Jesus Christ had healed a man blind from birth. The Pharisees then began to question the man with regard to what Jesus did and to how the man was healed, and so the man answered their questions. But the Pharisees charged that Jesus was not from God because he healed the man on the Jewish Sabbath. And they said that he was a sinner. But the man who did not yet know Jesus but who had been healed by him said, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
John 9:26-34 ESV
“They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?’ And they reviled him, saying, ‘You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’
“The man answered, ‘Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’ They answered him, ‘You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?’ And they cast him out.”
Now this part will not be an exact parallel, for this man had not yet believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. He was merely giving testimony of a man who had healed him of his physical blindness. But later Jesus met up with him and the man did believe in him and he worshipped Jesus. But when we do believe in Jesus Christ with genuine faith in him, and we give testimony to how he healed and delivered us from our spiritual blindness, and of how we can now see with spiritual insight, we, too, are going to face the kind of treatment this man did.
For I think this was really now the third time the man had been questioned with regard to who had healed him and to how he had received his sight (verses 10,15,&26). So this sounds a bit like intimidation, or like they were trying to frighten the man, or perhaps that they were hoping that he would change his story. They seemed to also be trying to get him to join in with them in blasting Jesus for doing what he did on the Sabbath. But the man did not back down, and we should not back down, either, when others are trying to intimidate us into negating our testimonies of faith in Jesus.
Now I am amazed at this man’s courage in how he spoke to the Pharisees, for he was not yet a believer in Christ, at least not officially yet. He did not let them intimidate him, and this should serve to encourage us, too. We should speak as boldly as this man in defense of Jesus Christ and of who he is and of what he has done for us in delivering us from our spiritual blindness and for giving us sight. For by faith in him we are crucified with him in death to sin and we are raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but as slaves to the righteousness of God.
But the man did not cave to the pressure of these people of importance and of prominence and of power. And neither should we. Even if we are reviled in return, like he was, we should remain steadfast in our walks of faith and in our testimonies for Jesus Christ and for what he has done for us. And this man, even though he was not yet an official believer of Christ, spoke with enormous wisdom and discernment, and with pure logic and reason. For what he said is right. God doesn’t listen to those who practice sin, but he listens to those who are doing his will, in practice.
But if you try to give out that message today, here in America, you will be largely shot down. For the predominant “gospel” message being taught today is that all we have to do is make a one time profession of faith in Jesus Christ and now all our sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and heaven is now secured us, and it can’t be taken away from us, but regardless of how we live. And many are even teaching that we don’t have to forsake our sins and we don’t have to obey our Lord and we don’t have to live holy lives, but that heaven is still guaranteed us. Those are lies!
So, even this man who did not officially yet believe in Jesus knew the truth of God’s word that God doesn’t listen to those who make sin their practice, but he listens to those who are doing (practicing) the will of God. And what was the response of those religious leaders to this man? They mocked him. They ridiculed him. They treated him as though he was a nothing and as though he was beneath them because he was not scholarly and learned like they were. I know that feeling. I know that treatment. I have been on the receiving end of such treatment more times than I can count, sadly.
And they cast him out. And I, too, have been cast out for speaking the truth in love, as we are all directed that we should be doing. I was told by one pastor that he was warned in his training class about people like me, i.e. “people with strong convictions,” and then he invited me to go “somewhere else where you will be a ‘better fit’.” I was banned from one “church” property for giving the women in my small bible study group biblical counsel in a matter of impurity and false teaching. And I was lied about in another and put on church discipline because I wouldn’t tell a lie (1).
But you know what, that is how they treated Jesus, too, which is obvious, not only by this passage of Scripture, but by what we read all throughout The Four Gospels, and all throughout the New Testament, and even in some of the prophecies in the Old Testament about him, like in Isaiah 53:1-12. And ultimately they put Jesus to death for telling the people the truth. And they might put us to death for the same reasons. And Jesus said that if we follow him with our lives that we will be treated just as he was. But we must not back down from the truth, but we must continue speaking the truth!
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Lamb of God
By Twila Paris / Michael Paul Bethany / Kevin Turner
… Your only Son no sin to hide
But You have sent Him from Your side
To walk upon this guilty sod
And to become the Lamb of God
… Your gift of love they crucified
They laughed and scorned Him as he died
The humble King they named a fraud
And sacrificed the Lamb of God
… Oh Lamb of God, Sweet lamb of God
I love the Holy Lamb of God
Oh wash me in His precious Blood
My Jesus Christ the Lamb of God…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nFtvbrjvjY
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(1) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rdiWU1NyvWMGWPB4l8aHPLjs9r3cVewOxr1Z9gMmtsk/edit?usp=sharing
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