Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

Well, good morning to you. Open your Bibles to John chapter 9, please. John chapter 9, we'll read the whole narrative of the healing of the man born blind, but we'll cover, Lord willing, just the first seven verses this morning. So John chapter 9, we'll start at verse 1. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Today night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva.

Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud, and he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. So he went and washed, and he came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, Is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, It is he. Others said, No, but he is like him. He kept saying, I am the man.

So they said to him, Then how were your eyes open? And he answered, The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. And they said to him, Where is he? And he said, I do not know. So they brought him to the Pharisees, the man who had formerly been blind.

Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus had made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. 1 Peter 2 Peter 3 Peter 4 Peter 5 Peter 6 Peter 7 Peter 8 Peter 9 Peter 10 So they said again to the blind man Ask him.

He is of age. He will speak for himself. See, his parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, He is of age. Ask him. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, Give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner. The man answered, Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, And it does his will. God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.

If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And they answered him, You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? And he answered, Who is he, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.

He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Jesus said, For judgment I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind? And Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, We see, your guilt remains.

Let us pray. Oh God, would you help us now in this few minutes to understand your word. God we have flesh in the way and our flesh wants us to misunderstand your word Our flesh wants us to take your word and not apply it So I just pray that you would help us to understand your word rightly And you would help us to do another step in which we would understand or we would see where in our lives are we living in darkness ourselves Where in our lives are we not relying upon Christ?

Where in our lives are we not looking to Jesus? And I pray that you would help us to do so. Whether it's the seasoned believer who has believed upon Christ for years or the new believer or even the unbeliever, may we see your word here. May we see that the only hope we have is to believe upon Christ who can heal us of our blindness. So we thank you for this great Savior and may our hearts rejoice in him now as we hear your word.

In Jesus' name, amen. And I remember as a kid growing up, at least growing up for me, at school we would a lot of times have show and tell time. Sometimes there were really cool times of show and tell. I remember once we were in science class and we were learning about reptiles and the teacher had someone bring in this huge snake that was 15 feet long and we all the students had it on our neck and it was going around the whole class.

And so we're learning about the snake while we are holding it on our necks. It was really neat show and tell time. I remember one time yo-yos were a really big thing when I was growing up. And I remember one guy brought this professional yo-yo player. I don't know what to call him, but that guy was nuts. He was really good.

And so there was a whole auditorium. We were watching this guy do all these yo-yo tricks. My favorite one was walk the cat where he just lets it go down and he drags it behind him. That was my favorite yo-yo trick that he did. But nevertheless, there was really cool show and tells. But there's also lame ones too.

I remember we had to do show and tell as well. And I didn't take school seriously until I came to Christ at 18 and I got into college. And so I just always did what I had to do in order to get the grade. And so my show and tell was how you are properly to hold a football as a running back. You can imagine that was the most lame. So there's also lame show and tell.

In the Gospel of John, we see Jesus do show and tell quite often. Chapter 5 we saw him heal the man on the Sabbath at the pool and then he showed it his healing and then he talked about it he spoke on it Or in chapter 6, if you remember, feeding the thousands, and then he spoke on that, he showed and then he told, right? But here, it's interesting, where we're at in John, we're in this Feast of Booths, as we've been talking about here, And he's been talking a lot about what he provides or what he can provide at the Feast of Booths.

And it's in 9 now that he shows it by healing the man born blind. And so instead of having the sign or the healing and then he speaks on it, first he talked and now the healing that we're about to see, the sign that we're about to see, is in light of everything that he declared that he can provide the people, his people who believe upon him, as he taught at the Feast of Booths. Remember, in chapter 7 through 9, at the Feast of Booths, we got his preaching first.

And he talked about, if you remember, just keep it in your mind as we go through this, he talked about how he can provide living water in chapter 7 verse 38. Living water in that he is the light of the world in chapter 8 verse 12. That those who partake in him in faith will be set free from sin in chapter 8 verse 32 and escape judgment from God. That was what Jesus has been talking or preaching about, and he says, I can do this because I am the great I am, as we just went over last week.

