There are two ways of looking at "light." You have physical blindness and spiritual blindness. If you’re physically blind, you essentially can’t detect light. There is a story of a miner in West Virginia who was involved in an underground explosion. When they dug him out, he said, "Why don’t they turn on some lights?" He had been blinded by the blast but he didn’t know that he was blind. He thought he could still see. Remember that as we study this morning. Jesus is going to tell the Pharisees that—they’re blind and they don’t know it. When light is present, we can see. If it’s night and dark, you can’t see very well.

We’re going to talk about spiritual blindness and spiritual sight as well. A lot of people think they can see (like the miner) but they’re really spiritually blind. That’s what Jesus will be talking about this morning. He will also talk about those who spiritually "see." It is the whole idea of Jesus being the light of the world.

When we talk about light, there is the physical, incandescent or fluorescent light. We can see the sun; it brings light. We saw the effects of a lack of light yesterday. Some men were gracious enough to help me move my daughter out of our house to her new home. She moved in with us about 2 years ago. We stored most of her things in a dark corner of our basement so they "haven’t seen the light of day," if you will. In the basement, we wiped off a few little spots of mold or mildew. When we brought everything out into the sun, can you imagine what we saw when the sun hit it? We saw much more mildew and dirt than in the light of the basement. Well, that’s what better light does. It reveals things you can’t normally see.

That’s what you want, as a Christian. You want God to use Jesus as the light of the world to reveal what you’re really like inside and to show you the mold, mildew, and disgustingly ugly things about you, your life, and your heart so that they may be cleaned up. Hear this. When you want that to happen, you spiritually "see." Those who don’t want that to happen are spiritually "blind," saying, "I don’t want that. I want to hide it in the dark and be blind." Instead pray, "God, I want to see everything." That’s what we’re going to see this morning with what Jesus is going to talk about.

There are many uses of light, but here’s another one I thought of: Debbie Boone’s song, "You Light Up My Life." You’ve all heard that before and may have even sung it to your spouse. Frequently when couples are dating, one will say to the other, "You light up my life." What does that mean? Is there a physical light? No. It’s glowing, warmth, spark, energy, reason for living, purpose, etc. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, "I am the Light of the world." When Jesus is in the world, He is the source of light shining on the world. I’m talking spiritually, not physically. Jesus’ light reveals things in the world. Look at the diagram below.

That’s what I want you to see—His "Revelation." God shows you things. He reveals them to you. He uses spiritual light to show you those things. It’s called "revelation." A lot of people use "speculation" to determine things. They try to speculate what’s going on in this world (e.g., Global Warming, Evolution, etc.). They are speculating, making theories. Jesus, as the source, says, "I will reveal things to you and they will be the TRUTH." As Christians, we want that revelation to occur in our lives. We want the source to shine on us, "God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, reveal yourself to me. Reveal who I am. I want to be spiritually ‘seeing,’ not spiritually ‘blind.’"

With that concept in mind, let’s read some Scripture.

Some translations have a footnote preceding verse 53 about John 7:53-8:11. What does that mean? Should we just tear it out and throw it away? No. It means that these verses were in some manuscripts but not in others. Do you remember when we talked about the formation of the New Testament? There are about four to five thousand manuscripts and then another 20,000 copies of those in many different languages. What the Bible editors are saying is that they looked at all the manuscripts and couldn’t find 7:53-8:11 in some of them. Some of the early church fathers (including Augustine, circa AD 400) wrote about this passage. Some manuscripts had 7:53-8:11 at the end of John.

The content of this passage talks about an adulteress who is brought up for stoning. Why was it moved or removed from some manuscripts? Can you see how a scribe, thinking about purity, would say, "Wait a minute. This is not a good story. I’ll move it somewhere else. It won’t be so apparent." So when you read things like this, don’t automatically think, "Well, I don’t know whether we can count on this or not." Go do some research. Go read what the early church fathers said about it. What you’ll find is man, trying to interrupt God’s Word. God said, "No. I’m going to protect it."

