The sermon by Scott Brown focuses on John chapter 9, where Jesus heals a man blind from birth, illustrating the theme of spiritual enlightenment. The disciples' initial question about sin reveals a common misunderstanding about suffering, which Jesus corrects by emphasizing God's works. The healing, performed on the Sabbath, triggers controversy among the Pharisees, highlighting their spiritual blindness despite their physical sight. The blind man's journey from recognizing Jesus as a mere man to worshiping him as Lord mirrors spiritual awakening. The narrative underscores the role of Jesus as the light of the world, fulfilling prophecies about the Messiah bringing spiritual sight. The sermon also touches on the fear of man, as seen in the blind man's parents, and explores the deeper theological implications of suffering and belief, urging listeners to embrace the light of Christ and be prepared for their spiritual journey towards the ultimate test at the grave.

John chapter 9, as he was passing by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples question him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Neither this man nor his parents sinned, Jesus answered. This came about so that God's work might be displayed in him. We must do the works of him who sent me while at his day.

Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." After he said these things, he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. Go, he told him, washed in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. So he left, washed, and came back seeing. His neighbors and those who formerly had seen him as a beggar said, Isn't this the man who sat begging?

Some said he's the one. No, others were saying, but he looks like him. He kept saying, I'm the one. Therefore, they asked him, then how were your eyes open? He answered, the man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, go to Siloam and wash.

So when I went and washed, I received my sight. Where is he, they asked. I don't know, he said. They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was the Sabbath.

So again, the Pharisees asked him how he received his sight. He put mud on my eyes, he told them, I washed and I can see. Therefore, some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, for he doesn't keep the Sabbath. But others were saying, how can a sinful man perform such signs? And there was a division among them Again, they asked the blind man.

What do you say about him? Since he opened your eyes He's a prophet. He said The Jews did not believe this about him, that he was blind and received sight. Until they summoned the parents of the one who had received his sight, they asked them, Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? How then does he now see?

We know this is our son and that he was born blind. His parents answered, but we do not know how he now sees, and we do not know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he's of age. He will speak for himself." His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews, since the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed to him as the Messiah, he would be banned from the synagogue. This is why his parents said, He is of age.

Ask him. So a second time they summoned the man who had been born blind and told him, Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether or not he's a sinner, I don't know. The one thing I do know, I was blind, and now I can see.

Then they asked him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? I already told you, he said, and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don't want to become his disciples, too, do you?

They ridiculed him. You're that man's disciple, but we're Moses' disciples. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but this man, we don't know where he's from. This is an amazing thing, the man told them. You don't know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is God fearing and does his will, he listens to him. Throughout history, no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he wouldn't be able to do anything. You were born entirely in sin, they replied, and are you trying to teach us? Then they threw him out.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, he found him and asked, Do you believe in the Son of Man? Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? He asked. Jesus answered, You have seen him. In fact, he is the one speaking with you I believe Lord he said and he worshiped him Jesus said I came into this world for judgment in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, We aren't blind too, are we? If you were blind, Jesus told them, you wouldn't have sin. But now that you say, we see, your sin remains. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this word, for the testimony of the man who said, I believe.

Lord, today we do believe. We believe in you. You're the light of the world, the Son of God who came to pay the penalty for our sins, Lord to die the death that we deserve and resurrect again and seated at the right hand of the Father, we do thank you for that. Lord, I pray that your light would prevail today here As we know it will and lower that you would break chains Lord that you would save and Lord that you just give us joy today And Lord help us to enjoy your word and she's now we pray amen It really has been a delight for me to consider this chapter because it speaks of the light of Jesus Christ, his coming into the world as light, to open up blind eyes. And everywhere I've gone, almost every day, I've experienced some reminder just of the beauty and the goodness of Jesus Christ.

