The investigation of the Healing Continues

Good morning. Open your Bibles to John, chapter 9. We return to our study in the Gospel of John. Let's just remind us of the context and where we're at. We'll read the whole chapter. But Lord willing, we'll exegete from verses 24 and on this morning.

So John chapter 9, verse 1. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So heaven 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 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, 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 to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it's a Sabbath day when Jesus 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 wash 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 the Pharisees So they said again 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 received his sight, until they called 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? And 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. 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. So 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. He answered, Whether he's a sinner, I do not know. 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 become 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, 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.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? 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 so he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. So 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 wouldn't have you wouldn't you would have no guilt.

But now that you say we see your guilt remains. Let us pray. Oh, God in heaven. We praise you and we thank you for your work of healing, that you have so faithfully and richly provided this dark and blind world. Lord, we know that at one time we were blind in our sin, but because Christ has healed us, we now see. And so God, I pray that we would look at the example of this man who is healed by Jesus and his faithfulness to be a testimony to Jesus, even in light of the hardship of persecution, that we would be faithful to point to the healing and be faithful to witness to Jesus.

And that we would see on the other side of it, it's not our destruction, but rather our worship to Christ. Lord, would you help us to see these things and be encouraged to be a faithful witness to Christ even whenever it is difficult to be one. Thank you, Christ. Thank you, God. Thank you for this word. In Jesus' name, amen.

You know, most of us probably have seen videos or perhaps even in person have been mesmerized by a piece of clay being formed into pottery on a potter's wheel. So to see the wheel going and the clay going in a circle and the way that the potter can form it and fashion it to create something beautiful, it is something wonderful to behold. It is mesmerizing, really, to witness it.

And then we know, though, that after the piece of clay, after it's made into pottery, it's not like it gets taken off and now it's perfectly able to withstand the pressures And so not only is it then beautiful to look at and behold but it also is strong and doesn break when it handled Jesus has just made a piece of beautiful pottery by healing this man born blind. And after the healing, it seems as if Jesus has left this man out to dry. Where is he?

Where is Jesus in this narrative? He's completely gone, and all we have left is this man who has been made right and healed, but yet no Jesus around to help him. It seems as if he's left out to dry. Jesus is nowhere in sight while this man is being investigated by his family, his friends, and religious leaders. And even today, we will see him go through now the fire of a kiln.

A second round of an investigation by the religious leaders. But only this time this investigation isn't so friendly. This time it is filled with fire, antagonism, and persecution, and hardship. But despite the hardship, we will see Jesus use this entire investigation to make the pottery not only beautiful, but also strong. And it needs to, as we look at this narrative, it needs to remind us, right, Jesus has healed each and one of us who have believed upon him.

He has healed us from our sin, from our blindness. And it can feel like sometimes after we've been healed and the world hates us for it, or they antagonize us, or they investigate, we can feel like perhaps we're left alone as we go through the fires of their investigation. But we see that whenever we join in this healed man, whenever we join in and we are faithful to the healing that Jesus has done for us, we see that Jesus can use this entire process, Not only to make us beautiful in salvation, but to make us strong in salvation.

In fact, that's why he ordains this to happen in the first place. So let us see this second round of investigation by the Pharisees as the fire is placed upon him for his faithfulness, his testimony to Jesus. To see how it actually makes him stronger through Christ. Let us learn from him to do the very same thing in our own life as we are investigated by the world about this testimony, about this Jesus who has healed us.

So let's look at the text again here at chapter 9 verse 24, which is where we're at, in which John says, They called the man who had been blind. Now, the Pharisees have already questioned this man before, if you remember from previous weeks. After Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath day in their investigation, they concluded Jesus must be a sinner since he's healed on the Sabbath day.

They don't keep their Sabbath day. He must be a sinner. He must not be from God is what they mean when they say a sinner. But they had this nagging problem, though, as we saw already. How can a sinner do such signs of benevolence? You don't hear too many people who do maybe miraculous works from the power of demons helping people out and love for them so much.

