The sermon 'Blind from Birth' by Jason Dohm explores the story of a man born blind as a depiction of spiritual blindness and the power of Jesus to bring spiritual light. The physical healing of the man serves as a metaphor for the spiritual healing Jesus offers. The speaker elaborates on how suffering is not always a direct result of personal sin, drawing examples from both Old and New Testaments, including the story of Job. The sermon emphasizes Jesus' unwavering dedication to His mission, despite opposition, and His power to perform miracles as a testament to His divine authority. It encourages believers to reflect on their own lives, urging them to act with urgency, to trust in Jesus' spiritual authority, and to view their sufferings and the sufferings of others with humility and introspection. The sermon concludes by affirming Jesus as the Messiah and the Savior, capable of transforming spiritual darkness into light.

The title of the sermon today is, Blind from Birth. It's a text about a man who is blind from birth. But it is a type, and a picture, and a foreshadow of a greater spiritual reality. That's a sequence of words I've been using in the last couple of sermons, because we keep encountering that. It's something physical that's used by Jesus as a teaching tool to get us to understand spiritual things.

So it is a real, live, physical man who has a real, live, physical infirmity, blindness. He's been that way from his birth. But Jesus is using this man and what he does in his life to teach us about spiritual blindness and his ability to give you spiritual light and to save your soul. So by the end of chapter 9 it's going to be abundantly clear that that's what this is about, even more than the wonderful work that he does in this man's life. I want to give you a little bit of a road map.

This week and the next two weeks will be in John chapter 9. We'll complete the chapter in those three sermons. Then the two weeks after that will be out of the book of John. I'm not exactly sure what I'm preaching yet. Probably things that I'm getting ready to preach in Malawi.

That would be really convenient for me. So That's probably what will happen, but we'll see. And then a week after that, I'll preach the first sermon in John chapter 10. That's to set up the next two texts which James and Michael will be preaching when I'm in Malawi. So that's sort of why we'll be out of John for two weeks.

They're already working on those texts, so we wanted to make sure to match up those weeks with those texts. Today we have just a wonderful text that begins with an adult man who has never seen anything ever in his life. He has never seen light, he has never seen colors, he has never seen any images, no trees, no people. He has never seen his food. At the end of the text, he can see it all.

Light, colors, images. Imagine what it must be like to have that happen in adulthood. He's lived a good portion of life without this, and now it's just restored to him in a moment of time. So it really is a wonderful text. In verse 32, which is not in this week's text, but when we get there, this man is going to say, since the world began, It has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.

There have been people in human history who have had sight and lost it and got it back for this reason or that. But this man, who's been listening for stories that would give him hope is unaware of any other instance when someone born blind had ever had his eyes open. Here's the punch line, We'll skip right to the end. This text should give us such confidence in Jesus. He can do anything.

This man in verse 32 says, No one's ever heard of anyone ever in human history being able to do this. Jesus doesn't like that. It should give us such joy and confidence that Jesus can do anything. He can even open the spiritually blind eyes and light can come pouring into a soul that's been filled with darkness. That's really the point of the text.

So praise the Lord for that. As we come to the text, let's ask the Lord to help us. God, I thank you for this text. It is a wonderful text. It does give us such confidence in our Lord Jesus.

I pray that you would use it to expand our view, that you would be magnified, you would loom large over your people, and Our love for you would grow, our joy in you would grow, our confidence in you would grow, as we see you doing things that no one knew could even be done. Thank you for the Gospels and the study of Jesus' life, this remarkable life full of works that make our jaws drop. Thank you Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen. I want to begin by looking at verses 1-5. Hopefully your Bibles are open to John chapter 9.

Follow along as I read verses 1-5. Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. His disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." In these verses, the disciples ask about the cause of a man's blindness and Jesus answers. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, it's cause answers. The disciples ask about the cause of a man's blindness, and Jesus answers.

I personally, after studying the text, I didn't start the week this way, but I personally now believe that this happens immediately after the events of chapter 8. Look at the last verse of chapter 8, leading right into our text. Then they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." Now we'll skip past the very uninspired chapter break into verse 1. Now as Jesus passed by. So it ends, chapter 8 ends with, and so passed by, and chapter 9 begins, now as Jesus passed by, but the word Jesus is just added by the translators for meaning, it's really now as passed by.

