Category Archives: John

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The Seeing Blind

Being With Jesus:
John 9:39 (NLT)

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.”

Helen Keller, who with the help of Anne Sullivan, overcame deafness and blindness to become one of the most inspirational figures in modern history, made this profound observation:

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

Of course, Helen was speaking out of her own courageous and overcoming experience, but I wonder if she was thinking about the Pharisees who rejected Jesus’ healing of the blind man in John 9. Truly, these who were experts in the Old Testament Scripture and obedient to it even beyond what it required were in reality, more blind than the blind man before his healing. They could physically see, but in the realm that counts for all eternity, they would have made a bat seem like a seeing-eye dog.

Though it doesn’t have to, that often happens as people react to Jesus. He came into this world for judgment—according to his own words—but that judgment didn’t take the form you might expect of a judge. Jesus didn’t have to sit behind the bench, hear the evidence, deliver the verdict and pronounce the punishment; the Pharisees did it for him. In their reaction to what was clearly an outstanding and undeniable miracle (John 9:24-34), they stubbornly clung to the company policy: You can’t heal on the Sabbath! Jesus simply brought the evidence against them to the surface; they judged themselves.

They were seeing, yet blinded by the truth that was right before their very eyes! How sad.

The truth is, when people are exposed to Jesus—his life, ministry, miracles, teaching, life, death and resurrection—a reaction is forced. They are forced to make a judgment—but that judgment is really self-judgment. How we respond to Jesus does not reveal anything new about Jesus, it reveals news about us—either the Good News that we have by faith believed (or are willing to believe) in who he claimed to be, or the bad news that unless we have a change of mind and heart, we will be self-condemned to an eternity separated from Christ.

When exposed to Jesus, if a person finds nothing to desire or admire, then that one has already condemned him or herself. But when they see something in Jesus that causes them to bow in surrender to his awesome and obvious Divinity, then they are on the path to eternal life.

Perhaps the greatest attribute that you and I can present before God is a conscious awareness of our own spiritual blindness. To humbly acknowledge before God that because of our own fallen nature we cannot see, we are on our way to sight. If we long to see the things of God, Jesus will open our spiritually blind eyes just as much as he physically opened the blind man’s eyes to 20/20 sight.

What a gift: To know that we are blind apart from our openness to Jesus. It is only those who once were blind—and know it—that now can see. And see they do! Opened to them through Jesus is the sum total of all the grace, truth and glory of God—and what a sight to behold!

“Was blind, but now I see.” (John Newton)

Getting To Know Jesus: Ask God to help you see where you may be persisting in spiritual blindness. Then bring your blind eyes to Jesus for healing. He was pretty good at that, you know—still is!

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The Most Powerful Testimony Of All

Being With Jesus:
John 9:25 (NLT)

“I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”

The Pharisees didn’t like the fact that Jesus had healed a man born blind on the Sabbath. The truth is, they didn’t like Jesus at all, and they were looking for him to slip up so they could do away with him once and for all. Perhaps this latest “Sabbath miracle” was their chance.

They found the man Jesus had healed and began to question him. Had he really been born blind? Was this a hoax? Was he secretly a disciple of Jesus? Would a true man of God really heal on the Sabbath?

These weren’t just the innocent questions of a curious group. This was an interrogation. The tone of the Pharisees was intimidating and threatening, and the implication was that it wouldn’t go well for this healed man and his family if he didn’t repudiate both the miracle and the miracle worker.

Then, in a flash of unrehearsed inspiration and simple brilliance, the man parries their attack and thrusts the most persuasive of all daggers into their opposition against Jesus: The testimony of a satisfied customer. All this man knew was that he was once blind, but now he could see. Case closed; end of story. The Pharisees were defenseless. What response could they give against such overwhelming evidence?

That is the simple power of a personal testimony. When you speak for Christ as a satisfied customer, as one whose life has been changed forever, as one who was once spiritually blinded by sin but now can see by God’s grace, there is no defense. Who can argue against that?

Your testimony may not be as dramatic as the healing of the man who had been born blind, but it is just as powerful a weapon as his. Why are you a Christian? How has Jesus made a difference in your life? What do you find in your faith that nothing else in the world can match? How has God’s power helped you to overcome adversity or discouragement in life? There is unassailable evidence in each of those stories—so learn to talk about them with people who don’t share your faith in God. You, too, are a satisfied customer, and a satisfied customer makes the most compelling witness of all.

Take a moment today to think through your story. Perhaps you should write it out—one or two pages will be enough. Simply describe what your life was like before Christ, how you came to know him, and the joys and benefits of what it means to now be his follower.

I guarantee, God will give you an opportunity before too long to share your story with someone who needs to know Jesus.

