John 9

CHAPTER 9THEME: Jesus opens the eyes of a man born blind in Jerusalem (fifth work); record of the miracle; reaction to the miracleThe Lord has been giving His discourse on the Light of the World. Because He claimed that He is God, the Jews wanted to kill Him. Jesus “hid” Himself as He went out of the temple, “going through the midst of them” (Joh_8:59). It was a miracle that He could escape this angry mob. His time had not yet come, and so they could not lay their hands on Him. The incident which now follows is still really a continuation of the discourse on the Light of the World. The enemies of the Lord Jesus could not see because they were spiritually blind. The blind man also could not see, even when the Light of the World stood before him, but Jesus is going to reveal Himself to him. Before the blind man can see, he must have his eyes restored. Light must be received. There must be a receiver as well as a sender of Light. We used to argue the question about noise. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, is there a noise? The obvious answer is that there are sound waves, but if there is no ear there to pick up the sound and interpret it, no one hears it as noise. There must be a receiver. The lack of sight does not mean that light is not there. Light reveals the condition of the eye. The Light of the World reveals the condition of the soul. The Pharisees thought they saw, but they were blind. There is a story of a mining explosion in West Virgina. The explosion plunged the trapped men into total darkness. When the rescue team managed to get a light though to them, one of the young men finally said, “Well, why don’t they turn on the light?” They all looked at him in amazement, and then they realized that the explosion had blinded him. In the darkness, he did not know that he was blind. The light revealed to him and to them that he was blind. This is what Jesus means in verse Joh_9:39 of this chapter: “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.” Light reveals the true condition. Those who are blind, but do not realize it, can know that they are truly blind. A prominent member of the English Parliament took Mr. Burke, who was a stateman and a great orator, to hear Dr. Black, one of the great preachers of Scotland. Dr. Black preached a powerful sermon exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. After the service the friend waited for Mr. Burke’s reaction to the message. Finally he said, “He is one great orator, but what was he talking about?” Here was a brilliant man who was blind. It is our responsibility to get out the Word of God, and there our responsiblity ends. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to open the heart of the listener and cause him to obey the Word. We should present the Light of the World to people, but the Holy Spirit must open the eyes. This is what is meant in 2Co_2:15-16: “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life….” We are equally as “successful” when we do not wind a convert as when we do. We are simply to shine the light, to hold up Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. One fellow will say to us, “Where is the light?

That doesn’t make sense to me.” We will look at him and say, “Poor fellow, he is blind.” Another fellow will say to us, “Thank you for showing me the light. I was blind but now I see.”

John 9:1

JESUS OPENS THE EYES OF A MAN BORN BLIND IN JERSUALEM (Fifth Work)Logically this episode of the blind man follows the wonderful statement of our Lord, “I am the light of the world” (Joh_8:12). There evidentaly was a lapse of time between chapter 8 and the opening of chapter 9 because He is moving in a more leasurely manner"as Jesus passed by."

John 9:2

RECORD OF THE MIRACLEThis is the only record of our Lord healing a man with congenital blindness. The disciples want to establish the cause of his disease. They want to discuss who is at fault, who it is that sinned. In their day there were probably four answers they would have given. The pagans of that day, as many of today also, believed in reincarnation and held that congenital disease could be the result of sins committed during a former existance. The Jews never did accept this explanation. Then there is the argument of heredity, that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generations (see Exo_20:5).

We know that this is possible and blindness in some cases can be the result of the sin of the parent. Then, there was the explanation that the sin of Adam was passed t each member of the human family so that all are subject to death and disease. And finally, the Jewish rabbis believed that a child in the womb could sin.

John 9:3

Jesus doesn’t give them the answer they wanted. He says the important thing is not to probe around in the past and try to find out who is guilty. The thing to do is to cure the man. It may be true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but after a man is sick, it’s pretty important to get that pound of cure for him. God has His own wise reasons for permitting sickness, disease, suffering, and trouble. When I went to the hospital for surgery, I received letters from hundreds of people. Out of those letters, there were several who proposed to tell me why God let this happen to me. The only trouble was, I don’t think that any one of them knew. God doesn’t always reveal to us why He permits things. I believe this: God never does, nor suffers to be done But what we would ourselves, Could we but see through all events of things As well as He. God has His way, and He doesn’t propose to tell us all His reasons. He does ask us to walk with Him by faith through the dark times of our lives. I think, frankly, that we need to understand that our Lord is not saying for one minute that this man was sort of a spiritual guinea pig. I believe the punctuation of the verse misleads us. Jesus is saying, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. But that the works of God should be made manifest in him, I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day.” God has created you and me for His glory. He did not create us that we might try to be a somebody down here. He created us for His glory. If we miss that, we miss the entire purpose of our creation. These trials and sufferings come to us because they bring about the glory of God. This blind man, through the healing of his blindness, will bring about the glory of God. Not only will this blind man see (and think how much he would enjoy seeing all the rest of his life), but also he will see Jesus Christ and come to know Him as his Savior. Now Jesus reverts to His original statement. “I am the light of the world.” The night makes all of mankind blind. No one can see. Christ is the spiritual Light of the World, and without Him everyone is blind. But as long as He is in the world, He is the Light of the World. He is still in the world today, my friend. He comes to us in the person of the Holy Spirit. Unless the Son of God, by means of the Holy Spirit, opens our eyes so that we can see spiritual things, we will remain blind as bats.