I believe this story is right where it should be (7:53-8:11).

It leads right in to verse 12.

That’s why I think it should be in there. You have a story where God (or Jesus Christ) has revealed something to people, internally. Then Jesus says…

I think it fits. I think Jesus is adding to His story of exposing sin. "I am the light of the world. I am going to reveal and show things to people so that they’ll know who they really are."

"Whoever follows me will…have the light of life." Can you see that this "light of life" means "purpose in life," a need to have energy and activity? "I have a reason and purpose for living and it’s centered on God and Jesus Christ, not on this world with material possessions that come and go, rust and rot. I have something that’s solid." Can you see the "light of life" in people? Have you ever seen the "darkness of life" in people?

He says, "If you follow me, you’ll have the ‘light of life.’" There is something different. You have energy that has never been contemplated or comprehended by you. You didn’t know it existed.

All of this is to introduce the story about the blind man. It doesn’t occur until chapter 9 but I want to read a few more verses from chapter 8.

He’s saying, "There are two witnesses: me and God, the Father. He witnesses for me because of the miracles I perform and the revelation I have to people." That’s what Jesus was saying there.

I’m sorry I have to skip so much but skip down to verse 31.

Listen to that, "To the Jews who had believed Him…"

That freedom is part of the "light of life." That’s why we love America so much—for the freedom we have. That’s a freedom here, on this Earth. But there is a spiritual freedom. That spiritual freedom that says, "I can stand up, face God, plead the blood and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and God gives me eternal life." That’s the spiritual freedom we have. Because of that freedom, we don’t live under the bondage of: "Watch out for thunder & lightning, Is God going to get me, or What’s going to happen to me next?" We have the protection of God. That’s our freedom.

We’ve seen a little of this before, but here are some Jews (Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.) accosting Jesus. What is a "Samaritan"? In-between Galilee and Judea. Intermarried. A mixed race. They had their own temples. Jews just did not like Samaritans. The Jews are really "slamming" Christ here. They’re calling Him a Samaritan and also demon-possessed.

"If anyone keeps my word, they will never see death." Don’t miss that. What is required? What’s He talking about there? Eternal life. He’s saying, "Yeah, you will have a physical death but you’ll never have spiritual death." There will never come a time when you’ll be totally, eternally separated from God. You’ll never see death. That’s what He’s talking about there: spiritual death.

Where is their thinking? They’re only thinking about worldly, physical death. They’re saying, "Well, wait a minute. Abraham believed and he died over a thousand years ago. You must be demon-possessed. You don’t know what you’re talking about." Can you see that? Again, we’re sitting on the other side of the cross. We look at it and it’s clear. They are being asked to see it before the cross.

That’s what they were expecting in a Messiah—a worldly king for an eternal, earthly kingdom. When the Jews left Egypt, they took the bones of Joseph back with them. They said, "We want him to be ‘resurrected,’" if you will, "in the Promised Land, Israel." They had a very strong concept of the eternal, worldly kingdom. They did not sit around talking about eternal life, like we do. They would think we were alien or foreign (like Jesus), talking about eternal life.

Jesus is saying, "You don’t know God, the Father. You know your religion but you do not know God."

This is Abraham, from the Old Testament. Jesus is saying that Abraham existed way back, before the cross, he was looking at it, and he saw this day. What did Abraham see? This is not a stretch—by faith, Abraham saw that God would somehow reconcile man to Himself. Do you see that? That’s the point of the Gospel. We stand on the other side of the cross and say, "I am reconciled to God, not because of what I do, but because of the cross of Christ. It happened 2,000 years ago. I can look at it, I can read about it, and I can see it." Abraham looked forward and said, "It’s not here yet but it’s coming. I have faith that it’s going to come. God will reconcile all mankind to Himself." Abraham believed it. His faith was counted to him as righteousness. We have the righteousness of Christ. Abraham had the righteousness of faith. (We also know that Abraham saw the pre-incarnate Christ, too, but that’s another story.)

