Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We're going to be looking today at a continuation of last week's sermon or message, whatever you want to call them. And it deals with chapter nine of John and it's dealing with the blind man who was healed by Jesus. And it's in chapter nine. So I just covered through verse twelve last week and there's a lot more to cover. So we're going to be looking at this. Now. I'm going to do something else too, in the very beginning. And I'm getting a ring up here in my.
[00:00:39] Not a ring, a ring in my ear. So is there? Yeah, maybe that'd be better. What I'm going to do is I had some questions that came back to me about the pool of Siloam last week. I don't guess I discussed it as thoroughly as I could have or should have. So I'm going to show you a little bit more and make some clarifications. Remember, the pool of Siloam was where Jesus told the man after Jesus had put Clay on his eyes, he told him to go and wash that in the pool of Siloam and then he would be. Well, he didn't even say he'd be able to see. He just said, go and wash. And he was obedient. And when he washed the clay from his eyes, he could see. And that's what set off this whole thing. And I'm going to explain what actually happened, why it became such a controversy during this time. But first, let's go to the first slide. Let me explain some things here.
[00:01:43] Can we bring the lights down again? I don't need. Well, thank you. Now I can see you.
[00:01:48] Can you hear me? Okay. All right.
[00:01:52] This was excavated in the 19th century and it was the pool of Siloam because the king Hezekiah's aqueduct, it's more of a tunnel, was dug during the reign of King Hezekiah. And it came this direction, 17 50ft. It brought water from the Gihon spring into the city. And this is what was classified as the pool of Siloam until 2004. So it was. It's not the right one because excavations have shown this to be only as early as the fifth century AD. So a byzantine church was constructed nearby. The pool of Siloam church. It's a good name. And so this is what everybody thought. And I've been to this place many times. I said, well, something's wrong with this. Let's go to the next slide.
[00:02:53] Because in 2004 they excavated this area because they were putting in a water line and they came across steps and it's just a short distance from the other pool. And that pool that we saw earlier was actually constructed during the time of King Hezekiah. And it was connected and attached to the Hezekiah tunnel. But this one, it also had a conduit that fed this pool with water. Now, if you.
[00:03:29] This is as far as you could go because there's a church on the other side that owned the property and it was the greek orthodox church. But they wouldn't let any excavations go on because they had pomegranate and fig trees. Well, that arrangement came. An agreement came in 2022 to go ahead and let them excavate. And you can see, go to the next one. And this is where they took out tons of mud and debris and it's. And this is what they were excavating once when I was there. But you move on and you see the next slide. And this is where you saw the first slide. And this is what's going on now.
[00:04:14] And it's a huge, huge project. And as you go to the next slide, you'll see the artist's reconstruction of what this actually looked like, that Jesus sent this man to bathe in and actually wash his eyes in this. And I want you to just notice a couple things before I talk about it. You have the pool here. I have the dimensions on 186ft by 220, no, 180 by 164. That's a big pool and many classified it. Well, it's not a pool that goes back that early. It has to be a roman swimming pool. Well, they were kind of far out and you have steps and we know that led up and it goes all the way up to the temple up here. I don't have a picture of that. But you have these steps that were leading up to this. And what would happen on the. During the feast of tabernacles every day a priest would walk down from the temple and he would walk down these steps and go in and get water from this pool. In a golden pitcher. There would be a processional. The people would be singing, they'd be happy. We think they were singing psalm 120 to 134 about the victory and the praise to God. And during that time, they would fill the golden goblet, I guess, and take it back up here with a parade behind him and pour it out on the altar inside the temple. Well, these steps were never found until that breakthrough. So look what we have now.
[00:05:57] Go to the next slide. Okay. This is how it would have looked. It would start here and go all the way up and it would go up into the temple, even to the altar. That was a procession. It's about a half mile. So go to the next one.
[00:06:14] And these are the steps. They found these steps. And you can go from here and show another picture.
[00:06:24] You get closer to the top and then look what it's developed into. Now show the next picture.
