Chuck Missler The Gospel of John Session 9 (SLIDES CORRECTED)

well we are indeed in a very special study we're in session nine it happens we're also in chapter nine of the Gospel of John and I'm going to preface this since we're all in a mode getting acquainted here and there sometimes even new people joining us to talk a little bit about Bible studies in general how this fits in you typically when you study your Bible theoretically you'd start with what's called exegetical study what and that really what did the original text really say now most of us take advantage obviously of experts that have already done that for us in the translations that we adopt and so forth but the next step and that's the one we are known for and focus on a focused on for 40 or 50 years and that is exposition these are more formally expositional studies we attempt to explore what does the text really mean and obviously they're good scholars that have different perspectives on that and will express ours and show you why we hold those views but not with the idea of selling you our viewpoint that's not the point you need to come to your own points of view we share ours just in the sense that might be a short clutter might be helpful but I want to really emphasize that our goal is not for you to adopt our viewpoints our goal is to have you become what's called self feeders to know enough about the battle learned enough that you have the resources of the perspective to feed yourselves on your own and all this is intended to be helpful in that direction well in the third category after exposition is formally called homiletics and that really is the application it answers the so what question so what does it have to do with me and often we will see a text it's very fascinating learn some interesting things about it but the ultimate is okay how does it affect our lives and that last bridge is usually what is involved in preaching and we get preaching once in a while but our real focus is exposition but at the same time this chapter we're going to discover we're going to uniquely focus on the homiletics this time and not at the expense of the others but just as an unusual underscoring if you will now an exposition which is really our long suit here that includes a number of things it includes that we take the text very literally that doesn't mean that we take we ignore the rhetorical devices that are being employed there all kinds of employment Oracle devices being employed and another thing that causes a lot of confusion is the concept of context in most formal seminaries they emphasize the use of the verse in a particular context of the writer and understanding that is obviously obviously very useful but one it's also a pitfall because many times in the scripture we discover and in fact we're taught by the scripture that the real meaning goes far beyond the knowledge of the penmen if you will Matthew three or four times draws examples that are really bizarre in terms of the context or we would think that totally out of context no you know the context is just broader than most people realize your ultimate context is the whole counsel of God there are verses that hate no meaning except to the extent it's part of the total package and you need to be sensitive to that we're going to encounter one of those in chapter 10 a little one verse that most people have no idea what it means and because they they're too narrow in their point of view and I'll show you an example of that and and what leads to as we go but so figures of speech I want to emphasize there are all kinds of figures of speech there are similes there are allegories there are metaphors we use those terms rather commonly but those are each different by the way there's some that you've probably never heard of and I won't dwell of those here but a type is a very common thing we speak of prototypes in engineering or the type is a term used in the biblical terms / and analogies is another one and analogies are good for illustration but dangerous reductive because the analogy is the license to invent and so one of the cautions there our figures of speech in the Bible anyone here know how many different kinds of particles of speech in the bite over 200 and their catalogue now materials with examples of each if you want to get into them but the main point is taking text literally doesn't mean you're blind to the fact that it be and may be an element of a rhetorical device like a pond or something event on types of course all tells us in first Corinthians 10 says all be speaking of the Old Testament all these things happened unto them for examples he's talked about but most Christians are almost illiterate regarding the Old Testament well that's been superseded by them no no no no it's not that simple everything in the Old Testament was there for our learning every detail every number and replacement is there deliberately we need to understand they're written for our admonition to whom the ends of the world are come and the word examples here in the translation is the word propos in the Greek which is a figure or pattern and and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute now we have encountered types in our study already several of these we've talked about and we'll take the time to going them again but these are all examples that are deliberately designed to teach us something there literally happened but they also carry an extra matter and we've seen several of those in our previous studies so we're here exploring a field of inquiry which is known as hermeneutics a fancy word simply meaning it's your theory of interpretation and different people have different perspectives as Gentiles or being from the West we tend to think of prophecy as a prediction and a fulfillment that's our concept of prophecy here is a prediction and here's where it was fulfilled and they're lost of those that's the but I want you understand that's a Western model it's true it's valid it's in the scripture but that's not the only way it communicates that's just one way the Hebrew way of communicating is a little differently is a Hebrew mind there you slate link prophecy is pattern they study prophecies about the