With The Perrys - Teach The Text : John 9

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

Back again is another episode of "Teach The Text" where either Jackie or Preston take a book or passage from the Bible and teach it. On this episode, Preston walks through a pretty popular narrative in the scriptures when Jesus healed a man that was born blind. Not surprisingly, this story has many connections to our modern context such as dealing with religious folk, suffering, and more. Subscribe to the Perrys' newsletter: https://withtheperrys.myflodesk.com/zhfus4jx1s Join Preston's discipleship community for men: https://www.patreon.com/PrestonPerry/membership To support the work of the Perrys, donate via PayPal: https://paypal.me/withtheperrys Shop BOLD Apparel: boldapparel.shop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey Preston Perry. Hey, Jackie Hill, Perry. How are you? How are you? Um, my face feels dry. I didn't put any, like, lotion on it. Well, not, like, regular, like, no jerkins. You don't put that on your face, but, like, my clinic.

It doesn't look dry. It feels deserty. That's that, that natural melan. Oh, it feels like, look, remember when Jesus is in the wilderness and the devil came and he was like, you should turn these stones to bread. It's such a Bible teacher. You think so? You make everything a story about the Bible.

I'm just saying, imagine being 40 days in the wilderness. Your skin is going to be a hot mess. Even if you're Jesus, you're going to have some crispy skin. I always thought when I think of John the Baptist, I just always, like, pitching him really ashy. You think so? But he was eating honey and stuff. So he probably loki has some, like, you know, nutrients and the system that made his face glow. No, he just seemed like a goony in the woods eating wild locusts.

He had the Holy Spirit from bird. Like, I'm pretty sure he was glowing. It's just, it's a thing. Anyway, we're coming back with our new little series we like to call Teach the Text is where one of us take a topic or a passage or a book of the Bible and we just teach it, you know? And so we have the fantastical Preston Perry who's going to teach something today. Fantasticical. Fantastic. I don't know if that's a word.

I think it is. What are you teaching us today? John 9. I think John 9 is an amazing story about Jesus and a lot of things that we can learn from. I think we should teach from John 9 today. Okay. So, John 9, that's such a random chapter. Like, I can see if you said John 3, because we know verse 16, for God so love the world that he gave son and stuff like that.

So what is it about? What's the point? Because people are probably driving in their cars and washing dishes, and they cannot look up the verse right now. I think John 9 is a very important chapter to read in the Bible because it talks about the power of seeing. I think it deals with a spiritual sight. I think it,

but it uses this story about this man who was physically born blind. And Jesus, essentially, he heals a blind man from birth. That's what the story is about. Okay. But in this, him healing a man blind from birth, there's a lot of spiritual implications that we can take from this story that I think would be helpful for everybody. So teach us.

So the first verse, it says that as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth and asked the disciples, I'm sorry, and the disciples asked him, Rabbi, who's sinned this man who's parents that he was born blind? Who are they messy? Yeah. So I think it's really important for us to just first see that the significance of Jesus noticing a man that was blind from birth. Hello. Jesus walks past this man And I think the reason why Jesus noticing that he was blind from birth is significant

Because I think we have to understand that Jesus didn't see this man How everybody else saw him Explain Because around this time You know, the idea was If you were born blind That your parents sin That you sin and God kind of cursed you

That's why the disciples asked the question Yeah, who's saying this man was parents That he was born blind Jesus is not only coming to destroy this myth because that's not true, right? Because what he says next lets us know why he was born blind. But first I just want to deal with the fact that he saw him. Because I think that we have to understand that this man was outside of the synagogue begging because he couldn't work. He couldn't, you know, provide for himself.

So he went to one of the most spiritual places in town hoping that somebody, God, he will help him every single day. That's a word. And Jesus walks past and he just doesn't see that this see this man's spiritual needs, but he sees this man physical needs. And I think what it can do for us, it can challenge us when we see people with disability to see the whole person. Because a lot of times we see people with disability and we see people who are disabled or less fortunate than us. And we don't really see them, right? We don't really stop. And I'm pretty sure this man was used to everybody just walking.

passed him every single day. But Jesus notices this man and he, yeah, and he wants to, he wants to do something about it. And I think that's just a very practical challenge that we can take that, that Jesus sees him, he notices him. And a lot of times we don't see people with disability. Yeah. Like Jesus sees. So then what happens? So what happens after this, the, like I said, the disciples ask Jesus, who's saying this man, it was parents that he was born blind. And Jesus says, neither this man nor he's saying that he was born blind, so that the glory of God can be revealed through him. What's a little deep, though,

is like, it's a little tone deaf, I think, to pass by a blind person who's in need. And instead of actually responding to the need, you have like a theological question about why they're in need in the first place. Yeah. Yeah, that's a really good observation. And I think it's very important for us to notice how Jesus responds to the disciples by not telling them the reason why he was born blind, but the purpose why he was born blind. Because Jesus is not concerned about, one, the purpose of him being born blind, what they think the purpose is. Oh, the reason, I'm sorry, the reason, he wasn't born blind because of past sin. And I think that speaks to us because a lot of times we can think that we're suffering because of our past sin.

