Sign #2: Jesus Is Lord over Sickness (John 4:43–54)

Sermon Notes PDF | WORD‍ ‍ Life Group Notes PDF | WORD‍  FULL LIVESTREAM

Sermon Transcript:

How many got your Bibles with you today? The sword of the Lord. Awesome. Open your Bibles or your devices to John chapter 4. I had a lot of people ask me today, well, was it a boy or a girl? Because remember last week, I didn't know if my seventh grandchild was coming at the time. I just knew that my wife had gotten up at one o'clock in the morning and left me high and dry in my bed and not knowing where she was and found out a little bit later. But it is a baby boy. And the boy is here. Right back there in the back. Raise that kid up. Where is that kid? Hey, right there. He's going to hear a sermon from his grandfather today, all right? Anyway, his name is Merritt John. MJ, from me, that means he's going to be basketball-driven, all right?

All right, you've got your Bibles open in John chapter 4. Here we go. We're going to read here in just a moment this wonderful passage about a story that John includes, one of eight signs that he includes, about a royal official and his desperation to come to Jesus 15 to 20 miles away from Capernaum all the way down to Cana of Galilee so that, why? He can be a recipient of the healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when you think of moments like that, I think we're all familiar in life with the wow moments. I can only imagine what that father must have felt like when he went back to Capernaum and there his son was alive. No fever. He was near death and no longer. And they must have been just out of their mind.

We have those wow moments in life that give us relief, that get us excited, that get us energized for living, whether it be, you know, those bucket list things you want to do or maybe it's, you know, a variety of milestones that you want to experience in your family or your marriage or whatever it may be. Sometimes it could be maybe a major sporting event like you get to go to the Super Bowl and that's one unique experience you've gone through or maybe the achievement milestones of like a graduation or landing this dream job that you have and completing a major project or maybe it's the holiday highs that you get to Thanksgiving. You go, there's nothing greater. I have this moment with everybody of Thanksgiving with family and friends or maybe it's Christmas time on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning and you have that just moment that you can't seem to replicate at any other time.

But what we know about all those different wow moments is this, is that afterwards, something begins to happen that we don't like. The wow factor seems to fade away. The thrill is momentary. The excitement is very short-lived. The emotional high seems to evaporate. The gratification fades into another routine. Reality seems to replace fantasy. Life returns to normal and the high is very hard to duplicate. The law of diminishing returns kicks in. The bills continue to come and the question that everybody needs to answer is what now? We love to preserve those high moments in any way we can but And yet the reality is in this human life, we have these ups and we have these downs. We were not designed to live on peaks, but on purpose. We find out in scripture that we're not sustained by moments like our wow moments. No, we are sustained by meaning.

And the gospel of John presents to us the ultimate wow moment. And here's what John is telling us and all the gospel writers and pretty much the whole Bible is you've got to trust and put your faith in this incredible relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that becomes your eternal wow moment that we cultivate in this life. Yes, we have ups and downs. But ultimately, when you know you've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of forgiveness and the gift of eternal life, you're like, wow, this is a big wow. It never goes away. Because we've met the only Savior of the world.

Now what we're gonna look at today is the second of eight signs that John gives us, the second of eight miracles that he pulls out of all the miracles that Jesus did. In fact, at the end of the book of John, in John chapter 21 verse 25, it says the books of the world wouldn't be able to contain all that Jesus did in those three years. And yet what we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is really only 51 days of Jesus' life and ministry. And we have 57 distinct miracles that he does in the ministry. We have 37 different healings that he performs. And this is one of them. And so what we're going to see today is a miracle with a lesson on faith.

