The Stronghold of Unbelief
Notes
Transcript
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John 9:6–34 (ESV)
6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 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?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 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. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Setting the Stage
Setting the Stage
Jesus has healed a man that was born blind.
This man, who has had to resort to begging has his eyesight restored completely.
His whole life has changed.
He once walked around in darkness.
And, now he is experiencing life in the light.
Quite a wonderful, miraculous experience for this man.
But, in this passage we don’t witness much celebration at all.
Rather we witness unbelief.
So this morning, I want us to see how strong the stronghold of unbelief is and the characteristics of it.
So, let’s first look at those who were familiar with this man born blind…
Those Who Knew Him
Those Who Knew Him
John 9:8–12 (ESV)
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
Can you imagine how this man must feel?
If you’re a Christian, you do, but it’s the spiritual sight that was restored to us.
Some people think they recognize him, but he’s different.
Some are saying, it is him.
Others are saying, it looks like him but it cannot be.
—> It cannot be him.
Behind the disbelief is this thought…
How can a man born blind be restored to sight?!
Now, interestingly enough, they seem to be saying this right in front of him…
Because he keeps saying, “It’s me. I’m the one who was beggar born blind.”
So, now we come to the investigation.
They ask him…
If this is true and you’re truly the man, “How were you healed?”
He tells them.
John 9:11 (ESV)
11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”
Notice he only says, the man called Jesus.
Nothing wrong with that answer.
The name Jesus would be familiar to the people.
After all, he was the talk of the nation.
The man credits Jesus with miraculously healing his blindness.
And, they’re response is, “Where is He?”
Well, the man doesn’t know where Jesus is.
But, now the people who knew the man decide to take him to the Pharisees.
Religious Leaders
Religious Leaders
John 9:13–17 (ESV)
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
First, let’s think about…
Those Who Knew the Man
Those Who Knew the Man
Do you notice, we’re not informed of any rejoicing in these people.
And, I won’t argue from silence here based upon that lack of info…
However, it is curious as to why they would bring the man to the Pharisees, isn’t it.
Well, we’re given some information that clues us in...
This miracle occured on the Sabbath.
It seems that the man’s acquaintances wanted nothing to do with celebrating this miracle without the approval of the Pharisees.
They know that there is no denying a miracle has occurred…
But they want nothing to do with it unless it is sanctioned by the religious leaders.
What would cause this attitude?
If we fast forward to the scene with the parents behaving the same way as this man’s neighbors and acquaintances…
We read…
John 9:22 (ESV)
22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)
And, here we see…
The 1st Characteristic of the Stronghold of Unbelief…
The 1st Characteristic of the Stronghold of Unbelief…
A Disdain for Discomfort
A Disdain for Discomfort
If you were put out of the synagogue you were as good as accursed from society.
It would impact your:
social life
economic life
family life
You would be labeled as an outcast.
And, here we see this great divide in the days of Jesus…
And, we’ll look at this more next week…
But, you either affirm Moses or you affirm Christ.
If you affirm Moses, you affirm righteousness by keeping the Law.
If you affirm Christ, you affirm a righteousness by grace.
At this time, and still today in many areas of the world…
To claim Christ is to be accursed and labeled an outcast of society.
When an unbeliever is living in comfort…
When they are comfortable behind the stronghold of unbelief…
When they’re conscience is seared so they don’t feel the conscience declaring a verdict of condemnation…
They do not want anything to disrupt their comfort.
Comfort is not only something we enjoy physically…
Comfort is something that we enjoy mentally.
Discomfort in one can lead to a discomfort in the other.
—> We like our comfort…
And, we do not like our comfort be dis-comforted.
We loathe discomfort.
We disdain anything that seeks to dis-comfort us.
The stronghold of unbelief is meant to maintain comfort. (Parable of soils)
Back to our text…
I don’t want us to overlook v.16…
John 9:16 (ESV)
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.
I want us to think about what is behind what they are saying about Jesus here?
They are not speaking of Jesus’ origin.
The know He’s from Galilee.
They don’t believe that He has come from God, heaven.
His origin is not what they mean.
Remember what they’ve already said about Him so far.
They don’t believe He has come from heaven.
They don’t believe God sent Him like John the Baptist.
They’ve called Him:
a mad man
a demon possessed man
an agent of Satan
They’re saying God has nothing to do with Him.
He’s accursed of God.
The 2nd Characteristic of the Stronghold of Unbelief…
The 2nd Characteristic of the Stronghold of Unbelief…
Hostility
Hostility
As you know the Jews added all sorts of laws to keep someone from breaking a commandment of God.
They had hundreds of laws added to the Sabbath in order to keep someone from working.
You could sustain life, but you couldn’t heal someone on the Sabbath because that was considered working.
Jesus mixing saliva and clay would have fallen under the category of kneading…
So, according to their extra-biblical rules Jesus was breaking the Sabbath.
Extra biblical rules meaning rules that are beyond the Bible.
But, remember, Jesus has already claimed that He works on the Sabbath because He and His Father do not stop working on the Sabbath.
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.
The world would cease to exist if God stopped working.
All of these extra rules were man-made, not Divine.
God made the Sabbath for men, not men for the Sabbath.
These religious leaders, through their legalism had made the Sabbath the worst day of the week.
