BORN BLIND
JOHN 9:1-17
V:1. "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his
birth."
A. Jesus has compassion for us.
1. From a distance, He took notice of the man.
a. From Heaven the Lord is always
aware of us.
b. We are never out of His sight.
c. Jesus saw what others would
overlook and walk pass.
2. He has sympathy for those in trouble.
a. Those in trouble have a need for
Jesus' intercession.
b. Those in trouble are more likely to
appreciate the concern of Jesus.
c. When you catch the eye of Jesus,
you are on the verge of getting a blessing.
3. The interest we have in Jesus awakens
the interest of others.
a. Jesus has the power to cause others
to bless us.
b. He uses others to do His will.
B. Jesus is omniscience.
1.
He saw the man's condition; he was blind.
2. He saw the man's history; blind from
birth.
C. Each of us is born with some type of
infirmity; some more severe than others.
1. Some infirmities are readily apparent and some are
hidden.
2. Jesus is aware of your problems,
3. Jesus knows how long you have been dealing with
your situation.
B. There are two types of blindness; physical
and spiritual.
1.
The physical blindness is temporary and affects our life today.
2.
Spiritual blindness is permanent if not corrected through Jesus Christ.
a. Every person is born blind to the
Word of God.
V.2 "And his disciples asked him,
saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was
born blind?"
A. Sometimes the world sees you as the reason
for your difficulties.
1.
Some times the
world will blame your parents for your problems.
2.
The infirmities we have make us
unique and different from others.
3.
The infirmities we have are
reasons for Jesus to take notice of us.
B.
Whatever infirmities we are born with can be a blessing and not a problem.
1.
Jesus identifies this person with a problem as a "man".
a. He had this condition for a long time.
b. God does not always answer prayers
immediately.
c. Sometimes God allows us time to learn to live with our condition.
V.3 "Jesus answered,
Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him."
A. Jesus does not blame us or our parents for
our problems.
B. Sometimes Jesus is the reason for the
problems that we have.
1. Everyone is uniquely designed by God.
2. Every person is born with a
purpose.
3. Every life is important to
the Father.
C. Our infirmities are designed to give glory
to God.
1. God can provide a way to show Himself in us.
2. God uses what He has given us to bless others.
3. We must see our troubles as opportunities to serve
God.
4. The poor of the world have the pity of Christ.
D. Spiritual blindness started in the Garden
of Eden.
1. Adam's sin in the Garden separated man
from God
a. All men after Adam were born into
sin and in need of a Savior.
b. Having been born in sin, man is born
in the dark about God.
V:4. "I must work the
works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can
work."
A. Jesus was sent by the Father to do work
for us.
1. Jesus did not come down from heaven
to entertain us.
2. He came down from heaven to give us
sight.
B. Jesus came to bring man out of the dark
into the marvelous light.
1. Jesus was intent on doing what He came
to do; "I must do".
2. Jesus wasted no time doing what He
came to do; "while it is day"
a. While God is not fixed in time, He knows
that man is fixed in time.
b. Jesus knows for man there is a
time to act.
c. Jesus knows that there is a time
when it is to late for man to act.
d. Time is not on man's side.
e. The life of man is but a few days.
C. We have to get involved with Jesus while
He wants to get involved with us.
1. We don't know when is our cut off
time .
2. We have no idea when it is too late.
V.5 "As long as I am
in the world, I am the light of the world."
A. He is the light of the world.
B. His light is made available to the whole
world.
C. There is a time for Jesus to be in the
world; ie "as long".
1. He lived 33 years on earth.
2. This age of Grace established by His
death, resurrection and ascension back into
heaven has a time frame.
D. As
long as this world exist, the Lord Jesus is the Light.
1. Jesus is in control of His world.
2. Jesus makes His light available to His
people.
E. The light of Jesus is a blessing to all.
1. The light of Jesus identifies us all.
2. The light of Jesus is aware of all of
us.
3. The light of Jesus keeps track of us.
V.6 "When he had
thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he
anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay."
A. Jesus gets back to the basic elements of
life, water, dirt and His breath.
1. Spit is water.
a. Jesus is the living water.
2. In order to Spit, you exert some force to
blow the water out of your mouth.
a. Jesus is the force, because he is all
power.
b. Jesus is the breath of life.
B. The power of Jesus and the life of Jesus
was blown to the ground in his spit.
a. The ground, the dirt is the basic
element of the flesh.
b. Your DNA originates from dirt.
c. When God made Adam, He formed his body
out of the dirt of the earth.
b. Jesus blew into the body and it became
a living soul.
c. What Jesus did was not strange, He was
doing what He does.
C. He spat on the ground and made some clay.
1. In that clay was life.
2. In that clay was divine power.
D. He anointed the man's eyes with the clay, which
He made from His spit and His ground.
1. He gave the man power to see.
2. He ordained sight for the man.
E. Jesus is the anointing Power for our
regeneration from darkness to light.
V:7 "And said unto
him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He
went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."
A. This pool of Siloam was located outside
the temple wall down a hill. This pool was fed by a
tunnel dug beneath the city to bring water into the city from the
outside.
1. If invaders surrounded the city, there would be a constant supply of
water.
2.
The pool was used for ritual cleansing before one could go up to the temple.
