1 00:00:00,466 --> 00:00:02,966 Hey, everybody. Thanks for starting off the week with us. 2 00:00:02,966 --> 00:00:06,600 Thanks for being with us on this Monday as we continue through the Gospel of John. 3 00:00:08,700 --> 00:00:10,550 I don't want to use the word finally, 4 00:00:10,550 --> 00:00:13,550 but we are out of the eighth chapter. 5 00:00:13,700 --> 00:00:15,450 We are into the ninth chapter. 6 00:00:15,450 --> 00:00:18,450 And I mentioned before we started, Michael, this is, 7 00:00:19,050 --> 00:00:21,916 this is one of my favorite chapters of the Gospel of John. 8 00:00:21,916 --> 00:00:26,733 I think it's, I mean, in some ways, I'd argue a signature chapter. 9 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:30,466 I don't know if John intended it that way, but it's an extended story. 10 00:00:31,550 --> 00:00:35,850 So the narrative part of me likes this and, 11 00:00:36,766 --> 00:00:41,333 a lot of themes as we go through this, I hope if this is a new chapter to you 12 00:00:41,333 --> 00:00:44,866 or if it's if it's chapter you've read but not perhaps studied. 13 00:00:45,616 --> 00:00:49,216 Pay particular attention to some of the things John does in this chapter, 14 00:00:49,466 --> 00:00:53,550 particularly the themes of seeing and blindness, light and dark, 15 00:00:53,966 --> 00:00:59,066 discovery and refusal to see that there's just 16 00:00:59,566 --> 00:01:03,600 this is a really nice example of John taking a lot of threads 17 00:01:03,833 --> 00:01:08,616 and weaving them together in, in my opinion, really, really well. 18 00:01:08,633 --> 00:01:11,633 So, let's look at the opening scene here. 19 00:01:12,083 --> 00:01:15,966 Jesus is traveling and encounters a man. 20 00:01:15,983 --> 00:01:16,966 So let me read it to you. 21 00:01:16,966 --> 00:01:20,400 Start with verse one here, and then we'll come back and talk it through. 22 00:01:21,900 --> 00:01:23,266 As he walked along, he saw 23 00:01:23,266 --> 00:01:26,266 a man blind from birth. 24 00:01:27,050 --> 00:01:28,850 His disciples asked him, Rabbi, 25 00:01:28,850 --> 00:01:32,300 who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? 26 00:01:33,166 --> 00:01:36,200 Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned. 27 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,316 He was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. 28 00:01:39,916 --> 00:01:44,066 We must work the works of him who sent me while in the day. 29 00:01:44,550 --> 00:01:47,000 Night is coming, when no one can work. 30 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,300 As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. 31 00:01:51,416 --> 00:01:55,516 When he said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with saliva 32 00:01:55,916 --> 00:01:58,916 and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, 33 00:01:58,916 --> 00:02:02,300 go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. 34 00:02:03,050 --> 00:02:06,050 Then he went and washed, and came back, able to see 35 00:02:06,383 --> 00:02:09,150 the neighbors, and those who had seen him before 36 00:02:09,150 --> 00:02:12,900 as a beggar began to ask, is that not the man who used to sit and beg? 37 00:02:13,283 --> 00:02:15,166 Some said it is he. 38 00:02:15,166 --> 00:02:18,116 Others said, no, it's someone like him. 39 00:02:18,116 --> 00:02:21,116 But he kept saying, I'm the man. 40 00:02:21,233 --> 00:02:22,850 But they kept asking him. 41 00:02:22,850 --> 00:02:25,316 Then how were your eyes opened? 42 00:02:25,316 --> 00:02:27,683 He answered, the man called Jesus made mud, 43 00:02:27,683 --> 00:02:30,683 spread it on my eye, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash. 44 00:02:31,016 --> 00:02:34,666 Then I went and washed, and I received my sight. 