I AM, the Son of Man - [John 9:35-41]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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July 26, 2015

00:00: I would invite you to take your Bibles, open them up to the Gospel of John, the 9th chapter.
00:07: As we continue working our way through this. You know, I've been reminded we've had some blessed visitors in our house for the last few weeks here.
00:20: Our grandchildren, some of them anyway, three of the five. And it's interesting because when
00:28: I have Jude on my lap, he likes to do something which is try to throw himself onto the floor.
00:38: Yeah, this does not please me, but you know what? I, so far, have not failed to stop him from hitting the floor.
00:47: At least, you know, I cushion the blow. He has two things going for him.
00:55: One is he has absolutely no fear. But secondly, there's a confidence based on experience that I'm going to catch him.
01:03: I've noticed here lately that Autumn has taken to making magnificent leaps of faith.
01:09: Clear off, she'll get way up on the first step of the staircase and jump all the way to the rug over and over again.
01:19: She's pretty pleased with this. And I just think, well, this is just an example of somebody knowing their limitations.
01:26: She's confident that she can do this. And this is good. Confidence is good if it's in the right object.
01:38: Overconfidence can kill you. Overconfidence is not good, especially when your confidence, your overconfidence is in yourself, in your own abilities.
01:54: I mean, I could give historical example after historical example of famous figures who were overconfident in what they could do.
02:01: I watched a show not too long ago about General Custer. That didn't work out so well.
02:08: He was confident he could handle those savages. Not good. And I really like,
02:17: I keep coming back to this poem by Shelley, famous poet.
02:23: And he wrote this work, Ozymandias. And basically what he describes in this poem is just this wreck, this old ruin.
02:35: And in the middle of this ruin is this statue that has this inscription. My name is
02:41: Ozymandias, king of kings. There's a little confidence.
02:49: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Well, there's some real irony there.
02:56: Because when you look at his works and they're all in ruins and they're all wrecked, you realize he's not almighty.
03:04: He's not the king of kings. He was a man with delusions. We are surrounded by people who are, frankly, a little bit delusional.
03:19: They see a reality that doesn't exist. They believe in something that is 100 % wrong.
03:25: They're confident in themselves. And, in fact, they are overconfident in themselves.
03:30: Let's turn to John 9. We're going to read verses 35 to 41.
03:40: There are innumerable people in this world, billions literally, who are certain that they are all set with God.
03:51: That when they leave, if there is a God, that they're going to be just fine with him.
03:58: But they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not going to work. This is confidence in the wrong object.
04:08: John 9, verse 35. Jesus heard that they, the
04:14: Pharisees, had cast him out. And having found him, he said, Do you believe in the
04:20: Son of Man? He answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?
04:29: Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.
04:39: He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Jesus said,
04:48: For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.
05:02: Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind?
05:11: Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt.
05:17: But now that you say, We see, your guilt remains.
05:26: The Gospel of John, the beloved apostle, is written so that his readers, us, may know that Jesus is the
05:35: Christ, and in him that we might have eternal life. As we read a few weeks ago in John 8, 58,
05:44: Jesus made the unmistakable claim that he was eternally
05:49: God, that he was deity. And we know that that was his claim because the
05:55: Pharisees, his audience, tried to kill him, took up stones to kill him, and he escaped.
06:02: And then as we've worked our way through chapter 9, we know that sometime after this miraculous escape, he passed by a man who had been blind since he was born.
06:12: And if you recall, his disciples get into a conversation. They start asking him questions about why this man is blind.
06:22: And it's based on Jewish teaching of the time that someone had to be responsible.
06:29: If you remember, it had to be a human issue. There had to be human sin involved because God could not be the author of this blindness, of this calamity.
06:40: So they ask him, Who's at fault? Is it this man? Did he sin, essentially, in his mother's womb?
06:48: Or did his parents sin? Did his mother do something? Did his father do something that caused this?
06:55: And if you recall, what did Jesus say? He said that it was brought about so that the works of God might be put on display, might be made manifest.
07:15: He then healed this man of his blindness. And the man goes home to his old neighborhood.
07:23: I mean, I like to think that he talked to his parents. I'm pretty sure he did. It's not in our text, but I'm pretty sure he did.
07:31: But then there's this whole great big scuffle about if he's really the man who used to be blind.
