Pride is a mega sin because it puts you in competition with God. But Dr. Tony Evans says humility can open the door to God's blessings. God will give more to those who are humble enough to receive it. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.
Life can often feel like navigating a maze, uncertainties, and obstacles at every turn. But in the Gospel of John, we discover that Jesus not only illuminates our path, but also guides us through it. In today's lesson, Dr. Evans unpacks this powerful truth for us.
Let's join him as he begins in the 9th chapter of John. Jesus passes by and he comes across, verse 1, a man who is blind from birth. There was the thought during that day that if a person had a birth defect of serious nature, that is because the person did something wrong or the parents did something wrong that transferred to the child. Jesus makes a powerful statement in verses 3 and 4. He says, neither this man sinned nor his parents. It was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Now, this is very important theologically because what it means is God allows negatives to accomplish positives. Nobody sinned. So that means that every defect is not because of something done wrong. However, when God allows it, he allows it, he says specifically that the works of God may be displayed in him.
So there was a divine reason for a human defect. And so, we must work the works of him, verse 4, sent me as long as it is day. Night is coming when no man can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. He brings this idea of day and night.
He is the light of the world. We saw the book open up with Jesus being the light. He was the visible manifestation of God in the world. And so that made it daytime when the sun was shining.
God was physically visible here through Jesus Christ. So it was daytime. Nighttime is when he would leave.
The light would not be physically present anymore. So that would be nighttime. So since it's daytime, Jesus is here, he's doing this miraculous activity.
There is coming a point where there will be nighttime. He will not be physically here. And that's when Jesus is going to tell them later on. That's when the Holy Spirit is going to come because Jesus will not be physically here. You're going to be living in a dark world because I'm not here.
So you're going to need another comforter, which is going to be the Holy Spirit, in order to make it in the darkness of the world during my absence. So he has this blind man. He spits on the ground. So he spits on the ground. The ground, dirt, earth, is what man was made from. Remember when God created Adam? He did it from the dirt of the ground. So Jesus took the spit from his mouth, he mixed it with the dirt on the ground, and made clay of spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes.
So you have deity with humanity, the Word of God from his mouth, mixed with the substance of creation. The substance of creation, he puts it on the man's eyes and says, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sin. So he went away and washed and came back seeing.
Please note something. That he gave the man something to do. He told him, go to the pool and wash his eyes, okay? That is, he called him to an action of faith. Remember, faith is what you do, not simply just intellectually believing something. He acted in faith.
And when the supernatural, the spittle from his mouth, mixed with his humanity, and he moved in faith, the supernatural occurred because that was God's purpose. Now here's the problem, verse 14. Now here's the problem, verse 14, now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened up his eyes. Now we've seen this a number of times already where Jesus does something on the Sabbath, okay?
Which as far as the Pharisees were concerned was not allowed. The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight until they called the parents of the very one who had received the sight. So they don't believe him, so they say, let me talk to your mom and your daddy. They question them, is this your son who was born blind? They say, well, how does he see? The parents said to him, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees, we do not know.
Or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him, he's of age. He'll speak for himself, so we can tell you he's our son, we can tell you he's born blind.
From that point on, you got to talk to this, he a grown man, you can ask him. So his parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had agreed if anyone confessed him to be Christ, they were to be put out of the synagogue. So the parents answered the way they answered because they didn't want to be removed from religious acceptability.
So I just want to pause and make a point here. When you publicly confess Christ, remember the Pharisees' goal was there to be no public confession of Christ, nobody agreeing with Christ. When you confess Christ, you will often place yourself in a position to be ostracized, to be rejected, because they knew that this could be rejection by the religious order. Believing in God is safe, confessing Christ is a problem. You can get away with God all day long, because nobody knows really who you're talking to, but you're in a general, vague way to confess Christ is specificity.
So they didn't want to lose their standing in the synagogue. So they deflected and said in verse 23, well, you ask him. So second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God, that sounds spiritual. Okay, so they're using God's name against Jesus, because they don't want you to confess Jesus, but they will talk God. So they said to him, what did he do to you?
How do you now, open your eyes? Of course, he just told them, but they didn't accept that. He answered them, I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear this?
