6th Sign: Spiritual Blindness, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

The old chief stood to his feet, put his hands out, and asked his people to be quiet. Then he looked at the people and said, we must stop killing our babies. Think of that. We must stop killing our babies.

Why? They're animists. Every deformed baby is taken in the jungle and abandoned.

Right after birth, that's what you did with a deformed baby. As soon as he heard this verse read, he said, we have to stop this. An amazing response, but even as of today, there are places in the world that believe you're born blind. It's because if something spiritually is wrong with you. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Have you ever tried to imagine what it'd be like to be born blind? Think about that for just a moment. You could feel the warmth of sunlight. You've never seen a sunrise or sunset. You'd be able to smell a flower. We did never see the colors. You could touch and feel the coldness of snow, but you wouldn't understand what a white blanket of it would be like at all. Maybe the worst thing is you have no idea what you're missing at all.

You'd have no idea. That's the background that John uses for the sixth great sign in his book. It illustrates that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. And as like the others, this one will give us a revelation into the power of Jesus Christ and a little bit more about his nature.

But this one's a little different in this way. This one, John's going to reveal something very important about you and me. He's going to reveal something about human nature. He's going to illustrate that the world is populated by people who are spiritually blind.

That's what he's going to say. It sort of reminds me of Matthew. Matthew 13 says. Those seeing they do not see. Paul said in Second Corinthians four for the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

It's as though man needs a spiritual ophthalmologist to spiritually do to him what Jesus Christ is going to do physically to the man this morning. Open your Bibles to John nine. John nine. As I've told you before, John's book is not very chronological. We're only in Chapter nine. But remember, by the time you get to Chapter 13, you're already the night before the crucifixion.

So that's the way John is written. The hostility against Jesus is now at an all time high. And the time will be it's a time between tabernacles in the fall and the feast of dedication in the winter. So he's not that far away from what we will call the Easter season or the Passion Week for him. Verse fifty nine of Chapter eight tells you what the climate's like. It says, therefore, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

The hostility now is really ramped up at this particular time. And so now he's going to show us this extraordinary sign miracle that Jesus does. It says, as he passed by. He saw a man blind from birth.

Now, what's interesting about that is that he saw the man. If you understand the culture of Israel at the time that this took place, someone who has been born blind is a full time beggar. Almost always they will line themselves up on the roads that go to the temple grounds. The reason is the Jews make lots and lots of travel and pilgrimage to the temple.

So they're able to beg to be able to sustain a living. Now, what's interesting about it is they're not much different than we are as people. Rarely does Jewish people look at the beggars. They don't look at him and his case, they wouldn't look at all because he's blind. Therefore, they would say he's ceremonially unclean.

He is an unclean person. Jesus went out of his way to actually see this man. And it says, as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples ask him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? That's the common view of the day.

If you did a poll, it would be 99% of all the people in Israel believe that if you're born blind, either you sinned or your parents sinned. That's the way this works. Otherwise, this wouldn't have happened. It's a view that's been around. If you remember the Book of Job, I mean, that's actually the first book written in the Bible, even though Genesis is the first book. But the Book of Job.

Job's friends basically said, what to Job? You did something. You sinned. This wouldn't happen if you didn't sin. So his disciples, they don't even really see the man.

They just want to promote a discussion here. Who did the sinning here? Now, it's interesting that verse three says, Jesus, it was neither this man who sinned nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Wow. A couple observations.

What about the first one? How would you like to have been born blind, maybe live in 20, 30, 40 years blind as a beggar and then find out the only reason you were blind is it was a divine appointment with Jesus Christ and God was going to be glorified. Just imagine what that had been like for him. It's an interesting thing, though, when he said it. I'm sure the response of the disciples was I don't get it. I don't even understand that.

How could have that been the case? Let me illustrate how it still goes to relatively the modern day. There was a Wycliffe translators, Bob and Jan Smotherman, and they were assigned Makuna people in Southeast Columbia in South America, the upper Amazon is a very primitive tribe. And so they went there to do their work. And as Wycliffe translators, they want to translate the New Testament into the Makuna language. And so it takes him five years and he finally translates the the Gospel of John. In order to help with the translation, the chief gave his son to be the one that helps the Wycliffe translators. And so. The whole tribe comes together now and wants to hear the Gospel of John written.

In their language. And the son is going to read it. And so he begins in nine one, just what I read. And his son reads about the encounter with a man born blind. And when he got to the verse that Jesus says this man was born blind in order that the works of God might be put on display.

