The passage is slightly longer, but I thought it was worth hearing the whole of John 9, which is where we are up to in the gospel.
! So let's hear God's word.
As he passed by, he saw 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 am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Having said these things, he spat 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.
The neighbours and those who'd 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 is like him.
He kept saying, I am the man.
So they said to him, then how are 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.
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'd 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 for he doesn't 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.
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 is of age.
He'll 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.
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 told you already and you wouldn't listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you want to become his disciples?
And they reviled him, saying, you are his disciples 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.
We know that God does not listen to sinners.
But if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
Never since the world began has 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 worshipped him.
Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world, but 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 were blind, you would have no guilt.
But now that you say we see, your guilt remains.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, help us to see this afternoon.
To see who Jesus is.
And what it means to follow him.
And we pray in his name.
Amen.
It is very warm, isn't it?
So, thank you for being here.
And we'll try and get through as quick as we can.
The main thing that I want you to see in this passage this afternoon
is that behind discouraging opposition, there is an encouraging reality.
Behind discouraging opposition, there is an encouraging reality.
Now, if you're familiar with the Gospel of John,
as we read out the story in chapter 9,
and as we hear about this miracle that Jesus performs,
you might be getting a bit of a sense of déjà vu,
like we've been here before.
Because the account of this miracle of Jesus healing this blind man
is a bit like another miracle that has happened in John chapter 5,
four chapters earlier.
There is a similarity between two miracles.
There is a supernatural work of Jesus Christ.
There is a healing in both accounts.
There is a pool of water that is involved.
And the healing is done on the Sabbath,
both in chapter 5 and in chapter 9.
The first in chapter 5 was a lame man,
and this time it's a blind man.
Now, often when things are repeated in the Gospels,
we've got to see the significance of them
by looking at the differences.
Why is John 9 here?
What is different about this miracle
compared with the miracle in chapter 5?
And there is one crucial difference.
Back in chapter 5,
Jesus performs the miracle,
and he faces discouraging opposition.
He is interrogated by the religious leaders.
But in chapter 9,
that is not the case, is it?
It is not Jesus who is interrogated.
It is the man who receives the blessing and healing.
It is the blind man who is in the limelight.
In fact, for a long portion of John chapter 9,
Jesus is not in the scene at all, is he?
He's there until verse 7,
and then he sort of disappears,
and then he returns near the end in verse 35.
And so the narrative focuses on this man
who is blind and then receives his sight.
As the opposition ramps up to Jesus in the Gospel,
we see that it's not just Jesus himself
who faces the discouragement of the religious authorities,
it is Jesus' followers,
and those who are touched by him.
And that's the case today, isn't it?
More often than not,
in most opposition to Christian things,
Jesus is targeted through his followers.
And that is the case here.
This man, he is blind,
and he is bullied,
and he is barred from the temple.
He is badgered by the Pharisees.
And it seems like, doesn't it,
Jesus touches his life,
and then he is taken up in this whirlwind
of aggression and opposition against him.
As soon as he's associated with Jesus,
he is on the back foot.
And he doesn't know what's going on.
He's interrogated.
And it looks like he fumbles around for answers.
He says,
I don't know how Jesus did this.
All I know was that I was blind,
and now I can see.
And being a Christian,
being a follower of Jesus,
can look like that, can't it?
It can be very discouraging.
We can start to feel a little bit sorry for ourselves.
So much opposition.
So many questions.
So many accusations.
But what I think John wants us to see here,
is that there is another side to this man.
And there is another side
to the discouraging opposition
that follows with Jesus' face.
There is an encouraging reality underneath it all.
Because actually,
it is very easy to get this guy all wrong.
To just look at him at first glance
and feel sorry for him.
when really he is not who he appears to be.
There is more to be encouraged about with this man
than there is discouragement.
And that goes for the same in the Christian life.
Now, three things about him.
First of all,
he is the blind man who sees.
He is the blind man who sees.
And of course,
that's the great irony of the story, isn't it?
Of the passage.
He is the only man,
in this whole account,
whose eyes do not work properly.
And at the same time,
he is the only man in the story
who can see.
