John 4:43-54 (Teaching)

[0:00] Morning. Good morning. Back in John chapter four this morning. We left off last time a student taught, which we wasn't here last weekend, last Sunday morning.

[0:23] So it's been a couple of weeks, but we finished up the account in John four of what's commonly referred to and known as the woman at the whale.

[0:36] And all that has already taken place and she's done going into the city and made her proclamations and people have gone out to see Jesus. Jesus has done talk with the disciples and all these good things have already occurred.

[0:52] But it says that at the end of that particular passage of scripture that Jesus stayed there in Sackar, the city of Samaria for two days. And that's where we're picking up from in John chapter four.

[1:07] Lord's will, we should be able to finish up this chapter today. But we'll pick up reading in John chapter four and verse 43. It says, now after two days he departed thence and went to Galilee.

[1:23] This would be where Jesus was going to at the beginning of John chapter four. If you recall and you were here, you can just flip over there and see for yourself.

[1:34] This is where he was going. He was leaving Judea and he was going to Galilee and the Bible says he must need to go through Samaria. So we've got all this account of what happened in Samaria with this woman at the well between where the Bible states that he was going and here where we're picking up where it says after two days this would be the two days that he spent with these Samaritans.

[1:59] Now after two days he departed thence and went into Galilee for Jesus himself testified that a prophet had no water in his own country. There's a whole big bunch of debate over what exactly this verse means, over what exactly Jesus' own country was because some people say well his own country was Nazareth.

[2:19] And other people say well his own country was Judah or Galilee or you know there's all kinds of different different takes on what this means when Jesus says that a prophet, when he testified that a prophet had no water in his own country and the debate is what is his own country.

[2:41] We know that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. We know that he was taken from there down into Egypt for a time and when they came back evidently there was a settling that took place in Nazareth.

[2:57] And we also know that Jesus set up his headquarters a little bit later on in Capernaum at the beginning of his ministry. So what is Jesus' own country that he's talking about here?

[3:09] And that's a debate that is ongoing and it'll continue to be ongoing. I'm not going to get into any major detail with that because there's plausible arguments on each side of that debate.

[3:22] But the thing is he says that a prophet had no water in his own country. That's the sad statement that's here. That's to testimize that a prophet had no water in his own country where he's from, where the people should be most familiar with him, where the people would most know him.

[3:44] People would know him as Mary's son. People may know him as Joseph's boy and we all know that God was his father. Yes, but he was seen as a carpenter's son according to the Scriptures.

[3:58] But that's the one place that we would think that a prophet would have honor. But Jesus testifies and says that a prophet had no honor in his own country and we would think it to be quite the opposite.

[4:13] Verse 45, then when he was coming to Galilee, the Galileans received him having seen all things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast. For they also went under the feast.

[4:26] So he goes on into Galilee. Now he's where he was going when we began John chapter 4. He's finally gotten there and it says that the Galileans received him.

[4:37] And there are some very weak arguments by atheists and contenders of the Bible saying, well, what about John chapter 1 that says he came into his own, his own received him not. And here it says the Galileans received him.

[4:49] Folks, that's a very weak argument. He was received a lot of places that he went. Why was he received though? It says right here, the Galileans received him having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast.

[5:02] Now what feast are we talking about? We're talking about if you turn over to John chapter 2 verse 23, you'll see there was a Passover feast. And many people believed on Jesus Christ because of the miracles that he worked at this Passover feast.

[5:16] And there are many people from all different regions that would have been there and witnessed this thing, witnessed these miracles that he'd done, including these people from Galilee.

[5:27] For they also went unto the feast. So Jesus came again into Canaan of Galilee where he made the water wine and there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.

[5:40] So he goes to Canaan. We read about this several weeks ago about the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine and the Bible makes it explicit here that this is the same Canaan that we're talking about here.

[5:54] It says where he made water into wine there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. So he was in Canaan of Galilee and this nobleman's son was sick in Capernaum.

[6:08] There's about 20 miles, give or take a mile difference between Capernaum and where Canaan was at this time. But it says this was a nobleman, this would have been someone that was part of the royal court if you would like to phrase it like that.

[6:25] It was someone that had some prestige, someone that had a little bit of clout about them. It says this nobleman come to Jesus. Now some people will say that this is the same story that we find in Matthew chapter 8 where the Centurion servant was healed.

[6:43] This is not the same account. And if your Bible refers you to that, if you've got a reference Bible and it tells you to look over there, that's fine. You can look over there. It's a similar account, but it is not the same account.

