John Message #30 “The Fruit of Revelation Cont’d” Ed Miller, October 16, 2024
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Listen to the audio above while following along n the transcript below which is available to download at www.biblestudyministriesinc.com
Let me share this verse, Hosea 6:3, “So, let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.” So, let’s press on to know the Lord.
Heavenly Father, we thank You that we can gather in this place and that we can have open hearts to receive from You. Thank You for the Holy Spirit that lives in our hearts and whose ministry and pleasure it always is to turn our eyes to the Son of God, to the Lord Jesus. So, we just wait upon You now, and according to our capacities and our needs, meet with us and unveil the Lord. We thank You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Welcome to our meditations from the gospel of John. It is my earnest prayer today and every time we gather, that we’ll receive a personal revelation from the Lord to our hearts. He desires to meet each one of us, and He knows who we are and as we are, and what we’re going through.
I can’t emphasize too often the purpose of the gospel of John. He told us why the Holy Spirit guided him to write this book. John 20:31, “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may life in His name.” We took that little verse apart and we saw the three reasons why John wrote the gospel, so that we would know the Lord, so that we would trust the Lord, and so that we’d have life and delight in the Lord.” Every study I’m praying will help us know Him more and trust Him more and delight in Him more.
In our meditation, we’ve come to John 9 in the gospel of John. Let me give the large overview of chapter 9, and then we’ll home in on where we left off. In my approach to this chapter I’ve laid four great themes that I feel like the Holy Spirit has emphasized in this gospel, in this chapter. We could go verse by verse and just follow the story, but I think by seeing these four big themes, it helps us get more into the chapter and into God’s heart.
We’ve discussed three of these themes already, and we were in the process of beginning to look at the fourth. The first theme, the Holy Spirit emphasizes, as He does in every book and every chapter, the revelation of the Lord Jesus. So, we saw John 9:5, “While I’m in the world, I am the light of the world.” This chapter presents the Lord Jesus as the light of life, the light of the world, the One who gives light/understanding/life to all those who are born spiritually blind, and He does it by His power and by His presence. That’s a great emphasis in this chapter.
The second emphasis is on the miracle itself, the way God healed this blind man. Giving sight to the blind was not only a prophetic evidence that Christ was Messiah, it was that. When Messiah comes, He’ll give sight to the blind, but he also called attention to the fact that He was going to do miracles using instruments. His illustration of that is John 9:4, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me.” He wanted to include us. So, he gave an illustration of the kind of instruments He would use, and his illustration is very humbling. He used a little bit of clay and a little bit of spit, and He put it on the eyes of a blind man. God wants to use you, and He wants to use me, and we can’t get very proud if we’re just mud in somebody’s eye. By itself you know that would damage the eye and wouldn’t give sight at all, and it has to be in union with Him. And then, as we pointed out, after He uses us, He sent that man to the Pool of Siloam to wash out the instrument. Thank God if He uses you to help somebody see, but then get out of the way, because they aren’t going to see Jesus until man is out of the way.
The third recurring emphasis, and we called attention to, was the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the scribes, and the priests. John 9:22, “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 put out of the synagogue.” No matter how much evidence came before those religious leaders, they had already determined in their hearts that Jesus is not Messiah, and if you say He is, you’re getting kicked out. So, they already determined that. We studied the influence those religious leaders had, and how they used guilt and how they used fear and bondage to get the people to agree with them.
In addition to those three emphasis, the revelation of Jesus, the miracle itself, and the futility of religious rulers who were willfully blind, the Holy Spirit puts a great emphasis on the man who was healed. So, we’ve been discussing the man was healed, the one who received his sight. In our last session I suggested that this miracle was a representative miracle. John 9:7, “’Go wash in the Pool of Siloam which is translated “sent”.’ So, he went away and washed and came back seeing.” That little expression, “…came back seeing,” is so instructive and so suggestive. That man had new eyes; Jesus gave him new eyes. Of course, it’s spiritual eyes, and from the Pool of Siloam, he’s going to go on a journey with those new eyes, and it’s an exciting journey. It’s not like a journey he planned. It’s not like sitting down and planning a vacation, and we’ll go here and there and somewhere else. He didn’t sit down and plan anything. All he did was get new eyes and begin responding to situations. That’s all he did, and that’s the journey. His only part was response; the journey happened to him. The Holy Spirit has given us the inspired record in one chapter of that journey. The journey that he took has a name, and it’s called “the Christian life”. From the Pool of Siloam he went on a journey. It’s going to take the rest of the New Testament to spell it out what that means, but in this one man’s life and in the events that followed him seeing we have the whole Christian life in a picture, in a parable. So, what was his life like after the miracle of Siloam?
