From Darkness to Light: The Necessity of Spiritual Sight

• Spiritual Blindness and Salvation [00:31:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that the man born blind serves as a picture of all people who are spiritually blind from birth, whose eyes are opened by Jesus through salvation.
• The Relationship Between Sin and Suffering [00:34:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses the disciples' question about who sinned to cause the blindness, correcting the faulty theology that misfortune is always a direct result of personal sin.
• The Sovereignty and Glory of God [00:35:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses Jesus' statement that the man was blind so the works of God might be displayed, emphasizing that God is sovereign and in control.
• Theodicy and Sovereignty [00:35:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor corrects the faulty theology that suffering is always a direct result of personal sin, arguing instead that the man's blindness was an opportunity for God's works to be displayed.
• Christology (I Am Statements) [00:37:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes Jesus' declaration 'I am the light of the world' in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles, linking it to the pillar of fire and the menorahs to show Jesus as the fulfillment of God's presence.
• Sabbath Controversy [00:43:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus' method of healing (making mud) was a deliberate provocation against Pharisaic traditions regarding Sabbath work, forcing a decision about Jesus' identity.
• Creation and Restoration [00:42:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor interprets the use of mud and saliva as an allusion to Genesis, portraying Jesus as the Creator restoring His creation, distinct from a mere miracle worker.
• Religious Inquisition and Division [00:47:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the Pharisees' hostile interrogation of the healed man, highlighting the division among them regarding whether Jesus is from God or a sinner for breaking Sabbath rules.
• Fear and Intimidation [00:50:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains how the healed man's parents, fearing excommunication from the synagogue, refused to testify about the miracle, showing how religious pressure silences truth.
• Spiritual Blindness vs. Physical Sight [00:55:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the physical healing of the beggar with the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees, arguing that the religious leaders are 'willfully blind' to Jesus' identity.
• Confession and Worship [00:57:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor details Jesus seeking out the excommunicated man, leading to the man's confession of faith and worship of Jesus as the Son of Man.
• Worship and Spiritual Blindness [01:00:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that humanity is spiritually blind and born blind, requiring us to worship Jesus as God who gives sight, contrasting this with the Pharisees' pride.
• Evangelism through Personal Testimony [01:03:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes that sharing a personal story of being 'blind then seeing' is more powerful than philosophical arguments or apologetics.
• Preparation for Opposition [01:06:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor warns that following Christ in a darkening culture will lead to rejection from family, friends, and religious establishments, requiring believers to stand firm.
• Anticipation of the New Creation [01:07:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor looks forward to the end times where Jesus, the Lamb, will be the literal light of the new creation, ending all darkness.
• Spiritual Blindness and Sight [01:09:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor prays for those outside of Christ to recognize their spiritual blindness and for believers to remember the wonder of having their eyes opened to the knowledge of God's glory.
• Evangelism and Witness [01:09:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor prays for empowerment to share personal stories of transformation from blindness to sight.
• Perseverance in Faith [01:09:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor prays for strength to stand against opposition and follow Jesus regardless of the cost.
• Eschatological Hope [01:10:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes living in anticipation of Jesus' return as the ultimate light and lamp.

• Sermon Illustration [00:27:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about his sabbatical in 2017, specifically visiting the Reformation Wall in Geneva, Switzerland, and its motto 'post tenebris lux' (after darkness, light), which he uses as an analogy for the transition from spiritual darkness to light in John 9.
• Sermon Illustration [00:32:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the experience of a man born blind, noting that while he had a vocabulary, he had zero images and no self-image, living in a 'pictureless existence' where his mind drew blanks because he had never seen anything.
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts his time working as a law clerk for Judge Hez Bussey, a brilliant man who became legally blind after the Bataan Death March. The pastor read legal opinions and financial statements to the judge, giving him insight into the reality of living with blindness.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the Feast of Tabernacles, where 75-foot tall menorahs with torches lit up Jerusalem for seven nights, symbolizing the Shekinah glory and the pillar of fire from the wilderness.
• Sermon Illustration [00:45:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor quotes Gary Enrig describing the miracle as complex because the man's brain had to be 'rewired' to process sight for the first time, noting it was an instant, complete healing.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the historical discovery of the Pool of Siloam in 2004 and mentions Hezekiah's tunnel, an engineering marvel that brought water from the Gihon Spring into the city.
• Sermon Illustration [00:47:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a quote about the lack of joy in the religious leaders' response to the healing, noting they dragged the man to an 'inquisition' rather than a celebration.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the Old Testament story of Achan, explaining that the phrase 'give glory to God' was a solemn charge to tell the truth, which the Pharisees used to pressure the blind man.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells the story of Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen, who held a telescope to his blind eye and claimed he didn't see the signal to retreat, illustrating the phrase 'turn a blind eye' to the truth.
• Sermon Illustration [01:02:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the story of Gypsy Smith, an evangelist who, at age 85, attributed his spiritual vitality to never losing the 'wonder' of God opening his eyes to the gospel.
• Sermon Illustration [01:05:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a story by Leslie Flynn about a woman who led another to Christ not through arguments, but by building a 'bridge from her heart to mine and Christ walked over it.'

• Pastoral Charge [01:01:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > Unbelievers are called to recognize their spiritual need and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.
• Pastoral Charge [01:02:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Believers are called to engage in personal, kneeling prayer of thanksgiving for their spiritual illumination.
• Pastoral Charge [01:05:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > Believers are called to pray specifically for courage and opportunities to share their personal testimonies with others.

