Sermons

Friends, I’m adding this page to include a sermon I recently preached to my congregation. The text is found in John 7. Feel free to comment.–Jerry 

1After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. 2But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, 3Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. 4No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5For even his own brothers did not believe in him. 6Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. 7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. 8You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” 9Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.

10However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, “Where is that man?” 12Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews. 14Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied? 16Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

20″You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?” 21Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.” 25At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? 27But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”

28Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”30At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. 31Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?” 32The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. 33Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. 34You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

35The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”37On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. 40On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”41Others said, “He is the Christ.” Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee?

42Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. 45Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” 46″No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared. 47″You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48″Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.” 50Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51″Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?” 52They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

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We are spending the next 87 days taking a slow walk with Jesus of the Scripture. John’s Scripture to be exact. I hope that some of you or many of you or all of you have taken the time to hit my blog and read the meditations I have posted on the first several verses of John’s Gospel. Today, then, is technically the first sermon in the series even though we have already heard 5 sermons in from John as preparation for the next 3 months. Today, we are in John 7, the verses we have just read. Now, before I get involved in the objectives I’d like to accomplish today, I’d like to breifly make a couple of observations about John’s Gospel as we have been led to this point in his narrative and as we see continuing to work out in this particular chapter.

The first observation I’d like to make concerns his brothers sort of pushing him to make a public appearance. I think this goes back to the point Jesus made to his mother in the second chapter when she wanted him to solve the problem of running out wine at a wedding. He said to her, “Woman, why do you involve me, my time has not yet come.” Here he makes very similar statements to his brothers: “For you any time is right; the right time has not yet come for me.” In other words, people are not controlled or governed by some greater person or objective are free to do what they want, when they want. Jesus is telling his brothers: My schedule is not controlled by you or anyone here on this earth. My work and my schedule is governed soley by my Father whose work and will I am about.

I talked of this a bit last week when it came to the miracle of the bread. We cannot control Jesus. He has his own time schedule that will not be altered by our cajoling or ambition. We tend to look at things from a particular point of view. We see immediate objectives. We see short term accomplishment. I think that’s what his brothers wanted. “Hey, it’s a festival time, everyone is in Jerusalem, go do some miracles and win them over. That will make you a public figure.” I hear in this terrible echoes of the devil standing on top of the temple with Jesus saying, ‘Hurl yourself down so He can command his angels to miraculously save you.’ In other words, ‘Go up to Jerusalem and do something spectacular, avoid the cross, do all you can to win people over without blood.’ But, God, I read, does not have a point of view as much as he has a complete view. God had the entire view in mind. And we have already discussed that Jesus is not coming to earth to be a bread Messiah.

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The second observation that I must make is that there is an increasing level of violence that is being exercised against Jesus. He said at the beginning of chapter 7 that he purposely avoided going to a certain area because the Jews there were waiting to kill him—murder him. If you read slowly through John, and carefully, you will notice that the violence continues to increase all throughout the Gospel itself. The people were violently opposed to Jesus, to Jesus’ teaching, to Jesus’ disciples—at one point they even plot to murder someone that Jesus had raised from the dead.

Here in chapter 7 it is not different. He even asks them, ‘Why are you trying to kill me?’ He knows their intentions. He knows what they are about. Of course they deny it. But later someone says, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?” In verse 30, it says they wanted to seize him. In verse 32, they send guards to arrest him. In verse 43, they are divided over him. In verse 44, they want to seize him again. And in verses 46-52, there seems to be a sort of trial of Jesus where he is found guilty of something and he has not even been on trial yet. And this sort of stuff is all throughout John. There’s always someone trying to kill him, or stone him, or seize him, but Jesus is always in control. Still, it matters very little what Jesus says, or what Jesus does, there is always one very clear response from the people who object: Kill him. They go out of their way to kill him, seize him, or whatever, and yet for all the times they try, they only succeed when Jesus determines they will succeed.

