The Good, the Right and the True

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the ninth chapter.

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As Jesus passed by, he saw a blind man from birth and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

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Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

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We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day, night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world,

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I am the light of the world. And having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva.

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And then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent.

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So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying,

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Is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, It is he. Others said, No, but it is like him.

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And he kept saying, I am the man. So they said to him, Well, how were your eyes opened?

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He answered, The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me,

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Go to Siloam and wash. So I went and I washed and I received my sight. They said to him,

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Well, where is he? He said, I don't know. So they brought him to the Pharisees, the man who had formerly been blind.

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Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight.

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And he said to them, He put mud on my eyes and I washed and I see. Some of the

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Pharisees said, Well, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, Well, how can a man who's a sinner do such signs?

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And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, What do you say about him since he has opened your eyes?

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He said, Well, he's a prophet. And the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight.

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And they asked them, Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?

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His parents answered, We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes.

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Ask him. He's of age. He will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the

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Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.

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Therefore, his parents said, He's of age. Ask him. So, for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him,

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Give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner. He answered, Whether he's a sinner, I don't know. One thing

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I do know is that though I was blind, now I see. And they said to him, Well, what did he do to you?

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How did he open your eyes? He answered, I've told you already, and you would not listen.

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Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they reviled him, saying,

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You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we don't even know where he comes from.

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And the man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing. You don't even know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

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We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

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Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he can do nothing.

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They answered, You were born in utter sin, and you would teach us. And they cast him out.

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Jesus heard that they cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the

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Son of Man? He answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him,

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You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.

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Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.

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And some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind? And Jesus said to them,

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If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, We see, your guilt remains.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. Do any of you enjoy a good Western? I mean, not a bad one,

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I'm talking about a really good Western. Now we can probably have a debate as to which are the best

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Westerns out there. And I'm not talking about the hotel chain, by the way. Sorry, pastor joke, pastor joke, just calm yourself down.

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But all of that being said, two of my favorite movies that are Westerns, number one,

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Tombstone. It's legitimately at the top of my list. And a close second is

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The Outlawed Josie Wales. But the thing is, we've become so used to how Westerns work.

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The Western American frontier was a lawless place and bad people did bad things to good people.

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This is how this all works. One of the things I love about Westerns is that the bad guys are really, really bad.

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And the good guys, as flawed as they are, they legitimately have principles and they're standing up to do what's right.

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They represent the law and bringing back law and order and things like this. And so if you remember in the movie

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Tombstone, the bad guys were actually called the cowboys. They wore red sashes.

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What a gay thing to do. Anyway, back in the day, they wore black hats.

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What's with the red sash, while preaching with a pink star?

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This sermon isn't going the way I expected. But all of that being said, you'll note that in the character development phase of the movie, in act one of the movie, they show just how bad the cowboys are.

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They crash a wedding and end up murdering the groom, right? Just to let you know just how bad these guys are.

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And so if you were to kind of think about these terms of a Western, as we read through some of my favorite texts, last week's text was awesome.

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This week's text is brilliant. Next week's text is over the top amazing.

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The Gospel of John, these Gospel texts, they're kind of like watching your favorite movie over and over again because Jesus is that good.

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Right? And so I like to think of this Gospel text in terms like we think of like a

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Western. It's maybe not in the beginning scenes, but this is one of those things where the good guy has shown up, and he's shown up in a place where the bad guys are literally in control, and the bad guys are, of all things, religious leaders.

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And you'll note that when you read the Gospel of John, chapter 9, as we will do today, it flows perfectly into the next chapter, chapter 10, and Jesus makes it clear that all who came before him, they were thieves and robbers, right?

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Thieves and robbers, sounds like a Western, right? And he's talking about the Pharisees.

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And so over and again, we must remember this, the Pharisees do not equal people who read their

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Bible and hold to Christian orthodoxy, all right? So I've been called a

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Pharisee so many times, it's like insane. And I've gotten to the point where we actually have a webpage and a video dedicated to the topic and say, you've just played the

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Pharisee card. Please read and watch this resource to help sort you out because you don't even know what a

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Pharisee is, right? That's kind of the point. They are thieves and they are robbers.