[6:56] This was a nobleman and his son. Matthew chapter 8 was a Centurion and his servant. So it's two separate accounts that we have here. It says that there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.

[7:12] When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went under him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death.

[7:24] So we have here a picture of faith of this nobleman. He heard that Jesus had come out of Judea, had come into Galilee, and he goes to Jesus.

[7:36] He goes to, this is the first showing of faith that is in this passage of Scripture. And he goes to Jesus in faith that Jesus, and Jesus alone can heal his son, heal his sick son.

[7:51] It says that he was at the point of death. So this boy, the Bible doesn't say here how long he had been sick. It doesn't say what his particular sickness was, whether it was fever, whether it could have been leprosy for all we know.

[8:05] We don't know these things. All we know is that the Bible says the nobleman's son was sick and he was at the point of death and this nobleman and a great show of faith come to Jesus Christ and won't him to heal him.

[8:20] Verse 48 says, then said Jesus unto him, except ye see signs and wonders, he will not believe. Was this a rebuke to this nobleman that came?

[8:33] Read it real careful and remember some of the things that we've talked about since I've been teaching Sunday school here. Except ye see signs and wonders. Ye is plural.

[8:45] Ye is always plural. Ye is talking about more than one. Now I realize that it says Jesus said unto him, speaking to the nobleman, but he said except ye see signs and wonders, unless these people around me, unless all of them see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

[9:07] So he was speaking to all those that were around, not just to this nobleman, but the nobleman is the only one really in this passage here that's showing faith at all.

[9:21] So was it a rebuke to the nobleman or was it a rebuke to everyone else that was around? I'm inclined to think it was to everyone else that was around. It was in the plural, but Jesus was speaking to all these people.

[9:34] But he also saw that the nobleman had faith and we'll see that here. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. So Jesus' statement didn't detour the nobleman one ounce.

[9:50] He kept his faith in Jesus Christ. He come to Jesus, wanting him to heal his sick and ailing son. And Jesus says, except ye all see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

[10:02] And this man says, Sir, come down ere my son die or before my son dies. It didn't alter his faith one bit. But we as Christians, how do we act sometimes if we feel maybe a little bit of rebuke from the Lord?

[10:19] We might cower down a little bit. We might hide a little bit. We'll crawl into our shells. I'm talking about as Christians, as people that have been saved, people have come to Christ in faith and repentance and been washed into blood and redeemed.

[10:35] But God has to rebuke us sometimes for our thoughts. He has to rebuke us sometimes for our actions. And when this happens, what does it cause us to do sometimes? It'll cause us to cower.

[10:46] Even if it was some act of faith in our own minds that we had performed, and we'd get a rebuke from God or from a fellow brother or sister in Christ, or whatever the case is, we'll cower down.

[11:01] And that'll cause us to lose some of our faith. That'll cause us to wonder. It's kind of like when we first got saved, when I first got saved.

[11:12] I know how I felt. When I first got saved, I felt like I was on cloud nine. I mean, there was literally a weight lifted up off of me. And if you ever got saved, you probably had the same exact feeling.

[11:24] It's like God just carried you for a day or for a week or for a month or however long it was. But there come a point where God set us down and he said, okay, you're going to have to walk on your own now.

[11:35] I'm going to be with you. I'll hold your hand and I'll guide you in the right direction. I'll go before you. I'll do this and I'll do that. But you've got to walk on your own. And how did that make me feel?

[11:48] Made me feel like God done left me. Made me feel like what did I do wrong? What have I done here? How can I gain God's favor again? All kinds of things went through my mind. I was a very young Christian when that happened.

[12:01] Not very good with theology, not very good with doctrine. All I knew was that I was lost one day and I was saved the next. And God carried me for a while and then he set me down and he let me start doing some of the walking.

[12:16] Now, this nobleman here, he comes to Jesus, wanting Jesus to heal his son. Jesus says, really, it's a scathing statement that he makes.

[12:28] He said, unless you all see signs and wonders, remember it's in the plural, unless you see signs and wonders, ye shall not believe. But this nobleman kept his faith. We would do good to learn from this nobleman.

[12:41] We as Christians would do well to learn from this nobleman. You keep your faith even if it's a rebuke directly from God. If it's a rebuke directly from God's word, I don't know how many times I've sat down and read the Bible and read something that just wrecked me over the coals over something I'd done just a day previous or maybe the same day or in the past week or whatever.

[13:01] And I've had to repent right then, but folks say it didn't cause me to lose my faith. It didn't cause me to turn my back on God. It didn't cause me to crawl into my shell and try and hide from God.