I don't know if you saw last night there was a full moon and light is reflected from the moon and that whole principle of reflected light is implied here in this passage of scripture. Two days ago there was a double rainbow hanging over our backyard. It was a big, bright, beautiful rainbow and you could just see light expressed in its diffused form, you know, as light strikes particles, the colors, you know, scatter. It was so beautiful to see that. We all just were amazed.

But all those things are really pictures of Jesus Christ as the light of the world. I was walking with my grandsons through the woods yesterday and I stopped them and I said think about this for a minute what if what if you're like that man in John chapter 9 he had never seen anything and you opened your eyes right here where you are in these woods, what would you think? All these trees, and I picked up a leaf and I said, you wouldn't even know that this leaf was brown. You don't, you've never seen brown before. And you know, light, light is a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Light is such a marvelous thing to consider, and I pray that God gives us a biblical consideration of it. You know, at the same time, you know, this week all over the world, people are celebrating some version of Christmas. It's remarkable to me that this passage of Scripture falls on this Sunday, the Sunday before the celebration of Christmas. And you know, when people consider Christmas, you know, I know we're all very concerned about the way that people consider Christmas, you know, but it seems like people want to keep Jesus in a manger. They want to keep him as a baby.

They don't see him as the one who enlightens everything. And this passage really reveals one of the most significant reasons for the incarnation, for the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. And you know, that Jesus is the life, which is the light of men, and that's really the whole proposition of the incarnation. And I pray that the doctrine of Jesus Christ that's contained here in this passage of scripture would help us to understand the beauty and the glory of Jesus Christ in in his incarnation and also how he lives as light in his church as the years passed. Now the gospel of John explains in detail the meaning of the incarnation and over and over again John will not let us forget that Jesus came from God, he was sent from heaven, and that he is God.

You know, how many times has John emphasized this? We're only in chapter 9, and this emphasis will continue on. But, but here in John 9, this wonderful facet of the incarnation is revealed, and that is that Jesus opens blind eyes. And so this is a story of a man who never saw anything and here here is Jesus he's just passing by this man by the way this is how the ministry of Jesus works in his life he's passing by and he reaches out to people. The most important things happen when Jesus is passing by.

We sang that beautiful song. I love singing it this morning. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry. What a beautiful song. And here is this man.

He's blind from birth. Not only that, he's a beggar. He really has no future. He has no hope. He's scorned.

You know, most likely no marriage, no children, and Jesus passes by him. It's such a remarkable and beautiful story. And the heart of the entire chapter is really an illustration of what Jesus has been speaking about since John 8 verse 12 where he says, I am the light of the world, he who follows me shall have the light of life. This is just a continuation of what Jesus said there. And the heart of this chapter is that Jesus gives sight or light to blind eyes.

And it's not difficult to see the emphasis of this passage if you just read the chapter and take note of the words. The words blind occurs 15 times in this chapter. The words see or sight appears 13 times. The words opened my eyes or eyes appears 10 times. The focus of this chapter is the light of Jesus that opens blind eyes.

There's just no question about it. In many ways it's a very simple passage of scripture for us to meditate on here this morning. And Jesus is illustrating that he's the light of the world and he passes by this man and we start the chapter with the Pharisees and they see physically and we see a blind man who cannot see physically. But by the end of the chapter you have the blind man he sees physically and spiritually and the Pharisees are blind spiritually. And I think that really explains what John is trying to communicate to us and he's making it clear that some encounter Jesus and They see the light of his glory and others just can't see it.

It doesn't move them. It's not beauty to them. He's not wonderful to them. And so here in this section of John, you've got At least two and a half chapters, John is dedicating to the proposition that Jesus is the light of the world. And I don't think this theme ends, if it ends at all, until John 10, 21, where there's this division that Jesus brings to the crowd that are there that is there and And some of the people are saying Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

Because some people are realizing Jesus is not a demon. The Pharisees are saying he has a demon. But Jesus is revealing himself here as the one who opens blind eyes. So he's showing us what is the essence of belief in Jesus, what it means to follow Jesus. You know, what it means really to be a church to have the light of Jesus and to love the light of Jesus and to say to say what this man said I was blind but now I see and that's not that's the big question you know Have you seen the beauty of Jesus Christ?

