Episode 276: One Thing I Do Know | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

I call this your friend. Keeps us focused. So, we're in John chapter nine. What page in the Pew Bible? John chapter nine? Eight ninety three. Eight ninety three. That's awesome. Eight ninety five. Perfect. You guys, I kind of feel like I got assigned a lesson that's like war and peace. It's like the whole chapter of John nine. There's no way in the world I could do that justice but I'm going to try to like skip a stone over the water so you can get the meat of it. The meat of it.

So, before we go into the story, I'll just tell you what's going to happen. Jesus heals a man born blind and then, the Pharisees are trying to figure out why would he do such a thing on the Sabbath and for ways to accuse him, blah, blah, blah. They asked the boy, they asked his parents, they asked the boy again, and he goes, duh, has anybody ever opened the eyes of a blind man? Jesus is not simply a prophet. He is the Lord God Almighty. So, we're going to go to that but as we dig into this version of war and peace, I want you to take yourself in your mind. This is not new age stuff. It's just we're we're we're thinking, imagining.

The Context of the Passage

I want you to imagine that you're in a very remote place in India, South India, far from the big cities, rural, lot of pagan worship going on and at age 21, you're you're you're there and you see a cinder block building and it's really nothing to look at. It looks like maybe somebody's cheap cinder block building where they'd work on cars or something but you go in there and there's a medical clinic in there and there's a doctor and he's a Christian and he's the brother of my friend who ends up becoming a bishop. Anyway, this Christian doctor in rural South India and we walk into his clinic and and and the thing that struck me is soon after we walked in there, I saw a baby on a metal table. Now, you think, well, what's the big deal about that? Well, the big deal about it was that nobody was tending to him. The baby was not even wrapped and I saw flies all over the baby's face and his head and I'm like, I was only a paramedic. I wasn't a doctor but I was like, what the heck? Somebody tend to this child. Somebody make this child warm. Somebody take care of this baby and my friend, whose brother was the doctor in that rural place, kind of gave me an eye like And so, I took my questions and we left. And then we went do some other things, but two or three hours later, we came back to the same cinder block building, and there was a baby still on the table, gasping for breath, This far from death. And the baby did die. And so I asked it it made me mad. I asked my friend. I'm like, what in the world? Your brother's a Christian. How could he let this baby die unattended? And then he told me something I never expected. He goes, well, my brother was looking in the child's eye and thought he saw something. Now, medical people maybe can tell me what you could possibly see in somebody's eye. But he thought the child might be born with some serious physical or mental challenge and he knew that in that rural place, they always equate sickness with sin. And so if he was the one who delivered the baby who was imperfect, they would burn down his clinic.

Bad theology hurts people. A week later, same place, South India. I'm with my buddy, Abraham, and we go to see his sister. I was, I think, 21. She was 26 years old. She was already a widow. Her husband had been a lorry driver. Do you know what a lorry is? Ask Siri right now. What is a lorry? A truck. Alright, Alexa, whoever you got. It's a truck. It's a truck and the funny thing in India is, they keep their hand on the horn 90% of the time, and occasionally, they'll take it off just to rest or get a drink, and then their hand goes right back on. It's loud horns all the time. It's really obnoxious, but this particular man died driving a truck. He died. And so, in their culture, when somebody dies too early, somebody clearly must have sinned. That's the only possible answer. It's somebody's fault. Just like they it would have been the doctor's fault in that clinic. So, it was the widow's fault. And I'm like, are you guys Christians? It seems to me you're like a frog in the kettle, and all this Hinduism and karma stuff is bleeding into the church and so we went to this lady's house and my friend is a Christian. He's a good solid believer. He says, we have to go in the back door. I'm like, why do we have to go in the back doors? Because she's a widow and her husband died in a truck accident. I'm like, what does that have to do with anything? He says, well, in our culture, they think that she did something that caused this and so the in laws will never speak to her again. The people in the town treat her like she's got leprosy and even her own family comes in through the backdoor once or twice a year and that's it. They thought there's always a cause for sickness. Somebody must have sinned.

