Words of Jesus Podcast - Do You Believe In The Son of God

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

The joy of an eye-opening miracle creates immediate awe and attention. The clamor almost overshadowing the life-changing experience itself. How could a man born-blind have sight? Fake news pundits were decrying the event and even the identity of the healed man. "Think not that I came to bring peace..." said Jesus. A choice is mandated of those who receive a visitation by God, the receiver of the gift and of the watchers. Every act of obedience to the Father by Jesus declared, "It's not like you think." Quite a challenge to those who are professionals in "God's business". Established circumstances, regulations, and protocol dictates who is and is not eligible to receive from God. ***60: Jesus Heals The Man Born BlindJohn 9:1-41As Jesus walked along on a Sabbath he saw a man who had been born blind from birth.            Jesus’ disciples said to him:            “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”            Jesus answered them, saying:            “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day. The night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”            As soon as he had finished speaking, Jesus spat on the ground, made a soft mass of clay with the spittle, and placed it, as an ointment, on the eyes of the blind man. Then he said to the man:            “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.”            The blind man went to the pool, and when he had washed his eyes he could see.             Acquaintances who saw him said:            “Is this not he that sat and begged?”            Some said:            “This is he.”             Others said:            “He is like him.”            The man who had been blind said:            “I am he.”            Thereupon he was asked:            “How were thine eyes opened?”            He replied:            “A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash.’ And I went and washed, and I received sight.”            The man was asked:            “Where is he?”            He answered:            “I know not.”            The people who had questioned him took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees.            When the Pharisees asked him how he had...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris. Hello my friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris here. It's my privilege and my honor to read to you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea is for the words of Christ to reinforce Christianity. And, you know, if you're going to put the words of Jesus back into Christianity, there's going to be a lot of props knocked out

that we've had for many years. So you might as well get yourself prepared for that. There's some things that just don't fit here, and they need to just go by the way. You know, I'm sorry, but, you know, we do sort of a merciful God, and I think that we shouldn't forget that especially when we get into the into what we do here and to what many people do as that is that

you know they're seeking truth in their life and they realize oh my goodness i've been doing this wrong all this time you know i've been using this word wrong i've been using this this doctrine to justify something that it has no business justifying i've been using this word wrong i've been using this this doctrine to justify something that it has no business justifying i've been ignoring certain scriptures i've been doing a lot of stuff wrong and then it occurs to you oh my goodness my grandpa did it this way my grandpa thought this way my grandpa didn't believe this he didn't believe that and he believed this and we know that's not so. And right. And now what happens? We start getting worried about, you know, the, our heritage and our, our denomination and our favorite preacher. And I understand that.

But let me tell you something that's wonderful about our God. I happen to believe that many, many people, thousands, perhaps millions, I don't know. He's a merciful God. He could be millions. There's going to be, let's just say, millions of people that are going to be saved in ignorance. You don't have to know everything to be a Christian. So what's important?

What's really important here? That we don't rebel. That's all. Because as I can say with every bit of understanding that I have to give you the assurance that there are going to be millions of people saved in ignorance it's with that same amount of authority it's with the same amount of influence

but I don't think there's going to be not one rebellious person in the kingdom of God. Which makes what I do very, very dangerous. Dangerous for you. As long as you're ignorant, you've almost got a chance.

I don't know how you're going to make it through your life as a Christian or as a joyful Christian without truth. I don't know how you're going to make it through your life as a christian or as a joyful christian without truth i don't know how you're going to do that you're not going to be free jesus says truth sets free so if you're not believing what's true and you don't know it although you might be safe you're still going to be sorry so you know when i when i show you something in the scriptures it's absolutely undeniable i mean hopefully you feel that way i certainly do but you know what it carries with it responsibility now you've got a responsibility to obey it

um that's a dangerous place to be because really what I'm doing is it's kind of moving you from ignorance to rebellion. There is a way to stop that. You move from ignorance, you move to truth, and then you move to obedience. Oh boy, then it starts to open up. Then you start to understand, oh, Jesus was really all about obedience, wasn't he?

