John 9:35-41
What True Sight Looks Like
In chapter 9 we read of the 6th miracle in John’s Gospel that Jesus performed. A man who was born blind was healed by Jesus. The physical blindness of this man was a living parable of the spiritual blindness of every man and woman born into this world.
Last week we saw what true blindness looks like. True blindness is the inability of man to understand divine truth – it is ignorance of the true identity of Jesus Christ. We saw 3 blinders that keep people from ever seeing the truth of who Jesus Christ is: 1) The Wrong Criteria, 2) the Worry over Consequences, and 3) a Works-Based Confidence.
When people have these Blinders they will not be able to realize the Jesus is the Son of God who can save them from their sins.
This week, I want us to see What True Sight Looks Like. In other words, what can we see when someone can finally see spiritual truth? There are 4 things that become visible.
Jesus is Reaching Out (v35)
The first thing that someone begins to see is that Jesus is Reaching Out to them. Notice verse 35, “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’”
Jesus went after Him. He stopped preaching to the crowds and stopped performing miracles and when He heard that this man was thrown out He sought the man out. God is interested in individuals. God is personal and one on one with individuals. That means that even though God sees all things from His throne in heaven He also sees you. He comes to the world but in doing that He comes to you.
I want to point out 2 things here. First, it is that Jesus Pursued the man. And that’s how it is in the relationship between God and man. God reaches out to us; we do not reach out to God. Romans 3:10-11 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” Man is separated from God in his sinfulness and yet man does not seek God (notice that the text doesn’t say the man sought Jesus).
Listen, that means for all the religion and spirituality and all the self-made righteousness that people have today, there is no true seeking after God. There is no genuine and heart-felt searching for the One true and living God. There is a total indifference, and even the Bible says a hatred of the true living God.
A couple chapters later in Romans it says, “But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It is not man’s love for God being demonstrated through all the religion and spirituality today. Real love is demonstrated by God. His own love was proven and put on display when His Holy and Righteous Son was crucified for unholy and unrighteous sinners. First John 4:19 says “We love because God first loved us.” We begin to love God back when we see that He loves us first!
Paul asks the question in Romans 8: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” His answer is that nothing in the creation will ever be able to separate us from the Creator’s love for us. That love that He pursued us with first. He goes on in Ephesians 3 to say that he prays and he prays that the believers would grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that love surpasses even knowledge”
The point is that for all you will ever learn in your life and of all the things you could ever know you must above all else know the love of God in Christ Jesus. It is because of this love John 3:16 says that “Because God so loved the world He gave His One and Only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” The overwhelming tide of love that God has given to us in His Son Jesus Christ is undeserved, unmerited, unearned – God is not obligated but He has freely and generously and abundantly given it. This is what you must see. This is what you must be overcome by. This is what you must know and be firmly convinced of. If you miss everything else DO NOT MISS THIS!
Secondly, I want you to see where Jesus Points the man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He points the man to Himself. Notice the places in life that the man had been. First he was a blind beggar with nothing and no hope. Jesus comes to him the first time in this condition and sends him to the pool of Siloam. It is there that the man would wash and gain his sight. Now, the man can see, but, he was an outcast. He was thrown out of the synagogue and essentially cut-off from Israel. He was separated from where he belonged, and now he was lost outside of Jewish life.
And this is where Jesus comes to him a second time; and this is where Jesus begins to point him to another place to wash. This is where Jesus offers him sight of a different and higher kind. This is where Jesus points him to the Son of Man. “Do you believe in the Son of man?” He doesn’t ask him how he got thrown out – Jesus already knows. He already knew that it was going to happen. He doesn’t waste any time and He gets right to the point: Do you believe in the Son of Man? Do you believe in the One who can wash your blind spiritual eyes and open them so that you can see the divine truth that stands right in front of you?
What a picture of our spiritual condition – lost in sin and cut-off from the life of God…..It is God who comes after us. It is God who comes to where we are. It is God who loved us first and it is God who makes the first move towards us. God’s love is not like man’s love. The man who was blind was driven out of the synagogue but Jesus promises that all those who come to Him He will never drive out.
The first thing someone sees when they have true sight is that Jesus Reaches Out to them.
Ready to Believe (v36)
Secondly, we see when someone gains true sight that they become Ready to Believe. Notice verse 36, “’Who is he sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’” This man is ready to believe and wants to believe in the Savior, but, there’s just one thing wrong: he doesn’t know who the Savior is. That is so uncommon today. People today are hearing all the time who the Savior is, but, they don’t want to believe in Him.