07:40: I mean, this is incredible, right? Nobody's ever been blind since birth and then had their sight restored.
07:46: And they eventually take him to the Pharisees. And they investigate this healing.
07:52: Why? Because it happened on the Sabbath. That's a violation of the
07:58: Sabbath rules, these man -made concoctions, these laws that they've invented. And they know that Jesus is responsible, and so they begin looking for a way to undermine the idea that this is a good thing.
08:15: They want this man to level a charge against Jesus. And when he won't, they go to his parents.
08:24: And they say, look, he really wasn't blind from birth. They're trying to undercut the story any way they can.
08:30: We talked about this last week. And finally, they come back to the man and try one more time with him.
08:39: And when they can't get him to say something bad about Jesus, and in fact, when he stands up for Jesus, they eventually put him out of the synagogue.
08:49: They put him out of fellowship. They cut him off from the community, as it were.
08:56: Chapter 9, ultimately, I would argue, is an illustration of Jesus' statement that I am, that he is eternally
09:02: God, that he is all -powerful, that he is Yahweh. We first would see his power in the first section of this chapter.
09:16: And we would see, really, God on trial. And ultimately, we will see him rejected this morning, but accepted by the one that he came to save.
09:27: Now, this morning, we're going to see two truths about the great I Am. Title is,
09:33: I Am the Son of Man. And we're going to see two attributes of him as the Son of Man.
09:40: First, we're going to see I Am as Savior. And then we're going to see
09:46: I Am as Judge. Why? Because I want you to appreciate the grace of God in your life all the more, or, if you don't know that grace,
09:57: I want you to long for it, to long for such grace to visit you as it does this blind man.
10:05: As plainly as I can say it, this is a gospel -filled message. I'm here this morning to bring you the good news about the
10:14: Lord Jesus Christ. First, I Am as Savior.
10:21: He's really a compassionate seeker. You know, we talk or we hear a lot about seeker -sensitive services.
10:28: Well, there is only one seeker. You hear this often here at Bethlehem Bible Church. There's one seeker, and that is
10:34: God. Look at verse 35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, and we'll pause right there for a moment,
10:50: Jerusalem, while, you know, a big city in ancient Israel, it was really kind of a small community, a small town.
10:56: And what's true about small towns? Bad news travels fast.
11:07: Just imagine what kind of roller coaster ride this man had been on. Really kind of hopeless, a beggar, just sitting out there, just kind of people would pass by.
11:20: Can you have mercy on me? Have compassion on me? I don't know. He didn't have a tin cup because that would have been too expensive.
11:27: Maybe some kind of sign or something, begging each and every day.
11:34: And then to go from that to being able to see, to think there's now hope for me, then to be investigated by the
11:44: Pharisees, and then to be put out of the synagogue, we don't really fully understand that because we don't live in a society like that.
11:52: But if we were to go back a few hundred years in New England, if this were the only church in town, and you were to be put out of it for some sin, that would have a serious impact on your life.
12:12: But when the news comes to Jesus about this man being put out of the synagogue, he seeks him out.
12:21: After all, Jesus came to seek and save the lost. This man is lost at this point.
12:26: And the initiative in salvation is ever with God. Well, why is that?
12:31: We're going to see this morning a reiteration of some truths.
12:38: Men hate the light. John says that early in his gospel. Well, why is that?
12:45: Because the light comes into the world, and men love the darkness. They love their sin.
12:53: So the light must intrude on the darkness to redeem them.
12:59: As I said a few weeks ago, it would seem natural for this man, having washed in Siloam and received his sight, to have returned to Jesus to thank him.
13:08: But he didn't do that. But when Jesus hears the news about him, he goes and finds him.
13:23: He's also a confession seeker. Jesus is. Look at verse 35 again. And he said, this is Jesus saying to this man,
13:29: Do you believe in the Son of Man? He wants to hear yes. And this is a profound question.
13:37: It is the question that every person ultimately will have to answer.
13:43: Do you believe in the Son of Man? Jesus is asking this man if he has ongoing faith in him.
13:54: There is no sense of a mere profession of faith. There is no sense that, you know, I just want you to assent to a certain list of facts.
14:03: Just tickle off a few truths to me, and I'll sign off on you.
