Once I Was Blind, But Now I See

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If you'll take your scriptures with me, please, and turn to the Gospel of John, chapter nine.

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The Gospel of John, chapter nine. As we think about the Gospel of John, I hope that it is part of your practice in studying scripture to always place various texts within their context, and hence, you know that chapter eight ended with that scene.

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All through the eighth chapter, Jesus is seemingly very purposefully directing this conversation to a point of climax where there is going to be a revelation of his person that is going to be greatly offensive to those to whom he is speaking, and so that's exactly what happens.

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He makes the announcement that Abraham rejoiced to see his day, and the

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Jews respond, you're not yet 50 years old, how could Abraham see your day? And Jesus says to them, pren abraham genestai ego aimi, before Abraham was,

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I am. And that phrase, I am, used in the Greek Septuagint a number of times as a euphemism, as another name for Yahweh, for the covenant

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God of Israel. And so they pick up stones to stone Jesus, and so at the end of chapter eight, they pick up those stones, but Jesus hid himself and went out from the temple.

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We don't know how. We don't have any video telling us the mechanism by which this took place, but Jesus hides himself and goes out of the temple.

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And then we know chapter 10, right? We know chapter 10, we know the Good Shepherd passage, we know that in chapter 10, there's gonna be another incident just like at the end of chapter eight, where once Jesus says,

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I and the Father, we are one, specifically in the salvation of God's people, the Jews are gonna pick up stones to stone him.

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And instead of it being a quick, Jesus hides himself and goes out of the temple, there's a dialogue that takes place.

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There's a discussion that takes place, and for which, many good works I've shown you from the Father which of these good works are you stoning me?

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It's not for a good work that we're stoning you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man, make yourself out to be

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God. And this gives Jesus the opportunity of actually accusing them of being false judges, he quotes from Psalm 82, and accuses them of being false judges and hypocrites in what they are saying and doing.

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So how did chapter nine get between chapters eight and 10? I mean, is this a situation where John said, well, you know,

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I'd like to tell that story about the blind man, and this seems like a good place, we need everybody to calm down for a little while.

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And well, is that how it works? I don't think so. There is a very specific purpose throughout

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John's gospel. He is tying together so many themes, it's a beautiful thing.

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And people will point to it and say, see, that's not real history, because he's trying to teach things and present things.

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Well, of course he is. He never said, I'm going to be a boring journalist.

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Of course, today, there aren't very many journalists left who aren't themselves trying to promote some type of perspective anyways.

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But the idea is John, writing at a later point in time, wants to tie together a number of themes that are not found in what are called the synoptic gospels,

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Matthew, Mark, and Luke, at least not fully developed. And so yes, John is specifically seeking to do that.

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And if that's the case, then the question is, how did chapter nine get between chapters eight and chapters 10?

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Well, I think there's an answer to that. We're gonna do something a little bit differently today. I'm going to read the entire chapter in your hearing, which is unusual.

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It's a lengthy chapter. It's gonna take up almost half of our time. And I'm going to be making brief commentary along the way.

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And you are certainly welcome to follow along. I will warn you right now, I am free translating.

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I have no English text in front of me. I have no notes in front of me. I'm just simply translating, and I will make commentary as I look at a word and go, oh, yes,

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I remember something about that, and try to share some of the insights from that level. And we'll go through the whole chapter, and then what we'll do is we'll go back and we'll look at the main themes, the important points, and then we'll tie it all together by hopefully answering the question, so why is chapter nine between chapters eight and 10?

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And I think you'll see what the answer is, but coming to that answer by working through the text on your own,

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I think, makes it more memorable. I could just stand up here, and I could just simply give you the standardized lecture and say, here's the connections, here's the themes, and I just don't know if that's the most memorable way of doing it, okay?

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So it's a little bit different way of doing things. This is not three points in a poem. By any, in fact,

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I don't think I will have any poetry whatsoever in our study today, but John chapter nine, and passing by, saw a man blind from birth, very important to see, from birth.

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He didn't lose his sight later on. He was born blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, and they said to him,

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Rabbi, who sinned? This one, now remember, he's born blind.

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This one, or his parents, in order that he might be born blind, and just immediately you have to stop and go,

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I'm confused. How could this man sin so as to be born blind?

