The Disciple Jesus Loved Tells All!

Studies in the Gospel of John

Seeing is NOT Believing!

John Chapter 9

A couple of weeks ago, a few of us went on a driving tour of Washington, DC. It is a great city, and a spot that I think every American should visit at least once. People from all over the nation, and the world come to visit the Capital city. You will hear different accents and languages on every street corner.

Of course, being Americans, we drove our car to Washington. And if you ever want to see a lot of license plates from varying parts of the country – DC is the place. The only place I have ever seen a license plate from Hawaii was in Washington – it belonged to a Hawaiian congressman! Some people will keep a log of all the different states they see as they travel to pass the time. Whether you keep track of them or not, most of us notice plates from different states as we drive.

Have you ever noticed the license plates on a car from Missouri? If you look closely at the bottom of the plate, it reads, “The Show Me State.” I remember as a kid wondering what in the world that meant!

Apparently, back 100 years ago or so, people from Missouri had the reputation of being skeptics. They weren’t going to buy what you were selling unless they saw it – whether it was pots and pans from a peddler door to door, or a politician making promises, they wouldn’t believe it until they saw it. That’s why today you might still hear a person say, “Well, when it comes to Kerry’s campaign promises, I’m from Missouri; I’ll believe it when I see it!”

Seeing is often believing, and not only in politics. In fact, most of us are skeptics, and with good reason. We’ve bought enough “Ab-Crunchers,” and “Hair Loss Cream” to learn that the claims often made on infomercials are not always believable. And then there are those three words that every parent is leery of – “Easy to Assemble.” Yeah, right! I’ll believe it when I see it!

For most of us, seeing is believing. When I have seen it, handled it, tried it, I’ll believe it. When I see the goods delivered, I’ll rest easy.

Bot today, as we consider our study of John’s memoirs of his years with Jesus, we are going to meet a man for whom seeing was not believing – even when he had never seen anything before.

Turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 9. Since we are studying John’s telling of the story, let’s read it before we dig in – follow along as I read beginning in verse 1.

[Read John chapter 9]

In this story, the seeing comes pretty early, but the believing comes later, doesn’t it? I would like us to look at this man’s journey by looking at the different names he uses for Jesus.

“The Man They Call Jesus”

In verse 11, when the man is questioned by his neighbors and friends, they ask him how he was healed.  Seems like the obvious question to me. He replies in verse 11, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes and told me to go wash…” He knew nothing of Jesus except his name. He didn’t know who he was, where He was from, or where He had gone. 

I am told that people who are blind will often have very keen hearing abilities, and somewhere along the line during the conversation between Jesus and Disciples in verse 1, he had heard the name Jesus. “The man they call Jesus…” That’s all he knows. He knows that this man had put mud on his eyes and told him to wash, and that’s it. He had been blind since birth, and now he could see. When his neighbors asked where this man named Jesus was, the man said, “I don’t know.” Even though he could see, he was still in the dark about Jesus.

“A Prophet”

In verses 9-13 we read that the formerly blind man was brought before the Pharisees to be checked out. In Jesus’ day the religious leaders were also the civic leaders, so it was understandable that they would take him there. In addition, we learn in verse 14 that Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath. This is not a coincidence, Jesus could have healed the man any day, but he wanted to show us all that He is greater than the Sabbath, and that God’s love reaches beyond man’s law.

The Pharisees did a thorough investigation. They asked the man to tell them exactly what happened.

He told them, and his testimony created all sorts of questions and problems for the religious establishment. You see they held control over the people through a long list of rules and regulations that kept the people in mortal fear of violations leading to social outcast and even eternal damnation. What he was telling them was that someone healed a man born blind – no small feat – something that was certainly supernatural – and that it had been done in violation of one of their religious laws. Therefore, the man had to be wrong.

So they determine that the man must have been healed by someone who was evil. But some of them are not so sure. “How can a sinner do something like this?” So then they do something that shows just how desperate they are – they ask the man what HE thinks! Incredible! They turn to him and ask(vs 17), “What do you have to say about Him? It was your eyes He opened.”

Obviously, the formerly blind man has been doing some contemplation. “Let’s see, a man called Jesus walks up, someone asks Him about my blindness – and He replied that it was for God’s glory – then He healed me…Yup, He must be from God – He must be a prophet.”

It makes sense doesn’t it? It is a logical train of thought that someone who shows compassion, speaks wisdom and does miraculous signs would be a prophet from God.

A MAN FROM GOD

After the Pharisees called his parents in to verify that their son had indeed been born blind, and was now standing before them with his sight, the Pharisees once again were completely baffled. Eventually they called the man before them again, and said, “Give God the glory, but this man called Jesus is a sinner.”

The man replied, in words that are familiar to us from the song Amazing Grace, (vs 25) “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. But one thing I do know. I once was blind, but now I see!” 