Now, let's look in John nine. As he passed, as Jesus passed, he saw a man blind from birth.

For my wife says, have a really strange sense of humor but did did you see what just happened? He saw a man, a man blind from birth. He saw, saw a man that was blind. See it? That's middle school weird, quick humor but what I want to tell you is, Jesus does see. See, I think one of the reasons we act out so much is we don't think God sees. We don't think he cares or that he knows. And that when Jesus said, I will not leave you as an orphan, I will come to you, He actually meant it. And so we see Jesus, he saw this man blind from birth. I don't I don't know what that's like. I remember in college, we had a psychology class because that's what if you want an automatic A, you took psych research, four ninety five and April, May, and May. The football players at UVA told me about this. Thank you very much. I got an A and everyone, everybody gets an A in this class. You have no test. You have no nothing. You just show up and you're a confederate in an experiment. Anyway, for a whole twenty four hours, we had to go around blindfolded and friends, can I just tell you, I don't want to be blind? It's it's hard. You can't see. Like what I saw this morning, I saw my granddaughter Winnie. If you look at that little face and her little curls, if they didn't light you up, you got a soul heart problem. This man never saw anything and we know in that day, there’s no social services. The only social services is you hope some of your friends drop you at the Pool Of Siloam maybe an angel will come down and dip his wings in there and the water will turn and if you jump in, which is hard if you're crippled. If you jump in, you might actually get healed but most all of them didn't and so, Jesus sees the man blind from birth and the disciples asked him. They asked him a simple question, okay? Here's the question. Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind? And we're thinking, oh, that's so stupid. Who would ever do that? And yet, I do it. There's this rush to judgement when you see somebody who's suffering. Maybe they lost their business, their marriage, their kids are freaks. I don't know but there's some hardship in it. I mean, bless my heart. I did grow up in a liberal church but I quickly go to this kind of fundy, judgmental thing where I'm looking for the root cause. You, somebody did something or this wouldn't happen. Jesus wrote this. He put it in the book to say, stop. Stop it. Are there times where people are sick or wounded or hurt or die because of their sin? We're going all be honest here. Yes. I hate like like this. If you have three big gulps a day and eat Ho Hos and Pop Tarts and you live on that, there's going to be some consequences, right? If children, if you stick your finger in a socket, don't do it but if you do, you will get shocked and it will hurt very badly, right? It couldn't kill you. Don't do it. There are consequences but what Jesus is saying is, we that we're way too quick to want to blame somebody for their sin. Could you imagine if you were blind your entire life and you knew everybody where you live thought, you're blind because you're a sinner? Can you imagine the guilt, the shame, the lack of community, feeling unloved? So, they asked the question, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents. What was the answer? I love this. I love it when scripture gives us the answer because we don't have to be smart. You don't have to be timid to get this answer. Right? You could be like a regular person. What was the answer Jesus gave? Who sinned? This man or his parents. What's the answer? He said, neither. But this was done so that the work of God, the works of God might be displayed in and through him. Now, that could sound cruel but the Lord had a purpose in using this man to his glory. Isn't that what we pray for? Lord, use us not to us, not to us, but to your name be the glory. And so, Jesus says, no one sinned, but this happened. So that the works of God might be displayed through this man.

And then verse four, he takes it off the man and he takes it to us and he says, we must work. We must do the works of god while it's still day. In other words, there's going to come a time where there's not going to be any more working for the king because he's going to return and that's going to be it but he says, right now, you have the time, you have the opportunity to do the works of god so that when people see you, they see Jesus. When they see that you're a light on a hill, they know that there's one who is the light. When they see the word testimony or see the fruit of the spirit working in you, albeit imperfect. Then, they know that the Lord is at work. And so, Jesus is saying, hey, man. Be about the works of god while it's still day.