45 00:02:35,300 --> 00:02:37,733 They said to him, where is he? 46 00:02:37,733 --> 00:02:40,550 He said, I do not know. 47 00:02:40,550 --> 00:02:43,050 So a couple of interesting things. 48 00:02:44,416 --> 00:02:47,066 The first is that 49 00:02:47,066 --> 00:02:49,050 we begin this text with a little bit 50 00:02:49,050 --> 00:02:52,050 of a theological, 51 00:02:53,216 --> 00:02:56,783 conversation, at least a theological foothold here. 52 00:02:56,783 --> 00:03:00,833 So as Jesus and the disciples are walking, they see this man. 53 00:03:01,283 --> 00:03:05,450 And again in John, Jesus knows the background. 54 00:03:05,450 --> 00:03:10,650 So if we saw the man or if the disciples saw the man, they simply see a blind man. 55 00:03:10,650 --> 00:03:12,500 But Jesus is aware. 56 00:03:12,500 --> 00:03:15,500 Perhaps the disciples are somehow also aware 57 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:18,350 that this man is blind from birth. 58 00:03:18,350 --> 00:03:21,266 And so the question when one would look upon someone 59 00:03:21,266 --> 00:03:24,450 struggling out of the sort of worldview in which 60 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:29,566 that would be a punishment for sin, they ask, well, is it his sin? 61 00:03:29,900 --> 00:03:31,616 Or is it his parent's sin? 62 00:03:31,616 --> 00:03:35,816 And the idea of generational punishment is a part of the Old Testament story. 63 00:03:35,816 --> 00:03:39,233 It's one of the threats and warnings that God gives 64 00:03:39,233 --> 00:03:42,233 the nation of Israel at several points in the Old Testament. 65 00:03:42,300 --> 00:03:44,550 And so that's the idea here. 66 00:03:44,550 --> 00:03:46,016 Did this man do something? 67 00:03:46,016 --> 00:03:49,016 How could he have done something if he was born blind? 68 00:03:49,250 --> 00:03:51,466 How was that his parents fault? 69 00:03:51,466 --> 00:03:52,766 Did they do something? 70 00:03:52,766 --> 00:03:54,800 And Jesus gives this answer. 71 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:58,316 It was neither him or his parents. 72 00:03:59,416 --> 00:04:00,466 He was born blind. 73 00:04:00,466 --> 00:04:04,100 That God's works might be revealed in him. 74 00:04:04,850 --> 00:04:08,266 And the word revealed really means sort of uncovered, 75 00:04:08,266 --> 00:04:12,450 which is an interesting word to use about healing blindness. 76 00:04:13,616 --> 00:04:16,616 Michael, I think we have to be careful here. 77 00:04:16,733 --> 00:04:21,983 We always should be cautious building a theology or a theological viewpoint 78 00:04:22,366 --> 00:04:25,733 based on on a single text or single sentence. 79 00:04:26,716 --> 00:04:31,800 But it is encouraging, I think, in in the history of the church, 80 00:04:32,100 --> 00:04:35,383 I think it has been an encouragement to hear Jesus say 81 00:04:35,750 --> 00:04:40,050 that this man's condition isn't a reflection of his or anyone sin. 82 00:04:40,366 --> 00:04:44,366 It's an opportunity for God's goodness to be seen in him. 83 00:04:44,366 --> 00:04:48,416 Now you can take that lots of places, but at the surface level, 84 00:04:48,616 --> 00:04:51,616 I think we've taken this as a kind of, 85 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:54,800 affirming statement that Jesus makes. 86 00:04:54,800 --> 00:05:00,150 So clear that is a reflection of the ways in which the New Testament church 87 00:05:00,150 --> 00:05:03,900 came to see that Jesus fulfilled the law, as opposed 88 00:05:03,900 --> 00:05:07,016 to just being a repeat of the law, 89 00:05:07,050 --> 00:05:11,000 that there was something about who he was that radically transformed it. 90 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:16,500 In the book of like Matthew, you're going to have how the laws intensify, right? 