#81 -- Gospel and Spiritual Growth
Valley –
This message focuses on Jesus' confrontation with the
secular religious education of the world system in John 9. The Babylonian captivity brought
consequential changes in the Jewish approach to education. While Judaism continued to verbalize respect
for the Mosaic Law, secularization of the approach to the Law was taking place. This was emphasized in the development of
Jewish tradition outside of and in addition to the Law. Education was influenced by Babylonian and
Persian educational standards. The
development of the Talmud and other literature applies a form of reasoning that
resembles elements of the world system.
The judicial blindness of
John nine presents several scenarios. Jesus and the disciples pass by a blind man evidently sitting beside the road begging. As a matter of course in normal conversation the disciples ask Jesus a philosophical question: "Who sinned, the man or his parents?" The question brings an answer that results in the healing of the blind man who had been born blind. The man is healed. He goes home and the neighbors are overwhelmed with his healing and take him to the Pharisees. He testifies to his healing. The Pharisees don't believe him and sent for his parents. The Pharisees interrogate the parents who refer them to the man concerning who healed him. He tells the Pharisees he already had told them and that all he knows is that he can see. The Pharisees angrily throw him out of the synagogue. Jesus meets him, identifies Himself and the man believes. Through all of this the Pharisees education is challenged and they react to what is obvious.
Prominent in the first three verses is the reason the man was born blind. It was not because of the sin of his parents or himself (? – In the womb? Retroactive?) but so that the works of God might be brought to light. Jesus complicated the whole situation when He chose not to heal the man immediately. Instead He spit in the dust and made mud and put it on the man's eyes and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam (vs. 7). The man went, washed and received his sight. Imagine all of the speculation of what in the spit or mud brought about the healing. The man did not know who Jesus was. Nothing is said about his coming home or about the reaction of his parents when he appeared seeing.
John does reveal the reaction of the man's neighbors (8-12). They couldn't believe that the same man could now see. Confirmation of his identity brought the question concerning how he had received his vision. He described a man named Jesus and the events that brought him his vision. They then asked him where Jesus was. These neighbors definitely reacted though nothing is said about what kind of reaction they had, positive or negative. They decided to take him to the Pharisees.
The former blind man's neighbors led him to the Pharisees. The healing had taken place on the Sabbath (vs. 14). The Pharisees interrogated the man asking him how he had received his vision. He described the activities leading to his healing (vs. 15) affirming the fact that he could see. Some of the Pharisees stepped forward and said that the healer was not from alongside of God because He did not keep the Sabbath in his healing the man. Others from the group of Pharisees questioned the conclusion of the others. "How does a sinful man have the inherent power to be doing such signs [i. e. sign miracles] (vs. 16b – my translation)?" They recognized the healing as a sign miracle as well as others that Jesus had done. A sign is an exceptional use of natural laws designed to point to the divine origin of the Person who did the sign – Jesus Christ. As a result, there was a schism between the Pharisees who were there. The education of some said that the sign was not a miracle but incidental. The education of other Pharisees saw that such signs could not be done by a sinner. They both ask the former blind man whom he thinks Jesus is and he identifies Him as a prophet. Probably because of the former blind man's response the Pharisees did not believe that this was the same blind man so they called for his parents. The Pharisees asked the parents to identify the man and they did and immediately refused to identify the Healer. They referred their inquisitors back to their son. They knew who had done it. They were afraid to speak because the Pharisees announced that they would expel anyone from the synagogue who confessed that Jesus had accomplished the signs and in this case healed the blind man. The parents merely affirmed what was observable and avoided identifying Jesus as the Healer.