And you did not listen, why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become his disciples too, do you? So my friend here, see, that's the beautiful thing when you meet Jesus for yourself, because then it doesn't matter what other folk think. They reviled him and said, you are his disciples, but we are disciples of Moses. They're pitting Jesus against Moses, okay? We're following Moses, the Old Testament prophet. You said Jesus is a prophet. You're following Jesus, we view him as a sinner.
We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he is from. Now, okay, please notice the order. The man has been ostracized because of his defense and confession and recognition of Christ.
But guess what? When Jesus heard that he had been booted out, Jesus found him. My point is simply, when you lose because you confess Christ, you win.
It may feel like a loss for a minute. It may look like a loss for a minute, but Jesus knows where you are and why you are where you are because of your commitment to him, and so Jesus tracked him down, okay? So Jesus says your physical healing was for a spiritual purpose. Physical healing was for a spiritual purpose. God uses the physical to teach the spiritual. That's why there's so many illustrations in the Bible when God wants to teach a spiritual point. Even our salvation, he calls it being born again. He uses the physical birth to express the spiritual birth. When he talks about the marriage of a man and a woman, he uses that in Ephesians 5, and he says, I'm talking about Christ and the church. So he takes the physical to illustrate the spiritual. And so he says, for judgment I have come into the world so that those who recognize they are blind can receive sight, and those who think they know it all.
Anybody ever met a know-it-all? And you know they don't know nothing, but they don't know that they don't know nothing. They think they see, but they're really blind. So those are the Pharisees who were with him, heard these things and said to him, we are not blind too, are we? Are you calling us blind? Jesus says, if you were blind, you would have no sin, but since you say we see, your sin remains.
Since you think nothing's wrong, everything's wrong. Everything's wrong, because you don't see your own blindness. If you saw your blindness, you'd be able to see, but because you don't see your blindness, because you don't see your blindness, you still are trapped in your sin. Today's lesson is part of Dr. Evans' 14-part sermon series on the Gospel of John, where we learn of Jesus' divinity and how His love and personal sacrifice transform the lives of those who accept Him. This in-depth study of His interactions with others will inspire you to reflect Christ-like love in your own relationships, and encourage you to see the world from God's perspective. For a limited time, you can get this complete audio series along with Tony's encouraging book, Dry Bones Dancing, a helpful resource for revitalizing your faith. Just visit us today at tonyevans.org, or call us at 1-800-800-3222, make a contribution, and let us send you the Gospel of John audio series and Dry Bones Dancing. Once again, you can find all the details of this special offer online at tonyevans.org, or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.
Well, let's get back to more now from Dr. Evans. This leads Jesus in chapter 10 to go a little further, to talk about His relationship to His people. Truly, truly, I say to you, He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way. He is a thief and a robber. Sheep were kept in an enclosure during the night to protect them from animals and thieves. So there would be a watchman, the shepherd, who would let them in and out to graze during the day.
Satan is like a thief who would seek to steal or to keep people from being saved. He comes in another way. Since the shepherd is guarding the door, he uses other means to try to get at the sheep. So he uses a sheep-shepherd motif, or theme, to talk about his relationship to the sheep, which are his children, believers. But he who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. So Jesus is defining Himself as the shepherd, and the job of the shepherd is to provide and protect the sheep. To Him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. He calls His own sheep by name. This is a personal relationship with the believer.
And I love this. He calls them by name. He knows your name. Everybody has a different name, and He knows everybody's name. Just like you get saved personally in the world, just like you get saved personally, individually, you get led, guided, and directed personally and individually. He knows your name, and your name is not my name. My name is not your name. That is why it is this personal relationship, because He doesn't lead us all the same way at the same time to the same place, okay?
I mean, heaven in that sense, but in terms of living our lives. So He knows He knows you, and that's why you want to have this personal shepherd-sheep relationship. He knows them, and they follow Him.
A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from Him because they do not know the voice of strangers. He says the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep is supposed to be at a level that you will recognize when it's not Him. It's amazing in the animal kingdom how all those animals look alike, but the mother knows the child, you know? They look alike.
I mean, they'd be looking exactly alike, but the mother knows the baby animal that belongs to it. We know our children, even when we're not—they know our voice. They know when it's us talking. So God wants such an intimate relationship that we will flee from that which is not His voice. This figure of speech, Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what these things were, which He had been saying to them.
