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Friends. Thanks for being with us again.

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Finishing the ninth chapter of John today.

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A great chapter, a great story.

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We're just finding ourself
at the conclusion.

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And I think, we've made the case that John
has really carefully crafted this story.

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And I think that conclusion, is
well done, kind of brings that home.

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Let me read it for you.

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Then we'll we'll work our way through it.

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Jesus heard
that they had driven the blind man out.

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And when he found him,
he said, do you believe in the Son of Man?

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He answered, and who is he, sir?

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Tell me so. I may believe in him.

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Jesus said to him,

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you have seen him,

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and the one speaking with you is he.

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He said, Lord, I believe.

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And he worshiped him.

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Jesus
said, I came into this world for judgment,

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so that those who do not see may see,

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and those who do see may become blind.

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Some of the Pharisees near him
heard him say this and said to him,

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surely we are not blind, are we?

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Jesus said to them, if you were blind,
you would not have sinned.

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But now that you say,
we see, your sin remains.

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So remember yesterday we saw the conflict
between this man and the Pharisees.

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They had been having this conversation.

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The man said, well,
maybe you want to follow him.

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They insulted him and put him out.

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And the idea is they sort of ran him off.

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Really interesting.

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Kind of a pastoral note here
that Jesus finds him.

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It's very interesting that we enter
this last part of the text with the words

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Jesus heard. They had driven him out.

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And when he found him, implying
that he went looking for him.

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And I think you know, that falls in line
with other images,

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the lost sheep and the prodigal son,
the father who was way.

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So the idea that Jesus sought this man out

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and then he he has this conversation.

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Do you believe in the Son of Man?

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Who is he?

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Tell me that I may believe in him.

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And Jesus says, you have seen him.

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And again, we've made the case
over the last couple of days

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that so much of this chapter

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is about what is seen
and what is missed, what is believed

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and and what is, forfeited,
what is refused.

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And so, Jesus,
when Jesus says you have seen him,

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the idea here is not just physically
that this man's eyesight

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has been restored,
but he's learned something spiritual.

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He's seen a spiritual truth.

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And we know this
because the response that John tells us

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is that the man says, Lord,
I believe and remember,

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believe is one of the operative
themes of this chapter.

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And then he said, it says,
and he worshiped him.

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So belief and worship, John connects
those two things in a powerful way.

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The response of seeing Jesus is to belief,

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to believe
the response of belief is to worship.

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Really well done, Michael.

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A powerful conclusion here.

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This is most of the end of the men story.

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There's the essentially that
for all practical purposes,

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him worshiping is kind of the tail
end of his role.

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So I just another note
to make sure that we all catch it is

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we do see Jesus, as you point out,
so helpfully, Clint finding this man,

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seeking him out in verse 35,
the beginning of this section.

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But remember, it was Jesus who also came
to this man in the very beginning

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of this book, or, sorry,
in the very beginning of this chapter.

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As Jesus walks along in 91,
he sees a man blind for birth.

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And then, following the questions
of the disciples, Jesus engages this man.

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So I think actually, this is a way
of bookending that experience,

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even here at the end of the story,
that Jesus is the first actor.

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Jesus is also the last actor
that ultimately

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Jesus is the one who does the revealing.

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And that's so important in John.

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Clint, we we might pass by it,
but in modern Christianity there is this

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temptation to think that we would know
Jesus because of reason, or we would.

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We would be able to sort of work
our way to who Jesus is.

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But a story like this,
and John really does push back on that.

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I think this story makes it
abundantly clear

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that Jesus is the one who does
the revealing of God's will and presence

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in the world that you look to Jesus,
and it's his prerogative.

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You get to see a window into God's
perfect plan.

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What is fascinating is then the call.

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Or as you've already pointed out, Clint,
to what response is to that revelation.

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And here Jesus asks a very simple

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question and an ultimate lie.

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The question is, well, sorry.

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The man asked. Jesus, who is he?

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And and Jesus is the one who then says,
you've seen him?

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The one speaking to you?

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Is he that
that seeing has multiple senses?

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The question, then is,
what does it mean that this man believes?