It's borrowing Jesus from the previous verse. To me it seems clear enough that Jesus is doing this right on the heels of almost being stoned by the Pharisees in chapter 8. It doesn't matter a lot, but it makes it especially precious if Jesus demonstrates His identity as God's Messiah and does this great work of mercy right after almost being stoned by the Pharisees. Wouldn't that be just like Jesus? The most discouraging events in your life.

Opposition, opposition, opposition. They're persecuting you. They want to kill you. They pick up stones to try to kill you. And you immediately, as an act of grace, show who you really are, and do this great act of mercy, really almost in spite of the opposition that he's been receiving.

That would be just like Jesus. This is why we love Jesus. He does things like this. He never tires of doing good. He never ever tired of doing good.

He was never discouraged out of working and doing good. We get that from this text. Jesus sees a man who was blind from birth. His disciples ask him a question. Ask him a question.

Rabbi, teacher, or master, who sinned? There's a blind man. Who can we lay the blame at the doorstep of? Was it this man's sin or was it his parents' sin? You might think, how could blindness from birth be a consequence of my sin?

I'm in the womb. So how could it be my sin that would have caused me to blind? Well, there were rabbis who believed and taught, not all of them, but there were rabbis who believed and taught, that you could actively sin in the womb. And they would go to the text where Jacob and Esau are contending within the womb of their mother. She feels that something is amiss and they said this is sin in the womb.

Can you sin in the womb? I don't know, but they thought and taught that you could. I think our natural reaction to reading this is, what a crazy question. Shame on you disciples for not knowing better. How could the disciples think that?

But is it that crazy? Isn't there biblical evidence that God does strike people physically for sin? Are you going to have a hard time making that case. If I gave you a couple of hours and a Bible and your job was to make a case and take the side of the debate that God strikes people for physical sin, you might go to Numbers 12 and find Miriam complaining against Moses and being struck by God, directly physically with leprosy. Or you might go to 2 Kings 15, where King Uzziah, who was actually a very good King in many ways, over the period of his lifetime, you would say this was a faithful man of God.

Yet in 2 Kings 15, he goes into the temple to offer sacrifices that should only be offered by the priests. They confront him. He's angry and God strikes him immediately with leprosy. And he has leprosy till the day of his death. He really sort of disappears from the public eye for the rest of his life, even though he is still king.

God struck him physically because of his sin. You say, well that's Old Testament stuff. Saul, in Acts chapter 9, on his way to Damascus to persecute the church, the people of God, is struck blind. And later his sight is restored. Or in Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead.

They are struck dead for lying to the Holy Spirit. So it's not just an Old Testament phenomenon, we find it in the New Testament too. God strikes people physically for their sin. Amen. And can't we find evidence even of God striking children for the sin of their parents.

Exodus 20.15. You know Exodus 20? We should be familiar with that. It's the Ten Commandments. So this is within the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20.15. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. There's a second giving of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy chapter 5. Exactly the same words are used. There are multiple ways to understand what it means that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations.

So you might say, well that's a general principle, and people with sinful parents, yes their children do receive a kind of consequences from the sins of their parents. Well, if you need something specific, 2 Samuel 12, God strikes dead the child of David and Bathsheba's adultery. That child didn't do anything to die. God struck that child dead because his father and mother committed adultery, God was angry, and he killed the child. So the connection between sin and suffering is well established in Scripture.

Even the connection between a certain sin and a certain manifestation of suffering is well established in Scripture. But, there is an enormous difference between affirming that, And believing that this sin always leads to that suffering. That's where you get into trouble. That's where the disciples, although their question isn't as crazy as we might initially have thought, that is why their question is off. They are assuming that this sin always leads to that suffering.

If we see someone suffering bad, we know that it was a bad sin behind them somewhere. We know that if we try hard enough, we can lay the blame at the right doorstep. Isn't that exactly where Job's friends failed so spectacularly? I'm reading Job in my Bible reading plan right now. This is exactly what the book of Job is all about.

Job chapter 1, the early verses of Job chapter 1, he is introduced to us as a man who is blameless, upright, fearing God and shunning evil. That is the introduction to Job. And yet, the floodgates of suffering are opened up on this man and out gushes suffering into his life. And His friends come and even though he was a blameless man, an upright man, a man who feared God and shunned evil, they just know there is some secret sin that is to blame for the floodgates of suffering opening up, and the death of his children, and the confiscation of his animals, and the fact that his health has been taken from him, and he is sitting in sackcloth and sores all over his body. They know there is a secret sin, and they press him Chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter they say, we know it's in there somewhere Job, where's the sin?