IV. describes the final
confrontation of the Pharisees with the former blind man. In verse 24 the Pharisees tell the man to
give God praise for his healing but to reject Christ as the Healer because that
He was a sinner. This made sense to them
with their adapted secular education. As
a result, they use an emphatic pronoun when they say, "We know that
this man is a sinner. His reaction was
that whether He was a sinner or not, Jesus had given him his sight. They then pressed the man to expose the
method by which Jesus healed him. He
responded by telling them that he had already told them. In verse 25 the man simply responds that
whether Jesus was a sinner or not he knows one thing and that is that he was
blind and now he can see. The Pharisees
asked the man to tell them what Jesus had done to him. His response is strong. "I already told you and you did not
hear, why do you desire to hear again?
Is it not that you (emphatic) also desire to be His students (or
disciples)?" He insulted these
educated teachers of
In verses 35-38 Jesus finds the healed blind man and reveals Himself to him. The blind man believes in Jesus and worships Him. Evidently some the Pharisees had followed the man out and when they meet with Jesus, He calls them to task. He has said, "I [emphatic] came into this world for judgment, that the ones who are not seeing may see and the ones who are seeing may become blind." The Pharisees with Him ask, "Are we [emphatic] not blind also?" Jesus' response in verse 41 is "If your continually were blind, you continually would have not had a quality of sin; but now you are saying, 'We see;' your sin abides in you." The very perspective of their perverted religious world system education prevents them from dealing with their sin.
The education of the world system often is confrontational in order to make its point. This is evident in the use of the emphatic pronouns in the chapter. The emphatic use of the pronoun involves the addition of a pronoun with a verb that already has a pronoun in it for emphasis. The chapter has seven in the Greek text. These are found in vs. 17 ("sayest thou), 24 ("we know"), 27 ("will ye be"), 29 ("We know that God"), 34 ("Thou wast altogether born" and "dost thou teach us"). Jesus uses the emphatic pronoun twice. He first used one when addressing the man in verse 35 ("Dost thou believe on the Son of God?") and then he used one concerning the reason He came ("For judgment I came into this world."). These give an added perspective of the strength in which John nine shows the discussion between these leaders of the world system, the healed blind man and Jesus.
This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through.
A citizen of heavens,
DKS
John 9; 1 John
2:15
Proposition: To examine a specific passage during the earthly ministry of Christ in which He confronted the secular education of the world system as it was manifested in the religious Pharisees when they confront the man healed from blindness possessed from birth.
Introduction
A. The Education of Judaism After the Dispersion
B. The Elements of World System Secular Education
C. The Evidence of a Law Premise for Secular Reasoning
D. The Emphasis Upon the Rejection of the Signs and the Messiah
TRANS: Jesus and His disciples were passing a man who had been blind from birth and they asked Jesus concerning the reason for his blindness. Jesus healed the man and said that was the whole reason for the man's blindness.
I. THE REASON FOR THE CONDITION OF BLINDNESS OF
THE MAN BLIND FROM BIRTH: THE
MANIFESTATION OF INFORMATION CONCERNING GOD BY CHRIST'S WORKS – AN EXPOSURE OF
THE WORLD SYSTEM TO THE LIFE OF GOD IN THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN – John
9:1-7
A. The Presence of a Man as the Object of Scientific Observation – 9:1
1. He Was Blind (and Begged – vs. 8)
2. He Was Born Blind
B. The Posing of a Question from Educational Assumptions – 9:2
1. Did the Man Sin?
2. Did the Parents Sin?
C. The Purpose for the Man's Blindness Revealed – 9:3-5
1. The Absence of Sin on the Part of the Man or His Parents – 3a
2. The Exhibition of the Works of God in Him – 3b-5
D. The Procedure Challenging scientific Observation by Secular Observers – 9:6, 7
1. Spit ] Dirt ] Clay ] Anointed the Eyes
2. Sent ]
TRANS: After the man was healed, he went back to his neighborhood with his vision. His neighbors were confused and ultimately took him to the temple to show those persons there what had happened.