They might do some, you know, prophecy of the future. Or they might do, you know, what the Pharaoh's magicians did, right? Turning a stick into a snake, snake into a stick, or turning blood into water, water into blood. But do people who are driven by demonic forces, do they really do these works of benevolence over and over again like this man is doing?

So they're nagged with this question that they ask, how can a sinner do such signs like this? And so they ask this man his opinion, if you remember, hoping he would call Jesus a sinner, because then that would make their job easy. Whenever he tells of the healing, he would say, yeah, but this guy was a sinner, he was a nut. But we saw that he says, this man who is healed says he is a prophet.

So they called his parents, if you remember, to see if the healing was even legitimate. Maybe the healing wasn't really legitimate and they could find a hole in the narrative. And though his parents were cowards and not being willing to testify to Jesus, They at least admitted that yes, their son was born blind and now he can see that something has happened.

They just were too cowardice to admit that Jesus is the one who did it because these Pharisees hated Jesus and hated anyone who would testify to Jesus. And so they call the man in again in our text today. And this time they are going to turn up the heat on him. They are not going to politely ask this time, what do you think of him? Instead, they're going to tell them, this is what you are to think of this Jesus or else.

And yet as we see Jesus is still not around You can imagine where is Jesus Why doesn he help And he can feel like he might be alone But through his proper testimony even through this ordeal we're going to see him, something beautiful on the other end, as he testifies to Jesus. And so, again, 9.24, the second time, they call the man who had been blind and said to him, Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.

Notice the difference there. It's no longer, what do you think of him? It is, you're not playing ball. You're calling him a prophet. This miracle seemed to have actually happened, so now they're turning up the heat. You better give glory to God, and this is the way you're going to do it.

We know that this man's a sinner, and you better say he's a sinner, too. You see, these religious leaders, what they're doing is they're using their authority given by God to intimidate this man to not be a proper testimony to Jesus. This is the way persecution and hardship is coming for this man who has been healed by Jesus. These religious leaders hate Jesus.

They don't want anything to do with Jesus. They want to undermine him. And so they're using their authority, their power to say, hey, if you want to be on the right side of God, you better agree with us and admit that he's a sinner and stop saying he is a prophet. And so now the heat is being turned up on him. What will he do? This would be a scary thing.

And, you know, really, we all go through this in some measure in our life. In some measure, we will face certain authority or people in influence who will challenge us and say, stop being a testimony to Jesus. Whether it's the government, right, which we saw in COVID, this is how you are to worship. Or if it's peer pressure, right, we are meant to be in community.

And what happens when being in community means that we're going to be an outcast because they're testimony to Jesus. And they say, if you don't want to be an outcast, if you don't want to be a weirdo, you better admit with us that Jesus isn't truly who he says he is. We all in some degree go through this kind of heating process where the people around us want to use their authority or influence to cause us to say, yeah, Jesus isn't who he says he is.

And this is what this man is going through now. You better give glory to God and you do it in this way. We know that he is a sinner and you better say so too. He could be like his parents and say, yeah, I was healed, but I don't know anything about that Jesus dude. I don't know. Just leave me alone, please.

Right? Or he could just say, deny Jesus altogether. But we see the way that this man answers is a great testimony to Christ. He not only defends himself, but he goes on the attack to show that the Pharisees are absolutely insane in the way that they're doing their investigation. He goes on the attack to show the lunacy of the way that they're investigating to show that they don't have a leg to stand on.

And he starts that in verse 25. He answered them, whether he's a sinner, I do not know. But one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. See, he's actually doing something very clever here. And if you're not careful to read the text, you can kind of miss it. Some people think that he literally just doesn't know.

I don't know if he's a sinner. I just know that I've been healed. But that's not really what he's doing. Because later on in the text, as we'll see, he knows for sure that this man is not a sinner. We'll see that very clear. He doesn't think Jesus is a sinner.

But yet here he says, I don't know if he's a sinner, but one thing I do know is though I was blind, now I see. And what he's doing is he's saying, let's just act like that's a debatable thing. Let's just act like it's a debatable thing. Maybe he's a sinner. I don't know. But let's actually look at what happened.