They’re still thinking in the world.

That was the clincher. Moses asked God on Mt. Sinai, "When I go to the people, who do I say sent me?" God said, "’I am’ sent you." Here’s Jesus saying, "Who am I? I am." "I am" means, "I exist. I’m the Being. I’m everything. I am deity."

Because it wasn’t time yet.

Do you get the picture about Jesus’ revelation? This is what I want you to see through these stories. Jesus is revealing truth to people. They can either accept or reject that truth. Can you see that? I’ve said over and over that if you start at Genesis and go all the way through the Bible, God has continued to reveal Himself to people. He reveals Himself to each person, individually and uniquely, as they are ready to receive revelation. At that moment, that person can either accept Him or reject Him. I believe that God doesn’t give up if He’s rejected. He waits patiently and continues revealing Himself until He gets to the point where He says, "I could stand face to face with this person, recreate the world, and they would still reject me."

Do you know what we call that in man? Stubborn pride. Some will not accept God even if He’s right before their eyes. You can sit there and say, "But of course they would." No. We’ll see this in just a moment. That’s what chapter 9 is all about. There is a revelation, right in front of people. You’ll see it and say, "Well, certainly they’ll believe now."

So this is a continuation story from chapter 8. I think it’s a continuation of the adulteress woman story and His discussions with the Jews.

Here is someone who has been blind from birth. Think about that a little deeper. If someone has been blind since birth, what do they know? Only what they can hear, taste, smell, or feel. You have to think about their frame of reference—they’ve never seen light.

Now look at verse 2. You are so much like these disciples with their questions.

It had to have been one of them. There are a lot of suppositions here. "The sin must be there. That’s why he’s blind. He had to have sin in his life." That said a lot about their religion, philosophy, and theology there. The Jews have been prodding Him and now the disciples are asking questions. What kind of question do you think this is? It’s a reasonable question but why would they be asking it? They’re inquisitive, based on the idea that there must be sin if anything’s wrong with someone.

Do you remember when we studied Job? The counselors came to Job and said, "Well, you’ve done something wrong or these bad things wouldn’t be happening to you." Is that not a common thing that some people think today? But we destroyed that concept when we discussed Job. We want to think that way but that’s not the way it works. Bad things don’t happen to you just because you do something bad. God doesn’t work that way. But that’s what they thought, "Is it because of something the man did or something his parents did?" If it was because of the man’s sin, when would he have done it, being blind from birth? In the womb.

If you’re a disciple, you’re saying, "Man, He just got my attention. I thought I had it down—it’s either the parents or him. I was sure it was the parents."

Now, I tell you, that speaks volumes for us, today. If you can’t read the truth in there… What does it say there? It says, "The way God made you is the way God wants you—to display Himself, God, in your life." Do you hear that? So whatever defects you have, whatever you think is "wrong" with you, whatever you think is not normal or not "ideal," God says, "Accept it the way it is." There is a reason for it and God wants to display Himself through you, as you are, to others. What do we want to do, as human beings? Correct it. We think it’s a flaw. We think it’s a fault. We think it’s something bad that we need to hide.

Look at your mindset toward your children. You look at them and say, "Oh, I wish they didn’t… and I wish they could…" A friend’s 54-pound son is playing football against 90-100 pound giants. <He’s a target. Ha ha.> I’m sure the dad wishes his son was a little bigger or stronger, to protect himself. But this verse says, "This happens so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." Can you accept that? If that’s the case in his life, it has to be the case in your life.

This is a reference to End Times. We’re still in "the day." We’re still working.

He says it again, "I am the light of the world." There is something significant about this. He’s said it twice now. It’s the revelation of who He is and who we are. That’s the key. He has said all these things…I want you to hear peoples’ reactions.

