Jesus Heals a Blind Man (John 9)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:06.120 Fear able to remain standing. Please do and turn your attention to John Chapter 2 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:14.630 Nine. Here God's word. As he passed by, that's Jesus. As 3 00:00:14.669 --> 00:00:19.230 he passed by, he saw a blind man from birth and that his disciples 4 00:00:19.350 --> 00:00:23.699 asked him, rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents that he was 5 00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:29.500 born blind. Jesus answered it was not that this man sinned or his parents, 6 00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:34.619 but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must 7 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:38.210 work the works of Him who sent me. While it is day, night 8 00:00:38.369 --> 00:00:42.770 is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the 9 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:46.649 world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, 10 00:00:46.729 --> 00:00:51.960 he spat on the ground and made mun mud with the saliva. Then he 11 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:56.719 anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him go wash in the 12 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:03.280 pool of Siloam, which means scent. So he went and washed and came 13 00:01:03.390 --> 00:01:08.310 back seeing the neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were 14 00:01:08.349 --> 00:01:12.750 saying, is not this the blind man who used to sit and beg some 15 00:01:12.989 --> 00:01:17.430 said it is he, others said no, but he is like him. 16 00:01:18.109 --> 00:01:21.819 He kept saying, I am the man. So they said to him. 17 00:01:21.859 --> 00:01:26.900 Then, how were your eyes opened? He answered. The man called Jesus, 18 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:30.980 may aid mud and anointed my eyes and said to me go to Siloam 19 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:37.409 and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. They said 20 00:01:37.450 --> 00:01:42.129 to him, where is he? He said, I don't know. They 21 00:01:42.209 --> 00:01:46.129 brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was 22 00:01:46.170 --> 00:01:49.000 the Sabbath Day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the 23 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:53.959 Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight, and he said to 24 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:57.519 them he put mud on my eyes and I washed and I see. Some 25 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:01.069 of the Pharisees said this man is not from God, for he does not 26 00:02:01.109 --> 00:02:06.310 keep the Sabbath, but others said how can a man who is a sinner 27 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:10.349 do such signs? And there was division among them. So they again said 28 00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:14.110 to the blind man, what do you say about him, since he has 29 00:02:14.189 --> 00:02:17.860 opened your eyes? He said he is a prophet. The Jews did not 30 00:02:17.979 --> 00:02:23.379 believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the 31 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:27.219 parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, is this 32 00:02:27.379 --> 00:02:30.729 your son, who you say was born blind? How, then, does 33 00:02:30.810 --> 00:02:34.610 he now see? His parents answered, we know that this is our son 34 00:02:35.050 --> 00:02:38.810 and that he was born blind, but how he now sees we do not 35 00:02:38.009 --> 00:02:42.889 know. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask Him. He 36 00:02:43.090 --> 00:02:46.080 is of age. He will speak for himself. His parents said these things 37 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:51.879 because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone 38 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:54.800 should confess Jesus to be Christ, he is to be put out of the 39 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:00.389 synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age, ask him. 40 00:03:00.710 --> 00:03:04.349 So for the second time, they called the man who had been born 41 00:03:04.430 --> 00:03:07.949 blind and said to him, Give Glory to God. We know that this 42 00:03:07.110 --> 00:03:12.830 man is a sinner. He answered whether he is a sinner, I knew. 43 00:03:12.939 --> 00:03:15.620 Not Know One thing. I do know that, though I was blind, 44 00:03:16.259 --> 00:03:20.860 now I see. They