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And in our day, we still deal with thieves and robbers who jump the fence and who make merchandise of Christ's sheep.

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Over the past couple of weeks, I don't know if you've been paying attention, down in Australia, a member of the

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Parliament of Australia has released documents, financial documents, talking about just how exorbitant of a lifestyle, extravagant of a lifestyle

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Brian Houston and Robbie Houston have engaged in over the decades. And he released, no kidding, in these documents, financial records that show that bills for like stays in five -diamond resorts that added up to a hundred grand, flights on private jets that were like $25 ,000, $35 ,000, $50 ,000,

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I mean, huge amounts of money. And of course, I'm sitting here going, I've been warning you guys about this guy for a long time.

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And everyone's shocked. I'm sitting, haven't you seen the video where Brian Houston says, you need more money, right?

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And this is what he's been teaching and now they're shocked that he was out there spending money like, well, he was royalty.

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But the thing is, this is what these false teachers do.

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And here's the thing. They not only exploit you for money. They legitimately oppress you in a way that you could potentially end up in hell.

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And over again, I'm surprised by how when Christians who actually have biblical discernment say, that guy is a wolf, they are, the guy pointing out that he's a wolf, they're shouted down.

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Oh, you're just being too judgmental. You're being narrow -minded. Why do you think that your interpretation of scripture is inspired?

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There's a bazillion different ways in which we can interpret the scriptures. What makes you think that your interpretation is correct?

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And all the while then, these wolves continue doing the wolfy things that they do because, you know, sheep, baa, and wolves, well, they eat sheep.

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That's what they do. And I think to our epistle text here, that scripture is clear that this laissez -faire attitude towards false teachers is not permitted.

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And you sit there and go, well, how do you figure, Pastor? Listen to what Paul writes, under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit, an apostle of Jesus Christ. For at one time you were darkness, darkness, remember the bad guy wears a black hat because of darkness, that's the theme, darkness.

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But now, because of your baptism, because you have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, because you've been brought to penitent faith in Christ with the forgiveness of your sins, you are no longer of the darkness, you are in the light, you are of the light, and Jesus is the light.

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We are to walk or conduct our lives as children of light.

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For the fruit of the light is found in all that is good, all that is right, and all that is, what's the last word, true.

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No lie is of the truth. We as Christians do not get the privilege as children of light to cast a blind eye or not look at when somebody is in a pulpit or leading a movement within the visible church, no matter how popular it is, and what they're preaching and teaching isn't true.

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I recently took my wife on a date, and I'm being ridiculed for doing this, took her on a date and we went to the movie

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The Jesus Revolution. I'm being accused of spousal abuse at this point.

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But here's the thing, is that watching that movie was difficult, because on the one hand, as much as you want the name of Christ to be proclaimed, and you want to rejoice with a historical movement where many drug -addicted,

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LSD -trippin' hippies were taught about Jesus Christ, and we are to preach the gospel to all nations, including our own and all the subsets of it, including hippies and woke folks and people like that.

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You want to rejoice with that. But one of the things that the movie accurately depicted is that the guy at the forefront of that,

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Lonnie Frisbee, he was a wingnut wackerdoodle. I mean, his theology is right up there with Bill Johnson and all of today's

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NAR apostles and prophets. And it is not something that is a coincidence that Lonnie Frisbee died of AIDS, because the theology that he was preaching, the

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Holy Spirit that he was listening to, doesn't produce in a person the fruit of the Spirit.

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It produces something else. And so when we get to our gospel text today, rather than the good, the bad, and the ugly, which would be a good

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Western theme right here, we need to focus on the good, the right, and the true. As Christians, that's where our focus is.

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And again, consider just absolutely how heroic Jesus Christ is.

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He has put himself on earth at a time when, well, evil is running rampant.

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Politically, it's a complete mess. I mean, Rome is in charge.

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Don't even get me started about whether Rome was a great political system.

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It wasn't. You think things are bad here in the States? I'll take what's going on right now over what was going on in Rome at the time of Christ.

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So politics is a complete mess. And as a result of that, people's, let's just say, moral lives were in complete turmoil, which basically is the standard operating procedure.

