sermons

SPIRITUAL LIGHT AND DARKNESS – John 9:35-41

John 9:35-41 sermon, spiritual darkness, spiritual light, spiritual sight, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

There are certain living phenomena that can be seen almost anywhere in the world.  They are called lichens and they can be found on rocks, tree trunks, and a variety of other places where they cling and grow in size.  There are many varieties of lichens, having different shapes and colors.  Lichens are not technically plants.  They are composed of a fungus and algae that live together in harmony.  This is not meant to be a biology lesson, but there is something about lichens and their use that relates to the passage of Scripture we are now studying:  John 9:35-41.  From the 16th century to the present day, lichens have been used in scientific experiments to test the pH levels in liquids.  The test is called a litmus test.  A blue dye and a pink dye were extracted from certain lichens.  A particular variety of paper called “litmus paper” was infused with this pink dye or blue dye.  The paper now had the ability to change color under certain conditions, demonstrating whether the solution into which it was dipped was acidic, alkaline, or neutral.

Over a period of time, the term “Litmus test” began to take on a new meaning.  People started using that term to make a judgment about whether or not someone or something was acceptable.  The “litmus test” came to mean the single, most important, and deciding factor that provided the right answer or led to the right decision.  That’s where we are as we study John 9:35-41.  Jesus is about to give a “litmus test” that will clearly define the difference between spiritual blindness and spiritual sight.

I.  THE QUESTIONS (verse 35-36)

Verse 35 contains these words:  “Jesus heard that they had put him out; and finding him, He said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ”  When Jesus learned that the man whom He healed of his blindness had been escorted out of the temple, He went looking for him.  This healed man had been publicly interrogated and then publicly thrown out of the temple area.  The news of those events must have spread quickly throughout the city of Jerusalem.  People everywhere in the city were talking about the healing of the blind man, and the inability of the Pharisees to refute his arguments or deny his testimony.

Jesus kept searching for this man until He found him.  He took the initiative to seek and find this man.  The blind man didn’t ask Jesus for this miracle of sight, and I’m sure he wasn’t expecting Jesus to make a search for him and find him.  Now comes the “litmus test”.  Jesus asked the man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  He’s asking him to make a choice – a commitment.  There’s no doubt that this man recognized the voice of Jesus.  How could he forget the voice of the One who put mud on his eyes and said, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.”?  When Jesus used the title “Son of Man”, this healed man knew who Jesus was talking about.  The words of the prophet Daniel came to his mind.  In Daniel 7:13, the prophet Daniel was having dreams and visions from God and he said, “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like the Son of Man was coming.”  and Daniel describes Him as a King who has everlasting dominion and authority.  As he looked at Jesus, this man knew that He was referring to the Messiah, the Son of God, and he responds, in John 9:36, by saying, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”  He wants to believe, and he is ready to believe, but he’s not yet sure who Jesus is referring to.  The word, “Lord” can also be translated as “sir” and, in this case, that would be the proper translation since this man does not yet know who Jesus is.

II.  THE MAN’S RESPONSE (verses 37-38)

In verse 37, when he hears, from Jesus’ lips, the words, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you”, his response is immediate and appropriate.  Verse 38 reads, “And he said, ‘Lord, I believe.’  And he worshiped Him.”  At that moment, this formerly blind man passed the test.  His spiritual eyes were opened and he immediately acknowledged that Jesus Christ was the Messiah by believing in Him and worshiping Him.  This time when he calls Jesus “Lord”, he’s addressing Jesus as his Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords.  As he said those words, he assumed a position of worship,  prostrating himself at the feet of Jesus and Jesus accepted his worship.  Jesus did not forbid people to worship Him while He was on this earth.  He always accepted worship as an appropriate response to Himself.

President Franklin Roosevelt was a regular church-goer.  It is said that on one gloomy Sunday morning during World War 2, he walked three miles in order to attend worship.  One of his neighbors, noticing this, said to him:  “I can worship in the fields or anywhere else.”  “Yes”, replied Mr. Roosevelt, “but no one will ever suspect you of it.”

This man whom Jesus healed wasn’t concerned about what others thought of him or said about him.  Without hesitation, he fell to his knees in the presence of all of them and worshiped his Lord.  What a contrast to the Scribes and Pharisees!  When Jesus revealed His deity to them, they picked up stones to stone Him!