said to him, what did he do to 45 00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:23.219 you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them. I have 46 00:03:23.379 --> 00:03:27.289 told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear 47 00:03:27.330 --> 00:03:31.250 it again? Do you want to become his disciples? And they refiled him, 48 00:03:31.250 --> 00:03:36.770 saying you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We 49 00:03:36.969 --> 00:03:39.050 know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we 50 00:03:39.169 --> 00:03:44.159 do not know where he comes from. The man answered. Why? This 51 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:46.759 is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from. And 52 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:51.879 yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, 53 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.400 but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God 54 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:59.830 listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone 55 00:04:00.030 --> 00:04:03.469 opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from 56 00:04:03.509 --> 00:04:08.669 God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born an 57 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:13.780 utter sin and you would teach us, and they cast him out. Jesus 58 00:04:13.860 --> 00:04:15.779 heard that they had cast him out and, having found him, he said, 59 00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:20.139 do you believe in the son of man? He answered, and who 60 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:24.689 is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to 61 00:04:24.730 --> 00:04:28.089 him, you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you. 62 00:04:28.889 --> 00:04:31.930 He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. Jesus 63 00:04:32.009 --> 00:04:35.769 said, for judgment, I came into this world that those who do not 64 00:04:35.889 --> 00:04:42.680 see may see and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees 65 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:46.279 near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? 66 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:49.879 Jesus said to them. If you were blind, you would have no guilt, 67 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:57.829 but now that you say we see, your guilt remains. You may 68 00:04:57.870 --> 00:05:09.139 be seated well. This is an amazing story, this record of this miracle 69 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:15.379 that John Records for us here is stunning in so many ways. The miracle, 70 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:17.620 first of all, here is a man who was born blind, whose 71 00:05:17.740 --> 00:05:21.689 parents recognized it, knew it, the community knew it, at least many 72 00:05:21.730 --> 00:05:32.410 members in the community, and he got his sight. There are many other 73 00:05:32.490 --> 00:05:42.399 um important and remarkable things here. His truth telling, for one. He's 74 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:47.879 so simply just keep saying what he knows. Martin Luther said that a truth 75 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:54.310 theolow Jin is one who calls things what they are, or says what things 76 00:05:54.350 --> 00:05:59.670 are. If something's rotten, you say it's rotten. If if something's glorious, 77 00:05:59.750 --> 00:06:02.430 you say it's glorious. That's what a true theologian, that's what a 78 00:06:02.430 --> 00:06:09.060 Christian does, even when things are not what they seem or not what the 79 00:06:09.180 --> 00:06:14.019 world calls them. And this man is like that. He just calls it 80 00:06:14.139 --> 00:06:17.689 like he sees it. He says what it is. When he doesn't know, 81 00:06:17.930 --> 00:06:23.730 he says I don't know, and when he knows, he knows. 82 00:06:25.769 --> 00:06:30.290 There is a kind of opening up even in his soul that we see happening 83 00:06:30.529 --> 00:06:34.879 parallel with the opening of his eyes. Jesus sees this man that is born 84 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:40.319 blind. He goes to him he's he makes some mud, he puts it 85 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.800 on his eyes. He tells him to go wash in the pool of PSILOM. 