nation knowing that those prophecies also apply to the Messiah in some way they see prophecies to the Messiah that also applied to the nation the parallel between the two is woven all through the tapestry of the Old Testament and so we're going to be setting one it we want to be sensitized to the insights that come from patterns if you will and so they rely on pattern that's why there's so much interplay between the nation and the Messiah which I've just mentioned but the Rabbi Hirsch was very famous for his declaration the Jews Catechism is this calendar if you go in other denominations many denominations publish a catechism which somehow codifies their belief structure the Jews Catechism is a calendar it's amazing to discover how much of the Bible will get clear to you if you really understand the Jewish calendar and so that's why we get such which rewards from studying the feasts and so forth and the the feasts of Israel we have studied before but just a refresher memory there is a spring priests passover feast of unleavened bread and pieces of firstfruits they're in the first month of the religious here the massiveness on the fall feasts are the seventh month and they clear the Feast of Trumpets Yom Kippur and the Feast of Tabernacles now again the first the spring feasts all are predictive and I commemorate but they also predict aspects of the first advent of Christ and the fall feasts all predict his second Advent that's why they command so much attention today because we get we get Clues they understand that more understanding there's one strange one between these the feast of weeks and we call it the feast of Pentecost that has to do with the church and we'll talk about that more and another time now Hebrew hermeneutics also they did they have four level they regard a text of having four different levels there's the Passat which is the literal or direct meaning straighten it straight forward they have the remiz and that's the hint of something deeper allegorical of significance and that's where you sometimes find a mystery tucked away and they have a third level they called garage that third level is analogous to what we think it was the homiletic level the application is the the practical application of the text those three are somewhat prevalent in the in the Gentile mind and a little different order welcome back to that but the Hebrew has a fourth level that they are aware of sometimes and that is what they call the soul the mystical or hidden me it goes really deeply in in a much deeper sense now the they remember these four levels by a mnemonic that word Pardons which says a word that can either mean garden or paradise depending on what vowels you assume those Hebrews has the constants you imply the vowels and partiz can mean a garden or paradise and a pun on that is all through the Song of Songs and some of the other passages but the point that's the way they remember disorder now the order to us would so it should be a little different we tend to think of the 2nd and 3rd one the other way around you go from the literal to the allegorical and then to the practical in that sense that's moving from the text itself out to practical application but that would that would spoil their mnemonic but I want you to be aware of the 4 levels as we may reference from that sense of the time so okay there's four three levels that we're going to get exegetical we talked about exposition and harmonics and this is just by way of summary and of course when I say exposition I'm talking about three dimensions to that we want to be sensitized to how we apply the literal meaning we understand usage rhetorical devices and also the contextual reach that may be involved but so that having been said we've been an exposition for most of our studies in the Gospel of John this is ball by way of a warm-up because we're going to shift gears here a little bit not at the expense of exposition but in John 9 you're going to be sensitized more and more to the deliberate intent of John that this chapter is harmonical you and I are in the chapter in the sense of participants and the in the imagery that's being used and so we're in John chapter 9 in the first eight verses we're going to find a man that was born blind we're going to see his witness and his worship the three thousand three chunks of of chapter nine and so is it so I'm going to regard this study now we're going to spend together as a study in homiletics Jesus claims to be the light of the world and in Chapter 8 we have the light of the world despised and rejected you may recall that was last week in Chapter 9 we're going to going to be received and worshiped this could be a contrast here we understand why the difference in chapter 8 the Jews stooped down to pick up stones in chapter 9 Jesus stooped down and makes some anointing clay which incidentally was prohibited in the Torah was a fill another thing in chapter 8 jesus hides himself from the Jews in chapter 9 he reveals himself to the blind beggar reveals himself to a blind beggar we want to understand that and then after eight we have light testing human responsibility in Chapter nine we have God's sovereign grace after human responsibility has failed so let's jump in after all that preamble let's jump into chapter 9 verse 1 and as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth and I don't read you it here in the New Zealand but in America we have a game the kids play called Weinstein Bluff right and so I was tempted to he'll call this flight the blind man's bluff before we go but I was afraid that time might be lost in in an international context here so we'll it will move on here the word and ties this to the previous chapter don't overlook that and so this is really key to tighten it ties chapters 8 9 together and we'll see some other reasons we're going to tie this to chapter 10 which is a conclusion of 9 and so this is the only record in the scripture of a person born blind it would make too much lip it turns out that there are more cases of blindness in any other affliction there's only one deaf and dumb there's one sick of the policy there's one sick of the fever there's two cases of lepers there are three that were