[13:15] We use these situations to strengthen our faith. Folks, faith is just like a muscle in your body. If you don't use it, it's going to grow weak. If you don't utilize your faith, it's going to grow weak.

[13:27] If you just skate through life, if you're hopping from cloud to cloud, like nothing's going on, it's kind of like Brown was talking about just this morning. The Christian walk is not all roses and it's not a cake walk and it's not easy.

[13:44] It's none of these things. But if we skate through life just pretending like nothing's going on, pretending that the world's not going to hell, pretending that there's not a hell, pretending that there's people out there that don't need the gospel, pretending that we don't have problems in our own lives or in the lives of brothers and sisters and Christ, pretending that there's not problems within the body of Christ and there are problems within the body of Christ.

[14:08] But if we're pretending these things, folks, we're only fooling ourselves. These things are real. These problems are real. And those problems should cause us to exercise our faith in a God that can heal all these problems, that can fix all these problems.

[14:25] Whether he will in the next day or in the next week or the next year or whatever, that's his business. But God can do it. And God expects us to exercise our faith.

[14:38] If we claim that we have faith, we need to show that we have faith. Even James says that faith without works is dead. James says, shoot me, that I work without, or that faith without that works, I'll shoot you in my faith, buy my works.

[14:51] We got to show that we have faith. Why? Not as proof to God that we're His, but proof to the world that we are saved. Proof to the God that we believe in the God that saved our soul.

[15:03] We believe that we are indeed saved. If we just say that we're saved and we have no works to prove that, what does the world think of that? And you might say, well, Spencer, there's all kinds of lost people out there, people out there who live ungodly lost, I always do a lot of good in the world.

[15:21] I ain't going to say that there's not people like that. But they don't claim their faith either. They're doing those good works for handpats on their own back, and for the glory of the world upon them.

[15:33] All glory belongs unto God. All glory belongs unto God. And He'll have all that glory one of these days. Man might get a little bit of glory now and then in this world, on this earth.

[15:46] But all that glory is going to go to God one of these days that all belongs to Him. The nobleman saith unto Him, Sir, come down here, my child, die. Jesus saith unto Him, go thy way, thy Son liveth.

[15:59] And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. Jesus said, go thy way, go thy way, thy Son liveth.

[16:10] And he says, the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him. He didn't ask for a miracle. He didn't say God proved it to him. He heard Jesus prove it to him.

[16:21] He served prove it to him. Rabbi, master, none of these things. He simply believed the word that Jesus spoke. And again, we would do well as Christians to learn from this nobleman, to believe this Bible, to believe that this is the word of God.

[16:40] It is the infallible and errant word of God. And it would do us well to believe this word. You might say, well, Spencer, I do believe it.

[16:51] And I believe it as well. But it would do us well to really dig into this word and find the different treasures that are within.

[17:02] And I'm not going to say they're buried because that means that they're hidden. Folks, it's not hidden. The meaning of the Bible is not hidden. It's out there for the entire world to see. The whole Bible is written as a love story and as a love letter.

[17:17] And that letter is to humankind from a God that was obligated to show them no love and show them no mercy. He done it out of his own goodness and out of his own graciousness.

[17:28] And it would do us well as Christians to dig into the word of God and to find these gems that are within the scriptures, that are within these pages because they're all over it.

[17:40] This nobleman simply believed the word that Jesus spoke. He didn't say, Lord, show it to me in a vision. He didn't say, Lord, wait here with me until I get word that what you said is true.

[17:52] He believed the word that Jesus spoke and says he went his way. And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him saying, Thy son, Liveth.

[18:04] Here was the testimony of other people that were not present at the time that he and Jesus had this conversation. He says he was going down, his servants met him and told him, Thy son, Liveth.

[18:18] How does he react? Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.

[18:29] So yesterday about 1 p.m., about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the fever left him. So here we know that the boy had a fever. We don't know what all else was going on with him or if it was just a fever.

[18:44] But either way, they say that the boy is healed. Just as Jesus said, Thy son, Liveth. But they say yesterday, about the seventh hour, you catch that?

[18:58] First 30 again, Jesus said unto him, Go, Thy way, Thy son, Liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way. First 51, he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, Say, Thy son, Liveth.

[19:11] First 52, then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him yesterday, the man didn't even get home to make sure that Jesus was right.

[19:24] Yesterday at the seventh hour. And what do we do? What do we do? We pray for a week.