When he arrived at Siloam, you know the story, he was stone blind. His life was all darkness when he arrived. When he left, it was all light and it was all vision; he could see. The Lord had opened his eyes. Of course, that’s picturing coming to know the Lord, spiritual eyes. John 9 describes the path that someone takes after God opens their eyes, and that’s what we’ve been focusing on. Our look at this man is going to illustrate your life and my life, and every Christian life. If you haven’t experienced certain steps here, you will. This is an experience that everyone who gets eyes must go on this path.
It hardly seems possible that in one single chapter this unnamed blind man who had been healed by the Lord, that he could picture the entire Christian life, but he does. May God help us! If the Lord has opened your eyes, let me ask you, has the Lord opened your eyes? If your answer is yes, then you can expect to experience in your life John 9. As I studied this chapter, I gleaned from his experience seven realities, seven principles that describe the journey one takes after he gets spiritual eyes. We’ll just call it the fruit of sight, the outworking of vision; when you see the Lord, this happens. It’s nothing you plan. It’s going to take place.
In our last message I mentioned the first three of those seven. I’ll just state those again, and then we’ll pick up our new material. With eyesight comes the new creation. Everything is new and everything is different, and nothing will ever be the same once the Lord opens your eyes. We use 2 Corinthians 5:17 to illustrate that, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things become new and all things are of God.” That’s the first experience. If you missed the development of that, you can get the CD or it’s online. Thank you, Janet, for doing that.
Another thing that follows vision is the profound assurance that comes with eyesight. John 9:25, “He answered, ‘Whether He’s a sinner I do not know; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.’” There are many things I don’t know and many things I’ll never know, but I’ll tell you what I do know. Everything He’s revealed to me I know. Everything He’s revealed to you, you know. If you just study it and get it from church and get doctrine, then you can be argued out of that. Somebody can come along with a stronger argument and change your mind, but if you get it from the Lord, it’s yours forever and nobody can take it and nobody can argue you out of it and nobody can convince you otherwise. How important it is to have that assurance. That’s the second thing that follows eyesight. Everything is new and I get a deep assurance, and now I know things and I know that I know that I know because it’s way down deep in my heart. God does that; God gives that to you.
The third thing that I mentioned was the progress in the knowledge of Christ. We’re going to see Jesus more and more. We will never in time or in eternity see all the Jesus there is to see. We’ll never finally see all of Him; it’s a progress. We keep seeing more and more of the Lord. I illustrated this by the record. In John 9:11 when He was being queried, they said, “Who did this?”, and He said, “A man called Jesus.” And then in John 9:17 when they kept pressing him, he said, “He’s a prophet.” His vision is getting bigger. Then in John 9:30 he said, “He opened my eyes; He’s a miracle worker.” Then in John 9:33 he said, “He’s from God.” You see that his vision of Jesus is getting bigger all the time until you come to verse 35, “Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’, and he said, ‘Who is He?’”, in other words, “There is some of Jesus that I haven’t seen, yet.” He’s going to see more of Christ. When He’s revealed in verse 28, “He worshipped Him.” When God opens our eyes, and this is part of the Christian life and part of the journey, we’re going to see more of Jesus all the time, and everything is going to lead to this, that we fall on our face and worship Him.
