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Via podcast. And a couple of them have gotten on to me and said, How come your sermons are not on there anymore? And it's because you have a very absent-minded preacher that gets in the pulpit and forgets to record. But we're recording here on Facebook, and we'll be able to put it out on podcast at least today if my phone cooperates. John chapter 9, beginning in verse 24. And this morning we'll read through verse 34. I've titled this message When Seeing Costs You Something. When seeing costs you something. Now that is yes, physical sight, because Jesus has restored the sight of this blind man. But what we're going to see in the text, especially today, is that there was a cost to him when it came to seeing the glory of Jesus. When it came to trusting in Jesus. You see, there's this common misconception that following Jesus makes life easier. And in some ways, it certainly does. I could not imagine my life without Christ. I could not imagine life without the hope that following Jesus and knowing Christ and being known by him brings. We have seen throughout the years, and I'm sure that many of you have. You've seen Jesus heal broken marriages. You've seen Jesus restore broken people. You've seen Jesus comfort people in the darkest moments of their life. You've seen Christ bring peace and hope. And so in that way, following Jesus for me is the only choice. It's the only life that I want to live because I know what it's like to be put back together by a gentle and lowly Savior. But sometimes following Jesus makes life difficult. It makes life hard. Brother Jerry, I told him after Sunday school this morning I was just going to get up here and pray and dismiss because he fed us a five-course meal in Sunday school. Just a wonderful walk through the first chapter of Joshua. But Jerry said, just like Joshua had to fight for the promised land while relying upon the strength of God, we have to fight in this Christian life. The Christian life is war. The Christian life is a battle. And sometimes following Jesus makes things hard. It costs us something, it costs us relationships, it might cost you your reputation. It might cost you acceptance from people that wouldn't want to accept you because of where you stand on truth. And there are times when it costs you comfort. It costs you physically comfort. Well, the man in our text began in chapter 9 blind, but at the end of it, he can physically see. But before this chapter is over, this man is going to lose his standing in the community. He's going to lose his place in the synagogue. And this man is going to essentially become an outcast. We don't want you anymore. Yet, despite all of that, he's going to continue moving toward Jesus. And I would tell you, listen, you want to talk about a mark of genuine faith on Sunday nights. We've been walking through James, and we've been talking about what genuine faith looks like. We've been talking about what genuine faith does in the life of a believer or one who possesses it. That is a mark of genuine faith. The closer he gets to Christ, the more opposition he's going to face. The closer the Pharisees get to the evidence, the harder they become. And the more willing to reject Christ they become. We are watching sight and blindness develop simultaneously here. The first thing that we see in the text, well, let's read the text together first. Look at verse 24 with me. Remember, they've just questioned his parents. His parents said, no, no, we don't want anything to do with this conversation. I'm sure they loved their son, but they weren't willing to lose their standing in the community for him. And so they put it all on him. And so for the second time, now listen, how ridiculous these Pharisees are. My goodness. You can't just say, wow, a man who was blind can now see. These Pharisees are so determined to catch Jesus in some kind of fabricated wrongdoing that once again they're calling this blind man forward to inquire of him. So for a second time they called the man in verse 24, who had been blind and said to him, Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. Now who are they talking about? Jesus. They're telling the blind man, give glory to God. Stop giving credit to this Jesus guy. We know that this Jesus is a sinner. Verse 25. He answered, Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know that though I was blind, I now see. They said to him, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they reviled him, saying, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he comes from. The man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Oh my goodness. What a sermon this man has just preached. It's short and sweet, just like Cody Likeson. But one of the most powerful sermons in all of Scripture. Verse 34. They answered him. And you would teach us. And what did they do? And they cast him out. Now remember, that's exactly what his parents were afraid of happening to them. They were afraid of being cast out of the synagogue. They were afraid of losing their standing in the community. They were afraid of the economic repercussions that would come, the societal repercussions that would come from the Pharisees if they took a stand on the truth. But here their son is standing up for what he knows to be true. My goodness, let's pray together and we'll get started. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you, Lord, for how your word encourages us, how it afflicts us, how it comforts us, how it gives us hope where there seems to be no hope, and how it brings peace to our darkest days. And Lord, we pray that we would hear Christ and Christ only. We pray, Lord, that He would be magnified and exalted among us, and that our hearts and minds would be drawn to Jesus this morning. Lord, we pray that this would all be for the glory of Christ and for his kingdom. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. There is in the first two verses of our text today an unanswerable testimony. They tell him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. Now listen, I want you to think about the kind of investigation that these Pharisees are doing. When did they first want to kill Jesus? Do you remember in the Gospel of John? We would have to go all the way back to John chapter 5, where the Pharisees saw Jesus heal the man who was lame and sick beside the pool of Bethesda. It was on a Sabbath. And ever since then they have hated him, and they've wanted, the Bible tells us, they've wanted to kill him. And so here they are calling this man again, the second time, to question him again. And I just want you to listen to what they say. They say, we know this man is a sinner. So are they investigating Jesus? Are they really trying to come to an honest assessment of who Jesus is? And let me ask the question this way: if these Pharisees were truly being faithful to take what they had in the scripture, the law and the prophets, and they wanted to put it up next to Jesus, and they wanted to take an honest assessment of what the law says and what the prophets say and really inquire with the scripture about who this Jesus is, do you think that God would look unfavorably on that? No, I don't. Not one bit. If they wanted to genuinely come to a conclusion, if they wanted to genuinely understand what it is that Jesus is doing and who he is, but what is the heart of the Pharisees here? They're doing an investigation, but they already have their answer, don't they? We know this man is a sinner. They've already slammed their gavel down on the judge's desk. They've already made their decision about who Jesus is, and they did it a long time ago. They just haven't been able to kill him yet. They're not seeking truth. Here, what they're trying to do is really entrap this man who was born blind. They're trying to force some kind of coerced confession out of him. When they say give glory to God, that sounds very spiritual, doesn't it? Give glory to God. Now, if I ran into Josh on the street and I said, Josh, give glory to God, he'd probably say, Amen, brother. But that's not the context in which these Pharisees are using that particular phrase. Of course, we want to give glory to God. They're saying it here, though, because they're wanting this man to stop defending Jesus. They're wanting this man to stop agreeing with Jesus. They're wanting this man to basically turn his back on the one who just gave him sight. Now, could you imagine? He was born blind, and now he sees. And these Pharisees are wanting this man who experienced this amazing miracle to now condemn Jesus along with them. They're wanting this man to come to the same conclusion. The evidence no longer matters. The evidence hasn't mattered for a long time. The miracle doesn't matter, the truth doesn't matter, their minds have been made up. But the blind man here gives one of the most famous testimonies in all of Scripture. He says, whether he is a sinner, I don't know. Now listen, one thing I need to point out this blind man, he's moving closer and closer to Jesus. He's still himself not fully there yet. He knows Jesus must be from God. He knows that Jesus must be at least some kind of prophet. He knows that Jesus must be a representative of God. He doesn't even have all of his right theology worked out yet. He doesn't fully understand the nature and the person of Christ yet. And listen, that's okay. He's moving closer and closer to Jesus. And by the time this chapter ends, we're going to see that this man understands exactly who Jesus is. And he receives him for exactly who he is. But he says, whether he was a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. Understand, I've been sitting over here blind my whole life. This guy's probably thinking, hey, in case you didn't notice, I've been out of the loop on a lot of things. Right?