What works are you about? You know, one thing about approaching 64 years old, you start going hunting, we have way too much junk in our house. People go, how come y'all never moved? I'm like, because we're too lazy. Do you know how much effort it would take to move thirty five years of junk? Word. But Jesus says, get about the father's works because night is coming and when night comes, no one can work. As long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. And having said this, Jesus does something. What does he do? This is one of the creepier passages of scripture. What does he do? Do you know every middle school boy loves to hock? Do you know this? Right. Parents, let your let your kids, maybe not polite coming, but in the backyard, let them hock. It's alright. Boys do that. Girls could do that. I had a lady in my fancy neighborhood growing up used to roll down the wind of her Mercedes and go, What does Jesus do? Some of you will never get past that comment. What what what did Jesus do? What did he do? What did he do? He spit in the ground on some dirt or dust and then what he do? He made he made a a mud pie and he stuck it in his eye.

Now, I don't know about you guys but the Bible says that this lady had suffered at the hands of many physicians. And I love physicians. I see them all the time now. It's funny. They're like my best friends now. But some of us could attest that we have suffered at the hands of some bad physicians, and we're so grateful for the good ones. Anyway, here he goes. So, Jesus does this. He makes mud pies, he says to the man, go wash in the Pool Of Siloam. Well, I don't know why that's in there. I mean, Jesus could do this. Do, do, do, do. You can see. He could just say, see and you could see but Jesus was sending this person to the Pool Of Siloam. Now, let me get this straight. Jesus who was sent from the father applies these mud pies to this guy's eyes and he goes, now, I want you to go. I'm sending you. Where are you sending me, Jesus? To Siloam which in Hebrew means to the place where people are sent, to the sent place.

So the son of God who was sent from the father sends this guy who's in the process of being healed to Siloam. And you and you and you know about the Pool Of Siloam. I mean, there was a point where, I think it was Hezekiah said, hey, we're vulnerable because if the bad guys come and try to overtake Jerusalem, all they have to do is cut off our water supply and we're dead meat. We're dead meat. Poison water equals no people. And so he, really, the people that work for him, dug a tunnel through rock, hard rock. I think it was like a was a long tunnel. And that water came safely through the rock in the mountain all the way inside the gates of the city and there it came to the Pool Of Siloam and around the Pool Of Siloam, the people believed, I think it's superstitious, but they believed that angels would come down occasionally. Funny how it usually came about twice a day and the angel would dip their wings in the water and the water would flutter. It was actually just releasing water. But when that happened, it was said, if you're handicapped or challenged or crippled or whatever phrase you want to use, if you're suffering, when the water turns, jump in it. Well, that's cool but I mean, I'm not sure how the blind man would be able to see that or a handicap man or woman, how would they be able to get there? And yet, Jesus sends him to the Pool Of Siloam just like he sent others to the priest to fulfill all righteousness and it says, so the man went and he washed and he did what? This is the this is the punch line. What happened to him? He came back seeing.

I don't know if you guys have ever seen a real miracle. People try to help god with, you know, doing their hand like this and no, no. When god does a miracle, I promise you, he does not need you to help him. He doesn't need you to get spiritual or put English on it or talk in a certain way. When god heals, he heals. And so, he was healing this man and I mean, the story is that the one whose eyes would soon be shut in death because he loved this man, opened his eyes and it's a miracle. It's never been done. Nobody can open the eyes of a blind man but God.

Opposition and Recognition

So, in verse eight, what happens? Opposition. The neighbors and those who had seen this man before as a beggar, tell me about his former life. He's a beggar. We're saying, is this not this man who isn't this the man who used to sit and beg on around the Pool Of Siloam? Another said, yeah, that's that's him and others said, no, no, no, it only looks like him. Have you ever seen somebody maybe haven't seen him for a while and then all of a sudden, you look at them and you have a thought in your head. You might go, wow, you've really aged or wow, that's a terrible haircut or wow, you know, you've been working out or wow, something. The wow here is that the man came back seeing. He came back seeing and the neighbors, the neighbors didn't recognize him.