I've been healed. And typically, whoever heals him is not going to be considered a sinner because he's done such a benevolent work for him. So he's saying, let's just for the sake of debate say, is he a sinner or not? Well, the fact is, is this so-called sinner healed me of my blindness out of love for me? It's hard for me to then conclude that he's an actual sinner.

So what he's doing in this investigation to these Pharisees is he's saying that the healing itself answers this question of, is he a sinner? And if you were honest in this investigation and weren't fueled by self-glory and hatred of Jesus, you would conclude the same thing. He's healed. This man's not a sinner. He's loving him. He's not a sinner as he's healing him.

So this man, just in a masterful way, shows the lunacy and hypocrisy of their investigation. He says, oh, is he a sinner? I don't know. Well, let's just look at the fact that I've been healed. So no, I don't think he's a sinner, as we'll see in a moment. And so what we're seeing from and what we can gain, what we can learn from this man, is that when people ask us antagonizing questions about Jesus Lean on the reality that Jesus has healed you from your sins and caused you to walk in righteousness That when they ask you these questions of, is the Bible accurate, all these different endless debates we could get into, you can say simply, foundationally, he's healed me of my sin and he's changed my life dramatically.

What does that have to do with that? I remember coming to Christ as a new believer at age 18 and I had all these unbelieving friends. And I remember I came to Christ and my life changed pretty dramatically after that. And I stopped going to the parties and everything like that and I usually wasn't one that would host the party. So it became a thing for my friends.

They didn't like that. Their host is no longer hosting anymore. It went from not hosting to then still attending their parties to just be like, I can't do this anymore. And so I remember it was like an intervention, I guess. I had my friends come and they're like, okay, what's going on here? And I remember one brought just like papers of these proofs against Christianity in the Bible.

And there were just things like the age of the world, right? The Bible says the age of the world is 1,000 years old and science says it's however old. Or the origins of humans, right? I mean, it's obvious that evolution is true. But when you get the Bible, I'm not actually saying that, okay, be careful. But the Bible says that we come from Adam, who was created by God, without the whole monkey thing in the way.

Or things like slavery, right? The Bible seems to be pro-slavery, and so what do you think of that, right? I remember, I was a new Christian, I had no idea how to answer any of these things. I had in my mind, I remember thinking, oh, it's not going to shake my faith, whatever, I'm sure there's an answer for all of it, I have no idea. And so I remember what I would just consistently go back to is that God has changed my life in Christ.

My life is completely different. It's completely changed radically. All those things are sub-things. They're not as important to the fact that he's changed my life. And the thing about it is they could not deny that. They could not deny that.

In fact, one of them, I remember at the end of the conversation, him saying, I wish I could have an epiphany like this. They couldn't deny it. The foundation of where I pointed to, where this man's pointed to, where we need to point to is all these different debates we can have, but let's look at what he's actually done. He has changed my life. And that's what this man is saying here.

Hmm, is he a sinner? I don't know. He just healed me. This is what he's saying. And so he's focusing on the healing itself. And so in verse 26, moving forward in their investigation, they see he's not going to get off of this whole healing business.

And so they said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? You see, this is not genuine inquiry. We need to understand. They're not genuinely saying, okay, we really want to know who this guy is, So maybe we can worship him. Maybe we can be his disciples.

They hate Jesus. They hate anything that would impose upon their own glory that they are trying to protect. And so they are not genuinely asking, hey, what happened so we can really understand this? They are trying to poke holes in his narrative so that they can undermine Jesus and his healing so they can tell others to do so as well. They're trying to poke holes.

Matthew Poole says about this text, he says, Now they put him to tell the story over again, either hoping that they should entrap him, contradicting himself in his story, or at least find something upon his repeating the story for them to take advantage from, to persuade the people that it was nothing but a cheat, and indeed there was no such miracle wrought upon him. So we need to see that this is not genuine inquiry. This is the Pharisees trying to poke holes because they hate Jesus and they love their own glory.

But again, we see in verse 27 a masterful response from this man who was healed by Jesus to turn it around on the Pharisees and show that this is nothing but a ridiculous investigation. It is not legitimate. He says in verse 27, he answered them, I have told you already and you would not listen. Now, again, you need to be amazed by this. These guys are scary.