“We must have the glory sink into us before it can be reflected from us. In deep inward beholding we must have Christ in our hearts, that He may shine forth from our lives.” (Alexander MacLaren)

Getting To Know Jesus: As suggested above, write out your own “before and after” account of knowing Jesus. And expect to share it—an opportunity is just around the corner.

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An Explanation For Sickness And Suffering

Being With Jesus:
John 9:2-3 (NLT)

“Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” Jesus answered, “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.

Suffering—where does it originate? When someone gets sick, contracts a disease, or is born with a disability, is that the result of personal sin—either theirs or their parents? Has the devil inflicted the suffering upon them? Did God cause it? When we, or the people we love are forced to endure suffering, we get pretty passionate about finding answers to those questions.

What Jesus said was that not all sickness and suffering is the result of a specific sin. However, in a general sense, because we live in a world broken by sin, bad stuff that was not a part of God’s original plan for human beings now happens. And to be sure, the Bible does teach that I can bring some physical suffering on myself. If I do not follow God’s principles, my body will experience the consequence. If I do not eat right, sleep enough and exercise regularly—which is sin, since my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit—then I should not be surprised when my body reacts with an infirmity. If I do not listen when God’s Word says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but pray about everything” and I worry a lot—which is a sin—if I get an ulcer, then I am to blame. If resentment builds in my spirit—which is a sin, since I am not to allow bitterness to take root and defile me—then the doctors say that what is eating me will not only eat away at my mental health, but it will also take a bite our of my physical health.

So when it comes to suffering and sickness, I need to pay attention to the sin-factor in my life. When sin is at the root, then James says that confession and prayer is the appropriate response to my suffering:

“Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:13-16, NLT)

However, not all suffering is the result of sin. Jesus blew that idea out of the water here in John 9 when he talked about the man born blind and clears up the notion that the blindness was the result of neither his nor his parent’s sin. Sometimes God permits suffering in your life simply because He wants to heal you and let it be a testimony to the world. John 11:4 tells the story of Lazarus, who was sick and near death. In that case, Jesus said, “The purpose of his illness is not death, for the glory of God.”

Now God doesn’t heal every sickness; if he did, none of us would ever die and go to heaven. But for sickness that is within the Lord’s will to heal, James 5:14 says that we are to do a couple of things: One, we are take the initiative and summon the spiritual leaders of the church. And, two, we are to have those elders anoint us with oil and pray.

This prayer for healing is to be done “in the name of the Lord.” The “name” represents the Christ’s authority, which is the basis for all healing. When we offer prayer for healing under these conditions and in that manner, James says, “such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.” (James 5:15, NLT)

God is the healer, not the person praying. Let’s never forget that! In this age of flamboyant faith healers, sometimes you get the idea that it is their ability and spirituality that gets the job done. It is not; God alone deserves the credit.

That brings us back to what Jesus said about suffering and sickness: Sometime it is not the result of sin. It is simply so that God’s power and glory can be revealed in the restoration!

“It is in sickness that we most feel the need of that sympathy which shows how much we are dependent one upon another for our comfort, and even necessities. Thus disease, opening our eyes to the realities of life, is an indirect blessing.” (Hosea Ballou)

Getting To Know Jesus: If you are suffering from an illness, study James 5:13-18 and follow what it says. And memorize Jeremiah 30:17, “‘I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the Lord.” That is a pretty good promise to claim, wouldn’t you say!

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A Forced Choice

Being With Jesus:
John 8:58-59 (NLT)

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!” At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.

There were many reasons, I suppose, the Jews wanted to kill Jesus: They were jealous of his popularity with the people. They hated that he didn’t defer to their spiritual authority and were put off that he wasn’t impressed by their religious heritage. They were irked that he ministered to marginalized people, hung out with the wrong crowd, operated outside the lines of Jewish protocol and a thousand other things that he did, or didn’t do, that bugged the daylights out of them. In general, the genuine authority and real power that Jesus displayed in his life and ministry exposed the spiritual impotence of these Jewish elites, which in turn, brought out some fierce insecurities displayed in their childish opposition and irrational hatred of the Lord.

But the main reason their hatred turned murderous? It wasn’t that Jesus sort of acted like God. It wasn’t that he beat around the bush about his deity. It wasn’t that he made some veiled and esoteric claim about Messiahship. No—he flat out claimed to be God.

That is why they wanted to kill him. In fact, Jesus committed the ultimate faux pas by using the revered designation for God that no god-fearing Jew would utter so causally and irreverently: “I AM!” Are you kidding me: “Before Abraham was, I Am!” What was he thinking? Saying that about yourself in that culture could get you killed.

Of course, Jesus knew that. In fact, his bold claim would get him killed. Jesus didn’t care—he was God come in the flesh, and he wasn’t going to back away from that claim one inch. That is why he came, and that is precisely what he claimed—no ifs, ands or buts about it.