Just confess and God will relent. And isn't Ecclesiastes largely taken up with noticing that sometimes the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. Have you read Ecclesiastes recently? Large stretches of Ecclesiastes are given to this. The wicked, They prosper, they're at ease, they're undisturbed, but then we see these righteous people who can't catch a break.

Ecclesiastes has a lot about that. So the disciples should have known from the book of Job, and the book of Ecclesiastes, and many other places in the Old Testament, that it's not so easy to take a specific instance of suffering and lay the blame at a doorstep. So yes, we should affirm that all this suffering is a result of sin. Had sin not come into the world, if rebellion and defiance wasn't in the heart of man, this man wouldn't be blind. That's Biblically true.

So yes, all this suffering that we see around us is a result of sin, but no we shouldn't affirm that there is always or even normally a direct line so that the greatest sufferers are the greatest sinners. That's where it takes you. The minute you abandon the general to say, we know this is always specific, it ends up saying someone who is suffering greatly by necessity has sinned greatly. We don't have warrant from the scriptures to say that. Jesus spoke to just this mindset in another gospel.

Turn to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. Jesus drills right in on this point in Luke chapter 13. I'll be reading Luke chapter 13 verses 1 through 5. There were present at that season some who told him, who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

So Pilate has killed some Galileans and Jesus gets told about it. And Jesus answered and said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things? Isn't that exactly the point in question? Jesus is pointing to Galileans who suffered greatly, in fact they were killed, and he says do you conclude from that that they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? He answers it in verse 3, I tell you no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them. Do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Jesus is saying when you see someone who is suffering, you shouldn't say, I know there is a secret sin in there somewhere.

You should say, I deserve that. That's what's going to happen to me unless I repent. That's what he teaches in Luke chapter 13. So, seeing the suffering in others should first cause introspection in you. Not for you to blame their sufferings on a certain sin in their life, or the lives of their parents.

It should cause you to think about you, and the things that you actually deserve if God were to render to you what you deserve, what you would get if you don't repent of your sins. In fact, sometimes It's exactly the opposite. Sometimes the greatest sufferers aren't the greatest sinners, they're the greatest saints. Could we find that in the Bible? Hello Jesus?

Any sin there? No? Any suffering there? Yes, Even before the cross where He bore the evils on our behalf, He was a man of sorrows. No sin there.

Many sorrows. The Bible teaches that sometimes the greatest sufferers are the greatest saints, and God has used the sufferings in their life to expand them and teach them about himself and bring them to maturity. God does that. God claims the right to do that. What was Jesus' answer?

So the disciples asked the question, there's a blind man, was it him or was it his parents and their sins? Jesus says none of the above. His blindness wasn't a response to sin, either of the man or of his parents. It was so that the works of God could be put on display in his life. It's So that God could show himself to be God in his life.

Think of this. Just think of the implications of what Jesus is saying. He was born blind so that he would be at this spot on this day and Jesus would do what he did. He lived a portion of his lifetime. This is a man, this is not a boy.

We don't know how old he is. We know that he's an adult. He's lived every minute of his life up to this time, blind, to be at this exact place, at this exact time, so that God could do this exact thing in his life. For this man to see the works of God in his life, for those who were there and those who would hear of it in this time, to see and hear of the works of God in this man's life, for us, for us to hear of the works of God in this man's life. I have two questions for you.

That kind of God too scary for you? You want off the boat when truths like this get served up to you from Scripture? The Bible is giving you here a Maker, a God, who thinks He has the right to deprive you of eyesight for every day of your life into adulthood, so that he can display a work to you and the people who are there and people who will hear about it later. He thinks it's okay to do that. That's a hard pill to swallow.

Romans chapter 9 is taken up with all these themes. It's actually about election. The point really goes across so many different categories. In Romans chapter 9 verse 21, Paul asks this question, Does not the potter have the power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? We don't even want to answer the question.

Not because we care anything about potters and clay, but because we know that how we answer the question answers something about the God who made us and us, and we don't like what it tells us. So if you just put it in the abstract and ask it that way, a potter and a lump of clay, does the potter have the rights to do anything with that lump of clay as the creator of whatever he desires, then we say yes. As a creation, the thought of the implication of that upon God's rights and our relative rights relative to God having made us and Him that putting us completely at His pleasure so that it really would be okay if He would let us go into adulthood depriving us of sight in order to do that because he thought it was a wise thing to do, that would be okay. That's a scary thought for me too. If when I ask the question, is that kind of God too scary for you, makes you say in your heart, yes a little.

