Believe (John 4:43-54)

If you are able, please stand for the reading of God's Word.

John chapter 4, starting in verse 43.

John 4 · chapter mention

After two days he left there for Galilee.

Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

When they entered Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem during the festival, for they also had gone to the festival.

He went again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.

There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.

When this man had heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.

Jesus told him, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

Sir, the official said to him, Come down before my boy dies.

Go, Jesus told him, Your son will live.

The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed.

And while he was still going down, his servants met him, saying the boy was alive.

He asked him what time he got better, and yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.

They answered.

And the father realized this was the very hour which Jesus had told them your son will live.

So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

Now this also was the second sign Jesus performed after he had come from Judea into Galilee.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you for your word.

I thank you that your word guides us and leads us closer to you, to conform more and more to your image, to fall more and more in love with you.

I ask that you would fill me with your spirit to teach your word, that you would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly divide and discern what is of you, and that we would come out of this closer to you.

In your name.

Amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

So we are walking through the Gospel of John, and the past couple of weeks we have been in Samaria, which is that spot right in the middle, right between Judea and Galilee, where Jews don't like to go.

And Jesus went and encountered the woman at the well, encountered the individuals there who lived there, and there was a basically revival in that area in Samaria.

Interesting thing, we don't have a record of him doing any cool signs, any cool miracles in Samaria.

May have happened, may have not.

We don't have it in here, but ultimately there's no record in the Gospel of John of that happening.

And so what on earth caused them to believe here?

We look in verse 41 of chapter 4.

Many more believed because of what he said.

So tuck that away for a minute, that their belief is based on what Jesus was teaching them, what he was telling them, what he was imparting to them.

This is right after he directly revealed himself as the Messiah to the Samaritan woman in verse 26.

So, you have this crazy amount of belief happening as a result of Jesus' teaching.

And then in verse 43 in our passage today, that was the quickest summary ever, by the way.

I'm really proud of myself.

But he went for Galilee.

He left there for Galilee.

So you have Judea on the bottom, Samaria in the middle, Galilee up top.

The other three Gospels spend a lot of their time in Galilee and a very little amount of time in Jerusalem.

The Gospel of John does the exact opposite.

It spends most of its time in Judea and Jerusalem, and little jaunts up into Galilee.

So this is one of those little uh jounts up into Galilee before heading back to Jerusalem for a big showdown.

Up and down and up and down.

And so here we are in Galilee.

And then in verses 44 to 45, we have the most confusing weird thing ever.

Verse 44, because he's in Galilee, Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

Verse 45, when they entered Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him.

Which one is it?

Is it that he has no honor there, or is it that they welcomed him?

That's super weird, because in the other gospels, in Matthew 13, in Mark 6, and in Luke 4, that testifying that a prophet has no honor in his own country happens in his hometown of Nazareth in Galilee.

What happened there?

He opened the scriptures to teach in the synagogue, and they didn't appreciate it and did not respect him.

And then he said, A prophet has no honor in his own hometown.

Again, he taught, he gave his word, and they rejected it.

And so, what is going on here if a prophet has no honor in his own country and he entered Galilee, where Nazareth is, and the Galileans welcomed him?

How do we reconcile those two things?

Because that's kind of weird.

Well, there's the rest of that verse in verse 45.

They welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem during the festival.

For they had also gone to the festival.

Three times a year, every practicing Jew goes to Jerusalem, and this was one of those times that they're referring to was Passover, as it was spoken of in John 2.23, when he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.

So here's a weird thing.

John took special note to tell us that Jesus testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country, which is in Galilee.

That's in the parentheses, that's the author John, through the Holy Spirit, telling us that out of nowhere.

It's like the deep narrator voice breaking into the story.

And then the Galileans welcome him.

But why did they welcome him?

Because of the signs that they saw him do in Jerusalem.

So Jesus is famous now, he's arrived.

That doesn't happen a whole lot up in Galilee.

And he has made it, and he is now noteworthy, and they welcome him.

