A Study of the
Book of John
“That
You May Believe”
Sermon # 13
“What
Will It Take to Bring You To Jesus?”
John 4:46-4:54
This morning I have
constructed a visual model of our lives on this table. The tower on the table (tower made out of dominoes) is a model of
your life. On the bottom level are the foundational elements of your life; your parents,
your home life, your child rearing. The next level is your wife/husband, your children and
your job. The next level is all the additional “things” that make your life what
it is. And then one day God removes one of the props and what happens, boom your life is
toppled. Why!? Why would God allow this to happen? Is God cruel or just uncaring to allow
that to happen? Well it depends. It depends on why God has you here on this Earth in the
first place. If God’s purpose to give you a comfortable existence while you’re
here on this earth then perhaps it is cruel to allow those kinds of things to happen.
However, if God has a grander purpose, if God’s purpose is to make sure that we spend
eternity with Him, if God’s purpose is to progressive mold us into the image of His
son, then no God is not cruel to do whatever is necessary to bring us to Jesus. So the
question this morning is, “What Will It Take To Bring You To
Jesus?”
We have spent the last
three weeks in our study of John examining the woman of Samaria that Jesus met at the well
in Sychar. We saw as the Lord reached out to her with a love that was great enough to
reach over all the barriers in her life and lead her to faith in Him as her personal
Savior. We looked at what He taught her about worship and we saw how the encounter
motivated her to share her experience with others in her circle of influence, the result
was that hundreds of Samaritans came to know Jesus as their personal savior.
Now it is time to move
on, Jesus now travels back to Galilee where he meets a man whose son is ill. Let’s
pick up with the story in John 4 and verse forty six, “So
Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a
certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. (47) When he heard that Jesus had come
out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son,
for he was at the point of death. (48)Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see
signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." (49) The nobleman said to Him,
"Sir, come down before my child dies!" (50) Jesus said to him, "Go your
way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he
went his way. (51) And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him,
saying, "Your son lives!" (52) Then he inquired of them the hour when he got
better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left
him." (53) So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to
him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and his whole household. (54)
This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.”
When John
says that this is the “second miracle (sign)” (v. 54) he means that it was the second miracle that Jesus
did in the Galilee area. The first miracle was associated with a wedding and is a time of
festivity and joy, the second miracle is associated with sickness and is a time of anxiety
and sorrow. In comparing the two occasions we have to see that life has as much of one as
it does the other and that Jesus is needed in both circumstances.
When Jesus
turned the water into wine it was a miracle of time, he simply did in a moment what He
usually does in a growing season. The healing of the nobleman’s son was a miracle of
space; Jesus healed the boy from twenty miles away.
To have our
needs met we must take certain steps that are outlined in this story.
First, Desperation Makes Us Willing To Take Our Needs To Jesus (4:47-48)
“When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee,
he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of
death.”
What do people ordinarily do when
difficulties come in their lives? Do people even believer’s start by running to God?
No! People trust in all kinds of things rather than God. They will talk to their friends.
They will listen to Dr. Phil. They will read a self-help book. If we don’t find the
answers we seek, and when we get desperate enough, then prayer; desperate prayers soon
follow. Desperation turns the heart toward God. If our need is great enough we will cling
to God like a drowning man clings to a rope.
In the story we
are introduced to a man that John calls a nobleman (basilikos)
which is derived from a word (basileus) which
means king. Although it can mean a member of the royal family (Herod’s) it probably
indicates someone in the service of the king. The fact that he lived in Capernaum
indicates that he was an official in the service of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and
Perea.
The twenty miles
from Capernaum to Cana was not the only distance the nobleman had too cross, he had to
cross an even greater distance socially. He a nobleman had to lower himself to seek help
from a humble villager carpenter and iterant preacher.
It is important
to note that even his rank and his wealth do not exempt him from common sorrows of all
mankind. There is no home into which sickness and sorrow can not enter. The author, C.S.
