Notes for John 9 The difficult question…why is there suffering? The assumed answer under the OT was, “because the person sinned”… The mention of this was on purpose. John is telling us that the Jewish system had not changed much since the days of Job, which was probably the first book written during the time of Abraham! Moses wrote Genesis hundreds of years later, but this is amazing! The Jewish understanding of God and his purposes either had not changed for 4000 years, OR it they had backslidden so much in their self-righteousness that they were no better than before the law came. Job was told by his self-righteous friends that the reason they were not suffering but he was, was because they had obviously not sinned like him…wrong. The Disciples at this point still believed what the Jews taught…disease came from uncleanliness or sin, both were forbidden…but when they asked, “who sinned that he was born blind?” They were exalting themselves as those who had NOT sinned and thus were “not as bad as this poor man.” Jesus corrects this at the end of the chapter but for now he simply says…both options are wrong. How horrible right? Wait…before we judge them too harshly…we do the same thing. Not all the time but each of us has thought when seeing someone homeless or sick in the street, that they must have done something bad…or that they are failing to do something to get out of it…we are judging without knowing any of the details. Why do we do this? Because it makes us feel better about ourselves. When we see someone else’s life in ruins, and we think in our minds that they must have done something bad to deserve it or it is partially their fault for still being in problems. When we think like this, we do it because deep in our sinful nature that ugly monster wants to feel self-righteous…I am not that bad because I don’t do whatever it is that is making him that way. We are saying, I am better than he or she is. And this makes us feel good about ourselves. How do we fix this? I am glad you asked. Notice what Jesus says…neither. This tells us that suffering is not always for sin, but rather it is the result of Adam’s sin in the beginning. God is not obligated to eliminate every evil thing in the world, in fact if he did, you and I would not be here! This is one way to answer the question, Why is this man blind? Why does a good God who loves everyone allow evil? Understanding the answer to this gives a clue to solving our problem with judging others like we do. Evil is here because man is free to either do good or bad. Without evil man has no choice. If God eliminated evil then he would have to eliminate freedom since each of us could only do good…that is not love, or freedom or choice. But since he cant eliminate evil as an option without making us slaves, then since we all do evil things, he would have to eliminate every person! This is why evil is here today and until the Lord allows each of us to choose or reject him, it will be here. Once the choice has been made, then he can eliminate all that choose evil. Now you have a better answer for the person who asks, “why doesn’t God get rid of all the evil?” and I promise you. Someone will ask one day. You need to be equipped to give an answer for your faith when challenged. And even if others don’t ask you, you each have probably asked yourself that question. Now you have a good answer for it. But back to the miracle… i Packed full of symbolism…Jesus even says that this man’s LIFE was to symbolize something to others! 1-The man was SENT to the pool called Sent by the one who was SENT from the Father to SEND the disciples to all the earth…wow…obviously the term sent means something to John, right? The term SENT is repeated by John all through the book but mostly emphasizing that Jesus was SENT from the Father to give life abundantly! Next symbolism 2- The Pool was the place where they would bring the water for the festival that Jose has been teaching through last week, where on the last day they poured out the water as a symbol of new life by the Spirit. The entire festival represented God protecting the Jews as they wandered in the desert before entering the Promised Land but also represents the promise that God will once again protect Israel during the 1000 year reign. This was a message to the Jews! The Messiah was here to give blessings and protection and begin the rule of the Messiah! Just believe! But we will see that in the end…nobody believed. Not even his disciples. next 3-The clay and spit would have reminded them of God creating Adam from the Earth and breathing life into him…thus the message here is that God does not reform, he creates us as new! Also 4- He sent him to wash in the pool…immediately they would remember the Prophet Elisha who SENT Naaman to the Jordon to wash and be cured from Leprosy. In fact, later the man would say that Jesus was surely a prophet since he did something even greater than Elisha! And finally, Jesus says…I AM the Light of the world. He repeats what he had just proclaimed at the festival of lights. So the entire miracle is Jesus saying, “If I am not the light of the world, then explain how I give light to someone who has lived in darkness all of their lives Jesus does what the Law, the Pharisees, Judaism, and NO RELIGION in the History of Mankind has ever been able to do…Jesus was saying, “I am not here to condemn men for a sin, I am the answer to every problem, pain and suffering that sin creates. I create all things new.” ---but in the next part of the story there is a lot of detail but the points that I want to focus on are 1) that the miracle was SOOOOO unbelievable that at first they denied it, and 2) when they realized they couldn’t deny it, they tried to discredit Jesus by the fact that he did it on the Sabbath. Works kills the Spirit. The system of the Pharisees was a system that said if you didn’t sin, you would not go blind. If you sinned, you suffered. This is not Christianity and it was not the gospel that Jesus taught. The point that Jesus makes is that when confronted with THIS Miracle and Jesus’ commentary on it, you have two choices…in the story, it seems that we only see one choice…the Jewish leaders chose to stay self-righteous and think that their good works were enough to earn God’s favor, (this is what the Pharisees thought!) When they failed to prove the miracle didn’t happen, they tried to call the man a liar, when that couldn’t be proven they tried to say the one who did the miracle was a sinner, when that woudlnt work, they did the only thing left…they kicked the man out so they didn’t have to be reminded of it… But there is another choice. You can admit that you are blind and a sinner like everyone else and obey God when he tells you what to do so that you can really see him! We see this in the story too… In the end, the story shows the man who was never looking for help, be loved by God. Who as the man sat at the entrance of the temple on the day of the festival when he was not allowed to beg for alms, but instead sit and hope someone would have mercy on him and give him a gift of some kind…it was on this day that Jesus did not judge him like all of his friends and family had done all of his life, but instead Jesus had mercy on him, and gave him something far more valuable than just his vision. Jesus revealed himself to this man in such a way that this man came to understand more than even the Pharisees or the Apostles of how much God loves the sinner like us. let me ask…How has God revealed himself to you. However that is…this is the most powerful evidence you can ever give to those who are sinners like you and I, but are still blind. Especially to those who insist that they can see fine. Your testimony is meant to be shared as proof that God creates us as a new type of creature that this world has never seen until Jesus came. If you don’t know God and you haven’t experienced the revelation of SEEING JESUS with your spiritual eyes, you have two choices. You can claim you see, and remain blind. Or you can admit that you are blind like the rest of us have, and ask him to give you sight. If this is you…please see me or Jose, or one of the brothers or sisters here after the message. Ok? If you do know Christ, this story is a message that Jesus and John wanted you to know…Jesus is THE LIGHT of the world and wants to give sight to the world. He does this through us. There are no good works powerful enough to do what Jesus did that day. So I hope that every time you see a beggar from now on, you remember this story and before you judge them, you remember that he might see more than you did. And if Jesus was here, what would he say? He didn’t heal all the sick, but he did offer them the light that they really needed. Let Jesus be himself through you this week and every week. amorfraternal/audio.php?id=47&serie=Para-que-creas&titulo=Yo-Soy-la-Luz#.VHv0WA4_qaI.facebook
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 18:40:22 +0000
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