Messiah: God's Work Displayed

Transcript

As he passed by, he saw a blind man, blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who send me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I’m in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed man’s eyes with mud and said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing the neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying,

is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said it is he. Others said no, but he’s like him. He kept saying, I am the man. So they said to him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered, the man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. And so I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to him, he put mud on my eyes, I washed and I see. Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God

for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, how can a man who’s a sinner do such things? And there was a division among them. And they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said, he is a prophet. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he’s of age, he will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews,

for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he’s of age, ask him. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether he’s a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I’ve told you already, you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they reviled him saying, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses,

but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began, had it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in utter sin, and would you teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, do you believe in the son of man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him,

and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. Jesus said, for judgment, I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you are blind, you would have no guilt, but now that you say we see, your guilt remains. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray.

Father, as we open your word, I pray that you open our hearts and our ears and our eyes, Lord, to the truth of the gospel, so that we may be changed and may see clearly who Jesus is, and may his light shine into our lives and change us. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Meeting the Famous

One of the icebreakers that is sometimes used to open a meeting is to ask people of a famous person they have ever met, and my answer is often threefold. First one is, I have met the former prime minister of Belgium when I rang him out of his bed at four o’clock in the morning as part of a student action, and he opened his second door, second window open, he opened it, and he started shouting at me to go away because I woke him up. But did I really meet him? Is that really meeting? A second example is, I stood on the side of the road in Deerfield, Illinois, when George Herbert Walker Bush drove by in a limousine. But as he was going 50 miles per hour, and I just saw him through the window, I’m not sure that counts as meeting either. But I got a third one.

Once, I met Stevie Wonder in 1992. Now, Stevie Wonder is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, a blind singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. I was working for a non-profit organization that tried to make computers more accessible for people with disabilities, and I was at a conference manning the booth, and there comes Stevie Wonder. Now, the funny thing, of course, is he’s blind, and he never saw me. I was there, he was there, but he never saw me. Did I really meet him? Now, in a reverse role distribution, it is the blind man in our chapter who met a famous person. But at first, he didn’t see him either. It was only later that he had a face-to-face meeting with Jesus. In our text today, the characters of this actual event wrestle with the question, who is Jesus? Jesus did something unheard of.

He healed a man who was born blind. The healing of the man then morphs into the question of who truly sees, and who is spiritually blind? With this, we mean to say, what benefit is it to us if we’re physically able to see but are spiritually blind? The good news is that both physical blindness and spiritual blindness can be healed by God so that we might understand the work that God is doing through his Messiah. The central idea of this text is that those who recognize Jesus as the Son of God, as the light of the world, as the source of living water, as the Lamb of God who came to die for our sins, are the only ones who truly see the world as it is. And he enables them to become children of God. If you don’t recognize him as the Messiah, then you are spiritually blind,

and you need to come to know this Jesus. Our text divides into four segments which point to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Messiah. The first part tells us that Jesus is the Messiah is in that he healed a man born blind. We found in verses one to seven. The second part tells us that Jesus is the Messiah in that the people who encounter him are radically changed, and we see that in verses eight to 34. The third section in our text tells us that Jesus’ Messiahship is seen in that those who are changed by him worship him. And the fourth section tells us that Jesus is the Messiah in that those who do not accept him are judged. Let us start with our first point, found in verses one to seven, where Jesus is shown to be the Messiah as evidenced by his healing of a man born blind.

The Healing Miracle

And we read there, as he passed by, he saw a blind man, a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I’m in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. So Jesus’ encounter with this blind man takes place during or right after the Feast of Tabernacles.

And as Pastor Thomas explained last week, light was a significant theme during this feast, as great lights were lit during this festival. It is during this time that Jesus noticed this man who had been blind from birth. In contrast to the importance of light during this time, this man had never seen light or had never seen the lighting of the candles that was so important during this festival. Instead of thinking about the destitute condition of this man born blind, the disciples, Jesus’ disciples used it as a springboard to have a theological discussion. Why is this man blind? Now, when I was growing up, we would regularly discuss politics, even as young students. Most of the time, we were just simply rehashing what we had heard from our parents or what we heard on the radio and the television. Still, local political questions back then were very much alive.

