Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00014B
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00:01 And again we're back to "Books of the Book."
00:03 We're studying the Gospel of John 00:04 and if you have a Bible with you, 00:06 you can turn to chapter 9. 00:08 We're studying the blind man and how he was healed. 00:12 And with us is Dr. Jon Paulien. 00:15 Dr. Paulien, so this man is healed, 00:18 he's asked to tell his testimony 00:21 but after a few times they don't believe. 00:24 And he keeps saying--he comes to a conclusion and he says, 00:29 "Do you also want to become his disciples?" 00:31 Almost, like saying, you know, 00:33 do you really want to follow Him but not? 00:36 And it seems that Jesus was somewhere in that area 00:40 and He heard that conversation, the Bible says, 00:44 and so He pulls him aside I suppose 00:47 and asks him a question and He asks. 00:49 In verse 35, Jesus says, 00:52 "Do you believe in the Son of God?" 00:53 So He asks him this personal question. 00:57 And apparently, he had never heard 00:59 of the Son of God or who He was. 01:01 "And he says, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe in Him?" 01:07 and it is He who is talking with you." 01:11 And so then he says, "Lord, I believe." 01:15 Now what's interesting is the following, I guess, 01:18 the Pharisees also heard that-- 01:21 Before we get to that, let me just point out, 01:25 here the Pharisees throw him out 01:28 and he's excommunicated. 01:30 He's de-synagogued, you could say, 01:33 so he's cut off from the community. 01:35 And many scholars believed that this reflects 01:39 a real situation at the time the gospel was written, 01:42 maybe 70 years after Jesus because for most of that time 01:48 Christians and Jews worshipped together in the same synagogues. 01:52 But around 80-85 AD, Jews seemed to have introduced 02:00 in a synagogue service, a curse against Jesus 02:03 and a curse against Christians. 02:05 And so what would happen is, 02:07 people would be reciting their prayers 02:10 and then you come to this curse prayer. 02:13 And what would the Christians do at that moment? 02:15 They go silent. 02:17 They wouldn't repeat that prayer. 02:19 And the Jews around would say, 02:20 "Okay, you're one of those Christians, 02:22 if you're not then recite the prayer in front of us now." 02:25 It's the way they identified followers of Jesus 02:27 within the synagogue and threw them out. 02:31 And so that appears to be going on around the time 02:34 that the Gospel of John is written. 02:37 And a story like this would have been very encouraging 02:40 to people at that time 02:41 because the Pharisees would represent the opposition 02:45 that they were facing in the synagogue. 02:47 Now the man would represent that second generation 02:50 and their experience. 02:52 So the man is thrown out of the synagogue, 02:55 he now fully discovers who Jesus is 02:58 and gives himself to Him. 03:01 And I would suggest this little scenario you just read 03:05 introduces the good shepherd. 03:07 Everything from chapter 7 through chapter 10 03:10 is all one scene, it's all one incident. 03:14 And Jesus tells the good shepherd story 03:16 in response to the story of the man who was born blind. 03:21 But to introduce that, let's look at verses 39-41. 03:26 "And Jesus said, 'For judgment I have come into this world 03:29 that those who do not see may see. 03:32 And that those who see maybe made blind. 03:36 Then some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words, 03:39 and said to him, 'Are we blind also?' 03:42 Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no sin. 03:46 But now you say, we see. Therefore your sin remains.'" 03:51 Here you see the spiritual gospel again. 03:54 Jesus has taken a man who is physically blind 03:57 and given him sight, but that's not all that happened here. 04:02 It is clear in the story that the man was spiritually blind, 04:07 he didn't know Jesus, he didn't have a relationship with God. 04:11 But through this encounter with Jesus, 04:13 through the receiving of his physical sight, 04:15 he also came to see spiritually. 04:18 As he was tried by the Pharisees, 04:20 he was talking himself into a disciple of Jesus. 04:23 So that when he finally meets Jesus again 04:26 and fully understands the situation, 04:28 he submits himself to Jesus. 04:30 So Jesus says, "I came so that the blind might see 04:34 and that those who see might become blind." 04:37 The Pharisees were not physically blind 04:39 after encountering Jesus, 04:41 but spiritually they had turned away 04:43 from the truth that they had known up to that point, 04:45 to reject the Messiah who had come to them to give them light. 04:52 What I want to point out 04:54 special in this text is a dynamic 04:57 that you see often in the Gospel of John. 04:59 It's a dynamic between God's previous intention 05:04 and our choice between some would call it 05:06 predestination and human responsibility. 05:10 You'll notice in verse 39, 05:11 it's almost like they didn't have a choice. 05:15 He says, "For judgment I have come into this world, 05:18 so that the blind will see 05:20 and those who see will become blind." 05:24 So it's almost like Jesus is on a mission. 05:27 He was sent by God to bring sight to the blind 05:31 and blindness to the sighted. 05:33 So that doesn't sound like they had a choice, 05:35 but then look at verse 41. 05:37 "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. 05:40 But now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains." 05:45 So here they clearly had a choice, 05:48 there's a tension between those two. 05:50 This happens over and over again in the Gospel of John. 05:53 Another example is in chapter 12:38-43. 