John: Spiritual Sight

Pastor Fletcher preaches about another miracle on the Sabbath from John 9. Discussion points: We go too far to attribute specific suffering to a specific person’s sin, spiritual sight is to see your suffering the way God sees your suffering, spiritual sight gives you the humility to know that you are often wrong.

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  Scripture reader: [John 9] As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind. Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in Him. We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day, night is coming. When no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, go wash in the pool of Saloum which means which means scent. So he went and washed and came back, seeing the neighbors and those who had seen him before. As a beggar were saying, is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said it is he others said no, but he is like him. He kept saying, I am the man.

  So they said to him then how are where your eyes opened? He answered the man called Jesus me mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Saloum and wash. So he so I went and washed and received my sight. I said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know they brought to the Pharisees, the man who had formerly been blind, blind. Now was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes and I washed and I see some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said he is a prophet.

  The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them. Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see his parents answered, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know nor do we know who opened his eyes? Ask him he is of age. He will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said he is of age, ask him. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered whether he is a sinner. I do not know one thing. I do know that though I was blind. Now, I see.

  They said to Him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them. I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they revolved Him saying you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we did not know where he comes from. The man answered why? This is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes, we know that God does not listen to sinners. But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to Him? Never since the world began, began. Has it been heard that anyone open the eyes of a man born blind? If this man were not from God. He could do nothing.

  They answered him. You were born in utter sin and would you and would you teach us and they cast him out? Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him. He said, do you believe in the son of man? He answered? And who is he sir? That I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you? He said, Lord, I believe and he worshiped him. Jesus said for judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who may see who, who and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see your guilt remains.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: Last Christmas time, my family and I were watching a movie on a Friday night. I don't remember what the movie was. It was a Christmas movie. Maybe it was even a Christmas story, the famous story where the father receives the famous leg lamp in the mail. And they, they, you know that that whole story. And when, as we were watching the movie, a package arrived and I walked down and it was huge, a huge box had arrived in the mail. And so I brought it upstairs and, I stopped the movie, I made everyone stop watching the movie and I insisted on opening the box, but there was no doubt what was actually in the box because it was a TV box. and I had received, my Christmas gift early, even though I wasn't really intended to receive it early. Megan, it just arrived and I was the first one that got to it. and Megan had bought me a TV, that was 10 inches larger than the one we had. We had a 40 inch TV. And she had bought a 50 inch TV.

  And I did not allow us to finish that movie on the 40 inch TV. We had to turn, turn off the movie. We had to swap out the TV. Even if it required me going to get my tool set to move the mount on the wall and everything that's required with it. We were going to finish the movie on the new TV. Throughout our marriage, we've only had three different TV. S and TV. S have decreased. the size of each TV has increased. The price of each TV has decreased as we've moved along. And I just want you to imagine for a moment that maybe you skipped all of these different iterations of televisions that we've, you know, many of us have undoubtedly gone through and maybe you just went straight from that huge box that we had in the nineties that, you know, the one that was not clear, it was very fuzzy.

  My kids are going back and watching TV, shows from when I was a kid and all those TV shows, none of them are clear on the TV, because they didn't have to be, no one had a TV. That was HD. So they just made it the, you know, the size that the TV. S would, would show it at, imagine that you went from the, the nineties box to the modern day four K TV experience. It would be quite an experience. You'd be seeing something very clearly for the first time.

  It reminds me of the first time that I, I got glasses. I've been telling my family for quite a few years that I couldn't see properly. And, you know, a common theme throughout my childhood. I grew up in rural Mississippi. We did not have good doctors. So no one ever would give me glasses, because they said I didn't need them. And then eventually in sixth grade, I got glasses for the first time. And I remember very specifically riding home and just saying, wow, you can see the leaves in the trees. I had never known that you could see leaves and trees before that day. It is, it's an amazing experience to go from what feels like blind. I can't see any of your faces to being able to see.