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Now, please keep these two important preliminary observations in mind as we travel through the text of John 7 and make our case. The case I would like to make for you this morning is that there are several reasons why Jesus is objected to by the people of this world. In a sense, Jesus is on trial in these verses in chapter 7. But in another sense, Jesus lays bare the illogic and utter ignorance of our objections and to that end he shows that it is actually we who are on trial, not he. I’d like to note with you this morning 5 objections that the world has to Jesus and His way of being and doing the Father’s Will.

The first objection is found in verse 7: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” The following words are used in an advertisement for a Church in Arizona:

Stronger family realtionships…Greater satisfaction at work…And even better sex…and you can get all these things through Church…Hey, wer’e not making this stuff up. It’s happening every day, every week, all across America. Don’t get us wrong—you don’t walk through the doors of a church and suddenly your family likes you better and your allergies clear up. There are no magic potions to happiness. But a good church gives you a place to explore what God has to say about the kinds of everyday problems we all face: family relationships, stress, sex, ethics, work, health, romance, kids…well, you’re human—you know the list. Church should make a difference in your life Monday through Saturday, too…not just for an hour on Sunday. (Above All Earthly Pow’rs, Wells, 270)

Well, who wouldn’t want that? If the church can help with all that, sign me up too! I want in on that action. While we’re at it, maybe the church can help with weight loss, and weight gain, sleeplessness, nightmares, unruly children, and discouraging parents, and nagging headaches. Jesus had it right, didn’t he? How can the world possibly hate us when we offer them so much? And I think as long as the church is content to stand its ground on such matters, then truly the world cannot hate us. But I wonder… why did the world hate Jesus? He healed. He fed. He hung out with sinners. He forgave people. And yet he still ended up dead on a tree, buried in a cave. All, ultimately, because he testified that the world is evil, because he pointed out the truth of the condition of the world—the world he still came to, the world he still sought to redeem. I hope you understand deeply the tragedy of it all.

For some reason Jesus ended up crucified. The thing about the church we read of in the book of Acts is that they did not shirk this responsibility to point out clearly that the world was full of a lot of garbage and they they, while not above it, were not going to applaud it or congratulate people for participating in it. The disciples, those who preached the Gospel, made it abundantly clear that the world was corrupt. “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’” This is just my opinion, but maybe the church could stand to take a few more stands instead of being so accomodating to the culture. Instead of saying insipid things like “God loves the sinner and hates the sin” and welcoming all sorts of practicing degenerates into full fellowship with the Holy Spirit, maybe the church should get back to calling a spade a spade, and calling on all who would believe on Christ to repent of their wickedness. This assumes, however, that the church has the moral authority to do so. This assumes, however, that the church has the backbone and the willingness and the courage and the nerve of the Holy Spirit to stand by what Scripture says and means.

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The second objection people had to Jesus was this: They objected to his apparent unlearnedness: “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” But Jesus answered their objection, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.” So what we see again is that Jesus is completely committed to the work and will of God. He was not here merely spouting off whatever he thought was important, necessarily. He was here as one who was speaking the very words of God to the people. Philip Ryken wrote,

All truth is God’s truth, and this truth finds its unifying center in Jesus Christ…Since Jesus is true, everything he has done, or is doing, or will do is absolutely true. He was true in his work of creation and in the governance of his providence. He was true in the work of salvation: true in teaching the will of God, true in obeying the law, true in atoning for sin, and true in rising to resurrection life. He is true in his present dominion over heave and earth. And he will be true in keeping all his promises, true in the coming of his kingdom, and true in his everlasting glory. Jesus Christ is truth itself, in his very person, and therefore he is true in everything he does, from eternity past to eternity future. (Only One Way, Ryken, 102)

Jesus taught only what the Father told him to teach and Jesus was in complete accord with those words—never stepping out of bounds. And in his teaching he sought only to honor and bring glory to the Father. He was not speaking to get honor for himself. Here is another area where the church simply must improve. The church can ill afford to pouring out the sort of drivel that passes itself off as Gospel, prophetic proclamation. Now that is bold because it means that I am also holding myself to a standard. But here’s the thing: How pray-tell is having a better sex life going to lead a person to salvation? In other words, it matters the words that come from the pulpit. It matters what the church says about Jesus. It matters what the church says about sacrificial living, repentance, and the Holiness of God. Jesus ignored their remark about his education because, he said, what mattered is the origin of the content and the origin of his content was not man. “If you choose to do God’s will,” he said, “You will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” I tell you this, you can tell today too whether a person is trying to honor God or trying to win fans for himself. The church must be about the business of preaching God’s word—this means the hard stuff, the stuff that is tough to stomach, the stuff that will get us close to being hated by the population in general; ours is a world where fluff will no do. If this generation needs anything it is not better sex: It is Jesus Christ preached from God’s Holy Word. We should fear greatly for those who are worshiping in places where this morning the sermon does less than proclaim Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