14:11: This is about a changed heart, and eventually something that will show forth in his life.
14:17: This is a changed life. He wants to know if there's been a transformation. We can say it this way.
14:23: Have you been born again? And he is essentially asking it.
14:30: We could go back to verse 28 when the Pharisees accused this man of being Jesus' disciple.
14:36: And he wants to know, are you my disciple? Are you a follower, a learner? Are you devoted to me?
14:41: Are you going to learn from me? Have you transferred your allegiance entirely to me?
14:50: Now this title, the Son of Man, is an interesting one. It's the one
14:55: Jesus uses most often to refer to himself. Well, why is that? Why does Jesus use this title?
15:03: I think there are many reasons. But if we just think about it from a biblical perspective, what does it say about Jesus?
15:11: Well, it tells us that he is the revelation of God to man because he is
15:19: God in the flesh. He is the word of God sent to mankind. He is the ambassador of the
15:25: Father. He is the ultimate self -disclosure of God to man. If you want to know what the
15:31: Father is like, what does he say? He says, look at me. He's also the divine sacrifice.
15:40: He had to be fully human to take the sins of mankind upon himself, to die for his elect.
15:50: No other being could do, could suffice. It had to be a man.
15:55: And ultimately, as a man, while being also fully God, Jesus will judge.
16:04: This idea of him being a man, of him being fully human, is essential to who he is, what his work is, and what he ultimately will do.
16:17: Now, some of you might be sitting there a little confused because your text says, Son of God.
16:26: That would be because you have a King James or a new King James. How does he know? Because I look.
16:37: Without going into a major excursus, which just means a sidebar, which means a footnote.
16:47: This has to do with biblical manuscripts. The King James, the new
16:53: King James, are based on newer transcripts, less reliable transcripts.
16:59: And somewhere along the line, in a few hundred years, it changed from Son of Man to Son of God. And if you want more of an explanation than that, you can see me later.
17:09: But think about this. It doesn't change the doctrine. It doesn't change that at all.
17:16: So, not that big of an issue. Talk to me afterwards if you think it is an issue. But here's the point.
17:23: Jesus is asking this man to accept all that he says about himself.
17:29: And again, not merely in an intellectual way, but in complete faith and trust.
17:35: It is a call to die to self and follow Christ. Do you believe in the
17:42: Son of Man? This is a question for each of us. Jesus is not only a confession seeker, he's also a truth speaker.
17:53: Look at verse 36. He answered, the man did, and said,
17:59: 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.
18:11: Now again, some of you may have a different word here for sir. You may have lord there, and I'm going to explain more about that in a few minutes.
18:19: But it's the exact same word that is translated lord in some translations and sir in others.
18:29: So why do some use sir and some use lord? Well, I like what the ESV does here for a change.
18:38: Because if you think of our English word lord, what does that automatically imply? It puts more of a reverence in it, more of a respect in it.
18:46: And it almost implies that the man right there is making a confession, and I don't think he is.
18:55: I don't think he believes that Jesus is lord yet. So I'm quite content with sir, and we'll get to more about this in just a moment.
19:03: But there's every sense in which this man wants to believe.
19:10: That he is longing to believe, but he wants to make sure that he is placing his faith in the right person.
19:17: He wants to know who the son of man is. Now for a moment, let's just think about how remarkable this situation is.
19:30: This man was blind and healed after Jesus gives him the instruction to, or he puts mud in his eyes and then gives him the instruction to go down to the pool at Siloam.
19:42: However, right now, this man is seeing Jesus for the very first time.
19:50: Now I'd like to think, because we think that if you put on a blindfold or something like that, don't you kind of hear things a little bit more clearly, with a little bit more identity?
20:03: I mean, even if you close your eyes when you're on the telephone, you can focus a little bit better. At least I can. That's because I don't multitask well.
20:13: But they say that if you're blind, what happens? That your other senses are kind of heightened.
20:20: I don't know if that's true or not. It seems like it might be. Because you pay more attention to other things, right?
20:26: Like you'll recognize voices better. So maybe he identified
20:32: Jesus through his voice, but he wants to make sure. I think there is a certain excitement, though, and I think he's kind of getting more and more excited.
20:44: Because look what he says there. That I may believe in him. He wants to.