dead raised but there were five bye and healed so there's an emphasis by the Holy Spirit on the blindness and now this one was a beggar blind from birth I want you to visualize that he was helpless from birth that's right and he I'm going to suggest represents us because we were the natural man originally before we met Christ we are blind from birth spiritually and Paul emphasize that four strengthens two and elsewhere in the number of passages a natural man you see is not the things of the Spirit because they're spiritually discerned we need to understand a very difficult thing for most of us to really understand but it God is under no obligation to men he simply says I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and the pistil to the Romans really deals with that and we'll talk more about that concept later verse two and his disciples asked him saying master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind is that such a natural presumption somebody must have done something wrong somebody's looking for someone to blame that's a that's a who did sin who'd had said the cause and be born blind his parents some relative that's the questions lurking here and that echoes all through the scripture by the way this is actually strangely enough can be regarded as an echo of reincarnation the whole idea is that that some sin causes after and those beliefs originated in Babylon you find them in the beliefs the Persians the Greeks or the and the Gnostics in the early church and so forth which raises a more generic question by the way and I'll just throw in here for your consideration and this list I'm going to show you is in many of our materials but I put it in here because I felt it was appropriate why do Christians have trials okay well the glorify God is one example as many of those in Daniel notes where it can be disciplined for a known sin that does okay occasion and we find that in Hebrews 12 in James 4 and Romans 14 and first John's John's first epistle it also to prevent us from falling into sin sometimes we'll have a trial to keep us from something more serious and first Peter talks about that perhaps a very common thing we need to embrace here is to keep us from pride often will you have a God allowed problem to keep us from pride and let me give you one of the most strangest example as Paul Paul complaint of what he called a thorn in the flesh we have reason to believe it was probably a Zeiss idea and my problem and he prayed and prayed and creates that to go away and causes my grace is sufficient for you that's an interesting insight because many people are exploited by the ministries that argue you if you're sick it's because you're at court of a faith or something Paul did not lack faith and he did he had my problem is the interesting thing to get in perspective God may have a purpose in what he's doing beyond our understanding but that's one possibility also to bill faith in fact one of the most definitive works in this and looked at my wife published faith in the night seasons there's a darkness that many people go through that's God's Way of bringing them to a unique intimacy and faith a nice season to the book that really develops that if you're interested in it you might have trials that cause growth no pain no gain is truly a play athletics and it's probably true in your Christian walk also and the teacher because I could give you examples of that but then I'll deal now real I will really derail our agenda but there were dark days that really totally changed our ministry to the good really dark days and they had a real direct impact in in our commitment and our shedding is the baggage of many things we need to get rid of any way to teach obedience and discipline to equip us to comfort of this interesting you might be going through an ordeal because God is training you to minister to people with that are going to go through that kind of ordeal I was very active in high profile the financial world's and what's my bankruptcy painful experience emotionally as well as financially and for that reason we have had a calling in many places to be free to help people who are going through that trauma and so to prove the reality of Christ in us another thing performed a witness and for testimony to the Angels that may surprise you because what Peter tells us that the Angels are learning God's will by watching us and we tend to think because God was everything that the Angels do everything no they don't they're learning to run is that includes the modification of behavior and angels are watching and they're learning from us and so so it's a interesting perspective we get I listed these from Hal Lindsey's classic book called combat faith and we use it in our Roman study and so one of many people think of how is mr. prophecies really mysteries is the number one joys of the Romans that we'll move on here so Jews that Jesus has credentials to prove that he was indeed the Messiah Matthew makes point of that the blind shall receive their sight mara when John sent a couple of disciples to really check who is them as iOS and that was one of the things as tell John and he gave him a list that had two listed what the blind receives a sight that's a credential and he's themselves laid it out there's a credential to none less than the disciples have known the Baptist Jesus used this miracle for two things for a short sermon on spiritual blindness that will encounter in verse 39 40 41 and then a longer sermon on true and false Shepherds that come major chunk of the next chapter chapter 10 that's where links chapter 10 as a natural companion to chapter 9 let's go to verse 3 jesus answered neither has this been seen Laura's parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him and so it's interesting that the works of God should be made manifest are there other examples absolutely we're going to discover in chapter 11 the raising of Lazarus that's pretty impressive it's so impressive that they had to find a way to kill the legislator and then Peter his credential aid Jesus predicted the deaths that Peter would have as another one of his credentials and Paul of course thorn in the flesh I just mentioned and we infer that