Have you ever thought that like there's something when Christ inhabits a man or a woman? When he inhabits a man or a woman, there is the presence of Almighty God in that person and if the Lord doesn't dwell your temple, it doesn't matter what you do or don't do. I'm just telling you, God's glory shines. He calls even sinners who are believers, a light on the hill. He said, let your let your people see, let the people see your good works that they may give glory to your Father that is in heaven. So anyway, the man goes, the neighbors are like, I don't know if this is the right guy or not.

Verse 10, they come to the man and they go, how are your eyes opened? How are your eyes opened? This is much like if somebody said, well, how did Doctor Moscow fix your hip? Dude, I don't know and I don't care. I know the bill was big and there were a lot of people in the room. I could care less. I don't care if he was playing chess during the operation. All I know is I got a hip. Praise Jesus. I don't need all the details. When I used to see Gary, Gary would do all these procedures on me. I didn't understand all he's doing but I trusted him and so, they're arguing about is he the man and yeah, yeah, yeah, he's the man and and and the man's when asked, how are your eyes open? He said, well, it's simple. A man named Jesus came. He made mud. He anointed my eyes and he said to me, go to Siloam and wash. That's what happened. Simple and then, something even bigger happened. So, I went and I washed and I received my sight.

Now, it's interesting the contrast here between the man born blind and the people that are accusing Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. The religious leaders who are very spiritual had rubs much like mine. Kept calling Jesus a sinner, telling this man, don't worship Jesus. He's a sinner. They're casting their judgments on him. But the man gets this, all I know is Jesus did it. I went, I washed, I received my sight for the first time in my life. I can see.

Verse 12, and they said to him, where is Jesus? The guy says, I don't know. Verse 13, they brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been born blind and now it was a Sabbath day. Why why are they saying Sabbath day? Because they're laying their trap for Jesus and Jesus, do you remember what he said about the Sabbath day? Doing work on the Sabbath day? How about when they were plucking the grain in the fields, his followers? He said, well, didn't David and his men go eat the show bread, the sacred bread when they were hungry, which is not allowed, but God's a God of provision and mercy, and so it was allowable to bless them and to keep them alive. And so we see here, on the Sabbath day, Jesus is like, well, if you have an ox or you have an animal and they fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, are you going to go like, hey, see you on Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening? No, you get down in the pit, you pull out your animal, even the most religious and so they're they're they're being hypocrites. The people that think they can see literally cannot see and the man who was born blind is actually the one who can see and we're going to see more on that in a second.

The main point is Jesus healed him. He received his sight. But it was on a Sabbath and so, some of the Pharisees came and it says, this man is not from God for he does not keep the Sabbath but others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such things? And there was division among them. And so they again came to the blind man. What do you say since he's opened your eyes? And the guy goes, he's a prophet? Well, he is a prophet. He's also a priest. He's also a king. He's also El Shaddai, the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the eye. The Jews, verse 18, the Jews did not believe that this man had been born blind and so they wanted to verify that. So, they called the parents and what did the parents say? You guys don't ever sell your kids out like this. There, I mean, the Bible tells us, they're afraid of the Jews. They had heard, if you confess Christ as Lord and Savior, if you can confess Christ as Messiah, you will be put out of the synagogue which basically means you're going to be treated like a pagan. You're going to be treated as a nothing, as an awful person. We're going to throw you out and so the parents were afraid and they're like, well, go ask my son. He's of age. How should we know? Let's see exactly what they said. Oh, here it is. Verse 19. Is your son who you say had, was he born blind? And they said, the parents answered, we know that this is our son and he was in fact born blind but how he now sees, we don't know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. I think they might have been fibbing. Might have been fibbing. I swear, I don't know the man. Cockle doodle doo. His parents said these things, they feared the Jews. And so, the second time they called this man, the man is probably, leave me alone, man. I just had a miracle done in my life. I can see. I want to look at what God's made. It's amazing. The first time in my life, I'm seeing and they say to the man, you know, for the second time, they called the man who had been born blind. They said to him, give glory to God, IE not Jesus. Give glory to God because we know that this man, Jesus, is a sinner. And then, what did the blind man say? He's like, hey, people in all your robes and your good theology, all I know is, for my whole life, I've been blind and this man, Jesus, healed me and I can now see. That's all I know.

