SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/16/2016 10:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Spiritual Sight or Spiritual Blindness?
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 9:35-41
Message of the verses: “35 Jesus heard that they had put him
out, and finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36
He answered, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" 37 Jesus
said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking
with you." 38 And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped
Him.
39 And Jesus said,
"For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may
see, and that those who see may become blind." 40 Those of the Pharisees
who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, "We are not blind
too, are we?" 41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would
have no sin; but since you say, ’We see,’ your sin remains.”
We will be
doing an introduction to these verses as this section is the last one for the 9th
chapter of the gospel of John. I have to
say that I will be a bit sad leaving this chapter as it is one of my favorite
chapters in the gospel of John, and it is because of the courage that this
blind beggar has after the Lord gave him sight.
Blind people are very perspective as their hearing is probably better
since they cannot see and because this blind man was sitting at the temple for
many days I have to believe that he had heard things from different people and
may have known something about who Jesus was, as I am sure many people would be
talking about Him as He ministered in the city of Jerusalem. It does not seem that he knew that Jesus was
the Son of Man as we will see in these verses, but I have to believe that he
knew something about Jesus and perhaps that is one of the reasons he had such
great courage speaking to the Pharisees.
One thing that disappoints me in this story is his parents, for they did
not seem to have a good relationship with their son and another thing is that
they cared more about the false religion they were involved in than the fact
that their son who was blind all of his life could now see. We do not hear anything more about this man
or his parents, but we must believe that this man was a great witness for the
Lord Jesus Christ.
We have
mentioned as we went through this chapter that the healing of this blind man
shows us much about salvation and we will continue to look at that aspect of
this man’s healing for not only did Jesus heal this man’s physical blindness,
but we will see that He will heal his spiritual blindness. This blind beggar was not asking for anything
from Jesus, and yet Jesus chose to heal his physical blindness and we will see
that this man did not have any interest in the healing of his spiritual
blindness, but Jesus sought him out so that he would come to know Him as his
Savior and Lord. I truly can relate to
this in my salvation story as when I went from Ohio to Florida in January of
1974 I had zero interest in becoming a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, but
He sought me out and His Spirit gave me an effectual call that I could not say
no to and so I became a true follower of Jesus Christ and my life has never
been the same since.
Throughout
the Scriptures physical blindness has pictured spiritual blindness. Isaiah writes in Isaiah 43:8 “8 Bring out the
people who are blind, even though they have eyes, And the deaf, even though
they have ears.” Jeremiah 5:21 says “’Now
hear this, O foolish and senseless people, Who have eyes but do not see; Who
have ears but do not hear.” Isaiah 56:10
“His watchmen are blind, All of them know nothing. All of them are mute dogs
unable to bark, Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber.” Jesus speaks of the Pharisees as being blind
in Matthew 15:14; 23:16-17, 19, 24, and 26.
“14 “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind
man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."” “16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say,
’Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold
of the temple is obligated.’ 17 “You fools and blind men! Which is more
important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?” 19 “You blind men, which is more important,
the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?” “24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat
and swallow a camel!” “26 “You blind
Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the
outside of it may become clean also.”
John MacArthur
writes “The only cure for spiritual blindness is saving faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Old Testament predicted that
the Messiah would bring spiritual sight to His people (cf. Isa. 42:7). ‘The people who walk in darkness,’ Isaiah
wrote, ‘will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will
shine on them…Out of their gloom and darkness they eyes of the blind will see’
(Isa. 9:2; 29:18). In Isaiah 49:6 God said of the Messiah, ‘It is too small a
thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to
restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the
nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’”
When the
Lord saves someone He rescues them “from the domain of darkness, and
transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1:13).” Who has caused us to be blind? “In whose case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4).”
John
MacArthur concludes this introduction to these last verses in the 9th
chapter of John’s gospel by writing: “This
passage, which concludes the story of the blind man whom Jesus healed, reveals
the characteristics of both spiritual sight (on the part of the man) and
spiritual blindness (on the part of the Pharisees).”
As we move
forward looking at these verses we will look at “Spiritual Sight” which will
have four sub-points under it and then look at “Spiritual Blindness” which also
will have four sub-points under it.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:1-3) “1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may
increase? 2. May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in
it? 3. Or do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “12,117).”
Today’s Bible question:
“With what were the tables of stone (The Ten Commandments)?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/16/2016 11:22 AM
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