I empathize with that. I agree with that. Yes, that's scary. But the real question is, is that the God of the Bible and is the Bible the true God? These are really the questions we have to get at.

Is that the God of the Bible and is the Bible the true God? These are really the questions we have to get at. Is that the God of the Bible? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. The Bible sets forth no other kind of God than a God who is a potter who can do with the clay whatever he wants to and he does it in perfect wisdom.

And the clay shouldn't talk back. We didn't read any further in Romans chapter 9, but had we read further, that's what we would get. The clay has no right to talk back to the potter. The clay can't see what the potter sees. The clay doesn't know what the potter knows.

The clay is just clay. But I'm not, I'm significant. Don't compare me to clay. I know. Did God make me?

And if so, what rights does that give Him? What rights does that give me? These questions scare me too, but they don't repulse me from God. They draw me to God. Because that's not all that the Bible says.

The Bible also teaches you about this God. And when you learn not only that you're just the clay, when you go beyond that to see what the potter is like, it should make you want to throw yourself upon an all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, all-merciful Potter. So the Bible does teach that God has all the rights and you have nothing compared to Him. We might have rights among each other, God given rights, ironically, But we don't have any rights with him. He's always right.

He made us. He lays claim to all the rights. He never relinquishes them. He maintains all of the rights. But the Bible doesn't just tell us that.

The Bible also teaches us that as a potter, he is all knowing, all wise, all powerful, all merciful. So that Job, When God brought this avalanche of suffering into his life, it says, though he kills me, I will trust him. Though he kills me, I would rather just throw myself on this all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, all-merciful Potter, then try to sort out what's really happening myself. Because I know that he can see all that I can't see, and I know that he's good. That was the first question.

Is that kind of God too scary for you? I just want to comfort you and say, yes, he's a scary God. Throw yourself upon him anyway. If you encounter a God who can make all this, who isn't scary, you're reading the wrong book. Go to the right book.

Don't be afraid of being afraid of this God. It's good to fear him. It's good to fear him. Number two, second question. Who deserves to be pitied?

This man or you? That's an interesting question. Who deserves my pity? This man in John chapter 9 or you? Yes, this man suffered much.

He went into adulthood, never seeing one sight ever. But an all wise God revealed the identity of his son through a work in his life and gave the world a little glimpse of his glory. And he brought this man to saving faith. Two weeks from now in the sermon we'll see this man was born again. This man didn't just get eyesight, this man was born again.

And now he knows the truth of Romans 8.18. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 8.18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. That is a reality in this man's life today, this moment. John chapter 9 is about a real man who was born in sins and transgressions, who lived a rebel against God, who defied God in his heart like all men, women, boys, and girls do but God worked mercifully in his life to bring him to faith and now all those sufferings are 2000 years in his rear view mirror.

He knows that Paul is right in Romans 8, 18. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be even compared with the glory to be revealed to those who love Him and go to be with Him. Save your pity For this man. Pity your own soul. Pity your own soul.

Don't pity this man. Then in verses 4 and 5, Jesus says this, I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Listen to Jesus.

I must work the works. There is an urgency to the use of time for Jesus that we so often find lacking in our own life, but we never find lacking in the Gospel accounts of Jesus. For Jesus there was not a moment to lose. His public ministry was only a little longer than three years. But what a three years!

What a three years! If only we could have a three year run like this. It's a lifetime worth of labor in these three years. Now trace this out with me. Luke chapter 2, there's a 12 year old boy in the temple, it's Jesus.

His parents have lost track of him, They actually got a day away, found out he wasn't traveling, went back to Jerusalem. They find him reasoning with the Jewish leaders in the temple. Luke 2, 49, he said to them, Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? At 12, Jesus was about his father's business.

So much so that he expected his parents to understand that about him. Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? John 4.34, we studied that several weeks ago, it was right after the woman at the well. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Like you need physical food, that was doing His Father's will and work.

To finish that work was like food to Jesus. Now In our text, I must work the works of Him who sent me while at His day. The opportunity is now. I must do it now. Then in John 17 verse 4, Jesus will say this, John 17 verse 4, I have glorified you on the earth.

I have finished the work which you have given me to do. What a sweet relief to come to the end of your life, however long or short, and to be able to say those words, God, the work that you gave me to do, I've finished it. I've finished it. Jesus talks about, I have to work while it's day. This is about the incarnation.