  I'm also a sucker for these youtube videos that are around of the dads. It's always a dad. He's always in his fifties. He's always a big burly man who receives these color blind glasses. Have you seen these videos? you know, it's a video, color blindness is far more prevalent in males anyways. But, almost always it's a family that's given grandpa or dad these color blind glasses for a birthday or, or a Christmas gift or something like that. I, I pulled up one the other day. It was really, really funny. It was a, a guy in Florida. He was wearing a U I knew he was in Florida. Well, because, you know, when a man's in Florida, but also because he was wearing a University of Central Florida football hat and a University of Central Florida football shirt, matching and khaki shorts, cell phone on a clip on his belt. OK. That's the type of guy we're talking about here. OK, football shirt, football hat, cell phone on belt. That's the man.

  He said I'm 65 years old. I've seen these, sorry, this is my native tongue. It's very easy. I've seen these videos where people get emotional and I'm not gonna get emotional. I've been a professional wrestler. I have be been beaten by the biggest men in the world. I am not gonna get emotional. He puts on those glasses and guys within 10 seconds, he's weeping with his hands over his mouth. He's never seen the color green before and it's just blowing his mind and that's how all of these video, all of these men in their fifties, they have the same response. It's all just like they cannot believe what they are seeing.

  The gift of sight to a blind man has to be one of the greatest gifts in the entire world in the day of Jesus. It was completely unprecedented. If you think about it in the day of Jesus, this is a more than 1000 years before eyeglasses. So if you had poor eyesight, you were just out of luck, you know, you could see a little bit. That's great. And if you were blind, you certainly didn't have any luck throughout all Jewish tradition. There's only one or two reports of blindness being healed, but there were no reports of a man being born blind, being healed. And so when Jesus heals a man born blind in this passage, he does them possible, which is why it's so controversial. It is the impossible that he's doing.

  Last week, we studied Jesus being the light of the world. Thank you, Calvin. Fantastic job with that. I'm very thankful that we have, we have you to rightly handle the word here. And along with me, I'm very appreciative of that. And with that passage, we were studying this idea that Jesus being the light of the world. And this happens often times in scriptures where we get a description of a truth. Jesus is the light of the world. And then we get a story pretty much illustrating what that truth means. You see it happen all the time in the scripture. In, in Matthew 11, Jesus says, come to me all you who are weary and have you laden and I will give you rest for my yoke is easy. My burden is light. And then what happens right after that? But he goes through and there's a, a real life illustration of Jesus being the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of rest. He says, come to me and I will give you rest. And then we have a story of how he is the one who gives rest.

  And so here in this passage, it is very similar. You know, we miss these things all the time and here's just a, a free Bible reading tip. And here's one of the reasons why we miss it is because we get obsessed about the chapters in the Bible. But the chapters, you know, we started chapter nine today. Last week was chapter eight. The chapters were added many years later and they were not an original part of the book. John didn't say OK, finish with chapter eight. Now I'm gonna write chapter nine. No, it's all just one story. And so Bible reading tip, ignore the chapters when you can. OK, chapters are helpful. They help us find things in the Bible and they are generally pretty good about the where you divide it, but it's not a hard division.

  So here we have this story where we observe that Jesus is healing a man born blind as the light of the world. And so what we're going to do is just walk through the passage pretty slowly And I'll pull out what spiritual lessons I think that the Lord is showing us here today. Church. All right, you guys ready? We're just gonna dive in and start walking our way through it. First, before we do that, a quick outline of what's happening in this passage so that it might be a little bit easier for you to follow around. First, Jesus heals a man born blind. What happens after that is that the man goes and his neighbors see him and his neighbors don't believe that it's actually him. They, they, he has this encounter with his neighbors, his neighbors take him to the Pharisees to see what's going on. The Pharisees, question the man, the Pharisees, then question the man's parents. Then the Pharisees question the man again. And then finally, we, we come all the way around. Jesus comes back to the man who has been healed. And so that's kind of the outline that we're going to go through with the story. But there's a lot that we can see through it.

  So let's look at it together. If you have your Bibles, you can follow along with me as we go. John chapter nine verse one and he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. I want to just stop right there before we go farther. Because this is a passage, the main theme of this passage is sight and blindness. And so let's not miss what Jesus sees. what does Jesus see? He sees a man born blind from birth, blind people. In this time, they didn't have much if you think about it, they didn't have the resources that we have today for people with disabilities. Instead, blind people of this day and age were left to be beggars and they had to sit outside of the temple and hope that a devout well meaning person would come by and support their life. And so this is a man who's an outcast who's often gone unseen.

