John 4:43-54
Another Sign
If you’ll open your Bible to John 4:43. This is the
healing of the Nobleman’s son. Hear the word of God.
After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself
had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) When he arrived
in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in
Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there. Once more he
visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was
a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard
that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to
come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see miraculous
signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal
official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus replied, “You may
go. Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he
was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was
living.When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they
said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.” Then the
father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed. This was the second
miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.
Let us pray together.
Our Father in heaven, come now and bless us we pray. Give
us a sense of Your presence. Open up your word to us we pray, and hide it within
our hearts that we might not sin against you, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
George Mueller once said, “Faith does not operate in
the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly
possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” John has brought us full circle.
The narrative began in the first verse of chapter two in Cana of Galilee, and
now we are back once again in Cana of Galilee. The first sign of the glory of
Jesus was performed in Cana of Galilee, transforming water into wine at the
wedding feast. Now, in Cana of Galilee a second sign is to be performed.
The whole message of John’s gospel was the world was
full of light and life, but is now full of darkness and death. And for John, the
original Creator of the universe has come into the world to bring life and light
once again. John has told us about various encounters of Jesus with different
people: Nicodemus in Jerusalem, and the woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria in the
first part of the fourth chapter of John’s gospel. Both of those stories, in
different ways, give us pictorial representations of what the Book of
Ecclesiastes means when it says, “God hath set eternity in our hearts.” You
remember how Blaise Pascal put it? “There is a God-shaped void at the center of
our lives, and that void can only be filled by Jesus Christ.” What Augustine
says so beautifully and so often cited in the first paragraph of his
confessions, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until
they find their rest in Thee.”
Now a question arises. If we are to receive this new
life, how is it that we receive it? And Jesus has been giving to us word
pictures in order to answer that question. You get it by being born again, or
born from above. You get it by coming to Jesus and asking for the living water.
And now, here we receive new life by coming to Jesus Christ by faith and
trusting in Him. What we have here is a beautiful example of the pilgrimage of
one man, one individual, the progress of faith in the soul of a particular
individual; and I want to trace that in four stages that I think that we can
perceive.
I. Faith is needed.
First of all, the stage in which faith is required. This man’s
son is dying. He lives in Capernaum and it’s about twenty miles or so from
Capernaum to Cana of Galilee. Not far in your SUVs, but on foot it was a
considerable distance to travel. And this man, as soon as he hears that Jesus is
in Cana of Galilee, makes haste to get there. He wants to be where Jesus is.
What is striking is that the circumstances in this man’s life have radically
changed the priorities of his life. He’s a nobleman. It’s not hard to imagine
that he’s made all sorts of provisions for his son for the welfare of his son.
He’s an official of Herod Antipas. But now, like the people at the wedding, like
Nicodemus, like the woman at the well, he’s come to appreciate that no earthly
provision is adequate for his son’s actual needs. Extremes will do that for you.
This is an urgent situation; his son is dying, and this nobleman has been
reduced, he who no doubt, was in the habit of giving orders, this man was
reduced to a beggar.
You know, that’s what prayer is. Prayer reduces each
one of us to be beggars; to come with empty hands and to plead at the feet of
Jesus Christ, and it is partly because of the urgency of the man’s need and
partly because of the way this man begs Jesus, that Jesus’ response is so
astonishing. Get this! It is so astonishing. Here’s this man who is begging
Jesus to come before it is too late, but Jesus holds him at arm’s length. Do you
notice that? Jesus says to him, and to others who are listening. You people
come to Me because I am able to give you certain signs and wonders, but it isn’t
enough, because that’s not what I am here for. I’m not here, Jesus is saying, to
satisfy your spectator interest. I’m here as your Savior so that you may
recognize what you need most is a Savior. They were interested in spectating.
They wanted to see signs and wonders. That’s why they received Him gladly back
into Cana of Galilee, because no doubt, they had heard of the things that Jesus
had done. But Jesus was burdened to make sure that those to whom He gave Himself
weren’t merely spectators, but those who were trusting in Him. Do you remember
that story in Matthew 9, of the woman whose daughter had just died? She’s
begging Jesus to come down and touch her and revive her; and Jesus is on His way
down, but He stops because He perceives that someone has touched the hem of His
garment. In a great throng of people, of course, somebody had touched Him. And
you want to say, “Jesus, this woman desperately wants you to go down there.” But
He stops, He delays just as He does here. Before He answers this man’s request
there’s a delay.
You understand, of course, what’s happening because
you’ve experienced, as I have experienced it, in our relationship with Jesus,
that He makes us wait, that He tests us. That sometimes before He gives the
answer that we desire, He puts us on hold. Don’t you hate that? Don’t you
hate it when you are calling up somebody, and finally you’ve got through, and
they say, “Well, I’ll just put you on hold.” And you’re screaming, “Don’t put me
on hold!” Jesus sometimes puts us on hold–with jingly music playing. And you can
feel the heckles. He’s testing. A loved one is in need and you fly to Jesus and
pray and He says, “Wait a minute, I’ve got something you need to learn first.
I’ve got a sermon for you.” There’s a stage in which faith is required. Jesus
wanted to make absolutely sure that this man was asking for the right thing.
II. Faith emerges.
Secondly, there’s a stage in which faith emerges. Notice what
happens. The royal official won’t be put off even though he knows that it’s God
who is putting him off; he won’t be put off. You know, later in Matthew 11 at
verse 12 or so, Jesus alludes to this again and He says something like this,
“The days are coming, and have now come, when violent men will take the kingdom
by force.” What He means is, just like this man, there’s an aggression, a
determination about him. There’s a sense in which he will not be put off.