We're going to read this in just a moment. But these signs that John gives us are really amazing. It teaches us this, that Jesus is Lord over quality and creation when he turned the water into wine. It teaches us that Jesus is Lord over distance and sickness like we're going to see today in the healing of the royal official's son. We learn that Jesus is Lord over disability and time when he heals the lame man. We learn that he's Lord over provision and creation when he feeds the 5,000 men, which is probably 20,000 people in all. We learn that Jesus is Lord over nature when he walks on water at his will. We learn that Jesus is Lord over the physical and spiritual highs when the man born blind not only gets sight, but he gets spiritual sight in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we learn that Jesus is Lord over life and death when he raises Lazarus from the dead. And then this is an interesting one. We learn that Jesus is Lord over abundance and sea life when he causes the disciples to catch their biggest catch ever when they'd been fishing all night and caught nothing. And he says, hey, just throw the net on the other side of the boat as if they wouldn't have done it, as if the fish only swim on the right side of the boats and they get the biggest catch ever. You see, Jesus is Lord over all.

And John is saying, listen, I want to present to you who Jesus is. He's the Christ. He's the Son of God. He's the light of the world. He's the resurrection and the life. And he gives us these signs so that we'll be drawn to look at Christ and to believe. So we might have life in his name. So the four gospel accounts give us these miracles, give us these healings. Which, by the way, is interesting. When you look at the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, a lot of scholars believe that Jesus Christ in his three-year ministry pretty much banished sickness and disease in the Israel area.

And his miracles, what did they prove? They proved that he was divine. They proved that he could forgive sins. They proved that he was compassionate toward human need. They proved that he was the Messiah. They proved and previewed the coming kingdom of prosperity and health in the future. And notice this, when Jesus healed, he healed directly. either by word of mouth or by touch or by spit or by clay, without prayer and without the afflicted person. He did it completely, never partially. He did it instantaneously, no relapses. He did it purposefully, no signs of demand, nor did he heal everyone who asked. He just healed everything. There was no disease and no death and no demon that could resist Jesus. He healed abundantly. Eight times we're told that he healed the multitudes in a village. And he healed supernaturally by the power of God, the Father. And here's what he did. Lastly, he healed undeniably. He did them all publicly, obviously, and even his enemies could not deny the reality of his power. This is the Lord that we're learning about. Just his power.

Now, if your Bibles and devices are open, let's begin reading in verse 44, or excuse me, verse 43. After two days, now remember where he was last week at the woman of the well. He was now in Sychar. They asked him to stay there for two days. They probably had all kinds of questions for Jesus, and then they believed in him because of his own testimony. It's like the whole village got saved. So it says, after the two days, he went forth from there north into Galilee, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they themselves also went to the feast. Therefore he came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine, and there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum.

When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and was imploring him to come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, this kind of sounds surprising, unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. Believe. And the royal official said to him, sir, come down before my child dies. So Jesus said to him, love this, go, your son lives. Wouldn't that be great to hear those words? The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. And as he was now going down, his slaves met him saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. And then they said to him, yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him. This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when he had come out of Judea into Galilee.

What a story. There’s so many probably extras that we don’t know about that weren’t recorded in the story, but what we’re given by the Holy Spirit is enough for us to know that we worship the Lord who has power over anything. But ultimately, he has power over our souls. What John records about Jesus and his travels from Samaria to Galilee and about the dealings of the royal official’s son teaches us about faith. Remember in the book of the gospel of John talks about belief and faith more than any other gospel account, 98 times, three of those times are right here in our text. So John’s giving us a miracle to know who Jesus is, but he’s also letting us see how people respond. And what we’re going to see is we’re going to see three different kinds of belief that basically progress from maybe a sign-seeking belief all the way to a saving faith in Christ. And it’s great to watch because that’s where we live. How do we respond to Jesus Christ when we know who he is? Do we respond by real faith, genuine faith? Oh, I just want a miracle faith. Or do we respond with saving faith?

