The Investigation of the Healing

Well, good morning. Open your Bibles to John chapter 9. John chapter 9. We'll again read from verses 1 to verse 23. So John chapter 9, verse 1. As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.

And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, Jesus answered, And 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.

But he kept saying, I am the man. So they said to him, Then how were your eyes opened? 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. They said to him, Where is he? And he said, I do not know.

So they brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes So the Pharisees 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. But others said, How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?

So there was a division among them. So they again said to the blind man, What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes? And he said, He is a prophet. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called his parents, the parents of the man who had received his sight, and asked them, Is this your son, who you say was born blind?

How then does he now see? His parents answered, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. But how he sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself. You 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. I'm going to continue reading because I should. 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. He answered, Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. But one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.

They said to him, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to be his disciples? They reviled him, saying, You are his disciples, but we are disciples of Moses.

We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, We do not know where he comes from. The man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and 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. They answered him, You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us? And they cast him out. So Jesus heard that they cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? And he answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him You have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you And he said Lord I believe And he worshipped him And Jesus said For judgment I came into this 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's pray. Oh God, we thank you for your beautiful and wonderful word. We're thankful, God, that you did not leave us in our sin, corruption. You never leave your people in their misery and state of sin.

Because you are driven by love for your people, you have done all things well for our salvation. So I pray, God, that you would give the people before me and give myself the faith to believe this, to know that Jesus truly is our good shepherd who is willing and able to give us light and healing from our sin and darkness. And I ask that you would even reveal to us here from this man, born blind yet healed by Jesus, to be a faithful testimony of the light of Christ.

For we know that this is for our good and your glory. So Lord, would you reveal these things to us? And would you show us how you would have us live in accordance with your gospel today? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, most of you have at one time in your life been in a situation where you were trained by someone to do a particular job.

And when you were trained by this person, you were at his side and you were shadowing him and you were learning the job. But in the back of your head, you knew at one time, at a time coming up, I would have to be out on my own and do this whole thing by myself. And it's a terrifying reality as you are learning the job, knowing that I will have to be on my own.

But nevertheless, indeed, the day comes when you are out on your own and must do the work yourself. I remember with Comcast having to do that, shadowing someone for what seemed to be only a short bit, and then all of a sudden I had to go into these houses myself and figure out these issues. And thankfully the first month I just got a bunch of older people not knowing how to turn on their TV which was wonderful That all I got in God good providence and somehow I became the employee of the month And all my co looked at me when they thought I cheated somehow But no I just got we don say lucky around here but I tell you what it was pretty providential Let's just say that.

But we've all been, or most of us at least, been in that situation where we are, again, being trained by someone. But we must then go out on our own and do the work that needs to be done. If you remember, Jesus has just revealed what he has been teaching at the Feast of Booths, that he provides living water and is the light to the world. And he's revealed that teaching that he's been declaring by healing a man blind from birth.

A man who had only ever known darkness and misery, he now can see and have a normal life. Thus Jesus revealed he is the light of the world of darkness there with that healing. But Jesus is not done revealing his light with just the miracle or work itself, but he's going to continue revealing that in this man after the miracle. Jesus is now going to be strangely absent from the narrative as the man is now investigated by the people around him And then the Pharisees are going to investigate the miracle too.

And what we will see is that this man will be a faithful witness and light for Jesus out on his own, even as the investigation goes from genuine inquiry by the people to outright hostility from the Pharisees. Even as it gets harder, this man's testimony will get progressively better, all to reveal that Jesus will one day go back to be with the Father. His light will not be gone, though, since it will continue in the people that he heals of their sickness, including us who he has healed of the sickness of sin.

And so what we will see from this man being a light on his own, what we will end up asking ourselves is, am I a light like this man proves to be in the face of genuine inquiry from family and friends or even from hostile people from the world? So let's look at this. And light. Let's look at him being a light for Jesus, even in Jesus' absence, in light of the people's investigation.

Look at verse 8 again of John 9. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, Is not this the man who used to sit and beg? So it appears that after being healed, the man, you know, he goes to Siloam as Jesus tells him to. And after he's healed at the pool, this man goes where a lot of us would probably go when such a miracle or such a great thing has happened to us.

It appears he went home. He went home and his neighbors saw him. And the people who knew him as an acquaintance, they saw him as well. Well, and this is oftentimes what will happen when Jesus heals us of our sickness of sin. Oftentimes the people who notice it first are those who are our neighbors or closest to us. And we see this is exactly what has happened to this man.