that's probably an eye problem from remarks that are made in Galatians in chapter 4 in chapter 6 we get a hint as to what that was but anyway so was this man born blind so that God could be glorified on this day is a question well it's interesting because he had been blind for what 30 years how old he was because of age we know so let's just make that a rom yes and so he he went that duration in order to provides it for this day and that's our mission too isn't it not to wait for 30 years but to meekley submit to his sovereign pleasure that's our chair that's our job we need to embrace that he's understand it's part of what's being taught here and and to be truly exercised there by another word that should have an impact on our lives and the several of the epistles deal with that so verse four I must I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work now there's a problem with this the word isn't singular is plural your English translation has it as a singular it turns out that the the exegetical experts agree that the Greek there actually makes it plural which includes us in the statement we must work the works of him that sent me while it is day where the night cometh when no man can work we must all be engaged in that work is the real thought that's in the Greek and of course the night makes all of mankind bind they're all in darkness and it's interesting that there's a sense of urgency of all the things we have the one that's most inelastic is time almost anything else you can get more of in Wall Street they say if money is your biggest problem you're in great shape what they mean by that is money isn't everything they usually were looting the health for example but the idea the one thing you can't add to is fun got to work because the night is coming Wow I had to travel for a while with a Jewish financier and about he was the fifties and I says well Bernie what you got left you got what maybe a thousand weekends huh he looked at me shocked 180 thousand weekend so yeah well you know do your own actuarial analysis going insurance agent you've got probably 20 years right there's 50 weeks a year roughly and round figures at about a thousand regions he sort of stunned them didn't they living 20 years didn't sound that threatening but when you put it in weekends it sort of rattles when you shake it you know take this tangible see many years later after a lot of other ups and downs individual employee with I ran into him in an airport he walked up to me said hey Chuck hey hi what is it now about nine hundred uh and knew what he meant and he knew I knew he was counting those days they're just a few the the fewer weekend's left and it's sort of like onion girls do it in the problem you know he come to make a paperclip chain how many days until the prom or Christmas or whatever and you take a take one off each date and watch it streak down see our time we can't add to it we can't add days David Hocking likes to emphasize all of us are going to die on time at the appointed time so that anyways moving on the ion silky as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world this is again this I am statement and it's interesting that the in Paul says in first Thessalonians five that ye are all children of the light that the children of and the children of the day we are not of the night nor the darkness therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober most people are familiar with that passage in 1st Thessalonians 5 but they miss another point we all say that the Lord come as a thief in the night this is what Paul is saying in verse four of that passage ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief the Lord comes as a thief in the night to those that are darkness what he's teaching here is not that we can set baits don't misunderstand me but the true believer will not be caught by surprise the true believer been living his life so when he comes you're expecting it not setting dates don't misunderstand me when you have a high profile in this world you discovered that one of the main pains you have in this world is people at this culture and I used to often say as I was getting into ministry someday I might aspire to being misquoted as much as Chuck Smith or Hal Lindsey yes I'm saying well I think I've made that I've achieved that particular market distinction i underlay the world and we miss is a place where in your notes you go back and look at session 1 because we spent a great deal on the nature of light and what it has to teach us spiritually I want to remind you that in Chapter 1 that flight of no is not the first flood the second flood is the one that preceded what goes on in Genesis chapter 1 is that the darkness enveloped and ruined earth and then let there be light was the first direct court of God in the scripture and so the area of light is very fundamental and he becomes our light even in the eternal city in the New Jerusalem so the concept of light has a beginning and has a climax to us so we need under it feeling something else you'll noticing when you study Revelation in chapter 1 the disciples are portrayed as lampstands getting light ok reflecting his light of course and it's interesting that those lampstands are very prominent in all the churches in chapter 1 and verse 20 lampstands are identified as representing the churches in chapters 2 and 3 and seven other seven churches they're there what everybody misses for lots of other reasons we know the chapter 4 verse 1 is the rapture but many people miss that and what authenticates it is where are where are the lampstands that were on the earth in chapter 1 among the churches in Chapter two and three are in heaven in chakra 4 verse 1 so I just thought I'd mention that if you're losing Revelation which I encourage you to do you might find that interesting ok when he had thus spoken start on the ground and made the clay of the clay of the spittle and anointed the eyes of the lineman with the clay and it makes the spittle is that with living water but so that term is only used by the way into miracles and so the Lord's use of the clay gets a lot of discussion and it is it is regarded by some of the scholars as a picture of the Incarnation