John Message #27 “Jesus Heals the Man Born Blind”, Ed Miller, Sept. 23, 2024
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Listen to the audio above while following along in the transcript below which is available for download at www.biblestudyministriesinc.com
I’d like to share these two verses, and it’s actually the same ones that we used last week, and for the same reason. Psalm 119:18&19, “Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from Thy Law. I’m a stranger in the earth; do not hide Thy commandments from me.” So, we need the Lord. As we come to the word, there is that indispensable principle that only God can reveal God, and He needs to give us a revelation of the revelation. We need the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts to point us to Jesus. There are wonderful things in this book, and unless He opens our eyes, we won’t see them. So, let’s trust the Lord together; let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You so much that we can gather together in Your name. We thank You for the indwelling Holy Spirit who continually turns our eyes to the Lord Jesus. We pray that You would guide our meditation together and we pray that by Your grace You would unveil Yourself. You know who we are, You know are our hungers, You know our capacities and You know our needs. Meet us, we pray, where we are and take each one of us where You would have us. As You put the light on Christ, grace us that we might walk in the light as He is in the light. We ask this in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We began with that passage, “Open our eyes.” The same thing is true with our ears. We have to have spiritual hearing, as well. So, I’m going to quote John 6:45, “It is written in the prophets, ‘They shall all be taught of God; everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.’” If you really hear from the Lord, it’s going to lead to Jesus. If it doesn’t lead to Jesus, you have reason to question whether you’re being taught of God.
I think you are all aware why we’re gathered together. Sweet fellowship is part of it, and if there are people that you don’t know, God might have brought them here to be a blessing to your life. Don’t be shy; introduce yourself to one another. There’s Christ in each of us. We will have sweet fellowship. This morning we’re going to begin the miracle of the healing of the man born blind in chapter 9. Though fellowship is very precious, it’s not the main reason that we’re here, and neither is Bible knowledge. We don’t study the Bible to know the Bible. I hope when we’re done we’ll know a lot more about the Bible, but we’re here to see the Lord Himself, that God would reveal Christ to our heart.
As I’ve reminded you in almost every review, and I’ll quote it again, John 20:31, John, by the Holy Spirit does not leave us to guess why he wrote, “These things are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing, you might have life in His name.” I’ve broken that down into three simple words/principles. Why did John write? It was so you would know the Lord. Why did John write? So we would trust the Lord. Why did John write? So we would enjoy the Lord. Every chapter in this book is designed to help us know Jesus, trust Jesus and enjoy Jesus. That’s why he’s written this book. So, the main attraction —praise God for fellowship, and don’t be shy and enjoy one another and the Christ in each other—and it’s not Bible knowledge, but it’s to know the Lord, to trust the Lord and to enjoy the Lord.
As we go on in the Lord we need more and more to know that all, not some and not pretty nearly all, all God’s dealings with me are through Jesus, and all my dealings with God are through Jesus. That’s for time, and that’s for all eternity. He will never make Himself known in any other way except through the Son of God.
When we left off last week we were commenting on John 8:56, that wonderful sentence, “Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; he saw it and he was glad.” We raised the question, “Did Jesus have in mind a particular day?” “Abraham rejoiced to see My day.” I said most of my commentaries, the five main ones, it’s when He first appeared to him in Ur of the Chaldees. That was His day. Others say, “No, it’s when He gave the promise to Isaac, and that’s a picture of the Lord.” Others say, “No, it’s Mt. Moriah when he in type offered his son, and that’s when he saw the day of Christ.” Others say, “No, no, no; it’s when God gave Isaac all his wealth and he received the bride.” Others say, “No, it’s when he met Melchizedek and the whole thing after the war is done, then the priesthood begins.” That’s all true, and we suggested that it’s not just one event. Abraham saw the day of Christ every day in his life. That’s when Abraham cooperated with God and that’s when Abraham did not cooperate with God. He saw the reign of Christ; that’s the day of Christ, the day that He reigns in an undisputed way in our life. He saw God was ruling his life and ruling the good and overruling the evil in all of his experiences, when he’s lying about his wife and when he’s offering his son, he’s sees the Lord, and seeing the Lord rule his life, he rejoiced. I remind you that Jesus said, “If you are children of Abraham, do what Abraham did.” Well, we ARE children of Abraham, and we ought to do what he did. What did he do? He saw the day of Christ and rejoiced. So, we ought to see Christ reigning in our lives and that should bring great joy to us.
