Why do we so easily miss who Jesus is and why He came? When Jesus performed miracles, the religious leaders in his day failed to recognize him too. It was their job to study God's Word, so how could they have been so spiritually blind?
Well today on Truth for Life weekend, Alistair Begg looks at the reason why most doubters doubt even today.
Now we need to be very clear. that the Bible makes plain to us That sin has been has robbed us of spiritual vision. And that in this respect, we too are like this man in John 9, blind from birth. Like this man, we are unable to rectify our condition. And like him, Each of us is in need of Jesus to recreate in us the faculty which sin has.
has destroyed.
Now all of that by way of introduction But purposefully. Because without that as the framework, we will very quickly lose our way in this particular chapter. Last time, some of you will remember that we noted in the opening 12 verses or so. that the transformation in the life of this man had really set the cat among the pigeons in his community. Communities are used to things happening as they normally happen.
And it often takes some time to adjust to something that is out of the ordinary.
Well, this was definitely out of the ordinary because this man was familiar in his neighborhood as a blind man and as a man who begged because he was blind. The neighbors, according to verse 8, Who had formerly seen him begging, said to one another, isn't the same man who used to sit and beg? And some said, Oh, yes, I think it is. And others said, No, I think it's probably someone who looks like him. And they asked him, how is it that your eyes are opened?
He said the man They called Jesus, made some mud, and put it on my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash. And I went and washed, and then I could see.
Well, where's the man? He says, I don't know where he is.
Now we pick up the story from that point. They're unable to resolve their dilemma. And so they do what was customary to do. They determined to take this man to the court of public opinion, as it were. represented by the religious leaders.
The place of the synagogue in the small towns and communities of the time was a significant place. And in the same way that in events unfolding in contemporary life, journalists go to ask for a statement from certain significant individuals in the community.
So in this context, they were essentially going to the significant individuals in the community, namely the religious leaders. To see if they could shed some light on what had happened to this man.
Now, Peterson, who paraphrased the New Testament, might be a little zealous when he paraphrases verse 13. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. He paraphrases that.
So they marched the man to the Pharisees. Almost as if they took him by the ear and said, come on, you're coming to the Pharisees. You can imagine the man saying, oh no, not the Pharisees, please, not the Pharisees. I don't want to go to the Pharisees. And that would have been with some justification because what follows is not so much a conversation as it is an interrogation.
An interrogation which at the beginning has the Pharisees, the religious leaders, very much in the driving seat. But by the time it reaches the end, the man himself has turned the tables on them. Verse 26, they ask him again, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? And the man said, I told you that already.
Why do you keep asking me the same question? You didn't listen when I told you the first time. Why do you want to hear it again? Aha! You want to become his disciples too, don't you?
Oh, that infuriated them. No, they were angry then, they insulted him, they threw him out. Who is this upstart that can see? Who does he think he is? Smarty pens going around the community.
coming to us, the religious leaders, we who know everything. and speaking as if there is something he knows that we don't know. We don't usually like people knowing things that we don't know.
Now, in an attempt at clarity and simplicity. I'm going to draw our thoughts around three words. Formalism. Fear and faith. First, the formalism that is represented by the attitude and the actions of the Pharisees to whom we're introduced in verse 13.
These religious leaders were focused on the externals. without any real regard to the inner significance of the things that they paid lip service to. And you can see that the religious orthodoxy of these individuals was skin deep. Because they brought the man to the Pharisees, the man who had been blind. And instead of these individuals rejoicing in the man's story, Instead of them saying, we've been hoping for a chance to meet you, the word is out in the community that you could see, and we're so glad that you've chosen to come along and meet with us.
No, there is none of that at all. Instead, they react in such a way as to challenge what he's saying. looking for ways to discredit him. and at the same time to incriminate. Jesus.
Now their problem, John tells us, at least on the surface, was the Sabbath. Verse 14.
