LOJ #110: What the Blind Man Saw Pt. 1
Andover Baptist Church-July 17th, 2011
Opening
A. Text for today is John 9:1-12 and our sermon is titled ‘What
the Blind Man Saw Pt. 1’
B. Scripture NET:
“1 Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man or his parents?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him. 4 We must perform the deeds of the One who sent Me as long as it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I AM in the world, I AM the light of the world.” 6 Having said this, He spat on the ground and made some mud with the saliva. He smeared the mud on the blind man’s eyes 7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “sent”). So the blind man went away and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously as a beggar began saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some people said, “This is the man!” while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” The man himself kept insisting, “I am the one!”
C. Children’s Sermon(SLIDE)
1. Have the kids pick one person out of the crowd to make
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich blindfolded
2. Have you ever made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
before?
3. How about without being able to see?
4. Have them make the sandwich blindfolded (switch out
the jelly for mayo)
5. Could you imagine kids if you were born blind?
6. Today Jesus heals a man that had never seen before
7. How do you think that man felt once he could see?
8. Do you think he was happy he met Jesus?
9. Did you know that without Jesus we would never be able
to see our Father God?
D. Introduction
1. Blindness
2. Imagine for a moment if your world suddenly went dark
3. How would that affect your life?
4. In Jesus day to be blind was to be sentenced to a life that
was fully dependent and yet at the same time cut off
from the society in which you lived in
5. Today Jesus meets a man and opens his eyes, so he can
not only see Jesus, but His Father too
6. Countless people who can see physically in this world,
are hopelessly blind to God
7. What about you?
Sermon
READ: John 9:1, 2 Scripture slide)
“1 Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man or his parents?”
A. Finally Jesus is leaving the Temple mount
1. We have spent a good portion of our time in the last few
weeks listening to His dialogue with His opponents
2. But leaving the temple will prove to be as much of an
opportunity for His Father to be glorified as He was
when in it
3. It is likely that Jesus was leaving through one of the
south gates
4. Show map
B. Having encountered the spiritually blind in the Temple, Jesus
comes across a physically blind man outside of it
1. We are told some inside information, the man was born
blind
2. Think about that, he had never seen a color, a rainbow, a
sunrise, a sunset, his parents or even his very own face
3. There was no way for him to see Jesus either, nor could
he have recognized Him
4. These facts will prove what is about to take place all the
more significant
5. We have seen a number of times in the Life of Jesus
people seeking Him out, but here we see that Jesus is
the One who saw the man’s need, even when the man
himself could not even see Jesus
6. When Jesus passes by your life, unbeknownst to you,
what does He see?
C. The disciples wanted to know what caused this man's blindness
1. Being blind meant that you were not considered a
functioning member of society
a. In fact you would have to beg for an
existence
b. Often times near places where lots of people
would travel, like the city gates and hence here
outside of the temple
2. Because of all of this the disciples first inclination was
that this man was being punished with blindness
because someone sinned
3. The would not alone in this type of thinking
4. Jewish rabbis of that day often taught a cause and effect
relationship with sin
a. It was not uncommon for Jews to believe that one
could sin even as unborn babies
b. Recall the fighting that took place between Jacob
and Esau in their mother’s womb
c. But some Jews would say that if a pregnant
woman went to a pagan temple and worshiped
her unborn child was complicit in that sin to
d. It sound's horrible that some people believe that
you can be punished for this sins of your parents
e. Does it seem fair that I should be punished for
what my dad does? No
f. So what if my dad, hypothetically, was a rapist,
should I be put to death for it?
1. There are some in our country that would
think so
2. One of the most common reasons people
claim for abortion is rape
3. I’ve had people ask, what if your wife
was raped and got pregnant, would we
abort the baby
4. Before I answer that let me tell you about
a friend of mine, who’s own mother was
raped
5. In fact my friend is a direct result of that
sin of that man
6. His mother loves him and so does his
adopted dad, he has a wife and kids both
of whom they love
7. And he’s one of the most faithful friends
you could have
8. Yet how many people would have
punished him for the sins of his father?
9. So in answer to that question, who am I
to decide whether a child lives or dies?
5. What about our own sin, can we be punished for it?
Absolutely!
John 5:14 (NET)“After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.”
1 Corinthians 11:29–31 (NET)“29 For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead. 31 But if we examined ourselves, we would not be judged.”
b. Recall that Moses sister Miriam was struck with
leprosy for revolting against him
c. Sin does have consequences
d. People often ask, 'Why is there suffering?'...our fallen condition
1. There was a book that was wildly popular
Christian circles in the 1970's called
'Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good
People' (written by a Jewish man none
the less)
2. But there is a factual problem with the
book, one that you don't even have to
turn to the preface to see: it's on the
cover
3. So book cover (SLIDE)
4. Mixed into this is a sense of innocence, that some people don't deserve 'bad things' to happen to them
4. It assumes that there are good people, but you
know what the Bible says? None of us are
good!
Romans 3:10, 'just asit is written: “There isno onerighteous,not evenone,'
5. So the real question should be, 'Why Does Good
Things Happen to Bad People'
6. God’s word and common sense show that we are
all fallen and we all live in a fallen world
7. Mankind’s fall in to sin is the reason for all the
physical and spiritual ills we have in this world
6. So back to the disciples in their mind logically the man,
or his family, had sinned and he was being punished
7. They could not see any circumstance in which being
blind could actually be a way through which God can
work
8. God can work through even the bleakest of
circumstances
READ: John 9:3-5(Scripture slide)
“3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him. 4 We must perform the deeds of the One who sent Me as long as it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I AM in the world, I AM the light of the world.”