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:01] Well, good morning and welcome to Faith Bible Church. It is a joy and wonderful to see each and every one of you this morning as we gather to worship the Lord. My name is Seth Brown. I'm the
[00:00:14] pastor of Adult Connections here at the church, and on behalf of the staff and elders, thank you for joining us for gathered worship at this 11 o'clock hour here at Faith Bible Church. Again, we're very, very thankful for your presence. If this is your first time here, if you're new to
[00:00:27] Faith Bible. We want to let you know that we are glad you're here as well. We hope you feel welcomed and we'd love to meet you. And so after the service, we invite you to the Welcome Center
[00:00:36] in the foyer here. You can just go out these back doors of the worship center and there'll be some folks there at the Welcome Center to greet you and get to know you and give you some
[00:00:43] information about the church. And so again, if this is your first time, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Lots of stuff happening today at Faith Bible Church. So I just want to
[00:00:51] run through a couple of quick announcements before we begin singing and worshiping the Lord through song. First off, Sally Gowan from FaithWorks, the inner city, is in the foyer this morning handing out the Christmas sacks that they give away every year. We encourage you to grab one
[00:01:06] of those, fill it up with all the stuff that's listed on there, and bring it back in a couple weeks. And that's going to be a great blessing to the folks down there at FaithWorks in the inner
[00:01:13] city in South Oklahoma City. And so love for you to be a part of that. Secondly, this evening is our next New Member Connection workshop. And so if you're new to Faith Bible or maybe you want to
[00:01:22] join the church, you know, start the membership process. We'd love for you to be there this evening at six o'clock. We still have plenty of room. So if you want to join us for that,
[00:01:29] find me in the Welcome Center after the service and I'll get you signed up for that. No problem at all. And again, that's at 6 p.m. this evening. Before that, however, we have an Advent celebration
[00:01:39] or an Advent sort of preparation party for the Faith Kids ministry. That's going to be at four o'clock here in the worship center. And this is going to be a great time. Lots of exciting stuff
[00:01:47] planned. We're very excited to have all the kids and their parents out this afternoon. There's gonna be face painting, there's gonna be games, there's gonna be sugary treats, singing and dancing, there's gonna be a petting zoo, a car giveaway, it's gonna be just an amazing, I'm sorry,
[00:02:02] what? No car. No car giveaway. Sorry. No one tells me anything around this place, ever. So we're not giving a car away, but there will be a petting zoo. Is the petting zoo still happening? Okay, as
[00:02:17] far as we know, the petting zoo is still happening. So that's gonna be a great time. We're gonna be giving out the sticky Christmas packets for all the kids. Please, parents, do not miss this today
[00:02:27] at 4 to 5.30 here in the worship center. Lots of other stuff going on in the bulletin as well, so take a look at that this afternoon, today, as we worship the Lord. And to prepare our hearts
[00:02:40] for that, let me pray for us and read from God's Word very quickly. In Psalm 66, 1 through 4, the psalmist writes this, let the whole world shout joyfully to God. Sing about the glory of
[00:02:52] his name. Make his praise glorious. Say to God how awe-inspiring are your works. Your enemies will cringe before you because of your great strength. The whole earth will worship you and sing praises to you. They will sing praise to your name. Father, we are in awe of you this morning.
[00:03:10] We are in awe of your love and of your grace and your mercy, not only today but every day, God, in our lives. We thank you for the opportunity to gather this morning to lift up your holy name,
[00:03:19] to sing your praises, and to celebrate your goodness to us. You invite us into your presence, Father, into your family through your son Jesus Christ and his obedience. We could never, God, and would never come to you on our own without that salvation. We thank you that he provides
[00:03:35] that to us. Remind us, God, now in every moment of our lives about your kindness and your graciousness, God. God, though we were separated from you because of our sin, you have brought us near to
[00:03:48] you through Christ's sacrifice. So we pray this morning, God, that you're honored by our time, that you're glorified by our words. We ask that you would make us more like Jesus through the hearing of your holy word as it's preached. We ask that you would change our hearts, God, and make
[00:04:02] our desires your desires. Help us to see beyond ourselves and past the idols of our lives.
[00:04:08] Use us, God, to take your gospel into this world.
[00:04:11] We do thank you for Jesus and for the love you've shown us through him.
[00:04:14] We do pray all these things in his name.
[00:04:16] Amen.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:04:18] Would you stand this morning?
[00:04:20] Let's praise our great God together.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:04:22] The debt that you pay, this is the reason I sing.
[00:05:34] For the hope that you give, this is the reason.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:05:46] We have a God who is the fount of every blessing that we can name this morning.
[00:08:48] Anything good in our life comes from the Father above, the source of all.
[00:08:55] We want to sing this great hymn out this morning.
[00:08:57] Lift our hearts in thankfulness to the Lord.
[00:09:00] Praise the fount of every blessing.

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:09:02] Do my heart to dreams of never see.
[00:09:23] All for songs of loudest praise.
[00:09:28] He's me sung by flaming tongues of thy reed.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:09:45] Just thank God for the words that we just sang, that though we were in darkness, he rescued us to the light.

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:13:55] His grace is always with us, and his presence will never leave us.
[00:14:00] Just praise him for his promises and thank him.
[00:14:09] Philippians 4 says, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
[00:14:17] We are blessed beyond what we can even express this morning.
[00:14:22] So would you take a moment and thank the Lord for supplying all that we need in the person of Christ Jesus.
[00:14:38] Psalm 125 says, Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
[00:14:46] As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore.
[00:14:54] We have the Lord's protection.
[00:14:55] We have his presence surrounding us.
[00:14:57] So would you take a moment and thank him for his protection over you this morning?
[00:15:03] God, you have truly blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
[00:15:18] We thank you for choosing us, making us blameless and holy before you.
[00:15:24] We thank you for calling us your sons and daughters and calling us to be adopted into your family.
[00:15:32] We thank you for the redemption we know through Jesus' blood, the forgiveness that we know even though we don't deserve it according to your amazing rich filled grace god we praise you today we thank you and we praise you lord we continue to sing to
[00:15:56] you about your amazing grace this morning and we bless you it's in jesus name that we pray amen

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:16:05] father we remember the words of the psalmist this morning who says i'll praise the name of god with

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:23:57] the song. I will magnify him with thanksgiving. Father, we magnify your great name today, our great triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And Father, we give thanks to you today. I know that many of us here today have burdens. We have things that we're concerned
[00:24:12] about and troubles in our lives. But Father, we'd certainly be remiss today, especially this Thanksgiving week, not to pour out our hearts to you in thanksgiving for all the things that you've given to us. Father, you've been so good to us. Father, we thank you for open eyes. You've opened
[00:24:27] our eyes and you've called us from darkness to your marvelous light. Father, we thank you for our nation. This is a nation with a lot of troubles today, but it's still the best place to live in the
[00:24:38] world. And we thank you for our country. We pray that our leaders would realize their accountability to you. Father, help us as a nation. Father, we thank you for our families. We thank you for this
[00:24:48] church family. We thank you for wonderful friends you've given to us who multiply our blessings and divide our sorrows. We thank you for the measure of health that each one of us enjoy to be able to
[00:24:59] be here today. And Father, we thank you most of all for Jesus Christ and the hope of heaven that he gives to us. And now, Father, we thank you for your inspired and errant word. And we ask as we
[00:25:10] open your word this morning, that you'll open our eyes to your truth. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Welcome to Faith Bible Church. It's great to have you all
[00:25:22] here with us this morning. Thank you so much for being here with us on this Lord's Day. If you're visiting with us, a special thanks to each one of you for visiting. It means a lot to us that you'd
[00:25:32] come and spend this Lord's Day with us. Well, I've got an announcement to make today. It's been a while in coming. I'm excited about it. It's the launch of a website for a prophecy conference
[00:25:41] here at our church on February 26th. So February 26th of next year, 2022, we're having a prophecy conference here at the church called marking the times and the website's finally up for you to be
[00:25:54] able to sign up for that we've got great speakers these are all friends of mine all men i know well i'm philip de courcy's coming a lot of you all know philip i'll be speaking jack hibbs from
[00:26:04] calvary chapel chino hills is going to be here um amir sarfati is also going to be here as well and jeff kinley who's a friend of mine from arkansas dts graduate who's also a prophecy
[00:26:16] writer and speaker so i'm very excited about this you can sign up you can go to the faith bible church website and get the link to go and sign up you you have to sign up to you have to
[00:26:26] have a ticket to come that day and i'm giving you all the first shot at this kind of before we kind of announce it to a lot of other people so i think it'll probably fill up pretty fast so act quickly
[00:26:36] if you're not able to come you can watch it on live stream and so tell others about it and begin to spread the word and we'll have some more information as we get closer to the time but
[00:26:45] And I, you know, I let you all know that I love prophecy.