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Because he's in the womb. I mean, seriously, is it like he was kicking too much on the

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Sabbath at seven months of gestation or something? Is that what's going on? What is this?

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But we know from intertestamental records, from the records of the writings of the Jews between Malachi and Matthew, we know that this was a question that developed, and that certain elements of rabbinic theology had developed the idea, not that God could foresee that somebody was going to do something, that's not what they were saying, because God could foresee that of everybody, but that there would be a possibility, even in the womb, of committing sin.

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Now, you and I go, that's a little strange. I mean, there isn't much space in there to be doing too much, but you do have

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John the Baptist responding to the greeting of Mary, remember?

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He responds to that, and so this is just another one of those little places where there's a little bit of light shed on the idea that there is a high view of the individual in the womb in Jewish thought at this time, that's about the most you can say, but it is there.

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But notice the other assumption, that if you're gonna be born blind, it's because of sin.

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Now, obviously, when we look at the entire creation, when we look at the fallenness of creation, a blind child is a part of a fallen world.

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There's no question about that, we get that. But that's not what they're talking about. They're talking about the

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Jewish idea that there was blessing from God for obedience and punishment for sin, and so if you were blind or deaf or you were lame or something like that, the automatic idea was it was because of a specific sin, and therefore, someone who's healthy and wealthy, well, they must be right with God, right?

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But we know that that was not the case. Notice Jesus' answer. Neither this one sinned, nor his parents, but in order that the works of God might be made manifest in him.

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Now, whatever else you do, you can't skip what it says. There was a purpose in this man's blindness.

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This was not just some random genetic fluke. This was not just,

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I mean, when you think about the complexity of the eye and the development in the womb, it's astonishing, it is absolutely astonishing that any of us can see past our nose.

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I mean, the complexity of the chemical reactions and the structures and everything in the eye, absolutely amazing.

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If you can't see the fingerprint of God in that, you're blind, but we're talking spiritual blindness there, and so Jesus' answer is this man was born blind in order that the works of God might be manifest in him.

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We will come back to that because that is a vitally important issue. Then Jesus has these interesting words.

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It is necessary that we work the works of the one who sent me while it is day.

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Night is coming and no one is able to work when no one will be able to work during that darkness.

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When I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

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Now, this is probably connected to, and we won't expand too much upon this, but it's in John that you have my hour has not yet come, that is repeated over and over again.

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It is very plain that John is communicating that the betrayal and the giving of Jesus is very much under the control of God.

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It is set out by God. He is the one who has established these things, and Jesus knows the night is coming when this type of work will not be able to be done, but that time is not yet.

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Then, having said these things, Jesus spits upon the ground and he makes clay, let's just call it clay, from the spittle, and it's literally, we would, a lot of translations just simply say to put, to place, but it's actually, the word that's translated as Christos, anoint, he anointed his eyes with the clay, and so he takes this clay and he places it upon this man's eyes.

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Now, I hope you're in your imagination watching what's going on, because I don't know about you, but if I was the blind man,

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I'm not sure that I would be enjoying this, and in fact, there has been no conversation yet, nothing recorded, so did

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Jesus just walk up to this guy and, I don't know, we're not told.

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Instead, the first thing that he says to him, and he said to him, go, wash in the pool which is called

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Siloam, which translated means scent, and by the way, we found that in Jerusalem not all that long ago, and therefore, he went away and washed and came back seeing, came back seeing.

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So Jesus sticks around. I don't know how in the world he got where he was going. Did he have someone who led him around?

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We're not given so many of the details. We can sort of fill them in from our imagination if we wish to, but there you go.

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He comes back seeing. Therefore, the neighbors, the people in the neighborhood, the people who had seen him before when he was sitting around begging, okay, so they've seen this guy before.

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He's still got the same clothes on, but you know, someone who can see walks differently and acts differently than someone who cannot, and if you just got your sight for the first time,

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I bet it's really obvious that you are walking differently and things like that, and so they start talking amongst themselves and they're saying, is not this the one who used to sit and was begging?

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But others were saying, but others, it's not. So this isn't the same guy, and others are saying, oh yeah, that's not him, it's somebody else.

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Others are saying that, and others were saying, well, it looks like him. So there's a conversation going on.

