Was Blind But Now I See (I)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Back in chapter 8, you remember, we spent some time focused on one verse in this chapter—in that chapter, chapter 8 and verse 12—where Jesus declared this magnanimous truth: "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life." Light is essential to life. Light is essential to life. Not only the plant life, that is the foundation of the food chain, require light—the light of the sun—to grow, but human beings, you and I, are designed by God to function in light better than in darkness.
You take a cave tour somewhere, and the tour guide takes you 100 meters below ground, and if he were to turn off all light—I mean, it's pitch dark, pitch black. You can't even see your hand in front of your face. I mean, it's total darkness. And when that happens, it's unnerving. It's unnerving. It's an unnerving moment to be in total darkness that you can't even see your hand in front of your face. And of course, there's that tremendous sense of relief when the guy turns the lights back on. You see, human beings were not designed by God to live without light.
Now, what's true in the physical realm is also true, and I would even say doubly true, in the spiritual realm. God created human beings to live in spiritual light just as much as He created them to live in physical light. Well, there's a problem, however. And the problem is because of Adam's sin, spiritually speaking, the entire human race has been living in darkness ever since Genesis chapter 3. The sun set in the garden when Adam disobeyed God, and darkness has reigned ever since. Darkness has set and reigned ever since.
For example, in Ephesians 4 verse 18, the Apostle Paul describes sinners before we turn to the living God through Jesus Christ. He describes us—every single one of us—left to ourselves as darkened in our mind. Darkened in our understanding. The light is shining. The spiritual receptors, however, are completely dysfunctional. In Romans 1 verse 21, Paul said, "Their foolish heart, their foolish thinking was darkened." Darkened. Exchanging the glory of God for the pseudo glory of men, it leads away from the truth, away from knowledge, away from light, and it leads to error, to ignorance, and to darkness.
And of course, blindness is not the only illustration that the Bible uses for our spiritual incapacity. Another illustration that often is used is calluses, like the calluses under your fingers. The dead skin under your fingers. Now in some cases, the calluses can be so thick—I remember growing up, had an older neighbor who worked in his land so much so with his hands, with his bare hands, so much so that he had tremendous calluses formed under his fingers, so much so that he could take a hot casserole dish without using oven mitts, just to reach in and grab it, just like that. Desensitized, completely.
Now imagine if such one went blind. Imagine if such one, with so much calluses under the fingers, went blind, and had to read by means of Braille. Not much hope for him, is there? Nothing would get through those desensitized fingertips of that man. That's how sinners are in our spiritual blindness. That describes us in our spiritual blindness. Our eyes are dark. Our eyes are pitch dark. Our hearts so covered with dead skin. So covered, as the psalmist says, so insulated in Psalm 119:70,” with fat, that no spiritual truth can ever penetrate.” Dead skin. Calluses. And unbelief is like a barrier.
Our spiritual blindness is like a force field that deflects the laser beams of God's truth and God's conviction bearing down. Now in light of that, especially the darkness illustration, and it is profoundly significant that the Old Testament—the entirety of the Old Testament—it is significant, it describes the Messiah, God's Savior for the human race, describes Him as the Messiah being as light. He is the light of the world. God says Messiah is the light of the world.
For example, in Isaiah 8, Isaiah says this of sinners in verse 22: "Then they will look to the earth and behold distress, darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be banished into thick darkness." Not just darkness, but thick darkness. Thick darkness. That's a pretty desperate picture. That's a pretty desperate state. What those who are driven away into darkness desperately need is light. Light.
That's exactly how Isaiah describes Messiah. As he moves into chapter 9 and verse 2, it says, "The people who walk in darkness," this thick darkness, "will see a great light. Those who live in the land of the shadow of death, the light will shine on them." That's a glorious message of hope. Isaiah 49, verse 6, God says to the Messiah the familiar words, "I will also give you," the Messiah, "you, My servant, as a light of the nations." And that sounds promising, doesn't it? The Messiah is light. He is the light. And we live in thick darkness. And that's what we need. We need light because we live in thick darkness.
There is, however, still another problem to be solved. You see, it's not just that there's darkness out there. There's darkness in here as well. Not only there's darkness around us, but there's darkness within us. Blind eyes can't see. Blind eyes cannot see. The fact that there is no light is irrelevant when you bring light if your eyes are still blind. Right? It makes no difference. It doesn't matter either way, does it? Blind eyes can't see light no matter how bright the light is.
I mean, you can bring that bright light so close to your eyeball, and if you're blind, you will not see it. You cannot see it. No matter what you do. As Jesus Himself declared in John 8, verse 12, "He is the light of the world." But that doesn't help us by itself because we have been born blind, spiritually speaking. Our spiritual receptors are irreversibly damaged due to the fall. Our optic nerve has been severed. It's been removed. We can't see. We can't see even if there's light.
Therefore, spiritual light, even if it is the radiant light of the glory of God in Jesus Christ, it is still invisible to us. We're blind. You can bring all the light to us, and we still can't see it. It doesn't register. Remove the darkness on the outside, but the darkness on the inside doesn't go away. It doesn't. As a blind person can feel the warmth of the sun on his face, but cannot see the light of the sun, so we know, as Romans 1 says, that there is a God. We understand that. It's innate in our being, in our heart. We know that there is a God, but we can only feel, as it were, the warmth of Him on our cheek. We cannot see. We cannot understand His ways. We cannot understand Him. We cannot see Him.
We need more than just light. What we need is someone who can give us eyes to see the light. We need the light absolutely, certainly, but we need also eyes to see it as well. And this is what we see here in John 9. This is what we have in John 9. Jesus proves that He indeed can do that. He proves that He could do that. He provides new eyes, both physically and spiritually, in this great chapter. And while Jesus Christ manifests His messianic power in John 9 to heal this man's physical blindness, by far the greater miracle comes at the end of the chapter when He removes this man's blindness spiritually.
Now in John 9, verse 5, as Jesus and the disciples encounter this man who had been born blind, He proclaims, "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Then the Light of the world proceeds to give sight to this man born blind, who has lived in total darkness his entire life. And by way of contrast, at the end of the chapter, the proud Pharisees who thought they could see are left completely in total spiritual darkness.
I love what A. W. Pink did at this point. He points out a number of contrasts between John 8 and 9, and he does it beautifully. That helps us in introducing this narrative this morning. He says “in John 8, we see Christ as Light exposing the darkness. But in John 9, He imparts sight, both physically and later spiritually, to one in darkness. In John 8, the Light is despised and rejected. In John 9, He is believed in and worshipped. In John 8, the Jews stoop to pick up stones to kill the Light. In John 9, the Light stoops to make clay to bring the light to the eyes of the blind. In John 8, Jesus hides Himself from the Jews. In John 9, He reveals Himself to a blind beggar. In John 8, verse 37, Jesus' word has no place in the Jews. In John 9, verse 7, the blind man responds obediently to Jesus' word. And in John 8, Jesus is called a demoniac. And in John 9, He is worshipped as Lord.”
Beloved, here's what we need to keep in mind as we study this narrative together. Since Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, since He is the Savior of sinners, and He is the only One who can open blind eyes for the glory of God, oh, how you and I should labor to point others to Him. You know, it is true what Pastor MacArthur often says. You know, a Christian evangelizing is a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. And here's a beggar. Here's a beggar. His eyes have been opened by the power of Jesus Christ. We can point others to the only One who can open blind eyes—Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now the key verse of the chapter is really verse 3. Verse 3 of John 9, Jesus is speaking. He says, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him." Our Lord is commenting on where did this man's blindness come from. And He says, not because he sinned, not because his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed. The works of God might be put on display. That the glory of God might shine all the more brightly. That's the key to this chapter.
This is a chapter dedicated to the displaying of the works of God. And in fact, the backbone of the chapter is formed by two displays of the works of God. Two works of God: the removal of physical blindness—that's the first work. And secondly, the second work of God—the removal of spiritual blindness as well. Two great works of God to display the glory of God.