91 00:05:16,500 --> 00:05:19,966 It's not just that you don't commit adultery, 92 00:05:19,966 --> 00:05:22,133 it's that you don't look upon the woman with lust. 93 00:05:22,133 --> 00:05:23,400 Jesus intensifies the law. 94 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:27,600 I think you could see something like that happening here, that Jesus 95 00:05:28,616 --> 00:05:30,983 is repeating what is a very common refrain. 96 00:05:30,983 --> 00:05:35,416 It would have been taught by rabbis, spiritual teachers in that day 97 00:05:35,783 --> 00:05:39,616 that, the clear teaching of the Decalogue of, of the 98 00:05:39,950 --> 00:05:43,883 the Old Testament laws is that ultimately 99 00:05:44,183 --> 00:05:47,850 God gives the just reward for action. 100 00:05:47,850 --> 00:05:52,250 So therefore, this is the very appropriate question is who is responsible for this, 101 00:05:52,283 --> 00:05:55,516 that the person or the person who is begot, the person 102 00:05:56,116 --> 00:05:59,116 who is ultimately the one that made the infraction? 103 00:05:59,116 --> 00:06:04,250 And ultimately, I think when Jesus reveals God's kingdom, 104 00:06:04,700 --> 00:06:09,016 it's not just a reordering of the chairs on the deck of the boat. 105 00:06:09,266 --> 00:06:14,716 It's an absolute transformation of everything that was known and assumed. 106 00:06:14,716 --> 00:06:16,883 And here we see that in action. 107 00:06:16,883 --> 00:06:19,350 So let's look very closely. 108 00:06:19,350 --> 00:06:24,466 He was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. 109 00:06:24,466 --> 00:06:27,416 In other words, you see the shift in subject there. 110 00:06:27,416 --> 00:06:30,750 It's neither the man nor his parents. 111 00:06:30,750 --> 00:06:33,750 They're not the subject of this moment. 112 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,016 The subject is God himself. 113 00:06:36,016 --> 00:06:41,666 That that God has a will and a plan that will be brought to full completion. 114 00:06:41,666 --> 00:06:47,116 In this moment when Jesus sees this man, he sees him as God sees him with, 115 00:06:47,216 --> 00:06:51,533 with a purpose, with, with a plan that God's works might be revealed. 116 00:06:51,750 --> 00:06:55,250 There's an intention in what God has done here, 117 00:06:55,616 --> 00:07:00,116 and ultimately God becomes the focus as opposed to the 118 00:07:00,116 --> 00:07:03,233 the sort of laying claim of the legal responsibility. 119 00:07:03,233 --> 00:07:06,450 And so Jesus is fulfilling the law in this way. 120 00:07:06,450 --> 00:07:10,166 He, of course, is not come to abolish the law as he says, but rather 121 00:07:10,166 --> 00:07:15,716 he's come to help us see how the law is transformed in light of his revelation. 122 00:07:15,716 --> 00:07:19,966 And you're exactly right to point out that we should be very attuned 123 00:07:19,966 --> 00:07:21,616 to the darkness, into the light, 124 00:07:21,616 --> 00:07:26,783 and to the revelation language here, because ultimately, what is this is really 125 00:07:26,783 --> 00:07:31,433 the beginning scene is to help us see how deep that revelation goes. 126 00:07:31,433 --> 00:07:34,433 It transforms everything all the way down. 127 00:07:34,500 --> 00:07:37,766 And it begins here with the assumption that it's 128 00:07:37,766 --> 00:07:41,866 this man's sinfulness that is the core of what's happening in this story. 129 00:07:41,900 --> 00:07:42,900 It's not. 130 00:07:42,900 --> 00:07:46,433 I think it helps to keep in mind that in the gospel of John, 131 00:07:47,633 --> 00:07:50,450 the idea of sin is not typically 132 00:07:50,450 --> 00:07:54,450 the things that a person has done or not done. 133 00:07:54,450 --> 00:07:57,450 It's it's not the rule that we think of. 134 00:07:57,750 --> 00:08:00,900 It is their reaction and their response to Jesus. 