John 10:31-39 – Words & Works – Part II

Review using Last Week’s Intro:
• For two and a half years, Jesus had sought to convey to the Jews His identity and the reason for His incarnation.
• He had done so through at least two ways.
    o His works – signs and wonders
    o His words – teaching
• Both His works and His words pointed to His ministry as being sanctioned and authorized by God the Father and to His identity as the Son of God.

As with last week, we are confronted with some powerful implications for the believer and unbeliever with respect to Jesus’ works and His words.
• Last week we dealt with Jesus’ WORDS, so today we will deal with the implication of His WORKS to the believer/unbeliever.

John 10:31–33 and 37-39 (ESV) — 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” – AND – 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.


1) JESUS’ WORKS – ROUND 1

John 10:31–33 (ESV) — 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

We saw last week that the Jews asked Jesus to speak plainly about His identity.
• His response was “I told you” and it didn’t matter because still “you do not believe” (John 10:25).
• He then went on to explain why they didn’t believe in spite of both His words and His works.

In today’s text, we witness the action that results from the Jews’ unbelief.
• (1) They write Jesus off as a blasphemer.
• (2) They try to stone Him after He spoke plainly again and declared that He “and the Father are one” (vs. 30).
    o We will deal with the significance of this verse 30 next week.

Jesus’ response to the Jews’ attempt to stone Him is interesting.
• And it is here where we dig into the relationship of Jesus’ works to the unbeliever.
• His response turns the Jew’s question about His words into one about His works.
• Jesus says in verse 32, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”

Works and the Unbeliever:
The Jews make a remarkable statement – “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you” (vs. 32).
• Jesus’ plain words weren’t enough to convince and today we see His works weren’t enough for them either.
• This is another beautiful example of the irony that is so prevalent in John’s Gospel.
• Clearly, because of His works they should have fallen at His feet in worship.
• But here they not only blow them off, but they seek to divorce them entirely from Jesus’ words.
    o “Your good works are fine, but Your words are blasphemous”

What are the Jews missing concerning Jesus’ works that they would so easily dismiss them from the equation?
• They are missing the purpose of His works!
• Luke 7:20–23 (ESV) — 20 And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ ” 21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. 22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
• Jesus quotes Isaiah to John’s disciples that they may know the purpose of His works.
• Jesus’ works declare that He is “the one who is to come”.

John’s Gospel also made abundantly clear the purpose of Jesus’ works.
• John 20:30–31 (ESV) — 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John’s Gospel also makes clear that this purpose finds fulfillment.
• John 1:48–49 (ESV) — 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
• John 2:11 (ESV) — 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
• John 3:2 (ESV) — 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
• John 7:31 (ESV) — 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

But the unbeliever, those not part of the flock, not drawn, taught and given by the Father responds differently.
• They do not see the purpose in Jesus’ works.
• John 12:37 (ESV) — 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,
• John 6:30 (ESV) — 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
    o Here they even belittle Jesus’ works as insufficient.

So, in spite of the fact that Jesus’ works so powerfully attest to His identity and His relationship with the Father as prophesied:
• The unbelieving Jews are completely unable to see and acknowledge this fact.
• In our text today, they dismiss the significance of His works.
• In fact, they appear to only be concerned with the content of His words.
• And it’s no wonder, because Jesus’ words divorced from His works make little sense.
    o By one’s fruit you will know him.
• His works are an essential part of the divine, supernatural context of His ministry.
• So without that context, to claim He is one with the Father is a little crazy.
• No wonder they accuse Him of blaspheme.

So really there are at least three ironies in our text today.
• (1) The Jews are so oblivious to His works and what they point to.
• (2) That they refuse to see His words in context of His works.
• (3) Which leads to an accusation based on His words that Jesus reveals to be hermeneutically groundless.
    o We will see how He did this next week in verse 34-36.

Now let’s look at Jesus’ response to the Jews ironic errors.

2) JESUS’ WORKS – ROUND 2

John 10:37–39 (ESV) — 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

Jesus follows up his hermeneutics lesson (next week) by restoring what the Jews had sought to divide.
• He reunites His words with His works.
• He argues that His words should be heard and understood in the context of His works.
• The Father’s Jesus is a Jesus whose ministry and authenticity is united in His words AND His works.
• From Jesus’ perspective, both His Words given to Him by the Father and His Works authorized to be performed by the Father are a clear and unambiguous witness to His identity.
• And His words and works are as inseparable from each other as He is from the Father.
    o They demonstrate why He is one with the Father.

Jesus demonstrates the necessity of uniting His words and works in two ways.
• (1) He argues that His words are believable because His works are from the Father.
• (2) So united are they that He then stakes their belief in Him on this claim and gives them permission to not believe His words if His works aren’t from the Father.
    o He is not asking them to believe blindly.
    o The reasons to believe in Him are plentiful.
    o And, remember, the works are a fulfillment of prophecy.

Jesus does this very same thing in a passage from Matthew.
• He links His words to His works and unites them in His authority as the Son of Man, the Father’s Jesus.
• Matthew 9:2–8 (ESV) — 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

And finally, in response to the Jews error, Jesus demonstrates a deep love for the unbelievers with one last plea.
• He knows these Jews were not hearing and following Him.
    o John 10:27 (ESV) — 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
• So He makes one final plea for them to believe – a plea of love, grace and mercy.
• Even though His words and works validate each other and therefore Him.
• He implores them to, in spite their reaction to His words; believe in His relationship with the Father because of His works.
    o This is the spurious faith we talked about some time ago.
• This gesture, I believe, fits beautifully with Jesus’ words from another passage in Matthew and expresses Jesus’ desire that all would be saved.
• Matthew 23:37 (ESV) — 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!

But His finally plea fell on rocky ground.
• Their response was merely to have Him arrested.
• And the reason for their rejection?
    o See last week’s lesson.

Lessons for Us:
I can’t help but wonder how often people today do what the unbelieving Jews did and what Jesus is trying to correct here.
• That is to say, divorce Jesus works from His words.

