I invite you to open your Bible with me to the gospel of John chapter 4. John chapter 4 as we come to the end of this chapter. If you remember last week, we saw Jesus speaking with a woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well. and has seen a great harvest of gospel fruit, as not only was she converted, but she and her town were converted as well, as they believed Jesus' Word. And now we come… Jesus is… He had to move from Judea up through Samaria and back up into Galilee. where this section of the Gospel of John really is bookended by Cana, where Jesus in chapter 2, we have the wedding at Cana, His first miracle, the first sign, and now we're back in Cana, and we have the second sign, and this is back then among the Jews, among the Galileans, and Jesus has a word for them and for us. We're gonna begin reading verse 43. After two days, that's two days in Sychar there in Samaria, he departed for Galilee, for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own town. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Canaan, Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better. And they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. And he himself believed in all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Lord Jesus, we believe that you are speaking through your word as certainly as you spoke to this man so long ago. And we just pray that you give us ears to hear. And Lord, that we would come then to trust you and take you at your word in every circumstance and detail of our life and have a faith that honors you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, as you know, particularly if you are an English major or just like good books, you know that every great story involves a great conflict. Whether there's a mighty battle to be fought or a great journey to be undertaken or a great love to win, there's always a conflict. So whether it's the Lord of the Rings or the Old Man and the Sea or Beauty and the Beast, every story is driven by this conflict, and in the context of that conflict, There are great decisions that need to be made, decisions that will have very real consequences. So Frodo makes the fatal decision, or fateful decision I should say, to go through Moira, and Moriah I mean, and it leads to the death of Gandalf. Belle decides to return to the castle to rescue the beast, leading to his transformation and true love. Decisions that are made in that context have consequences, and our text this morning involves a great conflict and great decisions. The immediate conflict involves this desperate father who begs Jesus to come and save his dying son, only to be sent away, sent back home, without any evidence that help has been granted. That's a great conflict. The greater conflict is between Jesus and the Jewish crowds, a conflict between who Jesus really is and who the Jews want Him to be. That's the greater conflict. And in these contexts of conflict, life and death decisions will be made, and they'll have consequences. The father will have to decide whether he will believe Jesus and take Him at His Word or not. And his choice will determine both the healing of his boy and the salvation of his family. And the same for the Jewish family. They have a decision to make. Will they take Jesus for who He actually is? Will they trust His Word and obey His command or not? Will they insist that He be the Jesus they want. And their choice will determine their destiny, their eternal destiny. John tells us in verse 54 that this was now the second sign that Jesus did in Galilee, the first being, of course, the turning of water into wine. And when John uses that language of sign, John is telling us that this is not just a neat trick that Jesus did that we're to be sort of amazed that Jesus has the power to heal a dying boy from maybe 20 miles away without ever going there. It's not just a a display of his power, but this is a particular manifestation of Jesus' identity and mission. This is a sign that's a miracle that tells us things about who Jesus is and about why Jesus came. And so those are the things that we'll be looking for in this story. It's important for us to remember that these things are written for us. John tells us at the end of this gospel that these things are written that you, the reader, you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. That you would believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world and that you would have life in his name. And so this story is for you this morning. Maybe you're here this morning and you're not sure what to think about Jesus. Well, this is a story for you. Maybe you're a Christian, but you're struggling in your faith. You don't understand why God has allowed so much heartache and hardship in your life, and so you live with doubt and anxiety and fear, maybe some cynicism, maybe even anger. Well, this story is for you. Or maybe you're just a mature saint who's weary of this long pilgrim journey. And you need to hear a new word from God or a fresh reminder of all that you've believed, and this story then is also for you. We're first going to see a desperate father, and then a faulty faith, and then a saving faith. First of all, a desperate father. We're told that the man was an official, worked most likely in Herod's palace, he was a working there in the administration in some ways. This is a man who had some social standing. He's got some authority, some political power. But his social standing and political power are utterly irrelevant, completely meaningless and useless in the face of this great crisis. His boy, his son is dying. It's undoubtedly in his mind the great crisis of his life, and there's nothing that Herod, his employer, or all the power of Rome can fix. Of all the possible trials and heartaches of life, I think we would all agree that losing a child is one of the very, very worst things that can happen to us. It's one of the most devastating things. The possibility of it gives parents nightmares. The experience of it can be paralyzing, faith-destroying. And that's what this man is facing. We just need at the start to recognize the severity of this, the seriousness of this moment. This is the greatest crisis of this man's