in sin, they replied.

And are you trying to teach us?

Then they threw him out.

No, I don't think they responded logically, did they?

They get angry.

Angry that this guy calls out the error in their logic, so they call him born in sin.

That this guy or his parents sinned, and that is why he is blind.

In logic, this is called an ad hominem.

You can't answer the question, so you attack the person.

That's exactly what they're doing.

It's hard to give any current examples because nobody ever does this anymore.

That's exactly what they're doing, though.

But when they can't answer this guy, they throw out his argument.

They say, You can't teach us, you're a sinner, and then they throw him out for challenging them.

And this means that they threw him out of the synagogue.

Like for good.

He was now a social outcast.

He was excommunicated from the Jewish faith, basically.

You know, this guy is already on this emotional roller coaster of this day that he's having.

He gets in this argument with the Jewish leaders.

Now he's excommunicated.

What a day.

But look at the Good Shepherd, verse 35.

Look at the compassion of Jesus.

Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, and when he found him, he asked, Do you believe in the Son of Man?

You know, does this man know when Jesus asks him this?

This is the question I have, that this is the same man that healed him?

Because at this point he hadn't seen Jesus yet.

He doesn't know what he looks like.

But I wonder if he recognizes voice.

You know, who knows?

But what we do know is that Jesus goes after the outcast.

Jesus just went after the one man.

Just like he goes after each one of us.

And he asks, Do you believe in the Son of Man?

And this is one of Jesus' favorite titles for himself.

We see it in John alone 42 times.

It has a prophetic element to it.

So when Jesus asks this guy if he believes in the Son of Man, he's asking, Do you believe in the Messiah?

And look at how he responds in verse 36.

He says, Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?

He asks.

This guy has faith, doesn't he?

He already has faith.

He's looking at Jesus face to face and basically saying, Tell me where the Messiah is, and I'm all in.

Look at verse 37.

Jesus answered, You have seen him.

In fact, he is the one speaking with you.

I believe, Lord, he said, and he worshipped him.

Now we thought this guy's eyes were already opened in verse 7, didn't we?

But they were not really opened until verse 38 when he said, I believe, Lord.

His spiritual eyes are now seeing too.

You know, from this point to the end of the chapter, Jesus will only be talking about spiritual blindness and spiritual seeing.

So there's kind of a flip in the text here.

And before we jump in to verse 39, I think we need to define how Jesus will use the terms seeing and blind from this point forward.

Because the translation into English, it's kind of like, I'm not exactly sure what he's talking about here with some of these, but these should help.

So we're going to leave these definitions up for a while just for reference.

So the first definition we'll be using for seeing, it's those that think they have things figured out spiritually, but recognize their, I'm sorry.

Those that don't think, that's kind of important, that they have things figured out spiritually, but recognize their sin and need for a savior.

Okay, so that's seeing.

Blind, those that think they have things figured out spiritually, but don't recognize their sin or need for a savior.

So that's just kind of help us as we go on, and we'll just leave those up for a while.

So look at verse 39 with me.

Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment, in an order that those who do not see will see, and those who do see will become blind.

So a way to paraphrase this would be that those who do not see will become spiritually seeing, according to our definition here, and those that think they see will become blind, or recognize hopefully their blindness according to the definition behind me.

And Jesus is telling them that he came to separate the two.

That's the judgment that we see here in verse 39.

To separate people like the blind man that now sees spiritually from the religious leaders that thought they could see you but are actually spiritually blind.

He's separating them now because he would never want somebody to think they were okay, that they were seeing spiritually, when in actuality they were blind and on the road to hell.

He wants them to know before judgment day which side they're split onto.

So he's separating, and he's beginning this process right now.

But remember, Jesus spent almost all of chapter 8 giving the spiritually blind the opportunity to see.

But they refused.

And I want us to make sure that we see that the blindness is of their own choosing.

Jesus tried to give them everything that they needed to see spiritually, but the blindness was of their own choosing.

You know, ignoring Jesus is them choosing which side of eternity that they wanted to be on.

You know, it reminds me of the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.

Jesus is the separator.

Jesus is divisive, but it's for everybody's benefit.

He's divisive out of love because he doesn't want somebody thinking that they're okay when they really aren't.

So Jesus divides into spiritually seeing and spiritually blind.

So the Pharisees responded to this.

Look at verse 40.

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, We aren't blind too, are we?

You know, to me, I read sarcasm again here.

Kind of like, well, you don't think we're blind too, huh?

I mean, we see spiritually, we know the scriptures, we know the law, we're following every bit of it, we got things figured out.

So you, a sinner, you couldn't be talking to us, right?

