The Light Heals and Reveals!

[0:00] Please take your Bibles and go to John's Gospel, John chapter 9. John 9, if you're visiting with us, there's a Bible, should be a Bible in the chair in front of you.

[0:17] And there in the bottom, you can pull that out. Find page 79 to the back of that Bible. So, page 79. John chapter 9.

[0:32] John chapter 9. We're gonna do the first 34 verses. Keeping myself from doing verses 35 through 39, because that's kind of like the climax.

[0:45] I don't want to do that. Because it's good for us to get a whole understanding of what happens here with this blind man who was healed by Jesus.

[0:58] So, I said, ah, I'll just put it in half. Plus, 935, chapter 9, verse 35, it goes into chapter 10, really. It's one huge chunk from chapter 9 all the way into chapter 10.

[1:11] Really, it starts in chapter 7. It just keeps going. So, today we'll do chapter 9, the first 34 verses. I'll read, and then we'll jump in.

[1:24] John chapter 9, verse 1. And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?

[1:39] And Jesus answered, Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but in order that the works of God might be manifested in him. We must work the works of him, the one who sent me, as long as it is day.

[1:54] Night is coming when no man can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and spread the clay upon his eyes and said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which translated, sent.

[2:15] So he went away and washed and came seen. Therefore the neighbors and those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?

[2:27] Others were saying, This is the one. Others were saying, No, it's like him. He's saying, I am. Therefore they were saying to him, How then were your eyes open? And he answered, The man who's called Jesus made clay and spread it upon my eyes and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash.

[2:45] So I went away and washed and I received sight. And they said to him, Where is he? He said, I don't know. Verse 13, They brought to the Pharisees the one who was formerly blind.

[2:59] Now was the Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Therefore again the Pharisees also were asking him how he received his sight. And he said to them, He spread clay into my eyes and I washed and I see.

[3:14] Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, This man, this is not from God. He does not keep the Sabbath. Others were saying, How can a man as a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them.

[3:28] Therefore they said to the blind man again, What do you say about him since you don't open your eyes? And he said, He's a prophet. Therefore the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and had received sight until they called the parents of the one who received his sight and questioned them saying, Is this your son?

[3:47] Who you say was born blind? And then how does he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know or who opened his eyes, we do not know.

[4:02] Ask him. He is of age. He for himself can speak. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews for the Jews already agreed that if anyone should confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

[4:21] For there's reason his parents said, He's of age. Ask him. Verse 24. So they called the man who had been blind a second time and said to him, Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.

[4:33] Therefore he answered, Whether he's a sinner, I don't know. One thing I know, I was blind, now I see. They said therefore to him, What did he do to you?

[4:45] How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become his disciples too, do you?

[4:56] And they reviled him and said, You are his disciple but we ourselves are disciples of Moses. We ourselves know that God has spoken to Moses, but for this man, we ourselves do not know where he is from.

[5:11] The man answered and said to them, And this is amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he hears him.

[5:27] Since the beginning of time, it has not been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered and said to him, In sins you were born holy and you are teaching us.

[5:44] And they threw him out. It did a Google search. I thought, I don't remember what the, how I titled it.

[5:57] I think, Exposed Political Scandals. I found this website. Seven Historians on the Biggest Political Scandals in U.S. History.

[6:09] This was dated in April of 2019. Quite intriguing. And all of them were revealed. All of them were exposed. These scandals.

[6:21] It was quite amazing just the different corruption in our own government and, you know, makes us wonder what's happening now that we don't know. But it was exposed.

[6:34] Exposed, revealed, laid out in front of you so you could see it. And when it comes to Jesus, who is the light, you can't hide anything because He's light.

[6:51] Light exposes that. Light exposes the spots on your carpet. Light's exposed what's there in the corner of the bedroom.

[7:03] Light exposes. It reveals. But you'll also see it heals too. So we come to this part in John's Gospel where John is calling his readers to come and receive Jesus, believe Jesus, trust Jesus, know Jesus.

[7:18] Today we see the light heals and reveals. The light heals and reveals.

[7:32] Only the light can heal our blindness and reveal and reveal our true nature. This is the work of Jesus alone who is the light of the world.

[7:49] Only He can heal our blindness and only He makes known, exposes our true self, our true nature.

[7:59] the light came to open the eyes of the blind so they can see and savor to use John Piper's phrase the meaning and significance of Jesus' identity and mission.