And as kids, we would have serious arguments with our friends about it. It was the thing to do. Possibly in Jesus’ time, the thing to do was to discuss theology. Whatever you saw in your environment, you discuss the theological ramifications of what you saw, especially if you’re a disciple of a rabbi. So if you saw a man born blind, the logical question is, why is this man blind? How come he is in this unnatural state of not being able to see? And the two solutions that the apostles proposed are that the man was born blind because of his own sin or two, because of his parents’ sin. Now, let’s look at the first possibility, because of his own sin. It was thought in that society that calamity, like being born blind, was a result of sin. And in some way, of course, all suffering was and is a result of sin

that had come into the world through the sin of Adam. However, in that society, it was taken a bit further. They thought that all suffering was punishment for some personal sin, either yours or that of your parents. And indeed, sometimes punishment is the result of personal sin. If I rob a bank and get caught, yes, my time in prison is a result of my actions. But calamity cannot always be connected to a particular sin. Just look at Job. Sometimes calamity just happens. The rabbis of that time thought it was possible that one could sin in the womb. And as evidence, they would cite Esau and Jacob as they were fighting in the womb, so this might be indication that possibly one could sin in the womb. Another text that they would use is Psalm 58.3 that says, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They will go astray from the womb, speaking lies.

And so for them, that was enough evidence that children were able to sin even in the womb. The second solution the apostles offer is that the man was blind because the parents sinned. And this is based on Exodus 20, verse five, which states, I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. But taking this verse in isolation, apart from the rest of Old Testament scriptures, is the only way you can come up with this interpretation that children can be punished for the sins of the parents. You have to ignore texts like Deuteronomy 24, 16 or Ezekiel 18, 20, which says, the son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. I think what Exodus 20, verse five is referring to

is that the consequences of sin are often felt for several generations. We used to have two foster children whose mom had abused drugs and alcohol while she was carrying them in the womb. These kids were born with fetal alcohol syndrome and were significantly affected by it after they were born. They have this for the rest of their lives. But to say all this is that the Bible does not teach us that we will be punished for the sins of our parents. Instead, Jesus is lamenting the man’s condition. He’s not philosophizing about why he was blind. He uses it to illustrate the work of God. And by doing so, he demonstrates that he indeed is the Messiah. And Jesus then makes this interesting comment in verse four. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Day refers to the time that Jesus was with them.

The phrase while it is day indicates that just as in life, daytime is followed by nighttime. But it also expresses the urgency to work as long as day. And because Jesus is the light of the world, when he’s taken away, that will be a time when it is dark, nighttime. The healing of the man born blind is not just a miracle, it is an enacted sign of Jesus being the light, being the Messiah. This text is not primarily about the man gaining sight, but rather answering the question, who is Jesus? Jesus, like the pillar of fire representing the Lord in the desert, leads the people out of darkness into life. Many Jewish traditions expected that in the age to come, God’s light would shine over all the nations. And John shows this hope is fulfilled in Jesus. And it starts with the healing of the blind man

who had been blind since birth. So in verses six to seven, Jesus demonstrated the power and the mercy of God. For Jesus, the blind man was not a topic of theological debate, but was to become an object of mercy. This man had probably placed himself in an area that solicited a lot of traffic, but he was dependent on the arms of people to get by. He begged for money to sustain him. And so here comes this man, Jesus. He makes some mud, puts it on his eyes, and tell him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The text explicitly states that the meaning of the name Siloam means scent, because water was being sent from the Gihon Spring through Hezekiah’s tunnel into this pool. Jesus, of course, was supremely the scent one. And it’s interesting that in Isaiah eight, the only other place where the waters

of the pool of Siloam are referenced, it states that those waters were being rejected by the Israelites, just as the Jews were rejecting Jesus. This pool is about 500 yards from the Temple Mount. So this man left his usual spot where he would beg and wandered down to the pool to get the dirt out of his eyes. The text doesn’t mention any misgivings that he may have had, but remember, he’s blind. This is not his normal trajectory. It was not just, oh, let’s go to the pool. This was a difficult task for him to do.