Hoping to find some flaw in his testimony, they asked him again, “And just how did He do it again?” The man gets right in their collective face, and says, “Look, I told you already what He did. Why do you want to hear it again, are you thinking of becoming a follow of Him, too?”

The Pharisees don’t take that kind of talk lightly, they insult and threaten the man. They claim their religious heritage as their authority – but this Jesus has no such pedigree. Then the man says,

Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does His will. Nobody has every heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If He was not a man from God, he could do nothing.

Pretty strong words from a man who just that morning was sitting outside the gates begging money from people as they went in…who was suspected of being a sinner as shown by his blindness…and here he is lecturing the Pharisees! I love it! 

But the Pharisees don’t love it – they throw the man out of the temple – which was a terrible thing in their society. No one, not even family were allowed to socialize with a person thrown out of the temple. They could not work, they were not allowed to worship, and the penalty could be for weeks, a month or permanent!

But the man, I would guess, doesn’t mind at all. He has seen through the veneer of the religious establishment. They are all talk of religion and rules and righteousness, but they don’t really know God – here is this man Jesus, obviously a man from God, and they are so pig- headed that they refuse to see the obvious. They are the blind ones, and this man knows blindness!

So he leaves. And Jesus looks him up. Isn’t it great to know that Jesus doesn’t leave us hanging when the world turns against us? He comes along side, and makes sure that we are OK. That’s what He did with this man.

“The Son of God”

When Jesus finds him He asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” This is the critical point for the man. He has grown in His journey of belief from calling Jesus “A Man named Jesus,” to “A Prophet,” to “A Man from God,” but this is the point of decision. Will he believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the World?

The man is ready. He says, “Who is he, sir? Tell me and I will believe.” God has done an amazing thing in his life, and he wants to follow Him. He has been given his physical sight, and he has become more and more aware of the spiritual blindness around him. He can see – now he wants to believe!

He had come to a realization that many in our world need to arrive at today. Seeing is not believing.

Many people know of “a man they call Jesus.” But they don’t believe all that they hear. They are skeptical – they might even say, “When it comes to Jesus, I’m from Missouri – show me!” The famous scientist and astronomer Carl Sagan was quoted as saying, “If God is out there, let him write me a message across the skies, ‘I am here,’ and then I will believe.’” But the truth is that God has written His autograph across the skies. The Psalmist tells us that “The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth shows His handiwork.” But there are many who are too blind to see it. They think that they see, but they don’t believe.

There are many in the world today who say that Jesus is a Prophet. They believe that He was a good teacher, a moral guide – but only one among many. They believe that they are “enlightened” in their universalistic, all-accepting mindset. They embrace the truths of Jesus along with Buddha, Mohammed, Spiritists and Animists. But in their “enlightenment,” they are living in spiritual darkness. Their eyes have been blinded to the words of Jesus that He alone is “The way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.”

Many in the world today would tell you that Jesus is a Man from God. They have gone to church; they know the facts intimately of His life. They have heard of the miracles and given it some thought and contemplation, and they agree that Jesus is a Man from God, perhaps even the Son of God. Yes --- After hearing the stories, reading it for themselves, and listening to people talk of how Jesus has impacted their lives, they are able to say that Jesus is the Son of God. Their intellect tells them the facts, the truth.

But none of those is enough. Each of us must ultimately be brought to the critical point that this formerly blind man was brought by Jesus. Do you believe in the Son of God? The key word is believe. It is far more then knowing the facts. It’s more than being able to identify Jesus as a man, a prophet or even a Man from God. It means placing your faith completely in Him – not in your religion, not in your ability to “see” the way you think is right –it’s placing your eternal destiny, your entire being, in His hands. It means that your faith is not in your church, in your pastor, in your religious deeds, or in what you can see – Your faith is in Jesus – the claims He makes, the work He has done on the cross, the eternal life He promises to those who will follow Him. 

Can you see it first hand? No, but the disciple Jesus loved, John, has written a eye-witness account of it for you, and He calls you to believe. The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Seeing is not believing. 

For this man born blind, Jesus stood before Him and said, “You have seen the Son of God, and He is talking to you right now!” The man cried out, “Lord I believe!” and immediately began to worship Him. Across the miles and the millennia, Jesus makes the same claims to you today. He is the Son of God. He took on flesh and blood, lived on this earth, provided evidence of His identity through miracles like we have seen this morning, and He speaks into your ears right now, “I am the Son of God. Will you believe in Me?”

My prayer is that you will. That you will have the eyes of your heart opened, and that you will ask Him to be the King of your Life, and that you will join us in worshipping Him.

Prayer.

Lord Jesus, In this hour, by the Holy Spirit speak to each heart. Open the eyes of our heart, and call us to belief. Help us to respond with a resounding, Lord, I believe! And worship you with our entire being. In your name we pray, Amen.