[8:19] Only He can truly heal us of our blindness to believe and only He can expose our hearts. Remember that from John chapter 3 where Jesus says this is the verdict the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the lights for their deeds were evil for all who do evil hate the light they don't come to the light lest their deeds should be exposed, revealed.

[8:50] So people don't come they don't like that revealing. but from birth we're all blind to the light of the world and thus separated from God.

[9:05] We need Jesus to heal our eyes to see Him for all that He is. Only the light can reveal that we are blind and only the eyes of faith can see Jesus for who He really is the God-man the Word-made flesh the sent one.

[9:26] We need our spiritual vision healed to see Jesus He heals and reveals. Jesus has come to reveal the darkness and uncover sin and the only one who can heal us of our spiritual blindness nor that we may trust Him.

[9:47] So remember this comes on the heels of chapter 7 with the Feast of Tabernacles and remember they're pouring out that water and this festival and Jesus says if anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink.

[10:02] They had these lights where they light up Jerusalem and Jesus said I am the light of the world and He gets into a debate between Him and the Jews the religious leaders and He ends up saying if you belong to God you're going to hear and believe and abide in my word and then it continues on here He calls Himself the great I am and it continues on where He shows He is the great I am because He creates sight and this man born blind.

[10:34] So let's walk through this passage and as I walk through this passage you're going to show I'm going to show you just first aspects of Jesus' work doing the work of the Father and then you're going to see kind of a contrast between blindness that's going to be exposed and then true sight is going to be exposed.

[10:54] You're going to see this contrast between the religious leaders and the blind man. You're going to see that so I'll show you as we go into the text. So notice first of all number one the Father plans His light to work.

[11:08] See that verses one through five. The Father plans His light Jesus to work. Verse one He passed by He saw a man blind from birth.

[11:23] From the hour of His birth He was blind. Which made this sign even more amazing. It would be the sign that would point to the reality of Jesus' identity as the Word made flesh.

[11:38] Because it's never been heard as the man says later. Anyone can open the eyes of someone born blind. Verse two excuse me and His disciples asked Him saying Rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he should be born blind?

[11:57] What are they talking about? They assumed sin causes blindness sin either from Him in the womb yeah they actually believe within Judaism you could sin in the womb or His parents sinned now there are instances of physical deformity or illness it's true that arises from a particular sin it's true but what they're saying here is completely and totally absurd the disciples thought this person was suffering from blindness and what caused was some sin this person had done or somebody else the parents well what puts our minds at ease is the sovereignty of God we must understand that all kinds of physical illness whether it's from a little cold to terminal cancer comes as a result of the fall the fall the fall in Genesis 3 that's why there's sickness it was never meant for us to like a better term die to have sickness it wasn't that's a part of the fall it wasn't part of God's plan in terms of humans to be living forever but what brought this about was the fall in Genesis 3 but to link all physical illness to a specific certain sin is preposterous in other words well saying well the reason why you have cancer is because you have sin you don't know that maybe maybe not and you're going to see from the passage it wasn't from sin this man being blind it would be used to show

[14:11] God's glory because look at how Jesus responds in verse 3 Jesus answered neither this man sinned nor his parents no one sin guys sorry but in order that the works of God might be manifested or displayed in him so God sovereignly had this man be born blind so that Jesus would heal him and then heal him the man would be healed physically healed and then spiritually healed healed we'll see more of that next week how you see spiritual healing climaxed in this man and that's why Jesus says the works plural of God it refers not just to physical healing but spiritual healing he would be able to see and then would be able to believe in Jesus

[15:15] Jesus would use this man's blindness to show the glory of God and that only God Jesus is the only one who can open blind eyes whether you're talking physically or spiritually only Jesus can open the eyes of those who are born spiritually blind and that's everyone everyone is spiritually blind they cannot that's why we read 2nd Corinthians they cannot see the light of the glory of God who is in Christ they can't see it it's veiled and thus we can say God uses all suffering to show his glory and to point to himself that's one thing we know this for sure God uses all suffering he's going to show his great glory and make us he points to himself and then look at what

[16:20] Jesus says here in verse 4 we and the disciples work too he's the sent one from the father we must work the works of the one who sent me the father sent him the word must comes from the word day which means it is necessary it is necessary to work the works of the one who sent me as the father as long as it's day Jesus does what pleases the father we've thought about this before and the works are the deeds or the signs of Jesus and his words he says as long as day night is coming when no one can work what does he mean by this day in other words while Jesus was walking the earth up to the time of his glorification night the time when Jesus would be taken away killed resurrected ascended this is the time before the spirit comes so the works he's talking about are the signs that pointed a sign points it points to