Radical Transformation

If there had been just, I think he must have thought, if there had just been a chance in a million or a billion, that this little trip would give him his sight, he would take it. So the blind man obeyed Jesus and did what was asked of him without any questions, and he was healed. At no other time in the history of Israel had a blind man who had been blind from birth ever received sight. This was a great miracle, so great that the people around him struggled to understand it. And that brings us to our second point. Jesus is shown to be the Messiah in that people who encounter him are radically changed. And we read that in verses 8 to 34. Now, this section can be divided into four scenes, discussing the healing of the blind man and what that means for the nature of Jesus who healed him.

First, we see the interaction of the man with his neighbours in verses 8 to 12. Then we see the interaction of the man with the Pharisees in verses 13 to 17. Then we have the interaction of the Pharisees with the parents of the formerly blind man in 18 to 23. And lastly, we see the second interaction of the man with the Pharisees in 24 to 34. In each scene, we see that the healed man is growing in his understanding of who Jesus is. So let’s now look at the interaction between the formerly blind man and his neighbours. And the text says, the neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, it is he. Others said, no, but he’s like him. He kept saying, I am the man.

So they said to him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered, the man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. In this section, the man comes back from the pool and he’s a changed man. Just think, he had never seen the face of his mom or dad. He had never seen the sky, never seen the sun, people, streets. He gets to see this all at once. I can’t imagine what must have gone through his mind, seeing everything for the first time. So when he returns, his neighbours who had seen him before are unsure if he’s the same man. We often do this when we encounter someone who we know from a particular context

and then meet him in a completely different one. We recognize maybe the face, but we can’t really place him. And this man is different now. He’s just not groping around. He’s walking. He’s seeing. In fact, some of the neighbours think that they can identify the man, while others say, no, that is not the same man, but he just looks like him. And all the while, and that’s kind of funny, the man is saying, I’m he, I’m he, I’m the man. And they kind of ignore him. No, I’m he. The neighbours ask, if you are the man, how is it that you’re no longer blind? So he counts what Jesus had done and told him to do and what happened because of that. Notice that he says, the man Jesus. At this point, he has never seen Jesus. After receiving his sight and walking back to his familiar stomping ground,

I’m sure he was overwhelmed by all the new sights. He hasn’t had much time to process what all that has happened to him, let alone to reflect how a man could make mud, put it on his eyes, and then direct him to the pool to wash it off. And then he received his sight. He doesn’t even know where Jesus went. This scene parallels in many ways what can happen when Jesus heals our spiritual blindness. Even in our time, when you come to faith, your friends and neighbours might have a hard time accepting that something incredible has happened to you. They might never see you differently and always consider you the same old person. Not everyone will see you as a new creation. They will still judge you by your past. In our story, this healing presented the neighbours with a multitude of challenges and they struggled to comprehend its meaning.

So they brought a man to the Pharisees, who were the religious authorities of that time, as we read in verses 13 to 17. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes and I washed and I see. Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God. He does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such things? And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said, he is a prophet. So in this section, we are presented with a piece of information we didn’t know yet,

namely that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath. So when the Pharisees asked the man how he received his sight, the formerly blind man just described accurately what Jesus had done. He put mud on my eyes, I washed and I see. Notice that the man didn’t know much, but he testified to what he knew. I was blind, and now I see. To testify to the grace you have received is all that is required of you. And let the spirit do the rest. When people question your faith, just stay anchored of what you know about Jesus and what he has done for you. When the man said he put mud on my face, that was enough for some of the Pharisees to decide that Jesus, despite the miracle, was not from God. For the Pharisees, the oral law defined all that you can and can’t do on the Sabbath.