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But the worst bit in all of this, and I think the most duplicitous, the most satanic, and the most evil, is that during the intertestamental period, you have this group of people, the

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Pharisaoi, they legitimately were usurpers. You can go into your

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Old Testament, and you can read from Genesis to Malachi, the Italian prophet, right, the last of the prophets, and you will never see a single

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Pharisee there. Not one. Because they didn't exist. They rose up during the 400 years in between Malachi and the time of Christ.

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And these are people who had a very, very, very stringent religion.

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They were all about obeying God's law. But they added to the word, contrary to the commands of Christ, they added to it.

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That whole tradition of the elders, which becomes the Mishnah and the Talmuds, that whole thing, that whole system was extra -biblical revelation that they claimed was on par with the written

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Torah. They were like Mormons and other things kind of all mixed up together.

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They added to the Scriptures a whole bunch of commandments that weren't even there. In fact, when they accused

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Jesus of not keeping the Sabbath, one of the things I note, a little litmus test, if you ever hear a preacher say, well, it says in the

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Bible that Jesus didn't keep the Sabbath, so Jesus was a sinner, well, you don't know what you're talking about.

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You are not qualified to be preaching and teaching. Yes, it's true that they claim that Jesus didn't keep the

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Sabbath, the Shabbat, but the reality is that Jesus kept it perfectly. He never broke the

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Sabbath, not even a little bit. But he did break their rules regarding the

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Sabbath and the Shabbat. You'll note that when you look at the Talmuds and the Mishnahs and you get to their discussions and questions and the way they dialogue with this idea about keeping the

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Sabbath, they actually get down to the dirt level. So in one of the,

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I forget if it's in the Mishnah or not, probably, but if you owned a table and a chair and you had a dirt floor, which was a common thing back then, they didn't have

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Ikea, and you had a dirt floor, and while you were eating your meal, the

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Sabbath began, you were not permitted to push your chair back because you would create furrows in the dirt, and everyone knows that's the first stage of farming, because that's plowing, and therefore, you would be guilty of farming on the

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Sabbath if you did that. I am not making this up. So if you were sitting in your chair on a

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Sabbath and you had a dirt floor, you had to legitimately grab this thing and then sit up and scooch it back and put it down so that you wouldn't create furrows and break the

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Sabbath. This is nuts. It is absolutely bonkers, and here's the other bit, is that in their theology, they didn't make a proper distinction between law and gospel.

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They didn't really understand the mercy of God at all, and as a result of it, their view of sin sounds a lot like today's prosperity preachers, which is much more akin to what you get in the concept of karma, right?

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And so when the disciples asked Jesus who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind, they're echoing the horribly awful theology of the

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Pharisees. The reality is this, is that there's a reason why people are born blind, and it goes all the way to Adam and Eve, and you'll note that kind of the capricious nature of the consequences of sin.

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We don't know how it's going to strike anybody in any particular way. We can say in that sense that somebody did sin, and it was

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Adam and Eve, and we all fell in Adam's fall, but they legitimately thought that this guy had committed sin, and that was the reason why he was born blind, and when you hear them pushing him out and casting him out of the synagogue, you'll hear them speak as if they were not born in sin, as if they are not sinners, and that's a big problem.

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Those who are self -righteous are absolutely self -deluded. And so, think of this now as a

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Western, a tumbleweed has just gone by, right, and Jesus has come into town, and the fellow that we're about to meet, this blind man, he's one of the favorite whipping boys of the bad guys known as the

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Pharisees, right? He's been pushed down, he's been called a sinner, everyone's speculating as to why he's suffering miserably the way he is, who sinned, him or his parents, and you'll note that he is in bondage by these thieves and robbers who have come in, and Jesus is going to clean up the religious town, if you would.

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So as Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

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Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. I wonder how

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Kenneth Copeland deals with that phrase, right? Because in Kenneth Copeland's theology, any kind of physical ailment is from Satan.

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In this particular case, you're going to note that Christ says the reason why this fellow was born blind is not really because of sin, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

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In other words, before the foundations of the earth, Christ had worked this out that this man would be born blind specifically for this reason that we're reading today.

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So Jesus says, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, night is coming, when no one can work.

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As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Beautiful play, by the way. You'll think, why is

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Jesus talking about being the light of the world? Because this blind man, the only thing he knows is darkness.

