FHCC
20260118 Worship Service

                • Isaiah 2:5ESV

                • Jeremiah 50:5ESV

                                      • John 9:1–11ESV

                                      • John 9:35–38ESV

                                    • Introduction

                                      What is it about eyesight that motivates so many toward vanity? My father carries portable readers attached to his cellphone so he can read menus. I have been known to turn on the flash of my cellphone to help me read a menu in a dim location even though my contact lenses make my eyesight better than 20/30. My family has caught be squinting, closing an eye, or tilting my head because the bifocal in one eye is stronger than the other.
                                      Hearing aids, Eyeglasses, and handrails should never be an embarrassment. While experience has taught be to do some things better than I used to, it is also true that my body doesn’t permit me to do other things as well as I used to.
                                      Today’s text introduces us to 2 different perspectives on eyesight. One used to be blind but now can see. The other used to be blind, still is blind, and refuses to admit their blindness.
                                      Last week I showed you how significant nouns and cultural setting can reveal meaning. This week we find John uses scene and character changes to reveal his train of thought.
                                      In the first scene Jesus and a blind man are stage front while Jesus is surrounded by his curious disciples. In the 2nd scene Jesus steps offstage while neighbors and pharisees discuss the 1st scene. The 3rd scene puts the spotlight back on Jesus and the (now) former blind man. Then the story concludes with Jesus addressing those who were prominent in scene 2.
                                      TRANSITION: Rather than seeing blindness as something to be denied, our story today starts with a man whom everyone knew to be blind and Jesus sees his blindness as something to be corrected.

                                      Jesus’ Compassion (Jn 9:1-7)

                                      While this story specifically deals with one particular man who could not see, the story ends by revealing the inability to see that is a much broader problem.

                                      blindness was from general human sin, not brought on by specific individual sin. (Jn9.1-3)

                                      The thought of Jesus’ day was that pain and suffering were caused by specific sins. Jesus says that it was neither this man, nor his parents who contributed toward his blindness. But that God allowed pain to enter the human experience SO THAT He could display His loving work amongst humans.

                                      (shining) light describes Jesus existence (Jn 8.12 & Jn 9:5)

                                      Jesus steps back from the immediate problem of pain and introduces the reality that the way things were is not the way they always will be, and that his presence for those short 3 decades (and elsewhere He speaks of continuing through another Comforter, the Holy Spirit)
                                      By calling himself “Light” and elsewhere referring to His followers as “lights” I believe John is indicating that Jesus has a sight in mind that is not through the optic nerve. The rest of the story will engage willful refusal to see what is in front of them.

                                      Jesus’ remedy required faith and obedience (Jn 9.6-7)

                                      Jesus already demonstrated that he could heal over miles without direct contact when the Ambassador’s son had a fever that broke at the exact hour Jesus spoke the word. Last week we saw that Jesus was able to straighten lame limbs with a simple word. Here Jesus uses saliva, dirt, travel, and action to indicate that the patient demonstrated faith and obedience.

                                      The Community’s Controversy (Jn 9:8-34)