Kind of interesting.

We have this juxtaposition between the Samaritans, who are really not all that interested in what's going on in Judea whatsoever, and them hearing Jesus' word and his revelation of himself as the Messiah, and then believing his word.

And then on the other side, you have the Galileans, who are really excited and welcome him because of the cool stuff he does.

And right in the middle, John decides to tell us that Jesus prophesied or testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

Why am I pointing this out to such an extent?

Because we're dealing with two different kinds of belief in this whole book.

And that gets complicated.

When you use one word with two different meanings, the context reveals what those meanings mean.

So there are individuals who believe because he did a sign or because he had a great procession into Jerusalem, that are the same individuals possibly who are shouting, crucify him a few chapters later.

And then there are people whose lives are completely transformed.

How do we reconcile this?

What do we do with this if they're both indicated as belief?

And that's what we're having to grapple with here.

And we're laying the foundation here that the Galileans welcomed him because there's something exciting.

Is it possible that they are attracted to his power?

To what he can do.

And also intrigued by the fact that he can, I don't know, cleanse the temple and not get stoned for it, or go face to face with the Pharisees and walk away unscathed.

But there's a little bit of an interesting conflict in there that we will develop here as we continue.

So here is the meat of the story in verse 46.

He went again to Cana of Galilee, where he turned the water into wine.

So a few chapters ago we saw that happen.

Jesus is at a wedding, they run out of wine, turns the water into wine, and John goes, This was the first miracle he did.

And many believed.

And then here we have them back in Cana of Galilee, which is a nowhere little town.

It's not like a huge, noteworthy.

Oh, Cana! I know that well.

People are like, okay, there's a Cana there, whatever.

And we introduce ourselves to the next character here, a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.

A few different things that we need to know and learn about what's going on here.

Because we go, okay, Cana, Capernaum, Galilee.

Sure, they're all far away, and therefore they're all close together.

Cana and Capernaum, depending on who you ask, are somewhere between 16 and 25 miles apart, depending on if you use ancient roads, uh current roads, as the crow flies, going trade routes.

So we're gonna say 20 for the sake of sanity, and that is a day's journey.

So Cana and Capernaum are not next to each other.

He didn't go to Targum, a couple miles away.

It was he went to Costco, which was a day's journey.

I keep going back to that.

So, with that, and survived the grade, too.

Okay, so in Capernaum, the son is ill.

Jesus is in Cat is in Cana.

Who is this guy?

He is a royal official.

The word is basilicas.

Basilica, St.

Peter's Basilica, it's a king, it's a castle, it's a kingdom.

Kingdom.

And so he is a king's man, a king's official, a king's servant.

Looking at this area, that is most likely he works for Herod Antipas.

After Herod the Great, the one who killed, had all of the uh boys in Bethlehem murdered.

After that, the kingdom was split up into Tetrarchies, and Herod had three Tetrarchies.

Okay, um, and one of them was Herod Antipas over the area of Galilee, otherwise known as Herod, through almost all of the Gospels as we see it.

Not a good guy.

Nobody says Herod, I hear he's nice.

So this guy almost certainly works for Herod.

Some people think it's possible it's a centurion.

It's kind of the same thing.

Either way, he works for what the Jews would consider to be the enemy to a certain extent.

But he's also a big deal.

Because here's the thing what matters in this passage, Jesus heals someone.

Why do we care what the guy's job is?

Who was like whose kid was healed?

John put that in there specifically for a reason for us to look at.

And so we see here that he is a king's man.

And why mention that?

Well, I see an issue of authority that comes through here, through this passage that we'll unpack in a moment.

So, what's the problem?

His son is ill and he's about to die.

Tony, this is a big deal.

How many of you have kids?

Have or have had kids?

So imagine this: you have your child who is on the brink of death, and you are sufficiently desperate to leave your child and go on a day's journey.

That's how desperate this dude is.

That's a big deal.

That's a really big deal.

He cannot call in back home to see how things are going.

He cannot face time with his family to see how his son is doing.