[17:23] Jesus identity and mission and his mission was going to come to a close so he's saying now is the time for us to work and then verse five while I am in the world I am the light of the world while I'm here physically he's talking about he's the light who gives light to people it's a work which no one else can do but Jesus and then he says actually he acts let me illustrate this for you fellas I'm going to open the eyes of this blind man verse six when he said this he spat on the ground that's nasty make clay of the spittle and spread the clay upon the man's eyes and said to him go wash in the pool of Siloam which is translated sent and he went away and washed and came seen and here it comes to our next point here's

[18:25] Jesus work blindness to sight and his actions you notice were symbolic of God's creative work in creation he takes the dirt makes clay makes mud and he spreads it on the man's eyes go wash so the mud symbolizes the creation of humanity from the earth the one who created all intervened with this man and the man obeyed he went and washed in the pool and came seen the power came from Jesus himself and notice he went to the pool of Siloam which is translated sent interesting because Jesus is the sent one from the father as not by accident so all his actions Jesus actions it pointed to his identity Jesus is the creator

[19:28] Jesus is the great I am he's the light he's the sent one and this is in John's gospel the fifth sign that points to the identity and mission of Jesus Jesus work blindness to sight now notice this light work is recounted and I have two sections verses 8 through 12 and 13 to 15 because it's recounted it's remembered it's rehashed look at verse 8 the neighbors are stunned they previously saw him as a beggar is this the same guy you said sit and beg there was no other way for him to live except to sit and beg in the first century some said it's him it's him he's like I am it's me and by the way it's quite interesting he says

[20:31] I am and not that he's proclaiming to be the great I am but isn't it odd already this man is representing Jesus in some way because the focus is on Christ not on the man verse 10 how did your eyes open how did this happen notice what he says the man who's called Jesus he names him he performed this work on him told them to go wash what he did what he said was practically verbatim what happened he knew exactly what happened and he repeats it practically verbatim where is he I don't know so that's the first recounting of this notice the second one verse 13 they kind of upped the ante here the neighbors they brought him who was formerly blind to the Pharisees the situation became more intense it went from an informal chat to a formal interrogation from the religious leaders and the idea of that word brought they brought him is the treatment of a prisoner come on let's go pal let's see what our religious leaders say about your healing and this is where you're going to begin to see the revealing between the blind men and the religious leaders

[22:08] Carson says this in his commentary this man blind man he was sharp quick witted and sardonic you see this very much so from this man ah notice verse 14 now it was sabbath oh that's bad that's bad now it was the sabbath that Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes oh mud on the sabbath that's forbidden a sacrilege act of course and this explained even more why the townspeople took him there by the way notice verse 15 and he said to them he spread clay to my eyes and I wash and I see clay or word mud that word is used five times now from the text trying to emphasize the creative work of God out of form man out of the dust of the ground from Genesis chapter 2 so you see this light work is recounted and then the next thing we begin to unveil for us is the revealing of true blindness it begins at verse 16 therefore some of the Pharisees are saying this man now now there a division arose because some said he was not from

[23:36] God because he didn't keep the Sabbath and the idea from the text is this he's not from God this man that's the idea from the Greek he's not from God this man because he does not keep the Sabbath others how can a man who's a sinner do such signs they could not deny the sign done so there was a division and you'll see it seems like the former ones who denied it outnumbered the latter ones so the revealing of true blindness begins but also you see the revealing of true sight begins because look at verse 17 they said to the blind man what do you say about him now here they're trying to force him to comply with the majority opinion of his religious leaders so they asked him his thoughts what do you think about him since he opened your eyes huh their plan backfired the blind man doesn't yield for a bit he gives a fact he's a prophet that's what

[24:48] I think here's the irony his eyes were opening wider and wider to the truth of Jesus whereas the eyes of these religious leaders his accusers were being clouded with darkness and blindness do you see this no pun intended notice also blindness revelation it begins to grow look at verse 18 therefore the Jews did not believe concerning him that he'd been blind and received sight they did not believe the religious leaders the Pharisees did not believe the facts of this man with this sign so let's get a little bit more aggressive shall we and personal let's bring this man's parents to question interrogate them verse 19 and they question them there's two questions is this your son who you say was born blind therefore how does he now see confirm for us the relation he is indeed your son blind from birth then tell us how he now sees and which was really as one writer puts it quote an authoritative and threatening challenge they really weren't after the truth they just wanted to shame the parents they wanted to embarrass them and they wanted to say that this guy was an unreliable witness that's really what they were doing so that's where you see the blindness the revelation of their blindness begins to grow and then here you have verses 20 through 23