[19:35] Lord, heal this one. He'll get a call from somebody. Say, Oh, so and so is doing a little bit better. So and so is doing a whole lot better. So is those completely healed.

[19:46] And my goodness, we were all over the phones, making sure that it's true, making sure that it's right. This man had so much faith. Again, take notice and learn from this nobleman.

[19:58] I need to learn from this nobleman. He had so much faith that he didn't even go straight home yesterday at the seventh hour. This man spent the night where he was.

[20:10] Now he may have traveled a little ways, but remember this was 20 miles, give or take from where he was to Capernaum. It's not like he could just go out there and hop in his Honda and be there in 20 minutes.

[20:24] He would have either had to a walk. He would have rode horseback. He would have rode camelback. He would have rode something or walked somewhere. It would have been an all day journey for him to have went back home.

[20:36] Now he could have traveled on into the evening, pulled over somewhere, you know, hooked his camel to a post somewhere and went in and slept or whatever the case was. He could have camped out in the desert for all that we know.

[20:47] But either way, they said yesterday at the seventh hour, he didn't even rush home. He had that much faith in the Word that Jesus Christ spoke to him.

[21:00] Learn from this Christians. I need to learn from this. We need to have that kind of faith in the Word that Jesus Christ speaks. And His Word is all over this precious book that I hold in my hand.

[21:13] I need to have faith that he's the same yesterday, today and forever. I need to have faith that he is with me always, even to the end. I need to have faith of all these things. I need to have faith that he is God and that beside him there is no other.

[21:27] I need to have faith in all these things. I need to have the faith that this nobleman had. He didn't even get home, didn't even go to ensure that what Jesus Christ said was true.

[21:40] He just took it at face value. And that's what we need to do with the Bible. We take it at face value and that is an exercising of faith. But you see how the man's faith grows through this.

[21:53] At first, he just comes to Jesus and he says, Hey, I got a sick boy. I need you to heal him. Jesus says that scathing line, except he sees signs and wonders.

[22:04] You shall not believe. It doesn't mess with his faith. And he exercises that faith, like I was talking about a little bit earlier. He exercises that same faith.

[22:16] It's not like his faith changed. It's not like he went from one faith to another. It was the same faith. But he said, Sir, come ere my child dies, or before my child dies.

[22:29] And he continued with that same faith. And when Jesus told him to go his way, that his son was healed, he exercised it even more. He exercised that faith even more. His faith was growing stronger and stronger.

[22:41] Now listen, I ain't saying that your faith will grow in five or ten minutes like this conversation may have taken between Jesus Christ and this nobleman. It might take weeks. It might take a day.

[22:53] But either way, exercise your faith so that it does grow. Put your faith in God. There's no one else to put it in. Even Peter asked the question. He said, Lord, where else should we go?

[23:05] Where else can we go? Where can we turn? You have the words of eternal life. We can't go anywhere else other than to Jesus Christ. And we need to exercise our faith in Jesus Christ and in his word yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.

[23:22] So the Father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy Son liveth, and himself believed, and his whole house. So he asked him, what time did this happen?

[23:35] They told him what time did it happen, about the seventh hour. He says, so the Father knew that it was the same hour. And he noticed he didn't say, are you sure that my son's alive?

[23:46] Are you sure that the fever has left him? Are you sure that he's not sick anymore? He just wanted to know what time it happened. And he said, and he knew that it was at the same hour that he and Jesus had had this conversation.

[24:00] How many times has someone called you? You've been praying for somebody who's been sick in the hospital for days or weeks or months. And somebody's called and they said, so-and-so is going home tomorrow. They're great, they're fine.

[24:12] You know, they're clicking their heels, going out the hospital doors or walking down the hall to hospital or wherever the case is. And you think to yourself, I've been praying for that person. I've been praying for that individual.

[24:23] Or maybe it's yourself. Maybe you've had something going on in your own life. And you might have prayed for months about a situation. And finally God answers that prayer for you.

[24:34] You say, I've been praying about this, folks. That should increase our faith in God. But does it? Does it increase our faith in God as Christians?

[24:46] A lot of times we'll pray about it for a few days. Then we'll forget about it. God will enter it six months later. And we forget that we even prayed about it. And then we don't give God the glory for answering a prayer.

[24:59] Folks that's the same for me and the same for any Christians that do that. We're all guilty of it. I mean, all of us have been guilty of not giving God glory for answering prayer or for doing something in our lives.

[25:11] There have been times that God's done stuff for me. And it's hit me days later or weeks later where the case is. And then I have to repent.