He has been healed. He goes to his home or at least around it. His neighbors see him and his acquaintance see him. And in verse 8, they ask an interesting question. They say, this is not the man who used to sit and beg. Now, it might be strange to us to think, why are they confused?

It's not like his face all of a sudden changed. It was the same person, so why are they asking such a question? Is this the same man? But I think you've got to understand that this healing would change this man dramatically. If not his face, his demeanor. He used to be a passive man that begged.

That's what he did. But now all of a sudden, he's up and at him. He can see. He's talking. And as we see later on in the narrative, he's pretty smart. He's pretty quick.

He's quick-witted. It's actually pretty clever. So there's something to be said about the fact that this healing of him going from blindness to seeing, it changes this person in such a way, his demeanor and everything, that they're asking this question. Is this really the same person? And what a testimony to what Jesus does for us when he heals us of our sickness of sin.

When he heals us in forgiveness of sins and in the practice of sins the people around us when we go from practicing sin to following Jesus they tend to say and ask the question is this really the same man Our face stays the same we look the same but yet our demeanor and the way we act is dramatically different And this man is revealing that here. He goes from blindness to seeing and he looks completely different to where they're asking this question, is this even the same person? And in verse 9 we see a commotion starts to happen because of what's going on here.

It's kind of ironic, right? Everyone should be like, whoa, this is great, praising God. But instead what we get is just a bunch of what seems to be like just straight up controversy. And we see this forming in verse 9 when John says, Some said, it is he. And others said, no, but he is like him. And he kept saying, I am the man.

So you got one group of people saying, yeah, it's him, it's him. Another group is saying, no, it looks like him, but it definitely can't be him. And then you have him, and notice the text says he kept saying, I am the man. And so that denotes that they are not just saying it once, yeah, that's him. They're not just saying it once, no, it's not him, but it looks like him.

They're saying it over and over again. It's a controversy. It's growing into one. And he keeps on having to say, I am the man. And so we have this kind of big thing starting to happen, this big controversy starting to form while the man insists that, yes, I am the man who was blind, but now I see. So with this man's testimony or testifying that he was the man who was blind from birth, the investigation officially begins by the people, from his neighbors, from those who are his acquaintance.

What we get from the people here is, I don't think, as we look through this, not malice or hatred from the people investigating this. I think we have just simply darkness of ignorance. They're just straight up ignorant. They don't know. And so they are genuinely asking him questions about what happened. And he's going to prove to be a faithful light of Jesus in that.

But we going to see from the Pharisees it goes from genuine inquiry to straight up hostility and yet the man remains faithful to be a light to Jesus So here again though with the people around him this is just genuine curiosity And we see this man be faithful And so the investigation begins verse 10 And so they say, then how were your eyes open? Highlight the word how. Very typical, like a good first question to start with, right?

Okay, if you are the man who was blind your whole life, and now all of a sudden here you are talking and everything like that, How did that happen? Key word, how? And how does he respond in verse 11? He says, the man called Jesus made mud and he anointed my eyes with that mud and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.

You see, he gives a faithful account of what happened to him. But notice the faithful account is centered on who? They ask how? And his faithful response is centered on who? Who did it? It happened in this way and it was on the who, that is Jesus, the man, Jesus.

His answer is centered on Jesus who did the work. He's the reason for the how. If when you face investigation by your friends, family, people who know you about the healing you have in Jesus of your sins, Again, when people see your different life, and they see you act a little bit different, and they investigate, which they will, it is important that the how, how did you change, how did this happen, it needs to be answered with who, and that is who Jesus is.

If the how of your changed life is not in the who of Jesus, you have a very counterfeit change indeed, which is probably going to prove to be simply a shooting star that's destined to disappear very quickly. In fact, at the fair, I was talking to a young lady who says, I've recently really liked God's word, been really liking it, wanting to read it, and I've been changing. I've been changing.

And she was really, you could tell, genuinely excited about it. And then after talking for a bit, when I asked her what salvation is, what does it mean to be saved, what was completely lacking from her answer is anything to do with the who of Jesus. Jesus was not there. And I tried to encourage her you need to have Jesus you need to have the who of Jesus down and you need to proclaim who Jesus is in your heart to yourself to the world if it going to actually stick at all Many people try to do moral changes but it not centered in the who of Jesus and I telling you that gas is going to run out very quickly We need the who of Jesus.