                                      Even without AI or deep fakes, Our news reporting from Minneapolis is perfect example of how divisive witnesses become when their angle or perspective is not the same a another person’s perspective so that they come to opposite conclusions of what really happened. We’ve been inundated by “experts” from media, coaches, actors, and politicians who all claim that they have the actual facts. John 9 exemplifies this is not a new phenom.
                                      While many characters in this story seem to be concerned with this man’s blindness, why it happened, how it was changed, and who did it; Jesus is going to bring the plot full circle and reveal that many who were questioning this man’s sight, were actually extremely near-sighted themselves.
                                      The Conflict begins with neighbors who can’t even agree if they are all talking about the same person.
                                      Then, like in the lame man in chapter 5, the Pharisees get involved. They are so narrowly focused on Sabbath (Jn 9.14) rules that they can’t even see what God is doing right in front of them! All they can see is that Jesus breaks their understanding of Sabbath, making Him a sinner (Jn 9.16) so they did not believe (Jn 9.18) that a healing had even happened. Because they had already made up their minds, they try to intimidate the man’s parents to pressure him into recanting his story. When the parents won’t capitulate (Jn 9.23) to their pressure, They again state what they “know” (Jn 9.24) as a basis for the man to deny what actually happened. [apparently, “Fake News” is not a new thing as they attempt to shape the narrative to their conclusions.]
                                      Jn 9.28 begins the shaming crusade (Jn 9.29-31) of what they knew and did not know. They claim superiority and revile the man, eventually cancelling him in Jn 9.34)
                                      The cancelling of Jn 9.34 is further understood by the word used in Jn 9.22 - aposynagogue. While we may not want to be excluded from membership in a club or organization, the casting out of Jn 9.34 had a bigger cultural experience more like the shunning of our Amish or Mennonite friends—being in or out of the community was a big deal.
                                      TRANSITION: After the experts, pundits and public relations circus of vv.8-34, we get back to the primary characters of the event.

                                      The Man’s Conclusion (Jn 9:35-38)

                                      What we “know” vs. being teachable

                                      The arrogance of the Pharisees is portrayed in all the “we know”s, then it is contrasted with Jesus’ question and the formerly blind man’s teachable spirit.
                                      As we looked last week at the feeding, we found that Jesus drew upon the crowd’s Jewish identity and patriotism. Here he does it again. The Pharisees claimed what they knew, but Jesus uses a phrase with the man that any devout Jew should recognize.
                                      Daniel 7 includes a vision of one called the son of man who proceeds from God as His ambassador. Jesus uses the same title back in John 3:14-15 to describe Moses lifting up the bronze serpent and those who looked at it were healed, so the son of man would be lifted up on a pole so that the people could be healed (from blindness? from sin?).
                                      The man admits his teachable spirit by asking who the son of man is so that he could believe in him.
                                      While cults may try to deny that Christ ever claimed deity, Jn 9.37 seems pretty clear to me that Jesus is making this claim to be the one that Daniel envisioned and Moses prophesied.

                                      a new home/identity

                                      Having been cancelled by the Pharisees, this man is now a man without a faith community, a loner. He hitches his wagon, he places his identity in Jesus being the one from God, and he finds a new object of his worship.
                                      TRANSITION: Before John moves on, he highlights Jesus once again.

                                      Postscript: Blindness continues (Jn 9:39-41)

                                      Jesus makes one more point perfectly clear. This man had been born blind and received sight. The Pharisees were willfully not seeing what was right in front of them so they were even worse off than the blind man. Their arrogance revealed their guilt.
                                      The willful, arrogant blindness of Jn 9.41 is also alive and well in the USA in 2023. Ignorance is bad enough, but arrogance is intolerable. There are people all around us who might say, “I read the Bible once, but...” or “I used to go to church, but...” or “I just can’t bring myself to believe...”

                                      Conclusion

                                      Jesus came as a light in the darkness. The whole story of the Advent season that we just concluded is that Jesus reverses if we allow Him.
                                      You can be like the hero of this story— admit what you don’t understand and surrender to what the Word says. OR you can be like the villains who saw it, but arrogantly refused it. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but there is salvation in none other, no matter how much you wish it to be so.

                                      Light & Lamp Application:

                                      Light for my Path
                                      God calls the blind to envision the Light of the World (Jn 9:5) then to illuminate others (Mt 5:14-15)
                                      Lamps for my Steps
                                      Head - Ask God to reveal your blind spots (we all have them!)
                                      Heart - What are the areas where you need to show a family member or co-worker grace because she simply doesn’t see the truth?
                                      Hands - What is 1 thing you can do this week to LOVINGLY expose truth to someone you love?
                                          • Open My Eyes

                                              • Philippians 4:7ESV

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