[26:34] I didn't know how else to put this except to say this the fear of man or the fear of the darkness what happens in verse 20 his parents answered and said we know by the way notice that word know that's important we know this is our son we know he's blind for birth yeah this our son yeah blind for birth yeah so just that this confirmed that a miraculous sign had truly taken place okay verse 21 but how he now sees we do not know or who opened his eyes we do not know and this these statements I mean they serve to separate them from having access to the info because they didn't have access to the info but it also served to distance them from their son because notice their next statement ask him he is of age he concerned himself will speak so first they're saying ask him he's of age in other words he's a reliable witness he's legal age of requirement and who knows maybe he was in his late teens in his twenties thirties maybe in his forties but his parents are still alive at this point and he's a competent witness he can speak for himself so in other words they're saying he's cognitively with it and totally competent in other words get us out of this mess and then you see how the truth comes out no pun intended verse 22 his parents said this because they were afraid of the

[28:35] Jews really selfish fear why because the religious leaders hatred for Jesus it was growing and their true intentions were manifesting and because of this hatred the Jews had already agreed if anyone confesses him as Christ he'd be thrown out of the synagogue so they wanted to disassociate themselves from their son sad because they were more concerned about themselves than him they didn't want to be put out of the synagogue they didn't want to be guilty by association and that's where John the evangelist says verse 23 for this reason his parents said he's of age ask him don't fear people don't fear the darkness and now you see how the no pun intended how the blindness revelation it grows even more look at verse 24 so they called the man who had been blind a second time so they summoned him or subpoenaed him and they started it off by trying to intimidate him by putting him under an oath formula give glory to

[30:05] God they did this because they believed he was keeping something from them give glory to God confess your guilt and wrong in other words repent right now in other words we reject your witness and that of your parents and that we know that this man notice the word no and notice they don't name Jesus this man is a sinner they're trying to force his hand this formerly blind man and yet you see a surprising response you see how sight revelation grows more this sight of this man begins to grow a surprising response was a direct counter even a challenge to their judgment verse 25 whether he's a sinner I don't know one thing

[31:05] I know I was blind now I see there's the facts man and this is a testimony of a person who once was unsaved but now that person has come to saving faith in Jesus Christ Jesus has transformed me he can transform you today if you repent and trust Jesus he'll transform you and save you there's the gospel repent and believe and he'll save you he'll heal you of your blindness where you can say I was blind now I see so his sight is growing more and more well now you see how total revelation of blindness and hatred for the light it comes out the revelation of their blindness and their hatred for the light is completed here look at verse 26 they said therefore to him what do you do how did he open your eyes now why are they asking him again well either they were trying to trick him into contradicting his former testimony or their questions expose their surprise at his confident confession what he just said a few moments ago that he could not be swayed look at his response and this response is what brings out it's what reveals their hatred of the light and their total blindness verse 27 he answered

[32:43] I told you already and you didn't listen first he accused them of not paying attention to what he just said previously ouch you're not paying attention I just told you why do you want to hear it again now he's figuring out they want more than just facts that they were denying the facts and then notice his second question you don't want to become disciples too do you and now this question expects a negative answer but it was also suggestive and by the way it implied this man began to view himself as a disciple of Jesus now he is seen no pun intended seeing through their manipulating efforts to try to trip him and yet did they have a secret desire to become

[33:48] Jesus disciples too do you now it comes out verse 28 they reviled him they saw what he was trying to do and they got ticked off they spoke abusively to him reviling abusing him and said you are his disciple but we ourselves are disciples of Moses again they won't use Jesus name they said this to refute any of Jesus authority we know verse 29 we know notice the word no we know that God has spoken to Moses we ourselves know this but as for this man don't name him we do not know where he's from so they pit Jesus to Moses to Jesus we know what they thought they knew

[34:50] God spoke to Moses here's the conflict between Judaism and Christianity really between Pharisee Judaism and Christianity and yet do you remember in John chapter 5 Moses wrote of Jesus that's what Jesus said we do not even know where he's from and yet they did didn't they they did know where he's from at least Jesus told them back in chapter 8 you remember but they were unwilling to listen they were staunch against Jesus no no no no Jesus is the one who knows God the Father John chapter 8 verse 55 Jesus was the one from above John chapter 3 verse 31 their true heart was being exposed revealed this is the thing about God's word the word of God will reveal your heart the word of God will expose the true nature and the true intentions of your heart isn't that what the writer of