As one commentator noted, the miracle of healing of the man's physical blindness is a symbol-laden miracle looking forward to something greater that comes at the end of the chapter. Furthermore, Jesus will point out at the end of the chapter that this darkness-to-light miracle does not only relate only to this man, the one who had been born blind—it also relates to us as well. There will be an application here that is going to divide the human race into two categories of sinners. Only two.
You have one group, according to Jesus, that is spiritually desperate. Self-despairing. At the end of its own resources. They have come to the end of themselves, blind and they know it, ready then to believe in and submit to Jesus Christ. That's one category. One group.
And the other group is the spiritually self-assured. Self-reliant. Self-confident. Self-gratified. The spiritually "I'm on top of the world," that "I don't really need God's help. I can handle it." And tragically, they're still blind. And they have no part in Christ.
So let's begin this morning to consider the two works of God that provide the backbone of the chapter, and we will end with the application this morning. We will begin to consider the first work of God, and that is verses 1 through 34. The first work of God in John 9 is the healing of this man's physical blindness. And it runs from verse 1 to verse 34.
Last week we talked about the first three verses concerning sickness and why bad things happen and the glory of God in all of this. And today we want to focus on the narrative itself. And it runs all the way from verse 1 to verse 34. And the first five verses we will call, as we make our way through this text together step by step, we'll call the preparation. The preparation. So the preparation for this work. And it is a theological preparation.
Look at verse 1: "As He," referring to Christ, "passed by, He saw a man blind from birth." Let us not miss this, beloved. "As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth." This is different than blind Bartimaeus who was crying out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
I love what Pastor MacArthur said concerning this. And he said this, and I quote: "Sovereign grace dominates this miracle. Sovereign will dominates this miracle. The blind man cannot see anything. He does not know anything about Jesus coming by, but Jesus sees him. Jesus sees him. The blind man is a picture of the sin-blinded man who had no capacity to see Jesus, who is profoundly, deeply engulfed in his desperate blindness and has no capability to see the Savior."
Jesus sees him. Jesus stops, does something about it. This is our God. This is always what our God does. He is the initiating God. Remember when Adam sinned in the garden, he hid himself along with his wife. When he heard the sound of God walking in the garden, God initiated. God said, "Adam, where are you?" He is the initiator. God is the One. And is that not the case with you, child of God? Did not God find you? You were not really seeking Him. And the only reason you sought Him is because He sought you first.
Verse 1: "As He passed by, He saw a blind man from birth." And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" And we saw last time the twelve disciples had shopped at Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar's store in the Book of Job to get their theology of sickness. And it's the wrong store to shop in, right? As we saw last time.
They believe that sickness is always divine punishment for a specific sin. And Jesus corrected their thinking, their wrong thinking here. Now God, at times, does discipline a specific sin with a specific sickness. Sometimes He does that. We find that in Scripture, of course. However, it is also clear that that is not the only way that God works. And it certainly was not the way that God was working in this case.
Verse 3, Jesus said, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him." Like every person in the human race, this blind man here was a God-created canvas on which God, as the great artist, is going to display His glory by painting His perfect picture. In verses 4 and 5, Jesus makes further comment for the instruction of the disciples. Look at verse 4. He says, "We must work the works of Him, God the Father Him, who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work." And this is so pregnant with truth, really, this statement.
This night and day imagery seems, at first, a bit obscure until Jesus gives a pretty clear hint in verse 5. He says, "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Also, it's daylight when Jesus is here, referring to His earthly ministry in this context. It's dark when He's gone. Jesus meant that He had an earthly lifetime in which to labor and fulfill His messianic mission. And when that was over, He would no more perform the kind of labor He had been doing. He called His lifetime a day to show us its brevity, the shortness of it.
Jesus is the light. He's like the sun in the sky. Therefore, when Jesus is present here on earth in the incarnation, it's day. The sun is up. He's the light. However, death is looming on the horizon—Calvary. Calvary is but a few short months away. So Jesus says basically this: Let's do this miracle. Let's do this messianic work while the sun is up, while I'm here, because there will come a time when I am no longer here. And when the sun goes down, when the light goes away, messianic miracles won't be the norm anymore. And so let us do this work now.
But you know what's interesting here? There's a, by way of extension—look at this—He pulls the disciples in with the "we." We are all together called together to work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day. What do you mean it is day? Well, He's not referring to daylight. He's referring to lifetime—far greater spiritual implication here. Jesus includes the disciples among those who must work God's works. And by way of extension, beloved, there's an application for us because that includes all of us who have put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must work the works of Him who sent us to be light of the world, to be salt of the world. This is the harvest mindset that we saw Jesus emphasizing with the disciples back in chapter 4 of John when He was speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well. The disciples' focus was on getting Jesus to eat His lunch so that they could get on the road and continue their journey, but His focus was on doing the Father's will, accomplishing the Father's work in chapter 4 and verse 34. And that should be the focus of every single one who follows Jesus.
You see the little word "must" in verse 4? "We must"—the Greek word—we must. This is a word of divine necessity. A word of divine necessity. And we saw it back in chapter 4 and verse 4 as well where it says that He had to pass through Samaria. Divine necessity. He had to. Same Greek word. It was necessary for Him to go through Samaria because there was one of His lost sheep there that He was to bring into the fold so that He could give living water to that immoral woman and her entire village.
Here, although the Pharisees were threatening to kill Jesus and His death was just months ahead, He must work the works of the Father who sent Him. He must. Do you sense, beloved, by way of application, the necessity—that necessity in your life as well and in mine? It's not just that the Lord would like to use you to accomplish His works if you've got some spare time, leftover time, and don't have anything better to do. No, no. You see, serving the Lord is not just for the super dedicated. It's a necessity for all who have been bought with the precious blood of the Lamb.
If you belong to Jesus, you're a member of His body, and every part has a necessary function for the proper working of the whole body. And if you think, "Well, I'm not a very important part," remember the parable of the talents? It was the guy who was given just one talent who buried it. Didn't use it for the Master's purposes. The Master had some very frightening things to say to him in Matthew 25.
But note also here the urgency of doing the Lord's work. Jesus says in verse 4, "Night is coming when no one can work." He's referring to His death in that context. His night was coming when He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners—Chapter 13 and verse 30. But night is coming soon for all of us. Night is coming soon, beloved, for all of us. None of us are guaranteed of even another day. We're not even guaranteed that we will come back this evening to be together. We're not guaranteed that.
But even if we live a long life, it goes by all too quickly. It's like a vapor. It's like a mist. James 4:14," "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." Paul says in Ephesians 5:15–16, "Therefore look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil."
Redeeming the time—that expression could be translated, buying up the opportunities. Buying up the opportunities. Make good use of your time. Use it for the Lord, the glory of Christ.
C. T. Studd was a British missionary, spent his life totally, totally, fully devoted, dedicated to the service of the Lord, serving in China and India and Africa. He expressed this very well in a poem that he wrote titled, Only One Life ‘Twill Soon Be Passed. Let me share that with you because there's so much by way of application here for us based on this verse.
He writes:
Two little lines I heard one day,
Traveling along life's busy way,
Bringing conviction to my heart
And from my mind would not depart.
Only one life ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes, only one.
Soon will its fleeting hours be done.
Then in that day, my Lord to meet
And stand before His judgment seat.
Only one life ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Only one life, the still small voice
Gently pleads for a better choice,
Bidding me selfish aims to leave
And to God's holy will to cleave.
Only one life ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Only one life, a few brief years,
Each with its burdens, hopes and fears,
Each with its days I must fulfill,
Living for self or in His will.
Only one life ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
When this bright world would tempt me sore,
When Satan would a victory score,
When self would seek to have its way,
Then help me, Lord, with joy to say,
Only one life, ’twill soon be passed.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Give me, Father, a purpose deep in joy or sorrow,
Thy Word to keep, faithful and true,
Whatever the strife, pleasing Thee in my daily life.
Only one life, ’twill soon be passed.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Oh, let my love with fervor burn,
And from the world now let me turn,
Living for Thee and Thee alone,
Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne.
