“A MAN CALLED JESUS”
John 9:1,6-11; Acts 9:1-5 to “I am Jesus”;
I would like to speak, dear friend, about Jesus. These scriptures all include His name: in the first scripture we read, “A man called Jesus”; in Acts 9, “I am Jesus”; and in Revelation 22, in the final page of Scripture, in what you might call a final appeal, “I Jesus”.
It is the personal name of the great and glorious
Saviour. His personal name is Jesus. Many of us know Him and love Him because of what He has done for us, but we also love Him for all that He is, all that is conveyed in that name. You may know people, for example your friends at school or members of your family: you know them by their names and you think of them by their names. The One that you have to do with in the gospel is called Jesus: “A man called Jesus”.
His name reminds us how near He has come to us. This scripture in John 9 refers to the Lord passing on, and taking account of a man blind from birth. The Lord Jesus, dear friend, is interested in you. How great He is – He has many titles. The book of the Revelation is full of titles of the Lord Jesus. Some of them you do not get anywhere else in scripture. They are majestic and glorious titles, but His personal name is Jesus. That is how Scripture finishes: “I Jesus”. What an appeal, dear friend! He has appealed to you before and now He is appealing to you again. The Lord Jesus is moving, He is passing by here this afternoon. In the gospel preaching the Lord Jesus is moving on but He is interested in every one here.
He saw this man, blind from birth. He sees you, just where you are sitting in your seat. If you have not yet had to do with Him, then you are like this man who was blind. You might say, ‘That is not me’, but if you have not opened your eyes to the greatness of the Lord Jesus and what He has done on the cross at Calvary for those who believe, then you are still in your sins and you are blind. The Lord Jesus as He passed on saw this man who was blind from birth.
Think of the greatness of the Lord Jesus. How many titles He has – we were occupied with some of them this morning. ‘The Christ’ – that is an official title (see footnote to 2 Cor.1:5). It has been given to Him, and the Lord fulfils wonderfully those offices that He has been given. Men are appointed to offices, for example offices of government such as the Prime Minister of this country. In man’s world the office is greater than the person who fills it, but Jesus is greater than any office He fills. In governments, the offices remain but the persons that fill them come and go. But the Lord Jesus remains, and he is available. Recently some friends of ours in the United States were visiting a city there and the President of the United States visited the city too. They stopped at the side of a road and watched all these vehicles go by. A big car with the windows blacked out went past: they could not see who was in it, but it was the President’s car. He was going to visit a hospital and he passed on, and did not stop. There are many people here who have never seen the King in person or seen the Prime Minister or seen the President, and we probably never will. But the Lord Jesus is available, and He is available to you. He stopped here for the blind man.
Think of what was in prospect for the Lord. The whole work of redemption was to be accomplished, and He was going to the cross at Calvary. He was going to suffer and die to fulfil God’s great plans of redemption, and to fulfil them gloriously. Yet He had time for this man: think of the persons that He had time for. The woman in John 4 – how often we speak of her in the glad tidings – experienced that. The scripture says, “Jesus therefore, being wearied with the way he had come, sat just as he was at the fountain” (v.6). The disciples left Him and went away into the city. The Lord Jesus was alone, and He was alone when He spoke to that woman. That is like you – the Lord Jesus will have to do with you as an individual. Most of the gospel hymns are individual, written by people who have come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus as Saviour. You must do that as an individual. Other hymns, like the hymns no doubt sung here in the service this morning, are collective. We are singing together – it is collective. But in the glad tidings, dear friend, it is an individual matter between you and the Saviour.
These gospel hymns refer to ‘I’ and ‘me’ and ‘you’, because the gospel is an individual matter. You have to do with the Lord Jesus yourself, like this man. The Lord Jesus does things. He spat on the ground and He made mud of the spittle and put the mud as ointment on the blind man’s eyes. You might think that is going to make things even worse. The incoming of the Lord Jesus showed up man for exactly what he was, because never before had God had a perfect Object in manhood. Every other man was tainted by sin. The incoming of the Lord Jesus made that all the more obvious. Perhaps men did not see it or recognise it, but God saw it. God saw that He had a Man in whom He could rest complacently. He found His full delight, all His pleasure, in that One. He opened the heavens upon Him (Matt.3:16).