The Pharisees are scary. They are the religious leaders. I've said this before, but we need to remember when we read the courage that we're seeing in this man who is healed by Jesus as opposed to his parents who are cowards. He is talking to religious leaders who have the power to make his life miserable. And they told him, you better get in line now. And he is not, and he answers this next attempt at their investigation.

He answers them, I have told you already and you would not listen. He says why do you want to hear it again Do you also want to become his disciples You got to see the humor in that This man is intelligent and he is poking holes at their investigation showing their hypocrisy You see, what he's doing is he's saying, man, it sounds like you really want to follow Jesus yourself, don't you? By wanting to hear the story over and over again.

And here's the thing. That's what should have been happening. Like, that's how this should have went. The Pharisees should have heard this and said, man, this is amazing. This Jesus keeps on healing people. And, you know, we read in the Old Testament that this Messiah to come, he would do that very thing.

Let's investigate this. Let's learn about this. It would lead to following him and becoming his disciples. That's what should have happened. But yet he knows, this man who's healed, knows full well that that's not what's happening here. And he knows full well that these Pharisees wanted to hear it again, not because they wanted to be his disciple, but they're trying their best, despite reality, to poke holes, to poke holes at Jesus and to undermine Jesus.

And so here we see this man using very sharp irony. Man, you want to hear it again? You must really want to be his disciple. Knowing full well they don't, and they're trying to do the very opposite. It reminds me of when my boys, when they are lacking love for their brothers, I will typically, especially if it's one in particular that they're lacking love for, I will tell them, you're going to find seven ways today to serve that brother.

You're going to find seven ways today to serve that brother, and if you do not find those ways, I'm going to ask you, you will get spanked. And what I'll see throughout the day is, man, he's serving his brother. And I've said before, man, you are really loving your brother well today. It's amazing. I know full well the reason why he's doing it is because he doesn't want to get spanked.

But I'm saying that to show that you ought to do this because you love your brother. That's why you should do it. It's irony. Kind of making a joke. Maybe that's not the best thing to do. I don't know.

Tim will have to tell me later. But here's what's happening here. This guy knows full well why they're asking this question again. It is not to become his disciples because they are so interested in this work. They are trying their best to poke a hole in it so they can undermine Jesus. Man, you must want to be his disciples, they say.

This is making the Pharisees angry He is not playing ball If you remember the last guy that was healed a few chapters back he was healed and he kept on going to the Pharisees He didn't have any problem going to the Pharisees to say, Jesus did it, he did it, Jesus did it, get him. This man is not like this at all. This man actually is a testimony to Christ in a most beautiful way.

Okay, verse 28, they are at the pinnacle of their anger at this point. In verse 28, they reviled him. Reviled means abusive or foul language. So when you hear their words, you need to hear the hatred in their voice. You need to hear their wrath, their aggression. You see, it's one thing for someone to be weak and angry.

Or it's another thing to be strong and not angry. The scary part about this man's situation, the fire that he's in, is he's facing a people who are both strong and angry. They revile him, saying, you are his disciples, but we are disciples of Moses. And this is the same thing they did before by saying, honor God, and this is how you do it. And here what they're saying is, you are not a disciple of Moses by holding to this opinion of being this follower of this Jesus.

So again, they're using their authority, they're using their power, they're intimidating this man. You want to honor God? Admit this guy's a sinner. You want to be a disciple of Moses instead of being a disciple of this guy? You had better play ball. They're intimidating them.

They're saying you're on the wrong side of God again by saying we're disciples of Moses. You are this man's disciple. And they go on to say in verse 29, we know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. It says we know God spoke through Moses, but we don't even know where this man is from. So it's another question, right?

Is this man a sinner or not? How does he answer? Well, he healed me, so I don't think he's a sinner. And now he's going to answer the same way. He says in verse 30, the man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing. You've got to see the irony.