The old chief stood to his feet, put his hands out and asked his people to be quiet. Then he looked at the people and said, we must stop killing our babies. Think of that. We must stop killing our babies. Why?

They're animist. Every deformed baby is taken in the jungle and abandoned right after birth. That's what you did with a deformed baby. Soon as he heard this verse read, he said, we have to stop this amazing response. But even as of today, there are places in the world that believe if you're born blind, it's because of something spiritually is wrong with you. Now, Christ then gives his motivation. He said, we must work the works of him who sent me as long as it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. And while I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world.

Interesting motivation of Jesus. Notice the pronoun we. We know who's we. Now, in some ways, you could say it's all of us or it's you and me, too. It's we must do the work.

And there's a little bit of an application. But when you read John more carefully, especially in John five, Jesus talks about he and the father always working. And I think the we is the son and the father are working. And he says, we, he said, must do the works of him who sent me as long as it is day because night's coming pretty shortly for him. What's he mean by night? I'm going to be crucified.

You see, it's going to be over from that point of view. And then he describes it. He said, I'm the light of the world. He said, that's my job here.

It sort of applies to us in that way, doesn't it? How long should you do the work of God? As long as you're here. What guarantee do you have that night's a long ways off for you?

None. So the whole idea is to be in the present. We've got to do this work right now. I've got to bring light into the world. Why? Because the world is dark. That's why Jesus says you're the light of the world. You see, that's the whole point. Or I could say it differently. I came here that I can bring spiritual sight to the world. Why? The world's blind.

The world can't see it at all. So after he says that, he says something that, frankly, I wasted a lot of hours this week reading about because I didn't get anywhere. It says when he had said this, he spat on the ground, he made clay of the spittle and he applied the clay to the eyes. So the question is, why do you do that? Now, after reading as much material as I could find, I can categorically tell you I have no idea.

Absolutely none. I mean, I have all kinds of theories. Some of them said, well, the Jews believed in the healing power of saliva. So that's why you use some saliva there.

I don't really think that would be pertinent. One commentator said it was to make the man even more blind. If you're born blind, you can't become more blind. Another was to illustrate to all of us that we're of the earth. And so he used it of the earth. Why he did it, I don't know. I'm sure if you ask him in heaven, he'll tell you, you know, exactly why he did it. But I think why he did it was to test the man.

That's exactly what I believe happened. He's testing the man. So it said and he said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent.

That's why. Now, think you're the man. You've never seen anything. You hear a voice. The voice comes to you and notice what he says to him. And he just says it after he had said this, he spat on the ground.

The man's right there. And he takes it and this guy starts touching your face and your eyes. Then he says to you, go and wash in the pool of Siloam. Now, remember, he's blind. It's about a quarter of a mile for him to get to the pool of Siloam.

There are five hewn stone steps on three different levels that he has to navigate down. He's blind. See, Jesus is testing his man. Will you listen to what I'm telling you?

Will you do that? And notice what ends up happening here. It says, so he went away and washed and he came back saying. Wow. See, why the pool of Siloam? Well, it's interesting. John gives you a clue there. It's translated what?

Scent. You see, outside the city wall is a gigantic pool, Gihon. That pool was where Jerusalem got their water.

And when Hezekiah was king, the Assyrians had already taken the north and they were probably going to attack Jerusalem. So he said the Assyrians will take over the pool and will die of thirst. So what I want to do is I'm going to build a tunnel under the wall into the lower end of that great pool. Let the water run in to this pool inside the wall protected in that post called Siloam means scent. In other words, the water is scent to us.

Now, think of Jesus Christ for a moment. He's the living water of God. Was he sent?

Yes. You see, he's bringing life giving water. He said, you got to go to Siloam, this pool that was scent. It's kind of an amazing thing when you think about it. And then it says just as simply as it could, he came back saying. You might not realize it, but that's a greater miracle than you can imagine.

First of all, let me give you some facts. There's never recorded once in the Bible, not in the Old Testament at all, person born blind that ever saw. Not one incident. There's only one instance in the whole testament of my man ever seen.

In the New Testament, every time sites restored, Jesus does it except once. Some very special about this. Imagine it from his point of view, navigate all the steps you get to the pool, you feel the water and you just do this. And all of a sudden, light starts happening.

Keep doing it. Next thing you know, all of a sudden you see everything for the first time in your life. Now, this is what makes this a more amazing miracle than you could imagine.

That shouldn't have ever happened. You see, we think Jesus just restored his eyes, gave him new eyes. There it is.

That's how it works. I read out of a book this week. The book is called Catching the Light. It's written by a quantum physicist named Arthur Sonjack. And he talks about the intertwined history of light and your mind.