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There's a discussion going on. Yeah, might be, well, I don't know. It sort of looks like him. I don't know, it's sort of hard to tell.

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We'd be saying the same thing because it'd be very hard for us to imagine someone coming back and all of a sudden, a beggar who was blind is now able to see, but what

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I love is, I love the last part of the phrase, and he was saying, so this is something he had to keep saying over and over again, hati ego aimi, it's me.

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It really is me. Honest, it is me, and he had to keep saying it over and over again. He wanted them to know, yes,

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I was once blind, but now I see. He wants them to know that, and so he's telling them, yep, yep, don't be confused, it is me.

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There were they're saying to him, well, how then, therefore, have your eyes been opened?

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And he answered them, and he gives them a nice, simple response.

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How much could he really tell them, honestly? He says, there's a man, and he's named

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Jesus, and he put clay, he made clay, and he anointed my eyes, and he told me to go to Siloam and wash, and I went, and I washed, and I received my sight.

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That's a pretty accurate, quick, nice, brief summary of what took place, and they said to him, how can that be?

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And he says, I don't know. I don't know, eukloida, I don't know. I can just tell you it happened, but I don't know how.

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How can that be? And so, what do they do? They take him to the

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Pharisees. Now, at this point, if the New Testament came with musical background, this is where the creepy music begins.

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The, you know, dun, dun, dun, they take him to the Pharisees, the one who had once been blind.

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Why? Well, we've gotten used to this, haven't we? Remember John chapter five?

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Jesus heals the man at the pool who had been lame, and what day did he do it on?

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Does Jesus just not have a calendar on his watch? You know, is that, does he just keep stumbling into doing this on the

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Sabbath day? No, there's a reason why he's doing this, for obvious reasons.

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The very Lord of the Sabbath has entered into his own creation. He's bringing life on the

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Sabbath day, and this exposes the hypocrisy of people who become so focused upon the letter of the law that they no longer see the spirit of the law.

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And so, the day where he made the clay, oh, there you go.

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You're not supposed to make clay on the Sabbath. No, it was the Sabbath day, the day that he made the clay, and when

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Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. And so, again, the

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Pharisees are asking him, how did you receive your sight? Well, you know, the blind guy, he's probably gonna be telling this, the formerly blind guy, that's what you should call him, he's gonna be telling this story over and over again, and I don't think he cares.

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I think he's quite happy to do that. We'll notice later on, he starts getting a clue that they really don't want to know why.

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And so, he said to them that he placed the clay upon my eyes and I washed, and I see.

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Notice the story's getting shorter. He's learning how to cut things down there.

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And therefore, certain of the Pharisees were saying, this man is not from God because, why?

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Not because he's healing blind people in a way we've never even seen before, but because he is not keeping the

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Sabbath. He made clay on the Sabbath, so he's not from God. But others were saying, well, how is a man who's a sinner able to do such signs as these?

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And that signs is what's used all through John, like when Jesus changes the water into wine and things like that, same term.

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And so, he's doing signs. And in fact, when the Jews keep asking him for signs, same term. So, how is a man who's a sinner able to do signs like this?

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And a schism, a division came about amongst them as they were arguing with themselves.

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Therefore, they're saying to the blind one again, what do you say concerning him?

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Which I find very interesting. What do you say concerning him?

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Well, they're eventually going to dismiss this man as having no authority or anything like that.

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So, why are they asking him is what I really wanna know. But they're saying, well, what do you say concerning him?

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Because he opened your eyes, and the man said, he's a prophet, he's a prophet.

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Now, there hadn't been prophets, the Jews recognized there had not been prophets in Israel for 400 years.

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So, that's a pretty disturbing statement to make. Because that changes all the authority structures.

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And you're talking to some of the people who are part of the Jewish leadership. And so, if he's a prophet, then what do you need to do?

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You need to listen to a prophet, right? So, that's a pretty major thing to say. But the

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Jews did not believe from him that he was blind and had received his sight.

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And so, what they do is, so they call his parents, the parents of the one who received his sight.

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So, obviously, they were from the same area, it's talking about neighbors here, sort of the neighborhood people here.

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And so, these would be the, not so much the Pharisees from the headquarters, but in that area.

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And they're asking, saying, is this your son? And are you saying that he was born blind?

