John 9:1-7 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Back to the Gospel of John. Last week we finally got to the end of chapter 8.

[0:12] We spent quite a few Sundays in there and that's fine. But bringing us to chapter 9.

[0:23] And I kind of give you all, I don't know, I guess you could say a foretaste of what we're getting into in the beginning parts of chapter 9. Which is this blind man that Christ heals.

[0:38] He heals him in a very unique way. As opposed to other healings that we see in the Scripture. But nevertheless he heals him. But leading up to all this over the past couple of Sundays, we've been seeing Christ over the past few Sundays.

[0:55] We've seen Christ just beginning with the woman that was brought to him that was called in the act of adultery. And of course we see the forgiveness of Christ there.

[1:08] And the rebuke of her accusers as well. And then in verse 12 of chapter 8 we see Christ make the proclamation that he is the light of the world.

[1:20] And he spends the rest of the chapter showing how he is the light of the world. And when we came to the end of chapter 8 last week, we saw these folks, these Jews that he was talking to, take up stones to kill him.

[1:37] And the last verse of chapter 8 says, Then they took up stones to cast at him, but Jesus hit himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them. And so passed by and told you all last week that one thing to keep in mind as we go into chapter 9, I don't expect to get very far in chapter 9 this morning, but one thing to keep in mind is that they were in the temple.

[2:04] They were on the temple grounds in chapter 8. They were there where God was to be worshiped and God was there in the midst of them. And the person of Jesus Christ and they refused to worship him.

[2:19] Instead they took up stones to cast at him and to kill him. And then we go to chapter 9 and we're about to get into, and this is outside the temple.

[2:31] So that's one major thing to consider as we get into this scripture here. So all that being said, John chapter 9, beginning at verse 1, says, And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

[2:52] Well, the very last words in chapter 8 was that Jesus hit himself and went out of the temple and going through the midst of them and so passed by.

[3:03] So this begins with, and as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. Keep this in mind as we get into this account that Jesus is the one that saw this man.

[3:20] This man was blind. He was blind from his birth. Had never seen anything as far as the scriptural account goes. Had never seen a person, had never seen a flower, had never seen a tree, had never seen anything.

[3:37] I don't know if he was, you know, had a significant other, had a spouse or anything along those lines, but if he did, he'd never seen them. He had never seen anything.

[3:48] It did not take this man seeing Jesus Christ for Christ to come to him. The Bible says, And as Jesus passed by, Jesus saw a man that was blind from his birth.

[4:02] And for you and I who were lost and dead in our trespasses and our sins, it was no different than the account that is given here. We were blind. We were spiritually blind. We couldn't see Christ.

[4:15] We couldn't, we couldn't, we couldn't seek after Christ because we couldn't see Him. We didn't know which direction to go. Y'all have heard me quoted several times over.

[4:26] Solomon says over in Proverbs that they're in darkness, no, it's not at what they stumble. And folks, we were in darkness before we were saved, just as this man here, just as this blind man, was in darkness. It took Christ passing by his way and it took Christ to come to him.

[4:47] And this is the one that saw him. He did not, nor could he see Christ, but yet Christ came to him. We know from John chapter 3 and verse 3 that in order, they that have not been born again, cannot see the kingdom of God. This man here couldn't see the kingdom, couldn't see the king of that kingdom standing right before him, but the king came to him.

[5:14] So keep all that in mind here. And verse 2, and his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

[5:35] Now, what of all these disciples seeing Christ do up to this point? I mean, we've been in the Gospel of John, I guess, now for, what, two or three months, I guess. What all they seen him do? They've seen him turn the water into wine.

[5:51] They've seen him chatting with the woman at the well in chapter 4, and they saw the Samaritan woman go into the city. They've seen him feeding thousands of people.

[6:04] They've seen the man at the pool of Bethesda be healed when Christ told them, take up your bed and go on your way. They've seen all these things, and now Christ passes by this blind man.

[6:17] And instead of his disciples, those that were following him, instead of them saying, Lord, here's a blind man, won't you heal him as well? What do they get into?

