Was Blind But Now I See (III)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Here we return to this narrative in John chapter 9. Our Lord is in Jerusalem, and here He comes across a blind man, a man who has been born blind in this condition since his birth. He's never, ever seen. He has some sort of a congenital blindness, and his situation is so dire and desperate that he's been reduced to a beggar sitting nearby the temple, or perhaps on one of the gates of the temple, begging those who are passing by on their way to worship God. Perhaps, they would have pity upon him and give him alms. So he sits there with the rest of the beggars doing just that. That's his life—reduced to this blind beggar who is dependent upon the pity of others.
And Jesus comes across this man who is blind, who cannot see, and He walks to them as we saw together, studying this account, and He gives him eyes. He gives him eyes, new eyes. He actually creates new eyes. Because John tells us back in chapter 1, verse 3, something very significant concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word – eternal, equal with God – apart from Him, the Word Jesus incarnate, nothing came into being that has come into being. Everything that was made, He created, and He is still the Creator and Sustainer, and so He creates eyes for this blind man. And he is immediately able to see. And then some encounters begin.
First, you remember, the first encounter between this blind man who gained his sight, given his sight by the Lord Jesus Christ, with his neighbors. And the neighbors are trying to figure out what happened, how this man that they have known all their lives and who was blind, born blind, now is able to see. So, he goes through an interview and more of an interrogation with his neighbors who really don't seem to be able to really wrap their brain around this. And he himself, in fact, can't really answer who did this to him because he never saw Him, doesn't know exactly how that happened, but he is convinced that whoever did this is from God.
He's then brought to the Pharisees - the experts, the professionals - who are supposed to render some kind of an explanation, some kind of a religious explanation as to how this could have happened. Because, as the blind man says, it's never been done before. It's never been heard in the history of the world that anyone blind was able to see. He was made able to see. And so there's this interrogation by the Pharisees.
But, as we've seen together, it wasn't really genuine. They've already had their verdict in place before they start the questioning. They believe that Jesus is not from God. In fact, He's an insane, demon-possessed imposter, a charlatan. And with that conclusion, their investigation is really a sham. So, they reject the testimony of this man, they reject the testimony of his neighbors, and they reject even the testimony of his parents.
They eventually end up throwing the man out, the man who can now see, they throw him out of the synagogue, really out of the life of the nation, out of the life of Israel. They could not refute the reasoning of this blind man, so what do they do? They threw him out of the temple, out of the synagogue, in verse 34. And our text picks up the story when Jesus found the man - this man rejected by his peers, by the religious leaders - and asked him a crucial, crucial question, bringing him to faith in Himself.
The story concludes by really contrasting the blind man's faith with the hard hearts of the unbelieving Pharisees. And, here, what we learn together is that Jesus came to give sight to the spiritually blind, but also to bring those who think they see without Him, to bring them to judgment. Remember, the key to the chapter is in verse 3, where Jesus says, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” - here’s the point, here’s why - “but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him.” This was so, in order to put on display the works of God, the glory of God, the saving power of God.
This is a chapter dedicated to displaying the works of God. In fact, the backbone of the chapter is formed by, as I mentioned several times before, two displays of the works of God—two works of God. The first work is the removal of physical blindness, and the second work of God is the removal of spiritual blindness.
We considered, already, the first work of God in the first 34 verses. We looked at the preparation in the first five verses that led to the action of Jesus healing the man born blind, and then led to the reaction in verses 8–34—the debate that took place between the neighbors and the debate that took place between the Pharisees. In this debate, the second debate with the Pharisees, you remember, we find them in blindness, in incorrigible blindness and rejection. They would not be persuaded. They would not change their ways. They would not change their mind. They stubbornly refused to do that.
And that encounter, you remember, ends with the Pharisees putting the healed man out of the synagogue. In verse 34, we read, "they put him out." They cut him off. They banished him. "We won't listen to you. Out you go." Now, the encounter ends with that. However, if the chapter stopped there, this would have been a tragic ending, wouldn't it? It would have been a really tragic ending, a sad ending. Here he is. He can see now. He's out of the synagogue.
But, as I mentioned last week, there's a Good Shepherd. There's a Good Shepherd nearby, looking, looking for the sheep that had been kicked out of the fold of the synagogue, looking for the flock of God's people. And this man has received his sight, and that's wonderful. That's great. That's marvelous. He has, however, for the sake of the One whom he doesn't really know at this point, become a social and a theological outcast in Jewish society. He can see now, but he's on the outside looking in. He's on the outside looking in in regard to theology and social life. He is ostracized. He's outside of the circle. He's rejected. He's a nobody.
But, thankfully, God's work with this man is not done. Jesus isn't finished with this man, and that's because Jesus' work is not primarily to bring physical light to physical eyes. Jesus' real work is to bring spiritual light to sin-darkened spiritual eyes. And, in verses 35 to 38, that is exactly what takes place. Here, Jesus does a second, and frankly a far more significant, divine work—another display of the glory of God. And what a display that is.
This man is a canvas on which God is painting a picture. The opening of his eyes is only part of the picture. The true glory is seen in the opening of this man's heart and the opening of his spiritual eyes.
Let us consider the second divine work, the second work of God, beginning in verse 35. So, divine work number two is not sight, but rather, it is salvation—not physical sight, but spiritual sight. And in graphic expression of the need for divine intervention, mark it down, the Scripture speaks with one voice: we do not seek God, but He seeks us. He seeks us.
Jesus heard that they had put him out, verse 35 - ‘exebalon’—put him out. ‘Exebalon’: the Greek verb, to be thrown out, to be cast out. And generally speaking, when this verb is used, it is used in connection with some sort of force, to impel. Jesus heard, not by chance or by coincidence, but rather by providence. Remember, this was done so that the works of God might be put on display. This was deliberate. This was not by happenstance. He heard they threw him out. He heard they threw the miracle out.
I love what one commentator said concerning this, and I quote, "The men of the temple threw him out, but the Lord of the temple searches him out." And I love this: “after finding him,” the text says. Jesus found him. He didn't find Jesus. Jesus found him. Jesus sought him. Where was he cast out? Right into the arms of Jesus. Being thrown out isn't always a bad thing, is it? It is better to be cast out or to come out sometimes.
G. Campbell Morgan said this: "If He finds and receives," - with reference to Christ - "if He” Christ - “finds and receives, what does it matter who rejects?" What does it matter who rejects? In a similar fashion, Spurgeon said, and I quote, "He that enjoys the favor of the Son of God will not tremble at the frown of the Sanhedrin."
Jesus heard that they had put him out. And after finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" What a graphic expression of divine initiative and salvation. Jesus seeks out this man. When we seek God, it's because He sought us first. The grace of physical healing is not only the grace that Jesus wants to give this man. There's something else He wants to give him.
So when He finds him, Jesus asks him this great question in verse 35. Look at it: "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" This is a very important question, a very important question, a very crucial question. This man is well-schooled in the Old Testament. This man who was blind and now he's healed. This man has absorbed the Old Testament truth even though he cannot read.
He knows, for example, that there's no record ever in the history of anybody being healed of blindness. He knew that. He was aware of that. He also knows what really marks a prophet, what characterizes a prophet. And, so, as he already said earlier in the account, that - with reference to Jesus - he said, "I don't know who He is, but I know He's of God." He said, "He's the one who does the will of God. He's the one whom God hears. He's a prophet. He's a prophet."
And he also knows the title, Son of Man. He's no doubt familiar with Daniel 7, where that Messianic title stands out most prominently. Listen to what Daniel says in Daniel 7. Daniel is given this vision in the night. In Daniel 7:13: "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son like a Son of Man" - same expression - "was coming." That's a Messianic title. This introduces the coming of Messiah to establish His kingdom.