and was made from the dust of the ground so here's God again using the dust of the ground that's the thought that they're saying here and it also created an irritation he took something that he then had to rinse out and so it recut it required a step of obedience to come to me and so they that's all embodied did now he doesn't always use the clay and I think that's for a lot of reasons though that he uses different techniques at different times in verse 7 and he said and then go and washing the pool of Siloam and the word Siloam means tent by the way that's what translation which is interesting because the Pool of Bethesda is much closer to where they were but he sends him to so long and to watch the swim and he went his way therefore and washed and came seeing now this is of course the 8th day of the Feast of Tabernacles if you've been following all the other stuff so the place was crowded with many many visitors so this gets a lot of communication now he's he goes there and he washes he now can see it's hard for us to really grasp what he went through born blind and now we can see what a transformation he has no idea who did it because he couldn't see who did it when he was he's not with a different crowd and he can see and boy I it's hard to understand the implication that same things two of you and me when we first see Christ when he first really become saved is that as the meaning of that sing sent its staggering and so pool of siloam okay and that's translated she low in some of the other passages by the way but that's not toward the Septuagint and translates it that way and dust was living water so some people look at this as a second birth of the dust of the ground you can make something about if you like but then he came seeing I I just can't get over and the healing is accomplished through obedience if he hadn't washed the clay off we'd be able to see well it's speculation but physical site is a step toward spiritual site the difference is that the beggar now knew he was blind he knew that from the first place that's where we are the natural man we may not realize were just a natural man and blind to spiritual things but he obeyed Christ while he was blind you're still buying when he obeyed Christ so so this is us you and me let's put ourselves in his shoes we are blind from birth and we are beyond the help of man other than Jesus Christ is the one that can help us we are helpless we need to understand that he was we are beggars to have nothing nothing he could do but what occupation could he have in his culture and we are sought out by Christ you know if he was sought out by Christ he didn't come to Christ Christ came to him actually his sovereign grace so now by the way just to notice he doesn't always use the clay that was what he did there watch the hill two blind men by merely touching their eyes in the Gospel of Mark he another blind man by putting spittle on his eyes directly why is he doing it differently so that we don't confuse the message that was being relevant it's the person that's relevant the crisis was relevant and so our Lord various methods less people focused on the manner of healing and missed the message of the healing and the message is all about a person we're not about a religion we're not about a movement we're about a person a person Jesus Christ so the implications here throughout the rest of John 9 a growing conflict is going to emerge about two issues the first one is who was this really the blind beggar was there a switch involved was it a twin brother oh yeah those are all conjectures that would be natural in the crowd and who caused him to see your costume see that those are two conjectures what's going on here so we get down to the session of the witness of the blind man this goes from this from chapter 8 which is pretty for we talked about as witness the neighbors therefore and they wish before had seen him that he was blind said is not this he who sat and begged they recognized him they knew who he was when the Lord touches us it is impossible to conceal it from our neighbors is your conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ that conspicuous that the neighborhood knows it and I usually with my tongue in my cheek usually can quiet congratulate an audience as being the best undercover Christians that I've ever seen people your family people that would never suspect that you're Christian if you were on trial for being Christians not enough evidence to convict you and I hope I'm being facetious or sarcastic is he so the blind man and ourselves he was outside the temple alien is from God he was blind unable to see the Savior he was blind from birth that is he was estranged from the womb to use the psalmist turn beyond the aid of man helpless and hopeless a beggar without resources made no appeal uttered no cry was even asking to be healed didn't know as possible so there wasn't no human lying pities the sinner in his wretchedness no human eye pities the center not really now the Lord look on the Pitti declared the power and grace of God manifested in him necessarily of grace it was accomplished announced himself is the one who had the power to communicate light to to those in darkness impressed upon the blind beggar his desperate need pointed him to the means of blessing and the beggar obeyed and obtained a miracle of mercy so that pattern for him is the pattern for us we need to understand our blindness we need to understand our hopelessness please understand that there isn't any remedy other than Christ verse 9 some said this is he mother said he is like him but I he said I am he therefore said unto Him how were thine eyes opened and so we know that beggar is discovering something strange he's not going to see and he thinks it's fantastic we can get through that part of it he's now discovering that the world is unfriendly to him rascal I'm asking a lot of quick there they're assuming something phony here they're assuming something wrong there they're probing in a negative sense and so four times in this chapter people are going to ask how were you healed and they're asking that with a certain skepticism in a human sense that's understandable but in a real sense