You've got to see he's being, what's the word I'm looking for? Not exaggerate. He whatever the word is You do not know where he comes from yet he opened my eyes And so notice again he focusing on the healing itself He did that with the sinner talk. He says, well, I don't know if he's a sinner, but I know that he opened my eyes. And now he's doing the same thing.

Well, you have a question here. You don't know where he came from, yet he opened my eyes. Therefore, that should answer the question of where he comes from. In other words, if your investigation was legitimate, You would see my healing and say he must come from God. We don't know where he came from. And that's why he goes on to say in verses 31 through 33, he says, 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. So logically speaking here, if your investigation was worth anything, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. So he's saying, you don't know where he's from? He healed me. He's from God, obviously. And you should conclude the same thing if you weren't so bent on your own glory and hatred of God.

Now, some people look at his logic here and think that, well, you know, it's nice. Yes, you know, obviously he's defending Jesus, but it's not airtight because, you know, demonic forces can do things as well. And so just because Jesus is doing miraculous things doesn't necessarily mean he's from God. But I think we're looking at the text wrong when we conclude that.

Because to be honest with you, Jesus echoes this same thing a chapter later. Look at chapter 10. Oh, what verse is it? Verse 37. Jesus echoes this same kind of logic in verse 37. He says, if I'm not doing the works of my Father, the works meaning the miracles, right?

Then do not believe me. But if I do these works, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father or I am from God. So Jesus echoes the same thing here that this man is saying, is that you need to see the work, the miracle, and see that that answers your question of where he's from.

Or, is he a sinner? Well, look at the work itself and see that he's obviously not a sinner when he's doing works from God of benevolence to his neighbor. I think the way we need to understand this is that, and I've already kind of alluded to it before, but we see different instances, right? Again, Pharaoh and his magicians, they were able to do things that were demonic in power, right?

Miracles. But they weren't acts and works of benevolence for people. Or if we think of Deuteronomy, we read it a couple weeks ago, or last week, whenever it was, of, hey, whenever someone is prophesying the future, And then they tell you to go away from God? It doesn't matter that they're able to do that work. That doesn't matter. The point is that demonic forces can tell the future sometimes.

But demonic forces don't typically have this ministry of benevolence, of works of benevolence to their neighbor. Demons hate their neighbor. And so that doesn't normally happen. And so I think this man's logic is absolutely solid in saying that this man keeps on healing people Well, as an act of love for his neighbor, that should conclude your investigation that he is from God, that he is not a sinner, and that he is to be believed and followed as a disciple.

Jesus echoes the same sentiment the next chapter. That's what we should see here. So again, notice how this man who has been healed from Jesus responds to these haters of Jesus. Notice how he responds at the fire of persecution and hardship of Jesus' enemies. He says, look at the healing that he has done. It cannot be denied.

And again, that should be the foundation of our argument for Christ against people who hate Christ and hate us because of him. Look at what he can do with a sinner like me. He can make me hate my sin and walk in righteousness and he can do the same for you. So don't spend hours and hours talking about Noah's Ark and was it big enough for all the animals and da da da da da da.

It has its place. But let the foundation statement, the foundational statement say he can change a sinner like me, he can do it for you. Repent and stop with this foolish investigation and believe upon the Savior for salvation. If your debates with your unbelieving friends, if it's not founded on that, you are wasting your time. Say look at what he done for me He can do the same for you if you would just believe and stop with this nonsense At this point, they've had enough.

This guy has beaten them over and over again. He has shown over and over again your investigation stinks. It doesn't make any sense. And so in verse 34, they answered him, You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us? You see, they're feeling conviction. This man's making a lot of sense.

And it's almost as if he's teaching us. And we're the Pharisees. That's not supposed to happen. And so the result is they attack his character. You were born in utter sin, and how are you going to teach us? Remember, this goes back to the beginning of this chapter.

How this whole thing started. You remember chapter 9? Look at your text. Verse 1. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth, and the disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Remember Jesus said, it's not about who sinned, it's about the works of God.

Well, the Pharisees wouldn't know the works of God if it hit them in the behind. And so what they say here is that you were born in utter sin. That's why you are a blind man, just so you know, you utter failure. You see, this is the Pharisees exploding in anger saying, you were born a sinner. You sinned in your mother's womb. You're useless and worthless.