86 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:47.310 This this the name of this pool, being one who has sent like 87 00:06:47.430 --> 00:06:53.430 a missionary pool, as one commentator put it. He goes and he washes, 88 00:06:53.829 --> 00:07:00.069 he comes out and in many ways the early church compared this to thought 89 00:07:00.110 --> 00:07:03.139 of this as a baptism, a kind of a baptism. Anyway, he 90 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:08.100 comes out and he can see. He comes out of the water and he 91 00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:13.300 can see and he goes out and now he acts in the world as a 92 00:07:13.459 --> 00:07:17.170 sighted man. A similar thing is happening in his soul. He, he 93 00:07:18.129 --> 00:07:21.889 he. There are many things that he doesn't know. He doesn't know about 94 00:07:21.970 --> 00:07:26.490 Jesus. He knows. I know this. I know this. I can 95 00:07:26.569 --> 00:07:33.600 make this decision based on good and necessary consequence. But when Jesus reveals to 96 00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:38.720 him that he is the son of man, it says he worshiped him, 97 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:49.110 just as easy as that. This miracle is amazing. The stumbling of the 98 00:07:49.670 --> 00:07:56.990 Pharisees is another remarkable thing here. They just can't stand the fact that this 99 00:07:57.189 --> 00:08:01.740 man was healed on the Sabbath. This is now the second of these two 100 00:08:01.980 --> 00:08:05.740 of these kinds of miracles and where Jesus acts in the Sabbath on a way 101 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:13.209 that is perfectly in accord with the Sabbath and all its principles restoration, peace, 102 00:08:13.689 --> 00:08:18.610 joy, healing, celebration in the life of God, in Christ and 103 00:08:18.850 --> 00:08:24.410 yet is disobedient to all the man made rules that the Pharisees had set up, 104 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:30.000 and they are not happy about it, one of them being this needing 105 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:39.159 of the mud and making making mud. Jesus does this action and he heals 106 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:45.629 this man on the Sabbath, and so you see them scrambling in a way. 107 00:08:45.629 --> 00:08:48.350 They don't know what to do. They bring this man before him, 108 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:52.110 they question him, he says, I don't know. Then they bring him 109 00:08:52.149 --> 00:08:54.429 before him again and they question in a guys, I don't know, what 110 00:08:54.980 --> 00:08:58.139 do you want? They bring his parents before him and they're hedging their bets. 111 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:01.980 They don't want to be put out of the synagogue. They say only 112 00:09:01.019 --> 00:09:05.779 as much as they absolutely have to. They push it back on their son 113 00:09:05.299 --> 00:09:09.779 and he just keeps saying what he knows. He keeps telling the truth. 114 00:09:09.090 --> 00:09:18.970 And then the the this amazing speech, rich with theology and faith and hope, 115 00:09:18.570 --> 00:09:22.370 comes not from the religious leaders but comes from this man doing what? 116 00:09:22.850 --> 00:09:28.519 Simply testifying to what has happened, and this is what we do. Is 117 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:35.480 Christians, as those who have been baptized into Christ, and he sends us 118 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:41.190 out. We are witnesses, we are simply testifiers to what has happened. 119 00:09:43.149 --> 00:09:48.750 We don't heal people, we don't cause them to gain their sight back, 120 00:09:48.950 --> 00:09:56.659 to have their hearts melted, we just testify to these things. In this 121 00:09:56.779 --> 00:10:00.139 way, the man is a lot like the woman at the well, to 122 00:10:00.179 --> 00:10:03.340 WHO Jesus speaks to her, he reveals himself to her, and what does 123 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:07.769 she do? She goes back to her villages, she testifies to the one 124 00:10:07.850 --> 00:10:16.090 she has seen, to the one she has heard. So, as we 125 00:10:16.169 --> 00:10:24.519 think about all of these things, let's focus our at tension on this miracle. 126 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:31.000 The man, in his speech, this formerly blind man who now can 127 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:37.230 see by the grace of God, says never has anything been done like this 128 00:10:37.429 --> 00:10:45.710 since the beginning of the world, and this is true. The Old Testament 129 00:10:45.789 --> 00:10:52.019 doesn't record any miracles of recovering sight to the blind, which is may be 130 00:10:52.100 --> 00:10:54.539 surprising to you, because you might feel I know I've read a lot of 131 00:10:54.659 --> 00:11:01.820 them, and that's because it was the most common of Jesus's miracles. Jesus 132 00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:05.809 is doing in a most and as in the number and types of miracles, 133 00:11:05.850 --> 00:11:11.610 he does something that had never happened before, and there's a reason for that. 134 00:11:13.730 --> 00:11:20.360 The reason is because he is the anointed one, belong and promised Messiah. 