John 9:1-7
Sunday Morning Bible Study
February 4, 1996
Introduction
Jesus has been teaching in the temple since early morning.
Some of the people had begun to believe in Him.
Some had just been more hardened against Him.
When He finally said:
»John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
The Jews knew that He was claiming to be the great I AM, Yahweh Himself.
Our passage last week ended with:
»John 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
:1-7 A blind man healed
:1 as Jesus passed by ...
As Jesus is leaving the temple ...
:1 a man which was blind from his birth
Here is a man who has never seen anything.
:2 who did sin, this man, or his parents ...
Who is to blame?
If the man were the cause of the trouble, then he must have committed the sin while in the womb.
There were some Jews that believed this about people born with deformity.
Whether or not an infant is actually able to sin while in the mother's womb is kind of far-fetched.
But there is a truth to the idea that sin can result in sickness.
When Jesus had healed the man paralyzed for 38 years, He said to him:
»John 5:14 ... Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
If the parents were the trouble, then the idea is that sin can somehow pass it's consequences on from generation to generation.
There is a sense of this in Scripture as well:
»Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
We can see elements of this in our modern society:
Children of alcoholics are at a higher risk for becoming alcoholics themselves.
Children that are abused have a greater tendency to turn around and abuse their own children.
We can even see it in pregnant mothers
If a mother is on drugs, it's common for the baby to be born addicted to drugs, or even to be born deformed.
If a mother smokes while pregnant, the baby is affected in certain ways, as low birth weight.
Man's eternal questioning
Man's tendency to ask the question "why"
We want to understand why things are the way they are.
We see a child born with birth-defects, and we want to know why.
We see a teenager die with leukemia, and we ask why.
When bad things happen to us, we ask why.
In this situation, the disciples are going to get an answer from Jesus.
We may not always receive an answer, at least not immediately.
:3 Neither ...
It's interesting that the disciples only gave Jesus two options.
It's either A or B.
That's because that's all the answers they could think of.
But Jesus says neither.
Lesson:
Sometimes the answers are outside our understanding.
Sometimes we need to realize that there's just a limit to what we're able to comprehend.
I'm very glad that Jesus isn't held back by our lack of vision or understanding.
»Ephesians 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
:3 Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents
It's not that they had never sinned, but that their sin was not the cause of the man's blindness.
Lesson:
Sickness is not always a result of sin.
We need to be careful of judging people and drawing conclusions that their condition is a result of sin.
In Job's case, it was exactly the opposite.
After having been tested with the loss of his property and family ...
»Job 1:6-8 NIV One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it." 8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
»Job 2:3-7 NIV Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason." 4 "Skin for skin!" Satan replied. "A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face." 6 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life." 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
In a way, it almost makes you hope that the Lord isn't as proud of you as He was of Job.
Later, Job's friends made the same mistake as the disciples, of assuming that his troubles were a result of some sort of sin.
In the end, God ended up rebuking the friends for assuming that Job was in sin of some sort.
Application:
Have mercy on the sick!
This wrong attitude is present in many churches that say that a person must always be healed.
Illustration:
I've talked with several people who have long-term illnesses or handicaps about the issue of their healing.
One of the things that hurts the most is when a person comes up to them and says that they know the Lord wants to heal them, and then they pray for them, or lay hands on them.
But when the prayer doesn't result in a healing, then it's either a lack of faith, or sin in the sick person's life.
NOT NECESSARILY TRUE!
It could be, but it doesn't have to be.
How come nobody ever questions the faith of the one doing the praying?
We need to take a balanced approach and still be open to pray for people, but not to be so quick to blame them if they aren't healed!
:3 but that the works of God should be made manifest in him
Jesus is saying that this man was born blind for the very reason that God's works should be displayed in his life.
In other words, Jesus is saying that this man was born blind just so Jesus could heal him.
There's a principle here that actually can work in all of our lives.
Lesson:
Let God use your weakness to His glory!
It might be through you being healed.
This man was able to bring much glory to Jesus through being healed.
But it might be by the way that you trust Him even while you're sick.
Illustration:
Joni Eareckson Tada
Here's a gal who at age 17 who was severely paralyzed in a diving accident, can't move from the shoulders down.
She brings great glory to the Lord in showing how she trusts God despite her handicaps.
She paints pictures with a brush in her mouth.
She says that she's so thankful that God allowed her to have the accident because she has learned to spend time with God.
In the evenings, she can't do anything else.
Her body requires her to go to bed early, but she's still wide awake as she lays in her bed staring at the ceiling.
She's learned to use that time in the evenings to commune with God!
Paul teaches that when we understand how God can be working even more in our lives when we are weak, we should actually be happy about our weaknesses!
»2Corinthians 12:7-10 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
I know that for me, some of the most special Bible Studies I've done are the ones when I'm sick, tired, and just feeling lousy.
That's when God seems to come through the strongest on my end of things.
:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day
It seems that the best explanation of what Jesus is talking about here is the day being while He was alive, the night, when He would be dead.
Jesus is saying that He's only got so much time left in His earthly ministry, and He wants to spend that time doing what God has sent Him to do.
