#1494 John 9 Part 3 Double Blind

 

35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and after finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” 38 And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “Are we blind too?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. John 9: 35-41 LSB

John 9: 35-41

V. 35 Jesus heard that they had put him out - The blind man that Jesus made see had stood up against the questioning of the Pharisees, and for that reason they kicked him out. This is the point at which most fold, being cast as an outsider. 

V. 35b After finding him - This is the way it works, this is the direction these things flow in. Many may come to a church, a so called "church" or some religious person, pastor etc., searching for help or healing. Many made it that far towards Christ, hearing that He was able to heal, but even of these it was so few that realized they needed healing for a much more serious and desperate situation. It is Christ Who leaves the ninety and nine to seek and to save that which is lost. It is not grand arguments I can make, no one awakes to the sound of my voice. You can neither save nor convince anyone. When someone responds to the gospel we proclaim it is because Christ was seeking them. 

…15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit— fruit that will remain— so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. 17This is My command to you: Love one another.… John 15: 15-17

Now, let’s look at the spiritual sight and the beggar, the opening verses 35 to 38. Just to give you a little bit of a pattern to follow, four things define this spiritual sight, okay? Four things. He’s going to be an illustration of one who not only sees physically for the first time, but who will see spiritually for the first time. There are four elements. First of all, and this is very important. The first element is: spiritual sight requires divine initiative. Spiritual sight requires divine initiative. This man doesn’t have any capability to make himself see physically, nor does he have any capability to make himself see spiritually. That’s why this transition is made, because it’s such a graphic illustration. He can’t do anything to help himself. There’s no such thing in those ancient times as a surgeon who can fix something in his eye and enable him to see. There’s no way that he can have spiritual sight on his own. It can’t happen. Humanly speaking, it can’t happen on a temporal, physical, natural level. If he is going to see, heaven has to come down and find him, locate him, and that’s exactly what happens.

Verse 35. The buzz around the temple area and wherever it was that this interrogation took place is still going on, so Jesus hears that they had put him out. And I love this. “And finding him.” This is parallel. You remember back in chapter 5, the man at the Pool of Bethesda picked up his bed and walked, ran into the Pharisees, the same kind of interrogation, the same kind of encounter. And it says there in that same chapter, chapter 5, and I think it’s verse 14, “Jesus found him.” Jesus found him. This is how you receive spiritual sight. It all started in a divine initiative. It all started by a sovereign purpose in the mind of God. Luke 19:10. Jesus says the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost. Not just the saving, but the seeking. Romans 3, no man seeks after God. We wouldn’t know where to go, wouldn’t know who to look for. So he’s the seeker. He says to His apostles in John 15:16, “You have not chosen Me. I have chosen you.” Matthew 18, “The Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” That’s why He came. He’s the finder. He’s the one who is seeking us.

The Lord initiates spiritual sight, just like He initiated physical sight with this man. There were a lot of beggars. There were a lot of ill people, a lot of sick people. I told you there were a lot of blind people in the ancient world. He sought this man for His own purposes, His own sovereign kingdom intentions. He sought him out when this man could’ve never found Him. Totally blind. Christ is always the initiator of salvation, always the seeking Savior. Again, the blind man has no power to give himself physical sight; neither does the sinner have any power to give himself spiritual sight. It has to be initiated, inaugurated in heaven.

And so, Jesus finds the man. This is where spiritual sight begins. This is a powerful illustration of it, a very powerful illustration, because this is a helpless, hopeless man, and so is every sinner. So is every sinner.

So He finds him, and He initiates a conversation. Very short. This, again, is cryptic. These accounts in the New Testament are condensed. We don’t think the conversation was limited to this, but this is the essence that God has revealed to us. He says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” That’s a really important question. Very important question. This man is well-schooled in the Old Testament, even though he’s not been in a synagogue. This man has absorbed the Old Testament truth even though he can’t read. We don’t know how, but he’s very wise. He knows, for example, that there’s no record ever in history of anybody being healed of blindness. He knows that. He also knows what characterizes a prophet. And so, already he has said of Jesus, “He is of God.” He has said, “He’s one who does the will of God. He is one who God hears. He is a prophet.” So, he’s a very astute man. He also knows the title, Son of Man. He is familiar with Daniel 7 where that Messianic title stands out.