  But yet Jesus sees those who go unseen. Jesus has spiritual sight to see those who are outcast, who are on the fringes of society. He has a heart from the marginalized. He sees those who are overlooked. May we have eyes like him? Church verse two and his disciples asked him rabbi who sent this man or his parents that he was born blind.

  Now this man that was born blind, his disciples see him as a theological problem as opposed to how Jesus sees him as a man to be cared for. But the theological problem is still relevant to us today, they, they bring to him a common teaching that if you suffer any type of malady, if you suffer an infirmity, that it must be the result of sin. And so in this day, if someone was born blind, what they taught is that there were two possibilities for this one, either the person who was born blind, sinned in utero before they were born, or their parents committed some heinous act of sin while they were pregnant. And therefore the person was born blonde, which I think is also helpful for us to think about a man who's born blind because not only does he not have the social services that we would have for him, but he's actually seen as a dirty center. There's, it's not just that he's blind, but there's something wrong with him is the way that he was viewed.

  And while we wouldn't think the same way, why is it that we don't think the same way? I think it is a good question for us to, to think we rarely blame disabilities on specific sins. But the essence of the question gets at this huge question, which is why do people suffer? Is it because that they've done something bad? And I think any of us who have experienced significant suffering in our life would know that that is one of the natural questions that you come to when you start suffering. What did I do to deserve this? It is a natural connection in our mind to draw a 1 to 1 connect the dots between specific sins and specific sufferings. But the Bible doesn't teach us that we can do that. Sometimes is an opportunity for us to examine ourselves. When we are sick, James teaches us that if we're sick, we're to examine ourselves. Are we living in sin? And there is an opportunity to repent of sin? But he still doesn't say that is directly because of that.

  The Bible does teach us that all sin is a result. All suffering is a result of sin. Genesis chapter three. When sin came into the world, suffering was introduced into the world. Suffering in general is a result of sin in general. But when you start connecting suffering in specific to sin, in specific, you are going too far.

  I remember when I was in college, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, I went down and helped with no with Hurricane Katrina clean up multiple times because I was living closer to the area. And there would just be street preachers condemning the people of New Orleans and saying that they deserved the suffering that they were having because of their sins. They were going too far, connecting specific sins to specific sufferings suffering is an opportunity for you to evaluate. Am I walking in line line with God? But you cannot connect the specific sin with the specific suffering. The Bible teaches that over and over. For example, the book of Job just very clearly.

  Jesus answers them and he says it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in classic Jesus. He just doesn't answer the question, you know, it's an either or question Jesus. And he says neither. That's just classic Jesus. Jesus says, why does this man suffer? It's not because of any particular sin. It's so that I can demonstrate the power of God before you all today. And he does, he heals the man. It's an opportunity for Him to display the power of God in front of them all. But it's difficult for us to apply this to our life. Is it not with our sufferings? Because not many of us have been healed by Jesus in the same kind of way as this blind man was healed. And so we don't see God's purpose in our suffering in the same kind of way.

  Now, look, I could spend the entire sermon talking about suffering. There's a lot more to this passage and I have spent entire sermons talking about suffering. If you would like one, I can send it to you, we can talk about suffering more. That's not the entire, that's not the point of this whole passage. But I just want to point out what Jesus is saying about suffering here. What is He saying about it here? He's saying that this man is suffering from blindness so that the works of God might be displayed in Him. And doesn't that point to something true for each and every one of us that we might not receive healing in this life to the sufferings that we experience.

  But we know that the day is coming when we will be reunited with God in heaven And that all of our sufferings, all of our infirmity will be healed by his loving touch and that we will be made new and the glory of God will be on display. Is it not that you suffer so that the glory of God might be on display so that we might see that He is glorious and so that He might heal us in that way, the glory of God's displayed when we are with Him in heaven, as He wipes every tear from our eyes, and it heals every wound from our bodies and our hearts. To have spiritual sight, don't miss this, to have spiritual sight is to see your suffering, the way that God sees your suffering. It is to see your suffering, the way that God sees your suffering.

  Let's continue. Verse four, we must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day, night is coming when no one can work. Now, Jesus here just to explain what's happening when he says day, he's talking about the time in which he's alive. He is the light of the world. And so the day is the time in which he is alive, the night is coming and that night is the day of his death. And that's when the light of the world is removed from the world. And so the night is coming. So I have to work now before I am crucified is what he is saying, verse five, as long as I am the world, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. This is a throwback to the last week's passage. Jesus reminding us again that he's the light of the world connecting the two passages.