You see, faith needs a little bit of a definition because sometimes there’s a lot of different human definitions that go around. But basically in the Bible, faith means confidence in, trust upon. It’s believing your whole self to something. And so faith is believing whatever God says is true. Even if it doesn’t make sense. Even if it’s bizarre. Even if it’s unorthodox. You’re believing in your heart faith. Whatever God says is true. You remember Abraham in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8? It says this. God called Abraham to go because he was going to send him ultimately to the land of Canaan. And here’s what he said. Here’s what it says. By faith, Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. Now, how would you like to be Abraham? Here’s God saying, hey, I want you to go. And he goes, where? Go, Abraham. I know, but usually you have to go to a location. Do I go north, south, east, west? Go, not knowing where you’re going. Because on the way, as you go, the Lord’s going to lead you where you need to be. But to us, you would think, why would somebody do that? Why don’t you just give us the directions? It’s all about faith.

You see, not all faith is saving faith. There’s different kinds of faith in Scripture. Life is all about human faith, and that’s where we live with repeated experiences. We’re always trusting things around us because we repeat these experiences over and over again. We get up in the morning, we go to a light switch, and we flip it on. Why? Because we believe electricity will work and turn the lamp on, and it does. And it does. Or maybe we buy a ticket and we’re trusting the pilot who we don’t even know and the plane which we haven’t even checked out and we’re not bothered by it. We just get on the plane. It’s going to take us from point A to point B. Or we go to a restaurant and we buy some food and we really trust that the cooks back there are going to cook it the way it was explained in the menu. That’s just human faith. But that’s not supernatural faith. Supernatural faith is believing whatever God says is true about who you are, about who he is, about who his son is, the spirit is, about what the church is all about, what our number one problem is, what’s the number one solution. We find all these things by believing what the Lord tells us.

So saving faith is putting your eternal destiny in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ because sin is a killer and we can’t save ourselves. And the only way that we could ever be forgiven of all our sins and receive the gift of eternal life is putting our hands in the Lord Jesus Christ and believing in him. So let’s talk about this miracle and the three kinds of faith that we see.

Number one is this. There’s a faith born on signs that can be shallow. This is a sign-seeking faith. What we’re going to see here between verse 43 and then down to verse 48 is you’re going to see this. You’re going to see that not only did the royal official who was desperate to get his son healed, and he probably tried every physician that he knew, and he was in Herod’s company. He was a royal official. He probably had access to the best of physicians and no one could heal his son. His son’s point to death, but he heard about Jesus Christ and the miracles he had wrought, and he was willing to walk 15 to 20 miles to beg him to heal his son. He had this sign-seeking faith, which, by the way, the Galileans had as well.

Look at this. This is interesting. Look down at verse 43. After two days he went forth from there into Galilee. Now watch this. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. Now if you’ve read through the gospel accounts, you know that this is mentioned three times. Two times in his own hometown of Nazareth. This one town right here in his country of Galilee. And Jesus is saying, listen, nobody’s willing to accept me. No one wants to listen to what I say. You know why? Because what they want is they want the food. They want the healing. They want the miracle. They want the sign. And then they can go on with their life.

So the Galileans responded that way as well as the royal official. Look down your Bibles again, verse 44, for Jesus himself testified, a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans rejected him. Come on, everybody. You’ve got to stand up and say, that’s not what the Bible says. No, what did they do? Shockingly, they received him. Why? Well, keep reading. Having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, they themselves also went to the feast. Now, what’s interesting about this passage is it connects us to chapter 2. So go to chapter 2, and I want you to see what happened there in verse 23, 24, and 25. This is how we know it’s not real saving faith, that it’s a sign-seeking faith. It’s a superficial faith. It’s saying, oh, I love the miracles, and God purposely does miracles to draw us to himself. That’s what we see these signs about.

But look at this, verse 23 of chapter 2. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name. Wow. Observing his signs, which he was doing. But Jesus on his part, watch this, was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men. Amen. That’s scary to know that you could have that kind of faith that you think you have in Jesus Christ because you had that wow factor when you saw a sign or received a miracle from the Lord and then you thought that’s what it was all about. But listen, miracles never save anybody. It’s only the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves by his word and his promise when we put our faith in him as a person for who he is, not what he did in a miracle or a sign. God designed the signs to point to Jesus Christ in all of his greatness and also what he did at the cross in the resurrection. So we see a faith that’s born on signs here that can be shallow, can be superficial, can be just sign-seeking.

