John Message #29 “Fruit of Revelation” Ed Miller, Oct. 12, 2024
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while following along in the transcript below which is also available for download at www.biblestudyministriesinc.com
As we prepare to look in the word, there’s a principle of Bible study that we can’t take for granted and we can’t do without and that is total reliance on God’s Holy Spirit; He’s the One who gave us this precious book and the revelation of the Lord.
I’ve got a couple of verses to share, and one is from the Song of Solomon, and its chapter 6 and verse 3, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine, he who pastures his flock among the lilies.” I know that’s poetry but it’s also a great spiritual truth, that He pastures His flock among the lilies. We know from Matthew 6:28, “Observe the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor reap, and yet even Solomon in all his glory didn’t clothe like one of them.” Hopefully, the Lord has begun to teach us lily-life, how to trust in the Lord, because He’s going to pasture His flock among those who have embraced that truth, “He pastures His flock among the lilies.” Let’s pray together…
Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You that You pasture Your flock among the lilies. Teach us what it means to grow like the lily grows without care or anxiety, and just trust in You and drink in Your sunshine and rain, and draw from You as the lily draws from the soil. Thank You, Lord, that You are working that in our heart, and now, Lord, we commit our meditation unto You, in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.
Welcome again to our flocking together. The pastures that we’ve been feeding in are rich indeed, the gospel of John. Every week I try to remind you of John’s purpose for writing this great letter, and it’s in John 20:31, “These things have been written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” From that we just glean those three wonderful truths. John wrote that we might know the Lord, John wrote that we might trust the Lord, and John wrote that we might enjoy the Lord, life in His name. That is really the culmination of the Christian life. What is the Christian life? It’s to know Him, it’s to trust Him, and it’s to enjoy Him.
In our discussions together we’ve come to John 9, the story of the healing of the man that was born blind, and rather than just reading from chapter 9:1 and going a verse at a time, which is the legitimate way to study, we’re focusing on great themes that I think the Holy Spirit emphasizes in this precious chapter. The first theme is based on John 9:5, “While I’m in the world, I am the light of the world.” In other words, you can’t read John 9 and not have a wonderful revelation of who Jesus is. It starts off that He’s the light of the world, but when you go through the chapter you realize that He is the light of the world, the One that gives sight to those who are born hopelessly and helplessly blind, by His presence and by His power. I won’t develop that again, but we’ve already looked at that theme.
Then, the second theme that runs through it is a great emphasis on the miracle itself. He spends a lot of time on the method that He used and this wonderful miracle. He healed the blind, as far as the Bible record goes, more than any other healing. So, it’s a very important miracle. John 9:4, let me remind you of this, before the miracle was performed Jesus said, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it’s day. The night comes when no one can work.” The emphasis on the pronoun “we”, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me.” So, the question is, “Why did He bring in ‘we’ since He’s the One that’s going to do all the work?” He’s the One that took the clay and He’s the One that mixed in His own spittle, and He’s the One that commanded him to go to Siloam, and He’s the One that opened the blind man’s eyes, and yet He says “we” because He wants to include us as His instrument. We are His body, and He works through us, through us as His instrument, through us as His channel. The disciples might have scratched their heads and said, “What do you mean “we”? You’re doing everything and we’re just watching.” He would have said, and I’m paraphrasing, “You want to know what the ‘we’ means, as My channel? Let me give you an illustration.” Verse 6, “And when He said this He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and applied the clay to his eyes.” “I want to use you, Christian, to help blind men see, but you’re going to be like clay and spit. You can’t be too proud if I use you, because you are just clay and spit in My hand.” In fact, John 9:7, “’Go wash in the Pool of Siloam which is translated “sent”.’ So, he went and came back seeing.” God said, “I will use you as My instrument, but then you must wash the instrument away, wash the clay out of the eye.” The man actually never saw Jesus until the clay washed away, until God said, “We must work the works, and I want to use you. By yourself you’ll do damage to anybody’s eyes, but in union with Me I’m going to use you, but then get out of the way, and let them see. Don’t try to have a following or have disciples follow you or think you are somebody big. You’re just mud and clay in my hand. Get out of the way, and then they’ll begin to see Jesus.”