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The third objection to Jesus that people have is this: They objected to him because of their own sin, because of their own unrighteousness. Jesus was, in short, making these so-called holier than thous, these self-proclaimed righteous ones, look really, really bad. Remember, they were upset because the miracle he did in chapter 5 was a miracle done on the sabbath. The thought is, “Well, certainly this man cannot be Messiah if he breaks the sabbath. What sort of man from God breaks the very rules that God established?” But here’s the thing: They didn’t like it because in the course of making an accusation against Jesus’ so-called abuse of the sabbath they were actually pointing out their own inconsistency on such matters. In other words, they didn’t like him, they objected to Him, because he pointed out that they were hypocrites. They had not the heart to look deep into the mystery of what he was doing. They had not the courage to confess their own ignorance and their own sin. “I thank you that I am not like other men, even this tax collector over here.” Jesus calls them on the carpet for it. They were making bad judgments about things that they simply did not understand.

So Jesus says, “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.” They were so caught up in the fact that the sign was completed on the sabbath that they totally forgot to notice that a man had been made whole again! Jesus points out to these people: Look, you don’t even keep the law! Who are you to criticize me for healing a man on the Sabbath!? I don’t think people like being told that they are no better than the very criticisms that they raise against others. Two things here. The church must be careful in its objections to the world that it is aboveboard in all such matters of purity and holiness. Second, the church must not be intimidated by the accusations of the world. Jesus said, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” Now, I’m not saying the church will be perfect, but I am saying that the church should, while acknowledging its complete dependence on the grace of God, be above reproach. The church loses its credibility and moral authority when it is engaged in sinful practices.

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The fourth objection that Jesus’ opponents raise against him is this: He confronted them with their complete ignorance. “Yes, you know me and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” They knew what he was saying because they tried to seize him. He was telling them they did not know nearly what they thought they knew about God; they did not even know God. Well, they did not like this idea at all. Who is this upstart to come here and tell us what we know and do not know about God. And so, once again, we see the violence begin to escalate. At every objection here we have seem people’s philosophical, theological objections to Jesus manifest itself in physical violence or at least the threat of physical violence.

Here’s the thing. There are a lot of prachers in the world today. They are doctors. They are lawyers. They are gurus. They are Yogi’s. They are talking heads. They are psychologists. They are pop musicians. There are a lot of people out there trying desperately to convince the world unredeemed that they know the way, that they have an idea of God and that if we expect to find him we need to follow them. There are a lot of ideas about God floating around and it was so back then too. But then came Jesus saying, “You don’t know half of what you are talking about.” It must have been terribly disconcerting. But Jesus is leading us somewhere and it is ironically not the place we might think, and it is decidedly not the place where all the secular religious monstrosities are leading us. They misunderstand God much in the same way that people today misunderstand God. Much of it is coming from supposedly Christian pulpits too. But David Wells says that it is the church’s responsibility to preach the truth of God, the True God, and the true way of salvation in Christ.

“This is the courage, faith, and conviction that the church will have to find again if it is to rise above its failure of nerve in the modern world, a world that is now so fragile, so haunted, and so fill with tragedy. God the cross is not only the place where salvation is found: it is also the place where evil has been judged and where God’s triumphant holiness has been revealed. It is because of of this judgment and this holiness that the church is called to be bold in its declaration, confident in its witness, and joyful in its service as it acknowledges the fact that is has been pardoned from sin and freed from the powers of darkness.” (God in the Wasteland, Wells, 185)

It will be a hard thing for the church to do what is right. It will be a hard thing to tell the world the truth of God, the God they think they know that they really don’t. It will be hard for the church to walk through Athens and lament and weep at the plethora of gods and goddesses that line the streets and proclaim the True and Only; it will be much harder to live down the wrath of the Consuming Fire and watch all those folks go to hell.