This morning I want to continue looking at the things that follow eyesight, not only a new creation, not only profound assurance and deep assurance in my heart, and not only a progress in the knowledge of Christ…. We began this study with Hosea 6:3, “Let’s press on to know the Lord,” but what else can I expect illustrated by this blind man? I want to go into that, but there’s one little thing I need to clear up first. I’m addressing it because it happens to be in this chapter, and I’m addressing it because it contains a Bible principle that would be helpful to know. Otherwise, I would just jump over it.
I want to revisit verse 38, “And he said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped Him.” Now, this is a technical matter, and maybe it won’t mean that much to you, but because it contains an important principle of Bible study, I don’t want to just neglect it. When I was in Bible school, one of the questions on the hearts and minds of the Bible students is, “Which version of the Bible is the best. Which one is closest to the original language? Which one would help us the most?” Most students were a lot smarter than I was, because at this time I had already flunked Greek three times, so I don’t know which one is the best version because I don’t know the original language. So, I was all ears. I was going to trust the professor. Whatever he said, I was going to trust him. His name was Frank Sells, and he said, and this is his idea, “The closest version to the original manuscript is the American Standard version of 1901,” but then he made this additional comment. He said, “I can recommend as the best version the American Standard Version of 1901 with the exception of the abominable foot note.” What in the world is the abominable footnote?
The reason I bring it up now is because the abominable footnote is in this chapter; it’s in verse 38, “And he said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped Him.” If you have the American Standard of 1901, by the word “worship” you have a marginal note, an abominable footnote. I’m going to quote the note. This is out of the American Standard, and it says, “The Greek word,” now he’s talking about worship, “denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a creature,” and then in parenthesis, “(as here) or to the Creator.” In other words, the marginal note suggests that healed blind man did not worship Jesus as God, but worshipped Him as a creature, “as here”. That’s an abominable footnote. When it says “worship” we’re talking about worshipping the Lord. This isn’t the same reverence that’s given to some government official or civil respect, or something like that.
The reason it’s an abominable footnote is because of this Bible principle. I’m going to give you the Bible principle. I think you all know what an etymology is, the etymology of a word. In other words, it’s the history of a word, it’s the origin of a word. “This word is derived from the Greek or from the Latin or from the French or from the German, like kindergarten; kinder is children, and so on. It gets its name, but that doesn’t always tell you what the word means. You can look up the etymology of a word, like the word “cloud”. The word “cloud”, the etymology is not going to help you. It’s going to tell you that it’s a visible body of a particle of water in the air, but that’s not going to help you understand how it’s used today. A cloud used to hold water, but now it holds data. You say that your stuff is going up in a cloud. You’ve got to see how it’s being used. I remember when a mouse used to be a rodent, and now it’s something to help me get through my computer. The word needs to be understood in how it’s used. The word “gay” used to mean something a lot different than it means today. How is it being used? There’s a Latin expression called the “usus loquendi”. That just means how it’s used, how it’s used in a sentence. So, you need the etymology and that helps sometimes, but sometimes you need the usus loquendi. It doesn’t help to look up the etymology of the word “worship” because the American Standard is correct. That word, sometimes, out side the Bible, is used as reverence and showing respect to someone, but how does John use the word? That’s what we need to know.
In the gospel of John, the word “worship” occurs nine times, and in the past tense it occurs three times. He uses the word “worship” fourteen times in the book of Revelation, and nine times in the past tense. Every time he uses the word “worship”, all 35 times, he uses it to worship God, either the true God or a false god, but never in respect to a creature. In Revelation he talks about worshipping the beast, and all, but they’re calling him god. The word “brother”, for example, you can look up the etymology of the word brother, and you’ll find out that it’s somebody that’s born of the same parents. But if you look up the usus loquendi, you are in the Bible now, and sometimes brother means somebody born of the same parent. Andrew was the brother of Peter. But sometimes, like in Acts 9, when Ananias said, “Brother Saul,” now it’s a Christian, a fellow Christian. Sometimes in 1 John, anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, it’s brother man. So, you’ve got to figure out how it’s being used; it’s not just the use of the word, the etymology, but how it’s being used.
