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Reading John 9:24-41 where Jesus says to the blind man He is the Son of God, and He says to the ones who doubted that they are blind. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
In John 9, 39, Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. God makes wise the simple and makes fools out of the wise when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of John chapter nine, the story of Jesus healing the man who had been born blind. I'm gonna pick up in verse 24 and read to the end of the chapter. So for the second time, the Pharisees called the man who had been blind and they said to him, give glory to God.
We know that this man, referring to Jesus, is a sinner. And the man answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they reviled him saying, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began, has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in utter sin and would you teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him, he said, do you believe in the son of man?
He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you. And the man said, Lord, I believe and he worshiped him. Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind.
Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, we see, your guilt remains. So the Pharisees had summoned this man to come to them again, that they might question him again.
And their intentions are not good. They don't actually want to know how this man had been healed. They did not want to affirm that this was some sort of miraculous work that had been done by the power of God.
They were already determined to hate Jesus and to discredit him before the people. They're just looking for a way that they can do that. Give us some sort of confirmation or something that we can use that this thing that this Jesus did was an act of Beelzebub.
It was an act of the devil. It was not actually an act of God. So that's what they're looking for when they summon this man. But this man doesn't necessarily think that of their intentions at first. They say to the man, give glory to God.
We know that this man, referring to Jesus, we know that Jesus is a sinner. And the man answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. So he's not going to play their game. They're trying to say, Jesus is one thing and get this man to be on their side.
But he's not with them on that. He's, I don't know. If you've come to question me and that was supposed to be a question, I don't know if he's a sinner or not. But one thing I do know, and this is the line that we get from John Newton, the famous hymn, Amazing Grace.
One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. And as I said to you yesterday, this is the condition of every sinner. All of us before God were stumbling around in darkness.
We lived in a kingdom of darkness, a fallen kingdom that is going to be judged at the end. And that is still the outcome of this world. It is going to be judged by fire and everyone who is part of the kingdom of darkness will be judged with it.
But God, by his mercy, showed us the light through his son, Jesus Christ, the light of the world. And it was revealed to us, our sin, what it was we were doing when we were stumbling around in darkness.
As Jesus said in John 3, people who hate the light will flee into the darkness so that their evil works will not be exposed. But God, by his grace and mercy, exposes for us our sin before him that we might see his holiness and realize our sinfulness before a holy God.
And in realizing these things, we know our need for a savior, that we might cry out to Christ and he would save us from our sins. His death on the cross, his resurrection from the grave, faith in Jesus Christ, we are justified.
And so Christ has cleansed us from all unrighteousness and made us right before the father. And so no longer stumbling around in darkness, we now see, we walk in the light as he is in the light, as John repeats in the book of 1 John in his first epistle.
So we have been shown the light. We once were blind, now we see. This was the spiritual condition of every believer, just as this man was once physically blind and now he could physically see. So Jesus has healed us of our spiritual blindness and given us sight that we may see him and live.
Verse 26, the Pharisees said to the man, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? They're not asking for scientific proof here. That's not what they're looking for. They want some sort of inconsistency in this man's story.
So the Pharisees can then take it back to the people and say, ah, see, this is why this is not to be believed. And this Jesus is not from God and did not actually do this miraculous thing so that the people would not follow Jesus.
But look at the way that the man responded to them. He answered them, I have told you already and you would not listen. Again, he's not playing their game. Why do you want to hear it again? I'm just gonna tell you again and you're not gonna hear me again.
The way that Jesus healed me, he spit on the ground, he made mud, he put it on my eyes, he told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam and that's what I did and I could see. And the people asked me, how is it that you, once the beggar was on the side of the road, now see?
Well, the man Jesus did this. He healed me of my blindness. I once was blind, but now I see. I told this to you before and you did not want to listen to it the previous time. Do you also want to become his disciples?
So the man is asking the Pharisees, are you wanting me to regale you with this story? Are you wanting to marvel at it and go, oh wow, tell it to us again, let us hear again how it is that Jesus healed you and made you see.
So are you wanting to hear this so you can become his disciples? Is that why you're asking me again for this story? And they reviled him. So clearly that was not the intention of their heart. Verse 28, they reviled him saying, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
And they condemned themselves with that statement, by the way, for it was in John 5, 46, that Jesus said, if you believed Moses, you would believe me for he wrote of me. In Luke chapter 16, we hear the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
And at the end of that story, Jesus said, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. That was foreshadowing of course, for Christ was gonna die on the cross and rise again from the grave.
They didn't understand or even know the word of Moses, the law and the prophets before Christ rose from the dead. They were not gonna listen to his word even after he came back from the grave. They hated the word of God altogether, whether it was spoken from Moses or spoken through Christ.
As Jesus had said previously in John 8, why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.
So they hate the word of Christ because they hate the word of God altogether. They might say that they are disciples of Moses, but they don't even care for the word of God as it was given to Moses. Though they go on to say, John 9, 29, we know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.
And the man who had been born blind, he answered them, why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. And that even goes back to the book of Habakkuk where Habakkuk says, your eyes are so holy, you won't even look upon sin.
So this man, knowing the prophets, says that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. That is a startling realization on the part of this man. And this is also to the Pharisees' condemnation, especially when you consider what they say next.
Verse 34, they answered him, you were born in utter sin and you would teach us and they cast him out. See, this man gets it. He's connecting the dots here. This guy, Jesus, would not be able to perform these miraculous signs if he was not from God.
The only logical explanation of this is that he is from God. That's the only explanation to this. And the Pharisees don't get that even though they know the law and the prophets, even though they are the shepherds and the teachers of Israel, they cast the man out.