[6:28] They get into philosophy, and they get into theology, and they get into religion. They get into questioning the man, instead of saying, Lord, this man here's blind, he needs your help.

[6:40] God help us to not get so called up in some problems that are in different people's theologies and things along those lines that we neglect to preach the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ that is the power of God to save. God help us to not be like this, that if we pass by someone who obviously needs help, who is obviously blind, we find out later in chapter 9, not only was he blind, but he was also a beggar.

[7:13] So he was a blind beggar. He was in the most pitiable state to be blind and a beggar. And instead of them saying, Lord, we've seen you work these miracles, we've seen you do these things, we saw you heal that man back at the pool of Bethesda, we've seen you feed thousands of people, can't you heal this man's blindness? Instead of that, they said, Lord, who sinned, this man's parents or him?

[7:41] Now, why would they have asked that other than they were just curious? There was some really raunchy theology wrapped up with the Jews, and a lot of it they had actually carried from Babylon to the present day when they were still in captivity in Babylon, was likely the first time they'd ever heard of reincarnation.

[8:04] It went to Babylon, it came from the Persians, and even more up to date with this, more contemporary with the account we're reading here, the Greeks believed somewhat in reincarnation.

[8:18] So they were saying, who sinned this man's parents or him? Did he sin in a previous life? We already know that he was blind from birth. Now, some of the rabbis of the day, some of the rabbis, the more liberal rabbis of the day, they would cite different scriptures, I mean actual biblical texts, and say that it is possible for a baby to sin in the womb.

[8:45] They would cite Genesis 25-22 where it talks about the twins that were in the womb and they were struggling with one another. But even more so, though, they were concerned with whether this man sinned or his parents did he sin in a previous life, and this is why he was born this way. This was the thought pattern that these people had.

[9:09] And once again, had nothing to do with the gospel, had nothing to do with Jesus healing this man, they were curious about the man himself, why is he in this shape? And shame on us if we get in that way, folks. We got the Bible to tell us why people are in the shape that they are in.

[9:25] Now, I'm not saying that every time we get a sneeze or we get a cold or we have a headache or a tummy ache or whatever the case is, it's because you have unconfessed and unrepented sin in your life.

[9:36] But man is in the shape that man is in. We have disease, we have catastrophes, we have all kinds of things, and that is because of sin. None of that stuff existed before sin came in on the picture.

[9:52] But praise God, we've got Revelation 21 and 4 that says there'll be no more crying there, there'll be no more weeping, there'll be no sickness, there'll be no death. Why is that? Because there'll be no sin in heaven.

[10:05] There will be no sin there. That's why there's no sickness. That's why there's no death because there is no sin there. So on the flip side of that coin, we have sickness and we have death now because there is sin here.

[10:18] Once again, just because you might tell a lie or you might steal something or whatever the case is, doesn't mean that God's going to strike you with a plague. That's not what I'm saying, but it is because of sin that the world and that mankind is in the shape that it is in.

[10:39] So these men asking, who did sin? This man or his parents? That he was born blind. Verse 3, Jesus answered, neither had this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

[10:55] So these folks are asking, who sinned this man or his parents? Whether it was in this life, whether it was in a previous life, whatever the case was, Jesus says it was neither. Jesus answered, neither had this man sinned nor his parents.

[11:11] So Jesus here saying, this man's parents were perfect and this man is perfect. No, he's not saying that. He wasn't talking about this man's parents being perfectly sinless. Only one was perfectly sinless and he's the one that was given the answer here.

[11:27] Jesus cries, neither had this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. This man was born blind. These other folks are halt. They are manned. These other folks are crippled.

[11:44] The man at the pool of Bethesda was in the shape that he was in. The lepers getting the shape that they're in. The ones that you all haven't even seen me heal yet. They're in the shape that they are in that the works of God may be manifest in him.

[12:01] Then verse five, as long as I'm in the world, I am the lot of the world.

[12:13] We'll go back to verse four again. I'm sorry, I skipped verse four, didn't I? Verse four, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work.