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Here’s the final objection that the people have about Jesus, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” The final objection? Well, it is simply that Jesus proclaims to be the Only Way to God. This is what people objected to then, and what people object to now. What people don’t like about Jesus is that he claims to be the Only Way to God and, as we have seen here in chapter 7, they object to his condemnation of their sin. Richard Phillips writes, “…those who recognize and confess their sin, having realized their desperate predicament before God, have no complaint that he has provided only one Savior…” We may object: Why is the life of the disciple so hard, so full of suffering, so full of certain earthly uncertainty? Why must we be saved only through Jesus? Phillips again writes, “This makes the point that the unbeleiving world’s true objection to Jesus Christ as the one Savior is really an objection to God’s verdict on sin. What they object to doing is confess their sin. What they demand is another way—any other way—that grants a salvation that is to their own glory instead of God’s.” In other words, a Way that gets them to God and allows them to keep their sin in tact.

But the cross deals with sin first. The Cross is God’s verdict on sin. The cross is God’s judgment on sin forever. David Wells writes, “The Church is called to declare the message of the cross, not to uncover God’s hidden purposes in the world or the secrets of his inner therapy. It is called to tell the world what God has said about sin…and it is called to make known the coming judgment.” (God in the Wasteland, Wells, 185)

But the Bible says the truth is this: There is only one Name given under heaven and earth by which men must be saved: Jesus Christ. We, the church, have no one and nothing else to offer. The implications of this are staggering: It means that there is no other way to God. It means that any way outside of Jesus Christ is fraught with danger because it built on the false premise that there are other ways. This is what the people objected to. Jesus was saying: I am the True meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles you are now celebrating. He was saying, Apart from me, the one you claim to know so well, there is no hope at all for salvation or hope or justification before God. The church must stand firm on this clear point of Scripture. Here me: The Bible says there is no other way. None. Not riches. Not your best life now. Not through purpose. Not through dr Phil or Oprah. Not exercise. Not Mormonism. Not through Hinduism. Not through Islam. Not through Buddhism. Not through Atheism. Not through Darwinism. Not through communism or democracy or totalitarianism. Not through Stalin or Streisand or Sinatra. Not through ignorance. Only through Jesus Christ crucified. There is simply no other way. None. Search all you want. Try another path, but outside of Jesus you will simply find yourself in the hands of an angry God.

The church must get over this notion that there might be other ways to Jesus. And there are preachers heard on television each week, and I have read interviews to my Bible School class, who tell people that they are not so sure that Jesus is the only way. The church must reaffirm that Jesus is the Way, the Only Way, to God. We must not shrink back in the faces of those who disagree, we must not cave into mounting pressure to be more accomadating to sin, we must not fold up in fear of those who say we must be more tolerant and accepting of those who are on different faith journeys. We must boldly proclaim Jesus Christ. This teaching will surely divide people today even as it divided people that day when Jesus said it but we must proclaim it nonetheless. People teach today that there are many ways to God, but Jesus taught exactly the opposite. He taught that there was only one way to God, but there were many ways to hell.

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Well, the guards who were sent to arrest Jesus were thoroughly confounded, profoundly perplexed. What to do? No one ever spoke like this man does. We cannot arrest him. So more objections: He’s just a deceiver, none of the rulers or Pharisees have believed in him—we’re obviously smarter than all of you!—there’s a curse on the mob following him, he’s already guilty without a trial, and then one last thing, “Behold! Look! Nicodemus, you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee!” “Nazareth?! Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” “Come and Behold!” But I think about this one they might actually have been saying something right.