A. Jesus answers who sinned: No One
1. We look at tragedies as impassable road blocks instead
of bridges that God uses to take us places
2. Did you ever stop to think that the tragedies that have
been placed in your life, have been allowed so that God
can work through you mightily
3. This man was blind, not because of anything anyone had
done
4. But so that God could take a man born physically
blind, make him see physically and spiritually
5. And then testify to those who are blind spiritually about
Jesus
6. If this can be said of a blind man it can be said of you
7. In fact the weaker you are, the more you need Him, I'm
confident the more powerfully He will work through
you
8. In our weakness He is our strength, and how is His
strength ever not enough? Never!
9. What is God wanting to reveal through your life?
a. I believe whole heartedly that if you allow God
to work through your life He will
b. Each and everyone of you here today has a God
given reason for living
c. And a God given way of revealing Him to those
who don't know Him in your life
B. The lesson to be learned here is that even that which we see as
bad can contribute to God showing His glory through it
Romans 8:28 (NET)“And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose”
C. What is Jesus talking about when He says, ‘We must perform
the deeds of the One Who sent Me as long as it is daytime’?
1. 'We' = Jesus and His disciples
2. 'the One Who sent Me' = the Father
3. Jesus had a mission from the Father, and He was going
to fulfill that as long as He was on this earth
4. The darkness of the cross was coming, but for now He
would work
5. If Jesus could focus on what the Father would have Him
do, even if He knew that it would culminate on the cross
of Calvary, why can we not do as the Father would have
us do?
6. Like Jesus we must do that which God would have us
to do even in the face of opposition even to the point of
death
D. Why is Jesus speaking about night here?
1. 'Night is coming when no one can work'
2. At that time very few people worked at night, but here
night connotes the world's spiritual darkness without
Jesus
3. The period Jesus is referring to is His ministry leading
up to the cross
4. Jesus as the Light is temporarily going to be taken out of
the world
John 12:35–36 (NET)“35 Jesus replied, “The light is with you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he went away and hid himself from them.”
E. Jesus is the Light of the world
1. He is the One that gives Spiritual Light
2. He is the One that reveals the Father
3. And what He is about to do next proves this
READ: John 9:6, 7 (Scripture slide)
“6 Having said this, He spat on the ground and made some mud with the saliva. He smeared the mud on the blind man’s eyes 7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “sent”). So the blind man went away and washed, and came back seeing”.
A. Jesus' Method of Cure
1. Dirt and spit (dare you to go to the pharmacy and ask for
it….who knows if you are in Arkansas you might find I
on Isle 2 right between isle 4 and 6)
2. Why did Jesus do this when He could have just spoke
and it would have been so?
3. This wasn’t the first time He had done something like
this
Mark 7:33 (NET)“After Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man’s ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.”
4. We really don’t know why Jesus chose to heal this man
in this fashion
a. Maybe it was so the man could feel Jesus touch
b. For a blind person touch was the main way he
interacted with the world outside of mere sound
c. Some Jewish rabbis believed that the saliva of a
firstborn has healing properties, but most looked
down upon it as a use of magic (maybe Jesus
was purposely breaking taboo’s to show His
authority over such things)
d. Some have suggested that it hints back to creation Genesis 2:7 (NET)“The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”.
B. Jesus then tells the man to go to the pool of Siloam(SLIDE)
1. Only mention of the Pool of Siloam in the NT
a. This was part of a water system built by King
Hezekiah
b. The pool got its water from the Gihon spring in
the Kidron Valley
c. The water, therefore, was not natural to it but
‘sent’ to it and why it has its name
2. Notice that the man did not ask to be healed, Jesus did
this on His own prerogative
3. I would be a little concerned if I was blind and someone
put spit and mud on my face
4. On top of this Jesus tells the man to go and wash in the
pool of Siloam which. being outside of the city, would
not have been an easy destination for a blind man
5. So here we have a blind man sent on a mission, just as
the Father sent Jesus on a mission
6. Why would Jesus send the man off to the pool of
Siloam?
a. To wash the mud out of his eyes so he could see
b. To get the man to do something in faith
c. To become ritually purified
d. Or possibly to show the Jews rejection of Jesus
(cf. Isa 8:6)
Isaiah 8:6 (NET)“These people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and melt in fear over Rezin and the son of Remaliah.”
C. The man was obedient and what did he have to show for it?
Sight!
1. The man is cured immediately
2. Jesus said that He was the Light of the World, and here
He proves it
3. The man's physical blindness indicated a deeper
spiritual blindness that Jesus will soon deal with as well
{stopped}
D. Jesus gave the man a mission,
1. The healing required obedience,
2. It is no different with us
3. Do you want to be healed of the sin in your life?
4. You have to be obedient and come to Jesus and then He
will make you clean
5. Just as that man was born in physical darkness, so are
we born in spiritual darkness
6. Isn't it amazing that when you listen to Jesus you can
see, had the man disobeyed he would have spent to his
dying day grouping in darkness...isn't that a picture of
us before Jesus?
READ: John 9:8, 9 (Scripture slide)
“8 Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously as a beggar began saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some people said, “This is the man!” while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” The man himself kept insisting, “I am the one!”
A. This blind man had been a regular sight, now that he had his
sight he was a marvel
B. They had thrown coins at him, likely disdainful looks and
possibly even insults, and now they were astonished to see him
seeing
1. They had seen him for years but it was so illogical that
some couldn't believe it
2. He wasn't faking being blind because he would have
been caught by now, their astonishment and
bewilderment is real
3. How strange would it be for you to see a man that you
knew had no legs walking down the street?
4. Or a man who could not talk talking?
5. Or a man who had not hands because of leprosy giving
you a tumbs up?
6. Likewise they couldn't reconcile this now seeing man
with his formerly blind self
C. Repeatedly this man had to testify that he was indeed who he
said he was
1. Ironically this resembles Jesus’ plight