II. THE RESPONSE OF THE NEIGHBORS OF THE MAN: THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE MAN QUESTIONED IN
THE NEIGHBORHOOD – THE EVIDENCE QUESTIONED BY THOSE OF THE WORLD SYSTEM – John
9:8-12
A. The Confusion Coming from Their Education – 8, 9a
1. The Question Concerning the Obvious
2. The Discussion Confirming the Obvious
B. The Confirmation That the Blind Man Could See – 9:10-12
1. The Problem from Educational Observation
2. The Procedure
3. The Person
TRANS: When the healed blind man was brought before the Pharisees, they clearly reacted in a negative way to the situation. Instead of rejoicing in his healing, they attacked the One who had healed him.
III. THE
REACTION OF THE PHARISEES TO HIS HEALING:
THE INTERROGATION BASED ON PHARISAICAL STANDARDS OF EDUCATION – THE
EXAMINATION OF THE HEALED BLIND MAN BY THE EDUCATED PHARISEES – John 9:13-23
A. His Appearance Before
the Pharisees –
B. The Application of Mud on the Sabbath –
C. The Division Among the Pharisees – 9:16
1. Not of God = Does Not Keep the Sabbath
2. Of God = Does SIGNS
D. The Identification of Christ as a Prophet by
the Man –
E. The Interrogation of the Parents of the Man – 9:18-23
1. They Did Not Believe What They Observed – 18
2. They Affirm What Is Observable – 19-21
3. They Avoid Identifying Christ as His Healer – 22, 23
a. The Predictable Response of the Parents
b. The Planned Removal of Those Confessing Jesus
c. The Pointed Referral to the Son for an Answer
TRANS: Immediately the Pharisees gang up on the man who had received his sight. In a very simple way he confronts their education as influenced by the world system. They accuse him of trying to teach them when they were so trained in the Mosaic Law.
IV. THE REALITY DISCUSSED BY THE HEALED BLIND
MAN AND THE PHARISEES: THE CONVERSATION
CONCERNING EDUCATION AND THE HEALER – THE EVIDENCE OF GOD'S HEALING ARGUED
BETWEEN THE HEALED BLIND MAN AND THE PHARISEES – John 9:24-34
A. The
Attempt to Convince the Man That Christ Was a Sinner –
B. The
Acceptance of the Fact of Healing by the Man –
C. The Assault on the Mechanisms for the Healing by the Pharisees – 9:26
D. The
Answer of the Healed Blind Man –
1. The Facts Have Already Been Presented
2. The Failure to Respond to the Original Answer
3. The Forcing of a Repetition of the Facts
4. His Fervent Question Concerning Their Becoming Jesus' Disciples
E. The Anger Evidenced by the Educated, Narrow Minded Pharisees – 9:29
1. The Man Was a Student of Jesus
2. They Were Students of Moses
3. They Question the Divine Source of Christ
F. The Analysis Presented by the Man Concerning Jesus' Divine Origin – 9:30-33
1. He Is Amazed that They Can't See the Facts – 30, 31
2. The Man Wasn't Qualified to Teach Pharisees
3. They Cast Him Out of the Synagogue
TRANS: Two sets of results take place in the lives of the man and the Pharisees. He is met by Christ and believes and they remain in their sins having been blinded by their own education to the reality of Christ's deity.
V. THE
RESULTS IN THE MAN AND REBUKE OF THE PHARISEES WHEN CONTACT IS MADE WITH
JESUS: THE EVALUATION OF THE TWO GROUPS
WHEN JESUS COMES – THE EDUCATION OF ONE IS THE IGNORANCE OF THOSE IN THE WORLD
SYSTEM – John 9:35-41
A.
The Healed Blind Man Believes in Jesus –
B. The Blinded Pharisees Remain in Their Sin –
TRANS: When the education espoused by the world system is approached by revelation concerning Jesus Christ, it always tries to deny the facts and to rationalize away the reality of obvious observable truth. This is a very common mechanism of the world system when confronted with the God of the Universe.
© by David K. Spurbeck