"And He came up to the Ancient of Days" - that's God the Father - "and came near before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not be taken away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." It is the Messiah, the Son of Man, which is a prophecy that He will be incarnate. He is the One to whom God gives this eternal, everlasting, universal kingdom.
Now you and I, on this side of the cross, we know who this title, Son of Man, belongs to. We know who this applies to. It applies to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this man here in our text, this formerly blind man, has no idea. He doesn't know who would be He, the Messiah. He's familiar with the title, but he didn't make the connection at this point. But it is clear as we read the text, though, that he understands the title to be Messianic.
And here Jesus asks him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" In other words, are you trusting in the Son of Man? Are you trusting in the Messiah of God? Are you trusting in the God-sent God? Yes, you've been expelled from the synagogue. Yes, you've been expelled from the life of the nations. But have you joined the Son of Man's people? Have you signed up with Him to follow Him, to follow Him, to be devoted to Him, to be loyal to Him? "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
I find his response really quite amazing. In verse 36, he answered and said—this man, born blind, now healed—"Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" Isn't it amazing? Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, "Well, who is the supposed Son of Man and what are His credentials anyway?" No, no. Instead he says, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"
Now he doesn't know if it's Jesus Himself at this point or someone else. But he says, “I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm eager. I'm willing to believe in the Messiah. I can't wait to follow Him. I want to follow Him. Just point me in His direction. I want to enlist. Sign me up. Where is the sign-up sheet? Show me. Who is He?”
This is a heart, beloved, that has been drawn and renewed. This is a heart that has experienced really the workings of God to draw him. This blind man up to this point has heard the name of Jesus. He has heard the voice of Jesus, but he still doesn't know what Jesus looks like because remember his sight only came back to him when he was at the pool of Siloam, some distance from where the Lord Jesus had put the mud on his eyes. And Jesus hadn't followed the man to the pool, and so this blind man wouldn't be able to identify Jesus by sight even if he tried to.
Jesus, however, now warmly reminds the man of this miracle that was performed by Jesus. And as with the woman at the well, in this private setting, Jesus openly presents Himself as the Messiah, as the Savior. Verse 37, Jesus said to him,—and I love the irony of this—"You have both seen Him." You have both seen Him. You have seen Him, something you couldn't have done a day before. You've seen Him. "And He is the one who is talking with you." And instantly the man connects the face to that voice, to the Messiah.
And his simple response—and I love this—is what the whole Gospel of John is after. Do you see it? Do you see it? John 20:31, “these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,”—the Messiah—”the Son of God; and that believing in His name, you may have life." Look at his response: "Lord, I believe." "Lord, I believe." The blind man said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him.
This man has gone from seeing Jesus as healer to prophet to Messiah, God, and Savior. Messiah, God, and Redeemer. "Lord, I believe." And what does it mean to believe? What does it mean to believe in the Son of God? What does it mean to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? What does it mean to put our faith and trust in Him?
In a nutshell, it means to put the full weight of your soul upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It means to trust Jesus to do what He promised to do. You remember He told the woman at the well that if she asked, He would give her living water. In John 4:10, she asked and He gave. He told the royal official whose son was sick, back in John 4:50, "Go, your son lives." He believed Jesus, left for his home, and found his son healed. And here He told the blind man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. He went and washed, came away seeing.
Jesus' promise is to give eternal life to whoever believes in Him. And to believe in Him means that you stop believing in yourself. It means you stop believing in your own good works, whatever that may look like in your head. There's no such thing as good works. There's no such thing as an air mile system—the more good you do, the more points you accumulate, and one day perhaps you hope to have enough to get to Heaven.
To believe in Him means that you stop believing in your own good works as the way to Heaven, as the Pharisees did. To believe in Him means to admit that you're a sinner, a wretched sinner, apart from God, devoid of God, without God, without hope in this world, and to trust that His death on Calvary's cross will atone for all of your sin—all of them—and to put your trust in Him.
It is not enough to believe that He is a man called Jesus. It is not enough to believe that He is a prophet of God, or He is a man of God. But whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, the God-sent God, the Redeemer of mankind, the eternal Word that became flesh, is born of God.
"Lord, I believe." And He worshipped Him. He worshipped Him. You know, Jews gave worship only to Yahweh, never ever to other creatures. So when he worshiped Jesus, it is crystal clear that he is now seeing Jesus not just physically, but he's seeing Jesus of Nazareth as He truly is—the God-man, the Savior of the world, Yahweh the Son.
And notice Jesus' response is not the response of the angel in Revelation 22:9, who says to John, "See that you do it not.”—see that you don't worship me—”I'm a fellow slave with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!" No, no. Here, Jesus receives the worship. He receives worship. Why? Because He is the living God. He's God the Son.
"In the beginning was the”—‘Logos’—”the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh." He receives worship. He is the Son of Man, the Son of God, who's come into the world. He's healed physical blindness, and now he's claimed as one of His own disciples, this blind man. This man is a child of God. This man is seeing Jesus for who Jesus is. The religious leaders said, "You can't worship with us at the temple. Out you go!" Jesus said, "I will receive your worship."
And so, now I think you can see it very well, how the healing in the first part of the chapter really just looks forward to this glorious miracle. "’Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped Him.” And worship and honor and adoration, beloved, is how you respond to sovereign grace—always. Mark it down: worship, honor, and adoration, is always how you respond to sovereign grace. And it's all in that simple statement: He worshipped Him. He worshipped Him.
All of what it is to be a believer bound up in those words. And he worshipped Him. Every bit of it. Every bit of it. John 4, you remember, verses 20 to 24, the Father seeks true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. How do you know? How can you tell if someone is a believer? How do you know if someone is a believer? Because he becomes what? A true worshiper of God.His life, her life would be worshipful. Whatever they do is an act of worship to God. They become worshipers. It's not something simply you do. It's who you are. You become a worshiper.
How do you know you're a Christian? Not because you prayed a prayer, walked an aisle and raised a hand and signed a card. Not because you got emotionally moved in a meeting, had some goose bumps and felt some sentimental stuff down your spine concerning Jesus. How do you know you're a believer? How do you know you've been radically transformed? Because you have become a true worshiper. Remember, those Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, how they turned from idols. They turned from the worship of idols. They turned to serve, to worship the living and the true God. This man falls on his knees in adoration, in thanksgiving, in worship.
You remember the scene back in the previous chapter–chapter 8? Remember how it ends? In chapter 8, verse 59, remember what happened when Jesus declared who He is to the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day? He said to them in verse 58, He said, “Truly, truly”—verily, verily, amen, amen—”I say to you, before Abraham was”—’egō eimi’—”I am.” I am the Exodus 3 Yahweh, the Son. Remember? What was their response? What was their reaction? It was the opposite of this blind man—complete opposite. They picked up stones to hurl at Him. That's what spiritual blindness does. That's what spiritual blindness produces. This is what spiritual blindness produces.
So if you're seeking to answer the question, how do I know if I'm saved? Ask yourself this morning as you sit here. Ask yourself if you love Jesus Christ, if you love God, if you love the Holy Spirit, if you love and desire to be obedient to His Word, if you desire to honor and to please the Lord, if you are a worshiper.
By the way, here's an aside application. There are those who name the name of Jesus Christ. They profess to be Christians, but don't come to church. They don't want to assemble with the body of Christ. They don't want to come together in the corporate body of Christ, the body of Christ—the believers. They don't gather in the appointed way. And if you were to talk to them and ask them the question or challenge them concerning that, they give all kinds of lame excuses. "Well, you know, I'm part of the universal body of Christ. My faith is between me and God. I've got things, you know, certain things that bother me also about the local church. And, so, I don't want to bother with all that stuff. You know, my faith is personal." The bottom line is, those people very likely are not believers because believers worship. They worship individually and they worship corporately.