[00:26:49] I love thinking about the Lord's coming.
[00:26:51] And so with all that's happening in our world today, I've just kind of had a sense of urgency.
[00:26:54] And I thought, you know, I need to do something myself.
[00:26:56] We need to do something at our church.
[00:26:58] So this prophecy conference is kind of the result or the fruit of that.
[00:27:01] So anyway, very excited about that and make that announcement here today.
[00:27:05] Well, getting back to our message for this morning, we're currently in a series titled Signs of Life.
[00:27:10] That's the series we're in right now.
[00:27:12] if you've been with us, you know that we're looking at these seven sign miracles in John's gospel in John 1 to 11. And this morning, we're going to look at the sixth sign. So we're almost
[00:27:22] to the end of this study. We'll finish it next time. But the sixth sign in John chapter 9. So if you'll turn to John 9 with me in your Bible, we'll look at this whole chapter. I won't read
[00:27:33] at the beginning of it here this morning. We'll just read it as we go along. But I've titled this morning's message, seeing the light, seeing the light. Back in the summer of 2017, the church was
[00:27:44] kind enough to give Cheryl and myself a sabbatical. We'd been here 25 years at the church. And so I went over and I was speaking at a prophecy conference in Germany. And so did that. And
[00:27:56] then we traveled around Europe for a couple of weeks and met up with a group from our church and other churches in Istanbul, Turkey, and went on a journeys of Paul Cruz. So it was a great,
[00:28:05] time of seeing a lot of wonderful sites. But one of the places Cheryl and I went was Geneva, Switzerland. And I wanted to go there for several reasons. Obviously, it's one of the great cities
[00:28:14] of the Protestant Reformation. And one of the things I wanted to see was what's called the Reformation Wall. It's a long wall of limestone, beautiful, four statues of four of the great Protestant reformers there, four great men of God who really changed the course of human history
[00:28:30] and certainly altered the course of Christianity.
[00:28:33] But there on the edge on that Reformation wall is the motto of the Protestant Reformation, which in Latin is post tenebris lux.
[00:28:43] And translated into English, it means after darkness, light.
[00:28:48] After darkness, light.
[00:28:50] Because the Reformation took place in a very dark time spiritually.
[00:28:54] It was dark.
[00:28:56] But as the gospel of Jesus Christ began to be preached, the pure gospel, the light began to come on. As people heard the gospel, the truth of God's grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. We can be saved
[00:29:10] by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. The lights began to go on. After darkness, there was light.
[00:29:17] And you could really write those same words across the top of John chapter 9. After darkness, light. Because John chapter 9 is the story of a blind man who is healed by Jesus and has his eyes
[00:29:31] opened. A man who sees the light. A man who goes from the darkness to the light. And like all these other miracles we've looked at in John's gospel, this miracle is a sign with a deeper meaning.
[00:29:43] It's a literal miracle that happened, but there's a deeper spiritual meaning to this miracle. It's a sign. And what this miracle pictures is it pictures all who are spiritually blind and whose eyes are opened by Jesus and who are drenched in the light of his glory when they come to faith
[00:30:00] and trust in him. So that's what this story really is all about. It's a story about a physical healing that points to the deeper spiritual healing that all of us need. So I have four
[00:30:11] simple points this morning to study this sign together. I want to look at the cure and then the controversy than the confession this man makes, and then the call that this places upon our lives. So let's start here with the cure. Now look at chapter 8 and verse 59 of John's gospel.
[00:30:30] It says, therefore they picked up stones to throw at him. So Jesus in the previous verse has claimed to be God. He says, I am. Before Abraham was, I am. So they want to kill him. But notice at the end
[00:30:42] of the verse says, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. So if you were to read John chapter 7 and 8, all of those chapters occur there in the temple area. And so Jesus now is leaving
[00:30:55] the temple. So we come to chapter 9 verse 1, and it says, as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. So Jesus is leaving the temple, and he sees a man blind from birth. Now the reason the man is
[00:31:09] there is he's begging for money. And the temple was a prime place for beggars. Large crowds would gather there at the temple. And also people coming to the temple to worship were a lot more likely to
[00:31:21] give alms. And if you're going to the temple to worship, you're probably going to be a little more generous maybe than you would be otherwise. So this man, he's unnamed. We never know his name,
[00:31:30] but it says he's blind from birth. In other words, his condition is congenital. Now this is the only person in the Gospels where the disease is stated to be from birth. So you think, well, why is that
[00:31:42] placed here? Why does it just say he's blind? Well, remember, this is going to be a picture not only of Jesus opening this man's eyes physically, but of opening spiritual eyes.
[00:31:52] And you and I are blind spiritually from birth, so in that way, this man is a powerful sign or a picture of our salvation, of our eyes being opened spiritually. Now, this man had never seen
[00:32:04] a sunrise. He couldn't distinguish pink from purple. He dwelled in a dark world. One man puts it like this. The man born blind had as many words in his vocabulary as anyone else, but zero images. His photo album was empty. It was a pictureless existence. He couldn't picture
[00:32:24] the faces of his mother or father. He'd heard his friends describe the beauty of the lily and the splendor of the Jerusalem sunset, but he couldn't imagine them because he'd never seen them. He'd never seen himself in the mirror, so literally he had no self-image. Imagine closing your eyes and
[00:32:41] never being able to open them again. Your world would go dark, but in the dark room of your mind, you could still develop pictures of images you've seen before. But if your eyes had never been open
[00:32:52] to begin with, your mind would draw blanks. This was the only world the man born blind had ever known. He lived his whole life in darkness. And many of you know that before I went to Dallas
[00:33:05] Seminary, I worked, I was an attorney, and I worked for a judge at the Court of Criminal Appeals. His name was Hez Bussey. And Judge Bussey was a brilliant man. I've had the privilege in my life
[00:33:16] to be around a lot of smart people, and Judge Bussey's the smartest man I've ever known. And I worked with him every day for four years, a brilliant man. But Judge Bussey was legally blind. When he was 18 years old, he was captured in the Philippines. It was on the Bataan Death
[00:33:31] March. Many of you may have heard of that tragic part of American history. He had a lot of outward scars, but his biggest scars were on the inside. But because of malnutrition and some injuries
[00:33:42] he'd received, his optic nerve degenerated, and he was legally blind only when they were finally freed. So I read everything to him. You know, when you'd write an opinion and you have to read it to
[00:33:52] him. And I read his financial statements to him. I knew everything about his whole life, so I read everything to him. And we were very close. I love Judge Bussey. But he lived in that world. And I
[00:34:02] saw during those four years some of what it's like for a person to be blind. And of course, Judge Bussey didn't go blind until his early 20s. Here's a man who'd been blind all his life.