He expected us to do this stuff. Not just believe it. Not just, you know, mouth it when we go to church. But he wanted us to believe these things. Well, we're going to talk about a lovely story today that is one of my favorites in the scriptures. And it was the story about Jesus making a man born blind sighted again. This particular story ends in a very peculiar way.

I've asked people, when you're in Sunday school, did you ever hear about Jesus making the blind see? Oh yeah. You ever heard that in a sermon? Yeah. You ever heard that in a conversation? Well sure. Is it in religious books? Is it in doctrine? Jesus making the blind man see? Yeah, it is. Do you know that Jesus said that that particular ministry, that particular action on his part, was inextricably coupled with another one that we never hear about? Really? Usually people are walking away by then.

I'm always amazed at people that don't say, tell me, tell me, tell me what you're talking about. I've quit being amazed about that. But it's inextricably coupled with this jesus says the son of man came to the earth to make the blind see and to make the seeing blind isn't that isn't that odd just like i was telling you millions saved in ignorance

not one saved in rebellion jesus says you know if you were blind you'd have no sin but you say we see therefore your sin remains all right we need to read this long story so a little little bit more reading than usual. Stay with me. Jesus walked along and he saw a man who had been blind from his birth. Jesus' disciples said to him, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus answered, neither is this man's sin nor his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh, but no man can work. As long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world.

When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the eyes of the man with that clay. He said to him, go and wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, sent. He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing. The neighbors, therefore, and those which had seen that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he. Others said, He's like him. But he said, the blind man said, said i am he therefore they said unto him well how were your eyes opened and he said oh man it was called jesus he made clay and anointed my eyes and then said to me go and wash in the pool of siloam. And I went, and I washed, and I received sight. Then they said unto him, where is he?

He said, I know not. They sought Pharisees that knew him, which was a four-time blind, and it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight, and he said unto them, He put clay on my eyes, I washed, and I do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that's a sinner do such miracles? And then there was a division among them. And said the blind man again,

What sayest thou of him that opened your eyes? He said, He's a prophet. But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they asked the parents of him that had received his sight. And they asked him, saying, is this your son,

who you say was born blind? How doth he now see? His parents answered him and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind, but by what means he now seeth, we know not. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. He's of age. Ask him. He'll speak for himself.

These words spake his parents because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had already said that if any man did confess that he was the Christ, he'd be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, said his parents, he's of age. Ask him. Then again they called the man that was blind and said unto him, give God the praise.

We know that this man's a sinner. He answered and said, well, he be a sinner or no i know not one thing i do know that whereas i was blind now i see and when they said to him again what did he to thee how open he thine eyes he answered them and said i told you already, and you didn't hear. Wherefore would you hear it again? Would you also be his disciples? Then they reviled him and said, Thou art his disciple.

We are Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he's coming from. The man said, Why, here ends a marvelous thing. Do you not know whence he is? And yet, he's opened my eyes. We know God hears not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of God and doeth his will him he hears

since the world began it wasn't heard that anyone opened the eyes of one that was born blind if this man were not of god he could do nothing they answered and said unto him thou wast altogether born in sins and does thou teach us and they cast him out jesus heard that they'd cast him out and when he had found him he said unto him does thou believe on the son of god and he answered and said who is he lord that i might believe on him and jesus said unto him thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee and he said lord i believe and he worshiped him and jesus said for judgment i am coming to this world that they which might that see And Jesus said, for judgment I am coming to this world, that they which see not might see,

and they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If you were blind, you'd have no sin. But now you say, We see. Therefore, your sin remaineth. I know it's difficult to hear when I say something like that millions will be saved in ignorance

and none will be saved in rebellion. I know it's difficult when I say that Jesus made to make the seeing blind. I know that the words of Jesus are difficult for you. I understand that. If you understand what's being said,

you can't help but feel like those words are extremely difficult. We have to look at these things. We have to open our minds to understand what Jesus is all about. He is all about saving people, friend, that want to be saved. Not just a nonchalant. Adding Christianity. Adding religion to their life.

But a true desire to serve God. They want to do the right thing. They want to believe. He goes to this man. After all this horrible situation with these Pharisees and says, do you believe on the, oh shoot, that's not so. Give me camera two. Go ahead.