[00:06:31] So they're making it accessible to tourists to be able to walk through the entire thing. You can take the pilgrim's staircase or pathway, the same that Jesus did, the same that that man would have come down and washed his face in the waters. And what a blessing that would be. But this is what I was trying to get across. The important thing is he went when Jesus told him to go. And that was a good thing. I don't know if I have another picture. What do we got? Go to the next. No, I don't. Sorry. So I will show you one thing that I picked up in the museum this morning where people wonder, you can turn the lights up now. People wonder if there's a King Hezekiah and the validity of that. And, well, in our museum, this is a jar handle, a portion of one, and it goes back to the time of King Hezekiah. And it actually has his seal on it.
[00:07:30] And whatever was in this jar belonged to King Hezekiah. So does he exist? I think he did. I got him right here, you know, is the way that it happened. So it's a neat thing here. If you have more questions about this, it's very important that you understand everything has a meaning. And we look at this morning at John nine, verses 13 and following, because we left off last week, where the man went and washed. And to siloam, it says.
[00:08:06] He said, how did this happen? The neighbors asked him and he answered, the man who is called Jesus, he made clay. That's important, by the way. He made clay by kneading it and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went away and washed, and I received my sight. And they said, where is he? He said, I don't know. He wouldn't be able to recognize him if he saw him because he had never seen him. So the man who had been born blind was now a very, very happy man. That's short lived.
[00:08:42] He had experienced the most wonderful thing that had happened to him in all his life. But now he had also become the object of public opinion. And that's one of the points, opinions versus truth.
[00:09:01] First, his neighbors, as we saw last week, they questioned whether it was really him? It was too good to be true. And they said, well, maybe it's somebody acting like him.
[00:09:13] I'm thinking in my mind, they may have thought, well, he has a twin somewhere.
[00:09:18] And they're faking this thing. But he has a look alike. But that wasn't true. And they could not believe that a man born blind could now see. But it didn't stop there. Because the Bible says in verse 13, as we start today. They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. So they wanted to get their opinion, the Pharisees opinion. And everyone has an opinion of almost everything.
[00:09:48] And ultimately, it's always better to make your decisions based on truth rather than an opinion. And that is what the first point is about here. The opinions versus truth. There are opinions, and then there is truth. And we must always keep this distinction in mind. Every person has an opinion. But Jesus Christ has the truth. And he is the truth. He's the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father, but through him and his truth. You don't want to deal with opinions. When it comes to something as important as that. And it is his word. It's through his word that we come to know the truth. And in our scripture today. We see that everyone had an opinion. About the blind man being healed. But remember this. There is no Bible book called first opinions or second opinions.
[00:10:42] It doesn't exist. It's based on truth. And the Pharisees, we're gonna look at them first, go to the next slide.
[00:10:49] And this is their opinion. And their opinion here is the problem that they had with the Sabbath law. I can look back there. Why am I keep looking back?
[00:11:00] Maybe I can't see that far. I don't know.
[00:11:05] Is that why you were doing this?
[00:11:07] So the Pharisees, the problem of the Sabbath law now, the Pharisees, they were the religious experts of the day. They had studied old Testament law. And what other rabbis or teachers had said about it. And all its additions and current understandings. They were the authorities of law. They were actually called lawyers.
[00:11:31] And if you got in trouble back then. Concerning a violation of the law. Or had a question about the law of God. Concerning the Sabbath or anything else in the Old Testament. You needed to have one of these lawyers by your side. And the people felt that if anyone would have an answer to this thing that happened. Concerning a man who was blind. And now he sees it happened on the Sabbath. And by somebody who did a little bit of kneading of clay.
[00:12:02] You would go to the Pharisees and the big issue that bothered everyone was that this healing, number one, took place on the Sabbath. You weren't supposed to do that.
[00:12:16] I don't know who established that law, but it was a stupid one. And it was because the Sabbath, it was observed from Friday evening, 06:00 p.m. to Saturday, 06:00 p.m. somewhere around there. And John tells us that it was on this day that the healing took place. Now, I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, in an east side city, very religious community. The mostly Catholic, and a few other things. But I remember that that entire community shut down on Sundays. I mean, it just shut down. Sunday was a religious day. Everything was closed. You didn't go out to eat after church. There would not be a mod pizza to go to. Because that would mean you were encouraging the workers to work on Sunday. And you weren't supposed to do that. You better get your car gassed up on Saturday. Because all the service stations were closed. Except my uncle Roy, who was an atheist, pretty much. And he didn't care.
[00:13:25] And he just cared about getting money. On that day, the only stores that were open were drug stores. Now, boy, things have changed. Now everything's open. That's the big day. And we don't care about that too much anymore. Now it says in verse 14.