Do you love his ways? And do you want to follow him in his light? It is really remarkable that the most famous hymn ever written in the English language, Amazing Grace, by John Newton, borrows a line out of John chapter 9. I was blind But now I see so we we began in this chapter last last week and We spoke and focused on the problem of blindness, which is addressed in these first five verses. If you have an outline in front of you, you can see the progression of the activity in this chapter.

First of all, the disciples are instructed about this man's blindness that's verses 1 through 5 and then the blind man is actually healed in verses 6 and 7 and and Then the neighbors notice what's going on and then there is an interrogation that goes on. The Pharisees are going to interrogate everybody in the story and They interrogate the parents, they interrogate the man, and then the man who is formerly blind is approached by Jesus. Jesus finds him in verses 35-38. And then Jesus speaks to the Pharisees in the very last section in verses 39 through 41. So that's the flow of this passage.

You need to see the various conversations that are going on here between the Pharisees and this man. But the first thing that happens here is that the disciples are instructed about sin and this man's disability in the first five verses and the disciples say to Jesus who sinned? Did this man sin or did his parents sin? And Jesus says neither his parents nor this man sinned but that the works of God should be revealed in him. And so Jesus is communicating really a theology of suffering, and the disciples did not understand suffering properly.

Their theology was that if you're sick that somebody sinned. They were really on a fault-finding mission. And the disciples' doctrine of suffering was very much like the Pharisees. You get what you deserve. And their theology of suffering is being corrected here.

They thought if you're good, good things will happen. If you're bad, bad things will happen. But Jesus says no, that it was He that made this man blind so that His glory would be revealed, so that the works of God would be revealed in this man. And It really helps us to understand that there are different reasons for our suffering. And one of those reasons for our suffering is that God has a use for your suffering.

He has a use for your pain. Your disability is God's declaration of his ability to glorify himself in everything. Maybe you're sick, maybe you have something that's been wrong with you for a long time, like the Apostle Paul. And you know, here you're instructed by this here, that your disability is for the purpose of God glorifying Himself in you, that He would show you that His grace is sufficient. And so much of our troubles are because of that reason.

Now at the end of the first four verses I think is perhaps one of the great interpretive keys to the passage and if you could look at verse 5 with me, as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world. Now this statement has tremendous significance as we're trying to learn about the gospel of John and what the message is and here he says as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world one one theologian CK Barrett said that this chapter really is the summary of what God intends for the Christian life and that is for light to shine. And so the reason for this man's blindness was so that Jesus would demonstrate that he is the light of the world. And John has already spoken about this. It's really part of the whole fabric of the message of the gospel of John.

And for example in chapter one verse four it's revealed to us by John that all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. And then he says, In him was life, and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it or rather overcome it So right at the very beginning of the gospel of John, John wants us to understand that Jesus is light. In verse 8 in chapter 1, speaking of John the Baptist, John says he was not that light but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. John wants us to understand that Jesus is the light.

In chapter 3 verse 19 after Jesus tells Nicodemus you must be born again, then Jesus says to him, and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world but men love the darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light and he's talking about Jesus lest his deeds be exposed that's why people don't come to Jesus they don't want their deeds to be exposed by his light but he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God in John chapter 8 verse 12 Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and the disciples and the woman caught in adultery and he's speaking to all of them and he says in verse 12 I am the light of the world he who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life and Then if you fast forward six months from where we are now in John 9 to the last week of Jesus' life in John 12 verse 35, Jesus says again that He is the light and He says this, a little while longer the light is with you.

And he's talking about himself, not some abstract thing. He's talking about himself and he says, walk while you have the light, Lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." And then Jesus spoke these things and then he departed from them. But John wants us to understand that Jesus Christ is the light.