A miracle occurred. The man can see. Has the man seen Jesus yet? No. He was blind, his eyes were covered up, he went to the pool, washed his eyes, and now he can see. Can you imagine how he felt? He was born blind and now he can see what he’s always only heard, felt, etc.

That’s what he did. That’s all he could do. Someone would lead him out to sit there with a cup and beg for money.

What does that say? Some are saying, "Well, that’s not possible." They don’t want to believe it. They’re covering their ears. God is standing right in front of you and you don’t want to believe. Do you see the point?

Questioning is ok, if you’re searching for God, not for your own answers. It’s your motive for questioning. God knows your heart. Let’s say that you’re not seeking but still skeptical…

He’s testifying, "I am that blind man."

He could hear. He knew that a man named "Jesus" had healed him. What was his understanding of Jesus at this point? All he said was, "The man they call ‘Jesus.’" Not "the Messiah." Not "the Son of God." Not "the Savior." Not "a miracle worker." Just "the man named ‘Jesus.’"

The Pharisees were the ruling body. They are the Jews who are supposed to know it all. They know the Law.

Uh Oh. They didn’t like that. You don’t do things on the Sabbath without their permission. Jesus did something so that’s not good.

It’s the same story. "He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and now I can see."

Huh!? Wait a minute. It’s a miracle from God we can see and what are we worried about? Strict adherence to the Law. Go back to chapter 7.

This is from the Pharisees too—some guards commenting on Jesus.

Do you see what they’re saying there? What did they say? "I will not believe." Do you understand that that is a decision the Pharisees made? That’s a decision that people make today. That’s a decision you may have made about some aspect of God—"I will not believe it. Even though it’s right in front of me, I am not going to believe it." Let’s keep going.

So now they’re blaming the mob. "We’re great and pure but the mob is wrong."

Remember the story about Nicodemus from last week? Here, we see a little more of Nicodemus. There is a crack opening. The revelation is coming through. It started in chapter 3 of John and it’s coming through a little more.

They are divided, aren’t they?

Who do you think asked this? I think it was Nicodemus. It may have been somebody else but one of the Pharisees said, "Hey. Maybe I do want to believe. Maybe I do want to be a little more open-minded." Do you see that? That’s what I want you to see in John.

So the blind man has gone from "a man named ‘Jesus’" to "a prophet." He’s been thinking.

Can you believe this? They still didn’t believe. Let me ask you. What are the Pharisees saying? "We will not believe. I will not believe. I do not believe. I don’t want to believe. Nothing can make me believe." Before they hear or do anything, they’ve already decided. This is what I want you to see. They have already made their decision. They’re just trying to convince the crowd and themselves.

Based on what? There is no basis for this. They’re just trying to justify themselves.

"I once was blind but now I see." That’s where the song comes from—"Amazing Grace."

This man is wising up to the Pharisees.

Wham! How about that? "Do you want to become His disciples too?" That’s the exact opposite of what they wanted.

Do you remember Jesus telling them, "You don’t know where I come from or where I’ll go."

Who said that? The blind man. Can you see his progression from "man" to "prophet" to…who now? The Son of God. Who convinced him? The Pharisees. He’s thinking, "Wow. This man, this prophet, had to be from God."

Did they want to believe? No.

You have now seen Him physically and spiritually.

There’s his conversion.

I know that sounds complicated but look at it. Those who think they can see are really blind (the Pharisees). Those who realize they are blind can see. Do you see that? That’s what Jesus is talking about.

Do you know why He said that? Can you follow that? He’s saying, "You say you can see but you don’t see your own sin. You cannot see it." This goes back to the source, Jesus being the revelation in your life of showing you His will, His way, sin in your life, what you should be doing, etc. We must have that revelation. We can’t live without it. You can’t bear fruit without Jesus. You can’t do anything without Jesus.