Some of the prohibitions were that you couldn’t do any healing unless a man was close to death. Another condition was you couldn’t make any mud, or you couldn’t anoint anyone. And Jesus did all these three things, but was he then a false prophet? In any argument, if you start with a false premise, then your whole reasoning will collapse like a house of cards. These Pharisees were very sure of the correctness of their interpretation based on the oral law, and therefore, they accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. And thus, he could not be a man of God. Another group of Pharisees looked at the miracle and realized this is a great miracle, one that has never been done before. And they started with the miracle and worked backwards. And this reasoning is also flawed. As a text in Deuteronomy tells us, it’s not because someone performs a great sign

that therefore, they’re from God. The test is, does the person tell us to worship other gods? Then he is a false prophet. Conflicted, the Pharisees turned to the man and asked him his opinion. What he thought about the man who had opened his eyes. Now, this is a bit ironic in that the religious authorities asked the opinion of a man whom they would, in a few moments later, dismiss as a man born in sin. Their question demonstrates their confusion. And the man’s answer didn’t help them solve their problem at all. The man had more time to reflect on this whole matter. And his answer shows that he’s growing in theological astuteness, concluding that Jesus must have been a prophet. This answer was not really to the liking of the Pharisees, because it doesn’t resolve the inner conflict that they had between themselves. And so they turned to the man’s parents to see if they can give more clarity.

And we read then in verses 18 to 23. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight. Until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked him, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered, we know that this is our son and he was born blind, but how he now sees, we do not know. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age. He will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age, ask him. As we saw in the previous section, the Pharisees had a problem.

They couldn’t agree among themselves of what really happened. So they asked the man’s parents, is this man your son whom you say was born blind? Now, this is not a neutral question. They really questioned whether their son had really been blind. And the second question they posed to the parents, asked him to explain how, if he truly had been blind, he could now see. Now, the parents answered the first question carefully. He’s indeed our son, and he was born blind. They sidestepped the answering the second question, in that they realized they would get into trouble for this. So they feigned ignorance as to how he could now see. They deflected and told them to ask their son since he’s of age, and he can speak for himself. They were afraid of the leaders of the Jews, who had already agreed that anyone who would profess Jesus as the Messiah will be put out of the synagogue.

So under this intense pressure, they failed to stand up for their son. In their fear, they distanced themselves from him. We will see this sometimes in our time also. Not everyone in your surroundings, with your friends or your family, will be happy when you come to Jesus. When Jesus touches our lives, there will be some people, even within our own family, who will not rejoice. They will reject us. They will not want to have anything to do with us when you come to faith. Now, since the parents did not support the Pharisee’s claim that he had not been born blind, that he had not been blind, the Pharisee turned back for a second examination of the formerly blind man. And so we read that in verses 24 to 34. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I’ve told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they reviled him, saying, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. You know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

Never since the world began had it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in utter sin, and would you teach us, and they cast him out. And they went back to the first section, they’re back to square one, back to the same question, how did this man receive his sight? And since the parents didn’t give them the answer that they wanted to hear, they went back to the formerly blind man and told them, give glory to God. We know that this man, Jesus, is a sinner. Now the phrase, give glory to God, is also used in Joshua when he talks to Achan. And it means, speak the truth in the presence of God. With this they meant, hey man, admit the truth that you were not blind before.

Because the man you claim healed you is a sinner, and God doesn’t do miracles through sinners. Therefore, no miracle could have taken place. Now healing the blind man, healing the blind, was what the prophets had predicted would happen when Messiah would come. Isaiah, in Isaiah 35

states, then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. And later on, in one of the servant songs, in Isaiah 42, 6 to 7, he writes, I’m the Lord, I’ve called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind. This is referring to the servant of the Lord, the Messiah. Since Jesus had healed the blind man, it should have signaled to the Pharisees

that yes, Messiah was here, and Jesus was the Messiah. Yet their denials revealed their blindness. Instead, the Pharisees wanted the formerly blind person to confess that he was actually never blind, and his response is priceless. First, he admits that he can’t judge whether Jesus, whom he had never seen in his life, is a sinner or not. Only God can see that. But secondly, he succinctly explained what happened to him. I was blind, and now I see. The Pharisees reacted to that statement with questions. And again, these questions are to challenge the credibility or truthfulness of the man’s statement. What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? Now, they already asked that of him in the first round, in verse 15. So the man now is kind of puzzled, and maybe a little bit sarcastic. And he says, why you ask that?