[00:13:42] Now, it was a Sabbath on the day when jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. And jesus took the initiative in this miracle. And could have done it on any day he chose. He didn't have to do it on Sunday, Saturday, or it's the Sabbath. Jesus chose to do this miracle on the Sabbath. In order to challenge these petty traditions of the religious leaders. Traditions that they lifted to the place of binding laws upon people's life. They could render judgments upon people and punishments if they violated this. So what did jesus do wrong? According to the Pharisees, it's on the Sabbath that one of the categories of work specifically mentioned.
[00:14:29] It was forbidden on the Sabbath to do kneading.
[00:14:34] You know, working of clay, kneading a bread. You weren't allowed to do that because that would meant you're making something out of mud or clay. With a such simple ingredients as earth and saliva. And that was construed as a form of kneading. Usually you would make clay by the buckets full in order to make use as construction material. And that wasn't allowed, or in smaller amounts, to make pottery. But because jesus took a little dab of soil, spit into it, worked it up and put it on his eyes, they said oh, you're violating the Sabbath. This is not good. You must be a sinner. And what you're doing is not of God. So what a strange system. So what jesus did, they classified as a Sabbath violation. Leon Morris, he's my favorite commentator on the Gospel of John. He said, they saw the day as one on which not the slightest risk should be taken. Of doing anything that profaned its holiness. And accordingly, they ringed it about with a multitude of restrictions. With the praiseworthy intention of bringing glory to God. But with the unfortunate result of making the Sabbath a burden. The people, I don't know if this is true. I would think I know. They grew to almost hate the Sabbath.
[00:15:59] And Jesus taught that God had made the Sabbath for man to enjoy and to worship him. God. God created everything in six days. The Bible says in Genesis, he rested on the 7th day. That doesn't mean he went to sleep. That'd been a catastrophe. But it simply meant that God was finished with creation on the 7th day. And it was a day to be celebrated. And it was proper for people to do things on the Sabbath. That would bring glory and honor to God. And things like healing a lame man or a blind man. Jesus intentionally did it on the Sabbath. Just to irritate the authorities. And the Pharisees answer was to become more and more strict with the rules and enforcement. And the people were really confused as to what they could do and what they could not do, and why or why not. And devising plans that would allow them to get around the law without breaking it. Well, let's read through verse 17. Then some the Pharisees also were asking him again now, how he received his sight. He said to them, well, he applied clay to my eyes, and I washed and I see. Therefore, some of the Pharisees were saying, well, this man is not from God. Because he does not keep the Sabbath. But others were saying, well, how can a man who is a sinner perform such signs? And there was a division. Jesus is good about that. He creates division. And the Bible says that he would do that. So they said to the blind man again, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes and he said, he's a prophet? Well, that's the beginning.
[00:17:43] They reasoned together that Jesus was not from goddesse. Did not obey the rules of the Sabbath. Therefore, he was a sinner. And however, there were some who felt that a sinner could not do such a great miracle. Unless God did it through him. And there is division. And then in verse 17, they say, okay, it happened to you. What happened? Who is he? What's your opinion? Ooh, there goes those opinions again. And he says, my opinion is he's a prophethood. That simply means a spokesman for God, a spokesman for truth. And it's interesting that in this chapter, the blind man grows in his understanding of Jesus. As you see the chapter progress, you see his understanding of who Jesus is increasing and increasing until he comes to a knowledge of Jesus that really makes a difference in his life. A lot of people call this progressive revelation.
[00:18:38] It simply means, as you learn more and more about the revelation of God, you. You gain in your understanding and you go to another level, and the truth, your understanding of truth increases. And at this point, Jesus was merely a prophet in his thinking. Well, that's how it is with us. We either take steps in our spiritual understandings and grow, or we go backwards. I think the key to understanding here is that there's nothing stagnant about faith. It is either moving forward or it's moving backward. It's ironic. The man moves forward, and those who should know better are moving backward. And that's how it happens sometimes. We go to the next slide. That's the parents, I think. Yeah, the parents opinion. And they had an opinion. And again, opinions don't mean much, but their reason for arriving at their opinion was their problem of fear. So look at verse 18.
[00:19:40] The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and that he had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight and questioned them, saying, now, is this your son? Who do you say was born blind? And then how does he now see? You said he was born blind. Well, he sees what's going on here.