And so now in chapter 9, in light of him saying that he provides living water, in light of him saying that I am the light of the world, now he's going to reveal that, show that, in the healing of the man born blind. So that's what we see today as we see this man. It's important that we see that it's beautiful and wonderful and we celebrate the fact that this man was once never seen anything at all and now all of a sudden he can.

But we have to understand that this is all revealing what Jesus has already taught about himself, the deeper thing that he can provide the world. And so two verses that should be rattling in your brain as we go over this narrative these next two weeks is chapter 9 verse 5 when he says, As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. And then the other verse that should rattle in your brain as we go through this narrative is verse 39 of chapter 9 at the end of this chapter when he says, For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may see.

He may become blind. So here again, we have in this narrative, in this healing, is a revealing that Jesus truly is the light to the dark world. Both aspects are true, and we see this in the narrative. Jesus is the light, and the world is incredibly dark. And we see them both happen in this beautiful story of the healing. And so let's look at that today as we start chapter 9.

Today, we're just going to look at the healing itself. Verses 1-7 as we see Jesus being the light of the world revealed there. So we'll just cover verses 1-7. We'll see first the reason for the blindness. And second we'll see the urgency to work healing. And then third we'll see the healing itself this morning.

So let's first look at the reason for the blindness. Let's look at chapter 9 verse 1. Look at the first few words there. It says, As Jesus passed by, in chapter 9 verse 1, As he passed by, you see this is a connecting phrase here. This is John telling you that everything that's been happening in the Feast of Booths, the last couple chapters, it has something to do now with this chapter.

This is kind of one cohesive story or teaching happening. So we shouldn't isolate 7, 8 from 9. They're kind of together. As he was passing by, it's happening kind of together. Now it probably wasn't the same day though. So if you remember in chapter 8, Jesus almost died because they wanted to kill him, and now it's saying, and as he passed by.

That probably didn't happen at the same time. It probably was a different day that this happened, but they're intimately connected. They're connected with one another. Mainly, a big reason why is because, if you remember, we talked about how all of Jesus' teachings that he's been saying was on the last great day of the feast. We saw that already. And we see that this healing that he's about to do now was on a Sabbath day.

And those two things weren't the same thing. And so this probably, again, isn't the same day that he was teaching all these things of what he does and what he provides. It wasn't the same day, but they are related. Probably the next Sabbath after the feast ended. Okay, they're related is what I want to connect to you. We'll see why too.

We'll see that Jesus uses a pool of water that they would use during the Feast of Booths as a water ritual. So we'll see how they are connected. But what you should see in chapter 9 verse 1 as he passed by is the things that just happened with the teaching are now connected with this narrative of healing that we about to see And then moving forward in verses 1 and 2 as he passed by he saw a man blind from birth Now, this would be a pitiful sight, right?

A man blind from birth. Now, in today's age, someone who has such a hardship, they can still, a lot of times, be productive in our society. But at this time, if you're blind completely, you're left to begging for food. That's what you do. And not to mention, what makes it so pathetic, as this beggar can't provide for himself, what makes it so pathetic is that God has given us such a beautiful creation for us to enjoy.

And he's given us all these senses for us to enjoy. A lot of times we don't think that deeply about things. What we ought to is that God has given us this arena of beautiful creation, And then we get to enjoy it through our senses. And so when one of those senses are taken out, it is a sad, depressing thing by design. I don't know if I should use that by design, but you know what I mean.

It is sad that this man cannot see, cannot enjoy God's creation, a major aspect of not being able to enjoy the goodness of God's creation. And then it causes them not to do a beautiful thing like work and contribute in society and provide for himself and for family. Instead, he's begging. So we ought to look at this and really meditate for a moment that this is a sad sight that this man has never seen anything at all.

From birth, something happened to stop his sight, and he instead is left to be a beggar. It is sad. It's miserable. Well, in fact, as we think about light and darkness, misery, and what Christ has brought, we see a picture of it here. This is misery. This is literally darkness.

