This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to day five of our look together through John chapter
nine and daily drive time devotions. This is the day we've been waiting for, the
day when this man reconnects with Jesus, this man that's been healed from
blindness and expresses faith in Jesus Christ. Throughout this week, we've
looked at the conflict that many people have had because of this miracle that
Jesus worked.

The conflict that shows that they could not see spiritually. And you see in the
conflict, the reasons we don't see spiritually. We stay in our doubt, we stay in
our pride, we stay in our fear, we stay in our prejudice.

You don't have to stay there. And through all the conflict in this chapter, now
we come in the last verses to the resolution. And the resolution is trust.

The resolution is in the response of this man. Let me read for you what happened
in verses 35 to 38. "Jesus heard that they had thrown him out.

"And when he found him, he said, "'Do you believe in the Son of Man? ' "'Who is
he, sir? ' the man asked.

"'Tell me so that I may believe in him. ' "Jesus said, 'You have now seen him.
"In fact, he is the one speaking with you.

' "And then the man said, 'Lord, I believe. ' "And he worshiped him. " This man
believes in Jesus and worships Jesus.

One of the greatest expressions of belief and worship in the entire experience
of the ministry of Jesus. But there's a question here. Why does it take so long?

Why does it take so long for Jesus and the man to reconnect? Why does Jesus wait
until after he's been put out? It says here that Jesus went and found him.

Why does he wait until he's been put out of the temple? Remember, we talked
about this yesterday. Put out, he's separated from his people.

He's separated from his community. Why does he wait? He waits because he wasn't
trying to protect the man or comfort the man.

He was trying to lead this man to trust. He knew that there was deeper need in
this man's life. And as you look at this man's life, he teaches us something
about the deeper needs in my life, in your life.

He teaches us something about what enables us to see spiritually. He teaches us
about trust. How do you see spiritually?

You trust Jesus with your life. It's interesting, in the experience of this man,
you really see two parts of trust, enlightenment and commitment. First you're
enlightened, the light comes on, and you see, oh, I can trust, and then comes
commitment, you decide to trust.

Enlightenment happens for this man throughout the chapter. There's this growth
and understanding of who Jesus is throughout the chapter. Back in verse 11, as
this man talks about Jesus, he says, it's the man they call Jesus.

He just knows his name. In verse 17, as he's talking with the Pharisees, the man
says, oh, he's a prophet. So he knows something more about Jesus.

He equates him with the prophets of the Old Testament. But here in verse 38,
he's asking about the Messiah. And he says, are you the one?

And he says, Lord, I believe, and he worships him. He worships him as God. The
light comes on when we understand that Jesus is more than just a wonderful man
or a godly prophet, a godly messenger, but he is God's promise of light for my
life.

It's interesting here that Jesus gives this man the time to see the truth.
Sometimes, like with the apostle Paul, the light dawns on you suddenly. But
sometimes it's like a dimmer that's being turned up and the light dawns in you
slowly but surely.

And here is Jesus Christ who brought light to this man's life. Jesus didn't
bring light to the world or share light with the world. He is the light of the
world.

He's the light that we need. And this man began to realize that. He was
enlightened more and more, but then there came a moment in his life when his
understanding had to take the next step.

First, there's enlightenment, but understanding isn't enough. Intellectual
ascent to some truths isn't enough for trust. Trust means commitment, an
expression of personal belief.

And this man's expression of personal belief is prompted by the question of
Jesus. Do you believe? Do you believe in the Son of Man?

Now first, let's just take an aside for a moment. What does Son of Man mean?
We've looked at Son of God a few times in our study through John, but we haven't
really focused on this phrase, Son of Man as yet.

Jesus uses both Son of God and Son of Man, which makes sense in that he is both
God and man, 100% God, 100% man as he walked this earth. The phrase Son of Man
doesn't just mean that he was born of a human being. It is a messianic title
from the Old Testament.

Over in the book of Daniel, Daniel 7, 13 to 14 says, "I saw in the night visions
and behold, "one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven "and came to
the ancient of days "and they brought him near before him "and there was given
him dominion and glory and a kingdom "and all people, nations and languages
"that they should serve him. " And so the Son of Man is this picture of the
Messiah who is to come. It is Jesus' favorite title for himself.