I think that's the tone of what's coming through in this verse.

So Jesus responds, and again, the definitions behind us will be helpful here.

But look at verse 41.

If you were blind, Jesus told them, you wouldn't have sin.

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

You're blind, is what he's telling them.

They were the definition of blind in this context.

You know, those that think they have things figured out, but don't recognize their sin or their need for a savior.

You know, 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 through 4 say this.

2 Corinthians 4:3–4

But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

In their case, the God of this age, that's the devil, 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.

Jesus already told them that the devil is their father.

You remember that?

And he's, the devil has been blinding them from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You know, and I don't think I see frustration in Jesus here.

I think Jesus' heart is breaking for these people that he would offer them sight, that he would offer sight to the blind spiritually, and that they would refuse it.

You know, there's always gonna be people like this that no matter what, even after encountering Jesus face to face, that are gonna deny him.

Even at the end of the tribulation in Revelation, after God revealed himself to them over and over again through those seven years of the tribulation, they stopped their ears and they closed their eyes and they deny their need for a savior.

But Jesus invites us to be involved with helping people know which side of eternity they are on.

And that comes through the gospel.

It comes through preaching the gospel, telling people about the good news of Jesus Christ.

We don't need to be divisive.

The gospel is the most divisive thing you could share, and it does the dividing for us.

You know, like the man in this story, some are ready to admit their need, and others are gonna reject it no matter what.

There's gonna be people that we're gonna find if we preach the gospel that are gonna be in between.

You know, they need some time to think about it and mull it over, and they're gonna sit on the fence for a while before they they pick a side of eternity that they want to be on.

But it is simply our job to share the gospel and then let the gospel do the work.

Romans 1.15 says, the gospel is the power of God to salvation.

It's not our slick presentation, not being able to defend every position and answer every question somebody may have.

Again, those are good things, but but it's simply preaching the gospel.

You know, if you think you don't know how to share the gospel and therefore you don't, or you feel like you're not qualified or you don't know enough to share the gospel, it's not your job.

It's the gospel's job to do the work.

You know, I just want to share with you my favorite and easiest way that I've found to share the gospel, and it's simply just combining John 3.16 with Romans 10 9 together.

You know, there's no perfect way to share the gospel, there's no formula to say or to pray, it's just what I've found and I wanted to share with you.

And I like this method because it's scripture, it's the gospel, it puts the elements of what Jesus did together with how to respond.

And it's just simply sharing these two verses.

For God loved the world in this way, he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

And then Romans 10 9.

If God if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

And then wherever the Lord leads the conversation, you go from there.

But I feel like anybody could share these two verses, or one of them.

You know, it's not a formula like I was saying, that's just my favorite way.

But if you do get a question and you don't know how to answer it, that's okay.

Just say, I don't know, but I'll figure it out.

But what I do know is I was blind, and now I see.

It's not going to be our convincing, it's the gospel that is the power of God to salvation.

We don't need to soften it, we don't need to sweeten it, we don't need to make it harsher, we just need to share it.

And then it's God that's gonna do the heart work in the person.

You know, if you've heard this today and you feel God stirring in your heart, that's the gospel doing the work inside of you.

That's drawing you to belief in Jesus just like we saw with this blind man.

You know, you can share in his testimony and be able to say, I was blind, but now I see, if you say what he said.

I believe, Lord, just like he did.

You know, if you want that testimony, say it like he did.

I believe, Lord.

And then watch God open your eyes spiritually to an eternity with him, in a perfect relationship with him, and that's where the relationship begins.

He desire, scripture tells us, that none should perish, but that all would come to repentance, including you.

Would you please pray with me?

Lord, I thank you so much that you desire each one of us.

Lord, we are spiritually blind.

We come into this world of sin, spiritually blind, but you offer each and every one of us an invitation to see spiritually.

And I know for many of us here today, we've already done that.

But I pray that you'd continue to stir in the hearts of anybody that's here that needs to respond to that, as the blind man did with I believe, Lord, that you would stir and that you would do that work.

Because your gospel is the power of God to salvation.

Lord, for all of us here, I pray that you would give us boldness and confidence to share your word, confidence to share your gospel, Lord, confidence that you will do the work and it's not going to be dependent upon our argument.

It's not gonna be dependent upon us knowing everything and knowing every answer, but just knowing that it's your gospel that will do the work.

So give us confidence in that, Lord, to just kind of plant those seeds and allow you to do the work and to be there to help along the way if needed, but to just know that that you're gonna do the work in the person.

So would you lead us divinely to those conversations and to the people that you want us to share your gospel with, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.