  Verse six. Have you ha having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva and then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud. Jesus takes the very essence of what Genesis two describes God making humans out of the dust of the earth and he remakes the man's eyes out of the very substance that he created the man and created all of humanity at the beginning. Now, why does Jesus heal him like this? It's a weird way to heal someone to spit on the ground and to turn it in the mud and to then rub it on his eyes. Very odd and it's not the way that you see Jesus. It's not like he had to do it. This way, you see Jesus heal people in different ways all the time. Throughout the scripture, many times, he just speaks it into being. Sometimes he does use spit without mud. Sometimes he uses mud. Sometimes he just takes someone by the hand and says, sweetie, it's time to get up and then they wake up from their death and then they start walking again. Jesus has many different ways that he heals and I have no idea why he, he spit on the ground and, and rubbed the mud on the guy's eyes other than it happened because that's an odd detail to include. And so it would be one of those things where it's like if it really happened that way, we're gonna put it that way.

  And maybe this is a speculation. Fletcher speculation. I think that maybe he's just trying to upset the Pharisees more. The Pharisees are always upset at him. It is the Sabbath day. It's already wrong to heal someone. It's extra wrong to make mud out of the off the ground. And so maybe he's just, you know, poking a little bit more hoping that the bear will come at him so he can, you know, dodge all their attacks and make them look dumb as usual. Maybe that's what's happening. I don't know, verse seven. And he said to him, Jesus said to the blind man or the formerly blind man, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. So he went and he washed and he came back seeing three simple things. He went, he washed, he came back seeing.

  But when he came back, Jesus was not there because Jesus is the king of the Irish. Goodbye. He always leaves without saying goodbye. He just disappears all the time. You see it happen over and over. Also this pool of Saloum. a real place that they have discovered in Israel. The Bible is not just a collection of made up stories. The Bible has archaeological evidence for many of the stories that as much as you would expect to find, you can find the archaeological evidence is there. It's really amazing that we can go back and see these things. Now, the man after he's healed, he goes back to look for Jesus, he's not there. But the man encounters his neighbors.

  Now these neighbors are people that have walked by the man who's who was born blind day in and day out. They recognize him, they know who he is and when they see him, they're quite surprised that he can finally see what has happened. And so the neighbors for eight, the neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said it is he others said no, but it's just someone that looks like him all the while he kept saying I am him just sitting there saying no, it's me. I am the man.

  You see, it was easier for his neighbors to believe that a look alike has entered their town and found the beggar and said you get out of here, I'm gonna pretend to be you. But I'm gonna be able to see than it was to believe that he had actually been healed. That's how much of a miracle this was that it was easier to believe that preposterous scenario of a look alike coming and taking his place. They, they couldn't believe it. And the guy, the healed man, this is actually one of my favorite characters in the entire Bible because, and, and there's no better. He's snarky. I think that the best word to describe him is one that we don't use in America very often, but he's cheeky. Ok. He's just a cheeky guy. My kid's been watching a lot of bluey, you know, they say they say cheeky all the time.

  He's over there saying I'm him, I'm, I'm him. That's not the last example. There's a lot of examples of this guy. He's being humorous. So verse 10. So they said to him, then how were your eyes opened? How do you see? And he answered them, the man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went and I watched and I received my sight and they said, to him, where is Jesus? And he said, I don't know, I've never actually seen the guy.

  So they take the men to the Pharisees. And verse 14, it was a Sabbath day per you. And Jesus made the mud when the Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees asked again how he had received his sight. And they said to him and he said to them, he made mud, put it on my eyes and I washed and I see. And some of the Pharisees said, this is not from God for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, but how can a man who's a sinner do such signs? And there was division among them.

  Now, the Pharisees are real pickle. OK? They have two different situations in front of them. On the one hand, if they say that this is the guy who was formerly blind and he's now been healed of his blindness, they have to say that that's a miracle and that Jesus is committing a miracle. But they don't wanna say that Jesus is doing a miracle because Jesus is doing that said miracle on the Sabbath day. And he's breaking their oral tradition and laws about the Sabbath. And so they want to say Jesus is a sinner, he cannot do miracles. Therefore, dude, you are a look alike. We don't believe your story. And so that's, that's their story. They are divided on this but the, the Pharisees want to say this is a look alike because they don't want to believe that Jesus actually did the miracle.