The third thing that runs through this section is the Pharisees. There’s a lot of talk about the Pharisees and they laid great emphasis on those religious leaders. This chapter begins with God opening eyes and it ends with blindness, spiritual blindness. The Pharisees with all of their knowledge and all their Bible study and all their law-keeping and their influence on the neighbors, the parents, and even on the disciples of the Lord, they were blind. John 9:22, “His parents said this. They were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was put out of the synagogue.” All through this chapter, it begins with the fact that Jesus is not Messiah. No matter how strong the evidence, how clear the evidence, they had it in their mind, and you probably heard that saying, “Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.” They were convinced that He wasn’t Messiah, and even the miracle of healing the blind man wouldn’t convince them otherwise. So, we looked at the Pharisees.
In addition to that, there’s another great emphasis, and that’s where we are. Not only does the Holy Spirit emphasize who Jesus is, the One who gives sight to those born blind, and not only does He emphasize this great miracle, and not only does He emphasize those opposing the miracle, but there’s a great emphasis on the man who was healed. When you go through this record we don’t hear about him anymore, but in this chapter, there is a running testimony of the work that follows eyesight, and that’s what we’re going to look at.
I want to emphasize one more thing about the Pharisees before we go on. In verse 41, “If you were blind, you would have no sin, but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” They asked, “Are we blind?” but that wasn’t an honest question. They didn’t want to know if they were blind. That was sarcastic, “Are you saying we, we who studied, we who went to Rabbi school, you say we’re blind? Are you saying that?” He said, “Because you say, ‘We see,’ you have no excuse.” In other words, if He had come right out and said, “Yes, you’re blind,” they would have had an excuse. They could have said, “We rejected you. It’s not our fault; we were blind.” He said, “No way; you’re not getting that excuse.” This is a willful rejection, and so you say that you see, therefore, your sin remains. You’re guilty because they claimed to see.
When we ended up last time I showed the four layers of blindness, and Jesus can remove it all. People are born blind, and then they’re willfully blind, and then Satan blinds the eyes, and then Jesus withholds His revelation, and so it’s a thick, heavy, heavy blindness. But now let’s look at the blind man himself and his story. The one who was born blind we looked at, he became a beggar and we looked at that, but then one day Jesus walked into his life and his life was changed forever. When Christ walks into your life, everything is new.
As he sat there, and I’m just going to give you the background before we look at the principle, he heard the Lord Jesus and His disciples walk up and stop in front of him, this blind man, and they began a conversation. This blind man is listening and he’s hearing every word. As far as the record goes, he doesn’t say anything; he just listens. As he listened, he heard Jesus say in verse 5, “While I’m in the world, I am the light of the world.” He also heard Jesus speak about his blindness in verse 3, “Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents, but it was so the works of God might be displayed in him.” I wonder what went through his mind when he heard Jesus say, “I’m the light of the world.” He doesn’t say anything; he just sits there.
I wonder what went through his mind when heard that his blindness was in some way going to display the works of God. He didn’t say anything. He was sitting in darkness all his life, and now he hears that the light of the world, whatever that means, is right in front of him. I wonder what was going through his mind. He said nothing; he just sat there. Right after that, look at verse 6, “When He had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and applied the clay to his eyes.” He still said nothing. He’s just sitting there; he listens, and then all of a sudden Jesus is putting a plaster over his eyes. We don’t know how he knew, but when the neighbors questioned him in verse 11, he answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay.” He knew His name; he knew who He was. The disciples didn’t call Jesus by name. He had heard about Him before, and now he knows His name, and hearing these wonderful things, “I’m the light of the word; this blindness is designed to display the works of God,” and he still said nothing. Then Jesus commanded him in verse 7, “’Go wash in the Pool of Siloam,’ which is translated ‘sent’.” He obeyed and went to the pool, but up to this time, according to the record, he said nothing; he listened, he heard, he received, and he obeyed.
When he woke up that Sabbath morning, he had no clue of what was going to happen in his life to change his life forever. What I’d like to do beginning this morning is to pick up the story at the Pool of Siloam, and I want to pick it up in verse 7 b, “So, he went away and washed and came back seeing.” I want to start there, “He came back seeing.” Is there any indication after his eyes were opened where he went? He came back. Did he go back to the temple? Did he go back, like that leper, and look for Jesus to say, “Thank you”? Where did he go? I think there’s a clue in verse 8, “He went seeing. Therefore, his neighbors…” I think he went home, because the neighbors were there. I think that’s an indication. The neighbors were sort of shocked to see him. Some were wondering, “Is that the same guy? Is that him? It looks like him. He still has his beggar’s clothes on. It looks like him,” but they couldn’t believe that it was actually him. They knew his history. They were neighbors and they knew he was born blind. I think he ran home. I’m just trying to put myself in his shoes, but I think that’s what I would do. If I never saw my mother, and I never saw my father, I think I’d want to go home and see my parents for the first time, and then share my miracle. They knew me; they knew I was born blind. I think I would have run home right away.