Before I give two specific examples of this divorce, I need to point out a generalized occurrence of it within our conservative evangelical circles.
• We have a habit of esteeming highly the word of God, as we should, but at the expense of the subjective work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
• Scripture clearly teaches that the believer is energized by the Spirit to do works that glorify God and benefit the church and its flock.
• We CE’s, however, wrongly shy away from pursuing and teaching about these gifts.

Example 1 of this Divorce in Action by the Atheist:
Speaking of the Sermon on the Mount atheist Geoff Crocker argues (Unbelievable 17 Sep 2011, 32:39) that what Jesus speaks to it is not “based upon on anything absolute” but “based upon a statement of the intrinsic attraction of the virtues of justice, of the virtues of mercy, of the virtues of love themselves”.
• In other words, the Sermon on the Mount does not find its real meaning in the fact that it was spoken by someone who performed supernatural works, claimed to be fulfillment of OT prophecy, and operated His ministry at the direction and authority of God the Father.
• Its real meaning is simply in Jesus’ eloquent delivery of virtues that are celebrated by all reasonable people on the planet.

This is absolute nonsense and can only be said if Jesus’ words are dismissed and divorced from the supernatural (works).
• “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” – What is heaven? a work of God
• “they shall see God” – How do we see God? A work of God
• “they shall be called sons of God” – How are we made sons of God? A work of God
• “I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” – What is the fulfillment of the law? A work of God
• “be liable to the hell of fire” – What is hell? A rejection of the work of God
• And these examples are only from the first 17 verses.

Example 2 of this Divorce in Action by the Christian (Unbelievable 4/16/11 & 8/27/11):
Bart Ehrman and Mike Licona have encountered each other a number of times to debate the resurrection.
• With respect to the resurrection, Bart Ehrman argues that miracles are “outside of the realm of what history can show”.
• In other words, an appeal to the supernatural is outside of the discipline of history; it is not in the “historian’s toolbox”.
    o This is classic David Hume enlightenment stuff
    o But Hume, by the way, was honest about the grounding problems for reason that arise from this, Ehrman is not.
• So whatever Jesus said or did, history cannot confirm any of it was supernatural.
• So you can believe Jesus was raised by God from the dead, but this is not historical.
• This means, of course, that it is myth.

Mike Licona, for sake of argument, concedes this point to Ehrman and as a result is left with the following statement:
• “Let’s put it this way. If the historical evidence is good enough to show that Jesus rose from the dead, we’ll just not call it a miracle. We’ll just say, ‘well we don’t know how He was raised. We don’t know the nature of the body He was in’”… “You want to leave the cause of the resurrection a question mark? I’m fine with that.”

The result is that the resurrection becomes the “inference to the best explanation” that accounts for the events surrounding the resurrection, not a supernatural act of God.
• It is divorced from its entire prophetic and eschatological context.
• Now, we know Mike Licona is a conservative evangelical Christian who writes and debates powerfully for the historicity of a supernatural resurrection.
• But one has to ask, what is gained by doing what the unbelieving Jews did?
• What is gained by divorcing Jesus from His works?
• If the resurrection was not a supernaturally caused work of God, what good is it?
    o   Resurrection as just an “inference to the best explanation” can’t help Bart Ehrman.
    o   In fact, Ehrman could call Licona’s bluff, concede the resurrection and then say “now what?”
    o   This is because Ehrman doesn’t even have to jettison his naturalist worldview to do this.
    o   This is why, for me, the resurrection is powerless divorced from its supernatural context.

Jesus doesn’t seem to appeal to the unbeliever in this way in our text.
• His appeal to them IS the supernatural – His works.
• He urges them to believe because His works clearly indicate that He is one with the Father and operates under the authority of the Father.

From Jesus’ perspective, as we have seen the past two weeks, it is the Father that draws and gives the unbeliever and it is the Father who authorizes and ordains Jesus’ works.
• The common denominator is a WORK of the Father.
• The Father saves (a supernatural act) and the Father authorizes Jesus works (a supernatural act).
• So in appealing to His works, Jesus is appealing to the Father!
• It is an appeal to the Father to
    o (1) Draw the unbeliever via Jesus works (a supernatural act)
    o (2) Perform a supernatural act in the life of the unbeliever.
• There really is nothing more right to appeal to.
• Jesus truly is seeking to “tell us plainly” this fact.

So though the unbeliever has no choice but to reject the works of God…the believer has no excuse to do so.
• We should preach, teach, and argue for BOTH just as Jesus did.
• Do not shy away from the supernatural, the very thing that saved you.

John 10:22-29 – Works and Works – Part I

For two and a half years, Jesus had sought to convey to the Jews His identity and the reason for His incarnation.
• He had done so through at least two ways.
    o His works
    o His words – teaching
• Both His works and His words pointed to His ministry as being sanctioned and authorized by God the Father and to His identity as the Son of God.

In our text today, we are confronted with some powerful implications for the believer and unbeliever with respect to Jesus’ works and His words.
• Over the next two weeks, we will seek to understand what the implications are.
• And I think we will see that these 22 verses are some of the most powerful in all of Scripture.
• James Boice suggests that in these verses we get, “the most highly condensed statements of the doctrines of grace in the entire Gospel”.

In Part I, we will deal with the relationship of Jesus’ WORDS to the believer/unbeliever.

1) JESUS WORDS

John 10:22–29 (ESV) — 22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

A note about the context of this discussion:
• This encounter with the Jews took place in December.
• We are less than 6 months from Jesus’ crucifixion.
• The Feast of Dedication “celebrated the rededication of the temple in December 164 B.C. after its desecration by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes and the successful Maccabean revolt” – Kostenberger.

Today we will deal with verses 22-29.
• Next week we will contend with verses 30-42.
• I want to pay special attention to Jesus words in verses 25 and 27.

1) “I told you, and you do not believe” (vs. 25):
The Jews gather around Jesus at the temple mount and request, “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly”.
• And Jesus tells them plainly, “I told you, and you do not believe”.
• In other words, He has taught them with words and they have rejected His teaching.
• He doesn’t stop there, however.
• He goes on to explain, interestingly, not why they should now believe, but why they don’t believe!
• This is exactly what Jesus did in John 6.