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Because remember, he's

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already been brought before the Pharisees,
and there's always been already been

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this question brought to him of, you know,
who is the man?

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Jesus.

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Well, now, when the man has an opportunity
that the formerly blind man

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can now in this moment, address Jesus,
he simply asks him the question.

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And I think it plays back
to a previous theme.

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This man responded to those Pharisees
and said, hey, listen,

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I don't know who he is, but I was blind
and now I can see that should be enough.

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Well, hear the that same man.

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When faced with the personal question,
Who is Jesus?

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He simply asks him.

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And Jesus answers that if you see me, that
then you know, and the man does believe,

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and then that immediately
leads to his action,

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which is worship and belief and worship.

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And John, they're going to be intertwined
in some really interesting ways,

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as they have already.

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I just think this story is beginning
to incorporate these many different layers

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while simultaneously maintaining the kind
of simplicity of this man's character,

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which is essential to John's understanding
of what it means to be a disciple.

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You don't need to be a PhD or a priest
or some kind of spiritual,

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you know, a saint to follow Jesus.

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You simply need to ask
the right, simple question

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and then give the right simple response.

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It's it's somewhat subtle,
and it can get lost

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because of the conflict
narrative in this story.

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But I think if we follow the man's tragic

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trajectory through this chapter,
it's really interesting.

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So we have first a blind man in need

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and he encounters

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Jesus or experiences
Jesus first as healer.

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And then he says, the man Jesus.

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And then he says, well,
I don't know if he's a sinner.

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I know he healed me.

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We know that he must be from God.

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Right?

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And so you have this movement
that culminates here in these words.

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He calls him Lord.

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So the man Jesus,
the one who healed me, the a prophet,

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the one from God, all of that leads him

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ultimately to this profession, Lord,

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I believe and
and then it leads him also to worship.

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And for John, I think this is a pattern,

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a paradigm of what it is
to encounter Jesus.

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And it would be,
I think a case could be made that

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it would have been nice
if the story ended here,

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but because John is always telling
the bigger story

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that forces the question of who Jesus is,
he instead adds some conflict at the end.

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Jesus says this thing,

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I came
so that people who don't see can see.

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I came to open the eyes of the blind,
and those who think they can see.

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I came to show them that they are blind.

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And the Pharisees overhear this,

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and they assume he's speaking to them,
or they sort of figure that out.

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And he says, they say to him,
we are not blind, are we?

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And then the words that do conclude this
story come from Jesus.

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If you were blind, you wouldn't have sin.

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But because you say,
we see, your sin remains.

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And again, what a wonderful way to

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to sort of summarize

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some of, not all of
but some of the themes of this chapter,

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your convinced you know the truth
and yet you are blind.

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And the man who started the
the story blind

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is proclaiming
Jesus Lord and worshiping him.

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The ones who claim that they can see
and that they know the truth

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are ultimately at the end,
still blind to the truth.

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And I just think it's, it's not

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it's a less
positive way to end the story, Michael,

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but it makes sense, I think, for what

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John is trying to do, and it allows him
to really hammer the point home.

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This story is carefully
told from start to finish.

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I just want to point out that
we see that again in the way that it ends.

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Because remember how this story began
by the disciples asking, Rabbi,

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who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind, right?

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The question was the sinfulness
of this man, which, by the way,

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the Pharisees have already used
to their benefit in the way

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that they've used this man to sort of
prop up an argument against Jesus.

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Now look at this.

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Jesus
just essentially lands a blow to say no.

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The third character, it wasn't
the man or his parents who have sinned.

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They're not the issue.

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It's the the ones who think they can see

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and are unwilling
to confess the brokenness of their hearts.

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They are the ones
who have been sinful from the start.

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This is not an accidental kind of turn
at the end of the story.

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This is a very carefully told way

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of helping us to see that no matter

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how threatened the Pharisees are,
when they come after Jesus,

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when they seek their own power,
they seek some privilege over him.

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The Pharisees are fundamentally scared
of who

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Jesus might be
in their physical circumstance, right?

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He might become popular.
He might become famous.

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He might draw people away.

