Irrefutable Christian Testimony John 9:12-25

Text:  “He (the man healed of blindness) answered and said, Whether He (Christ Jesus) be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I KNOW, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”

John 9:25.

Good morning, Spiritually seeing Christian!  Once you and I were Spiritually blind, now because of God’s free grace, and the Cross of Christ Jesus, we have Spiritual sight.  Even our physically blind brothers and sisters in Christ, have now been blessed with Spiritual eyes to clearly see and understand the deep things of the Living Lord God.  Bless the Lord, O my soul!

“(For we walk by faith (Spiritual vision), not by sight (physical sight).”  (2 Corinthians 5:7)

The blind man healed in John chapter nine had lived his entire life in physical darkness, as many of our beloved brethren in Christ do today. 

However, on top of a lifetime of visual deprivation that this dear man had suffered - once Christ had delivered him from his terrible infirmity - he then began to experience the most horrific oppositions he had ever encountered!  These same oppositions are to be expected by all who will truly believe; receive Spiritual sight; and be saved by the Cross of Christ Jesus.                

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12)   That’s a promise, my friend.

Oppositions from Neighbours:  When a precious soul gets truly saved by receiving faith from God to believe in Christ and to trust in His Calvary Sacrifice for our sins, even those who have been close neighbours can get upset by the event.  They begin to ask some really incredible questions of the new born again person, yet this gives the new Christian an opportunity to bear witness of the power of Christ to save.  What a privilege!  (John 9:8-12)

Oppositions from Pharisees:  The world in which we live today - in the 21^st Century - is filled with latter-day Pharisees: those who seem to be very ‘good-living‘, yet have no time at all for the things of Christ.  Self-righteousness seems to be the hindrance of such persons.  Self-righteousness and a lack willingness to forgive others, can also be a real opposition within any true Christian.  It is so unlike Christ!  (John 9:13-16) (Romans 3:10-18)

Oppositions from the ‘Religious:  The Jews of Christ’s day were the most religious Nation one could find.  They had actually added some 630 odd laws of their own making unto the Ten Commandments, and sought to religiously adhere to them as a mark of their assumed piety.  How pathetic! 

“For by grace and ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

The man born blind received much opposition from those religious Jews for, Spiritually speaking, they had been born without any Spiritual vision at all!     (John 9:17-19) (Matthew 23:13-37)

Oppositions from Parents:  When Jesus made the man blind from birth to miraculously see, even his own parents did not know how to handle this amazing event of Divine intervention.  They knew that this seeing man was their once blind son, but of course, did not understand ‘…by what means he now seeth…’ (V. 21).

Similarly, many otherwise loving parents today are totally mystified when a son, or a daughter, gets miraculously saved by the power of God in Christ Jesus.

“And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” (Matthew 10:36)

Furthermore, some parents are so frightened of what the world around them might say, they immediately seek to dissuade their offspring from openly professing Christ as their Saviour!  (V. 21-22)  What tragic family oppositions!

Empowerment from the Lord:  However, here is the good news, beloved new born Christian!  The man healed from his lifetime of blindness was empowered by God the Holy Ghost to immediately give irrefutable Christian testimony concerning all the oppositions he suddenly faced.  The logic and wisdom that God granted this dear man could not be gainsaid by any.  Listen again to the clarity and precision of his testimony:

“He answered (all his opponents) and said, Whether He (Christ Jesus) be a sinner or no, I know not; (BUT) one thing I KNOW…once I was blind, now I see.”  V. 25) 

Wow!  There was going to be absolutely no refuting this clear fact of his deliverance!  The evidence was there before every one to see!  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour we serve!  Begone all oppositions!

Thought: The Lord God grants irrefutable Christian testimony to His redeemed souls.   All glory to His Holy and gracious Name! 

A Visible Act of Creation? John 9:6-11

Text:  “In the beginning was the Word (Christ Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made…He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.”

John 1:1-10.

Good morning, Christian subject!  Having been quickened by God the Holy Spirit; granted God’s gifts of repentance and saving faith - you and I immediately subjected our own personal and rebellious wills to our Sovereign Lord God, and, by His grace, we became His loyal subjects.  Praise God for the utter privilege of being subjects of the King of all kings - Christ Jesus, the Creator of all the earth!  Amen.

“Ye call Me Master and Lord; and ye say well; for so I am.”  (John 13:13)

“And He (Christ Jesus) was clothed with a vesture dipped in Blood; and His Name is called The Word of God…and He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a Name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”  (Revelation 19:11-16)

It might surprise us to learn of how many - otherwise soundly saved, Bible-believing Christians - within the church who do not know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the actual Creator of all things. 

