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For our
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New Testament reading, we'll turn to 1 Timothy. Jason will begin reading this today.
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You might have noticed that hymn we just sang was based upon the passage that we're addressing right now out of John 9, how the
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Lord gave sight to that man who had been born blind. It's a hymn, of course, that is sung by so many and has for quite a while.
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We purposely sing hymns here because there's benefit in doing so.
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It would seem that many have lost, I'm talking about churches now, have lost any sense of historical proportion or context.
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And by singing hymns at doxology, people have been singing hundreds of years, it gives us a sense of connection with the people of God, the kingdom of God down through history, as well as people in other lands that sing these hymns.
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God reveals himself in history, and hymnology reflects his work in history.
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And so there are things that are going on that we might not be aware of that we believe are spiritually beneficial for us in doing so, although it's kind of unusual in today's world.
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1 Timothy was written by Paul. He was in the first stage of incarceration in Rome, and he was preparing
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Timothy, equipping Timothy who was about, as a young man, about to pastor the church at Ephesus.
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And so this is one of the pastoral epistles. Jason, 1 Timothy 1 please, and then pray for us.
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1 Timothy 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by command of God our
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Savior, and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the
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Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when
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I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
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The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
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Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
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Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed
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God with which I have been entrusted. I thank him who has given me strength,
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Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly
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I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our
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Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
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The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
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I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost,
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Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
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To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.
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Amen. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.
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By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom
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I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Let's go to the
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Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that we belong to You.
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We're thankful, Lord, for the forgiveness that is found in Christ Jesus. And like Paul, each one of us can honestly say that we are the foremost of sinners.
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But we received grace. We received mercy because of Jesus Christ and because of His work.
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And as Timothy says, to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever.
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Amen. So, Lord, we rejoice in these words. And we are mindful of the great work that You've done in our lives.
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We're mindful of the great work that You've done in this church. So help us, Lord, to reflect upon these things.
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Help us to reflect upon the glories and the wonders of our salvation. And help us to praise
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You because of it. And now, Lord, as we open up Your Word and as we continue our study in the book of John, we pray that we would be mindful to what it has to say.
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We pray that our attention would be focused, that we would be undistracted.
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We pray, Lord, that we would learn something about You, about Your character, about Your work, about the
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Gospel, about ourselves. We pray, Lord, that we would line up under it. So we thank
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You for this time. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, so let's turn to John 9 once again.
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And Lord willing, we'll complete our consideration of this chapter today. This is actually the third
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Lord's Day that we have given attention to the sixth sign.
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There are seven altogether in John's Gospel. And this is the sixth sign in which Jesus gave sight to a man who had been born blind.
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Now, the man had a measure of faith in Jesus after being healed, but it was a rather uninformed faith until Jesus revealed
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Himself further to him. And so this man came to know Jesus in several stages.
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And oftentimes that's how the Lord reveals Himself to us. And so the man had not yet saving faith even after he had been healed because he had not yet understood that Jesus was the promised
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Messiah, the Savior of Israel. But today we'll consider the
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Lord Jesus finding this man to reveal to him His true, that is, the
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Lord's true identity. And it results in this man exercising saving faith in Jesus and actually worshipping
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Jesus. Now, it's quite amazing when you consider that not all in Jerusalem celebrated this great miracle of Jesus enabling this man to see.
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One would think that everyone would be amazed and rejoice upon hearing this great work of God's grace performed on this man.
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That it would have generated great support for Jesus by everybody.
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And yet we read here in John 9 that the Jewish leaders, particularly the Pharisees in Jerusalem, were intractable.
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Nothing would persuade them to be in favor of Jesus. They opposed
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Him, and they did so even when Jesus had performed this great miracle.
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And so at first these Pharisees attempted to prove that the miracle had not taken place at all.
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But after it had been confirmed that this man had indeed been born blind, his parents testified of that, they knew they could not deny that a work had been done.
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The Jewish leaders in turn had rejected the man entirely, and they cast him out.
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And so they cast him out of the synagogue. That is, they excommunicated him. This man was no longer welcome in any synagogue anywhere in the
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Roman Empire. He was disbarred, disbanded from the people of God.
