“JESUS
CHRIST - A MAN APPROVED OF GOD”
(Acts
2:22)
Miracle #29-
John
9:1-41
THE
TEXT
“And
as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was
blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who
did sin,
this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered,
Neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should
be made
manifest in him.” (John 9:1-3)
1.
THE LONG GAME
God
does not work by man’s idea of what cause and effect is (Isaiah
55:8-9),
but we can be assured that all things work together for good (Romans
8:28).
God plays the long game …
that is, his end will justify his means.
This
reminds us of the blind Fanny Crosby who wrote
hundreds of Christian hymns and poems, even though she was blind from
three
years upward, because of mustard poultices being applied for childhood
eye
inflammation. As goes the saying “Our disability is God’s ability.”
2.
CLAY IS DUST PLUS WATER
“When he
had thus spoken, he (Christ)
spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle,
and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And
said unto
him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by
interpretation, Sent.)
He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” (John 9:6-7)
Christ
reminds Israel that Adam was made of moist
earth as well as follows …
“But there
went up a mist from the earth, and watered
the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of
the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man
became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:6-7)
This
miracle is another example to show Israel that
the miracle worker of creation is none other than Christ himself.
However,
this miracle is mistakenly used by some Baptists
who believe water is needed for cleansing before salvation and all
Baptists
post salvation.
Under
Paul’s kingdom of God dispensation, no water
is found within 100 miles of any his churches.
Whether
you are high and mighty like Naaman with
leprosy (2 Kings 5:14) or a man born blind from birth (John 9:1) … all
will be
humbled.
3. OUTWARD
APPEARANCES
“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.” (John
9:16)
The
Pharisees were always trying to accuse Christ of
being a sinner for not keeping the Sabbath.
This
reminds us of the self-righteous church goer
today … “Mr Johnson can’t be saved because 1. He still smokes and
drinks 2.
Won’t teach Sunday School 3. Won’t tithe 4. Has stopped attending
church 5.
Won’t be water baptised …” and so on and so on.
But
Christ response was always the same … that the
sabbath was made for man … not vice versa. Christ uses the example
of David
eating the shewbread in the Old Testament as follows …
“And the
Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do
they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? And he said unto
them,
Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an
hungred,
he, and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in
the days
of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which
is not
lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were
with him?
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man
for the
sabbath:” (Mark 2:24-27)
An hungred
is the noun for a man that is a hungry man.
Christ’s
answers were always, as here, to emphasise
how people were always more important than animals (Luke 13:15; Luke
14:4)
4.
A RIDDLE
“And Jesus
said, For judgment I am come into this
world, that they which see not (blind) might
see; and that they which see might be made blind. And
some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said
unto him,
Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should
have no
sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”
(John
9:39-41)
Now the
Pharisees knew that Christ was not
talking about physical sight, but their spiritual sight. They
were
puffing out their chests with “Look at us Jesus … you can’t get much
better
then us!”
Of course,
when you argue with attitude “We are
children of Abraham” (John 8:39) you naturally think you have the
correct
doctrine and the understanding necessary … indeed spiritual sight
… but
they were wrong.
Christ
said as they did not have sight they were in
darkness. Christ said he was the Light (John 8:12) therefore they were
in
darkness … they were in sin and nothing had changed, as follows …
“Then
spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am
the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness,
but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
Furthermore,
Christ enraged them, by stating that
he was before Abraham saying “I am … the I AM THAT I AM” (John 8:58;
Exodus
3:14). This was saying that “If you have Abraham as your father, then
you had
better have me as your Father, as I am the Father of Abraham.”
In
addition, by their own admission, they said “ … since
the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one
that was
born blind…” (John 9:32).
Dear
Reader, was there none that could put two and
two together and make four?
Christ
just had to be God in the flesh!
Harley
Hitchcock
This
website’s front page is:
www.
“JESUS
CHRIST - A MAN APPROVED OF GOD
(Acts 2:22)”
Miracle #30-
Luke
11:14-17,18-21,22-25,26
Similar,
but a different miracle to #19 “DUMB
MAN WITH A DEVIL”
(Matthew
9:32-34)