And John wants us to understand, I believe, that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah. Now there are many places where this is implied in the Old Testament, And we really don't have the time to go to all these places, but let's go to at least Isaiah. Isaiah speaks of it over and over and over. Again, you know, Isaiah is called by theologians the fourth gospel or the fifth gospel because he speaks so much of Jesus Christ the Messiah. But in Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 and 2 the Messiah as the light of the world is so clearly spoken of and he says he says that when the Messiah comes there'll be no more gloom and that the oppressed will will go free and then he says By the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them light has shined. And so it's very clear from the prophets that Jesus is the light. In Isaiah 29 verse 18 you read that when the Messiah comes, the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. In Isaiah chapter 35, where it's recorded that Jesus is the one who heals all the disabilities. And that these are just illustrations of the disabilities of the soul.

And he says, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for waters shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert." in Isaiah 42 verses 6-7 it speaks of Jesus who is going to reach into the cultures of the world, into every tongue and tribe and nation, and He will quote, be as a light to the Gentiles to open blind eyes to bring out prisoners from the prison to those who sit in darkness from the prison house. You get to the end of Isaiah, almost to the end, In chapter 60 verse 1 you read, Arise, shine, for your light has come. And he's talking about Jesus who is the light of the world. And then in Luke, you know, when Zacharias is prophesying, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, and he's prophesying that his son John will be called a prophet and he will prepare away for what?

For the day spring from on high. And he says that he will come and say that this day spring has visited us. Why? In verse 79 in Luke 1, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. And then later Jesus appears in the temple in Luke chapter four and he says that he came to proclaim liberty to the captives to end recovery of sight to the blind.

So this is what John is wanting us to understand, that Jesus is the light of the world and that he is the prophesied Messiah that Isaiah spoke of. And so what John wants us to understand is the beauty of Jesus Christ as the light of the world. And of course, John has been trying to describe the beauty of Jesus in so many ways. You know, at the wedding of Cana, he's the best wine, you know, to the woman at the well, he's water that quenches your thirst. In chapter 5, he's the healer of the lame, and in chapter 6, he's the bread that comes out of heaven in chapter 7 he's a well of water bubbling up to eternal life and in chapter 8 he's the light of the world and in chapter 9 there's this radical demonstration that he's the light of the world when he opens up blind eyes.

By the way that this miracle happened is astonishing. I think there are only six maybe miracles of healing recorded in the Old Testament. How many are there in the New Testament? Well we don't know. I think it's thousands because it says that thousands would come to him and he healed everybody.

So there's something different that's happening and Jesus is being proclaimed here in this beautiful imagery that he's, that he heals blind eyes. And so in verse, verses six and seven, we see how he did it. The blind man is healed. When Jesus had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with saliva And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay and he said go wash in the pool of Siloam You know why why did he do this Jesus could have healed this man instantly he did it over and over again But he puts puts clay from his spit in this man's eyes and asks him to go walk as a blind man to the pool of Siloam. People say it's kind of a rough walk, but that's what he had to do and he did it.

And you know, why did Jesus do this? And you know, was Jesus just demonstrating that the foolishness of God is wiser than the weakness of men? Was he just asking to do something ridiculous to show his power? I don't really think that's what it was. I think he was very intentional in what he was doing.

We learn in verse 14 that this was the Sabbath. And I think Jesus made that clay in order to teach the Pharisees that they had no idea what it meant to celebrate the Sabbath. Because they didn't believe you could make clay on the Sabbath. They didn't. In fact, it was funny.

I was in my library this week and I just bumped into a book. It was the Mishnah and the book fell open to the section where the Pharisees say that you can't need, you can't make, you can't need dough and you can't need clay and you can't make bricks on the Sabbath Well, they they created hundreds and hundreds of laws, you know, and I think Jesus made that clay in order really to to poke at the Pharisees and to demonstrate to them how lost they were, how they misunderstood the love of Jesus on the Sabbath day. They totally misunderstood it. It's easy to misunderstand the Sabbath. And they, you know, had created their 52 ways to bust Sabbath breakers every Sabbath day.