life. His son is at the point of death. So imagine how he must have felt when he heard that Jesus was back in the region. In verse 45, we see that the stories of Jesus' miracles that He had performed down in Jerusalem had made their way back up to Galilee for some of the people. The Galileans had been there at the feast, and they'd come back and reported. And so we're told in verse 45, the Galileans welcomed Him, having seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the feast. And what a burst of hope this man must have experienced. Scholars estimate that he was probably about Herod's palace, about 20 miles away from where Jesus was, and so this is not an insignificant journey, but I'm sure that he made all haste. He raced to come and find Jesus. Jesus is his only hope. It's his boy's last chance. And there's no melodrama in that. That's exactly the way it is. It's the truth. And so when he finds Jesus, we're told that he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. You can just imagine the pleading in his voice, the urgency of his request. Jesus, you need to come. You need to come now, immediately. Come quickly. Heal my boy. Jesus, he's at the very point of death. It's a very, very dramatic scene. You can just sense the drama of it, the urgency and the pleading. And if we were writing the story, the next line would read like this, and Jesus moved with compassion, set out immediately to heal the man's son. Isn't that how the story ought to go? Isn't that how you would want the story to go if you were the man? You see, isn't that what we would expect Jesus to do in our case? Isn't that maybe why some of us this morning are deeply disappointed with God? Because we came and we begged for help, but He didn't respond the way that we had expected. We want the story to read, Jesus loved that man and had compassion for that man, and Jesus went immediately and he healed that boy. That's the Jesus we expect, that's the Jesus we feel that we need, that's the Jesus we want, the one who protects us from tragedy, the one who rescues us from crisis. Isn't that what Jesus is for? But it's not what the text says, it's not how the story goes. Verse 48, we read, so this man pleads, Jesus come and save my boy, so Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe. That is a hard saying. That's a hard saying. The man's son is dying, and Jesus has the audacity to admonish him now? His boy, whom he loves more than he loves his own life, is dying, and he comes and begs Jesus for help, and Jesus is going to take this moment to rebuke him for his faith? It is audacious, even if the man does have faulty faith, which he very well might be true. I think we could all agree that this is not the appropriate time for that conversation. Maybe later, of course you could do it, maybe at a different time, but not now. Not now. This is a moment of crisis. This is a moment that requires action. This is a moment that requires compassion. It just seems utterly inappropriate in the face of this man's breaking heart and his desperate need that Jesus would bring up this conversation now. If I were to change the names and the places and tell this story and then share it with counselors that are all over Grand Rapids, many, many of whom are Christian, I think I would get a universal response. Now is not the time to have this conversation. So why does Jesus say it? The answer is because Jesus had diagnosed a crisis vastly more critical than the crisis of this man's dying son. And I know that's hard for us to believe. It may be hard for us to accept. What could possibly be worse than a dying child? Well, Jesus is convinced that there is something vastly worse, and that is a dying soul. And if you don't understand that about Jesus, you don't understand Jesus. You see, if you read the Gospels, you'll see that Jesus was driven by the passionate conviction that man's great crisis, and there's no close second. There's no close second. The great crisis of humanity is that man is living under the curse of sin, standing on the brink of eternity without God, destined for eternal hell. That's how he thinks. That's why Jesus says things like, do not fear those who kill the body. Don't fear those who can cut your head off in an act of jihad. Don't worry about them. But rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. That's how Jesus thinks. That's how he sees the world. And it's not that he doesn't care about the pain and suffering that people were experiencing in life. Of course he does. But Jesus realized that those are the symptoms of the problem. Why do we suffer the pain and the heartache that we do? Because it's a world that's under the curse of God, the judgment of God. And Jesus, you see, has not come to deal with the symptoms. He's come to deal with the root problem. He didn't come to make the pain go away. He came to make hell go away. That's why He came. And so when He sees this man with a dying son, He does care. But He also sees a man with a dying soul. And it is precisely because Jesus loves this man that He admonishes him for his lack of faith or his faulty faith. Now, if you had asked the man, he most likely would say, but I do have faith. Why do you think I'm here? Why do you think I've come all this way? I believe completely. I believe Jesus is able to heal my son. That's why I'm here. So why is Jesus admonishing him for his faulty faith? It's a very, very important question. It is actually the whole point of the text. As we look secondly at a faulty faith. It's important to notice that Jesus is not just admonishing this man, he's admonishing the whole Jewish nation. The you there is plural. So when Jesus says you will not believe, he's saying you people. will not believe unless you see signs and wonders." And he's rebuking the entire Jewish nation. Now, again, the Jewish nation could have responded, and Jewish people there in Galilee could have said, what do you mean? We do believe. That's why we've welcomed you back into Galilee. We just read that in verse 45. They had seen all that Jesus had done in Jerusalem at the feast, and they were excited about it. You see, their eyes were telling them that Jesus was a mighty prophet, able to do great miraculous things