Only one life, ’twill soon be passed.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes, only one.
Now let me say, Thy will be done.
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say, ’twas worth it all.
Only one life, ’twill soon be passed.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
And he finishes with this: “only one life, ’twill soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will last. And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, if the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.”
Are you looking for and taking advantage of the opportunities that the Lord gives you to make much of Christ, to point blind beggars to the Light of the World? Whether young or old, that we have just one opportunity to be faithful to our Lord, to accomplish things for Him, it is now. It is now, while it is light. And if you are even in the sunset of your life, humanly speaking, He still has a purpose for you. As long as you’re here, He has a purpose for you. You’re here for a purpose. And the purpose is that in your life you may glorify Him.
It’s all, beloved, optimism. As long as you’re breathing, God evidently has a distinct purpose for you. Back to one of my favorite verses on this, Acts 13:36, “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his fathers." He fell asleep and was laid among his fathers only, only after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation. Not one day less, not one day more.
So, beloved, this is the theological preparation, explaining the background of this man’s blindness and Jesus’ role in healing it. The man’s congenital blindness was not the result of sin. It was part of the grand design of God to display the glory of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Light of the World.
And just a side note, do you remember when John the Baptist went through the time of doubt in prison? Recorded in Matthew 11, " And the Baptist sent some disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “Are You the Messiah or shall we look for someone else?” Are You the one or should we look for someone else? And Jesus sent a message back to John. And you can see the kindness and the graciousness of our Lord. He sent a message back to John through those followers. And His message was, you remember? “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers cleanse, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
But did you notice that first on the list of Messiah-validating, Messiah-proving miracles, was what? The Light of the World would bring physical light to blind eyes and spiritual light as well. And what Jesus said to John the Baptist in the incident, quoting Isaiah 35:5–6, is exactly now what Jesus does here. He will prove that He is the Messiah by opening blind eyes—an arrow, a giant arrow—to what He does spiritually as well.
So having seen the preparation, this then moves us to the action of the first work of God. And the action is found in verses 6 and 7. Look at it with me. "And when He said this, He spat on the ground, made clay of the saliva and rubbed the clay on His eyes. And He said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,' which is translated 'Sent.' So he went away and washed and came back seeing."
I love this. I love this. Jesus here in verse 7—Jesus, the Sent One from the Father, Jesus, the Sent One—sends this poor blind beggar to a pool called Sent. John loves those kinds of word plays. And here's another one in the Gospel of John. The Sent One sends the blind man to the pool called Sent. This pool of Siloam is the endpoint of the famous Hezekiah tunnel that comes from Gihon, the Gihon Spring. And as we've also seen at the Feast of the Tabernacles, the priest would get water from the pool of Siloam and pour it out on the base of the altar in commemoration of God's wonderful provision of water from the rock when Israel was in the wilderness.
There's so much imagery here. That water also pictured the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the all-sufficiency of Christ back in chapter 7. Now, at this point, if you're like me, you'd ask yourself, well, why did Jesus heal this man in this unusual way? I mean, spitting, making mud, applying it to the man's eyes, and then telling him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. And I mean, why didn't Jesus just speak the word as He did with the man at the pool of Bethesda or at Lazarus' tomb, right? "Come forth," "Pick up your mat and walk." I mean, John doesn't tell us why. He doesn't. He doesn't.
Now, so we don't know really for sure. And we don't know the significance of making mud and anointing the man's eyes and sending him to the pool of Siloam. And if you want speculations, I mean, we can have a sermon on speculations. But I don't think it's going to be really edifying, really. Many speculations, suggestions have been made. I'll just mention a couple very briefly just to share that with you. Perhaps it had the reminder theologically that God made us from the dust and He could take that same clay and heal us. Maybe it was simply practical. If you put dirt on someone's eyes, well, they have to go and wash, right?
But I believe there's another reason that Jesus performed this miracle in this manner. In verse 14—and we'll get to it next Lord's Day, Lord willing—we read, "It was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes." Oh, it was a Sabbath. By doing this, Jesus deliberately violated several of the man-made additions to the law of Moses that the Jews, the rabbis, invented. Making clay was a breach, as we will see in detail next time, a prohibition of kneading on the Sabbath. Placing the clay on his eyes violated the regulation concerning prohibited anointings.
Kneading on the Sabbath was forbidden unless it was to save one's life. And so I think that Jesus made clay, anointed the man's eyes, instructed him to go and wash on the Sabbath deliberately. And if I can put it this way, really to poke His finger in the eyes of these legalistic Pharisees. They cared more about keeping their rules—man-made rules—than they did about this poor blind beggar receiving his sight. As we'll see, they got into an argument about whether Jesus was sent from God or a sinner because He broke the Sabbath rules. They should have instantly recognized that opening the eyes of the blind was a messianic activity.
And of course, it was neither the clay, nor the saliva, nor the water from the pool of Siloam that was the active power that removed this blindness, this man's blindness. It's just the power of Christ. That was it. Jesus, the *Loros*, the eternal Word, created the components of this man's ocular system that had been missing or malfunctioning from the womb. In the beginning, God said, Jesus created. He created. He creates them in an instant of time, sovereignly, supernaturally. He is the Creator God, John 1:3. He could do it.
Now, we can't imagine it perfectly, but do your best with me today with a sanctified imagination. Picture that man, this blind beggar from birth, going to the pool of Siloam. Jesus did what He did, and He said, go and wash. So he's going now. Picture him going, having to feel his way there, perhaps using a stick, maybe somebody guiding him, going down and washing in the water. And as that water splashes his face, for the very first time ever, something pierces his consciousness that he's never had before. And it's light, light.
And for the very first time, very first time ever, he sees what water looks like. He looks up and he begins to see faces. Faces that he's never, ever seen before. And he starts to see all these things that he's known in his life. I mean, these merchant sellers, and their tables, and these walls, and pillars, and stones. He sees it all. Imagine, a whole new world is breaking in upon him. And people now see that man who they'd seen always known, feeling his way along the wall with his hands and with a stick perhaps and so forth. And they see this man now smiling and walking around with no need for help.
Beloved, this is such a beautiful, marvelous illustration of salvation. To be washed and to come back seeing. To become a Christian is to be washed from the filth of sin and rebellion against God and then to come back seeing. Seeing the whole world, seeing life through new lenses and suddenly the day you're saved, all the whole world starts to look different. Everything is different. You'll realize what you didn't realize. You'll understand what you didn't see. And you could say with John Newton, "I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see."
Beloved, I want to suggest that the meaning ultimately of what Jesus said was go wash in the word of the Sent One who is the eternal source of life. This is how salvation works in this analogy. Sovereign grace confronts a blind, helpless, hopeless, begging, wretched sinner. And he can't see, he can't see God. He can't truly see himself. He can't see the Lord Jesus Christ. But sovereign grace comes to him, places His glorious, merciful hands upon his sightless soul, asks only a response of a simple faith and prompts that response from that blind beggar.
He finds his way to the cleansing waters, which is an emblem of messianic salvation in Isaiah. And he comes back and he can see—first physically and then spiritually. Beautiful picture. It illustrates really the salvation process. We sit blinded by sin, begging. We can't see God. We can't see Christ. We can't see ourselves as we truly are. We have no capacity to recognize the Savior. We have no way to initiate any kind of deliverance or rescue. And then God comes by. God in His mercy, Christ in His grace finds us.
That's salvation. He reaches out to us in our blindness and He gives us sight. And all that He asks is a simple act of faith, which He Himself empowers. And He washes us and we forever see. That's what will happen to this man. First, the physical healing came and then the soul blindness was removed, as we will see. We'll have to keep that for next time.
Now, as you know, as you would expect, this miracle, well, to do, it causes a furor. It does. This guy who has been born blind and blind all his life, all the way from birth, now comes back seeing. And of course, he runs to his friends, his family, his neighbors, and so on. Just the excitement of it all. It's great news.