[00:34:13] And so when they see this blind man there, it stimulates a question from Jesus' disciples regarding the relationship between sin and sickness.
[00:34:22] His disciples ask him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?
[00:34:28] Now, the Jewish leaders of that day regarded any misfortune as the direct result of somebody's sin.
[00:34:33] So if you have misfortune or suffering, somewhere in the deal, somebody has sinned.
[00:34:38] And you think about this, there's something about all of us that likes to reduce life down to kind of easily quantifiable terms where good brings blessing and affliction is always the penalty for wrongdoing. We kind of, we like things kind of in simple
[00:34:52] categories. It's human nature to want to find somebody to blame for something, but life isn't always that clear and simple. Of course, sometimes there is a direct link between someone's suffering and misfortune and their own personal sin. Remember back in John 5 when Jesus healed the
[00:35:11] paralytic, the paralyzed man. He told him, go and don't sin anymore. So evidently in his case, his personal sin had in some way led to his disease that he had. But it's not always true.
[00:35:24] In fact, it's probably not often true. So Jesus corrects here the faulty theology of the leaders of that day and his disciples. Now notice what Jesus says in verse 3. It was neither that this
[00:35:36] man sin nor his parents but it was in order that the works of god might be displayed in him we must work the works of him who sent me as long as it is day as long as it's day means as long as
[00:35:47] jesus is alive night is coming when no man can work so the answer jesus gives here has bothered some people because it seems like jesus saying it was neither the man who sinned nor his parents
[00:36:00] but it was in order that the works of god might be displayed in him in other words that god made this man blind so that God could display his works in him. Now, certainly God could do that.
[00:36:12] And God is sovereign and God is in control. If he wanted to make this man blind so that later on he could be glorified in him, certainly God could do that. God's the potter, we're the clay. But I think
[00:36:23] in this context, it's better to translate the verse this way. You'd say it was neither this man who sin nor his parents period and then you start another sentence there but in order that the works
[00:36:36] of god might be displayed in him we must work the works of him who sent us so you state it that way rather than just reading it as one long sentence and so the point here i think in this text is
[00:36:48] god didn't make this man blind to show his glory god sent jesus to do the work of healing in order to show God's glory. I think that's the point here. Jesus' point is that this man's blindness
[00:37:00] provides an opportunity to show the power of God at work. So Jesus came to reveal that power.
[00:37:09] Now in verse 5, Jesus then says, while I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
[00:37:16] Now that harks back to chapter 8, verse 12. If you want to turn back there for a moment, in John 8, 12, Jesus says the same thing. This is one of his seven great I am statements in John's
[00:37:27] gospel. I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Now, a little bit of background here about this is helpful. This is, if you read
[00:37:39] John chapter 7 and John chapter 8 and into John 9, the background or backdrop here is the Feast of Tabernacles. It's one of the three Jewish feasts that all the males, all men, were required
[00:37:51] to go to Jerusalem to celebrate. It's in the fall, one of the fall feasts. It's called the Feast of Booths. It's called the Feast of Shelters because they would build small booths or huts and live in
[00:38:02] those to remind them of the time that the Jewish people spend in the wilderness. So all of John 7 through 9, that's the context. Here's this Feast of Tabernacles. And this is in the fall of A.D. 32,
[00:38:15] the next spring will be the 30 will be ad 33 when jesus dies so this is about six months before the death of jesus now the feast of tabernacles again that's the context here one of the things
[00:38:28] that happened at feast of tabernacles is beginning on the second night of the feast for seven nights in a row they would go and light these huge menorahs they were 75 feet tall with torches
[00:38:40] there and they would light them they would light up the entire city so you think about back in that day. They had no street lights or anything. It was always dark at night, but for those nights in
[00:38:49] Jerusalem, it would be all lit up. And these menorahs, they were 75 feet tall, as tall as the walls in the temple, with huge torches on top. And they would be lit every night, and the people
[00:39:01] would dance, and literally they'd party all night. I mean, it was a great time of celebration in the land of Israel. And what these lights did, and this is kind of someone's picture of what it would
[00:39:11] have looked like there in the temple. You can see those huge menorah there. But what this pictured was, it pictured when they were in the wilderness. Remember that God was dwelled among them as a
[00:39:23] pillar of fire at night, and then he was a pillar of cloud in the day. So it's reminding them of God's presence with them in the fire. It was the Shekinah glory of God. But it also looked ahead
[00:39:34] to the coming of the Messiah, who they believed would be the great light. As Isaiah 9 says, you know, those who walk in darkness have seen a great light. So looked back to the wilderness journey of
[00:39:46] the presence of God with them, looked ahead to the great light, to the coming of the Messiah.