John is clearly seeking to convey something to us about Jesus’ reason for highlighting the reason for unbelief.
• No doubt, the question was asked then and is asked now, if Jesus was/is the Messiah the Christ and God incarnate, why did so many Jews reject Him?

Logically, it seems we are left with 2 choices.
• (1) Jesus’ words in John 6 and John 10 were a later addition to the text which were fabricated in order to explain why so many Jews rejected Jesus.
• (2) Or, Jesus is speaking the truth. He is teaching us about the sovereignty and work of God in the context of belief/unbelief because He sees it as what fundamentally makes the difference between the two.

As just mentioned, Jesus had previously contrasted the believer, the one who trusts in the Father’s Jesus, with the unbeliever, the one who rejects the Father’s Jesus, in John 6.
• And in our text he also does this.
• These instances are worth digging into so that we might understand what Jesus is saying about the sovereignty of God the Father and unbelief.

John 6 – A Similar Example:
Our similar example is the interaction with the crowd at Capernaum in John 6.
• Jesus had fed the 5000 and then crossed the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum.
• Much of the crowd followed Him.
• He told them, “you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of loaves” (John 6:26).
• He went on to teach them that the bread that matters is the bread of life that only He gives.
• They ask Him what they must do for this bread.
• He said the real work of God is to “believe in him whom he has sent” (vs. 29).
• They “do not believe” (vs. 36) in Him and continue to challenge Him throughout the encounter.
• His response to their unbelief – “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe” (vs. 36).
• His explanation for their unbelief – “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (vs. 37).
• And again – “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).
• And again – “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (John 6:45).
    o This is clearly a “hearing” quite different from just an audible hearing
    o And, the origins of this hearing are with the Father and not Jesus

And in our text today, Jesus also explains the unbelief of the Jews in relation to a work of God the Father.
• This brings us to the 2nd verse I want to focus on – vs. 27.

2) “Hear My Voice” (vs. 27):
John 6:26-27 (ESV) — 26 but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
• And in vs. 29, Jesus elaborates, echoing His words in John 6, when He says that those that hear His voice were given to Him by His Father, “who has given then to me”.
    o This “giving” presumably occurs after they have “heard and learned from the Father” (John 6:45).
• It is striking that the Wisdom literature of Proverbs tells us:
    o Proverbs 20:12 (ESV) — 12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both.
    o Our ability to hear audibly is attributed to God, and (in Jesus’ words) our ability to hear spiritually is attributed to God.

And so Jesus’ teaching in John 10 is the same as John 6 we just reviewed.
• Those that believe are those that are the beneficiaries of a work of God which frees them from the limitations of their moral deficiency, depravity and inability to “hear” Jesus Christ.
• The unbelievers then, in Jesus’ own words, are those that have not heard, learned, been drawn or given by the Father.

What this means:
The implication of this is that we can’t just “hear” Jesus’ words or “see” Jesus’ signs AND THEN, in our own capacity, realize our need for Him and thus desire to trust in Him as Savior.
• We simply do not have the moral ability to do so.
• There simply does not exist a neutral ground from which mankind can decide yea or nay based on a rational consideration of the work and words of Jesus Christ.
• Jesus, in John’s Gospel, is making this perfectly clear.
• A work of God is first necessary – a drawing, hearing, learning and giving.
• This is why is teaching us that the difference between the believer and unbeliever is to be found in this work of the Father.
    o Jesus is submitting to the will of, and giving glory to God the Father!

Our moral inability:
Jesus Himself acknowledged our moral inability to do this in John 2:24.
• John 2:24–25 (ESV) — 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
• Jesus did not “believe in” or “entrust” Himself to mankind because what was in them.

What is in man?
• Not one of us does good (Ps. 14:3).
• We have wicked and deceitful hearts (Jer. 17:9).
• We are dead in trespasses and sin (Eph. 2:1-2).
• We are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).
• We love darkness and hate the light (John 3:19-20).
• Our hearts are hard like stone (Ezek. 36:26; Eph. 4:18).
• We are unable to submit to God and are hostile towards God (Rom 8:7-8).
• We are unable to accept the gospel (Eph. 4:18; 1 Cor. 2:14).
• We are unable to come to Christ or embrace him as Lord (John 6:44, 65; 1 Cor. 12:3).
• We are slaves to sin (Rom. 6:17).
• We are slaves of Satan (Eph. 2:1-2; 2 Tim. 2:24-26).
• No good thing dwells in us (Rom. 7:18).

If we look at it logically, it makes perfect sense that we can’t hear His words or see His signs AND THEN realize our need for Him and thus desire to trust in Him as Savior in our own ability (especially given our depravity).
• The existence of a need and having the desire to satisfy that need are not grounded in, or do not originate from, the thing that satisfies that need.

Let’s look at a simple example.

Why do we need water and why do we desire to satisfy that need by drinking it?
• Is it because water exists?
• No, to say so would mean that to remove the existence of water would be to remove our need for water and desire for it.

Is it because we can rationally understand the physical and chemical properties of water and how it interacts with our body?
• No, to say so would mean that an infant or mentally handicapped person, who can do no such thing, has no need for water.

So why do we need water and why do we desire to satisfy our thirst?
• We need water because we have been made to need water.
• This need is part of what we are, not what water is.
• So because we have been made for water, we desire to seek out water and drink it.
• If we don’t we die.

The same holds for our need of Jesus and a desire to trust in Him as Savior.

Why do we need Jesus and desire to seek Him out?
• Is it because Jesus walked in the flesh and performed signs and taught?
• No, to say so would mean that those in the OT or those that don’t’ encounter Christ have no need for Him.

Is it because we can rationally understand the life of Christ and how brilliant His teachings are?
• No, to say that would mean that Satan and his demons understand their need for Jesus and desire to satisfy that need through a relationship with Him.
• To say that would also mean that the infant or the mentally handicap person who cannot do these things has no need for Jesus.

