The man that had been blind is brought before the Pharisees and the issue of Jesus doing work is brought up and a disagreement ensues on how can a sinner do such signs and further the man says that Jesus is a prophet. Dr. Sproul discusses these issues and follows up with the interview by the Pharisees of the parents. Dr. Sproul discusses the demands by the Pharisees of the blind man to call Jesus a sinner but instead he declares if He were not from God He could do nothing.

We continue now with our study of the gospel according to Saint John. We will be looking at the second part of chapter 9 this morning. I ask that the congregation stand for the reading of the gospel. John 9:13–25:

They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.”

Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?”

He said, “He is a prophet.”

But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.”

He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let him hear it. You may be seated.

Our Father and our God, give us eyes to see and ears to hear this manifestation of the person and work of Your only begotten Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.

The Sabbath-Breaking Accusation

Last time, we looked at the account of Jesus healing the man born blind, and we considered some important theological issues related to it. Today, we want to continue with this narrative by looking at the responses of those who beheld what was going on. We see that there is a diversity of responses to this miracle that Christ performed.

The first response we encounter is the response of the Pharisees, as the man was once again brought into their presence. We are told it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. The Pharisees inquire of the man how Jesus opened his eyes. They agree that Jesus was the One who did it, and they acknowledge that the man could see, but now they inquire as to the method that Jesus used, the “how” of the miracle. The man responded simply, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

John notes for us that all of this took place on the Sabbath day, and we have already seen in John’s gospel how Jesus was accused of violating the Sabbath when He healed the crippled man. Now the Pharisees are, again, accusing Him of disobeying the Sabbath laws. This is because one of the prohibitions set forth by the Pharisees about labor that was not permitted on the Sabbath day was the kneading of dough.

The Pharisees say, “Jesus made clay, did He?” In order to make clay, He would have to scoop up dirt from the ground, mix it with saliva, and knead it together. Applying the case law of their own standards, they are basically accusing Jesus of violating the Sabbath law because He made clay—never mind the reason for which He made it; never mind that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath; never mind that the Lord of the Sabbath declares that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

If the Pharisees were really people of God, they would have been throwing their yarmulkes in the air, praising God for this manifestation of His mercy and His healing of the poor, beset man. Instead, they quibble over their own technicalities, and they accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath.

If Jesus breaks the Sabbath, then obviously, He would be a sinner, and if a sinner, He could not have been sent from God. Their conclusion, then, which we read in verse 16, is this: “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” In essence, “He failed the test of Sabbath keeping; therefore, He must be an imposter.”

He Is a Prophet

Others raised the opposite side of the question by saying, “How can a sinner do these things?” I have labored the point throughout John’s gospel that John often introduces the miraculous works that Christ performs as signs that indicate He is a teacher sent from God. I have labored the point that the purpose of miracles is to authenticate agents of revelation.

Nicodemus understood that truth when he visited Jesus at night. He said, “We know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him” (John 3:2). The group who understood that principle spoke against the other Pharisees, and they said, in essence: “Wait a minute. If this man was a sinner, He wouldn’t be able to do these things.” They understood the purpose of divine attestation that went with miracles.

There was a division. So they came again to the blind man, and they asked his opinion of the matter: “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” His response was simple. “He is a prophet.”

He did not say, “He’s the Son of God.” He did not say, “He’s the Messiah.” He had not come to that realization yet. But like the woman of Sychar, his initial conclusion was, “No man can do these things unless God were with Him, unless He were a prophet.” So, the man born blind said, “I think He’s a prophet.” They did not want to hear that, as John tells us, “But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight.”

Do you see what was subtly going on here? There was a growing awareness among the Jews of the soundness of the conclusion that if Jesus really did heal a man who was born blind, then He must at least be a prophet. That is why I warn you to be careful about these claims that you see on television, about all these teachers who claim to be healing people. When you see them healing someone who was born blind, I want to know about it—someone who has been blind for thirty years goes to the chapel, has someone lay hands on him, and is healed. If you were to actually see someone doing that, you could legitimately conclude that you are in the presence of a real, live prophet.

Fear of the Jews

The man’s inference was a sound one: “I see that He’s a prophet.” The rest of the people were saying: “It’s going to come down to this: Was he or wasn’t he? Was he blind all his life, or do we have a case of mistaken identity? We had better check into that. We’re going to go to someone else. We’re going to get his parents and see if they will verify that he, in fact, is the one who was born blind.”

They went to the parents and asked them: “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” The parents answered and said: “We know that this is our son, and we know that he was born blind—no doubt about that. But by what means he’s now able to see, or who it was who opened his eyes, we have no idea.”