[00:20:04] His parents answered and said to them, we know that this is our son, that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we don't know.
[00:20:14] Or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He's of age. He can speak for himself. And his parents said this because why? They were afraid. They were afraid of the Jews. Now you see the idea of the Jews being mentioned here now. And you find that all until verse about 40, I think you have. The Jews are the same thing as the Pharisees, the religious rulers. And he says they did this because of the fear of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him, meaning Jesus, to be Christ the messiah, he was to be put out of the synagogue. That's a catastrophic thing in a person's life. And for this reason, his parents said, well, he's of age. You need to ask him. Now we're talking about when to be put out of a synagogue.
[00:21:07] Was the worst thing that could happen to a jewish person in their lifetime during the time of Christ. It means excommunication. It means what we call today. You've been disciplined somehow, one scholar said of excommunication. There were three degrees.
[00:21:26] The first would last for 30 days. Now, that meant nobody could talk to you. You could do no trade or business. You were blackballed or whatever you weren't going to call it. And if the impenitent culprit, the person, would not repent of whatever it is, they were punished for 30 days more. That's the second admonition. And if still not repentant, he was laid under the ban, which was of indefinite duration. And which entirely cut him off from any sort of communication or intercourse with others in any way. He was treated as if he was a leper. Now, many of the rulers in Jerusalem really believed in Jesus, but they were afraid to say it. If you go to John, chapter twelve, verse 42, it says, because they didn't want to be cast out of the synagogue. So now in the modern western world, people aren't afraid of being excommunicated or disciplined or anything like that. Because it means very little to a person for a church or a synagogue or anything, and say, oh, you're banned. You can't come back here, and we're not going to talk to you anymore. Because it's easy for the excommunicated person to simply go to another church and just pretend that nothing happened. And that happens all the time. More common today is what you may have heard this term, what we would call self excommunication.
[00:22:57] Where believers separate themselves from the church, worship and life with no good reason. Or before anybody finds out what you've done, and you just go somewhere else. So how rarely do you see discipline or excommunication in a church today? It's very rare, very rare. And it's a shame they could not give more support to their son, these parents, as he was just beginning to enjoy his new life. With the ability to see. And they almost denied him as far as what was going on. We go to the next slide, verses 24 through 34. And this deals with the man himself. And he had an opinion, and it wasn't based on a lot of truth because he didn't know enough yet. But he has an opinion, and that is the problem of his ignorance.
[00:23:49] So it says in verses 24 through 34. So a 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. Well, that's kind of a strange way to begin a conversation. And then he answered, or whether he's a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. I think they're dealing with somebody here. That's more than they could handle. Even though he had been blind all of his life, you can't take advantage of him. So they said to him, well, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? And he answered, I told you already. And you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become his disciple too, do you?
[00:24:37] Now, you might assume that the man is already saying that he's a disciple of Christ. Which means he's a follower.
[00:24:45] He hadn't seen him yet, hadn't talked to him anymore. But I thought it was interesting that he goes that far. Then you look, and they reviled him and said, you are his disciple. We are disciples of Moses. That means the law.
[00:24:59] And we know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, meaning Jesus, we don't know where he's from. And the man answered and said to them, well, here's an amazing thing. You do not know where he is from. And yet he opened my eyes.
[00:25:14] We know that God does not hear sinners. But if anyone is God fearing and does his will, he hears him. And since the beginning of time, it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And they answered him, you were born entirely in sins, and you're teaching us. And they put him out.
[00:25:40] He had his trial, this man, when he came to the Pharisees, they immediately said, give glory to goddess.
[00:25:49] We know that this man is a sinner. Give glory to God. You know what they're saying? They're saying, we want you to tell the truth. You give glory to God. And then they say, what they say. Reminds me of a tv police detective who brings in a suspect for interrogation. And as the detective hopes to get a confession out of the suspect. By declaring with confidence, we know you're guilty. Confess. Confess. You may as well just confess. And the detective doesn't even know anything about it. In the show, he's hoping to use this as a tactic to get a confession. And from time to time, Christians, we're confronted with questions that are meant to embarrass us or to mock us questions about maybe some science issue or social issue or somebody's having a problem and attacking us with.