The Apostle John never used the word “worship” for anything except for worshipping the true God. The purpose of a translation, by the way, is to translate, and it’s not to interpret. When the ASB put in parenthesis, “(as here),” it became a commentary, and now it’s trying to interpret. A translation should translate. The word “worship” in John 9:38 is exactly the same as in John 4:24, “God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” Well, that’s enough; I only wanted you to know that when this man worshipped the Lord, he worshiped and it wasn’t worship given to a creature. So, I guess I recommend the American Standard, but watch out for that abominable footnote. Alright, let’s get back to our study of fruit, of vision and of revelation.
What else can I expect? Everything will be new. I will have deep and growing conviction and profound assurance. I will keep seeing Jesus over and over. When I read this story, I was amazed at the amazing boldness that this newly healed blind man had. We sort of go over that la, la, la, but it was an awesome thing to be brought before the religious rulers of the day. That which we have in John 9 is not only the religious rulers but the Sanhedrin. This is the religious court. He was dragged before the highest of all the religious people. This was the legislative branch of the priests, the Supreme Court. This was the Grand Jury; they had the final say, “You’re in, you’re out.” That’s where this man was brought. The word Sanhedrin literally means, the etymology, is “sitting down”. So, they would sit in a session, and it was made up of seventy-one members, if you count the presiding priest, and then it would be seventy-one members. There were lesser religious courts, but this was the main one, the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the high court and the final appeal, and you couldn’t go beyond this.
When we looked at the Pharisees, I called attention to John 9:22&23, that they had already rejected Christ; they had determined that if anybody said Jesus is Messiah, they are out. They ruled with an iron hand. They actually did throw this man out. You see that in verse 34, “You were born entirely in sin. Are you teaching us?” So, they put him out. That word, by the way, has to do with violence. They didn’t just say, “Please leave.” They threw him out, and it was for good.
I call attention to their authority to illustrate that this nobody, this unnamed blind man, was not intimidated by this august group of religious leaders. Before he got his eyes opened, who was he? He was just a blind beggar, and that’s all he was. Now, he’s standing toe to toe with the Supreme Court, with the religious leaders. It’s amazing. With his new eyes he has a boldness, I don’t think he thought he ever could have. He seems fearless; he doesn’t care a rat’s fur about their authority or supposed imagined authority. They’re trying to bully him all through the chapter; you can see that. Just listen to these verses. I get a kick out of reading them. Verse 15, “The Pharisees were asking him again how he received his sight, and he said to them, ‘He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.’” Verse 17, “So, they said to the blind man again, ‘What do you say about Him since He opened your eyes?’ He said, ‘He’s a prophet.’” Verse 24, “So, a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God; we know this man is a sinner.’ And he answered, “Whether He’s a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, though I was blind, now I see.” Verse 26, “They said to him, ‘What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?’” I love this. “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 disciple, too, do you?’” Do you see the boldness that this person has, the courage that he had? He doesn’t cower by them.
Before Christ opens our eyes, I think we are intimidated, and we cower before so-called religious leaders. We wouldn’t dare stand against the church, against the pastor, against the priest, against the elders, against the theologians, but when the Lord opens your eyes, all of a sudden you see truth, and you recognize what’s not true. You are not intimidated by their bold declaration, their religious authority. They get up and say, “Baptism washes away sin,” and you say, “No, no, no, no.” You stand up against it. They say the Lord’s Table is an altar. It is not an altar; it’s a table. God commands you to tithe and to fast. You say, “No, not in my Bible. There’s no command to do that.” “Faith will make you rich and wealthy and prosperous.” You take a stand and say, “No.” “You’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that, or God is going to be angry.” No, it’s not by works, and you take a stand. “There’s a second chance after you die.” “No, there’s not,” and you stand up and say that there’s not a second chance. “God is love and everybody is going to heaven.” “No, they’re not. Sorry, pastor, that’s not true.” You just become bold in the Lord. “The Bible is full of errors and it’s got mistakes and it’s written by men.” “No, it is not.” That boldness comes with eyesight. When a person is saved, they are not intimidated by so-called religious authorities. The humblest Christian with eyesight from the Lord, with no Bible school training, no seminary training and no knowledge of Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic, that person can stand up as a redeemed sinner and speak with amazing authority, and just talk against all that they know to be wrong.