As long as Jesus was dwelling among us, He was the light of the world and He was shining and shining and shining and shining. No days off for Jesus. In fact, if you believe that this happened right on the heels of the events of chapter 8, then all this is happening on the Sabbath. He's going to heal this man on the Sabbath. That will be a problem in next week's text.

I'll leave that alone for now. That's what next week is for. And this is not just for Jesus. In the second half of chapter 9 verse 4, Jesus says, the night is coming when I can't work? No.

He says, the night is coming when no one can work. So, in the word picture that Jesus is using, he's using a vision in our minds as a teaching tool. The day is your life on earth. You can do work while you are alive. And the night is when you die.

When you die, your opportunity to do things here in this life has ended. The implication is that we are all dealing with limited time and limited opportunity, and the limit is coming. The night is coming when no one can work. The implication is we should be working. The limit is coming.

We have limited time, we have limited opportunity, and we should be maximizing the opportunities that exist as they exist. Paul said, redeem the time because the days are evil. Ephesians 5.16. That is to Christian people. Redeem the time because the days are evil.

What does he mean? He means that Christians live in a dark world, but they are part of a kingdom of light, and so there is no time to waste for them. They are to wage a war against darkness as long as there is life in them. The personal application from this text is, it is day for me. Am I making the most of it?

It's day for me. I'm alive. It's limited time, limited opportunities, but I haven't hit the limit yet. Am I making the most of it? If there's anything we would draw from Christ's likeness out of the text, it would be that we should approach life with a sense of urgency that we so often find missing in our lives.

I am so humiliated by this text. John 9, moving on to the next subsection which is verses 6 and 7. John 9, starting in 6. When he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva. And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and he said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam." Which is translated, sent.

So he went and washed and came back seeing. In this section we have action by Jesus and obedience by the man resulting in the blind man seeing. So if you are taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's action, obedience. Action by Jesus and obedience by the man results in the blind man seeing. This made me immediately think of the end of chapter 4 where Jesus healed the nobleman's son.

Jesus was in Cana, the nobleman's son was in Capernaum, It's about 15 miles away. So not only did Jesus not do anything, he wasn't there. So he declares him healed and the nobleman goes home and his servants meet him on the way and say, Good news! Your son is healed. His son was about to die.

And the nobleman asks, and they say, Yeah, it was yesterday at this time. And that was right at the time that Jesus declared him to be healed. What does that have to do with this text? Why the two-step process? Not only does Jesus not need spit and clay, He doesn't even need to be there.

He could have done this from whatever distance. Some commentators say there are echoes of Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 here, where God takes dust and he forms it and breathes on it. And there's life. Some commentators say that Jesus did something more likely to blind than to heal. That's sort of true.

Take clay and put it on your eyes and see if you're better off or worse off. So some commentators say, he's actually just magnifying the enormity. He takes something that would hurt your eyes and heals this man's eyes. Ryle says he does it this way to show us that God works in different ways at different times to keep us from an idolatrous preoccupation with a single method so we don't think there's something magical in the method. So when he heals this blind man, he does it this way.

When he heals this blind man, he does it a different way, so that we don't just get zeroed in and think that there's something about the method and take our eyes off of Jesus. Maybe Those all make sense in their way, but none of them are in the text. You sort of have to bring that from outside the text. The only thing I'm comfortable asserting from the text is that doing it this way required the man to make a decision. Sometimes Jesus doesn't ask for anything, he does it unilaterally, and it's just done with nothing required from the person.

He doesn't do that this way here. That at least is clear. This man has to decide, will I believe and act? Will I obey Jesus? You might think, well, of course he would try it, he had nothing to lose.

Talk to someone who's been in a position like that and ask them what it cost to hope. It's not a small cost. Listen to Joni Erickson-Tatta talk about What it cost her to go to a Benny Hinn meeting and hope, cost her dearly. She wouldn't go to something like that again for all the money in the world, because it was such a devastating experience. It is not a small cost to obey Jesus and go and wash in this pool and hope that you are going to be healed.

This man's answer was, yes, I will believe and act. I will obey what you told me to do. He hopes enough to act. He believes enough to act. Look at the wonderful words at the end of verse 7.