Now, the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was the Sabbath. Therefore, the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. It's interesting that it's a therefore. Why therefore? Why so?
they asked him. Yeah. because they were the custodians of the Sabbath. They were the ones who knew what was to happen on the Sabbath and what wasn't to happen on the Sabbath, and they knew for sure that there was no spitting on the Sabbath. You see, the Pharisees not only had the bold statement of the law of God in the Fourth Commandment.
That you shall not work. But they had decided that that needed a little help. And so they had added to it a whole list of their own regulations. For example, if a man had a running nose, a runny nose, and he was downstairs in the kitchen and he knew his handkerchief was up the stairs, it was a violation of their perspective of the Sabbath to go upstairs and get the handkerchief, let alone start rubbing his nose with it. It was not possible from their perspective on the Sabbath for a man to cut his toenails.
Nor if he found that he had one of those strange hairs that grows right out of the front of your eyebrows, if he happened to see that, as sometimes happens, he was not allowed to reach for it and pluck it out until the day after the Sabbath. And certainly there could be no spitting in the dust and stirring around and making up any kind of paste, no matter what you're trying to do with it.
Now you say, well, isn't this all so very far away from us?
Well, no, actually, not. This Sabbath question was enough for them to be divided amongst themselves. Verse 16, some of the Pharisees said, he's not from God, for he doesn't keep the Sabbath. What they meant by that was, he doesn't keep the Sabbath our way. Of course, Jesus kept the Sabbath.
He kept the law in its perfection. Jesus was sinless. In fact, Calvin suggests that Jesus performed these miracles purposefully, deliberately, on the Sabbath. I kind of like that idea.
So that it wasn't like he said, Now take up your mat and walk. And he healed the man, and somebody said, Hey, Jesus, don't you realize it's a Sabbath? He said, Of course I know it's the Sabbath. Watch this. And then he does it again.
The man born bicycles, Sabbath. He says, I know. Watch this. And right on queue, they come. Religious formalism cannot cope with transformed lives.
Religious formalism can't cope with conversion. Religious formalism cannot face the fact of the dramatic impact that Jesus makes when He takes a person and turns them upside down, which is actually to turn them the right way up. Why? Because the religious formalist then recognizes that he or she is upside down and therefore needs as much to be turned the right way up as this individual and not wanting to face the challenge of that, they hide behind the smokescreen of their ability to maintain all of the externals in terms of the religious experience. There's no indication on the part of these folks that they examined the evidence, that they had any interest in the evidence at all.
Their interest was to deny the miracle and to discredit Jesus.
Now, I'm sure that some of you can identify very quickly with this. You became a Christian, you may have become a Christian just recently. You came and acknowledged that you were blind and that you had things completely wrong, that you were lost and that Jesus came seeking to save the lost and you asked Jesus to save you and to be the shepherd of your soul. And what you've discovered now is that Religious formalism has no place for that kind of radical change. If you go to the religious formalist, whether it is your pastor or your priest or your rabbi or your next-door neighbor, or perhaps your mom and dad or your brother or whoever it might be, and tell them about this amazing change, if they are religious formalists, they probably will not give you a wonderful response.
Or they may give you some kind of superficial pacifying reaction, but they will not enter into your joy. They can't. Because you see, religious formalists do what these folks had done. While failing to keep the law of God, which they know themselves incapable of keeping. They create a convenient smoke screen.
By adding their own little rules and regulations.
So that as long as they keep their list of what is acceptable. The fact that they are still confronted by the challenge of God's law does not really concern them. And there can be nothing more challenging, nothing more embarrassing. to the religious formalist than the presence of someone who comes and shares with them That they have found Jesus to be their Savior, to be the one who has opened their eyes, to be the one who has turned them from darkness into marvelous light. You see, if you look at the text, you see that that's exactly what happened to them.
When they come a second time in verse 24 and summon the man. And they said, come on, now tell the truth. We know that Jesus is a sinner. This man's a sinner. He said, Well, I don't have a comment on whether he's a sinner or not.