[35:55] Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 4 it judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart God's word will make known who we really are and as you see how that oh but then you see total revelation of true sight look at what this man says he gets it verse 30 he answered and said to them and this is amazing this guy calmly and logically laid into them with truth and facts his bold sardonic wit came from the fact that the eyes truly began to see the truth concerning Jesus and these leaders this is amazing you did not know where he's from yet he opened my eyes he was shocked at their conclusion one writer put it like this the evidence that Jesus did this miracle was obvious so for them to reject this miracle is a miracle in and of itself and then look at what he says in verse 31 we know interesting we know that God does not hear sinners but if a man is God fearing and does his will he listens to that one we know this simple logic

[37:26] God is attentive to the one who fears him Jesus obeyed the father you get what's coming here you get what this man is really trying to figure out what he's seeing he's understanding that really Jesus is the one who's heard by God Jesus came from God he's figuring this out and what's so glorious about this even more glorious so that also means if you unite yourself to Christ God will hear you God hears his people not because of who you are but because of who Jesus is and what he's done we'll celebrate that in a few moments we'll celebrate the identity and mission of Jesus in the bread and the juice we'll celebrate that and that's why God hears us is because we're united with his son this man's figuring this stuff out verse 32 since the beginning of time it has not been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind what happened to him was truly unique he knew that there's not one recording of someone born blind was made to see never heard interesting he uses the word heard

[38:55] God hears his people and healing of blindness in the Old Testament was very rare very rare and then his conclusion the logical conclusion this man made verse 33 if this man were not from God he could do nothing the logical conclusion is that Jesus was from God he perfectly summarized Jesus mission from the father and his identity the father was with Jesus and he was sent by him God hears Jesus this man figured it out he's saying to these blind religious leaders I can see God only hears those who do his will this healing was from God because the healer could not be a sinner but a God fearer no one has done this before at all so he must be from God is it not true it's those who we least expect these are the ones who see the truth he saw it and these religious leaders were blind now notice what peaks in verse 34 blindness and hatred for the light climaxes peaks here it is they answered and said to him in sins you were born holy and you are teaching us they were outraged they became belligerent and they resorted to demeaning and derogatory declarations you were born blind as a result of sin thus you're completely sin wait a minute wait a minute they just admitted he was born blind isn't that interesting which means they actually believe that he had been healed which means they're actually denying the very thing they were admitting and then their question and you're teaching us you're nothing but

[41:25] Carson puts it like this quote an untrained member of the common herd who do you think you are instead of looking at the facts they just personally abused this man and they threw him out threw him out of the synagogue the very thing his parents did not want to have happen to them they shamed him and excluded him notice how they took no pleasure from his healing at all or even thanking God for this they were only concerned about themselves there's the truth about the blindness there's the truth about being in darkness and this interesting you will see in chapter 9 verse 35 into chapter 10 verse 6 this leads us right into chapter 10 because you'll see the contrast that

[42:31] Jesus is going to present between himself being a good shepherd and these religious leaders they were nothing but thieves and hirelings they did not care at all heals and reveals the light does only the light can reveal that we are blind and only the eyes of faith can see Jesus for who he really is the God man the word made flesh the sent one the creator we need our spiritual vision healed to see Jesus he heals and reveals and we need humility to admit this God reveal my heart this is one of the one of the actions we should do as we're taking the Lord's supper we're saying Lord reveal my heart examine my heart make known and I come to you knowing that you're going to forgive me thanking you for your grace that's how we come to him with humility make known my heart it's exposed expose it reveal it

[43:45] Jesus came to reveal the darkness and uncover sin and the only one who can heal us of our spiritual blindness to trust him only the light can heal our blindness and reveal our true nature this is the work of Jesus alone who is the light of the world and as we come at this time to partake the Lord's supper we can say that with such encouragement and with such confidence he's healed our blind eyes and he's made known the intentions of our heart keep doing that Lord keep making known who I am keep helping me see the truth of who you are let's pray for that we do pray for that oh God help us to see more and more of you help us to see more and more of the intentions of our hearts reveal to us expose that we pray and as we come to the elements the Lord's supper expose that in us make that known and may it also be made known that your grace comes mercy meets us right there you show your faithfulness and goodness and you remind us of your love just how you love this man and showed yourself to him and so may our response be the way he responds we'll see that next week may our response be his response be what his response was worship bowing down and worshiping you hope to