Now, this begins the testimony of this wonderful miracle and this man. His testimony is wrapped up, of course, in this back-and-forth discussion with the Pharisees. In verse 13, “They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind.” That’s a strange statement. He goes homes, his neighbors see him, and they drag him to the Pharisees. Why would they do that? I think it’s in verse 11, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash,’ and I went away and washed, and I received my sight.” I think the red flag for the neighbors was when he said, “A man called Jesus,” because of verse 22, “His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. The Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.” So, they had already said, “Jesus is not Messiah, and if you say He is, you are excommunicated.” The Pharisees had a great influence on the neighbors, and the fact that he said, “Jesus did this,” and it’s the Sabbath Day, the neighbors said, “Uh-oh, we better check this out with the Pharisees because that is contrary to the Pharisees, and if we listen to this guy, we’re going to get kicked out of the synagogue.” So, they brought him to the Pharisees, and in verses 24-34 he’s being interrogated, and there’s every reason to believe that this is not just the normal Pharisees; this is the court, this is the Sanhedrin. He’s brought before the court and he’s now on trial and it’s an amazing story. In that back and forth we can see between the lines the experience, the changes, what’s going on in this man’s life. This will be my approach today and when we resume our study,
When Christ opened the eyes of this man, certain things followed. I’m going to call that the fruit of eyesight, the fruit of illumination. The record of this man who was born blind and was given sight, received his sight, and then he had an experience. When a person gets saved and God opens their eyes, man or woman, certain things will be true. What can I expect after God opens my eyes? I think in story form you can expect the same things that happened to this man, and that’s what we’re going to look at
I want to look at the events that followed this miracle and look at the experience in order to get a principle; we get principles in order to see our Lord Jesus. I’m going to begin with the more general thing and then move to those that are more specific. These are things, and you will know as we go through, you’ll say, “Oh, that’s true, and that happened to me, and that happened to me,” and so on. I’m going list seven things that I get from this chapter that must follow everybody whose eyes are opened by the Lord. There are no exceptions. These seven things will always be true. As I go through them, you’ll probably say, “Yeah, I’ve experienced that,” or you will experience it. You are not going to get away from these seven things. I say seven but I’m sure there are many more than seven, but I’ve taken the obvious ones, and there will be some overlapping. I’ll look at the experience, and then I’ll make it into a principle.
The first observation, very general, which is the most fundamental of all things that happens when Christ comes into a life, when the Lord opens eyes, and it includes all the others, this was the beginning of a new creation for this blind man. It was a new world. Can you imagine being blind all your life, and then all of a sudden, your eyes are opened! What goes through your heart? It brings to my mind that wonderful 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone be in Christ, he’s a new creation; old things pass away, and behold, all things have become new,” and the first part of the next verse, “and all things are of God.” All things are new. Now, that’s literal for this guy, that old things passed away, his darkness, and all things became new. Can you imagine the change that this dear soul received when Jesus opened his eyes? When He washed that clay away?
I got saved in 1958; that’s a long time ago, but for me, and it’s not the same for everybody, but it was a very emotional time. I had a dramatic experience, and I cried for hours, and I just couldn’t stop crying. When I learned that my sins were gone, I just couldn’t stop crying. So, everything was new and exciting, as well. I can’t imagine anything more dramatic, being born blind and suddenly seeing, except I was trying to think if there is anything more dramatic than that. Maybe you could help me with this, but I tried to picture what Adam thought after God made clay and breathed in him the breath of the life, and then all a sudden he not only saw for the first time, but he heard for the first time, and thought for the first time, and had emotions for the first time, but one minute he didn’t exist and the next minute he wakes up in the Garden of Eden. I can’t imagine his first thought, and he’s mature; he’s an adult and he can think and he’s going to name all the animals. “Whoa, this is really great; where have I been all my life?” I don’t know what he said or what he was thinking but I know it would be awesome and a brand-new creation. That was Adam’s new creation, and this is a new creation. This man seeing is a picture of the new creation, once again clay, once again God’s life being put into the clay, once again God opens his eyes. So, it’s a new world.