We need Jesus himself for that to be the backdrop, the centerpiece, the everything to why we might face any kind of healing or have any kind of healing. So again, notice the how did this happen is centered on the who of Jesus. And notice when highlighting the who of Jesus, he calls him the man Jesus. You notice that? He says, the man Jesus. It's going to be interesting to see this man progress in his identification of who Jesus is.

It starts with the man Jesus, which is true, but it's a little bit more than that. Now, we'll see in verse 17 he calls Jesus a prophet. Yes, true. Let's keep on going. And we'll see it highlights or it crescendos, it reaches its peak in verses 35 through 38 when Jesus says, do you believe in the Son of Man? And he says, who is he?

And Jesus says, I am. And he falls down and he worships. And so there's a progression to the way that this man is identifying Jesus or shining a light of Jesus. It starts off small, but it grows bigger. And indeed, that's our Christian life right there. As we first come to Christ and are healed by Jesus, we identify this man as one who has healed me.

And we get to know him more and more and more. And that light grows more and more and more. I guarantee you, when I was saved at 18 and Jesus healed me of my sins, and I was proclaiming that to my drinking buddies a week or two later, I would probably have cringed at the way that I identified the who, identified Jesus. I don't think I would have been completely blasphemous or wrong, but I would have cringed a little bit.

It would have been very simple and rudimentary, maybe a few little errors involved there. But we progress as we get to know this Jesus. We progress in our showing the light of Christ. We progress in understanding who Jesus is, and I think we're seeing the beginning of that here. The man Jesus, he proclaims, is the one who... Who has done this work.

That's how this work, this healing has happened. So I think we need to be careful. If you are a new believer and you have received healing from Christ, don't be afraid to express the who of Jesus, even if it's not quite like how your pastor would do it, or how a seasoned believer would do it. Sometimes, I'm telling you, God has ordained that someone would hear the proclamation of Jesus from a very simple mouthpiece that has just been saved.

So we need to be careful that we don't shy away from being a light for Jesus because we know little. This man certainly knew little. He knew he was a man, that he had healed him, and he's faithful to proclaim that to these people who are investigating this healing. So after receiving the answer of who to their question of how it happened, the next question again is most natural.

So, in this investigation, they ask, look at verse 12, they said to him, where is he? Right? The how goes to the who, and then it's where is he? They want to see this man for themselves. And again, in our testimony of how we have changed and we locate Jesus as a source of that change, most naturally in the people who are investigating who don't have a hard heart is, where is this Jesus?

How can I know this Jesus? I want to see this Jesus. And this is what's going on here. They ask him, where is this man that you are talking about? And in verse 12, again, he said, there's a problem here. He says, I don't know.

See, Jesus had told him to wash at the pool, and that was away from where Jesus put the mud on his eyes. So this blind man with the mud on his eyes goes to the pool of Siloam, away from Jesus, gets healed, and is probably pretty excited, and he went home around that area, and he hasn't seen Jesus since. Jesus is strangely absent for the first time in this narrative of John since John the Baptist.

And Jesus is going to remain absent while this man testifies about what Jesus has done in his life. And I think that's on purpose because Jesus had just said, listen, the dark is coming when I'm not going to be here. And now Jesus is saying but by the way just because I going back to the Father doesn mean that there won be a light of me here on earth So although I may be absent my light will not be absent because it will be revealed in people like this man born blind So I think the strange absence of Jesus here is on purpose.

Although he is absent, his light is not, and it's found in the people that he heals. It's found in this man, and it's found in you, it's found in me. This is supposed to encourage us that we can be that light, faithful light, in light of this investigation, even though Jesus is not, quote unquote, physically around. And so being at a roadblock in their investigation, since Jesus is nowhere to be found, and their investigation naturally progresses to the final or to the next step for them, at least, And in verse 13, we see where it goes.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. So there's nothing more they can do at this point. They've asked the questions. They've gotten the answers. They can't find Jesus. And so they bring him to the Pharisees.

Now, again, there's times, if we had time, we would look at a few of them. But you just can believe me, I think. There's times where people go to the Pharisees for malice, for dark reasons, for sinful reasons. I don't think that's the case here. I don't think that the people around him, they're certainly in darkness, but not a sinful kind of malice way of darkness.

They're just strictly ignorant. And so the investigation runs its course, and so they naturally go to the people that they ought to bring them to. That is, the Pharisees. There's a natural progression in this inquiry here. And the fact is that they're at a roadblock, and so it's only proper that they would then bring him to the religious authorities who are supposed to be the authorities and the people who know very well and can do the proper investigation.

