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John 9:1-41

Why is there Suffering?

  • Rich Jones
  • Weekend Messages
  • July 28, 2013

In John 9, Jesus and his disciples came upon a blind man and the disciples ask Jesus if this was a result of his parents or his own sin. They saw this man suffering in his blindness and assumed it was because of sin. When you step back and look at it, they’re asking a much larger question: why does God allow suffering? They ask a very important question that has great bearing on our faith. This is the question we will consider as we dive into John 9.

  • Sermon Notes
  • Scripture

Why is There Suffering?

John 9:1-41

In John chapter 9, we find Jesus on His way out of the temple. He was teaching there and telling the crowds that He is the light of the world, but the
Pharisees challenged Him and what followed was one of the most amazing confrontations in the Bible.

At one point Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” They responded, “You are not yet 50 years old and you have seen
Abraham?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” That’s when they picked up rocks to throw at Him.

When Jesus had left the temple and was walking through Jerusalem, He passed by a man who was blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned,
this man or his parents that he should be born blind?”

They saw this man suffering in his blindness and were convinced they had the explanation for its cause; the man was suffering in his blindness because
of sin. They just didn’t know whose sin it was; his parents or his own.

When you step back and look at it, they’re trying to answer a much larger question; why does God allow suffering? This is one of the most common questions
people have about God. For many people, it’s also one of the most difficult questions they ask.

There are some questions in life it seems that no one can answer, but we spend little time pondering them because they are of little consequence. Where
do socks go when you wash them? Why does a round pizza come in a square box? Why do hot dogs come in packages of eight and buns in packages of 10?
Can an atheist get insurance coverage for “acts of God?”

But there are other questions we need to consider because they have such a significant bearing on our faith. Certainly “why does God allow suffering” has
to be near the top of the list.

But people ask questions for different reasons. Some ask because they genuinely have a hunger to know. Other people ask difficult questions with very different
motives; some want to throw up a smokescreen. They don’t want to believe, they just want to argue. Others want to cast doubt upon God because they
want to justify their own rebellion.

I. God Answers in His Word

  • Jesus corrects their wrong assumptions and gives them insight into the purpose of God in this man’s life.
  • God reveals Himself through His word and through His Son, Jesus Christ. We need to know His heart after us because so many have made wrong conclusions
    and have shipwrecked their faith.
  • Let’s look at the question the disciples ask Jesus as well as other questions that are related to it, but let’s look at these things from the perspective
    of God’s Word.

A. Who sinned; this man or his parents?

  • Someone who is reading carefully might observe, “How could this man have sinned since he was blind from birth?”
  • There were some Jewish leaders who believed people existed in a previous life. This would be a similar doctrine to reincarnation.
  • Several religions teach that the souls of people preexisted. For example, the Mormon doctrine is that God has sexual relations with his wife in
    heaven creating spirit babies awaiting a human body.
  • Islam teaches that all souls were created in adult form at the same time God created Adam and that he decrees at which point every human would
    be born.
  • But Eastern religions teach that people live one life after the other and that if you live a good life, you have good karma and will advance. If
    you live a bad life, you have bad karma and will go backward.
  • But the Bible does not teach that we preexisted, nor does it teach any such thing as reincarnation.

Zechariah 12:1, Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him…

Hebrews 9:27, Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment…

Psalm 139:13, You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…

  • But the question here in John 9 is, “who sinned?” To put it another way, why is this man suffering? Why are people born with disabilities? Why
    is there tragedy? These are very important questions.
  • C.S. Lewis wrote, “The problem of pain is atheism’s most potent weapon against the Christian faith.”
  • In fact, some people who suffer a tragedy will use it to justify their rebellion against God. They have a hard time reconciling a loving God with
    suffering.
  • For many people, this is very personal. Maybe something tragic has happened to you. Maybe your parents were divorced when you were young or someone
    close to you has died or maybe you or someone close to you has a disability and are struggling to understand how God could allow such a thing.
    People will often ask why, why, why.
  • The difficulty is often put into this statement; either God is all loving, but not all-powerful and He can’t stop suffering or He is all-powerful,
    but is not all loving, therefore he won’t stop suffering.
  • The main idea behind that statement, however, is that it’s all God’s fault. But is it?
  • Who sinned that this man should be born blind? Was it this man? No. Was it a sin in general? Yes. In fact, all sickness, disabilities, all the
    difficulties we face in human body, leading to death are the result of sin.
  • All of this can be traced back to the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. God said that the day you eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good
    and evil you will die and the consequences of that sin has fallen to everyone who came after them.
  • Somebody might ask, well then why didn’t God make us so that we cannot sin? The answer is that God has given us a free will so that we may freely
    choose Him.