So why do we seek after Jesus to meet a need we have for Him?
• We seek after Jesus and recognize our need for Him because we have been “born again” (John 3 & Ezekiel 36:26).
• We have been “remade” by a work of God to do so.
• God has taken our fallen, depraved, corrupt will that does not seek after God, and remade it to recognize our need for Jesus and pursue satisfaction of that need in Him.
• So, our need for Christ and our desire to trust in Him is grounded in, and originates in the work of God in our heart.
• If we don’t see this need and trust Jesus, we die.

So whatever else can be said, Jesus’ has told us “plainly” that the sovereignty of God explains the difference between believers and unbelievers.
• So what are we to do at this intersection of human responsibility and God’s sovereignty?
• John MacArthur frames it this way, “From the perspective of human responsibility, the hostile Jews did not believe because they had deliberately rejected the truth. But from the standpoint of divine sovereignty, they did not believe because they were not of the Lord’s sheep, which were given Him by the Father. A full understanding of exactly how those two realities, human responsibility and divine sovereignty, work together lies beyond human comprehension; but there is no difficulty with them in the infinite mind of God”.

Why an understanding of the Father’s necessary work on our hearts should be a comfort and not a concern:
It means that our salvation is secure.
• Jesus tells us that, “no one will snatch them out of my hand” (vs. 28)
• The word for “snatch”, “harpazo”, means “to forcefully grab or seize so as to gain control”.
• Contrasted with the wolf from John 10:12 who “snatches” because the “hired hand” “leaves the sheep”, Jesus is saying that, as our shepherd, not only will He not flee, but none can seize or gain control of our eternal life from His hand.
• In fact, in vs. 29 He points out that our eternal life is not just in His hand but also in the Father’s hand.
• So as we look to the sovereign work of God to bring us to salvation in Christ, we also see a sovereign work of God secure it for all eternity.
    o Isaiah 43:13 (ESV) — 13 Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?”
    o Wisdom of Solomon 3:1 (NRSV) — 1 But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.

Lesson for Us:
So what are we to do with God’s sovereignty?
• Praise Him and rest secure in the
    o (1) “realness” of our trust in Christ because it is grounded in a work of God.
    o (2) “security” of the eternity of our salvation because it is grounded in a work of God.
• This is why God’s sovereignty should be an awesome source of daily comfort for the believer.
• This should free us to be bold and confident in our walk.

John 10:1-21 – The Door and Shepherd

In our text today, Jesus describes salvation and the kingdom of heaven on earth in terms of a relationship between sheep and their shepherd.
• In the course of this teaching, He unveils two more “I am” statements.
• We will explore the meaning behind the metaphor, the “I am” statements, and the relationship of all its characters – the sheep, the shepherd, the thieves/robbers, and the hired hand.


1) THE METAPHOR

John 10:1–6 (ESV) — 1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

We need to define some terms so we can get a handle on this sheepfold metaphor.

What is a sheepfold?
• It is “an area open to the sky, freq. surrounded by buildings, and in some cases partially by walls; enclosed open space; courtyard” – BDAG.
• In other words, we aren’t out in the countryside.
• D. A. Carson says “it is better to think of a larger, independent enclosure, where several families kept their sheep, hiring an undershepherd to guard the gate.”
• See picture example for an idea.
• And in Jesus’ metaphor, it represents Israel.

It was customary in Jesus’ time to hire a watchman, the gatekeeper from vs. 3, to keep watch over the sheep.
• Typically, there was only one way for the sheep themselves to enter or leave – the gate or door.
    o Sheep couldn’t climb the walls or jump over them.
• This gate/door was guarded by the watchman.
• However, there were other ways for the “thief” and “robber” to enter or leave.

The Wrong Way In:
• Jesus tells us that he that enters the sheepfold by any means other than the gate/door “is a thief and a robber” (vs. 1).
• This person’s motives are to evade the watchman and steal or devour the sheep.

The Right Way In:
• Jesus then tells us that the one who enters correctly through the gate/door is “the shepherd of the sheep” (vs. 2).
• He has no need to evade the watchman.
• The watchman obviously knows the shepherd because he is the one who hired him in the first place.
• Therefore, the watchman does not hesitate to open the door for the shepherd.
    o “The verb ἀνοίγω (anoigō, open) is used repeatedly in the context for Jesus’ opening of the congenitally blind man’s eyes (9:10, 14, 17, 21, 26, 30, 32; 10:21; 11:37)” – Kostenberger.
    o Given the context, this may be significant.

The Voice:
Jesus also points out a unique relationship the shepherd has with His sheep (vss. 2-5).
• They know him by the sound of his voice.
• And even more than that, they will follow only his voice.
• If there are other villager’s sheep in the sheepfold, they will not follow.
• In fact, Jesus tells us that at the sound of a stranger’s voice the shepherd’s sheep will flee to the other side of the sheepfold.
• And remarkably, Jesus tells us that He will call His sheep by name.
    o Revelation 13:8 (ESV) — 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

John tells us that the Jews listening didn’t understand what Jesus was saying.
• Most believe Jesus is still talking to the same group of Jews here as He was in John 9.
• If so, what John is telling us is that those that Jesus called spiritually blind also lack the ability to understand spiritual things.
    o Does this inability in the unbeliever make it difficult to evangelize?
• In verse 7, John tells us Jesus sheds a little more insight into His intended meaning.

2) THE MEANING OF THE METAPHOR

John 10:7–18 (ESV) — 7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

We will deal with the thieves, robbers and hired hand before we get into Jesus and the sheep.

Thieves and Robbers (vss. 8 and 10):
Jesus tells us that the thieves and robbers come before Him.
• This may refer to at least three things (Kostenberger).
    o (1) The corrupt leadership throughout the history of Israel.
    o “The OT prophet Ezekiel refers to the ‘shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves’ and ‘do not take care of the flock’ (Ezek. 34:2–4 [see the entire chapter])” – Kostenberger.
    o (2) The Messiah pretenders similar, for example, to those in Acts 5:36-37.
    o (3) And false prophets cited by throughout Jewish writings (Scripture and Josephus).