He can and has seen things
that the sighted people in the passage cannot.
That is why Jesus says about him in verse 39,
if you look there,
I'd come for people like this,
people who do not see,
that they may see.
Do you know,
in those days,
to be blind,
like this man,
to be blind from birth,
would have been a massive disadvantage
to you in life.
Maybe this man was sat outside the temple,
as often was the case,
waiting for handouts.
And to be disabled in your eyes
was as good as really an early death sentence.
And to all intents and purposes,
this guy is a lost cause,
isn't he?
He is the man with the worst prospects in the world.
He's got every reason to be discouraged.
He cannot see.
But the work of Jesus means
that this man is not what he seems.
He is surrounded by the fully sighted,
fully trained students of theology.
He looks like the loser, doesn't he?
But we're told, actually, it's the opposite.
Notice what Jesus says to him at the end in verse 37.
And these are really huge words.
He talks about the Son of Man.
That is a code for God's chosen king
sent into the world.
And he says to this man,
in verse 37,
you have seen him.
And it is he who is speaking to you.
And he said, Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him.
Do you see, the physical healing of his eyes
is a demonstration of a deeper sight
that Jesus has given to this man.
To see who Jesus is.
And to believe in him.
And to worship him.
There is much to discourage this man.
But the encouraging reality
is that Jesus has given him vision
of something better than everyone else
is capable of seeing.
Going around on the tube,
I don't know if you've seen or heard
the guy who whistles on the underground.
Maybe you've heard about him before.
He's not an official busker.
He doesn't have one of those
designated busker patches.
But he's a really good whistler.
He's got a great tone.
And his thing is hymn tunes.
He whistles hymn tunes
about the Lord Jesus.
So you're in the stream of people
in the underground corridors.
And whistling over the kind of noise
is this music from this guy.
But as you get closer,
there is something else unique about him.
He is totally and utterly blind.
This guy can't see a thing.
And he sort of rhythmically
rocks backwards and forwards.
And he whistles hymns to Jesus.
And you know,
he couldn't care less.
And you realise that this blind man,
he can see something
that nobody else in the corridor can.
There is much to discourage him,
isn't there?
He is disadvantaged.
He's at the bottom of the pile.
Well,
this man is out of place in the world.
And you pity him
and you feel sorry for him.
But the blind man is not who he seems.
Last tune I heard him whistling
was,
crown him with many crowns.
The lamb upon his throne.
The blind man sees.
And followers of Jesus
are ridiculed and pitied and resented.
They're discouraged,
aren't they?
But they are not what they seem.
They are people who used to be blind,
but they've come to something more valuable.
They've come to see something
that nobody else can see.
They've come to see Jesus.
Because he has met with them
and opened their eyes to him.
So you're a follower of Jesus.
You get up in the morning,
you switch the radio on,
you listen to their conversation,
you go to work,
you walk through healing,
you go shopping,
you wash your car,
talk to the neighbours.
And all of the while,
there is this sense, isn't there,
that you can see
more than meets the eye in the world.
That this world is ruled by King Jesus,
the Son of Man.
And I can see now that there is a God
who sent him to bring me to himself
and to give me sight.
And underneath the discouragement
and opposition,
there is a vision
and a sight that transports believers
out of the difficulty,
in a sense,
to see the Lord Jesus
in his glory.
He is the blind man who sees.
Secondly, though,
he is the bullied man
who is strong.
He is the bullied man
who is strong.
Now, the other way
you can get this guy wrong
is that he just seems overwhelmed
by the pressure, doesn't he?
He seems overwhelmed
by the discouragement.
And the middle section
of John 9
has a series of increasingly
aggressive interrogations.
So, in verse 8 to 12,
it starts off with the neighbours.
They get called in, don't they?
After he's given sight.
And they ask him,
how were your eyes opened?
And then the theological professionals
jump in,
the Pharisees,
and the questions
get more and more aggressive.
And then the parents
get brought in
and they're interrogated as well.
And the vigour
of the opposition
gets more and more intense.
And by the end of it,
the Pharisees,
all they've got is insults.
In verse 34,
you were born in utter sin,
they say to him.