As it was in this text, listen to Romans 4:6, “For this reason, it’s by faith, in order that it might be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also those who are of faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” So, we are by faith children of Abraham.
The last point I made as we closed, I was showing you it was that sentence, “I am that I am,” when he said, “I am,” and he said, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day,” that was the occasion, John 8:59, “Therefore, they picked up stones to throw at Him. Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” To the degree that we see the day of Christ and rejoice, there will be rising opposition. We see that all the way from chapter 5, they were more and more against the Lord. John 8:23, “He was saying to them, ‘You’re from below and I’m from above; you’re from this world and I am not of this world.’” So, because Jesus was not from this world, we’re not from this world; He lives in our hearts. They hated the Christ that was in that body, and now He lives in you, and they’re going to hate you, as well, and they’re going to hate me. The more we rejoice in His reign the more they’re going to oppose us.
We’re going to leave John 8. I’m sure we jumped over and missed several things that might have been a blessing to you, but we’re going to begin to look at John 9, and it’s known as “the healing of the man born blind”. The entire chapter, forty-one verses, is given over to this story. Since there are so many directions you can go in chapter 9 with so many verses and so much suggestion in there, I’m going to give you a broad outline first, an overview of how we’re going to approach chapter 9. Even with this general overview there’s going to be overlapping and we’re going to go back and forth. As an outline, one of the ways I study, and I encourage you to do it, is just whatever passage you’re studying, read it over and over and over and over again. Sometimes I just read it out loud. Sometimes I don’t read it out loud. Sometimes I read it at a pulpit rate and write down how long it would take you to read it and I time myself. But the point is, as you read it over and over, you will pick the spotlight of the Holy Spirit, and you will see what He is emphasizing in that particular section, and then focus on that. If you just read chapter 9 verse 1 and go through, it’s a history of the man that Jesus healed who was born blind, and all the responses to that miracle: the neighbors’ response, the parents’ response, the Pharisees response, the man himself and his response, the Lord Jesus also gave a response. We could study it that way, and many do, and that’s not wrong, but I think we would miss many of the principles. So, as I read it over and over, I felt in my heart, you may not agree with it, but I felt there were four things that He emphasized more than any other. So, I’m going to take those four one at a time, and then we’ll bring the facts of the chapter in and see the great life principles connected with that.
Beginning with John 9:5, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” No one can study this chapter under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and not see that the Holy Spirit has put a spotlight on the Lord Jesus Christ, on His Son. So, the first thing that we’ll look at, we’ll take that as sort of a topic, “How does this chapter unveil and what unique way do we see the Lord Jesus in this chapter? What is the distinctive revelation of Him?” The second big thing, the Holy Spirit puts a lot of emphasis on the miracle. So, we’re going to take that as a topic and we’ll look at the miracle, and some of the principles connected with that. Especially this miracle, this particular miracle, of all the miracles Jesus did in the Bible, healing the blind was the most prolific. So, we’re going to look at the miracle. The third thing we’re going to see, I think there is a great emphasis on the religious leaders, on the Pharisees, and those who followed the Pharisees called the Jews. We’re going to see how they tie into this story. And finally, of course, you can’t study this chapter and not focus on the man that was healed, the man that was born blind and the progress in his knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
So, I think if we study the facts, first how does it reveal Jesus, what does it say about the miracles, what does it say about those who oppose the religious leaders, and then what does it show us about the man himself, I think that will help us, we’ll pretty much include everything, but of course, you’ll never get everything. There’s no end to even one verse in your Bible. So, you’ll be in heaven a million years and you will be amazed at John 3:16.