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One of the things I hate doing is trying to navigate through my house at night, and I'm thankful for the places where we have strategically set up nightlights.

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Because otherwise, I am prone to stubbing my toe, hitting my shins, or even worse, falling down the stairs.

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I hate going down the stairs in the dark because I don't remember how many stairs

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I have to navigate, and so I have to kind of work out, have I reached the bottom yet?

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Because if I don't do that, I'm going to be face first on the ground, and I'm not saying I've done that before. Maybe I have, maybe three or four times, but it always freaks my wife out when that happens, and it does hurt.

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But all that being said, we know you can't navigate in the dark. It's difficult to do, and that's all that this guy has known his entire life.

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And so Jesus is making it clear, he is the light of the world, and he's about to allow this person to see light for the very first time.

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Have you ever seen a video where somebody was born deaf, and they get that cochlear implant, and they literally are filming them with an iPhone when the first time they switch it on, right?

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Oh, those are great videos, especially when it's kids, or it's kids for the first time because they have never heard a single sound their entire life.

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All they've heard for their entire existence is silence. And then the doctor turns it on, and not only do they hear sounds, they hear their name for the first time.

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They hear their mother's voice the first time. And I always cry at those videos, and so does the kid, and so does the parents.

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It's such an experience that it's amazing that we get to vicariously see such a thing, right?

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That's the closest thing that you can think of. This guy is about to see things for the first time.

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He's going to see the sunshine. He's going to see the trees and the faces of people for the first time.

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And so, Jesus then, and boy, does he pick an interesting way to do this,

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Jesus spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. He anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, you go and wash in the pool of Siloam.

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Now, why did Jesus do this, all right? I can't help but think of Genesis chapter 2, where God took the dust of the earth, right, and he formed

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Adam's body from it. If you were to think of it, it's like the guy who invented something, right, and put it all together.

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He knows how it works, how it operates, and Jesus knows exactly what to do in this situation, and he's going to fix this guy's eyes with some new dust and his own saliva and anoint him in such a way and restore to him his sight.

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It's kind of a type and shadow also of the sacraments, if you think about it. So he anointed this man's eyes with the mud and he said to him, you go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent, and so he went and washed and he came back seeing.

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Now, I couldn't be a good Lutheran pastor without sitting there going, have you thought about the implications here regarding baptism, right, because we were all born dead in trespasses and sin, in the darkness of the dominion of darkness, blinded by the devil, and in the waters of baptism, we were united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, and there is the place where we were first able to truly see.

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God gave us our spiritual sight when he regenerated us, when we were united to Jesus and his blood washed away our sins in the waters of baptism.

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The connections to us are keen and important. So this guy, kind of by himself, without the neighbors being there when he first opened his eyes, he didn't expect that this was going to be what was going to happen, and he now sees things for the first time, and after going through that initial joy and exuberance and the brilliance of being able to see, he heads back to his neighborhood, and his neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, which is about the only thing you can do as a job back in those days if you're blind, they were saying, isn't this the man who used to sit here and beg?

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Some said, that's him, it's him, it is. Others said, nah, it just looks like him, maybe he has a twin and they're playing a joke or something, right?

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But he kept saying, ego e me, I am the man, I am him. So they said to him, well, how were your eyes opened?

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He answered, the man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash.

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So I went and I washed, and I received my sight. And they said to him, well, where is he?

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I don't know, I legitimately don't know. And so far, as our

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Western, the scene in our Western movies kind of played out, Jesus, the one who does good, has done something kind and loving and brilliant and praiseworthy for this fellow who was born blind.

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But remember, the Pharisees point to this guy as an example of what happens when you don't follow their false theology, right?

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And so their favorite whipping boy has just been healed and they don't have a whipping boy anywhere in close proximity, they're going to have to find another one.

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And so they're not going to be keen on having their whipping boy in their example of what happens when you don't follow their theology, no longer being able to be used for such purposes, because they are thieves and they are robbers.

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So they brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. And my question is, why?

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Why didn't they take him to the Levites? The Levites were the ones who were supposed to be preaching and teaching in Israel.