And are you going to teach us when you were born in such depravity? You see, the Pharisees are answering that initial questions from the disciples saying, yeah, the reason why that guy was blind is because he was a sinner. And yet here he is trying to teach us. What's ironic about that? They don't realize this, but by saying you were born in utter sin, that's why you were blind, they are admitting that he was healed from blindness, miraculously, by Jesus, which is the whole point of this man all along.

So in an attempt to try to attack his character, say you were born in sin, they are admitting to the fact that he was born blind, and he has been healed miraculously, and the whole point of this man is saying let that guide you to Jesus. But they would have none of that. Instead, they do the opposite. What do they do? It says in the text in verse 34 they cast him out Now that not just simply they cast him out of the home or the synagogue or whatever this investigation if you call it that was happening You see you remember what his parents were afraid of They were afraid of getting kicked out of the synagogue.

And so this language here is most likely we can conclude that they not only kicked them out of their presence, but they concluded their investigation and they said, you are kicked out of the synagogue. Now we've got to understand how frightful, how terrifying. If we're talking about the fire of the kiln, right, this is like the full furnace. This is like what you can do besides killing him that is of the utmost of persecution.

They are kicking him out of the synagogue. That means no more communication with this family. His parents will have nothing to do with him. His community shouldn't have anything to do with him, right? This man has been kicked out on his own. He is alone because of his faithful witness to Jesus.

He has not given in to the pressures of the Pharisees to deny Christ. Instead, he went on the attack and showed, just like Jesus has done in the other parts of the gospel, that your whole investigation is rotten to the core. And what does he get for that? He gets kicked out of the synagogue, cast out from the synagogue. And we have to ask ourselves, where is Jesus?

And there could be times of hardship, of persecution, when you're going through it yourself, when the peer pressure, whatever is going on, where you are tempted to deny Christ in some capacity, and yet remain faithful to him, yet then you are treated badly. You can cry out, where are you, Christ? Where is Jesus? Where is he at? Why does he allow this fire to happen to me?

And then it's at this point, Jesus appears. And what we see at this point, it's just beautiful and wonderful. Jesus, we see in verses 35 through 38, now finds him. And he takes care of the man. We see Jesus in verse 35 heard that they cast him out. And having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?

And he answered, 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 He said Lord I believe and he worshipped him You see the whole point now in chapter 10 is Jesus is the good shepherd This is now transitioning into that major theme we're going to move into now, of Jesus is the good shepherd. So that when this man has been not treated well at all by a false shepherd, when he's been kicked out, mistreated, persecuted, Conflicted, thrown to the mud, Jesus finds him and he takes care of him.

How does he take care of him, though? Does Jesus change his circumstances? No, circumstances are still just as bad. What does Jesus do to be a good shepherd to him? He reveals who he is, I am the Son of Man, and which enables this man to then worship Christ. He fell down and he worshiped him.

And so all the hardship, all the turmoil, all the persecution is all worth it to be kicked out and worship the true Christ on the outside than to be on the inside ignorant and blind to the true Christ. And so the way that this all works in which it is for the pot, the piece of pottery is good, is it strengthens and boldens the pottery to not only look beautiful, to be strong in light of the hardship of persecution, to where now he is worshiping the true Christ on the outside instead of worshiping a false God on the end. So Jesus reveals himself to be the good shepherd in light of this terrible tragedy of persecution and hardship by revealing himself more fully to him.

I am the Christ. I am the Son of Man, which enables worship of the Son of Man, which is always worth it. This needs to be your mindset as you go through hardships in life. Christ is enabling this to strengthen me and my testimony of Christ so that on the other side I will have worship of the revealed Christ. If that's not your goal, then you are going to be crushed by being kicked out of the synagogue, so to speak.

You're going to be crushed by what the world can do for you, do to you because of your testimony. But when you see that the greater end is to worship the true Christ. To know him more, it's all worth it. It's all worth it. It truly is a fire and a kiln met for your good and not for your hurt. So we see the Pharisees threw all they could at him, and he, on the other side, is refined to true worship to the true Christ.