I don’t intend to cover all of that this morning. We’ll look at the distinctive revelation of Christ, and perhaps we’ll begin to look at a part of the miracle. Actually, we’ll look at a part, but we won’t finish it. After that we’ll pick up the other section. Again, I just want to say that my method is not the right method; I’m saying it’s my method. You might have a different method and it would minister more to you, but as we go through this together, that’s how we’ve going to look at it.
As John begins, as he does in every chapter, he points to the Lord Jesus. He does it several times in this chapter, and I’m going to mention two of the times. Right at the start he describes the Lord as the light of the world. We’re going to look at that. And then, I believe, as I read it over and over, that he focused on two (I don’t agree with those who say that he’s got twenty attributes) of the infinite attributes of our Lord, and we’re going to look at those two attributes. Alright, let’s begin.
John 8:12, this is the second time Jesus (that’s what connects the chapter, by the way), in chapter 8 and chapter 9 He’s called “the light of the world”. John 8:12, “Jesus again spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’” I love that expression “the light of life”. We actually addressed that in the prologue to the book in John 1:4, “In Him was life and that life was the light of men.”
In John 8 when he called Himself “the light of the world, the light of life”, He was talking about spiritual life, and I want you to know that light, “He’s the light of life”, that life always comes first. There’s light and then it leads of life. That’s how it was when He created the universe; there was light, and then life. That’s how it is in the new creation. No one can have life in the Lord Jesus unless God has shown him the light first; that comes first. John 5:39 He says, “You search the scriptures and you think you have life in them,” and in verse 40, “You will not come to me, that you might have life.” He’s talking to those who are alive; they exist; they’re standing there. They’re alive, but they don’t have life. They don’t have spiritual Life, life with a capital “L”. In fact, in John 6:53, He addressed them and He said, “You have no life in you.” They’re standing there, and they’re alive but they don’t have Life.
John 9:5, “While I’m in the world, I’m the light of the world.” That’s what He said. What is the next verse? John 9:6, “And when He said this, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and applied clay to his eyes.” The light of life. He starts with the light on the light of the world. The blind man heard that. You wonder what went through his mind as he’s sitting there and he hears Jesus say, “I am the light of the world,” and the next thing you know there’s a mud pack in his eyes. It’s an amazing, amazing story.
The first part of the Holy Spirit’s revelation is the light of life, but I want to develop it through the facts so that we get a better picture. Before we look at John 9:1, I want to make a comment about the end of chapter 8. John 8:59, “Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” I’m going to develop that more when we come to the Pharisee section, but for now I can’t picture the Lord Jesus ducking behind a box or ducking behind a veil, “He hid Himself.” I can’t picture Him doing that. A couple of my commentaries said, “He worked a miracle; He made Himself invisible.” There is no record of that. I don’t think so. Some would say that He did what He did to the men of Sodom. They had eyes and they could see but they couldn’t find the door, so He just confused their minds and they couldn’t find Him. I don’t think any of that. I think what he’s saying, in John 8:12 He said, “I am the light of the world.” All through chapter 8 He was revealing Himself; He was showing who He was. He said, “I’m sent by God,” and they said, “We reject that.” He said, “I’m not of this world,” and they said, “We don’t understand that.” He said, “I only hear from God,” and they said, “We reject that.” He said, “Some of you accuse Me of sin, and you can’t find any sin,” and they said, “I don’t believe that.” He said, “I initiate nothing, and I only move by My Father,” and all through chapter 8 He’s revealing Himself, and revealing Himself until He finally says, “I am; I am almighty God.” He revealed Himself, and they closed their minds and they closed their ears and they closed their eyes, and they said, “No,” so He hid Himself. He stopped revealing Himself. He didn’t hide behind a tree; He hid Himself. Because they were closed, He stopped revealing Himself, and then He begins again in chapter 9, “I’m the light of the world.” Now He’s going to reveal Himself again, but to those who don’t want it, He hides Himself.
Some would say there’s a time lapse between chapter 8 and chapter 9 but I don’t see it there. It could be but I don’t see it, and that’s another reason I don’t think He hid Himself physically because He hid Himself, went out of the temple, and then saw this guy begging, as He was passing by He saw Him. He’s not scared and He’s not running for His life, and so I think it has to do with revelation: He hid Himself from these eyes, the eyes of the heart. Just in passing, it’s a terrible thing when God hides Himself and He shuts off revelation. I’m not going to develop that but think about it.