So they're not fully comprehending this discussion at this point. Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you—okay, let me break it down, break it down—I am the door of the sheep. I am the one who is this point of entrance. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved.
He will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes in, and we quote this a lot, only to steal and kill and destroy. I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. A division occurs among the Jews because of these words. Many of them were saying, he is a demon and is out of his mind.
Insane. Why do you listen to him? Others were saying, these are not the sayings of one demon possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, Kenny. Jesus says, I told you, verse 25, and you do not believe the words of the blind. I told you, verse 25, and you do not believe the words that I do in my Father's name. They testify of me.
Watch this. Jesus does it in his Father's name. His Father then responds and gives Jesus, in terms of their exercise of authority, the right to act on earth.
Now, follow this logic. Jesus does it in his Father's name. We do what we do in Jesus's name. So we confess Jesus. Jesus confesses his Father, and that produces this boomerang effect. Just like when Jesus confessed his Father, his work happened on earth.
When we confess the Son, our work happens on earth when it's in the will of God, because it's connected to this cycle. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. You don't belong to me, and so you reject me. My sheep are my voice, and I know them, and they will follow me, okay? And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, eternal security, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. It's not that you hold on to God. It's that God holds on to you. No man can snatch them out of my hand.
If you're walking with a little child, even if their hand goes limp, if you're holding on to them, then the fact that their hand goes limp does not affect their ability to stand, because it's not their strength. It's your strength holding them. But it even gets more than that, he says, because they're also in my Father's hand, so that they shall never perish, never perish, a direct statement of eternal security. Because some people say, well, nobody can snatch him out of his hand, but I can snatch myself out of his hand. Well, you can't even do that.
That's like a hand going limp, okay? You can't, because you would have to overpower his hand, the hand of Jesus and the hand of the Father. But again, the knowledge that I am secure forever should not produce more rebellion.
It should produce more gratitude. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him, okay? They love trying to kill Jesus, okay? Jesus said, I showed you many good works from the Father. And you've seen all this stuff I've done. For which of them are you stoning me, okay? Which miracle are you stoning me for this time? The Jews answered him, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy.
And because you, being a man, make yourself out to be what? God. God. See, when he said me and my Father are one, they understood clearly what he was saying. You make yourself out to be God. And as far as they were concerned, that was blasphemy, you know? Because, of course, there would be the rejection of the Trinity. And so they clearly understand, they clearly understood what Jesus was saying when he said one.
It means equal to, okay? And so Jesus answered, has it not been written in your law, I said you are God's? Okay, so Jesus goes back to the Old Testament in verse 34, and he says, in your law, he's referring to their judges, you called your judges imperfect people. In the Psalms, you call them God, okay? If you call them gods, to whom the Word of God came and the scriptures cannot be broken, the scriptures cannot be undermined, the scriptures cannot be destroyed, do you say of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God?
In other words, if you recognize sinful men as having honored positions, what are you going to say about a perfect man? Okay, you even recognize humans at a higher level. So look at my works and what I have done, and tell me what you see. If I do not the works of my Father, do not believe me, okay?
I'm willing to be examined by you guys, and if I've fallen short, then don't believe me. But if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the works so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father. Okay, if you don't buy my words, look at my works. I've given my words, I've given you my works, but if you don't even buy my words, you explain what happened. Therefore, they were seeking again to seize him, and he eluded their grip, their grasp. He went away beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptized, and he was staying there. Many came to him and were saying, while John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.
Many believed in him there. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us that Christ offers clarity, direction, and an abundant life for those who believe and trust in Him. Now, before we wrap up today, let me remind you to take advantage of that resource package I mentioned earlier, all 14 messages from both volumes of Tony's current audio series on the Gospel of John, along with his encouraging book on revitalizing your faith called Dry Bones Dancing. They're yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help keep this listener-supported program coming your way. Just visit tonyevans.org to make the arrangements, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by to assist with your request. That's 1-800-800-3222, or online at tonyevans.org. It's been said that life throws curveballs, those unexpected twists that challenge our faith and understanding. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will show how Jesus uses a seemingly impossible situation to reveal that God's plan is greater than any obstacle or circumstance life can throw at us. Be sure to tune in!
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-02-04 02:07:48 / 2025-02-04 02:16:18 / 9