I think the first thing he saw was light, because he was in darkness all his life. I wonder if he thought of those words that he had listened to, “While I’m in the world, I am the light of the world.”? The first thing he saw was light. He had never seen color. Imagine a blind man seeing color for the first time. As I suggested, he went home to see his parents and to share the miracle. Verse 8, “He came back seeing.” The neighbors, those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the one who used to sit and beg?” From Siloam I think he went home. What did he see on the way home? The Bible doesn’t tell us but maybe he saw trees, grass, flowers, a camel, maybe a sheep, dog? I don’t know, but he’s going home and it’s all new; he’s never seen it before. He’s touched a few things and learned from experience in hearing, and so on, but now he sees the sky, and he sees the ground. Maybe he saw a bird or two. It’s so new, and I’m suggesting the first thing that happened when the Lord comes into your life, everything is new, and everything is exciting.
There was a song written by an Irishman whose name was Wade Robinson. He only lived thirty-nine years, but that was a long time ago. It was 1876, one hundred and forty-eight years ago that he wrote this song, “I am His, and He is Mine”. One of the verses, the first verse, “Heaven above is softer blue, earth around is sweeter green, something lives in every view, Christless eyes have never seen. Birds with gladder songs or flow, flowers with deeper beauty shine, since I know as now I now; I’m His and He is mine.” Everything is new. Robinson wrote other poems, as well, not as well-known. He wrote this one, too. He called it “The Disciple”. “Low, it is dawn; darkness is gone. How the land stretches and brightness away, still do man bear papers with care, days all around but they see not the day. Oh, it is sweet to sit at His feet. Oh, it is sweet and pitiful, too. Were they but wise, were they had eyes, then they would see creation is new.”
Everything is new when Jesus opens your eyes. Verse 13, “They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind.” He saw for the first time his neighbors. He saw for the first time his parents. I think he saw his parents; that’s not clear. But now he sees for the first time expressions on their face. You just can’t say, “Is this the same guy? Is that the same beggar,” without having some expression. He’s never seen a face; he’s never seen an expression. Now, imagine when he went into the city. They bring him to the Pharisees but there’s a trip; he went from Siloam to his home and saw stuff, and now he’s going all the way back to Jerusalem. Imagine him seeing the temple for the first time. Imagine him seeing those highly polished Corinthian brass pillars reflecting the sunlight, and looking at marble, all the different colored marble. He’s seeing that for the first time. As he goes, he looks around and he sees the mountains, surrounded by mountains. All of this is new, and all of this is wonderful. For a man who has never seen it, I’ve got to believe it was exciting, just to see stuff like this.
I don’t doubt that he knew there was a religious group called the Pharisees, but he had never seen them. I’m sure he heard about them, and I’m sure he heard that command that you’re going to get kicked out if you think Jesus is Messiah. But now he sees them in their turbans and in their long shawls and in their purple and white robes and with the extended tassels on the bottoms on the hems and seeing them with their beards and their proud looks. He’s beholding that for the first time. They are supposed to be impressive and look important and display their wealth and their rank and their power, and so on. “Make room; here come the Pharisees.” Now he sees that for the first time, and not from a distance. He’s brought to court; he’s right in the middle of these Pharisees. Verse 28, “They reviled him and said, ‘You are his disciple; we’re disciples of Moses.’” I don’t know if you would revile somebody, but they reviled him, but there is some kind of a look on your face. You can’t just be normal and say, “I revile you.” There’s got to be some expression, and he’s seeing that for the first time.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we’ve got to get beyond the sacred page and the facts, and when God opens your eyes, when you’re saved, when you’re born again, when He illumines your heart, you are in a new world and everything is wonderful, everything is different. When the Apostle Paul, remember how God sent the light and he was blinded, and then we read in Acts 9:18, “And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and he regained his sight.” Scales fall from your eyes when you see Jesus. Now, according to the record, the Apostle Paul’s eyes were bad. In Galatians, “See in what large letters I write,” and in Corinthians, “You would have given me your eyes.” He had bad eyes. We sing a little chorus, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” That was literal for Paul. After Paul saw Jesus, he never saw the world the same way again. God touched his physical eyes. He saw spiritual things. We know that, but he never saw the world the same way again. That’s my first observation, that when you see the Lord, everything is new, physically and spiritually, even creation.