So we move from the action then to the reaction, from the healing to the response. The reaction to this first work of God. Look at the reaction. And that's really bounded by verse eight all the way to 34. Well, we won't move very far from it under this heading. The reactions of the people that see and meet the blind man include amazement, doubt, debate—but especially debate. Especially debate. In fact, the debates over this miracle continue from verse eight all the way through verse 34. So we can break down the reaction into really two great or big debates, actually. The first involves the man's neighbors. The second involves the Pharisees primarily.
Well, let's begin with the first debate that happens between the neighbors under their reaction. Look at verses eight and nine: "Therefore, the neighbors and those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, 'Is not this one? Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?’” I mean, look at him. The clothes are the same. The hair is the same. The skin, the beard, the whatever is the same. But something's different. The eyes are different. The eyes are different. "Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?" Others were saying, "This is he." Still others were saying, "No, no. But he is like him." But he kept saying, "I am the one." It's me. Here I am.
Can you imagine everybody saying, "No, no, no, he's the one." "No, no, he's not the one." "No, no, no, he looks like him." And he's like standing there saying, "It's me. It's really me." The reaction of the neighbors is near disbelief. And keep in mind that the Old Testament—and this is important—that the Old Testament has no records of any healings of the blind. There's not even a single case. And there's absolutely no case of a man born blind recovering sight. And so some of the people assume that it is just something that can't happen. So therefore it can't be the same blind beggar they knew was blind from birth. It just must be a lookalike. And maybe his identical twin that was never seen before came out of nowhere and made his debut that day. Or maybe a clone, I don't know.
This is so beautiful to me, beloved, because this all resonates with us when we are born again by the grace of God, when we are saved. The difference between the old life and the new life can sometimes be so radical that friends and neighbors and coworkers say, "Is this the same person? Is it really the same person?" Some say, "Well, it can't be. The person we knew was a cheat, a gossip, a slander, a sloth, an adulterer, a brawler, et cetera." This person is completely unlike that one. Kind and gentle and self-controlled and peaceful and content and et cetera. And the Christian says, "It's really me." And people say, "Well, what happened to you? What happened to you?"
And the testimony which every Christian, at root gives, is this: Jesus found me. Jesus found me. He forgave me. He opened my eyes. And you know what this is, this kind of testimony? It's irrefutable. It's irrefutable. You can't argue with it. You can't gainsay it. The change has happened. It's radical.
And so the ex-blind man had to argue with them that he was in fact the man that they had known all these years as the beggar blind from birth. Eventually, they are convinced of his identity. Eventually, they are convinced of his identity. Obviously, the next question then is, how? How did it happen? I mean, how, tell us how, can we bottle this and sell it and make money?
How did this happen? Verse 10, “So they were saying to him, "How then were your eyes open?" He answered, "The man who is called Jesus made clay, rubbed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So when I went away and washed, I received sight." And they said to him, "Where is He?" He said, "I do not know."
At this point, the ex-blind man doesn't have much idea or any idea who Jesus actually is. I mean, he knows about Jesus, he's heard of Him, but he doesn't really have a clue who Jesus really is. Where is this Jesus who healed you? I don't know. I don't know. The work of Jesus' power in him, though, was so undeniable, so obvious. I mean, he's seeing for the first time in his life, it's an overwhelming event, and no doubt he's wrestling as much as the people around him with who is this Jesus and how has He done this to me?
Now let me pause at this point, and I wanna underscore something here, very important for us. The response of the blind man in all of this is very interesting, and especially in his interaction with Jesus. What a difference. And the best way to explain it or underscore it is to contrast it. To contrast it. What a difference between the response of this blind man and the response that Naaman made when Elisha said to him, go and wash in the Jordan River seven times.
Remember that narrative? Naaman the leper in 2 Kings 5 went to Elisha. Elisha gave him the message through a messenger. Do you remember how Naaman reacted? He was furious. He was furious. He really blew his top when Elisha said to him, go and wash in the Jordan River seven times. I mean, he is this great feared general who came from Syria. He's always with the king, next to the king. It come down to the prophet because he had been told the prophet might be able to heal him from his leprosy, and so Elisha didn't even want to see him at first, and finally he said, "Go and tell Naaman to wash in the Jordan seven times, and his flesh shall be restored to him, and he will be clean" (2 Kings 5:10).
Naaman was very mad when he heard the message. He went away, verse 11, 2 Kings 5, saying, "Behold, I said to myself, he," referring to Elisha, "will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper."
In other words, you know, he'd come out and do something, you know, some gymnastics, something dramatic, you know, at least, and he wouldn't even see me. I can't believe this. He just sent a messenger, go and wash in the Jordan River seven times. Imagine me, Naaman, a very important man in Syria, the general, go dip myself in that dirty stream seven times. This is absurd. This is ridiculous. This is humiliating. And so he just went away.
And finally, one of his servants, you remember, who had more sense than his master, said, look here, if he told you to do something big, dramatic, you would have done it, wouldn't you? 1 Kings 5:13, well, look, he told you to do something very easy. All you have to do is just go over and dip yourself seven times in Jordan River. And so finally, I can imagine Naaman saying, well, I guess it doesn't hurt.
So he went over and got down in the dirty stream, dipped himself one time, looked at himself two times, looked at himself, and you could just imagine each time, six times, getting a little bit discouraged, maybe. And finally, the seventh time, he comes up, and he looks down, and his skin, the text says, “was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.” That's the way God heals, by the way, beloved. He doesn't do a half a job. It's always, always complete. Not so-called Tali evangelist healers who heal supposedly. This is the way God heals. His skin was like a little boy's.
Well, notice how the blind man in our text responded. Go to verse six: "When He had said this, He spat on the ground, made the clay of the saliva, rubbed the clay on his eyes, and He said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,' which is translated Sent." Here's the response: "So he went away and washed." See that? He went away and washed. No questioning, no temper tantrum, no bargaining, no balking. He just turned and went to that pool, and he came back seeing. There was obedience when obedience was not easy.
Well, I've been born blind. I've been blind all my life. Go over and wash in that pool. How ridiculous! And it's possible that he even had washed in it before. And furthermore, it looked like a pathetic, ridiculous, laughable kind of way to heal a person of blindness—to wash off that clay and spittle that was on his eyes and expect him to see. But he went, nevertheless, and came seeing, and it was, of course, a miraculous sign. You see, that's the kind of miracle Jesus performs. "Go wash in the pool of Siloam." He washes in the pool, and he's given sight right there. He doesn't have to go to the occultists or the optometrists or whatever to be fitted for glasses afterwards. His eyes can see. He can see perfectly, completely.
This is the kind of miracle that God performs. This is the Messiah. This is the Son of God. He came so that the blind can see. The blind beggar in his state is that vivid picture of hopelessness. And what a favorable opportunity for the divine work to be put on display. The weaker we are, the more on display is the glory of God and the power of God. This man didn't need new glasses—the new glasses of some sort of a cosmetic reformation on the surface. He didn't need to correct his vision—the correction of education or culture. He didn't need the salve of religion. What he needed was new eyes.
He needed the new eyes of the new birth. "You must be born again," Jesus told Nicodemus. "You must be born from above." And what a picture of a seeking Savior. Again, he is a man who probably didn't even know Jesus was passing by, unlike blind Bartimaeus. And it was our Lord who seeks him. That's grace, and that's sovereign grace. The Lord was interested in this man long before this man was ever interested in the Lord. And He saw him. And He said to him, "Go wash in the pool." It's a picture of an omnipotent Savior—able to heal, able to give forgiveness of sins, able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him by faith. And when He touches the eyes of our blindness, then we sing.
We sing as He gives us a new heart. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was blind, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. May God help you recognize your blindness if you are in that state today, to come to Him who heals both the physical and, far greater miracle, the spiritual blindness.
So come to Him today. Come to Him if you are a blind beggar today. If you are in that state of darkness, calluses around the heart, darkness that you cannot see the light—come to Jesus. Cry out to Him. Give yourself to Him. Stop trusting in the things that cannot save: the church, religion, good works, education, culture—all of the things in which you naturally lean on. Come to Jesus. Believe upon Him. Turn to Him. He will wash away your sin, and He will give you sight. And your eyes will be opened, and for the very first time, you'll be enabled to see the Light of the world.