135 00:08:01,433 --> 00:08:04,066 So sin is denying 136 00:08:04,066 --> 00:08:08,183 what God is doing in Christ, and sinfulness is that which takes 137 00:08:08,183 --> 00:08:11,183 people away from the awareness 138 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,266 of who Christ is and who Jesus is. 139 00:08:14,266 --> 00:08:19,066 So it's not simply the behavior one exhibits 140 00:08:19,433 --> 00:08:24,616 and the quote unquote wrong that one does that would be sinful for John. 141 00:08:24,616 --> 00:08:28,500 Ultimately, being sinful is not to be aware 142 00:08:29,183 --> 00:08:32,183 that Jesus is who Jesus claims to be. 143 00:08:32,183 --> 00:08:36,283 And so in that framework, this story is a story 144 00:08:36,283 --> 00:08:39,383 of an unfolding awareness on a man's part 145 00:08:39,950 --> 00:08:42,950 who starts off not able to see, 146 00:08:43,500 --> 00:08:47,450 but ultimately is going to see things that others don't. 147 00:08:47,450 --> 00:08:50,866 And so we get some of that language already here in verse four, 148 00:08:51,283 --> 00:08:54,116 the day the night is coming, we have to work 149 00:08:54,116 --> 00:08:57,233 during the day when we can see during the night it's dark 150 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:01,216 and as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 151 00:09:01,216 --> 00:09:03,200 A kind of restatement. 152 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,150 In other words, you see by me, 153 00:09:06,150 --> 00:09:10,100 sight is given through me by Christ. 154 00:09:10,100 --> 00:09:12,750 Christ is the light by which we see the world. 155 00:09:12,750 --> 00:09:17,216 Again Christ is revealed, he is uncovered, 156 00:09:17,416 --> 00:09:22,550 and to refuse to see what is obvious in Christ presence is sinful. 157 00:09:22,850 --> 00:09:25,316 So then we move to the actual healing story. 158 00:09:25,316 --> 00:09:28,316 And again, Michael, the kind of odd twist. 159 00:09:28,516 --> 00:09:33,016 There are very few stories where Jesus uses some kind of prop in regard to 160 00:09:33,016 --> 00:09:33,750 healing. 161 00:09:33,750 --> 00:09:37,550 I think there's a story in Mark where he puts his fingers in a man's ear 162 00:09:37,550 --> 00:09:41,483 and it says he spit and then touched his tongue. 163 00:09:41,483 --> 00:09:45,316 It's not clear if he touches his tongue with the spit, but here 164 00:09:46,516 --> 00:09:49,050 Jesus makes a piece 165 00:09:49,050 --> 00:09:52,283 of mud and puts it on the man's eyes 166 00:09:52,583 --> 00:09:55,583 and tells him to go wash. And, 167 00:09:57,233 --> 00:09:59,550 we have seen and we've seen 168 00:09:59,550 --> 00:10:03,500 Jesus already act with without need of anything. 169 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:05,516 We're going to see. 170 00:10:05,516 --> 00:10:10,016 Not far from now, Jesus calls a dead man out with his words. 171 00:10:10,350 --> 00:10:13,366 Do not think that this mud is medicinal. 172 00:10:13,366 --> 00:10:16,366 I think that's the wrong way to read this text, 173 00:10:16,466 --> 00:10:19,800 and I especially think that's the wrong way to read this text. 174 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:23,400 In the Gospel of John, Jesus does not need help. 175 00:10:23,816 --> 00:10:26,750 So what might this be doing for us? 176 00:10:26,750 --> 00:10:32,250 Well, think about that idea of mud falling off your eyes, 177 00:10:32,550 --> 00:10:35,600 of scales, of washing, of revealing, 178 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:39,500 of being able in the in the washing of what 179 00:10:39,500 --> 00:10:43,283 keeps you from sight to regain your vision. 180 00:10:43,283 --> 00:10:45,316 I think. I think this is 181 00:10:46,283 --> 00:10:49,283 not medicinal. 182 00:10:49,433 --> 00:10:52,433 I think this is metaphorical. 