Boldness is not only a part of eyesight but let me give another. 1 Corinthians 1:21, “Since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not come to know God; God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those that believe.” Out of the mouths of babes and infants, Psalm 8:2, God has ordained strength. Colossians 2:8, this is now that you’re saved, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” When we get to chapter 10 we’ll dig a little deeper, but here’s an amazing verse. John 10:4&5, “When He puts forth His own sheep, He goes ahead of them. The sheep follow Him because they know His voice; a stranger they simply will not follow but will flee from him. They do not know the voice of strangers.” When God opens your eyes, suddenly, you hear something, and in your deep heart you say, “I don’t think so. I don’t care who is saying it; it doesn’t ring true. God, the Holy Spirit, is now teaching you, but we’ll get into that a little more.
There’s another fruit of revelation, and this is 100% guaranteed. If your eyes have been opened by the Lord, you are not going to escape this, and I’m talking about (read the chapter) persecution, opposition. That’s going to happen. If you are a Christian, you’re going to be opposed. The entire chapter is about this man and he just had his eyes opened and he’s being opposed tooth and nail, all through this chapter, because they hate Christ; they rejected Christ. Now Christ is in his heart; his eyes are opened and he’s embracing Christ, and they’re rejecting Christ. In John 9 it was mostly the Pharisees that opposed Him, but not totally. In verse 13 it was his neighbors that gave him a hard time. They are the ones that dragged him to court. It was his neighbors. And then in John 9:20-21 his own parents threw him under the bus. It’s not just the religious Pharisees. You are going to find as you go on in your life that you are going to be opposed. You’re a Christian and you’re going to be opposed, and I think you are maybe going to be a little bit surprised and shocked that much of the opposition will come from fellow Christians, and will come from the church that you love. That will be your opposition. You start looking to Christ and things begin to change in your life. You used to be very active in every program, and now you’ve learned a little bit about resting in the Lord. They’re going to say, “You’re just lazy. You’ve gotten into something and you’ve become lazy.” You’re going to begin exercising freedom in Christ, and they’re going to say, “No, that’s just loose living. That’s sloppy agape. You can’t live that way. If you decide some day that God wants you to go here instead of there, you’re backslidden, and they’re going to call you backslidden, and they’re going to want to pray for you. If you wait on the Lord for something, and you don’t get right in line, they’re going to call you uncaring, and so on. If you say, “The Lord showed me this from the word,” they will say, “You are allegorizing; that’s not there and I don’t see those words in the Bible,” and so on. You are going to be opposed.
Two weeks ago we entertained missionaries in our home, very wonderful missionaries, and their ministry is in the Middle East, and they have seen Isis come to know Jesus. Amazing testimony, but in every case it’s dangerous. This one missionary was telling me about a Muslim girl that he had the privilege to lead to the Savior, and she embraced Christ, and her mother and father signed a death warrant that is now over her head and they expect her to be killed very soon because she accepted Christ. That’s persecution in the extreme, but you will be persecuted.
Listen to John 15:18, “If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world and I have chosen you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, salvation is free in its reception, not free to the Lord as He paid a high price, but for you salvation is free in the reception, but in the outworking it’s going to cost you everything. In the outworking it’s going to cost me everything. That’s the revelation of the Lord. I wanted to relate this persecution to what we looked at last session, and that is the man’s vision of Christ got bigger and bigger, “It’s a man named Jesus, it’s a prophet, He’s a miracle worker, He’s of God, he worships Him, He’s the Son of God, the Son of Man.” It gets bigger and bigger. What made it get bigger and bigger? It was the persecution. The more he was persecuted the greater his vision of the Lord became. The illustration is just to show us that Jesus draws near to those that take a stand for Him, and those that are honoring the Lord are going to enjoy the new revelation of the Lord. The more Christ is seen in your life, the more you are going to be rejected. The more Christ is seen in my life, the more I’m going to be rejected.