Now, it’s clear that Jesus in this chapter was the initiator, the light of the world. In John 9:1 as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. That man could not, did not see Him, but Jesus saw the blind man, and that’s how it always is. There’s no record that this blind man was seeking the Lord. Every way you look at the story with these eyes, with human eyes, on the level of earth, it’s a human tragedy until you get to the spiritual part. The man was born blind. On the level of earth, that can be shocking news to new parents. Can you imagine a mother or father and the baby is just born and the doctor says, “I need to tell you that your child is born blind.” John 9:32, “Since the beginning of time it’s never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.” It never happened and this is the first time as far as the record goes. I’m calling attention to this. We’re looking at who is Jesus? We say that He’s the light of the world, but He’s the light of the world to all who are born blind, and He’s the light of the world to all those who are hopelessly born blind. It never happened before.
We’re about to have our fifteenth great-grandchild, and it’s an exciting time. We just found out that it’s a boy. What a shock it would be for Aaron and Heather if they heard the doctor say, “Nathan Edom is born blind.” I can’t imagine the emotions of a parent. I think a Christian parent would have different emotions after a while. I think at first it might be the same. It could be sadness or frustration or confusion or disappointment and perhaps anger or bitterness or helplessness or guilt. My Lillian has a brother who is profoundly deaf, and when he was born Lillian’s mother felt it was her fault, that she was guilty and God was punishing her for some sin, and she lived with that burden for years. That could be a response.
The background of this story is that Jesus is the light of the world for everyone who is born blind, helpless and hopeless. Then God adds another detail in verse 21, this is his parents speaking, “How he now sees we do not know, who opened his eyes we do not know, ask him; he is of age. He’ll speak for himself.” He is of age. We don’t know how old he was but he was old enough to answer for himself. Sometimes God uses the age element to underscore great truth; she was twelve years old and he was thirty-eight years in that condition, and so on. Here all we know is that he is of age. Think of the situation of being born blind, born hopeless, born helpless, and now for quite a long period of time. It all adds to who Christ is. Can Christ heal those who are spiritually are born blind, who are hopeless, who are helpless and have been that way for a long time? It just sheds light on who Jesus is.
John 9:8, “Therefore, his neighbors and those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, ‘Was this not the one who used to sit and beg?’” He’s not only born blind, and it’s not only hopeless, and it’s not only helpless, it’s not only for a long time, but he’s poverty stricken; he’s a beggar. All these details are designed to show you spiritually how wonderful the Lord Jesus is. He always, and this is His MO, this is Jesus, He always walks straight into the path of hopelessness and helplessness and poverty, and people who are bankrupt. He did it here for the blind, and that’s what He did when He went to the leper, and that’s what He did when He went to the coffin of the woman of Nane and her son, and that’s what He did for Lazarus. He loves hopelessness, and He loves helplessness, and He always shows up. The fact that he was born blind shows that there could be no improvement in his situation; you can’t improve on someone who is born hopelessly blind. So, Jesus approaches with salvation, light and life, into any person without a human remedy who is born hopelessly blind.
As I said, I think if a doctor said to a parent, “Your child is blind,” they would be shocked and that would be an emotional time, but infinitely more serious is the fact that everybody on the earth, you were born blind spiritually. I was born blind and everybody is born blind. It’s so interesting on the level of earth, if I said to Heather, “I heard your baby was born blind,” she would be shocked, and then I said, “Spiritually blind,” I think she would sigh with relief. That’s pretty sad that we sigh with relief when that is infinitely worse when you think of the world and that they’re born blind.
A person who is born blind doesn’t know what he’s missing. A person born deaf doesn’t know what he’s missing, and the reality of that should drive us to our knees because those who are born spiritually blind don’t know what they’re missing; they never had it. Anyway, that’s who Jesus is with those facts. He is the light of life to those who are hopelessly and helplessly born blind and can do nothing about it, and they are bankrupt. That’s who He comes to.
