Bible Study - Enounter (4) - JESUS Opened My Eyes to the Truth - John 9 - March 26, 2023

 

Bible study – Encounter (4) – JESUS opened My Eyes to the Truth – March 26, 2023

This is our fourth lesson in our series entitled, “My Encounter with JESUS.”

Our focus scripture is John 9:1-41.

JESUS led me to see increasingly who HE is.

JESUS was all about teaching HIS disciples and revealing to them WHO HE was. GOD arranges teachable instances along life’s journey. When we follow JESUS, there are no such things as coincidences.

As we journey with our LORD JESUS, we may have to ask HIM to open our eyes to see what HE desires for us to see and our minds to comprehend what HE desires for us to learn.

Let’s read John 9:1-

The Sixth Sign: Healing a Man Born Blind

9 As he was passing by, he (JESUS) saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

When we journey with JESUS what do we see and have questions about? When we do, do we ask questions? GOD loves to teach us. When we ask questions, it reveals where we are Spiritually.

In Bible times, various illnesses and handicaps were associated with sin. So, the disciples asked a good question.

We need to keep in mind that JESUS only did what GOD, HIS FATHER, told or showed HIM to do. There was a purpose in why JESUS spit in dirt and rubbed the mixture onto the blind man’s eyes. This event led HIS disciples to ask a very important question about sin, as we read on----

³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. ⁴ We^[a] must do the works of him who sent me^[b] while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

JESUS told HIS disciples “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” Often, we have to be released from false notions that can come from many sources, including clergy, well-meaning friends and teachers.

JESUS defined the purpose of the moment, “so that God’s works might be displayed in him.” JESUS continued, “We^[a] must do the works of him who sent me^[b] while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Temporary darkness came when JESUS gave up HIS physical life when HE was upon the cross. GOD resurrected JESUS from the physically dead on the third day, to live eternally with GOD. The resurrection is an example and proof that GOD has the power to give eternal life to all who place their faith in JESUS and have been redeemed from eternal death.

JESUS said that “HE is the light of the world. JESUS is still the light of the world and will be until the end.

JESUS desires for all, who have been Spiritually-born into GOD’S Family to work in GOD’S vineyard, earth, while HE is still the light.

⁶ After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. ⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So, he left, washed, and came back seeing.

This seems gross but in ancient times, spit was thought to have healing properties to the eyes.

⁸ His neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit begging?” ⁹ Some said, “He’s the one.” Others were saying, “No, but he looks like him.”

He kept saying, “I’m the one.”

It is hard for some people to accept miracles. They want a human explanation.

¹⁰ So they asked him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

How do you explain a miracle? You simply state the facts. That is all one can do.

The LORD allowed me to see a Heavenly event many years ago of a lady and JESUS walking down what appeared as a red dirt path lined with greenery on each side. That moment is still very clear in my head, along with the voice, “Mrs. Green has just passed away but she is walking with the LORD.” I would have not known who had passed except for the voice telling me and then I knew. It was a co-worker’s mother. Our LORD is always teaching and HE taught me much through that event. (If you care to read about this event in more details go to actsclass.blogspot.com and search for Mrs. Green – upper left-hand corner.)

¹¹ He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So, when I went and washed, I received my sight.”

¹² “Where is he?” they asked.

“I don’t know,” he said.

It was important for the man to know who healed him. So, “they” kept digging. Why? It was because they also needed to know that it was JESUS. Isaiah 29:18 reveals this is a sign of the promised Messiah.

Why JESUS? In Isaiah 29:18: On that day the deaf will hear
the words of a document,
and out of a deep darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.

If they acknowledged that JESUS did heal this man of blindness, they would have to also acknowledge HIM as the promised Messiah.

The Healed Man’s Testimony

¹³ They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath. ¹⁵ Then the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight.

“He put mud on my eyes,” he told them. “I washed and I can see.”

¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.

¹⁷ Again they asked the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?”

“He’s a prophet,” he said.

The man knew that HE was a man of GOD!

