I Was Blind
The Life Of Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme: The Life of Christ.
Hope: For us to draw near to our Savior God, by knowing him more greatly because of his life here on earth (Hebrews 4:25).
We often sing the hymn “Amazing Grace” as have many since it was written.
In fact, it is estimated to be performed some 10 million times annually and has appeared on over 11,000 albums in the roughly 350 years it has been around. (see end notes)
Some love it because of the “story behind it.”
A slave trader, John Newton, who became an abolitionist after his “conversion” so to speak.
Some love it because of the “story it tells.”
A wretched man who found God’s grace.
Some love it because it is “their story.”
Everyone’s story that has obeyed the gospel.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind but now I see.”
Though I personally love a lot of different hymns I must confess as one brother put it…
“Never has the essence of the gospel been better expressed in a hymn.”
“I was blind but now I see.”
Turn in your bible to John 9 this morning as we study a man that was physically blind and then made able to see.
The Physically Blind Man
The Physically Blind Man
He Was Born Blind.
He Was Born Blind.
Having escaped the mob that had tried to stone Jesus after declaring he was the “Great I Am” we find Jesus and his disciples walking by a man who had been born blind and the disciples ask a question…
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
A common misconception, seen as far back as Job friends, was that if someone suffered a great catastrophe in their life then it was due to their sin or their loved one’s sin.
This man being “born blind” must be a product of sin, in their minds.
The false “Health & Wealth” doctrine has been around for a long time and isn’t knew.
Notice, Jesus said it was neither his parents sin nor his sin that put him in this situation.
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
It can be very easy to look at someone that has had a very rough life and make assumptions today.
Sometimes, we can think “well this person or that person” deserve the life they have because of something they “must have done.”
Though it is possible that someone is struggling because of sin in their life we must not ignore the fact that maybe they are in that situation so that we can be God’s helping hand to them and that God’s work can be displayed in their life through us.
Now we read that Jesus healed the man in a very unique way.
6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
The people’s reaction is somewhat expected, and interesting all at the same time.
Some people couldn’t believe it was really the blind beggar.
Some people couldn’t believe their eyes that he had been healed.
After the man confirmed it was him, the known beggar, they asked where Jesus was that healed him, and he did not know.
So, the people decided to take him to the Pharisees to see how to deal with this situation.
Summary
Summary
Imagine being blind your whole life and now you can see the world around you.
A world you had only known through sound, smell, and touch.
No wonder this man was so excited.
However, some people simply cannot be happy unless everyone around them is miserable.
The Pharisees, more often than not, seem to be this type of person which brings us to…
The Spiritually Blind Men
The Spiritually Blind Men
The Pharisees Interrogate The Man.
The Pharisees Interrogate The Man.
Now, remember “some” of these are the men are the ones who recently had tried to stone Jesus because he had clearly stated “he was God.”
So, these men were not exactly “on Jesus’ side” to begin with and were looking for “more ammunition” against Jesus.
Notice how the described what happen to him to the Pharisees.
15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
Now, this created two different reactions.
Some of the Pharisees focused on Jesus “making mud” on the Sabbath and thus this was work and a sin.
Other Pharisees rightfully concluded that “a sinner” couldn’t do miracles and thus they were divided.
Because of the divide they called the beggar’s parents to determine if this man had really been blind all these years and of course the parents confirm this.
We also see the power the Jewish leadership had over “truth” because the parents were so afraid that they would be kicked out of the synagogue that they quickly turned the Pharisees attention back at their son, “he is of age. He can speak for himself.”
Keep in mind if one was “kick out of Jewish worship” they were supposed to be “excommunicated from all Jewish people.”
The Pharisees call the man again and we have one of the great exchanges within all of scripture between one that had a miracle done to him and those that did not believe in Jesus as from God.
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
Summary
Summary
It’s sad but this is a typical reaching from those that “think they know God” but in reality, don’t.
Satan and the denominational world have so convoluted the “real Jesus” that people don’t recognize him and his word when it plainly sits in front of them.
What’s even worse is that many in the church today are so afraid of the lost and how the lost will see them that they would rather stand up against the truth by “siding with the confused” person than telling them the truth for fear of losing them.
In so doing the blind will only become more blind and it will make it even harder for them to “see the real Jesus, to see the actual truth.”
That brings us to our last point…
The All Seeing Man
The All Seeing Man
Jesus Knew What Had Happened.
Jesus Knew What Had Happened.
Jesus knowing what had happened went to the man who had been “cast out” by his brethren and asked him a very important question.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man asks “who is he” and Jesus responds…
36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”
The man’s response to Jesus.
Upon learning Jesus is the “Son of man” a prophetic phrase for the Messiah (Daniel 7:13) the man says he believes and worships his Savior.
38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Now I want us to consider this morning what Jesus says next.
John 9:39–41 (ESV)
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.’ ”
First, notice that Jesus came into this world with judgment.
But what about all those times when Jesus said he did not come to judge?
17 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.
47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
The fact that Jesus lived a perfect life and died to take on our sins is the “judgment” Jesus brought.
He is light and the word he taught exposes those in darkness hence verse 48 of John 12.
48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
Secondly, notice that “those who see” have remaining guilt.
When a child is born they are “blind to sin.”
By that I mean they have no sin because they cannot understand what sin is and the effects it can have on their soul.
However, there is that “age of accountability” when one is no longer blind to the reality and dangers of sin in “their life” and it is at that point they “become guilty of sin.”
This is when, if we don’t obey the gospel, we are simply “blinding ourselves to it.”
Summary
Summary
Because the Pharisees could not see the sin they had they could not receive forgiveness from sin.
We cannot “self-blind” or “ignore” our sin and be “free from sin.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
At one time in our lives, all of us were spiritually blind.
We needed an encounter with Jesus to allow us to see.
We needed to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord to be able to see.
We needed to wash the sin off, through his blood, so we could see.
There is no other way to spiritual sight.
The Jewish leadership was so spiritually blind by their hatred of Jesus that they had determined anyone who believed in him would be put out of the synagogue.
This meant they would be ostracized for the whole community as we said.
This was a serious punishment for confessing Jesus as the “Messiah” and the repercussions of this would impact everyone around them.
When we decide to make Jesus our Lord, that decision will also come with repercussions.
It means may we have to stop using language we might have in the past.
It means we may have to stop engaging in activities that are not in accordance with holiness.
It means we may have to stop going to certain places or spending time with certain people.
That could include friends, family, coworkers, etc…
However, when we decide to make Jesus our Lord, that decision also comes with great blessings.
We get to call our Savior our Lord.
We receive “all the spiritual blessings” there are.
We get to daily receive his “amazing grace.”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Endnotes
Endnotes
The Real Story Behind Amazing Grace https://www.biography.com/news/amazing-grace-story-john-newton
Hymnology: The Story Behind “Amazing Grace” https://www.geneva.edu/blog/uncategorized/hymnology-amazing-grace