[00:39:52] So this is what it was like in ancient Israel. They would camp at night. The tabernacle would be in the middle, and that pillar of fire was there burning that flame. It was to remind the people
[00:40:02] of God's presence. So in tabernacles, as these torches are burning, it's a reminder of that for them. So you think about this in John chapter 8, when Jesus stands there, it's the day after the
[00:40:16] great feast has ended. He's there in the temple. You got these 75 foot menorah, these charred torches at top. There's no light. And Jesus comes into the temple and says, I am the light of the
[00:40:26] world. Whoever believes in me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of light. Now you talk about a bold statement. Jesus doesn't say I'm a light. He says, I'm the light. He doesn't say
[00:40:37] the light of jerusalem he doesn't say i'm the light of israel he says i am the light of the world what jesus is saying there in essence is i'm back god's presence had been gone from the temple
[00:40:49] for centuries 600 years and jesus is there saying everything that pillar of fire symbolized in the old testament everything that these menorah symbolized that's who i am i am the light of the world. I mean, what a statement Jesus makes. And again, you can see the picture of what this
[00:41:07] would have looked like. Jesus is there the next day proclaiming he's the light. Now, in that background, think about this. Anybody can come along, though, and say, I'm the light of the world, right? I mean, anybody can say that. But what chapter 9 does is it validates the claim Jesus
[00:41:23] made. Jesus says, I'm the light of the world. And to prove he's the light of the world, he finds a man who's been born blind and jesus opens his eyes and shines the light to him now in verse 6
[00:41:37] says when he said this he spit on the ground and made clay of spittle and applied the clay to the man's eyes and he said to him go wash in the pool of siloam now jesus makes some mud and puts it on
[00:41:52] the man's eyes now jesus could have healed this man any way that he wanted to he could have just touched him, could have just said the word. He could have healed him any way he wanted. But in
[00:42:00] this case, he made mud with his saliva and applies the mixture to this man's eyes. Now, I like what one person says. He says, now there is something you don't expect to read in the Bible. Jesus
[00:42:12] spitting. A prayer would have seemed appropriate, perhaps a hallelujah. But who expected a heavenly spit in the dirt? The God who sent manna and fire dispatched a blob of saliva. And as calmly as a painter spackles a hole in the wall. Jesus streaked miracle mud on this man's eyes. What a
[00:42:31] picture. Now, why did Jesus do it this way? Probably a couple reasons. One is, this is probably an allusion back to creation. Humanity is created out of the dust of the ground. In fact, here in this
[00:42:45] verse, you could translate it, he applied his mud to the man's eyes. The same terminology here is used of the creation of man out of the dust of the ground here jesus is the creator and he takes
[00:42:57] mud and his own he takes dirt in his own saliva and makes the mud he's the one that can create and restore one person says it like this the moment described is not between a miracle worker
[00:43:09] and a sick man it's between the creator and his creation it's not just a miracle worker and some guy that's sick this is the creator and his creation the one who can bring sight to blind
[00:43:21] eyes but a second reason i think jesus does it this way is we're going to find out later in verse 14 that jesus does this on the sabbath when you read in verse 14 now it was a sabbath on the day
[00:43:33] when jesus made the clay you ought to immediately say uh-oh i mean this is we're getting ready for a controversy and i think jesus does it this way because he knows that in the rules that the
[00:43:45] Pharisees and the Jewish authorities had made about Sabbath, that making this mud out of the dirt would be considered work by them. Again, this wasn't part of the Mosaic law. It's part of all the man-made traditions they'd piled on it. So what Jesus does, he heals this man with this mud
[00:44:04] that he knows is going to get the ire of these religious leaders, because what he wants to do is stir a conflict to force all the people who are there to face the decision about who Jesus is.
[00:44:15] They're going to have to face their own self-righteousness and their own misuse of the law.
[00:44:20] And they're going to be forced to have to make a decision.
[00:44:22] Who is this man?
[00:44:24] So that's why Jesus does it this way, I believe.
[00:44:27] Now, verse 7, He commands him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, which the word Siloam means sent.
[00:44:34] And so Jesus sent the blind man and Jesus is the one sent by the Father.
[00:44:39] So the one sent by the Father is sending this blind man to this pool called sent.
[00:44:44] Those of you who've been to Israel probably have been to the pool of Siloam.
[00:44:48] There was a former place, they used to always take everybody, but they've actually found the real site in 2004.
[00:44:54] So if you were there before that, you didn't see the real site, but they've uncovered the pool of Siloam.
[00:44:59] It went from a place outside Israel called the Gihon Spring, and remember Hezekiah, 700 years before Christ, they dug a tunnel that brought the water from outside the city, inside the city, to the pool of Siloam there.
[00:45:12] So some of you may have walked through Hezekiah's tunnel.
[00:45:15] Still there today.
[00:45:16] It's one of the engineering marvels of history, how they dug that tunnel.
[00:45:22] But that's where the man goes and he washes.
[00:45:24] And it just has these simple words here.
[00:45:26] He came back seeing.
[00:45:29] Now that leaves out a lot of detail.
[00:45:31] Think about this man when he washes his eyes and he can see for the very first time what he must have been doing and the people around him.
[00:45:39] Gary Enrig puts it like this.
[00:45:41] he says the miracle was complex not only had his eyes been restored but his brain had been rewired to do what it had never done before think about that so just healing the eyes his brain had never
[00:45:54] functioned this way his was an instant complex complete healing that god does now at this point in this story jesus is going to disappear till we get all the way down to verse 35 what happens now
[00:46:09] is this miracle ignites a controversy.
[00:46:11] It sparks a firestorm.
[00:46:13] And what we're going to see in verses 8-34 is four interrogations in the wake of this sign.
[00:46:21] So, a cycle of four scenes or four interviews with this formerly blind man and others.
[00:46:28] So the first one is in his neighbors.
[00:46:31] Notice verse 8.
[00:46:32] The neighbors, therefore, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, is this not the one who used to sit and beg? Others were saying, this is he.
[00:46:42] Still others were saying, no, but it's like him. He kept saying, I am the one. Therefore, they were saying to him, how then were your eyes open? He answered, the man who's called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. I went away and washed
[00:46:59] and I received sight. And they said to him, where is he? And he said, I do not know.
[00:47:05] So the neighbors of this blind man quickly have their attention attracted to this man.
[00:47:11] And also all the people who'd seen him begging over the years.
[00:47:14] The whole neighborhood's in an uproar.
[00:47:16] Public opinion, those divided.
[00:47:18] Some people are saying, this is the man that used to beg, who was blind.
[00:47:21] And other people are saying, no, it's just somebody that looks like him.
[00:47:25] So they're not sure about what's going on.
[00:47:28] And so they take this man then to the Pharisees, the religious leaders.
[00:47:32] Notice verse 13.
[00:47:33] They brought him to the Pharisees who was formerly blind.
[00:47:36] That was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened the man's eyes.
[00:47:41] So the next three interrogations here are going to be by the Pharisees.
[00:47:46] They launch a serious inquiry here of what's happening.
[00:47:49] Now, one person I read this week had a really striking quote.
[00:47:52] I like this.
[00:47:52] He says, we see plenty of debate and hear lots of questions, but where is the excitement?
[00:47:58] Where is the joy on behalf of this man who'd been miraculously healed?
[00:48:02] instead of leading him to a celebration they drag him to an inquisition and you think the response of everybody would just be excitement and celebrating with this man but they don't do that it's all about the inquisition of this man about what's happened to him on the sabbath so the
[00:48:18] formerly blind man is interrogated now notice in uh down in verse uh 16 or verse 15 again therefore the pharisees were asking him how he received his sight and he said to them he applied clay to my
[00:48:33] eyes and i washed and i see therefore some of the pharisees were saying this man is not from god because he does not keep the sabbath so this is going to be their big stumbling block problem
[00:48:43] the guy he broke the sabbath at least their rules of the sabbath so he can't be from god no matter what he did but others were saying how can a man who's a sinner perform such signs notice they
[00:48:55] call them signs as well. And there was a division among them. So what follows here is an elaborate game of cat and mouse, and this blind man is the mouse. And the clear division here erupts even
[00:49:08] among the Pharisees. Jesus is either a Sabbath breaker and therefore a sinner, or he's a miracle worker and he's from God. But the Pharisees have a big problem on their hands. They have to discredit
[00:49:21] this man. So they're unable to reach a consensus. So they turn to the man again in verse 17.