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I don't know. You've got all kinds of thoughts about him.

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Here's the one thought that I have I was blind, and now I see it. And this man says, Listen, at least for right now, that's all I need to know. That's all the evidence I need. That's all the power I need to see. That's all the wonder I need to see. He could do anything else, and it wouldn't change my mind, one iota, because he's already displayed that he can do things that, hey, listen, only God can do. Right? He doesn't have all the answers. He can't explain every theological question. What he does is he testifies to what Jesus has done. And I would tell you this morning, friends, listen, do not ever underestimate the power of a life that has been transformed by Jesus. Do you understand that this morning? Do not ever misunderestimate the power of a life that has been transformed by Jesus. That's what this man was. He was a walking testimony. And you know something about this man? I don't think he was real interested in talking a whole lot about what it was like when he was blind. I think if you sit down and talk to this man, I'd say he might say, hey, listen, I was blind. I was born blind, but I don't really want to spend any time talking about all that. What I want to talk about is that I can now see. Do you see the trees? Do you see those pretty greens? Miss Brenda was sharing with me today some beautiful pictures from Arizona. Now, listen, I've never been to Arizona, but after looking at those pictures, that's on the bucket list for me.

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What a beautiful sight.

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This man has his eyes open and he can now see the world in ways that truly he could not have imagined. Because how, if you've never seen a sunset, how on earth could you imagine it? If you've never gotten up before the sun rises and watched it come up, how on earth could you imagine it? How could you imagine what it's like to look at your loved ones and to behold them and to enjoy the smile on their faces if you've never seen that? And so I don't think this man wanted to spend any time talking about his blindness. I think he wanted to talk about what Jesus had done. And listen, that's the power of a transformed life. Sometimes you'll hear testimonies from people who have been saved out of drug addiction and uh all kinds of sins that have just absolutely been terrible for them and broken their families and broken their homes. And listen, I'm always excited to hear a testimony. But when someone shares a testimony like that, I don't care anything about hearing what it was like when they were laying in a ditch addicted to drugs. I don't care anything about listening to someone glorify what their life of sin sounded like. What I want to hear is what has Jesus done for you now? Tell me about the transformation that has taken place in your life. Sometimes people think, well, I really don't have a powerful testimony. I don't have a powerful testimony. Listen, I want you to understand something. Whether you were saved when you were eight years old. Old or you were saved when you were 80, if Jesus has transformed your life, you have a story to tell about his power and his grace and his goodness. Nobody can argue you out of your experience with Christ. And why would you want to?