I think he used that clay intentionally. He had him go to the pool of Siloam, Which by the way, just a few years ago archaeologists think they found that pools about 250 feet long you know right at the end of the aqueduct that has a Kaia built about in the rock about 2, 000 feet long, but You know you know, this was all in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles and they would go down and dip water out of that pool and bring it back and It was a feast of lights as well. The temple was all lit up during that time. I think that all of this imagery is the reason why Jesus asked him to go down to the pool of Siloam. But this miracle is just pointing to the deeper reality is that God opens blind eyes.

Now, now there are there are many characters in this in this chapter. I hope you can see them. You know, you have the man with the disability, you have the na... All the neighbors are there too by the way. You know, your neighborhood is in this.

You have his family as well. There are... All these different peoples are affected. The people in the city, the people who gave this man money, he's a beggar, are there, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders. So you have all these different people that are affected by this man who is healed.

And so let's look at the neighbors. The neighbors notice, look at verses 8 through 12, and he's a changed man. That's the big deal here. The neighbors and those who had previously seen that he was blind said, is this not he who sat and begged? In other words, some said, this is the guy.

Others said, well, is he? He kind of looks like him. But these were the neighbors. But something happened to somebody in a neighborhood, and they're taken by it. The man looked different.

And you know, when your eyes are open, you look different. Life is different. And the neighbors notice. Hopefully they notice the light of jesus not your meanness and not your legalism but they under that they see the light of Jesus and the word of God coming from your mouth and so they react and they're very curious and when when this I think it's really interesting when this man relates to his neighbors you know his eyes have just been opened and he he tells them about Jesus and he he calls him a man this man Opened my eyes, you know, he didn't know very much Yet you'll see his knowledge grows throughout this narrative and then and then the Pharisees start interrogating the man and in verses 13 through 17 they're going to interrogate him and their interrogation really has to do with one big issue the Sabbath what does it look like to keep the Sabbath verse 14 now it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes and then the next verse then the Pharisees who asked him in other words the Pharisees are wound up about the fact that he healed this man on the Sabbath.

And by the way, many of Jesus' healings took place on the Sabbath. And I believe Jesus did that to teach the Pharisees and everybody around that the Sabbath was the most delightful day and that's the day of healing That's the day of joy It's it is the day of delight as Isaiah has said and In verse 16. It's very clear what they're driving at. The heart of these verses is that some of the Pharisees said this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath. And John wants us to know that the issue was the Sabbath.

And you know there's this popular teaching around that Jesus set aside the Sabbath and broke the Sabbath. He ate grain going through the grain fields and he healed on the Sabbath. He was breaking the Sabbath. He was bringing the new covenant. I totally reject that idea.

I think that Jesus was keeping the Sabbath perfectly and he's teaching everyone what it means to keep the Sabbath and he wants his disciples to understand that when God brings his people together on his holy day, he does it for healing. He does it to bless them. He does it because it's the best thing for them. That's why he brings them together. And You know, as you know, we as a church learn how to celebrate the Sabbath.

I feel like we're always learning I feel like I'm always learning to celebrate the Sabbath more faithfully but Jesus is keeping the Sabbath and in keeping the Sabbath he engages in acts of mercy and he engages in acts of necessity. And while the Pharisees, you know, are swirling around this scene and they're working on their 52 ways to catch Sabbath breakers and Jesus is teaching them about the Sabbath and it is good to set a day aside to meditate on the Lord and to recognize that the Sabbath was made for man. God made that day to nourish us, to help us. We need it. We need an entire day to feast upon him.