You see, the things Jesus was saying and doing could not be attributed to mere human cunning and ability and Jesus never claimed that they did. He said his teaching was not his own. He said he was not doing his own will but the will of the One who sent him. He did miracles. He knew the One they didn’t know. He claimed to be the unique, sufficient way of salvation, the fulfillment of the Scripture, and the one who is hated by the world because he testifies against the world. They are right: No human being is foolish enough to do such things. No mere human is going to say these things, do these things, and divide people in these ways, claim to be God, and the only way to God, unless he were, in fact, the One He claimed to be. Humans would go for the miracle in the temple courts; Jesus goes for secresy and teaching. Humans want the attention; Jesus claims he’s in it only for the Father’s glory. No, Jesus indeed was not a prophet from Galilee. He was definetely from some place else altogether and the only way to find out where is to believe in Jesus.

Maybe Jesus just was not fancy enough for them. Certainly, if a prophet were worth his salt, he’d be from someplace important, like Jerusalem. “Hey, if you want to be a public figure, go up and reveal yourself in Jerusalem. Show yourself to your disciples. Do your miracles there.” No thanks, Jesus said. He came from simple origins, from simply family background, from humble beginnings. Surely this man cannot be the Messiah or even a prophet! He’s from Galilee. We know enough of that place to know that no one sent from God comes from such a place.

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Jesus has been on trial. People objected to everything he said and did, but we find that actually it is we who have been on trial. All the objections people have are thrown back to us as if to say: Here’s your answer, now what will you do with Jesus? Do you object because he tells you that you are evil and in need of outside intervention to fix you? Do you object because his teaching is from God and about God things and not about hair things or therapy things? Do you object because he points out your hypocrisy while remaining sinless himself? Do you object, still, because he says that everything you ever knew or believed about God must be rethought through him? Do you object because he says He is the only way to salvation, to God? Do you object to Jesus because he’s from a small, backwater, town and not from the big city of Jerusalem, that he does things in secret and not for show and public consumption? Do you object that he won’t be your miracle worker when you want your miracle? Do you object because you know where he’s from and the element of mystery has been removed?

Just what objections do you have about Jesus? Your objections are on trial too. And the gospel is proclaimed so that your objections amy be overcome or that they may overcome you. But either way, Jesus will be exalted and glorified. Surely this prophet did not come merely from earth; surely this is the Prophet sent from God. Surely we must listen to what he is saying and be overcome by his grace.

What choice will you make? There are only two choices given here in these Scriptures. One choice is to intensify your hatred, your violence, and your anger against Jesus. The other choice is to put your faith in Him, the only one who can satisfy your thirst. You will either kill him or be killed. You will either die without him or with him. Either way, you have a choice to make—and making no choice is close enough to choosing against him that no choice is not acceptable. What is your verdict? What you say about Christ will be the most important statement you ever make in this world.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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Friends,

Well, this is the second time I’ve tried this. The first time I edited this page nothing showed up when I saved. Hmm. There are a couple glitches with this blog site: Slow loading, loss of post changes, etc. I’ll figure it out sooner or later. Anyhow, this is the text from the sermon I preached this past Sunday. I think in most respects the sermon was pretty good. What I mean is, I think the outline follows the flow of the chapter well and gets to the heart of the theological issues that John was concerned with in writing it. I was a bit nervous about the first point concerning God’s Work being somewhat ironic. Then there was the issue of the introduction which I thought was a bit sketchy at times. I would re-write the introduction if I preached it again, but it is preserved here in its flawed form.

The only major, glaring flaw that really hit me hard was this: I don’t think I addressed our response to the reaction of Jesus’ opponents enough. I think I should have done better. It’s not that I think I needed to add a practical element, or a ‘hands on’ element to the message, but it is one thing to point out how God works and what the world’s response to it will be, and another thing to point out how we should respond and react to it. There are glimmers of it, but I think not enough.

Enjoy the reading!

jerry

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1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3″Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7″Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. 8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” 10″How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded. 11He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” 12″Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said. 13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” 16Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided.