[25:22] And then I can give God the glory. I got to repent for not praising Him right when it happened. And then I can give Him glory for doing it for me. But this man here says, so the Father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy Son live, and himself believe, and his whole house.

[25:41] Now, this is not the only time that we see in Scripture that one person believed. And one person was saved, per se, as well as the entire house.

[25:54] We also read about this in Acts. We read about it a couple of different times within the New Testament. And this was a common thing in ancient writings that the way that the head of household thought was assumed that the rest of the household thought.

[26:10] I'm talking about an everyday life. As far as how one person thought, that thought pattern bled out to the rest of the house.

[26:21] The wife and the mother thought that way, the children thought that way. And that's why we read some of the things that we do. And not to say that these people didn't get saved, or that they didn't believe. I'm just explaining why it's written the way that it is.

[26:34] But it says that this man believed, this nobleman believed, as well as the rest of his house. I think it would do a whole lot of good if some heads of household would get right with God.

[26:50] And I'm talking about Christians. I'm talking about people that have been born again. If they were getting a good, top relationship with God, how would that affect their household?

[27:03] How could that bleed over into their everyday life and their household? How would that affect their wives? How would that affect their children? How would that affect anybody that has anything to do with that household?

[27:15] Yes, these people believed. They believed in Jesus Christ. They believed the words that he spoke. This nobleman believed, and so did the rest of his household. But once that belief happens, if one person goes from the household, goes and gets saved, folks set up the odds of the rest of the household getting saved by an enormous percentage.

[27:38] But if nobody gets saved, the odds stay way down low. But back to the subject of Christians, people that have been born again, we need to have a good relationship with God, and we need to show our family that we have a good relationship with God.

[27:58] And that will bleed into the rest of the family, and that will show the rest of the family. And therefore, the rest of the family's thoughts and the rest of the family's actions, the rest of the family's church life, and in Christian walk and everything else, it can be just like that other person, whether the initial person or however you want to phrase that.

[28:18] But it would do awfully well for some heads of household to learn from this nobleman. That son Livithin hid himself, believed, and his whole house.

[28:30] This again, the second miracle that Jesus did when he was, this is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea into Galilee. This is the second miracle that he done here in Canaan.

[28:45] The first miracle ever recorded in John's Gospel was the miracle of turning the water into wine. We read about that in John chapter 2, says, this is the second miracle that was worked in the same region, the same area.

[29:03] But to what effect was it worked? A nobleman believed. A nobleman believed and because of this nobleman's belief, his entire house believed.

[29:15] But what led up to this belief? It was one man's faith. It was one man's faith that came to Jesus and said, my boy is sick, I need you to heal him.

[29:27] And it was that same man's faith and the same faith of that man that was exercised and grew stronger and grew and grew. And he said, come here, my child, die.

[29:39] And then when Jesus told him to go on, he exercised his faith even more. So what does this tell us as Christians? Exercise our faith. Exercise your faith.

[29:51] I need to exercise my faith. If for nobody else, I need to prove that I believe to myself. I need to show myself that I truly believe these things. By keeping my faith in God and in His Word and in the things that He has told me.

[30:06] If I got faith to believe that He has saved my soul, why wouldn't I have faith in the rest of the Word? God help us with this. But this miracle wrote salvation for people.

[30:18] They believe in the words of Jesus Christ. Exercise your faith and put your faith into action in front of your families and friends. And see what it does for your household.

[30:30] I ain't going to get into John chapter 5. I hate to waste that much of Sunday school, but we ain't going to do that.

[30:41] Anybody else got anything to add to that? I would like to point out before we stop that, again, John chapter 3, I told you all we're getting into some chapters in John where individual conversations are happening between Jesus and certain people.

[31:03] John chapter 3, it was Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. John chapter 4, we have Jesus and the woman at the well. And here at the end of John chapter 4, we have Jesus and another man, a nobleman.

[31:17] But all these were individual conversations that He was having with these people. It's a very personal salvation for us. It was a personal salvation that Jesus spoke with Nicodemus about.

[31:31] It was a personal salvation that He spoke with the woman at the well about. It was a personal salvation and healing that He was speaking with this nobleman here. Boy was sick back in Capernaum.

[31:43] But it was all personal and it was all individual conversations that He was having. And granted, there may have been other people around, but it was very personal how Jesus was dealing with these situations.

[31:55] And you can find personal accounts in the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but you find them much more intimate in the gospel of John.

[32:06] So this was just another example of that. And we find another one in John chapter 5, which Lord Willem will start that one next week. Anybody got anything?

[32:18] God bless you. I appreciate you.