Jesus Christ was, IS, and ever shall be, our Sovereign Creator Lord God!  Give glory and praise to His Holy Name!  Hallelujah!

“…He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.”  (John 1:10)

In today’s selected Bible reading from John’s Gospel account,  I firmly believe that we find the Lord Jesus actually engaged in a work of Divine Creation.  Check it out for yourself, Christian!  God’s Word is truth!

After declaring Himself to be ‘…the Light of the world…’ (V.5), He proceeded to prove the fact to His disciples and to the man born blind - by making him a pair of eyes!  (Isaiah 42:5-7) (Isaiah 61:1-2)

This miracle parallels Christ’s dealing with the man with the palsy who was brought to Him by his four friends for healing in Mark chapter 2-1-12.

In Mark’s account of that healing, the Lord Jesus first declared unto the palsied man, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” (V.5)

Then, when Jesus perceived that the scribes and unbelieving crowd ridiculed His words, He healed the man’s body as a proof of His power to forgive him his sins!  Hallelujah!  The outer miracle of healing, proved the inner miracle of sins forgiven.  Wow!  What enlightenment we have in God’s Word.

“Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk?  But that ye may KNOW that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he said to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.”  (Mark 2:9-11)  
And he did!  His sins were forgiven, his body healed!

In chapter nine of John’s Gospel today, Jesus first informed His disciples that it was not the sins of the man’s parents, nor the sins of the man himself that had caused him to be born blind; ‘…but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”  (V.3)  The man was born blind for a purpose!  His blindness would, at God’s Own exact time in history, be used to bring glory to His Son, Christ Jesus, the Creator Lord God.  What a Sovereign plan!

Now watch Christ the Creator at His creative work:  “When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground (the dust of the earth); and MADE clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.”  (V.6)

I firmly believe that the Lord Jesus actually made this blind man a new pair of eyes on that day.  “…He (the man that had been born blind) went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”  (V.7)  Thanks be to God!

Christ the Creator Lord God not only gave physical sight to the man who had been born blind; had never seen the sun shine before; had never experienced colours, nor patterns, nor dimensions ever!  The Lord Jesus also gave this dear man a startling testimony to tell others and to prove to them the Divine power of God to make ‘…all things new…’  (V.11)  (Revelation 12:11)

IF therefore, you and I have now been created ‘…new creatures in Christ…’; should we not also go forth and earnestly tell other souls what Christ has done for us?  How can we ever seek to keep such wondrous news a secret?

Thought: ‘I serve a risen Saviour, He’s in the world today…He lives!’ 

Personal Responsibility for Sin! John 9:1-5

Text:  “And His (Christ’s) disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”

John 9:2.

          “…I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me…”

Exodus 20:5.

Good morning, often confused Christian!  When we read two texts of Holy Scripture, like the texts above, we often get just a bit confused.  But the Lord God Whom we love and seek to serve is not the Author of confusion.  When we humbly ask, the Spirit of God will shed Divine light on our subject.  Praise God it is so.  We have a Divine Helper!

“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you all things to come.”  (John 16:13)

Christ’s disciples encountered the blind man in John chapter nine and asked an important question, it is a deep question, it is a vital question - but while we mere mortals have many many such deep questions, only God has all the answers.  We are constantly encountering deep and dark situations - but Christ Jesus, our Saviour, is ‘…the light of the world…’  (V.5)

Children can often suffer as a consequence of parental sins.  The alcoholic father spends all the family money on booze, thus the children suffer social deprivation.  The bingo-addicted mother squanders her husband’s wages in the bingo halls, and the children suffer as a consequences.  Parental sin can indeed bring dire consequences for the children concerned - but the children are NOT morally responsible for their parent’s sins! 

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die (Eternal death).  The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”  (Ezekiel 18:20)

Therefore, from this Scripture we are taught that personal sin bears personal responsibility.  We are ALL personally responsible for our own personal sins.  Godly parents are NOT responsible for the sins committed by their children!

However, the question is even deeper than this.  For example, a child brought up in an environment of constant particular sin, will be more apt to commit such sin themselves.  Drunkenness, drug-abuse, immoral living, gluttony, untidiness, foul talking, and careless living - can all be negative learned behaviour!  Parents, be careful how you live!  You children are watching, listening, and learning from YOU!  What you do, they will learn to do!