You know, God is very gracious to meet us in our times of crisis. He’s a compassionate God. We know we cry out to Him. He wants us to place our trust in Him, not only because maybe He delivered us in that moment of crisis, but because He’s worthy of our worship and our love and our devotion. He’s the only Savior, the only Lord. And throughout Scripture, we learn that it is possible to receive Christ without truly believing in him. In fact, it’s called this, vain faith in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 2. In James 2, you guys know this well. Without faith, it’s what? Possible to lose God. And then it says in James 2, faith without works is dead, being by itself. So there’s a non-saving faith. And we’re seeing that displayed here because both the royal official and both the Galileans, who should have been rejecting Jesus Christ, because Jesus is going to the country where they’re not going to follow me, they’re not going to receive me, and yet they did receive him. Why? Because they had a sign-seeking faith that fell short of a saving faith. So important. So important.

Why did John say this? Well, I mentioned they were believing because of Jesus’ signs. But secondly, Jesus rebuked this kind of superficial faith. Would you go back to verse 48, which is kind of a little scary when you think about it, that Jesus responded seemingly so bluntly and maybe seemingly so harshly, but right in the middle of the Roman official, he says, unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. Now, maybe Jesus came on a little too strong, we think. No, Jesus is going to do everything exactly right. You know what he’s trying to do? He’s not trying to be harsh with people. He’s not trying to hurt anybody. He’s trying to help us by saying, listen, do you see what you’re doing? You’re treating me like some Aladdin lamp that if you rub me the right way, I’m going to give you the right miracle in your life. And your life, it’s all about your life. So he reminds them, listen, you’re just seeking signs, right? and you simply won’t believe because of it. You’re not gonna follow me because of it. Not everybody. But this tells us that the Galilean reception and the royal official’s faith was less than saving at this moment. We’re gonna see the progression of it in the story.

It’s so much different than the transformation of the woman at the well whom Jesus knew everything about her where finally she found out he’s the Messiah. I mean, she says, I’m following you. And she went back into Sychar and said, man, you guys got to meet this guy. He knew everything about me, brought her back. This is the Messiah, brought the town back. They come and they meet Jesus at Jacob’s well. They spend two days with him. And then what does it say? Because of the word of Jesus Christ, they were delivered. As well as the testimony of this woman. There was a real saving faith there.

Now, by the way, just kind of as a side note, I guess these are kind of fun little gems to dig up when you’re studying the scripture, but it’s interesting how many times John uses the word life. You know, the main theme of the whole gospel is John chapter 20, verse 31, where he says, listen, believing you will have life in his name, eternal life. But notice here in verse 50, Jesus said to the go, your son lives. Notice in verse 51. And when the slaves met him, they said your son was living. Look at verse 53. Your son lives as he’s being reminded of what Jesus had said. And so it’s like John is trying to remind us that in Christ you have life. Real life.

So this Roman official comes to Jesus with this Galilean type faith looking for a miracle sign for his son Jesus. And he’s about to go further into deeper belief, as John will note for us here in a moment. But he was in Canaan, where he had done his first miracle of turning the water into wine at the wedding feast. And then he’s going to conclude by linking his second miracle to the first in the last verse, verse 54. Now, I want to show you something I think is really interesting. When you compare the first two signs, the woman at the well and now the healing of the Roman official, you can compare some great things about Christ and then you can see some differences. Number one, by comparison, the result of the first sign and the result of the second sign was the disciples believed in his name. And the second sign, the royal official and his whole household believed. When you look at it by contrast, you see the first scene, the first sign is a scene of joy and happiness because the wedding feast had the right wine, and there Jesus turned the water into wine. But in this second sign, it’s a scene by contrast of sickness and desperation and the shadow of death, and we understand that life is totally full of of both kinds of situations, and Jesus is the one we need to trust in every single situation, whether it’s joy or whether it’s the sorrows of life. What a great reminder it is. We don’t want the sign-seeking faith that we see in this text.