He may never see the light in his son's eyes again.

And he leaves to go see Jesus out of sheer desperation.

So that's the scene we have here in Cana.

Jesus arrives, an important guy makes a day's journey to plead with him to come down and heal his son.

Why?

Because he heard Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee.

So all of that fame that Jesus had garnered in there is working in this guy's favor.

So where he's like, hey, Jesus is here.

I heard he's here.

I'm gonna go and plead for my son's life.

Verse 48.

Jesus' response.

Jesus told him, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

Some may not categorize that as sensitive on the surface.

That's the uh I'll put it this way.

Nobody, nobody appreciates being called you people.

Right off the bat.

We are all unique, hand cut little snowflakes that are different from everybody else that have been sprinkled from heaven, and we cannot be categorized with other people, because darn it, we're our own people.

The words you people, that's really intense to start with.

And unless you people see signs and wonders, so that's his statement here, you people want signs and wonders, which is what the Galileans welcomed him for, or else you won't believe.

Okay.

Couple different ways to look at this just in terms of application, because um, how by a show of hands, how many of us are Jesus?

Okay, Dodge, a really bad counseling appointment there.

So when Jesus does this, he knows what's going on.

He's doing it for a reason.

So if we look at this and we go, oh my gosh, Jesus is a jerk.

Or, yeah, he stuck it to him.

Both of those are kind of a little concerning in that sense.

So, with that in mind, why is Jesus doing this?

This is neither Jesus having a bad day, or Jesus just, you know, throwing punches and taking names.

I would present before you, it's a test.

He is drawing out the important part in this.

Very similar to what we see in Mark 7, 26 through 28, when a Cyrophoenician woman comes to Jesus for the well-being of her child, and Jesus' response is it's not good to take the food for the kids and give it to the dogs.

That's brutal.

Ironically, I also had that passage to teach back when we were at the Kiwanas Hall.

So you know the key, the test passages, that's weird.

But with that, there is a certain thing, and what her response is, yeah, but even the even the dogs can eat the crumbs off of their, like from under their master's table.

There's a there's a still a submission there, there's still an awareness there, there's not an offense there.

So here he is saying, well, it is on the surface, a very offensive statement to a very important person.

Does that usually go well?

The response sometimes is don't you know who I am?

Usually not a good response, by the way, if you have to go there.

Also, because like forget this guy, I'm going home.

Different things that could happen.

Do those things happen in here?

We don't see that.

But again, just looking at this, why would he say, unless you people see signs and wonders, you won't believe?

Well, because the Galileans are welcoming him because of his signs and wonders.

We see in John 6, 29 through 30, Jesus is teaching the people, giving his word, and he says, This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he has sent.

And the response is, what sign are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?

What are you gonna perform?

So, even like a couple chapters later, Jesus is teaching, giving the words of God, and they go, Yeah, what sign are you gonna do so that we can actually take your credibility, your self-credibility?

So there is a pervasive line through this whole book.

There's gonna be a point where Jesus' brothers, who at this point don't believe him, say, Hey, why don't you go up to that uh festival and do some of those signs so that people can believe you?

There's an underlying thing through this whole book of that.

And here Jesus is drawing out what the pervasive culture there is of, oh look, you want a sign?

If I don't give you a sign, you're not gonna believe.

And how does this important guy respond?

How does this official respond?

Does he say, you have no right to talk to me that way?

Does he say uh forget you, I'm going back home?

He says, my son is dying.

Will you please just come?

He cuts through all of it.

All of the test, all of the um triggers, and is just like, my kid's dying, man.

I need you.

I need you to come with me.

He doesn't take the bait and just pleads for Jesus to come.

So Jesus gets up and goes, right?

No.

Kind of interesting.

Jesus does not comply.

Sometimes he does in the Gospels.

Remember the Roman centurion?

Servant was sick, I believe, and is like, hey, come, can you come and heal?

And he's like, I will come at once.

And he's like, You don't, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof.

Just say the word to my son, and my servant will live.

