This Week's Sunday School Lesson, "Born Blind", 4/29/2012

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.