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Maybe there's some spiritual, you know,
theological kind of emphasis there,

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but there's very clearly a willingness
to do whatever it takes to put Jesus down.

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What's fascinating
is that at the end of the day,

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Jesus is a threat to them in truth,

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because he represents
the world turned upside down.

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That sinfulness is not a thing that humans
do and pass on to the next generation

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that causes blindness and then needs
to be argued about in the synagogue.

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No blindness is when you are unwilling

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to be transformed
in the presence of God incarnate.

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And make no mistake about
this is so important in this book.

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We should not pass by it without seeing it

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that the man's belief immediately
leads to worship.

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And this is the antidote
to misunderstanding what belief means.

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Belief in Jesus is not in the book of John

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simply, oh, I assent to the fact
that he's a good teacher,

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or I think he's a, a good human
and a moral exemplar.

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Now, Jesus is those things. Absolutely.

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But from John's
lens, from his perspective, his belief in

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Jesus will always lead
to divine worship of Jesus.

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Because Jesus is at the core, Lord
in the messianic sense.

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He's the one who renews, transforms,
redeems, justifies.

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Jesus is both judge and the one judge.

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And all of this occupies at the same time
this human living and revealing God.

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And so this movement that we see in
this man

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is an unbelievably important movement,
because it shows us

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how he goes from a man blind,
a physical illness,

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to a man who gets jostled around
by the Pharisees, trying to use him

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to accuse Jesus of sinfulness,
to, in the end, being a person

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who is suddenly able to see
Jesus for who he is

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spiritually as he sees him physically.

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And that man then is moved to worship
the one who stands in front of him.

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That's the amazing circle
that this story takes, is it?

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It both serves as a kind of repudiation
of those who can see physically

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but are spiritually blind,
while simultaneously

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showing us a journey of a man once
physically blind,

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then able to see Jesus spiritually,
and where that leads him

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to the foot of worshiping
the one who had come to redeem.

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I mean, that's the kind of turn
in this story that makes it so incredible.

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And I understand why this is likely
your favorite passage in John,

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because it
it takes us on a journey with this man.

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There's a really nice bookend here.

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In a passage that starts with Jesus saying

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that the man's sin.

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Has not caused physical blindness

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and ending with the condemnation

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that in refusing
to leave their spiritual blindness,

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the Pharisees persist in their sin.

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So what is John telling us here?

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That sin

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causes spiritual blindness,
not physical blindness?

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This man isn't blind physically
because he sinned or his parents sinned.

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The Pharisees are spiritually blind

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because their sin keeps them

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from seeing what is painfully evident
to those around them,

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including a blind man,
that Jesus is Jesus.

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And so I think a really nice contrast here
between the opening lines of the story

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and the ending lines of the story,
where we see

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that we've moved from the question
of, of physical blindness,

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and we've centered on the question
of physical blindness and sin.

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While not responsible for the first,

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is a condition of the second,

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and that it not surprisingly,
the relationship

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between Jesus and the Pharisees
is going to continue to spiral downhill.

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This is a significant moment in it,
but it's not over yet.

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But I think here, John is pretty clear

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with his the charge that he's laying out,

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or at least that he hears
in Jesus conversation with them.

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This is maybe example
par excellence of why

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the Bible should not rightly be understood
as some kind of pure

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history book seeking to tell the story
exactly how it happened.

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Not saying that it's not interested
in those details, but Clint,

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this could be read as a sermon
and it have impact

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without being interpreted in in the way
that we think of interpretation.

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The narrative itself
reveals the transformation

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of this man's life
because of his encounter with Jesus.

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There is a devotional
nod built into this text itself,

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and I think that it reveals,
for any believer willing to see it,

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that there's a kind of faithfulness

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to the gospel that looks in our own life

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to see those concrete, physical,
maybe even to you.

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It's not the the enormity of being blind
and then being healed, but but the

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the things that we might think of,
non spiritual things that can lead us

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to deep spiritual awareness and gratitude
for what Christ has done in our life.

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I think that a text like this illustrates

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what even a modern
Christian is called to do in our life.

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That is, pay attention
to look at what Christ is doing

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so that as you see it unfolding,
you can return.