B. The
word "Siloam" means "sent".
1. Water was sent into the city from the distant Spring of the Virgin.
2. Jesus the Virgin birth, sent the blind man to the pool to be
cleansed.
3. Jesus is the source of all spiritual cleansing.
4. It is through Jesus that we become cleansed of all unrighteousness.
C.
Spit was used to mock or insult a person, but Jesus used it for healing.
D. The
Blind man obeyed Christ and received his sight.
1. Faith requires us to accept Christ as our Savior.
2. We were all born blind.
a. We received our sight through faith in Christ.
b. Simple faith in Christ gives us our sight.
3.
We enter the temple of Christ through faith in Him.
V.8 "The neighbours
therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not
this he that sat and begged?"
A.
Those who knew us before Christ will recognize a difference in us.
1.
There ought to be something about you that indicates a change in you.
a. You ought to have different interests.
b. You ought to have different conversations.
c. There ought to be some places that are off limits to you.
B.
People will talk about you because of the change they see in you.
V.9 "Some said, This
is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he."
A. Only you can tell your story.
1. If you leave it to others they will get
it wrong.
2. Only you know how your change occurred.
B. People are not always glad
to see a change in you.
1. Notice, no one congratulated him on
receiving his sight.
2. No one expressed an interest in helping
him get acclimated to his new
status.
V:10 "Therefore said
they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?"
A. Curiosity by others is your opportunity
to give a testimony to the goodness of God.
1. We have a duty to give God praise and
honor for His goodness.
2. God uses us to draw others to Him.
3. God blesses us with trouble to bless
us with miracles.
V:11 " He answered and
said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said
unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I
received sight."
A. You may not understand how you got your
break through, but you can tell what you know.
1. He knew what Jesus did but he did not
know who Jesus was.
a. He called Jesus a man.
b. We must be careful not to give man
the credit for our success.
c. Man has no power but that which Jesus
gives him.
B. Doctors prescribe medicine, but Jesus
causes the healing.
V:12 "Then said they
unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not."
A. We ought to always know where Jesus is.
1. We ought to be able to tell others
how to contact Jesus.
2. We ought to tell folk that Jesus is
waiting for an invitation into our lives.
3. If they want Jesus, just accept Him
as their personal Savior.
a. He died on the Cross for their sins.
b. He is ready at this moment to
accept them into the body of Christ.
c. Jesus is just a faith call away.
B. Jesus is all around us.
1. The evidence of His presence is us.
2. The evidence of His presence is His
creation.
V.13 " They brought to
the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind."
A. Some folk get angry when you get blessed.
1. Some folk get jealous when you get
blessed.
2. Some folk get vindictive when you get blessed.
3. The man's peers had a problem with his
blessing.
B. We have to be careful not to get upset because
folk don't appreciate our
blessing.
V:14 "And it was the
sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes."
A. There are people who will try to find
something illegal about how you obtained your
blessing.
1. If to them it is too good to be true,
they may assume you obtained what you have illegally.
2. The miracles of Jesus are always
beyond human understanding.
B. The Jews had a law that no work could be
done on the Sabbath.
1. The Jews wanted to curse the man for
being blessed on the Sabbath.
2. God designed the Sabbath for man to
have a day of rest from his labors.
3. They responded with the letter of the
law, but not the spirit of the law.
V:15 "Then again the
Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He
put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see."
A. The leaders had no sympathy for the man's
blessing.
1. He had been blessed him with sight,
but they were worried that their law had been broken.
2. If it was a miracle according to
them, it happened on the wrong day.
B. The blessing of God flows everyday.
1. Each one of us is the recipients of
His blessings.
V:16 "Therefore said
some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the
sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And
there was a division among them."
A. When your blessings are reported to others
without a praise report, they may assume an illegal act
has been committed.
1. It is just as easy to assume the good as
it is to assume the bad.
2. It takes no more effort to speak a word
of encouragement than it does to be negative.
3. We have to work at believing the best
for others.
B. What we sometimes forget is
that "All things work for the good of those who love the Lord".
1. If someone else gets, blessed we are
also blessed.
2. The ones who were leading the man who
was born blind, did't have to do that work anymore.
3. The man having received his sight, can now
return the favors he received.
4. The man having received his sight can
now become a productive member of the community.
V:17 " They say unto
the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes?
He said, He is a prophet."
A. If someone blesses us, we ought to find out
as much about that person as we can.
1. The man born blind said it was Jesus who caused him to receive his
sight and He was a prophet.
2. The man born blind still didn't
recognize Jesus as His Lord and Savior.
3. The more he was questioned, the more
answers he came up with.
4. He was not considering the work of
Jesus as a gift from God.
B. The man did not confess Jesus as Christ
because he knew he would be put out
of the synagogue (verse 22).
1. We must be careful to give God the
praise and honor for all our blessings.
2. We must be bold and confess Jesus as our
Lord and Savior.
3. We were born blind and we should let the
world know how we received our sight.
C. Notice it didn't cost the man anything to
receive his sight.
1. His sight was a free gift from God.
2.
God chose him to give sight.
3. He got his sight just as he was.
4. The man was born to receive His sight.
5. Good News! The Lord chose us to be
blessed by him with sight.