Acts 2, verse 41–42: “those who had received his word”—Peter's word, on that day when he proclaimed Christ—”were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.” They were actually formally added into the church. And they were—now notice this, this is our verse that you see every Sunday at the first page of the bulletin—"And they were”—what? “continually"—not every now and then, not once in a while, not twice a year, Christmas and Easter—”continually devoting themselves”—plural—”to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.” That's the priority of their life.
Now I'm not saying that the only place you could worship God is in the collective assembly of the church. That's not what I'm saying. But, this is what really lifts you up and strengthens you and encourages you for the rest of those hours when you worship as an independent person. Because, you see, it will really fuel the fire of your private worship when you come together corporately to worship. Because, listen, here's how it is. When we come together here, if you're a worshiper, if you're a child of God, you're simply doing corporately what you're doing individually, privately, when you're not in church with the body of Christ. This is an extension of what you do on a personal level. But, you do it here in a corporate setting. It's our life. This is what lifts you up. This fulfills the longing of our heart.
If you're a worshiper, this fulfills the longing of your heart and mine. It encourages you. It lifts you up to honor the Lord. This is the longing of the heart—to honor the Lord, to hear from the Lord, to exalt the Lord, to praise the Lord, to worship the Lord corporately.
As mentioned before, the healing here in the first part of the chapter looks forward to the healing of salvation, to the removal of spiritual blindness, the removal of spiritual ignorance. John 6, verse 44, Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." This man had been drawn by God—active, glorious, divine initiative and intervention. Jesus sought him out, both in the first healing and also in salvation. He has both physically and spiritually been enlightened by the Son of God, now granted the gift of saving faith.
So you have two works of God here. The lesser one is the physical one, and it is in preparation for and to illustrate this greater one—the spiritual work of God in saving this man. Do you remember how John begins his gospel in chapter 1, verse 4? He speaks of Jesus and he says, "In Him,"—in Jesus, in the Word, right?—"was”—what?—”life, and the life was the Light of men."
Now think with me. What happened when Adam sinned? What happened when man sinned? When Adam sinned, what happened? Adam became what? Devoid of God in his spirit. He became devoid of God in his spirit, without God, man minus God. When God said to Adam, "In the day you eat of the forbidden fruit, in the day that you sin against Me, you will surely die," and when Adam sinned against God, he did die. And how did he die? Well, he didn't die physically on the spot—the grace of God. Physically, he lived hundreds of years, but he died spiritually on the spot. And what happened is that the life of God, when he sinned, went out of Adam—the spiritual life.
Now back to John 1, verse 4: "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men." Think about it for a moment. When Adam sinned against the Lord, the Lord went out. Adam became devoid of God. The life of God went out. And when the life went out, the Light went out. And again, when the Lord went out, the life went out. And when the life went out, the Light went out. You see, in Him is life, and the Lord is life, and the life was the Light of men. And every son or daughter of Adam has the nature of Adam. He is, she is, without God, without the life, and without the Light.
And, this man born blind is an illustration—a vivid illustration, of every man, woman, boy, or girl, without the Lord Jesus Christ, without God, depraved, without the life—dead, and without the Light—darkened, blind. And just like this man born blind, all of us were born blind spiritually. All of us. Psalm 51, verse 5: "Behold," David says, "I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me." And, he doesn't mean here I was conceived out of wedlock; rather, I was a sinner in conception, I was conceived, I was born with a sinful nature, depraved.
In Ephesians 2, verse 3, speaking of our former condition before Christ as lost sinners, Paul says, "among whom we all”—all of us—”also formerly conducted ourselves”—how?—”in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Wow. What a desperate, dire, hopeless, helpless condition left to ourselves. How can wretched, depraved, blind, dead sinners, rebels, be brought to life? There's only one answer. Sovereign omnipotence. Sovereign omnipotence. Sovereign grace.
When I first came to Christ, I thought that all you had to do to get people saved was just tell them how to be saved, and just turn on the light. The reality is it doesn't matter how much light there is. If the person is blind, that person cannot see. You can shine a powerful flashlight right into their eyes. They can't see. It takes more than light. It takes sight. It takes sight. A person who is blind cannot see the light, no matter how strong the light, how pure the light is.
Beloved, I can stand here and proclaim the truth. I can preach the truth. But, only the Holy Spirit can impart truth. That is why we must be a praying people, a praying church. Because we are dependent upon God to open blinded eyes to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. For it takes more than light. The Light of the world is there. But it takes sight as well. Man by nature is spiritually blind. He needs more than light. He needs sight. And Jesus is the only One who can give that sight, as He Himself is the Light of the world.
That leads us now to the conclusion, the application. Jesus now sums everything up. He's going to explain what this whole situation illustrates between light and darkness, seeing and blindness. Look lastly with me at the interpreted situation, the application, beginning with verse 39. Look at verse 39. This event that is salvation for the blind man, unfortunately, tragically, becomes a condemnation for the Pharisees and all those who are like the Pharisees, and all those who are like the Pharisees.
Look at verse 39. Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world." Back to the idea that Jesus is this rock. He is the rock in the middle of the stream of humanity that divides the water of the human race, divides the river of the human race into two streams with two different eternities. Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind."
Now, it is clear enough that Jesus is not talking about physical blindness and physical sight here in this verse. That's not His concern. Jesus came to give sight to those who are spiritually sightless. But, sadly, there are those who think they see, who think they understand, who think they see and they are truly blind spiritually. They're like those described in Isaiah 43 in verse 8. "They have eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear."
Jesus says, "I came to divide the world up into two categories, to distinguish people into two groups." There are those who recognize their blindness, He says, and they come. They come for sight. They come desperate. And there are those who insist that they see, and they go deeper and deeper into their darkness and blindness.
The first group is anyone who realizes he's a sinner. He admits his lostness. He admits his blindness, and he comes to God in Christ for forgiveness and for life and for light. The second group is any person who's committed to self-righteousness, committed to his own proud wisdom. They think that his ways are correct and certain. He has no need of God. He doesn't need the Bible. And in his stubbornness he's committed to what he thinks he sees, and it will doom him to judgment of being given over—mark it down—to deeper blindness. There are those who think they see but they see nothing.
Now, in case you're not sure who they are, the Pharisees pop into the story one more time as an illustration, as an object lesson. Verse 40: “Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, ‘Are we blind too?’ Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains."
The Pharisees ask in a hostile fashion, "Are we blind too?" I mean, it's dripping with sarcasm and hostility. And Jesus says, “actually, if you're innocent of rejection, you wouldn't be guilty. If you really had the blindness of ignorance, if you didn't know, if you were naive, you would have less guilt. Ignorant blindness is one thing, but you're teachers. You claim knowledge, you claim to be able to see, you instruct others, and yet you refuse. You refuse the Light—incorrigible rejection. So you are guilty. Guilty of the blindness of shutting your eyes to the light of the truth, the Light of the World.”
The rebuke here is for spiritual confidence, arrogance. "We see. We see. We are spiritually sighted. We're fine. We don't need You. We don't need God's help. We don't need God. We see. We understand everything. Remember, we are the Pharisees. We are the experts in religion. We've got it all together. People come to us. We don't go to them.” These men are self-assured. They're self-reliant. They're self-confident. They're self-gratified, spiritually speaking.
Now you contrast that with this blind man who was healed. He was self-despairing. He was weak and helpless—a helpless beggar, as illustrated by his congenital blindness. Born blind physically, there was absolutely no hope of change, no hope whatsoever, no way that he could change his condition, that he could change his sight. There was nothing he could do himself to change his condition and to gain his sight.