  And so they continue to question the guy. And so they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since you opened your eyes? Who do you think this guy, is he a sinner or is he real? And the guy says he's a prophet now, this is, this is not quite right, right. It's, it's a step short of what of who we know Jesus to be. But it's a quite a compliment. This is the biggest compliment you can give to someone. aside from saying that they're the Messiah themselves. This is a man who's within the line of Moses, within the line of Elijah and within the line of Jeremiah, this man is a great man who speaks for God. And so he's, he's giving him this, this great compliment when he says that he's yet to learn jesus' full identity though.

  Verse 18, the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and received a sight until they called the parents of the man who had received a sight. Oh, how embarrassing. They called his parents. Ok. They didn't call him on the phone. They made his parents come. It's like, hey, can you come get your guy, get your, get your son? They called his parents and they asked them, is this your son who was born blonde. How do, how then does he see it? Now, if anyone would be able to know if this is the real guy or look alike, it's the guy's parents. And so that's why they call the guy's parents and the parents. This is what they say. They say we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. This, we know we do not know how he sees nor do we know who did it? We don't know those things. Ask him, he's of age.

  They're just throwing him under the bus. Ok? They're like, we don't know, you know, they're pleading the fifth a lot here. And why are they pleading the fifth? They're afraid that if they affirm the identity of Jesus, that the Pharisees are going to cast them out of the temple as well. And so they have to just say here are the facts that we know here are the facts that we don't know, don't cast us out of the temple, please. And so the therefore his parents said, ask him he is of age.

  So the Pharisees go back to the guy and for a second time, they called the man verse 24 and who had been blind and said to them, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. We know you're wrong. We know you're a look alike. Tell us the truth. And the man answered whether he is a sinner. I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see I was blind and now I see glorious. It's the childlike faith that we see here. He doesn't know much about Christ. He's never actually seen him, but yet he knows that Jesus does miracles.

  And while many of us, I would highly doubt any of us have had the same experience as this man. On a physical level, I would be willing to stake that many of us have had this on a spiritual level that we were once blind. But now we see, maybe we resonate with the words of the hymn. All I have is Christ where it says I once was lost in darkest night. Yet thought I knew the way. That's the thing about spiritual blindness different than physical blindness is that spiritual blindness, you don't know you're blind. And Jesus gets to that as he goes, he says that those who think they see actually can't see the Pharisees you think you can see, but you actually can't see.

  And that's the thing about spiritual blindness, you think you see, but God has to wake you up, has to open your eyes to see truly. And so it says I once was lost yet and darkest night. Yet thought I knew the way I thought I could see the sin that promised life had led me to the grave. I had no hope that you would own a rebel to your will. And if you had not loved me first, I would refuse you. Steal still. Or maybe you resonate more with the words of the famous hymn, Amazing Grace where it says Amazing Grace. I wish I was one of those preachers that could sing for you, but no one wants that Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found was blind. But now I see.

  This is the life of a Christian that we admit we were once blind, that we were wrong. And if we were wrong, then we can be wrong. Now that we still are in a place of humility, knowing that our nature takes us away from God and we have to return back to him over and over. John Newton. The author of Amazing Grace has an amazing story that goes with it. John Newton lived in the 17 hundreds in England. He and his father were both slave traders. So this whole time you were singing this song written by a guy who was slave traders. And it was even worse than that. They would actually be the people that would travel to Africa to capture people to sell them for the slave trade. One day, John Newton was captain, his ship in the sea and a storm came and the storm was terrible. It was so bad that many of his crew were being thrown overboard and he prayed as he held onto the steering wheel. God rescue us God have mercy on us.

  And after 11 hours, Newton eventually made it through. And when he arrived back in England, his life was different. He had had an encounter with the Lord and his faith was made pure. He thought he was a Christian before. And now he sees for the first time he got back to England, he started studying Greek and Hebrew to become a pastor. He became a pastor and then worked diligently writing and teaching to be an abolitionist, teaching that slavery is wrong. And in fact, the writings of John Newton inspired William Wilberforce who would be the person later the the a fellow Christian who would later lead the cause to eliminate the slave trade from the English Empire. And so it was because of his Christian faith that he killed the slave trade in that way. And John Newton had an effect on that. Newton was once blind though he thought he was doing nothing wrong. But an encounter with God caused him to do a complete 180.