[00:49:28] They said, therefore, to the blind man again, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes?
[00:49:34] And the man said, he is a prophet. Now that's probably the best thing he could think of to say about Jesus. He's a prophet. He's someone who's sent from God. But the Pharisees are still
[00:49:44] unwilling to believe that a miracle has happened. So now what do they do? They call in the man's parents. Notice verse 18, the Jews therefore did not believe it of him that he'd been blind and
[00:49:56] had received sight until they called the parents of the one who'd received his sight. And they questioned him saying, is this your son whom you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?
[00:50:09] So they asked the parents two questions because by the way, the best authority on whether this man was born blind were his parents. I mean, he wouldn't even know that necessarily about himself, but they were there. They know he was born blind. So they ask him, is this your son? And was he born
[00:50:25] blind? And they say to them, he's our son and he was born blind. And then they asked them down a little bit further. They ask him, they say, we know this is our son and he was born blind, but how he
[00:50:38] sees, we do not know. And who opened his eyes? We don't know. So we know he's our son. We know he's born blind, but how his eyes got opened and who did it, we don't know. And so they kind of bow
[00:50:51] out of this and they're intimidated by the Pharisees. And verse 22 tells us why. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess him to be Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. So if anybody confessed
[00:51:09] Jesus as the Messiah, they'd be apo sunagoge. They'd be kicked out of the synagogue. They would be distanced from their family. They probably couldn't get a good job. So these parents are intimidated and they want to back off and get out of this situation. So basically what they say is
[00:51:25] in verse 23, his parents said, our sons of age, ask him. So look, he's old enough. He's an adult.
[00:51:32] Go ask our son. So again, the Pharisees summoned this formerly blind man. So notice verse 24.
[00:51:38] so a second time they called the man who'd been blind and they said to him give glory to god we know this man is a sinner now back in that day when they'd say give glory to god
[00:51:50] it meant it's a solemn charge to tell the truth remember back with aiken back in the old testament aiken in the old testament had stolen uh when they conquered jericho had stolen some things from there and they were defeated in the next battle when aiken's finally called before the
[00:52:05] leaders. What do they say to Achan? Give glory to God. In other words, tell the truth. So the Pharisees here believe this guy's holding something back. In other words, there's some information that's being hidden from them. So they say, give glory to God. We know this man's a sinner.
[00:52:22] He therefore answered, this is a beautiful response, whether he is a sinner, I don't know.
[00:52:27] But one thing I know is that whereas I was blind, now I see. That's a pretty good answer, isn't it?
[00:52:32] I don't know what he is, but I do know this.
[00:52:35] I was blind, and now I can see.
[00:52:38] And they said to him, What did he do to you?
[00:52:41] How did he open your eyes?
[00:52:43] And he answered them, I told you already, and you didn't listen.
[00:52:46] So this guy's getting a little bit impatient with the Pharisees.
[00:52:50] He accuses them of not paying attention to what he's saying.
[00:52:53] And he kind of mocks their repeated question, and then he really agitates them.
[00:52:58] Notice what he says at the end of verse 27.
[00:53:01] and he says, you do not want to become his disciples too, do you? You talk about waving a red flag in front of a bunch of bulls. I mean, he knows their answer to that. They don't want to
[00:53:11] become his disciples. But notice he says, you don't want to become his disciples too. So evidently, he already is beginning to identify himself as a disciple of Jesus. Now notice here, they get verbally abusive. They've about had enough of this guy. They reviled him. I mean, they cursed this
[00:53:29] man and said, you are his disciple. We are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but for this man, we don't know, don't know where he is from. Now in verse 30, beginning
[00:53:45] in verse 30, Warren Wiersbe says about this passage, he says, the blind man calls their bluff.
[00:53:51] And I like that. The man answered and said to them, well, here's an amazing thing that you don't know where he's from and yet he opened my eyes so you guys claim to be the big religious leaders of
[00:54:03] israel and here's a guy that opened blind eyes and you don't know who he is it's kind of like you better figure out who he is we know that god does not hear sinners but if anyone is god-fearing
[00:54:13] and does his will he hears him since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind read all the miracles of the old testament no one in the old
[00:54:24] Testament has ever healed a blindness, especially here in this case, born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Now notice here in verse 34, the Pharisees have had it.
[00:54:35] They're not about to be lectured by a man who'd just been a blind beggar. So they play their trump card. They use their superior position of power, and they cancel this man out, and they
[00:54:46] silence him. And notice what they answered him and said, you were born entirely in sins. In other words, they're reverting back to the bad theology that Jesus had refuted back at the beginning of this chapter. They're saying the reason you were born blind is you were born in sin. You're a
[00:55:04] sinner. So they go all the way back to this argument against the man. And notice what it says in here. And it says, and they put him out. They excommunicated him. And again, he'd be
[00:55:16] distanced from his family, probably couldn't find a job. And this is a terrible thing to happen that day. He's kicked out of the synagogue. And so they show their blindness. The blind man can see,
[00:55:26] but the Pharisees are blind and they're willfully blind. I read a story this week. I'd read before.
[00:55:33] It's a good old story about Horatio Nelson. He was known as Admiral Nelson or Lord Nelson, the greatest naval hero in British history. Before he became Lord Nelson and the famous admiral. He served under another leader. And at the battle of Copenhagen, he was in charge of
[00:55:52] several ships. They were far away from the main ship where the admiral was. And the admiral believed they were in some serious trouble. So he ran the flag, the signal flag up for them to
[00:56:02] retreat. And Lord Nelson's men, Admiral Nelson's men come to him. They said they've run the flag up on the main ship for the retreat, and Horatio Nelson was blind in one eye. He'd been blinded in
[00:56:15] a former battle he was in, so he takes this scope that he has and puts it up to his blind eye and says, I don't see anything on the signal flag. Keep on fighting, and that's where the phrase
[00:56:28] comes to turn a blind eye to something. It's from that incident, so they kept on fighting and won a massive victory. Now here in this passage, the Pharisees turn a blind eye to Jesus.
[00:56:41] But rather than winning a great victory, they suffer a massive defeat because of what they do.
[00:56:46] They turn the blind eye. There's the old saying, there's none so blind as those who will not see.