You can scan through
some of the accusations
that they throw
at one of Jesus' followers.
Verse 16,
they say Jesus is not from God.
Verse 19,
they say that the miracle
is not possible.
Verse 24,
Jesus is a sinner.
He's morally questionable.
Verse 26,
they ask him for more details
to try and tie him up
in a contradiction.
Verse 29,
they again ask about
Jesus' origins,
where he's come from.
They throw heresy
after heresy
after accusation
at him.
They attack
Jesus' follower
to try and discredit
Jesus.
But what is interesting
is that parallel
to the increasing
venom
of the opposition
is the increasing
clarity
of the man's
answers.
When the opposition
was light,
he's more vague,
I think.
But as it
hots up,
he is more clear
and more emphatic
in his answers.
Now when the neighbours
ask him,
he just tells them
the facts,
doesn't he?
He says,
look,
this is what happened,
he healed me.
And they ask him,
where's he gone now?
And he says,
well,
I don't know.
Slightly vague.
But as the opposition
mounts,
the blind man
is given,
he gives concise,
clear,
confident answers.
The Pharisees
ask him
later,
what do you say
about him?
And he says
in verse 19,
he is a prophet.
And by the end,
he is giving
actually quite
sophisticated,
confident answers.
His defensiveness
and his fumbling
has turned
actually into
an attack
on the Pharisees.
Did you hear
the tone
in verse 27?
He says to them,
do you want
to be his disciples
as well?
He's got them
pegged,
hasn't he?
He's being sarcastic
there.
Verse 31,
it's an amazing
thing that you
don't know
where he comes
from and yet
he opened my eyes.
He has
an awareness
and a vision
of what is
going on
and who
they are.
As the
opposition
increases,
his insights
into the
situation
improves
and clarifies.
The bullied
man is
strangely
strengthened,
isn't he,
in his convictions.
It's as if
Jesus'
enemies
carry on
the sort of
eye-opening
work
in his
absence,
in opening
his eyes
to the
truth.
And by
attacking him
they actually
encourage and
help him.
You've got to
feel sorry for
the Pharisees,
haven't you?
They just
can't win.
Perhaps they
think, you
know,
Jesus isn't
here,
this guy is
an easy
target now,
isn't he?
And, you
know,
we can pick
off Jesus'
followers like
fish in a
barrel.
And all
through church
history it's
kind of been
the same,
hasn't it?
people have
hurled heresy
after heresy
after false
accusation
after false
accusation at
the followers
of Jesus.
But I think
this passage
teaches us,
and I hope you
know what I
mean when I
say this,
it teaches us
to say thank
you Lord for
heretics.
Since many
of the clear
and glorious
things that we
understand about
God and about
the Lord Jesus
and his work,
and the
Bible,
the things
that we've
formulated over
the centuries
in the
creeds and
confessions,
the great
statements and
doctrines of
faith have
been forged
and hammered
out over
centuries in
response to
what?
Heresy
and opposition.
As opposition
mounts,
clarity and
confidence and
strength comes
to the church
strangely.
And so behind
the discouragement
is the
underpinning
reality of
God's
sharpening and
blessing Jesus'
followers with
clearer understanding
of his word and
his work.
The blind,
discouraged man
who sees,
the bullied,
discouraged man
who is
strengthened.
And lastly and
thirdly, he is
the barred man
who belongs.
He is the
barred man who
belongs.
One of the
other differences
between this
miracle and the
similar miracle in
chapter 5 is
that the guy who
is healed there,
you'll notice,
he returns to
the temple and
he praises God.
He receives
strength in his
legs and he's
able to go back
and worship.
He can go back
into the
structures of
the organised
religion.
But this time
that doesn't
happen at all,
does it?
Look at verse
34.
They say to
him, you were
born in utter
sin and would
you teach us?
And they cast
him out.
Now it shows
again how brave
he's become,
doesn't it?
He suffers the
fate his parents
wanted to avoid
by not getting
involved.
They knew that
that could happen,
that they might
be thrown out of
the synagogue,
John tells us
quite clearly.
And so John is
brilliant in his
irony here,
isn't he?