That helplessness in the physical realm was just as true spiritually. And that's the humility that that helplessness brought. That is what drove him to embrace Jesus Christ so readily—God's intervening grace that brought him to the end of himself. And you have in him, you see in him, humility. He understood that: I am in despair, that I am weak, that I am blind, that I cannot see anything. I come as a bankrupt beggar. I am nothing. I have nothing. And I can do nothing to commend myself to God. And this Jesus who has healed my eyes and healed me from blindness—He can alone bring healing to my sick soul.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, they're indifferent, tragically indifferent. They believed that their eyes were full of light. They were typified by spiritual self-assurance, self-confidence. And Jesus says, that is what condemns you. I thought of the words that Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, uttered in Revelation 3:17 to the church of Laodicea. Remember those words? "Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked." You say, but you are. That's what you say, but let Me tell you what you are.
You want to know your true condition? I'm going to tell you your true condition. Your assessment is off. You're deceiving yourself. Here's your true condition: you are wretched—one who is distressed, of distressed misery. You're miserable, spiritually. And then He says, you are pitiable—in this pitiable sight to God. And then He says, you are—and He uses the Greek word ‘ptōchos’, which is basically—you are in abject poverty. You are spiritually a beggar. You are in utter helplessness. You are in total and complete destitution. And then He says, you are ‘typhlos’—blind, blind to your true condition. You don't see yourself as God sees you. And you don't see God for who He is. And then He says, you are ‘gymnos’—naked. Spiritually, you have no clothing. You walk around as if you're well dressed. You're fine. But you're naked.
They said to Him, "Are we blind too?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains." Listen, listen. If you're here this morning, you want to stay in spiritual blindness? To stay in spiritual blindness insists that you see on your own and have no need of a Savior. Insists on it. You'll stay in that condition. Insists on it. As we've seen, the way to see is to admit that you are blind. But if you assert that you see quite well without Jesus, then He will leave you in that blindness.
Let me say it as clear as I can this morning: pride keeps you from grace. Pride keeps you from grace. These are terrifying words: “God resists the proud.” Who is this God? Almighty. The God of omnipotent power. The God who created everything out of the womb of nothing. That God resists the proud. But blessed be God, it says, “He also gives grace to the humble.”
To stay in spiritual blindness, also reject the gift of sight that Jesus offers to you even now, today, in this moment. Reject it. Jesus is saying in verse 41, “If you would admit your blindness, I would heal you. And you would not come into judgment, but your stubborn rejection of Me keeps you in your sins. And if you remain this way, you will die in your sins.” Rejecting the Light that God graciously gives leads to further hardening of the heart, and ultimately to judgment. It's serious. It's sobering. And the result of rejecting spiritual sight is to be hardened in unbelief that culminates in eternal judgment.
Oh listen, listen, listen. Dear one, if that is you today, here, who perhaps grew up in the church all your life, attended Sunday school, and you're familiar with the gospel—you've had so much light given to you. There's a frightening principle in the Bible: if you reject the Light that God graciously gives you again and again and again, He will confirm your rejection and leave you in your blindness.
In Matthew 13, the disciples ask Jesus why He spoke to the people in parables. And He responds in verses 14 and 15, citing the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 6:9. And, in them, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, "You will keep on hearing, but you will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, lest they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them."
This means that the way you respond to the question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” has absolutely monumental consequences. You shrug your shoulders and say, "I don't know." When asked that question—"Do you believe in the Son of Man?"—you shrug your shoulders, "I don't know," or "I don't care," or "I don't want to bother with it now. I want to live my life, do my things, and maybe one day I'll consider it." If you do that, you're closing your eyes to the Light that God is offering you.
And let me tell you something. God is not obligated to give you any more light. If you keep on rejecting His gracious offer of salvation, you may keep on hearing without understanding, and keep on seeing without perceiving. Your heart may grow dull. And you may die in your sins, only to face eternal judgment in hell—not for 50 years or 500 years, but forever.
And child of God, oh dear child of God, beloved of God, beloved of God, let us be thankful and be encouraged. Listen to what our Lord Jesus says next, verse 16 of Matthew 13, “But blessed”—there's that but, that good but—”But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.” Oh, we are so blessed. Only those who know they are blind, by God's grace, seek the light of the world.
You know, in the same Gospel, the Gospel of Matthew, there's this verse that kept me really thinking. Matthew 15 and verse 14. Jesus said concerning the Pharisees, please listen carefully to what He said: "Let them alone;"—did you hear this?—"Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." Do you hear that divine judgment in those words? Do you? These are frightful words. He said, "Let them alone. Let them alone. They're blind. They're blind and they have incorrigible rejection. They're blind. Leave them alone.”
Aren't you grateful, child of God, today, that when you were blind, when I was blind, the Lord did not leave us alone? And, if you're today outside of Christ and you've been given light, and more light, and more light, and more light, you continue down that path, these words may be said of you. Jesus is offering Himself today.
So, let me ask you in closing, where are you? Where are you in that? He divides—our Lord—the river of the human race into two streams. Let me ask you again, where are you? Do you see your spiritually helpless condition? Do you see your innate spiritual blindness? Do you see that, my sinner friend? Do you understand that?
Eyes that are blind become seeing only when they are, by faith, fixed upon Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, the giver of sight, spiritually. You see, if you imagine that you're fine, if you imagine that your own spiritual resources are adequate, that you see, Jesus says, you're blind. He is both light and sight giver. And what John chapter 9 really compels us to do, it forces, as a prod of God's grace, pushing us to realize that we must come all the way to Christ in faith, so that He can open our born-blind spiritual eyes. So that He can then be the radiant light of the glory of God and salvation, and shining into those newly opened eyes. Let Him, let Him open your eyes today. Understand the forgiveness of sins that He has secured for all of those who put their trust in Him.
And one of the main things that keeps people from having spiritual sight is that they refuse to admit that they're blind. They think that they're good enough to qualify for Heaven. They may admit that they need a little bit of tweaking from God, but they minimize their sins. They won't admit that they're totally blind, that they're wretched. They don't admit. They don't see it. They're not willing to recognize that they don't just need bifocals, they need sight.
As the old hymn, Rock of Ages, put it:
"Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save, and Thou alone."
You and I both have an inborn condition of spiritual blindness. We don't start out seeing. And it takes the mighty work of sovereign grace to bring about that irrefutable opening of our eyes where we can never, ever, ever, ever again unsee. But alongside, you will always find that rejection, that incorrigible, unteachable rejection of light. Pray it be not you today. Pray that you're never that person in that position arguing against the obvious work of God.
But, do understand, it will come from others when it's you who's come to saving faith. And when you say to others, I now see. I now see things that I could never see before. And they will say to you, “What things? What things? What is it that you see that we cannot see?” And you'll face incorrigible reaction. But friends, take comfort. This is what Jesus said He would do as the Light of the world—divide it up into those who love darkness and claim to see while in it, and those who admit their blindness and come to the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. And I pray that may be you this morning.
Remember the words of John Newton? We couldn't close any other way than this, could we?
"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found;
Was blind, but now I see."
The removal of physical blindness was the smaller of the two works of God in this chapter. The removal of spiritual blindness is by far the greater. And it is my prayer that today you would ask Christ to open your eyes to see and believe in the Savior.
The story is told of an English actor who was honored with a banquet. In the course of the evening, he was asked to give a reading, and so he chose to read Psalm 23. He read it in a moving way that brought out the beauty of the psalm. And his friends, I mean, they were very impressed and applauded. And later in that evening, an aged pastor was asked to speak, and he also quoted from Psalm 23. And his voice rang with assurance and was full and vibrant with love for the Savior. And when he finished, there was no applause, but there were not many dry eyes in the room.