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They removed his membership, outlawed his involvement from the Jewish synagogue. Can you imagine how devastating that would be for a
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Jewish man within that social context? He was cut off entirely, which would have meant to him and all others that God Himself had severed his relationship with him.
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We may now read verses 35 through the end of the chapter that records what happened after they took action against this man.
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And so again, they cast him out. They excommunicated him. He was no longer permitted to be in a synagogue.
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Now we read John 9 .35 -41. Jesus heard that they cast him out.
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And when He had found him, He said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God? We're reading from the
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New King James Version, by the way. He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?
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And Jesus said to him, You have both seen Him, and it is He who is talking with you.
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And then He said, Lord, I believe. And He worshipped Him. And Jesus said,
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For judgment I've come into this world that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.
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And then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words and said to Him, Are we blind also?
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And Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say,
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We see. And therefore, your sin remains. Now, before we begin to consider the meaning and significance of this passage, we need to say a word about the text itself.
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Again, our New King James Version reads that Jesus, in verse 35, asked the man,
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Do you believe in the Son of God? Now, if you have an ESV before you, an
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English Standard Version, which is a very good, and by the way, that's what I read out of when I read Isaiah 6.
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It was from the ESV. You'll notice that there is a different wording in that verse.
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The newer English translations translate Jesus' question in this way, Do you believe in the
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Son of Man? New King James Version reads, Do you believe in the Son of God?
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The editors of the modern Greek text are quite convinced, and I would argue rightly so, that this second rendering was original with John's Gospel.
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When the Holy Spirit inspired John to write the Gospel, he recorded the question of Jesus, Do you believe in the
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Son of Man? It was reasoned that sometime in history, before the printing press, when manuscripts were copied by hand, by scribes, that a scribe, while copying
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John's Gospel, had purposely changed the reading, the Son of Man, to Son of God.
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I would imagine that the scribe believed that it was very important to emphasize Jesus' deity, and he thought he was probably doing that, rather than emphasizing his humanity.
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That's probably what he thought the Son of Man meant. On the other hand, it's very unlikely that a scribe would have intentionally changed the original reading, if it were the
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Son of God, to the Son of Man. A scribe just wouldn't do that. And so, the
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Son of Man was no doubt original with John, and inspired by God when
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John first wrote his Gospel. Jesus asked this man if he believed in the
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Son of Man. And we'll say more about that, and what it means a little later, because there's a great deal of misunderstanding and confusion about that title of our
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Lord Jesus. Now, as we look over the passage under view, we can discern a simple outline.
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First, Jesus finds and interacts with the once blind man. And secondly, Jesus declares for what purpose he came into the world.
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And then thirdly, Jesus declares to some of the Pharisees that they are still in their sin.
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And so, let's work through this passage and understand what's being said. So first,
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Jesus finds and interacts with the once blind man. Verses 35 -38.
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We read that after the Pharisees had cast him out, that is, they passed judgment upon him and excommunicated him,
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Jesus heard about their action and he sought out and found this man. Again, we read verse 35,
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Jesus heard that they cast him out and when he had found him, he said to him, do you believe in the
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Son of Man? Of course, this action of the
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Pharisees would have brought a measure of fear and trepidation to the man's soul to be cast out, cast forth from what he had always known as the house of God, the synagogue, in which the people of God dwelt and worshipped
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God. It would have been a terrifying happening, a terrifying experience for this man.
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I have to think, though, he must have had some difficulty thinking through this, but I know
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God healed me through this man, through Jesus. And so he must have been rather tormented in trying to understand what in the world was happening to him.
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But Jesus heard what happened to him and sought him out until he found him.
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And so it was, this man being cast out by these false teachers would result in the greatest blessing this man could have possibly experienced.
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It was him being cast out of the synagogue that really led him to Jesus.
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I was reading John Calvin's comments and of course he was one of the early Protestant reformers having come out of Roman Catholicism.
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They were all Roman Catholic when they were born and raised, but they came out when they read the
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Bible. It convinced them that Rome was false and that the Bible was true.
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And so he tended to apply passages to his setting, his situation.
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And so Calvin wrote of how people in the early days of the Reformation were excommunicated from the Church of Rome.