Can you believe this? This is an incredible manifestation of corruption. How many years had these parents agonized over the sightless condition of their son? He was their own flesh and blood. What a crushing blow it is to bring a child into the world and discover that the child cannot see, and that there is no hope that he will ever see. Put yourself in the place of a parent who brings such a child into the world. Imagine helping that child grope through the darkness, year after year. Then one afternoon in that child’s adulthood, the child walks into your house and says, “Mother, father, I can see!” You would want to crawl over glass to thank whoever made this possible—at least that is what you would think.

But the parents were asked by the Jewish Gestapo at this point, “Now what about this fellow that made him see?” They replied, in essence: “We know he was blind; he was born that way. We can verify that.” No crime there. “But how he can see and who did it, don’t ask us.” Can you believe that?

That is who we are. When God works in our lives and gives us blessings that we could not possibly describe, and the heat is turned on, we want to hand the mask to someone else. I pray that each of us, in that hour of decision when we are called upon to profess our faith in Christ before hostile people, will have the integrity and courage to do it. Remember that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. But even in Apostolic days, none other than the Apostle Peter caved in his first encounter with the authorities, who were hostile to his confession of faith.

The parents are not that different from us. But how ungrateful they are to avoid the question. They say: “He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” The parents said these things, John tells us, because they were afraid of the Jews, “for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, ‘He is of age; ask him.’”

Witness Is Not the Gospel

Finally, the Jews come back to the formerly blind man himself, and they say: “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” Essentially, “You should give glory to God, not to Him.” Listen to how he responds, saying in effect: “I don’t know whether He’s a sinner. How do I know? I don’t even know Him; I don’t know if He’s a sinner. All I know is this: Once I was blind, and now I see. That’s it. I can only tell you what I know, and that’s what I know.”

Ladies and gentlemen, what this man does is bear witness to Christ. He gives testimony to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you what He does not do. He does not preach the gospel.

Today we celebrate Epiphany Sunday, and it is a tradition in many churches on the Sunday of Epiphany to celebrate the coming of the Magi to bring honor, gifts, and adoration to the Christ child, who was born in Bethlehem. We are told in the biblical account of the wise men, or the Magi, that when they came, they followed the star. The Magi went to Herod; they talked about having seen a star that indicated the birth of a king, and they came to worship this king.

Herod said, “When you find Him, come back and tell me where He is so that I can worship Him too.” Of course, Herod’s way of worshiping was to do it with the sword. But the wise men—who came, bore witness to Christ as the newborn king, and lavished His parents with these precious gifts—did not preach the gospel.

What am I getting at? We have language in the Christian community that is not always sound or biblical. You have heard the lingo. It goes something like this: “I want to be an evangelist so that I can testify to Christ. I want to bear witness to Christ.” You will hear people say, “I was witnessing the other day,” meaning, “I was sharing the gospel with people.”

Biblically, evangelism and witnessing are not synonymous. Anytime I call attention to or make manifest the person and work of Christ, that is giving testimony. That is bearing witness to Christ. But bearing witness to Christ and preaching the gospel are not the same thing.

The Gospel Is About Him

I remember many years ago, I learned the evangelism technique called “Evangelism Explosion.” I trained over 250 people in that program and led people through the evangelism efforts in Ohio. One of the first portions of that program was that everyone had to memorize their testimony. In Christian jargon, your testimony is your story of how you became a Christian.

I think it is very important that people are able to articulate to others how and why they became a Christian. We should all have a testimony, and we should be willing to speak it at the drop of a hat. But do not ever confuse your personal testimony with the gospel. Your personal testimony is not evangelism. Your personal testimony is pre-evangelism, sort of a warm-up for evangelism, and it may or may not be significant and meaningful to the person to whom you are relating it.

There are lots of people who can relate to my story. They say, “Yeah, I know what he’s talking about because I used to live like that too.” Not everyone relates to my story. But the gospel is not what happened to R.C. Sproul. There is no promise by God that He will use my story as His power unto salvation.

The gospel is not about me. It is not about the man born blind. It is not about the Magi. The gospel is about Him. The gospel is the proclamation of the person and work of Christ. It is our proclamation of who Jesus is, what Jesus did, and how we can appropriate the benefits of the work of Christ to ourselves by faith alone.

Beloved, it is important to give testimony, and it is wonderful to read this blind man saying: “Hey, I’m not a theologian, I’m not a preacher. I don’t know what the gospel is. I’ve never heard the gospel in my life. All I can tell you is once I was blind, and now I see.” But as wonderful as that is, it is not the gospel. We need not only to learn our own testimony, but we also need to know the concrete elements of the biblical gospel because evangelism takes place when the evangel is proclaimed and announced to people. That is the gospel.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.