Sermon Central
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He Opened My Eyes.
Contributed by Christopher Holdsworth on Nov 23, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: If this man were not of God He could do nothing.
HE OPENED MY EYES.
JOHN 9:26-28. The Pharisees again asked the man born blind HOW Jesus had opened his eyes.
The man expressed surprise that they wanted to hear his testimony all over again. Did they perhaps also want to be Jesus’ disciples? Apparently the man himself did.
The Pharisees became angry and abusive. “Thou art His disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.”
JOHN 9:29. They were right in their assertion that God had spoken to Moses, but their manner towards Jesus was insulting. We can imagine them gesturing with their hands: “THIS _, we know not whence He is.”
JOHN 9:30. The man born blind had had quite enough. Was it not a marvellous thing that they did not know from whence Jesus was, yet He had “opened my eyes.”
JOHN 9:31-33. Poor as he was (he had been begging), and blind as he had been, this man was able to speak in theological terms to these proud and arrogant Bible scholars: -
“Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if a man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him he heareth.
"Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one born blind.
"If this man were not of God, He could do nothing.”
Yet Jesus, the ‘light of the world’ (John 8:12a) has been bringing people ‘born (spiritually) dead in trespasses and sins’ (cf. Ephesians 2:1) into ‘the light of life’ (John 8:12b) ever since.
JOHN 9:34. The Pharisees were incensed with the audacity of this vulgar man daring to teach their superior selves, and there is a grave irony in the fact that they now pronounced that the man born blind had been “born in sins.” Jesus had already indicated to His disciples that this was a wrong way of thinking (cf. John 9:3). The now-seeing man-born-blind was expelled from the synagogue.
JOHN 9:35-37. The man born blind was now healed, but he was an outcast, ostracised by the society in which he lived. Jesus sought him out in order to raise him from physical healing to saving faith.
Jesus declared Himself to be the Son of God.
This was the first time that the man SAW Jesus - and he saw Him spiritually as well.
JOHN 9:38. The ultimate level of spiritual perception concerning the Person of Christ came when the man professed faith, "Lord, I believe," and prostrated himself at the feet of Jesus. Significantly, Jesus accepts the worship of those who believe in Him.
JOHN 9:39-41. Jesus is the light of the world, and as such He brings the light of life to those who will follow Him (cf. John 8:12). Conversely, the light only casts the shadow of judgement for those who will not come to Him (cf. John 3:18-21).