Right here before us, in this narrative, we see this man has been blind from birth and stuck in his misery. And if we're going to pull the layer off and see the deeper thing being said, is that this is man's condition, generally speaking. Am I right here? That we are meant to enjoy this life God has given us by glorifying and honoring him. And in our blindness we would seek sin instead.

We are blinded. And so this is a picture of man condition right here Is that instead of enjoying the good things God has given us in our blindness we go we do other things This is a miserable condition a condition of darkness a sad condition indeed And the reaction of the disciples doesn't make it much better, right? The reaction of the disciples kind of compound or compact the darkness, the sadness, the misery of the condition that we see, of the situation we see.

Look at verse 2. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? See, all that's left to do in this terrible situation is to ask tough theological questions as to the reason for such a terrible situation. You know it's bad when your life becomes just a big theological quagmire. You know, you think of Job, right?

What's left to say about Job? Let's have a theological question about this. That's all we can do with this because it's so bad. And you know that this person's situation is so bad, being born blind, that all that's left for the disciples to do is, hey, let's have an interesting theological discussion at least about this. That's how dark and hopeless this situation is.

And the question we see assumes a certain understanding that dominated at this time. Such a situation could only be brought on by sin. The reason for this situation, as we are looking at the first few verses, is more darkness, more sin. The reason why this man is in darkness and has such an issue is because of sin. They say maybe it's this man's sin. In the verse they said, was it this man who sinned?

Now, there was understanding at this time that babies could sin in the womb. A lot of rabbis taught that Esau sinned in the womb, and that's why he wasn't chosen by God. Of course, we would reject that, but there was an understanding that you could sin in the womb. So, hey, maybe this child sinned in the womb, and so he was born blind. Or they asked, maybe his parents sinned, right?

Just like we think of David and Bathsheba with David's child who died because of the sin of David. So maybe his parents sinned. And that what explains this awful situation before us of being blind from birth So how can we look at this This is the darkness of the situation A man blind from birth that cannot enjoy this major blessing from God and the only attention he gets is a theological question that will do nothing to help him but only accuse him or his parents of sin.

Awful situation, indeed. But it is here, right? Remember, what are we to understand about this narrative The answer he gives is that Jesus is the light. This is revealing that he is the light. It is the answer that Jesus gives that reveals that he truly is the light to the world. The answer he gives starts shedding that light in this situation.

Jesus, before we even look at that answer of Jesus, he could have given the reason for the situation as being sin. We know that. Why is there such thing as blindness? Why is there death? Why is there misery? Why is there darkness?

What's the deal with that? And we know that we can trace it back to Adam's sin. He represented all of us, and when he sinned, the whole world got messed up into darkness. So Jesus could have focused on that. He could have taken a step back and say, you know, not him, not his parents, but Adam, he sinned. And that's the reason for this.

And that would be a true statement. But Jesus as light does something really good and nice here. He takes another step back. So, you know, terrible situations. And whose fault is it? Well, we can take a step back and say Adam's fault.

Adam's sin. But Jesus takes another step back, and he gives another explanation that is filled with light. And what answer does he give in verse 3? He says, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. You see, there's a bigger picture there. Sin is certainly a big picture of explaining this, but the works of God and him receiving glory, Jesus is saying the reason for this awful situation of darkness is so that the work of God would be displayed in the light.

There's light. So notice how the reason of sin is not highlighted by Jesus, but the greater reason of God's work and his glory or light revealed. So from focusing on the darkness to all of a sudden the light starts to be revealed. This, by the way, should be a major difference between the Christian and the unchristian. You, as a Christian, should not be negative and pessimistic and woe is me all the time.

Stop doing that. Because we have the greater reason for any kind of darkness that we ever experience on this earth. Now surely, anyone can do this. They can say, misery, darkness, sin, man is bad, corrupt, man we're all terrible. And that's all we hear in the news and everything like that. But oh Christian, you can take another step back and see, but there's something going on here as taught by Christ that his works can and will be revealed as light.