Given the context of John 10 and its relationship to John 9, the thieves and robbers clearly represent the very Pharisees and Jewish leaders hearing Jesus speak.
• The Pharisees, of course, were self-righteous and corrupt.
• In keeping with the sheepfold metaphor, MacArthur tells us that they sought “to spiritually fleece and slaughter the people”.
• Their dealings with the healed blind man, casting him out, show us why.
• They not only rejected Jesus, but also those that believed in Him.
• Under their leadership, Israel, the sheepfold, has suffered.
    o Jeremiah 50:6 (ESV) — 6 “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.

Hired Hand (vss. 12-13):
Whoever they might be, they do not have an abiding interest in the welfare of the sheep.
• When serious danger comes, a wolf/theif/robber, they abandon the sheep.
• The sheep are then left to be ravaged by the wolves.
• Kostenberger suggests that the hired hand represents leaders throughout the history of Israel “who fail to perform their God-given responsibilities”.

Let’s now look at the symbolism for Jesus which is ripe with OT allusions.

The Door and the Good Shepherd:
Jesus tells them twice that He is the door.
• “I am the door of the sheep” (vs. 7)
• “I am the door” (vs. 9)
• Jesus is clearly alluding to Psalm 118:20.
    o “This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.”
• BTW – Interestingly, as is attested in Greek literature since Homer, people in ancient times frequently thought of entering heaven by a gate.
    o Jesus’ claim to be “the gate” would have resonated with this kind of thinking (cf. 1:51) – Kostenberger.

Jesus also tells them twice that He is the good shepherd.
• “I am the good shepherd” (vs. 11)
• “I am the good shepherd” (vs. 14)
• As with the door imagery, Jesus here is also alluding to the OT.
    o Genesis 48:15 (ESV) — 15 And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
    o Jeremiah 31:10 (ESV) — 10 “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
• And Kostenberger tells us that when Jesus’ uses “shepherd”, He is purposely placing Himself within “traditional Jewish messianic expectations”.

Now let’s take a look at the relationship Jesus describes that He (as the door and the shepherd) has with the flock and the Father.

The Door/Shepherd’s Relationship to the Sheep
(1) If they enter the sheepfold the right way, through Jesus, they will “be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (vs. 9).
• This is covenant language and also alludes directly to such language in the Old Testament.
    o Deuteronomy 28:6 (ESV) — 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
    o Isaiah 49:9–10 (ESV) — 9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’ They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture; 10 they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.

(2) They will “have life and have it abundantly” (vs. 10).
• Abundant life is salvation, but it is more than that.
• What it is NOT is the prosperity gospel.
• In fact, Jesus in John 15:18-25 , teaches that “if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you”.
• So what is the abundant life lived in the here and now?
• Psalm 23:1–6 (ESV) — A PSALM OF DAVID. 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

(3) Jesus lays down his life for them (vs. 11).
• This is how salvation and the abundant life are secured for the sheep.
• This is God initiating the new covenant with those that hear his voice and follow him.

(4) Jesus knows His sheep and His sheep know Him (voice) (vs. 14).
• Those that are born again and saved are those that hear and trust in the voice and witness of Jesus.
• And like the sheep, they follow Him.

What is helpful about this concept is that it provides a way that we can have assurance of our salvation.
• With respect to His claims to be God, His relationship to the Father, and His hard sayings:
    o Does the voice of Jesus ring true to you?
    o And what do you do with the words of Jesus?
    o Do they make sense to you?
    o Do you follow Him?
    o Or are the words of Jesus offensive and awkward to you?

(5) Jesus has other sheep from a different sheepfold – Gentiles (vs. 16).
• Yet another allusion to the Old Testament.
• Isaiah 56:8 (ESV) — 8 The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

The Door/Shepherd’s Relationship to the Father
• Very similar to our lessons from John 5 on “The Father’s Jesus”.
• The Father loves Jesus (vs. 17).
• Jesus lays down His life at the charge of and under the authority of the Father (vs. 18).
• Jesus knows the Father and the Father knows Jesus (vss. 14-15).
    o In the same way Jesus and the sheep know each other.

This statement of knowledge by Jesus in John 10:14-15 is extremely significant.
• The Greek word for “know” here is “ginosko”.
• It has a variety of meanings.
• However, in our context today, the BDAG shows us that it means “to grasp the significance of” something.
• So to paraphrase, Jesus is saying that believers are such that they grasp His identity in the same way that the Father grasps His identity.
• This is an awesome claim!

So why is this so significant and how is this possible?
How can we have the same kind of grasping of Jesus as the Father does?
• (1) It is clear from the entirety of John’s Gospel that we can’t grasp in this way without a work of God.
    o So this points us to the Holy Spirit.
    o John 3 and Ezekiel 36:26 point us to this work of God through the Holy Spirit.
• (2) It is also obvious that those who recognize the voice (John 10:4) of Jesus, the good shepherd, and follow Him are those that grasp His identity and His relationship with the Father.
    o So this points us to the miracle of the new birth.
    o The new birth gives us the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
• (3) It also reveals to us the objective and transcendent nature of our knowledge.
    o Salvation, knowing and grasping Jesus’ identity, is somehow related to the relationships within the Trinity.
    o In other words, we know Jesus because the Father knows Jesus.
    o This means our knowledge of Jesus is not subjective and relative, but exists objectively and transcendentally in God.
    o Our knowledge of God is not a feeling or just intellectual assent.
    o Our knowledge of God is not our doing.
    o It is eternally grounded in our Creator…what a relief!

Now let’s look at the response to Jesus’ sheepfold metaphor.

3) THE MUMBLING OVER THE METAPHOR

John 10:19–21 (ESV) — 19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
• The Jews continue to insult Jesus.
• They call Him insane.
• They call Him demon oppressed.
• These are actions of those who do not recognize His voice and follow Him.
• However, given the healing of the blind man and the words of Jesus in John 10, it appears that there are some who recognize in Jesus something of the Father.
• And like Jesus, they also allude to the Old Testament when they ask, “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
    o Psalm 146:8 (ESV) — 8 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.