Before I got saved, I would never look at a grapevine and say, “What a picture of union with Christ!” I wouldn’t think that. I wouldn’t look at a tree planted by the water and say, “That’s a wonderful picture of a righteous man.” I wouldn’t look at the leaves blowing in the autumn and say, “They’re like the chaff. That’s like the wicked, like the chaff.” I wouldn’t feel the wind and say, and in the hurricane and say, “That’s a picture of the power of the Lord.” I wouldn’t have reasoned that from creation. I’ve got to see it in the Bible what creation is all about. I wouldn’t know that the lily is a great picture of how to grow in Christ, but now that you’re saved… We have ants, little, tiny, stupid little ants in our house. Just before I was about to crush the life out of one of them, I was stopped in my heart, “That little thing, he has a digestive system, he has a muscular system, and he has a reproductive system, and all of that.” I’m still being amazed at nature. My grandson loves to travel, and he loves to take pictures, and he was at our home the other day, and I couldn’t get him to stop showing me pictures, “Look at this mountain. I was out in Washington. Look at Mt. Ranier.” It was beautiful, the sunset, etc. There is no end. It’s not that God opens your eyes once and you’re done. It’s a new creation.
I told you that everything is new, but sometimes there are things that are dark, even now, and mysterious and confusing, but even that is exciting because of what we’ve heard. This blindness is designed to manifest God. All things work together for good. Do you see that. These things are not to be compared and are not worthy to be compared. Do you see that? You cast your care upon Him, and He cares for you. When you walk through the valley of the shadow, He is with you, and you don’t fear. Everything is new, and even when things are dark, your hope and your life, everything is new. That’s the first thing.
I said I was going to mention seven things, and I don’t think in the list I’m giving that any particular order is important. I don’t think this is number two. I’m just going to list the seven things. The second is in verse twenty-five, “One thing I know, that I know I was blind and now I see.” I just want to emphasize one thing I know. With eyesight comes unshakable assurance. When God opens your eyes, you know. You don’t have to guess, and you don’t have to wonder, and you don’t have to think. It’s interesting to watch the back and forth between the Pharisees because they already had this preconceived idea that Jesus is not the Messiah, and they’re trying to talk this guy out of his miracle. He said, “I know I was blind, and I know I see.” They questioned his parents, “Are you sure this is your son? Are you sure he was born blind?” They’re constantly trying to talk you out of what you see. Verse 20, “His parents answered, ‘We know this is our son, and we know he was born blind, but now how he sees we do not know. Who opened his eyes we do not know.” I personally don’t think that was quite honest. I think he must have told them, “Look what Jesus did for me.”
Anway, everything is clear in the mind of the one whose eyes God opened. I love verse 26, “They said, ‘What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?’ He answered them, ‘I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples, too, do you?’” I love that! And then in verse 18, “The Jews then did not believe it of him that he had been blind and received sight.” They just don’t believe it, “You’re lying; you’re a fraud and this is fake news.” They thought he was lying, and the miracle never happened. But once God opens your eyes, once you have revelation, it’s yours forever.
Last night for supper I had a delicious minestrone soup and a sandwich. If that were in my refrigerator or my freezer you could have come in and stolen it. If I was ready to eat it, you could have pulled it out of my hand or have taken the bowl away, but once I ate it, it was mine. You can’t get it, and you can’t steal it. Once God opens your eyes nobody can argue you out of that. If you have doctrine, somebody can argue you out of doctrine. If you have revelation, it’s yours. “This is know; He gave that to me.”
When my girls were young, they were sort of like their mother in that they lacked assurance. She had an awful struggle with assurance because other people were saying, “When did you get saved? What’s the date? What was your experience?” And she didn’t have a date. She grew up in a Christian family, and so she was always looking, “Maybe I didn’t mean it or maybe I wasn’t sincere,” and all of that kind of thing. My girls were constantly, and they were brought up in a Christian family, wanting to get saved over and over again. They would come, “I want to accept the Lord.” I would never give them assurance. I refused. If they wanted to receive the Lord, we’d do it again. I know you only have to get born again once, but I would never give them assurance. I wouldn’t say, “Remember, honey, when you were six years old, and remember when you were eight years old, and remember when you were in Sunday school, and remember when mom prayed with you, and remember when I prayed with you.” I absolutely refused to give them assurance, and it was based on 1 Corinthians 2:4&5, Paul is speaking, “My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” I did not want them to get assurance from me. I wanted them to get assurance from God because if they got it from God, they would have it forever, and nobody could talk them out of it, and nobody could argue them out of it.