In particular, here is Jesus standing before a man who is born blind, a man who needs Jesus' touch.
:4 the night cometh, when no man can work
The same is in all our lives.
There is a night coming when it is no longer possible to do the kinds of things that you can do when you're alive.
It's not that a dead person can't do anything.
But there's an awful lot that it is too late for.
It's not going to be very easy to sit down and share your testimony, or read the Bible to a person when you're dead.
There's another kind of "night" that's coming too.
Pretty soon Jesus is going to come and take us out of here.
And there won't be any more time to do those things you always wanted to get around to.
Lesson:
Use the precious little time you have wisely.
Moses wrote:
»Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Illustration:
In a lifetime, the average American will...
* Spend six months sitting at traffic lights waiting for them to change.
* Spend one year searching through desk clutter looking for misplaced objects.
* Spend eight months opening junk mail.
* Spend two years trying to call people who aren't in or whose line is busy.
* Spend five years waiting in lines.
* Spend three years in meetings.
* Learn how to operate twenty thousand different things, from pop machines to can openers to digital radio controls. (Notice: They did not mention programming a VCR).
In addition, the average American will...
* Commute forty-five minutes every day.
* Be interrupted seventy-three times every day. (The average manager is interrupted every eight minutes.)
* Receive six hundred advertising messages every day (television, newspapers, magazines, radio, billboards).
* Travel 7,700 miles every year.
* Watch 1,700 hours of television every year.
* Open six hundred pieces of mail every year.
-- Richard A. Swenson, M.D., Margin, p. 149-150.
Paul wrote:
»Ephesians 5:15-17 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
circumspectly
- exactly, accurately, diligently; carefully.redeem - to buy up, to buy up for one's self, for one's use.
Take advantage of what is in front of you.
God wants you to know what His will is for your life, and spend your time doing that!
Illustration:
Here's an interesting way to reclaim some of those lost years talking to certain long-winded people on the phone:
"Gotta Go" is the name of a new device to help you get rid of long-winded callers. It produces a clicking sound just as call-waiting does when you have another call. Two entrepreneurs invented the device, which sells for $19.95. They expected to sell over a million by mail in 1993.
-- Media Management Newsletter, Feb. 1994, p.4.
We don't know how much longer we'll have to work.
We need to be thinking about making the best use of our time that we can.
Warning:
Be careful of giving yourself too many reasons not to be doing something, or anything.
Mathew Henry: He that will never do a good work till there is nothing to be objected against, will leave many a good work for ever undone.
Poem:
There was a very cautious man
Who never laughed or played
He never risked, he never tried
He never sang or prayed
And when he one day passed away
His insurance was denied
For since he never really lived
They claimed he never died.
:5 I am the light of the world
Does this sound familiar?
Jesus has already made this claim about Himself back in John 8:12.
It's still the same day, and now Jesus has a chance to demonstrate in a tangible way what it means to be the light of the world.
Jesus is going to take a situation with a man who has lived his life in the darkness of blindness, a man who has never seen the light of the sun, and He's going to show Him what it means to see, and what it means to experience real light.
:5 As long as I am in the world
When Jesus would leave His earthly ministry, would the light be gone?
No.
Now we are the lights of the world (Matt.5:14)
:6 he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay
Apparently the Jews thought that there were some kind of curative powers in spittle.
Seems rather gross to me.
Is this where we get the saying, "Here's mud in your eye!" ...?
God often uses things that might be exactly opposite of what we might think He should use.
God can use things that people despise, and sometimes that's even us when we share the gospel!
»1Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
:7 Go, wash in the pool of Siloam ( ... Sent)
Siloam - a Hebrew word, Shiloach = "sent"
John simply is giving his readers the definition of the name Siloam.
This was a pool of water located in the southeast corner of Jerusalem.
It was built when Hezekiah stopped up the Gihon spring outside the city, and built an underground channel inside the city walls, ending in the pool of Siloam.
The water was "sent" from the Gihon spring.
I wonder if John is simply trying to point out the irony to his readers of the pool being called "Sent", when Jesus has now "sent" the man to the pool called "Sent".
Jesus was just emerging from the temple when He met this man.
Now He sends him to another part of town to wash, about 1/3 mile away.
See map.
:7 He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing
Jesus sometimes asked people do something in receiving their healing.
To the ten lepers:
»Luke 17:14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
Lesson:
Sometimes the blessing comes in the obedience
»James 1:22-24 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
Being only a hearer of the word, without ever putting it into practice in your life is like a guy who sees something he needs to change about himself in the mirror, but since he forgets it when he walks away, the mirror never really did him any good.
The blessing comes when you respond to what Jesus says.
Illustration:
When you don't have a job, you can sit around and think about jobs all day.
But until you get up and start getting out of the house and look for a job, it's a rarity for a person to become employed.
Even if you don't get the job you're out pursuing, just being out in touch with people gives you the contacts you need to get a job.
Application:
Asking for prayer.
We get to thinking to ourselves at the end of a service, "I sure need prayer ... but I can always pray at home ..."
That's right, you can pray at home!
But there's also extra power when you're with other believers, agreeing together on your prayer.