Let us pray.
You take a cave tour somewhere, and the tour guide takes you 100 meters below ground, and if he were to turn off all light—I mean, it's pitch dark, pitch black. You can't even see your hand in front of your face. I mean, it's total darkness. And when that happens, it's unnerving. It's unnerving. It's an unnerving moment to be in total darkness that you can't even see your hand in front of your face. And of course, there's that tremendous sense of relief when the guy turns the lights back on. You see, human beings were not designed by God to live without light.
Now, what's true in the physical realm is also true, and I would even say doubly true, in the spiritual realm. God created human beings to live in spiritual light just as much as He created them to live in physical light. Well, there's a problem, however. And the problem is because of Adam's sin, spiritually speaking, the entire human race has been living in darkness ever since Genesis chapter 3. The sun set in the garden when Adam disobeyed God, and darkness has reigned ever since. Darkness has set and reigned ever since.
For example, in Ephesians 4 verse 18, the Apostle Paul describes sinners before we turn to the living God through Jesus Christ. He describes us—every single one of us—left to ourselves as darkened in our mind. Darkened in our understanding. The light is shining. The spiritual receptors, however, are completely dysfunctional. In Romans 1 verse 21, Paul said, "Their foolish heart, their foolish thinking was darkened." Darkened. Exchanging the glory of God for the pseudo glory of men, it leads away from the truth, away from knowledge, away from light, and it leads to error, to ignorance, and to darkness.
And of course, blindness is not the only illustration that the Bible uses for our spiritual incapacity. Another illustration that often is used is calluses, like the calluses under your fingers. The dead skin under your fingers. Now in some cases, the calluses can be so thick—I remember growing up, had an older neighbor who worked in his land so much so with his hands, with his bare hands, so much so that he had tremendous calluses formed under his fingers, so much so that he could take a hot casserole dish without using oven mitts, just to reach in and grab it, just like that. Desensitized, completely.
Now imagine if such one went blind. Imagine if such one, with so much calluses under the fingers, went blind, and had to read by means of Braille. Not much hope for him, is there? Nothing would get through those desensitized fingertips of that man. That's how sinners are in our spiritual blindness. That describes us in our spiritual blindness. Our eyes are dark. Our eyes are pitch dark. Our hearts so covered with dead skin. So covered, as the psalmist says, so insulated in Psalm 119:70,” with fat, that no spiritual truth can ever penetrate.” Dead skin. Calluses. And unbelief is like a barrier.
Our spiritual blindness is like a force field that deflects the laser beams of God's truth and God's conviction bearing down. Now in light of that, especially the darkness illustration, and it is profoundly significant that the Old Testament—the entirety of the Old Testament—it is significant, it describes the Messiah, God's Savior for the human race, describes Him as the Messiah being as light. He is the light of the world. God says Messiah is the light of the world.
For example, in Isaiah 8, Isaiah says this of sinners in verse 22: "Then they will look to the earth and behold distress, darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be banished into thick darkness." Not just darkness, but thick darkness. Thick darkness. That's a pretty desperate picture. That's a pretty desperate state. What those who are driven away into darkness desperately need is light. Light.
That's exactly how Isaiah describes Messiah. As he moves into chapter 9 and verse 2, it says, "The people who walk in darkness," this thick darkness, "will see a great light. Those who live in the land of the shadow of death, the light will shine on them." That's a glorious message of hope. Isaiah 49, verse 6, God says to the Messiah the familiar words, "I will also give you," the Messiah, "you, My servant, as a light of the nations." And that sounds promising, doesn't it? The Messiah is light. He is the light. And we live in thick darkness. And that's what we need. We need light because we live in thick darkness.
There is, however, still another problem to be solved. You see, it's not just that there's darkness out there. There's darkness in here as well. Not only there's darkness around us, but there's darkness within us. Blind eyes can't see. Blind eyes cannot see. The fact that there is no light is irrelevant when you bring light if your eyes are still blind. Right? It makes no difference. It doesn't matter either way, does it? Blind eyes can't see light no matter how bright the light is.
I mean, you can bring that bright light so close to your eyeball, and if you're blind, you will not see it. You cannot see it. No matter what you do. As Jesus Himself declared in John 8, verse 12, "He is the light of the world." But that doesn't help us by itself because we have been born blind, spiritually speaking. Our spiritual receptors are irreversibly damaged due to the fall. Our optic nerve has been severed. It's been removed. We can't see. We can't see even if there's light.
Therefore, spiritual light, even if it is the radiant light of the glory of God in Jesus Christ, it is still invisible to us. We're blind. You can bring all the light to us, and we still can't see it. It doesn't register. Remove the darkness on the outside, but the darkness on the inside doesn't go away. It doesn't. As a blind person can feel the warmth of the sun on his face, but cannot see the light of the sun, so we know, as Romans 1 says, that there is a God. We understand that. It's innate in our being, in our heart. We know that there is a God, but we can only feel, as it were, the warmth of Him on our cheek. We cannot see. We cannot understand His ways. We cannot understand Him. We cannot see Him.
We need more than just light. What we need is someone who can give us eyes to see the light. We need the light absolutely, certainly, but we need also eyes to see it as well. And this is what we see here in John 9. This is what we have in John 9. Jesus proves that He indeed can do that. He proves that He could do that. He provides new eyes, both physically and spiritually, in this great chapter. And while Jesus Christ manifests His messianic power in John 9 to heal this man's physical blindness, by far the greater miracle comes at the end of the chapter when He removes this man's blindness spiritually.
Now in John 9, verse 5, as Jesus and the disciples encounter this man who had been born blind, He proclaims, "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Then the Light of the world proceeds to give sight to this man born blind, who has lived in total darkness his entire life. And by way of contrast, at the end of the chapter, the proud Pharisees who thought they could see are left completely in total spiritual darkness.
I love what A. W. Pink did at this point. He points out a number of contrasts between John 8 and 9, and he does it beautifully. That helps us in introducing this narrative this morning. He says “in John 8, we see Christ as Light exposing the darkness. But in John 9, He imparts sight, both physically and later spiritually, to one in darkness. In John 8, the Light is despised and rejected. In John 9, He is believed in and worshipped. In John 8, the Jews stoop to pick up stones to kill the Light. In John 9, the Light stoops to make clay to bring the light to the eyes of the blind. In John 8, Jesus hides Himself from the Jews. In John 9, He reveals Himself to a blind beggar. In John 8, verse 37, Jesus' word has no place in the Jews. In John 9, verse 7, the blind man responds obediently to Jesus' word. And in John 8, Jesus is called a demoniac. And in John 9, He is worshipped as Lord.”
Beloved, here's what we need to keep in mind as we study this narrative together. Since Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, since He is the Savior of sinners, and He is the only One who can open blind eyes for the glory of God, oh, how you and I should labor to point others to Him. You know, it is true what Pastor MacArthur often says. You know, a Christian evangelizing is a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. And here's a beggar. Here's a beggar. His eyes have been opened by the power of Jesus Christ. We can point others to the only One who can open blind eyes—Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now the key verse of the chapter is really verse 3. Verse 3 of John 9, Jesus is speaking. He says, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him." Our Lord is commenting on where did this man's blindness come from. And He says, not because he sinned, not because his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed. The works of God might be put on display. That the glory of God might shine all the more brightly. That's the key to this chapter.
This is a chapter dedicated to the displaying of the works of God. And in fact, the backbone of the chapter is formed by two displays of the works of God. Two works of God: the removal of physical blindness—that's the first work. And secondly, the second work of God—the removal of spiritual blindness as well. Two great works of God to display the glory of God.
As one commentator noted, the miracle of healing of the man's physical blindness is a symbol-laden miracle looking forward to something greater that comes at the end of the chapter. Furthermore, Jesus will point out at the end of the chapter that this darkness-to-light miracle does not only relate only to this man, the one who had been born blind—it also relates to us as well. There will be an application here that is going to divide the human race into two categories of sinners. Only two.