Here the guy's like, Will you please just come?

Because at the moment, the official doesn't know if his child is still alive.

It's a day's journey.

That's intense.

And Jesus says, Go.

Your son will live.

This is a crisis of belief at this point.

What is the guy walking away with?

The word of the rabbi saying, Your son's gonna live, go home.

He doesn't have the miracle worker coming with him to his home.

He doesn't have any kind of assurance whatsoever, except just go home, your child will live.

He has the word of Jesus.

Which is interesting because there is an authority aspect there.

That Jesus, the rabbi, that we've talked about a lot in this book, the teacher, is telling this man, giving him a command.

Giving Herod's official a command.

Go home.

It's gonna be okay.

People react differently to how they receive that kind of command.

We see the rich young ruler in the Gospels comes to Jesus, has all the right answers, actually, but then Jesus, loving him, says, one thing you lack, sell all your stuff, give it to the poor, and come follow me.

What does the guy do?

He walks away sorrowful because he had great possessions.

Same thing to where Jesus gives a command, and the guy's like, not doing it.

I can't do it.

Here, this man is given a command, go, your son will live.

Now, and what does he do?

Does he depart with absolute uncertainty and despondency?

It says he believed.

What did he believe?

He believed what Jesus said to him, and he departed.

This is what's interesting because they're specifically mentioning that the guy believed what Jesus said.

Do we have that kind of I don't know.

I like uh I like assurances, to be honest.

That's that's really hard to go into this going, I'm just walking away with you telling me it's all gonna be okay.

I'm gonna walk for a day all in my head, thinking through what is going to be waiting for me at home with no assurances whatsoever.

But he believed.

Would we be willing to take Jesus at his word without those assurances?

That's tough.

That's really hard.

Can we live on the other side of the Gospel, and sometimes that can be easier because we know the whole story, but it's the story's not complete, but ultimately it's easy to be like, Well, yeah, sure, of course, Jesus.

Answer in what's the word, what's the answer in church?

Jesus! And but here, this guy has to walk home.

But he believed.

So, what happens?

What's the result?

When he was still going down, his servants met him, saying his boy was alive.

What do you do if you're this guy?

And you're walking or riding your donkey or whatever, and you see your servants in the distance.

What do you think?

What do you?

As all the blood leaves your your body, waiting to see what happens, what they say, he has had X amount of time walking or returning home, chewing on Jesus, just saying, Your son will live.

Which, by the way, is not typically how that works.

See, miracles are extraordinary all the time, right?

That's that's how that works.

However, for Jesus just to heal a guy 20 miles away, that's kind of next level crazy in that sense.

And he sees the servants and they say, Your boy is alive.

And he asks, Well, what time did he get better?

Yesterday at one in the afternoon, the seventh hour, your translation may say.

The fever left him.

And a father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, Your son will live.

So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

Couple of things to pull out of that chunk.

Number one, um, we can become really numb to the power of God in these situations.

Jesus healed a guy from 20 miles away.

At his word, he didn't do a thing, didn't do a spell, didn't do a cool like trick.

It was just, it's done.

He has power over life and death.

He has that authority.

So we can't get that law, we can't get lost in the details and forget how crazy awesome our God is.

But also, the father realized this is the same hour which Jesus said your son will live, and he believed, along with his whole household.

Which is interesting because I thought he believed in verse 50.

And here it's saying he believed in verse 53.

What's going on with that?

Here's my take.

I see in verse 50 the seed going into the ground.

And I see in verse 53 that seed busting open to bear fruit.

The belief in Jesus' word was ultimately made manifest in the fulfillment of what Jesus said, but was not contingent upon it.

It was not, he wouldn't believe until he saw his son alive.

He already believed, and then when he saw his son alive, it was the same hour that Jesus said, he believed with his whole household.

It may be helpful to think about this in the context of the four soils.

The parable of four soils.

So you have the first one, and the seed doesn't even make it in the ground.

Birds of the air eat it, doesn't even that.