[12:25] So he just told them that the man was born blind, that the works of God may be made manifest in him. Verse four, he says, I must work the works of him that sent me. I must do this.

[12:39] But it's the works of him that sent me. Who sent him? The Father sent him. God the Father sent God the Son to do what? To work these works that Jesus Christ says here.

[12:51] I must do these things. I must do it. We've read about some musts while we've been going through the Gospel of John and John three.

[13:02] He says a man must be born again to Nicodemus. Then a little bit later on in John three, I believe verse 14, he says that the Son of man must be lifted up. Remember in chapter four, we were going through that and we were talking about the woman there at the will.

[13:17] And Jesus told her, you know, there's coming a day when y'all won't worship here. The Jews ain't going to worship there, but they're going to worship God, but they must worship him in spirit and in truth.

[13:29] And this is another one of those must statements that we find here. We find another one in John chapter 10 when Jesus Christ is telling them about, he says, I've got sheep of another fold.

[13:40] He says, I must bring them. It must happen. Why? Because it was foreordained by Almighty God that Jesus Christ do these things.

[13:51] And he must do them. He must. There's no other way. We must be born again if we want to see and inherit the kingdom of God. We must do all of these things.

[14:03] But again, verse four, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the not cometh when no man can work. Folks, this speaks volumes to us. If it spoke to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is speaking these words, that this is the way he felt we should feel this way a hundred fold more times than how Jesus felt about it.

[14:24] When he says here, while it is day, the not cometh when no man can work. We have to make the absolute most of present opportunities when they are presented to us.

[14:37] It does us no good to wait. We tell people all the time, do we not? We hear it in preaching. We hear it in teaching. You might say it yourself to your family members or whoever or whatever the case may be.

[14:49] You know, tomorrow might be too late. Folks, that's saying the same thing here that Jesus is saying. When we say that the not cometh when no man can work, he says, I must do these things while it is day.

[15:02] And we must do these things while it is day, while the opportunity is here, while we have time to do it. Today is the accepted day. Now is the day of salvation.

[15:13] Now, this very moment that's present, and we must make the absolute most of opportunities when they are given to us. Just as Christ is saying here, in verse five, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

[15:31] Jesus has already made this proclamation, but remember where Jesus made this. He made it in the temple in chapter eight and verse 12. He made it in the temple, in the temple grounds.

[15:43] I am the light of the world, and those Jews rejected it there. They rejected that he was Messiah. They rejected that he was God. They rejected that he was the light of the world.

[15:56] But here, he makes the exact same proclamation. He says, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And while Christ was here, he was the light of the world.

[16:08] And Christ is still the light of the world. Don't you get me wrong? However, in Matthew chapter five, we went through the Sermon on the Mount on Wednesday nights, not too long ago. Jesus gives a charge to us.

[16:20] He gave it to those that were gathered around him at that time. But folks, that fast-forwards to us, it fast-forwards to me being a disciple of Christ. It fast-forwards to you being a disciple of Christ.

[16:31] He said, ye are the light of the world. Folks, that charge is given to us. But as I taught then, I'll teach it again, we have no light in and of ourselves.

[16:46] We have none. We are luminaries of Jesus Christ. The light is Jesus Christ, and we reflect that light. Much the same as the moon gives off no light of its own, but it reflects the light of the sun.

[17:01] We do the same thing with our Christian walk. We do the same thing with our Christian talk. We do the same thing with our families. We do the same thing for the entire world that is around us.

[17:12] We shine the light as Jesus Christ. Y'all might remember, or have it in your hearts, how Jesus continued with that in Matthew five when he said, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

[17:26] He says, let your light so shine before men. And it is our light to shine, but it comes from God. It comes from Christ. So as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world.

[17:40] And remember, the first time he said I'm the light of the world, he was in the temple. Now he is outside the temple here in John chapter nine verse six. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle.

[17:54] And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. Let's just go ahead and reverse seven as well. And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent.

[18:06] He went his way therefore and washed and came seen. So back to verse six. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle.