[00:56:53] And that's where these men are at this time. They don't want to see that. They don't want to see the truth that's before them. Now, verse 35, we come to what I call the confession. Jesus reappears in
[00:57:03] the story. Now notice Jesus heard that they had put him out. They kicked him out of the synagogue and finding him, he said, do you believe in the son of man? Now I love this. Who's the one who
[00:57:15] sought the person out? Jesus sought out the man. The man didn't seek out Jesus. That's the way it always is. We don't find him. He comes and finds us and seeks us out. The great scholar from
[00:57:29] centuries ago John Chrysostom said this, the Jews cast him out of the temple, but the Lord of the temple came and found him. Without any prompting, Jesus had reached down when this man was physically
[00:57:42] blind and had given him physical sight. And now Jesus seeks this man out and he gives him spiritual sight. He says, do you believe in the Son of Man? He said, and who is he Lord that I may believe in
[00:57:55] him. And Jesus said to him, you have both seen him, and he is the one who is talking with you.
[00:58:01] And the man said, Lord, I believe, or literally in the Greek, the word order is, I believe, Lord.
[00:58:08] The word believe means to trust or to rely upon. Lord, I trust in you and believe that you are the son of man. And notice he falls down at Jesus' feet and worships him as God.
[00:58:20] And if Jesus was anything less than God, what should he have done? He should have picked that man up and said, whatever you do, don't worship me, worship God. But Jesus accepts his worship as God. And then Jesus says, for judgment, I came into the world that those who do not see may see
[00:58:39] and those who see may become blind. I like this. The Pharisees must have been eavesdropping on Jesus. Those are the Pharisees who were with him, heard these things and said to Jesus, what a statement this is. We are not blind too, are we? Notice how Jesus answers. He always kind
[00:58:57] of answers in a little cryptic way. If you were blind, you would have no sin. But because you say we see, your sin remains. The problem is they don't know their need. He's saying here, if you
[00:59:11] think you can see on your own, you can't. But if you admit you can't see, then you can see. That's what he's saying here in this passage. The Pharisees here are called by Jesus on this.
[00:59:24] Now, what's tragic about this passage is it begins with a blind man, and it ends with those who are blind. It begins with a man who's blind physically, and it ends with those who are blind spiritually.
[00:59:35] Somebody this week I read made a powerful statement. They said, all you need is need.
[00:59:40] It's a pretty good statement. All you need is need. They didn't have need. They had a lot of pride.
[00:59:45] They had a lot of self-righteousness, the religious leaders, but they had no sense of need.
[00:59:50] They had no sense of their blindness apart from Jesus Christ.
[00:59:54] And they left there in their sins.
[00:59:56] Charles Spurgeon, years ago, put it like this.
[00:59:59] It's not our littleness that hinders Christ, but our bigness.
[01:00:02] It's not our weakness that hinders Christ, it's our strength.
[01:00:04] It's not our darkness that hinders Christ, it is our supposed light that holds back His hand.
[01:00:10] Those who think they can see are blind.
[01:00:13] Those who are willing to admit they're blind.
[01:00:15] those are the ones who can see. Now what's the call of this passage on our lives? What practical application we make from this? Let me just mention a couple things here. The first one is worship. You and I ought to worship the Lord Jesus Christ who gives sight to the blind. It's
[01:00:30] what this man does. That's what we should do. This fallen, this blind man is a microcosm of fallen humanity. He's a picture of all of us. Really, if you look at this man, his story is
[01:00:42] our story. Because humanity, apart from God, is blind to Christ. People wonder what's wrong with our world today. People are wandering around in blindness, groping in the darkness. They're spiritually blind. And not only are we spiritually blind, we're born blind. We're born blind
[01:01:00] spiritually into this world. And not only are we spiritually blind and born blind, we're beggars.
[01:01:07] We have nothing in ourselves to offer to God.
[01:01:10] It's a picture here of human depravity.
[01:01:13] On his deathbed, Martin Luther, one of the reformers, scribbled out his final words.
[01:01:18] Now think about this.
[01:01:19] These are the last words of a person.
[01:01:21] We are all beggars.
[01:01:23] This is true.
[01:01:25] It's his final words.
[01:01:26] We're all beggars.
[01:01:27] This is true.
[01:01:29] Martin Luther realized he was getting ready to die in a few moments and appear before God.
[01:01:32] And he knew he was a beggar.
[01:01:34] And all he had to offer to God.
[01:01:37] i was the person of jesus christ apart from jesus christ we're blind beggars and only jesus can provide light to those who grope in the darkness and notice again here the initiative is his he heals his physical blindness heals his spiritual blindness if you've never
[01:01:52] trusted in christ that's what you need to do here this morning you need to come and recognize your need so i i i'm needy i can't see i'm blind and i need jesus to come and to open my eyes if you
[01:02:05] You trust in Him, He'll open your eyes.
[01:02:07] And as He says here in this passage, if you're blind, you'd have no sin.
[01:02:12] If you admit your blindness and come to Him, you'll have no sin.
[01:02:15] But if you say, I see, your sin is going to remain.
[01:02:18] It all comes down to admitting your need for Jesus Christ and trusting in Him.
[01:02:23] And for those of us who have trusted Him, we need to worship Him and thank Him.
[01:02:28] And this is Thanksgiving week.
[01:02:29] Sometime this week, every one of us ought to get down on our knees somewhere and thank God for open eyes.
[01:02:35] Thank God that He's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
[01:02:40] I know I've shared this story before, but Gypsy Smith was a well-known evangelist.
[01:02:45] He was very uneducated.
[01:02:47] People wonder how he'd ever be successful, but started preaching at the age of 17, died at 87.
[01:02:53] He was crossing the Atlantic to come preach in America, died on the ship, and they buried him at sea.
[01:02:59] But when he was in his mid-80s, somebody asked Gypsy Smith the secret of his freshness and energy and his spiritual vitality and his response was i never lost the wonder and here's a man 85 years old he says i never lost the wonder he never lost the wonder of god opening his eyes
[01:03:15] to the gospel and it's that wonder that fuels our lives it's like the apostle paul says in second corinthians the one who commanded the light to shine in the darkness is shined in our hearts
[01:03:29] to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[01:03:34] You and I need to worship Him every day and be thankful for that.
[01:03:37] And every one of us, our testimony is after the darkness, the light, because of Jesus.
[01:03:42] A second thing I would learn from this passage, you and I should apply, is we need to share our story with others.
[01:03:47] So the first thing is worship.
[01:03:49] The second word is share.
[01:03:50] Share your story with other people.
[01:03:53] You say, well, what's my story?
[01:03:54] Your story and my story is the same as this man's story.
[01:03:57] Whereas I was blind, now I can see.
[01:04:00] That's our story.
[01:04:01] I was spiritually blind, and God opened my eyes, and now I can see.
[01:04:07] You know, a lot of times we think we need a lot of great philosophical arguments and a lot of apologetic arguments, and certainly we ought to learn everything about the Bible we can.