They refuse to acknowledge that Jesus could only do this if he was truly from God, because they're blind and they don't want to have their evil works exposed. So instead they cast the guy out who can see so they can continue to wander around in darkness and fool the people into wandering in darkness with them.
They refuse to be persuaded even by common sense. There was a statement that was made earlier this week by Elizabeth Warren. She is running for president of the United States in 2020. She's a Senator from Massachusetts.
Elizabeth Warren was talking about, well, this was concerning climate change, was the topic. So that's the context of this particular quote. But Elizabeth Warren, in the context of climate change, she said, I believe in science and anyone who doesn't has no business making decisions about our environment.
And a good brother online, Elijah Sims, he said, oh, look, the party which claims that there are no distinctions between male and female and that unborn children aren't human beings claims to believe in science.
That was quite a slam there. Yeah, they refuse to acknowledge or be persuaded by common sense that a child in the womb is a human being and to abort that child is murder. They refuse to acknowledge that there are differences between men and women and that a man cannot become a woman and a woman cannot become a man.
That is science. And yet this is the party that claims science. No, we believe in man-made climate change because science, but not that a child in the womb is a person. And oh yeah, by the way, a man can become a woman if he wants to.
That's absurd. Those who are in unrighteousness and they want to continue in the passions of their flesh and in their unrighteous deeds, giving permission even to those who do them, they will suppress the truth with their unrighteousness.
That is an evergreen passage. You can write that on the wall. Romans 1, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Again, they would rather stumble around in darkness than acknowledge that their works are evil and that they need a savior and that they must worship God in order to be saved. They don't want to do that because then they have to dethrone themselves, which is in all actuality, just giving up the lie, right?
It's just giving up the charade. None of us have ever been enthroned over anything. We certainly are never enthroned over God who has created heaven and earth, time and space. How would we ever get to that place above God?
But we like to think that we can and exalt ourselves and glory in our unrighteousness. And for that, we deserve death. Romans 3, 12, together we have become worthless. We're good to be cast into the flames and that's it.
Praise God for his mercy that he shows us. He shines a light into our darkness and shows us our sin and his holiness that we may fear God. We may realize that we are under his wrath as long as we walk around in this darkness.
So we may come out of darkness and into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2, 9, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
So again, back to the story of the Pharisees and this man who had been born blind. And they answered him, you were born in utter sin and you would teach us and they cast him out. You know, this goes back to what the disciples first said when they encountered this man on the side of the road.
The disciples said to Jesus, rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind because the common belief of the Jews was if somebody was afflicted with something like this, blindness, then it had to have been because he did something evil.
He's afflicted with evil because he did something evil, evil for evil. Therefore he had to have done something sinful or maybe since he was born blind, he couldn't have done anything sinful. Maybe it was his parents.
His parents did something evil and that's why he was born blind. So then their follow-up questions, if it was the parents had done something evil may have gone something to the degree of, why would God punish the son then?
When in the law of Moses, it says that everyone is responsible for their own transgressions and Ezekiel said this also. Anyway, on and on it could have gone, but they were presumptuous with their question and they did not understand the workings of God by the way that they phrased this question to Jesus.
Jesus answered them, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. You understand that everything that happens in the world, whether good or bad is done so that the works of God might be displayed.
If something horrible or tragic has happened to you, it's okay for you to mourn or feel brokenhearted over that, whether you are hurt or someone has betrayed you or you have been treated unjustly somehow.
You may mourn and take your concerns before God, but take heart Christian, that God is sovereign and he is still on his throne and he is working all things out for your good and for his glory. As I read to you earlier this week, James chapter one verse two, count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.
My friends, that is a passage that does not jive with our culture of a victimhood mentality where everybody thinks that someone has done me wrong and this is not fair and that person owes me. Passages like this out of James one, to count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds for there is something that is being worked out for your good in the midst of this trial.
That just doesn't work. No, I have to be a victim. I have to blame this person. I have to be mad at somebody for this. You need to praise God. You need to give him glory. You need to rely all the more fully on the Lord who raises the dead.
For Christian, you were a sinner who was walking in darkness and you were worthy of judgment and death and fire and yet God has saved you by his grace and lifted you up and seated you in the heavenly places with Christ and made you a fellow heir with him.
Once an enemy of the kingdom, now you are a fellow recipient of that kingdom and that you are going to share in all of the blessings in the heavenly places as described in Ephesians chapter one. What are you complaining about?
Give joy to the Lord in all things and his strength will sustain you and you will endure to the end. Rejoice in the Lord always. Paul said from prison in Philippians four, I will say it again, rejoice.
So we go on here to read in John chapter nine, verse 35. Jesus had heard that the Pharisees had cast out this man and having found him, he said, do you believe in the son of man? And the man answered, who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?
And Jesus said to him, you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you. This is the wonderful grace of God that Jesus seeks this man out again even after he had been cast out by the Pharisees and reveals himself to this man.
I am the son of man that you may believe in him. And again, it's the story of all of us who are Christians who were once sinners deserving of wrath and are now part of the family of God. God sought us out.
He chose us and welcomed us into his family that we were not deserving of this. Jesus said, you have seen him. It is he who is speaking to you. And the man said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.
And Jesus said, for judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind?
And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains because they don't see. And going back to what Jesus said to them in John chapter eight, why do you not understand what I say?
Because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. Consider these words from Jesus back in John chapter three. Let's start in verse 16, John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned also.
Because he is not believed in the name of the only son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
Praise the Lord.
Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.
On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study when we understand the text.