20:51: There's a willingness here to believe. And when Jesus says, you have seen him,
21:00: I think the pulse is going up. He's getting more and more excited. And I think his heart probably just about explodes when he hears, and it is he who is speaking to you,
21:12: I am the Son of Man. This man's whole life has been on course for this moment.
21:24: What did Jesus say to his disciples? He was born blind. What? That the works of God might be demonstrated, might be made manifest.
21:35: Well, we could think of him gaining his sight as a work of God, and that's certainly a great thing, right?
21:43: But what's greater? I mean, at the moment when he received his sight, that might have seemed like the greatest thing that could possibly have happened.
21:52: But what's greater? Gaining eyesight or gaining eternal life?
21:59: Having all your sins forgiven? Having the promise of heaven?
22:09: We all have, and if you don't have, you will have, by virtue of gravity and old age, various physical maladies.
22:18: Well, what's better, having those physical maladies wiped away or eternity with Christ?
22:29: Can you imagine? Blind, can see, cast out of the synagogue, and now he's face to face with the
22:37: Messiah, with the one he's heard about, not in synagogue because as a blind man he wouldn't be going there, but he knew.
22:50: He, him, this outcast, now face to face with the
22:57: Messiah. Excitement. I mean, do you remember what it was like to meet
23:04: Jesus for the first time? When you read the pages of Scripture, when you heard the word preached, and you said,
23:11: I know Jesus. I know who he is. I do.
23:19: Unfortunately, it was late at night, and I couldn't sleep for hours. I get over it, though.
23:27: Not the excitement, the lack of sleep. In fact, I remember distinctly going to work the next day and still buzzing.
23:38: And I guess this is to my shame, maybe to the Lord's glory. I don't know, but somebody said to me, Why are you so happy today?
23:49: Maybe I was Mr. Grumpy Pants pretty often. I don't know. Why are you so happy today, and what do you say to that?
24:01: I told the truth. I testified. Do you remember what it's like to meet
24:06: Jesus for the first time? Here he is. Now consider the
24:12: Pharisees. Just look at the contrast. This is the first time this man has seen
24:17: Jesus. They've seen him on many occasions. They've interacted with him.
24:24: They've heard him teach on many occasions. But there was no eagerness in them to believe in Jesus.
24:32: There was no eagerness in them to meet Jesus. Their only eagerness with regard to Jesus was what?
24:42: They were eager to kill him. Now I'll get back to you for a moment, if I may.
24:54: Consider the times that you heard the gospel, that you heard the truth about Christ, before you got saved and you didn't believe.
25:04: Well, why not? Why is it that literally billions of people on this planet either ignore or mock
25:13: Jesus? Why is that? Because like Jesus in this passage,
25:20: God must go first. He must anoint your eyes, as it were, that you may see
25:27: Christ. He must unstop your ears so that you may hear Christ. He must jolt your heart to life that you may love
25:36: Christ. Jesus is also a worship receiver.
25:43: Look at verse 38. This man, he said,
25:49: Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Now I think it's fair to argue that the
25:59: Pharisees prepared this man for salvation by kicking him out of the synagogue.
26:08: John Calvin notes that if the man had been allowed to remain in the synagogue, if he continued to go there, probably excited because he'd just been permitted to go into the synagogue because now he was no longer unclean, being able to see, he would have been estranged from Christ, led away from him by the teaching of the
26:30: Pharisees. By kicking him out, they prepared him for grace. This man, once a social pariah, was then given a reprieve.
26:44: And now again, he's an outcast having been kicked out of the synagogue, and now he's redeemed by Christ.
26:51: And notice he does not hesitate. He doesn't engage in a bunch of questions. He believes.
27:02: Now does the man know everything about Jesus? Does he have a systematic theological, you know, encyclopedic knowledge about Jesus?
27:14: No. But here's what faith is. This man will believe whatever
27:22: Jesus tells him because he knows Jesus is from God and cannot lie.
27:30: He's seen what the religious authorities, the spiritual guides of his day had to offer. And now that the
27:37: God of the universe stands before him, he worships him. Now this verb would indicate that he fell at Jesus' feet.
27:46: However, something more significant than his physical actions has taken place. He has fixed his faith firmly on the
27:53: Lord Jesus. His worship was an outward sign of an inward change.