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We know Martin Luther was. Martin Luther received that bull, B -U -L -L, an official document from the
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Pope, I'm excommunicating you, which was a declaration. You don't have salvation.
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And of course Martin Luther in defiance burned it. By then he had completely severed from Rome.
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But that action of excommunication from Rome would have, although terrifying most people, would have caused him to return to the fold of Rome in humble contrition, but actually it proved to be a great blessing to many people when they were excommunicated.
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So here are Calvin's words. By this we are taught how trivial and how little to be dreaded are the excommunications of the enemies of Christ.
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If we are cast out from that assembly in which Christ reigns, it's a dreadful judgment which is executed against us that we're delivered to Satan, 1
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Corinthians 5, because we are banished from the kingdom of the Son of God. But so far are we from having any reason to dread that tyrannical judgment by which wicked men insult the servants of Christ that even though no man should drive us out, we ought of our own accord to flee from that place in which
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Christ does not preside by his word and spirit. If he had been allowed to remain in the synagogue, he would have been in danger becoming gradually alienated from Christ and plunged in the same destruction with wicked men.
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Christ now meets him when he's no longer in the temple, but wandering hither and thither, receives and embraces him when he is cast out by the priests and raises him up from the ground and offers to him life when he has received the sentence of death.
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We have known the same thing by experience in our own time for when Dr. Martin Luther and other persons of the same class were beginning to reprove the grosser abuses of the
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Pope, they scarcely had the slightest relish of pure Christianity, but after that the
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Pope had thundered against them and cast them out of the Roman synagogue by terrific bulls.
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Christ stretched out his hand and made himself fully known to them. And so there's nothing better for us than to be at a very great distance from the enemies of the gospel that Christ may approach nearer to us.
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But again, think about this man and how troubled he must have been. What in the world is happening to me?
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I've got nothing. I've lost everything. Family, friends, and yet it was through this difficulty that Jesus revealed himself to this man.
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And often times this is how God reveals Jesus Christ to us through some great crisis where it seems like our whole world is falling apart.
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But Jesus hears of it and he finds us just as he found this man and revealed himself to him.
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Now if the reader is attentive, really attentive, to the language of the gospel writer, he sees significance in the verb that describes
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Jesus. Jesus heard that they had cast him out. When this man had been interrogated by the
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Pharisees, he made this statement to them about God. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, he hears him.
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And then in verse 35 before us we read Jesus heard that he was cast out.
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And so Jesus cared about this man and was concerned how the Jewish leaders had regarded and treated him when this man sought to testify on behalf of Jesus.
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But not only did Jesus hear what happened to this man, we read that Jesus had sought to find this man.
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For again we read, and when he found him, he said, Do you believe in the
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Son of Man? It was purposeful and intentional on the part of Jesus to seek out and find this man.
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So we see the Lord Jesus had an individual and personal interest and concern for this man.
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This illustrates the individual and personal interest that he has for all of his people that the
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Father sent him to save from their sins. And so if you're a
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Christian, or if one day you will become a Christian, the
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Lord Jesus has an individual and personal interest in you. When he heard of you, if you're a
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Christian, or soon to become a Christian, he took note of you. He came to you in order to save your soul from sin and damnation.
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He sought you out just as vividly and really as he sought this man out and revealed himself to this man.
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We sing about this in our hymns. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.
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How his kindness yet pursues me, mortal tongue can never tell. And so he pursues us to bring us to faith in him, and then he continues to pursue us even when we wander, and we're prone to wander, aren't we?
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But he comes after us. And we're going to see that in the next chapter in John chapter 10 as the good shepherd.
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He goes after his wandering sheep and he brings them back. King David once wrote a psalm in which he celebrated the
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Lord coming to him to deliver him from his enemies. This man could similarly sing this psalm of David.
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He sent from above, he took me. He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me.
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For they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity. But the Lord was my support.
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He also brought me out into a broad place and he delivered me because he delighted in me.
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And this man could sing that. Again, if you're a Christian, you can sing that too, can't you? Because the
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Lord came to you to deliver you. And so it is that everyone who has become a
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Christian could sing in the same manner their great deliverance that Jesus brought to the soul.