135 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:26.759 Isaiah spoke about him many times, saying things like this and out of 136 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:31.759 their gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. This was. 137 00:11:33.029 --> 00:11:37.110 These were promises about the new covenant that God was going to bring in 138 00:11:37.309 --> 00:11:41.029 the coming days, when is day of the Prophet spoke. He said that 139 00:11:41.309 --> 00:11:45.230 part of the coming of this kingdom, part of the coming of the Messiah 140 00:11:45.309 --> 00:11:48.899 and the king that would rule this kingdom, would be the opening of the 141 00:11:48.139 --> 00:12:00.059 eyes of the blind, both their physical eyes and our spiritualize. And that's 142 00:12:00.139 --> 00:12:05.129 important, because Jesus is tying these things together. Jesus is seeing not only 143 00:12:05.210 --> 00:12:11.250 the pitiable state of this man who can't see, who from his birth, 144 00:12:11.330 --> 00:12:16.440 has been unable to see, but he also is recognizing the spiritual condition of 145 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:22.840 this man and of the whole world. God did not come into our world 146 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:30.190 to perform tricks, as wonderful as that would be just by itself, but 147 00:12:30.350 --> 00:12:35.509 he came into the world to help us to see the nature of his coming, 148 00:12:35.350 --> 00:12:39.309 that he was here not just to restore this man's sight and to let 149 00:12:39.470 --> 00:12:46.019 this lame person walk, but he did these things as signs of what he 150 00:12:46.179 --> 00:12:50.740 is doing in all of us who believe in Jesus, who rest on him, 151 00:12:50.779 --> 00:12:54.820 who trust in him, for him, a trust in him, for 152 00:12:54.940 --> 00:13:00.049 his his kingship and his power and the glory and the salvation that he is 153 00:13:00.129 --> 00:13:05.889 bringing. The Sabbath Day, the day on which this mirror will happen, 154 00:13:07.450 --> 00:13:11.330 is a day of blessing, it's a day of rest, it's a day 155 00:13:11.490 --> 00:13:16.440 of trusting in God, it's a day of resting in Him, knowing that 156 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:20.559 all things are made right in him, and then we can have peace in 157 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:31.029 this world. Let's consider that and this miracle in four parts. First, 158 00:13:31.509 --> 00:13:39.309 a sin marred world. Jesus comes into a world that is has been marred, 159 00:13:39.549 --> 00:13:46.620 has been scarred, has been affected by sin. He doesn't come into 160 00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:52.620 the Garden of Eden where man is happy with God and and all is peace 161 00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:58.730 and well. Jesus most certainly doesn't come into the consummated Kingdom of God where 162 00:13:58.929 --> 00:14:03.850 everything is set right and then we'll always be. He comes into a world 163 00:14:03.889 --> 00:14:13.759 where he can see a man who has been blind from birth. This speaks 164 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:18.000 to the kind of savior that Jesus is, and remember, that's what these 165 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:22.919 miracles are about, there to teach us who Jesus is, that we would 166 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:28.389 believe on him and have life and worship him like this man does. What 167 00:14:28.470 --> 00:14:33.710 kind of savior is Jesus? He is the kind that goes into a world 168 00:14:33.789 --> 00:14:37.580 old that is full of sin to save that world, and he does that 169 00:14:37.779 --> 00:14:43.419 by looking at the people that need salvation, by the people that are full 170 00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:48.980 of sin and broken. This is very different than what the Pharisees were doing. 