Alright, so how's it end up? What verse are we on? Glad to see everybody following along so nicely. 25. Thank you. Okay. So, he says, whether the man's a sinner or not, I do not know. The one thing I do know is though, though I was blind, now I see.

And they said to the man, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? And he answered them, I've told you already and you would not listen. Like, this guy is spunk. He's a new believer but he's not playing around. He's experienced the power of God, right? And and he goes, do you also want to become his disciples? I love that. The guy had been saved about three seconds and he's in front of a hostile group and he goes, you guys want to get converted as well? Or you want to stay in your dead religion? How did they respond to that? Here, let's see. 26. Yeah. Okay. It's coming. Oh and they reviled him saying, you are you are his disciple but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses but as for this man, Jesus, we don't know where he comes from. And the man answered, look, look, the spunk of his studio. He goes, well, this is an amazing thing. Do you not know where he comes from? The man opened my eyes. I was blind as a bat. I never saw nothing. I didn't see light. I didn't see dark. I didn't see anybody's face. I never saw a sunrise. I never saw nothing. And now, I can see. You tell me. Do you remember when John the Baptist, the disciples and we're talking with John the Baptist and they're like, hey, John goes, I'm in prison, man. This is looking rough. He goes, is this the one? Is this the one that's to come? Part of me wants to go, really, John? How dim witted could you be? Did you not just baptize the man? And here, like the father said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. And yet John, even like us, sometimes has questions. It's like he's not sure, especially in the in the crucible of a prison and being incarcerated and so we see here that Jesus healed the man. He healed the man.

The Miracle and its Impact

He healed the man. So, let's get to the last verse and we'll finish. This is an amazing thing. He says, you don't know where he comes yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners but if anyone's a worshiper of God and does his will, God will listen. And the man said this, verse 32, never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. And eventually, what did the religious people do? The ones who apparently could see but really couldn't see. Jesus said, you'll you'll see but be never seeing. They were the ones who were actually blind. This man, the man born blind, could not only see physically, he could see spiritually.

Application

Alright. So, what's the takeaway from this passage? One, it's a long passage. It's war and peace. The main thing I grabbed from this passage is to avoid the God, the Lord is warning us, avoid the tendency to be like my friends in South India that are always looking for somebody to blame when they see illness, sickness, malady, hardship. We all know sometimes these things happen because we're dumb and do things we shouldn't. But Jesus here is not focusing on that. He's focusing on, it's not your job to pronounce judgment on these people. Stop doing it. The default is to go quickly to find out who's at fault. Stop it.

Number two, what is the main call for us in this passage? To do the works that glorify God. He says, right now is day. Right now, you guys have freedom. You're not in a jail right now. You've not been turned over. Because in this period where you have freedom, speak on my behalf. Do the works of the kingdom because there will come a day where you're no longer going to be able to do that. So, while it's day, be about the father's business. Do kingdom works.

Last one is this. The Pharisees were so busy on getting things right. Like the Sabbath and who this man is and how he healed and did he do all the right process and procedures that they missed the king of glory. They missed him. And so my question is, are we likewise? We have such a narrative burned into our head that even if the Son of Man himself doing miracles of changing somebody's life and giving that man his life better, that we would be so blind that we could not see it. If Jesus opening the eyes of a blind man would not get your attention and arrest you that you're not God but you need to worship the one true God, what would?

If this doesn't impact you, like, what is it going to take for you personally to say, Lord, you are Lord. You are God and I will worship you because you are worthy of my praise. And Father, by your grace, would you fill me with yourself because I can't do anything to win anybody but with you and me, I can do even greater things than you did. So, Lord, fill me, pull me away from wrong judgment. Fill me so I can do the works of the king until he returns. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.