You see, we live in such a secular world that when a major thing happens, we don't go to religious leaders for answers, we go to politicians. And then we, I won't go down that road, but we go to politicians. It's such a secular world we live in. But here, Jesus has done something that has deep significance for the Messiah that was to come. And after their own investigation they bring him to the people who were supposed to lead the people to the coming Messiah the Pharisees who knew the scriptures very well And in a perfect world the investigation that continues with the Pharisees would be done in a way that glorifies God to seek his truth Which would be, Jesus did this healing, and the healing revealed that his teaching was true, And his teaching was that he is the promised Messiah, the Son of God, and man who is sent to save the world and be its light.

Then the people would no longer be in the darkness of ignorance. Everyone would believe, even through this one man's testimony of light, and they would all again live happily ever after. But remember, that's not the way things pan out with the religious leaders, is it? There is a major problem. Now, and that is, if you remember in John chapter 1 verses 9 through 11, his own people rejected him.

He came to his own people and his own people rejected him. And remember, the reason why they do it was found in John chapter 5 when Jesus says they seek their own glory. If they sought the glory of God, they would investigate truly wanting God's glory and his truth and they would come to the proper conclusions. And they would believe, and everyone would live happily ever after.

But because they seek their own glory, namely the Pharisees, their whole investigation is not one of genuine inquiry, but it's one of, we need to safeguard our own glory, and this man is in the way. That is what drives them in their investigation and that's why as we see it will get increasingly hostile against this man and yet he will remain faithful to be the light of Jesus. And we see this hostility take shape right away.

In verse 14, look what the text says. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Remember in the history, or as we've read, John, we know that this is quite the touchy issue. We know in the Gospels themselves that Jesus and the Sabbath day and the religious leaders, they didn't all mix very well. You see, the religious leaders were convinced, they had their own law as pertains to their own glory that this is the way the Sabbath was to be kept that had nothing to do with God actual truth and Jesus didn care much for their version of the Sabbath In fact, we see Jesus will on purpose use the Sabbath to do healing, thus showing that their version of the Sabbath is according to their own mind and glory, not in accordance with God and his truth.

You see, the Sabbath was made for man, a gift from God to man to be a day of rest and worship. But the religious leaders had turned it into a curse, a burden no one could carry. Even to the point, now get this, when someone is healed on that day, it causes them to be angry. I mean, think about how nutso that is. Someone is healed in chapter 5 and now in chapter 9, and instead of celebrating and worshiping and saying, what other day to do this than on the blessed Sabbath day, they get angry.

And so we see that there is a complete hatred of God's actual truth here, a desire for their own glory, and Jesus did not play along with their game. And so we see that there is growing and a settled hostility there between Jesus and the Pharisees because he did this on the Sabbath day. And so they say, again, they say in verse 15 and 16, 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. And so some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. This is the same issue, chapter 5 again. He's doing these things on the Sabbath. He's not obeying the law of God. He can't be from God, for he's disobeying God.

And if Jesus was actually disobeying God and breaking the law of God, then their point would actually be extremely valid. In fact, we know, it's very familiar verses in Deuteronomy 13, 1 through 3, it's very clear that it doesn't matter if someone can do great signs and works before you. If he breaks God's law, do not follow him. It says, if a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, let us go after other gods, Which you have not known, and let us serve them.

You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or the dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You see, the fact is, is Jesus isn't breaking God's Sabbath. He's breaking their Sabbath. They are rooted in their own glory and their own desires. And Jesus doesn't play along with that.

So he's not a lawbreaker. He is a Pharisee lawbreaker. Though throughout the Gospels we see Jesus seems to favor the Sabbath day for his healing activity, which shows he has a different view of the Sabbath as these guys. So since Jesus refused to play by the rules of the Pharisees, they conclude he cannot be from God. That's what they say. He can't be from God.

He breaks the Sabbath. In verse 16, though, they have an issue. And the fact is, again, they're not trying to get to the truth. They're simply trying to figure out a way to undermine Jesus and get rid of him. So in one camp, they're saying he's a lawbreaker. Easy.

We can just say he's a lawbreaker. Not a big deal. But there's another camp of the Pharisees when they're considering this. In verse 16, others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. So they're all in agreement.

We need to get rid of this guy. They're all in agreement that they won't say this out loud, but we're for our glory and He's not for it. They're all in agreement. We need to get rid of this guy. The one camp's saying, well, he's a lawbreaker. Easy.