When you consider that claim Jesus purposely made about himself, you are forced to eliminate all of the other nice-sounding, politically correct things people say they believe about him. In other words, Jesus cannot be just a good teacher, just a great moral leader, just a respected prophet, just a great figure of history. With Jesus, you have to eliminate “just” from your vocabulary. Jesus left the Jews with no other option, and he doesn’t leave you with another option either. As C.S. Lewis said,

“[With Jesus] you must make a choice. Either He was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman, or something worse. You can shut Him up as a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.”

I am sure glad the Great I Am forced that choice on me! How about you?

“The discrepancy between the depth and sanity of his moral teaching and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind his theological teaching unless he is indeed God has never been satisfactorily got over.” (C.S. Lewis)

Getting To Know Jesus: Jesus! You got to do something with him. You’ve got to love him or hate him…but you really can’t live with anything in between and live an intellectually honest life. So be honest—where do you line up with Jesus? I hope you go with what he claimed, and proved, about himself.

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Enjoy Your New Time Zone

Being With Jesus:
John 8:20 (NLT)

The Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. (John 7:30, 8:20)

Twice we are told in John 7 and 8 that the Jewish leaders, increasingly threatened by Jesus, tried to arrest him, but couldn’t. The reason they couldn’t? Because Jesus’ time had not yet come!

Several times in John, Jesus reveals his total awareness and complete submission to God’s timetable. In John 2:4, Jesus tells his mother, who is insisting that he perform the miracle of turning water into wine, that this is not the right time for him to “go public” with his ministry. In John 12:23 and 27, Jesus is revealing to his disciples that he will be crucified as a part of God’s redemptive plan for mankind. He is grappling with that reality as a man (his own suffering and death) and as deity (taking into himself the world’s sin), but at the end of the day, he is willing to submit to the beautiful but awful reality of dying on the cross—because the hour—the perfect time—has come. In John 13:1, Jesus reveals his perfect love to his disciples by washing their feet, knowing that the hour of his arrest and crucifixion was at hand. Speaking of which, in John 17:1, Jesus realizes the weightiness of God’s hour—the ultimate triumph of Divine life over death through the cross—is now upon him, so he offers his moving “high priestly” prayer that we have come to know and love.

We may think time marches on, unimpeded by fate, uncontrolled by human planning or Divine intervention, but Jesus had a different view of time. And why not, as the Word, the creative agent of the Holy Trinity, he had created time and gifted it to the Father as servant to his eternal plan. Jesus knew that time was in God’s wise and loving hands—ever day, ever hour and every split second!

A man named David had also come into that revelation. In Psalm 139, King David wrote, “Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalm 139:16) David knew and relied upon this immutable truth that Jesus was depending on, that God knew the exact number of days that David would live, and he would not die a day sooner nor live a day longer than what God had foreordained. And for David, nothing could change that—not betrayal, not war, not poverty, not disease—nothing. God alone held that power over David’s life and foreknew the hour of David’s death.

That’s why David and Jesus found this world a perfectly safe place. That’s why even in the midst of his crisis, they could calmly walk into the storm, courageously walk into battle, fearlessly face the angel of death—circumstances that would cause ordinary humans to lose heart—because they knew it was the Lord who was sustaining them.

When you understand that your life—your days, your hour, your time—is in the sovereign hand of God, you just think that way; you just live your life that way. Time—your time—is servant to the Master’s plan.

Arthur W. Pink wrote, “A consciousness of our powerlessness should cast us upon Him who has all power. Here then is where a vision and view of God’s sovereignty helps, for it reveals His sufficiency and shows us our insufficiency.”

Yes, God is sovereign, and he had infinitely large hands. And like Jesus and David, your life is there in his hands too. You know that…or maybe you don’t. But even if you don’t, that truth remains firm, and because of the saving faith that you have expressed in Jesus Christ, your address has permanently changed to God’s hands.

It’s high time you starting enjoying your new time zone.

“As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain.” (Andrew Murray)

Getting To Know Jesus: Memorize Psalm 139:16. Every day this week, when you are tempted to worry over your life, quote that verse to your worries.

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Not Guilty

Being With Jesus:
John 8:11 (NLT)

Jesus said to [the adulterous woman], “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

If I were writing this story instead of John, the scene would have called for Jesus to order down fire from heaven to torch this nasty bunch of Pharisees who had brought the adulterous woman before the Lord. At the very least, I would have had Jesus snatching the poor lady from their grasp and beaming over to Galilee to set her free. That would have made a great story—Oscar-worthy, I’m sure!