171 00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:56.210 But what we often do. Most of us go around in our world 172 00:14:56.450 --> 00:15:03.929 looking for titles, pedigrees, accomplishments, wealth. Those are the important people, 173 00:15:05.529 --> 00:15:07.879 those are the people that really matter, because those are the things that 174 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:16.080 really matter. So we think. Jesus never does this. You never see 175 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:22.990 Jesus sort of scrambling around the earth trying to set up important appointments with important 176 00:15:22.029 --> 00:15:31.950 people. You never see him gathering around himself networking and trying to trying to 177 00:15:31.830 --> 00:15:39.539 raise his status in the world. And that's not to say that there's something 178 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:43.980 inherently wrong with trying to do well in the world, as long as it 179 00:15:45.100 --> 00:15:52.450 remains of great and very low importance compared with storing up your treasures in heaven. 180 00:15:52.929 --> 00:15:58.690 But this is the point. That was not Jesus's mission at all. 181 00:16:00.610 --> 00:16:06.440 Jesus had no place that he came to do one thing. He didn't have 182 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:12.399 a another job that he was trying to do. He was exclusively focused on 183 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:18.549 doing this one thing that the father had called him to do, which was 184 00:16:18.629 --> 00:16:25.629 to reveal this salvation in the world and to call people to that, the 185 00:16:25.789 --> 00:16:30.429 weak people, the abandoned people, the lonely people, the sick people. 186 00:16:33.019 --> 00:16:34.740 When the rich young ruler comes to and says what must I do to be 187 00:16:34.860 --> 00:16:38.779 saved, Jesus says Jesus sees the problem in his heart and he says give 188 00:16:38.820 --> 00:16:44.220 away all that you have, and the young man goes away sad. Jesus 189 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:48.289 comes to this man who has been blind from birth and he says, I'm 190 00:16:48.370 --> 00:16:51.730 the son of man and the man I am the son of man, and 191 00:16:51.769 --> 00:17:00.129 a man worships him. Jesus says that he comes as the great physician to 192 00:17:00.250 --> 00:17:07.240 heal those who are sick. This is good news for us who recognize the 193 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:11.319 problem. This is good news for you. If you say I am affected 194 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:18.269 by Sin. I am a sick person, I have blindness, I struggle 195 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:22.349 with the flesh, the sin nature in me holds me and and is a 196 00:17:22.549 --> 00:17:27.990 struggle and a trial and I want to be free. If that's you, 197 00:17:29.309 --> 00:17:33.380 then Jesus is a great hope for you. But if you are satisfied and 198 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:37.059 where you are at, if you are satisfied in the things you have and 199 00:17:37.220 --> 00:17:41.940 the things you've done, in the people you know and the positions to which 200 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:45.930 you obtained or might obtain soon, if you only do a few more things, 201 00:17:48.089 --> 00:17:56.450 then Jesus a threat to you. I can understand why, because Jesus 202 00:17:56.569 --> 00:18:06.640 comes not just to compete against your little kingdom but to overthrow it. The 203 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:11.359 things of this world will not last, the powers of this world will not 204 00:18:11.559 --> 00:18:17.829 last, but Jesus does. How do we know? Because he can bring 205 00:18:18.109 --> 00:18:23.069 sight to a blind person, because he can resurrect a body, even his 206 00:18:23.269 --> 00:18:30.900 own body, from the dead. That's a measure of conquering and power over 207 00:18:30.059 --> 00:18:36.339 sin which the world has never seen and will never see apart from Jesus. 208 00:18:44.009 --> 00:18:48.730 That makes me to a second thing. Second thing we notice is that Jesus 209 00:18:48.809 --> 00:18:52.849 comes into the sin marred world, but he does it as a sovereign God, 210 00:18:53.690 --> 00:19:03.640 as the sovereign God, the one true God. We understand this not 211 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:08.359 only through his miracle that he works, but we also understand this in the 212 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:18.109 way that the way that this healing begins, when it's does it, when 213 00:19:18.109 --> 00:19:21.670 he sees this man and the disciples see him, seeing this man, they 214 00:19:21.710 --> 00:19:25.380 say, rabbi, in Verse Two, who sinned? This man or his 215 00:19:25.460 --> 00:19:32.539 parents, that he was born blind? Perhaps a little bit sad that the 216 00:19:32.660 --> 00:19:37.380 theology question is the first thing that they ask after