By the way, who is this Roman official? Well, we believe he’s connected to a king because of the word, the Roman official, and we believe he’s also in the king of the kings. He’s fulfilling a king’s mission that God has given him. He’s a royal official of the king. There was the only one king in that part of the world, and that was the king of Galilee as well as Perea, and that was Herod Antipas, who’s the son of Herod the Great. He was a non-Jewish ruler who the Jews could not stand. And one of the reasons is why they couldn’t stand him. Not only was he full of all kinds of sins and he was like a terror, he was a tyrannical leader. It’s because of what he did to John the Baptist. When he cut his head off in a drunken stupor. After he promised his daughter, I’ll give you any wish you want. After John the Baptist had confronted him about his adultery as well as his incest. Interesting, isn’t it? Here’s a royal official who had the means and the opportunity to get the best of the physicians in the world, but they couldn’t help. And he comes to Jesus, which is the right thing to do. But he’s not yet at that saving faith stage. So he came because of a crisis.

Well, all of us, whether rich or poor, are going to face afflictions and eventually death, and being young does not guarantee many more years of life. This young boy was dying, and the story reminds us of our helplessness that we have in the Notice in verse 48 that Jesus replied to this man’s desperate cry for help by saying, unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. Jesus knew why he was seeking him. He just wanted the healing. He was desperate. And Jesus wanted to move him from the shallow faith maybe to the real saving faith. You see, I think there’s a lesson here. is the Lord never rebukes us ever to hurt us, but always to achieve the greater good in our life so we might grow in our faith.

I think it’s good to note that the royal officious faith at this point was very, very limited. It was only about the power of Jesus Christ and what he could do for his son that nobody else could do. And I’m willing to come 15 to 20 miles to get that help, to get that miracle. He didn’t try to convince Jesus Christ that he was worthy of the miracle being the man of means that he was. He didn’t seem to be offended by Jesus’ rebuke whatsoever. He just said, sir, come down before my child dies. You know, I think this is a good point to make in our own lives. Maybe we look in the mirror is good for us on this point. Are we like the royal official sometimes and only get motivated when a crisis hits and we go to Jesus? Do we only pray when there’s an emergency? Do we keep Jesus Christ on the shelf only and pull him down when we need help now? The Lord wants us to believe in him and to worship him at all times, whether life is good or life is bad. Not just when we’re in trouble.

And every father can identify with this father. I mean, what if your son only talked to you when you needed money or wanted to borrow the car? Well, I guess you could say some communication is better than no communication. No, we want our sons, we want our daughters to interact with us, whether fathers or mothers. And our heavenly father wants us to continually interact with him and thanking him and praising him for all that he’s done to provide for us. But this first kind of faith is a faith that’s built on signs. It is a shallow, a superficial, a sign-seeking faith.

The second kind of faith that we see in verse 49 and 50 is a faith that’s born in suffering that can be stressful. He’s desperate. It’s driven him to walk all those miles. You say, well, what is this stressful faith? It’s a faith that feels a desperation in the moment and understands that I am unable to do anything nor anybody else to heal my son, but then it also hears what this man Jesus can do, so you’re willing to try what appears to be your last option. This man thinks that Jesus Christ will travel back to Capernaum to heal his son. but he’s not going to do it. Did you see what he says there in verse 20, 50? Jesus said to him, oh, go, your son lives. The man believed in the word, but Jesus spoke to him and he started off. He left.