And so I pray that that day is like that for us today. So the Pharisees are straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel and they had all these ridiculous laws and they want to know the bottom line opinion of this man. And so they say the blind man in verse 17, What do you say about him because he opened your eyes? And what does he say? Well, he's no longer calls Jesus a man.

He says he's a prophet. He's a prophet. And then the interrogation moves on to the man's parents. So the Pharisees move from the man, and they're going to we're going to go talk to this guy's parents. So that's what happens in verses 18 through 23.

And in this section, you we really we encounter a very familiar problem. It's called the fear of man, the fear of ostracism, the fear of rejection. And so the Jews didn't believe the man, so they turned to the parents, and but then but then they did believe that he actually was blind and had now saw the after talking to the parents that did happen but the parents when being interrogated about you know how this happened they say well he is of age ask him you ask him you know somebody in bible study said it looks like these parents are throwing him under the throwing their son under the bus it does look like that And then John tells us why they said that. Why did they say that? I mean it seems somewhat neutral, right?

He's of age, ask him. Well there was a reason, there was a motive, there was a secret sin as the reason that he said this, that they said this. And John tells us in verse 22, look at verse 22, see John was there, John is an eyewitness, What we have seen, what we have touched, what we have heard with our eyes and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, John was there. And John says, his parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that he was the Christ that he would be put out of the synagogue therefore his parents said he is of age ask him and you know this is a fear of ostracism you know In chapter 7 we read that many people would not speak openly of Jesus even though they believed in him for fear of the Jews. And that's what we find here.

And it's, you know, they would even be will, his parents would even be willing to disconnect from their son at a time like this. And I just remind me of Psalm 27, you know, when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me. I think that man experienced that right there in that moment. How much do we need to speak about the fear of man? It's one of the most common and crippling forces in our hearts.

All of us want to be respected. All of us have a desire for approval and a desire for honor and it might even cause us to cover up the truth because of our fear of criticism. The fear of man will gag you, it will immobilize you, it will cause you to be ambiguous, and it might even cause you to outright lie. And it really is nothing more than a manifestation of our pride. You know, fear of man is so harmful.

Solomon said that it was a snare, but it will send you into a spiral of second guessing your decisions and timidity and inactivity. Fear of man often does that to us and you might there are many things that we do out of the result of the fear of man well that's what we see in these parents and then they move The Pharisees move from the interrogation of the parents and they go back to the healed man again in verses 24 to 34 so they again called the man who is blind and They said to him give God the glory we know that this man is a sinner. And what the Pharisees want to drive this man to say is that Jesus is not God, that Jesus is a sinner, And they just want him to say it. Just say that he's not God. And we're going to open up the doors of heaven for you.

And, You know, they're offering him freedom from scorn, and they're offering him acceptance, they're offering him inclusion into their great society. Because the Pharisees, they want to keep Jesus in a manger just like so many people who are celebrating Christmas, right? They just want to keep him a nice little baby there that they want to keep him only as a man. They want to keep him only as a prophet, but not God, not one that was sent from heaven. You know, can you imagine what this formally blind man was thinking?

You know, I could be accepted in a moment, I just have to say one thing. I just have to say that Jesus is a sinner and I'll be accepted and he doesn't do it. Well, verse 25, he says, whether he's a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know. And here is the line.

I was blind, but now I see. You might not be able to explain everything about the doctrine of Jesus but when when he moves in your heart you see him you see his beauty and you say I see I I was blind and and now I see you know you're and you're you know what your sin begins to grieve you and you begin to see how good Jesus is you and you want to follow his light you want his light that's how you know you're a Christian you want his light and this man experienced that light and then they said to him again he said what did he do to you how did he open your eyes and he says I already told you do you want me to tell you do you want to become his disciples There's a lot of sarcasm here in this holy, sanctified sarcasm in this passage of Scripture. And so now this man can see that he's been cast out of the whole religious and social structure that surrounds him. And he would rather have Jesus. And so they excommunicate him.