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Perhaps it was when you had been sensing you were estranged from the people of God and the promises of God that he has given to them.
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But the Lord Jesus heard of your plight and he came to you. And he found you, revealing his true identity as the
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Son of God whom the Father sent to save you from your sin. He was on a mission and he accomplished that mission.
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Now, later on in John's Gospel, we'll read of our Lord's words to his disciples. I will not leave you orphans.
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I will come to you. John 14, 18. And so it is Jesus comes to us and manifests himself to us wonderfully.
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Yes, he's always with us. He declared the promise, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
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Lo, I'm with you even to the end of the age. But he's also promised to come to us in special ways at various times, manifesting his presence to us and imparting his grace to us.
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And oftentimes they're in periods of great difficulty that we may be experiencing in life.
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He won't leave you alone. He hears of you and he'll come to you and reveal himself and manifest himself to you.
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Now, the Lord gave particular attention to this man for he stood fast and forward in defense of his benefactor who had given him sight.
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Even though this man knew the consequences of his testimony, of his bold words.
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And so Jesus had not only heard of this man's plight, but again this man found him apparently after an intentional search for him.
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The Lord has a particular concern for those who testify of him and suffer for doing so.
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I came across this word from Matthew Henry on verses 35 to 38.
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In these verses we may observe the tender care which our Lord Jesus took of this poor man when
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Jesus heard that they had cast him out. For it's likely the town rang of it and everybody cried out shame upon them for it.
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And then he found him, which implies his seeking him and looking after him that he might encourage and comfort him.
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Because he had to the best of his knowledge spoken so very well, so bravely, so boldly in defense of the
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Lord Jesus. Note, and this is the way Matthew Henry makes an application of the text to his readers.
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Note, Jesus Christ would be sure to stand by his witnesses and own those that own him in his truth and ways.
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Earthly princes neither do nor can take cognizance of all that vindicate them and their administration.
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But our Lord Jesus knows and observes all the faithful testimonies as we bear to him at any time.
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And a book of remembrance is written and it shall rebound not only to our credit hereafter but to our comfort now.
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Because the Pharisees had cast him out and abused him. Besides the common regard which the righteous judge of the world has to those who suffer wrongfully, there is a particular notice taken of those that suffer in the cause of Christ and for the testimony of a good conscience.
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Here was one poor man suffering for Christ and he, God, took care that as his afflictions abounded his consolations should much more abound.
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Note, though persecutors may exclude good men from their communion, yet they cannot exclude them from communion with Christ nor put them out of the way of his visits.
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Happy are they who have a friend from whom men cannot debar them. Jesus Christ will graciously find and receive those who for his sake are unjustly rejected and cast out by men.
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He will be a hiding place for his outcasts and appear to the joy of those whom their brethren hated and cast out.
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This should give us encouragement, of course, and boldness in our own witness for Jesus Christ.
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We shouldn't just witness to those that we think are going to be receptive and responsive to us. We are to bear the gospel to every creature.
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And oftentimes the ones that the Lord purposed to save will initially react and respond to us with anger, vehemence.
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That's how I responded to my friends, who were true friends, who witnessed to me over my objections.
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I wasn't kind in any way to them in the way I responded to them, but they cared for my soul.
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And realize, even those that you know will react and reject you for your witness, they need to be told about the
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Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus will come to you and comfort you and encourage you, even though, and I would say even because of the rejection that you may encounter from being his witness.
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Now, when the Lord Jesus had found the man after a search for him, he asked him, do you believe in the
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Son of Man? It's important to understand the biblical meaning of this term,
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Son of Man. Of course, it's commonly believed that it's a way to express the human nature of the
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Lord Jesus. This is the way it's popularly taught and preached. Jesus Christ is fully
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God and fully man. Of course he is. Two natures in one eternal person, the
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Son of Man, the Son of God, the Son of the Father from eternity. And so it is most people commonly assume that when the
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Gospels speak of Jesus as the Son of God, the emphasis is on his divine nature, that he is the second person of the
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Holy Trinity. But they also assume that when the Gospels speak of Jesus as the Son of Man, it's emphasizing his human nature.