John 9:6

Christ had to touch the blind man, and the blind man had to obey Christ. Christ must touch our spiritual vision and bring new life to the dead spiritual optic nerve. It is not a question of who sinned. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom_3:23). If Christ has not touched your eyes, you are not seeing. There are so many people right in our churches today who are blind and don’t know it. People write to me and say they listened to our Bible-teaching program for months; then all of a sudden their eyes were opened and they saw. Like the poor young man in the mine explosion, there are people standing in the light of the Word of God who say, “Why doesn’t someone turn on the light?” That is exactly what Pontius Pilate did. He asked, “What is truth?” (Joh_18:38) as he was standing right in the presence of the One who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Joh_14:6). We need to let Christ touch our eyes so that we can see. You will notice that Christ touched this man although the man still could not see Him. Then Jesus asked him to go wash, and the man obeyed. We may ask why Jesus used this method to heal the man. I think there are several reasons: (1) This Gospel sets forth the deity of Christ, but it also sets forth Jesus as a man. Jesus had just claimed His deity and now He touches the blind man, man to man. (2) The blind man must obey the Lord Jesus Christ if he is to see. (3) The Lord sent him to the pool which is called Siloam, and John makes a point of telling us Siloam means “Sent.” Even the name of the pool bears testimony that Jesus is sent from the Father. Jesus may be implying to this man that He has been sent from the Father, and in the same way He is sending him. (4) The blind man needed the water to make him see.

The water represents the Word of God in many passages of Scripture. It is my firm conviction that there never can be a conversion without the Word of God. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Psa_119:130). (5) The Jews needed this testimony because in verse Joh_9:29 they say, “We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.” They must see by this healing of the blind man that Jesus is the God-man who is sent from the Father. May I point out that the method of healing this man is not the important issue. The Person who heals is the important issue. It is Christ who opened his eyes. The blind man’s part was to trust and obey. Jesus used different methods of healing people. If the method was the touch, the man healed would insist everyone would need the same experience that he had. He would go away singing, “The Touch of His Hand on Mine.” When Jesus healed others by not touching them at all, they would insist that one doesn’t need to experience anything, not even His touch. They would say that all one needs is the Word of Jesus. They would go away singing, “Only Believe.” Then, this blind man here would say to all of them that they are wrong. He’d say you’ve got to be touched and then you must go to the pool and wash; so he would be singing, “Shall We Gather at the River?” You are going to tell me that is perfectly absurd, silly, and ridiculous.

It sure is, but I know a lot of “blind” folk today who will argue about the necessity of a certain ceremony or an experience to be saved. However, the all-important thing is to come to Christ, to believe Him, to obey Him. “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (Joh_6:37). It is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that is important. I want to stop here and show how the condition of the blind man parallels our condition as sinners before we were saved.

1. The blind man was outside the temple, shut out from God. Remember that Paul says in Eph_2:12 that we were strangers from the covenants of promise, that we had no hope; we were without God in the world. That is the condition of everyone before he is saved. Without God, without hope, shut out!
2. The man was blind. He was unable to see the Savior. John Hancock heard a sermon of John Witherspoon on the text, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (Joh_10:9). As he walked home he thought to himself, “I have always admired John Witherspoon but tonight I didn’t follow him. He impresses me as being a great preacher, but tonight I couldn’t understand him.” When he got home he put the key in the lock and pushed open the big door of his colonial home. He said, “Oh, I see!” His family laughed and said, “Of course, you see. You were out in the dark and now you have come into the light.” He answered, “Yes, but I mean that I now see that Jesus is the door, and faith is the key that turns the lock. I now trust Christ, and I see Him.” We were blind without Christ. Did you see Him as your Savior before you were saved? Was He the wonderful One to you then? No. We were blind.
3. The man had been blind from birth. We were born in sin. We came into this world as sinners.
4. The blind man was beyond human help. Nobody had a cure for his blindness. We were helpless sinners in this world and no one had a cure for us.
5. He was a beggar. This is what hurts a lot of people. They hate to admit they are beggars. They would be willing to pay for salvation, but it is not for sale. You have to come to God for salvation as this beggar did. God gives it away. This beggar could never have bought salvation because he had nothing with which to buy it. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa_55:1).
6. He made no appeal to Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus was loud and insistent, but this man just sat there. He didn’t know Jesus. It took him a long time to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Friend, did you really want to get saved? Were you looking for salvation? Were you looking for the Lord Jesus? If you are the average person, you were not. You were not looking for Him, but He was looking for you. That is the story of man and his salvation.
7. There was no pity shown to him by others. The Jews passed him by on their way to the temple. The disciples wanted to argue about him. They had no intention of showing any mercy to this man, and they were not prepared to do anything for him. This is a picture of the human family. Christ feels compassion for us, and Christ alone can help us.