The Holy Spirit also points to the Lord in terms of His attributes, and I’m only going to mention two. There is probably more here. I want to mention His omnipotence, and then I want to mention His omnipresence and that He’s everywhere. The first is His almighty power. I think that needs meditation, but I don’t think it needs explanation because if you’re going to heal somebody born blind, you know it takes the almighty power of God, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time on there. This person has never seen, and now by the power of God he sees.
Let me say a word about the other attribute. I think His omnipresence is also revealed in this story. In John 9:7, “Jesus said, ‘Go wash in the Pool of Siloam,’ which is translated “sent”” So, the blind man left the physical presence of the Lord Jesus and he went to the Pool of Siloam. Jesus sent him away from His physical presence, but that man never left the actual presence of the Lord. Why was He healed at the Pool of Siloam? The answer is that Jesus was there to heal him; He’s omnipresent. There’s nothing special in the water of Siloam that gave His healing power. There was nothing special in that act of obedience, though he responds to obedience that brought him to the pool. There’s nothing special in the process by which he washed his face, and there’s nothing special about Jerusalem mud. It has nothing to do with that. Jesus was there to work the mighty miracle; He was there in His essence as God; He’s almighty God. The man obeyed, and there’s no question. He didn’t go to the Jordan; he didn’t go to the Sea of Galilee; he didn’t go to the Red Sea; he didn’t go to the Pool of Bethesda. He went where he was sent; he went and God honored that obedience. So, we see Christ revealed; He’s the light of the world that brings light, the light of the world that brings Life to those who are hopelessly and helplessly born blind, and how does He do it? He does it by His almighty power and He does it by His presence. He did it by His presence.
Alright, let me set that aside and begin this next block. I want to say a few things about the miracle. We won’t finish this part this morning, but let’s begin by meditating on the miracle. Don’t get upset that I’m skipping over some very rich things, like who sent this man and that kind of thing. We’re going to get back to them and we’ll revisit them in other connections, but on meditating on the miracle here in John 9 I want to call attention to the method first of all. John 9:6&7, “And when He had said this, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and applied the clay to his eyes, and He said to him, ‘Go wash in the Pool of Siloam,’ which is translated ‘sent’.”
Before we home in on the details of that instrument, I want to make some general observations about the miracle. This is not the only time Jesus healed the blind. I told you earlier that was His most prolific miracle. This is the first clear record that He healed someone born blind. There’s no record that He healed anyone else, but it doesn’t rule it out because sometimes He healed the blind in a mass miracle; they may have been born blind, too. This is the only record we have. We can’t be 100% sure, but as far as the record goes, it’s right here.
What I want to call attention to is that every time He healed the blind, there are many records, He never did it the same way. Every time He healed the blind, He did it a different way. He didn’t do it one way for this man, and then say, “Alright, that’s My method and I’m going to use it from now on.” Next time He healed the blind man He did it a different way, and then He healed another one and He did it another way. So, we need to be a little bit careful. How did God work in your life? He might not do that the same way in somebody else’s life, and we need to be careful. God is not bound to do things the same way.
In this case He applied clay and spittle, gave a command, and said, “Go to the pool of Siloam.” In Matthew 9 He heals two blind men, but this time He spoke a word, and He touched them, and He said, “According to your faith be it done.” That was different. Matthew 12 He healed a man who was both deaf and blind, and He just healed him by His naked will. He didn’t touch him, He didn’t speak, He just did it, and He just healed him. Sometimes the blind came in a large group. There was the deaf, the lame, the blind and other sick people, demon possessed; they all came together, and the Bible just says that He healed them all. We don’t know what method He used. In Mark 8 there’s a record of a blind man, and this time He took him by the hand and He led him out of town, out of the city, and He laid hands on him and spit in his face. Then, again, it was different.