In our day, in our society here in the west, they just call you weird, and they call you peculiar, and they call you odd, and they don’t want anything to do with you. They don’t have a death sentence over your head. That may come, and my guess is that it probably will come in our society, but the extreme is that they’ll kill you, but they are not opposing you; they are opposing the Christ that lives in you. They are opposing the Christ that lives in me. This chapter, if it has anything, it has two great big capital E’s: eyesight and excommunication. It’s going to be. Those are the fruits of seeing Jesus. Everything is new, you have a great assurance, your vision of Christ is growing, you have increasing boldness that you didn’t know you had, and you are going to be persecuted.
Let me mention another fruit of eyesight, the sixth one. It’s illustrated in John 9:34&35, “They answered, ‘You were born entirely in sin. Are you teaching us?’ So, they put him out, and Jesus heard that they had put him out and finding him He said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man (or the Son of God).’” They put him out. Part of this persecution is that they put him out, but notice these words, “And Jesus found him.” They put him out, and Jesus found him outside the synagogue, outside the temple, outside the church. There’s an expression in the book of Hebrews that describes perfectly what happened. I told you that he illustrates it but the New Testament develops it. Hebrews 13:11-13, “The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy of Holies by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp.” Verse 11, “…outside the camp,” verse 12, “…outside the gate,” verse 13, “…outside the camp.”
I told you that we call this gathering, this room, Bethany because Bethany, as far as I can see, was a place where Jesus was fully accepted. In one sense, Bethany is the camp. It’s the camp; it’s the place where Jesus is fully accepted. In Hebrews, symbolically, the camp was supposed to be Jerusalem where He was always fully accepted, but they rejected Him. Remember John 9:22, they had already confessed, “If anybody confessed Christ, he’s to be put out.” They had already determined, in spite of evidence, that Jesus is not Messiah. Outside the camp is the place where Jesus is fully rejected. Bethany He is fully accepted. That’s the camp. Outside the camp, in the camp He’s fully accepted, but He was thrown outside. In one sense, outside the camp is even more desirable than the camp. Bethany is the place where Jesus is fully accepted, but this is a comfortable place. I like coming here. This is a comfortable place. It’s peaceful; it’s a place where we can love each other and love the Lord and have everything in common, but outside the camp, that’s where we get into an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, very intimate. That’s where Jesus found the man. John 13:13, “Let us go to Him outside the camp.” Outside the camp is the place of intimate fellowship with the Lord Jesus. I’m not saying He’s not in the camp; He’s certainly is, but a deep and profound and intimate union will belong to those who are under persecution outside the camp. The Spirit of the Lord and glory will rest upon them. This principle emphasizes, not so much the persecution, but the fellowship with Jesus in that persecution.
In His high priestly prayer Jesus prayed, John 17:14, “I’ve given them Your word. The world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil One. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” So, you can count on it. You are going to be outside the camp, but unto Him. What camp? Let me give some applications. You are going to be outside the domestic camp if Jesus opens your eyes. Matthew 10:34, “Do not think I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace but a sword. I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” Don’t be shocked if you are outside the domestic camp.
A Christian whose eyes are opened will be outside an educational camp. You are going to be fed in our society all of this humanism and they’re going to try to brain wash you into some woke philosophy, or something like that. Draw near to Jesus; go to Him outside the camp. You’ll definitely be outside the political camp. Don’t be shocked if you are outside the political camp. It’s your opportunity to go to Jesus; go to Him outside the camp. You are going to be outside the social camp. Those who were your friends, you don’t have to stop being friends with them; they’ll stop being friends with you. That’s how it goes. 1 Peter 4:4, “In all this they’re surprised you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you.” When you are outside the social camp, go to Jesus outside the camp. You are going to be outside the business camp; you are going to be outside every camp. There are jobs that Christians just can’t take, and when they take them, they probably won’t be promoted and they aren’t going to advance because they’re Christians. Go to Jesus; go to Jesus outside the camp. You are going to be outside the ecclesiastical camp, outside the church camp. That can be shocking, but don’t let it shock you. Go to Jesus outside the camp. That’s what the verse says. The more you’re outside the camp, the more intimate your relationship with Christ is going to be. 1 Peter 4:14, I don’t understand this verse but I love it, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” If anybody has light on that, feed me because that’s the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Anyway, you’re going to be outside the camp, but that’s not the point. It’s unto Jesus outside the camp.