[18:17] This is the unique way that Christ, I was talking about earlier, that Christ healed this man. Now listen, I've heard some really weird explanations as to why Christ spat on the ground and basically made mud or clay out of the dirt and the spittle and rubbed it on this man's eyes or anointed his eyes with this.

[18:41] I've heard some pretty far-fetched things. When I was a very young Christian, one of the things that I heard, and Missy probably recalls this, I don't remember where we were at, what church we were at or who the preacher was.

[18:54] But I remember a man saying that Christ had to go back to the clay because this man was born blind, he'd never seen. And he had to go back to the clay which that man came from and fix his eyes.

[19:08] And I was an extremely young Christian when I heard that and I thought, that makes perfect sense. Folks that don't make sense. Now that I've grown in the word, it doesn't make sense.

[19:20] Christ did not need mud. He did not need clay to heal. Christ needs nothing. He needs nothing. He didn't have to do that.

[19:31] Christ could have simply thought, I want this man to be healed and he would have been healed. So looking back on that, once again, I might have been saved five or six months when I heard that sermon.

[19:42] But looking back on that, I thought, wow, that's awesome. Hopefully one day I can come up with stuff like that. But now looking back on that, I'm like, no, Christ didn't need to do that.

[19:54] He didn't have to do that. So coming into all this, why did Christ do it the way that he did? I can't offer you a really good explanation. I've seen a whole lot of explanations and I haven't found one yet that I've settled on.

[20:09] But I will tell you the one that I just told you about, I'm far from settling with that one. But when he had thus spoken, this is the key to these two verses. What did he speak in verse five?

[20:23] As long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. In the scripture, the Holy Spirit Himself is the very one that inspired this. When he had thus spoken, when the word of God went forth in other words, Jesus Christ being God manifests in the flesh.

[20:43] When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said unto him, Go, that's another key to this, go, go.

[20:58] And we as Christians, we don't want to go. We become complacent in our relationship with God. I'm not saying don't be comfortable with God.

[21:10] We should be comfortable with God. But don't get complacent. Don't get so comfortable that you don't want to do anything else for God. Don't get so comfortable with God that you're like, Well, I'm going to go to church.

[21:22] I'm going to listen to the preaching. I might sing a song or two and that should pacify God. That is not the attitude that we should have. And that is not worshiping God in spirit and in truth either. Folks, when Christ says go, we need to go and we see the word go throughout the scriptures.

[21:40] That's one reason I have no problem doing, and I'm not bragging on Spencer. Don't you all hear me wrong? I'm not patting myself on the back. But folks, as far as evangelism goes, every one of us are called to some sort of evangelism.

[21:56] Christ said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every living creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

[22:08] But that begins with go. We can't stay here and do it. We go out to the world. We go out to the highways. We go out to the hedges.

[22:20] We compel them to come in. We compel them to cross to his Lord. We compel them that he is king. We compel them that only he has the power to save. But we'll never do it within these walls.

[22:33] We'll never do it within these walls. Well, Spencer, there's internet now. And I think that has put an enormous dent in evangelical efforts.

[22:45] The internet has because a lot of people have that attitude. A lot of people say, well, if they want to hear it, they'll tune us in. That's the thing. They don't want to hear it.

[22:56] They were like this blind man here. He couldn't see Jesus. But Jesus came to him. And folks, if we don't go to people and tell them about Christ, they won't hear about Him.

[23:09] But we are told in the Scriptures, it's a command by Jesus Christ Himself to go. He told this man after he spit on the ground and he made mud and all of us say, that's nasty and that's gross.

[23:23] And yeah, sure it is. But folks, I tell you what, if Christ wanted to spit on the ground and make mud and put it all over my face, all over my body, He's Christ.

[23:35] I would let Him because He's got something in mind when He's doing it. I'm not saying He had to do this. And I can't explain to you exactly why He did it the way that He did.

[23:46] The key words is after He had just spoke, and what did He speak? I am the lot of the world. Lot exposes darkness. Lot exposed the darkness in the hearts of these men in chapter 8, which we spent weeks going through.