28:00: An outward sign of an inward change. It wasn't falling at Jesus' feet that saved him.
28:08: It was the work of God, and he had already transformed this man. Now it's also interesting.
28:18: What happens when other people are worshipped in the New Testament? They're told to stand, right?
28:27: Jesus doesn't tell this man to stand. Why? Because it's right to worship Jesus. It's right to fall at his feet because he is
28:35: God incarnate. Now the reason
28:40: I was content with the word Sir in verse 36 becomes a little bit more plain.
28:46: If it's Lord in verse 36, then we get no real sense of the switch being thrown, of the transformation, of the change that's taken place within this man.
29:01: This way we can see it's not from Lord to Lord. It's from Sir, respectful, kind, courteous, to Lord, worshipful.
29:15: Jesus receives worship because it is right for him to receive worship.
29:21: I am as Savior, the one who goes and finds the lost, redeems them.
29:31: Secondly, we see I am as Judge, the Son of Man as Judge. Notice that some will be saved.
29:39: Look at verse 39. Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see.
29:48: Think about this man. He was physically blind, and now he can see. But more than that, he was spiritually blind, and now he is spiritually aware.
29:58: He knows the truth for the first time. But wait a minute. Jesus says,
30:05: For judgment I came into this world. The purpose of me coming into the world was what? To judge. You say,
30:11: Well, wait a minute. What happened to the Jesus who doesn't judge anyone? What happens to the Judge who just loves everybody?
30:18: You know, he even loves the worst of sinners. In fact, I understand that he used to hang out with the worst people.
30:24: He liked a good party. I hear that kind of nonsense in certain evangelical circles.
30:32: Didn't he hang out with the worst people in society? Some of the nonsense that passes for biblical information.
30:43: It inhabits so much of the Christianized world, especially our country. It's so inaccurate.
30:51: But what about John 3, 17? Doesn't that say that God didn't send his son to judge the world?
30:57: Let's look at John 3 for a moment. John 3, 17.
31:14: 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.
31:23: Aha! See that? It's a contradiction. He did not come to condemn.
31:30: John 9 must be wrong. I mean, it's even the same verb for those of you who know Greek. It's even the same verb in the
31:37: Greek. You know, you can't have a contradiction. Well, what's the answer? Keep reading.
31:46: Look at verse 18. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.
31:53: This is a past action. It's already taken place. Because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.
32:02: And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.
32:11: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
32:23: The father sent the son to redeem the people he chose before the foundation of the world.
32:29: But the inescapable flip side of this is that some are not chosen and will be condemned.
32:41: Natural men reject the supernatural light. There has to be a work to transform a natural mindset to a godly mindset.
32:52: You have to be born again. There's something that has to be done to you before you can receive the
32:57: Lord Jesus Christ. And some of Jesus' teaching was done to harden the hearts of his hearers.
33:09: Let me say that again. Some of Jesus' teaching was done to harden the hearts of his hearers, to, in effect, pronounce judgment upon them or to bring judgment upon them.
33:20: You say, that sounds harsh. Well, let's go back to John 9, right there in verse 39 again, the second half of it.
33:31: And those who see may become blind. What does he mean by that?
33:40: Well, as an illustration, you don't have to turn there, but let me read Mark 4, verses 10 to 12.
33:45: And this is a little section here that occurs between the parable of the soils, where Jesus gives that parable, and then some verses later, he gives the explanation of the parable.
34:01: But right in the middle is this passage here, Mark 4, verses 10 to 12.
34:06: And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve, in other words, just his close circle of disciples, asked him about the parables.
34:17: And he said to them, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables.
34:27: So for my close followers, you guys will be able to understand what I'm saying, but for everybody else, they're not going to get it.
34:37: Look, verse 12, or listen, verse 12, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed hear, but not understand.
34:49: Why? Lest they should turn and be forgiven. In other words, these parables are not to enlighten these people, they're to enlighten you, but these people will hear it, they won't understand it, so that they will not turn, repent, and be forgiven.
35:12: Sounds harsh. They would hear the word of God given to them by Jesus, but they would not understand it.
35:19: Why? Because they were not intended to understand it. It was not given to them to understand it.
35:27: In fact, the express purpose was that they would not understand it. The natural man cannot understand the things of God.