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And apparently this is what the scribe thought, and that's why he purposely changed it from Son of Man to Son of God.
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He is the Son of David, one who had been conceived miraculously in the womb of the
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Virgin Mary, born in the environs of Bethlehem of Judea, the city of David. But this popular understanding of the meaning of the
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Son of Man is not correct. The Son of Man is an expression that only
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Jesus used in reference to himself. He used it not to set forth his human nature, everybody knew he was a man, but rather it was a title that he used to identify himself as the promised
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Messiah. The Son of Man is a messianic title. He's declaring himself to be the
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Messiah, the King of Israel. The New Testament scholar George Eldon Latt, who, by the way, he's with the
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Lord now, quite a while ago, 1982, but he used to be a professor up here at Gordon.
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He gave an entire chapter to the title Son of Man in his classic book,
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Theology of the New Testament. It's just a wonderfully scholarly book that he believed the
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Bible to be the word of God and he took upon the liberals. He hit the liberals face to face with their charges and he came down as a very strong defender of biblical truth.
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I really appreciated him. But here are a few of his statements on this matter of the Son of Man. Theologically, one of the most important messianic designations in the synoptic
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Gospels, that would be Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is the Son of Man. Three facts are of superlative importance.
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In the Gospel tradition, the Son of Man was Jesus' favorite way of designating himself.
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In fact, it's the only title he freely used. Second, the title is never used by anyone else to designate
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Jesus, that is in the synoptic Gospels. Third, there is no evidence in Acts or the
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Epistles that the early church called Jesus the Son of Man. The only appearance of the title outside the
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Gospels is the vision of Stephen in Acts 7. The Gospels place it on the lips of Jesus over 65 times.
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It is a striking thing that the title never became a messianic designation for Jesus in the early church, but it was a designation that Jesus used of himself.
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That's the point. Ledd next argued that the popular traditional and historical explanation of the meaning of this title is not accurate.
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The church fathers understood the phrase to refer primarily to his humanity, the humanity of the incarnate
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Son of God. And by the way, that's understandable. In the early centuries, there was great debate and the need to declare who
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Jesus Christ is, fully God and fully man. It's understandable why they would tend to look at this title,
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Son of Man, as illustrating and expressing his humanity. And so, many of the older discussions and commentaries assume this theological meaning of the phrase and interpret it to refer primarily to Jesus' humanity and his identity with men.
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But then Ledd states, this interpretation is in error because it neglects the historical background and significance of the expression.
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Ledd then explained the Old Testament background of the term Son of Man, and here we find its meaning.
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The probable Old Testament background is the vision of Daniel, where he sees four fierce beasts arise successively out of the sea, and these symbolize four successive world empires.
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Afterwards, I saw, behold, the clouds of heaven, there came one like the Son of Man, there it is, and he came to the
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Ancient of Days, that would be God the Father, and was presented before him. And to him, that would be the
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Son of Man, was given dominion and glory and kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
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We conclude that the Danielic Son of Man is a heavenly, messianic, eschatological, that's an adjective describing end times, eschatological figure who brings the kingdom to the afflicted saints of earth.
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Afflicted saints. And here Jesus says to this afflicted man, cast out, do you believe in the
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Son of Man? It fits very well with this. And then after George Ladd engaged many scholarly opinions, it differed from his own, setting forth his position clearly and forcefully.
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This was his conclusion about the term Son of Man that Jesus said regarding himself.
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We may conclude then that by the use of the term Son of Man, interpreted in the light of its historical and religious background,
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Jesus laid claim both to messianic dignity and to a messianic role.
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In fact, the claim involved implicitly more than mere messianic dignity for it carried overtones of supernatural character and origin.
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He did not call himself the Messiah because his mission was utterly different from that connoted to the popular mind by this messianic term.
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He called himself the Son of Man because this title made an exalted claim and yet at the same time permitted
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Jesus to fill the term with meaning. This he did by coupling the role of the
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Son of Man with that of the suffering servant. Once the disciples were convinced that Jesus was indeed the
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Messiah, although a Messiah of a novel sort, he instructed them in the larger aspects of the destiny of the
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Son of Man. He was first to suffer and die, and then he would come in glory as Daniel 7 prophesied to inaugurate the kingdom of God with power and glory.
