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Following the Messiah(Part 15): Miracles in the North(Part2)

Wayne Galloway
05/24/20 - Sunday Morning Bible Class

Series: Following the Messiah

Wayne T. Galloway

www.fortloganchurchofchrist.com

 

2 Following the Messiah Episode 6 (13:42-29:58)  Miracles In the South

 

Opening:

 

1.  You have viewed the video “Following the Messiah Episode 6 at www.appianmedia.org and have worked through the study guide Lesson Two available by request at wtg2@hughes.net.

2.  In this study we will focus our attention on two major miracles, the healing of a man born blind and on the raising of Lazarus.

 

Into the Text:

 

1.  The healing of the blind man whom Jesus told to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam is recorded in John 9:1-7.

 

2.  The themes of blindness, light and healing permeate the text of Scripture.  Idols were said to have “eyes but could not see” (Psa. 115:5; 135:16).  Those who worship them are said to “become like them” (Psa. 115:8; 135:18) in that they become blind to the things revealed by the Living God.  There is a shift from literal blindness to being blind to the enlightenment that comes through the revelation given by God.  He knows all things and reveals future events through His prophets (also known as “seers”).  Those who worship gods that cannot see are in darkness.

 

Isaiah wrote about a time when people who walked in darkness would see a great light (9:2).  Matthew 4:16 quotes this passage and applies it to the coming of Jesus into Capernaum to the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 

 

Jesus presented Himself as the Light of the World in Jn. 8:12.  “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”  It is interesting how light is associated with life in this text.

 

John had introduced these images early in his gospel.  In 1:4-9 he said, “In Him (the Word) was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.  He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.   There was the true Light which coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

 

John uses Jesus’ healing of this blind man to demonstrate that Jesus is both light and life.  While blindness (and all other maladies) are the result of being outside the Garden of Eden and therefore the result of the sin of Gen. 3 the disciples seem to think that this man’s blindness has to do with some more immediate sin.  Perhaps he is blind because of his own personal sin or maybe some sin of his parents.  Jesus not only rejects their perception but as the Light of the world made the man see.

 

John uses this incident to call attention to how some were having real difficulty in seeing who Jesus really was.   Read Jn. 9:13-41.

 

John continues his light image in 1 Jn. 1:5-7.  “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light, as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

 

In Revelation John records the Lord’s message to the church at Laodicea.  “I advise you to buy from Me . . . eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see” (3:18).  Of the new Jerusalem John says, “The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it (Rev. 21:23-24).

 

Jesus truly is the Light of the world, but sometimes we are blinded to the revelation that God is trying to give us and so we miss the Life that He is trying to give us.

 

3.  John 11:1-46 records how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  The one who is the Light gives Life and Lazarus is proof of Jesus’ power over death.

 

Jesus had a special relationship with Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus.  Familiar with Jesus’ power to heal the sick the sisters sent for Jesus.  But Jesus delayed 2 days before going to Judea and the town of Bethany, where Lazarus lived.

 

The disciples were in no hurry because they knew of the threat to stone Jesus at Jerusalem.  (Bethany was only about two miles away.) As a matter of fact, when Jesus was ready to go, He said that Lazarus was asleep.  They said, “If he is asleep, he will recover.”  When they understood that Lazarus was dead and that they would go there as a result of his death, Thomas boldly said, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”  He was willing to die with Jesus.

 

When they arrived Martha said, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Martha understood something of the resurrection of the last day.  When Jesus said that Lazarus would rise again.  She said she knew that he would rise again in the resurrection of the last day.

 

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  Martha confessed that she believed that He was the Christ, the Son of God.

 

Mary too observed, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Mary and her companions were weeping.  Jesus too wept. 

 

When He came to the tomb and said, “Remove the stone,” Martha said, “Lord there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.”  There was no doubt that Lazarus was truly dead.  Jesus called out, “Lazarus come forth.”  He came out of the tomb bound hand and foot with the burial wrappings.  Even his face was wrapped around with a cloth.

 

Many believed as a result of what Jesus had done, but the intensity was increasing in Jerusalem and the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council and put together a plan to kill Jesus.

 

Can you imagine it?  A plan was put together to kill the one who had raised Lazarus from the dead!!

 

Applications:

 

1.  All of us in one way are another are moved by death.  At the very least we are sympathetic to mourners.  Everyone experiences it.  In what ways does the reality of death affect you?  What similarities/dissimilarities do you see between yourself and the sisters?  The mourners?  The scribes and Pharisees?

 

2.  It is challenging to “see the light” when you think you already see.  Can you think of a time when you had to change your mind because you realized that you were just wrong in your thinking?  What happened?

 

3.  Do you think there are those who weep for you because you do not see the light of life that Jesus brings?  Do you think that Jesus weeps for you?

 

4.  Are you in the process of being enlightened, even through these studies?

 

5.  How has Jesus brought light to your eyes, your thinking, your future?