But then the other camp's saying, but here's the problem. He's doing a lot of signs and he's doing a lot of miracles. And that's not quite too easy for us to tell the people not to listen to him. And so there's a disagreement of how to deal with this Jesus problem from the Pharisees. And so to try to discredit Jesus, they are going to try two things in their investigation of this man, born blind but now seen.

First thing they try to do is get the healed man to deny that Jesus is from God. If they can get this man to deny that he is from God, then he'll say, yes, this man healed me, but he was like a witch or something crazy, bonkers. And then that's it. Nothing to worry about. So if they can get him to admit this guy is a fake or this guy is not from God, oh well, let him talk about the healing, whatever, as long as people don't then go to this man.

And if that doesn work in their investigation they will try to deny that the healed man ever was actually blind So they go with the first one first Let see if we can get them to admit or agree with us that this man a sinner And we see this in verse 17 of chapter 9. So they said to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? Now they're not asking with like, hey, we want to know.

We're trying to figure this thing out here. Is Jesus right, wrong? We're trying to figure it out. Can you help us out here? They're not asking for that reason at all. They're not like the people who have an actual interest or a genuine inquiry into this.

They are trying their best to, again, to fame Jesus, get rid of him. And so what they're doing by asking this is they're saying, what do you think about him? Are you going to be a problem for us? Are you going to actually say he was a godly man or not? Or they're asking, are you actually going to be a light for this man? And what does he respond?

How does he respond in verse 17? He says he is a prophet. Again, a progression there, right? He's a man, this man Jesus, he's a prophet. And we've got to understand that this man has a lot of courage. Because we'll see in a few moments, in a few verses, you remember they bring his parents out to try to undermine the fact that he was ever really blind.

And his parents are not willing to be a light for Jesus. They're not willing to say how he got healed because they're worried about getting kicked out of synagogue. Anyone who speaks kindly of Jesus is liable to get kicked out. This man has to know that. And so the fact that he says he's a prophet here is quite the courageous thing to do in light of this hostile investigation that he would be faithful to proclaim the light of Jesus.

He is a prophet. This is certainly courageous of this man. In the face of such a danger, this man is a faithful light to speak well of Jesus. And there's times, right? Right whenever we have to testify to why we are a little different to a hostile environment. A workplace that sees you doing things a little differently and they ask why.

And you know full well that if you say the who of Jesus, it's going to be embarrassing for you. They're going to mock. It's going to be silly. And so we see that this man is facing a very powerful group of people who are known to kill those they don't agree with. And he's faithful to be the light in that hostile environment and say he's a prophet. He is a prophet.

This is completely different than what we're going to see in his parents who are a bunch of cowards. And this is totally different if you remember what we saw in chapter 5 of John when he healed that man by the pool We don have time but go there If you remember this guy that got healed at the pool in John 5 was a coward We'll stop there. Here's a contrast.

This man here that Jesus healed of his blindness, he's no coward. He is faithful to be a light to Jesus even in the midst of a very hostile investigation. And so that doesn't work, does it? Well, this guy's not going to play ball with us. He's not going to say, no, this guy, Jesus is crazy. This guy is willing to admit this Jesus is a prophet.

So they can't do the one thing of discrediting Jesus where the man healed will talk ill of him. So they've got to try to find a different way to discredit Jesus. And the different way they're going to try to do it is just deny that the work ever happened itself. And so what do they do? Look at verses 20. Look at chapter 9, verse 18.

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received a sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received a sight and asked them, Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? So they're trying to get his parents to see, can we discredit that the work ever happened? Is this man, was he truly blind? In verse 20-21, his parents answered, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind, but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes.

Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself. In other words, just leave us alone. They tell the truth in saying that he is their son, who was blind from birth, but now sees, but they lie in saying we don't know how he sees. There's no way they didn't know how he received his sight. They're lying to the Pharisees. They are lying to the Pharisees saying, yes, he has been healed, but we don't know who.

And why are they lying? Why are they scared? Why are they acting like that? Because of verses 22 and 23, John tells us. It says, 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. You see to be kicked out of the synagogue was a big deal Now there a lot of controversy with what exactly that meant at this time in Jesus day but we can assume to be kicked out of the synagogue means you cannot worship with the people of God and you are kicked out of society as well And so because these these parents fear the consequences of identifying Jesus, they fear the consequences of what that would mean. They simply pass the buck to their son and they say, just ask him.