Some people’s hearts have been prepared by the Holy Spirit and they are ready to believe. They just need to hear about the Savior. Romans 10:14 says, “How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” People can’t believe the gospel unless they hear the gospel. That’s why the preaching of the gospel is so important.
The question is this: Has God been preparing your heart to believe in His Son? Has God been convicting you? Have you been thinking more and more about your life and about Jesus Christ? Perhaps you are like this man and if you only heard who Jesus Christ is and what He has done then you yourself are ready to make the right response.
The Right Response to Revelation (v 37-38)
The third thing we see is The Right Response. We are talking about having true sight. When someone has true sight they see that Jesus Reaches Out to them, and, they become Ready to Believe. Thirdly, they see the Right Response to Revelation of Jesus Christ. Notice verses 37-38, “Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”
Notice three things in these verses. First, that Jesus reveals Himself to the man. Jesus has been revealing His identity this entire Gospel.
Second, see the man’s response to Jesus’ revelation to him. He believed in Him and he worshiped Him. That is the right response. The word “believe” appears 98 times in John’s Gospel. That is more than twice as many times as the other 3 Gospels combined. This is why John wrote this gospel – so that you would believe. He said in chapter 20:31, “I write these things to you so that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” When John wrote it was your salvation that was utmost on his mind. He wants you to know who Jesus is so that you can believe in Him and have life. That is the right response to Jesus Christ. Have you made the right response?
Third, see that Jesus received worship from the man. This is another passage clearly showing Jesus as equal with God. No Apostle accepted worship. Angels did not accept worship (Rev. 19:10). Only God is to be worshiped and Jesus accepted worship because Jesus is God.
Jesus said in John 14:1, “Trust in God, trust also in Me.” “Give to me what you give to God”. In other words, the kind of trust you would put into God, and the things you would trust God for are what you are to also trust Me for. Believe in me the way you would believe in God. Give me the same trust that you would God.” No ordinary man would make that kind of claim. No man in his right mind would try to take what only belongs to God. We give worship to God alone and we put our trust in God alone, not men.
Jesus asked the man the question: “Where is your faith? In whom have you trusted?” His question points the man’s attention to the ultimate issue of life. And we have to see that to believe in Jesus Christ intentional – not accidental. One must face Jesus and that means facing yourself. It means deliberately handing over your life to Him and trusting Him with your life. You must choose. You must surrender.
Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12, “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” Paul knew what he was doing. He knew Who it was that he was trusting in. Paul knew that One was able. Paul has trusted the Lord with his life and believes that the Lord is able to guard it and preserve it for eternity. He has handed it over to Christ. That’s where his faith was. That’s the One Paul placed his trust in. Where have you placed your trust? Who is the One you are relying on for that Day that is coming?
The Reason Jesus Came (v39-41)
Fourthly, when people gain true sight they see the Reason Jesus Came. Notice verse 39, “Jesus said, ‘For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.’ Some Pharisees who were with Him asked, ‘What, are we blind too?’ Jesus said, ‘If you were blind you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.’”
The reason Jesus came was to Remove Guilt. He came to take the guilt of guilty sinners away so that sinners could be forgiven. Now when He says “For judgment I have come” we have what is called an apparent contradiction. The reason is because in chapter 3:17 it says that “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world”. These two verses appear to contradict each other. I love apparent contradictions. You know why? Because they make you study a little harder and the truth you arrive at is always worth the extra sweat.
How do we reconcile these verses? By understanding the difference between the heavenly decision of our guilt as sinners and the death penalty for our guilt. Jesus came to give God’s Word to the world – that the world has already been judged. In other words, God has already determined the world to be guilty of evil, unrighteousness, and sin in His sight. Jesus said in John 7:7, “The world hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” Who is Jesus testifying for? God the Father! John 3:36 says, “whoever rejects Jesus will not see life, for God’s wrath REMAINS on him.”
This point is important: a person is not going to court after they die. Court was already held, the evidence was already weighed, and God has issued His verdict. Man is guilty. That decision was determined in heaven and then declared on earth by Jesus Christ. He came to testify – not to the evil IN the world but the evil OF the world (in our hearts).
Notice the contrast in people. There are those who are blind that receive sight. Then there are those who have sight but will become blind. It is important to realize the difference because having sight or being blind has everything to do with seeing Jesus or not. This is not physical sight but spiritual understanding.