They throw him out of the synagogue, out of the temple, and he's no longer a part. But most scholars who look at this believe this is equivalent to excommunication, formal excommunication that the Jews often did. And then Jesus finds the formerly blind man Jesus finds him I love this part by the way verses 35 to 38 I look at verse 35 this is just just hang on verse 35 for a second. Jesus heard that they cast him out and when he had found him. And when he had found him.

Those are the words. Jesus is near to the broken hearted. He comes to those who are rejected. He cares for them. He never leaves them or forsakes them that's why that's why John Newton writes I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see I was found I was found one commentator said Oh happy man having lost the synagogue, he finds heaven.

And then he worships Jesus. Jesus says, Do you believe in the Son of God? And he answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? In other words, his heart is changed. And Jesus said to him, you have both seen him and it is he who is talking with you.

And then he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. So there are two things that happened. He believed. In other words, he rested his hopes.

This is not just intellectual assent. This is not just saying, yes, Jesus is God. This is believing that truly trusts with all the heart. And then he worshiped. The word that John chooses to use here is the word for prostrating oneself before someone in an act of reverence and So he he really was bowing down In his heart and I I love the progression of this story.

You know, when this man is talking to his neighbors, he says, this man healed me. When he's talking to the Pharisees, he says, he's a prophet and now he calls him Lord. And this is just the beautiful illustration of how Jesus works in our lives he works it takes time and we have we have sort of a dawning recognition of how good he is and so this man sees and he's celebrating Jesus and then Jesus speaks to the Pharisees at the very end here get to the end of this chapter in verses 39 through 41 and the the astonishing truth that comes out in this section is that these Pharisees they cannot see their sin that's the issue and Now look at verse 39 for you. I'm going to sort of give you some, I'm going to insert some words in verse 39. I want you to follow verse 39 and 40.

So look at this. And Jesus said, he's now speaking to the Pharisees for judgment. I have come into this world and that's the judgment to distinguish the blind from those who see that's the judgment that he's bringing right there it's not the final judgment and the next phrase is and those who do not see with physical sight may see with spiritual sight and find the light of life and have their eyes opened. And then he says, and that those who see, now he's talking about the Pharisees, those who see, who have physical sight, may be made blind, and that's spiritually blind, and remain in their sins and continue in their rebellion. So Jesus is getting to the heart of the matter here.

And then verse 40 says, and some of the Pharisees who are with him and heard these words said to him are we blind also I think this is just a sarcastic remark oh you're saying that we're blind you're saying that we the ones who studied the law all the time are blind is that what you're saying? And Jesus actually says, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And he said it this way, he said, if you were blind, you would have no sin but now you say we see therefore your sin remains that's it and Jesus is just saying If you realized how blind you were, if you realized how sinful you were, and if you repented, you would receive your sight. But you remain unrepented and hard-hearted, and you are blind to your sin. And so that's how Jesus ends this entire conversation.

They're arguing that they're not blind, and Jesus is saying that they are blind. And their great blindness is their blindness to their sin and their blindness to the light of the world. They say we see, but they don't really see. See, you remember when John, in John chapter 3, John records Jesus saying, unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. He cannot see it.

Now that's, that's, the worst thing that can happen to you is not to see if you don't see the king of heaven there's nothing worse that can happen to you is not to see it and to see the beauty of the light of Jesus and to want his light. And this is actually a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 9 Where Isaiah says, go tell this people, keep on hearing but do not understand and shut their eyes lest their eyes see and be healed. So this is a prophecy, there's a hardening of the heart. Now the tragedy of darkness and unbelief is incalculable. And this chapter in the Gospel of John demonstrates the dark soul that remains in darkness and the dark soul that is enlightened by Jesus.