06:00 John 12:38. 06:09 It says verse 38, 06:11 "This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet. 06:14 Lord, who has believed our message 06:17 and to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed. 06:20 For this reason, they could not believe." 06:24 Because as Isaiah says elsewhere. 06:26 "He has blinded their eyes, and deadened their hearts, 06:30 so they can neither see with their eyes 06:31 nor understand with their hearts, 06:33 nor turn and I would heal them." 06:37 So Jesus is here saying that, 06:40 in this blindness that is taking place, 06:43 the will of God is being worked out. 06:45 So that sounds like God's sovereign 06:49 presetting of the situation. 06:51 But then, go to verses 42 and 43. 06:54 "At the same time many 06:55 even among the leaders believed in Him. 06:59 But because of the Pharisees 07:01 they would not confess their faith, 07:03 for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. 07:06 For they loved praise from men more than the praise from God." 07:10 So here you see on the one side, 07:12 you know, God is acting in the situation 07:15 and the result will be people become blind, 07:18 their hearts become hardened. 07:19 But then we see those same people are blinded 07:23 and hardened through their own choice. 07:26 So there's a dynamic in here. 07:28 On the one hand, God is in control of the situation. 07:32 On the other hand, people still have a choice. 07:36 And I think Christians have argued through the ages here, 07:39 "Do we have choice or is God sovereign?" 07:42 And John's answer is, yes. 07:46 He doesn't say one or the other, 07:48 he says both are true. Go to chapter 6. 07:54 I wish we had a little more time. 07:55 But we can get a taste of this at least. 07:58 Chapter 6:36-47. 08:04 "As I told you, you will have seen me, 08:08 and still you do not believe. 08:10 All that the Father gives me will come to me, 08:14 and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." 08:17 There you see its God's action. 08:20 All right. 08:21 "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will 08:23 but to do the will of him who sent me. 08:25 And this is the will of him who sent me 08:27 that I shall lose none of all he has given me, 08:30 but raise them up on the last day." 08:33 Yeah, it looks like God's completely in control here. 08:36 "For my Father's will is that everyone 08:38 who looks to the Son and believes in Him 08:42 shall have eternal life, 08:44 and I will raise them up at the last day." 08:46 All right, there is a choice. 08:48 Those who believe in Him will be raised up. 08:52 "At this the Jews began to grumble about him 08:54 because he said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.' 08:59 They said, 'Is this not Jesus, the Son of Joseph, 09:02 whose father and mother we know? 09:04 How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven? 09:08 Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 09:10 "No one can come to me 09:12 unless the Father who sent me draws him.'" 09:16 You see that's the sovereignty of God. 09:19 Nobody comes to God unless God is engaged in that process. 09:22 "And I will raise them up at the last day. 09:24 It's written in the prophets, 09:26 'They will all be taught by God.' 09:28 Everyone who listens to the Father and learns 09:31 from Him comes to me." 09:33 You notice that? 09:34 It isn't just a prejudgment on God's part, 09:37 but people need to listen and they need to respond. 09:41 "No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God, 09:45 only he has seen the Father. 09:47 I tell you the truth, He who believes has everlasting life." 09:52 So these two truths are placed side by side, 09:55 nobody comes to God, unless God has drawn him. 09:59 At the same time, nobody is forced to come to God. 10:02 We still have a choice. 10:04 And how do you put those two together? 10:08 You know, without God's drawing, nobody comes to Jesus. 10:14 But in the end we still make our own decision. 10:18 So I have put these two together in this way. 10:22 As I look to the past, 10:25 it's clear that God has intervened in my life. 10:28 Amazing things would happen. 10:30 If God were not doing stuff, I had no control over. 10:33 I wouldn't be where I am today. 10:35 So as I look to the past, it's clear that God 10:40 has brought me where I am, 10:41 that He is sovereign and He has done this. 10:44 But as I look to the future, 10:47 it's clear that there are choices still to make. 10:52 I have decisions to make as well. 10:54 So we live in this tension that on the one side God 10:58 is everything to us without God 11:00 nothing good would possibly happen. 11:03 Without the cross of Jesus Christ which happened 11:05 before I ever knew Him, I couldn't come to Him. 11:09 I couldn't be reconciled to God. 11:11 The problem between me and God is on my part. 11:14 God has built the bridge across to me without that bridge 11:19 I couldn't make it back to Him. 11:21 But now that He has built that bridge, 11:23 He gives me the choice whether I will cross it or not, 11:27 and the two work together. 11:29 And so living in spiritual darkness is one's decision. Yes. 11:35 And that's when we harden our hearts 11:37 to that light that we receive. 11:39 And, well, friends, I pray that 11:42 you too cannot harden your hearts 11:45 on what the light that God has shed on your lives. 11:48 And I thank you for joining us in this Bible study 11:51 and we hope that you can join us next time 11:53 on "Books of Book." God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17