So he went and washed and came back seeing. We don't even have a frame of reference, So we read right over the top, what must it be like to have lived life into adulthood and never seen one sight in your whole life, but then your eyes are open and normal. You see light, you see color, you see people, all the images. I look at this and say, aren't we the worst over-complicators? It's simple addition and we try to make it calculus.

This is delightfully simple. He hears Jesus, he believes what Jesus has said, and proves it by acting on it, and he is healed. One plus one equals two. There is no trigonometry here, there is no calculus here. How often Do we over complicate these things?

Listen to Jesus. Believe what he says and prove it by doing something that shows that you believe it. This is the path of blessing. Young people, the path of blessing is not hidden from you. It is not trigonometry, it is not calculus, it is not even algebra.

It is the simplest addition. It is 1 plus 1 equals 2. It is listen to Jesus and believe what he says. Really believe it in a way that moves you in your life and you'll be blessed. You'll be blessed.

Verses 8 through 12, finishing the text. John 9 beginning in verse 8, Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, Is not this he who sat and begged? Some said, This is he. Others said, He is like him. He said, I am he.

Therefore they said to him, how were your eyes open? He answered and said, a man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go wash in the pool of Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and I received sight. Then they said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know.

Here in this section, this last section, the man interacts with familiar people. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's interacts. The man interacts not with strangers, but with familiar people. These are people who've seen him many times. These are people who know him.

These are neighbors and people who would recognize him as the blind beggar. In verse seven, the new King James said, he came back seeing, but the King James renders that simply, he came seeing. Meaning he didn't come back to Jesus. He clearly didn't come back to Jesus. Jesus is not going to appear again in the text.

He won't be in the text at all next week. Jesus will actually seek this man out in the temple after he hears that he gets kicked out of the synagogue. So he didn't come back to Jesus. It looks to me like he went home. The text doesn't say that explicitly.

But wherever he went, he was among his neighbors and those who knew him as the blind beggar. That much the text makes clear. Now his calling card, that he's the blind beggar, is no longer his calling card, so there's a debate. Is this the same guy, or a guy who can see who just looks like that guy who is our blind neighbor? Here is what I love about This miracle is done in Jerusalem.

It's done for a man who is widely known. He's the blind beggar. His parents live in town. He was born blind. So it can't be that he used to be able to see, but he lost his sight, and now the ill effects have worn off.

None of that. How could this miracle be more undeniable than it is? I can't think about how you add circumstances that make it more undeniable that this really happened to this man. The man settles the debate himself, I am he. I'm the blind beggar.

Blind people had to beg. They had no other way to sustain themselves. So unless you were from a rich family who didn't need anything from you, in order to not just be a complete drain on the people you were living with you went you begged. So either their blind beggar neighbor has gone missing, right? This is his neighbors, these are familiar people.

Either he's gone missing, or he's been replaced by an imposter who looks just like him, and says he is him, but isn't really him. It can only be one thing. An astounding miracle has happened. A miracle that no one has ever heard of before. They ask him how his eyes were opened.

He tells him that a man called Jesus did this for me. They say where is he and he has no idea. More next week. I don't know where he is. This man called Jesus.

What a great way to put that. Applications. I'll give you four. This is a clear, public, undeniable sign of the Messiah. That's what you just saw in this text.

A clear, public, undeniable sign of the Messiah. You can turn to Isaiah 42 if you want to. I'm actually reading the first seven verses, so it's probably worth your time if you want to. Isaiah 42, verses 1 through 7. What I love about this text is Most of it is quoted in the New Testament.

Is this talking about Jesus? Is this talking about the Messiah? There is universal understanding of that from the New Testament writers and applying it to Jesus. You'll see almost all of this quoted in the New Testament. Isaiah 42, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights.

I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth.

He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands shall wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, a spirit to those who walk on it. I the Lord have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will give you and I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. If you had asked any Jew at the time of Jesus or now who's Isaiah 42 about they would say the Messiah.

It's so clear. It's so clear. How are we going to know when the Messiah gets here? Well, He's going to be doing these things. Is there a spiritual aspect to this?

Yes, it's overwhelmingly spiritual. Overwhelmingly setting prisoners free isn't a physical thing. It's a spiritual thing. Overwhelmingly giving sight to the blind isn't a physical thing, and yet Jesus does it physically to prove that He is the fulfillment of Isaiah 42. Could have gone to Isaiah 29 verse 18, could have gone to Isaiah 35 verse 5.