The actor stepped over towards the pastor, grasped his hand, and said, "Sir, I know the psalm. I know the psalm, but you know the Shepherd. You know the Shepherd." What do you know today? What do you know? I hope that you know the Shepherd and that He has opened your eyes to the truth of who He is. And beloved children of God, I hope that you and I press on to know Him more, more, and more.
Let's pray.
And Jesus comes across this man who is blind, who cannot see, and He walks to them as we saw together, studying this account, and He gives him eyes. He gives him eyes, new eyes. He actually creates new eyes. Because John tells us back in chapter 1, verse 3, something very significant concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word – eternal, equal with God – apart from Him, the Word Jesus incarnate, nothing came into being that has come into being. Everything that was made, He created, and He is still the Creator and Sustainer, and so He creates eyes for this blind man. And he is immediately able to see. And then some encounters begin.
First, you remember, the first encounter between this blind man who gained his sight, given his sight by the Lord Jesus Christ, with his neighbors. And the neighbors are trying to figure out what happened, how this man that they have known all their lives and who was blind, born blind, now is able to see. So, he goes through an interview and more of an interrogation with his neighbors who really don't seem to be able to really wrap their brain around this. And he himself, in fact, can't really answer who did this to him because he never saw Him, doesn't know exactly how that happened, but he is convinced that whoever did this is from God.
He's then brought to the Pharisees - the experts, the professionals - who are supposed to render some kind of an explanation, some kind of a religious explanation as to how this could have happened. Because, as the blind man says, it's never been done before. It's never been heard in the history of the world that anyone blind was able to see. He was made able to see. And so there's this interrogation by the Pharisees.
But, as we've seen together, it wasn't really genuine. They've already had their verdict in place before they start the questioning. They believe that Jesus is not from God. In fact, He's an insane, demon-possessed imposter, a charlatan. And with that conclusion, their investigation is really a sham. So, they reject the testimony of this man, they reject the testimony of his neighbors, and they reject even the testimony of his parents.
They eventually end up throwing the man out, the man who can now see, they throw him out of the synagogue, really out of the life of the nation, out of the life of Israel. They could not refute the reasoning of this blind man, so what do they do? They threw him out of the temple, out of the synagogue, in verse 34. And our text picks up the story when Jesus found the man - this man rejected by his peers, by the religious leaders - and asked him a crucial, crucial question, bringing him to faith in Himself.
The story concludes by really contrasting the blind man's faith with the hard hearts of the unbelieving Pharisees. And, here, what we learn together is that Jesus came to give sight to the spiritually blind, but also to bring those who think they see without Him, to bring them to judgment. Remember, the key to the chapter is in verse 3, where Jesus says, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” - here’s the point, here’s why - “but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him.” This was so, in order to put on display the works of God, the glory of God, the saving power of God.
This is a chapter dedicated to displaying the works of God. In fact, the backbone of the chapter is formed by, as I mentioned several times before, two displays of the works of God—two works of God. The first work is the removal of physical blindness, and the second work of God is the removal of spiritual blindness.
We considered, already, the first work of God in the first 34 verses. We looked at the preparation in the first five verses that led to the action of Jesus healing the man born blind, and then led to the reaction in verses 8–34—the debate that took place between the neighbors and the debate that took place between the Pharisees. In this debate, the second debate with the Pharisees, you remember, we find them in blindness, in incorrigible blindness and rejection. They would not be persuaded. They would not change their ways. They would not change their mind. They stubbornly refused to do that.
And that encounter, you remember, ends with the Pharisees putting the healed man out of the synagogue. In verse 34, we read, "they put him out." They cut him off. They banished him. "We won't listen to you. Out you go." Now, the encounter ends with that. However, if the chapter stopped there, this would have been a tragic ending, wouldn't it? It would have been a really tragic ending, a sad ending. Here he is. He can see now. He's out of the synagogue.
But, as I mentioned last week, there's a Good Shepherd. There's a Good Shepherd nearby, looking, looking for the sheep that had been kicked out of the fold of the synagogue, looking for the flock of God's people. And this man has received his sight, and that's wonderful. That's great. That's marvelous. He has, however, for the sake of the One whom he doesn't really know at this point, become a social and a theological outcast in Jewish society. He can see now, but he's on the outside looking in. He's on the outside looking in in regard to theology and social life. He is ostracized. He's outside of the circle. He's rejected. He's a nobody.
But, thankfully, God's work with this man is not done. Jesus isn't finished with this man, and that's because Jesus' work is not primarily to bring physical light to physical eyes. Jesus' real work is to bring spiritual light to sin-darkened spiritual eyes. And, in verses 35 to 38, that is exactly what takes place. Here, Jesus does a second, and frankly a far more significant, divine work—another display of the glory of God. And what a display that is.
This man is a canvas on which God is painting a picture. The opening of his eyes is only part of the picture. The true glory is seen in the opening of this man's heart and the opening of his spiritual eyes.
Let us consider the second divine work, the second work of God, beginning in verse 35. So, divine work number two is not sight, but rather, it is salvation—not physical sight, but spiritual sight. And in graphic expression of the need for divine intervention, mark it down, the Scripture speaks with one voice: we do not seek God, but He seeks us. He seeks us.
Jesus heard that they had put him out, verse 35 - ‘exebalon’—put him out. ‘Exebalon’: the Greek verb, to be thrown out, to be cast out. And generally speaking, when this verb is used, it is used in connection with some sort of force, to impel. Jesus heard, not by chance or by coincidence, but rather by providence. Remember, this was done so that the works of God might be put on display. This was deliberate. This was not by happenstance. He heard they threw him out. He heard they threw the miracle out.
I love what one commentator said concerning this, and I quote, "The men of the temple threw him out, but the Lord of the temple searches him out." And I love this: “after finding him,” the text says. Jesus found him. He didn't find Jesus. Jesus found him. Jesus sought him. Where was he cast out? Right into the arms of Jesus. Being thrown out isn't always a bad thing, is it? It is better to be cast out or to come out sometimes.
G. Campbell Morgan said this: "If He finds and receives," - with reference to Christ - "if He” Christ - “finds and receives, what does it matter who rejects?" What does it matter who rejects? In a similar fashion, Spurgeon said, and I quote, "He that enjoys the favor of the Son of God will not tremble at the frown of the Sanhedrin."
Jesus heard that they had put him out. And after finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" What a graphic expression of divine initiative and salvation. Jesus seeks out this man. When we seek God, it's because He sought us first. The grace of physical healing is not only the grace that Jesus wants to give this man. There's something else He wants to give him.
So when He finds him, Jesus asks him this great question in verse 35. Look at it: "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" This is a very important question, a very important question, a very crucial question. This man is well-schooled in the Old Testament. This man who was blind and now he's healed. This man has absorbed the Old Testament truth even though he cannot read.
He knows, for example, that there's no record ever in the history of anybody being healed of blindness. He knew that. He was aware of that. He also knows what really marks a prophet, what characterizes a prophet. And, so, as he already said earlier in the account, that - with reference to Jesus - he said, "I don't know who He is, but I know He's of God." He said, "He's the one who does the will of God. He's the one whom God hears. He's a prophet. He's a prophet."
And he also knows the title, Son of Man. He's no doubt familiar with Daniel 7, where that Messianic title stands out most prominently. Listen to what Daniel says in Daniel 7. Daniel is given this vision in the night. In Daniel 7:13: "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son like a Son of Man" - same expression - "was coming." That's a Messianic title. This introduces the coming of Messiah to establish His kingdom.
"And He came up to the Ancient of Days" - that's God the Father - "and came near before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not be taken away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." It is the Messiah, the Son of Man, which is a prophecy that He will be incarnate. He is the One to whom God gives this eternal, everlasting, universal kingdom.