17Finally they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.” 18The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19″Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” 20″We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” 25He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” 26Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?” 28Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” 30The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. 35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36″Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” 37Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 38Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” 40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” 41Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

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The city’s religious experts did not see the healing as a sign of anything other than one more case of sabbath-breaking that had to be dealt with. They did this by kicking the so-recently-blind man out of the synagogue. The sign, as sign, was also lost on the man’s parents, whose concern with their standing with the religious establishment blinded them to God at work right before them. Jerusalem was full of blind men and women that day who loved darkness rather than light. But the man blind from birth saw. He not only saw the city around him for the first time but saw the sign to which everyone else was blind. He saw God present and at work in his life and he believed.—Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, 96-97

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I would disagree with that statement only at one point, and even then it is not really a disagreement as much as an emendation. The man saw God working in his life and he believed. Yes. But more importantly he saw God at work in the life of Jesus and what the man believed because of that is of more importance than what he believed about God at work in his own life. This man would be criticized not so much because he was healed of his blindness as much as he was because his opinion of Jesus differed from their ‘orthodox’ and ‘sinless’ and ‘educated’ point of view. This man from the moment he was healed was thrown into a den of persecution.

And there’s something I wish for you to keep in mind. This man, for all intents and purposes never even saw who Jesus was or met him until we get down to verse 35. Remember, at the beginning of the chapter he was blind. Jesus came along, spat, made mud, put the salve on his eyes and told him to go and wash. Jesus did not go with him. Jesus did not wait around for him. So what this means is that everything this man goes through between verses 8-34 he did on his own, so to speak; but what I mean is that he did them apart from sight, so to speak; but what I mean is that he did them by faith. Granted a rather incomplete faith. But I’ll say this, he went into the Sanhedrin, before the Jewish leaders, and defended Jesus tooth and nail, without ever having seen him. Think that man had faith?

So the first thing this unnamed fella, whom everyone in the story seemed to know, sort of, has to do after having an encounter with Jesus Christ is defend Jesus. All the questions that they ask this man have to do with Jesus. 

• How did you receive your sight?
• This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.
• How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?
• What do you have to say about him, it was your eyes he opened?
• Give glory to God! We know this man is a sinner.
• What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
• We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.

Well, to be sure, there are a couple of statements in that mix, but you can see how they are not terribly concerned about this man’s healing as much as they are concerned about what Jesus did on the Sabbath to make the miracle happen. Once again, we see that Jesus is really the one on trial. I have pointed out on more than one occasion that the level of violence towards Jesus has been escalating in John’s Gospel. This trial of a man who was mercifully healed by the grace of God shows just how far these people are willing to go.

This is a story about Jesus, first. It is a story about a day when the glory of God was put on full display, it was demonstrated openly, brazenly before all who cared to take a look. My question is this. Jesus said, “This man was born blind that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” So, what was the work that God did in this man’s life? Was the work God did in his life merely the opening of his eyes? Or was it the larger work, the point of the sign, that he was eventually saved by Jesus as he slowly began to realize who Jesus was? In this case, the healing, while perfectly real and historical, is a parable of the larger work God did that day: Opening the eyes of the blind; closing the eyes of the seeing.

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Now, I’d like to make a couple of further observations about this chapter of the Gospel. The work that Jesus did that day caused quite a reaction among the crowds, the leaders, his family. It was a life altering day for the man born blind. I’d like to make 4 observations about this chapter of the Gospel as they relate to the man born blind and his awakening to the Saving Work of Jesus and the fallout from that sign.

First (v 1-7), we learn that this man was born blind that the work of God might be displayed in his life. The work of Jesus is sometimes displayed in rather ironic ways. Here’s a blind man who will demonstrated God’s work. I won’t tarry here long except to make this general statement: how many of us can accept that we might be called on to suffer in order that the work of God might be displayed in our lives? He was blind from birth—this was a spectacular miracle—but it was an even greater sign. It is too simplistic, Jesus says, to assume that there was necessarily sin and retribution involved here. The reason behind the man’s blindness was far greater than that. I don’t know how long he was blind, but I do know that it took a long time for the work of God to be displayed in his life. I don’t know that I am saying every person who suffers suffers for this reason. I think I am saying that every person who suffers is in a position to potentially demonstrate the work of God.