Illus – Otherwise we would be like a child’s doll that says, “I love you” whenever a button is pushed.

  • Bad things will happen in this life; there is sickness and disability, sometimes people die young. But all of it comes because we live in a world
    that is under the corruption of sin. But the good news is that when you die, you will go to heaven and be in the presence of the Lord for eternity.

Luke 13:1-5 When 18 died under the tower of Siloam.

B. God can use tragedies in our lives

  • In the case of this man who was born blind, Jesus said that it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.
  • But God can use tragedies and difficulties for many different purposes in our lives. For example, God may allow things in our lives that correct
    the course of our lives.

Illus – One of the best biblical illustrations of this is the prodigal son. He received his inheritance early and used it to live a worldly life; parties, women, everything you can imagine. But then one tragedy upon another fell upon him until he came to his senses and realized that he needed to be with his father.

  • If God allows something in our lives to correct the course of our lives it is because He disciplines those who He loves.

Hebrews 12:6-7, Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines… God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

  • I don’t discipline other people’s children (though at times I would like to), but I certainly disciplined my own children and today they thank
    me for it.
  • God may also use tragedy and troubles to strengthen character or maturity or training for greater future purpose. In other words, it may be constructive.

2 Corinthians 4:16-17, For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,

James 1:2-4, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

  • Paul wrote that God allowed a “thorn in the flesh” which tormented him. But he also wrote that it was for a purpose, to keep him from exalting
    himself because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations God gave him.

2 Corinthians 12:9, He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Illus – Nick Vujicic is an amazing example. Born without arms or legs, he speaks to millions of people all over the world. “Do you know why I love God?” Nick asked a young girl also born without arms or legs, “because heaven is real. And one day when we get to heaven, we’re going to have arms and legs. And we’re going to run and play and we’re going to race.”

II. Spiritual Blindness is the Greatest Tragedy

  • Jesus spit onto the ground, made mud with it and rubbed it in the man’s eyes and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam.
  • A controversy then arose because Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath. Instead of celebrating, they used it as an opportunity to accuse Jesus.
  • In verse 40 the Pharisees said to Jesus, “We are not blind too, are we?” He answered, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you
    say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

A. We’re accountable for the light we’ve received

  • The Pharisees had the word of God, and the Messiah, the Son of the living God had just healed a man blind from birth, yet they refused to see it.
  • Helen Keller once said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight, but no vision.” In other words, those who refuse to see are more
    blind than those who cannot see.
  • This really helps answer another difficult question many people have asked, “What about the person who’s never heard the gospel?”
  • The answer is that God will judge people according to the light they have received.
  • God desires all men to come to the knowledge of the truth and gives light to all so that none will have an excuse.

Illus – at the same time, we need to understand that God made man in the image of God and that we have a soul that only God can fill. We’re wired to long for God, you might say. This isn’t true of animals.

1 Timothy 2:4, God… desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3:9, The Lord…is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

Ecclesiastes 3:11, He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart…

Romans 1:19-20, That which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen…so that they are without excuse.

  • God will always reveal himself to the one who is seeking.

B. Spiritual blindness is a choice

Ephesians 1:18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,

Ephesians 3:18-19, [I pray] you may be able to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God

John 9:1-41    NASB

1 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work
the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 6
When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool
of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him
as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” 9 Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he
is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” 10 So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man who is called
Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” 12 They said to him,
“Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then
the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16
Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man
who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since
He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.”

 
18 The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received
his sight, 19 and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them
and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not
know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already
agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask
him.”

24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He then answered,
“Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 So they said to him, “What did He do to you?
How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want
to become His disciples too, do you?” 28 They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has
spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing,
that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does
His will, He hears him. 32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man
were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out.

35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may
believe in Him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” 38 And he said, “Lord, I believe.”
And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may
become blind.” 40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” 41 Jesus said to
them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

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