Just let the clock run. After this situation that he was discovered as having a sight, and I can see this fellow walking off and probably trying to find a quiet place. It's probably caused all kinds of a tumult there in the town. Everybody's whispering, everybody's talking, everybody's pointing. And I can see him sneaking off and finding a quiet place, finding a little place there by himself. And Jesus, the Bible says that when Jesus heard that the Pharisees had thrown him out,

it says that he went to find him and in this encounter when he goes to find the Lord Jesus the question that he decided to ask him was not you know so how's the vision thing going or hey so you're the one that was healed tell me about it isn't it odd that Jesus walked up to him I see him coming behind

him you know and kind of whispering to him while he's in his quiet state and saying do you believe in the son of god it's it's it's a rhetorical question it's a question that really doesn't i mean of course you know there's there's an answer yes or no to it but it's like he puts him back in the vein of you know know, this is not necessarily a physical thing

or a temporal thing, but you need to understand that you've been visited by the Son of God. And so he's asking him, do you believe in the Son of God? Now listen to this. His answer to him was in this area that I'm trying to tell you

that our Lord God came to visit and to empower and to save and to receive those who are wanting relationship with Him. There are so many people that are Christian by necessity. Why are you a Christian? Well, I won't go to hell. Well, that's a's wonderful reason i guess but no no whatever happened to serving a wonderful god to you know to serve him as our creator and as the one who watches over us and the one who loves us what are you doing just

appeasing a god like you would a a volcano god by throwing your your kids or your calves or or money down in the hole it really is that is that the god that we're serving here or are we indeed trying to find a personal relationship with god there are people that have real trouble with the idea of a personal relationship with god uh namely those of the jewish faith they think that that's foolishness and you know if i happen to believe that god was indeed a mountain if i believe that he was you know incomprehensible by human being i guess i could understand why they feel that way but you see we also have to understand that they don't have any um uh cognizance of jesus christ which was god's purpose in taking him from what he is, that invisible, untouchable, all-powerful God

who at the very vision of him would take our lives from the earth. For that God to incorporate himself into the body of a man, he's got something in his mind here and it is relationship it is to to put these two beings together god and man this act alone should be the motivation on our part to want a relationship with him not just avoidance of hell you don't even know if hell exists friend nobody's ever come back from there and told us abraham wouldn't let the one that we know about i mean that rich man says let me go back and tell my brethren about this horrible place well nobody's ever been back abraham wouldn't let him go by the way you'd be surprised what

abraham told him but um he wouldn't let him go back and nobody's ever been back so you're afraid of a place that you know you're not even really sure that it exists? That's kind of odd. And this is your motivation for being a Christian? You know, frankly, if God throws me into an eternally burning flame and consumes me to ashes and I go up in smoke and never to be remembered again, I still love him. I still want a relationship with him.

I still appreciate the fact that he used a flicker of his power to put me on this earth and to put a spirit within me and a spark in my brain to even want to find him. I appreciate that. I love that about him. You know, I mean, even if there is no eternity even if there is no uh you know eternal reward or crowns or you know some uh courtroom scene where we all come marching out of the courtroom happy because don's been adjudicated as innocent or you know i don know, I don't know.

I don't know what your fantasies are. But I just love the Lord. And, you know, if I've got to sing his praises in hell, that's what I'll do. But I just love the Lord. I just wonder how many people are like that. I just, I wonder about it. I wonder how many have the attitude of this blind man who's so grateful and and so appreciative of the the power used on his behalf that the answer to the question

do you believe on the son of god tell me who he is just tell me who he is i'm with you yeah i'd like to know who is he that i may believe on him isn't that isn't that a beautiful attitude i think it is i i just i just love that story because of this of this man and so what what's Jesus say to him? Well, you know, I was in a denomination once that didn't believe that Jesus Christ was divine, that didn't believe that he ever claimed to be Messiah, he never claimed to be the Son of God, you know, these kind of things. I was right in the middle of a denomination

that believed that. Jesus never claimed to be the middle of a denomination that believed that. Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God. You know, who says that? Other than an idiot or a person who's never read the Bible. Who would say such a thing? Because he did, clearly, in many cases. We just got finished talking about the woman at the well incident where he told them, I'm the Messiah.