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How does he now see? And his parents, therefore, answered and said, well, we know that he is our son.

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And that he was born blind. Sort of hard to fake that. But, how he now sees, we do not know.

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Or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him yourself.

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Because he has age. In other words, he is old enough to be accountable to the law.

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So, he's after his bar mitzvah. Well, however old he was, we don't know, but he's past bar mitzvah.

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And so, he has age. And therefore, ask him yourself.

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He can speak for himself. Now, the reader automatically goes, that's,

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I'm not sure I really like these parents. They should be rejoicing, or something like that.

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But, there is an explanation. These things his parents said, because they feared the

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Jews. They feared the Jews. Why? Well, they probably already had an idea of what had happened.

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Because the Jews had already counseled together and decided that if anyone confessed him, that is

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Jesus, as Christon, Christ, to be the Messiah, they would be apah sunagogos.

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So, what's the sunagogos, the synagogue? Apah, cast out.

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They would be made to be castaways from the synagogue, from the community.

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That's a huge thing. It's a bigger thing than we could really begin to imagine in that time period.

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Now, we know, we have external evidence from New Testament. We can document this from a later time period.

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So, there'd be some people who say, oh, John's just projecting this back. No, we have evidence of it later on.

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There's no reason to question that this had already been decided, especially in the area around Jerusalem.

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The Pharisees are already at loggerheads. They were already picking up stones to stone him, okay? So, they've already come to the conclusion of we need to nip this in the bud.

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This is not going our direction. And so, his parents know that. And because of this, his parents said that he has age.

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Ask him yourself. They did not want to be put out of the synagogue.

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He's not gonna have that particular problem, as you will see in just a moment. Therefore, they called the man a second time who had been blind.

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They said to him, give glory to God. Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.

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In other words, not one in right relationship to God in rebellion against God. We know this man's a sinner.

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How'd they know that? Well, because of their interpretation of what it meant to keep the

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Sabbath. An interpretation that was so narrow and so much in conflict with the whole purpose for the establishment of the

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Sabbath for the Jewish people that it boggles the mind. But we know, we know this man is a sinner.

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And that one answered, if he's a sinner, I don't know. One thing

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I know, and he says it in four words. We can't really say it in English.

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In four words, there's an economy of expression here. Tough loss own RT bleppo.

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Tough loss own, I was blind, RT bleppo, now I see. Once I was blind, now

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I see. That's the one thing I know. You claim to know something I don't know, but I know something you don't seem to believe.

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Once I was blind, now I see. Therefore, they said to him, what did he do to you?

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And he said, I said to you already, and you are not hearing. Do you want me to say it in your hearing yet again?

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Do you wish me, do you want to become his disciples also? Oh boy, oops.

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You know, you watch some of those TV shows where the law court thing, and when someone slips up, everybody knows, the music tells you.

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If there is music, it would tell you. Do you want to become his disciples too? I love the sincerity,

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I love the honesty, I love the openness of this man.

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They are trying to trap him, and he says, you don't want to become his disciples also, do you?

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And they reviled him. I don't think John gives us much of what they said, because this term's really strong.

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They said, you are this one's disciple, we are the disciples of Moses.

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I'm sure he said it, Moses. It's in the Greek, I'm telling you right now. It's right there, it's written out, say this,

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Moses. It's right there. You can just hear, can you hear them? You may want to be his disciple, but we've already got our man, we're disciples of Moses.

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They reviled him, they heaped opprobrium on him, if you want to use a nice Latin phrase.

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We know that God spoke to Moses, and by the way, they were right,

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God did. Just knowing that God spoke to Moses doesn't mean that you understand the spirit in which

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God spoke to Moses, and understand what Moses then communicated to us. We know

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God spoke to Moses, but this one, we don't know where he's from.

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We don't know where he's from. And then, it doesn't say this, there is no textual variant that says this, but I think we can all agree, the spirit of God.

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The spirit of God comes into the mind of this healed man, and we're gonna see he's going to worship

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Jesus here in a while, so the spirit's clearly involved. The man answered and said to them, now, okay, the new living translation just for now during this sermon version is, wow, that's wild!

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Okay? Literally, it's, now this is an amazing thing to see.

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This is a wonder to behold, that you don't know where he's from, and he opened my eyes, because he keeps going back to the reality.