like heal the sick and give sight to blind people and cast out demons and turn water into wine. They'd seen it. They'd been there. They'd heard about it. They had seen the miracles, and they believed. They believe that Jesus was sent by God to rescue them from the pain and the heartaches of this life, which is precisely Jesus' point and precisely why He rebukes them. Because you see that the problem with the faith of the Jews is not just that it's based on sight, but it's misdirected. They believe in the wrong Jesus. The Jesus they believe in is the Jesus who has come to relieve the heartaches and hardships of life, the Jesus who cures the sick and feeds the hungry. That's what they loved about Jesus. That's why they're excited to have Him in town. But it's not why Jesus was there. It's not who He is. It's not why He came. Jesus is who John the Baptist said He was, the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world. Jesus came to save us from our sin, to rescue us from divine judgment, to reconcile us to God. And He came to do that by taking our sin in His own body and offering up His body as an atoning sacrifice on a Roman cross so that by the shedding of His blood, He could pay for our sin and purchase our redemption and give everlasting life as a free gift to those who confess their sin and believe in His name. That's who He is, and that's why He came. It's just not the Jesus the Jews were interested in. They were offended when Jesus talked to them about their sin. We're Abraham's children. Why are you talking to us about hell? Do a miracle. Heal my son. Manipulate the powers of heaven for a better life here on earth. And that's why Jesus is rebuking them. He came to His own and His own received Him not, not on His terms, not for who He really was, not for why He actually came. Eric Alexander preached a powerful sermon on this text. And he pointed out that missionaries serving in animistic cultures often face this challenge. You see, in animistic contexts, cultures, people look to the witch doctor for help. Why? Well, because they believe that witch doctors are able to manipulate the spirit world, the gods and demons, whatever might be in the spirit world. A witch doctor has the power to manipulate those powers to your benefit. So if you pay the witch doctor and say, I need a wife, well then the witch doctor is able to get the powers of the spirit world to help you get a wife. And so whatever your need might be, the blessing of a crop, the cursing of an enemy, You can go to the witch doctor and he'll get the spirit world to aid you, to come to your help. And so the challenge of the missionary is that the people, the culture easily assume that he's just another kind of witch doctor with a more potent spirit. And so if the missionary prays for God to heal a child, and the child is healed, well, bingo! That's all we want. And so people will come to the missionary because they like this God who is a powerful cosmic butler, a genie in a bottle, and is able to give them what they want. You see, it's a thoroughly pagan way of thinking about God. But it's a pagan air that we find also in the church. Clearest example is probably the health-wealth gospel, where if you say the right prayer and you give money to the right ministry, God will give you what you want – success, money, pleasure. That's the most gross version of it. There's a more subtle version of it in thousands and thousands of evangelical churches that teach a variation, because the Jesus that they present is the Jesus that wants to come and help you thrive. Jesus wants to heal your marriage. Jesus wants to help you get your finances in order. Jesus wants you to realize your full potential. And that's the Jesus they offer. And the crowds pack in. Eric Alexander says it's very easy to gather people to a religion that offers a God who will serve our personal wishes and desires. That's absolutely true. My concern is that there exists a West Michigan Reformed version of the same error. That there are many folks, Reformed folks, who live with the unexamined assumption that God is there to give us what we most dearly want. Not fame, not worldly pleasures. But what do we most dearly want in West Michigan? Well, we want a healthy family. We want a comfortable income. We're not looking to get rich. And a nice retirement. That's all we want. And we will happily worship a Jesus who is willing to give us those things, just like in Jesus' day. And the evidence, pay attention here, the evidence of our pagan faith, of our faulty faith, is our complaining spirit, our cynical heart, our anger with God when He fails to do what we have expected Him to do or takes those blessings away. There are all sorts of people here in West Michigan who go to church every Sunday who feel justified to charge God with wrong because He's failed to meet their expectation. He's taken the blessings they most wanted away. And they feel justified in their complaint. After all, what's a God for? What's He for? So what do we do when God says no? That's the issue this man is facing as he stands in front of Jesus. He begged Jesus. This man is not used to begging. He's used to ordering, and he's begged Jesus, Sir, come down before my child dies. Come down, Jesus. And Jesus says, no, I'm not going with you. I'm not going to your house. You go. Your child will live. I want you to imagine for a moment how hard I must have been for the father in that moment. You see, he had come with one goal in mind, that's it, to bring Jesus back home, to bring Jesus to the bedside of his son so Jesus could heal his son. And now Jesus says no, he's refusing to come, and Jesus is sending this man back home with nothing, nothing. No medicine to apply, no special prayer to make, to pray, no offering to make, nothing except a promise. Your son will live. That's all Jesus gave that man. And the life of his son is at stake. What's his wife going to say when he shows up at the door and there's no Jesus? You just imagine the turmoil in his soul. What's he going to do? Will he demand that Jesus serve him on his terms according to his own sense of need, or will he submit to Jesus on his terms according to Jesus' understanding of his need and take him at his