Now, you might not specifically know what that's going to look like in that situation. The disciples surely didn't at that moment. But nevertheless, oh, Christian, you should be able to take that second step back and say, I know God's work will be revealed, and that's why this darkness is present, because his light will shine forth in one way or the other.

There is no excuse to join the choir of the world in bemoaning and complaining constantly As if Jesus isn't in one way or the other going to work light in the dark situation that is before you. And this is what I think we ought to consider as we consider our conduct in this dark world. The Christian can take, you can take the extra step back and see that there is light to be revealed.

So when we see the manifestation of darkness, we do not join the choir of the world. Instead, we have a conviction that God allows us for a deeper purpose of his glory, of his work, of his light to be revealed. So with this proper perspective, the reason for his sickness was to reveal the glory of God in his light. With this proper perspective in mind, the reason for this man's blindness, the reason for his misery, this darkness, is to display the works of God.

It creates an urgency to do those works in the darkness. You get what I'm saying? If your conviction is the light of God will be revealed in this darkness, you go from complaining and sitting on your hands and saying woe is me woe is everything to an urgency to be light in the situation And so since Jesus is convinced for the reason that this man is born blind is to reveal the work of God and his light he then has an urgency to be that light in that situation.

And I hope you're seeing the application to yourself right now, even in that. And so that's what we see next. Not only the reason, but now we see the urgency to work healing in light of the reason. Look at verses 4 through 5. John writes, well, Jesus says, We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So you see the urgency there, right? This is the reason for his blindness, that the works of God would be displayed as light. And he says that I am the light of the world, and so we need to work the works of me while I'm on this earth, and light is here. There's an urgency here behind what Jesus is teaching.

I remember there was a big house fire down my road when I was, I don't know, 10 or 9 or something like that. A big house fire. The whole neighborhood was there. It was really exciting, which is sad. But we were just watching it. And this man who owned this house, so like, I grew up the far reaches of Metro Detroit.

And so that was like Detroit expanding in the 50s and 60s and 70s, right? Far reaches of suburbs spreading out. And so mine was like the last one before Detroit fell apart. And so it was like Waterford was like, they called it Watertucky because it was suburbs, but also you still kind of had some rednecks and hillbillies, right? It's like it wasn't like the suburbia didn't quite take hold, right?

And so on our street, this man was like that redneck. Everyone else is suburbs. We all have furnaces in our house. This guy has a wood stove. That was weird, right? He didn't have wood stoves.

And so, you know, he smoked a lot of cigarettes and had a tractor, which for some reason he had a tractor. And so I remember people just being, watching the house to think of all these different reasons why his house was probably caught on fire. And they typically had something to do with being prejudiced against rednecks. It was very weird. Maybe he was smoking a lot of cigarettes, fell asleep with one in his mouth, and then it burned.

I guess that's a redneck thing. Maybe his tractor was too close to the house and it caught it on fire Maybe his wood stove went because he doesn have a furnace like the rest of us But I remember we were all just you know watching this fire go on And we were all these reasons sitting on our hands watching it go on This that the other Terrible situation But you know who wasn doing that And you know who was really active in working The firefighters They were saving his cats, his dogs, his animals. They were saving him.

They were trying to put out the fire. They were active in providing a glimmer of hope and light to this situation. And so here we see that we, that Jesus goes from simply being with the disciples. Why is it like this? Darkness, sin. Why is he born blind?

To being urgent and acting out the healing or the light that he needs. Jesus is the one who can bring light to this dark situation and there is an urgency for him to do so. So while the disciples sit idle pondering the reason for such darkness, Jesus promotes urgency to do something about it. He says he is the light of the world. Thus he is the one who can bring light to this dark situation.

And since he would leave the world soon to go back to the Father, he has an urgency to display that light here. And I want to highlight, you know, Jesus says here that I'm about to go and where light will no longer be, and so we need to work light now. But I want to highlight the fact that one of the amazing things about the Gospel of John is the revealing that Jesus does go back to be with the Father.