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They were the ones who were supposed to be sitting on Moses' seat in the synagogue. Why the Pharisees?

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Well, that kind of shows that they had not only been firmly embedded in Israel, they had taken over where they had no right to take over.

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They were the religious authorities now that had to be informed as to what was going on.

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And it was, of course, the Sabbath when Jesus made the mud, it opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight.

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He said to them, well, he put mud on my eyes and he washed and I see. And some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the

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Sabbath. But others said, how can a man who's a sinner do such signs? Makes me want to ask the question, do you guys not see that you are sinners?

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What did the Pharisees think of themselves? That they were righteous? So there was division among them.

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I love how Jesus, when he does good, upsets all their apple carts, overturns all of their theological nonsense and kills their sacred idols.

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So there was division among them. So they again said to the blind man, well, what do you say about him? Since he's opened your eyes, they said, well, he's a prophet.

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And you'll note, they're not acting in good faith with these questions, but this man is acting in good faith in his answers.

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He's just legitimately, innocently giving the answers to the questions that they're asking.

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And I'm sure he's puzzled at this point because, hello, he was blind when he woke up this morning and brushed his teeth, right?

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And now he can see a legitimate miracle has taken place.

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God has visited his people. And I'm sure he's just, well, of course, Jesus is a prophet.

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He has to be. The last time we heard of any kind of miracles like these was, well, from Elijah and Elisha.

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That's the last time we heard of anything like this. So the Jews at this point think that they're on candid camera, okay?

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And so they're looking, all right, where's the camera? This is a joke, right? You guys are going to play this next Friday on candid camera, and the joke's going to be on us.

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You're doing this to make us look like we're fools, right? Really? All right.

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So they didn't believe that he'd been blind and that he'd received his sight until they called his parents. And they called the parents of the man who had received his sight, and they asked them.

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And listen to these questions. Look at how, listen how sharp these are. Is this your son whom you say was born blind?

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How does he now see? Do any of you feel safe answering that question the way it was put?

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Holy smokes. I'm surprised they didn't give him a cigarette and a blindfold. I mean, they are literally under the

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French fry lights, and this is an interrogation. This isn't an inquiry. This is something different.

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So his parents answered, well, we know that's our son. And yeah, he was born blind.

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How he sees, we don't know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him. He's of age.

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He'll speak for himself. Ta -ta. Right? Run away. Run away.

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And the text legitimately says his parents said these things because they feared the

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Jews. Feared them. Does any of this make sense to you?

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Jesus is the God of the Jewish Tanakh, in human flesh.

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The God they claim to worship has just opened the eyes of a man born blind, and rather than getting out the praise band and singing hallelujah, they are legitimately conducting an interrogation as if a crime has taken place.

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I think about a man I had the opportunity of having a conversation with just last week.

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He reached out to me because he used to be on staff at a very well -known megachurch in Texas, and I don't have permission to reveal which of them.

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If I told you who the pastor was, you'd know exactly which one. And what was fascinating is that he was kicked off the staff of that megachurch.

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And the reason that was given when things started going south for him, he started reading his

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Bible. I kid you not. The way he tells the story is he started reading his

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Bible, and it wasn't too long before he became known at this church as the

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Bible guy. And that was not a compliment. That was legitimately an issue, which ultimately led to them kicking him off staff.

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Let that sink in for a second here. Oh yeah, you're the Bible guy here, aren't you?

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Well this is a church, isn't it? Is it? Right?

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You kind of see how this works. But I mean, that's how crazy things are. And it's all the way that crazy back in Jesus' time.

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That's the point here. We are to focus on what is good, right, and true.

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Isn't God's Word true? How can it be a bad thing to be a

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Bible guy on a church staff? Isn't everybody on the church staff supposed to be

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Bible guys? I'm distracted. Let's get back to the movie.

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So his parents, they said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess

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Jesus to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Let me translate that.

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Anybody who confesses that Yeshua is Mashiach, that he is the Messiah, is to be excommunicated.

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John Wick style, of course, right? Okay, excommunicado. Anybody in a

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Jewish synagogue who believes that Jesus is the Messiah, and he is, is to be excommunicated.

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Can't be a Bible guy at church, can't believe in Jesus the Messiah. Okay, that's, you'll note how evil operates.