35:38: Apart from the Holy Spirit, such a thing is impossible. It's just like in the parable of the soils.
35:48: Sometimes the seed falls into ground that is owned by the thorns and the weeds, and that seed will not prosper.
35:56: The word of God will not take root in such soil. Why is that?
36:05: Well, because only God can prepare soil. Only God can prepare hearts to believe.
36:11: And God, listen carefully, is not obligated to save anyone and does not choose to save everyone.
36:23: He's not obligated to save anyone and He does not choose to save everyone.
36:30: That is the nature of biblical grace. God has mercy on whom
36:35: He chooses to have mercy. If God is obligated to give grace, to everyone, or if He's obligated to give it to anyone, if it's an obligation in any way, then two things are true.
36:52: First of all, it's not grace, because grace is dependent upon the giver, upon God.
37:00: And secondly, God is not sovereign. If He's obligated to do anything, then there's a higher law than Him.
37:08: If He's obligated to dispense grace to His rebellious creatures, then
37:15: His creatures are in control of Him. They are sovereign. Let me give you this illustration. Imagine you rent an apartment.
37:23: I think we've all are either renting or have at some point rented an apartment.
37:30: And your landlord determines that because, well, for whatever reason, that he is going to not collect rent from you for six months.
37:42: He's going to collect it from everybody else, but not from you for six months. Is he being unfair to the other tenants?
37:53: Now, many in today's world would say, yes. But the truth is, no. He can do what he wants.
37:59: It's his apartment building. They signed a contract. They knew the costs.
38:05: They should be willing to pay those costs. And if he decides to give you a break for six months, then he can give you a break for six months.
38:14: It's his to do with as he wishes. How much more is that true of God?
38:21: Everything in the earth is the Lord's, including every soul that He's created.
38:29: Grace is extended to glorify God, not to satisfy our sense of fairness.
38:37: And frankly, if God were just fair, and you've heard this often, if God were just fair, then everyone would go to hell.
38:43: We all deserve that. But thanks be to God that He is gracious, that He is a saving
38:54: God by nature. Now, back to our text. What a metaphor this blind man is.
39:02: Physically blind once, and now can see. Spiritually blind and now can see, understands who
39:10: Jesus is. And in comparison, these Pharisees could physically always see.
39:18: Spiritually though, they thought they were the ones with the most insight. They didn't just have spiritual 20 -20 vision, they had 20 -10 vision, 25 vision.
39:29: They were the best. And they were so confident of their spiritual insights that they did not want to see who
39:40: Jesus was. After all, if you just think about it, what do they say? Our father is
39:46: Abraham. We don't know about your fatherhood. We're disciples of Moses, they said to the blind man.
39:54: You, you've just got this Jesus. But when these
39:59: Pharisees stood before the God of Abraham and the God of Moses, they could not see
40:07: His identity because they were blinded. They were blinded by themselves, but they were blinded by God.
40:13: The light came to them and they hated Him because they loved their sin. Their pride blinded them to this embodiment of truth,
40:22: Jesus, truth in the flesh. They believed they saw and so they were blind to their need.
40:33: And again, this is the nature of unsaved man, confident of their own worthiness in the sight of God.
40:39: I hear this sometimes. Read this,
40:45: I guess, maybe on Facebook. This kind of nonsense. What a bizarre notion this is. How about this? You ever heard this?
40:52: God will just have to get used to me. I don't think that's how it works.
41:02: We have friends, family, and we'll even run into people who need to hear the good news.
41:09: They must be ushered, they must be brought face to face as it were with the living
41:14: God of the universe. They need to hear the Word. They need to hear the Gospel. They need to hear that they're sinners, that God's holy, that one day they're going to die and they're going to stand before God and they're going to have to give an answer for their lives.
41:28: And if they don't believe in the perfect life, the substitutionary death, and the perfect resurrection, the resurrection that says that He has paid the price for sin, that He has defeated death and hell for everyone who believes in Him, if they don't believe in this
41:50: Jesus, they'll spend eternity in hell. We have an obligation to love people enough to tell them that.
42:02: Now back in John chapter 9, the Pharisees were not far away. They could hear and they were not pleased with what they heard.
42:09: Look at verse 40. They issued this challenge. Some of the Pharisees near Him heard these things and said to Him, Are we all so blind?