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And by the term Son of Man, Jesus laid claim to heavenly dignity and probably to pre -existence itself and claimed to be the one who would one day inaugurate the glorious kingdom.
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But in order to accomplish this, the Son of Man must become the suffering servant and submit to death.
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That's a very good explanation and understanding of this title, the
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Son of Man. And so when Jesus found this man, he posed the question to him, do you believe in the
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Son of Man? Jesus was asking him if he believed in the promise of God to send the
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Messiah who would inaugurate and rule over the kingdom of God. Did this man believe in the
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Messiah whom God promised would come to his afflicted people and save them from their sin?
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And the man responded in faith. But what the question is to the true identity of this
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Son of Man. And so we read in verse 36, he answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?
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The man had heard of him, and he believed that he was coming, but he had not seen him, or so he thought.
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He had not seen him that he might believe in him. And it is then that Jesus told him that he had already seen him.
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Verse 37 records, Jesus said to him, You have both seen him, and it is he who is talking with you.
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Now, there is subtlety of language in John's Gospel that just reading in a cursory, casual way, you don't always pick up on it.
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When Jesus came to this man on this occasion, this is actually the first time this man saw him with his eyes, right?
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When he was before Jesus, before he was blind, Jesus put the clay on his eyes, told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam and then come back, and he was seen.
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He had never seen with his physical eyes, but here Jesus says to this man,
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You've seen him. And so what's being portrayed here is that he's not talking about merely physical sight, but spiritual sight, spiritual understanding, and spiritual faith.
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This man had already seen Jesus as the Son of Man. He just didn't fully recognize it.
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And so when Jesus told this man, You have both seen him, he used the perfect tense of the verb.
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He didn't use the present tense, You are seeing him. He used the perfect tense. And just by way of definition, a perfect tense means that it happened in the past, but the effects of that event continue even now.
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So he's saying that you have seen me in the past, and that sight is still with you.
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You'll be able to recall that if you just ponder it somewhat. And that's the emphasis of the perfect tense.
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The perfect tense expresses the idea the event happened in the past, but the effects of that event continue presently.
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Now again, as I just said, remember the first occasion, this man was actually blind with his physical eyes.
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And so here Jesus is telling this man that he had seen him earlier, and that he was now standing before him.
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And so actually this is a reference to this man having seen him with spiritual eyes, through the spiritual sight of faith.
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Richard Lenski, who was a Lutheran commentator, quite good with the
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Greek text by the way, he commented on this. Jesus tells the beggar that he's already seen the
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Son of God, and then he tells him that the person now speaking with him is that Son of God whom he has already seen.
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And then Edward Klink, he's a contemporary commentator, I really appreciate, made the same assertion based on the tense of the verb, the perfect tense.
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Jesus declares in the perfect tense, you have seen him, to indicate that the two kinds of vision, physical and spiritual, have now completely come together.
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It is fair to say that this moment of sight has less to do with the eyes, more to do with faith.
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For at this moment the blind man who has truly seen God. And there's significance, by the way, in the manner that Jesus spoke of himself in the third person.
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You and I don't talk that way. When you refer to yourself, you don't refer to her or she, or him, but we refer to ourselves in the first person,
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I or me. Jesus didn't do that. And so he argues, here Klink argues, it's important to note that in both clauses
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Jesus speaks of himself in the third person. Him and the one speaking. In light of the context of seeing beyond physical sight, the third person suggests that Jesus is to be known beyond his physical presence.
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This in no way denies the theological significance of the physicality of Jesus, but expresses the significance of Jesus extends far beyond those who see him with their eyes.
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And so we can see him too. Not with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith.
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That's the whole point here. And we read of the response of this man in verse 38.
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Then he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Here the man has come to full faith in Jesus Christ.
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He had first answered Jesus by saying that he did not know who the Messiah was. But then
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Jesus revealed himself savingly to this man. As one wrote, naturally the man does not know who the
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Son of Man is, but he is very willing to learn, and so he asks. And Jesus replies in terms similar to those he used to the
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Samaritan woman. When the Samaritan woman spoke of the coming Messiah, Jesus said, it is
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I, the person talking to you. The man has no further hesitation.