seeing this man. Maybe 217 00:19:37.420 --> 00:19:45.049 a little compassion would have been more appropriate. Nevertheless, Jesus, as usual, 218 00:19:45.170 --> 00:19:51.049 doesn't answer their question and undermines it. Instead, he says it was 219 00:19:51.130 --> 00:19:52.319 he doesn't say, Oh yeah, I was him, or Oh yeah, 220 00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:56.400 I was his parents. He says it was not this man who send or 221 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:00.119 his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 222 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:07.190 This reminds us that when it comes to the works of God and when it 223 00:20:07.230 --> 00:20:11.710 comes to the problem of evil in this world, we have to be careful 224 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:18.470 about connecting our personal sins to personal consequences. Now, of course, you 225 00:20:18.549 --> 00:20:22.779 wouldn't want to avoid that conclusion. If you were in the room when annonias 226 00:20:22.859 --> 00:20:27.660 and suff fire died, you remember that they went before the Apostle Peter. 227 00:20:27.859 --> 00:20:33.980 They lied to the Holy Spirit and God struck them dead, and Peter says 228 00:20:33.299 --> 00:20:37.170 this is because you lied to the Holy Spirit, you wouldn't want to walk 229 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:41.569 out of that room and Got Gee. I just don't know. I'm not 230 00:20:41.690 --> 00:20:47.170 really sure whether that their death was connected to their disobedience to God and their 231 00:20:47.210 --> 00:20:52.440 sin. It was very clearly was, and there are other things that we 232 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:56.480 might be able to connect in this life and we would be fools if we 233 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:03.839 failed to learn the lessons that our master teacher is applying to us. Nevertheless, 234 00:21:03.750 --> 00:21:10.789 we always have to be very careful about removing God's sovereignty over our lives 235 00:21:10.990 --> 00:21:19.579 and his multiple purposes for every action that he does. They call him a 236 00:21:19.740 --> 00:21:26.259 teacher, a rabbi. I was talking with someone yesterday about another teacher and 237 00:21:27.660 --> 00:21:30.660 this lady. I asked this lady, I said, was this teacher. 238 00:21:33.569 --> 00:21:37.569 Did it seem like he had everything prepared ahead of time before he taught the 239 00:21:37.690 --> 00:21:42.450 class, as he working the student systematically through the course, or did it 240 00:21:42.529 --> 00:21:47.680 seem like he was just reacting to them in the moment and sort of adjusting 241 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:52.680 and monitoring it is as he went and a response about this particular teacher that 242 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:57.839 I was asking about his she said he knows his material so well that he's 243 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:03.829 really doing both. She could see that on the one hand he definitely had 244 00:22:03.910 --> 00:22:07.710 a grand plan for where he wanted to take the students and all of that, 245 00:22:07.109 --> 00:22:11.349 but at the same time he was also very much acting and monitoring and 246 00:22:11.430 --> 00:22:18.700 adjusting right there in the moment that he this teacher, as he helped his 247 00:22:18.819 --> 00:22:23.019 students, had multiple reasons for what he did in moving this child here and 248 00:22:23.140 --> 00:22:27.500 bringing that one over here and giving this activity to do. There were layers 249 00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:33.609 of things going on in that classroom and I hope you've had teachers like that 250 00:22:33.730 --> 00:22:37.930 that you've been able to experience and know that there were lots of things simultaneously 251 00:22:38.210 --> 00:22:41.849 going on, maybe more than you were able to detect, but you knew 252 00:22:41.849 --> 00:22:47.880 your teacher was good and you could trust that teacher to carry you along. 253 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:55.160 In many ways, this is what God does in our world. He has 254 00:22:55.279 --> 00:23:00.029 multiple reasons for the things that he does. Take a look at this example. 255 00:23:00.789 --> 00:23:04.309 Here is this man, a born to blind since birth. He had 256 00:23:04.349 --> 00:23:11.190 been this way. Now he's a grown man. And why did this happen? 