42:19: Now it's not in some kind of supplicant sort of way. They're not appealing to Him as He is the superior.
42:27: They're mocking Him. What are we all so blind? Jesus had obviously found this formerly blind man in a place that was open to the public.
42:40: I think it's also likely that they didn't see the man, the Pharisees didn't see this man fall down face first before Jesus because they would have had a real problem with that.
42:49: They would have seen this as a man worshiping another man. And they're phrasing here,
42:58: Are we all so blind? It's just loaded with sarcasm. They're letting Him know that they're not, they're not going to be lumped in with the hoi poi.
43:08: They're not going to be seen as spiritually blind. They're not just like regular people. They're the elites.
43:15: They set the rules. They set the standard. After all, people feared them. Remember the blind man's parents.
43:23: They didn't want any part of them. Everyone was afraid of the Pharisees. Why? Because they could destroy your life.
43:31: They're too powerful to be blind. But look at Jesus' answer in verse 41.
43:42: Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say,
43:49: We see your guilt remains. This is crushing.
43:56: Because they do not, will not, and cannot acknowledge their need for enlightenment.
44:04: Their need to learn the truth about Christ. Because they insist on relying on their own knowledge, their own sight, their own way of thinking.
44:18: And Jesus says, Because of that, they remain in their guilt. They remain sin -filled.
44:26: And this is the ultimate judgment. There is no relief ever for rejecting
44:32: Christ. One man said,
44:37: If you do not see the greatness of your sins and miseries, you cannot enjoy true comfort.
44:47: Think about these Pharisees. They were not sinners. Not in their own eyes.
44:54: They considered themselves better than other people. And therefore, not sinners. And therefore, worthy of heaven.
45:02: Worthy of God's praise. And because of that, they cannot enjoy true comfort.
45:11: They cannot enjoy the peace that surpasses understanding. They cannot enjoy peace with God.
45:20: In effect, Jesus was saying this, You think yourselves sinless. Therefore, your sin remains.
45:28: I would take your sins upon myself if you would but humble yourselves.
45:38: Isn't that true of your friends? Your loved ones? Doesn't their wrong view of themselves prevent them from believing the truth?
45:49: But the truth is, it was true of you. It was true of me. It would still be true of me.
45:55: But God intervened. Again, think about this man in closing.
46:05: Just think about his life. The hopelessness of it.
46:14: The helplessness of it. No confidence at all. No hope at all.
46:23: But Jesus finds him, frees him from physical blindness, and when he's rejected by the
46:32: Pharisees, put out of the synagogue, he finds him again. It doesn't restore physical sight to him, but gives him spiritual sight.
46:46: Gives him something that he can rely on. As I said in the beginning, overconfidence is deadly.
46:56: Spiritual overconfidence is what we see all around us. But our confidence is only as good, it's only as sure, it's only as worthwhile as the object of it.
47:09: And if your confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is sure.
47:15: It is secure. He is the great I Am. He is
47:20: Savior, and he is judged. He came for judgment, and he will return for judgment.
47:30: And when he does, my prayer is that you will be found in him. Let's pray.
47:39: Father, we rejoice this morning in the way that, not just that Jesus came to this man, but the way that you have brought
47:53: Jesus into the lives of each one here who knows him and loves him. Father, left to our own, we would never, never have sought
48:05: Jesus. We might have had a
48:13: Jesus of our own construction, a Jesus of our own imaginings, but not the
48:20: Jesus of Scripture. Not the Jesus who fully God and fully man humbly went to the cross to pay the price for sin and was raised on the third day.
48:34: Not that Jesus. Father, by your
48:39: Spirit, you brought Jesus to us. You confronted us with the truth about him.
48:51: You caused us to worship him. You gave us spiritual sight, new affections, new desires.
49:03: Father, we praise you for those things. And Lord, we would pray for two things.
49:11: One is that anyone here who does not have that newness of life would even this morning have their eyes open to their spiritual need.
49:22: And secondly, we would pray that our goal, our objective, our thoughts would revolve around this.
49:33: How can we bring Jesus to those around us?
49:39: Friends, family, waiters, waitresses, just people we run into.
49:48: Father, make us so filled with the love for Jesus, the joy of the Spirit, that we are not just good missionaries, but willing, joyful missionaries.