The day that was intended by God to be joyful.
A day of reflecting upon the goodness of God in creation and providence.
A day of vacation from labor.
Their apostate Judaism had turned the Sabbath into a day of heaviness and anxiety.
Jesus, through His very incarnation and ministry, has challenged their system of belief…
He has challenged their apostate Judaism.
He’s broken their rules of the Sabbath.
He’s taught against their legalism.
He’s taught against their self-righteousness.
He’s ministered to them and among them for the purpose of them to look to Him and be saved.
He’s caused joy on the Sabbath through giving sight to the blind.
But, those very things threaten the authority and power of their strongholds of unbelief…
When truth attacks the very system of belief…
The sense of self-rightness of the beliefs.
The sense of comfort gained by the sense of self-rightness of the beliefs.
The reaction can be hostility.
When we think of hostility, I think our mind immediately jumps to physical persecution of some kind…
But hostility can be shown in many ways…
social mistreatment
economic mistreatment
employment mistreatment
you can be slandered
you can be misrepresented
you can be avoided, disliked, boycotted
But, it can also go as far as martyrdom…
—> As we’ve seen throughout history and even parts of
the world today.
Now, I want us to look at the argument here by the hostile Pharisees…
John 9:16 (ESV)
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.
We see here…
The 3rd Characteristic of the Stronghold of Unbelief
The 3rd Characteristic of the Stronghold of Unbelief
Irrationality
Irrationality
Notice the division between the two groups of Pharisees.
The one group, much like Nicodemus goes silent after their one statement…
So, it seems they are in the minority of opinion.
But look at the Pharisees’ argument who are hostile to Jesus…
“This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
They start with the conclusion.
If they cared about the truth…
They would lay out the evidence.
Listen to the person healed.
Listen to the eyewitnesses.
Then come up with the conclusion.
Well, they start with the conclusion, which is what they want to be true…
Not what is true.
The Healed Man
The Healed Man
John 9:15 (ESV)
15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
Then they ask the healed man what he thinks about Jesus…
John 9:17 (ESV)
17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
Interestingly, the man earlier said the man Jesus healed him.
But, now when asked to draw a conclusion based on the evidence, the healed man says…
“He is a prophet.”
The conclusion based on the fact…
The conclusion based on the reality of the miracle…
The conclusion the man came to based on everything he experienced and new was…
“He is a prophet.”
This may seem like an inadequate conclusion.
However, we need to know that the man had no way of knowing that Jesus was more.
His only contact with Jesus was what Jesus did and told him to do.
And for this man born blind “prophet” was probably the highest place he could assign to a man of God.
So, truly, his answer puts Jesus in the highest place for him to put Jesus.
So, what happens?
Do the Jews agree after weighing the evidence?
No.
They actually refuse to believe the testimony of the blind man.
They refuse to believe the testimony of the man’s neighbors and acquaintances.
The facts, even if they need to be ignored…
Must conclude that Jesus is not from God.
So, they call the…
The Parents
The Parents
John 9:21 (ESV)
21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”
They have the same disdain for discomfort as the acquaintances.
They want nothing to with Christ.
They want nothing to do with announcing that Christ healed this man.
In spite of them knowing, they chose comfort over Christ.
So, in the heat of their irrationality they refused to acknowledge the testimony of the parents that the man was actually born blind…
And they call the healed man back over and say…
John 9:24 (ESV)
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
Give glory to God means tell the truth so that God is glorified.
—> This is a threat.
We, the ones who have the power to cast you out, know that this man is a sinner.
—> Sinners cannot be used of God.
So, come up with some other way that this occured…
—> Even if you have to say I don’t know…
But anything other than Jesus healed me or else.
This is hostile irrationality.
This is we will be right at whatever cost.
Now for sake of time…
Now for sake of time…
Look at the conclusion of the healed man after being threatened & reviled by the Pharisees…
John 9:31–33 (ESV)
31 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. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
The healed man’s conclusion is that Jesus is from God.
Well, they threw out the evidence.
They threw out the witnesses.
They threw out the case.
And, they threw the man out of the synagogue.
They cast him out.
Made him an outcast.
Their irrationality led them to hostility towards this man.
The characteristics of the Stronghold of Unbelief that we see in this miracle story are:
A Disdain for Discomfort
A Hostile Behavior Towards Truth
An Irrational Aversion to Truth
Let’s think about this...
Let’s think about this...
We’ll look at more truths in this passage next week…
But why is this important to know?
Why is it important to know characteristic behavior of unbelievers?
Because we’ve been privileged to go into the world and preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
Some are going to respond like the Blind man healed.
The gospel, by the power of the HS is going to open their eyes to the Light of the World, JC.
Some are going to ignore the message…
Choosing comfort instead.
Many will think irrationally and disregard the truth out of a desire to remain comfortable in their sense of rightness.
Some will get hostile in varying ways.
But, we must take the gospel to them anyway.
We must pray for the soil of hearts to be tilled by the HS.
We must pray for the fields to white with harvest.
We must be willing to sow the seed and trust God with the results.
But, we mist be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
There is no neutral person with a benign nature.
Jesus said, “you’re either for Me or against Me.”
So, be wise and harmless this week as you go out into the world to preach the gospel.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