that's rather astonishing and so they shouldn't be asking how they should translate those letters around who is the key isn't how the key is who that's the key that's going to come out here maybe the man answered in answered and said a man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed unto me go to the pool of Siloam and wash and I went and washed and I receive sight so he told what he knew as clearly as he could a man okay and it's a at least twelve times in this gospel Jesus is called a man and that's a bit of the distinctive we're going to make a big deal of the distinctives of 12 before we're through because there's 12 there aren't seven IM statements there twelve close friend of mine highlighted that to me the other day and it's very very interesting women because it's very classically with seven five seven identities with the I am statements precisely 12 am statements and as 12 man statements and 12 the number of the kingdom and we'll come to that another and another occasion now the incarnation was not an illusion we really have Christ as a man we know that Christ is God John has really put that in front of us all the way through but we don't lose sight of that he wasn't only God he was also a man and so this is this is emphasized here there's everyday I'm where is he he says I know not and they brought to the Pharisees him that a 4-time was blind so see what's what's going on here behind the scenes people are frightened something's going on they can't explain and they that creates a fear and furthermore it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and open his eyes and so again Jesus is clearly upsetting and deliberately challenging the religious leadership then again the Pharisees also asked him how had he we say received a sight he said of him he put clay upon mine eyes and I washed and dulce does embroider it doesn't abolish it just tells it simply as he can in the soul of the Sabbath day and therefore said some of the Pharisees this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day others said how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles and there was a division among them and that's pretty interesting not of God we say these guys were one issue thinkers now don't be too hard on them we find those in many many churches people who organized their whole catechism around one verse rather the whole council's gone and so just to be sensitive that and all divisions are not necessarily evil because some of these took an opposition of them favorably this end of the blind man again what sayest thou of him that he had open eyes and the guy that was blind guy says well he's a prophet that's of anything understatement but he he's smart enough to write to confront the fact that something supernatural had happened here and so he is a prophet and he's called that in several chapters already he was worshipped and he going to worship three times in this chapter and he's the son of God he's the Lord and so some of our Christian witness to highlight from Luke 8 walking faithfully in the light brings one more light you get more light if you're if you're walking light you'll gain more light and see the ones who will treat the young believer the worst are not the open infidels but those who are loudest in the religious professions and I'll truth that is today and see he witnessed to his friends in verses 8 through 12 he'll witness to the Pharisees and these food versus and then he'll visit a witness to his family yeah between here in verse 23 and then to his enemies little later part of the chapter but the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received a sight until they call the parents of him that had received the sight she they're trying to turn over a very rock to discredit this at the hand and they asked them the parents saying is this your son who ye say was born blind how then does he see and the pay attention said we know that this is our son and that he was born blind but by what means he now sees we know not nor who had open his eyes we know not he is of age ask him he shall speak for himself yeah I had the same thing to say you can't help but jiggle with it what are they afraid of we're afraid of the authorities well afraid of the truth but they're just afraid of what authorities are going to twist with the truth and that's it that's it justifiable fear these words spake as parents because they feared the Jews that you bear in mind something very important understand about John especially in the Gospel of John John uses the phrase of the Jews meaning the leadership and number of places that's not obvious but you need to understand that that ways uses Herbie Jews he is his description to the leadership of the Jews not everyone that's Jewish is it there's a a very very tragic misunderstanding about that that went out through the early church the early church became very anti-semitic that was tragic for the Jew of course because the sins that were perpetrated under the banner of Christ are unbelievable if you save your set contests of how many Jewish babies you could get on the sword in those early years and the church became very anti-semitic very tragic for the Jew of course very tragic for the church because that's through that or a tradition that we've lost much of our understanding or Jewish roots as you can descend to us so let's move on here he is at HS Kim and so they feared the the word in the Greek is the imperfect middle boys if that continuing X community with the promise excommunication you and I cannot imagine what that means in that culture to be forbidden to go to some of a synagogue to be excluded from the temple to be out of the picture all together and ostracized by everyone there's different forms of this there's three forms some of the short term some of this longer term and some of it even is so badly even throw a rock that year when you're in your coffin kind of thing so let me don't confuse that with the movement of respect with the Jews a different thing anyway then again they called then again called a man that was blind and said unto him give God the praise we know that this man is a sinner now give God the praise they're really saying this like