The people who are blind but receive sight are those who know they are spiritually blind. They know they have nothing to offer God, they know they are hopeless and helpless before God and they know their sinfulness. Because they see themselves this way they are humble enough to understand they trust in Jesus and gain spiritual sight. Their eyes are opened to who Jesus is and they begin to see the truth of the Son of God.
The other people are those who can see but become blind. What this means is they thought they could see. They thought that they knew spiritual truth apart from Jesus Christ. They thought that without Jesus Christ they were sufficient and didn’t need Him. They thought that whatever they had without having Christ was going to be acceptable to God. So in their pride, their self-sufficiency, their self-reliance, they make themselves blind because they don’t see their need for Christ.
This was the Pharisees. They were the ones standing around Jesus and said, “What, are we blind too?” The answer is YES! Jesus had called them blind guides. They were the ones Isaiah spoke of when he said, “Their eyes have become blinded and their hearts have become hardened, so that they will not see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts, and be converted and I heal them.” We’ve been watching this for the entire chapter and the entire gospel for that matter how the Pharisees stubbornly refuse to see and believe what is right in front of them – God in the flesh!
He performed an undeniable miracle in chapter 9. There was no way for them to dispute it. The man was blind from birth, he confirmed it, his parents came in and confirmed it, and there he stood seeing with his eyes. And they would not see it. He broke their rules about the Sabbath – he spit on the ground, he made some mud, he put a healing salve on the man’s eyes – and for that they refused to believe He was sent from God. From the beginning they have been trying to kill Him. Their minds were already made up – their hearts were already hardened and no amount of evidence was going to convince them that Jesus was the Christ. They would not believe, and for that they were condemned.
We have to realize that while the reason Jesus came into the world was for salvation for those who would believe, but, the result of His coming would be condemnation of those who do not believe.
Let’s conclude with this: The Bible says all of us are born as sinners. We’re guilty of sin. The question is this: Are you someone whose guilt has been removed, or, are you someone whose guilt remains? “If you were blind” Jesus said, “You would not be guilty of sin”. In other words, “If you admitted you are a sinner and that you have no righteousness of your own, then you would see that I can take your guilt away. Jesus comes to remove men’s guilt and replace it with His righteousness.
What True Sight Looks Like
In chapter 9 we read of the 6th miracle in John’s Gospel that Jesus performed. A man who was born blind was healed by Jesus. The physical blindness of this man was a living parable of the spiritual blindness of every man and woman born into this world.
Last week we saw what true blindness looks like. True blindness is the inability of man to understand divine truth – it is ignorance of the true identity of Jesus Christ. We saw 3 blinders that keep people from ever seeing the truth of who Jesus Christ is: 1) The Wrong Criteria, 2) the Worry over Consequences, and 3) a Works-Based Confidence.
When people have these Blinders they will not be able to realize the Jesus is the Son of God who can save them from their sins.
This week, I want us to see What True Sight Looks Like. In other words, what can we see when someone can finally see spiritual truth? There are 4 things that become visible.
Jesus is Reaching Out (v35)
The first thing that someone begins to see is that Jesus is Reaching Out to them. Notice verse 35, “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’”
Jesus went after Him. He stopped preaching to the crowds and stopped performing miracles and when He heard that this man was thrown out He sought the man out. God is interested in individuals. God is personal and one on one with individuals. That means that even though God sees all things from His throne in heaven He also sees you. He comes to the world but in doing that He comes to you.
I want to point out 2 things here. First, it is that Jesus Pursued the man. And that’s how it is in the relationship between God and man. God reaches out to us; we do not reach out to God. Romans 3:10-11 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” Man is separated from God in his sinfulness and yet man does not seek God (notice that the text doesn’t say the man sought Jesus).
Listen, that means for all the religion and spirituality and all the self-made righteousness that people have today, there is no true seeking after God. There is no genuine and heart-felt searching for the One true and living God. There is a total indifference, and even the Bible says a hatred of the true living God.
A couple chapters later in Romans it says, “But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It is not man’s love for God being demonstrated through all the religion and spirituality today. Real love is demonstrated by God. His own love was proven and put on display when His Holy and Righteous Son was crucified for unholy and unrighteous sinners. First John 4:19 says “We love because God first loved us.” We begin to love God back when we see that He loves us first!