This man is not suffering because of his past sin, nor is he suffering because of the past scenes of others. But he was suffering right now because God had a purpose in his suffering. And I think the disciples asking this question, though this is what their culture taught them, was just not to ask insensitive questions, right, to be aware. Because though their question was probably genuine and it didn't mean any harm, it was still very insensitive. But Jesus responds and tells them the purpose of why this man is suffering, not necessarily the reason of why he is suffering. And he says that he was born blind to the glory of God may be revealed through him. I have a question there.

Yeah. I think there's a lot of people, even I might deal with that in myself at times, who feel like is it fair for God to make my life hard and difficult just so he can get glory? I can see how someone could think that that's a bit egotistical. Yeah, yeah. Not accusing God of having an ego because he doesn't. But I'm saying that that's like a stumbling block to faith for some people, that God makes life hard for people just so he can be seen. Yeah, I think, one, I think sometimes it can be very dismissive to say God can do what he wants, right?

But in a lot of ways, that's right. I mean, he can choose to get glory, however he sees. He's fit. He definitely can. But I think on the flip side, I think that we see that he did even do that with himself, right? I think that if we serve, I think it would be harder that if we serve the God who didn't choose to make his own life hard, right, so that his son, so that he can receive glory, right? He sent his son, his only begun son who knew no sin to become sin so that we can become

the righteousness of God. So I think that when I think about things that we might see in the Bible that might seem unfair, I think about if I was born 2,000 years ago and I saw the death of Jesus, it's truly unfair. The fact that Jesus even came in the first place was a big deal. Like, he didn't even have to come. When we see the things like this in the Bible, I think that it's important for us to trust the character of God. That's God. Because, for example, this man was born blind, right?

And this man being born blind so that the glory of God may be revealed in him, right? Somebody could say, well, Jesus choosing that this man being born blind was just cruel. Why did he do that? But how about all the people who have heard this message and was blessed by it and was brought out of sin or was encouraged by it? Like God had plans through generations through this man's blindness. Right? And I think that if we think that if we, yeah, I think that if we think that if we, yeah, I think that if we think that God is not ultimately doing everything for the good of those who love him, we will fight to see that he's good and everything that he does. So they pass by the dude.

He's blind from birth. The disciples like, hey, who's saying this man to his parents? Jesus is like, ain't none of them saying. He was born like that because I'm trying to get glory out the man. And so then Jesus, he gets some mud and he spits in it. It's a little strange, but it takes us back to Genesis 3 or Genesis 1 and 2. Spits in and put it in the man's eyes, put it on them. It says that the man came back seeing it.

Okay, teach us, teacher. So after the third verse, when Jesus says that he was born blind so that the glory of God may be displayed in him, the fourth verse says, we must work the works of the one who sent me. Night is coming when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Jesus is basically using an analogy that they will understand because at this time, of course, they didn't have electricity, right? So the most efficient time to work was doing today. And I think even now, the most efficient time to work doing today.

Of course, we have street lights and stuff like that outside. Well, we can work a little more. But the most efficient time is always doing the day because you can see better. So Jesus is saying he is the light of the world. using the actual light of the day as a metaphor of himself. He's saying, while I'm in the world, I am actually the light of the world. So now it is time to do a work because if I leave, there will be no light. There will be no way for us to see clearly. So Jesus is using this metaphor that they can understand because the most efficient time to work was doing the day

when it's light. And then first, six, six says having said thought these things he spit in the ground and made mud with his saliva and then anointed the man's eyes with mud and said to him go washing the pool of shalom now this to me is just very uh initially just seemed very nasty it's like why did jesus you choose to to spit in his man's eyes to heal him but at the same time he's 100% man and he's 100% God, so his spit was holy. But he was still a hundred percent man. But I think what's dope is that Jesus is displaying that not only is he going to work

on the Sabbath, but he's going to heal a man on the Sabbath. Because when he's spit in the mud, that's exactly what he did. So for those who don't know, in Eastern culture, what you did was you did not work on the Sabbath. The six days, the day that you, the sixth day of the week is the day that you worked. And then the seven day is when you rest. this was actually taking place on a Sabbath, a day where men were not supposed to work in this culture, and when men was not supposed to heal people in this culture.

