The Light of the World John 9:1-7 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
This chapter is about Jesus healing a blind man and the reaction of the Pharisees who hated Jesus. The man was born blind, so his blindness was not the result of any sin he himself committed. Not all illness is the result of sin (Exodus 20:5, Exodus 4:11). Nor is all healing the result of faith, or failed healing a lack of faith, but rather all is for the glory of GOD (Romans 9:20-21, Romans 9:17, John 11:4).
John 9:4-5 “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Verses 4 and 5 are worthy of close examination, so these two verses will be the substance of this lesson. On the surface verse 4 seems like a statement of something obvious. But if we approach it from a spiritual viewpoint there is much to be gained. Now verse 5 is familiar because we have previously read a similar statement by Jesus in an earlier lesson.
John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
The darkness is a spiritual darkness and therefore the light is a spiritual light. (John 1:4-5, Genesis 1:3, Malachi 4:1, 3:1-2, 1 Thess. 5:2) When Jesus Christ is physically present on Earth (as in the first coming and the second coming of the Lord) we are in a spiritual day. When He is physically absent, the Earth is in a spiritual night.
Mark 13:34-37 “For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”
In Mark 13:35 Jesus points out four watches of the night in which He can come:
- Even – 6:00 – 9:00
- Midnight – 9:00 – 12:00
- At the cockcrowing – 12:00 – 3:00
- In the morning – 3:00 – 6:00
(Malachi 4:2, 2 Peter 1:19, John 15:5, Romans 15:17, Acts 21:19, 15:12, 1Cor. 3:13, 1 Thess. 5:4-5)
We are not children of the darkness for we can awake from the night because we have the light of Jesus in us. With Jesus in us and His word in us, He makes us children of light and of the day. The Word of God “is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105) and it is the only thing by which we can work during the nighttime that will accomplish the works of God during this period of spiritual darkness which we call the Church Age.