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Oh now.

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Brother Jeremy, you didn't have that experience with Jesus. You're mistaken. You're wrong. You just you're high on emotions. Your brain is clouded up. You just need to return back down to earth, come back down to reality. You could tell Brother Jeremy Garrison that all day. But Jeremy Garrison knows how Jesus has changed his life. Brother Jesse Turner knows how Jesus has changed his life. He can tell you a story about Jesus' transformation and his transformative grace in his life. You may debate doctrine, you may challenge beliefs, but you cannot honestly deny what Jesus has done in your life. The greatest apologetic is oftentimes a changed heart. A changed life. Listen, let me ask you this. Did the woman at the well need to go to seminary to be a good evangelist in her community? No. What did she need? That was a while ago. Really didn't seem like it's that long ago because it was John 8, but that feels like about a year ago. What did the woman at the well need to be an evangelist? Come see this man who told me everything I ever did. This must be the Christ. She went from hiding. She went from going to the well at the most absolute worst time of the day when the sun would have been beating down. To now she's running down to her community, knocking on doors and yelling at people, hey, listen, the one that we've all heard about, he's here. She didn't need to go to seminary to be able to do that. She didn't need a faith evangelism class to be able to do that. She didn't even need to call the preacher to come and help her do that. She had experienced Jesus. Her life had been changed. Listen, her sin had been forgiven. Well, I just don't know what my testimony would be. If you're in Christ this morning, your sins have been forgiven. God has separated your sin from you as far as the East is from the West, and it's all because of Jesus. And so you had a story to tell. Because your life has been changed by Christ. And a story transformed by Christ is difficult to silence. Listen, we could all stand up this morning and say, I don't know the answer to every question. Well, you're going to run into some doozies if you're faithful about telling people about Jesus. You're going to hear some questions. And you know what it's okay to say? I have no idea. And I really couldn't care less. Oh, yeah, but where did Cain get his wife? Not my problem. Or you could say, hey, how about we go to the Creation Museum and you can read about it for yourself? It's fine to say, I don't know. Here's what I do know. I was spiritually blind, and now I see. All that other stuff that you want to throw up and try to stump Christians or whatever it is that you want to do. Listen, I hope one day I get there. I hope one day I learn all the answers to all the questions you have. I'm learning every day. God's growing me every day. I'm not there yet, but here's what I know: Jesus changed my life.

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I know who I used to be, and I know who I am now. Verses twenty-six through twenty-nine.

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We see the irrationality of unbelief from the Pharisees. The Pharisees ask again, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? You know what this man is beginning to realize about the Pharisees? They're not listening to him. You ever talk to somebody and they're just staring right through you because they don't care one iota what you have to say? You can kind of tell, can't you? You ever been in a conversation where the other person loves to be heard, but they really don't care much about listening to what you have to say? It's a really one-way street type of a conversation. That's the conversation that the Pharisees are having with this man. He's already told them what Jesus did. He did that several Sundays ago. He's already filled them in on how the story went.

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They're not listening. They're not seeking any information.

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They're looking for ammunition for Jesus. They're looking for a gotcha moment. They're looking for that moment from this man where they can say, see, even this guy right here has turned his back on him. Let's kill him. Let's do what we should have done a long time ago. We've got enough evidence here. Let's take him out. He heals people on the Sabbath. How dare he? But this man knows they're not listening. So you know what he does? He does what he employs one of my favorite techniques in the whole world. And listen, some of you might get mad at me sometimes. And you might say, Brother Jimmy, you just, we love you, but my goodness, you're a jerk. You just a big sarcastic jerk.

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I would say you might be right.

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But read the Bible and you're going to find all kinds of sarcasm. You're going to find it everywhere. And so what this blind man does is he employs what I would call some very sanctified sarcasm in this conversation that he's having with the Pharisees. He says, I've told you already, and you would not listen. In other words, you already had the facts. The problem isn't your ears. The problem, like we said last Sunday, what's the problem? Is it the evidence? Is the problem their ears? Is the problem that they're forgetful and they don't remember? The problem is the heart. They've got a hard heart toward Jesus. They do not want him. They want to kill him. He has stood against everything that these Pharisees think is going for them.