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I was born blind. I'm looking you in your peeps right now. You people used to walk by me, and maybe once in a while might drop a little bit of nothing in my cup, and now

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I can look you in the eyes, and I know who you are. Here's the wild thing, you don't know where he came from.

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You're ignorant of him, but he happens to be able to heal people born blind, which you people seemingly cannot do.

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Here's an amazing thing. We know that sinners, that God doesn't hear sinners, and someday it would have to be a multi -sermon series, but if you want to do a fascinating study, look up akuo, akuai, that's the verb here, to hear, and blepo, to see, in the

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Gospel of John. It is a fascinating study, and you get a real part of it right here.

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God does not hear sinners. That is, not that he doesn't know what they're saying, or judge what they're saying, but to hear in the sense of hearing the prayers of a righteous man, because that righteous man is in proper relationship to God.

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So we know that God does not hear sinners, but if a certain godly one, this is the same term that's used in the book of Acts, of the

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God -fearers, who would gather in certain places, and a lot of the early Christian missionaries would go preach the

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Gospel to them, that if a certain one fears God and is doing his will, that one,

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God will hear, that one, God will hear. From the ages, never in the past, has it been heard that the eyes of one born blind have ever been opened.

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This is an astonishing reality, and he knows it's true.

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They don't want to believe it's true. Never has it been heard that one born blind should have his eyes opened.

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If this one is not from God, he would not be able to do anything.

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They answered and said to him, now you ready for the deep, consistent, loving, biblically -based refutation of his reasoning?

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You might as well look for that on Twitter, because he ain't going to get it from the

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Pharisees. This is the kind of response you get when you bring conviction to someone's heart.

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This is called ad hominem. Yes, you see it all the time, people get accused of it all the time, frequently it's misunderstood.

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This is arguing against the man, and that's all they do here. They answered and said to him, you were born completely in sin.

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How did this chapter start off? Jesus said, wasn't this man, wasn't his parents. You were born completely in sin, and you will teach us, and they cast him out.

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And it's not just cast him out, it's they cast him out, out. They cast him out, out, out.

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You're out of here. And that probably would include the synagogue as well. They cast him out.

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They didn't give an answer. They just simply attacked the man. That is social media in the first century.

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Exact same thing we face all the time. Exact same thing we face all the time. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and I love this, and finding him, oh man.

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Do you hear that? You still with me? Finding him. Jesus found him.

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Just like he found every one of us, right? And finding him said to him, do you believe in the son of man?

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Now some manuscripts say the son of God. In fact, the majority of manuscripts say the son of God, but the earliest manuscripts say the son of man.

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Do you believe in the son of man? And that one answered and said, who is he? Kuri, Lord.

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See, kuri could be used. Kurios can be used without knowing who you're talking to, just someone who has authority over you.

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It's not every single time it does not necessarily mean worship. You have to be very careful. If you miss that, then you end up weakening the places where it does mean worship.

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Okay, so be very careful about. He's just simply saying, who is he, Lord, in order that I might believe in him.

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He wants to believe in him. He has experienced an incredible miracle.

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He wants to believe in him. Jesus said to him, you have both seen him and the one speaking with you is him.

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I am. This is a long way of saying I am the son of man, the son of man, the eschatological son of man, the glorified son of man, the

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Daniel 7 son of man. Didn't take much persuasion. And he said,

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Pistuo, Kuri, I believe, Lord, and he worshiped him.

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Proskuneo, to bow down before. There are times when a soldier will bow down, proskuneo, before his superior.

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He's not worshiping him. But here is a religious context where Jesus is calling for faith in himself.

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He's just identified himself as the son of man. And so when he says,

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I believe, Lord, Kuri, in the previous sentence was person with authority.

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Kuri now means Lord in the religious context. And he bows down and worships him.

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Now you see, let me ask you a question. As you are thinking about this right now, as you are picturing this in your mind, that's one of the reasons

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I do it this way. Because when I'm translating it, you can't necessarily follow in your Bible word for word, and so it sort of breaks you free for a second so you can be visualizing this.

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When you're picturing this, Jesus finds him. So the easiest way to think is this is a private conversation, right?

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It's just he and this guy. It's not. That's what's interesting. Because I always sort of picture it just in that private sense.