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Thanks.
You can come to his feet and worship him.

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You can, return to the one who has
enlightened you in the Johannine sense.

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And, and you can therefore bear that light
so that others might see it as well.

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There's an amazing kind of marching order
that lives underneath this text.

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That.

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So as this man became a witness, in fact,

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he was schooled and even teaching
in some senses, of the Pharisees.

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So the same for you.

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No matter how competent you feel
or how many church words

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you feel like you have command of,
that's not the point.

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The point isn't that you get a
theology degree.

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The point is you're attentive

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to where Christ is at in your life,
that that moves you to his worship,

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and then that will ultimate, regardless
of what you intend, send

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you out to be a witness
to what has happened to you.

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I think if you read this chapter

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just with an eye for what happened,
the man was blind.

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He got healed.
The Pharisees were upset by that.

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They argued with him.
They argued with Jesus.

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If you stuck to this kind of bare bones
facts of this chapter,

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I think you would miss those

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undercurrents,

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those themes that John has worked
really hard, light and dark,

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seeing and not seeing, believing,
not believing.

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This is this is too well crafted

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to approach it
as simply a story of what happened next.

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That's all in there. That that's fine.

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You certainly should understand
what happened in the story.

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But John is doing much,
much more than that.

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John is using that story
and I think sermon is the right word.

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Mike.

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I think John is preaching at us,

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to us, with us through this story.

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And I think if you only left chapter nine

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with the outline version and and missed

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the deeper theology and spirituality
that's happening here, I, I think you

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I think you would

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I think it would be very unfortunate,
which is I think one of the benefits

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of kind of working through verse
by verse and section by section,

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you slow down a little bit
and you get a chance to see more of that.

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We're going to come towards
a conclusion here,

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but I just want to make sure there's one
last theme

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I can think of that
we might want to tie up.

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And you mentioned this in the beginning,
the idea that Jesus goes looking for this

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man after he's been driven out.

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I just want to sort of quickly remind you

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that to a Christian
in the earliest part of the faith

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who lived with the present reality,
that they may be driven out of their

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synagogues, that they would no longer be
welcome to the place where their family

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has lived out all of the rights
of what it means to be Jewish.

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To those believers,
the fact that Jesus came to find this man

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on the outside of being put out
would be nothing but good news.

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And maybe that's not your fear.

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You know that's not your experience.

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If you live in 21st century America
and you have a church family

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00:20:01,366 --> 00:20:04,666
that you feel safe and comfortable
in, but friends,

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00:20:05,250 --> 00:20:07,966
no matter your circumstance, the truth

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and the hope of that remains the same,
that there's no place that we find ourself

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pull it out from in the name of Jesus,
where Jesus doesn't come to find us.

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And that's the kind of present lived hope.

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I think that this story can can work
to show us

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is that though we have many things
to be afraid of in our lives,

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in the face of Jesus, all of them
melt away that he can be trusted.

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He is faithful.

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And if we but turn our eyes to him, then
the light of the world will do his work.

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And that's exactly what we that's
our best hope for the world.

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Yeah, I think it's

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a beautiful detail of the story that Jesus
encounters a man in need heals him.

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That man is
then hurt by the religion of his day

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00:20:52,950 --> 00:20:57,166
or the religious people of his day,
and Jesus seeks him out

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to heal him again
in a different way to bring him.

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He's brought him sight,
and now he brings him life.

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And I think, you know, again,
I think that's one of the it's just a

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it's just a simple detail
that Jesus found him, but it says a lot.

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Thanks for being with us.

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Hope you've liked this part of the study
through chapter nine.

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Give this video a like.

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00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:23,516
If this conversation has been inspiring
or challenging to you, subscribe.

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00:21:23,516 --> 00:21:25,666
We are going to be coming back
in a couple weeks.

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We're taking a Christmas,

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00:21:27,650 --> 00:21:30,466
New Year's break here
while we're going through this study.

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00:21:30,466 --> 00:21:32,100
So we'll be back January 6th.

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Would love to see you then. Hope you on.

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You and yours have great holidays
and thanks for being with us.