And so therefore the light dwelled among us and then he went back to the Father. But the amazing, beautiful thing is that then Jesus gives us the duty to be that very light. So that although Jesus says there's an urgency here, we need to work light because I'm about to go back to be with the Father, Jesus then later reveals, as we'll see, and oh, by the way, church, you are that light, and you ought to have the same urgency to be the light in the dark situation.

We see this, and it's worth looking at now. Look at John 14, 12 through 14. Look at what John says. We're going to see a major shift in the Gospel of John. Right now it's just a bunch of fighting with the world and fighting and fighting and fighting. But the second half of the Gospel is all Jesus is speaking to his disciples.

It's all speaking to the church. So the flavor, it's going to just take on a different form in the second half. And so here in John 14, we're in that second half. Jesus just talking to his disciples And this is one of the things that he says to them He says in John 14 12 through 14 truly truly I say to you whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do And greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. There's an amazing promise from Jesus there, that you saw the works that I did of light, You see the works that I'm doing on the cross and rising again? There's displays of light in this dark world. Well, I'm going back to be with the Father, but that does not mean the light goes with me, but instead I make you my light.

In fact, he says that you will do greater works than me because you're going to remain while I go to be with the Father. And so we see here, John 17, the high priestly prayer, by the way. Read John 17 with this in mind. Jesus is talking about, I don't want you, oh Father, to take them out of the world. I want them to stay in the world and be protected from the darkness.

So the point being said here is that we need to be convinced that God allows darkness to reveal his glory of light in it. So when we see evidences of the dark world around us and within us, Our first thought needs to be that Jesus returned to the Father and empowered me to work his light in the dark world. And so when you see the dark world instead and you bemoan and complain and say, this is what can happen, you're denying the very principles of really what Jesus himself did.

He saw darkness. He had an urgency to be light in it. And of course it doesn't say here, but we know that he then makes us that same light. There needs to be an urgency to be the light. And so here, with that urgency, we see the healing take place. So we saw the reason for his blindness, to display the works of God, and we see the urgency to be that work of light, and now we see the work itself, the healing itself.

In verses 6 through 7, we see the healing. I want you to notice two things. I want you to notice the means Jesus used to do the healing. And that's going to reveal that he is the light. And I want you also to notice the required obedience by this man in order to receive that healing. We're going to see both things in that healing part of this narrative.

So look at the means Jesus uses to provide the light of healing to this man. In chapter 9 verses 6 through 7, having said these things, right, again another connection verse, right, in light of what he just taught, in light of what was just said, now he's going to provide this healing as a show, or as a show of what he just said. And so he spit on the ground and he made mud with the saliva.

Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and he said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. Now, OK, why? There's there's two aspects here. There's the making the mud and anointing it on the man's eyes. And then there's the other aspect of telling him to go to a pool and wash it off. And then he receives his sight.

Why did he use these means? Because Jesus could have just said nothing and just healed them. He uses means for a particular purpose. Why exactly did he use spitting on the ground and making mud and anointed his eyes? I think this is less clear than why he sent them to the pool to be washed. So let's first take the less clear part.

One understanding is perhaps he made mud because what Jesus is doing is he's using the thing That man was originally made from dirt, and he's kind of using it again to undo the curse of the fall or the curse of sin that causes blindness, right, or whatever. That might be it. He might be using the same thing and saying, look what I can do with it. I can heal with the same thing.

But it's not absolutely clear. But I do think it's clear why Jesus tells him to go to the pool to wash off the mud. And that's what we see again in verse 7. He said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. I think he uses this water, this pool of water here is because that same pool there that he would go to, that pool Siloam, that was the exact same pool that the religious leaders or the priests would use to draw the water out of and pour it on the altar during the Feast of Booths.

If you remember this is again in light of the Feast of Booths and there was this water ceremony each day that they would do to celebrate the renewal the new water that would come the drink that we have from God And so they would take water from the pool the same pool and pour it on the altar to celebrate the renewal that was coming And that was celebrating what would come. And so Jesus then uses this same pool to have them go wash off at and actually receive healing. In fact, the pool itself, John says, the name of the pool is Scent.