I mean, at first he says, you got to come, right? He says, come, my son’s dying. Jesus says, no, go and go without me. Your son lives. So he moves up a level of faith there now to this level of faith where he’s starting to believe that, wow, this is amazing. Jesus is not going to come back with me. How is he going to heal him? I think he needs to be there. He probably needs to lay hands on him. He needs to pray over him. So Jesus puts this man in a curious dilemma. The man says, come. Jesus says, go. And it forces the man to believe without a sign. I mean, either you doubt the word of the one in whom you placed all of your hopes for your son’s recovery, or you believe him that what the Savior and the Lord says will happen.

You see, Jesus is really skillfully drawing this man into a deeper level of faith by believing in his promise. This is a promise here. This man has nothing but Jesus’ bare word to go on, and John records that the man believed. And he went, he left. He answered the man’s cry to heal his son, but he did not answer his request to come down to Capernaum with him. This man had to put aside his expectations of how Jesus would work and just take him at his word. Let me ask you this morning, do you struggle with taking God at his word when he commands or when he promises things that you’re going, well, this is a little strange, God. It’s a little bit weird. It’s a little bit different, like Abraham. He’s given us so many, like Peter says, precious and magnificent promises, and he is not only able to do and keep his promise, but the Bible says he cannot lie. We just think about that earlier. The song promises. He’s faithful. Faithful as he is. And he will bring it to pass.

So this royal official with a desperately stressed faith believes Christ’s words and his promise. And he puts feet to his faith. And he leaves. And he leaves. It’s kind of interesting. The word left there in verse 50. In some of your Bibles, it says started off in the New American Standard, but it’s the same word as the word left in the woman at the well when she left her water pot and she went back into Sychar to tell everybody about Jesus Christ. Well, here’s this royal official who’s a father mourning over his son, and he leaves, and that word is interesting. It’s the same word in both passages, and it’s not like a gradual leaving. Once I’m going to get there, no, it’s an instantaneous response. I’m going. I’m going. I’m leaving everything behind and I’m going. You see, this royal official had a desperate faith that was going to put feet to that faith, and that’s what he did.

But the third kind of faith is where we all need to be. This is where the church is. This is where we’re called to have saving faith today. And do you have that saving faith? Or is your faith just, I pray when I get into a crisis and I’m hoping for a miracle and sometimes he gives me a miracle and it keeps me going a little bit. No, there’s a faith based upon the Savior who is saving. In verse 51 to 54, this desperate man is now moving his faith toward understanding who Jesus is, listen to this, apart from any miraculous works that he may do or not do in your life. You see, Jesus designed his signs, as I said earlier, to bring people to himself. But listen to this. There is no guarantee, and Jesus knew some would be unwilling to believe without signs and wonders because they’re just at the level of sign-seeking faith. If he can fill my tank just for another year and give me this miracle, God, if you do this, I will do this.

Can you imagine what this man, though, must have felt when his slaves met him saying, your son is living, he’s alive. I mean, I just think about that this week. Did he hug the slave and just carry him up and just walk around? Did he cry? Did he scream out, praise the Lord? Did he grab every single person who was on the road and said, you wouldn’t believe, my son’s alive. I’m sure there was maybe some of that or maybe all of that. Can you imagine as a parent getting that news when you’re coming back and they tell you what Jesus said is actually true? And then he wants to make sure it’s not a coincidence, so he asks the slave, when did he get healed? And it was the very hour that Jesus said, go, your son lives.

And how does he respond? This is where he responds with saving faith. He and his entire household cannot give over how great our Savior is. Amazing. This man came to the ultimate point of faith, a saving faith that was genuine. Jesus is the Lord over distance and disease. And it transformed his life. And including his whole household. His faith had grown from a sign-seeking Galilean-type faith that was hoping that Jesus could perform another miracle. Then it became a stressful faith that was desperately willing to take God at his word and head home and believe the promise of Jesus Christ. And now he’s experiencing the saving faith with his entire family. He and his family recognize that Jesus is no ordinary prophet. He’s the God in human flesh. That’s what we’ve been learning. He’s the Son of God. He’s the Christ. He’s the God-man. We’re going to be talking through all seven I Am’s of Jesus Christ that John includes that reveals to us that Jesus is claiming to be the God of the universe. So he’s the perfect man, the perfect God.