257 00:23:11.470 --> 00:23:15.579 He didn't know for a very, very very long time, and yet 258 00:23:15.940 --> 00:23:21.299 no doubt that blindness was affecting his life in all kinds of ways, and 259 00:23:21.579 --> 00:23:25.900 his parents life and his communities life. Here was a man who needed to 260 00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:29.329 be supported. Here is a man who needed to be cared for, had 261 00:23:29.450 --> 00:23:34.490 struggles and trials, and yet there was a purpose that God's works might be 262 00:23:34.730 --> 00:23:38.650 displayed in him. And then here on this moment, on this day, 263 00:23:40.130 --> 00:23:45.920 Jesus heals him. The works of God are done here on this day of 264 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:51.440 God, the Sabbath Day, and then a whole number of consequences spread out 265 00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:56.750 from that. This man is saved, he's worshiping God, he's rejoicing in 266 00:23:56.950 --> 00:24:03.910 the glory of God. But the Pharisees are even are hardened in their hearts 267 00:24:03.109 --> 00:24:08.309 even further. The disciples get a question. And you know what, here 268 00:24:08.430 --> 00:24:14.940 we are, here we are today, thousands of years later, hearing about 269 00:24:14.980 --> 00:24:21.700 the same event. Hat it having effects on us. What's God's purpose for 270 00:24:21.859 --> 00:24:29.410 you in doing this work that he did in this man? I don't know, 271 00:24:30.809 --> 00:24:33.849 and I don't know what it is for your neighbor or your neighbor's neighbor, 272 00:24:33.009 --> 00:24:40.119 your neighbors neighbor's neighbor. You See, the point when Jesus comes into 273 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:44.880 this world as our sovereign God. He is exercising his authority and his majestic 274 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:48.039 power. Are In his goodness and His grace in all kinds of ways. 275 00:24:52.869 --> 00:24:56.710 What we have to remember is that we do not judge God by the way 276 00:24:56.869 --> 00:25:03.109 that we experience things in this world, even when they are painful, even 277 00:25:03.150 --> 00:25:08.500 when they are pleasurable. We are called to see things in the light of 278 00:25:08.579 --> 00:25:14.339 the scriptures that are being revealed, and that's why Jesus makes this point. 279 00:25:14.339 --> 00:25:18.500 It's time to start doing the works of God. We must do the works 280 00:25:18.579 --> 00:25:22.569 of God. That's how we are to react, he says, to these 281 00:25:22.650 --> 00:25:29.890 things. Our job is not to get behind the scenes, to get into 282 00:25:29.930 --> 00:25:33.289 the mind of God, where the secret things of God are held, and 283 00:25:33.690 --> 00:25:37.319 figure it all out before we act. Our God is to our job is 284 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:42.759 to trust in the master teacher who knows all things and is good and his 285 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:49.470 gracious and kind. To trust him and live our lives simply in light of 286 00:25:49.589 --> 00:25:59.910 that. Calvin says he gave Peter and Paul to the executioner, and no 287 00:26:00.069 --> 00:26:04.700 less than most wicked robbers. Hence we can infer that we cannot always put 288 00:26:04.740 --> 00:26:11.220 our finger on the causes of men's punishments in the world. Sometimes the you 289 00:26:11.380 --> 00:26:15.859 will see something that looks exactly the same from one person to another, and 290 00:26:15.980 --> 00:26:25.369 yet god is doing different things. So humility is necessary, humility which is 291 00:26:25.490 --> 00:26:30.009 not being displayed by the Pharisees as they bring this man in and question him 292 00:26:30.009 --> 00:26:37.400 over and over and over again. You are his disciple, they accuse him 293 00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:44.440 of. We are not his disciples. That's very clear. But in not 294 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:52.230 being his disciples, it is they who will remain in their blindness. And 295 00:26:52.349 --> 00:26:57.349 that's where we come to number three of four. A simple call. Jesus 296 00:27:00.430 --> 00:27:04.460 though, the ore, though, he is our sovereign and most amazing God, 297 00:27:06.019 --> 00:27:12.299 working in his providence in all kinds of ways. Nevertheless, he speaks 298 00:27:12.420 --> 00:27:21.130 to us in such simple, simple ways. He makes some mud, he 299 00:27:21.329 --> 00:27:23.970 puts it on the eyes of this man and he says go wash in the 300 00:27:25.009 --> 00:27:32.839 pool of silom. It's pretty simple, right there is it's a he doesn't 301 00:27:32.920 --> 00:27:36.920 hand him a, you know, giant textbook and say read this, make 302 00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:38.480 sure you understand it all, and then when you come back to me we'll 303 00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:44.670 talk about it. And obviously there's much to learn and obviously it's good to 304 00:27:44.789 --> 00:27:48.150 study, and the teachings of Christ are rich and worthy of abiding in, 305 00:27:48.470 --> 00:27:52.670 he tells us earlier, to those who abide in his worders its disciples. 