But as we have come to expect of Jesus, he does the unexpected. Instead of special effects and edge-of-your-seat drama, he simply stoops over and writes in the sand. Do you ever wonder what he wrote? “Jesus was here”, or perhaps he traced out the Ten Commandments, or better yet, a list of the Pharisees’ secret sins or maybe even the names of their mistresses?

Whatever it was, the religious “KGB” kept pressing until finally he said, “Look, if any of you are without sin, you can be the first one to throw a stone at her.” Then he began to scribble again, and with those words, Jesus lobbed a grenade into their midst that exploded their self-righteousness. Now defenseless, one-by-one the Pharisees, from the oldest to the youngest, walked away, leaving only Jesus and this sinful woman.

Now what would happen to the adulterous woman? Could she expect to get preached at again, some more condemnation, another helping of humiliation and a pile of rejection? That had been the pattern of her life so far. Instead, Jesus gently asks, “Where are your accusers? Has no one judged you guilty?”

She replied, “Sir, they’re gone…they didn’t judge me guilty.”

Then Jesus lobbed another grenade—this one a grace-grenade that utterly exploded this sinful woman’s self-condemnation and turned her sad world right-side up: “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

So just what was it that Jesus wrote in the sand? I think it is highly likely that he bent over and with his finger, etched these words: “Not guilty!”

A few weeks later, Jesus again wrote those very same words in the sand. This time it was not with his finger, but with blood that dripped from his nail-pierced hands and feet, leaving an indelible stain on the ground at the foot of the cross. This time it wasn’t just meant for an adulterous woman, it was meant for unfaithful, guilty people like you and me:

“Not Guilty. Paid in full. Completely forgiven.”

I don’t know what that grace-explosion does for you, but it makes me want to “go and sin no more.”

“This is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners, for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ’s, and Christ’s righteousness is not Christ’s, but ours.” (Martin Luther)

Getting To Know Jesus: Have you thanked the Lord lately for his grace—grace that has covered all of your sins! Perhaps now would be a great time to do that. And maybe today would be a great day to extend his grace to another undeserving sinner like you.

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The Great Offer

Being With Jesus:
John 7:38-39 (NLT)

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)

In the beginning, God created the earth and walked upon it in unfettered intimacy with Adam and Eve. But they sinned, and the face-to-face intimacy they enjoyed was now broken. God no longer walked the earth in relationship with man.

But then Jesus came to earth to re-reveal the Father to sinful man. After millennia of his physical absence, as the prophet had said, God was now with us again, but this time in Jesus, our Immanuel. Jesus, the “Word”, was with God, was God and created all things that exist, now “took on human flesh and took up residence among us.” (John 1:1 & 14)

Then Jesus left earth to go back to heaven, and in the process he promised the Father would send the Holy Spirit to be in—not just with—his followers. (John 14:16-17) The Holy Spirit would represent and further reveal God in unprecedented and unconfined ways. (John 15:26-27) He would guide into truth, comfort and empower. He would fill Christ’s followers to full and overflowing with the abundance of God. They would experience “rivers of living water” filling them up and spilling over from their lives.

What an offer Jesus was making. What other leader could ever come close to that? Obviously no one could match the great offer of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell, fill and overflow the life of the believer. To have intimate fellowship with God fully restored; to have “God with us” now become “God in us”, and continually, no less; to have the guiding, comforting, empowered force of God at our disposal, permanently and profusely—this is the great offer!

So just what did Jesus mean when he referred to this as “rivers of living water” that would completely satiate the thirst of those who drank? How about this:

Satisfaction: Obviously, spiritual hunger would again, as in the beginning of creation, now be fully and forever satisfied as the Holy Spirit of God took up residence in each believer. That which Jesus promised—life more abundantly—would now become real and practical.

Significance: Not only would the Spirit satisfy, but he would enable those he indwelt with the very life force and creative power of God through supernatural gifts (I Corinthians 12:7-11) to carry out the works, speak the words, and fulfill the will of the Heavenly Father. Through the Holy Spirit, believers could not be used to do things only God could do.

Success: To know (“the Spirit will reveal and guide you into all truth” — I Corinthians 2:10; John 16:13) and do (“you will receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you” — Acts 1:8) the will of God is the height of human success. God with us is now God in us doing through us what only God can do. There is no greater, more lasting, significant and satisfying expenditure of one’s life.

That is what is possible through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That is indeed, the great offer!

“Wise leaders should have known that the human heart cannot exist in a vacuum. If Christians are forbidden to enjoy the wine of the Spirit they will turn to the wine of the flesh….Christ died for our hearts and the Holy Spirit wants to come and satisfy them.” (A.W. Tozer)

Getting To Know Jesus: John 20:21-14 tells us that after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” If you would like to be inundated with the life force of the Holy Spirit, make this bold request of God: “Spirit of God, breathe new life into me!”