That's me. I i'm here i can answer your question he's telling this guy he says do you believe in the son of god well who is he lord that i might believe on him it's me that's me you see i think that he was realized, you have to understand, you have to understand that this blind man has never seen Jesus. You read the story, it might not occur to you, but Jesus put the clay on his eyes and said, go wash in the pool of Siloam. I kind of think Jesus snuck down there to watch. I don't know.

But, you know, here comes this stumbling blind man. He had to have somebody lead him there. And so, you know, he's tapping along with his cane or his dog or something is carrying there or a friend or whatever. And so he shows up at the pool of Siloam. He pulls his sandals off, ties his robe up around his waist walks in a little while and starts splashing water in his face what's the first thing he sees

he sees his own reflection in the water more than likely he sees himself he's not seeing Jesus, but he sees himself. He sees the people sitting around at that pool. And man, all of a sudden he can see. Well, it causes quite a furor. And everybody wants to know him. Everybody wants to claim to be his friend. And everybody wants to pat him on the back. Big day.

This is a huge day the huge day in his life is a huge day in everybody's life and i can just see jesus sitting over there in one of the lounge chairs there around the pool just his shoulders just jumping because he's just giggling i could just see see it happening. So, you know, they're carrying him off, and they're treating him to dinner, and all kinds of stuff. And so Jesus just kind of lets him go, because he knows what's going to happen.

He hears them when they're walking by with the blind guy. The blind guy wouldn't recognize him, because he's never seen him. But he hears them talking as they're walking by with the blind guy. Blind guy wouldn't recognize him because he's never seen him. But he hears them talking as they're walking and back slapping and glad handing him and walking him through the crowds of people. He knows where they're going because he heard them talking as they walked by. Pharisees need to know about this. Church needs to know about this this we need to get some church

officials in here find out what's happened has god touched this man let's find some religious folks let's run it by them let's see what they say and jesus is thinking oh boy poor kid he's really in for some trouble now and so he waited around until he heard the news yep didn't give them the answers they're looking for they only have one way of dealing with this throw him out you know the bible says that they threw him out and it's kind of like because he was sassing them a little bit, I guess he kind of felt a little empowered. Hearing is a marvelous thing. You don't know who this guy is, yet he healed,

he opened the eyes of a boy that was born blind. That's a marvelous thing. And they got mad. He even said to them once you know as we read a while ago will thou be his disciple he knew better than all this he was just kind of provoking them but let me tell you something his parents you know when they backed away and said you know ask him they didn't want to get thrown out of the temple. When the Bible says that they cast him out, sure, they cast him out of the court.

They cast him out of their presence. The questions ended at that point. But you can bet your bippy. He wasn't a member of that Sanhedrin. He wasn't a member of that synagogue anymore. You can bet he was thrown out of everything religious because they were in charge of it all. This is why Jesus promised, if you're ever in my hand, you don't have to worry about these people. They didn't put you in my hand. They can't take you out of my hand. As a matter of fact, when they're in my hand, put you in my hand they can't take you out of my hand as a matter of fact when they're in my hand they're in my father's hand nobody's going to take them out of my father's hand this

is why he said that because people felt like men had the power to cast them out of the synagogue to cost them their eternal life jesus said you don't have to worry about that so he goes and he finds the guy and says do you believe in the son of God just point him out is exactly what he was saying to Jesus point him out to me I'll show you who believes in the son of God it's me it's a beautiful story

our time is gone now, but I hope you enjoyed the little excursion into first century Christianity. But if you're enjoying it, so I'd really love to hear from you. Why don't you write to me and give me your questions, your comments. You can do that by email very easily,

don at thinkredding.com. If you'd like to write to the ministry, be a part of what we're doing here, get on our email list, these kind of things, all that can be done at thinkredink.com. Thanks for being a part of the show. Until next time, Think Red Ink. You've been listening to Don C. Harris

of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you