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Human beings, because of our sinful nature, we love lies.

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How's the song go? Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies, tell me lies, tell me lies, right?

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Little Fleetwood Mac there. But there's something to that. And we want to hear it not only outside of the church, we want to hear those sweet little lies in church too.

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Please tell me how good I am. Please tell me that if I just put money in the plate, that God's going to bless me and give me health and wealth and stuff like this.

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Oh, and tell me that I'm going to go to heaven because I'm a good person. Just tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.

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Can't do that. As a pastor in Christ's church, I have to preach the truth.

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The reason why this stuff succeeds is because we are all sinners. And we much prefer the lie over the truth.

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And we're all guilty of this, I'm guilty of it, you are. So this is the reason why his parents said, well, he's of age, you can ask him.

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So the second time, they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, give glory to God, we know this man's a sinner.

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This reminds me of Martin Luther when he's on trial at the

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Diet of Worms, right? You know, Luther, do you renounce everything that you've ever written in these books, right?

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And it's the same kind of thing. They're not interested in the truth. They're interested in this man recognizing that they are in charge theologically, and this

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Jesus guy who breezed into town and opened your eyes, oh, you shouldn't have anything to do with him.

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Forget the fact that he did something kind to you, right? We know that this guy's a sinner. And you're not, uh -huh, right?

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Pay attention to how that game is played. So he answered, well, whether he's a sinner,

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I don't know, one thing I do know, I was blind and now I see. And they said to him, well, what did he do to you?

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How did he open your eyes? This guy is legitimately on trial, legitimately.

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He answered them, I've told you already, and you wouldn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples?

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That is a great punch to the face. That was brilliant. They didn't see that one coming.

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Yes, this guy's standing in his ground. I was healed. Jesus did good to me.

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I was blind this morning. I can see. What's wrong with you people, right?

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That's the point. So, in answer to this, they reviled him.

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Check your Bible. Look up the word revile. That's a sin. It is a sin to revile somebody.

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It's an egregious breaking of the eighth commandment. Right in their face, they reviled this fellow.

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And yet, they claim to be sinless. They don't know their Bible at all. You are his disciple.

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We're disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. As for this man, we don't even know where he comes from.

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As Shakespeare would say, thou protesteth too much. So the man answered, and I love this, because I think he answered very coolly, well, why?

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This is an amazing thing. You don't know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.

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We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone's a worshiper of God and does his will,

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God listens to him, right? Isn't that part of your theology, you Pharisees, right?

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Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.

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I have to correct him. Wasn't Adam born blind and deaf, and he wasn't breathing, right?

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I'll forgive him this oversight, but that's kind of the point, right?

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If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

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This is the first mic drop before microphones were even invented. That's exactly what just happened here, total mic drop.

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If he were not from God, he can do nothing, and here it comes. Here it comes. The Pharisees, like a sick cat, hack up their theological hairball, okay, and it's kind of violent, too.

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You were born in utter sin. Out comes their bad theology, like demons spewing vomit across the room.

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You were born in utter sin. We weren't. You were, and you would teach us.

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Who's in charge here, by the way? I love this story. Christ is. So they ekballowed him.

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Yeah, ekballow, it's a little stronger than cast him out. You have to think ekballow is something that a, well, a bouncer does to somebody who's not supposed to be in the nightclub.

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They grab him, get out of here, throw him, toss him out onto the street. That's what they did.

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They ekballowed him. That's what the text says. They cast him out. Excommunication for you.

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Well, what a lovely day. All the joy of seeing for the first time, but here's the thing.

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This particular miracle, him being given his sight, was on purpose to show the blindness of the

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Pharisees. That was part of the agenda of this, because the glory of God is about to be revealed.

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And like the true hero that Jesus is, man, in all of cinema,

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I have never seen a hero like this, never. One who legitimately is good.

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Isn't it notable, then, that we are, as children of light, to meditate, to think upon all that is good, all that is right, and all that is true?

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Isn't that Jesus? I can't think of anything better to focus on than him, because he is good.

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He's right and just, and he is the truth. He isn't just true.

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He is the source of all truth. So Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and so he seeks him out, and he finds him.