Jesus did both, because when he sped in the mud, he did something called kneading. And needing is when back then they would make clay to make pots, so they would put water or sometimes the saliva in the mud to make clay, and that was considered working. Jesus did this by making mud and putting it in the man's eyes, and this was prohibited at his time. He was not supposed to work on the Sabbath. And he also healed. Now, he healed on the Sabbath, but this was not actually in God's law. So I think that he wanted to heal this man to address something that he did not say in his own law.

Because this is something that the Pharisee just made up, not healing people on the Sabbath. But at the same time, he wanted to work on the Sabbath to display that these laws do not apply to me. While I'm in the world, I have to do a work. You guys can rest on the Sabbath. But right now, me, the son of God, I have to do a work. And I'm going to heal this man on the Sabbath because, yeah, time is near when I'm going to leave soon. So I need to do a work so that God's glory can be revealed.

I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah. So after all that in verse 7, it describes how the man or how Jesus told the man, hey, go and wash in the pool and how to do went and washed and came back seeing. When I hear Jesus say go, automatically one thing. this is a command. This ain't no like suggestion. He's not saying go. He's saying go. Like get your tail up. I guess feel your way through the streets to get to that pool and do what you got to do. Like is there is something that I guess we can learn here from just his healing being connected to or

contingent upon his obedience? Yeah. Yeah. I think I think one of the things that we can see here is that our salvation isn't based on our works nor is our deliverance based on our works but sometimes our deliverance comes after we obey and I think a lot of times we refuse to

obey God when he says go and we wonder why we don't receive deliverance or we don't receive healing but sometimes I think Jesus wants us to trust in what he's saying until we can see what he's doing because if we look at at it, it took a measure of faith for this man to actually go. Oh, absolutely.

Right? The reason why is because, one, he's blind. Yeah, he don't even see Jesus. He doesn't even see the pool. He hears the go. Right. He just hears. He just hears go.

But I think it took a measure of faith for him to say, even though I can't see what this man is doing right now with this mud in my eyes, I'm going to trust. I'm desperate enough. to trust that he knows what he's doing. And the crazy thing is, in the text, you see that Jesus didn't tell him why he was going. He never says, I'm going to heal you. Neither does he ask him if he wants to be healed.

He just says, go and watch. Yeah. You know, and so maybe he assumed, I've heard enough about this dude. He's a prophet. He's healing people. I don't think he had raised Lazarus from the day yet here. But he knows enough about him to know if he's telling me to do something,

is obviously going to be for my good. Yeah. Ooh, that's a word. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it speaks to the man's desperation. Yeah. Because a lot of times we don't obey God because we don't realize how desperate we are of God.

Like I think that this man, he's been suffering his whole life. Just imagine not being able to see your mother, your father, the son, the trees. And to provide. To provide or whatever. So he's like, I'm just going to trust you. Yep. I don't have no other. option. I mean, why not trust you? I don't have anything to lose. And I think that we hold on to so

much that we don't trust God. And I think this man is just a perfect example that, no, if you trust God, even if you can't see what he's saying at the end of you trusting God, it's healing, it's deliverance, it's blessings. And by healing, what do you mean? Do you mean physical healing? Do you mean healing in terms of salvation, healing of the soul? All of it. Okay. I think I think God is God. I think he can do it all. I think that doesn't mean he will do it all in every single circumstance. But I think God, if God wants to heal us physically, he will. I think if he, but I ultimately think that he wants to heal our souls. I think ultimately what he wants us to do is to know him in the pardon of our sins because it doesn't matter if he heals us physically here in this

world and our souls to go to hell. So more than this man's physical healing, Jesus wanted this man to know him. I think we'll see that late on in the story. Yeah, his physical healing was setting the stage for his spiritual healing. After he was healed, some people were confused. They're like, hey, I seen you. You used to be a blind beggar.

And now you're looking at me in my eye. I wrote about that in my book because I wrote about this narrative in the last chapter of the book and how like can you imagine knowing him and him looking at you not like like look like with his eyes directly on your eyes now they're not even white no more it's like oh you see you see see me right why your pupil's different what had happened so like what do what do you make of all of the i guess all of the disbelief not only from just the random people that noticed him but especially from the pharisees yes because they they refuse to believe that he used to be blind if he could now see.