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It's not. Because look what happens. And Jesus said, it is for judgment that I came into this world.

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And are it the ones not seeing might see. And the ones seeing might become blind.

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Certain of the Pharisees who were with him. Hmm. I'm tempted to go, so when they cast him out, did some of the younger

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Pharisees, the trainees, get told by the older ones, see if he finds

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Jesus. Keep an eye on him. We don't want him running around telling people that Jesus is the

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Christ. And so there are some Pharisees nearby. Maybe they're a little ways away, but they're listening very carefully.

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And so certain of the Pharisees who were with him heard what he had said to him.

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And they said, we are not blind, are we?

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Set up. We are not blind, are we? And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin.

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But now you say that you see. And therefore, your sin remains.

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There is a solemn word of judgment. That is given to them.

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You say you see. And so yes, you have sin because you're actually blind.

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Now, there's the chapter. And I think a bunch of you have already probably tuned in on, ah, that's why it's between eight and nine, eight and 10, eight and nine.

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That's eight and a half. That's why it's between chapters eight and 10.

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But let's make sure that we get it. Couple things, looking back, very, very quickly. There is an entire theology that is appropriately based upon Jesus' response to the disciples' question.

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I think about how blessed I have been. I mean, I have two children, and both of them were born early.

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The first one was in neonatal intensive care for three days, and that was scary. And when you're young, and you can't, it's really tough to go home without the baby, and stuff like that.

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And so to have a child born blind, and the difficulties of that child learning, and the difficulties for the family and the parents, and all of these things, but the simple fact of the matter is

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God has a purpose even in those horrific, difficult circumstances.

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There is no purposeless evil in God's world. There are not many

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Christians who actually believe that. But this is what Jesus teaches. I don't know how old this man was.

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Let's say he was 20. Two decades of begging, blindness, and God says it's worth it that the works of God would manifest in him.

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And I see no evidence that this man came through this situation, and then started going, but God, why, why me, why so long?

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I don't get any evidence of that at all. I see thankfulness, who is he,

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Lord, that I might believe in him? Do you wanna be his disciple too? There is a work of grace in this man's heart.

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And he came to recognize the sovereignty of God in his life.

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That is something that's very important. That is also something that is utterly in contradiction to the entirety of the word faith movement and its teachings in our day.

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They struggle greatly with this particular text. Then I think you see in the conversation that takes place between this formerly blind man, and first his neighbors, and then the

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Pharisees, then his parents are brought in. Yes, we get that very important insight into what was going on, and the fear that already existed in the community about being put out from the synagogue.

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And here's one of the first men who is. Here's one of the first disciples who gets to be put out of the synagogue because he wants to be a disciple of Jesus.

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That's an honor. That's a great honor, and we should remember that about him.

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Now, but we have this discussion of being able to see and not see.

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To be able to see and not see. And here is the issue where chapter nine forms a bridge between eight and 10.

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Because it would be difficult for the Jewish people to read chapter eight and to see the response of their leaders.

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They're picking up stones to stone Jesus because Jesus is making some amazing claims. Before Abraham was,

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I am. They know who the I am is. They know what that phrase is in Hebrew, anahu in Greek, ego,

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I'm me. They know it's used as a name of God. And in chapter 10, it's gonna become even more straightforward because Jesus is gonna talk about not only his sheep, but he has sheep in another fold, the

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Gentiles. And he must bring them together into one fold. What explains the blindness of their own leaders who possess the scriptures and were students of the scriptures and they knew all about the prophecies?

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How could they have stood in the presence of the son of God when he healed the blind and raised the dead?

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Because what's gonna come after chapter 10? Chapter 11, hey, you're good.

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What's in chapter 11? Lazarus. And what's gonna happen when

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Jesus raises Lazarus? The Jews who see it are gonna take counsel together as to how to kill him.

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Ever thought about that for a second? Listen. They see Jesus raise the dead.

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He can raise the dead, so let's try to make him dead. You think that might be stupid?

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You think that might not be the most brilliant plan you ever came up with? What could possibly explain this?

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It's because not all those who say they can see can actually see. There is a blindness.

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It is a spiritual blindness, a spiritual blindness.

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And so in this story of one man, never named, we know nothing more about him.