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And so he asks a very good question. Do you want to be his disciples? I'm sure he would take you on.

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He seems like a very loving guy. Do you want to come follow him? Woo! It's almost like this blind man knew what was coming. And he just threw caution to the wind and he said, You know what? I've been blind my whole life. And now I can see the last thing I'm going to do is stand here and put up with this nonsense. You want to come be his disciple? For the first time, this healed man really openly identifies himself with Jesus. He's not just talking about a miracle here. He's talking about discipleship. And what do the Pharisees do? Do they like what he said? Oh, no, no, no, no. They explode with anger, don't they? They hate what he just said. They become so angry. They said, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. Now, think about the great irony in that. They claim to be disciples of Moses, but who is it that Moses pointed toward? Who is it that all the law and all the prophets point to? Who is it? It's Jesus. Jesse said, Brother Jimmy, I told you three times. You did, Jesse. You were right on it, buddy. All the law, all the prophets.

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Moses, Aaron, David, all of them point to Jesus.

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You remember that? He said, if you truly believe in Moses, if you truly believe Moses, then you would what? Believe in me. If you truly followed Moses, you would follow me.

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Listen, you can't embrace the shadow while rejecting the substance. You understand?

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Listen, when we go outside and I go talk to Brother Johnny Blank, and the Lord blessed him with height, he's tall.

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He's going to cast a shadow across that parking lot. That shadow is there. Does it have any substance of its own?

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Can it do anything independently? Listen, we're not in Peter Pan. Some of you got that, some of you didn't. The shadow ain't gonna, Brother Johnny's shadow ain't gonna come to life and go around and start talking to people.

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It's there because it's Johnny's shadow.

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It's there, and and what we see from that shadow is proof that Johnny must actually really be there. Because if he wasn't, his shadow wouldn't be there, right? What was Moses to Jesus? He was a type and shadow. What was the law to Jesus? It was a shadow of things to come. What was the tabernacle? It was a shadow of what was coming. What was the temple? It was a shadow of what was coming. Listen, it's not the substance. That's another thing Brother Jerry preached on in Sunday school this morning. He made a real good point. He said, Boy, when Moses died, they didn't waste any time. He died and he was forgotten. Time to move on. Listen, that's amen.

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Amen. Why? But why? He's the shadow.

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He's just he's a he's there to serve the substance. That's what the shadow does. Listen, if we walked outside and Johnny didn't see his shadow and it the sun was shining like it shines today, we'd be worried, wouldn't he? Johnny, are you even really here?

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But he's gonna see his shadow. Why?

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Because he's there. He's the substance of what the shadow testifies to. As with Moses, as with the law, as with the prophets, as with the tabernacle, as with the temple.

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Types and shadows.

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And so the Pharisees want to have the shadow, but they want to reject the substance. Does that make sense? They want to cling to and claim what the law and the prophets pointed toward, or what the law and the prophets were in and of themselves, but they don't want to receive the substance of what the law and the prophets pointed toward. That's why Jesus, when he was talking to the Pharisees, he said, Hey, y'all do know you would have killed the prophets too, right? You've got the scrolls, and boy, you revere the scrolls, but you know you would have been the ones killing them. You can't claim devotion to God's revelation while rejecting the Son of God. The Pharisees here think they're defending God. In reality, they're opposing God. They're opposing him. And I want you to understand that danger still exists today. A person can be deeply religious and deeply lost. Do you understand that? You can be deeply religious and deeply lost. You can know scripture and you can miss Christ. You can sit in church every week and remain spiritually blind.

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The Pharisees knew some facts.

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But here's the difference. Oh, the Pharisees knew far more facts than the blind man, didn't they? And they did. They had so much more head knowledge.

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But here's the difference. The blind man knew Jesus.

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The blind man knew Jesus. Now we're out of time. And I wish that we weren't. But we are. But the question that I want you to ask yourself this morning as we stop here do you know Jesus? Not just do you know about him, not just do you know some facts about him, do you know Jesus? And to borrow from Ethan, when Ethan preached his sermon up here the other day, he did a wonderful job. Ethan, I'm glad you're here today. I told him last week, I said, maybe I was too mean in my charge to the graduates because none of them showed up this Sunday. But Ethan said something along the lines of not only do I know Jesus, I'm known by Jesus. What a powerful thing. This morning, do you know him? Do you know him? And are you known by him? The only way to do that is by trusting in his finished work, by trusting, not in the shadow, but by embracing the substance of who Jesus is. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the opportunity to open it and to preach it. And Lord help us as we come to this time of communion. Help us to be faithful, to reflect on your gospel, to reflect on your suffering, to enjoy your presence here with us as we partake of this table. Lord, we pray all this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.