Lewis, has said that “God speaks to us in our health but he
“shouts to us in our pain.” It was a crisis in this man’s life (the
sickness of his son) that led him into direct contact with Jesus.
When the
nobleman finds Jesus, he pleads with him to return immediately with him to Capernaum and
to heal his son who is about to die.
On the surface
the response of Jesus in verse forty-eight is surprising, “Then
Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means
believe." But we need to realize that the “you”
in verse forty-eight is plural (in fact the word ‘people’ is added by the
translators to convey this idea) Therefore, Jesus is speaking to more than just the
nobleman. Jesus is rebuking the attitude of the crowd who had followed along with the
nobleman with the expectation that they would able to see a miracle. They are interested
only in the spectacular and not at all interested in what the miracles were a sign of.
John again tells the reader that this miracle was a sign. Each of Jesus’ miracles was
significant that is each of the miracles had a purpose.
One
has to wonder, how many people missed a healing that day? How many people missed a touch
from God simply because they did not come? It is no different today. Jesus is here, ready
and waiting for someone to put forth the small amount of effort it would be to come, and
they simply do not bother.
Desperation
Makes Us Willing To Take Our Needs To Jesus and…
Secondly, Persistence Proves the Sincerity of Our
Request. (4:49)
“The
nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"
If we are going to have our needs met: We
have to overcome the obstacles. We Americans think life should always be good and easy. In
fact, I believe that most people expect God to make it easy for them to believe. They don’t
think that they should have to put forth any effort, and that certainly God should not put
any obstacles in their way to hinder them from believing. But the question that arises
from this text is, why didn’t Jesus make it easier, not more difficult, for people
to believe and receive a miracle? Why did he put these obstacles in their way? Because
the Lord wanted them to put forth some effort. A faith that requires no effort is a faith
that is not worth having.
There will come those times in your life when
everything seems to be going wrong and you wonder why it is that God does not immediately
answer your prayers. It seems that your prayers get no higher than the ceiling, it seems
like God is not listening to you! It is at time like that you will wonder if God still
loves you and is interested in your welfare. But is only when you push through those times
and do not lose heart, your faith grows. You will find yourself living on a new spiritual
plane and feeling the embrace of God. Jesus said that we, “should
always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). He said, “Ask
and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to
you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door
will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). Faith takes effort on our part. It is
not just handed to us by God. He challenges us when he asks us to believe and trust him.
Faith does not come to the one who sits down and gives up, it comes to those who put forth
the effort to believe and persevere. People who pursue God overcome obstacles and are
persistent in their quest for God. And God honors that persistence.
Even as this
nobleman expresses his faith it is a limited faith. It is limited to the belief “that as long as there is life, there is hope.”
He seems to think that Jesus can only help as long as the boy is alive. Like Martha and
Mary the sister of Lazarus in John 11 who said to Jesus “if
you had been here our brother would not have died.” It was also limited in
that the nobleman thought that Jesus had to be present with the boy to heal him. He had
the faith to believe that Jesus could heal him if he were at his side but not from 20
miles away.
Persistence Proves the Sincerity of Our Request and…
Third, Trust Makes Us Willing To Take Him At His Word! (4:50)
The words of
Jesus in verse fifty are not intended to turn him away but to turn him to Jesus in
faith. “Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives.
So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.”
“The man took Jesus at his word and
departed” (John 4:50 -
NIV). I love that! The man took Jesus at his word. How many times have I failed to do
that? He knew enough about Jesus to trust Him. And he was prepared to act in accordance
with that trust. I know what Jesus has said, but sometimes I fail to take him at his word.
Notice that the man had no reason to believe that what Jesus had said was, in fact, true.
The man believed without anything to prop up his faith.
Here
is the dilemma of faith — when we are asked to believe God before there is any
evidence that what he has promised will happen. What will we do when we have no outward
assurance? What is your estimation of God based upon? How do you know God loves you?
How do you know God is there for you? How do you know that God cares for you?
Do you know those things just because He said so? Do believe His word like the
nobleman did or do you have to look for proof of them in your life? We have to trust Jesus
before we see anything — before there is any evidence.
