"Jesus and Our Blindness" (John 9:1-7, 35-41)

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. In John chapter 9, we continue to see evidence of Jesus's unique authority as the light-bringing God, who has come into the world. The healing of a man born blind is another of the seven great Signs of Jesus' Lordship in the Gospel of John. In John 9, we have three instances of blindness, where Jesus corrects our vision. Each centers around questions asked of Jesus. The first question comes from his disciples about the purpose of suffering. Another is by the pharisees about spiritual blindness. And a final one is asked by the healed blind man about belief in God. We learn that we must admit our blindness if we want to truly see Jesus. And it is only when we truly see Jesus, that will we begin to see everything else. *I am indebted to the teaching of Tim Keller on this passage, whose sermon helped me with the outline and applications in this message! For more discussion about the purpose of suffering, see Keller's sermon on John 9, and this interview from the Gospel Coalition. “Our text begins with a frequent and consoling truth: Jesus notices especially hurting people. "Now as es was walking along, he saw a man blind from birth." One gets the distinct impression from the Gospels that it is people most hurting in any setting whom Jesus most quickly notices.” — F. Dale Bruner  "The deepest blindness is blindness to your own blindness."-Tim Keller “Spiritual blindness is a congenital disease afflicting every human being. It doesn't matter our education, our cultural savvy, our progressive politics, our religious upbringing, our exemplary moral record. We are all blind, and sin makes it impossible to see our need for God. Our morally crooked impulse is to let ourselves off the hook, to lay blame at anyone's feet but our own. The only way we can come to Jesus is by admitting our moral indebtedness—and that we can't heal our own blindness. Habits of humility pave the road to faith.” - Jen Pollock Michel