_And as Jesus passed by He saw a man which was blind from his birth_ JESUS AND THE BLIND MAN I. CHRONIC BLINDNESS. 1. A type of spiritual need (John 9:1; Ephesians 4:18; 2Co Luke 2:34; Isaiah 59:9; Proverbs 4:19; Isaiah 59:10). 2. Common to the human race (John 9:2; Romans 3:23;... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who did sin, this man, or his parents?_ WHAT THE MASTER AND WHAT THE DISCIPLES SAW At such a time it was very wonderful that He should see anything but the way out. His life was in peril. The plot was thickening, the pursuers were more than ever determined to murder Him. At such times men are like... [ Continue Reading ]
_I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day._ --When the Master (Him who sent) who has entrusted a task to the worker gives the signal, the latter must continue to work as long as the hours of labour last. This signal Jesus had just recognized; and even though it was the Sabbath He c... [ Continue Reading ]
_As long as I am in the world I am the Light of the world._ --The Word as Light visited men before the Incarnation (John 1:9, etc.; John 5:38; Romans 2:15, etc.); at the Incarnation (John 8:12; John 12:46, John 3:19; comp. John 11:9, etc.); and He still comes (John 14:21); even as the Spirit who sti... [ Continue Reading ]
_He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and He anointed the eyes_ THE BLIND MADE TO SEE, AND THE SEEING MADE BLIND I. We have here OUR LORD UNVEILING HIS DEEPEST MOTIVES FOR BESTOWING AN UNSOUGHT BLESSING. It is remarkable that out of the eight miracles recorded in this Gospel, there is... [ Continue Reading ]
_Go wash in the pool of Siloam._ --Rounding the southern end of Ophel, the southeast span of Moriah, you reach this famous pool. It is fifty-two feet long and eighteen feet wide, some piers, like flying buttresses, standing on its north side, while part of a column rises in the middle of it. These a... [ Continue Reading ]
_The neighbours, therefore … said, Is not this he that sat and begged_ TYPES OF CHARACTER IN RELATION TO CHRIST’S WORK--THOSE WHO ARE ONLY SPECULATIVELY INTERESTED IN THE WORK As a stone cast into a lake throws the whole mass of water into agitation, producing circle after circle to its utmost bou... [ Continue Reading ]
_They brought to the Pharisees him_ THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF THE MAN I. AN IMPORTANT ADMISSION. The Pharisees recognized that the man saw (John 9:13). If therefore he had been previously blind, there must have been a miracle. II. AN IRRELEVANT QUESTION. They wished to know _how _the man had recei... [ Continue Reading ]
_This Man is not of God because He keepeth not the Sabbath day._ It is interesting to note that one of the things which is specially forbidden in the Talmudic law of the Sabbath is the application of saliva to the eyes on that day. It was not permissible to anoint the eye itself with wine on the Sa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is this your son?_ THE TESTIMONY OF THE MAN’S PARENTS I. JOYFUL RECOGNITION. They identified him as their son. The neighbours could only say he was like the beggar they had known (John 9:9): the man’s parents had no doubt. II. SORROWFUL CONCESSION. The son’s report as to his blindness was correc... [ Continue Reading ]
_If any man did confess that he was Christ_ CONFESSION OF CHRIST 1_._ Confession, ὁμολογε͂ιν, is (1) To say the same thing with others. To agree with. (2) To promise. (3) To acknowledge, to declare a person or thing to be what he or it really is. 2. To confess Christ is therefore to acknowle... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then again called they the man_ THE SECOND EXAMINATION OF THE MAN I. INTIMIDATION. The hostile section sought to overbear the man’s judgment by their superior knowledge and position. They, the heaven-appointed leaders of the people and guardians of morality, were satisfied that Christ was a sinne... [ Continue Reading ]
_One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see._ Truly did Christ say, “I came not to send peace on the earth.” Little did the man dream of the stir the miracle would make. So our blessings often get us into trouble, and become tests of character. The man here was tested as to whether he w... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now we know that God heareth not sinners_ TRUE AND NOT TRUE 1_._ It is ill to wrench passages of the Bible out of their context, and treat them as infallible scripture when they are only sayings of men. By acting thus foolishly we could prove that there is no God (Psalms 14:1), that God hath for... [ Continue Reading ]
_Since the world began it was not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind._ --This was quite true at the time. In 1728, Dr. Cheselden, of St. Thomas’s Hospital, for the first time gave sight to a man who had been blind from his youth up, and since then couching has been sever... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jesus heard that they had cast him out and … said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?_ THE VERDICT OF CHRIST ON THE WHOLE CASE I. THE DEMAND CHRIST MAKES UPON THE HUMAN HEART--Faith (John 9:35). 1. Personal. It must be the trust of the individual soul. 2. Immediate. It must be exerci... [ Continue Reading ]
_For judgment I have come into the world_ CHRIST’S MISSION TO THE WORLD I. HAS TWO APPARENTLY OPPOSITE RESULTS. 1. Of these (1) One is the greatest blessing: “That they which see not might see.” All unregenerate men are blind spiritually. God and the moral universe are as much concealed from the... [ Continue Reading ]