You know the Apostle Paul. He was a very smart man, a wise man; he was very learned. He could have used persuasive words and strong argument, but he was wise in the Lord. He knew He could give a good argument, but then he was afraid that someone would come along with a stronger argument, and the one he’s talking to would be standing in the strength of the last argument he heard. He said, “No, I want you to stand in the strength of the power of the Lord. If God gives it to you, I want you to have it and have it forever. 1 Corinthians 2:5, “…so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God.” That’s why it’s important, not only the first time, but that God gives you revelation. What you have from God is yours and deep assurance comes with that, “One thing I know, what God gives me, I know, and I don’t have to guess at it, and nobody can talk me out of it.” John 9:30, “The man answered and said to them, ‘Well, here’s an amazing thing, you do not know where He’s from, and yet He opened my eyes.’”
I love to contrast… As you go through this chapter, you are going to see, “I know… I don’t know… I know… I don’t know,” and it’s interesting to hear when the guy whose eyes have been opened said, “I know,” and he also said, “I don’t know, whether He’s a sinner or not, I don’t know.” There’s a lot of things he didn’t know. When he said, “I know,” he knew. When the Pharisees said, “I know,” they were often wrong. John 9:24, “They called the man who had been born blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner.’” They knew it? They were wrong; they were dead wrong. “We know God spoke through Moses; we don’t know where He has come from.” There is a knowledge that is ignorant, and there is an ignorance that is wise. This guy said, “I don’t know, but I’ll tell you what I do know, what God gave me. I know that. What He hasn’t given me, I’m not sure.” This once unnamed blind beggar standing before the Sanhedrin, he knew more in one minute than they knew in all of their knowledge and having gone through the schools and all that.
I can’t meditate on John 9 without thinking about a dear friend of mine who is now in heaven. His name was Pat. Some of you are familiar with Pat. He had many mental limitations. He couldn’t read, he couldn’t write, and seemed a little backwards sometimes, but I’ll tell you, when Jesus opened his eyes, it was amazing what that man knew. It was unbelievable. He never went to Bible college and never went to seminary, but I’d rather hear wisdom from him than a lot of others.
Anyway, that’s the second outworking; it’s not only a new creation and everything is new, and it’s not only full of assurance if it’s revelation, let me mention the third one, and I’ll only introduce it, and we’ll pick it up again when we meet in two weeks. When God opens our eyes to see Christ, not only will everything be new, and not only will the fruit of revelation be a deep assurance, a conviction, but with revelation comes the guarantee of growth; it’s progressive. When you look at this man, you are going to see how the vision of Christ increased. My knowledge of Jesus, not only the first time that I see Him, will get bigger and bigger and bigger and larger; Christ will increase.
Before I illustrate it from chapter 9, I want to give you a testimony. Some of you know Dana Congdon. For many years I had the privilege to co-minister with that dear saint of God, and one year many years ago it was at a men’s conference, and some of you might have been at that conference, in his presentation he was showing Christ in the gospel. That was his sermon, Christ in the Gospel, and he pictured the disciples as cameramen, and they were following Christ around with a camera, and they were taking pictures of Christ. In his message, the disciples had a camera, and every time Christ did a miracle the camera lens wouldn’t take it in. One of the disciples would shout, “Move the camera back; He’s larger than I thought.” Just when they thought they had a full view of Christ, one would say, “Move the camera back; He’s bigger than that.” When He fed the five thousand, they said, “Whoa, whoa, move the camera back; He’s bigger than that.” Then He went to Naim and He raised a boy from the coffin, “Move the camera back. We knew He was big, but we didn’t know He was this big.” He went all through the gospels, and every time there was a miracle, “Lazarus, come forth!”, move the camera back, Jesus is bigger than that.