There’s a stickability to his faith; there’s perseverance to his faith.
Doesn’t Jesus teach us this in Luke 18 in the parable
of the unfortunate widow? She will not be put off and, because of her
importunity and persistence, the judge, at midnight, grants her request. There’s
an ancient church father who said that there’s a sense in which we ought to make
God ashamed if He does not grant our requests. That kind of dogged, stubborn
persistence–and that’s what you have here.
Can I put it like this? True faith is prepared to
embarrass itself in order to have Jesus. This nobleman had begun to discover
that God has used his experience of adversity in order to bring him to see that
only one thing matters.
Do you notice the change in the language of this
nobleman between the first appeal and the second appeal? His first appeal goes
like this: “Jesus, come and heal my son because he’s close to death.” Look at
the second appeal in verse 49. “Come before he dies.” Now, there may be nothing
in it, but I rather think that John is hinting to us that something has
sharpened in the sense of priority in this nobleman so that the one thing
needful is for Jesus to come, regardless of whether Jesus will heal him or not.
Before he dies he must have Jesus. I rather think that John is drawing that out
as he alludes to the emergence of this nobleman’s faith. It is focused not on
the signs and wonders, but on Jesus and his child’s need to have
Jesus. That’s what faith is. Faith is saying at its most basic and
simple, “I need Jesus Christ.” And one of the clearest expressions of that
is this. The greatest evidence that I really believe that is what do I
most want for my children? What do I most want for my children? It is
that they might have a saving relationship and communion and fellowship with
Jesus Christ. And don’t you see this man’s faith emerging? Not Jesus plus,
but Jesus only. I rather think that we see that here.
III. Faith expressed.
But there’s a third stage. Not only the need of faith, and not only
faith emerging, but faith expressed–the stage in which faith is expressed. The
man says, “Come down before my child dies.” And Jesus replies to such faith.
“Your son will live.” Or as the Greek has it, “Your son lives!” The word of
promise, you see, is a word of power. And the words that follow are of such
interest because the man took Jesus at His Word. That is the clearest
expression of faith anywhere in the New Testament. What is faith? Taking
Jesus at His words, that is faith. It trusts Jesus. Isn’t it interesting
that this is in Cana of Galilee, and do you remember Mary’s word in Cana of
Galilee back in chapter two? Do you remember what Mary said to the servants?
“Whatever He tells you to do; do it.” That is faith! This has nothing to
do with the personality of this nobleman. This has nothing to do with the fact
that this nobleman might have had a ‘Type A’ personality. It’s taking Jesus at
His word. And I think this sheds light on what otherwise is a fairly strange
statement in verse 44, when Jesus pointed out that “a prophet has no honor in
his own country,” and in the next verse it says that when He arrived in Galilee
they welcomed Him because of what He was doing. The test is not the
reaction to the signs and wonders; the real test is our reaction to what Jesus
says. And that was a very different thing. What does it mean tonight for us
as the body of Christ, as parents, as Christians, to have faith in Jesus Christ?
It is to take Him at His word. To believe the promises that He has might
that are yea and amen–that’s what faith is.
IV. Faith is rewarded.
And there’s a fourth stage. Not only the stage at which faith
is required, and not only the stage at which faith emerges, and not only the
stage at which faith is expressed, but a stage at which faith is rewarded.
He’s on his way home, this nobleman, and the servants are coming out to greet
him. You can imagine the scene. He’s making the journey twenty miles home and
maybe the servants are a few miles from home; they’ve heard he’s coming, and
they’ve gone out to greet him, and they exchange stories and, of course, the one
thing that this nobleman wants to know, and the one thing that these servants
want to tell him, is that the boy is alive and that the boy is well. And he
inquires, “At what time?” At what time was this young boy restored to health?
And it was the seventh hour and he does the math, he does the calculation and he
discovers that it was at the very hour that Jesus had spoken the word–from a
distance. No “hail Marys,” no incantations, no handkerchiefs blessed for five
shekels and mailed through the posts–just a word. Just a sovereign word from the
Creator King; that’s all it took! For the creation to come into being, God spoke
and it came to pass and that’s all that it ever takes to form one new creature
in Jesus Christ–for Christ to speak the word, and it is done. At the same hour,
from a distance of twenty miles; it might as well have been 200 light years, it
would have made no difference. For Jesus to speak the word from the throne of
God, and it is done! Here’s a beautiful and touching example of how Jesus comes
into the life of a family, how Jesus brings His saving presence, how Jesus
causes faith to emerge and grow and become visible and become strong and become
persistent in one family.
Didn’t we sing a few minutes ago “Have we trials and
temptations; is there trouble anywhere? You should never be discouraged” It’s
very easy to sing, especially if we know it so well. “You should never be
discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer,” this Lord, this Jesus of Nazareth,
this Jesus who spoke a word and it was done.
Faith means, “I want Jesus as my Lord and Savior and
Jesus only.” Faith is, “I want Jesus as my Lord and Savior for me and mine, and
Jesus only.” Do you believe Jesus like that? Do you? Do I? What a wonderfully
encouraging passage this is. Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to the cross or
Jesus Christ I cling. Let’s pray together.
Our Father in heaven, we thank You from the
depths of our hearts for Your words that holy men spoke as they were carried
along by the Holy Spirit, that what we have here in the closing chapter of
John’s gospel are Your words–living and true, sharper than any two-edged sword
diving asunder the joints and the marrow, the soul and the spirit. Father, we
pray that You would write it upon our hearts. Oh, that we might see Jesus and
Him only. Bless us as we bring to you our particular burdens and trials, and
help us, we pray, to lay them at Your sovereign feet. We ask it in Jesus name,
Amen.