The Lord Jesus had lived for thirty years on this earth. We are not told very much about these thirty years. We are told about one occasion when He was twelve years of age (Luke 2:42), then at thirty years of age the Lord Jesus came out in public service. At that point the heavens were opened upon Him: “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, Mark 1:11. That exclamation from heaven involved the appreciation of all these thirty years that had gone before. We do not know much about them, but God knew about them. God was delighted with every moment of that life. But another aspect of that life is that it showed up man for all he was as away from God and in his sins. Yet the Lord Jesus was the One able to deal with the whole moral matter in man.
The man in John 9 was obedient. He knew what he was – that he was blind. Dear friend, I trust you know that you are a sinner. If you have not yet put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, the first step to blessing is to accept that you are a sinner and you need a Saviour. Who is the Saviour? The Saviour is Jesus; He is the glorious Saviour. This man did what he was told, and went. That is one thing that you must be in the gospel: you must be obedient – obedient to God’s word. “He went therefore and washed, and came seeing”. Now he was a person who could see. They were not sure if this was the same person. There is a change. You might say, ‘Of course he was blind and now he can see’. Would there be that much of a difference? There must have been a difference because some said, ‘Yes, it is him’ and others said, ‘No, it is someone else who is like him’. He is a changed person. That is what conversion brings about. It changes the sinner, they become a changed person.
“He said, It is I. They said therefore to him, How have thine eyes been opened? He answered and said, A man called Jesus …”. The Lord Jesus is a real man, and remains a real man. He is a glorious man, but He is a real man: not a mere man. No other man could take up the whole question of sin and sins, but the Lord Jesus did. “A man called Jesus made mud and anointed mine eyes, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash: and having gone and washed, I saw”. That was the point of his conversion: “I saw”. In that sense it was historical.
Further on he speaks to the Jews and they begin to accuse him of all sorts of things, and also to accuse the Lord Jesus. The man says, “If he is sinful I know not. One thing I know, that, being blind before, now I see” (v.25). “Now I see”. If you have come to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, that is a wonderful moment. It is a wonderful point when you can say ‘I saw’. But it is a current matter: “now I see”. “I see” is current. The blind man had to do with Jesus.
In Acts 9, there is a different sort of person, Saul. He was not blind outwardly but really he was as blind as anyone, because he was a persecutor of believers on the Lord Jesus. I do not think that there is anyone here like that. There is no one here that has dragged off believers and put them in jail and tried to stamp out Christianity. That was what Saul was trying to do. He was trying to stamp out Christianity, but think of how God works. If someone does us wrong, how do we react? Would we not want to get our own back? How does God act? He acted in grace so that the greatest opposer and oppressor of Christians becomes His greatest servant. That is how God acts.
God brought Saul down. It is a good thing to be brought down. Saul was a self-important person and he thought he was doing what was right but God brings him down. He says, “Who art thou, Lord?” He becomes subject. Paul speaks of himself elsewhere as “an insolent overbearing man”, 1 Tim.1:13. He was not a subject-minded person before he was converted, but here he immediately says, “Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus”. He had to do with Jesus. He recognises His authority over him. It is a wonderful blessing when you accept that Jesus is your Lord. You accept His authority and you come into wonderful blessing. “I am Jesus”. What a word of grace from the Lord to Saul. Paul never forgot this. He could say later, “I know whom I have believed”, 2 Tim.1:12. He believed in Jesus, the One who went to the cross, the One who lived a life of perfect subjection. Siloam would refer to that, it means ‘sent’, and Jesus was One who was sent. The Lord Jesus was not sent from glory: He came Himself. But as here in perfect manhood, He took the position of being sent. In dependent manhood He moved through this scene to the cross at Calvary where He suffered at the hands of men, but where even more
He suffered at the hands of God. He was made sin (2 Cor.5:21). God placed on Him the judgment that was due to you and due to me. He was the perfect, holy, sinless One, yet He took that place in love for you and me so that God could come out in blessing towards the whole race. How wonderful that is.
Paul had to do with Jesus. The blind man had to do with Jesus too, when He was here on the earth. When Paul had to do with the Lord Jesus, He had been to the cross and into the grave; He had been raised from the dead and He was glorified. That is the Jesus that Paul had to do with. Of course, it is the same Person that the blind man had to do with. The way that you have to do with the Lord Jesus is in that sense the same way that Paul had to do with Him, because the Lord Jesus was glorified here in Acts 9, and He spoke to Saul from the glory. How wonderful that is! The Lord Jesus, having accomplished the wonderful work of redemption, is living now, never to die again. His blood has been shed. That was the witness that a precious life was laid down, but He has taken His life again in new conditions. He is not in flesh and blood now, but He is a glorious living Man, and is available as Saviour to the whole race. But receiving Him comes down to you and me. As we said, it is an individual matter. You must have to do with the Lord Jesus for yourself.