  Verse 26. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? And he answered them. Look, I told you already and you wouldn't listen. Why do you want me? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? Just cheeky. You know, there's no better word for it. He's just so snarky. He's my favorite.

  Verse 28. and they revive him, reviled him saying you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don't know where he comes from. The man answered why. This is an amazing thing. You don't know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn't listen to sinners. But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him never since the world began. Has it been heard that anyone open the eyes of a man born blind? If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. What 10 minutes ago, this guy was a beggar and now he's lecturing the Pharisees on the biblical teaching of miracles. It teaches you that you can have academic degrees in theology and know less about who Jesus really is than someone who's actually encountered him personally.

  This guy seems to be seeing more and more clearly as the day goes on. He is certainly speaking clearly as the day goes on. Verse 34 they answered him. You were born in utter sin and you would teach us and they cast him out. Ok. This is funny. The Pharisees have gotten so angry that they forget what they're arguing about and they just give up the argument because the whole argument is you are not, you were not blind, you are a look alike. And now they're saying you were born in utter sin. You were so blind admitting that Jesus actually did heal him. That Jesus actually is from God. They're losing the entire argument, but they're so mad and they say, get out of here anyways and they cast him out.

  And so the man who's lived his entire life as a outcast, but now he's received sight. He finally has hope to not be an outcast. He's immediately cast out from the temple, condemned by the religious leaders of this day and age. And this is when Jesus reconnects with him. Verse 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out and found him and he said, do you believe in the son of man? Now this term son of man, that doesn't sound like a, a claim to divinity to many of us. But in that day and age, it was very obvious that it was equivalent and it's used interchangeably synonymously with the term Son of God. And so this blind man would have understood that.

  And here Jesus is inviting the man to put his trust in the Son of God. And the Messiah and the man answers verse 36 he answered, who is he sir? That I might believe in him? And Jesus said to him, you've seen him. He's one of the few people you've seen and he is speaking to you right now. And the man formerly blind said, Lord, I believe and he worshiped him. The term for worship here means he fell prostrate on the ground, worshiping Jesus. He truly understands who Jesus is. As Messiah and as king, he was once blind, but now he sees and Jesus says, verse 39 for judgment, I came into the world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind.

  Now, Jesus is not saying that the Pharisees who think that they can see are going to actually become blind. He's not, he's using metaphorical language here. He's inviting us to apply the lessons of this message metaphorically to our lives that He is calm for those who think they can see, but yet are blind that they might see. But if you think you can see the thing is if you think that you apart from Him are a moral person and that you have life figured out. The fact is you're blind and the more confident you are in your own morality, the blinder, you actually are, look at the Pharisees very moral people. Yet they could not see what God was doing right in front of them.

  They had spent their entire lives searching the scriptures, knowing the Bible and yet they could not recognize the Messiah right in front of them. They had this thing memorized, you can have this thing memorized and yet not recognize Jesus himself. He was standing in front of you. But yet you can be a blind beggar by the side of the road and your eyes can be open and you can be made to see those who are the most confident that they are morally and spiritually superior are often the most blind of us. All we know this. We've seen the documentaries of the morally self righteous who are actually blind and working to blind others. If you think you can see the whole picture without any distortion, you're probably blind.

  But if you know that you don't see completely straight, you probably have a spiritual site of some form. Spiritual sight does not mean that you are always right. I think that we, this is what we get wrong. When we're trying to share our faith, we make our faith an argument about who's right and who's wrong to have spiritual sight. It doesn't mean that you are always right to have spiritual sight means that you have the humility to know that you are often wrong that you are often living apart from God. And when we share our faith, it's not about arguing, who's right and who's wrong. It's about telling someone about the marvelous good news of who Jesus is, what he's done for you that you were once blind. But now that you see, we can talk about who's right and who's wrong. I think that there's good arguments for the resurrection of Christ.