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And here, again, note the parallel with your own life.

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Isn't it true that God has opened all of your eyes, and he has? But have you seen

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Jesus? Do you know what he looks like? Do you know how tall he is? How does he wear his hair and his beard today?

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What color are his eyes? How deep is his voice?

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None of us have actually had those tactile experiences.

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None of us have seen Jesus, but we have all had our eyes opened by him.

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And you'll note that because each and every one of us, just like the Pharisees, have participated in this wickedness, not only have we tolerated it, we've all participated in it.

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It's rank idolatry, and we're all idolaters to the core. But rather than leave us in the darkness of sin,

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Jesus instead forgives us and pardons us. Rather than give us hell, he gives us life and peace, and he reconciles us to God by his death on the cross.

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And so you'll note here, the kindness that Jesus is showing to this man is the same kindness that he shows to you.

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And there is a day coming when you will have an experience very similar to this.

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You know your Savior's voice because you hear it in the Word of God. Jesus tells his apostles, the one who hears you, hears me.

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The one who hears me, hears the one who sent me. And so we who've heard the voice of Christ in the words of the apostles, we know his voice.

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We are his sheep. We are attentive to his words. And so Jesus finds this fellow and he says to him, do you believe in the

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Son of Man? And I have to wonder what happens here. Does the fellow begin to recognize that voice that he had heard of the fellow who, when asked the question, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

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And the guy who made the mud and said, go to the pool of Siloam and wash and be baptized, right?

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Do you believe in the Son of Man? And he answered, and who is he, sir, so that I may believe in him?

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This guy has had a day, and it's got to sting to have the religious leaders of Israel excommunicate you for being healed of blindness.

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And so Jesus comes to him and in a moment of like legitimate, godly kindness and humanity, because that's the wonderful mystery of the incarnation, is that God is in human flesh.

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There, he reaches out to him and he says, do you believe in the

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Son of Man? Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? And then Jesus makes me wonder what happens at this point.

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Does he get up in his face and look him in the eyes? He says to him, you have seen him.

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He's the one who gave you your sight. It's he who's speaking to you. And he said, Lord, I believe.

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And he worshiped Christ. Although he was cast out of the synagogue, we learned in our text from just a couple weeks ago that those who worship

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God will worship him in spirit and in truth. So cast out of the synagogue, he cannot go back to worship

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God there. Instead, Jesus finds him outside the synagogue, outside of this den of thieves set up by the

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Pharisees that only really looks like a synagogue, but is instead a synagogue of Satan. Jesus finds this fellow and he believes in Jesus.

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And there on the streets of his neighborhood, he worships

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Christ. And by doing so, his actions show that he confesses that Jesus is his

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God and his Savior. And Jesus said, it's for judgment that I came into the world so that those who do not see may see.

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And by that, he's pointing out the Pharisees who claim that they can see, but they can't.

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And that those who see may become blind. Of course, the Pharisees, just like the cowboys from Tombstone are jotting on the spot, just waiting for something to get on Jesus.

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So the Pharisees heard him say these things and said, are we also blind?

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And Jesus just takes their theology and shoves it up their nose. He says, if you were blind, you would have no guilt.

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But because you say that we see, now your guilt remains. Man, this is a pitched battle between good and evil, between truth and lies.

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And this is only one of the early skirmishes. As you read the Gospel of John, in which we will very shortly, in just a couple of weeks, see the conclusion.

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When we get to the third act of this account, Jesus is going to defeat all of these people.

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Defeat Satan, the world, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, the chief priests.

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He's going to defeat them all. And how does he do that? Well, unlike any hero,

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Jesus, rather than kill his enemies, he's going to lay down his life for them.

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So that we who are born blind might be forgiven and pardoned. Jesus conquers not by killing them, but by dying.

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For their sins, for their idolatry, for their reviling, for their self -righteousness, for their apostasies.

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So that some, if not all, can be forgiven. And we too then rejoice and we worship this

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Jesus, who is truly the best hero ever. And I don't apologize that every time these

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Gospel texts come around, we're going to re -run this and I'm going to preach on these every single time.

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Just like I like watching Tombstone every few years, just to see it again and again. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. We thank you for your support.

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All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.