We don’t
want to fail to notice the difference in the nobleman’s rush to get to Jesus and his
leisurely pace in returning home. Since the miracle took place at the “seventh hour” (v.52) (one o’clock in the
afternoon) he could have made it home the same day but he arrived the next day, spending
the night somewhere along the route. The words of this verse use the imperfect tense to
help us see that the nobleman believed Jesus so implicitly that he simply picked up his
work where he had left it and went on about his business.
Trust Makes Us
Willing To Take Him At His Word and…
Fourth, Faith
Is The Ability To Accept Whatever He Gives Us. (4:51-54)
It
was in his going, not in his arriving
Notice about this
miracle and its effects.
First, Faith proves that God can be trusted.- He got even more
than he had asked for. (vv. 51-53a) “And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him,
saying, "Your son lives!" (52) Then he inquired of them the hour when he got
better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left
him." (53) So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to
him, "Your son lives…"
Apparently
the father had expected a gradual recovery, for the exact wording of verse fifty-one
is, “He asked them the hour that he began to get better.”
The servant’s answer revealed that at very moment Jesus had spoken “Your son lives” the boy had recovered instantly and
completely. He is wrong in his
first supposing that God can only accomplish what we ask by doing it in the way we
prescribe.
We must learn to
trust Jesus enough to allow him to operate in whatever way he chooses. Erwin Lutzer tells
the story of “a missionary couple who served in China before
the Communist takeover of 1949. They had lived high in the hills, and their only means of
transportation was using a boat on a nearby river. At a particular time of year the river
dried up.
One
day their child was ill with a high fever. They knew that if they were to get medical
help, they would have to travel by boat, but the river was only a muddy stream. They
prayed that it would rain so that the river would swell and their boat could travel. But
their prayers were not answered. Days later, their child died.
Shortly
after his death they walked outside and rain was splashing against their faces. By the
next day, the river has swelled and boats were able to travel.
What
would you have said to God, if it had been your child? Was God mocking them? Why should
they believe when God seemed so heartless and even cruel? Why would He heal the nobleman’s
son with a high fever, but not their son afflicted with the same malady?
They
went on believing. For they had learned that faith is not merely receiving from God what
we ask, but it is the ability to accept whatever God gives us” [Erwin Lutzer.
“Seven Convincing Miracles.” (Chicago: Moody, 1999) p. 73]
Some Christians
become bitter have prayed yet they were not healed or helped in the way that they sought.
They thought they had a promise of God and that God was obligated to heal them or bless
them financially.
Sometimes
disillusionment about God keeping His promises is due to our lack of understanding of the
different kinds of promises given in the Bible.
• Some of God’s promises are general
promises (John 3:16).
These general
promises are promises that invite all to believe and they apply to all without
distinction.
• Some of God’s promises are promises that apply only to believers.
This includes such promises as Hebrews
13:5-6 “Let your
conduct be without covetousness be content with such things as you have. For He Himself
has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." And of course perhaps
the most misquoted of all, Romans 8:28, “And we know
that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called
according to His purpose.”
• Some of God’s promises are specific promises that apply only to the individuals to whom they were given.
Abraham (Genesis
12:2)
David (2 Samuel 12:11-12)
In today’s
story (John 4) the father is promised that his son would be healed. There is no universal
promise of divine healing to all.
Secondly, notice
that Faith is Contagious
(vv. 53b-54) “… And he himself believed, and his whole household. (54) This
again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of
Judea into Galilee.”
“In the face of death, a hopeful faith
drove the anxious father to Jesus. Christ gave him a command and a promise. In faith the
father obeyed and claimed the promise. And the result was life. The son recovered, and new
faith was born in the hearts of all in that household who witnessed the healing.”
[Larry
Richards. “Every Miracle of the Bible.” (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998)
p. 171]
Conclusion
“What Will It Take To Bring
You To
Faith Is The Ability To Accept Whatever He Gives Us.