[24:03] And Lot is being exposed to this blind man here. But it's in the form of grace. Praise God. Lot is being exposed to this man in the form of grace.

[24:15] And He had just spoken, He's been on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and He annoyed the eyes of the blind man with clay, and He said on him, go washing the pools of Solomon. What do we think of when we think of washing and pools?

[24:28] I think of water. What does water signify many times in the Word of God? Really two different things. One is the Spirit, but the other is the Word of God.

[24:42] Even Christ told His disciples, He said, now you're cleansed by the words which I've spoken. We're cleansed by the word. And what did Christ do here? He spoke to this man.

[24:54] After He had just spoken, after the Word of God had went forth, He told it continued to go forth. He told the man, go. Folks, and it continues, verse 7, go and wash in the pools of Solomon, which is by interpretation sent.

[25:11] He went His way, therefore, the man obeyed what the Word of God told him to do. And Christians, I will tell you now, and this goes for me as much as it does you, if we obey what the Word of God says, I'm not saying our life will be a piece of cake.

[25:27] I'm not saying it'll be easy. And I'm not saying we'll be healed of every ailment that comes our way immediately. But God has got blessing in store for those that follow His Word.

[25:41] And Christ spoke the Word of God here to this man, saying, go, wash in the pools of Solomon, which is by interpretation sent. And He went His way, therefore, and washed and came seen.

[25:56] He obeyed what the Word of God said. And folks, we see the Word of God referenced several times throughout the Gospel of John, back in John chapter 5, after the man was healed over there at the pool of Bethesda, and all the Jews were in an uproar.

[26:13] Why were they in an uproar? They could have cared less about the healing. They could have cared less about the miracle that took place. They didn't care about that man that he was healed. He could still be laying there by the pool in the state that he was in for all that they cared.

[26:30] What they were concerned about was that Christ had told him, take up the bed and walk, and the man took up his bed on the Sabbath day and walked away. And the rest of that chapter, after all that, the rest of that chapter, is these Jews coming against Jesus Christ because they felt like he had broke the Sabbath day and he had made himself equal with God as well.

[26:51] But what did he tell them? They're in John chapter 5. He said, search the Scriptures for in them. Search the Scriptures. Search the Word of God for in them.

[27:02] You think you have eternal life but they are they which testify of me. He's referring them to the Word of God. In John chapter 8, he referred them to the Word of God.

[27:13] In John chapter 10, he says it is written when he's being tempted by Satan and the temptation in the wilderness. He says it is written.

[27:24] It's all in the Word of God. Everything that you and I need to know for this life is within these pages that we have. And for our mannerisms, for our demeanor, for everything that we need, it is within these pages that we have.

[27:38] But we neglect it. We neglect it. And then we want to screen God. Where's my blessing? Where's my blessing?

[27:49] Are you following my word? I have a feeling is what God would say. He went his way there for a cross said go exactly how we need to be. And this is exactly how we need to react to Jesus Christ and to the Word of God.

[28:06] When it tells us to go, we need to go. When it tells us to be still and know that I'm God, be still and know that He is God. But when it tells us to go, go.

[28:17] Go. He went his way there for and did exactly as the Word of God, the Word of Christ told him to do and washed and came seeing.

[28:30] Once again, folks, I ain't saying that if you follow everything this Bible here has in it that you're going to live a life that is free from pain, free from hurt, free from sickness, free from disease or anything along those lines. I'm not saying that at all.

[28:48] Those are all caused by sin. We have those things because of sin like we were talking about in the beginning of this lesson. Maybe not a specific sin that you committed in your life.

[29:02] But it all comes to us directly or indirectly from Adam. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, all of us were accursed of God.

[29:16] But in a nutshell, God says go. Go. Do what the Word of God says. This man did what the Word of God told him to, what God himself told him to.

[29:29] And he came away with a blessing. Once again, I ain't saying God's going to heal you right off the bat. Maybe not ever in this life. But there is a blessing by following the Word of God.

[29:42] Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that? Alright. God bless you all.