The second one goes into the ground, but the weeds wrap around it, choke it out, and kill it, which is the cares of this world, the desire for riches, as we see in that passage.

The third, the seed goes in the ground, and the scorching sun bakes it on the rocky soil, and it dies and doesn't bear fruit, which is persecution and the difficulties and trials that come with faith.

And then the fourth one, the seed goes in the ground and bears fruit and multiplies.

I see that happening here, that the seed went into the ground, fertile ground and bore fruit, not just for himself, but his whole household.

And that's what the this is Jesus plays the long game in these things.

Because you look at verse 48 and you don't get the rest of the passage, you go, wow, that's harsh.

But Jesus is tilling the soil for the seed to bear fruit, not only for the one guy, but for his whole household.

Which is pretty amazing.

He also had no obligation to heal the son.

He had no obligation to say yes.

That's pretty crazy, and again, that's we get lost in that sometimes.

That uh God is good no matter what he decides in his sovereignty to do.

It's really hard to accept when the things are really hard, but that doesn't change his goodness.

And so the fact that he was willing to heal this man, this son, is amazing.

And may we never lose sight of that.

So, this was also the second, in verse 54, this also was the second sign Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.

We're getting these counts of these signs that he performed.

And that's what's interesting, is we just went through this whole thing where it's like, look, you guys, all you want is signs and wonders or you don't believe.

And then here we're like, Jesus did a sign.

It's like, how do you feel like I'm getting mixed messages here?

So the sign isn't the problem.

The heart is the problem.

If we are after the sign and not submissive to the master, it is not bearing fruit.

We are just at that point in time wanting to see a cool thing, for lack of a better way to put it.

But it turns out we do have a God who, in the prof in the sending of his son to reveal his kingdom, is demonstrating in real time the rolling back of sin and death that would be manifested on the cross.

And so there was a sign that was done here.

And it's a big deal.

Heal the guy from a distance.

That's pretty epic.

Interesting thing in the big meta-narrative of Jesus' revelation of his kingdom.

What was the first sign?

We saw it in verse 46, where he turned the water into wine.

First sign was Jesus turning water into wine.

This sign was healing the ruler's son.

You look at those bookends, and they are the just this is one of those little tidbits, you know, for whatever it's worth.

It is the rolling back of what we saw of the plagues in Exodus.

First plague, water into blood.

Here, it's water into wine, which that in that imagery is life into abundant life.

Final plague, death of the firstborn son.

Here, the life of the ruler's son.

It's cool, he is showing the rolling back of God's wrath as we saw it happen in the book of Exodus.

That's pretty cool.

And why do we care?

Why would that matter?

Because ultimately, this is pointing us to the cross.

And it's pointing us to when Jesus is going to take God's wrath upon himself on our behalf.

That he will be the lamb that was slaughtered.

It's his blood that is shed for the life of us all.

And that's what we are driving towards.

There is nothing cooler that happens than the death and resurrection of Jesus and the atoning work on the cross.

There's no part two.

There's no, the gospels are the first movie, which was pretty cool, but then the second one's even cooler.

We never grow past the gospel.

We never graduate past the gospel.

And that is where I'm left in this, because we are faced with a couple of different kinds of belief.

Do we believe Jesus' word without having seen?

We'll see at the end of this gospel as he speaks with Thomas.

You see, because you believe.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.

The belief in things that are not seen is called faith.

And that is not contingent upon the result.

If the boys, I mean, if the man's son had died, Jesus is still the Messiah.

Jesus is still good.

It's an act of his mercy that he healed him.

But this belief is the core of this book, and it's the belief in the teacher, Jesus, and his word.

That's why we keep coming back to John 20, 31.

These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

We talked about in the intro of this book, in the first chapter, the word believe is like more overwhelmingly in John's writings than any other book combined.

It's a huge amount that he's focusing on here.

And this continues here, where he is parsing belief in Jesus' word and authority and coming under that versus a belief that is being associated with the cool thing that's happening.