I’m not trying to read all of the verses that are listed on your sheet, but I’m going to recite the reference because those who get the tape don’t get the sheet. So, this will only take a moment. These are the records where He healed the blind. Matthew 9:27-31, Matthew 12:22-23, Matthew 15:30-31, Matthew 21:14, Mark 8:22-26, Mark 10:46-52, Luke 7:21-22. I’m just calling attention; you might want to read that, as it’s very instructive. The reason, again, I’m laboring this is that I want to drive home that point that God is not bound to do things a certain way. He’s the Savior and He meets different people, He knows who you are, and He knows what you need, and He’ll meet us the way He sees it. We’ll see that when we come to chapter 11 in John, and Martha is not Mary, and Mary is not Martha, and it’s unique how He deals with each of those.
Foundationally, He will do it the same way. In other words, it’s always based on His glory; it’s always by His love and by His mercy and by His power and by His will. It’s always by grace through faith and that never changes. He’ll always use that, but superstructurally it can be very different. Let me give you a made-up story. This is not in your Bible. Use your spiritual imagination. Let’s take this man born blind in John 9, and after he was healed for a quite a while, he goes on a little trip, and on his trip he decides to go to Jericho, and when he gets to Jericho he meets a man named Bartimaeus who was a blind man that was healed by the Lord in Jericho, and I can hear this man born blind, this unnamed man, say to Bartimaeus, “I hear you were blind and Jesus healed you. Tell me about your experience.” And Bartimaeus, all excited said, “I’ll be glad to tell you. It was amazing. I heard that Jesus was passing by, and I was on the side of the road and I began to yell, and I just kept saying over and over, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.’ I cried louder and louder, and finally they told me to shut up and I was disturbing the crowd and they thought I was disturbing the Lord, but that didn’t stop me because I was so desperate. I began to cry louder and louder, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.’ All of a sudden somebody came over and said, ‘Take courage, He calls for you.’ What? I couldn’t believe it! I jumped up and I took my coat and I threw it on the ground, and he led me to the Lord Jesus. When I got there, Jesus said to me, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ There was no question about it, and I said, ‘Rabboni, I want to receive my sight,’ and immediately my eyes were open and I could see.” And I can hear the blind man say, “That’s it; that’s the end of it? Did He anoint your eyes with clay?” “No, He never anointed my eyes with clay.” “Didn’t He spit and make something and put it in your eyes?” “No.” “Did you have to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash it out?” “No, no, no, He just said, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’” “No clay, no spit, no Siloam? It’s not going to last,” because it didn’t happen the same way.
That’s just an illustration of the methods that God has; He does it different ways. The night I got saved was dramatic. It was at a Youth for Christ rally and a thousand or more people were there, and I went forward, and I got saved. It was a glorious thing. My Lillian, she and her parents rededicated themselves at a Billy Graham Crusade in 1958 in Madison Square Garden; there were so many people that they didn’t even come forward that night, and they just stood up. Some receive the Lord on their knees. Some receive the Lord through some kind of a tragedy and some even through ritual. I know a man and he was a drunkard, and he had heard the gospel and rejected the gospel. He got into an automobile accident and he hit a tree and his car caught on fire and he thought he was in hell, and he cried out, “Lord, save me, I’m sorry I didn’t respond; save me.” He woke up in the hospital saved. Marvelous! God doesn’t do things the same way.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the testimony of Mel Trotter. Let me tell you. He was a drunkard addicted to alcohol. You can go online and see his story. He swore on his baby’s coffin he would never drink again. Within an hour he was stone drunk again. Then he took a knife and cut his own flesh and he dipped a pen in his blood and he wrote out a vow, “I’ll never drink again.” According to his own testimony, before that paper dried of his blood, he was already back to drinking. He had no hope. Someone invited him to Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, Illinois. I’ve been there and have had wonderful experiences there. He was delivered completely, so completely that he said that the taste of alcohol was removed. He never had the taste again. That’s how God did it for him.