Now you and I, on this side of the cross, we know who this title, Son of Man, belongs to. We know who this applies to. It applies to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this man here in our text, this formerly blind man, has no idea. He doesn't know who would be He, the Messiah. He's familiar with the title, but he didn't make the connection at this point. But it is clear as we read the text, though, that he understands the title to be Messianic.
And here Jesus asks him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" In other words, are you trusting in the Son of Man? Are you trusting in the Messiah of God? Are you trusting in the God-sent God? Yes, you've been expelled from the synagogue. Yes, you've been expelled from the life of the nations. But have you joined the Son of Man's people? Have you signed up with Him to follow Him, to follow Him, to be devoted to Him, to be loyal to Him? "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
I find his response really quite amazing. In verse 36, he answered and said—this man, born blind, now healed—"Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" Isn't it amazing? Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, "Well, who is the supposed Son of Man and what are His credentials anyway?" No, no. Instead he says, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"
Now he doesn't know if it's Jesus Himself at this point or someone else. But he says, “I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm eager. I'm willing to believe in the Messiah. I can't wait to follow Him. I want to follow Him. Just point me in His direction. I want to enlist. Sign me up. Where is the sign-up sheet? Show me. Who is He?”
This is a heart, beloved, that has been drawn and renewed. This is a heart that has experienced really the workings of God to draw him. This blind man up to this point has heard the name of Jesus. He has heard the voice of Jesus, but he still doesn't know what Jesus looks like because remember his sight only came back to him when he was at the pool of Siloam, some distance from where the Lord Jesus had put the mud on his eyes. And Jesus hadn't followed the man to the pool, and so this blind man wouldn't be able to identify Jesus by sight even if he tried to.
Jesus, however, now warmly reminds the man of this miracle that was performed by Jesus. And as with the woman at the well, in this private setting, Jesus openly presents Himself as the Messiah, as the Savior. Verse 37, Jesus said to him,—and I love the irony of this—"You have both seen Him." You have both seen Him. You have seen Him, something you couldn't have done a day before. You've seen Him. "And He is the one who is talking with you." And instantly the man connects the face to that voice, to the Messiah.
And his simple response—and I love this—is what the whole Gospel of John is after. Do you see it? Do you see it? John 20:31, “these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,”—the Messiah—”the Son of God; and that believing in His name, you may have life." Look at his response: "Lord, I believe." "Lord, I believe." The blind man said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him.
This man has gone from seeing Jesus as healer to prophet to Messiah, God, and Savior. Messiah, God, and Redeemer. "Lord, I believe." And what does it mean to believe? What does it mean to believe in the Son of God? What does it mean to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? What does it mean to put our faith and trust in Him?
In a nutshell, it means to put the full weight of your soul upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It means to trust Jesus to do what He promised to do. You remember He told the woman at the well that if she asked, He would give her living water. In John 4:10, she asked and He gave. He told the royal official whose son was sick, back in John 4:50, "Go, your son lives." He believed Jesus, left for his home, and found his son healed. And here He told the blind man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. He went and washed, came away seeing.
Jesus' promise is to give eternal life to whoever believes in Him. And to believe in Him means that you stop believing in yourself. It means you stop believing in your own good works, whatever that may look like in your head. There's no such thing as good works. There's no such thing as an air mile system—the more good you do, the more points you accumulate, and one day perhaps you hope to have enough to get to Heaven.
To believe in Him means that you stop believing in your own good works as the way to Heaven, as the Pharisees did. To believe in Him means to admit that you're a sinner, a wretched sinner, apart from God, devoid of God, without God, without hope in this world, and to trust that His death on Calvary's cross will atone for all of your sin—all of them—and to put your trust in Him.
It is not enough to believe that He is a man called Jesus. It is not enough to believe that He is a prophet of God, or He is a man of God. But whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, the God-sent God, the Redeemer of mankind, the eternal Word that became flesh, is born of God.
"Lord, I believe." And He worshipped Him. He worshipped Him. You know, Jews gave worship only to Yahweh, never ever to other creatures. So when he worshiped Jesus, it is crystal clear that he is now seeing Jesus not just physically, but he's seeing Jesus of Nazareth as He truly is—the God-man, the Savior of the world, Yahweh the Son.
And notice Jesus' response is not the response of the angel in Revelation 22:9, who says to John, "See that you do it not.”—see that you don't worship me—”I'm a fellow slave with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!" No, no. Here, Jesus receives the worship. He receives worship. Why? Because He is the living God. He's God the Son.
"In the beginning was the”—‘Logos’—”the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh." He receives worship. He is the Son of Man, the Son of God, who's come into the world. He's healed physical blindness, and now he's claimed as one of His own disciples, this blind man. This man is a child of God. This man is seeing Jesus for who Jesus is. The religious leaders said, "You can't worship with us at the temple. Out you go!" Jesus said, "I will receive your worship."
And so, now I think you can see it very well, how the healing in the first part of the chapter really just looks forward to this glorious miracle. "’Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped Him.” And worship and honor and adoration, beloved, is how you respond to sovereign grace—always. Mark it down: worship, honor, and adoration, is always how you respond to sovereign grace. And it's all in that simple statement: He worshipped Him. He worshipped Him.
All of what it is to be a believer bound up in those words. And he worshipped Him. Every bit of it. Every bit of it. John 4, you remember, verses 20 to 24, the Father seeks true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. How do you know? How can you tell if someone is a believer? How do you know if someone is a believer? Because he becomes what? A true worshiper of God.His life, her life would be worshipful. Whatever they do is an act of worship to God. They become worshipers. It's not something simply you do. It's who you are. You become a worshiper.
How do you know you're a Christian? Not because you prayed a prayer, walked an aisle and raised a hand and signed a card. Not because you got emotionally moved in a meeting, had some goose bumps and felt some sentimental stuff down your spine concerning Jesus. How do you know you're a believer? How do you know you've been radically transformed? Because you have become a true worshiper. Remember, those Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, how they turned from idols. They turned from the worship of idols. They turned to serve, to worship the living and the true God. This man falls on his knees in adoration, in thanksgiving, in worship.
You remember the scene back in the previous chapter–chapter 8? Remember how it ends? In chapter 8, verse 59, remember what happened when Jesus declared who He is to the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day? He said to them in verse 58, He said, “Truly, truly”—verily, verily, amen, amen—”I say to you, before Abraham was”—’egō eimi’—”I am.” I am the Exodus 3 Yahweh, the Son. Remember? What was their response? What was their reaction? It was the opposite of this blind man—complete opposite. They picked up stones to hurl at Him. That's what spiritual blindness does. That's what spiritual blindness produces. This is what spiritual blindness produces.
So if you're seeking to answer the question, how do I know if I'm saved? Ask yourself this morning as you sit here. Ask yourself if you love Jesus Christ, if you love God, if you love the Holy Spirit, if you love and desire to be obedient to His Word, if you desire to honor and to please the Lord, if you are a worshiper.
By the way, here's an aside application. There are those who name the name of Jesus Christ. They profess to be Christians, but don't come to church. They don't want to assemble with the body of Christ. They don't want to come together in the corporate body of Christ, the body of Christ—the believers. They don't gather in the appointed way. And if you were to talk to them and ask them the question or challenge them concerning that, they give all kinds of lame excuses. "Well, you know, I'm part of the universal body of Christ. My faith is between me and God. I've got things, you know, certain things that bother me also about the local church. And, so, I don't want to bother with all that stuff. You know, my faith is personal." The bottom line is, those people very likely are not believers because believers worship. They worship individually and they worship corporately.