John 9:8

REACTION TO THE MIRACLEThere is a change in a man who had been blind. He no longer must feel his way home every day but walks home seeing. I think this man was shouting, “Hallelujah, I can see!”

1. The neighbors Can’t you picture the neighborhood? Someone stands at the window and says, “Look, there’s the blind man.” His wife goes to the door to look and says, “That’s not the blind man. He looks like the blind man but he’s not blind.” So the man must identify himself to his own neighbors. The neighbors knew something had happened to him. I do not believe that if you are truly converted, if you have changed from blindness to seeing, you can go on without people noticing that you have changed. If there is no evidence of a change, then something is wrong, radically wrong.

John 9:10

I love the testimony of this man. He told only what he knewa good, honest, sincere testimony. He grew in perception every time he gave his testimony. Notice how accurate the Word of God is. He didn’t say Jesus took spittle and made clay. In his blindness he didn’t know that. All he knew was that he felt clay rubbed on his eyes. His testimony is honest, not elaborated or glamorized. Salvation is really a simple matter. It is coming to the Lord Jesus and experiencing the power of God. This man hadn’t even seen Jesus and yet the Lord Jesus had opened his eyes. The important thing for us is not to see Jesus but to believe in Him. 2. The Pharisees

John 9:13

Again, the man’s testimony is very simple. You would think these Pharisees would have rejoiced that a blind man could now see. You’d think they would break out in a “Hallelujah Chorus.” Not this cold-blooded crowd! Now notice the reaction of the Pharisees. They just don’t know what to do about a man born blind who is now walking around seeing.

John 9:16

These men were undoubtedly some of the cleverest men on earth. I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would have been more than a match for the Greek philosophers. They were experts at arguing. They are going to use a syllogistic method of arguing. They have a major premise, a minor premise, and then a conclusion. If both the premises are true, the conclusion will be true. But if either of the premises is false, the conclusion will be false. Here is their reasoning: Major premiseall people from God keep the Sabbath. Minor premiseJesus does not keep the Sabbath. ConclusionJesus is not from God. Their false major premise kept people from coming to the true conclusion. If both premises had been true, their conclusion would have been true. Major premiseOnly people from God can open the eyes of a man born blind. Minor premiseJesus opened the eyes of the blind man. ConclusionJesus is from God. Unfortunately, we find similar controversies going on in our churches today. There are arguments over nonessentials while the world outside is dying and going to hell, blind to the gospel. There is still the same old argument. “He doesn’t keep the Sabbath"which means “He doesn’t do it our way.”

John 9:17

In their argumentation they ask, “How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?” This is the very thing which helped the blind man to grow in his perception. If a sinner can’t do such miracles, yet because of Him he can see, then this One must be a prophet! He must be from God. The blind man has taken another step. “But the Jews did not believe concerning him.” When men don’t want to believe a thing, it is amazing what little peccadilloes they will attempt to dig up to really get away from the truth. Because they won’t accept the man’s testimony, they call in his parents. 3. The parents

John 9:19

Here is religious conniving, and it is one of the most pernicious things that is imaginable. The religious rulers are trying to find somebody they can hang this on, and the parents want to get off the hook. These rulers never contested the fact that the man had been blind and now could see. It’s only professors in swivel chairs in universities who doubt the miracles Jesus performed. The people who were present never denied that a miracle had been performed.

John 9:23

The parents knew that a miracle had been done. But they were not prepared to explain how the miracle had been done. They did not want to be excommunicated because that would completely ostracize them, and they didn’t want to get into that kind of trouble. Since the religious rulers cannot deny the miracle, they will try to keep the Lord Jesus from receiving the credit for it.

John 9:24

The Jews now go back to their first argument: this Man is a sinner because He broke the Sabbath. Don’t give glory to this Man, the Lord Jesus. Give the glory to God. My, doesn’t that sound nice and pious!