Multiple places in the prophet Isaiah where it's clear that it's the times of the Messiah, and the Messiah is giving sight to the blind. So much so, this is so true that this is a clear public undeniable sign of the Messiah. Here is what we see in Luke chapter 7. This is the last scripture text for today, Luke chapter 7. Listen to this, verses 19 through 23.

This is when John the Baptist, I think, loses heart in prison and sends two of his disciples to ask Jesus, are you really the Messiah? Luke chapter 7, verses 19 through 23. And John, John the Baptist, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus saying, Are you the coming one or do we look for another? When the men had come to him they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you saying, Are you the coming one or Do we look for another? And that very hour he cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits, and to many blind he gave sight.

Jesus answered and said to them, go and tell John the things you have seen and heard that the blind see, the lame walk the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them and blessed is he who is not offended because of me." And then right on the heels of that, Jesus goes on to speak wonderful things about John the Baptist. So Jesus wasn't ultimately offended by this. He did the miracles in front of their eyes, right there on the spot, and then said, go back and tell him what you saw. He'll know. He'll know what it means.

It means that Jesus is the Savior God sent to cleanse sinners. There's only one conclusion you can draw from John chapter 9. Jesus is the Savior that God sent to cleanse sinners. He does the physical version to prove to you and me that he can do the spiritual version. What we need is the spiritual version.

We can all see. We need the spiritual equivalent. Well, how are we to have confidence that Jesus can do that, John chapter 9? He proved by doing in the physical this spectacular thing that grows our confidence in Him. Think of the paralytic.

Do you remember this story? The friends lower Him down through the roof because the crowds are so large. You can't get to Jesus, the friends lower him down, and he says, man your sins are forgiving you. The friends have to be thinking, we didn't come here for that. That's because even if you're a paralytic, your greatest need is not to get up and walk and take your mat home.

Your greatest need is to have your sins forgiven you. And then He does the physical. He gets both. It's buy one, get one. Buy none, get two, I think is what you call that.

Buy none, get two. That's Jesus' version of a sale. He does the physical to give you confidence that he can do the spiritual, which is what you really need. Number two, Stop kicking against the goads. That's a phrase that comes out of Acts chapter 9 verse 5.

Saul is going to Damascus to persecute the church. Jesus confronts him on the way. He says, it is hard for you to kick against the goads. What in the world does that even mean? A goad is a stick with a sharp point on it that is used for herding flocks, sheep and cattle.

So the smart flock, members of the flock, understands that they're just being guided and they learn that with very gentle work with the goad, where to go, how to obey. The stubborn Members of the flock with an attitude problem kick at the goad and they get stuck with it. Shepherd always wins. Stop kicking. Maybe you're an unbeliever hearing the gospel week after week after week after week.

And honestly, you don't want to hear it again. And you're kicking against the goads. All I can say to you is lay down your arms. Lay down your weapons. If you only knew how good it was to be shepherded by this shepherd, you wouldn't kick against that goat.

You think, your heart rages against the thought of a God who would deprive you of sight into adulthood just so He could display His works in your life. You know what, if you could talk to this man in heaven right now, he would say, those temporary sufferings are not even worthy to be compared. I wouldn't trade the life God gave me for any other life. That's what he would tell you. Stop kicking.

Maybe you're a believer but you can't swallow the pill that God has all the rights. As a creator That's really common. That's a really hard pill to swallow. You want to have some semblance of control, you know what? That's just not the Bible.

The Bible's not offering that to me and you. Stop kicking against the goads. Number three, be careful with how you look on the sufferings of others, but especially your own. Be careful about the conclusions you draw about the sufferings of others. The disciples thought they had it pegged, they knew they had it narrowed down to two.

It's either this man's sin or his parents sin. Wrong. Jesus knew, they thought they knew. It's really easy to get stuck in that position where you think you know. Oh yeah, that happened to him because of this.

And it's about time. Be careful. That's ugly and foolish. Be careful. When suffering comes into your own life, you're a fool to not ask God if he's trying to get your attention.

Because sometimes you are struck physically for carelessness in your life or stubborn disobedience in your life. God still does that in 2018. I'm very confident of that. When God lays us low we should use it as an opportunity to say, Lord are you trying to get my attention on anything? Tell me.

I said four, I'm gonna stop there, it's fine. I have two more weeks in chapter 9. God, only you can do these things, so we only look to you, Or we only want to look to you. We believe. Help our unbelief, Lord.

Fill us with faith, joy, confidence. Use these texts in our lives to make us love your son. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.