Paul asks the question in Romans 8: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” His answer is that nothing in the creation will ever be able to separate us from the Creator’s love for us. That love that He pursued us with first. He goes on in Ephesians 3 to say that he prays and he prays that the believers would grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that love surpasses even knowledge”
The point is that for all you will ever learn in your life and of all the things you could ever know you must above all else know the love of God in Christ Jesus. It is because of this love John 3:16 says that “Because God so loved the world He gave His One and Only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” The overwhelming tide of love that God has given to us in His Son Jesus Christ is undeserved, unmerited, unearned – God is not obligated but He has freely and generously and abundantly given it. This is what you must see. This is what you must be overcome by. This is what you must know and be firmly convinced of. If you miss everything else DO NOT MISS THIS!
Secondly, I want you to see where Jesus Points the man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He points the man to Himself. Notice the places in life that the man had been. First he was a blind beggar with nothing and no hope. Jesus comes to him the first time in this condition and sends him to the pool of Siloam. It is there that the man would wash and gain his sight. Now, the man can see, but, he was an outcast. He was thrown out of the synagogue and essentially cut-off from Israel. He was separated from where he belonged, and now he was lost outside of Jewish life.
And this is where Jesus comes to him a second time; and this is where Jesus begins to point him to another place to wash. This is where Jesus offers him sight of a different and higher kind. This is where Jesus points him to the Son of Man. “Do you believe in the Son of man?” He doesn’t ask him how he got thrown out – Jesus already knows. He already knew that it was going to happen. He doesn’t waste any time and He gets right to the point: Do you believe in the Son of Man? Do you believe in the One who can wash your blind spiritual eyes and open them so that you can see the divine truth that stands right in front of you?
What a picture of our spiritual condition – lost in sin and cut-off from the life of God…..It is God who comes after us. It is God who comes to where we are. It is God who loved us first and it is God who makes the first move towards us. God’s love is not like man’s love. The man who was blind was driven out of the synagogue but Jesus promises that all those who come to Him He will never drive out.
The first thing someone sees when they have true sight is that Jesus Reaches Out to them.
Ready to Believe (v36)
Secondly, we see when someone gains true sight that they become Ready to Believe. Notice verse 36, “’Who is he sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’” This man is ready to believe and wants to believe in the Savior, but, there’s just one thing wrong: he doesn’t know who the Savior is. That is so uncommon today. People today are hearing all the time who the Savior is, but, they don’t want to believe in Him.
Some people’s hearts have been prepared by the Holy Spirit and they are ready to believe. They just need to hear about the Savior. Romans 10:14 says, “How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” People can’t believe the gospel unless they hear the gospel. That’s why the preaching of the gospel is so important.
The question is this: Has God been preparing your heart to believe in His Son? Has God been convicting you? Have you been thinking more and more about your life and about Jesus Christ? Perhaps you are like this man and if you only heard who Jesus Christ is and what He has done then you yourself are ready to make the right response.
The Right Response to Revelation (v 37-38)
The third thing we see is The Right Response. We are talking about having true sight. When someone has true sight they see that Jesus Reaches Out to them, and, they become Ready to Believe. Thirdly, they see the Right Response to Revelation of Jesus Christ. Notice verses 37-38, “Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”
Notice three things in these verses. First, that Jesus reveals Himself to the man. Jesus has been revealing His identity this entire Gospel.
Second, see the man’s response to Jesus’ revelation to him. He believed in Him and he worshiped Him. That is the right response. The word “believe” appears 98 times in John’s Gospel. That is more than twice as many times as the other 3 Gospels combined. This is why John wrote this gospel – so that you would believe. He said in chapter 20:31, “I write these things to you so that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” When John wrote it was your salvation that was utmost on his mind. He wants you to know who Jesus is so that you can believe in Him and have life. That is the right response to Jesus Christ. Have you made the right response?
Third, see that Jesus received worship from the man. This is another passage clearly showing Jesus as equal with God. No Apostle accepted worship. Angels did not accept worship (Rev. 19:10). Only God is to be worshiped and Jesus accepted worship because Jesus is God.
Jesus said in John 14:1, “Trust in God, trust also in Me.” “Give to me what you give to God”. In other words, the kind of trust you would put into God, and the things you would trust God for are what you are to also trust Me for. Believe in me the way you would believe in God. Give me the same trust that you would God.” No ordinary man would make that kind of claim. No man in his right mind would try to take what only belongs to God. We give worship to God alone and we put our trust in God alone, not men.