John 9:25

He hasn’t seen the Lord Jesus yet. This is the second time they have brought him into court, and he is a little weary of the whole thing. Yet, listen to his testimony. “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” That is the testimony of any sinner who has been saved. Once I was blind but now I see. Once I was in spiritual darkness but now I am in spiritual light. Once I did not know Christ, but now I know Him as my Savior. I don’t know about you, but I get a little weary of long-winded testimonies. I suspect that many of them are padded and embellished and polished up to make them attractive.

Sometimes the emphasis is placed on the past, so much so that the people actually come out as heroes in their testimony. They were leaders in crime, they were rubbing shoulders with the gang leaders, they knew all the great ones, they were the worst alcoholics, the worst gamblers, and on and on. Then they heard the gospel and were converted. The people who hear such testimonies go home and call their friends, “My, have you heard the testimony of So-and-So?“and they are so busy telling about So-and-So and all the things he had done that they hardly even mention Christ. Friend, the important part of any testimony that I want to hear is simply this, “Once I was blind; now I see.”

John 9:26

The Pharisees are really up against it. They’re trying their best to find some little flaw that they can seize upon to explain away the miracle that has been performed. They cannot simply dismiss it as theologians and professors try to do today. The man is there, and he can see.

John 9:27

The man who had been blind is beginning to understand what they are doing, and he gets a little sarcastic with them, “Will you also be His disciples?” He makes another interesting observation, “Will you hear it again?” Not only are the Pharisees blind so they cannot see the Light of the World, they are also deaf so they cannot hear.

John 9:29

The religious rulers revile him. You can notice again that, when men do not have an answer, they will resort to ridicule. Inadvertently they have slowly moved the healed blind man into a line of logic so that he knows only a man from God could do such a miracle: there is no doubt that he had been healed, so this Man must be from God. Remember, he still has never seen Jesus. These rulers have no answer. They cannot meet the argument or give a satisfactory explanation. The facts confound and contradict them. What do they do? They cast the man out. This excommunication shut him out of the temple. It also shut him out of business. It made him an outcast, almost like a leper. He would be shut out of everything religious and social. 4. The blind man meets Jesus

John 9:35

The Lord Jesus comes on the scene. This man has defended the Lord Jesus, has come out the winner in the argument, but has been cast out by the religious rulers. It is quite wonderful that the Lord Jesus comes to him. Friend, it is always Jesus who looks for the man. The Lord has prepared this man all along the way. Now the man must put his faith in the Son of God.

Our Lord now comes to him with that crucial question: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” The experiences through which he has gone have strengthened his faith and clarified his thinking. The Lord knows that he is ready for this final step. This man is so very open, so honest and sincere. He asks who the Son of God is so that he might believe. You can see the eagerness of this man. He wants to go farther.

He wants to come to know Him. Our Lord responds in this lovely way, “Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.” The man believes Him and worships Him. This is one of the finest instances of faith that we have in the entire Word of God. Our Lord took this blind man step by step and brought him to His feet where he could say, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped Him. It is so with the steps of every sinner. We are blind at first. We are lost sinners, and we don’t even see our lost condition. Then we come to Christ. He reveals Himself to us; our eyes are opened and we see who He is and what He has done for us. Then the question is: “Will you believe?” This man’s answer can also be your answer, “Lord, I believe.” And you will fall at His feet and worship Him.

John 9:39

This seems to be a strange statement. The Lord says that there are those who have eyes and see not. They have physical eyes and physical sight, but they are blind spiritually. If a man will admit he is blind and will come to Jesus as a blind man, Jesus will give him spiritual insight. Paul writes: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1Co_2:14). My friend, if you have come into the presence of the Lord Jesus, the Light of the World, and still say, “What is truth?” or, “I just don’t see that He is my Savior,” or, “I don’t understand what this is about,” then you are not seeing. You are spiritually blind. The Pharisees had eyes; they thought they saw; they were religious people, zealous people, and yet they were blind. The heathen are lost. They are in darkness. Yet the Lord puts each man through a series of steps. If there is any man today out yonder in heathenism who wants to know about Jesus, the Lord will get the gospel to him. The man who sits in the church pew and hears the preaching of the Word of God and the giving out of the gospel is in the presence of the Light. That Light reveals his blindness.

Jesus said, “…If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Mat_6:23). If you know the facts about Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, but you will not believe, then, my friend, you are spiritually blind and there is nothing else to offer you. If you have been in the presence of the Savior of the world and have rejected Him, there is no other Savior to offer to you.

John 9:40

We began with a blind man who was healed so that he saw, both physically and spiritually. We end with religious rulers who were terribly, tragically blind, yet who thought they could see. In the presence of Christ, in the presence of the Light, in the presence of the revelation of God, they said they had no sin. Some of the most dogmatic people today are the atheists and the cultists. They say they see, but they are blind. They reject the Lord Jesus Christ, and so their sin remains. Although they are not walking around with a white walking stick, they are blind.