There’s another man named Jerry McCully. He, also, was a helpless drunkard, but he was also a thief. He spent seven years in Sing Sing, and then he came to the Lord. The Lord saved him wonderfully. You can read about his ministry. But God did it differently. He didn’t take the taste away, and he kept on relapsing and going back, and then repenting. It went on and on and on. He did it one way for Mel. Why didn’t He do it? I had a friend in Rhode Island. He’s now in heaven. He was in the navy, and he was a drunkard. When God saved him, He took away the taste of drink, but he never got deliverance from his addiction to nicotine. He was in the hospital, he took patches, and he did everything that you could do to be delivered, and he was not delivered, and he finally died of lung cancer and went to heaven.
Why does God do it one way for one person and another way for another? With one person it takes a tragedy. I know somebody that came to the Lord because of a broken marriage. God uses those kinds of things. I know a guy, in fact we’re very close, he came out of a cult, and he’s now a Christian, and God saved him when he was in the cult. You might say, “God can’t do that.” Yes, He can. Someone will look at a certain church and say, “There’s no Christ there.” You better watch out. Christ might dip down into that church. It might be a book or it might be a song or it might be a tape. It could be the strong arm of the law, but God has ways to reach and He’s always seeking. It doesn’t always have to be a Bible conference or a church or a camp. It could be some coach, some uber driver, some teacher, some friend, or it could be somebody in the grocery store, or some casual conversation. All I’m trying to say is that because this chapter says, “He never healed the blind in the same way,” we can pick up the principle and let us not limit the Lord by requiring someone to have the same experience that we had. That’s not only to get saved; that’s after you’re saved. God might give you a special experience. Someone says, “I’ve been baptized with the Holy Spirit. I had a second blessing. I spoke in tongues. I had signs and wonders. I had dreams. I had visions.” Thank the Lord, but don’t put that on somebody else. I need not put that on somebody else. You walk in the light as Christ is in the light for you, and I’ll walk in the light. He’ll deal with each of us individually. You’re special and I’m special, and that’s how God deals.
Before we look at the particular means that He used, I want to point out that this miracle should be called miracles, with a plural, with an “s”, because more than one thing happened here. There was the physical miracle. There’s no question; God opened his physical eye. But there’s another miracle. I don’t know what to call it. So, I’ll just describe it. People who are born blind, as I said, they don’t know what they’re missing. There was was blind person and they called me and said, “Can I come to your Bible study. Will you pick me up?” I was so stupid I said, “Yes, I’ll come to your house at a certain time; I’m in the blue van.” He’s blind. Later he got me. He asked me if I wanted him to drive me home.
Anyway, if you said to a blind person, “This is a book and you described it, it has pages, and then you hand it to him, and he feels it because the blind see with their ears and they see with their hands. It’s sort of like a Braille. You give them a glass, and they have to feel that it’s a glass, or that’s a ball. They can feel it and they know what a ball is. This is scissors, and here’s what it does. They can feel it and they know how it works. But it’s implied that this man born blind never saw a book or a glass or a ball or a scissors or a ham sandwich. He never saw it; he had to learn by feeling it. But after he got healed, it seems like he was also educated. He didn’t have to learn how to anything. If there was a table in front of him and on that table was all of those things—a ball, a glass, a book, and a ham sandwich—and you said, “I’d like you to go and identify the ham sandwich and take a bite.” He didn’t have to say, “I’m going to have to go feel it or else I’ll bite the book.” He didn’t have to do that. That was part of the miracle. That’s why I say there’s more than one miracle.
My daughter-in-law is hard of hearing, she’s deaf, but she has a little hearing. She had that surgery cochlear implant, and she told us how confusing it was because she could hear sounds but she said that she didn’t know the difference between the phone ringing and the dog barking and a horn or walking on snow. “I didn’t know different sounds. I had to learn all the different sounds.” All I’m trying to say is that didn’t happen to this man.
I’m going to give you one more personal story. I was out in California at a Bible conference, and I met a brother named Ernie; he was blind and born blind. I walked behind his chair, and he said, “Good morning, Ed.” And I asked him if I could sit and talk with him. I sat down and talked with him, and we had about an hour’s fellowship. He said he knew the footsteps of everybody that was in the conference, and he could identify them just because of that, because he was blind. So, at the end I thought I’d be spiritual and I said, “Does it bless you that the first thing you’ll see is the Lord Jesus Christ?” He said, “Ed, because you’ve spent an hour with me, I think I can be honest. No, not at all; I am not looking forward to seeing the Lord. I have no clue what that means. I can’t wait to hear his voice,” because he knew what that meant.