Now let me just give a few applications here. First of all, you know, get clear on why sickness. God in your genetic code has created you for a purpose. And whatever is happening in your genetic code that made you who you are God did that for his own glory just rest in that You know the whole illustration of the pressures of the fear of man are here for us just to remember this secret sin. There's this whole matter of the keeping of the Sabbath and the beauty of the Sabbath and not missing what Jesus meant by when he said I am the Lord of the Sabbath.

The Lord of light and delight is the Lord of the Sabbath. And, you know, there's much we can say about believers walking in the light because the Bible makes it very clear that we're the light of the world and God has called us to turn away from darkness there's a lot of darkness that left in us and turning away from that darkness is the most beneficial thing we can ever do. And there are many places in the Bible that just call us out of darkness as believers. But there's something even more important. You know here we are gathered you know in this church and you know week after week you the pastors are preaching and they're appealing and we we do things to try to shepherd the flock out of darkness.

And you know, as I've looked back in at 2018, you know a lot happened in 2018. Every year is different. But as a pastor there was one thing that happened this last year that just rises above everything. And what happened has just struck me as really the heart of what we're doing here and what all of our preaching is about and it had to do with the fact that there were, well in my life there were two funerals. I did two funerals this year.

And one of them was our dear sister, Jenny. Jenny Krause. To me, Jenny's death from a pastoral perspective was the most important thing that happened to us in this church in 2018 for me. You know, her death was many things to us. It was heartbreaking.

It was heartwarming. You know, our church, You know, was locked in this long struggle with Jenny and we as a church, but especially her family, walked her up to the gate and she entered in. It was remarkable. But for a pastor, a funeral is the endpoint of everything that we're doing here. Every sermon, every prayer time, every time we gather, everything we write, everything, every email, everything we do really is tested at a grave all of it is and it's the final marker of everything that we're supposed to be doing as pastors please pray for your pastors because this this really is our calling everything all of our shepherding all of our accountability as pastors accumulates at a grave.

And because that person is either going to enter into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth and everyone is going to end up at that grave either either at the gate of outer darkness or out at the gate of everlasting light and Our ministry is tested at a grave, you know it's it's it's a it's one thing to try to teach people how to live you know the Bible does teach us how to live how to be a family how to be a husband how to be a wife how to be a child how to be a worker the Bible has really clear things to say and we spend a lot of our time trying to teach you how to live but have we taught you how to die that's the most important thing you know are you ready to die have we taught you how to die do you know if you're justified by faith because when our shepherding really is tested there are you justified and but even more than that did did we help you to know whether you were justified or not Did we preach the gospel to you?

You know, were we afraid of you and wouldn't? Would we pamper you? You know, would we flatter you? Would we sort of air-condition your way into hell as you try to kind of clean up your life? You know, this guy trying to be a better husband this wife trying to be a better mother, you know Have we just air conditioned your journey to hell because we didn't speak the gospel and it's truth because everything is gonna end at a grave and That's where our shepherding will be tested and I do believe that when the Apostle Paul Said in Hebrews 13 17 That shepherds will be held accountable for your souls I think this is a large part of it that will be held accountable as to whether we brought you to a place by the Word of God whether you knew you were justified or not now you may not have cleaned up your life as well as we thought or you thought or anybody else thought but here's what matters do you have the light do you love the light of Jesus Christ are you justified And this matter is so serious here in John chapter 9 That Jesus divides this crowd into those who will remain in everlasting darkness And those who will walk in everlasting light that's the point of John chapter 9 You know when the pastors preached were they dismissed did you listen to our admonitions Did you listen carefully to what we said?

Because we languish to try to say it right. And it keeps us up late. And we pray that he who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches Do you love the light? Are you justified and when we meet you at the grave and we will someday meet you there. Will you have been shepherded to the light or not?

Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, That you are the light of the world is the sweetest thing. In your light we see the light, Lord, that you would help us to walk as children of light. And that Lord, I also pray that you would save every person who hears the gospel in this place preparing them for that great day where everything will be tested Amen.