I don't know anything about that, but I do know this. One thing I do know: I was blind, but now I see. And they couldn't cope with that very, very quickly. They began to insult him, they hurled insults at him, verse 28, and eventually in verse 34, how dare you come and lecture us? They said they just threw him out.
See, what they were doing was they were saying, We have tradition and we have orthodoxy on our side. Verse 28, you are this fellow's disciple? We are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses. But we don't even know where this chap comes from.
You see, what these individuals were saying was something like this. Whoever does not bow to us, this is really what he's doing, they're doing and seeking to intimidate this young man who knows clearly that he was once blind but now he can see. But they're giving him a bad time, they're back at him again and again and again, seeking to intimidate him and rob him of the reality of what he's conveying. And what they're saying is this: whoever does not bow to us and our knowledge knows nothing. And whoever knows something we don't know is a fool.
Whoever doesn't bow to us and our knowledge doesn't know what they're talking about. And whoever comes in here to tell us something that we don't know. They're foolish. That's not only the approach of religious formalism. It is also the approach of agnosticism and skepticism and intellectual elitism, isn't it?
Isn't that what the young university student, what the 10th grader is up against within the public square? If they would be bold enough in a context that is allowable and understandable to say, I once was blind, but now I see, have discovered that Jesus is the creator of the ends of the earth and that he died upon the cross and that the death of Jesus is a pivotal event of human history and that everything needs to be understood in light of that. Yeah. Oh, please. Sit down, would you?
Unless you bow to what we know. You know nothing. And if you think you know something that we don't know, You're a fool. Sit down.
Well, I believe that God created the heavens and the earth. out of nothing and out of chaos. Sit down.
Idiot. You exist as a result of time plus matter plus chance. Bow to what we know. See, religious formalism, when it is challenged by the radical claims of Jesus. reacts in the same way.
Or you say, What about it?
Well, let me just say this to you.
Some of you may be here, and this actually describes you. You say, well, I hope not, but but Let's just hold out the possibility, shall we? You may be here and you actually are a religious formalist. That's been your whole background, forms and structures and the doing of things. Do you have peace with God?
Do you have the assurance of the forgiveness of your sins? Do you rest in the reality of your hope? that one day you will see Jesus and be made like him? I wager that you don't. You actually can't.
Because the religious formalist is relying on their capacity to continue maintaining the externals without the radical internal transformation which gives significance to the form and structures of religious life. Indeed, these very forms and structures may prove to be a barrier to you coming to faith in Jesus. Because if you have a little list of whatever it is that makes you acceptable to God, and it's easy for us to come up with this list, well, I always go by the golden rule and do unto others as you would do to yourself. And that's my credo, and that's my good.
Well, that's fine. But what about your jealous heart? What about your dirty mind? What about your dishonesty? How does this little golden rule deal with these things?
Of course it doesn't. You see, if religious formalism was enough to get a man or a woman to heaven, then there would be no need for Jesus to die upon the cross, would there? If doing it ourselves is sufficient. then there would be no need for this Amazing. Grace.
How we just got a moment. to go to the Word fear. Don't be afraid that we're going to go much beyond our time. We're not. It's not the fear that I'm referencing.
The fear here. is the fear that is found in the reaction of the man's parents. The Jews send for The parents? They still didn't believe verse 18, that he'd been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. After they sent for the man's parents, there was nowhere for them to hide.
And they brought the parents there, it'd be a little intimidating for them, I think you would we would agree if somebody summoned you to the synagogue of the day and there the elders sat in their robes and in their finery and you came along, Mr. and Mrs. Levi or whoever you were. And they said, thank you for coming out. We were hoping for a chance to talk with you.
We have three questions. Number one: the fellow over here, is he your son? Number two, is he the one you say was born blind? And number three, how is it that he can now see? The husband looks at the wife, the wife looks at the husband, and then the wife responds.
