John 9:1-7 Following Instructions
The Bible is full of God giving instructions to His people. Some obeyed and some disobeyed.
It started in the beginning, “of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.”
Of course Adam and Eve disobeyed and thrust all mankind into the penalty
of sin.
Since that disobedient act everyone has been born a sinner.
We all have the ability to obey or to disobey God’s instructions.
We come to the next generation and see Cain refusing to
follow instructions and God’s hand of correction upon him.
The list goes on and on.
Some had intricate instructions; Noah,
Moses, and some had simple
instructions, Jeremiah,
Abraham, leave you country, and that
was easy, sixty years later, sacrifice your son, that was not so easy.
No matter what the task, there were always three elements present;
Obedience, Labor, and Reward.
Here we see a man that was given instructions, he followed them , and he was rewarded.
(v.1) There is nothing that Jesus does not know. He sees every sparrow fall, how much more does he know your heavy heart? He knows the number of hairs on your head, how much more the hours you have worried about situations in your life?
(v.2) This is a common belief even in today’s culture. Remember when Paul was bit by a viper in Acts 28.
(v.3) Sickness and pain are not always the result of
disobedience to God. Stubbing your
toe or a major illness.
We shouldn’t dwell on every hardship as a judgment of God, but it would do us
good to stay “checked up” with God and our lifestyle.
I have had plenty of people say, “I don’t know why this happened.”
Sometimes it is obvious, other times we have to question.
1. Praise God in the good times, 2. Practice patience and pray for strength in
the bad.
(v.4) We see the literal truth: You can’t work at night.
We see the figurative truth: Life and death.
We see the spiritual truth: (v.5) Jesus is the light in this dark world.
(v.6) We have a literal truth:
Spitting was practiced for medicinal purposes.
We have a spiritual truth:
(v.7) Here is our text verse.
On Following Instructions
This is a picture of salvation.
With every salvation you have a mixture of ideas and responses from those
around you.
1. Neighbors v.8-12
Surprise and skepticism
2. Pharisees v.13-17 Disbelief and
Prejudice
3. Parents v.18-22
Belief but feared the Jews
4. Healed Man v.23 – Consistent
growth and strong belief
It all started because he followed instructions.
I. Go.
Here was obedience.
Do what God has instructed us to do.
Not any pool, but the pool of Siloam.
(Remember Naaman and the Jordan River?)
Why not the nearest one?
There are reasons.
Why not just any belief? There is
only one way, one truth, one life.
It’s not enough to have desire, we have to have obedience.
Hannah desired a son, and she prayed.
Many of us want and desire, but we don’t have the obedience, the
discipline to attain what we desire.
God will not give us desires to be consumed upon our lusts, James 4.
The greatest act of obedience was Jesus on the cross. In the Garden. For the Joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross. (Heb. 12:2)
The greatest act of disobedience is to turn away from the Gospel, (Rom. 10:16) But they have not all obeyed the Gospel.
II. Wash – Labor.
Three words used extensively
in the N.T., work, strive, labor.
Many treat church like a bus ride.
You get on, let someone else drive, you enjoy the scenery and then you
get off until the next ride.
We have lost our edge in the local church because of a lack of laborers.
Jesus said it several time, the harvest is great, but the laborers are
few.
Not just a treasurer, a janitor, a choir leader, Sunday school director, etc… These are offices in a church but they are not laborers in the field.
Where are you in the line of duty?
This pool was not easy to get to. It
was a long deep tunnel. The blind
man had a large task on his hands.
Did he have any help? Maybe.
III. Came Seeing – reward.
Only in a dictionary does reward come before work.
What a gift, what a change in one’s life, to have your sight restored.
This was a greater picture of salvation because of the extent of blindness.
He never had seen.
He had no doubt heard about the beauty, it had been described to him, but never
before had he experienced it until Jesus came along.
We often forget about the rewards awaiting us in heaven for
our labors. It isn’t preached much
anymore. We are pretty much
satisfied with what this world has to offer.
God has instructed us to be a witness for Him.
This involves labor and this will yield rewards in this world and the
world to come, life everlasting.
The instructions are clear to the unbeliever: Ye must be born again. (give opportunity)
The instructions are clear to the saint of God: Labor for the master.
Are there areas you can improve on in your Christian life that would lead others to Christ?
Are you concerned about rewards in heaven?