Acts 2, verse 41–42: “those who had received his word”—Peter's word, on that day when he proclaimed Christ—”were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.” They were actually formally added into the church. And they were—now notice this, this is our verse that you see every Sunday at the first page of the bulletin—"And they were”—what? “continually"—not every now and then, not once in a while, not twice a year, Christmas and Easter—”continually devoting themselves”—plural—”to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.” That's the priority of their life.
Now I'm not saying that the only place you could worship God is in the collective assembly of the church. That's not what I'm saying. But, this is what really lifts you up and strengthens you and encourages you for the rest of those hours when you worship as an independent person. Because, you see, it will really fuel the fire of your private worship when you come together corporately to worship. Because, listen, here's how it is. When we come together here, if you're a worshiper, if you're a child of God, you're simply doing corporately what you're doing individually, privately, when you're not in church with the body of Christ. This is an extension of what you do on a personal level. But, you do it here in a corporate setting. It's our life. This is what lifts you up. This fulfills the longing of our heart.
If you're a worshiper, this fulfills the longing of your heart and mine. It encourages you. It lifts you up to honor the Lord. This is the longing of the heart—to honor the Lord, to hear from the Lord, to exalt the Lord, to praise the Lord, to worship the Lord corporately.
As mentioned before, the healing here in the first part of the chapter looks forward to the healing of salvation, to the removal of spiritual blindness, the removal of spiritual ignorance. John 6, verse 44, Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." This man had been drawn by God—active, glorious, divine initiative and intervention. Jesus sought him out, both in the first healing and also in salvation. He has both physically and spiritually been enlightened by the Son of God, now granted the gift of saving faith.
So you have two works of God here. The lesser one is the physical one, and it is in preparation for and to illustrate this greater one—the spiritual work of God in saving this man. Do you remember how John begins his gospel in chapter 1, verse 4? He speaks of Jesus and he says, "In Him,"—in Jesus, in the Word, right?—"was”—what?—”life, and the life was the Light of men."
Now think with me. What happened when Adam sinned? What happened when man sinned? When Adam sinned, what happened? Adam became what? Devoid of God in his spirit. He became devoid of God in his spirit, without God, man minus God. When God said to Adam, "In the day you eat of the forbidden fruit, in the day that you sin against Me, you will surely die," and when Adam sinned against God, he did die. And how did he die? Well, he didn't die physically on the spot—the grace of God. Physically, he lived hundreds of years, but he died spiritually on the spot. And what happened is that the life of God, when he sinned, went out of Adam—the spiritual life.
Now back to John 1, verse 4: "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men." Think about it for a moment. When Adam sinned against the Lord, the Lord went out. Adam became devoid of God. The life of God went out. And when the life went out, the Light went out. And again, when the Lord went out, the life went out. And when the life went out, the Light went out. You see, in Him is life, and the Lord is life, and the life was the Light of men. And every son or daughter of Adam has the nature of Adam. He is, she is, without God, without the life, and without the Light.
And, this man born blind is an illustration—a vivid illustration, of every man, woman, boy, or girl, without the Lord Jesus Christ, without God, depraved, without the life—dead, and without the Light—darkened, blind. And just like this man born blind, all of us were born blind spiritually. All of us. Psalm 51, verse 5: "Behold," David says, "I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me." And, he doesn't mean here I was conceived out of wedlock; rather, I was a sinner in conception, I was conceived, I was born with a sinful nature, depraved.
In Ephesians 2, verse 3, speaking of our former condition before Christ as lost sinners, Paul says, "among whom we all”—all of us—”also formerly conducted ourselves”—how?—”in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Wow. What a desperate, dire, hopeless, helpless condition left to ourselves. How can wretched, depraved, blind, dead sinners, rebels, be brought to life? There's only one answer. Sovereign omnipotence. Sovereign omnipotence. Sovereign grace.
When I first came to Christ, I thought that all you had to do to get people saved was just tell them how to be saved, and just turn on the light. The reality is it doesn't matter how much light there is. If the person is blind, that person cannot see. You can shine a powerful flashlight right into their eyes. They can't see. It takes more than light. It takes sight. It takes sight. A person who is blind cannot see the light, no matter how strong the light, how pure the light is.
Beloved, I can stand here and proclaim the truth. I can preach the truth. But, only the Holy Spirit can impart truth. That is why we must be a praying people, a praying church. Because we are dependent upon God to open blinded eyes to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. For it takes more than light. The Light of the world is there. But it takes sight as well. Man by nature is spiritually blind. He needs more than light. He needs sight. And Jesus is the only One who can give that sight, as He Himself is the Light of the world.
That leads us now to the conclusion, the application. Jesus now sums everything up. He's going to explain what this whole situation illustrates between light and darkness, seeing and blindness. Look lastly with me at the interpreted situation, the application, beginning with verse 39. Look at verse 39. This event that is salvation for the blind man, unfortunately, tragically, becomes a condemnation for the Pharisees and all those who are like the Pharisees, and all those who are like the Pharisees.
Look at verse 39. Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world." Back to the idea that Jesus is this rock. He is the rock in the middle of the stream of humanity that divides the water of the human race, divides the river of the human race into two streams with two different eternities. Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind."
Now, it is clear enough that Jesus is not talking about physical blindness and physical sight here in this verse. That's not His concern. Jesus came to give sight to those who are spiritually sightless. But, sadly, there are those who think they see, who think they understand, who think they see and they are truly blind spiritually. They're like those described in Isaiah 43 in verse 8. "They have eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear."
Jesus says, "I came to divide the world up into two categories, to distinguish people into two groups." There are those who recognize their blindness, He says, and they come. They come for sight. They come desperate. And there are those who insist that they see, and they go deeper and deeper into their darkness and blindness.
The first group is anyone who realizes he's a sinner. He admits his lostness. He admits his blindness, and he comes to God in Christ for forgiveness and for life and for light. The second group is any person who's committed to self-righteousness, committed to his own proud wisdom. They think that his ways are correct and certain. He has no need of God. He doesn't need the Bible. And in his stubbornness he's committed to what he thinks he sees, and it will doom him to judgment of being given over—mark it down—to deeper blindness. There are those who think they see but they see nothing.
Now, in case you're not sure who they are, the Pharisees pop into the story one more time as an illustration, as an object lesson. Verse 40: “Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, ‘Are we blind too?’ Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains."
The Pharisees ask in a hostile fashion, "Are we blind too?" I mean, it's dripping with sarcasm and hostility. And Jesus says, “actually, if you're innocent of rejection, you wouldn't be guilty. If you really had the blindness of ignorance, if you didn't know, if you were naive, you would have less guilt. Ignorant blindness is one thing, but you're teachers. You claim knowledge, you claim to be able to see, you instruct others, and yet you refuse. You refuse the Light—incorrigible rejection. So you are guilty. Guilty of the blindness of shutting your eyes to the light of the truth, the Light of the World.”
The rebuke here is for spiritual confidence, arrogance. "We see. We see. We are spiritually sighted. We're fine. We don't need You. We don't need God's help. We don't need God. We see. We understand everything. Remember, we are the Pharisees. We are the experts in religion. We've got it all together. People come to us. We don't go to them.” These men are self-assured. They're self-reliant. They're self-confident. They're self-gratified, spiritually speaking.
Now you contrast that with this blind man who was healed. He was self-despairing. He was weak and helpless—a helpless beggar, as illustrated by his congenital blindness. Born blind physically, there was absolutely no hope of change, no hope whatsoever, no way that he could change his condition, that he could change his sight. There was nothing he could do himself to change his condition and to gain his sight.