Yeah, one, I think, like I said before, one of the reasons why they couldn't accept the fact that this man was healed of blindness is because they were so holding so tightly to tradition. Right? And I think a lot of times we can't see God because our tradition doesn't allow us to see that God might be moving and working

despite of what the things that we believe. believe about God and to believe about our culture. Because one, they made up a rule, the Pharisees made up a rule that nobody could be healed on the Sabbath, which was not true. Right? So because you guys made up this thing about God, when God actually comes and heals somebody on the Sabbath, you can't even see it. Yeah, you've created, I guess, constructs that have actually limited you where you now can't believe accurately. Absolutely. And that speaks to so many people in our culture who ascribe to certain denominations. And I'm not saying that denominations are wrong.

But when we allow certain traditions in our denominations to become gospel and not allow the Bible to speak for itself, when God actually moves in somebody's life outside of our culture, outside of the way we think things should be, we won't recognize it as God. This is a silly example, but it's kind of like when Christian hip-hop came on the scene, You had people who before that, they were demonizing hip hop, period, primarily secular hip hop.

It was the demon of the devil's music. That can't be God. God can't use it. So then when Christians. God don't use people to rhyme. Who came out of that culture, then began to rap about God with a sound, that sounded secular. They couldn't even rejoice. They couldn't even enjoy it.

They couldn't even be blessed by the words that were actually usually much more gospel dense than the gospel music that they were listening to. And they couldn't even hear the gospel. I think that's the scary thing. That's true. I think tradition allows us to hold on to culture, allow us to know what to do. Because I passed talked about this Sunday. Like tradition is not wrong.

Tradition helps us to have a ritual, a framework. A framework to celebrate God. But when we take these traditions and say that they're Bible, It prevents us from seeing God and hearing God when he moves because they literally couldn't, just like the hip-hop, Christian hip-hop. When Christian hip-hop first popped up to sing, most of the Christian hip-ops, their lyrics were saturated in gospel. But because it's coming in the package that you demonize is wrong, you can't even hit the gospel. And I think the same thing with them. It's like, just because you demonize people being healed on the Sabbath is a bad thing.

now when Jesus heals on a sabbic, you can't even see that the blessing of this man's healing, which is crazy. Another thing that's, I think, applicable in this narrative, which I've discussed or wrote about in my book again, is how Jesus healed this man, right? He came back seeing. They went and asked his parents, hey, was he born blind? They're like, absolutely he was. Like, they refused to believe the miracle. And I think as someone who used to live a lesbian lifestyle or other people with testimonies that might

seem a bit on the dramatic and incomprehensible side. You meet a lot of people that doubt that you change, doubt that you're different. They suspect you can't possibly have been who you used to be for you to be who you are now. And so they want to somehow change your narrative to fit their own. And I think what this says is the Pharisees and these people, they doubted the testimony of this man because they doubted the God of this man. It's hard to believe that that, that, that the impossible can happen if you don't believe in the God of impossibility. Shee-bo. What?

She-bo-she-b-G-G-G-B-B-B-B-B-B. That was the worst fake tongue I've ever heard in my entire life. And that's exactly what it was, a fake tongue. I don't have their gifts. That might be real. Sometimes. But seriously, like, people around you are going to doubt the gravity and the way of the way in which God has set you free when they doubt the God that set you free. Yeah.

So you can't even be mad. at them. You can't even feel some type of way. It's you are blind in the same way that I once was. Yeah. That leads me to our next point. When Jesus talks to the Pharisees, he gives them this interesting, like, I don't, it's not parabolic, but it's a, it's a, I'll just read it. He says in verse 39, for judgment I came into the world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind. Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now that you say we see, your guilt remains. Please explain that to us. Yeah. So I think it's important for us to know what

happened before this, because what happened before this is Jesus heard that this man was kicked out of the synagogue, right? So Jesus comes back and he heals this man again. But this time, he heals him of a spiritual blindness. Jesus walks up to the man. Jesus says, do you know who the son of is. And the man says, no, I don't know who the son of man is. Tell me so that I can believe in him. And Jesus says, for I'm the one you are speaking to, you have seen him. And then the Bible says the man falls out immediately and worship Jesus. So what happens was Jesus healed this man of physical blindness earlier, but the man still didn't have the power to see that the man who actually healed me was Jesus. So what Jesus had to do is Jesus had to come back or God in the flesh, right?