In this miracle, the Lord did more than one miracle. He gave him physical sight, and he gave him this other miracle of education, and of course, the big miracle was spiritual. We’re going to see this more closely when we look at the healed blind man. John 9:3, “It was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus pointed out that the physical miracles, all of them, not just blindness, they are all object lessons of spiritual miracle. He healed the blind so He could heal spiritually blind. He healed the deaf so He could heal the spiritually deaf. He healed the lame so we could learn to walk before God and men. He cleansed the leper so we can be cleansed of sin, and so on. Every physical miracle is spiritual. Then we come to John 9:38 and he said, “’Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped Him.” There’s the miracle; he was healed physically, and he was healed educationally, and he was healed spiritually. There’s probably more, but at least those three miracles are stuffed into that one miracle.
John 9:4, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.” I want you to focus on the word “we”, “We must work the works of Him who sent Met.” What does it mean “we”? Those disciples, what did they do? They just stood there. They didn’t do anything. He made the mud pack. He applied it to their eyes. He sent him to the Pool of Siloam. They just stood and watched, but the Lord wanted to include them. So, He said, “’we,’ I’m going to do it, but it’s “we”, and we must work the works of Him that sent Me. I’m going to use an instrument, and so you’ll understand the “we”. That instrument He chose was you, was me. John 9:6, “When He said this, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes.” “We must work the works of God.” Do you want to know what “we” is? Alright, let me tell you. It’s a little mud, a little spit, a miracle to help the blind see. If God is going to use me as a little mud and a little spit to help somebody see, I don’t think I can get too proud about that. If He’s going to use you that way, I don’t think you could be proud. In fact, if you just take it on the level of earth, I think a mud pack in a blind man’s eye, how is that going to help? I think that’s going to hurt and that’s going to hinder and that’s going to go in the opposite direction. Jesus says, “Yes, that’s the instrument I want to use; it’s only somebody that can only mess up and do the wrong thing and hurt somebody, but I want to use you because you are going to be My instrument.”
So, it reminds me of the first creation. He took clay and He breathed His life into it, and now He makes from clay, mud, and He puts His DNA into it. It’s God, it’s man, it’s both together, “We shall work the works of God together.” What are we going to do? We are going to minister to those who are hopelessly born blind and are absolutely poverty stricken to do anything about it. We’re going to help them see. “I’ll do it, but I want to use you.”
I’m going to close with a precious truth that was shared with me by a dear brother. Some of you know him and know him well. Some of you are related to him, and I’m referring to Rickie Baker. Rickie came to me one day all excited with this passage and he wanted to share something. He took me to verse 7, “And He said to him, ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated “sent”.’ So, he went away and washed and came back seeing.” Ricky said to me, “Ed, do you realize that God is going use us as a mudpack, but that man never saw Jesus until the instrument was washed away.” He said, “God is going to use us but then we better get out of the way, so nobody looks to us instead of to the Lord.” It was a precious truth. So, praise God if He uses you, a little mud and a little spit to help somebody see. Praise God, but remember that they haven’t seen Jesus, yet, until you get out of the way, until I get out of the way. It’s such a precious, precious truth.
Let me summarize and then we’ll pray. Who is Christ? He is the light of Life. He’s the One that gives sight to those who are helplessly born blind and are poverty stricken to do anything about it. How does He do it? It’s by a mighty miracle, by His almighty power and by His presence. That’s how He does the miracle.
We’re going to close here. We’re not quite done looking at the miracle. We’ll do that next time. Let me pray and then we’ll open it for discussion.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the revelation of who You are. We know You are the light of the world, and now You live in our heart. You’ve included us and You want to use us as Your instrument, but then, Lord, so that they would just focus on You, we’ve got to be washed away. Thank You for this wonderful story. We pray as we continue to look at it, that You would instruct our hearts to have a heart knowledge of Jesus. Thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