Jesus asked the man the question: “Where is your faith? In whom have you trusted?” His question points the man’s attention to the ultimate issue of life. And we have to see that to believe in Jesus Christ intentional – not accidental. One must face Jesus and that means facing yourself. It means deliberately handing over your life to Him and trusting Him with your life. You must choose. You must surrender.
Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12, “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” Paul knew what he was doing. He knew Who it was that he was trusting in. Paul knew that One was able. Paul has trusted the Lord with his life and believes that the Lord is able to guard it and preserve it for eternity. He has handed it over to Christ. That’s where his faith was. That’s the One Paul placed his trust in. Where have you placed your trust? Who is the One you are relying on for that Day that is coming?
The Reason Jesus Came (v39-41)
Fourthly, when people gain true sight they see the Reason Jesus Came. Notice verse 39, “Jesus said, ‘For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.’ Some Pharisees who were with Him asked, ‘What, are we blind too?’ Jesus said, ‘If you were blind you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.’”
The reason Jesus came was to Remove Guilt. He came to take the guilt of guilty sinners away so that sinners could be forgiven. Now when He says “For judgment I have come” we have what is called an apparent contradiction. The reason is because in chapter 3:17 it says that “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world”. These two verses appear to contradict each other. I love apparent contradictions. You know why? Because they make you study a little harder and the truth you arrive at is always worth the extra sweat.
How do we reconcile these verses? By understanding the difference between the heavenly decision of our guilt as sinners and the death penalty for our guilt. Jesus came to give God’s Word to the world – that the world has already been judged. In other words, God has already determined the world to be guilty of evil, unrighteousness, and sin in His sight. Jesus said in John 7:7, “The world hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” Who is Jesus testifying for? God the Father! John 3:36 says, “whoever rejects Jesus will not see life, for God’s wrath REMAINS on him.”
This point is important: a person is not going to court after they die. Court was already held, the evidence was already weighed, and God has issued His verdict. Man is guilty. That decision was determined in heaven and then declared on earth by Jesus Christ. He came to testify – not to the evil IN the world but the evil OF the world (in our hearts).
Notice the contrast in people. There are those who are blind that receive sight. Then there are those who have sight but will become blind. It is important to realize the difference because having sight or being blind has everything to do with seeing Jesus or not. This is not physical sight but spiritual understanding.
The people who are blind but receive sight are those who know they are spiritually blind. They know they have nothing to offer God, they know they are hopeless and helpless before God and they know their sinfulness. Because they see themselves this way they are humble enough to understand they trust in Jesus and gain spiritual sight. Their eyes are opened to who Jesus is and they begin to see the truth of the Son of God.
The other people are those who can see but become blind. What this means is they thought they could see. They thought that they knew spiritual truth apart from Jesus Christ. They thought that without Jesus Christ they were sufficient and didn’t need Him. They thought that whatever they had without having Christ was going to be acceptable to God. So in their pride, their self-sufficiency, their self-reliance, they make themselves blind because they don’t see their need for Christ.
This was the Pharisees. They were the ones standing around Jesus and said, “What, are we blind too?” The answer is YES! Jesus had called them blind guides. They were the ones Isaiah spoke of when he said, “Their eyes have become blinded and their hearts have become hardened, so that they will not see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts, and be converted and I heal them.” We’ve been watching this for the entire chapter and the entire gospel for that matter how the Pharisees stubbornly refuse to see and believe what is right in front of them – God in the flesh!
He performed an undeniable miracle in chapter 9. There was no way for them to dispute it. The man was blind from birth, he confirmed it, his parents came in and confirmed it, and there he stood seeing with his eyes. And they would not see it. He broke their rules about the Sabbath – he spit on the ground, he made some mud, he put a healing salve on the man’s eyes – and for that they refused to believe He was sent from God. From the beginning they have been trying to kill Him. Their minds were already made up – their hearts were already hardened and no amount of evidence was going to convince them that Jesus was the Christ. They would not believe, and for that they were condemned.
We have to realize that while the reason Jesus came into the world was for salvation for those who would believe, but, the result of His coming would be condemnation of those who do not believe.
Let’s conclude with this: The Bible says all of us are born as sinners. We’re guilty of sin. The question is this: Are you someone whose guilt has been removed, or, are you someone whose guilt remains? “If you were blind” Jesus said, “You would not be guilty of sin”. In other words, “If you admitted you are a sinner and that you have no righteousness of your own, then you would see that I can take your guilt away. Jesus comes to remove men’s guilt and replace it with His righteousness.
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