You have one group, according to Jesus, that is spiritually desperate. Self-despairing. At the end of its own resources. They have come to the end of themselves, blind and they know it, ready then to believe in and submit to Jesus Christ. That's one category. One group.
And the other group is the spiritually self-assured. Self-reliant. Self-confident. Self-gratified. The spiritually "I'm on top of the world," that "I don't really need God's help. I can handle it." And tragically, they're still blind. And they have no part in Christ.
So let's begin this morning to consider the two works of God that provide the backbone of the chapter, and we will end with the application this morning. We will begin to consider the first work of God, and that is verses 1 through 34. The first work of God in John 9 is the healing of this man's physical blindness. And it runs from verse 1 to verse 34.
Last week we talked about the first three verses concerning sickness and why bad things happen and the glory of God in all of this. And today we want to focus on the narrative itself. And it runs all the way from verse 1 to verse 34. And the first five verses we will call, as we make our way through this text together step by step, we'll call the preparation. The preparation. So the preparation for this work. And it is a theological preparation.
Look at verse 1: "As He," referring to Christ, "passed by, He saw a man blind from birth." Let us not miss this, beloved. "As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth." This is different than blind Bartimaeus who was crying out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
I love what Pastor MacArthur said concerning this. And he said this, and I quote: "Sovereign grace dominates this miracle. Sovereign will dominates this miracle. The blind man cannot see anything. He does not know anything about Jesus coming by, but Jesus sees him. Jesus sees him. The blind man is a picture of the sin-blinded man who had no capacity to see Jesus, who is profoundly, deeply engulfed in his desperate blindness and has no capability to see the Savior."
Jesus sees him. Jesus stops, does something about it. This is our God. This is always what our God does. He is the initiating God. Remember when Adam sinned in the garden, he hid himself along with his wife. When he heard the sound of God walking in the garden, God initiated. God said, "Adam, where are you?" He is the initiator. God is the One. And is that not the case with you, child of God? Did not God find you? You were not really seeking Him. And the only reason you sought Him is because He sought you first.
Verse 1: "As He passed by, He saw a blind man from birth." And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" And we saw last time the twelve disciples had shopped at Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar's store in the Book of Job to get their theology of sickness. And it's the wrong store to shop in, right? As we saw last time.
They believe that sickness is always divine punishment for a specific sin. And Jesus corrected their thinking, their wrong thinking here. Now God, at times, does discipline a specific sin with a specific sickness. Sometimes He does that. We find that in Scripture, of course. However, it is also clear that that is not the only way that God works. And it certainly was not the way that God was working in this case.
Verse 3, Jesus said, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him." Like every person in the human race, this blind man here was a God-created canvas on which God, as the great artist, is going to display His glory by painting His perfect picture. In verses 4 and 5, Jesus makes further comment for the instruction of the disciples. Look at verse 4. He says, "We must work the works of Him, God the Father Him, who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work." And this is so pregnant with truth, really, this statement.
This night and day imagery seems, at first, a bit obscure until Jesus gives a pretty clear hint in verse 5. He says, "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Also, it's daylight when Jesus is here, referring to His earthly ministry in this context. It's dark when He's gone. Jesus meant that He had an earthly lifetime in which to labor and fulfill His messianic mission. And when that was over, He would no more perform the kind of labor He had been doing. He called His lifetime a day to show us its brevity, the shortness of it.
Jesus is the light. He's like the sun in the sky. Therefore, when Jesus is present here on earth in the incarnation, it's day. The sun is up. He's the light. However, death is looming on the horizon—Calvary. Calvary is but a few short months away. So Jesus says basically this: Let's do this miracle. Let's do this messianic work while the sun is up, while I'm here, because there will come a time when I am no longer here. And when the sun goes down, when the light goes away, messianic miracles won't be the norm anymore. And so let us do this work now.
But you know what's interesting here? There's a, by way of extension—look at this—He pulls the disciples in with the "we." We are all together called together to work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day. What do you mean it is day? Well, He's not referring to daylight. He's referring to lifetime—far greater spiritual implication here. Jesus includes the disciples among those who must work God's works. And by way of extension, beloved, there's an application for us because that includes all of us who have put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must work the works of Him who sent us to be light of the world, to be salt of the world. This is the harvest mindset that we saw Jesus emphasizing with the disciples back in chapter 4 of John when He was speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well. The disciples' focus was on getting Jesus to eat His lunch so that they could get on the road and continue their journey, but His focus was on doing the Father's will, accomplishing the Father's work in chapter 4 and verse 34. And that should be the focus of every single one who follows Jesus.
You see the little word "must" in verse 4? "We must"—the Greek word—we must. This is a word of divine necessity. A word of divine necessity. And we saw it back in chapter 4 and verse 4 as well where it says that He had to pass through Samaria. Divine necessity. He had to. Same Greek word. It was necessary for Him to go through Samaria because there was one of His lost sheep there that He was to bring into the fold so that He could give living water to that immoral woman and her entire village.
Here, although the Pharisees were threatening to kill Jesus and His death was just months ahead, He must work the works of the Father who sent Him. He must. Do you sense, beloved, by way of application, the necessity—that necessity in your life as well and in mine? It's not just that the Lord would like to use you to accomplish His works if you've got some spare time, leftover time, and don't have anything better to do. No, no. You see, serving the Lord is not just for the super dedicated. It's a necessity for all who have been bought with the precious blood of the Lamb.
If you belong to Jesus, you're a member of His body, and every part has a necessary function for the proper working of the whole body. And if you think, "Well, I'm not a very important part," remember the parable of the talents? It was the guy who was given just one talent who buried it. Didn't use it for the Master's purposes. The Master had some very frightening things to say to him in Matthew 25.
But note also here the urgency of doing the Lord's work. Jesus says in verse 4, "Night is coming when no one can work." He's referring to His death in that context. His night was coming when He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners—Chapter 13 and verse 30. But night is coming soon for all of us. Night is coming soon, beloved, for all of us. None of us are guaranteed of even another day. We're not even guaranteed that we will come back this evening to be together. We're not guaranteed that.
But even if we live a long life, it goes by all too quickly. It's like a vapor. It's like a mist. James 4:14," "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." Paul says in Ephesians 5:15–16, "Therefore look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil."
Redeeming the time—that expression could be translated, buying up the opportunities. Buying up the opportunities. Make good use of your time. Use it for the Lord, the glory of Christ.
C. T. Studd was a British missionary, spent his life totally, totally, fully devoted, dedicated to the service of the Lord, serving in China and India and Africa. He expressed this very well in a poem that he wrote titled, Only One Life ‘Twill Soon Be Passed. Let me share that with you because there's so much by way of application here for us based on this verse.
He writes:
Two little lines I heard one day,
Traveling along life's busy way,
Bringing conviction to my heart
And from my mind would not depart.
Only one life ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes, only one.
Soon will its fleeting hours be done.
Then in that day, my Lord to meet
And stand before His judgment seat.
Only one life ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Only one life, the still small voice
Gently pleads for a better choice,
Bidding me selfish aims to leave
And to God's holy will to cleave.
Only one life ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Only one life, a few brief years,
Each with its burdens, hopes and fears,
Each with its days I must fulfill,
Living for self or in His will.
Only one life ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what's done for Christ will last.
When this bright world would tempt me sore,
When Satan would a victory score,
When self would seek to have its way,
Then help me, Lord, with joy to say,
Only one life, ’twill soon be passed.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Give me, Father, a purpose deep in joy or sorrow,
Thy Word to keep, faithful and true,
Whatever the strife, pleasing Thee in my daily life.
Only one life, ’twill soon be passed.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Oh, let my love with fervor burn,
And from the world now let me turn,
Living for Thee and Thee alone,
Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne.
Only one life, ’twill soon be passed.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes, only one.
Now let me say, Thy will be done.
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say, ’twas worth it all.