Listen to what Daniel chapter 7 says. Daniel is given a vision, and it’s in the night. Chapter 7:13. I kept looking in the night visions, and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming. That’s a Messianic title. This introduces the coming of Messiah to establish His kingdom. He came up to the ancient of days, that’s God the Father, was presented before him, to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. And this is not God, because this is one who comes to God. This is one to whom God gives this eternal, everlasting universal kingdom. It is the Messiah, and He is the Son of Man, which is a prophecy that He will be incarnate. - J Mac Sermon on The Hopelessness of The Stubbornly Blind

V. 35c Do you believe in the Son of Man - This is a Messianic title as J Mac notes above. Do you believe in the promised Seed? Do you believe in the Branch, the Prophet spoken of by Moses? All these references have come up because they are all part of their Hebrew teachings from the OT. Every student of God's word would be familiar with these, even this man who couldn't read. So we ask, do you believe what you heard; do you believe in the Son of Man, the incarnation, the One to be born of the virgin? 

19and after taking some food, he regained his strength. And he spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 Saul promptly began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, declaring, “He is the Son of God.” 21All who heard him were astounded and asked, “Isn’t this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem on those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?”… Acts 9: 19-21

…4because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. 5Who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 6This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ—not by water alone, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies to this, because the Spirit is the truth.… 1 John 5: 4-6

2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

5 For to which of the angels did He ever say,

“You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You”?

And again,

“I will be a Father to Him

And He shall be a Son to Me”?

6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says,

“And let all the angels of God worship Him.”

7 And of the angels He says,

“Who makes His angels winds,

And His ministers a flame of fire.”

8 But of the Son He says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,

And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.

9 “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;

Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You

With the oil of gladness above Your companions.” Hebrews 1: 2-9

V. 36 Who is He Lord that I may believe in Him - This is a tilled heart, and I know plenty, myself at a time, who would just be happy to be physically healed and then go about my way, but this man is hungry for more. 

Spurgeon - Note the humility of the man’s tone, how changed it is from that sharpness, that acerbity to which he had been driven by his enemies. He is a lamb before Christ though he was a lion before the Pharisees. That is the true Christian character,—gentle, tender, humble, meek, in the presence of the God of mercy, but with no trembling, no giving way in the presence of the adversaries of Christ and his truth.

Matthew Henry - He had well improved the knowledge he had, and now Christ gives him further instruction; for he that is faithful in a little shall be entrusted with more, Mt. 13:12. - Precept Austin

V. 37 You have both seen Him, and He is the one talking to you - Seeing is interesting here because this man was blind upon his first meeting with Christ, then sent away to wash his eyes, now He sees Him, and is spiritually perceiving Him. Faith is a gift, it is not that someone, anyone said something and you believed it, but the blind now sees because of this Man, He will see more because of what this Man is revealing to him by the Spirit. His physical eyes, which a man or woman in the know, would be pleased to live and eventually leave this world without knowing, have been restored, but they are nothing compared to the eyes of the heart which are now being made open. 

V. 38 Lord I believe, and he worshiped Him - Jesus is Lord, and this is a nonnegotiable. One day, even though you now resist, you will bow to Him, and if it is after you die it will be too late, it will only be because you see no other choice. You will bow in fear and not in love, but this man has been born from above, twice healed of blindness. His response is to worship, and as a Jew this may only be directed towards God, not towards idols, men or angels, so Who is Jesus that He can accept such?