¹⁸ The Jews did not believe this about him—that he was blind and received sight—until they summoned the parents of the one who had received his sight.

¹⁹ They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

²⁰ “We know this is our son and that he was born blind,” his parents answered. ²¹ “But we don’t know how he now sees, and we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he’s of age. He will speak for himself.” ²² His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews, since the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him as the Messiah, he would be banned from the synagogue. ²³ This is why his parents said, “He’s of age; ask him.”

Did this poor formerly blind young man’s parent’s throw him under the bus so-to-speak? Yes. Why? Because the parents -- “they were afraid of the Jews, since the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him as the Messiah, he would be banned from the synagogue.”

Fear causes many of us to do strange things. Fear of what friends and others may think of us, if we become a Christian. Please do not let any fear or what others may think about you, keep you from becoming a Spirit-born person. Life upon this earth will soon pass and only what you do for JESUS will last.

²⁴ So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

Gee, rather than these Scripture scholars exploring the scripture and comparing the scripture to the promised coming Messiah, they were more concerned about JESUS healing this poor blind man on the Sabbath. The law is absent of grace.  

The formally blind man’s response is priceless, as we read on---

²⁵ He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”

When we ask JESUS to forgive us for our sins and for HIM to come into our hearts, HE does. It is then that we know what this blind man experienced. We are Spiritually blind until JESUS comes into our hearts and then we are Spiritually born into GOD’S Family, never to be Spiritually unborn. We see as we have never seen before because the Holy Spirit indwells us and enlightens us to truth.

²⁶ Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

As previously stated, if they acknowledged that JESUS did give sight to this blind man, they had to acknowledge that JESUS was the promised Messiah. Oh No! That would never happen!

²⁷ “I already told you,” he said, “and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”

²⁸ They ridiculed him: “You’re that man’s disciple, but we’re Moses’s disciples. ²⁹ We know that God has spoken to Moses. But this man—we don’t know where he’s from.”

³⁰ “This is an amazing thing!” the man told them. “You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him. ³² Throughout history^[c] no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

WOW! This formally physically blind person presented truth to those who should have known truth. Stubbornness robs many of a genuine encounter with JESUS. Notice, the sceptics immediately turn their attention to discredit the formally blind man----

³⁴ “You were born entirely in sin,” they replied, “and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.

They were the big religious muckety-mucks and they showed this formally blind man their power.

Spiritual Blindness

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, and when he found him, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”^[d]

JESUS searched for the man and JESUS still searches for all who seek HIM. JESUS asked the man, “Do you believe in the “Son of Man?”

³⁶ “Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” he asked.

³⁷ Jesus answered, “You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

³⁸ “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped him.

Notice the progression of Spiritual enlightenment in this previously physically and Spiritually blind man: (Seek and you will find truth.)

John 9:11 - ¹¹ He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So, when I went and washed, I received my sight.”

John 9:17 - ¹⁷ Again they asked the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?” “He’s a prophet,” he said.

John 9:33 - ³³ If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

John 9:38 - ³⁸ “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped him.

WOW! Once we see in our mind’s eyes the truth, what a joy that floods our hearts. Not only could the formally blind man see physically, he could see Spiritually. The promised Messiah, The Son of Man, had come to him and healed him. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. Check Revelation 3:20 - ²⁰ See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

³⁹ Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.”

⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?”

⁴¹ “If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

Once you realize that you are a sinner, that is your cue to ask JESUS to forgive your sins and for HIM to come into your heart. JESUS is the only answer to salvation. HE gave HIS sinless life upon the cross, by the shedding of HIS sinless blood, to redeem all who place their faith and trust in HIM from their sins.

Have you placed your faith in JESUS and trusted HIM to redeem you from sin? Unless you are born-again by the Holy Spirit/Spirit-born, you will spend eternity in Hell. If you have not asked JESUS into your heart, do so now and after you do, thank HIM for saving you and making you whole. You were once Spiritually blind but now you see. You are grafted into the vine of JESUS, flourish and bear much Spiritual fruit.

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Blessings!!!