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On whom would he more readily believe? On the man who had restored his sight. He had already called him a prophet, and now he confesses him as more than a prophet.
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If the vocative, and this is the Greek word kyri, which is translated
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Lord, that's the direct address, in verse 36 has the courtesy sense of Sir.
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In verse 38 is more than a courtesy title. It implies that Jesus is a fit person to receive worship.
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Lord, I believe, he said, and bowed low in reverence before him. And so quickly has an honest and good heart progressed from recognizing the benefactor as the man called
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Jesus, verse 11, to confessing him as Lord. And often times when people come to salvation, they learn about Jesus, and they believe, but they don't fully understand who he is and the implications until a little further on.
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And so this man grew in his understanding, but he embraced whatever he learned, and that's how we ought to be.
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So John wrote of this man confessing his faith and that he worshiped him. Itself, I believe, a strong teaching of the deity of Jesus Christ.
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Because the scriptures say, of course, that you're only to worship God. John the Apostle, later on in the
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Apocalypse, the book of Revelation, after an angel had showed him the glories of the future city of God and the kingdom,
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John fell down and began to worship this angel, and the angel rebuked him. Don't you do that.
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Worship God only. And here, this man is worshiping
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Jesus Christ. He was worshiping God, the Son of God. And we're going to see that more clearly in the next chapter, by the way.
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We're running out of time. Let's move on. We're to worship
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God. We've talked about that last fall in some detail.
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And we send these notes out, of course, to numbers of different people. And about a hundred pastors or so received them this morning.
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And so I wanted to get in and talk in some more detail about the nature of true worship for their benefit.
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We covered these matters last autumn when we were addressing the woman at the well in John chapter 4, addressing what true worship is.
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Proper worship, of course, is an important matter. It's set forth in our Confession of Faith.
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There's an entire article in our Confession on proper worship and the Lord's Day.
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And I would just refer your attention to that if you would like to understand more fully what true worship is.
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Now let's look at our notes in the middle of page 8, the second section of this passage.
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Jesus declares for what purpose He came into the world. Verse 39. After Jesus revealed
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Himself to this man, the man confessed his faith and began to worship Jesus. Jesus spoke concerning His mission for having come into the world.
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Jesus declared, verse 39. Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world that those who do not see may see and that those who see may be made blind.
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So He's in the business of restoring sight and He's in the business of taking away sight, isn't
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He? He's healing people, enabling them to see, spiritually, and in His judgment
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He's causing some who think they see to actually be blind.
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Jesus found this man in a public place. His words to this man, however, were spoken before others.
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And in verse 40, we'll read that some of the Pharisees overheard what Jesus had declared in this verse.
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Verse 39. What was Jesus saying? Here Jesus was declaring that His mission,
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His purpose was not only to save people from their sin, but it was also to condemn those who resisted and rejected
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Him and His claims. When Jesus, as an infant, was presented in the temple, you remember
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Simeon taking up the baby Jesus in his arms? And He declared to this baby that this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel.
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And Jesus caused many in Israel to rise like this man born blind, but He also brought about the fall of many in Israel and that would include these
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Pharisees who had rejected Him and who He was.
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And so this is what our Lord was declaring in verse 39. Although He came to save the lost, in doing so He would also be bringing judgment upon those who refused to believe on Him.
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Let's drop down to our third section. Jesus declares to some of the
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Pharisees that they are still in their sin. Verses 40 and 41. Then some of the
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Pharisees who were with Him heard these words and said to Him, Are we blind also? And Jesus said to them,
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If you were blind you would have no sin. But now you say, We see. And therefore your sin remains.
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What does this mean? What was Jesus saying? These Pharisees were clueless of the spiritual truths that our
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Lord had been propounding before them. They asked no doubt indignantly,
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Are we blind also? Obviously they did not believe they were blind.
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But they saw matters quite clearly and fully. This was a challenge to Jesus. Are you saying that we're blind?
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But our Lord very ironically responds to them that if they had been blind, then they would be unable to see.
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He turned it upon them in a way. It must have just left them kind of puzzled and they had to think it through.