I remember a brother whose work had to do with printing bibles. They printed a Bible where all the words that the Lord Jesus spoke were in red, so that they stood out. When the first copy of this Bible came off the press, he showed it to a supervisor, who looked through it all the way to Revelation, and said, ‘How is it that One who has died still speaks?’ Think of that, the testimony to the words of the Lord Jesus as glorified. He is still speaking! How wonderful – because He is living. He has died, yes, and how necessary that death was. If you and I were to be forgiven our sins, the perfect offering and sacrifice had to be made; otherwise God would not have a righteous basis to come out in forgiveness. Yet, having died, He is living now and He still speaks.
I want to speak of where we read in Revelation: “I Jesus”. There are many wonderful titles of the Lord in this book, but we finish with “I Jesus”. “I am the root and offspring of David”: it points to the fact that the Lord Jesus is a divine Person. The Lord Jesus is Himself God. He is the root of David, and He is also the offspring of David. The ‘offspring’ speaks of the perfection of His manhood. And then He adds, “the bright and morning star”. That is to draw us away. Perhaps you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus some time ago, and you have got a little bit jaded. The gospel is for us all – we all need the gospel. It is wonderful that God in His provision for us makes the gospel available to us afresh because we need to be maintained in the freshness of our links with the Lord Jesus where He is. He presents Himself as the root and offspring of David.
David in the Old Testament is one that is beloved, one who is particularly attractive. The first time that David comes onto our view, we see his personal attractiveness. “He was ruddy, and besides of a lovely countenance and beautiful appearance”, 1 Sam.16:12. Think of that, his personal attractiveness. Perhaps I need that reminder. “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”. The Lord Jesus is spoken of in Peter as the “morning star”, 2 Pet.1:19. But here the Lord Jesus adds the word “bright”. You look around this world that is going on to destruction – we remember the hymn that says,
‘The world to doom is passing,
And you are passing too’ (Hymn 220)
Maybe we get a little bit jaded by things. The Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as “the bright and morning star”. That is to attract our hearts away from things down here and engage us with Himself.
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. The Lord Jesus in the glad tidings would say to you, “Come”. He said, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened”, Matt.11:28. That is a personal invitation by the Lord Jesus to us all. But here it is the Spirit and the bride who say, “Come”. The way it is presented here, every believer who makes up this wonderful vessel, the assembly, is saying ‘Come’ to the Lord Jesus. Why? To extricate them from this degradation? I think rather it is in view of the Lord coming and reigning, and He will reign. He is going to take up His rights publicly. All these kings and monarchs and political leaders who have gone before have had their day and it has passed. But the Lord Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev.19:16). What a person He is: He is going to reign, and He is going to reign gloriously. We are ever thankful that He will reign in righteousness; everything will be absolutely right and there will be no dark corners. There will be no ‘no-go’ areas in cities or anything like that: everything will be perfect: “A King shall reign in righteousness”, Isa.32:1. That is the Lord Jesus; what a One He is!
In a conversation recently we were reminded that even the greatest of this earth’s conquerors never reigned over the whole world. God has seen to that. But the Lord Jesus will reign over the whole world, from the river to the ends of the earth (Zech.9:10). What a wonderful, blessed administration. That is what the word “Come” here has in view. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come.” Then there is a change: “And let him that is athirst come”. Is that you, dear friend? Here we are on the last page of Scripture and the Lord Jesus is appealing to us individually. “And let him that is athirst come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely”. It is available. The woman in John 4 got the water of life. How many believers have enjoyed the soul satisfaction that the “water of life” brings. It is available to you to drink. It is available now, dear friend.
I trust that each one here knows the Lord Jesus for himself or herself, the One that we know as “a man called Jesus”, the One who wants to do with you personally, who speaks of Himself as “I Jesus”.
May it be the portion of each one, for His name’s sake.
Preaching of the gospel, Brechin
13 August 2023
Bill Lovie
Edited and published monthly by Alistair Brown and Paul Martin
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