But again, what is the work of God? Is it merely the opening of physical eyes and allowing this man to see what he had never seen? Or is there a more profound work of God here in that the man came to a knowledge of the true identity of Jesus? What is the greatest sign demonstrated here? A Blind man seeing or seeing people blinded? Is the work of God here opening the eyes of a man so that he can see the truth of the Gospel? And is that not the greatest sign of all that even today God is opening the eyes of those who were born blind? Is this not the greatest sign that indeed God is at work among people even today?

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Second (vs 8-23), I would note this: The work of Jesus is divisive. Follow carefully through the chapter. From the minute of his healing people were divided:

His neighbors couldn’t figure out what had happened. Isn’t this the man? Some claimed he was. Others said, No he only looks like the man. I am the man, said he! They were very concerned about how this miracle happened, if this was the man, and he was blind. So they brought him to the Pharisees.

The Pharisees asked the same question, “How did you receive your sight.” This man is not from God for he doesn’t keep the Sabbath some said. How can a sinner do such miracles? Said others. They were divided.

Then the Pharisees drag his parents into the picture. They asked the man, What do you have to say about him, it was your eyes he opened? He is a prophet. Then they ask his parents, “Is this your son, how can he see?” We know he’s ours, but as to the who’s, what’s, where’s and why’s we cannot tell you. John tells us they were afraid to say anything about Jesus because ‘the Jews had decided to put out of the synagogue anyone who made favorable public statements about Jesus’ identity.’ So, the parents and the son were divided.

Everyone was divided. Neighbors, leaders, families. Everyone was divided over this person named Jesus and the work he did. Some were divided because of ignorance, others because of religious prejudice, and still others because of fear. Either way, this work of Jesus brought great division to the people when it should have been a powerful demonstration of God’s Work.

I think this is part of the same result we should expect today as well. Let’s consider a rather large swath of Scripture from Matthew:

17″Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21″Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24″A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!

26″So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32″Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. 34″Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to turn ” ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – 36a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37″Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

We need to be fully prepared, as this man was, to make such a commitment to Jesus. Whose opinion matters more and most? We need to wrestle with this and consider strongly that our allegiance to Christ Jesus may cause the end of all peace that you have come to know and enjoy.

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The third (vs 24-34) observation I would like to make is this. The man was willing to do what no one else was willing to do: He was thrown out of the synagogue for publicly defending Jesus. Thus, those who respond favorably to Jesus, those who hear and obey, those who publicly defend and testify to Jesus are likely to be persecuted for their beliefs. The work of Jesus invites persecution. They summon the man again and begin to question him again, this time a little more closely, and a little more violently. They declare their allegiance to Moses and assert that this formerly blind man belongs to Jesus.

The formerly blind man answers, in what can only be described as beautiful irony, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” Now far from a smarty pants answer, consider that these words were uttered by one of their own, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” That was spoken by Nicodemus; one of their own.

This man was just repeating to them what they had repeated to Jesus. And when he threw their own words back in their face, they threw him out of the synagogue completing in the formerly blind man an action his parents were unwilling to risk. This man got off rather easily. Later we will encounter a man named Lazarus who was dead and raised to life by Jesus. Well, Jesus gains a lot ground after this sign and many begin believing in him. So what do the leaders do? They plot to kill Lazarus as well. This man escapes by merely being excommunicated. Lazarus may have had to die a second death more horrible and violent than the first.

Jesus also said in Matthew 24:

9″Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

I think what worries me is that we will not be fully prepared to handle the persecution when it comes. I am afraid that we might be apt to follow false christs and false prophets because we are under the misapprehension that this will enable us to escape the persecution. But mark this, those who stand on the side of righteousness, those who stand on the side of truth, those who stand on the side of Jesus should expect persecution, to be ostracized, exclusion. What I mean to say is, though we live in America and experience a relatively exclusive experience in the history of the church, we are not, and will not always be, exempt from the sort of persecution that seeks to exclude us from all aspects of life. There will undoubtedly come a time when it will be illegal to be a follower of Jesus. We preach the gospel and participate in the Gospel so that we will be prepared. We will not follow false christs, we will not deny our faith, we will not try to save ourselves because we fear what others might say or might do. Their power is limited.

I don’t what the future holds for American Christianity. I’d like to say that we will enjoy a long period peace for the sake of our children and children’s children. But I wonder too if persecution is not heading our way? I wonder too if we are not staring at a time when persecution will be necessary for the purification of the church.