  But friends, you know who's ever been argued into the kingdom. How many of us have had that conversation with our friends and left discouraged. Our testimony is often our most powerful tool. Have you been given spiritual sight? Spiritual sight allows you to see the truth about yourself that you don't have it all figured out. Isn't that kind of good news that you can stop putting on the rules that you've got this life all figured out that you don't have to act like you have it all figured out. But spiritual site says by myself, I am blind. But with Jesus, I can see with Jesus, I have life and meaning and purpose. I was once in rebellion against God, but Jesus, he paid my penalty that I might have peace with God. Apart from God, everyone does what's right in their own eyes, which is what it means to be blind. It's not that you are purposely trying to be immoral. You're just making up your immorality for yourself.

  But when you're given spiritual sight from God, you see differently. Spiritual sight begins when you first see your need for Jesus and trust in Him and it grows throughout your life. Your spiritual life grows throughout your life. Spiritual sight means you can start seeing the world the way that God sees the world. It means you're able to see what's important and what's not spiritual sight means that you're growing in humility because that's what it took when you first received the spiritual site admittance that you were once living in rebellion against God, that you were once blind. And so to have spiritual sight means that you're growing in humility.

  Let me just ask you that. Are you growing in humility? Are you willing to admit more today? When you're wrong? Then you were three years ago. Are you growing in that? That's what it means to have spiritual sight. Also, what it means to have spiritual sight is to be aware of what God's doing around you, to be able to see what He's at work and friends, God is at work around you. He has many people in this city that he wants to call to know Him. He is already at work around you. There's a spiritual realm that we are unable to see apart from spiritual sight. But the scripture talks about the powers and the Principalities of the air talks about these supernatural forces. You're not able to see those.

  Unless you were given spiritual sight from God, you're not able to see what God is doing around you. Unless you're given spiritual sight from God, it's easier to walk in blindness. Is it not to act like you have your life put together, the spiritual spiritual sight means that you don't and that Jesus is all you have. The book of Acts ends with Paul quoting from Isaiah 6. Now, here's what he says for this. People's heart has grown dull and their ears, they can barely hear and their eyes, they have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand what their hearts and turn and I would heal them.

  That's the invitation for us today. And whether it's your first time hearing and seeing from God or it's your 1000th time hearing from seeing from God, you were invited. Maybe you've been watching TV on that low res screen for all these years. And you're finally starting to see in more detail what Jesus has done. Praise God. But you know what the thing about life, it both illuminates and it exposes, right? You, you look at one of those, those makeup mirrors that women have often times. And there's a reason that I don't look in those because I see many blemishes and, and things that I don't want to see, that's what light does it exposes. But now that you see it, you have to do something about it.

  And so whether this is your first time or your 1000th time, go to the light, let it expose, but also let it purify and let it guide you and illuminate your days. Church. Let us be messengers of the light. People who walk in the light who can see and who can serve as spiritual guides for those around us, help you to take. I, I pray that you'll take the opportunity. This week to take advantage of your spiritual sight. What does it mean for you to live in that spiritual seeing.

  In just a moment, we're going to participate in a communion meal. And this communion meal represents what God has done for us by sending his son to die on the cross on our behalf, that his body is represented by the bread and that is broken for us and his blood is represented by the cup and it is, it was shed for us. And as we participate in this meal, what you were saying is I see though once I was blind, now I see that your death was required for me to know you required for me to be welcomed as a child. And so with this communion meal, we invite you to participate if you are calling Christ, your savior with all of your heart, if you're following after him. So church would you stand as I pray for us and we prepare to respond through the communion meal.

  God, I asked this morning that you would give us spiritual sight to see our life. From your perspective, God, I pray that those who are here no matter what they're going through, where they're at, that you would give them a vision of you that they would see you more clearly and that the loves of their heart would be reordered so that they could keep their priorities as your priorities. God, we pray that you would wake us up to what you're doing around us and that we might participate and we might become co laborers in the work that you are already starting. And God, we pray that you would give great spiritual sight to our neighbors and to our friends. We live in a city of darkness. We live in a city where you were denied, where you were known, but you were denied. And God, we pray that you would heal our blindness and give us the energy and the power to reach others with the light, with who Jesus is. As the light of God. As we take this meal, help us to with a clear conscience. And God, we pray that you would be move and our church body this week helping us each to see you a bit more clearer. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.