In fact, he uses this title for himself in Matthew alone 28 times. Now, we don't
know exactly why, but I think it's because it's a title of Messiah that didn't
carry as much baggage as the Son of God. And he was able to identify, to help
them to understand and define it better by his talk about who he really is.

And it is interesting as you see Jesus talking about himself being the Son of
Man, that he uses the definite article in the Greek language, the word the in
all cases, but one when he refers to himself as the Son of Man, not a Son of
Man, but the in capital letters, the Son of Man. In our language today, when we
use the phrase the man, we mean the most important person in the situation, the
man, well, the Son of Man. Jesus is referring to himself as the most important
person, the God man to ever walk this earth.

And Jesus says to the man who had been healed of his blindness, are you ready to
make the step of commitment to the Son of Man, to the Messiah? Do you believe he
needed to move from enlightenment to commitment? You see, many of us live life
one step short of commitment.

You may have grown an understanding, but now it's time to express your trust. It
takes more than being in the company of the committed. It takes making a
commitment for yourself.

And so this man makes the commitment. I believe, and he worshiped him. Question
is, has that moment come in your relationship to Jesus Christ?

Is your relationship with Jesus Christ a he's helped me relationship? I prayed
and he helped me. Is it a he is a prophet relationship?

I think he's written some good things, said some good things that teach me. Or
is it an I believe relationship? Look at what Jesus said about commitment at the
end of this chapter.

Verses 39 to 41. Jesus said, "For judgment have come into this world, "so that
the blind will see "and those who see will become blind. " Some Pharisees who
were with him heard him say this and they asked, "What, are we blind too?

" Jesus said, "If you were blind, "you would not be guilty of sin. "But now that
you claim you can see, your guilt remains. " As we've walked through John, it
seems sometimes like Jesus goes back and forth on this issue of judgment.

He says he came not to condemn in chapter three, but here he says, "For judgment
I came. " What is this all about? Well, Jesus came to bring a message of
salvation, not a message of condemnation.

But in that message of salvation, and as you see how he's pushing these
religious leaders here because he knows what it's going to take for them to see, in
this message of salvation, we have to have, I have to have, you have to have the
humility to admit what I do not see. And if I do not admit that, the message of
salvation, even in and of itself, is a message of judgment. I've heard it, but I
won't admit it.

I won't see what's right in front of my eyes. I push it away. And then we
become, as Jesus said, those who think they see, but because of our prideful
thinking that we see, we remain blind.

It's those who admit that they can't see, that they have needs in their life,
that there's an emptiness in their life. Those are those who come to Jesus
Christ, those who truly see. In these verses, Jesus is showing us it is our
pride that keeps us from seeing.

And our pride is our choice. It's a choice to live based on what I think that I
can see so that I can say I did it myself. This gets to the root of what enables
you and I to see, to trust.

When it enables you to trust, humility. I have to admit that I'm spiritually
blind before I can spiritually see. Can you imagine a blind person trying to
pretend that they could see?

It makes no sense. It would be more than ridiculous. It would be dangerous.

Can you imagine a person who's spiritually blind pretending that they
spiritually see? That takes no imagination at all. I've seen it in my life,
you've seen it in your life.

We see it in people's lives all the time. That's more than ridiculous. It's
incredibly dangerous because Jesus has something different for us.

You don't have to stay there. I don't have to stay there. In my relationship
with him or in an issue in my life, I can begin to see, but it starts with
humility.

As we pray today, I want to encourage you to pray the prayer that the apostle
Paul taught us to pray about seeing in Ephesians 1, 18 and 19. Just pray this
prayer back to him in your mind. Pray, Jesus, I pray that the eyes of my heart
would be enlightened so that I could know the hope to which you called me.

So that I could see the riches of your glorious inheritance in the saints in
your people. And so that I could see your incomparably great power for all who
believe. That power that's like the working of your mighty strength.

Jesus, I pray this prayer for faith from your word. In your name, amen. Well,
join us next week.

We're going to be looking together at John chapter 10, which I believe is one of
the most assuring chapters in all of the Bible.