What would have prompted these religious leaders to ask this question again? And then he says, is it because they want to become disciples of Jesus? I want you to notice that the man had shifted his position of who Jesus was. At first, he said it was the man, Jesus. Then he admitted, no, he’s a prophet. But now, he considers himself a disciple of Jesus, and not just Jesus being a rabbi. And mockingly asked then if the Pharisees also want to become disciples of Jesus. Now, the Pharisees are not happy. They declare themselves disciples of Moses, and chastise the man of being a disciple of Jesus. They explain why Moses is superior to Jesus, because God had spoken to Moses. But as to Jesus, they said, we don’t know where it comes from. Moses, for them, is a proven quality, while Jesus is unproven in their eyes.

The man’s retort declared their inability to come to the proper conclusion as amazing, you don’t know where it comes from, but he opened my eyes. And then he uses this very simple biblical logic. First, he stated the irrefutable fact that Jesus opened his eyes. Second, he stated that God never hears the prayers of a sinner. He means an unrepentant sinner. Third, the fact that Jesus had opened the blind man’s eyes means that God hears him. Therefore, Jesus cannot be a sinner. And he adds strength to his argument, saying, never since the world began had it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. In response, the Pharisees lash out. They attack the man personally. This is what is called an ad hominem argument. This tactic attempts to discredit an argument by attacking

the opponent’s character rather than engaging with the argument’s substance. Essentially, it replaces logical reasoning with personal attacks. They attack the man and question his standing to make any arguments against them at all. You’re going to teach us, they say. They claim that he had no right to teach them because he was born in sin. Now, why was he born in sin? Because they had been blind since birth, which undermined their whole argument, their whole approach in denying that he’d been blind at all. The only thing left for them was to throw him out of their presence. Notice again, the growing understanding of this man of who Jesus is. First, he was just a man, the man who healed him. Then he was a prophet. Then he’s a rabbi. And now he declares him to be a man sent by God. And this brings us to the next main point, that Jesus is the Messiah

True Worship

because those who are changed by him worship him. And Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him, it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. When Jesus heard that the Pharisees had cast him out, he looked for the man. This is the first time that the man sees Jesus. Very likely, he might have recognized Jesus by his voice. And Jesus spoke to him, do you believe in the Son of Man? The term Son of Man was a messianic designation in the Second Temple period. The Son of Man was the Messiah who would come with divine authority, judgment, and rule in his eschatological kingdom.

So Jesus was now very open with the man. Do you believe in the Son of Man? And the man’s response was, who is he? And Jesus stated, you’ve seen him, he’s the one speaking to you. He knew Jesus to be the man who had given him sight as a prophet, as a rabbi, as a man sent from God. And now, Jesus fully reveals to the man who he is, namely the Messiah. And the man responds simply, I believe, and he worshipped him. He didn’t need much more. He had personally experienced the power of Messiah when he received his sight. The man’s reaction to realization that he had met Messiah was worship. The goal of salvation is not just to be rescued from sin and our destitute state, but it is a restored life engaged in the worship of this holy, righteous, loving, and merciful God.

This question, do you believe in the Son of Man, is also a question for us. It’s the most critical question you’re going to encounter in your life. Who is Jesus? Do you believe in Jesus? It is not enough to acknowledge him as a man, to accept him as a prophet, to recognize him as a rabbi, to see him as a man sent by God. You have to recognize him as the Messiah, the Son of God. You can’t put off facing that question. It demands an answer. The healed man grew in his faith despite the opposition he encountered and the questions he had, but each round of questioning brought him closer to Christ. Your challenges of faith are not just annoyances, but opportunities placed here by a loving God who wants to deepen your faith. The Christian faith is not a faith in something abstract, just have faith.

It is faith in Jesus. The heart of saving faith is not just agreeing about the facts of Jesus, but personally trusting him as your Lord. And so is our faith just an intellectual acknowledgment of the facts of Jesus? Or is it a personal surrender? This Son of Man, the Gospel of John tells us, is none other than God himself, the eternal word, who became flesh and lived among us. Yet humanity, we all face a tragic problem. Although the light entered the world, people love darkness instead, because their deeds are evil. Sin blinds our eyes, enslaves our hearts, and cuts us off from the life with God. But God, in his great love, reached out to us and gave us one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,

not by ignoring it, but by bearing it in himself. On the cross, he offered his life as a perfect sacrifice. And in his resurrection, he triumphed over sin and death once for all. Now everyone who receives him, who believes in his name, is given the right to become a child of God and have eternal life. This is why the Gospel of John was written, as he wrote, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing, you may have life in his name. So today, he invites you, if you don’t know him yet, if you have not yet surrendered your life to him, turn from darkness and put your trust in him and follow him as his disciple. In him, you will find forgiveness, freedom, and eternal life. And this brings us to the last points. Those who are not willing to accept him as a Messiah are judged,