See, sometimes life seems to be living from crisis to crisis. Some are big and some are small. And while our first response should always be to cry out to the Lord, we must always realistically remember that God doesn’t promise to give us immediate answers to our requests as Jesus Christ did for this man. We must trust that the Lord has good reasons for his delays in our life. Isn’t that true? But it’s always for our good. Have you ever noticed this, that sometimes what you ask of the Lord is you say, Lord, here’s what I want, and I want it in this way on this date. Thank you, Lord. I pray this in faith. Amen. And it usually, have you noticed, it usually doesn’t happen that way because the Lord has his way. The Lord has his timing. The Lord wants us to lean on him. He wants us to know that he’s in charge. We’re not just commanding him to do something in our life. He may answer that prayer the way you prayed it. but not always. How often do you and I expect God to answer our way and in our timing, and then we begin to doubt his love and care for us?

Well, let me close with two questions that I want to ask you this morning as a result of seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, who’s the Lord He’s the Lord over distance. He’s the Lord over disease. And this royal official’s son who had this fever near to death. But then the Lord takes us through John, the pen of John, to see the various types of faith. So let me ask you this question this morning. What kind of faith do you have? Is it a shallow, sign-seeking faith? Is it maybe a stressful faith where you’re just desperately asking just for anybody to help you, the Lord Jesus Christ, will you show up in my life? Can I take you at your word? Or is it a saving faith that trusts Jesus for who he is?

The second question is this, is do you recognize that Jesus as the savior of the world is the only person who can right now give you and your family what you need the most? There’s nobody else who’s ever lived that can do that. He’s the only Savior. He’s the only Lord. You see, the real test of anyone’s faith is not how sincere you are when you are crying out to God in the heat of the battle. We all do that. The real test of faith is rather measured by what you do when the pressure is off and everything’s normal. Do you just kind of put them on the shelf and say, I’ll be back when I get another emergency, a crisis? Will we forget God and just return to our old ways? Or will we go deeper and allow him to develop our faith that is anchored in the person of Jesus Christ and it’s not just a response to our immediate need? Will we keep following him when the crisis is over?

The just shall live by faith. The most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. And it is impossible to know God in the know that exists without faith. Do you believe? You put your trust and faith in what God says is true. And here’s what he says. You and I are sinners. And that sin is going to lead to our death. And we can’t reverse it on our own. Nothing we can do. Not one thing can we do. Because Jesus Christ, the perfect human, died on the cross for your sin and for my sin to give us forgiveness and eternal life if we put our trust in him as our Savior and our Lord. That’s the amazing story of the gospel. It’s such good news over the bad news of this life.

Explicitly Mentioned References:

1. John 4:43-54 - Primary text (the healing of the royal official's son)

2. John 2:23-25 - Sign-seeking faith in Jerusalem

3. John 21:25 - The world couldn't contain all Jesus did

4. John 20:31 - Purpose of John's Gospel (believing you may have life)

5. Hebrews 11:8 - Abraham went out not knowing where he was going

6. 1 Corinthians 15:2 - Vain faith

7. James 2 - Faith without works is dead

Alluded to/Thematically Referenced:

8. John 2:1-11 - First sign: turning water into wine at Cana

9. John 3 - Woman at the well (actually John 4:1-42)

10. John 5:1-15 - Healing of the lame man

11. John 6:1-14 - Feeding of the 5,000

12. John 6:16-21 - Walking on water

13. John 9 - Healing of the man born blind

14. John 11 - Raising of Lazarus

15. John 21:1-14 - Miraculous catch of fish

16. Habakkuk 2:4 - "The just shall live by faith" (quoted in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38)

17. Hebrews 11:6 - Without faith it is impossible to please God

Contextual References:

18. Matthew 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24 - A prophet has no honor in his own country

19. References to Herod Antipas and John the Baptist's death (Matthew 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29)