stop lying but what it formally means it's a form of Jewish swearing in it court you see so asking two years putting them under oil because we know you're lying is the flavor of it the word actually means it's like swearing court and these judges so-called judges are prejudiced everybody from the start because we know this man's in center C if they're trying to play in the role of judges they shouldn't be prejudicing the jury so to speak it's just he hasn't said whether he'd be a singer or no I know not one thing I know that whereas I was blind I now see that's sort of they they can argue all their theology or legalism they want they can't escape the reality he was blind he was born blind he was it was not a lose for a few years he was all his life blind and now he sees and so as we would say in America put that you pipe and smoke it you know it is so no he answered and tell them whether he be sin or not I know not one thing I know you know it's interesting one of our favorite bible verses is Romans 8:28 we know that all things work together for good to them that love God who is that because not everybody does them who are the called according to his purpose and I usually ask the class what are the three most important words in that verse we all know that verse most of us concordant the most important of the first three and I and we know that all things work in other words is and we don't suspect we don't hope no we know there's a difference well he's saying it one thing I know what does he know well first 2nd Timothy 1 Paul says we know in whom we believed not guessed not suspect no we know whom we believed that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day we know that their Redeemer liveth the earliest declaration of the resurrection is by job in the oldest book of the Bible I know that my Redeemer liveth and he shall reign on the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God incredible statement in job 19 oldest book of the Bible one thing I know they have passed from death unto life that's John's first epistle and one thing I know we shall be like him for on three the whole idea that we will go through a transition where we'll enjoy the same dimensionality he enjoys that's a physic statement actually and so moving on then said they unto him again what did he to thee how opened his eyes after them I have told you already and he did not hear wherefore would you hear it again will he also be his disciple you know you can't go this far without ya all of you are smiling you can't bring you can't be even through the translations you can tell he's he's got them on the spot and he won't let go and then he twisting it you can push the knife a little bit here okay oh you mean saying love that will ye also and so net of course is isn't in the Greek its clearance again complaining and negative response then they reviled him see when logic fails you turn to abuse and ridicule the river then they revile him and said thou art his disciples that we are Moses disciples for we know that God spake unto Moses as for this fellow we know not from whence he is they reviled him and the word is to reproach in a louder scolding manner of course abusive manner and so now the the it's amazing how many people even today are seeking refuge or shelter behind honored names well we're a Moses disciple and that the problem here is that's been superseded a bit little they don't acknowledge it as we know not as fellow as inconsistency if you know not that you shouldn't be judging there's meaning they don't know but they don't really not know the man answered instead of them why here it is a marvelous thing that you know not from once he is and yet he has opened my eyes you know the blind man's logic is pretty inescapable here now we know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and do with his will him he heareth see this blind man's theology is pretty good he's right on the mark since the world began was it not heard that any man open the eyes of one that was born blind if this man were not of God he could do nothing this is largely that's pretty straightforward stuff and the answered and said unto him that was altogether born in sins and this doubt he just that was everything that you don't seem very teachable and they cast him out now that's the thing he was fearing they excommunicated him a little simply cast him a big deal that's a big deal see the arrogant are not teachable it's also true today I'm always impressed when I find that PhD in physics that comes to Christ that's a double miracle because as anyone in academia will tell you a PhD stands for phenomenally dumb or some people say piled higher and deeper and I can make those three marks because I are one and I will move on okay this leads to the whole foolishness of God thing we've already dealt with that by you've reminded for your notes here let's go that the foolishness of God and we put the not the foolishness of men the fool maybe why is the proud no nothing so now we get to the final third phases the worship of the bind up so now he's been witnessing and doing a pretty good job at it now we'll go to the rest of the chapter which is the worship of the blind man when his heard the man had been expelled sin on Jesus has been absent for a dialogue apparently but when he's heard he's expelled he found him again Jesus is taking the initiative for the confrontation the beggar was cast out before he knew Christ is the son of God many of the Lord's people today are inside man-made systems where much of the truth of God is denied that's a very very difficult shooter where many people are in systems that are man-made but within those systems the truth of God is benign you know III won't go through the list of them but you can make it yourself if you undo is just detention and the most tragic ones that are trapped in a system where the truth of God's night is the people their lung because if they try to leave they'll be murdered and the death penalty is usually carried out by remember the family worldwide including in the United States so we need to have great sympathy for the Muslims we're cut in a system that's really very unforgiving others are trapped in in the