Because she is the braver of the two.
Well, we can answer one and two very easily. He is our son, and yes, he was born blind. But when it comes to your third question, well, we really don't have a comment on that at all. They're reticent, they're timid, and they're quick to pass the buck. Why don't you ask him?
He's a big lad. He can speak for himself.
Well, clearly they must have known something. They knew that a person was involved, otherwise they couldn't have mentioned the person. Can it be? that they were more concerned for their reputation and for their status. Then they were thrilled and excited that their son had received his sight.
I mean, why are they not linking arms with this boy? and saying to these religious leaders, This is the kind of thing we need in our church. I mean, we need some of this stuff, guys. We're listening to your sermons and frankly, they're like dust in your mouth. And now comes the Galilean prophet His sermons are understandable, and look what's happening to people's lives.
Yes. We know. Jesus is the key to this. Are boys here and we're here? And what do you have to say for yourselves?
But they don't. Why don't you just ask him? He's there, he can speak for himself. He's a big lad. Now, admittedly, the prospect of being removed from the synagogue, which is the explanation in verse 22, the reason the parents said this, because they were afraid of the Jews, because the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.
We're not going to make little of that. There's some significance in it, isn't there? The embarrassment that would be attached to that kind of removal. But if they had truly Understood what had happened, if they had truly come to understand who this Jesus was. Then they would have taken their stand with their boy.
But as it was, they didn't take their stand with the boy because they couldn't take their stand with the boy, presumably because they had not come to trust in Jesus.
So the Pharisees are distanced from this great good news. by their formalism. And the parents are distanced from this great good news. by their fear. You may be here and that's exactly your story.
with little variations. One day, your son or your daughter came into your home and said, I've discovered that Jesus is my Savior and my friend. And you said, You don't need that kind of nonsense. We brought you up in the way that you needed to be brought up. We gave you every kind of opportunity for religion.
And you did. And it was good. And it was helpful. And it actually was a foundation that led the youngster to the point where they said, doing all this stuff isn't giving me forgiveness, isn't giving me peace, isn't giving me hope. And then they discovered.
That it wasn't in the doing of the stuff. But it was in what had been done by Jesus. that there was faith. and there was grace, and there was forgiveness. And there was freedom.
And the parents now have the same decision to make as the religious formalists. If we acknowledge that what has happened to Junior is true. then that means it needs to happen to us. as well. And that may be too high a hill to climb.
So I say to you. Do not love formalism to keep you from Jesus. And do not allow fear. of your peer group to keep you from Jesus. See the fear of going back to the country club.
And the friend saying, what happened to your boy? And for you to have to say, The same thing has happened to me. What? You're in it as well? Yes.
How did that happen? What did you do? Nothing.
Well somebody had to do something.
Somebody did do something. Sit down, I'll tell you what he did. That's a story. Get out there? And tell your friends.
Get out there and turn Cleveland upside down with this fantastic good news. Come on. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend with Alistair Begg. As Alastair mentioned, it's important not to let religious formalism, or fear of what others might think, keep us from Jesus. And help you resist these temptations, there are a couple of books we'd like to recommend to you.
The first is a book called Christ and His Threefold Office. It examines the glory of Christ and how His Incarnation qualified Him to mediate on behalf of every believer, and prepared Him to act as Prophet, Priest, and King. The title of the second book is Christ Humbled, Yet Exalted. This one looks at why the life, death, and ascension of Jesus is the foundation of true joy. These books are revised versions of a Puritan classic, The Fountain of Life.
The author is John Flabel. He was one of the most popular preachers in the seventeenth century. He faced personal challenges throughout his life, and yet he maintained that he was upheld and fortified by the joy rooted in his relationship with Christ. To find out more about this two-book bundle, visit our website at truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine.
Thanks for studying the Bible with us.
Next weekend, we'll take a closer look at why we often encounter pushback when we come to faith in Christ. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