[00:26:45] And one doesn't have to be an expert in all those things, though. The more one knows, the better. More than anything we do what this guy did, we simply say, I don't know about all that, but this I know. Once I was blind, now I see.
[00:27:07] Once I was lost and I was bound for hell, for eternity, separated from God. But now I am forgiven.
[00:27:18] I have a new life, I have hope, I have joy, I have peace. I can pray to God. And I actually feel as if I'm getting through.
[00:27:29] I'm not the person I was.
[00:27:32] And no one, no one, including you, can take that away from me now. When individuals, from cults, any of you, have them come to your door or catch you in your garage when you least want them around, and they're trying to convince you or me that I need to believe like them. What I usually do is I start with one question. With them. It works pretty good. What do you have to offer me that I don't already have in Christ?
[00:28:03] And they'll name something. I say, I got that. They'll name something else. No, I've got that already. And I say, let me add something to that list. Do you have security of your eternal life? Do you know you're going to go to heaven when you die? Do you know this? Do you know that? And they leave, but they get a message. I'm not intending to. Well, maybe I am intended to run a wall. Anyhow, we've seen before what the Pharisees do when they lose arguments. They resort to name calling, they resort to violence. And they say to the man here, you were born in utter sin. And you would teach us, saying, who are you to teach us anything? We know the reason you were born blind.
[00:28:49] Now, last week, you who were here, what was some of the reasons they gave that a person was blind, born that way?
[00:28:57] You were born in your sins because your parents sinned, or you yourself somehow sinned before you were born. It has to be related to sin. And they said, we're not listening anymore. And they got rid of him. They just cast him out. And I believe this means they excommunicated him because he refused to criticize Jesus. He took a stand. We need to learn a lot from that. You're going to face some hard times sometimes if you take a stand for Christ. So we move on.
[00:29:27] Jesus is mentioned, go to the next slide. And I'm looking back there this time Jesus is the truth. He's not an opinion. And verses 35 through 41, we'll read these and we'll soon be closing here. Jesus heard that they had put him out. And finding him, he said, do you believe in the son of Mandev? He answered, who is he, lord, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have both seen him, and he is the one who is talking with you right now. And he said, lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. And Jesus said, for judgment, I came into this world so that those who do not see may see and that those who see may become blind.
[00:30:16] Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and said to him, oh, we are not blind too, are we? They expect him to say, no, but he said, well, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But since you say, we see, your sin remains. He said, yeah, you are blind. You're a sinner.
[00:30:33] You're not seeing with your spiritual eyes.
[00:30:37] The title of the sermon again is, open the eyes of my what? Heart, lord, not my mind, my heart, which is your mind. And we went through that last time. So the truth is going to set you free. And he will lead you from that. Next slide is simply to tell you how this happens. We go from darkness to faith. And this is what happened to the man. Next slide is the power of the name. There's always power in names. And today names usually do not mean that much. But you have a succession of names that this man uses for Jesus here. And it's the progressive revelation. Each name that he gives shows his more intense understanding of who Jesus is until he finally worships him as God. So you have the power of the name now.
[00:31:34] We don't care about that too much anymore. By the way, we have someone here today visiting for the first time and two weeks old.
[00:31:49] Silas.
[00:31:53] Silas. Timothy Eben Steiner. So he's with us today.
[00:31:58] What a neat thing. But names, those are good names, by the way, two good guys, too. Raise up and emulates Timothy. Silas.
[00:32:08] Paul, Timothy. You'd get all three if you'd really.
[00:32:13] So you have the power of the name now. My name. I'm named after two uncles, Carl, Uncle Carl and Uncle Ed or Edward.
[00:32:22] And actually, I found out later I was an adult before I realized it. My father's name's Charles Charlie. And that's a form of Carla. So I was actually named after my father, too. Then names meant something. I could really care less about any of these names and their meaning because Carl means farmer or something. Like that, and I'm not very good at that.
[00:32:44] But here we begin with some names. Let's look at them real quick. Rabbi, in verse two. And you see this, that his disciples ask him, rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? So that's a name that simply means learner. Or what's another name? Someone you should follow, because they know a lot. They represent the teachings of God. And usually they had disciples as learners, but that was the disciples understanding. And that would be the understanding that most people had for Jesus, probably this man. But then if you look at verse eleven where the man is introduced, he said, he answered, they said, how then were your eyes open? He said, well, the man who is called Jesus, that's all he knew.