When this man gave his testimony in verse 11, this is how it began, “The man, who is called Jesus, made clay.” That was his vision of Christ. That’s all he knew, “A man named Jesus,” and then they began to interrogate him, verse 17, “They said to the blind man again, ‘What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?’ He said, ‘He’s a prophet.’” His vision is growing, “He’s a man named Jesus; He’s a prophet.’” You need to understand the context of, “He’s a prophet.” He’s not just saying, “He’s like Elijah or like Isaiah or Jeremiah.” He’s not saying that. When John the Baptist came on the scene, they asked him, “Are you the prophet?” Here is his answer; He confessed and did not deny, “I am not the Christ.” The prophet: Moses had predicted a prophet would come like him, the Messiah, and when he said, “He’s a prophet,” I think it was deeper than what we would ordinarily think. In Luke 7:16, this was when Jesus raised that dead man, “Fear gripped them all; they began glorifying God saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us and stopped and visited these people.’” On the Emmaus Road, those two disciples after the resurrection, Luke 24:19, Jesus walks up to them and says, “’What are you talking about? What thing?’ And they said to Him, ‘The things about Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people.’” Verse 21, “We were hoping it was He who is going to redeem Israel.” The prophet, Messiah: they were waiting for the prophet. “Move the camera back. He’s a man, He’s a prophet.”
And they continued to pressure him, and his vision increased. John 9:32, “Since the beginning of time it’s never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” Do you see his vision of Jesus increasing? “He’s a man. He’s a prophet. He’s from God. He worked a miracle; He’s a miracle worker.” Then in John 9:35, “Jesus heard that they had put him out. Finding him, He said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man (or Son of God)?’” Some translations say “Son of Man” and some say “Son of God”, and it’s true that many of the oldest manuscripts say “Son of Man”, but old manuscripts going way back to the second century say “Son of God”. Now, both are true. I think in the context, since this man “is from God”, probably “Son of God” is better, but it doesn’t matter. He’s seeing Jesus enlarged; “He’s a man, He’s a prophet, He’s from God, He’s a miracle worker, and He’s a Son of Man, a Son of God.” His vision increases.
Notice verse 36, “He answered, ‘Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?’” He wants more information. It’s not over at Siloam. He’s now asking, “I want more information; who is He?” Then in verse 37, “You’ve both seen Him, and He’s the One talking with you.” Jesus identifies Himself again. Move the camera back. Verse 38, “He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped Him.’” Do you see the steps he took? He’s a man, He’s a prophet, He’s from God, He’s a miracle worker, He’s a Son of Man, He’s a Son of God, and now He’s worshipping Him. This is an amazing, amazing progress.
We’re all familiar with Paul’s testimony after he got saved. Many years later he testified before King Agrippa just before his death, and he told what happened the day God opened his eyes. We only learn it from Acts 26, but here’s what Jesus said on the Damascus Road, verse 16, “Get up and stand on your feet. For this purpose, I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you.” Jesus told Paul on the day he got saved, “I’m going to keep appearing to you.” It’s not just once. He said, “I’m going to keep doing it and keep doing it.” I’m suggesting that what was true of Paul is true of us. When Christ opens your eyes, it’s a new world, a brand-new world. When Christ opens your eyes, you know that nobody can talk you out it, what God has given you. When God opens your eyes, you can expect to see more and more and more from Jesus. It never stops and never ends.
When I first came to know the Lord, my it was beautiful to me, but I thought I knew Him. I saw men like trees walking. I didn’t really know Him when I first came to know Him. And I’ll never finally know Him because He’s infinite. When you are in heaven a million years, you are going to say, “Boy, I saw Him. He was beautiful when I arrived, but I never knew He was like this.” Your eyes are going to be a million years wider in amazement, and your mouth is going to be opened a million years wider, and you’re going to say, “Move the camera back.” After ten million years in heaven, your eyes will be open ten million years wider, and your mouth will be open ten million years wider. There’s no end. That’s illustrated here in this progress of the man. Now that you know Jesus it’s going to go on and go on and go on forever. John 9:38, “He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped Him.”
There’s more to say about that verse, and we’ll pick that up next time. Out of seven, these three, when Christ opens your eyes, you are in a new world, and it gets more exciting every day. When He opens your eyes, you know in your heart that what God gives you nobody can take. When He opens your eyes, you can expect that He is going to do it again and again and again. Your whole life is nothing but seeing Jesus. Let’s pray.
Father, thank You for this chapter, not what we think we know, but everything You’ve inspired it to mean. Will You minister that to are hearts? Thank you, Lord, for that day, that wonderful hour when You did open our eyes, and You discovered Yourself to us. We would have never seen You if You hadn’t opened our eyes. So, thank You, for revelation, and work these things in our heart. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