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What's He saying? If they were blind, He is saying, there would be hope for you.
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Of course what He meant by this is that if they had recognized they were truly spiritually blind and they needed
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Him to restore spiritual sight to them so they might understand and embrace who He was, then they would receive salvation.
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But since they thought they could see quite clearly, not believing they were in need of God's grace to reveal the true person of Jesus, the
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Son of Man standing before them, they remained in their sin. It's quite ironic and a very clever way in which
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He confronted them and challenged them. And Donald Carson wrote of this.
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I thought his comments on this were very good as we read things up. Sadly, some
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Pharisees who were listening in on this assessment understood little of it and utterly self -centered.
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They wanted only to find out whether Jesus thought His statements about the blind applied to them. And with profound irony,
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Jesus replies, if you were blind, in other words, in the sense that I have spoken of blindness as a lost condition that cries out for illumination, you would not be guilty of sin, in particular the sin of unbelief that rejects the revelation of the
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Son. But now that you claim you can see, you're satisfied with the light of the laws interpreted by your received traditions and consequently you reject the true light which shines upon you and so your guilt remains.
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This concluding pronouncement, your guilt remains is of a peace with the irrevocable punishments that await those who blaspheme the
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Holy Spirit, those who seek repentance after crucifying the Son of God, and those who sin unto death.
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And then Carson gives this very good summary of this passage that I wanted to relate to you.
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Jesus did not come into the world of sinners aware of their need and eager to rid them of their sin.
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In other words, He wasn't trying to save everybody. Even those who entirely rely on genuine but inadequate light, the
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Old Testament revelation, may prove too arrogant to admit the depth of their blindness. The brilliant shining of the true light only blinds them further.
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Their guilt remains. This is an evangelistic appeal as forthright as John 3, 36, a warning specifically shaped to apply to Jews and Jewish proselytes who from the given of the
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Old Testament revelation are contemplating the claims of the gospel. And it has rightly been applied in a derivative sense to countless generations of men and women from every race ever since this gospel was first published.
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So how are we to respond? Well, certainly as non -Christians, if you're a non -Christian, you need to acknowledge your blind condition so that the
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Lord will reveal Himself to you. On the other hand, if you claim that you see quite clearly and you don't know the
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Lord Jesus, in reality you're spiritually blind. You just don't know it. And so let us not claim that we see and that we rely and claim to have understanding of our own devising or discovery.
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I know somebody who witnessed to a man this week who thought himself so wise and logical and had no place, no regard for the
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Bible whatsoever, and he was so confident he saw things clearly and that we were just people of nonsense because we believe and advocate the
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Bible. The Lord Himself heard of us when we were blind, needy, we couldn't see, we couldn't understand.
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He heard of us in our terrible, hopeless condition and He came to us, having found us, and revealed
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Himself to us through giving us understanding of His Word, of the gospel. And He gave us a heart to embrace it as true.
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And so may we give Him every measure and degree of glory for what He has freely given us, even our salvation.
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May we be as this man who worshipped Jesus. May we realize our indebtedness to Him.
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Can you imagine where we would be if Jesus Christ hadn't taken the initiative, hearing of our condition and coming to us and finding us.
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And He gave you sight, spiritual sight, just as real and vivid, even more so than giving this man physical sight.
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And we ought to see our indebtedness to the grace of God and we ought to see also an ever need for increasing grace from God that He would further illuminate our understanding to the truth that's in Jesus Christ.
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Amen? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for Your Word. Thank you for these wonderful illustrations that are so pertinent and relevant.
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And we pray that You would help us, our God, never to be arrogant, self -righteous, settled in ourselves, that we see all things clearly.
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We acknowledge, our God, our need for spiritual illumination that only Jesus Christ, our
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Lord and Savior, can give us through the Holy Spirit. And so, thank you, our God, for Your kindness and mercy to us and revealing
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Jesus to us. Help us, our God, to have courage as this man had courage to stand in the face of very vehement, powerful opposition to declare
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Jesus as true. We pray that You would bless our efforts to exalt
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Jesus Christ. For we pray in His name. Amen. Christ the
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Savior is risen! We long to sing of our
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King and hail His Presidency on earth.