The man is
excommunicated
from the church
for believing
in Jesus.
He is out.
And that was
a really,
really big thing.
To be thrown
out of the
synagogue,
it was to
lose your
standing in
society,
it was to
lose the
opportunity of
corporate worship,
it was to be
outwardly cut off
from God's
blessing.
But the guy
makes a choice
here.
It is a choice
between the
truth of who
Jesus is
and the
structures of
the church.
church.
Now normally
those two
things should
be in
harmony,
shouldn't
they?
But sometimes
they are
not.
And he's
got to make
a decision
here.
Will he
belong to
the synagogue
or will he
belong to
Jesus?
Will he
keep his
membership in
a church
that no
longer
worships
Jesus or
will he
leave?
And I
think he
makes a
clear decision
here.
And he
could have
been a bit
more strategic,
couldn't he?
he could
have toned
down his
responses to
the Pharisees,
maybe been a
little bit less
sarcastic, a
little bit less
offensive.
He could have
stayed in the
synagogue and
maybe changed
it from the
inside.
But this was
his gut reaction,
wasn't it?
And he
pushes the
Pharisees to
the point where
they bar him.
And it
must have
been very
discouraging
to be
thrown out
of the
place that
he loved
with the
people that
he loved
and wanted
to be
part of.
But what
happens is
actually a
very encouraging
reality underneath
it all.
Because in the
moment of his
rejection and
wrongful
excommunication,
Jesus communicates
with him.
And we get
this lovely
dialogue between
the man and
Jesus in the
last section,
don't we?
Jesus hears
that he's
been thrown
out and
he seeks
him out
and he
finds him
and he
confirms him
in belief
and he
consolidates
him in
his faith.
When he
gets barred,
Jesus says,
you belong.
Jesus tells
him who he
is and the
man believes
and worships.
And that is
so often the
case when there
are painful
decisions that
need to be
made.
When it's a
choice maybe
between a
church that
is not true
to the
gospel that
we love
being part
of and we
want to be
in that
community and
choosing Jesus
might mean
that we are
barred or we
bar ourselves
from that
church or
from that
religious
structure.
And we've
got to part
ways.
Just as we
close up,
I don't
think they
mind me
telling you
this,
but my
wife's
mum and
dad,
they were
in a
really
similar
situation.
They were
members of
a church
for many,
many years
and they
served there
and worshipped
there dutifully
and humbly.
But it just
became increasingly
clear that this
church no longer
taught the
gospel.
Ceremony and
outward religion
had taken
over and it
was a very,
very hard
decision for
them to make.
They would
be leaving
friends and
they would
be leaving
their place
in the
community.
That was
nothing compared
with what this
blind man
faced.
But in the
end they
made their
decision to
move to a
good gospel
preaching
church.
And at
first it was
tremendously
discouraging.
They'd
effectively
barred
themselves from
the familiar
things of the
old church
that they
loved.
church.
But let me
tell you that
the difference
for them
spiritually has
been night
and day.
Because now
they sit
under gospel
preaching,
they sit at
Jesus' feet
every week,
they were
barred but
now they know
they belong.
They belong to
Jesus and
they've met
with him and
they've seen
him and they
believe and
they worship.
as we
close.
It is often
isn't it in
the moments of
discouragement
where Jesus'
followers are
attacked with
the greatest
venom and
with the full
variety of
problems and
things that
can come
their way.
It is often
in those
moments of
discouragement
actually when
the greatest
vision and
the greatest
strength and
the greatest
sense of
communion with
God is
given.
Jesus'
followers,
if that is
you this
afternoon,
you are
going to
be accused
and you
are going
to be
opposed.
And heresies
will come
and they
will go
and you
will be
pitied and
you will be
at the
bottom of
the pile.
But the
reality is
that the
blind have
come to
see.
They've
come to
see who
Jesus is.
And with
discouragement
Jesus is
sharpening
and strengthening
your faith.
And he is
clarifying your
vision.
And especially
when you are
cast out
of family,
friendship groups
and even
of a bad
church,
in that
moment you
ought to
know that
you belong
to him.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's