Only one life, ’twill soon be passed.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
And he finishes with this: “only one life, ’twill soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will last. And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, if the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.”
Are you looking for and taking advantage of the opportunities that the Lord gives you to make much of Christ, to point blind beggars to the Light of the World? Whether young or old, that we have just one opportunity to be faithful to our Lord, to accomplish things for Him, it is now. It is now, while it is light. And if you are even in the sunset of your life, humanly speaking, He still has a purpose for you. As long as you’re here, He has a purpose for you. You’re here for a purpose. And the purpose is that in your life you may glorify Him.
It’s all, beloved, optimism. As long as you’re breathing, God evidently has a distinct purpose for you. Back to one of my favorite verses on this, Acts 13:36, “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his fathers." He fell asleep and was laid among his fathers only, only after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation. Not one day less, not one day more.
So, beloved, this is the theological preparation, explaining the background of this man’s blindness and Jesus’ role in healing it. The man’s congenital blindness was not the result of sin. It was part of the grand design of God to display the glory of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Light of the World.
And just a side note, do you remember when John the Baptist went through the time of doubt in prison? Recorded in Matthew 11, " And the Baptist sent some disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “Are You the Messiah or shall we look for someone else?” Are You the one or should we look for someone else? And Jesus sent a message back to John. And you can see the kindness and the graciousness of our Lord. He sent a message back to John through those followers. And His message was, you remember? “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers cleanse, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
But did you notice that first on the list of Messiah-validating, Messiah-proving miracles, was what? The Light of the World would bring physical light to blind eyes and spiritual light as well. And what Jesus said to John the Baptist in the incident, quoting Isaiah 35:5–6, is exactly now what Jesus does here. He will prove that He is the Messiah by opening blind eyes—an arrow, a giant arrow—to what He does spiritually as well.
So having seen the preparation, this then moves us to the action of the first work of God. And the action is found in verses 6 and 7. Look at it with me. "And when He said this, He spat on the ground, made clay of the saliva and rubbed the clay on His eyes. And He said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,' which is translated 'Sent.' So he went away and washed and came back seeing."
I love this. I love this. Jesus here in verse 7—Jesus, the Sent One from the Father, Jesus, the Sent One—sends this poor blind beggar to a pool called Sent. John loves those kinds of word plays. And here's another one in the Gospel of John. The Sent One sends the blind man to the pool called Sent. This pool of Siloam is the endpoint of the famous Hezekiah tunnel that comes from Gihon, the Gihon Spring. And as we've also seen at the Feast of the Tabernacles, the priest would get water from the pool of Siloam and pour it out on the base of the altar in commemoration of God's wonderful provision of water from the rock when Israel was in the wilderness.
There's so much imagery here. That water also pictured the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the all-sufficiency of Christ back in chapter 7. Now, at this point, if you're like me, you'd ask yourself, well, why did Jesus heal this man in this unusual way? I mean, spitting, making mud, applying it to the man's eyes, and then telling him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. And I mean, why didn't Jesus just speak the word as He did with the man at the pool of Bethesda or at Lazarus' tomb, right? "Come forth," "Pick up your mat and walk." I mean, John doesn't tell us why. He doesn't. He doesn't.
Now, so we don't know really for sure. And we don't know the significance of making mud and anointing the man's eyes and sending him to the pool of Siloam. And if you want speculations, I mean, we can have a sermon on speculations. But I don't think it's going to be really edifying, really. Many speculations, suggestions have been made. I'll just mention a couple very briefly just to share that with you. Perhaps it had the reminder theologically that God made us from the dust and He could take that same clay and heal us. Maybe it was simply practical. If you put dirt on someone's eyes, well, they have to go and wash, right?
But I believe there's another reason that Jesus performed this miracle in this manner. In verse 14—and we'll get to it next Lord's Day, Lord willing—we read, "It was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes." Oh, it was a Sabbath. By doing this, Jesus deliberately violated several of the man-made additions to the law of Moses that the Jews, the rabbis, invented. Making clay was a breach, as we will see in detail next time, a prohibition of kneading on the Sabbath. Placing the clay on his eyes violated the regulation concerning prohibited anointings.
Kneading on the Sabbath was forbidden unless it was to save one's life. And so I think that Jesus made clay, anointed the man's eyes, instructed him to go and wash on the Sabbath deliberately. And if I can put it this way, really to poke His finger in the eyes of these legalistic Pharisees. They cared more about keeping their rules—man-made rules—than they did about this poor blind beggar receiving his sight. As we'll see, they got into an argument about whether Jesus was sent from God or a sinner because He broke the Sabbath rules. They should have instantly recognized that opening the eyes of the blind was a messianic activity.
And of course, it was neither the clay, nor the saliva, nor the water from the pool of Siloam that was the active power that removed this blindness, this man's blindness. It's just the power of Christ. That was it. Jesus, the *Loros*, the eternal Word, created the components of this man's ocular system that had been missing or malfunctioning from the womb. In the beginning, God said, Jesus created. He created. He creates them in an instant of time, sovereignly, supernaturally. He is the Creator God, John 1:3. He could do it.
Now, we can't imagine it perfectly, but do your best with me today with a sanctified imagination. Picture that man, this blind beggar from birth, going to the pool of Siloam. Jesus did what He did, and He said, go and wash. So he's going now. Picture him going, having to feel his way there, perhaps using a stick, maybe somebody guiding him, going down and washing in the water. And as that water splashes his face, for the very first time ever, something pierces his consciousness that he's never had before. And it's light, light.
And for the very first time, very first time ever, he sees what water looks like. He looks up and he begins to see faces. Faces that he's never, ever seen before. And he starts to see all these things that he's known in his life. I mean, these merchant sellers, and their tables, and these walls, and pillars, and stones. He sees it all. Imagine, a whole new world is breaking in upon him. And people now see that man who they'd seen always known, feeling his way along the wall with his hands and with a stick perhaps and so forth. And they see this man now smiling and walking around with no need for help.
Beloved, this is such a beautiful, marvelous illustration of salvation. To be washed and to come back seeing. To become a Christian is to be washed from the filth of sin and rebellion against God and then to come back seeing. Seeing the whole world, seeing life through new lenses and suddenly the day you're saved, all the whole world starts to look different. Everything is different. You'll realize what you didn't realize. You'll understand what you didn't see. And you could say with John Newton, "I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see."
Beloved, I want to suggest that the meaning ultimately of what Jesus said was go wash in the word of the Sent One who is the eternal source of life. This is how salvation works in this analogy. Sovereign grace confronts a blind, helpless, hopeless, begging, wretched sinner. And he can't see, he can't see God. He can't truly see himself. He can't see the Lord Jesus Christ. But sovereign grace comes to him, places His glorious, merciful hands upon his sightless soul, asks only a response of a simple faith and prompts that response from that blind beggar.
He finds his way to the cleansing waters, which is an emblem of messianic salvation in Isaiah. And he comes back and he can see—first physically and then spiritually. Beautiful picture. It illustrates really the salvation process. We sit blinded by sin, begging. We can't see God. We can't see Christ. We can't see ourselves as we truly are. We have no capacity to recognize the Savior. We have no way to initiate any kind of deliverance or rescue. And then God comes by. God in His mercy, Christ in His grace finds us.
That's salvation. He reaches out to us in our blindness and He gives us sight. And all that He asks is a simple act of faith, which He Himself empowers. And He washes us and we forever see. That's what will happen to this man. First, the physical healing came and then the soul blindness was removed, as we will see. We'll have to keep that for next time.
Now, as you know, as you would expect, this miracle, well, to do, it causes a furor. It does. This guy who has been born blind and blind all his life, all the way from birth, now comes back seeing. And of course, he runs to his friends, his family, his neighbors, and so on. Just the excitement of it all. It's great news.
So we move from the action then to the reaction, from the healing to the response. The reaction to this first work of God. Look at the reaction. And that's really bounded by verse eight all the way to 34. Well, we won't move very far from it under this heading. The reactions of the people that see and meet the blind man include amazement, doubt, debate—but especially debate. Especially debate. In fact, the debates over this miracle continue from verse eight all the way through verse 34. So we can break down the reaction into really two great or big debates, actually. The first involves the man's neighbors. The second involves the Pharisees primarily.