III.  JUDGMENT (verses 39-41)

While this man is prostrate at his feet, Jesus looks at those standing around Him and says these words in verse 39:  “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind.”  The word “judgment” is not used here in the sense of condemnation.  Jesus came for judgment in the sense that He was the dividing line.  He was the one who would separate one group from the other.  He was the “litmus test”, defining and separating spiritual light from spiritual darkness.  Those who admitted their spiritual blindness would be given spiritual insight from Jesus, and those who were convinced that they already had spiritual understanding would continue in their spiritual blindness, pronouncing judgment upon themselves.  Someone has said, “There is no one so blind as he who refuses to see!”  Jesus was encouraging the first group of people and warning the second group.

Some of the Pharisees who were close enough to hear those words spoken by Jesus, decide to ask Him a question.  They phrase their question in such a way as to let Jesus know what answer they expect Him to give them.  Here is their question in verse 40:  “We are not blind too, are we?”  They were expecting Jesus to give them the answer “No”.  After all, they were very religious people.  No one would dare to accuse them of errors concerning spiritual matters!  I think they are trying to “twist His arm”, so to speak — to make Jesus say something that He really doesn’t want to say.  Have you ever tried to do that to someone else?  Were you successful?

These Pharisees are living in a state of denial.  They have chosen to forget all the other times when Jesus made them face the facts about their sinful actions and exposed them to the truth of God’s Word.  They preferred to close their eyes and pretend that it didn’t happen.  That form of denial in the face of the obvious still takes place in our world today.

A race-car driver by the name of Scott Goodyear had these words to say about race-car drivers who have been killed in crashes at the Indianapolis 500.  “You don’t go look at where it happened.  You don’t watch films of it on television.  You don’t deal with it.  You pretend it never happened.”  Through the years, a driver has never been pronounced dead at the racetrack.  If you were to visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Racing Museum, located inside the 2.5-mile oval, you would find that it has no memorial to the 40 drivers who have lost their lives here.  Nowhere is there even a mention.”  [The total number is now 42]

The Pharisees, in verse 40, are waiting for Jesus to exonerate them so that the discussion can be closed, covered up, and not mentioned again.  However, the response they receive from Jesus is not what they expected to hear and not what they wanted to hear.  In verse 41, Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”  What does He mean by that statement?  Jesus is saying, here in verse 41, that if the Pharisees would admit to their ignorance of the truth and were willing to confess that ignorance and seek instruction from Him, they would be forgiven and set free from their sin.  People are not condemned for what they cannot do or cannot understand.  However, if these Pharisees are so proud and confident in their own wisdom that they shut their eyes to the truth, their sin will remain unpardoned, and they will be to blame.  In a spiritual sense, there is a big difference between the one who is blind and knows it and the one who simply shuts his eyes.  Only the person who realizes his own blindness can learn to see.  Only the one who realizes his own sin can be forgiven.

CONCLUSION:

There are times when an illustration doesn’t completely fit the topic of conversation or the passage of scripture that is being studied.  In this case, there is a sense in which the “litmus test”, used in my opening illustration, doesn’t fit the topic of spiritual sight, and doesn’t completely align with the words of Jesus in verse 35, where He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”   A litmus test shows one of three results after being dipped into a liquid:  “alkaline”, “acidic”, or “neutral”.  However, when it comes to belief in Jesus Christ, there is no neutral ground.  You are either making a decision for Christ or you’re making a decision against Christ.  Evangelist Billy Graham said, “If you make no decision for Christ, you’re making a decision against Christ.”  There’s no sitting on the fence, and God doesn’t honor good intentions.

Which side of the fence are you on at this moment?  If you’re unsure, wouldn’t this be a good time to make sure?  How you respond to Jesus Christ is the greatest decision in your life.  It will determine the quality of your life on this earth as well as your eternal destiny.  The Bible says that there are only two eternal destinations – heaven and hell, and each of us is going to one or the other.  Please make the right decision and see what a difference it makes to be a true child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Fellow Christians, it is our privilege and responsibility to lead others out of the darkness of sin and into His marvelous light.  I hope we are ready, willing, and able to be Christ’s ambassadors to the world around us.  That is what He has called us to be.  2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.  We implore you, on Christ’s behalf:  Be reconciled to God.”

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

WHO’S YOUR DADDY? — John 8:37-47

Bible sermons, John 8:37-47, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

In 1976, a book written by Alex Haley was published and it became a best seller.  The book was 900 pages long and was entitled “Roots”.  The following year a mini-series based on the book was aired on TV to a huge viewing audience.  Did you read the book and see the films?

That was the beginning of a genealogy craze that swept our nation.  Over 40 years have passed since that book was written but the quest to find one’s ancestors goes on.  With the dawn of DNA testing and organizations such as Ancestry.com, millions of families and individuals are actively researching their family trees.  This preoccupation with who we are and where we came from has obsessed humanity since the dawn of creation.  The first-century Jews were no exception.  They prided themselves in their ancestry and often used it as a reason for boasting or as an excuse to justify their sinful actions.