Spiritual Blindness

as we read in verses 39 to 41. Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, we see, your guilt remains. In this last part, the passage ends with some very straightforward statements from Jesus. For judgment I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. The physically blind are fully aware that they are blind and utterly reliant upon others. The spiritually blind person has no idea that they are blind. For physically blind people, the world is passing by going on really seemingly without their participation.

The spiritually blind people believe they are fully engaged, fully aware, but they are blind to the real condition of their soul. They are lost, but they don’t realize it. We were all spiritually blind from birth. The question is, are we willing to humble ourselves and come to the Lord, acknowledging our destitute state? Do we realize that without God and the work of his son, the conviction of the spirit, we are blind, dead in our trespasses and sins, alienated from God? That without the Holy Spirit’s conviction, we are self-righteous. That without Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, there is no salvation. Not recognizing your spiritual destitute state renders you blind. Our greatest need is to be restored to God through the work of Jesus. Now, some of the Pharisees overheard him saying this and objected to what Jesus was saying with a sarcastic question, are we also blind?

Of course, they were only thinking of physical blindness, not spiritual blindness. What a contrast between the formerly blind man and the Pharisees. They were satisfied with their traditions, their understanding, but they failed to see the long-awaited Messiah who was walking in their midst. Yet the formerly blind man, the one they say was born in sin, and he was just like us, is the one who recognized and surrendered his life to Jesus. If they had read the scriptures more carefully, they might have noticed in Proverbs 26, 12, do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. They failed to understand the scriptures pointing to the Messiah, to Jesus. The light that the Old Testament provided, they used to walk not in humility, but in pride. So in conclusion, again, who is Jesus? This is the question that this passage deals with.

The Pharisees had so much going on for them. I mean, they were loved by the people. They knew the scriptures. They were respected by the people, but they were blind. Self-righteousness and pride kept them from accepting Jesus as the Messiah. We have to examine our hearts also to see if we are resistant to the truth. Whether our comfort, our position in life are more important than our standing with Christ. If you realize you are not yet a believer, that your life is lacking something profound, that you’re merely going through the motions, day in and day out, then I invite you, come to Jesus. It doesn’t matter what condition you’re in. If you are a believer, ask yourself, who is Jesus to me practically in everyday life? Is he just a helper, a genie, a moral, wise teacher, a counselor, a life coach? Who is he to me?

Who is he to you? Who is he to me? Who is he to you? Is he just a moral, wise teacher, a counselor, a life coach who gives me some helpful principles? Or is he the divine Son of God and Savior? Don’t make Jesus, as many do, as the one who is going to provide you health, wealth, and success. Accept Jesus as the one who has taken away your sins and gives you eternal life. Listen to what the scriptures have to say about Christ. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him the fullness of God was placed to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Let us ensure that our identity and security are in him and not in anything else. Let us stand firm in our testimony of him who has redeemed us. Let us not find comfort in nothing else but this, that it was Jesus who sought us out while we were yet sinners and blind. And let us respond with true worship, for he is worthy of our worship. Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you. You are indeed the light of the world, full of glory and grace. You willingly entered our darkness and lived in flesh and blood to destroy the power of sin over us. You obeyed the Father perfectly. You chose to be slain by the darkness to pay our debt. And we are undone by your sacrifice. You are full of grace and truth, and all your mercies end in our delight. Spirit of God, open the eyes of our hearts and draw us near. Lord, show us the glory of our Redeemer. Help us to delight in his love and to bask in the joy of his great pleasure in us. Empower us to hate the darkness of our sin and to flee to the brightness of his everlasting love. Change us daily so that we may become more like him. Help us to worship him as we walk.

Enable us to make much of him and always be ready to declare his wonderful mercy that we have received. And we pray this in the name of the Messiah, in Jesus’ name. Amen.