And then to finish here, just for a few moments, We see that Jesus as the Good Shepherd not only takes care of the man, but he also takes care of the persecutors too. Look at verse 39-41. Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. See what Jesus is saying there? Pharisees, you thought you were judging him?

This whole thing was an act of judgment against you, Pharisees. You see, the Pharisees think that they're in the proper seat of judgment. They'll make the judgment call and through this investigation, but through that whole transaction of persecution and hardship, it was revealed that Jesus is judging them for their failures to believe upon Christ and follow him.

And even through all the persecutions and hardships that we can face as Christians, God uses that as an act of judgment to reveal the blindness of the world. And that will one day be for their terrifying wrath that they'll face from God. So Jesus says And the sight of the man healed from his blindness Verse 40 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. You see, the fact that you think you see is your very judgment. Okay, let's make a few concluding remarks. Does your life reflect the healing power of Jesus? If you look at your life, does it reflect the healing power of Jesus in your life? This man born blind but healed by Jesus was able to point to this undeniable reality to answer the persecution of the Pharisees.

Every cynical question driven by their thirst for self-glory was answered with pointing to the healing power of Jesus. Can you do the same thing to your persecutors? Can you say, well, that's a nice debatable point? I don't know. But one thing I do know is that look what Christ has done in my life. If you cannot do that, you have nothing to point to at that point.

Does your life reflect the healing power of Jesus that you can point to? Look at Christ's power and what he's done for me. So have you relied upon Jesus to forgive you of your sins, to help you walk in newness of life? To where every cynical question from the world can be answered with, I was once blind, but now I see. Or is it possible that when the world looks at you, they don't see anything different at all?

Jesus has the power to change a sinner rely upon him to do so Are you convinced that on the other side of persecution no matter how major or minor it might be for everyone will face persecution for those who want to live a godly life you will face it Are you convinced that on the other side of persecution is a greater manifestation of Jesus for you and a greater experience of worship of him? Are you convinced in every single situation you're in that on the other side, as I have my testimony to Christ, as I look to Christ, as I hold on to him, I will be, I can see him greater through it and experience greater worship because of it. Are you convinced that that is what Jesus is doing in that fire?

Or do you find yourself terrified at the hatred and persecution and the ramifications of their hatred for you? Jesus has ordained the hatred of the world to be the fire in the kiln that makes his pottery beautiful and strong. Entrust yourself to the power of Jesus and be a proper testimony of his grace even in the face of fiery persecution from the world.

Let us pray. Oh God, thank you for Christ. Lord, I'm thankful that not only are we not a slave of circumstances in which anything bad happens to us, we think it's all gone and lost, but we know that you use all hardship for our good and your glory. Lord, let that not be a statement we hear so much it goes in one ear, out the other. I pray, God, that we would see that this actually enables us.

In the midst of fire it enables us to be a proper testimony to Jesus and to even point to the holes and the flaws of those who would interrogate us I thankful for this example and this blind man I'm thankful to see your power revealed in him, not only in the healing of his blindness, but also to see the way he can stand up in light of persecution and be a proper testimony to Jesus, even flipping the board or flipping the script on his haters. O Lord, would you help us to do the very same thing? Whatever thing each one of us may be going through, whatever persecution, whatever hardship, whatever oppression, whatever it may be, would you help us to remain faithful to Christ and to be able to point to the fact that Christ has healing power in his hands and to point those who hate us and hate Christ to that healing power.

Would you let that be our greatest desire to be that kind of testimony? Lord in heaven, in order for this to be the case, we have to be amazed by the healing power of Christ. So would you help us to look at the robe that he has given us, the robe of righteousness, the robe of standing righteousness and even the power of sanctification to walk in righteousness.

Would you help us to look at that and be amazed at your power? So that whenever people ask us hard questions or difficult questions, when we are mistreated, we can be an example of the saving power of Christ to them. Help us with these things, Lord, and help us to be worshipers of you, to be faithful to you as you have been faithful to us. Let us turn away from our sin, and in our weakness, help us to rely upon the strength of Christ.

Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.