In the previous passage of Scripture, John 8:31-36, Jesus told the Jews that a true disciple of His was a person who believed in Him and obeyed His words, resulting in freedom.  He stated that only He could give them true freedom.  They responded by saying, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never been enslaved to anyone.”  Then they challenged Jesus to prove His point.  The Lord Jesus made it clear to them again, in verse 34, that He was talking about spiritual slavery to sin and, once again, offered them freedom from that slavery.

Jesus hasn’t finished His conversation with them yet.  Let’s see what else He has to say and observe their responses.

I.  A CONTRADICTION IS EXPRESSED (verses 37-38)

I continue to be amazed at the patience of Jesus toward those who are intentionally slow to learn, or who refuse to learn.  He begins by admitting that they are the physical descendants of Abraham, but they bear no spiritual resemblance to Abraham.  Verse 37 says, “I know that you are Abraham’s offspring; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.”  Abraham wouldn’t try to kill Him.  On the contrary, Abraham welcomed the messengers that God sent to him in Genesis 18, showing them respect and hospitality.  He also gave a tenth of his possessions to Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of God, after receiving a blessing from him (Genesis 14:18-21; Hebrews 7:1-3).  The Jews standing before Jesus bear no spiritual resemblance to that description of Abraham.  Instead of welcoming the One whom God has sent, they are trying to kill Him.  Several attempts have already been made to arrest Him (John 7:30, 32, 44).  Abraham was also called “a friend of God” (2 Chronicles 20:7).  Friends don’t murder one another.  That’s the work of enemies.

At the end of verse 37, Jesus states the underlying cause of their actions when He says, “My word has no place in you.” The Greek words might be more clearly translated as, “You have no room for My word” or “My word isn’t making any headway” in your minds and hearts.  To put it into modern-day English, they were “tuning Him out”.  They were unreceptive to Jesus and to His words to them.

Once again Jesus states His source of authority, in verse 38, when He says, “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father”.  Now Jesus is claiming to be with the Father from all eternity.  He was there with the Father when Abraham walked this earth.  His knowledge of Abraham is firsthand.  With that said, Jesus gives them some food for thought.  He makes an incomplete statement, leaving them with the opportunity to think it over and fill in the blank.  Here are His words:  “therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”  Notice what Jesus didn’t say.  He didn’t say “fathers”.  Jesus said “father”,  They are all children of the same father.  Who is their father?  That’s the question Jesus wants them to answer for themselves by process of elimination.  They’ve heard the answer to that question before.  They heard it from John the Baptist.  Let’s see if they remember it and apply it to themselves.

II.  THEIR EXCUSE IS REPEATED (verse 39a)

What do you say when you don’t know what to say?  One option is to say the same thing over again and hold your ground, right?  Have you ever done that?  You may have done so to give yourself some time to collect your thoughts and come up with a better answer.  Jesus just took the wind out of their sails with His reply so “They answered and said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father’.”  They must have said it loudly and in anger in order to maintain their sense of control over the conversation.  It’s been said that a person who has nothing to brag about but his ancestors is like a potato plant.  The best part of him is underground (buried, like the potatoes).  After the reminders they were given by Jesus, I’m convinced that His listeners knew what He was talking about, and what He was implying concerning their spiritual parentage.  With some honest reflection on their part, the “mystery” father would no longer be a mystery to them.

III.  JESUS REPEATS HIMSELF (verses 39b-41a)

Jesus responds to their short answer by saying, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.  But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.  You are doing the deeds of your father.”  Jesus made that statement earlier, in verses 37 and 38.  Why is He repeating Himself?  Is this a teaching technique?  It may be much more than that.  For example, the repeating of a person’s name is a Hebrew expression of intimacy.  We find that occurring many times in the Scriptures.  God said, “Abraham, Abraham” (Genesis 22:11), “Jacob, Jacob” (Genesis 46:2); “Moses, Moses” (Exodus 3:4).  David cried out in agony saying, “Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son” (2 Samuel 18:33).  Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem” as He wept over the city and those living in it.  There are many other instances where names are repeated.  I suggest that Jesus is repeating Himself here and elsewhere out of love for them.  He’s been giving them opportunity after opportunity to repent of their sins and acknowledge Him as their Messiah, in spite of their continuing hostility and rejection.  He yearns to draw close to them and keeps giving them reasons to respond to Him the way Abraham responded.