[00:33:31] He made clay. He anointed my eyes. He said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So at this point, his understanding of Jesus is just, he's a man. And unfortunately, that's where most are in their relationship and understanding. To Jesus today, he was a man. You ask, who was Jesus? He was a man. Jesus means savior. They don't understand that, but only Jesus the Christ can actually save. Now, the next term is in verse 17.
[00:34:01] So they said to the blind man again, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes? Well, he's not merely a man. Now, who is he? He's a prophet. And the prophet was a spokesman for God. He speaks the truth, and you can trust. He's used by God to both foretell things of the future and foretail, proclaim things. And that's what he came to believe him to be. And then you go to verse 35, and you have his understanding increases. He says, jesus heard that they had put him out. And finding him, he said, do you believe in the son of man? And he said, who is he? Meaning he did believe in him. He wanted to believe in him. But the son of man is interesting.
[00:34:47] From Genesis to John, no prophetess, priest or apostle ever gave sight to a man born blind. And since healing blind eyes is the work of only God, it shows that Jesus, who did this is of God. Now, in psalm 146 eight, it says, the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. And then opening the eyes of the blind was prophesied to be a work of the messiah. In Isaiah 35 five says, the eyes of the blind shall be open. In a list of things that the Messiah would do, he would open the eyes of the blind. And now to understand this phrase, the son of man, you actually have to go back to Daniel, and we got to look back at that, in Daniel 713 and 14. You find that Daniel is talking about the coming Messiah. To be the one who would change the world. He says, 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 God. And was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom. That all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. His kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. See, that's the truth about Jesus. That's the truth. It's not an opinion. It's the truth. And he's given dominion and glory. And a kingdom that shall not be destroyed. The final word that we use here that I have anyhow. Is verses 36 and 38. I may have had a little problem with the numbering of verses in there. But verses 36 and 38. And it says, he answered him, who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him. And then we look at verse 38 and says, he said, lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. So Jesus, when he says, who is he, Lord, who can I trust? Jesus is the one we can trust. And in verse 38, Jesus is the one that we can worship. Because he is almighty God, and he worshiped him. The religious leader says, you can't worship with us in the temple anymore. We're kicking you out. Jesus said, I'll take your worship. And he worshiped him. And Jesus received it. So when the man worshiped Jesus, Jesus received the worship. And this is something that no man or an angel in the Bible ever does.
[00:37:17] The fact that Jesus accepted this worship is another proof that Jesus was and is God. That he knew himself to be God. And so did others recognize him to be. Now, the summary of this is pretty simple. Jesus says in verses 39 through 41.
[00:37:34] He's talking to the fellows around him, the Pharisees, and he says, you see.
[00:37:43] And what you think you see reveals how blind you really are. You don't know anything. Your eyes may see, but you are spiritually blind. Your understanding is clouded about who I am. You are going by opinions and not the truth. The man was cast out. Jesus takes him in. The man was blind, but now he sees both physically and spiritually. The Pharisees claim knowledge, but in reality, they're blind to the truth. The big question is, what do we do with Jesus? I close out with that verse we looked at last week. Ephesians, chapter one, chapter three, rather, at least, I think, 18.
[00:38:32] Okay, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love, I mean, it's all about love of God and through Christ that was given for you. And ultimately that we would be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height of depth and depth. And here it is that we would know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask according to the power that works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Come to Jesus Christ today as your lord and savior. Call upon him to save you. Truly worship God. He'll give you greater understanding than you've ever thought you could ever have. In Jesus name, Father, thank you. As we close today, we rejoice in Jesus. We praise you and thank you for him. Thank you for what you did in this man's life. Thank you for giving us a greater understanding today of what really happened that day. Thank you for the revelation that you give us of who you are. And we pray now that we would advance to the next level, whatever that is. We won't go backwards. We'll go forward, open our eyes, that we may see the eyes of our heart, that we may truly see who you are and what you're about and what you can do for us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:40:05] I'm going to have a time of prayer lessons here. I'll be happy to be over here. We have someone in the back. Kate, are you back there? Today? If you'd like to pray in the back, you can do that. We make it convenient for you to pray, or you can pray right where you are. But if you would like to know how you can come to know Jesus Christ, we want you to do that. If you have something of a burden upon you, you need to share with someone else. That's what this is about.