183 00:10:52,550 --> 00:10:55,250 And so there's lots of questions about the mud 184 00:10:55,250 --> 00:10:58,250 and what I think John's trying to tell us something 185 00:10:58,516 --> 00:11:03,350 by telling us this story about the mud, and I don't think it's how he's healed. 186 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:07,283 I think it fits into the broader themes of light 187 00:11:07,283 --> 00:11:10,466 and dark and opening eyes and being cleansed. 188 00:11:10,466 --> 00:11:12,200 At least that's how I read it. Michael. 189 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:15,116 Well, let's see that in clear detail. 190 00:11:15,116 --> 00:11:17,483 Let's keep going just a little bit here, Clint. 191 00:11:17,483 --> 00:11:21,833 Then he tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. 192 00:11:22,166 --> 00:11:27,350 Now our I that there's have this in parentheses here which means sent. 193 00:11:27,350 --> 00:11:31,066 And now that you just shoot off interpretive fireworks all over the room, 194 00:11:31,066 --> 00:11:34,516 this should grab our attention with two hands and hold us, 195 00:11:34,700 --> 00:11:38,400 because ultimately, whenever John goes out of the way to offer 196 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:40,950 an interpretive word like that, it has meaning. 197 00:11:40,950 --> 00:11:43,950 Not only is this mud 198 00:11:44,033 --> 00:11:47,600 a teaching moment, a way of illustrating 199 00:11:47,716 --> 00:11:51,716 the miraculous power that Jesus is going to bring into this man's life. 200 00:11:51,900 --> 00:11:55,766 But here, in just a moment, we have, through the very naming 201 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:59,150 of the place where he will be washed, some of the work 202 00:11:59,266 --> 00:12:03,650 which is going to be done through him, he's going to go to the place 203 00:12:03,650 --> 00:12:06,650 and be washed in the scent water 204 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:09,650 that he's going to find himself 205 00:12:09,650 --> 00:12:12,916 sent out, literally from the place where he begged 206 00:12:12,916 --> 00:12:17,483 into a new way of not just seeing who Jesus was, 207 00:12:17,483 --> 00:12:21,833 but revealing that through his story to everyone that he encounters. 208 00:12:21,833 --> 00:12:24,266 And by the way, that's exactly what happens 209 00:12:24,266 --> 00:12:28,066 instantaneously when people don't recognize who he is. 210 00:12:28,066 --> 00:12:30,500 That John literally tells us his neighbors. 211 00:12:30,500 --> 00:12:34,250 I mean, guys, just imagine that you come back to your neighborhood 212 00:12:34,500 --> 00:12:37,550 and you don't recognize your neighbor who's been living there. 213 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:41,450 That's the kind of transformation that happens in the pool of scent. 214 00:12:41,700 --> 00:12:43,016 It comes that 215 00:12:43,016 --> 00:12:47,450 this man not only can begin to see, but it renews, transforms his visage 216 00:12:47,450 --> 00:12:51,566 in such a way that he's unrecognizable to those who should have known him well. 217 00:12:51,566 --> 00:12:54,083 And don't miss that he has. 218 00:12:54,083 --> 00:12:57,083 He is healed in his obedience. 219 00:12:57,166 --> 00:12:59,966 When he listens to Jesus, he can 220 00:12:59,966 --> 00:13:03,866 then see now the next step again. 221 00:13:04,283 --> 00:13:07,050 And a little bit of an odd turn in the story. 222 00:13:07,050 --> 00:13:09,000 As you mentioned, Michael. 223 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:12,000 Now there's the reaction to what has been done. 224 00:13:12,150 --> 00:13:14,816 Some said that's him 225 00:13:14,816 --> 00:13:17,816 and others said no, he can't see. 226 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,666 So it has to be someone like him. Again. 