He's of age. He can tell you. But they at least testified that this man was actually healed and they passed the buck to their son. And so now the Pharisees are forced to acknowledge that Jesus truly did do a sign, a miracle that they cannot deny. And so now the Pharisees, now their hostile investigation will go back to trying to get the healed man to say that Jesus is a sinner and not from God.

And what's going to happen is them basically saying, you better say that this man's a sinner and not from God or else. See, before it was just, let's just see if we can, hey, what do you think of him? We're wondering, what do you think of him? And he says he's a prophet. They go to his parents, hey, this guy wasn't really blind, was he? And they say, yeah, he was blind.

Now he sees. We don't know why. And now they're going to return back in their investigation to this man, and now it's going to be a little different. They're going to say, let's go back to this idea of who this Jesus is. You think he's a sinner, don't you? And he's going to have to decide, am I going to be like my parents and be cowards and deny what I know is true?

Or am I going to be a faithful light to Jesus despite the fact that this has turned terribly hostile? And something to keep in mind is that we know then he's going to be faithful. He's going to be a light. He's going to proclaim Jesus. And you know who's waiting for him when the Pharisees' wrath comes upon them? You know who's waiting for him?

Jesus. The Good Shepherd, he calls himself after that. I am the Good Shepherd. And that's like he's telling us that when the hostile investigators come to you and they do everything they can to hurt you in light of your true and faithful witness to me, I will be the Good Shepherd who can take care of you. Don't worry, don't be afraid, but be faithful to be a light in a dark world.

So Jesus could have remained on the earth. To be the perfect light to the world forever. He could have done that. That could have been his will. I'm not going to trust other people to do this. I'll be the light to this world.

But it was his will to return to the Father, but not in order for his light to be absent. As we see here. But that his light would shine forth in the people he has healed of their sickness. Matthew 5, 14 through 16. You are the light of the world. Jesus tells his people.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand. And it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. So they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. The whole will of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit is for you to be the light of Christ in a dark world.

That is what the whole plan has always been. That Jesus would come and do the work necessary to make you little lights or little Christians to a dark and sometimes hostile world. So you must be careful that you are not trying to shine something that you don have Some people see the demands of Christianity as too much and indeed it is And that is because they have not received the very light they are supposed to shine forth In order to be the light, you must be healed of your sin yourself.

Jesus is willing and able to do that for you. Turn from your sins and rely upon him for forgiveness and power to walk in light and righteousness. So if you've received light, the healing of your sins from Jesus, are you revealing that light at the very investigation of the world? Whether it is genuine questions from the people around you or the hostile investigation from the enemies of the Lord, Are you revealing the healing, being faithful?

Are you proclaiming the healing Jesus has done for you? Are you letting fear of not articulating Jesus perfectly well stop you? Or are you being a coward in the face of hostilities, keeping quiet about the good things Jesus has done for you because you afraid of losing something on earth that going to burn away anyways The answer is not a legalistic determination to be better The answer is to look to Jesus and marvel at the healing that he provided for your very soul Meditate on how unworthy you were and of how Jesus is such a great healer.

Marvel at the love of the Father in Jesus and ask to be so filled with thanksgiving and awe that people cannot help but see the light of God shining forth from you. And you cannot help but tell them who this Jesus is, even as they look at you with angry stares. You see, in this man we see a faithful light for Jesus. And it is revealing to us Jesus has determined that you would be a faithful light and has provided everything necessary for that to be the very case in his death and resurrection.

Let us pray. God, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for his life and his death. And Lord we even thank you that he is reigning on high at the right hand of the Father and he has invited and commanded us to participate in his light in this dark world Lord it is so easy for us to get distracted with so many things of this life To where when we see to be faithful to Christ means we going to lose something on this earth Lord, it's so easy for us to think that it's worth having those things of the earth.

And not being faithful to Christ. Would you help us to look at the example of this man here? Would you help us to see how he was faithful to the people around him and how he was faithful even to the hostile Pharisees. And we'll see more of that next week, God. And I just pray, two weeks from now, I just pray, Lord, that you would help us to see that you can do the very same thing for us.

Where you have healed this man of his blindness and he's faithful to proclaim it. Lord, you heal us of our sins. And I pray that it would be our great delight to reveal that in our lives to those around us and with our words that we have a wonderful healer. His name is Jesus. Will you help us to be little lights of him by your mercies and grace and the power therein.

Thank you for being kind to us and thank you for being our good shepherd. In Jesus name, amen.