I want to give you one other verse, John 9:13, “Let us go to Him outside the camp.” I want to relate that to Hebrews 6:19-20, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us.” We are seated with Him in the heavenlies. Outside the camp is where your body is, inside the veil, and that’s where your heart is. In other words, unto Jesus outside the camp. Yes, we’re going to be outside the camp, but inside the veil at the same time.
I wanted to mention the seventh thing if God opens your eyes. This was mentioned right at the beginning, and it’s in John 9:3, “Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him’” That expression “the works of God displayed in him.” That’s why Jesus said, “This man was born blind and was given sight, so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The final thing that’s going to come into your life is testimony, the works of God will be displayed in you.
I mentioned several times that this man was just an unknown, blind beggar. He never dreamt that Sabbath morning when he got up and was brought to the place where he was going to beg that his life would be transformed from that day on. That never came to his mind. He certainly never dreamed that he would be recorded in the Bible. He made the Bible. I wonder how many people will be in heaven because of that blindman. The works of God displayed in him, and here we are some two thousand years later, and we’re studying the same thing; we’re studying his life. What a testimony he had! I know he was a testimony to his neighbors, and I know he was a testimony to his family, I know he was a testimony to the Pharisees, and I know he was a testimony to the disciples, but his testimony goes on and on and on. The main works that were displayed in him, may I suggest are the seven principles that we just discussed; that’s the main works. When your life is brand new, people see that; the works of God are displayed in you. When you take a stand and you know, that’s the works of God displayed in you. When you have a holy boldness and courage to stand up against error, that’s God’s work displayed in you. When you are seeing more and more of Jesus, that’s God’s works being displayed in you. When you are increasingly persecuted and find in it an opportunity to enjoy Jesus more and have a deeper union with Him, that’s the works of God being displayed in you. People are seeing that. The sum total of all of that are the works of God displayed. Matthew 5:14, “You’re the light of the world; a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” It cannot. He doesn’t say, “Don’t hide your light under a bushel.” He said, “You can’t,” because their bushels were straw, and their lights were candles, and you can’t hide it. If you really had your eyes opened from the Lord, you are going to be a testimony.
I’ll leave you with this. I opened this lesson telling you that this man went on a journey with his new eyes, but he didn’t plan it. He didn’t sit down and map it out. It happened, and it’s going to happen to you and it’s going to happen to me. It’s automatic, and you don’t have to work at it. It’s just that your eyes are opened and now you know Jesus, and you don’t have to say, “In order to enjoy all things new, I’m going to have to study all things new.” No, no, no, you just have to walk with the Lord Jesus. In order to have assurance you don’t say, “Oh man, I need more faith because I need assurance.” No, no, it’s automatic; it’s going to come immediately and you don’t have to get up early and have devotions every day and have a Bible memory program in order to see Jesus progressively. He’s going to reveal Himself to you over and over and over again. I don’t need to study error to know how to fight heresy. I don’t need a course on apologetics. I just need to know Jesus; you just need to know Jesus. We don’t court persecution, but we glory in the relationship God gives us. He’ll come to you. You are going to be rejected by family, by friends, by job, by employer, by church; He’ll come to you. He’ll come to you and then you’ll see like this blind man. I don’t think he ever regretted getting kicked out. I think it was his great joy to be kicked out.
All of that is my encouragement to just look to Jesus. Trust the Lord. The book is written that you might know Him, that you might trust Him and that you might delight in Him.
Next week, Lord willing, we’ll introduce, not begin John 10. That chapter needs an introduction. Let’s pray.
Father, thank You so much for the privilege that we have to just look in Your word. Thank You for this journey that we go on because You’ve opened our eyes, that one day You revealed Yourself to us and You gave us the grace to claim You as our Savior. Oh Lord, we thank You and we praise You and we worship You and we look forward to the rest of this journey. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