That helplessness in the physical realm was just as true spiritually. And that's the humility that that helplessness brought. That is what drove him to embrace Jesus Christ so readily—God's intervening grace that brought him to the end of himself. And you have in him, you see in him, humility. He understood that: I am in despair, that I am weak, that I am blind, that I cannot see anything. I come as a bankrupt beggar. I am nothing. I have nothing. And I can do nothing to commend myself to God. And this Jesus who has healed my eyes and healed me from blindness—He can alone bring healing to my sick soul.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, they're indifferent, tragically indifferent. They believed that their eyes were full of light. They were typified by spiritual self-assurance, self-confidence. And Jesus says, that is what condemns you. I thought of the words that Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, uttered in Revelation 3:17 to the church of Laodicea. Remember those words? "Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked." You say, but you are. That's what you say, but let Me tell you what you are.
You want to know your true condition? I'm going to tell you your true condition. Your assessment is off. You're deceiving yourself. Here's your true condition: you are wretched—one who is distressed, of distressed misery. You're miserable, spiritually. And then He says, you are pitiable—in this pitiable sight to God. And then He says, you are—and He uses the Greek word ‘ptōchos’, which is basically—you are in abject poverty. You are spiritually a beggar. You are in utter helplessness. You are in total and complete destitution. And then He says, you are ‘typhlos’—blind, blind to your true condition. You don't see yourself as God sees you. And you don't see God for who He is. And then He says, you are ‘gymnos’—naked. Spiritually, you have no clothing. You walk around as if you're well dressed. You're fine. But you're naked.
They said to Him, "Are we blind too?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains." Listen, listen. If you're here this morning, you want to stay in spiritual blindness? To stay in spiritual blindness insists that you see on your own and have no need of a Savior. Insists on it. You'll stay in that condition. Insists on it. As we've seen, the way to see is to admit that you are blind. But if you assert that you see quite well without Jesus, then He will leave you in that blindness.
Let me say it as clear as I can this morning: pride keeps you from grace. Pride keeps you from grace. These are terrifying words: “God resists the proud.” Who is this God? Almighty. The God of omnipotent power. The God who created everything out of the womb of nothing. That God resists the proud. But blessed be God, it says, “He also gives grace to the humble.”
To stay in spiritual blindness, also reject the gift of sight that Jesus offers to you even now, today, in this moment. Reject it. Jesus is saying in verse 41, “If you would admit your blindness, I would heal you. And you would not come into judgment, but your stubborn rejection of Me keeps you in your sins. And if you remain this way, you will die in your sins.” Rejecting the Light that God graciously gives leads to further hardening of the heart, and ultimately to judgment. It's serious. It's sobering. And the result of rejecting spiritual sight is to be hardened in unbelief that culminates in eternal judgment.
Oh listen, listen, listen. Dear one, if that is you today, here, who perhaps grew up in the church all your life, attended Sunday school, and you're familiar with the gospel—you've had so much light given to you. There's a frightening principle in the Bible: if you reject the Light that God graciously gives you again and again and again, He will confirm your rejection and leave you in your blindness.
In Matthew 13, the disciples ask Jesus why He spoke to the people in parables. And He responds in verses 14 and 15, citing the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 6:9. And, in them, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, "You will keep on hearing, but you will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, lest they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them."
This means that the way you respond to the question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” has absolutely monumental consequences. You shrug your shoulders and say, "I don't know." When asked that question—"Do you believe in the Son of Man?"—you shrug your shoulders, "I don't know," or "I don't care," or "I don't want to bother with it now. I want to live my life, do my things, and maybe one day I'll consider it." If you do that, you're closing your eyes to the Light that God is offering you.
And let me tell you something. God is not obligated to give you any more light. If you keep on rejecting His gracious offer of salvation, you may keep on hearing without understanding, and keep on seeing without perceiving. Your heart may grow dull. And you may die in your sins, only to face eternal judgment in hell—not for 50 years or 500 years, but forever.
And child of God, oh dear child of God, beloved of God, beloved of God, let us be thankful and be encouraged. Listen to what our Lord Jesus says next, verse 16 of Matthew 13, “But blessed”—there's that but, that good but—”But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.” Oh, we are so blessed. Only those who know they are blind, by God's grace, seek the light of the world.
You know, in the same Gospel, the Gospel of Matthew, there's this verse that kept me really thinking. Matthew 15 and verse 14. Jesus said concerning the Pharisees, please listen carefully to what He said: "Let them alone;"—did you hear this?—"Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." Do you hear that divine judgment in those words? Do you? These are frightful words. He said, "Let them alone. Let them alone. They're blind. They're blind and they have incorrigible rejection. They're blind. Leave them alone.”
Aren't you grateful, child of God, today, that when you were blind, when I was blind, the Lord did not leave us alone? And, if you're today outside of Christ and you've been given light, and more light, and more light, and more light, you continue down that path, these words may be said of you. Jesus is offering Himself today.
So, let me ask you in closing, where are you? Where are you in that? He divides—our Lord—the river of the human race into two streams. Let me ask you again, where are you? Do you see your spiritually helpless condition? Do you see your innate spiritual blindness? Do you see that, my sinner friend? Do you understand that?
Eyes that are blind become seeing only when they are, by faith, fixed upon Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, the giver of sight, spiritually. You see, if you imagine that you're fine, if you imagine that your own spiritual resources are adequate, that you see, Jesus says, you're blind. He is both light and sight giver. And what John chapter 9 really compels us to do, it forces, as a prod of God's grace, pushing us to realize that we must come all the way to Christ in faith, so that He can open our born-blind spiritual eyes. So that He can then be the radiant light of the glory of God and salvation, and shining into those newly opened eyes. Let Him, let Him open your eyes today. Understand the forgiveness of sins that He has secured for all of those who put their trust in Him.
And one of the main things that keeps people from having spiritual sight is that they refuse to admit that they're blind. They think that they're good enough to qualify for Heaven. They may admit that they need a little bit of tweaking from God, but they minimize their sins. They won't admit that they're totally blind, that they're wretched. They don't admit. They don't see it. They're not willing to recognize that they don't just need bifocals, they need sight.
As the old hymn, Rock of Ages, put it:
"Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save, and Thou alone."
You and I both have an inborn condition of spiritual blindness. We don't start out seeing. And it takes the mighty work of sovereign grace to bring about that irrefutable opening of our eyes where we can never, ever, ever, ever again unsee. But alongside, you will always find that rejection, that incorrigible, unteachable rejection of light. Pray it be not you today. Pray that you're never that person in that position arguing against the obvious work of God.
But, do understand, it will come from others when it's you who's come to saving faith. And when you say to others, I now see. I now see things that I could never see before. And they will say to you, “What things? What things? What is it that you see that we cannot see?” And you'll face incorrigible reaction. But friends, take comfort. This is what Jesus said He would do as the Light of the world—divide it up into those who love darkness and claim to see while in it, and those who admit their blindness and come to the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. And I pray that may be you this morning.
Remember the words of John Newton? We couldn't close any other way than this, could we?
"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found;
Was blind, but now I see."
The removal of physical blindness was the smaller of the two works of God in this chapter. The removal of spiritual blindness is by far the greater. And it is my prayer that today you would ask Christ to open your eyes to see and believe in the Savior.
The story is told of an English actor who was honored with a banquet. In the course of the evening, he was asked to give a reading, and so he chose to read Psalm 23. He read it in a moving way that brought out the beauty of the psalm. And his friends, I mean, they were very impressed and applauded. And later in that evening, an aged pastor was asked to speak, and he also quoted from Psalm 23. And his voice rang with assurance and was full and vibrant with love for the Savior. And when he finished, there was no applause, but there were not many dry eyes in the room.
The actor stepped over towards the pastor, grasped his hand, and said, "Sir, I know the psalm. I know the psalm, but you know the Shepherd. You know the Shepherd." What do you know today? What do you know? I hope that you know the Shepherd and that He has opened your eyes to the truth of who He is. And beloved children of God, I hope that you and I press on to know Him more, more, and more.
Let's pray.
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