“Train up a child in the way he/she should go; and when he/she is old, he/she will not depart from it.”  (Proverbs 22:6)

Today’s Bible Lesson makes it quite clear then:  While children can be deeply influenced by parents and older siblings in the context of positive and negative learned behaviour patterns - every individual person is personally responsible for our own failings, short-comings, actions, words, and SINS.

“But let every man/woman prove (test) his/her own work, and then shall he/she have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.  For every man shall bear his/her own burden.”  (Galatians 6:4-5)

Furthermore, while we can transgress known legal and moral laws; while we can trespass against each other, and do each other wrongs and do so constantly - we can only SIN against God, for God ALONE is Holy!  Praise His Holy Name!  (1 Peter 1:15-16)

“Therefore by the deeds of the law (Ten Commandments) there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin…for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (I.e. the perfect righteousness and Holiness of the Lord God, found only in Christ Jesus!).”  (Romans 3:20-23

This is why even the apostate Pharisees knew that God alone can forgive sins.  “…Who can forgive sins but God only?”  (Mark 2:7)  God alone is Holy.  Therefore it is God alone Who can be sinned against! 

However, here is the good news, my friends:  “But if the wicked will turn (repent) from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes (by faith in Christ Jesus), and do that which is lawful and right (confessing sins when we fail to do so), he/she shall surely live, he/she shall not die (Eternal death).  All his/her transgressions that he/she hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him/her; in his/her righteousness (Christ’s righteousness) that He hath done he shall live.” (Ezekiel 18:21-22) (Acts 16:30-31)  Wow!

Thought:  True repentance to Christ brings cleansing from ALL sins! 

Christ’s Eternal Sonship John 8:51-59

Text:  “Jesus said unto them, Verily (truly), verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM.”

John 8:58

          “And God said unto Moses, I AM that I AM; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me.”

Exodus 3:14.

Good morning, rejoicing Christian!  You rejoice deep within your soul, even during days of dark oppressions, grave illnesses; fighting without and fears within - throughout all the vicissitudes of daily life you are still rejoicing. 

What is the source of your continued rejoicing and of mine?  Simple: we KNOW whom we have believed, and trust in the Eternal Son of God for our Salvation.   Glory to the Eternal Father!  Glory to the Eternal Son!  Glory to the Eternal Spirit!  All three Persons One Lord God Whom we love.  Amen.

“For there are THREE that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word (Christ Jesus), and the Holy Ghost; and these Three are One…If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son…And this is the record, that God hath given to us Eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”  (1 John 5:7-13)

It is most surprising to learn the number of professing Christians who believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living Lord God, only began in the stable at Bethlehem.  They seem to believe that Christ originated there as a human babe!  Clearly such Christians have not studied their Bibles enough for, as Christ plainly  teaches us in today’s text, “…Before Abraham was, I AM.”  (V.58)  (2 Timothy 2:15)

The Christian doctrine involved in our passage today is what we, Bible-believing Christian theologians, call - The Eternal Sonship of Christ.

Alan Cairns puts it well in his Dictionary of Theological Terms, page 137:

“Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?  The Shorter Catechism answers, ’The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, being the Eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one Person forever’”

Cairns goes on to say:  “This statement is a theological masterpiece, wonderfully brief, but full of Scriptural truth.  It lays down the following Biblical doctrines about Christ’s Person:

1.  His Eternal Sonship.

2.  His incarnation.

3.  His philanthropic Person - He is ‘God and man in two distinct natures’.

4.  His uni-personality - though God and man, He is One Person.

5. His sole position as the Redeemer of God’s elect, a position He holds forever, both in His state of humiliation and exaltation.

Eternal Sonship is VITAL to a Scriptural view of all these aspects of Christ’s Person.”  (A Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Alan Cairns, page 137)

The Lord Jesus Christ did not BECOME the Son of God by human birth!

Cairns again:  “Christ did not become God by His virgin birth.  He could be called God at His birth because He already was God.  Similarly, in Luke 1:35, He could be called the Son of God because He already was the Son of God.”  (A Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Alan Cairns, page 137)

Amen, and all praise to Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of the Living Lord God!

“In the beginning was the Word (Christ Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him (Christ Jesus); and without Him was not anything made that was made…And the Word of God was made flesh (at Bethlehem), and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!  (John 1:1-14)

In our selected passage for today, the Lord Jesus seeks to proclaim the truth of His Eternal Sonship, but the unbelieving crowd could not bear this truth.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad…Then took they up stones to cast at Him; but Jesus hid Himself…” (V.56)

Thought:  Rejoice anew, dear believing Christian, our Redeemer is Eternally with us, and will never leave us, nor forsake us.