227 00:13:20,666 --> 00:13:23,716 In the Gospel of John, when Jesus does something, 228 00:13:23,716 --> 00:13:28,066 it always presents a choice that the observers have to make. 229 00:13:28,283 --> 00:13:30,766 Do they believe it or do they not believe it? 230 00:13:30,766 --> 00:13:31,616 Do they get it? 231 00:13:31,616 --> 00:13:34,700 You know, in the language of this story, do they see it 232 00:13:35,450 --> 00:13:37,816 or do they refuse to see it? 233 00:13:37,816 --> 00:13:40,216 So some say, yeah, that's him. 234 00:13:40,216 --> 00:13:42,800 And others say, no, it isn't. 235 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:44,516 And he said, it is me. 236 00:13:45,566 --> 00:13:45,983 And then 237 00:13:45,983 --> 00:13:48,983 they asked him, how were your eyes open? 238 00:13:49,050 --> 00:13:51,000 And he tells them this story. 239 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:52,466 Jesus did this thing. 240 00:13:52,466 --> 00:13:55,466 He put something on my eyes, mud on my eyes. 241 00:13:56,216 --> 00:13:57,833 He sent me to sent. 242 00:13:57,833 --> 00:14:00,833 He sent me to Siloam to wash. 243 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,516 Then I washed, and I received my sight. 244 00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:07,950 And they said, where is he? 245 00:14:07,950 --> 00:14:09,766 And he said, I do not know. 246 00:14:09,766 --> 00:14:14,066 So this is a wonderful introduction to the rest of this chapter. 247 00:14:14,300 --> 00:14:18,350 If the story ended here, we would we'd miss a lot. 248 00:14:18,650 --> 00:14:22,883 But this is a, I think, really a masterpiece introduction 249 00:14:23,216 --> 00:14:27,316 for where John's going to take this story, where Jesus takes the story, 250 00:14:27,316 --> 00:14:30,316 where John records it. 251 00:14:30,716 --> 00:14:32,600 Is really good stuff. 252 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:37,250 If you've ever had a moment where you learn something 253 00:14:37,883 --> 00:14:42,266 that transforms your memory of what that thing was, 254 00:14:42,616 --> 00:14:46,366 or it transforms the way you've ever thought about it? 255 00:14:46,650 --> 00:14:49,816 Clint, you know, for some people this may be controversial, but if you're 256 00:14:50,150 --> 00:14:53,633 if you ever read the Harry Potter series, there's a moment at the end 257 00:14:53,633 --> 00:14:56,633 where you learn something about one of the pivotal characters 258 00:14:57,116 --> 00:15:00,466 that transforms the entire story that came before this. 259 00:15:00,500 --> 00:15:03,000 It's a pretty remarkable moment. 260 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,000 I think what we discover in Scripture 261 00:15:06,116 --> 00:15:09,683 is that we get used to some of the patterns, 262 00:15:09,916 --> 00:15:12,916 like a healing story has the elements of a healing story, 263 00:15:13,283 --> 00:15:15,416 and, you know, the thing that you might be tempted by. 264 00:15:15,416 --> 00:15:18,450 And you led off with this, Clint, in the beginning was the mud 265 00:15:18,716 --> 00:15:21,716 that somehow the mud is the thing that makes this story interesting. 266 00:15:21,766 --> 00:15:24,383 And it is interesting as a teaching device. 267 00:15:24,383 --> 00:15:29,033 I think what makes this story amazingly interesting is how it 268 00:15:29,066 --> 00:15:35,066 it sets us up to see from the start that at the end of the day, 269 00:15:36,266 --> 00:15:39,716 Jesus is the one who does the work in us. 270 00:15:39,716 --> 00:15:42,866 And I want to just point out, did you know this is at the beginning, the story, 271 00:15:43,883 --> 00:15:46,766 there's no reaching out to Jesus in this story. 272 00:15:46,766 --> 00:15:48,916 There's no calling for his name. Lord. 273 00:15:48,916 --> 00:15:52,283 You know, a measure of faith is the thing that has brought healing. 