One Thing I Do Know – John 9-10

Joy: You’re listening to Season 2 of the Lifting Her Voice podcast.   This is Episode #312 and today we’ll read John chapters 9-10 together.  One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”

Welcome

Welcome to the Lifting Her Voice podcast, Season 2!  I’m your host, Joy Miller, and I invite you to grab your Bible and join me – from the beginning – simply reading God’s word together.  We built some spiritual muscles in 2020 with just the New Testament.  But this year we’re going all out, cover-to-cover, Old Testament and New.  So, whether with your first cup in the morning, your commute to work, or as the last thing on your mind before sleep, God’s Word will equip you for every good work.  I’m really glad you’re here!

John Chapter 9

The Sixth Sign: Healing a Man Born Blind

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

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

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

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

He kept saying, “I’m the one.”

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

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.”

“Where is he?” they asked.

“I don’t know,” he said.

The Healed Man’s Testimony

They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath. 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.”

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.

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

“He’s a prophet,” he said.

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.

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

“We know this is our son and that he was born blind,” his parents answered. “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.” 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. This is why his parents said, “He’s of age; ask him.”

If He Weren’t From God, He Couldn’t Do Anything

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.”

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!”

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

“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?”

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

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

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

Spiritual Blindness

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

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

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

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

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.”

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

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

John Chapter 10

The Good Shepherd

“Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.” Jesus gave them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep.

Not The Words of a Demon-Possessed Man

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Again the Jews were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and he’s crazy. Why do you listen to him?” Others were saying, “These aren’t the words of someone who is demon-possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Jesus at the Festival of Dedication

Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter. Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s Colonnade.The Jews surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

“I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me. But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Renewed Efforts to Stone Jesus

Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone him.

Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?”

“We aren’t stoning you for a good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because you — being a man — make yourself God.”

Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, I said, you are gods? If he called those to whom the word of God came ‘gods’ — and the Scripture cannot be broken —  do you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said: I am the Son of God? If I am not doing my Father’s works, don’t believe me. But if I am doing them and you don’t believe me, believe the works. This way you will know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.” Then they were trying again to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

Many beyond the Jordan Believe in Jesus

So he departed again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him and said, “John never did a sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.

Close

The disciples asked Jesus if the blind man was afflicted due to sin, either his or his parent’s.  The Jews in Jesus’ day believed that sin was the cause of birth defects such as blindness.  But Jesus told them that sin had not caused this.  Instead, “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.”

Paul rightly points out in Romans 9:21, “Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?” There is nothing unfair about God purposefully using His creations to demonstrate His glory.  We do not “deserve” anything in this life.  God can show mercy and grace to whomever He chooses.

The Pharisees refused to believe that the blind man had been given sight.  Jesus did not fit into their tidy little world, nor did He fulfill their idea of what a messiah should be.  So, they rejected the testimony of the blind man and his parents and threw him out of the temple.

As Christians, it’s easy for us to shake our heads at the Pharisees and wonder how they could be so hard-hearted.  And yet, are people any different today?  Many hear the good news of Jesus Christ and refuse to believe.  It can be frustrating to us, especially when it involves a friend or family member.  

We must remember that we are not in charge, that God is the potter, and we are the clay.  He already knows who will call on the name of the Lord for salvation, and who will not.  But we don’t.  We are responsible for planting and watering the seeds of salvation.  God chooses which ones will grow.   

Prayer

Let’s pray.  Lord, thank you for this wonderful story of the blind man who came to see.  What a living testimony he must have been to those who knew him!  In the same way, help us also to be living testimonies of Your mercy and grace.  Let us never take our salvation for granted, Lord, but treasure it as the greatest of all gifts.  Thank you for all you do for us.  Amen.

Are you grateful every day for your relationship with Christ?  Me too!  Tell me your story at Lifting Her Voice.com, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Thank you for joining me here today.  I pray that by spending time in His Word every day, you will be changed.  Visit me at Lifting Her Voice.com with your comments and questions.  And don’t forget to visit the Blog page while you’re there.  If you like the podcast, it would be great if you’d give it a five-star review and share it with everyone you know.  Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  See you tomorrow!

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible(r), Copyright (c) 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible(r) and CSB(r) are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.