The reason why he says that is not because he wants to give you a nice detail. It's because Jesus is telling you that Jesus truly, or John is telling you that Jesus truly is the one that was sent to provide that water that everyone is looking for. In fact, in the Gospel of John, we see there's a theme of Jesus being the sent one from God. And so I think what's being said here, the whole purpose is that Jesus is saying that no more of this shadow, this water ceremony that looked forward to something.

And he's saying, I am the sent one that is the actual power behind the water. I am the sent one who is the fulfillment of it all. I am the light of the world, finally, who has come to give light to darkness. So I think he's purposely using their own pool of water to show I am the power behind that pool. Without me, there is no power. It's just an empty ritual that will go on into eternity.

It means nothing. So the means of using the water of Siloam, which means sent, is to show Jesus is the sent one from the Father, that is, the fulfillment of what the water ritual looked forward to. And that is revealed in the fact that he uses it as a means to do this work of healing for the blind man. Surely the water had no power, but the sent one who uses it as a means of healing has the power.

For he is light, and he provides living water to a dark and dead world. I think that is the means of the healing Jesus uses to reveal he is the light indeed. I think another necessary thing to see in this actual healing, though, is the required obedience for the healing. Another, I think, important thing to locate is that there is a required obedience for this man to receive the healing that Jesus offers as the light.

And we see that again in verse 9 He says Go to the pool in Siloam which means sent And so he went And he came back seeing If you think about it there is no reason to think that someone spitting on the dirt and rubbing your face with the mud and telling you to go wash in some pool would do anything at all. There's no reason to believe that. And I had it read earlier because it's the same kind of principle.

You remember what Mike read earlier about how Naaman was wanting to get his leprosy healed. And he goes to Elijah wanting it to be healed and he's expecting Elijah to do these wonderful things. And what does Elijah say? He just says, yeah, go into the Jordan and wash off seven times. He didn't even see him. He didn't even see him.

And Naaman is mad. He's angry about it. He's like, I'm not going to do that. I got my own rivers I can clean in that's much better than here, right? No reason why this would even work. Why am I going to do it?

And remember what his servants said. They said to him, my father, it is a great word that the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? So he does it and he's healed. And so it is for this man born blind who is told to go and wash. It normally wouldn't make any sense that mud from spit washed off in a pool would do anything like heal blindness.

But since it was given by a great prophet, no more, given by the great I Am, the light of the world who gives living water, there is much power in the command to do it. And so a proper response of obedient faith is used by Jesus to finish the healing. And there's application here for us. The way to be healed of darkness and sin, our blindness, is not determined by the one who is sick, but it's determined by Jesus Christ.

In other words, Jesus commanded the man born blind to wash and be healed, so he was told what he must do to do it. And he tells us what we must do in order to be healed of our blindness. He tells us what we have to do in order for us to be healed of our darkness. And he tells us to turn away from sin, turn away from your own way of doing things and thinking, and follow Jesus as Lord, Master, and Savior.

That will make zero sense to the world. That will make very little sense to the one that Christ is calling to himself. 1 Peter 2 Peter 2 Peter 2 Peter 2 Peter Because Jesus has commanded us to do so He went He obeyed Jesus He believed his word He believed the power And he received his sight. He went and washed and came back seeing. Imagine the joy of this man.

Seeing for the first time. Right? He probably saw as of when he was born. But of course, newborns, everything's blurry anyways. So this man sees for the first time, you can imagine the joy, the happiness, all the blessings that goes into seeing this beautiful creation God has given us. And then to be able to participate in it fully, to work, to not be a beggar, all the things that are implied there.

We'll see later on, he goes to his family, his family sees him, his neighbors see him, he went directly to his house and he, I can imagine, was very happy indeed. All because God revealed the work of God to be healing, to bring them out of darkness, and responded to the command of Jesus. And so it is for all who respond in faith to Jesus Christ. We are all naturally blind, caught in the misery of sin, and Jesus is urgently saving his people from this misery.