word? What would you do? I can easily see myself saying, Jesus, I am not leaving here until you come along, and in the process lose my soul. You see, will we take Jesus at His word and submit to His terms? That's the critical question of saving faith. And that's what we see here thirdly and finally. The man believed what Jesus had spoken to him and went on his way. It's one of the most beautiful sentences in the Bible. Here's this man facing this existential crisis, this moment of decision. And he believed the word that Jesus spoke and he went on his way. He trusted completely the life of His Son, even when He could not see. He left with no evidence that His Son was healed, but He left convinced that He would be. Why? Because Jesus said so. That's why. And this man was convinced that what Jesus said, Jesus would do. It's the only way he possibly could have turned around and went home. His faith was wonderfully confirmed and rewarded as he's making his way. Verse 51, as he was going down, his servants met him and told him his son was recovering. So he asked him, tell me the hour. And they said yesterday, seventh hour. And the father knew. That's when Jesus had said to him, your son will live. Jesus had just spoken it, and in that moment, the fever left, and he himself believed in all of his household. You see, he took Jesus at His word, and he went home. And he found out Jesus is faithful. Friends, that's saving faith. That's the faith that Jesus is looking for. That's the faith Jesus had just experienced in Samaria, in Sychar, remember? How many miracles did Jesus perform in Sychar? How many signs and wonders? None. None. And yet, many people, we're told there, believed Many people believe. Why? Well, if you look at the text again, they believe, verse 41, because of His word. That's why. Jesus said it. Jesus spoke to them, and they listened to Him, and they heard Him, and they laid hold of what Jesus said, and they took it to themselves, and they said, this man is true. This man is the Savior of the world. We believe in Him. Not because they had seen things, they heard things, they listened to the Word. That's the faith that honors God as God. You see, it doesn't demand signs. It doesn't demand our terms. I'll believe in you if you do X. No. The writer of Hebrews says, faith is assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. You know, people say all the time, seeing is believing. Well, it's just not true. Seen is just seen. That's all it is. Seen is just seen. There were thousands of people in Jesus' day who saw his miracles and never came to a saving knowledge. In fact, Jesus would judge them, woe to you, Bethsaida. Woe to you, Chorazin. If the miracles that I performed here had been done in Tyre and Sidon, the pagan, pagan cities to the north, they would have repented in dust and ashes a long time ago. Seen is just seen. But faith is coming and taking God at His Word, and accepting Jesus for who He is. That's the faith that pleases God. And it trusts God, you see, even when we don't see. It clings to Jesus' Word and holds to His promises, even when God doesn't seem to answer your prayers, and even when God doesn't take away the pain. Remember what Habakkuk the prophet said, a man who prophesied such awful things for Israel, and yet he says near the end of his book, this little prophecy, he says, though the fig tree may not blossom, we're going to pray the fig tree blossoms, but it may not. And though it may not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, and though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, And though the flock may be cut off from the field, and there be no herd in the stalls." In other words, even if all of our prayers for God's provision and kindness, if it's all ignored and none of it comes true, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Not in His gifts. As good as they are. As gracious as God is in giving them. We're going to rejoice in God, my salvation, the God who spoke a word, and I believe it. Eric Alexander says, this is the persevering faith that keeps on keeping on to the very end. Come what may, it is a maturing faith that keeps us and allows us to hang on and to hang in, even when the shambles of life all around looks like a meaningless jumble of events and circumstances. It's the faith that keeps us believing in the love of God when our hearts are breaking and it seems as if everything in life denies His fatherly goodness. It's the faith that can rise up in the midst of tragedy and say, nevertheless, I believe in God. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him because I take Jesus at his word. Friends, that's the challenge of our text. Is that our faith? Are we willing to take Jesus at His word? You see, it's a decision that we have to make over and over and over. You need to take Jesus at His word when the phone call comes or the doctor says it's cancer. You need to take Jesus at His word right when life is falling apart. And yet Jesus has said, I will be with you and I will never leave you and I'm ruling and reigning in your life and it's going to be okay and you're safe and you're loved. And everything that your eyes are seeing is not ultimate truth. Trust me and go. and I will bless you. And I know that doesn't make the pain go away, but it will make the anger go away. It'll make the cynicism go away. It'll make the despair and the complaining all go away. And it will bring life and joy and peace. Why? Because Jesus keeps his word. Let me close, been reading through Joshua And the writer there, after all, Israel is now in the land and they're settled. The writer says this, not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. Not one word of all the good promises failed. Friends, we are standing on the brink of a new Canaan, a new heaven and a new earth. And we can have absolute confidence that not a single promise God has made, not a single word of all the good promises He has made will fail. You can take them, you can hold them, you can rest in them, you can trust them because God has spoken. And so just take that to your life. Where's the pain? Where's the cynicism? Where's the heartache? Just take that to Jesus, and then take Jesus at His word. Amen.