…51While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53praising God continually in the temple.… Luke 24: 51-53

…32And when they had climbed back into the boat, the wind died down. 33Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God!” 34When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret.… Matthew 14: 32-34

V. 39 For judgment I have come into this world so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind - There were some in this world who had very little light in their time, and Jesus, the Light, had entered the world, and in so doing, was challenging those who had received much light but refused the truth. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the only way to be right with God, and in refusing Him, those who called themselves sons of Abraham, those who had the light of God's word, would now receive judicial blindness. Our day is even worse, we have the light of nature, the sciences that challenge all of men's notions and hopes to believe something else. No matter how many problems they find with their present models, no matter how many difficulties are presented against what they want to believe, yet they will passionately cling to lies and proselytize others to do likewise. We see entropy, that is what our eyes witness, but they market something going in the opposite direction, something that they have long tried to prove and found only more difficulty along the way, but the public holds them up as prophets of hope, the hope that they won't have to face a holy and just God. We have the light of Scripture, tested and readily available in the West. We have had the freedom to examine for ourselves what brought Europe out of the dark ages, yet no one reads, no one cares, everyone hates It because it goes against their pride, sin, and autonomy. We have John MacArthur, Lawson, Voddie, and many unsung heroes of the faith who continue to believe and preach Sola Scriptura, but the multitudes go to false teachers like Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen. Everyone thinks they see, every way of a man is right in his own eyes. 

…17I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’ 19So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.… Acts 26: 17-19

…9The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, 10and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. 11For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie,… 2 Thessalonians 2: 9-11

V. 40 Are we blind too - Yes, this man worshiped Christ, you called Him a sinner, said He was from Beelzebub, mocked Him, tried to stone Him and have Him arrested. You are the epitome of what He just said. You have chosen to be blind and He is judiciously choosing to leave you to your blindness. You do not want God and He is not going to cause you to want Him, and He does you no wrong in this. You and truth are not on speaking terms.

…16So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.… Revelation 3: 16-18

V. 41 If you were blind you would have no sin - They said they weren't blind, needed no light, and they did have the books of Moses, the prophets, the pictures of the sacrificial lambs, the Temple, the Passover and yet they saw themselves righteous when they weren't. They read these things and then unrepentantly disobeyed the Spirit of them, messed with the Letter, and clung to the false hope of their own goodness. The churches are filled with people like this today, who only have a very surface relationship to Christ, or things that they have deemed Christian but are not the Truth. I know all sorts of people who like any number of men named Jesus, but if they met the real One they wouldn't recognize Him. 

…11As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. 12Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. 13The slacker says, “A lion is in the road! A fierce lion roams the public square!”… Proverbs 26: 11-13

…20Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter. 21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. 22Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing strong drink,… Isaiah 5: 20-22

…34Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things 35you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’ 36How unstable you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.… Jeremiah 2: 34-36

…46The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 That servant who knows his master’s will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows. 48But the one who unknowingly does things worthy of punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded.… Luke 12: 46-48

…8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.… 1 John 1: 8-10

John MacArthur explains - Jesus’ point was that if the Pharisees would confess that they were spiritually blind (thereby admitting their need for Christ, the true Light) they would have no sin, because it would be forgiven (Ps. 32:5; Prov. 28:13; 1 John 1:9). (See John Commentary)

In his study Bible MacArthur says "Jesus had particular reference to the sin of unbelief and rejection of Him as Messiah and Son of God. If they knew their lostness and darkness and cried out for spiritual light, they would no longer be guilty of the sin of unbelief in Christ. But satisfied that their darkness was light, and continuing in rejection of Christ, their sin remained."

John Calvin - He is blind who, aware of his own blindness, seeks a remedy to cure his disease. In this way the meaning will be, “If you would acknowledge your disease, it would not be altogether incurable; but now because you think that you (PHARISEES) are in perfect health, you continue in a desperate state.” When he says that they who are blind have no sin, this does not excuse ignorance, as if it were harmless, and were placed beyond the reach of condemnation. He only means that the disease may easily be cured, when it is truly felt; because, when a blind man is desirous to obtain deliverance, God is ready to assist him; but they who, insensible to their diseases, despise the grace of God, are incurable. (John 9 Commentary) - Precept Austin