274 00:15:52,283 --> 00:15:53,066 Know this. 275 00:15:53,066 --> 00:15:59,400 Jesus coming to this man, assuring him that God has a plan to work in him 276 00:15:59,516 --> 00:16:03,466 if he's just willing to go, to be sent to this pool where he will be sent 277 00:16:03,833 --> 00:16:09,833 and in that place this man experiences the kind of renewed transformation. 278 00:16:09,833 --> 00:16:11,933 Everything that he thought about. 279 00:16:11,933 --> 00:16:14,933 The world was changed when he could suddenly see. 280 00:16:15,916 --> 00:16:19,350 He literally had never seen a day in his life. 281 00:16:19,350 --> 00:16:24,566 And for many of us, especially people who've either had negative experience 282 00:16:24,716 --> 00:16:27,833 of the faith itself or have been wounded by the faith 283 00:16:27,833 --> 00:16:29,116 at some point in their journey, 284 00:16:30,466 --> 00:16:31,916 there's often a 285 00:16:31,916 --> 00:16:34,916 moment in which you can no longer 286 00:16:35,716 --> 00:16:40,316 see the winsome, gracious goodness that comes in the revelation of Christ. 287 00:16:40,316 --> 00:16:45,200 But if you ever have the grace and the gift of of that being washed away, 288 00:16:45,833 --> 00:16:49,650 there's a kind of transformation where everything is suddenly clear again. 289 00:16:49,650 --> 00:16:51,933 Everything is brighter than it was before. 290 00:16:51,933 --> 00:16:56,116 It has a kind of unity and depth and gravity and wisdom to it. 291 00:16:57,116 --> 00:17:01,366 It is an amazing gift that comes to the glory of God. 292 00:17:01,366 --> 00:17:05,083 And I think what this text resists, Clint, is some kind 293 00:17:05,083 --> 00:17:08,250 of, well, good thing this man worked hard enough for. 294 00:17:08,250 --> 00:17:10,883 He begged well enough or at it. 295 00:17:10,883 --> 00:17:12,616 This is a story of grace. 296 00:17:12,616 --> 00:17:15,533 It's Jesus doing something up to this point. 297 00:17:15,533 --> 00:17:18,466 Jesus doing something only for the sake of showing 298 00:17:18,466 --> 00:17:21,466 God's might and glory and justice and desire 299 00:17:21,500 --> 00:17:25,100 to bless this man and to work something good through him. 300 00:17:25,366 --> 00:17:27,450 And we're going to have to follow through the rest of the story. 301 00:17:27,450 --> 00:17:30,500 You see the the ways that that's renewed, transformed, in fact, 302 00:17:30,683 --> 00:17:33,683 affecting the community and all these kinds of things. 303 00:17:34,166 --> 00:17:37,216 I think, and I'll probably wait for this tomorrow. 304 00:17:37,216 --> 00:17:42,200 But I think this is a unique miracle story in a 305 00:17:43,466 --> 00:17:46,466 you suggested as much, Michael. But, 306 00:17:49,316 --> 00:17:52,500 there are things that happen in this story that aren't really a part 307 00:17:52,500 --> 00:17:57,383 of other miracle stories, and we'll see that pretty much right away. 308 00:17:57,383 --> 00:18:00,383 Tomorrow. 309 00:18:00,766 --> 00:18:02,516 If you can come back with us, 310 00:18:02,516 --> 00:18:06,150 because this is a great opening scene, 311 00:18:06,416 --> 00:18:09,316 but it really is just the intro. 312 00:18:09,316 --> 00:18:12,566 There's a lot yet to happen in this story, 313 00:18:12,566 --> 00:18:15,950 and, I think it's really, really good. 314 00:18:15,983 --> 00:18:18,083 Hope you can be with us as we go through it. 315 00:18:18,083 --> 00:18:20,633 No doubt if you found this teaser interesting, 316 00:18:20,633 --> 00:18:22,616 give it a like helps others find it in their study. 317 00:18:22,616 --> 00:18:23,483 Certainly subscribe 318 00:18:23,483 --> 00:18:28,066 so you do not miss the continue conversation as we study again tomorrow. 319 00:18:28,283 --> 00:18:29,900 Until then, be blessed.