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The final observation (vs 35-41) I would make about the work of Jesus is this: It serves a dual purpose: It both gives sight to the blind and blinds those who can see. Now this sounds rather difficult to accept. But here’s what he said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” This chapter follows hot on the heals of Jesus’ statement, “I am the Light of the World,” to the point that it is repeated in 9:5: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Now I think Murray explains this well, so I shall quote a bit from him:

The blind man healed by Jesus becomes a sign of the revelation, and this in turn precipitates a krisis (judgment), which both divides those involved in the event and brings judgment on those who reject the sign and the revelation embodied in it. The two features of revelation and judgment develop side by side, and so compel recognition that the event does not simply set forth Jesus as the Light of the world, but rather exemplifies what happens when the Light shines in the world: The saving power of the divine sovereignty becomes active through its representative agent, bringing the light of life to any responsive to it. At the same time it exposes and judges the sin of those who reject the revelation and the redemption brought by the Redeemer. The Light by its shining accordingly creates judgment; in the very act of bringing salvation into the world, it divides the world. (Murray, 161)

And so doing because plenty, sadly, will reject Jesus as did the teachers here in this story, even while plenty of others will have their eyes opened. And so, this healed man goes from ‘the man called Jesus, to calling him a ‘prophet’, then ‘one sent from God,’ and finally confessing him as Son of Man, and Lord. This is contrasted with the Pharisees who questioned him. They continue to insist he is not from God, that he is a sinner, they deny the miracle, they don’t know where he is from and deny his authority, and as Murray concludes, they expel the man from the synagogue and, as a result, they reject Jesus’ work and thus Jesus. (Murray, 161, paraphrase)

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In Hebrews 4 the author notes: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

And Later in John’s Gospel, chapter 12, Jesus said this:

37Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: 40″He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.” 41Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. 42Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

The Word of God will do it’s work. The sad, sad reality is that there will continue to be people who will reject the Word of the Lord, thusly rejecting Jesus, and therefore stand under judgment. Some will never be convinced. Some will never turn, be healed, have their eyes opened. For some, the Word of God does its work by driving them further and further away.

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I think proper Gospel, Kingdom work will see both sides of this chapter of Scripture. We will see some whose eyes are beyond doubt opened. But, without it being our intended purpose, because even God wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, but I think we will also see some folks for whom the work of the Gospel closes their eyes.

This is what happens when the Gospel is preached faithfully—the entire Gospel, not just the parts that talk about God’s love and grace and peace and joy and hope but also those parts that talk about Jesus being the Singular, Only way to salvation. This message will offend people, stir up hatred towards God and Christians, and harden their hearts towards salvation. I think one of the reasons we see large, mega churches around and about is simply because this entire Gospel is not being preached. I think, instead, to suit itching ears and people’s desires for religion many leave out this message of offense—the message that opens blinded eyes and closes seeing eyes. It is a message of victory for some and judgment for others. But no one will fail to be affected by the preached Word.

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I suspect if the Jesus of Scripture and the Gospel of Scripture were truly proclaimed, fewer would claim Christ, and those who did claim him would be beyond compare, beyond reproach—and they would truly have their eyes opened.

So what has the Gospel done for you today? All throughout this lesson the man has had a singular thought: I was blind but now I see. All throughout people have been making choices about Jesus. The man shows us that only he chose for Jesus without fear of retribution from anyone. Everyone else—his neighbors, his parents, the Pharisees—they all chose against Jesus. For one the Sign did its job and Jesus was acknowledged as the Lord. For everyone else, the Sign also did its job and people’s hearts were hardened. What is the Word of God doing in you today? Is it drawing you unto Christ as Lord, or is it driving you away. Today you have the opportunity to make a choice for Jesus. I invite you to come, to tarry no longer, to wait not another day.

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Perhaps we might find a proper response to the reactions of God’s work in 2 Corinthians.

We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. (2 Corinthians 6, NIV)

I hope you find this helpful, and encouraging, and faithful to God’s Word. Be blessed and a blessing!

jerry