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I am not aware of anything in church history that sheds any more light on this man.

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Will we get to meet him someday? That's something I always think about. Do you get to sit down on the streets of gold and go, so,

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I wanna hear the rest of the story. What was it like when

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Jesus first touched your eyes with the clay? What were you thinking?

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I don't know if that's gonna happen, but it'd be a lot of fun. There may be so much more out there we can't even begin to imagine.

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It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's, no. But I sort of, I'd sort of like to know. I'd sort of like to know.

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But there had to be an explanation for the blindness, and I think you find some of it when they rebuke the man.

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They pour opprobrium on him, and what do they say? We're disciples of Moses.

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This is our thing. And yet we know. What's Jesus gonna say all through the

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Gospel of John? If you were really disciples of Moses, you'd be my disciples, too. Abraham, he saw my day, rejoiced to see it.

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All the prophets point to me. So you have this one claim, but your one claim doesn't make any sense, because what's he gonna do in the

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Gospel of Luke when he rises from the dead? He's going to meet with the disciples. He's gonna open their mind to the scriptures and explain to them how from Moses onward, they were testifying of him.

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They were testifying of him. There is a blindness, and this was important for the early church to understand.

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How often does Paul talk about this very issue? The blindness that has been placed upon the people of Israel as a judgment.

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And here it is illustrated in one of the most beautiful ways you could ever see it.

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But finally, think about this man. Think about this man.

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Jesus comes to him, and Jesus does not have to convince him, argue with him, provide him a bunch of scriptural citations.

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This man has probably been sitting there going, Lord, I can see what a beautiful world.

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Could you bring, I want to follow this Jesus. I wanna know more about him. But he had never seen

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Jesus, remember? He'd only felt touch and heard his voice. And so when

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Jesus comes, do you believe in the son of man? Who is he, Lord, that I should believe in him? I'm open.

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God's working in my life. This has been a pretty amazing day. I'm seeing the sky for the first time, and I can now see what makes all the sounds that I have become so accustomed to.

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Who is he, Lord, that I should believe? It's me. And he worshiped him.

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He worshiped him. You and I, as believers, we remember that day.

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And by the spirit, we had revealed to us who Jesus truly is.

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He's not just a baby in a manger, though he was in a manger. He's not just a body on a cross, though he was on a cross.

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He is all those things and so much more. And we believed. But if you are here today and you do not know what it means to be this blind man, to have your eyes opened, to have been walking in darkness and all of a sudden to come to realize if Jesus was who he claimed to be, if he was the son of man prophesied in the

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Old Testament, if he's the very son of God, the creator of all things, then

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I must follow him. And if he says this is the only way of eternal life,

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I must follow him. You see, we believe that the spirit of God is just as powerful today as he was in that day.

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And he's still drawing men and women to follow him. Let me please exhort you, in the quietness of your own heart, are you playing at religion?

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Don't be like the Pharisees. You may know theology backwards and forwards, but are you playing at religion?

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Do you see or do you only claim to see? Or are wandering around in darkness?

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Don't leave this place not knowing. We are going to, in a few moments, worship him just as that man did.

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I like to think that he lived until after the founding of the church. I like to think that he partook of the

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Lord's supper. And that as his healed eyes, eyes which had been made whole by the very son of God himself, looked at that bread and looked at that wine, they would be filled with tears of thanksgiving.

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Anyone in this room that partakes of this supper, you are saying, once I was blind, but now

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I see. Once I was blind, but now I see.

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That is our profession. That is our confession, brought to us from the inspired word, the holy

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God. Let's pray together. Our gracious heavenly

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Father, we are so thankful that when the

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Pharisees had cast out this man who had once been blind, been born blind,

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Jesus found him. And we confess, you found us.

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You came to us, you took out that heart of stone, you gave a heart of flesh, you opened blind eyes.

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And we are so thankful that we have this picture here in the ninth chapter of the gospel that you've preserved for us, that you draw our hearts out to.

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May we love your word. May it never become old or stale to us.

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May we always see new things within it. But Lord, if there be any amongst us who have not, in fact, had their eyes opened, may this be the time where in mercy and grace you draw your people unto yourself.

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Grant them faith and repentance, draw them to Christ. He indeed is worthy of their worship.