Lessons for Us:
• It seems that the Gospel presentation for Jesus often consisted of contrasting unbelievers with believers.
• He did so in John 6, in John 9 (blind/seeing) and He does so again in our text today.
• And when making this contrast, He attributes a work of God as accounting for the difference between believers and unbelievers.
• Why do you think He does this?
• How should this influence or inform our presentation of the Gospel?

John 9:35-41 – The Seeing Blind – The Blind Seeing

John 9:35–41 (ESV) — 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.


1) A REMARKABLE CLAIM

John 9:39 (ESV) — 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

Verse 39 is ground zero for our text today.
• In it is found the meaning behind the conversation with the blind man that precedes it, and the condemnation of the Pharisees after it.
• It leads us to ask two questions.
• Who are those that “do not see” but see?
• Who are those “who see” but are blinded?
• The answers are important because Jesus says Himself that the reason He “came into this world” was to expose each through judgment.

Apparent Contradiction:
Before we move on, however, let’s resolve some apparent contradictions about Jesus and judgment.
• In addition to our text today, John’s Gospel says the following about Jesus.
• John 5:27 (ESV) — 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

However, these seem to contradict John’s commentary on Jesus in John 3.
• John 3:17 (ESV) — 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

How is this resolved?
• The world into which Christ came was not a neutral one morally and in relation to the truth of God.
• Christ, the Light and the Truth, came into a wicked and fallen world.
    o Remember, in John 2:25 we are told that Christ couldn’t believe in men because he knew what was in them.
• So when Christ shed His Light and Truth into this world, there were and are unavoidable consequences for unbelievers.

The Consequence - a Kind of Judgment:
• Though Jesus came to save, “saving some entails condemning others” – Carson.
• This is because those who reject Jesus are revealed as being spiritually blind to the presence their sin.
• In fact, Jesus’ mission was an act of grace for all unbelievers.
• And “in order to be grace [for all] it must uncover [everyone’s] sin” – Carson.
• Therefore, “he who resists this [uncovering] binds himself to his sin” in spiritual blindness – Carson.
• So, “The judgment referred to here is the division of humanity into believers [the blind who see their sin] and unbelievers [the seeing who are blind to their sin] brought about by Jesus’ coming into this world” – Kostenberger.

Now back to our two questions.
• Who are those that do not see but see?
• Who are those that see but do not see?
• The answer to the first is found in the blind man.

2) THE BLIND MAN – SIGHT BY JESUS

John 9:35–38 (ESV) — 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

The Blind Man:
The blind man clearly represents those persons who humbly accept what the light of Christ shows them about their sin.
• This acceptance played out in 2 acts in John 9.
• In John 9:6-7 we see the blind man responding in faith to Jesus’ direction during the spittle spectacle.
• The result of this, of course, was the restoration of his sight – literally.

In our text today, we see that by his faith he also had his spiritual sight restored.
• The blind man was and represents “those who do not see may see” (vs. 39).
• This type of person has a “poverty of spirit (cf. Mt. 5:3)” and “an abasement of personal pride”.
• These attributes represent “a candid acknowledgement of spiritual blindness” which leads to “spiritual sight” and “true revelation, at the hands of Jesus” – D.A. Carson.

What He Sees – The Son of Man:
In John, those that see are those that recognize the authority of the Father’s Jesus.
• Jesus gets to the heart of this by asking the blind man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
• Jesus is not asking the blind man if he thinks there is such a thing as the “Son of Man”, but “Do you place your trust in the Son of Man?” – D.A. Carson.

What is the Son of Man?
• Commonly, the phrase “Son of Man” can simply mean “someone” or “a certain person” – AYBD.
• However, in the NT the phrase is used 43 times “as a distinctive title of the Savior” – Eastons Bible Dictionary.
• And it is Jesus’ favorite title for Himself.

When Jesus uses the term to describe Himself, most believe He is alluding to Daniel 7:13-14.
• Daniel 7:13–14 (ESV) — 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
• D.A. Carson tells us that this “son of man” was seen by the Jews as a specific “transcendent eschatological agent of divine judgment and deliverance”.
• This description, then, fits squarely with Jesus’ Father-given mission.

So, the blind man asks for insight into the identity of the this “Son of Man” that he might trust in Him.
• Jesus, continuing to give spiritual sight to the blind, tells the blind man, “it is he who is speaking to you”.
• What the blind man does next reveals both that he
    o (1) has spiritual eyes to see
    o (2) his view of the identity of Jesus.

The blind man worships Jesus as the Divine Son of Man!
• “The NT uses proskyneín (worship) only in relation to a divine object” – TDNT.
• Matthew 2:11 (ESV) — 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
• Matthew 14:33 (ESV) — 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
• Matthew 28:9 (ESV) — 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

Worship and Judaism:
• In Judaism, “God must be worshipped; no other being may be worshipped” – Bauckham.
• “Jews were sharply distinguished by their monolatrous practice”, unlike non-Jews “who believed in or worshipped a high god but never supposed this to be incompatible with the worship also of lesser divinities”.
• So, for the blind man to worship Jesus was to see Him as God.
• In other words, for the blind man “Jesus is such that he can be worshipped; God is such that Jesus can be worshipped” without maligning his Jewish monolatry. – Bauckham.

So the blind man’s heart enabled him to see both himself and Jesus as God intends.
• He is one who did not see but now sees.
• One who lays down their pride and responds positively to the uncovering and illumination of Jesus Christ.
• One who acknowledges Christ as Lord and Saviour.
• But what of those who see but do not see?
• They are found in the Pharisees.