traditional church closing of various kinds that are also denying the Word of God that's a tough place to be that's a tough place to be for a lot of reasons all the obvious reasons and solutely nowhere in Scripture is God promised to honor those who dishonor him in every case where people are seeking the truth Jesus reveals himself where pastors are at pulpits not declaring the gospel of Christ and the gospel of Christ is defined in the scripture with four verses the first four first Corinthians 15 the Christ died for our sins according to Scripture he was buried rose again the third day when scriptures that's the gospel and it's amazing how far you can look to find a pulpit a truth possess that people many people accept them is a great teacher yeah he even did some miracles is a great example that's necessarily healthy that's true interesting but nothing else he didn't disappear he died and he men just died he fulfilled a whole list of specific specifications that were called for from the beginning of time and planned before the foundation of the world it didn't just and he was buried only Paul's book includes that because it does the whole thing about that is on that and then he goes and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures who else has risen at all it alone with her day or the scriptures he's the man he's the one by whom all things going to be judged entire creation groans for the day this is her that they had cast him out when he had found him he said unto Him thus thou believe on the Son of God okay Jesus found him was his initiative the Good Shepherd takes the initiative yes and said who is he Lord that I might believe on him and he said unto Him thou has both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee I I just find it flabbergasting to run into people say well Jesus never said he was God they obviously hadn't read a single page any page of the hospital adjourn clear it's everywhere is anything that I suppose feed him and let us see the talk of the day he said lord I believe and he worshiped him the blind men worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ simple I'm critical crucial in many ways and he worshiped him you know assisting a poet John Milton he went blind one of his English poets and writers went blind in midlife and he composed and his work on his blindness a sonnet about coping with blindness the work posits that those who best bear God's mild yoke they serve him best and it's interesting that Jesus obviously allows himself to be worship Peter Paul and Barnabas wouldn't accept worship when you read in the book of Acts in many occasions there now the very fact that he allows himself to be worship is also a credential he makes no post tense over being worshiped it has the same thing by the way in the book of Joshua end of chapter 5 who fought the Battle of Jericho right on because Jesus exactly despite with the song sings that song is very cluttered playing but now Jesus Jesus did and it changes everything every every rule the Torah was violated and Jericho that's a whole nother setting and this is one of four instances where these especially declared his divine sonship okay all right jesus said for judgment I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they would see might be made blind Wow I came for judgment and the word Escrima for is it word very close to sifting or separate but it's a little different and some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words instead of him are we blind also mister translation says she said no kidding Dick Tracy with that kind of experience approach he said and then if he were blind he should have no sin but now you say we see therefore your sin they made us ouch are we blind also if the negative construction implies it and expecting a negative answer we output we are not also blind are we is the way we would probably translate that work accurately and who are blind and who are healed that's the question that should lurk in our minds as we leave the study the arrogant verted leadership asked are we blind also it wasn't the arrogant through leadership that was saved and the blind man ends up saying not just physically but spiritually obviously and that's the big thing so in the next session when we meet again next week I want you read chapter 10 but I got more than that I want you to do I also want you to in preparation for chapter 10 read three Psalms Psalm 22 which is a good shepherd humph Psalm 23 which is a great shepherd zone and Psalm 24 the cheese except the three songs together are known as the shepherd firms the good great in chief Psalm 22 23 and 24 and we'll be talking a little bit about those as Jesus unfolds his Shepard ship and an accessor so that'll be our preparation for next time but as you read chapter 10 I want you to pay attention to the two hands of God gentle goddess commands they're both detailed in chapter 10 and we'll talk about that and I'm going to want to explore how secure are you big debate among most people going in most churches about eternal security let's explore what Jesus really tells us about eternal security it says it's one of the most essential things that you're going to learn out of this whole study let's wrap up then we hope that you enjoy your lifetime adventure this isn't going to start with this little series we're saying hopefully if we've done our job right to a fall in love with the word of God and pursue it and we hope to help you with tools and perspectives that might be useful and with all that that you and I our heads for closing prayer father we do thank you for your word and we thank you that you have healed each of us that have been born behind then we now can see not just physically but spiritually we thank you Father for your Holy Spirit it makes this all possible we thank you for the gift of your son which makes it all possible we thank you Father for you who have things

Channel: Red Letter Slave

Views: 23,741

Rating: 4.7894735 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity, God, Bible, Study, Gospel, John, Jesus, Christ, Chuck Missler

Id: FOUJTasFHss

Length: 56min 0sec (3360 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 04 2017