306 00:27:53.829 --> 00:27:59.619 I don't mean at all to oppose learning and growing in the knowledge of Christ 307 00:28:00.220 --> 00:28:04.380 with saying that that somehow is a bad thing. But the point is that 308 00:28:04.500 --> 00:28:08.740 when Jesus says something simple, we should just take it for what it is. 309 00:28:11.900 --> 00:28:15.849 If he says don't be anxious, I'll take care of you, maybe 310 00:28:15.970 --> 00:28:22.170 we should not be anxious. Maybe it's simple. When Jesus says to the 311 00:28:22.210 --> 00:28:25.970 man, go wash in the pool of Silom, maybe the man should just 312 00:28:26.609 --> 00:28:30.519 go wash in the pool of Siloam. And he does. You know what 313 00:28:30.599 --> 00:28:38.680 happens? He sees. That kind of simple call goes on throughout this passage. 314 00:28:40.759 --> 00:28:45.190 Do you believe in the son of man? He answered, and who 315 00:28:45.309 --> 00:28:48.869 is he, sir? That I may see him, Jesus said to him. 316 00:28:48.309 --> 00:28:52.309 You have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you. 317 00:28:53.950 --> 00:29:02.019 He said, Lord, I believe. Thereofs course, is much this man 318 00:29:02.140 --> 00:29:07.259 didn't understand yet about Jesus. No one had yet seen his crucifixion, no 319 00:29:07.579 --> 00:29:11.930 one had yet seen his resurrection or his ascension or the pouring out of the 320 00:29:11.009 --> 00:29:15.089 spirit or the Apostle Paul going to the gentiles, or you here today. 321 00:29:15.210 --> 00:29:21.490 He didn't see any of that, but he saw the Lord and he said, 322 00:29:22.730 --> 00:29:32.240 I believe, and that is a good thing. Finally, we have 323 00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:37.680 in this passage astern warning, in addition to a simple call, this simple 324 00:29:37.799 --> 00:29:41.269 call that God gives to this man and gives all the the world. Believe 325 00:29:41.470 --> 00:29:47.029 on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. The warning is also 326 00:29:47.150 --> 00:29:55.380 that there is urgency, there are there is a time in which these this 327 00:29:55.740 --> 00:30:00.660 this offer, this call, this invitation, will end. Jesus speaks about 328 00:30:00.660 --> 00:30:06.500 this in his parables. He tells the story of a wedding invitation going out 329 00:30:07.849 --> 00:30:14.730 and people ignoring it, and then one day the doors are shut. He 330 00:30:14.809 --> 00:30:18.369 speak, tells a parable about a number of women, these virgins, that 331 00:30:19.210 --> 00:30:25.319 somehow were prepared and ready for the bridegroom that was coming, so that they 332 00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:30.279 would celebrate with him in this marriage feast, and some who were not ready, 333 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:36.589 and those who aren't ready, the door was shut, time was over. 334 00:30:38.190 --> 00:30:42.430 There's a temptation, when we hear the simple call of Jesus, to 335 00:30:42.509 --> 00:30:45.829 believe on him, to trust, so that we might see, so that 336 00:30:45.950 --> 00:30:49.660 we might have our eyes open to the glorious things of God and not just 337 00:30:49.819 --> 00:30:56.259 see them but enjoy them, to have our sight, to have peace, 338 00:30:56.779 --> 00:31:03.339 to have resurrection. The simplicity of it for some people becomes an excuse for 339 00:31:03.500 --> 00:31:08.329 waiting, for thinking I must not matter, it must not be important. 340 00:31:10.529 --> 00:31:15.250 I we can think about this some other time. It's not the case, 341 00:31:15.369 --> 00:31:19.440 though, and there is this warning here, that if we come in our 342 00:31:19.480 --> 00:31:23.319 own confidence to Jesus and we say I've got it all figured out, I 343 00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:30.160 don't need you, then we remain in our blindness. Jesus came into the 344 00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:38.789 world and he healed this blind man so that you can see what God is 345 00:31:38.869 --> 00:31:48.460 doing through his son. So believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will 346 00:31:48.460 --> 00:31:52.380 be saved and you will then sing with all the saints amazing grace, how 347 00:31:52.500 --> 00:32:00.490 sweet the sound. I once was blind, but now I see. Let 348 00:32:00.529 --> 00:32:00.930 us pray