IV.  A SARCASTIC REACTION (verse 41)

The Jews react by saying, “We were not born of fornication”.  There are two possible meanings to that statement and both possibilities might be implied.  First, they may have been saying, “Our parents were not idolaters, worshipping other gods.  Secondly, they may have been saying, “we are pure in our lineage, but  we’re not so sure about you.”  This meaning would imply that they were calling Jesus an illegitimate son of Mary and Joseph, born outside of wedlock.  It’s also possible that both of those meanings were intended by their statement.  In any case, their words were intended to be derogatory and offensive.

I think these leaders are beginning to realize that calling Abraham their father wasn’t getting them anywhere.  What do they do now?  The words of the prophet Malachi must have come to their minds.  Malachi asked the question, “Have we not all one Father?  Did not one God create us?” (Malachi 2:10). The Jews may have thought to themselves, “That’s a good idea!  Let’s take our paternity case all the way to the top!”  So they say to Jesus, “We have one Father, even God.”  They thought that, by saying those words, they would get themselves off the hook, and avoid further embarrassment.  However, they are not out of trouble yet!  Further embarrassment is on the way!

V.  WORDS OF CORRECTION (verse 42-45)

The Lord Jesus looks around at them and says, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God and now am here.  I have not come on My own; but He sent Me.”  Once again, the Jews are mistaken.  The practice of their religious observances doesn’t make them children of the Father.  If they truly loved the Father, they would love His Son whom He sent, and who was standing before them at that moment.  The Lord Jesus has proven Himself to be the Son of God by His miracles and they have not been able to refute His claims.  In verse 43, Jesus asks them a question and immediately gives them the answer.  He says, “Why do you not understand what I am saying?  It is because you cannot hear My word.”  I think Jesus asked His question in the form of a plea.  When He looks around at each of them after making that plea, He sees the reason by the expressions on their faces and makes it known to them saying, “you cannot hear My word”.  He’s not implying that they are deaf, hard of hearing or stupid.  On the contrary, they have chosen to ignore His words, refusing to listen to Him or to seek to understand what He is saying. 

The Jews still haven’t asked the question that Jesus prodded them to ask in verse 38 – “Who is our father?”  Since they didn’t ask, Jesus gives them a detailed answer in verse 44, where He says, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  That rebuke by Jesus should have reminded them of the words of John the Baptist in Matthew 3:7, where he said, “You brood of vipers”,  implying that they possessed character qualities similar to the devil.  The words of Jesus in verse 44 are the clearest statement that Jesus makes about the existence and the personality of Satan.  His listeners don’t resemble Abraham, and they don’t resemble God, but they do resemble the devil like a child resembles his father.  Satan lied to Eve in the Garden of Eden, convincing her to disobey God and entice Adam to do the same.  He tempted Cain to murder his brother Abel.  Those standing before Jesus have chosen to believe Satan’s lies about Him and are intent on murdering Him.  The truth can be embarrassing, especially when it is said publicly in the Temple for all to hear!

VI.  A CHALLENGE TO THEM (verses 46-47)

After giving that stinging rebuke to His critics, Jesus establishes His authority by giving them a challenge.  In verse 46, Jesus says, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?  If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe Me?”  His enemies are given an opportunity to find errors in what He just said but He doesn’t get an answer from any of them.  None of His enemies could prove Him wrong.  Everything Jesus said to them was absolutely true.  That question must have really frustrated and angered them.

Jesus concludes in verse 47 by reviewing their spiritual parentage and summarizing it.  He says, “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” The way they act is going to determine their destiny.

CONCLUSION:

Here are several principles I’ve gained from my study of John 8:37-47:

  1.  Spiritually, all people are children of one of two fathers:  either God or the Devil.  Which one is yours?  If in doubt, your spiritual father is the one you obey.
  2. There are only two groups of people on earth:  the children of wrath and the children of God.  If your actions indicate that you are a child of wrath, please reconsider before it’s too late.
  3. There may come a time when you may need to be brutally honest with someone.  Let’s follow Jesus’ example and make sure that it’s our last resort.

The following illustration is an appropriate conclusion to this passage of Scripture.  A preacher had delivered a powerful sermon about the Devil, warning his listeners about his wiles.  Two rude, young ruffians heckled the preacher, shouting, “Don’t you know, Mr. Preacher, that the Devil died last night?”  The old preacher came down and, putting his arms on their shoulders said, “You poor fatherless orphans!  What will become of you?”  And then he said, “Let me introduce you to my Father who has promised, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ ”

CONSTRUCTION SITE: COMPLETED