So Jesus had to come back and heal him of a second blindness. But this time, of a spiritual blindness, which is very powerful. It shows us that God has to give us the power to see him for who he really is, right? That teaches us that. But to answer your questions about the Pharisees, the Pharisees witnessed this. The Pharisees refused to believe in his physical healing, and they witness his spiritual transformation right in front of their eyes, and they still didn't believe. So Jesus basically says, for judgment, I've come into the world,

for those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind this man who was blind couldn't see jesus and jesus is saying i came into the world for people like him for people who do not see me for them to actually see me for me to actually open their eyes and allow them to see me for who i am but those who claim that they see right um like the pharisees they claim that they see god but they really don't see God. And because they claim that they see God, Jesus is basically saying, you will remain blind.

You will remain in darkness because you're not like this man who genuinely doesn't see and who wants to see, right? You actually see the works of the Son of God and you claim you see and because you claim you see when you really don't see,

you will remain in darkness. So you're blind and you're blind and you claim that you say, this sounds Muslim. You're blind and you're blind and you're blind and you can't see because you're blind and you won't see because you can't see and then you walk down the street and you don't see nothing. Yeah, I hope that makes sense because I think one of the things that we can learn from the Pharisees is they allowed the things that they read about God to make them think that they know God. Okay, so to make them to make them think that they see God. Let's put flesh and bone to this.

So how would you describe the kind of person now that is not a Pharisee, you know, they watch HGTV. food network, they go to church every Sunday, but they fit this description. How would they know that this is them? How do they know that they're blind but believing that they can see? I think one of the things that distinguishes the Pharisees from this man is that this man, because he was healed of physical blindness and then Jesus comes back and heal him of a spiritual blindness, we see that his worship was an intimate worship. Like, God revealed himself to this man in a very intimate way where this man had no choice but to respond in worship. I think one way we can look like Pharisees today is if we just read and know a whole bunch of knowledge about God, but it never

compels us to worship, like in spirit and in truth and to know God intimately, you're probably still blind, right? And I think that's the difference between this man and the, in the, in the Pharisees, this man, when God revealed himself to this man, this man was grateful to the point where he fell down in worship. The Pharisees was sitting back and they was just judging everything that was happening off of things that they read because they didn't have an intimate relationship with God. They didn't have an intimate an encounter with God. So they can only judge based off what they study.

And I think that's what we can do now, even in our culture. We can study, study, study, study, study. And we can think that everything that we have learned about God gives us this relationship with God when it doesn't. I think one thing that this passage teaches us is that salvation is experiential. It's an experience. It's an encounter, not just something that our laws and our traditions and our religion has taught us, but it is actually encounters. So this man encountered God. And after he encountered God, God is going to inform this man probably about all his ways or whatever. But first,

the intimate encounter had that to happen first. It also seems that Jesus is highlighting heart awareness, you know, like how he says, I came into the world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind. but the problem is that the Pharisees were fundamentally blind. All of us are born into the world blind. So even if you don't feel like you're blind, I'm happy. I got joy. I'm not proud.

I'm not this. I'm not arrogant. Like if you have these, I guess, grandiose views of yourselves where you think that you're godly, humility says or heart awareness says, because I was born in sin and shaped an iniquity, therefore everything that I do needs Jesus. And that was the Pharisees problem, which is to your point, is that they did not think that they needed Jesus. Therefore, they thought that they had sight already. And so I think what Jesus is saying, no, I came into this world for people that recognize that they need me. And so I think to put flesh and bone on that is to say, if you are a person that thinks that you are ready to get into heaven without the Lord, you're blind. If you think that you're a person that is, that you are satisfied, your soul is. okay, your relationships are leaving you sufficient. Your job is great. Like if you think that these kinds of things are satisfactory, therefore you don't need Jesus. You are blind. I think the blind man

recognized that, yeah, I needed him for my physical healing and I needed him for my soul healing. And those are the kinds of people that Jesus can save. He can save anybody. But, you know, our heart's got to be in a certain posture, which is also a work of the spirit. But anyway, You taught us. Praise the Lord. That's all you going to say. Yeah. It's a deep text.

It's a lot to it. It's a text that I enjoy. Hopefully everything we say, it made sense. If you guys have any questions, leave some of the questions on the reviews. We would love to hear them. We would love to answer them. Go to our page with the Perrys on Instagram and leave some questions in our DMs. You can even leave it on our page.

We would love to answer them. We would love to hear those questions. to rest of those questions. So yeah. All right, thanks. All right, peace.