It's a very heavy, not a book you want to read for pleasure, for sure. But the point of it is, is he goes on and he says something here. He says, I investigated people trying to recover from being born blind. And he said, thanks to cornea plant transplants, people who had been born blind, he said, suddenly have the functional use of their eyes. But hardly ever do they ever see.

Think of that. They hardly ever see, even though they've had their eyes replaced. And he says that the reason for it is, is that it takes much more than having restored eyes.

He said the light of day will beckon, but no light of their mind will reply to what you see. He said that the idea, he quotes a Dr. Moreau who says, the employment of this power to see, which as a whole constitutes the act of seeing, still has to be acquired from the beginning. To give back sight to someone born blind is a lot more work for an educator than it is for a surgeon. The sober truth remains that vision requires more than the functioning of a physical organ. Without the inner light in your mind, without the formative visual imagination, you will remain blind.

In other words, your brain can't compute the signal sent to it by your eyes. I never even knew that existed. Now, what kind of miracle is this? This guy's not going through a therapy program. This guy just simply, Jesus, he, all of that's done instantly and it comes away seeing. Now, what's the result of this?

It's kind of an interesting thing. He comes away seeing and it says, therefore, the neighbors who had previously saw him as a bigger were saying, is not this the one who used to sit and beg? Wouldn't you say that?

But what's the response? Others were saying, this is he still. Others were saying, no, he just looks like him.

Why? No one born blind ever saw. They don't have one story in their in all their oral history of anyone ever doing this. And so they're the neighbors that see the guy all the time are divided. I don't think that could be him.

I think it is him. Now, my favorite line in that verse. He kept saying over and over, I'm the one, I'm the one. How could you not? You're now seeing for the first time in 20, 30, 40 years, first time.

And now you think everyone would be excited for you. And now they're saying, I don't know who that is and I don't know if that's him. So they said to him, how then were your eyes opened? I love his answer.

He's very concise. He said, the man who has called Jesus made clay annoyed in my eyes and said to me, go to asylum and wash. So I went away and wash.

I received my sight. That's all I know. That's what he did. He said, well, where is he? He said, I don't know.

You see, that sounds great, but I want you to see what gets introduced now. What's the reason for this miracle? So blind man could see?

No. That's not why Jesus healed this man. You're going to see in a moment why.

Here it comes. They brought him to the Pharisees, the man who was formerly blind. Now it was the Sabbath day that Jesus made clay and opened his eyes.

That's why he sees. It's a Sabbath day. From here on out, you're going to see another main point of this whole miracle. Religion makes you spiritually blind to the light of the world. Religion will make you spiritually blind to the light of the world.

That's the real reason for this miracle. It's a Sabbath. By the way, they had a lot of Sabbath was hundreds and hundreds.

Let me give you a couple more. You can't give medical treatment to anybody on a Sabbath. That's against the law. Sometimes it's life and death you might be able to try, but no medical treatment can be given to anybody on a Sabbath day. Secondly, on a Sabbath day, you're not allowed to take saliva out of your mouth and spread it on anything. That's a violation of God's law to the Pharisees. Now, you're also not allowed to cut your nails. You're not allowed to pull gray hair out of your head.

You're not allowed to do any work like that. That's breaking the Sabbath. That's why Jesus did this.

He knew exactly what they thought. He did it for this confrontation that he's having here. So then the Pharisees also, in verse 15, were asking him how he received his sight. And he said to them, okay, he applied clay to my eyes, I watched, I see. Can I get out of here and go look at some things? You know, why am I talking to you? I've just told you what happened. Therefore, some of the Pharisees were saying, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.

Well, what do they mean? Jesus failed the test. Jesus cannot be from God. He failed the test. He violated the Sabbath. No man from God would violate the Sabbath law. That's their view. Now, remember, they distorted the Sabbath completely. Jesus has already told them more than once, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath.

You see, but they're like, no, you violated our law. You cannot be from God at all. But others were saying, how can a man who's a sinner perform such signs?

And there's a division among them. Now, I don't know for sure because John doesn't tell us, but I'm guessing one of the others was Nicodemus, who ends up converting. But remember, Nicodemus came to Jesus. And what did he tell Jesus the first time they met?

No one can do what you're doing unless he's sent from God. He tells Jesus that. So I'm sure Nicodemus is there saying, wait a minute, there's something else going on here. You see, there's something more here. So there's a fight among the Pharisees. Some of them are beginning to see a little bit. The others are blind.

They're not doing anything. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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