What does that mean for us?

Do we believe because we are submitted to his teaching, his word?

Because we believe in the scriptures, we believe that we have been separated from God by our own sin, and that by Jesus' death and resurrection a way was made to be restored and reconciled to God as Jesus' righteousness was placed upon us, as he took our guilt upon him on the cross, and then he rose again, indicating the new life of which we walk in, and that is ex that is received by faith, confession, and belief?

Or is there more?

Is what excites us about our faith the fact that he's made us new?

Are we more excited in our day?

This is something I keep coming back to as we're studying the Gospel of John and coming through it.

For some reason, it keeps coming back to this point for me.

Are we more excited for an undetermined future where we think our big brother is going to come back and punch the enemy in the mouth?

To the extent that we are no longer invigorated, made new by the salvation we are currently hope.

The miracle that happened on the cross and in the empty tomb supersedes everything else.

There's no and coming that's cooler than us being made right with God.

That happens once and that happens one way through Jesus.

So with that, there's a lot to process with that.

Do we believe because we are submitted to him, or are we attracted to his power?

Are we attracted to what he might do for us?

Are we part of the group?

Because that's our identity, because that's what I do, because I or do we believe even when it's hard?

Even when we are marginalized, even when things we don't get the healing we wanted.

So, what's the solution in that?

The solution is not to take a look at ourselves and be paranoid and go, maybe I don't believe in God enough, and maybe I need to do this, and maybe it needs to be this way, and maybe it's been a lie all along, and maybe I'm doing it wrong, and all that stuff.

That's how the enemy takes a good thing and spirals us off away from the Savior.

The answer is staying close to the shepherd.

When in doubt, walk with Jesus.

It is amazing how simple that is.

At the end of the day, when we when our hearts are unsure, when our hearts condemn us, walk right by Jesus.

You can never go wrong with that.

There's no point where Jesus goes, ew, get away.

That's what we would do.

That's not what Jesus does.

So put it this way for those of you who have experienced this, uh, when you're when a kid was a young kid and runs up and gives you a huge hug with hands that are covered in chocolate.

Right before you need to go to work.

Jesus does not say, Oh, come on! Are you serious?

Now I gotta go change.

You chipped off a little bit of my holiness.

What's the deal here?

He is not threatened by our uh mess in that sense.

Rather, we can approach the throne room with boldness as a child to a father.

I've heard this analogy and I love it.

Um I can't take credit for it, but let's say you have an appointment with the president of the United States.

Pick whichever one you want, so nobody gets mad, I don't care.

If you have an appointment and you decide that you're going to enter that appointment by running full speed at the president, you go and die.

However, if you are the president's child, that is welcome.

No Secret Service is tackling the child of the president twice.

Uh so that's just something to remember in all of this because as we're parsing through belief, it can get really uh can get really messy because it is good to question where is my heart, but the enemy loves to see that hole and jam something in there to create doubt and create separation from the Lord.

And that's always bad.

And so as we're parsing through belief, do I believe Jesus at his word?

Is it enough for me that he saved me?

Or am I wanting something else out of him?

Never let that drive us away from him.

Rather, let us draw close to him like sticky finger kids.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for how good you are.

I thank you that like a skilled doctor, you know the right questions to ask to properly diagnose the heart issue.

I thank you that you are loving and you are good and you are kind and you are gentle.

I thank you that your word is good.

That your word is trustworthy.

And I ask, Lord, that we would be quickened to believe you because of who you are, and because of what you say, and because of what your word says, and draw closer to you as a result, that nothing would distract us, that we would not be after the other, we would not be in it for the excitement, for the click, for the signs, but rather that we would be in it because the good shepherd is good.

I ask, Lord, that you would quiet any voices that condemn our hearts if we belong to you.

I ask that by your spirit you would work on those who have not given their allegiance to you.

That this would be the day of their salvation.

And ultimately, Lord, I ask that we would continue to grow more and more and more in trusting that the best place for us is right by your side.

And I thank you that you are good.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.