3) THE PHARISEES – BLINDED BY JESUS

John 9:40–41 (ESV) — 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

The Pharisees:
Overhearing the words of Jesus to the blind man, they want to know where they fit in – “Are we also blind?”
• And when Jesus replies with “If you were blind” He is again speaking in spiritual terms.
• The blindness He speaks of is “a lost condition that cries out for illumination” – D.A. Carson.
    o A humble acknowledgement of spiritual blindness
• So when the Pharisees imply that they see, they are aligning themselves with “those who see may become blind” (vs. 39).
• They are rebelling against God’s grace, their need for it, and the identity of Jesus.
• They are saying, “We aren’t in a lost condition and have no need for illumination by the Son of Man”.

The Pharisees demonstrate perfectly what we already discussed concerning a kind of judgment in John 9:39.
• They resist Jesus and by so doing demonstrate their pride and spiritual blindness.
• The complete opposite of the blind man’s “poverty of spirit” and “abasement of personal pride”.
• “So certain are they that they can see, they utterly reject any suggestion to the contrary, and thereby confirm their own darkness” – D.A. Carson.

What they see – Self-Righteousness:
The blind man saw Jesus as the Son of Man and worthy of worship.
• The Pharisees saw only their self-righteousness as Saviour, and Jesus as blasphemer.
• This condition, a fulfillment of prophecy, is highlighted over and over in the OT and NT.
• Isaiah 6:10 (ESV) — 10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
• Jeremiah 5:21 (ESV) — 21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.
• Mark 4:12 (ESV) — 12 so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.”
• 2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (ESV) — 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Grace and Sin:
Our text today teaches a remarkable lesson on the relationship between our sin and God’s grace.
• “Jesus makes clear, it is not the Pharisees’ sin, but their repudiation of grace, that renders them lost (Ridderbos 1997: 351)” - Kostenberger.
• Why is this so?
• Jesus light illuminates everyone’s sin.
• Remember, we all “are without excuse” and have a God-given moral knowledge.
• The question is what one does with Jesus’ illumination, with His light.
• One can acknowledge it and bow down to Jesus and accept His grace like the blind man?
• Or one can justify a self-righteous response, and in so doing reject the grace of Jesus Christ like the Pharisees?
• Both camps had their sin uncovered, but only the blind man accepted the grace that the uncovering of sin points us to.

Lesson for Us:
• So how is one made blind that they may see?
• This is a work of God we have spoken of so much since John 6 and will come to again in John 10.
• And a great example of this that contains all the elements of John 9 – blindness, Pharisees, salvation – is Paul.
• Paul, a self-righteous Pharisee, was blinded by Christ that he might see the truth about himself and the identity of Jesus.

And with regard to Paul’s encounter with his sin and response to grace:
• Was Paul’s illumination by Christ better than ours and so therefore accounts for his awesome and bold Christian walk?
• We have already seen the Pharisee’s problem was not illumination of sin but response to grace.
• Therefore, the difference between Paul’s boldness and our timidity is not the amount of illumination by Christ, but the nature of our response to Jesus’ grace.
• If we have been given eyes to see, why do we wear blinders?
• The Christian life is to be lived in boldness and full of drama, with eyes wide open, not with a ho-hum mediocrity.

John 9:8-34 – The Who, Not the How

Last week we explored reasons for why Jesus put on such a “spectacle” to heal the blind man.
• We came up with about 7 possibilities.
• None of them, I thought, were arbitrary and most seemed quite reasonable.
• Especially in light of the fact that Jesus had healed in much simpler ways on other occasions and that John went out of his way to give us his commentary about the pool of Siloam.

In our text today, I want to focus on a question that shows up four times in the remainder of chapter 9.
• The question, of course, is how the blind man was healed.
• I think John wants us to notice it and this is demonstrated by the fact that he shows us that even the blind man became annoyed with the Pharisees’ repetition – “He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? (vs. 27)”
• Hopefully we can find out why John wants us to notice.


1) THE CROWD – THE 1ST TIME

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.”

I suspect the blind man, having just been given new eyes from Jesus, looked quite a bit different than he used to.
• So much so, it appears, that some of the crowd thought that he was not the blind man but someone who was “like him”.
• But he insisted he was the blind man, and no doubt could authenticate his identity with a little bit of historical info.
• So the crowd was satisfied and asked him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

The man’s answer was the longest he would give over the next 30 or so verses.
• He identified the person responsible and described exactly what Jesus did, and how he was told to wash in the pool of Siloam.
• The end result being, of course, that he “received my sight”.
• It is remarkable to me that John didn’t record a more curious crowd.
• In other words, based on what John has given us, they didn’t appear to ask the man about what it was like to see, or are colors like what he would have expected, etc.
• They cut to the chase and asked, “Where is he?”

Now we move on from the crowd to the Pharisees.

2) THE PHARISEES – THE 2ND, 3RD, & 4TH TIMES

The 2nd Time:
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.”

We see at least three things going on here:
1) This is still the same day and certainly one would expect that a man blind from birth who just received his sight would be tireless and full of joy in retelling his story.
• However, the healed man seems to sense the motives of the Pharisees as indicated by the shorter description of his healing.
• The Pharisees were up to something and they weren’t fooling anybody.
• John’s commentary in verse 14 really helps us understand this - “Now it was a Sabbath day…”.

2) We have a disagreement amongst the Pharisees about Jesus.
• Scholars agree that the root of the disagreement was more than likely the differences that existed between two schools of teaching – Shammai and Hillel.
• Kostenberger describes the difference this way, “The former based its argument on foundational theological principles (“Anyone who breaks the law is a sinner”), while the latter argued from the established facts of the case (“Jesus has performed a good work”)”.
• It is interesting that Nicodemus, in John 3, fell in line with the latter which might indicate his philosophical leanings.
    o John 3:2 (ESV) — 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

3) We get a glimpse of the boldness of the healed man.
• When asked what he thought of Jesus, He replied that Jesus was a prophet.
• This is the same conclusion of the Samaritan woman in John 4:19.
• Kostenberger suggests that, “‘Prophet’ may well have been the highest position that the man knew to ascribe to Jesus”.
• What is striking about the blind man’s answer is that:
    o The Pharisees did not hide their disdain for Jesus and His followers
    o And he said this even after hearing some of the Pharisees say, “this man is not from God”.
• The blind man’s example here reminds us that our proclamation of Jesus is to be done boldly.