He is urgent to do the work. He has powerfully provided the ointment of salvation by his death and resurrection and tells you to respond in faith to him to be washed and healed. So that you no longer are guilty of sin before God as you believe upon Jesus and you have the power to not walk in the misery of your darkness and blindness. You can be like the psalmist, Psalm 34, 4-10, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints.

For those who fear him, they have no lack. The young lions suffer, want, and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. And so as the one who is born blind now sees and rejoices in his sight, so those who believe upon Jesus for light can be forgiven of our sins, forgiven of our ailment, and we can walk in righteousness, rejoicing in Christ.

There is a need to respond as he has walked. And again, going back in conclusion, there is a need for the church to realize that as Jesus was urgent to do the work of light to a dark world, even healing this man born blind, so we need to be urgent to do the same work. We need to recognize that the power has been established by his death and resurrection, and he calls on us to urgently undo the works of Satan of darkness and let there be light in our own lives, in our homes, and in society around us.

We, of all people, should be most optimistic, most positive, most ready to apply the work of Christ that he has established at Calvary. We should not look upon the situation around us and think it's hopeless and just join in the choir of darkness, but instead see light shining through as Christ was urgent to do so we do so likewise. This has been a busy week for me as we've been working at putting a bathroom upstairs.

And I can do the demolishing pretty easily There nothing to that You start just demolishing things The moment that you start having to have steps to build up that when I like impossible How in the world are you going to put drywall there? That's impossible, right? There's this, you know, it can be easy for us to see the darkness of the world around us, To see the sin of it and to participate in the sin by being negative and everything.

But whenever we start seeing that there is a light to be had, it is possible. But it's not by our own power. It's not by our own ingenuity. It's not by our own ability or what we've done. There's something greater that has established a light for us. And that comes into play with the bathroom whenever someone with a tool that even though existed, using it in ways that I can't use it, all of a sudden the work starts to be done in ways that I could never fathom.

And so Jesus Christ has done the work of light. He is the light of the world, and that is revealed in the fact that he's healed this poor man of his blindness. And that's not just supposed to be kept in the corner of the scriptures here, but it's supposed to be manifested in our lives each day that he can heal darkness and has done so, and he calls on you to be urgent to do the same work in your own lives and the lives of others not by your power but by the power that he provided in his gospel Let us pray Oh God thank you for being our savior Thank you, Lord, for your work.

I thank you, God, that you could have left everyone in their darkness. You could have left us all groping about. We can imagine seeing that man born blind and his miserable state. And to see you respond in the way that you did, that there is a greater work to be done here, one of light, an urgency to do it, to see you accomplish to do that very same thing.

Oh God, may you help us to see that you have the same sort of mentality and urgency to cure our own sickness and illness. That we were blind in sin and yet you have done all that's needed for us to see both our sin and your forgiveness that you provided on Calvary. We do help us, God, to be the same urgency to provide that gospel message to the world around who is so deep in darkness.

We see the world and we see how they are groping about just like that man was. And how often it can be that we just join the choir of negativity and being upset with the darkness of the world instead of sharing that same urgency of Christ to know that the work of light has been accomplished by him Lord, would you help us to be faithful to proclaim that gospel light? Would you help us to be faithful to proclaim the forgiveness of sins that's found in Jesus Christ and Christ alone?

Would you help us to proclaim it to ourselves as we watch light take hold of our own hearts? We do help the church before me. We do help them to share in the same urgency of Christ. We know that when we see light working in our own lives, it causes us to be urgent to see it happen outside of us. We do help the church before me to be convinced that Christ has done this work.

And to proclaim the excellency of Christ to a world that's dying and in darkness. So that, Lord, Christ would be glorified and his work of healing power would be manifested and it would be for our good and his glory to eternity. We thank you for this purpose that you've called us into. May he be praised forever. In Jesus' name, amen.