Well, let's begin with the first debate that happens between the neighbors under their reaction. Look at verses eight and nine: "Therefore, the neighbors and those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, 'Is not this one? Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?’” I mean, look at him. The clothes are the same. The hair is the same. The skin, the beard, the whatever is the same. But something's different. The eyes are different. The eyes are different. "Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?" Others were saying, "This is he." Still others were saying, "No, no. But he is like him." But he kept saying, "I am the one." It's me. Here I am.
Can you imagine everybody saying, "No, no, no, he's the one." "No, no, he's not the one." "No, no, no, he looks like him." And he's like standing there saying, "It's me. It's really me." The reaction of the neighbors is near disbelief. And keep in mind that the Old Testament—and this is important—that the Old Testament has no records of any healings of the blind. There's not even a single case. And there's absolutely no case of a man born blind recovering sight. And so some of the people assume that it is just something that can't happen. So therefore it can't be the same blind beggar they knew was blind from birth. It just must be a lookalike. And maybe his identical twin that was never seen before came out of nowhere and made his debut that day. Or maybe a clone, I don't know.
This is so beautiful to me, beloved, because this all resonates with us when we are born again by the grace of God, when we are saved. The difference between the old life and the new life can sometimes be so radical that friends and neighbors and coworkers say, "Is this the same person? Is it really the same person?" Some say, "Well, it can't be. The person we knew was a cheat, a gossip, a slander, a sloth, an adulterer, a brawler, et cetera." This person is completely unlike that one. Kind and gentle and self-controlled and peaceful and content and et cetera. And the Christian says, "It's really me." And people say, "Well, what happened to you? What happened to you?"
And the testimony which every Christian, at root gives, is this: Jesus found me. Jesus found me. He forgave me. He opened my eyes. And you know what this is, this kind of testimony? It's irrefutable. It's irrefutable. You can't argue with it. You can't gainsay it. The change has happened. It's radical.
And so the ex-blind man had to argue with them that he was in fact the man that they had known all these years as the beggar blind from birth. Eventually, they are convinced of his identity. Eventually, they are convinced of his identity. Obviously, the next question then is, how? How did it happen? I mean, how, tell us how, can we bottle this and sell it and make money?
How did this happen? Verse 10, “So they were saying to him, "How then were your eyes open?" He answered, "The man who is called Jesus made clay, rubbed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So when I went away and washed, I received sight." And they said to him, "Where is He?" He said, "I do not know."
At this point, the ex-blind man doesn't have much idea or any idea who Jesus actually is. I mean, he knows about Jesus, he's heard of Him, but he doesn't really have a clue who Jesus really is. Where is this Jesus who healed you? I don't know. I don't know. The work of Jesus' power in him, though, was so undeniable, so obvious. I mean, he's seeing for the first time in his life, it's an overwhelming event, and no doubt he's wrestling as much as the people around him with who is this Jesus and how has He done this to me?
Now let me pause at this point, and I wanna underscore something here, very important for us. The response of the blind man in all of this is very interesting, and especially in his interaction with Jesus. What a difference. And the best way to explain it or underscore it is to contrast it. To contrast it. What a difference between the response of this blind man and the response that Naaman made when Elisha said to him, go and wash in the Jordan River seven times.
Remember that narrative? Naaman the leper in 2 Kings 5 went to Elisha. Elisha gave him the message through a messenger. Do you remember how Naaman reacted? He was furious. He was furious. He really blew his top when Elisha said to him, go and wash in the Jordan River seven times. I mean, he is this great feared general who came from Syria. He's always with the king, next to the king. It come down to the prophet because he had been told the prophet might be able to heal him from his leprosy, and so Elisha didn't even want to see him at first, and finally he said, "Go and tell Naaman to wash in the Jordan seven times, and his flesh shall be restored to him, and he will be clean" (2 Kings 5:10).
Naaman was very mad when he heard the message. He went away, verse 11, 2 Kings 5, saying, "Behold, I said to myself, he," referring to Elisha, "will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper."
In other words, you know, he'd come out and do something, you know, some gymnastics, something dramatic, you know, at least, and he wouldn't even see me. I can't believe this. He just sent a messenger, go and wash in the Jordan River seven times. Imagine me, Naaman, a very important man in Syria, the general, go dip myself in that dirty stream seven times. This is absurd. This is ridiculous. This is humiliating. And so he just went away.
And finally, one of his servants, you remember, who had more sense than his master, said, look here, if he told you to do something big, dramatic, you would have done it, wouldn't you? 1 Kings 5:13, well, look, he told you to do something very easy. All you have to do is just go over and dip yourself seven times in Jordan River. And so finally, I can imagine Naaman saying, well, I guess it doesn't hurt.
So he went over and got down in the dirty stream, dipped himself one time, looked at himself two times, looked at himself, and you could just imagine each time, six times, getting a little bit discouraged, maybe. And finally, the seventh time, he comes up, and he looks down, and his skin, the text says, “was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.” That's the way God heals, by the way, beloved. He doesn't do a half a job. It's always, always complete. Not so-called Tali evangelist healers who heal supposedly. This is the way God heals. His skin was like a little boy's.
Well, notice how the blind man in our text responded. Go to verse six: "When He had said this, He spat on the ground, made the clay of the saliva, rubbed the clay on his eyes, and He said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,' which is translated Sent." Here's the response: "So he went away and washed." See that? He went away and washed. No questioning, no temper tantrum, no bargaining, no balking. He just turned and went to that pool, and he came back seeing. There was obedience when obedience was not easy.
Well, I've been born blind. I've been blind all my life. Go over and wash in that pool. How ridiculous! And it's possible that he even had washed in it before. And furthermore, it looked like a pathetic, ridiculous, laughable kind of way to heal a person of blindness—to wash off that clay and spittle that was on his eyes and expect him to see. But he went, nevertheless, and came seeing, and it was, of course, a miraculous sign. You see, that's the kind of miracle Jesus performs. "Go wash in the pool of Siloam." He washes in the pool, and he's given sight right there. He doesn't have to go to the occultists or the optometrists or whatever to be fitted for glasses afterwards. His eyes can see. He can see perfectly, completely.
This is the kind of miracle that God performs. This is the Messiah. This is the Son of God. He came so that the blind can see. The blind beggar in his state is that vivid picture of hopelessness. And what a favorable opportunity for the divine work to be put on display. The weaker we are, the more on display is the glory of God and the power of God. This man didn't need new glasses—the new glasses of some sort of a cosmetic reformation on the surface. He didn't need to correct his vision—the correction of education or culture. He didn't need the salve of religion. What he needed was new eyes.
He needed the new eyes of the new birth. "You must be born again," Jesus told Nicodemus. "You must be born from above." And what a picture of a seeking Savior. Again, he is a man who probably didn't even know Jesus was passing by, unlike blind Bartimaeus. And it was our Lord who seeks him. That's grace, and that's sovereign grace. The Lord was interested in this man long before this man was ever interested in the Lord. And He saw him. And He said to him, "Go wash in the pool." It's a picture of an omnipotent Savior—able to heal, able to give forgiveness of sins, able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him by faith. And when He touches the eyes of our blindness, then we sing.
We sing as He gives us a new heart. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was blind, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. May God help you recognize your blindness if you are in that state today, to come to Him who heals both the physical and, far greater miracle, the spiritual blindness.
So come to Him today. Come to Him if you are a blind beggar today. If you are in that state of darkness, calluses around the heart, darkness that you cannot see the light—come to Jesus. Cry out to Him. Give yourself to Him. Stop trusting in the things that cannot save: the church, religion, good works, education, culture—all of the things in which you naturally lean on. Come to Jesus. Believe upon Him. Turn to Him. He will wash away your sin, and He will give you sight. And your eyes will be opened, and for the very first time, you'll be enabled to see the Light of the world.
Let us pray.
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