The 3rd Time:
John 9:18–23 (ESV) — 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.”

The Pharisees were really thrown by this healing.
• We just saw where they had a disagreement between themselves about the status of the healer.
• Now we see that they didn’t even believe that this man had been healed.
• Perhaps denial of Jesus’ identity and power is the only way an unbeliever can rationally respond to Jesus.

However, they did investigate further by questioning the parents of the healed blind man.
• The parents of the healed man, John tells us, feigned ignorance to protect themselves from being “put out of the synagogue”.
• Kostenberger elaborates on John’s commentary this way, “Since the synagogue was the center not only of Jewish religious life but also communal life, expulsion from it represented a severe form of social ostracism”.
• The presence of this threat of expulsion from the center of Jewish life demonstrates, once again, that the response of the blind man to the Pharisees really was bold.

The 4th Time:
John 9:24–34 (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.” 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.

Awkwardly, the Pharisees called in the healed man again.
• This time, trying to corner him, they suggested that the only way to “give glory to God” was to agree with them that Jesus was a sinner.
• The healed man doesn’t take the bait and when asked again about his healing, he finally expresses his frustration and mocks them by asking them, “Do you also want to become his disciples?”

For the 3rd time we see the boldness of the blind man.
• He challenged the Pharisees conclusions about Jesus.
• He admitted that he had become a disciple of Jesus.

And in the spirit of 1 Peter 3:15, he gives a reason for the hope that is within him in verses 30-33.
• The reason he gives is that he recognized that, “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing”.
• In other words, he understood that Jesus was acting under the authority and direction of God the Father.
• He schooled them in a way reminiscent of the way Jesus did in John 5:46 (Jesus’ Apologetic – Part III).
    o John 5:45–47 (ESV) — 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
• And as a result of his boldness, “they cast him out”.
• The very thing his parents were trying to avoid.

There are two things deeply ironic about this last exchange:
1) The healed man, by affirming that Jesus was doing the will of God, was giving glory to God.
• The Pharisees, on the other hand, were simply pretending to “give glory to God” by accusing Jesus of being a sinner.
• In fact, it was they, and not Jesus healing on the Sabbath, who were blaspheming God.

2) The Pharisees, in all their self-righteous theological knowledge, were making the same mistake as the disciples of Jesus by suggesting that the man’s blindness was a result of sin (vs. 34).
• But, unlike the disciples or the healed man, they were wrong about Jesus as well as the reason for the man’s blindness.
• And in their arrogance, they showed contempt for the healed man by suggesting he was in no way qualified to teach them otherwise.
• But it was he, more than any other in this story, that could testify to the “explanation in purpose” of his healing.
• Their actions demonstrate that the self-righteous are so hard-hearted that, as John’s Gospel demonstrates, not a healed blind man or even Jesus Himself can teach them.

Lesson for Us:
We have just seen that 4 times the question was asked how the blind man was healed.
• And yet Jesus taught us in verses 1-3 that we need to find explanation in purpose.
• And yet 4 times we have the question of how.
• This serves as a sad illustration of the state of the hearts of so many of the Jews.
• They were looking for an explanation of the healing in its cause, in the HOW.
• They missed the very lesson Jesus taught the disciples and is teaching us.
• The question that should be asked about the man’s healing is WHO.

There are at least 3 things in our text that illustrate this – (1) in the negative and (2) in the affirmative:
1) The world is not interested in who Jesus IS but what He can do for them or how he offends them (in the case of the Pharisees).

The crowd, for example, asked the blind man, “Where is he?”
• This is certainly a good question to ask about Jesus.
• But, if we can assume anything about the crowd based on their interactions with Jesus in the past, then we can reasonably say that they wanted Jesus because he could either free them from political oppression and/or free them from whatever ailed them (John 6:15 & 26).
• If the purpose of the healing was to glorify God, then a proper response to the blind man’s healing would have been to recognize the purpose Jesus spoke of in verse 1-3 and John 5.
• And this purpose, Jesus as Messiah sent and operating under the authority of the Father, was something the crowds rarely recognized.
• In fact we see a rather odd response in verse 13; they brought the healed man to the Pharisees for questioning.

And the Pharisees’ only thought was to marginalize Jesus because he offended all that they stood for as we have just seen.
• “We know that this man is a sinner”.
• The word sinner here means more than just one who broke God’s law.
• It also carried with it a sense of “nonconformity” with what was culturally acceptable – BDAG.
• In other words, Jesus was not just immoral but He was a social pariah.
• Luke 15:2 (ESV) — 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
• Mark 2:16 (ESV) — 16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

2) Our lives should point people to Christ.
• Our spiritual healing, as Christians, is no less magnificent and profound than the blind man’s physical healing.
• We should be willing at every opportunity to say; “The man called Jesus” gave me eyes to see, a heart to believe, the will to confess and repent, and His righteousness that I might be justified.
• And our prayer (not our measure of success) should be that the one we speak the Gospel to might say to us, “Where is he?”

3) Jesus uses signs and wonders to bring glory and attention to Himself and edify His church.
• John 3:2 (ESV) — 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
o Signs and Wonders validated Jesus’ ministry
• John 14:12 (ESV) — 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
o Signs and Wonders would be part of the body of believers’, the church’s, ministry.
• Acts 4:29–31 (ESV) — 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
o Signs and Wonders were given to the church through the Holy Spirit

Jesus’ followers are gifted and energized by the Spirit to heal and perform miracles in Jesus name!
• Paul teaches in his letters to the Corinthians that these edify the church.
• Jesus teaches us in John that they point to and glorify the Father.
• If “a passion for miraculous gifts is prompted not by a selfish hankering for the sensational, but by compassion for the diseased and despairing souls, God cannot but be pleased” – Sam Storm.

So, in John 9 we see a great lesson on Sovereign purpose and Savior.
• These should be our primary focus as believers and not the why and the how.
• A preoccupation with the why and the how is a worldly distraction that reveals hard heartedness.
• And it undermines the Sovereignty of God.