[01:04:15] We ought to be the best students of Scripture we can be.
[01:04:18] But I like what Carl Laney says.
[01:04:21] Philosophical arguments for the existence of God and Christian apologetics have their place.
[01:04:25] but no defense of the gospel is quite as powerful as a personal testimony of how God has worked in your life the blind man didn't argue he simply affirmed that something marvelous had happened in his life and you might say today well I don't have a very remarkable testimony
[01:04:43] well yes you do you were blind and now you can see and I got saved as a young boy a month before I turned six years of age and I don't think I was some terrible sinner before that I don't know my
[01:04:54] parents may disagree with that. I don't really remember, but it wasn't some remarkable conversion out of some life of sin, but it's a remarkable testimony to tell somebody, as a boy of five years old, I was blind, but then I could see. God opened my eyes to who Jesus is and His forgiveness.
[01:05:14] Leslie Flynn, years ago, told a little story about a woman who led another woman to Christ.
[01:05:19] And the woman who was led to Christ later said this about the lady who brought her to the Savior.
[01:05:24] She said she didn't use any arguments.
[01:05:26] She built a bridge from her heart to mine and Christ walked over it.
[01:05:31] It's a beautiful picture of evangelism.
[01:05:33] You just build a bridge from your heart to the other person's heart and Christ can walk across it.
[01:05:38] Look, pray for boldness.
[01:05:39] Pray for opportunities.
[01:05:42] None of us are sufficient to answer people's questions.
[01:05:45] People think that because I'm a pastor and study the Bible all the time, I can talk to people in evangelism and answer every question they have.
[01:05:52] People ask all kinds of questions.
[01:05:53] we don't have answers to. There's a lot of mystery to life. We can tell people I was blind and now I can see. And you can see too, if you'll trust Jesus Christ as your Savior.
[01:06:05] We're thinking about the holidays coming up and this is Thanksgiving week. Maybe you're going to be with a lot of relatives or friends or people you haven't been around in a long time. Pray to
[01:06:14] God and ask him for an opportunity. Ask him for the boldness to share with somebody your story.
[01:06:19] Where you're blind, now you can see.
[01:06:22] A third thing I find in this passage to apply is we need to prepare.
[01:06:26] You need to be prepared that if you're going to follow Christ, you're going to find opposition.
[01:06:30] Our culture is getting darker and darker and less accepting of the gospel and faithful followers of Jesus Christ.
[01:06:37] It's not popular today to follow Christ.
[01:06:40] The reason is Jesus said back in John 3, men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil.
[01:06:46] They don't want their deeds exposed.
[01:06:48] As you come to Christ, your family may reject you.
[01:06:51] I mean, this man's parents didn't exactly make a bold statement for him.
[01:06:54] The leaders of that day rejected him.
[01:06:57] Friends may turn their back on you.
[01:06:58] The religious establishment might dismiss you.
[01:07:02] But Jesus will find you, and He will guide you, and He will be your closest friend.
[01:07:07] But expect in these days that we live in, there's going to be opposition.
[01:07:10] It's not popular today.
[01:07:12] It's increasingly difficult, not just to name Christ's name, but to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.
[01:07:18] We see that in this man's life.
[01:07:20] And then finally, the final thing I would say is anticipate.
[01:07:24] Live in hope of the new creation to come.
[01:07:27] Jesus is the light of the world, and someday He will literally be the light of the world.
[01:07:32] You go and read in the book of Revelation, when this present heaven and earth is destroyed, and there's a new heaven and a new earth, and the heavenly city has come down out of heaven from God.
[01:07:43] It says in Revelation 21, the glory of God illumines it.
[01:07:48] There's no sun.
[01:07:49] There's no stars.
[01:07:50] It's the glory of God that illumines the new creation.
[01:07:54] And this is a staggering thought.
[01:07:56] It says the Lamb is the lamp thereof.
[01:07:59] The Lamb, the Lord Jesus, is the lamp of the new creation.
[01:08:04] And that's the shining and the brilliance of the glory of the light of the world.
[01:08:08] The light of the world will flood the universe.
[01:08:10] eternity will be engulfed in his life the darkness will give way to eternal inextinguishable light i mean that's the ultimate daylight savings it's never going to be dark again the creation is going to be bathed in his glory and his light forever and really that's the whole biblical story today
[01:08:30] we live in a time of darkness but after the darkness the light when jesus comes again someday to make all things new.
[01:08:38] Jesus will utterly illuminate the land of the shadow of death.
[01:08:42] He'll rid this world of darkness with perfect glorified vision.
[01:08:45] We will see the light of the world.
[01:08:48] And I don't know about you, but all the darkness around us today, that day can't come too soon for me.
[01:08:54] We see Jesus, the light of the world.
[01:08:57] All I say this morning is even so come Lord Jesus.
[01:09:00] Let's pray together.
[01:09:02] Father, if there's someone here this morning who's outside of Christ, if there's someone here this morning who's still locked in a world of blindness spiritually.
[01:09:13] I pray that where they sit this morning, right where they sit, they'll recognize that they're blind, that they can't see without you, that they'll turn to you, Father, and you'll touch them and open their blind eyes
[01:09:23] and let them see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[01:09:31] Father, for those of us who know you, I pray that we'll never lose the wonder of what you've done for us in opening our blind eyes whenever it happened, wherever it happened.
[01:09:40] And Father, I pray that you'll empower us in these days ahead to share our story, to share our story with others that whereas we're blind, now we can see.
[01:09:52] Father, prepare us to stand in days of darkness against the opposition that we'll face, to be like this man and to stand and follow Jesus no matter what the cost.
[01:10:02] And Father, live all of life in that great anticipation that someday when Jesus comes, he will be the light of the world.
[01:10:09] The lamb will be the lamp thereof, be illumined by the glory of God.
[01:10:14] Father, we love you. We praise you. May your name be praised forever. Amen.
[01:10:20] Let's stand for the benediction as we leave here with the Lord's blessing upon us.
[01:10:26] Again, if you're visiting with us, thank you for being here. As you go out these doors, a little ways down, there's a welcome center and some folks here would love to greet you, give you some information about our church. And I'll be down front here after the service. Our
[01:10:36] elders and pastors who are present will be down front with me. And we love the opportunity to get acquainted. Maybe you trusted Christ this morning. We'd love to hear about that. Maybe you have a burden that you'd like for us to pray with you about. Let's bow our heads now as we leave
[01:10:50] here with the Lord's blessing upon us. Father, we thank you again for Jesus, the light of the world.
[01:10:56] So I pray as we leave here today, as we go and spend time with our families and friends this coming week, that we'll follow the light, we'll live in the light. Father, we thank you that we
[01:11:05] can be looking for the light, our Lord Jesus who's coming. Thank you for all these things in Jesus' name.